50+ Lifestyles

Pop! Boom! Bang!

By Eloise Graham
Editor-in-Chief

Everyone knows July is the loudest month we have. For over 235 years we have been celebrating our Independence from Great Britain. The Thirteen Colonies revolted from the rule of King George. After a bloody battle between the Redcoats (Britain’s Army), the Loyalists and the Revolutionists, the colonies broke free of England rule and formed their own government. But how should they celebrate? John Adams to the rescue!

Even before the Declaration of Independence was signed, John had envisioned fireworks as part of the festivities. On July 3, 1776 he wrote in a letter to his wife, Abigail, that the occasion should be commemorated “with Pomp and Parade, with Shews [Shows], Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.”
On July 4, 1771, Philadelphia displayed the first commemorative fireworks display. Bells rang and the grand exhibition on the Commons began and ended with thirteen rockets. That same year, Boston had a grand display in their Commons. By 1783 a large variety of fireworks were available to the public. In 1784 one merchant offered a range of pyrotechnics that included rockets, serpents, wheels, table rockets, cherry trees, fountains and sunflowers.

Some other Fourth of July events from random years:

1957 – Fiat unveils the “Nuova Cinquecento”, a redesigned version of the auto that it had first released in 1936

1863 – Confederates surrender at Vicksburg

1987 – Soviet rock for peace. A rock concert in Moscow, jointly organized by American promoters and the Soviet government, plays to a crowd of approximately 25,000.

1954 – Sensationalized murder trial of Dr. Sam Sheppard inspires the hit television series “The Fugitive”.

1997 – Pathfinder lands on Mars.

1911 – Heat wave strikes the Northeast. Record temperatures are set. New Hampshire hits a high of 106 degrees Fahrenheit. Three hundred eighty people die in Northeast.

1927 – Playwright and screenwriter Neil Simon is born.

1855 – First edition of Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass” is published.