by Marina Stein

Created on: May 06, 2010

4th of July, or Independence Day, is celebrated in USA as the day when the country declared itself as an independent from Britain. The Declaration of independence was drafted and signed stating: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Here are some fun facts about Independence Day:

~ The Declaration was drafted by Thomas Jefferson and unanimously adopted be the Second Continental Congress. 56 people signed the Declaration but only two of them - John Hancock and Charles Thompson - did it on the 4th. It is believed that the majority of the rest signed it on the 2d of August.

~ The first time the words "Independence Day" were used in 1791.

~ Three presidents died on the 4th of July - Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and James Monroe. Calvin Coolidge was born on the 4th of July.

~ According to the US Census, in 1776 there were 2.5 million people living in independent colonies. Since than US population grew by 121.6 times (in 2008), to 304 million.

~ Fireworks are very popular on the 4th of July. Fireworks themselves were invented in 2 century BC in China. So it should not be surprising that 207 million dollars were spent on the imported from China fireworks while the total value of imported fireworks was 217 million dollars.

~ It is impossible to imagine 4th of July without a cookout. One of the most popular food items are hot dogs. 150 millions of hot dogs were eaten on the 4th of July in 2009 - enough to stretch from Washington, DC, to Los Angeles, CA, 5 times, and there was 1 out of 4 chances that that hot dog came from Iowa. In 2008 Iowa had 17.6 million hogs and pigs - it was one fourth of the US total. Actually, the majority of hot dogs are eaten in July. Maybe that is the reason why July is the hot dog month.

~ What about barbecue beef? More than 74 million Americans took part in a barbecue in 2008. According to the US Census, it is probably safe to assume that majority of those events took place on Independence Day. The leading state in beef production is Texas (6.8 billion pounds), followed by Nebraska (4.7 billion pounds) and Kansas (4.1 billion pounds).

~ There are a lot of cities and towns in America with the words "liberty", "eagle", "independence", "America", and "freedom" incorporated in their names but there is only one town named Patriot in Indiana with the population of 192.

Sources:

http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaratio n_transcript.html

http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/arc hives/facts_for_features_special_editions/011920.htm l

http://www.hot-dog.org/ht/d/sp/i/38579/pid/38579

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Declarati on_of_Independence

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Adams

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_Coolidge

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Monroe

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