The Declaration of Independence was signed on the fourth of July. This is what we now celebrate.

To me the second of July is a more important date as that was when all of the members agreed on the wording and passed the declaration. That was the difficult part, getting a bunch of people to agree on something and vote on it. The signing two days later was just a ratification of the work finished on the second.

Fine with me....I will celebrate next year on the 2nd....at least the line at the BBQ will be a lot smaller with everyone else at work.

I'm sure as forward thinking men, they realized there would be songs about such a historic event...and how would Yankee doodle Dandy sound with born on the second of July?

John Adams to Abigail Adams

3 July 1776:

The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations, from one end of the continent to the other, from this time forward, forevermore.

The real reason is that both Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died on 4July1826 -- 50 years to the day after the Declaration of Independence. 4July wasn't a big deal until then. Someone wrote a whole book about this -- George Will? I can't remember.

Beddie bye time. I've got to go to work tonight.

- Jim

Dude...hey..like it's a day off from work man....and they like got like some really great sales goin on down at the mall and like all the hot chicks will be there...then later me and my boys will like hang with my Dad cause he's got this jammin boat and he's cool so we can like hit the lake, stoke down some brewskies and check out the beekeeenies....oh yeah!!
then these guys..crazier than me man..they'll shoot off all these fireworks and we'll blow some AC/DC out the boat speakers while it's goin off and just raise hell...man ...4th of July is really cool

I think the 3rd of july was even more important than the second as it was the day Jim Morrison departed the planet and "broke on through".


"I woke up this morning and I got myself a beer. The future's uncertain and the end is always near."-Mr.MojoRisin'1969

I did cookout on the 2nd because I was on duty this weekend.

Seems like the 4th of July was also the day that the Teddy Roosevelt and John Pershing had a little party down in Cuba.
Almost an oops, they fought the Battle on July 1st, so they probably did feel like partying on the 4th.