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July 4

July 4

July 4 is the 185th day of the year (186th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 180 days remaining. The phrase "Fourth of July" has acquired widespread significance in American lingo as a reference to the Independence Day celebration in the United States and that celebration's many cultural accoutrements.

Events

- 993 - Saint Ulrich of Augsburg canonized.
- 1054 - A supernova is observed by the Chinese and Amerindians near the star ζ Tauri. For several months it remains bright enough to be seen during the day. Its remnants form the Crab Nebula.
- 1187 - Saladin defeats Guy of Lusignan, King of Jerusalem, at the Battle of Hattin.
- 1584 - Sir Walter Ralegh first sees the coast of North Carolina
- 1636 - City of Providence, Rhode Island forms.
- 1712 - 12 slaves are executed in New York for starting an uprising that killed 9 whites
- 1776 - American Revolutionary War: The Continental Congress approves a Declaration of Independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain.
- 1802 - At West Point, New York the United States Military Academy opens.
- 1803 - The Louisiana Purchase is announced to the American people.
- 1810 - The French occupy Amsterdam.
- 1817 - At Rome, New York, United States, construction on the Erie Canal begins.
- 1826 - Fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, on which John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, two of America's Founding Fathers, died.
- 1827 - Slavery is abolished in New York State.
- 1831 - James Monroe dies on the fifty-fifth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
- 1837 - Grand Junction Railway, world's first long-distance railway, opens between Birmingham and Liverpool.
- 1838 - The Iowa Territory is organized.
- 1840 - The Cunard Line's 700 ton wooden paddle steamer RMS Britannia departs from Liverpool bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia on the first transatlantic passenger cruise.
- 1845 - Near Concord, Massachusetts, Henry David Thoreau embarks on a two-year experiment in simple living at Walden Pond (see Walden).
- 1855 - In Brooklyn, New York, the first edition of Walt Whitman's book of poems titled Leaves of Grass is published.
- 1859 - Franco-Piedmontese War: The Battle of Magenta.
- 1862 - Lewis Carroll tells Alice Liddell a story that would grow into Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequels.
- 1863 - American Civil War: Battle of Vicksburg - Vicksburg, Mississippi surrenders to Ulysses S. Grant after 47 days of seige.
- 1865 - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is published.
- 1881 - In Alabama, the Tuskegee Institute opens.
- 1894 - The short-lived Republic of Hawaii is proclaimed by Sanford B. Dole.
- 1910 - African-American boxer Jack Johnson knocks out white boxer Jim Jeffries in a heavyweight boxing match sparking race riots across the United States.
- 1918 - Ottoman sultan Mehmed VI ascends to the throne.
- 1918 - Bolsheviks kill Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his family (Julian calendar date).
- 1927 - First flight of the Lockheed Vega.
- 1934 - Joe Louis wins his first professional boxing match.
- 1934 - Leo Szilard patents the chain-reaction design for the atomic bomb.
- 1939 - Lou Gehrig, recently diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, tells a crowd at Yankee Stadium that he considered himself "The luckiest man on the face of the earth" as he announces his retirement from major league baseball.
- 1941 - Mass murder of Polish scientists and writers, committed by Nazi Germans in captured Polish city of Lwów.
- 1946 - After 381 years of colonial rule, the Philippines is granted full independence by the United States.
- 1950 - First broadcast by Radio Free Europe.
- 1959 - With the admission of Alaska as the 49th U.S. state earlier in the year, the 49-star flag of the United States debuts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
- 1960 - Due to the post-Independence Day admission of Hawaii as the 50th U.S. state on August 21, 1959, the 50-star flag of the United States debuts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania almost ten and a half months later (see Flag Act).
- 1966 - President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Freedom of Information Act into United States law. The act goes into effect the next year.
- 1976 - Israeli commandos raid Entebbe airport in Uganda, rescuing most of the passengers and crew of an Air France jetliner seized by pro-Palestinian hijackers.
- 1976 - The citizens of the United States celebrate their country's bicentennial.
- 1982 - Four Iranian diplomats have been kidnapped upon Israel invasion of lebanon.
- 1984 - NASCAR driver Richard Petty wins his 200th and final career victory at the Firecracker 400 race.
- 1987 - In France, former Gestapo chief Klaus Barbie (aka the "Butcher of Lyon") is convicted of crimes against humanity and is sentenced to life imprisonment.
- 1989 - 14-year-old actress Drew Barrymore attempts suicide.
- 1993 - The Argentine national football team defeats mexico to win the Copa América 1993 in Guayaquil.
- 1997 - NASA's Pathfinder space probe lands on the surface of Mars.
- 1998 - Lin "Spit" Newborn and Daniel Shersty are murdered by neonazis in the desert just outside Las Vegas.
- 2002 - Three people are shot at the El Al check-in booth at Los Angeles International Airport. The gunman is shot and killed by a security officer.
- 2002 - A Prestige Airlines cargo Boeing 707 crashes just short of the runway in Bangui, Central African Republic killing 25
- 2004 - The cornerstone of the Freedom Tower is laid on the site of the World Trade Center in New York City. (This was largely a symbolic event; actual construction would not start for several weeks)
- 2004 - National Team of Greece won the EURO 2004 Cup 1-0 after the Final against Portugal.
- 2005 - The Deep Impact collider hits the comet Tempel 1.

Births

- 1330 - Ashikaga Yoshiakira, Japanese shogun (d. 1367)
- 1546 - Murat III, Ottoman Sultan (d. 1595)
- 1694 - Louis-Claude Daquin, French composer (d. 1772)
- 1715 - Christian Fürchtegott Gellert, German poet (d. 1769)
- 1719 - Michel-Jean Sedaine, French dramatist (d. 1797)
- 1799 - King Oscar I of Sweden (Joseph François Oscar Bernadotte), French Napoleonic general (d. 1859)
- 1804 - Nathaniel Hawthorne, American writer (d. 1864)
- 1807 - Giuseppe Garibaldi, Italian patriot (d. 1882)
- 1826 - Stephen Foster, American songwriter (d. 1864)
- 1845 - Thomas Barnardo, Irish humanitarian (d. 1905)
- 1854 - Victor Babeş, Romanian bacteriologist (d. 1926)
- 1847 - James Anthony Bailey, American circus impresario (d. 1906)
- 1872 - Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States (d. 1933)
- 1878 - George M. Cohan, American singer, dancer, composer, actor, and writer (d. 1942)
- 1881 - Ulysses S. Grant III, American soldier and planner (d. 1968)
- 1882 - Louis B. Mayer, American film producer (d. 1957)
- 1883 - Rube Goldberg, American cartoonist (d. 1970)
- 1896 - Mao Dun, Chinese writer (d. 1981)
- 1900 - Louis Armstrong, American musician (d. 1971)
- 1902 - Meyer Lansky, Russian-born mobster (d. 1983)
- 1902 - George Murphy, American dancer, actor, and Senator from California (d. 1992)
- 1904 - Angela Baddeley, English actress (d. 1976)
- 1905 - Irving Johnson, American author and adventurer (d. 1991)
- 1910 - Gloria Stuart, American actress
- 1911 - Mitch Miller, American bandleader and television personality
- 1917 - Manolete, Spanish bullfighter (d. 1947)
- 1918 - Ann Landers, American advice columnist (d. 2002)
- 1918 - Abigail Van Buren, American advice columnist and twin sister to Ann Landers
- 1920 - Leona Helmsley, American hotel operator and real estate investor
- 1920 - Norm Drucker, prominent National Basketball Association referee
- 1921 - Gerard Debreu, French-born economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2004)
- 1921 - Tibor Varga, Hungarian violinist and conductor (d. 2003)
- 1923 - Rudolf Friedrich, Swiss Federal Councilor
- 1924 - Eva Marie Saint, American actress
- 1926 - Alfredo Di Stefano, Argentinian footballer
- 1927 - Gina Lollobrigida, Italian actress
- 1927 - Neil Simon, American playwright
- 1929 - Bill Tuttle, baseball player
- 1930 - George Steinbrenner, baseball team owner
- 1938 - Bill Withers, American singer and songwriter
- 1942 - Floyd Little, American football player
- 1943 - Konrad "Conny" Bauer, German jazz trombonist
- 1943 - Geraldo Rivera, American reporter and talk show host
- 1946 - Ron Kovic, American peace activist
- 1946 - Ed O'Ross, American actor
- 1951 - Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, American politician
- 1961 - Richard Garriott, English video game designer
- 1962 - Pam Shriver, American tennis player
- 1967 - Vinny Castilla, Mexican Major League Baseball player
- 1967 - Andy Walker, Canadian television personality
- 1973 - Gackt, Japanese singer
- 1974 - La'Roi Glover, American football player
- 1976 - Daijiro Kato, Japanese motorcycle racer
- 1981 - Daniel Creaney, Lorraine Kelly impersonator

Deaths

- 965 - Pope Benedict V
- 1187 - Raynald of Chatillon, Prince of Antioch (executed)
- 1541 - Pedro de Alvarado, Spanish explorer (b. 1495)
- 1603 - Philippe de Monte, Flemish composer (b. 1521)
- 1623 - William Byrd, English composer
- 1742 - Guido Grandi, Italian mathematician (b. 1671)
- 1754 - Philippe Néricault Destouches, French dramatist (b. 1680)
- 1761 - Samuel Richardson, English writer (b. 1689)
- 1780 - Prince Charles of Lorraine, Austrian military leader (b. 1712)
- 1787 - Charles de Rohan, prince de Soubise, Marshal of France (b. 1715)
- 1821 - Richard Cosway, English artist (b. 1742)
- 1826 - John Adams 2nd President of the United States (b. 1735)
- 1826 - Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of the United States (b. 1743)
- 1831 - James Monroe, 5th President of the United States (b. 1758)
- 1848 - François-René de Chateaubriand, French writer and diplomat (b. 1768)
- 1850 - William Kirby, English entomologist (b. 1759)
- 1857 - William L. Marcy, American statesman (b. 1786)
- 1881 - Johan Vilhelm Snellman, Finnish statesman (b. 1806)
- 1882 - Joseph Brackett, American religious leader and composer (b. 1797)
- 1891 - Hannibal Hamlin, U.S. Vice President (b. 1809)
- 1901 - Johannes Schmidt, German linguist (b. 1843)
- 1902 - Swami Vivekananda, Indian spiritual leader (b. 1863)
- 1905 - Élisée Reclus, French geographer and anarchist (b. 1830)
- 1910 - Giovanni Schiaparelli, Italian astronomer (b. 1835)
- 1926 - Pier Giorgio Frassati, Italian mountaineer (b. 1901)
- 1931 - Buddie Petit, American jazz cornetist
- 1934 - Maria Skłodowska-Curie, Polish-born scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in chemistry and physics (b. 1867)
- 1941 - Antoni Łomnicki, Polish mathematician (b. 1881)
- 1970 - Barnett Newman, American artist (b. 1905)
- 1971 - August Derleth, American writer and editor (b. 1909)
- 1975 - Georgette Heyer, English author (b. 1902)
- 1976 - Antoni Słonimski, Polish poet and writer (b. 1895)
- 1986 - Oscar Zariski, Russian mathematician (b. 1899)
- 1991 - Dr. Victor Chang, Australian physician (murdered) (b. 1936)
- 1992 - Astor Piazzolla, Argentinian composer (b. 1921)
- 1995 - Eva Gabor, Hungarian-born actress (b. 1919)
- 1997 - Charles Kuralt, American television reporter (b. 1934)
- 2002 - Benjamin O. Davis Jr., American general (b. 1912)
- 2003 - Barry White, American singer and record producer (b. 1944)
- 2004 - Jean-Marie Auberson, Swiss conductor (b. 1920)
- 2005 - Hank Stram, American football coach (b. 1923)

Holidays and observances

- United States - Independence Day (1776)
- Filipino-American Friendship Day
- In astronomy, the approximate date of Earth's aphelion.

External links

- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/4 BBC: On This Day] ---- July 3 - July 5 - June 4 - August 4 - more historical anniversaries ko:7월 4일 ms:4 Julai ja:7月4日 simple:July 4 th:4 กรกฎาคม

July 4

Events

Births

Deaths

Holidays and observances

- United States - Independence Day (1776)
- Filipino-American Friendship Day
- In astronomy, the approximate date of Earth's aphelion.

External links

Leap year

A leap year (or intercalary year) is a year containing an extra day or month in order to keep the calendar year in sync with an astronomical or seasonal year. Seasons and astronomical events do not repeat at an exact number of days, so a calendar which had the same number of days in each year would over time drift with respect to the event it was supposed to track. By occasionally inserting (or intercalating) an additional day or month into the year, the drift can be corrected. Leap years (which keep the calendar in sync with the year) should not be confused with leap seconds (which keep clock time in sync with the day).

Gregorian calendar

The Gregorian calendar, the current standard calendar in most of the world, adds a 29th day to February in all years evenly divisible by 4, except for century years (those ending in -00), which receive the extra day only if they are evenly divisible by 400. Thus 1996 was a leap year whereas 1999 was not, and 1600, 2000 and 2400 are leap years but 1700, 1800, 1900 and 2100 are not. The reasoning behind this rule is as follows:
- The Gregorian calendar is designed to keep the vernal equinox on or close to March 21, so that the date of Easter (celebrated on the Sunday after the 14th day of the Moon that falls on or after 21 March) remains correct with respect to the vernal equinox.
- The vernal equinox year is currently about 365.242375 days long.
- The Gregorian leap year rule gives an average year length of 365.2425 days. This difference of a little over 0.0001 days means that in around 8,000 years, the calendar will be about one day behind where it should be. But in 8,000 years' time the length of the vernal equinox year will have changed by an amount we can't accurately predict (see below). So the Gregorian leap year rule does a good enough job. Image:Gregoriancalendarleap.png

Which day is the leap day?

The Gregorian calendar is a modification of the Julian calendar first used by the Romans. The Roman calendar originated as a lunar calendar (though from the 5th century BC it no longer followed the real moon) and named its days after three of the phases of the moon: the new moon (calends, hence "calendar"), the first quarter (nones) and the full moon (ides). Days were counted down (inclusively) to the next named day, so 24 February was ante diem sextum calendas martii ("the sixth day before the calends of March"). Since 45 BC, February in a leap year had two days called "the sixth day before the calends of March". The extra day was originally the second of these, but since the third century it was the first. Hence the term bissextile day for 24 February in a bissextile year. Where this custom is followed, anniversaries after the inserted day are moved in leap years. For example, the former feast day of Saint Matthias, 24 February in ordinary years, would be 25 February in leap years. This historical nicety is, however, in the process of being discarded: The European Union declared that, starting in 2000, 29 February rather than 24 February would be leap day, and the Roman Catholic Church also now uses 29 February as leap day. The only tangible difference is felt in countries that celebrate feast days.

Julian calendar

The Julian calendar adds an extra day to February in years divisible by 4. This rule gives an average year length of 365.25 days. The excess of about 0.0076 days with respect to the vernal equinox year means that the vernal equinox moves a day earlier in the calendar every 130 years or so.

Revised Julian Calendar

The Revised Julian calendar adds an extra day to February in years divisible by 4, except for years divisible by 100 that do not leave a remainder of 200 or 600 when divided by 900. This rule agrees with the rule for the Gregorian calendar until 2799. The first year that dates in the Revised Julian calendar will not agree with the those in the Gregorian calendar will be 2800, because it will be a leap year in the Gregorian calendar but not in the Revised Julian calendar. This rule gives an average year length of 365.242222… days. This is a very good approximation to the mean tropical year, but because the vernal equinox tropical year is slightly longer, the Revised Julian calendar does not do as good a job as the Gregorian calendar of keeping the vernal equinox on or close to 21 March.

Chinese calendar

The Chinese calendar is lunisolar, so a leap year has an extra month, often called an embolismic month after the Greek word for it. In the Chinese calendar the leap month is added according to a complicated rule, which ensures that month 11 is always the month that contains the northern winter solstice. The intercalary month takes the same number as the preceding month; for example, if it follows the second month then it is simply called "leap second month".

Hebrew calendar

The Hebrew calendar is also lunisolar with an embolistic month. In the Hebrew calendar the extra month is called Adar Alef (first Adar) and is added before Adar, which then becomes Adar Sheni (second Adar). According to the Metonic cycle, this is done seven times every nineteen years, specifically, in years, 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17, and 19. In addition, the Hebrew calendar has postponement rules that postpone the start of the year by one or two days. The year before the postponement gets one or two extra days, and the year whose start is postponed loses one or two days. These postponement rules reduce the number of different combinations of year length and starting day of the week from 28 to 14, and regulate the location of certain religious holidays in relation to the Sabbath.

Hindu Calendar

In the Hindu calendar, which is a lunisolar calendar, the embolismic month is called adhika maas (extra month). It is the month in which the sun is in the same sign of the stellar zodiac on two consecutive dark moons.

Iranian calendar

The Iranian calendar also has a single intercalated day once in every four years, but every 33 years or so the leap years will be five years apart instead of four years apart. The system used is more accurate and more complicated, and is based on the time of the March equinox as observed from Teheran. The 33-year period is not completely regular; every so often the 33-year cycle will be broken by a cycle of 29 or 37 years.

Long term leap year rules

The accumulated difference between the Gregorian calendar and the vernal equinoctial year amounts to 1 day in about 8,000 years. This suggests that the calendar needs to be improved by another refinement to the leap year rule: perhaps by avoiding leap years in years divisible by 8,000. (The most common such proposal is to avoid leap years in years divisible by 4,000 [http://www.google.com/search?q=%22gregorian+calendar%22+error+%22leap+year%22+4000]. This is based on the difference between the Gregorian calendar and the mean tropical year. Others claim, erroneously, that the Gregorian calendar itself already contains a refinement of this kind [http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mleapyr.html].) However, there is little point in planning a calendar so far ahead because over a timescale of tens of thousands of years the number of days in a year will change for a number of reasons, most notably: #Precession of the equinoxes moves the position of the vernal equinox with respect to perihelion and so changes the length of the vernal equinoctial year. #Tidal acceleration from the sun and moon slows the rotation of the earth, making the day longer. In particular, the second component of change depends on such things as post-glacial rebound and sea level rise due to climate change. We can't predict these changes accurately enough to be able to make a calendar that will be accurate to a day in tens of thousands of years.

Marriage proposal

There is a tradition, said to go back to Saint Patrick and Saint Bridget in 5th century Ireland, whereby women may only make marriage proposals in leap years.

Saint Patrick and the leap year

:Saint Patrick, having driven the frogs out of the bogs was walking along the shores of Lough Neagh, when he was accosted by Saint Bridget in tears, and was told that a mutiny had broken out in the nunnery over which she presided, the ladies claiming the right of popping the question. :Saint Patrick said he would concede them the right every seventh year, when Saint Bridget threw her arms round his neck, and exclaimed, "Arrah, Pathrick, jewel, I daurn't go back to the girls wid such a proposal. Make it one year in four." Saint Patrick replied, "Bridget, acushla, squeeze me that way again, an' I'll give ye leap-year, the longest of the lot." Saint Bridget, upon this, popped the question to St Patrick himself, who, of course, could not marry: so he patched up the difficulty as best he could with a kiss and a silk gown. (Source: Evans, Ivor H, Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Cassell, London, 1988) According to a 1288 law in Scotland, fines were levied if the proposal was refused by the man; compensation ranged from a kiss to a silk gown to soften the blow. Because men felt that put them at too great a risk, the tradition was in some places tightened to restricting female proposals to 29 February.

Birthdays

A person who was born on 29 February may be called a "leapling". In non-leap years they usually celebrate their birthday on 28 February or 1 March. There are many instances in children's literature where a person's claim to be only a quarter of their actual age turns out be based on counting their leap-year birthdays. A similar device is used in the plot of the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta The Pirates of Penzance. Category:Calendars Category:Units of time als:Schaltjahr ko:윤년 ja:閏年 simple:Leap year th:ปีอธิกสุรทิน

Colloquialism

A colloquialism is an expression not used in formal speech or writing. Colloquialisms can include words (such as "gonna" or "grouty"), phrases (such as "ain't nothin'" and "dead as a doornail"), or sometimes even an entire aphorism ("There's more than one way to skin a cat"). Dictionaries often display colloquial words and phrases with the abbreviation colloq. Colloquialisms are often used primarily within a limited geographical area. In some areas, overuse of colloquialisms by native speakers is regarded as a sign of substandard ability with the language. However, in the mouth of a non-native speaker, they are sometimes taken as signaling unusual facility with the language as they may be more difficult for non-native speakers to understand. A colloquialism can sometimes make its way into otherwise formal speech, as a sign that the speaker is comfortable with his or her audience, in contrast to slang, which if used in formal speech is more likely done so consciously for humorous effect. Words that have a formal meaning may also have a colloquial meaning that, while technically incorrect, is recognizeable due to common usage. Examples include "immaculate conception" when used to refer to virgin birth, and "addiction" in cases where the individual is physiologically dependent, but not actually addicted to the substance in question.

External link

- [http://www.figarospeech.com It Figures-Figures of Speech] Category:Language varieties and styles Category:Figures of speech

Independence Day (United States)

This page is about the American holiday. For the 1996 movie, see Independence Day (movie).

30pxIndependence Day
Observed by:	United States
Also called:	Fourth of July
Begins:	July 4
Occasion	Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence
Symbols:	Fireworks, United States flags, picnics
Related to:	Memorial Day, Veterans Day, Flag Day

In the United States, Independence Day, also called the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday celebrating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, declaring independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. It is commonly associated with parades, barbecues, picnics, baseball games, and various other public and private celebratory events. Fireworks have been associated with the Fourth of July since 1777.

History

Why the 4th?

Though the Fourth of July is almost iconic to Americans, some claim the date itself is somewhat arbitrary. New Englanders had been fighting Britain since April 1775. The first motion in the Continental Congress for independence was made on June 8. After hard debate, the Congress voted unanimously (12-0), but secretly, for independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain on July 2. The Congress reworked the text of the Declaration until a little after eleven o'clock, July 4th, when twelve colonies voted for adoption and released an unsigned copy to the printers. (New York abstained from both votes.) Philadelphia celebrated the Declaration with public readings and bonfires on July 8. Not until August 2 would a fair printing be signed by the members of the Congress, but even that was kept secret to protect the members from British reprisal. John Adams, credited by Thomas Jefferson as the unofficial, tireless whip of the independence-minded, wrote his wife Abigail on July 3: :The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epocha 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 this continent to the other, from this time forward for evermore. Adams was off by two days, however. Certainly, the vote on July 2 was the decisive act. But July 4 is the date on the Declaration itself. Jefferson's stirring prose, as edited by the Congress, was first adopted by the vote of the 4th. It was also the first day Philadelphians heard the official news of independence from the Continental Congress, as opposed to rumors in the street about secret votes.

History of Observance

- In 1777, British officers noted the firing of 13 guns, once at morning and again as evening fell, on July 4 in Bristol, Rhode Island. Philadelphia celebrated the first anniversary in a manner a modern American would find quite familiar: an official dinner for the Continental Congress, toasts, 13-gun salutes, speeches, prayers, music, parades, troop reviews and fireworks. Ships were decked with red, white and blue bunting.
- In 1778, what General George Washington marked the Fourth with a double ration of rum for his soldiers and an artillery salute. Across the sea, ambassadors John Adams and Benjamin Franklin held a dinner for their fellow Americans in Paris, France.
- In 1779, the Fourth fell on a Sunday. The holiday was celebrated on Monday, July 5. To this day, American offices close on the following Monday if Independence Day falls on a weekend.
- In 1781, Massachusetts was the first legislature to recognize Independence Day.
- In 1791, First recorded under "Independence Day" name.[http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=independent]
- In 1870, the U.S. Congress made July 4 an unpaid holiday for federal employees.

Customs

U.S. Congress Independence Day, as the only holiday celebrating the country as a whole, is a national holiday marked by patriotic displays. Many politicians make it a point on this day to appear at a public event to praise the nation's heritage and people. Families often mark the Fourth with a picnic or barbecue, and often gather in more distant relatives, taking advantage of the longer weekend or day off from work. Parades are often held the morning of the Fourth, afternoon baseball games are not uncommon, and the evening is usually marked by public displays of fireworks. In many states, smaller fireworks are sold for personal use or as an alternative to a public show. Concerns about safety have led some states to ban fireworks or limit the sizes and types allowed, but illicit traffic brings some of the more powerful firecrackers in from less restrictive border states. One colorful annual Independence Day event is the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York City, which supposedly started on July 4, 1916 as a way to settle a dispute among four immigrants as to who was the most patriotic. The town of Bristol, Rhode Island is noted for having the oldest, continuous Independence Day celebrations in the United States. Minor League Baseball and Major League Baseball games are also played on Independence Day. Despite the genesis of Independence Day, it is nearly unheard of for Americans to express anti-British sentiment on the day or to view it as a celebration of anti-colonialism. Rather, contemporary Americans generally perceive the holiday as a celebration of the country itself rather than specifically as a chance to commemorate the end of British rule in the 18th century.

External links

- [http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/holidays/july4/ US State Department] on Independence Day
- An extensive [http://www.american.edu/heintze/fourth.htm history] of Independence Day by James R. Heintze, American University, Washington, D.C.
- [http://butlerwebs.com/holidays/independenceday.htm Independence Day - 4th of July - A Patriotic Holiday Page]
- [http://www.historyisaweapon.org/defcon1/douglassjuly4.html The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro by Frederick Douglass] Category:Holidays of the United States Category:American Revolution Category:Fireworks ja:アメリカ独立記念日 simple:Independence Day (United States)

United States of America

:For alternative meanings, see the disambiguation page for US, USA, United States, or American. The United States of America is a federal democratic republic situated primarily in central North America. It comprises 50 states and one federal district, and has several territories. It is also referred to, with varying formality, as the United States, the U.S., the U.S.A., the States, or simply and most commonly, America. The official founding date of the United States is July 4, 1776, when the Second Continental Congress—representing thirteen British colonies—adopted the Declaration of Independence. However, the structure of the government was profoundly changed in 1788, when the states replaced the Articles of Confederation with the United States Constitution. The date on which each of the fifty states adopted the Constitution is typically regarded as the date that state "entered the Union" (became part of the United States). Since the mid-20th century, following World War II, the United States has emerged as a dominant global influence in economic, political, military, scientific, technological, and cultural affairs.

Geography and climate

The United States shares land borders with Canada (to the north) and Mexico (to the south), and territorial water boundaries with Canada, Russia, the Bahamas, and numerous smaller nations. It is otherwise bounded by the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea, in the west; the Arctic Ocean, in the northernmost areas; and the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea, in the eastern and southeastern areas. Forty-eight of the states are in the single region between Canada and Mexico; this group is referred to, with varying precision and formality, as the continental or contiguous United States, sometimes abbreviated CONUS, and as the Lower 48. Alaska, which is not included in the term contiguous United States, is at the northwestern end of North America, separated from the Lower 48 by Canada. The archipelago of Hawaii is in the Pacific Ocean. The capital city, Washington, District of Columbia is a federal district located on land donated by the state of Maryland. (Virginia also donated land, but it was returned in 1847.) The United States also has overseas territories with varying levels of independence and organization. When inland water is included in the total area, only Russia and Canada are larger than the United States; if inland water is excluded, China ranks third and the U.S. ranks fourth. The United States' total area is 3,718,711 square miles (9,631,418 km²), of which land makes up 3,537,438 square miles (9,161,923 km²) and water makes up 181,273 square miles (469,495 km²). The United States' landscape is one of the most varied among those of the world's nations: among its many features are temperate forestland and rolling hills, on the east coast; mangrove, in Florida; the Great Plains, in the center of the country; the Mississippi–Missouri river system; the Great Lakes, four of the five of which are shared with Canada; the Rocky Mountains, west of the Great Plains; deserts and temperate coastal zones, west of the Rocky Mountains; and temperate rain forests, in the Pacific northwest. Alaska's tundra, and the volcanic, tropical islands of Hawaii add to the geographic diversity. Hawaii The climate varies along with the landscape, from tropical in Hawaii and southern Florida to tundra in Alaska and atop some of the highest mountains. Most of the North and East experience a temperate continental climate, with warm summers and cold winters. Most of the South experiences a subtropical humid climate with mild winters and long, hot, humid summers. Rainfall decreases markedly from the humid forests of the Eastern Great Plains to the semi-arid shortgrass prairies on the high plains abutting the Rocky Mountains. Arid deserts, including the Mojave, extend through the lowlands and valleys of the southwest, from westernmost Texas to California and northward throughout much of Nevada. Some parts of California have a Mediterranean climate. Rainforests line the windward mountains of the Pacific Northwest from Oregon to Alaska.

History

American history started with the migration of people from Asia across the Bering land bridge approximately 12,000 years ago following large animals that they hunted into the Americas. These Native Americans left evidence of their presence in petroglyphs, burial mounds, and other artifacts. It is estimated that 2-9 million people lived in the territory now occupied by the U.S. before European contact, and the subsequent introduction of foreign diseases such as small pox that greatly diminished the native populations. Some advanced societies were the Anasazi of the southwest, who inhabited Chaco Canyon, and the Woodland Indians, who built Cahokia, located near present-day St Louis, a city with a population of 40,000 at its peak in AD 1200. Vikings first visited North America around 1000, but did not settle permanently. Following the discovery voyages of Christopher Columbus around 1492, other Europeans began to explore and settle there. During the 1500s and 1600s, the Spanish settled parts of the present-day Southwest and Florida, founding St. Augustine, Florida in 1565 and Santa Fe (in what is now New Mexico) in 1607. The first successful English settlement was at Jamestown, Virginia, also in 1607. Within the next two decades, several Dutch settlements, including New Amsterdam (the predecessor to New York City), were established in what are now the states of New York and New Jersey. In 1637, Sweden established a colony at Fort Christina (in what is now Delaware), but lost the settlement to the Dutch in 1655. This was followed by extensive British settlement of the east coast. The British colonists remained relatively undisturbed by their home country until after the French and Indian War, when France ceded Canada and the Great Lakes region to Britain. Britain then imposed taxes on the 13 colonies, widely regarded by the colonists as unfair because they were denied representation in the British Parliament. Tensions between Britain and the colonists increased, and the thirteen colonies eventually rebelled against British rule. British Parliament, George Washington (1789-1797).]] In 1776, the 13 colonies split from Great Britain and formed the United States, the world's first constitutional and democratic federal republic, after their Declaration of Independence of that year, and the Revolutionary War (1775 to 1783). The original political structure was a confederation in 1777, ratified in 1781 as the Articles of Confederation. After long debate, this was supplanted by the Constitution in 1789, forming a more centralized federal government. Prior to all these was the Albany Congress in 1754, in which a union was first seriously proposed. From early colonial times, there was a shortage of labor, which encouraged unfree labor, particularly indentured servitude and slavery. In the mid-19th century, a major division occurred in the United States over the issue of states' rights and the expansion of slavery. The northern states had become opposed to slavery, while the southern states saw it as necessary for the continued success of southern agriculture and wanted it expanded to the territories. Several federal laws were passed in an attempt to settle the dispute, including the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850. The dispute reached a crisis in 1861, when seven southern states seceded¹ from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America, leading to the Civil War. Soon after the war began, four more southern states seceded. During the war, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, mandating the freedom of all slaves in states in rebellion, though full emancipation did not take place until after the end of the war in 1865, the dissolution of the Confederacy, and the Thirteenth Amendment took effect. The Civil War effectively ended the question of a state's right to secede, and is widely accepted as a major turning point after which the federal government became more powerful than state governments. Thirteenth Amendment). The title of the painting, from a 1726 poem by Bishop Berkeley, was a phrase often quoted in the era of Manifest Destiny, expressing a widely held belief that civilization had steadily moved westward throughout history. [http://americanart.si.edu/t2go/1lw/1931.6.1.html (more)] ]] During the 19th century, many new states were added to the original 13 as the nation expanded across the continent. Manifest Destiny was a philosophy that encouraged westward expansion in the United States. As the population of the Eastern states grew and as a steady increase of immigrants entered the country, settlers moved steadily westward across North America. In the process, the U.S. displaced most American Indian nations. This displacement of American Indians continues to be a matter of contention in the U.S. with many tribes attempting to assert their original claims to various lands. In some areas American Indian populations were reduced by foreign diseases contracted through contact with European settlers, and US settlers acquired those emptied lands. In other instances American Indians were removed from their traditional lands by force. Though some would say the U.S. was not a colonial power until the Spanish-American War when it acquired Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines, the dominion exercised over land in North America the United States claimed is essentially colonial. The Philippines became independent in 1946. During this period, the nation also became an industrial power. This continued into the 20th century, which has been termed "the American Century" because of the nation's overriding influence on the world. The US became a center for innovation and technological development; major technologies that America either developed or was greatly involved in improving include the telephone, television, computer, the Internet, nuclear weapons, nuclear power, aviation, and aeronautics. In addition to the Civil War, another major traumatic experience for the nation was the Great Depression (1929 to 1939). The nation has also taken part in several major foreign wars, including World War I and World War II (in both of which the US later joined the Allies). During the Cold War, the US was a major player in the Korean War and Vietnam War, and, along with the Soviet Union, was considered one of the world's two "superpowers". With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the US emerged as the world's leading economic and military power. Beginning in the 1990s, the United States became very involved in police actions and peacekeeping, including actions in Kosovo, Haiti, Somalia and Liberia, and the first Persian Gulf War driving Iraq out of Kuwait. After attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, the United States and other allied nations found themselves involved in what has come to be called the "War on Terrorism," which has primarily encompassed military actions in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

Government

Iraq of the United States.]]

Republic and suffrage

The United States is an example of a constitutional republic, with a government composed of and operating through a set of limited powers imposed by its design and enumerated in the United States Constitution. Specifically, the nation operates as a presidential democracy. There are three levels of government: federal, state, and local. Officials of each of these levels are either elected by eligible voters via secret ballot or appointed by other elected officials. Americans enjoy almost universal suffrage from the age of 18 regardless of race, sex, or wealth. There are some limits, however: felons are disenfranchised and in some states former felons are likewise. Furthermore, the national representation of territories and the federal district of Washington, DC in Congress is limited: residents of the District of Columbia are subject to federal laws and federal taxes but their only Congressional representative is a non-voting delegate.

Federal government

The federal government is the national government, comprising the Legislative Branch (led by Congress), the Executive Branch (led by the President), and the Judicial Branch (led by the Supreme Court). These three branches were designed to apply checks and balances on each other. The Constitution limits the powers of the federal government to defense, foreign affairs, the issuing and management of currency, the management of trade and relations between the states, and the protection of human rights. In addition to these explicitly stated powers, the federal government—with the assistance of the Supreme Court—has gradually extended these powers into such areas as welfare and education, on the basis of the "necessary and proper" clause of the Constitution.

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