This week, Gladney's office will be closed on July 3rd and July 4th to celebrate the holiday with family and friends. Here's a little trivia that you can wow your friends with on this great holiday:
Contrary to popular belief, only two Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The majority of signers penned their signatures on August 2, 1776.- The holiday does not celebrate the signing of the Declaration; it celebrates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence by the Second Continental Congress.
- In a now-famous letter to his wife, Abigail, dated July 3, 1776, John Adams made a prediction that the “Second Day of July” would be celebrated as American Independence Day, since the Congress had actually voted to sever ties with Great Britain the day before.
- Independence Day became a federal holiday in 1870.
- Other countries, including Denmark, England, Norway, Portugal and Sweden also celebrate the Fourth of July as a way to bring in American tourists.
- Our country now boasts 318.9 million citizens, but on the first Fourth of July there were only 2.5 million.
- The original draft of the Declaration of Independence was lost.
- The back of the Declaration of Independence says, “Original Declaration of Independence dated 4th July 1776.”
- The Pennsylvania Evening Post was the first newspaper to print the Declaration on July 6, 1776.
- The first Independence Day celebration took place in Philadelphia on July 8, 1776. This was also the day that the Declaration of Independence was first read in public after people were summoned by the ringing of the Liberty Bell.
- Benjamin Franklin proposed the turkey as the national bird but was overruled by John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, who recommended the bald eagle.
- Americans consume around 155 million hot dogs on the Fourth of July each year. They also spend $92 million on chips, $167.5 million on watermelon, and $341.4 million on beer.
