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The Fourth of July holds a special place in every American’s heart. In fact, as every patriot knows, the day has come to represent liberty and American greatness ever since the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Since then, the day has seen a series of significant events, a number of notable births and deaths, and a couple of coincidences so perfect they almost don’t seem real over the course of the building of the greatest nation on earth.'I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival.'Here are some snapshots of historical milestones on Independence Day that have led to the country we know and love today.RELATED: 'One nation under God': Christians to march through DC as part of 2,000-mile Eucharistic procession Official facsimile of the Declaration of Independence. Boston, Massachusetts. C. 1903/Library of Congress1776 – The United States Declaration of Independence is adopted by the Second Continental Congress. John Adams, in a July 3 letter to his wife, Abigail, wrote that July 2 (the day Congress voted to approve the Lee Resolution) would be a day of celebration for Americans. Our celebrations today, though marking the official public announcement two days later, closely resemble his words: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 Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires, and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more. 1802 – The United States Military Academy at West Point officially opens.1803 – The Louisiana Purchase is announced to the American people.John Adams II, son of President John Quincy Adams and the grandson of President John Adams, is born.1804 – Nathaniel Hawthorne, author of "The Scarlet Letter" (1850) and "The House of the Seven Gables" (1851), is born.1817 – Construction of the Erie Canal begins in Rome, New York.1826 – Former Presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both die on the same day — the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. It's enough to send a shiver down any patriot's spine! Thomas Jefferson, a philosopher, a patriot, and a friend. Michał Sokolnicki, 1760-1816, etcher/Tadeusz Kościuszko, 1746-1817, artist/Library of Congress1826 – Prolific American composer Stephen Foster is born. Foster is known for songs like "Oh! Susanna" and "Camptown Races."1827 – Slavery is abolished in New York state.1831 – James Monroe, the fifth U.S. president, dies in New York City. Monroe famously coined his eponymous doctrine warning European nations not to meddle in the affairs of the Western Hemisphere. Monroe’s presidency (1817-1825) has been called the “Era of Good Feelings.”1838 – The Iowa Territory, which was first part of the Louisiana Purchase, is officially recognized. President Martin Van Buren appoints Ohio’s Robert Lucas as Iowa’s first territorial governor. 1847 – James Anthony Bailey is born in Detroit, Michigan. Bailey is best known for running the successful Barnum & Bailey Circus.1855 – Walt Whitman’s "Leaves of Grass" is self-published in Brooklyn, New York. Whitman spent the next decades of his life editing and adding to this collection, resulting in several editions in circulation during his lifetime. These later editions, for example, "absorbed" an elegy he wrote for the assassinated Abraham Lincoln, "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd." Walt Whitman, half-length portrait, seated, facing left, wearing hat and sweater, holding butterfly. Phillips & Taylor, photographer/Library of Congress1863 – The Siege of Vicksburg, which began on May 18, ends. The Battle of Gettysburg ended just the day prior, lasting from July 1 to 3. 1872 – Calvin Coolidge, the 30th president of the United States, is born. Coolidge’s 1923 State of the Union address was the first presidential speech to be broadcast live on radio. 1876 – Centennial year since the founding of the United States. Celebrations centered on the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The flag that has waved 100 years. A scene on the morning of the Fourth of July 1876. Print shows African American man and others looking up as they raise the American flag with the U.S. Capitol in the background.. Dominique C. Fabronius; E.P. & L. Restein's oilchromo, Phila.; National Chromo Co. pub., Phila./Library of Congress1881 – Ulysses S. Grant III, grandson of general of the armies and U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant, is born. Grant III had a distinguished career in the United States Army, rising to the rank of major general. He graduated from the same West Point class as General Douglas MacArthur in 1903. 1884 – The Statue of Liberty is presented to U.S. Minister to France Levi Morton in a ceremony in Paris. The colossal statue was then disassembled and shipped to the United States. President Grover Cleveland dedicated the completed statue on October 28, 1886. Statue of Liberty, Liberty Island, Manhattan, New York County, NY. Survey HAER NY-138/Library of Congress1891 – Hannibal Hamlin, 15th vice president of the United States under President Abraham Lincoln, dies. H.C. Howard/Library of Congress1894 – The brief Republic of Hawaii is proclaimed before being annexed as a territory of the United States just four years later in 1898. 1910 – The Johnson-Jeffries race riots erupt throughout the country after Jack Johnson, a black man, beat James J. Jeffries, a white man who came out of retirement, in what was called the "Fight of the Century." An article at the time said: "When news that Johnson had defeated Jeffries flashed over the wires last night, riots between whites and blacks followed in a dozen cities of the country, and reports this morning increase the number and add to the list of injured."1913 – President Woodrow Wilson addresses Union and Confederate Civil War veterans at the Great Reunion of 1913 on the grounds of Gettysburg. Wilson’s speech commemorated the 50th anniversary of the battle. Reflecting on the 50 years that had elapsed since that famous battle, Wilson said:They have meant peace and union and vigor, and the maturity and might of a great nation. How wholesome and healing the peace has been! We have found one another again as brothers and comrades in arms, enemies no longer, generous friends rather, our battles long past, the quarrel forgotten — except that we shall not forget the splendid valor, the manly devotion of the men then arrayed against one another, now grasping hands and smiling into each other's eyes. How complete the union has become and how dear to all of us, how unquestioned, how benign and majestic, as state after state has been added to this our great family of free men! Poster showing Uncle Sam running with a bayonet, amid bursting shells. 1918. Library of Congress1939 – Baseball legend Lou Gehrig delivers his famous speech at Yankee Stadium after his ALS diagnosis. Focusing on his blessings in life rather than the “bad break” of the deadly disease, Lou Gehrig famously said, “Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.” 1959 – The 49-star United States flag officially flies for the first time, following the addition of Alaska to the United States. The 49-star flag flew for exactly one year. 1960 – The 50-star United States flag officially flies for the first time, following the addition of Hawaii to the United States.1976 – America’s bicentennial celebrates America's 200th anniversary since the Declaration of Independence. The celebration consisted of around 66,000 recognized events. 1995 – American painter Bob Ross dies. 1997 – NASA’s Mars Pathfinder space probe successfully lands on Mars.2004 – The cornerstone of the Freedom Tower is laid at Ground Zero in New York City. CBS News reported Gov. George E. Pataki (R) said, "Let this great freedom tower show the world that what our enemies sought to destroy — our democracy, our freedom, our way of life — stands taller than ever before.” The granite cornerstone is inscribed: "To honor and remember those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001, and as a tribute to the enduring spirit of freedom. — July Fourth, 2004." 2009 – The Statue of Liberty’s crown is reopened to the public for the first time since the September 11, 2001, attacks. Fireworks outlet near Decatur, Alabama. 2010. Carol M. Highsmith/Library of CongressLike Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

BlazeTV host Steve Deace released his latest book in May titled “Why Independence Day? America Is Great Because God Is Good.”The Christian children’s book presents a faith-based retelling of American history, focused on the spiritual and historical roots of July 4th. It frames Independence Day as a celebration rooted in obedience to God over earthly kings and highlights America’s founding as a nation blessed by God with a role in spreading Christianity and freedom.The book begins with God’s covenant with the Israelites, the coming of Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the early spread of Christianity. It then covers how early Christians and Puritans sought freedom to worship without a king acting as a god. The story continues through the American colonists’ grievances against the British crown, the Boston Tea Party, and the founding fathers’ meeting in Philadelphia.On July 4, 1776, the founding fathers signed the Declaration of Independence, an event the book presents as a declaration that Americans must obey God first. It goes on to recount the Revolutionary War, instances of divine providence, the victory at Yorktown, and the writing of the Constitution. The book concludes by noting that America became a “shining city on a hill” and references John Adams’ suggestion to celebrate Independence Day with prayer and “illuminations.”The book achieved strong early sales, reaching No. 1 new release in the Christian children’s category on Amazon and landing in the top 15 new releases among all children’s books, regardless of genre.In a recent episode of the “Steve Deace Show,” Deace performed a full live reading of the entire book. He explained that the reading gives listeners a chance to “sample exactly what’s inside” to determine if it’s a good fit for their kids and grandkids.You can watch the full episode and hear Deace’s complete reading of “Why Independence Day? America Is Great Because God Is Good” here: Want more from Steve Deace?To enjoy more of Steve's take on national politics, Christian worldview, and principled conservatism with a snarky twist, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

With the signing of the Declaration of Independence 250 years ago, America’s founders accomplished something new under the sun: They brought into existence a nation rooted in the belief that individuals are by nature free and equal.This year marks another achievement for the Declaration: Never before has a nation dedicated to securing its citizens’ unalienable rights — the rights inherent in all human beings — persevered for 250 years. Notwithstanding the social and political turmoil currently roiling the nation, America has done much more than persevere.The American journey from 1776 to 2026 has been marked by the struggle to honor more fully the Declaration’s promise of equality in fundamental rights.No multireligious, multiracial, and multiethnic nation-state in history has more successfully established freedom and equality under law, promoted economic prosperity, and developed the capabilities to defend itself by projecting military power around the world.America’s perseverance and flourishing — as presidents including Abraham Lincoln, Calvin Coolidge, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt have affirmed and as venerable reformers such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Frederick Douglass, and Martin Luther King Jr. have demonstrated — owe much to the nation’s founding on universal principles and to its enduring dedication to them.Unchanging principlesThe self-evident truths proclaimed by the Declaration of Independence start with the conviction that human beings are by nature free and equally endowed with unalienable rights. They include the belief that government’s first purpose is to secure citizens’ unalienable rights, that just power stems from the consent of the governed, and that citizens by right may replace a government that destroys the conditions for securing their unalienable rights.These universal principles inform the 27 grievances — abuses of executive power, lawless legislation, and acts of war — that the Declaration spells out against King George III and the British Parliament. Some argue that the Declaration’s primary significance lies in these grievances and downplay the historic document’s opening paragraphs about universal principles as Enlightenment commonplaces. But it was revolutionary for a people to claim the authority of unalienable rights to throw off one form of government and institute another.Indeed, according to the Declaration’s logic, American colonists’ specific grievances justified their break with Britain and the establishment of free and independent states because taken together the grievances violated rights that the colonists shared equally with all persons.In recent years, critics on both left and right have subjected the truths that the Declaration holds to be self-evident to harsh criticism. Eminent figures associated with the postmodern-progressive left accuse these principles of obscuring if not empowering the evil institution of slavery. Prominent members of the postliberal right charge that the Declaration’s self-evident truths are neither true nor beneficial but rather constitute the chief source of the multifarious maladies afflicting the nation.RELATED: 1776, not 1608: What the Supreme Court got wrong on birthright citizenship Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call Inc./Getty ImagesWhereas postmodern progressives blame those principles for the perpetuation of systemic racism, postliberals condemn them for the systemic degradation of men and women of all religions, races, and ethnicities.Both find in the Declaration’s affirmation of universal rights a baleful pretext for colonizing foreign countries and imposing America’s ways and rules on other peoples and nations. And both indulge extravagant speculations about establishing new forms of government in the United States untainted by the basic rights and fundamental freedoms promised by the Declaration.The American journey from 1776 to 2026 has been marked by the struggle to honor more fully the Declaration’s promise of equality in fundamental rights. America has benefited from a common language; abundant natural resources; vast, protective oceans to the east and west; peaceful and stable borders to the north and south for much of its history; and a moral and political heritage entwining biblical faith, classical thought, and the modern tradition of freedom.At the same time, America has been compelled to grapple with the legal institutionalization of slavery and, after the Union’s victory in the Civil War and the subsequent ratification of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, slavery’s poisonous legacy; to wage war abroad repeatedly; and to reckon with the constant churn and turbulence generated by free peoples and free markets.The decline of patriotismAmerican citizens’ appreciation of this complex, rocky, and inspiring journey is waning. The nation’s educational system bears heavy responsibility for the diminished understanding of the American experiment in ordered liberty and for the popularity of extreme criticism emerging from both sides of the political spectrum. All levels of the American educational system have been derelict in their duties. But higher education is especially to blame because it also trains K-12 teachers.American colleges and universities advance the public interest in a variety of ways. They furnish pre-professional and professional education. They provide a credentialing service for employers. They train scholars. They conduct vital scientific research. And, not least, they offer liberal education.Liberal education is the least successful part of higher education. In recent years, reformers have justly focused on colleges’ and universities’ impairment of free speech and imposition of ideological monocultures. The corruption of the curriculum also deserves scrutiny.In most cases, colleges and universities believe themselves to comply with the imperatives of liberal education by requiring students to fulfill distribution requirements. Rarely do the nation’s leading institutions of higher education mandate courses that all students must complete or identify substantive bodies of knowledge that all students must master.The application of a method designed to account for matter in motion has been decidedly less successful in illuminating the moral and political world.Instead, students meet their obligations by taking a few courses in the humanities, the social sciences, and the sciences, often picking and choosing among dozens of offerings if not more in each of the three main divisions. Two students can fulfill their distribution requirements without reading a single book in common. This, from our colleges’ and universities’ point of view, is not a problem but rather a source of pride.They believe that they demonstrate concern for students’ individuality by allowing them to choose their own courses and design their own curricula. At the same time, by exposing students to a variety of disciplines and approaches to knowledge, institutions of higher education claim to produce open-minded and well-rounded graduates expertly trained to lead in changing the world.The traditional aim of liberal education is to cultivate students capable of thoughtfully exercising the rights and discharging the responsibilities of freedom. However, far from exemplifying liberal education at its finest, colleges and universities typically betray it by failing to structure the curriculum coherently, to give it suitable content, and to ensure that students master contending arguments.Few students these days receive an organized, historically informed introduction to American ideas and institutions: the nation’s religious and political inheritance, founding principles, constitutional traditions, cultural crosscurrents, economic arrangements, and diplomatic and national-security requirements. Few students examine the great books and seminal events of the larger Western tradition out of which the United States emerged and to which it has made a decisive contribution.Few students undertake the serious study of other peoples and nations, which is essential to a proper assessment of America’s achievements and failings. And few students have impressed upon them the importance in studying morality and politics of appreciating the strong points of the arguments with which they disagree.The problem of higher educationAmerica’s colleges and universities have debased liberal education under the compulsion of three ideals. One is political. A second is methodological. A third is professional. When suitably refined, each is worthy. However, contemporary academic life has radicalized all three to the great detriment of liberal education.First, contrary to liberal education’s imperatives, many faculty members believe that their job is to instill correct views about the pursuit of social justice and enlist students in the cause of progressive political transformation.Liberal education in America should not be neutral toward fundamental political principles: It assumes the goodness of individual freedom and human equality. But to prepare students for freedom and democratic self-government, liberal education must both refrain from treating partisan political views as academic orthodoxies and foster appreciation of contending opinions and competing ideas.Yet many of today’s classroom crusaders recognize no pedagogical duty to present fairly the other side of the argument. Some believe themselves obliged to ignore, dismiss, or deride views — often despite little conscientious exploration of them and regardless of their historical significance and relevance to contemporary politics — that they deem distasteful, demeaning, or destructive.They are unaware of or unmoved by John Stuart Mill’s indispensable observation in “On Liberty” that a person “who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that.”RELATED: America’s classrooms are feeding the red wave — socialist red Jacek Boczarski/Anadolu/Getty ImagesSecond, contrary to liberal education’s imperatives, many faculty members in the social sciences believe that the scientific method represents the one true approach to understanding. While the application of the scientific method to the natural world since the 17th century has produced astounding increases in knowledge and know-how, the application of a method designed to account for matter in motion has been decidedly less successful in illuminating the moral and political world inhabited by self-interpreting human beings.The conduct of moral and political animals, whose beliefs are shaped by custom, experience, reason, interests, and passions and whose actions are informed by fallible judgments about right and wrong, cannot be fully captured by methods designed to describe matter in motion.Nevertheless, setbacks in illuminating morality and politics have only driven many social scientists to double down on the study of method. Mesmerized by techniques for counting, measuring, and weighing and transfixed by elegant theories for describing rational conduct, they churn out mounds of research that shroud the substance and texture of human affairs.Political scientists’ bewitchment by method produces disciplines that have less and less to say to citizens about self-government and justice as they elaborate more and more mathematically sophisticated approaches to the study of moral and political life.And third, contrary to the imperatives of liberal education, many professors operate on the assumption that the purpose of educating undergraduates is to train the next generation of scholars.Instead of transmitting to students the knowledge about America, the West, and the world needed for good citizenship, professors commonly provide intellectual tools and socialization into the sensibility required to succeed in the professoriate, though the vast majority of students have no intention of pursuing the scholarly life.Curricula that honored the imperatives of liberal education would put the Declaration of Independence at the core. They would expose students to serious study of the constitutional system that institutionalized the Declaration’s fundamental principles and of the nation-defining political struggles to realize them. They would explore the seminal ideas and major events of Western civilization of which the American experiment in ordered liberty forms a crucial chapter. And they would examine the culture, economic system, language, politics, and religious beliefs of other civilizations, without which a well-rounded assessment of the United States is impossible.Not least among the costs of colleges’ and universities’ betrayal of liberal education is that it produces graduates ignorant of the Declaration of Independence’s enduring principles and inspiring legacy and oblivious to the costs of that ignorance to themselves and the nation.Editor’s note: This article was originally published by RealClearPolitics and made available via RealClearWire.

Every July Fourth, announcers retell the same origin story before Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest: In 1916, four immigrants on Coney Island settled an argument over who was the most patriotic American by seeing who could eat the most hot dogs in 12 minutes. James Mullen, an Irish immigrant, won with 13.It never happened.‘A hot dog is like a pop idol. Hot dogs are cute.’The story was invented in the early 1970s by two Nathan's press agents, Max Rosey and Mortimer Matz, who needed a brand-new publicity stunt to make the contest look like a decades-old American tradition.In 2010, Matz admitted to the New York Times: "In Coney Island pitchman style, we made it up." A Nathan's spokesman later confirmed the company "had no evidence of the contest" before Matz and Rosey got involved.The fabrication came well embellished. The dates weren’t even fixed yet — early contests popped up near Memorial Day, Labor Day, and once in April. Some versions of the legend cast entertainer Jimmy Durante as a competitor, judged by Eddie Cantor and Sophie Tucker. According to a former president of Nathan's, the real first contest happened in 1972. "We'd honestly wait for a couple of fat guys to walk by and ask them if they wanted to be in a hot dog contest," said Wayne Norbitz, who served as president for 26 years.RELATED: 'Alarming violence' leads community to cancel Fourth of July celebration ahead of America's 250th anniversary Bobby Bank/Getty ImagesNathan's still markets the event as an unbroken tradition dating back to 1916. It's a strange irony for a holiday built around an honest declaration.Six-time champion Takeru Kobayashi, known as "The Tsunami," was once asked point-blank whether a hot dog counts as a sandwich. "No! No. You have to have a lot of respect for hot dogs. It's completely different. First of all, the hot dog is American. Sandwiches are not American. They're different. Second of all, a hot dog is like a pop idol. Hot dogs are cute. It's a pop image — everyone knows what a hot dog is."Anthony Bourdain called the bun "a ballistic delivery system" and warned that ordering a "hot dog sandwich" at any respectable stand would get you reported to the FBI. The National Hot Dog and Sausage Council agrees, officially classifying the hot dog as its own category rather than a subtype of sandwich.Maybe the only thing more mythical than Nathan's 1916 origin story is the idea that anyone has actually settled what a hot dog is.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!