Happy Independence Day, Everyone

Does anyone else remember this little April Fools Joke that ran in the newspapers back in 1996?  I remember it because my mom was visiting us, and Maya had just been born (March 29), and we were looking at the newspaper, and Mom got all outraged. I wonder if it was sleep deprivation, due to all of the excitement, or if perhaps the fact of being in such a historic city got the blood all of her patriot ancestors flowing freely, but she decided this was just too much.  And to think, George Bush wasn’t even in office yet!  Anyway, she was talking to my dad on the phone, and he asked her, very calmly, to check the date on the newspaper.  She had to laugh.

What does this joke have to do with the 4th of July? Not much, I guess, but the Liberty Bell makes me think of Philly, which is where the Continental Congress came together on July 2nd and signed the Declaration of Independence, which was then adopted on July 4th.  In case you missed the snippet on Yahoo yesterday about how Adams thought that July 2nd would be the big holiday in the future, here’s a snippet snagged from Wikipedia:

During the American Revolution, the legal separation from Great Britain occurred on July 2, 1776, when the Second Continental Congress voted to approve a resolution of independence that had been proposed in June by Richard Henry Lee of Virginia. After voting for independence, Congress turned its attention to the Declaration of Independence, a statement explaining this decision, which had been prepared by a committee with Thomas Jefferson as its principal author. Congress debated and revised the Declaration, finally approving it on July 4. A day earlier, John Adams had written to his wife Abigail:

“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 this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.”

Adams’s prediction was off by two days. From the outset, Americans celebrated independence on July 4, the date shown on the much-publicized Declaration of Independence, rather than on July 2, the date the resolution of independence was approved in a closed session of Congress.

If you’re feeling patriotic, and you want to read the Declaration itself and get outraged at the sins of the King, you can find all sorts of handy info and background here.