How well do you know your Independence Day trivia? Take WTOP's July 4 quiz.
WASHINGTON — How well do you know your Independence Day trivia? Take our quiz.
Let’s start with a presidential section: Which U.S. president was born on the Fourth of July?
(PRNewsFoto/Capital Concerts)
PRNewsFoto/Capital Concerts
Calvin Coolidge, in 1872.
(AP Photo)
AP Photo
Have any U.S. presidents died on the Fourth of July?
(AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
AP Photo/Matt Rourke
Yes — remarkably, three of the first five: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, both in 1826, and James Monroe (pictured above) in 1831.
(Courtesy of the National Archives/Newsmakers)
Courtesy of the National Archives/Newsmakers
Special President-adjacent Bonus Question: What recent presidential child was born on the Fourth? (Hint: the photo above is a tipoff.)
(Official White House photo by Pete Souza)
Official White House photo by Pete Souza
Malia Obama, in 1998.
(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)
AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File
So, July 4 was the day the colonies declared independence?
(AP Photo/Julie Jacobson, File)
AP Photo/Julie Jacobson, File
Nope. That was July 2.
(AP Photo/John Minchillo)
AP Photo/John Minchillo
So, July 4 was when the Declaration of Independence was signed?
(AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
AP Photo/Julio Cortez
Nope. It was Aug. 2, 1776 , that most of the Continental Congress signed the “engrossed” (written out clearly on parchment) copy of the Declaration. Five people signed it even later than that. Two never signed it at all, including Robert Livingston, who was on the Committee of Five in charge of writing it. (The other was John Dickinson, who still thought a reconciliation with Britain could be worked out.)
(AP Photo)
AP Photo
So, wait — should we be celebrating July 2 instead?
(AP Photo/John Minchillo)
AP Photo/John Minchillo
John Adams thought so. July 2 “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,” Adams wrote .
(Shews? Never mind.)
But Adams didn’t reckon with the editing process – or the printer. It took two days for the Congress to decide on final language for the Declaration and send it off. So the Declaration says “IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776” at the top, and there you go.
Just goes to shew you.
(AP Photo/Charles Sykes)
AP Photo/Charles Sykes
Are there places besides the U.S. that celebrate the Fourth?
(Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images
You’ll probably find an impromptu Independence Day celebration anyplace you have a few Americans gathered together, but in Denmark they do it for real.
The Rebildfesten has been held since 1912 at Rebild National Park. Inspired by a migration of Danes to the U.S., the festival celebrates “freedom, friendship and unity between Denmark and the United States.” Thousands of people come – Danish, Danish-Americans, American expats and U.S. military members stationed in Europe. Here’s the website for this year’s fest — and the Queen is gonna be there !
(AP Photo/Polfoto, Rene Schutze)
AP Photo/Polfoto, Rene Schutze
Does anyplace in the U.S. not celebrate the Fourth of July?
(Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images
Not quite, but in Vicksburg, Mississippi, it was complicated for a long time. During the Civil War, Vicksburg fell to Union forces after a 47-day siege. About 9,000 Confederate troops and 18 civilians were killed, and the Union Army encircled the city, trying to starve the civilians out. The Confederates surrendered on July 4, 1863, and the people of the town didn’t think much of the holiday for quite a long time.
How long, exactly? It’s hard to say. Many say they didn’t pick up the celebration again until 1945 , in a burst of patriotism in the dwindling days of World War II.
Other sources say they began celebrating again in 1907; the Dead Confederates Civil War blog quotes the Vicksburg Daily Commercial as saying there was a celebration in 1877, though it doesn’t sound like a particularly inspired one .
On the other hand, it may not be surprising to learn that when The New York Times asked around Vicksburg in 2013, several of the town’s Black residents said that the Fourth was in fact considered a day particularly worthy of celebrating in their community.
But as late as 1997, The Dallas Morning News reported , a woman made a show of flipping through the pages of the official city calendar to check for July 4 events and sniffed, “Nothing. Not anything special. Nothing special going in Vicksburg.”
Hooo-kay. We see you, lady. You realize that, right?
(AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis
One of the country’s iconic structures is also a Fourth of July present. Which is it?
(AP Photo/John Minchillo)
AP Photo/John Minchillo
The Statue of Liberty was completed in France July 4, 1884, and presented to the U.S. minister.
One problem – it still had to get over to the U.S., and we weren’t ready for it.
We had one job – build the pedestal. But the money ran out and work stopped. The statue was disassembled and shipped to the States in pieces, according to plan, but it sat in storage for more than a year. The pedestal wasn’t completed until publisher Joseph Pulitzer started a fundraising campaign, and it was finally completed and opened up, fireworks and all, in late October 1886.
(AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
AP Photo/Julio Cortez
Scheduled events, road closures around the Mall
Getting around on July 4
Best area events
Ways to stay safe with fireworks
More Fourth of July News