July 4th

Happy Independence Day, everyone! Today is July 4th and Independence Day for the United States. It is the 232nd anniversary of the day when we declared our freedom from Britain by the Declaration of Independence. It is a common misconception that the Declaration was signed on July 4, 1776. However, this is actually the day when the document was adopted and the wording approved so that it could be sent to the printer. The day when the Declaration was really signed was August 2, 1776. To read more about the Fourth of July click here. We would not have been able to win the war against the British were it not for the aid of the French so please say 'thank you' to the French today or send up a firework on July 14th, their independence day. Enjoy your barbecues and many fireworks displays tonight, everyone! (Can you tell that one of these pictures is not mine?) Happy 4th of July!

" Listen my children and you shall hear Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five; Hardly a man is now alive Who remembers that famous day and year.

He said to his friend, "If the British march
By land or sea from the town to-night,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch
Of the North Church tower as a signal light,--
One if by land, and two if by sea;
And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm,
For the country folk to be up and to arm...

So through the night rode Paul Revere;
And so through the night went his cry of alarm
To every Middlesex village and farm,---
A cry of defiance, and not of fear,
A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,
And a word that shall echo for evermore!
For, borne on the night-wind of the Past,
Through all our history, to the last,
In the hour of darkness and peril and need,
The people will waken and listen to hear
The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,
And the midnight message of Paul Revere."

~"Paul Revere's Ride" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

To read the full poem click here.