The 4th of July

The 4th of July

By Lawrence W. Reed

Tomorrow is Friday, July 4, 2025, the 249th anniversary of America’s birth as a nation. That means we have one year to make plans to celebrate the big one, the Semiquincentennial.

The Free Society Coalition, on whose board I proudly serve, is fired up about the forthcoming 250th. We hope Americans will use the occasion to refresh their appreciation of the country’s founding principles. Toward that end, we recently published an attractive pamphlet titled “Happy Birthday, Freedom!” Here’s the link: https://www.freesocietycoalition.org/readings. Please share it widely.

Nothing that ever happened on the 4th of July eclipses America’s founding in either importance or impact. That’s not to say, however, that nothing else notable occurred on that date. Curious about the matter, I checked and found the following:

The U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, opened in 1802 on July 4. Its distinguished graduates include Presidents Ulysses S. Grant and Dwight D. Eisenhower; Confederate President Jefferson Davis and General Robert E. Lee; and World War II commanders George Patton and Douglas MacArthur.

It was on July 4 a year later (1803) that President Thomas Jefferson announced the acquisition from Napoleon’s France of the Louisiana Territory, roughly doubling the country’s size.

New York abolished slavery on the 4th of July in 1827. For some remarkable and related history, see “The History of Slavery You Probably Weren’t Taught in School” (https://fee.org/articles/the-history-of-slavery-you-probably-werent-taught-in-school/) and “Recognizing Hard Truths about America’s History with Slavery” (https://fee.org/articles/recognizing-hard-truths-about-americas-history-with-slavery/). Here’s another you shouldn’t miss, “Inconvenient Truths About Slavery” (https://www.lawrencewreed.com/blog/slaveryandthefounders).

Booker T. Washington opened the doors of the famed Tuskegee Institute on July 4, 1881. Learn more about this remarkable American in “Why Booker T. Washington Remains a Model for the Ages” (https://fee.org/articles/why-booker-t-washington-remains-a-model-for-the-ages/).

Climate alarmists, please take note: On July 4 in 1911, an 11-day heat wave began. Temperatures in the northeastern U.S. topped out at 106 in New York. Hundreds of people and horses perished. We’ve witnessed nothing quite like it in the 11 decades since. See details at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1911_Eastern_North_America_heat_wave.

July 4, 1939, saw fans turn out in droves to pay tribute to New York Yankees player Lou Gehrig, who pronounced himself “the luckiest man on the face of the earth” as he retired from baseball because of his ALS diagnosis. Check out the inspirational 1942 film starring Gary Cooper as Gehrig, “The Pride of the Yankees,” and the excellent Gehrig biography by Jonathan Eig titled “Luckiest Man.”

In a daring raid that stunned the world, Israeli commandos freed more than a hundred hostages at the Entebbe Airport in Uganda on July 4, 1976. The operation inspired multiple documentaries and dramatizations, including “Operation Thunderbolt: Entebbe,” “Victory at Entebbe,” “Raid on Entebbe,” and “The Delta Force.” I vividly recall being glued to the television news as the event unfolded.  

The great folk and parlor music composer Stephen Foster was born on the 4th of July, 1826, in Lawrenceville, Pennsylvania. My personal favorites of his many pieces are “Beautiful Dreamer” and “Swanee River.” Listen to them via these links: https://tinyurl.com/9s257m7x and https://tinyurl.com/36uft3zk.

Finally, only one of America’s 47 Presidents entered the world on the country’s birthdate, and he remains one of our best. See “Meet the Only President Born on the 4th of July”: https://tinyurl.com/mtnwhaez.

Have a safe and memorable 4th. Happy Birthday, America!

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(Lawrence W. Reed is President Emeritus, Humphreys Family Senior Fellow and Ron Manners Global Ambassador for Liberty at the Foundation for Economic Education in Atlanta, Georgia. He blogs at www.lawrencewreed.com.)