120 Fun Facts About Fourth of July

Which abolitionist asked 'What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?' in an 1852 speech in Rochester?

Frederick Douglass, once enslaved himself, told the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society: 'This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn.'

Who was the primary author of the Declaration of Independence?

Thomas Jefferson was appointed to a five-man committee and chosen to draft the Declaration. He wrote the initial draft in June 1776, which was then edited by the committee and Congress.

Which founding father predicted Independence Day would be marked with 'pomp and parade... bonfires, and illuminations'?

He wrote it to his wife Abigail the day before the Declaration was adopted. His prediction was off by two days: he expected the vote on the Lee Resolution, not the Declaration itself, to be the anniversary Americans kept.

Which novelist, descended from a Salem witch-trial judge, was born in that town on July 4, 1804?

Nathaniel Hawthorne's ancestor John Hathorne judged the Salem witch trials; the writer is thought to have added the 'w' to his surname to put distance between them.

Which phrase opens the Declaration of Independence's second paragraph?

We hold these truths to be self-evident began in the first draft as 'sacred and undeniable'; the plainer wording came in the editing, a change often credited to Franklin.

Where was the Declaration of Independence signed?

The Declaration was adopted and signed at the Pennsylvania State House (now Independence Hall) in Philadelphia. The building is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

In the Declaration's last line, the signers pledge their lives, their fortunes and their sacred what?

Honor: 'our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor' was no flourish, since signing was treason; the names of the 56 signers were not made public until the following January.

Which country observed July 4 as its Independence Day until 1962, then moved it to June 12?

The Philippines became independent of the United States on July 4, 1946, a date the Americans chose to match their own; President Macapagal later moved the holiday to mark the 1898 declaration against Spain.

Who was the oldest signer of the Declaration of Independence at age 70?

Benjamin Franklin was 70 years old when he signed the Declaration of Independence, making him the oldest signer. He reportedly quipped, "We must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately."

Which British monarch was on the throne throughout the American Revolution?

George III is the 'He' of the Declaration's 27 grievances, blamed personally even for laws passed by Parliament, a body the text never names.

Which battle is considered the first military engagement of the American Revolutionary War?

The Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775, opened the Revolutionary War; the first shots came on Lexington Green at dawn, and Emerson later called the exchange at Concord's North Bridge 'the shot heard round the world'.

Which actor plays the president who rallies pilots with a July 4 speech in the 1996 film Independence Day?

Bill Pullman and producer Dean Devlin added the speech's last line, 'Today, we celebrate our Independence Day!', just before the scene was shot, hoping it would help them keep the film's title.

What pamphlet by Thomas Paine, published in January 1776, argued powerfully for American independence?

Common Sense appeared anonymously, signed only 'by an Englishman': its author had arrived in America barely a year earlier, and his pamphlet was soon being read aloud in taverns.

The Liberty Bell is inscribed with a quote from which book of the Bible?

Leviticus supplied the line 'Proclaim LIBERTY Throughout all the Land', but nobody called it the Liberty Bell until the 1830s, when abolitionists adopted it as their symbol and gave it the name.

What did Congress cut from the draft Declaration of Independence before adopting it?

An attack on the slave trade was struck out in the two days of editing that followed the vote for independence; its author blamed slaveholding delegates and Northern merchants who had shipped slaves.

Whose expedition marked the Fourth of July in 1804 by naming a Kansas creek Independence?

Lewis and Clark were seven weeks up the Missouri River: the party opened the day with a shot from the boat's gun, and the creek had no name, so it got the holiday's.

Jefferson, Adams and Franklin all sat on which committee, appointed in June 1776 to draft the Declaration of Independence?

The Committee of Five left the drafting to one member and then edited his work; another of the five, Robert R. Livingston, never signed the document they produced.

When did fireworks first become part of Fourth of July celebrations?

The first organized July 4th fireworks display was held in 1777, on the first anniversary of independence. Philadelphia held a celebration that included bonfires, bells, and fireworks.

Which country is the largest supplier of fireworks to the United States?

China is widely held to have invented fireworks, and it never let the business go: it still makes and exports more of them than any other country.

Which competitive-eating showdown is held every July 4 in Coney Island?

The Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs contest dates only from the early 1970s: the tale that four immigrants began it in 1916 to prove their patriotism was invented by a publicist, as he admitted in 2010.

Which country's Rebild Hills, in Jutland, are said to host the biggest Fourth of July party outside America?

Denmark owes the festival to its emigrants: Danish-Americans bought the heathland in 1911 and gave it to the Danish state as a park, and July 4 has been celebrated there since 1912.

Where is America's largest July 4 fireworks display, fired from river barges and sponsored by a department store?

New York City's display is Macy's: the store staged its first fireworks in 1958, for its own 100th birthday, and made them a Fourth of July tradition in 1976.

Which song began as an 1814 poem written after the bombardment of Fort McHenry?

The Star-Spangled Banner began as 'Defence of Fort M'Henry': lawyer Francis Scott Key watched the shelling from a truce ship, where he had gone to win the release of a doctor the British had seized.

The 1870 law that made July 4 a federal holiday also named New Year's Day, Thanksgiving and which other day?

Christmas Day completed the first four federal holidays; the 1870 act covered only federal workers in the District of Columbia, and Congress did not extend the days off to the rest until 1885.

In the Great Seal's color scheme of 1782, later borrowed for the flag, what does red stand for?

Hardiness and valor was the meaning Congress's secretary gave red when he presented the seal; the resolution that had created the flag five years earlier gave its colors no meaning at all.

The oldest continuous Fourth of July celebration in the US, held since 1785, belongs to a town in which state?

Rhode Island's town of Bristol began with 'Patriotic Exercises' led by a minister who had fought in the Revolution; the parade came later, and the celebration has never lapsed.

The view from which Colorado summit inspired Katharine Lee Bates to write America the Beautiful in 1893?

Pikes Peak was reached by prairie wagon and, near the top, by mule; the tired Wellesley professor said that when she saw the view she felt great joy, and she jotted the poem in a notebook that summer.

Which signer of the Declaration of Independence was the last survivor, dying in 1832?

Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Maryland's wealthy Catholic delegate, outlived every other signer; he died on November 14, 1832, at age 95, having laid the first stone of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad on July 4, 1828.

In Yankee Doodle, what was the 'macaroni' that the feather in the cap is mockingly compared to?

An over-the-top London fashion: 'macaronis' were dandies in towering wigs, so the joke was that a rustic colonial thought one feather made him stylish; Americans then took the insult up as their own song.

Which U.S. president was born on the Fourth of July?

Calvin Coolidge, the 30th president, was born on July 4, 1872, in Plymouth Notch, Vermont; in 1923 he took the presidential oath there by lamplight from his father, a notary public, after Harding's death.

What piece does the Boston Pops traditionally perform on the Fourth of July?

Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture celebrates Russia's defeat of Napoleon, not any American victory; the Pops made it a July 4 fixture in 1974, complete with live cannon fire.

God Bless America was written by which famous songwriter?

Irving Berlin wrote God Bless America in 1918 during World War I, but revised and popularized it in 1938 when Kate Smith performed it on her radio show. Berlin donated all royalties to the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts.

The date July 4, 1776 is inscribed in Roman numerals on a tablet held by which American monument?

The Statue of Liberty holds a tablet reading JULY IV MDCCLXXVI; easier to miss is the broken chain at her feet, placed there to mark the end of slavery in the United States.

The Liberty Bell's metal is roughly 70% copper and 25% what?

The Liberty Bell is about 70 percent copper and 25 percent tin, with traces of lead and other metals; cast in London in 1752, it cracked on its first test ring and was twice recast by Pass and Stow.

Which patriotic song, set to the tune of 'God Save the King', was first sung in public on July 4, 1831?

My Country, 'Tis of Thee was written by a seminary student who had been handed school songbooks from abroad to translate or rework; one tune caught him, and he gave it American words.

What is the name of the noon gun volley, one shot per state, fired by U.S. military bases every Independence Day?

Salute to the Union echoes a rule from 1810, when the War Department set the national salute at one gun for every state: 17 at the time.

Which founding father, speaking in March 1775 to urge military action against the British, said 'Give me liberty, or give me death'?

Patrick Henry left no text of the speech: the famous wording was reconstructed 42 years later by his biographer William Wirt, from the memories of men who had heard it.

Which Broadway showman wrote 'The Yankee Doodle Boy' and insisted that he too was born on the Fourth of July?

George M. Cohan's baptismal certificate says July 3, 1878, but he and his family always swore by the Fourth, and the 1942 film of his life, Yankee Doodle Dandy, kept the legend going.

Which broadcaster airs A Capitol Fourth, the annual July 4 concert from the lawn of the US Capitol?

PBS has televised the National Symphony Orchestra's free lawn concert for more than four decades; in 2020 the pandemic emptied the lawn, and the show ran on pre-recorded performances with live fireworks.

A New York crowd toppled a lead statue of the king in July 1776, reportedly to turn it into what?

Ammunition: after hearing the Declaration read on July 9, the crowd pulled down the gilded lead king at Bowling Green, and its metal was sent to Connecticut to be cast into musket balls.

Whose oversized signature on the Declaration of Independence made his name slang for 'signature'?

John Hancock, as president of Congress, was the first to sign, in a bold hand centered below the text; the tale that he wrote large so the king could read it without spectacles is a later invention.

Which former president also died on the Fourth of July, in 1831, five years after Adams and Jefferson?

James Monroe left the White House deep in debt: he sold his plantation to pay creditors and, after his wife died, moved in with his daughter, far from Virginia.

Which colony's delegates voted against independence in the first tally, then switched the next day for unanimity?

South Carolina's delegation, led by Edward Rutledge, opposed independence in the trial vote; Rutledge then asked for a night's delay, and the colony changed sides so that the decision would be unanimous.

Who gave the Declaration of Independence its first public reading, in Philadelphia on 8 July 1776?

Nixon, a colonel in the city militia, read it at noon while readings also took place in Trenton and Easton. The State House bell probably rang to gather the crowd.

How did General Washington mark July 4, 1778, at his New Jersey headquarters?

A double rum ration for the troops came with an artillery salute and a rolling volley of musket fire; the army had fought the Battle of Monmouth less than a week before.

Which cartoonist pointed out in 1929 that America had no official national anthem?

Robert Ripley ran it as a 'Believe It or Not!' panel, and it was true: Congress did not make official the song long played as the anthem until 1931.

Which president fell ill at a July 4, 1850 Washington Monument ceremony and died days later?

Zachary Taylor attended a July 4, 1850 fundraising ceremony at the unfinished Washington Monument, reportedly ate a great many cherries in the heat, fell ill with a stomach ailment and died on July 9.

In which city do tens of thousands run the Peachtree Road Race, the world's largest 10K, every Fourth of July?

Atlanta's race began in 1970 with just 110 runners and a brewery for a sponsor; it now fills tens of thousands of places, and only those who finish get the T-shirt.

Which signer, ancestor of two presidents, joked that his bulk would make his hanging quicker?

Benjamin Harrison told slight Elbridge Gerry that he would be gone in minutes while Gerry would 'dance in the air an hour or two'; his son and great-grandson both became president.

Which Confederate stronghold surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant on July 4, 1863?

Vicksburg, Mississippi, surrendered to Grant on July 4, 1863, after a 47-day siege, giving the Union control of the Mississippi River a day after Lee's defeat at Gettysburg.

A first printing of the Declaration of Independence turned up in 2009 in the national archives of which country?

Britain had it all along: the broadside, run off in Philadelphia on the night of July 4, was among papers seized from Americans during the war and lay unnoticed in British files for over two centuries.

Which American songwriter was born on July 4, 1826, the day Adams and Jefferson died?

Stephen Foster gave America 'Oh! Susanna' and 'Camptown Races' but died at 37 with less than half a dollar in his wallet, beside a scrap of paper reading 'dear friends and gentle hearts'.

At which Virginia estate did Thomas Jefferson die on July 4, 1826?

Monticello was the hilltop house he had designed himself; he died so deep in debt that within five years his daughter had to sell it.

Which Yankees first baseman gave his 'luckiest man' farewell speech on July 4, 1939?

Lou Gehrig, forced out by ALS, called himself 'the luckiest man on the face of the earth'; Babe Ruth, with whom he had long been on bad terms, hugged him in front of the crowd.

Which Virginia delegate proposed the independence resolution in Congress on June 7, 1776?

Richard Henry Lee moved 'that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States'; four weeks later the Declaration's closing paragraph repeated his words.

Beside which Massachusetts pond did Henry David Thoreau move into his cabin on July 4, 1845?

Walden Pond was no wilderness: the cabin stood on land owned by his friend Ralph Waldo Emerson, a short walk from the Thoreau family home.

Who wrote the 1976 memoir that became the film 'Born on the Fourth of July'?

Ron Kovic, a Marine paralyzed in Vietnam, published 'Born on the Fourth of July' in 1976; Oliver Stone's 1989 film of it starred Tom Cruise and won Stone the Best Director Oscar.

In the 2004 film National Treasure, a clue points the hero to what on the back of the Declaration of Independence?

A hidden map is the lure: to reach it, Nicolas Cage's hero steals the document from the National Archives, where the real parchment has been on display since 1952.

Which military academy formally opened on July 4, 1802?

West Point began as the Hudson River fortress that Benedict Arnold plotted to hand to the British in 1780; an academy to train the army's officers opened there 22 years later.

In which Massachusetts town did John Adams die on July 4, 1826?

John Adams died at Peacefield, his home in Quincy, Massachusetts, on July 4, 1826, aged 90, unaware that Jefferson had died hours earlier in Virginia.

Who is credited with penning the engrossed parchment copy of the Declaration of Independence?

Timothy Matlack, a clerk to the Secretary of Congress, is credited with hand-lettering the official parchment copy of the Declaration, which delegates signed on August 2, 1776; it is displayed at the National Archives.

What military event of December 25-26, 1776 boosted American morale in the Revolution?

Washington's Crossing of the Delaware on the night of December 25-26, 1776 let his army surprise the Hessian garrison at Trenton; a week earlier Paine's 'The American Crisis' had appeared, written to stiffen the army's resolve.

Construction of which canal began at Rome, New York, on July 4, 1817?

The Erie Canal took eight years to dig from the Hudson to Lake Erie; its tolls quickly repaid the state's costs, and the trade it carried made Manhattan's harbor the busiest port in the nation.

Declaring independence was meant partly to win military help from which European power?

France signed an alliance in 1778, after the American victory at Saratoga; the resolution for independence had been paired from the start with a call to seek foreign allies.

What adjective does the Declaration use for the rights to 'Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness'?

Unalienable is how the final text spells it; Jefferson's own rough draft says 'inalienable', and so does the quotation carved inside the Jefferson Memorial.

Which president presided over the Bicentennial celebrations on July 4, 1976?

Gerald Ford, who reached the White House without ever being elected president or vice president, marked the nation's 200th birthday with a speech at Independence Hall.

Which nickname for the US flag was coined by sea captain William Driver for the one he flew at sea?

Old Glory was Driver's name for the flag he took to sea from Salem; retired to Nashville, he hid it inside a quilt when Tennessee seceded and saw it raised over the capitol when Union troops arrived.

Which president signed the 1931 law that made 'The Star-Spangled Banner' the official national anthem?

Herbert Hoover's signature ended a long oversight: the song had been played as the anthem for decades, by the Navy since 1889, without Congress ever making it official.

Which Boston Pops conductor teamed with David Mugar in 1974 to launch the Esplanade fireworks concert?

Arthur Fiedler had been conducting free concerts on the Esplanade since 1929, so the fireworks were a latecomer, added some 45 years into the tradition.

Which Pennsylvania delegate refused to sign the Declaration, calling independence premature?

John Dickinson, author of the Olive Branch Petition, abstained from the vote and never signed; he then took up arms as a militia officer and later represented Delaware at the Constitutional Convention.

Within days of July 4, 1776, Philadelphia printers issued the Declaration in which second language?

German: Pennsylvania's many German speakers had the news early, from a German-language paper on July 5, and a full translation was on sale in Philadelphia within the week.

Which signer of the Declaration of Independence was a Presbyterian minister and Princeton's president?

John Witherspoon, a Scottish-born Presbyterian minister, was the only active clergyman among the signers; at the college that became Princeton he taught James Madison, later hailed as the Father of the Constitution.

What did the Continental Congress order on July 19, 1776, regarding the Declaration of Independence?

Engross it on parchment for signing: with the last colony's approval in, Congress could title it 'The unanimous Declaration', and a clerk lettered by hand the sheet now kept in the National Archives.

Whose name, as Secretary of Congress, appeared with Hancock's on the first printed Declaration?

Charles Thomson, Secretary of the Continental Congress from 1774 to 1789, attested the Dunlap broadside beneath John Hancock's name; theirs were the only two names on that July 4-5 printing.

Which Connecticut delegate signed the Continental Association, Declaration, Articles of Confederation and Constitution?

Roger Sherman is the only person to sign all four; apprenticed as a shoemaker with only a common-school education, he taught himself mathematics and went on to practice law.

What is the Philadelphia building at 700 Market Street, where Jefferson drafted his 1776 text, now called?

The Graff House, rebuilt by the National Park Service in 1975, is now called Declaration House; Jefferson rented its second floor from bricklayer Jacob Graff while drafting the Declaration in June 1776.

New England towns once marked the night before the Fourth by building bonfire pyramids out of what?

Barrels and casks were stacked into pyramids and lit at nightfall to usher in the Fourth; New England towns competed for height, and Salem's were the tallest, as many as forty tiers.

Which president presided over Liberty Weekend, the Statue of Liberty's centennial, in July 1986?

Ronald Reagan relit the restored Statue of Liberty's torch on July 3, 1986, opening Liberty Weekend alongside French president François Mitterrand; the celebration marked the statue's 1886 dedication and its two-year restoration.

The International Freedom Festival, begun by Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, in 1959, paired the Fourth of July with which other holiday?

Canada Day falls on July 1, three days before the Fourth, so the two cities facing each other across the Detroit River shared one giant fireworks show; in 1959 the Canadian holiday was still called Dominion Day.

The US national anthem's tune came from an English gentlemen's club song honoring which wine-loving ancient Greek poet?

Anacreon gave his name to the Anacreontic Society, a club of amateur musicians, and its song traveled: the tune was already popular in America before it carried the anthem's words.

Which bird, shown on the Great Seal since 1782, only became the official national bird by law in December 2024?

Bald eagle status rested on custom alone for 242 years: Congress put the bird on the Great Seal in 1782, but no statute named it the national bird until a bill was signed on December 23, 2024.

In Yankee Doodle, the word macaroni mocks a rider's feathered hat by naming which London craze of the 1770s?

Flashy men's fashion was nicknamed macaroni after young Britons who came home from the Grand Tour with a taste for pasta and towering wigs. The joke was that a Yankee thought one feather made him stylish.

Where was the Declaration of Independence sent for safekeeping from 1941 to 1944, after the attack on Pearl Harbor?

Fort Knox, home of the nation's gold reserves, locked the Declaration and the Constitution in its bullion vault within weeks of Pearl Harbor and kept them there until 1944.

Which newly admitted state was the reason for the 50-star flag, first flown on July 4, 1960?

Hawaii became a state in August 1959, and by law a new star is added on the following Fourth of July. Alaska's 49-star flag had lasted just one year.

Which patriotic figure is traced by legend to a Troy meatpacker who fed American soldiers in the War of 1812?

Uncle Sam was the nickname of meatpacker Samuel Wilson, and soldiers who knew him joked that the 'U.S.' stamped on their meat shipments stood for him rather than the United States.

Which department store chain has sponsored a huge July 4 fireworks show over the East River or Hudson since 1976?

Macy's teamed with Disney for a 1976 Bicentennial display and has staged the show every year since except 1986, when the fireworks were folded into Liberty Weekend.

Which upholsterer was credited by her grandson, nearly a century later, with sewing the very first American flag?

Betsy Ross entered the history books a century late: the story surfaced only in her grandson's writings, and no record from the Revolution itself mentions her making the flag.

In which institution in the nation's capital has the signed Declaration of Independence been displayed since 1952?

The National Archives took over the badly faded document from the Library of Congress in 1952 and shows it in a rotunda beside the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

Which NASA lander touched down on the Red Planet on July 4, 1997, carrying the small Sojourner rover?

Mars Pathfinder landed in Ares Vallis on the Fourth of July, and its 23-pound Sojourner became the first rover to operate anywhere beyond the Earth and Moon.

Compounds of which metal give Fourth of July fireworks their deep red bursts, and road flares their glow?

Strontium salts burn a deep red, while barium compounds provide the greens and copper compounds the blues.

Which land deal, nearly doubling the size of the United States, was officially announced to Americans on July 4, 1803?

Louisiana Purchase news went public on the Fourth of July: $15 million for the whole territory, which works out to less than three cents an acre.

Which historically Black school, led by Booker T. Washington, held its first classes at a church on July 4, 1881?

Tuskegee began on the grounds of Butler Chapel AME Zion Church in Alabama, and within months its leaders had raised enough money to buy a farm for a permanent campus.

Which poet's self-published Leaves of Grass is traditionally dated to July 4, 1855?

Walt Whitman's 1855 edition had no table of contents and none of its poems had a title. He kept revising and expanding the book until his death in 1892.

Which Irish-born printer ran off the first copies of the Declaration of Independence on the very night it was adopted?

John Dunlap got the order from Congress that evening and worked through the night on single-sheet copies. Eleven years later his firm also printed the Constitution.

Which Delaware delegate rode 70 miles overnight through a thunderstorm to break his colony's tie on independence?

Caesar Rodney arrived 'in his boots and spurs' just as the voting began, and his overnight ride is pictured on Delaware's 1999 state quarter.

Which Georgia signer of the Declaration, whose autograph is among America's rarest, was killed in a duel a year later?

Button Gwinnett was fairly obscure before he signed and was dead within a year, so only 51 examples of his signature are known and collectors prize them.

Which suffragist strode onto the stage at the 1876 Centennial ceremony to deliver a Declaration of Rights for Women?

Susan B. Anthony had been refused a place on the program, so she and four other women handed the document to the startled official in charge and passed out copies to the crowd as they left.

Which open-government law did President LBJ sign, despite his own misgivings, on July 4, 1966?

The Freedom of Information Act obliges federal agencies to hand over records to any person who asks, and it took effect exactly one year later, on July 4, 1967.

Which artist's painting of the Declaration being presented hangs in the Capitol rotunda and backs the $2 bill?

John Trumbull painted the draft being handed to Congress on June 28, so the picture many people take for the Fourth of July signing shows a different day entirely.

Which railroad, later one of four on the Monopoly board, began construction on July 4, 1828?

Baltimore and Ohio crews started work that day, and two years later the line tried out the Tom Thumb, the first American-built steam locomotive on a common-carrier railroad.

Which 1975 blockbuster has a small-town mayor keeping the beaches open for the Fourth of July weekend?

Jaws was shot mostly on Martha's Vineyard, which stood in for Amity Island, and it was the first major motion picture filmed on the ocean, a choice that blew its budget and schedule.

Which actor earned his first Oscar nomination playing a paralyzed Vietnam veteran in Born on the Fourth of July?

Tom Cruise lost the Best Actor race, but the film brought Oliver Stone his second directing Oscar and won four Golden Globes, including one for Cruise.

Which New Jersey rocker's 1973 boardwalk ballad 4th of July, Asbury Park carries the subtitle Sandy?

Bruce Springsteen put the song on his second album, and the Hollies' 1975 cover, released simply as Sandy, was an early sign that other acts would mine his songbook.

Which country singer wrote and recorded the 1984 patriotic anthem God Bless the U.S.A.?

Lee Greenwood saw his signature song surge again after the September 11 attacks, when a re-release reached number 16 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Which actor won an Oscar playing Broadway showman George M. Cohan in the 1942 musical Yankee Doodle Dandy?

James Cagney took Best Actor for the role. The film says Cohan was born on the Fourth of July, as he liked to claim, but his actual birthday was July 3.

In which 2004 Nicolas Cage adventure is the Declaration of Independence stolen for a map hidden on its back?

National Treasure bends the facts about the prop as well as the plot: the real document's ink has faded so badly that the crisp writing shown on screen is inaccurate.

Which Netflix series released its third season on July 4, 2019, with the holiday at the center of its story?

Stranger Things set the season in the summer of 1985, and an early pitch had its monster rampaging through the town's Fourth of July parade before the scene was scrapped.

Which Marvel superhero, a Brooklyn-born soldier of World War II, has a July 4, 1918 birthday in the films?

Captain America is Steve Rogers, whose Fourth of July birthday in the Marvel Cinematic Universe suits a hero whose costume is modeled on the American flag.

Which band's 1972 hit Saturday in the Park was inspired, a bandmate says, by a July 4 visit to Central Park?

Chicago keyboardist Robert Lamm came back to the band's hotel thrilled by the steel drum players, singers, dancers and jugglers he had seen, a bandmate recalled.

Which band was barred from the 1983 Fourth of July concert on the National Mall by Interior Secretary James Watt?

The Beach Boys were swapped for Wayne Newton after Watt claimed rock bands drew 'the wrong element'. He apologized on learning that the president and First Lady were fans.

Which competitive eater ended Takeru Kobayashi's six-year reign at Coney Island's July 4 hot dog contest in 2007?

Joey Chestnut swallowed a then-record 66 hot dogs and buns in 12 minutes to take the title, after losing to Kobayashi in each of the two previous years.

Which NBA star announced on July 4, 2016 that he was leaving Oklahoma City for the Golden State Warriors?

Kevin Durant broke the news in an essay for The Players' Tribune, weeks after his Thunder had blown a 3–1 playoff series lead against those same Warriors.

Which American ended Björn Borg's run of five straight Wimbledon titles in the final played on July 4, 1981?

John McEnroe won in four sets, avenging his loss in the previous year's final, and the Swede never played Wimbledon again.

Which eventual champion knocked the host United States out of the 1994 World Cup on July 4?

Brazil won 1–0 on a Bebeto goal despite playing the whole second half a man short, after Leonardo was sent off for throwing an elbow at Tab Ramos.

Which heavyweight champion beat James Jeffries in Reno on July 4, 1910, in a bout billed as the Fight of the Century?

Jack Johnson, the first African American heavyweight champion, floored the unretired Jeffries twice before the challenger's corner threw in the towel in the 15th round.

Which boxer took the heavyweight title from the towering Jess Willard in Toledo on July 4, 1919?

Jack Dempsey gave away nearly 60 pounds to the man known as the Pottawatomie Giant, yet knocked him down seven times in the first round alone.

Which NASCAR driver took his 200th and final win at the Firecracker 400 on July 4, 1984?

Richard Petty took the checkered flag at Daytona in front of the first sitting president ever to attend a NASCAR race, who had given the command to start engines by phone from Air Force One.

Which fireballer, baseball's first million-dollar-a-year player, recorded his 3,000th strikeout on July 4, 1980?

Nolan Ryan's milestone victim was Cincinnati's César Gerónimo, who had the bad luck to be strikeout number 3,000 for Bob Gibson as well.

Which Yankees left-hander threw a no-hitter against the Boston Red Sox on July 4, 1983?

Dave Righetti's gem was the first Yankee no-hitter since Don Larsen's perfect game in the 1956 World Series. He later moved to the bullpen and led the league in saves.

Which team set off its promised fireworks at 4 a.m. after a 19-inning July 4, 1985 game against the Mets?

Atlanta Braves pitcher Rick Camp, a .074 career hitter, had tied the game in the 18th inning with the only home run of his career, though his team lost 16–13 anyway.