USA: Happy 246th Birthday!

 

I annually watch the hour and a half Capital Fourth program from the Mall, and will again this year.  All for patriotism, freedom, some entertainment  and the fireworks over the district.  Except for a couple of stars, the cast is unknown to me this year.  

However, this year CNN does this again, and theirs is an extravaganza of 5 hours beginning at 7PM EDT. Featured will be:

AJR, Ava Max, Alessia Cara, Avril Lavigne, the B-52’s,  Def Leppard, the Doobie Brothers, Gloria Estefan, Jason Derulo, Jimmie Allen, Journey, The Lumineers, Machine Gun Kelly, Maren Morris, Old Dominion, Pitbull, Santana, Third Eye Blind, T-Pain, Willie Nelson and more.  Plus fireworks from:  Austin, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Fort Lauderdale, Houston, Jacksonville, Nashville, New York City, Pasadena, Philadelphia, St. Louis, San Diego, San Francisco and Washington DC.

Of course this is an important Federal holiday, being our 246th birthday, so banks, the stock market and schools will all be closed.  Then again, this is America, so stores will be open...except for COSTCO.  Nothing to do with patriotism, for it is also shuttered for all major holidays.

You can still go to Walmart (11,200 stores) and Target (1,846).  COSTCO only has 762 locations.

Interesting fun facts about July 4:

• This was the day in 1776 when most of our Founding Fathers in Philadelphia signed the Declaration of Independence.   On July 2 the Continental Congress meeting in Independence Hall, had voted to defy King George III.

• 
  Oh, got to say a few things about King George III:
• First, he reigned from 1760 to 1820, but his granddaughter Queen Victoria served four years longer, which was more recently exceeded by his great-great-great granddaughter and great-great-great-great granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II.  Yes, this is complicated.
• 
  Had 15 children.
• Was the first king to really study science, and had his own astronomical observatory.
• Was on the watch:
• When the Sun never set on the British Empire.
• Banned the transatlantic slave trade in 1807.
• Defeated Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815.
• However, he is also known as Mad King George, and was largely crippled by mental illness from 1810 to his death in 1820.

• 
  On 4 July 1776  the population of the U.S. was 2.5 million, including 460,000 slaves.  Or maybe it was 475,000.
• There were 8 million British, even though the graphic on the right shows 11 million. 
• Pennsylvania was the second most populous colony with 282,166 people.  Virginia had 525,242.  However, Philadelphia with 38,999 had the highest city population.  London in 1776 had 750,000.
• 
  Once in Independence Hall was the Liberty Bell (now located across the street), which weighs 2080 pounds and is made of bronze:  70% copper, 25% tin and small amounts of lead, gold, arsenic, silver and zinc.  
• Modern bronze is typically 88% copper and 12% tin, and was first invented in 4500 BC, although it did not come into prominence until a millennium later.  The Bronze Age is the period from 3300 BC to 1200 BC when Egypt rose to prominence.  The Great Pyramid of Giza was built around 2500 BC.
• Some of history reports that this bell was rung on July 4, two days after the Continental Congress voted in favor of declaring independence from Great Britain.

• 
  More recently, this ringing was indicated not to be so, and probably not also on 8July1776. 
• There is no certain history of when the bell first cracked, although it got so bad in 1846 that there was a fix attempt.  But that failed.
• Still in Philadelphia, but the Liberty Bell is only tapped, not rung, to mark special occasions.
• No truth to the song that credited Davy Crockett with fixing that bell.  But he had his pocket picked in Philly on one of his visits.

• 
  Three presidents died on July 4:  Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, both in 1826, and Calvin Coolidge in 1872.
• Americans will today eat 150 million hot dogs, which, laid end to end, will stretch from D. C. to Los Angeles...more than five times.  You want to know what is in a hot dog?  You really don't want to click on THIS, but just in case you were curious, it is a really long list.  Let me start with pork, beef and chicken.  Americans consume 20 billion hot dogs each year.  
• A University of Michigan study indicated you could lose 36 minutes off a healthy life for every hot dog you eat.  You should be afraid of hot dogs, not COVID.
• 
  And speaking of hot dogs, the most nauseating annual event on TV occurred today:  Nathan's Hot Eating Contest.  Last year (right) Joey Chestnut won by eating 76 in ten minutes, and Michelle Lesco was the women's champ.
• This year Joey Chestnut on crutches was favored at -2500, which converts to 96% probability.  He won easily today for his 15th Mustard Belt, but only consumed 63.  He was, though, challenged by an intruder.

• 

  Miki Sudo sat out 2021 because of pregnancy.  She had won every year since 2013, and each year with more than 30.75, the number Lesco reached last year.  Sudo returned this year and won with 40 dogs.  
• Her mother is Japanese, where Miki lived for seven years.
• Her first win was a pho eating contest in 2013.
• Right, her fiance Nick Wehry, who has competed well against Chestnut.  Also Max.

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