Happy Birthday, America!

All of us have a birthday. It’s a time to celebrate the day that we were born and the joy over our existence. Our nation has a birthday, too! Our nation’s birthday is coming up on July 4! Happy Birthday, America!

Do you know how our country, the United States of America, was born? The birthday of the United States of America is known as Independence Day, or the Fourth of July. On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence. This meant that the colonies were separating from Great Britain and becoming an independent country.

So what led to the birth of our nation? In 1750, there were 13 small colonies in America. Each colony was separate, but they were all ruled by the king of England. The colonies had to send money to England to pay taxes. All of the laws and rules were also made in Great Britain, and there was no representation or input from the people of the American colonies. The people of the colonies began to believe that they should be independent and not ruled by a king who lived across the ocean. They wanted to be free to choose the kind of government they wanted. The king refused to give up the American colonies and sent ships fi lled with soldiers to America.

The colonies realized that in order to fi ght the king and his army, they would need to unite. Each colony chose men to go to Philadelphia and meet. This was called the “First Continental  Congress.” They drafted a letter to the king and asked him to change unfair laws and to send his soldiers back to England. Instead, the king sent more soldiers to America, and the Revolutionary War began.

The Declaration of Independence was drafted by Thomas Jefferson in June of 1776. In the Declaration, Jefferson expressed the feelings of the American people. It explained the ideals of individual liberty through “self-evident truths,” proclaiming that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain rights, and among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The document also explained that governments are created to help ensure these rights.

When a government abuses the people and denies their rights, it is the duty of the people to remove or change that form of government. The Declaration listed grievances against the King and how the government of Great Britain was infringing on the rights of the people, and justified the separation of the colonies from Great Britain.

On July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was adopted. The ringing of the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia signaled that a new nation had been born. It was fi ve more years before the British surrendered at Yorktown, Virginia, in 1781. The United States of America was finally a free nation!

All Americans are encouraged to read the Declaration of Independence, to understand better the rights that our forefathers fought for so that we can live the lives that we do today. Have you read it?

By the numbers!

• 2.5 Million people living in the 13 original colonies back in 1776. (Historial Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1970)
• 30 Number of places in America with “liberty” in their names. (Examples are Liberty, Missouri, Liberty, North Carolina and North Liberty, Iowa.)
• 150Number — in millions — of hot dogs estimated to be eaten at July 4th celebrations.
• 5.2 Million dollars are spent importing American flags, as of last count in 2004. Most of the flags are made in China.
• 50percent of America’s potatoes are grown in either Idaho or Washington. Potatoes are common foods at July 4th celebrations, usually in the form of potato salad or potato chips!