Things I Find Fascinating: 4 OTHER Things That Happened On July 4th

1)  Two ex-Presidents, both among this nation's Founding Fathers, pass away on the same day in 1826.  The second and third U.S. Presidents -- John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, respectively -- both die on July 4th, 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.

Thomas Jefferson

John Adams

2)  The people of France officially offer the Statue of Liberty to the people of the United States in 1886.  Frenchman Frédéric Bartholdi had designed the massive sculpture fifteen years earlier, but it took several years for him to complete it, and then even more time to actually get the statue shipped, piece by piece, to the United States to be assembled where it now stands.

The Statue of Liberty

3)  Baseball player Lou Gehrig, recently diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, tells a crowd at Yankee Stadium that he considers himself "the luckiest man on the face of the earth", as he announces his retirement from Major League Baseball in 1939. This horribly debilitating disease is now commonly referred to in the United States as Lou Gehrig's Disease, in honor of a national hero who bravely fought the disease.

4)  At West Point, New York, the United States Military Academy opens in 1802.  Most often referred to simply as "West Point," the academy has the longest continuous service of any United States military installation and is the nation's oldest military academy.

West Point

FAMOUS AMERICANS BORN ON JULY 4TH:
Nathaniel Hawthorne, writer  (The Scarlet Letter, The House Of The Seven Gables)
Stephen Foster, songwriter ("Oh Susanna!", "Camptown Races")
Calvin Coolidge, 30th U.S. President


FAMOUS AMERICANS WHO DIED ON JULY 4TH:
John Adams, 2nd U.S. President
Thomas Jefferson, 3rd U.S. President
James Monroe, 5th U.S. President
Hannibal Hamlin, U.S. Vice President (under President Lincoln)
Jesse Helms, U.S. Senator