Team Brandnewz would like to shout out and thank our youngest correspondent yet, 5 year old Hadassah Jones of Durham, North Carolina for her “Beautiful Bean Footage.” Hadassah has raised an important question; Hadassah asks citizens, what does “Independence Day” mean to you?

Hadassah interviewed several; yes several individuals celebrating the 4th of July in and around Durham, to see if they understood the true meaning of Independence Day. Some of the answers Hadassah received, ranged from having a good time with friends and family to the most obvious answers like having fun enjoying fireworks, barbeque, picnics and a much needed and deserved day off.

In the United States, Independence Day (commonly known as the “Fourth of July,” “July Fourth”, the “Glorious Fourth”, or simply the “Fourth”) is a federal holiday commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence which took place on July 4, 1776, when the United States and the Continental Congress, declared independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain.

Sure, Independence Day is commonly associated with fireworks, parades, barbecues, picnics, baseball games, and various other public and private events that celebrate the history, government, and traditions of the United States. What most don’t know is that fireworks have been associated with the Fourth of July since 1777, long before Al Schafer’s roadside attraction and fireworks capital “South of the Border.”

Independence Day was first recognize in 1781, by Massachusetts legislatures but the first recorded use of the name “Independence Day,” was in 1791. The 4th has giving birth not only to American freedom but to the traditions of many other things including the 13-gun salute, the Pepsi 400 established in 1959, by NASCAR on July 4th or the Saturday of Independence Day weekend, Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest, that takes place in Coney Island, Brooklyn and New York City, which supposedly started on July 4, 1916, as a way for four immigrants to settle a dispute as to who was the most patriotic. The town of Bristol, Rhode Island, is noted for having the oldest, continuous Independence Day celebration in the United States.

For those over exerted federal employees that look forward to a day off, Independence Day has not always been a federal holiday in fact in 1870, the U.S. Congress made Independence Day an unpaid holiday for federal employees only to reverse their decision in 1941, to the holiday into a paid federal holiday.

Hadassah’s home state of North Carolina has great ties to the Independence Movement. In 1783, Moravians in Salem, North Carolina, held the very first celebration of the Fourth of July in the country with a challenging music program assembled by Johann Friedrich Peter. This work was titled “The Psalm of Joy.”

“Ripley’s Believe It or Not,” in a remarkable series of coincidences, both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, two founding fathers of the U.S., and the only two men who signed the Declaration of Independence to become President died on the same day: July 4, 1826, on the United States’ 50th anniversary. Also another Independence Day presidential fact, Calvin Coolidge, the 30th President of the United States, was born on July 4, 1872.