4th of July Updates

Did you know that the Declaration of Independence was not signed on July 4, 1776?  The myth of July 4th had become so established that even Thomas Jefferson and John Adams believed in their later years that they, along with the other delegates,  had signed the Declaration on the 4th.

In reality the legal separation of the American colonies from Great Britain occurred on July 2, 1776, when the Second Continental Congress voted to approve a resolution of independence that had been proposed in June by Richard Henry Lee of Virginia.

After voting for independence, Congress turned its attention to the Declaration of Independence, a statement explaining this decision, which had been prepared by a Committee of Five, with Thomas Jefferson as its principal author.

Americans celebrated independence on July 4th, the date shown on the Declaration of Independence, rather than on July 2nd, the actual date the resolution of independence was approved in a closed session of Congress.

The truth is that most of the delegates to the Continental Congress actually signed the official document on August 2, 1776.

Coincidentally, both Presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, two founding fathers of the United States were the only two signers to become president, also died on the same day – July 4, 1826 – the country’s 50th anniversary.

The first official celebration of the 4th of July was in Philadelphia in 1777. Philadelphia celebrated the first anniversary with an official dinner for the Continental Congress, accompanied by long-winded prayers, toasts and speeches, and followed by dozens of thirteen gun salutes, parades, and fireworks.

Although it had a long tradition as a local community holiday throughout the country for over 130 years, it was only in 1938 that Congress officially called it “Independence Day” and made it a paid national holiday.

JustOneOpinion.com is celebrating the summer by adding some features and continuing to upgrade our site. We are still playing around with some of the layouts, but you should notice quite a few of the changes have already been put in place.

Most of our blog posts and articles now have a companion video (if appropriate) either in the body text or in the upper right hand sidebar. In some cases, you will find both.

The front page has the “Start with a Smile” video feature at the top of the right sidebar. This bit of foolishness is just that, but is usually topical and connected to one of the more recent articles. Check often, as there are up to six different videos that will appear. So seeing one is not seeing all in this case.

We’ve also added CNN and Google News updates in the sidebar of the main page. These are generally going to be hard news items, but be sure to give them a good look as we may switch the prime subject on one or both whenever the editor gets bored with general news.

Just below the feature article panel, at the top of the left article sidebar, we’ve added late breaking new videos from AP. This updates very quickly so as you browse through JustOneOpinion.com you may want to check back on the home page to see if anything major has happened. After all, we wouldn’t want you to miss the end of the world or California finally sliding into the sea – because you were so enthralled with one of our articles.

There will be more additions and changes over the next few months as time allows. Our goal is to make a visit to every page a unique experience for our readers.

We thank all of our loyal readers (the numbers are growing daily) and our wonderful contributors who keep coming up with some great material. We would also like to welcome the hundreds of new visitors that have come by for the first time because they noticed one of our topical articles that ranked high on Google or Yahoo! search engines.

Above all – everyone – get off the computer and go outside and really enjoy the 4th of July holiday weekend. As Craig Ferguson says on his TV show every late weeknight, “It’s a great day for America!”