July 3, 2008
Spotlight of the Day: July 4, 1776
On July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress adopted its Declaration of Independence from Britain. With that, the United States of America was born. US President Calvin Coolidge was born on this date in 1872, and three presidents died on this date: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, in 1826, and James Monroe, in 1831. The Statue of Liberty was presented to the US in Paris on this date in 1884 and Katherine Lee Bates published "America the Beautiful" on July 4, 1895. And on this date in 1960, America's current fifty-state flag was first waved, as Hawaii had achieved statehood the previous summer.
