It’s also been a day for some presidents to insert themselves front and center in the fabric of it all.
In 2021, Joe Biden gathered more than 1,000 people on the White House South Lawn to eat burgers and watch fireworks. That event was noteworthy because such gatherings were unthinkable in the first year of the pandemic. Many wished Biden had not thought of doing it even then - the rampage of the omicron COVID-19 variant was still to come.
1798: Now president, Adams reviews a military parade in Philadelphia as the young nation flexes its muscle.1822: James Monroe hangs out at his farm in Virginia.1831: James Monroe, who was the fifth president, dies on July Fourth. 1868: Postwar, Andrew Johnson executes a proclamation granting amnesty to those who fought for the Confederacy.1914: “Our country, right or wrong,” Woodrow Wilson declares at Independence Hall in Philadelphia.1930: Herbert Hoover vacations by the Rapidan River in Virginia.
1970: Nixon, in California, tapes a message that is played to crowds on the National Mall at an “Honor America Day” celebration organized by supporters and hotly protested by anti-war masses and civil rights activists. Tear gas overcomes protesters and celebrants alike, Viet Cong flags mingle with the Stars and Stripes, and demonstrators - some naked - plunge into the Reflecting Pool.