On This Day:

Friday, July 4, 2008: Today is “Independence Day!” In 1776, the Declaration of Independence was approved by the Continental Congress, even though the “official” signing didn’t happen until August 2nd, 1776. The manuscript journals included the famous declaration “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
On this day in 1826, fifty years to the day after the approval of the Declaration of Independence, which they both had a hand in drafting, former presidents Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died on the same day.

Today is the anniversary of the publishing of “America the Beautiful.” In 1895, the poem of the same name, by Katherine Lee Bates, a Wellesley College professor, was published in the “Congregationalist,” a church publication. It later went on to become one of America’s most beloved national songs.

I found these on History. com... (some fun facts)

– Each year, 30-35 million real Christmas trees are sold in the United States alone. There are 21,000 Christmas tree growers in the United States and trees usually grow for about 15 years before they are sold.
– Today, in the Greek and Russian orthodox churches, Christmas is celebrated 13 days after the 25th, which is also referred to as the Epiphany or Three Kings Day. This is the day it is believed that the three wise men finally found Jesus in the manger.
– In the Middle Ages, Christmas celebrations were rowdy and raucous—a lot like today's Mardi Gras parties.
– From 1659 to 1681, the celebration of Christmas was outlawed in Boston, and law-breakers were fined five shillings.
– Christmas wasn't a holiday in early America—in fact Congress was in session on December 25, 1789, the country's first Christmas under the new constitution.
– Christmas was declared a federal holiday in the United States on June 26, 1870.
– The first eggnog made in the United States was consumed in Captain John Smith's 1607 Jamestowns settlement.
– Poinsettia plants are named after Joel R. Poinsett, an American minister to Mexico, who brought the red-and-green plant from Mexico to America in 1828.
– The Salvation Army has been sending Santa Claus-clad donation collectors into the streets since the 1890s.
– Rudolph, "the most famous reindeer of all," was the product of Robert L. May's imagination in 1939. The copywriter wrote a poem about the reindeer to help lure customers into the Montgomery Ward department store.
– Construction workers started the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree tradition in 1931.