Happy Independence Day 2024-- July 4, 2024

Perth Amboy Evening News, 04-July-1924

Happy Fourth of July to all. 248 years ago, we declared our independence. 

Happy Independence Day 2023-- July 4, 2023

Indianapolis Times, 04-July-1923

Happy Fourth of July to all. 247 years ago, we declared our independence. Lady Liberty offers "Glorious Birthday Greetings."

Toonerville Trolley -- Granpa Futty's Fourth of July Precaution -- July 3, 2023

Casper Daily Tribune, 05-June-1923

I love Fontaine Fox's The Toonerville Trolley That Meets All the Trains. In this example, the Trolley appears in the background. 

Washington Times, 30-June-1918

Happy Independence Day 2022-- July 4, 2022

Perth Amboy Evening News, 03-July-1922

Happy Fourth of July to all. 246 years ago, we declared our independence.

Toonerville Trolley -- As Far As the Trolley Was Concerned, the 4th Was Celebrated in Grand Style -- July 5, 2021

Perth Amboy Evening News, 05-July-1921

I love Fontaine Fox's The Toonerville Trolley That Meets All the Trains.

 

Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger, 05-April-1921

Happy Independence Day 2021-- July 4, 2021

 

coverbrowser.com

Happy Fourth of July to all. 245 years ago, we declared our independence. 

The original Life Magazine was a humorous weekly that was published from 1883 to 1936. Here is the Fourth of July Number, dated 05-July-1906. A giant flying firework chases a young Uncle Sam.

Happy Independence Day 2020-- July 4, 2020

Mad Magazine, June, 1963

Happy Fourth of July to all. 244 years ago, we declared our independence. Alfred E Newman celebrates with a firecracker.

Happy Independence Day 2019 -- July 4, 2019

moveon.org

Happy Fourth of July to all. 243 years ago, we declared our independence. Now we need to  unite to stop tyranny. The people who are putting children in concentration camps and betraying our country to foreign interests need to pay.

Happy Independence Day 2018 -- July 4, 2018

Happy Fourth of July to all. 242 years ago, we declared our independence. This 1918 poster celebrates Uncle Sam's 142nd birthday.

Happy Independence Day 2017 -- July 4, 2017

www.coverbrowser.com

Happy Fourth of July to all.  241 years ago, we declared our independence.  I find it hard to believe it has been 41 years since the bicentennial. 

Aeroplanes over the Captitol -- July 3, 2017

www.coverbrowser.com

The cover of the 03-July-1918 Literary Digest features three US Army airplanes over the Capitol dome. 

Happy Independence Day 2016 -- July 4, 2016

Happy Fourth of July to all.  240 years ago, we declared our independence.  I find it hard to believe it has been 40 years since the bicentennial. 

The Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad ran between Chicago and Saint Louis. After World War II, the Missouri Pacific took over. The line now belongs to the Union Pacific. I can't remember where I found this beautiful ad for Fourth of July discount tickets.

Happy Independence Day 2015 -- July 4, 2015

Happy Fourth of July to all.

I have always been a fan of George Harriman's comic strip Krazy Kat.  Here we see Offisa Pup and Ignatz Mouse enacting their eternal conflict, this time with a firecracker. 

Happy Independence Day 2014 -- July 4, 2014

Happy Fourth of July to all.
A poster from World War One celebrates the holiday in 1918. 

Seventy-five years ago, on 04-July-1939, Lou Gehrig made his last public speech, after he had been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).  He said "Today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth."

I was sad to learn of the passing of Louis Zamperini, an American hero.  He ran in the 1936 Olympics.  He served in the US Army Air Forces during World War II, flying B-24s in the Pacific.  While searching for lost airmen, his plane crashed because of mechanical problems.  He drifted in a raft with two other survivors of the crash.  One died, but the Zamperini and the other drifted for 47 days until they reached the Marianas.  The Japanese captured them and Zamperini was treated brutally because he was famous.  Despite this, after the war he talked to people about forgiveness. 

Happy Independence Day #7 -- July 4, 2013

Happy Fourth of July to all.

Actress Myrna Loy, one of my favorites, ignores the sign prohibiting fireworks.  From Motion Picture Magazine, August, 1928.
150 years today, on 04-July-1863, Confederate Lieutenant General John C Pemberton surrendered the fortified town of Vicksburg, a key point on the Mississippi River, to Union Major General Ulysses S Grant.  Grant  had besieged the city for six weeks and the defenders and the civilian population had become desperate.  Vicksburg, along with the just-concluded Battle of Gettysburg, was a turning point in the war.  

Happy Independence Day #6 -- July 4, 2012

Happy Fourth of July to all.

Actress Anita Page, who passed away in 2008, was a big star in the late silent and early sound period.  She appeared in Our Dancing Daughters and The Broadway Melody.

Thank you for the photo to LucyWho (http://www.lucywho.com). 

Happy 100th birthday to Woody Guthrie. 

I was sorry to learn that Andy Griffith has died.  

Arch -- November 22, 2011

"The Great Fourth of July Arch Erected on Market Street Between Third and Fourth." Note the 40-foot long cable car. From the 04-July-1895 San Francisco Call.

Happy Independence Day #5 -- July 4, 2011

Happy Fourth of July to all.

Actress Josephine Dunn played mostly small parts in several movies, including It's the Old Army Game with WC Fields. In this busy photo, she sits on what appears to me to be a Boeing Navy fighter. I welcome corrections. The photo comes from the wonderful site LucyWho (http://www.lucywho.com/).

Happy Independence Day #4 -- July 4, 2010

Happy Fourth of July to all. The photograph of silent movie actress Colleen Moore comes from http://www.fanpix.net/. Her bobbed hair inspired imitators all over the world.

Happy Independence Day #3 -- July 4, 2009

A WPA poster for an Independence Day celebration in DuPage County, Illinois.

From the wonderful American Memory Project (http://memory.loc.gov).