The Fourth on the Eighth
July 8, 1776 AD
1776 1776
75.11W39.56N
MISC

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA
	The first American Independence Day celebration was not on the Fourth of July, but the Eighth of July, 1776.
	On the Fourth, the Continental Congress signed the Declaration of Independence telling the world that "these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states."
	Four days later in Philadelphia there was a parade with cannons and the ringing of the Liberty Bell.
	The next year Philadelphia celebrated again, this time on July fourth with a parade, guns, bells and fireworks.  By the end of the Revolutionary War, soldiers returning home carried the idea of the celebration with them.
	Since then Independence Day is celebrated each Fourth of July throughout the United States with fireworks, games and patriotic displays.