THE FOURTH OF JULY: FROM 13 ROCKETS OVER PHILADELPHIA TO TONIGHT

Bonus Episode | Historical EventsIn this History episode we focus on the Fourth of July itself — from the first fireworks over Philadelphia in 1777 to tonight's show, the story of how a date that almost wasn't the right date became the most celebrated day in American history.This episode covers why Adams thought July 2nd was the real independence day, how a captured Hessian military band played at the first celebration while the war was still being fought, why the first fireworks were only orange, how colored fireworks required 19th century chemistry, and the remarkable things that happened on this specific date — Jefferson and Adams dying on the same day on the 50th anniversary, Vicksburg surrendering on July 4th 1863, Lou Gehrig's Luckiest Man speech in 1939, and NASA landing a rover on Mars on the Fourth of July 1997.John Adams was wrong about the date. He was right about everything else.#HistoryMystery #4thOfJuly #IndependenceDay #AmericanHistory #HistoryPodcast