A Spontaneous Demonstration of Joy with a Great Expenditure of Liquor: The Story Behind America's First Independence Day Celebration in 1777
On July 5, 1777 Philadelphia’s most widely read daily broadsheet The Pennsylvania Evening Post described the previous day’s Independence Day celebrations in the city as, “A demonstration of joy and festivities.” In an outpouring of patriotic fervor according to the Pennsylvania Evening Post , ship’s in the harbor along the banks of the Delaware River were said to be, “Dressed in the gayest manner with the colors of the United States and red, white and blue streamers displayed.” It was reported that day, that as the fittingly decorated ships approached the city--America’s newly minted first capital city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that thirteen cannon shots were fired--one cannon blast for each former British colony that had only the year before turned newly independent state, part of the loose confederation now known as the United States of America. That night thirteen fireworks were set off in the large green spaces known as the city commons of both Philadelphia, the nascent