• Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to secondary sidebar

New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

  • Email
  • RSS
  • Adirondacks & NNY
  • Capital-Saratoga
  • Mohawk Valley
  • Hudson Valley & Catskills
  • NYC & Long Island
  • Western NY
  • History
  • Nature & Environment
  • Arts & Culture
  • Outdoor Recreation
  • Food & Farms
  • Subscribe
  • Support
  • Submit
  • About
  • New Books
  • Events
  • Podcasts

Fourth of July

4th of July in New York City: Recent History and 2023 Plans

June 26, 2023 by James S. Kaplan 3 Comments

july 4th in new york cityFrom the end of the Revolution until the 1960s, Fourth of July celebrations in the city of New York were a major annual events. (You can read about that history here.)

During the 1970s, the most important July 4th event in New York City became the previously established Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest at Coney Island. The highly publicized event proved to be a huge success, but lacked historical context or political meaning. [Read more…] about 4th of July in New York City: Recent History and 2023 Plans

Filed Under: Events, History, New York City Tagged With: Battery Park, Bowling Green, Castle Clinton, Fourth of July, Fraunces Tavern Museum, Lower Manhattan Historical Association, Manhattan, New York City, Public History, South Street Seaport

A History of New York City’s July 4th Celebrations

June 20, 2023 by James S. Kaplan 2 Comments

The Manner in which the American Colonies Declared Themselves Independent of the King of England, throughout the Different Provinces, on July 4, 1776, by Noble (engraver), after Hamilton (painter), for Edward Barnard’s The New, Comprehensive, Impartial and Complete History of England… (London, 1783).Throughout the United States there are traditional Fourth of July parades and backyard barbecues, but in New York City the history of July 4th celebrations have been somewhat different. Although July 4th would appear to be a apolitical patriotic holiday, early July 4th celebrations in the city of New York were anything but nonpartisan. [Read more…] about A History of New York City’s July 4th Celebrations

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: American Revolution, Brooklyn, Coney Island, Election of 1800, Fourth of July, Immigration, James Harper, New York City, Political History, Tammany Hall

July 4th Riots in Lake George: Some History

July 6, 2022 by Anthony F. Hall Leave a Comment

Warren County Sheriffs’ deputies arresting two unidentified youths for disorderly conduct courtesy United Press InternationalThe July 4th, 1965 weekend in Lake George Village culminated in riots in which 350 youths were arrested, at least according to the newspapers of the day.

Two hundred police officers were required to keep “the Bermuda clad, barefooted, out-of-state college kids” under control, one newspaper stated.

That was not the first Lake George youth riot, nor would it be the last. [Read more…] about July 4th Riots in Lake George: Some History

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: Crime and Justice, Fourth of July, Journalism, Lake George, riots, Warren County

Whose Fourth of July?

February 9, 2022 by Liz Covart Leave a Comment

ben_franklins_worldOn July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass delivered a speech to an anti-slavery society and he famously asked “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”

In this episode of Ben Franklin’s World, Martha S. Jones, the Society of Black Alumni Presidential Professor and Professor of History at Johns Hopkins University, and Christopher Bonner, an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Maryland help us explore Douglass’ thoughtful question within the context of Early America: What did the Fourth of July mean for African Americans in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries? [Read more…] about Whose Fourth of July?

Filed Under: History, Western NY Tagged With: Abolition, Fourth of July, Frederick Douglass, Podcasts, Political History, Slavery

The Semiquincentennial: State Leg Passes 250th Commemoration Act

July 8, 2021 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Senator Shelley B Mayer and Assemblymember Carrie WoernerOn June 8th, in the final week of legislative session, the New York State 250th Commemoration Act, passed both the New York Senate and Assembly.

The bill, which passed unanimously in both houses and now awaits the signature of Governor Andrew Cuomo, would create the New York State 250th Commemoration Commission to create a plan to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution and founding of the United States (the Semiquincentennial, July 4, 2026), and establish a 250th Commemoration Commission Fund. [Read more…] about The Semiquincentennial: State Leg Passes 250th Commemoration Act

Filed Under: History Tagged With: America's 250th Anniversary, American Revolution, Cultural History, Fourth of July, NYS Budget, Political History, Semiquincentennial

July 4th, 1827: Freedom Day

July 3, 2020 by Deirdre Sinnott 9 Comments

Mother A. M. E. Zion Church Historical marker As the last enslaved people living in New York State were officially freed on July 4th, 1827, celebrations reigned.

According to the New-York Spectator, people packed the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church on the corner of Church and Leonard Streets in Manhattan. The major societies for the support and liberation of African American people were there. Banners and flags festooned the church. “Several hymns written for the occasion were sung.”

Portraits of John Jay, a founder of the Manumission Society who had himself owned five people until 1800, and Matthew Clarkson, who introduced a bill for the gradual end of slavery to the New York State Legislature, were hung near a bust of Daniel D. Tompkins, who as Governor of New York had proposed this date as the day for emancipation. [Read more…] about July 4th, 1827: Freedom Day

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Mohawk Valley, New York City, Western NY Tagged With: Abolition, Black History, Civil Rights, Fourth of July, Manhattan, Political History, Slavery

Whose Fourth of July?

July 1, 2020 by Liz Covart Leave a Comment

ben_franklins_worldOn July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass delivered a speech to the Rochester, New York Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society and he famously asked “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”

In this episode of Ben Franklin’s World, we explore Douglass’ thoughtful question within the context of Early America: What did the Fourth of July mean for African Americans in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries?

[Read more…] about Whose Fourth of July?

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Mohawk Valley, New York City, Western NY Tagged With: Benjamin Franklin, Black History, Fourth of July, Frederick Douglass, Podcasts, Political History

A History of NYC July Fourth Celebrations

August 23, 2019 by Bob Cudmore Leave a Comment

The Historians LogoThis week on The Historians Podcast, Bob Cudmore’s guest is Jim Kaplan who looks at the history of Fourth of July celebrations in New York City. In recent years the Lower Manhattan Historical Association has organized Fourth of July parades. Kaplan is a regular contributor to The New York History Blog [Read more…] about A History of NYC July Fourth Celebrations

Filed Under: History Tagged With: Fourth of July, Lower Manhattan Historical Society, Podcasts

Celebrating the Fourth: Some History

July 10, 2019 by Liz Covart 1 Comment

ben_franklins_worldIt wasn’t always fireworks on the fourth.

John Adams predicted Americans would celebrate the Second of July, the day Congress voted in favor of independence, “with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of the Continent to the other.” He got the date wrong, but he was right about the festivities in commemoration of Independence Day. And yet July Fourth events have changed a great deal since 1776. [Read more…] about Celebrating the Fourth: Some History

Filed Under: History Tagged With: Declaration of Independence, Early America, Early American History, Fourth of July, Holidays, Independence Day, Military History, Podcasts

Making Aviation History on Independence Day, 1908

July 4, 2016 by Bruce Dearstyne 8 Comments

Glenn Curtiss in France in 1909History was made on July 4, 1908, the date of the first pre-announced, publicly-witnessed, officially certified flight of an airplane in the United States.

Who made the historic flight? Hint: it was not the Wright brothers! [Read more…] about Making Aviation History on Independence Day, 1908

Filed Under: History, Western NY Tagged With: Aviation History, Finger Lakes, Fourth of July, Glenn Curtiss, Industrial History, Keuka Lake, Steuben County

Primary Sidebar

Help Support The Almanack

Subscribe to New York Almanack

Subscribe! Follow the New York Almanack each day via E-mail, RSS, Twitter or Facebook updates.

Recent Comments

  • Sue on Baron von Steuben’s Oneida County Estate
  • Editorial Staff on ‘I Hope You Are of Our Party’: Fidelity and Benedict Arnold’s Betrayal
  • Christina Kelly on ‘I Hope You Are of Our Party’: Fidelity and Benedict Arnold’s Betrayal
  • Eleanor wall on Debar Pond Lodge: History & Controversy
  • Eleanor wall on Debar Pond Lodge: History & Controversy
  • bob buchanan on Bath Fish Hatchery: Home to Wild Finger Lakes Strain Rainbow Trout
  • Bob Meyer on Debar Pond Lodge: History & Controversy
  • Brian O'Connor on The Canal Era in the Finger Lakes
  • Elye Grossman on Catskills Resort History: The Beginning of the End
  • Elye Grossman on Catskills Resort History: The Beginning of the End

Recent New York Books

Marty Glickman The Life of an American Jewish Sports Legend
Vermont for Vermonters
Flee North Thomas Smallwood Early Underground Railroad
Making Long Island
The Witch of New York
styles brook book lorraine duvall
James Wilson: The Anxious Founder
Flatiron Legacy National Football League History NFL
Henry David Thoreau Thinking Disobediently

Secondary Sidebar