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Happy Birthday America!


Mazz

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[MENTION=2850]mydiamond[/MENTION]

I'm actually surprised that you have not learned about this somewhere in a history class...it's big stuff, important information especially if you intend on attending school here. Nice to know about a nation's history .... this is just one answer from a google search for you, but you could read the Declaration of Independence...i believe there is a link at the end!

Most people in the United States celebrate the 4th of July, but do you know

exactly why the holiday is so important to our country? Imagine how you would

feel if someone older than you (maybe an older sister or brother) kept telling

you what to do all of the time and kept taking more and more of your allowance.

That is how the colonists felt in the years leading up to 1776. Great Britain

kept trying to make the colonists follow more rules and pay higher taxes. People

started getting mad and began making plans to be able to make their own rules.

They no longer wanted Great Britain to be able to tell them what to do, so they

decided to tell Great Britain that they were becoming an independent country.

(To be independent means to take care of yourself, making your own rules and

providing for your own needs.)

The Congress met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and they appointed a committee

(a group of people working together to do a specific job) to write a formal

document that would tell Great Britain that the Americans had decided to govern

themselves. The committee asked Thomas Jefferson to write a draft (first try) of

the document, so he worked for days, in absolute secret, until he had written a

document that he thought said everything important that the committee had

discussed. On June 28, 1776, the committee met to read Jefferson's "fair" copy

(he put his best ideas together and wrote them neatly.) They revised (made some

changes) the document and declared their independence on July 2, 1776. They

officially adopted it (made it theirs) on July 4, 1776. That is why we call it

"Independence Day." Congress ordered that all members must sign the Declaration

of Independence and they all began signing the "official" copy on August 2,

1776. In January of the next year, Congress sent signed copies to all of the

states.

The Declaration of Independence is more than just a piece of paper. It is a

symbol of our country's independence and commitment to certain ideas. A symbol

is something that stands for something else. Most people can look at a certain

little "swoosh" and know that it stands for "Nike." Well, the signers of the

Declaration of Independence wanted the citizens of the United States to have a

document that spelled out what was important to our leaders and citizens. They

wanted us to be able to look at the Declaration of Independence and immediately

think of the goals we should always be working for, and about the people who

have fought so hard to make these ideas possible. The people who signed the

Declaration risked being hanged for treason by the leaders in Great Britain.

They had to be very brave to sign something that would be considered a crime! So

every time we look at the Declaration of Independence, we should think about all

of the effort and ideas that went into the document, and about the courage it

took for these people to stand up for what they knew was right -- independence!

I want to read The Declaration of Independence.

Now that you know more about the Declaration of Independence, take this quiz to learn even more amazing facts.

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@mydiamond

I'm actually surprised that you have not learned about this somewhere in a history class...

Problem is there is that much you can learn in a history class not everything can be taught. Its funny, I thought the same when I knew a lot of stuff about WWII that @Sarah didnt know. I assumed everyone knew everything about it, but apparently not. I just did because I did that myself at school however Sarah did more about wild west and medicinal history. Good read though that, cheers :)

EDIT: If anyone wants the short version. The british ruled America for a very long time, however we got to the point we started to really annoy people and they kicked us out (quite rightly LOL).

Edited by Marc
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Problem is there is that much you can learn in a history class not everything can be taught. Its funny, I thought the same when I knew a lot of stuff about WWII that @Sarah didnt know. I assumed everyone knew everything about it, but apparently not. I just did because I did that myself at school however Sarah did more about wild west and medicinal history. Good read though that, cheers :)

EDIT: If anyone wants the short version. The british ruled America for a very long time, however we got to the point we started to really annoy people and they kicked us out (quite rightly LOL).

Maybe in Indonesia the history of the United States is not a big deal in history. Possible. Guess I would expect it would be more important in Great Britain history classes. History and Social Studies are so different though. I will say though that as an American, your short version couldn't be more wrong. Take the time to read the Declaration of Independence. I don't know about other Americans, but if all of you in the UK look at the Independence of the states like that, then I take offense. Granted, since I don't know enough about "special" celebrations in the UK directly related to world history, I would never make a comment that simplified something meaningful to an entire country. But then, we already have determined that we look at a lot of things very differently.:eek:

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Maybe in Indonesia the history of the United States is not a big deal in history. Possible. Guess I would expect it would be more important in Great Britain history classes. History and Social Studies are so different though. I will say though that as an American, your short version couldn't be more wrong. Take the time to read the Declaration of Independence. I don't know about other Americans, but if all of you in the UK look at the Independence of the states like that, then I take offense. Granted, since I don't know enough about "special" celebrations in the UK directly related to world history, I would never make a comment that simplified something meaningful to an entire country. But then, we already have determined that we look at a lot of things very differently.:eek:

The short version was in gest, my appology if it offended. However Im unsure as to how its inaccurate. We did rule over america for a long time, and the start of the problems in the first place was related to taxation that the british were trying to wrongly impose on american people for financial gain (hence the we annoyed you part) and the kicked us out part was a small summary of you having your own rule instead of ours. Wasnt meant to offend anyone in the slightest and not gonna argue over things that any of our ancesters did because it would be as pointless as hating every country because they were all racist at one point LOL.

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[MENTION=1]Marc[/MENTION] Have you heard of 'Cliff Notes' (I suppose they're older than the hills and you youngsters probably have some app or something that gives the main points of any topic - but in MY day, they were used quite a bit to study with)

Your explaination would be the shortest (and funniest) Cliff Note ever written, IMO.

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@Marc Have you heard of 'Cliff Notes' (I suppose they're older than the hills and you youngsters probably have some app or something that gives the main points of any topic - but in MY day, they were used quite a bit to study with)

Your explaination would be the shortest (and funniest) Cliff Note ever written, IMO.

No, not heard of them..... Off to google now LOL

History I actually find quite funny to be honest, as people do often find it something to be offended by or have to defend. Personally its something I find fascinating! I think pretty much every country in the world has its bad and good history.

EDIT: Apparently its all webified these days LOL http://www.cliffsnotes.com/

Edited by Marc
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Love the Cliff notes version of 4th of July. lol. And thank goodness we are all in different countries with different cultures and histories. If we were all the same, how boring would that be?

Anyway, I had a fabulous 4th and none of my fur babies had heart attacks from the fireworks. Hurray!

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Love the Cliff notes version of 4th of July. lol. And thank goodness we are all in different countries with different cultures and histories. If we were all the same, how boring would that be?

Anyway, I had a fabulous 4th and none of my fur babies had heart attacks from the fireworks. Hurray!

Would love to be over there for 4th July one day. You guys never do celebrate small :)

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