My Hattiesburg

Happy July 4th!

Hope your having a great July 4th at one of the many fireworks displays around town tonight or with your family and friends. Some quick facts about Independence day:

• Fourth of July was declared a federal holiday in 1941 (probably bogged down in Congress for a long time)
• July 1776, there were about 2.5 million people living in the colonies.
• We imported about 164.2 million in fireworks from China last year.
• We imported about 5.4 million dollars in U.S. Flags from the same place (Free trade seems to be doing really well for them)
• We had about 34 million foreign-born residents in the U.S. last year. Of those, about 706,000 were granted citizenship.
• Uncle Sam was first popularized during the War of 1812, when the term appeared on supply containers. Believe it or not, the U. S. Congress didn’t adopt him as a national symbol until 1961. (again, Congress…)
• From this point, 180 days remain until Christmas is here again