Independence Day in Chicago has no followers yet. Be the first one to follow.
Chicago extinguishes its 30-year tradition of Grant Park fireworks, saddening many locals. Officials said they cancelled the firework shows because they are too expensive, costing approximately $110,000 last year.
http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/show-me-chicago/2011/06/city-of-chicago-announces-no-official-2011-fireworkswhats-the-real-story.html
The third movie in the Transformers series begins filming in Chicago on Independence Day. There were no fireworks, but Wacker Drive was explosive!
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/ct-100710-transformers-pictures,0,6815007.photogallery
Rounds of gunfire were mixed with fireworks during the July 4 holiday weekend, leaving 10 dead and more than two dozen injured in more than 60 shootings across the city.
http://www.chicagodefender.com/article-5390-dozens-of-city-shootings-leave-10-dead-over-july-4-weekend.html
National average soars up to $1.64 per gallon, or 50 cents higher than a year ago. Even higher in Chicago, where average prices climbed above $2 per gallon.
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=2-1EAAAAIBAJ&sjid=K7cMAAAAIBAJ&pg=1780,5599028&dq=july+4th+chicago+history&hl=en
Chicago Congress invites Hampton L. Carlson to give one of the "world's best orations" at the World Fair.
http://bit.ly/lGDBw7
The First Taste of Chicago, created by Arnie Morton, lines Michigan Avenue. Thirty-six restaurants and over 250,000 people attend.
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-06-24/entertainment/ct-play-0624-vettel-taste-preview-20100624_1_fireworks-show-taste-viewing
The largest parade in the history of Highland Park
While deaths from fireworks plummet from 466 deaths in 1903 to two in 1952, automobile accidents skyrocket, killing 491 in 1951. Photo taken by Pete Prodoehl.
Though 61 people, most of them children, were accidentally injured by fireworks, this considered the safest Fourth of July in Chicago's history, so far. Photo by Panu Tangchalermkul on Flickr.
Trapped aboard a burning fireworks barge, two men died before the eyes of 1,000 Fourth of July celebrants who stood on the shores of Lake Huron, according to Chicago Tribune archives.
A 12-year campaign of "rationalism" in Fourth of July observances comes to a successful close, according to Chicago Tribune archives. People are not allowed to buy fireworks between July 1 and 5.
The Federation of American Zionists was organized on July 4th, 1897
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=75&letter=F
Abraham Lincoln gives speech during special session in Congress, calling for 500,000 more Union soldiers are needed to fight in the War between the states.
http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Union_Army.aspx
The first institution of higher education opens in Chicago, University of St. Mary of the Lake. Photo by Ken Torbeck.
http://www.usml.edu/history.htm
Then Canal Commissioner Colonel William B. Archer dug the first shovel of dirt in Chicago on this liberating day, leading to today's Illinois-Michigan canal. The canal opened in 1948 and drew trade from St. Louis to Chicago. Today, Archer Avenue, the road that traces the canals route, is named in the Colonel's honor.
http://www.lib.niu.edu/2002/ihy020458.html
The only signers of the Declaration to become presidents, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, died on the same day: July 4, 1826. This also marks the Declaration's 50th anniversary.
http://www.history.com/topics/john-adams/page2
This engraved card was an invitation to the Purdy Family for an 1825 Independence Day celebration at Field Point in Greenwich, Ct.
http://vivian-folkenflik.org/core-course-winter%2011.htm
John Kinzie, the first white settler, builds Fort Dearborn beside the Chicago River in honor of then Secretary of War Henry Dearborn. Now a landmark and part of the Michigan–Wacker historic district, the site marks the first step toward building the second city of the U.S.
Independence Day is a U.S. federal holiday that commemorates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, which declared independence from Great Britain on July 4, 1776.
Update Sources