The day that people shot fireworks en mass is over. Watching the gallantly streaming ramparts and the red glare of rockets is solely due to our nation’s Independence.

Congress gave the final approval to on July 4, 1776 to the Declaration of Independence after 56 men signed their names to the document that gave birth to a new nation. Two hundred forty years later, our country still holds the self-evident truths that all men are created equal, endowed by their Creator with unalienable Rights.

Since then, celebrations have marked the occasion known as Independence Day. Even re-dubbing the occasion the Fourth of July does have a certain magical ring to it. However America does not own the rights to the day as all people in every culture live through July 4 whether they care about America’s Independence or not. It’s about what happened on that day that has meaning.

No special significance was reserved for November 11 until an Armistice was signed to end World War I. Neither did December 7 until a sudden and deliberate attack on the Naval Base at Pearl Harbor ushered a new war into America’s tapestry. September 11 marks another date that is remembered for an act of barbarism on our shores.

Other examples are close at hand, but let’s not belabor the point. History doesn’t care on which day something happens. It’s the event we remember and the anniversaries that follow that carry the memories of that momentous occasion.

More From KXRB