‘tis of thee . . .

Saturday, July 4, 2026. It's the Satyr's day . . . Another hot, humid Summer day is in the Green Country forecasts. Moderate Southerlies, mid 90's. A heat warning in effect for an index of 107º this afternoon. Rinse and repeat: there is rain in the overnight forecasts. 50/50 chance says the weatherfeather, so, either it will or it won't.

On this day in 1776, the Declaration of Independence was approved by the Continental Congress announcing to the world the separation of the 13 North American British colonies from Great Britain. The Brits didn't take the news all that well, leading to the War of Independence and finally the establishment of The United States of America.

Two major figures of the American Revolution who became U.S. presidents, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, died on this day in 1826—50 years to the day after the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.

Waving the flag and shooting fireworks is not what July 4th means. – Robert Reich, The Real Meaning of July 4th. 7.4.26

Words to live by in 2026. – Heather Cox Richardson, in Letters From An American. 7.4.26

It's our country. – Joyce Vance, in Civil Discourse, 7.4.26

Today in 2012, scientists at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) announced that they had detected an interesting signal that was likely from a Higgs boson.

On this day in 1855 Walt Whitman first published Leaves of Grass, a landmark in the history of American literature.

The author of The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in 1804, Salem, Massachusetts.

And today in 1845 essayist and philosopher Henry David Thoreau moved to his retreat at Walden Pond.