As the United States gets ready to celebrate a milestone anniversary this summer, here’s how past presidents marked the nation’s biggest birthdays.
For the 1976 Bicentennial, then-President Gerald Ford attended a tall ships celebration and a massive July 4th fireworks display in New York, and welcomed Great Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II.
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“Ford, of course, was locked in a tight race with former California Governor Ronald Reagan for the Republican (presidential) nomination, so he effectively used the bicentennial trappings to drape himself in patriotism,” presidential historian Craig Shirley said.
It was a big bash. But just 50 years earlier, at the nation’s 150th anniversary, President Calvin Coolidge wanted fewer parades and less pomp.
“It really wasn’t his style,” Shirley said. “A coin was cast in Coolidge’s image on it, but it didn’t have the expansive nature that the 200 or 250th anniversary had. By comparison … it was pretty tame.”
Shirley, who has written several books about the presidents, said today’s Americans appreciate a more festive celebration.
“We like it as a big event because it’s grown on us,” he said.
The United States’ 100th Independence Day, in 1876, arrived as the nation was recovering from the Civil War. But Ulysses S. Grant’s presidency managed to mark the occasion with a day of Thanksgiving.
“There was a Civil War cast to it … with a lot of Civil War veterans marching and parades in Washington, and of course, fireworks and things like that, and barbecues, and banquets,” he said. “The White House was opened up to people to come and greet the president, and it was significant, but it didn’t again have the momentous events that we associate today with the 250th anniversary.”
Presidential parties were not always about celebrating the nation’s independence. Shirley said one of the most memorable White House events happened during the Andrew Jackson administration.
Jackson was gifted with a 1,400-pound cheddar cheese wheel by New York farmers. In 1837, he opened the people’s house on George Washington’s birthday and served it to everyone.
“Of course, it spilled all over the floor, and the White House actually reeked for months thereafter,” Shirley said.
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