Archival Images Of The Fourth Of July In America

Bells Across The Nation

Photo Credits: Denver Post via Getty Images

Here, on July 4, 1976, movie star John Wayne and Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbildt Whitney ring a bell in conjunction with the Bicentennial bell ringing across the nation on the Fourth of July. The bell was then presented to the Whitney Gallery of Western Art, which grew into the Buffalo Bill Historical Center.

Fourth of July Fact: Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence on a “laptop,” which was a writing desk that could fit on somebody’s lap.