٠٠:٠٢:٣٦Large crowds joined as Independence Day celebrations were held in Washington DC on Thursday.
Footage shows a festive parade involving floats and costumed participants from several communities and schools. Participants marched down Constitution Avenue and 7th Street passing by all the significant monuments and ending at the Lincoln Memorial.
The reading of the Declaration of Independence took place at Union Station on Massachusetts Avenue.
"We knew we expected a grand parade and it was fantastic, the marching bands are great, the floats are great," a visitor, who attended the parade with his grandchildren, said.
The US became legally independent from British rule when the Second Continental Congress approved a resolution on independence brought forward by Richard Henry Lee of Virginia on July 2. The first draft of the declaration of independence, authored by Thomas Jefferson between June 11 and June 28 in 1776, was approved and signed two days later.
The day has been celebrated as 'Independence Day' since 1791. July 4 became a paid holiday for federal employees in 1938.
Born on the Fourth of July - DC marks 248th anniversary of US independence
Large crowds joined as Independence Day celebrations were held in Washington DC on Thursday.
Footage shows a festive parade involving floats and costumed participants from several communities and schools. Participants marched down Constitution Avenue and 7th Street passing by all the significant monuments and ending at the Lincoln Memorial.
The reading of the Declaration of Independence took place at Union Station on Massachusetts Avenue.
"We knew we expected a grand parade and it was fantastic, the marching bands are great, the floats are great," a visitor, who attended the parade with his grandchildren, said.
The US became legally independent from British rule when the Second Continental Congress approved a resolution on independence brought forward by Richard Henry Lee of Virginia on July 2. The first draft of the declaration of independence, authored by Thomas Jefferson between June 11 and June 28 in 1776, was approved and signed two days later.
The day has been celebrated as 'Independence Day' since 1791. July 4 became a paid holiday for federal employees in 1938.
Large crowds joined as Independence Day celebrations were held in Washington DC on Thursday.
Footage shows a festive parade involving floats and costumed participants from several communities and schools. Participants marched down Constitution Avenue and 7th Street passing by all the significant monuments and ending at the Lincoln Memorial.
The reading of the Declaration of Independence took place at Union Station on Massachusetts Avenue.
"We knew we expected a grand parade and it was fantastic, the marching bands are great, the floats are great," a visitor, who attended the parade with his grandchildren, said.
The US became legally independent from British rule when the Second Continental Congress approved a resolution on independence brought forward by Richard Henry Lee of Virginia on July 2. The first draft of the declaration of independence, authored by Thomas Jefferson between June 11 and June 28 in 1776, was approved and signed two days later.
The day has been celebrated as 'Independence Day' since 1791. July 4 became a paid holiday for federal employees in 1938.