Fireworks pop on the river
Fireworks explode over downtown Little Rock on Tuesday night as the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra plays at the Riverfront Amphitheater during the 34th annual Pops on the River event. People across the United States of America celebrated the nation’s 241st birthday.
NEW YORK — Americans celebrated their country’s 241st birthday Tuesday with big-time fireworks, smalltown parades and the quirky spectacle of competitive hotdog eating.
Thousands upon thousands of fireworks turned the night sky over New York City into a festival of color during the annual Macy’s fireworks show. Crowds lined up along the East River to watch.
Before the fireworks went off, artists including Jennifer Lopez, Sheryl Crow, and Brad Paisley performed.
Security to get into the area was tight. Police set up checkpoints to examine bags, and onlookers had to leave chairs and blankets behind in favor of standing. Some officers were heavily armed, with bullet-resistant vests and helmets.
For President Donald Trump’s first Independence Day in office, he and first lady Melania Trump hosted a picnic for military families at the White House, followed by a fireworks viewing for military families and staff members. The capital city’s fireworks festivities, aired on PBS, were to include performances by The Beach Boys, The Four Tops, country musicians Kellie Pickler and Trace Adkins, and two characters who fought for independence in a galaxy far, far away — Star Wars droids R2-D2 and C-3PO. This year marks the movie’s 40th anniversary.
Rain threatened the event on the South Lawn but cleared up as Trump stepped out to address the crowd from a balcony. The Republican president pledged his “unwavering support” and told the crowd that he will “always have your back.”
Before the picnic, Trump kicked off his holiday at his golf club in Virginia. The president arrived at the club in Sterling just before 10 a.m. and spent nearly four hours there before returning to the White House. Aides did not answer questions about whether he was golfing.
More than 15,000 new citizens were to be sworn in during more than 65 Independence Day-themed naturalization ceremonies across the country. They were taking place in locales ranging from courthouses to parks to aircraft-carriers-turned-museums.
One ceremony, on the lawn of George Washington’s home Mount Vernon near the nation’s capital, minted a hundred new citizens, among them Mahmoud Esmaeili, who moved to the United States from Iran over five years ago.
“I want to cry. I feel like, wow, my dream has come true and I’m a real American now,” said Esmaeili, 33, a software engineer in the capital, explaining that he feels more at home with the American way of life.
This year’s celebration brought some mixed feelings with Trump’s vow to crack down on illegal immigration and to ban travel for visitors from six predominantly Muslim countries, including Esmaeili’s native Iran.
Still, many of the new citizens at Mount Vernon on Tuesday remained optimistic about their place in the country. Esmaeili pointed to the vocal protests against Trump’s proposed travel ban earlier this year, explaining that he has found most Americans welcoming of outsiders.
“I believe in this system, and that’s why I’m here. I believe that one person — even if it’s the president — can’t do everything he wants. The people are important,” he said.
Record-setter Joey “Jaws” Chestnut held on to his title at the hot-dog eating contest at Nathan’s Famous in New York, breaking the record he set last year. The San Jose, Calif., man downed 72 hot dogs in 10 minutes, besting last year’s mark of 70.
Meanwhile, Miki Sudo notched a fourth-straight win in the women’s division on the Coney Island boardwalk. The Las Vegas woman ate 41 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes.
Residents of the southern Utah ski resort town of Brian Head were planning a fireworks-free celebration, having just returned home Friday after a wildfire forced evacuations in the town two weeks earlier.
“None of us even knew if we were going to be open for the Fourth of July,” Brian Head Resort spokesman Mark Wilder said.
Brian Head is normally filled with vendors selling crafts and food on the holiday, one of the biggest celebrated at the resort and the start of the area’s festival season, Wilder said.
But he said the town suspended its fireworks show this year because the area is still too dry and ripe for fires.
Meanwhile, at California’s Squaw Valley ski resort, skiers were poised to enjoy a rare July Fourth on the slopes. It’s only the fourth time the resort has ever been open in July.
Officials said an Indiana man died in Kentucky in a fireworks accident.
The Gleaner newspapers reported that the Henderson County coroner’s office said Michael Osborne, 25, died Monday night at a hospital. A deputy coroner said Osborne, of Salem, Ind., was bending over a firework to light it when it went off prematurely and hit him in the chest. The firework hit Osborne hard enough to stop his heart, and the preliminary cause of death was blunt force trauma.
At the nation’s oldest continuous Fourth of July celebration, a woman was hit by a parade float. WJARTV reported it happened at the parade in Bristol, R.I. Bystanders said the woman was pinned under the float and onlookers helped lift it off her. The woman was hospitalized.
The Bristol parade was started in 1785. It’s billed as the oldest continuous celebration of independence in the country and attracts about 100,000 people to the seaside town in a typical year.
In Fremont, Ohio, an antique tow truck crashed into two tractors during a parade, injuring multiple people. Police said the tow truck’s driver lost control of the vehicle and crashed into two farm tractors near the beginning of the parade.