Cookouts, fireworks and protests mark holiday in a divided nation.
NEW YORK — With backyard barbecues and fireworks thundering across night skies, Americans celebrated Independence Day by participating in time-honored traditions that express pride in their country’s 242nd birthday.
But this quintessential American holiday was also marked with a sense of a United States divided for some. In New York, a person climbed the Statue of Liberty shortly after several people were arrested for hanging a banner from the statue’s pedestal calling for abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Yet from New York to California, the festivities were mostly lighthearted, with Macy’s July Fourth fireworks, Nathan’s Famous hot dog eating contest, and traditional parades lining streets across the country.
Some highlights of Wednesday’s festivities:
The world’s oldest commissioned warship — the navy ship Constitution, nicknamed “Old Ironsides” — sailed in Boston Harbor and fired a 21-gun salute.
Crowds lined the streets of Bristol, R.I. in what was billed as the nation’s oldest continuous Fourth of July celebration. The Bristol parade, which began in 1785, typically attracts about 100,000 people to the seaside town.
This was the first Fourth of July that many people were able to call themselves U.S. citizens after participating in naturalization ceremonies across the country. In New Hampshire, more than 100 people from 48 countries became U.S. citizens during a ceremony in the city of Portsmouth.
In Maryland, a 21-yearold man was hospitalized with “catastrophic injuries” to both hands after setting off fireworks at a large outdoor party where several attendees brought illegal fireworks. The man’s injuries weren’t life-threatening.