July 4 Fun Stuff and Fascinating Facts

O-Oh Say can you sing?
Try your hand at singing the Star-Spangled Banner. (Do you really know all the lyrics?)

Inspiring History
Learn how the Smithsonian Institution/National Museum of American History is making heroic efforts to preserve the very flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to write The Star Spangled Banner

So she sewed
Without her, there would have been no inspiration.  Betsy Ross sewed the first American flag.  Visit her home (page) and find out about this American heroine and take a virtual tour of her homeplace.

Baltimore's Star Spangled Banner Flag House - Step back in time to 1813 and meet Mary Young Pickersgill who has been asked to create a 30ft X 42ft flag for Fort McHenry.  This would be the actual flag seen by Francis Scott Key and now housed at the Smithsonian. 

Guidelines for flying the American flag.

Fort McHenry
Visit the National Park Service page for the place where it all started - Fort McHenry.  Go to the site index and follow links to the shrine and archaeology for very interesting information.

Capture the bombs bursting in air.
Did you flare out with your fireworks photographs?  Tips from Smithsonian photographers on how to photograph fireworks

Revolutionary Road
This is one tour that won't cost you any money for gas.  This virtual tour takes you on a imaginative timeline for the Revolutionary War.  You are sure to find out much you did not know - I did. Take the trip.

Liberty! The American Revolution: This is an outstanding offering from PBS.  It "allows visitors to compare differences between British and American soldiers, use an interactive map to find out what other events were going on at the same time as the Revolution and discover daily life in the colonies by exploring a virtual barnyard."

Words to Live and Die By
Go to the Library of Congress page about drafting the Declaration of Independence.

Let Freedom Ring
Learn about the Liberty Bell including the history, how it cracked and the connection to the Declaration of Independence. 

Just for Fun

If gaming is your thing, check out these free Yahoo games.

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