Know these 25 facts about 250-year-old United States of America?

By Daniel Johnson-Kim

Did you know America turns 250 on July 4 this year? 

OK, that one was easy. 

But did you know these 25 little known facts about the United States of America?

This Fourth of July while you’re celebrating the 250th birthday of a country with bold ideas founded by imperfect people, see if anyone else knows these fun facts about ‘Murica too.

25 little known facts about 250-year-old USA

1. Congress voted for independence on July 2, 1776. The Declaration itself wasn't formally adopted until two days later, according to PBS American Experience

2. Paul Revere never actually shouted "The British are coming" on his midnight ride — colonists still considered themselves British, so a quiet warning made more sense, according to Best Life

3. New York City, not Washington, D.C., was the first capital under the U.S. Constitution. George Washington took the oath of office at Federal Hall on Wall Street in 1789, according to the White House Historical Association.

4. Most Declaration signers didn't sign on July 4. Only John Hancock and Charles Thomson did that day. The rest signed Aug. 2, 1776, according to PBS American Experience.

5. George Washington never lived in the White House. John Adams was the first president to move in, in 1800, according to research published in White House History Quarterly.

6. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died on the same day: July 4, 1826, the Declaration's 50th anniversary, according to History.com.

7. James Monroe also died on July 4, in 1831, five years after Adams and Jefferson, per the Library of Congress.

8. Thomas Jefferson kept two grizzly bear cubs on the White House lawn in 1807, a gift from explorer Zebulon Pike, according to loveexploring.

9. There's no historical evidence Betsy Ross sewed the first American flag; the story only surfaced when her grandson told it publicly in 1870, according to History.com.

10. The first Social Security number was issued Dec. 1, 1936, to a 23-year-old New Jersey man, according to TIME.

More from this section

Study: People are Tracking Spending More Closely — Should You?

Businesses call for domestic AI, manufacturing

Beachgoers warned of venomous fish with ‘excruciating’ sting

11. The national anthem's melody was borrowed from "To Anacreon in Heaven," a British drinking club's theme song, according to History.com.

12. Abraham Lincoln was a champion wrestler as a young man, later inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, according to loveexploring.

13. Harriet Tubman led the Combahee River Raid in 1863, freeing roughly 700 enslaved people and becoming the first woman to lead a major U.S. military operation, according to loveexploring.

14. The U.S. bought Alaska from Russia in 1867 for about 2 cents an acre. And "Seward's Folly," the idea that Americans widely mocked the deal at the time, is largely a myth invented by later historians, according to the National Archives and the Anchorage Daily News.

15. William Howard Taft is the only person to serve as both president and chief justice of the Supreme Court, taking the bench in 1921 after his single presidential term, according to the National Constitution Center.

16. "The Star-Spangled Banner" wasn't officially the national anthem until Congress made it so in 1931, according to History.com.

17. Thanksgiving's date wasn't permanently fixed until 1941. Franklin Roosevelt moved it up a week in 1939 to extend the shopping season, causing two years of confusion before Congress settled on the fourth Thursday of November, according to loveexploring.

18. About 534 Native American code talkers served in World War II, spanning tribes including Navajo, Comanche, Meskwaki, Chippewa, Oneida and Hopi, according to loveexploring.

19. The current 50-star flag was designed by 17-year-old Ohio student Robert Heft for a class project that initially earned him a B-minus, per the National Flag Foundation.

20. St. Louis' Gateway Arch stands 630 feet tall. Taller than the Statue of Liberty (305 feet) and the Washington Monument (555 feet), per Reader's Digest.

21. The 50-star flag, first raised in 1960, has now flown longer than any other version in U.S. history, per the National Flag Foundation.

22. That flag was first officially raised on July 4, 1960, per the National Flag Foundation.

23. When July 4 falls on a Saturday, as it does in 2026, federal law gives most federal employees the preceding Friday off instead, according to FindLaw. If it falls on a Sunday, the following Monday is taken off like what will happen in 2027.

24. The Liberty Bell is traditionally tapped 13 times every Independence Day, once for each original colony, according to Reader's Digest.

25. New York City hosts the country's largest Fourth of July fireworks display, but it was not the first. The first organized Fourth of July celebration with fireworks took place in Philadelphia on July 4, 1777, during a spontaneous citywide celebration — one year after the Declaration was adopted, according to History.com.