BoomerZoo Almanac for July 1-7, 2007: Hooray for the reds, whites and blues!
If you ignore the 20-kiloton atomic bomb the U.S. exploded near Bikini atoll in the Pacific Ocean in 1946, July generally starts off with a grand celebration of human rights and civic pride. And even that bomb could be thought of as a giant firecracker in honor of America’s birthday!
I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy A real live nephew of my Uncle Sam
A Yankee Doodle, do or die
Born on the Fourth of July
I've got a Yankee Doodle sweetheart
She's my Yankee Doodle joy
Yankee Doodle came to London
Just to ride the ponies
I am the Yankee Doodle Boy
But let us not go too quickly past the very first day of July. We don’t even have to give up our theme! Not wanting to come in second, the Canadians jumped right in front of the U.S. by having Canada Day land on July 1. This used to be called Dominion Day, in honor of the establishment of Canada as a self-governing country on July 1, 1867. The name was officially changed to Canada Day on October 27, 1982. Not long before that—in fact on July 1, 1980—“O Canada” was adopted as Canada’s national anthem.
Here are the official lyrics in English:
O Canada!
Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.
With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!
From far and wide,
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
Inuktitut lyrics—in case they want to sing along
O'Kanata nangmini Nunavut piqujatii
Nalattiaqpavut angiglivaliajuti sangijulutillu
nanqipugu
O'Kanata mianiripluti
O'Kanata nunatsia
nangiqpugu mianiripluti
O'Kanata salagijauquna
What, you may ask, did they do before that? Well, keeping in mind that Canada is a Dominion—originally a polite term for “colony”—of the British Commonwealth of Nations, I’m guessing they mainly sang “God Save the Queen” (or King, obviously).
July 1 is the start of the fiscal year for the U.S. government, too. I don’t know if that’s why the bomb was set off in the Bikini atoll, but I’m betting it’s the reason that zip codes were inaugurated on that date in 1963. If we could figure out how to ship a package through cyberspace, it probably wouldn’t be long before those numbers became obsolete. I’m also guessing that the onset of the fiscal year led to the decision to get the Medicare program up and running on July 1, 1966.
Some other good things started up on July 1, too:
1967: The European Community (originally the EEC or European Economic Community) was formally created from a merger between the Common Market, the European Coal and Steel Community, and the European Atomic Energy Commission.
1968: The United States, Britain, the Soviet Union, Canada and 57 other nations signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
1997: Hong Kong reverted to Chinese rule after 156 years as a British colony.
1999: The Scottish Parliament is officially opened by Queen Elizabeth on the day powers are officially transferred from the old Scottish Office in London to the new devolved Scottish Executive in Edinburgh.
(Man, over the past couple hundred years or so, the British Empire’s pride surely took a beating and its civic boundaries definitely shrank in the first week of July!)
2000: Vermont's civil unions law went into effect, granting gay couples most of the rights, benefits and responsibilities of marriage.
2000: The Confederate flag was removed from atop South Carolina's Statehouse. (OK, they just moved it to a Confederate soldiers’ monument on the Statehouse grounds in Columbia, but it was at least a start!)
2002: The International Criminal Court was established to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression.
Now let’s go back to that comment about this being the anniversary of the U.S. Independence Day. Guess which country—besides China and Russia—declined to participate in the ICC and wants its citizens exempted from prosecution by this INTERNATIONAL body (but does want NON-Yankee Doodle dandies prosecuted there—if they can’t be part of our Extraordinary Rendition Program or be enticed to join the Guantanamo Vacation Plan)?
