10 Things We Bet You Don't Know about Independence Day

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Two of America’s most famous Founding Fathers, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, died on July 4, 1826, within five hours of each other. Jefferson was 82 and Adams was 90. Another Founding Father, James Monroe, died on the same day five years later.

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Apple pie may be the all-American dessert, but the fruit itself -- and the recipe for the pie -- are European. All but one breed of apple found in America comes from somewhere other than America. Early European settlers are credited with bringing apple seeds with them to the "new world" and the pie recipe dates back to the 14th Century.

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The first “American” was Virginia Dare, who was born in 1587 to English parents who settled in a colony known at Roanoke Island, which had been settled by Sir Walter Drake. The colony didn’t last for reasons that are not known to historians. It was located off the Outer Banks of North Carolina in Dare County.

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Fireworks originated in China and were reportedly brought to Italy by Marco Polo in 1292. Colonists brought them to America in the 1600s. They were used to commemorate the first Independence Day in Philadelphia in 1777. For many years, fireworks were only orange and white. Italian scientists figured out how to combine metallic salt and chlorinated powder to add blue, green, yellow and red in the 1830s.

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Americans will consume approximately 155 million hot dogs on the Fourth of July, according to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council, which also says the average American eats 60 hot dogs a year and 7 billion will be consumed by Americans between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

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If you were going to host an Independence Day Party in the 18th or 19th centuries, the “must-have” food would have been turtle soup, not hot dogs or potato salad.

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Congress did not make Independence Day a federal holiday until 1870.

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The words to “The Star-Spangled Banner” come from a poem called "Defence of Fort McHenry," written by Francis Key Scott following the War of 1812. The music is from "The Anacreontic Song," written in the 1700s by John Stafford Smith for the Anacreontic Society, a men's social club in London. It’s Scott’s brother-in-law who is credited with combining the two. The song did not become the national anthem until 1931.  

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The Liberty Bell was not run and did not crack in 1776 to announce the Founding Fathers' vote declaring the country's independence. The crack likely occurred when it was rung for the first time in 1752 in the Pennsylvania State House steeple. However, the tale became mythologized in a short story published in 1847 that claimed it cracked when an elderly bell-ringer rang it for the first time on July 4, 1776.

Sources: http://www.huffingtonpost.com, www.infoplease.com, Los Angeles Times, glo.msn.com, www.hot-dog.org