Op-Ed: What do you really know about the Fourth of July? A quiz

Mariah Kreutter
·3 min read
LOS ANGELES, CALIF. -- MONDAY, JULY 4, 2016: Fireworks at the 4th annual Grand Park + Music Center's Fourth of July Block Party in Los Angeles, Calif., on July 4, 2016. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
Crowds like this one might be off the table for now, but there are still ways to celebrate the Fourth of July. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

The Fourth of July looks a little different than usual this year, with many beaches closed and fireworks shows canceled. (Well, it would be more accurate to say that the official fireworks shows have been canceled.) But while parties and barbecues might be off the table, you can still use this quiz to test your knowledge of all things Independence Day.

1. On what day of 1776 did the 2nd Continental Congress vote to approve a resolution declaring the 13 colonies independent from Great Britain?

a) July 2

b) July 3

c) July 4

d) July 6

2. A rousing speech to rally the troops against aliens in the 1996 blockbuster "Independence Day” has been described as “the most jaw-droppingly pompous soliloquy ever delivered in a mainstream Hollywood movie.” Which actor delivered it?

a) Jeff Goldblum

b) Will Smith

c) Bill Pullman

d) Mary McDonnell

3. Which three U.S. presidents died on the Fourth of July.

a) Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and James Monroe

b) Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and James Madison

c) George Washington, Ulysses S. Grant and Franklin Delano Roosevelt

d) George Washington, John Adams and Andrew Jackson

4. Of the recording artists listed below, who has not released a song titled “Fourth of July”?

a) Sufjan Stevens

b) The White Stripes

c) Mariah Carey

d) Fall Out Boy

5. Of the presidents included in the answer to question 3, which one’s last words are popularly remembered as “This is the Fourth of July,” even though his actual last words were more likely a goodbye to his enslaved domestic workers?

a) Andrew Jackson

b) Thomas Jefferson

c) George Washington

d) James Madison

6. Which of the presidents below is said to have referenced another president in his last words?

a) John Adams: “Jefferson lives.”

b) James Madison: “I regret that I should leave this world without again beholding Monroe.”

c) Andrew Jackson: “I am no Washington.”

d) Thomas Jefferson: “News from Washington?”

7. “Fourth of July” is also the name for a variety of what popular summer produce?

a) Strawberry

b) Cherry

c) Blueberry

d) Tomato

8. Which U.S. president and reality TV personality share a July 4 birthday?

a) Millard Fillmore and Tila Tequila

b) Calvin Coolidge and Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino

c) Herbert Hoover and Jax Taylor

d) Lyndon B. Johnson and NeNe Leakes

9. Which nation celebrates its Republic Day on July 4, commemorating independence from none other than the United States of America?

a) Palau

b) Marshall Islands

c) Philippines

d) Federated States of Micronesia

10. Who delivered an 1852 speech that began, “What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim.”

a) William Lloyd Garrison

b) Frederick Douglass

c) Sojourner Truth

d) Abraham Lincoln

Answers: 1-a, 2-c, 3-a, 4-b, 5-b, 6-a, 7-d, 8-b, 9-c, 10-b