NEW YORK â The Fourth of July holiday, also known as Independence Day, celebrates the Second Continental Congress’ unanimous adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.
A year later, according to the Library of Congress, a spontaneous celebration in Philadelphia marked the anniversary of American independence.
But observations weren’t commonplace until after the War of 1812, when they quickly took off. Congress was late to the party, finally passing a law making Independence Day a federal holiday on June 28, 1870.
Here’s what is open and closed this year on the Fourth of July:
Government offices, post offices, courts and schools are closed.
U.S. stock markets and banks are closed Friday. Most FedEx and UPS pickup and delivery services will also not be available.
Warehouse membership club Costco is closed on July Fourth. Most other major national retailers such as Target and Walmart will be open, with some offering promotional sales to lure customers.
Most grocery stores are also open. Hours may vary by location, so check your local store.
Whole Foods will remain open as usual, while Trader Joe’s will close early at 5 p.m. Sam’s Club will be open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. for Plus members and from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. for Club members.
Most TJ Maxx, HomeGoods and Marshalls locations will be open until 8 p.m. Nordstrom, JCPenney and Macy’s will operate under normal business hours.
Dollar General and Dollar Tree will also be open, though hours may vary.
CVS stores and pharmacies will be open, though some may operate on reduced hours. Walgreens stores will follow regular hours, but most of its pharmacies â except 24-hour and select locations â will be closed. Rite Aid will remain open as usual.
Check each stores website or call your local store for the most accurate hours.
Millions of Americans are expected to hit the road, taking advantage of the Fourth of July falling on a Friday this year.
Spokeswoman Adrienne Woodland said AAA is forecasting that a record 72.2 million Americans will travel domestically between June 28 and July 6, an increase of 1.7 million over last year and 7 million more than in 2019. AAA estimates 61.6 million Americans will drive and 5.8 million travelers will fly.
Woodland recommended that anyone traveling over the holiday should consider taking precautions, including a pre-trip inspection of their vehicle to avoid issues such as dead batteries, flat tires and empty gas tanks.
Contributing: CNN, and Mike Householder from Associated Press
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.