For some presidents, it was also a day when they got right into the thick of things.

Teddy Roosevelt drew hundreds of thousands of people to his Fourth of July oratory. John F. Kennedy drew a huge crowd from Independence Hall in Philadelphia. In 2019 Donald Trump deployed tanks Bombers and other war machines for a celebration not usually about military force.

Richard Nixon enraged the anti-war masses without even showing up. As the anti-Nixon demonstrations of 1970 showed, Independence Day in the capital isn’t all about fun and games. There is also a tradition in red, white and boo.

In recent times, however, presidents have tended to hold back and let the people celebrate.

George W. Bush hosted a ceremony to welcome immigrants as new citizens. Barack Obama hosted a barbecue on the South Lawn for the troops. Bill Clinton traveled to the shores of the Chesapeake Bay to watch a young bald eagle named Freedom be released into the wild.

In 2021, Joe Biden gathered more than 1,000 people on the South Lawn of the White House to eat burgers and watch fireworks. This event was notable because such gatherings were unthinkable in the first year of the coronavirus pandemic. Many wished Biden hadn’t thought of that even then—the spread of the Omicron COVID-19 variant was yet to come.

Still, the burgers were an improvement from July 4th, 1850, when Zachary Taylor was seemingly wolfing down tainted cherries and milk (and died five days later ).

A look at what Some presidents have done it Fourth of July:

1777: On the first anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, while the Revolutionary War was underway, a future president, John Adams, wrote to his wife, Abigail, describing a day and night of impromptu celebrations in Philadelphia. After hours of parading troops, fireworks, bonfires and music, he tells her that he was walking alone in the dark.

“I walked the streets to get some fresh air and exercise,” he writes, “and was surprised to find the whole town lighting their candles in the windows. I walked most of the evening, and I think it was the most glorious lighting I have ever seen; a few sullen houses were dark; but the lights were very universal. Given the lateness of the design and the suddenness of the execution, I was amazed at the universal joy and zeal that was discovered, and at the brilliance and splendor of each part of this joyous exhibition.”

1791: Two years after his inauguration as first president, George Washington celebrates in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, “with an address, good food, and a walk through town,” says the National Park Service. Philadelphia was the interim capital while the city of Washington was being prepared. Lancaster hosted the Continental Congress for a brief, impromptu session during the Revolution.

1798: President Adams reviews a military parade in Philadelphia as the young nation flexes its muscles.

1801: Thomas Jefferson leads the first public reception at the White House on July 4th.

1822: James Monroe stays on his farm in Virginia.

1826: Adams, the second President, and Jefferson, the third, both die on this July 4th.

1831: James Monroe, the fifth President, dies on this July 4th.

1848: James Polk witnesses the laying of the cornerstone of the Washington Monument in the presence of Abraham Lincoln, then a Congressman from Illinois. A military parade follows.

1850: Taylor attends celebrations in the grounds of the Washington Monument and develops stomach cramps after eating cherries and drinking ice milk and water. He dies on July 9th. The theory that someone poisoned him with arsenic was disproved in 1991 when his body was exhumed and tested.

1861: Lincoln sends a message to Congress defending his invocation of war powers, calling for more troops to fight the South, and attacking Virginia for allowing “this vast insurrection to nest within its borders.” He vows to “go forward without fear”.

1868: After the war, Andrew Johnson executes a proclamation granting amnesty to those who fought for the Confederacy.

1902: Teddy Roosevelt addresses 200,000 people in Pittsburgh.

I like big things; great parades, great forests and mountains, great fields of wheat, railroads – and also herds of cattle; big factories, steamships and everything else. But we must always keep in mind that no one has ever benefited from it

1914: “Our country, right or wrong,” declares Woodrow Wilson at Independence Hall in Philadelphia.

1928: Calvin Coolidge (born July 4, 1872) went trout fishing in Wisconsin.

1930: Herbert Hoover vacations on the Rapidan River in Virginia.

1934: Franklin Roosevelt is in or near the Bahamas after departing Annapolis, Maryland via the Panama Canal on a month-long voyage and visit to Hawaii. On July 4, the USS Houston log notes that the “fishing party” abandoned ship for part of the day.

1946: With World War II over the past year, Harry Truman relaxes in the Catoctin Mountains of Maryland at Roosevelt’s Shangri-La retreat, later renamed Camp David.

1951: With the US at war in Korea, Truman addresses a large crowd in the grounds of the Washington Monument to mark the 175th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

1953 and 1957: Dwight Eisenhower = Golf.

1962: In the Cold War era, Kennedy tells a large crowd in Philadelphia that societies around the world are struggling to break free from oppression and that his nation “has no intention of relinquishing its leadership in this world independence movement.” .

1968: Lyndon Johnson, who favored his Texas ranch on this holiday, speaks in San Antonio about the lack of independence for the poor, minorities, the sick, people “who have to breathe polluted air” and those in fear of crime live: “despite our rhetoric of July 4th.”

1970: In California, Nixon recorded a message played to crowds on the National Mall at a supporter-sponsored “Honor America Day” celebration, strongly opposed by anti-war and civil rights activists. Tear gas overwhelms protesters and revelers alike, Viet Cong flags mingle with the Stars and Stripes and protesters – some nude – plunge into the reflection Swimming pool.

1976: As the United States turns 200, Gerald Ford speaks at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, then at Independence Hall and surveys the armada of tall ships in New York Harbor.

1987: Ronald Reagan makes a clear political statement at Camp David in his holiday radio address, promoting an economic Bill of Rights and Robert Bork for the Supreme Court. On a Saturday, it served as his weekly radio address, which he and other modern presidents used for their agendas.

2008: Bush, like several presidents before him, hosts a naturalization ceremony. More than 70 people from 30 countries are accepted as new citizens.

2010: Obama brings 1,200 military members to the South Lawn for a barbecue. As the father of a Fourth of July baby Malia, he always joked that she always thought the big fireworks were for her.

2012: Obama combines two traditions of July 4th – celebration of the troops and celebration of new citizens – by recognizing the naturalization of US service members who came to the country as immigrants.

2017: Trump goes to his golf club and then hosts a White House picnic for military families.

2021: Biden tell it to a crowd on the South Lawn: “We are closer than ever to declaring our independence from a deadly virus.” It was the largest event of his presidency since he took office. The number of COVID-19 cases and deaths was at or near record lows at the time, but would pick up again as the Omicron variant spread.

2023: Biden returns from a Delaware holiday weekend to address members of the National Education Association ahead of the South Lawn celebration scheduled for the evening with military personnel, veterans and their families.

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Associated Press writer Darlene Superville contributed to this report.