This year, on 4^th of July, we celebrated USA Independence Day with the team as we have many colleagues here at Nobel who are from the USA. We took the opportunity to wish a great day of joyful celebration to our wonderful American team members!

With the help of our colleague Devin Osborne (Nobel Country Ambassador from USA), the rest of the Nobel team learned some fun and interesting facts about the United States of America.

Did you know that?

• In the USA, the 4th of July is a holiday commemorating the Declaration of Independence from Great Britain on July 4^th, 1776.
• One of the biggest traditions of 4th of July are fireworks, which can be traced back to the first organized celebration of Independence Day on July 4^th, 1777.
• Americans celebrate this day with parades, speeches, community gatherings, barbecuing and watching fireworks shows.
• The 50 white stars on the USA flag represent the 50 United States and the 13 stripes in alternating red/white represent the 13 original British colonies that declared independence from Great Britain. The original flag was officially adopted on June 14^th, 1777, now known as “Flag Day”.
• The USA has no official language at the federal government level!
• With 3,796,742 square miles (9,833,520 km2) of land, there’s a lot to see and do in the USA: from desertscapes in Nevada and Arizona (including The Grand Canyon), the tallest trees in the world in coastal California, the Everglades in Florida (home to American alligators), the tropics of Hawaii, the temperate rainforest of the Pacific Northwest in Washington state, to the arctic climate of Alaska. There’s also Disneyland!
• America has contributed significantly to technology and the advancement of human knowledge, many of the most popular and successful tech products we use today being invented in the USA (Mac computers, iPhones).
• Native Americans contributed extensively to what the United States are today, from the cultivation of common foods like corn, maple syrup, varieties of squash, pumpkins and beans , to teaching European settlers how to farm the land to survive. Canoes and kayaks, the sport lacrosse and tar/asphalt can all be traced back to Native Americans, among many other daily items we use today and words in the English language.
• The native Bald Eagle is prominently used in items relating to the federal government like seals, coinage and postage stamps.