Two hundred and seven years ago today, America was born. Kind
of. More like we announced an intention to be born.   In that
year, there were just 2.5 million people living in what would,
in a few years, become the United States of America, according
to current Censusestimates. Today, the metropolitan areas of
both New York City and Los Angeles have larger populations.
Essentially, America was the size of modern Chicago.  Although
the country has grown in both space and population, not
everybody knows exactly what we're meant to be celebrating on
the Fourth of July.  Asked in what year America claimed
independence, less than a third of Millennials correctly guessed
1776, according to a 2011 Marist Poll survey.  But enough
celebrating ignorance and more celebrating America. In 2012,
Americans spent nearly $1 billion on about 207 million pounds of
display and consumer fireworks. That's about 60 percent more
than we spent in 2000. Interestingly, the sheer number of pounds
of fireworks we bought peaked in 2005.  T