America celebrated its 250th birthday on July 4th with heat, hot dogs, and fireworksfireworks/ˈfaɪərwɜːrks/L1烟花colorful lights and explosions in the sky for celebration. A fire broke out on the Brooklyn Bridge during the Macy's fireworks show in New York City. The show started early to avoid thunderstormsthunderstorms/ˈθʌndərstɔːrmz/L1雷暴storms with thunder, lightning, and often heavy rain. No one was hurt, and the damage was not clear. President Donald Trump said he would speak after the storms passed. "I don't care if it's 2:00 o'clock in the morning," he posted. He added that storms bring "good luck."
In Washington, D.C., the main parade was canceledcanceled/ˈkænsəld/L2取消decided that a planned event will not happen because of the heat. However, a smaller parade took place in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. In New York, competitorscompetitors/kəmˈpetɪtərz/L2竞争者，参赛者people who take part in a contest or competition, trying to win ate hot dogs at the Nathan's Famous contestcontest/ˈkɑːntest/L1比赛a competition to see who is the best at something. Joey Chestnut won by eating 66 hot dogs in 10 minutes. Both winners said the heat wave made the contest harder. Also, tall ships sailed past the Statue of Liberty, and a ball dropped at midnight like on New Year's Eve.
The celebrations happened during a time of deep political divisiondivision/dɪˈvɪʒən/L2分歧，分裂a situation in which people have different opinions and are not united in the country. Vice President JD Vance said some people will talk about America's problems instead of its greatness. Former President Bill Clinton said that "there is still nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what's right with America." Despite the challengeschallenges/ˈtʃælɪndʒɪz/L2挑战，困难difficult situations or problems that require effort to overcome, many Americans enjoyed the holiday with family and friends.
