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4 July: what is celebrated today
4 July is a date full of meanings which, although very different from each other, share a central idea: freedom understood on multiple scales. Freedom to organise collectively, to live without captivity, to access knowledge without physical barriers and to decide a nation's political course. It is a day that invites us to consider how autonomy — economic, cultural, natural or historical — is built and the responsibilities that accompany it.
International Day of Cooperatives
The first Saturday in July marks the International Day of Cooperatives, an observance proclaimed by the UN and officially celebrated since 1995, although the cooperative movement has more than a century of history. Cooperatives are born from a simple and powerful idea: people who voluntarily join together to democratically manage an economic activity for the common benefit.
Today, millions of people around the world depend on this model, which prioritises equality, sustainability and local roots over purely profit-driven logic. From the countryside to cities, cooperatives show that another economy is possible: one in which growth is measured not only in figures, but also in social cohesion and shared development.
World Day for Dolphins in Captivity
4 July is also a day of advocacy for the animal world. World Day for Dolphins in Captivity denounces the practice of keeping these marine mammals in dolphinariums and water parks for entertainment purposes. Numerous studies have shown that confinement seriously affects their physical and emotional health, altering essential behaviours such as communication, reproduction and orientation.
This day focuses attention on the need to respect dolphins as highly intelligent and social beings whose natural lives take place on the open sea. More and more countries have banned dolphinariums, driven by a growing awareness that admiration for nature should not entail its exploitation.
World Ebook or Electronic Book Day
Culture also has its place on this date with World Ebook or Electronic Book Day. It is celebrated on 4 July in remembrance of a foundational act: in 1971, Michael Hart digitised the United States Declaration of Independence, giving rise to the first electronic book and Project Gutenberg, one of the world's largest free digital libraries.
The ebook represents a profound transformation in the way knowledge is read and disseminated. It provides access to thousands of works from anywhere and democratises reading, especially where the printed book is a luxury. This observance reminds us that technology, used well, can be a powerful ally of culture.
United States Independence Day
For the United States, 4 July is its national holiday par excellence. It commemorates the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, the document that sealed the break of the thirteen colonies with the British Empire and gave rise to a new country. It is a deeply symbolic date, associated with values such as freedom, sovereignty and national identity.
Parades, concerts, family gatherings and fireworks are part of a celebration that transcends history to become a collective ritual. Beyond the spectacle, Independence Day also invites reflection on the changing meaning of freedom and on the founding ideals that are still the subject of debate today.