America’s 250th birthday celebrations didn’t go entirely to plan. President Donald Trump had promised “the greatest show of all” on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., but thousands of spectators who had gathered for the speech and fireworks display were forced to evacuate when fears of a severe thunderstorm arose on Saturday evening.
The disruption capped a weekend already challenged by an extreme heatwave blanketing the U.S. east coast, which had upended several long-planned celebrations across the country. Whether the full program ultimately went ahead after the weather passed was not immediately clear, but the hasty evacuation was an inauspicious moment for an event billed as a historic milestone.
