A Day of Patriotic Music, Food, Fun

BOSTON —  Tracy Silva normally spends Sunday nights singing karaoke with friends, but this year the mother of two was on the bill for a bigger show -- Boston’s annual Fourth of July Pops concert and fireworks display.

“It’s just a dream,” Silva said a few hours before her performance in front of a crowd of thousands, which she earned by beating out 700 competitors in the Pops’ first talent competition.

Silva sang her favorite song, “Your Daddy’s Son,” from the musical “Ragtime,” backed up by the Pops orchestra and conductor Keith Lockhart. Her performance received a standing ovation.

“The Fourth of July has special meaning in Boston,” Mayor Thomas M. Menino said to the crowd gathered at City Hall for the city’s annual celebration. “Our country and everything we stand for started right here in these streets.”

Sunday was also a day for parades, picnics, fireworks and summer stunts such as the annual hot dog eating contest at New York City’s Coney Island.

For the fourth straight year, a rail-thin competitor outperformed much beefier opponents to take the title in the Nathan’s Famous face-off.

Takeru Kobayashi of Nagano, Japan -- 5-foot-7 and 132 pounds -- wolfed down 53 1/2 wieners in 12 minutes, shattering his own world record. His nearest challenger ate 38.

“I could have done a lot, a lot more,” Kobayashi said through an interpreter.

In Manhattan, organizers billed the fireworks show as the largest pyrotechnic display in the country, with more than 36,000 shells exploding in concert with a tribute to the Statue of Liberty. The fireworks lighted up the lower Manhattan skyline and thundered throughout the city.

In the nation’s capital, drenching rain flooded streets and forced the Independence Day parade to be halted partway through, but fireworks on the National Mall proceeded as planned after dark.