Yes, it is, indeed Independence Day, which - as you might imagine - is pretty uniformly ignored in England.  As a long-term ex-pat (nine years in November), I tend to go with the English flow.  You know, "When in Bolton..."  I don't really celebrate Thanksgiving or, I don't know, President's Day.  One day here and there seems a pittance when everyone in Europe gets seven weeks holiday a year (versus the two I had at my last American job).

I did, however, go to a Thanksgiving dinner several years back hosted by an Irish friend for his American friends.  There were six of us in total, three Americans, an Englishman, a Scotswoman, and the aforesaid Irishman.  In the middle of the turkey course, someone said, "Look at how we're eating."  Every European was using a knife in one hand and a fork in the other the cut their turkey.  All three Americans, without except (and one of us was even a woman), were doing the one-handed fork thing where you press as hard as you can to cut off a piece.

Call it rude manners, call us hillbillies, I say it's cleverly leaving the free hand open to multi-task.  And THAT's why we rule the world:  One-handed food cutting.