As America celebrated its 250th birthday, nearly a million homes experienced power outages. Severe weather and extreme heat significantly impacted the Northeast and Midwest regions. These widespread outages affected a much larger population beyond the reported households. A heatwave gripped much of the country, leading to the cancellation of several Independence Day events. Philadelphia's semiquincentennial parade and Washington D.C.'s Independence Day Parade were postponed due to dangerous temperatures. Amtrak also canceled some train services because of heat-related issues. The power outages persisted throughout the day, with hundreds of thousands still without electricity by late afternoon. Several original colonies, including New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, were among the hardest hit. America's largest power grid operator issued a federal alert to conserve electricity due to generator failures and high demand from air conditioning. This operator, PJM, serves 67 million people and advised utilities to reduce consumption for certain customers. Wholesale electricity prices in Northern Virginia surged dramatically to over $2,000 per megawatt hour, a stark contrast to normal conditions.