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History takes center stage for America’s 250th Discover the people, places and events commemorating the anniversary BY BILL SANSERVINO
Ewing High sophomore Angel Johnson clears a hurdle during a breakout season that took her to the Meet of Champions.
Ewing’s Angel Johnson building a track legacy BY JUSTIN FEIL
A year of improvement helped Angel Johnson finish just where she had hoped. The Ewing High School sophomore reached the pinnacle of the state track and field scene when she qualified for the Meet of Champions in the girls 100-meter hurdles with a 14.69-second personal record at groups. It capped a season in which Johnson improved in each of her
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events. “I feel like, obviously, I improved a lot, and I’m really happy with my results within such a short time period with racing and meets,” Johnson said. “There weren’t as many meets that I raced in, but I feel really happy with it and how much I improved.” It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Johnson is building something special. She has been See JOHNSON, Page 12
Before there was a country, there was a road through New Jersey, a river crossing in the dark, a capital city waiting in fear, a battlefield outside Princeton and a network of farms, taverns, churches and meetinghouses where ordinary people were pulled into extraordinary events. Some 250 years later, those places are not just names in a history book. They are parks, libraries, museums, downtown streets, ballfields, old houses and river towns that still shape daily life in central New Jersey. America’s semiquincentennial — the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence — will be marked nationally on July 4, 2026. But in this region, the
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anniversary is especially local. Trenton, Princeton, Washington Crossing, Bordentown, Allentown and surrounding communities were not bystanders to the Revolution. They were part of the ground on which the future of the country was marched over, fought for and, eventually, claimed. The events listed below run from July 1 through Dec. 31 and range from fireworks, concerts and public readings of the Declaration of Independence to museum exhibitions, walking tours, library programs, historic-house visits, living history events and family activities. Some are celebrations. Some are invitations to look more closely at complicated history. Many are both. Together, they offer a chance to revisit the Revolution not as something distant, but as something that happened here. The following events have been compiled from area municipalities, libraries, museums, historical organizations and regional America 250 programs. See 250TH, Page 3
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