U.S. President Joe Biden commemorated the 245th anniversary of American independence on Sunday with a traditional celebration, hoping to move past the COVID-19 pandemic. This followed his Independence Day holiday spent buying cherry pies in Michigan and playing golf near his family home in Delaware. Biden hosted around a thousand people for burgers and a fireworks show. Such celebrations carry a sense of nostalgia in a country weighed down by pandemic restrictions, burdens that have lightened with the widespread availability of vaccines but have not completely vanished.