US marks its 250th birthday with fireworks, flyovers and extreme weather

Nearly 750,000 went without power in the east due to extreme weather with another 150,000 in New Jersey, according to tracker Power Outage.Energy company DTE said that severe weather, including winds over 60mph (97km/h) on Friday evening in Michigan, left more than 350,000 homes in the state without power.Other states affected include Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, New York and Wisconsin.Former presidents reflectAll four living former US presidents also shared messages to celebrate the milestone. President Joe Biden, Trump's predecessor, recalled the Independence Declaration's edict that all people are created equal."We chose that path 250 years ago but that's where the work began, not where it ended," he said before warning that the nation's promise of equality for all was still a work in progress.The country's first black president, Barack Obama, reshared excerpts of a recent speech he made at his presidential museum's opening."There's more to do to fulfil the nation's founding ideals," he said. "Every generation must take up the unfinished work of the last and carry it further - protecting what's right, fixing what's wrong, and making our union a little more perfect."