NEW YORK, July 4, 1976 (UPI) - Millions of Americans, joined by President Ford and Vice President Rockefeller, lined the streets and shores of New York Sunday to watch the nation's biggest birthday celebration - an armada of naval ships and sailing vessel The weather was cooperative through most of the day as temperatures topped out in the low 80s. But the sunny skies gave way to scattered thunderstorms in mid-afternoon, forcing Ford and his party below deck on the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal.
Police issued no overall estimate of the throngs which jammed the shoreline of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Staten Island and New Jersey, except that it was in "the millions." Over a million were estimated on Brooklyn's Shore Parkway alone.
The President used a saber to cut a traditional Navy birthday cake and chatted with Norwegian, Danish, Argentine, Spanish, German and other sea cadets taking part in the day's festivities.
In all, there were 53 naval vessels from 22 nations and 227 sailing ships - complemented by thousands of private pleasure craft - in what one captain described as "an absolutely glorious chaos."
Rockefeller and Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger spent most of the day aboard the flagship for the International Naval Review, the USS Wainwright, a 547-foot guided missile cruiser.
The vice president presided over the formal review before joining the President aboard the Forrestal.
In the most serious incidents of the day, one woman died and three other persons were rescued when a boat capsized in the East River and seven other people were treated for shock after a lightning bolt struck nearby ground while they sought the shelter of a tree from a rainstorm.
Meanwhile, hawkers in cutoff jeans, some wearing sailor caps, put a Bicentennial label on everything from T-shirts to binoculars and did a brisk business among the souvenir-hungry spectators.
Huge crowds lined the shores of Manhattan from the Battery to the George Washington Bridge - an 11-mile stretch - to see the tall ships and the display of naval strength they have read about for weeks.
Most were unable to get near the water's edge and grudgingly settled for little more than a distant glimpse of the masts of England's Great Britain II, Italy's Amerigo Vespucci, Germany's Gorch Fock, or the four-masted Soviet bark, the Kruzenshtern, some of the standouts among the 227 sailing ships.
On the water, sailors from dozens of foreign nations saluted America with champagne toasts, ceremonial cannon firings and the blaring of whistles and Scottish bagpipes.
"What an absolutely glorious chaos!" shouted James Myatt, skipper of Great Britain II. "It's absolutely wonderful! Hooray for the lovely, lost colonials!"
