On this Fourth of July you can wish America a happy 232nd birthday and a happy 250th for "Yankee Doodle."

Historians say the words to one of America's best-known songs were written by a British surgeon as a kind of put down to ragtag New England troops who fought alongside the British during the French and Indian War.

The term Yankee Doodle was slang for Connecticut fool.

A few years later, the British Redcoats used it to mock American soldiers during the Revolution. But the Patriots took up the song as their own and used it to taunt the Brits after beating them in battle.