This 4th of July, America celebrates its 232nd year of Independence, its break with the monarchy of England, and the start of a republic lead by a democratically elected president. In November, we will continue celebrating this democracy by electing our 44th president. Here are some historical and family photographs of each of the two major candidates (in alphabetical order), John McCain and Barack Obama. ( 23 photos total



This 1936 file photo, provided by the McCain Presidential Campaign, shows Republican presidential hopeful, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in the arms of his grandfather, John Sidney McCain, right, in the Panama Canal Zone. His father John Sidney McCain Jr. is at left. (AP Photo/McCain Presidential Campaign)



John McCain, left, stands in his United States Naval Academy uniform, next to his father, Admiral John S. McCain, Jr., in this undated file photo (ca. 1955). (AP Photo/file)



Navy Pilot John McCain, right, with members of his squadron in an undated photo. (ca. 1965) (AP Photo/file)



This Oct 26 1967, file photo provided by the Library of Congress shows Navy fighter pilot John McCain, center, being captured by Vietnamese civilians in Truc Bach Lake near Hanoi Vietnam. McCain's A-4E Skyhawk had been shot down - he landed in the lake with both of his arms and one leg broken. Once he was ashore, a crowd attacked him, and he was further injured with a rifle butt and bayonet. (Photo/Library of Congress)



John McCain is administered to in a Hanoi, Vietnam, hospital as a prisoner of war in the fall of in this 1967 black-and-white file photo. (AP Photo/file)



In this Sept. 14, 1973, file photo John McCain is greeted by President Richard Nixon, left, in Washington, after McCain spent more than five years in a Vietnamese prisoner of war camp, know as the "Hanoi Hilton", before being released in March 1973. (AP file photo)



1973 Interview with Lt. Commander John S. McCain, Vietnam prisoner of war (Library of Congress photo)



U.S. Navy Commander John S. McCain 3rd, a guest of the South Vietnamese government, visits an orphanage that cares for youngsters fathered by American G.I.s. in Saigon, Vietnam, on Oct. 30, 1974. (AP Photo/Dang Van Phuoc)



Navy Captain John McCain served as Assistant Director, Office of Legislative Affairs, Senate Navy Liaison Office, from July 1977-March 1981. Pictured from left to right at a Senate reception are: Navy Captain John McCain, Senator Bill Cohen, and Senator Barry Goldwater. (ca 1980) (AP file photo)



Arizona State Representative John McCain, holds his daughter Meghan, and his wife Cindy holds the couples new baby, John Sidney McCain the fourth, at Good Samaritan Medical Center in Phoenix on May 3rd, 1986. (AP/David Petkiewicz)



President Ronald Reagan, at his desk in the Oval Office, speaking with republican senator John McCain of Arizona. Washington, D.C., 1987, (Library of Congress)



US Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama is seen swinging a baseball bat as a child in an undated family snapshot released by his presidential campaign, February 4, 2008. (Reuters)



Barack Obama with his Father, Barack Obama Sr. Obama Jr.'s father divorced his mother and left the family only two years after his birth. He visited Obama Jr. only one more time, when Jr. was 10 years old, in Hawaii. (AP Photo/Obama Presidential Campaign, File)



US Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama is seen with his stepfather Lolo Soetoro, his sister Maya Soetoro and his mother Ann Dunham in an undated family snapshot released by his presidential campaign, February 4, 2008. (AP Photo/Obama Presidential Campaign, File)



This 1972 photo provided by Na Opio, the yearbook of Punahou School, shows Barack Obama, in back row, third from left, posing with his 5th grade class at the Punahou Elementary School in Honolulu, Hawaii. (AP file photo)



Barack Obama with his maternal grandparents, Madelyn and Stanley Dunham, photo taken while Obama was attending Columbia University. (AP file photo)



This undated photo provided by the presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama shows the Democratic presidential hopeful while a student of Harvard Law School, where he became the first black president of the Harvard Law Review, of which he is holding a copy. (AP Photo/Obama Presidential Campaign)



Handout photo from the Harvard Law Review, showing Barack Obama (at center of photo) as president of the Harvard Law Review 1990-1991. (AP Photo/Obama Presidential Campaign)



This photo released by Obama for America shows a Barack Obama teaching at the University of Chicago Law School. After Harvard Law School, Obama returned to Chicago, joined a small civil rights firm, ran a voter registration drive, and lectured on constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School. (AP Photo/Obama for America, File)



Illinois State Senator Barack Obama at a community meeting in his district with his state representative (second from right) House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie. (Illinois State Senate)



In this Aug. 26, 2006 file photo Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., right, claps hands with his grandmother, Sarah Hussein Obama, at his father's house in Nyongoma Kogelo village in western Kenya. (AP Photo/Sayyid Azim, File)



In this Aug. 16, 2007, file photo Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama D-Ill., and his daughter Sasha ride bumper cars at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green, File)

More links and information (again in alphabetical order):

John McCain - Official Campaign Site

John McCain - Wikipedia page



Barack Obama - Official Campaign Site

Barack Obama - Wikipedia page