What nickname was given to Karen Steele, the first baby born on July 4, 1976?

Karen Steele was nicknamed the “Bicentennial Baby” after being born on July 4, 1976.

Steele was born 12 seconds after midnight on the day of the United States Bicentennial. Her birth immediately attracted national attention because it occurred at the exact start of the country’s 200th-anniversary date. Newspapers and television programs treated her as a symbolic representative of the milestone.

She appeared on The Today Show and Good Morning America and received commemorations from President Gerald Ford, New Jersey Governor Brendan Byrne, and other public figures. The nickname does not mean she was the first baby born anywhere during the entire Bicentennial year; it refers specifically to her highly publicized birth just after midnight on July 4.