Musician Louis Armstrong said in his autobiography, “I was born in 1900. Mayann [Armstrong’s mother] told me that the night I was born was the Fourth of July, a big holiday in New Orleans, when almost anything can happen.”

In 1988, Armstrong’s baptismal record was found and established Pops’ birthday as August 4, 1901. The Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism added an official sanction of the August 4...