US Independence Day is July 4 because that is when the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Congress had voted for inde…
Lee moved that the colonies are, and ought to be, free and independent states. Congress delayed the vote three weeks.
Congress named five men to draft a declaration. Jefferson, 33, wrote the first draft.
Adams, Franklin and the committee made 47 changes before presenting the draft, says the Library of Congress.
Dickinson argued it was too soon. A test vote fell short of unanimity, so the final vote waited a day.
Rodney rode overnight to break Delaware's tie and South Carolina switched. Adams thought July 2 would be the holiday.
About a quarter of the draft, including Jefferson's paragraph blaming George III for the slave trade.
Congress approved the wording on July 4. That date topped every printed copy, so it became the anniversary.
John Dunlap printed overnight. Early copies named only Hancock and Thomson, to shield delegates from treason charges.
John Nixon read it in the State House yard on July 8. On July 9 New York approved and Washington's troops heard it.
No. Congress ordered the parchment on July 19. Most delegates signed on August 2, Hancock first; others later.
The war went on for years. The Treaty of Paris ended it and Britain recognised the United States.
Jefferson and Adams both died on the Declaration's 50th anniversary, hours apart.
A reading beside the original at the National Archives, a time capsule in Philadelphia for 2276, and late-night fireworks in Washington.
July 2: the vote. July 4: the text adopted. August 2: most signatures. Each is a different event.
Jefferson said it was struck out to please South Carolina and Georgia, and northern delegates tied to the trade.
A vote, a line-by-line edit, a deletion, an adoption and an overnight print run.
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