Chris Lange, FISM News

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Millions of Americans across the country will celebrate America’s independence today with family barbecues, parades, picnics, fireworks displays, and, of course, Nathan’s annual Hot Dog Eating Contest at Coney Island. 

While most people are aware that the 4th of July commemorates America’s Declaration of Independence, the country’s revolutionary Charter of Freedom, some may not realize that July 4 is not actually the date on which the document was signed, nor is it the day the nation’s independence was declared.

July 4, 1776, is actually the date that the Continental Congress approved the final wording of the document establishing America’s founding principles. It was the official act whereby delegates from all 13 American colonies formally declared America’s independence from British rule. 

The Declaration’s original draft was authored by Thomas Jefferson, who would become the young nation’s third president. It underwent several tweaks and revisions by Benjamin Franklin and John Adams, along with Jefferson, before it officially became one of the most significant documents in American history.

An excerpt reads:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

The document would not be signed until August 2, 1776. John Hancock, the president of the Congress, was the first among 56 delegates to sign the document, though he is perhaps better known for his oversized penmanship than the order in which it appeared. 

America’s Declaration of Independence was made official on August 4, 1776, after all delegates of the Continental Congress signed what has become one of the most historic and revered documents of these United States.

John Adams, the nation’s second president after George Washington, captured the spirit and significance of the historic document in a July 3, 1776, letter to his wife, Abigail. The following excerpt was recently featured in the Almanac: 

“Yesterday the greatest Question was decided, which ever was debated in America, and a greater, perhaps, never was or will be decided among Men. A Resolution was passed without one dissenting Colony ‘that these united Colonies, are, and of right ought to be free and independent States, and as such, they have, and of Right ought to have full Power to make War, conclude Peace, establish Commerce, and to do all the other Acts and Things, which other States might rightfully do…’

Adams continued: “The second day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival… It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.”

The July 18, 1777, issue of the Virginia Gazette describes the July 4 celebration in Philadelphia:

“The evening was closed with the ringing of bells, and at night there was a grand exhibition of fireworks, which began and concluded with thirteen rockets on the commons, and the city was beautifully illuminated. Everything was conducted with the greatest order and decorum, and the face of joy and gladness was universal.”

The 4th of July was made a federal holiday over a century later, in 1870.