Today is July 4th — every year we celebrate American Independence Day on the Fourth of July. July 4, 1776 represents the Declaration of Independence and the birth of the United States of American as an independent nation.
It’s a nice day for a party, but July 4, 1776 is not the day that the Continental Congress decided to declare independence — they did that on July 2, 1776.
July 4, 1776 isn’t the day we started the American Revolution — that happened back in April of 1775.
July 4, 1776 isn’t the day Thomas Jefferson wrote the first draft of the Declaration of Independence — that was in June of 1776.
July 4th, 1776 isn’t the day the Declaration of Independence was delivered to Great Britain — that didn’t happen until November of 1776.
July 4th isn’t the day the Declaration of Independence was signed — that was August 2, 1776.
So what happened on July 4th, 1776 that makes it worthy of such a grand celebration?
On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress approved the final wording of the Declaration of Independence. They’d been working on it for a couple of days after the draft was submitted on July 2nd and finally, on July 4th, agreed on all the edits and changes. July 4, 1776 became the date that was included on the Declaration of Independence — the fancy handwritten copy, signed in August, is the one displayed at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. Printed copies of the Declaration (with the date July 4, 1776) were circulated throughout the new nation. So it turns out that when people thought of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776 was the date they remembered.
This may not come as a surprise, but it took Congress almost a hundred years, after the Declaration of Independence was written, to declare July 4 to be a national holiday. I guess based on the Washington of today, that would be considered pretty expedient action. But a national holiday it is — happy Independence Day to everyone.
— 30 —