Most delegates signed the Declaration of Independence on 2 August 1776, not 4 July.

1776

On 4 July Congress merely approved its wording.

◍ Show on the globe

The event

• US Declaration of Independence1776 · Philadelphia. The Continental Congress adopted the Declaration drafted by Thomas Jefferson, proclaiming the thirteen colonies independent of Britain. Its words on equality and unalienable rights inspired revolutions around the world.

18th century

More amazing facts

• 1774 · 1812 Kutuzov never wore an eye patch.
• 1775 · 1776 In January 1775 Pugachev was executed in Moscow; in April the first shots of the American War of Independence were fired.
• 1775 Paul Revere never shouted 'The British are coming!' The ride was secret, British patrols were about, and colonists still saw themselves as British; witnesses recalled him saying 'The Regulars are coming out.'
• 1776 The Bolshoi Theatre and the United States are the same age: the theatre dates from March 1776, the Declaration of Independence from July of that year.
• 1776 · 1782 Bangkok is a younger capital than the United States is a country: King Rama I moved Siam's capital to the east bank of the Chao Phraya in 1782, six years after the Declaration of Independence.
• 1778 · 1779 Hawaii was first called the Sandwich Islands — after the same earl as the sandwich.

All amazing facts (1058) →