Declaration of Independence Facts

 

The Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4, 1776.

Five people were designated to write the Declaration of Independence: Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Livingston, and Roger Sherman.

"The Shot Heard 'Round the World" was the mark of the beginning of the American Revolution. No one knows who fired the first shot at the Battle of Lexington and Concord.

George Washington did not sign the Declaration of Independence. In fact, the only people that were later elected president that signed the Declaration were John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.

The majority of the delegates that signed the Declaration of Independence didn't sign it until August 2, 1776, almost a month after it was originally introduced.

The last signature on the declaration was added five years later, in 1781.

One of the most coincidental deaths in American history, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died on the same day, only hours apart. That day was July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Even though the date of July 4 is associated with the day of independence, America's independence was really claimed on July 2. Continental Congress passed a resolution that day gaining independence from Britain.

Continental Congress' first real celebration of the signing was on July 8, 1776, where the Libery Bell was rung and the declaration was read aloud in the State House Yard in Philadelphia.

Thomas Jefferson was charged with plagiarism a few years after the writing of the declaration, with such writing styles as St. Thomas Aquinas, John Locke, and Aristotle.

The Declaration of Independence is kept in the National Archives in Washington, D.C.

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