The Story of the Fourth of July

We think of July 4, 1776, as the day that represents the birth of the United States of America as an independent nation and the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
However, July 4, 1776, wasn’t the day the Continental Congress declared independence (they did that on July 2, 1776).
It wasn’t the day we started the American Revolution either (that happened in April 1775).
It wasn’t the day Thomas Jefferson wrote the first draft of the Declaration of Independence (that was June 1776), and it wasn’t the date it was signed (that was August 2, 1776).

So what did happen on July 4, 1776?

The Continental Congress approved the final wording of the Declaration of Independence. July 4, 1776, is the date printed on the Dunlap Broadsides, the original printed copies of the Declaration that were circulated throughout the new nation. So when people thought of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776 was the date they remembered.

The birth of a holiday

The first organized celebration, which created the tradition of setting off fireworks on Independence Day, was held in Philadelphia on July 4, 1777. For the first 15 or 20 years after the Declaration was written, people didn’t celebrate it much on any date. It was too new, and too much else was happening in the young nation. After the War of 1812, printed copies of the Declaration began to circulate again, all with the date July 4, 1776, listed at the top. The deaths of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams on July 4, 1826, may have helped to promote the idea of July 4 as an important date to be celebrated.

In 1870, the U.S. Congress made July 4th a federal holiday; in 1941, the provision was expanded to grant a paid holiday to all federal employees.

Over the years, the political importance of the holiday has declined, but Independence Day remains an important national holiday and a symbol of patriotism.