July 4

Why do we celebrate today? You might be saying, "Because it's our Independence Day, silly!" Well then, smarty, what does that mean? What happened on this day in 1776 that makes it our Independence Day?

If you think that’s the day the Continental Congress declared independence from Britain, sorry.

Nope, that was voted on and passed on July 2, 1776. In fact, shortly after that vote, John Adams predicted in a letter to his wife Abigail that,

“the Second of July, 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival.”

Boy was he wrong. But hey, what did he know, he was only there.

Perhaps you think July 4 was the day the Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence.

Wrong again! That didn't occur until a month later on August 2, 1776. The final clean copy of the actual Declaration of Independence had to be prepared for the signees to sign.

So what did happen on July 4 then?

Well, it was the date the final draft of the Declaration of Independence was accepted. And of course, since it was that day, that's the date written on the Declaration itself.

So now you know, the rest of the story.
Oh, by the way, and if you want to know the answer to last year's trivia, go look.