America’s 250th-anniversary time capsule is scheduled to be opened in 2276, the 500th anniversary year of the Declaration of Independence.
The United States Semiquincentennial Commission planned the capsule as a message from the America250 era to the nation’s future. It was scheduled for burial in Philadelphia on July 4, 2026, connecting the project with Independence Hall and the city’s central role in the founding period.
The planned opening date is July 4, 2276. That date is exactly 250 years after the 2026 Semiquincentennial and 500 years after the Declaration of Independence was adopted in 1776.
The number is easy to confuse with 2076, which will mark the 300th anniversary of independence, or 2176, the 400th anniversary. The capsule’s target year is 2276 because it is intended for the nation’s five-hundredth anniversary.