The first public readings of the United States Declaration of Independence occurred at noon on July 8, 1776. The readings took place simultaneously in Philadelphia, Trenton, New Jersey, and Easton, Pennsylvania.
In Philadelphia, John Nixon read the document to a crowd in the yard of the Pennsylvania State House, the building later known as Independence Hall. Public readings transformed the congressional text into a widely shared announcement for ordinary residents and soldiers.
This event came four days after Congress approved the Declaration. The document had already been printed as broadsides by John Dunlap, and the Pennsylvania Evening Post had published it in a newspaper on July 6.