During the 1776 Second Continental Congress, John Hancock was president when it adopted the Declaration of Independence.
Hancock, a Massachusetts merchant and Patriot, was elected president of the Continental Congress on May 24, 1775, after Peyton Randolph. The office was mainly a presiding and administrative role, not the executive presidency created by the Constitution in 1787. Hancock remained in the chair as Congress debated independence and approved the Declaration’s text on July 4, 1776.
His position helps explain why his name is associated with the document. Hancock sent a copy of the first printed version, the Dunlap broadside, to George Washington for reading to the Continental Army. That broadside listed Hancock as president and Charles Thomson as secretary; it did not carry the full set of signatures.
A common mix-up is treating adoption and parchment signing as the same moment. Congress adopted the Declaration on July 4, while most delegates signed the engrossed parchment on August 2. Hancock signed that famous copy, too, and his oversized signature later made “John Hancock” an American synonym for a signature.