Philadelphia hosted the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence at the Pennsylvania State House, now Independence Hall.
The reading took place on July 8, 1776, after Congress approved the Declaration four days earlier. John Nixon read the document aloud in the State House yard in Philadelphia. The event helped bring the congressional decision to a wider public audience.
Public readings also occurred that day in Trenton, New Jersey, and Easton, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia is the canonical answer for the State House reading because the Second Continental Congress was meeting there and the building became one of the central sites of the American founding.
The State House was later renamed Independence Hall. Philadelphia’s role in the Declaration, the Constitution, and other revolutionary events makes it one of the principal historic cities associated with America250.