For America250, which document opens with the words “When in the Course of human events”?

For America250, the document beginning “When in the Course of human events” is the Declaration of Independence.

That opening introduces the document’s explanation of why a people might dissolve its political connection with another power. The text then presents grievances against King George III and declares the colonies’ separation from Great Britain.

Thomas Jefferson drafted the document, with assistance and revisions from Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston. Congress edited the draft before adopting it on July 4, 1776.

A common mix-up is confusing the Declaration with the Constitution. The Declaration announced independence and justified revolution; the Constitution, written in 1787, established the federal government. The Articles of Confederation preceded the Constitution as the first national governing framework.