For America's 250th anniversary, the official time capsule is scheduled to be opened in 2276.
The capsule was prepared as a long-term companion to the semiquincentennial celebrations. It is planned for burial in Philadelphia on July 4, 2026, exactly 250 years after the Declaration of Independence was adopted. The planned opening date is July 4, 2276, which will mark the 500th anniversary of the Declaration.
This date is easy to confuse with 2076, the year associated with the planned opening of a Bicentennial time capsule from 1976. The America250 capsule belongs to a later anniversary cycle and is intended to connect the United States' 250th and 500th anniversaries.
Philadelphia is significant because Independence Hall and other sites in the city were central to the founding era. The capsule therefore links a future commemoration to the places where the revolutionary government and Declaration were debated and adopted.