For America’s 250th anniversary, which 1776 document is commemorated by the America250 initiative?

America250 commemorates the Declaration of Independence, the 1776 document announcing the thirteen American colonies’ separation from Great Britain.

The Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration on July 4, 1776, after approving the Lee Resolution for independence. Thomas Jefferson drafted most of its text, while Benjamin Franklin and John Adams helped revise it before Congress adopted the final version.

The document combines a philosophical argument about natural rights with a long list of grievances against King George III. Its best-known principle is that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.

A common mix-up is saying that every delegate signed on July 4. Congress adopted the text on that date, but most delegates signed the engrossed parchment on August 2, 1776. America250 therefore looks back to the founding declaration and the revolutionary process surrounding it.