The United States adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, commemorated by America’s 250th anniversary.
The Second Continental Congress approved the final wording in Philadelphia. The declaration announced that the thirteen colonies regarded themselves as independent states rather than colonies subject to Great Britain. Although the document was drafted and debated over several weeks, July 4 became the date printed on the finished parchment and the date celebrated nationally.
The declaration was not the same as the later public signing ceremony. Most delegates signed the engrossed parchment on August 2, 1776, and several signed later. This distinction sometimes causes confusion, because popular celebrations focus on July 4 while historians also discuss the voting, adoption, and signing as separate events.
The date became a national holiday in the United States, commonly called Independence Day. America250 marks 250 years from the 1776 declaration and the political break it represented.