The United States Declaration of Independence received final approval on July 4, 1776, the date commemorated by America250.
The Second Continental Congress adopted the document in Philadelphia during the American Revolutionary War. Congress formally approved the final wording on July 4, although the resolution declaring independence had passed two days earlier, on July 2. The text announced that the thirteen American colonies regarded themselves as independent states rather than British colonies.
The date became central to American national identity because it appears on the document and was later treated as the nation’s birth date. Most delegates probably signed the engrossed parchment on August 2, 1776, not on July 4 itself. That distinction often causes confusion, but it does not change why America250 centers its commemoration on July 4.
The 250th anniversary in 2026 is therefore a semiquincentennial: 250 years after the Declaration’s approval in 1776.