Which document’s anniversary was commemorated by America250 in 2026?

America250 in 2026 commemorated the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

The Declaration announced that the Thirteen Colonies regarded themselves as independent states rather than subjects of the British Crown. The Second Continental Congress adopted the document in 1776, and its proclamation on July 4 became the foundation of the annual Independence Day observance.

Thomas Jefferson drafted most of the text, working with the Committee of Five. The document’s famous political principles include equality and the ideas of unalienable rights, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

The anniversary is not the 250th anniversary of the Constitution, which was drafted in 1787 and ratified in 1788. Nor is it the anniversary of the Articles of Confederation, the first constitutional framework of the United States. Those documents belong to later stages of the country’s founding process.