John Adams died on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of U.S. independence, alongside Thomas Jefferson.
Adams and Jefferson were major figures in the founding of the United States. Both served on the committee that helped draft the Declaration of Independence, and Adams later became the second president while Jefferson became the third. Their political relationship became strained, but they eventually resumed a remarkable correspondence.
Their deaths on the same Independence Day became one of the most memorable coincidences in early American history. Adams died at his home in Quincy, Massachusetts, while Jefferson died at Monticello in Virginia. The date was exactly fifty years after the Declaration’s adoption.
The coincidence is especially relevant to America250 because the 2026 anniversary follows the same sequence of milestone commemorations: the centennial in 1876, the sesquicentennial in 1926, the bicentennial in 1976 and the semiquincentennial in 2026. Adams’ reported final words, “Thomas Jefferson survives,” were mistaken because Jefferson had already died earlier that day.