Which two former U.S. presidents died on July 4, 1826, exactly 50 years after independence?

Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died on July 4, 1826, exactly 50 years after the Declaration of Independence was adopted.

The coincidence became one of the most famous anniversaries in early United States history. Jefferson and Adams were both signers of the Declaration and later served as presidents. Jefferson was the document’s principal drafter, while Adams was an influential advocate for independence and a member of the drafting committee.

Jefferson died at Monticello in Virginia, and Adams died at his home in Quincy, Massachusetts. Their deaths occurred on the nation’s 50th Independence Day, known then as the semicentennial. Adams’s reported final words are often associated with Jefferson, although Jefferson had already died earlier that day.

George Washington was also a leading revolutionary figure, but he did not sign the Declaration of Independence. Benjamin Franklin did sign it, but he never became president of the United States. Those distinctions make the Jefferson-Adams pairing unique.