John Nixon gave the Philadelphia reading of the United States Declaration of Independence on July 8, 1776.
The reading took place at noon in the yard of the Pennsylvania State House, the building now known as Independence Hall. Nixon was a Philadelphia merchant and member of the Committee of the City and County of Philadelphia, and he publicly read the declaration to a crowd gathered outside.
The Philadelphia reading was one of three first formal public readings held on the same day. The others took place in Trenton, New Jersey, and Easton, Pennsylvania. These readings helped turn Congress’s political action into public news for residents of the new states.
John Hancock, the president of Congress, signed the declaration and Thomas Jefferson drafted most of it, but neither man gave the Philadelphia reading. The familiar story of George Washington reading it to troops is separate from the first formal public readings.