Who read the Declaration publicly in Philadelphia on July 8, 1776?

John Nixon read the Declaration of Independence publicly in Philadelphia on July 8, 1776.

The reading took place at noon in the yard of the Pennsylvania State House, now Independence Hall, four days after the Continental Congress approved the final text. Nixon was a Philadelphia merchant, militia officer, and member of Pennsylvania’s Committee of Safety. He read from a printed broadside produced by John Dunlap rather than from the later engrossed parchment copy.

Philadelphia was not the only place where the Declaration was first read aloud that day. Formal public readings also occurred at noon in Trenton, New Jersey, and Easton, Pennsylvania. These readings helped turn Congress’s political action into a public announcement that ordinary colonists could hear.

John Hancock, whose large signature appears on the document, was president of Congress, not the Philadelphia reader. Charles Thomson was Congress’s secretary, while Thomas McKean was a Delaware delegate. Their prominent roles explain why they are sometimes confused with Nixon.