However, Americans now recognize July 4 as Independence Day because it was the day those same delegates approved the final wording of Jefferson\u2019s Declaration of Independence and approved its publication. The document was sent to a printer, John Dunlap, who made 200 copies that were distributed around the colonies.\n<\/p>\n
In the days and weeks following July 4, the document would be read aloud on the steps of state houses, in town squares and in military camps<\/a>. Gen. George Washington read it to his troops<\/a> as they prepared for an impending attack by the British. In that way, the date of July 4 became synonymous with independence in the minds of commoners.\n<\/p>\n Most delegates signed the final, official parchment version on Aug. 2, 1776.\n<\/p>\n \u201cThis is of course not a 24-hour news era, so it takes time to get it drawn up and then also to make the proclamation,\u201d Hart said. \u201cAnd then it takes time for the information to circulate. So it\u2019s because it becomes public knowledge on July the Fourth, and it\u2019s proclaimed on that day, that this ends up being Independence Day. It\u2019s not just a few men in a room making a decision. It\u2019s the actual proclamation to the people at large.\u201d\n <\/p>\n Adams got his \u201cPomp and Parade\u201d on the first anniversary of the event<\/a> in Philadelphia which \u201ccelebrated here with a festivity and ceremony becoming the occasion,\u201d he wrote in a letter to his daughter<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n However, it was years before the newly formed nation saw enough peace to exercise its new freedoms. King George III was not ready to release the New World, which provided staple raw materials like tobacco, lumber and iron, served as a captive market for British manufactured goods and generated significant tax revenues. The American Revolution lasted another seven years and cost an estimated 50,000 lives between the two sides.\n<\/p>\n The war officially ended on Sept. 3, 1783, when the United States and Great Britain signed the Treaty of Paris, recognizing America\u2019s sovereign independence. In 1787, Philadelphia hosted the Constitutional Convention, where delegates from 12 of the former colonies \u2014 now states \u2014 drafted the U.S. Constitution, which went into effect on March 4, 1789.\n<\/p>\n It\u2019s in the succeeding years that July Fourth became popularly known as an anniversary.\n<\/p>\n \u201cIt really takes a while to take off,\u201d Hart said. \u201cPeople do things like have fireworks and put candles in their windows to show their support quite early on, but to become the official day of the birth of America, that takes time for everyone to get behind it.\u201d\n<\/p>\n The holiday took on even greater meaning after July 4, 1826, when Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died, on the same day \u2014 the day they helped place into history.\n<\/p>\n \u201cJefferson comes to claim writing the declaration as his greatest achievement, and his supporters start to celebrate July the Fourth with parades and with orations as a really meaningful moment,\u201d Hart said. \u201cAnd then, of course, that baton is taken up across all of the 19th century after his death.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Another 50 years later, the centennial coincided with the World\u2019s Fair, which was also held in Philadelphia, leading to another \u201chuge celebration\u201d and further solidifying it as a day to commemorate, Shankman said.\n<\/p>\n Shankman added that, while Americans debate whether the nation has lived up to the ideals it was founded on, it\u2019s a debate that has raged since the beginning.\n<\/p>\n \u201cPeople have been arguing almost since the start about what exactly the American experiment is and what kind of nation that came into being, at least on paper on July 4, 1776 \u2014 what it was meant to be and what it should be,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" How July 4 became Independence Day However, Americans now recognize July 4 as Independence Day because it was the day those same delegates approved the final wording of Jefferson\u2019s Declaration of Independence and approved its publication. The document was sent to a printer, John Dunlap, who made 200 copies that were distributed around the colonies. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32985,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2026-07-01-e-lee-philadelphia-national-constitution-center-americas-founding-declaration.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11573],"tags":[6013,496,23087,5945,523,23088],"class_list":["post-32984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-philadelphia-breaking-news","tag-celebrated","tag-day","tag-declaration-of-independence","tag-independence","tag-july","tag-philadelphia250"],"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2026-07-01-e-lee-philadelphia-national-constitution-center-americas-founding-declaration.jpeg",0,0,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2026-07-01-e-lee-philadelphia-national-constitution-center-americas-founding-declaration.jpeg",0,0,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2026-07-01-e-lee-philadelphia-national-constitution-center-americas-founding-declaration.jpeg",0,0,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2026-07-01-e-lee-philadelphia-national-constitution-center-americas-founding-declaration.jpeg",150,150,false],"medium":["https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2026-07-01-e-lee-philadelphia-national-constitution-center-americas-founding-declaration.jpeg",300,300,false],"large":["https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2026-07-01-e-lee-philadelphia-national-constitution-center-americas-founding-declaration.jpeg",1024,1024,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2026-07-01-e-lee-philadelphia-national-constitution-center-americas-founding-declaration.jpeg",1536,1536,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2026-07-01-e-lee-philadelphia-national-constitution-center-americas-founding-declaration.jpeg",2048,2048,false],"post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2026-07-01-e-lee-philadelphia-national-constitution-center-americas-founding-declaration.jpeg",370,265,false],"kava-thumb-s":["https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2026-07-01-e-lee-philadelphia-national-constitution-center-americas-founding-declaration.jpeg",150,85,false],"kava-thumb-s-2":["https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2026-07-01-e-lee-philadelphia-national-constitution-center-americas-founding-declaration.jpeg",230,230,false],"kava-thumb-m":["https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2026-07-01-e-lee-philadelphia-national-constitution-center-americas-founding-declaration.jpeg",400,400,false],"kava-thumb-m-vertical":["https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2026-07-01-e-lee-philadelphia-national-constitution-center-americas-founding-declaration.jpeg",370,500,false],"kava-thumb-m-2":["https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2026-07-01-e-lee-philadelphia-national-constitution-center-americas-founding-declaration.jpeg",570,450,false],"kava-thumb-l":["https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2026-07-01-e-lee-philadelphia-national-constitution-center-americas-founding-declaration.jpeg",1170,650,false],"kava-thumb-xl":["https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2026-07-01-e-lee-philadelphia-national-constitution-center-americas-founding-declaration.jpeg",1920,1080,false],"kava-thumb-masonry":["https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2026-07-01-e-lee-philadelphia-national-constitution-center-americas-founding-declaration.jpeg",600,999,false],"kava-thumb-justify":["https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2026-07-01-e-lee-philadelphia-national-constitution-center-americas-founding-declaration.jpeg",640,640,false],"kava-thumb-justify-2":["https:\/\/whyy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2026-07-01-e-lee-philadelphia-national-constitution-center-americas-founding-declaration.jpeg",1280,640,false]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"#RiseCelestialStudios","author_link":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/author\/ralph-c\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"Philadelphia Viral News<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"How July 4 became Independence Day However, Americans now recognize July 4 as Independence Day because it was the day those same delegates approved the final wording of Jefferson\u2019s Declaration of Independence and approved its publication. The document was sent to a printer, John Dunlap, who made 200 copies that were distributed around the colonies.…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32984"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32986,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32984\/revisions\/32986"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}From anniversary to national holiday<\/h2>\n