Check out these 5 Fourth of July Myths you probably didn’t know.\u00a0 Happy Fourth of July!<\/p>\n
1. Independence was declared on the Fourth of July.<\/strong><\/p>\n America\u2019s independence from Great Britain was actually declared by the Continental Congress on July 2, 1776<\/a>. That\u2019s why John Adams thought July 2 was going to be the day future Americans celebrated.<\/p>\n On the night of July 2nd, the Pennsylvania Evening Post published <\/a>the statement: \u201cThis day the Continental Congress declared the United Colonies Free and Independent States.\u201d<\/p>\n So what happened on the Glorious Fourth<\/a>?<\/p>\n The document justifying the act of Congress — you know it as Thomas Jefferson\u2019s Declaration of Independence — was adopted on the Fourth, as is indicated on the document itself, which is, one supposes, the cause for all the confusion. As one scholar has observed, what has happened is that the document announcing the event has overshadowed the event itself<\/a>.<\/p>\n When did Americans first celebrate independence? Congress waited until July 8, when Philadelphia threw a big party, including a parade and the firing of guns. The army under George Washington, then camped near New York City, heard the news July 9 and celebrated then. Georgia got the word Aug. 10. And when did the British in London finally get wind of the declaration? Aug. 30.<\/p>\n John Adams, writing a letter home <\/a>to his beloved wife Abigail on July 3, predicted that from then on:<\/p>\n \u201cthe Second of July, 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n A scholar coming across this document in the 19th century quietly \u201ccorrected\u201d the document, with Adams predicting the festival would take place not on the second but the fourth.<\/p>\n 2. The Declaration of Independence was signed July 4.<\/strong><\/p>\n Hanging in the grand Rotunda of the Capitol of the United States <\/a>is a vast canvas painting by John Trumbull <\/a>depicting the signing of the Declaration.<\/p>\n Both Thomas Jefferson and John Adams wrote, years afterward, that the signing ceremony took place on July 4. When someone challenged Jefferson\u2019s memory in the early 1800\u2019s, Jefferson insisted he was right.<\/p>\n Really? As David McCullough remarks in his biography of John Adams, \u201cNo such scene, with all the delegates present, ever occurred at Philadelphia.\u201d<\/p>\n So when was it signed?<\/p>\n Most delegates signed the document on Aug. 2, when a clean copy was finally produced by Timothy Matlack, assistant to the secretary of Congress; some waited even later to sign, and the names on the docment were made public only in January 1777.<\/p>\n Years later Jefferson offered details of the event \u2014 even \u201cremembering\u201d flies circling above the signers \u2014 but, since he was wrong about the date, he probably was about the flies, too.<\/p>\n The truth about the signing was established in 1884 when historian Mellon Chamberlain, researching the manuscript minutes of the journal of Congress, came upon the entry for Aug. 2 noting a signing ceremony.<\/p>\n As for Benjamin Franklin\u2019s <\/a>statement, \u201cWe must all hang together, or most assuredly we shall hang separately\u201d … well, there\u2019s no proof he ever made it.<\/p>\n