Independence Day (United States)
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Independence Day, known colloquially as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the Declaration of Independence, which was ratified by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, establishing the United States of America.
Fireworks displays, such as these over the Washington Monument in 1986, take place annually across the United States on July 4th, known as Independence Day.
Independence Day issue of The Saturday Evening Post in 1924
An illustration of American children celebrating noisily in a 1902 Puck cartoon
An 1825 invitation to an Independence Day celebration
United States Declaration of Independence
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The Declaration of Independence, formally titled The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, is the founding document of the United States. On July 4, 1776, it was adopted unanimously by the 56 delegates to the Second Continental Congress, who had convened at the Pennsylvania State House, later renamed Independence Hall, in the colonial era capital of Philadelphia. The declaration explains to the world why the Thirteen Colonies regarded themselves as independent sovereign states no longer subject to British colonial rule.
The 1823 facsimile of the engrossed copy of the Declaration of Independence
Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the Declaration, depicted in an 1801 portrait by Rembrandt Peale
The Assembly Room in Independence Hall in Philadelphia, where the Second Continental Congress unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence
Writing the Declaration of Independence, 1776, a 1900 portrait by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris depicting Franklin, Adams, and Jefferson working on the Declaration