United States Declaration of Independence
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
The United States of America, commonly known as the United States or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federation of 50 states, a federal capital district, and 326 Indian reservations. Outside the union of states, it asserts sovereignty over five major unincorporated island territories and various uninhabited islands. The country has the world's third-largest land area, second-largest exclusive economic zone, and third-largest population, exceeding 334 million.
Cliff Palace, built by Ancestral Puebloans in present-day Montezuma County, Colorado, between c. 1200 and 1275
Declaration of Independence, a portrait by John Trumbull depicting the Committee of Five presenting the draft of the Declaration to the Continental Congress on June 28, 1776, in Philadelphia
Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan sign the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty at the White House in 1987.
The Twin Towers in New York City during the September 11 attacks of 2001