Here's a little bit of 4th of July trivia. Bill Toland, a reporter from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette dug up these facts: the Declaration of Independence was signed for the first time on Aug. 2, 1776 and signatures were applied months afterwards. Another note: was the vote to dissolve the ties between colonies and the king taken on July 4? According to Toland, the delegates to the Continental Congress endorsed the idea of a Declaration of Independence on July 2. Second president, John Adams, wrote to his wife, Abigail, that "the second day of July 1776, will be the most memorable epocha in the history of America...It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires, and illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other, from this Time forward forever more."
On July 4, the congress approved a final edited version of the document, but that event was an afterthought to the statesmen who cast their courageous votes two days earlier. Yet by the following year, July 4 -- the date that appears on the Declaration itself and not July 2nd -- was the anniversary date that was being celebrated by Philadelphians and the Continental Congress.