Fifty-six delegates signed the handwritten Declaration of Independence approved by the Continental Congress on July 4 1776. From that day, the document has been a stirring broadcast for the rights of man to live free.
1 Thomas Jefferson is often thought of as the author of the Declaration. His thoughts did form the foundation of the document, but four other people contributed ideas: Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Robert Livingston and Robert Sherman. They shortened the document and made 86 changes.
2 Robert Livingston, one of the five declaration committee members, contributed to the declaration, but never signed it. He thought it was too soon to declare independence.
3 Since the United States of America did not exist until the Declaration was signed, you could say no Americans signed it. Alternatively, you could say that the first Americans signed it. However, all but eight of the signers were born in the English colonies in America.
4 A printer named John Dunlap was asked to make 200 copies of the Declaration to be distributed throughout the colonies. Only 26 copies of the Dunlap Broadsides are known to survive. In 1989 a previously unknown Broadside was sold for more than $8 million in 2000.
5 On July 9, 1776, a copy of the Declaration of Independence had reached New York City. George Washington, commander of the Continental forces in New York, read the document aloud in front of City Hall. A raucous crowd cheered the inspiring words, and later that day tore down a nearby statue of George III. The statue was subsequently melted and shaped into more than 42,000 musket balls for the new American army, according to History.com
