Declaration of Independence Adopted

The Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence in the Pennsylvania State House, formally severing ties with Great Britain. Thomas Jefferson had drafted the document over seventeen days in a rented room on Market Street, drawing on ideas from John Locke, George Mason's Virginia Declaration of Rights, and his own convictions about natural law.

The vote itself came on July 2. The Declaration was approved with revisions on July 4. The public reading on July 8 in the State House yard drew crowds and prompted the first ringing of the State House bell — later renamed the Liberty Bell. The document transformed a colonial rebellion into a statement of universal principles about human rights and self-governance.