1776 – American Revolution: The signing of the United States Declaration of Independence by the Second Continental Congress takes place. The signing of the United States Declaration of Independence occurred primarily on August 2, 1776, at the Pennsylvania State House, later renamed Independence Hall, in Philadelphia. The 56 delegates to the Second Continental Congress represented the Thirteen Colonies, of which 12 voted to approve the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The New York delegation abstained because they had not yet received authorization from Albany to vote on the issue of independence. The Declaration proclaimed the Thirteen Colonies were now "free and independent States," no longer colonies of the Kingdom of Great Britain and, thus, no longer a part of the British Empire. The signers’ names are grouped by state, with the exception of John Hancock, as President of the Continental Congress; the states are arranged geographically from south to north, with Button Gwinnett from Georgia first, and Matthew Thornton from New Hampshire last. The final draft of the Declaration was approved by the Continental Congress on July 4, although the date of its signing has long been disputed. Most historians have concluded that it was signed on August 2, 1776, nearly a month after its adoption, and not on July 4 as is commonly believed. The Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, with 12 of the 13 colonies voting in favor and New York abstaining. The date that the Declaration was signed has long been the subject of debate. Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams all wrote that it was signed by Congress on the day it was adopted on July 4, 1776. Additional support for the July 4 date is provided by the official public record in the
Journals of the Continental Congress, published in 1777, where the entry for July 4 states that the Declaration was engrossed and signed on that date (the official copy handwritten by Timothy Matlack). In 1796, signer Thomas McKean disputed that the Declaration had been signed on July 4, pointing out that some signers were not present, including several who were not even elected to Congress until after that date. "No person signed it on that day nor for many days after," he wrote. His claim gained support when the
Secret Journals of Congress were published in 1821. The
Secret Journals contained two previously unpublished entries about the Declaration.