When was the Declaration of Independence adopted?

The Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776 in Philadelphia, although the formal vote in favor of independence had taken place two days earlier on July 2, 1776. The sequence began on June 7, 1776, when Richard Henry Lee of Virginia rose in the Pennsylvania State House and offered a resolution drafted under instruction from the Virginia Convention: that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States. Congress postponed the final vote to give moderate delegates time to consult their colonies, but on June 11, 1776 it appointed a Committee of Five to draft a justifying document if independence were approved.

The committee consisted of Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, John Adams of Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, and Robert R. Livingston of New York. Jefferson did the actual writing in 17 days at his lodgings on Market Street in Philadelphia, drawing on John Locke's Second Treatise of Civil Government from 1689, on his own draft preamble for the Virginia Constitution, and on George Mason's Virginia Declaration of Rights of June 12, 1776. Adams and Franklin made small edits before the committee submitted the draft on June 28, 1776.

Debate resumed on July 1, with John Dickinson of Pennsylvania arguing for delay and John Adams answering with a long speech in favor of immediate independence. On July 2, 1776 the Congress voted twelve colonies in favor with New York abstaining; the New York convention added its assent on July 9. Congress then spent July 3 and July 4 editing Jefferson's text, removing his clause condemning the Atlantic slave trade in deference to Georgia and South Carolina and tightening the language.

On July 4, 1776 Congress adopted the revised Declaration and ordered it printed; John Hancock and Charles Thomson signed an authenticating copy that night, and printer John Dunlap produced about 200 broadsides distributed across the colonies. Most delegates signed an engrossed parchment copy on August 2, 1776 in handwriting copperplated by Timothy Matlack; some signed later. Fifty-six men signed in total.

The colonies celebrated independence with public readings, the ringing of bells, the firing of cannon, and the destruction of royal symbols. John Adams predicted in a letter to Abigail on July 3, 1776 that July 2, the day of the vote, would become the great anniversary, but Americans came to celebrate July 4, the day of adoption. The date is enshrined in federal law and on the seal of the document itself.