Marking 250 Years of the Declaration of Independence

This weekend, the nation will celebrate the 250th anniversary of the adoption of the #Declaration of Independence. The document, however, wasn’t actually signed by the 56 representatives of the Second Continental Congress until Aug. 2, 1776, according to the University of Virginia, whose archives include two copies of the unsigned broadsides published on July 5. Thus, the famous lithograph of the Founding Fathers signing the declaration shows a fictional event — and Independence Day wasn’t celebrated widely until after the (second) U.S. defeat of British forces in the War of 1812. #America250