The battle cry from the 13 Americancolonies ‘Taxation withoutrepresentation!’ came aboutfrom people being forced to pay taxesto England’s King George III with norepresentation in Parliament. Asfrustration grew, British troops were sentto suppress signs of a rebellion, butproved futile in stopping the growingcries for war.

The original motion was brought aboutby Richard Henry Lee of Virginia on June7, 1776, and called for the ContinentalCongress to declare the United Statesfree from British rule.

On June 11, 1776, the colonies’ SecondContinental Congress, which met inPhiladelphia, formed a committee withthe express purpose of drafting adocument that would formally sever theirties with Great Britain. The committeeincluded Thomas Jefferson, BenjaminFranklin, John Adams, Roger Shermanand Robert R. Livingston. The documentwas drawn up by Jefferson, who wasconsidered the strongest and mosteloquent writer of the group. It still tooka total of 86 changes (nevertheless, atotal of 86 changes were made to hisdraft!) The final version, the documentthat we now know as the Declaration ofIndependence was officially adopted bythe Continental Congress onJuly 4.

On July 5th, copies of the Declaration ofIndependence were distributed and onJuly 6, The Pennsylvania Evening Postwas the first newspaper to print thedocument.

On July 8, 1776, the Declaration was readpublicly in Philadelphia’s IndependenceSquare to the ringing of bells and bandmusic.

One year later, on July 4, 1777, Philadelphiamarked Independence Day by adjourningCongress and celebrating with bonfires,bells and fireworks.

Other towns eventually began to markthe day with speeches, processions,picnics, contests, games, military displaysand fireworks. Observations becamemore common at the end of the War of1812 with Great Britain.

July 4th was declared a Federal holidayby Congress in 1941. Today, towns allacross the country mark this holidaywith parades, fireworks and picnics.Source: Federal Citizen Information Center

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Other Facts• The Liberty Bell was cast twice before, butdue to defects, it had to be melted down andcast a third time. It is agreed that the finalexpansion of the crack which rendered the

Bell unringable was on Washington's Birthdayin 1846. Now every 4th of July the Liberty

Bell is tapped - not actually rung.

• The Star-Spangled Banner is set to thetune of an English drinking song, To Anacreonin Heaven.The stars on the original American flag werearranged in a circle to ensure that all colonieswere equal.

• The original 13 colonies were Connecticut,Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts,New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, NorthCarolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, SouthCarolina and Virginia.• 2.5 Million people were estimated to beliving in the US in July 1776.

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