DID YOU KNOW That the Fourth of July Wasn't the Day the Declaration of Independence was Signed?

Interestingly enough July 2nd, 1776 is the day that the General Congress declared the United States Independence from as they put it at the time their British brethren.  However although they made the declaration on the 2nd of July, they only approved the final wording of the official Declaration of Independence on July 4th, 1776.  So the date on the final document that was submitted for signature was dated July 4th, 1776.  However it wasn't signed on July 4th. The prepared document was only finally signed almost a month later on August 2nd, 1776.  Nonetheless, decades later when the United States decided to formalize a holiday calendar the date that was selected was the date on the document and not the date of declaration or of signature.

This is the document that includes:

WE hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness — That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security. ....

Words well worth remembering as we go about celebrating and commemorating the country's 238th birthday.  Happy Fourth of July to All!