What Americans ought to know about the Fourth of July but REALLY don`t...

Independence Day, or the Fourth of July, celebrates the adoption by the Continental Congress of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. Now on the 237th birthday of the United States, what`s shocking is that most 'Americans' don`t fully know the significance of the Fourth of July, its history, relevance and simply don't know WHY we celebrate the 4th of July or what country we declared independence from. Surprising huh?...

Firstly, the Declaration of Independence wasn’t signed on July 4, 1776...

The Declaration of Independence is the nation's most cherished symbol of liberty and Thomas Jefferson's most enduring monument, since it was he who first wrote a draft of the document between June 11 and June 28, 1776 and was submitted when the Second Continental Congress met. 

    On July 1, 1776, the Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia, and on the following 
    day 12 of the 13 colonies voted in favor of Richard Henry Lee’s motion for independence. 
    The delegates then spent the next two days debating and revising the language of a 
    statement drafted by Thomas Jefferson.

    On July 4, Congress officially adopted the Declaration of Independence, and as a result the 
    date is celebrated as Independence Day. Nearly a month would go by, however, before the 
    actual signing of the document took place. First, New York’s delegates didn’t officially give 
    their support until July 9 because their home assembly hadn’t yet authorized them to vote in 
    favor of independence. Next, it took two weeks for the Declaration to be “engrossed”—
    written on parchment in a clear hand. Most of the delegates signed on August 2, but several
    —Elbridge Gerry, Oliver Wolcott, Lewis Morris, Thomas McKean and Matthew Thornton—
    signed on a later date. (Two others, John Dickinson and Robert R. Livingston, never signed 
    at all.) The signed parchment copy now resides at the National Archives in the Rotunda for 
    the Charters of Freedom, alongside the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

Thomas Jefferson's draft of the Declaration of Independence, included eighty-six changes made later by John Adams (1735-1826), Benjamin Franklin 1706-1790), other members of the committee appointed to draft the document, and by Congress. The "original Rough draught" of the Declaration of Independence, one of the great milestones in American history, shows the evolution of the text from the initial composition draft by Jefferson to the final text adopted by Congress on the morning of July 4, 1776

WATCH: Americans Don't Know WHY We Celebrate the 4th of July or WHAT COUNTRY We Declared Independence From! [Mark Dice]

The Truth: So Far from Reality

None of us ever know the whole truth...

When Benjamin Franklin left Independence Hall just after the 2nd drafting during the Constitutional Convention, a woman approached him on the street and asked to what manner of government was bequeathed to the people. He replied "a republic - if you can keep it."

The responsibility of a country is not in the hands of a privileged few. We are strong and free from tyranny as long each of us remembers his/her duty as a citizen - whether its to report a pot hole or lies in a state of the union address - speak out, ask those questions, demand that truth...democracy is not a free-ride. - Fair Game (2010 film)

...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 provide new Guards for their future security."

- 11th line, 2nd paragraph of the US Declaration of Independence

"If we don`t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don`t believe in it at all."

- Noam Chomsky

'Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty" - Thomas Jefferson

The Truth: So Far from Reality

None of us ever know the whole truth...

When Benjamin Franklin left Independence Hall just after the 2nd drafting during the Constitutional Convention, a woman approached him on the street and asked to what manner of government was bequeathed to the people. He replied "a republic - if you can keep it."

The responsibility of a country is not in the hands of a privileged few. We are strong and free from tyranny as long each of us remembers his/her duty as a citizen - whether its to report a pot hole or lies in a state of the union address - speak out, ask those questions, demand that truth...democracy is not a free-ride. - Fair Game (2010 film)

...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 provide new Guards for their future security."

- 11th line, 2nd paragraph of the US Declaration of Independence

"If we don`t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don`t believe in it at all."

- Noam Chomsky

'Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty" - Thomas Jefferson