On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress, comprising delegates from the thirteen American colonies that had been at war with the Kingdom of Great Britain since the Battles of Lexington and Concord the previous April, unanimously approved a resolution declaring the United States independent from British rule. This document came to be known as the Declaration of Independence. Here's how the events transpired:
June 7, 1776: Richard Henry Lee of Virginia introduced a resolution to the Continental Congress calling for the declaration of independence from Great Britain. The resolution was debated for چند دن before being ultimately tabled.
June 11, 1776: A committee of five, including Thomas Jefferson, was appointed to draft a 'declaration of independence.'
June 28, 1776: Thomas Jefferson presented his draft of the Declaration of Independence to the Continental Congress.
July 1, 1776: The Continental Congress began debating the text of the Declaration of Independence. Several revisions and amendments were made to Jefferson's initial draft.
July 2, 1776: The vote on the final draft of the Declaration of Independence. It passed unanimously, with all thirteen colonies supporting the resolution.
July 4, 1776: The engrossed copy of Declaration of Independence was signed by most (although not all) members of the Continental Congress present on that day. However, the Declaration of Independence wasn't formally "signed" in a single, centralized event as commonly portrayed in popular representations. Rather, individual delegations attached their signatures on different dates throughout July and, possibly, even in August of 1776.
The original copies of the printed Declaration of Independence and the engrossed version with the handwritten signatures were distributed to the various colonies. The document is still revered as a milestone in history and holds symbolic value even to this day.