Timeline
June 28, 1776
July 1-4, 1776
Congress debates and revises the Declaration of Independence.July 2, 1776
Congress declares independence as the British fleet and army arrive at New York.
July 4, 1776
June 11, 1776
June 12-27, 1776
A fair copy of the committee draft of the Declaration of Independence is read in Congress.
Jefferson, at the request of the committee, drafts a declaration, of which only a fragment exists. Jefferson's clean, or "fair" copy, the "original Rough draught," is reviewed by the committee. Both documents are in the manuscript collections of the Library of Congress.
Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston appointed to a committee to draft a declaration of independence.
Congress adopts the Declaration of Independence in the morning of a bright, sunny, but cool Philadelphia day. John Dunlap prints the Declaration of Independence. These prints are now called "Dunlap Broadsides." Twenty-four copies are known to exist, two of which are in the Library of Congress. One of these was Washington's personal copy.
July 5, 1776
John Hancock, president of the Continental Congress, dispatches the first of Dunlap's broadsides of the Declaration of Independence to the legislatures of New Jersey and Delaware.
January 18, 1777
July 6, 1776
July 8, 1776
July 9, 1776
July 19, 1776
August 2, 1776
Congress, now sitting in Baltimore, Maryland, orders that signed copies of the Declaration of Independence printed by Mary Katherine Goddard of Baltimore be sent to the states.
Delegates begin to sign engrossed copy of the Declaration of Independence. A large British reinforcement arrives at New York after being repelled at Charleston, S.C.
Congress orders the Declaration of Independence engrossed (officially inscribed) and signed by members.
Washington orders that the Declaration of Independence be read before the American army in New York
The first public reading of the Declaration is in Philadelphia.
Pennsylvania Evening Post of July 6 prints the first newspaper rendition of the Declaration of Independence.