There's a lot to love about the Fourth of July – fireworks, picnics and good music. Not to mention thoughts about how America achieved its independence from the British Empire – an event which may not have occurred on July 4.

On July 2, 1776, the assembled members of the Continental Congress took their first vote on declaring independence from Britain. In fact, delegate and future U.S. President John Adams wrote to his wife, “The second day of July 1776 will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival.”

Which would have been the case – had the Continental Congress merely voted and moved on to other business. However, the vote was taken in response to the Declaration of Independence, which had been written by Thomas Jefferson. It took the Congress two days to argue about various parts of the Declaration. Here and there, delegates wanted to add a bit of this or take out a smidgen of that. Passages eliminated included one about the atrocities of the slave trade as well as another enumerating crimes that the British had perpetrated upon the colonists.

On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress finally approved the edited version of Jefferson’s Declaration. There does not appear to have been much made of the actual approval. Adams did not record his thoughts at the time, and Jefferson noted only that he had visited some shops that day.

On July 5, however, the public was allowed to access broadside publications of the Declaration. The following day, a Pennsylvania newspaper printed the entire text of the document on the front page.

The full-out celebration of the Declaration of Independence occurred on July 8th – the day that most Americans learned of the country having made a clean separation from British rule.

Ever since, July 4th has served as the official American holiday of independence. And the celebrations, year in and year out have typically gone just as Adams had hoped they would:

"It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other.”

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