On July 4, 1776, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Continental Congress formally adopted the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration of Independence is exactly what it sounds like: an announcement to the world that the United States of America was declaring its independence from King George III and Great Britain - a sort of Brexit of our own. The declaration came more than a year (442 days to be exact) after shots were fired at Lexington, Massachusetts, considered the beginning of the first battle of the American Revolutionary War.
Contrary to what some believe, the Declaration of Independence did not mark the end of the Revolutionary War. It was quite the opposite: it signaled that the United States no longer wished to accept British rule. This was a big deal. The British had ruled the colonies since the early 17th century when the Virginia Company became the Virginia Colony in 1624, the first of the original thirteen British colonies.
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