{"slug": "today-in-history-july-4-declaration-of-independence-adopted-by-second-congress", "title": "Today in History: July 4, Declaration of Independence adopted by Second Continental Congress", "summary": "On July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia, marking the birth of the United States as an independent nation. The annual celebration of Independence Day commemorates this historic event.", "body_md": "**Getting your**\n\n[Trinity Audio](//trinityaudio.ai)player ready...Today is Saturday, July 4, the 185th day of 2026. There are 180 days left in the year. This is U.S. Independence Day.\n\n#### Today in history:\n\nOn July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was adopted by delegates to the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia.\n\n#### Also on this date:\n\nIn 1802, the United States Military Academy officially opened at West Point, New York.\n\nIn 1817, construction of the Erie Canal began in Rome, New York.\n\nIn 1826, 50 years to the day after the Declaration of Independence was adopted, former Presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died.\n\nIn 1831, the fifth president of the United States, James Monroe, died in New York City at age 73.\n\nIn 1855, the first edition of Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass” was published.\n\nIn 1863, the Civil War Siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi, ended as a Confederate garrison surrendered to Union forces.\n\nIn 1910, in what was billed as “The Fight of the Century,” Black world heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson defeated white former champ “Gentleman” Jim Jeffries in Reno, Nevada; race riots across the country following the fight killed more than 20 people.\n\nIn 1912, the 48-star American flag, recognizing New Mexico and Arizona statehood, was adopted.\n\nIn 1939, Lou Gehrig of the New York Yankees delivered his famous farewell speech in which he called himself “the luckiest man on the face of the earth.”\n\nIn 1946, the United States and the Philippines signed the Treaty of Manila, recognizing Philippine independence from the U.S.\n\nIn 1960, the current 50-star version of the U.S. flag was adopted.\n\nIn 1976, America celebrated its bicentennial with daylong festivities; President Gerald R. Ford made stops in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, Independence Hall in Philadelphia and New York, where more than 200 ships paraded up the Hudson River in Operation Sail.\n\nIn 1987, Klaus Barbie, the former Gestapo chief known as the “Butcher of Lyon,” was convicted by a French court of crimes against humanity and sentenced to life in prison (he died in September 1991).\n\nIn 1995, the space shuttle Atlantis and the Russian space station Mir parted after spending five days in orbit docked together.\n\nIn 2012, scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva cheered the apparent end of a decades-long quest for a new subatomic particle called the Higgs boson, or “God particle.”\n\nIn 2013, the Statue of Liberty reopened on the Fourth of July, eight months after Superstorm Sandy shuttered the national symbol of freedom, damaging its docks.\n\nIn 2022, a gunman opened fire on an Independence Day parade in Highland Park, Illinois, killing seven people and wounding 48 others in the Chicago suburb. Robert E. Crimo III was subsequently convicted in the mass shooting and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.\n\nIn 2025, flash floods killed more than 100 people in Texas over the U.S. independence holiday weekend, including 27 girls at a summer camp whose cabins were engulfed by the raging Guadalupe River before dawn.\n\n#### Today’s Birthdays:\n\n- Actor Eva Marie Saint is 102.\n- Queen Sonja of Norway is 89.\n- Actor Karolyn Grimes (“It’s a Wonderful Life”) is 86.\n- Broadcast journalist Geraldo Rivera is 83.\n- Funk/jazz trombonist Fred Wesley is 83.\n- Vietnam War veteran and peace activist Ron Kovic is 80.\n- Singer John Waite is 74.\n- International Tennis Hall of Famer Pam Shriver is 64.\n- Christian rock singer Michael Sweet (Stryper) is 62.\n- Actor-playwright-screenwriter Tracy Letts is 61.\n- Actor Becki Newton is 48.\n- TV personality Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino is 44.\n- R&B singer Melanie Fiona is 43.\n- Rapper Post Malone is 31.\n- Malia Obama is 28.\n- Actor Sophie Fergi is 19.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/today-in-history-july-4-declaration-of-independence-adopted-by-second-congress", "canonical_source": "https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/07/04/today-in-history-july-4-declaration-of-independence-adopted-by-second-continental-congress/", "published_at": "2026-07-04 08:00:01+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-04 08:20:57.338636+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-policy"], "entities": ["Second Continental Congress", "Philadelphia", "United States", "Declaration of Independence"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/today-in-history-july-4-declaration-of-independence-adopted-by-second-congress", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/today-in-history-july-4-declaration-of-independence-adopted-by-second-congress.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/today-in-history-july-4-declaration-of-independence-adopted-by-second-congress.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/today-in-history-july-4-declaration-of-independence-adopted-by-second-congress.jsonld"}}