Today in History 07/04 (Independence Day)

Painting of the 'Committee of Five' of the Second Continental Congress presenting the Declaration of Independence to Congress in July 1776 (© Universal History Archive/Getty Images)(1776) Thirteen colonies make a break from Britain
The 13 American colonies throw off British rule as Philadelphia’s Continental Congress announces a new nation made up of united states. The anniversary of this Declaration of Independence, ratified one year into the Revolutionary War, will continue to be celebrated in the US as Independence Day.
The United States Declaration of Independence is the statement adopted by the Second Continental Congress meeting at the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776. The Declaration announced that the thirteen American colonies then at war with the Kingdom of Great Britain would regard themselves as thirteen independent sovereign states no longer under British rule. With the Declaration, these new states took a collective first step toward forming the United States of America. The declaration was signed by representatives from New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.
Authors: Thomas Jefferson · John Adams · Robert R. Livingston · Roger Sherman · Benjamin Franklin
First published: Jul 1776

United States Declaration of Independence
This is a high-resolution image of the United States Declaration of Independence (article – text). This image is a version of the 1823 William Stone facsimile — Stone may well have used a wet pressing process (that removed ink from the original document onto a contact sheet for the purpose of making the engraving).
wiki/United_States_Declaration_of_Independence
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(1776) Thirteen colonies make a break from Britain.
Also on this day,

1054 | Astronomers spot the brilliant burst of a dying star
Chinese astronomers spot a “guest star” in the sky, so brilliant it can be seen in the daytime. It will remain visible for some two years, be observed in Asian, Arab, and possibly American lands, and later be identified as the SN 1054 supernova that births the Crab Nebula pulsar.
1862 | Boredom while boating hatches a fantastic fable ‘Alice in Wonderland’
Alice Liddell, 10, asks Charles Dodgson to tell her a story while they’re boating near Oxford, England. He weaves a tale of a bored little girl who suddenly finds herself down a rabbit hole. Dodgson will later publish ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ under his pen name, Lewis Carroll.
1976 | A courageous commando raid on Entebbe rescues hijacked hostages
A plane departing Tel Aviv is hijacked and lands in Uganda, where Palestinian terrorists threaten to kill passengers unless demands are met. Under cover of darkness, Israeli commandos rush the airport and rescue most of the hostages in a 90-minute lightning raid, Operation Entebbe.

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