ARLINGTON, Texas, July 2 -- The University of Texas at Arlington issued the following news release:
Two hundred fifty years ago this week, 56 delegates to the Continental Congress adopted a document that changed the world-though not quite on the day most Americans think.
As the United States marks its semiquincentennial, Sara Collini, assistant professor in the Department of History and Geography at The University of Texas at Arlington, sat down to separate fact from folklore surrounding July 4, 1776. Why did John Adams believe July 2 would be the date Americans celebrated forever? How did a five-person committee-and one reluctant draftsman-produce the document that declared independence to the world? And how did the earliest Fourth of Ju...