U.S. Army: RA13815980 The column that says today, we’re all
Yankee doodle dandies. Happy Independence Day! During the
American Revolution, the legal separation of the Thirteen
Colonies from Great Britain occurred on July 2, 1776, when the
Second Continental Congress voted to approve a resolution of
independence that had been proposed in June by Richard Henry Lee
of Virginia declaring the United States independent from Great
Britain. After voting for independence, Congress turned its
attention to the Declaration of Independence, a statement
explaining this decision, which had been prepared by a Committee
of Five, with Thomas Jefferson as its principal author. Congress
debated and revised the wording of the Declaration, finally
approving it on July 4. From the outset, Americans celebrated
independence on July 4, the date shown on the much-publicized
Declaration of Independence, rather than on July 2, the date the
resolution of independence was approved in a closed session of
Congress. Historians have long dispu