Science Is Beautiful

Happy Fourth

July 6, 2010

I know it’s little bit late for Fourth of July wishes. I wanted to write some trivia about US Independence Day earlier but got sick so was in bed most of the long weekend.  4th of July is celebrated for adoption of declaration of Independence , but was it really the 4th of July when the historic event happened. Well, infact 4th of July is not the correct date. It was 2nd of July when for the first time resolution for Independence was voted upon and approved. On 4th of July Declaration of Independence was sent out to various states for it’s approval and it was not until 2nd of August when the declaration was finally signed! [Wiki , NPR]

Raphael, author of the book Founding Myths: Stories That Hide Our Patriotic Past, says that even the writers of the declaration expected July 2 to be the day that went down in history.

“Adams wrote a letter to his wife, Abigail, on the 3rd of July, the day after they voted for independence, saying the 2nd of July will always be remembered and will be celebrated with parades and illuminations and patriotic speeches,” Raphael says. “He described the Fourth of July to the tee, but he called it the 2nd.” [NPR]

Last Friday, Library of Congress released some new information about the Declaration of Independence. While going through the document using Hyperspectral imaging technique, scientists found out that in the earlier draft Thomas Jefferson used the word “subjects” for American people which he later struck down and replaced with the word “citizens”. It was an important choice of words and a very significant change, marking the birth of a new nation where people will govern the nation- birth of democracy. Here are few of the images showing the scratched word and some hyperspectral images showing the hidden word, courtesy BoingBoing.com 

Picture credit (first pic): Flickr user Yourdon | Used under Creative Commons License

Related posts:

1. Happy Independence Day: Jai Hind
2. Happy Pi Day
3. Are you a Flexitarian?
4. India Celebrates 61st Republic Day
5. It’s official, you can prepone now.

Filed under: Trivia

Tags: Trivia