FACTS ABOUT THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

1. It was written by a five man committee: Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, Robert Livingston, and Roger Sherman.  John Adams was supposed to write the draft, but he deferred to the more talented writer, Jefferson.  The committee made 86 edits, but left the Preamble the way Jefferson wrote it.
2. The Declaration was the result of the passage of the Lee Proposal on July 2. Richard Henry Lee had proposed independence on June 7 and after debating, the vote occurred on July 2.  Adams insisted that July 2 should be celebrated as Independence Day, but July 4 was settled on because that is the day the delegates voted to accept the document.
3. The only delegate to sign on July 4 was the president of the Second Continental Congress, John Hancock. Most of the 56 signers signed on August 2. The last to sign was Thomas McKean.  George Washington did not sign because he had left to command the Continental Army.  Two delegates, Robert Livingston and John Dickinson, refused to sign because they opposed independence at that point.  One signer, Richard Stockton, later renounced his signature after captured and mistreated by the British.  Nine signers did not leave to see independence achieved.  One, Button Gwinnett, was killed in a duel.
4. Eight of the signers were born in England. Six signed both the Declaration and the Constitution –  Ben Franklin, George Reed, Roger Sherman, Robert Morris, George Clymer, and James Wilson.  The oldest signer was Franklin, the youngest was Edward Rutledge (26). 
5. Around 200 copies were printed by John Dunlop to be distributed to the colonies. These became known as the “Dunlop broadsides”.  Only 26 survive.  One was found at a flea market in 1989.  It was behind an old picture that was bought for $4 (for the frame).  It was sold for $8 million to famous TV writer Norman Lear.
6. It took 442 days from the start of the Revolutionary War for independence to be declared.
7. After the Declaration was read to Washington’s army in NYC, the crowd went wild and tore down a statue of King George III. The statue was melted down and made into 42,000 musket balls.
8. The official Declaration traveled quite a bit before settling down in Washington, D.C. It was moved when the British raided the capital in the War of 1812 for safekeeping.  In 1876, it made a trip to Philadelphia for the Centennial Celebration.  In WWII, after Pearl Harbor, it was stored at Fort Knox.

https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/10-fascinating-facts-about-the-declaration-of-independence

https://patch.com/wisconsin/brookfield-wi/declaration-independence-10-fun-facts-you-might-not-know

https://www.history.com/news/9-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-declaration-of-independence

https://www.military.com/july-4th/fun-facts-about-the-declaration-of-independence.html

                     Jefferson presents the Declaration of Independence