4
Jul
4th of July... hooray!
Best Happy Independence Day wishes to all Americans from the BRAMS Institute staff!
Nelson Mandela knew better than any other human being through history the value of freedom and independence. He believed that “for to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others”. The Georgian people believe that "freedom is never offered to anyone, so one should fight for it like fierce lions".
Independence and freedom cost the United States a long fight, full of many battles, and the loss of many lives. And even at the very end of it, the Americans did not wake up on a hot July day to enjoy their independence. It took them over three months to finalise the process.
On 19 April 1775, during the Battles of Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, the first shots were fired between colonists and British troops, setting the American Revolution. On 2 July 1776, the Second Continental Congress voted for independence from Britain. Two days later, Congress approved the final draft of the Declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson and edited by John Adams and Benjamin Franklin.
On 8 July, the first public reading of the Declaration took place at the Pennsylvania State House (currently Independence Hall) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The document was also made public in Trenton, New Jersey, and Easton, Pennsylvania. Printer John Dunlap made about 200 copies of the Declaration dated 4 July, now known as the “Dunlap Broadsides", and distributed in the 13 colonies.
On 2 August 1776, John Hancock, president of the Congress, was the first of 56 delegates who signed the Declaration of Independence. Finally, on 4 August, all members of the Continental Congress signed the document making the Declaration of Independence official.
