Declaration of Independence - interesting facts

• The anniversary of the United States of America—Independence Day—is celebrated on July 4, the day the wording of the Declaration was approved by Congress.
• The Declaration of Independence is considered to be the founding document of the United States of America.
• John Hancock was the first and only person to sign the Declaration on July 4, 1776.
• The remaining fifty-four delegates did not sign the Declaration of Independence until August 2, 1776.
• The youngest person to sign the Declaration was 26-year-old Edward Rutledge and the oldest was 70-year-old Benjamin Franklin.
• Thomas Jefferson is the actual author of the Declaration of Independence.
• Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence in under 3 weeks.
• Thomas Jefferson died on July 4, 1826.
• The adoption of the Declaration of Independence was dramatized in the 1969 Tony Award-winning musical play 1776, and the 1972 movie of the same name, as well as in the 2008 television miniseries John Adams.
• The engrossed copy of the Declaration is central to the 2004 Hollywood film National Treasure, in which the main character steals the document because he believes it has secret clues to a treasure hidden by some of the Founding Fathers of the United States.
• "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."