American Revolution: The signing of the United States Declaration of Independence by the Second Continental Congress takes place.
The American Revolution (1765–1789) was a political movement in the Thirteen Colonies of Great Britain. It began as a rebellion and turned into a revolution eventually creating the sovereign United States, which was the outcome of the associated American Revolutionary War (1775-1783). The Second Continental Congress, as the provisional government, established the Continental Army and appointed George Washington as its commander-in-chief in 1775.
The following year, the Congress passed the Lee Resolution on July 2nd and unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4th. Throughout most of the war, the outcome appeared uncertain, but a 1781 victory by Washington and the Continental Army in the Siege of Yorktown led King George III and the Fox–North coalition in government to negotiate the cessation of colonial rule and the acknowledgment of American sovereignty, which was formalized in the Treaty of Paris, signed on September 3, 1783.
The Constitution took effect in 1789 and the Bill of Rights was ratified in 1791.
Watch: History: The American Revolution 1776 Documentary
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Sources and further reading: Wikipedia — American Revolution, Signing of the United States Declaration of Independence, United States Declaration of Independence, Second Continental Congress (CC BY-SA). Images: Wikimedia Commons.
