Independence Day commemorates July 4, 1776, when the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence. Fireworks, parades and cookouts have marked the date ever since — this countdown runs to the next one.
Independence was actually voted on July 2; the Declaration's final text was adopted July 4, which became the date on the document and in the national memory. John Adams predicted celebrations with 'pomp and parade… bonfires and illuminations' — he just expected them two days earlier.
Thomas Jefferson and John Adams — the Declaration's author and its fiercest advocate — both died on July 4, 1826, exactly fifty years after its adoption. James Monroe died on July 4 five years later.