Independence Day has a far messier history than the grade school version suggests. This deep dive explains how the Second Continental Congress actually voted for independence on July 2, 1776 by approving the Lee Resolution, while July 4 was simply the day Congress approved the final wording of Thomas Jefferson’s heavily edited Declaration, which was printed by John Dunlap and largely signed on August 2.

We look at the deleted passage condemning the slave trade, John Adams’s prediction that July 2 would be celebrated, and how the deaths of Adams and Jefferson on July 4, 1826 sealed the date. Then we trace how celebrations grew from 13-gun salutes and Washington’s double rum ration to towering New England barrel bonfires, the Boston Pops, Macy’s fireworks, and observances in Canada, Denmark, the Philippines, and England.

• Why Congress struck Jefferson’s anti-slavery clause to keep South Carolina and Georgia on board
• Calvin Coolidge’s July 4 birthday and James Monroe’s July 4 death
• The Moravian Psalm of Joy in Salem, North Carolina in 1783
• When July 4 became an unpaid federal holiday in 1870 and a paid one in 1938
• Why Gloucester Cathedral rang its bells to the Star-Spangled Banner