Today is the Real Independence Day

Although the break by the United States from the United Kingdom was declared on July 4, 1776, the vote by the delegates to the Second Continental Congress to officially adopt independence occurred two days prior.

Abigail Adams, John Adams
(Benjamin Blyth)

Delegate John Adams (MA), who was the leading proponent of that separation and would be the first vice president of and second president of this country, believed the date of the adoption rather than of the declaration should be when the American Revolution is annually honored, as he wrote to his wife Abigail:

The Second Day of July 1776 will be the most memorable Epocha in the History of America.  I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding Generations as the great anniversary Festival.  It ought to be commemorated as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty.  It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Sh[o]ws, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.