Happy Independence Day!

As we noted on our blog a year ago, today actually marks America's birthday, for it was on July 2, 1776, that the Second Continental Congress voted to become an independent nation.

Actually, only 12 of the original 13 colonies voted for independence. The hold out? New York. The New York delegation didn't think it had been given the power to declare a break from Great Britain and so retreated to New York City to discuss the matter. Meanwhile, on July 4th, the first copies of the Declaration of Independence were printed and that date stuck as the country's birthday.


You can read the entire original blog post here. And tune back in on July 9th, when we'll talk about how New York famously entered the Revolution that day with an act of vandalism.

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Read more about the colonial and Revolutionary New York in

Inside the Apple: A Streetwise History of New York City.

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