Independence Day (United States) other public and private events celebrating the history, government, and traditions of the United States. Independence Day is the National Day of the United States. During the American Revolution, the legal separation of the Thirteen Colonies from Great Britain in 1776 actually occurred on July 2, when the Second Continental Congress voted to approve a resolution of independence that had been proposed in June by Richard Henry Lee of Virginia declaring the United States independent from Great Britain's rule. After voting for independence, Congress turned its attention to the Declaration of Independence, a statement explaining this decision, which had been
United States Declaration of Independence declaration also influenced the Russian Empire. The document had a particular impact on the Decembrist revolt and other Russian thinkers. According to historian David Armitage, the Declaration of Independence did prove to be internationally influential, but not as a statement of human rights. Armitage argued that the Declaration was the first in a new genre of declarations of independence that announced the creation of new states. Other French leaders were directly influenced by the text of the Declaration of Independence itself. The "Manifesto of the Province of Flanders" (1790) was the first foreign derivation of the Declaration; others include the