Declaration of Independence signer John Adams predicted, with astounding accuracy, how the people of the United States would celebrate their liberty in the generations to come.
But he did get the date the celebration would occur wrong.
By the summer of 1776, anticipation had been growing for months that the 13 colonies would declare their independence.
The “shot heard around the world” had been fired at the village green in Lexington, Massachusetts, on April 19, 1775, marking the beginning of the war with Great Britain.