As I listen to the celebratory fireworks outside, which are customary to hear long before Independence Day is commemorated, I’m reminded of an often-overlooked story that’s relevant to the occasion —

After riding all night, Caesar Rodney of Delaware joined his fellow delegates at the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia on this morning in 1776 to cast the decisive vote that approved the Lee Resolution (initially introduced on June 7), which proclaimed the severing of the Thirteenth Colonies’ ties with the British Empire.

Hours later The Pennsylvania Evening Post was the first to report:

“This day the CONTINENTAL CONGRESS declared the UNITED COLONIES FREE and INDEPENDENT STATES”

The Declaration of Independence — the formal document that explained and announced the Lee Resolution — was approved by the Congress two days later on July 4, nearly 15 months after the battles of Lexington and Concord marked the beginning of an armed conflict that would last eight years.