Good morning, and welcome to a special holiday edition of Kid News!

Today is July 4, 2023.

In the US, it's today at Parades, Parties, and Barbecues to celebrate a historic event

that took place exactly 247 years ago.

On this day in 1776, delegates from the 13 original colonies officially split from the

rule of Great Britain by adopting the Declaration of Independence, a document written mostly

by Thomas Jefferson and signed by the Congressional Congress.

It declared in no uncertain terms that the new residents of America intended to set up

their own form of government.

The most famous line from it, as re-read by President John F. Kennedy on July 4, 1960,

is this one.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are

endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty,

and the pursuit of happiness.

Now we're pretty sure you've heard that famous line and that your teachers and parents

have given you all the wise and wear-fors behind today's festivities.

But there are a few fun facts you may not know, like…

That's the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which told for the first time on July 8, 1776,

to summon citizens to the very first public reading of the Declaration of Independence.

Today, it no longer rings, but every July 4, kids who are descendants of the Declaration

signers symbolically tap it 13 times in honor of the 13 colonies.

Massachusetts was the first to declare this date an official state holiday, way back in

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