Most Americans have joined President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance in celebrating a big milestone for our country this weekend.
The United States is officially 250 years old as of Saturday, having been founded on July 4, 1776. Now, a story out of Great Britain is adding a new element to our celebration.
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Nearly two and a half centuries after an American vessel carrying news of the Declaration of Independence was intercepted by a British warship, the historic copy of the nation’s founding document it was transporting is once again drawing attention.
The rare copy of the Declaration was discovered last May by volunteer researcher Michael Scurr while he was examining records at Britain’s National Archives.
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“I called over to my boss and said, ‘I think you need to come and have a look at this,’” he said, according to a report from the BBC.
Scurr had been cataloging the papers of Capt. Thomas Fitzherbert, an 18th-century Royal Navy officer whose ship, HMS Raisonable, captured the American vessel Dalton off the coast of Portugal.
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Among the documents was one of only 11 known surviving copies of an Exeter, New Hampshire, printing of the Declaration of Independence.
The broadside was produced to help spread word overseas that the 13 colonies had declared themselves the United States of America.
Historians believe the newly rediscovered copy was printed in Exeter between July 16 and July 19, 1776, the New York Post reported.
“I thought, oh, right, okay, this is definitely a Declaration of Independence,” Scurr said. “How exciting is this?”
Amanda Bevan, the head of the project documenting the Royal Navy captains’ papers from the American Revolution, stated that Captain Dalton would have read the Declaration to his crew along with his orders.
“They know why they’re fighting, but this puts it in a language which makes it greater than them,’’ Bevan said.
“They’re not fighting because they’re aggrieved in particular. They’re fighting for an ideal. And I think that just to find the declaration in a theater of war where people are committing themselves to fight for their country on the wide ocean is really something special,” she said.
Rare copy of US Declaration of Independence found by volunteer in UK archives https://t.co/n11ikiNKI8
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) July 2, 2026
The inscription on the 18-gun Dalton illustrates how Americans wanted the world to recognize their achievements, said Matthew Skic, director of collections and exhibitions at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia.
“It’s not just a document, it’s an artifact,” he said.
“It’s a tangible connection to the past, because holding that piece of paper in the archivist’s hand today is a way to transport us back to 1776. The baton being passed, in a way,” he added.
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Skic said that even after 250 years, there is still a lot more to learn about the American Revolution.
“Even though 250 years has gone by, we still do not know everything about the American Revolution, and there are still finds left to be discovered,” he said.
Graham Moore of the National Archives told the BBC the find is “one of the rarest forms of the Declaration we know about,” adding that it was not meant to be preserved due to the intention to distribute it quickly.
“After the original printing on 4 July, the news of the Declaration is travelling fast around North America and it’s being reprinted as it reaches each successive colony,” he said.
Meanwhile, a July 4th celebration in New York City quickly took on a far more political tone Friday as one of the nation’s most closely watched elected officials delivered remarks that are already drawing sharp reactions.
The speech from New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, an avowed socialist, given just ahead of Independence Day weekend, touched on immigration, wealth, patriotism and the future of America while taking direct aim at several of President Donald Trump’s top priorities.
Mamdani criticized U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, billionaire Elon Musk, and what he described as an “arena of supremacy” in America.
This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.
