When did members of congress start signing the actual Declaration of Independence?

Answer 1

August 2, 1776. On July 4, 1776, only John Hancock and Charles Thomson, Seceretary to the Congress had signed it just to authenticate it as a true copy of what had been adopted. Single page copies were then printed to be sent out to the individual states. Those copies also had only Hancock and Thomson as signatories. On July 19, Congress ordered it to be engrossed on parchment. This larger version is the one that most delegates signed on August 2, 1776.

Answer 2

There are a couple of problems with that.

The first is that the Declaration was not signed by what we today call "congress". It was signed by the Continental Congress.

The second is that we really don't know. It certainly was not signed by all the signers on the same day it was ratified, July 4, 1776. (Not all the signers were present on that date; some of them weren't even elected until after that.) However, Franklin, Adams, and Jefferson all claimed independently that it was signed on July 4; it's possible that some may have signed it then and others added their signatures at a later date, or alternatively that all three were mistaken and that it was signed on perhaps August 2, 1776 (to name a date some historians consider more likely).

In the official diary of the Continental Congress, the entry for July 4 says the declaration was engrossed (written clearly) and signed on that date, further evidence for the July 4 supporter. However, there are other documents giving a later date (August 2, mentioned above, being one such).

The bottom line is no one is really sure.

Answer 3

There is no specific date that has been recorded of when the Declaration of Independence started to get signed by congress members. However, there is some evidence pointing towards early to middle June. But this could be false, because such a document hand-written back then would not be able to be signed by all of the Congress in around a month.

Answer 4

June 14,1775

Answer 5

in the 1776