Facts about the Declaration of Independence you may not know

SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – As schoolchildren, Americans are taught about a fateful day in July when 56 people signed the Declaration of Independence and used cursive to initiate the escape from the reign of King George III, but there are key facts about that day in 1776 that are often overlooked.

A woman also "signed" the Declaration of Independence

Her name was Mary Katharine Goddard, and she was a colonial-era journalist. Also the postmistress of Baltimore, Maryland, she came from a family of printers and newspaper publishers and was the very first publisher to print the Declaration of Independence with the names of the signers.

A close look at the very bottom of the declaration and you will see:

"Baltimore in Maryland: Printed by MARY KATHARINE GODDARD.

Independence Day is "technically" July 2

The Continental Congress actually voted to declare independence on July 2, however, the document was formally adopted on July 4. In 1941, July 4 became the day the nation collectively would celebrate its independence.

John Hancock’s name was so written so large because as the President of the Continental Congress, he signed the document first. That’s why, to this day, people ask you to put your John Hancock on something when they want you to sign a document.

The first copy of the Declaration of Independence is lost

The first copies weren’t printed of the Declaration of Independence until January of 1777, and Thomas McKean of Delaware's signature was not on the printing. He was officially the last person to sign, so it is possible that he had not yet signed by January 1777.

Most, but not all, of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, were born in the American colonies.

The very first copy of the Declaration of Independence is still unaccounted for.

The King of England response to the revolutionaries

George III was sent a copy of the Declaration of Independence with only two names on it: John Hancock and Charles Thomson, but the document did not reach London until more than a month later on August 10, 1776. Historians are unsure if the king ever read the declaration for himself. However, a speech to the Joint Session of the House of Peers on October 31, 1776, acknowledged the king's understanding that his North American subjects had no intention of ending their rebellion.

“In this arduous contest I can have no other object but to promote the true interests of all my subjects,” King George III said. “No people ever enjoyed more happiness, or lived under a milder government, than those now revolted provinces… My desire is to restore to them the blessings of law and liberty, equally enjoyed by every British subject, which they have fatally and desperately exchanged for the calamities of war, and the arbitrary tyranny of chiefs.”

Following the Revolutionary War, John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail, “You will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make a good use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in Heaven, that I ever took half the Pains to preserve it.”