Declaration of Independence: Did you mean...?

The Treaty of Paris, signed on 3 September 1783 by representatives from Great Britain and the United States, was the peace agreement that formally ended the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783) and recognized the United States as an independent...

Portuguese Angola in southwest Africa was the first European colony on that continent. While settlement from 1571 proved problematic in the interior, the Portuguese did obtain a large number of slaves which they shipped to their Atlantic...

The Olive Branch Petition was a letter adopted by the Second Continental Congress on 5 July 1775 and sent to King George III of Great Britain (r. 1760-1820) in a final attempt at reconciliation in the early months of the American Revolutionary...

The New York and New Jersey Campaign (3 July 1776 to 3 January 1777) was a pivotal campaign waged during the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783) for control of New York City, the Hudson River, and the resource-rich state of New Jersey...

The French Revolution (1789-1799) was a period of major societal and political upheaval in France. It witnessed the collapse of the monarchy, the establishment of the First French Republic, and culminated in the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte...

James Armistead Lafayette (l. c. 1748-1832) was an African American Patriot who served the Continental Army as a spy during the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783). During the Siege of Yorktown, he infiltrated the British camp to bring...

Jacques-Pierre Brissot de Warville (1754-1793) was a French journalist, abolitionist, and politician who played a prominent role in the French Revolution (1789-1799). A leader of the Girondins, a moderate political faction, Brissot was instrumental...

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), statesman and signatory of the Declaration of Independence, oil on canvas portrait by Joseph-Siffred Duplessis, painted in Paris, c. 1785. National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.

On 9 July 1776, American Patriots and Sons of Liberty pull down the statue of King George III of Great Britain in New York City, shortly after George Washington read the United States Declaration of Independence. Two months later, the British...

John Hancock (1737-1793), a wealthy Boston merchant and future American Founding Father and signer of the Declaration of Independence, oil on canvas by John Singleton Copley, 1765. Museum of Fine Arts Boston.