• John Hancock, President of the Second Continental Congress and a governor of Massachusetts, was the first to sign; he used such a large, bold script that people now speak of a ‘John Hancock’ to mean a signature.
  • Some of the delegates were not in Philadelphia on that day, but signed the document later; not all delegates signed the document.
  • The Declaration of Independence, along with the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, is on public display at the Rotunda of the National Archives in Washington, DC.

To learn more, and to read the full text of the Declaration of Independence, see The Charters of Freedom and 100 Milestone Documents sites from the National Archives.