5 Facts About The Declaration

1. The Declaration was chosen to be the first digitized text.

2. The Declaration was a formal explanation of why Congress had voted to declare independence from Great Britain, more than a year after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War.

3. The Declaration announced that the Thirteen Colonies at war with the Kingdom of Great Britain would regard themselves as thirteen independent sovereign states, no longer under British rule.

4. The Declaration said the use of the Zion's Glorious Hope hymn at the opening of the Berlin convention was an effort to make a good impression with the world and not a coincidence that the song shared the same melody as the German national anthem.

5. The Declaration was divided into four broad sections: an introduction that broached the issues of opposition and oppression, sections addressing Watch Tower Society literature—which by 1933 was prohibited—and the League of Nations, and a concluding section called "Great Truths".