7 historic July 4th events in US history

By Michael Gryboski, Editor
Tuesday, July 04, 2023

Thomas Jefferson and John Adams die – July 4, 1826

Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States of America and author of the Declaration of Independence. | Public Domain

The Fourth of July also marks the anniversary of when Founding Fathers and former presidents Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died within several hours of each other.

Fifty years after the first Independence Day, Jefferson died at Monticello, Virginia, at 83, while Adams breathed his last hours later at the age of 90 in Quincy, Massachusetts.

“Though the nation’s second and third presidents were friends at the time of their deaths, they had been politically estranged for eleven years after the presidential election of 1800,” wrote Amber Paranick of the Library of Congress in 2022.

“Adams wrote a letter to Jefferson on January 1, 1812, the first of many that renewed their friendship that lasted until their deaths. The last letter Jefferson wrote to Adams was on March 23. The last letter written by Adams to Jefferson was dated April 17, 1826.”

Five years after Jefferson and Adams died, former President James Monroe also passed away on Independence Day.