On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, the Continental Congress appointed the members of the Committee of Five to draft Declaration of Independence. They were: John Adams of Massachusetts, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, Robert R. Livingston of New York, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, and Thomas Jefferson of Virginia. At John Adams’ suggestion, the members of the Committee decided that Jefferson would write the first draft.

Sources: Vol. V, Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789, Washington D.C.: US Government Printing Office (1904) at p. 431, accessed at https://archive.org/details/us_congress_continental/lljc005/page/431/mode/2up; https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committee_of_Five