On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, the Continental Congress

Resolved, That every officer who holds, or shall hereafter hold, a commission or office from Congress, shall . . . take the fo[llow]ing oath.

I , do acknowledge the Thirteen United States of America, namely, New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, to be free, independent, and sovereign states, and declare, that the people thereof owe no allegiance or obedience to George the third, king of Great Britain; and I renounce, refuse and abjure any allegiance or obedience ‘to him; and I do swear, that I will, to the utmost of my power, support, maintain, and defend the said United States against the said king, George the third, and his heirs and successors, and his and their abettors, assistants and adherents; and will serve the said United States in the office of , which I now hold, and in any other office which I may hereafter hold by their appointment, or under their authority, with fidelity and honour, and according to the best of my skill and understanding. So help me God.

Source Journals of the Continental Congress at 893-94 accessed at https://archive.org/details/us_congress_continental/lljc006/page/892/mode/2up

On this day 250 years ago in Delaware, the people of Delaware met at the Sussex, Kent and New Castle courthouses to elect members of the General Assembly under Delaware’s new constitution as an independent State.

Sources: Minutes of the Council of the Delaware State from 1776 to 1792, Wilmington: The Historical Society of Delaware (1887) at p. ix accessed at https://archive.org/details/minutesofcouncil00dela/page/n15/mode/2up; Burdick, Kim Rogers, Revolutionary Delaware, Charleston, South Carolina: The History Press (2016) at pp. 62-63