Ever since European explorers discovered the New World, the lands and people that form our country have seemed unique, as if there’s something in the ground that makes those who walk on it truly American. In reality, it’s that our country fosters certain values and character within its shores.

On this day 241 years ago, our Founding Fathers, who had those American values and character, severed ties with Great Britain, cutting the “political bands which have connected them to one another,” as Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence.