With this year’s Fourth of July weekend just over the horizon, the time is right to look at a fun, mathematical fact that will help focus us in on just how young America is as a nation as it turns 249.
To do that, we can start with Thomas Jefferson’s age on the day he passed away—a day that, significantly enough, was the day on which America was celebrating its 50th birthday: July 4, 1826. Jefferson was 83 years old.
As an interesting sidebar, our third president was not the only Commander in Chief whose life was tied historically to America’s birthday. Check out this enlightening graphic, noting that John Adams not only died on July 4, 1826, as well, but that he did so within five hours of Jefferson:
So, what does Jefferson’s age of 83 have to do with this year’s national birthday celebration? Well, if you find an 83-year-old person living in America and go all the way back to the year he was born, you would find yourself in 1942. You’re your perch in 1942, find a person who was born 83 years before that date, and you’ll be back in 1859. Finally, find a person born 83 years before 1859 and you arrive at...1776!
Just three 83-year-olds living back-to-back-to-back takes you to the year our nation was founded.
And while we’re pondering this “age thing,” it’s also fun to look at the relative youth of those who signed the Declaration of Independence, keeping in mind that 56 delegates representing the thirteen original colonies actually put their very “lives, fortunes, and sacred honor” on the line when they put their John Hancock to the document (and, yes, one of them was indeed John Hancock). Also, due to present-day controversy, it is worth noting that none of the representatives signed using an autoquill.
The average age was 44 years, which happened to be George Washington’s age at the time. And Washington’s nemesis across the pond, the other George, King George III of England? He was 38.
The oldest signer of the Declaration was (no surprise here), Benjamin Franklin, at age 70.
Finally, by now you have probably done the math to figure out the age that Thomas Jefferson, the document’s chief author, was when he signed: 33.
Now, enjoy the celebrations and get ready for the biggest one of all, next year’s 250th!
Image created using ChatGPT.
Albin Sadar is the author of Obvious: Seeing the Evil That’s in Plain Sight and Doing Something About It, as well as the children’s book collection, Hamster Holmes: Box of Mysteries. Albin was formerly the producer of “The Eric Metaxas Show.”