The Earliest form of Declaration of Independence was the Lee resolution propose by Richard Henry Lee of Virginia to the Second continental Congress on June 7, 1776.
The drafting committee known as committee of Five, it was appointed by Second Continental congress on June 11, 1776 to draft the constitution and decide why the colonies wanted to separate from British Empire. Its members were Thomas Jefferson, Robert R. Livingstone, Roger Sherman, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams. The committee worked from June 11, 1776 till July 5, 1776 and submitted the document to the congress on June 28.
The first draft was written by Thomas Jefferson, the continental congress and the drafting committee made 86 changes to the draft and shortened the length more than a fourth.
The committee charged with writing the Declaration of Independence reviewed the original draft and changed very little of it, since Jefferson had done such a good job. Although they did "take down" the rhetoric against Britain a bit.
<span>In 1917, Germany, determined to win its war of
attrition against the Allies, announced the resumption of unrestricted
warfare in war-zone waters. Three days later, the United States broke diplomatic relations with Germany, and just hours after that the American liner Housatonic was sunk by a German U-boat.</span>
