When it comes to breaking away from England, there are a lot of “Firsts” involved.

Just a few weeks ago, delegates from North Carolina are the first in the Continental Congress to have the authority to vote for Independence–as long as someone else proposes it first.

Today, Massachusetts Bay becomes the first to declare itself independent from Britain, largely for financial reasons. Their proclamation reads like a protocol manual, plus the fact that their new rules have a start date of June 1 makes it all quite dry.

And, of course, in just a couple of days, a third colony will get the credit for being the first to actually declare independence from Britain.

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