CENTER CITY (WPVI) -- They turned back time on Independence Square Wednesday.
Costumed National Park Rangers, reenactors and visitors gathered to reenact the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence that took place 239 years ago.
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It was on July 8, 1776, that Colonel John Nixon read the document aloud for the first time in public.
The public reading happened behind Independence Hall in State House Yard, now known as Independence Square.
Visitors at Wednesday's event were given a copy of the Declaration of Independence.
Before the reading, reenactors also played out the spirited debate between Thomas Jefferson and John Dickinson in Congress Hall.