On July 4, 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, two of America's founding fathers died. Former president Thomas Jefferson died at his Monticello estate in Virginia, just a few hours before his close friend, former president John Adams. Even more interestingly, James Monroe, the last of the founding generation presidents, also died on the 4th of July - in 1831.

It makes me wonder if they held on, waiting to relish in that momentous day one last time before departing this life. Clearly, the anniversary would have had a great deal of meaning for each of them. Both Jefferson and Adams were old men, 90 and 83 respectively, which was extremely old for that time. Thomas Jefferson had been ill for an extended period, and most likely knew he was dying. He signed a final codicil to his will on March 17, 1826, and about that same time he also designed his own gravestone and wrote his own epitaph. As you might expect, some people attributed the most interesting occurrence to divine intervention. When he heard the news that his father and Thomas Jefferson had died on the same day and that it was also the 4th of July, President John Quincy Adams wrote in his diary that it had to be more than mere coincidence - that the time, manner and coincidence of their deaths were "visible and palpable marks of divine favour." Some have even speculated that each man allowed himself to die that day or were allowed or caused to die by others. No matter how they managed to both die on that very coincidental day, it's a romantic story irrevokably wrapped up in the founding of our nation.