Nearly 250 years before the Declaration of Independence became one of the world’s most recognizable political documents, it was simply breaking news. According to the Harvard Gazette, on the night of July 4, 1776, Philadelphia printer John Dunlap worked through the night after receiving an urgent order from the Continental Congress to produce the first printed copies of the Declaration.

A flawed first copy — dashed off in an all-nighter in 1776 — endures as a template for democracy in action.

Nearly 250 years before the Declaration of Independence became one of the world’s most recognizable political documents, it was simply breaking news. According to the Harvard…