You see, the Second Continental Congress passed the resolution declaring independence on July 2, 1776. It is today of which John Adams, arguably the most important figure in the drive for breaking away from England (he tapped George Washington to head the Continental Army and Jefferson to write the Declaration as well as forcefully arguing for it in Congress) wrote that on future July Seconds there would be 'pageant and pomp and parade'. The Fourth, well, was to be just another day.
So what happened on July 4 that we remember so well? Congress approved the Declaration of Independence document, the famous tome of Thomas Jefferson's (with some help from the aforementioned Adams as well as Ben Franklin and two others) on July 4, 1776. Technically, we were already independent then.
You can argue quite reasonably, and it has a strong case philosophically, that the actual Declaration is more important than the act of declaring independence and thus deserves the higher value. Still, I might grill a burger today just the same.
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