For the record - July 8, 2011

Declaration of Independence: A story about the Declaration of Independence on the Kids’ Reading Room page in the July 3 Comics II section said that Congress adopted the Declaration on July 2, 1776, and signed it two days later. Congress declared independence on July 2, 1776, and adopted the Declaration two days later; signing didn’t begin until Aug. 2 that year. In addition, the article said that when Thomas Jefferson was drafting the Declaration in June, the words he wrote for the opening were, “When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another….” Those are the opening words in the Declaration that Congress adopted, but they are not what Jefferson wrote in his first draft. He wrote, “When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for a people to advance from that subordination in which they have hitherto remained….”

Robert Mitchum: An article in the July 7 Calendar section about Robert Mitchum’s western films misspelled the last name of “The Lusty Men” co-writer David Dortort as Dortord.

Microsoft in China: The byline on an article in the July 6 Business section about Microsoft Corp.’s striking a deal with Baidu for an English-language search engine in China gave the reporters’ names as David Pierson and David Sarno. It should have been Jonathan Kaiman and David Sarno.