<P> If the bell was rung, it would have been most likely rung by Andrew McNair, who was the doorkeeper both of the Assembly and of the Congress, and was responsible for ringing the bell . As McNair was absent on two unspecified days between April and November, it might have been rung by William Hurry, who succeeded him as doorkeeper for Congress . Bells were also rung to celebrate the first anniversary of Independence on July 4, 1777 . </P> <P> After Washington's defeat at the Battle of Brandywine on September 11, 1777, the revolutionary capital of Philadelphia was defenseless, and the city prepared for what was seen as an inevitable British attack . Bells could easily be recast into munitions, and locals feared the Liberty Bell and other bells would meet this fate . The bell was hastily taken down from the tower, and sent by heavily guarded wagon train to the town of Bethlehem . Local wagoneers transported the bell to the Zion German Reformed Church in Northampton Town, now Allentown, where it waited out the British occupation of Philadelphia under the church floor boards . It was returned to Philadelphia in June 1778, after the British departure . With the steeple of the State House in poor condition (the steeple was subsequently torn down and later restored), the bell was placed in storage, and it was not until 1785 that it was again mounted for ringing . </P> <P> Placed on an upper floor of the State House, the bell was rung in the early years of independence on the Fourth of July and on Washington's Birthday, as well as on Election Day to remind voters to hand in their ballots . It also rang to call students at the University of Pennsylvania to their classes at nearby Philosophical Hall . Until 1799, when the state capital was moved to Lancaster, it again rang to summon legislators into session . When Pennsylvania, having no further use for its State House, proposed to tear it down and sell the land for building lots, the City of Philadelphia purchased the land, together with the building, including the bell, for $70,000, equal to $1,009,373 today . In 1828, the city sold the second Lester and Pack bell to St. Augustine's Roman Catholic Church, which was burned down by an anti-Catholic mob in the Philadelphia Nativist Riots of 1844 . The remains of the bell were recast; the new bell is now located at Villanova University . </P> <P> It is uncertain how the bell came to be cracked; the damage occurred sometime between 1817 and 1846 . The bell is mentioned in a number of newspaper articles during that time; no mention of a crack can be found until 1846 . In fact, in 1837, the bell was depicted in an anti-slavery publication--uncracked . In February 1846 Public Ledger reported that the bell had been rung on February 23, 1846, in celebration of Washington's Birthday (as February 22 fell on a Sunday, the celebration occurred the next day), and also reported that the bell had long been cracked, but had been "put in order" by having the sides of the crack filed . The paper reported that around noon, it was discovered that the ringing had caused the crack to be greatly extended, and that "the old Independence Bell...now hangs in the great city steeple irreparably cracked and forever dumb". </P>

Each year on july 4th the liberty bell in philadelphia is symbolically rung (tapped) this many time