The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. It was the first of the three Reconstruction Amendments adopted following the American Civil War.
The Nineteenth Amendment enfranchised 26 million American women just in time for the 1920 U.S. presidential election.
The word "democracy" is not contained in the Constitution, yet it begins with the democratic statement, "We the people of the United States .... do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." The only place the word "republic" is mentioned is in Article IV, Section 4: "The United States shall guarantee to every state in this union a republican form of government."
Of the spelling errors in the Constitution, "Pensylvania" above the signers' names is probably the most glaring.
At 81, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania was the oldest delegate to attend the Constitutional Convention. At 26, Jonathon Dayton of New Jersey was the youngest.
More than 11,000 amendments have been introduced in Congress. Collectively, members of the House and Senate typically propose around 200 amendments during each two-year term of Congress. Most never make it out of the Congressional committees in which they were proposed. 33 have gone to the states to be ratified, and 27 have received the necessary approval from the states to actually become amendments to the Constitution.
The 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified in 1933, repealing the 18th Amendment and bringing an end to the national prohibition of alcohol in America.
Located on the upper level of the National Archives Museum, the Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom is the permanent home of the original Constitution of the United States, along with the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. To preserve the parchment's quality, the cases contain inert argon gas and are kept at 67 degrees Fahrenheit.
September 17 is designated as Constitution Day to commemorate the signing of the U.S. Constitution in Philadelphia on September 17, 1787. The law establishing this holiday was created in 2004. The act mandates that all publicly funded educational institutions, and all federal agencies, provide educational programming on the history of the American Constitution on that day.
SHARE THIS PAGE!