Come celebrate the 220th Anniversary of the signing of the US Constitution!

View the commemorative display (in the Bryan Williams, M.D. Student Center lobby) all week long (September 17-22nd), or join us for a...

Colonial Lunch
Monday, September 17
Noon
Student Center Gym
(As always, don't forget your ID!)

What is Constitution Day?

Created in 2004, Constitution Day is an American federal holiday celebrated every September 17th to honor the ratification of the United States Constitution.

Did you know...

• The U.S. Constitution has 4,400 words. It is the oldest and shortest written Constitution of any major government in the world.
  
• Of the typographical errors in the Constitution, the misspelling of the word “Pensylvania” above the signers’ names is probably the most glaring.
  
• James Madison, “the father of the Constitution,” was the first to arrive in Philadelphia for the Constitutional Convention. He arrived in February, three months before the convention began, bearing the blueprint for the new Constitution.
  
• Of the forty-two delegates who attended most of the meetings, thirty-nine actually signed the Constitution. Edmund Randolph and George Mason of Virginia and Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts refused to sign due in part to the lack of a bill of rights.
  
• Patrick Henry was elected as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, but declined, because he “smelt a rat.”
  
• Because of his poor health, Benjamin Franklin needed help to sign the Constitution. As he did so, tears streamed down his face.
  
• A proclamation by President George Washington and a congressional resolution established the first national Thanksgiving Day on November 26, 1789. The reason for the holiday was to give “thanks” for the new Constitution.
  
• As Benjamin Franklin left the Pennsylvania State House after the final meeting of the Constitutional Convention on September 17, 1787, he was approached by the wife of the mayor of Philadelphia. She was curious as to what the new government would be. Franklin replied, “A republic, madam. If you can keep it.”
• The word “democracy” does not appear once in the Constitution.

(from http://www.constitutionfacts.com)