Today in History, September 25th
On September 25, 1789, Congress sent 12 amendments to the states, ten of which became the Bill of Rights. Plus the Little Rock Nine's first full day.
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September 25 is best known for 1789, when the first U.S. Congress approved 12 constitutional amendments and sent them to the states, ten of which became the Bill of Rights. The date also saw the Little Rock Nine attend their first full day at Central High School in 1957 and the first Tommy John surgery in 1974.
The big story: Congress sends the Bill of Rights to the states (1789)
When the Constitution left Philadelphia in 1787, it had a glaring gap. It said a great deal about how the government would work and very little about what the government could not do to its citizens. Critics such as George Mason, who had written Virginia’s Declaration of Rights in 1776, objected loudly. The first Congress answered on September 25, 1789, approving 12 amendments and mailing them out to the states for ratification. Their roots ran back through Virginia to the English Bill of Rights of 1689. Not all of them made it. In December 1791, Virginia became the 10th of 14 states to approve ten of the amendments, which gave them the support they needed to take effect. One of the leftovers, about how House seats would be apportioned by population, was never ratified. The other, which delays any change in congressional pay until after an election, finally passed in 1992. Patience is a constitutional virtue.
More events on September 25
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1066 | Norway’s King Harald III and Tostig, earl of Northumbria, were killed in a failed bid to topple England’s King Harold II. |
| 1493 | Christopher Columbus sailed from Spain on his second voyage to the Americas with at least 17 ships. |
| 1690 | Publick Occurrences appeared in Boston. Considered the first newspaper in the British-American colonies, it never got past its first issue. |
| 1775 | The British captured Continental Army Colonel Ethan Allen after his failed attack on Montreal. |
| 1799 | French general André Masséna defeated Russian forces at the Second Battle of Zürich. |
| 1890 | Leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints told members to obey U.S. laws banning polygamy. |
| 1957 | Escorted by federal troops, the nine Black students known as the Little Rock Nine attended their first full day of classes at Central High School in Arkansas. |
| 1959 | Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev sat down with President Dwight D. Eisenhower for two days of talks. |
| 1962 | Sonny Liston won the world heavyweight boxing title by knocking out Floyd Patterson in the first round in Chicago. |
| 1974 | Surgeon Frank Jobe performed the first “Tommy John surgery,” on Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Tommy John. |
| 2011 | Wangari Maathai, the Kenyan environmental activist who won the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize, died. |
Born on September 25
- 1897: William Faulkner, novelist and winner of the 1949 Nobel Prize in Literature, born in New Albany, Mississippi.
- 1929: Barbara Walters, television journalist known for her interviews with world figures, born in Boston.
- 1952: Christopher Reeve, actor who played Superman and later championed spinal-cord research, born in New York City.
Sources
- Bill of Rights passes Congress, History.com
- This Day in History: September 25, History.com
- On This Day: September 25, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- William Faulkner, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Barbara Walters, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Christopher Reeve, Encyclopaedia Britannica
