Constitution Ratified: America's Framework Established
The thirteen states ratified the document that established a federal government divided into legislative, executive, and judicial branches. This framework created the world's shortest written constitution still in force today, influencing countless nations while remaining unchanged for over two centuries except through twenty-seven appended amendments.
June 21, 1788
238 years ago
Key Figures & Places
What Else Happened on June 21
Hannibal hid 40,000 soldiers in fog. Not metaphorical fog — literal morning mist clinging to the hills above Lake Trasimene, where Gaius Flaminius marched his a…
King Godomar II routed the Frankish forces at the Battle of Vézeronce, securing a temporary reprieve for the Burgundian Kingdom. By killing the Merovingian prin…
Belisarius had 15,000 soldiers, no maps of the African coast, and a general who'd recently been relieved of command for insubordination. Not the obvious recipe …
Külüg Khan ascended the throne as the seventh Khagan of the Mongol Empire and third Emperor of the Yuan dynasty, ending a period of succession instability. His …
France had already lost Italy once. Now they lost it again — badly. At Landriano, a small town southeast of Milan, Spanish imperial forces under Antonio de Leyv…
Akechi Mitsuhide betrayed Oda Nobunaga, driving the unifier of Japan to commit suicide in 1582. This sudden collapse of Nobunaga's power plunged the Sengoku per…
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