We wrap up Constitution Week with a slew of fast facts surrounding the U.S. Constitution. We hope you have enjoyed this week’s interesting facts from our Office of Student Life team.
Vermont ratified the Constitution on January 10, 1791, even though it had not yet become a state.
More than 11,000 amendments to the Constitution have been proposed, but only 27 have been approved. The first 10 amendments were ratified together in 1791 and are called collectively “The Bill of Rights”.
As evidence of its continued flexibility, the Constitution has only been changed 17 times since 1791!
Only one Amendment to the Constitution has been repealed—the 18th (Prohibition).
John Tyler was the first Vice President to assume the responsibilities of the Presidency upon the death of William Henry Harrison in 1841. There was nothing in the Constitution that provided for the vice president to BECOME the president. It was not until the Twenty-Fifth Amendment was passed in 1967 that the vice president technically BECAME the president. This amendment legitimatized Tyler’s unconstitutional assumption!
The first time the formal term “The United States of America” was used was in the Declaration of Independence.
During an event to celebrate the Constitution’s Sesquicentennial in 1937, Harry F. Wilhelm recited the entire document through the newly added 21st Amendment from memory. He then obtained a job in the Sesquicentennial mailroom!
The four pages of the Constitution are on permanent display at the National Archives. But there is a fifth page. It is the Letter of Transmittal of the newly written Constitution to the Congress that existed under the Articles of Confederation. The letter, which briefly describes the Constitution, is signed by George Washington, president of the Constitutional Convention.
The last time the Constitution was moved (to return it after preservation treatment to the renovated Rotunda in 2003), it was transported by a convey of guarded trucks. In 1921, however, ”Librarian of Congress Herbert Putnam went to the State Department, signed a receipt, placed the Declaration and Constitution on a pile of leather U.S. mail sacks and a cushion in a Model-T Ford truck, returned with them to the Library of Congress, and placed them in a safe in his office.”
Since 1952, the Constitution has been on display in the National Archives Building in Washington, DC. Currently, all four pages are displayed behind protective glass framed with titanium. To preserve the parchment’s quality, the cases contain argon gas and are kept at 67 degrees Fahrenheit with a relative humidity of 40 percent.
Now that we’ve shared some Fast Facts about the Constitution, see how well you do with this short Constitution IQ Quiz!
https://www.constitutionfacts.com/?page=quiz.cfm
We wrap up Constitution Week with a slew of fast facts surrounding the U.S. Constitution. We hope you have enjoyed this week’s interesting facts from our Office of Student Life team.
Vermont ratified the Constitution on January 10, 1791, even though it had not yet become a state.
More than 11,000 amendments to the Constitution have been proposed, but only 27 have been approved. The first 10 amendments were ratified together in 1791 and are called collectively “The Bill of Rights”.
As evidence of its continued flexibility, the Constitution has only been changed 17 times since 1791!
Only one Amendment to the Constitution has been repealed—the 18th (Prohibition).
John Tyler was the first Vice President to assume the responsibilities of the Presidency upon the death of William Henry Harrison in 1841. There was nothing in the Constitution that provided for the vice president to BECOME the president. It was not until the Twenty-Fifth Amendment was passed in 1967 that the vice president technically BECAME the president. This amendment legitimatized Tyler’s unconstitutional assumption!
The first time the formal term “The United States of America” was used was in the Declaration of Independence.
During an event to celebrate the Constitution’s Sesquicentennial in 1937, Harry F. Wilhelm recited the entire document through the newly added 21st Amendment from memory. He then obtained a job in the Sesquicentennial mailroom!
The four pages of the Constitution are on permanent display at the National Archives. But there is a fifth page. It is the Letter of Transmittal of the newly written Constitution to the Congress that existed under the Articles of Confederation. The letter, which briefly describes the Constitution, is signed by George Washington, president of the Constitutional Convention.
The last time the Constitution was moved (to return it after preservation treatment to the renovated Rotunda in 2003), it was transported by a convey of guarded trucks. In 1921, however, ”Librarian of Congress Herbert Putnam went to the State Department, signed a receipt, placed the Declaration and Constitution on a pile of leather U.S. mail sacks and a cushion in a Model-T Ford truck, returned with them to the Library of Congress, and placed them in a safe in his office.”
Since 1952, the Constitution has been on display in the National Archives Building in Washington, DC. Currently, all four pages are displayed behind protective glass framed with titanium. To preserve the parchment’s quality, the cases contain argon gas and are kept at 67 degrees Fahrenheit with a relative humidity of 40 percent.
Now that we’ve shared some Fast Facts about the Constitution, see how well you do with this short Constitution IQ Quiz!
https://www.constitutionfacts.com/?page=quiz.cfm
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