Today in History- December 15th BILL OF RIGHTS BECOMES LAW: December 15, 1791 Following ratification by the state of Virginia, the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, known collectively as the Bill of Rights, become the law of the land.In September 1789, the first Congress of the United States approved 12 amendments to the U.S. Constitution and sent them to the states for ratification. The amendments were designed to protect the basic rights of U.S. citizens, guaranteeing the freedom of speech, press, assembly, and exercise of religion; the right to fair legal procedure and to bear arms; and that powers not delegated to the federal government would be reserved for the states and the people.Influenced by the English Bill of Rights of 1689, the Bill of Rights was also drawn from Virginia's Declaration of Rights, drafted by George Mason in 1776. Mason, a native Virginian, was a lifelong champion of individual liberties, and in 1787 he attended the Constitutional Convention and criticized the final document for lacking constitutional protection of basic political rights. In the ratification struggle that followed, Mason and other critics agreed to support the Constitution in exchange for the assurance that amendments would be passed immediately.On December 15, 1791, Virginia became the 10th of 14 states to approve 10 of the 12 amendments, thus giving the Bill of Rights the two-thirds majority of state ratification necessary to make it legal. Of the two amendments not ratified, the first concerned the population system of representation, while the second prohibited laws varying the payment of congressional members from taking effect until an election intervened. The first of these two amendments was never ratified, while the second was finally ratified more than 200 years later, in 1992. ------------------------------------------------------------------ MORE GENERAL INTEREST 1961 Architect of the Holocaust sentenced to die 1973 Billionaire's kidnapped grandson found in Italy historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=general&month=10272964&day=10272980 AUTOMOTIVE 1941 Strikes Ruled Out By Labor historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=automotive&month=10272964&day=10272980 CIVIL WAR 1864 Battle of Nashville, Tennessee historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=civil&month=10272964&day=10272980 COLD WAR 1978 United States announces that it will recognize communist China historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=coldwar&month=10272964&day=10272980 CRIME 1988 James Brown begins his prison sentence historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=crime&month=10272964&day=10272980 ENTERTAINMENT 1966 Walt Disney dies historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=entertainment&month=10272964&day=10272980 LITERARY 1936 George Orwell delivers the manuscript for The Road to Wigan Pier historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=literary&month=10272964&day=10272980 OLD WEST 1890 Sitting Bull killed by Indian police historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=oldwest&month=10272964&day=10272980 VIETNAM WAR 1969 Nixon announces additional U.S. troop withdrawals historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=vietnamwar&month=10272964&day=10272980 WALL STREET 1995 Trading on NYSE Hits New Mark historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=wallstreet&month=10272964&day=10272980 WORLD WAR I 1915 British begin evacuation of Gallipoli historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=worldwari&month=10272964&day=10272980 WORLD WAR II 1945 MacArthur orders end of Shinto as Japanese state religion historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=worldwarii&month=10272964&day=10272980