Archive for February, 2009

On this day in 1795, the 11th amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified.

The Judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by Citizens of another State, or by Citizens or Subjects of any Foreign State.

On this day in 1933, the 20th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was adopted.

Section 1. The terms of the President and Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January, and the terms of Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3d day of January, of the years in which such terms would have ended if this article had not been ratified; and the terms of their successors shall then begin.

Section 2. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting shall begin at noon on the 3d day of January, unless they shall by law appoint a different day.

Section 3. If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the President, the President elect shall have died, the Vice President elect shall become President. If a President shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term, or if the President elect shall have failed to qualify, then the Vice President elect shall act as President until a President shall have qualified; and the Congress may by law provide for the case wherein neither a President elect nor a Vice President elect shall have qualified, declaring who shall then act as President, or the manner in which one who is to act shall be selected, and such person shall act accordingly until a President or Vice President shall have qualified.

Section 4. The Congress may by law provide for the case of the death of any of the persons from whom the House of Representatives may choose a President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them, and for the case of the death of any of the persons from whom the Senate may choose a Vice President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them.

Section 5. Sections 1 and 2 shall take effect on the 15th day of October following the ratification of this article.

Section 6. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission.

This amendment set the terms and told the deadbeats who were leaving office when to pack their luggage.

On This day in 1953, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis appeared in the premiere of “The Stooge”.

On this day in 1870, the Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified.

I. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

II. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

All citizens were given the right to vote, although women did not fall into this category. Apparently women could run households and clean the furniture, but they were still considered second class.

On this day in 1848, the United States and Mexico signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the Mexican war.

It was signed at Villa de Guadalupe Hidalgo, which is a northern neighbourhood of Mexico City. The treaty drew the boundary between the United States and Mexico at the Rio Grande and the Gila River; for a payment of $15,000,000 the United States received more than 525,000 square miles (1,360,000 square km) of land (now Arizona, California, western Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, and Utah) from Mexico and in return agreed to settle the more than $3,000,000 in claims made by U.S. citizens against Mexico. (See primary source document: 1.) With this annexation, the continental expansion of the United States was completed except for the land added in the Gadsden Purchase (1853).

And baby bedding has never been the same. Okay, well neither has the taco, the wool blanket, the chiclets gum or the vacation.

On this day in 2003, the U.S. Space Shuttle Columbia broke up on re-entry.