U.S. Constitution is adopted in Philadelphia.

The majority of delegates to the Constitutional Convention sign the document in the Pennsylvania State House. But they do so only after agreeing to postpone discussion of the slavery issue for 20 years after the document is ratified, which occurs when New Hampshire becomes the ninth state to ratify it on June 21, 1788. John Adams subsequently writes, “Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”