April 28 · This Day in America
In the House of Delegates chamber at the Annapolis State House, the men of Maryland vote — 63 to 11 — to ratify the new Constitution. They are the seventh state to do it, and that number matters more than it sounds: the document needs nine to become real, and a few of the largest states are still bitterly arguing. Maryland's clear, lopsided yes is a current pulling the holdouts forward. It is easy, now, to forget how unlikely this all was — that thirteen jealous, independent states would voluntarily bind themselves into one government, that a republic this size could even be attempted. It had never worked before in human history. One state at a time, in plain rooms like this one, ordinary men decided to try anyway.
Source: msa.maryland.gov
Also on this day · 1758
In Westmoreland County, Virginia, James Monroe is born — the last of the Revolutionary generation to reach the presidency. He is wounded carrying the flag at Trenton, helps negotiate the Louisiana Purchase that doubles the country, and lends his name to a doctrine that tells the old empires the New World is closed for colonizing. His era gets called the Era of Good Feelings. He earned the title.
Source: www.whitehousehistory.org