The United States Bill of Rights was ratified in 1791. It consists of the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution and protects rights including freedom of speech, religious exercise, press freedom, and trial by jury.
Congress proposed twelve amendments on September 25, 1789, largely in response to concerns raised by Anti-Federalists during the Constitution’s ratification debates. The states considered those proposals individually rather than approving them as a single package.
Articles Three through Twelve of the original proposal were ratified by the required number of states on December 15, 1791. They became Amendments One through Ten. The original Articles One and Two did not initially receive enough approvals; Article Two was eventually ratified in 1992 as the Twenty-seventh Amendment.
A common mix-up is treating 1789 as the ratification date. That was the year Congress proposed the amendments, while 1791 marks their adoption into the Constitution.