The 1787 Constitutional Convention was held in Philadelphia, a founding event remembered by America250.
Delegates met in the Pennsylvania State House, now called Independence Hall, from May 25 to September 17, 1787. They had initially been summoned to revise the Articles of Confederation, the first governing framework of the United States.
Instead, the convention produced an entirely new Constitution. George Washington presided, James Madison played a major role in shaping the Virginia Plan, and delegates debated representation, executive power, federal authority, and slavery.
Philadelphia was already central to the revolutionary era. The Second Continental Congress met there, the Declaration of Independence was adopted there in 1776, and the Constitution was signed there in 1787. The convention is sometimes confused with the Annapolis Convention of 1786, which helped lead to the Philadelphia meeting but did not write the Constitution.