On what date did the United States ratify the Bill of Rights?

The United States ratified the Bill of Rights on December 15, 1791.

The Bill of Rights consists of the first ten amendments to the Constitution. James Madison introduced a set of proposed amendments in Congress, and Congress approved twelve articles for submission to the states in 1789.

States ratified ten of those twelve articles by December 15, 1791, making them the first ten amendments. The original Article Two was eventually ratified in 1992 as the Twenty-Seventh Amendment, while the original Article One remains unratified.

The amendments protect or recognize rights including freedom of speech, religious exercise, due process, jury trials, and limits on government power. A frequent confusion is calling the entire 1787 Constitution the Bill of Rights; the term specifically refers to the first ten amendments.