On what date did the United States ratify the first ten amendments, known as the Bill of Rights?

The United States ratified the first ten amendments, known as the Bill of Rights, on December 15, 1791.

The amendments originated in the debate over the 1787 Constitution. Anti-Federalists feared that the new federal government might threaten individual liberties, so James Madison assembled proposed protections addressing concerns about speech, religion, weapons, search and seizure, criminal trials, and other rights.

Congress approved twelve proposed amendments on September 25, 1789, and sent them to the states. Articles Three through Twelve of that proposal received the required approvals on December 15, 1791, becoming Amendments One through Ten. The original Articles One and Two did not become part of the Constitution at that time; Article Two was eventually ratified as the Twenty-seventh Amendment in 1992.

The Bill of Rights is therefore not the same document as the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution itself. It is a set of amendments attached to the Constitution. December 15 is commemorated in the United States as Bill of Rights Day.