Delaware was the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution, part of the founding story behind America250.
Delaware’s ratifying convention approved the Constitution on December 7, 1787. Because it acted first, Delaware acquired the nickname “The First State,” a title still associated with its place in American constitutional history.
The Constitution required ratification by conventions in the states before the new federal government could operate under it. Delaware’s unanimous approval came shortly after the Philadelphia Convention finished drafting the document, and other states followed in the months afterward.
This event occurred more than a decade after the Declaration of Independence, so it is not the anniversary date itself. It is nevertheless part of the constitutional development that followed the 1776 break with Great Britain and helps place America250 within the broader story of the nation’s founding.