On this day in 1861, delegates from South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas met in Montgomery, Alabama to adopt the Permanent Constitution of the Confederate States of America. The constitution closely resembled the Constitution of the United States, even repeating much of its language. However, it was actually more similar to the Articles of Confederation -- the initial constitution of the nation following the Revolutionary War -- in its delegation of extensive powers to the states. The constitution also differed from the U.S. Constitution in its protection of slavery, which was “recognized and protected” in slave states and territories. However, in adherence to U.S. policy since the start of the 19th century, the foreign slave trade was prohibited. The constitution provided for six-year terms for the president and vice president, and the president was not eligible for successive terms. Although a presidential item veto was granted, the power...

On this day in 1773, a group of Massachusetts colonists disguised as Mohawk Indians board three British tea ships and dump over 300 chests of tea valued at some $18,000 into Boston Harbor. This effectively came to be known as The Boston Tea Party, a milestone event in the build up to the American Revolution. The Boston Tea Party was in protest of the British Parliament's Tea Act of 1773, a bill created to save the struggling East India Company by greatly lowering its tea tax and giving it a virtual monopoly on the American tea trade. When three tea ships arrived in Boston, the colonists -- which viewed the tea act as a blatant form of taxation tyranny -- demanded that the tea be returned to England. When Massachusetts Governor Thomas Hutchinson failed to budge, Patriot leader Samuel Adams organized the "tea party" with roughly 60 membets of the Sons of Liberty, his underground resistance group. Outraged by what they considered a flagrant destruction of British prope...