This Month in History – September 17, U.S. Constitution signed

On Sept. 17, 1787, the Constitution of the United States was completed and signed by a majority of delegates attending the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.

 

Also on this date:

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Bodies of fallen troops and a crashed gun lie on the field after the Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest one-day battle of the American Civil War, near Sharpsburg, Md., on Sept. 17, 1862. (AP Photo/Mathew B. Brady)

In 1862, more than 3,600 men were killed in the Civil War Battle of Antietam (an-TEE’-tum) in Maryland.

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Troops of the U.S. Army Signal Corps rush to the site of a crashed plane to recover the pilot Orville Wright and his passenger, army observer Lieutenant Thomas E. Selfridge, from the wreckage September 17, 1908, in Fort Myer, Va. The plane crashed during a demonstration flight at a military installation; making Lt. Selfridge, who died from his injuries, the first fatality of a military airplane crash. (AP Photo)

In 1908, Lt. Thomas E. Selfridge of the U.S. Army Signal Corps became the first person to die in the crash of a powered aircraft, the Wright Flyer, at Fort Myer, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C.

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Allied paratroopers entering one of the huge transports before taking off on the assault on German occupied Holland during “Operation Market Garden” Sept. 17, 1944. (AP Photo/British Official Photograph)

In 1944, during World War II, Allied paratroopers launched Operation Market Garden, landing behind German lines in the Netherlands.

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From left Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Israeli Prime Minister Menachen Begin gather in the East Room of the White House in Washington on Sept. 17, 1978 to sign two documents containing agreement between Israel and Egypt to terms designed to end their Mideast conflict. (AP Photo/Charles Tasnadi)

In 1978, after 12 days of meetings at the U.S. presidential retreat of Camp David, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin (men-AH’-kem BAY’-gihn) signed the Camp David Accords, a framework for a peace treaty.

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Curious Paraguayans inspect the shattered hulk of a luxury automobile in which former Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza and two companions were killed, Sept. 17, 1980 in a residential area of Asuncion. The car was hit by automatic weapons and bazooka fire from unidentified attackers who killed Somoza, his economic adviser Joseph Peittner and chauffeur Cesar Gallardo. (AP Photo)

In 1980, former Nicaraguan president Anastasio Somoza was assassinated in Paraguay.

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Traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange hold up a sign reading “God Bless America! Please Pray for U.S.” during a moment of silence Monday, Sept. 17, 2001, in New York. “God Bless America” was sung before the opening bell rang, reopening the NYSE for the first time since the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. (AP Photo/Beth A. Keiser)

In 2001, six days after 9/11, stock prices nosedived but stopped short of collapse in an emotional, flag-waving reopening of Wall Street.

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In this Sept. 17, 2011 photo, demonstrators affiliated with the Occupy Wall Street movement gather to call for the occupation of Wall Street in New York. Monday, Oct. 17, 2011 marks the one-month anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street movement. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

In 2011, a demonstration calling itself Occupy Wall Street began in New York, prompting similar protests around the U.S. and the world.

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In this Sept. 8, 2021, file photo, Robert Durst looks at jurors as he appears in a courtroom in Inglewood, Calif. A Los Angeles jury convicted Robert Durst Friday, Sept. 17, 2021 of murdering his best friend 20 years ago in a case that took on new life after the New York real estate heir participated in a documentary that connected him to the slaying linked to his wife’s 1982 disappearance.(Al Seib/Los Angeles Times via AP, Pool)

In 2021, a Los Angeles jury convicted New York real estate heir Robert Durst of murdering his best friend 20 years earlier. (Durst, who was sentenced to life in prison, died in 2022.)