FACT OF THE DAY

From The Scotsman

Today in 1791, the first ten amendments of the US constitution became US law. Known as the Bill of Rights, the amendments protected Americans' freedom of, among other things, speech, religion and press and conferred the right to bear arms. The US constitution was ratified after the War of Independence with Britain following the Declaration of Independence of 1776, itself influenced by the Scottish Declaration of Arbroath written some 450 years earlier.