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What Day Is It?

No, Hump Day is tomorrow. Today is Constitution Day, and Washington and Lee is observing the 226th anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution with a variety of activities.

Leyburn Library is launching a student guide to the U.S. Constitution and also has a main floor display, “Are These the Best Books on the Constitution?”

At 1:30 p.m. in Stackhouse Theater, students in “Madison,” the politics seminar on American political thought, taught by William Connelly Jr., the John K. Boardman Professor of Politics, will divide themselves into two opposing camps to enact a Federalist/anti-Federalist debate.

At 4 p.m. in Northen Auditorium, Holt Merchant, emeritus professor of history, will offer the keynote address, “George Washington and the Constitution,” in which he will discuss Washington’s role in the drafting and ratification of the Constitution. Professor Merchant retired from the faculty in June after 43 years, but continues to teach part-time.

At 7:00 p.m. there will be a special Constitution Day screening of the Jimmy Stewart classic “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” in Stackhouse Theater.

Follow the events during the day on Twitter, where @wluwilliams will be tweeting and using the hashtag #ConstitutionDay.

Constitution Day is observed each year on Sept. 17, the day the U.S. Constitutional Convention signed the Constitution, in 1787. It is also a day that recognizes those who have become U.S. citizens.