The Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution amended the
provisions of Article II relating to presidential elections.
Originally, the U.S. Electoral College would elect both the President
and the Vice President in a single election; the person with a
majority would become President and the runner-up would become Vice
President. The election of 1800, however, demonstrated some problems
with the system. The Twelfth Amendment, proposed by Congress on
December 9, 1803 and ratified by the requisite number of state
legislatures on June 15, 1804, required electors to cast two distinct
votes: one for President and another for Vice President.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelfth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constit…
Today's selected anniversaries:
1095 At the Council of Clermont, Pope Urban II called for the
First Crusade.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_of_Clermont)
1978 San Francisco mayor George Moscone and openly gay
supervisor Harvey Milk were assassinated by supervisor Dan
White.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Moscone)
1990 The British Conservative Party selected John Major as Prime
Minister of the United Kingdom.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Major)
2001 A hydrogen atmosphere was discovered on the extrasolar
planet Osiris by the Hubble Space Telescope.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osiris_%28planet%29)
Wikiquote of the day:
"When a person doesn't have gratitude, something is missing in his
or her humanity. A person can almost be defined by his or her
attitude toward gratitude." ~ Elie Wiesel
(
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Elie_Wiesel)