This week’s History Thread marks the anniversary of the signing of the United States Constitution. A document full of flaws and contradictions as it’s a human document written by men very much of their time, and today it is invoked and abused by all kinds of bad actors. But I can still appreciate the idealism embodied in the preamble for all that:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

It’s also the anniversary of the Battle of Antietam, one of the decisive battles of the American Civil War. Although tactically inconclusive, it was destructive enough to end Robert E. Lee’s first invasion of the North and, more importantly, convinced Abraham Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation.

There are also some more baleful events on this date, like the Lehi’s assassination of Count Bernadotte during negotiations between Arab and Israeli factions in the lead-in to Israeli independence.