--- title: "When was the US Constitution last amended?" description: "The 27th Amendment, on congressional pay, 7 May 1992. What happened, why it has not happened since, and whether it plausibly could again." url: https://atoneplace.net/the-last-time/constitutional-amendment/ site: "At One Place" --- # When was the US Constitution last amended? **When was the US Constitution last amended?: 7 May 1992** The 27th Amendment, on congressional pay It was proposed in 1789 as part of the original package that became the Bill of Rights, and took 202 years and 224 days to ratify — by a wide margin the longest gap between proposal and ratification in American history. It was revived in 1982 by a University of Texas undergraduate, Gregory Watson, who wrote a paper arguing it was still live, received a C, and then spent a decade lobbying state legislatures until it passed. - **What:** The 27th Amendment, on congressional pay - **When:** 7 May 1992 - **Category:** Countries and borders - **Could this change?:** Yes. This streak could end, and if it does this page becomes a historical note rather than an answer. ## Countries and borders | Question | When | | --- | --- | | When did a country last join the United Nations? | 14 July 2011 | | When did Britain last change its currency system? | 15 February 1971 | | When did the US flag last change? | 4 July 1960 | | When was a US state last admitted? | 21 August 1959 | | When did a European country last change calendar? | 1923 | | When did the size of the US Supreme Court last change? | 1869 | | When did the Union Jack last change? | 1 January 1801 | > This page gives a date and never a "years ago". These pages are built as static files, so a computed interval would freeze at build time and quietly become wrong — which on a reference site is worse than making the reader do the subtraction. ## Common questions ### When was the US Constitution last amended? 7 May 1992 — The 27th Amendment, on congressional pay. ### What happened? It was proposed in 1789 as part of the original package that became the Bill of Rights, and took 202 years and 224 days to ratify — by a wide margin the longest gap between proposal and ratification in American history. It was revived in 1982 by a University of Texas undergraduate, Gregory Watson, who wrote a paper arguing it was still live, received a C, and then spent a decade lobbying state legislatures until it passed. ### Could it happen again? Yes. This is one of the entries where the streak could plausibly end, which is stated on the page rather than left implied. ## Related pages - [When did a country last join the United Nations?](https://atoneplace.net/the-last-time/un-member/) - [When did Britain last change its currency system?](https://atoneplace.net/the-last-time/decimal-currency-uk/) - [When did the US flag last change?](https://atoneplace.net/the-last-time/us-flag-change/) - [When was a US state last admitted?](https://atoneplace.net/the-last-time/us-state/) - [When did a European country last change calendar?](https://atoneplace.net/the-last-time/calendar-change/) - [When did the size of the US Supreme Court last change?](https://atoneplace.net/the-last-time/us-supreme-court-size/) - [When was the last leap second added?](https://atoneplace.net/the-last-time/leap-second/) - [When was an element last added to the periodic table?](https://atoneplace.net/the-last-time/new-element/) - [When was the last VCR manufactured?](https://atoneplace.net/the-last-time/vcr/) - [When was the last telegram sent?](https://atoneplace.net/the-last-time/telegram/) - [When did the Space Shuttle last fly?](https://atoneplace.net/the-last-time/space-shuttle/) - [When did a country last join the United Nations?](https://atoneplace.net/the-last-time/un-member/) - [Everything, most recent first](https://atoneplace.net/the-last-time/) ## Sources - Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation (https://www.wikidata.org/) [CC0 1.0]