Today is Constitution Day in the Dominican Republic. This holiday marks the adoption of the country’s first Constitution on this day in 1844.
1844 was a momentous year for this Caribbean country, which was commonly known as Santo Domingo until the 20th century. In February, the nation had proclaimed its independence from Haiti.
The first Constitution followed on November 6th of that year. It was signed in San Cristóbal, a town near the capital, Santo Domingo. It was modeled on the United States constitution and featured a presidential form of government with many liberal tendencies.
Since then the Dominican Republic has gone through 39 constitutions, more than any other country. This statistic is a somewhat deceiving indicator of political stability, however, because of the Dominican practice of promulgating a new constitution whenever an amendment is ratified. Although technically different from each other in some particular provisions, most new constitutions contained only minor modifications of those previously in effect.
Count on Fox…
Saturday was the anniversary of the premier, in 1890, of Prince Igor by Alexander Borodin. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiexn6O9To4
Comments