1992 - 27th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
On September 25, 1789, then Representative James Madison presented to the House of Representatives an amendment that barred Congress from giving itself a midterm or retroactive pay raise. On May 5, 1992 it became the 27th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. No that isn't a typo...it took over 200 years for this particular amendment to be ratified. Between 1789 and 1791, six states ratified the amendment (Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Delaware, Vermont, and Virginia). Three more states joined the ratification process between 1972 and 1982. The effort was rejuvenated in 1982 when a University of Texas at Austin Gregory Watson found the amendment text and began to research whether it was still an active amendment proposal. He contacted state legislatures and on May 5th, Alabama became the 38th state to ratify the amendment and meet the 3/4 states limit needed to make it law.
