TODAY IN HISTORY: Today in 1787, James Madison arrived in Philadelphia, nine days before the Constitutional Convention’s scheduled start (and twenty days before its actual start). He stayed at Mary House’s boarding house at Fifth & Market Streets and dined at the Indian Queen Tavern (also owned by Mrs. House) nearby. And why shouldn’t he get there early? The guy was born for this job.

His fellow delegate William Pierce described him this way: “Mr. Madison is a character who has long been in public life; and what is very remarkable every Person seems to acknowledge his greatness. He blends together the profound politician, with the Scholar. … The affairs of the United States, he perhaps, has the most correct knowledge of, of any Man in the Union.”