Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Constitution of the United States took effect on the 4th of March 1789, when it superseded the Articles of Confederation. It was signed on the 17th of September 1787, and required ratification by nine of the thirteen states before becoming operative. New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify on the 21st of June 1788.
The Constitution was drafted and signed at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, where the Constitutional Convention assembled between May 25 and the 17th of September 1787. The original text was handwritten on five pages of parchment by Jacob Shallus.
The Connecticut Compromise, also called the Great Compromise, resolved the dispute between large and small states over representation in Congress. It established proportional representation in the House of Representatives, equal representation for each state in the Senate, and required that all money bills originate in the House. A Committee of Eleven reached the agreement between July 2 and the 16th of July 1787.
The Constitution has twenty-seven amendments. The first ten, added in 1791, are collectively known as the Bill of Rights. The average ratification time for all twenty-seven amendments is 9 years and 48 days, though the Twenty-sixth Amendment was ratified in the shortest time of any.
Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania, who chaired the convention's Committee of Style, is credited with coining the phrase "We the People" and authoring the final draft of the Constitution, including the Preamble. He substituted "of the United States" in place of the original list of thirteen state names and added the six stated goals of the new government.
Montesquieu, John Locke, William Blackstone, and David Hume were among the most influential thinkers behind the Constitution. Montesquieu's doctrine of separated powers shaped Articles I-III and was cited in Madison's Federalist No. 47 and Hamilton's Federalist No. 78. Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England were considered the most influential legal texts in the new republic.