5/16/2010:
Constitution Day, or Citizenship Day, became a federal holiday in 2004. Today it is celebrated on September 17, but its origins stretch back to the 1940s, when Congress first initiated it as "I am an American Day," held the third Sunday in May. If still celebrated in this way, it would have been on this date.
In May of 1946, Gov. Fred Aandahl set forth a proclamation, asking all patriotic, civic and educational organizations to observe the holiday by holding programs on the importance of citizenship, honoring those who had achieved it in the previous year and rededicating all Americans to its ideals.
For North Dakotans and other west-seeking settlers, whose citizenship allowed them to homestead, those ideals were bright hopes on the horizon.
Dakota Datebook written by Sarah Walker
Sources:
The Hazen Star, Thursday, May 16, 1946, p.1