Source: First Amendment Center
http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/commentary.aspx?id=12445
On January 11, 2004 the First Amendment Center reported on the significance of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, adopted by the Virginia Assembly on Jan. 16, 1786 – nearly 10 years after it was first written and proposed by Thomas Jefferson. "Today, more than 200 years later, few Americans know what the statute says or why it’s one of the most important documents in American history. Fewer still will pause this Jan. 16 to celebrate Religious Freedom Day, proclaimed each year by the president of the United States. All that should begin to change in January 2007. That’s when the First Freedom Center is scheduled to open its doors on the very site where Jefferson’s bill was adopted in Richmond, Va., in 1786."