1789

Events from the year 1789 in the United States. The Articles of Confederation, the agreement under which the nation's government had been operating since 1781, was superseded by the Constitution in March of this year.
==Incumbents==
===Federal Government===
* Articles of Confederation (through March 3):
** 10th Confederation Congress
* United States Constitution (beginning from March 4):
** President: George Washington (F-VA)
** Vice President: John Adams (F-MA)
** Chief Justice: John Jay (NY) (starting October 19)
** Speaker of the House of Representatives: Frederick Muhlenberg (starting April 1)
** Congress: 1st United States Congress (starting March 4)
==Events==
===January - March===
* January 7 – The 1789 United States presidential elections and House of Representatives elections are held.
* January 10 – The 1788-89 United States presidential election ends.
* January 21 – William Hill Brown's anonymous sentimental epistolary novel The Power of Sympathy: or, The Triumph of Nature, usually considered the first American novel, is published in Boston.
* January 23 – Georgetown University is founded in what would become Washington, D.C., becoming the first Catholic college in the United States.
* February 4 – George Washington is unanimously elected the 1st President of the United States by the United States Electoral College.
* March 2 – Philip Pell, only member in attendance, adjourns the Congress of the Confederation sine die.
* March 4 – At Federal Hall in New York City, the 1st United States Congress meets and declares the new United States Constitution to be in effect.
* March 29 – Thomas Collins, President of Delaware, dies in office.
===April - June===
* April 1 – At Federal Hall, the United States House of Representatives attains its first quorum and elects Frederick Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania as its first Speaker of the House.
* April 6 – At Federal Hall, the United States Senate attains its first quorum and elects Senator John Langdon as its first President pro tempore; the first joint session of Congress is held on that same date, and the electoral votes of the first presidential election are formally counted. General George Washington is declared President-elect, and John Adams is declared Vice President-elect.
* April 21
** John Adams takes office as Vice-President of the United States and begins to preside the sessions of the United States Senate.
** George Washington's reception at Trenton is hosted by the Ladies of Trenton as he journeys to New York City for his first inauguration.
* April 30 – George Washington is sworn in at Federal Hall in New York City, beginning his term as the 1st President of the United States.
===July - September===
* July 1 – Charles Thomson resigned as secretary of Congress and hands over the Great Seal, bringing an end to the Articles of Confederation.
* July 4 – Tariff Act of 1789. Congress passes its first tax on 30 different items at 8.5% with discount to American ships over foreign ones.
* July 27 – The first U.S. federal government agency under the new Constitution, the Department of Foreign Affairs (later renamed the Department of State), is established following the month-long Decision of 1789, the first significant construction on the meaning of the U.S. Constitution in Congress.
* August 7 – The United States Department of War is established.
* September 2 – The United States Department of the Treasury is established.
* September 15 – The Department of Foreign Affairs is officially renamed the Department of State.
* September 24 – The Judiciary Act of 1789 establishes the federal judiciary and the United States Marshals Service.
* September 25 – The United States Congress proposes a set of 12 amendments for ratification by the states. Ratification for 10 of these proposals is completed on December 15, 1791, creating the United States Bill of Rights.
* September 29 – The U.S. Department of War establishes the nation's first regular army, with a strength of several hundred men.
===October - December===
* November 6 – Pope Pius VI appoints John Carroll the first Roman Catholic bishop in the United States.
* November 20 – New Jersey ratifies the United States Bill of Rights, the first state to do so.
* November 21 – North Carolina ratifies the United States Constitution and becomes the 12th U.S. state.
* November 26 – A national Thanksgiving Day is observed in the United States as recommended by President George Washington and approved by Congress.
* December 11 – The University of North Carolina, the oldest public university in the United States, is founded.
==Memoriam==
* January 4 – Thomas Nelson Jr., signatory of the Declaration of Independence and Governor of Virginia in 1781 (aged 50; Hanover County, VA, USA)
* January 10 – James Mitchell Varnum, brigadier general of the Revolutionary War, Continental Congressman for Rhode Island (aged 40; Marietta, NW Territory (Now OH), USA)
* January 13 – Joseph Spencer, major general of the Revolutionary War, Continental Congressman for Connecticut (aged 74; East Haddam, CT, USA)
* January 25 – James Randolph Reid, Continental Congressman for Connecticut (aged 38; Middlesex, PA, USA)
* February 12 – Ethan Allen, Revolutionary War patriot (aged 52; Burlington, VT Republic)
* February 19 – Nicholas Van Dyke, lawyer and President of Delaware (aged 50; New Castle County, DE, USA)
* March 29 – Thomas Collins, planter and President of Delaware (aged 57; Smyrna, DE, USA)
* April 13 – Joseph Spencer, colonel of the Revolutionary War, Continental Congressman for New Hampshire (aged 50; NH, USA)
* July 21 – Joseph Spencer, Continental Congressman for Maryland (aged 39; MD, USA)
* September 4 – Paul Spooner, lieutenant governor of Vermont from 1782 to 1787 (aged 43; North Hartland, VT Republic)
* September 23
** Silas Deane, American Continental Congressman for Connecticut (aged 51; Kent, England, GB)
** John Rogers, American Continental Congressman for Maryland (aged 66; Annapolis, MD, USA)
* October 27 – John Cook, farmer, President of Delaware (aged 59; Smyrna, DE, USA)
* November 10 – Richard Caswell, major general of the Revolutionary War, Continental Congressman and Governor of North Carolina from 1776 to 1780 & 1785 to 1787 (aged 60; Fayetteville, NC, USA)
* November 17 – Samuel Holden Parsons, major general of the Revolutionary War, member of the Connecticut House of Representatives (aged 52; Beaver River, PA, USA)
* December 10 – William Pierce, member of the Georgia House of Representatives, Continental Congressman for Georgia (aged 36; Savannah, GA, USA)
==External links==
* 1789 in the United States
Category:United States History: Volume 1