1788

Events from the year 1788 in the United States.
==Incumbents==
===Federal Government===
* President: Cyrus Griffin (starting January 29)
* Congress of the Confederation
==Events==
* January 2 – Georgia ratifies the United States Constitution and becomes the 4th U.S. state under the new government.
* January 9 – Connecticut ratifies the United States Constitution and becomes the 5th U.S. state.
* January 22 – the Continental Congress, effectively a caretaker government, elects Cyrus Griffin as its last president.
* February 1 – Isaac Briggs and William Longstreet patent the steamboat in Georgia.
* February 6 – Massachusetts ratifies the United States Constitution and becomes the 6th U.S. state.
* March 21 – Great New Orleans Fire (1788) kills 25% of the population and destroys 856 buildings, including St. Louis Cathedral and the Cabildo, leaving most of the town in ruins. At the time New Orleans was a Spanish colony that would be secretly given to France in 1800. Not until 1803 would New Orleans as part of the Louisiana Purchase become part of the United States.
* April 7 – American pioneers establish the town of Marietta (in modern-day Ohio), the first permanent American settlement outside the original Thirteen Colonies.
* April 13 – A riot, the Doctors' Mob, begins. Residents of Manhattan are angry about grave robbers stealing bodies for doctors to dissect. The rioting is suppressed on the 15th.
* April 28 – Maryland ratifies the United States Constitution and becomes the 7th U.S. state.
* May 23 – South Carolina ratifies the United States Constitution and becomes the 8th U.S. state.
* June 21 – New Hampshire ratifies the United States Constitution and becomes the 9th U.S. state, the Constitution goes into effect.
* June 25 – Virginia ratifies the United States Constitution and becomes the 10th U.S. state under the new government.
* July 26 – New York ratifies the United States Constitution and becomes the 11th U.S. state.
* November 15 – Cyrus Griffin resigns as President of the Continental Congress after only two delegates arrived for the final session.
* December 15 – The 1788-89 United States presidential election begins.
==Memoriam==
* January 9 – Benedict Swingate Calvert, judge (aged 65; MD, USA)
* February 28 – Thomas Cushing, 1st Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts (aged 62; Boston, MA, USA)
* March 29 – Charles Wesley (aged 80; London, England, GB)
==External links==
* 1788 in the United States
Category:United States History: Volume 1