 held its first meeting
8/1/1790, George Washington gave the first State of the Union Address.
26/11/1789. Thanksgiving was celebrated across America for the first time. In 1621 the indigenous Americans had taught early Plymouth settlers how to tap the maple trees for sap and how to plant the Indian corn. The harvest was very successful and the Pilgrims found they had enough food to see them through the winter. The Pilgrim Governor William Bradford proclaimed a Day of Thanksgiving to be shared by all colonists and invited the Indians to join them for three days. During the American Revolution of the late 1770s, a Day of National Thanksgiving was suggested by the Continental Congress and was celebrated nationwide in 1789. Since then each President has issued a Thanksgiving Day proclamation, usually designating the fourth Thursday in November as the holiday.
21/11/1789, North Carolina became the 12th State of the Union.
2/9/1789, The US Department of the Treasury was established.
27/7/1789, Thomas Jefferson was made head of the new US Department of Foreign Affairs.
12/3/1789, The United States Post Office was established.
4/3/1789, The Constitution of the United States came into force. The first US Congress was held in New York with 59 members, each representing a district of some 30,000 people.
7/1/1789. The first national elections were held in the USA, and George Washington was elected President.
13/9/1788. New York became the Federal capital of the new United States of America.
26/7/1788. New York became the 11th State of the Union.
25/6/1788, Virginia became the 10th State of the Union.
21/6/1788 (1) The American Constitution legally came into force, after ratification by a ninth State..
(2) New Hampshire became the 9th State of the Union.
23/5/1788, South Carolina became the 8th State of the Union.
28/4/1788, Maryland became the 7th State of the Union.
21/3/1788. A major fire destroyed nearly all of New Orleans, USA.
6/2/1788, Massachusetts became the 6th State of the Union.
9/1/1788, Connecticut became the 5th State of the Union.
2/1/1788, Georgia became the 4th State of the Union.
18/12/1787, New Jersey became the 3rd State of the Union.
12/12/1787, Pennsylvania became the 2nd State of the Union.
7/12/1787, Delaware, the Diamond or First State, achieved Statehood.
17/9/1787, The constitution of the United States of America was signed.
15/9/1787, George Mason, a plantation owner from Virginia, called for an amendment to the draft US Constitution. To avoid the Federal government becoming oppressive, he called for a clause whereby if twonthirds of the States wished, Congress would have to agree to a convention to discuss the proposed government change or policy. This change to Article V was incorporated as Mason desired.
25/5/1787. The Philadelphia Convention, headed by George Washington, began drawing up the USA Constitution. On 17/9/1787 the Constitution was agreed by 39 out of 42 delegates.
25/1/1787, An abortive attempt to seize the US arsenal at Springfield, Massachusetts.
9/9/1786. George Washington called for the abolition of slavery.
25/11/1783. British troops evacuated from New York.
2/9/1783 Britain recognised the United States by signing the Treaty of Paris, thus ending the American War of Independence. By this treaty northern Florida was ceded by Britain to the USA but on the same day Britain had signed the Treaty of Versailles, ceding west Florida to Spain. This caused controversy for some year until the Treaty of Madrid in 1795 in which Spain ceded lands east of the Mississippi to the USA. The Spanish also regained Minorca from the British, and France got Senegal and Tobago from Britain. However in Senegal the British retained the Gambia river valley. Britain also paid a war indemnity of £10 million.
Britain had sent a force of 60,000 men to fight a much larger population on their own ground, when Holland, France and Spain had sided with the opposition.
23/5/1783, James Otis, US patriot (born 5/2/1725), died from a lightning strike.
19/4/1783, US Congress officially proclaimed victory in the War of Indep