1789

Decades: 1730s 1740s 1750s 1760s 1770s - 1780s - 1790s 1800s 1810s 1820s 1830s

Years: 1784 1785 1786 1787 1788 - 1789 - 1790 1791 1792 1793 1794

Events

• January 7 - First nationwide United States election
• January 21 - The first American novel, The Power of Sympathy or the Triumph of Nature Founded in Truth, is printed in Boston, Massachusetts
• January 23 - Georgetown College becomes the first Catholic college in the United States (Washington, DC).
• February 4 - George Washington is unanimously elected to be the first President of the United States by the U.S. Electoral College.
• March 4 - At Federal Hall in New York City, the first United States Congress meets and declares the new Constitution of the United States is in effect.
• April 1 - At Federal Hall in New York City, the United States House of Representatives holds its first quorum and elects Frederick Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania as its first House Speaker.
• April 28 - Fletcher Christian leads a mutiny on HMS Bounty against Captain William Bligh
• April 30 - George Washington officially begins his term as the 1st President of the United States with his inauguration at Federal Hall in New York City.
• July 9 - In Versailles, the National Constituent Assembly is formed by the French National Assembly and begins preparations for a French constitution.
• July 10 - Alexander Mackenzie reaches Mackenzie River Delta.
• July 14 - French Revolution: Parisians storm the Bastille Prison in Paris and free seven political prisoners.
• July 27 - The first U.S. federal government agency, the Department of Foreign Affairs, is established (later renamed Department of State).
• August 4 - The feudal system is abolished in France.
• August 7 - The United States War Department is established.
• September 2 - United States Department of the Treasury is founded.
• September 29 - War Department first establishes regular army with strength of several hundred men.
• November 6 - Pope Pius VI appoints Father John Carroll as the first Roman Catholic bishop in the United States.
• November 20 - New Jersey becomes the first U.S. state to ratify the Bill of Rights.
• November 21 - North Carolina ratifies the United States Constitution and becomes the 12th U.S. state.

• Beginning of the French Revolution
• Change of Ottoman sultan of the Ottoman Empire from Abd-ul-Hamid I (1773-1789) to Selim III (1789-1807)
• Thomas Jefferson brings the first macaroni machine to the United States
• The Judiciary Act established the Supreme Court of the United States and the federal judiciary.

Year in topic

• 1789 in literature
• 1789 in music
• 1789 in science

Births

• January 4 - Benjamin Lundy, American abolitionist
• August 21 - Augustin Louis Cauchy (French mathematician)

Deaths

• April 7 - Abd-ul-Hamid I, Ottoman sultan
• May 25 - Anders Dahl, botanist for whom the dahlia is named
• Baron d'Holbach

Monarchs/Presidents

• China - Qianlong Emperor of China, Qing Dynasty (reigned from October 18, 1735 to February 9, 1796)

Referenced By