1789

1789 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar).

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 University becomes the first Catholic college in the United States (Washington, DC).
• February 4 - George Washington is unanimously elected the first President of the United States by the U.S. Electoral College.
• March 4 - At Federal Hall in New York City, the first U.S. Congress meets and declares the new Constitution of the United States to be 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 is inauguration at Federal Hall in New York City, beginning his term as the 1st President of the United States
• May 5 - In France, the Estates-General convenes for the first time in 175 years.
• June 14 - HMAV Bounty mutiny survivors including Captain William Bligh and 18 others reach Timor after a nearly 4,000 mile journey in an open boat
• June 17 - In France, representatives of the Third Estate at the Estates-General declare themselves the National Assembly.
• June 20 - Tennis Court Oath in Paris
• July 9 - In Versailles, the National Assembly reconstitutes itself as the National Constituent Assembly and begins preparations for a French constitution.
• July 10 - Alexander Mackenzie reaches Mackenzie River Delta.
• July 11 - King of France fires popular chief minister Necker
• July 12 - Angry Parisian crowd demonstrates against King’s decision to dismiss minister Necker
• July 14 - French Revolution: Citizens of Paris storm the Bastille and free seven prisoners. In rural areas, peasants attack noble manors.
• July 27 - The first U.S. federal government agency, the Department of Foreign Affairs (later renamed the Department of State), is established.
• August 4 - In France members of the Constituent Assembly take an oath to end feudalism and abandon their privileges
• August 7 - The United States War Department is established
• August 26 - Declaration of the Rights of Man in France
• September 2 - United States Department of the Treasury is founded.
• September 24 - The Judiciary Act of 1789 establishes the Supreme Court of the United States and the federal judiciary.
• September 25 - The United States Congress proposes a set of twelve amendments for ratification by the states. Ratification for ten of these proposals is completed on December 5, 1791, creating the United States Bill of Rights. An additional proposal is ratified more than two centuries later in 1992.
• September 29 - The United States War Department first establishes the nation's first regular army, with a strength of several hundred men.
• November 6 - Pope Pius VI appoints Father 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.

Undated

• 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
• United States Revenue Cutter Service (predecessor of United States Customs Service and direct predecessor of the United States Coast Guard) is founded
• United States Marshals Service is founded
• Influenced by dr Benjamin Rush's argue against excessive use of alcohol, about 200 farmers in a Connecticut community formed a temperance association.

Ongoing events

• French Revolution (1789-1799)

Births

• January 4 - Benjamin Lundy, American abolitionist (d. 1839)
• January 21 - William Machin Stairs, Canadian businessman and statesman (d. 1865)
• March 16 - Georg Ohm, German physicist (d. 1854)
• July 19 - John Martin, English painter (d. 1854)
• August 21 - Augustin Louis Cauchy, French mathematician (d. 1857)
• August 28 - Stephanie de Beauharnais, Grand Duchess of Baden (d. 1860)
• September 15 - James Fenimore Cooper, American writer (d. 1851)
• December 28 - Catharine Sedgwick, American writer (d. 1867)

Deaths

• January 1 - Fletcher Norton, 1st Baron Grantley, English politician (b. 1716)
• January 8 - Jack Broughton, English boxer
• January 23 - Frances Brooke, English writer (b. 1724)
• February 19 - Nicholas Van Dyke, American lawyer and President of Delaware (b. 1738)
• April 7 - Abd-ul-Hamid I, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1725)
• April 7 - Petrus Camper, Dutch anatomist (b. 1722)
• April 26 - Count Petr Ivanovich Panin, Russian soldier (b. 1721)
• May 9 - Jean Baptiste Vaquette de Gribeauval, French Sartillery specialist (b. 1715)
• May 25 - Anders Dahl, Swedish botanist (b. 1751)
• June 4 - Prince Louis-Joseph of France, son of Louis XVI of France (tuberculosis) (b. 1781)
• July 13 - Victor de Riqueti, marquis de Mirabeau, French economist (b. 1715)
• July 14 - Jacques de Flesselles, French provost (assassinated) (b. 1721)
• July 15 - Jacques Duphly, French composer (b. 1715)
• July 22 - Joseph-François Foulon, French politician (executed) (b. 1715)
• September 23 - *October 27 - John Cook, American farmer and President of Delaware (b. 1730)
• December 3 - Claude Joseph Vernet, French painter (b. 1714)
• December 12 - John Ponsonby, Irish politician (b. 1713)
• December 23 - Charles-Michel de l'Épée, French philanthropist and developer of signed French (b. 1712)