Today in History, January 7th
January 7, 1789, was the deadline to choose electors in the first U.S. presidential election. Plus Marian Anderson's Met debut.
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January 7 is best known for 1789, the deadline Congress set for the states to choose electors in the first U.S. presidential election. The date also saw Marian Anderson become the first Black singer to perform with the Metropolitan Opera in 1955 and Vietnamese troops topple the Khmer Rouge in 1979.
The big story: The first presidential electors are chosen (1789)
The new Constitution needed a president, and nobody had ever picked one this way before. Congress told the states to name their presidential electors by January 7, 1789. How they did it was up to each state, and many simply let their legislatures choose rather than holding a popular vote. Not every state took part: North Carolina, Rhode Island and New York cast no electoral votes. When the electors met in their 10 states on February 4, each cast two votes. Of 72 electors, all but three voted, and every one who did put down George Washington, giving him 69 votes. John Adams came second with 34 and became vice president. The process was brand new, and states were still working out how it should run. Washington took the oath of office on April 30, 1789.
More events on January 7
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1785 | Two men crossed the English Channel by gas balloon, flying from Dover, England, to Calais, France. |
| 1892 | A coal mine explosion in Krebs, in what is now Oklahoma, killed nearly 100 people. |
| 1896 | Fannie Farmer’s first cookbook appeared. It was among the first to call for precise measurements, and it went on to sell millions of copies. |
| 1927 | The Harlem Globetrotters played their first game, in Hinckley, Illinois. |
| 1953 | President Harry Truman told Congress that the U.S. had developed a hydrogen bomb. |
| 1955 | Singer Marian Anderson became the first Black singer to perform with the Metropolitan Opera in New York. |
| 1959 | The U.S. recognized Cuba’s new provisional government, six days after dictator Fulgencio Batista fled. |
| 1979 | Vietnamese troops captured Phnom Penh and overthrew Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia. |
| 1999 | The Senate impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton began. |
| 2015 | Two gunmen attacked the Paris offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, killing 12 people. |
Born on January 7
- 1800: Millard Fillmore, 13th U.S. president, born in Locke Township, New York.
- 1891: Zora Neale Hurston, novelist and folklorist, born in Notasulga, Alabama. She later claimed to have been born in 1901.
- 1964: Nicolas Cage, American actor, born in Long Beach, California.
Sources
- United States presidential election of 1789, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- First U.S. presidential election, History.com
- This Day in History: January 7, History.com
- Shooting attack at satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, History.com
- Millard Fillmore, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Zora Neale Hurston, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Nicolas Cage, Encyclopaedia Britannica
