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steve robertshaw's avatar

You made me look it up! Apparently, the term had existed for a long time in Europe, but was first applied to the single head of a government at Washington's inauguration in 1789. It was used in the wording of the Constitution and, at the urging of James Madison, in the oath of office. He was certainly the first leader of a government to have that formal title.

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David Court's avatar

Thanks for the research. Obviously, TFG does not think it should it apply to him, unless it buys him something.

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Kathleen Weber's avatar

The officer who presided over the Articles of Confederation Congress was called the president.

We had a local gotcha questionтАФ who was the first president of the United States? The answer was John Hanson. Our local junior high school was named for him. BTW, my brother was the star pitcher on their champion baseball team c 1964.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hanson

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Dec 4, 2023
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steve robertshaw's avatar

Right, the title was in common use for a long time. What I should have said is Washington was the first single head of a Republic (read : nation) to be called President.

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