January 7th

== Information==

What:
George Washington was elected first president of the United States

Where:
United States of America

Year:
1789

Information and Singificance
On January 7th, 1789 the votes were tallied and George Washington was elected president of the United States of America. There were many reasons this was significant. For one it was the first time that the electoral college was used.

The second reason was who could vote. At this early time in American history the great vision of true democracy hadn't yet come true. Only white, male property owners could vote. However, this wouldn't last long. The poor were soon given the right to vote. In 1865, so would black men, and finally in 1920 women were given the right to vote.

However, the most important part of this election was the fact that this was the first time a Head of State had been elected in the Western World if not the entire world since the time of of the Roman Republic. The English government did have an elected government after the English revolution in 1688, but the King was still head of state and he was a hereditary monarch. Monarchies would still be the main form of government in Europe until the early 20th century. Until the end of World War I the UK, Spain, Portugal, Austria-Hungary, Germany, Italy, Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Greece, Rummania, Norway-Sweden, Turkey and Russia would still have monarchs and only Britain's was a figurehead king. Before the supposedly civilised Europe could even think of using democracy some weak, tiny country on the other side of the Atlantic was using quite effectively, and would do so for more than 200 years into the future.