Posted on 12/03/2004 6:44:20 PM PST by concretebob
My son asked me a trivia question. Any comments?
PING
PING..Spelled your handle wrong..My apologies
John Hanson was the first.
Who were they??
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Have no idea...He wants names
Six other presidents were elected after him - Elias Boudinot (1783), Thomas Mifflin (1784), Richard Henry Lee (1785), Nathan Gorman (1786), Arthur St. Clair (1787), and Cyrus Griffin (1788) - all prior to Washington taking office
googled !
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_of_the_Continental_Congress
However, the current office of President of the United States is not the same office held by the men listed on that page.
And even if we accept the false premise that the offices are the same, the number is not seven.
I'd always heard Hanson was 1st, but here's the list I found:
Samuel Huntington, 1st President of the United States in Congress Assembled, March 1, 1781 to July 6, 1781
Thomas McKean, 2nd President of the United States in Congress Assembled July 10, 1781 to November 5, 1781
John Hanson, 3rd President of the United States in Congress Assembled, November 5, 1781 to November 4, 1782
Elias Boudinot, 4th President of the United States in Congress Assembled, November 4, 1782 to November 3, 1783
Thomas Mifflin, 5th President of the United States in Congress Assembled, November 3, 1783 to June 3, 1784
Richard Henry Lee, 6th President of the United States in Congress Assembled, November 30, 1784 to November 23, 1785
John Hancock, 7th President of the United States in Congress Assembled, November 23, 1785 to June 6, 1786
Nathaniel Gorham, 8th President of the United States in Congress Assembled, June 1786 - November 13, 1786
Arthur St. Clair, 9th President of the United States in Congress Assembled, February 2, 1787 to October 29, 1787
Cyrus Griffin, 10th President of the United States in Congress Assembled, January 22, 1788 to March 4, 1789
John Hanson, Elias Boudinot, Thomas Mifflin, Richard Henry Lee, John Hancock, Nathaniel Gorham Arthur St. Clair, Cyrus Griffin
OK you can pull this now, please.
If you remember he could have been king, you never fall for this again.
Your list is actually more complete. Interestingly, Arthur St. Clair (1787), has a park and a cemetary (where he is buried) named after him here in Greensburg, PA, a town which was named for General Nathaniel Greene.
(history major)
although all of their names are very hard to find there were eleven presidents before George Washington. They were actually part of the "confederacy of america". congress was the "leader" but they really had no control over their states. they could pass laws but could not enforce them. What we call the presidents were just the PRESIDING member of congress which is where we get the word president. So, after eleven unsuccessful years we scrapped the system and created the same system we use today. Helpful?
in fact many wanted one to be president for life. and to be called "your highness" or "your excellency".
I guess for george bush he really could be called "your HIGHness". LOL
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