Curated playlist
1789 establishments in the United States
- United States Attorney GeneralThe United States attorney general earns $250,600 a year, as of January 2025, the salary for a Level I role in the federal Executive Schedule. This officeholder runs the United States Department of Justice and serves as the chief law…
- United States Secretary of StateThe United States Secretary of State earns $250,600 a year to hold one of the most consequential jobs in American government. At any given moment, this single official may be conducting treaty negotiations, representing the country at…
- Constitution of the United StatesThe Constitution of the United States became the supreme law of the land on the 4th of March, 1789, when it superseded the Articles of Confederation. That earlier document had been the nation's first attempt at a governing charter, and by…
- United States Department of StateThe United States Department of State holds a distinction that most Americans never think about: it was the very first federal agency created under the new Constitution, signed into law by President George Washington on the 27th of July,…
- Vice President of the United StatesThe Vice President of the United States holds the second-highest office in the executive branch, yet for most of the nation's history the position was treated as an afterthought. John Adams, the very first person to hold the office,…
- Supreme Court of the United StatesThe Supreme Court of the United States receives roughly 7,000 requests for review every single year. It says yes to about 80. That act of choosing, of deciding which questions about American law are worth answering, sits at the heart of…
- United States SenateThe United States Senate has stood at the center of American democracy since the 4th of March 1789, the date Article One of the Constitution first took effect. One hundred people hold it together: two senators from each of the fifty…
- United States Department of the TreasuryOn the 22nd of June 1775, just days after the Battle of Bunker Hill, a group of delegates gathered in Philadelphia and made a decision that would shape the financial life of a nation not yet born. The Continental Congress issued two…
- President of the United StatesThe President of the United States is the single most consequential political office on earth. In July 1776, when thirteen colonies severed ties with Britain and began debating what their new government would look like, nobody could quite…
- United States House of RepresentativesThe United States House of Representatives has held its first session on the 1st of April, 1789, in New York City. On that spring day, a body that had been debated, fought over, and carefully constructed met for the first time, carrying…
- Federal government of the United StatesThe federal government of the United States has been operating under the same constitutional framework since the 4th of March, 1789. That date marks when the Constitution was ratified and the nation's federal rule of law took hold, built…
- United States CongressThe United States Congress first met in 1789, replacing a weaker body that could not collect taxes, regulate trade, or enforce its own laws. What replaced it was something genuinely new: a legislature split into two chambers, each with its…
- United States Department of WarThe United States Department of War existed for exactly 158 years, from the 7th of August 1789, to the 18th of September 1947. For most of that span, it bore one of the most direct names in American government: the War Department. It built…