On This Day: Political Firsts

While doing research for other articles, I stumbled across the strangest thing; many political first throughout the world occurred on March 4. There were so many, that I just had to share them.

UPDATE (2010): I just realized that I missed one. I added it in bold.

• 1629: The Massachusetts Bay Colony is granted a Royal charter by King Charles I of England.
• 1681: King Charles II grants a land charter to William Penn for the land that would become Pennsylvania.
• 1778: The Continental Congress votes to approve the Treaty of Amity and Commerce and the Treaty of Alliance with France. These are the first two treaties enacted by the United States government.
• 1789: The first U.S. Congress meets in New York City, which puts the Constitution into effect.
• 1791: Vermont is admitted as the 14th state, becoming the first area outside the original 13 colonies to become a state.
• 1794: The 11th Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, becoming the first amendment ratified after the Bill of Rights.
• 1797: John Adams is sworn in as President of the United States in the first ever peaceful transition of power between elected leaders in modern times.
• 1848: Carlo Alberto di Savoia signs the Statuto Albertino which would later become the first Constitution of Italy (see, the U.S. isn’t the only happening place).
• 1861: The Stars and Bars, the first national flag of the Confederate States of America is adopted (pictured)
• 1911: Victor Berger of Wisconsin becomes the first Socialist Congressman in the U.S.
• 1917: Jeannette Rankin of Montana becomes the first Female Member of the House of Representatives.
• 1925: Calvin Coolidge becomes the first President to have his Inauguration broadcast over the radio.
• 1929: Charles Curtis becomes the first Native American Vice President. Along with Barack Obama, he is the only person of acknowledge non-European ancestry to become either President or V.P. of the United States.
• 1933: Frances Perkins becomes the first female member of the U.S. Cabinet when she is selected as the Secretary of the Department of Labor.
• 1979: The first encyclical written by Pope John Paul II, Redemptor Hominis (Latin for “The Redeemer of Man”) is promulgated less than five months after his installation as pope.
• 1980: Robert Mugabe is elected the first black Prime Minister of Zimbabwe.
• 1983: Bertha Wilson is the first female appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada.
• 1991: The Prime Minister of Kuwait, Sheikh Saad Al-Abdallah Al-Salim Al-Sabah, returns to his home country for the first time since the invasion by Iraq.
• 2007: The first nationwide election in the world in which voters are able to vote remotely over the Internet takes place during the Estonian parliamentary elections. Roughly 30,000 (2% of the population) people take advantage of this service.

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