1793 in the United States

Incumbents

Federal Government">Federal government of the United States">Federal Government

• President: George Washington
• Vice President: John Adams
• Chief Justice: John Jay
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: Jonathan Trumbull, Jr. , Frederick Muhlenberg
• Congress: 2nd, 3rd

  Governors

• Governor of Connecticut: Samuel Huntington
• Governor of Delaware: Joshua Clayton
• Governor of Georgia: Edward Telfair , George Mathews
• Governor of Kentucky: Issac Shelby
• Governor of Maryland: Thomas Sim Lee
• Governor of Massachusetts: John Hancock , Samuel Adams
• Governor of New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett
• Governor of New Jersey:
• * until March 30: William Paterson
• * March 30-June 3: Thomas Henderson
• * starting June 3: Richard Howell
• Governor of New York: George Clinton
• Governor of North Carolina: Richard Dobbs Spaight
• Governor of Pennsylvania: Thomas Mifflin
• Governor of Rhode Island: Arthur Fenner
• Governor of South Carolina: William Moultrie
• Governor of Vermont: Thomas Chittenden
• Governor of Virginia: Henry Lee III

  Lieutenant Governors

• Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut: Oliver Wolcott
• Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: Samuel Adams
• Lieutenant Governor of New York: Pierre Van Cortlandt
• Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island: Samuel J. Potter
• Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina: James Ladson
• Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: Peter Olcott

  Events

January–March

• January 9 - Jean-Pierre Blanchard becomes the first to fly in a gas balloon in the Western Hemisphere, from Walnut Street Jail in Philadelphia to Deptford Township, New Jersey. George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe are among the spectators.
• February 12 - The Fugitive Slave Act is passed by Congress as the first of the federal fugitive slave laws under the U.S. Constitution.
• February 25 - George Washington holds the first Cabinet meeting as President of the United States.
• February 27 - The Giles resolutions are introduced to the United States House of Representatives, asking the House to condemn Alexander Hamilton's handling of loans.
• March 1 - John Langdon becomes President Pro Tempore of the United States Senate until March 3.
• March 4 - President George Washington is sworn in for his second term, in Philadelphia.

  April–June

• April 22 - George Washington signs the Neutrality Proclamation.

  July–September

• July 9 - The Constitution of Vermont is adopted.
• August 1 - The yellow fever epidemic of 1793 starts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
• September 18 - United States Capitol cornerstone laying: President George Washington lays the cornerstone for the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.

  October–December

• October 12 - The cornerstone of Old East, the oldest state university building in the United States, is laid in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, on the campus of the University of North Carolina.
• October 28 - Eli Whitney applies for patent for his cotton gin.
• November 9 - George Washington visits Philadelphia to announce end of the yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia; around 5,000 people have been killed by the fever.
• December 9 - New York City's first daily newspaper, the American Minerva, is established by Noah Webster.

  Undated

• Hannah Slater applies to patent a new method of producing sewing thread from cotton.
• The first year of regular production begins for the United States Mint in Philadelphia and the half cent is minted for the first time.

  Ongoing

• Northwest Indian War

  Births

• January 3 - Lucretia Mott, women's rights activist and abolitionist
• January 4 - Roger Sherman Baldwin, U.S. Senator from Connecticut from 1847 to 1851
• January 14 - John C. Clark, politician
• February 9 - James Long, Filibuster and founder of the Long Republic - the first "Republic of Texas".
• March 2 - Sam Houston, President of the Republic of Texas
• June 6 - Edward C. Delavan, temperance leader
• July 19 - Thomas Doughty, landscape painter
• August 25 - John Neal, author and critic
• October 28 - Eliphalet Remington, gunmaker
• November 3 - Stephen F. Austin, empresario
• December 15 - Henry Charles Carey, economist
• Date unknown
• * Sandy Cornish, freed slave and farmer
• * John Slidell, U.S. Senator from Louisiana from 1853 to 1861

  Deaths

• July 23 - Roger Sherman, lawyer, statesman and signatory of the Declaration of Independence
• October 8 - John Hancock, businessman, smuggler, statesman, patriot and signatory of the Declaration of Independence
• Date unknown - Philip Phile, violinist and composer