On what date did the America250 commission hold its first organizing meeting?

The America250 commission held its first organizing meeting on November 16, 2018.

The meeting took place at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, where the commission’s 33 original members were sworn in. It marked the transition from a commission created by federal law into an organized body beginning its long-term planning for the 2026 national anniversary.

Several nearby dates represent different milestones. Congress established the commission in 2016. The Department of the Interior selected the American Battlefield Trust as administrative secretariat on May 4, 2018. The members’ first formal organizing session came later, in November 2018.

The location was historically deliberate. Independence Hall was the site where the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution were debated and adopted. Holding the inaugural meeting there connected the modern anniversary planners with the political history America250 is intended to commemorate.