What military rank was posthumously awarded to George Washington effective July 4, 1976?

George Washington was posthumously awarded the rank of General of the Armies effective July 4, 1976.

Congress authorized the appointment through Public Law 94-479, passed on January 19, 1976, as part of the United States Bicentennial observance. The effective date was set for July 4, exactly 200 years after the Declaration of Independence.

The appointment restored Washington's position as the highest-ranking military officer in United States history. Washington had originally been commissioned as a general during the American Revolutionary War, but later officers had received higher-sounding titles or ranks under changing military systems.

General of the Armies is not the same title as General of the Army, the five-star rank used by senior U.S. Army officers in the twentieth century. Washington's appointment was ceremonial and posthumous, but it established a formal precedence above all other U.S. military officers.