Who was the first president of the United States, inaugurated in New York City in 1789?

George Washington was the first president of the United States and was inaugurated in New York City in 1789.

Washington took the presidential oath on April 30, 1789, at Federal Hall in lower Manhattan. Robert R. Livingston, New York's highest judicial officer at the time, administered the oath. The ceremony occurred nearly two months after the start of the constitutional government's first presidential term because the new federal government needed time to organize.

Washington had commanded the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War and later presided over the Constitutional Convention. The Electoral College elected him unanimously in both the 1788–1789 election and the 1792 election. He served two terms, from 1789 to 1797, and declined to seek a third. His retirement helped establish a tradition later associated with presidential term limits, although the Constitution did not impose a two-term limit until the Twenty-Second Amendment was ratified in 1951. John Adams served as Washington's vice president and succeeded him.