A couple of notable events in U.S. history that have occurred in the month of January are detailed in this edition of the ‘History Matters’ column.

America was very efficient when it came to shaping a government. On January 7, 1789 – six years after the finish of the Revolutionary War – Congress committed to a date for the first election; less than a month later, George Washington ascended to the presidency.

“Americans (still) vote for President and Vice President of the United States, they are actually voting for presidential electors, known collectively as the Electoral College. It is these electors, chosen by the people, who elect the chief executive ... the United States still uses the Electoral College system, which today gives all American citizens over the age of 18 the right to vote for electors, who in turn vote for the president. The president and vice president are the only elected federal officials chosen by the Electoral College instead of by direct popular vote,” according to History.com.

For more information, the Grateful American Book Prize suggests Kathleen Bartoloni-Tuazon’s For Fear of an Elective King: George Washington and the Presidential Title Controversy of 1789.

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On January 14, 1639, Hartford, Connecticut endorsed its ‘Fundamental Orders’.

“The Dutch discovered the Connecticut River in 1614, but English Puritans from Massachusetts largely accomplished European settlement of the region. During the 1630s, they flocked to the Connecticut valley from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and in 1638 representatives from the three major Puritan settlements in Connecticut met to set up unified government for the new colony ... Roger Ludlow, a lawyer, wrote much of the Fundamental Orders, and presented a binding and compact frame of government that put the welfare of the community above that of individuals. It was also the first written constitution in the world to declare the modern idea that ‘the foundation of authority is in the free consent of the people’,” says History.com.

The history of the U.S. Constitution is told in the book The Framers’ Coup: The Making of the United States Constitution by Michael J. Klarman, says the Grateful American Book Prize.

This is a feature courtesy of The Grateful American Book Prize, contributed by John Grimaldi and David Bruce Smith. The authors note it is intended to show “our children that their past is prelude to their future.”