On Fri, 07 Aug 2009 17:46:32 -0400, Warp wrote:

> but I got the impression that the first time in history that any head of
> state has been given the name "president" was precisely when the USA was
> founded, and the title given to its first president, Washington.

Incorrect.  The term "President" was used in the continental congress 
prior to the first US President.  The point of the question is that the 
first national government in the US wasn't what we have now, it was the 
continental congress, and the president of the continental congress was 
elected by the members of the continental congress (more like a 
parliamentary leader election than anything).

The point of the question on QI was to say that there were "presidents" 
before the current executive leader of the country because there was 
actually a different form of national government here before our current 
system.  The CC "President" and the current executive office called 
"President" have no relation to each other, but that's not relative to 
the point of the question.

Jim

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