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TThe question was, "Who was the first President of the United States of America?" If you answered with anyone else than George Washington, you failed the question.

If you said George Washington, you are wrong. He was actually the eighth President of the United States.

The first President of the United States was John Hanson. The next six were Elias Boudinot (1783), Thomas Mifflin (1784), Richard Henry Lee (1785), Nathan Gorman (1786), Arthur St. Clair (1787), and Cyrus Griffin (1788). Each served a one-year term under the limitations of the Articles of Confederation.

By the way, George Washington was one of the members of the Congress that unanimously elected Mr. Hanson.

I think the question was asked with the implication of the time when the United States became a constitutional republic - in that case Washington was the first (constitution ratified in 1788 - in service in 1789).

Your claim is misleading. Yes, the Articles of Confederation in Article I states:

The Stile of this Confederacy shall be "The United States of America."

And in Article II, the Articles state among other things that each state retains its sovereignty.

The expression "the United States in Congress assembled" occurs 28 times (by my count) in the A of C.

But the word "president" occurs just once in this document, in Article IX.

In that article, the A of C gave "the United States in Congress assembled" the authority to create 'A Committee of the States' with one member from each state, to meet when the Congress was out of session. This committee could appoint officers, including a president of the governing authority. The president was not referred to in the Articles of Confederation as the President of the United States of America. Period.

Some on this board have tried to conflate the stile of "The United States of America" from Article I with the presiding officer of the committee mentioned in Article IX. Some FReepers like to conflate unrelated things to prove their points of view. It's a free country.