President George Washington personally signed the first U.S. patent.
Notes on verification
Confirmed by multiple independent government archival sources (National Archives, Library of Congress) plus USPTO records; consistent with requirements of the Patent Act of 1790. [tier=silver indep_score=0.77 clusters=2 claim_tier=notable | kind=empirical eligibility=high]
Sources
- Milestones in U.S. patenting | USPTO (seed:firsts_and_inventions)
- https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2011/summer/patent.html (corroboration)
- https://www.loc.gov/item/prn-15-183/ (corroboration)