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Signing of the District of Columbia Organic Act

When: February 27, 1801
Where: Seat of Congress
Part of: Washington, D.C. placed under United States Congress jurisdiction

The 6th Congress enacted the Organic Act, placing the district under exclusive federal control and organizing it into two counties.

Signed on February 27, 1801, the act formally placed the District of Columbia under the control of the United States Congress. It organized the territory into Washington County to the north and east of the Potomac River and Alexandria County to the west and south.

Sources

District of Columbia Organic Act of 1801 Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-11
Washington, D.C. Wikipedia, revision of 2026-10-01

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.