First meeting at the College of William & Mary
- When
- 5 December 1776
- Where
- College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia
Five students convened Phi Beta Kappa's first meeting on December 5, 1776, at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, with John Heath as first President.
The Phi Beta Kappa Society held its first meeting on December 5, 1776, at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. The gathering was convened by five students, and John Heath served as the society's first President. The founding established what is now regarded as the oldest academic honor society in the United States, dedicated to promoting excellence in the liberal arts and sciences.
Sources
- Phi Beta Kappa Wikipedia, revision of 2026-07-04
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.