The first national scientific society in the United States was the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), referred to by one of its early members as "the great mother organization" of learning. The AAAS, which was created after a geological organization went defunct, held its first meeting on this date in 1848. Eighty-seven scientists attended the meeting in the library of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia and elected meteorologist/geologist William Redfield as its first president. AAAS was nearly disbanded during the Civil War and again later in the 19th century because of competition from the National Academy of Sciences and a number of more specialized societies.

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