Some people argue that countries can’t default. But that’s false.

It is widely stated that the U.S. government has never defaulted. However, that is also a myth.

Catherine Rampbell reported in the New York Times in 2011:

The United States has actually defaulted on its debt obligations before.

The first time was in 1790, the only episode Professor Reinhart unearthed in which the United States defaulted on its external debt obligations. It also defaulted on its domestic debt obligations then, too.

Then in 1933, in the midst of the Great Depression, the United States had another domestic debt default related to the repayment of gold-based obligations.
(Update.)

Donald Marron writes at Forbes:

The United States defaulted on some Treasury bills in 1979 (ht: Jason Zweig). And it paid a steep price for stiffing bondholders.

Terry Zivney and Richard Marcus describe the default in The Financial Review...:

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