Chronology

Full chronology version

1800

The Library of Congress is founded

1800

Noah Webster publishes the American Spelling Book

1800

Average of 7.04 children born to each American woman

1800

Congress convenes in Washington, DC for the first time on November 17th

1800

The census records a population about 5.3 million people

1800

The free Blacks of Philadelphia present a petition opposing slavery to Congress. The petition expires in committee.

1801

The University of Georgia opens

1801

At a Presbyterian camp meeting in Cane Ridge, Kentucky, the religious Great Revival of the West begins

1801

War with Tripoli begins

1802

John James Beckley is appointed as the first Librarian of Congress

1802

The Society of Fine Arts in New York is established as the first major American art academy

1802

The Naturalization Act of 1802 declares that 5 years of residency are required in order to render an immigrant eligible for American citizenship

1803

A government-sponsored expedition sets out down the Ohio river on a 3 year journey of exploration and discovery

1803

Passage of the 12th Amendment means that the election of president and vice president occur on separate ballots

1803

The start of America's expansion westward follows the Louisiana Purchase

1804

The New York Historical Society is established, providing permanent preservation of the nation's historical documents and records

1804

The Lewis and Clark Expedition leaves St Louis in May, beginning a journey westward up the Missouri River

1804

Thomas Jefferson wins a second term as president and is inaugurated on March 4

1805

The New York Free School Society is founded by Mayor DeWitt Clinton for the free education of poor children of no religious denomination

1805

War with Tripoli ends with a peace treaty in June

1805

Charles Willson Peale founds the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art

1805

Mercy Otis Warren publishes Rise, Progress and Termination of the American Revolution, the first account of the era written by an American

1806

Noah Webster publishes the Compendious Dictionary of the English Language

1806

In Massachusetts, a group of five Williams College students establish 'The Brethren' to facilitate American missionary work in other countries

1807

The first reliable steamboat travels from New York City to Albany, N.Y. up the Hudson River. The trip takes 32 hours.

1807

The Embargo Act becomes law, which essentially bans all trade with foreign countries

1807

Congress passes legislation prohibiting the importation of enslaved peoples into the U.S. after January 1, 1808

1807

A series of essays titled Salmagundiis published, marking the beginning of the Knickerbocker school of writers

1808

The first Black private school, started at the beginning of the century by Prince Hall, moves to the African Meeting House on Beacon Hill

1808

Importing enslaved peoples from Africa is prohibited

1808

The Democratic-Republican candidate James Madison defeates Charles Cotesworth Pinckney to become President

1808

The Theatre d'Orleans opens in New Orleans, the opera capital of the U.S.

1808

The Niukonska, a Dhegiha Sioux nation, sign the Osage Treaty ceding their lands to the U.S.

1809

The Phoenix completes the first sea voyage by a steamboat by traveling around the shores of New Jersey. It was designed by John Stevens.

1809

New England governors refuse to supply militia to enforce the Embargo Acts of 1807 and 1808

1809

Washington Irving publishes History of New York

1810

Yale Medical School opens

1810

Aeronauts A.R.Hawley and Augustus Post complete a balloon flight of over 1000 miles from St Louis to Canada

1810

Missionary societies such as the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions and the American Home Missionary Society, brought together state societies with similar aims

1810

Johann Christian Gottlieb Graupner founds the Boston Philharmonic Society, the first regular orchestra in the U.S.

1810

Third national census records about 7.2 million people

1811

Francis Cabot Lowell visits Britain and views a power loom. He invents his own power loom founds textile plants and factory towns in New England.

1811

A group of Russian settlers lands at Bodega Bay in California. They establish Fort Ross.

1812

A cabinet maker in Massachusetts produces the first wood pencils

1812

James Madison is reelcted to a second term as President

1812

War is declared on June 19th against Great Britain because of the impressment of seamen and the blockade of American ports

1813

The court case 'Pennsylvania v. Addicks' introduces the concept of "the best interests of the child" in custody cases

1813

Tecumseh, a Shawnee Chief is killed in the Battle of the Thames. He had tried to unify the different Indigenous groups in the region in order to stop the expansion of the white settlers.

1814

Treaty of Ghent ends the War of 1812

1814

Francis Scott Key writes The Star-Spangled Banner

1815

Thomas Jefferson's library of 7,000 volumes is purchased by the Library of Congress to form the core of its collection

1815

The first issue of the scholarly journal North American Review is published

1816

John Pickering publishes Vocabulary, a dictionary of indigenous American words and phrases

1816

Baltimore, Maryland is the first American city to use a gas company for the purpose of street lighting. The city is illuminated at night by coal gas.

1816

The African Methodist Church is established as the first Black church in the U.S. to be completely independent of white churches

1816

The American Education Society was set up to train ministers

1816

Robert Finley founds the American Colonization Society, the purpose of which is to return formerly enslaved people to Africa

1817

Harvard Law School is established as the first centre for professional training in law

1817

The state-financed construction of the Erie Canal is authorised. The waterway will give New York City access to the West.

1817

James Monroe is inaugurated as the fifth president of the U.S.

1818

Approximately 30,000 immigrants enter the U.S.

1819

The University of Virginia was founded by Thomas Jefferson

1819

In New York, the Bank for Savings is the first place where women can open their own accounts

1819

William Ellery Channing's speech on 'Unitarian Christianity' underlines the divisions between Unitarians and Christians

1819

Congress offers a $50 reward for reporting the illegal transportation of enslaved people into the United States

1820

The first Roman Catholic school is founded in Boston

1820

James Monroe is reelected as president

1820

The Land Law fixes land price at a minimum of $1.25 per acre

1820

The Hudson River School, America's first main school of painting emerge

1820

U.S. population totals 9.6 million

1821

Emma Hart Willard founds The Waterford Academy for Young Ladies. It is the first women's collegiate-level school.

1821

Boston's English Classical School is the first public high school

1821

The African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) Zion Church is established

1821

Missouri becomes the 24th state in the union

1821

The republic of Liberia in West Africa is established as a refuge for formerly enslaved people by the American Colonization Society

1822

Locally run benevolent groups such as the Female Charitable Society of Rochester, New York, are established to aid the sick and the poor

1823

The Monroe Doctrine is delivered to Congress on December 2nd, stating that the U.S. will not tolerate European intervention in the Americas

1823

James Fenimore Cooper publishes The Pioneers

1824

The Rensselaer School of Theoretical and Practical Science is established in Troy, New York as the first solely technical school

1824

The American Sunday School Union is founded

1824

John Quincy Adams is elected President

1824

The Boston Philharmonic Society play their last concert at the Pantheon, Boston

1824

The 'Bureau of Indian Affairs' is established as part of the War Department to handle relations with Indigenous peoples of North America.

1825

Miami University in Ohio promotes a study program allowing students to substitute classical languages and mathematics for more modern subjects

1825

The Erie Canal is completed, at 363 miles long

1825

The United Tailoresses Society of New York, the first women's labor organization, is formed

1825

The American Tract Society is organised and soon floods the country with Christian literature

1826

The first section of American railroad is completed in Quincy, Massachusetts

1826

Women from New England are recruited to work in factory towns, often working up to 14 hours a day but with more opportunites for education

1826

The first American Temperance Society is founded in Boston. Within a decade there were more than 1.5 million members.

1827

Samuel Griswold Goodrich publishes the Peter Parley textbooks

1827

The law states that towns with 500 families or more are required to provide public high schools

1827

One of the first American restaurants, Delmonicos, opens in New York City

1827

The first Black newspaper, Freedom's Journal, is printed in New York

1828

Noah Webster publishes American Dictionary of the English Language containing over 70,000 definitions

1828

The American Peace Society is set up to undertake missionary work

1828

Andrew Jackson is elected President, defeating John Quincy Adams by an overwhelming majority

1828

The Cherokee Phoenix is published - the first American newspaper published in an Indigenous North American language

1829

The New England Asylum for the Blind (later The Perkins School for the Blind) opens its doors to children with sight loss

1829

The first steam-powered locomotive in America is tested

1829

The Muskogee people receive orders to relocate across the Mississippi River

1830

Cook stoves gain widespread use in homes

1830

The first locomotive built in America runs on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad

1830

Joseph Smith publishes the Book of Mormon and establishes the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

1830

Congress passes the 'Indian Removal Act' which displaced groups of Indigenous people of North America to west of the Mississippi to allow their lands to be fully colonised.

1830

Godey’s Lady’s Book is launched and runs until 1898

1830

U.S. population is 12.8 million

1830

A new wave of German immigrants arrive in the U.S.

1831

The Female Literary Association of Philadelphia and the African-American Female Intelligence Society of Boston are formed

1831

Dr Samuel Francis Smith's song America, written to the tune of God Save the King, is sung for the first time in Massachusetts

1831

The Liberator, an abolitionist paper is launched and runs until 1865

1832

Prudence Crandall begins a two-year struggle to run a seminary which included African-American girls among its students

1832

Samuel Morse develops the idea of electromagnetic telegraphy and a signalling alphabet known as Morse Code

1832

Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society is founded

1832

A pastoral letter from the Presbyterian General Assembly approves of women’s prayer meetings but forbids speeches to ‘promiscuous’ (mixed-sex) gatherings

1832

Andrew Jackson is reelected President

1832

The American Democratic Party is formed

1832

The New England Anti-Slavery Society is founded

1833

Oberlin College opens in Oberlin, Ohio. It is the first coeducational and multi-racial college in the United States.

1833

The Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society is founded

1833

Massachusetts becomes the last of the states to sever the connection between church and state with the disestablishment of the Congregational Church

1833

The first issue of Knickerbocker Magazine appears. It will be the country's most popular and influential literary magazine until it ceases publication in 1859.

1834

George Bancroft publishes the first volume of History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent. It will take 40 years to publish the tenth and final volume.

1834

The horse-drawn grain reaper is patented by Cyrus McCormick

1834

Anti-Catholic protestors burn a convent in Somerville, Massachusetts

1834

A Methodist mission is established in Oregon on the Willamette River to work with Indigenous peoples of North America

1835

3000 lyceums exist in towns throughout the country. This method of adult education featured a mix of speakers and entertainment.

1835

The nation's first women's prison opens in New York

1835

National debt is paid off. The state banks begin to issue bank notes not backed by gold and silver, resulting in inflation.

1835

Edgar Allen Poe is appointed editor of the newly published Southern Literary Messenger

1836

Holmes McGuffey publishes the first of his Eclectic Readers, which become classic schoolbooks in America

1836

Samuel Colt receives an American patent for his revolving pistol

1836

Female workers in Lowell Massachusetts textile mills strike

1836

Wesleyan Female College in Macon, Georgia, was the institution to first grant college degrees to women

1836

A wagon train of missionaries and their wives arrive at Walla Walla on the Columbia and Snake Rivers

1836

Around 500 abolitionist societies exist in the North

1837

Mary Lyon founds Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, the first four-year college exclusively for women

1837

Horace Mann collects statistics on Massachusetts schools and issues his first Annual Report on education

1837

John Deere developed and began commercially manufacturing the cast-steel plow

1837

The first National Female Anti-Slavery Society convention meets in New York City. 81 delegates from 12 states attend.

1837

Increasing inflation and shrinking credit causes financial panic, widespread bank failures and unemployment

1837

Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine is published

1837

Mary Ann Lee and Augusta Maywood are among the first American ballet dancers, making their debut together in Maid of Cashmere

1838

The first public demonstration of the electrical telegraph occurs at the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia

1838

The Great Western steamship begins offering service between New York and Bristol, England

1838

Kentucky legislature grants school suffrage to widows who have children of school age

1838

The Unitarian leader William Ellery Channing publishes Self Culture, promoting the doctrine of 'self-improvement' and providing an alternative to strict Calvinist theology

1838

Edward Hoyle publishes his Improved Edition of the Rules for the Playing of Fashionable Games. It becomes the handbook for card games.

1838

The Anishinaabe people are expelled from the East Coast and begin the 'Trail of Tears' toward reservations in the Midwest

1839

Horace Mann starts the first public school for teacher training in the country at Lexington, Massachusetts. It enrols only young women.

1839

Mississippi passes the first Married Woman's Property Act which allows women to retain their personal property after marriage

1839

Abner Doubleday determines the first set of rules for the game of baseball

1840

Common school systems become a popular form of education

1840

The Baltimore College of Dental Surgery is established; the first specialist college of its kind

1840

Wilkes Expedition, a flotilla of six small ships, discovers Antarctica

1840

Lucretia Mott is denied a seat at the World Anti-Slavery Conference in London because of her gender

1840

William Henry Harrison is elected President

1840

The 'Transcendentalists' who discuss philosophy and literature, begin to publish their own journal The Dial

1840

U.S. population is around 17 million

1840

An unprecedented amount of immigrants begin to arrive from Germany, Ireland, Italy, England, Scotland, Wales, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Scandinavia, Russia and Canada

1841

Oberlin College awards its first academic degrees to three women

1841

William Henry Harrison dies of pneumonia and Vice-President John Tyler becomes president.

1841

Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories establish conventions of the detective fiction genre

1841

Horace Greeley begins to publish the New York Tribune

1842

Francis Wayland, president of Brown College publishes Thoughts on the Present Collegiate System in the United States, advising that students should be allowed to choose their own courses of study

1842

P.T.Barnum opens his American Museum to the public in New York City

1842

The New York Philharmonic is founded, presenting four programs per season

1843

In New York City, Jewish Germans organize the B'nai B'rith

1843

Beginning of large migration westward

1844

Samuel Morse adapts his design into a telegraph that could cover long distances

1844

Joseph Smith, leader of the Church of Jesus Christ and Later Day Saints, is killed by a mob

1844

Anti-Catholic riots in Philadelphia against the attempts by the Catholics in the city to end Bible-reading in the public schools

1844

James K. Polk defeats Henry Clay for the Presidency

1845

The pioneering Limestone Springs Female High School opens in South Carolina

1845

Margaret Fuller publishes Woman in the Nineteenth Century, a collection of essays on the role of women in America

1845

The Methodist Episcopal church splits into Northern and Southern conferences over the slavery question

1845

The first American opera, Leonora is written by William Henry Fry

1845

The potato famine in Ireland brings great numbers of Irish immigrants to the U.S.

1846

Six women demand equal rights in a petition to New York's constitutional convention.

1846

The emigration to Utah by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints begins

1846

Congress declare war on Mexico

1846

The first match baseball game is played in New Jersey

1847

The tuition-free Academy of New York City (later City College of New York), was chartered by the New York State Legislature

1847

Maria Mitchell is recognized as the first woman astonomer in America when she discovers a comet. She is the first woman admitted to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

1847

Adhesive postage stamps, approved by Congress, go on sale in New York in July

1848

The University of Mississippi opens to its first 80 students

1848

The first women's rights convention in the U.S is held in Seneca Falls, New York organised by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Women's rights meetings are held on a regular basis from now on.

1848

President Polk confirms the discovery of gold in California, sparking a rush to the West

1848

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ends the Mexican War and cedes Texas, California, and New Mexico to the U.S.

1848

Benjamin Baker writes a play, A Glance at New York, which starts a trend for plays portraying city life

1848

The nation's first department store opens on Broadway

1849

Elizabeth Blackwell graduates from Geneva College, N.Y and becomes the first woman to receive the M.D. degree

1849

Amelia Bloomer begins publishing The Lily, supporting temperance and women's rights

1849

The United Brethren charter Otterbein University in Ohio

1849

The Baptists found William Jewell College in Missouri, and the Presbyterians found Austin College in Texas

1849

Zachary Taylor becomes the 12th President of the U.S

1849

Harriet Tubman escapes from slavery. Over the next ten years she leads many enslaved people to freedom by the Underground Railroad.

1850

Although Congress abolishes flogging in the Navy, it remains legal for schoolteachers to use such punishment to make their pupils behave

1850

The National Women's Rights Convention is held in Worcester, Massachusetts

1850

The Female Medical College of Pennsylvania becomes the first medical school for women

1850

Fugitive Slave Act provides for the return of enslaved people brought to free states

1850

Millard Fillmore becomes President after the death of Zachary Taylor

1850

Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter becomes an instant bestseller, tackling the subject of adultery

1850

U.S. population totals 23.1 million