# Timeline of the history of the United States (1820–1859)

This section of the timeline of United States history concerns events from 1820 to 1859.

## 1820s
### Presidency of James Monroe

* 1820 – Massachusetts divided in two with the admission of Maine as a state.
* 1820 – U.S. presidential election, 1820: James Monroe reelected president unopposed, Daniel D. Tompkins reelected vice president.
* March 4, 1821 – President Monroe and Vice President Tompkins begin their second terms
* 1821 – Missouri becomes a state
* 1821 – Florida becomes a U.S. territory; the 1819 Adams–Onís Treaty goes into effect
* 1823 – Monroe Doctrine proclaimed
* 1824 – Gibbons v. Ogden (22 US 1 1824) affirms federal over state authority in interstate commerce. Gibbons' business partner is Cornelius Vanderbilt.
* 1824 – U.S. presidential election, 1824: Presidential results inconclusive. John C. Calhoun elected vice president.
* 1825 – John Quincy Adams elected president by the House of Representatives;

### Presidency of John Quincy Adams

* March 4, 1825 – Adams becomes the sixth president; Calhoun becomes the seventh vice president
* 1825 – Erie Canal is finally completed
* 1826 – Former presidents Thomas Jefferson and John Adams die on the same day, which happens to be on the fiftieth anniversary of the approval of the Declaration of independence.
* 1828 – U.S. presidential election, 1828: Andrew Jackson elected president; John C. Calhoun reelected vice president
* December 22, 1828 - First Lady-designate Rachel Jackson dies of a heart attack.

### Presidency of Andrew Jackson

* March 4, 1829 – Jackson becomes the seventh president; Vice President Calhoun begins second term

## 1830s

* 1830s – Second Great Awakening is the religious revival movement
* 1830s – Oregon Trail which comes into use by settlers migrating to the Pacific Northwest.
* 1830 – Indian Removal Act
* 1831 – Nat Turner's revolt
* 1831 – The Liberator begins publication in 1831
* 1831 – Cyrus McCormick invents the mechanical reaper
* 1831 – Petticoat affair (also known as the Eaton affair)
* 1832 – Worcester v. State of Georgia the Supreme Court rules in favor of Cherokees; President Jackson ignores the ruling.
* 1832 – Maria Stewart is the first black American woman to give speech in front of a mixed audience.
* 1832 – Black Hawk War
* 1832 – Tariff of 1832
* 1832 – Ordinance of Nullification passed by South Carolina
* 1832 – Department of Indian Affairs established
* 1832 – 1832 United States presidential election: Andrew Jackson reelected president; Martin Van Buren elected vice president.
* 1832 – Jackson vetoes the charter renewal of the Second Bank of the United States, bringing to a head the Bank War and ultimately leading to the Panic of 1837.
* December 28, 1832 – Calhoun resigns as vice president.
* 1833 – The Force Bill expands presidential powers.
* March 4, 1833 – President Jackson begins second term; Van Buren becomes the eighth vice president.
* 1834 – Slavery debates at Lane Theological Seminary are one of the first major public discussions of the topic.
* 1835 – Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America published.
* 1835 – Second Seminole War begins in Florida as members of the Seminole tribe resist relocation.
* 1836 – Creek War of 1836
* 1836 – Samuel Colt invents the revolver.
* 1836 – Original "gag rule" imposed when U.S. House of Representatives bars discussion of antislavery petitions.
* 1836 – Specie Circular issued
* 1836 – Arkansas becomes a state.
* 1836 – U.S. presidential election, 1836: Martin Van Buren elected president, no one is elected vice president.
* 1837 – Richard M. Johnson elected vice president by the Senate.

### Presidency of Martin Van Buren

* March 4, 1837 – Van Buren becomes the eighth president; Johnson becomes the ninth vice president.
* 1837 – U.S. recognizes the Republic of Texas
* 1837 – Caroline affair
* 1837 – Michigan becomes a state
* 1837 – Oberlin College begins enrolling female students, becoming first coeducational college in the U.S.
* 1837 – Panic of 1837
* 1837 – Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge reverses Dartmouth College v. Woodward: property rights can be overridden by public eyed.
* 1838 – Forced removal of the Cherokee Nation from the southeastern U.S. leads to over 4,000 deaths in the Trail of Tears.
* 1838 – Aroostook War
* 1839 – Amistad case

## 1840s

* 1840 – 1840 United States presidential election: William Henry Harrison is elected president; John Tyler is elected vice president.
* 1841 – John Quincy Adams argues the Amistad Case before the Supreme Court.

### Presidency of William Henry Harrison

* March 4, 1841 – Harrison becomes the ninth president; Tyler becomes the tenth vice president.
* March 6, 1841 – Supreme Court finds for Amistad defendants, freeing them.
* April 4, 1841 – President Harrison dies after only a month in office.

### Presidency of John Tyler

* April 4, 1841 – Vice President Tyler becomes the tenth president
* September 11, 1841 – Tyler's cabinet resigns en masse. Only Daniel Webster remains.
* 1842 – Webster–Ashburton Treaty
* 1842 – The Dorr Rebellion: A civil war in Rhode Island
* July 10, 1842 - January, 1843 – Attempted impeachment of President Tyler.
* 1843 – Emigrants begin their journey along the Oregon Trail.
* December, 1844 – Oregon passes its Black Exclusion Law.
* June 27, 1844 – Mormon leader, Joseph Smith Jr. assassinated.
* 1844 – U.S. presidential election, 1844, James K. Polk is elected president; George M. Dallas is elected vice president.
* 1845 – Texas annexation

### Presidency of James K. Polk

* March 4, 1845 – Polk becomes the 11th president; Dallas becomes the 11th vice president.
* 1845 – Florida and Texas become states
* 1846 – Dred Scott sues for his freedom
* 1846 – The Mexican–American War begins
* 1846 – Bear Flag revolt in Alta California, which is momentarily independent.
* 1846 – Iowa becomes a state
* 1846 – Wilmot Proviso
* 1846 – The United States and Great Britain sign the Oregon Treaty
* 1847 – Abraham Lincoln introduces himself to the world by his introduction of the Spot Resolutions in the House.
* 1847 – Battle of Buena Vista
* 1847 – Battle of Veracruz
* 1848 – The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ends the Mexican–American War
* 1848 – Wisconsin becomes a state
* 1848 – Seneca Falls Convention
* 1848 – U.S. presidential election, 1848; Zachary Taylor is elected president; Millard Fillmore is elected vice president

### Presidency of Zachary Taylor

* March 4, 1849 – Taylor becomes the 12th president; Fillmore becomes the 12th vice president
* 1849 – California Gold Rush begins

## 1850s

* 1850 – Clayton–Bulwer Treaty
* 1850 – President Taylor threatens to veto Compromise of 1850 even if it means Civil War.
* June 3-11 –The secessionist Nashville Convention held in Nashville, Tennessee.

### Presidency of Millard Fillmore

* July 9, 1850 – President Taylor dies, Vice President Fillmore becomes the 13th president
* September 9–20, 1850 – The Compromise of 1850, including the notorious Fugitive Slave Act passed
* September 9, 1850 – California becomes a state
* November 1850 – Nashville Convention reconvenes; Satisfied with the Compromise, it declares the Union intact-for the moment.
* 1852 – U.S. presidential election, 1852: Franklin Pierce elected president; William R. King elected vice president
* 1853 – Commodore Matthew Perry opens Japan

### Presidency of Franklin Pierce

* March 4, 1853 – Pierce becomes the 14th president; King becomes the 13th vice president
* April 18, 1853 – Vice President King dies after only six weeks in office.
* 1854 – Gadsden Purchase from Mexico
* 1854 – Kansas–Nebraska Act; nullified Missouri Compromise
* 1854 – Ostend Manifesto
* 1854 – Whig Party collapses
* 1854 – Treaty of Kanagawa with Japan
* 1854 – Walker Expedition into Nicaragua
* 1854-1855 Know-Nothing Party, mushroom growth and sudden collapse
* 1855 – The Farmers' High School, which becomes Penn State University is founded.
* 1856 – Sack of Lawrence, Kansas
* 1856 – Pottawatomie massacre
* 1856 – Preston Brooks beats Charles Sumner with his walking stick on the steps of the U.S. Capitol building
* 1856 – U.S. presidential election, 1856: James Buchanan elected president; John C. Breckinridge, vice president

### Presidency of James Buchanan

* March 4, 1857 – Buchanan becomes the 15th president; Breckinridge becomes the 14th vice president
* 1857 – Dred Scott v. Sandford 60 US 393 1857 declares that slaves and Blacks descended from slaves were not American citizens and cannot sue
* 1857 – Utah War
* 1857 – Lecompton Constitution rejected in Kansas Territory
* 1857 – Panic of 1857
* 1857 – San Francisco Board of Education established Minns Evening Normal School for current and prospective teachers, which becomes San Jose State University
* 1858 – Transatlantic cable laid
* 1858 – Minnesota becomes a state
* 1858 – Lincoln–Douglas debates
* 1858 – U.S. is party to Treaty of Tientsin
* 1859 – John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry
* 1859 – Comstock Lode discovered