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### Fast Facts

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                          - 1840 Fast Facts
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### *POP*Culture: 1840

**ICONS:** Samuel Morse's Telegraph, Frederick Douglass, Sewing Machine
                          - Captain Charles Wilkes circumnavigates Antarctica, claiming it for the United States on January 19, 1840.
                          - William Henry Harrison wins the 1840 presidential election, defeating incumbent Martin Van Buren. 
                          - The August 9, 1842, Webster-Ashburton Treaty formally designates the border separating the United States and Canada.
                          - On May 24, 1844, Samuel B. Morse sends the message, "What hath God wrought" over the first telegraph line from Washington, DC, to Baltimore, MD.
                          - Ireland's "Potato Famine" results in an influx of Irish immigrants to the United States beginning in 1845.
                          - Alexander Cartwright and his New York Knickerbockers codify the "Rules of Baseball" in 1845.
                          - Frederick Douglass publishes  Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass , an American Slave in 1845.
                          - Elias Howe patents the sewing machine on September 10, 1846.
                          - During the February 22-23, 1847, Battle of Buena Vista, General Taylor's U.S. Army of 4800 men defeats Mexico's 15,000-man force lead by General Santa Anna.
                          - The American Medical Association is founded in Philadelphia on May 7, 1847.
                          - On January 24, 1848, James Marshall discovers gold near Sutter's Fort, California. The discovery of gold is the beginning of the California Gold Rush of 1849.
                          - The 1849 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ends the Mexican-American War.  In exchange for $15 million and settling $3.25 million in American claims, Mexico cedes approximately 500,000 square miles of territory in the western and southwestern United States.
                          - Elizabeth Blackwell receives the first medical degree awarded to a woman on January 23, 1849, from the Medical Institute of Geneva, NY.
                          - Henry David Thoreau publishes "Resistance to Civil Government," later known as "Civil Disobedience," in 1849.

| The 1840 Census         |   | 10 Largest Urban Places         |
|-------------------------|--------|---------------------------------|
| 17,063,353              |
| 9.8                     | 1      | New York City, NY               | 312,710 |
| 32.7                    | 2      | Baltimore, MD                   | 102,313 |
| June 1                  | 3      | New Orleans, LA                 | 102,193 |
| 26                      | 4      | Philadelphia, PA                | 93,665 |
| $833,000                | 5      | Boston, MA                      | 93,383 |
| 4.9                     | 6      | Cincinnati, OH                  | 46,338 |
| 1,465                   | 7      | Brooklyn, NY                    | 36,233 |
| 2,167                   | 8      | Northern Liberties District, PA | 34,474 |
| 28                      | 9      | Albany, NY                      | 33,721 |
| William Augustus Weaver | 10     | Charleston, SC                  | 29,261 |
| 12                      |

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