1808

Events from the year 1808 in the United States.
==Incumbents==
===Federal Government===
* President: Thomas Jefferson (DR-VA)
* Vice President: George Clinton (DR-NY)
* Chief Justice: John Marshall (VA)
* Speaker of the House of Representatives: Joseph Bradley Varnum (DR-MA)
* Congress: 10th
==Events==
* January 1 – Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves (1807) comes into effect: The importation of slaves into the United States is banned; this is also the earliest day under the United States Constitution that an amendment can be made restricting slavery.
* February 6 – The ship Topaz (from Boston April 5, 1807, hunting seals) rediscovers the Pitcairn Islands; only one HMS Bounty mutineer is found alive, Alexander Smith (John Adams).
* February 11 – Anthracite coal is first burned as fuel by Jesse Fell in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania; the discovery leads to the use of coal as the key fuel source of America's industrial revolution.
* April 6 – John Jacob Astor founds the American Fur Company.
* April 24 – Irish Dominican R. Luke Concanen is consecrated first bishop of the newly erected Roman Catholic Diocese of New York (appointed April 8) but is unable to sail from Italy to America before his death in 1810 due to restrictions caused by the Napoleonic Wars.
* November 4 – James Madison defeats Charles C. Pinckney in the U.S. presidential election.
==Memoriam==
* February 14 – John Dickinson, Founding Father of the United States, signatory of Continental Association, Articles of Confederation, and United States Constitution (aged 75; Wilmington, DE, USA)
* May 18 – Elijah Craig, minister and inventor of bourbon whiskey (aged 69; Georgetown, KY, USA)
* September 3 – John Montgomery, delegate to the Continental Congress (aged 86; Cumberland, PA, USA)
* September 17 – Benjamin Bourne, politician (aged 53; Bristol, RI, USA)
* October 9 – John Claiborne, politician (aged 30; Brunswick County, VA, USA)
* November 1 – Lewis Hallam Jr., actor (aged 68; Philadelphia, PA, USA)
==External links==
* 1808 in the United States
Category:United States History: Volume 3