1831

Events 
 June 13 – James Clerk Maxwell born in Edinburgh
 October 30 – In Southampton County, Virginia, escaped slave Nat Turner is captured and arrested for leading the bloodiest slave revolt in United States history.
Births

November 19 - James A. Garfield, twentieth President of the United States (b. 1831)

Deaths

July 4 - James Monroe, 73, fifth President of the United States, tuberculosis (b. 1758)