1836

Events from the year **1836 in the United States**. Exceptionally, but also that of the Republic of Texas.

## Incumbents

### Federal Government

* President: Andrew Jackson (D-TN)
* Vice President: Martin Van Buren (D-NY)
* Chief Justice: Roger B. Taney (MD)
* Speaker of the House of Representatives: James K. Polk (D-TN)
* Congress: 24th

Governors
* Governor of Alabama: Clement Comer Clay (Democratic)
* Governor of Arkansas:
	+ until June 15: William S. Fulton (Democratic)
	+ June 15-September 13: vacant
	+ starting September 13: James Sevier Conway (Democratic)
* Governor of Connecticut: Henry W. Edwards (Democratic)
* Governor of Delaware: Caleb P. Bennett (Democratic) (until July 11), Charles Polk Jr. (Whig) (starting July 11)
* Governor of Georgia: William Schley (Democratic)
* Governor of Illinois: Joseph Duncan (Whig)
* Governor of Indiana: Noah Noble (Whig)
* Governor of Kentucky: James T. Morehead (National Republican) (until August 30), James Clark (Whig) (starting August 30)
* Governor of Louisiana: Edward Douglass White Sr. (Whig)
* Governor of Maine: Robert P. Dunlap (Democratic)
* Governor of Maryland: James Thomas (Whig) (until January 14), Thomas W. Veazey (Whig) (starting January 14)
* Governor of Massachusetts: Samuel Turell Armstrong (Whig) (until January 13), Edward Everett (Whig) (starting January 13)
* Governor of Mississippi: John A. Quitman (Whig) (until January 7), Charles Lynch (Democratic) (starting January 7)
* Governor of Missouri: Daniel Dunklin (Democratic) (until September 30), Lilburn W. Boggs (Democratic) (starting September 30)
* Governor of New Hampshire: William Badger (Democratic) (until June 2), Isaac Hill (Democratic) (starting June 2)
* Governor of New Jersey: Peter Dumont Vroom (Democratic) (until November 3), Philemon Dickerson (Democratic) (starting November 3)
* Governor of New York: William L. Marcy (Democratic)
* Governor of North Carolina: Richard Dobbs Spaight Jr. (Democratic) (until December 31), Edward Bishop Dudley (Whig) (starting December 31)
* Governor of Ohio: Robert Lucas (Democratic) (until December 12), Joseph Vance (Whig) (starting December 12)
* Governor of Pennsylvania: Joseph Ritner (Anti-Masonic)
* Governor of Rhode Island: John Brown Francis (Democratic)
* Governor of South Carolina: George McDuffie (Democratic) (until December 10), Pierce Mason Butler (Democratic) (starting December 10)
* Governor of Tennessee: Newton Cannon (Whig)
* Governor of Vermont: Silas H. Jennison (Whig)
* Governor of Virginia: Littleton Waller Tazewell (Whig) (until April 30), Wyndham Robertson (Whig) (starting April 30)

Lieutenant Governors
* Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut: Ebenezer Stoddard (Democratic-Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Illinois: Alexander M. Jenkins (Democratic) (until December 9), William H. Davidson (Democratic) (starting December 9)
* Lieutenant Governor of Indiana: David Wallace (Whig)
* Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky: Charles A. Wickliffe (Democratic-Republican) (starting August 31)
* Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: Samuel T. Armstrong (political party unknown) (until January 13), George Hull (Whig) (starting January 13)
* Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi: vacant
* Lieutenant Governor of Missouri:
	+ until September 30: Lilburn Boggs (Democratic)
	+ September 30-November 21: vacant
	+ starting November 21: Franklin Cannon (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of New York: John Tracy (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island: George Engs (political party unknown) (until month and day unknown), Jeffrey Hazard (political party unknown) (starting month and day unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina: Whitemarsh B. Seabrook (Democratic) (until December 10), William DuBose (Democratic) (starting December 10)
* Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: Silas H. Jennison (Whig) (until month and day unknown), David M. Camp (Whig) (starting month and day unknown)

## Events

### January - March

* January 5 – Davy Crockett arrives in Texas, which at this time is not part of the United States.
* January 18 – Dade County, Florida, is formed.
* February 3 – United States Whig Party holds its first convention in Albany, New York.
* February 5 – Henry Roe Campbell builds the first 4-4-0, a steam locomotive type that will soon become the most common on all railroads of the United States.
* February 23 – Battle of the Alamo: The siege of the Alamo begins in San Antonio, Texas.
* February 25 – Samuel Colt receives an American patent for the Colt revolver, the first practical adaptation of the revolving flintlock pistol.
* March 1 – At the Convention of 1836, delegates from 57 Texas communities convene in Washington-on-the-Brazos to deliberate independence from Mexico.
* March 2 – At the Convention of 1836, the Republic of Texas declares independence from Mexico.
* March 6 – The Battle of the Alamo ends; 189 Texans are slaughtered by about 1,600 Mexicans.
* March 17 – Texas abolishes the slave trade.
* March 27
	+ Texas Revolution: Goliad massacre: Antonio López de Santa Anna orders the Mexican army to kill about 400 Texans at Goliad, Texas.
	+ U.S. Survey of the Coast returned to U.S. Treasury Department as the U.S. Coastal Survey.
* March 31 – Marshall College, named for John Marshall, opens in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania. It later merges with Franklin College to become Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

### April - June

* April 20 – U.S. Congress passes act creating the Wisconsin Territory.
* April 21 – Texas Revolution: Battle of San Jacinto: Republic of Texas forces under Sam Houston defeat troops under Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna. (Santa Anna and hundreds of his troops are taken prisoner along the San Jacinto River the next day.)
* April 22 – Texas Revolution: A day after the Battle of San Jacinto, forces under Texas General Sam Houston capture Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna.
* May 4 – The Ancient Order of Hibernians, an Irish Catholic fraternal organization, is founded in New York City.
* May 19 – Fort Parker massacre: Among those captured by Native Americans is 9-year-old Cynthia Ann Parker; she later gives birth to a son named Quanah, who becomes the last chief of the Comanche.
* June 15 – Arkansas admitted becomes the 25th U.S. state.
* June 28 – James Madison, the 4th President of the United States and United States Secretary of State, dies in Montpelier, Virginia.

### July - September

* July 3 – Wisconsin Territory is effective.
* July 8 – Valparaiso, Indiana is incorporated.
* July 11 – President Andrew Jackson issues the Specie Circular, beginning the failure of the land speculation economy that will lead to the Panic of 1837.
* July 13 – U.S. patent #1 is granted after filing 9,957 unnumbered patents.
* July 30 – The first English language newspaper is published in Hawaii.
* August 1 – Abolition Riot of 1836 in the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court: Two fugitive slave women are freed from the courtroom by spectators.
* August 30 – The city of Houston, Texas, is founded.
* September 1 – Narcissa Whitman, one of the first white women to settle west of the Rocky Mountains, arrives at Walla Walla, Washington.
* September 5 – Sam Houston is elected as the first president of the Republic of Texas.
* September 8 – Transcendental Club founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

### October - December

* October 15 – Alexander Twilight becomes the first African American elected to public office, joining the Vermont House of Representatives.
* October 22 – Sam Houston is inaugurated as first elected President of the Republic of Texas.
* December 4 – Whig Party holds its first national convention, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
* December 7 – U.S. presidential election, 1836: Martin Van Buren defeats William Henry Harrison.
* December 10 – Emory College, the forerunner of Emory University, is chartered in Oxford, Georgia.
* December 14 – The Toledo War, the mostly bloodless boundary dispute between Ohio and the adjoining Michigan Territory, is unofficially ended by a resolution passed by the controversial "Frostbitten Convention".
* December 15 – The United States Patent Office burns in Washington, D.C.
* December 20 – Sudden freeze kills many travelers in Illinois.
* December 23 – Georgia Female College, the forerunner of Wesleyan College, is chartered in Macon, Georgia as the first college for women in the U.S.

## Memoriam

* January 30 – Betsy Ross, flagmaker (aged 84; Philadelphia, PA, USA)
* February 18 – Cornplanter (Gaiänt'wakê), Seneca chief (aged 90; Cornplanter Tract, PA, USA)
* February 23 – Ezra Ames, portrait painter (aged 67; Albany, NY, USA)
* March 6
	+ James Bowie, Texas revolutionary (aged 40; San Antonio, TX Republic, USA)
	+ Davy Crockett, king of the wild frontier (aged 49; San Antonio, TX Republic, USA)
	+ William B. Travis, Texas revolutionary (aged 26; San Antonio, TX Republic, USA)
* March 27 – James Fannin, Texas Revolutionary (aged 32; Fort Defiance, TX Republic, USA)
* April 29 – Simon Kenton, frontiersman and Revolutionary War militia general (aged 81; Logan County, OH, USA)
* June 9 – Supply Belcher, composer and singer (aged 85; Farmington, ME, USA)
* June 25 – Jesse Bledsoe, U.S. Senator from Kentucky from 1813 to 1814 (aged 60; Nacogdoches, TX Republic, USA)
* June 28 – James Madison, 4th President of the United States from 1809 to 1817 (aged 85; Montpelier, VA, USA)
* September 14 – Aaron Burr, 3rd Vice President of the United States from 1801 to 1805 (aged 80; Staten Island, NY, USA)
* October 10 – Martha Jefferson Randolph, Acting First Lady of the United States from 1801 to 1809 (aged 64; Albemarle County, VA, USA)
* November 1 – Tenskwatawa, Shawnee prophet and political leader (aged 61; Argentine (Now Kansas City, KS), USA)
* December 27 – Stephen F. Austin, pioneer (aged 43; West Columbia, TX Republic, USA)