1843

Events from the year **1843 in the United States**.

* Speaker of the House of Representatives: John White (W-KY) (until March 4), John Winston Jones (D-VA) (starting December 4)
* Congress: 27th (until March 4), 28th (starting March 4)

Governors
* Governor of Alabama: Benjamin Fitzpatrick (Democratic)
* Governor of Arkansas: Archibald Yell (Democratic)
* Governor of Connecticut: Chauncey Fitch Cleveland (Democratic)
* Governor of Delaware: William B. Cooper (Whig)
* Governor of Georgia: Charles J. McDonald (Democratic) (until November 8), George W. Crawford (Whig) (starting November 8)
* Governor of Illinois: Thomas Ford (Democratic)
* Governor of Indiana: Samuel Bigger (Whig) (until December 6), James Whitcomb (Democratic) (starting December 6)
* Governor of Kentucky: Robert P. Letcher (Whig)
* Governor of Louisiana: André B. Roman (Whig) (until January 30), Alexandre Mouton (Democratic) (starting January 30)
* Governor of Maine: John Fairfield (Democratic) (until March 7), Edward Kavanagh (Democratic) (starting March 7)
* Governor of Maryland: Francis Thomas (Democratic)
* Governor of Massachusetts: John Davis (Whig) (until January 17), Marcus Morton (Democratic) (starting January 17)
* Governor of Michigan: John S. Barry (Democratic)
* Governor of Mississippi: Tilghman Tucker (Democratic)
* Governor of Missouri: Thomas Reynolds (Democratic)
* Governor of New Hampshire: Henry Hubbard (Democratic)
* Governor of New Jersey: William Pennington (Whig) (until October 27), Daniel Haines (Democratic) (starting October 27)
* Governor of New York: William C. Bouck (Democratic)
* Governor of North Carolina: John Motley Morehead (Whig)
* Governor of Ohio: Wilson Shannon (Democratic)
* Governor of Pennsylvania: David R. Porter (Democratic)
* Governor of Rhode Island: Samuel Ward King (Rhode Island) (until May 2), James Fenner (Law and Order) (starting May 2)
* Governor of South Carolina: James Henry Hammond (Democratic)
* Governor of Tennessee: James C. Jones (Whig)
* Governor of Vermont: Charles Paine (Whig) (until October 13), John Mattocks (Whig) (starting October 13)
* Governor of Virginia: John Munford Gregory (Whig) (until January 1), James McDowell (Democratic) (starting January 1)

Lieutenant Governors
* Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut: William S. Holabird (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Illinois: John Moore (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Indiana: Samuel Hall (Whig) (until December 6), Jesse D. Bright (Democratic) (starting December 6)
* Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky: Manlius Valerius Thomson (political party unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: George Hull (political party unknown) (until January 17), Henry H. Childs (Democratic-Republican) (starting January 17)
* Lieutenant Governor of Michigan: Origen D. Richardson (Whig)
* Lieutenant Governor of Missouri: Meredith Miles Marmaduke (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of New York: Daniel S. Dickinson (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island: Nathaniel Bullock (political party unknown) (until May 2), Byron Diman (political party unknown) (starting May 2)
* Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina: Isaac Donnom Witherspoon (Democratic) (starting December 8)
* Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: Waitstill R. Ranney (Whig) (until October 13), Horace Eaton (Whig) (starting October 13)

## Events

### January - March

* January 1 – Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Tell-Tale Heart" is first published.
* February 6 – The Virginia Minstrels perform the first minstrel show (Bowery Amphitheatre, New York City).
* March 21 – The world does not end, contrary to the first prediction by American preacher William Miller.

### April - June

* April 30 – Naval Battle of Campeche begins: Naval Battle between the Mexican Navy versus the Texas Navy and the Yucatán Navy. The battle features the most advanced warships of its day.
* May 7 – Nakahama Manjirō lands in New Bedford, Massachusetts, the first known Japanese in the United States.
* May 16 – Naval Battle of Campeche ends.
* May 22 – The first major wagon train for the American Northwest sets out with one thousand pioneers from Elm Grove, Missouri on the Oregon Trail.
* June 1 – Fruitlands (transcendental center) in Harvard, Massachusetts, led by Bronson Alcott and Charles Lane, functions.

### July - September

* July 1 – Ulysses S. Grant graduates from West Point 21st from a class of 39.
* July 12 – Origin of Latter Day Saint polygamy: Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, receives a revelation recommending polygamy.
* August 19 – Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Black Cat" is first published, in *The Saturday Evening Post*.
* August 23 – Mexican President Antonio López de Santa Anna announces that the annexation of Texas by the United States would be considered an act of war by Mexico.

### October - December

* October 1 – College of the Holy Cross opens as a boys' school in Worcester, Massachusetts, the first Jesuit college in New England.
* October 13 – In New York City, Henry Jones and 11 others found *B'nai B'rith*, the oldest Jewish service organization in the world.
* November 28 – *Ka La Ku'oko'a* (Hawaiian Independence Day): The Kingdom of Hawai`i is officially recognized by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and July Monarchy France as an independent nation.

## Memoriam

* January 11 – Francis Scott Key, author of "The Star-Spangled Banner" (aged 63; Baltimore, MD, USA)
* March 27 – Samuel McRoberts, U.S. Senator from Illinois from 1841 to 1843 (aged 43; Cincinnati, OH, USA)
* March 31 – George A. Waggaman, U.S. Senator from Louisiana from 1831 to 1835 (aged 61; New Orleans, LA, USA)
* April 1 – John Armstrong Jr., 7th United States Secretary of War (aged 84; Red Hook, NY, USA)
* April 17 – Samuel Morey, inventor (aged 80; Fairlee, VT, USA)
* April 25 – John McCracken Robinson, U.S. Senator from Illinois from 1830 to 1841 (aged 49; Ottawa, IL, USA)
* May 28 – Noah Webster, lexicographer (aged 84; New Haven, CT, USA)
* July 7 – John Holmes, Maine politician (aged 70; Portland, ME, USA)
* July 9 – Washington Allston, painter, the "American Titian", and poet (aged 63; Cambridge, MA, USA)
* August 1 – Sequoyah, creator of the Cherokee syllabary (aged 73; Coahuila, Mexico)
* August 10 – Robert Adrain, mathematician (aged 67; New Brunswick, NJ, USA)
* September 11 – Joseph Nicollet, geographer (aged 57; Washington, DC, USA)
* September 30 – Richard Harlan, zoologist (aged 47; New Orleans, LA, USA)
* November 10 – John Trumbull, painter (aged 87; New York City, NY, USA)
* December 18 – Smith Thompson, 6th United States Secretary of the Navy (aged 75; Poughkeepsie, NY, USA)