1800-1876

By Silk
  • Period: to

    1800-1876

  • 1801

    The electors' votes for president are officially opened and counted in Congress, which already knows that the vote is tied between Jefferson and Aaron Burr.

  • 1803

    Louisiana Purchase in January.

  • 1805

    Lewis and Clark reach the Pacific Ocean.

  • 1806

    Jefferson nominates James Monroe and William Pinckney as joint commissioners to Great Britain.

  • 1809

    Abraham Lincoln was born.

  • 1812

    War of 1812 with Britain has started.

  • 1814

    British burn Capitol building in Washington.

  • 1819

    Alabama admitted as slave state, bringing the number of slave states and free states to equal numbers.

  • 1819

    Spain agrees to sell Florida to the United States.

  • 1821

    New York gives free Blacks the right to vote.

  • 1826

    Jefferson dies shortly after 12 noon, on the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. He is eighty-three years old.

  • 1830

    “Underground Railroad” is established.

  • 1835

    Texas declares independence from Mexico. WOOT WOOT!

  • 1836

    Martin van Buren elected President.

  • 1838

    More than 15,000 Cherokee Indians are forced to march from Georgia to Indian Territory in present-day Oklahoma. Approximately 4,000 die from starvation and disease along the “Trail of Tears.”

  • 1844

    Samuel Morse sends first telegraph message from Washington to Baltimore.

  • 1845

    Santa Anna presidency is overthrown in Mexico.

  • 1846

    War with Mexico.

  • 1853

    America and Mexico sign Gadsden Treaty; Vice President William King dies; Arctic explorer Elisha Kane ventures farther north than any man has before.

  • 1855

    Free Soilers establish government banning slavery and blacks from Kansas.

  • 1857

    Dred Scott Supreme Court Decision.

  • 1861

    Lincoln Inaugurated.

  • 1861

    Battle of Fort Sumter.

  • 1861

    First battle of Bull Run.

  • 1862

    Battle of Shiloh.

  • 1862

    The Monitor and the Merrimac fight it out at the battle of Hampton Roads.

  • 1862

    The battle of Antietam.

  • 1863

    Battle of Vicksburg.

  • 1863

    Battle of Gettysburg.

  • 1864

    Lincoln shot, dies next day.

  • 1864

    Sherman's March to the sea.

  • 1868

    President Johnson impeached, acquitted.

  • 1871

    KKK members tried and convicted by federal courts in Mississippi. Grant suspends habeas corpus and declared martial law.

  • 1875

    Civil Rights Act passed.