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Second Great Awakening Began
The Second Great Awakening was a Protestant religious revival during the early 19th century in the United States. The movement began around 1790, gained momentum by 1800 and, after 1820, membership rose rapidly among Baptist and Methodist congregations whose preachers led the movement. -
Eli Whitney Patented the Cotton Gin
Eli Whitney patented the cotton gin, a machine that revolutionized the production of cotton by greatly speeding up the process of removing seeds from cotton fiber. -
Gabriel Prosser Slave Revolt
Gabriel Prosser, was a literate enslaved blacksmith who planned a large slave rebellion in the Richmond area in the summer of 1800. -
Thomas Jefferson Elected President
Thomas Jefferson becomes the third elected president of the United States. The election is the first peaceful transfer of power from one political power to another. -
Louisiana Purchase
A land deal between the United States and France in which the US got land west of the Mississippi River. -
Marbury v. Madison
Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. 137, was a U.S. Supreme Court case that established the principle of judicial review in the United States, meaning that American courts have the power to strike down laws, statutes, and some government actions that contravene the U.S. Constitution. -
Beginning of the Lewis and Clark Expedition
First American expedition to cross the western portion of the US, it began in Camp Dubois (Illinois). -
Embargo Act
Passed by US congress against British and French during Napoleonic Wars. -
Chesapeake-Leopard Affair
The Chesapeake–Leopard affair was a naval engagement that occurred off the coast of Norfolk, Virginia, on June 22, 1807, between the British warship HMS Leopard and the American frigate USS Chesapeake. -
James Madison Elected President
James Madison became the 4th president of the United States. The Democratic-Republican candidate James Madison defeated Federalist candidate Charles Cotesworth Pinckney decisively. -
Anglo-American Convention
The aim of the Convention of 1818 was to settle outstanding boundary issues and disputes between the US and British North America following the War of 1812. The Treaty of 1818 set the 49th parallel as the border with Canada from Rupert's Land west to the Rocky Mountains. -
Non-Intercourse Act
Congress replaced the Embargo Act of 1807 with the Non-Intercourse Act of March 1809. This Act lifted all embargoes on American shipping except for those bound for British or French ports. -
Francis Cabot Lowell Smuggled Memorized Textile Mill Plans from Manchester, England
While visiting the British Isles (1810–12) Lowell closely studied the textile industries of Lancashire and Scotland. On returning to the United States, he joined Patrick Tracy Jackson (his brother-in-law) and Nathan Appleton in founding the Boston Manufacturing Company, Waltham, Mass. -
Beginning of Manifest Destiny
The phrase "manifest destiny" is most often associated with the territorial expansion of the United States from 1812 to 1860. This era, from the end of the War of 1812 to the beginning of the American Civil War, has been called the "age of manifest destiny". -
Death of Tecumseh
Shawnee Indian chief, orator, military leader, and advocate of intertribal Indian alliance who directed Indian resistance to white rule in the Ohio River valley. In the War of 1812 he joined British forces for the capture of Detroit and the invasion of Ohio. A decisive battle against William Henry Harrison’s U.S. troops ended in Tecumseh’s defeat and death. -
The British Burn Washington DC
British invasion of Washington DC during the War of 1812. -
Treaty of Ghent Ratified
The Treaty of Ghent ended the War of 1812 between the United States and Great Britain. -
Harford Convention
On December 15, 1814, Federalist delegates gathered in Hartford, Connecticut, to discuss the impact of the War of 1812 on their home states' economies. -
Robert Owen Founded the New Harmony Community
During the early part of the 19th century, New Harmony was the site of two attempts to establish Utopian communities. The first, Harmonie, was founded by the Harmonie Society, a group of Separatists from the German Lutheran Church. -
End of the War of 1812
The war between Great Britain and the US resulted in a period of peace between the countries and ended in a stalemate. The Treaty of Ghent ended the war . -
Battle of New Orleans
US victory against Great Britain in the War of 1812 and was followed by the peace treaty. Andrew Jackson gained significance as a war hero. -
Era of Good Feeling Began
The “Era of Good Feelings” began in 1815 in the mood of victory that swept the nation at the end of the War of 1812. Exaltation replaced the bitter political divisions between Federalists and Republicans, between northern and southern states, and between east-coast cities and settlers on the western frontier. -
James Monroe elected President
Elected fifth president of the United States. -
Rush-Bagot Treaty
A treaty between the United States and United Kingdom which limited naval armaments on the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain, following the war of 1812. -
Adams-Onis Treaty
Treaty between the United States and Spain in 1819 that ceded Florida to the US and defined boundary between the US and New Spain. -
Panic of 1819
In 1819, the impressive post-War of 1812 economic expansion ended. Banks throughout the country failed; mortgages were foreclosed, forcing people out of their homes and off their farms. Falling prices impaired agriculture and manufacturing, triggering widespread unemployment. -
Dartmouth College v. Woodward
Trustees of Dartmouth College v. Woodward was a landmark decision in United States corporate law from the United States Supreme Court dealing with the application of the Contracts Clause of the United States Constitution to private corporations. -
McCulloch v. Maryland
McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) is one of the first and most important Supreme Court cases on federal power. In this case, the Supreme Court held that Congress has implied powers derived from those listed in Article I, Section 8. The “Necessary and Proper” Clause gave Congress the power to establish a national bank. -
Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise was the legislation that provided for the admission to the United States of Maine as a free state along with Missouri as a slave state, thus maintaining the balance of power between North and South in the United States Senate. -
Charles B. Finney Lead Religious Revivals in Western New York
Charles Grandison Finney is known as the 'Father of Modern Revivalism'. He was a leader in the 'Second Great Awakening' in the United States, serving as a Presbyterian, then Congregationalist, minister and religious writer. Finney's significance was in innovative preaching and service procedure. -
Denmark Vesey Slave Revolt
Denmark Vesey was a literate, skilled carpenter and leader among African Americans in Charleston, South Carolina. He was accused and convicted of being the ringleader of "the rising," a major potential slave revolt planned for the city in June 1822; he was executed. -
Monroe Doctrine
A United States policy which opposed European colonialism in the Americas. -
John Quincy Adams Elected President (Corrupt Bargain)
John Quincy Adams named Henry Clay to be his secretary of state, and Andrew Jackson denounced the election as "the corrupt bargain." ... As for John Quincy Adams, he served four years as president before being defeated by Jackson when he ran for reelection in 1828. -
Gibbons v. Ogden
Gibbons v. Ogden, (1824), U.S. Supreme Court case establishing the principle that states cannot, by legislative enactment, interfere with the power of Congress to regulate commerce. -
Erie Canal Created
Erie Canal, historic waterway of the United States, connecting the Great Lakes with New York City via the Hudson River at Albany. -
Lyman Beecher Delivered His "Six Sermons on Intemperance"
A Presbyterian clergyman, Lyman Beecher was one of the outstanding American preachers and revivalists before the Civil War. He achieved national fame as reformer, educator, and central figure in theological controversies. -
Tariff of Abominations
The Tariff of 1828 was a protective tariff passed by the Congress of the United States on May 19, 1828, designed to protect industry in the northern United States. -
Catherine Beecher Published Essays on the Education of Female Teachers
American educator and author who popularized and shaped a conservative ideological movement to both elevate and entrench women’s place in the domestic sphere of American culture. -
Andrew Jackson Elected President
Andrew Jackson was an American soldier and statesman who served as the seventh President of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before being elected to the presidency, Jackson gained fame as a general in the United States Army and served in both houses of Congress. -
Indian Removal Act
The law authorized the president to negotiate with southern Native American tribes for their removal to federal territory west of the Mississippi River in exchange for their lands. -
Joseph Smith Founded the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints
Joseph Smith, Mormon prophet and founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. -
Nullification Crisis Began
The convention declared that the tariffs of 1828 and 1832 were unconstitutional and unenforceable within the state of South Carolina after February 1, 1833. They said that attempts to use force to collect the taxes would lead to the state's secession. -
Black Hawk War
The Black Hawk War was a brief conflict between the United States and Native Americans led by Black Hawk, a Sauk leader. -
Worcester v. Georgia
Worcester v. Georgia was a case in which the United States Supreme Court vacated the conviction of Samuel Worcester and held that the Georgia criminal statute that prohibited non-Native Americans from being present on Native American lands without a license from the state was unconstitutional. -
Andrew Jackson Vetoed the Re-Charter of the Second Bank of the United States
Jackson Vetoes Re-Charter of the Second Bank of the US. Andrew Jackson vetoed the bill re-chartering the Second Bank in July 1832 by arguing that in the form presented to him it was incompatible with “justice,” “sound policy” and the Constitution. -
Creation of the Whig Party in the U.S.
It originally formed in opposition to the policies of President Andrew Jackson and his Democratic Party. -
Treaty of New Echota
The Treaty of New Echota was signed on this day in 1835, ceding Cherokee land to the U.S. in exchange for compensation. -
First McGuffey Reader Published
U.S. educator who is remembered chiefly for his series of elementary school reading books popularly known as the McGuffey Readers. -
Battle of the Alamo
The Battle of the Alamo was a pivotal event in the Texas Revolution. Following a 13-day siege, Mexican troops under President General Antonio López de Santa Anna launched an assault on the Alamo Mission near San Antonio de Béxar, killing the Texian defenders. -
Martin Van Buren Elected President
United States presidential election of 1836, American presidential election held in 1836, in which Democrat Martin Van Buren defeated several Whig Party candidates led by William Henry Harrison. -
Transcendental Club's First Meeting
Transcendentalism is a philosophical movement that developed in the late 1820s and 1830s in the eastern United States. It arose as a reaction to protest against the general state of intellectualism and spirituality at the time. -
Texas Declared Independence from Mexico
The Texas Declaration of Independence was the formal declaration of independence of the Republic of Texas from Mexico in the Texas Revolution. It was adopted at the Convention of 1836 at Washington-on-the-Brazos on March 2, 1836, and formally signed the next day after mistakes were noted in the text. -
Andrew Jackson Issued Specie Circular
The Specie Circular is a United States presidential executive order issued by President Andrew Jackson in 1836 pursuant to the Coinage Act and carried out by his successor, President Martin Van Buren. It required payment for government land to be in gold and silver. -
Horace Mann Elected Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education
American educator, the first great American advocate of public education, who believed that, in a democratic society, education should be free and universal, nonsectarian, democratic in method, and reliant on well-trained professional teachers. -
Panic of 1837
The Panic of 1837 was a financial crisis in the United States that touched off a major recession that lasted until the mid-1840s. Profits, prices, and wages went down while unemployment went up. Pessimism abounded during the time. -
Ralph Waldo Emerson gave the "Divinity School Address"
The "Divinity School Address" is the common name for the speech Ralph Waldo Emerson gave to the graduating class of Harvard Divinity School on July 15, 1838. -
Trail of Tears Began
In 1838 and 1839, as part of Andrew Jackson's Indian removal policy, the Cherokee nation was forced to give up its lands east of the Mississippi River and to migrate to an area in present-day Oklahoma. The Cherokee people called this journey the "Trail of Tears," because of its devastating effects. -
Webster-Ashburton Treaty
The Webster–Ashburton Treaty, signed August 9, 1842, was a treaty that resolved several border issues between the United States and the British North American colonies. -
Treaty of Wanghia with China
The Treaty of Wanghia was a diplomatic agreement between Qing-dynasty China and the United States, signed on July 3, 1844 in the Kun Iam Temple. Its official title name is the Treaty of peace, amity, and commerce, between the United States of America and the Chinese Empire. -
James Polk Elected President
The United States presidential election of 1844 was the 15th quadrennial presidential election, held from November 1, to December 4, 1844. Democrat James K. Polk defeated Whig Henry Clay in a close contest that turned on the controversial issues of slavery and the annexation of the Republic of Texas. -
U.S. Annexation of Texas
The Annexation of Texas, the Mexican-American War, and the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, 1845–1848. During his tenure, U.S. President James K. Polk oversaw the greatest territorial expansion of the United States to date. -
Start of the Mexican War
The Mexican–American War, also known in the United States as the Mexican War and in Mexico as the American intervention in Mexico, was an armed conflict between the United States of America and the United Mexican States from 1846 to 1848. -
Bear Flag Revolt
During the Bear Flag Revolt, from June to July 1846, a small group of American settlers in California rebelled against the Mexican government and proclaimed California an independent republic. -
John Humphrey Noyes Founded the Oneida Community
The Oneida Community was a perfectionist religious communal society founded by John Humphrey Noyes in 1848 in Oneida, New York. The Oneida Community practiced communalism (in the sense of communal property and possessions), complex marriage, male sexual continence, and mutual criticism. -
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo officially titled the Treaty of Peace, Friendship, Limits and Settlement between the United States of America and the Mexican Republic, is the peace treaty signed on February 2, 1848, in the Villa de Guadalupe Hidalgo -
Gold Rush Began in California
The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California from the rest of the United States and abroad -
Henry David Thoreau Published Civil Disobedience
Resistance to Civil Government (Civil Disobedience) is an essay by American transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau that was first published in 1849. Thoreau was motivated in part by his disgust with slavery and the Mexican–American War -
Gadsden Purchase
The Gadsden Purchase was a transaction that followed the conquest of much of northern Mexico by the United States in 1848. -
Commodore Matthew Perry Entered Tokyo Harbor Opening Japan to the U.S.
The United States and the Opening to Japan, 1853. On July 8, 1853, American Commodore Matthew Perry led his four ships into the harbor at Tokyo Bay, seeking to re-establish for the first time in over 200 years regular trade and discourse between Japan and the western world. -
Kanagawa Treaty
In Tokyo, Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry, representing the U.S. government, signs the Treaty of Kanagawa with the Japanese government, opening the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate to American trade and permitting the establishment of a U.S. consulate in Japan.
