Events from the year 1820 in the United States.
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Incumbents
edit- President: James Monroe (DR-Virginia)
- Vice President: Daniel D. Tompkins (DR-New York)
- Chief Justice: John Marshall (Virginia)
- Speaker of the House of Representatives:
- Henry Clay (DR-Kentucky) (until October 28)
- John W. Taylor (DR-New York) (starting November 15)
Demographics
editEvents
edit- February 6 – 86 free African American colonists sail from New York City to Freetown, Sierra Leone.
- March 3 & 6 – Slavery in the United States: The Missouri Compromise becomes law.
- March 15 – Maine is admitted as the 23rd U.S. state (see History of Maine).
- April 24 – The Land Act of 1820 reduces the price of land in the Northwest Territory and Missouri Territory encouraging Americans to settle in the west.
- July 20 – Thomas Bibb is sworn in as the second governor of Alabama, following the death of William W. Bibb.
- August 7 – The 1820 United States Census is conducted, eventually determining a population of 11,176,475.
- December 3 – U.S. presidential election, 1820: James Monroe is re-elected, virtually unopposed.
Undated
edit- Mount Rainier erupts over what is today Seattle.
- Indiana University is founded as the Indiana State Seminary and renamed the Indiana College in 1846, to later be renamed Indiana University.
- Charlottesville Woolen Mills built along the Rivanna River
Ongoing
edit- Era of Good Feelings (1817–1825)
Births
edit- February 1 – George Hendric Houghton, Episcopal clergyman (died 1897)
- February 4 – David C. Broderick, U.S. Senator from California from 1857 to 1859 (died 1859)
- February 6
- Henry Howard Brownell, poet and historian (died 1872)
- Thomas C. Durant, American railroad financier (died 1885)
- February 8 – William Tecumseh Sherman, Civil War general (died 1891)[1]
- February 15 – Susan B. Anthony, suffragist (died 1906)
- March 1 – George Davis, Confederate States Senator from North Carolina, 4th and last Confederate States Attorney General (died 1896)
- March 3 – Henry D. Cogswell, temperance campaigner and philanthropist (died 1900)
- March 17 – William F. Raynolds, military engineer (died 1894)
- March 24
- Fanny Crosby, mission worker and hymnist (died 1915)
- George G. Wright, U.S. Senator from Iowa from 1871 to 1877 (died 1896)
- April 8 – John Taylor Johnston, businessman and patron of the arts (died 1893)
- April 17 – Alexander Cartwright, baseball pioneer (died 1892 in Hawaii)
- April 26 – Alice Cary, poet and short story writer, sister to Phoebe Cary (died 1871)
- May 23 – Lorenzo Sawyer, 9th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of California (died 1891)
- May 30 – Edward Doane, Protestant missionary (died 1890)
- June 2 – Willard Saulsbury, Sr., U.S. Senator from Delaware from 1859 to 1871 (died 1892)
- July 5 – Luke Pryor, U.S. Senator from Alabama in 1880 (died 1900)
- July 23 – Julia Gardiner Tyler, First Lady of the United States (died 1889)
- July 31 – John W. Garrett, banker, railroad president and philanthropist (died 1884)
- August 26 – James Harlan, U.S. Senator from Iowa from 1865 to 1866 (died 1899)
- August 30 – George Frederick Root, songwriter (died 1895)
- September 2 – Lucretia Peabody Hale, journalist and author (died 1900)[2]
- September 3 – George Hearst, U.S. Senator from California from 1887 to 1891 (died 1891)
- September 20 – John F. Reynolds, U.S. Army general (killed 1863)
- October 5 – David Wilber, politician (died 1890)
- October 28 – John Henry Hopkins, Jr., Episcopal clergyman and hymnist (died 1891)
- November 13 – Eugene Casserly, U.S. Senator from California from 1869 to 1873 (died 1883)
- December 12 – James L. Pugh, U.S. Senator from Alabama from 1880 to 1897 (died 1907)
- December 19 – Mary Livermore, born Mary Ashton Rice, journalist, abolitionist and women's rights advocate (died 1905)
- December 21 – William H. Osborn, railroad president and philanthropist (died 1894)
- December 29 – John S. Barbour, Jr., U.S. Senator from Virginia from 1889 to 1892 (died 1892)
- Eagle Woman, Lakota leader (died 1888)
Deaths
edit- February 5 – William Ellery, signer of the United States Declaration of Independence, Chief Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court (born 1729)
- March 11 – Benjamin West, American-born painter of historical scenes (born 1738)
- March 22 – Stephen Decatur, U.S. Navy commander (born 1779)
- April 14 – Levi Lincoln Sr., statesman from Massachusetts (born 1749)
- April 20 – James Morris III, Continental Army officer from Connecticut (born 1752)
- July 10 – William Wyatt Bibb, U.S. Senator from Georgia from 1813 to 1816, 1st Governor of Alabama (born 1781)
- August 12 – Manuel Lisa, fur trader (born 1772)
- September 3 – Benjamin Henry Latrobe, architect (born 1764 in Great Britain)
- September 21 – Joseph Rodman Drake, poet (born 1795; consumption)
- September 26 – Daniel Boone, pioneer (born 1734)
- September 29 – Barthelemy Lafon, Creole architect, engineer, city planner, surveyor and smuggler (born 1769 in France)
- October 4 – Thomas Hope, architect (born 1757 in Great Britain)
- November 8 – Lavinia Stoddard, poet and educationalist (born 1787)
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ William Tecumseh Sherman (1891). Memoirs of Gen. William T. Sherman: By Himself. To which are Added Chapters Completing His Life and Including His Funeral Obsequies by W. Fletcher Johnson and Carefully Reviewed by Major-General O. O. Howard. D. Appleton. p. 438.
- ^ Kuiper, Kathleen (1995). Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature. Springfield: Merriam-Webster. p. 508. ISBN 978-0-87779-042-6.
Further reading
editExternal links
edit
Media related to 1820 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons
