Timeline of United States history (1820–59)

1820s

1820 – U.S. presidential election, 1820: James Monroe reelected president, Daniel D. Tompkins vice president.

1821 – Missouri becomes a state

1823 – Monroe Doctrine proclaimed

1824 – Gibbons v. Ogden (22 US 1 1824) affirms federal over state authority in interstate commerce

1824 – U.S. presidential election, 1824: results inconclusive.

1825 – John Quincy Adams elected president by the House of Representatives; John C. Calhoun becomes the vice president.

1825 – Erie Canal is finally completed

1826 – Former presidents Thomas Jefferson and John Adams die within hours of each other on Independence Day

1828 – South Carolina Exposition and Protest published during the Nullification Crisis

1828 – Baltimore and Ohio Railroad construction begun

1828 – U.S. presidential election, 1828: Andrew Jackson elected president, John C. Calhoun continues as vice president

1829 – Andrew Jackson is inaugurated

1830s

1830s – Second Great Awakening is the religious revival movement

1830s – Oregon Trail which comes into use by settlers migrating to the Pacific Northwest

1830 – Indian Removal Act

1831 – Nat Turner's revolt

1831 – The Liberator begins publication in 1831

1831 – Cyrus McCormick invents the mechanical reaper

1831 – Petticoat affair (also known as the Eaton affair)

1832 – Worcester v. State of Georgia the Supreme Court rules in favor of Cherokees; President Jackson ignores the ruling

1832 – Black Hawk War

1832 – Tariff of 1832

1832 – Ordinance of Nullification passed by South Carolina

1832 – Department of Indian Affairs established

1832 – United States presidential election, 1832: Andrew Jackson reelected president; Martin Van Buren elected vice president

1832 – Jackson vetos the charter renewal of the Second Bank of the United States, bringing to a head the Bank War and ultimately leading to the Panic of 1837

1832 – John C. Calhoun resigns as vice president

1833 – The Force Bill expands presidential powers

1833 – Andrew Jackson's second inauguration

1834 – Slavery debates at Lane Theological Seminary are one of the first major public discussions of the topic

1835 – Texas War for Independence begins

1835 – Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America published

1835 – Second Seminole War begins in Florida as members of the Seminole tribe resist relocation

1836 – Battle of the Alamo; Battle of San Jacinto

1836 – Creek War of 1836

1836 – Samuel Colt invents the revolver

1836 – Original "gag rule" imposed when U.S. House of Representatives bars discussion of antislavery petitions

1836 – Specie Circular issued

1836 – Arkansas becomes a state

1836 – U.S. presidential election, 1836: Martin Van Buren elected president, Richard Mentor Johnson vice president

1837 – Martin Van Buren inaugurated

1837 – U.S. recognizes the Republic of Texas

1837 – Caroline affair

1837 – Michigan becomes a state

1837 – Oberlin College begins enrolling female students, becoming first coeducational college in the U.S.

1837 – Panic of 1837

1837 – Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge reverses Dartmouth College v. Woodward: property rights can be overridden by public need

1838 – Forced removal of the Cherokee Nation from the southeastern U.S. leads to over 4,000 deaths in the Trail of Tears

1838 – Aroostook War

1839 – Amistad case

1840s

1840 – United States presidential election, 1840

1841 – William Henry Harrison becomes President

1841 – John Quincy Adams argues the Amistad Case before the Supreme Court

1841 – President Harrison dies after only a month in office

1841 – John Tyler becomes President

1842 – Webster–Ashburton Treaty

1842 – The Dorr Rebellion: A civil war in Rhode Island

1843 – Attempt to impeach President Tyler fails

1844 – U.S. presidential election, 1844

1844 – Oregon message

1845 – Texas annexation

1845 – James K. Polk becomes President

1845 – Florida and Texas become states

1846 – The U.S.–Mexican War begins

1846 – Iowa becomes a state

1846 – Wilmot Proviso

1848 – U.S. presidential election, 1848

1848 – Wisconsin becomes a state

1848 – The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ends the Mexican–American War

1849 – Zachary Taylor becomes President

1849 – California Gold Rush begins

1850s

1850 – President Taylor threatens to veto Compromise of 1850 even if it means Civil War.

1850 – Zachary Taylor dies, Millard Fillmore becomes President

1850 – Clayton–Bulwer Treaty

1850 – Compromise of 1850 passed

1850 – California becomes a state

1852 – U.S. presidential election, 1852

1853 – Franklin Pierce becomes President

1853 – Commodore Matthew Perry opens Japan

1853 – Gadsden Purchase

1854 – Kansas–Nebraska Act; nullified Missouri Compromise

1854 – Ostend Manifesto

1854 – Treaty of Kanagawa

1854 – Walker Expedition

1855 – The Farmers' High School, which becomes Penn State University is founded.

1856 – Sack of Lawrence, Kansas

1856 – Pottawatomie massacre

1856 – Preston Brooks beats Charles Sumner with his walking stick on the steps of the U.S. Capitol building

1856 – U.S. presidential election, 1856

1857 – James Buchanan becomes President

1857 – Dred Scott v. Sandford 60 US 393 1857 declares that blacks are not citizens of the United States and cannot sue

1857 – Utah War

1857 – Lecompton Constitution rejected in Kansas Territory

1857 – Panic of 1857

1858 – Transatlantic cable laid

1858 – Minnesota becomes a state

1858 – Lincoln-Douglas Debates

1858 – U.S. is party to Treaty of Tientsin

1859 – John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry

1859 – Comstock Lode discovered