1820 in the United States explained

Events from the year 1820 in the United States.

Incumbents

• 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)

• Congress: 16th

Events

• 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.
• 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

• 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

• Era of Good Feelings (1817–1825)

Births

• 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

• 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

• Timeline of United States history (1820–1859)

Further reading

• Book: Edwards & Knibb. London. Daniel Blowe. A geographical, historical, commercial, and agricultural view of the United States of America; forming a complete emigrant's directory through every part of the republic .... 1820. 14686561M.

Notes and References

1. Book: William Tecumseh Sherman. 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. 1891. D. Appleton. 438.
2. Book: Kuiper, Kathleen. Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature. Springfield. Merriam-Webster. 1995. 978-0-87779-042-6. 508.