1817 in the United States

Federal government

• President:

James Madison (DR-Virginia) (until March 4)

James Monroe (DR-Virginia) (starting March 4)

• Vice President:

vacant (until March 4)

Daniel D. Tompkins (DR-New York) (starting March 4)

• Chief Justice: John Marshall (Virginia)
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: Henry Clay (DR-Kentucky)
• Congress: 14th (until March 4), 15th (starting March 4)

January–March

• February 7 – Baltimore becomes the first U.S. city with public street gas lighting.
• March 3
  • President James Madison vetoes John C. Calhoun's Bonus Bill.
  • U.S. Congress passes law to split the Mississippi Territory, after Mississippi drafts a constitution, creating the Alabama Territory effective in August.^[1]
• March 4 – James Monroe is sworn in as the fifth president of the United States, and Daniel D. Tompkins is sworn in as the sixth vice president.
• March 6 – William W. Bibb is appointed by James Monroe as the only governor of the Alabama Territory.

April–June

• April 15 – The first American school for the deaf opens in Hartford, Connecticut.
• April 29 – The Rush–Bagot Treaty, between the U.S. and the United Kingdom, is signed.
• May – The General Convention of the Episcopal Church founds the General Theological Seminary while meeting in New York City.
• June 18 – Henry Perry, a former member of the Republican Army of the North, is defeated near Coleto Creek after leading a force to capture Presidio La Bahía.

July–September

• July 4 – At Rome, New York, construction on the Erie Canal begins.
• July 12 – Benjamin Russell, in his Columbian Centinel newspaper, coins the phrase "Era of Good Feelings", which is later used to describe American politics from 1817 to 1825.^[3]
• August 15 – By act of the U.S. Congress (March 3), the Alabama Territory is created by splitting the Mississippi Territory in half, on the day the Mississippi constitution is drafted, four months before Mississippi becomes a U.S. state.^[1]
• September 25 – William W. Bibb is sworn in as the only governor of the Alabama Territory.

October–December

• November 20 – The first Seminole War begins in Florida.
• December 10 – Mississippi is admitted as the 20th U.S. state, formerly the Mississippi Territory.^[1] (see History of Mississippi). Then Alabama Territory is effective.
• December 30 – Hawaii plants coffee for the first time.

Undated

• John Neal published Keep Cool, A Novel, the first American work of fiction to use natural diction.^[4]
• Hoffman's Course of Legal Study is published in Baltimore.

Ongoing

• First Seminole War (1817–1818)
• Era of Good Feelings (1817–1825)