1820 in the United States
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Events from the year 1820 in the United States.
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Incumbents
Federal government
- 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)
State governments
Demographics
Events
- February 6 â 86 free African American colonists sail from New York City to Freetown, Sierra Leone.
- March 3 & 6 â Slavery in the United States: The Missouri Compromise becomes law.
- March 15 â Maine is admitted as the 23rd U.S. state (see History of Maine).
- April 24 â 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 â The 1820 United States census is conducted, eventually determining a population of 11,176,475.
- December 3 â U.S. presidential election, 1820: James Monroe is re-elected, virtually unopposed.
Undated
- 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 (1817â1825)
Births
- February 1 â George Hendric Houghton, Episcopal clergyman (died 1897)
- February 4 â 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 â William Tecumseh Sherman, Civil War general (died 1891)[1]
- February 15 â Susan B. Anthony, suffragist (died 1906)
- March 1 â George Davis, Confederate States Senator from North Carolina, 4th and last Confederate States Attorney General (died 1896)
- March 3 â Henry D. Cogswell, temperance campaigner and philanthropist (died 1900)
- March 17 â 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 â John Taylor Johnston, businessman and patron of the arts (died 1893)
- April 17 â Alexander Cartwright, baseball pioneer (died 1892 in Hawaii)
- April 26 â Alice Cary, poet and short story writer, sister to Phoebe Cary (died 1871)
- May 23 â Lorenzo Sawyer, 9th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of California (died 1891)
- May 30 â Edward Doane, Protestant missionary (died 1890)
- June 2 â Willard Saulsbury, Sr., U.S. Senator from Delaware from 1859 to 1871 (died 1892)
- July 5 â Luke Pryor, U.S. Senator from Alabama in 1880 (died 1900)
- July 23 â Julia Gardiner Tyler, First Lady of the United States (died 1889)
- July 31 â John W. Garrett, banker, railroad president and philanthropist (died 1884)
- August 26 â James Harlan, U.S. Senator from Iowa from 1865 to 1866 (died 1899)
- August 30 â George Frederick Root, songwriter (died 1895)
- September 2 â Lucretia Peabody Hale, journalist and author (died 1900)[2]
- September 3 â George Hearst, U.S. Senator from California from 1887 to 1891 (died 1891)
- September 20 â John F. Reynolds, U.S. Army general (killed 1863)
- October 5 â David Wilber, politician (died 1890)
- October 28 â John Henry Hopkins, Jr., Episcopal clergyman and hymnist (died 1891)
- November 13 â Eugene Casserly, U.S. Senator from California from 1869 to 1873 (died 1883)
- December 12 â James L. Pugh, U.S. Senator from Alabama from 1880 to 1897 (died 1907)
- December 19 â Mary Livermore, born Mary Ashton Rice, journalist, abolitionist and women's rights advocate (died 1905)
- December 21 â William H. Osborn, railroad president and philanthropist (died 1894)
- December 29 â John S. Barbour, Jr., U.S. Senator from Virginia from 1889 to 1892 (died 1892)
- Eagle Woman, Lakota leader (died 1888)
Deaths
- February 5 â William Ellery, signer of the United States Declaration of Independence, Chief Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court (born 1729)
- March 11 â Benjamin West, American-born painter of historical scenes (born 1738)
- March 22 â Stephen Decatur, U.S. Navy commander (born 1779)
- April 14 â Levi Lincoln Sr., statesman from Massachusetts (born 1749)
- April 20 â James Morris III, Continental Army officer from Connecticut (born 1752)
- July 10 â William Wyatt Bibb, U.S. Senator from Georgia from 1813 to 1816, 1st Governor of Alabama (born 1781)
- August 12 â Manuel Lisa, fur trader (born 1772)
- September 3 â Benjamin Henry Latrobe, architect (born 1764 in Great Britain)
- September 21 â Joseph Rodman Drake, poet (born 1795; consumption)
- September 26 â Daniel Boone, pioneer (born 1734)
- September 29 â Barthelemy Lafon, Creole architect, engineer, city planner, surveyor and smuggler (born 1769 in France)
- October 4 â Thomas Hope, architect (born 1757 in Great Britain)
- November 8 â Lavinia Stoddard, poet and educationalist (born 1787)
