1820 in the United States

Decades:	1800s ; 1810s ; 1820s ; 1830s ; 1840s ;
See also:	History of the United States (1789–1849) ; Timeline of the history of the United States (1820-1859) ; List of years in the United States ;

Last updated September 25, 2025

Incumbents

Federal government

Henry Clay (DR-Kentucky) (until October 28)

John W. Taylor (DR-New York) (starting November 15)

Congress: 16th

Governors and lieutenant governors
Governors Governor of Alabama: William Wyatt Bibb (Democratic-Republican) (until July 10), Thomas Bibb (Democratic-Republican) (starting July 10) Governor of Connecticut: Oliver Wolcott Jr. (Toleration) Governor of Delaware: until January 18: John Clark (Federalist) January 18: Henry Molleston (Federalist) starting January 18: Jacob Stout (Federalist) Governor of Georgia: John Clark (Democratic-Republican) Governor of Illinois: Shadrach Bond (Independent) Governor of Indiana: Jonathan Jennings (Democratic-Republican) Governor of Kentucky: Gabriel Slaughter (Democratic-Republican) (until August 29), John Adair (Democratic-Republican) (starting August 29) Governor of Louisiana: Jacques Villeré (Democratic-Republican) (until December 18), Thomas Bolling Robertson (Democratic-Republican) (starting December 18) Governor of Maine: William King (Democratic-Republican) (starting March 15) Governor of Maryland: Samuel Sprigg (Democratic) Governor of Massachusetts: John Brooks (Federalist) Governor of Mississippi: David Holmes (Democratic-Republican) (until January 5), George Poindexter (Democratic-Republican) Governor of New Hampshire: Samuel Bell (Democratic-Republican) Governor of New Jersey: Isaac Halstead Williamson (Federalist) Governor of New York: DeWitt Clinton (Democratic-Republican) Governor of North Carolina: John Branch (Democratic-Republican) (until December 7), Jesse Franklin (Democratic-Republican) (starting December 7) Governor of Ohio: Ethan Allen Brown (Democratic-Republican) Governor of Pennsylvania: William Findlay (Democratic-Republican) (until December 19), Joseph Hiester (Democratic-Republican) (starting December 19) Governor of Rhode Island: Nehemiah R. Knight (Democratic-Republican) Governor of South Carolina: John Geddes (Democratic-Republican) (until December 7), Thomas Bennett, Jr. (Democratic-Republican) (starting December 7) Governor of Tennessee: Joseph McMinn (Democratic-Republican) Governor of Vermont: Jonas Galusha (Democratic-Republican) (until October 15), Richard Skinner (Democratic-Republican) (starting October 15) Governor of Virginia: Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr. (Democratic-Republican) Lieutenant governors Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut: Jonathan Ingersoll (Democratic-Republican) Lieutenant Governor of Illinois: Pierre Menard (Democratic-Republican) Lieutenant Governor of Indiana: Ratliff Boon (Democratic-Republican) (starting December 8) Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky: vacant (until August 29), William T. Barry (Democratic-Republican) (starting August 29) Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: William Phillips, Jr. (political party unknown) Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi: Duncan Stewart (no political party) (until month and day unknown), James Patton (no political party unknown) (starting month and day unknown) Lieutenant Governor of New York: John Tayler (Democratic-Republican) Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island: Edward Wilcox (political party unknown) Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina: William Youngblood (Democratic-Republican) (until month and day unknown), William Pinckney (Democratic-Republican) (starting month and day unknown) Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: Paul Brigham (Democratic-Republican) (until October 23), William Cahoon (Democratic-Republican) (starting October 23)

Demographics

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)

References

↑ 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.

External links

Media related to 1820 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] 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.

[2] Kuiper, Kathleen (1995). Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature. Springfield: Merriam-Webster. p. 508. ISBN 978-0-87779-042-6.

[1]

[2]

v t e Timeline of United States history
Year	Before 1760 1760–1789 1790–1819 1820–1859 1860–1899 1900–1929 1930–1949 1950–1969 1970–1989 1990–2009 2010–present
General	Civil rights movement Civil marriage Colonial America Conservatism Constitution drafting and ratification Counterculture in the 1960s COVID-19 2020 2021 Diplomatic Japan–U.S. relations Flag Terrorist attacks September 11 Statehood Voting Western Frontier
Military	Revolution Timeline of the War of 1812 Prelude to Civil War Spanish–American War Philippine–American War World War I World War II Cold War War on Terror Gulf War Afghanistan Iraq War
Groups	African Americans Firsts Women Feminism Rights Suffrage Colleges Dentistry Lawyers Mathematics Religion Science Warfare before 1900 1900–1949 1950–1999 2000–2010 2011–present LGBTQ Young people
Industry	Discoveries Inventions before 1890 1890–1945 1991–present Railroads Space Race
Years in the United States History of the United States Outline

v t e 1820 in North America
Sovereign states	Haiti Mexico United States
Dependencies, colonies and other territories	Bermuda British Virgin Islands Guadeloupe New Spain Newfoundland Spanish West Indies

1820 in the United States

Contents