1821 in the United States
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{{Yearbox US|1821}}
{{Year in U.S. states and territories|1821}}
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{{Use American English|date=February 2023}}
Events from the year 1821 in the United States.
Incumbents
= [[Federal government of the United States|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:
::John W. Taylor (DR-New York) (until March 4)
::Philip P. Barbour (DR-Virginia) (starting December 4)
{| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed"
! Governors and lieutenant governors
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= Governors =
- Governor of Alabama: Thomas Bibb (Democratic-Republican) (until November 9), Israel Pickens (Democratic-Republican) (starting November 9)
- Governor of Connecticut: Oliver Wolcott Jr. (Toleration)
- Governor of Delaware: Jacob Stout (Federalist) (until January 16), John Collins (Democratic-Republican) (starting January 16)
- Governor of Georgia: John Clark (Democratic-Republican)
- Governor of Illinois: Shadrach Bond (Independent)
- Governor of Indiana: Jonathan Jennings (Democratic-Republican)
- Governor of Kentucky: John Adair (Democratic-Republican)
- Governor of Louisiana: Thomas Bolling Robertson (Democratic-Republican)
- Governor of Maine:
- until May 28:William King (Democratic-Republican)
- May 28-December 5: William D. Williamson (Democratic-Republican)
- starting December 5: Benjamin Ames (Democratic-Republican)
- Governor of Maryland: Samuel Sprigg (Democratic)
- Governor of Massachusetts: John Brooks (Federalist)
- Governor of Mississippi: George Poindexter (Democratic-Republican)
- Governor of Missouri: William Clark (Democratic-Republican) (until August 10), Alexander McNair (Democratic-Republican) (starting August 10)
- 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: Jesse Franklin (Democratic-Republican) (until December 7), Gabriel Holmes (Democratic-Republican) (starting December 7)
- Governor of Ohio: Ethan Allen Brown (Democratic-Republican)
- Governor of Pennsylvania: Joseph Hiester (Democratic-Republican)
- Governor of Rhode Island: Nehemiah R. Knight (Democratic-Republican) (until May 2), William C. Gibbs (Democratic-Republican) (starting May 2)
- Governor of South Carolina: Thomas Bennett Jr. (Democratic-Republican)
- Governor of Tennessee: Joseph McMinn (Democratic-Republican) (until October 1), William Carroll (Democratic-Republican) (starting October 1)
- Governor of Vermont: Richard Skinner (Democratic-Republican)
- 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)
- Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky: William T. Barry (political party unknown)
- Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: William Phillips Jr. (political party unknown)
- Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi: James Patton (no political party)
- Lieutenant Governor of Missouri: William Henry Ashley (Democratic-Republican) (starting August 10)
- Lieutenant Governor of New York: John Tayler (Democratic-Republican)
- Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island: Edward Wilcox (political party unknown) (until May 2), Caleb Earle (political party unknown) (starting May 2)
- Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina: William Pinckney (Democratic-Republican) (starting month and day unknown)
- Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: William Cahoon (Democratic-Republican)
|}
Events
File:James Monroe White House portrait 1819.jpg by Samuel Morse]]
- February 9 – The George Washington University is chartered as The Columbian College of the District of Columbia by President James Monroe.
- March 4 – James Monroe and Daniel D. Tompkins begin their second terms as President and Vice President of the United States.
- March 5 – James Monroe is sworn in for his second term as President of the United States.{{cite web|title=President James Monroe, 1821 |url=http://inaugural.senate.gov/history/chronology/jmonroe1821.cfm |publisher=Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies |access-date=2009-01-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090120211516/http://inaugural.senate.gov/history/chronology/jmonroe1821.cfm |archive-date=January 20, 2009 |url-status=dead }} Daniel D. Tompkins is sworn in for his second term as Vice President of the United States.
- June 27 – The New Hampton School is founded in the state of New Hampshire.
- July 10 – The U.S. takes possession of its newly bought territory of Florida from Spain.
- August 4 – The Saturday Evening Post is published for the first time, as a weekly newspaper.
- August 6 – Israel Pickens is elected the third governor of Alabama defeating Henry H. Chambers.
- August 10 – Missouri is admitted as the 24th U.S. state (see History of Missouri).
- September 3 – The 1821 Norfolk and Long Island hurricane strikes New York City.
- September 18 – Amherst College is founded in Massachusetts.
- November 9 – Israel Pickens is sworn in as the third governor of Alabama, replacing Thomas Bibb.Ala. General Assembly. Journal of the House of Representatives. 3rd sess., [https://archive.org/details/alabama-house-journal-1821/HJ_1821_11_12/page/n27 29], accessed July 27, 2023
- November 16 – American Old West: The Santa Fe Trail is used for the first time by a White American, William Becknell.
- History of Liberia – The first groups of freed slaves from the U.S. arrive in modern-day Liberia and found Monrovia.
- Widener University is founded in Wilmington, Delaware, as The Bullock School for Boys.
=Ongoing=
- Era of Good Feelings (1817–1825)
Births
- January 2 – Napoleon LeBrun, architect (died 1901)
- January 8 – James Longstreet, one of the foremost Confederate generals of the American Civil War (died 1904)
- January 16 – John C. Breckinridge, 14th vice president of the United States from 1857 to 1861, U.S. Senator from Kentucky in 1861 (died 1875)
- February 4 – Frederick Goddard Tuckerman, sonneteer (died 1873)
- February 19 – Francis Preston Blair Jr., U.S. Senator from Missouri from 1871 to 1873 (died 1875)
- March 20 – Ned Buntline (Edward Zane Carroll Judson Sr.), publisher, dime novelist and publicist (died 1886)
- April 12
- Samuel G. Arnold, U.S. Senator from Rhode Island from 1862 to 1863 (died 1880)
- Adonijah Welch, U.S. Senator from Florida from 1868 to 1869. (died 1889)
- April 15 – Joseph E. Brown, U.S. Senator from Georgia from 1880 to 1891 (died 1894)
- July 6 – Edmund Pettus, U.S. Senator from Alabama from 1897 to 1907 (died 1907)
- July 8 – Maria White Lowell, poet and abolitionist (died 1853)
- July 13 – Nathan Bedford Forrest, Confederate Civil War General, first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan (died 1877)
- September 22 – John Conness, Irish-born U.S. Senator from California from 1863 to 1869 (died 1909)
- October 7 – Richard H. Anderson, United States Army officer during the Mexican–American War, Confederate general during the American Civil War (died 1879){{cite web |title=Richard Heron Anderson {{!}} American general |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Richard-Heron-Anderson |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |access-date=26 January 2021 |language=en}}
- October 10 – Wade Keyes, Acting Confederate States Attorney General in 1861 and 1863–1864 (died 1879)
- October 22 – Collis P. Huntington, railroad promoter (died 1900)
- December 25 – Clara Barton, humanitarian and founder of the American branch of the Red Cross.
Deaths
- January 4 – Elizabeth Ann Seton, saint (born 1774)
- March 13 – Waightstill Avery, lawyer and soldier, fought a duel with Andrew Jackson (born 1741)
- October 11 – John Ross Key, commissioned officer in the Continental Army, judge, lawyer and father of Francis Scott Key (born 1754)
- October 24 – Elias Boudinot, President of the Continental Congress (born 1740)
- Full date unknown – Lucy Terry first known African American poet (born c. 1730 in Africa)
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{Commons category-inline}}
{{US year nav}}
{{Timeline of United States history}}
{{Year in North America|1821}}