1843 in the United States

1843 in the United States
Years:	1840 1841 1842 – 1843 – 1844 1845 1846
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26 stars (1837–45)
Timeline of United States history History of the United States (1789–1849)

Events from the year 1843 in the United States.

Incumbents

Federal Government

• President: John Tyler (W-Virginia)
• Vice President: vacant
• Chief Justice: Roger B. Taney (Maryland)
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: John White (W-Kentucky) (until March 4), John Winston Jones (D-Virginia) (starting December 4)
• Congress: 27th (until March 4), 28th (starting March 4)

Events

January–March

• January – Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Tell-Tale Heart" is first published.
• February 6 – The Virginia Minstrels perform the first minstrel show (Bowery Amphitheatre, New York City).
• March 21 – The world does not end, contrary to the first prediction by American preacher William Miller.

April–June

• April 30–May 16 – Naval Battle of Campeche: Naval Battle between the Mexican Navy versus the Texas Navy and the Yucatán Navy. The battle features the most advanced warships of its day.
• May 22 – The first major wagon train sfor the American Northwest sets out with one thousand pioneers from Elm Grove, Missouri on the Oregon Trail.

July–September

• July 1 – Ulysses S. Grant graduates from West Point 21st from a class of 39.
• July 12 – Origin of Latter Day Saint polygamy: Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, proclaims a revelation recommending polygamy.
• August 19 – Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Black Cat" is first published, in The Saturday Evening Post.
• August 23 – Mexican President Antonio López de Santa Anna announces that the annexation of Texas by the United States would be considered an act of war by Mexico.

October–December

• October 13 – In New York City, Henry Jones and 11 others found B'nai B'rith (the oldest Jewish service organization in the world).
• November 28 – Ka La Ku'oko'a (Hawaiian Independence Day): The Kingdom of Hawai`i is officially recognized by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and July Monarchy France as an independent nation.

Undated

• Saint Louis University School of Law becomes the first law school west of the Mississippi River
• Abbeville, Louisiana is founded by descendants of Acadians from Nova Scotia.

Births

• January 8
  • John H. Moffitt, politician (died 1926)
  • Letitia Stevenson, wife of Adlai Stevenson I, Second Lady of the United States (died 1913)
• January 10 – Frank James, outlaw (died 1915)
• January 29 – William McKinley, 25th President of the United States from 1897 to 1901 (died 1901)
• February 2 – Knute Nelson, Norway-born 12th Governor of Minnesota from 1893 to 1895 and U.S. Senator from Minnesota from 1895 to 1923 (died 1923)
• February 3 – William Cornelius Van Horne, North American railway magnate (died 1915 in Canada)
• February 27 – Thomas Lowry, lawyer and businessman (died 1909)
• March 8 – Arthur Brown, U.S. Senator from Utah from 1896 to 1897 (died 1906)
• March 17 – Henry Ware Lawton, general (died 1899)
• March 23 – Joseph F. Johnston, U.S. Senator from Alabama from 1907 to 1913 (died 1913)
• April 4 – William Henry Jackson, explorer and photographer (died 1942)
• April 8 – Howard Roberts, sculptor (died 1900)
• April 15 – Henry James, fiction writer (died 1916)
• May 6 – G. K. Gilbert, geologist (died 1918)
• June 4 – Charles Conrad Abbott, archaeologist and naturalist (died 1919)
• April 25 – Dwight M. Sabin, U.S. Senator from Minnesota from 1883 to 1889 (died 1902)
• July 15 – Alfred W. Benson, U.S. Senator from Kansas from 1906 to 1907 (died 1916)
• July 19 – Francis J. Higginson, U.S. Navy admiral (died 1931)
• August 1 – Robert Todd Lincoln, statesman and businessman, son of Abraham Lincoln (died 1926)
• November 25 – Henry Ware Eliot, industrialist and philanthropist (died 1919)
• November 27 – Cornelius Vanderbilt II, railway magnate (died 1899)
• December 28 – Prentiss Ingraham, military officer and author of dime fiction (died 1904)

Deaths

• January 11 – Francis Scott Key, author of The Star Spangled Banner (born 1779)
• March 27 – Samuel McRoberts, U.S. Senator from Illinois from 1841 to 1843 (born 1799)
• March 31 – George A. Waggaman, U.S. Senator from Louisiana from 1831 to 1835 (born 1782)
• April 17 – Samuel Morey, inventor (born 1762)
• April 25 – John McCracken Robinson, U.S. Senator from Illinois from 1830 to 1841 (born 1794)
• May 28 – Noah Webster, lexicographer (born 1758)
• July 7 – John Holmes, Maine politician (born 1773)
• July 9 – Washington Allston, painter, the "American Titian", and poet (born 1779)
• August – Sequoyah, creator of the Cherokee syllabary (b. c. 1767)
• August 10 – Robert Adrain, mathematician (born 1775 in Ireland)
• September 11 – Joseph Nicollet, geographer (born 1786 in France)
• September 30 – Richard Harlan, zoologist (born 1796)
• November 10 – John Trumbull, painter (born 1756)

External links

• Media related to 1843 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons