Events from the year 1826 in the United States.

Incumbents

Federal Government A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governin ...

* President: John Quincy Adams ( DR/NR- Massachusetts) * Vice President:

John C. Calhoun John Caldwell Calhoun (; March 18, 1782March 31, 1850) was an American statesman and political theorist from South Carolina who held many important positions including being the seventh vice president of the United States from 1825 to 1832. He ...

( D- South Carolina) * Chief Justice:

John Marshall John Marshall (September 24, 1755July 6, 1835) was an American politician and lawyer who served as the fourth Chief Justice of the United States from 1801 until his death in 1835. He remains the longest-serving chief justice and fourth-longes ...

( Virginia) * Speaker of the House of Representatives: John W. Taylor ( DR-

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

) * Congress:

19th 19 (nineteen) is the natural number following 18 and preceding 20. It is a prime number. Mathematics 19 is the eighth prime number, and forms a sexy prime with 13, a twin prime with 17, and a cousin prime with 23. It is the third full re ...

Events

* January 24 –

Treaty of Washington The Treaty of Washington may refer to: * Treaty of Washington (1805), between the U.S. and the Creek National Council ( Muscogee (Creek)) * Treaty of Washington (1824), two Indian nation treaties, between the U.S. and the Sac (Sauk) and Meskwaki ...

between the United States government and the

Creek National Council A creek in North America and elsewhere, such as Australia, is a stream that is usually smaller than a river. In the British Isles it is a small tidal inlet. Creek may also refer to: People * Creek people, also known as Muscogee, Native Americans ...

, in which they cede much of their land in the

State of Georgia Georgia is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee and North Carolina; to the northeast by South Carolina; to the southeast by the Atlantic Ocean; to the south by Florida; and to the west by ...

. * February 6 – First printing of

James Fenimore Cooper James Fenimore Cooper (September 15, 1789 – September 14, 1851) was an American writer of the first half of the 19th century, whose historical romances depicting colonist and Indigenous characters from the 17th to the 19th centuries brought h ...

's novel '' The Last of the Mohicans''. * February 13 – The American Temperance Society is founded in Boston. * March – Aged eight, future orator and memoirist Frederick Douglass is lent by his master to the Aulds of Fell's Point, Baltimore. He will remain their house servant, and later their regular slave, for 12 years until he escapes. * April 1 – Samuel Morey patents an internal combustion engine. * July 4 – Ex-Presidents Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both die on the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. * July 15 – The Pan-American Congress of Panama concludes without the U.S. delegates having arrived. * August – The town of Crawford Notch, New Hampshire suffers a landslide; those killed include the Willey Family, after whom

Mount Willey Mount Willey is a mountain located in Grafton County, New Hampshire. The mountain is named after Samuel Willey, Jr. (1766–1826) and his family, who in 1825 moved into a house in Crawford Notch. The family was killed a year later in August 18 ...

is named. * September 3 – The USS ''Vincennes'', commanded by William Finch, leaves New York City to become the first U.S. warship to circumnavigate the globe. * September –

William Morgan (anti-Mason) William Morgan (born 1774 – disappeared 1826) was a resident of Batavia, New York, whose disappearance and presumed murder in 1826 ignited a powerful movement against the Freemasons, a fraternal society that had become influential in the Uni ...

Batavia, New York Batavia is a city in and the county seat of Genesee County, New York, United States. It is near the center of the county, surrounded by the Town of Batavia, which is a separate municipality. Batavia's population as of the 2020 census was 15,6 ...

, disappears mysteriously. It is highly likely he was murdered by freemasons. * October 7 – The first train operates over the Granite Railway in Massachusetts. * December 21 – Fredonian Rebellion: American settlers in Mexican Texas make the first attempt to secede from Mexico, establishing the Republic of Fredonia, which will survive for just over a month. * December 25 – The Eggnog Riot breaks out at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York during the early morning hours, but is squelched by Christmas chapel service. * Sing Sing prison first opened on the Hudson River.

Births

* January 5 –

Samuel L. M. Barlow I Samuel Latham Mitchill Barlow I (January 5, 1826July 10, 1889) was an American lawyer known for forming several legal partnerships, such as Bowdoin, Larocque & Barlow and Shipman, Barlow, Larocque. Barlow was also a major stakeholder in ''The Ne ...

, lawyer (died

1889 Events January–March * January 1 ** The total solar eclipse of January 1, 1889 is seen over parts of California and Nevada. ** Paiute spiritual leader Wovoka experiences a vision, leading to the start of the Ghost Dance movement in the ...

) * January 26 – Julia Grant, born Julia Boggs Dent,

First Lady First lady is an unofficial title usually used for the wife, and occasionally used for the daughter or other female relative, of a non-monarchical A monarchy is a form of government in which a person, the monarch, is head of state fo ...

as wife of

Ulysses S. Grant Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant ; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was an American military officer and politician who served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877. As Commanding General, he led the Union Ar ...

, 18th President of the U.S. (died

1902 Events January * January 1 ** The Nurses Registration Act 1901 comes into effect in New Zealand, making it the first country in the world to require state registration of nurses. On January 10, Ellen Dougherty becomes the world's f ...

) * January 27 – Richard Taylor,

Confederate Confederacy or confederate may refer to: States or communities * Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities * Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between ...

general (died

1879 Events January–March * January 1 – The Specie Resumption Act takes effect. The United States Note is valued the same as gold, for the first time since the American Civil War. * January 11 – The Anglo-Zulu War begins. * Janu ...

) * February 9 –

John A. Logan John Alexander Logan (February 9, 1826 – December 26, 1886) was an American soldier and politician. He served in the Mexican–American War and was a general in the Union Army in the American Civil War. He served the state of Illinois as a stat ...

, U.S. Senator from Illinois from 1871 to 1877 (died

1886 Events January–March * January 1 – Upper Burma is formally annexed to British Burma, following its conquest in the Third Anglo-Burmese War of November 1885. * January 5– 9 – Robert Louis Stevenson's novella ''Strange ...

) * February 16 – James Calder, 5th President of the

Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvan ...

(died

1893 Events January–March * January 2 – Webb C. Ball introduces railroad chronometers, which become the general railroad timepiece standards in North America. * Mark Twain started writing Puddn'head Wilson. * January 6 – Th ...

) * February 22 –

Samuel J. R. McMillan Samuel James Renwick McMillan (February 22, 1826October 3, 1897) was an American lawyer, judge and Republican politician. He served on the Minnesota District Court, the Minnesota Supreme Court and as U.S. Senator from Minnesota. Life and care ...

, U.S. Senator from Minnesota from 1875 to 1887 (died

1897 Events January–March * January 2 – The International Alpha Omicron Pi sorority is founded, in New York City. * January 4 – A British force is ambushed by Chief Ologbosere, son-in-law of the ruler. This leads to a puniti ...

) * March 4 – Theodore Judah, railroad engineer (died

1863 Events January–March * January 1 – Abraham Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation during the third year of the American Civil War, making the abolition of slavery in the Confederate states an official war goal. It proclaims t ...

) * April 9 –

Francis B. Stockbridge Francis Brown Stockbridge (April 9, 1826April 30, 1894) was a U.S. Senator from the state of Michigan. Stockbridge was born in Bath, Maine, the son of a physician, Dr. John Stockbridge, and attended the common schools there. He clerked at a who ...

, U.S. Senator from Michigan from 1887 to 1894 (died

1894 Events January–March * January 4 – A military alliance is established between the French Third Republic and the Russian Empire. * January 7 – William Kennedy Dickson receives a patent for motion picture film in the United S ...

) * April 26 ** George Hull Ward, general (died

) **

Ambrose R. Wright Ambrose Ransom "Rans" Wright (April 26, 1826 – December 21, 1872) was a lawyer, Georgia politician, and Confederate general in the American Civil War. Early life Wright, known by the nickname "Rans", was born in Louisville, Georgia. He rea ...

, general, lawyer, and politician (died

1872 Events January–March * January 12 – Yohannes IV is crowned Emperor of Ethiopia in Axum, the first ruler crowned in that city in over 500 years. * February 2 – The government of the United Kingdom buys a number of forts on ...

) * May 4 –

Frederic Edwin Church Frederic Edwin Church (May 4, 1826 – April 7, 1900) was an American landscape painter born in Hartford, Connecticut. He was a central figure in the Hudson River School of American landscape painters, best known for painting large landscapes, ...

, painter (died

1900 As of March 1 ( O.S. February 17), when the Julian calendar acknowledged a leap day and the Gregorian calendar did not, the Julian calendar fell one day further behind, bringing the difference to 13 days until February 28 ( O.S. February 15), 2 ...

) * May 7 – Varina Davis, wife of

Jefferson Davis Jefferson F. Davis (June 3, 1808December 6, 1889) was an American politician who served as the president of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865. He represented Mississippi in the United States Senate and the House of Representatives as a ...

, First Lady of the Confederate States of America (died

1906 Events January–February * January 12 – Persian Constitutional Revolution: A nationalistic coalition of merchants, religious leaders and intellectuals in Persia forces the shah Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar to grant a constitution, ...

) * July 4 – Stephen Foster, songwriter (died

1864 Events January–March * January 13 – American songwriter Stephen Foster ("Oh! Susanna", "Old Folks at Home") dies aged 37 in New York City, leaving a scrap of paper reading "Dear friends and gentle hearts". His parlor song " ...

) * August 16 – Mary Cyrene Burch Breckinridge, wife of John C. Breckinridge, Second Lady of the United States (died

1907 Events January * January 14 – 1907 Kingston earthquake: A 6.5 Mw earthquake in Kingston, Jamaica, kills between 800 and 1,000. February * February 11 – The French warship ''Jean Bart'' sinks off the coast of Morocco. ...

) * September 1 –

Alfred Ely Beach Alfred Ely Beach (September 1, 1826 – January 1, 1896) was an American inventor, publisher, and patent lawyer, born in Springfield, Massachusetts. He is most known for his design of New York City's earliest subway predecessor, the Beach Pne ...

, inventor and publisher (died

1896 Events January–March * January 2 – The Jameson Raid comes to an end, as Jameson surrenders to the Boers. * January 4 – Utah is admitted as the 45th U.S. state. * January 5 – An Austrian newspaper reports that Wil ...

) * September 4 –

Willard Warner Willard Warner (September 4, 1826 – November 23, 1906) was a brevet brigadier general in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He was a U.S. senator from the state of Alabama after the war. Early life and career Warner was born in Gra ...

, U.S. Senator from Alabama from 1868 to 1871 (died

) * September 18 –

Celia M. Burleigh Celia M. Burleigh (September 18, 1826 – July 25, 1875) (also Celia Burleigh, Celia C. Burleigh, Celia M. Tibbitts, Celia M. Kellum, Celia M. Burr, and Celia C. Burr Burleigh) was an American minister, writer, public speaker, and women's rights ...

, women's rights activist and Unitarian pastor (died

1875 Events January–March * January 1 – The Midland Railway of England abolishes the Second Class passenger category, leaving First Class and Third Class. Other British railway companies follow Midland's lead during the rest of the ...

) * October 7 –

William B. Bate William Brimage Bate (October 7, 1826March 9, 1905) was a planter and slaveholder, Confederate officer, and politician in Tennessee. After the Reconstruction era, he served as the 23rd governor of Tennessee from 1883 to 1887. He was elected to th ...

, 23rd Governor of Tennessee from 1883 to 1887 and U.S. Senator from Tennessee from 1887 to 1905 (died

1905 As the second year of the massive Russo-Japanese War begins, more than 100,000 die in the largest world battles of that era, and the war chaos leads to the 1905 Russian Revolution against Nicholas II of Russia (Shostakovich's 11th Symphony i ...

) * October 20 – James Z. George, U.S. Senator from Mississippi from 1881 to 1897 (died

) * October 31 –

Joseph Roswell Hawley Joseph Roswell Hawley (October 31, 1826March 18, 1905) was the 42nd Governor of Connecticut, a U.S. politician in the Republican and Free Soil parties, a Civil War general, and a journalist and newspaper editor. He served two terms in the Unit ...

, U.S. Senator from Connecticut from 1881 to 1905 (died

) * December 3 – George B. McClellan, soldier, civil engineer, railroad executive, and politician (died

1885 Events January–March * January 3– 4 – Sino-French War – Battle of Núi Bop: French troops under General Oscar de Négrier defeat a numerically superior Qing Chinese force, in northern Vietnam. * January 4 – ...

) * December 7 –

Edmund G. Ross Edmund Gibson Ross (December 7, 1826May 8, 1907) was a politician who represented Kansas after the American Civil War and was later governor of the New Mexico Territory. His vote against convicting President Andrew Johnson of "high crimes and ...

, U.S. Senator from Kansas from 1866 to 1871 (died

)

Deaths

* January 24 –

Henry H. Chambers Henry H. Chambers (October 1, 1790January 24, 1826) was an American politician, who served as the Jacksonian U.S. senator from the state of Alabama from March 4, 1825 until his death. He was replaced by Israel Pickens until a replacement, John M ...

, U.S. Senator from Alabama from 1825 to 1826 (born

1790 Events January–March * January 8 – United States President George Washington gives the first State of the Union address, in New York City. * January 11 – The 11 minor states of the Austrian Netherlands, which took p ...

) * February 7 –

Thomas Todd Thomas Todd (January 23, 1765 – February 7, 1826) was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1807 to 1826. Raised in the Colony of Virginia, he Read law, studied law and later participated in the founding of K ...

, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1807 to 1826 (born

1765 Events January–March * January 23 – Prince Joseph of Austria marries Princess Maria Josepha of Bavaria in Vienna. * January 29 – One week before his death, Mir Jafar, who had been enthroned as the Nawab of Bengal and ru ...

) * July 4 ** John Adams, second President of the United States from 1797 to 1801, first Vice President of the United States from 1789 to 1797 (born

1735 Events January–March * January 2 – Alexander Pope's poem ''Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot'' is published in London. * January 8 – George Frideric Handel's opera ''Ariodante'' is premièred at the Royal Opera House in Covent G ...

) ** Thomas Jefferson, third President of the United States from 1801 to 1809, second Vice President of the United States from 1797 to 1801 (born

1743 Events January–March * January 1 – The Verendrye brothers, probably Louis-Joseph and François de La Vérendrye, become the first white people to see the Rocky Mountains from the eastern side (the Spanish conquistadors ...

) * July 8 –

Luther Martin Luther Martin (February 20, 1748, New Brunswick, New Jersey – July 10, 1826, New York, New York) was a politician and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, who left the Constitutional Convention early because he felt the Cons ...

, delegate to the American Constitutional Convention (born

1746 Events January–March * January 8 – The Young Pretender Charles Edward Stuart occupies Stirling, Scotland. * January 17 – Battle of Falkirk Muir: British Government forces are defeated by Jacobite forces. * February 1 ...

) * July 18 –

Issac Shelby Isaac Shelby (December 11, 1750 – July 18, 1826) was the first and fifth Governor of Kentucky and served in the state legislatures of Virginia and North Carolina. He was also a soldier in Lord Dunmore's War, the American Revolutionary Wa ...

, first and fifth Governor of Kentucky from 1792 to 1796 and 1812 to 1816 (born

1750 Various sources, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, use the year 1750 as a baseline year for the end of the pre-industrial era. Events January–March * January 13 – The Treaty of Madrid between Spain ...

) * August 26 –

Royall Tyler Royall Tyler (June 18, 1757 – August 26, 1826) was an American jurist and playwright. He was born in Boston, graduated from Harvard University in 1776, and then served in the Massachusetts militia during the American Revolution. He was ad ...

, playwright (born

1757 Events January–March * January 2 – Seven Years' War: The British Army, under the command of Robert Clive, captures Calcutta, India. * January 5 – Robert-François Damiens makes an unsuccessful assassination attempt ...

)

References

External links

*
''Booknotes'' interview with Andrew Burstein on ''America's Jubilee: How in 1826 a Generation Remembered Fifty Years of Independence'', April 15, 2001.
{{Year in North America, 1826 1820s in the United States United States United States Years of the 19th century in the United States