1843 in the United States

::John Winston Jones (D-Virginia) (starting December 4) - Congress: [27th](27th-united-states-congress) (until March 4), [28th](28th-united-states-congress) (starting March 4) #### State governments ::data[format=table] | Governors and lieutenant governors | |---| | | :: ## 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 7 – Nakahama Manjirō lands in New Bedford, Massachusetts, the first known Japanese in the United States. - May 22 – The first major wagon train for the American Northwest sets out with one thousand pioneers from Elm Grove, Missouri on the Oregon Trail. - June 1–December – Fruitlands (transcendental center) in Harvard, Massachusetts, led by Bronson Alcott and Charles Lane, functions ### 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, receives 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 – College of the Holy Cross opens as a boys' school in Worcester, Massachusetts, the first Jesuit college in New England. - 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. - December 1 – Benjamin Fitzpatrick is sworn in for his second term as the 11th governor of Alabama. - December 19 – "A Christmas Carol", by Charles Dickens, was first published on December 19, 1843, with the first edition sold out by Christmas Eve. By 1844, the novella had gone through 13 printings and continues to be a robust seller more than 175 years later. ### 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 ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/Mckinley.jpg" caption="[[William McKinley"] :: - January 6 – John Coit Spooner, politician (died [1919](1919-in-the-united-states)) - January 8 - John H. Moffitt, politician (died [1926](1926-in-the-united-states)) - Letitia Stevenson, wife of Adlai Stevenson I, Second Lady of the United States (died [1913](1913-in-the-united-states)) - January 10 – Frank James, outlaw (died [1915](1915-in-the-united-states)) - January 15 – William H. Harries, Representative in the United States House of Representatives from Minnesota (died [1921](1921-in-the-united-states)) - January 16 – George E. Gard, sheriff (died [1904](1904-in-the-united-states)) - January 29 – William McKinley, 25th president of the United States from 1897 to 1901 (died [1901](1901-in-the-united-states)) - 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](1923-in-the-united-states)) - February 3 – William Cornelius Van Horne, North American railway magnate (died [1915 in Canada](1915-in-canada)) - February 7 – John B. Babcock, U.S. Army officer (died [1909](1909-in-the-united-states)) - February 9 – Andrew Traynor, soldier (died [1920](1920-in-the-united-states)) - February 15 – Russell Conwell, Baptist minister (died [1925](1925-in-the-united-states)) - February 27 - Thomas Hammond, politician (died [1909](1909-in-the-united-states)) - Thomas Lowry, lawyer and businessman (died [1909](1909-in-the-united-states)) - March 8 – Arthur Brown, U.S. Senator from Utah from 1896 to 1897 (died [1906](1906-in-the-united-states)) - March 17 – Henry Ware Lawton, general (died [1899](1899-in-the-united-states)) - March 23 – Joseph F. Johnston, U.S. Senator from Alabama from 1907 to 1913 (died [1913](1913-in-the-united-states)) - April 4 – William Henry Jackson, explorer and photographer (died [1942](1942-in-the-united-states)) - April 8 – Howard Roberts, sculptor (died [1900](1900-in-the-united-states)) - April 15 – Henry James, fiction writer (died [1916](1916-in-the-united-states)) - May 6 – G. K. Gilbert, geologist (died [1918](1918-in-the-united-states)) - June 4 – Charles Conrad Abbott, archaeologist and naturalist (died [1919](1919-in-the-united-states)) - June 6 – Russell J. Waters, U.S. Representative from California (died [1911](1911-in-the-united-states)) - April 25 – Dwight M. Sabin, U.S. Senator from Minnesota from 1883 to 1889 (died [1902](1902-in-the-united-states)) - July 15 – Alfred W. Benson, U.S. Senator from Kansas from 1906 to 1907 (died [1916](1916-in-the-united-states)) - July 19 – Francis J. Higginson, U.S. Navy admiral (died [1931](1931-in-the-united-states)) - June 29 – Charles Warren Stone, member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania (died [1912](1912-in-the-united-states)) - August 1 – Robert Todd Lincoln, statesman and businessman, son of Abraham Lincoln (died [1926](1926-in-the-united-states)) - August 19 – C. I. Scofield, theologian (died [1921](1921-in-the-united-states)) - September 25 – Melville Reuben Bissell, entrepreneur, inventor of the Carpet sweeper (died [1889](1889-in-the-united-states)) - October 28 – Julia Anna Orum, educator, lecturer, and author (died [1904](1904-in-the-united-states)) - November 23 – Henry C. Payne, politician (died [1904](1904-in-the-united-states)) - November 25 – Henry Ware Eliot, industrialist and philanthropist (died [1919](1919-in-the-united-states)) - November 26 – Charles A. Chickering, representative of New York (died [1900](1900-in-the-united-states)) - November 27 – Cornelius Vanderbilt II, railroad magnate (died [1899](1899-in-the-united-states)) - November 30 – Martha Ripley, physician (died [1912](1912-in-the-united-states)) - December 28 – Prentiss Ingraham, military officer and author of dime fiction (died [1904](1904-in-the-united-states)) ## Deaths - January 11 – Francis Scott Key, author of "The Star-Spangled Banner" (born [1779](1779-in-the-united-states)) - March 27 – Samuel McRoberts, U.S. Senator from Illinois from 1841 to 1843 (born [1799](1799-in-the-united-states)) - March 31 – George A. Waggaman, U.S. Senator from Louisiana from 1831 to 1835 (born [1782](1782-in-the-united-states)) - April 1 – John Armstrong Jr., 7th United States Secretary of War (born [1758](1758)) - April 17 – Samuel Morey, inventor (born [1762](1762)) - April 25 – John McCracken Robinson, U.S. Senator from Illinois from 1830 to 1841 (born [1794](1794-in-the-united-states)) - May 28 – Noah Webster, lexicographer (born [1758](1758)) - July 7 – John Holmes, Maine politician (born [1773](1773)) - July 9 – Washington Allston, painter, the "American Titian", and poet (born [1779](1779-in-the-united-states)) - August – Sequoyah, creator of the Cherokee syllabary (b. c. [1767](1767)) - August 10 – Robert Adrain, mathematician (born [1775 in Ireland](1775-in-ireland)) - September 11 – Joseph Nicollet, geographer (born [1786 in France](1786-in-france)) - September 30 – Richard Harlan, zoologist (born [1796](1796-in-the-united-states)) - November 10 – John Trumbull, painter (born [1756](1756)) ## References ## References 1. (7 March 2005). ["AL Governor"](https://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=189743). *ourcampaigns.com*. 2. Beete, Paulette. ["Ten Things To Know About Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol"](https://www.arts.gov/stories/blog/2020/ten-things-know-about-charles-dickens-christmas-carol). *National Endowment for the Arts*. 3. (1899). ["Life of Russell H. Conwell: Preacher, Lecturer, Philanthropist"](https://books.google.com/books?id=kW1IAAAAYAAJ&q=acres+of+diamonds+%22sunday+breakfast+association%22&pg=PA178). *Silver, Burdett & Company*. 4. (2000). ["The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: L-Z"](https://books.google.com/books?id=LTSYePZvSXYC&pg=PA1102). *Taylor & Francis*. ::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1843_in_the_United_States) and is available under the [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the [article history page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1843_in_the_United_States?action=history). ::