Events from the year 1820 in the United States.

Incumbents

• President: James Monroe (Democratic-Republican)
• Vice President: Daniel D. Tompkins (Democratic-Republican)
• Chief Justice: John Marshall
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: Henry Clay (Dem.-Rep.-Kentucky) (until October 28), John W. Taylor (Dem.-Rep.-New York) (starting November 15)
• Congress: 16th

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.
• 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 9,638,453 of which 1,538,022 are slaves.
• December 3 – U.S. presidential election, 1820: James Monroe is re-elected, virtually unopposed.

Undated

• Mount Rainier erupts over what is today Seattle.
• Joseph Smith, Jr. receives his First Vision in the spring in Palmyra, New York.
• Indiana University is founded as the Indiana State Seminary and renamed the Indiana College in 1846, to later be renamed Indiana University.

Ongoing

• Era of Good Feelings (1817 1825)

Births

Deaths

External links

fr:1820 aux tats-Unis he:1820