1632 English philosopher John Locke born (died 1704)
1690 Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding published
1724 German philosopher Immanuel Kant born (died 1804)
1770 British Romantic poet William Wordsworth born (died 1850)
1772 British Romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge born (died 1834)
French socialist reformer Charles Fourier born (died 1837)
1779 Romantic artist Washington Allston born (died 1843)
1780 Minister William Ellery Channing born (died 1842)
1781 Kant's Critique of Pure Reason published
1783 Author Washington Irving born (died 1859)
1788 Kant's Critique of Practical Reason published
1789 Novelist James Fenimore Cooper born (died 1851)
1794 Poet William Cullen Bryant born (died 1878)
1795 British Romantic author Thomas Carlyle born (died 1881)
Unitarian minister Convers Francis born (died 1863)
1798 Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge published
1799 Amos Bronson Alcott born (died 1888)
1801 Reverend Joseph Stevens Buckminster traveled to Europe; returned home with books purchased abroad
1802 Unitarian minister and author William Henry Furness born (died 1896)
Unitarian minister, editor, and Brook Farm founder George Ripley born (died 1880)
1803 Louisiana Purchase
Ralph Waldo Emerson born (died 1882)
Minister, editor, and essayist Orestes Brownson born (died 1876)
1804 Lewis and Clark began exploration of Northwest from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean (continued until 1806)
Harmony Society came to America under direction of George Rapp; established first in Pennsylvania, then in Indiana.
Author Nathaniel Hawthorne born (died 1864
Transcendental activist and writer Elizabeth Palmer Peabody born (died 1894)
1805 Unitarian minister, author, editor, and professor Frederic Henry Hedge born (died 1890)
1806 Zebulon Pike traveled through Southwest, to New Mexico and Mexico City.
Author William Gilmore Simms born (died 1870)
Author Nathaniel Parker Willis born (died 1867)
1807 Robert Fulton's steamboat Clermont made trial run from Albany to New York.
Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow born (died 1882)
Poet John Greenleaf Whittier born (died 1892)
1809 Poet, critic, and writer of short stories Edgar Allan Poe born (died 1849)
1810 Unitarian minister and editor William Henry Channing born (died 1884)
Unitarian minister and abolitionist Theodore Parker born (died 1860
Feminist, author, lecturer, and editor (Sarah) Margaret Fuller born (died 1850)
Unitarian minister, author, and editor James Freeman Clarke born (died 1888)
1813 Madame de Stäel's De L'Allemagne translated into English under title Germany
The Christian Examiner established
Poet and Harvard Greek tutor Jones Very born (died 1880)
Unitarian minister, editor, poet, and artist Christopher Pearse Cranch born (died 1892)
1814 Mill owner Francis Cabot Lowell introduced power loom into American textile industry at Boston Manufacturing Company, Waltham, Massachusetts
Edition of Madame de Stäel's De L'Allemagne published in New York
1815 George Ticknor and Edward Everett went to Europe to study
1817 Work began on Erie Canal
Edward Everett first American to receive Ph.D. at University of Göttingen in Germany
Coleridge's Biographia Literaria published
Henry David Thoreau born (died 1862)
1819 Missouri requested admission to Union as slave state
William Ellery Channing delivered "Unitarian Christianity" sermon
Poet Walt Whitman born (died 1892)
Author Herman Melville born (died 1891)
1820 Missouri Compromise
William Ellery Channing organized Berry Street Conference
1821 First American settlement in Texas
The Christian Register established
1823 Monroe Doctrine
The Pioneers, the first of Cooper's Leatherstocking Series, published (series continued until 1841)
Charles Ingersoll delivered "Discourse Concerning the Influence of America on the Mind"
1824 Weavers in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, went on strike over decreasing wages and increasing hours
Harmony Society reestablished in Pennsylvania in the community named Economy
1825 Erie Canal opened
American Unitarian Association established
Equal rights lecturer Frances Wright moved from England to America
Robert Owen founded New Harmony (first secular utopian community in America) in Indiana
Coleridge's Aids to Reflection published
1826 Jedediah Strong Smith led expedition to Mexican-held California
First lyceum in America established at Millbury, Massachusetts
1828 Democrat Andrew Jackson first elected to presidency
Travel by railroad began
Strike of textile workers in Paterson, New Jersey, quelled by militia
Sarah Josepha Hale became editor of the Ladies' Magazine
Webster's American Dictionary of the English Language first published
Concord Lyceum formed
1829 Publication of Encyclopedia Americana began (continued until 1833)
James Marsh's edition of Coleridge's Aids to Reflection, including "Preliminary Essay" on German philosophy, published
1830 Mexico passed restrictive immigration laws
William Ellery Channing's Remarks on American Literature published
Charles Follen made professor of German literature at Harvard
1831 William Lloyd Garrison established The Liberator in Boston
Term Underground Railroad first used
1832 Democrat Andrew Jackson reelected to presidency
New England Anti-Slavery Society founded in Boston
American Anti-Slavery Society established in Philadelphia
First clipper ship built in Baltimore
Horsecar introduced in New York
Emerson rejected practice of Lord's Supper and left pastorate
Emerson's first trip abroad (returned 1833)
1834 Andrew Jackson's political opposition formed Whig Party
Emerson moved to Concord
Bronson Alcott established Temple School in Boston (continued until 1838)
James Walker's "The Philosophy of Man's Spiritual Nature in Regard to the Foundation of Faith" published in The Christian Examiner
1835 Treaty of Echota
Samuel F.B. Morse developed telegraph (patented 1840)
Dr. Channing's Slavery published
The Western Messenger established
Emerson bought home on Cambridge Turnpike in Concord
1836 Democrat Martin Van Buren elected to presidency
Texas declared its independence from Mexico; Alamo captured by Mexican leader Santa Anna; Texas won its independence at Battle of San Jacinto
Carlyle's Sartor Resartus published
McGuffey's Eclectic Readers began to appear
Emerson's Nature published
Transcendental Club formed
1837 Antislavery publisher Elijah Lovejoy killed by rioters in Alton, Illinois
First Massachusetts Board of Education formed
Emerson delivered "The American Scholar"
Emerson delivered first antislavery address in Concord
Carlyle's The French Revolution published
Hawthorne's Twice-Told Tales published
Sarah Josepha Hale became editor of Godey's Lady's Book
P.T. Barnum's freak show debuted
1838 Forcible removal of Cherokees from Georgia and Tennessee to Oklahoma
Transatlantic steamship service began
Emerson delivered "Divinity School Address"
Publication of George Ripley's 14-volume Specimens of Foreign Standard Literature began (continued until 1842)
Boston Quarterly Review established
1839 Slave mutiny on ship Amistad
Andrews Norton attacked Transcendentalism in Discourse on the Latest Form of Infidelity
1840 Democratic/Whig presidential campaign featured slogans, buttons, mudslinging
Whig William Henry Harrison elected to presidency
Publication of Transcendental periodical The Dial began (continued until 1844)
Elizabeth Palmer Peabody opened Foreign Library in Boston (where Margaret Fuller held "Conversations" and Brook Farm was planned)
1841 Vice President John Tyler succeeded President Harrison, who died shortly after taking office
John C. Frémont expedition to track headwaters of Des Moines River
Carlyle's On Heroes and Hero-Worship published
Emerson's Essays [First Series] published
Cooper's The Deerslayer (the final novel in his Leatherstocking Series, begun in 1823) published
Theodore Parker delivered "Discourse of the Transient and Permanent in Christianity" sermon (also called "South Boston Sermon")
George Ripley established Brook Farm (continued until 1847)
1842 Frémont expedition to explore route to Oregon
Massachusetts Supreme Court upheld legality of labor unions and right to strike
Massachusetts passed legislation to limit working hours of children
Lowell Offering began publication
Hawthorne moved to Old Manse in Concord (remained until 1845)
P.T. Barnum opened American Museum
1843 Second Frémont expedition to explore route to Oregon
North American Phalanx, first Fourierist community in America, established in Red Bank, New Jersey
Bronson Alcott and Charles Lane established Fruitlands
1844 Democrat James K. Polk elected to presidency
Constitution of Brook Farm revised; community became Fourierist
Emerson's Essays: Second Series published
Emerson delivered address in Concord on anniversary of emancipation in British West Indies
Fitchburg Railroad opened in Concord
1845 Term Manifest Destiny first used in anonymous piece in July–August issue of The United States Magazine and Democratic Review, probably by John L. O'Sullivan
Texas annexed by United States
Frémont expedition to explore area around Great Salt Lake in Utah
George Henry Evans founded National Reform Association for benefit of labor
Brook Farm periodical The Harbinger began publication
Margaret Fuller's Woman in the Nineteenth Century published
Thoreau built and moved into cabin at Walden Pond in Concord (remained until 1847)
1846 War with Mexico declared
Mormon migration from Illinois to Utah began
Smithsonian Institution founded in Washington, D.C.
Hawthorne's Mosses from an Old Manse published
Thoreau jailed for refusal to pay poll tax in protest against slavery
1847 Massachusetts Quarterly Review founded
Emerson's first volume of poetry, Poems, published
Longfellow's Evangeline published
1848 Whig Zachary Taylor elected to presidency
Mexican War ended; Mexico surrendered much territory to United States
Gold rush began
Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton organized first Seneca Falls women's convention
New York State granted property rights for women commensurate to those for men
Boston Female Medical School (first medical school for women in America) opened
Industrial utopian community founded at Oneida, New York
1849 Amelia Bloomer's The Lily began
Elizabeth Palmer Peabody published Aesthetic Papers, including Thoreau's "Resistance to Civil Government" (later known as Civil Disobedience)
Thoreau's A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers published
1850 Vice President Millard Fillmore succeeded President Taylor, who died in office
Compromise of 1850, including Fugitive Slave Law, passed
National women's convention held in Worcester, Massachusetts
Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter published
Emerson's Representative Men published
Harper's Monthly Magazine began publication
1851 Henry Rowe Schoolcraft's six-volume work on Native American history and culture began publication (completed 1857)
Melville's Moby-Dick published
Hawthorne's The House of the Seven Gables and The Snow-Image published
Fugitive slave Shadrach Minkins spent night in Concord en route to Canada via Underground Railroad
Fugitive slave Thomas Sims was returned to master in Georgia
1852 Democrat Franklin Pierce elected to presidency
Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin published
Hawthorne's Blithedale Romance published
1853 Crystal Palace Exhibition held in New York City
Feminist periodical Una began publication
1854 Thoreau's Walden published
North American Review began publication (later bought by Ticknor and Fields)
Thoreau delivered "Slavery in Massachusetts" address in response to fugitive slave case of Anthony Burns
1855 John Brown moved to Kansas
Longfellow's The Song of Hiawatha published
Whitman's Leaves of Grass published
1856 Democrat James Buchanan elected to presidency
Emerson's English Traits published
1857 Dred Scott case
Kansas elected free state legislature
Frederick Law Olmsted designed New York's Central Park
Atlantic Monthly began publication (later bought by Ticknor and Fields)
Harper's Weekly began publication
1859 John Brown led raid on federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry, West Virginia
Thoreau delivered "A Plea for Captain John Brown"
Bronson Alcott became Superintendent of Schools in Concord (continued until 1865)
Pullman (sleeper) car introduced
1860 Republican Abraham Lincoln elected to presidency
Strike by Massachusetts shoemakers
Elizabeth Palmer Peabody established first American kindergarten in Boston
Hawthorne's The Marble Faun published
Emerson's The Conduct of Life published
1861 Kansas admitted to Union
Civil War began
1862 Henry David Thoreau died
1863 President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation
1865 Civil War ended
President Lincoln assassinated
1866 First successful transatlantic cable laid
1867 Emerson's second volume of poems, May-Day, published
1870 Emerson's Society and Solitude published
1875 Emerson's Letters and Social Aims published
1879 Bronson Alcott established Concord School of Philosophy
1882 Ralph Waldo Emerson died
