1847 in the United States

Incumbents

Federal Government">Federal government of the United States">Federal Government

• President: James K. Polk
• Vice President: George M. Dallas
• Chief Justice: Roger B. Taney
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: John Wesley Davis , Robert Charles Winthrop
• Congress: 29th, 30th

  Governors

• Governor of Alabama: Joshua L. Martin , Reuben Chapman
• Governor of Arkansas: Thomas Stevenson Drew
• Governor of Connecticut: Isaac Toucey , Clark Bissell
• Governor of Delaware: William Temple , William Tharp
• Governor of Florida: William Dunn Moseley
• Governor of Georgia: George W. Crawford , George W. Towns
• Governor of Illinois: Augustus C. French
• Governor of Indiana: James Whitcomb
• Governor of Iowa: Ansel Briggs
• Governor of Kentucky: William Owsley
• Governor of Louisiana: Alexandre Mouton , Isaac Johnson
• Governor of Maine: Hugh J. Anderson , John W. Dana
• Governor of Maryland: Thomas Pratt
• Governor of Massachusetts: George N. Briggs
• Governor of Michigan: Alpheus Felch , William L. Greenly
• Governor of Mississippi: Albert G. Brown
• Governor of Missouri: John C. Edwards
• Governor of New Hampshire: Anthony Colby , Jared W. Williams
• Governor of New Jersey: Charles C. Stratton
• Governor of New York: John Young
• Governor of North Carolina: William Alexander Graham
• Governor of Ohio: William Bebb
• Governor of Pennsylvania: Francis R. Shunk
• Governor of Rhode Island: Byron Diman , Elisha Harris
• Governor of South Carolina: David Johnson
• Governor of Tennessee: Aaron V. Brown , Neill S. Brown
• Governor of Texas: James Pinckney Henderson , George T. Wood
• Governor of Vermont: Horace Eaton
• Governor of Virginia: William Smith

  Lieutenant Governors

• Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut: Noyes Billings , Charles J. McCurdy
• Lieutenant Governor of Illinois: Joseph Wells
• Lieutenant Governor of Indiana: Paris C. Dunning
• Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky: Archibald Dixon
• Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana: Trasimond Landry
• Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: John Reed, Jr.
• Lieutenant Governor of Michigan: William L. Greenly , Charles P. Bush
• Lieutenant Governor of Missouri: James Young
• Lieutenant Governor of New York: Addison Gardiner , Albert Lester
• Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island: Elisha Harris , Edward W. Lawton
• Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina: William Cain
• Lieutenant Governor of Texas: Albert Clinton Horton , John Alexander Greer
• Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: Leonard Sargeant

  Events

January–March

• January 4 – Samuel Colt sells his first revolver pistol, the Colt Walker, to the U.S government for the Texas Rangers.
• January 13 – The Treaty of Cahuenga ends the fighting in the Mexican–American War in California.
• January 16 – John C. Fremont is appointed Governor of the new California Territory.
• January 17 – Saint Anthony Hall is founded at Columbia University, New York City, New York.
• January 30 – Yerba Buena, California is renamed San Francisco, California.
• February 5 – A rescue effort, called the First Relief, leaves Johnson's Ranch to save the ill-fated Donner Party. These California bound emigrants became snowbound in the Sierra Nevada in the winter of 1846–1847, and some had resorted to cannibalism to survive.
• February 22 – Mexican–American War – The Battle of Buena Vista: 5,000 American troops under General Zachary Taylor use their superiority in artillery to drive off 15,000 Mexican troops under Antonio López de Santa Anna, defeating the Mexicans the next day.
• March 1 – The state of Michigan formally abolishes the death penalty.
• March 9 – Mexican–American War: United States forces under General Winfield Scott invade Mexico near Veracruz.
• March 28 – The Massachusetts Donation of 1847 for Ireland sails from Boston on USS Jamestown.
• March 29 – Mexican–American War: United States forces led by General Winfield Scott take Veracruz after a siege.

  April–June

• May 7 - In Philadelphia, the American Medical Association is founded.
• June 1 - Zeta Psi fraternity of North America is founded at New York University.

  July–September

• July 1 - The United States issues its first postage stamps, featuring George Washington and Benjamin Franklin.
• July 24 - After 17 months of travel, Brigham Young leads 148 Mormon pioneers into Salt Lake Valley, resulting in the establishment of Salt Lake City.
• July 29 - The Cumberland School of Law is founded at Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee. At the end of 1847 only 15 law schools exist in the United States.
• August 12 - U.S. troops of General Winfield Scott begin to advance along the aqueduct around Lake Chalco and Lake Xochimilco in Mexico
• August 20 - US troops defeat Mexican troops in Valencia, Mexico

  October–December

• October 31 - Theta Delta Chi is founded as a social fraternity at Union College, Schenectady, New York.
• November 29 - The Whitman massacre: Oregon missionaries Dr. Marcus Whitman, his wife Narcissa, and eleven others are killed in the Oregon Country by Cayuse and Umatilla Indians, starting the Cayuse War.

  Undated

• The North Carolina General Assembly incorporates the railroad town of Goldsborough, and the Wayne county seat is moved to the new town.
• The candy Necco Wafers are first produced as "hub wafers" in New England, an origin of the candy industry.

  Ongoing

• Mexican–American War

  Births

• January 11
• * Alpheus Michael Bowman, politician and businessman
• * Marion McKinley Bovard, academic administrator, 1st President of the University of Southern California
• January 16 - John Cutting Berry, physician and missionary
• January 23 - Elijah Bond, lawyer and inventor
• January 28 - William V. Allen, United States Senator from Nebraska from 1893 till 1899.
• February 2 - Charles H. Baker, politician
• February 11 - Thomas Edison, American inventor and businessman
• February 26 - William A. B. Branch, politician
• March 2 - Blanche Butler Ames, First Lady of Mississippi
• March 13 - Francis S. White, United States Senator from Alabama from 1914 till 1915.
• March 18 - William O'Connell Bradley, United States Senator from Kentucky from 1895 till 1899.
• March 21 - Oscar Bielaski, Major League Baseball player
• March 27 - Warren Ives Bradley, children's author
• March 29 - John D. Works, United States Senator from California from 1911 till 1917.
• April 13 - J. Thompson Baker, politician from New Jersey
• May 25 - John Green Brady, 5th Governor of the District of Alaska from 1897 till 1906
• June 8 - Ida Saxton McKinley, First Lady of the United States,
• June 26 - Daniel V. Asay, iceboat racer
• June 29 - Brother Azarias, educator
• July 4 - James Anthony Bailey, circus ringmaster
• July 19 - Oliver Ernesto Branch, politician
• August 12 - William Rankin Ballard, businessman
• September 5 - Jesse James, American outlaw, guerrilla, gang leader, bank robber, train robber, and murderer from Missouri.
• September 10 - Franklin Bartlett, politician
• September 23 - Victoria Woodhull, American leader of the woman's suffrage movement
• September 30 - James Taliaferro, United States Senator from Florida from 1899 till 1911.
• October 18 - Emma Elizabeth Brown, author and artist
• October 23 - Gottfried Blocklinger, admiral
• October 31 - Wendell P. Bowman, army major general
• November 7 - Melvin O. Adams, attorney and railroad executive
• November 10 - Frederick Arthur Bridgman, artist
• November 23 - Joseph Ackroyd, politician, member of the New York State Senate
• December 21 - Fletcher S. Bassett, founder of the Chicago Folk-Lore Society
• December 31 - Wilson S. Bissell, politician, United States Postmaster General

  Deaths

• January 19 - Charles Bent, first civilian governor of the New Mexico territory
• January 30 - Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe, wife of Edgar Allan Poe
• May 1 - Jesse Speight, United States Senator from Mississippi from 1845 till 1847.
• July 22 - Henry W. Edwards, United States Senator from Connecticut from 1823 till 1838.
• August 6 - Henry M. Ridgely, United States Senator from Delaware from 1827 till 1829.
• November 1 - Jabez W. Huntington, United States Senator from Connecticut from 1840 till 1847.
• November 29 - Narcissa Whitman, pioneer missionary