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First President to Live in the White House
U.S. President John Adams is the first President to live in the White House, then known as the Executive Mansion and sixteen days later, the United States Congress holds its first session in Washington, D.C. He would be defeated for the presidency by December 6 by Thomas Jefferson. -
US Size Doubles
President Thomas Jefferson doubles the size of the United States of America with his purchase of the Louisiana Territory from Napoleon's France, thus paving way for the western expansion that would mark the entire history of the 19th century from Missouri to the Pacific Coast. The price of the purchase included bonds of $11,250,000 and $3,750,000 in payments to United States citizens with claims against France. -
President James Madison
President James Madison defeats De Witt Clinton in the U.S. presidential election, securing a second term as the United States engages in the War of 1812 by an Electoral College margin of 128 votes to 89. -
White House is Burned
The White House is burned by British forces upon the occupation of Washington, D.C. during the War of 1812. This act, in retaliation for the destruction by U.S. troops of Canadian public buildings, causes President Madison to evacuate. The British advance would be halted by Maryland militia three weeks later on September 12. Another United States president, James Monroe, would have to wait three years before he could reoccupy the executive mansion. -
The Missouri Compromise Bill
March 3, 1820 - The Missouri Compromise bill, sponsored by Henry Clay, passes in the United States Congress. This legislation allows slavery in the Missouri territory, but not in any other location west of the Mississippi River that was north of 36 degrees 30 minutes latitude, the current southern line of the state of Missouri. The state of Missouri would be admitted to the Union, under this compromise, on August 10, 1821. -
John Quincy Adams Elected
December 2, 1824 - When the Electoral College vote yielded no majority, John Quincy Adams would be elected president by the House of Representatives on February 9, 1825, outpolling fellow Democrat Republicans, now a loose coalition of competing factions, including Andrew Jackson, who had actually received a higher number of Electoral College votes, 99, than Adams, 84. It was not a majority due to votes for Henry Clay, 37, and William Crawford, 41. -
Lincoln Wins Election
Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln, running on an anti-slavery platform, defeats three opponents in the campaign for the presidency; Democrats Stephen A. Douglas and John C. Breckinridge, and John Bell, Constitutional Union Party, leading to ardent cries of potential rebellion in southern slave states. Although Lincoln won the Electoral College by a large majority, 180 to 123 for all other candidates, the popular vote showed just how split the nation was. -
Emancipation Proclamation
President Abraham Lincoln, fresh on the heals of the Antietam victory, issues the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, stating that all slaves in places of rebellion against the Federal Government would be free as of January 1, 1863. -
Indian War
The Seventh Cavalry under the command of Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer, protecting a railroad survey party in Montana, engage the Sioux for the first time near the Tongue River in one minor clash of the Indian War. The Indian Wars, which had raged throughout 1873, saw the First Battle of the Stronghold on January 17, and the Second Battle of the Stronghold on April 15-17, and the end of the Modoc War on June 4 when Captain Jack was captured.