english websitee By jennasnider Jan 1, 1803 Lewis and Clark begin expedition exploring and mapping vast regions of the West Jan 1, 1804 Napoleon Bonaparte declares himself emperor Jan 10, 1804 Louisiana Purchase extends the nation's territory to the Rocky Mountains Jan 1, 1807 Robert Fulton's steamboat makes first trip from New York City to Albany Jan 1, 1812 U.S declares war on Great Britain; early nattles in War of 1812 are at sea Jan 1, 1813 Jane Austen publishes Pride and Prejudice Jan 1, 1814 Bombardment of Fort McHenry inspires Francis Scott Key to write "The Star-Spangled Banner" Jan 1, 1817 William Cullen Bryant publishes early draft of "Thanatopsis" in a Boston magazine Jan 1, 1818 Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley creates a legend with Frankenstein Jan 1, 1820 Missouri Compromise bans slavery in parts of new territory Jan 1, 1825 Completion and success of the Erie Canal spurs canal building throughout the nation Jan 1, 1827 Edgar Allan Poe publishes Tamerlane, his first collection of poems Jan 1, 1829 George Stephenson perfects a steam locomotive for Liverpool-Manchester Railway Jan 1, 1831 Cyrus McCormick invents mechanical reaper Jan 1, 1831 Victor Hugo publishes Notre Dame de Paris Jan 1, 1837 Samuel F.B. Morse patents electromagnetic telegraph Jan 1, 1838 U.S. Army marches Cherokees of Georgia on long "Trail of Tears" to Oklahoma Jan 1, 1841 Antarctica is explored by Englishman James Ross Jan 1, 1842 Hong Kong becomes a British Colony Jan 1, 1845 Florida becomes the twenty-seventh state in the United States Jan 1, 1845 Famine results from failure of potato crop Jan 1, 1848 Mexican War ends; United States expands borders Jan 1, 1848 Gold Rush begins in California Jan 1, 1848 Women's Rights Convention held in Seneca Falls, New York Jan 1, 1848 Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish The Communist Manifesto Jan 1, 1850 Nathaniel Hawthorne publishes The Scarlet Letter Jan 1, 1850 Elizabeth Barret Browning publishes Sonnets from the Portuguese Jan 1, 1851 Herman Melville publishes Moby-Dick Jan 1, 1851 Nathaniel Hawthorne publishes The House of Seven Gables Jan 1, 1851 Gold is discovered in New South Wales Jan 1, 1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes Uncle Tom's Cabin Jan 1, 1854 Henry David Thoreau publishes Walden Jan 1, 1855 Robert Browning publishes Men and Women Jan 1, 1855 Walt Whitman publishes Leaves of Grass Jan 1, 1858 Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas run for Illinois Senate seat and conduct a series of famous debates