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Thomas Jefferson Date of Birth
Thomas Jefferson was born in Virginia -
Father Dies
Peter Jefferson dies, leaving his fourteen-year-old son Thomas his slaves and lands. Thomas becomes head of the Jefferson household, but is able to continue his studies thanks to the guardianship of his family's friends -
Married
Jefferson marries Martha Wayles Skelton, the recently widowed daughter of the wealthy planter John Wayles Sketlon. -
The shot heard round the world
The Battles of Lexington and Concord mark the start of the American Revolutionary War. -
Declaration of Independence
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence -
Drafting committee for Declaration of Independence
Jefferson, along with John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and two others, is assigned to the committee charged with drafting what will become the Declaration of Independence. -
Birth and Death of Child
A son is born and then dies three weeks later. -
Governor of Virginia
Jefferson is elected the second governor of Virginia. -
Birth of 4th Child
The fourth child of Thomas Jefferson and Martha Skelton Jefferson, a daughter named Mary Jefferson, is born. -
Death of Martha Jefferson
Weeks after giving birth to her sixth and last child, Martha Skelton dies. Before dying, she makes Jefferson promise never to remarry. Her death leaves Jefferson shattered, wandering around Monticello babbling incoherently with his eldest daughter. -
Minister Plenipotentiary
Benjamin Franklin retires, leaving Jefferson as America's minister plenipotentiary in France. -
Breaking a bone
Jefferson breaks his wrist while trying to vault a fence to impress the young, married Maria Cosway, with whom he is infatuated. Their relationship will only end after Jefferson sends her a long "Dialogue Between My Heart and My Head" explaining why they cannot be together. -
Beginning of French Revolution
Jefferson supports a moderate, aristocratic faction, lending a hand to the drafting of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, issued on 26 August 1789. -
Return to America
After Patsy threatens to convert to Catholicism and become a nun, Jefferson returns to the United States to put his daughters into a more wholesome environment. He fully expects to return to France. However, when Jefferson arrives in Norfolk, Virginia he finds a letter from President Washington congratulating him on his appointment as secretary of state. -
Secretary of State
Thomas Jefferson was the first person to become the Secretary of State -
Election of 1796
George Washington's farewell address marks the start of the first contested presidential campaign in American history, pitting Federalist John Adams against Republican Thomas Jefferson. Adams will win the election by 3 votes in the Electoral College. -
President of the United States
Thomas Jefferson became President of the United States -
Louisiana Purchase
Jefferson purchases the 800,000-square-mile Louisiana Territory from French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte for $15 Million, or roughly 4 cents an acre, effectively doubling the size of the United States overnight. -
Lewis And Clark
The Lewis and Clark expedition begins to explre the new west -
Thomas Jefferson dies.
Thomas Jefferson dies in his bed in Monticello, on the same day as John Adams, fifty years to the day after the publication of the Declaration of Independence. On his deathbed, John Adams famously declares, "Thomas Jefferson survives." Adams is, alas, wrong: Jefferson passes away five hours or so before Adams, at roughly 12:50 in the afternoon.