e way for westward expansion by rich land speculators.
8/2/1820, General William Sherman, American Union Army commander during the Civil War, was born in Lancaster, Ohio.
1819, The US concluded a treaty with Spain substituting the River Sabine (present day boundary between Louisiana and Texas) for the Rio Grande as boundary between them. Spain/Mexico thereby gained the right to govern what is now Texas.
14/12/1819. Alabama became the 22nd State of the USA.
28/4/1819, Ezra Abbot, US scholar of the Bible, was born in Jackson, Maine.
1818, With the number of US States growing, the US passed the Third Flag Act (see 1794), returning to the original thirteen stripes, with an extra star for each new State. The exact pattern of the stars was still variable, see 1912.
3/12/1818. Illinois became the 21st State of the USA.
20/10/1818. The USA and Britain agreed the border between the USA and Canada to be the 49th parallel.
23/8/1818, The first steamship service began on the Great Lakes, North America.
20/5/1818, William Fargo, co-founder of the freight carrier Wells Fargo, was born.
10/5/1818, Paul Revere, who made the famous ride from Charlestown to Lexington to warn US militia of British troops, died aged 83 in Boston, Massachusetts.
6/2/1818, William Maxwell Evarts, US statesman, was born in Boston, Massachusetts (died 28/2/1901 in New York City).
10/12/1817. Mississippi became the 20th State of the USA.
11/12/1816. Indiana became the 19th State of the USA.
30/10/1815, Andrew Jackson Downing, US landscape gardener (died in Yonkers, New York, 28/7/1852) was born in Newburgh, New York.
30/6/1815. Faced with US threats to bombard Algeirs, the Dey agreed to cease piracy and release US prisoners.
3/3/1815. The USA, angered by piracy in the Mediterranean, authorised hostility against the Bey of Algiers.
8/1/1815. The British, led by General Sir Edward Pakenham, were defeated at New Orleans by the Americans led by Andrew Jackson. This was the last battle Britain fought against the USA. See 24/12/1814.
24/12/1814. The Americans and British signed a truce, The Treaty of Ghent ending their war. The British returned all territory seized from the USA. However it took a month for this news to reach America, the USA heard the news on 11/1/1815, just after the battle at New Orleans (see 8/1/1815).
23/12/1814. A British advance towards New Orleans was repulsed by the Americans.
13/9/1814. British troops made an unsuccessful attack on Baltimore. During the battle, the American composer Francis Scott Key wrote a patriotic song called ‘The Star Spangled Banner’.
11/9/1814. US forces led by President Madison routed the British fleet on Lake Champlain.
24/8/1814. 4,000 British troops under General Ross invaded Washington and set fire to the White House and the Capitol. Both were rebuilt and enlarged.
16/11/1813, A British naval blockade, under Admiral Warren, began blockading US ports.
10/9/1813. The British fleet on Lake Erie was destroyed by American warships.
7/9/1813, The term ‘Uncle Sam’ was coined by a newspaper in Troy, New York, to describe the United States.
24/2/1813. The British warship Peacock was sunk off Guyana by the USA.
22/1/1813. British forces defeated the Americans who were planning an attack on Fort Detroit.
23/11/1812. Demoralised by a tactical error, which saw two columns of USA forces attacking each other, the USA withdrew its forces south from Canada for the winter.
16/10/1812. British forces defeated the US army at Queenstown, near the Niagara Falls. The Americans were attempting to cross into Canada to eliminate it from the war with Britain.
10/9/1812, At the Battle of Lake Erie, US ships defeated a British naval force.
18/6/1812. War broke out between Britain and the USA. The USA was angered at Britain’s trade restrictions against Napoleon, which were hampering American trade with Europe, and with the British Navy stopping USA ships and press ganging their crews to serve for the British Navy. The American Congress voted narrowly for war with Britain.
30/4/1812, Louisiana became the 18th State of the Union.
4/4/1812. The t