1801 in the United States

Events from the year 1801 in the United States.

Federal government

 * President:
 * John Adams (F-Massachusetts) (until March 4)
 * Thomas Jefferson (DR-Virginia) (starting March 4)


 * Vice President:
 * Thomas Jefferson (DR-Virginia) (until March 4)
 * Aaron Burr (DR-New York) (starting March 4)


 * Chief Justice: John Marshall (Virginia)
 * Speaker of the House of Representatives:
 * Theodore Sedgwick (F-Massachusetts) (until March 4)
 * Nathaniel Macon (DR-North Carolina) (starting December 7)


 * Congress: 6th (until March 4), 7th (starting March 4)

{| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" ! Governors and lieutenant governors

Governors

 * Governor of Connecticut: Jonathan Trumbull, Jr. (Federalist)
 * Governor of Delaware: Richard Bassett (Federalist) (until March 3), James Sykes (Federalist) (starting March 3)
 * Governor of Georgia:
 * until March 3: James Jackson (Democratic-Republican)
 * March 3 – November 7: David Emanuel (Democratic-Republican)
 * starting November 7: Josiah Tattnall (Democratic-Republican)
 * Governor of Kentucky: James Garrard (Democratic-Republican)
 * Governor of Maryland: Benjamin Ogle (Federalist) (until November 10), John Francis Mercer (Democratic-Republican) (starting November 10)
 * Governor of Massachusetts: Caleb Strong (Federalist)
 * Governor of New Hampshire: John Taylor Gilman (Federalist)
 * Governor of New Jersey: Richard Howell (Federalist) (until October 31), Joseph Bloomfield (Democratic-Republican) (starting October 31)
 * Governor of New York: John Jay (Federalist) (until June 30), George Clinton (Democratic-Republican) (starting July 1)
 * Governor of North Carolina: Benjamin Williams (Federalist)
 * Governor of Pennsylvania: Thomas McKean (Democratic-Republican)
 * Governor of Rhode Island: Arthur Fenner (Country)
 * Governor of South Carolina: John Drayton (Democratic-Republican)
 * Governor of Tennessee: John Sevier (Democratic-Republican) (until September 23), Archibald Roane (Democratic-Republican) (starting September 23)
 * Governor of Vermont: Isaac Tichenor (Federalist)
 * Governor of Virginia: James Monroe (Democratic-Republican)

Lieutenant governors

 * Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut: John Treadwell (Federalist)
 * Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky: Alexander Scott Bullitt (political party unknown)
 * Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: vacant (until month and day unknown), Samuel Phillips, Jr. (political party unknown) (starting month and day unknown)
 * Lieutenant Governor of New York: Stephen Van Rensselaer (political party unknown) (until end of June 30), Jeremiah Van Rensselaer (political party unknown) (starting July 1)
 * Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island: Samuel J. Potter (Democratic-Republican)
 * Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina: Richard Winn (Democratic-Republican)
 * Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: Paul Brigham (Democratic-Republican)
 * }

Events

 * January 10 – William Henry Harrison becomes the first Governor of the Indiana Territory.
 * January 31 – John Marshall is appointed Chief Justice of the United States.
 * February – Contingent election of 1801: An electoral tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr is resolved, when Jefferson is elected President of the United States and Burr Vice President by the United States House of Representatives.
 * February 27 – Washington, D.C. is placed under the jurisdiction of the Congress of the United States.
 * March 4 – Thomas Jefferson is sworn in as the third president of the United States, and Aaron Burr is sworn in as the third vice president.
 * May 10 – The First Barbary War begins as the pasha of Tripoli declares war on the United States by having the flagpole on the consulate chopped down.
 * July – Eli Whitney demonstrates before Congress the advantages of the system of interchangeable parts in the manufacture of firearms.
 * August 1 – Action of 1 August 1801 (First Barbary War): United States Navy schooner USS Enterprise (1799) captures the 14-gun Tripolitan corsair polacca Tripoli off the north African coast in a single-ship action.
 * November 16 – The first edition of New York Evening Post is printed.
 * Jefferson, the first American yacht, is built in Salem, Massachusetts, for George Crowninshield Jr.

Ongoing

 * First Barbary War (1801–1805)

Births

 * January 20 – Thomas Hickman Williams, United States Senator from Mississippi from 1838 till 1839. (died 1851)
 * March 27 – Alexander Barrow, United States Senator from Louisiana from 1841 till 1846. (died 1846)
 * April 26 – Ambrose Dudley Mann, first United States Assistant Secretary of State (died 1889)
 * May 6 – George S. Greene, Union Army general (died 1899)
 * May 16 – William H. Seward, United States Secretary of State from 1861 to 1869 (died 1872)
 * June 1 – Brigham Young, leader in the Latter Day Saint movement (died 1877)
 * July 5 – David Farragut, flag officer of the United States Navy during the American Civil War (died 1870)
 * June 14 – Heber C. Kimball, religious leader (died 1868)
 * June 15 – Benjamin Wright Raymond, 3rd Mayor of Chicago (died 1883)
 * August 10 – Robert Woodward Barnwell, United States Senator from South Carolina from 1862 till 1865. (died 1882)
 * August 31 – Pierre Soule, United States Senator from Louisiana in 1847 and from 1849 till 1853. (died 1870)
 * September 10 –
 * Garrett Davis, United States Senator from Kentucky from 1861 till 1872. (died 1872)
 * Marie Laveau, Voodoo Queen of New Orleans, (died 1881)
 * November 4 – Ambrose Hundley Sevier, United States Senator from Arkansas from 1836 till 1848. (died 1848)
 * November 9 – Gail Borden, surveyor, newspaper publisher, and inventor of condensed milk (died 1874)
 * November 10 – Samuel Gridley Howe, physician, abolitionist (died 1876)
 * December 28 – James Barnes, Union Army general (died 1869)
 * Date unknown – Solomon W. Downs, United States Senator from Louisiana from 1847 till 1853. (died 1854)

Deaths

 * January 9 – Margaretta Faugères, playwright, poet and political activist (born 1771)
 * February 6 – Annis Boudinot Stockton, poet and sponsor of literary salons (born 1736 )
 * February 23 – Elizabeth Graeme Fergusson, poet and sponsor of literary salons (born 1737)
 * March 14 – Margarita "Peggy" Schuyler, youngest child of Philip Schuyler (born 1758)
 * June 4 – Frederick Muhlenberg, first Speaker of the House of Representatives (born 1750)
 * June 14 – Benedict Arnold, Revolutionary hero and traitor (born 1741)
 * September 10 – Jason Fairbanks, murderer (born 1780)
 * November 4 – William Shippen, physician and Continental Congressman (born 1712)
 * November 23 – Philip Hamilton, first son of Alexander Hamilton and Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, (fatally shot by George Eacker in a duel at age 19) (born 1782)