1847 in the United States

Events from the year 1847 in the United States.

Federal government

 * President: James K. Polk (D-Tennessee)
 * Vice President: George M. Dallas (D-Pennsylvania)
 * Chief Justice: Roger B. Taney (Maryland)
 * Speaker of the House of Representatives:
 * John Wesley Davis (D-Indiana) (until March 4)
 * Robert Charles Winthrop (W-Massachusetts) (starting December 6)


 * Congress: 29th (until March 4), 30th (starting March 4)

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

Governors

 * Governor of Alabama: Joshua L. Martin (Independent) (until December 16), Reuben Chapman (Democratic) (starting December 16)
 * Governor of Arkansas: Thomas Stevenson Drew (Democratic)
 * Governor of Connecticut: Isaac Toucey (Democratic) (until May 5), Clark Bissell (Whig) (starting May 5)
 * Governor of Delaware: William Temple (Whig) (until January 19), William Tharp (Democratic) (starting January 19)
 * Governor of Florida: William Dunn Moseley (Democratic)
 * Governor of Georgia: George W. Crawford (Whig) (until November 3), George W. Towns (Democratic) (starting November 3)
 * Governor of Illinois: Augustus C. French (Democratic)
 * Governor of Indiana: James Whitcomb (Democratic)
 * Governor of Iowa: Ansel Briggs (Democratic)
 * Governor of Kentucky: William Owsley (Whig)
 * Governor of Louisiana: Alexandre Mouton (Democratic) (until February 12), Isaac Johnson (Democratic) (starting February 12)
 * Governor of Maine: Hugh J. Anderson (Democratic) (until May 12), John W. Dana (Democratic) (starting May 12)
 * Governor of Maryland: Thomas Pratt (Democratic)
 * Governor of Massachusetts: George N. Briggs (Democratic)
 * Governor of Michigan: Alpheus Felch (Democratic) (until March 3), William L. Greenly (Democratic) (starting March 3)
 * Governor of Mississippi: Albert G. Brown (Democratic)
 * Governor of Missouri: John C. Edwards (Democratic)
 * Governor of New Hampshire: Anthony Colby (Democratic) (until June 3), Jared W. Williams (Democratic) (starting June 3)
 * Governor of New Jersey: Charles C. Stratton (Whig)
 * Governor of New York: John Young (Whig) (starting January 1)
 * Governor of North Carolina: William Alexander Graham (Whig)
 * Governor of Ohio: William Bebb (Whig)
 * Governor of Pennsylvania: Francis R. Shunk (Democratic)
 * Governor of Rhode Island: Byron Diman (Law and Order) (until May 4), Elisha Harris (Law and Order) (starting May 4)
 * Governor of South Carolina: David Johnson (Democratic)
 * Governor of Tennessee: Aaron V. Brown (Democratic) (until October 17), Neill S. Brown (Whig) (starting October 17)
 * Governor of Texas: James Pinckney Henderson (Democratic) (until December 21), George T. Wood (Democratic) (starting December 21)
 * Governor of Vermont: Horace Eaton (Whig)
 * Governor of Virginia: William Smith (Democratic)

Lieutenant governors

 * Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut: Noyes Billings (Democratic) (until May 5), Charles J. McCurdy (Whig) (starting May 5)
 * Lieutenant Governor of Illinois: Joseph Wells (Democratic)
 * Lieutenant Governor of Indiana: Paris C. Dunning (Democratic)
 * Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky: Archibald Dixon (Whig)
 * Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana: Trasimond Landry (Whig)
 * Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: John Reed, Jr. (political party unknown)
 * Lieutenant Governor of Michigan: William L. Greenly (Democratic) (until month and day unknown), Charles P. Bush (Democratic) (starting month and day unknown)
 * Lieutenant Governor of Missouri: James Young (Democratic)
 * Lieutenant Governor of New York: Addison Gardiner (Democratic) (until July 5), Albert Lester (Democratic) (starting July 5)
 * Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island: Elisha Harris (Whig) (until May 4), Edward W. Lawton (political party unknown) (starting May 4)
 * Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina: William Cain (Democratic)
 * Lieutenant Governor of Texas: Albert Clinton Horton (Democratic) (until December 21), John Alexander Greer (political party unknown) (starting December 21)
 * Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: Leonard Sargeant (Whig)
 * }

January–March

 * January 4 – Samuel Colt sells his first revolver pistol, the Colt Walker, to the U.S. government for the Texas Rangers.
 * January 13 – The Treaty of Cahuenga ends the fighting in the Mexican–American War in California.
 * January 16 – John C. Fremont is appointed Governor of the new California Territory.
 * January 17 – Saint Anthony Hall is founded at Columbia University in New York City.
 * January 30 – Yerba Buena, California is renamed San Francisco, California.
 * February 5 – A rescue effort, called the First Relief, leaves Johnson's Ranch to save the ill-fated Donner Party. These California bound emigrants became snowbound in the Sierra Nevada in the winter of 1846–1847, and some have resorted to cannibalism to survive.
 * February 22 – Mexican–American War – The Battle of Buena Vista: 5,000 American troops under General Zachary Taylor use their superiority in artillery to drive off 15,000 Mexican troops under Antonio López de Santa Anna, defeating the Mexicans the next day.
 * March 1 – The state of Michigan formally abolishes the death penalty.
 * March 9 – Mexican–American War: United States forces under General Winfield Scott invade Mexico near Veracruz in the first large-scale amphibious assault conducted by U.S. military forces.
 * March 28 – The Massachusetts Donation of 1847 for Ireland sails from Boston on USS Jamestown.
 * March 29 – Mexican–American War: United States forces led by General Winfield Scott take Veracruz after a siege.

April–June

 * May 7 – The American Medical Association (AMA) is founded in Philadelphia.
 * June 1 – Zeta Psi fraternity of North America is founded at New York University.
 * June 10 – The Chicago Tribune begins publication.

July–September

 * July 1 – The United States issues its first postage stamps, featuring George Washington and Benjamin Franklin.
 * July 24 – After 17 months of travel, Brigham Young leads 148 Mormon pioneers into Salt Lake Valley, resulting in the establishment of Salt Lake City.
 * July 29 – The Cumberland School of Law is founded at Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee. At the end of 1847 only 15 law schools exist in the United States.
 * August 12 – U.S. troops of General Winfield Scott begin to advance along the aqueduct around Lake Chalco and Lake Xochimilco in Mexico
 * August 20 – U.S. troops defeat Mexican troops in Valencia, Mexico

October–December

 * October 31 – Theta Delta Chi is founded as a social fraternity at Union College, Schenectady, New York.
 * November 29 – The Whitman massacre: Oregon missionaries Dr. Marcus Whitman, his wife Narcissa, and eleven others are killed in the Oregon Country by Cayuse and Umatilla Indians, starting the Cayuse War.

Undated

 * The North Carolina General Assembly incorporates the railroad town of Goldsborough, and the Wayne county seat is moved to the new town.
 * The candy Necco Wafers are first produced as "hub wafers" in New England, an origin of the candy industry.
 * Hardware business Orgill is established in Memphis, Tennessee.

Ongoing

 * Mexican–American War (1846–1848)

Births

 * January 11
 * Alpheus Michael Bowman, politician and businessman (died 1913)
 * Marion McKinley Bovard, academic administrator, 1st president of the University of Southern California (died 1891)
 * January 16 – John Cutting Berry, physician and missionary (died 1936)
 * January 23 – Elijah Bond, lawyer and inventor (died 1921)
 * January 28 – William V. Allen, United States Senator from Nebraska from 1893 till 1899. (died 1924)
 * February 2 – Charles H. Baker, politician (died 1919)
 * February 11 – Thomas Edison, American inventor and businessman (died 1931)
 * February 26 – William A. B. Branch, politician (died 1910)
 * March 2 – Blanche Butler Ames, First Lady of Mississippi (d. 1939)
 * March 13 – Francis S. White, United States Senator from Alabama from 1914 till 1915. (died 1922)
 * March 18 – William O'Connell Bradley, United States Senator from Kentucky from 1895 till 1899. (died 1914)
 * March 21 – Oscar Bielaski, Major League Baseball player (died 1911)
 * March 27 – Warren Ives Bradley, children's author (died 1868)
 * March 29 – John D. Works, United States Senator from California from 1911 till 1917. (died 1928)
 * April 13 – J. Thompson Baker, politician from New Jersey (died 1919)
 * May 25 – John Green Brady, 5th Governor of the District of Alaska from 1897 till 1906 (d. 1918)
 * June 8 – Ida Saxton McKinley, First Lady of the United States, (died 1907)
 * June 26 – Daniel V. Asay, iceboat racer (died 1930)
 * June 29 – Brother Azarias, educator (d. 1893)
 * July 4 – James Anthony Bailey, circus ringmaster (d. 1906)
 * July 19 – Oliver Ernesto Branch, politician (d. 1916)
 * August 12 – William Rankin Ballard, businessman (d. 1929)
 * September 5 – Jesse James, American outlaw, guerrilla, gang leader, bank robber, train robber, and murderer from Missouri. (died 1882)
 * September 10 – Franklin Bartlett, politician (died 1909)
 * September 11 – Mary Watson Whitney, American astronomer and academic (died 1921)
 * September 23 – Victoria Woodhull, American leader of the woman's suffrage movement (died 1927)
 * September 30 – James Taliaferro, United States Senator from Florida from 1899 till 1911. (died 1934)
 * October 18 – Emma Elizabeth Brown, author and artist (unknown year of death)
 * October 23 – Gottfried Blocklinger, admiral (died 1930)
 * October 31 – Wendell P. Bowman, army major general (died 1928)
 * November 7 – Melvin O. Adams, attorney and railroad executive (died 1920)
 * November 10 – Frederick Arthur Bridgman, artist (died 1928)
 * November 23 – Joseph Ackroyd, politician, member of the New York State Senate (died 1915)
 * December 21 – Fletcher S. Bassett, founder of the Chicago Folk-Lore Society (died 1893)
 * December 30 – John Peter Altgeld, 20th governor of Illinois (died 1902)
 * December 31 – Wilson S. Bissell, politician, United States Postmaster General (died 1903)

Deaths

 * January 19 – Charles Bent, first civilian governor of the New Mexico territory (born 1799)
 * January 30 – Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe, wife of Edgar Allan Poe (born 1822)
 * May 1 – Jesse Speight, United States Senator from Mississippi from 1845 till 1847. (born 1795)
 * July 22 – Henry W. Edwards, United States Senator from Connecticut from 1823 till 1838. (born 1779)
 * August 6 – Henry M. Ridgely, United States Senator from Delaware from 1827 till 1829. (born 1779)
 * November 1 – Jabez W. Huntington, United States Senator from Connecticut from 1840 till 1847. (born 1788)
 * November 29 – Narcissa Whitman, pioneer missionary (born 1808)