President:
Pres: Millard Fillmore
Pres: Franklin Pierce inaugurated
General
- Culture: First African-American novel by William Wells Brown
- Land: Gadsen Purchase of Mesilla Valley
- Natives: Treaty with Comanche Kiowa and Apache tribes
- Transportation: Rails connect NY and Chicago
John W Gunnison surveys railroad route across the US and is killed by Indians
East
- New York: First US state agricultural college founded
NY Central Railroad founded
Midwest
South
West and Pacific
- General: $10 million Gadsen purchase finalizes border on continent
Drought in Southwest
Gunnison Massacre as surveyors killed by Natives
- California: Wellingtonia gigantean largest tree discovered in California
"Ox Incident" results in death of many Indians in Tulare
Levi Strauss starts peddling pants in San Francisco – runs out of canvas and switches to serge de Nimes (denim)
- Utah: Walker War with Native Americans begins to 1854