1847

Decades: 1790s 1800s 1810s 1820s 1830s - 1840s - 1850s 1860s 1870s 1880s 1890s

Years: 1842 1843 1844 1845 1846 - 1847 - 1848 1849 1850 1851 1852

Events

• January 4 - Samuel Colt sells his first revolver pistol to the United States government.
• January 13 - The Treaty of Cahuenga ends the Mexican-American War in California.
• January 16 - John C. Fremont is appointed Governor of the new California Territory.
• January 30 - Yerba Buena, California is renamed San Francisco.
• February 19 - The Donner Party is rescued. It is noted that some of the survivors seem to be remarkably well-fed considering their ordeal.
• 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 Lopez de Santa Anna defeating the Mexicans the next day.
• March 9 - Mexican-American War: United States forces under General Winfield Scott invade Mexico near Veracruz.
• March 29 - Mexican-American War: United States forces led by General Winfield Scott take Veracruz after a siege.
• May 7 - In Philadelphia, the American Medical Association (AMA) is founded.
• July 1 - The United States issues its first postage stamps.
• 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 26 - Liberia gains independence.
• September 6 - Henry David Thoreau leaves Walden Pond and moves in with Ralph Waldo Emerson and his family in Concord, Massachusetts.
• October 12 - German inventor and industrialist Werner von Siemens founds Siemens AG & Halske.

Ongoing events

• Mexican-American War (1846-1848)

Year in topic

• 1847 in literature:
  • Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
• 1847 in science

Births

• February 11 - Thomas Alva Edison, US inventor.
• April 10 - Joseph Pulitzer, journalist and newspaper publisher
• March 3 - Alexander Graham Bell, father of the telephone.
• November 26 - Princess Dagmar of Denmark, later Emperess consort of Tsar Alexander III of Russia.

Deaths

• January 19 - Charles Bent, New Mexico pioneer
• March 9 - Mary Anning, British paleontologist
• March 11 - Johnny Appleseed, pioneer, agronomist
• May 14 - Fanny Mendelssohn, composer and pianist
• Charles Hatchett, English chemist who discovered niobium

Referenced By