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| 1803–4 |
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| New England Federalists, believing the accession of Louisiana would so strengthen the agrarian states as to lead to a decline in New England influence, planned the formation of a northeastern confederacy, composed of New England and New York. To carry New York with them, they approached Aaron Burr, vice president, who was disgruntled with Jefferson, and proposed that he run for the governorship, with Federalist support. The opposition of Hamilton to this plan was followed by the duel between Burr and Hamilton (July 11, 1804), in which Hamilton was killed. | 1 |
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| 1804–6 |
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| Lewis and Clark expedition. Meriwether Lewis (1774–1809) and William Clark (1770–1838) were selected by Jefferson to explore the trans-Mississippi country. Leaving St. Louis, they ascended the Missouri to its source, crossed the headwaters of the Snake River, and proceeded down the Columbia River to the Pacific. Capt. Robert Gray of Boston had earlier entered the mouth of the Columbia in 1792. Explorations of Lewis and Clark gave the United States another claim to the “Oregon country.” | 2 |
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| 1805 |
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| The Tripolitan War (See 1801–5), which had begun in 1801, brought to close by a treaty. | 3 |
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| March 4 |
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| Thomas Jefferson began his second term as president, with George Clinton as vice president. | 4 |
| On Nov. 11, 1807, a British order in council blockaded the coast from Copenhagen to Trieste against neutrals unless they had first entered or cleared from a British port and paid duties there. In December Napoleon replied with his Milan decree, which declared that ships lost their neutral character if they obeyed the British order in council of Nov. 11, or if they submitted to search on the high seas by British officers. | 5 |
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