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| 1842 |
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| The Dorr rebellion in Rhode Island was occasioned by refusal of conservatives to liberalize the suffrage and to reform representation. It swept away the Charter of 1663, which had served as the constitution of the state of Rhode Island from 1776 to 1842. | 1 |
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| 1844, April 12 |
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| Calhoun's treaty for the annexation of Texas was signed but was defeated in the Senate on June 8. | 2 |
| Presidential campaign. The Democrats nominated James K. Polk (1795–1849) on the platform declaring for reannexation of Texas and the reoccupation of Oregon. The Whigs nominated Henry Clay (1777–1852). The Liberty Party nominated James G. Birney (1792–1857) and took enough popular votes from Clay to enable Polk to carry New York and win the election. | 3 |
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| 1845, March 1 |
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| Tyler brought about the annexation of Texas by joint resolution of Congress (See 1845, March 1). John O'Sullivan, editor of the Democratic Review and the New York Morning News, helped to popularize the term “manifest destiny” to capture the vision of an American empire stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Landscape artists like Thomas Cole (1801–48) and Asher B. Durand (1796–1886) inspired the so-called Hudson River School and Rocky Mountain Painters, who soon reflected this expansive vision. | 4 |
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| March 4–1849, March 4 |
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| JAMES K. POLK, 11th president. | 5 |
| The black abolitionist Frederick Douglass (1817–95) published his autobiography, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Two years later he launched the North Star and broke with the white abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison. | 6 |
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