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| 1848, Jan. 24 |
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| Discovery of gold at Coloma, 60 miles east of Sutter's Fort, Calif., began the great gold rush. California's population increased from 6,000 to over 85,000 during the next two years. | 1 |
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| Feb. 2 |
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| The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo closed the war with Mexico. Mexico gave up claims to Texas, recognized the Rio Grande as the boundary, and ceded New Mexico and California to the United States in return for $15 million and the assumption of American claims against Mexico. | 2 |
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| July 19 |
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| The first women's rights convention in world history was held at Seneca Falls, N.Y. The women issued a “Declaration of Sentiments,” declaring that “all men and women were created equal.” They also listed grievances against a male-dominated social order. The movement had started with the visit of Scottish activist Frances Wright to America in 1827. Her example moved to action Sarah (1792–1873) and Angelina (1805–79) Grimké, Lucretia Mott (1793–1880), and Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902). | 3 |
| Presidential campaign. The Whig candidate was Zachary Taylor, hero of the recent war. The Democrats nominated Lewis Cass, who had recently proposed squatter sovereignty as a solution of the problem of slavery in the territories, raised by the Wilmot Proviso. The Free Soil Party, favoring homesteading and the exclusion of slavery from the territories, nominated Van Buren, who, by splitting the Democratic vote in New York, enabled Taylor to carry the state and win the election. | 4 |
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