Federal government edit

• President: James K. Polk (D-Tennessee)
• Vice President: George M. Dallas (D-Pennsylvania)
• Chief Justice: Roger B. Taney (Maryland)
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: John Wesley Davis (D-Indiana) (until March 4), Robert Charles Winthrop (W-Massachusetts) (starting December 6)
• Congress: 29th (until March 4), 30th (starting March 4)

January–March edit

• January 4 – Samuel Colt sells his first revolver pistol, the Colt Walker, to the U.S. government for the Texas Rangers.
• January 13 – The Treaty of Cahuenga ends the fighting in the Mexican–American War in California.
• January 16 – John C. Fremont is appointed Governor of the new California Territory.
• January 17 – Saint Anthony Hall is founded at Columbia University in New York City.
• January 30 – Yerba Buena, California is renamed San Francisco, California.
• February 5 – A rescue effort, called the First Relief, leaves Johnson's Ranch to save the ill-fated Donner Party. These California bound emigrants became snowbound in the Sierra Nevada in the winter of 1846–1847, and some have resorted to cannibalism to survive.
• 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 López de Santa Anna, defeating the Mexicans the next day.
• March 1 – The state of Michigan formally abolishes the death penalty.
• March 9 – Mexican–American War: United States forces under General Winfield Scott invade Mexico near Veracruz in the first large-scale amphibious assault conducted by U.S. military forces.
• March 28 – The Massachusetts Donation of 1847 for Ireland sails from Boston on USS Jamestown.
• March 29 – Mexican–American War: United States forces led by General Winfield Scott take Veracruz after a siege.

April–June edit

• May 7 – The American Medical Association (AMA) is founded in Philadelphia.
• June 1 – Zeta Psi fraternity of North America is founded at New York University.
• June 10 – The Chicago Tribune begins publication.

July–September edit

• July 1 – The United States issues its first postage stamps, featuring George Washington and Benjamin Franklin.
• 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 29 – The Cumberland School of Law is founded at Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee. At the end of 1847 only 15 law schools exist in the United States.
• August 12 – U.S. troops of General Winfield Scott begin to advance along the aqueduct around Lake Chalco and Lake Xochimilco in Mexico
• August 20 – U.S. troops defeat Mexican troops in Valencia, Mexico

October–December edit

• October 31 – Theta Delta Chi is founded as a social fraternity at Union College, Schenectady, New York.
• November 29 – The Whitman massacre: Oregon missionaries Dr. Marcus Whitman, his wife Narcissa, and eleven others are killed in the Oregon Country by Cayuse and Umatilla Indians, starting the Cayuse War.

Undated edit

• The North Carolina General Assembly incorporates the railroad town of Goldsborough, and the Wayne county seat is moved to the new town.
• The candy Necco Wafers are first produced as "hub wafers" in New England, an origin of the candy industry.
• Hardware business Orgill is established in Memphis, Tennessee.

Ongoing edit

• Mexican–American War (1846–1848)

• January 11
  • Alpheus Michael Bowman, politician and businessman (died 1913)
  • Marion McKinley Bovard, academic administrator, 1st president of the University of Southern California (died 1891)
• January 16 – John Cutting Berry, physician and missionary (died 1936)
• January 23 – Elijah Bond, lawyer and inventor (died 1921)
• January 28 – William V. Allen, United States Senator from Nebraska from 1893 till 1899. (died 1924)
• February 2 – Charles H. Baker, politician (died 1919)
• February 11 – Thomas Edison, American inventor and businessman (died 1931)
• February 26 – William A. B. Branch, politician (died 1910)
• March 2 – Blanche Butler Ames, First Lady of Mississippi (d. 1939)
• March 13 – Francis S. White, United States Senator from Alabama from 1914 till 1915. (died 1922)
• March 18 – William O'Connell Bradley, United States Senator from Kentucky from 1895 till 1899. (died 1914)
• March 21 – Oscar Bielaski, Major League Baseball player (died 1911)
• March 27 – Warren Ives Bradley, children's author (died 1868)
• March 29 – John D. Works, United States Senator from California from 1911 till 1917. (died 1928)
• April 13 – J. Thompson Baker, politician from New Jersey (died 1919)
• May 25 – John Green Brady, 5th Governor of the District of Alaska from 1897 till 1906 (d. 1918)
• June 8 – Ida Saxton McKinley, First Lady of the United States, (died 1907)
• June 26 – Daniel V. Asay, iceboat racer (died 1930)
• June 29 – Brother Azarias, educator (d. 1893)
• July 4 – James Anthony Bailey, circus ringmaster (d. 1906)
• July 19 – Oliver Ernesto Branch, politician (d. 1916)
• August 12 – William Rankin Ballard, businessman (d. 1929)
• September 5 – Jesse James, American outlaw, guerrilla, gang leader, bank robber, train robber, and murderer from Missouri. (died 1882)
• September 10 – Franklin Bartlett, politician (died 1909)
• September 11 – Mary Watson Whitney, American astronomer and academic (died 1921)^[1]
• September 23 – Victoria Woodhull, American leader of the woman's suffrage movement (died 1927)
• September 30 – James Taliaferro, United States Senator from Florida from 1899 till 1911. (died 1934)
• October 18 – Emma Elizabeth Brown, author and artist (unknown year of death)
• October 23 – Gottfried Blocklinger, admiral (died 1930)
• October 31 – Wendell P. Bowman, army major general (died 1928)
• November 7 – Melvin O. Adams, attorney and railroad executive (died 1920)
• November 10 – Frederick Arthur Bridgman, artist (died 1928)
• November 23 – Joseph Ackroyd, politician, member of the New York State Senate (died 1915)
• December 21 – Fletcher S. Bassett, founder of the Chicago Folk-Lore Society (died 1893)
• December 30 – John Peter Altgeld, 20th governor of Illinois (died 1902)
• December 31 – Wilson S. Bissell, politician, United States Postmaster General (died 1903)

• January 19 – Charles Bent, first civilian governor of the New Mexico territory (born 1799)
• January 30 – Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe, wife of Edgar Allan Poe (born 1822)
• May 1 – Jesse Speight, United States Senator from Mississippi from 1845 till 1847. (born 1795)
• July 22 – Henry W. Edwards, United States Senator from Connecticut from 1823 till 1838. (born 1779)
• August 6 – Henry M. Ridgely, United States Senator from Delaware from 1827 till 1829. (born 1779)
• November 1 – Jabez W. Huntington, United States Senator from Connecticut from 1840 till 1847. (born 1788)
• November 29 – Narcissa Whitman, pioneer missionary (born 1808)

• Timeline of United States history (1820–1859)

•   Media related to 1847 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons