Year 1817 Fun Facts, Trivia, and Historical Events

This quick read presents a collection of fun facts, trivia, and historical events from the year 1817. Discover the year’s top news stories, most influential people, historic firsts, famous birthdays, retail prices, and much more.

Take a journey through history in just minutes.

1. President of the United States: James Madison (DR-Virginia)—until March 4
2. President of the United States: James Monroe (DR-Virginia)—Starting March 4
3. Vice President: Vacant until March 4
4. Vice President: Daniel D. Tompkins (DR-New York)—Starting March 4
5. Chief Justice of the Supreme Court: John Marshall (Virginia)
6. Speaker of the House of Representatives: Henry Clay (DR-Kentucky)
7. In 1817, the 14th U.S. Congress was in session until March 4. On March 4, the 15th U.S. Congress convened. Both chambers—the United States Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives—had a Democratic-Republican majority.
8. Unemployment rate: A precise unemployment rate for 1817 does not exist.
9. Inflation rate: -5.67%
10. Consumer price index (CPI): 13.300
11. $100.00 in 1817 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $2,437.01 today, an increase of $2,337.01 over 209 years. OfficialData confirms that “The dollar had an average inflation rate of 1.54% per year between 1817 and today, producing a cumulative price increase of 2,337.01%. This means that today's prices are 24.37 times as high as average prices in 1817, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index. A dollar today only buys 4.103% of what it could buy back then.”
12. American companies and brands established in 1817 included Joppa Iron Works, the Lake George Steamboat Company, the New York Stock Exchange, and the Staten Island Ferry.
13. In 1817, the average life expectancy at birth in the U.S. was 40 to 45 years because of a high infant mortality rate. Americans who survived childhood often lived into their 50s, 60s, and even 70s.
14. In 1817, there were 20 U.S. states. In order of admission to the Union, they were Delaware (1787), Pennsylvania (1787), New Jersey (1787), Georgia (1788), Connecticut (1788), Massachusetts (1788), Maryland (1788), South Carolina (1788), New Hampshire (1788), Virginia (1788), New York (1788), North Carolina (1789), Rhode Island (1790), Vermont (1791), Kentucky (1792), Tennessee (1796), Ohio (1803), Louisiana (1812), Indiana (1816), and Mississippi (1817).
15. On January 25, Gioachino Rossini's opera, La Cenerentola (Cinderella), premiered at Rome's Teatro Valle.
16. On January 31, the French chef Antoine Beauvilliers passed away. He founded Paris’ first luxury restaurant, La Grande Taverne de Londres.
17. On February 7, Baltimore became the first American city to have gas lighting on public streets.
18. On March 3, Congress passed legislation to create the Alabama Territory from the eastern half of the Mississippi Territory “in an effort to appease Southern legislators” who wanted to create two new slave states instead of one.
19. On March 6, President Monroe appointed William W. Bibb as the governor of the newly formed Alabama Territory.
20. On March 8, the New York Stock Exchange was founded.
21. On April 15, America’s first school for the deaf, the American Asylum, opened to students in Hartford, Connecticut.
22. In May, the General Convention, the governing body of the Episcopal Church, met in New York City and passed a resolution to establish a “general” Episcopal seminary in NYC. Hence, the General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church (GTS) was founded in New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood and became the denomination’s first “centralized” seminary. The GTS is also the “longest continuously operating seminary in the Anglican Communion.”
23. On May 15, America’s first mental health hospital, the Asylum for the Relief of Persons Deprived of the Use of Their Reason, opened in Philadelphia.
24. On May 15, Joseph A. Campbell was born. A fruit merchant, he partnered with icebox maker Abraham Anderson in 1869 to form a canning company that would later become the Campbell Soup Company.
25. On June 13, the Anglo-Irish inventor Richard Lovell Edgeworth died. His inventions included a turnip cutter, a velocipede, and various improvements in agricultural machines.
26. On July 4, construction began on the Erie Canal, a “historic canal in upstate New York that runs east to west between the Hudson River and Lake Erie.”
27. On July 12, the American author and naturalist Henry David Thoreau was born. He is best known for his book Walden and for his essay Civil Disobedience.
28. On August 1, the English chemist Sir Joseph Henry Gilbert was born. He is the co-inventor—along with John Bennet Lawes—of superphosphate fertilizer.
29. On August 2, the Zebulon M. Pike became the first Mississippi River steamboat to arrive in St. Louis. Captain Jacob Reed commanded the vessel, “which took 30 days to travel from Louisville, Kentucky, to St. Louis.” The occasion also marked the opening of the upper Mississippi River to trade.
30. On August 15, the Alabama Territory was officially created by splitting the Mississippi Territory in half. (On March 3, 1817, Congress passed legislation to create the Alabama Territory from the eastern half of the Mississippi Territory “in an effort to appease Southern legislators” who wanted to create two new slave states instead of one.)
31. On August 18, one of the most famous sightings of the Gloucester Sea Serpent occurred “when a group of men aboard the schooner Caravan reported seeing a large creature with a head like a serpent and a hump-backed body swimming alongside their vessel.”
32. On September 9, Middlebury College in Vermont awarded Alexander Twilight a Bachelor of Arts degree, likely making him the first African American to graduate from college in the United States.
33. On September 22, John Quincy Adams became the eighth U.S. Secretary of State. (Just so you know, Adams also became the sixth American president in 1825.)
34. On October 23, the French educator and publisher Pierre Athanase Larousse was born. He published many outstanding reference works, including the 15-volume Grand Dictionnaire and an encyclopedia of gastronomy entitled Larousse Gastronomique.
35. On October 24, the French scientist Hippolyte Mège-Mouries was born. He received French patents for margarine, canned meat, and sugar extraction.
36. On November 21, the first Seminole War began in Georgia, “when U.S. troops attacked the Seminole village of Fowltown, initiating conflicts in Florida that lasted until 1818. Led by General Andrew Jackson, these forces invaded Spanish Florida to subdue Seminole resistance, destroy villages, and stop refuge for escaped slaves.”
37. On December 10, Mississippi became the 20th U.S. state.
38. What was the typical American diet like in 1817? In 1817, “the United States was vastly agricultural, and many families lived off the land, cultivating their vegetable and herb gardens and raising their livestock and poultry. Hunting and fishing provided wild game and other meat alternatives.”
39. Key fiction works published during 1817: Ann Hatton’s Gonzalo de Baldivia, Anna Marie Porter’s The Knight of St. John, Elizabeth Thomas’ Claudine, or Pertinacity, Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen’s Persuasion, John Neal’s Keep Cool, Katherine Selden’s Villa Santelle, Selina Davenport’s Woman’s Privilege, Thomas Love Peacock’s Melincourt, and Walter Scott’s Rob Roy
40. Key poems published during 1817: Henry Neele’s Odes and Other Poems, Lord Byron’s Manfred, and Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Hymn to Intellectual Beauty
41. Key dramatic works for the year: George Soane’s The Bohemian: A Tragedy, George Soane’s The Innkeeper’s Daughter, James Kenney’s The Touchstone, Richard Lalor Sheil’s The Apostate, and William Abbot’s The Youthful Days of Frederick the Great
42. Famous people born during 1817 included Benjamin Jowett (teacher), Henry David Thoreau (novelist), John Fowler (engineer), John Leech (cartoonist), and Joseph Dalton Hooker (botanist).
43. Notable people who died in 1817 included Jane Austen (novelist) and Richard Lovell Edgeworth (inventor).
44. In 1817 as well, the words “au naturel,” “bothersome,” “carpe diem,” “circular saw,” “demonize,” “dreamworld,” “eye-opener,” “kaleidoscope,” “life sentence,” “living wage,” “lock, stock, and barrel,” “nicotine,” “pianist,” “primary color,” “pseudonym,” “Southerner,” “statistic,” “supersensitive,” “technique,” and “warmonger” all appeared in print for the first time.
45. 10 ounces of honey: Eight cents
46. Five pounds of cheese: 63 cents
47. Four pounds and 12 ounces of veal: 23 cents
48. One and a half bushels of beans: $2.25
49. One bushel of corn: 75 cents
50. One bushel of oats: 40 cents
51. One bushel of rye: 75 cents
52. One half bushel of onions: 50 cents
53. One half pound of candles: 12 cents
54. Seven pounds and 12 ounces of salted pork: $1.00
55. Six bushels of potatoes: $2.60

References:

1. https://www.foodreference.com/html/html/food-timeline-1811.html
2. https://www.famousbirthdays.com/year/1817.html
3. https://www.famousbirthdays.com/deceased/1817.html
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1817_in_literature
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1817_in_the_United_States
6. https://www.onthisday.com/events/date/1817
7. https://www.infoplease.com/history/world/1800-1899-ad-world-history
8. https://www.merriam-webster.com/time-traveler/1817
9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_date_of_admission_to_the_Union
10. https://www.in2013dollars.com/inflation-rate-in-1817
11. https://www.officialdata.org/us/inflation/1817?amount=1

Disclaimer: In writing and editing this article, Gregory DeVictor has made every effort to ensure historical accuracy and not to mislead his audience. In addition, the contents of this article, including text, graphics, and captions, are for general informational purposes only.

© 2026 Gregory DeVictor