← 1856 1855 1854 1857 in the United States → 1858 1859 1860
Decades:	1830s 1840s 1850s 1860s 1870s
See also:	History of the United States (1849–1865) Timeline of the history of the United States (1820-1859) List of years in the United States

Events from the year1857 in the United States.

• President:

Franklin Pierce (D-New Hampshire) (until March 4)

James Buchanan (D-Pennsylvania) (starting March 4)

• Vice President:

vacant (until March 4)

John C. Breckinridge (D-Kentucky) (starting March 4)

• Chief Justice:Roger B. Taney (Maryland)
• Speaker of the House of Representatives:

Nathaniel P. Banks (American-Massachusetts) (until March 4)

James Lawrence Orr (D-South Carolina) (starting December 7)

• Congress:34th (until March 4),35th (starting March 4)

• January 9 – The 7.9 M_w Fort Tejon earthquake affectsCentral andSouthern California with a maximumMercalli intensity of IX (Violent).
• February 3 – The National Deaf Mute College (later renamedGallaudet University) is established inWashington, D.C., becoming the first school for the advanced education of thedeaf.
• March 4 –James Buchanan is sworn in as the 15thpresident of the United States, andJohn C. Breckinridge is sworn in as the 14thvice president.
• March 6 –Dred Scott v. Sanford: TheSupreme Court of the United States rules that Blacks are not citizens and slaves cannot sue for freedom, driving the country further towards theAmerican Civil War (the ruling is not overturned until theFourteenth Amendment in 1868).
• March 12 –Elizabeth Blackwell opens a hospital, theNew York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children.
• May 25 –Flying Eagle cent released for circulation.
• May 26 –Dred Scott is emancipated by the Blow family, his original owners.
• July 18 – The Utah Expedition leaves Fort Leavenworth, effectively beginning theUtah War.
• August 24 –Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company suspends payments, leading to thePanic of 1857.
• September 11 –Mountain Meadows massacre inUtah.
• September 12 – TheSS Central America sinks off the coast of North Carolina, killing 425 people and sending large quantities of gold to the bottom.
• October 1 – Eviction of last residents ofSeneca Village to make way for New York City'sCentral Park is completed.
• October 13 –Panic of 1857: New York banks close and do not reopen until December 12. This has an impact inEurope also.

• The seat of government of Iowa is moved fromIowa City to modern-dayDes Moines.^[1]
• TheMormons abandon theLas Vegas Valley ofNevada.
• Maryland politicianWilliam Daniel proposes theLocal Option forprohibition.

• Bleeding Kansas (1854–1860)
• Third Seminole War (1855–1858)
• Utah War (1857–1858)

• January 6 –Milward Adams, orchestra and theatre manager born inLexington, Kentucky.(died1923)^[2]
• January 11 –William Gentles, U.S. Army private, known for killingCrazy Horse (died1878)
• February 1 –Lucy Wheelock, early childhood education pioneer within the kindergarten movement (died1946)
• February 7 –Benjamin Eli Smith, editor of reference books (died1913)
• February 13 –Almanzo Wilder, writer (died1949)
• March 6 –George Dayton, businessman, founder ofTarget Corporation (died1938)
• March 7 –Genevieve Stebbins, performer of the Delsarte system of expression (died1934)
• March 20 –Benjamin F. Shively, U.S. Senator from Indiana from 1909 to 1916 (died1916)
• March 21
  • Charles Ellis Johnson, photographer (died1926)
  • Hunter Liggett, general (died1935)
• April 22 –Paul Dresser, songwriter (died1906)
• May 17 –Mary Devens, pictorial photographer (died1920)
• May 19 –John Jacob Abel, pharmacologist (died1938)
• June 8 –Lawrence Marston, actor, playwright and film director (died1939)
• June 10 – Caroline Louise Dudley (Mrs. Leslie Carter), stage actress (died1937)
• June 20 –Mary Gage Day, physician (died1935)
• July 1 –Martha Hughes Cannon, politician (died1932)
• July 30
  • Lucy Bacon, CaliforniaImpressionist painter (died1932)
  • Thorstein Veblen, economist (died1929)
• August 8 –Henry Fairfield Osborn, geologist, paleontologist and eugenist (died1935)
• September 13 –Milton S. Hershey, chocolate manufacturer (died1945)
• September 14 –Julia Platt, embryologist and politician (died1935)
• September 15 –William Howard Taft, 27thpresident of the United States from 1909 to 1913 and tenthchief justice of the United States from 1921 to 1930 (died1930)
• October 7 –George P. McLean, U.S. Senator from Connecticut from 1911 to 1923 (died1932)
• October 17 –Mary Abbott, golfer (died1904)^[3]
• October 24 –Ned Williamson, baseball player (died1894)
• November 5 –Ida Tarbell, investigative journalist (died1944)
• December 1 –Samuel M. Ralston, U.S. Senator from Indiana from 1923 to 1925 (died1925)
• December 2
  • J. Frank Allee, U.S. Senator from Delaware from 1903 to 1907 (died1938)
  • Charles E. Rushmore, businessman, attorney, namesake ofMount Rushmore (died1931)
• December 4 –Julia Evelyn Ditto Young, poet and novelist (died1915)

• February 16 –Elisha Kane, Arctic explorer (born1820)
• May 1 –Stephen Adams, U.S. Senator from Mississippi from 1852 to 1857 (born1807)
• May 26 –James Bell, U.S. Senator from New Hampshire from 1855 to 1857 (born1804)
• June 19 –Alexander Twilight, educator and minister, first African-American known to have earned a bachelor's degree from an American college or university (Middlebury College, 1823) (born1795)
• July 4 –William L. Marcy, 21stSecretary of State from 1853 to 1857 (born1786)
• August 29 –Stephen Cassin, United States Navy officer (born1783)
• September 15 –John Henderson, U.S. Senator from Mississippi from 1839 to 1845 (born1797)
• October 7 –Louis McLane, U.S. Senator from Delaware from 1827 to 1829 (born1786)
• October 10 –Thomas Crawford, sculptor (born1814)
• October 20 –John Diamond, minstrel dancer (born1823)
• October 27 –John Blennerhassett Martin, painter, engraver and lithographer (born1797)
• December 24 –Robert C. Nicholas, U.S. Senator from Louisiana from 1836 to 1841 (born1793)
• Jasper Grosvenor, financier (born1794)
• Aspasia Cruvellier Mirault, planter and landowner (born1800)

• Timeline of United States history (1820–1859)

• Media related to1857 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons

• 1857 in the United States
• 1850s in the United States
• 1857 by country
• 1857 in North America
• Years of the 19th century in the United States

• Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica with Wikisource reference
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use mdy dates from February 2023
• Use American English from February 2023
• All Wikipedia articles written in American English
• Articles using Mw magnitude scale
• Commons category link from Wikidata