Poe Chronology

Year	Poe's Life	Poe's America
1809	Poe is born in Boston, January 19, to itinerant actors, Elizabeth and David Poe	Madison inaugurated president
1810
1811	Poe's father disappears; his mother dies of consumption; he becomes the ward of John and Frances Allan
1812		US declares war on Great Britain
1813
1814		British burn Washington; Key composes "Star Spangled Banner"
1815	Poe travels with the Allans to Englad
1816
1817		Monroe becomes president; Mississippi steamboat travel opens; Erie Canal project begins
1818
1819		Spain cedes Florida to US
1820	Poe returns to Richmond	Missouri Compromise
1821
1822		Denmark Vesey slave revolt thwarted; Lowell textile mills founded in Massachusetts
1823		Cooper publishes The Pioneers
1824		Congress endorses Henry Clay's "American System of internal improvements; John Quincy Adams elected sixth president
1825	John Allan inherits fortune on death of uncle William Galt and purchases mansion; Poe meets Sarah Elmire Royster and becomes engaged	Eerie Canal completed
1826	Poe enrolls in the University of Virginia and begins to rack up gambling debts	Thomas Jefferson and John Adams die on July 4, the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence
1827	Poe withdraws from the university and leaves Richmond; he sails to Boston and publishes Tamerlane and Other Poems; he joins the U.S. army and arrives at Fort Moultrie, South Carolina	Railroads built in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania; great Irish and German migrations to United States begin
1828	Poe possibly composes "Al Aaraaf"; Poe seeks release from army	Andrew Jackson elected seventh president
1829	Frances Allan dies; Poe leaves the army and moves to Baltimore, publish Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems	Jackson forms "Kitchen Cabinet:
1830	Poe receives appointment to West Point	Beginnings of underground railroad
1831	Poe dismissed from West Point, moves back to Baltimore to live with grandmother, his aunt, Maria Clemm, and cousin, Virginia Clemm	William Lloyd Garrison founds the Liberator; McCormick reaper invented; Nat Turner is tried and executed for slave uprising in Virginia; Anti-Masons organize party
1832	Philadelphia Saturday Courier publishes "Metzengerstein" and four subsequent tales; John Allan revises will, excluding Poe	U.S. Army fights Black Hawk War against Sac and Fox; Tariff of 1832 sparks Nullifcation Controversy; Jackson vetoes recharter of national bank, wins reelection in landslide
1833	Poe wins literary contest for "MS Found in a Bottle"	Penny newspapers appear; Oberlin becomes first coeducational college in United States
1834	Poe visits ailing John Allan; Allan dies	Anit-Jackson forces unite to form Whig Party; National Trades Union holds first convention
1835	Poe becomes assistant editor of the Southern Literary Messenger; perhaps weds Virginia in private ceremony; Virginia and Mrs. Clemm join Poe in Richmond	Jackson escapes assassination attempt; Samuel Colt patents revolver; James Gordon Bennett founds New York Morning Herald and launches crime reporting
1836	Poe achieves fame as the unacknowledged editor of The Messenger and marries Virginia in public ceremony	Republic of Texas established; Thomas Cole paints The Course of Empire; Congress adopts gag resolution; Emerson publishes Nature
1837	Poe dismissed from Messenger; moves with family to New York	Panic of 1837 triggers depression; John Deere invents steel plow; coronation of Queen Victoria
1838	Poe moves with family to Philadelphia, publishes little, lives poor	Wilkes expedition departs for South Seas; Frederick Douglass escapes slavery, travels to New York
1839	Poe becomes coeditor of Burton's; writes "The Fall of the House of Usher" and "William Wilson"	Slave mutiny aboard the Amistad; Transcendentalists found Dial edited by Margaret Fuller
1840	Poe dismissed from Burton's; prepares prospectus for his own Penn Magazine	End of Rocky Mountain fur trade; A.C. Ross writes "Tippecanoe and Tyler, Too" campaign song; William Henry Harrison elected ninth president
1841	Launch of Penn delayed because of bank panic; Poe seeks government appointment	Transcendentalists establish Brook Farm; Harrison dies and is succeeded by Tyler
1842	Virginia suffers pulmonary hemorrhage; Poe resorts to drink and looks for work in New York	P.T. Barnum opens American Museum; great migration to Oregon begins
1843	Poe revives plans for magazine, now named the Stylus; wins $100 prize for "The Gold Bug"; lectures on American Poetry	Minstrel show popularized; Great Comet appears; U.S. depression reaches lowest point
1844	Poe moves with family to New York; creates sensation with "The Balloon Hoax"; publishes "The Purloined Letter"	Oregon boundary and annexation of Texas become campaign issues; James K. Polk elected to presidency; Morse invents telegraph
1845	Poe achieves fame with "The Raven"; offens Boston audience with poetry reading	Texas annexed; O'Sullivan coins phrase "Manifest Destiny"; Douglass publishes his narrative
1846	Virginia's health declines; Poe falls ill; publishes "The Cask of Amontillado"	Congress declares war on Mexico; Neptune discovered; Scientific American founded; Melville publishes Typee
1847	Virginia dies of tuberculosis; Poe composes "Ulalume"	John C. Fremont conquers California, Stephen Kearny takes New Mexico; Zachary Taylor captures Monterry; Wilmot Proviso introduced;
1848	Poe revives Stylus project; publishes Eureka; pursues Sarah Helen Whitman	Upheaval in Europe; discovery of gold in California; Mexican War ends; Seneca Falls Convention launches crusade for women's rights; Free Soil Party organizes; Zachary Taylor elected president
1849	Poe writes "For Annie" and "Hop-Frog"; proposes to Sarah Elmire Royster Shelton and is accepted; departs for New York, drinks heavily in Baltimore; dies October 7	Gold rush begins; Hawthorne writes The Scarlet Letter