Events from the year 1821 in the United States.

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See also:	History of the United States (1789–1849) Timeline of United States history (1820–1859) List of years in the United States

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• February 9 – The George Washington University is chartered as The Columbian College of the District of Columbia by President James Monroe.
• March 4 – James Monroe and Daniel D. Tompkins begin their second terms as President and Vice President of the United States.
• March 5 – James Monroe is sworn in for his second term as President of the United States.^[1] Daniel D. Tompkins is sworn in for his second term as Vice President of the United States.
• June 27 – The New Hampton School is founded in the state of New Hampshire.
• July 10 – The U.S. takes possession of its newly bought territory of Florida from Spain.
• August 4 – The Saturday Evening Post is published for the first time, as a weekly newspaper.
• August 10 – Missouri is admitted as the 24th U.S. state (see History of Missouri).
• September 3 – The 1821 Norfolk and Long Island hurricane strikes New York City.
• September 18 – Amherst College is founded in Massachusetts.
• November 16 – American Old West: The Santa Fe Trail is used for the first time by a White American, William Becknell.
• History of Liberia – The first groups of freed slaves from the U.S. arrive in modern-day Liberia and found Monrovia.
• Widener University is founded in Wilmington, Delaware, as The Bullock School for Boys.

• January 2 – Napoleon LeBrun, architect (died 1901)
• January 8 – James Longstreet, one of the foremost Confederate generals of the American Civil War (died 1904)
• January 16 – John C. Breckinridge, 14th vice president of the United States from 1857 to 1861, U.S. Senator from Kentucky in 1861 (died 1875)
• February 4 – Frederick Goddard Tuckerman, sonneteer (died 1873)
• February 19 – Francis Preston Blair Jr., U.S. Senator from Missouri from 1871 to 1873 (died 1875)
• March 20 – Ned Buntline (Edward Zane Carroll Judson Sr.), publisher, dime novelist and publicist (died 1886)
• April 12
  • Samuel G. Arnold, U.S. Senator from Rhode Island from 1862 to 1863 (died 1880)
  • Adonijah Welch, U.S. Senator from Florida from 1868 to 1869. (died 1889)
• April 15 – Joseph E. Brown, U.S. Senator from Georgia from 1880 to 1891 (died 1894)
• July 6 – Edmund Pettus, U.S. Senator from Alabama from 1897 to 1907 (died 1907)
• July 8 – Maria White Lowell, poet and abolitionist (died 1853)
• July 13 – Nathan Bedford Forrest, Confederate Civil War General, first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan (died 1877)
• September 22 – John Conness, Irish-born U.S. Senator from California from 1863 to 1869 (died 1909)
• October 7 – Richard H. Anderson, United States Army officer during the Mexican–American War, Confederate general during the American Civil War (died 1879)^[2]
• October 10 – Wade Keyes, Acting Confederate States Attorney General in 1861 and 1863–1864 (died 1879)
• October 22 – Collis P. Huntington, railroad promoter (died 1900)
• December 25 – Clara Barton, humanitarian and founder of the American branch of the Red Cross.

• January 4 – Elizabeth Ann Seton, saint (born 1774)
• March 13 – Waightstill Avery, lawyer and soldier, fought a duel with Andrew Jackson (born 1741)
• October 11 – John Ross Key, commissioned officer in the Continental Army, judge, lawyer and father of Francis Scott Key (born 1754)
• October 24 – Elias Boudinot, President of the Continental Congress (born 1740)
• Full date unknown – Lucy Terry first known African American poet (born c. 1730 in Africa)

• Timeline of United States history (1820–1859)