23 Star Flag
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Flown from July 4, 1820 to July 3, 1822
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US President: James Monroe (1817-1825)
The Twenty-Three Star Flag became official on July 4th, 1820 after two stars were added when Alabama became the 22nd State on December 14, 1819 and Maine, the 23rd State on March 15, 1820. This was the official flag for 2 years.
Politics and Government
July 4, 1820: President James Monroe signs the Missouri Compromise, admitting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state.
November 6, 1820: James Monroe is re-elected as President of the United States.
March 6, 1820: The U.S. Congress passes the Missouri Compromise to address slavery expansion.
March 30, 1822: The U.S. Congress officially establishes The Florida Territory.
Science, Technology and Medicine
July 16, 1821: Dr. John Collins Warren performs the first successful surgery using ether
August 1, 1821: Astronomer Maria Mitchell, the first American woman astronomer, is born in Nantucket, Massachusetts anesthesia at Massachusetts General Hospital.
December 20, 1821: First publication of the "New England Journal of Medicine and Surgery."
April 25, 1820: The U.S. government approves the establishment of the U.S. Geological Survey.
October 25, 1821: Boston's Tremont Theatre becomes the first American theater to be lit by gas lighting.
July 4, 1822: Charles Babbage proposes the concept of a mechanical computer.
Education
October 17, 1820: The American Society for the Promotion of Temperance is founded in Boston.
April 27, 1822: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the first engineering school in the U.S., is founded.
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November 4, 1822: The world's first patent for false teeth is granted to Charles Graham of New York.
Arts, Culture and Literature
December 8, 1820: Suffragist and social reformer Mary Livermore is born.
November 24, 1820: Nathaniel Hawthorne publishes his first novel, "Fanshawe."
November 25, 1820: The whaling ship Essex is sunk by a sperm whale, inspiring "Moby-Dick."
September 4, 1821: The New York Stock Exchange is officially founded on Wall Street.
October 13, 1821: The first edition of the "Saturday Evening Post" is published in Philadelphia.
January 29, 1822: Poet and essayist James Russell Lowell is born in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Sports
November 9, 1820: Tom Cribb defeats Tom Molineaux in a boxing match in Virginia.
October 14, 1821: The first recorded women's golf competition is held at the Musselburgh Links in South Carolina.
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International Events
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July 21, 1820: Union of Sweden and Norway under a single monarch.
November 28, 1820: Argentina's independence is recognized by the United Kingdom.
April 21, 1821: John Keats dies of tuberculosis in Rome, Italy.
June 24, 1821: The Dominican Republic declares independence from Spain.
September 1, 1820: Antarctica is sighted for the first time by Russian expedition led by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen.
November 29, 1820: Captain Nathaniel Palmer becomes the first American to sight Antarctica.
December 31, 1821: The Austrian Empire issues the first adhesive postage stamp.
June 17, 1820: The University of Prussia is founded in Berlin, Germany.
August 1, 1820: University College London is founded in England.
July 26, 1822: Alexander Mackenzie completes the first recorded east-to-west crossing of North America.
February 11, 1821: Mary Shelley publishes her novel "Frankenstein" in London, England.
October 27, 1822: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera "Die Zauberflöte" (The Magic Flute) premieres in Vienna, Austria.
July 29, 1820: George IV is crowned as King of the United Kingdom.
December 19, 1820: Friedrich Hölderlin, German lyric poet, dies in Germany.
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Major Armed Conflicts
The United States was not involved in any major armed conflicts between July 1820 and July 1822.
Other international wars and conflicts taking place between 1820-1822 include:
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Ottoman-Persian War of 1821-1823
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Spanish attempts to conquer Mexico begin in 1821 thru 1829
National Historical Events
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Colonel Robert Gibbon Johnson proves that tomatoes are not poisonous by eating one in public on September 28, 1820 in Salem, New Jersey.​​
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On November 20, 1820, the Nantucket, MA, whaling ship Essex sinks after being attacked by a sperm whale. The event inspires Herman Melville's 1851 novel, Moby Dick.
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The Adams-Onís Treaty is ratified in 1821, in which Spain ceded Florida to the United States in exchange for America's renunciation of any claims on Texas following the Louisiana Purchase and $15 million.
The Saturday Evening Post is published for the first time as a weekly newspaper on August 4, 1821