The Democratic Party holds its second national convention at the Fourth Presbyterian Church in Baltimore on May 20-22. The convention nominates Vice President Martin Van Buren of New York to be its presidential candidate the following year.
On January 1, William Lloyd Garrison of Boston publishes the first issue of The Liberator in Boston, Massachusetts. It will soon become the leading anti-slavery newspaper in the U.S.
The Indian Removal Act, passed by Congress on May 26, sets up the Trail of Tears, the forced removal of over 70,000 Native Americans from Georgia, North Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Florida between 1830 and 1839 to Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma).
