Thoreau's Maine Woods

Year	Event in Thoreau's life	Elsewhere in the world
1817	Thoreau born in Concord, Mass.	James Madison inaugurated as fifth President of the U.S.; Jane Austin, English novelist, dies; U.S. begins construction of the Erie Canal
1833	Enters Harvard College	Davy Crockett's autobiography a bestseller; Henry Wadsworth Longfellow publishes "Outre-mer," German composer Johannes Brahms born
1837	Graduates from Harvard and begins his lifelong journal	Michigan becomes a state of the U.S.; Martin Van Buren inaugurated as eight president of the U.S.; Victoria becomes Queen of Great Britain; Samuel Morse exhibits his electric telegraph in New York.
1839	Spends two weeks in September on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers with his brother John	Edgar Allen Poe publishes "The Fall of the House of Usher,"; Charles Goodyear discovers "vulcanization" process that makes commercial use of rubber possible; Abner Doubleday lays out the first baseball field and conducts the first baseball game
1845	Thoreau moves to Walden Pond.	Texas and Florida become states of the U.S.; Edgar Allen Poe publishes "The Raven and Other Poems," Friedrich Engels publishes "The Condition of the Working Class in England"; the hydraulic crane, power loom for manufacturing carpets and cotton- and wool-combing machines are patented
1846	Arrested and spends one night in jail for refusing to pay poll taxes, and makes his first trip to the Maine woods.	U.S. acquires New Mexico after war with Mexico; Iowa becomes a state; Charles Dickens begins editing the first cheap English newspaper; famine in Ireland is caused by failure of their potato crop.
1847	Leaves Walden Pond.	Charlotte Bronte publishes "Jane Eyre," Emily Bronte publishes "Wuthering Heights," and William Thackeray publishes "Vanity Fair"; Mormons found Salt Lake City; inventors Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell born; gold discoveries in California lead to first gold rush
1849	A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers and "Resistance to Civil Government" published.	Zacharay Taylor inaugurated as 12th president of the U.S.; Charles Dickes publishes "David Copperfield"
1853	Travels to Maine a second time.	Franklin Pierce inaugurated as 14th presdient of the U.S.; Crimean war begins; Vaccination against smallpox is made compulsory in Britain
1857	Makes his final trip to Maine.	James Buchanan inaugurated as 15th U.S. President; Pasteur proves that fermentation is caused by living organisms; Czar Alexander II begins the emancipation of serfs in Russia.
1859	Thoreau's "A Plea for Capt. John Brown" published.	Oregon becomes a U.S. state; Charles Dickens publishes "A Tale of Two Cities"; James Whistler paints "At the Piano"
1861	Travels to Minnesota for two months.	Civil War breaks out; Kansas becomes a state in the U.S.; George Eliot publishes "Silas Marner"; popultion figures (in millions): Russia, 76; U.S., 32; Great Britain, 23; Italy, 25
1862	Thoreau dies of tuberculosis at the age of 44	Emancipation Proclamation frees all slaves held in rebelling territory; Victor Hugo publishes "Les Miserables"; Lion Foucault successfully measures the speed of light.

Some information for this table is from "The Timetables of History: A Horizontal Linkage of Peopel and Events" by Bernard Grun.

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