Year 1828 Fun Facts, Trivia, and Historical Events

This quick read presents a collection of fun facts, trivia, and historical events from the year 1828. Discover the year’s top news stories, most influential people, historic firsts, retail prices, and much more.

Take a journey through history in just minutes.

1. President of the United States: John Quincy Adams (DR/NR-Massachusetts)
2. Vice President: John C. Calhoun (D-South Carolina)
3. Chief Justice of the Supreme Court: John Marshall (Virginia)
4. Speaker of the House of Representatives: Andrew Stevenson (D-Virginia)
5. Inflation rate: -5.00% ($1.00 in 1827 was equivalent in purchasing power to about 95 cents in 1828.)
6. Adjusted for inflation, $100.00 in 1828 “is equivalent in purchasing power to about $3,411.81 today, an increase of $3,311.81 over 198 years. The dollar had an average inflation rate of 1.80% per year between 1828 and today, producing a cumulative price increase of 3,311.81%.” This means that today's prices are 34.12 times higher than in 1828, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index.
7. Consumer price index (CPI): 9.500
8. In 1828, there were 24 U.S. states. In order of admission to the Union, they were Delaware (1787), Pennsylvania (1787), New Jersey (1787), Georgia (1788), Connecticut (1788), Massachusetts (1788), Maryland (1788), South Carolina (1788), New Hampshire (1788), Virginia (1788), New York (1788), North Carolina (1789), Rhode Island (1790), Vermont (1791), Kentucky (1792), Tennessee (1796), Ohio (1803), Louisiana (1812), Indiana (1816), Mississippi (1817), Illinois (1818), Alabama (1819), Maine (1820), and Missouri (1821).
9. On January 1, John Neal, an American writer, editor, and activist, launched The Yankee, a literary journal.
10. On January 8, the United States Democratic Party was established in Baltimore, Maryland.
11. On February 19, the Boston Society for Medical Improvement, an “elite society” of Boston physicians, was founded in Boston, Massachusetts.
12. On February 21, the Cherokee Phœnix, the first newspaper published by Native Americans in the United States, was launched in New Echota (aka Gordon County, Georgia). (Just so you know, the Cherokee Phœnix’s text was written in the Cherokee language.)
13. On February 25, John Adams, son of President John Quincy Adams, married his first cousin, Mary Catherine Hellen, and “inadvertently followed a pattern of keeping marriages within the family.” The wedding took place in the Blue Room of the White House and was also the third marriage ceremony to take place in the Executive Mansion.
14. On March 24, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania authorized the construction of the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad (P&CR), one of the first commercial railroads in the United States. It ran for 82 miles between Philadelphia and Columbia, Pennsylvania. (In 1857, the P&CR became part of the Pennsylvania Railroad.)
15. On April 14, Noah Webster received a copyright for the first edition of his American Dictionary of the English Language, a “monumental two-volume work” that contained 70,000 entries.
16. On May 19, President Adams signed the controversial Tariff of 1828 (aka the “Tariff of Abominations”) into law. The policy “set high protective duties on imports to aid Northern manufacturers” and “severely harmed the Southern economy by raising prices on manufactured goods and reducing foreign demand for Southern cotton, triggering intense regional conflict.”
17. On July 4, Charles Carroll III, an American statesman who was the only Roman Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence, laid the first cornerstone for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (B&O) in Baltimore, Maryland. (Just so you know, the B&O was the first U.S. railroad chartered to carry passengers and freight.)
18. On July 4, the cornerstone was laid for the Tremont House in Boston, Massachusetts. It was the first hotel in the United States to have indoor plumbing, which included “running water, toilets, and baths.”
19. Between July 9 and October 5, the United States House of Representatives elections were held for all 213 seats, representing 24 states. In the election, Jacksonian Democrats won 136 seats, Anti-Jacksons secured 72 seats, and Anti-Masonics won five seats.
20. On August 11, the Working Men’s Party was founded in Philadelphia. It was the first “worker-oriented” political party in the United States.
21. On November 23, Cornelius Hoagland, an American physician and businessman, was born in New Jersey. With his brother, Joseph Christoffel Hoagland, he co-founded the Royal Baking Powder Company in 1866.
22. On December 3, in the 1828 presidential election, challenger Andrew Jackson (D-Tennessee) became the seventh U.S. president by defeating incumbent John Quincy Adams (DR/NR-Massachusetts). (Just so you know, outgoing President John Quincy Adams’ unpopularity played a major role in Andrew Jackson’s victory. For example, Adams received considerable backlash over the controversial Tariff of 1828—aka the “Tariff of Abominations”—which he signed into law on May 19, 1928.)
23. In 1828, the first issue of the New-York Farmer and Horticultural Repository was published. The journal focused on “advancing farming techniques, agricultural science, and horticulture in the region. It provided farmers with information on livestock, crops, and machinery, acting as a key resource for the agricultural community.”
24. Casparus van Wooden, a Dutch chemist, invented the hydraulic cocoa press that separated cocoa liquor from cocoa butter, thus revolutionizing the production of cocoa powder.
25. August Schell was born in Durbach, Germany. In 1860, he founded the August Schell Brewing Company in New Ulm, Minnesota. Today, Schell’s is the oldest family-owned brewery in Minnesota and the second-oldest family-owned brewery in the United States.
26. Key fiction works published in 1828 included Ann Hatton’s Uncle Peregrine's Heiress, Gerald Griffin’s The Collegians, John Neal’s Rachel Dyer, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Fanshawe, and Sir Walter Scott’s The Fair Maid of Perth.
27. Top dramatic works in 1828: James Sheridan Knowles’ The Beggar's Daughter of Bethnal Green and Richard Brinsley Peake’s The Haunted Inn
28. Key nonfiction works for the year included Washington Irving’s A History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus.
29. American newspapers established in 1828: Anti-Masonic Enquirer, Baptist News Global, Evening Courier, Star-Gazette, and The Herald-Mail
30. Famous people born in 1828 were Henrik Ibsen (playwright), Joseph Swan (physicist), Jules Verne (novelist), Leo Tolstoy (novelist), and Meyer Guggenheim (entrepreneur).
31. Notable people who died in 1828 included Dewitt Clinton (former governor of New York) and Franz Schubert (composer).
32. In 1828 as well, the words “butter lettuce,” “codependent,” “concertgoer,” “cupcake,” “eggbeater,” “fashion plate,” “forty winks,” “homeopathic medicine,” “municipal court,” “passbook,” “road racing,” “runway,” “splurge,” “stampede,” and “trade union” all appeared in print for the first time.....
33. 50 bundles of straw: $1.00
34. One bushel of apples: About 50 cents
35. One bushel of potatoes: 40 cents
36. One bushel of rye: 50 cents
37. One fur hat: About $3.00
38. One gallon of soap: 25 cents
39. One pair of shoes: About $1.75
40. One peck of beans: 25 cents
41. One pound and 10 ounces of butter: 16 cents
42. One pound of cheese: About 8½ cents
43. One pound of honey: 10 cents
44. One pound of lard: 10 cents
45. One pound of salt pork: 10 cents
46. One pound of tobacco: 12½ cents
47. One pound of veal: Four cents
48. One ton of coal for home heating: $1.25
49. One yard of linen: About 32½ cents
50. Wages for one day of mowing: 50 cents

References:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1828_in_the_United_States
2. https://www.onthisday.com/events/date/1828
3. https://www.history.com/a-year-in-history/1828
4. https://www.foodreference.com/html/html/food-timeline-1825.html
5. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015035798035&seq=21
6. https://www.merriam-webster.com/time-traveler/1828
7. https://www.onthisday.com/weddings/date/1828
8. https://www.famousbirthdays.com/deceased/1828.html
9. https://www.famousbirthdays.com/year/1828.html
10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1828_in_literature

Disclaimer: In writing and editing this article, Gregory DeVictor has made every effort to ensure historical accuracy and not to mislead his audience. In addition, the contents of this article, including text, graphics, and captions, are for general informational purposes only.

© 2026 Gregory DeVictor