1847 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar).

Events

January

• January 4 - Samuel Colt sells his first revolver pistol to the United States government.
• January 13 - The Treaty of Cahuenga ends the Mexican-American War in California.
• January 16 - John C. Fremont is appointed Governor of the new California Territory.
• January 30 - Yerba Buena, California is renamed San Francisco.

February

• February 19 - The Donner Party is rescued. It is noted that some of the survivors seem to be remarkably well-fed considering their ordeal.
• February 22 - Mexican-American War: The Battle of Buena Vista - 5,000 American troops under General Zachary Taylor use their superiority in artillery to drive off 15,000 Mexican troops under Antonio López de Santa Anna defeating the Mexicans the next day.

March

• March 1 - Faustin Soulouque declares himself Emperor of Haiti
• March 9 - Mexican-American War: United States forces under General Winfield Scott invade Mexico near Veracruz.
• March 29 - Mexican-American War: United States forces led by General Winfield Scott take Veracruz after a siege.

May

• May 7 - In Philadelphia, the American Medical Association (AMA) is founded.

June

• June 1 – First communist congress in London

July

• July 1 - The United States issues its first postage stamps.
• July 24 - After 17 months of travel, Brigham Young leads 148 Mormon pioneers into Salt Lake Valley, resulting in the establishment of Salt Lake City.
• July 26 - Liberia gains independence.

August

• August 12 – US troops of general Winfield Scott begin to advance along the aqueduct around Chalco and Xochimilco lakes in Mexico
• August 20 – US troops defeat Mexican troops in Valencia, Mexico

September

• September 6 - Henry David Thoreau leaves Walden Pond and moves in with Ralph Waldo Emerson and his family in Concord, Massachusetts.

October

• October 12 - German inventor and industrialist Werner von Siemens founds Siemens AG & Halske.

Undated

• Turkey cedes Abadan Island to Persia.
• Abd al-Kader is captured and imprisoned by the French.

Ongoing events

• Mexican-American War (1846-1848)

Births

• February 11 - Thomas Alva Edison, US inventor.
• March 3 - Alexander Graham Bell, father of the telephone
• April 10 - Joseph Pulitzer, journalist and newspaper publisher
• June 11 - Millicent Fawcett, British suffragist and feminist
• October 2 - Paul von Hindenburg, President of Weimar Germany ((† 1934)
• November 26 - Princess Dagmar of Denmark, later Empress consort of Tsar Alexander III of Russia
• December 7 - George Grossmith, English actor and comic writer, best remembered for his work with Gilbert & Sullivan († 1912)
• December 18 - Augusta Holmès, French composer

• Wong Fei Hung - Chinese folk hero

Deaths

• January 19 - Charles Bent, New Mexico pioneer
• March 9 - Mary Anning, British paleontologist
• March 11 - Johnny Appleseed, pioneer, agronomist
• April 30 - Archduke Charles, Austrian general
• May 14 - Fanny Mendelssohn, composer and pianist
• Charles Hatchett, English chemist who discovered niobium