← 1795 1794 1793 1796 in the United States → 1797 1798 1799
Decades:	1770s 1780s 1790s 1800s 1810s
See also:	History of the United States (1789–1849) Timeline of United States history (1790–1819) List of years in the United States

Events from the year 1796 in the United States.

• President: George Washington (no political party-Virginia)
• Vice President: John Adams (F-Massachusetts)
• Chief Justice: Oliver Ellsworth (Connecticut)
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: Jonathan Dayton (F-New Jersey)
• Congress: 4th

• February 29 – Ratifications of the Jay Treaty between the United States and Great Britain are officially exchanged, bringing it into effect.^[1] Britain vacates the forts it has been retaining in the Great Lakes region.
• March 30 – John Sevier is inaugurated as first governor of Tennessee.
• June 1 – Tennessee is admitted as the 16th U.S. state (see History of Tennessee).
• July 11 – The United States takes possession of Detroit from Great Britain under the terms of the Jay Treaty.
• July 14 – The de Portolá Expedition sets out from San Diego (modern-day San Diego, California) to find the Port of Monterey (modern-day Monterey, California).^[2]
• July 22 – Surveyors of the Connecticut Land Company name an area in Ohio "Cleveland" after Gen. Moses Cleaveland, the superintendent of the surveying party.
• August 2 – Marc Isambard Brunel is granted citizenship of the United States; in the autumn he is appointed chief engineer of New York City.^[3]
• August 31 – John McKinly, the first president of Delaware, dies in Wilmington, Delaware.
• September 17 – U.S. President George Washington issues his Farewell Address, which warns against partisan politics and foreign entanglements.
• November 2 – John Adams defeats Thomas Jefferson in the U.S. presidential election.
• November 4 – The Treaty of Tripoli (between the United States and Tripoli) is signed at Tripoli (see also 1797).
• November 10 – The de Portolá Expedition returns from its terminus point (modern-day Menlo Park, California) to San Diego after failing to find Vizcaíno's Port of Monterey).^{[dubious – discuss][original research?]}
• December 7 – The U.S. Electoral College meets to elect John Adams president.

• Panic of 1796–1797 (1796–1797)

• February 18 – John Bell, United States Senator from Tennessee from 1847 till 1859. (died 1869)
• April 10 – Thomas Fitzgerald, United States Senator from Michigan from 1848 till 1849. (died 1855)
• July 24 – John M. Clayton, United States Senator from Delaware from 1829 till 1836, from 1845 till 1849 and from 1853 till 1856. (died 1856)
• September 26 – Richard H. Bayard, United States Senator from Delaware from 1841 till 1845. (died 1868)

• January 5 – Samuel Huntington, 7th president of the Continental Congress, signatory of the Declaration of Independence and Articles of Confederation (born 1731)
• June 11 – Nathaniel Gorham, President of the Continental Congress, signatory of the United States Constitution (born 1738)
• June 21 – Richard Gridley, Revolutionary soldier (born 1710)
• June 26 – David Rittenhouse, astronomer, inventor, mathematician, surveyor, scientific instrument craftsman and public official (born 1732)
• June 30 – Abraham Yates, Continental Congressman (born 1724)
• August 31 – John McKinly, physician and 1st president of Delaware (born 1721)

• Timeline of United States history (1790–1819)

• Dr. Belknap's Tour to Oneida, 1796. Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Vol. 19 (1881–1882)
• Henry S. Parsons. William and Mary College in 1796. The William and Mary Quarterly, Second Series, Vol. 15, No. 2 (April, 1935), pp. 199–200.
• Bernard Fa. Early Party Machinery in the United States: Pennsylvania in the Election of 1796. The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 60, No. 4 (October, 1936), pp. 375–390.
• Bayrd Still. The Westward Migration of a Planter Pioneer in 1796. The William and Mary Quarterly, Second Series, Vol. 21, No. 4 (October, 1941), pp. 318–343.
• John D. Barnhart. The Tennessee Constitution of 1796: A Product of the Old West. The Journal of Southern History, Vol. 9, No. 4 (November, 1943), pp. 532–548.
• Marion Tinling. Cawsons, Virginia, in 1795-1796. The William and Mary Quarterly, Third Series, Vol. 3, No. 2 (April, 1946), pp. 281–291.
• Mary Tolford Wilson. Amelia Simmons Fills a Need: American Cookery, 1796. The William and Mary Quarterly, Third Series, Vol. 14, No. 1 (January, 1957), pp. 16–30.
• Alexander DeConde. Washington's Farewell, the French Alliance, and the Election of 1796. The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Vol. 43, No. 4 (March, 1957), pp. 641–658.
• John L. Earl III. Talleyrand in Philadelphia, 1794-1796. The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 91, No. 3 (July, 1967), pp. 282–298.
• Edwin R. Baldridge Jr. Talleyrand's visit to Pennsylvania, 1794-1796. Pennsylvania History, Vol. 36, No. 2 (1969), pp. 145–160.
• Arthur Scherr. The Significance of Thomas Pinckney's Candidacy in the Election of 1796. The South Carolina Historical Magazine, Vol. 76, No. 2 (April, 1975), pp. 51–59.
• Lee W. Formwalt. An English Immigrant Views American Society: Benjamin Henry Latrobe's Virginia Years, 1796-1798. The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 85, No. 4 (October, 1977), pp. 387–410.
• Richard Wojtowicz, Billy G. Smith. Advertisements For Runaway Slaves, Indentured Servants, and Apprentices in the Pennsylvania Gazette, 1795–1796. Pennsylvania History, Vol. 54, No. 1 (January 1987), pp. 34–71.
• Glynn R. deV. Barratt. A Russian View of Philadelphia, 1795-96: From the Journal of Lieutenant Iurii Lisianskii. Pennsylvania History, Vol. 65, No. 1, Benjamin Franklin and His Enemies (Winter 1998), pp. 62–86.

• Media related to 1796 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons