1845
| File:Decade.png ( 1840s: ) 1845 link | |
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 An Irish Peasant Family Discovering the Blight of their Store by Cork artist Daniel MacDonald | |
| Year 1845 |
Events
- January 23 – The United States Congress establishes a uniform date for federal elections, which will henceforth be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.
- March 1 – President John Tyler signs a bill authorizing the United States to annex the Republic of Texas.
- March 4 – James K. Polk is sworn in, as the 11th President of the United States.
- August 9 – The Aberdeen Act is passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom, empowering the British Royal Navy to search Brazilian ships, as part of the abolition of the slave trade from Africa.
- September 9 – Potato blight breaks out in Ireland,[1] beginning the Great Famine.
- September 18 – The Anglo-French blockade of the Río de la Plata is formally declared.
- December 2 – Manifest destiny: U.S. President James K. Polk announces to Congress that the Monroe Doctrine should be strictly enforced, and that the United States should aggressively expand into the West.
- December 11 – First Anglo-Sikh War: Sikh army crosses the Sutlej in the Punjab.
- December 27 - American newspaper editor John L. O'Sullivan claims (in connection with the annexation of the Oregon Country) in The United States Magazine and Democratic Review that the United States should be allowed "the fulfillment of our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions". It is the second time he uses the term manifest destiny (first in connection with the Republic of Texas in July – August), and it will have a huge influence on American imperialism in the following century.