Harrison, William Henry

1773 – He was born on the 9th day of February this year in Charles City County, Virginia.

1787 - Before attending the University of Pennsylvania, Harrison attended Hampden-Sydney College. He entered school at the age of 14. He attended the University of Pennsylvania with the intention of becoming a physician, but did not receive a degree.

1791 - In this year, his father died and left Harrison without money for further schooling and so, at the age of 18, he was commissioned as an ensign in the U.S. Army. He was sent to the Northwest Territory, where he spent much of his life.

1794 - Harrison participated in Wayne's decisive victory at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in this year, which ended the Northwest Indian War.

1795 - Lieutenant Harrison was one of the signers of the Treaty of Greenville, which opened much of present-day Ohio to settlement by white Americans.

1798 - Harrison resigned from the Army to become Secretary of the Northwest Territory, and acted as governor when Governor Arthur St. Clair was absent.

1799 – He was elected as the first delegate representing the Northwest Territory in the Sixth United States Congress, serving from March 4 of this year until May 14, 1800.

1805 – He oversaw numerous treaties, purchasing much of present-day Indiana from Native American leaders. The Treaty of Grouse land in this year was thought by Harrison to have appeased Native Americans however, tensions, always high on the frontier, became much greater after the 1809 Treaty of Fort Wayne, in which Harrison secured the purchase of more than 2,500,000 acres of American Indian land.

1811 - He served as the first Governor of the Indiana Territory and later as a U.S. Representative and Senator from Ohio. Harrison first gained national fame as a war hero, defeating American Indians at the Battle of Tippecanoe in this year and earning the nickname "Tippecanoe".

1812 – In the subsequent War of this year, his most notable contribution as the General was a victory at the Battle of the Thames, which concluded the war in his region.

1841 – He took office in this year at the age of 68; he was the oldest man to become President; a record that stood for 140 years, until Ronald Reagan became President in 1981 at the age of 69. He died on the 4th day of April in the same year in Washington, D.C.

• "There is nothing more corrupting, nothing more destructive of the noblest and finest feelings of our nature, than the exercise of unlimited power."