Elizabeth Nisbet (1812 - 1847)

Refresh this page to see various historical events that occurred during Elizabeth's lifetime.

In 1812, in the year that Elizabeth Nisbet was born, on April 30th, Louisiana was admitted to the United States as the 18th state. The area was previously known as the Territory of Orleans.

In 1824, she was merely 12 years old when on December 3rd, the U.S. presidential election of 1824 was finally decided. None of the four candidates for U.S. President gained a majority of the electoral votes so for the first - and last - time the election was thrown into the U.S. House of Representatives for a decision, called a contingent election. John Quincy Adams won on the first vote. Another candidate, Andrew Jackson, never accepted the results and accused Adams and Henry Clay - the Speaker of the House - of striking a "corrupt bargain".

In 1827, she was just 15 years old when Englishman John Walker invented the first friction match, which he named Lucifer. The match consisted of a wooden stick coated with sulphur and tipped with a mixture of sulphide of antimony, chlorate of potash, and gum. A box of 50 matches was one shilling and came with folded sandpaper to use to strike a match.

In 1833, at the age of 21 years old, Elizabeth was alive when on April 18th, over 300 delegates from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland called on the office of the Prime Minister of Great Britain to demand the immediate abolition of slavery throughout the British Empire. Following this, slavery was abolished by the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 - with exceptions provided for the East India Company, Ceylon, and Saint Helena.

In 1847, in the year of Elizabeth Nisbet's passing, on May 7th, In Philadelphia, an association of physicians and medical students was founded - the American Medical Association or AMA. The association, the first of its kind, wanted to create uniform standards for medical training, education, and practices.