On February 17, 1801, Thomas Jefferson is elected the third president of the United States. The election constitutes the first peaceful transfer of power from one political party to another in the United States.

British inventor Richard Trevithick takes seven of his friends for a test ride on his “Puffing Devil,” or “Puffer,” the first steam-powered passenger vehicle, on December 24, 1801. Unlike the steam engine pioneered by the Scotsman James Watt, Trevithick’s used “strong steam”—that is, steam at a very high pressure (145 pounds per square inch, or psi). Trevithick’s engines were extremely versatile: They could be put to work in mines, on farms, in factories, on ships and in locomotives of all kinds.