On March 4, 1829, Andrew Jackson upholds an inaugural tradition begun by Thomas Jefferson and hosts an open house at the White House.

On March 9, 1829, President Andrew Jackson defies Washington society matrons when his scandal-plagued appointee John Eaton takes the oath as his secretary of war.

In Genoa, Italy on June 27, 1829, English scientist James Smithson dies after a long illness, leaving behind a will with a peculiar footnote. In the event that his only nephew died without any heirs, Smithson decreed that the whole of his estate would go to “the United States of America, to found at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an Establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge.”