Now that the latest government shutdown is over it may seem hard to believe but 183 years ago the national debt of the United States of America was $0 and on January 8th, 1835 the announcement was made.

This was the last time our countries national debt was $0. It lasted one year. Andrew Jackson was the President at the time and the debt was $58.4 million when he took office which was a lot of money in the early 1800’s.

It took Jackson 6 years to pay off the debt and announced the country was in the black with $440,000 in the bank. Today, the national debt is around $19 trillion and it doesn’t look like it’ll be paid off any time too soon.