History.com has this for 13 May:
On 13 May 1846, the Congress overwhelmingly voted in favor of President James K. Polk’s request to declare war on Mexico in a dispute over Texas. Under the threat of war, the United States had refrained from annexing Texas after the latter won independence from Mexico in 1836. But, in 1844, President John Tyler restarted negotiations with the Republic of Texas, culminating with a Treaty of Annexation. The treaty was defeated by a wide margin in the Senate because it would upset the slave state/free state balance between North and South and risked war with Mexico, which had broken off relations with the United States. But shortly before leaving office, and with the support of President-elect Polk, Tyler managed to get the joint resolution passed on 1 March 1845. Texas was admitted to the union on 29 December. While Mexico didn’t follow through with its threat to declare war, relations between the two nations remained tense over border disputes, and in July of 1845, President Polk ordered troops into disputed lands that lay between the Neuces and Rio Grande rivers. In November, Polk sent diplomat John Slidell to Mexico to seek boundary adjustments in return for the American government’s settlement of the claims of its citizens against Mexico, and also to make an offer to purchase California and New Mexico. After the mission failed, the Army, under General Zachary Taylor, advanced to the mouth of the Rio Grande, the river that the state of Texas claimed as its southern boundary.
Mexico, claiming that the boundary was the Nueces River to the northeast of the Rio Grande, considered the advance of Taylor’s army an act of aggression and, in April of 1846, sent troops across the Rio Grande. Polk, in turn, declared the Mexican advance to be an invasion of American soil, and on 11 May 1846, asked Congress to declare war on Mexico, which it did two days later.
After nearly two years of fighting, peace was established by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed on 2 February 1848. The Rio Grande was made the southern boundary of Texas, and California andNew Mexico were ceded to the United States. In return, the United States paid Mexico the sum of fifteen million dollars and agreed to settle all claims of American citizens against Mexico.
Rico says that, as usual, we ended up with the best part of the deal, but had to take Texas, too...
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