This is a timeline of events that happened in the 1800s, as gathered from a few different history-oriented websites. In many cases, I have edited the descriptions as I saw fit. An attempt was made to describe all events in the present tense, but this did not seem appropriate in all cases.
Under the yearly subheadings a few world events are usually listed. They are followed by a more detailed list of U.S. events.
1800
Napoleon conquers
Italy and establishes himself as First Consul in France.
Robert Owen
encourages a labor movement and social reforms in England.
William Herschel
discovers infrared rays.
Alessandro Volta
produces electricity.
April 23, 1800 - The
Natchez Trace post route, following an old trail running from
Nashville, Tennessee to Natchez, Mississippi, is established by an
Act of Congress.
April 24, 1800 - The
United States Library of Congress is founded.
August 4, 1800 - The
second census of the United States is conducted. The total population
of the USA was 5,308,483.
November 1, 1800 -
U.S. President John Adams is the first President to live in the White
House, then known as the Executive Mansion and sixteen days later,
the United States Congress holds its first session in Washington,
D.C.
Slavery is ended in
the Northwest Territory, stemming from the Ordinance of 1787 written
by Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson had proposed that all slavery be
prohibited by the year 1800, but that proposal was defeated by one
vote.
1801
Austria makes
temporary peace with France.
United Kingdom is
established, with one monarch and one parliament; Catholics are excluded
from voting.
January 20, 1801 -
John Marshall is appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the
United States.
February 17, 1801 -
Thomas Jefferson is elected as the 3rd president of the
United States in a vote of the House of Representatives after tying
Aaron Burr, his Vice President, in the electoral college. A flaw in
the original vote-for-two system caused the tie. This would be
corrected by the 12th Amendment to the Constitution.
March 4, 1801 -
Thomas Jefferson is inaugurated for his first term as President of
the United States.
May 10, 1801 – The
Pasha of Tripoli declares war against the United States after
Jefferson refused to pay additional tribute to “protect” U.S.
commerce from raiding Arabian ships.
November 16, 1801 -
The first edition of the New York Post is published.
1802
March 16, 1802 -
West Point, New York is established. Four months later, the United
States Military Academy opens on July 4.
October 2, 1802 -
War ends between Tripoli and Sweden, but continues with the United
States, despite a negotiated peace, due to compensation
disagreements.
December 15, 1802 -
Thomas Jefferson gives his Second State of the Nation address to the
House and Senate, focusing on peace in the European conflict and
payment of the public debt.
1803
January 30, 1803 -
Discussions to buy New Orleans begin when Monroe and Livingston sail
to Paris, ending with the complete purchase of the Louisiana Purchase
three months later.
February 24, 1803 -
The United States Supreme Court overturns its first U.S. law in the
case of Marbury versus Madison, establishing the context of judicial
review as they declared a statute within the Constitution void. This
established the Supreme Court's position as an equal member of the
three branches of United States government.
March 1, 1803 - Ohio
is admitted to the Union as the 17th U.S. state.
April 30, 1803 -
President Jefferson arranges the purchase of the Louisiana Territory
from France, thus paving way for western expansion throughout the
rest of the 1800s. The price of the purchase included bonds of
$11,250,000 and $3,750,000 in payments to United States citizens with
claims against France.
December 20, 1803 -
The United States of America takes title to the Louisiana Purchase,
doubling its domain, an increase of 827,000 sq mi (2,144,500 sq km).
The new land stretches from the Mississippi River to the Rockies and
the Gulf of Mexico to British North America.
1804
Haiti declares
independence from France.
Napoleon proclaims
himself emperor of France, systematizes French law under "Code
Napoleon."
February 15, 1804 -
New Jersey becomes the last northern state to abolish slavery.
May 14, 1804 -
Ordered by Thomas Jefferson to map the Northwest United States, Lewis
and Clark begin their expedition from St. Louis and Camp Dubois. The
journey begins with navigation of the Missouri River.
July 11, 1804 - A
duel between Alexander Hamilton and Vice President Aaron Burr,
longtime political rivals, occurs in Weehawken, New Jersey, resulting
in the death of Hamilton.
October 1, 1804 -
Russians and their allies in the Aleut community attack Sitka, Alaska
and besiege a Tlingit Indian fort. One week later, the Tlingits are
forced to leave.
October 26, 1804 -
The Lewis and Clark Expedition arrives at the confluence of the Knife
and Missouri Rivers, in what is now the state of North Dakota, where
they camped until the spring of 1805 as the guests of Mandan and
Minitari Indians.
November 4 to
December 5, 1804 - Thomas Jefferson wins reelection over Charles
Pinckney.
1805
Lord Nelson defeats
French-Spanish fleets in the Battle of Trafalgar.
Napoleon scores a
victory over Austrian and Russian forces at Austerlitz.
January 11, 1805 -
The Michigan Territory is established.
April 27, 1805 -
American Marines and Berbers attack the Tripoli city of Derna. Land
and naval forces would battle against Tripoli until peace was
concluded with the United States on June 4, 1805.
June 13, 1805 -
Meriweather Lewis and four companions confirm their correct heading
by sighting the Great Falls of the Missouri River, as the Lewis and
Clark expedition continues west.
December 8, 1805 -
Members of the Lewis and Clark expedition upon sighting the Pacific
Ocean on November 15, build Fort Clatsop, a log fort near the mouth
of the Columbia River in present-day Oregon. They would spend the
winter of 1805-1806 in the newly constructed fort.
1806
March 23, 1806 -
Lewis and Clark begin the several thousand mile trek back to St.
Louis, Missouri from their winter camp near the Pacific Ocean.
March 29, 1806 - The
National Road, also known as the Great National Pike or the
Cumberland Road, the first federally funded highway that ran between
Cumberland, Maryland to Ohio, is approved by President Jefferson with
the signing of legislation and appropriation of $30,000.
The highway ran
through three states; Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Ohio.
July 15, 1806 - A
second exploratory expedition led by U.S. Army Lieutenant Zebulon
Pike begins from Fort Bellefountaine near St. Louis. Later that year,
during a second trip, he reaches the distant Colorado foothills of
the Rocky Mountains and discovers Pike's Peak.
September 23, 1806 -
The Lewis and Clark Expedition ends.
Essential to the
journey was Sacagawea, their female Indian guide.
Noah Webster
publishes his first American English dictionary.
1807
February 17, 1807 -
Vice President Aaron Burr is arrested for treason in Alabama, charged
with a scheme to annex parts of Louisiana and Mexico into an
independent republic. Three months later, a grand jury indicts the
former Vice President under the same charges.
March 2, 1807 -
Congress passes an act that prohibits the importation of slaves into
any port within the confines of the United States from any foreign
land, to take effect on the 1st of January 1808.
August 17, 1807 -
The first practical steamboat journey was made by Robert Fulton in
the steamboat Clermont. He navigated the Hudson River from New
York City to Albany in thirty-two hours, a trip of 150 miles.
This later becomes
the first commercial steamboat service in the world.
September 1, 1807 -
Aaron Burr is acquitted of treason.
1808
French armies occupy
Rome and Spain, temporarily extending Napoleon's empire.
Britain begins
aiding Spanish guerrillas against Napoleon in Peninsular War.
Beethoven's "Fifth"
and "Sixth Symphonies" performed.
In Germany, a new
term is proposed for the profession of treating the insane:
“Psychiatry.”
January 1, 1808 -
The importation of slaves is outlawed. But between 1808 and 1860,
than 250,000 slaves were illegally imported.
February 11, 1808 -
Anthracite coal is first burned, as an experimental fuel.
April 6, 1808 - The
American Fur Company is incorporated by John Jacob Astor.
December 7, 1808 -
James Madison is elected as the 4th President of the United States,
defeating Charles C. Pinckney.
1809
February 3, 1809 -
The Illinois Territory is created.
February 12, 1809 -
Abraham Lincoln born.
February 20, 1809 -
The Supreme Court of the United States rules that the legal power of
the Federal Government is greater than the power of any individual
state.
March 4, 1809 -
James Madison is inaugurated as President of the United States.
August 1809 - The
U.S.S. Constitution is re-commissioned as the flagship of the North
Atlantic Squadron.
1810
During 1810, the
causes of the War of 1812 began to emerge. Four thousand naturalized
American sailors had been seized by British forces, which caused
trade between England and the United States to grind to a halt.
June 23, 1810 - The
Pacific Fur Company is formed by John Jacob Astor.
August 6, 1810 - The
population of the United States is listed as 7,239,881 in the 1810
census.
September 8, 1810 -
Thirty-three employees of the Pacific Fur Company embark on a six
month journey around South America from New York Harbor. Arriving at
the mouth of the Columbia River on the ship Tonquin, in present day
Oregon, they found the fur-trading town of Astoria.
December 3, 1810 -
Ex-slave Tom Molineaux, born at a Virginia plantation in 1784, fights
English boxing champion Tom Cribb, and is narrowly defeated after 39
rounds when he collapsed from exhaustion.
1811
May 8, 1811 -
Construction of the Cumberland Road begins. An important route
through the Allegheny Mountains for westward expansion, it had been
authorization as the first federal highway by Thomas Jefferson in
1806. It broadly followed Braddock's Road, a military route used by
George Washington in 1754. The National Road, as it would later be
called, and now known as Rt. 40, measured 128 miles from Cumberland,
Maryland to Wheeling, West Virginia, and would later have its
terminus in Vandalia, Illinois.
October 11, 1811 -
The first steam-powered ferry service between New York City and
Hoboken, New Jersey is started on John Steven's ship, the Juliana.
November 7, 1811 -
At the battle of Tippecanoe, Indian warriors under the command of
Tecumseh and his brother Tenskwatawa, known as the Prophet, are
defeated by a force led by William Henry Harrison, the governor of
Indiana.
December 16, 1811 -
An earthquake near New Madrid, in the Mississippi Valley, reverses
the course of the Mississippi River for a period of time. This quake
was the first of two major earthquakes which preceded the largest
quake ever in the United States two months later.
1812
Napoleon's “Grand
Army” invades Russia in June. Forced to retreat that winter, most
of Napoleon's 600,000 men are lost.
February 7, 1812 -
With an estimated magnitude of 7.4 to 8.3, the final New Madrid
earthquake strikes near New Madrid, Missouri. This quake was the
largest earthquake ever recorded in the continental United States,
destroying one-half of the town of New Madrid. It was felt strongly
for 50,000 square miles, created new lakes, caused numerous
aftershocks, and reversed the course of the Mississippi
River. A request for
federal help by William Clark, the Missouri territory governor, one
month earlier, may have been the first request for Federal disaster
relief.
June 1, 1812 - U.S.
President James Madison asks Congress to declare war on the United
Kingdom. Before the vote could be approved, on June 16, British ships
raise a blockade against the United States.
June 18, 1812 -
Although unaware of the blockade at the time of their vote, Madison
signs the declaration of war after Congress narrowly approves it.
Western states generally favored the action while New England states
disapproved. This included the state of Rhode Island, which refused
to participate in the war.
August 13, 1812 -
Naval battles begin when the United States Navy’s U.S.S. Essex
captures the Alert. Three days later, the tide would turn in
British favor when English forces captured Fort Detroit without a
fight.
On August 19 the
U.S.S. Constitution secures another victory for the U.S. Navy
off the coast of Nova Scotia by destroying the British frigate
Guerriere.
On October 25, off
the Azores, the U.S.S. United States defeated the Macedonian,
towing the ship back to the U.S., the first British warship brought
back to an American port.
December 2, 1812 -
President James Madison defeats De Witt Clinton in the U.S.
presidential election, securing a second term.
1813
April 27, 1813 - The
Battle of York (Toronto) is held. American troops raid and destroy,
but do not occupy, the city.
June 1, 1813 - The
city directory of Albany, New York is first published.
June 6, 1813 -
Despite having a force three times the size of its British foe,
Americans lose the Battle of Stoney Creek to a British army of 700
men under John Vincent.
September 10, 1813 -
The Battle of Lake Erie is won by the U.S. Navy when Commodore
Perry's fleet defeats the ships of British Captain Robert Barclay.
This victory allows U.S. forces to take control of the majority of
the Old Northwest and lake region.
October 5, 1813 - A
United States victory at the Battle of Thames, Ontario allows
American forces to break the Indian alliance with the British and
secure the frontier of Detroit. Native Indian leader Tecumseh of the
Shawnee tribe is killed during this battle.
1814
France is defeated
by allies (Britain, Austria, Russia, Prussia, Sweden, and Portugal)
in “War of Liberation.” Napoleon is exiled to Elba, off Italian
coast.
Bourbon king Louis
XVIII takes French throne.
George Stephenson
builds first practical steam locomotive.
March 27, 1814 –
Large parts of Alabama and Georgia are opened to white settlement
opens after Andrew Jackson's militia from Tennessee defeat the Red
Stick Creeks of Chief Menawa along the Tallapoosa River at Horseshoe
Bend.
August 24, 1814 -
The White House is burned by British forces after they occupy
Washington, D.C., in retaliation for the destruction by U.S. troops
of Canadian public buildings. President Madison evacuates. The
mansion takes three years to rebuild.
September 11, 1814 -
The Battle of Lake Champlain is won by U.S. naval forces with the
U.S.S. Ticonderoga leading the way.
September 13-14,
1814 - Francis Scott Key writes the words to the Star Spangled
Banner during the twenty-five hour bombardment of Fort McHenry at
the head of the river leading to the Baltimore harbor.
December 24, 1814 -
A peace treaty is signed between the British and American government
at Ghent, ending the War of 1812.
1815
Napoleon returns:
“Hundred Days” begin. His forces are finally defeated by
Wellington at Waterloo, and he is banished to St. Helena in the South
Atlantic.
Congress of Vienna:
Victorious allies change the map of Europe.
January 8, 1815 - On
the Chalmette plantation at New Orleans, five thousand three hundred
British troops still unaware of the peace treaty signed two weeks
earlier, but not ratified until February 17, attack American forces
in the last battle of the War of 1812. Major General Andrew Jackson
leads his American soldiers to victory over British troops under the
command of Sir Edward Pakenham. British
troops suffer over
two thousand casualties; American forces seventy-one.
February 6, 1815 -
The first American railroad charter is granted by the state of New
Jersey to John Stephens.
April 10, 1815 -
Mount Tambora (Indonesia) erupts.
August 6, 1815 -
Piracy on the high seas by Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli is effectively
ended by a flotilla from the United States.
December 25, 1815 -
The oldest continuing performance arts organization in the United
States, the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston, gives its first
performance.
1816
"Year without a
Summer" occurs in the northern hemisphere due to global cooling.
Eliphalet Remington
begins making rifle barrels.
April 10, 1816 –
The Second Bank of the United States is chartered, five years after
the expiration of the 1st Bank of the United States.
December 4, 1816 -
James Monroe defeats Federalist Rufus King in the United States
presidential election.
December 11, 1816 -
The territory of Indiana is admitted into the United States of
America as the 19th state.
1817
The second wave of
Amish immigration to North America begins, bringing 3,000 Amish from
Europe to relocate in the United States. The first wave of Amish
immigration occurred through 1770.
March 4, 1817 -
James Monroe is inaugurated as the President of the United States.
His vice president, Daniel D. Tompkins, who would serve alongside
Monroe for his entire eight years.
April 28-29, 1817 -
The Rush-Bagot treaty is signed. This would limit the amount of
British and American armaments allowed on the Great Lakes.
July 4, 1817 - The
construction of the Erie Canal begins at Rome, New York. The first
section between Rome and Utica would be completed two years later.
The canal would eventually connect the Atlantic Ocean, through the
Hudson River, to the Great Lakes, with 83 locks over its 363 miles.
The canal, when completed in 1825, would cut transport costs (over
land) by 90%.
December 10, 1817 -
The United States of America admits its 20th state, Mississippi.
1818
The first edition of
the Farmer's Almanac is published in Morristown, New Jersey.
March 15, 1818 –
The U.S. Army led by Andrew Jackson invades Florida in the Seminole
War, causing repercussions with Spain as negotiations to purchase the
territory had just begun.
April 4, 1818 - The
flag of the United States is officially adopted by Congress with the
configuration of thirteen red and white stripes and one star for each
state in the union. At the time of adoption, the flag had twenty
stars.
October 20, 1818 -
The northern boundary of the United States and Canada is established
between the U.S.A. and the United Kingdom. Its location from the Lake
of the Woods to the Rocky Mountains would be the 49th parallel.
December 3, 1818 -
The state of Illinois is admitted to the Union.
1819
Simón Bolívar
liberates New Granada (now Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador) as Spain
loses hold on South American countries.
January 2, 1819 -
The “Panic of 1819” occurs, the first major financial crises in
the United States, leading to foreclosures, bank failures, and
unemployment. Causes identified, include the heavy borrowing done to
finance the War of 1812, as well as tightening of credit by the
Second Bank of the U.S. in response to risky lending practices by
wildcat banks in the west.
February 15, 1819 -
The Tallmadge Amendment is passed by the U.S. House of
Representatives, stating that slaves would be barred in the new state
of Missouri. This becomes the opening round in the Missouri
Compromise controversy.
February 22, 1819 -
The territory of Florida is ceded to the United States by Spain in
the Adams-Onis Treaty.
May 22, 1819 - The
American steamship Savannah, under part steam and sail-power,
crosses the Atlantic Ocean from Savannah, Georgia to Liverpool,
England, arriving on June 20.
August 6, 1819 - The
first private military school in the United States, Norwich
University, is founded by Captain Alden Partridge in Vermont.
1820
In U.S., Missouri
admitted as slave state but slavery barred in rest of Louisiana
Purchase north of 36°30' N.
February 6, 1820 -
Free African American colonists, eighty-six in number, plus three
American Colonization society members, leave the United States from
New York City and sail to Freetown, Sierra Leone.
March 3, 1820 - The
Missouri Compromise bill, sponsored by Henry Clay, passes in the
United States Congress. This legislation allows slavery in the
Missouri territory, but not in any other location west of the
Mississippi River that was north of 36 degrees 30 minutes latitude,
the then southern border of the territory.
August 7, 1820 - The
census of 1820 now includes 9,638,453 people living in the United
States, 33% more than in 1810. The most populated state is New York,
with 1,372,812 residents.
September 28, 1820 -
To prove that a tomato is not poisonous, Colonel Robert Gibbon
Johnson eats one in public in Salem, New Jersey.
December 6, 1820 -
James Monroe is elected to a second term by a landslide.
1821
Guatemala, Panama,
and Santo Domingo proclaim independence from Spain.
February 23, 1821 -
The first pharmacy college is founded as the Philadelphia College of
Apothecaries. This same year, the first women's college in the United
States, Troy Female Seminary, is founded by Emma Willard.
July 10, 1821 -
Possession of the territory of Florida is taken by the United States
after its purchase is completed with Spain. No money exchanged hands
between Spain and the U.S. in this purchase; the U.S. had agreed to
pay five million dollars to citizens for property damage.
August 4, 1821 - The
Saturday Evening Post is published for the first time as a
weekly newspaper by Atkinson and Alexander.
August 10, 1821 –
State of Missouri admitted into the Union.
November 16, 1821 -
The first legal international trade on the Santa Fe Trail begins
after William Becknell, a Missouri trader, meets with Governor
Melgares. The huge profit earned convinced Becknell that he should
return over the trail route the following year.
In this year a
Massachusetts court outlawed the novel Fanny Hill by
Englishman John Cleland, and convicted publisher Peter Holmes for
printing a "lewd and obscene" book. This was the first
obscenity case in U.S. history.
1822
Greeks proclaim a
republic, and independence from Turkey.
Turks invade Greece.
Later, Russia declares war on Turkey (1828). Greece is then aided by
France and Britain, the war ends and Turks recognize Greek
independence (1829).
Brazil becomes
independent of Portugal.
Schubert composes
his Eighth Symphony (“The Unfinished”).
January 7, 1822 -
The first group of freed American slaves settle a black colony known
as the Republic of Liberia when they arrive on African soil at
Providence Island. The capital, Monrovia, is named after President
James Monroe.
February 13, 1822 -
Advertisements for “Ashley's Hundred,” organized by General
William H. Ashley and Major Andrew Henry to ascend the Missouri River
on a fur trading mission, appear in Missouri newspapers. The men who
would answer the call to employ included Jedediah Smith and Jim
Bridger. These expeditions would leave St. Louis at irregular
intervals over the next decade.
March 30, 1822 -
Florida becomes an official territory of the United States.
May 6, 1822 - A law
prohibiting the sale of alcohol to Indians is passed, causing a
disruption in the fur trade pattern that relied on Indians to procure
the furs, in exchange for alcohol and other goods.
1823
April 5, 1823 -
Funding for the creation of the Albany Basin, a man-made port linked
to the Erie Canal, in Albany, New York, is approved.
April 25, 1823 - The
War Department issues an order for an expedition up the Red River and
along the 49th parallel led by Stephen Long, which would mark the
point of the official border between the United States and Canada.
August 9, 1823 –
The Arikara Indian War begins as the U.S. Army engages in the first
conflict with an Indian tribe in the western territories after the
tribe had attacked a trapping party on June 1.
December 2, 1823 -
In a speech before Congress, James Monroe announces the Monroe
Doctrine, stating the policy that European intervention anyplace in
the Americas is opposed and that America would remain neutral in
future European wars.
1824
Mexico becomes a
republic, three years after declaring independence from Spain.
Bolívar liberates
Peru, and becomes its president.
Beethoven composes
"Ninth Symphony."
March 11, 1824 - The
Bureau of Indian Affairs is established by the United States War
Department to “regulate trade” with Native American tribes.
April 17, 1824 - A
frontier treaty between the United States and Russia is signed,
negotiated by John Quincy Adams, Secretary of State. Russia agreed to
set its southern border at 54 degrees, 40 minutes and allow U.S.
ships within the one hundred mile limit of its Pacific territories.
May 24, 1824 - In
Pawtucket, Rhode Island, the first strike by female workers occurs.
December 2, 1824 -
The Electoral College vote yields no majority; John Quincy Adams is
elected president by the House of Representatives on February 9,
1825, outpolling fellow Democrat Republicans, now a loose coalition
of competing factions, including Andrew Jackson, who had
actually received a
higher number of Electoral College votes, 99, than Adams, 84. There
was no majority due to votes for Henry Clay, 37, and William
Crawford, 41. In the first election with popular vote totals, Adams
garnered less votes there as well, with 105,321 to 155,872 to
Jackson.
December 24, 1824 -
The first fraternity in the United States is begun, Chi Phi, at
Princeton University.
1825
First
passenger-carrying railroad in England.
February 12, 1825 -
In the state of Georgia, the Creek Indian tribe give up their last
lands to the United States government and move west.
March 4, 1825 - John
Quincy Adams is inaugurated as President, with John C. Calhoun as his
Vice President.
October 26, 1825 -
Use of the Erie Canal begins in Buffalo, New York with the first boat
departing for New York City. This opened up the Great Lakes region to
travel and trade. Cost of the canal was $7 million.
November 4, 1825 –
The first boat navigating the Erie Canal arrives in New York City.
The opening of the Erie Canal contributed to making the city of New
York a chief Atlantic port.
November 26, 1825 -
The first college social fraternity, Kappa Alpha, is formed at Union
College, Schenectady, New York.
1826
Joseph-Nicéphore
Niepce takes the world's first photograph.
September 3, 1826 -
The first United States warship to navigate the world, the U.S.S.
Vincennes, leaves New York City under the command of William
Finch.
October 26, 1826 -
Kit Carson, mountain man of the western lands, is wanted in Franklin,
Missouri, after running away to join a trading party at the age of
16. A reward of one cent is offered for his return to his bondage to
learn the saddler's job in Franklin.
In this year, David
Edward Jackson, for whom Jackson Hole, Wyoming is named, as well as
Jedediah Smith and William Sublette purchase William Ashley's
interest in the fur trade.
Their company, later
to become known as the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, was sold in 1830,
and continued to profit from the fur trade across the mountain west.
December 21, 1826 –
A group of Texas settlers make their first attempt to secede from
Mexico as the Fredonian Republic. The Republic lasts one month, and
causes the Mexican government to curb immigration from U.S. This
leads to an eventual Texas Revolution.
1827
February 26, 1827 -
The Senate ratifies the Treaty of Limits that establishes the Sabine
River as the Mexican and United States border, in agreement with the
Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819.
February 28, 1827 -
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad is incorporated, and would become the
first railroad in the United States to offer transportation for
people and commercial goods.
July 4, 1827 - In
New York State, slavery is legally abolished.
July 14, 1827 - The
first Roman Catholic Mass is held in the Hawaiian Islands and leads
to the foundation of the Diocese of Honolulu.
September 22, 1827 -
Joseph Smith, Jr. claims the angel Moroni gave him a record of gold
plates, later translated into The Book of Mormon.
1828
January 12, 1828 -
The Treaty of Limits with Mexico goes into effect.
April 14, 1828 - The
copyright for The American Dictionary of the English Language is
registered and the book published that year by Noah Webster.
July 4, 1828 – The
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad begins passenger service.
December 2, 1828 –
Andrew Jackson wins the electoral college vote against John Quincy
Adams.
October 28, 1828 -
Opposing the Tariff of Abominations, the state of South Carolina
begins the process of a formal nullification campaign, declaring the
right of state nullification of federal laws.
1929
March 4, 1829 -
Andrew Jackson, now a Democratic, is inaugurated as President.
June 1, 1829 - The
Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper is founded as the Pennsylvania
Inquirer.
June 27, 1829 - The
Smithsonian Institution is founded when British scientist James
Smithson bequeathed one hundred thousand pounds ($500,000) from his
estate for its initial funding, on the condition that his nephew have
no heirs. The establishment of the Smithsonian building would be
passed by an act of Congress in 1846 and was completed in 1855.
July 23, 1829 -
William Austin Burt, of the United States, invents and patents the
typewriter, then known as a “typographer.”
1830
France invades
Algeria. Louis Philippe becomes “Citizen King” as a revolution
forces Charles X to abdicate.
March 26, 1830 –
Joseph Smith publishes the Book of Mormon.
April 6, 1830 - The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is organized in Fayette,
New York.
May 26, 1830 - The
United States Congress approves the Indian Removal Act, which led to
the relocation of Indian tribes living east of the Mississippi.
Although this act did not order their removal, it paved the way for
increased pressure on the tribes to accept land-exchange treaties
with the U.S. government which eventually resulted in the Trail of
Tears.
June 1, 1830 – The
1830 Census reports a population increase of 33% in the last decade
to a total of 12,860,702.
This year, William
L. Sublette, with goods from the Rocky Mountain Fur Company (known by
that name from 1830-1833), took the first wagons along the Oregon
Trail to the Rocky Mountains, diverting at South Pass as he went to
the 1830 trade rendezvous at the Little Wind River in present-day
Wyoming. The supply caravan included eighty-one men on mules, ten
wagons, and two carriages.
1831
The Polish revolt
against Russia, but fail.
Belgium separates
from the Netherlands.
March 19, 1831 - The
first bank robbery in United States history occurs at the City Bank
of New York. Edward Smith robbed the Wall Street bank of $245,000. He
would be caught and convicted of the crime, and sentenced to five
years in Sing Sing prison.
May 27, 1831 -
Jedediah Smith, legendary mountain man and fur trader with the Rocky
Mountain Fur Company, is killed on the Cimarron River in an
altercation with a group of Native Americans. Expeditions by Smith
were noted as the most dangerous ones attempted during the height of
the fur trade years.
August 21, 1831 - A
local slave rebellion in Southampton County, Virginia, led by Nat
Turner, a black slave, kills fifty-seven white citizens. Turner would
be captured on October 30 of the same year, tried, and hanged on
November 11 for his part in the uprising.
This year, Cyrus H.
McCormick invented and demonstrated the first commercially successful
reaper. He developed the reaper over a six week period with the
assistance of his black helper Jo Anderson. The reaper would be used
in their 1831 harvest in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. McCormick
would patent the reaper in 1834.
1832
April 20, 1832 - The
first act of Congress to protect a natural resource was signed by
President Andrew Jackson. It reserved four parcels of land with hot
mineral springs in Arkansas Territory at Hot Springs.
April 8, 1832 - The
Black Hawk War begins and would rage from Illinois to Wisconsin
through September. It would consequently lead to the removal of Sauk
and Fox Indians west, across the Mississippi River.
July 24, 1832 - The
first wagons crossed the Continental Divide on the Oregon Trail at
Wyoming's South Pass when Captain Benjamin Bonneville and Joseph R.
Walker navigated one hundred and ten men with twenty-one wagons into
the Green River Valley.
October 8-10, 1832 -
The six year campaign known as the Trail of Tears begins when
Washington Irving, Henry Levitt Ellsworth, and Captain Jesse Bean, at
the Arkansas River, begin one of the first steps in the U.S. campaign
to remove Indians from their homes on the east coast.
November 24, 1832 -
South Carolina convention passed the Ordinance of Nullification,
which was against the institution of permanent tariffs. The state
also threatened to withdraw from the Union.
December 28, 1832 –
John Calhoun resigns as Vice President
1833
Slavery is abolished in
the British Empire.
March 1, 1833 - The
United States Congress passes a compromise tariff act in response to
South Carolina's objections. The state of South Carolina subsequently
withdrew the Nullification Ordinance.
March 2, 1833 - The
Force Bill is signed by President Andrew Jackson, which would
authorize him to use troops to enforce Federal law in South Carolina,
if necessary.
March 4, 1833 -
President Jackson is inaugurated for a second term, with Martin Van
Buren as Vice President. Jackson had won a convincing victory in the
November election.
June 24, 1833 - The
United States frigate Constitution, "Old Ironsides,"
is retired to the initial naval drydock at the Charlestown Naval
Yard. It remains on exhibit there, as part of Boston's history.
September 2, 1833 -
Oberlin College is founded, becoming the first college (1837) in the
United States to offer coeducation. It began to admit black students
in 1835.
1834
Charles Babbage
invents “analytical engine,” precursor of computer.
January 3, 1834 -
Stephen F. Austin, the Father of Texas, is imprisoned by Mexican
government officials in Mexico City for insurrection. He was not
tried and finally returned to Texas in August 1835.
March 18, 1834 -
Pennsylvania's Main Line canal is linked between Philadelphia and
Pittsburgh by a system of ten inclined planes which crossed the
Allegheny Mountains.
March 28, 1834 - The
United States Senate censures President Andrew Jackson for defunding
the Second Bank of the United States.
In this year, John
Jacob Astor sells the American Fur Company, and goes on to become a
major owner of real estate in New York City.
October 14, 1834 -
Henry Blair receives the second patent awarded to an African American
for a corn planter.
1835
January 30, 1835 -
Richard Lawrence, an unemployed house painter, attempts to shoot
Andrew Jackson. After two point-blank shots misfired, Jackson
confronted his attacker with a cane. This was the first attempt on
the life of a President of the United States.
June 2, 1835 - P.T.
Barnum begins his first circus tour of the United States.
October 2, 1835 -
The Revolution of Texas begins with the Battle of Gonzales when
Mexican soldiers try to disarm the people of Gonzales, but are
resisted by local militia.
By November, Texas
proclaimes the right to secede from Mexico, and Sam Houston takes
command of the Texas army. They capture San Antonio on December 9.
December 16, 1835 -
A fire in New York City rages, eventually destroying 530 buildings,
including the New York Stock Exchange.
December 29, 1835 -
The Cherokee tribe is forced to cede lands in Georgia and cross the
Mississippi after gold is found on their land in Georgia.
1836
Boer farmers start
their “Great Trek.” Natal, Transvaal, and Orange Free State are
founded in South Africa.
Dickens writes
"Pickwick Papers."
February 3, 1836 -
The first convention of the American Whig Party is held in Albany,
New York.
February 23 - March
6, 1836 - The battle for the Alamo is waged in San Antonio, Texas
when 3,000 Mexican troops under Santa Ana attack the mission and its
189 defenders. Texas troops lose the battle after a thirteen day
siege.
March 2, 1836 –
Texas independence is declared at a convention of delegates from
fifty-seven Texas communities at Washington-on-the-Brazos, making
them an independent nation.
February 25, 1836 -
The patent for the first revolver is awarded to inventor Samuel Colt.
April 21, 1836 - The
battle of San Jacinto is waged. Sam Houston leads the Texas army to
victory over Mexican forces. Santa Ana and his troops are taken
prisoner the next day along the San Jacinto River.
July 11, 1836 - The
Specie Act is issued by executive order of President Andrew Jackson.
This act would lead to an economic failure and the Panic of 1837.
December 7, 1836 -
Martin Van Buren of the Democratic party, defeats William H.
Harrison, a Whig, in the Presidential election.
1837
Victoria becomes
queen of Great Britain.
February 25, 1837 -
The first electric motor is patented in the U.S. by Thomas Davenport.
He uses it in 1840 to print a newspaper on the first electric-run
printer.
March 4, 1837 -
Martin Van Buren, as President, and Richard M. Johnson, Vice
President, are inaugurated into office.
March 4, 1837 - The
city of Chicago is granted a charter by Illinois.
May 10, 1837 - A
global economic crises known as the Panic of 1837 begins with the
failure of New York City banks. Unemployment reaches record levels as
the crisis develops.
November 7, 1837 -
Elijah P. Lovejoy, an abolitionist printer, is killed by a mob of
slavery supporters, while trying to protect his shop from being
destroyed for the third time.
1838
January 6, 1838 -
Samuel Morse, a portrait painter who later turned to invention, first
publicly demonstrates the telegraph and his Morse Code system of
communication.
January 27, 1838 – A young Abraham Lincoln delivers the speech "The
Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions".
June 12, 1838 - The
Territory of Iowa is organized.
September 3, 1838 -
Frederick Douglass, future abolitionist, boards a train in Maryland
to freedom from slavery, with borrowed identification and a sailor's
uniform from a free Black seaman.
October 27, 1838 -
Missouri governor Lilburn Boggs issues an order for the expulsion of
Mormons from the state of Missouri.
1839
First Opium War (to
1842) between Britain and China starts.
During the decade of
the 1830's, German American immigrants introduced to America the
tradition of decorating trees during the holidays.
February 11, 1839 -
The University of Missouri is established, first university west of
the Mississippi.
February 15, 1839 -
In Mississippi, the first state law allowing women to own property is
passed.
February 24, 1839 -
American inventer William Otis receives a patent for the steam
shovel.
Later that year,
American Thaddeus Fairbanks invents platform scales.
November 11, 1839 –
The Virginia Military Institute is founded in Lexington.
1840
Lower and Upper
Canada are united.
January 13, 1840 –
The steamship Lexington burns and sinks four miles off the
coast of Long Island, New York. 139 people lose their lives.
January 19, 1840 -
Wilkes Land in Antarctica is claimed for the United States when
Captain Charles Wilkes circumnavigates the continent.
June 1, 1840 - The
census of the United States counts 17,063,353, up 33% from the decade
before. May 7, 1840 - The Great Natchez Trace Tornado strikes
Natchez, Mississippi and wreaks havoc. 317 people are killed and 209
are injured. It is the second most deadly tornado in U.S. history.
December 2, 1840 -
President Martin Van Buren is defeated for reelection by William
Henry Harrison. Harrison, a Whig, receives 234 Electoral College
votes to 60 and also wins the popular vote.
1841
March 9, 1841 - The
Supreme Court of the U.S. states that in the case of the slave ship
Amistad that the Africans who had wrested control of the ship
had been bound into slavery illegally.
April 4, 1841 -
President William Henry Harrison, sworn into office only one month
before, dies of pneumonia. His death in office is the first for a
president of the United States. He is succeeded by Vice President
John Tyler.
May 1, 1841 - The
first wagon train to California, with sixty-nine adults and several
children, leaves from Independence, Missouri. The journey would take
six months.
May 1, 1841 – The
Second Seminole War, ongoing since 1835, starts to wind down after
Lieutenant William Tecumseh Sherman escorts Seminole chieftain
Coacoochee to a meeting, leading to the surrender of many of his
band. The few remaining Seminoles would be allowed to remain on an
informal reservation in south Florida.
August 16, 1841 -
President Tyler vetoes the bill re-establishing the Second Bank of
the United States,
causing an angry
riot among Whig party members on White House grounds. It was the most
violent demonstration on those grounds in U.S. history.
1842
Crawford Long uses
first anesthetic (ether).
March 5, 1842 - In a
prelude to the Mexican War, troops under Mexican leader Rafael
Vasquez invade Texas and briefly occupy San Antonio; the first
invasion since the Texas Revolution.
May 16, 1842 - The
second organized wagon train on the Oregon Trail leaves with more
than one hundred pioneers from Elm Grove, Missouri. Although not
welcomed due to company policy that discouraged emigration, they were
offered food and farming equipment at Fort Vancouver by the Hudson
Bay Company upon arrival.
May 19, 1842 - The
People's Party of Providence, Rhode Island, founded by lawyer Thomas
Wilson Dorr in 1841, proposes liberalizing the Rhode Island charter
of 1663 to extend voting rights to non-property owners. They stage
The Dorr Rebellion, with militiamen attacking an arsenal in
Providence. The attack was later repulsed, but it forced
conservatives to abolish the charter and adopt a new constitution one
year later.
August 9, 1842 - The
border between the United States and Canada east of the Rocky
Mountains is fixed by the Webster-Ashburton Treaty, thus including
Maine and Minnesota.
November 26, 1842 -
The University of Notre Dame is founded by Father Edward Sorin of the
Congregation of the Holy Cross. The University would be granted a
charter by the state of Indiana two years later.
1843
Wagner composes his
opera "The Flying Dutchman."
February 6, 1843 –
The first minstrel show in the United States debuts at the Bowery
Amphitheatre in New York City.
May 22, 1843 – In
“The Great Migration” a wagon train heads for the northwest via
the Oregon Trail with approximately one thousand people from Elm
Grove, Missouri.
June 4, 1843 - The
Black Horse Troop of the 1st United States Dragoons from Fort Scott,
Kansas join a military escort into Indian Territory along the Santa
Fe Trail and apprehend Jacob Snively and his Texas freebooters.
June 21, 1843 -
Edgar Allan Poe publishes his story The Gold Bug in the Dollar
Newspaper. He is paid $100, having won the grand prize.
November 28, 1843 -
The Kingdom of Hawaii is officially recognized by European nations as
an independent nation. This date signifies Hawaiian Independence Day.
1844
April 6, 1844 -
Edgar Allan Poe departs his home in Philadelphia for New York City.
Although most of this best works were written while in Philly, he
left the city with only $4.50 to his name.
May 24, 1844 -
Samuel B. Morse, inventor of the telegraph, sends the first message
over the first telegraph line from Washington to Baltimore. His words
were, "What God hath wrought."
June 15, 1844 - The
patent for vulcanization, a process for strengthening rubber, is
granted to Charles Goodyear.
July 3, 1844 - The
United States signs the treaty of Wanghia with China. It is the first
treaty signed between the two nations. Five Chinese ports are opened
to U.S. ships.
December 4, 1844 -
Democrat James K. Polk defeats Henry Clay for president with 170
Electoral College votes to 105 for Clay.
1845
Edgar Allan Poe
publishes "The Raven and Other Poems."
March 3, 1845 -
Congress overrides President Tyler's veto of a military
appropriation.
July 4, 1845 - The
Congress of Texas votes for annexation to the United States of
America with the majority of voters in Texas approving a constitution
on October 13. These actions followed the signing of a bill by
President Tyler on March 1, authorizing the United States to annex
the Republic of
Texas and led to the
United States adding the Republic of Texas into the Union as the 28th
state on December 29.
October 21, 1845 -
The New York Herald becomes the first newspaper to mention the
game of baseball. In this year, Alexander Cartwright and his New York
Knickerbockers baseball team codify the "rules of baseball"
for the first time, including nine men per side.
December 2, 1845 -
U.S. President Polk invokes the concept of Manifest Destiny,
announcing to Congress that the Monroe Doctrine should be strictly
enforced and that the settlement of the West should be aggressively
pursued.
Elias Howe invents a
sewing machine. Howe would patent the device on September 10, 1846.
1846
Brigham Young leads
Mormons to Great Salt Lake.
W. T. Morton uses
ether as anesthetic.
Frederick Douglass
launches abolitionist newspaper "The North Star."
Failure of potato
crop causes famine in Ireland, leading to mass exodus of Irish to
other countries.
January 5, 1846 -
The United States House of Representatives changes its policy toward
sharing the Oregon Territory with the United Kingdom. On June 15, the
Oregon Treaty is signed with Great Britain, fixing the boundary of
the United States and Canada at the 49th parallel from the Rocky
Mountains to the Straits of Juan de Fuca.
May 8, 1846 - The
first major conflict of the Mexican War occurs north of the Rio
Grande River at Palo Alto, Texas when United States troops under the
command of Major General Zachary Taylor rout a larger Mexican force.
Taylor had been
ordered by President Polk to seize disputed Texas land settled by
Mexicans.
May 13, 1846 – War
is declared by the United States against Mexico. The declaration is
backed by southerners while northern Whigs oppose. Ten days later,
Mexico declares war on the U.S.
June 10, 1846 - The
Republic of California declares independence from Mexico.
June 14, 1846 –
The bear flag of the Republic of California is raised at Sonoma.
July 28, 1846 - The
Army of the West, under the command of Brigadier General Stephen
Watts Kearny, travels down the Santa Fe Trail and arrive at Bent's
Old Fort en route to the conquest of New Mexico.
August 14, 1846 –
A meteorite strikes south of the town of Cape Girardeau in Missouri.
It is a 2.3kg chondrite (a non-metallic type of meteorite).
1847
March 27-29, 1847 -
Twelve thousand American troops under the command of General Winfield
Scott take Vera Cruz, Mexico after a siege.
May 7, 1847 - The
American Medical Association is founded in Philadelphia.
July 1, 1847 - The
first adhesive postage stamps in the United States go on sale, with
Benjamin Franklin gracing the 5 cent stamp and George Washington on
the 10 cent stamp.
July 24, 1847 - One
hundred and forty-eight Mormons under Brigham Young settle at Salt
Lake City, Utah after leaving Nauvoo, Illinois for the west on
February 10, 1846, where they were ousted due to violent clashes over
their beliefs including the practice of polygamy.
September 8-15, 1847
- The Battle for Mexico City is fought, beginning two miles outside
the city at King's Mill. On September 12, the main assault against
the fortress Capultepec was undertaken, under the command of General
Winfield Scott, with combatants including Ulysses S. Grant and John
Quitman's 4th Division, of which George Pickett and James Longstreet
were a part. Quitman's division entered a deserted city, which had
been abandoned by Santa Anna's forces during the night on September
15.
1848
Revolt in Paris:
Louis Philippe (see 1830) abdicates; Louis Napoleon elected president
of French Republic. There follows revolutions in Vienna, Venice,
Berlin, Milan, Rome, Warsaw, and many other places in Europe. Though
the revolutionaries were eventually suppressed, some of their reforms
were adopted.
Karl Marx and
Friedrich Engels write "Communist Manifesto."
Harriet Tubman
escapes from slavery and joins the Underground Railroad.
January 12, 1848 -
Abraham Lincoln, as Congressman from Springfield, Illinois, attacks
President Polk's handling of the Mexican War in a speech in the House
of Representatives.
January 24, 1848 -
Gold is discovered in California by James W. Marshall at Sutter's
Mill in the town of Colona. Seven months later, on August 19, the New
York Herald breaks the news to East Coast readers, prompting eighty
thousand prospectors to flood California and the Barbary Coast of San
Francisco by the following year.
February 2, 1848 -
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ends the Mexican War. Mexico
relinquishes its rights to Texas above the Rio Grande River and cedes
New Mexico and California to the United States. The United States
also gained claims to Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and part of Colorado. In
exchange, the United States assumed $3 million in American claims and
paid Mexico $15 million. The treaty is March 10, 1848 – Treaty with
Mexico ratified by the U.S. Senate.
May 19, 1848 –
Mexico ratifies the treaty.
July 20, 1848 - The
Declaration of Sentiments calling for equal rights for women and men
is signed by 100 men and women in the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel,
Seneca Falls, New York at the 1st Women's Rights Convention led by
Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
November 7, 1848 -
Zachary Taylor, hero of the Mexican War, defeats Lewis Cass in the
presidential election. This was the first U.S. election held on the
same date in every state.
1849
January 23, 1849 -
The first woman doctor in the United States, Elizabeth Blackwell, is
granted her degree by the Medical Institute of Geneva, New York.
April 4, 1849 - The
first baseball uniforms are introduced by the New York Knickerbockers
club in the form of blue and white cricket outfits.
February 28, 1849 -
With the arrival of the SS California in San Francisco after a
four month twenty-one day journey around the Cape Horn from New York
City, regular steamboat service is inaugurated between the east and
west coasts.
March 3, 1849 - The
United States Department of the Interior is established.
1850
January 29, 1850 -
Debate on the future of slavery in the territories escalates when
Henry Clay introduces the Compromise of 1850 to the U.S. Congress.
On March 7, Senator
Daniel Webster endorses the bill as a measure to avert a possible
civil war.
June 1, 1850 - The
United States census of 1850 counts 23,191,876 population, a 35.9%
increase from the prior decade.
July 10, 1850 -
Millard Fillmore is sworn into office as the 13th President of the
United States after the death of Zachary Taylor the day before. His
policies on the topic of slavery fail to appease expansionists or
slave-holders.
September 9, 1850 -
The Compromise of 1850, pushed by Senator Henry Clay, admits
California as the 31st state, without slavery, and adds Utah and New
Mexico as territories with no decision on the topic. The Fugitive
Slave Law is strengthened under the Compromise, while the slave trade
in the District of Columbia is officially ended.
September 11, 1850 -
P.T. Barnum introduces the “Swedish Nightingale” Jenny Lind, to
an American audience of six thousand at a charge of $3 per person.
Her debut at Castle Garden, a converted fort on Manhattan Island, is
a rousing success.
1851
May 1, 1851 - The
United States of America participates in the opening ceremony of the
first World's Fair in history, the Great Exhibition of the Works of
Industry of All Nations, in the Crystal Palace designed by Joseph
Paxton, in Hyde Park, London, England. The world's fair becomes the
first major gathering of the works of nations in one location. It was
urged on by Prince Albert and supported by Queen Victoria.
August 22, 1851 -
The America's Cup yachting race is inaugurated.
October 11, 1851 -
The first world's fair closes after 141 days of exhibition. 6,039,195
visitors attend the Crystal Palace exhibition, with exhibits from
fifty nations and thirty-nine colonies. The United States had 499
exhibits, of which McCormick's reaper won a gold medal and Charles
Goodyear a council medal. To this day, profits from the first world
exposition still provide funds for scholarships and cultural
endowments throughout England, and this exhibition would spawn over
one hundred others, to date.
November 14, 1851 -
Herman Melville's "Moby-Dick" is published.
Nathanial
Hawthorne's "House of Seven Gables," is also published in
1851.
The painting
"Washington Crossing the Delaware" is completed by
German-American artist Emmanuel Leutze.
December 29, 1851 -
The first YMCA opens in Boston, Massachusetts.
1852
South African
Republic established.
Louis Napoleon
proclaims himself Napoleon III (“Second Empire”).
February 16, 1852 -
The Studebaker Brothers Wagon Company is established and would become
the largest producer in the world of wagons.
February 19, 1852 –
The Phi Kappa Psi fraternity is begun at Jefferson College in
Canonsburg, Pennsylvania.
March 20, 1852 -
Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin is published. Stowe
wrote this anti-slavery story in response to the Fugitive Slave Act.
It sold 300,000 copies in its first years of publication.
June 29, 1852 -
American Senator Henry Clay dies. He was author of much legislation
on the slavery issue. Later that year, on October 24, statesman
Daniel Webster passes away. This void in American politics would be
felt throughout the next decade.
November 2, 1852 -
Franklin Pierce, a Democrat, wins a convincing victory for President,
defeating Whig Winfield Scott by a tally of 254 to 42 electoral
votes. He also garners the majority in the popular vote. However, he
does not prove popular with his own party.
1853
Crimean War begins
as Turkey declares war on Russia.
January 11, 1853 -
John Ericsson, designer of the ironclad Monitor one decade
later, tests his ship powered by a caloric, hot air, engine in New
York Harbor, but the experiment fails.
April 22, 1853 - The
Indian Frontier Post, Fort Scott, in Indian Territory (Kansas) is
evacuated by the United States Army riflemen.
July 8, 1853 -
Commodore Matthew C. Perry and the United States Navy arrive in Edo
Bay, Japan. They would “negotiate” a treaty to allow U.S. ships
to trade with Japan.
July 14, 1853 - U.S.
President Franklin Pierce opens the first world's fair held in the
United States, the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations. Located
on 6th Avenue in a large palace on the site of the current New York
Public Library, twenty-three foreign nations and colonies
participated.
December 30, 1853 -
The Gadsden Purchase is consummated, with the United States buying a
29,640 square mile tract of land in present-day Arizona and New
Mexico (approximately from Yuma to Las Cruces) from Mexico for $10
million to allow a railroad to cross the southwest and settle border
disputes lingering after the Mexican-American War. This act finalized
the borders of the Continental United States.
1854
Britain and France
join Turkey against Russia in Crimean War.
Japanese allow
American trade (under threats of war).
Tennyson writes
"Charge of the Light Brigade" concerning a British defeat
in the Crimean War.
Thoreau writes
"Walden."
February 28, 1854 -
In Ripon, Wisconsin, the Republican Party is founded by anti-slavery
men, in opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska Act. It would hold its
first convention later that year on July 6 in Jackson, Michigan.
May 30, 1854 - The
Kansas-Nebraska act becomes law, allowing the issue of slavery to be
decided by a vote of settlers. This established the territories of
Kansas and Nebraska and would breed much of the rioting and bloodshed
that culminated in the actions of the next years of "Bleeding
Kansas."
June 10, 1854 - The
United States Naval Academy graduates its first class at Annapolis,
Maryland.
October 31, 1854 -
The New York World's Fair, extended for a second season, closes after
393 exhibit days. The second season, under the presidency of P.T.
Barnum, raises the total attendance to over 1,150,000.
1855
Florence Nightingale
(British nurse and social reformer) tends to wounded in Crimea.
Walt Whitman writes
"Leaves of Grass."
March 3, 1855 - The
United States Camel Corps is created with a $30,000 appropriation in
Congress.
April 21, 1855 - The
first railroad train crosses the Mississippi River on the first
bridge constructed at Rock Island, Illinois to Davenport, Iowa.
July 1, 1855 – The
Quinault River Treaty between the United States and the Quinault and
Quileute tribes of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington Territory
cedes their lands to the United States. It was a goal of territorial
governors at the time to acquire land cession treaties with Native
Americans.
October 9, 1855 -
The Shuttle Sewing Machine and its machine motor are patented by
Isaac M. Singer, improving the development of the sewing machine.
1856
Flaubert writes
"Madame Bovary."
The Second Opium War pits commercial interests in Britain and France against the Qing dynasty of China. It lasts for four years.
April 5, 1856 -
Booker T. Washington is born into slavery on a tobacco farm in
Franklin County, Virginia, later to emerge as one of the foremost
black leaders and educators of the 20th century.
May 21, 1856 -
Pro-slavery forces under Sheriff Samuel J. Jones burn the Free-State
Hotel and destroy two anti-slavery newspapers and other businesses in
Lawrence, Kansas. Three days later, the Pottowatomie Massacre occurs
in Franklin County, Kansas when followers of abolitionist John Brown kill five
homesteaders.
May 22, 1856 - South
Carolina Congressman Preston Brooks attacks Senator Charles Sumner
with a cane in the hall of the U.S. Senate after Sumner gave a speech
attacking Southern sympathizers for the pro-slavery violence in
Kansas. Sumner would take three years to recover while Brooks was
lionized throughout Southern states.
November 4, 1856 -
John C. Fremont, the first candidate for president under the banner
of the Republican Party, loses his bid for the presidency to James C.
Buchanan, despite support for Fremont from Abraham Lincoln. Buchanan,
the only bachelor to become president as well as the sole
Pennsylvanian garnered 174 Electoral College votes to 114 for
Fremont. Millard Fillmore, running on the American Know-Nothing and
Whig tickets was also defeated.
November 17, 1856 -
Fort Buchanan is established by the U.S. Army on the Sonoita River in
current southern Arizona to administrate the new land bought in the
Gadsden Purchase.
1857
Sepoy Rebellion
begins in India. As a result, India is placed under crown rule (was
previously governed by East India Company).
March 4, 1857 -
James Buchanan is sworn into office as the 15th President of the
United States. His tenure as President would be marred by the
question of slavery and a compromise stance that would neither
alleviate nor eradicate the intractable question from American
society.
March 6, 1857 - The
United States Supreme Court rules in the Dred Scott decision, 6-3,
that a slave did not become free when transported into a free state.
It also ruled that slavery could not be banned by the U.S. Congress
in a territory, and that blacks were not eligible to be awarded
citizenship.
March 23, 1857 - The
first elevator is installed by Elisha Otis on Broadway in New York
City.
August 11, 1857 -
Colonel Isaac Neff Ebey, leader of the first permanent white settlers
to Whidbey Island, Washington Territory seven years earlier, is
beheaded and shot by Indian raiders.
August 24, 1857 –
The Panic of 1857 starts in earnest when the Ohio Life Insurance and
Trust Company announces its inability to make payments. The panic
eventually spreads through Europe as well.
December 21, 1857 -
Two companies of the 1st Cavalry under Captain Samuel Sturgis arrive
at Fort Scott, Kansas to attempt to restore order to "Bleeding
Kansas."
1858
January 4, 1858 –
Kansas Territory voters overwhelmingly defeat a pro-slavery state
constitution.
April 28, 1858 -
Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, landscape architects, win the
competition and adoption of their plan for Central Park in New York
City.
June 16, 1858 –
Lincoln delivers his “House Divided” speech at Springfield after
accepting the Republican Party’s nomination for U.S. Senator.
June 23, 1858 - With
strife between pro-slavery and anti-slavery partisans escalating to
dramatic chaos, the 2nd Infantry and 3rd Artillery
regiments under the command of Captain Nathanial Lyon attempt to
restore order during the "Bleeding Kansas" campaign.
August 5, 1858 - The
first transatlantic cable is completed by Cyrus West Field and
others. It would fail its test due to weak current on September 1.
August 21 to October
15, 1858 - A series of seven debates between politicians Stephen
Douglas and Abraham Lincoln occur in Illinois.
September 17, 1858 -
Dred Scott, the American slave who precipitated the decision by the
Supreme Court on the topic of slavery, dies.
1859
Work begins on Suez
Canal.
Unification of Italy
commences under leadership of Count Cavour, Sardinian premier.
France joins Italy
in war against Austria.
Jean-Joseph-Étienne
Lenoir builds first practical internal-combustion engine.
Edward Fitzgerald
translates "The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam."
Charles Darwin
writes "Origin of Species."
John Stuart Mill
writes "On Liberty."
February 14, 1859 -
Oregon is admitted to the Union as the 33rd state.
August 27, 1859 -
The first productive oil well for commercial use is drilled by Edwin
L. Drake in Titusville, Pennsylvania.
October 16, 1859 -
The United States Armory at the confluence of the Shenandoah and
Potomac Rivers at Harper's Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia) is
seized by twenty-one men under the leadership of abolitionist John
Brown in the hopes of causing an uprising of slaves in the
surrounding territories.
October 18, 1859 –
Troops under the command of Colonel Robert E. Lee, kill several of
the raiders and capture John Brown.
November 1, 1859 -
The Cape Lookout, North Carolina lighthouse, with a Fresnel lens seen
nineteen miles away, is lit for the first time.
December 2, 1859 -
John Brown is hanged for treason by the state of Virginia due to his
leadership role in the raid on the Harper's Ferry armory and failed
attempt to spur revolt among Virginia slaves.
1860
February 22, 1860 -
Twenty thousand New England shoe workers strike and subsequently win
higher wages.
April 3, 1860 - The
Pony Express begins. Overland mail between Sacramento, California and
St. Joseph's, Missouri is carried over the Oregon Trail for eighteen
months by this series of riders on horseback, then rendered obsolete
when the transcontinental telegraph is completed.
Service ended on
October 24, 1861.
1860-1861 - Emmanuel
Leutze is commissioned by Congress and begins to paint the mural,
"Westward Ho the Course of Empire Takes Its Way," in July
1861 for the U.S. Capitol.
The mural represents
frontier settlement (but its intentions as expressed in its title are
obvious).
November 6, 1860 -
Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln, running on an anti-slavery
platform, defeats three opponents in the campaign for the presidency;
Democrats Stephen A. Douglas and John C. Breckinridge, and John Bell,
Constitutional Union Party, leading to ardent cries of potential
rebellion in southern slave states. Although Lincoln won the
Electoral College by a large majority, 180
to 123 for all other
candidates, the popular vote showed just how split the nation was.
Lincoln garnered 1.9 million votes to the 2.8 million spread amongst
his opponents.
December 20, 1860 -
South Carolina responds to the election of Abraham Lincoln as
President by being the first southern state to secede from the Union.
1861
Serfs emancipated in
Russia.
Pasteur publishes
his theory of germs.
Independent Kingdom
of Italy proclaimed under Sardinian king Victor Emmanuel II.
Congress creates
Colorado, Dakota, and Nevada territories, and the first income tax
(which lasts for ten years).
February 4, 1861 -
In Montgomery, Alabama, the convention to form the Confederated
States of America opens. Four days later, with Jefferson Davis as
president, seven southern states officially set up the C.S.A. Those
states were Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South
Carolina and Texas.
March 4, 1861 -
Abraham Lincoln is sworn in as president of the United States with
Hannibal Hamlin as Vice President.
April 12, 1861 -
Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina harbor is bombarded for 34
hours
by Confederate
forces after the U.S. Army commander failed to evacuate, thus
starting the four years of conflict and the U.S. Civil War. The
Confederate States of America had sought to force federal troops from
occupation of its territory. On April 14 Major Robert Anderson turned
the fort over to the Confederacy.
April 15, 1861 -
President Lincoln calls for 75,000 volunteers to fight the
secessionist activities in the Confederated States
of America. By May Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina have
joined the Confederacy.
July 21, 1861 - The
first Battle of Bull Run at Manassas, Virginia occurs with the
repulsion of Union forces by the Confederacy. Led by generals such as
Stonewall Jackson, the overwhelming defeat by the Confederate forces
of the Union, seen by onlookers who viewed the battle as nothing than
an exercise that would be easily won, showed vibrant indication that
the Civil War would not be over quickly or without much cost.
1862
Salon des Refusés
introduces impressionism in painting.
March 9, 1862 - The
USS Monitor wins a battle against the Confederate ironclad
Virginia off the coast of Hampton Roads, Virginia.
April 7, 1862 - The
Army of the Tennessee, under General Grant, repulses the Confederate
advance of the day earlier at the Battle of Shiloh, one of the
largest battles of the western theater in the U.S. Civil War. This
battle, along with the unconditional surrender of Fort Donelson to
General Grant on February 16, signaled the first major successes of
the Union army in the west.
May 20, 1862 - The
Homestead Act is approved, granting family farms of 160 acres (65
hectares) to settlers, many of which were carved from Indian
territories. Two months later, on July 7, the Land Grant Act was
approved, which called for public land sale to fund agricultural
education. This act eventually led to
the establishment of the state university systems.
September 17, 1862 -
Emboldened by the victory at 2nd Manassas at the end of
August, Confederate troops began the first invasion of Northern
territory. Beginning with a skirmish the night before north of
Sharpsburg, Maryland, this is the bloodiest day of the Civil War.
Along the Bloody Lane of the Sunken Road, around the Dunker Church,
on the bluffs above Burnside Bridge, and in the ripped stalks of the
cornfield, Union and Confederate troops fell in large numbers.
Considered a Union victory when the Confederates abandoned the field,
Southern troops marching from Harper's Ferry nevertheless stemmed the
Union tide the night before at Antietam, but are later reversed.
September 22, 1862 -
President Abraham Lincoln, fresh on the heals of the Antietam
victory, issues the preliminary
Emancipation Proclamation, stating that all slaves in places of
rebellion against the Federal Government would be free as of January
1, 1863.
December 11, 1862 -
General Ambrose Burnside begins the Battle of Fredericksburg when
Union troops cross the Rappahannock River on pontoons, leading two
days later to an ignominious and one-sided defeat by General Robert
E. Lee. At locations such as Marye's Heights, Union troops engaged in
futile and deathly charges against fortified positions only to be
repulsed again and again. Subsequent withdrawal to the other side of
the river signaled Burnside's defeat.
December 26, 1862 -
The Dakota war that began in August between bands of Sioux and the
U.S. government over late payments of annuities culminates in the
jailing in Minnesota of over one thousand Dakota Sioux, and the
hanging of 38 in Mankato. It was the largest mass execution in U.S.
history.
1863
French capture
Mexico City; proclaim Archduke Maximilian of Austria emperor.
January 1, 1863 -
Daniel Freeman files one of the first homestead applications at the
Brownsville Land Office in Nebraska, on the first day of
implementation of the Homestead Act. The Emancipation Proclamation
also goes into effect this date.
July 1-3, 1863 -
After three days of battle surrounding the tiny town of Gettysburg,
including over 150,000 troops, Union defenders of Cemetery Ridge turn
back Generals Pickett and Pettigrew during
Pickett's Charge.
With over 51,000 dead, wounded, or missing, the Battle of Gettysburg,
on the farm fields of central Pennsylvania, proved to be the "high
water mark of the Confederacy" and the last major push of
Confederate forces into Union territory.
July 4, 1863 - The
city of Vicksburg surrenders to General Grant (Union) after a two
month siege. The Vicksburg campaign included major battles from May
19, including the sinking of gunboats on the Mississippi River by
Confederate defenders. This major accomplishment in the western
theater, plus the actions of Meade at Gettysburg one day earlier with
the repulse of Pickett's charge, prove to be the two most important
battles of the Civil War. It would take nearly two years for the
Confederate States of America to decide to surrender.
July 13-16, 1863 -
The New York draft riots kill about 1,000 people. Rioters protested
the draft provision that allowed for money to be paid to get out of
service. These payments would cease in 1864.
November 19, 1863 -
"Four score and seven years ago," began what many perceive
as the best speech in American history, delivered by President
Abraham Lincoln in the town cemetery overlooking the fields of
Gettysburg. The Gettysburg Address, only 272 words long and taking
about two minutes to speak, captured the essence of the Civil War.
November 24, 1863 -
Union General George Thomas scales the heights of Chattanooga during
one of the most arduous military charges in history. This charge
caused Confederate forces to abandon the area, leaving Chattanooga
and the majority of Tennessee under Union control.
1864
May 5-12, 1864 - At
the Battles of the Wilderness and Spotsylvania, General Grant, now
the first three star lieutenant general since George Washington and
in charge of the U.S. Army, marches against the forces of General Lee
in a remarkable series of clashes within the dense forests of
Virginia. Union casualties alone numbered nearly 3,000 dead, 21,000
wounded, and 4,000 missing.
July 14, 1864 - In
an attempt to cut the railroad supply route and stop General William
T. Sherman's march on Atlanta, Lt. General Nathan Bedford Forrest
engaged Union forces in the Battle of Tupelo, Mississippi.
September 29, 1864 -
Union forces, including black Union soldiers, capture the Confederate
Fort Harrison, south of Richmond. The Confederates realign their
southern defenses.
November 8, 1864 -
President Lincoln defeats former Union General George B. McClellan to
remain president of the United States, a repudiation of the tactics
of delay favored by his former commander, and a signal of support for
the President as he continued to prosecute the war. Lincoln receives
2.2 million votes and 212 in the electoral college compared to 1.8
million votes and 21 in the electoral college for McClellan.
November 29, 1864 -
While awaiting terms of surrender, Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians are
raided by 900 cavalrymen at Sand Creek. Between 150-500 men, women,
and children from the tribes died.
1865
Joseph Lister begins
antiseptic surgery.
Gregor Mendel
publishes his "Law of Heredity."
Lewis Carroll writes
"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland."
April 1, 1865 -
Major General Philip H. Sheridan, leading cavalry and infantry, are
victorious at Five Forks against Major General George E. Pickett,
southwest of Petersburg Virginia. This battle cuts the railroad
supply line to Confederate troops. One day later, General Grant leads
the final assault on Petersburg, forcing Lee’s forces to evacuate.
April 9, 1865 -
General Robert E. Lee, as commander in chief of Confederate forces,
surrenders his 27,000 man army to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox
Court House, Virginia, effectively ending the four years of Civil War
conflict. Additional troops under southern command would continue to
surrender until May 26.
April 14, 1865 -
Abraham Lincoln is assassinated in Ford's Theatre, Washington, D.C.
The shot was fired by actor John Wilkes Booth, during the play "Our
American Cousin." Lincoln would die one day later.
June 28, 1865 - In
the final desperate offensive act of the Civil War, two and one-half
months after Lee's official surrender at Appomattox, the Confederate
ship Shenandoah seized eleven American whaling ships in the
Bering Strait, Alaska.
December 18, 1865 -
The Thirteenth Amendment, abolishing slavery, takes effect.
1866
Alfred Nobel invents
dynamite (patented in Britain, 1867).
Seven Weeks' War:
Austria defeated by Prussia and Italy.
Strauss composes
"Blue Danube" waltz.
March 13, 1866 - The
Civil Rights Act of 1866 is passed by Congress, the first federal law
protecting
the rights of
African Americans. It is vetoed by President Johnson, but the veto
overridden by Congress.
April 6, 1866 - The
first post of the Grand Army of the Republic forms in Decatur,
Illinois, and subsequently became a major political force. The G.A.R.
began the celebration of Memorial Day in the north.
July 28, 1866 -
Weights and measures are standardized in the United States when the
Metric Act of 1866 passes Congress.
November 6, 1866 -
The final Congressional elections of the year and election of
additional Republicans lead to southern reconstruction being taken
over by the federal government and an attempt to protect the rights
of freedmen using federal troops.
December 24, 1866 -
The Klu Klux Klan forms secretly, issuing in a brutal era of terror
and crime against African Americans in many southern states.
1867
Austria-Hungary dual
monarchy established.
French leave Mexico,
and Maximilian is executed.
Dominion of Canada
established.
South African
diamond field discovered.
Japan ends 675–year
shogun rule.
Marx pulishes Volume
I of "Das Kapital."
January 1867 - First
of twelve installments of Ragged Dick by Horatio Alger is published
and one year later expanded into a book in the "rags to riches"
theme.
March 30, 1867 -
Secretary of State William H. Seward completes the purchase of Alaska
from Russia for $7.2 million dollars, approximately two cents per
acre, by signing the Treaty of Cession of Russian America to the
United States.
June 6, 1867 - The
first running of the Belmont Stakes occurs at Jerome Park race track.
December 4, 1867 -
The Grange organizes to protect the interest of the American farmer.
In 1867 the first
practical typewriter is invented by Christopher Sholes, Carlos
Glidden, and S.W. Soule'. One year later, it was patented, then went
into production in 1874 by E. Remington and Sons.
1868
Revolution in Spain;
Queen Isabella is deposed and flees to France.
March 5, 1868 -
George Westinghouse invents and patents the air brake for railroad
trains and organizes a company to produce them. Westinghouse would go
on to patent four hundred inventions and found sixty companies,
including Westinghouse Electric Company.
March 5, 1868 - The
impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson begins in the Senate. Johnson was
charged with violating the Tenure of Office Act by trying to remove
the Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton. The President is acquitted by
one vote.
October 28, 1868 -
Thomas Edison applies for his first patent for the electric vote
recorder.
November 3, 1868 -
Republican Ulysses S. Grant, with Shuyler Colfax as his running mate,
defeats Horatio Seymour, 214 to 80 in the Electoral College.
November 27, 1868 -
The Battle of the Washita River ends with Lt. Colonel George Custor's
defeat of Black Kettle's Cheyenne. This ended the organized campaign
of Indian forces against white settlers.
1869
Suez Canal opens.
Russian chemist
Dmitri Mendeleev publishes first periodic table of elements.
March 4, 1869 –
Grant sworn in as President.
May 10, 1869 - At
Promontory, Utah, the final golden spike of the transcontinental
railroad is driven into the ground, marking the junction of the
Central Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads.
June 15, 1869 - John
W. Hyatt, a New York printer, invents and patents celluloid, the
first synthetic plastic used widely for commercial applications,
including combs, dentures, curtains, and photographic film, as well
as billiard balls. He was seeking to find a substitute for ivory.
August 15, 1869 -
The first scientific expedition of the Colorado River is conducted by
Major John Wesley Powell.
September 24, 1869 -
Prompted by an attempt by investors James Fisk and Jay Gould to
corner the gold market, the “Black Friday” panic occurs in New
York City. Fisk and Gould were aided by Abel Corbin, as son-in-law of
the President. Thus, the Presidency was sullied by this scandal.
December 10, 1869 -
In one of the first acts of success in the women's suffrage movement,
a Women's Suffrage law passes in the Territory of Wyoming.
1870
Franco-Prussian War
(to 1871): Napoleon III capitulates at Sedan.
Revolt in Paris;
Third Republic proclaimed.
January 10, 1870 -
Standard Oil Company is incorporated by John D. Rockefeller.
February 25, 1870 -
Hiram Rhodes Revels, a Republican from Mississippi, is sworn in as a
U.S. Senator. He is the first African-American to hold an elected
office in the United States Congress.
March 30, 1870 - The
15th Amendment to the Constitution is declared ratified by the
Secretary of State. It gives black Americans the right to vote.
June 1, 1870 - The
1870 census counts 38,558,371, an increase 22.6% over the 1860
census.
July 15, 1870 -
Georgia is readmitted into the Union, and the Confederated States of
America is officially dissolved.
November 1, 1870 -
The National Weather Service, then known as the Weather Bureau, makes
its first official meteorological forecast. "High winds at
Chicago and Milwaukee... and along the Lakes."
1871
France surrenders
Alsace-Lorraine to Germany; war ends.
German Empire
proclaimed, with Prussian King as Kaiser Wilhelm I.
Stanley meets
Livingstone in Africa.
January 17, 1871 -
Andrew Smith Hallidie patents an improvement in endless wire and rope
ways for cable cars. Regular service on the Clay Street Hill cable
railway in San Francisco begins in September, 1873.
April 4, 1871 - The
first professional baseball league, the National Association, debuts
with a game between the Cleveland Forest Citys and the Fort Wayne
Kekiongas. Fort Wayne won 2 to 0.
October 8, 1871 -
The great fire of Chicago starts in a cowshed, as reported by Daniel
Sullivan. The fire caused $196 million in damages. It burned 1.2
million acres of land, destroyed 17,450 buildings, killed 250 people,
and left 90,000 homeless. Starting on the same day, a fire in
Peshtigo, Wisconsin spreads across six counties in one day, and kills
1,200 to 2,500 people, making it the deadliest fire in United States
history.
October 27, 1871 -
New York Mayor Boss Tweed is arrested. Thomas Nast, German-American
caricaturist, who had skewered the Boss Tweed ring in his cartoons,
is credited with playing an important role in his downfall.
November 17, 1871 -
The National Rifle Association is granted a charter by the State of
New York.
1872
Jules Verne writes Around the World in 80 Days.
February 20, 1872 –
The Metropolitan Museum of Art opens in New York.
March 1, 1872 –
President Grant signs legislation enabling the establishment of
Yellowstone National Park in the states of Wyoming, Montana, and
Idaho. It is the first National Park.
May 22, 1872 - Civil
rights are restored to citizens of the South, except for five hundred
Confederate leaders, with the passage of the Amnesty Act of 1872 and
its signing by President Ulysses S. Grant.
October 21, 1872 -
Kaiser Wilhelm I of the “German Empire” arbitrates an
international boundary dispute, the Pig War, between the United
States and Great Britain. He rules that San Juan Island in Washington
Territory is the property of the United States, ending 12 years of
occupation by both armies.
November 5, 1872 -
Susan B. Anthony, women's suffragette, illegally casts a ballot at
Rochester, New York in the presidential election to publicize the
cause of a woman's right to vote.
The reelection of
Republican President Ulysses S. Grant is granted by a landslide
Electoral College victory, with 286 cast for Grant. His opponent,
Horace Greeley, had died prior to the Electoral College vote.
1873
An economic crisis
begins in Europe, following excessive borrowing to finance war and
industry.
July 21, 1873 -
Jesse James leads the James-Younger Gang in the first successful
train robbery in the American West, taking $3,000 from the Rock
Island Express at Adair, Iowa.
August 4, 1873 - The
Seventh Cavalry under the command of Lt. Colonel George Armstrong
Custer, protecting a railroad survey party in Montana, engage the
Sioux for the first time near the Tongue River.
The Indian Wars,
which raged throughout 1873, saw the First Battle of the Stronghold
on January 17, and the Second Battle of the Stronghold on April
15-17, and the end of the Modoc War on June 4 when Captain Jack was
captured.
May 23, 1873 - The
first running of the Preakness Stakes horse race debuts in Baltimore,
Maryland.
September 18, 1873 -
The New York stock market crashes, setting off a financial panic that
caused bank failures. The impact of the resulting depression would
continue for five years.
December 15, 1873 -
The Women's Crusade of 1873-74 is started when women in Fredonia, New
York march against retail liquor dealers, leading to the creation of
the Woman's Christian Temperance Union.
1874
January 1, 1874 -
The Bronx is annexed by New York City.
July 1, 1874 - The
first United States zoo opens in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia.
July 1, 1874 - First
commercially successful typewriter, the Sholes and Glidden
typewriter, or Remington No. 1, is placed on the market.
November 7, 1874 -
The debut of the symbol of the Republican Party, the elephant, occurs
when Thomas Nast prints a cartoon utilizing the symbol in Harper's
Weekly.
November, 25, 1874 -
The U.S. Greenback Party is organized as a political organization by
farmers who had been hurt financially in the Panic of 1873.
1875
March 1, 1875 - The
Civil Rights Act, giving equal rights to blacks in jury duty and
accommodation, is passed by the United States Congress. It would be
overturned in 1883 by the U.S. Supreme Court.
March 15, 1875 - The
first cardinal in the United States is named by the papacy, John
McCloskey, archbishop of New York.
March 18, 1875 -
Trade treaty approved by U.S. Senate with the island Kingdom of
Hawaii granting the United States exclusive trading rights.
May 17, 1875 - The
first Kentucky Derby is run at Churchill Downs in Louisville,
Kentucky.
November 9, 1875 -
Reporting on the Indian Wars, inspector E.C. Watkins pronounces that
hundreds of Sioux and Cheyenne under Indian leaders Sitting Bull and
Crazy Horse are openly hostile against the United States government.
This report forms U.S. policy over the next year that would lead to
battles such as Little Big Horn.
December 4, 1875 -
New York City politician Boss Tweed escapes from prison and migrates
to Cuba, then Spain. He would be captured and returned to New York
authorities on November 23, 1876.
1876
January 31, 1876 -
Original date issued by the United States government ordering all
Native Americans onto a system of reservations throughout the western
lands of the United States. This issue would lead to the Great Sioux
War of 1876. The date is later extended by President Grant
May 10, 1876 - The
Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition, a world's fair meant to celebrate
the 100th birthday of the United States opens on 285 acres in
Fairmount Park, Philadelphia. Among its notable public showings
include Alexander Graham Bell, with his newly patented telephone,
Thomas Edison with the megaphone and phonograph, Westinghouse with
the air brake, the first public showing of the top portion of
the Statue of Liberty and the Corliss Engine, a steam engine so large
it powered the entire exhibition and proved to the 34 nations and 20
colonies who exhibited that not only was the U.S.A. an equal on a par
with European nations in manufactured goods, but had surpassed them
in innovation.
June 25-26, 1876 -
The Battle of Little Big Horn. Lt. Colonel George Custer and his 7th
U.S. Cavalry engage the Sioux and Cheyenne Indians on the bluffs
above the Little Big Horn River. All 264 members of the 7th Cavalry
and Custer perish in the battle, the most complete rout in American
military history.
August 2, 1876 -
Legislation is approved for the federal government to complete the
Washington Monument with an appropriation of $2 million. Up to that
time it had been privately funded.
November 7, 1876 –
Democrat Samuel J. Tilden outpolls Republican Rutherford B. Hayes the
popular vote. But his majority is reversed in the Electoral College
by one vote. The election, however, would not be decided until March
2, 1877, when Republicans agree to end reconstruction in the South.
November 10, 1876 -
The Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition closes its exposition period
after 159 days, not including Sundays, with a paid and free
attendance of 8,095,349. This exhibition has been credited with
healing many of the wounds left by the Civil War.
1877
Russo-Turkish war
begins (ends in 1878; the power of Turkey in Europe is broken).
Tchaikovsky composes
"Swan Lake."
Reconstruction ends
in the American South, replaced by "Jim Crow" laws which
sought to maintain white supremacy, remaining in effect for roughly
90 years.
March 2, 1877 - A
joint session of the U.S. Congress convenes on the presidential
election dispute, reaching the Compromise of 1877 and electing
Rutherford B. Hayes as President and William A. Wheeler as Vice
President. They would be inaugurated two days later on March 4. Hayes
would
appoint Carl Schurz
Secretary of the Interior, who begins efforts to prevent destruction
of forests.
May 6, 1877 - Indian
leader of the Oglala Sioux, Crazy Horse, surrenders to the United
States Army in Nebraska. His people had been weakened by cold and
hunger.
June 21, 1877 - The
Molly Maguires, an Irish terrorist society in the minefields
surrounding Scranton, Pennsylvania is broken up when eleven leaders
are hung for murders of police and mine officials.
June 17, 1877 - The
Nez Perce War begins when Nez Perce Indians route two companies of
United States Army cavalry in Idaho Territory near White Bird. This
is the first battle of the war.
On August 9 Colonel
John Gibbon commands the 7th U.S. Infantry as they clash
with Nez Perce Indians at the Battle of the Little Big Hole. The Nez
Perce tribe were attempting to avoid confinement within the
reservation system.
September 1, 1877 -
Frederick Douglass, the ex-slave civil rights leader and abolitionist
moved into his house, Cedar Hill, in the Anacostia section of
Washington, D.C.
1878
Congress of Berlin
revises Treaty of San Stefano, ending Russo-Turkish War; makes extensive redivision
of southeast Europe.
January 28, 1878 -
In New Haven, Connecticut, the first commercial telephone exchange is
opened.
February 18, 1878 -
The Lincoln County War begins in New Mexico between two groups of
wealthy businessmen, the ranchers and the Lincoln County general
store. William Bonney, aka Billy the Kid, fought alongside the
ranchers in a dispute over seizure of horses as a payment of an
outstanding debt.
February 19, 1878 -
Thomas Edison patents the cylinder phonograph or tin foil phonograph.
October 15, 1878 -
The Edison Electric Company begins operation.
1879
Thomas A. Edison
invents practical electric light.
Wilhelm Wundt opens
the first laboratory ever to be exclusively devoted to psychological
studies at the University of Leipzig.
February 15, 1879 -
President Rutherford B. Hayes signs a bill that allowed female
attorneys to argue in Supreme Court cases.
February 22, 1879 -
The first five and dime store is opened in Utica, New York by Frank
W. Woolworth with $300 of borrowed money. Woolworth priced all items
at five cents and pioneered the concept of fixed prices versus
haggling. The store failed weeks later. Woolworth, along with his
brother, opened a second store in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in April
1879, including ten cent items, making the second store a success.
May 30, 1879 - The
Gilmore's Garden in New York City is renamed Madison Square Garden by
William Henry Vanderbilt and opens to the public at 26th Street and
Madison Avenue.
September 1879 -
Henry George advocates a single tax on land in his book "Progress
and Poverty."
1880
U.S.-China treaty
allows U.S. to restrict immigration of Chinese labor.
January 1, 1880 -
The construction of the Panama Canal begins under French auspices,
although it would eventually fail on the sea level canal in 1893, and
would be bought out by the United States twenty-four years later.
June 1, 1880 - The
national population in 1880 reached 50,189,209 people, an increase of
30.2% over the 1870 census.
June 7, 1880 - The
Yorktown Column (now part of Colonial National Historical Park) in
Virginia, is commissioned by the United States Congress. Its
construction would commemorate the victory of American forces in the
Revolutionary War.
October 23, 1880 -
Adolph F. Bandelier enters Frijoles Canyon, New Mexico, under the
guidance of Cochiti Indians and witnesses the prehistoric villages
and cliff dwellings of the national monument that is named after him.
November 2, 1880 –
Republican James A. Garfield is elected president. He was opposed by
Democrat Winfield S. Hancock. Garfield barely wins the popular vote
with a majority of only 7,023.
1881
President Garfield
fatally shot by Charles J. Guiteau, who is later convicted and
executed (1882).
January 25, 1881 -
Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell form the Oriental Telephone
Company.
May 21, 1881 - The
American Red Cross names Clara Barton president, a post she would
hold until 1904 through nineteen relief missions.
July 2, 1881 - James
A. Garfield is shot by Charles J. Guiteau in the Baltimore and
Potomac Railroad station in Washington, D.C.
July 4, 1881 - The
Tuskegee Institute for black students training to be teachers opens
under the tutelage of Booker T. Washington as instructor in Tuskegee,
Alabama.
July 20, 1881 -
Sioux chief Sitting Bull leads the final group of his tribe, still
fugitive from the reservation, and surrenders to United States troops
at Fort Buford, Montana.
September 20, 1881 –
Vice President Chester Arthur succeeds Garfield the day after he
dies.
October 26, 1881 –
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. It occurred in Tombstone, Arizona in a
livery stable lot between Sheriff Wyatt Earp, his brother Virgil, and
Doc Holliday against Billy Claiborne, Frank and Tom McLaury and the
Clanton brothers Billy and Ike. The fights lasts just thirty seconds
long. The McLaury brothers and Billy Clanton are killed.
1882
Terrorism occurs in
Ireland after land evictions.
Britain invades and
conquers Egypt.
Germany, Austria,
and Italy form Triple Alliance.
In Berlin, Robert
Koch announces discovery of tuberculosis germ.
January 2, 1882 -
The Standard Oil Company “trust” is created by John D.
Rockefeller. It is considered to be the first industrial monopoly.
February 7, 1882 -
The final bare knuckle fight for the heavyweight championship is
fought in Mississippi City.
March 22, 1882 - The
practice of polygamy is outlawed by legislation in the United States
Congress.
April 3, 1882 -
Western outlaw Jesse James is shot to death by Robert Ford, a member
of his own band, for a $5,000 reward.
May 6, 1882 –
President Chester Arthur signs the Chinese Exclusion Act. It banned
all Chinese immigration into the United States.
1883
January 16, 1883 -
The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act is passed by Congress,
overhauling federal civil service and establishing the U.S. Civil
Service.
February 28, 1883 –
Vaudeville (theatrical entertainment shows) begins when the first
theater is opened in Boston, Massachusetts.
May 24, 1883 - The
Brooklyn Bridge is opened. It was constructed under a design by
German-American Johann A. Roebling and required fourteen years to
build. Six days later, a stampede caused by a rumor about its
impending collapse kills twelve people.
October 15, 1883 -
The U.S. Supreme Court finds part of the Civil Rights Act of 1875
unconstitutional, which allows individuals and corporations to
discriminate based on race.
November 18, 1883 -
Five standard time zones are established by United States and
Canadian railroad companies to end the confusion over thousands of
local time zones.
1884
Nikola Tesla
emigrates to the United States in June.
The Berlin West
Africa Conference is held in Berlin. Lasting until Feb. 1885, the
major European nations discuss expansion in Africa.
May 1, 1884 - The
Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions in the U.S.A. call
for an eight-hour workday.
October 6, 1884 -
The U.S. Naval War College is founded in Newport, Rhode Island.
October 23, 1884 -
The first post season games in baseball were held between the
National League champions, the Providence Grays, and the American
Association champions, the New York Metropolitans. Providence would
win the series, 3 games to 0.
November 4, 1884 -
Grover Cleveland claims victory for the Democratic Party, gaining 277
Electoral College votes to the 182 Electoral College votes for the
Republic candidate James G. Blaine.
December 6, 1884 - A
capstone weighing 3,300 pounds is positioned atop the Washington
Monument by the Corps of Engineers.
1885
British general
Charles Gordon killed at Khartoum in Egyptian Sudan.
“Skyscraper”
designs begin to be built in Chicago. They are inspired by French
engineering innovations in the use of structural steel.
February 21, 1885 -
The Washington Monument is dedicated at a ceremony by President
Chester A. Arthur. The obelisk was completed under federal auspices
after private construction was started 37 years earlier.
March 3, 1885 -
American Telephone and Telegraph (ATT) is incorporated in New York
City as a subsidiary of American Bell Telephone Company.
June 17, 1885 - The
Statue of Liberty arrives in New York harbor.
September 2, 1885 -
The Rock Spring, Wyoming mining incident occurs. One hundred and
fifty white miners attack their Chinese coworkers, killing
twenty-eight and forcing several hundred to leave Rock Springs.
1886
Sigmund Freud
(Austria) begins using hypnosis in his clinical work.
January 20, 1886 -
Thomas A. Edison builds a new laboratory for his experiments and
inventions near West Orange, New Jersey. The grounds include a 29
room Queen-Anne-style mansion.
May 4, 1886 - The
Haymarket riot and bombing occurs in Chicago, Illinois, three days
after the start of a general strike in the United States that pushed
for an eight hour workday. This would be followed by additional labor
battles centered around that issue.
May 8, 1886 - Dr.
John Pemberton, a Georgia pharmacist, invents coca-cola, a carbonated
beverage.
On May 29, Pemberton
begins advertising Coca-Cola in the Atlanta Journal.
June 2, 1886 -
President Grover Cleveland marries Francis Folsom in the White House
Blue Room, the only marriage of a president ever carried out there.
September 4, 1886 -
At Fort Bowie in southeastern Arizona, Geronimo and his band of
Apaches surrender to Brigadier General Nelson A. Miles, ending
warfare between the U. S. Army and the tribes.
October 28, 1886 -
The Statue of Liberty, then known as "Bartholdi's Light" or
"Liberty Enlightening the World" is dedicated by President
Grover Cleveland in New York Harbor. It was first shown in the United
States at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia ten years
earlier.
December 8, 1886 –
The American Federation of Labor (AFL) is formed by twenty-five craft
unions.
1887
Queen Victoria's
Golden Jubilee is celebrated.
Sir Arthur Conan
Doyle's first Sherlock Holmes story "A Study in Scarlet" is
published.
January 20, 1887 -
Pearl Harbor naval base is leased by the United States Navy, upon
approval of the U.S. Senate.
February 2, 1887 -
The first Groundhog Day is observed in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania,
beginning the tradition of checking the shadow of a groundhog to
predict the coming of spring.
February 4, 1887 -
Congress passes the Interstate Commerce Act to regulate and control
railroad monopolies.
October 22, 1887 -
The statue of Abraham Lincoln, "Standing Lincoln," by
Augustus Saint-Gaudens is unveiled in Lincoln Park, Chicago.
November 8, 1887 -
Naturalized as a citizen in 1881, Emile Berliner is granted a patent
for the gramophone. Berliner, born in Hanover, Germany, had
previously worked with Bell Telephone after selling his version of
the microphone to the company.
1888
January 21, 1888 -
The Amateur Athletic Union (commonly referred to as the AAU) is
formed to assist teams and players in a variety of sports.
March 11-14, 1888 -
The eastern section of the United States undergoes a great snow
storm, killing four hundred people. Property damage exceeds $25
million.
May, 1888 – The
“Kodak” box camera is introduced by George Eastman.
June 16, 1888 - The
prototype for the commercial phonograph is completed by Thomas A.
Edison and staff at his laboratory near Glenmont, his estate in West
Orange, New Jersey.
October 8, 1888 -
Work begins on the first motion picture camera at Thomas A. Edison's
laboratory.
October 9, 1888 -
The Washington Monument officially opens to the general public.
November 6, 1888 –
In the presidential election, Benjamin Harrison loses the popular
vote to Grover Cleveland, but wins the plurality of Electoral College
electors, 233 to 168.
1889
Second (Socialist)
International founded in Paris.
Eiffel Tower built
for the Paris exposition.
Mark Twain writes "A
Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court."
March 2, 1889 -
Legislation signed by Cleveland sets aside the first public lands
protecting prehistoric features at the Casa Grande ruin in Arizona
Territory. These lands could not be settled or sold.
March 23, 1889 -
President Benjamin Harrison opens up Oklahoma lands to white
settlement.
April 22, 1889 –
The first of five land runs in the Oklahoma land rush start. More
than 50,000 people waited at the starting line to race for one
hundred and sixty acre parcels.
May 31, 1889 - The
deadliest flood in American history occurs in Johnstown, Pennsylvania
when 2,200 people perish from the water of the South Fork Dam after
heavy rains cause its destruction.
June 3, 1889 – The
first long distance electric power transmission line in the United
States is completed. It runs between the Willamette Falls and
Portland, Oregon, a distance of fourteen miles.
July 8, 1889 - The
first issue of the Wall Street Journal is published.
September 27, 1890 -
Rock Creek Park in Washington, D.C. is created when President
Benjamin Harrison signs legislation creating natural preservation in
the wooded valley within urban District of Columbia.
1890
June 1, 1890 -
Preparations for the United States census begin using an automated
tabulating machine with punch cards invented by Herman Hollerith.
Hollerith's company eventually became IBM.
June 2, 1890 - The
1890 census indicates a population in the United States of
62,979,766, an increase of 25.5% since the 1880 census.
July 2, 1890 –
Congress passes the Sherman Antitrust Act in an attempt to limit
anti-competitive business practices.
December 13, 1890 -
Wilbur and Orville Wright print the "Dayton Tattler" in
their print shop in Dayton, Ohio. The paper was the creation of Paul
Laurence Dunbar, an African American poet.
December 15, 1890 –
Sioux chief Sitting Bull is arrested by police on Pine Ridge
reservation, causing a commotion during which he is killed. The
arrest had been ordered by U.S. Indian agent James McGlaughlin, who
thought Sitting Bull was planning to start a new rebellion.
December 29, 1890 -
The Massacre of Wounded Knee, South Dakota. It is the last major
altercation between United States troops and the tribes. It started
when troops who were escorting the Lakotas, tried to disarm them.
Hundreds of Native American men, women, and children are slain, along
with twenty-nine soldiers.
1891
March 3, 1891 - The
51st Congress of the United States passes the International Copyright
Act.
April 1, 1891 - The
Wrigley Company is founded in Chicago, Illinois, originally selling
soap, baking powder, and the next year, chewing gum.
May 5, 1891 -
Carnegie Hall, then known as Music Hall, opens its doors in New York
with its first public performance under guest conductor Pyotr
Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
May 20, 1891 -
Thomas A. Edison's new strip motion picture film is shown to a public
audience for the first time at the convention of the National
Federation of Women's Clubs at Edison’s West Orange, New Jersey
laboratory.
Later that year,
Thomas Edison patents a radio receiver.
June 21, 1891 -
Alternating current (pioneered by Nikola Tesla) is transmitted for
the first time by the Ames power plant near Telluride, Colorado by
Lucien and Paul Nunn.
1892
Battle between steel
strikers and Pinkerton guards at Homestead, Pa. The union is "defeated"
after militia intervenes.
Silver mine strikers
in Idaho fight non-union workers; U.S. troops dispatched.
Diesel engine
patented.
January 1, 1892 -
Ellis Island, in New York Harbor, opens. It is the main East Coast
immigration center, and would remain so until its closure in 1954.
January 15, 1892 -
James Naismith publishes the rules of basketball and the first
official game of basketball is held five days later at the YMCA in
Springfield, Massachusetts.
April 15, 1892 - The
General Electric Company is formed, merging the Edison General
Electric Company with the Thomson-Houston Company.
October 12, 1892 –
Francis Bellamy’s Pledge of Allegiance is recited in U.S.
public schools to mark the 400th anniversary of Columbus
Day. Francis Bellamy was a Christian Socialist, but apparently was
sympathetic to ruling class concerns that the American identity was
being undermined by immigration from other cultures. In most schools,
it was complemented by Balch’s earlier pledge, which included the
words “one language.” The words “under God” did not get added
until much later.
November 8, 1892 -
Grover Cleveland returns to the presidency with his victory in the
presidential election over incumbent President Benjamin Harrison and
People's Party candidate James Weaver. Weaver, who would receive over
1 million votes and 22 Electoral College votes, helped defeat
Harrison, who garnered only 145 Electoral College votes to
Cleveland's 277.
January 14-17, 1893
- The United States Marines, under the direction of U.S. diplomat
John L. Stevens, but with no authority from the U.S. Congress,
intervene in the affairs of the independent Kingdom of Hawaii,
culminating in the overthrow of the government of Hawaiian Queen
Liliuokalani. Businessman Stanford Dole is also involved in this
action which amounted to a coup d'état.
1893
New Zealand becomes
first Westernized country in the world to allow women to vote.
May 1, 1893 - The
Chicago World Columbian Exposition opens. Held on 686 acres and known
affectionately as the White City, this world's fair hosted fifty
nations and twenty-six colonies. It has come to be known as an
architectural wonder that saw replication of the styles of its white
buildings throughout the United States for years to come, as well as
for the first public Ferris Wheel, a behemoth construction that held
up to 2,160 riders.
May 5, 1893 - The
New York Stock Exchange collapses, starting the financial panic of
1893. It would lead to four years of depression.
September 16, 1893 -
The fourth of five land runs in Oklahoma's dash, known as the
Oklahoma Land Race or the Cherokee Strip Land Run, opens seven
million acres of the Cherokee Strip. It was purchased from the Indian
tribe for $7,000,000. There were 42,000 new claims made available.
October 30, 1893 -
The Chicago World's Fair closes after 179 days of public admission
and over 25 million in attendance. It cost $27,291,715 and included a
moving sidewalk and the first picture postcards.
November 7, 1893 -
Colorado grants women the right to vote.
1894
First Sino-Japanese
War begins. (Ends in 1895 with China giving up Korea and several
islands including Formosa.)
In France, Capt.
Alfred Dreyfus is convicted on a false treason charge, quite possibly
because he was Jewish. When evidence of his innocence was uncovered,
it became a huge scandal. He was pardoned in 1906.
April 14, 1894 - The
first public showing of Thomas Edison's kinetoscope motion picture is
held in New York City. Edison had invented the process seven years
earlier.
March 25, 1894 -
Jacob S. Coxey of Ohio leads “Coxey's Army” of 500 unemployed
workers in a march on Washington, D.C.
April 29, 1894 –
Coxey reaches Washington and is arrested for treason.
May 11, 1894 –
Nearly four thousand Pullman Palace Car Company workers stage a
wildcat strike in Chicago over pay cuts. This sparks a national
strike lasting until 20 July, when it was stopped using military
force. Labor leader Eugene Debs was arrested.
September 7, 1894 -
A fight between heavyweight boxing champ Gentleman Jim Corbett and
Peter Courtney is filmed by Thomas Edison at the Black Maria studio,
part of his New Jersey laboratory.
December 27, 1894 -
Shiloh National Military Park in Shiloh, Tennessee is created to
commemorate the field of the two day battle in April of 1862. It was
one of the largest engagements between Union and Confederate forces
in the western theater of the U.S. Civil War.
1895
X-rays are
discovered by German physicist Wilhelm Roentgen.
Auguste and Louis
Lumière premiere motion pictures at a café in Paris.
February 20, 1895 -
Frederick Douglass dies in Washington, D.C.
September 3, 1895 -
The first professional football game is played in Latrobe,
Pennsylvania.
October 4, 1895 -
The first United States Golf Open run by the USGA is held in Newport,
Rhode Island.
November 5, 1895 -
The first United States automotive patent, #549160, is granted to
George B. Selden for his two stroke engine.
November 25, 1895 -
Oscar Hammerstein opens the first theater, Olympia, in the Times
Square, New York City.
1896
Alfred Nobel's will
establishes prizes for peace, science, and literature.
Marconi receives
first wireless radio patent in Britain.
May 18, 1896 -
Plessy versus Ferguson decision by the Supreme Court holds that
racial segregation is legal under the "separate but equal"
doctrine.
April 6-15, 1896 -
The first modern Olympic Games is held in Athens, Greece. Thirteen
nations participate, including the United States of America.
August 16, 1896 -
Gold is discovered by Skookum Jim Mason, George Carmack and Dawson
Charlie near Dawson, Canada, setting up the Klondike Gold Rush which
would cause a boom in travel and gold fever from Seattle to
prospector sites surrounding Skagway, Alaska.
November 3, 1896 -
Republican William McKinley claims victory in the presidential
election with a majority of Electoral College votes. He was opposed
by Democratic and People's Party candidate William Jennings Bryan,
famous for his “Cross of Gold” speech.
December 10, 1896 -
The New York City Aquarium at Castle Clinton opens on the tip of
Manhattan Island. Castle Clinton, or Castle Garden, had been
previously utilized in many capacities during the history of New York
City; as a fort, entertainment location, and immigrant depot.
1897
Theodor Herzl
launches Zionist movement, aimed at finding European Jews a homeland
where they can be safe from persecution.
April 15, 1897 - Oil
is discovered in Indian territory for the first time on land leased
from the Osage tribe, leading to rapid population growth near
Bartlesville, Oklahoma.
April 19, 1897 - The
first Boston Marathon is run with fifteen runners, won by John
McDermott.
July 17, 1897 - The
Klondike Gold Rush begins with the arrival of the first prospectors
in Seattle. The Gold Rush would be chronicled beginning eight days
later when Jack London sailed to the Klondike and wrote his tales.
September 1, 1897 -
The era of the subway begins when the first underground public
transportation in North America opens in Boston, Massachusetts.
1898
Chinese “Boxers,"
an anti-foreign organization, is established.
Pierre and Marie
Curie discover radium and polonium.
February 15, 1898 –
United States battleship Maine
explodes and sinks for an unknown reason in Havana Harbor, Cuba,
killing 216 sailors. The loss becomes a rallying point for the
Spanish-American War.
April 22, 1898 –
The United States Navy begins a blockade of Cuba and aids
independence forces there. Several days later, the U.S.A. declares
war on Spain, backdating its declaration to April 20.
May 1, 1898 – The
United States Navy destroys the Spanish fleet in the Philippines.
May 12, 1898 - San
Juan, Puerto Rico is bombed by the American navy under the command of
Rear Admiral William T. Sampson.
June 20, 1898 –
The U.S. takes Guam.
July 7, 1898 – The
United States annexes the independent republic of Hawaii.
July 25, 1989 –
U.S. troops land at Guanica Bay and gain control of Puerto Rico.
December 10, 1898 -
A treaty ending the Spanish-American War is signed in Paris. The
Spanish government agrees to grant independence to Cuba and cede
Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines to the United States.
1899
Boer War (or South
African War): conflict between British and Boers (descendants of
Dutch settlers of South Africa). They fight over longstanding
territorial disputes and political rights for English and other
“uitlanders” who arrived following 1886 discovery of vast gold
deposits in Transvaal. (The British are victorious and the war ends
in 1902. Casualties: 5,774 British dead, about 4,000 Boers.)
The Union of South
Africa is established in 1908 as a confederation of colonies; it
becomes a British dominion in 1910.
February 4, 1899 -
Filipino independence fighters under leader Emilio Aguinaldo begin a
guerrilla war after failing to gain a grant of independence from the
United States, which they had been fighting for from Spain since
1896.
February 14, 1899 -
The U.S. Congress approves the use of voting machines in federal
elections.
March 2, 1899 -
Mount Rainier National Park is established in Washington State.
September 6, 1899 -
The Open Door Policy with China is declared by Secretary of State
John Hay and the U.S. government in an attempt to open international
markets to U.S. businesses.
1900
In June, Chinese
"Boxers" besiege foreign legations in Beijing.
In August, the
legations are relieved by a combined force including Russians and
Japanese.
March 14, 1900 - The
Gold Standard Act is ratified, placing U.S. currency on the gold
standard.
April 15, 1900 - One
of the largest world's fairs in history opens to the public in Paris,
France. The United States is among 42 nations and 25 colonies
exhibiting.
June 1, 1900 - The
1900 census is conducted. In the first census of the 20th century,
the population of the United States rose to 76,212,168, a 21%
increase since 1890. For the first time, all fifty entities that
would become the fifty states are included after Hawaii had
officially become a territory of the United States on February 22.
June 5, 1900 -
Carrie Nation begins a campaign, prompted by a dream, to demolish
saloons. Her Temperance Movement to demolishes over two dozen saloons
in Kansas and other Midwest states over the next ten years.
September 8, 1900 -
The Galveston, Texas hurricane, with winds of 135 miles an hour,
kills 8,000 people. It remains the most deadly natural disaster in
American history. It was not named, but would have been a Category 4
storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale.
November 6, 1900 -
President William McKinley wins his second term as president, this
time with Theodore Roosevelt as Vice President, again defeating
William Jennings Bryan.
1901
January 10, 1901 -
The first major oil discovery in Texas occurs near Spindletop in
Beaumont.
March 2, 1901 - The
Platt amendment is passed by the United States Congress, which limits
the autonomy of Cuba as a condition for American troop withdrawal.
May 1, 1901 - The
Pan-American Exposition opens in Buffalo, New York with nineteen
international participants on 342 acres. It would close November 2,
1901 with a disappointing attendance of just over 5 million paid
visitors.
June 12, 1901 –
Cuba becomes a U.S. protectorate.
September 6, 1901 -
President William H. McKinley is shot at the Pan-American Exposition
in Buffalo, New York while shaking hands with fair visitors,
following his speech the day before on President's Day. Anarchist
Leon Czolgosz is arrested. This dramatically slows down attendance to
the expo.
September 14, 1901 –
Vice President Theodore Roosevelt is inaugurated as President after
McKinley dies from gunshot wounds.
1902
January 1, 1902 -
The first Rose Bowl is held. The University of Michigan plays
Stanford. Michigan won the initial contest 49-0. The second Rose Bowl
is not held until 1916.
January 28, 1902 - A
ten million dollar gift from Andrew Carnegie leads to the formation
of the Carnegie Institution in Washington, D.C.
April 2, 1902 –
The Electric Theater opens in Los Angeles, the first cinema in the
U.S.
May 20, 1902 - Cuba
gains independence from the United States.
July 17, 1902 –
New Yorker Willis Haviland Carrier invents the air conditioner.
1903
January 18, 1903 -
The first two-way wireless communication between Europe and the
United States is accomplished by Guglielmo Marconi.
November, 3, 1903 -
With United States support, Panama declares its independence from
Colombia. The Panama government is recognized by President Theodore
Roosevelt three days later and a canal treaty is signed on November
18, allowing the U.S. to lead construction of the canal.
December 17, 1903 -
Inventors Wilbur and Orville Wright succeed in the first sustained
and manned plane flight, taking the heavier-than-air machine through
the winds of Kill Devil Hill, North Carolina.
1904
April 30, 1904 - The
Louisiana Purchase Exposition opens. Renowned for its spectacular
ivory buildings, the inventions of the ice cream cone, and the "Meet
Me in St. Louis" song. The St. Louis exposition closed December
1 with over nineteen million visitors. It was held on 1,272 acres.
The
Summer Olympic Games
of 1904 were also twinned with the fair and were the first Olympic
Games held in the western hemisphere.
1905
February 23, 1905 –
The Rotary Club is founded in Chicago, Illinois.
March 4, 1905 -
President Theodore Roosevelt is inaugurated for his second term.
April 6, 1905 - In
the ruling of Lochner vs. New York, the ten hour work day law and
sixty hour work week law for bakers is overturned by the U.S. Supreme
Court. Work rule laws are routinely overturned until the West Coast
Hotel Company vs. Parrish case in 1937.
1906
April 18-19, 1906 -
The San Francisco earthquake occurs, estimated at 7.8 on the Richter
scale. The subsequent fire and aftershocks caused considerable death
and destruction. There were 478 reported deaths, but later estimates
peg that figure at nearly 3,000. Between $350-$400 million in damages
were sustained. Refugee camps were constructed at twenty-one sites
throughout the city, including the Presidio, Fort Point, and Golden
Gate Park.
June 8, 1906 -
President Theodore Roosevelt grants protection to Indian ruins and
authorizes presidents to designate lands with historic and scientific
features as national monuments. This act, now known as the
Antiquities Act, which would be utilized by Roosevelt to expand the
National Parks system over his term was utilized for the first time
on September 24, 1906 with the proclamation of Devils Tower National
Monument in Wyoming, an 865 foot volcanic column. On June 29,
legislation by Congress would continue to expand the national park
system when it establishes Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado,
preserving the most notable prehistoric cliff dwellings in the United
States of America.
June 30, 1906 - The
Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act is passed.
November 9, 1906 -
Theodore Roosevelt leaves for a trip to inspect the progress in the
construction of the Panama Canal. This is the first time a U.S.
President has traveled abroad.
1907
March 13, 1907 –
Panic and Depression of 1907 starts .
September 7, 1907 -
The RMS Lusitania, the largest ship at the time, is launched on its
maiden voyage from London to New York. The ship would be sunk by a
German U-boat in 1915 during World War I, costing 1,198 people their
lives.
October 16, 1907 –
Stock market crash starts the Panic of 1907. Banks were weakened by
their loans to an unscrupulous broker who was attempting to corner
the copper market.
November 16, 1907 -
The Oklahoma Territory and the Indian Territory are combined to form
Oklahoma and are admitted into the Union as the 46th state.
1908
January 9, 1908 -
Muir Woods National Monument, named after conservationist John Muir,
is added to the National Park System by a proclamation of President
Theodore Roosevelt after the two hundred and ninety-five acres of
coastal redwood forest is donated by William Kent. On January 11,
Roosevelt would add the Grand Canyon Monument to the system. On
January 16, 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed the
Pinnacle National Forest of rock formations and caves as Pinnacles
National Monument.
On February 7, 1908,
he would continue the expansion of federally protected lands with
Jewel Cave National Monument in southwest South Dakota.
September 27, 1908 -
The first production Model T is built at the Ford plant in Detroit,
Michigan.
November 3, 1908 -
William Howard Taft is elected President over Democratic candidate
William Jennings Bryan.
1909
January 28, 1909 –
Troops of the United States leave Cuba for the first time since the
beginning of the Spanish-American War.
May 30, 1909 - The
National Conference of the Negro is conducted, leading to the
formation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People, (NAACP).