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Articles
Timeline of Other Events of That Period by Various
1845
James K. Polk, Democrat, was inaugurated as the 11th President. His wife, Sarah Childress Polk, prohibited liquor and dancing in the white house.
Congress designated the national election day as the first Tuesday after the First Monday in November.
Two more states were admitted to the UnionFlorida (Mar. 3) as the 27th and Texas (Dec. 29) as the 28th.
The U.S. Naval Academy was founded at Annapolis, Maryland.
The first set of baseball rules was formulated by the Knickerbocker Club of New York.
Andrew Jackson, seventh President, died on June 8th.
In Print
Edgar Allen Poe's poem The Raven was printed in The American Review and republished in his volume The Raven and Other Poems.
On Stage
The first grand opera by a Native American composer was produced in Philadelphia at the Chestnut Street Theater--Lenora by William Henry Fry, of Philadelphia.
1846
Telegraph connections were established between New York and Philadelphia on January 20th and between Philadelphia and Baltimore on June 5th. The line of Morse's experiment from Baltimore to Washington completed the circuit.
Clashes between American forces under Zachary Taylor and Mexicans in Texas at Palo Alto on May 8th and Resaca de la Palma on May 9th resulted in a declaration of war by the United States on Mexico on May 13th, starting the Mexican War.
On Dec. 28th, Iowa was admitted as the 29th state.
Dr. Morrison of St. Louis devised the "dental engine" or drilling machine.
Maine became the first state to adopt prohibition.
The Smithsonian Institution was founded by an act of Congress and was built with the sum of 100,000 pounds left by James Smithson, Oxford graduate for the "increase and diffusion of knowledge among men."
The sewing machine of Elias Howe was introduced.
In Hoboken New Jersey the first game of baseball, as we know it, was played.
1847
Congress authorized the issuance of the first United States adhesive postage stamps in 5 and 10 cent values.
Telegraph connection was completed between New York and Boston.
Maria Mitchell, American astronomer discovered a comet and was elected the same day to the American Academy of Artthe first woman to be so honored.
John Chapman, also known as "Johnny Appleseed", died of pneumonia in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
In Print
The Chicago Tribune was founded as a daily newspaper.
1848
The Mexican War ended when a treaty of peace was signed at Guadalupe, Hidalgo.
Wisconsin was admitted to the Union as the 30th state.
Gold was discovered near Coloma, California which set off the gold rush the next year.
Women pursuing the right to vote held a convention in Seneca Falls, New York. Among the leaders were Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
Congress authorized the erection of the Washington National Monument. The cornerstone was laid on July 4th. The monument was completed in 1884.
The China clipper, Sea Witch, became the fastest ship afloat when it made a record trip from Canton to New York in 77 days.
Andrew Carnegie, a poor 13-year old Scottish lad, began work as a "bobbin boy" in a cotton factory in Allegheny, Pennsylvania.
John Quincy Adams, sixth President, died at the age of 81 in the Speaker's Room.
The first locomotive steamed out of Chicagothe Pioneer of the Galena and Chicago (now Chicago and North Western) Railroad.
Music
Stephen C. Foster wrote Oh! Susanna.
1849
General Zachary Taylor, whig of Virginia, nicknamed "Old Rough and Ready," was inaugurated as the 12th President.
Walter Hunt invented the safety pin.
Edgar Allan Poe, aged 40 died outside a saloon in Baltimore.
Gas light was installed in the White House.
James Polk, 11th President, died.
In Print
Poe wrote in the last year of his life The Bells, Annabel Lee, and Eldorado.
Music
Just As I Am Without One Plea.
1850
President Zachary Taylor, aged 66, died on July 9th of typhus. He had served only one year and four months and was succeeded by Vice President Millard Fillmore.
California was admitted as the 31st state.
The first national convention for the woman suffrage movement was held in Worcester, Massachusetts, at which the movement assumed definite political character and allied itself with the abolitionist cause.
Cincinnati organized the first steam fire department when a native son, A. B. Latta, constructed a practical fire engine.
The first building in the United States to be constructed of cast-iron framework was erected in New York by James Bogardus.
Scottish-born Allan Pinkerton was appointed Chicago's first police detective.
George Phillips Bond, Harvard astronomer, used the 15-inch refractor of the Harvard Observatory telescope to make the first photograph of a stara daguerreotype of Vega.
The national population was 23,91,876.
In Print
Nathaniel Hawthorne published his novel Scarlet Letter.
1851
The United States was 75 years old.
The United States changed letter postage from 5 and 10 cents to 1,3,5, and 12 cents.
The new, trim clipper, Flying Cloud, made a record trip from New York to San Francisco via Cape Horn in 89 days, 8 hours.
Fire damaged the Library of Congress, reducing its collection of books to 20,000 volumes.
Emanuel Leutze, German-born American painter, finished his painting "Washington crossing the Delaware".
In Print
Two notable dailies, The New York Times and The Sacramento Union were founded. (Both papers are still being published)
Herman Melville published his whaling classic Moby Dick.
Hawthorne published his novel The House of the Seven Gables.
1852
Direct railroad service was established between New York and Chicago.
The American Geographical Society was founded in New York.
Andrew Jackson Downing, the pioneer landscape gardener who designed the gardens surrounding the Smithsonian Institution, the Capitol, and the White house died while rescuing fellow passengers from a fire aboard the Steamer Henry Clay.
In Print
Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin, appeared in book form; 300,000 copies were reported to have been sold during the first year.
1853
Franklin Pierce, Democrat, of New Hampshire, was inaugurated as the 14th President.
Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry, United States Navy, arrived with a squadron in Yokohama harbor, Japan and was formally received by the Lord of Toda on Kurikama Beach, which resulted in a treaty that opened Japanese ports to American commercial interest.
A large 1,413-ton packet was launched at Newburyport, Massachusetts. It was called Dreadnought, a name that was to be applied years hence to a powerful type of warship.
Some 50 librarians gathers in New York at their first U.S. convention.
A gelding named "Conqueror" ran 100 miles in 8 hours, 55 minutes, 53 seconds, thus winning a $3,000 to $1,000 wager that the stretch couldn't be traversed in nine hours over the Union Course, Long Island, New York.
Clark Mills, self-taught sculptor, created what is believed to be the first equestrian statue in the United statesGeneral Jackson on a rearing horse.
1854
Congress passed the kansas-Nebraska Bill, which opened the territories to slavery on the principle of "squatter sovereignty", i.e., local choice of government.
In response to pro-slavery developments, the present Republican Party was organized. It evolved as an antislavery party from the dwindling Whig party and several minor groups.
In Print
The Chicago Times was founded as a daily newspaper.
Henry David Thoreau, Concord-born writer of Scottish, Quaker, and Puritan descent published Walden, an account of his experiences while living in a hut at Walden Pond near Concord.
1855
The first section of the Atlantic cable was laid between Cape Breton, N.S., and Newfoundland.
James Oliver invented the iron plow.
Henry Bessemer, British engineer, patented his steel-making processa great boon to the steel industry.
The suspension bridge at Niagara Falls, connection the United States and CAnada, was completed.
In Print
Washington Irving coined the expression "the Almighty Dollar" in his book of stories and sketches, "Wolfert's Roost and Miscellanies."
Walt Whitman issued the first edition of his Leaves of Grass, containing 12 poems.
Music
Hark! the Herald Angels Sing (words by Charles Wesley; music by Felix Mendelssohn).
1856
John Brown, abolitionist leader, massacred five proslavery adherents in Osawatomie, Kansas.
At the Republican state convention in Illinois, Abraham LIncoln became a political personality of national significance.
In the national elections, the newly organized Republican Party ran its first presidential candidate--John Charles Fremont.
Atlantic Telegraph Company was formed.
1857
James Buchanan, Democrat, of Pennsylvania, was inaugurated as the 15th President. He was a bachelor.
Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, Roger Brooke Taney, delivered the momentous Dred Scott decision, 5 to 3, which stated that "Negroes were not citizens," even when they moved into free states, and could not claim any constitutional rights.
With the newly organized Atlantic Telegraph Company, Cyrus West Field began the laying of the Atlantic Cable between Europe and North America from Ireland. The cable broke 400 miles from the Irish coast.
Mardi Gras was first observed in New Orleans.
Paul-Morphy, American chess player, won in New York the first chess tournament held in the United States. To make one move, his opponent Louis Paulsen took 14 hours, 28 minutes.
Baseball was raised to the status of a national sport at a convention of delegates from 25 clubs held in New York.
Music
Jingle Bells, or The One Horse Open Sleigh.
1858
Minnesota was admitted (May 11) as the 32nd state.
Cyrus West Field finally laid the Atlantic cable with the help of the British and United States governments. Although the cable broke three times, communication was established. President Buchanan and Queen Victoria exchanged (Aug. 5) feebly heard messages. The cable went "dead" soon afterward as a result of high voltage.
The first overland mail began (Sept. 16) between St. Louis, Missouri and San Francisco, California.
Music
Wedding March (Felix Mendelssohn).
1859
Oregon was admitted (Feb. 14) as the 33rd state; gold was also discovered there.
With the intention of inciting a slave insurrection in Virginia, abolitionist John Brown led (Oct. 16) a raid on the United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry. Five men were killed and Brown and 21 followers were captured by Colonel Robert E. Lee.
John Brown was tried and hanged (Dec. 2). His dignified bearing during the trial won him admiration as a martyr.
The first oil well in the United States was opened (Aug. 28) in Titusville, Pennsylvania, by Colonel Edward L. Drake.
Charles Blondin, a 55-year-old French acrobat performed daredevil feats over Niagara Falls. He crossed (June 30) on a tightrope in five minutes, then repeated (July 4) the stunt blindfolded, pushing a wheelbarrow, and carrying (Aug. 19) a man on his back.
The potato beetle was recognized as a new agricultural pest.
Music
Ave Maria (adapted from the First Prelude in J.S. Bach's The Well Tempered Clavier)
Nearer My God To Thee
1860
The first pony express was established (Apr. 3) between St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California, a distance of 1,980 miles. There were 80 riders and 420 horses which were changed every 10 miles at 190 relay stations.
The Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) visited the United States.
J. Fitzpatrick, and James O'Neil fought the longest bare-knuckle prizefight in American ring annals4 hours, 20 minutesin Berwick, Maine.
The hoopskirt, or crinole, grew so expansive in perimeter that newspapers were full of stories of accidents caused by the skirts catching fire.
South Carolina, a powerful slaveholding state,seceded (Dec. 20) from the Unionthe first direct step toward the Civil War.
The national population had grown to 31,443,321, of which about 4,000,000 were slaves. (Virginia had the most slaves, with 491,000)
Music
I Wish I Was in Dixie's Land
1861
Abraham Lincoln, Republican, of Kentucky, was inaugurated as the 16th President.
Kansas was admitted (Jan. 29) as the 34th state.
Six Southern states seceded from the Union in rapid successionMississippi (Jan. 9), Florida (Jan. 10), Alabama (Jan. 11), Georgia (Jan. 19), and Texas (Feb. 1). Representatives of the seven states met (Feb. 4-9) in Montgomery, Alabama, and formed the "Confederate States of America."
Confederate General Peter Beauregard attacked (Apr. 12) Fort Sumter in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina, starting the Civil War.
The fort surrendered two days later.
When Virginia seceded (Apr. 17), Robert E. Lee resigned from his commission in the U.S. Army and became commander of the Virginia troops in the Confederate Army.
Arkansas (May 6), North Carolina (May 21), and Tennessee (June 8) seceded from the Union.
In the October Confederate elections, Jefferson Davis, former Senator from Mississippi and former Secretary of War, was elected President of the Confederate States by popular vote.
Richard Jordan Gatling, American inventor, perfected a rapid-firing gun called the Gatling gun, a forerunner of the machine gun. The new weapon discharged 350 rounds per minute.
Transcontinental telegraph service was established (Oct. 24).
There were now 31,799 miles of railroad in the United States, and the Erie and New York Central began to rival the Erie Canal in freight tonnage.
Music
Glory, Glory, Hallelujah
Holy, Holy, Holy!
1862
The first congress of the Confederate States convened (Feb. 18) in Richmond, Virginia.
Ulysses S. Grant won the first encouraging victories when he captured Fort Henry (Feb. 6) on the Tennessee River and Fort Donelson (Feb. 16) on the Cumberland River, held the enemy at Shiloh (Apr. 6-7) and defeated the Confederate army at Corinth (Oct. 4) in northern Mississippi.
The ironclads the Monitor (Union) and the Merrimac (Confederate, renamed Virginia) made history in a naval engagement (Mar. 9) at Hampton Roads, Chesapeake Bay, Virginia.
Congress passed the Homestead Act, giving public lands in the West in parcels of 160 acres, free, to all adult citizens and all aliens filing declaratory papers.
Chicago surpassed Cincinnati as the nation's meat center.
John Tyler, the tenth President, died (Jan. 18).
Captain Nathanial Gordon, last pirate to be hanged in the U.S., died (Mar. 8).
Martin Van Buren, eighth President, died (July 24).
Music
Battle Hymn of the Republic (words by Julia Ward Howe, written in 1861)
1863
On New Year's day, President Lincoln issued the emancipation Proclamation, in which he declared "free forever" the slaves in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana (certain part excepted), Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia. The proclamation freed about 3,120,000 slaves.
During the battle at Chancellorsville (May 2-4), "Stonewall" Jackson was accidentally shot by his own soldiers. He died shortly thereafter.
West Virginia was admitted (June 20) as the 35th state.
The number of U.S. Supreme court judges was raised from six to nine.
The United States issued (July 6) its first two-cent postage stamp--a black adhesive with a portrait of Andrew Jackson.
At the dedication (Now. 19) of a national cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, President Lincoln issued an address of three short paragraphs now known as the Gettysburg Address.
President Lincoln revived the observance of Thanksgiving Day (first proclaimed by Washington in 1789).
The steel age came into being when Lyman Holley and William Kelley, working independently, devised methods for converting iron into steel.
In Philadelphia, the American Wood Paper company began to make paper from wood pulp. Previously it was made of rags and linen.
Music
We Three Kings of Orient Are
1864
The Civil War went into its fourth year.
Ulysses Simpson Grant was appointed (Mar. 12) commander of the Union armies.
Nevada was admitted as the 36th state.
Secretary of the Treasury Salmon Portland Chase, at the suggestion of Reverend M.R. Watkinson, introduced the motto "In God We Trust" which has been inscribed on most United States coins since then.
Deaths of the year included: Stephen C. Foster, aged 38 (Jan. 13), Nathaniel Hawthorne, aged 60 (May 19), and Confederate raider, John Hunt Morgan (Sept. 4)
Music
Der Deitcher's Dog--better known as Where, O Where Has My Little Dog Gone?
1865
President Abraham Lincoln began his second term.
The last shot of the Civil War was fired. Lee surrendered (Apr. 9) to Grant in Appomattox, Virginia. The death toll of the war was 524,509359,528 Union and 164,981 Confederate soldiers.
President Lincoln was assassinated (Apr. 14) by actor John Wilkes Booth in Washington, D.C. at Ford's Theater during a performance of the comedy Our American Cousin. Lincoln died the next day, and the nation went into mourning for the first martyred President.
President Lincoln's murderer, John Wilkes Booth, was shot (Apr. 26) by a soldier in a burning barn near Port Royal, Virginia.
Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States, was captured (May 10) in flight at Irwinville, Georgia, a month after Lee's surrender.
The white-robed and hooded Ku Klux Klan was organized in the Southern states to uphold white supremacy, directed specifically against Black voters and "carpetbaggers" arriving from the North.
Thanksgiving Day was observed on Dec. 7--a week late because President Johnson had neglected to proclaim the day.
There were about 295,000 Indians in the United States. In 1492 there had been an estimated 850,000.
The baseball championship contest between the Brooklyn Atlantics and the Philadelphia Athletics attracted 30,000 spectators and so clogged the infield that the game was postponed after one inning. It was re-played three weeks later with $1 admission which drew 2,000 costumers and 6,000 no-payees and was called in the seventh inning on account of rain. The Athletics led 31 to 12.
Confederate soldier A. Bordunix, the last fatality of the Civil War, died (May 22).
In Print
Mark Twain gained sudden fame with his retelling of an old Californian folk tale, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.
1866
Congress passed (Apr. 9) a Civil Rights act.
Armed bands of Irish sympathizers, numbering from 500 to some 1,500, began (April) a movement to invade Canada and New Brunswick from Maine, Vermont, and New York. They seized Fort Erie (June 1) and St. Armand (June 7). United States troops under George Gordon Meade of Gettysburg fame put an end to the undertaking.
Union leaders formed the National Labor Union, which lasted six years and was one of the first attempts at federating labor.
Civil War veterans of the Union army and navy formed the Grand Army of the Republic ("G.A.R.") to perpetuate the memory of fallen comrades and to aid their widows and dependents.
the Young Women's christian Association (Y.W.C.A.) was founded in Boston.
The American society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (A.S.P.C.A.) was organized in New York.
Fisk University, Nashville, Tennessee, for Negro men and women, was founded.
1867
"Seward's Folly," "Seward's Ice Box," "Icebergia," "Walrussia" were some of the epithets ridiculing the purchase of Alaska from Russia by Secretary of State William H. Seward and Senator Charles Sumner. President Johnson signed the deal Mar. 30; it was ratified by congress June 20; payment was made Aug. 1, and the transfer took place in New Archangel on the island of Sitka, Oct. 18. This date is now observed as a holiday in Alaska.
Congress passed (Mar. 2 and Mar. 23) over the President's veto, the Reconstruction Act "to provide for a more efficient government of the rebel states" under military governors until the states were readmitted to Congress.
Nebraska was admitted (Mar. 1) as the 37th state.
Three Milwaukee men, Carlos Glidden, a mechanic, Samuel Soule, and Christopher Sholes, both printers, devised the first practical typewriting machine. It could write only capital letters and could only print on tissue paper.
Baseball was rapidly becoming the national game.
The greatest contribution to baseball was made by William Arthur Cummings, Brooklyn pitcher, who perfected the curveball.
Canada was raised (July 1) to the status of Dominion.
In Print
The first Horatio Alger stories for boys and Elsie books for girls appeared.
Music
The Blue Danube (Johann Strauss)
1868
Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, and South Carolina were the first of the former Confederate States to be readmitted (June) to Congress.
The 14th Amendment, concerning citizenship, was ratified (July 2).
The bells which were rung at its adoption inspired Whittier to write the poem Laus Deo!.
A.M. Hills invented the lawn mower. James Buchanan, 15th President, died (June 1).
Typewriter was patented (June).
Music
O Little Town of Bethlehem
Sweet By and By
1869
Ulysses S. Grant, Republican, of Ohio, was inaugurated as the 18th President.
The first transcontinental railway, the Union Pacific and Central Pacific, was completed and a golden spike was driven (May 10) by Gov. Leland Stanford of California at Ogden, Utah, where tracks from the east and west joined.
Memorial Day (May 30) was first observed.
The Nation Woman Suffrage Association was formed to bring pressure on the Federal government.
Public interest induced James Gordon Bennett, wealthy newspaper owner of the New York Herald, to finance an expedition to Africa under Sir Henry Morton Stanley to find the "lost "explorer and missionary David Livingstone, who had set out in 1865 to discover the sources of the Nile.
The American Museum of Natural History was founded in New York.
William Frederick Cody became "Buffalo Bill" and a fictional hero--all because he was so named by Colonel Edward Zane Carroll Judson, who met him at this time.
The bicycle (a wooden affair) was put on the American market by the Six Hanlon Brothers.
The Cincinnati baseball team became the first outright professional club in American, and made a tour without losing a single game.
The last surviving soldier of the Revolutionary War died--Daniel F. Bakeman, aged 109 years (Apr. 5) in Freedom, Cattaraugus County, New York.
Franklin Pierce, the fourteenth President, died (Oct. 8).
The first patent for chewing gum was issued (Dec. 28).
Music
The Little Brown Jug
Shew! Fly, Don't Bother Me
1870
The four remaining former Confederate States of Georgia, Mississippi, Texas, and Virginia were readmitted to Congress.
Celluloid was patented by John Wesley Hyatt.
The brothers John Davison and William Rockefeller founded the Standard Oil company with a capitalization of $1,000,000.
Alfred Ely Beach designed for New York the first American subway.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York was incorporated.
The steamboat Robert E. Lee paddled from New Orleans to St. Louis in 3 days, 18 hours, and 14 minutes, for a record.
General Robert Edward Lee, aged 63 died (Oct. 12) in Lexington, Virginia. At the time of his death, he was President of Washington College (now Washington and Lee University), Lexington, Virginia.
The national population was 38,558,371
1871
Sir Henry Morton Stanley found David Livingstone (Nov. 10) in terrible condition in Ujiji, tanganyika, Central Africa.
On Oct. 8 one of the greatest forest fires in history occurred in Wisconsin. Starting in the town of Peshtigo in Marinette County, the conflagration spread through six counties and across Green Bay to Williamsville. More than 1,000 lives were lost and 3,000 people were left destitute.
Captain Charles Francis Hall, commanding an Arctic polar expedition on the government ship Polaris, became (Aug. 29) the first American explorer to reach the farthest North Latitude, near Thank God Harbor, Greenland.
The hydraulic elevator came into use.
Music
Onward, Christian Solders (music by Sir Arthur Sullivan)
1872
The "Congressional Record" was founded by Congress to publish the proceedings of the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Congress abolished the tariff on tea and coffee.
Yellowstone National Park in Montana and Wyoming Territories was established by act of Congress.
James Abbott NcNeill Whistler, American painter, completed in London his "Portrait of My Mother."
Luther Burbank developed the Burbank potato in Worcester, Massachusetts.
In the national election, President Grant was re-elected by a 760,000 majority, the largest ever polled by a presidential candidate up to that time. He won all but seven states.
1873
David Livingstone, famous missionary, died.
Mrs. Belva Ann Lockwood of Washington, D.C. became (Mar. 3) the first woman lawyer admitted to practice before the Supreme Court.
The first typewriter to be placed on the market was the Sholes and Glidden (patented in 1868). It printed only capital letters.
The first cable-car system in the United States was introduced in San Francisco by Andrew S. Hallidie when he equipped the Clay Street Railway with a cable that ran in a slot between the rails.
On Stage
P.T. Barnum built and opened (Oct. 20) in New York a "hippodrome" to house his circus, the "Greatest Show on Earth" On this site the first Madison Square Garden was erected.
1874
Agitation against the evils of alcohol brought into existence the Women's Christian Temperance Union.
As a result of the crusade against "Boss" Tweed, the tier and the donkey were familiar symbols of Tammany and the Democratic party. The figures were drawn by cartoonist Thomas Nast and appeared in Harper's Weekly. He added (Nov. 7) a third caricature, the elephant, to represent the Republican Party.
Tennis was becoming a popular sport.
1875
The first Kentucky Derby was run at Churchill Downs, Louisville, Kentucky. It was won by the horse Aristides.
The Chicago Daily News was founded; also in the same city the Czech language daily Svornost began publication.
1876
The United States was 100 years old.
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