Quill and Pen A Chronology of History

Events Which Influenced and Shaped the United States

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1800 - 1899:Test of Survival.
DATEEVENT
1800Spain returns Louisiana territory to France, - briefly.
1800Congress establishes Library of Congress, April 24.
1800Horse-drawn railroads go into use in Eastern United States (early 1800's).
1801House elects Thomas Jefferson 3rd president
after electoral college tie with Aaron Burr.
Takes oath on March 4. 1st Inaugural Address.
1801John Marshall appointed as Chief Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court.
1801First stone building in Northwest Territory is Ohio capitol, Chillicothe.
1801Tripolitan War begins; ends in 1805 with USMC on the shores of Tripoli.
1802Treaty of Amiens, in March. Napoleon proclaims himself emperor.
1803Louisiana Territory Purchased April 30.
To get money for war, Napoleon sells Louisiana Territory to U.S.
1803Thomas Jefferson's letter to Merriwether Lewis: go West!
1803Ohio enters the Union. Paperwork completed 1953.
1803Atomic theory first published.
1804Ohio University at Athens is first institute of higher learning in Northwest Territory.
1804Lewis & Clark begin their great exploration.
180412th Amendment ratified; changes Presidential election rules.
1804Alexander Hamilton killed in duel with Vice President Aaron Burr, July 11.
1804Immanuel Kant dies, German philosopher whose works include the Critique of Pure Reason and the Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals.
1805Jefferson Takes oath on March 4 for second term of Presidency.
Jefferson's 2nd Inaugural Address.
1805Lewis & Clark discover mouth of Columbia River, just in time, on Nov 7.
1806Presifent Jefferson speaks to Cherokee Chiefs in Washington, Jan. 10.
1806Napoleon excludes British goods from "fortress Europe." American shipping caught in middle.
1807Robert Fulton, in "Clermont", steams up Hudson River to Albany, Aug 17.
1807Treaty of Detroit; Wyandot Indians lose most of their real estate.
1807Embargo Act, Dec 22, forbids American ships to leave American waters.
1808Slave importation outlawed. Yet another 1/4 million brought in by 1860.
1809James Madison takes oath on March 4 as 4th President.
Madison's 1st Inaugural Address.
1809Thomas Paine dies, on June 8. Is buried on his farm in New Rochelle. Ten years later body is moved to England.
1809Non-Intercourse Act, March 1, repeals the Embargo Act, which didn't work.
1809Fable of G. Washington and the cherry tree published in The Life of Washington
by Mason Locke Weems.
1810Census counts 7,239,881 persons in United States
1811Madison allows 20-year charter of Bank of the United States to lapse.
1811Venezuela becomes first S.A. country
to declare independence from Spain; July 5.
1811William Henry Harrison suffers 190 casualties but repels Indians at Tippecanoe River, near West Lafayette, Indiana, Nov 7. Battle earned him nickname "Old Tippecanoe."
1812War (of 1812) declared on England June 18, days after England repealed the cause.
1812John O'Mic hanged on Cleveland Public Square for killing 2 fur trappers.
1812Russians build Fort Rossiia (Ross) 90 miles north of San Francisco.
1813Robert R. Livingston, statesman, jurist, collaborator with Robert Fulton, administered first oath to Washington, dies in New York on Feb., 26.
1813James Madison takes oath on March 4 for second term of Presidency.
Madison's 2nd Inaugural Address.
1813'Commodore' Oliver Hazard Perry "meets" British in Lake Erie Sept 10.
1813Tecumseh defeated and killed in battle near Detroit, in Thames, Ontario.
1814City of Washington captured and burned by British, August 24. Dolley Madison's description of events at the White House on August 23. British soldier's account.
1814Francis Scott Key observes flag over Fort McHenry at Baltimore, Sept 14, and pens a poem.
1814Treaty of Ghent ends War of 1812 on December 24, but fighting goes on.
1815Andrew Jackson defeats British at New Orleans Jan 8, after war ends.
1815Napoleon meets his "Waterloo" on June 18.
1815USS Constitution defeats two British ships off African coast 20 Feb.
1816American Colonization Society founded by bigots to return free blacks to Africa.
1816Second Bank of the United States chartered, Apr 10.
1817James Monroe takes oath on March 4 as 5th President.
1817Work begins on Erie Canal.
1817Secretary of State Rush and British Minister Bagot agree on status of Great Lakes.
1818Congress fixes stripes in flag at 13 to honor original colonies, Apr 4.
1818Anglo-American Convention fixes 49th parallel as border with Canada.
1819SS Savannah makes transatlantic crossing under steam propulsion, a first.
1819Florida ceded by Spain to the United States, Feb 22: Not formalized until 1821.
1819Treaty of Saginaw; Indians give up one sixth of Michigan.
1820Missouri Compromise forbids slavery above 36 degrees 30 minutes latitude.
1820Florence Nightingale is born in Florence, Italy: May 12.
1820Federalist Party dissolves; without opposition, Jefferson Democrats disband.
1821James Monroe takes oath on March 4 for second term of Presidency.
1821Thomas Jefferson writes autobiography. Describes many historical events.
1821Napoleon dies in exile on St. Helena on May, 5.
1823Monroe Doctrine given to Congress December 2.
1824House of Representatives elects John Q. Adams president.
1825John Quincy Adams takes oath on March 4 as 6th President.
1825Erie Canal completed.
1826July 4: John Adams dies with last words, "Jefferson survives" not knowing that Jefferson had died a few hours earlier at Monticello.
1827Daniel Webster, takes seat in U.S. Senate... and changed it forever.
1827Ludwig van Beethoven dies.
1827Ohio Canal opened for business.
1828Noah Webster publishes American Dictionary of English Language, Apr 14.
1828Baltimore & Ohio railroad, the first designed for passengers & freight.
1829Andrew Jackson takes oath on March 4 as 7th President.
1829Estate of James Smithson leaves gift to U.S. It later funds Smithsonian Institution.
1830Oregon Trail has beginning; organization seeks Oregon settlers.
1830Mormon Church organized April 30, at Fayette, New York.
1830Abolition of slavery gains strong momentum in Northern States.
1831Samuel F. Smith writes My Country, 'tis of Thee.
1831Slave Nat Turner rebels on August 21 and leads slave revolt at Southampton, Virginia.
1832Abe Lincoln enlists in Illinois militia to help fight Sauk & Fox Indians.
1832Jackson vetoes re-chartering of 2nd Bank, gives birth to Whig Party.
Jackson supporters counter with rebirth of Jefferson Democratic Party.
1833Andrew Jackson takes oath on March 4 for second term of Presidency.
1833First tax-supported public library, at Peterborough, NH, Apr 9.
1833George Washington's Religious Character is discussed by g-daughter Nelly.
1833Oberlin College, in Ohio, is first coed college in U.S.A.
1834Death of Lafayette, Revolutionary War hero on two continents.
1834Charles Babbage demonstrates "analytic engine", a computer.
1835Treaty of New Echota. United States takes Cherokee Indian lands.
1835U.S.A. becomes debt free (briefly) for only time in history.
1835Mark Twain born, in Florida, Missouri, on November 30, 1835.
1836The Alamo. 6000 Mexicans defeat 190 Americans in 12 days on March 6.
1836Aaron Burr dies. Last 32 years of misery after duel with Hamilton.
1837Martin Van Buren takes oath on March 4 as 8th President.
1837Emerson commemorates battle of Concord NH in 1775 with Concord Hymn.
1838Osceola dies in prison after being tricked by false white flag.
1838Trail of Tears. Thousands of Cherokee Indians die on forced march to reservations.
1838Black Hawk, famous Sauk warrior, dies of old age.
1839Slaves take over slave ship Amistad, land in New York.
1839Abner Doubleday invents baseball at Cooperstown, NY.
1839Railway Express Co. founded in Boston.
1841William Henry Harrison takes oath on March 4 as 9th President. Catches cold at inauguration and dies April 4 - one month after taking office.
John Tyler takes oath on April 6 as 10th President.
1841Russia sells Fort Ross in California to John Sutter.
1842Plain Dealer Publishing Co. founded in Cleveland.
1842Webster-Ashburton Treaty defines Canadian-U.S. frontier, Aug 9.
1844Samuel F. B. Morse opens telegraphic link between Baltimore and D.C.
1845James K. Polk takes oath on March 4 as 11th President.
1845U. S. Naval Academy opens at Annapolis, Maryland.
1845Texas is annexed; war with Mexico follows.
1845Johnny Appleseed (John Chapman) dies, goes to the big orchard in the sky.
1846Large crack in Liberty Bell gets too bad to permit ringing any more.
1846Smithsonian Institution founded with gift from estate of James Smithson.
1846New Mexico annexed by the United States.
1846Potato famine in Ireland. Many flee to America for survival.
1847Brigham Young leads Saints from Nauvoo, Illinois, to big U(tah), Salt Lake area.
1847American troops fight their way into the Halls of Montezuma in Mexico.
1848Treaty of 1848 gains CA, NM, AZ, NV, UT, parts of CO and WY for the Union.
1848Pioneering women's rights convention
is convened in Seneca Falls, NY, July 19.
1848John Jacob Astor dies in Waldorf, Germany.
1848Cornerstone laid for the Washington Monument.
1848New York Herald reported discovery of gold in California, August 19.
1849Zachary Taylor takes oath on March 4 as 12th President. Dies July 9, 1850.
1849Gold discovered in California. California Gold Rush begins.
Oregon Trail makes room for "49'ers."
Test of Endurance: 1850 - 1899
~1850The Plague: Pandemic strikes the world. Millions die.
1850Oregon Trail travel increases as "49'ers" head to California.
1850Millard Fillmore takes oath on July 9 as 13th President.
1850The Compromise of 1850; on the slave debate for the territories.
1850Fugitive Slave Act, Sept. 18.
1851Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin published. Adds to slavery tensions.
1851Isaac Singer granted a patent for his sewing machine, August 12.
1851The schooner "America," on August 22, outraced the "Aurora" off English coast;
won trophy that became known as the America's Cup.
1852Death of Daniel Webster, October 24. Did he really say, "... have I
... said anything unworthy of Daniel Webster?"
1853Franklin Pierce takes oath on March 4 as 14th President.
1853Jefferson Davis appointed Secretary of War by President Pierce.
1853Gadsden Purchase brings some Mexican territory into U.S.A.
1853Commodore Matthew Perry opens trade routes with Japan, July 14.
1853Cincinnati is first city to pay firefighters a salary.
1854Kansas - Nebraska Act. Provides springboard for Abe Lincoln.
1854Republican Party formed under John Fremont in Ripon, WI, 28 February.
1854George Boole writes on theories of logic and probabilities.
1854"The Charge of the Light Brigade" during the Crimean War, Oct. 25.
1855Soo Canal opens upper Great Lakes to commercial navigation.
1855Longfellow uses name of real Six Nation's hero Hiawatha in mythical poem.
1856Crimean War ends with Treaty of Paris: Mar. 30.
1856Western Union Telegraph Co. established in Cleveland.
1856Cocaine extracted from cocoa leaves, but has no legitimate use (ever!).
1857James Buchanan takes oath on March 4 as 15th President.
1857Dred Scott decision handed down by Supreme Court, March 6.
1857The Mountain Meadows Massacre, Sept. 11, Mormons and Indians slaughter men, women and children of wagon train in southwest UTAH.
1857Transatlantic cable begins; used briefly in 1858. Replaced in 1866.
1858Abraham Lincoln warns, "A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand."
On August 21 he began famous debates with Stephen Douglas.
1858Seven Wonders of the World, De septum mundi miraculis, Hercher, Paris,
1859Harpers Ferry armory raided by abolitionist John Brown. Colonel Robert E. Lee commands U.S. Army troops in response.
1859Drake puts down first oil well in U.S.A., Titusville, PA.
1860Slave ownership peaks at less than 5% of Southern whites. Less than 3% of Southern whites own 5 or more slaves.
1860Internal combustion engine invented by Frenchman Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir.
1860Annie Oakley born in Darke County, Ohio, log cabin, August 13.
1860Pony Express riders leave Sacramento, CA and St. Joseph, MO on 1st ride.
1860South Carolina becomes first state to secede from Union, December 20.
1861Confederate States adopt Provisional Constitution, February 8.
1861Abraham Lincoln takes oath on March 4 as 16th President.
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»»»Special Section »»» Major Battles of the Civil War
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1861Civil War begins at Fort Sumter, Charleston, SC, April 12.
1861George Armstrong Custer, graduates from West Point, last in his class.
1861Congress enacts illegal income tax August 2, on incomes more than $800.
1861U. S. Navy's first launches hot air balloon August 3.
1861First Congressional Medals of Honor awarded, to Union Navy men.
1861Pony Express is replaced by first transcontinental telegraph.
1862Jefferson Davis inaugurated as President of the Confederacy, Feb. 22.
1862Duel between Merrimac and Monitor March 8; CSS Merrimac withdrew.
1862Battle of Shiloh, April 6, named for a church on the battlefield.
1862The Homestead Act, May 20, contributes to development in ND, SD, and OK.
1862McClellan Letter to Lincoln, July 7, on the evacuation from the Peninsula Campaign.
1862"Taps" music written by Union Gen. Daniel Adams Butterfield
to memorialized dead of Battle of Seven Days.
1862Lt. Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes and Sgt William McKinley
(both future Presidents) saw action at Antietam, Sept., 17.
1863The Emancipation Proclamation; declares all slaves free, January 1st.
1863Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's version of Paul Revere's Ride.
1863General Order No. 100: Instructions issued April 24 by President Lincoln
for armies in the field.
1863Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson was accidentally wounded
on May 2, 1863, by his own men at Chancellorsville, VA.
He died eight days later.
1863George Armstrong Custer, becomes brigadier general at the age of 23.
1863Lincoln delivers The Gettysburg Address dedicated
to more than forty thousand dead.
1864Lincoln posed for photograph which appears on $5 bill, Feb 9.
1864In God We Trust put on American coins for the first time April 22.
1864H.L. Hunley submarine sinks Federal corvette Housatonic with torpedo.
1864Adaptation to Maritime Warfare: Principles of Geneva Convention (III).
1864Massacre of Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians at Sand Creek, Colorado, Nov 29.
1864Lincoln proclaims last Thursday in November to be Thanksgiving Day.
186513th amendment abolishes slavery
1865Abraham Lincoln takes oath on March 4 for second term of Presidency.
1865George Armstrong Custer, becomes major general at the age of 25.
1865Lee surrenders to Grant at Appomattox on Palm Sunday, April 9.
1865Lincoln shot on April 14, dies next day. Four men hanged in Washington, D.C.,
on July 7, for conspiring with John Wilkes Booth.
1865Andrew Johnson takes oath on April 15 as 17th President.
1865The Sinking of the Sultana, April 27, with the loss of 1700 lives.
1865Confederate Army surrenders at Shreveport, LA; Civil War ends May 26.
1865Last shot of Civil War fired by CSS Shenandoah in Bering Sea, June 22.
1865Dr. Mary E. Walker, Acting Assistant Surgeon (civilian), in Union Army
awarded Congressional Medal of Honor, Nov. 11.
1866George Armstrong Custer, joins 7th Cavalry Regiment as lieutenant colonel.
1866Tennessee becomes 1st state, readmitted to Union after Civil War; July 24.
1866Congress recognizes Metric system of weights and measures.
1866Alfred Nobel invents dynamite.
1867British North American Union creates Dominion of Canada; July 1.
1867US buys Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million.
186814th amendment prohibits voting discrimination.
1868Transcontinental railroad completed; Ogden (Promontory), Utah wins the golden spike.
1868Thomas Alva Edison, becomes an inventor.
1869Ulysses S. Grant takes oath on March 4 as 18th President.
1869R.R. Airbrake Patent issued to George Westinghouse.
1869Transcontinental railroad completed; Ogden (Promontory), Utah wins the golden spike.
1869Suez Canal completed.
1870Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea published.
1870V.I. Lenin, founder of Communist Party in Russia, born April 22 in Simbirsk (now Ulyanovsk).
187015th Amendment gives blacks the right to vote.
1870Georgia is last Confederate state readmitted to Union after Civil War; July 15.
1870John D. Rockefeller founds Standard Oil Company, in Cleveland, OH.
1870Robert E. Lee dies, October 12.
1871Dr. B. F. Goodrich opens rubber factory in Akron, OH.
1871Chicago fire of October 8-11 blamed on Mrs. O'Leary's cow.
1872Susan B. Anthony leads protest for women at polling place.
1872Yellowstone National Park created; becomes first national park.
1873Ulysses S. Grant takes oath on March 4 for second term of Presidency.
1873Bellevue Hospital in NYC starts first school of nursing.
1874Guglielmo Marconi, radio pioneer, born April 25.
1874Winston S. Churchill born Nov. 30, in Oxfordshire, England.
1875Gold discovered in the Sioux holy grounds, the Black Hills of South Dakota.
1875First running of the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs, May 17.
1876Custer makes his way into history at Little Big Horn in Montana.
1876Frontiersman "Wild Bill" Hickok is shot and killed, August 2, while playing poker at a saloon in Deadwood, Dakota Territory. His cards - the King of Diamonds with 2 Aces and 2 Eights - became know as a "Dead-Man's Hand."
1876Alexander Graham Bell becomes second man to invent telephone. The first, Elisha Gray, arrived at patent office one hour after Bell had registered his patent.
1877Rutherford B. Hayes takes oath on March 4 as 19th President.
1877North withdraws from South, April 24; occupied since Civil War.
1877Thomas Alva Edison, invents the phonograph.
1877Crazy Horse dies in a Nebraska prison from stab wounds.
1877First commercial telephone exchange is in Boston.
1878First electric street lighting (anywhere); Cleveland, OH, Public Square.
1878Thomas Alva Edison, invents the electric light.
1878American Bar Association founded in Saratoga, New York: August 21.
1879John D. Rockefeller organizes the Standard Oil Trust.
1879Joseph Stalin, dictator of the Soviet Union, 1929-1953, born Dec. 21 in Gori, near Tbilisi in Georgia.
1881James A. Garfield takes oath on March 4 as 20th President.
1881Booker T. Washington opens Tuskegee Institute for blacks.
1881Sioux Indian leader Sitting Bull, a fugitive since the Battle of the Little Big Horn, surrenders to federal troops; July 20.
1881James A. Garfield assassinated, September 19.
Chester A. Arthur takes oath as 21st President.
1882First Labor Day, Tuesday, Sept. 5, in NYC. Planned by Central Labor Union.
1883Indonesian volcano Krakatau erupts killing 35,000.
1883Brooklyn Bridge, connecting Manhattan Island to Brooklyn, completed May 24.
1884Statue of Liberty presented by France, construction required ten years.
1884First baseball World Series played.
1885Grover Cleveland takes oath on March 4 as 22nd President, 1st term.
1885French scientist Louis Pasteur, on July 6, successfully tests an anti-rabies vaccine on boy bitten by an infected dog.
1886Geronimo surrenders all Apache nations, September 4.
1886The Statue of Liberty is dedicated in New York Harbor, Oct. 28.
1887Susan Salter, Argonia, Kansas, becomes first woman mayor in U.S.A., April 4.
1887Interstate Commerce Commission established to bring order to the railroad industry.
1888First successful computer built by Herman Hollerith.
1888Richmond, Virginia, introduces first Electric streetcars.
1888George Eastman received patent for roll-film camera;
registered "Kodak," trademark, Sept. 4
1889Benjamin Harrison takes oath on March 4 as 23rd President.
1889Adolf Hitler is born April 20 in Braunau, Austria.
1889Indian Territory becomes Oklahoma Territory, thrown open to land-rush.
1889Ten story building erected in Chicago. Considered a skyscraper at the time.
1889The Wall Street Journal is first published; July 8.
1889Jefferson Davis dies at age 81 on December 6. Buried in New Orleans
~1890Thomas Alva Edison, invents motion pictures.
1890First skyscraper in New York City is the World Building, 26 stories.
1890Sitting Bull killed by Indian policemen while resisting arrest.
1890Massacre of Indians including women and children at Wounded Knee, SD, December 29.
1890Sherman Anti-Trust Act signed into law, July 2.
1890Artist Vincent van Gogh dies of self-inflicted gunshot wound in Auvers, France, July 29.
~1890Teddy Roosevelt writes about Daniel Boone's excursion to Kentucky in 1769.
1890Leonidas Merritt discovers iron ore lode at Mesabi, MN.
1892First bridge to span the lower Mississippi River is at Memphis.
1892Rudolf Diesel invents internal combustion engine that runs on oil (diesel engine).
1892Pledge of Allegiance published. Changes made in 1954.
1893Grover Cleveland takes oath on March 4 as 24th President. Only President to serve a "split" Presidency (two terms with a different President in between.)
1893Peter Rabbit story first told by English author Beatrix Potter;
in picture letter to Noel Moore, son of Potter's former governess, Sept. 4.
1893America the Beautiful written by Katherine Lee Bates.
1896Plessy v. Ferguson establishes "separate but equal" provision in U.S. law.
1896Klondike gold rush begins when prospecting party discovers gold in Alaska; August 17.
1897William McKinley takes oath on March 4 as 25th President.
1898Spanish - American War. Teddy Roosevelt and his rough-riders fight in Cuba.
1898USS Maine blown up in harbor at Havana, Cuba, February 15.
1898Independent republic of Hawaii annexed by United States.
1899First Open Door Note from John Hay to Andrew D. White regarding China.
 
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