Here is an historical time line of events on this continent from 1450 to 1909.
I have couched in this time line many of my family dates. It is interesting to note how my family history merges with the overall. (This is not complete as of 05/10/2009 - `still working on it as time allows.)
1450 or before - The Iroquois League, a confederation of the Mohawks, Senecas, Oneidas, Cayugas and Onondagas is founded. In 1714 the Tuscaroras, a kindred Indian nation, moved northward from what is presently the Carolinas to become the sixth national member of the confederacy. The Iroquois League was the brain-child of Deganwidah, a Huron who lived in what is now eastern Ontario. Deganwidah was unsuited himself to propose the idea of a league of nations, not only because of his non-Iroquoian ancestry, but also because he stuttered so badly that he could scarcely talk. He would have had the utmost difficulty in presenting his idea to societies where oratory was prized. And writing, aside from the pictographs of the wampum belts, was not used. Deganwidah travelled from tribe to tribe trying to figure ways to realize his dream and in doing so met Hiawatha, who agreed to speak for him. Hiawatha (a man far removed from Longfellow's poetic creation) undertook long negotiations with leaders of the five nations and, in the end, produced an agreement along the lines of Deganwidah's vision. The agreement was procured, and maintained, through the Constitution of the League, called the Great Law of Peace. The Iroquois League and it's Great Law of Peace was to become the model used for the new American government and it's Constitution. Later still it was used as the model for the UN and it's constitution.
August 3, 1492 - Christopher Columbus sets sail to find a westward route to the east.
October 12, 1492 - Christopher Columbus reportedly the 1st European to set foot on the New World (in what is now the Dominican Republic).
April 2, 1513 - Juan Ponce De Leon establishes the 1st colony in what is now the United States (St. Augustine, Florida).
December 20, 1606 - Virginia Company settlers left London to establish the first permanent English settlement in North America.
May 14, 1607 - The first permanent English settlement in what is now the United States is established at Jamestown, Virginia.
December 4, 1619 - The 1st Thanksgiving is celebrated.
1619 - Dutch deliver first slaves to Virginia.
November 9, 1620 - the Mayflower ship lands at Cape Cod, Massachusetts, with 101 people on board, 66 of whom were separatists of the Church of England who were also known as Pilgrims and Colonists.
November 11, 1620 - the Mayflower Compact is signed by the 41 men, establishing a form of local government in which the colonists agree to abide by majority rule and to cooperate for the general good of the colony. The Compact sets the precedent for other colonies as they set up governments.
1625 - Mareen "the Emigrant" Duvall is born in Nantes, France.
February 4, 1636 - Gerret Van Swearingen is born in Beemsterdam, Holland (United Netherlands)
1637 - William Butt is born in England.
1638 - The first colonial printing press is set up in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
1640 - Barbara De Barrette is born in Valenciennes, France.
October 14, 1644 - William Penn is born in London.
1645 - George Green is born in Faringdon, England.
1646 - In Massachusetts, the general court approves a law that makes religious heresy punishable by death.
1652 - Rhode Island enacts the first law in the colonies declaring slavery illegal.
March 1, 1659 - Gerret Van Swearingen marries Barbara De Barrette in New Amstel/New Castle, Delaware.
1660 - William Butt arrived in Portsmouth, NH, then moves to Dutchess County, NY. Later he settled in Prince George Co., MD
1660 - William Butt marries Elizabeth ?
1665 - Thomas Van Swearingen, son of Gerret and wife Barbara (De Barrette) Van Swearingen is born in St Mary's, Somerset County, MD. Thomas drops the Van and becomes Thomas Swearingen.
1665 - Thomas Green, son of George Green, b. 1645 and unknown wife, is born in England.
1667 - Samuel Duvall, son of Mareen "the Emigrant" Duvall and wife Mary Bouth is born.
1680 - Richard Butt, son of William and Elizabeth is born, probably in Darnell's Grove, Prince George's County, MD.
1681 - Pennsylvania is founded as William Penn, a Quaker, receives a Royal charter with a large land grant from King Charles II.
1681 - Mary (?) (Butt) Metcalf is born in Prince George's County, Maryland. She later marries a man whose name is unknown. She later marries Richard Butt, b. 1680 - d. before 28 Apr 1715 when his will was recorded. Then after Richards death she marries John Metcalf/Medcalfe probably about 1716/1717.
1682 - A large wave of immigrants, including many Quakers, arrives in Pennsylvania from Germany and the British Isles.
1685 - Protestants in France lose their guarantee of religious freedom as King Louis XIV revokes the Edict of Nantes, spurring many to leave for America.
March, 1687 - Thomas Swearingen marries Jayne Doyne (maybe Jane Hyde) in St Mary's, Somerset County, MD.
May 9, 1689 - Britain declares war on France.
May 24, 1689 - English Parliament guarantees freedom of religion for Protestants.
July 25, 1689 - France declares war on Britain.
December 16, 1689 - English Parliament adopts a Bill of Rights.
1689 - "Old" William Green is born, probably Kent County, PA, now the middle of the three counties of Delaware or Port Tobacco, Charles County, MD
1693 - The College of William and Mary is founded in Williamsburg, Virginia.
1694 - Mary Ray is born in Prince George's County, MD.
1696 - John Swearingen, son of Thomas and Jayne (Doyne) Swearingen is born in Queen Ann's Parrish, Prince George's County, MD.
1700 - The Anglo population in the English colonies in America reaches 275,000, with Boston (pop. 7000) as the largest city, followed by New York (pop. 5000).
December 11, 1703 - Richard Butt, son of Richard Butt and Mary (?) (Butt) Metcalf, is born in Queen Ann's Parish, Prince George's Co., Maryland.
February 28, 1704 - French/Indian forces destroy Deerfield, Massachusetts.
1705 - Rignal Green Sr. is born in Berkeley County, VA.
January 17, 1706 - Benjamin Franklin is born in Boston.
February 5, 1706 - Dinah Butt, aka, Dinah Darke Butt is born, in Queen Ann's Parrish, Prince George's County, MD.
1712 - Rachel Duvall, grand daughter of Mareen "the Emigrant" Duvall and wife Elizabeth IJAMS is born in Queen Ann's Parish, Prince George's Co., Maryland.
January 28, 1712 - American forces attack the Tuscarora Indians during the Tuscarora Indian War.
October 10, 1712 - Samuel Butt son of Richard and Mary (?) (Butt) Metcalf is born in Queen Ann's Parish, Prince George's Co., Maryland.
February 9, 1714 - John Swearingen marries Mary Ray in Queen Ann's Parrish, Prince George's County, MD
1717 - Elizabeth Swearingen, daughter of John and wife Mary (Ray) Swearingen is born in MD.
September 22, 1722 - Samuel Adams is born at Quincy, in Massachusetts.
February 22, 1732 - George Washington is born in Westmoreland County, Virginia.
August 1, 1734 - Samuel Butt marries Elizabeth Swearingen in St. Barnabas Church, Queen Anne's Parrish, Prince George's County, Maryland.
October 30 1735 - John Adams is born in Braintree, Norfolk, Massachusetts.
May 29, 1736 - Patrick Henry is born in Hanover County, Virginia.
January 29, 1737 - Thomas Paine is born in Thetford, England.
1740 - Richard Butt, b. December 11, 1703 marries in Prince George's Co., Maryland, Rachel Duvall, b. 1712.
April 13, 1743 - Thomas Jefferson is born in Albemarle County, Virginia.
1747 - Ann or Mary Ann Butt, daughter of Samuel and Elizabeth (Swearingen) Butt is born.
March 16, 1751 - James Madison is born in Port Conway, King George, Virginia
September 2, 1752 - Britain and the colonies under its control adopt the Gregorian calendar.
6 September 6, 1757 - Marquis de Lafayette is born at the castle of Chavagnac, in Auvergne, France.
April 28th, 1758 - James Monroe is born in Westmoreland County, Virginia.
1761 - Ferry established at the confluence of the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers. Town to become known as Harper's Ferry.
July 11, 1767 - John Quincy Adams is born in Braintree, Massachusetts.
October 26, 1767 - Deed of Mary (?) (Butt) Metcalf, former widow of Richard Butt, gave her grandsons, Richard and Thomas, the land called "Batchelor`s Delight." A part of Darnell's Grove, in accordance with the will of Richard Butt; Vol. BB, No. 2, pages 65-66, Maryland Hall of Records. Mary lived many years after his death and outlived both of these two sons. She deeded the land to Richard(1), son of Richard(1B) and Thomas II, son of Thomas I.
1768 - Tecumseh is born. He dies in 1813 during the Battle of The Thames River near Chatham, Ontario.
1768 - Work begins on Th. Jefferson's Monticello.
1770
1770 - Jefferson moves into the South Pavilion (an outbuilding) of Monticello
March 5, 1770 - The Boston Massacre occurs when British troops fire into a Boston mob, who were demonstrating against British troops at the customs commission. The first to fall was Crispus Attucks, a fugitive slave and merchant seaman near the front, followed by four other men amongst the forty-fifty patriots. This event was later credited as the first battle in the American Revolution, which began five years later, and was used as an incident to further the colonists cause of rebellion.
April 12, 1770 - The Townshend Acts, duties on goods such as lead, paper, glass and tea enacted three years earlier, were repealed by British parliament except for that on tea, thus continuing to raise opposition in America. British Prime Minister Lord North, as well as parliament, maintained the tea tax, in order to show their supremacy.
July 1, 1770 - The closest encounter of a comet with earth likely occurs as the Lexell Comet passes at the closest distance in history, 3.4 million kilometers. This comet no longer comes near enough to Earth to be seen due to gravitational pulls with Jupiter and may have been ejected from our solar system.1771
The colonies are growing. By this year, there were over two hundred miles of roads in New Hampshire alone.
May 1771 - In Connecticut, the General Assembly directs the governor, Jonathan Trimball, to "collect all publick letters and papers which hereafter in any way affect the interest of this Colony and have the same bound together, that they may be preserved." Also, this year Juan de Anza established the first overlands route to California from Mexico.
The colony of New York gains another member of the press corps when the Albany Gazette becomes that city's first newspaper into publication.November, 1771 - Richard Butt purchases from Joseph Franceway 200 acres that will become Buttstown, VA.
1772
The first independent Anglo-American government is founded in May by the Watauga Association in East Tennessee, a group of settlers needing mutual protection along the Watauga River. The written agreement allowed for a five man court to act as the government. The Wataugans would negotiate a ten year lease with the Cherokee for land along the river.
June 9, 1772 - British customs cutter HMS Gaspee, charged with enforcing the Stamp Act of 1865 and the Townshend Acts, is lured aground off the coast of Warwick, Rhode Island on the shore of Narragansett Bay. The next day, colonial sympathizers defy the king and torch the revenue ship.
November 2, 1772 - Samuel Adams organizes the Committee of Correspondence, a forerunner of the union of American colonies, that begins the American Revolution. The meeting was held in Faneuil Hall, Boston, and later repeated throughout the American colonies.1773
March - The House of Burgesses in the Colony of Virginia reacts strongly against British policies by setting up a committee to contact the other colonies about their common defense.
December 16, 1773 - When the English East India Company sought financial assistance, England allowed the company to ship surplus tea to America at low cost. This rankled the American colonists, who resented the implementation of a single company controlling the tea trade, as well as the right of the British government to tax the colonies without their consent. Meeting at the Old South Meeting House, Bostonians led by Josiah Quincy and Samuel Adams discussed the new British tax on tea and subsequently boarded three ships in the nearby harbor, tossing the 342 chests of tea overboard. The Boston Tea Party caused Parliament to close the port of Boston and pushed the American colonies one step closer to war.1774
June 2, 1774. The Intolerable Acts, including the reestablishment of the Quartering Act, requiring colonists allow British soldiers into their homes, and the curtailment of Massachusetts self-rule, are enacted by the British government. Later led to the 3rd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits the U.S. Army from doing the same.
September 5 to October 26. The First Continental Congress was held in Carpenter’s Hall in Philadelphia, protesting the Intolerable Acts. The Congress, attended by all American colonies except Georgia, petitioned King George to stop the new regulations on Massachusetts, and called for civil disobedience and boycotts of British wares by the American Association. No concessions were made by the King or English parliament.October 26, 1774 - The Minute Men are established in America.
The colonies of Rhode Island and Connecticut ban the further importation of slaves.1775
By the end of January 1775, there were 37 newspapers being printed in the American colonies. Seven newspapers were published in Massachusetts; one in New Hampshire; two in Rhode Island; and 4 in Connecticut. Three papers were published in New York City, with one additional New York paper published in Albany. Nine were published in Pennsylvania; two in Maryland; two in Virginia (both at Williamsburg); two in North Carolina; three in South Carolina, and one in Georgia.
February 9, 1775 - The British government declares Massachusetts in rebellion.
March 23, 1775 - Patrick Henry addressed the Virginia House of Burgesses in St. John’s Church in Richmond, where he decreed, “Give me Liberty or Give me Death.” His speech is often credited with convincing Virginia to permit Virginia troops to enter the Revolutionary War. The crowd reacted to Henry’s speech with fervent cries, “To Arms! To Arms!”
April 18, 1775 - Two lanterns were hung from the steeple of Old North Church by sexton Robert Newman as Paul Revere and William Dawes rode through the night, warning patriots that the British were coming to Concord to destroy arms. The next day, during armed resistance, 8 Minutemen were killed at Lexington and the British took 273 casualties on their return from Concord, starting the American Revolution. This was a culmination of the months prior, as colonists began to gather arms and powder if fighting the British became necessary. However, even after the patriot’s brave battle at Lexington and Concord, the majority of Americans were undecided whether war or reconciliation was the more prudent course of action.
June 15, 1775 - The Continental Congress appoints George Washington commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, sending him to Boston with the task to take charge of the ragtag militia thereApril 19, 1775 - Battles of Lexington and Concord mark the beginning of the Rev. War
1776
Andrew Houston is born around this time.
January 10 - Thomas Paine, and English writer, publishes his pamphlet “Common Sense” touting the ability and right of America to create a democratic and free nation, winning public support for the cause of American independence from Britain with the sale of hundreds of thousands of copies. Thomas Jefferson received a copy of “Common Sense” at his home Monticello, whose sentiments pleased him, and the course for independence and the Declaration to follow began.
July 4, 1776 - The Declaration of Independence, from the pen of Thomas Jefferson and his committee, was approved in the Second Continental Congress of the United States of America, held in Independence Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was influenced by many writers, including John Locke, and was emboldened by the notion that man had the natural right to change or overthrow the government that denied their rights. Four days later, the Declaration of Independence was proclaimed publicly for the first time outside the Province House in Philadelphia, later to be dubbed Independence Hall, touching off a celebration that rippled through the city. Liberty and freedom was celebrated amongst commoners and soldiers, who would soon fight to solidify its hold on the thirteen colonies.September 7, 1776 - In the world’s first submarine attack, the American submersible ship Turtle attempts to attach a time bomb to the flagship of British Admiral Richard Howe’s ship HMS Eagle in New York Harbor.
September 22, 1776 - As a member of the Continental Army sent on an intelligence gathering mission behind enemy lines on Long Island, Nathan Hale, disguised as a Dutch teacher, was subsequently caught and executed by the British for spying. In a speech before he was hung, the immortal words, “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country,” were reportedly uttered, and reverberated through repetition throughout the colonies. A statue of Hale now sits outside the Central Intelligence Agency in Washington, D.C.
December 25 to 26 - At McKonkey’s Ferry, General Washington and his 2,600 troops cross the Delaware River from Pennsylvania to New Jersey on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and defeats 1,400 Hessians in the battle of Trenton.1777
January 3, 1777 - General Washington and the 7,000 man Continental Army defeats British General Charles Cornwallis at Princeton, New Jersey. This battle, combined with that of Trenton one week earlier, impressed upon other European nations that the Americans could combat the British Army.
January 14, 1777 - Samuel Butt is born.
June 14, 1777 - The Continental Congress adopts the Stars and Stripes as the national flag.September 3, 1777 - The Stars and Strips fly on the battlefield for the first time at Cooch’s Bridge, Maryland.
July 26, 1777 - Americans held Fort Stanwix is besieged by British and Indian troops under the command of General Barry St. Leger. The British are forced to withdraw after three weeks under the duress of the fort’s defenders, led by Colonel Peter Ganesvoort.
November 15 - The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union are adopted by the Continental Congress in Independence Hall. It serves as the first constitution of the United States.
December 17 - After John Adams, elected commissioner to France by the Continental Congress, and Benjamin Franklin engage their support for the Revolutionary War, France recognizes the independence of the 13 colonies, signing treaties of alliance and commerce. French involvement becomes the turning point of the war.
December 19 - After failing victory in the battles of Brandywine and Germantown, and in response to the British capture of Philadelphia, George Washington marches his 11,000 man Continental Army into Valley Forge for the first winter encampment.1778
In an advertisement in a Kentucky gazette, a New Jersey stallion was called a thoroughbred, the first usage in the United States of that equine term.
February 5, 1778 - Friedrich von Steuben of the Prussian Army meets with the Continental Congress in York, Pennsylvania. They direct him to join General George Washington at the winter encampment at Valley Forge to drill the Continental Army into an effective fighting unit while the British retain control of Philadelphia, only twenty miles away. South Carolina also becomes the first state to ratify the Articles of Confederation.
February 6, 1778 - France signs the treaty of Amity and Commerce with the United States, officially recognizing the new nation, and sends Pierre L’Enfant to be captain of engineers at Valley Forge. Later, L’Enfant would be commissioned to design the capital city of the United States, Washington, D.C.
June 18 - British evacuate Philadelphia.
December 28 - The first battle of Savannah, Georgia was lost to the British.1779
February 25 - Fort Sackville at Vincennes, Indiana is surrendered by British troops under the command of British Lt. Governor Henry Hamilton. The militia under Lt. Colonel George Rogers Clark, bolsters the western claims in the American Revolution.
June 1, 1779 - Although currently a successful American general, Benedict Arnold is court-marshaled for civil authority disputes. His sentence, however, was a light reprimand by General Washington. Mad about the court-marshal and the new American alliance with France, Arnold became a traitor against the American cause when he plotted to transfer the fort at West Point, New York, for 20,000 sterling (approximately $1,000,000 today) that would effectively give control of the Hudson River to British forces. His plot was uncovered, but Arnold escaped, then joined British forces and fought against the Continental Army.June 12, 1779 - After being appointed by General George Washington earlier in the year to lead a 4,500 man army against insurgents (mainly Torey's and the tribes of the Iroquois League), General John Sullivan begins a campaign the will result in the destruction of the Iroquois League.
September 23 - John Paul Jones and the Bonhomme Richard defeat the Serapis in the British North Sea.
December 1 - General Washington arrives at Morristown, New Jersey, where the Continental Army winters in the second season of the Revolutionary War.
December 25 - Nashville, Tennessee is founded by James Robertson as Fort Nashborough.1780
May 12 - Charleston, South Carolina falls to the British after an effective seige.
Prompted by poor vision both near and far, and tired of putting his glasses on and off, Benjamin Franklin invents bi-focals.
July 11 - French troops set foot on American soil at Newport, Rhode Island, to fight alongside the Patriot militiamen of the Continental Army for American independence from Great Britain.15 July 1780 - William Green, Jr., purchases from John Linder, Sr., and wife Grace, 82 acres of land in VA. This along with another 42 acres acquired later ultimately became the current city of Greensburg, WV. This William Green Jr. was the son of “Old” William Green and wife Dinah Butt, aka, Dinah Darke Butt. William Green Jr. was married to Ann (Mary Ann) Butt, daughter of Samuel Butt and wife Elizabeth Swearingen. This Samuel Butt was the brother of Dinah Butt, aka, Dinah Darke Butt. Ann or Mary Ann Butt was the niece of Dinah Butt, aka, Dinah Darke Butt.
September 25 - The march begins this date at Sycamore Shoals on the Watauga River (Tennessee) by the “over-mountain men” militia of the American Revolution under Colonels Charles McDowell, John Sevier, Isaac Shelby, and William Campbell as they move toward the Battle of Kings Mountain.
October 7 - Loyalist troops fighting for Britain are beaten at the Battle of Kings Mountain by the “over-mountain men,” who kill the opposition leader British Major General Patrick Ferguson. This battle reversed the southern fortunes of the British during the Revolutionary War.1780 – Elizabeth A. Green is born. She is the second oldest of 9 children born to Rignal Green Sr. and second wife Sarah. Rignal Green Sr. is the oldest of 8 children born to “Old” William Green and wife Dinah Butt, aka Dinah Darke Butt.
1781
January 17 - At Cowpens, South Carolina, Brigadier General Daniel Morgan with his band of Patriot militia defeat the large force of British regulars under Lt. Colonel Banastre Tarleton.
March 15 - British troops under Lord Cornwallis gain a costly victory at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse in North Carolina at the expense of Major General Nathanael Greene in the opening salvo of the campaign that would lead to Yorktown.
May 22 - Major General Nathanael Greene and Harry "Light-horse" Lee leads the Continental Army against British loyalists in a siege at Ninety-Six, South Carolina.
May 26 - The Bank of North America is incorporated in Philadelphia by an act of Congress to help stabilize the issuance of paper currency. It was capitalized in 1781 with $400,000.
September 26 - General George Washington and Rochambeau join forces near Williamsburg. Two weeks later, on October 6, they begin the seige of Cornwallis at Yorktown. At the time, English troops numbered 6,000, American troops 8,846, and French troops 7,800October 19 - British forces under Lord Cornwallis surrendered to Washington’s American forces and their French allies at Yorktown, Virginia. This would be the last military battle of the American Revolution.
1782
January - The Bank of North America opens its doors and the Robert Morris, the superintendent of Finance recommends the creation of a national mint and decimal coins.
March 20 - Lord North resigns as British Prime Minister, leading the way for a New British cabinet agrees to recognize United States independence.
June 20 - The Bald Eagle is adopted by Congress as the national bird. Franklin wanted it to be the Turkey.
July 11 - British troops begin to leave United States' soil, evacuating Savannah, Georgia.
November 7 - British Parliament agrees to the recognition of U.S. independence. A preliminary peace treaty, later formalized as the "Treaty of Paris" is signed between American and British officials in Paris on November 30.December 14 - British troops continue their evacuation of United States' soil by leaving Charleston, South Carolina.
1783
April 11, 1783 - Congress declares an end to Rev War hostilities.
April 19 - Congress ratifies the preliminary pace treaty, ending the Revolutionary War.
Massachusetts Supreme Court outlaws slavery, citing the state Bill of Rights “all men are born free and equal.”
September 3 - In Paris, France, John Adams leads an American delegation and signs the peace treaty officially ending the Revolutionary War between the United States and Britain.
November 3 - Army is ordered disbanded by General George Washington. After the British leaves New York City on November 25, Washington bids goodbye to his officers at Fraunces Tavern in New York City on December 4.
Noah Webster publishes the American Spelling Book, a bestseller. More than a million copies are sold of "Webster's Dictionary." Webster's Dictionary is credited for standardizing spelling and pronunciation in the United States of America.1784
January 14 - Congress ratifies the final peace treaty between Great Britain and the United States, ending the conflict that would give America its freedom.
March 1 - All children born after this date in 1784 in Rhode Island are free. Rhode Island’s passage of its Emancipation Act provided for the gradual abolishment of the right to hold slaves.
September 21 - The Pennsylvania Packet & General Advertiser is published, the first successful daily newspaper in the United States.
By the end of 1784, trade with Great Britain had returned as Britain receives its first bales of imported American cotton.
November 24 - Zachary Taylor, who would become the 12th president of the United States, is born.1785
January 7 - Dr. John Jeffries, an American physician, joins John-Pierre Blanchard, a French aviation pioneer, to become the first men to cross the English channel by air, traveling from Dover, England to Calais, Francein in hydrogen gas balloon.
July 6 - The United States adopts a decimal coinage system, with the dollar overwhelmingly selected as the monetary unit, the first time any nation has done so.1786
August 17 - American frontiersman David "Davy" Crockett is born.
September 11-14 - Five state delegates at a meeting in Annapolis, Maryland call for Congress to hold a convention in Philadelphia in order to write a constitution for the thirteen states.
John Fitch invents the steamboat, launching it on the Delaware River in 1787 with six large paddles, like an Indian canoe, that was powered by a steam engine.
The Indian nation of the Choctaw, originally located in the southeastern states of Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana and known as one of the five civilized tribes, sign the first of nine peace treaties between the United States and the tribe.
Rhode Island farmers struck against merchants who refused to accept the depreciated paper currency.1787
1787 - Gracey Marlay is born.
January 25 - In Massachusetts, six hundred debt-ridden farmers, led by Daniel Shays, revolt against their creditors and high Massachusetts taxes. Faced with imprisonment and the loss of their farms for not paying their debts, they engage in Shays’s Rebellion, but it fails when state militia intervene. Daniel Shays would escape to Vermont with the death penalty on his head, but later would be pardoned for his actions.
May 25 - With George Washington presiding, the Constitutional conventions opens in Philadelphia’s Independence Hall.
July 5 - A compromise during the Constitutional Convention proposed by Roger Sherman of Connecticut solves the problem of the amount of votes each state would receive in Congress. A bicameral legislature would be enacted, with equal votes for the Senate and proportional representation based on population in the House of Representatives.
July 13 - The Northwest Ordinance, which determined a government for the Northwest Territory of the United States (north of Ohio River and west of New York), was adopted by the Continental Congress. It guaranteed freedom of religion, school support, and no slavery, plus the opportunity for statehood.
September 17 - Delegates to the Constitutional Convention adopt the Constitution.1788
1788 - John Butt who is thought to be one of the four nephews raised by Richard Butt is born.
March 21 - Twenty-five percent of the population of New Orleans perish in a tragic fire that destroyed 856 buildings and left the majority of the city in ruins.
June 21 - Ratification by New Hampshire of the United States Constitution, the 9th state to do so, indicates adoption of the document by the United States.
John Fitch begins to operate passenger service from Philadelphia to Burlington, New Jersey on a sixty foot steamboat, which proved unprofitable.1789
February 4 - The 1st Congress meets in Federal Hall, New York City with regular sessions beginning two months later on April 6. Frederick A. Muehlenberg becomes the first Speaker of the newly formed House of Representatives.
March 4 - In Federal Hall, New York City, a converted Customs House, the government of the United States under the United States Constitution begins to act. The U.S. Constitution is declared to be in effect.
April 30 - The 1st President, George Washington, is inaugurated in New York City. He had been chosen president by all voting electors (there was no direct presidential election) with John Adams elected Vice President.
September 24 - The Federal Judiciary Act is passed, creating the Supreme Court.
September 25 - The Bill of Rights is submitted to the states by Congress.1790
January 8, 1790 - The first State of the Union address is given by first president George Washington.
February 1, 1790 - The Supreme Court of the United States convenes for the initial session.
March 1, 1790 - Congress commissions the first U.S. census. When completed, it shows that 3,929,214 lived in the nascent democracy in 1790. The most populated state, Virginia, has 691,737. The center of population was 23 miles west of Baltimore, Maryland.April 4, 1790 - Rignal Butt who is thought to be one of the four nephews raised by Richard Butt is born.
July 16, 1790 - George Washington as President, approves the Residence Bill, legislation that authorizes the buying of land along the Potomac River for federal buildings and parks, creating the District of Columbia.
July 31, 1790 - The first patent in the United States is issued to inventor Samuel Hopkins for improved method of making potash.1791
March 3, 1791 - The United States Congress passes a resolution to establish the U.S. Mint, which is created one year later. when the Coinage Act is passed on April 2.
March 14, 1791 - Vermont is added as the 14th State. Carved from portions of New York and New Hampshire, and first known as New Connecticut, Vermont spent fourteen years as an independent republic before joining the Union.
August 26, 1791 - The steamboat is patented in the United States by John Fitch. First launched on the Delaware River in 1787, and operated passenger service from Philadelphia to Burlington, New Jersey, which proved unprofitable.November 4, 1791 - St. Clair's defeat at the hands of Blue Jacket and others. Near present-day Fort Recovery, Ohio. Col. Wm. Darke from Berkeley County was there. His son was killed there and he himself was the only White hero that day. My notes say that Samuel Butt b. 1/14/1777 shows up in Licking Co, about 1790/91 with Col William Darke and fellow Berkeley Countians Peter Williamson, Vatchell Metcalf and Jacob Baker. R M Green wrote that they were at the Battle of Fallen Timbers. Were they all at St. Clair's Defeat instead? Was this Jacob Baker the Capt Jake Baker elsewhere referred to? Was this Jacob Baker the one who’s November 15, 1852, Monroe Co., Ohio will is included here?
December 15, 1791 - In Philadelphia's Congress Hall, the Bill of Rights, which constitutes the first ten amendments to the Constitution, takes effect. Two of the original twelve amendments do not pass.
April 27, 1791 - Samuel Morse, United State inventor, is born. He would later develop the Morse code for use in the first electric telegraph in the United States.1792
February 20, 1792 - The United States Post Office Department is established, signed into law by President George Washington.
April 5, 1792 - The presidential veto is used for the first time when President Washington turns down a bill to apportion resprentation amongst the states.
May 17, 1792 - The beginnings of the New York Stock Exchange is established with the signing of the Buttonwood agreement.
October 13, 1792 - The cornerstone for the U.S. Executive Mansion (called the White House since 1818) in the new District of Columbia is laid by freemasons and the commissioners of the district during the construction of the home of the president. It would take eight more years before President John Adams would move into the home.
November - George Washington, a Federalist, is reelected president of the United States with no opposition, with John Adams elected Vice President. The Federalists, who believed in a strong central government, outnumbered the other political party at the time, the Democrat-Republicans, who decided against a political fight due to Washington's popularity. Washington had considered not seeking a second term, but decided to serve again, in some part due to trying to stem the tide of political parties.1793
February 12, 1793 - The United States Congress passes a federal law requiring the return of slaves that escaped from slave states into free territory or states.
April 22, 1793 - George Washington signs the Proclamation of Neutrality in the French Revolutionary Wars, where France has already declared war on England, the Netherlands, Austria, Prussia and Sardinia.
December 9, 1793 - The American Minerva, established by Noah Webster, becomes New York City's first daily newspaper.
September 18, 1793 - George Washington lays the cornerstone in the Capitol building, beginning the construction on the design by Dr. William Thornton.
August 17, 1793 - Dr. Benjamin Rush conferred with two Philadelphia doctors about an epidemic of disease along the docks of Philadelphia over the preceding two weeks. By November, over 10% of the population of the city had succumbed, nearly 5,000 people. The disease had been brought to the city by refugees from the Haiti, then coupled with a wet spring and swamps that became an incubator for mosquitos.1794
March 14, 1794 - Eli Whitney patents the cotton gin, which could do the work of fifty men when cleaning cotton by hand.
March 27, 1794 - The U.S. Government establishes a permanent navy and commissions six vessels to be built. They would be put into service three years later.
August 20, 1794 - General Anthony Wayne, commander of Ohio-Indiana area, routed a confederacy of Indian tribes, including Shawnee, Mingo, Delaware, Wyandot, Miami, Ottawa, Chippewa, and Potawatomic, at Fallen Timbers on the Maumee River, causing a retreat in disarray.
September 1794 - The Whiskey Rebellion occurs when western Pennsylvania farmers in the Monongahela Valley, upset over the liquor tax passed in 1791, are suppressed by 15,000 militia sent by Alexander Hamilton to establish the authority of the federal government to uphold its laws.
November 19, 1794 - Jay's Treaty is signed between the United States of America and the Kingdom of Great Britain. This treaty tries to settle some of the lingering troubles stemming from the American Revolution.1795
August 3, 1795 - General Wayne signs a peace treaty with the Indians at Fort Greenville, Ohio, ending the hostilities in the what was then known as the Northwest Territories after the Indian confederation's defeat (the treaty included the above mentioned tribes, as well as the Eel Rivers, Weas, Kickapoos, Piankeshaws, and Kaskaskias) at Fallen Timbers the year before.
The University of North Carolina, at Chapel Hill, becomes the first operating state university in the United States, and the only public university to graduate students in the 18th century.
October 27, 1795 - The Treaty of Madrid is signed, establishing the boundaries between the Spanish Colonies and the United States.
November 28, 1795 - The United States purchases peace with Tunis and Algiers by supplying a frigate and over $800,000.1796
June 1, 1796- Tennessee is admitted into the Union as the 16th state.
September 19, 1796 - President George Washington gives his final address as president, urging strong warnings against permanent foreign alliances, large public debt, and a large military establishment.
December 7, 1796 - The U.S. Electoral College meets to elect Federalist John Adams as president. John Adams defeated Thomas Jefferson, of the Democrat Republican party, whose platform included the notion of a weak central goverment, in the U.S. presidential election. Political parties came into prominence with this election after the retirement of George Washington. Electors who chose the president were chosen by the states, using various methods, including the popular vote or by state legislators. Adams received 71 electoral votes to Jefferson's 68.1797
January 3, 1797 - The Treaty of Tripoli, signifying peace between the United States and Tripoli, is signed at Algiers.
March 4, 1797 - John Adams succeeds George Washington as president of the United States.March 13, 1797 Bazil Butt is born.
The United States begins to build up its navy with the launching of three ships. The U.S. frigate United States in Philadelphia on July 10, 1797; the Constellation in Baltimore on September 7; and the Constitution (old Ironsides) in Boston, September 20. The Constitution, a 44 gun frigate, would immediately see service against Barbary pirates of the coast of Tripoli.1798
May 4, 1798 - Thomas Jefferson, then Vice President of the United States, informs the American Philosophical Society of his invention of a new mouldboard for a plow.
April 7, 1798 - The Territory of Mississippi is established from parts of Georgia and South Carolina, and alter expanded to included disputed territory of the United States and Spain.
German-American Gottlieb Graupner settles in Boston and becomes the father of orchestral music in the United States. He would later organize the Philharmonic Society.
Congress voids all treaties with France on July 7, 1798, due to French raids on U.S. ships and a rejection of its diplomats, and orders the Navy to capture French armed ships. Eight-four French ships are captured by the U.S. Navy (with 45 ships) and private ships (365).
July 14, 1798 - The Alien and Sedition Acts making it a federal crime to publish malicious statements about the United States Government go into law.1799
February 1799 - The French warship L'Insurgente is captured by the U.S.S. Constellation. (Pic, left, by Hoff., 1883-1966) Napolean stops the French raids after becoming First Consul.
March 29, 1799 - A law is passed to abolish slavery in the state of New York, effective twenty-eight year later, in 1827.
The American System of Manufacturing is invented by Eli Whitney, who uses semi-skilled labor, machine tools, and jigs to make standardized, interchangeable parts, then an aseembly line of labor. Whitney first used the system to manufacture 10,000 muskets for the U.S. Government.1800
The Natchez Trace post route, following an old trail running from Nashville, Tennessee to Natchez, Mississippi, is established by an Act of Congress on April 23, 1800.
April 24, 1800 - The United States Library of Congress is founded.
The census of the population of the city of Albany, New York reaches 5,349.
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 establishing the territory and written by Thomas Jefferson.1801
January 20, 1801 - John Marshall is appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
February 15, 1801 Thomas Didimus Butt is born.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 in the electoral college with 73 electors.
March 4, 1801 - Thomas Jefferson is inaugurated for his first term as President of the United States, with Aaron Burr, his defeated opponent, as Vice President, as was the rule at the time.
June 10, 1801 - Tripoli declares war against the United States. The United States had refused to pay additional tribute commerce raiding corsairs from Arabia.
November 16, 1801 - The first edition of the New York Post is published.1802
February 11, 1802 - Lydia Child is born and would become a foremost author expounding the idea of an American abolitionist.
March 16, 1802 - West Point, New York is established. Four months later, the United States Military Academy opens on July 4.April 4, 1802 - Sarah Houston is born.
October 2, 1802 - War ends between Tripoli and Sweden, but continues with the United States, despite a negotiated peace, due to compensation disagreements.
World population reached 1 billion people.1803
January 30, 1803 - Discussion 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 4, 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 2, 1803 - President Thomas Jefferson doubles the size of the United States of America with his purchase of the Louisiana Territory from Napoleon's France, thus paving way for the western expansion that would mark the entire history of the 19th century from Missouri to the Pacific Coast. 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, which stretches the United States from the Canadian border to the mouth of the Mississippi River.1804
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 - The duel between Alexander Hamilton and Vice President Aaron Burr, longtime political rivals, occurs in Weehawken, New Jersey, culminating in the death of Hamilton.
October 1, 1804 - The attack on Sitka, Alaska by Russians and their allies in the Aleut community laid siege on a Tlingit Indian fort. One week later, the siege was complete with the driving out of Tlingit forces.
October 26, 2804 - 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 at the hospitality of the Mandan and Minitari Indian villages.1805
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, begin to build Fort Clatsop, a log fort near the mouth of the Columbia River in present-day Oregon. The would spend the winter of 1805-1806 in the newly constructed fort.August 19, 1805 – Sophonia “Fanny” Brake is born.
December 23, 1805 - The found of Mormonism, Joseph Smith, Jr. is born.1806
March 23, 1806 - Explorers Lewis and Clark and the "Corps of Discovery" begin the several thousand mile trek back to St. Louis, Missouri from their winter camp near the Pacific Ocean.
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, was approved by President Thomas Jefferson on March 29, 1806, with the signing of legislation and appropriation of $30,000. The highway ran through three states, including Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Ohio.
July 15, 1806 - A second exploratory expedition led by U.S. Army Lieutenant Zebulon Pike begins from Fort Belle Fountaine near St. Louis begins to explore the west. 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 to map the northwest United States ended. Essential to the journey was Sacagawea, their female Indian guide.
Noah Webster publishes his first American English dictionary.1807
January 19, 1807 - Robert E. Lee is born. Would become a military officer, both with the U.S. Regular Army prior to the outbreak of Civil War, and afterwards, the American Confederate General.
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.
The first practical steamboat journey was made on August 17, 1807 by Robert Fulton in the steamboat Clermont, who navigated the Hudson River from New York City to Albany in thirty-two hours, a trip of 150 miles. This becomes the first commercial steamboat service in the world.
September 1, 1807 - Aaron Burr is acquitted of treason.September 15, 1807 - Mahala Green is born - first White child in Monroe Twsp., Licking County, Ohio. She is later in life referred to as “Mum” and “Hale”. Mahala is the oldest of the 17 children of George Green and wife Diadema Willison.
1808
January 1, 1808 - The importation of slaves was outlawed, although between 1808 and 1860, more than 250,000 slaves were illegally imported.
February 1, 1808 - Anthracite coal is first burn, in an experiment, as fuel.
April 6, 1808 - The American Fur Company is incorporated by John Jacob Astor.
November 1808 - James Madison is elected as the 4th President of the United States, defeating Charles C. Pinckney.
December 29, 1808 - Andrew Johnson, the 17th President of the United States, was born in Raleigh, North Carolina to porter and church sexton Jacob Johnson and Mary McDonough. He would succeed Abraham Lincoln as president after his assassination and later be impeached for his role in removing Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. Johnson would be acquitted by one vote.1809
1809 - Construction of Th. Jefferson's Monticello is substantially completed with the erection of the dome.
February 3, 1809 - The Illinois Territory is created.
Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, is born in a humble Hardin, County, Kentucky log cabin to carpenter Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks on February 12, 1809.
February 20, 1809 - The Supreme Court of the United States rules that the power of the Federal Government is greater than the power of any individual state.
March 4, 1809 - James Madison is inaugurated, succeeding Thomas Jefferson as President of the United States.
The U.S.S. Constitution is re-commissioned as the flagship of the North Atlantic Squadron.1810
June 23, 1810 - The Pacific Fur Company is formed by John Jacob Astor.
During 1810, the causes of the War of 1812 began to emerge. Four thousand naturalized American sailors had been seized by British forces by this year, which forced trade between England and the United States to grind to a halt.May 21, 1810 - Richard Butt writes will naming wife Mary and four "nephews" John, Richard, Rignall and Basill Butt.
September 8, 1810 - Thirty-three employees of the Pacific Fur Company founded by John Jacob Astor 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 1810. Ex-slave Tom Molineaux, born at a Virginia planation in 1784, fought English boxing champion Tom Cribb, narrowly defeated after 39 rounds when he collapsed from exhaustion. A rematch was held on September 28, 1811 with Crib retaining his title in 11 rounds.
The center of the population of the United States, listed as 7,239,881 in the 1810 census, was only 40 miles northwest of Washington, D.C. in the state of Virginia.1810 - Blue Jacket dies
1811
February 3, 1811 - American journalist, editor, and publisher, Horace Greeley, is born.
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 the Prophet are defeated 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.
The Cumberland Road, an important route through the Allegheny Mountains for westward expansion, was begun this year in 1811, five years after 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, weaved 128 miles from Cumberland, Maryland to Wheeling, West Virginia, and would later have its terminus in Vandalia, Illinois.1812
February 2, 1812 - With an estimated magnitude of 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 afthershocks, and reversed the course of the Mississippi River. A request by William Clark, the Missouri territory governor, for federal help, actually one month earlier after the first quake recorded, may have been the first request for 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, Congress narrowly approves war with Great Britain. Western states generally favored the action while New England states disapproved. This included the state of Rhode Island, which would refuse to participate in the War of 1812.
August 13, 1812 - August naval battles in the War of 1812 begin with the United States Navy defeating the British when the U.S.S. Essex captured Alert. Three days later, the tide would turn in British favor as English forces capture Fort Detroit without a fight. This would be followed up on August 19 when the U.S.S. Constitution secured another victory for the Navy of the United States off the coast of Nova Scotia when it destroyed the British frigate Guerriere, earning the nickname "Old Ironsides" when British shot bounded off the Constitution's side.
October 18, 1812 - The U.S.S. Wasp brings another victory for the Navy of the United States when it captured Frolic; one day later, the U.S.S. Constitution would destroy Guerriere. One week later off Azores, the U.S.S. United States defeated Macedonian.
November 1812 - President James Madison defeats De Witt Clinton in the U.S. presidential election, securing a second term as the United States engages in the War of 1812 by an Electoral College margin of 128 votes to 89.1813
April 27, 1813 - The Battle of York (Toronto, Canada) is held when American troops raid and destroy, but do not occupy the city.
June 6, 1812 - 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 American 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 allies of the English and secure the frontier of Detroit. Tecumseh is killed during this battle.
The city directory of Albany, New York is first published in 1813.1814
March 27, 1814 - Settlement is opened in large parts of Alabama and Georgia 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 upon the occupation of Washington during the War of 1812. This act, in retaliation for the destruction by U.S. troops of Canadian public buildings, causes President Madison to evacuate. The British advance would be halted by Maryland militia three weeks later on September 12. Another United States president, James Monroe, would have to wait three years before he could reoccupy the executive mansion.August 26, 1814 - Bazil Butt enlists in the Military.
September 11, 1814 - The Battle of Lake Champlain was won by U.S. naval forces with the U.S.S. Ticonderoga leading the way.
September 13-14, 1814 - Francis Scott Key wrote the words to the Star Spangled Banner during the twenty-five hour bombardment of Fort McHenry at the head of the river leading the Baltimore harbor.December 10, 1814 - Bazil Butt is released from military service.
December 24, 1814 - A peace treaty was signed between the British and American government at Ghent, bringing to an end the War of 1812.1815
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, 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 take 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.
August 6, 1815 - Piracy on the high seas by Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli is effectively ended by a flotilla from the United States.September 16, 1815 - John Butt marries Gracey Marlay in Berkeley County, VA/WV.
November 12, 1815 - American women's rights activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton in born.December 15, 1815 – Rignal Butt, one of the four boys raised by Richard Butt, marries Rebecca Fist.
1815 – Rolla Green is born near Lancaster, Fairfield Co., Va. He is the son of George Green and wife Martha “Patsy” Butt.
1816
Second Bank of the United States is chartered in 1816, five years after the expiration of the 1st Bank of the United States.
Caused by the Mount Tambora volcano erupted in 1815, the entire "Year without a Summer" occurs in the northern hemisphere due to global cooling.
November 1816 - James Monroe defeats Rufus King in the United States presidential election, garnering 183 Electoral College votes to 34 for the Federalist King.
December 11, 1816 - The territory of Indiana is admitted into the United States of America as the 19th state.
E. Remington and Sons is founded in 1816.1817
March 4, 1817 - James Monroe is inaugurated as the President of the United States, succeeding James Monroe. His vice president, Daniel D. Tompkins, who would serve alongside Monroe for his entire eight years, was also inaugurated.
April 28-29, 1817 - The Rush-Bagot treaty is signed. This would limit the amount of armaments allowed on the Great Lakes by British and American forces.
July 4, 1817 - The construction of the Erie Canal begins at Rome, New York. The first section between Rome and Utica, New York 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 by 90%.
December 10, 1817 - The United States of America admits its 20th state, Mississippi.
The second wave of Amish immigration to North America begins in 1817, bring 3,000 Amish from Europe to relocate in the United States. The first wave of Amish immigration occured through 1770.1818
1818 – Basil Butt, son of John Butt and Gracey Marlay is born in Berkeley County, VA/WV.
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, with the most recent addition of Mississippi, the flag had twenty stars.
October 20, 1818 - Then northern boundary of the United States and Canada was 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, making the U.S.A. a republic with twenty-one states.1819
January 4, 1819 - in Shepherdstown, VA, Mary Butt marries Phillip Horn. Samuel Butt is Suretor.
February 15, 1819 - The Talmadge Amendment is passed by the U.S. House of Representatives, stating that slaves would be barred in the new state of Missouri, which becomes the opening vote in the Missouri Compromise controversy.
February 22, 1819 - The territory of Florida is ceded to the United States by Spain.
May 22, 1819 - The American steamship Savannah, under part steam and sail-power, crosses the Atlantic Ocean from Savannah, Georgia to Liverpool, England, arriving 29 days later 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.
The first financial crises in the United States, the Panic of 1819, occurred, leading to foreclosures, bank failures, and unemployment. Several causes have been identified, including the heavy amount of borrowing by the government to finance the War of 1812, as well as the tightening of credit by the Second Bank of the U.S. in response to risky lending practices by wildcat banks in the west.
1820
1820 - Samuel Butt b 1/14/1777 shows up in the Licking Co., Ohio Census, as a single man but a landowner.
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, is passed in the United States Congress. This legislation allows slavery in the Missouri territory, but not in any other location west of the Misssissippi River that was north of 36 degrees 30 minutes latitude, the current southern line of the state of Missouri. The state of Missouri would be admitted to the Union, under this compromise, on August 10, 1821.
September 28, 1820 - To prove that a tomato is not poisonous, Colonel Robert Gibbon Johnson eats one in public in Salem, Massachusetts.
November 1820 - The election of James Monroe to a second term in office comes with a landslide victory in the Electoral College with Monroe defeating John Quincy Adams by a tally of 231 to 1.
Population in America continues to rise. 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, of which 12,630 lived in the city of Albany, New York. The center of U.S. population now reaches 16 miles east of Moorefield, West Virginia.1821
1821 – Isabella Jane Houston is born in Ohio, to Andrew Houston and wife Elizabeth A. (Green) Houston.
February 23, 1821 - The first pharmacy college is founded in the Philadelphia College of Apothecaries. Also this same year, the first women's college in the United States of America, 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.September 17, 1821 – John Wilson Butt, son of Rignal Butt and wife Rebecca Fist is born in Berkeley County VA/WV. I have a document that says John Wilson Butt was brought to Dayton, Ohio by his parents, Rignal and Rebecca (Fist) Butt when John was 9 years old, which would make the date they moved to Dayton, 1812. I also have a document that says that Rignal Butt (this being John and Bazil's brother), the paternal grandfather of Rignal R. (this being the son of John Wilson Butt), located in Dayton about 1830.
November 16, 1821 - The first legal international trade on the Santa Fe Trail began after William Becknell, a Missouri trader, met with Governor Melgares one day earlier. The huge profit earned convinced Becknell that he should return over the trail route the following year.
A Massachusetts court outlaws the novel, Fanny Hill, by John Cleland, and convicts publisher Peter Holmes for printing a "lewd and obsene" novel. This was the first obscenity case in U.S. history.1822
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.
March 30, 1822 - Florida becomes an official territory of the United States.
April 27, 1822 - Civil War general and 18th President of the Untied States, Ulysses S. Grant, is born.
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, Jim Bridger and Kit Carson. Over the next decade, these expeditions would leave St. Louis at irregular intervals.
July 1822 - A law prohibiting the sale of alcohol to Indians is passed, causing a disruption in the fur trade pattern that relied on the Indians to trap and hunt for the furs, in exchange for alcohol and other goods.1823
1823 - Bazil Butt moves to Ohio. This according to a 1916 Butt family reunion newspaper article written by Horton J. Butt.
An expedition up the Red River and along the 49th parallel led by Stephen Long marks the point of the official border between the United States and Canada.
April 3, 1823 – Samuel Butt and Fanny Brake are married in Licking County, Ohio.
December 2, 1823 - In a speech before Congress, James Monroe announces the Monroe Doctrine, stating the policy that European intervention anyplace is the Americas is opposed and that he would establish American neutrality in future European wars.1824
March 11, 1824 - The Bureau of Indian Affairs is established by the United States War Department. They appoint Ely Parker, a Seneca tribe member, as its first director. This department is meant to regulate trade with Indian tribes.
In Pawtucket, Rhode Island, the first strike by female workers, occurs.
November 1824 - When the Electoral College vote yielded no majority, John Quincy Adams would be elected president by the House of Representatives, 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. It was not a 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.
A frontier treaty between the United States and Russia is signed, negotiated by Secretary of State under James Monroe, John Quincy Adams. 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.1825
February 12, 1825 - In the state of Georgia, the Creek Indian tribe give up their last lands to the United States government and moved west.
March 4, 1825 - John Quincy Adams in inaugurated as President, with John C. Calhoun as his Vice President, after the House of Representatives settle the lack of a Electoral College majority.April 25, 1825 – Bazil Samuel Butt, first child of Samuel Butt and wife Fanny Brake is born.
October 26, 1825 - Use of the Erie Canal began in Buffalo, New York with the first boat departing for New York City. This opened up the Great Lakes region by cutting the travel time between the two cities one third and shipping costs nine tenths. Cost of the canal was $7 million. On November 4, 1825, the first boat navigating the Erie Canal arrived in New York City. The opening of the Erie Canal contributed to making the city of New York a chief Atlantic port.
The first experimental steam locomotive is built and operated by John Stevens, of Hoboken, New Jersey.1826
April 1, 1826 - The internal combustion engine named the "Gas Or Vapor Engine" is patented by American Samuel Morey.
May 25, 1826 - Mahala Green marries Bazil Butt.
July 4, 1826 - Two founding members of the United States pass away on Independence Day; Thomas Jefferson, age 83, 3rd President, and John Adams, age 91, 2nd President. On the same day, Stephen Foster, American songwriter and poet, is born.
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. A reward of one cent is offered for his return to his bondage to learn the saddler's job in Franklin.
In 1826, David Jackson, for whom Jackson Hole, Wyoming is named, as well as Jedediah Smith and Williams Sublette purchase William Ashley's interest in the fur trade, and the company, later to become known as the Rocky Mountain Fur Company when these men sold in 1830, continued to profit from the fur trade across the mountain west.1827
In New York State, the statue that would end slavery in the Empire state, was passed.
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 14, 1827 - The first Roman Catholic Mass is held in the Hawaiian Islands and leads to the foundation of the Diocese of Honolulu.
September 21, 1827 - Joseph Smith, Jr. claims the angel Moroni gives him a record of gold plates, later translated into The Book of Mormon.
The Senate ratifies the treaty that establishes the Sabine River as the Mexican and United States border.1828
Feb. 24, 1828 – Senan Butt dies and is buried in Green Hill Cemetery, Johnstown, Ohio.
July 4, 1828 - The first passenger railroad in the United States, the Baltimore and Ohio, begins.
July 30, 1828 - Gracey Marlay dies. She’s buried in Green Hill Cemetery, Johnstown, Ohio on the same plot with Senan Butt.
November 1828 - After a tumultuous four years of national politics saw the formation of the Democratic party behind Andrew Jackson and the supporters of John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay as the National Republicans, The election for president sees a popular and electoral college vote victory of 178-83 for Andrew Jackson over President John Quincy Adams.
December 19, 1828 - Opposing the Tariff of Abominations, the state of South Carolina declares the right of state nullification of federal laws.
The American Dictionary of the English Language is published by Noah Webster.1828 - John Butt marries Sarah Houston.
1829
February 26, 1829 - Levi Strauss, American clothing designer and jeans entrepreneur, is born. He would be credited with manufacturing the first "blue jeans."
March 4, 1829 - Andrew Jackson, now in the Democratic party, is inaugurated as President, replacing John Quincy Adams after his sole term in office.
July 23, 1829 - William Austin Burt, of the United States, invents and patents the typewriter, at the time called the typographer.
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 would be passed by an act of Congress in 1846 and was completed in 1855. The Smithsonian complex now includes 19 museums and 142 million items in their collection.1830
1830 – Samuel Butt, first child of John Butt and wife Sarah Houston is born in Monroe Twsp, Licking Co., Ohio.
April 6, 1830 - Joseph Smith organizes the Mormon Church, known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, in Fayette, New York. He had published the Book of Mormon on March 26, 1830.
May 26, 1830 - The United States Congress approved the Indian Removal Act, which facilitated the relocation of Indian tribes from east of the Mississippi River. Although this act did not order their removal, it paved the way for increased pressure on Indian tribes to accept land-exchange treaties with the U.S. government and helped lead the way to the "Trail of Tears."
William L. Sublette, with the goods from the Rocky Mountain Fur Company (known as 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.
December 10, 1830 - American poet, Emily Dickinson, is born.
The United States continues to expand, increasing its population 33% in one decade to 12,860,702 in the 1830 census. The center of U.S. population moved west, but only slightly, to a point nineteen miles west, southwest of Moorefield, West Virginia.1831
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 with sentencing of 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 by Comanche on the Cimarron River. The expeditions by Smith were noted as the most dangerous explorations during the height of the fur trade years.
June 30, 1831 - At Arlington, Virginia, overlooking the capitol at Washington, D.C., Robert E. Lee, then a lieutenant in the Federal Army, married a great-granddaughter of Martha Washington, Mary Custis.
August 21, 1831 - A local slave rebellion in Southampton County, Virginia, led by Nat Turner, a black slave, killed 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.
Cyrus H. McCormick, U.S inventor, invented the first commercially successful reaper, picking up where his father left off. He developed the reaper over six weeks time with the assistance of negro 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 6, 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 1832 - South Carolina convention passed the Ordinance of Nullification, which was against the institution of permanent tariffs. The state also, on this issue, threatened to withdraw from the union of the United States of America.1833
February 1833 - The United States Congress passed a compromise tariff act in response to South Carolina's objections. The state of South Carolina subsequently withdrew the Nullification Ordinance upon its approval.
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 - The second term inauguration occurs for President Jackson, with Martin Van Buren as Vice President after the resignation on December 28, 1832 of John Calhoun as Vice President. Jackson had won a convincing victory in the November election. His defeat of Henry Clay and the National Republicans saw an Electoral College vote of 219 to 49. He also won the popular vote victory.
June 24, 1833 - The United States frigate Constitution, "Old Ironsides" was retired to the initial naval drydock at the Charlestown Naval Yard in New England, where it remains on exhibit as part of Boston's history.
September 2, 1833 - Oberlin College is founded. It refused to bar students on the subject of race and included the distinction of becoming the first college in the United States to offer coeducation.1834
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 was linked between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh by a system of ten inclined planes which crossed the Allegheny Mountains and began operations.
March 28, 1834 - The United States Senate censured President Andrew Jackson for defunding the Second Bank of the United States.
John Jacob Astor, a German immigrant, was commonly known as the richest man in the United States. He was the organizer of the American Fur Company, which he sold in 1834.
Henry Blair receives the second patent awarded to an African American when he patents a corn planter. An early refrigerator, an ether ice machine, was invented by Jacob Perkins.1835
January 30, 1835 - In the United States Capitol, Andrew Jackson encounters an unsuccessful assassination attempt from an unemployed house painter, Richard Lawrence. Jackson, after two point-blank shots misfired, 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. On November 2-4, 1835 - Texas proclaimed the right to secede from Mexico with Sam Houston taking command of the Texas army. His Texas army would capture San Antonio on December 9.
December 16, 1835 - A fire in New York City rages, eventually destroying 530 buildings.
December 20, 1835 - Cherokee tribe was forced to cede lands in Georgia and cross the Mississippi River after gold is found on their land in Georgia.
The New Hampshire legislature offered a grant for a railway line to be built through New Hampshire from Massachusetts to Maine.1836
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. On March 2, 1836, Texas independence was declared at a convention of delegates from fifty-seven Texas communities at Washington-on-the-Brazos, making them an independent nation free from Mexican rule.
February 24, 1836 - The patent for the first revolver is awarded to inventor Samuel Colt.
April 21, 1836 - The battle of San Jacinto is waged with Sam Houston leading 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 President Andrew Jackson. This act would lead to the failure of the economy of land speculation and the Panic of 1837.
November 1836 - Martin Van Buren continues the victories for the Democratic party in the November presidential election, defeating William H. Harrison, a Whig, 170 to 73 in the Electoral College vote.1837
February 25, 1837 - The patent for the first United States electronic printing press is awarded to Thomas Davenport.
March 4, 1837 - Martin Van Buren, as President, and Richard M. Johnson, Vice President, are inaugurated into office.
Marcy 4, 1837 - The city of Chicago is granted a charter by Illinois.
May 10, 1837 - The global economic crises known as the Panic of 1837 begins with the failure of New York City banks and unemployment which would reach record levels.
November 7, 1837 - Elijah P. Lovejoy, an abolitionist printer, is killed by a mob of slavery supporters, when he was trying to protect his shop from its third destruction.1838
January 4, 1838 - Tom Thumb, the American circus performer, is born.
January 6, 1838 - Samuel Morse, a portrait painter who later turned to invention, first publicly demonstrated the telegraph and developed the Morse Code system of communication. He would apply for a patent two years later in 1840.
June 12, 1838 - The Territory of Iowa is established.
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
February 24, 1839 - Americans invent. William Otis receives a patent for the steam shovel. Later that year,
American inventor Thaddeus Fairbanks invented the platform scales and Charles Goodyear invented rubber vulcanization.
Theodore Bernhard organized and introduced the first system of free textbooks for students at Watertown, Wisconsin.
November 11, 1839 - In Lexington, Virginia, the Virginia Military Institute is founded.
In Jackson, Mississippi, the first state law allowing women to own property is passed.
During the decade of the 1830's, German American immigrants introduced the tradition of decorating Christmas trees during the holidays to America1840
1840 – Rolla Green marries Isabella Jane Houston
January 13, 1840 - Off the coast of Long Island, New York state, 139 people lose their lives when the steamship Lexington burns and sinks four miles off the coast.
January 19, 1840 - Antarctica is claimed for the United States when Captain Charles Wilkes circumnavigates the continent and claims Wilkes Land for the nation.
May 7, 1840 - The Great Natchez Trace Tornado strikes Natchez, Mississippi and wreaks havoc. In the second most deadly tornado in U.S. history, 317 people are counting among the dead and 209 are injured.
November 3, 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 contest.
The census of the United States grows to 17,063,353, up 33% from the decade before. Four states now exceed one million in population; New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Virginia. The center of the nation's population continues to move slowly west, now sixteen miles south of Clarksburg, West Virginia.1840 Autumn - Crazy Horse is born.
1841
February 18, 1841 - The first ongoing filibuster begins in the United States Senate and lasts until March 11.
March 9, 1841 - The Supreme Court of the U.S. stated 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 Willliam Henry Harrison, sworn into office only one month before on March 4, dies of pneumonia. His tenure of one month is the shortest in history and his death in office the first for a president of the United States. He is succeeded by Vice President John Tyler.
May 1, 1841 - The first wagon train, with forty-seven emigrants, leave for California from Independence, Missouri. The journey would take until November 4.
August 16, 1841 - President Tyler vetoes the bill 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
Morgan Green Butt is born, January 19, 1842
January 31, 1842 - Elizabeth Tyler, the president's daughter, married William Nevison Walker, at the White House in Washington, D.C.
March 5, 1842 - In a prelude four years prior to the start of the Mexican War, troops under Mexican leader Rafael Vasquez invade Texas and briefly occupy San Antonio in the first invasion since the Texas Revolution.
May 16, 1842 - The first 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, wanted to liberalize the Rhode Island charter of 1663 to extend voting to those that didn't own property. The Dorr Rebellion of 1842 of this date, with militiamen attacking an arsenal in Providence that were later repulsed, however, 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 is fixed east of the Rocky Mountains, including Maine and Minnesota, due to the signing of the Webster-Ashburton Treaty.
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
February 6, 1843 - At the Bowery Amphitheatre in New York City, the first minstral show in the United States debuts.
May 22, 1843 - The first major wagon train headed for the northwest via the Oregon Trail begins with one thousand pioneers 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 more than a dollar, however, winning the grand prize of $100.
November 28, 1843 - The Kingdom of Hawaii is officially recognized by European nations as an independent nation. This date signifies Hawaiian Independence Day.1844
February 12, 1844, Elizabeth Green, Andrew Houston's wife dies.
April 6, 1844 - Edgar Allan Poe, the highly regarded writer of short stories, departs his home in Philadelphia for New York City. Although most of this best works were written while in the City of Brotherly Love for two years, he left the city with $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, the process for strengthening rubber, is granted to Charles Goodyear.
November 1844 - Democrat James K. Polk defeats Henry Clay for president with 170 Electoral College votes to 105 for Clay.1845
March 3, 1845 - Congress overrides a presidential veto. President Tyler's veto of a military appropriation was overturned.
April 17, 1845 – Samuel Butt dies in Licking County, Ohio. He is buried in Green Hill Cemetery in the same plot as is Gracey Marlay and a boy named Senan Butt.
June 6, 1845 - John Butt, thought to be one of the four nephews raised by Richard Butt dies.
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 consitution 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.
Alexander Cartwright and his New York Knikerbockers 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 setlement of the West should be aggressively pursued.
December 29, 1845 - The United States admits the Republic of Texas into the Union as the 28th state.
American inventor Elias Howe, working as a machinist after losing his factory job in the Panic of 1837, invents the sewing machine. Howe would patent the device on September 10, 1846.1846
January 5, 1946 - 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 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. Zachary had been ordered by President Polk to sieze disputed Texas land settled by Mexicans.
May 13, 1846 - War is declared by the United States against Mexico, backed by southerners while northern Whigs were in opposition. Ten days later, Mexico declares war back.
June 10, 1846 - The Republic of California declares independence from Mexico. Four days later, 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, travel down the Santa Fe Trail and arrive at Bent's Old Fort en route to the conquest of New Mexico.
August 14, 1846 - South of the town of Cape Girardeau in Missouri, the Cape Girardeau meteorite strikes. It is a 2.3 kg chondrite type 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 went on sale with Benjamin Franklin gracing the 5 cent stamp and George Washington fronting 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 due to violent clashes over their practice of polygamy.
September 8-15, 1847 - The Battle for Mexico City is fought, beginning two miles outside the city at King's Mill. The main assault against the fortress Capultepec came on September 12 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
January 12, 1848 - Abraham Lincoln, as Congressman from Springfield, Illinois, attacked President Polk's handling of the Mexican War in a speech in the House of Representatives.
January 24, 1848 - Gold was 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 of the gold rush to East Coast readers, prompting eighty thousand prospectors to flood California and the Barbary Coast of San Francisco in 1849.
February 2, 1848 - The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the Mexican War with Mexico relinquishing its rights to Texas above the Rio Grande River and ceding 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 ratified one month later on March 10 by the U.S. Senate. Mexico would ratify the treaty on May 19.
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 2, 1848, Andrew Houston buys land in Iowa.
November 7, 1848 - Zachary Taylor, hero of the Mexican War, defeats Lewis Cass in the presidential election of 1848. Whig Taylor garners 163 Electoral College votes to 127 for the Democratic candidate. This was the first U.S. electino 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.
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.
December 4, 1849 - Crazy Horse, Chief of the Oglala Sioux, is born.
The first baseball uniforms are introduced by the New York Knikerbockers club; blue and white cricket outfits were used.1850
January 1, 1850 Clarissa Katherine Green is born.
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.
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 did not 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, which also ended the slave trade in the District of Columbia.
September 11, 1850 - P.T. Barnum, entrepreneur extraordinaire, introduces the "Swedish Nightingale," Jenny Lind, to an American audience of six thousand at a charge of $3 per person (and more). Her debut at Castle Garden, a converted fort on Manhattan Island, is a rousing success.
The United States census of 1850 counts 23,191,876 population, a 35.9% increase from a decade before. Over three million people now live in its most populous state, New York.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 under the idea of Prince Albert and support of Queen Victoria.
August 22, 1851 - The America's Cup yachting race is inaugurated with the victor crowned in the yacht aptly named, "America."
October 11, 1851 - The first world's fair closes after 141 days of exhibition. 6,039,195 visitors attend the Crystal Palace exhibition, held on twenty-six acres in London's Hyde Park, 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 more, including future expos in Zaragosa, Spain in 2008 and Shanghai, China in 2010.
December 29, 1851 - The first YMCA opens in Boston, Massachusetts.
The American publishing industry manufactures two classics, Herman Melville's "Moby Dick" and Nathanial Hawthorne's "House of Seven Gables," and the painting of "Washington Crossing the Delaware" is completed by German-American artist Emmanuel Leutze.1852
February 16, 1852 - The Studebaker Brothers Wagon Company is established and would become the largest producer in the world of wagons.
February 19, 1852 - At Jefferson College ion Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity is begun.
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. His four years as President, which began March 4, 1853, would cause dismay among Democrats, who would fail to nominate him for office again in 1856.November 15, 1852 – Will of a Jacob Baker recorded in “Monroe Co. Ohio”.
June 29, 1852 - American Senator Henry Clay, author of much legislation on the topic of slavery. Later that year, on October 24, statesman Daniel Webster, would also pass away. This void in American politics would be felt throughout the next decade as the difficult days of slavery and Civil War would consume the nation.
Harriet Baker Stowe's masterpiece of American slavery, Uncle Tom's Cabin, is published. Stowe wrote this work of anti-slavery in response to the Fugitive Slave Act. It sold 300,000 copies in its first years of publication.1853
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 due to lack of power.
April 22, 1853 - The Indian Frontier Post, Fort Scott, in Indian Territory (Kansas) is evacuated by the United States Army riflemen.
July 14, 1853 - U.S. President Franklin Pierce opened 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.
July 14, 1853 - Commodore Matthew C. Perry and the United States Navy arrive in Edo Bay, Japan, greeted by the Lord of Toda. They would negotiate a treaty to allow U.S. ships into Japan.
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) for $10 million from Mexico to allow railroad building in the southwest and settle continued border disputes after the Mexican-American War. This act finalized the borders of the Continental United States.1854
February 28, 1854 - In Ripon, Wisconsin, the Republican Party is founded, in opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska Act. It would hold its first convention later that year on July 6 in Jackson, Michigan.
June 10, 1854 - The United States Naval Academy graduates its first class at Annapolis, Maryland.
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 rancor that culminated in the actions of the next years of "Bleeding Kansas" .
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.November 16, 1854 - Bazil Butt is killed while coon hunting. A huge stone with an inscription was placed on the spot where he was killed. The stone is now in Green Hill Cemetery, Johnstown, Ohio. It’s only a part of the original stone as it shattered when the move was made.
1855
March 3, 1855 - The United States Camel Corps in created with a $30,000 appropriation in Congress.
March 24, 1855 - American businessman, banker and philanthropist, Andrew Mellon, is born.
April 21, 1855 - The first railroad train crosses the Mississippi River on the first bridge constructed at Rock Island, Illinois to Davenport, Iowa.
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
April 5, 1856 - Booker T. Washington was born in slavery on a tobacco farm in Franklin County, Virginia, and would later 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 attacked 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 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
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 Witbey Island, Washington Territory seven years earlier, is beheaded and shot by Indian raiders.
December 21, 1857 - Two companies of the 1st Cavalry under Captain Samuel Sturgis arrive at Fort Scott, Kansas to attempt to bring the disorder of "Bleeding Kansas," the slavery versus anti-slavery battle, in check.1858
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 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 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
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 Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia) is seized by twenty-one men under the leadership of abolitionist John Brown. This act to cause an uprising of slaves in the surrounding territories fails when federal troops on October 18, under the command of Colonel Robert E. Lee, kill several of the raiders and capture John Brown. The town of Harpers Ferry, now a spectacular National Park on the topic, remains one of the under recognized historic treasures in the United States.
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.
Emmanuel Leutze is commissioned by Congress to paint the mural, "Westward Ho the Course of Empire Takes Its Way," for the U.S. Capitol. The mural represents frontier settlement.1861
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 a year and one half by this series of riders on horseback, only to be rendered obsolete when the transcontinental telegraph is completed in 1861. Service ended on October 24, 1861.
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 three 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
February 4, 1861 - In Montgomery, Alabama, the convention to form the Confederated States of America opened. Four days later, with Jefferson Davis as president, seven southern states officially set up the C.S.A.
March 4, 1861 - Abraham Lincoln is sworn in as president of the United States with Hannibal Hamlin as Vice President.
April 12, 1861 - Fort Sumpter 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, formed two months earlier had sought to force federal troops from occupation of its territory. Fort Sumpter was captured April 14 when 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, which rose to eleven southern states in secession by May.
July 21, 1861 - The first Battle of Bull Run at Manassas, Viriginia 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 more 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
March 9, 1862 - The USS Monitor won the battle against the Confederate ironclad Virginia off the coast of Hampton Roads, Virginia.
April 7, 1862 - The Army of the Tennesse, under General Grant, repulses the Confederate advance of the day earlier at the Battle of Shiloh, Tennessee, one of the largest battles of the western theatre 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 was approved, granting family farms of 64 acres 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 1st invasion of Northern territory. Begun with a skirmish the night before north of Sharpsburg, Maryland, the day of September 17 along Antietam Creek burns bright as 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 astounding numbers. Considered a victory by Union forces when the Confederates abandoned the field, even though Southern troops marching from Harper's Ferry had stemmed the Union tide the night before, Antietam is known for several other outcomes, including McClellan's lack of pursuit of the enemy which would eventually lead to his dismissal, as well as a victory that stemmed the tide of Confederate advance to the north and the announcement of the Emancipation Proclamation.
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 Rapidan River on pontoons, leading two days later to an ignominous 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 withdraw to the other side of the river signalled Burnside's defeat, and the mud march of later days, only underscores the mire of his decisions during the battle.1863
January 1, 1863 - Daniel Freeman filed one of the first homestead applications at the Brownsville Land Office in Nebraska, cementing the Homestead Act of 1862 on its first day of implementation. The Emancipation Proclamation goes into effect.
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 General 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. Gettyburg remains a tribute of remarkable proportion to the men who fought and died on its fields, containing a reverence to the battle that played a major part in retaining the character of the United States of America.
July 4, 1863 - The city of Vicksburg surrenders to General Grant 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 theatre, plus the actions of Meade at Gettysburg one day earlier with the repulse of Pickett's Charge, prove to be the two most important victories of the Civil War. Even though it would take nearly two more years for the Confederate States of America to be defeated, these nearly simultaneous Union victories turned out to be the apex of the separatists.
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 percieve 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 as both sacrifice and inspiration.
November 24, 1863 - Union General Goerge Thomas scaled 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, marched 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. By the end of September 1st, Sherman had taken Atlanta and by December 22, Savannah was subdued.
September 29, 1864 - Union forces, including black Union soldiers, capture the Confederate Fort Harrison, south of Richmond. This caused a Confederate realignment of 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 rebellion by the southern Confederate states. 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 cavalymen at Sand Creek. Between 150-500 men, women, and children from the tribes died.1865
April 1, 1865 - Major General Philip H. Sheridan, leading his forces of cavalry and infantry, battle to victory at Five Forks against Major General George E. Pickett. This battle southwest of Petersburg, Virginia, cuts the railroad supply line to Confederate troops. One day later, General Grant holds his final assault on Petersburg, forcing the evacuation of General Robert E. Lee.
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 the surrender until the final rebel forces would surrender on May 26.
April 14, 1865 - Abraham Lincoln is assassinated in Ford's Theatre, Washington, D.C. five days after the signing at Appomattox of the Confederate surrender. The shot, fired by actor John Wilkes Booth, during the play "Our American Cousin," ends the life of the president who presided over the War of Rebellion and the end of slavery. 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, took effect.1866
April 6, 1866 - The first post of the Grand Army of the Republic was formed in Decatur, Illinois, and subsequently became a major political force. The G.A.R. began the celebration of Memorial Day in the north.
The Klu Klux Klan formed secretly to discourage blacks from voting, issuing in a brutal and shameful era of terror and crime amid southern states as civil rights for freed slaves emerged from the Civil War Era and made hesitant progress throughout the majority of the 20th Century.
Southern reconstruction was taken over by the federal government and freedman's rights were backed.1867
March 30, 1867 - Secretary of State William H. Seward consumates the sale of Alaska to the United States 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 19, 1867 - The first running of the Belmont Stakes occurs at Jerome Park race track. The race was won by filly Ruthless at 1 5/8 mile with a winning purse of $1,850. The Belmont Stakes is the oldest of the three American Triple Crown races.
Horatio Alger published his first book, Ragged Dick, in the "rags to riches" theme.
December 4, 1867 - The Grange was organized to protect the interest of the American farmer.
Christopher Sholes, Carlos Glidden, and S.W. Soule' invent the first practical typewriter. One year later, it was patented, then placed on the market in 1874 by E. Remington and Sons1868
George Westinghouse invents 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 13, 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.
November - Republican Ulysses S. Grant, with Shuyler Colfax as his running mate, proves victorious in his quest to become the 18th President of the United States after defeating Horatio Seymour, 214 to 80 in the Electoral College. Grant would be swon in on March 4, 1869.
November 27, 1868 - The Battle of the WIchita 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
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. This act, as much as any other, would signal the marked increase in the settlement of the west.
August 15, 1869 - The first scientific expedition of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River is conducted by Major John Wesley Powell.
September 24, 1869 - Prompted by an attempt to corner the gold market, the financial Black Friday occurs in New York City.
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.
John W. Hyatt, a New York printer, invents celluloid, the first synthetic plastic used widely for commercial applications, including combs, dentures, curtains, and photographic film, as well as the billiard balls he was seeking to find a substitute for the ivory commonly used.1870
January 10, 1870 - Standard Oil Company is incorporated by John D. Rockefeller.
March 30, 1870 - The 15th Amendment to the Constitution is declared ratified by the Secretary of State. It gave the right to vote to black Americans. Race would officially no longer be a ban to voting rights.
February 25, 1870 - The first African-American to be sworn into office in the United States Congress, Hiram Rhoades Revels, a Republican from Missouri takes his place in the United States Senate.
July 15, 1870 - The last former state of the Confedercy, Georgia, is readmitted into the Union, and the Confederated States of America is offically disolved.
November 1, 1870 - The National Weather Service, known as the Weather Bureau, makes its first official meteorological forecast. "High winds at Chicago and Milwaukee... and along the Lakes."
The 1870 census indicates a national population of 38,558,371, an increase in the United States count of 22.6% over the 1860 census. This lower than normal increase of population in the 1800's shows the effect of the national strife of the Civil War and the tragic losses during that campaign. The geographic center of the U.S. population, for the second decade in a row, is in Ohio, 48 miles northeast of Cincinnati.1871
January 1, 1871 - Andrew Smith Hallidie patented an improvement in endless wire and rope ways for cable cars.
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 the initial official game 2 to 0.
October 8-11, 1871 - The great fire of Chicago, in legend started by a kick from Mrs. O'Leary's cow, although in actuality likely started in their cowshed by Daniel Sullivan, who first reported the fire. 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.
October 8, 1871 - Starting on the same day as the Chicago fire and overshadowed by its legend, 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 skewed the Boss Tweed ring in his cartoons, is credited with an important role in his downfall.
November 17, 1871 - The National Rifle Association is granted a charter by the State of New York.1872
March 1, 1872 - The world's first national park is established when President Grant signs legislation enabling the establishment of Yellowstone National Park in the states of Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho.
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 18, 1872 - Kaiser WIlhelm I of Germany arbitrated the international boundary dispute between the United States and Great Britian over the ownership of the straits between Washington Territory and Vancouer Island. He rules that San Juan Island is the property of the United States, ending twelve 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, on November 29. His votes were split among four individuals.1873
July 21, 1873 - Jesse James and the James-Younger Gang engage in the first successful train robbery in the American West, taking three thousand dollars 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 in one minor clash of the Indian War. The Indian Wars, which had 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 27, 1873 - The first running of the Preakness Stakes horse race, second in the leg of today's Triple Crown, debuts in Baltimore, Maryland in front of a crowd of 12,000. The horse, Survivor, owned by John Chamberlain, won by ten lengths over six other horses in a time of 2:43, winning a victor's purse of $1,850.
September 18, 1873 - An economic depression begins when the New York stock market crashed, setting off a financial panic that caused bank failures. The impact of the 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. In 1917, this movement would culminate in the the 18th Amendment, prohibiting the sale of liquor in the United States, a ban that would last for sixteen years.1874
January 1, 1874 - The Bronx in annexed by New York City.
March 18, 1874 - The island of Hawaii signs a trade treaty with the United States government granting it exclusive trading rights.
July 1, 1874 - The first United States zoo opens in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia.
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.
May 17, 1875 - The first Kentucky Derby is run at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky. It would become the first leg of today's Triple Crown Series. The horse Aristides in the first winner.
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, forming 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 - The United States government issues a decree ordering all Native Americans onto a system of reservations throughout the western lands of the United States.
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 26, 1876 - The Battle of Little Big Horn occurs when 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 incomplete and privately sponsored until that time Washington Monument with and appropriation of $2 million.
November 7, 1876 - Samuel J. Tilden, Democrat, outpolls Rutherford B. Hayes, Republican in the popular vote, but reverses the outcome in the Electoral College by one vote. The presidential election, however, would not be decided until March 2, 1877, when disputed votes in four states (Florida, Louisiana, Oregon, and South Carolina) force Congress to declare Hayes the victor, large part after 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. Over 9.9 million people, including staff, saw the first large scale world's fair in the United States jump the United States into the upper echelon of nations with its exhibits and inventions. This exhibition was also credited with healing many of the wounds still left by the Civil War, binding the nation together with the effort.1877
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.
The original United States conservationist, Carl Schurz, is named Secretary of Interior by President Hayes and begins efforts to prevent forest destruction.
May 6, 1877 - Indian leader of the Oglala Sioux, Crazy Horse, surrenders to the United States Army in Nebraska. His people had been weakended by cold and hunger.
June 21, 1877 - The Molly Maguires, an Irish terrorist society in the minefields surrouding 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, 1877 - Colonel John Gibbon commands the 7th U.S. Infantry as they clash with Nez Perce Indians at the Battle of the Little Big Hole. This war was fought when the Nez Perce tribe attempted 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.September 5, 1877 - While incarcerated, Crazy Horse is murdered by a cavalryman who bayonets him in the back at Fort Robinson, Nebraska.
1878
January 28, 1878 - In New Haven, Connecticutt, the first commercial telephone exchange is opened.
February 18, 1878 - The Lincoln County War begins in New Mexico between two group 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 Edision Electric Company begins operation.1879
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, priced all items at five cents and pioneered the concept of fixed prices vs. haggling. It would fail weeks later. Woolworth, along with his brother Charles Sumner Woolworth, opened a second store in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in April 1879, including ten cent items, making the second store a success. By their 1911 incorporation, they had 586 stores.March 10, 1879 – Morgan Green Butt marries Clarissa Katherine (Green) Gould. Morgan Green BUTT and Clarissa Katherine GREEN were 2nd cousins. Their common ancestors are Regnal GREEN Sr. and "Sarah (?) - wife 2 of Rignal Sr.". Clarissa had been previously married to Elijah Gould with whom she had a family. Morgan Green Butt had also been previously married. He to Mary Isabel Sinkey in Ohio. They too had a family.
March 14, 1879 - Albert Einstein, who would later revolutionize modern Physics, is born in Germany.
May 30, 1879 - The Gilmores 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.
Henry George advocates a single tax on land in his publication, "Progress and Poverty."1880
January 1, 1880 - The construction of the Panama Canal begins under French auspices, although its eventually failure on the sea level canal in 1893, would be bought out by the United States twenty-four years later under President Theodore Roosevelt.
January 5, 1880 - Squire George Butt is born.
March 25, 1880 - Sarah Houston dies.
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 1880 - James A. Garfield, Republican is elected president over Winfield S. Hancock, the Democratic candidate. Garfield receives 214 Electoral College votes to 155 for Hancock, but barely wins the popular vote with a majority of only 7,023 voters.
The national population in the 1880 reached 50,189,209 people, an increase of 30.2% over the 1870 census. The geographic center of the U.S. population now reaches west/southwest of Cincinnati, Ohio in Kentucky. Five states now have more than two million in population; New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, and Missouri.1881
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 - The 20th President of the United States, James A. Garfield, is shot by lawyer Charles J. Guiteau in the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad station in Washington, D.C. He would die two months later on September 19, 1881 from an infection and be succeeded in the presidency by Vice President Chester Arthur on September 20.
July 4, 1881 - The Tuskegee Institute for black students training to be teachers was opened under the tutelage of Booker T. Washington as instructor in Tuskegee, Alabama.
July 20, 1881 - Sioux chief Sitting Bull leads the last of final group of his tribe, still fugitive from the reservation, and surrenders to United States troops at Fort Buford, Montana.
October 26, 1881 - The gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona occurs in a livery stable lot between some of the famous characters of the American west; Sheriff Wyatt Earp, his brother Virgil, and Doc Holliday against Billy Claiborne, Frank and Tom McLaury and the Clanton brothers Billy and Ike. Although only thirty seconds long, the battle would live in western lore for more than one hundred years. The McLaury brothers and Billy Clanton would perish in the fight.1882
January 2, 1882 - The Standard Oil Company trust of John D. Rockefeller is begun when Rockefeller places his oil holdings inside it.
January 30, 1882 - Future president Franklin Delano Roosevelt is born at his home in Hyde Park, New York.
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. The Ford brothers had been recruited to rob the Platte City Bank, but opted to try to collect the reward for their infamous leader.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 agency.
February 28, 1883 - Vaudeville, the entertainment and theatrical phenomena, begins when the first theatre 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 of people fearing a rumor about its impending collapse causes twelve people to be killed.
November 18, 1883 - Five standard time zones are established by the United States and Canadian railroad companies to end the confusion over thousands of local time zones.December 25, 1883 - Hattie Eva Nettie Willman is born.
1884
May 1, 1884 - The Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions in the U.S.A. call for an eight-hour workday.
The first post season games in baseball were held between the National League and the American Association.
November 4, 1884 - Grover Cleveland claim victory for the Democratic Party, gaining 277 Electoral College votes to the 182 Electoral College votes for the Republic candidate James G. Blaine.December 5, 1884 - Mahala (Green) Butt dies.
December 6, 1884 - The capstone of three thousand three hundred pounds is positioned atop the Washington Monument by the Corps of Engineers. The monument, five hundred and fifty-five feet tall and now completed after nearly thirty-seven years of work, would be dedicated in February of 1895.1885
February 21, 1885 - The Washington Monument is dedicated at a ceremony by President Chester A. Arthur. The obelisk was completed under federal auspices after construction had been started by private concerns thirty-seven years earlier in 1848.
March 3, 1885 - American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) is incorporated in New York City as a subsidiary of American Bell Telephone Company.
June 17, 1885 - The Statue of Liberty arrived for the first time in New York harbor.
July 23, 1885 - President Ulysses S. Grant, Civil War hero of federal forces, dies in Mt. McGregor, New York.
September 2, 1885 - The Rockey Spring, Wyoming mining incident occurs when one hundred and fifty white miners attack Chinese coworkers, killing twenty-eight and forcing several hundred more to leave Rock Springs.1886
January 20, 1886 - Thomas A. Edison builds a new laboratory for his experiments and inventions near his new home in West Orange, New Jersey. The home, called Glenmont, contained a 29 room Queen Anne 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 act would be followed by additional labor battles for that worker right favored by unions. Later this year, on December 8, the American Federation of Labor (AFL) was formed by twenty-five craft unions.
May 8, 1886 - Dr. John Pemberton, a Georgia pharmacist, invents coca-cola, a carbonated beverage. On May 29, Pemberton began to advertise Coca-Cola in the Atlanta Journal.
June 2, 1886 - President Grover Cleveland marries Francis Folsom in the White House Blue Room, the sole marriage of a president within the District of Columbia mansion during the history of the United States.
September 4, 1886 - At Fort Bowie in southeastern Arizona, Geronimo and his band of Apaches surrender to Brigadier General Nelson A. Miles. This signaled the end of warfare between the United States Army and Indian tribes.
October 28, 1886 - The Statue of Liberty, known during its construction and erection as "Bartholdi's Light" or "Liberty Enlightening the World" is dedicated by President Grover Cleveland in New York Harbor. First shown in the United States at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia ten years earlier, the huge sculpture by French artist Auguste Bartholdi provided the beacon to millions of immigrants and citizens who would pass its position in the decades to come.1887
January 20, 1887 - Pearl Harbor naval base is leased by the United States navy, upon approval of the U.S. Senate.
January 21, 1887 - The Amateur Athletic Union (commonly referred to as the AAU) is formed. The association was created to assist teams in and player in a variety of sports.
February 2, 1887 - The first Groundhog Day is observed in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, and the tradition of checking the shadow of a groudhog to predict the coming spring began.
October 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.
October 22, 1887 - The statue of Abraham Lincoln, "Standing Lincoln," by Augustus Saint-Gaudens is unveiled in Lincoln Park, Chicago, Illinois.1888
March 11-14, 1888 - The eastern section of the United States undergoes a great snow storm, killing four hundred people.
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.
November 6, 1888 - Benjamin Harrison halts the goal of Grover Cleveland to be a two term president, for the time being. Harrison loses the popular vote to Cleveland, but wins the plurality of Electoral College electors, 233 to 168.1889
March 2, 1889 - Legislation signed by President Grover 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 open up Oklahoma lands to white settlement, beginning April 22, when the first of five land runs in the Oklahoma land rush start.
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 - Running between the Willamette Falls and Portland, Oregon, a distance of fourteen miles, the first long distance electric power transmission line in the United States is completed.
July 8, 1889 - The first issue of the Wall Street Journal is published.
The Yale University Bulldog, Handsome Dan, becomes the first animal to become a mascot in American sports.1890
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.
December 13, 1890 - Wilber and Orville Wright print the "Dayton Tattler" in their print shop in Dayton, Ohio.
December 29, 1890 - The Battle of Wounded Knee, South Dakota, occurs in the last major battle between United States troops and Indians. Hundreds of Indian men, women, and children are slain, along with twenty-nine soldiers.
The 1890 census indicates a population in the United States of 62,979,766, an increase of 25.5% since the 1880 census. Twenty miles east of Columbus, Indiana is now the geographic center of U.S. population. Census returns for the first time use Herman Hollerith's tabulating machine and punch cards; Hollerith's firm would become IBM.1891
March 3, 1891 - The 51st Congress of the United States passes the International Copyright Act of 1891.
May 5, 1891 - Carnegie Hall, then known as Music Hall, opens its doors in New York with its first public performance under the guest conductor, Tchaikovsky.
May 20, 1891 - The first showing to a public audience, the convention of the National Federation of Women's Clubs, of Thomas A. Edison's new strip motion picture film occurred at Edison's West Orange, New Jersey laboratory. Later that year, Thomas Edison would patent the radio.
June 21, 1891 - Alternating current is transmitted for the first time by the Ames power plant near Telluride, Colorado by Lucien and Paul Nunn.1892
January 1, 1892 - Ellis Island, in New York Harbor, opens as the main east coast immigration center, and would remain the initial debarkation point for European immigrants into the United States until its closure in 1954. More than 12 million immigrants would be processed on the island during those years. Ellis Island replaced Castle Garden, in Manhattan, as the New York immigration center.
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 - The first recital of the Pledge of Allegiance in U.S. public schools is done to mark the 400th anniversary of Columbus Day.
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 277.1893
January 14-17, 1893 - The United States Marines, under the direction of U.S. government minister John L. Stevens, but no authority from the U.S. Congress, intervene in the affairs of the independent Kingdom of Hawaii, which culminated in the overthrow of the government of Hawaiian Queen Liliuokalani.
May 1, 1893 - The 1893 Chicago World Columbian Exposition, held on 686 acres and known affectionately as the "White City," opens to the public. The world's fair hosted fifty nations and twenty-six colonies. Known today as the architectural wonder that saw replication of the styles of its white buildings throughout the United States in many public buildings for years to come, as well as the public initiation to the 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 a four year period of depression.
September 16, 1893 - The 4th of five land runs in Oklahoma's dash, known as the Oklahoma Land Race or the Cherokee Strip Land Run, opened seven million acres of the Cherokee Strip. It was purchased from the Indian tribe for $7,000,000. Nearly 100,000 people gathered around the 42,000 claims that were available to the first person, with a certificate, to stake a claim.
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 sighting of picture postcards. Considered by many historians as the greatest national event in American history through the year 1900.
November 7, 1893 - Women in Colorado are granted the right to vote.1894
April 14, 1894 - The first public showing of Thomas Edison's kinetoscope motion picture is held. Edison had invented the process seven years earlier.
April 29, 1894 - In a march of five hundred unemployed workers into Washington, D.C. that had begun on March 25 in Massillon, Ohio, leader James S. Coxey is arrested for treason.
September 7, 1894 - The fight between heavyweight boxing champ "Gentleman Jim" Corbett and Peter Courtney is caught on motion picture film by Thomas Edison at the "Black Maria" studio 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 engagement between Union and Confederate forces in the western theatre of the U.S. Civil War.1895
February 20, 1895 - Frederick Douglass, the ex-slave who rose to prominence in national politics as a civil rights advocate and abolitionist during Civil War times died at his home in Washington, D.C.
September 3, 1895 - The first professional football game is played in Latroble, Pennsylvania. The Latrobe YMCA defeated the Jeannette Athletic Club 12-0.
November 5, 1895 - The first United States patent for the automobile, #549160, is granted to George B. Selden for his two stroke automobile engine.
October 4, 1895 - The first United States Golf Open run by the USGA is held in Newport, Rhode Island. A thirty-six hole competition between ten professionals and one amateur, the winner was Englishman Horace Rawlins, who received prize money of $150.1896
May 18, 1896 - Plessy versus Ferguson decision by the Supreme Court states that racial segregation is approved under the "separate but equal" doctrine.
June 11, 1896 - Funds are appropriated by legislation signed into law by President Grover Cleveland to acquire the house across from Ford's Theatre. This home was the location where Abraham Lincoln died from his wounds in the theatre assassination by John Wilkes Booth.
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 golf fever from Seattle to prospector sites surrounding Skagway, Alaska.
November 1896 - Republican William McKinley claims victory in the presidential election with a majority of Electoral College voters, 271 selected him over Democratic and People's Party candidate William J. Bryan with 176.
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.
April 6-15, 1896 - The first modern Olympic Games is held in Athens, Greece. Thirteen nations participated, including the United States of America. It was held in Panathinaiko Stadium and had originated from an 1894 congress organized by Pierre de Coubertin who established the International Olympic Committee.1897
April 27, 1897 - The tomb of Ulysses S. Grant is dedicated in New York City, twelve years after his death.
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 sails to the Klondike and writes his tales.
1897 - The escalator is invented by Jesse W. Reno and installed as an amusement ride at Coney Island, New York.
September 1, 1897 - The era of the subway begins when the first underground public transportation in North America opens in Boston, Massachusetts.1898
February 15, 1898 - The rallying cry, "Remember the Maine" is struck when the United States battleship Maine explodes and sinks under unknown causes in Havana Harbor, Cuba, killing two hundred and sixteen seamen. The sentiment becomes a rallying point during the coming Spanish-American War.
April 22, 1898 - The blockade of Cuba begins when the United States Navy aids independence forces within Cuba. Several days later, the U.S.A. declares war on Spain, backdating its declaration to April 20. On May 1, 1898, the United States Navy destroyed the Spanish fleet in the Philippines. On June 20, the U.S. would take Guam.
May 12, 1898 - San Juan, Puerto Rico is bombed by the American navy under the command of Rear Admiral William T. Sampson. Puerto Rico is overtaken by the United States between July 25 with its landing at Guanica Bay and August 12. These acts during the Spanish-American War would ultimately result in Spain deciding in December to cede lands, including Puerto Rico, to the United States.
July 7, 1898 - The United States annexes the independent republic of Hawaii.
December 10, 1898 - The Peace 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
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 United States Congress approves the use of voting machines in federal elections.
The Open Door Policy with China is declared by the U.S. government in an attempt to open international markets and retain the integrity of China as a nation.1900
March 14, 1900 - The Gold Standard Act is ratified, placing the United States currency on the gold standard.
April 4, 1900 - Squire George Butt marries Hattie Eva Nettie Willman.
April 15, 1900 - One of the largest world's fairs in history opens to the public in Paris, France with the United States among 42 nations and 25 colonies to exhibit. This world's fair also included the second modern Olympic Games held within its 553 acre site and would draw over thirty-nine million paid visitors through its close on November 12.
June 1, 1900 - Carry Nation continues her Temperance Movement to abolish the consumption of liquor when she demolishes twenty-five saloons in Medicine Lodge.
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, during that era, and would have been a Category 4 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale today.
November 6, 1900 - President William McKinley wins his second term as president, this time with Theodore Roosevelt in the second spot on the ticket, again defeating William J. Bryan by an Electoral Margin of 292 to 155.
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. The center of the United States population, geographically, is now six miles southeast of Columbus, Indiana.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 limited the autonomy of Cuba as a condition for American troop withdrawal. Cuba would become a U.S. protectorate on June 12.
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, harmed by the tragedy of September 6.
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 at the event on President's Day the day before. Anarchist Leon Czolgosz, an avowed anarchist, is arrested for the crime. September 14, 1901 - Vice President Theodore Roosevelt is inaugurated as President upon the death of William McKinley from gunshot wounds sustained the week earlier.
January 28, 1901 - The American League of Major League Baseball declares itself a Major League after one season as a minor league stemming from the minor Western League in 1899. The eight charter teams included the Baltimore Orioles, the Boston Americans, Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Blues, Detroit Tigers, Milwaukee Brewers, Philadelphia Athletics, and the Washington Senators. 1901 signified its initial year of competition as a major league, competing against the senior National circuit.1902
January 1, 1902 - The first Rose Bowl is held, pitting the college football squads of the University of Michigan and Stanford. Michigan won the initial contest 49-0. It would be fourteen years until the second game, in 1916, when Washington State defeated Brown.
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 first movie theatre in the United States opens in Los Angeles, California. It was known as the Electric Theatre.
May 20, 1902 - The island of Cuba gains independence from the United States.
Willis Haviland Carrier, a native of Angola, New York, invents the air conditioner. He would patent the device on February 2, 1906 and his company would air condition such buildings as Madison Square Garden, The U.S Senate and House of Representatives.1903
January 18, 1903 - The first two-way wireless communication between Europe and the United States is accomplished by Guglielmo Marconi when he transmits a message from President Theodore Roosevelt to the King of England from a telegraph station in South Wellfleet, Massachusetts.
May 23, 1903 - The first direct primary system in the United States is begun in the state of Wisconsin.
August 1, 1903 - The first cross-country automobile trip in the United States is completed with arrival in San Francisco. The trip had begun in New York on May 23.
The first modern World Series of Major League Baseball is held between the American and National Leagues after two years of bitter rivalry. It pitted the pennant winners of that year in a nine game series, with the National League winner, Pittsburgh, coming out on top 5-3 games over Boston.
November, 3, 1903 - With United States support after the Hay-Herran Treaty rejection by Columbia earlier in the year, Panama declares its independence from Columbia. The Panama government is recognized by President Theodore Roosevelt three days later and sign a canal treaty on November 18, allowing the U.S. led 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, and man into an age of flight. The plane, mechanically propelled with a petroleum engine, flew 120 feet in 12 seconds, and later the same day, flew 852 feet in 59 seconds . They would patent the Airplane three years later on May 22, 1906.1904
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.
May 5, 1904 - Cy Young, of the Boston Americans, pitches the first perfect game against the Philadelphia Athletics in the modern era of Major League baseball.
October 3, 1904 - The Daytona Educational and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls is opened by Mary McLeod Bethune in Daytona, Florida. Bethune is regarded as a leading contributor to the education of African-American students in the early 20th century.
November 1904 - Theodore Roosevelt wins his first election for President after serving three years in the office due to the death of William McKinley. He defeat Democratic candidate Alton B. Parker, 336 to 140 in the Electoral College vote.
The tractor is invented by American Benjamin Holt, using a catipillar track to spread the weight in heavy agricultural machinery.1905
May 15, 1905 - The city of Las Vegas, Nevada is formed with the sale of one hundred and ten acres in the downtown area.
February 23, 1905 - Rotary Club of Businessmen is founded with the first chapter in Chicago, Illinois.
June 1, 1905 - The "Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition" is opened in Portland, Oregon. The world's fair would host eighteen nations and three colonies, and close on October 15 with attendance of 1.7 million visiting its 402 acre site.1906
April 18-19, 1906 - The San Francisco earthquake was estimated at 7.8 on the Richter scale. Its proximity to the epicenter of the San Andreas Fault and the subsequent fire that followed the quake and aftershocks left 478 reported death, although estimates in the future peg that figure at nearly 3,000. Between $350-$400 million in damages were sustained.
March 31, 1906 - The Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States is formed to set rules for amateur sports in the United States at the urging of President Theodore Roosevelt. It would become the National Collegiate Athletic Association in 1910.
June 8, 1906 - President Theodore Roosevelt granted protection to Indian ruins and authorized presidents to designate lands with historic and scientific features as national monuments. This 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.
June 29, 1906 - Legislation by Congress 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.
August 20, 1906 Henry Morgan Butt is born in Brandon Township, Jackson County, Iowa.November 9, 1906 - The first official trip abroad by a United States president occurs when Theodore Roosevelt leaves for a trip to inspect the progress in the construction of the Panama Canal.
1907
January 23, 1907 - The first Native American Senator, Charles Curtis, from Kansas, takes office.
March 13, 1907 - Another financial crises occurs in the business community with the beginning of the Financial Panic and Depression of 1907.
The United States "Great White Fleet" of sixteen battleships and twelve thousand men begin their first round the world cruise.
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 1, 1908 - The tradition of dropping a ball in New York's Times Square to signal the beginning of the New Year is inaugurated.
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.
May 14, 1908 - The first passenger flight on a plane occurs when Wilbur Wright escorts Charles W. Furnas in the Wright Flyer III at Huffman Prairie Flying Field in Dayton, Ohio.
September 27, 1908 - The first production Model T was built at the Ford plant in Detroit, Michigan.
October 9, 1908 - The U.S. Bureau of Public Roads completes an initial two mile macadam surface through Cumberland Gap with the Object Lesson Road, one of the first efforts to test a hardened road.
November 1908 - William Howard Taft is elected President, 321 to 162 Electoral Votes, over Democratic candidate William Jennings Bryan, who had twice before been defeated for the office by William McKinley in 1896 and 1900.1909
January 28, 1909 - The troops of the United States leave Cuba for the first time since the beginning of the Spanish-American War.
April 6, 1909 - Admiral Robert E. Peary, a Pennsylvania native, accompanied by four eskimos and a black man, Matthew Henson, arrives as the North Pole on their sixth attempt, establishing Camp Jesup. He had set sail for the pole nearly one year earlier on July 6, 1908.
June 1, 1909 - The "Alaska-Yukon Pacific Exposition" opens in Seattle, Washington. Attendance of 3,740,561, including free visitors, witness the world's fair held on 250 acres, including land of present-day Washington University.
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).
July 12, 1909 - President William Howard Taft continues the designation of national monuments begin during the Roosevelt administration with the proclamation of Oregon Caves National Monument in southwest Oregon. On July 31, he continued the designations with the southwestern Utah lands known as Mukunyuweap that would become, ten years later, Zion National Park.
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