US and World History -- Year In Context
(In large part, dates are from  http://wombat.doc.ic.ac.uk/pub/dates)

1850's
1860's     60 61 62 6364 65666768 69
1870's
1880's
1890's
1900's
1910's
1920's

17 03 1860 Japanese Embassy arrives aboard the "Candinmarruh" <sic>
24 03 1860 The square-rigged Clipper "Andrew Jackson" arrives in San Fransico from New York in 89 days "clipping" days off average time, and setting the record. Time was money, and the clipper ships were built for speed.
03 04 1860 Pony Express was initiated
14 04 1860 1st Pony Express rider arrives in SF from St. Joseph, Missouri
01 05 1860 1st school for the deaf founded
18 05 1860 The Republican Party nominated Abraham Lincoln for President
23 06 1860 U.S. Secret Service was formed
07 07 1860 Gustave Mahler, the composer, was born in Bohemia
07 09 1860 Grandma Moses, American Primitive painter, was born
06 11 1860 Abraham Lincoln elected president
20 12 1860 South Carolina becomes first state to secede from Union

?? ?? 1861 Ohioan Generals Grant, Sherman and Sheridan ride off to war
09 01 1861 Mississippi secedes from the union
15 01 1861 Steam elevator patented by Elisha Otis, forming base for his elevator company
17 01 1861 Flush toilet was patented by Mr. Thomas Crapper (Honest
21 01 1861 Jefferson Davis and four other Southern Senators resign from the Senate
29 01 1861 Kansas becomes the 34th state
04 02 1861 Jefferson Davis elected President of the Confederate States of America
08 02 1861 Confederate States adopt Provisional Constitution
15 02 1861 Fort Point completed & garrisoned (but has never fired its cannon in anger)
18 02 1861 Jefferson Davis was sworn in as the first president of the Confederate States of America
28 02 1861 The Territory of Colorado was organized
02 03 1861 Congress creates the Territory of Nevada
19 03 1861 Second Maori War ends in New Zealand
12 04 1861 Civil War begins at Fort Sumter, Charleston, SC
12 04 1861 Confederate troops fire first shots of Civil War at Ft Sumter
03 07 1861 Pony Express arrives in SF with overland letters from New York
16 07 1861 1st major battle of the Civil War -- Bull Run
17 07 1861 the first U.S. paper money was printed
27 07 1861 General George McClellan was placed in charge of the Army of the Potomac
31 07 1861 First storm warnings are published by British Meteorological department
03 08 1861 US Navy's first aircraft carrier launches hot air balloon
05 08 1861 The first income tax of 3% of all income over $800
26 10 1861 Transcontinental telegraph service inaugurated in US (end of Pony Express)
01 11 1861 General George B. McClellan was made general in chief of the Union armies
12 11 1861 U.S. first exports oil to Europe
14 12 1861 Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, died of Typhoid

?? ?? 1862 Ohioans LTC R. B. Hayes and Sgt Wm. McKinley saw action at Antietam
30 01 1862 US Navy's 1st ironclad warship, the "Monitor", launched
16 02 1862 14000 Confederate soldiers surrender at Fort Donelson, Tennessee to General Grant earning him the nickname "Unconditional Surrender Grant"
08 03 1862 Duel between Merrimac and Monitor; CSS Merrimac withdrew
08 03 1862 Ned Gordon, last American pirate, was hanged
09 03 1862 The Monitor and the Merrimack do battle at Hampton Roads
11 03 1862 General McClellan was relieved of command
06 04 1862 Battle of Shiloh
07 04 1862 General Ulysses S. Grant's Union forces win the battle of Shiloh, Tennessee
21 04 1862 Congress establishes US Mint in Denver, Colorado
19 05 1862 the Homestead Act becomes law
20 05 1862 The Homestead Act, contributes to development in ND, SD, and OK
12 07 1862 The United States Congress authorizes the Medal of Honor
30 08 1862 Union forces were defeated by the Confederates at the Second Battle of Bull Run
17 09 1862 Battle of Antietam
06 11 1862 Direct Telegraphic link between New York and San Francisco established
13 12 1862 The battle of Fredricksburg was won by the Confederacy

10 01 1863 1st underground railway opens in London
10 02 1863 Tom Thumb and Mercy Lavinia Warren, famous midget couple, wed
26 02 1863 President Lincoln signs the National Currency Act
?? 05 1863 In Paris, Manet's Le D'jeuner sur l'Herbe is refused by the the Salon. The "Salon des Refuses" is opened and there Manet's work with others causes a scandal
07 06 1863 French forces occupy Mexico City
20 06 1863 West Virginia becomes the 35th state
29 06 1863 the very first 1st National Bank opens in Davenport, Iowa
01 07 1863 Battle of Gettysburg begins
04 07 1863 Battles of Vicksburg & Gettysburg won by Union forces
13 07 1863 People riot in New York against law that says $300 lets one avoid the draft during which they burn an orphanage
17 08 1863 Federal ships and guns bombarded Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor
22 09 1863 President Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation
03 10 1863 Lincoln designates the last Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day
29 10 1863 International Committee of the Red Cross founded
19 11 1863 Lincoln delivers his address in Gettysburg
23 11 1863 patent granted for a process of making color photographs

 
09 02 1864 Lincoln posed for photograph which appears on $5 bill
01 03 1864 patent issued for taking & projecting motion pictures to Louis Ducos du Hauron (he never did build such a machine, though)
11 03 1864 Bradfield Reservoir in Sheffield bursts and over 250 people drown
19 03 1864 Charles Russell, American Western artist, was born
22 04 1864 Congress authorizes use of the motto "In God We Trust" for US coins
07 05 1864 General Sherman begins his "march to the sea"
18 05 1864 Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author, died
30 06 1864 Yosemite becomes a California State Park
11 07 1864 Confederate forces begin their assault on Washington, D.C
23 07 1864 Dr. Livingstone returns to England
05 08 1864 the spectrum of a comet observed for 1st time, by Giovanni Donati
23 10 1864 Confederate Sterling Price was defeated in the last Civil War action west of the Mississippi
31 10 1864 Nevada becomes the 36th state
24 11 1864 Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, painter and graphic artist, was born in Albi, France
29 11 1864 Colorado militia kill 150 peaceful Cheyenne Indians in Sand Creek massacre
20 12 1864 Savannah Georgia was evacuated as Sherman's army approaches
22 12 1864 General Sherman takes Savannah, Georgia

06 02 1865 General Lee appointed commander-in-chief of all Confederate forces
17 02 1865 Columbia, South Carolina was burned as Confederates moved out and the Union troops moved in
20 03 1865 The celebration of the first complete revolution of Uranus since its discovery
09 04 1865 Lee surrenders to Grant at Appomattox Courthouse on Palm Sunday
11 04 1865 Lincoln gives his last public speech
14 04 1865 President Abraham Lincoln was shot and mortally wounded at 11 pm by John Wilkes Booth while attending the comedy "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theater in Washington. The president died the following morning at 7:30 am
26 05 1865 General Kirby Smith surrenders in Texas ending the Civil War
22 06 1865 Last shot of Civil War fired by CSS Shenandoah in Bering Sea
05 07 1865 William Booth founds the Salvation Army, in London, England
13 07 1865 Horace Greeley of the New York Tribune said "Go west young man, go west"
14 07 1865 the 1st ascent of the Matterhorn
08 10 1865 San Fransico Earthquake
10 11 1865 Captain Wirz, commandant of Andersonville Prison hanged
18 11 1865 Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) publishes his first work, "Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog"
18 12 1865 the 13th Amendment to the Constitution abolishing slavery was declared in effect
24 12 1865 KKK formed in Pulaski, Tenn
26 12 1865 James Mason invents the 1st American coffee percolator

?? ?? 1866 Thomas Eakins accepted at École des Beaux Arts, Paris
?? ?? 1866 Congress recognizes the Metric system of measurements
?? ?? 1866 First roller rink in the world opens at Newport, RI
10 04 1866 ASPCA organized
10 04 1866 The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was incorporated
16 04 1866 Nitroglycerine at the Wells Fargo & Co. office explodes
16 05 1866 Congress authorizes nickel 5-cent piece (the silver half-dime was used up to this point)
27 07 1866 Cyrus W. Field succeeded in laying a reliable transatlantic cable after twelve years of trying (1,686 miles long)

01 03 1867 Nebraska becomes the 37th state
30 03 1867 Russia sold Alaska to the U.S for $7.2 million
19 06 1867 Emperor Maximilian of Mexico was executed
01 07 1867 British North American Act creates the Dominion of Canada
25 07 1867 Das Kapital by Karl Marx was published
25 11 1867 Johann Strauss, Jr., writes "On the Beautiful Blue Danube"

?? ?? 1868 House impeaches President Johnson.
16 02 1868 the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks was organized in New York City
31 03 1868 Chinese Embassy arrives aboard the steamship "China"
06 04 1868 Brigham Young marries number 27, his final wife
18 04 1868 San Francisco Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals formed
12 05 1868 Russians occupy Samarkand
22 05 1868 The "Great Train Robbery" took place in Indiana
26 05 1868 President Johnson avoids impeachment by 1 vote in the Senate
31 05 1868 1st recorded bicycle race, 2 kilometers in Paris
23 06 1868 Typewriter patented
28 07 1868 The fourteenth amendment, civil rights, was proclaimed in effect prohibits voting discrimination, among other things

?? ?? 1869 Suez Canal completed
01 05 1869 Folies-Bergere opens in Paris
10 05 1869 Transcontinental railroad completed; the Driving of the Golden Spike, Promontory Point, Utah.
23 08 1869 1st carload of freight (boots & shoes) arrives in San Francisco, from Boston, after a 16-day rail trip
24 08 1869 the Waffle Iron was invented
06 09 1869 1st westbound train arrives in San Francisco, the need of fast sailing "clipper ships" to Round the Horn for California is no longer needed.
24 09 1869 Black Friday: Thousands of business are ruined after Jay Gould and James Fisk try to corner the Gold market
01 10 1869 1st postcards issued in Vienna
02 10 1869 Mohandas K. (Mahatma) Gandhi born at Porbandar, Kathiawad, India
16 10 1869 a hotel in Boston becomes the 1st to have indoor plumbing
18 10 1869 the United States take possession of Alaska
16 11 1869 Opening of the Suez Canal
10 12 1869 Women allowed to vote in Wyoming Territory

updated 06/29/2004