nal Park in America, and its largest, Yellowstone National Park, was established.
17/10/1871, Death of Sylvester Mowry (born 17/1/1833). He was a miner and land speculator who promoted the establishment of the Arizona Territory.
11/10/1871, The Great Fire of Chicago ended.
8/10/1871. The Great Fire of Chicago started, killing 300 people. 90,000 were made homeless and US$ 200 million damage was done. The fire ended on 11/10/1871; it was supposedly started in Mrs O’Leary’s barn in De Koven Street, by a cow upsetting a lantern. Four square miles of the city were destroyed, as a long spell of dry weather had made buildings tinder-dry.
30/7/1871. In New York, an explosion on the Staten Island ferry killed 72 and injured 135.
20/4/1871, In the US, the Klu Klux Klan Act outlawed paramilitary organisations such as the Klu Klux Klan.
12/10/1870, Robert E Lee, US Confederate General during the Civil War, died in Lexington, Virginia.
14/7/1870, David Farragut, US naval hero of the Civil War, died in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
12/7/1870, John Dahlgreen, US Admiral, died.
22/6/1870, The US Department of Justice was established.
9/2/1870, The United States weather service was published.
3/2/1870, In the US, the Fifteenth Amendment gave every US citizen, regardless of race, the right to vote.
10/5/1869. The first railroad across the USA from east to west, 1,776 miles long, was completed after three years work at a ceremony west of Ogden, in Utah. The Union Pacific Line finally met with the Central Pacific Line. Both companies raced to lay as much track as possible as they converged, spurred on by government payments of US$16,000 per mile, more for mountainous areas. A golden spike was driven in at Promontory Point, Utah, where the railways met. Travel time between New York and San Francisco was slashed from 3 months to 8 days.
8/4/1869, Harvey Cushing, US surgeon, was born.
7/11/1868, Royal Samuel Copeland, US politician, was born in Michigan.
3/11/1868. Ulysses S Grant, ultimate commander of the Union armies in the Civil War, was elected President of the USA.
24/8/1868, George J Adler, US lexicographer (born 1821) died.
29/7/1858, US diplomat Townsend Harris persuaded Japan to grant further trade privileges to the USA.
25/7/1868. President Johnson signed an Act creating the territory of Wyoming.
9/7/1868, The US passed the Fourteenth Amendment, during the period of ‘reconstruction’ following the conclusion of the Civil War. It guaranteed equality before the law for Blacks and Whites alike, specifically including ex-slaves here, and prohibited any State from ‘abridging their privileges’ or denying them ‘equal protection of the laws’. However, due to the fact that corporations are also ‘persons’ before the law, the 14th Amendment began to be used for purposes it was not intended for. The 14th Amendment was used to shield companies from government regulation, and even, before the 1950s, to justify racial discrimination because it contained the words ‘separate but equal’. Later, in the 1980s, it was still being used to block so-called ‘positive discrimination’ in favour of racial minorities.
23/5/1868, Kit Carson, US soldier and fur trapper who did much to open up the West to White settlers, died (born 24/12/1809).
25/2/1868, Andrew Johnson, 17th US President 1865-69, was impeached.
28/8/1867, The Midway Islands, in the Pacific Ocean, were claimed for the US by Captain Reynolds.
1/5/1867. The Confederate leader Jefferson Davies walked out of a Virginia courtroom, free after 2 years in prison. But he still faced treason charges, as well as involvement in the assassination of President Lincoln.
1/3/1867, Nebraska became the 37th State of the Union.
12/2/1866. Invoking the Monroe Doctrine, the USA called for the withdrawal of French troops from Mexico. Maximilian, having failed to secure recognition of his regime from the US, now sought help from Napoleon III and the Pope, but his cause was hopeless.
24/12/1865, The Klu Klux Klan was founded in the US by six men in Pulaski, Tennessee.
18/12/1865. Slavery was officially abolished in the USA w