 Lincoln said the slavery issue had to be addressed. He declared ‘a house divided against itself cannot stand’.
11/5/1858. Minnesota became the 32nd State of the USA.
23/12/1856, James Buchanan Duke, US industrialist, was born in Durham, North Carolina (died 10/10/1925 in New York).
22/12/1856, Frank B Kellogg, US politician, was born.
4/7/1855. New York became the 13th state to ban the production or sale of alcoholic beverages. For more on Prohinition see Morals-Punishment.
5/7/1854, In America, the Republican Party was officially founded.
31/3/1854. The USA and Japan signed the Treaty of Kanagawa, opening up the Japanese ports of Shimoda and Hakodate to American trade.
28/2/1854, The United States Republican Party was formed, in Ripon, Wisconsin.
8/7/1853. US Commodore Matthew Perry steamed into Japan’s Edo Bay (now Tokyo) with his ‘black ships’ and demanded that the country open up to US trade. He backed up his demand with cannon fire. For 250 years Japan had been a feudal state run by the Tokugawa shoguns.
31/12/1852, Henry Carter Adams, US economist, was born.
22/10/1851, Archibald Alexander, US Presbyterian clergyman, died in Princeton, New Jersey (born 17/4/1772 in Virginia).
18/9/1851. The New York Times was first published. It was founded by Henry Jarvis Raymond.
13/8/1851, Felix Adler, US educationalist (died 24/4/1933) was born.
3/6/1851, George Adams, US historian (died 26/5/1925) was born.
15/2/1850, Albert Cummins, US politician, was born (died 30/7/1926).
1849, US Congress created the Department of the Interior, to administer the large areas added to the US by the Louisiana Purchase and the Oregon Territories.
10/5/1849. In New York, 22 died and 56 were injured as troops fired on anti-British riots sparked by Irish gangs. The mob, armed with bricks and clubs, had gathered outside the Astor Place Opera House to revile the British actor Charles Macready, who had scorned the vulgarity of Americans.
24/6/1848, Brooks Adams, US historian, (died 13/2/1927) was born.
29/5/1848, Wisconsin became the 30th State of the Union.
19/3/1848, Wyatt Earp, American law enforcer, was born in Monmouth, Illinois.
2/2/1848. Mexico finally collapsed after nearly 2 years of war with the USA, in which 13,000 US soldiers were killed. Under the Treaty of Hidalgo, signed at Vera Cruz, Mexico surrendered Texas, New Mexico, and California for a payment of US$15million. The size of the USA was thus increased by nearly a third. The Mexicans feared US occupation of their own country and had no money left to fund the war.
14/9/1847. US troops stormed and captured Mexico City, ending the US war with Mexico. With US forces capturing Texas, New Mexico and California, Mexico lost a third of its territory.
5/9/1847. Jesse James, American outlaw, was born near Kansas City. With his elder brother, Frank, he led the first gang to carry out train robberies.
10/7/1847, The first Chinese migrants arrived in the USA. They came on the ship Kee Ying, from Canton (Guangzhou).
See also Mexico C:\Users\BAD ROBOT\Desktop\myweb4\images\000SouthCentrAmeric.htmfor Mexican War 1846-48
18/4/1847, US troops under General Winfield Scott defeated Mexican forces under Santa Anna at Cerro Gordo.
12/4/1847, During the war between the USA and Mexico (1846-1848), this day US General Winfield Scott met the first serious resistance to his advance on Mexico City.
23/2/1847, US forces under General Zachary Taylor defeated the Mexicans under Santa Anna at Buena Vista. The US had ambitions to occupy the entire North American continent (the Manifest Destiny), including possibly Mexico itself. The US had taken what is now New Mexico and California (Upper California to Mexico).
28/12/1846. Iowa was admitted as the 29th (non-slave) State of the USA.
25/12/1846. US troops defeated the Mexicans near Las Cruces, virtually completing the conquest of New Mexico.
12/12/1846. The USA and Colombia agreed to grant the USA transit rights on the narrow isthmus of Panama between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
10/8/1846, The Smithsonian Institute was founded in Washington DC; it was establi