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The 14th Amendment to the US Constitution grants citizenship to anyone born in the United States and guarantees due process and equal protection of the laws. It serves as the basis for applying the rights specified in the US Constitution to the states.
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A golden spike is driven into a railroad tie at Promontory Point, Utah, completing the transcontinental railroad. Built in just over three years by 20,000 workers, it had 1,775 miles of track.
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The 15th Amendment guarantees the right to vote regardless "of race, color, or previous condition of servitude."
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claims 250 lives and destroys 17,500 buildings.
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The Great Chicago Fire claims 250 lives and destroys 17,500 buildings.
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Susan B. Anthony and other women's suffrage advocates are arrested for attempting to vote in Rochester, N.Y.
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The introduction of barbed wire provides the first economical way to fence in cattle on the Great Plains.
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4-years-old Charley Brewster Ross is abducted, the country's first kidnapping for ransom. The child was never found.
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Congress passes the Civil Rights Act of 1875 to guarantee equal use of public accommodations and places of public amusement. It also forbids the exclusion of African Americans from jury duty.
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President Hayes begins to withdraw federal troops from the South, marking the official end to Reconstruction.
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President James Garfield is shot by Charles Guiteau, a disgruntled office-seeker. He died on Sept. 19.
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The Supreme Court rules that the Civil Rights Act of 1875 only forbids state-imposed discrimination, not that by individuals or corporations.
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Construction begins in Chicago on the first building with a steel skeleton, William Jenney's ten-story Home Insurance Company, marking the birth of the skyscraper.
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The Supreme Court holds that corporations are persons covered by the 14th Amendment, and are entitled to due process.
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Ellis Island opens to screen immigrants. Twenty million immigrants passed through it before it was closed in 1954.
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Plessy v. Ferguson. The US Supreme Court rules that segregation of blacks and whites was permitted under the Constitution so long as both races receive equal facilities.
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The battleship Maine blows up and sinks while anchored in Cuba's Havana harbor.
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Apr. 25 to Aug. 12:
Spanish-American War. As a result of the conflict, the United States acquires Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. -
The Supreme Court rules that a child born of Chinese parents in the United States is an American citizen and cannot be deported under the Chinese Exclusion Act.
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President McKinley signs a resolution annexing Hawaii.
