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abraham lincoln
Lincoln was elected to the Illinois legislature, but he declined the office on November 27th to become a candidate for the U.S. Senate. (He was defeated in this attempt early in 1855.) His opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska Act fueled Lincoln's re-entry into politics. Lincoln jotted down what would later become a famous quote on slavery and democracy: "As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master - This expresses my idea of democracy - Whatever differs from this, to the extent. -
confederate surrender
The Battle of Appomattox Court House, fought on the morning of April 9, 1865, was the final engagement of Confederate States Army General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia before it surrendered to the Union Army under Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, and one of the last battles of the American Civil War. -
suprise attack
- Confederate surprise attack on Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's unprepared troops at Shiloh on the Tennessee River results in a bitter struggle with 13,000 Union killed and wounded and 10,000 Confederates, more men than in all previous American wars combined. The president is then pressured to relieve Grant but resists. "I can't spare this man; he fights," Lincoln says.
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Alexander Graham Bell
In 1876, at the age of 29, Alexander Graham Bell invented his telephone. In 1877, he formed the Bell Telephone Company, and in the same year married Mabel Hubbard and embarked on a yearlong honeymoon in Europe. http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bltelephone2.htm -
fort Sumpter
Fort Sumter after its capture, showing damage from the Rebel bombardment of over 3000 shells and now flying the Rebel "Stars and Bars" -