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Civil War begins
Began when Confederate forces bombarded the Union controlled Fort Sumter in Charleston Bay.There were many causes of the civil war, including differences between northern and southern states on the idea of slavery, as well as trade, tariffs, and states rights. -
The Gettysburg Address
A speech by Abe Lincoln for dedication of Soldier's National Cemetery, a cemetery for Union soldiers killed at the Battle Of Gettysburg during the American Civil War. -
Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation was an executive order issued on January 1, 1863, by President Lincoln freeing slaves in all portions of the United States not then under Union control. -
Civil war ends
General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox, Virginia. -
Abraham Lincoln assasinated
John Wilkes Booth, a famous actor and Confederate sympathizer, assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. The attack came only five days after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his massive army at Appomattox Court House, Virginia. -
Reconstruction Amendments ratified
The Reconstruction amendments were important in implementing the Reconstruction of the American South after the war. Their proponents saw them as transforming the United States from a country that was (in Abraham Lincoln's words) "half slave and half free" to one in which the constitutionally guaranteed "blessings of liberty" would be extended to the entire populace, including the former slaves and their descendants. -
Military Reconstruction Act passed
These acts divided the south into five military districts. Each district was placed under military leadership and new elections were held with voting only allowed by Congress' approved voters, which were mostly former slaves. Each state was also required to ratify the 13th and 14th Amendments after drafting new state constitutions. -
U.S. Grant elected
Ulysses was a prominent United States Army general during the American Civil War and Commanding General at the conclusion of that war. He was elected as the 18th President of the United States in 1868, serving from 1869 to 1877. -
Boss Tweed convicted of embezzlement
All the Tweed Ring were subsequently tried and sentenced to prison. Boss Tweed served time for forgery and larceny and other charges. -
Compromise of 1877 ends construction
With the compromise, the Republicans had quietly given up their fight for racial equality and blacks' rights in the south. In 1877, Hayes withdrew the last federal troops from the south, and the bayonet-backed Republican governments collapsed, thereby ending Reconstruction. -
Jane Addams founds Hull House
Addams and her college friend and paramour Ellen Gates Starr co-founded Hull House, a settlement house in Chicago. The run-down mansion had been built by Charles Hull in 1856 and needed repairs and upgrading. Addams at first paid for all of the capital expenses they purchased the Hull Mansion on Hulsted Street. They opened the house to the immigrants. The Hull House was originally meant to educate the working poor in the subjects of art and literature. -
Carrie Nation begins smashing liquor
Prohibitionist Carry Nation smashes up the bar at the Carey Hotel in Wichita, Kansas, causing several thousand dollars in damage and landing in jail. Nation, who was released shortly after the incident, became famous for carrying a hatchet and wrecking saloons as part of her anti-alcohol crusade. -
Theodore Roosevelt takes office
With the assassination of President William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, not quite 43, became the 26th and youngest President in the Nation's history. -
Ida Tarbell publishes "The History of the Standard Oil Company"
She exposed the oil company which exposed the best-known businessman in the country at the time. The fact that she exposed someone so powerful showed that she was a strong woman. -
World War I begins
A war that started because Germany tried to take over Europe. -
Margaret Sanger Coins the term "birth control"
She was an American birth control activist, sex educator, writer, and nurse. Sanger popularized the term "birth control", opened the first birth control clinic in the United States, and established organizations that evolved into the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. -
Jeannette Rankin becomes first Congresswoman
Montana suffragist Jeannette Rankin is elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. She is the first woman in the history of the nation to win a seat in the federal Congress. -
World War I ends
Germany signed an armistice (an agreement for peace and no more fighting) that had been prepared by Britain and France. American Britain and France, who were allies, won the war.
