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Transcontinental railroad is completed
It was here on May 10, 1869, that Leland Stanford drove The Last Spike (or golden spike) that joined the rails of the transcontinental railroad. -
First oil well is drilled, Pennsylvania
The Drake Well is a 69.5-foot -deep (21.2 m) oil well in Cherrytree Township, Venango County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, the success of which sparked the first oil boom in the United States. -
Rockefeller founds standard Oil
rapidly became the most profitable refiner in Ohio -
Bell patents telephone
could transmit indistinct, voice-like sounds, but not clear speech. -
First telephone on White House
Used by Ulysses S. Grant -
Edison perfects incandescent light bulb
After many experiments, first with carbon filaments and then with platinum and other metals, in the end Edison returned to a carbon filament.[50] The first successful test was on October 22, 1879 -
Railroads set up standard time zones
"The Day of Two Noons",[5] when each railroad station clock was reset as standard-time noon was reached within each time zone. The zones were named Intercolonial, Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific. -
First electric trolley line, Richmond, VA
set the pattern for most subsequent electric trolley systems around the world -
Sherman Antitrust Act is passed
a landmark federal statute in the history of United States antitrust law (or "competition law") passed by Congress in 1890 -
J.P. Morgan forms U.S. Steel
J. P. Morgan and the attorney Elbert H. Gary founded U.S. Steel in 1901 (incorporated on February 25) by combining Andrew Carnegie's Carnegie Steel Company with Gary's Federal Steel Company and William Henry "Judge" Moore's National Steel Company -
Carnegie Steel Company is formed
Built to show its use of steel in its construction, the building was fifteen stories high, and was left uncovered for a full year.
