-
The Gadsden Purchase is consummated
the United States buying a 29,640 square mile tract of land in present-day Arizona and New Mexico (approximately from Yuma to Las Cruces) -
Debate on the future of slavery
the territories escalates when Henry Clay introduces the Compromise of 1850 to the U.S. Congress. On March 7, Senator Daniel Webster endorses the bill as a measure to avert a possible civil war -
The United States of America participates
the opening ceremony of the first World's Fair in history, the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations -
The Pony Express begins
Overland mail between Sacramento, California and St. Joseph's, Missouri is carried over the Oregon Trail for eighteen months by this series of riders on horseback -
General Robert E
as commander in chief of Confederate forces, surrenders his 27,000 man army to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, effectively ending the four years of Civil War conflict -
The first African-American
to be sworn into office in the United States Congress, Hiram Rhodes Revels, a Republican from Mississippi takes his place in the United States Senate -
An economic depression
begins when the New York stock market crashed, setting off a financial panic that caused bank failures -
The Civil Rights Act
giving equal rights to blacks in jury duty and accommodation, is passed by the United States Congress -
Reporting on the Indian Wars
inspector E.C. Watkins pronounces that hundreds of Sioux and Cheyenne under Indian leaders Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse are openly hostile against the United States government, forming U.S. policy over the next year
