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Ulysses S. Grant is president
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A golden spike is driven into a railroad tie at Promontory Point
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. The railroad's promoters received 23 million acres of land and $64 million in loans as an incentive. -
31-year-old John D. Rockefeller forms Standard Oil of Ohio.
John D. Rockefeller (1839-1937), founder of the Standard Oil Company, became one of the world’s wealthiest men and a major philanthropist. -
P.T. Barnum opens his three-ring circus
P.T. Barnum opens his three-ring circus, hailing it as the "Greatest Show on Earth."The classic three-ring American circus that we know today – a self-contained, fully choreographed live production presenting acrobatics, animal acts, spectacle productions and comic relief – was born out of a mid- eighteenth century English horse-riding exhibition and transplanted to American soil in the early 1790s. -
The Great Chicago Fire
The Great Chicago Fire claims 250 lives and destroys 17,500 buildings.The Great Chicago Fire was a conflagration that burned from Sunday, October 8, to early Tuesday, October 10, 1871. The fire killed up to 300 people, destroyed roughly 3.3 square miles (9 km2) of Chicag -
Montgomery Ward begins to sell goods to rural customers by mail.
Takes place in Chicago -
Women's Christian Temperance Union is formed
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Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone
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Rutherford B. Hayes is president
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President Garfield is elected.
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After the assassination of President Garfield, Chester A. Arthur is elected as president.
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Congress passes the Chinese Exclusion Act
Congress passes the Chinese Exclusion Act, barring Chinese Chinese immigration for ten years. -
Congress passes the Pendleton Act
Congress passes the Pendleton Act, establishing a Civil Service Commission and filling government positions by a merit system, including competitive examinations. -
Joseph Pulitzer purchases the New York World from Jay Gould.
Took place in NY -
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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Railroads in the United States and Canada adopt a system of standard time.
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Construction begins in Chicago on the first building with a steel skeleton
Construction begins in Chicago on the first building with a steel skeleton, William Jenney's ten-story Home Insurance Company -
Grover Cleveland is elected president
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Over 300,000 workers demonstrate in behalf of an eight-hour work day.
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The Haymarket Square bombing in Chicago kills seven police officers and wounds sixty.
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President Grover Cleveland unveils the Statue of Liberty.
Takes place in New York. -
The American Federation of Labor was founded
The American Federation of Labor was founded, with Samuel Gompers as president. Membership was restricted to skilled craftsmen. -
The Interstate Commerce Act is issued
requires railroads to charge reasonable rates and forbids them from from offering rate reductions to preferred customers. -
Benjamin Harrison is president
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Congress passes the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.
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The Populist party is founded in Cincinnati, Ohio.
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James Naismith, a physical education instructor at the YMCA Training College in Springfield, Mass., invents basketball.
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Ellis Island opens to screen immigrants.
Twenty million immigrants passed through it before it was closed in 1954. -
Homestead Steelworks Strike
Homestead Steelworks Henry Clay Frick, who managed Andrew Carnegie's steelworks at Homestead, Pa., cuts wages, precipitating a strike that begins June 26. In a pitched battle with Pinkerton guards, brought in to protect the plant, ten strikers and three Pinkertons are killed. Pennsylvania's governor then sent in the state militia to protect strikebreakers. The strike ended Nov. 20. -
Pullman Strike
Workers at the Pullman sleeping car plant in Chicago go on strike after the company cut wages without reducing rents in company-owned housing. On June 26, the American Railway Union begins to boycott trains carrying Pullman cars. -
The Supreme Court strikes down an income tax.
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William Jennings Bryan
William Jennings Bryan electrified the Democratic convention with his "Cross of Gold" speech and received the party's nomination, but was defeated Nov. 3 by Republican William McKinley. -
William McKinley President
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Andrew Carnegie sells Carnegie Steel Company to JP Morgan
This deal makes Andrew Carnegie the richest man in the world at the time.
