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The 14th Amendment to the US Constitution grants citizenship to anyone born in the United States and guarantees due process and equal protection of the laws.
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31-year-old John D. Rockefeller forms Standard Oil of Ohio.
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Hiram R. Revels of Mississippi becomes the first African American to serve in the US Senate. Joseph H. Rainey of South Carolina becomes the first black Representative.
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The 15th Amendment to the US Constitution guarantees the right to vote regardless "of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
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The Great Chicago Fire claims 250 lives and destroys 17,500 buildings
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Susan B. Anthony and other women's suffrage advocates are arrested for attempting to vote in Rochester, N.Y.
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Congress passes the Civil Rights Act of 1875 to guarantee equal use of public accommodations and places of public amusement. It also forbids the exclusion of African Americans from jury duty.
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Inventor Alexander Graham Bell successfully transmits a human voice over a wire. The telephone will revolutionize personal and business communication.
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Thomas Edison invents the light bulb.
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Railroads in the United States and Canada adopt a system of standard time.The four standard time zones adopted were eastern standard time, central daylight time, mountain standard time, and Pacific daylight time.
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Workers at the Pullman sleeping car plant in Chicago go on strike after the company cut wages without reducing rents in company-owned housing.
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The battleship Maine blows up and sinks while anchored in Cuba's Havana harbor.
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As a result of the conflict, the United States acquires Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines.
