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Opening of the Erie Canal
The Erie Canal, linking the Hudson River to Lake Erie, is finally opened for traffic on October 26, 1825. -
Carl Maria von Weber died
Weber suffered from tuberculosis the last three years of his life. -
Jackson's second inauguration
The inauguration made U.S. history in the sense that this was the first time in United States history when there was more than one inaugural ball. One of the balls were held at the Central Masonic Hall and the other was held at Carusi's. -
Johannes Brahms was born
Johannes Brahms was born in Hamburg, Germany in 1833, the son of a double bass player in the Hamburg city orchestra. -
The German composer, Richard Strauss was born
Strauss was born in Munich Germany on June 11 1864, the son of Franz Strauss, first horn in the court orchestra there. -
Lincoln’s assassination
Lincoln is assassinated by John Wilkes Booth in Washington, DC, and is succeeded by his vice president, Andrew Johnson. -
Edvard Grieg wrote the incidental music for Ibsen's "Peer Gynt"
The piece was written to convert Ibsen's play into a musical phenomenon, which it rightfully did. It was in the year 1867, in Italy, when Ibsen wrote this allegorical play, comprised of five separate acts. -
James A. Garfield is inaugurated as the 20th president
He is shot by Charles Guiteau in Washington, DC. He later dies from some complications with his wounds in Elberon, N.J. Garfield's vice president, Chester Alan Arthur, succeeds him in office. -
One of the major 20th-century composers, Béla Bartók, was born
Bartók was born on March 25, 1881, in Nagyszentmiklós, Hungary, which is now today Sânnicolau Mare, Romania. His father, who was the headmaster of an agricultural school and was also named Béla, he died when Bartók was seven years old. -
Last major battle of the Indian Wars occurs at Wounded Knee in South Dakota
On December 29, the U.S. Army’s 7th cavalry surrounded a band of Ghost Dancers under the Sioux Chief Big Foot near Wounded Knee Creek and demanded they surrender their weapons. As that was happening, a fight broke out between an Indian and a U.S. soldier and a shot was fired, although it’s unclear from which side. A brutal massacre followed, in which it’s estimated almost 150 Native Americans were killed (some historians put this number at twice as high), nearly half of them women and children. -
Carnegie Hall opened in New York City
Andrew Carnegie's new Music Hall opens with a five-day music festival beginning on May 5. -
Plessy V. Ferguson
Landmark Supreme Court decision holds that racial segregation is constitutional, paving the way for the repressive Jim Crow laws in the South. Also upheld a Louisiana state law that allowed for "equal but separate accommodations for the white and colored races."