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Throughout the 19th century Britain expanded her world wide empire. In 1843 the British took control of Natal in South Africa and in 1867 the Dominion of Canada was established. Following the Great Mutiny (Sepoy Rebellion) in 1857 the British took control of India which came to be known as the Crown Jewel of the Empire. India was to remain under British control until 1947 when it was the last of the crown colonies to obtain freedom. At the conclusion of the Opium War in 1842 China became part of
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1854 Ostend Manifesto issued by U.S. ministers to Europe. The ministers write up a document that urges the U.S. to annex Cuba for the security of slavery, and that if Spain refuses to sell the island, it should be taken by force.
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Congress acts to authorize the U.S. annexation of any small island that is unclaimed by other governments. In 1857, they will annex Jarvis Island and Bakerís Island, located in the mid-Pacific, and in 1858, Howardís Island.
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Abraham Lincoln is elected sixteenth president of the United States, the first Republican president in the nation who represents a party that opposes the spread of slavery in the territories of the United States.
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February 8-9, 1861 - The southern states that seceded create a government at Montgomery, Alabama, and the Confederate States of America are formed.
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April 15, 1861- President Lincoln issues a public declaration that an insurrection exists and calls for 75,000 militia to stop the rebellion. As a result of this call for volunteers, four additional southern states secede from the Union in the following weeks. Lincoln will respond on May 3 with an additional call for 43,000+ volunteers to serve for three years, expanding the size of the Regular Army.
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Looking for a way to help ex-slaves enter society as free people, the federal government creates the Freedman's Bureau. It is only supposed to be open for one year, but is open until 1868.
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The leader of the Confederate Army, Robert E. Lee, surrenders to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse. The bloody Civil War officially comes to and end.
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Republican Ulysses S. Grant defeats Democrat Horatio Seymour and is elected president of the United States. Grant receives 214 of 294 votes in the Electoral College. But his margin of victory in the popular vote is only 306,000 out of 5.7 million votes cast. The support of 500,000 recently enfranchised southern black voters accounts for Grant's victory.
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On May 10, 1869, the famous Golden Spike was driven into the ground to complete The First Transcontinental Railroad at Promontory Summit in Utah. The project was authorized by President Abraham Lincoln under the Pacific Railway Act of 1862. The construction of the railroad would ultimately link the eastern railways with the Pacific Ocean.
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John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company is incorporated in Ohio. Rockefeller has been active in the oil business since 1863. Standard Oil was first formed as a partnership in 1868.
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President Ulysses S. Grant names George William Curtis to head the Civil Service Commission. Curtis, as editor of Harper's Weekly, has condemned political corruption and advocated imitation of the British system of awarding government positions on the basis of performance on a written test. The commission's recommendations will be disregarded and Curtis will resign in 1875
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On March 10, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. The telephone was developed while Bell was trying to improve the telegraph. At the time, the telegraph was only able to send out one message at a time. Alexander Graham Bell discovered how to send multiple messages at once. It was while working on this that Bell discovered that he could transfer sound over a wire. The first sound that he had heard was of a twanging clock spring. Less than a year later, Bell uttered to his ass
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•June 28 - Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to Austria-Hungary's throne, and his wife, Sophie, are assassinated by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip while the couple were visiting Sarajevo.
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•July 28 - Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia.
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•August 1 - Germany declares war on Russia
