Major Historical Events

Major Historical Events

· Lincoln signed the final draft of the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863.

· December 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment of the Constitution was passed by the House of Representatives and ratified by the required number of states, slavery was finally abolished everywhere in the United States.

· The Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution was passed by Congress in 1867. The amendment was designed to grant citizenship to and protect the civil liberties of recently freed slaves. It did this by prohibiting states from denying or abridging the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States, depriving any person of his life, liberty, or property without due process of law, or denying to any person within their jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

· Congress passed the first Reconstruction Act on 2nd March, 1867

· The Freeman's Bureau was established by Congress on 3rd March, 1865. The bureau was designed to protect the interests of former slaves. This included helping them to find new employment and to improve educational and health facilities. In the year that followed the bureau spent $17,000,000 establishing 4,000 schools, 100 hospitals and providing homes and food for former slaves.

· U.S. presidential election: Abraham Lincoln beats John C. Breckinridge, Stephen A. Douglas, and John Bell and is elected as the sixteenth President of the United States, the first Republican to hold that office (6 Nov 1860)

· United States President Abraham Lincoln is shot at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. by John Wilkes Booth, dies the following day (14 April 1865)

· Civil War (1861-1865); The Civil War quickens the pace of technical innovation and creates a desire for social change seen over the next half century.

· 1865-National Academy of Sciences. President Lincoln establishes the National Academy of Sciences, in response to hundreds of inventions suggested by citizens to aid in the Union war effort.

· U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signs the Homestead Act into law (20 May 1862)

· 1860-1st English Language Kindergarten in US; After working with Bronson Alcott at his experimental Temple School, Elizabeth Palmer Peabody begins a kindergarten program in Boston.

· US Department of Education: The original US Department of Education is created in 1867 to collect information on schools and teaching to help the States establish effective school systems.

· The fifteenth amendment is entered into the United States Constitution, giving blacks the right to vote (30 March 1870)

· Christmas is declared a federal holiday in the United States (26 Jun 1870)

· The phonograph is patented by Thomas Edison (19 Feb 1878)

· 1873 - Ellen Swallow Richards: She is the first woman admitted to MIT, and the first woman to earn a science degree in America. Denied a doctorate due to her gender, she goes on to found the study of ecology, and discover the metal vanadium. Then applying principles of D67chemistry and ecology to domestic life, she establishes the study of "home economics".

· Quincy method: Thirty thousand teachers come to see the educational approach developed in Quincy Massachusetts by its Superintendent, Francis W. Parker. Core to his approach is that learning should be less structured and more meaningful to students.

· 1873 - Smith College The bequest of Sophia Smith establishes Smith College. It is organized by her minister Reverend John M. Green as a non-denominational institution aimed elevating the lives of women in society.

· 1881 — The Los Angeles Times is first published

· 1883 — Thomas Edison invents the light bulb

· 1884 — Mark Twain completes Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

· 1888 — The Kodak box camera was offered for sale for $25, taking 100 pictures on a roll

· 1888 — A new magazine called National Geographic was first published

· Ellis Island opens as immigrant receiving station in New York Harbor, 15-year old Irish immigrant Annie Moore is given the honor of being the first arrival through Ellis Island (01 Jan 1892)

· To mark 400 anniversary Columbus Day holiday, the "Pledge of Allegiance" was first recited in unison by students in US public schools (12 Oct 1892)

· Utah is admitted as the 45th U.S. state (4 Jan 1896)

· The United States Supreme Court rules in Plessy v. Ferguson, introducing the "separate but equal" doctrine and upholding segregation (18 May 1896)

· William McKinley succeeds Grover Cleveland as President of the United States (4 Mar 1896)

· Voting machines are approved by the U.S. Congress for use in federal elections (14 Feb 1899)

· 1894 - First medical screening of students: Boston becomes the first city to introduce medical inspection in its public schools. In 1906 these health screenings are made compulsory

· The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs organized in Philadelphia PA (29 Jan 1900)

· Hawaii officially becomes a U.S. territory (14 Jun 1900)

· United States President William McKinley begins second term (4 Mar 1901)

· Women compete in modern Olympic Games for the first time (13 Jul 1908)

· Famed auto maker, Henry Ford produces his first Model T automobile (27 Sep 1908)

· The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is founded (12 Feb 1909)

· United States Navy founds a navy base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (11 Nov 1909)

http://www.1930census.com/1860_the_year_in_history.php

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAevents.htm

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