Chronology of American History, 4-Volume Set (Facts on File Library of American History)

CHRONOLOGY OF

AMERICAn HISTORy VOLUME I ★★★

Colonization and Independence Beginnings to 1788

CHRONOLOGY OF AMERICAN HISTORY Volume I Colonization and Independence Beginnings to 1788 Volume II Expansion and Civil War 1789 to 1865 Volume III Industry and Modernity 1866 to 1920 Volume IV Challenges at Home and Abroad 1921 to the Present

CHRONOLOGY OF

AMERICAn HISTORy VOLUME I ★★★

Colonization and Independence Beginnings to 1788

JOHN C. FREDRIKSEN

Chronology of American History Copyright © 2008 John C. Fredriksen All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information contact: Facts On File, Inc. An imprint of Infobase Publishing 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001 Library of Congress Â�CataÂ�loging-­in-­Publication Data Fredriksen, John C. â•… Chronology of American history / John C. Fredriksen. â•…â•…â•… v.â•… cm. â•… Includes bibliographical references and indexes. â•… Contents. v. 1.╇ Colonization and inÂ�deÂ�penÂ�dence, beginnings to Â�1788—v.â•… 2.╇ Expansion and Civil War, to Â�1865—v. 3.╇ Industry and modernity, to Â�1920—v. 4.╇ Challenges at home and abroad, to the present. â•… ISBN 978-­0-­8160-­6800-­5 (set : hc : alk. paper)â•… 1.╇ United Â�States—History— Chronology.â•… 2.╇ United Â�States—Civilization—Chronology.â•… 3.╇ United Â�States— Biography.â•… I.╇ Title. E174.5.F74 2008 973—dc22 2007033964 Facts On File books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk quantities for businesses, associations, institutions, or sales promotions. Please call our Special Sales Department in New York at (212) 967-­8800 or (800) 322-­8755. You can find Facts On File on the World Wide Web at Â�http://╉www╉.factsonfile╉.com Text design by Kerry Casey Cover design by Salvatore Luongo Printed in the United States of America VB BUG 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 This book is printed on Â�acid-­free paper and contains 30 percent Â�postconsumer recycled content.

CONTENTS ✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰ Introduction

vii

Chronology

1

Maps

569

Bibliography

586

Introduction PPPPPPPPPPPPPPP

A

s best as can be discerned, human habitation of North America began around 50,000 years ago when residents of Siberia crossed the Bering Straits to Alaska and began a gradual migration southward. These first Americans eventually spread into Mexico and the South American continent, where arose several splendid and sophisticated civilizations. The inhabitants of North America, however, remained somewhat primitive culturally compared to their neighbors to the south, and � were thus little prepared when the first waves of Eu�ro�pe�ans began descending upon them in the 15th century. About 500 years earlier, the Vikings had also carved out a few communities on Newfoundland, but none of them flourished and all �were abandoned. The discovery of the New World in 1492 by Columbus, however, found the Eu�ro�pe�ans more technically advanced in their ability to navigate across the vast Atlantic, and with larger ships that could carry bigger crews and more supplies. But Spain, France, and En�gland proved far too distracted by events at home for any systematic colonization of the New World, and for many de�cades their attempts also proved sporadic and uniformly failures. Save for the Spanish at St. Augustine, North America remained devoid of Eu�ro�pe�an contact or influence except for an occasional explorer or missionary. The tempo and scope of events � were destined to increase shortly after, however. By the 17th century, episodic Eu�ro�pe�an exploration of North America had evolved into serious and sustained colonization efforts. The major players, En�gland, France, and, to a lesser but still important extent, Sweden and the Netherlands, had established viable outposts dotting the Atlantic coastline, while Spain maintained its lingering presence in Florida and along the Gulf coast. These endeavors, driven more by commercial and religious impulses than imperial ones, remained fraught with peril throughout the nascent days of their existence, either through direct economic and military competition with each other or hostility arising from the Native American communities they encountered. In time there evolved a multiplicity of governmental structures, along with social and ethnic melanges within these various colonies, all of which contributed to the rise of a new civilization vii

viii

Chronology of American History increasingly distinct from the European largesse that spawned them. By dint of military victory in numerous wars, England gradually established itself as the dominant culture, language, and political philosophy of North America, but despite very broad and deep ties to the Old World, the colonies continued evolving in their own way. At length, political, philosophical, and economic confrontation gave rise to a new national entity, the United States of America. This was from the onset a very disparate, multicultural affair that ironically demonstrated that its very jumbled nature was among its greatest assets. People seldom appreciate that the fabric of the American polity, woven from diverse threads, was over a century and a half old by the breaking point of 1775. And what a glorious assortment of colors, hues, and beliefs it was: English, French, Dutch, German, Scandinavian, Welsh, Scottish, and Irish, with a smattering of Italian, French, and other Mediterranean strains, leavened throughout by enclaves of Africans and Native Americans. Furthermore, viable religious freedom, for all intents and purposes unattainable in Europe, was also in its infancy, with Anglicans, Baptists, Quakers, Congregationalists, Methodists, and Jews easily rubbing shoulders with each other in peace. Even Massachusetts, that strident bastion of Puritan absolutism, was gradually overtaken by a tide of tolerance. However, wealth, economic opportunity, and personal freedom were far from uniformly distributed among the constituent segments of society, and the ready acceptance of slavery in certain areas is proof that the national construct contained inequities. But, even at this early date, the first cries of abolitionism and social reform were also heard. The United States in 1788 was thus still evolving politically and on the cusp of experimenting with new forms of representative government under the world’s first written constitution. Far from perfect, perhaps, yet a far cry from 1607 and the problematic settlements at Jamestown, Plymouth, and New Amsterdam. America remains a work in progress. This volume is envisioned to provide extensive chronological historical coverage of North America, from the first colonization to the United States under the Articles of Confederation. Chronologies on American history are standard fare in reference collections but, in a major oversight, these tend to stress social and political events at the expense of military affairs; this volume goes to great lengths to address such deficiencies with a more balanced approach. It also affords treatment of numerous and salient topics of interest to researchers, students, and laypersons alike. Even a simple perusing of the text calls to the reader’s eye such wide-ranging concerns as art; business; diplomacy; literature; medical, military, and naval events; politics; publishing; religion; science; slavery; societal developments; and technology in a simple to use and easily accessed format. Space constraints restrict most entries to a single line, but highly important events can command up to a paragraph in coverage. Wherever possible, entries are also assigned an

Introduction ix exact year, month, and day for organizational purposes. The text is further buttressed by inclusion of 100 capsule biographies throughout the text, denoting individuals of singular import to their time. These are uniform in composition and touch upon birth and death dates, background, education, and other facets, in addition to their most obvious concern. The volume is finally rounded out with a 5,000-word bibliography of the very latest scholarship pertaining to most events represented therein, including dissertations and master’s theses, where applicable. Furthermore, the pages are replete with numerous and relevant illustrations that function both as embellishments and visual points of reference. From perusing these pages one may grasp the imposing pageantry of American history and all its threads of continuity and points of departure. Nothing or no one has been overlooked, and, while degrees of coverage may vary in length, the author cast the widest possible net for purposes of inclusion. I am deeply indebted to my editor, Owen Lancer, for suggesting this project to me. It was an arduous, nearly exhausting sojourn at times, but I am a better historian for it. ———John C. Fredriksen

CHRONOLOGY ✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰ 50,000–8000

B.C.E.

Settlement: Braving cold Ice Age conditions, various waves of humans cross over from Siberia into present-day Alaska and gradually move down into North America proper.

35,000–8000

B.C.E.

Settlement: The Folsom Culture of Colorado is among the earliest known permanent human settlements, with caches of various tools fashioned from stone or bone.

8000

B.C.E.

Settlement: By now the end of Ice Age conditions, coupled with constant hunting by large, sustainable communities of Native Americans, depletes the local megafauna and leads to mass extinction. Woolly mammoths, mastodons, camels, horses, giant sloths, and armadillos all disappear from the biosphere.

4000

B.C.E.

Arts: Various groups of people throughout North America begin producing exceptionally fine pottery from fired clay. Many of these display elaborate decorations indicative of significant cultural sophistication.

3000–1000

B.C.E.

Settlement: Native American populations in Mexico and as far north as presentday New Mexico begin the cultivation of maize (corn). People are becoming better fed, more numerous, and less nomadic due to the widespread adaptation of farming.

986 Exploration: Norse navigator Bjarni Herjulfson, while searching for Erik the Red’s settlement on the coast of Greenland, is inadvertently blown off course and driven south. There he observes a large, heretofore unknown land mass, probably the shoreline of North America. 1

  Chronology of American History

1000 Exploration: Leif Eriksson, son of Erik the Red, sails along the eastern coast of North America and probably establishes a small colony on what he calls Vineland (Newfoundland).

1004 –1008 Exploration: The brothers Thorvald and Thorstein Eriksson push their explo-­ ration farther down the American coastline, possibly reaching and investigating Hudson Bay.

1007 Societal: Snorro, son of Thorfinn and Gudrid Karlsefni, becomes the first white child born in the New World. His parents Â�were part of Leif Eriksson’s expedition to Vineland.

1014 –1015 Exploration: The Greenland Saga recÂ�ords a final expedition to North America led by Erik the Red’s daughter Freydis.

1050 Architecture: The Anasazi people of the old Southwest begin constructing elaborate dwellings, or pueblos, into the overhang of various giant cliffs and mesas. The remains still exude an extremely modern air about them.

1112 Religion: Pope Paschal III appoints Erik Gnupsson to be the first bishop of America, then restricted to Greenland and Vineland (Newfoundland).

1442 Exploration: Portuguese explorers Diogo de Teive and Pedro Vásquez, blown northward while sailing near the Azores, probably end up in the vicinity of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland before returning home.

1480 –1481 Exploration: EnÂ�glish captain Thomas Lloyd sails from Bristol toward the Amer-­ ican coast.

1492 October 12 Exploration: Italian navigator Christopher Columbus, sailing under the flag of Spain, concludes a Â�two-­month sojourn at sea with the three small vessels Niña, Pinta, and Santa Maria by sighting the Bahamas. He then lands and christens the island San Salvador. This is the first tangible evidence to EuÂ�roÂ�peÂ�ans that the New World actually exists.

December 25 Exploration: The ship Santa Maria is wrecked off Hispaniola (San Domingo), shortly after which Christopher Columbus founds the colony of La Navidad and prepares to return to Spain.

1000

Chronology â•… 

1493 January 16 Exploration: Christopher Columbus sets sail from Hispaniola for Spain.

May 3–4 Settlement: Pope Alexander VI issues two papal bulls which grant Spain all lands in the New World not already under Christian rule.

June 11 Exploration: Christopher Columbus sets out on his second expedition to the New World from Cádiz, Spain, with 1,200 men on 17 vessels. Over the next three years, he explores the Leeward Islands, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, and Hispaniola.

November 28 Settlement: Christopher Columbus, arriving at his tiny outpost at La Navidad, Hispaniola, finds it destroyed by local natives.

1494 January 2 Settlement: Undeterred by his previous failure, Christopher Columbus estab­ lishes a second colony at Isabella, Hispaniola.

June 2 Settlement: The Treaty of Tordesillas, concluded between Portugal and Spain, which establishes the line of demarcation between their colonies in the New World at 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands. In this manner, Portugal obtains the right to own and colonize Brazil.

1496 March 10 Business: Spanish settlers introduce sugarcane, cotton, and cattle in San Domingo. Exploration: Christopher Columbus concludes his second voyage to the New World and returns to Spain, leaving his brother Bartolomeo in charge at San Domingo.

1497 May 2–August 6 Exploration: EnÂ�glish explorer John Cabot, enjoying a trade monopoly from King Henry VII, sails to the North American coast between Newfoundland and Maine, and claims it for the EnÂ�glish throne.

1498 May Exploration: En�glish explorer John Cabot embarks on his second expedition to the New World, exploring the coast of North America possibly as far south as Chesapeake Bay.

1498

  Chronology of American History

May 30 Exploration: Christopher Columbus sets out on his third expedition to the New World, this time taking a more southerly route and discovering Trinidad and the South American coast.

August 31 Exploration: Christopher Columbus arrives at San Domingo only to find the port rebellious on account of poor administration. He and his brother are subse-­ quently returned to Spain as prisoners and replaced by a new governor.

1499 June 27 Exploration: Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci, sailing under Spanish captain Alonso de Hajeda, (Ojeda) reconnoiters along the coast of South America and the Bahamas before eventually returning home.

1500 Religion: Priests accompanying the expedition of Hernando de Soto baptize the first Indian convert, who takes the Christian name Peter, near the Acmulgee River, Georgia.

1501 March 19 Exploration: King Henry VII grants patents to several En�glish merchants for expeditions to the New World.

May 13 Exploration: Amerigo Vespucci, now in the employ of Portugal, sails again to the coastline of South America and returns convinced that a new continent has been discovered, not Asia.

1502 May 11 Exploration: Christopher Columbus sails on his fourth and final expedition to the New World, this time with a fleet of four ships.

June 15 Exploration: After a brief stop at Martinique, Christopher Columbus explores along the coastline of Â�present-­day Honduras and Panama.

December 9 Exploration: King Henry VII issues a second patent to an Â�Anglo-­Portuguese group called the Company of Adventurers to the New World, who are to launch a small expedition to the New World.

1503 June 25 Exploration: Christopher Columbus is shipwrecked on Jamaica during his final voyage back to Spain.

1499

Chronology

5

1506 General: Christopher Columbus dies in Valladolid, Spain, convinced to the end that the regions he had been exploring were all part of Asia.

1507 April 25 General: The word “America” is inadvertently applied to the New World for the first time by geographer Martin Waldseemuller in his book Cosmographiae Introductio. Apparently he was erroneously informed that Amerigo Vespucci had discovered the new continent.

1513 Exploration: Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa crosses the Isthmus of Panama and becomes the first European to behold the Pacific Ocean. This discovery disproves Columbus’s assertion that he had discovered Asia and confirms Vespucci’s claim that a new, heretofore unexplored continent lay before them.

April 2–8 Exploration: Spanish explorer Ponce de León lands and explores the region of Florida near St. Augustine, claiming the region for Spain.

1521 General: Spanish explorer Ponce de León sails with a grant from the Crown and a company of 200 men to colonize Florida. He subsequently dies in Cuba of wounds received there at the hands of Native Americans.

1524 March 19 Exploration: Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazano, sailing at the behest of Francis I of France, begins exploring the coastline of the Carolinas.

April 17 Exploration: Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazano sails northward up the American coast, encountering New York harbor and the Hudson River. He next proceeds easterly towards Narragansett Bay and Nova Scotia before sailing back to France.

1526 Settlement: Lucas Vásquez de Ayllón is empowered by the Spanish Crown to colonize Florida and he takes 500 prospective settlers from Hispaniola. Instead he lands and attempts to establish a settlement near Cape Fear, North Carolina, then abandons it a year later following the death of 350 people.

1527 June 10 Exploration: The English ship Mary Guilford departs Plymouth, England, for a voyage along the coast of Labrador down to Florida, then back to the West Indies. An accompanying vessel, the Samson, is lost at sea.

1527

6

Chronology of American History

1528 April 14 Settlement: Pánfilo de Narváez lands 400 Spanish volunteers at Tampa Bay, Florida, determined to carve out a colony.

September 22 Settlement: A fledgling colony established by Pánfilo de Narváez is abandoned once no gold is found in the vicinity, and its 400 members subsequently set sail for Mexico. Only two men will survive the ensuing shipwreck.

1534 June 10 Exploration: Jacques Cartier, sponsored by Francis I of France, sails to the Strait of Belle Isle, navigates his way southward along the coasts of Prince Edward Island and Gaspé Bay, then safely returns home.

1535 August 9 Exploration: Jacques Cartier again sails to the New World, this time venturing up the St. Lawrence River as far as Quebec, and then by a smaller craft to presentday Montreal. There he winters and returns to France the following year.

1539 May 28–30 Exploration: Hernando de Soto, governor of Cuba, lands in Florida with 600 soldiers and spends the entire winter exploring Florida’s west coast. This is the beginning of a four-year expedition that carries them as far west as Oklahoma.

July 8 Exploration: Francisco de Ulloa sails from Acapulco, Mexico, up through the Gulf of California, around the tip of Baja California, then along the west coast of North America.

1540 General: The Spanish under Francisco Vásquez de Coronado reintroduce horses to North America, where they had been extinct since the Ice Age. The majority escaped and became the progenitors for the wild horses of the American West, which in turn wielded an enormous impact on tribes such as the Apache and Comanche. Abandoning agriculture, these tribes become nomadic raiders.

July 7 Exploration: A column of Spanish soldiers under Francisco Vásquez de Coronado attacks a Zuni Indian village at Hawikuh, western New Mexico, while searching for a legendary city of gold. Finding none there, a small detachment is sent eastward into the Texas Panhandle.

August 25 Exploration: Hernando de Alarcón sails from Acapulco, Mexico, and up through the Gulf of California. There he continues up the Colorado River as far as its junction with the Gila River.

1528

Chronology

7

1541 May 8 Exploration: Marching overland from present-day Alabama, Spanish soldiers under Hernando de Soto are the first Europeans to reach the Mississippi River.

May 26 Exploration: Spanish soldiers under Francisco Vásquez de Coronado depart New Mexico and venture north as far as Kansas before returning to Mexico City empty-handed.

August Exploration: Jacques Cartier conducts his third and final foray to Canada where he subdues the so-called Kingdom of Saguenay. He then returns to France with his coffers filled with fool’s gold and quartz, which he believed were diamonds.

1542 Exploration: João Rodrígues Cabrilho sails up the California coast, lands, and claims the region for Spain.

1543 March 1 Exploration: Bartolomé Ferrelo continues sailing north along the California coast until he reaches present-day Oregon.

1549 Religion: Dominican Fray Luis Cancer de Barbastro is killed by Native Americans in Florida after he arrived to convert them to Christianity.

1559 June 11 Exploration: Don Tristán de Luna y Arellano departs Veracruz, Mexico, with 1,500 settlers and makes for Pensacola, Florida. Unable to found a colony there, the group explores the region of Mobile, Alabama, before returning home.

1561 Settlement: A body of Spanish settlers under Ángel de Villafañe attempts to colonize the region of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, which again proves unsuccessful.

September 23 Settlement: King Philip II of Spain, discouraged by repeated failures to colonize Florida, issues a royal order forbidding any future attempts.

1562 April 30 Settlement: French explorer Jean Ribault arrives Parris Island (Port Royal), South Carolina, with 150 Huguenot settlers, in an unsuccessful attempt to found a French colony.

1562

8

Chronology of American History

1564 Arts: Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues provides some of the earliest renditions of Native Americans in his account of René de Laudonnière’s expedition.

1565 Business: John Hawkins introduces the first smoking tobacco into England, which he obtained from a small French colony in Florida. The Spanish introduce the first European livestock, including cattle, horses, sheep, and pigs, into Florida.

August 28 Settlement: Spain, having reversed itself on its Florida policy, dispatches Pedro Menéndes de Avilés to the vicinity of present-day St. Augustine with 1,500 colonists.

September 8 Settlement: Pedro Menéndes de Avilés establishes St. Augustine, Florida, the first permanent European settlement in North America. The first Catholic parish in what becomes the United States is also founded by his chaplain, Don Martín Francisco López de Mendoza Grajales.

September 10 Military: French forces under Jean Ribault sail from Fort Caroline, Port Royal, South Carolina, to attack the Spanish at St. Augustine, Florida, but the fleet is shipwrecked by a storm.

September 20 Military: Spanish forces under Pedro Menéndes de Avilés attack and capture Fort Caroline, Port Royal, South Carolina, putting the French garrison to the sword. A new fort is then christened San Mateo.

1566 Religion: Governor Pedro Menéndes de Avilés sponsors the first Spanish Jesuit missionaries in a concerted attempt to convert Native Americans.

1568 April 12 Military: A force of three ships and 100 soldiers under Dominique de Gourgues arrives from France and attacks Fort San Mateo, North Carolina, with the help of local Indians. He subsequently seizes two Spanish settlements near the mouth of the St. Johns River, Florida, killing all his prisoners.

1570 August 5 Religion: A group of Spanish Jesuits under Fray Batista Segura arrives at Chesapeake Bay to convert Native Americans there to Christianity.

1571 February 14–18 Religion: Spanish Jesuits under Fray Batista Segura are massacred by Native American tribes living on Chesapeake Bay.

1564

Chronology

9

1576 June Exploration: English explorer Martin Frobisher departs to find the Northwest Passage to Asia, although he ends up on Baffin Island, Frobisher Bay, and the Hudson Strait, Canada.

1577 July Settlement: Spanish settlers under acting governor Pedro Menéndes Marqués (nephew of Menéndes Avilés) rebuilds the fort on Parris Island, South Carolina, after hostile Native Americans force the abandonment of settlements in Florida.

1578 April Military: Spanish troops under acting governor Pedro Menéndes Marqués attack and burn a large Native American village at Copocay, Florida, in retaliation for earlier attacks. This sets a precedent for harsh treatment of Indians by subsequent waves of European immigrants.

June 11 Exploration: The English Crown grants Sir Humphrey Gilbert a patent to explore and colonize parts of North America, although he ultimately lacks the financing to establish a settlement.

1579 June 17 Exploration: Sir Francis Drake, while circumnavigating the globe, sails his ship into San Francisco Bay and claims the area for England. While ashore, the first Protestant services held in the New World are conducted.

1580 July 17 Military: Governor Pedro Menéndez Marqués attacks and defeats a French naval force directed by Gilberto Gil, who is killed. This defeat marks the end of French interference in Florida.

1583 Settlement: Sir Humphrey Gilbert formally claims Newfoundland for the English Crown.

1584 Publishing: Clergyman Richard Hakluyt publishes A Discourse Concerning Western Planting at the behest of Sir Walter Raleigh. It is then proffered to Queen Elizabeth I as a comprehensive outline for colonizing the New World.

1584

10

Chronology of American History

1585 March 25 Settlement: English explorer Sir Walter Raleigh lands on present-day Roanoke Island, Virginia, and makes preparations to colonize it.

July 27 Settlement: An English fleet under Sir Richard Grenville and Sir Ralph Lane land at Roanoke Island, Virginia, to begin an ill-fated colony.

June–July Military: A fleet under Sir Francis Drake attacks and destroys the Spanish settlement at St. Augustine, Florida, then moves on to harass another settlement at Santa Elena.

1587 Religion: At Roanoke, Virginia, Manteo becomes the first Native American converted to Protestant Christianity by settlers under Sir Walter Raleigh.

July 22 Settlement: An English squadron under John White anchors off Roanoke Island, Virginia, yet can find no trace of settlers under Richard Grenville. He nonetheless drops off another group of passengers, then returns to England to gather supplies.

August 18 Societal: Virginia Dare, daughter of Ananias and Ellinor Dare, also John White’s grandchild, becomes the first English child born in America.

1588 Publishing: Thomas Harriot, previously part of Sir Walter Raleigh’s entourage, publishes A Briefe and True Account of the New Found Lande of Virginia. He does so in an attempt to glamorize the New World and stimulate investors and possible participants.

1590 Publishing: Richard Hakluyt, an associate of Sir Walter Raleigh, publishes his threevolume book The Principall Navigations, Voiages, and Discoveries of the English Nation which greatly stimulates European interest in colonizing the New World.

August 17 Settlement: John White returns to Roanoke Island, Virginia, only to find that the second group of settlers have disappeared without a trace.

1591 Arts: Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues provides art work that is subsequently engraved for a book about the voyages of Theodor de Bry. They are among the earliest to depict Native American dress, life, and behavior for a European audience.

1595 September 23 Religion: The Spanish Crown authorizes an extensive missionary effort, headed by Fray Juan de Silva, to convert Native Americans in the region of present-day

1585

Chronology

11

“The way they built their boats in Virginia,” wrote Thomas Harriot in his report of the new land, “is very wonderful.” Without metal tools, the Indians of Virginia used fire and clam shells to make canoes. A fire was kindled at the roots of a tall tree and carefully tendered until the tree fell. Then the leaves and branches were burned off. Small fires were carefully lit along the length of the trunk to hollow it out. Finally, the charred wood was cleared away with sharpened shells. Engraving by Theodor de Bry, from a watercolor by John White (Library of Congress)

Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. They do so in an attempt to “civilize” the natives and make them more pliable toward conquest.

1599 October 10 Military: Spanish soldiers sortie from St. Augustine, Florida, and attack nearby Native American settlements in retaliation for raids against settlers. The Indians, overwhelmed by Spanish ferocity and technology, agree to peace terms.

1600 Business: Sir Thomas Smith is appointed governor of the newly chartered East India Company. A business partnership is arranged among Pierre Chauvin; François Gravé, sieur de Pontgravé; and Pierre du Gua, sieur de Monts. They next seek a monopoly in the fur trade from the French Crown.

1600

12

Chronology of American History French traders begin arriving along the St. Lawrence River to commence a valuable fur trade with the Indians; an outpost, Tadoussac, is eventually established.

1602 Business: French king Henry IV grants the Company of New France a trading monopoly for lands acquired in North America. Moreover, it is entrusted with transporting and settling 4,000 colonists with a 15-year time span and is also expected to support Catholic missionaries in converting the Native Americans. The Dutch East India Company is chartered in the Netherlands.

March 26 Exploration: Captain Bartholomew Gosnold and the vessel Concord depart Falmouth, England, on a voyage to the New World. He intends exploring the coast of Maine.

May 15 Exploration: Captain Bartholomew Gosnold anchors his vessel Concord off present-day New Bedford, Massachusetts, the first Englishman to step ashore in New England. He names Cape Cod after the prevalent species of fish found there, and Martha’s Vineyard after a daughter who had died recently.

June 16 Exploration: Captain Bartholomew Gosnold abandons his colonizing efforts and departs New England for home.

1603 Business: Pierre du Gua, sieur de Monts, having acquired a 10-year monopoly on the fur trade in Canada from King Henry IV of France, also gains appointment as lieutenant-governor of the forthcoming colony at Acadia. He now serves as a member of Samuel de Champlain’s forthcoming expedition.

March 15 Exploration: French explorer Samuel de Champlain sets sail for the New World. Of the many Indian groups he encounters, the most tractable are in the less fertile northern reaches of North America. Consequently, when French colonies do arise, they become and remain greatly dependent upon Native Americans for fur, food, and other supplies in contrast to the largely self-sufficient English colonies to the south.

1604 June General: Pierre du Gua, sieur de Monts, founds the first French settlement in the New World on Neutral Island in the St. Croix River, Maine. This colony is eventually resettled at Port Royal, Acadia (Nova Scotia), following a harsh winter. There he interacts with Membertou, chief of the Micmac tribe, who trades valuable furs for weapons and other Europe an goods. The Frenchmen also endear themselves to the natives by striving to learn and adopt their language and customs.

1602

Chronology â•… 13

Scenes of the French colonial fishing industry in New England and Canada. Fisherman bring in the catch, then salt and dry the fish before shipping it to Europe.╇ (Library of Congress)

1605 March 5 Exploration: Captain George Weymouth departs En�gland to search for land suitable for a colony of Catholic expatriates. He eventually explores Nantucket Island and the Maine coast and his report of the expedition, once published, foments creation of the London and Plymouth companies for the purposes of settlement and profit.

July 20 Exploration: A French expedition under Samuel de Champlain sails south from Canada and reaches Cape Cod before turning back. He is disillusioned over not having found the luxurious mythic kingdom of Norumbega, reputedly lined with precious metals.

1606 April 10 General: The London and Plymouth Companies, both joint stock ventures, obtain a patent for colonizing the territory designated Virginia from King James I. Each company receives all land within 50 miles of the first settlement and 100 miles into the interior but, to maintain peaceful relations, both are required not to settle closer than 100 miles from each other.

1606

14

Chronology of American History

August 7 Exploration: Sir John Popham, sailing for the Plymouth Company, anchors a vessel off Monhegan, Maine.

August 14 General: Sir John Popham lands settlers on the Sagadahoc River and constructs a fort there.

October 15 Exploration: A vessel under Thomas Hanham and Martin Pring sails from England for the Plymouth Company and makes for the Maine coast. Military: A party of 50 men under Samuel de Champlain explores the New England coast and puts into the village of the Almouchiquois at Chatham, Cape Cod. Despite offering gifts they are ordered back onto their ship; five drunken crewmen who refuse to comply are killed by angry natives.

November 14 Arts: French actors stage Le Theatre de Neptune en la Nouvelle-France, possibly the New World’s earliest staged performance, at Port Royal, Acadia (Nova Scotia).

December 20 General: Three vessels under Captain Christopher Newport, the Discovery, Goodspeed, and Sarah Constant, convey 144 men and boys from England at the behest of the Virginia Company of London. They sail to establish England’s first permanent colony in the New World.

1607 Business: English settlers at Jamestown, having brought with them glass-making technology, create beads and other artifacts for trading with the Indians.

April 26 General: The London Company expedition of three vessels sails into Chesapeake Bay with 105 surviving settlers aboard, 39 having died at sea. The fleet consists of the 100-ton Susan Constant under Captain Christopher Newport, the 40-ton Godspeed under Captain Bartholomew Gosnold, and the 20-ton Discovery under Captain John Ratcliffe. They then proceed up the Powhatan (James) River looking for a suitable spot to disembark.

May 1 Exploration: Captain George Popham and Sir Ferdinando Gorges of the Plymouth Company depart England on board the Gift of God and sail for the coast of Maine.

May 24 General: Captain Christopher Newport anchors his three-ship London Company flotilla off a peninsula in the Powhatan (James) River, Virginia, depositing 105 surviving male settlers ashore. The colony of Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in the New World, takes root on the left bank of the James River. The province will eventually be called Virginia after Queen Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen, who died five years previously. The locale they select is somewhat low and marshy but seems defensible and provides secure anchorage for ocean-going vessels. As a new colony arises on this spot, it is christened James Towne.

1607

Chronology

Powhatan

15

(ca. 1540–1618)

Pamunkey chief Wahunsonacock, better known to the English by his tribal title Powhatan (chief ) was probably born in the Richmond area of Virginia around 1540. Scholars believe that his father was a southern Indian displaced by the Spanish, who relocated to Virginia and organized an alliance of Algonquianspeaking tribes. It is not known at what point Powhatan succeeded him, but he was apparently a successful warrior who conquered and subjugated roughly 40 regional tribes into a major confederacy that controlled all of tidewater Virginia. He apparently ran his domain by placing sons and close relatives at the heads of principal and allied villages, thereby expanding his domain to upwards of 8,000 square miles. In sum, his was most likely the largest and most complex arrangement of Native Americans east of the Appalachians at the time the Europeans arrived at Jamestown in 1607. Powhatan was probably aware of Europeans, since both Spanish and English raiders had combed the coasts of Virginia looking for slaves in recent years. But, despite some initial hostilities from allied tribes in the region, he sought out peaceful relations with the intruders and attempted, in his tried and accepted manner, to incorporate Jamestown into his network of subject villages. He did this on a cultural basis by supplying the starving English with food, expecting compliance in return. The English, completely ignorant of what was happening and smug in their convictions of racial and religious

superiority, interpreted Indian behavior as a sign of subservience. The cultural divide proved insurmountable and intermittent warfare broke out at various times, principally over the English practice of seizing for their own use land already employed by Indians. In December 1607, Powhatan was on the point of executing Captain John Smith when his daughter Pocahontas convinced him to relent. This may in fact have been an Indian ritual to convert Smith into a vassal by sparing him, but English behavior and attitudes toward the natives proved unyielding. Sporadic violence culminated in the first Anglo-Powhatan War (1610–1613), which consumed many lives on both sides. The only time in Powhatan’s reign that suggested peace occurred in 1614, when Pocahontas was kidnapped by the English, experienced conversion to Christianity, and married planter John Rolfe. All this transpired apparently with the blessing of Powhatan, who was by now advanced in age and desired to live in peace with his unpredictable neighbors. Three years later, the chief was badly shaken upon hearing of his daughter’s death from disease in England, and he grew increasingly withdrawn from tribal affairs. He apparently died in April 1618 and was spared from witnessing the destruction of his confederacy at the hands of the English. Within four years the Indians struck back at their antagonists under his brother, Opechancanough, triggering a series of wars that resulted in complete European domination of eastern Virginia.

Unknown at the time, two-thirds of the inhabitants will perish of disease and malnutrition over the course of the first winter. Moreover, the colonists have posited themselves on the territory of Wahunsonacock (popularly known as Powhatan), chief of the Algonquian-speaking Powhatan Confederacy dominating tidewater Virginia. Fate selected this individual and his people to face the first concerted wave of European colonization in North America.

1607

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May 26 Military: About 200 warriors under Powhatan (Wahunsonacock) stage the first recorded Indian attack on English settlements by hitting Jamestown, Virginia, on the James River. The natives kill two settlers and wound 14 before being driven back; in retaliation, English ships bombard nearby Indian villages. The affair induces the colonists to construct a triangular-shaped James Fort for enhanced security against future attacks.

June 3 General: In an attempt to bolster their food stocks, the settlers of Jamestown, Virginia, begin the cultivation of oranges, cotton, potatoes, and melons. This is an essential step, as the first relief ship is not due until the spring of 1609.

June 15 General: Settlers at Jamestown, Virginia, commence building more fortifications to defend against hostile Indians and Spanish marauders.

June 22 General: Captain Christopher Newport departs Jamestown on a return voyage to England, bringing back a cargo of what turns out to be fool’s gold (iron pyrite). The colonists are initially so infatuated by this mineral that they neglect the production of crops and other foodstuffs for the winter.

August 7 General: The Plymouth Company expedition under Captain George Popham and Sir Ferdinando Gorges anchors off Monhegan, Maine.

August 18 General: A small settlement is founded at Popham Beach on the Sagadahoc River, Maine, by Captain George Popham of the Plymouth Company.

September Law: Captain John Smith is acquitted in court, having been accused of conspiracy to commit mutiny by a political rival, Edward Maria Wingfield. Military: The first English militia companies in the New World are formed at Jamestown, Virginia, and Captain John Smith is elected their first leader. Henceforth, the fledgling force is required to meet regularly for marching and musketry drill.

September 10 Politics: Edward M. Wingfield, first president of the Jamestown Colony, is voted out of office and replaced by John Ratcliffe.

September 17 Law: John Robinson files the New World’s first suit for slander in Jamestown, Virginia.

September 28 General: Samuel de Champlain returns to France, taking with him settlers from the temporary colony at Port Royal.

December Law: After a conspiracy against the Jamestown council is uncovered, authorities hang George Kendall, a member of the Royal Council governing the colony. Kendall, one of few Catholics in a very Protestant colony, has been accused, tried, and convicted of spying for Spain.

1607

Chronology

Smith, John

17

(ca. 1580–1631)

Adventurer John Smith was born in Willoughby, Lincolnshire, England, about 1580, the son of a farmer. He was apprenticed as a merchant as a teenager but, restless and impulsive, he left and wandered across Europe as a mercenary. Smith acquired military experience fighting in the Netherlands, then shifted his focus to eastern Europe to fight the Turks. He once slew three Ottomans in combat, then was captured and enslaved before escaping through Russia and returning to England in 1604. As an individual, he was apparently rough-hewn, fearless, and much given to self-promotion. These traits held Smith in good stead in 1606 when he was hired as a military adviser with the London Company and joined the colonizing expedition headed toward Virginia. The gruff and domineering Smith made several

John Smith (Library of Congress)

enemies among the colonists, even though he had been secretly appointed to the governing council at Jamestown. In December 1607, he added considerably to the folklore of America by being captured by Chief Powhatan and— according to Smith—nearly executed before being saved by his daughter Pocahontas. However, after returning to Jamestown he was arrested for the death of two compatriots and sentenced to hang, until the timely arrival of Captain Christopher Newport secured his release in the summer of 1608. That year he was also appointed president of the council and imposed near-martial law on the colonists to make them more self-sufficient. He also bullied the nearby Indians into providing the colony with corn and other food, while attacking various small settlements to awe them with the power of his firearms. In actuality, Smith undoubtedly recognized the acute weakness of Jamestown, and his bluster prevented Powhatan from launching an all-out attack that would eliminate them. But Smith’s draconian behavior did little to endear him to fellow settlers and, after he was seriously injured by a gunpowder explosion in 1609 and forced to return home, he was scarcely missed. Still, under his stern leadership, more than 500 colonists successfully weathered their second winter in Virginia. Back in England, Smith took to writing about his experiences in the New World, which did much to spark popular interest in both colonization and himself. The London Company refused to hire him again, but in 1614 he accompanied Sir Ferdinando Gorges of the Plymouth Company on an exploration of the New England coast. In fact, Smith was the first adventurer to coin the phrase New England. He (continues)

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Chronology of American History

(continued) was then captured by pirates in 1615 and released a year later, whereupon he settled in London to write A Description of New England (1616). This tract proved extremely attractive to the Pilgrims living in the Netherlands and played a role in their migration to Plymouth in 1620. Smith by this time had

immersed himself in the comfortable life of an upscale London bachelor, where he continued to publish his own exploits and the attractiveness of colonization. He died in London in June 1631, an accomplished military adventurer and a legend in the annals of American colonization.

December 10 General: Captain John Smith and two colonists are captured by the Indians while foraging along the Chickahominy River. The men accompanying Smith are killed, but Smith is captured and taken before Powhatan, chief of the tribe.

December 29 General: After several weeks of captivity, Powhatan decides to execute Captain John Smith. However, he is spared through the timely intercession of Pocahontas, his 11-year-old daughter, and eventually released. In retrospect, this entire episode was probably an elaborate Indian ceremony in which Smith is symbolically saved for initiation into the Powhatan tribe.

1608 General: Captain John Smith learns how to cultivate maize from nearby Indians. He goes on to sow 40 acres worth the crop, which greatly ameliorates the prevailing food shortage. Women: The Jamestown settlement receives its first European women, Anne Forrest, who is married, and Anne Burras, her 14-year-old maid.

January 2 General: Captain Christopher Newport arrives back at Jamestown, bringing much-needed food and 100 additional colonists. His arrival could not have proved more fortuitous as the colony is in the grip of pestilence and starvation, which killed off two-thirds of the original members—only 34 survive the first winter. Captain John Smith also reappears at that time, and he is arrested and imprisoned until ordered released by Newport.

January 7 General: The fort at Jamestown accidentally burns, leaving the settlers exposed to depredations by Spanish and Indians.

February 6 General: Sir John Popham dies at Popham Beach on the Sagadahoc River, Maine, after which the small settlement he founded is abandoned.

April 9 General: Captain Christopher Newport departs Jamestown a second time for England, taking back a second shipment of fool’s gold (mica).

1608

Chronology

Pocahontas

19

(ca. 1595–1617)

Peacemaker Pocahontas (“Playful One”) was one of many nicknames for Matoaka, daughter of Chief Wahunsonacock (Powhatan). She was only about 12 years of age when the English settlement at Jamestown arose in 1607, and in whose fate she became deeply entwined. According to legend, Captain John Smith was on the verge of being executed by the Indians when she allegedly intervened to save his life. Modern interpretations view this as only a symbolic threat of execution to demonstrate the power of the Indians to the intruders, after which they were expected to submit as vassals. In any event, Pocahontas became a frequent visitor to Jamestown, where she would bring stores of corn to the starving inhabitants and also entice English boys her own age to a game of somersaulting. However, friction between the two cultures proved inevitable, and raids and counterraids along the frontier became the norm. In one recorded instance, Smith had recently taken many Powhatan hostages, and Pocahontas was dispatched as a peace emissary to secure their release. Later, during a breakdown in negotiations over bartering goods for foods, she allegedly warned Smith that an Indian attack on the settlement was pending. In 1613, Captain Samuel Argall lured Pocahontas onboard his vessel and kidnaped her in the hope of securing the freedom of English prisoners. At that time, the Reverend Alexander Whitaker undertook to convert her to Christianity, which was successfully accomplished,

and she was baptized with the new name of Rebecca. In 1614, she met and married John Rolfe, a successful planter who had acquired considerable wealth after experimenting with tobacco. The union was apparently blessed by her father, the chief, in the hope that it would bridge deep-seated cultural divides between their respective peoples. In this both sides were to be gravely disappointed, for very little intermarriage resulted. Rebecca lived at Jamestown for three years, and in 1615 she gave birth to her son, Thomas. By this time she had also achieved considerable notoriety in England, and the Rolfes were summoned back to London as proof of the Virginia Company’s success in the New World. The couple, accompanied by an entourage of Indian attendants, arrived in England in 1616, and Rebecca was hailed at the court as an “Indian princess,” even though no such position existed within her tribe. Records are spotty, and she may or may not have been granted an audience with Queen Anne and King James. Sometime during the revelry Rebecca contracted a malady, usually described as pneumonia or smallpox, and was fatally stricken. Before returning with her husband to Virginia, she died at Gravesend at the mouth of the Thames and was interred with Christian rites at St. George’s Parish. John Rolfe subsequently died in Opechancanough’s attack on Jamestown in March 1622, but Pocahontas’s son returned to the colony and spent his life residing on family property there.

April 13 General: French explorer Samuel de Champlain departs Port Royal, Acadia, and heads for the interior of Canada.

July 3 General: French explorer Samuel de Champlain and his crew of 28 adventurers found Stadacona (Quebec), France’s first permanent settlement in Canada, as an earlier settlement at Hochelaga has disappeared without a trace. In time this grows

1608

20

Chronology of American History into a fortified citadel and functions as the heart of French Canada and an entrepôt for the all-important fur trade. From here he also cements France’s growing and fateful alliance with the Algonquian-speaking tribes of Canada, placing both on a collision course with the powerful, Five Nation Iroquois confederacy farther south.

July 24 General: Captain John Smith departs Jamestown and explores nearby Chesapeake Bay, and the Rappahannock and Potomac Rivers.

August Religion: Separatists from the Anglican Church in England depart the country to live at Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

August 13 General: Captain John Smith attempts to stimulate emigration to the Jamestown settlement by having his A True Re-Capitulation of Occurrences in Virginia published in London. The text is well received in England and interest in the colony grows. Ironically, it fails to mention his famous interlude with Pocahontas.

September 10 General: Captain John Smith returns to Jamestown, whereupon he gains election as president of the Jamestown council. Ruling without assistants, he prepares to undertake extraordinary measures to insure the survival of the colony, still dependent on supplies from England to survive.

September 29 Settlement: Captain Christopher Newport arrives back at Jamestown a third time with badly needed supplies and other commodities.

December General: Captain Christopher Newport departs Jamestown, leaving the colonists to face their second bleak winter there. He takes back with him quantities of ash, pitch, glass, soap, tar, lumber and iron ore, all of which serve as the nucleus of the colonial export trade.

1609 Economics: Having observed nearby Indians and experimented on his own, Captain John Smith encourages the cultivation of maize (white corn) as a food staple at Jamestown, Virginia. Military: In the fall, English encroachment and bullying of nearby Indians for foodstuffs results in the first Anglo-Powahatan War, basically a siege of James Fort until the arrival of additional reinforcements to the colony. The English then took to the offensive and carried the war inland to their adversaries. Skirmishing continues for many years thereafter. Societal: Anne Barrows and John Laydon are formally wed in Virginia, the first Europeans united in matrimony in the American colonies.

March 25 Exploration: Henry Hudson, working in the employ of the Dutch East India Company, departs the Netherlands in the ship Half Moon on a quest to find a shorter route from Europe to Asia.

1609

Chronology

21

May 1 Religion: English separatists living in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, under John Robinson and William Brewer, settle in the city of Leiden. As a whole the group enjoyed religious freedom but feared that their children were losing contact with their English culture. They are also barred from joining the local guild system and fear continuing persecution once the truce between England and Holland expires in 1621.

May 5 Exploration: The London Company dispatches Captain Sir Samuel Argall from Portsmouth, England, to establish a more direct trade route with colonists in Virginia.

May 23 Business: The London Company receives a new charter from the Crown and assumes the new name Virginia Company with Sir Thomas Smith as treasurer. This also marks its beginning as a joint stock company to attract investors. The company also acquires land and rights of governance heretofore granted solely by the monarch.

June Diplomacy: A deputation of Huron visits Quebec City seeking help from France in their struggle against the powerful Iroquois Confederacy to the south. Samuel de Champlain agrees and accompanies them on several small raids up the Richelieu River and into present-day Lake Champlain.

June 8 General: The Virginia Company manages to attract 800 new settlers and dispatches them to Jamestown onboard nine ships under Deputy-Governor Sir Thomas Gates and Admiral Sir George Somers. This day they sail from Falmouth; of that total only seven vessels arrive safely, while two are shipwrecked in the Bahamas.

July 28 General: A hurricane strikes near the unexplored island of Bermuda, grounding the Virginia Company flagship Sea Venture under Admiral George Somers. Sir Thomas Gates and Sir Thomas Dale, sailing for Jamestown, are now marooned for the next 10 months. Ironically, the episode serves as the inspiration of William Shakespeare’s play, The Tempest.

July 30 Exploration: Samuel de Champlain sails up the Richelieu River, Canada, and discovers present-day Lake Champlain. He is escorted by a war party of 60 friendly Huron Indians and when the group encounters hostile Iroquois near Crown Point, New York, Champlain fires his harquebus into the throng, killing two chiefs and inducing the others to flee. By this act he gains for France the undying enmity of the Five Nations, who gradually seek out alliances with the Dutch and English.

August Settlement: Jamestown is bolstered by the arrival of seven Virginia Company vessels bearing supplies and 500 additional settlers as reinforcements. Women: An additional 100 women arrive at Jamestown, most of them indentured servants who must work seven years in some capacity to repay their fares. Most simply marry and settle down as domestic housekeepers.

1609

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Chronology of American History

August 28 Exploration: Henry Hudson, looking for a shortcut to Asia from Europe, arrives at Delaware Bay.

September 12 Exploration: Englishman Henry Hudson, acting in the employ of the Dutch East India Company, ventures up the Hudson River as far as present-day Albany, New York. There he establishes preliminary trade arrangements with neighboring Lenape, Wappinger, Manhattan, Hackensack, Munsee, and Mohegan Indians.

October 5 General: An inadvertent powder explosion at Jamestown badly injures Captain John Smith, and he is also removed as leader of the colony. He subsequently returns to England. Religion: The Anglican Church (Church of England) is established by law as Virginia’s official house of worship. However, it remains the only colony to do so until 1693.

December General: The settlement at Jamestown is bolstered by the arrival of 500 new settlers, although the whole suffer another dismal winter. Deprivation proves so severe that the season becomes known as the “starving time,” and most of the settlers perish. Famine drives colonists to such extremes that one man is convicted of killing and partially consuming his wife and is executed.

1610 Medical: Lawrence Bohune is the first trained medical physician to arrive in Virginia, where he eventually rises to surgeon general.

February 28 Politics: In London, the Virginia Company appoints Sir Thomas West, Lord Delaware, to be first lord and captain-general of Jamestown, with near dictatorial powers. As such, he can rule the colony by fiat, without a council. This is done in an attempt to bring greater stability and social cohesion to the floundering settlement to render it a profitable venture.

May 23 General: Captain Christopher Newport, accompanied by Deputy Governor Thomas Gates, departs the Bahamas after being shipwrecked and arrives at the colony of Jamestown.

June 6 Settlement: Governor Thomas De La Warr arrives in Chesapeake Bay with three ships and makes steady progress toward the colony at Jamestown.

June 8 General: A demoralized Deputy Governor Sir Thomas Gates departs Jamestown with some equally discouraged settlers and makes for the fishing stations of Newfoundland. En route, on the James River he runs headlong into Sir Thomas De La Warr, who immediately orders Gates to return to the colony.

June 10 Politics: Newly appointed Lord Governor and Captain General Sir Thomas West De La Warr, Lord Delaware, arrives at Jamestown, Virginia, with three ships, addi-

1610

Chronology

23

tional settlers, and new stocks of food. He arrives at the height of the so-called “starving time” in the colony, and set about improving food stocks and importing more supplies from Bermuda. He also orders construction of a fort at Point Comfort to enhance colonial security, a necessity as resentful Powhatan have begun guerrilla activities against the colony.

June 10–14 Military: At the mouth of the Richelieu River, Samuel de Champlain and his Huron allies engage and defeat Iroquois warriors in a protracted skirmish. Around this time, Champlain also initiates a small cultural exchange by directing a young Frenchman, Etienne Brule, to live among the Hurons while the Indians send a young warrior, Sauvignon, to France. It is hoped that Brule will eventually master the Algonquian tongue while Sauvignon will be suitably impressed by the splendor and might of the French court.

June 24 Religion: Chief Membertou and 100 of his Micmac Indians are baptized into the Roman Catholic Church by Jesse Fleche, an overenthusiastic French missionary. However, this ritual is not recognized by the church, as the Indians do not have the slightest inkling of what baptism signifies. Thereafter French missionaries place increasing emphasis on learning local dialects before proffering religious instruction.

August Military: The Jamestown, Virginia, militia is reinforced by roughly 100 army veterans, newly migrated to the colony. Thus augmented, the settlers launch five punitive raids against hostile Indian villages, burning crops and camps.

September 10 Politics: Deputy Governor Sir Thomas Gates is ordered back to London by the Virginia Company where he reports favorably on the enterprise. Meanwhile, Governor Thomas De La Warr exhorts his charges to exert greater efforts in crop cultivation, punishing those who fail to comply. By winter, the improved agricultural output helps mitigate another harsh winter.

1611 Military: Three Spanish spies, dispatched by King Philip III, are captured on the James River while reconnoitering the settlement of Jamestown. They are imprisoned there for several years. Religion: Reverend Alexander Whitaker, a Puritan minister, disembarks at Jamestown to found the New World’s first Presbyterian congregation.

March 28 General: Lord Governor Thomas De La Warr, Lord Delaware, is beset by ague, dysentery, and scurvy, so he returns to England. His departure is indicative of the sickly conditions and widespread malnutrition still prevalent at Jamestown.

May Sports: Jamestown colonists play bowling games in the New World, utilizing town streets as throwing alleys.

1611

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Chronology of American History

May 10 Politics: Sir Thomas Dale arrives at Jamestown, Virginia, to replace Thomas De La Warr, Lord Delaware, as governor. He brings with him 300 additional settlers, provisions, and livestock.

May 23 Politics: Sir Thomas Dale assumes control of Jamestown colony as governor. He also imposes near-martial law, known as “The Dale Code,” to promote greater order and cooperation among settlers. This constitutes a last-ditch effort to render the Jamestown colony a profitable venture.

June 28 Exploration: Henry Hudson’s vessel Discovery enters and explores Hudson Bay, only to have his crew mutiny. He, his son, and four loyal sailors are then abandoned in a small boat, in which they all perish.

August 1 Settlement: Sir Thomas Gates returns from England, bringing with him an additional 200 men and 20 women.

September 11 General: The settlement of Jamestown, Virginia, undergoes its first surge of expansion through the founding of the village of Henrico by Sir Thomas Dale, 40 miles to the north. The new settlement includes a church, a stockade, and several warehouses—proof that the Virginia Company’s draconian measures have succeeded in making the colony viable.

1612 Business: The Dutch vessels Tiger and Fortune begin fur trade activities along the Hudson River, especially with Indians on the island of Manhattan. John Rolfe becomes the first planter to successfully harvest tobacco in Virginia, and by 1620 it is the colony’s singular cash crop. The money tobacco generates allows Jamestown to expand in size, creating further conflicts with nearby Indians.

March 22 Politics: The Virginia Company receives its third charter for its colony in Virginia, which further outlines and enlarges powers of the governing members while also placing Bermuda under its control. The latter serves as an important source of food for the struggling colony. However, the Lawes Divine, Morall, and Martiall promulgated by the company to improve discipline remain strict and oppressive.

July General: The British vessel Plough drops off 60 settlers on the island of Bermuda, initiating a renewed colonization effort.

1613 Business: The first Dutch traders begin arriving on the island of Manhattan, New York. General: The French in Acadia arm Micmac Indians and incite them to attack and destroy the nearby Beothuk tribe of Newfoundland, who had recently killed 37 fishermen.

1612

Chronology

25

Sir Thomas Dale, in the latest expansion of Jamestown, Virginia, founds a new settlement, Bermuda Hundred. Military: Captain Sir Samuel Argall, sailing up from Virginia, attacks and destroys several French colonies situated around the Bay of Fundy, including Saint Sauveur and Port Royal (Annapolis), Canada, and returning with 15 prisoners. This is the first recorded instance of hostility between French and English settlers. April: Pocahontas, daughter of Chief Powhatan, is kidnapped by Captain Sir Samuel Argall and taken hostage to Jamestown, Virginia. The English then demand that Chief Powhatan surrender all his guns as a condition for her release. While in captivity, Pocahontas also converts to Christianity through the efforts of Alexander Whitaker.

September 1 Military: Samuel de Champlain leads a large Huron war party on an expedition against the Iroquois in present-day New York.

October 10 Military: A Huron war party led by Samuel de Champlain is ambushed by the Onondaga Indians in New York. Champlain is wounded in the fighting and calls off his campaign.

November Captain Sir Samuel Argall, returning from a successful foray in Maine, drops his anchor at the new Dutch settlement on Manhattan Island, forcing them to raise the English flag.

1614 Business: The Dutch found Fort Nassau (Albany, New York) on the west bank of the Hudson River, and in the heart of Mohegan territory, as a trading post. This is the first manifestation of what eventually materializes as New Amsterdam. General: A party of Englishmen under Thomas Hunt kidnap a party of Wampanoags, which they take to Spain for sale as slaves. Among them is a young warrior, Squanto, who converts to Catholicism, makes his way to London, and becomes passably fluent in English. In 1619, he is finally returned to Massachusetts unharmed with many tales to tell. Summer: Captain John Smith leads two vessels to the coast of Maine and begins surveying the coast from Penobscot as far south as Cape Cod. He is the first Englishman to refer to the region as New England.

March Business: The first shipment of Virginia tobacco is dispatched to England from Jamestown on board the Elizabeth.

March 27 Business: The Dutch Estate General adopts the Ordinance of 1614, which creates trade monopolies to encourage exploration and colonization in the New World.

April 14 General: Pocahontas marries planter John Rolfe in Virginia, apparently with the blessing of Chief Powhatan, her father, and takes the Christian name Rebecca. It is hoped that their union will promote peaceful coexistence between two very suspicious communities. She had also converted to Christianity in the previous

1614

26

Chronology of American History year while a hostage, bears a son name Thomas, and eventually departs for England with her family and father.

October 1 Exploration: Adriaen Block, a Dutch explorer, arrives in Amsterdam with maps and other information pertaining to the coast of New England and other regions. Block Island, Rhode Island, upon which he stopped briefly, is named in his honor. The information he relays back to company officials further emboldens the Dutch to undertake sizable colonization efforts.

October 11 Business: The United New Netherland Company is chartered for the purpose of facilitating the fur trade among Indians in the Hudson River Valley. They also obtain a three-year monopoly on the fur trade.

1615 Business: In response to the fur trade, the Algonquian-speaking confederation of Indians begins leaving the Atlantic region and migrating down the Saint Lawrence River, in tribal bands of Potawatomi, Ottawa, and Chippewa, to the region of presentday Lake Michigan and Lake Superior. Eager for the acquisition of European goods and alcohol, they commence hunting fur-bearing animals out of commercial impulse rather than actual need. This eventually leads to depletion of natural resources and a need to expand into regions occupied by other tribes. Religion: Four Franciscan (Recollet) friars begin preaching Christianity to the Indians in Quebec, Canada, the modest beginning of an extensive missionary effort.

July 28 Exploration: Samuel de Champlain, on his seventh voyage to the New World, ventures inland and encounters present-day Lake Huron. This discovery affords an easier inland route for the future fur trade, a staple of the French colony of Quebec.

August 1 Diplomacy: Samuel de Champlain, eager to cement a military alliance with the Huron nation, visits their capital of Huronia as the representative of New France and is enthusiastically welcomed. Over the next three decades an extensive trading network emerges between the two parties, until the fur-producing regions of the Upper Great Lakes grow depleted from overhunting and decline in productivity.

September Exploration: French explorer Étienne Brülé departs the expedition of Samuel de Champlain, sails down the Susquehanna River, and discovers its mouth at Chesapeake Bay.

October 11–12 Military: Samuel de Champlain besieges Onondaga fort near present-day Oswego, New York, with Huron, Algonquian, and Montagnais allies. They are, however, repulsed.

1616 General: Captain John Smith writes and publishes A Description of New England to stimulate immigration; it is the first written use of that name for this region of North America.

1615

Chronology

27

Law: In London, Edward Coke, chief justice of the king’s bench, is force to resign after questioning the authority of King James I. Consequently, his Reports (1600– 15) and Institute on the Laws of England (1628–44), which also peripherally contest royal authority, become standard legal books for generations of Americans studying law. Medical: Smallpox, a contagion spread by European sailors, begins decimating the New England Indians. Within three years they lose up to 90 percent of their population to this and other maladies for which they lack natural immunity. Military: English settlers in Virginia, hard-pressed to produce sufficient foodstuff, try coercing the Chickahominy tribe into paying tribute. When they refuse, the militia attacks the tribe, killing several leaders and forcibly rounding up supplies needed.

January 20 Military: Samuel de Champlain assists Algonquin allies in a battle with hostile Iroquois and is wounded.

May 22 Diplomacy: Samuel de Champlain departs Huronia for Quebec, having demonstrated French resolve to assist Indian nations allied to France. Theirs proves a fateful alliance, with dire consequences for the Indians.

June General: Rebecca (Pochontas) ventures abroad to visit England with husband John Rolfe, where she receives a fond welcome from the court and is introduced to King James I. She carries herself extremely well at the English court and is hailed as an “Indian princess.” Deputy Governor Sir Thomas Gale is also on hand to present a favorable report of Jamestown to company officials.

1617 Politics: Sir Samuel Argall gains appointment as deputy governor of Jamestown; his tenure in office will be characterized by arbitrariness, poor governance, and unrest. Societal: The continuing arrival in Jamestown of women of higher social status lays the foundation for sustainable populations and the growth of stable communities.

March 21 General: Pocahontas, now called Rebecca, dies of smallpox in Gravesend, England, at the age of 21 and is buried at St. George’s Church with Christian rites. Tragically, she becomes one of thousands of Native Americans who will succumb to foreign diseases.

March 24 Politics: King James I embraces the notion of Indian churches and schools to convert and “civilize” Native Americans in Virginia and elsewhere. He thereupon instructs the archbishops of York and Canterbury to collect funding for the effort.

April Medical: The Micmac, valuable French allies in Maine and Newfoundland, are stricken by smallpox and die off in large numbers. In general, tribes in the New

1617

28

Chronology of American History England region will lose up to 90 percent of their number to diseases for which they have no immunity.

December 23 General: The English government seeks to establish a penal colony in Virginia for the settlement of criminals and other social outcasts.

1618 Economics: Virginia establishes the practice of headrights, whereby families and immigrating workers receive 50 acres of land per head for workers settling in the colony. It gradually becomes the legal basis for granting land tenure throughout the South and is adopted to attract settlers who would be otherwise uninterested in “sharecropping” larger tracts. Religion: In a move to bolster church attendance, Governor Sir Samuel Argall decrees that failure to attend is punishable by imprisonment for the evening, followed by a week of forced labor. Furthermore, dancing, fiddling, cards, hunting, and fishing, were all forbidden on Sunday. Sports: Puritans are infuriated when King James I issues the Book of Sports, delineating what recreations are permissible on Sundays.

April General: In Virginia, Chief Powhatan dies and is succeeded by his brother, the more militant Opechancanough. He inherits a tribe decimated by disease and increasingly under siege by a steady influx of land-hungry Europeans—and determines to do something about it.

November 18 Education: The colony of Virginia sets aside 10,000 acres of land for the eventual establishment of a college to educate the Indians. Politics: Sir Samuel Argall loses the post as governor of Jamestown due to a gross mishandling of official matters. Foremost of these is his strict enforcement of religious observances, with commensurate punishment for failure to comply. Back in London, a revised charter enacted by the London Company grants new privileges and limited participation in the decision-making process.

1619 Business: The first iron works in the English colonies arises at Falling Creek, Virginia. The House of Burgesses also expands upon the policy of land grants, allowing 100 acres to every settler who arrived before 1616. Improved accessibility to land provides considerable incentive for new arrivals to make the voyage. Law: The House of Burgesses decrees that any settler that trades weapons or powder to the Indians is to be hanged. Societal: Additional shipments of women arrive at Jamestown; prospective husbands must pay 120 pounds of tobacco to have them sent over. A large number of children are also removed from London slums and sent to the colonies as apprentices.

April 19 Politics: Sir George Yeardley arrives at Jamestown, Virginia, as the colony’s new governor, with authority to initiate reforms. He is especially empowered

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Opechancanough (ca. 1545–1646) Pamunkey chief Opechancanough was born in the tidewater district of Virginia around 1545, younger brother of Chief Powhatan of the Pamunkey tribe. This was a large confederation of Algonquian-speaking tribes that controlled the eastern reaches of Chesapeake Bay back into the interior. In 1607, the tribesmen watched as the English established their first settlement at Jamestown. Some skirmishing resulted, but there was no overt hostility until December of that year when Opechancanough commanded a war party that captured Captain John Smith as he explored the Chickahominy River. Smith was subsequently spared and released through the intercession of Pocahontas, and then an uneasy truce set in for many years between the natives and the new arrivals. During this period continual waves of settlers pushed farther and farther inland, displacing the Indians from their traditional hunting grounds. Powhatan did his best to accommodate this influx, but after he died in 1618, his younger brother Opitchapan succeeded him. By this period Opechancanough had emerged as an important adviser to the chief and he argued to push the English into the sea before their numbers became insurmountable. The English were then led into a false sense of security for many years until March 22, 1622, when Opechancanough waged a sudden and relentless attack on their settlements. As many as 500 men, women, and children—one-fourth of the colony—were cut down on that first day of the war, but the Indians failed to storm

Jamestown itself. Apparently the colony had been alerted to the danger by a Christian Indian, and they rebuffed the attackers. The survivors gradually consolidated and counterattacked in a struggle lasting 14 years before Opechancanough was finally forced to sue for peace in 1636. The recent experience of war had done nothing to stifle the English appetite for additional Indian land, and an eight-year impasse ensued as both sides gathered strength to renew the fight. By now Opechancanough was chief and an old man of nearly 90 years, supposedly so lame that he had to be carried around in a litter. Nevertheless, on April 18, 1644, he orchestrated another deadly attack against the English, killing almost 1,000 settlers. However, the Europeans were by now far too numerous to be driven off, and another relentless war of attrition unfolded. The settlers were aided by modern technology such as firearms and cannon that the lightly armed Indians could not successfully counter, and they lost heavily. In April 1646, a raid by colonists managed to capture the aged chief, whom they vindictively paraded through the streets of Jamestown. While confined in prison, Opechancanough was shot and killed by one of his guards. The defeat of his Powhatan confederacy resulted in their complete removal from the tidewater district. Moreover, an important threshold had been crossed for Native Americans, ushering in a pattern of war and displacement that lasted over the next two and a half centuries.

to form a governing council of six members and a general assembly drawn from the planting class, or burgesses. Yeardley’s arrival is a significant turning point in the history of Jamestown, marking its transformation from a companycontrolled plantation colony into a self supporting and self-governing political entity.

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April 28 Business: The more liberal-minded Sir Edwin Sandys assumes control of the Virginia Company in London from Sir Thomas Smith. His first task is to scuttle the harsh social policies of Sir Samuel Argall, which have sown considerable dissent among colonists. Moreover, he favors abolishing feudal tenures altogether and advocates representative government. This gives rise to the Great Charter, which replaces the harsh Lawes, Divine, Morall, and Martiall adopted in 1612 and lays the groundwork for land tenure reform and representative government.

June 19 Religion: English religious dissenters living in Leiden, the Netherlands, obtain a patent in the name of John Wyncop to settle within lands own by the Virginia Company. Sir Edwin Sandys of the Virginia Company also intercedes on their behalf and the English Crown approves the document.

July 30 Politics: Martial law at Jamestown finally passes, and the New World receives its first colonial legislature. Elections are held for 22 seats in the new House of Burgesses, with members drawn exclusively from the planting class. These will convene in Jamestown and represent 11 constituencies within the colony of Virginia.

August Societal: Spirits rise in Jamestown following the arrival of 90 young maidens looking for husbands. Their prospective mates have paid the company 120 pounds in tobacco to facilitate their transit to the New World. This also represents an economic boost to the colony for, with greater numbers of women on hand to fulfill domestic chores, the men are free to work longer hours in the fields.

August 9–14 Politics: The New World’s first representative legislature, the Virginia House of Burgesses, gathers for the first time at Old Church, Jamestown. One of its first acts substitutes English common law for martial law in the colony, although all acts passed must ultimately be approved by company authorities back in London. They also embrace a strict moral code that outlaws gambling, drunkenness, immorality, and idleness. Colonists are also required to attend church masses twice on Sunday while being fully armed with swords and guns. The initial session lasts only a few days but constitutes the beginning of representative political traditions in North America.

August 20 Slavery: Twenty Africans, men and women alike, arrive at Jamestown, after being removed from a Spanish slaver vessel by a Dutch privateer. In the absence of statutory slavery, the newcomers are not treated as chattel but rather as indentured servants, enjoying the same rights and obligations as poorer white immigrants. Nonetheless, their presence heralds the commencement of a long English involvement in the slave trade. The scourge of slavery itself will not be eradicated from North America until 1865.

1620 Business: The export of tobacco leads to an economic boom at Jamestown, Virginia.

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The first meeting of the House of Burgesses in Jamestown, Virginia, the first elected legislative assembly in America (Library of Congress)

Societal: Virginia landowners donate books for a college in Henrico, thereby establishing the first library in the English American colonies.

January 31 Labor: Leaders of Jamestown, Virginia, petition company officials in London for more orphaned apprentices to work as laborers.

February Religion: The Dutch government invites English religious separatists to settle in the Netherlands, but the group under Reverend John Wyncop demurs, awaiting permission from the English government to relocate to Virginia.

February 20 General: English merchants Thomas Weston and John Pierce of London obtain a patent to settle from the Virginia Company and make overtures to the Leiden separatists for them to join their endeavor.

March 3 General: Sir Ferdinando Gorges petitions King James I for a charter granting the Plymouth Company settlement rights in New England, specifically Maine.

June 18 Business: The liberal-minded Henry Wriothesley, earl of Southampton, succeeds Sir Edwin Sandys as treasurer of the London Company. He remains in charge of company affairs until it is disbanded in 1624, which insures the continuation of fair and liberal social policies.

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June 29 Business: The English Crown reaches a trade agreement with the Virginia Company stipulating that tobacco will not be cultivated in England, but the government would receive one shilling duty per pound of the crop raised in Virginia.

July 22 Religion: Thirty-five English separatists living in Leiden, the Netherlands, under William Brewster depart onboard the ship Speedwell and sail back to Plymouth, England. Once there they hope to migrate to new land in North America.

August 5 Settlement: A complement of 35 Puritan separatists under William Bradford and William Brewster, accompanied by 67 Strangers (Anglicans) under Myles Standish, depart Plymouth, England, for the New World. They sail on two vessels, Speedwell and Mayflower, and six days later, when the former proves unseaworthy, the attempt is aborted and they return to port.

September 16 Religion: A party of 101 so-called “Pilgrims,” consisting of Puritans, Calvinists, and some non-Separatists, departs Plymouth, England, on board the vessel Mayflower, and makes for the Virginia colony. This group’s members have distanced themselves from the Anglican Church and evince a Congregationalist doctrine more akin to the teachings of John Calvin. Among their number is Myles Standish, a former soldier, and Dr. Samuel Fuller, one of the New World’s earliest physicians.

November 9 General: The English vessel Mayflower comes in sight of Cape Cod after a voyage of 66 days. Having been blown northward off course by a storm, they decided to disembark even though the region lays outside any jurisdiction of the Virginia Company.

November 11 General: A small but determined band of Pilgrims approaches Provincetown Harbor, Cape Cod Bay, Massachusetts. They had originally intended to land and settle in Virginia but, because of the onset of winter, elect to disembark somewhere along the coastline. But, because this terrain lays outside the Virginia colony, their charter is invalid and many aboard fear that they lack a valid basis of governance. Also, the colonists suffer their first loss when Dorothy Bradford, the future governor’s wife, apparently slips off the boat and drowns in the icy water.

November 13 Business: King James I, at the behest of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, grants the Council for New England (successor to the Plymouth Company) a new charter for land along the New England coast near Maine. This change marks the shift from merchants to aristocrats and changing emphasis from a trading concern to a land company.

November 21 Politics: Weary male colonists onboard the Mayflower, anchored in Provincetown Harbor, Cape Cod, conclude the “Mayflower Compact,” which establishes

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Bradford, William (1590–1657) Colonial governor William Bradford was baptized at Austerfield, Yorkshire, England, on March 19, 1590. Like many youths of his time he began reading and inculcating the Bible at the age of 12, and as a young man he quit the Church of England to join a small Separatist congregation over the objections of his family. Once King James I began persecuting Separatists, Bradford fled to the Netherlands with many of his congregation in 1608. He lived there, working in the textile industry, for 11 years until the opportunity arose to migrate to Virginia with the backing of a private company, and the Pilgrims, fearful of losing touch with their English language and culture, readily joined him. Accordingly, in 1620 Bradford and 35 Separatists—in concert with 66 other passengers—set sail for America onboard the Mayflower. In December of that year Bradford was a signatory to the so-called “Mayflower Compact,” committing the travelers to observe whatever government eventually evolved on shore. Tragedy then struck on December 7, 1620, when Bradford’s wife fell off the boat within sight of land and drowned. The colony of Plymouth, Massachusetts, then arose on December 26, 1620, and when John Carver, the original governor, died in the spring of 1621, Bradford was appointed to serve in his place. Significantly, he was reelected to that office for 30 of the next 35 years, a good indication of his personal popularity and administrative skills. Happily, Bradford also married Alice Carpenter in July 1623, and raised three children.

The pilgrims of Plymouth endured a harsh first winter, although they were eventually assisted by the local Wampanoag Indians under Chief Massasoit. Bradford, realizing the acute weakness of his charge, was quick to strike up friendly relations with the natives, celebrated the first Thanksgiving with them, and scrupulously observed a treaty of friendship. But hardships remained, as the colony’s charter mandated that investors in England would receive all profits accruing from their labors, and it was not until 1627 that Bradford arranged for the settlers to buy out the contract. In this respect he proved a far-sighted benign individual, fairly dividing up all land among settlers whether or not they were Separatists. After 1630, the new influx of religiously stern Puritans, settling at nearby Salem and Boston, also made life more challenging by attempting to annex the Plymouth settlement and behaving disrespectfully toward the aged governor. However, Bradford served capably and honestly in office until his death at Plymouth on May 9, 1657. For more than three decades he oversaw Plymouth through numerous travails, successfully overcame each one, and is largely responsible for the colony’s survival. His success is all the more surprising considering that Bradford was never formally educated. He also made an indelible contribution to scholarship by compiling his History of Plimouth Plantation, 1620–1647, published 200 years after his death, which affords valuable insights and glimpses into religious and social conditions throughout this seminal period.

civic authority for the new colony. This is largely undertaken to placate Strangers (Anglicans) aboard, who are not members of the Separatist church of “Saints” and are unhappy at landing miles from their designated area in Virginia. Under the compact’s terms, the 41 male signatories agree to organize and govern their

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Standish, Myles

(ca. 1584–1656)

Military adventurer Myles Standish was probably born in Lancashire, England, around 1584, and he was attracted to military service while a youth. He fought several years in the Netherlands against Spain as an officer, acquiring skills in the school of war that proved useful later on. At this point he came to the attention of the English Separatist Pilgrims then living in Leiden and hoping to migrate to the New World. They then hired this short, redheaded, fierce-tempered adventurer as their official military adviser. Standish sailed with the Pilgrims onboard the Mayflower in 1620 and conducted several preliminary forays at the tip of Cape Cod before landing at Plymouth. He was also a signatory to the Mayflower Compact and dutifully fulfilled his obligations for the next 32 years. Once ashore, Standish proved instrumental in helping organize the colony’s defenses and instituting early militia drill. The Pilgrims also endured a very harsh first winter that sickened many, but Standish, inured to hardship, remained healthy and catered to the ill. He then assisted Governor William Bradford in his negotiations with the Wampanoag Indians and helped design the treaty between Chief Massasoit and the colony. This document secured peaceful relations between the Indians and the Europeans for nearly half a century. Standish, as the resident military expert, realized the weakness of the colony and the dangers that a massed Indian attack would pose, so he readily learned their language and constantly impressed them with displays of

modern firearms to promote an illusion of great military strength. For many years, this kept more aggressive elements among the Wampanoag at bay. In addition to his military functions, Standish also held down several administrative positions within the colonial government and was a trusted figure. In 1625, he was dispatched back to England to secure supplies and money from the company and, two years later, also accompanied the successful attempt to purchase the company’s charter for stockholders. He also assumed policing functions at the behest of the governor. In 1623, Standish led a group of eight soldiers to the Indian village of Wessagusett, where he assassinated a group of tribal leaders planning to attack the colony. In 1628, Standish led an armed group to Merry Mount (Quincy), arrested Thomas Morton, the leader of an undisciplined group of traders, for licentious behavior, and deported him back to England. It was Morton who coined the derogatory term for the short, ruddy-faced officer, “Captain Shrimp.” He took to the field for the last time in 1645 in anticipation of war with the Narragansetts of Rhode Island, then retired and was made colonial treasurer. In 1624, Standish was also instrumental in founding the settlement of Duxbury, Plymouth’s first expansion, where he also settled with his second wife. He died there on October 3, 1656, an essential figure in the history of Plymouth and the object of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem, the Courtship of Myles Standish.

new settlement in consort, to obey laws approved by the voting majority, and to respect the authority of their governor. All laws adopted by the colony must also be agreeable with the laws of England. Its relatively democratic tenor established guidelines for other English settlements in the region, along with the basic American political philosophy of self-governance and majority rule. It is also the

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This painting shows the Pilgrims signing the compact in one of the Mayflower's cabins. (Library of Congress)

first constitution ever written in the New World and guides the Plymouth settlement until its absorption by the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1691. Societal: Peregrine White is born on the Mayflower, becoming the first child of English parents in New England.

December Religion: Puritan ministers William Brewster, William Bradford, and Edward Winslow found their own Separatist church once ashore at Plymouth, Massachusetts.

December 8 Military: The landing party from the Mayflower skirmishes with a body of hostile Indians on Cape Cod and drives them off. Eventually, the nearby Wampanoag nation seeks to establish communication and friendly relations.

December 11 General: The Mayflower observes and approaches present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts, where preparations are made to disembark after a 63-day voyage. A scouting party sent ashore discerns cornfields and running brooks.

December 26 Politics: Plymouth Plantation, Massachusetts, is founded by the Pilgrims under the leadership of Deacon John Carver, who is appointed the first governor. Mary

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Chronology of American History Chilton also becomes the first English woman to disembark at Plymouth Rock, although the bulk of colonists remain aboard the Mayflower rather than commence building habitats in the wintery conditions. Their landing also places them in a region already occupied by members of the Wampanoag, Massachuset, Pawtucket, and Nipmuck nations. Initially, the Indians are far more curious about their new neighbors than hostile.

1621 Law: The first recorded duel in America was fought between two gentlemen at Plymouth, Massachusetts. Military: Nenmattanaw, an important religious leader among the Powhatan of Virginia, informs his people that he possesses a magic salve rendering him invulnerable to the colonialists’ bullets. To prove his point he then kills an Englishman, strolls into his village, and is promptly shot dead. His passing infuriates many of his followers, including Chief Opechancanough, who begin plotting all-out war to rid themselves of the intruders.

January 21 Settlement: After a cold winter aboard the Mayflower, the bulk of colonists disembarks at Plymouth and begins building habitats. They also gather ashore to hold their first preaching service. However, of 18 women who arrived, no less than 14 failed to survive the first winter.

March Diplomacy: The Plymouth settlement receives a distinguished visitor in the form of Samoset, an English-speaking sachem (chief ) of the Pemaquid tribe who apparently learned the language from fishermen arriving off the coast of Maine.

March 21 General: The final group of settlers onboard the Mayflower comes ashore at Plymouth colony, Massachusetts.

March 22 Diplomacy: The Pilgrims of Plymouth colony reach a peace accord between Governor John Carver and Chief Massasoit of the Wampanoag tribe. They are assisted in this venture by Squanto (Tisquantum), a former English captive who learned the language during two years of residence in London, 1617–19. Over this first harsh winter, Native Americans proved instrumental in showing the Pilgrims how to grow crops, fish in rivers, and build shelter. Massasoit is probably motivated less by altruism than by his dire need to secure European help against his formidable neighbors to the south, the Narragansett. Significantly, the treaty signed is scrupulously observed by both sides for half a century.

April 5 General: The Mayflower departs Plymouth, Massachusetts, for a return voyage back to England. The Pilgrims must now fend for themselves in their wilderness enclave.

April 21 Politics: Deacon John Carver dies of illness at Plymouth, Massachusetts, and William Bradford replaces him to serve as governor. He occupies that office for 30 years, guiding the colony through its most seminal period.

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Massasoit (ca. 1590–1661) Wampanoag chief Massasoit (“Great Leader”), also known as Ousamequin (“Yellow Feather) was born in southern New England around 1590, a member of the Wampanoag tribal confederation. This was a group of Algonquianspeaking Indians inhabiting the coast of Massachusetts and parts of Rhode Island. His home town was apparently Pokanocket (present-day Mount Hope, Rhode Island). Nothing is known of his life prior to the events of 1621, when the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth and began carving out a colony in the wilderness. At that time, the Wampanoag were distressed by the onset of diseases, undoubtedly transmitted by European sailors, to which the Indians lacked natural immunities. The tribe had thus lost hundreds, possibly thousands, of members, making it a prime candidate for conquest by the more powerful Narragansett tribe farther south. This fact may have weighed heavily on Massasoit’s mind when, in March 1621, he decided to collect a body of warriors and pay the Pilgrims a visit. He found the colonists suffering badly from overexposure and hunger and, after some preliminary bartering, elected to help. In this he was greatly assisted by Squanto, an Indian who had been kidnaped by the English and spent several years in London, learning the language. Governor William Bradford, whose sickly and feeble band could not offer serious resistance if attacked, gladly agreed to enter into a defense alliance with the Wampanoag at Massasoit’s behest. The chief probably entered into this arrangement less for altruistic reasons than a need to find new allies

in his struggle against the Narragansett. In his dealings with the newcomers, Massasoit invariably impressed them as stern and taciturn, but also highly intelligent and diplomatic. The agreement reached between Massasoit and the Pilgrims endured four decades, and both sides were apparently committed to uphold it. Massasoit for his part apparently took a keen interest in his allies’ survival, for in the fall of 1621, when invited to a minor feast called Thanksgiving, he brought along five deer and 90 warriors. The Pilgrims appreciated their benefactor in kind, and in 1623, when the chief fell ill, several Plymouth men traversed miles of woodlands to enter his village and treat him. That year he also alerted the colony that a conspiracy existed among certain Indian tribes beyond his jurisdiction, and these were promptly rounded up and killed by Captain Myles Standish. In 1638 and 1642, the chief reappeared at Salem and Boston to renew his pact with the Pilgrims and was cordially received. By the time Massasoit died in 1661, the New England frontier had been changed from a handful of struggling colonies to a sustainable English population extending ever farther into the interior. His son and successor, Wamsutta (who adopted the name Alexander) likewise tried accommodating their demands with little success until he died of illness. It fell upon Massasoit’s other son, Metacom (Philip), to finally confront the Europeans in a war that decided the fate of Native Americans in New England.

May 12 Societal: Plymouth, Massachusetts, witnesses its first marriage when Susanna White weds Edward Winslow. Significantly, both lost their original spouses over the winter.

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June Settlement: Andrew Weston lands at Plymouth colony with 50 additional settlers and goes on to found a fishing and trading post at nearby Wessagusett, Massachusetts.

June 1 Business: John Peirce of the Council for New England receives a second patent for land in Maine, whereby all land titles are jointly shared by investors and settlers. Furthermore, each settler receives 100 acres in the colony while 1,500 acres are reserved for public use. An agent representing the Pilgrims in London obtains a land grant from the Council of New England since they have apparently settled within its territory.

June 3 Business: The Netherlands States General charters the Dutch West India Company, granting it a monopoly to colonize and trade in the New World below the Tropic of Cancer. Dutch settlers have already begun a lucrative fur trade with Mohawk and Mahican tribes of the Hudson River Valley.

July 24 Politics: In London, the Ordinance and Constitution for the Virginia colony is approved by the Virginia Company.

October Politics: Sir Francis Wyatt arrives at Jamestown as the new governor. He brings with him the new Ordinance and Constitution as promulgated by the Virginia Company.

October 21 Business: The Privy Council orders duties levied on all exports from the colonies once they reach England. The king also declares a monopoly on all Virginia tobacco.

November General: The Plymouth settlers celebrate the first Thanksgiving with local Indians, who are invited. When Massasoit appears with 90 fellow tribesmen, and it is clear that the Pilgrims lack the food to feed everybody, the chief instructs his people to contribute food and they bring five deer. This quintessential American holiday will not be declared official until 1863.

November 10 General: The ship Fortune arrives at Plymouth, Massachusetts, bringing 30 additional settlers but no new supplies.

December 13 General: The ship Fortune departs Plymouth, Massachusetts, for England, laden with a large cargo of timber and furs.

December 25 General: Governor William Bradford, in another attempt to crack down on licentiousness, halts all game-playing on Christmas Day at Plymouth Colony and confiscates sports equipment.

1622 Slavery: Anthony Johnson and his wife, Mary, are acknowledged as the first free African Americans in Virginia. In time they also become owners of African slaves.

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Meanwhile, the House of Burgesses, determined to dampen interracial liaisons and marriage, levies a fine on all offenders.

January Diplomacy: In a test of nerve, the Narragansett dispatch a bundle of arrows wrapped in a snake skin, a portent of war, to Plymouth colony. Governor William Bradford responds by sending back a skin filled with bullets. The message is apparently clear and no violence erupts between the two communities.

March 8 Politics: The Privy Council bans the lottery used by the Virginia Company to raise funds, and it begins going bankrupt.

March 22 Military: On Good Friday morning, Powhatan warriors under Opechancanough approached numerous English settlements on the pretext of trading, then suddenly grabbed colonial weapons and attacked. This proves a well-coordinated affair through which 31 settlements are struck almost simultaneously. The main settlement at Jamestown was alerted to the danger by Chanco, a Christianized Indian and successfully withstood the onslaught. Nevertheless, 347 colonists are slain in one fell swoop, nearly one-third of the population. This act leads to a series of colonial reprisals and a long, drawn-out conflict lasting a decade.

July General: A contingent of Scottish settlers arrives at Nova Scotia at the behest of Sir William Alexander, who holds a grant from King James I.

August Settlement: Thomas Weston is sent by the Plymouth colony to found a settlement at Wessagusett (Weymouth); the inhabitants suffer a harsh first winter there.

August 10 General: Sir John Mason and Sir Ferdinando Gorges receive a grant from the Council for New England for the province of Maine, situated between the Merrimack and Kennebec Rivers.

November 6 Business: The Crown grants the Council of New England a monopoly for trading and fishing in Maine; it also receives the ability to grant licenses for these activities. This is to forestall future conflicts with the Virginia Company.

December 30 Business: Robert Gorges, son of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, is appointed lieutenant general of New England by the Council of New England. He also obtains a 10mile strip of land along the coast of Boston Bay, extending inland for 30 miles.

1623 Agriculture: Governor William Bradford orders settlers to cultivate their own maize (corn) to supplement the otherwise meager colonial diet. In this he is advised by Native Americans on how best to grow and harvest the crop. Business: The Virginia assembly instructs all settlers to plant and grow mulberry trees, whose leaves were then used to cultivate silk worms and silk production.

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Chronology of American History Settlement: The Council for New England issues additional grants for settling the regions of Portsmouth and Dover (New Hampshire), and Casco Bay and Saco Bay, Maine. Another grant allows colonists at Dorchester to found a new establishment at Gloucester, Cape Ann, Massachusetts.

April 4 Military: Chief Massasoit of the Wampanoag alerts officials at Plymouth colony of a conspiracy by several warrior chiefs to destroy them. He singles out two war captains, Wituwamet and Pecksuot in particular. That same day, 10 heavily armed militiamen under Captain Myles Standish sail from Plymouth for the Indian town of Wessagusett under the pretext of trading there.

April 6 Military: A force of 10 militia men under Captain Myles Standish attacks a body of Massachusett Indians at Wessagusset (Weymouth), Massachusetts, to eliminate any Indians plotting to attack Plymouth colony. Eight alleged conspirators are slain and the head of Chief Wituwamet is severed and placed atop a pole back in Plymouth. In retaliation, the Indians capture several colonists already in their town and execute them.

May 22 Military: Having gradually worn the Powhatan down by incessant fighting, the English invite Opechancanough and several leaders to a peace parley. The Indians accept and are given poisoned wine to drink. The English then shoot and kill several drunken chiefs, but Opechancanough manages to escape, and hostilities resume with a vengeance.

June 29 Business: The Council of New England divides up the New England coast from Rhode Island to Maine for settlement and ownership by 20 patentees.

July Business: The Virginia Company of London, facing bankruptcy, arranges to be managed by the king’s Privy Council. This is the first step in a chain of events leading to royal rule in Virginia.

August Settlement: The colony at Plymouth, Massachusetts, is buttressed by the arrival of additional settlers.

September Business: Sir Robert Gorges, now lieutenant general of New England, attempts revitalizing the moribund fishing and trading outpost at Wessagusett, Massachusetts. It will be abandoned over the winter and eventually forgotten.

September 10 Business: Plymouth colony ships 140 tons of furs and lumber to England onboard the ship Anne under Captain William Pierce.

November 3 General: The Dutch West India Company authorizes the conveyance of 30 families to start a settlement in the New World. Walloons, French-speaking Protestants from what today is Belgium, are chosen.

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December 13 Law: Colonists in Plymouth, Massachusetts, found the practice of trial by a 12man jury in accordance with English civil law. Defendants can be found guilty only through a unanimous verdict.

1624 Military: A resurgent Mohawk nation begins pushing the Mahican tribe across the Hudson River into Connecticut. Religion: The new Virginia legal code requires all settlers to attend church on Sundays or face a fine of one pound of tobacco for failure to do so. Moreover, all residential dwellings must accommodate a place designated especially for worship. Reverend John Lyford, an Anglican clergyman, becomes the first appointed minister to Plymouth colony, Massachusetts. His tenure there is both brief and unhappy; once charged with favoring Anglicanism, he is arrested and expelled to Naukeag (Salem). Slavery: The Dutch West Indies Company begins importing African slaves to work farms of the Hudson River Valley. William Tucker is the first recorded African American born at Jamestown, Virginia.

March Business: Former governor Edward Winslow of Plymouth Colony introduces cattle to New England as a source of meat and dairy products.

March 5 Law: In an early example of class-based legislation, members from the upper class are no longer subject to whipping as punishment.

March 28 Business: The Dutch West India Company adopts the Provision Order outlining a plan of colonial governance. It divides colonists into either private freemen, under contract to remain at least six years, and head farmers, hired to work company farms for a stipulated term. Social behavior is also strictly regulated.

March 30 General: Around 30 Walloon (French-speaking, Protestant) Dutch families depart Amsterdam and sail for the New World under Captain Cornelius Jacobsen Mey, who also functions as the first director of the colony.

May Settlement: An advanced party of Dutch settlers under Captain Cornelius Jacobsen Mey founds Fort Orange near the Fort Nassau trading post (Albany, New York). In time they establish prosperous trade relations with nearby Mohawk and Mahican Indians.

June 16 Politics: Attempts by Governor Sir Edwin Sandys to increase the productivity of Virginia leads to political unrest throughout the colony and complaints at home. Consequently, King James I revokes the company charter and establishes Virginia as a royal colony, subject to closer governmental supervision.

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July Military: English militia from Jamestown, Virginia, raid deep into territory belonging to the Pamunkey tribe, precipitating a fierce, two-day battle with an estimated 800 warriors. The well-armed and armored Europeans ultimately prevail with heavy losses to the Indians.

July 15 Business: A committee of 40 men is appointed by the Privy Council to oversee colonial matters now that the Virginia Company is defunct.

August 24 Politics: King James I appoints Sir Francis Wyatt the first royal governor of Jamestown, Virginia. Wyatt had also served as governor under the Virginia Company and his selection signals a desire by the Crown to achieve political and social stability.

December 21 General: The South Company of Sweden is chartered to form a colony in the New World, although 13 years elapse before that eventuality.

1625 January Settlement: Willem Verhulst is sent out by the Dutch West India Company to serve as a colonial director for its settlements in North America. Having replaced Captain Cornelius Jacobsen Mey, Verhulst is to be assisted by a council of Dutch mariners.

March 27 Politics: King Charles I ascends the throne following the death of James I.

May 13 Politics: King Charles I proclaims Virginia to be a royal colony; henceforth the Crown will appoint all governing officials.

1626 Military: When four Dutch traders choose to support the Mahican Indians during an intertribal conflict, they are defeated in battle by the Mohawks. The four traders are killed. Religion: The first Jesuit missionaries arrive in New France, competing directly with the Recollets (Franciscans) for the hearts and minds of Native America. Their ensuing and impressive success is based upon an enlightened policy of not requiring natives to abandon many aspects of their indigenous religion and culture. Slavery: The first 11 Africans brought to New Netherland as indentured servants arrive, although most eventually gain their freedom and establish a community of free blacks in Manhattan.

March 14 Politics: Sir George Yeardley is appointed by the Crown to succeed Sir Francis Wyatt as royal governor of Virginia.

May 6 General: Dutch immigrants under Director General Peter Minuit anchor the Sea-mew off present-day Manhattan island and found the colony of New

1625

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This print shows New Amsterdam's fine natural harbor, which helped make it a commercial center. (Library of Congress)

Amsterdam. The island is purchased from local Canarsee Indians for 60 Dutch guilders (roughly $24). However, Minuit is forced to spend additional funds to placate the Reckgawawanc (Manhattan), a local tribe claiming hunting rights on the island.

June 14 General: Dutch settlers abandon settlements along the Delaware River and resettle along the Hudson River near New Amsterdam.

November 15 General: The Pilgrim settlement at Plymouth agrees to buy out London stockholders for 1,800 pounds and, in return, receives a monopoly on trade within the region.

1627 Politics: Sir Francis West succeeds Sir George Yeardley as governor of the now royal colony of Virginia. Religion: Thomas Morton, intent upon mocking his pristine Puritan neighbors, erects a pagan Maypole at his Merry Mount Colony (Quincy).

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Chronology of American History Slavery: Carib Indians brought to Virginia to work as slaves escape and join the Powhatan Confederacy. Societal: In their haste to adequately stock the Virginia colony with a viable population and plentiful apprentices, company authorities round up or kidnap 1,500 poor children and ship them abroad.

April 27 Business: The Company of New France (or the Company of One Hundred Associates) is chartered for direct colonization of the New World and to oversee continuing fur trade activities with the Indians. This represents a marked shift in Gallic attitudes towards colonization, and is brought about by Cardinal Richelieu to increase the wealth, prestige, and power of France. Thus situated, and backed by private investors, the company is tasked with settling up to 300 colonists in Canada during 1628 and 4,000 more over the next 15 years.

June 14 Military: Dutch militia abandons Fort Orange on the Delaware River and withdraws the garrison back to New Amsterdam.

July 23 General: Sir George Calvert lands at Newfoundland to develop the grant he first obtained in 1622.

1628 March 19 General: Once the New England Company takes over the defunct Dorchester Company, Reverend John White obtains a patent for land extending three miles north of the Merrimack River and three miles south of the Charles River.

March 26 Politics: After a four-year hiatus, the Virginia House of Burgesses is summoned by Governor Thomas West, Lord Dorchester.

April 7 Religion: The Dutch Reformed Church, a unique blend of Presbyterianism and Calvinism, is established at New Amsterdam under Reverend Jonas Michaelius. They remain under the sway of the parent church in Europe for over a century and a half.

May 1 Military: The Plymouth militia under Myles Standish seizes the English settlement of Merry Mount, Massachusetts, and arrests Thomas Morton. He is charged with selling liquor and gunpowder to the Indians and organizing dances around the defiantly pagan Maypole. Morton is then dispatched back to England to remove his corrupting influence from the colony. Religion: The pagan ritual of May Day is celebrated at Merry Mount (modernday Quincy), Massachusetts, and the accompanying bawdy behavior is summarily condemned by the ever religious-minded Governor William Bradford.

June 20 General: John Endecott sails from England with a small group of colonists.

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Endecott, John

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(ca. 1588–1665)

Colonial governor John Endecott was probably born in Devonshire, England, around 1588, and nothing is known of his early life. He first appears in 1628 as one of six patentees of the Dorchester Company, a group of Puritan settlers who obtained land from the Plymouth Company. The following year he sailed to Massachusetts as leader of a small group of settlers intending to land at Naumkeag (Salem). In doing so, Endecott displaced a small group of Pilgrims already living there under Roger Conant, and he functioned for two years as de facto head of the colony. Endecott was also tasked with preparing the area for the arrival of John Winthrop and the first wave of the “Great Migration.” His tenure was not without controversy, owing to an overweening sense of Puritan morality. In 1629, Endecott ordered a campaign against non-Puritan settlers living at Merry Mount (Quincy) for raising a Maypole and then arrested and deported their leader, Thomas Morton, for such alarming lack of decency. Winthrop finally arrived in June 1630 as anticipated and Endecott graciously stepped aside and proffered his services as an adviser. His intense religiosity notwithstanding, he was also apparently a skilled administrator and became closely associated with the Puritan government and its success at carving out a viable colony in the Massachusetts wilderness. Over the years he served as deputy governor, from 1641 to 1644, and the periods 1650–51, and 1654– 55, as well as stints as governor in 1644–45, 1649–50, 1651–54, and in 1655 until his

death in office. Endecott’s overly pious and sometimes boorish disposition should not disguise the fact that he handled his affairs capably and honestly while enjoying the public’s confidence. He also performed useful work as commander in chief of the militia and president of the United Colonies of New England, a defensive alliance. Endecott’s personal inflexibility did lead to friction on several occasions. Like many contemporaries, he regarded Native Americans as little more than instruments of Satan and did not hesitate to employ force to chastise them. In 1637, he authorized an armed expedition against the Pequot Indians for their alleged murder of two English traders. The ensuing attack upon Block Island, Rhode Island, triggered a retaliatory raid against Saybrook, Connecticut, and precipitated the region’s first large Indian conflict. In 1643, he was censured by the General Court for cutting out the Cross of St. Andrew from the English flag to eliminate what he considered a “Popish” symbol. It was also during his tenure in office that Quaker missionary Mary Dyer was led to the scaffold and strict laws against the Society of Friends enacted. However, he also expressed interest in education, founded a free school in Salem, and served on the governing board of Harvard College. Endecott died in Boston on March 15, 1665, a stern and archetypical Puritan leader of his generation, yet one of a handful of strong individuals largely responsible for the overall success and survival of the colony.

September 6 General: The colony of Naumkeag (Salem), Massachusetts, is founded by John Endecott and 50 colonists. It eventually evolves into the Puritan enclave renowned and reviled as the Massachusetts Bay Colony; Endecott serves as the first governor for two years.

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Chronology of American History

1629 Business: The first brick kiln and the first leather tannery in New England are founded at Lynn and Salem, Massachusetts, respectively. General: The struggling colony at Salem, Massachusetts, is bolstered by the arrival of 420 settlers from England. Military: Massachusetts Bay Colony establishes its first militia company of 100 soldiers at Salem. Religion: Ralph Smith arrives at Plymouth, Massachusetts, as pastor and preaches there until 1636. Slavery: The first African slaves are imported into what will become the Connecticut colony.

March Naval: Thomas and Lewis Kirke, English adventurers and borderline pirates, depart Boston intending to attack the French settlement at Quebec, Canada.

March 4 Business: In order to avoid legal disputes with the Council for New England, the New England Company is transformed into a new entity, the Massachusetts Bay Company. Its goal is to found a colony for religious dissenters, or Puritans.

March 10 Politics: King Charles I dissolves Parliament and rules without it until 1640. Meanwhile the bishop of London begins persecuting Puritans. He also entreats them to migrate en masse for the New World, which is the genesis for a militant new society at odds with imperial rule.

March 19 Politics: The Massachusetts Bay Company becomes a self-governing commonwealth once company officers arrive from England with the charter from King Charles I. This act further bolsters the colony’s streak of independence, since it is organized and run along corporate lines instead of by governmental dictates. Religious activities are also run along Separatist lines with no provision for dissent.

April 24 Diplomacy: France and England sign the Treaty of Susa, restoring peace in the New World.

April 25 General: The Massachusetts Bay Company dispatches its fleet to possessions in the New World.

June 7 General: The Netherlands General Estate grants the Dutch West India Company the Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions to encourage greater interest in colonization. They are also authorized to issue aristocratic patroonships to any wealthy individuals willing to transport at least 50 settlers to New Netherland (New York). Titleholders will enjoy feudal rights and privileges on five estates carved out of wilderness regions along the Hudson, Connecticut, and Delaware Rivers by 1630. Curiously, and unlike English colonies, Dutch women are actively involved in the colonial economy and several own businesses and run manors.

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A painting of early New England Puritans going to worship armed (Library of Congress)

June 29 General: John Endecott leads 900 settlers from five ships ashore at Naumkeag (Salem), further bolstering the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

July 10 Religion: Francis Higginson and Samuel Skelton found their own nonseparation Congregationalist church at Salem, Massachusetts.

July 19 Military: Surrounded and outnumbered, Samuel de Champlain surrenders the settlement of Quebec, Canada, to Sir William Alexander and Sir David Kirke. The English have been assisted by French trader Étienne Brülé, who was angered by treatment he received and switched sides. The Montagnais, who had also grown disenchanted with French trading practices, probably lent assistance in this endeavor.

July 20 Military: English forces under Sir William Alexander and Sir David Kirke occupy France’s Quebec, Canada, unaware that a truce has been reached between England and France. Nonetheless, the French inhabitants begin evacuating the post and move downriver to Tadoussac.

August 6 General: The settlement of Salem, Massachusetts, is formally established, replete with its own non-Separatist church under Pastor Francis Higginson. They adopt a Congregationalist type of organization, modeled after the Plymouth Church, which emphasizes self-rule and governance.

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Chronology of American History

August 26 Politics: In England, Twelve members of the Massachusetts Bay Colony Company pledge to migrate to the New World if they can transplant the charter with them.

September 5 Politics: The recent disbandment of Parliament induces Puritans residing in England to sign the Cambridge Agreement, whereby 12 wealthy members agreed to migrate to America along with the company charter. Thus situated it becomes a self-governing entity, unfettered by English oversight.

September 10 General: The Dutch West India Company formalizes the patroon system in New Netherland, granting owners near feudal rights over their tenants. Among the first installed is Kiliaen Van Rensselaer, a wealthy Amsterdam merchant, who wishes to settle families in the vicinity of Fort Orange (Albany).

October 20 Politics: In London, John Winthrop is appointed the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Winthrop, John

(1588–1649)

Colonial governor John Winthrop was born at Edwardstone, Suffolk, England, on January 12, 1588, the son of an affluent lawyer. He briefly attended Trinity College, Cambridge, as a young man but did not graduate, and eventually stud-

John Winthrop (Library of Congress)

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ied law and was admitted to the bar on his own. Winthrop was also a deeply religious individual and readily embraced the Puritan notion of reforming the Anglican Church before God’s wrath swept over England. As persecution of Puritans increased under the reign of Charles I, Winthrop became increasingly interested in migrating to America, and in 1629 he signed the Cambridge Agreement to settle in Massachusetts if the Puritans obtained a charter they could take with them. He then helped organize the Massachusetts Bay Company, for the purposes of colonizing, and accompanied the first shipload of emigrants that arrived at Salem in March 1630. Prior to departing England that year, Winthrop delivered a famous sermon tasking his fellow travelers with founding “a city upon a hill” that would be a model for the rest of the world. Once ashore Winthrop quickly displaced John Endecott as governor

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November 7 General: The Council for New England gives Sir John Mason an extensive land grant for territory running between the Merrimac and Piscataqua Rivers (New Hampshire).

November 17 Business: The Council for New England proffers a trading grant to Sir John Mason and Sir Ferdinando Gorges for Laconia, those lands extending west to Lake Champlain and north to the St. Lawrence River.

1630 Medical: Tryntje Jonas becomes the first woman to practice medicine in New Amsterdam, specializing in midwifery and nursing. Religion: The First Congregational Church in Boston is built at the behest of clergymen John Wilson, John Winthrop, and Thomas Dudley. It is Puritan in doctrine but non-Separatist by nature. Settlement: Dutch settlers found the patroonship of Rensselaerwyck at the behest of Kiliaen Van Rensselaer, director of the Dutch West India Company.

and orchestrated the move from Salem to a new community, Boston, on the Shawmut Peninsula. He proved himself skilled as a governor, winning election to 12 one-year terms, and when not in office usually functioned as deputy governor. In office or not, Winthrop proved himself a constant political and religious presence in the colony and did much to establish its unique theocratic nature. As governor, Winthrop was authoritarian by nature, and he generally frowned upon democratic practices such as a legislative assembly (General Court) and sought to keep power in the hands of a few individuals. However, in 1634 the freemen demanded that he show them the company charter, which revealed that they were given more power than he presently allowed. Winthrop also resisted attempts by the clergy to share authority with duly elected or appointed officers and, consequently, was rebuked by them. He also wielded tremendous influence on religious affairs by demanding church

membership as the basis of political participation, which ruled out any tolerance for nonconformity in doctrine. Thus he made no allowances for outspoken dissidents such as Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson, both of whom were banished by Puritan authorities. But Winthrop took an active interest in the defense of the colony, given the presence of French Catholics in Canada, and in 1643 he was a driving force behind creation of the United Colonies of New England. This was a defensive alliance with Plymouth, New Hampshire, and New Haven in which he served as the first president. He also sought to defeat attempts by Parliament to gain control of the colony in the wake of the English Civil War, 1645–46. Winthrop continued serving intermittently and rigidly as governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony until his death in Boston on March 26, 1649. Under his aegis, Massachusetts acquired a unique character that carried through the rest of the 17th century.

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Chronology of American History This area encompasses the region of Albany, New York, and extends for 24 miles in either direction. Another 34 Dutch settlers on the eastern shore of present-day Delaware will disappear within a year without a trace. Societal: The so-called “Great Migration” begins in Massachusetts, which will bring 16,000 settlers by 1640.

January 13 Business: The Council for New England issues a new Plymouth patent to William Bradford, which replaces the old charter; this new document better defines the colony’s boundaries and reaffirms its title to land along the Kennebec River, Maine.

March 29 General: Governor John Winthrop departs Southampton, England, with five vessels and 700 colonists. He also carries the company charter with him. His flagship, the Arabella, is named for Lady Arabella Finnes, then traveling on board with her husband; in contrast with earlier, threadbare colonists, this latest group of settlers is well-heeled and financed.

May 29 General: Governor John Winthrop, first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, begin writing his seminal work, The History of New England, chronicling events in detail from 1630 to 1649. The book itself will not be published until 1825, but it serves as an inspiration to Henry Longfellow and other writers.

June 12 General: The first wave of deeply religious Puritan colonists debarks at Salem, Massachusetts, under a new governor, John Winthrop. The sitting leader, John Endecott, steps aside and relocates inland to Charlestown. These are the first settlers sponsored by the new Massachusetts Bay Company, and Winthrop proclaims his expectation to be “A City upon a Hill” for the rest of the world to emulate. Unlike the earlier Pilgrims, the Puritans have no desire to separate themselves from the Anglican Church but want rather to reform it by example. Thus their intention to form an ideal Christian society is based on both piety and good works, through a covenant with God. They are intensely dogmatic and frown upon any in their midst who do not subscribe to the strict rules governing their religious community. In time this theocratic rigidity will apply especially to nearby Indians, whom Reverend Cotton Mather disparages as the “accursed seed of Canaan” and the pawns of Satan.

July 30 Religion: The Puritans found a Congregationalist Church at Charleston settlement.

August 23 Labor: The first session of the court of assistants in Charlestown, Massachusetts, establishes a pay rate of two shillings a day for the building trade. Their action constitutes the first attempt to regulate labor affairs in the colonies. Politics: Governor John Winthrop convenes the first court of assistants at Charlestown to help organize civil authority.

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September 7 General: Governor John Winthrop officially establishes the settlement of Boston, Massachusetts. The Indians know the site as Shawmut, or “Living Fountain,” and the seat of governance eventually transfers there.

September 30 Law: John Billington becomes the first American criminal hanged for murder in Massachusetts.

October 19 Politics: The first meeting of the Massachusetts General Court (assembly) convenes at Salem, Massachusetts Bay Colony. It is marred by the presence of over 100 settlers who demand admission as they are freemen within the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Slavery: In a rare fit of benevolence, the General Court of Massachusetts passes a fugitive slave law prohibiting the abuse of slaves by owners. Those who escaped to avoid ill treatment could not be returned until their situation had been remedied.

October 29 Politics: The General Court of Massachusetts declares that henceforth governors will be chosen by assistants.

November 9 Transportation: A ferry route on the Charles River is established between Boston and nearby Charlestown. The fare is one penny per passenger or 100 pounds of cargo.

December General: Food shortages ensue through Massachusetts due to a failure to cultivate sufficient crops for the winter; among the victims is Lady Arabella Finnes. Conditions grow so desperate that 120 indentured servants are released from servitude so as to forage on their own.

1631 Religion: The Virginia assembly decrees compulsory religious education for all inhabitants. Moreover, church wardens are required to take monthly oaths that they have been attentive to their duties toward the young.

February 5 Politics: Roger Williams, one of America’s earliest dissenters, arrives at Salem onboard the Lyon and eventually serves as pastor of the Separatist Church in Salem and Plymouth. In this capacity he questions the charter’s validity, along with the legislature’s practice of trying to legislate conscience. He also condemns the practice of illegally expropriating land from the Indians and urges a more honest and even-handed treatment.

February 22 General: The first public thanksgiving, a day of fasting, is officially celebrated throughout the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

April General: The Dutch establish the first European colony in Delaware at Swanendael (present-day Lewes).

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Williams, Roger

(1603–1683)

Religious dissenter Roger Williams was born in London on December 21, 1603, and he graduated from Pembroke College, Cambridge Uni-­ versity, in 1627 with a degree in divinity.

Williams was intending to be ordained as an Anglican minister, but he disagreed with church policies and aligned himself with the Separatist, or Puritan, sect. In

Exiled by the Massachusetts Bay Colony for his radical religious views, Roger Williams found asylum among the Narragansett Indians in what became the colony of Rhode Island. Shown is Roger Williams and the Narragansett Indians, an engraving by J. C. Armytage and A. H. Wray. (Library of Congress)

May 16 Settlement: William Claiborne and other Virginia colonists obtain a royal grant for the fur trade. However, they set up a trading post on Kent Island, Chesapeake Bay, soon to be jointly claimed by the colony of Maryland.

May 18 Politics: The Massachusetts General Court imposes a restrictive suffrage act by requiring Puritan Church membership as a precondition for voting. This is a violation of the company charter but goes unchallenged.

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Chronology

this capacity he befriended John Winthrop, who convinced Williams to emigrate to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He arrived there in 1630, seeking freedom of religious expression, but declined to preach at a Boston church over its refusal to break with the Anglicans. Williams subsequently ministered to a church in Plymouth, from which he criticized the Puritans for their political practices and policy of illegally expropriating land belonging to Native Americans. In 1634, Puritan authorities forbade him from becoming minister of a church in Salem, but he took to the pulpit and continued espousing radical views such as the separation of church and state. Puritan leaders took this as a direct challenge to their authority, and in 1635 they tried Williams for sedition and harboring “dangerous opinions.” He was then excommunicated from Massachusetts and attempted to form his own church at Plymouth, but he was hounded by Puritans and left the colony altogether. Williams spent a difficult winter until he was taken in by friendly Narragansett Indians, and in 1646, he founded the settlement of Provi-­ dence, Rhode Island. He envisioned it as a haven for religious outcasts like himself and opened it to Baptists, Quakers, Jews, and others banned from Massachusetts. He was especially keen to maintain good rela-­ tions with Native Americans and always purchased land he intended to use. One

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of the most notable Christian dissenters, Anne Hutchinson, initially found refuge in his colony, where separation of church and state was a functioning principle. As his religious community gradually swelled and evolved into four distinct set-­ tlements, Williams departed for England in 1643 for a patent to weld them into a single, coherent entity, the colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. The fol-­ lowing year he obtained his charter (which was not formally signed until 1663), and Williams served as governor from 1654 to 1657. In this capacity he founded the first Baptist church in America, although he eventually left that sect to become a non-­ denominational “Seeker.” While in England he also anonymously published The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution (1644) and attacked the political and high-­handed tactics of the Puritans in Massachusetts; this tract was considered so seditious that it was pub-­ licly burned. Based on his familiarity with Indian dialects, he also compiled A Key to the Language of America (1643), one of the earliest linguistic studies of Native American speech. For all his good relations with the Narragansetts, even Williams could not forestall the onset of King Philip’s War in 1675, in which Providence and Warwick were attacked and burned. Williams none-­ theless remained a conspicuous figure in Rhode Island affairs until his death there on April 1, 1684.

May 24 Politics: King Charles I taps Sir Edward Sackville, Lord Dorset, to head a special commission advising him about the state of Virginia colony.

July 4 Business: The 30-­ ton bark Blessing of the Bay, one of the first vessels built in North America, is launched amid grand festivities in Boston, Mas-­ sachusetts. By century’s end Boston is the maritime hub of the En glish colonies.

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Chronology of American History

November 3 Religion: Reverend John Eliot arrives in Boston from England; he becomes the first Protestant clergyman willing to minister to Native Americans.

December 2 Business: Sir Ferdinando Gorges receives a grant of 24,000 acres along the York River in Maine/New Hampshire and begins preparations for settling that region.

1632 Diplomacy: The English manage to conclude a period of truce with warring Pamunkey and Chickahominy tribes in central Virginia, alarmed by incessant encroachment of Europeans on their hunting grounds. Military: The first reported pirate raid in New England occurs when Dixy Bull and 15 English sailors attack and rob the settlement of Bristol, Maine.

February 3 Politics: Residents of Watertown, Massachusetts, vigorously oppose a tax imposed by the court of assistants, in which they have no voice. The notion of opposing “taxation without representation” is launched.

March 19 General: The Council for New England issues a land grant to a group of 11 Puritans intending to settle a tract of land near the mouth of the Connecticut River. Politics: Director Peter Minuit is recalled by the Dutch West India Company for granting excessive privileges to the patroons.

Eliot, John (1604 –1690) Missionary John Eliot was born in Widford, England, into a prosperous family, and he attended Jesus College, Cambridge, graduating in 1622. Eliot then worked as a schoolteacher for several years, fell under the influence of Thomas Hooker, then converted to Puritanism. Owing to the rise of sectarian strife in England, Eliot left the country in 1631 and migrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, settling at Roxbury. He worked as a pastor for several years and, in 1640, assisted by Thomas Weld and Richard Mather, compiled and published the Bay Psalm Book, the first book to emerge in the British colonies. He also served in the examination and trial of Anne Hutchinson, condemning

1632

her beliefs and heresy and approving of her expulsion in 1638. However, the turning point in Eliot’s career came in 1646, when the General Court decreed that Native Americans residing within the colony could no longer practice their traditional religion and required conversion. Eliot, who evinced considerable skill as a linguist, then began studying and familiarizing himself with the Algonquian language. After 1649, his efforts were formally abetted by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England, which had been approved by Parliament to convert Indians. Eliot’s efforts crested in 1653 when he compiled and published A Primer or Catechism in the Massachusetts

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March 29 Diplomacy: England and France conclude the Treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye, thereafter agreeing to recognize each other’s holdings in the New World. Acadia and the St. Lawrence River are also restored to the French.

May 9 Politics: Prior resistance to raising revenue convinces the Massachusetts General Court to form a special committee composed of two delegates from each town to advise on tax matters.

May 16 Politics: Isaac de Razilly is appointed governor of French Acadia (Nova Scotia) and begins settlement in earnest.

May 19 Politics: In a major step toward representative government, the Massachusetts General Court acquires the right to elect the governor and assistant governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Salem. Freemen, though restricted by church membership, can also elect assistants and deputies to the General Court.

June 20 Politics: George Calvert, First Lord Baltimore, obtains a charter from King Charles I establishing Maryland as a Catholic proprietary refuge. It grants the proprietor the right to make laws, subject to approval by the freemen, and also

Indian Language, the first serious treatise on Native American dialect. He followed this up in 1661–63 by translating the Bible into Algonquian, which constituted the first Bible printed in North America in any language. Eliot was also active in converting and ministering to the Indians and remained deeply committed to their well-being. Eliot’s concern for his mission resulted in the founding of no less than 14 villages of “praying indians,” whereby some 3,600 Christian Native Americans could live and conduct their own affairs. In this manner he hoped they could preserve their culture and language without outside interference. The most famous of these settlements was at Natick, but virtually all were destroyed and uprooted during King Philip’s War, 1675–76. The converts were viciously and repeatedly

attacked by both hostile Indians and English soldiers, becoming seriously depleted. With his lifework largely destroyed, Eliot began the painful task of reconstruction but he never again enjoyed his previous success or the trust of the Indians. He also dabbled briefly in politics by writing and publishing a tract entitled The Christian Commonwealth (1659) which called for the creation of theocratic government based upon biblical precepts. However, the rise of King Charles II induced the Massachusetts government to ban it and destroy all copies extant; Eliot was also forced to publicly recant his stance and apologize. He spent the rest of his life ministering to the Indians before dying at Roxbury on May 21, 1690. Eliot remains one of the earliest pioneers of amicable English/Indian relations and is regarded as the “apostle to the Indians.”

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Chronology of American History allows religious freedom. The lands granted are taken from the original Virginia grant, so title disputes are inevitable.

October Exploration: Plymouth colony dispatches Edward Winslow into the Connecticut River Valley, a sign that the colonists are getting ready to expand their settlements westward.

October 3 Societal: The Massachusetts General Court outlaws the use of tobacco in public.

December 6 Military: Hostile Lenni Lenape (Delaware) Indians kill 32 Swedish settlers in and around Swanendael, Delaware, after a chief of theirs, having been accused of theft by the Europeans, was executed by other Indians. Vengeful family members then exact vengeance upon the settlers. Rather than retaliate, the Dutch West India Company offers them gifts and promises of trade.

1633 Business: Salem, Massachusetts, introduces the practice of price fixing by limiting the cost of a tavern meal to three shillings per day. Beer is available for consumption, but intoxicating liquors are forbidden, along with merriment associated with games, dancing, and singing. Education: Adam Roelantsen, the first licensed schoolmaster in North America, founds a school for children at New Amsterdam. This is the first such institution in North America and survives today as New York City’s Collegiate School. Medical: A smallpox epidemic hits the New England Indian population severely, ravaging them for two years and killing thousands. One of the first buildings constructed in New Amsterdam is a house for midwifery to be operated by Tryntje Jonas, the colony’s first woman doctor. Politics: The General Court of Massachusetts establishes a policy of land allotment to Native Americans to facilitate English expansion toward the interior and also usurps the right of local governments to conduct Indian affairs. Religion: When the Wampanoags of eastern Massachusetts are ravaged by a smallpox epidemic that kills thousands, Reverend Cotton Mather sermonizes the event as an act of God, clearing the land for eventual use by the Puritans.

January 19 Politics: Thomas Morton and Sir Ferdinando Gorges appeal to the Privy Council in London to have the Massachusetts Bay Colony’s charter revoked for abuses, but it is upheld.

February 1 Business: The Virginia House of Burgesses codifies its tobacco laws, restricting that colony to dependency on a single crop.

May 22 Politics: Samuel de Champlain returns to Canada as a royal governor and initiates a period of expansion and settlement.

June 8 General: A Dutch ship from New Amsterdam sails up the Connecticut River and founds the first settlement in Connecticut, a trading post christened Fort Good

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Hope (present-day Hartford). Local Pequot, angered that the Dutch are trading directly with other tribes and bypassing them as middlemen, attack the fort.

July Exploration: Governor William Bradford of Plymouth joins with Edward Winslow to begin organizing a major colonizing effort westward into the Connecticut River Valley.

July 3 Politics: Virginia’s claims to land presently accorded to the Maryland charter are denied by the Privy Council, although boundary disputes continue for some time.

September General: John Oldham directs the first English settlements to take root in the Connecticut River Valley near Wethersfield and Windsor. Meanwhile, Edward Winslow instructs William Holmes to establish a trading post and fort on the Connecticut River (Hartford).

September 4 Religion: Noted religious leaders John Cotton and Thomas Hooker arrive in New England to spread their unique brand of theology.

October 8 Politics: Dorchester, Massachusetts, organizes the first town government in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

November 22 General: A party of 200 largely Catholic settlers onboard the Ark and Dove, under Governor Leonard Calvert, Lord Baltimore’s brother, sails from England to found the colony of Maryland.

1634 Business: Trois-Rivieres, Canada, is established as a French trading post at the mouth of the Saint Maurice River. This facilitates trade with Indian groups such as the Attikamek, who are reluctant to travel downstream to Quebec City for fear of Iroquois attacks. Exploration: French explorer Jean Nicolet ventures up the Ottawa River as far as Georgian Bay, then paddles toward Sault Ste. Marie and Green Bay, Wisconsin. Once there he begins establishing contact and promoting trade with such powerful tribes as the Winnebago, and strikes a trade agreement with them. Law: Aghast at ostentatious displays, the General Court of Massachusetts outlaws the purchase of clothing adorned by silver or gold lace. Slashes in clothing are also restricted to one per sleeve and one down the back. The restrictions apply to both men and women alike. Medical: Smallpox continues fanning out into the interior of Saint Lawrence Valley, striking down thousands of Huron, Montagnais, and Algonquin Indians. Military: Pequots kill English trader John Stone and eight companions, who have been hunting for Indian slaves on their territory. In return, colonials angrily demand the surrender of Indian land as compensation, and relations between the two groups rapidly deteriorate. Slavery: The first African slaves are imported into Massachusetts Bay Colony.

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Cotton, John

(1585–1652)

Theologian John Cotton was born in Derby, England, on December 4, 1585, the son of an attorney. He passed through Trinity and Emmanuel College, Cambridge, by 1606, intent upon joining the Anglican clergy. However, Cotton had become deeply immersed in Puritanism by this time and very concerned with reforming the Church of England. In 1612, he became pastor of a church in Boston, Lincolnshire, where he remained 12 years. In time his fiery sermons made him popular among England’s growing Puritan community but also attracted the unwelcome attention of Anglican church officials. The rise of Archbishop William Laud, whose disdain for Puritans was intense, brought Cotton’s endeavors under closer scrutiny and in 1632 he was summoned before an ecclesiastical court. He then abandoned his church and hid in disguise for many months before boarding a ship for Massachusetts in September 1633. There he was greeted by his good friend and fellow Puritan John Winthrop, then governor, and within weeks he became “teacher” of Boston’s First (Congregational) Church. He held this position for the next 19 years, wielding considerable influence over the religious and political nature of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Like most Puritan leaders, Cotton espoused a conservative view of authoritarian governance, in which leaders are closely bound to the church, and basically discounted all democratic impulses. As such he left a personal and indelible stamp on the first generation of New England Con-

gregationalism, whose theological nuances dominated religious and political debate in Massachusetts for the rest of the century. Cotton also looked askance at any church member with the temerity to challenge or even question the role of the clergy in interpreting scripture, or the primacy of congregational government. Despite his insistence upon orthodoxy, Cotton was drawn into two religious controversies that cut to the very heart of colonial rule. The first crisis happened in 1635, when dissenter Roger Williams began preaching in favor of separation of church and state, which Cotton considered inimical to Puritanism. Cotton and the theocrats accused him of harboring “dangerous opinions,” and he was exiled. The second crisis occurred in 1637 when Anne Hutchinson, heretofore a devoted follower of Cotton, began preaching her own doctrine of salvation through faith instead of works. Cotton initially defended Hutchinson at her trial but, realizing that theocratic rule was imperiled, he turned decidedly against her. Like Williams, she was banished from the colony. The remainder of Cotton’s tenure in Massachusetts proved uneventful and he was variously occupied by preaching and publishing. In 1648, he helped to author the noted Cambridge Platform, which gave Puritan institutions their final form. But, despite his strident, inflexible approach to religion, Cotton remained a well-respected and popular figure in the colony until his death in Boston on December 23, 1652.

February 27 General: A large body of English Catholic and Protestant settlers arrives at Chesapeake Bay prior to establishing the colony of St. Mary’s. There they establish the first Roman Catholic Church in the English colonies; the new province is apparently named after Mary, mother of Jesus, and a reflection of the creed involved.

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Economics: The first American saw mill is established in what becomes presentday Maine.

March 4 General: Boston’s first tavern is opened by Samuel Cole.

March 27 Religion: Maryland, a predominately Catholic colony, arises under the aegis of Cecilius Calvert, second Lord Baltimore, when 128 settlers disembark on Saint Clement Island. They commemorate the event by holding the first Catholic mass in British North America at Saint Mary’s City. It also becomes the first English colony to embrace religious toleration and is administered by Governor Leonard Calvert, Lord Baltimore’s brother.

April 28 Politics: The privy council establishes a subdivision entitled the Commission for Foreign Plantations, or Laud Commission, in an attempt to exercise closer control over the colonies. It is headed by William Laud, archbishop of Canterbury and is tasked with making laws, regulating religion, and appointing judges. It is ultimately dismissed seven years later without accomplishing much.

May Politics: In London, the Laud Commission insists that the Massachusetts Bay Colony’s charter be revoked on grounds of being illegally obtained. No action is taken.

May 14 Politics: After town deputies insist on reviewing the company charter, the Massachusetts Bay Colony is forced to initiate representative forms of government.

September 4 Politics: Governor Leonard Calvert orders the seizure of Kent Island, Chesapeake Bay, from Virginia settlers. He also orders the arrest of William Claiborne, who has already established a fur trading post there.

September 18 Religion: Anne Hutchinson arrives at Boston, Massachusetts, from England. She will eventually have an indelible and unwelcome impact on that colony’s religious practices.

September 19 Religion: Jesuits select the Huron village of Ihonatiria as the site of their first mission. They aspire to convert Native Americans en masse to Catholicism, and do so by living among them and learning their language and customs.

November 1 Diplomacy: The Pequots of Connecticut, reeling from the effects of smallpox, seek a military alliance with colonists in Massachusetts to offset the power of their traditional adversaries, the Narragansett of Rhode Island. In return the English obtain large amounts of wampum (shell beads) and also receive the killers of trader John Sloan.

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1635 Business: Overhunting of beaver for their pelts depletes them as a natural resource in Huron-­dominated lands of New France, forcing the tribe to hunt on lands claimed by others. Education: The Jesuits found the first Indian school in New France, affording religious instruction in the French, Latin, Huron, and Montagnais languages.

February 3 Settlement: The Council for New England redivides New England among eight patentees; however, only the claim of Sir Ferdinando Gorges is ever recognized by the Crown.

February 26 Politics: Freemen residing in Maryland assemble and pass a legislative code without consulting Lord Baltimore in England. The document is subsequently repudiated by him and never adopted.

Hutchinson, Anne (1591–1643) Religious dissenter

Anne Hutchinson preaching in her house in Boston (Library of Congress)

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Anne Marbury was born in Lincolnshire, England, in 1591, the daughter of an unor-­ thodox clergyman. As such, she was well versed in the nuances of religion by her father, and proved herself to be an extremely bright, articulate individual. In 1612, she married merchant William Hutchinson and also became closely associated with Puritan minister John Cotton. At this time, Cotton’s beliefs fell out of fashion with the English government and he emigrated to Massa-­ chusetts Bay Colony in 1633. The following year Hutchinson and her family followed him and she quickly established herself as a community leader by hosting informal meetings at her house to discuss religious matters and Cotton’s latest sermons. But, after a while, Hutchinson’s natural intel-­ lect began asserting itself, and she began offering sermons of her own—behavior far afield from closely prescribed Puritan norms for women. Specifically, Hutchin-­ son expounded a “Covenant of Grace” whereby faith alone was sufficient for sal-­

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April Law: The Virginia House of Burgesses threatens to impeach Governor John Har-­ vey for dissatisfaction with his handling of Indian, land-­grant, and trade policies, but he resigns from office before hearings can be held. Legislators are particu-­ larly angry at him for siding with Lord Baltimore over the issue of Kent Island in Chesapeake Bay (see below).

April 23 Naval: Armed vessels of William Claiborne of Virginia and Governor Leonard Calvert of Maryland clash in a dispute over possession of Kent Island in Chesa-­ peake Bay, which has been assigned to Maryland. This is one of the earliest naval encounters in American history.

June 7 Business: The Council for New England yields its charter to the English Crown.

vation. Hence, the “elect” were able to receive God’s grace without any need for ministers or the Scriptures. This is in direct contravention of Puritan orthodoxy, which mandated a “Covenant of Works,” empha-­ sizing outward behavior instead of inner faith. Cotton, her minister, initially did not contest Hutchinson’s radical assertions, but many Puritan leaders construed her teach-­ ings as a thinly veiled attack upon their theocracy, and she became an object of official derision. The fact that her brother-­ in-­law, the Reverend John Wheelright, was another religious nonconformist, who had been denied the ability to form his own church, only added to her notoriety. Hutchinson’s most outspoken opponent was John Winthrop who, upon becom-­ ing governor in 1637, called her before the court to answer charges of being an Antinomian (not following church leaders). Well versed in religion, Hutchinson ably defended herself throughout her trial, even though John Cotton, a former ally, came to denounce her. She adroitly main-­ tained that the law did not prevent meet-­

ings in private homes, and that if she committed a theological transgression, that was a religious issue and no concern to a civil court. However, the court ultimately found her guilty of sedition and she was banished from Massachusetts, along with her family. Reputedly, the only person to leave the trial at her side and in support was the future Quakeress Mary Dyer. In 1638, Hutchinson and about 80 dissent-­ ing families migrated to Rhode Island, which had been founded by Roger Wil-­ liams on the basis of religious tolerance. Hutchinson remained there until 1642, when her husband died, and she subse-­ quently relocated to Dutch-­held Pelham Bay, Long Island. In 1643, Hutchinson and the remaining members of her family were killed in an Indian attack. Many of her former critics considered her untimely demise as further proof of divine judgment. For the time she was in Massachusetts, Anne Hutchinson proved an unlikely but very serious challenge to Puritan authority, their view of religion, and the role women would play in it.

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July 7 Politics: John Winthrop, Jr., is appointed to lead the English settlement at the mouth of the Connecticut River.

August General: Dutch settlers forcibly evict English fur traders from Fort Nassau on the Delaware River and reoccupy it.

August 17 Religion: Richard Mather, an influential Puritan minister, arrives in Boston.

September 12 Politics: The General Court of Massachusetts expels deputies from Salem and only allows them readmittance after they have repudiated Roger Williams. Lately, Williams has advocated separating the Salem church from the establishment.

September 13 Politics: The General Court of Massachusetts banishes Roger Williams for dissent, and he makes preparations to spend the winter with local Indians.

October Settlement: The first wave of settlers from Plymouth begin arriving in the Hartford area along the Connecticut River.

October 9 Politics: Roger Williams is formally expelled from Salem by the Massachusetts General Court, for criticizing the company charter and suggesting possible separation of church and state. He subsequently winters with Chiefs Massasoit of the Wampanoag and Canonicus of the Narragansett.

1636 Business: King Augustus Adolphus grants a charter to the New Sweden Company for the purpose of colonizing Delaware. Education: Compulsory education is mandated throughout Massachusetts, and for the remainder of the century it enjoys the highest literacy rate—95 percent—of all English colonies. The Latin grammar school arises in Boston; Puritans prize reading highly for it facilitates religious study. Law: In Massachusetts, Reverend John Cotton unsuccessfully suggests using Moses, His Judicials, a blending of Old Testament and English common law, as a legal code. Slavery: African slaves are introduced into the Delaware colonies.

January Religion: Having fled imprisonment at the hands of Puritan authorities, Roger Williams spends the winter with nearby Indians. In time he is joined by other dissenters, and together they try to locate to Plymouth, but authorities there deny them refuge.

March 3 Politics: The General Court of Massachusetts passes the Township Act, extending governmental powers to freemen of towns. They also declare that a majority vote of both assistants and deputies is required for the passage of laws.

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Religion: The General Court of Massachusetts decrees that new churches can be established only with their express consent.

March 13 Politics: The settlement at the mouth of the Connecticut River receives an administrative plan from the General Court of Massachusetts, granting its inhabitants near autonomy. The court also passes the Township Act, which allows a degree of self-governance to all Massachusetts towns.

May 25 Politics: Sir Henry Vane, an aristocratic Puritan, is elected governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

May 31 General: Puritan clergyman Thomas Hooker departs Newton, Massachusetts, and sails for Hartford on the Connecticut River with his entourage. He then establishes the first church in the region, which declares itself independent of any authority but God’s.

June Politics: Roger Williams founds Providence, Rhode Island, whose political strictures include democratic governance and separation of church and state. He also insists that all settlers purchase their land from the Narragansett Indians with their permission. Williams is the first colonist to insist upon fairness and honesty in dealing with Native Americans.

July 20 Military: Indians, most likely from the Niantic tribe, kill Captain John Oldham while he is aboard his boat off Block Island, Rhode Island. Another English merchant, John Gallup, had been sailing near the scene when he espied Oldham’s vessel listing out of control with several Indians on board. He boarded the ship, killed 10 Indians, and found Oldham’s body in the hold. Oldham had been previously trading with the Narragansetts, and they become the main suspects in his death. This single act provides a convenient pretext for punitive action by the colonists and the first Indian war in New England ensues.

August 8 Diplomacy: The Massachusetts Bay Colony dispatches three envoys to the Narragansett in Rhode Island to ascertain if that tribe had any role in the murder of trader John Oldham. Chief Canconicus not only emphatically denies any complicity, he offers to help fight the transgressors. Settlement: In his Conditions for Plantations, Cecilius Calvert, Lord Baltimore, establishes the formation of 1,000-acre manors in Maryland.

August 24 –25 Military: Recent raids by suspected Pequot Indians upon trading ships induces Governor Henry Vane to dispatch Captain John Endecott of the Massachusetts Bay Colony to gather 150 militiamen and launch a punitive raid upon villages located on Block Island, Rhode Island. That done, he is to sail to the vicinity of Fort Saybrook, Connecticut, and demand of the Pequot those individuals responsible for the deaths of traders John Stone and John Oldham. Endecott’s expedition arrives to find the island deserted and his militia accomplish little beyond destroying Indian fields and property. Removing to Fort

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Chronology of American History Saybrook, Connecticut, they briefly engage in talks with the Indians, then storm ashore looking for a fight, but no enemy can be found. The English then burn some crops and settlements before withdrawing. The Pequot, sensing the futility of negotiating further, begin trying to enlist nearby Narragansett, Mohegan, and Massachusett for the forthcoming fight, but without success.

September Military: A party of five men is sent ashore on Calf Island, Connecticut, to gather hay. They are then attacked by hostile Pequot, who kill one European and then eat him.

October 5 Politics: Given the readily expanding Massachusetts Bay Colony and mounting distances to be surmounted while traveling to the General Court, the Great Fundamentals of Plymouth are expanded to include representative government.

October 7 Military: Given rising tensions with Native Americans, the General Court of Massachusetts orders the colonial militia reorganized into three divisions, North, East, and South. This new scheme is expected to increase effectiveness and organization.

October 28 Education: The General Court of Massachusetts votes to found a college for the education of Puritan clergyman and provides 400 pounds for its support. This is the beginning of Harvard College, the first institution of higher learning in the colonies. It draws its inspiration from the Puritan need to approach religious Scripture dispassionately, through interpretation and discussion, as opposed to ritual or emotion. Law: Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts, adopts New England’s first written code of law.

December 13 Military: In light of protracted Indian hostilities, the Massachusetts General Court reorganizes 15 town militia companies into the North, East, and South regiments, with colonels appointed by the court. These quick-reaction forces, forebears of the Minutemen, also elect their own company grade officers, and the units serve as a military model adopted in other colonies. Because four Massachusetts National Guard units can trace their ancestry directly back to these formations, this day is regarded as the birth of the Army National Guard.

1637 Religion: In anticipation of war with the Pequot, Reverend Cotton Mather demonizes Native Americans, turning the ensuing conflict into a Puritan crusade against the devil.

January 20 Religion: Reverend John Wheelwright, brother-in-law to Anne Hutchinson, delivers a sermon in Boston whereby he denounces the closely prescribed Puritan doctrine of works.

February 22 Military: Hostile Pequots attack an English patrol of 10 men near Fort Saybrook, Connecticut, killing four and wounding two.

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March 9 Military: Hostile Pequots besiege Fort Saybrook, Connecticut, in retaliation for an English raid led by Captain John Endecott. They taunt the defenders, yelling “Come out and fight if you dare,” and kill several settlers before being dislodged by arriving militia forces. Religion: Reverend John Wheelwright, brother-in-law to Anne Hutchinson, is arrested and tried for preaching a seditious sermon.

April 18 Military: The Massachusetts Bay Colony decrees the first conscription act in North America, whereby all able-bodied men are liable for military service in the event of emergencies.

April 23 Military: Pequot warriors ambush a party of English colonists at Wethersfield, Connecticut, killing nine and taking two girls hostage. The girls are paraded past nearby Fort Saybrook in canoes to taunt the garrison, although they are subsequently rescued by the Dutch.

May Military: The General Court of Massachusetts drafts its first-ever articles of war to deal with the Pequot insurgency, while Roger Williams uses his influence in Rhode Island to secure an alliance with the powerful Narragansett tribes.

May 1 Military: The towns of Hartford, Wethersfield, and Windsor vote to raise a complement of 90 men to fight against the Pequots.

May 3 Politics: The King’s Bench in London orders the Massachusetts Bay Colony’s charter revoked. The Privy Council then instructs Sir Ferdinando Gorges to deliver a writ to colony officials to secure the document.

May 15 Military: Captain John Mason, commanding 90 Connecticut militiamen, aided by Uncas and 200 Mohegan warriors, attacks a body of Pequots lying near Fort Saybrook and routs them. The Mohegans demonstrate their loyalty to the English by killing five Pequots in this single action.

May 26 Military: Colonial militia forces under Captains John Mason and John Underhill, commanding companies from Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, and Connecticut, assisted by Narragansett and Mohegan Indian warriors, stage their first-ever joint military expedition. At dawn, the 120 colonial and Indian allies attack a palisaded Pequot village on the Mystic River (Stonington), Connecticut, but are initially driven back in fierce fighting. The village is then torched, and flames kill an estimated 500–1,000 Pequot men, women, and children. Those trying to escape the flames are immediately cut down by English swords. Mason’s losses are estimated at two killed and between 20 and 40 wounded. The Narragansett protest this display of bloodlust by abandoning the field. Afterward, an English rear guard contains a fierce assault by Indian reinforcements, as the main body withdraws back to ships waiting off shore. The victorious English then sailed to Quinnypiag to confront another group of Pequots ensconced in a swamp. Before serious fighting develops, the Indians are

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Chronology of American History convinced to surrender, and 200 captives, mostly old and very young, are taken. About 50 Pequot prisoners are then shipped off to the West Indies as slaves. Furthermore, the sheer extent of the slaughter frightens the Indians, convincing many that resistance is futile.

May 27 Politics: John Winthrop defeats Sir Henry Vane in the election for governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony. He does so by relocating the election from the proHutchinson enclave at Boston to the more Puritan-oriented Newbury.

July Religion: The Jesuits begin the first-ever Indian settlement at Sillery, near Quebec, in an attempt to teach the Montagnais how to farm and settle, to facilitate evangelization.

July 13 Military: Plymouth, Massachusetts, and Connecticut militia trap a large body of Pequots in a swamp near Fairfield (New London), Connecticut. They allow Pequot women and children safe passage through their lines, but a small force of warriors resists for an entire day before being put to the sword. Chief Sassacus is among those who escape. The survivors then seek refuge among the Mohawks in New York, who promptly kill them. The defeat of the Pequots is significant in that it demonstrates that the balance of power in New England has begun shifting dramatically in favor of the Europeans.

August 30 Religion: A gathering of 25 ministers at Newtown (Cambridge), Massachusetts, codify and define Puritan orthodoxy, thereby squelching religious dissent espoused by Anne Hutchinson.

September 2 Politics: Dutch colonists remove Wouter Van Twiller as director of New Amsterdam and replace him with Willem Kieft, a merchant.

September 13 Military: The Maryland Assembly votes for war against the hostile Susquahannock tribe only to find that the colony’s militia is unprepared for battle. Actual fighting is therefore postponed until the following summer.

November 4 Politics: The General Court of Massachusetts banishes Reverend John Wheelwright for defying Puritan orthodoxy and also orders his sister-in-law, Anne Hutchinson, to stand trial for sedition and contempt. Apparently she has been conducting private religious ceremonies in her own home. The prevailing theocracy finds this an intolerable affront to their primacy in all matters religious.

November 7–8 Politics: Anne Hutchinson is tried for sedition in the Massachusetts Bay Colony with Governor John Winthrop acting as prosecutor and judge. Apparently, Puritan elders view her claim of salvation through grace (Antinomianism) rather than works alone as a direct challenge to prevailing orthodoxy. Once convicted, Hutchinson is banished from the colony for sedition and heresy. Among those fleeing religious oppression with her is Mary Dyer, who accompanies her to Rhode Island.

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Sassacus (ca. 1560–1637) Pequot chief Sassacus (“A Fierce Man”) was probably born in eastern Connecticut around 1560, a son of Grand Sachem Wopigwooit. His tribe, the Pequot (“Killers of Men”), was a power-­ ful group of Algonquian-­speaking Indians who had carved out a niche between the Mohawks to the west and the Narragansetts to the east. Thus, they were a regional power to contend with and a potential threat to struggling Dutch and English colonies within their grasp. Sassacus succeeded his father as chief in 1632, when the latter was slain in a conflict with the Dutch. He was apparently well-­regarded as a warrior, and cunning as a diplomat, traits considered essential for tribal leadership and survival. The Pequot were then experiencing a period of decline and transi-­ tion, owing to the onset of diseases brought by European settlers. Internal troubles also were manifested when Sassacus’s son-­in-­law, Uncas, was passed over as head chief and went on to found his own tribe, the Mohe-­ gans. Sassacus was savvy enough to realize he needed time to reconstitute tribal strength, so in 1634 he sent an emissary to Governor John Winthrop of Massachusetts to form an alliance, most notably against their powerful Narragansett neighbors. The Puritans were willing to ally themselves to the Pequots, but only on the condition that they become subject clients and cede valuable land in the Connecticut Valley to the colonists. Feeling he had no choice, haughty Sassacus relented and formed an alliance. He apparently hoped this would grant him a badly needed respite to rebuild the Pequot nation.

Unfortunately for Sassacus, events beyond his control led to the destruction of his tribe. In 1636, English trader John Oldham was murdered by unidentified Indians off Block Island, Rhode Island, and Puritan officials suspected Pequot complicity. Sassacus denied his people were involved, but his son-­in-­law, Uncas, then warned the English that the Pequots were readying to make war against them. This information gave the Puritans a convenient pretext to mount a preemptive strike, and Governor John Winthrop author-­ ized a large-­scale raid against Indian settle-­ ments on Block Island and a few villages near Fort Saybrook, Connecticut. Sassacus regarded this aggression as an act of war, and his warriors attacked and burned several English settlements around Fort Saybrook. He also tried to form an anti-­European alli-­ ance with his ancient enemies, the Narragan-­ sett, but was thwarted by the deft diplomacy of Roger Williams. By the spring of 1636, the colonists prepared to unleash a major cam-­ paign against the Indians under Captain John Mason. On May 25, 1637, Mason’s militia, assisted by 500 Narragansett, Niantic, and Mohegan warriors, attacked the main Pequot village of Missitue on the Mystic River. The Indians fought back furiously but in the end were slaughtered by superior numbers and firearms. By day’s end, around 1,000 Pequot had been killed, and Sassacus escaped with his life. He fled to appeal to the Mohawks for help, who then killed him and sent his scalp to Boston. His demise marks the first military triumph of Europeans in New England.

November 15 Education: After debating for several months whether to construct the new col-­ lege at Salem, the General Court of Massachusetts votes to build it at Newtown (Cambridge). They also take steps to implement a Board of Overseers to admin-­ ister it, which consists of six magistrates and six church elders.

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December 12 Slavery: Captain William Peirce of the Salem vessel Desire lands the first shipment of African slaves from Barbados at Boston.

December 31 General: Dutchman Peter Minuit leads a Swedish expedition to the Delaware River under a grant from the New Sweden Company. The colony of New Sweden is established under his aegis on Delaware Bay.

1638 Business: The Virginia assembly passes the first statute for licensing and regulating taverns. Education: Settlers in New Amsterdam establish the first parochial school system, or Dutch Reformed school. Slavery: The Virginia House of Burgesses passes a law requiring all escaped slaves or servants to be branded on the cheek or shoulder with a letter R.

March 13 Military: The Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, the colony’s first such unit, is formed in Boston, Massachusetts.

March 24 General: Religious refugees Anne Hutchinson, William Coddington, and John Coggeshall purchase land from the Indians and found the settlement of Pocasset (Portsmouth), Rhode Island. Once established, they sign a civil compact based upon biblical principles with Coddington elected as “judge.”

March 29 General: The New Sweden Company is allowed by Dutch authorities to found settlements at Fort Christiana (Wilmington), Delaware, over the protest of local Dutch inhabitants. In time they emerge as important trading partners for nearby Delaware, Mingo, and Susquehannock Indians.

April 4 Politics: The Commission for Foreign Plantations demands that the Massachusetts Bay Colony surrender its charter; it ignores them. The English Crown rules in favor of Maryland respecting Virginian claims on Kent Island in Chesapeake Bay. This proves a slap that proprietor William Claiborne is not likely to forget.

April 15 Settlement: Without a charter or a grant, Theophilus Eaton and John Davenport establish the settlement of New Haven, Connecticut.

May 2 General: Newtown, Massachusetts, site of the forthcoming college for clergymen, is renamed Cambridge owing to its resemblance to Cambridge and Oxford in England.

May 31 Religion: Reverend Thomas Hooker, arriving at Hartford, Connecticut, with 100 settlers, preaches that authority should rest on the will of the people. This is one of the earliest expression of democratic views in the colonies.

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June Education: Professor Nathaniel Eaton, who has been hired by the Board of Overseers to commence instruction at the new college before it is built in Cambridge, Massachusetts, conducts his first classes in a building near a cow pasture. Naval: Former director general of New Netherland Peter Minuit dies at sea when his ship sinks.

September 14 Education: John Harvard, a young Puritan clergyman, dies in Massachusetts and bequeaths to the new college at Cambridge his extensive library and half his estate. This greatly boosts the struggling institution.

September 21 Diplomacy: A treaty is signed between the English and the Pequot nation which will create the first Indian reservation in North America. Life here will be completely controlled by the Europeans, and the Indians, confined to 1,200 acres of their homeland, cannot sell their lands or entertain other Indians, must refrain from possessing whiskey, guns, and powder, and must also accept Christianity at the expense of native beliefs.

November 14 General: English settlers establish the first Indian reservation, compelling the Quinnipiac (Pequot) of western Connecticut to reside on 1,200 acres reserved for their use. They are also restricted from either leaving or selling their allotment, and are monitored closely by a colonial agent. Previously, the English had promised their Narragansett ally Miantonomo, access to this same land, but it was quickly occupied by the victorious colonists. The angry chief begins circulating among local tribes, urging a united front by all New England tribes to fight the English and drive them out of the region.

December 12 Slavery: John Winthrop notes in his diary that the ship Desire docked at Boston with a cargo of African slaves; this is the one of the earliest documental instances of slavery in New England.

1639 Business: Stephen Daye of Cambridge, Massachusetts, undertakes the first publishing in the English colonies by producing a single sheet, “The Oath of a Free-Man.” Richard Fairbanks becomes the first postmaster of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, receiving a penny for each letter dispatched. Director General Willem Kieft of New Netherland attempts raising revenue for his colony by placing a tax on all Indian goods. Not only do the tribes refuse to pay, the attempt heightens tensions between the two groups. Medical: A severe outbreak of smallpox reduces the Huron population from 20,000 individuals to half that amount and also afflicts neighboring Petun and neutral tribes throughout New France. Religion: Roger Williams establishes the first Baptist church in North America at Providence, Rhode Island; their flourishing clergy inculcates both the notion of religious liberty and separation of church and state.

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Chronology of American History Jesuits construct a major mission at Sainte-Marie, among the Hurons on the shore of Georgian Bay, Huronia. This also serves as a nucleus for evangelizing efforts among the Petun, Nispissing, Ojibway, and Ottawa tribes. The first Ursuline nuns arrive in New France and perform their religious work in Quebec. Slavery: Virginia passes the first of several ordinances forbidding African Americans, free or otherwise, from possessing firearms. Societal: Men’s fashion takes a hit when the General Court of Massachusetts forbids the wearing of overly fancy capes, breeches, and ruffles.

January 14 Politics: Robert Ludlow composes the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, which is the first actual constitution framed in the colonies to actually detail functions of governance. It makes allowances for popular consent in governance and, in a complete break with Massachusetts, abolishes religious affiliation as a precondition of citizenship. However, the voting franchise remains restricted to freemen.

January 24 Politics: The Fundamental Orders are readily adopted by the settlements at Hartford, Windsor, and Wethersfield, Connecticut, which includes the radical notion that authority is derived from the consent of the governed. The document makes provisions for a general assembly, a governor, and the right to raise taxes. This is also the first constitution adopted by the colonies and it remains the blueprint of governance until 1818.

March 13 Education: Harvard College formally receives that designation in honor of the late Reverend John Harvard, who bequeathed to it half of his personal wealth. However, the abusive nature of Professor Nathaniel Eaton leads to his dismissal and the school stops functioning for nearly a year.

April 3 Business: Sir Ferdinando Gorges is confirmed as proprietor and governor of Maine in a royal charter based upon the original 1635 division.

May 1 General: William Coddington departs Posasset (Portsmouth), Rhode Island, and founds the town of Newport.

May 20 Education: The town of Dorchester, Massachusetts, funds the first public school with local taxes.

June 4 Politics: A vote by 70 freemen of New Haven passes the Fundamental Orders proposed by Reverend John Davenport, and it serves as a de facto constitution.

June 16 Business: Edmund Rawson receives land in Massachusetts to found the first North American gunpowder mill.

July 14 Politics: Massachusetts exile Reverend John Wheelwright and 36 settlers sign the Exeter Compact for administering their new community at Exeter, New

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Hampshire. Its singular characteristic is in allowing family men to mind their own affairs for the time being, until a formalized government can be instituted. This agreement is one of the earliest expressions of independent governance north of Massachusetts.

September 4 Law: The General Court of Massachusetts tries its hand at prohibition by outlawing the drinking of toasts, but the law is repealed by popular demand six years later.

November Politics: Sir Francis Wyatt gains reappointment as governor of Virginia with specific orders to restore the House of Burgesses.

December Societal: The first known divorce in North America transpires when Mrs. James Luxford, having sued her husband for bigamy, receives his property in Massachusetts. Her ex-spouse is also banished from the colony and sent back to England.

1640 Business: Like their Huron adversaries, the Iroquois have depleted their lands of beaver and other fur-bearing animals and begin negotiating with western tribes for access to their hunting grounds. The French prevent any attempt by the Five Nations to reach similar arrangements with tribes residing in New France, forcing them to become increasingly reliant upon the Dutch at Fort Orange (Albany) for supplies and trade. General: The first log cabins are constructed by Swedish colonists along the Delaware River. Originally a Finnish design, by the turn of the century they are the most common style of frontier housing. Publishing: Stephen Daye of Cambridge, Massachusetts, prints The Bay Psalm Book, the first book-length publication ever produced in the English colonies. Religion: The colony of New Sweden on the Delaware River receives its first Lutheran minister. Slavery: Connecticut adopts the first punitive fugitive law to repossess runaway slaves and indentured servants. Massachusetts authorities force a slave trader to return captured Africans taken from the village illegally. In Virginia, two escaped indentured servants are caught and receive moderate punishments. However, John Punch, an African American who escaped with them, is sentenced to lifetime servitude. From here on increasing numbers of black indentured servants are enslaved in order to preserve their status. Women: Margaret Brent, appointed in the will of Cecilius Calvert, Lord Baltimore, to act as his executrix, functions as North America’s first defacto female lawyer. This is despite the fact she has never studied law.

March 12 Politics: The settlements of Pocasset and Newport, Rhode Island, are combined.

April Settlement: Governor Peter Hollender Ridder arrives at New Sweden, Delaware, bringing settlers, reinforcements, and the Lutheran clergyman Reorus Torkillus.

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April 17 Religion: Reverend Reorus Torkillus, the first Lutheran pastor in America, arrives at New Sweden (Delaware).

May 9 Military: The Dutch city of New York passes regulations founding the Burger Guard as a military constabulary to maintain order on the streets, especially after dark.

June 2 Business: Samuel Winslow obtains the first patent issued in the colonies for his salt-­making process.

June 25 General: To underscore Maine’s independence from Massachusetts, a provincial court is established at York by Sir Thomas Gorges.

July 19 Politics: In an attempt to attract more settlers and improve business, a new Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions is issued by the Dutch Estate Gen-­ eral and assigned to New Amsterdam. This document reduces the size of patroonships, liberalizes commercial privileges, and makes provisions for self-­governance.

August 6 Education: Newport, Rhode Island, is the first city in that colony to set aside land for public education.

Brent, Margaret (ca. 1601–c. 1671) Colonial landowner Margaret Brent was probably born around 1601 in Gloucester, England, the daugh-­ ter of a powerful Catholic gentry family. As such she apparently received a sound education by contemporary standards and, as events proved, was adept at business. In 1638, Brent migrated with her family to Maryland at a time when Roman Catho-­ lics were persecuted by Puritan authorities. Notably, she and her sister carried a letter from Lord Cecilius Calvert, the colonial proprietor, instructing officials to give them favorable land grants. To the 70 acres Brent originally received, she subsequently added another 1,000 acres deeded by her brother to pay off his debts. This established her as one of the largest landowners in Maryland,

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which was unprecedented for a woman in the colonies. Brent never married, which was another unusual attribute at that time. Nor was she the first female lawyer to prac-­ tice in the colonies, having never formally studied law. But she did display a useful grasp of business and legal practices, and appeared several times as her brother’s legal representative at court. Maryland governor Leonard Calvert, brother of the lord propri-­ etor, was so impressed by her acumen that in 1647 he appointed her executrix of his personal estate—another first. In this capac-­ ity she performed useful services to the colony during a period of rising tension and violence between Protestants and Catho-­ lics. Brent’s most significant contribution

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August 27 Education: Henry Dunster, a graduate of Magdalene College, Cambridge, England, is appointed Harvard College’s first president. Prospective students are expected to be thoroughly grounded in Greek and Latin. Ironically, Harvard, founded by Puritans, proved far less ecclesiastical in tenor than the Oxford or Cambridge it was designed to emulate. Unlike many contemporaries, Dunster strove to achieve courses in philosophy and liberal arts that were equally useful to those entering the clergy or one of the professions.

November Settlement: Dutch colonists begin arriving in the Delaware River region, uncomfortably close to Swedish settlers already at Fort Christina.

1641 Military: Huron and other Algonquian-speaking Indians who have been Christianized by the French begin receiving new firearms. This parallels a move by the Dutch, who have likewise armed their Iroquois allies with modern weaponry. Publishing: Thomas Shephard of Cambridge, Massachusetts, publishes The Sincere Convert, one of the earliest colonial best sellers.

March 2 Politics: William Bradford deeds the Plymouth land patent of 1630 to freemen of the colony. It had previously been granted to him by the Council for New England.

to Maryland came in the wake of Ingle’s Rebellion, a two-year uprising that had to be quelled by importing soldiers from Virginia. Afterward, these mercenaries demanded to be paid but the late governor’s estate lacked the funds to do so. Then Brent, with the power of attorney as Calvert’s executrix, ordered some of the proprietor’s cattle sold to pay off the soldiers and they peacefully disbanded. Back in England, the lord proprietor remonstrated loudly against what he deemed the illegal sale of his property, but the Maryland assembly openly thanked her and defended her actions, which helped keep the peace. They also recommended that she continue on as executrix because of her capable performance. In January 1648, Brent went before Governor Thomas Green, who succeeded Leon-

ard Calvert, and sought the right to vote in the assembly. She did this twice on the basis of being a large landowner and also as the proprietor’s attorney. Not surprisingly, she was refused on account of her gender, as well as the implications of the ongoing English civil war, for the assembly did not wish to appear to favor Roman Catholics. Her position in this regard was further compromised by her younger brother Giles, who was an outspoken Jesuit. Brent nonetheless made history as the first American woman who formally demanded suffrage. Angered by the treatment received in Maryland, Brent and her sister relocated to Virginia, where she established a sizable estate called “Peace.” She died there in relative luxury sometime around 1671, a victim of the prevailing gender and religious discrimination.

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May 17 General: The settlement of Ville-Marie (Montreal), New France, is established by Roman Catholic missionaries of the Societé de Notre Dame de Montreal for the purpose of promoting peaceful conversion of the Indians under Governor Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve. In time, they construct a church, a school, and a hospital but the location evolves into an important hub for fur trading activities throughout the St. Lawrence River Valley.

June 2 Business: The General Court of Massachusetts empowers towns to regulate commodity prices and wages.

June 14 Politics: The expansionist Massachusetts Bay Company obtains formal jurisdiction over the Dover-Portsmouth, New Hampshire, region, although proprietor’s rights are kept intact. However, no religious requirements for citizenship are imposed.

September 1 Military: A band of Raritan (Hackensack) Indians lands on Staten Island and attacks the Dutch settlement of Swanneken, burning several houses and killing four inhabitants. The tribes refuse to surrender those responsible and, consistent with their custom, offer the survivors wampum. In response, the government of New Amsterdam places a bounty on their scalps.

December 10 General: French explorer Samuel de Champlain founds the settlement at Montreal as a mission, but it quickly evolves into a military outpost within the flourishing fur trade of New France. Politics: The General Court of Massachusetts promulgates a code of 100 laws, the Body of Liberties, which codifies the ecclesiastical sway over political and religious matters. Significantly, the penal codes enacted are drawn more from the Old Testament than from English common law. Women are also protected from physical assault or abuse from their husbands. Through the adoption of the ironically mislabeled Body of Liberties, Massachusetts also becomes the first colony legalizing slavery as an institution in Section 91 of this legislation. The law pertains to both Africans and Native Americans, although neither can be captured or acquired by “unjust violence.”

1642 Business: Joseph Jenks establishes the first iron and brass foundry in Lynn, Massachusetts. Military: The Iroquois, faced with declining fur resources and unable to secure a trade agreement with New France, begin attacking Huron settlements for greater access to beaver territories. Slavery: The Virginia House of Burgesses passes a law that penalizes anyone who hides or assists a fugitive slave in escaping from his owner. Violators are to be fined 20 pounds of tobacco for each night of refuge. Escapees are also to be branded with an R after a second flight.

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January 21 Politics: A deputation of leading Dutch families, The Twelve, meets with Director of New Amsterdam Willem Kieft and convinces him to wage war upon Indians of the Lower Hudson River Valley.

February 18 Politics: Heads of influential Dutch families in New Amsterdam petition authorities for representative governance. Apparently they find the office of director general, under men like Willem Kieft, too arbitrary.

March Military: The Dutch commence a fruitless campaign against Indians living up the Hudson River Valley. After the attempt fails, Jonas Bronck, a heroic individual, arranges a truce between the two.

June 14 Education: Massachusetts colonial law mandates compulsory education for all children and the levying of fines for neglecting to do so. Parents are held accountable for properly instructing their offspring in the nuances of religion.

August 3 Military: Iroquois Indians, eager to corner their share of the burgeoning fur trade, commence raiding Huron and French settlements along the Richelieu River in Canada. The conflict lasts nearly a decade.

August 20 Politics: Civil strife erupts in England when King Charles I declares war on Puritan-oriented Parliamentarians.

September 23 Education: Harvard College holds its first commencement ceremony.

December 11 Politics: The arrival of English settlers at nearby Long Island prompts Director General Willem Kieft to appoint a special English secretary to deal with his potentially hostile neighbors.

1643 Business: Rowley, Massachusetts, becomes the site of the first colonial textile mill. This year the first restaurant also opens in Boston, although it is not permitted to serve wine. Diplomacy: Faced with continuing French and Huron resistance, Mohawks and other members of the Iroquois Five Nations sign a defensive pact with the Dutch of New Netherland. Bolstered by modern weapons, they continue disruptive raids on the trading networks of New France. Education: Wealthy Ann Radcliffe, Lady Mowlson, bequeaths 100 pounds to Harvard College for use as the colonies’ scholarship fund. Ironically, it remains exclusively available to male students for the next two centuries. General: Roger Williams composes his Key into the Language of America, the earliest treatise on Native American languages. Rogers notes how words like succotash and squash have already entered into the local lexicon.

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Chronology of American History Military: Alarmed by the encroachment of English settlers from Maryland on their land, Susquehannock leaders approach the Swedes of Delaware for help and receive arms and ammunition to drive them off. Slavery: The New England Confederation holds that magistrates are authorized to issue certificates in order to convict runaway slaves. This act establishes the legal groundwork for fugitive slave laws found on the books of several states throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. The Virginia House of Burgesses standardizes the period of African-American indentured servants to four to seven years; white counterparts generally serve half as long. Technology: The first tide-powered gristmill in the New World opens at Hingham, Massachusetts.

February 15 Settlement: Governor Johan Printz of New Sweden arrives with 100 Swedish and Finnish colonists.

February 25–26 Military: Dutch militia, acting on the orders of Director General Willem Kieft, slaughters 80 Wappinger Indians, mostly women and children, living in Pavonia (Jersey City), New Jersey. That same day, Dutch settlers also fall upon an Indian encampment at Corlaer’s Hook, New York, killing an additional 30 tribesmen. The deaths of these refugees from a previous massacre by Mohawks spark outrage and indignation from neighboring tribes, and they undertake reprisals throughout the region. By the time hostilities subside two years later, over 1,600 local Indians will have been slain by Dutch and English militias. The monetary resources of New Netherland are also exhausted in consequence.

March Politics: Roger Williams leaves Rhode Island for England to obtain a charter from the English Crown.

March 2 Politics: The Virginia legislature enacts a law forbidding either the governor or his council from raising taxes without their consent. Nonconformist church ministers are also banished from the colony.

May 19 Military: Because England was presently consumed by a bloody religious and political struggle, its colonies in North America have been basically left on their own for defense. The “United Colonies of New England,” better known as the New England Confederation, is therefore established in Boston by representatives of Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay, New Haven, and New Hampshire. Governor John Winthrop of the host colony serves as its first president and, upon his insistence, heretical Rhode Island is deliberately excluded from membership. This represents the first intercolonial attempt at collective defense, whereby scant military resources are pooled in time of crisis and eligible for deployment at any point within the confederation. Each signatory pledged to provide military support to the other three colonies in proportion to its resources. Winthrop is also advised and assisted by a board of eight commissioners, two from each

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colony, who are authorized to declare and wage war as necessary. The commissioners, however, lack coercive powers over the colonies, which is retained by their respective legislatures. Foremost of their concerns is the presence of Dutch settlers moving up the Hudson River Valley, although the expansion of white settlements across the region also led to deteriorating relations with the Indians. Thereafter, the confederation adopted an aggressive Indian policy by actively playing one tribe off against another. Despite useful service, the confederation is ultimately dissolved in 1684.

July 6 General: The settlement of Guildford, Connecticut, is founded as part of New Haven colony.

August General: Religious dissenter and widow Anne Hutchinson and her family are slaughtered by Indians in East Chester, Long Island. Apparently, she settled on a Dutch tract that had been illegally appropriated from local tribesmen.

September Diplomacy: Chief Miantonomo of the Narragansett, angered by continuous land fraud at the hands of English colonists, begins visiting the Mohawk and Montauk tribes to form a confederation to drive the English out of the region. However, while returning he is apprehended by Uncas of the Mohegan tribe, who promptly turn him over to colonial leaders. They order Uncas to execute Mianotomo for violating the Hartford Treaty of 1638. This prompts a war between the Mohegans and Narragansett which lasts two years until the English intervene on behalf of their ally. Military: Director General Willem Kieft of New Netherland convenes a meeting of the Eight to address growing concerns about Indian raids in New York and Long Island.

September 7 Military: The Massachusetts General Court totally overhauls its standing militia forces, which are now decentralized to grant regional leaders authority to mobilize and move with governmental consent. To further reduce reaction time, particularly along the frontiers, the principle is extended down to company-grade officers. Military service, with few exceptions, remains compulsory for all able-bodied men ages 16 to 60. All towns capable of mustering militia companies are required to do so, although officers remain elected, not appointed. Furthermore, all militia companies are required to assemble for drill and training four to six days per year.

September 8 Military: The last of the four New England General Courts ratifies the proposed “United Colonies of New England,” ushering in a period of military cooperation and mutual defense in this otherwise squabbling region. The agreement encompasses all English settlements from Long Island to New Hampshire with the exception of Rhode Island, which the Puritans regard as heretical and exclude from membership.

September 29 Military: A small contingent of Connecticut militia under Captain John Underhill arrives at New Amsterdam for campaigns against hostile Indians.

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October 1 Military: A band of hostile Indians attacks the Dutch settlement of Pavonia (Jersey City), New Jersey, slaughtering the inhabitants and burning it to the ground. Colonists are struck with fear and begin trekking to New Amsterdam for safety.

October 23–27 Politics: Milford, Connecticut, unites with the New Haven colony, joining the towns of Guilford and Stamford. Legislators then draft a constitution, which includes representative government.

November 6 General: The General Court of New Haven, Connecticut, adopts the Frame of Government, a plan for representative governance. The voting franchise remains tied to church membership, and its legal system is based entirely on the Mosaic Decalogue (Ten Commandments). There are also no provisions for trial by jury.

November 24 Business: In London, the so-called “Long Parliament” appoints Sir Robert Rich, earl of Warwick, to head the Commission to Control Plantation Affairs.

1644 Business: The first colonial ironworks arises on the Saugus River in Lynn, Massachusetts. Diplomacy: The Narragansett, fearful of hostility from English colonists, appeal directly to King Charles I for help and protection. They still refuse to submit to colonial demands for ceding additional land. Law: Puritan authorities in Boston hang a young man and a young woman for adultery. Politics: Roger Williams composes and publishes The Boudy Tenent of Persecution for the Cause of Conscience, a diatribe directed against the religious excesses of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He especially singles out theologian John Cotton for his relentless punishment of dissenters. The book is subsequently considered dangerous and is publicly burned in London. Williams, fortunately, never claimed authorship at that time. Settlement: When Lady Deborah Moody is prevented by Governor John Winthrop from returning to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, she founds a settlement near present-day Coney Island, New York, which is dedicated to freedom of thought and expression. Slave: One of the earliest recorded marriages of Africans in America happens at the Boulweire Chapel, New Amsterdam. That year 11 Africans who had been brought to the colony in 1626 also receive their own land grants in present-day Brooklyn.

March Military: Dutch and English militia under Captain John Underhill attack a hostile Indian encampment at Pound Hill, New York, killing 500 Tankiteke, Wiwanoy, and Wappinger inhabitants, for the loss of one European; this lopsided defeat causes Indian unrest in the New Amsterdam area to wane. The intimidated survivors then seek peace terms from the Dutch.

March 7 Politics: Resolution of the legal case Shearman v. Keayne results in the Massachusetts Bay Colony adopting the colonies’s first bicameral legislature.

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March 24 Politics: In London, Roger Williams obtains a charter for the colony of Rhode Island, with authority to convene a general assembly from the four towns of Providence, Portsmouth, Newport, and Warwick. Its strictures are similar to those of a royal colony, with the exception of the selection of governors, who will be elected locally.

March 30 Military: Iroquois Indians stage a successful raid upon Montreal, Canada.

April 18 Military: Powhatan, Weyanock, Nansemond, Pamunkey, and Chickahominy warriors under aged Opechancanough stage a second, successful attack against Jamestown colony on this peaceful Sunday morning. Nearly 500 settlers fall in the onslaught, but Governor William Berkeley moves quickly to organize punitive measures. Despite the carnage, there are now simply too many Europeans for the tribes to overcome.

May 20 Labor: The first shipbuilding guild is formed in Massachusetts. This year they are responsible for constructing the Trial, the first vessel both constructed and launched at Boston.

May 29 Politics: In Massachusetts, Governor John Winthrop is defeated in his bid for reelection.

June Military: A vengeful Virginia militia campaigns up the York River and attacks several Pamunkey villages. Meanwhile, colonial elders request military assistance from England.

June 18 Politics: A council of leading Dutch families at New Amsterdam, The Eight, refuses Director Willem Kieft’s request to impose an excise tax to support warfare against local Indians.

November 13 Religion: The Massachusetts General Court summarily banishes all Baptists from the colony.

November 16 General: English settlers occupy Hempstead (Heemstede) within the Dutch sphere of influence on Long Island.

November 29 Religion: Legislation passed by the Massachusetts General Court encourages pastors to learn the dialects of Native Americans to allow for their peaceful conversion to Christianity. Reverend John Eliot is then inspired to learn Indian languages and prepares them for religious instruction.

1645 General: A suspicious fire nearly destroys the Swedish communal dwelling at Gothenburg, Delaware, and was probably set by disgruntled indentured servants.

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80╅ Chronology of American History Slavery: Colonists launch the Rainbowe, the first vessel designed expressly for the slave trade. New En�gland subsequently plays a pivotal role in the spread of slavery in the En�glish colonies, although at this period most slaves are sold in Barbados for quantities of salt, tobacco, sugar, and wine. Slaves are introduced to New Hampshire for the first time.

June Military: In the absence of EnÂ�glish military assistance, the Virginia Colonial Assembly votes to hire a company of Â�full-­time mounted scouts to “range” the frontier. This is the origin of the “ranger” concept in American military history, lightly armed, very mobile forces capable of scouting and ambush fighting.

July 14 Military: The Iroquois reach a temporary truce with the French and their Huron allies.

August 9 Diplomacy: The Iroquois facilitate a peace treaty between Dutch settlers in the Hudson River Valley and hostile tribesmen.

August 12 Military: In an attempt to reduce military reaction time in time of emergency, the United Colonies of New EnÂ�gland authorizes the Bay Colony to assign 30 soldiers in each militia company to be ready under arms within a Â�half-­hour.

August 28 Diplomacy: New EnÂ�gland Confederation commissioners reach a peace treaty with the Narragansett Indians in Â� present-­day Rhode Island. The terms are harsh and include the giving up of land, the surrender of hostages to insure good behavior, and fines for any Pequot found living among them. They also have to endure another spate of fraudulent land purchases over the next three deÂ�cades.

October 19 General: EnÂ�glish settlers occupy Flushing on Â�Dutch-­owned Long Island.

This diagram, which shows a hold literally packed with human beings, gives some idea of conditions aboard a slave ship.â•… (Library of Congress)

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1646 Diplomacy: A treaty between the En�glish and the Powhatan Confederation ends the Second Virginia War. By its terms the En�glish are restrained from further encroachment upon Indian land, while the Indians must become subjects of the Crown and deliver an annual tribute of beaver pelts. Within three years this arrangement breaks down and the tide of Eu�ro�pe�an settlements continues. Education: Virginia passes laws requiring poor children to be educated by as�signing them to work as apprentices in either industrial or agricultural trades. Naval: The first armed American vessel is outfitted at New Haven for the purpose of patrolling Long Island Sound and thwarting possible Dutch aggression. Societal: The Massachusetts General Court limits smoking to travelers on a journey of five miles or more. This is undertaken less for health reasons than to minimize the danger of starting fires.

March Military: A mounted Virginia militia under Governor Sir William Berkeley conducts a preemptive raid that successfully snares aging Chief Opechancanough, now almost a century old, who is brought back to Jamestown and eventually shot in captivity.

March 3 Business: In Massachusetts, Joseph Jenks modifies the design and manufacture of scythe handles, greatly improving their efficiency, and receives a patent.

May 6 Politics: John Winthrop is successfully reelected governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony and will occupy that office until his death in 1649. Religion: Dr. Robert Child and six other Presbyterians petition the General Court of Massachusetts for toleration; consequently they are summarily banished from the colony.

July 28 Politics: Willem Kieft is removed as director of New Amsterdam largely on account of his mishandling of Indian affairs.

September 1 Religion: In order to achieve greater theological harmony, the General Court of Massachusetts summons the Cambridge Synod of Congregationalist Churches. The ensuing Cambridge Platform, which outlines the church model, has overtones that are both Congregational and Presbyterian in outlook.

October 18 Religion: Indians kill Jesuit missionary Isaac Jogues and his converted Huron assistant Jean Laland.

October 28 Religion: Reverend John Eliot, already fluent in Hebrew and Greek, holds his first sermon for Native Americans at Nonantum, Massachusetts, delivering it in their own Algonquian dialect.

November 4 Law: The Massachusetts General Court approves legislation mandating the death penalty for cases of heresy.

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November 14 Religion: Robert Child denounces the Massachusetts Bay Colony for its intolerance and repression of non-Puritans, which he holds is in contravention to English common law. Consequently, Governor John Winthrop arranges for his banishment.

December Societal: The patroon system, a repressive, near-feudal organization erected by the Dutch West India Company in New Netherland, fails for want of sufficient immigrants. Few Dutch settlers, relatively free in Europe, were willing to submit to conditions of near servitude in the New World.

December 16 General: English settlers occupy Gravesend, Long Island, within Dutch-held territory.

1647 Agriculture: Sir William Berkeley tries and fails to establish rice as a viable crop in Virginia. Law: Rhode Island outlaws common law marriages, a frequent colonial practice, especially among Quakers. Societal: Connecticut adopts laws outlawing smoking in public and social situations, believing that it contributed to drinking and alcoholism. Tobacco use is thereby confined to one’s own dwelling.

May 11 General: Peter Stuyvesant, a garrulous former soldier, arrives at New Amsterdam as director-general and succeeds Willem Kieft. He will be the last Dutchman so appointed.

May 26 Religion: Massachusetts colony bans Roman Catholic priests from its territory; first-time violators are to be summarily deported. Repeat offenders are subject to the death penalty. Alse Young is hanged for witchcraft in Windsor, Connecticut.

May 29–31 Politics: Rhode Island General Assembly adopts a charter guaranteeing freedom of conscience, separation of church and state, town referendums on all laws passed by the assembly, and the ability of towns to initiate laws. At this time, the legislature is composed of delegates from Providence, Newport, Portsmouth, and Warwick.

June 9 Politics: Governor Leonard Calvert of Maryland dies; he had previously appointed Margaret Brent the executor of his will, in effect, making her the de facto interim governor. At this time she uses the power of attorney to sell off some of her client the lord proprietor’s property to raise money for unpaid soldiers from Maryland, then threatening the government with armed rebellion.

September 25 Politics: Director Peter Stuyvesant authorizes an election by Dutch householders to create an advisory body, the Nine, to assist him in legal and political matters.

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November 11 Education: By terms of the “Old Deluder Satan Act,” Massachusetts institutes compulsory primary education. It mandates one teacher to every community of more than 50 families and a grammar school for every community of more than 100 families. Through this expedient, it is expected that all citizens shall be able to read and absorb the Bible.

December Politics: Director General Peter Stuyvesant, an authoritarian leader, jails several members of his own Board of Nine men, a tax advisory group, in a dispute over raising revenues to stave off bankruptcy.

1648 Law: In Massachusetts, the Book of the General Lawes and Libertyes becomes the official colonial law code. It draws heavily from both English common law and biblical precepts. Religion: New England theologian Thomas Hooker, a leading spokesman for the Puritan theocracy, publishes Survey of the Summe of Church Discipline, which enshrines the authority of God in human affairs. Transportation: New Amsterdam acquires its first paved road when wealthy Annettje Lockermans Van Courtland, weary of walking through mud, orders servants to pave the road fronting her home with cobblestone.

January 21 Politics: Margaret Brent, one of Maryland’s wealthiest residents and de facto lieutenant governor since the death of Leonard Calvert, is denied the right to vote on account of her gender.

April 27 Military: Director Peter Stuyvesant orders construction of Fort Beversrede on the Schuylkill River (modern Philadelphia), which prompts Swedish governor Johan Bjornsson Prinz to built fortifications along the opposite bank.

May 13 Politics: Margaret Jones of Charlestown, Massachusetts, is found guilty of witchcraft by the Plymouth Court and sentenced to hang. Between 1647 and 1662, a total of 14 colonists will be executed for witchcraft.

August 6 Politics: William Stone, a Protestant from Virginia, is appointed governor of Maryland by Lord Baltimore.

October 18 Labor: Boston shoemakers are chartered by the Massachusetts General Court, becoming the first recognized labor organization in America.

November Military: Swedish forces attack and burn the Dutch enclave at Fort Beversrede for a second time. Nevertheless, this post is rebuilt and reoccupied until 1651.

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1649 Medical: A law in Massachusetts categorizes midwives in the same medical standing as physicians and surgeons.

January 30 Politics: King Charles I is beheaded in London by Puritan parliamentarians; after-­ ward a large body of his supporters emigrates to Virginia to escape persecution.

March 16 Military: In a preemptive strike, Iroquois warbands attack the Huron capital at Huronia, Georgian Bay, Ontario, killing nearly 1,000 men, women, and children. The Seneca and Mohawk, heavily armed by the Dutch, easily overcome superior numbers of Huron, scattering them and forcing the survivors to flee for Quebec. Others relocate farther west to form the Wyandot nation. Two Jesuit missionaries, Fathers Jean de Brebeuf and Gabriel Lalemant, are also captured and subsequently tortured to death. Most significantly, the Five Nations establish a foothold on pro-­ ductive Â�beaver-­pelt producing territory essential for maintaining trade relations with the Dutch.

April 21 Politics: The Toleration Act, drafted by the Catholic Leonard Calvert, Lord Baltimore, is passed by the MaryÂ�land Legislature at the behest of Deputy Gover-­ nor William Stone, a Protestant. This is another early law protecting freedom of worship, surprising as the joint product of a Catholic proprietor and a Â�PuritanÂ�dominated assembly. Curiously, it is Â�gender-­neutral in tone and applies to men and women equally.

May 19 Politics: Parliament declares itself supreme in all matters pertaining to the colonies.

May 22 Law: The Rhode Island General Assembly passes a fraudulent campaign law for prospective members of that body.

July 19 Religion: In EnÂ�gland, Parliament and Reverend Edward Winslow found the Society for Propagating the Gospel to advance Christianity among Native Ameri-­ cans. This is the first effort to secure Protestant conversions in North America and is highly active and successful in New EnÂ�gland.

October Politics: In Rhode Island, William Coddington departs for EnÂ�gland to obtain a charter for Aquidneck Island. In this capacity he opposes Roger Williams’s plan to unify the towns of Providence, Warwick, Portsmouth, and Newport into a single poÂ�litiÂ�cal entity.

October 10 Politics: The colony of Virginia condemns the execution of King Charles I and declares its allegiance to the �House of Stuart. It also advertises itself as a haven for fleeing Royalists. Such defiance prompts the government to dispatch two armed vessels and bring Virginia back into line; for all these reasons the colony becomes popularly known as Old Dominion.

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October 13 Politics: At New Amsterdam, The Nine, an executive council, complains to the States General in the Netherlands over alleged neglect by Director Peter Stuyvesant and the Dutch West India Company. They specifically seek the right of self-governance for each settlement within their jurisdiction, in other words, municipal governments.

October 16 Religion: The government of Maine allows all Christian groups to form their own churches, provided they behave scrupulously.

1650 Business: The invigorated Five Nations, now possessing modern firearms, continue their advance into the Great Lakes region in the quest for new sources of fur. Several smaller tribes are nearly exterminated by the onslaught, while others, such as the Chippewa and Shawnee, are dispossessed and move farther west. Literature: Anne Bradstreet, a leading colonial poetess, publishes her The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America in London. This is the first known work by an American woman, although it was published without her knowledge by a brotherin-law who greatly admired her ability. Slavery: Connecticut passes statutes regulating slavery, thus granting it legal recognition.

April 6 Politics: Lord Baltimore authorizes a bicameral legislature in Maryland, consisting of an upper house of councillors and a lower house of delegates.

May Politics: Connecticut colony codifies its laws using the Massachusetts Body of Liberties as its model.

May 30 Business: The Council of New Netherland orders a crackdown on counterfeit wampum manufacturing in the colonies. These white and purple shell beads hold considerable significance among the Indian tribes for religious rituals and as a form of currency.

May 31 Education: Governor Thomas Dudley signs Harvard College’s first charter; henceforth all families of Massachusetts are expected to contribute a peck of wheat or a shilling every year.

September 23–29 Diplomacy: Dutch director general Peter Stuyvesant concludes the Treaty of Hartford with the New England Confederacy, whereby Long Island’s Dutch and English communities are clearly delineated by boundaries. Dutch property in Hartford, Connecticut, is also to be respected.

October Naval: The new Parliamentarian government in England, responding to Virginia’s declaration of allegiance to the Crown, declares that colony under a naval blockade.

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Bradstreet, Anne

(1612–1672)

Poetess Anne Dudley was probably born in Northampton, England, around 1612, the daughter of a steward to Theophilus Clinton, earl of Lincoln. At this time, England was in a period of religious ferment, and the earl’s home was a center of Puritan learning and activism. The youthful Dudley absorbed these social and religious mores readily, as well as the literary nuances of her day. Around 1628, aged 16 years, she married Simon Bradstreet, a Cambridgeeducated administrator, and settled into an easy-going life as part of the aristocracy. However, their lives were completely transformed in 1629 when King Charles I inherited the throne and began persecuting Puritans and other religious minorities. This stimulated the so-called “Great Migration” of 1630, which brought thousands of Puritans and other Separatists to the wilderness of Massachusetts. Bradstreet and her husband were part of the original group that crossed with John Winthrop onboard the Arabella and helped found the Massachusetts Bay colony at Salem. Compared to her pampered and relatively carefree existence back in England, Bradford was initially shocked by the primitive conditions of her new abode but, considering it God’s will, she readily submitted to it. In this respect she was a typical Puritan woman, deeply religious and strictly beholden to the social conventions thrust upon her. She moved several times before finally relocating to Andover in 1645, and also bore her husband, a future governor of Massachusetts, eight children.

Not long after arriving in America, Bradstreet began writing poetry that touched upon her surroundings, her predicament, and her apparently happy and satisfying relationship with her beloved husband. Her jottings were so well received by family members that in 1647 Reverend John Woodbridge, her brother-in-law, carried a manuscript of her poetry to England without her knowledge and published it anonymously as The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America. Here Bradford displayed a surprising gift for rhyme, but also commendable knowledge of history, philosophy, and current affairs. She even composed an elegant poem in praise of Queen Elizabeth I, the strong-willed Protestant monarch. Bradford’s writing proved an immediate hit among literary circles of the day and even stern-faced Governor Cotton Mather pronounced it “statelier than marble.” For her part, Bradstreet continued living the life of a minor wilderness aristocrat, a wife and mother, occasionally drafting poems on earthy subjects not usually associated with the Puritan mindset. She then revised her poems in 1666 and a second edition of collected works appeared in 1678—the first written by a female author in America. These jottings were also widely read and admired, reflecting her development as a writer and a deeply spiritual person. Bradstreet died at her home in Andover on September 16, 1672, the first American poetess. Appearing at the time they did, her writings display considerable intellect and surprising passion, and remain a notable literary achievement.

October 3 Politics: Parliament, determined to punish Virginia, Barbados, Bermuda, and Antigua for their insolence, decrees that they cannot trade with foreign nations.

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October 30 Business: The English Parliament, determined to reduce Dutch advantages in ship-borne commerce, bans foreign ships from trading in the American colonies without a special license. This is the beginning of an extensive series of trade laws known collectively as the Navigation Acts.

1651 Political: Margaret Brent, the colonies’ first female attorney, angered by dissent occasioned by her role as the late Governor Leonard Calvert’s executor, leaves Maryland and resettles in Virginia. Military: Five Nations warriors attack and destroy an Attiwandaronk village, dispersing the inhabitants as part of their continuing campaign to disrupt trade in New France. They then secure trade relations with Algonquian-speaking peoples in the Great Lakes regions to procure sources of fur. Religion: In an attempt to “civilize” Native Americans, Reverend John Eliot founds Natick, Massachusetts, as a community for Christian converts, or “Praying Indians.” In this capacity Eliot becomes revered as the “Apostle to the Indians.”

March Politics: In England, Edward Coddington receives a separate charter for the town of Aquidneck, Rhode Island, enabling him to thwart Roger Williams’s plan to establish the Providence Plantations.

July 18 Religion: Puritan authorities arrest, fine, and banish Baptist ministers John Clarke and Obediah Holmes after sheriffs search for them in a private home. Holmes is then publicly whipped and both are banished from Massachusetts Bay Colony. Governor John Endecott hopes to have set an example for future dissenters.

July 19 Settlement: Dutch colonists from New Netherland establish a settlement at Fort Casimir (Newcastle), on the Delaware River. This places them within seven miles of the Swedish colony at Fort Christiana.

October 9 Politics: Parliament passes the first Navigation Act excluding foreign vessels from colonial trade, to try to break the Dutch monopoly on shipping. Henceforth, foreigners had to obtain a license to trade with the colonies and only English shippers could engage in the slave trade. Governors of colonies abroad are also entrusted with its actual enforcement. This act was consistent with mercantile principles for creating a powerful, economically self-sufficient British empire. Hereafter, colonial economic needs and sentiments remain strictly subordinated to dictates from the homeland. Moreover, trade frictions arising help trigger the First Anglo-Dutch War, 1652–54.

October 14 Societal: The General Court of Massachusetts forbids people of “mean condition” from wearing outlandish clothes better associated with the upper classes.

November 5 Military: The Dutch outpost of Fort Casimir on the Delaware River is captured by Swedish forces under Governor Johan Classen Rising of New Sweden. The

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Chronology of American History garrison, consisting of seven men, capitulates immediately, and nearby settlers are given a choice of either swearing their allegiance to Sweden or leaving. Most choose to stay behind. The post is then renamed Fort Trinity to commemorate the day it was captured, Trinity Sunday.

November 15 Politics: Departing deputy governor William Stone of Maryland appoints Catholic Royalist Thomas Green to succeed him. However, after Green declares his allegiance to Charles II as the rightful heir to the throne, the Commonwealth government dispatches parliamentary commissioners to investigate. Among them is William Claiborne, who had earlier lost his title to Kent Island to the colony.

December 5 Politics: The Maine provincial government appeals to Parliament for independence from an expanding Massachusetts.

December 25 Law: The General Court of Massachusetts threatens a five-shilling fine for any individual celebrating “Christmas.”

1652 Religion: The Society of Friends, or Quakers, begins forming in England under the auspices of George Fox and Margaret Fell. They are characterized by pacifism and treating women with near-total equality. Slavery: The Dutch West India Company approves the importation of African slaves to New Netherland, but also allows strict laws to prevent them from being physically abused.

March 12 Politics: Erstwhile Royalist governor William Berkeley surrenders Jamestown, Virginia, to two armed British vessels and declares his allegiance to Parliament. He is removed from office for declaring his support for the Stuarts.

March 29 Politics: Catholic commissioners in England remove Lieutenant Governor Thomas Green, a Catholic, from office in Maryland. He is succeeded by William Fuller while Lord Baltimore is also stripped of proprietary powers for the time being.

March 30 Politics: Richard Bennett is selected from among the House of Burgesses to succeed Governor William Berkeley while William Claiborne becomes secretary of state.

April Politics: The Dutch government grants the settlement of New Amsterdam the right to implement a city-style government. Director General Peter Stuyvesant only sullenly complies.

May 18 General: The Rhode Island assembly outlaws slavery, the first such American law enacted. This decision will be reversed in 1700.

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May 31 Politics: The General Court of Massachusetts formally annexes the territory of Maine to its possessions.

June 7 Business: The first Anglo-American mint is established in Boston, with John Hull as master, which coins the “Pine Tree Shilling” as currency. This is one of several acts of defiance towards Parliament.

October Politics: Roger Williams arranges to have the English government declare the charter granted to William Coddington null and void. Aquidneck Island eventually becomes part of Newport, Rhode Island. He is accompanied by Massachusetts expatriate Mary Dyer, who over the ensuing five years converts to Quakerism before returning to the colonies.

October 29 Politics: The English Civil War and the Protectorate under Oliver Cromwell serve to intensify feelings of independence throughout the American colonies. Massachusetts Bay Colony, long a hotbed of Puritan defiance toward authority, declares itself an independent commonwealth.

November 20 Politics: Massachusetts continues its annexation of Maine when Kittery surrenders to its authority; this is the first town within the Gorges province to submit.

1653 Law: Puritan authorities in Massachusetts arrest 11 women for dressing ostentatiously above their position. Current law forbids a woman from sporting a silk scarf or hood unless her husband has a demonstrated net worth of 200 pounds. Publishing: John Eliot composes his Catechism, the first Indian religious book written in the Algonquian language. Settlement: Virginia provides the first settlers for the Carolinas, who take root by founding Albemarle, north of Albemarle Sound.

February 2 Politics: Director Peter Stuyvesant, under orders from the Dutch government, declares New Amsterdam to be a municipality and appoints the requisite officials. However, he retains the ability to enact laws and pass ordinances.

June 2 Politics: The Massachusetts Bay Colony votes against a New England Confederation attempt to declare war against Dutch settlers in New Netherland.

July Settlement: A slow but steady trickle of settlers from Virginia into the region between the Pasquotank and Chowan Rivers and the new colony of Albemarle begins taking form.

July 5 Military: English militia from Connecticut seize Fort Good Hope, New York, from the Dutch.

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November 5 Diplomacy: The Iroquois, Huron, and French conclude their Â�so-­called “Beaver War” with a formal peace treaty. The Five Nations are victorious and now the dominant military power of the St. Lawrence and eastern Great Lakes region, but they are also overextended. In sum, they seek time to consolidate their gains.

December 10 Politics: Director Peter Stuyvesant summons the first session of the New Nether-­ land assembly, which includes both Dutch and EnÂ�glish representatives from Long Island. The body continues to oppose arbitrary rule by the director and the Dutch West India Company. At one juncture, Stuyvesant lectures them, “We derive our power from God and the Company, not from a few ignorant subjects.”

1654 Business: The first Dutch Â�glass-­making factory is erected by Jan Smede in New Amsterdam. Military: Faced with continuing raids by the Erie Indians, a war party of 700 Seneca warriors attacks and destroys the main Erie town in western Pennsyl-­ vania. Actions like this clear the way for advances into the Â�fur-­rich Ohio River Valley, which the Five Nations covet. Technology: Ironworker Joseph Jenks is contracted to design and build a work-­ ing fire engine in Massachusetts. This is the first such device in America and spurted water from a Â�bucket-­filled cistern.

March 7 General: Plymouth colonist Thomas Prince obtains a grant from Parliament and departs for the Kennebec River, Maine, to or�ga�nize a colony there.

April Military: Â�Dutch-­held Fort Good Hope, Hartford, falls to EnÂ�glish colonial forces.

May Politics: Dutch director general Peter Stuyvesant summons the second ses-­ sion of the New Netherland assembly, this time to deal with rising tensions with nearby EnÂ�glish communities.

May 3 Business: Richard Thurley is licensed by the Massachusetts General Court to construct the first toll bridge in Massachusetts. Its fee applies only to animals and is levied at a rate of two shillings per �horse and cow, half a shilling for hogs, sheep, and goats.

May 31 Military: A force of 30 Swedish soldiers bloodlessly captures Dutch Fort Casimir on the Delaware River.

June Business: In a daring move, a large canoe fleet of Wyandot and Ottawa Indi-­ ans reaches Montreal, bringing a great quantity of furs with them. They are attempting to regain the old lucrative trade with France, since destroyed by the Iroquois. Within two years, this practice brings the wrath of the Iroquois down on them.

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June 20 Diplomacy: News of a peace treaty between England and the Netherlands reaches Boston just as a force of New England militia is about to embark on a campaign against New Netherland.

July 1 Military: Major Robert Sedgwick of Boston seizes Acadia (Nova Scotia) from France; it will eventually be ceded back to them in 1667.

August 22 Religion: Jacob Barsimson, the first Jew to arrive in America, lands at New Amsterdam.

September 7 Religion: Congregation Shearith Israel is founded in New Amsterdam by 23 Sephardic Jews emigrating from Brazil. Saul Brown functions as rabbi and they constitute North America’s earliest Jewish community. Director Peter Stuyvesant nonetheless protests their presence in the colony.

October 30 Politics: The Puritan-dominated assembly of Maryland rescinds the Toleration Act and adopts the new Instrument of Government, which expressly denies Catholics equal protection under the law. Lord Baltimore’s proprietary authority is also revoked at the behest of Governor William Fuller. The ground is now being laid for civil strife.

1655 Slavery: Anthony Johnson, a free African American, receives a 200-acre grant in Virginia after importing five servants to Hampton, Virginia. He is gradually joined by other freedmen, and an African community begins.

January Religion: Massachusetts expatriate Roger Williams composes a letter for the inhabitants of Providence, Rhode Island, outlining his views on religious and political liberties. He is still regarded as a pariah in Puritan-dominated Boston, whose leaders regard his colony as a “moral sewer.”

March 25 Military: Lord Baltimore’s Catholic militia is defeated by Puritan forces at the Battle of Severn River, Maryland. Former governor William Stone, a Protestant, is among the wounded taken captive by the Puritans and imprisoned. Several of his followers are executed.

April 26 Religion: The Dutch West India Company informs Director Peter Stuyvesant that Jews must be allowed to remain in New Amsterdam.

September 15 Military: After Hendrick Van Dyck, a Dutch settler, kills a Lenni Lenape (Delaware) squaw stealing peaches from his orchard, 500 Hackensack warriors attack settlements in New Amsterdam and Staten Island. The Indians kill 16 colonials, including Van Dyck, take 49 more hostage, and later ransom them for 1,400 guilders. However, Indian raids and counterraids continue intermittently for another nine years in this, the so-called “Peach War.”

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September 26 Military: Dutch forces under Governor Peter Stuyvesant successfully recapture Fort Casimir from the colony of New Sweden. They then move up the Delaware River in seven ships and similarly overpower Fort Christina. Success here ends a 15-year campaign to evict the Swedes from Delaware, and New Amsterdam receives additional land along the Delaware River as a reward.

1656 Diplomacy: The General Court of Massachusetts appoints Daniel Gookin as its first superintendent of Indian affairs, the first such post created by the English. In this capacity he is responsible for distributing gifts among “good” Indians, encouraging them to take up farming and convert to Christianity. Military: English settlers in Virginia convince the Pamunkey and Chickahominy tribes to assist them in confronting the Iroquois, who have been pushing southward into Virginia. However, they are defeated, and Pamunkey leader Totopotomoy dies in battle. Politics: To forestall future violence, the Virginia assembly approves various Indian policies to halt encroachment upon native lands, but the regulations are largely ignored by settlers. Science: Harvard College’s curriculum formally abandons Ptolemaic astronomy, which holds Earth as the center of the universe, in favor of the new Copernican theory of planets orbiting around the Sun. This occurs only 23 years after the Catholic Church forced astronomer Galileo Galilei to repudiate it.

January Politics: The English Committee of Trade restores Lord Baltimore’s proprietary authority over the colony of Maryland, contingent upon his agreeing to the appointment of Josias Fendall as governor.

March Politics: William Coddington finally consents to creation of Providence Plantations under Roger Williams.

March 10 Politics: The Virginia House of Burgesses extends suffrage to all freemen regardless of their religious affiliation. They also pass a plan to seize Indian children for religious conversion.

July 1 Religion: The first immigrants of the Quaker sect, Mary Fisher and Ann Austin, arrive at Boston from Barbados and are immediately arrested, abused, and banished back to the West Indies by Puritan authorities.

July 10 Politics: Governor William Fuller of Maryland is succeeded by Josias Fendall, who allows reinstatement of Lord Baltimore as proprietor.

July 23 Politics: New Haven colony adopts the Code of 1656 for governance, notable in denying the right of trial by jury.

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September 6 General: Mohawk leaders of the Iroquois Confederacy ask the Dutch to stop selling alcohol to the Indians.

September 17 Religion: The United Colonies of New England approves of Massachusetts’s harsh treatment of Baptists, Quakers, and other religious minorities.

September 22 Law: A trial at Patuxent, Maryland, includes the first ever all-female jury. Defendant Judith Catchpole stands accused of murdering her unborn child, then is acquitted after proving she has never been pregnant.

October 2 Religion: The Connecticut assembly fines Quakers and banishes them from its territory.

October 24 Religion: The Massachusetts General Court bans Quakers from entering its territory.

1657 Military: The Erie Indians, faced with continuing defeats at the hands of the Five Nations Iroquois, gradually relocate from western Pennsylvania to the Upper Ohio River, where they become known as the Mingo. Religion: Quaker missionary Mary Dyer arrives in Boston and is quickly arrested and deported to Connecticut by the Puritan theocracy. She is warned not to return. Slavery: Quaker leader George Fox encourages his followers to minister to African slaves in the colonies. Sports: Three Dutch men are arrested by the sheriff of Fort Orange, New Netherland, for playing Kolven (golf ) on a Sunday. This is the first mention of that game in America.

April 21 General: Dutch settlers recolonize Fort Casimir, Delaware, and reorganize it as New Amstel with Jacob Alrichs as director.

May 20 Business: Rhode Island defies the British ban against trading with the Dutch.

May 21 General: Governor William Bradford of Massachusetts, who was annually reelected for more than 30 years, dies at Plymouth. He is best remembered for having instituted the practice of town meetings, which evolves into a decidedly New England practice. More than any other individual, he was responsible for putting Plymouth colony on a firm footing.

June 1 Religion: Five adherents to Quakerism, including two women, arrive at New Amsterdam and are quickly arrested by Dutch authorities under Director General Peter Stuyvesant and expelled to Rhode Island.

November 30 Politics: Lord Baltimore’s proprietary control of Maryland is restored by the Puritan government of England.

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Dyer, Mary

(ca. 1610–1660)

Religious martyr Mary Barrett was born in England around 1610, although her birthplace and origins are obscure. In 1633 she married William Dyer and two years later migrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Even though the Dyers were admitted to the Puritan Church, they soon struck up cordial relations with Anne Hutchinson and gradually subscribed to her “Antinomian” beliefs. The Puritan theological establishment viewed Hutchinson’s beliefs as heretical and believed that Dyer’s subsequent bearing of a malformed baby was God’s punishment. Her husband was also disenfranchised for his dealings with Hutchinson. Undeterred, when Hutchinson was banished from Massachusetts on March 22, 1638, Dyer accompanied her out of the court. The Dyers subsequently relocated to Newport, Rhode Island, and in 1652 the couple accompanied Roger Williams back to England for political reasons. Over the next five years Dyer became a disciple of George Fox, founder of the Society of Friends (Quakers), whose doctrine of Inner Light bore similarities to Hutchinson’s teachings. However, Puritans on either side of the Atlantic considered the sect heretical and began evoking legal means of suppressing it. Dyer, meanwhile, returned to Boston in 1657, where she was quickly arrested by authorities and banished from the colony. Her husband, who was not a Quaker, secured her release, and the following year Dyer tried proselytizing Quakerism in New Haven, Connecticut, until her expulsion in 1658.

Significantly, that same year the General Court of Massachusetts passed a law banishing Quakers from the colony under pain of death. Dyer learned that two Quaker friends, William Robinson and Marmaduke Stephenson, were jailed in Boston and she visited to console and minister to them. She was arrested again and the three were expelled with a warning not to return. Nevertheless, Dyer and her consorts returned to Boston to confront what they considered unjust laws and were arrested. On October 27, 1658, Robinson and Stephenson were hanged, and Dyer was only spared through a last-minute reprieve from Governor John Winthrop. She was then released in the custody of her husband and expelled once again. Dyer, however, remained determined to confront religious intolerance and she returned to Boston a third time and was arrested and condemned to hang. The sentence was carried out on May 31, 1660, despite her husband’s pleas for clemency. Dyer received a final offer to recant her faith on the gallows but refused, preferring to die a martyr’s death. Fellow Quakers also held her as an example of the strength of their beliefs. Dyer’s unflinching resolve in the face of death also convinced many colonists that the death sentence should be repealed against Quakers, and in 1659 it was discarded. In 1959, three centuries later, the Massachusetts General Court (the state legislative) erected a statue in Boston, honoring Dyer’s willingness to confront religious bigotry.

1658 General: The Rappahannock and Morattico Indians are forced into conceding major land grants to ever-expanding white settlements in Virginia.

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Medical: One of America’s earliest hospitals in America is founded in New Amsterdam by a surgeon of the Dutch West India Company. Religion: In a nod to Massachusetts, the New England Confederation summarily expels Quakers from its territory, threatening the death penalty if they return. Quaker missionary Mary Dyer is expelled from New Haven, Connecticut, and warned not to return. Slavery: A revolt by African and Indian slaves is reported near Hartford, Connecticut.

January 25 Law: New Netherland director Peter Stuyvesant outlaws festivities such as tennis during periods of religious activity.

May 26 Politics: Rhode Island completes its political consolidation, forcing Massachusetts to relinquish any claim of jurisdiction over the area.

May 29 Religion: General Court of Massachusetts authorities ban Quakerism and especially outlaw their holding of meetings; in October the death penalty is imposed for those returning to the colony.

July 13 General: The Massachusetts Bay Colony finishes its annexation of Maine by bringing the settlement of Casco Bay (Falmouth) under its control.

August Exploration: Having departed Montreal, fur traders Medard Chouart, sieur des Groseilliers; Pierre Esprit Radisson; and 31 men arrive on the southern shore of Lake Superior and begin pushing inland to explore the Great Plains.

August 12 Law: New Amsterdam institutes its first police force, the ratelwacht, composed of 10 watchmen hired to patrol the city and refrain from swearing, drinking, or fighting.

1659 Education: Dutch settlers establish America’s first classical elementary school at New Amsterdam. Politics: The fall of the English Protectorate under Oliver Cromwell allows the House of Burgesses to take political control of Virginia. Religion: John Eliot composes The Christian Commonwealth, outlining the Puritan symbiosis between church and state.

September 21 Military: A group of Dutch settlers, angered by the continuing threat of conflict with nearby Esopus Indians, ambushes and kills a group drinking near their settlement. The angry tribesmen then attack Wiltwyck (Kingston, New York), killing several settlers.

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September 30 Sports: Director General Peter Stuyvesant forbids the playing of tennis on certain days, particularly Sunday. This is the first mention of the game in America.

October 10 Military: Director general Peter Stuyvesant arrives at the Dutch settlement of Wiltwyck with reinforcements, only to find that the hostile Esopus warriors had departed. Rather than pursue the war further, Stuyvesant arranges a cease-fire through some Mohawk intermediaries.

October 27 Religion: Massachusetts authorities hang William Robinson and Marmaduke Stevenson on Boston Common, for violating the ban on Quakers returning to the colony. Mary Dyer, after defying her exile and returning to the Bay Colony, is led to the gallows, pardoned at the last second, and once again banished to Rhode Island. There friends try—unsuccessfully—to have her abandon preaching Quakerism.

December Politics: Governor Samuel Mathews of Virginia dies in office, signaling the end of parliamentary control in that colony under the Protectorate. Power is then assumed by local burgesses until politics in England sorts itself out.

1660 Business: Ottawa and Wyandot Indians found a huge fur trading center at Chegnamegon Bay, Lake Superior (present-day Wisconsin), which, within a decade, encompasses no less than 50 villages. Diplomacy: To secure good behavior from nearby Indians, Director General Peter Stuyvesant demands that local tribes surrender children as hostages. When the Esopus refuse the Dutch seize several women and children, then ship them off to the West Indies as slaves. Slaves: The Connecticut legislature prohibits African Americans from serving in the militia. Societal: To shore up the institution of marriage, the Connecticut legislature orders all men to live at home with their wives; any individual delinquent in this capacity for more than three years faces expulsion from the colony.

March 10 Politics: The new Maryland assembly declares itself independent of Lord Baltimore’s proprietary control and also removes Josias Fendall as governor.

March 13 Politics: After a long hiatus, Royalist Sir William Berkeley is restored as governor of Virginia by the general assembly.

March 13 Business: The Virginia assembly passes limits on the taxation of slaves, the first indication that bondage has been institutionalized in the colonies.

March 17 Military: Some Dutch militia under Ensign Dirck Smith attack an Esopus camp near Wiltwyck, New Netherland, killing and capturing several Indians.

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April 4 Military: Ensign Dirck Smith and his militia again ambush Esopus warriors near Wiltwyck, New Netherland, taking several more prisoners.

May Religion: The General Court of Massachusetts outlaws Christmas celebrations, and any transgressors face a five-shilling fine.

May 2–9 Military: In another skirmish over the fur trade, Iroquois warriors attack a 16-man French/Huron party under Adam Dollard, sieur des Ormeaux, at Long Sault on the Ottawa River. After several assaults are violently repelled, the Iroquois wage a seven-day siege until they are massively reinforced and overrun the encampment in a final charge. Only four French are captured, and are taken back to the village for ritual torture. However, the losses incurred by the Indians apparently dissuade them from attacking Montreal that year.

May 29 Politics: The Stuart Restoration sees King Charles II placed on the English throne.

June Business: New Amsterdam passes a regulation forbidding individuals outside of the Indian trade to interfere with Iroquois fur-trading activities at Fort Orange.

June 1 Religion: Massachusetts authorities hang Quaker missionary Mary Dyer for heresy after she again defies her exile and returns to the colony. Her last few words are dedicated to freedom of expression and belief.

July 4 Economics: The Committee for Trade and Plantations (or Lords of Trade) is founded by King Charles II as an advisory body to facilitate better administration of all colonies. It originates as a subsidiary of the Privy Council.

July 15 Diplomacy: Assisted by Mohawk, Wappinger, and Mahican emissaries, Governor General Peter Stuyvesant concludes a peace treaty with the Esopus Indians, forcing them to give up land and surrender all prisoners. The cessation of violence proves temporary.

July 27 Law: Judges Edward Whalley and William Goffe, who had condemned King Charles I to death, flee England and arrive in Boston.

October 1 Business: Parliament passes an expanded Navigation Act mandating the use of English vessels only, and with crews that are three-quarters English, for trading with the colony. It also includes a list of enumerated, or restricted, items, which can be shipped only from the colonies to England. Moreover, colonial vessels engaging in this trade are required to post a bond to ensure that enumerated cargoes were delivered in the realm. These facets constitute a cornerstone of British colonial trade policy; one major effect of this legislation is to spur the growth of New England’s ship-building industry.

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October 18 Politics: The Rhode Island general assembly is the first New England colony to declare its allegiance to newly restored King Charles II.

November Politics: The Maryland assembly appoints Philip Calvert to be the new governor.

December 1 Politics: In London, the Council for Foreign Plantations is established under Sir Edward Hyde, earl of Clarendon.

1661 General: The Chickahominy are forced to cede 2,000 acres of land along the Pamunkey River, Virginia, to the English, forcing them to relocate their villages to the Mattaponi River. Military: Susquehannock Indians of Pennsylvania, desiring a part of the lucrative fur trade, begin ambushing Seneca trading parties passing nearby. When the Mohawk of eastern New York wax indifferent to their plight, the unity of the Five Nations is threatened. Religion: King Charles II issues the Clarendon Code to bring England, Ireland, and the colonies in line with the Anglican Church. Reverend John Eliot publishes the New Testament in the Algonquian language, the first Bible published in the English colonies. The Quakers hold their first annual meeting in Rhode Island. Slavery: The Virginia House of Burgesses promulgates the Act on Runaways, mandating that any indentured servant, regardless of color, who assists slaves to escape will be punished by having his period of indenture lengthened. This completes the gradual transformation of African-American indentured servants into black slaves.

March 14 Politics: Connecticut political leaders declare their allegiance to King Charles II.

March 23 Religion: The Virginia assembly imposes strict fines and punishments against Quakers.

March 24 Religion: Massachusetts executes William Leddra for Quakerism after having banished him. He is the last Quaker sect member so dealt with.

June 1 Law: The Massachusetts General Court approves a rule imposing corporal punishment on Quakers and other dissenters.

June 5 Politics: The political establishment in New Haven colony declares in favor of King Charles II.

August 7 Politics: The Massachusetts General Court swears its allegiance to King Charles II.

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September 9 Religion: Governor John Endecott of Massachusetts is ordered by King Charles II to halt the persecution of Quakers and dispatch them to England under the protection of a government agent for trial. Instead, Endecott simply allows them to depart the colony. The order comes at the behest of William Penn, a Quaker and a confidant of the king.

December 7 Religion: Pressured by Parliament, the Massachusetts General Court suspends corporal punishment for Quakers, nonconformists, and other dissenters.

1662 Business: Wealthy Margaret Hardenbrook of New Amsterdam, a savvy exporter of furs and mercantile importer, marries leading merchant Frederick Phillipse. They met on a vessel owned by Hardenbrook, and their union is probably the first business merger in the New World. Diplomacy: Authorities of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, suspecting an Indian uprising, summon Chief Wamsutta to Plymouth for an explanation. When he refuses, troops are dispatched to bring him back at gunpoint. Wamsutta is then harshly interrogated, despite his claims of being ill, and he dies while en route back to his village. His successor is Metacom, a younger brother, who believes that the English poisoned him. Military: An alliance of Wyandot and other Algonquian-speaking tribes defeats the Iroquois in a large engagement near Mackinac (Michigan), gradually forcing them out of the Great Lakes region and allowing for the return of several displaced tribes by 1680. Politics: The English government insists that the Massachusetts Bay Colony charters allow freedom of worship for Anglicans and that all landowners, regardless of church affiliation, possess the right to vote. Religion: The Virginia assembly mandates that any parent failing to have his child properly baptized faces a fine of 2,000 pounds of tobacco. Slavery: In a major divergence from English law, the Virginia House of Burgesses passes its first slave codes, whereby slavery is prescribed for Africans or mixed bloods based on the status of their mother. Slavery thus becomes a formal, hereditary condition for the first time.

March Politics: The Virginia assembly votes to ensure property rights for Indians to ease the threat of possible frontier violence.

March 23 Religion: The Virginia assembly passes strict laws against Quakers.

May 3 Politics: Connecticut becomes a royal colony under Governor John Winthrop, Jr., now encompassing Guilford, Stamford and Milford. The new charter also formally annexes the settlement of New Haven.

October 8 Publishing: The Massachusetts General Court appoints two licensers of printing presses who must approve of everything intended to appear in published form.

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Chronology of American History Religion: The Halfway Covenant is adopted by the General Synod of New England; it stipulates that baptism is now extended to all children of parents who are of good character though non-church members. Through this expedient Congregationalism tries appealing to the vast majority of colonists, although not every congregation accepts it. It is still indicative of radical Puritanism’s decline and the rise of a new, less dogmatic generation.

October 18 Religion: The Massachusetts General Court reverses itself and reimposes corporal punishment on Quakers and other dissenters.

November 4 Politics: Freemen of New Haven vote in opposition to annexation by the Connecticut colony and seek to maintain its independence.

December General: The Virginia assembly passes a law declaring that children of slave women inherit their status.

1663 Business: The Company of New France disbands, and its holdings in New France pass over to the French government as a royal colony. The colonization of Canada now becomes an urgent matter of state to King Louis XIV, who appoints a new royal governor and sends 1,500 soldiers to bolster its defenses. Religion: After 15 years of study, Puritan missionary John Eliot translates the Old Testament into the language of the Massachuset Indians and begins codifying their grammar. Having previously finished the New Testament, this addition provides the first complete Bible published anywhere in the colonies. Slavery: The Maryland assembly passes a law requiring all imported Africans to be regarded as slaves. Moreover, any white woman who takes a black spouse is also held in bondage throughout the life of the husband, and any offspring are likewise enslaved for life. In Carolina, prospective settlers are promised 20 acres of free land for every male African slave they bring into the colony, and 10 for each female.

March 24 Politics: King Charles II authorizes eight aristocratic proprietors to colonize Carolina, a large region located south of Virginia. The new owners are required to pay an annual sum to the Crown but are otherwise granted far-reaching powers, including filling offices, establishing courts, collecting customs and taxes, granting land, and conferring titles. A Palatine Court is created in England with abilities to appoint governors, veto laws, and hear appeals. Thus situated, the proprietors fully intend to resurrect a near-feudal society based on the old English estate system.

April 3 General: The colony of Carolina is formally chartered by King Charles II to eight proprietors.

June 7 Military: Angered by Dutch noncompliance with treaties, Esopus Indians of the Hudson River Valley massacre the inhabitants at Wiltwyck (Kingston), New York, precipitating punitive counterraids and a protracted frontier conflict.

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July 8 Politics: A royal charter grants Rhode Island authority to govern itself and also guarantees religious freedoms. This is done because earlier charters had no sound legal basis.

July 27 Business: The Navigation Acts are appended through passage of the Act of 1663 (“Act for the Encouragement of Trade”), which restricts the import of foreign goods to the colonies. Those commodities allowed must first be transhipped to England for conveyance in English bottoms, while enforcement rests in the hands of colonial governors. Naval officers stationed in the colonies were usually delegated responsibility for actual enforcement, but these were far and few, so smuggling remains prevalent.

September 5 Military: Dutch militia under Martin Cregier surround and attack an Esopus settlement, killing 30 Indians and freeing 23 captives.

September 13 Slavery: Gloucester, Virginia, witnesses the first attempted rebellion by AfricanAmerican slaves and white indentured servants, and it fails after the plot is revealed by a servant. Thereafter, local authorities here and throughout the South begin a careful monitoring of their charges to prevent any potential rise of organized resistance.

1664 Business: The French government contracts with the French West India Company to administer trade with New France and other colonies. Law: Marriage by a justice of the peace instead of a clergyman is allowed by the Duke’s Law in New York. Politics: Carolina proprietors appoint William Drummond to be governor of Albemarle (North Carolina) and also begin compiling a Concessions and Agreements regulation to formalize representative government, freedom of conscience, and a liberal land grant policy. Settlement: Dutch settlers found Corlaer (Schenectady), in upstate New York. Slavery: Maryland passes a law mandating that African slaves who convert to Christianity are nonetheless retained in bondage. This is adopted to negate English laws requiring the manumission of Christian converts once they acquire residence status in the colony. New York and New Jersey pass their first ordinances to regulate slavery, thereby granting that practice legal recognition. Sports: Horse racing becomes America’s first organized sporting event through the efforts of New York governor Richard Nicholls. He also establishes the Newmarket Course at Hempstead Plains, Long Island, and tenders prizes to all winners.

January 29 Politics: John, Lord Berkley, Sir George Carteret, and William Coventry report to the Council for Foreign Plantations on the possibility of seizing New Netherland from the Dutch.

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March 3 Diplomacy: Director General Peter Stuyvesant of New Amsterdam is forced to recognize En�glish control of their settlements on Long island, even those falling within Dutch jurisdiction.

March 22 General: James, duke of York, receives a grant from his brother, King Charles II, for lands situated between the Connecticut and Delaware Rivers, along with that stretching from Connecticut’s western boundary to the eastern shore of Delaware Bay. This encompasses all of Dutch New Netherland (southeastern New York). He also receives complete authority to govern the area, save for judicial appeals that are reserved for the Crown to decide.

April 2 Military: The duke of York (later James II) appoints Col�o�nel Richard Nicholls to head an expedition intending to conquer New Amsterdam.

April 10 Politics: An assembly of delegates from every corner of New Netherland con-­ venes in New Amsterdam to discuss poÂ�litiÂ�cal matters and prepare defenses against the Indians and EnÂ�glish.

April 21 Business: A committee reports to Parliament that the Netherlands constitutes the greatest single threat to En�glish trade.

May 16 Diplomacy: Director General Peter Stuyvesant and Esopus Indians conclude a peace treaty, in which the Indians cede control of the Esopus River Valley to the Eu�ro�pe�ans.

May 27 Religion: Reverend Increase Mather is appointed minister to Boston’s Second Church.

June 24 Politics: John, Lord Berkley and Sir George Carteret receive a proprietary grant for land between the Hudson and Delaware Rivers (New Jersey) from the duke of York. The name selected honors Carteret’s serÂ�vice as governor of the Isle of Jersey.

July 23 Military: ColÂ�oÂ�nel Richard Nicholls and four royal commissioners arrive at Bos-­ ton to orchestrate a campaign to seize New Amsterdam from the Dutch. They are also on hand to investigate the various conduct of colonial governments in New EnÂ�gland. Religion: The Massachusetts Bay Company allows nonchurch members to vote based on the size of their estates but otherwise refuses conditions established by the king’s commissioners.

August 26 Naval: A force of four frigates and 250 soldiers under Col�o�nel Richard Nicholls arrives in New York harbor, vastly outgunning the Dutch garrison under Director

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General Peter Stuyvesant. The governor then dispatches a message to the fleet demanding to know their business in Dutch waters.

August 31 Military: Colonel Richard Nicholls demands the surrender of New Amsterdam, promising liberal terms respecting liberty and property.

September 8 Military: Colonel Richard Nicholls, with 300 British troops, easily captures the settlement of New Amsterdam from the Dutch under Governor Peter Stuyvesant. The colony has been severely depleted by ongoing wars with the Indians, and Stuyvesant, who can only muster 20 cannon and 150 soldiers, declines to resist. He further blames his loss on a lack of support from the colony’s inhabitants, who feel they have little to lose at this juncture by submitting to English rule.

September 20 Military: English military forces under Colonel George Cartwright obtain the surrender of Fort Orange on the Hudson River. It is subsequently rechristened Albany, after a possession of the duke of York. Slavery: The Maryland legislature forbids interracial marriage between English women and African men with the colonies’ first anti-miscegenation law. Such prohibitions remained on the books of many states until the middle of the 20th century.

September 26 Diplomacy: Following the capture of Dutch possessions, the English under Colonel George Cartwright enter into their first strategic trade and defensive alliance with the Five Nations Iroquois. This engenders a close relationship between the tribes and the Crown that will endure over a century.

October Politics: Governor Sir William Berkeley appoints William Drummond as governor of the new Albemarle settlement along the Chowan River, [North] Carolina.

October 4 Military: New Amsterdam is formally renamed New York in honor of its conqueror.

October 8 General: The first English settlement in New Jersey is purchased from the Indians near present-day Elizabeth by Sir Philip Carteret.

October 10 Military: En glish forces under Sir Robert Carr occupy Fort Casimir, Delaware.

October 19 Publishing: The General Court of Massachusetts restricts printing presses to the town of Cambridge.

November 20 Settlement: A royal commission establishes Long Island Sound as Connecticut’s southern boundary.

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December 4 Science: Superstitious inhabitants of New England observe “a great and dreadful comet” in the sky.

1665 Politics: King Charles II dispatches four commissioners to New England to make sure that all colonies are in compliance with royal prerogatives, especially looser restrictions on church membership. Settlement: English colonists from New Haven receive land grants in New Jersey and begin settling in the vicinity of Newark.

January 5 Politics: The New Haven colony accepts subordination to Connecticut and joins the colony.

February 2 Politics: Governor Richard Nicholls allows Dutch municipal officers in newly conquered New York to hold office and appoint their own successors. Such generosity makes for a smoother and more peaceful transition.

February 10 Politics: Sir Philip Carteret is appointed governor of New Jersey, but his authority is disputed by English settlers on land previously granted from Colonel Richard Nicholls of New York.

February 17 Politics: Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts, agrees to honor the conditions of the king’s commissioners by swearing allegiance to the Crown and permitting freedom of religion.

February 20 Politics: John, Lord Berkley and Sir Philip Carteret, proprietors of the new colony of New Jersey, sign the Concessions and Agreements, which allows freedom of conscience, generous land grants subject to quitrents, and the right of freeholders to elect deputies to a representative assembly. Executive functions are carried on by a governor and his council.

February 23 Politics: In consequence of the Second Anglo-Dutch War, Colonel Richard Nicholls confiscates all property belonging to the Dutch West India Company in New York.

February 28 Law: The Duke’s Law takes effect in New York and combines Dutch burgomaster courts with their English manorial and county equivalents.

March 11 Politics: A gathering of 34 deputies from 13 English and four Dutch towns on Long Island meet at Hempstead to adopt the Duke’s Laws, signifying the transition from Dutch to English civil and legal codes. These contain provisions to organize courts and militia, and to permit freedom of conscience. However, they deny all rights to representation in an assembly. Consequently, New York lacks a legislative body until 1691.

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April 20 Politics: Connecticut submits to conditions set down by the king’s commissioners.

May 3 Politics: Rhode Island agrees to comply with conditions set down by the king’s commissioners and to enforce the Navigation Acts against Dutch trade.

May 13 Religion: The Rhode Island assembly allows freemanship and voting without respect to religion, thereby adding Jews to the franchise.

May 19–24 Politics: The Puritan-ruled Massachusetts Bay Colony refuses to adhere to conditions established by the king’s commissioners, especially freedom of religion. They then recommend to the Crown that the colony’s charter be revoked.

June 12 Politics: As the Duke’s Laws take effect in New York, the English-style municipal offices of alderman, mayor, and sheriff replace Dutch civil offices. Freemen also receive a monopoly on trade.

July 10 General: Amendments to the Carolina charter extend its territory to Spanishheld Florida.

August Politics: Sir Philip Carteret goes ashore at Nova Caesarea (New Jersey) and settles into Elizabethtown as the first governor.

August 22 Politics: The Privy Council declares that King James II’s 1663 patent for Carolina is the only valid one, all others being judged null and void.

August 27 Arts: The first play performed in the colonies, Ye Bare and Ye Cubb, is staged in Accomac, Virginia, and lands three actors in jail for violating laws against frivolous behavior. They are eventually acquitted. Science: John Winthrop, Jr., of Massachusetts, conducts the first astronomical observations in the colonies.

October Politics: In defiance of Massachusetts, king’s commissioners establish an independent government for Maine that will endure through 1668.

October 10 Politics: In New York, Colonel Richard Nicholls orders the property of Dutch inhabitants confiscated if they fail to take an oath of allegiance to the British Crown. This is a wartime expedient wrought by the onset of hostilities between England and Holland.

November 5 General: Guy Fawkes Day is celebrated in New York for the first time, commemorating a failed attempt to blow up the En glish House of Lords in 1605. A recently passed law requires clergymen to deliver a sermon about it.

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1666 Diplomacy: Continuing military pressure from the French and Susquehannocks forces the Five Nations to seek peace with the Nispissing, Ottawa, and Mahican tribes so as to consolidate war efforts against the former. Religion: The first Presbyterian church in New Jersey is constructed at Elizabeth.

May 3 Business: To alleviate a glutted market, the Maryland assembly forbids the cultivation of tobacco as a commercial crop for one year.

August 31 Diplomacy: Attempts at peace-making between French settlers and the Iroquois end when the former hang a Mohawk chief for murder.

October Military: French troops sent by King Louis XIV and native allies raid the Iroquois homeland and burn Mohawk villages. This loss convinces the Indians to again seek peace with their antagonists.

October 11 Politics: The Massachusetts Bay Colony flatly refuses to dispatch representatives back to England to answer charges brought against it by royal commissioners sent there. Among their recommendations is annulment of the colonial charter.

October 24 Business: In Maryland, Lord Baltimore disallows an assembly law forbidding the planting of tobacco for one year to drive up prices.

1667 Medicine: Lucas Santomee becomes the first African physician to practice in New Amsterdam and ultimately obtains a land grant for his services. Military: The Susquehannock, armed by the Swedes and English and allied with the Mingo and Shawnee, drive deep into Five Nations territory and send the Cayuga fleeing north of Lake Ontario.

June 5 Naval: Five Dutch warships sail up the James River, Virginia, and capture 18 English merchant vessels.

July 7 Diplomacy: The French and Iroquois sign a peace treaty that concludes their dispute over fur trading in the Great Lakes region.

July 21 Diplomacy: The Treaty of Breda between England and Holland ends the Second Anglo-Dutch war and recognizes British control of New Amsterdam and Fort Orange. The province of Acadia is also returned to France. Henceforth, England enjoys a monopoly on colonization along the Atlantic coast south of Canada, with the exception of Spanish-held Florida. They have also secured a binding alliance with the mighty Six Nations Iroquois, have eliminated the Dutch as competitors, and are well situated to challenge France for supremacy on the continent.

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August 30 Politics: King Charles II dismisses Edward Hyde of the General Council of Foreign Plantations for promoting too much religious freedom in the colonies.

September 23 General: In Virginia, the House of Burgesses passes laws maintaining that converting African slaves to Christianity does not release them from servitude.

November 30 Politics: The Crown recognizes Connecticut claims to all land west of the Connecticut River.

1668 Religion: Jesuits prevail upon several Mohawk and Oneida families to resettle at La Prairie (Montreal) for religious conversion. This village is located at some distance from European communities to keep the Indians from being corrupted by destructive foreign influences. Slavery: The Virginia assembly passes legislation denying equal protection of the law for free African Americans. This act anticipates a movement in many colonies to draw legal distinctions between black and white free men and women.

March 24 Military: New England Governor General Edmund Andros takes personal control of all militia forces within his jurisdiction to quell dissent against centralized rule.

March 25 Sports: Captain Sylvester Salisbury receives a silver bowl wrought by craftsman Pieter van Inburg, which is the first trophy given for an American horse race. The event transpired at Newmarket Course, Hempstead Plains, Long Island.

April 21 Politics: The Duke’s Laws, a judicial code already prevalent in New York, is applied to Delaware. This code insures municipal organization and freedom of conscience.

May 27 Religion: Massachusetts banishes Baptists Thomas Gold, William Turner, and John Farnum from its territory.

June 4 Politics: The general assembly of New Jersey convenes for the first time, pursuant to the Concessions and Agreements signed in February 1665 by Lord John Berkley and Sir George Carteret.

June 5 Exploration: The Eaglet and the Nonsuch, captained by William Stannard and Zachariah Gillam, depart England on an expedition to chart Hudson Bay, Canada. This large and potentially useful region has been neglected by both France and England since its discovery by Henry Hudson 60 years earlier. Ironically, they are guided by two French Canadian fur traders, Pierre Esprit

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Chronology of American History Radisson and Medard Chouart des Groseilliers, who are dissatisfied with their treatment at the hands of authorities in New France.

July 6 Politics: A convention held at York, Maine, votes to formally recognize annexation to Massachusetts and proceeds to elect delegates to the General Court.

1669 Education: The first Sunday school opens at Plymouth, Massachusetts. Slavery: The Virginia assembly approves legislation allowing masters to accidentally kill their slaves during the administration of punishment without reprisal. Sports: Horse racing is institutionalized when New York governor Francis Lovelace arranges a yearly trophy meet at Newmarket Course, Long Island.

March 11 Politics: In England, the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina, containing enlightened precepts such as religious freedom, are issued to replace the Concessions and Agreements of 1665. Noted political philosopher John Locke, writing in concert with Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, was the probable author. However, the overall tone of the document is distinctly feudal, with all power and authority based upon proprietary land ownership. The documents are never ratified by the colonial assembly but do weigh heavily upon local religious practices.

May Politics: Three Maine deputies arrive in Boston to serve on the Massachusetts General Court.

October Business: Canadian fur trader Médard Chouart des Groseilliers arrives back in England from Hudson Bay, bringing with him a treasure trove of ermine, lynx, and beaver furs. This convinces King Charles II that Canada is a viable alternative source to the Baltic fur market.

1670 Business: The newly chartered Hudson’s Bay Company receives a major boost when Cree and Ojibway Indians arrive in large numbers to take part in the fur trade. Their activity allows for the founding of new trading posts along the Rupert, Moose, and Albany Rivers. A woman becomes the first known proprietor of a coffeehouse in Boston. Settlement: Over the year, an estimated 2,000 colonists from Barbados move to South Carolina, the first major influx into that region. They also bring their slaves with them, which boosts the African population already residing there. Slavery: The Massachusetts legislature mandates that, for Africans, slavery is determined by the status of the mother.

March Settlement: Joseph West leads the first group of English settlers to Port Royal Sound, Carolina.

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March 1 Politics: The Concessions and Agreements of Carolina are formally supplemented by the Fundamental Constitutions authored by John Locke. These have been slightly altered to make Anglicanism the established colonial creed.

April General: The English settlement at Port Royal Sound is moved by Joseph West to Charles Town, Albemarle Point, along the Ashley River. The majority of settlers come from Barbados and bring African slaves with them.

April 20 Politics: The Virginia assembly votes to halt the English practice of dispatching criminals to the colony to work as indentured servants. This particular ordinance endures until 1717 when it is overturned by Parliament and the shipments resume.

May 2 Business: The Hudson’s Bay Company is chartered for expanding fur trade with Indians in Canada. This new and plentiful source of fur is highly important, as fur is the only commodity tradable for hemp, tar, and other naval supplies from Russia. These are invaluable for maintaining British naval superiority in its colonizing efforts abroad. Moreover, the English are well positioned to offer higher quality goods at lower prices. The Hudson’s Bay Company proves not only highly profitable, it gradually ensures English domination of Canada.

July 18 Diplomacy: The Treaty of Madrid is signed between England and Spain, obliging both to respect each other’s holdings in the Americas. It ultimately serves as the basis of settling the boundary disputes between Florida and Carolina (which included Georgia). Slavery: Virginia further refines its slave code, stripping all recently freed slaves and indentured servants of voting rights. Furthermore, all Africans imported as nonChristians are held for life while Christians arriving by a land route are subject to slavery until the age of 30 if they are children and for a period of 12 years if they are adults.

August 22 Religion: Reverends John Eliot and John Cotton found an Indian church on Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, assisted by Hiacoomes and Tackanash, two educated, converted Native Americans. Hiacoomes is also the first ordained Native American, and preaches in the Congregationalist tradition.

September 29 Business: Cree Indians arrive at the mouth of the Rupert River, Hudson Bay, to establish relations with English traders. This encounter marks the commencement of organized trade in the Hudson Bay region.

October 3 Politics: The Virginia assembly affirms that suffrage is restricted to freeholders (landowners).

October 13 Slavery: In Virginia, lifelong bondage is disallowed for Africans who convert to Christianity before arriving in the colony. After some reflection, this provision will be repealed in 1682.

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December 18 Politics: The restored proprietary government of Maryland restricts suffrage to wealthy freeholders.

1671 Diplomacy: The Chippewa of the Great Lakes region sign a treaty with New France at Sault Ste. Marie, Canada. Religion: George Fox, founder of the Society of Friends (Quakers), visits several American colonies as the sect gradually starts to expand. Stephen Mumford founds the first Seventh-Day Adventist church at Newport, Rhode Island. This particular creed maintains that the Sabbath should be observed on the last day of the week (Saturday). Slavery: The Maryland legislature expands a law declaring that conversion of African slaves to Christianity does not change their legal status as slaves. In this manner owners can safely convert their slaves without fear of losing them.

March 4 Politics: Governor William Sayle of Carolina province dies and is replaced by Joseph West.

April 10 Military: Chief Metacom (known to the colonists as King Philip owing to his haughty demeanor) parades his fully armed warriors through the town of Swansea as a warning to the English not to expand their settlements. He is then pressured by colonial authorities to surrender his arms and only makes a token delivery. He is arrested by Puritan authorities, then released, but the experience of detention galvanizes him to prepare his Wampanoags and nearby tribes for eventual war with the English. With this expectation, he begins agitating among the Nipmuc, Narragansett, and Abenaki for a military alliance. Curiously, his cousin, Awashonks, female sachem of the Sogonate band of the Wampanoag, determines to steer a neutral course amid rising tensions between English and Native Americans.

June 14 General: At Sault Ste. Marie, Simon Francois Daumot, sieur de St. Lusson, takes possession of Lakes Huron and Superior in the name of King Louis XIV.

August 25 Politics: The Carolina assembly is summoned for the first time by Governor Joseph West.

December 14 Politics: Sir John Yeamans, the sole landgrave present in the Carolinas, claims to outrank Joseph West and successfully applies for a commission from the English government.

1672 Business: Considering the hardships involved, New York officials hire Indian runners to handle mail traffic between that city and Albany.

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(1638–1676)

Wampanoag chief Metacom, known to the English by his adopted name, Philip, was born in south-­ ern Massachusetts in 1638, a son of Mas-­ sasoit, sachem of the Wampanoag tribe. He matured during a period of harmony between his people and newly arrived English colonists at Plymouth, although the incessant expansion of whites onto Indian land engendered friction. None-­ theless, when Massasoit died in 1661, his eldest son, Wamsutta, (Alexander) tried to maintain the veneer of friendly relations. However, as the Indians grew increasingly aloof and resentful of the neighbors, Puri-­ tan authorities in Massachusetts suspected a conspiracy was afoot. They then hauled Alexander before the General Court and interrogated him for several days, after which he was released and died. Metacom then succeeded him in 1662 and suspected his brother had been poisoned by the English. An uneasy peace prevailed for a decade until the colonists again suspected Indian intentions and ordered Metacom before the court. He dutifully appeared and was ordered to disarm his tribe; the chief did so only sullenly and partially. Worse, by now he felt that English encroach-­ ments were threatening the very existence of his people and he sent runners out to neighboring tribes to form an anti-­English alliance. The fractious nature of Native American cultures militated against such a commonsense expedience, but by 1675 Metacom had forged an alliance of several tribes. This fact apparently came to the attention of John Sassamon, a Christian Indian who alerted the English of impend-­ ing war. When Sassamon was found mur-­ dered in January 1675, the English arrested and executed three Wampanoag they sus-­

pected were responsible. Six months later, in June, Metacom was ready to exact his vengeance. King Philip’s War, 1675–76, proved a searing experience to the inhabitants of New England, English and Native Ameri-­ can alike. Metacom’s warriors, aided by the Nipmuck, Sakonnet, and Pocasset tribes, easily overran and terrorized scattered and isolated communities across the breadth of Massachusetts. The English, after a halt-­ ing start, finally launched a large winter offensive that, in December, crushed the Narragansett under Canonchet, and also began systematically burning Indian vil-­ lages. The ensuing cat and mouse game of (continues)

Wampanoag chief Metacom (Library of Congress)

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(continued) guerrilla war took its toll on both sides, but the Indians suffered more. By the spring of 1676, Captain Benjamin Church had trained a body of Englishmen to employ Indian tactics, and he also hired dissident Indians as scouts. The noose slowly tightened around Metacom and, in May 1676, Church overran his camp, capturing his wife and child who were then sold into slavery. The chief was finally shot and

killed by one of Church’s Indian scouts on August 12, 1676, and his head was displayed at Plymouth for two decades as a warning to other tribes. Metacom’s passing signified that the balance of power in New England had passed irrevocably to the English. A pattern of warfare, displacement, and subjugation was established for Native Americans across North America for the next two centuries.

Religion: Quaker leader George Fox arrives in America and begins touring the colonies in anticipation of large-scale Quaker migration there. He returns home brimming with enthusiasm for creation of a Quaker commonwealth. Slavery: The House of Burgesses passes a bounty on the heads of Maroons, escaped African-American slaves living as fugitives in the forests, swamps, and mountains of the colony. Of late, many have formed bands and attacked towns and communities.

March Military: The Third Anglo-Dutch War begins in Europe, and one of the first Dutch priorities is reconquering their former colony at New Amsterdam.

May 15 Law: John Usher’s The General Laws and Liberties of the Massachusetts Colony receives the first-ever American copyright, granting the author exclusive rights for seven years. The penalty for infringement amounts to three times the manufacturing cost.

September 27 Business: The Royal African Company is chartered as a monopoly by King Charles II and authorized to export slaves to the North American colonies and British holdings in the Caribbean. It becomes a driving force behind the Atlantic slave trade, delivering thousands of helpless blacks to the New World, until the charter expires in 1698.

October 2 Military: Spanish officials in St. Augustine, Florida, commence construction of Castillo de San Marcos which, after Quebec, is one of the most heavily fortified outposts in North America. Work on it continues until 1756.

1673 Business: The Navigation Act of 1673 assesses duties on enumerated products at all ports of clearance to prevent colonial vessels from stopping at European ports en route to England. The act also allows for the appointment of customs officials to collect all duties.

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Military: The Iroquois Five Nations begin to roll back the tide of Susquehannock incursions into their territory, although English supply the latter with firearms in Maryland. Politics: Josiah Winslow becomes the first native-born American to serve as governor by taking office in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Sports: A fencing school opens in Boston, suggesting that Puritans are becoming more tolerant of recreational activities.

January 1 Business: Regular mail service on horseback commences over the Boston Post Road between Boston and New York, with postage costing users nine pence per letter. Although the journey takes three weeks, this road becomes the first significant transportation network in the colonies.

February 25 Politics: King Charles II allows the colony of Virginia to be appropriated by Lords Arlington and Culpepper on a proprietary basis for the next 31 years.

May 17 Exploration: Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet embark from the Mackinac Straits and venture down Lake Michigan.

June 17 Exploration: Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet discover a route to the Mississippi River by way of the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers. They paddle downstream as far as the Arkansas River before returning to Green Bay.

July 17 Exploration: Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet again paddle the Mississippi River as far as present-day Arkansas. They then return to Mackinac, convinced that the “Father of Waters” reached down to the Gulf of Mexico.

August 7 Military: A force of 23 Dutch warships and 1,600 soldiers under Cornelius Evertsen anchor off New York to take back the colony seized by the English. When an offer to surrender is refused by Captain John Manning the ships assume bombardment positions and shell the defenders.

August 8 Military: English defenders of New York surrender to the Dutch under Captain Anthony Clove, newly appointed as governor general.

August 15 Military: Dutch forces sweep up the Hudson River, quickly recapturing Esopus and Albany, New York.

August 17 Politics: Dutch authorities are appointed to administer New Orange (New York) while English settlements in New Jersey and Long Island submit peacefully.

September 11 Exploration: James Needham, an indentured servant, and nine Indians conclude a four-month expedition through the backwoods of the western Virginia frontier (Tennessee), being favorably impressed with the terrain encountered there.

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This engraving shows Marquette and Jolliet exploring the Mississippi River. (Library of Congress)

1674 Education: Harvard College appoints Reverend Increase Mather as a fellow. In this capacity, he stresses the study of science, yet cultivates the school’s traditional ties to Congregationalism.

February 19 Diplomacy: The Treaty of Westminster ends the Third Anglo-Dutch War and restores New York back to the English.

March 18 Settlement: Lord John Berkley transfers his interest in New Jersey to Edward Byllynge and John Fenwick, Quakers.

June 13 Politics: Sir Philip Carteret gains reappointment as governor of New Jersey and attempts collecting back rents due. A rebellion breaks out. This is the first such act of defiance in the colonies. Slavery: Reverend John Eliot, having succeeded with Native Americans, begins agitating for educating African-American slaves and indentured servants throughout America.

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Sports: The government of Plymouth, Massachusetts, outlaws horse racing; violators face either a five-shilling fine or a one-hour stint in the stocks.

June 29 General: The duke of York obtains a patent for all land between the St. Croix and Kennebec Rivers in Maine, as well as that situated between the Delaware and Connecticut Rivers. He also appoints Sir Edmund Andros to be governor general.

July 1 Politics: The duke of York appoints soldier Sir Edmund Andros to be governor of New York.

August 8 Politics: The duke of York grants Sir Philip Carteret a title to lands in New Jersey north of Barnegat Creek on the Atlantic Ocean to Rankokus Kill on the Delaware River. This was formerly owned by Lord John Berkley, who sold his proprietary rights to Quakers.

November 10 Military: Dutch forces in New York formally surrender to Sir Edmund Andros, A deputy to the duke of York who has also been appointed governor of the newlyacquired region.

December Military: John Sassamon, a Christianized, Harvard-educated Indian, warns English leaders at Plymouth that Chief Metacom is preparing to attack them. He is subsequently found in a frozen pond with his neck broken.

December 4 General: Father Jacques Marquette and fur trader Louis Jolliet return to Montreal, New France, after completing an epic, 2,500-mile sojourn into the interior. Among their many accomplishments was building a mission on the site of modern-day Chicago, Illinois.

1675 Business: The duke of York charters a fishing corporation in New York, the first such institution in North America. Diplomacy: The English government appoints a Board of Commissioners and a Secretary of Indian Affairs stationed at Albany, New York. Education: Twelve-year old Cotton Mather becomes the youngest student ever admitted to Harvard College. Law: Connecticut’s sumptuary laws land 38 young women in trouble for allegedly lavish fashions, while 30 young men are arrested for wearing garments made of silk and sporting long hair. Military: The Iroquois Five Nations launch a concerted attempt to drive the Susquehannock tribes out of Pennsylvania and into Maryland and Virginia. They are largely successful, and the displaced Indians begin making trouble for white settlers along the Virginia frontier.

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Chronology of American History Religion: Quakers under the leadership of John Fenwick land at Salem, New Jersey. They will establish their first colonies in the Delaware Valley.

January 19 Military: A war band of hostile Indians attacks the settlement of Pawtuxet, Rhode Island, killing several inhabitants, burning 50 wagonloads of hay and killing 80 horses.

February 14 Politics: William Penn, Gawen Lawrie, and Nicholas Lucas obtain rights to West Jersey from Edward Byllynge. All are Quakers.

May 3 Religion: A Massachusetts law requires church doors to be locked to prevent parishioners from leaving before the sermon has ended.

June Politics: Sir Edmund Andros makes an unwelcome appearance at Saybrook, Connecticut, claiming all of that colony west of the Connecticut River for the duke of York. Settlement: John Fenwick leads newly arrived Quakers ashore at Salem, New Jersey, prior to colonizing the Delaware Valley.

June 8 Diplomacy: Colonial authorities arrest and execute three Indians charged with murdering an Indian informant, John Sassamon. They were convicted by a jury composed of whites and six Christianized “Praying Indians.” The colonists further suspect an Indian conspiracy is afoot, but the Wampanoags are infuriated by the loss of three members, who they maintain are innocent. They are further angered by what they see as English interference in tribal affairs.

June 20–24 Military: Fearing for their lives, the residents of Swansea, Massachusetts, flee for the safety of Plymouth. Wampanoag Indians under Chief Metacom (King Philip) then surround the town in a noisy display until one of their number is shot and killed. They then stage a successful attack upon Swansea, plundering it and ransacking several neighboring settlements.

June 23 Military: A Wampanoag war party comes upon several settlers at Gardner’s Neck (Mattapoiset), Massachusetts, killing eight and displaying their heads at their village of Kickamuit. Other Indians stealthily approached Mile’s Garrison in Swansea, killing three soldiers.

June 28 Military: A Rhode Island militia under Captain Benjamin Church engages a smaller force of Indians near Mount Hope (Taunton), Massachusetts, where Metacom resides, and are rebuffed. This defeat induces Church to contemplate copying Indian ways of warfare.

June 29 Military: Wampanoags under Chief Metacom attack the towns of Rehoboth and Taunton, Massachusetts. Pursuing militia chase and contain them at Pocassett Swamp.

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Church, Benjamin (1639–1718) Militia officer Benjamin Church was born into a Puritan family at Duxbury, Massachusetts, where he worked as a carpenter. In 1675, he helped found a settlement at present-day Little Compton, Rhode Island, which brought him into everyday contact with local Indians. Unlike many contemporaries, Church developed an abiding respect of and friendship for Native Americans. And, being militarily inclined, he closely observed and understood their manner of warfare. When the Wampanoag under Metacom rose in 1676 and initiated King Philip’s War, Church was commissioned a captain of the Plymouth militia. One of his first acts was to boldly stride into the camp of the Sakonnet Indians and persuade Awashonks, a female sachem, to remain neutral. However, he failed to convince Puritan authorities to go after the Indians in the field rather than simply build fortifications, to maintain the initiative. Church then fought in several skirmishes with the Indians, and was wounded twice at the Great Swamp Fight of December 16, 1675, which scattered the Narragansett. In light of his demonstrable prowess, Governor Josiah Winslow appointed Church commander of all Plymouth forces with authority to raise a specially trained European company versed in Indian tactics. He also went to great lengths to recruit Indians who were dissatisfied with Metacom’s leadership and were willing to help the English. Church then raided and burned numerous villages, capturing the chief ’s wife and child on August 1, 1676. Metacom himself was cornered on August 12, 1676, at

present-day Bristol, Rhode Island, and killed by an Indian working for Church. This act effectively ended the war and made Church a hero throughout New England. Church returned to the field as a major during King William’s War (1689–97), and conducted many large raids upon French and Indian settlements in Maine and Nova Scotia, but his mixed English/Indian forces met with mixed results compared with his earlier successes. In 1696, when the General Court of Massachusetts failed to grant what he considered adequate compensation, Church angrily resigned his commission. He subsequently served as a colonel throughout Queen Anne’s War (1702–13) and led a successful raid that captured and burned the town of Les Mines in 1704. However, most of his actions met with mixed results and he was also roundly criticized for allowing a group of French captives to be murdered by allied Indians in 1704. The aged Church, reputedly so corpulent that he could scarcely mount a horse, died in Little Compton on January 17, 1718, when he fell out of his saddle. He was the first American-born war hero and an accomplished Indian fighter at a critical juncture in New England’s military history. More than any other individual, Church facilitated the eventual English victory in King Philip’s War and probably saved the colony from extinction. His unique melding of European and Native American tactics presaged the innovations of the famous Major Robert Rogers by nearly a century.

July Military: In Virginia, bands of Nanticoke and Susquehannock Indians, driven from their homelands by hostile Iroquois, begin harassing English colonial

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Chronology of American History settlements. The plantation owned by Thomas Matthews is particularly hard hit and loses its overseer. These acts prompt Governor William Berkeley to raise militia forces for the protection of frontier settlements, and he also proposes joint actions with nearby Maryland forces.

July 1 Military: Connecticut militia are dispatched to assist in the war against Metacom. However, they are recalled when New York militia occupies a strip of disputed territory in their absence.

July 8 Military: Captain Benjamin Church, impatient with waiting for reinforcements, darts into Pocasset Swamp with 20 volunteers. There they are trapped by 300 Indians and besieged for six hours until rescued by a boat of militiamen.

July 14 Military: Nipmuc tribesmen under Matoonas attack Mendon, Massachusetts, killing six.

July 19 Military: Captain Benjamin Church, now reinforced to 200 men and 50 allied Indians, believes he has Chief Metacom penned in his traditional home on Mount Hope Peninsula, where the European-trained militiamen plunge headlong after him. A stiff fight ensues in the middle of a great cedar swamp, and the English lose eight killed and several wounded.

July 29 Military: Chief Metacom escapes from Pocasset Swamp as New England militia are building a fort nearby. He is pursued by Plymouth troops and allied Mohegan Indians, who withdraw two days later for want of supplies. Once Metacom arrives in allied Nipmuc territory, he begin gathering warriors for an all-out assault.

August 1 Military: English militia led by Captain Daniel Henchman, aided by Mohegan warriors, surprises a group of Wampanoags under Onecas in their village at Nipsachuck (Rhode Island), driving the defenders into a nearby swamp. They escape capture the next day.

August 2–3 Military: Hostile Nipmuc and Wampanoag ambush Connecticut militia under Captains Edward Hutchinson and Thomas Wheeler near Brookfield, Massachusetts, killing eight and wounding five. The Indians then attack and burn the settlement, taking 83 colonial prisoners.

August 4 Military: A combined English-Indian force under Major Simon Willard attacks hostile Indians in the vicinity of Brookfield, Massachusetts, freeing 83 hostages.

August 19 Military: Hostile Indians attack the settlement of Lancaster, Massachusetts.

August 22 Military: A Nashaway war party led by Monoco attacks and burns a house in Lancaster, Massachusetts, killing seven settlers.

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August 24 Military: Indian war parties raid in the vicinity of Springfield, Massachusetts.

August 25 Military: Two militia companies under Captains Richard Beers and Thomas Lothrop engage a body of Nipmuc Indians at Hopewell Swamp, Massachusetts, slaying upwards of 40 warriors for a loss of 10. As the battle rages they receive welcome reinforcements under Captain Samuel Moseley. The engagement also brings tribesmen living in the Connecticut Valley into King Philip’s War.

September Military: In Virginia, a column of 1,000 Virginia and Maryland militia confronts the main settlement of Susquehannock Indians, who deny any role in recent attacks against settlers. They nonetheless hand five chiefs over to the English for execution before the militia suddenly attacks and besieges them anyway. The bulk of warriors manages to escape two days later.

September 1–5 Military: Rampaging Indians attack the Connecticut Valley, burning the towns of Hadley, Deerfield, and Northfield, an act prompting Captain Richard Beers to march his company to Northfield to assist the garrison.

September 4 Military: Captain Richard Beer’s militia company of 36 men is ambushed en route to Northfield, and he is killed, along with most of his men, at Saw Mill Brook. The following day a relief company arrives to find the decapitated remains of the militia.

September 9 Military: Faced with a pressing emergency, the United Colonies Council formally declares war against Metacom and any tribes assisting him. The confederation is then ordered to provide for a 1,000-man army. At this juncture, Governor Josiah Winslow of Plymouth begins arguing for a preemptive attack upon the large and potentially dangerous Narragansett tribe.

September 12 Military: Hostile Indians begin raiding Falmouth, Maine, killing upwards of 80 settlers by December. This day they also launch a second, unsuccessful raid upon Deerfield, Massachusetts.

September 18 Military: A Deerfield militia company under Captain Thomas Lathrop escorts a supply train carrying corn from Pocumtuck (Deerfield) and is ambushed at Bloody Brook while en route to Hadley, Massachusetts. Apparently, the English allowed themselves to be surprised along a narrow defile after failing to post either advance or flank guards. Large numbers of Wampanoags, Nipmucs, and Pocumtucks lurking in the woods then swarmed over the defenders, killing 64 colonials, including Captain Lathrop. The survivors are saved at the last minute by a company of men under Major Robert Treat and Captain Samuel Moseley. This is one of Metacom’s most significant victories over the English, and Increase Mather was moved to pronounce it a “black and terrible day.” It also underscores the superiority of Indian tactics over conventional European ones in a heavily wooded region.

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September 26 Military: A party of hostile Agawam Indians attacks the settlement at Springfield, Massachusetts, burning some houses and a mill before retiring.

September 27 Military: Virginia militia under John Washington and Marylanders under Thomas Trueman fail to destroy a concentration of hostile Susquehannock Indians at Piscataway Creek, Virginia. Their failure emboldens the warriors to commit atrocities across the frontier.

October 2 Military: Spanish forces begin constructing the Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine, Florida, one of the most formidable defensive structures in North America. It will not be fully completed until 1756.

October 5 Military: Hostile Agawam again attack the settlement of Springfield, Massachusetts, burning 30 houses, killing three and wounding four. A relief force of 200 men under Captains Samuel Appleton and Joseph Sill make a timely appearance and chase the attackers off.

October 12 Military: Indian warriors stage their final attack upon Springfield, Massachusetts, only to find the settlers alert and barricaded in the houses. They then burn a few buildings, steal some cattle, and withdraw.

October 16 Military: Indians successfully ambush and nearly annihilate a militia company at Salmon Falls (Hatfield) as they marched to aid the defenders of Kittery (Maine).

October 19 Military: A scouting party detached from the company commanded by Captain Samuel Moseley is ambushed by hostile tribesmen at Harfield, Massachusetts, with only two survivors. The Indians under Muttawump then lay siege to the village, which was prepared to receive them, and they withdraw.

November 2 Military: The Massachusetts Bay Colony, convinced that the large Narragansett tribe in Rhode Island has been aiding and abetting Indian hostility, declares war on them. Governor Josiah Winslow of Massachusetts then gathers seven companies of militia under Major Samuel Appleton and marches toward South Kingston, Rhode Island, for a preemptive strike against the Narragansett. En route, they are joined by 158 Plymouth militia under Major William Bradford. As they march, various allied Indian bands join them.

December 15 Military: Indians ambush a small party of militia detached from Captain James Oliver’s company at Smith’s Garrison (Wickford), Rhode Island, killing two.

December 16 Military: Indians attack and burn a fortified house at Bull’s Garrison (Pettaquamscut), Rhode Island, killing several settlers.

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December 19 Military: Assisted by an Indian deserter, Governor Josiah Winslow leads 1,000 colonial militia and 150 allied Mohegans through a blinding snowstorm to attack a large Narragansett enclave at Great Swamp (South Kingston), Rhode Island. Indian resistance is fierce, and several English attempts to entered the palisaded village are repelled, with heavy loss. Winslow then orders the various wigwams to be set on fire to burn the defenders out. Captain Benjamin Church, braving three wounds, then successfully breeches the faltering defenses. Around 600 Indians, including a large number of women and children, are put to the sword, while a further 300 are made captive. English losses are also heavy and include 14 company commanders and 200 wounded. Previously, Church had pleaded with superiors to shelter the wounded in the surviving wigwams, but these were burned as well. Consequently, many soldiers die of exposure as they are transported back to camp, 16 miles distant, in freezing weather. Hereafter Chief Canonchet is firmly in Metacom’s camp and his surviving warriors begin a relentless assault on settlements throughout Rhode Island. The Great Swamp Fight is also the largest encounter of King Philip’s War and the costliest one, in terms of casualties, to either side.

Canonchet

(d. 1676)

Narragansett chief Canonchet was probably born in the late 16th century in southern Rhode Island, a son of Chief Miantonomo. His tribe, the Narragansett, were indigenous to the region and among the first Indians encountered by early European explorers, who commented on their fine physiques and friendly demeanor. In fact, Miantonomo had previously signed a peace treaty with English settlers in Massachusetts, then watched as their settlements expanded onto Indian land, driving the original inhabitants out. This process also continued once Canonchet was made chief sometime in the 1660s. By 1675 tensions with the nearby Wampanoag exploded into bloody hostilities when Chief Metacom initiated what became known as King Philip’s War. For many months into the conflict, the colonists were hard pressed to contain the aggressive warrior bands, and there were fears that if the Narragansett joined the fray, they would be overwhelmed.

Fortunately, Puritan authorities had invited Canonchet to Boston for talks, and on June 15, 1675, he reaffirmed his pledge to remain neutral. As the year wore on and the colonists were still suffering defeats at the hands of Metacom’s warriors, the Puritans demanded that Canonchet surrender any or all Wampanoags living among his people. The chief, who considered this demand a violation of tribal sovereignty, refused. His recalcitrance convinced many colonials that he was secretly in league with Metacom, so that fall, Governor Josiah Winslow organized a 1,000-man expedition into the Narragansett heartland. On December 16, 1676, the Great Swamp Fight was waged whereby the Europeans attacked and slaughtered a large portion of the Narragansett tribe living in a palisaded village. Nearly 1,000 Indians were slain in this effective preemptive strike, (continues)

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(continued) but the surviving Narragansett then joined Metacom’s coalition. Canonchet, who had not been present at Great Swamp, immediately took the offensive against the English. A skilled warrior, he ambushed and annihilated the 40-man company of Captain Michael Pierce on March 26, 1676, near Providence, Rhode Island. This was one of the biggest defeats suffered by the colonists during the entire conflict, as were successful raids upon Warwick and Pawtucket, but the Indians gradually lost momentum as more and more of their villages were torched. At length a mixed company of militia and Indians under Captains James Avery and

George Denison were scouting through the Pawtucket Valley when they surprised and defeated an Indian foraging party. Among those captured was Canonchet, who was immediately taken to English authorities in Stonington, Connecticut, for trial. The tall, imposing chief scoffed at the death sentence pronounced on him and he was handed over to Pequot, Mohegan, and Niantic allies for execution. The destruction of the Narragansett demonstrated that the balance of power in New England had swung irrevocably over to the Europeans, and mighty Canonchet’s demise, in particular, signaled the end of Indian sovereignty throughout that region.

1676 Business: Massachusetts begins regulating the price of shoes based on size. Politics: In an attempt to assert royal authority, Edward Randolph arrives in Boston, Massachusetts, as a special agent for the Crown. He is tasked with evaluating how closely Bay Colony authorities have been enforcing the Navigation Acts, as well as investigating claims of religious intolerance, the refusal to take or administer oaths to the Crown, and denying the right of appeal to the Privy Council Slavery: English Quaker William Edmondson addresses a letter to slaveholders throughout North America, arguing that slavery is inimical to Christianity. He urges that the practice be abolished at once. The Quaker-dominated legislature of West Jersey outlaws the practice of slavery.

January Law: To discourage ostentatious dress among the lower orders, a new Connecticut law mandates that anyone found wearing silk, or gold or silver lace was to be assessed and taxed at a rate of 150 pounds. Military: Vengeful Susquehannocks, still smarting over the execution of five of their chiefs, attack English settlements along the Rappahannock and Potomac Rivers, killing 36. Political anger is directed at Governor William Berkeley over his failure to adequately protect the frontier. Further resentment arises from Berkeley’s perceived favoritism toward the Indians, having granted the Powhatan Confederacy a large tract of land north of the York River. Newly arriving settlers and established freedmen (former servants) covet this region, desiring to become landowners themselves.

February 5 Military: Despite entreaties by Governor Josiah Winslow, his army of 1,000 colonial militia begins disbanding for the winter.

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February 10 Military: Nipmuc Indians attack and burn the village of Lancaster, Massachusetts, killing all the men and taking women and children hostage. Among them is Mary Rowlandson, wife of a Puritan minister, who later publishes a narrative of her experiences in captivity. Help arrives when Captain Samuel Wadsworth’s company arrives and drives off the natives, but the town is nearly gutted and has to be abandoned six weeks later.

February 21 Military: Hostile Nipmuc and Narragansett Indians attack the settlement of Medford, Massachusetts, defeating the militia company, burning half the town, and killing 20 civilians. Indian depredations come within 10 miles of Boston before being halted.

February 28 Military: The town of Weymouth, Massachusetts, is attacked by hostile Nipmucs and Wampanoags under Metacom.

March 12 Military: Despite heavy defeats, Indian raids continue with increasing boldness, and the Puritan stronghold of Plymouth, Massachusetts, is not spared. This day, a force of Wampanoags under Totoson attacked Clark’s Garrison on the Eel River, wiping out the defenders and removing their weapons.

March 13 Military: A raiding party of Nipmuc and Narragansett attack Groton, Massachusetts, burning 65 homes. The survivors are subsequently relocated to Boston.

March 26 Military: Indians attack Captain Michael Pierce’s company of militia along the Pawtuxet River, Rhode Island, killing 42 soldiers. At length, the survivors are reinforced by Captain Andrew Edmunds’s company, who is late on account of attending church.

March 29–30 Military: The town of Providence, Rhode Island, is attacked and burned by hostile Narragansett. This was despite the fact that Roger Williams, an old tribal friend, parleyed with them on the outskirts of town.

April 11 Military: English militia under Captain George Denison, assisted by friendly Pequot, Mohegan, and Niantic, attack and disperse a gathering of Narragansett near Mount Hope (Seekonk, Massachusetts). They kill 50 Indians and capture 40, including Chief Canonchet, who is taken in chains to Hartford, Connecticut.

April 18 Military: Hostile Indians raid Sudbury, Massachusetts, killing 30 colonists.

April 20 Military: A Virginia militia under Nathaniel Bacon, operating without a commission, attacks some Susquehannock at their fort, killing several. They then turn on their Occoneechee allies, killing them as well. The Virginia polity at this time is very upset with the policies of Governor William Berkeley, who has been

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April 21 Military: Chief Metacom leads 900 warriors on a retaliatory raid against Green Hill (Sudbury), Massachusetts, engaging militia reinforcements under Captains Samuel Wadsworth and Samuel Brocklebank in a bloody, inconclusive battle. The Indians withdraw at sunset, having killed at least 30 soldiers.

May 2 Military: English captive Mary Rowlandson is ransomed and freed by the Indians.

May 5 Military: Captain Daniel Henchman, assisted by 40 Christian “Praying Indians,” attacks the Wampanoag settlement at Hassanamassett, Massachusetts, killing 11 warriors.

May 10 Politics: Disgruntled settler Nathaniel Bacon continues illegally taking up arms to fight rampaging Susquehannock along the Virginia frontier. His actions directly challenge the authority of Governor Sir William Berkeley to the delight of small plantation owners angry at the political establishment.

Bacon, Nathaniel (1647–1676) Colonial rebel Nathaniel Bacon was born in Suffolk, England, on January 2, 1647, a cousin of Sir Francis Bacon. Idle and listless as a youth, he attended St. Catherine’s Hall, Cambridge, before withdrawing and being tutored at home. He eventually resumed his study at St. Catherine’s and graduated with a degree in 1668. Shortly afterward, he was involved in an attempt to defraud a man of his inheritance and was sent by his family to Virginia in 1674 to begin anew. Bacon purchased a large tract of land along the James River and was eventually elected to the council of Governor Sir William Berkeley, to whom he was also related. At this time the colony was experiencing mounting unrest owing to

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the oligarchic tendencies of Berkeley, whose policies favored merchants over planters, and who insisted that treaty obligations with nearby Indians be scrupulously observed. As situated, the Indians formed a barrier to ambitious arrivals seeking new land, and their somewhat callous treatment of Native Americans increased frontier friction. Tension peaked in July 1675, when some Doeg Indians killed a settler for failing to pay his debts, and a frontier war began. Settlers in the region demanded action from the government at Jamestown, but all Governor Berkeley was willing to do was build fortifications. Bacon then took it upon himself to organize punitive measures against the Indians without an offi-

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May 12 Military: Wampanoag raiders attack the settlement of Hatfield, Massachusetts, stampeding a large body of cattle into the woods. A nearby force of militia under Captain William Turner arrives on the scene and decides to pursue the intruders.

May 19 Military: Captain William Turner leads 180 Massachusetts mounted troops in a surprise attack on a large body of Wampanoag fishing at Peskeompskut (Connecticut River Falls, Massachusetts), killing around 100 and capturing 50. The English are then ambushed on their return march back to Hadley, losing 38 men along with Captain Turner. However, this is a crushing defeat for the Indians, who can no longer sustain operations in the Connecticut River Valley. It also places a severe strain on Metacom’s alliance, now on the verge of splintering.

May 26 Politics: Governor William Berkeley declares Nathaniel Bacon a rebel for illegally taking up arms to fight the Indians without a royal commission. He also calls for the first legislative elections in many years and Bacon wins the seat from Henrico County.

May 30 Military: A surprise Indian raid upon Hatfield, Massachusetts, results in 12 burned buildings and the loss of considerable livestock.

cial commission, and he attacked and slaughtered members of two friendly tribes. Bacon’s illegal activity against the Indians greatly increased his popularity and he was consequently elected to the House of Burgesses from Henrico County. However, after he arrived at Jamestown to take his seat, Berkeley had him arrested and imprisoned. Bacon then feigned contriteness and was released, whereupon he fled back to the frontier to raise an army. The governor then declared him a rebel, but Bacon marched on Jamestown, driving the administration out before him. Now in de facto control of Virginia, he issued a “Declaration of the People” to the inhabitants to justify his actions, raised new forces, and returned to the frontier to fight the Indians. In his absence Berkeley regrouped and recaptured Jamestown, again

declaring him a rebel. Bacon then marched back and laid siege to Jamestown, forcing Berkeley to flee to the eastern shore again. However, because the governor controlled the waterways with numerous warships, Bacon did not want to be trapped in the city, so he burned it and withdrew back to the interior. This act caused a loss of support for his rebellion, and an impasse ensued, broken only by Bacon’s sudden and unexpected death at Green Spring, Virginia, on October 26, 1676. This should have ended the violence, but Berkeley, once back in control, vindictively arrested several collaborators under an amnesty program and executed them in the spring of 1677. In sum, Bacon’s activities were more those of an ambitious opportunist than a genuine revolutionary, regardless of pretensions to the contrary.

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June Military: Captain Benjamin Church receives from the Council of the United Colonies permission to raise a mixed body of militia and Indians, schooled in the way of frontier fighting. This represents a major boost to colonial fighting capabilities.

June 2 Military: An English force of 440 soldiers and allied Indians under Major John Talcott encounters a force of Pequot at Wabaquasset, north of Norwich, Connecticut, and gives battle. Talcott kills or captures 52 hostiles, then continues marching on to Quabaug.

June 5 Politics: Nathaniel Bacon, newly elected member of the House of Burgesses, is arrested by Governor William Berkeley for illegally taking up arms without a commission. Bacon is contrite, pardoned, and released from prison, then returns to Henrico County to begin raising a body of 500 men. Surprisingly, his ensuing “rebellion” begins receiving wide support among poor whites, indentured servants, and African-American slaves.

June 7 Military: A militia company under Captain Daniel Henchman catches a body of hostile Indians fishing at Washaccum Pond, Massachusetts, and they attack, killing seven and seizing 29.

June 12 Military: Chief Metacom attacks Hadley, Massachusetts, a second time, only to be repulsed by Connecticut Valley militia under John Talcott, assisted by friendly Pequot and Mohegan warriors. The latter crept into the enemy camp during the battle, killing many women and children.

June 23 Military: Nathaniel Bacon marches into Jamestown, Virginia, at the head of 500 militiamen, demanding an official militia commission to fight the Indians. The aristocratic Governor Sir William Berkeley is cowed into acquiescence, and Bacon departs for the frontier. The House of Burgesses is also emboldened into passing democratic legislative reforms.

July 2 Military: Connecticut militia under Major John Talcott attacks and kills 170 Indians in a swamp near Pautucket (Pawtucket), Rhode Island.

July 11 Politics: By terms of the Qunitipartite Deed, the western half of New Jersey is divided into East Jersey under Sir Philip Carteret and West Jersey under the authority of Quakers William Penn and Edward Byllynge.

July 20 Military: Colonial militia disperses a large gathering of hostile Indians at Nipsachuck in northern Rhode Island.

July 25 Military: English militia manage to kill Chief Pomham of the Narragansett and several warriors in an action near Mendon, Massachusetts.

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July 27 Military: A joint Anglo-Indian force under Captain Samuel Harding surprises a party of Narragansett near Dedham, Massachusetts, killing 15 and capturing 34. However, Harding is killed in action.

July 29 Military: Governor Sir William Berkeley, upon further reflection, withdraws Nathaniel Bacon’s militia commission and begins raising militia forces of his own. Furthermore, he again declares Bacon a rebel but not before the latter’s troops have attacked the neutral Pamunkey tribe in Great Dragon Swamp. The enraged Indians begin assembling for war.

August 1 Military: Captain Benjamin Church attacks Chief Metacom’s camp near Taunton River, Massachusetts, seizing his wife and son, who are eventually sold into slavery. A total of 173 Indians are killed that day, including Metacom’s uncle Unkompoin. The wily chief escapes capture again, however.

August 3 Politics: Virginia planters meet and swear their allegiance to Nathaniel Bacon at Middle Plantation.

August 12 Military: Captain Benjamin Church leads a force of 18 soldiers and 22 Indian allies to Bridgewater Swamp (Assowamset Swamp, Bristol, Rhode Island), where Chief Metacom of the Wampanoag is allegedly hiding. He is found with his entourage and attempts to flee but is shot and killed by Alderman, a friendly Indian serving under Church. Vengeful militiamen remove his head, and it is triumphantly paraded through the streets of Plymouth, Massachusetts, then placed on public display for 20 years. His death also signals the conclusion of King Philip’s War, whereby Native Americans failed to overcome smaller numbers of better armed European settlers in a stand-up fight. This sets the pattern of conquest over the next two centuries.

August 14 Military: An Abenaki woman is allowed into the English settlement of Arrowsic, Maine, for the night. She somehow opens the gates and many warriors rush in, killing most of the inhabitants.

August 28 Military: The last remaining Wampanoag Indians formally surrender to the English.

September Military: William Dayves and John Pate orchestrate a brief rebellion against proprietary authorities in Maryland but are crushed and eventually hung. The episode only underscores mounting anti-Catholic sentiments in the colony.

September 6 Military: Major Richard Waldron invites 400 eastern Indians into his fortified stockade at Dover, New Hampshire, for trading purposes, at which point they are surrounded by armed guards, captured, and shipped off to Boston. Once there, half are hung and the rest sold off into slavery. The tribesmen never forgot nor forgave Waldron for his treachery.

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September 11 Military: Captain Benjamin Church captures and executes Annawon, a senior Wampanoag war chief. This is one of the concluding acts of King Philip’s War, the bloodiest conflict in proportion to numbers engaged of American history. In one year, an estimated 600 colonists have been killed, while Indians have lost around 3,000—nearly half their total population. Fifty-two colonial settlements have also been damaged or destroyed, with 1,800 homes, barns, and warehouses burned to the ground. But the power of the New England tribes is forever shattered, and the tempo of European expansion inland continues unabated.

September 13 Military: Captain Nathaniel Bacon returns from the frontier and besieges Governor Sir William Berkeley’s forces at Jamestown. Previously, the House of Burgesses summoned Cockacoeske, wife of Totopotomoy, and now a female sachem of the Pamunkey, and asks for help. Instead, she angrily berates the English for past abuses against her people and only promises to supply 12 warriors.

September 16 Military: Virginia forces under Governor Sir William Berkeley attack the fortified camp of Nathaniel Bacon outside Jamestown, Virginia, and are repulsed,

During Bacon's Rebellion the farmers marched to Jamestown in September 1676, took over the House of Burgesses (shown here), and passed laws for reform. (Library of Congress)

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with the loss of 12 dead. Berkeley’s naval forces in the river also try to bombard Bacon’s main blockhouse, but he surrounds it with a chain of female prisoners to deter such an action.

September 19 Military: Forces loyal to Captain Nathaniel Bacon burn Jamestown; the ensuing loss of popular support enables Loyalist forces to regroup and chase the rebels back to Yorktown.

October Business: John Sparry opens one of Boston’s earliest coffeehouses.

October 18 Military: Nathaniel Bacon dies suddenly in Virginia, and the rebellion he instigated starts petering out. Most of the rebels and their leaders are then offered an amnesty. The main result of “Bacon’s Rebellion” is to lessen the use of white indentured servants in favor of more imported African slaves. It is hoped that the racial divide will unify all elements of the English community, rich and poor alike, in an effort to keep blacks under control.

November 8 Politics: Quaker leader John Fenwick is arrested for illegally assuming governmental powers, fined in New York, and eventually released.

1677 Military: Having dispensed with the Susquehannock, the Five Nations Iroquois seek to control the fur trade by exerting pressure into the Ohio Valley, antagonizing a number of tribes allied to France.

January 29 Politics: Governmental commissioners John Berry and Francis Moryson arrive at Jamestown, Virginia, to investigate and report on the recent disturbances there.

February 10 Politics: Governor William Berkeley nullifies royal pardons granted to rebels of the recent uprising, and 23 of them are executed.

March 13 General: The Lords of Trade will not recognize Massachusetts’s claim on Maine, so colonial agent John Usher purchases the land title from the heirs of Sir Ferdinando Gorges. It remains part of the Bay State until 1820. Politics: In Bergen, New Jersey, William Penn drafts the Laws, Concessions, and Agreements for the four proprietors of West Jersey. It provides for freedom of conscience, trial by jury, and no taxation without the consent of the governed. More significantly, it establishes the principle of separation of church and state. East Jersey, meanwhile, continues under the rule of Governor Sir Philip Carteret.

April 27 Politics: Colonel Herbert Jeffreys replaces Sir William Berkeley as governor of Virginia, halts all executions, and restores order.

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May 5 Politics: A disgraced Sir William Berkeley, stripped of political power, sails back to England.

May 6 Politics: Massachusetts Bay Colony buys the rights of Sir Ferdinando Gorges in southern Maine from his heirs.

May 29 Diplomacy: Virginia and several surviving members of the once-powerful Powhatan Confederacy conclude the Treaty of Middle Plantation, guaranteeing that each Indian village will receive land running three miles in each direction. The remaining acreage is to be appropriated by the colonists, and the Indians must also acknowledge colonial laws and courts. The English also grant a medal to Cockacoeske, female sachem of the Pamunkey, who had been instrumental in helping contain Bacon’s rebellion.

June 7 Politics: Royal agent Edward Randolph appears before the Lords of Trade and strongly indicts the Massachusetts Bay Colony for flouting English laws and regulations.

August Military: Sir Edmund Andros constructs a fort at Pemaquid, Maine, to afford protection against the Indians. Settlement: The first wave of Quaker emigrants to West Jersey arrives and establishes the town of Burlington. They bring their Concessions and Agreements with them.

September 9 Military: A hostile band of Mohawks under Ashpelon attacks Hatfield, Massachusetts, killing 12 settlers and taking 17 to Quebec for ransoming.

October 10 Politics: The Massachusetts General Court finally approves legislation intended to enforce the Navigation Acts.

December Exploration: René-Robert de Cavelier, sieur de La Salle, and Father Louis Hennepin encounter Niagara Falls in western New York as they embark on a trip from Canada into the American heartland.

December 3 Politics: John Culpepper leads an antiproprietary uprising in the Albemarle District, Carolina colony, to contest the arbitrary behavior of Governor Thomas Miller. Specifically, Culpepper and others oppose rigorous enforcement of the Navigation Acts and the summary arrest of George Durant, head of the “Popular Party.” Miller is arrested and confined to a log house but subsequently escapes to England and appeals to the Privy Council for reinstatement.

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Science: The Almanack, published by Thomas Brattle, displays a considerable command of astronomy. Having mastered the mathematical precepts of Sir Isaac Newton, he gradually establishes himself as the first colonial astronomer of note.

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April 12 Diplomacy: Sir Edmund Andros signs the Peace of Casco, Maine, with warring tribes, formally concluding King Philip’s War. Henceforth all captives are to be released to their families, and tribesmen are to receive a peck of corn annually for every white family settling in Maine.

May 16 Politics: The Lord of Trade seeks sanctions against the Massachusetts Bay Colony for gross violations of the Navigation Act and English law.

June 3 Politics: New York authorities warn John Fenwick to desist from acting as a governmental authority in West Jersey.

July 10 Politics: In a slap at Massachusetts, the English Crown converts New Hampshire into an independent royal colony.

October 26 Politics: Sir Edmund Andros, fed up with Quaker defiance in West Jersey, appoints his own governmental officials to that colony.

1679 Exploration: Daniel Greysolm, sieur DuLuth, discovers Lake Superior and the upper Mississippi River basin and claims it for France. General: Boston experiences a large, destructive fire that consumes 150 wooden houses. New city ordinances require future dwellings to be constructed of either stone or brick to minimize the danger. The first systematized approach to naming city streets is adopted in Newport, Rhode Island.

April 5 Politics: Governor Edmund Andros enters into a dispute with Governor Philip Carteret of New Jersey by levying a duty on all goods entering New Jersey ports.

June Military: Sir Edmund Andros dispatches militia forces that raid an Indian village in New Hampshire. The Indians retaliate by striking at Cocheo, killing several residents.

August 7 Naval: Robert-René de Cavelier, sieur de La Salle, sails the vessel Le Griffon from Fort Niagara to Green Bay, Wisconsin, this being the first full-sized sailing vessel to ply the waters of the upper Great Lakes.

October 10 Business: Virginia enacts laws outlawing the importation of Carolina tobacco, forcing the proprietors there to employ New England vessels to convey their goods to New England prior to being transshipped to England. This is done in violation of the Navigation Acts but is ignored.

December Exploration: French explorer Rene Robert de Cavelier, sieur de La Salle, begins exploring through the north-central regions of North America, examining the mouth of the St. Joseph River by canoe.

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1680 Military: The Five Nations Iroquois dispatch 500 warriors into the heart of Illinois country to deal with the Miami, who have been trading with France. They capture two lodges and 3,000 beaver pelts before returning home with several Miami prisoners. However, they are less successful at persuading the Ottawa, who now control two-thirds of the fur trade with New France, into trading with them. Science: In a major accomplishment, Harvard mathematician Thomas Brattle accurately computes the orbit of Newton’s Comet. His discovery affords additional proof of Sir Isaac Newton’s theory of cometary orbits. Settlement: The first wave of Huguenot settlers arrives at Charles Town, Carolina, since designated as the seat of colonial governance. Slavery: The Virginia assembly passes its first slavery statute, mandating that all nonwhite non-Christians obtained by the colony are slaves for life. Furthermore, any conversion to Christianity does not mitigate their circumstances.

January 15 Diplomacy: René-Robert de Cavelier, sieur de La Salle, and Father Louis Hennepin erect Fort Crevecoeur along the Illinois River. There he winters among the Miami Indians and tries persuading them to join an Algonquian-speaking alliance against the Iroquois.

February 4 Politics: New Hampshire is separated from Massachusetts by a royal commission, and a new administration is instituted under Governor John Cutt.

April Military: Carolina militia attacks and defeats the Westo Indians, who had heretofore been their allies.

April 11 Exploration: Hostile Sioux Indians capture Father Louis Hennepin, a Recollet (Franciscan) friar while he explores along the Illinois River. As their prisoner, he was most likely the first European to behold the falls of the Mississippi River, which he christened St. Anthony’s Falls to honor his patron saint.

April 17 Religion: Kateri Tekakwitha, one of the first Mohawk nuns converted to Catholicism, dies at the age of 24 at the mission of Kahnawake. She is celebrated by Jesuits for her devotion to the creed, and in 1980 she will be beatified for possible sainthood.

April 30 Politics: Governor Philip Carteret of New Jersey is kidnapped and tried in New York for illegally exercising executive powers but is acquitted.

May 10 Politics: Sir Thomas Culpeper arrives in Virginia as the new royal governor, under orders to punish individuals responsible for obstructing the king’s 1677 inquiry into Bacon’s rebellion.

June 2 Politics: Sir Edmund Andros usurps the executive power of East Jersey, then dissolves the assembly for failing to recognize his authority.

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August 6 Politics: The duke of York finally validates Quaker proprietors and their claims to West Jersey.

September Politics: A royal commission from the English government separates the territory constituting New Hampshire from Massachusetts. On this basis it becomes a royal colony.

October 31 Slavery: The General Court of Massachusetts mandates that no vessel is to sail from the colony with African Americans on board unless it first secures a permit from the governor.

November 20 Politics: In England, John Culpeper, leader of a rebellion in Carolina, is tried by the Court of the King’s Bench and acquitted. He had been charged with treason by former governor Thomas Miller.

1681 Business: New France adopts a trading license system to better regulate the fur trade. Diplomacy: The Five Nations send emissaries to the Miami nation in the Illinois Territory and invites them to join their confederation, but they are dissuaded from doing so by the presence of René-Robert de Cavelier, sieur de La Salle. Law: In Roxbury, Massachusetts, Maria, slave of Joshua Lamb, is burned at the stake for allegedly setting her master’s house on fire. Slavery: The Maryland legislature passes a law declaring the racially mixed children of European mothers are legally free. This was enacted to counter the practice of colonial planters who encourage white indentured women to marry slaves so that their offspring are also enslaved. Societal: The appearance of a dancing master in Boston outrages Puritan officials, who drive him from the city.

February 1 Politics: Heirs of Sir George Carteret sell his East Jersey rights to William Penn and 11 other Quaker leaders.

March 4 Politics: William Penn receives a proprietary charter from King Charles II that limits his authority over settlers in the region south of New Jersey and east of Delaware. He dubs the region “Sylvania,” Latin for woods. There are provisions for a legislative assembly, and the king retains overriding authority in matters of taxation, legal appeal, and the repeal of statutes. Penn envisions his colony as a “holy experiment,” a refuge for Quakers and other religious dissenters.

April Military: Josias Fendall leads a brief and unsuccessful rebellion against proprietary rule in Maryland; after being defeated, he is simply fined and exiled from the colony. Settlement: William Penn dispatches the first wave of settlers to Pennsylvania under Deputy Governor William Markham.

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Penn, William (1644–1718) Colonial founder William Penn was born in London, England, on October 14, 1644, the son of an admiral. He studied briefly at Oxford but was ejected for espousing Puritan beliefs at a time when they were unpopular. Following a tour of Europe, Penn studied law at Lincoln’s Inn and received his degree in 1665. Two years later, he was administering his father’s estates in Ireland when he fell under the sway of Quakerism, another unpopular sect. Over intervening years, Penn preached and wrote about Quakerism and was arrested, tried, and acquitted in a landmark case that established the precedent for independent juries. In 1670, he also published his most important tract, The Great Case of Liberty of Conscience, which advocated freedom of religion, another radical stance at the time. However, the political climate of England in the wake of the recent civil war convinced Penn that tolerance was not possible at home, so he began to look abroad. When

This painting shows William Penn negotiating a treaty with Native Americans. (Library of Congress)

April 10 Politics: Dutch and Swedish settlers in Pennsylvania territory are informed of the forthcoming proprietary regime of William Penn.

July 11 Business: Governor William Penn, through his Conditions and Concessions, attempts to regulate real estate transactions in the colony of Pennsylvania.

November 15 Law: The earliest recorded use of shorthand appears in a trial held at St. John’s, Maryland.

November 21 Politics: Governor Samuel Jennings summons the first session of the West Jersey legislature in Burlington.

1682 Business: The Hudson’s Bay Company, assisted by Cree consorts, establishes the York Factory at the mouth of the Nelson and Hayes Rivers, along the western shores of Hudson Bay. In time, as many as 500 Indians venture to

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Chronology

his father died in 1670, he inherited a small fortune, then began pressing King James II to repay a large debt the king owed his family. He also became a trustee of the province of West Jersey (New Jersey) acquired by Quakers and, in 1677, compiled the famous “Concessions and Agreements” for purposes of governance. This was a remarkably progressive document requiring freedom of conscience, democratic principles, and fair treatment of Native Americans. But in 1681, rather than pay off his debt, the king granted Penn a large territorial concession that was eventually called Pennsylvania (Penn’s woods). From the onset he envisioned it as a “holy experiment,” in which Christians of every denomination could live in peace. Penn was also sole proprietor of the new colony, and to that end he wrote the “Frame of Government,” which mandated religious freedom, an elected council and assembly, and friendly relations with the Indians. Penn arrived at his colony in 1682 and, true to his beliefs, scrupulously purchased land from the Delaware Indians to acquire

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their friendship. Over the next two years he also directed the founding of a capital called Philadelphia (brotherly love) from which to govern. Penn remained with his charge only two years before sailing back to England to settle a border dispute with the colony of Maryland. However, in 1688 the new regime of King William III viewed him with suspicion and he lost his proprietary powers in 1692. These were restored to him two years later and he returned to Pennsylvania in 1699. However, by this time Penn had lost control of his colony and proved unable to secure the money owed him in quitrents and land sales. He left America for the last time in 1701, disillusioned that his experiment in tolerance had largely failed, and he was also arrested for debt and imprisoned. Penn was on the verge of selling Pennsylvania to the Crown in 1712 when he was felled by a severe stroke that left him helpless. He died at Ruscombe, Berkshire, on July 30, 1718, and, while the colony he founded remained in family hands, it was incompetently administered by various proprietors until 1775.

York Factory each year to trade fur and take Europe an goods back into the interior. General: John Skeene, the first freemason in America, makes his appearance at Burlington, New Jersey. Diplomacy: Due to the efforts of Nanagoucy, a chief of the Mahican, the French are able to assemble a large confederacy at Fort Saint Louis along the Illinois River. Among the tribes represented are the Illinois, Miami, and Shawnee. Military: Governor Joseph Antonine Le Febvre de La Barre of New France leads a large expedition into the heart of Iroquois territory (New York), but his campaign is saddled by ineptitude and withdraws. Publishing: A significant text, The Sovereignty and Goodness of God: The Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson is published, becoming one of the most widely read accounts of King Philip’s War and, after the Bible, the most numerous colonial publication. It is only the first of the “captivity narrative” genre, which enthralls American readers up through the end of the 19th century. William Nuthead establishes the first printing press in Virginia to publish acts by the colonial assembly. Within a year, King Charles II decrees that no press be maintained in Virginia.

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Chronology of American History Slavery: In an attempt to increase the flow of slaves into the colony, the Virginia assembly strikes down its old 1760 ordinance which disallowed lifetime servitude for Christian converts. Henceforth all Africans or African Americans brought into the colony are held in bondage for life, regardless of their religious affiliation. The Free Society of Traders is chartered by the Pennsylvania Assembly; they intend to institute a system of apprenticeship whereby slaves are freed after 14 years of service if they dutifully attend plots allotted to them and surrender twothirds of their annual produce to the society.

February 1 Politics: William Penn obtains the rights to East Jersey from the heirs of Sir George Carteret.

March 1 Politics: John Fenwick deeds his holdings in West Jersey to another noted Quaker, William Penn. He does so in defiance of Sir Edmund Andros.

April Settlement: Surveyor general Thomas Holmes begins laying down streets for the new city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

April 9 Exploration: René-Robert de Cavelier, sieur de la Salle, paddles down the Illinois River to the mouth of the Mississippi in a canoe and claims the entire Mississippi Valley for France. He christens the region Louisiana after King Louis XIV.

April 11 Politics: Royal agent Edward Randolph composes a highly critical report of the Massachusetts Bay Colony for the Crown. He specifically cites religious intolerance and failure to enforce the Navigation Acts.

May Politics: Angry Virginia farmers in Gloucester, Middlesex, and New Kent Counties, upset over the depressed prices of tobacco, begin destroying their own crops to drive up the price. Deputy Governor Sir Henry Chicheley calls out the militia and arrests a number of ringleaders to restore order.

May 5 Politics: While in England, William Penn promulgates a Frame of Government for the colony that bears his name, Pennsylvania. By contemporary standards, it is a most enlightened document, and allows for freedom of conscience, a governor’s council to initiate and enforce laws and a representative assembly to pass or reject them. The accompanying legal code also forbids corporal punishment, substituting fines instead. Moreover, the governor, the council, and the legislature are all elected by freeholders.

August 7 Politics: Royal agent Edward Randolph writes a second, highly critical evaluation of the Massachusetts Bay Colony for English authorities.

August 13 General: The first Welsh community is established near Philadelphia and settles on land purchased from the Indians. They are followed in short order by waves of Germans and Irish.

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August 24 General: James, duke of York, issues a land grant to William Penn for ownership of the colony of Delaware although it accords no rights of government. Neither Penn nor York, however, has a legal title to the land.

September Politics: William Penn, in concert with Surveyor General Thomas Holmes, begins planning his capital of Philadelphia, which he envisions as a “city of brotherly love.”

October 27 Politics: William Penn arrives on the Delaware River to receive territory from the duke of York’s deputy and agent. One of his first acts is to negotiate a peace treaty with the Delaware Indians, agreeing to pay for any land acquired from them.

November 2 Politics: On a visit to the Delaware assembly, William Penn states his intention to allow residents to maintain the Duke’s Laws until they decide to pass another form of governance.

December 4 Politics: The Pennsylvania assembly convenes its first session in Upland (Chester), then proceeds to address adoption of a legislative code and the incorporation of the lower three counties (Delaware) into Pennsylvania proper.

December 17 Politics: The Delaware assembly convenes and passes a declaration of liberty and conscience.

1683 Business: The Shawnee of the Savannah River largely control the trade with South Carolina, and freely exchange furs and Indian slaves for guns. Pennsylvania levies the first excise tax on liquor to help subsidize government expenditures. William Penn initially refunds the proceeds but subsequently failed to convince the legislature to reimpose the tax. Military: Seneca war bands of the Five Nations Iroquois continue driving Susquehannock and Rappahannock tribes deeper into Virginia, where the English ask them to move. The tribe is less successful at Mackinac (Michigan), where they prove unable to storm a French-held fort. Religion: Francis Daniel Pastorius leads a body of Mennonites (Amish) to Germantown, Pennsylvania, where they settle; as a sect they are both pacifistic and antislavery.

February 8 Business: The Dutch West India Company proffers a large tract of land in Delaware to the city of Amsterdam.

March 14 Politics: The claims of 24 Quaker proprietors in East Jersey are validated by the duke of York.

April 2 Politics: William Penn signs and approves a revised version of his Frame of Government for Pennsylvania and Delaware.

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April 12 Politics: The Pennsylvania assembly adopts a new Frame of Government, which reduces the size of the governor’s council and the legislature.

June 13 Politics: Royal agent Edward Randolph departs Boston and sails back to En�gland, extremely incensed over po�liti�cal practices and attitudes he found in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

June 23 Diplomacy: The Pennsylvania government under William Penn reaches an accord with the Delaware Indians by signing a treaty at Shackamaxon, under the Â�so-­called “Treaty Elm.” Penn seeks to cultivate cordial relations with Native Americans and, consistent with his Quaker precepts, insists that land be pur-­ chased from them before colonization be allowed to proceed. The peace lasts for seven deÂ�cades.

August 28 Politics: Col�o�nel Thomas Dongan, Irish Catholic and successor to Sir Edmund Andros, arrives in New York and summons the assembly of delegates to enact the Charter of Liberties, allowing residents greater po�liti�cal participation. Andros is apparently under investigation for corruption and conducting illegal commerce.

October 6 General: Francis Daniel Pastorius and Johann Kelpius lead the first group of Mennonite settlers from Krefeld, Germany, to Philadelphia. They found a settle-­ ment appropriately called Germantown.

October 30 Politics: Delegates from New York, Harlem, Albany, Schenectady, Esopus, Mar-­ tha’s Vineyard, Nantucket, and Pemaquid, meet in New York and approve the duke’s Charter of Liberties, which calls for a triannual meeting of the legislature to approve of all taxes levied.

1684 Diplomacy: The Ottawa reject Iroquois overtures to join the Five Nations, ignor-­ ing the fact that EnÂ�glish traded goods are less expensive than French equivalents. They fear eventual Iroquois domination of the fur trade.

March Military: Having failed at diplomacy, the Iroquois launch a large expedition against Â�French-­held Fort Saint Louis on the Illinois River. However, they prove unable to dislodge the garrison or its native allies following a costly, Â�six-­day siege. Defeat Â�here concludes tribal efforts to secure control over the northern and western fur trade.

April 14 Politics: In Paris, Â�René-­Robert de Cavelier, sieur de La Salle is appointed gov-­ ernor of Louisiana.

May Politics: Charles Calvert, third Lord Baltimore, returns to En�gland to resolve boundary issues with Virginia and William Penn. Having arrived, he is himself

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charged with harboring pro-Catholicism sentiments and obstructing royal collectors. Curiously, boundary lines between Maryland and Virginia go unresolved until implementation of the Mason-Dixon line in 1784.

June 21 Politics: Acting upon the advice of special agent Edward Randolph, King Charles II annuls the Massachusetts Bay Colony Charter for numerous offenses, including failing to enforce the Navigation Acts, executing British subjects for religious dissent, denying right of appeal to the Privy Council, and refusing to administer the oath of allegiance. The government is then made a royal colony, but it nonetheless continues functioning under the old charter for nearly three more decades.

June 24 Settlement: René-Robert de Cavelier, sieur de La Salle, sails from France for Louisiana with the first wave of colonists. His efforts are expected to extend French control of the fur trade up the Mississippi Valley and provide a base for military attacks upon New Spain.

July 30 Diplomacy: Governor Thomas Dongan of New York negotiates a peace treaty, or Covenant Chain, with the Five Nations Iroquois in Albany.

August 14 Politics: William Penn departs Pennsylvania for England to defend his southern border against claims by Lord Baltimore; he remains there until 1699.

September 5 Politics: The New England Confederation holds its final assembly in Hartford, Connecticut, and is disbanded shortly thereafter.

October 29 Politics: The Massachusetts Bay Colony charter is annulled by the High Court of the Chancery for its gratuitous independence from royal authority. This act also terminates church membership as a requisite for voting.

October 31 Politics: Maryland acting governor George Talbot murders Christopher Rousby, a royal customs collector. However, because he is Lord Baltimore’s cousin, though the proprietor is held responsible, he only pays a heavy fine.

1685 Diplomacy: Deft negotiating grants English settlers in Carolina considerable influence among the Lower Creek at their main town of Coweta. This brings them in direct conflict with the Spanish in Florida, who also want to exert control over this influential tribe. Education: Increase Mather is appointed acting president of Harvard College. Politics: King James II expands the Dominion of New England to encompass New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania under the administration of Sir Edmund Andros. Publishing: In Philadelphia, William Bradford establishes the first successful printing press outside New England.

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Mather, Increase

(1639–1723)

Theologian Increase Mather was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, on June 21, 1639, the son of Puritan minister Richard Mather. He graduated from Harvard in 1656 and subsequently studied religion at Trinity College, Dubin, in 1658. Mather, a strident Congregationalist, remained in England as a minister until 1661, when the Catholic Stuart restoration made his situation uncomfortable. He then returned to Massachusetts and in 1664 gained appointment as teacher of Boston’s Second Church, a position he held for the next 59 years. In 1674 he also became a fellow of Harvard College. Mather not only proved himself a capable pastor, he was also lucid with a pen and published 150 tracts on religion, science, and phi-

Increase Mather (Library of Congress)

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losophy. Theologically, Mather was a hardline Puritan Congregationalist, unlike his father. He strongly opposed the Half-Way Covenant which allowed parents who had yet to experience salvation to have their children baptized. Mather also ceaselessly criticized the inhabitants for their growing laxity toward religion and considered King Philip’s War (1675–76), the Boston fire of 1677, and a smallpox epidemic as proof of God’s displeasure. He also strongly contested the teachings of Northampton’s Solomon Stoddard, who felt that the only way to keep the church relevant was to extend membership to the unsaved. Mather, by dint of his forceful eloquence and theological persuasiveness, convinced the synod of Puritan ministers to also oppose the practice. He then gained appointment as president of Harvard College in 1685, where he reintroduced Greek and Hebrew studies and required all students to reside at the school in Cambridge. However, throughout the unrest of the 1680s he found himself increasingly drawn into politics. In 1686, King James II forged a union of several colonies into the Dominion of New England under the ham-fisted rule of Sir Edmund Andros. As his rule became increasingly unbearable to the Puritan community, Mather was secretly dispatched to London in 1688 to have the colony’s original charter of 1629 restored. When this proved an impossibility, he managed to secure a new, compromise charter from King William III allowing him to appoint Sir William Phips as the first royal governor, and also to annex Plymouth colony to prevent it from being claimed by New York. However, many at home felt betrayed by the new document, whereby governors were no longer elected by church members, and they criticized Mather

Chronology

for it. During the notorious Salem witchcraft trial of 1692 he privately disapproved of the proceedings and then published Cases of Conscience Concerning Evil Spirits after-­ ward, which did much to help diffuse the hys-­ teria. Continuing dissatisfaction with royal governors embroiled Mather in a protracted

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political row, and in 1701 he lost his appoint-­ ment to Harvard. Thereafter he constrained himself to religion at the Second Church , where he advocated a return to the pristine Congregationalism of the Puritans. Mather died in Boston on August 23, 1723, a highly influential New England theologian.

Settlement: Missing the mouth of the Mississippi River, René-­Robert de Cavelier, sieur de La Salle, founds an unsuccessful colony at Matagorda Bay, Texas, and constructs Fort St. Louis there. Slavery: Virginia passes an ordinance forbidding African American slaves from attending Quaker meetings held for the purposes of educational instruction. The Code Noir (Black Code) is introduced into French Louisiana, whereby slaves are required to receive religious instruction, are allowed to intermarry, and are forbidden from working on Sundays and holidays.

January 20 Exploration: René-­Robert de Cavelier, sieur de La Salle, reaches the Gulf of Mexico and establishes his headquarters there.

February 6 Politics: James, duke of York, succeeds his brother and ascends to the English throne as King James II. New York now becomes a royal colony after he disavows his own Duke’s Laws.

May 29 Politics: King James II disavows the Charter of Liberties previously passed by the New York assembly and empowers the royal governor with full legislative and executive powers, assisted by his council.

June 2 Law: Chief Justice Nicholas Moore of Philadelphia is impeached by the Pennsyl-­ vania Assembly for abuse of office, but officials in London refuse to recognize his removal.

September Politics: King James II, eager to secure greater control over the New England colonies, appoints former Massachusetts representative Joseph Dudley to serve as governor of Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and New York.

September 20 Politics: Acting upon proprietary orders, Governor Joseph Morton of Carolina province dismisses the assembly to forestall the outbreak of instability arising from Berkeley County’s rejection of the revised Fundamental Constitutions of 1682.

October 17 Politics: Lord Baltimore’s claim to the Delaware territory is invalidated by the Lords of Trade, whereupon it reverts to William Penn.

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October 18 Religion: French king Louis XIV revokes the Edict of Nantes, triggering an exodus of Huguenot refugees to the New World. This triggers an influx of immigration abroad, with many of these skilled laborers ultimately settling in southern Carolina and other colonies.

1686 Exploration: While exploring the Lower Mississippi Valley, Henri de Tonty founds Arkansas Post at the mouth of the Arkansas River. Religion: The first wave of German Pietists (Dunkers) begins reaching Pennsylvania.

May 15 Religion: Reverend Robert Radcliffe arrives at Boston, Massachusetts, under orders from King Charles II. He is tasked with establishing the Church of England to counter the hostile Congregationalism found there.

May 17 Politics: Joseph Dudley, a former Massachusetts magistrate, is appointed president of the new Dominion of New England by King James II. Assisted by a royally appointed council, he is tasked with converting the unruly region into a model of centralized authority, ruled from London. The dominion initially consists of Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Hampshire, but will gradually expand its grasp over time.

May 29 Politics: King James II invalidates the Charter of Liberties ratified by the New York Assembly and several New England states in 1683. The governed thus lose their right to challenge the levying of taxes.

June Politics: The Dominion of New England officially takes form under the direction of President Joseph Dudley of Massachusetts. This is an attempt by King James II to bring the English colonies, especially the fractious, independent-minded region of New England, in line with an expanding imperial economic system.

June 3 Politics: In London, Sir Edmund Andros is commissioned governor-general of the Dominion of New England by King James II. He is to supplant Joseph Dudley as the organization's head once ashore.

August 17 Military: Spanish forces attack and destroy the Scottish settlement at Stuart’s Town, southern Carolina. However, bad weather prevents them from moving on to Charles Town.

December 20 Politics: Sir Edmund Andros, a no-nonsense former soldier, arrives in Boston with orders to centralize authority in the disparate colonies through the Dominion of New England, which he enlarges to include New York and New Jersey. This is a major attempt to consolidate royal control over English holdings in the New World and is also intended to shore up colonial defenses and enhance

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enforcement of the Navigation Acts. The original draft for the dominion intended the governor to rule through a royally appointed council and a popularly elected assembly, but King James II struck down the legislature. Consequently, all representative assemblies are hereby and arbitrarily negated.

December 21 Religion: Governor Edmund Andros promotes the Church of England and demands permission to share Boston’s Old South Meeting House with Congregationalists. His action prompts fear among Puritans that Anglicanism will be declared the official colonial creed.

December 30 Politics: Rhode Island is forced to join the Dominion of New England under Sir Edmund Andros.

1687 Politics: To further enhance royal authority, Governor Sir Edmund Andros dissolves the assembly of New York and incorporates that colony into the Dominion of New England. This move places all political authority in the hands of the new royal governor, Francis Nicholson, who will rule in Andros’s absence. Diplomacy: By terms of the Treaty of Whitehall, France and England agree not to fight over their respective colonial possessions. The arrangement last only two years. Slavery: Eight men, three women, and one child, all of African descent, escape from Georgia in a small boat and land at St. Augustine, Florida. Georgians demand their immediate return but the Spanish governor declines, citing that the refugees have converted to Catholicism.

January 12 Politics: Governor-general Sir Edmund Andros orders the government of Rhode Island colony annulled; henceforth it is run along the lines of an English county.

March 19 Exploration: René-Robert de Cavelier, sieur de La Salle, is murdered by his own men at Fort St. Louis on the Gulf of Mexico.

March 25 Religion: Sir Edmund Andros, royal governor of the Dominion of New England, usurps three Puritan meeting houses for the first Anglican service held in Boston, Massachusetts. A concordance was reached with Congregationalists to share the South Meeting House until King’s Chapel was constructed the following year.

April 4 Religion: Sir Edmund Andros pronounces the Declaration of Indulgence, which promotes liberty of conscience to all subjects in the Dominion of New England. Henceforth, Puritan ministers and schools are no longer funded by taxes from the entire population, a move cutting at the very core of their religious and political beliefs.

April 7 Politics: Sir Edmund Andros expands his authority, becoming governor of an enlarged Dominion of New England, which now includes New York and New Jersey.

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June 17 Military: A large French military expedition consisting of 800 soldiers, 1,100 French Canadians, and 400 Indian allies marches from Montreal under Governor Jacques Rene de Brisay, marquis de Denonville. His objective is to enter territory claimed by the Iroquois Confederacy in central New York and lay it to waste.

June 28 Politics: William Phips of Massachusetts becomes the first American to receive a knighthood from King James II at Windsor Castle. He is rewarded for discovering the sunken Spanish treasure ship Concepcion, which sank 40 years earlier off Hispaniola.

July 13 Military: An expedition by French soldiers and Christian Indians burns three Seneca settlements in western New York.

August 23 Politics: Reverend John Wise organizes political resistance to assessments imposed by Governor Edmund Andros at Ipswich, Massachusetts. He is then arrested and fined.

October 1 Politics: Sir Edmund Andros officially appoints Captain Francis Nicholson to take charge of New York as the new royal governor.

Phips, William (1651–1695) Colonial governor William Phips was born at Pemaquid, Maine, then part of Massachusetts, on February 2, 1651, to parents of modest means. He was trained as a shipwright but left for Boston to pursue wealth and adventure. Phips eventually became a successful ship builder and also married the widow of a prominent businessman. But, impatient for success, he turned to treasure hunting with the help of several wealthy backers in England. His first endeavor, underwritten by King Charles II, failed to uncover anything, but a subsequent expedition in 1686 financed through the duke of Albemarle recovered a sunken Spanish treasure ship off the Haitian coast. Phips then sailed back to England with his cache and received a knighthood; he is the

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first American so honored. King James II also appointed him provost marshal general of Boston. At this time Massachusetts was in political turmoil due to the loss of its 1629 charter and incorporation into the new Dominion of New England. Phips, finding himself largely ignored by Governor General Sir Edmund Andros, sailed to London in 1687 and established ties with dissident theologian Increase Mather. When Andros was overthrown in 1688 both Phips and Mather prevailed upon King William III to provide a new, compromise charter and Phips was appointed the first royal governor. He arrived home at the height of the infamous witch trials in Salem and appointed a special court to handle the proceedings. Like

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October 27 Politics: Sir Edmund Andros convenes the Connecticut assembly in Hartford and informs them he is asserting the authority of the Crown over them. He then demands the colony’s charter, which mysteriously disappears and ends up hidden in a hollow of the so-called “Charter Oak.”

November 1 Politics: Sir Edmund Andros arbitrarily dissolves the Connecticut assembly, and it joins the Dominion of New England. He now effectively controls New York and the adjacent New England colonies.

1688 Diplomacy: The Onondaga, Oneida, and Cayuga tribes of the Five Nations sign a peace treaty with France at Montreal. Hereafter they embrace neutrality with the English and French but continue struggling with their balance of power along the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River. Settlement: A group of French Huguenots, escaping persecution at home, arrives in New York, purchases land, and establishes the town of New Rochelle.

February 14 Politics: The Carolina assembly rebukes attempts by proprietors to nullify the Fundamental Constitution of 1669, setting the stage for civil strife.

February 18 Religion: The Mennonites, a radical German Protestant sect, issue an antislavery declaration in Germantown, Philadelphia, declaring it a violation of Christianity and the

many residents, he eventually disapproved of the numerous executions these entailed and, upon the advice of Reverend Increase Mather, ruled out the use of “spectral” evidence in trials. This stance was enough to bring the sorry process to a close by the spring of 1693. Phips, as governor, was also commanderin-chief of Massachusetts colonial forces. In 1690, he originated the plan for an amphibious campaign against Port Royal, Nova Scotia, which functioned as a home port for French privateers. He then energetically organized, equipped, and commanded the force, which landed at Port Royal in April and captured it the following month. This turned out to be the only English victory of King William’s War. Phips then agreed to a joint operation against the fortified city of Quebec

in concert with New York troops under FitzJohn Winthrop. Accordingly, he led a large expedition down the St. Lawrence River that fall and anchored off the city. However, Winthrop had since cancelled his overland march, which enabled French governor Louis de Buade, comte de Frontenac, to concentrate all his forces at Quebec. When Phips demanded the city’s surrender, Frontenac defiantly refused and the expedition failed. His last three years in office were also largely failures and marked by conflict with various religious, merchant, and customs officials. Phips had estranged so many interests that in 1694, he was summoned back to London to defend himself. He died there on February 18, 1695, a rough-hewn, capable military figure but largely unversed in the nuances of politics.

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146â•… Chronology of American History rights of man. The document was drawn up by their leader, Francis Daniel Pastorius. This is the first instance that a religious body in the colonies openly condemns human bondage and also one of the first acts of nonviolent protest in the New World.

February 19 Politics: Col�o�nel Thomas Dongan closes the Hudson River to vessels from New Jersey and also recommends to the En�glish government that the province be annexed to New York.

March Politics: Governor Sir Edmund Andros invalidates the charters of both East and West Jersey, which are thereby incorporated into the Dominion of New En�gland.

March 17 Politics: Sir Edmund Andros, attempting to squelch dissent toward his central-­ izing policies, restricts New EnÂ�gland town meetings to once a year.

March 24 Military: Sir Edmund Andros places control of all local militia directly under the governors of their respective colonies, who ultimately answer to him.

April 7 Politics: King James II expands the po�liti�cal authority of Sir Edmund Andros, making him governor general of New En�gland, New York, and New Jersey.

July Military: A party of soldiers constructing a fort in North Yarmouth, Maine, is approached by a body of Abenaki Indians. Thinking they �were under attack, the soldiers flee and run headlong into another body of warriors who are holding several white hostages. A fight breaks out with several losses to either side.

August 10 Politics: Reverend Increase Mather, president of Harvard College, incensed by the Â�ham-­fisted tactics of Sir Edmund Andros, slips out of Boston and sails for EnÂ�gland to file grievances before the Lords of Trade. There he will also petition for restoration of the Massachusetts charter.

September Naval: The EnÂ�glish frigates Churchill and Yonge under Admiral William Bond arrive in Hudson Bay to reconquer valuable Â�fur-­trading outposts. PoÂ�litiÂ�cal: The Virginia legislature files a petition of grievances to King James II against its sitting governor, Lord Howard of Effingham.

September 5 Military: Abenaki raiders burn the En�glish settlement of Sheepscot, Maine, although the inhabitants save themselves by fleeing to a nearby fort.

September 15 Military: The French abandon newly erected Fort Niagara, New York, after the nearby Seneca Indians threatened to destroy it.

November 3 Military: The French garrison at Chambly (Quebec) beats off a determined raid by several hundred Iroquois warriors.

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November 24 Politics: The Maryland assembly voices its disapproval of the new governor, Wil-­ liam Joseph, who was dispatched there by Lord Baltimore. They recognize his author-­ ity but their contempt underscores growing uneasiness toward proprietary rule.

December 18 Politics: King James II flees to France upon learning that William of Orange is being courted by English authorities to replace him. The final fall of the Catholic House of Stuart is also known as the Glorious Revolution owing to its lack of violence.

1689 Education: Quakers found the William Penn Charter School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This is the colony’s first public school and offers such curricula as science and inventions, but tuition is levied only for those who can afford it. Religion: Reverend Cotton Mather composes his Memorable Providences Relating to Witchcraft and Possession, an incendiary pamphlet which does much to stoke the antiwitch fervor sweeping Massachusetts.

February 13 Politics: The Glorious Revolution concludes with Protestant prince William of Orange and his wife, Mary, proclaimed king and queen of England, issuing a period

Mather, Cotton (1663–1728) Clergyman, scientist Cotton Mather was born in Boston on Febru-­ ary 12, 1663, a son of noted Puritan theolo-­ gian Increase Mather. He was well educated at the Boston Latin School and proved him-­ self a child prodigy by gaining admittance to Harvard College at the age of 12. Mather graduated three years later and in 1685 turned to the ministry by serving at Boston’s Second Church, where he preached for the rest of his life. Like his father, he espoused a strict Puritan outlook on life, although he was more favorably disposed toward the Half-­ Way Covenant which allowed children of the nonelect to be baptized. Mather also dabbled in colonial politics throughout the 1680s by protesting the high-­handed administration of Sir Edmund Andros. When Increase Mather visited London in an attempt to have the colo-­ nial charter restored, his son openly preached against Andros and, once word of England’s Glorious Revolution reached Boston, he

helped overthrow and imprison him. Mather subsequently welcomed the new governor, Sir William Phips, to Boston and baptized him. Despite his religious background, Mather also evinced considerable interest in spirituality and his tract Memorable Providences Relating to Witchcrafts and Other Possession in 1689 helped spark a period of hysteria throughout Massachusetts. However, he himself did not participate in any of the celebrated witch trials and later condemned their excesses. His book Wonders of the Invisible World provided some detailed narrative and commentary on affairs in Salem throughout this period. He was also active in community work and strove to establish Indian missions and schools for the poor and slaves. Mather proved himself a multitalented individual with varied interests, and he (continues)

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(continued) functioned as one of America’s most accomplished scientists. He was endowed with a great capacity for mathematics and fully embraced the scientific views of Sir Isaac Newton. Mather also wrote and compiled no less than 450 books and essays on various subjects, winning membership in the prestigious Royal Society of London for his efforts. In 1721, he was also an outspoken proponent of smallpox inoculation and championed the efforts of Dr. Zabdeil Boylston to introduce it at Boston. He had a vested interest in this, having lost two children to the disease and, in fact, only two of his 15 offspring survived to adulthood. Mather also proved himself to be a capable historian and his treatise Magnalia

Christi Americana (1702) remains one of the best accounts of colonial Massachusetts. But even in old age, Mather retained his strident Congregationalist morality, ascribed disease and other ailments to sin, and railed loudly against the growing number of dissident churches. And, after teaching at Harvard for 13 years and not being tendered the position as president, he promoted the founding of Yale in Connecticut as a defender of the faith. In 1723, Mather finally succeeded his father as pastor of the Second Church; he died in this capacity on February 13, 1728. He remains one of the most highly regarded scientific writers of his day, second only to Benjamin Franklin.

of Parliamentary authority over the English Crown. Their ascension also marks a turnover in English foreign policy, with Holland replacing France as its major ally. Religion: James Blair, representing the bishop of London in Virginia, embarks on reforming the Anglican Church there and in other colonies.

February 16 Politics: King William III appoints a new Committee of the Privy Council on Trade and Foreign Plantations.

April Military: King William’s War begins with a preemptive English strike against a French trading post, jointly operated by the Abenaki Indians. The residents of Saco, Maine, also take several Indians hostage, an act that triggers retaliatory measures by the Indians.

April 4 Politics: Word of the Glorious Revolution in England arrives at Boston and the Dominion of New England begins losing political coherence.

April 18 Politics: For the past three years, Massachusetts has chafed under royal rule, imposition of quitrents, restrictions upon town meetings, and taxation without consent. Governor-general Edmund Andros is then overthrown by the militia after a sermon by Reverend Cotton Mather accuses him of cultivating a French alliance and plotting with the pope. Former governor Simon Bradstreet is restored to power and the short-lived Dominion of New England comes to an ignominious end.

April 20 Politics: Massachusetts authorities install a “Council for the Safety and Conservation of the Peace” in order to facilitate the return to civilian rule.

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April 26 Politics: Word of Andros’s downfall prompts the counties of Queens, Suffolk, and Westchester, New York, to remove royal authorities and elect their own representatives.

April 27 Politics: The Virginia assembly votes to proclaim the new sovereigns, William and Mary.

May Military: King William III of England declares war against France and the ensuing conflict, the War of the Grand Alliance Augsburg, gradually merges into a colonial conflict called King William’s War.

May 1 Politics: Rhode Island reembraces political governance under its old charter.

May 9 Politics: Connecticut reconstitutes its original charter.

May 24 Politics: With Governor Edmund Andros deposed, Massachusetts reinstates its charter government. Parliament that same day also passes the Toleration Act, which allows for limited freedom of conscience outside the Anglican Church of England.

May 31 Politics: Jacob Leisler leads a rebellion in New York upon hearing of the arrest of Sir Edmund Andros, seeking to establish representative government. The rebels seize Fort James from Governor Francis Nicholson.

Leisler, Jacob

(ca. 1640–1691)

Colonial rebel Jacob Leisler was probably born at Frankfurtam-Main around 1640, and he subsequently joined the Dutch West India Company as a soldier. In this capacity he was assigned to the garrison of New Netherland (New York) in 1660, where he married a wealthy widow and established himself as a successful merchant. He functioned without interruption once the colony was captured by the English in 1660, although he came to resent the power and affluence of the Dutch patroons (landed lords), who had monopolized many facets of trade. The turning point in Leisler’s life occurred in 1688, in the wake of England’s Glorious Revolution, which deposed King James II in favor of King

William III. News of the upheaval led to the arrest and expulsion of Governor General Edmund Andros in Boston while his subordinate, Lieutenant Governor Francis Nicholson, tried clinging to power in New York. Leisler, who strongly supported King William, took it upon himself to help orchestrate a rebellion to root out James II’s few remaining supporters. On May 31, 1689, soldiers under his control stormed Fort James on Manhattan Island and renamed it Fort William. The rebels determined beforehand to keep possession of the fort until a new governor could be commissioned by the (continues)

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(continued) government. Nicholson tried and failed to regain control of the militia and finally departed for England on June 24, 1689. Shortly afterward, a letter arrived at New York which was addressed to Nicholson—or whoever was in charge of the colony at that time—to preserve the peace and administer His Majesty’s province. Leisler viewed this as authorization to usurp control of the government, and he declared himself lieutenant governor of New York in December 1689. Although many aristocrats questioned the legality of this move, the lower classes, whom Leisler seemed to champion, fully endorsed it. As governor, Leisler energetically moved to prepare the defenses of the colony when King William’s War broke out. He summoned the first intercolonial congress in American history, which met in Albany on May 1, 1690, to map out a strategy for combating the French in Canada. Leisler,

stridently anti-Catholic, proposed several overland expeditions into Quebec, which failed due to supply shortages and inexperienced colonial leadership. However, on January 28, 1691, Major Richard Ingoldsby arrived at New York with two companies of soldiers and demanded that Leisler step down. He was there at the behest of Colonel Henry Sloughter, who had been commissioned governor of New York in September 1689 but had yet to arrive. Leisler, however, refused to surrender his authority and fighting broke out that cost two lives. It was not until Sloughter finally came ashore in March that the change of government transpired, and Leisler was arrested and tried for treason against the king. He and his son-in-law Jacob Milborne were hanged on May 16, 1691. However, a few years later Parliament reversed the sentence, allowing Leisler’s heirs to reclaim their property and receive a large indemnity.

June 6 Politics: Massachusetts elects new delegates to the General Court.

June 11 Military: Lieutenant Governor Francis Nicholson abandons the city to rebel forces under Jacob Leisler and flees to England. Once the rebels accost the royal customs house, Leisler is declared commander-in-chief.

June 12 Political: A victorious Jacob Leisler invites town and county governments to join his regime in New York. He then quickly consolidates power.

June 22 Politics: New York rebel leader Jacob Leisler swears political allegiance to King William and Queen Mary.

June 27 Military: Two Indian women arrive outside the stockaded home of Major Richard Waldron, who advise him that a body of Indians will appear on the morrow for trading purposes. He allows them to sleep within the confines of his home that night, at which point they unlock the gates and summon nearby warriors, who kill 23 settlers and capture 29. They also kill Waldron, repaying him for his earlier treachery against them.

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English-supported Iroquois Indians raid and devastate French settlements near Quebec while French-leaning Abenaki lead raids into New Hampshire and Maine. They fall upon Cocheco, New Hampshire, killing 23 settlers and capturing 29.

July 20 Politics: Rebel leader Jacob Leisler intercepts a letter addressed to Colonel Francis Nicholson from the English secretary of state, imploring the maintenance of existing law and order, which he misinterprets as applying to himself.

July 25 Politics: An order in council arrives at Boston demanding the extradition of Sir Edmund Andros back to England for trial.

July 27 Politics: John Coode, leading the Protestant Association of Maryland, captures the capital of St. Mary from proprietary forces and Governor William Joseph along with it. He then begins organizing a new government in the name of William and Mary.

July 27–August 15 Politics: New York rebel Jacob Leisler summons the first colonial assembly of representatives to meet in New York.

August 2 –4 Military: Penobscot and Maliseet Indians seize Pemaquid, Maine, burning the village and fort, then carrying off all of the surviving inhabitants.

August 5 Military: A force of 1,500 Iroquois warriors overrun the settlement of Lachine, near Montreal, killing 24 inhabitants and 40 soldiers, and carrying off 90 captives. This is the first large-scale engagement of King William’s War and sets the tone for a series of border raids from both sides.

August 21 Military: French-incited Indians attack English settlements in the vicinity of Fort Charles, Maine, resulting in the death of one farmer and the capture of his two sons. These remained hostages for the next six years.

August 22 Politics: The Maryland assembly convenes and elects Nehemiah Blakiston as its president, then petitions the Crown to void Lord Baltimore’s proprietary regime and convert the province into a royal colony.

September 6 Politics: The rebel administration of Jacob Leisler creates a Committee of Public Safety to maintain order in and around New York.

September 21 Military: Colonial militia and Plymouth Indians under Colonel Benjamin Church arrives at Casco Bay, Maine, intending to raid French-led Indians. Instead, they end up protecting the English settlement at Falmouth (Portland) from attack, skirmishing heavily with enemy forces in nearby Brackett’s Woods. A confused six-hour fight and chase ensues, but at length the 300–400 Indians withdraw and the town is spared from a ravaging.

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October 14 Politics: The political establishment in Albany, New York, declines to join Jacob Leisler’s government in New York City, and elects its own leaders.

October 16 Military: Louis de Baude, comte de Frontenac arrives in Canada with a large contingent of military reinforcements and a strategy for conquering New England.

November 13 Military: Iroquois warriors attack the French settlement of La Chenage, Canada, killing several inhabitants.

December 11 Politics: New York rebel Jacob Leisler extends his political authority over all of New York colony.

December 16 Law: Parliament passes a Declaration of Rights as statute law, anticipating the American Bill of Rights by a century.

1690 Business: Massachusetts authorities authorize a 30-woman consortium to saw lumber and produce potash as fertilizer. English settlers in Carolina commence trading openly with the Cherokee while expanding these endeavors among the Shawnee, Creek, and Yamassee. The latter two tribes, meanwhile, begin raiding Spanish settlements to acquire slaves for the English. German settlers in Pennsylvania establish North America’s first viable paper mill. Education: The New England Primer by Benjamin Harris become the first significant textbook used in colonial grade school; it remains the standard text for the next 50 years. Ultimately, 6 to 8 million copies are printed over the next century and a half. Military: The General Court of Massachusetts, eager to enhance the security of its most distant settlements, orders that the exact location of the frontier be determined and that each town present maintain a garrison of 40 soldiers. Religion: Francis Daniel Pastorius, noted Mennonite minister, publishes the significant pamphlet Four Short Yet Uncommon and Very Useful Tracts in Germantown, Pennsylvania. Slavery: Legislators in Carolina make slaves freeholder’s property except for the purpose of paying debts. In Connecticut, laws arise forbidding either AfriThis engraving depicts an iron mask and collar used can Americans or Native Americans from leaving by some slaveholders to keep field workers from town limits without permission from their masters. running away and to prevent them from eating Transgressors would be considered fugitives and puncrops such as sugarcane. (Library of Congress) ished accordingly.

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January 22 Diplomacy: The Five Nations Iroquois renew their Covenant Chain alliance with the English crown at Onondaga, New York, and offer to help fight the French.

January 28 Military: French and Indian forces under Joseph-François Hertele de la Fresniere depart Trois Rivieres (Quebec), Canada, to attack New England settlements along the border.

February Politics: When Governor James Colleton of Carolina imposes martial law to stop abuses of the Indian trade and collect quitrents, he is overthrown by rebels led by Seth Sothel, who appoints himself governor.

February 1 Politics: King William declares his support for the new Maryland government under the Protestant Association.

February 3 Business: Massachusetts becomes the first colony to issue paper money to pay militia forces serving against Quebec.

February 9 Military: At dawn, a force of 200 French and 150 Indians under Jacques Le Moyne de Sainte-Helene and Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville attacks through a blizzard and destroys Corlaer (Schenectady), New York. The raiders kill 60 settlers and take 30 hostage. The ensuing panic prompts the governor of New York in Albany to surrender his authority to rebel leader Jacob Leisler in New York City.

March 12 Politics: New Hampshire, reflecting upon its relative defenselessness in the face of ongoing Indian attacks, votes to rejoin Massachusetts.

March 18 Military: Attacking French, Canadians, and Abenaki under Joseph-François Hertel de La Fresniere storm the town stockade at Salmon Falls (Portsmouth), New Hampshire, killing 34 settlers and taking 54 prisoners. The raiders then raze the settlement before departing with their booty and prisoners.

April Business: The New York legislature, at the behest of Jacob Leisler, summarily bans colonial merchants from engaging in trade monopolies—all towns are free to engage to trade equally. This is a reflection of the democratic impulse driving his “rebellion.” Leisler also orders the arrest of all Catholics and prepares to thwart a French/Catholic threat to the colony.

May 1 Military: Having been summoned by Jacob Leisler, representatives from Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New York meet at Albany to divine strategy against the French. This is the first intercolonial congress ever held in British North America. The delegates finally approve a plan to invade Canada with land forces from New York and New England under Colonel Fitz-John Winthrop. A large naval force is also to be dispatched up the St. Lawrence River under Sir William

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May 3 Military: Sir William Phips takes 14 ships and 700 Massachusetts militia from Nantasket, Massachusetts, on an expedition against Port Royal, Acadia (Nova Scotia), which serves as a base for French privateers.

May 11 Military: An large expedition under Sir William Phips anchors off Acadia, and prepares to attack the French fort at Port Royal. However, once the winds die down the English are forced to wait a full day before landing troops.

May 16 Military: New England militia under Sir William Phips plunders French settlements at Passamaquoddy, Maine.

May 16–20 Military: A force of 400–500 Indians, Canadians, and French under Pierre Roninau de Portneuf attack and destroy the settlement of Falmouth (Portland), Maine, as part of Frontenac’s overall strategy of reducing New England. After destroying the town of Casco, Maine, the raiding party invests nearby Fort Loyal (present-day Portland). The garrison under Captain Sylvanus Davis resists stoutly for four days, then surrenders under a French guarantee of safety. Indians subsequently massacre over 100 soldiers once they leave the fort, and many women and children are taken to Quebec as hostages. The most celebrated of these, Hannah Swanton, compiles and publishes an engaging captive narrative.

May 19 Military: Port Royal, Acadia, falls to provincial forces under Sir William Phips without a struggle. On the following day the raiders depart for Boston, leaving behind a small garrison. This proves the sole major English victory of King William’s War.

July 22 Naval: French privateers under Pierre Le Picard attack and plunder Block Island, Rhode Island. News of their presence places the defenses of nearby Newport on high alert.

July 30 Naval: Governor John Easton of Rhode Island orders the 10-gun sloop Loyal Stede under Captain Thomas Paine to search for and attack French privateers in the vicinity of Block Island. En route Paine is joined by additional forces under Captain John Godfrey.

July 31 Naval: Colonial sloops under Captains Thomas Paine and John Godfrey engage the French bark commanded by Pierre Le Picard off Block Island, Rhode Island. In the ensuing clash, 14 French are killed, but Picard manages to escape for the open sea.

August 2 Politics: The English attorney general restores Connecticut’s charter, which had been illegally annulled by King James II.

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August 7 Military: Colonial militia numbering 850 men under Fitz-John Winthrop begin advancing up the Champlain River Valley to attack Montreal. However, having marched 100 miles north of Albany, Winthrop fails to receive promised Indian reinforcements and also experiences a shortage of supplies. He thereupon cancels the campaign and marches back to Albany. Meanwhile Captain John Schuyler, 29 militiamen, and 120 Iroquois are left behind with orders to harass communities around Montreal.

August 13 Military: Captain John Schuyler leads a small party of 30 militia and 120 Indians up Lake Champlain and raids the French village at La Prairie. Attacking at dawn, they kill six inhabitants, 19 captives, and 150 livestock after burning down 16 homes and barns. This is the only offensive action mounted by Colonel FitzJohn Winthrop’s army, which is then marched back to Albany, short on supplies and Indian support.

August 19 Military: Sir William Phips departs Massachusetts with 34 ships and 2,300 men for an amphibious descent upon the French-held citadel of Quebec. He does so in concert with a column of infantry supposedly marching up the Champlain River Valley against Montreal.

August 21 Military: The much-ballyhooed column under Colonel Fitz-John Winthrop returns to Albany, New York, whereupon he is unceremoniously removed from command.

September 23 Military: The expedition of Sir William Phips, beset by a lack of trained pilots, works its way up the St. Lawrence River and reaches the French settlement of Tadoussac.

September 25 Journalism: Publick Occurrences is printed in Boston by Benjamin Harris, becoming the first newspaper published in America. However, it is suppressed four days later for failing to secure governmental permission.

September 29 Technology: Printers William Bradford and William Rittenhouse obtain 20 acres to construct the colony’s first paper mill.

October 16 Military: The colonial expedition of Sir William Phips arrives outside the walls of Quebec, then held by 200 men under its indomitable Governor-general Louis de Baude, comte de Frontenac. The following day, Phips sends a message ashore demanding the city’s surrender, but Frontenac stoutly refuses.

October 17 Military: As New England ships bombard Quebec as a diversion, Major John Walley of Plymouth Colony lands 1,300 troops at Beauport to commence land operations. However, their advance becomes bogged down in a frozen swamp, where they linger for two days and nights.

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October 21 Military: A very discouraged Major John Walley embarks his men back onto the English fleet, having accomplished nothing against French defenses at Quebec.

October 22 Military: The combined expedition of Sir William Phips, outgunned at Quebec, withdraws down the St. Lawrence River in defeat. The voyage back to Boston is marked by an outbreak of smallpox among the soldiers, which kills upwards of 200 men.

November 24 Politics: To better coordinate the colonial military response, Colonel Henry Sloughter is appointed governor of New England by the English Lords of Trade.

1691 Religion: A schism erupts among the Society of Friends when George Keith accuses them of becoming too lax and informal. Slavery: Virginia outlaws the practice of manumitting African Americans unless they intend leaving the colony within six months. Owners also bear expenses associated with transporting their charges out of Virginia. Another new law forbids racial intermarriage between Europeans, Africans, and Native Americans.

February 8 Politics: New York rebel Jacob Leisler refuses to surrender power to Major Robert Ingoldesby, who arrives at New York with an English regiment to represent Colonel Henry Sloughter, the new governor appointed by the Lords of Trade.

March 27 Military: Fighting breaks out in New York City between supporters of Jacob Leisler and the newly arrived English governor. Two soldiers are killed, but Major Robert Ingoldesby captures City Hall and Leisler’s supporters begin deserting him.

March 29 Politics: Col o nel Henry Sloughter, the new governor of New En gland, arrives with additional forces and the following day Jacob Leisler surrenders to him.

March 30 Politics: Colonel Henry Sloughter summons a legislative assembly in New York, this time officially sanctioned by the government.

April Politics: Governor William Penn allows the Lower Counties (Delaware) to possess their own government separate from that of Pennsylvania and also appoints William Markham his deputy governor.

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April 10–27 Politics: Jacob Leisler and nine of his followers are tried for treason in New York. He and seven others are convicted and sentenced to death; one man will eventually be pardoned.

May 13 Politics: The New York assembly convenes under the authority of the English Crown and reconstitutes the 1683 Charter of Liberties. This is the beginning of sustained representative government.

May 16 Politics: English authorities hang New York rebels Jacob Leisler and his principal subordinate, Jacob Milbourne, for treason. Both had been denied their right of appeal to the English Crown upon the insistence of leading New York families. Ironically both Leisler and the judge who condemned him are strong supporters of William and Mary.

June 27 Politics: Maryland is made a royal colony by the English Lords of Trade, and Sir Lionel Copley gains appointment as the first royal governor. Lord Baltimore is accordingly stripped of political power, although he is allowed to maintain his property.

August 11 Military: Captain Major Peter Schuyler marches northward against the French village of La Prairie, successfully storming it after defeating a force of 400 French in a difficult fight. However, Schuyler is daunted by French numbers and concludes he ought to retreat. In the act of withdrawing to his canoes, Schuyler encounters another strong French column and defeats them, losing 40 men before retiring back to Albany. Politics: An agreement reached between the proprietors of Carolina colony and the Palatine Court divides the colony into North and South Carolina. Philip Ludlow is named governor of both, with authority to appoint a deputy to oversee Albemarle province to the north.

September Military: Major Benjamin Church returns to active duty and takes 300 militiamen against the Abenaki around Casco, Maine. He manages to destroy several villages.

October 17 Politics: Massachusetts receives a new charter reaffirming its royal status but also incorporating nearby Plymouth colony, Nova Scotia, and Maine. This provides for a governor appointed by the Crown, a council elected by the General Court, and substitution of property for religion as a voting requirement. The new document also allows for freedom of conscience for all except Catholics.

November 8 Politics: The province of Albemarle in the northern part of Carolina is placed under the jurisdiction of the governor’s deputy residing at Charleston. This is the first official reference to a “North” Carolina.

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1692 Business: In their never-ending quest to acquire slaves, traders in South Carolina begin manipulating their various Indian allies to provoke wars among them—the prisoners taken invariably end up in English hands as slaves. Through this expedient, the English begin expanding their contacts with tribes as far west as Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi. Education: Massachusetts revokes compulsory education laws; henceforth poor children are bound out as apprentices. Military: Connecticut deploys several hundred of its soldiers to western Massachusetts for the protection of frontier communities there. Their presence reflects a growing sense of regional cooperation in military matters. Religion: Increase Mather obtains the first divinity degree ever granted in the colonies from Harvard College. Slavery: The Maryland legislature will punish any European man or woman conceiving children with a slave by seven years of indenture. A new Virginia law promises slave owners that they would receive 4,000 pounds of tobacco in compensation for any slave legally killed. Pennsylvania authorities pass a law that forbids slaves from loitering in unauthorized areas without passes from their owners; transgressors face imprisonment or whipping. Societal: The Massachusetts Assembly allows clergymen to perform marriage ceremonies for the first time. This practice was long reserved for the courts and magistrates alone.

February 6 Military: Joseph Robinau de Villebon, governor of Acadia, urged a combined Penobscot-Kennebec Indian force to attack York, Maine. They do so this day, killing or capturing most of the inhabitants.

February 17 General: Thomas Neale obtains a patent to create an American postal service over the next two decades and he selects Andrew Hamilton to do the actual organizing.

February 29 Religion: The celebrated “Witch Trials” begin in Danvers, Massachusetts, after a group of young girls feigns hysteria and claims that a family slave has bewitched them. Tituba, a slave from Barbados living with the family of Reverend Samuel Parris, a Puritan minister, is accused of placing a spell over the young girls. Tituba subsequently accuses other women of practicing witchcraft, a very real fear in the minds of 17th century colonists, so Puritan authorities gradually round up 150 suspected witches and jail them to await trial in nearby Salem.

March 7 Law: Former Barbados slave Tituba confesses her role in bewitching the daughters of Reverend Samuel Parris and is exiled from the colony. Before departing, she implicates three other “witches,” all of whom are arrested and imprisoned.

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March 18 Politics: Pennsylvania is declared a royal colony at the behest of King William III. William Penn will be thus stripped of all proprietary authority, and a royal governor, Benjamin Fletcher, is appointed to rule in his stead. This action is taken because the Quaker majority refuses to become involved in King William’s War and because Penn was politically close to exiled King James II.

May Law: Newly arrived governor William Phips orders a special Court of Oyer and Terminer convened to deal with witchcraft and dampen down the mounting frenzy surrounding this issue.

May 10 Religion: The Protestant-dominated Maryland legislature establishes the Church of England as the colony’s official creed. However, the Board of Trade and Plantations in London, reacting to complaints by Catholics and Quakers, nullifies this act in 1696.

May 29 Politics: King William III invalidates the Charter of Liberties ratified by the New York assembly and several New England states in 1683. The governed thus lose their right to challenge the levying of taxes.

June 2 Law: In Salem, Massachusetts, a special Court of Oyer and Terminer convenes for the purpose of trying individuals suspected of practicing witchcraft. It is composed of some of the colony’s leading judicial minds, including Bartholomew Gendey, Samuel Sewall, John Richards, William Sergeant, Wait Winthrop, and Nathaniel Saltonstall, and is presided over by Chief Justice William Stoughton.

June 8 Law: The General Court of Massachusetts revives an old law requiring the death penalty for anyone convicted of dealing in witchcraft.

June 10 Law: Bridget Bishop is hanged by Puritan authorities in Massachusetts for practicing witchcraft.

June 21 Military: Massachusetts militia successfully repel French-Abenaki attack against Wells, Maine.

June 23 Military: French and Indian forces attack the settlement of Durham, New Hampshire.

July 15 Law: Martha Carrier of Andover, Massachusetts, is accused of practicing witchcraft and arrested until her trial.

July 19 Law: Five women are hanged in Massachusetts for practicing witchcraft.

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August Military: Governor William Phips orders the construction of Fort William Henry, a large stone fortification, at Pemaquid, Maine.

August 13 Politics: New Hampshire again reverts to the status of a royal colony.

August 19 Law: Martha Carrier is hanged in Salem, Massachusetts, for allegedly practicing witchcraft.

August 29 Naval: Captain James Knight of the Hudson Bay Company arrives at Fort York (Ontario) with vessels Royal Hudson’s Bay, Dering, Pery, and Prosperous. He is conveying 213 men as part of the garrison.

September 22 Religion: Five people are hanged in Salem, Massachusetts, after being accused of witchcraft. They could have saved themselves by “confessing” their sins to Puritan authorities but chose to die instead.

October 21 Politics: William and Mary formally strip William Penn of his proprietary powers and appoint Benjamin Fletcher as royal governor of Pennsylvania.

This engraving depicts a Salem witchcraft trial. (Library of Congress)

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October 29 Law: Governor William Phips of Massachusetts dissolves the Court of Oyer and Terminer amid rising complaints and petitions about the witch trials in Salem. Most were upset that citizens were being accused and executed on the grounds of extremely flimsy evidence normally not admissible in court.

December 16 Law: The General Court of Massachusetts orders special sessions of the Superior Court of Judicature to finish adjudicating the remaining witch trials in Salem. Of the more than 200 people suspected of witchcraft, 14 women and five men would face the gallows.

1693 Slavery: King Charles II of Spain proclaims a policy of granting freedom to all British slaves who can reach Florida. His motives are guided less by altruism than an intention to inflict economic harm on British colonies.

January Law: Determined to halt the witch hunt in Salem, Governor William Phips reprieves eight captives accused of witchcraft from gallows and removes several judges from the bench. Religion: In Boston, Reverend Cotton Mather proffers the Rules for the Society of Negroes, the earliest known religious association for African Americans. Slavery: Quakers under George Keith publish an early antislavery tract, An Exhortation & Caution to Friends Concerning Buying or Keeping of Negroes, previously presented at their annual meeting in Philadelphia.

January 28 Military: Nicholas d’Ailleboust de Manthet, commanding a force of Caughnawaga, seizes a Mohawk village in upper New York, and withdraws with 300 captives.

February 8 Education: William and Mary College is chartered in Williamsburg, Virginia, to educate Anglican clergymen and Christianize Native Americans. This is the second-oldest institute of higher learning in the colonies, and James Blair is its first president. Science: John Banister of Virginia composes the first systematic natural history paper on plants in his native colony.

May Law: Governor William Phips pardons the last eight prisoners being held on charges of witchcraft.

June 22 Naval: Admiral Sir Francis Wheler arrives in Boston from Martinique, intending to participate in a northern campaign under Sir William Phips. However, his fleet is in poor shape owing to disease, and the effort is postponed for the time being.

July 2 Naval: Captain James Knight attacks and captures Fort Sainte Anne on James Bay, Ontario, with his three Hudson’s Bay Company vessels.

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August 13 Naval: The squadron of Admiral Sir Francis Wheler departs Boston, still in emaciated condition, and proves unable to mount an attack against the French-held island of Saint Pierre off Newfoundland.

October 4 Military: New York governor Benjamin Fletcher summons colonial delegates to a high-level strategy conference for prosecuting the war against France. Nothing is resolved, and the war effort muddles on.

December 7 Politics: The English attorney general rules that Rhode Island’s charter had been wrongly usurped by King James II, and it is restored.

1694 January 16 Military: A force of 230 Indians led by Jesuits Louis Pierre Thury and Sebastien de Billie attack English settlements along Oyster Bay, Maine. Around 100 colonists are slain.

February 10 Politics: Francis Nicholson gains appointment as royal governor of Maryland.

June 23 Military: French and Indian forces attack English settlements at Durham, New York.

July 18 Military: A force of 300 French-incited Penobscot Indians attacks the settlement of Oyster River (Durham), New Hampshire, killing or capturing over 100 inhabitants.

August 15 Diplomacy: In Albany, New York, the Iroquois sign a peace treaty with colonial representatives from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts. This is undertaken to preclude any possibility of a military alliance between the Indians and France.

August 20 Politics: King William III restores William Penn as proprietary governor of Pennsylvania, replacing New York governor Benjamin Fletcher.

August 31 Naval: The English vessels William and Mary engage and defeat seven French warships off Newfoundland.

September 24 Naval: Two French vessels under Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville sail to the Hayes River (Hudson Bay), Canada, where they lay siege to the English garrison of York Fort.

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October 14 Military: Governor Thomas Walsh surrenders York Fort, Hayes River (Hudson Bay) to besieging French vessels under Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville. The post is then rechristened Fort Bourbon.

1695 Business: In Annapolis, Maryland, Diana Nuthead succeeds her deceased husband as head of the family publishing business, becoming the first woman printer in colonial history. Education: Reverend Samuel Thomas establishes a school for the instruction of slave children at Goose Creek, South Carolina. Religion: Parties of New England Congregationalists begin moving into South Carolina. Societal: New York City establishes overseers to administer public relief to the city’s mounting poor. They were authorized to fix the amount of relief needed as well as estimate the poor tax.

1696 Business: Cultivation of rice arises in South Carolina. This is a most laborintensive commodity to produce and, prior to the introduction of cotton, becomes the crop most clearly associated with slavery. Military: A large French expedition under Governor General Louis de Buade de Frontenac marches through the heart of the Five Nations Iroquois land, and devastates the territory of the Oneida and Onondaga nations. Slavery: Once the Royal African Trade Company loses its monopoly on the slave trade, merchants in New England eagerly participate in human trafficking on a large scale. During their annual meeting in Philadelphia, the Quaker leadership admonishes members known to have facilitated the importation of slaves into the colony and threatens to expel them from the Society of Friends. The Carolina legislature mandates that African-American slaves secure written permission before stepping off their masters’ residences. Moreover, slaves who either escaped or attacked their masters were to be punished by whipping, branding, or emasculation.

April 10 Economics: The Navigation Acts are appended to the Act of 1696, which grants customs commissioners in the colonies the same broad powers they enjoy in England, including forcible entry and the ability to collect duties on all colonial commodities being exported. Moreover, all colonial trade is required to post bonds on enumerated items, and any colonial law or regulation in conflict with the act is automatically null and void. A Board of Trade is also instituted by King William III to replace the Lords of Trade with power to rule whether colonial laws are consistent with the empire’s best interests. This legislation marks British efforts to actually enforce the Navigation Acts and begins a long period of commercial friction between England and her colonies. In time the ensuing friction serves as an intellectual underpinning of the American Revolution.

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May 6 Politics: Rhode Island convenes its first bicameral legislature.

May 15 Politics: King William III establishes a Board of Trade, independent of the Privy Council, to succeed the Lords of Trade.

Summer Captain William Allen leads 400 men in a successful attempt to capture Fort Bourbon (formerly York Fort) on Hudson Bay, Canada.

July 14 Naval: Two French frigates under Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville and Captain Simon de Bonventure engage and capture the English frigate HMS Newport off Saint John’s, Newfoundland. They then drive two others off from guarding the mouth of the Saint John River (Portland Point, New Brunswick), thereby lifting the blockade of Acadia.

August 15 Military: Fort William Henry (Pemaquid), Maine, is besieged by a combined French-Indian force under Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville that arrived from Quebec. At length, the 96-man garrison under Captain Pascoe Chubb surrenders, and the French successfully restrain the Indians. The fort is then destroyed and the English allowed to proceed to Boston unharmed.

October Naval: Three French warships under Governor Jacques-François de Mombeton de Brouillan of Newfoundland sail to engage English settlements on the northeastern part of the island.

November 1 Military: French forces under Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville, march overland across Newfoundland to rendezvous with French naval forces at Ferryland. Their goal is the capture and reduction of Saint John’s, an important English coastal fishery.

November 7 Politics: In Pennsylvania, Governor William Markham submits the Third Frame of Government, and it is approved by the assembly.

November 30 Military: French forces under Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville capture the English settlement of Saint John’s, Newfoundland, following a brief siege. Meanwhile, other forces under Captain Jacques Testard de Montigny continue mopping up isolated fishing villages along the coast.

1697 General: New York City appoints the first fire wardens, one to each ward, tasked with enforcing local ordinances and fining homeowners with dangerous chimneys and other deficiencies. Law: In light of excesses surrounding the celebrated witchcraft trial, the Massachusetts General Court expresses contrition for family members executed and offers monetary compensation to the families affected. Judge Samuel Sewall is so afflicted by conscience that he atones from a church pew—nine other judges of equal complicity remain aloof.

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Medical: Charleston, South Carolina, is ravaged by a smallpox epidemic that lasts a year. This is followed by an onset of yellow fever that kills an additional 150 settlers. Politics: The Board of Trade establishes the first admiralty courts to oversee and adjudicate disputes arising from commercial matters in the colonies. These also function without juries.

January 15 Politics: Inhabitants of Massachusetts dedicate this day to fasting and repentance for the witch trials of 1692.

February 8 Politics: William Penn, still in England, proposes an intercolonial congress to the Board of Trade to help sort out the muddle of colonial affairs. Penn calls for two delegates from each colony to be presided over by a president appointed by the king. No action is taken.

March 15 Military: French and Indian forces raid the village of Haverhill, Massachusetts, killing 27 settlers and capturing 13. Among the captives are Hannah Duston, her infant child, and her nurse, Mary Neff. At length the Indians kill Duston’s child, and she swears revenge.

March 30 Military: Hannah Duston and two other English captives kill and scalp 10 of their sleeping guards, then escape. The three are hailed as wartime heroes once they trudge back into Haverhill, and Duston collects 25 pounds from the Massachusetts government, which has placed a bounty on Indian scalps. Noted writers Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry David Thoreau contribute to Duston’s renown by retelling her tale for 19th century readers.

July Naval: A large English naval force under Commodore John Norris arrives from England and anchors off Saint John’s, Newfoundland, intending to recapture numerous and valuable fisheries from France. He is also conveying a force of 2,000 soldiers under General Sir John Gibstone.

August 2 Naval: Commodore John Norris receives information that five French frigates under Vice Admiral Andre, marquis de Nesmond, is deployed in Conception Bay, Newfoundland. Norris wished to give battle but is overruled by the civil authorities at Saint John’s, who order him to remain until the settlement’s defenses are rebuilt.

September 4 Naval: In a stunning display of seamanship off the mouth of the Hayes River, Hudson Bay, Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville, commanding the 44-gun frigate Pelican, engages the 56-gun HMS Hampshire, the 36-gun frigate Dering, and the 32-gun Royal Hudson’s Bay. A four-hour fight ensues, in which the Hampshire strikes a shoal and sinks with all hands, the Royal Hudson’s Bay strikes its colors, and only Dering escapes intact.

September 9 Military: Colonial forces under Major John March repel a French-Indian force along the Damariscotta inlet, Maine, sparing numerous settlements in eastern Maine from the torch and tomahawk.

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Duston, Hannah (1648-ca. 1730) Colonial heroine Hannah Emerson was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, on December 23, 1657, daughter of shoemaker John Emerson. Nothing is known of her childhood, but in December 1677, she married Thomas Duston and settled down in Haverhill to raise a family. In time she delivered 12 children, three of whom died in infancy. Her husband also commanded a local militia company. In the course of King William’s War, the French under Louis Baude, comte de Frontenac, initiated a strategy of large-scale Indians raids against New England enclaves to drive them from the region. On March 15, 1697, Captain Duston spied a group of Abenaki heading toward Haverhill and evacuated seven of his children but returned too late to rescue his wife, who was still weak from delivering a two-week-old child. Hannah Duston was captured with her baby and her widowed nurse, Mary Neff, then marched 100 miles north to a small island at the confluence of the Contoocook and Merrimack Rivers (Concord, New Hampshire). En route the Indians killed her baby by dashing its head against a tree. The captives were turned over to an Indian family and there encountered an English boy, Samuel Lennardson, who had been seized eight months earlier from Worcester. When informed by the Indians that they intended to take their captives to Canada to make them run a gauntlet, Duston and Lennardson resolved to escape. Duston then prevailed upon Lennardson to inquire of their captors as to the proper method of

killing and scalping an enemy. The information would be put to good use. On the evening of March 30, 1697, Duston and Lennardson used stolen hatchets to kill 10 Indians, men, women, and children alike, as they slept. Only an elderly squaw and a young child were spared and allowed to escape. With the aging Neff in tow, they then slipped down the river in a canoe, but Duston, wishing to have positive proof of her deed, paddled back to remove nine scalps. The trio then made their way back to Haverhill with these grisly trophies. At that time a bounty was offered on Indian scalps so Duston and her husband appeared before an incredulous General Court of Massachusetts with their proof and received 25 pounds for her effort. Her two compatriots received 12 pounds apiece for their part. The Reverend Cotton Mather also couched her celebrity in distinctly Puritan terms, as she was Protestant and her Indian captors Roman Catholic converts. As word of Duston’s bravery spread throughout New England, she received numerous praise and gifts, one from the governor of Maryland. Thereafter Duston’s life at Haverhill assumed a more routine aspect and she died there sometime around 1736, all but forgotten. However, in 1874 and 1879 she became the object of two monuments at Haverhill and Duston Island, New Hampshire, commemorating her escape. She was an icon of the colonial New England frontier and the first woman in America honored by a statue.

September 13 Naval: A French naval force under Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville forces Governor Henry Baley to again surrender Fort York, Hudson Bay.

September 20 Diplomacy: The Treaty of Ryswick concludes fighting in Europe and technically also ends King William’s War but hostilities continue along the frontiers.

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It restores all captured possessions to all parties, save Newfoundland, which is transferred to England. King Louis XIV is also required to recognize William III as legal heir of Great Britain and stop supporting the exiled James II. Overall, the entire conflict seems rather pointless from a colonial viewpoint, considering the loss of lives and money expended. Worse, the Five Nations Iroquois were extremely hard hit throughout the conflict, losing roughly 20 percent of their numbers. English reluctance or unwillingness to provide support or protection along the frontier leaves them predisposed toward neutrality in any future colonial war.

October Religion: The Massachusetts legislature passes harsh laws against blasphemers and atheists; violators could expect to be confined up to six months, whipped, pilloried, or forced to sit at a gallows tied to a hangman’s noose.

1698 Politics: Parliament bans all English settlements on Newfoundland, a law which is generally ignored. Slavery: The Massachusetts legislature changes the tax laws to include Indian, mulatto, and African slaves to be counted as personal property. The Royal African Company’s monopoly on the slave trade expires and it is now officially open to all members of the English colonies so inclined. The most numerous participants are New Englanders, who won the most ships, and all participants are required to pay a 10 percent duty to the company for maintenance of its forts and factories in Africa. This is also the start of the so-called “triangular trade” among Africa, the West Indies, and the American colonies, circulating shipments of slaves, sugar, and molasses between them.

May Politics: Attacks on colonial authorities by settlers angered by proprietary rule commence in East and West Jersey.

May 29 Religion: Construction begins on Trinity Church in Wilmington, Delaware, one of the more expensive places of worship built to that date.

October 7 Settlement: Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville leads a force of six ships from Brest, France, and heads for the Gulf of Mexico. He intends to find the mouth of the Mississippi River and help begin the settlement of Louisiana.

1699 Business: The Wool Act passed by Parliament prohibits colonial wool from being exported to foreign markets or traded within the intercolonial market. Diplomacy: The recent spate of English and allied Indian raids into Mississippi forces many tribes into an alliance of necessity with France. Choctaw relations with South Carolina also deteriorate because of the willingness of settlers to purchase Choctaw captives as slaves from other tribes. Religion: Holy Trinity in Wilmington, Delaware, becomes the first Lutheran church in North America.

1699

168â•… Chronology of American History French Sulpician missionaries found the Mission de la Sainte Famille at dis-­ tant Cahokia, Illinois Territory. Slavery: The Virginia Â�House of Burgesses imposes a 20-­shilling duty on all slaves entering the colony.

January 7 Military: The Abenaki sign a peace treaty at Casco, Maine, and violence finally subsides 15 months after the Treaty of Ryswick is signed.

February 27 Exploration: French soldier Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville departs Pensacola, Florida, with a team of 48 men in two large rowboats and two birchbark canoes. His mission is to locate the mouth of the Mississippi River.

March 2 General: Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, sieur de Bienville, leads French settlers ashore at Louisiana to begin colonization in the area of Baton Rouge. Mean-­ while, his brother Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville is the first EuÂ�roÂ�peÂ�an to dis-­ cover the mouth of the Mississippi River (the North Pass) from the Gulf of Mexico.

May 4 General: Fort Maurepas (Biloxi, Mississippi) is constructed by Pierre Le Moyne, sieur d’Iberville.

June Law: In Boston, Judge Samuel Sewall tries to suppress card playing and gambling only to have his yard decorated one night by several packs of cards.

June 17 Religion: The Massachusetts General Court requires all Roman Catholic priests to depart the colony within three months or face imprisonment and possible execution.

July 6 Law: Captain William Kidd, a notorious pirate, is arrested in Boston and shipped to En�gland for trial. Kidd was a former Royal Navy officer with a distinguished record in fighting against France, but he forsook duty in favor of plunder. He will hang on May 23, 1701.

September 6 Naval: Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, sieur de Bienville, leading an expedition of six men in two small boats up the Missis-­ sippi River, encounters Royal Navy captain William Bond 18 miles below New Orleans and convinces him that the region has been claimed by France. Bond then promptly turns around and departs, and the bend of the river has since been known as “EnÂ�glish turn.”

November 30 Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, sieur de Bienville, French colonizer of the lower Mississippi River and brother of the sieur d'Iberville

1699

Politics: William Penn concludes a 15-­year stay in EnÂ�gland and once again returns to Pennsylvania as its proprietor.

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1700 General: The population of thriving British colonies in North America is estimated at 275,000—much larger than the struggling French efforts in Canada. Boston and New York are the most heavily populated urban centers, with populations of 7,000 and 5,000, respectively. The slave population is estimated at 28,000—roughly one colonial inhabitant in 10. Law: Parliament approves a Piracy Act to create a special court to try citizens suspected of engaging in such endeavors. Military: The French construct a fort at Mackinac, Michigan Territory, to guard the strategic fur trade routes into the Mississippi River Valley. Music: The first pipe organs are imported by the Episcopal Church and Swedish Lutheran churches of Pennsylvania. Religion: The New York assembly, taking its cue from Massachusetts, summarily bans Catholic priests from the colony. Slavery: The Pennsylvania assembly issues laws regulating the public behavior and morals of African Americans. William Penn also urges his fellow Quakers to provide religious instruction to slaves in the colony. Rhode Island drops its prior prohibition against slavery, rendering it legal again. Judge Samuel Sewall creates the “Boston Committee of 1700,” dedicated to the eradication of slavery. They urge high import duties upon captive Africans entering the colony, feeling that excessive taxes will drive the slave trade out of business.

January 8 Military: French forces under Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville construct a fort below New Orleans on the Mississippi River.

June 24 Slavery: An antislavery tract, The Selling of Joseph by Judge Samuel Sewall, a moral agitator ever since the witch trials, is published in Boston. This is one of the earliest abolitionist tracts and based largely upon biblical precepts.

1701 Business: Following an end to hostilities between France and the Iroquois, the latter enter into negotiations with the Ottawa, Chippewa, and Illinois Confederacy, gaining hunting and trading rights in the Great Lakes region, and reciprocate by allowing interior tribes to visit Albany to trade for English goods. General: A Boston town meeting formally authorizes the systematic naming of city streets. Law: In a major step for women, six are allowed to sit on a jury in Albany, New York. Politics: Delaware is separated from the political and legal jurisdiction of Pennsylvania, although both are jointly headed by a single governor.

March 26 Politics: In London, the Board of Trade suggests to the monarch that all colonial possessions in North America be converted to royal colonies.

May 8 Politics: The General Court of Connecticut opts to hold legislative sessions alternately in Hartford (May) and New Haven (October).

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May 23 Law: Captain William Kidd, a notorious former Royal Navy officer turned pirate, is hanged for piracy and murder in London. His body is then hung in chains on display for several days along the Thames River.

June 16 Religion: King William III issues a charter to Thomas Bray for the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. This is an unofficial agency dedicated to spreading the Anglican creed to the Indians of North America and to African slaves, along with English colonists adhering to separatist and nonconformist creeds.

July 24 Military: French forces under Antonie de la Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, construct Fort Pontchartrain at La Ville d’Etroit (Detroit), Michigan Territory, to secure control of the vital fur trade throughout the northwestern wilderness. Located at the junction of Lakes Erie and Huron, it soon evolves into a major center for commercial activities and guards the strategic route from Canada down the Mississippi River Valley.

August 4 Diplomacy: French and Iroquois emissaries conclude the Grand Settlement, a peace treaty, at Montreal. The Indians are not required to abandon trade relations with the English, but nonetheless remain studiously neutral during the next three conflicts. Meanwhile, to present a united front against continuing English encroachments along the Mohawk River Valley, the tribes adopt a policy whereby a single chief may speak for the entire confederacy, as opposed to five chiefs representing five distinct nations. The Iroquois also try to placate the English by renewing their Covenant Chain with them and offering up conquered lands previously owned by the Huron.

October 16 Education: The Collegiate School (Yale University) is chartered in Saybrook, Connecticut, by devout Congregationalists disillusioned by what they perceived as Harvard’s mounting liberalism. It relocates to New Haven in 1745.

November 8 Politics: William Penn removes most vestiges of proprietary rule in Pennsylvania through passage of its first constitution, the Charter of Privileges. The governor is appointed by the proprietor, but the new unicameral legislature must approve of all laws passed. This is the only one-house legislature in the colonies, and it survives for nearly 80 years until 1776.

November 12 Religion: The Vestry Act is passed by the Anglican-dominated Carolina assembly, which establishes the Church of England in the northern reaches of the colony. It is widely protested by Quakers, Presbyterians, and other dissenters and is eventually revoked in 1703 by the proprietors.

December Education: In a victory for reformists, the ultra-Puritan Reverend Increase Mather departs as president of Harvard College and is replaced by the more

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liberal John Leverett. Leverett intends to adopt a broader-minded curriculum for his students, similar to those found at Oxford and Cambridge Universities in England.

1702 Politics: Cotton Mather publishes Magnalia Christi Americana, or The Ecclesiastical History of New England, 1620–1698. This is a carefully crafted paean to the political rule of the Puritan theocracy, then declining in Massachusetts and elsewhere. Religion: The Maryland assembly passes the Act of Establishment, which founds Anglicanism as the colony’s official, state-sponsored religion. Thus, taxes are levied on all freemen, regardless of their religious affiliation, to support and sustain the local Anglican clergy. This legislation is stoutly protested by the Catholic and Quaker communities. Moreover, Catholic rites can no longer be performed in public and must be held in private dwellings—a restriction that lasts up through the Revolutionary War. Slavery: The New Jersey assembly passes statutes granting legal recognition to slavery in that colony. Societal: Reverend Cotton Mather organizes the Society for the Suppression of Disorders to help combat a rising tide of delinquency in Massachusetts. Its purpose was to collect the names of young men committing offensive behavior such as swearing, blasphemy, and visiting houses of ill-repute, which would then be turned over to a committee tasked with warning them.

March 8 Politics: Queen Anne ascends to the English throne following the death of King William III.

April 17 Politics: The royal colony of New Jersey is established by uniting the proprietary halves of East and West Jersey and administered by the governor of New York. Henceforth, the combined colonial assemblies are to meet alternately at Burlington and Perth Amboy. However, their chief executive officer remains the royal governor of New York until 1738.

May 4 Military: The War of the Spanish Succession commences in Europe; it soon spreads to the colonies as Queen Anne’s War.

June 11 Politics: Joseph Dudley, newly appointed royal governor of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, arrives in Boston.

September 6 Naval: A strong Royal Navy squadron under Commodore John Leake drops anchor in Bay Bulls, Newfoundland, and learns of the presence of various French warships in the area.

September 9 Naval: Commodore John Leake disembarks troops at Trepassy, Newfoundland, which move inland and burn the settlement.

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September 10 Military: The South Carolina assembly authorizes an attack against Spanishheld St. Augustine, Florida, to preclude any chance of French occupation. They also aspire to eliminate the Spanish and their Apalachee allies as competitors in the lucrative deerskin trade. The expedition is to be assisted by allied Chickasaw Indians and English warships.

September 30 Naval: Having burned several French settlements on Newfoundland and captured 51 enemy vessels, the squadron under Commodore John Leake arrives back at St. John’s to rest and refit.

October 7 Naval: Two British warships arrive off the island of Saint Pierre, Newfoundland, and land forces ashore. Governor Sebastien Le Goues, sieur de Sourdeval, makes a brave attempt to resist but is badly outnumbered and surrenders. After plundering the settlement for anything valuable, the English hand over 52 French captives to the governor, then depart.

October 12 Military: A combined expedition of 580 militia and 370 Yamasee warriors under Governor James Moore and Colonel Robert Daniel sails from Port Royal, Carolina, for the Spanish-controlled sections of the Georgia coast.

November 3 Military: The expedition of Governor James Moore and Colonel Robert Daniel steals ashore on Amelia Island, surprises the Spanish garrison, and proceeds to overrun the vicinity. Two days later, Moore takes his fleet to the bastion of St. Augustine, Florida, while Daniel rows his way up the Saint Johns River to the same destination.

November 7 Naval: Colonial vessels under Governor James Moore appear on the horizon off St. Augustine, Florida, as 400 Spanish defenders under Governor Jose de Zuinga prepare to receive them. They then scuttle a frigate to prevent its capture while another vessel, the Gloria, is dispatched to Havana for reinforcements.

November 9 Military: Colonial land forces under Colo nel Robert Daniel are sighted approaching St. Augustine from the north, so Governor Jose de Zuinga orders its 1,500 inhabitants behind the secure walls of San Marcos Castle.

November 10 Military: The combined forces of Governor James Moore and Colonel Robert Daniel, around 500 men, establish a loose siege of St. Augustine, Florida, while Spanish cannon from San Marcos Castle bombard them. Heavily outgunned, Daniel is dispatched to Jamaica to secure heavier ordnance while the rest of his forces begin digging siege lines.

December 19 Military: A quick Spanish sortie against colonial siege lines outside St. Augustine, Florida, inflicts some materiel damages to the besiegers before being driven back. The impasse continues.

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December 24 Naval: Roughly 500 colonial besiegers of St. Augustine, Florida, are heartened by the arrival of a British brigantine and sloop carrying badly needed supplies.

December 26 Naval: The Spanish defenders of St. Augustine, Florida, are succored by the arrival of two frigates and 200 reinforcements dispatched there from Havana. The British are now blockaded within the harbor and forced to scuttle their vessels to prevent capture.

December 29 Military: Governor James Moore ends the siege of St. Augustine, burns his encampment and the local village, then begins marching overland to the Salamoto River for seaborne transportation back to Carolina.

1703 Business: South Carolina votes to pay soldiers campaigning in Florida against Spain with paper money. Military: Because woodland Indians are usually too fast for plodding colonial militia to apprehend, Reverend Solomon Stoddard of Northampton, Massachusetts, suggests that they be hunted with dogs. Religion: A Swedish church in Philadelphia utilizes a church organ for the first time in the colonies. Slavery: The Massachusetts legislature requires slave owners to post a bond to support any slaves they may free, to lessen town expenses in supporting indigents. That colony, along with Connecticut, also forbid blacks, Indians, or mulattos being out at night after nine o’clock without their master’s permission. John Saffin’s Tryall, an early slave narrative, is published in Boston as an antislavery tract. The South Carolina assembly levies an import duty on all African slaves brought into the colony.

March 1 Military: The Massachusetts assembly reorganizes the militia by providing 120 pairs of snowshoes to each of its four militia regiments. Thus outfitted, the soldiers will conduct extended patrols in the winter months to secure the frontiers from attack.

March 28 Religion: Construction begins on St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Burlington, New Jersey. This is an early expression of what became known as the Georgian style.

May Military: Governor Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, sieur de Bienville orders attacks from Louisiana upon nearby Alabama Indians in retaliation for English-incited raids.

May 12 Politics: After years of haggling, Connecticut and Rhode Island reach agreement on their common boundary line. It is confirmed by the English Crown in 1728.

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June Diplomacy: Abenaki Indians sign a peace treaty with Governor Joseph Dudley of Massachusetts, but within two months, the agreement breaks down and a decadelong period of hostilities commences.

August 10 Military: New England militia raid and burn the home of French trader Jean Vincent de l’Abadie, a half-breed Abenaki nobleman.

August 21 Military: Abenaki warriors, under Captain Alexander Leneuf de La Valliere de Beaubassin, surprise the English settlement at Wells, Maine, killing or capturing 300 colonials. Nearby Fort Loyal at Casco remains defiant under Major John March.

December Military: Governor James Moore assembles a force of 50 whites and 1,500 Creek at Okmulgee and marches overland to attack the Spanish mission at San Marcos de Apalache, Florida.

1704 Education: Elias Neau, a French Anglican and member of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, opens the first catechism school for the education of slaves at Trinity Church in New York City. General: Francis Thrasher constructs Boston’s first underground sewer at his own expense, which leads city elders to adopt municipal regulations regarding refuse and garbage disposal. Military: When the small Nansatico tribe of Virginia refuses to hand over four braves accused of killing white settlers, a Virginia militia surrounds and captures their sole remaining village. Four Indians are then hanged for the murders, while the remnant is shipped off to the West Indies as slaves. French soldiers erect Fort Miami, Ohio Territory, at a portage to protect the fur trade from Lake Erie down to the Mississippi River Valley. Politics: In London, the secretary of state for the Southern Colonies is empowered to appoint royal governors. Religion: North Carolina approves the Second Vestry Act, installing Anglicanism as the official state-sponsored church of the colony. Through this measure religious minorities, especially Quakers, are barred from holding public office. Slavery: Abda, a mulatto slave living in Hartford, Connecticut, sues master Thomas Richards for his freedom on account of his being half white and is manumitted by a local court. The sentence is then overturned by the colonial assembly, and Abda is returned to bondage.

January 25 Military: Governor James Moore attacks the Spanish mission of Ayubale with 50 militia and 1,500 Creek Indians. They are initially repelled by defenders under Father Angel de Miranda, who surrenders nine hours later. The Creeks then murder Miranda and butcher the inhabitants. They then remove 84 captives back to South Carolina as slaves.

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January 26 Military: English militia and Creek warriors under Governor James Moore ambush the Spanish relief column of Captain Juan Ruiz Mexia and are driven off. The colonials then withdraw to Carolina with 325 Apalachee captives to be used as slaves.

February 29 Military: At dawn, a combined force of 350 Canadians, Caughnawaga, Abenaki, and French troops under Lieutenant Jean-Baptiste Hertel de Rouville swoop down on the exposed the English settlement at Deerfield, Massachusetts. Aided by the lack of posted sentinels, they storm into the center of town while the surprised occupants fail to muster a sustained defense. Over 50 men, women, and children are massacred while 112 more are marched into captivity. French and Indian losses total around 40–50; the lack of snowshoes prevents English forces from pursuing the raiders effectively.

April 24 Publishing: The Boston News-Letter, the first colonial newspaper to be published regularly, begins under John Campbell, postmaster of Boston.

May 6 Religion: The South Carolina assembly votes to ban all non-Anglicans from holding seats there. The act will be overturned by the English Crown two years later.

June 18 Business: New English currency regulations fix the price of six shillings to a piece of eight.

June 20 Military: Colonel Benjamin Church leads a retaliatory raid in burning numerous settlements at Truro and Chignecto Bay, Nova Scotia.

July Military: South Carolinian militia and Chickasaw Indians enter western Florida, destroying villages belonging to the Apalachee tribe. However, they are stopped from despoiling French territory in Louisiana by the Choctaw.

July 1–28 Military: Colonel Benjamin Church resumes campaigning with 550 militiamen to raid the French settlements of Minas and Beaubassin, Acadia (Nova Scotia). This action eliminates a source of supply for the Abenaki who have been raiding the Maine frontier. However, the garrison at Fort Royal proves intractable and the raiders return empty-handed.

August 18 Military: French and Indian forces attack and destroy the English settlement at Bonavista, Newfoundland.

September 28 Law: Maryland passes a law allowing a minister to separate a husband from his wife if he disapproves of the woman. The penalty for disobedience includes whipping until blood is drawn.

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October General: Sarah Kemble, a schoolmistress from Boston, begins compiling a travel diary, entering detailed observations of people and sights while on a round trip to New York. In 1825 it is published as her Private Journal, an important eyewitness account of colonial society at the beginning of the 18th century.

November 22 Politics: Delaware’s independent assembly meets for the first time at New Castle and under terms established by the Pennsylvania Charter of Liberties. The colony enjoys the right to its own legislature although it is administered by the governor of Pennsylvania.

1705 Business: Parliament expands the list of enumerated items that colonies can export to England, which now includes rice and molasses. Furthermore, the development of naval stores, such as pitch, rosen, hemp, and tar for use by the increasingly important Royal Navy, is likewise encouraged. Education: The Virginia Act mandates book education for school-age children, although the apprentice system remains prevalent throughout the South. Military: French soldiers continue strengthening their chain of fortifications in the wilderness by constructing Fort Vincennes along the Wabash River, in present-day Indiana. Religion: The Anglican-dominated North Carolina assembly passes the Second Vestry Act to establish the Church of England in that colony. Enforcement provokes violent opposition from Quakers and Presbyterians, so that matter is allowed to lapse. Slavery: Virginia codifies the colonies’ first comprehensive slave code, barring all Africans, mulattoes, and Indians from holding public, religious, or military office, bearing arms, or testifying in court. Native Americans are further subdivided into reservation Indians, whose rights are protected, and “off reservation Indians,” whose legal status approximates freed slaves. It also summarily declares Africans held in bondage for life, unless they were originally Christian or freemen from a Christian country. In time, this legislation serves as a template for similar legislation in other slave-owning colonies. The General Court of Massachusetts levies a four-pound duty on all imported slaves. They also pass an antimiscegenation law to keep blacks and whites from intermarriage. It remains on the books until 1843. In an attempt to discourage slaves from trying to escape into Canada, the New York legislature authorizes all fugitives captured beyond 40 miles north of Albany to be put to death. Military: English colonists lead a force of 4,000 Carolina Indians on a foray through hostile Choctaw territory, forcing many survivors to seek refuge at French-held Mobile. In this manner, colonial influence is expanding toward the interior.

January 8 Military: An armed expedition under Governor Daniel d’Auger de Subercasse marches overland from Placentia, Newfoundland, to attack the English settlement at Saint John’s.

1705

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January 31 Military: A French force under Governor Daniel d’Auger de Subercasse approaches to within three miles of Saint John’s, Newfoundland, before being detected by the English. The garrison commanded by Lieutenant John Moody, assisted by artillery, repulses his antagonists and the French settle into a siege.

February 8 Military: An enemy scouting force attacks carelessly guarded Haverhill, Massachusetts, killing all defenders of a garrison house.

March 6 Military: Governor Daniel d’Auger de Subercasse, failing at his second attempt to storm the English settlement at St. John’s, Newfoundland, orders his force withdrawn. Simultaneously, Testard de Montigny leads a small force intending to ravage poorly defended English settlements along Conception and Trinity Bays. By the time Auger concludes his raid, he has destroyed 40 cannon, burned several hundred small boats, and taken 1,200 captives.

October 23 General: The Virginia Assembly passes the Black Codes, to prevent the movement of African-American slaves and outlaw intermarriage. Mulattos and Indians are likewise covered. Moreover, all Africans brought to America who are not Christian shall be enslaved for life. This is the first attempt to segregate and delineate people on the basis of race, with slaves legally regarded as property.

December Slavery: The Massachusetts legislature forbids interracial marriage and any minister privy to such an occurrence faces a 50-pound fine. A four-pound duty is also levied on all slaves brought into the colony, and provisions promised to severely punish any slave who struck an Englishman.

1706 Business: The first colonial customhouse is designated at Yorktown, Virginia, through which all New England merchant vessels are required to pass. However, its inconvenient location occasions much protest and encourages captains to bypass it altogether. Medical: In Boston Dr. Zabdiel Boylston performs the first surgery to remove gallbladder stones (lithotomy) in America. Religion: In Boston, Cotton Mather publishes The Good Old Way, which laments the passing of Puritan dominance in Massachusetts. He also decries increasing lack of respect accorded to clergymen, along with lessening financial support from the community as a whole. Slavery: The New York assembly forbids slaves from testifying against owners or whites in both civil and criminal cases. Sport: Deer hunting is suspended for a season on Long Island, New York, after animal stocks are nearly depleted.

January 17 General: Benjamin Franklin is born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Josiah Franklin, a devout religious nonconformist.

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Boylston, Zabdiel (1680–1766) Physician Zabdiel Boylston was born in Muddy River (Brookline), Massachusetts, on March 9, 1680, the son of a successful physician. Although he never attended medical school, Boylston was apprenticed under his father and Dr. John Cutler, becoming an adept practitioner. By 1700 he was operating an apothecary shop downtown, while also undertaking surgical and medical procedures. The turning point in his career came in April 1721, when an epidemic of smallpox, a dreaded and highly contagious malady at the time, broke out in Boston. On June 6, 1721, Boylston received a letter from the Reverend Cotton Mather, who was extremely interested in science, and mentioned an inoculation technique from his slave Onesimus, which was commonly used in Africa to prevent the disease. He also enclosed an issue of the Philosophical Transactions from the Royal Society of London, which discussed similar procedures observed at Constantinople. Inoculation entailed transferring pus from a person with a mild case of the disease and deliberately infecting a healthy person through a cut in the arm or leg. This invariably resulted in some minor illness but also lifetime immunity to smallpox. Boylston was convinced and, upon Mather’s urging, he successfully inoculated Mather’s six-year-old son, his slave Jack, and Jack’s infant son. None of them contracted a severe form of the disease, but the public outcry against Boylston and Mather was intense, and both their

homes were damaged by rioters. Initially, the religious community strongly opposed the practice, feeling it was ungodly to deliberately infect a person with any known miasma. An intense pamphlet war then ensued between pro- and anti-inoculation forces before Boylston was allowed to continue with the procedure. In this he had the support of six out of 16 town ministers, who sought to limit the sufferings of the general populace by any means possible. Ultimately, of the 246 subjects Boylston infected, only six died. This compares favorably with the 5,889 Boston inhabitants who contracted the illness, leading to 844 deaths. In light of his medical success, Boylston was invited to London in 1725 to lecture before the London medical establishment. The following year he published his methodically prepared Historical Account of the Small-Pox Inoculated in New England, which was well received and resulted in his membership in the Royal Society. Boylston was the first American physician so honored. He returned to Boston in 1727 to resume his medical practice, and when another smallpox epidemic raged in 1730 he successfully performed another spate of inoculations. Boylston finally retired from the profession to raise horses in Brookline, where he also scientifically experimented with plants and animals. He died in Brookline on March 1, 1766, one of the colonies’ earliest and most celebrated medical pioneers.

March Military: An English-incited Chickasaw war party raids a Choctaw village, drawing the nearby French into a frontier war in support of their allies. Religion: The first Presbyterian church in America is formed in Philadelphia under Francis Makemie, subsequently regarded as the father of American Presbyterianism.

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June 10 Politics: The South Carolina policy of excluding all but Anglican adherents in the colonial assembly is voided by the English Crown.

August 30 Military: Indians attack and destroy the town of Haverhill, Massachusetts.

September 7 Military: A combined French/Spanish expedition under Captain Jacques Lefebvre arrives off Charles Town, Carolina, anchors off Sullivan’s Island, and dispatches a surrender demand ashore. Governor Nathaniel Johnson refuses to comply and begins defensive preparations.

September 9 Military: Spanish troops land upon James Island, South Carolina, but are driven off by Carolina militia and some Indian allies. Another group of Spaniards is surprised in camp by the English, losing 60 prisoners.

September 11 Naval: Colonial defenders under Colonel William Rhett at Charles Town, Carolina, launch numerous fireboats on a combined French/Spanish flotilla offshore, scattering them out to sea. At this juncture, the attackers call it quits and retire to Saint Augustine, Florida, but not before the English capture the newly arrived Brillante and 200 soldiers. All told, Charles Town’s plucky garrison killed 30 Spanish and made another 320 prisoner.

November 30 Religion: The South Carolina assembly establishes the Anglican Church of England as the colony’s official sect.

1707 Labor: In Philadelphia, mechanics protest the use of African-American slaves as competition in the various crafts. Religion: Presbyterian founder Francis Makemie is tried and acquitted in a New York court, signaling the end of prosecuting Protestant minorities in that colony. Slavery: The Massachusetts legislature mandates that free blacks cannot entertain slaves in their homes without the consent of their owners. A five-shilling fine is imposed on any free black who willingly harbors a fugitive slave. Summer: English leaders incite several hundred Talapoosa Indians to attack the Spanish enclave at Pensacola, Florida. They seize everything except the Spanish fort, burning the town and making several captives.

March 6 Politics: Queen Anne endorses the Act of Union, combining England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland into a new entity, the United Kingdom. Consequently, Scottish immigrants can now immigrate to the colonies more rapidly and do so in large number.

May 13 Naval: An expedition of 1,300 Massachusetts men in 23 vessels under Colonel John March sails from Boston for a campaign against Port Royal, Acadia (Nova Scotia).

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May 26 Naval: A force of 23 New England sloops anchors off Port Royal, Acadia (Nova Scotia), and begins landing 750 Rhode Island and Massachusetts militiamen under Colonel John March. The force advances to the very gates of the French fort there, only to timidly retire at the last moment. An embarrassing impasse sets in once outnumbered French troops under Governor Daniel d’Auger de Subercasse begin a series of guerrilla attacks.

June 15 Naval: Colonel John March, having failed to storm French fortifications at Port Royal, Acadia, glumly leads his troops back on board their fleet and sails off to Casco Bay. Governor Joseph Dudley of Massachusetts, when informed of the retreat, angrily orders Colonel John March to try again.

August 13 Military: The plucky French garrison at Port Royal, Acadia, is reinforced by the Intrepide under Captain Pierre Morpain. His arrival coincides with renewed efforts by New Englanders to mount a second campaign against the settlement.

August 20 Military: A force of 1,600 New England militia under Colonel John March makes its second appearance off Port Royal, Acadia, surrounds the French but fails to secure their surrender. The effort then collapses entirely and the New Englanders set sail for New England. The determined Massachusetts governor Joseph Dudley tries again, but only after the expedition is stiffened by British regular troops.

September 21 Military: Abenaki warriors attack Winter Harbor, Maine.

November Military: Spanish-held Pensacola, Florida, is again beset by 1,500 Carolina Indians and English militiamen, but lack of unity among their leaders results in a lack of decisive action. The dispirited attackers begin dispersing toward the interior.

December 8 Military: French reinforcements under Governor Le Moyne de Bienville arrive at Pensacola, Florida, dispersing the few remaining English and Indians.

1708 Science: Sir Isaac Newton’s Principia mathematica is introduced to the colonies by James Logan. Slavery: By 1708, the 2,900 African slaves and 1,100 Indian slaves outnumber South Carolina’s English population. In Connecticut, a law is passed that mandates whipping for any black who strikes a white person. Pennsylvania, responding to complaints from its mechanics and artisans over competition from African- American slaves, summarily restricts their importation into the colony. However, the British government strikes down such limitations. Sport: Kings, Queens, and Suffolk counties, New York, declare a closed season on quail, turkey, and partridge hunting to preserve existing animal stocks.

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January 19 Publishing: The Boston News-Letter prints the first illustration ever used in a colonial newsletter.

July 26 Military: Captains Jean-Baptiste Hertel de Rouville and Jean-Baptiste de SaintOurs Deschaillons march from Montreal at the head of a 200-man French/ Abenaki force and head southward into Massachusetts.

August 29–30 Military: Abenaki warriors suddenly attack Haverhill, Massachusetts, massacring several of the inhabitants. However, they are ambushed while retiring to Canada, losing 10 killed and 19 wounded, along with most of their plunder.

October Slavery: A brief uprising by slaves in Newton, Long Island, kills seven English and leads to the execution of four blacks. New legislation is then passed to curtail possible slave conspiracies.

October 14 Religion: Connecticut church politics diverge sharply from those of Massachusetts through adoption of the general court’s “Saybrook Platform.” This document organizes Congregational churches along the lines of the more centralized Presbyterians, as opposed to the more autonomous Massachusetts variety.

December 21 Military: French and Indian forces besiege the English settlement of St. John’s, Newfoundland, in an attempt to bring the eastern shore under French control.

1709 Arts: Henrietta Johnson of Charleston, South Carolina, becomes America’s first female commercial artist by painting pastel portraits of local notables. She does so to supplement the meager salary of his husband, rector of St. Philip’s Church. Business: Connecticut charters the first colonial copper mine in Simsbury, where all ore extracted is shipped solely to England. Medical: Quakers in Philadelphia found the first private home for the mentally ill. Religion: After decades of oppression, Quakers are finally allowed to construct a meeting house in Boston, Massachusetts, a good indication of how far Puritan mores have dissipated. Slavery: Possession of African or Indian slaves within New France is declared legal by intendant Jacques Raudot.

January 1 Military: The English settlement at St. John’s, Newfoundland, surrenders to a combined French/Indian force under Captain Joseph de Saint Ovide.

May Military: A force of 700 Alibamon warriors attacks Mobile, Alabama, seizing 30 hostages. The attackers were ultimately repulsed by the French garrison, who killed 34 Indians and subsequently burned their village.

July Military: Colonel Francis Nicholson commands a large expedition from Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey up the Hudson River in an aborted attempt to

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September 3 General: Swiss and German immigrants from Bern and the Palatine, respectively, begin arriving in the Carolinas. They receive a grant of 13,500 acres from the proprietors, the generous terms of which stimulate further immigration from these regions. Over the next two years, British agents in Germany will encourage the migration of 50,000 settlers for various regions within the American colonies.

October 4 Military: A conference of governors held at Providence, Rhode Island, unanimously agrees to provide men and money for an expedition against Port Royal, Acadia (Nova Scotia). They then seek permission from Queen Anne to undertake the effort.

1710 Business: Parliament passes the Post Office Act which establishes a postmaster general for the American colonies in New York City. Religion: Trinity School is founded in New York by the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. Settlement: French colonists transplant their colony at Biloxi, Mississippi, to present—day Mobile, Alabama. Slavery: Virginia authorities manumit a slave named Will for his role in revealing a planned slave insurrection. Governor Alexander Spotswood subsequently tries

Hendrick

(ca. 1680–1755)

Mohawk chief Theyanoguin (“The western door is open”), better known to the English as King Hendrick, was probably born in western Massachusetts around 1680, the son of a Mohawk mother and a Mohegan father. Little is known of his youth beyond an association with the Mohawk nation of the Five Nations Iroquois confederation, his early conversion to Protestantism, and activities as an Indian preacher. By the time he became known to English authorities, Hendrick was already a senior sachem and a reputable warrior at Canajoharie, along the Mohawk River. Such was his reputation that in 1710, Hendrick was one of four Indian “Kings” sent to England for an audience with Queen Anne and was widely feted in London. Impressed by his

1710

trip abroad, the chief redoubled his efforts to renew the so-called Covenant Chain, a traditional Iroquois symbol of alliance, with the English. In light of his invaluable work, Hendrick was again sent to London, for an audience with King George II, where he was heralded as “Emperor of the Five Nations” and his full-length portrait rendered. But despite the appearance of good relations, Hendrick, like many Mohawk leaders, grew increasingly dismayed by colonists’ attempts to defraud the Indians of land and their willingness to ply them with alcohol. Tensions crested in 1753, when he angrily declared to Governor George Clinton that the Covenant Chain was broken. This certainly caught the attention of English authorities, fearing

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to discourage further importation of slaves because the inhabitants are uneasy about their growing number—in several communities they outnumber the whites.

April 19 Diplomacy: A delegation of three Mohawk chiefs, headed by King Hendrick and a Mahican, are taken to London by Colonel Peter Schuyler where they are hailed as “Indian Kings.” They gain a meeting with Queen Anne and have their portraits painted before returning home. The chiefs are there to ask the British monarch for additional troops to help drive the French from Canada.

June 21 Law: Newly arrived Virginia governor Alexander Spotswood introduces the right of habeas corpus to colonists residing there.

July 26 Military: Colonel Francis Nicholson returns to Boston after visiting London, bringing with him the large squadron of Commodore George Martin. At length he culls 3,500 New England troops drawn from Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island for an intended assault upon Port Royal, Acadia (Nova Scotia). These are piled into 31 transport vessels and prepare to sail.

September 18 Naval: An expedition of 3,500 colonial troops and Royal Marines sails from Boston under the command of Commodore George Martin and Colonel Francis Nicholson. Royal Navy Captain Thomas Mathews also sails the frigate HMS Chester out of Boston, intending to blockade Port Royal, Acadia, ahead of the invasion force.

the onset of a new war with France, and they pledged to address Indian concerns. Hendrick then reversed himself and allowed the Covenant Chain to be reinstated at the Albany Conference in 1754. In an American context, Hendrick is best known for his influence on colonial attitudes toward unity. While at Albany, he constantly belittled the English, calling them women, for their inability to find unity in the face of French aggression, and their unwillingness to fortify frontier posts. One American delegate at Albany, Benjamin Franklin, was sufficiently impressed by the practical aspects of the Five Nations Iroquois concerns to draw up the Albany Plan, the first attempt to promote colonial unity. Hendrick was also influential in having his good friend, Sir William Johnson, reinstated as head of the Indian Department, confident

that Johnson would never betray his Indian friends. In fact, Hendrick was a constant fixture at Johnson’s home and was perpetually introduced to important colonial dignitaries there. After the French and Indian War erupted in 1754, the bulk of the Iroquois were disposed to remain neutral, but Hendrick roused his Mohawk into supporting the English. At the time, he was an old man of about 75, yet still fit enough to campaign in the field. On September 8, 1755, Hendrick and his warriors accompanied Johnson’s advance troops to Lake George, where they were ambushed by French and Indians under Baron Ludwig Diskau. Hendrick was apparently shot off his horse and then killed in action, at which point the remaining Mohawks withdrew from the war. He was the most important Mohawk leader until Joseph Brant, two decades later.

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September 24 Naval: A large expedition under Colonel Francis Nicholson drops anchor off Port Royal, Acadia, with nearly 4,000 New England militiamen and several warships. The French garrison under Governor Daniel d’Auger de Subercasse consists of only 300 men, but he refuses all calls to surrender.

October Settlement: The first of several thousand Palatine Germans take up residence near Livingston Manor in the Hudson River Valley, New York. There they will engage in the production of naval stores for the Royal Navy and maritime concerns.

October 6 Military: New England militia under Colonel Francis Nicholson position siege trenches within 100 yards of Port Royal’s fortifications and construct siege batteries.

October 15 Military: Colonel Francis Nicholson and Sir Charles Hobby, leading 4,000 provincial militiamen backed by guns of an English fleet, accept the surrender of Port Royal, Acadia (Nova Scotia), from Governor Daniel d’Auger de Subercasse. The post is subsequently renamed Annapolis after Queen Anne. Nicholson intends to return to England and obtain additional regular land and naval forces to supplant his somewhat unpredictable militia forces.

1711 Business: The South Sea Company is organized in England for the purpose of importing African slaves into English and American colonies. Diplomacy: A conference is held at Albany between New York officials and Iroquois chiefs, and “Madame Montour” debuts as an interpreter. She is apparently the offspring of a French father and an Indian mother and picked up the ability to speak English fluently. In this capacity, she is a standard fixture at all important Indian conferences for the next three decades. Education: The traditional emphasis on teaching Greek and Latin in Boston public schools seems excessive and draws complaints from certain quarters, duly noted in the town record. Law: The Massachusetts legislature allocates a sum of 578 pounds to victims of the Salem witch trials, some of whom lost both their property and family members. An extremely contrite Judge Samuel Sewall is to manage distribution of the compensation. Religion: Resentment against the Anglican Church’s official status results in the short-lived Cary’s Rebellion. Slavery: The Pennsylvania legislature, reacting to intense pressure from Quaker and Mennonite communities, votes to abolish slavery in that colony, but it is ultimately overruled by the British government. Autumn: Captain Theophilus Hastings leads 1,300 Creek on a campaign through the heart of Choctaw territory in Alabama; 80 Indians are killed and 130 taken prisoner. Their efforts are abetted by 200 Chickasaw under Thomas Welsh, who raid other parts of the southern frontier.

March Politics: Deputy Governor Thomas Cary, an Anglican stalwart, escapes from captivity in North Carolina and vows to return to overthrow the government

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there. Cary had previously been impeached by the General Assembly for abusing his powers while attempting to make the Church of England a state-sponsored creed.

June Military: Colonel Francis Nicholson summons an assembly of New England governors to New London, Connecticut, for high-level strategy discussions. They adopt a scheme for combined thrusts into Canada from the St. Lawrence River and Lake Champlain against Quebec and Montreal, respectively.

June 19 Naval: Colonel Francis Nicholson arrives back at Boston following another successful voyage to London. Right on his heels are 11 Royal Navy warships and 51 troop transports under Admiral Hovenden Walker. Among the troops dispatched are five veteran regiments under General John Hill, previously attached to the duke of Marlborough’s army.

June 25 Military: Boston bustles with military activity following the arrival of 5,000 troops and 6,000 sailors intended for a major campaign against French Canada.

July 30 Naval: A combined expedition of 5,000 British troops, 2,000 provincials, and 6,000 sailors embarks from Boston under Admiral Hovenden Walker and General John Hill on an ill-fated campaign against French Canada. Simultaneously, Colonel Francis Nicholson is dispatched with a militia force to march up the Hudson River and possibly threaten or capture Montreal.

August 18 Naval: Admiral Hovenden Walker’s large expedition anchors in Gaspé Bay prior to driving up the Saint Lawrence River toward Quebec. Progress is slowed by the lack of pilots familiar with the sometimes treacherous currents.

August 20 Naval: Surrounded by a thick fog, the fleet of Admiral Hovenden Walker enters the Saint Lawrence River, and cautiously gropes for safe anchorage.

August 22 Naval: The large amphibious expedition of Admiral Hovenden Walker is swept by strong currents against the breakers surrounding Ile aux Oeufs with a loss of eight transports and nearly 1,000 lives.

August 25 Naval: Admiral Hovenden Walker and General John Hill meet and discuss what to do next after incurring great losses of equipment and lives in the Saint Lawrence River. They then decide to cancel the entire operation and dispatch a frigate to Boston to recall the army of Colonel Francis Nicholson from his impending march up the Hudson River into Canada. In light of this timidity, both Walker and Hill are eventually cashiered from the service when they return to England.

September 22 Military: The Tuscarora Indians under Chief Hancock, smarting from years of abuse at the hands of colonials, stage surprise attacks against settlements along

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Chronology of American History the Chowan and Roanoke Rivers (New Bern, North Carolina), killing more than 200 colonials—mostly Swiss and Palatine German settlers. A sizable number of African Americans also escapes into the wilderness. A call then goes out for reinforcements from Virginia and South Carolina.

1712 Business: The first sperm whale is killed and towed back into Nantucket Harbor, Massachusetts. Hereafter colonial whalers, previously confined to the coast, begin venturing into deeper water for bigger game. Law: Fines for excessive galloping—America’s first speeding tickets—are levied in Philadelphia against offending horse carriages. Slavery: South Carolina law mandates that no white can be punished for injuring or killing a slave if the latter resists lawful punishment; a fine would be levied instead.

January 12 Military: Colonel John Barnwell and 500 South Carolina militiamen attack the Tuscarora stronghold at Torhunta, reducing it and the defenders in a stiff encounter.

January 30 Military: Colonel John Barnwell is dispatched by the South Carolina government with 33 troops and 500 allied Indians to North Carolina, where he campaigns against hostile Tuscarora at Narhantes on the Neuse River (North Carolina). After killing several Indians and capturing 30, he further engages in a scorched-earth policy, burning anything of use to the tribesmen.

March 6–7 Military: Colonel John Barnwell leads 200 white soldiers and 148 native allies in an attack upon the Tuscarora stronghold of Fort Nohucke (Cotechney Creek, North Carolina). Barnwell loses four killed and 20 wounded in stiff combat, at which point the Indians call for a truce. The two sides then exchange prisoners and Barnwell withdraws.

March 25 Societal: A conspiracy to foment a slave uprising begins in New York City when a handful of newly arrived Africans, under the sway of a free black and practitioner of magic, begins collecting arms.

March 29 Military: Colonel John Barnwell leads a force back to Hancock’s Town but finds it has been greatly strengthened. His men then chase the Tuscaroras into their enclave, but he declines to attack and withdraws to Coree Town.

April 6–7 Slavery: A fire on Maiden Lane, New York, is set by armed African-American slaves, who shoot down nine whites attempting to put the flames out. Governor Robert Hunter then dispatches militia against the alleged transgressors, capturing 70. Twenty-one slave suspects are executed in retaliation; six commit suicide by cutting their own throats rather than face capture. Consequently, the colonial legislature expands the Black Code to include death penalties for conspiracy to murder and destruction of property.

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April 7–17 Military: Colonel John Barnwell surrounds the Tuscarora village at Hancock’s Town and besieges it for several days until King Hancock comes to terms and sues for peace. The Indians then release all hostages and captives and the English withdraw again.

May Military: French troops, backed by numerous Ottawa and Illinois Indians, rout a large village of Fox Indians, killing or capturing 1,000 as they withdraw back to their native Wisconsin. This action precipitates a struggle lasting two decades.

May 7 Diplomacy: A deputation of Chipewyan Indians arrives at York Factory, Hudson Bay, to conclude a treaty with the Hudson’s Bay Company. This act allows the company to establish a new fort at the mouth of the Churchill River to facilitate trade with that distant tribe.

May 9 Politics: The Territory of the Carolinas is finally and formally divided into North and South by its proprietors, each half being run by its own royal governor. The first executive of North Carolina is Edward Hyde.

June 7 Slavery: The importation of slaves is banned by the Pennsylvania representative assembly, making it the first English colony to outlaw that practice.

July 4 Politics: Twelve more slaves are executed in New York City after an attempted revolt is crushed by the militia. Consequently, the Catechism School for Negroes at Trinity Church closes out of fear that education encourages rebellions.

September 14 Business: King Louis XIV grants Antoine Crozat a monopoly of trade in Louisiana for five years.

December Military: Colonel James Moore, commanding 40 English and 800 native allies, attacks the Tuscarora at the Tar River, South Carolina, killing 200 and capturing 800.

1713 Business: The first American-built schooner, a staple of the colonial shipping industry, is launched at Gloucester, Massachusetts, by Captain Andrew Robinson. Diplomacy: A peace treaty is finally reached with warring Tuscarora tribesmen, giving them the choice of either selling off additional land to the English, or migrating northward to join allied tribes there. Not surprisingly, the dispirited survivors gradually migrate northward to New York, becoming the sixth nation of the Iroquois confederation in 1722. General: Massachusetts and Connecticut legislatures come to a mutual agreement on precise boundaries between the two colonies.

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Chronology of American History Religion: King’s Chapel in Boston acquires its first organ; this is in direct contravention to traditional Puritan practices which forbid music in religious service. Less stern denominations usually could not afford such a luxury. Settlement: Large numbers of Palatine Germans depart the Hudson River Valley and relocate under Conrad Wesier to Schoharie Creek, New York.

March 20–23 Military: A force of 1,000 South Carolinian militiamen under Colonel James Moore, assisted by Cherokee and Yamassee warriors, marches into North Carolina against still hostile Tuscarora. They successfully storm Chief Hancock’s fortified town of Nooherooka in a three-day battle, seizing it along with 400 captives, who are eventually sold into slavery. Colonial losses amount to 22 killed and 36 wounded, whereas Indian losses probably exceeded 1,000. This victory effectively ends the war.

March 26 General: Great Britain and Spain conclude the Assiento, a commercial arrangement that allows the British South Sea Company to ship 4,800 slaves per year into the Spanish colonies of North America. Their agreement is to last 30 years.

April 11 Diplomacy: The Treaty of Utrecht ends the War of the Spanish Succession in Europe and Queen Anne’s War. France keeps Cape Breton Island and islands in the St. Lawrence River but cedes Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and Hudson Bay to Great Britain. This creates friction with Micmac living in the area, for the British refuse to disperse annual gifts to the Indians as France had done. Generally, French fortunes in the New World begin to wane.

July 28 Diplomacy: The Abenaki sign a peace treaty with Governor Joseph Dudley in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, finally swearing their allegiance to Great Britain.

November 5 Business: The Virginia House of Burgesses adopts a rigid tobacco inspection program to both improve the quality of the product and potentially drive market prices up.

1714 Arts: Robert Hunter, then governor of New York, writes the political satire Androboros, being the first-ever drama composed and published by an American native. Business: Tea is introduced for the first time into the North American colonies, quickly supplanting coffee and hot chocolate as the most popular beverage. Governor Alexander Spotswood encourages German emigrants to build the first iron furnaces along the Rapidan River, Virginia. Science: Clergyman Cotton Mather publicly declares his belief in the Copernican theory of the universe, whereby the Earth rotates around the Sun and not vice

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versa. This contradicts the centuries-old Ptolemaic tradition, which holds the opposite to be true. It also constitutes a significant victory for scientific observation over prevailing religious dogma. Settlement: Louis St. Denis establishes Natchitoches, Louisiana, along the Red River. Slavery: The Rhode Island assembly forbids ferrymen from transporting slaves out of the colony without the written consent of their owners or a public official. The New Hampshire colonial legislature grants legal recognition to slavery.

August 1 Politics: Queen Anne is succeeded by King George I, initiating the House of Hanover. The new monarch, a German native, cannot address his new subjects in their native language.

1715 Business: Only three years after the first sperm whale was killed and towed back to Nantucket, Massachusetts, that town boasts a whaling fleet of six 30-ton sloops capable of cruising far out at sea for up to six weeks. Religion: North Carolina legislators pass the Third Vestry Act to confirm the Anglican Church’s status as the colony’s official creed. The English-based Society for the Propagation of the Gospel proved instrumental in having this act finally pass; two previous attempts were more or less ignored by the Carolina proprietors. Settlement: Defeat of the Jacobite rebellion in Great Britain causes an influx of Scottish immigrants and refugees to North America. Slavery: The North Carolina legislature passes legislation to legalize slavery within its boundaries, and also outlaws racial intermarriage, and denies blacks access to religious meeting houses.

February 11 Diplomacy: The surviving Tuscarora Indians sign a peace treaty with the government of North Carolina, forfeiting most of their lands in that colony.

April 23 Military: Governor Charles Craven of South Carolina is warned by traders William Bray and Samuel Warner that tensions among the Yamasee Indians are about to explode into violence.

April 26 Military: Yamassee, Catawba, and Creek Indians, angered by past abuses at the hands of colonials and encouraged by Spanish officials, suddenly strike English settlements north of Savannah, South Carolina (Georgia), on Good Friday. Over 100 colonials are killed, after which Governor Charles Craven hastily pursues the invaders. Yamassee warriors also strike this day at St. Bartholomew, South Carolina, burning the settlement and taking 100 captives. They are eventually joined by Creek warriors, possibly incited to fight by French traders.

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May Politics: King George I restores the proprietorship of Maryland to Charles Calvert, fourth lord Baltimore, under the Charter of 1632. This act concludes two and a half decades of royal rule in Maryland, during which time Baltimore was enabled to maintain his property in the colony.

June Military: A war band of 400 Indians attacks and massacres inhabitants of the Herne Plantation (Goose Creek), South Carolina. A militia then gathers under Captain Thomas Baker and pursues the intruders, only to be ambushed and defeated with a loss of 26 men.

June 24 Military: A party of Carolina militia under Captain George Chicken attacks and defeats a party of rampaging Yamassee near the Ponds, North Carolina.

July Military: Rampaging Yamassee warriors attack the village of New London, South Carolina, and are repulsed. They subsequently break up into groups and hit various nearby settlements. One of these, Saint Paul’s Parish, loses 20 inhabitants to the tomahawk.

July 19 Military: A Carolina militia commanded by Captain George Chicken surrounds a party of Yamassee warriors at a plantation near Ponds, South Carolina, then attacks and slaughters them. The Indians lose 40 killed and the colonials capture several prisoners and rescue hostages.

1716 Arts: The first permanent theater is constructed at Williamsburg, Virginia; by 1745, this same building will function as the town hall. Exploration: Virginia governor Alexander Spotswood, accompanied by a group called the Knights of the Golden Horseshoe, explore down the James River and up across the Blue Ridge Mountains into the fertile Shenandoah Valley. This is one of the first concerted efforts to open up the interior of the colony to settlement. General: The French begin persuading the Micmac still residing on Cape Breton Island to relocate to Jesuit-run missions in Acadia (Nova Scotia) and Ile St. Jean (Prince Edward Island). Medical: New York begins the practice of licensing midwives. Religion: John Wise, a Congregational minister, publishes A Vindication of the Government of New-England Churches, and defends their somewhat democratic nature against the more centralized tendencies advocated by Increase and Cotton Mather.

June 6 General: The first African slaves are introduced into French Louisiana, belonging to the Company of the West.

August Military: A body of 225 French soldiers and militiamen, backed by 400 native allies, besieges the Fox Indian village at Butte des Mortes (Green Bay, Wisconsin)

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for a month, securing from the survivors a pledge to sell their lands to France and compensate them for the campaign as well.

August 1 Military: Yamassee war bands stage a successful raid near Port Royal, South Carolina, killing four civilians.

September 14 Technology: Boston, Massachusetts, begins operating the first colonial lighthouse on Little Brewster Island.

1717 Business: After the Hudson’s Bay Company constructs a trading post at the mouth of the Churchill River, the neighboring Chipewyan Indians are installed as middlemen for all trade farther west. Colonial vessels are now permitted to visit the French West Indies and bring back cargos of French molasses to New England. This, in turn, is distilled into rum, one of the region’s largest exports. King Louis XVI grants Scottish financier John Law and his Company of the West a virtual monopoly in the Louisiana territory. Diplomacy: England’s victory over the Yamassee convinces Creek Indians of central Georgia and Alabama leaders to pursue a policy of neutrality respecting that power and the Spanish in Florida. The English have also been greatly assisted by the Cherokee, traditional enemies of the Creek. Education: Reverend Cotton Mather establishes the first evening school for African Americans and Indians in Boston, Massachusetts. Reverend Hugh Jones assumes the first professorship in philosophy and mathematics at the College of William and Mary, Virginia. Law: A royal proclamation automatically pardons all pirates who surrender themselves to authorities, and a large group of transgressors, operating out of Providence Island, Bahamas, avail themselves of the offer. Slavery: The British government authorizes the South Sea Company to import Africans slaves to the colonies. The Maryland legislature passes laws to discourage interracial marriage within its boundaries; henceforth, all black spouses become slaves to the white mates. South Carolina colony adopts antimiscegenation laws to prevent interracial marriage.

September 20 Military: Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, sieur de Bienville is appointed commandant general of Louisiana colony and responsible for its overall defense.

November 12 Business: The tobacco inspection act of 1713 is repealed in Virginia.

1718 Business: Scottish financier John Law organizes the Mississippi Company and begins issuing public shares. Despite government regulations, a spate of wild speculating in shares ensues.

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Chronology of American History Law: The British Parliament fixes the terms of indentured service for all criminals dispatched to the colonies, ranging from the usual seven years for minor offenses to lifelong service for serious crimes. Military: Escalating frontier tensions induce South Carolina to begin fortifying Columbia and Port Royal against Indian attacks.

July 30 General: William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania, dies.

September 10 Education: The Collegiate School of New Haven, Connecticut, renames itself Yale College after Elihu Yale, a former East India Company governor and now a local merchant who had been a most generous donor.

September 27 Naval: A South Carolina expedition of two vessels under Colonel William Rhet seizes notorious pirate Stede Bonnet after a stiff sea fight.

November Settlement: Montreal-born Jean-Baptiste le Moyne, sieur de Bienville, founds New Orleans at the mouth of the Mississippi River, while the jurisdiction of Louisiana is extended upriver as far as the Illinois Territory. The settlement is named after Philippe, duke of Orleans and regent of France. The future city initially consists of only 68 inhabitants.

November 21 Naval: A ship under Lieutenant Robert Maynard of HMS Pearl engages and defeats the piratical Captain Edward Teach (Blackbeard) off Pamlico Sound, North Carolina. The formidable Blackbeard only falls after receiving 10 wounds, while the Royal Navy sustains 10 killed and 24 injured.

December 10 Law: Stede Bonnet, the notorious “Gentleman pirate,” is hanged in London for murder and piracy in the Caribbean Sea and off the colonial coast.

1719 Business: Potatoes are cultivated for the first time by Scottish immigrants in Londonderry, New Hampshire. General: Fraunces Tavern, site of General George Washington’s noted farewell speech to his officers in 1783, is built at Pearl and Broad Streets in New York City. Journalism: William Brooker founds the Boston Gazette, which, by the time of the American Revolution, has evolved into a colonial mouthpiece. Military: French soldiers further expand their chain of forts in the northwest by erecting Fort Ouiatenon along the Wabash River (Indiana), to guard the fur trade route into the Mississippi River Valley. Politics: Colonists in South Carolina overturn proprietary governance for its failure to prevent Spanish incursions from Florida. Religion: The first German Reform Church arises in Germantown, Pennsylvania, unique in allowing the mass to be conducted by a layman. Slavery: French ships Grand Duc du Maine and Aurora drop anchor off New Orleans, Louisiana, conveying that colony’s first large shipment of African slaves.

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Societal: The New Jersey legislature begin regulating the institution of marriage, forbidding any individual until the age of 21 to wed without parental consent. This measure is undertaken to curtail minors from stumbling into unfortunate unions that society would ultimately have to rectify. Technology: Boston becomes the first American city to install and utilize street lamps for nighttime illumination. The device in question was designed and constructed by Eliakim Hutchinson.

August 6–8 Naval: A Spanish fleet arrives off French-held Pensacola, Florida, takes up bombardment positions, and induces the garrison to surrender without a shot.

September 17 Naval: A French expedition sails into Pensacola and defeats the Spanish defenders after a three-hour exchange, then accepts surrender of the town.

October 12 Military: Colonel John Barnwell organizes a punitive expedition consisting of militia and allied Coosa Indians. This day they strike at Yamassee villages at Pocotaligo (Saint Augustine), Florida, killing several inhabitants. A company of Spanish soldiers attacks the intruders and is driven off with a loss of 14 killed and several made prisoner.

November Politics: The recent Yamassee War had weakened the proprietary regime of Governor Robert Johnson of South Carolina to the point where he is easily removed from power and replaced by the successful military leader James Moore, who reigns as an interim figure.

December Publishing: Thomas Fleet publishes the first edition of Mother Goose’s Melodies for Children, one of the earliest and most memorable collections for youthful readers. Settlement: The French Company of the West begins transporting numerous German farmers fleeing from the war-ravaged Rhineland region, to Louisiana. It is hoped their presence will promote the colony’s agricultural self-sufficiency as it still requires food shipments from France.

December 21 Politics: South Carolina is made a royal colony following a revolt against the proprietors; the latter still retain their land rights. Journalism: James Franklin, elder brother of Benjamin Franklin, begins publishing the Boston Gazette.

December 22 Journalism: Andrew Bradford begins publishing the American Weekly Mercury in Philadelphia; it is Pennsylvania’s first newspaper.

1720 Business: The Chickasaw of Mississippi, drawn to the British because of the high quality and low price of their goods, engender extreme opposition from the French and their nearby Choctaw allies.

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Chronology of American History Education: Virginia establishes the first permanent school for educating Indians at Williamsburg. Military: The French continue their systematic construction of military fortifications throughout the Mississippi River Valley to secure and protect the fur trade. This year, new outposts spring up at the mouth of the Kaskaskia River, on Cape Breton Island (Louisbourg), and on the Niagara frontier. Through such expedients, they hope to protect cooperative Indians from attacks by hostile Iroquois. Religion: The Dunkers, a German religious sect, establish their Ephrata Cloister near Philadelphia. As a group, they are best known for their hymn books, copied and illustrated by women church members, and for choirs singing in multipart harmonies.

May Slavery: A slave insurrection in Charleston, South Carolina, is put down, 23 slaves are arrested and three executed for their role in the conspiracy.

May 29 Politics: The far-ranging Francis Nicholson arrives in South Carolina as its first royal governor.

June Military: Yamassee warriors attack Saint Helena, South Carolina, killing several settlers and taking captives.

August 14 Military: A Spanish/Indian party of 120 men under General Don Pedro de Villasur encamps on the Platte River (Columbus, Nebraska) while making overtures to nearby Pawnee villagers. At dawn the natives, assisted by French traders, attack and overrun the Spanish camp, killing Villasur and most of his men.

October Business: In France, the Mississippi Company of John Law collapses under the weight of a scheme called the “Mississippi Bubble.” Law, a Scottish financier, had originally concocted the scheme to stimulate interest and investment in colonization. However, when his bank, the Company of the West, issued paper money far in excess of securities extant, it collapsed and ruined thousands of investors.

1721 Arts: Gustavius Hesselius receives what is most likely the first public art commission in America, painting the Last Supper for St. Barnabas Church, St. George’s County, Maryland. Business: The Lords of Trade implore King George I to block French expansion in the Ohio backcountry by fortifying Virginia’s western frontier. Education: Jesuits found a college at Kaskaskia, Illinois, whose library contains volumes of the very latest French philosophers. Law: Royal Navy vessels defeat the so-called “Calico Pirates,” taking Anne Bonney and Mary Reed prisoner. The captives are then taken to Jamaica and hanged, save for Bonney, who is pregnant and spared. Politics: The ascent of Robert Walpole, as British chancellor of the Exchequer, ushers in an age of benign neglect toward the colonies, replete with widespread violation of the Navigation Acts.

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Slavery: Delaware colony passes an antimiscegenation ordinance to prevent racial intermarriage. Societal: The French, in an attempt to keep their young men from cavorting with Indian women, begin cleaning out jails and shipping prostitutes to Louisiana as potential wives.

May Law: Connecticut passes an ordinance requiring people to remain in their homes on Sunday, unless they are heading to church or some other vital function.

May 1 Medicine: The first smallpox inoculations in America are performed by Dr. Zabdiel Boylston of Massachusetts after 844 colonists die from that malady. He had been encouraged to experiment by the Reverend Cotton Mather, who was himself informed of this ancient African practice by his slave Onesimus. Science: Reverend Cotton Mather composes his Christian Philosopher, in which he outlines and attempts to explain the fundamentals of Sir Isaac Newton’s theory of physics, first introduced to the colonies in 1708.

May 21 Business: John Copson founds the first colonial marine and fire insurance company on High Street, Philadelphia.

May 29 Politics: South Carolina becomes a royal colony under Governor Francis Nicholson at the behest of King George I.

September 8 Business: The British Board of Trade, always eager to increase business and profits, recommends to the British Crown the practice of intermarriage between white traders and Indians. This is a common occurrence among the French North American colonies, yet rare in British holdings due to an overweening sense of racial superiority to the natives. The board holds intermarriage as perhaps the best and easiest way to insure peaceful relations between the two groups.

1722 Business: Parliament adds copper, beaver, and other furs to the list of enumerated items which the colonies can only ship to Great Britain. A separate act permits the colonies to mint their own copper coins. Diplomacy: Fugitive Tuscarora from North Carolina agree to join the Iroquois confederation, now called the Six Nations. Governor Alexander Spotswood concludes a treaty with the Six Nations Iroquois, mandating that they will not migrate across the Blue Ridge Mountains or below the Potomac River without permission from Virginia authorities. Settlement: Having founded the town of San Antonio, Texas, the Spanish also construct a Franciscan mission known as the Alamo. Slavery: The Pennsylvania assembly passes a law condemning that apparently widespread practice of blacks and whites cohabiting together. Virginia authorities get upwind of a possible slave conspiracy, arrest several alleged perpetrators, and sell them to regions outside the colony.

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January 24 Education: Edward Wigglesworth becomes the first professor of divinity in the colonies by occupying the Thomas Hollis chair at Harvard College.

April 30 Sports: The first mention of billiards in Charleston, Massachusetts, appears in the New England Courant.

June Military: Abenaki warriors incited by Jesuit priest Sebastian Rale suddenly attack English settlements near Brunswick, Maine, taking several captives. This is the opening act of what was generally known as Dummer’s War, which lasts five years.

June 4 General: Two hundred fifty German settlers come ashore at the present site of Mobile, Alabama, then a French possession.

October 23 Religion: Three Connecticut Congregational ministers, Timothy Cutler, Daniel Brown, and Samuel Johnson, embark for England to be ordinated as Anglican priests. This represents a considerable advance for the Church of England in New England, and Cutler emerges as a significant Anglican leader in New England.

1723 Education: The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, founds Brafferton Hall, the first permanent school for Native Americans. The Maryland assembly mandates public schools to be constructed in every county. General: Benjamin Franklin, unhappy over how his brother treats him, departs Boston and relocates to Philadelphia. Religion: Construction begins on Boston’s Old North Church, the earliest expression of Georgian-style church architecture in New England. Five decades later, it will become indelibly associated with the Revolutionary War activities of Paul Revere. The first Dunkard Church is organized at Germantown, Pennsylvania, under Peter Becker. The sect derives its name from the method of baptism, or “dunking.” Settlement: Conrad Weiser leads his fellow Palatine Germans from New York and into Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where they finally take root. Slavery: Rising concern over the rates of interracial marriage prompts a petition filed with the Pennsylvania assembly for remedial action. The Virginia assembly votes to eliminate free African Americans and Native Americans from the voting franchise and forbids them from carrying weapons of any kind.

April 13 Slavery: Governor William Dummer, reporting on a spate of arson in Boston, proclaims that the fires had been started by African Americans.

1724 Business: The cultivation and harvest of rice receives a boost, once systematic irrigation is introduced into the process.

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Franklin, Benjamin (1706–1790) Inventor, diplomat Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on January 17, 1706, the son of a candle maker. Poorly educated, he matured into one of the most industrious, multitalented men of this or any other age, an individual whose outward simplicity and friendly demeanor masked a cunning, perceptive mind. By 1746, he found success as publisher of the Pennsylvania Gazette and Poor Richard’s Almanac, colonial best sellers that allowed him to retire at the age of 42. Franklin then went on to found numerous civic organizations such as the Library Company of Philadelphia, the American Philosophical Society, and the College of Philadelphia. To this litany of accomplishments must be added his considerable largesse as a scientist and inventor, whose efforts at developing the

Benjamin Franklin. Portrait by Charles Willson Peale (Library of Congress)

Franklin stove, bifocal glasses, and the lightning rod gained him membership in the prestigious Royal Philosophical Society. He also proved a fair hand at politics, winning several terms in the Pennsylvania assembly where he clashed with political conservatives such as John Dickinson. In 1757, Franklin next ventured to London as the colonial agent for Pennsylvania, becoming embroiled in the ongoing dispute over British imperial policies. He testified before Parliament as to the folly of enforcing unpopular tax measures with armed force and cautioned that the king’s ministers “will not find a rebellion; they may indeed make one.” His final act in Great Britain was arranging for radical pamphleteer Thomas Paine to immigrate to Philadelphia. Franklin returned to America in the spring of 1775, firmly committed to the cause of American independence. As a member of the Second Continental Congress, he lent Thomas Jefferson sagacious advice during the drafting of the Declaration of Independence, and later conferred with his old friend Admiral Richard Howe during an aborted peace commission. In 1777, Franklin undertook his most significant work, as American ambassador to the glittering court of King Louis XVI at Versailles. Bedecked in simple homespun, he proved immensely popular in aristocratic circles and an intellectual match for the wily foreign minister, Charles, comte de Vergennes. After helping to craft the Franco-American alliance, he turned his back on his allies and successfully negotiated a highly favorable peace treaty with (continues)

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(continued) Great Britain behind their backs. Franklin’s smooth personal diplomacy convinced the comte de Vergennes to accept the fait accompli gracefully. Back at home, Franklin served in various capacities throughout the Pennsylvania government, and in 1788, he represented his state at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. As a highly respected elder statesman, he urged fellow

delegates to approve the newly adopted federal constitution unanimously for the effect it would have on ratification. Franklin died in Philadelphia on April 17, 1790, receiving the biggest funeral procession ever mounted in the city to that time. America’s original Renaissance man, he made indelible contributions to nationhood, science, and human welfare.

Military: Fort Dummer, built at present-day Brattleboro, Vermont, is constructed to protect New England settlers from Indian raids. Politics: The Rhode Island General Assembly institutes property qualifications as a condition for voting. Religion: The administration of Governor Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, sieur de Bienville expels all Jews from Louisiana and adjoining territories. Science: Paul Dudley becomes the colonies’ first horticulturist by publishing a treatise on fruit trees in New England. Slavery: Hugh Jones publishes his tract, The Present State of Virginia, and encourages slave owners to have their charges educated and baptized.

March Slavery: Governor Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, sieur de Bienville, implements Louisiana’s Code Noir (Black Code), whose 55 provisions closely regulated the lives and activities of all slaves. It also ordered all Jews to leave the colony immediately.

August 24 Military: Colonel Thomas Westbrook and 200 colonial militiamen attack and massacre the inhabitants of an Abenaki village at Norridgewock (Narantsouak), Maine. Among the slain is a Jesuit missionary, Father Sebastian Rale, a longtime resident of the village, who had incited the Indians to violence and taken up arms in their defense.

1725 Diplomacy: British negotiators in Maine reach an agreement with the Penobscot Indians living there, which removes them from the ongoing Dummer’s War. The Indians agree to cease fighting, release all hostages, recognize British land claims in the region, and acknowledge sovereignty of the king of Great Britain over their lands. The Penobscots received neutrality in return, which they skillfully maintained until 1763. Journalism: The New York Gazette, New York’s first weekly newspaper, is started by William Bradford. Military: The New England militia begins construction on Fort Oswego, on the southern shore of Lake Ontario, to counter the recent spate of French military construction at Niagara and elsewhere.

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Religion: African-American slaves in Williamsburg, Virginia, secure the right to acquire their own Baptist church. John Philip Boehm founds the U.S. Reformed Church at Falkner Swamp, Pennsylvania. Science: Nathaniel Ames, a Boston physician, publishes the first edition of his Astronomical Diary and Almanac, which continues up to the Revolutionary War. Slavery: The population of slaves in the Americas is estimated at 75,000. The Pennsylvania assembly, bowing to popular pressure, passes antimiscegenation laws to prevent interracial marriage or relations. In Virginia, the House of Burgesses authorizes construction of the Church of Colored Baptists at Williamsburg. To dissuade slaves from escaping, the South Carolina legislature levies a 200pound fine on any slave owner who transports his slaves beyond the frontier. The fear was that slaves might escape, join the Indians, and raise havoc.

February 20 Military: Captain John Lovewell, a noted frontier fighter, takes 10 Indian scalps at Wakefield, New Hampshire. This is the first recorded instance of colonial soldiers performing this grisly practice, and the British government awards them 100 pounds per scalp.

April 16 Military: Veteran Indian fighter Captain John Lovewell departs Dunstable, Massachusetts, with a company of 47 men and marches toward Pequawket (Fryeburg, Maine) to conduct some raiding.

May 9 Military: Veteran frontier fighter Captain John Lovewell leads a 33-man “snowshoe patrol” on a foray against Pequawket Indians near Saco Lake, Maine. He is wounded in a skirmish and, en route back to camp, the English are ambushed by 80 warriors, and he is killed in the first volley, along with a third of his men. The surviving 21 militiamen assume strong positions behind two fallen pine trees, with a large pond protecting their rear. A 10-hour firefight ensues, and that evening, Ensign Seth Wyman allegedly steals into the enemy’s camp and slays their medicine man. Unable to dislodge the colonials, the Indians then disperse, while the surviving militiamen trudge their way home. Pequawket casualties are not known but presumed equally heavy, and thereafter they are less effective. In this context, Lovewell’s fight is a turning point in the so-called Dummer’s War.

1726 Diplomacy: Emissaries from the Micmac, Maliseet, and Passamaquoddy tribes gather at Boston to sign the so-called “Boston Treaty,” which acknowledges British suzerainty over Acadia (Nova Scotia). In exchange, the British promise to uphold tribal hunting and fishing rights. Law: In a large riot, Philadelphia’s poor tear down the pillory and stocks intended for them before authorities could restore order. Publishing: The Compleat Body of Divinity, a folio volume, becomes the largest book ever published in the American colonies.

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Chronology of American History Religion: Presbyterian minister William Tennant founds his Log College at Neshaminy, Pennsylvania, for instructing evangelist preachers. This is also the first college to arise in the mid-Atlantic colonies. Slavery: New York governor William Burnet asks chiefs of the Six Nations Iroquois to surrender any and all fugitive African Americans living among them. None are returned.

September Military: Yamassee warriors attack the home of John Edwards near Port Royal, South Carolina, killing him and absconding with four African slaves.

1727 Education: Isaac Greenwood is appointed the first chair in mathematics and natural philosophy at Harvard College. General: Benjamin Franklin establishes his Junto Club, a self-improvement benevolent association composed mostly of artisans. Membership is restricted to highly educated men of letters who invariably pen erudite pamphlets and newspaper essay on topics of public welfare. It is strongly abolitionist in tenor and also serves as the nucleus of the prestigious American Philosophical Society.

February Military: The yearlong Anglo-Spanish war breaks out along the southern frontier, leading to a series of raids and counterraids by militia and Indians of both sides.

June 12 Politics: King George I dies and is succeeded by his son, George II. Like his father, this monarch cannot speak English and seems inordinately interested in events back at his native Hanover. His indifference to English political affairs leads to the rise of Robert Walpole, the nation’s first de facto prime minister.

July 23 Military: A Yamassee war party attacks traders in the Smallwood’s Store near Fort King George, South Carolina, killing several Englishmen. They are then pursued and surrounded by militiamen under Captain John Bull, who kill six natives and an accompanying Spaniard.

August 6 Religion: After nearly a century of service in New France, Ursuline nuns arrive at New Orleans, Louisiana, to establish a hospital, a girls’ school, and an orphanage. They also serve as guardians of “Casket girls” en route to the colony and are tasked with educating the African community. These various endeavors represent the first Catholic charitable institutions in America.

September Military: Yamassee warriors attack the house of Alexander Dawson on French’s Island, South Carolina, killing him and capturing several family members and slaves.

September 19 Journalism: The Maryland Gazette of Annapolis is established as the first newspaper in the southern colonies.

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1728 General: The first “Casket Girls” (they carry a new gown in a small chest) arrive from France to become wives of settlers in Louisiana. Being of a respectable, higher class, they supplant the first wave of women sent from Paris, who were mostly prostitutes released from prison. Music: Reverend Nathaniel Chauncey of New Haven pens the booklet Regular Singing Defended as a way of promoting innovative ways of singing religious hymns. Religion: Having practiced their services in a rented building for a century, Jews in New York construct the colonies’ first synagogue on Mill Street, New York City. Benjamin Franklin’s publication Articles of Faith and Acts of Religion stresses the role of reason in belief and questions the primacy of previously held religious dogma. To him, all religious beliefs must be tempered with common sense and logic. Science: The first botanical garden is established in Philadelphia by John Bartram.

February Military: Colonel John Palmer takes a force of 100 Carolina militia and 200 Indian allies deep on a foray against hostile Yamassee Indians and their Spanish consorts outside Saint Augustine, Florida.

March 9 Military: A column of South Carolina militia under Colonel John Palmer successfully storms a Yamassee village near St. Augustine, Florida, killing 30 and taking 15 captives. Palmer, however, lacks the manpower to storm Castillo de San Marcos so he lingers a few days before retracing his steps back to South Carolina.

March 13 Military: The Column of South Carolina militia and Indian allies under Colonel John Palmer arrive back at Charles Town, having retaliated against Yamassee Indian raids along the frontier.

July Slavery: The Massachusetts legislature forbids Indian, black, or mulatto servants and slaves from buying foodstuffs from country vendors.

August Military: French troops and Indian allies under Constant Le Marchand de Lignery conduct a preemptive sweep through Wisconsin to prevent a possible military alliance between the Fox, Sauk, Mascouten, Kickapoo, Winnebago, and Dakota tribesmen.

1729 Journalism: Benjamin Franklin acquires, edits, and publishes the Pennsylvania Gazette, which emerges as the colonies’ most successful newspaper. One reason for its popularity is that the columns were interspersed with Franklin’s witty advice on a variety of issues. Military: The French begin constructing an extensive chain of fortifications along the Ohio River to block any westward expansion of the English colonies. The response of the British government to this threat is muted.

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Chronology of American History Politics: Rhode Island begins clamping down on foreign immigrants by making them post a 50-pound bond before being allowed to enter. Religion: Joshua Blanchard constructs the Old South Meeting House in Boston, a celebrated fixture in political agitation leading up to the Revolutionary War. The rapid growth of Anglicanism in Boston, heretofore a Puritan stronghold, is evinced by the rise of a third parish attached to Trinity Church. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts changes its name to Dr. Bray’s Associates in honor of Thomas Bray, who had been instructing African-American children since 1701. Science: Harvard professor Isaac Greenwood publishes the first arithmetic textbook in Boston. Slavery: The Rhode Island legislature mandates that each slave owner will post a 100-pound bond per emancipated slave to insure that they do not become a public burden if taken ill or incapacitated. Benjamin Franklin publishes the antislavery tract A Brief Examination of the Practice of the Times by Quaker leader Ralph Sandyford.

February 11 Religion: Reverend Jonathan Edwards succeeds his grandfather, Solomon Stoddard, as head of a church in Northampton, Massachusetts. He is soon to be one of the most distinguished American theologians of the 18th century.

March 1 General: St. David’s Day, honoring the patron saint of Wales, is celebrated in Philadelphia. The occasion is further marked by creation of the Society of Ancient Britons and festivities held at a local tavern.

March 15 Religion: Sister St. Stanislaus Hachard becomes the first Roman Catholic nun to undergo the Ceremony of the Profession at the Ursuline Convent, New Orleans.

April 23 General: St. George’s Day is celebrated for the first time in Philadelphia at Tun Tavern.

June Business: Benjamin Franklin publishes A Modest Inquiry into the Nature and Necessity of a Paper Currency in concert with the Junto Club of Philadelphia. This is one of several public-minded pamphlets penned by this extremely fertile mind.

July 25 Politics: After years of complaints lodged against proprietary excesses and poor frontier defenses, Carolina is made a royal colony once its charter is sold to the English Crown by seven of eight proprietors. The province is then formally divided into North Carolina and South Carolina.

August 8 General: The port of Baltimore, Maryland, established in 1692, is formally named after the founder of that colony.

November 28 Military: Natchez Indians under Sun King, smarting from recent indignities, attack Fort Rosalie (Natchez, Mississippi), killing 237 French settlers and soldiers,

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Edwards, Jonathan (1703–1758) Theologian Jonathan Edwards was born in Windsor, Connecticut on October 5, 1703, into a family of prominent church ministers. He proved himself a child prodigy by studying and grasping Isaac Newton’s scientific theories at the age of 12, and two years later he was admitted to Yale College. Reserved and studious, Edwards graduated at the top of his class in 1720 and subsequently ministered to a Presbyterian congregation in New York. In 1724, he returned to Yale as a junior instructor, and in 1726, he was invited to preach at the influential Congregationalist Church in Northampton, Massachusetts, under aegis of his famous grandfather, Solomon Stoddard. Edwards was formally ordained

Jonathan Edwards (Library of Congress)

there on February 22, 1727, and two years later succeeded his grandfather as pastor. After a slow and cautious start, Edwards began showing flashes of intellectual brilliance that marked him as the most important theologian in the colonies. The change occurred in 1731 when, having been called to deliver an oration in Boston, he addressed his flock with an emotional sermon that marked him as a commanding speaker. This was in direct contrast to the staid and stately delivery of most Congregational ministering, and as Edwards’s reputation grew he helped precipitate a wave of renewed religiosity throughout the Connecticut River Valley, the so-called “Little Awakening.” By 1740 his effort dovetailed with the larger “Great Awakening” of George Whitefield, which swept the American colonies throughout the 1740s. As a religious philosopher, Edwards disagreed with the extreme emotionalism of the movement but strongly supported its evangelical ends. In 1741, Edwards delivered his landmark sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” which confirmed mankind’s debased nature, the extreme punishment of Hell, and God’s absolute sovereignty over human affairs. Not only was it an electrifying oration, but it also marks Edwards’s attempt to galvanize traditional Puritan teachings and concepts, long in decline. He also openly questioned the more liberal doctrine of the “Half-Way Covenant,” which eased restrictions on church membership and baptism but also denied God’s grace to all but a select community of demonstrable saints. This stance brought him in direct conflict with his own congregation, who (continues)

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(continued) elected to have him removed as minister in 1750. Edwards then retired to the frontier community of Stockbridge, Massachusetts, to write and minister to Native Americans. He also took up his pen and published a series of erudite pamphlets and books, especially The Freedom of Will (1754), which attacked creeping Arminianism in the New England church. In 1757, Edwards was invited to serve

as the third president of the College of New Jersey (Princeton), which had been founded by a Presbyterian offshoot. He only served a few months in this capacity before dying of a botched smallpox inoculation. In terms of intellectual scope and rhetorical delivery, Edwards was an outstanding spokesman of the Calvinist precept that humans have no influence over God’s divine judgment.

and capturing an additional 300. The tipping point in their relations was when Governor Etienne Perier ordered them to turn over their principal town for use as a plantation. The governor, once seized, is held in such contempt that only a warrior of the very lowest order is willing to execute him.

1730 Architecture: Andrew Hamilton completes plans, drawn in the Georgian style, for the Old State House in Philadelphia. This building is to gain renown as Independence Hall during the Revolutionary War. Construction continues until 1753. Arts: Boston is the scene of the first colonial art exhibition, which showcases the works of John Smibert, whose realistic style of portrait indelibly influences John Singleton Copley and Robert Feke. Business: The Virginia assembly passes the Tobacco Inspection Law, requiring close inspection of all tobacco shipments leaving the colony. New York City constructs its first kiln for firing stoneware and gradually emerges as the leading manufacturer of pottery products in the colonies. Military: The frontier gunsmiths began developing the first examples of the famous Pennsylvania Long Rifle. This is a slow-loading, highly accurate weapon and lethal in the hands of skilled wilderness marksmen. Politics: Former Virginia governor Alexander Spotswood is made assistant postmaster general in New York City. Religion: The hymn book Tunes in Praise and Love of God is published in Philadelphia by Benjamin Franklin for the Dunkards (German Baptists). Slavery: The Connecticut assembly forbids African Americans, mulattos, or Indians from slander of libeling whites. Violators will receive 40 lashes with a whip. Virginia authorities arrest and execute four African Americans suspected of plotting an armed rebellion. Societal: Daniel Coxe gains appointment as the first grand master of Masons in North America. His jurisdiction applies to New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Benjamin Franklin and Deborah Reed undertake a common-law marriage agreement when the latter cannot legally divorce her missing husband. In this

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(1688 –1751)

Artist John Smibert was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1688, raised a Presbyterian, and apprenticed to a house painter. In this capacity he acquired considerable skill learning to paint designs and decorate plaster ceilings, and began copying the works of earlier artists for sale. Around 1713 Smibert sought to improve his social standing by moving to London as a coach painter, while also studying art at an academy headed by Sir Godfrey Kneller. He worked as a professional portrait artist there and back in Edinburgh, and by 1719, he had accumulated sufficient funding to study art in Italy for the next three years. Smibert subsequently returned to London in 1722 and opened his own studio, where his distinct style won plaudits but no real recognition. The turning point in his career came in 1728, when Dean George Berkeley, an Anglican philosopher, invited him to teach painting at a college he hoped to found in Bermuda. Smibert readily assented and landed at Newport, Rhode Island, with Berkeley as the group awaited funding from Parliament. While there, he painted his best known work, The Bermuda Group, depicting Berkeley and his family. This large painting took two years to complete (1729–31) and it remained in his studio as his most celebrated work. However, when the government failed to provide funds for the college, Berkeley returned to England but Smibert subsequently relocated to Boston, Massachusetts, as a budding portrait artist. He also did innumerable copies of works by European masters with sufficient

skill to warrant numerous commissions. Once established in Boston, Smibert proved fairly successful, and his popular portraits became the rage among the newly emerging merchant elite of that city. He further cemented his ties to that class in July 1730 by marrying the daughter of Dr. Nathaniel Williams of the Boston Latin School. In time, Smibert did portraits of numerous and significant individuals of the Boston community, including General William Pepperrell, Jonathan Edwards, and Governor John Endecott. However, as his eyesight began to fail, Smibert switched over to landscapes, which, however well-executed, failed to enjoy the celebrity and popularity of his earlier work. He also dabbled in architecture and originated the design for Faneuil Hall, Boston’s first public market, and the Harvard chapel. His reputation was such that many budding American artists, such as John Singleton Copley, arrived in town to study under him. Smibert finally retired in 1749 and died in Boston on April 2, 1751. While he lived, he functioned as the first American artist to achieve commercial success, and his relatively realistic portrait style was widely copied by painters in other colonies. For many years following his death, his studio was kept intact as a place of artistic pilgrimage. And while Smibert was eventually eclipsed in style by many former students such as Copley, he was the first artist to make indelible contributions toward the sophistication and popularity of colonial art among Boston’s new elite.

capacity she bears several children and also capably runs Franklin’s various business ventures in his absence. Sport: To facilitate the practice of fox hunting in Maryland, red foxes are imported from Britain and then let loose along the banks of the Chesapeake.

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Chronology of American History Technology: New York City acquires its first stoneware furnace (kiln) and begins a significant pottery business. Mathematician Thomas Godley of Philadelphia perfects the first practical navigating quadrant, the so-called Hadley’s Mariner’s Quadrant.

January 27 Military: French military forces, backed by numerous Choctaw allies, defeat the Natchez Indians, securing several captives.

February Military: French troops, militia, and allied Choctaw attack the former French post of Fort Rosalie, now held by hostile Natchez Indians. After a three-week siege, the defenders manage to slip across the Mississippi River to safety.

August 10 Military: Captain Paul Marin marches a force of 200 French troops and 1,200 native allies from Fort Vincennes, Louisiana, to a nearby Fox Indian stronghold.

August 15 Slavery: South Carolina authorities uncover and defuse a slave conspiracy involving as many as 200 African Americans.

September 9 Military: A body of 900 Fox Indians, besieged in northern Louisiana by French and native allies, escape their fort at night but are ruthlessly pursued. At length 500 are massacred while the survivors are brought back as slaves. Only 60 Fox make it back to Wisconsin, where they lived beside the Sac Indians at Green Bay.

September 30 Diplomacy: A deputation of Cherokee chiefs ventures to London for an audience with King George II to renew their loyalty to the Crown. They then sign the Article of Agreement, whereby both sides pledge to respect each other’s holdings and live in peace. Moreover, the Cherokee are to trade exclusively with the British and assist them in fighting France and its allies.

December Military: French punitive raids into Natchez Indian territory culminate in the capture of the Sun Chief, along with 700 women, children, and warriors. These are summarily sold as slaves.

1731 Military: To guard the approaches to the St. Lawrence River from the south, French soldiers construct Crown Point on Lake Champlain. Slavery: King George II prohibits the imposition of customs duties on slaves imported to the colonies. This is done to preserve the very lucrative nature of the British slave trade, and he wished to maintain it without colonial interference. Technology: Benjamin Franklin, who heads the Union Fire Company of Philadelphia, imports one of the very latest fire engines from England.

January 23 Business: Scottish financier John Law, owner of the French Company of the West, goes bankrupt after the “Mississippi Bubble” bursts, and the Louisiana Territory reverts to the French Crown.

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July 31 General: Benjamin Franklin and members of the Junto Club found the Library Company of Philadelphia, one of the first circulating (public) libraries in North America. Its appearance heralds the relatively high and rising literacy rates in Pennsylvania.

December 30 Music: The first public concert held in the colonies occurs at a private house in Boston. It is orchestrated by Peter Pelham, a local engraver, dancing master, and tobacco seller.

1732 Business: Parliament approves the Hat Act to protect the British clothing industry, already reeling from stiff French competition; this law prohibits the export of hats between colonies and limits the number of people entering the felt trade as apprentices. Under the aegis of former Virginia governor Alexander Spotswood, now deputy postmaster general, the reach of the colonial postal service is extended into the southern colonies. Settlement: French traders found Fort Charles at present-day Lake of the Woods, Minnesota. Consistent with French policy, they strike up easy relations with nearby Cree Indians and cohabit with their women. Slavery: In Virginia, the House of Burgesses levies a 5 percent import duty on all slaves imported into the colony. Societal: Quakers found the first publicly supported almshouse for the poor in Philadelphia. As a rule, the sect is involved in a number of humanitarian-related activities and causes. Sports: New York City acquires a bowling green when a strip of land is leased by the city to leading enthusiasts. The Schuylkill Fishing Company of Philadelphia becomes America’s first sporting organization, and limits its membership to 30. Transportation: One of the first stagecoach lines begins operating between Burlington and Amboy, New Jersey. Connections to either New York or Philadelphia were also available by boat.

January 8 Journalism: Thomas Whitmarsh founds the South Carolina Gazette with backing by Benjamin Franklin.

February 22 General: George Washington is born at Bridges Creek, Virginia, one of 10 children of a fairly prosperous planter.

February 26 Religion: St. Joseph’s, the first and only Roman Catholic church north of Maryland, holds its first mass in Philadelphia.

May 6 Journalism: The Philadelphische Zeitung is founded by Benjamin Franklin, becoming the colonies’ first non-English-language newspaper.

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June 20 General: King George II issues a royal charter to 20 trustees under James Edward Oglethorpe for establishing a new debtor’s colony, comprising lands south of the Savannah River to the Florida border. The document, which is slated to last for 21 years, guarantees freedom of conscience to all except Catholics and restricts land allotments to 500 acres per settler. This is last of the 13 original colonies to arise and is intended to serve as a buffer zone between the Spanish in Florida and settlements in South Carolina. The philanthropically minded Oglethorpe, however, envisions the colony as a haven for imprisoned debtors and Protestant refugees from across Europe. He consequently names it Georgia in honor of his benefactor.

July 25 Politics: In Paris, King Louis XV appoints Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, sieur de Bienville governor of Louisiana colony.

August Military: Colonel Alexander Glover, reacting to fears of a Creek uprising in the Carolinas, hastily marshals his forces at Palachacola. When the rumor proves false, the men are disbanded and sent home.

September 27 Journalism: James Franklin establishes the Rhode Island Gazette in Newport as that colony’s first newspaper.

December 6 Arts: The New Theater opens on Nassau Street in New York City and stages The Recruiting Officer by George Farquhar. This is only the second such building constructed in the colonies.

December 19 Publishing: Benjamin Franklin publishes the first edition of Poor Richard’s Almanac under the pen name “Richard Saunders.” This is a compilation of meteorological observations and predictions, leavened throughout with homespun wisdom. During the next 25 years, over 10,000 copies were sold per year, making it the first colonial best seller.

1733 Business: Recent German immigrants to Pennsylvania open various kilns and begin manufacturing affordable dishes and tableware that would otherwise be unavailable to most colonists. Medical: New York and Philadelphia are ravaged by the first widespread influenza epidemic to hit the English colonies. Slavery: Governor Robert Johnson of South Carolina offers a 20-pound reward for any individual who apprehends Maroons (fugitive slaves) harassing the colony. Societal: A number of early social organizations, such as the Political Club, are formed by the gentry in New York City.

January 13 Military: James Oglethorpe, Oxford-educated proprietor of the Georgia colony, arrives at Charleston, South Carolina, with an initial batch of 130 colonists. Many

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of these are former convicts or debtors wishing to begin anew. A small contingent of 40 Jews, admitted to the colony by the proprietors, also arrive as prospective settlers.

February 12 Politics: James Oglethorpe founds a colony at Savannah, Georgia, on land procured from the Creek Indians under Chief Tomochichi. Initially, the trustees of the colony have outlawed the importation of slaves, brandy, and rum.

March 3 Politics: Newly appointed Governor Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, sieur de Bienville arrives at New Orleans, Louisiana. He finds his charge in disarray owing to a very bloody revolt by the Chickasaw Indians.

May 17 Business: The Molasses Act is passed for the protection of British West Indian producers and levies a stiff duty on rum, molasses, and sugar imports from Dutch and French sugar-producing islands in the West Indies. This bill arises in response to heavy lobbying from British West Indian planters, who suffered considerable business losses once colonists were permitted to obtain lower-priced sugar products from foreign sources. It will protect the British planters from French and Dutch competition.

Painting showing dock workers unloading sugar and cotton from the John, a merchant trade vessel, at a busy Salem, Massachusetts, wharf (Library of Congress)

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July 30 General: Boston organizes the first Masonic Lodge in North America. Religion: The first group of 40 Jews is allowed to emigrate to Georgia and settle at Savannah.

November 5 Journalism: John Peter Zenger founds the newspaper New York Weekly Journal in New York with the help of several influential businessmen. With it, he supports the Popular Party and attacks the administration of Governor William Cosby.

1734 Journalism: The editorials of John Peter Zenger’s New York Weekly Journal prove a decisive factor in the victory for the Popular Party in an alderman election. Sports: The South Carolina Jockey Club is formed, an indication of how popular horse racing has become.

August 18 Medical: William Bull of South Carolina is the first native-born American to earn a medical degree abroad by graduating from the University of Leiden, Holland.

November 11 Politics: Publisher John Peter Zenger is arrested and accused of seditious libel for publishing antigovernment essays in his New York Weekly Journal. He is detained by a warrant issued by the executive council of the royal governor, after a grand jury refused an indictment, and he remains behind bars for 10 months until his trial. During his detention, his wife, Anna Maulin Zenger, capably manages the family business.

December Religion: Congregationalist Jonathan Edwards begins preaching a series of fiery sermons at his church in Northampton, Massachusetts, initiating a movement that led to the Great Awakening. This is a religious revival that gains widespread popularity throughout the colonies and is attended by bursts of emotionalism among participants. In this manner, less staid Baptists, Methodists, and Presbyterians gain thousands of new converts, while rigid Puritanism steadily loses ground in numbers and popularity.

1735 Business: Parliament decrees that Georgia can export rice to countries other than Great Britain, but only to ports south of Cape Finisterre in northern Spain. The Friendly Society for the Mutual Insurance of Houses Against Fire, possibly the first such organization in the colonies, is founded at Charleston, South Carolina. Military: As a precaution against Spanish and Indian attacks, Governor James Oglethorpe establishes Fort Okfuskee along the Tallapoosa River, Georgia. The fortified trading post of Augusta, so named after the mother of King George III, also arises on the Savannah River. Slavery: John Van Zandt, a Dutch burger from New York, kills a slave for violating a local curfew and is found innocent of any wrongdoing. In fact, the court ascribed the death to “the visitation of God.”

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(1697–1746)

Printer John Peter Zenger was born in the German Palatinate on October 26, 1697, and he migrated with his family to New York in 1710. There he became apprenticed to William Bradford, the city’s only printer, for many years. In 1719, Zenger moved to Maryland to start his own press but failed, returning to New York to work again for Bradford. By 1725, he was ready to strike out on his own and did so by directly competing with Bradford for the city’s small literate market. In this capacity Zenger translated materials from Dutch and also printed religious polemics and Arithmetica, the first colonial mathematics text. However, in 1733 Zenger was apparently approached and financed by James Alexander, the former colonial attorney general, to begin what amounted to America’s first party newspaper, the New York Weekly Journal. Alexander was incensed that Governor William Cosby had arbitrarily dismissed Lewis Morris as New York’s chief justice and placed an ally, James De Lancey, in his place. Alexander and his ally William Smith then began writing and publishing scathing essays about the governor’s patronage and favoritism to inform and appease the members of their faction. Zenger remained aloof and indifferent to the proceedings, he simply printed whatever he was told to. Governor Cosby initially ignored the attacks, then ridiculed them in Bradford’s competing New York Gazette. When this failed to silence his critics, he had issues of the New York Weekly Journal publicly burned, then arrested Zenger for seditious libel—even though he

had not written the articles. It was unlikely that Zenger was seriously engaged in politics at the time, but the governor apparently sought to use him as an example to silence future critics. Zenger’s trial had all the trappings of a politically inspired kangaroo court, since De Lancey was appointed judge and Alexander and Smith, both attorneys, were prevented from representing their client. Moreover, the judge instructed the jury to decide the case strictly on whether or not Zenger had published critical statements about the government. The defense then countered by suddenly and unexpectedly bringing in the distinguished Philadelphia attorney Andrew Hamilton to defend Zenger. Hamilton conducted a brilliant defense, arguing that if whatever Zenger published in his paper were true, no matter how insulting to the government, it could not be considered libel. The jury apparently bought the argument and ignored the judge’s instructions on August 5, 1735, by finding him innocent. The surprising verdict was a victory for both freedom of the press and a wider scope of deliberation by juries. Zenger then capably resumed his printing and journalistic activities without further notoriety. In 1736, he became the public printer for New York, and the following year, New Jersey. He died in New York on July 28, 1746, whereupon his thriving press was carried on by his wife and sons. Zenger, perhaps unwittingly, has since become associated with journalistic rights to openly criticize the government.

February 8 Arts: Charleston, South Carolina, hosts the first operatic performance in the colonies by staging Colley Cibber’s Flora, or Hob in the Well.

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February 13 Arts: The third colonial theater in the colonies opens on Dick Street in Charleston, South Carolina. General: John Adams, a future president, is born in Braintree, Massachusetts.

April 6 Religion: The first group of Moravians settles in Savannah, Georgia, at the behest of Governor James Edward Oglethorpe. They are led by Augustus Gootlieb Spangenberg, who establishes a collectivist experimental community near Savannah, Georgia. After setting roots, they prove eager to preach and work among the Indians.

August 4 Law: John Peter Zenger, publisher of the New York Weekly Journal, is acquitted of libel, thanks to his attorney, Andrew Hamilton of Philadelphia. He argued that an integral party of liberty was the right to oppose arbitrary power by speaking and printing the truth, and the jury concurred. This is a precedent-setting event for freedom of the press, establishing that truth constitutes an absolute defense against libel. Henceforth, individuals are empowered with implicit ability to criticize the government.

December 10 Religion: Georgia proprietor James Edward Oglethorpe encounters John and Charles Wesley at Oxford University and, impressed by their religiosity, invites them to his colony.

1736 Publishing: Benjamin Franklin starts publishing Indian treaties in Philadelphia in the hope that such books will educate colonists about their wilderness neighbors. Franklin himself is unduly impressed by the Five Nations and their pragmatic notions of confederation. In 1754, they will inspire him to propose a similar arrangement for the colonies. Ann Smith Franklin, Benjamin Franklin’s sister-in-law, is appointed official printer for Rhode Island colony in Newport. Science: In an important scientific contribution, Dr. William Douglass of Boston publishes the first clinical diagnosis of scarlet fever. Slavery: William Byrd, an influential Virginia planter, accuses Puritan New England of hypocrisy for condemning the practice of slavery, yet willingly participating in the slave trade as shippers. He comments that so many Africans are being imported into the colony that it “will some time or other be Confirmed by the name of New Guinea.”

January General: A body of 170 Scottish settlers arrive at Savannah, Georgia, and establish an enclave below the city named Darien along the Altamaha River. Subsequent settlement pushes farther into the Spanish borderlands.

February 5 Religion: John and Charles Wesley, the future founders of Methodism, arrive at Savannah, Georgia, at the invitation of Governor James Oglethorpe. Their arrival signals a gradual upsurge in evangelism throughout America.

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Hamilton, Andrew (ca. 1676–1741) Attorney Andrew Hamilton was born and educated in Scotland, most likely at St. Andrews University, but in 1697 he emigrated to America and settled in Maryland. There he lived under the assumed name of Trent and ran a classical school, which suggests he fled home to escape political problems associated with King William III. A few years later, he married a wealthy widow and resumed using his own name again. By this time Hamilton had been studying law, and in 1712, he ventured to Gray’s Inn, London, where he was called to the bar as an attorney. Back home, he served capably in Maryland until accepting Governor William Penn’s invitation to move to Pennsylvania in 1717. There he worked closely with the proprietary government, and received a 153-acre grant in the heart of Philadelphia as a reward for helping to settle a long-standing boundary dispute with Maryland. Over time, Hamilton also held several public offices, such as recorder of the city and protonotary of the supreme court, and his budding interest in politics led to his election as representative and eventually speaker of the assembly. An accomplished draftsman, he then found time to design the Pennsylvania State House, which became known subsequently as Independence Hall. He also gained a reputation as an aggressive and imaginative trial attorney, openly regarded as the best in the colonies. In 1735, Hamilton filled his most famous role by serving as the defense attorney in the trial of New York publisher John Peter Zenger. When Governor William Cosby dis-

missed Chief Justice Lewis Morris in favor of a crony, Zenger published several anonymous essays critical of his high- handed behavior. Zenger was then charged with seditious libel by Cosby, and his two lawyers, James Alexander and William Smith, were disbarred by the royal judges. The prosecution was therefore taken aback when Hamilton was secretly hired as Zenger’s new attorney for no fee and presented his credentials to the court. Throughout the ensuing trial Hamilton argued that as long as what Zenger published about Governor Cosby or any public figure was absolutely true, it cannot be considered libel. He then argued that no individual should be punished for asserting the truth, and that keeping the press free to do so was an essential safeguard of liberty. The jury surprisingly agreed and voted to acquit. Hamilton’s triumph was, in fact, a victory for freedom of the press throughout the colonies. He also received a naval salute, freedom of the city, and a gold box to commemorate his efforts. Hamilton preferred not to bask in the limelight, and in 1737 he gained appointment as a judge on the vice admiralty court. He died in that capacity in Philadelphia on August 4, 1741, the most famous American legal figure of the colonial period. It has been argued by many legal scholars that his famous victory of 1735 wielded an indelible impact on the American polity and presaged trains of thought and political philosophy leading to the Revolutionary War.

March 4 Military: Major Pierre d’Artaquette, commanding Fort Chartres, Illinois, arrives at Prudhomme Bluffs (Memphis, Tennessee) with a force of 150 French soldiers and allied Indians. There he learns that his intended rendezvous with Governor JeanBaptiste Le Moyne, sieur de Bienville of Louisiana is untenable, for the latter will be delayed two months for want of supplies. His Indian consorts nonetheless urge

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Byrd, William (1674 –1744) Colonial writer William Byrd II was born at Westover Plantation, Charles County, Virginia, on March 28, 1674, son of a wealthy planter. His father, William Byrd I, had made a fortune in tobacco and slaves, acquired a domain of 26,000 acres, and held rank among the foremost families of Virginia. Byrd was sent to London, England at the age of seven to receive his education, which, by the dictates of his class and wealth, was among the finest available. Thus he became firmly grounded in commerce, the classics, and various languages, before being admitted to Middle Temple in 1695 to study law. He passed easily and spent several years traveling Europe to enlarge his world view. In time Byrd became renowned for his intellect, charm, and skills as a raconteur, all of which helped him gain membership in the prestigious Royal Society at the age of 22. However, after his father died in 1704, Byrd returned to Virginia to manage his vast inheritance and spent the next decade enlarging it even further. Despite his rather pampered upbringing, Byrd proved himself a skillful administrator, businessman, and politician, and in 1715 he was chosen by the colonial government to represent Virginia’s interests back in London. Byrd successfully discharged his duties for a decade, remarrying into another wealthy family after his wife died, and gaining the reputation as a knowledgeable and observant traveler. He returned to Virginia in 1726 and successfully parleyed his wealth and standing into a successful political career by winning appoint-

ment to the governor’s council, a position he held for many years. Despite the accumulation of 180,000 acres of land, 200 slaves, and impressive wealth, Byrd never failed to distinguish himself as a loyal public servant. Like his father, he held the post of receiver general of Crown revenues, a very lucrative post that further honed his business acumen. In 1728, he gained appointment to lead a team of surveyors tasked with mapping out the boundary between Virginia and North Carolina. Not only did he perform capably, Byrd also composed a noted and witty diary, the History of the Dividing Line, which was published posthumously and reveals a sophisticated, satirical mind. Byrd also made detailed observations and comparisons between colonial and Native American mores and customs, concluding that neither “civilized” nor “uncivilized” people had very much advantage over the other. He then constructed a palatial mansion at Westover that housed one of the largest private libraries in the colonies, totaling 4,000 books. Byrd in his later years entered into a political struggle with Governor Alexander Spotswood that culminated in his election as president of the colonial council in 1743. He also purchased and developed land for a settlement called Richmond, which subsequently served as the colonial capital. The urbane, dedicated Byrd, a quintessential Virginia aristocrat, died at Westover on August 26, 1744. His numerous writings still afford readers valuable details about life in Virginia throughout his lifetime.

him to attack the main Chickasaw village of Ogoula Tchetoka to acquire supplies of their own.

March 25 Military: A French force of 140 soldiers and allied Indians under Major Pierre d’Artaquette attacks the main Chickasaw village at Ogoula Tchetoka (Tennessee),

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unaware that they are badly outnumbered by the defenders. The French are consequently severely rebuffed, losing 100 dead and 20 captured, several of whom were burned at the stake. D’Artaguette is among the slain and when his papers are secured by English traders, they alert their Chickasaw allies of another French column advancing from Louisiana.

April 18–19 General: A body of Scottish highlanders from the Darien settlement land on Cumberland Island, off the Georgia coast, and begin building Fort Saint Andrews.

May General: Captain George Hermsdorf leads a body of Georgia militia to begin constructing Fort Saint George on the Saint Johns River dividing Florida and Georgia.

May 26 Military: A French force of 600 soldiers, militia free Africans under their own officers, and allied Indians under Governor Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, sieur de Bienville attack the Chickasaw village at Ackia, Mississippi. The intruders are badly repulsed with a loss of 25 dead and 52 wounded, and a rout is prevented only by prompt action by Bienville’s Choctaw warriors, who lost 22 men alone. The French then withdraw back to Louisiana, determined to avenge their present humiliation.

1737 Business: The first copper coins in the colonies are minted by John Higley of Simsbury, Connecticut. Education: John Winthrop IV supplants Isaac Greenwood as chair of mathematics and natural philosophy at Harvard College. He teaches there 41 years, becoming the second-most important colonial scientist after Benjamin Franklin. General: Massachusetts and New Hampshire are embroiled in a border dispute that lasts 150 years before reaching resolution. Religion: Jonathan Edwards publishes his Narrative of Surprising Conversions, one of the earliest tracts describing the ongoing religious revival known as the Great Awakening. Slavery: Benjamin Franklin publishes an influential antislavery tract, All SlaveKeepers That Keep the Innocent in Bondage; Apostates by Quaker writer Benjamin Lay.

March 9 Societal: A gathering in Boston of persons advocating social reform turns to violence, and they begin smashing a house holding prostitutes. The ladies are warned to refrain from displaying themselves in windows on the Sabbath.

March 17 General: The Charitable Irish Society stages America’s first St. Patrick’s Day festivity in Boston, Massachusetts, where heretofore it had been a religious ceremony.

August 25 Diplomacy: An agreement is reached between Governor Thomas Penn and Chief Nutimus of the Lenni Lenape (Delaware) Indians, whereby the latter agrees to sell off land located in the Lehigh valley. The Indians denounce the arrangement,

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Winthrop, John (1714 –1779) Scientist John Winthrop IV was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 19, 1714, a descendant of Governor John Winthrop of Massachusetts (1588–1649). He proved himself to be a child prodigy and was admit-­ ted to Harvard College in 1726 at the age of 12. Winthrop flourished under a regimen of advanced mathematics and science and, after graduating with honors, was asked to teach there. By the age of 24, Winthrop had become only the second individual to serve as Hollis professor of mathematics and natural science at Harvard. He held this position for the remainder of his long life. In this capacity he demonstrated a unique brilliance for computation, especially as it regards astronomy, and made innumerable scientific observations. And, at a time when science treaded lightly on matters religious, Winthrop demonstrated an independent, open mind and notorious impatience for those whose beliefs were less scientifically inclined. As a scientist, he provided accurate calculations for the transits of Mercury and Venus and lectured on the nature of sun-­ spots and other astronomical phenomena. Winthrop also provided advanced calcula-­ tions on the orbits of comets and accurately predicted the return of several in the skies overhead. In 1761, he also headed Ameri-­ ca’s first scientific expedition, which ven-­ tured to Nova Scotia to observe and record the transit of Venus. As a scientist, Win-­ throp also constructed the first laboratory at Harvard for scientific experimentation and observations and his findings were well received abroad. For this reason Winthrop

was made a fellow in the prestigious Royal Society in London and, closer to home, in the American Philosophical Society, Phila-­ delphia. Benjamin Franklin was one of his greatest admirers and provided the Harvard laboratory with an experimental battery. From 1742 to 1755, Winthrop also kept a highly detailed meteorological diary of events at Cambridge, Massachusetts, replete with useful observations and ruminations. In his long tenure at Harvard, Win-­ throp was repeatedly called upon to serve as president, but he declined the honor to continue scientific research. He did, how-­ ever, serve as acting president in 1769 and 1773, introducing algebra and calculus into the college curriculum to produce fledgling scientists well grounded in requisite com-­ putations. In light of his accomplishments, the University of Edinburgh granted him an honorary doctorate in 1771, and two years later he received the first-­ever honorary doctorate granted by Harvard. He was also extremely outspoken for his day. In 1755, after New England had been soundly rattled by a series of earthquakes, he was quick to dwell on scientific reasons for their occur-­ rence and publicly repudiated all theological notions of divine intervention. To that end he entered into a celebrated duel of words in a city newspaper with an obdurate minister, bringing the science-­versus-­faith issue into the open. Winthrop died in Cambridge on May 3, 1779, the most celebrated and accomplished mathematician of his day. He was America’s first great scientist and the first to receive recognition in Europe.

which is based on a 1686 agreement reached with the tribe under Governor William Penn. Under the terms of the prior documents, the whites were enabled to purchase all the land that a man could walk in a day and a half. The younger Penn then began recruiting three of the fittest runners in the colony.

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December 2 Religion: Methodist minister John Wesley is expelled from Georgia for allegedly defaming a female parishioner.

September 19 Diplomacy: By the terms of the “Walking Purchase,”a treaty between Governor Thomas Penn and the Delaware Indians, the latter promise to cede land to white settlers “as far as a man could go in a day and a half.” Runners are then chosen from among willing colonials, who then cover 65 miles in the time allotted. The tribe protested but were still obliged to surrender 1,200 square miles of territory in the Lehigh Valley and move westward. However, the affair is based on a fraudulent document produced by Penn, suggesting that in 1686 the Indians agreed to sell their land on this basis.

1738 Business: Huguenot immigrant Andrew Duche invents a process for making Chinese-style porcelain out of Georgia clay, then travels to England, sets up an export business, and makes a fortune exporting high-quality pottery to the colonies. Politics: After being conjoined in 1702, New Jersey is finally separated from New York and receives its own royal governor, Lewis Morris. He serves until dying in office in 1746. Religion: Moravians living near Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, establish a mission to minister specifically to African-American slaves. Slavery: Authorities in Nantucket, Massachusetts, uncover a plot by nearby Native Americans to attack the town while it sleeps, kill all the Europeans, and free African-American slaves. Spanish authorities found Gracia Real de Santa Theresa, the first community for the settlement of free African Americans in North America. When Florida is ceded to England in 1763, the inhabitants relocate to Matanzas, Cuba. Societal: Abraham Savage receives the first-ever warrant from the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts to establish a Masonic Lodge.

February 22 General: The funeral of merchant Peter Faneuil in Boston is accompanied by the giving away of 1,000 sets of expensive gloves to mourners. This act violates colonial laws laid down in 1721, for the general court prohibits lavish funeral expenses for fear of its effect on the poor.

May Military: A battalion of the 42nd Highland Regiment, 629 strong, arrives at Savannah, Georgia, in three transports to help defend the new colony.

May 7 Religion: George Whitefield, a distinguished Methodist evangelist, arrives at Savannah, Georgia, the first of seven successful trips to America. His unique brand of emotional sermonizing enthralls listeners and begins attracting a large following throughout the colonies. It further fans the flames of the Great Awakening, America’s first religious revival.

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December 21 Politics: The towns of Augusta and Frederick, Virginia, are founded by the colonial assembly, being among the first such settlements on the western side of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

1739 Business: In New Jersey, Caspar Wistar builds a glass factory at Allowaystown and employs skilled German migrants. His factory endures for 41 years and ultimately produces some of the finest examples of American colonial glassware. Science: Teenage Eliza Lucas—the future Eliza Pinckney—begins experimenting with plant hybridization on her South Carolina plantation. Within a few years, she successfully develops a strain of indigo plant that produces a clear blue dye and sells it to English textile manufacturers. Consequently, indigo becomes a staple of the South Carolina export market and establishes Lucas as the colonies’ first agriculturalist. Exploration: Pierre and Paul Mallet of France paddle up the Arkansas River, catching the first glimpse of the Rocky Mountains.

This illustration shows an entire colonial family working together to prepare flax to be spun into thread for clothing or twine. (Library of Congress)

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Military: Escaped African Americans who settle near St. Augustine, Florida, erect a fort nearby to fend off attacks by any English expeditions seeking to bring them back. Science: Harvard astronomer John Winthrop IV issues a paper on sunspots, the first in a series of erudite observations from the colonies. Slavery: Trustees of the Georgia colony receive conflicting petitions from the inhabitants that both support and oppose the introduction of slavery. They ultimately decide to keep slavery out for the time being.

August 25 Religion: Reverend George Whitefield arrives at Philadelphia from England. He continues playing a pivotal role in stimulating the Great Awakening, America’s first evangelical revival.

September 9–11 Military: A group of 20 slaves under an Angolan named Jemmy breaks into a store at Rantowles (Stono), South Carolina, kills the owner, and acquires arms. The impromptu group then marches south toward Florida, where Spanish authorities have promised all runaway slaves freedom. En route, they murder all whites they encounter, men, women, and children alike, and nearly capture Lieutenant Governor William Bull while traveling up the same road. At length they are crushed by a local militia 50 miles from their destination, whereupon 30 slaves are hanged, disemboweled, and executed. This is the South’s first serious slave uprising and occasions a spate of harsh legislation to forestall future outbreaks. Two other minor outbreaks are also recorded in Berkeley County that year.

October 8 Politics: Governor James Oglethorpe of Georgia is alerted by his government that war with Spain appears imminent and that he is to begin undertaking defensive measures to protect the colony. He then oversees the construction for fortifications on Amelia Island, Cumberland Island, St. Andrews Island and St. Simons Island. These are so situated as to bolster the nascent Georgia colony against Spanish depredations by sea.

October 19 Diplomatic: British sea captain Robert Jenkins arrives in London minus an ear, which he claimed was cut off by the Spanish after they charged him with smuggling. He then displays the detached ear before Parliament, and a public uproar ensues.

October 23 Military: Prime Minister Walpole orders war declared on Spain, precipitating the War of Jenkins’ Ear. The actual cause of the conflict is increasing commercial friction with Spain in the New World.

November 23 Military: Yamassee warriors, incited by Spanish officials, attack and scalp a pair of Scottish highlanders outside Fort Amelia, Georgia, signaling the onset of frontier hostilities.

December 12 Military: A force of 200 militia under Governor James Oglethorpe departs Frederica, Georgia, sails down the coast to the Saint Johns River in Florida, and begins

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Chronology of American History reconnoitering Spanish defenses in the region. After reconnoitering for three weeks, Oglethorpe returns convinced he can capture their main outpost at St. Augustine.

1740 Business: Governor James Oglethorpe authorizes construction of the first brewery in Georgia to supply his far-flung militia with the popular beverage. Politics: Parliament permits the naturalization of immigrants in the colonies following seven years of residence, and their citizenship applies to all 13 colonies. Moreover, Quakers and Jews are exempted from taking the mandatory oath of allegiance. Settlement: An ongoing potato famine in Ireland prompts a surge of Celtic immigration to the Shenandoah Valley region of Virginia.

January Slavery: South Carolina authorities convince themselves that another slave rebellion is imminent, and they arrest and execute 50 Africans in Charleston.

January 17 Military: Governor James Oglethorpe leads 180 militiamen out of Fort Saint George and sails up the Saint Johns River, Florida, intending to attack Spanish garrisons at Forts Picolata and San Francisco de Pupo. These lay astride the road to St. Augustine, and a week later he captures both without bloodshed. The victorious British then sail back to Georgia.

March 25 General: The Bethesda Orphanage is built in Savannah, Georgia, at the behest of evangelist George Whitefield. In 1769 it is converted into Bethesda College.

May Slavery: In light of the Stono Rebellion, South Carolina adopts a slave code including the first antiliteracy law of the colonies, which prohibits slaves from learning to read or write. Moreover, slaves are forbidden from owning livestock, and stiff penalties are imposed on those making false claims to the governor that they are illegally held in bondage. This statute wields profound impact on subsequent slave laws throughout the South up through the Civil War, 1861–65. Governor James Oglethorpe prevails on Parliament to keep a ban on slavery in the colony of Georgia.

May 19 Military: Georgia governor James Oglethorpe advances back into Florida from across the Saint Johns River with 100 men and some Cherokee allies under Cowkeeper. He intends to attack the Spanish garrison at nearby Fort Diego after being reinforced.

May 21 Military: A force of 400 Georgia militiamen and British regulars advance upon Fort San Diego (Palm Valley), Florida, under Governor James Oglethorpe. The following day the garrison surrenders after initially repulsing the attackers.

May 27 Military: Skirmishing between Yamassee Indians and colonial militia outside Fort Diego, Florida, leads to the death and beheading of a Georgia ranger. Governor James Oglethorpe personally pursues the instigators for several miles until his own horse is shot from beneath him.

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May 29 Military: Governor James Oglethorpe returns to his camp near the Saint Johns River and receives reinforcements conveyed by Commodore Vincent Pearse’s Royal Navy squadron. He then makes final adjustments in his plan for a combined land/sea assault against Saint Augustine.

June 11 Military: Governor James Oglethorpe marches against St. Augustine, Florida, with 300 regulars, 400 militiamen, and some Indian allies. He then occupies abandoned Fort Mosa, seeking to provoke Governor Manuel de Montiano y Luyando out into the open, but the Spanish refuse to take the bait. Instead the Spanish dispatch some half galleys to bombard British positions on the peninsula opposite the fortress.

June 17 Military: Governor James Oglethorpe is reinforced by a 500-man South Carolina regiment, bringing his total numbers up to 1,500 men. He then begins to distribute his forces in a loose arc around Saint Augustine, Florida, to isolate it.

June 23 Military: Governor James Oglethorpe lands 400 highlanders and sailors on Anastasia Island opposite Saint Augustine, Florida, to cut the Spanish garrison off from the sea.

June 26 Military: A force of 300 Spaniards under Captain Antonio Salgado sorties from Saint Augustine, Florida, and surprises the English garrison at nearby Fort Mosa. Attacking at dawn, they advance on the defenders from three directions and quickly overwhelm them. The English lose 63 killed, including Colonel John Palmer, and several prisoners are marched back in triumph to the city.

July 14 Naval: A storm having blown the covering squadron of Commodore Vincent Pearse out to sea, the garrison of Saint Augustine is greatly heartened by the arrival of a Spanish sloop and 300 reinforcements from Cuba.

July 15 Military: A rather discouraged Governor James Oglethorpe orders the siege of Saint Augustine abandoned, and his men and ships return to Georgia. It has been a costly affair resulting in 122 British killed and 16 captured.

July 30 Technology: Caspar Wistar opens a glass factory in New Jersey, utilizing the talents of Belgian glass-blowers. By specializing in consumer products such as bottles and window panes, it becomes one of the colony’s most successful worker cooperatives.

August 5 Politics: The English Crown confirms the boundaries around Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine.

October 13 Naval: A large contingent of Virginia militiamen under Lawrence Washington— George’s elder brother—embarks and sails for Jamaica to participate in Admiral

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November 18 General: The Friendly Society for the Mutual Insurance of Houses Against Fire, one of the earliest such organizations in the colonies, is ironically destroyed by a raging fire in Charleston, South Carolina. The conflagration destroys half the city.

1741 Business: Royal governor Jonathan Belcher of Massachusetts unsuccessfully opposes an attempt by debtor farmers to found a land bank for the issuance of paper currency. It will be struck down by an act of Parliament. Andrew Duche, a Huguenot craftsman in Savannah, Georgia, begins manufacturing the colonies’ first true porcelain. Labor: Ship-caulkers in Boston go on strike when ordered to accept notes as payment. Music: Moravian settlers in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, organize the first-ever symphony orchestra of 14 musicians and accompanying instruments. Trinity Church in New York City employs the first organ constructed in the American colonies. The instrument is designed and built in two years by Johann Gottlieb Klimm of Philadelphia. Politics: The English Crown appoints Benning Wentworth as the first royal governor of New Hampshire; since 1682 this colony was administered by the governor of Massachusetts. Religion: No Cross, No Crown, a Quaker tract written by William Penn during his imprisonment in London in 1669, is published posthumously. Settlement: Count Nikolaus Ludwig Zinzemdorf leads a new influx of Moravians from central Europe to a new settlement along the Lehigh River at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

January Publishing: Andrew Bradford commences publishing The American Magazine in Philadelphia; it is the first periodical magazine in the American colonies but folds after three issues.

March 29 Military: A Yamassee raiding party attacks Governor James Oglethorpe’s Hermitage Plantation, killing four servants in his absence.

April 17 Military: British forces, badly handled and beset by bouts of yellow fever, withdraw from Cartagena, Columbia. The 3,000-man American contingent is reduced to 600 survivors, including Captain Lawrence Washington of Virginia, elder brother of George Washington.

June 1 Religion: The ongoing Great Awakening causes a schism in the Presbyterian church, dividing them into the Old Side and the New Side, which each organize synods of their own. The two sides are not reconciled until 1758.

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July 8 Religion: Reverend Jonathan Edwards preaches at Enfield, Connecticut, condemning mankind as “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” Salvation, he maintains, is available only to those who take up a covenant of grace. This becomes one of the most popular sermons in the region, and a high point in the so-called Great Awakening.

July 29 Exploration: Danish explorer Vitus Jonassen Bering sails into the Gulf of Alaska and glimpses North America. The body of water separating it from Siberia is subsequently named the Bering Strait in his honor. The Russians also make contact with the Aleuts and attempt to establish a trade in sea otter furs.

August 9 Exploration: Danish explorer Vitus Bering, then in the employ of the Russian czar, dies of scurvy on Commander’s Island, Alaska.

December 31 Slavery: A series of unexplained fires, possibly arson, in New York City stokes fears of a slave insurrection and leads to the hanging of four poor whites and 18 black slaves. A further 11 Africans are publicly burned at the stake while an additional 70 are sold to other colonies.

1742 Diplomacy: Iroquois leaders, possibly bribed by Pennsylvania authorities, “mediate” a land dispute between the colony and the Lenni Lenape (Delaware). At one point Chief Canasatego insults the Delaware delegation, calling them “women” and advises that they leave the disputed land immediately. Journalism: Cornelia Bradford takes over publication of the American Weekly Mercury in Philadelphia following the death of her husband, successfully editing and printing it for several years. Labor: The Carpenter’s Company, an architectural library, is created in Philadelphia by a body of master craftsmen who seek to document, preserve, and pass on elements of their craft. Religion: As the Great Awakening unfolds in New England, the rational sect of Unitarianism arises as a counterweight to overt emotionalism. The Moravian Seminary for Women is founded in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, to provide religious instruction. Today it is known as Moravian College. Science: Benjamin Franklin concocts the Pennsylvania Fireplace, or Franklin Stove, which utilizes specially arranged flues to conduct twice as much heat from one-fourth the fuel of conventional devices.

April 15 Slavery: The General Court of Massachusetts grants divorce to a slave named Boston, after his wife allegedly and adulterously cavorted with a European and gave birth to a mulatto child.

July 2 Naval: A Spanish amphibious expedition of 1,950 men, six large and nine small vessels drops anchor off Cumberland Island, Georgia, in the hope of capturing Savannah. Among their troops is an entire regiment of former African-American

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July 7 Military: British troops fight their away across the straits to Cumberland Island, Georgia, having been intercepted by four Spanish half galleys. Georgia militia and Scottish highlanders commanded by Governor James Oglethorpe defeat 3,000 Spanish troops at the Battle of Bloody Marsh on Saint Simons Island, Georgia. Spanish forces fan out into the countryside on the Island, only to encounter dogged resistance from various English, highlander, and colonial units. Subsequent maneuvering by Scottish highlanders places colonial forces behind the main Spanish force, which is then attacked and routed with the loss of 300 men. This defeat induces them to depart the Georgia coast, leaving Oglethorpe free to concentrate his attention toward Saint Augustine, Florida.

July 9 Military: Governor James Oglethorpe redeploys his forces in and around Saint Simons Island while the large Spanish fleet dallies in the distance.

July 15 Naval: Spanish naval forces conduct a reconnaissance in force of Saint Simons Sound, Georgia, trading fire with numerous English batteries. They then land 1,500 soldiers ashore and Governor James Oglethorpe orders Fort Saint Simons abandoned.

July 25 Naval: Spanish forces embark on their fleet off Saint Simons Island and sail back to Saint Augustine after razing Forts Saint Simons and Prince William.

July 26 Naval: Retiring Spanish forces pause to occupy and burn Fort Saint Andrews on Cumberland Island, Georgia, then dispatch four boats to destroy nearby Fort Prince William.

July 29 Military: The 60-man British garrison of Fort Prince William, Cumberland Island, Georgia, is forewarned of the Spanish approach and deploys several snipers to harass the intruders. Their display convinces the Spanish to forgo the attempt and they continue withdrawing toward Saint Augustine, Florida.

August 6 Naval: Commodore Charles Rye arrives at Saint Simons Island, Georgia, with 1,092 reinforcements to find the enemy gone. He subsequently sails to Charleston, South Carolina, to protect that port from injury.

September 7 Naval: Governor James Oglethorpe reappears off Saint Augustine, Florida, with several Royal Navy and colonial warships and prepares to invest the city.

September 9 Naval: Spanish gunners drive off British warships as they attempt to destroy some half galleys anchored off of Saint Augustine, Florida. The following day,

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Governor James Oglethorpe makes a similar attempt through the Matanzas Inlet, which is likewise rebuffed.

September 11 Naval: A British colonial expedition under Governor James Oglethorpe abandons its attempted water assault upon Saint Augustine, Florida, and sails back to Georgia.

September 24 Architecture: Faneuil Hall, designed by John Smibert and constructed by skilled French Huguenots, opens to the public in Boston. It subsequently serves as a gathering place for political activities.

November 18 Military: A Yamassee war party attacks and kills a five-man Georgian garrison at Mount Venture on the Altamaha River, then flees back to Saint Augustine.

November 25 Religion: Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, a Lutheran pastor from Germany, arrives in Philadelphia.

1743 Education: Dr. Bray’s Associates founds a school for poor African-American children and slaves in Charleston, South Carolina. A Mr. Garden also founds a school in the same city for the instruction of poor blacks, receiving considerable support from the community of free blacks and whites. Religion: A publishing war erupts between competing churches in New England during the Great Awakening. Jonathan Edwards composes Some Thoughts Concerning the Recent Revival of Religion in defense of emotionalism while Charles Chauncey counters with his Seasonable Thoughts on the State of Religion in New England, which opposes the revival meetings. Science: Benjamin Franklin observes a hurricane near Philadelphia, noting how it traveled in the opposite direction from its wind. The cyclonic nature of storms is beginning to be understood. Slavery: In New Jersey, Quaker clergyman John Woolman sermonizes against the evils of slavery and argues for equality among all races. His message is then published and transmitted to several other Quaker meetings across the colonies.

March 15 Military: Governor James Oglethorpe marches a large force of British regulars, colonial rangers, and Creek allies from Cumberland Island, Georgia, on a retaliatory raid into Florida.

March 17 Military: Creek Indians allied with the British ambush a Spanish vessel near Saint Augustine, killing five.

March 22 Military: Creek Indians allied to Governor James Oglethorpe decide to disperse, leaving him with a force of 300 regulars and militia to deal with the Spanish garrison at Saint Augustine, Florida. He then advances toward the city, conceals his forces, and tries to lure the garrison out into the open.

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March 27 Military: A deserter from the highland regiment alerts the Spanish commander at Saint Augustine of where Governor James Oglethorpe’s forces are lurking nearby, forcing the British to withdraw back to their main base along the Saint Johns River.

April 8 Naval: Governor James Oglethorpe appears off Anastasia Island, Florida, intending to attack nearby Saint Augustine, but heavy seas prevent his forces from landing, and at length the British retire back to Georgia.

May 14 Science: Benjamin Franklin and Quaker naturalist John Bartram help to found the American Philosophical Society, the first chartered American society for the promotion of scientific knowledge. It is inspired by and patterned after the famous Royal Society of London, which will eventually induct Franklin as a member. However, after attracting a glittering membership, the society fails, for, in Franklin’s own words, they were “very idle gentlemen.” It nonetheless affords additional proof of the burgeoning colonial intelligentsia. Franklin, meanwhile, has been so successful at publishing and other ventures that he retires at the age of 42 to pursue matters of science and public service.

March 30 Exploration: A lead plate is inscribed and buried at Fort Pierre, South Dakota, by Francois and Louis-Joseph de la Verendrye. By this act they claim the northern plains for France.

September 23 Medical: An outbreak of yellow fever kills 217 colonists in New York.

1744 Education: Samuel Thomas, an Anglican missionary, founds a school for free African Americans in South Carolina. Music: The Moravian community establishes a Collegium Musicum in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, for the performance of classical music by noted composers such as Bach, Haydn, and Mozart. Settlement: George Croghan and Conrad Weiser lead Virginia fur traders westward into the Ohio territory. Slavery: Virginia slightly modifies its 1705 slave code, now allowing Africans, mulattos, and Indians to serve as witnesses in civil cases involving another minority. Societal: Leonard and Daniel Barnetz open up Baltimore’s first brewery at the corner of Baltimore and Hanover Streets.

March Military: A Yamassee war party storms into Captain Mark Carr’s plantation, seizing five marines as prisoners. While withdrawing back to Florida they are overtaken by pursing militia and Yamacraw Indians on the north bank of the Saint Johns River and killed.

March 15 Military: England and France begin waging the War of the Austrian Succession, known in the colonies as King George’s War.

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May 3 Military: Word of war in Europe reaches Governor Jean-Baptiste Louis Le Prevost, governor of French Ile Royale (Cape Breton Island, Canada), who prepares to organize armed forays into nearby enemy territory.

May 23 Military: Military operations in King George’s War begin when French troops under Captain François-Joseph Du Pont Duvivier depart Louisbourg to capture the English fishing village of Canso, Nova Scotia. His 300 men surprise the 87man English garrison under Captain Patrick Heron, and the settlement surrenders a total of 100 captives. The French quickly parole their captives so as not to feed them and then depart.

June 22 Diplomacy: Six Nation Iroquois leaders sign the Treaty of Lancaster with representatives of Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, whereby the tribes surrender all claims to land in northern Ohio. In return the Iroquois gain monetary compensation for land loss, rights of passage through Virginia for their warriors, and political preeminence over all other tribes in their region. This treaty opens up settlement of the trans-Appalachian region, but conflict is bound to erupt as this region is also claimed by the French and other tribes.

July 11 Military: A French-led force of 300 Micmac Indians under Jesuit father JeanLouis Le Loutre attacks Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, only to be rebuffed by Lieutenant Governor Paul Mascarene’s garrison of 75 soldiers. The expected support of warships and siege artillery under Governor Jean-Baptiste Louis Duquesnel fails to materialize, and the Indians gradually depart.

July 16 Military: An impasse continues outside the walls of Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, until the arrival of the Massachusetts brig Prince of Orange, bearing 70 reinforcements. The large body of Micmac warriors besieging the town then withdraws to Minas.

July 29 Military: After considerable delays, a French expedition under François-Joseph Du Pont Duvivier departs Louisbourg, Cape Breton Island, and marches overland for Annapolis, Nova Scotia. His tardy movement has already induced a large body of Micmac Indians at the scene to withdraw.

September 8 Military: A French force of 280 men and 100 Indian allies appears off Annapolis a second time, and surround the augmented garrison of Lieutenant Governor Paul Mascarene. Both sides then await needed reinforcements to tip the balance in their favor.

September 26 Naval: The garrison at Annapolis, Nova Scotia, is reinforced by a sloop and a brigantine under Captain John Gorham, who brings 50 rangers for the garrison. Their arrival induces French and Indian besiegers under François-Joseph Du Pont Duvivier to retreat to Minas.

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October 28 Politics: Governor William Shirley declares war against the Micmac and Malecite tribes for their role in the attacks upon Annapolis Royal.

December 26–28 Military: The 400 Swiss guarding Louisbourg mutiny for want of pay but are gradually placated by the new governor of Cape Breton Island, Louis Du Pont, sieur de Duchambon.

1745 Music: An eight-bell carillion plays for the first time in Christ Church belfry at Boston, Massachusetts. Politics: Essays by the French philosophe Montesquieu are printed in numerous issues of the Boston Gazette. Montiesqieu argues for a series of checks and balances in government, an approach reflected in the American federal constitution of 1789. Settlement: Virginia settlers begin crossing the Appalachian Mountains and settle into the Ohio Territory, an act that pushes local Indians into binding alliances with the French. The crushing of a second and final Jacobite rebellion in England leads to thousands of new Scottish settlers and refugees.

January 9 Political: Governor William Shirley announces to the General Court of Massachusetts that the great fortress of Louisbourg, Cape Breton Island, is woefully undermanned, and suffering from low morale due to lack of pay. He entreats the legislators to outfit and fund an amphibious expedition from New England before it can be reinforced. It was feared that this outpost, which controls the entrance to St. Lawrence Bay, could be utilized to attack New England and Nova Scotia fisheries. The General Court, however, is unswayed by Shirley’s presentation and they vote down his proposal.

January 25 Po liti cal: The General Court of Massachusetts, having been lobbied by merchants and fishermen at the behest of Governor William Shirley, votes to approve a large amphibious expedition against the massive French outpost of Louisbourg.

March 24 Military: Governor William Shirley orders a force of 2,800 New England troops under Massachusetts lieutenant general William Pepperell onboard Royal Navy vessels for an expedition against Louisbourg, Cape Breton Island.

April 4 Naval: General William Pepperrell’s amphibious expedition sails from Boston on board 51 transports escorted by the Royal Navy.

April 11 Naval: The New England expedition of General William Pepperrell arrives at Canso, Nova Scotia, in driblets, having been scattered by heavy winds. The next few days are spent consolidating the fleet and awaiting the arrival of Commodore Peter Warren’s Royal Navy squadron from the West Indies.

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Shirley, William (1694 –1771) Colonial governor William Shirley was born in Preston, Sussex, England, on December 2, 1694, and he was admitted to the bar in 1720. Following a successful but lackluster legal career, he emigrated to Massachusetts to expand his fortunes there. Shirley proved adept at working his political connections, in 1733 gaining appointment as an admiralty judge, then advocate general the following year. He was also dutifully disposed toward the interests of the Crown, so in 1741, Shirley was made royal governor of Massachusetts. In this capacity he distinguished himself by his drive and determination. He inherited a colony in financial distress and pursued sound-money policies in the face of depreciating paper scrip. An avowed imperialist, Shirley also took a keen interest in military affairs, deemed the French in Canada a potential enemy, and proved instrumental in shoring up the defenses of Boston harbor and constructing numerous forts in Maine, then administered by Massachusetts. Once King George’s War commenced in 1744, Shirley wasted no time drawing up an elaborate scheme for the conquest of Louisbourg, the formidable French fortress on Cape Breton Island. His skill at persuasion and encouraging cooperation was never more apparent than when he convinced the General Court to fund a very large amphibious expedition of 4,000 men and 100 vessels against the French. This expedition departed Boston under the aegis of General William Pepperrell in April 1745 and captured Louisbourg two months

later. Shirley then prevailed on the British government to reimburse Massachusetts for all expenses incurred, and the funding he received finally stabilized the colonial currency. Shirley left the governor’s office in 1749 and ventured to France as part of a boundary commission tasked with delineating the Maine border. He remained there four years, convinced that another, larger conflict with France was in the offing. He was then reappointed governor of Massachusetts in 1753 and immediately set about improving colonial defenses there and in Maine. In 1755, he was also appointed major general and second in command of British forces, under General Edward Braddock, and was entrusted with a large overland expedition against Fort Niagara, New York. Shirley, however, was inexperienced as a general and a logistician, so his campaign only got as far as Oswego before running out of supplies. He also briefly served as commander in chief following the death of Braddock but failed to cooperate with Sir William Johnson and no concrete objectives were secured. Consequently, he was replaced by General John Campbell, earl of Loudon, in 1756 and recalled back to England to answer charges of incompetence. He was cleared and next appointed governor of the Bahamas, 1761–69, which he handled capably. Shirley returned to Massachusetts a final time in 1769 for a final term as governor. He died there on March 24, 1771, overly ambitious politically but possessing great energy and drive.

May 3 Naval: The 32-gun frigate Renommee, unable to reach Louisbourg owing to ice, chases the Rhode Island sloop Tartar off Pope Harbor, then puts back out to sea. Meanwhile, the 40-gun HMS Eltham anchors at Canso, augmenting General William Pepperrell’s expedition.

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Pepperrell, William

(1696–1759)

Militia officer William Pepperrell was born in Kittery, Maine (then part of Massachusetts), on June 27, 1696, the son of a self-made businessman. He joined his father as a full-fledged business partner at the age of 20 and eventually succeeded him as head of their trading firm. In this capacity Pepperrell frequently ventured south to Boston on business, where he rubbed elbows with the city’s economic elites. After marrying the daughter of a prominent politician in 1723, Pepperrell developed an interest in politics and three years later he successfully ran for a seat in the General Court, which he held for 18 years. He also served with the Massachusetts Council, a high-ranking advisory committee, while holding the rank of colonel in the militia. In 1730, Governor Jonathan Belcher, a friend and political ally, appointed him chief justice of the colonial court despite the fact he had never read law. Undaunted, Pepperrell studied hard, worked diligently, and acquired the reputation of a competent jurist. He inherited his father’s vast estate in 1734, becoming at a stroke one of New England’s wealthiest individuals. Considering what he had started with, Pepperrell owed his rise to intelligence, an appetite for work, and a tactful, diplomatic demeanor that encouraged cooperation and made him few significant enemies. In 1744, King George’s War broke out in the colonies between England and France, and Pepperrell proved willing and able to advance his fortunes even further. Governor William Shirley appointed him general of militia and ordered him to capture the

French-held bastion of Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island. Both men then prevailed upon the General Court for funding to raise and support a force of 4,000 New England troops for the expedition, which included troops from Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Connecticut. The British government was sufficiently impressed by the enterprise to assign a large Royal Navy force under Admiral Peter Warren to assist. Pepperrell sailed from Boston on March 24, 1745, and began the siege the following month. The New Englanders, earnest amateurs at best, managed to drive the French from several important posts and established siege batteries to bomb them into submission. On June 16, 1745, Pepperrell and Warren allowed French governor Louis Du Pont Duchambon to surrender with honors of war at a cost of only 130 men. For his efforts Pepperrell sailed to London for an audience with King George II and became the first native-born American to receive a baronetcy. However, his triumph was short-lived, for Louisbourg reverted to French control following the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748. After the war Pepperrell resumed his business activities but also kept in touch with military affairs. After the French and Indian War commenced in 1754, he became a major general in 1755 and four years later rose to lieutenant general while orchestrating the defenses of Maine. He died at his home in Kittery on July 6, 1759, an extremely successful military and business figure of the colonial period.

May 4 Naval: The squadron of Admiral Peter Warren reaches Canso with ship of the line Superbe and frigates Launceston and Mermaid. General William Pepperrell, eager to get underway, orders his own warships to sortie against Cape Breton Island and establish a blockade immediately.

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May 7 Naval: The French privateer Saint Jean de Luz darts through the ice floes off Louisbourg, and docks there, giving the garrison its first warning that a major British assault is gathering offshore. Militia companies are then gathered inside the walls to await events.

May 10 Naval: General William Pepperrell leads a formation of 100 sailing from Canso toward Cape Breton Island, setting in motion a fateful siege of Louisbourg.

May 11 Naval: The New England expedition under General William Pepperrell rendezvouses with Admiral Warren’s blockading squadron off Gabarus Bay, Cape Breton Island. The French then make a few halting attempts to prevent the colonials from landing but are driven off. Governor Louis Du Pont Duchambon then orders the city gates closed as the garrison girds for a siege.

May 12 Military: General William Pepperrell comes ashore with the balance of his troops and begins establishing siege positions around Louisbourg. A force of 500 Massachusetts militia under Colonel William Vaughan then reconnoiters inland and discovers the detached Grand Battery abandoned by the French. Two days later, the 30 captured cannon begin bombarding the defenders.

May 18 Military: General William Pepperrell sends a surrender demand to Louisbourg, which is summarily refused. The governor commands a force of 600 regulars and 90 militia and awaits a relief force from France known to be headed his way.

May 29 Naval: Captain Daniel Fones of the Rhode Island sloop Tartar captures a French brigantine and learns of an approaching French relief convoy.

May 30 Naval: The British frigate HMS Mermaid under Captain James Douglas observes the French 64-gun ship of the line Vigilante at sea and lures it toward the main British squadron. The French vessel is then mobbed by six British warships, suffering 35 dead and 26 wounded before striking its colors. The victors then discover 500 soldiers on board, 1,000 barrels of gunpowder, and 40 cannon intended to assist the Louisbourg garrison. This is a devastating blow to the defenders of Louisbourg, who are running low of supplies and ammunition.

June 6–7 Military: A party of 400 New England volunteers attempts to storm Louisbourg’s island battery but they are repulsed with a loss of 60 dead and 166 captured.

June 10 Military: New England troops under General William Pepperrell erect a new artillery position that brings increased firepower to bear upon the defenders of Louisbourg, Cape Breton Island.

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June 19 Military: General William Pepperrell informs the French garrison of Louisbourg that the warship Vigilante and the supplies it was conveying have been captured, which greatly disheartens the defenders.

June 26 Military: General William Pepperrell makes preparations for a massive com­ bined assault upon Louisbourg’s defenses when Governor Louis Du Pont Ducham­ bon requests surrender terms.

June 28 Military: The French 1,500-�man garrison at Louisbourg, Cape Breton Island, surrenders to colonial forces under General William Pepperrell and a Royal Navy force under Commodore Sir Peter Warren. Besieging forces have fired more than 6,000 cannonballs at the defenders over the past six weeks, losing 101 men. This is a triumph for the New En�gland militia, although diplomacy restores the fort to French control, much to their disgust. Meanwhile, Commodore Warren gains appointment as governor of Cape Breton Island.

October 2 Military: Choctaw warriors attack En�glish traders near their village of Blue Wood, Mississippi, killing two.

November 28–29 Military: A force of 400 French and 200 Indians under Lieutenant Marin de La Malgue attack and burn Saratoga, New York, taking 100 captives and razing the settlement.

1746 General: Trade factionalism within the Choctaw Nation results in civil war when Red Shoes, a Â�pro-Â�EnÂ�glish chief, is assassinated by Â�pro-Â�French elements. Labor: Carpenters in Savannah, Georgia, strike for better working conditions. Medical: Over the fall and winter, the Micmac of Nova Scotia are beset by an onslaught of typhus that kills off Â�one-Â�third of the tribe. Having lost a Â�four-Â�year-Â�old son to smallpox, Benjamin Franklin and his Â�common-Â�law wife, Deborah, have their Â�three-Â�year-Â�old daughter Sarah suc­ cessfully inoculated against the disease. Despite demonstrable success in preserving lives, the practice is viewed with suspicion well into the next century. Military: The New Jersey assembly authorizes ColÂ�oÂ�nel John Hamilton to raise and arm a regiment of free African Americans and Native Americans for serÂ�vice in Canada. Religion: Father Sébastien-Louis Meurin, the last Jesuit missionary dispatched to New France, arrives in the Illinois Territory. Science: John Winthrop IV of Harvard conducts the first laboratory demonstra­ tion of magnetism and electricity.

April Diplomacy: The French make peace overtures to Mohawk chief Theyanoguin (Hendrick) but he declines neutrality and sides with Great Britain.

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April 7 Military: Fort Number 4, New Hampshire, is attacked by a large French and Indian raiding party. The 30-man militia garrison, under Captain Phineas Stevens, dutifully resists several attacks and overtures to surrender for three days. Once the French draw off, Stevens receives a sword for his services.

May 4 Religion: The Moravian community at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, erects a seminary or boarding school for girls to assist in their religious education. Curiously, the institution is open to all individuals interested in learning and not simply church members.

May 28 Politics: The boundary between Rhode Island and Massachusetts is finally approved by Parliament.

August 28 Military: Deerfield, Massachusetts, again feels the weight of the tomahawk as combined French and Indian forces sweep down on its inhabitants. One survivor, the 16-year-old slave Lucy Terry, composes “Bars Fight,” the first poem known to originate from an African-American woman. Ironically, it is recited orally over the years and not written down and published until 1855.

October 22 Education: Presbyterian College of New Jersey (later Princeton University) is chartered in Elizabethtown by a Presbyterian offshoot group. President Jonathan Dickinson gives the first classes in his home.

December Publishing: Benjamin Franklin, taking a break from his usual scientific inquiries, turns to advising the lovelorn in an essay entitles Advice to a Young Man on Choosing a Mistress and Reflections on Courtship and Marriage.

1747 Business: Thomas Lee founds the Virginia-based Ohio Company to acquire western territory for speculation and settlement. Education: Princeton College, Newark, New Jersey, begins classes of instruction. Law: The American Bar Association, the colonies’ first organization for lawyers, is founded in New York City. Religion: Reverend Jonathan Mayhew begins preaching the very liberal doctrine of Arminianism to his congregation at West Church in Boston. This is a more humanistic creed based on free will, tolerance, and the ability of people to work for their salvation and directly questions the traditional doctrine of the Trinity. His stance ultimately sparks a theological confrontation with more conservative theologians such as Jonathan Edwards. Science: Benjamin Franklin uses the terms positive and negative for the first time while describing electricity. He also conducts his famous experiment with kites. Slavery: The South Carolina legislature commends African-Americans slaves for their recent courage in helping repel a Spanish attack on the colony and makes provisions to recruit them in times of military emergency. However, the

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January 23 Military: A force of 300 French, Canadians, and Indians under Captain Antoine Coulon de Villiers departs Beaubassin, Acadia, and marches on snowshoes toward the isolated New England garrison at Grand Pre. It was feared that a sustained British presence there would eventually lead to a loss of communications with Acadians still living at Port Royal (Annapolis).

February 11 Military: A Massachusetts garrison guarding Grand Pre, Nova Scotia, is attacked in an early morning raid by 300 French, Canadian, and Micmac warriors under Captain Antoine Coulon de Villiers. The French, covered by a blizzard, stage 10 separate attacks on buildings housing the sleeping enemy, and use all but one. Colonel Arthur Noble is one of the 130 English killed, while 34 were wounded and 53 captured. The prisoners are then released to travel to Annapolis, putting northern Nova Scotia securely in French hands.

July Military: Coosaponakeesa, a female Creek sachem, raises an army of warriors and marches into Savannah, demanding payment for services rendered to Governor James Oglethorpe. The English then discover her warriors have no real allegiance to her, so Coosaponakeesa is arrested, briefly detained, then released.

September 29 Religion: The German Reformed Church emerges in Pennsylvania as part of the Dutch Reformed Church.

1748 Religion: The French establish a Catholic Sulpician mission on the site of present-day Ogdensburg to garner support among the Iroquois Six Nations. Settlement: Virginia frontiersmen found Draper’s Meadows, the first English settlement west of the Allegheny Mountains. Slavery: Through the tenets of the Virginia Militia Act, all African Americans and Native Americans residing in that colony are expressly forbidden from carrying weapons.

May 13 Business: Parliament imposes a duty of six pence per pound of indigo imported from the colonies.

July Military: A New England sloop carrying logs from Honduras runs aground near Cape Florida and is attacked by Indians in canoes, who kill 11 of the crew.

August 26 Religion: The first Lutheran synod in the colonies is conducted at St. Michael’s Church, Philadelphia, led by six ministers under Henry Melchior Muhlenberg.

October 18 Military: King George’s War ends with the signing of the Treaty of Aix-laChapelle. The document causes considerable resentment in New England once

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Louisbourg and Cape Breton Island return to French control. In return, France agrees to stop supporting the exiled Stuart pretenders. Moreover, to allay possible hostility, the government agrees to compensate the colonies 236,000 pounds for the cost of the expedition.

October 20 General: Ohio Company traders Hugh Parker and Thomas Cresap enter the Ohio territory for the first time.

1749 Architecture: King’s Chapel, Boston, designed by Peter Harrison of Newport, Rhode Island, is constructed using granite stone from nearby Quincy. Military: In light of a renewed British push westward, French colonists fortify their settlement at Toronto in present-day Ontario. Settlement: Over the year, 22 vessels bearing 7,000 German Rhineland emigrants drop anchor at Philadelphia, now notorious as a haven for non-English speakers and religious dissenters. Societal: Philadelphia establishes its first Dancing Assembly, wherein young men and women pair up by lot and spend the entire evening as couples doing the latest steps.

January 1 Politics: Governor Benning Wentworth of New Hampshire authorizes a land grant for creating the town of Bennington (Vermont). Long-term border problems arise as New York lays claim to this same region.

March 16 Business: The British Privy Council grants 200,000 acres of land between the Ohio and Kanawha Rivers to the Ohio Company, provided the region is settled and a fort constructed.

May 19 Business: King George II charters the Ohio Company in Virginia for 500,000 additional acres along the upper Ohio River. Endeavors here also promote exploration of the Ohio River Valley.

June Arts: James Wyatt opens the first waxworks museum in New York City. Exploration: A French expedition under Pierre Joseph de Celoron de Blaineville paddles down the Ohio River, determined to claim the region for France and establish good relations with the tribes residing there. They also leave metal plates imbedded in the ground as proof of French ownership. Settlement: Lord Halifax dispatches 2,500 colonists to Nova Scotia, there to found the city and citadel of Halifax.

July Military: The British construct Halifax, Chebutco Bay, Nova Scotia, as a major naval base and citadel, intending to influence nearby Micmac Indians. Instead, this action prompts several Indians attacks.

July 12 Business: Virginia allocates 800,000 acres of land to the Loyal Company of John Lewis and Thomas Walker. The tract is located west of the Virginia–North

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Chronology of American History Carolina boundary, pushing the reach of white colonization ever closer to the Appalachian Mountains.

July 31 General: Sixteen-year old George Washington, being well grounded in mathematics, gains appointment as surveyor of Culpeper County, Virginia.

August 22 Arts: The first American repertory company is organized in Philadelphia by Thomas Kean and Walter Murray, and stages Cato, a tragedy by Joseph Addison. However, protests by the city council force them to depart for New York.

October 26 General: Trustees in Georgia reverse the colonial ban on slavery with parliamentary permission and also allow the importation of rum. Slavery now acquires a veneer of legality in that colony while what becomes known as the plantation system also begins in earnest.

November 13 Education: An academy is chartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by 24 leading citizens inspired by an educational pamphlet written by Benjamin Franklin. It ultimately evolves into the University of Pennsylvania.

1750 Business: A booming candle-making industry arises in Rhode Island as a spin-off of the whaling industry. The candles employ whale oil, or spermaceti, extracted from dead whales. Economics: Parliament passes the Iron Act to outlaw the manufacture of finished iron products throughout the colonies and thereby prevent competition with English firms, but it encourages the production of pig and bar iron for shipment back to England. Education: Quakers under Anthony Benezet found an evening school for free African Americans in Philadelphia. Medical: Doctors John Bard and Peter Middleton compose the first essay on human dissection, using the cadaver of Hermannus Carrol, a convicted murderer. Slavery: Half-way through the century, African Americans number 236,400 with only 30,000 living north of Maryland. They constitute roughly 20 percent of the British colonies’ overall population. Parliament modifies its slave trade policies to allow individuals, along with companies, to partake of the slave trade. The newcomers are required to pay a duty to the Royal African Company to help maintain its forts and factories in West Africa. Transportation: Colonists in Pennsylvania perfect both the flatboat for river transport and the deep-bellied Conestoga wagon for land movement. Both vehicles prove essential in the rapidly developing westward surge.

January 1 Slavery: The government of Georgia reverses itself and allows the importation of African slaves into the colony after petitions and protests from the inhabitants. Henceforth, all blacks are to be tried by English common law and instructed in the sanctity of marriage, while racial intermarriage is forbidden.

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Benezet, Anthony (1713–1784) Ouaker educator Anthony Benezet was born in Saint Quentin, France, the son of Huguenot parents who fled to England rather than face persecution at home. The family then relocated to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1731, where Benezet initially followed his father’s vocation of merchant. However, he grew disillusioned with business and, after marrying Quakeress Joyce Marriott, he converted to the creed and pursued a life of simplicity, piety, and decency. In 1739, he switched to teaching at the Germantown Academy and succeeded Francis Daniel Pastorius as master. In this capacity he was capable of instructing prospective students in reading, writing, mathematics, Latin, French, and English grammar. Benezet then held down several teaching positions at various institutions in and around Philadelphia over the ensuing decades, and he gradually refined his pedagogical methodology. In this respect he was greatly distinguished from contemporaries by discarding the usual harsh classroom discipline in favor of kindness and gentleness. Nor was he averse to instructing young women, traditionally underrepresented in the classroom, and in the 1750s, he established a free night school for African Americans, regardless of status. He functioned in this capacity for over two decades, working without pay, and among his most distinguished students were Richard Allen and Absalom Jones, who subsequently became distinguished leaders of Philadelphia’s African-American community. In 1770 Benezet’s success and his growing influence among fellow Quak-

ers convinced the Society of Friends to donate space and resources to found a formal “African School” in Philadelphia, the first in the colonies. When not teaching, Benezet functioned as an early social reformer, and his efforts invariably paralleled his closely prescribed Quaker beliefs. He was actively and outspokenly involved in movements for abolishing slavery in the colonies, which, as a Quaker, he regarded as a sin against man. In 1766, he penned an influential tract entitled A Caution and Warning to Great Britain and Her Colonies on the Calamitous State of Enslaved Negroes, which was well received. Extending his opposition to the Society of Friends themselves, in 1776 Benezet proved influential in outlawing Quaker slave owning and successfully insisted that members be expelled for this. He was also a good friend and confidant of Benjamin Franklin, who likewise shared his abolitionist sympathies. In addition to social work, Benezet penned several useful classroom texts, such as primers, spellers, and grammar books, and pioneered a curriculum for the deaf. He also remained committed to societal reform to the end of his life, agitating on behalf of all children regardless of their background, including displaced Acadians, and Native Americans. Benezet left retirement in 1782 to resume teaching at the African school after the schoolmaster resigned. He functioned in this capacity for two years before dying at Philadelphia on May 3, 1784, an early champion of social justice.

January 30 In Boston, Reverend Jonathan Mayhew delivers a sermon entitled Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission, a thinly veiled attack on the divine right of kings.

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March 5 Arts: Thomas Kean and Walter Murray found the first American acting company and stage Shakespeare’s Richard III in their premier performance. They perform in a rented building on Nassau Street to packed houses.

April 13 General: Thomas Walker, while exploring for the Ohio Land Company, happens upon the Cumberland Gap, Kentucky. In time, this serves as a major conduit for western migration for thousands of settlers beyond the Appalachian Mountains.

June 22 Religion: Clergyman Jonathan Edwards is dismissed from his Congregationalist church in Northampton, Massachusetts, for rejecting the liberal Half-Way Covenant to salvation. Edwards, a staunch conservative, subscribed to the unyielding notion of “sanctifying grace.” He thereupon ventures to the western town of Stockbridge and begins missionary work among the Indians there. Edwards also pens treatises called Original Sin and Freedom of the Will.

October 31 Exploration: Virginia frontiersman Christopher Gist surveys the Ohio River Valley as far as Pickawillany. Gist, a neighbor of Daniel Boone, becomes the first European to survey parts of the region known as Kentucky.

1751 Business: Parliament passes the Currency Act, which prohibits chartering of land banks in the colonies along with the use of public bills of credit (paper money) to retire private debts. Benjamin Franklin’s pamphlet “Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind and the Peopling of Countries,” characterizes slavery as among the most inefficient forms of production. Education: Benjamin Franklin helps to found the Academy and Charitable School of Philadelphia; it subsequently becomes the University of Pennsylvania. General: French Jesuits introduce sugarcane to Louisiana for the first time, using it to make taffia, a strong drink. It also generates the need for additional manpower in the form of slaves. Settlement: German Moravians acquire 100,000 acres along the Yadkin River, North Carolina, for eventual settlement.

March 16 General: James Madison, a future president, is born at Port Conway, Virginia.

April 2 Arts: John Smibert, an early American artist of note, dies in Boston, Massachusetts. His painting “Family of Bishop Berkeley” presently adorns the Dining Hall of Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.

1752 Exploration: John Finley, a fur trader, paddles down the Ohio River as far as the site of present-day Louisville, Kentucky, then goes ashore to explore the terrain. General: The colonies discard the old style Julian calender in favor of the newer Gregorian calender.

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Slavery: Maryland becomes the first state to pass legislation allowing slaves to be manumitted (freed) by their owners.

January 1 General: England and its colonies officially adopt the new Gregorian calender.

February 6 Medical: The Pennsylvania Hospital, first general hospital in the colonies, is established in Philadelphia by Thomas Bond. Patients could be admitted on either a paying or charitable basis.

May 11 Business: The Philadelphia Contributorship for the Insurance of Homes is founded and concludes its first board meeting.

June Science: Benjamin Franklin’s celebrated experiments of flying kites in thunderstorms scientifically demonstrate that lightning is composed of electricity. Shortly after, he designs the lightning rod, a tall pole fastened onto buildings to attract and safely conduct lightning bolts into the ground.

June 1 Military: A large raiding party of Fox, Sioux, Sauk, Kickapoo, Powatomie, Winnebago, and Menominee Indians, estimated at between 500 and 1,000 warriors, steal upon a Cahokia and Illinois village on the Mississippi River, north of Fort de Chartes. The Fox have organized the raid to punish the Cahokia and Illinois for their continuing alliance with France. The tribesmen easily overrun the village, having lured out the defenders and ambushed them, taking 80 captives and then withdrawing. The action certainly embarrassed the French, who had summoned the bulk of Illinois warriors to Fort de Chartes for a religious observance.

June 13 Diplomacy: Delaware, Shawnee, and Mingo (Iroquois) conclude the Treaty of Logstown (Ambridge), Pennsylvania, whereby land south of the Ohio River (Kentucky, West Virginia, western Pennsylvania) is ceded to the Ohio Company of Virginia in exchange for an impressive allotment of gifts. The British are then allowed to build a fort in the territory and begin settlement of the area. The Iroquois, usually pensive over land sales, welcome this development for the British have promised to garrison the region against French influence.

June 21 Military: Chief Memeskia of the Miami, disillusioned by a lack of French commodities, founded the village of Pickawillany (Piqua, Ohio) to trade with the British. This prompts French trader Charles-Michel de Langlade to lead 250 Ojibway, Potawatomi, and Ottawa forces against them, killing a British trader and roasting Memeskia to death. This seemingly insignificant action intimidates other tribes and helps consolidate French control of the Ohio Valley.

July Slavery: George Washington acquires 14 slaves upon inheriting the estate at Mount Vernon; this number would eventually grow to 200 over his lifetime. He was never abusive in his relationships with African Americans but was uncertain about granting them their freedom. However, all were manumitted following his death in 1799.

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July 4 Politics: Georgia trustees conclude their final meeting, after which the colony reverts to royal authority. At this time they also legalize slavery in the colony at the behest of the inhabitants.

November Military: George Washington, a 21-year-old Virginian, is commissioned a major in the colonial militia. He serves as one of four district adjutants tasked with training and instructional duties throughout his district.

November 22 Diplomacy: British and Micmac emissaries sign a peace treaty whereby the former promise to deliver an annuity each October as well as respect Indian fishing and hunting rights.

December Arts: A troupe of actors led by Lewis Hallum presents Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice in New York City for the first time.

1753 Business: French traders construct Fort La Corne on the Lower Saskatchewan River to expand trade among the Cree and Assiniboine Indians. Benjamin Franklin and William Hunter gain appointment as joint postmasters general of the North American colonies. Exploration: The vessel Argo, captained by Charles Swaine, leaves Philadelphia to locate the Northwest Passage to the Far East. Instead he ends up exploring Hudson Bay and returns home later in the year. Significantly, this expedition has largely been instigated and financed by Benjamin Franklin. Science: Benjamin Franklin is awarded the Copley Medal from the Royal Society of London for his experiments on electricity and lightning. Settlement: Christopher Gist leads a party of settlers through the wilderness to Red Stone Creek on the Monongahela River, western Pennsylvania, there to found a small outpost.

April Military: The French, determined to strengthen their grip on the Ohio River Valley, begin constructing three outposts in westernmost Pennsylvania: Fort Presque Isle (Erie), Fort LeBoeuf (French Creek), and Fort Verango (at the fork of French Creek and the Allegheny River).

June Diplomacy: The Six Nation Iroquois were frustrated by their inability to peacefully halt a rising tide of white settlement on their land and equally worried over British inability or unwillingness to fortify the western frontier against French expansion. Therefore, Mohawk leader Hendrick declared that the Covenant Chain, the traditional symbol of peace and alliance with Britain, is broken. In light of rising hostilities with France and its Native American allies, the announcement could not have come at a worse time.

August 28 Politics: In Philadelphia, a huge metal bell cast by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in England finally tolls to convene the Pennsylvania assembly. It had cracked

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upon its first ringing the previous September and had to be repaired locally. In time, this artifact becomes popularly revered as the “Liberty Bell.”

September 10 Diplomacy: The 1752 Treaty of Logstown is revoked by the Indians at the Winchester Conference, at which point the Delaware and Mingo join forces with France in opposing British expansion into the Ohio River Valley.

September 18 Diplomacy: In London, the Board of Trade, anxious to keep the Six Nations Iroquois as an ally during the ongoing difficulties with France, instructs all colonies enjoying a relationship with that confederation to muster delegations for a conference at Albany, New York, the following summer. They are there basically to address Iroquois grievances and trade issues with them.

September 25 Technology: Joshua Hornblower introduces the first steam engine from England; John Schuyler installs it at North Arlington, New Jersey, to pump water from his copper mines.

October 31 Military: Twenty-one-year-old Major George Washington, Virginia militia, is ordered by Lieutenant Governor Robert Dinwiddie to take eight men and venture across 500 miles of wilderness to French-held Fort Le Boeuf on the southern coast of Lake Erie. He is assisted by Christopher Gist as a guide. There he is to deliver an eviction notice to the French garrison, whose presence constitutes an intrusion on English-claimed land.

November 25–27 Military: Major George Washington encamps near the Allegheny River to confer with local Indian chiefs. While there a French deputation also arrives and Washington learns of new French forts on the Wabash and Mississippi Rivers. Apparently, the French intend to claim the entire Ohio territory and convince the Indians to sign an alliance with France.

December 12 Military: Major George Washington delivers his eviction notice to French captain Legardeur de St. Pierre de Repentigny, commanding Venango, a small post 20 miles south of Lake Erie in western Pennsylvania. He is thereupon rebuffed and told to deliver it to a more senior officer.

December 15 Military: Major George Washington finally reaches Fort Le Boeuf on the Lake Erie shore and delivers his eviction notice. After trying to recruit his Indian escort, the French commander composes a reply for Washington to take back.

December 16 Military: Major George Washington, accompanied only by a single companion, departs Fort Le Boeuf in a snowstorm and embarks on a hazardous, four-week journey back to Williamsburg, Virginia.

1754 Medicine: Lionel Chalmers publishes the first significant medical treatise on tetanus.

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Chronology of American History Religion: The Society of Friends holds its annual meeting in Philadelphia and issues a strident condemnation of slavery and the slave trade. Once again, the Quakers are at the forefront of abolitionist efforts. Settlement: The Susquehanna Company of Connecticut obtains a tract of land on the upper Susquehanna River (present-day Wyoming Valley) from the Six Nations Iroquois. Problems arise later when this land is also claimed by Pennsylvania. Slavery: In Philadelphia, John Woolman publishes Some Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes, a plea for fellow Quakers to emancipate their slaves on the basis of morality.

January Military: Governor Robert Dinwiddie, mindful of French incursions into western Virginia, dispatches Captain William Trent of the militia to construct a fort at the confluence of the Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers.

January 16 Military: Major George Washington, having covered nearly 1,000 miles in three months, arrives back at Williamsburg, Virginia, with the French response. In addressing the entire Virginia council, he suggests erecting a fort at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongohela Rivers, also known as the Forks of the Ohio, from which the entire territory can be controlled. Washington subsequently gains promotion to lieutenant colonel and receives authorization to recruit six companies of militia to evict the French and solidify Virginia control of Ohio.

February Military: A company of Virginia militia under Captain William Trent establishes Fort Prince George at the Forks of the Ohio River, the site of present-day Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

April 2 Military: Lieutenant Colonel George Washington marches from Alexandria, Virginia, with 180 militiamen, and makes for the Ohio frontier.

April 17 Military: French soldiers under Claude-Pierre Pecaudy de Contrecoeur seize Fort Prince George, at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers, from Virginia militiamen under Captain William Trent. They are allowed to depart unharmed and the post is subsequently rechristened Fort Duquesne. This action signals an end to all attempts by colonials to settle the Ohio River Valley until after the French and Indian War.

April 25 Education: The Morning School for Girls is opened by Anthony Benezet in Philadelphia, instructing young women in grammar, reading, and mathematics.

May 9 Journalism: At Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin publishes the first-ever political cartoon in the Pennsylvania Gazette. It depicts a dismembered snake symbolizing colonial disunity during wartime and appeals for unity under the dire threat “Join or Die.”

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May 28 Military: Lieutenant Colonel George Washington, commanding 40 militiamen and eight Seneca braves under Tanaghrisson, attacks a party of 30 French and Indians while they encamp at a place known as Great Meadows (Farmington, Pennsylvania). The militia kills 12 Frenchmen, including their commander, Ensign Joseph Coulon de Villiers, sieur de Jomonville, and takes 21 captives, but one man escapes back to Fort Duquesne and alerts the garrison. Washington’s loss is one killed and one wounded. This small affair is the first act of a much larger conflict, the French and Indian War.

May 30 Military: Virginia militiamen under Lieutenant Colonel George Washington construct a small log palisade at Great Meadows, which he christens Fort Necessity. He then begins constructing a military road toward Fort Le Boeuf.

June 19 – July 11 Politics: Delegates from New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and all four New England colonies assemble at the Albany Congress, New York, to discuss renewing their Covenant Chain (treaty of alliance) with the Six Nations Iroquois, and possibly coax them out of their policy of neutrality toward New France. Mounting tensions with the French require both to renew their mutual defensive alliance. Hendrick of the Mohawks, serving as the confederation spokesman, has also been invited to give his advice on the possible formation of a colonial union. But the Indians are far more concerned with white encroachment on their land, the importation of too much rum among the tribes, and the apparent unwillingness of Britain to fortify the western interior, the Ohio Valley in particular, against French encroachment. The pleas for unity do little to ameliorate the squabbling nature of intercolonial relations and their oftentimes naked self interest. While negotiations were ongoing, the Pennsylvanians managed to arrange for themselves a large purchase of Indian land in the far west along the Wyoming Valley. But the conference does set important precedents for broaching broader issues such as mutual defense and united administration.

June 24 Politics: At Albany, Benjamin Franklin proposes a “Plan of Union” for the colonies to facilitate greater political unity and mutual defense. The suggested format consists of a president general appointed by the British Crown, and a grand council, elected from individual colonies, that possesses legislative power. Franklin allegedly draws his inspiration from the Grand Council of Iroquois Six Nations and their practical confederation arrangement, although Governor Thomas Hutchinson of Massachusetts, who has served on several Indian commissions, is also a probable author.

June 26 Military: Major Louis Coulon de Villiers, elder brother to the slain French ensign, arrives at Fort Duquesne with reinforcements for the garrison. He then demands the right of revenge against the colonial forces who killed his brother, which is granted by his commander, Claude-Pierre Pecaudy de Contrecoeur. The elder Coulon gathers up 600 soldiers and 100 Indians and marches toward the intruders.

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June 29 Military: Lieutenant Colonel George Washington is alerted to the approach of 700 French troops under Major Louis Coulon de Villiers, the slain ensign’s brother, and he gathers all his men within the problematic confines of Fort Necessity.

July 3 – 4 Military: The French attack Virginia forces defending Fort Necessity in a fourhour battle, killing 31. Low on ammunition and saddled with many wounded, Lieutenant Colonel George Washington acquiesces to the French commander’s truce and offer of terms. Washington signs the surrender papers, unaware that he is accused of murdering a French officer in the May engagement. The following day, the colonial garrison is allowed to withdraw unharmed. French losses total three killed and 17 wounded.

July 10 Education: King’s College is founded in New York City with Dr. Samuel Johnson, an Anglican clergyman, as its first president. After 1784 it becomes known as Columbia College. Politics: Colonial delegates and Iroquois chiefs meeting at the Albany Congress, New York, approve Benjamin Franklin’s proposed Plan of Union, but it finds little support among colonial legislatures. The British government also rejects the scheme, feeling it gives the colonies too much power and independence. Consequently, two decades will elapse before the colonies strive to reach some semblance of political unity. Fortunately, before the proceedings adjourn, the Covenant Chain with the Iroquois Six Nations is renewed. Religion: Noted theologian Jonathan Edwards publishes his influential tract A Careful and Strict Enquiry into the Modern Prevailing Notions of Freedom of the Will.

August 9 Politics: In response to Benjamin Franklin’s Plan of Union, the British Board of Trade suggests a loose union with a commander in chief for all English colonies and a commissioner for Indian affairs. No action is taken on either side of the Atlantic.

August 17 Politics: The Albany Plan is rejected by the Pennsylvania assembly, the first colonial assembly to do so. Basically, the legislatures are beset by self interest and fear losing their traditional powers such as taxation, and possible infringement by the whole upon vested interests.

August 27 Military: French and Indian raiders attack the settlement of Hoosick, New York, killing 20 and burning numerous homes.

September Military: A body of Shawnee warriors, allied with France, attacks the home of John Guttery at Buffalo Creek, South Carolina, killing 16 settlers and all their livestock. Colonial legislators mistakenly blamed the nearby Cherokee for the atrocity and demanded more fortification to be built along their western frontier. This, in turn, further exacerbated tensions with that tribe.

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October 11 Business: A deputation of Blackfeet meets with Hudson’s Bay Company officials near the Red Deer River to advise them they will not be traveling to Hudson Bay to trade with the British. Instead, they prefer dealing with Cree and Assiniboine middlemen who are much closer. Another reason is that the Blackfeet, as Plains Indians and hunters of buffalo, are not adept at canoe travel.

October 31 Education: King’s College (present-day Columbia University) is chartered in New York by King George II.

December Technology: In Baltimore, Benjamin Banneker, a 22-year-old African-American freeman, is the first black to construct a clock. It runs perfectly over the next two decades, despite the fact he had never viewed one before.

December 18 Education: Moor’s Indian Charity School is established in Lebanon, Connecticut under the aegis of Reverend Eleazar Wheelock. He aspires to a college that will instruct Native Americans for missionary work among their own peoples, so they are classically educated in Greek, Hebrew, and Latin. This school subsequently relocates to Hanover, New Hampshire, as part of Dartmouth College.

1755 General: Mary Draper Ingles is taken captive by the Shawnee and taken to their encampment along the Ohio River. She then makes her escape, leaving behind her newborn child, and traverses 700 miles of wilderness back to civilization. Religion: Quakers excuse themselves from the Pennsylvania assembly because, as committed pacifists, they cannot participate in debates concerning the expenditure of colonial funds for frontier defenses. Science: John Winthrop IV’s observations of recent earthquake activity in New England establishes him as an early exponent and founder of the science of seismology. Slavery: The Society of Friends excludes any Quaker working for the slave trade from all of its denominations. The Georgia legislature extends legal recognition to slavery.

February 20 Military: General Edward Braddock, a 59-year-old-Scottish officer of the famed Coldstream Guards, arrives at Hampton Roads, Virginia. He is unquestionably brave but, having spent most of his career as a military administrator, he lacks meaningful combat experience.

March 15 Military: George Washington, having resigned from the militia rather than face demotion to captain, volunteers to serve on the staff of British general Edward Braddock as an unpaid civilian. As such he is free of British military authority and not subordinated to them, By this time, Braddock has amassed a force of two understrength regiments, the 44th and 48th Foot, totaling 1,000 men, and

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Banneker, Benjamin (1731–1806) African-American mathematician Benjamin Banneker was born in Baltimore County, Maryland, on November 9, 1731, the son of an African-American slave and an English indentured servant. Based on the legal status of his mother, Banneker was also declared free. Nonetheless, he lived a hardscrabble existence and never received a formal education save for being taught to read the Bible by his mother. Banneker proved himself to be something of a child prodigy by successfully taking over and managing his parents’ farm at a young age, teaching himself music and, above all dabbling in mathematics. His brilliance first manifested itself in 1761 when he constructed the first wooden clock ever assembled in the colonies, despite the fact he had never seen one previously. Instead, he worked all the mathematical computations in his head and the ensuing device kept accurate time for several decades. Banneker’s success brought him to the attention of the Ellicotts, local Quaker industrialists, who further whetted his appetite for knowledge by giving him books on science, technology, and mathematics, such as existed at the time. Despite the daily hours consumed running his farm, Banneker was particularly drawn to scientific treatises and always studied hard into the night. He gradually became well-grounded in complicated mathematical computations and, in 1791, published Benjamin Banneker’s Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia Almanack and Ephemeris, a useful compilation of astronomical observations still

regarded as highly accurate. This highly successful publication underwent 28 editions and remained in print through 1802. As word of Banneker’s skill at math spread, he received job offers usually denied to African Americans at the time. In 1790, President George Washington appointed him part of a three-man surveyor team tasked with laying out a new federal capital, the District of Columbia. Here he fulfilled all his tasks admirably and greatly impressed the already experienced mathematicians around him. At one point, when chief architect Pierre L’Enfant was dismissed and took all his detailed blueprints with him, Banneker was able to reconstruct them solely from memory. Banneker, who was also a persuasive author, entered into a polite conversation with Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson as to the allegedly inferior mental status of African people. He sent him several copies of his almanac, which Jefferson himself an amateur scientist, was duly impressed by and subsequently forwarded to the secretary of the French Academy of Sciences in Paris with his unqualified endorsement. Through this expedient, Banneker wished to improve the treatment of and educational opportunities for African Americans and to dispel the notion that they were somehow inferior to whites. Banneker, who never married, died at his home in Baltimore County on October 9, 1806, one of the nation’s earliest black abolitionists and a pioneer in challenging the prevailing racial dogma.

is gathering additional strength in the form of provincial troops. However, he is singularly unsuccessful at recruiting Native Americans to serve as scouts, a tactical deficiency with fatal implications.

April 12 Journalism: Connecticut’s first newspaper, The Connecticut Gazette, begins publishing at New Haven.

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April 15 Military: General Edward Braddock arranges a conference of royal governors in Alexandria to promulgate a coordinated offensive strategy against French positions at Crown Point, New York; Fort Duquesne, Pennsylvania; Fort Niagara, New York; and Nova Scotia. In another significant move, Braddock also appoints Sir William Johnson as British superintendent of Indian Affairs, Northern Department, where he remains for nearly two decades.

May Diplomacy: South Carolina authorities negotiate an alliance with the powerful Cherokee to fight the French and their Creek allies in exchange for low-cost trade goods. For failing to observe their end of the bargain, the British end up fighting their erstwhile benefactors.

May 10 Military: General Edward Braddock arrives at Fort Cumberland, Pennsylvania, with an army organized into two brigades. The first consists of Lieutenant Colonel Sir Peter Halkett with 700 soldiers of his 44th Foot, plus 230 colonial militiamen. The second is composed of 650 men from Colonel Thomas Dunbar’s 48th Foot, accompanied by 230 rangers and militia. Both brigades are further augmented by 14 cannon and 15 mortars.

May 27 Technology: Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, installs the first water pumping system to furnish pipe water to the inhabitants.

June 2 Military: A colonial expedition under Lieutenant Colonels Robert Monckton and John Winslow land 2,000 men at the Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia, intending to capture Fort Beausejour (present-day Sackville, New Brunswick). His force consists of both British regulars and New En gland provincials. He is opposed by 66 French regulars under Captain Louis Du Pont Duchambon de Vergor, who also assembles a force of 1,200 Acadian militia assisted by Micmac warriors.

June 4 Military: Colonel Robert Monckton deploys 250 men closer to Fort Beausejour, taking fire from French defenders and burning an adjacent town and church. The colonials then begin erecting siege lines to bombard the defenders.

June 6 Military: British artillery commences a bombardment upon the crowded defenders of Fort Beausejour, greatly depressing French morale.

June 6–13 Naval: A Royal Navy squadron under Admiral Edward Boscawen attempts to blockade the coast of Quebec but French reinforcements manage to slip through. Their success induces Governor William Shirley of Massachusetts to delay his forthcoming campaign against Fort Niagara, New York.

June 8 Military: A patrol of British soldiers under Lieutenant Alexander Hay are captured by Micmac warriors near Fort Beausejour and brought in as prisoners.

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June 10 Military: General Edward Braddock departs Fort Cumberland, Pennsylvania, and begins a harrowing woodland trek toward French-held Fort Duquesne. His 2,200-man force consists of two regular British regiments, and a sprinkling of militia companies from Virginia, Maryland, and North Carolina. Among the latter are two obscure teamsters, Daniel Boone and Daniel Morgan, destined for fame in a later war. Progress is slow because the general orders a road build through the wilderness from Fort Cumberland to Monongahela.

June 11 Naval: British ships under Admiral Edward Boscawen capture the French ships of the line Alcide and Lys off the Newfoundland coast. However, the main convoy of 11 transports evades the British and delivers several battalions of infantry under Major General Jean Armand de Dieskau at Quebec.

June 12 Politics: Governor William Shirley of Massachusetts offers fellow colonists a cash bounty for every French or Indian scalp brought in. Adult male scalps fetch 40 pounds apiece while women and children command 20.

June 16 Education: The College, Academy, and Charitable School (present-day University of Pennsylvania), the first colonial nonsectarian institution of higher learning, is chartered in Philadelphia with the help of Benjamin Franklin. It awards its first degrees two years later. Military: A lucky artillery shot kills several French officers at Fort Beausejour and it surrenders to an Anglo-American force under Lieutenant Colonels Robert Monckton and John Winslow. Possession of this post grants the British control of the Chignecto isthmus, connecting Nova Scotia to mainland Canada. This is one of the few early successes in the French and Indian War and the post is subsequently renamed Fort Cumberland by the victorious British. General Edward Braddock’s hard-marching force reaches Little Meadows and temporarily halts. Taking George Washington’s advice, he resumes marching with a 1,200-man advance guard, while 600 additional soldiers are left behind under Colonel Thomas Dunbar to secure the baggage train. The British column also proceeds without Indians for adequate scouting and reconnaissance purposes, a potentially disastrous lapse in judgment.

June 23 Politics: In Paris, Pierre Rigaud de Vaudreuil is appointed governor general of New France.

June 28 Naval: The English launch a 40-foot schooner on Lake Ontario, their first warship to ply the Great Lakes.

June 30 Naval: The Royal Navy establishes firm control of the Bay of Fundy.

July 8 Military: Major Claude-Pierre Pecaudy de Contrecoeur dispatches a force of 250 French regulars and militia, and 650 Indians to contest the British advance

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upon Fort Duquesne. They are commanded by Captain Daniel-Hyacinthe-Marie Lienard de Beaujeu. A Shawnee war party raids Draper’s Meadows, (West) Virginia, killing several settlers and losing two of their own. A party of 80 Shawnee under Hokolesqua attacks white settlements at Muddy Creek, (West) Virginia, killing upwards of 50 colonials.

July 9 Military: The ponderous column of General Edward Braddock reaches the Monongahela River, 10 miles from its object, Fort Duquesne. However, during the crossing, French troops and Indians successfully ambush the advance party and move around both flanks of the surviving troops. Chaos ensues as retreating parties of British collide headlong with troops moving up. The remaining troops, now nearly surrounded, are shot down in droves as colonial militia disperse into the woods for cover. Confusion reigns, and after three hours of hard fighting the British lose 60 of 86 officers present, including General Braddock, mortally wounded. Captain George Washington manages to rally the militia and acts as a rear guard, as the soldiers withdraw in disorder. The 462 survivors gradually stagger into the base camp commanded by Colonel Thomas Dunbar, 50 miles away. The British sustain 977 casualties while French losses are relatively light but include Captain de Beaujeu. Naval: The squadron of Admiral Edward Boscawen is withdrawn from blockading duty off Newfoundland on account of raging illness.

July 13 Military: British general Edward Braddock dies of wounds received at the Monongahela River and is buried in an unmarked grave.

August Military: Governor William Shirley of Massachusetts directs an expedition up the Mohawk River in New York with a view to capturing French-held Fort Niagara.

August 15 Naval: The fleet of Admiral Dubois de La Motte slips past British blockaders off the Belle Isle Strait, Canada, and makes for France intact.

September 1 Military: Major General Sir William Johnson departs Albany, New York, at the head of 3,000 Anglo-Americans and 300 Mohawks under Chief Hendrick, in an attack upon Montreal. The French counter by dispatching Baron Jean Armand de Dieskau from Fort Frontenac (Kingston, Ontario) down the Richelieu River with 1,500 soldiers, 1,000 Canadians, and 600 native allies.

September 4 Military: Baron Jean-Armand de Dieskau learns from a prisoner that General William Johnson has advanced troops from his base at Fort Edwards, although this is deliberately misrepresented as only 500 men. Sensing an easy kill, Dieskau mistakenly assumes the bulk of Johnson’s forces are absent from that vital post. He thereupon sends a picked force of 200 French, 600 militia, and 700 Indians to attack.

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Johnson, Sir William

(1715–1774)

Indian agent William Johnson was born in County Meath, Ireland, in 1715, and in 1737 he migrated to New York to manage the estates of his uncle, Admiral Sir Peter Warren. Settling on the frontier, Johnson soon became acquainted with the Mohawk Indians, who were his neighbors, and struck up a close liaison with them. Unlike most settlers, he quickly learned their language and culture, dressed like an Indian and always dealt with them honestly. Consequently, the tribe adopted him an as unofficial adviser and sought his counsel whenever dealing with the colonial government. This cultural rapport also gave Johnson advantages in the fur trade, and he soon accumulated great wealth. When King George’s War erupted in 1744, Johnson’s influence proved instrumental in keeping the Iroquois Six Nations from siding with France and Governor George Clinton subsequently appointed him superintendent of Indian Affairs. He also continued to immerse himself in Native American culture and tribal traditions by marrying Molly Brant, sister of Chief Joseph Brant. The union enhanced his prestige among the Iroquois, many of whom came to see him as a guarantor against continuing white encroachment. When the French and Indian War commenced in 1754, Johnson was personally selected by General Edward Braddock to serve as superintendent of the Indian Department. He then prevailed upon his old friend King Hendrick to side with Britain and also received a major general’s commission. In this capacity, Johnson fought and won the Battle of Lake George

on September 8, 1755, and received a baronetcy from King George II. Back in New York he also assumed command of British forces which attacked and captured Fort Niagara on July 25, 1759. In 1761 an ailing Johnson made a laborious trip to Detroit to confer with Indians who were former allies of France and managed to forestall new hostilities for two years. When Pontiac’s rebellion broke out and was crushed in 1763, Johnson directed the Indian Department to pay closer attention to the needs and attitudes of the tribes. He also personally conferred with Pontiac at Oswego, New York, in 1766 and signed a peace treaty with him. For the rest of his life Johnson worked to keep white squatters and other settlers from illegally expropriating Indian land. Johnson officially achieved that goal with the signing of the Treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1768, which established firm boundaries between British settlements and Indian territory, although its measures proved impossible to enforce. He also actively supported measures to help educate and Christianize the Indians through missionary work. In the wake of Lord Dunmore’s War with the Shawnee in 1774, he advised the Iroquois to remain neutral, and they did. Johnson died at his palatial estate on July 11, 1774, while attending an Indian conference. His passing marked the end of close and cordial relations that the Mohawk and colonials had enjoyed for nearly four decades. At that time Johnson was also one of the primary landowners in North America.

September 5 Politics: Colonel Charles Lawrence, governor of Nova Scotia, declares that all French inhabitants must take an oath of allegiance to the British Crown or face deportation.

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September 7 Military: When Baron Jean-Armand de Dieskau’s Indian allies refuse to attack the ramparts of Fort Edward, New York, he diverts them to the head of Lake George where a body of British troops is reputedly gathering.

September 8 Military: Sir William Johnson and 4,000 soldiers, provincials, and Mohawk Indians engage 1,400 French under Baron Jean-Armand de Dieskau near Fort Carillion (Lake George, New York). The French initially ambush the British advance guard, killing Colonel Ephraim Williams and 80-year-old Mohawk Chief Hendrick, but the survivors mount a formidable rear guard that trips up Dieskau’s advance. He is forced to spend several minutes sorting his men out while Johnson, with the main body of troops, forms a barricade with his wagons, deploys his artillery, and awaits the French onslaught. At length, Dieskau recovers and advances with his regulars in the center, with Canadians and Indians on either flank. The whole charges bravely but foolishly in a series of frontal assaults and are decisively repelled by Johnson’s cannon and infantry, now sequestered behind an improvised barricade. A final sortie by the New York and New Hampshire troops nearly routs the French, and Dieskau, severely wounded, is captured. Casualties are nearly equal, 331 British and 339 French. The Battle of Lake George is a British tactical victory, but also a strategic defeat as it forces Johnson to abandon his drive into New France. The heavy loss of life incurred by the Iroquois, especially the loss of the notable Hendrick, grieves them, and they withdraw from combat for the next four years. This engagement also marks the debut of Captain Robert Rogers and his adjutant, John Stark. Afterward, the victorious Johnson erects Fort William Henry at the southern end of Lake George to maintain a British presence there.

September 24 Military: Captain Robert Rogers is detailed to scouting missions in the region of Fort William Henry, and in this he proves particularly adept. He will continually monitor French and Indian activities throughout the winter.

October Religion: When a destructive drought eliminates most of the tobacco crop in Virginia, the legislature opts to change the salary of Anglican clergymen and pay them with currency instead. This brings forth protests from the church, and eventually the British government is brought into the dispute. The result is a noted lawsuit involving an obscure frontier lawyer, Patrick Henry.

October 8 Military: The British round up and begin expelling 6,000 French settlers from Acadia for failing to take an oath of allegiance to the Crown. Many villages in and around the Bay of Fundy are also leveled to prevent their being reoccupied. Many of these Acadians are transported to Louisiana, where they settle and are known as Cajuns.

October 24 Military: Governor William Shirley cancels his proposed campaign against Fort Niagara, New York, and instead deposits a garrison of 700 men at Fort Oswego on the southern shore of Lake Ontario.

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October 31 Military: Delaware war bands attack Great Cove, Pennsylvania, killing 47 settlers.

November Military: A Moravian village in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, is suddenly savaged by Indians.

November 18 General: Boston is rattled by an earthquake, drawing some religious commentary.

November 26 Military: The Pennsylvania legislature votes to spend 60,000 pounds to erect a string of fortifications across the Blue Mountains in the west. Mea�sures of this kind cause intense discomfort among Quaker delegates present, who are sworn to neutrality.

November 27 Religion: Joseph Salvador purchases 100,000 acres for the first Jewish settlement near Fort Ninety Six, South Carolina.

November 30 General: Nearly 900 displaced French Acadians arrive in MaryÂ�land for resettle-­ ment. Previously, 1,200 settlers perished en route when a storm sank two vessels in the Atlantic.

1756 Education: The Winyaw Indigo School, having received a royal charter the year previously, begins granting a free education for poor children along with apprentices. Journalism: Daniel Fowles begins publishing the New Hampshire Gazette at Portsmouth. In time, it emerges as America’s oldest continuing publication. Naval: The British Admiralty establishes the “Rule of 1756,” whereby the shipping of neutral powers cannot carry in warÂ�time what has been heretofore denied them in peacetime. Transportation: A stagecoach route opens between Philadelphia and New York City employing Jersey wagons. These vehicles lack any suspension sys-­ tem, insuring a rough transit for the passengers, and conduct the trip in relays.

January 2 Religion: Isaac Backus, a Congregational minister based at Marlborough, Massachusetts, decides to split from his church and found a Baptist congrega-­ tion of his own. He serves in this capacity for over half a century, emerging as an important voice in the Baptist community and an advocate of separating church and state.

January 9 Politics: In a significant shift, Peter Wraxhall, Sir William Johnson’s secretary, suggests that future purchases of Indian land be made only with the approval of the Indian commissioner. He believes that land fraud is the principal motive behind Indian hostility toward the EnÂ�glish.

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January 16 General: The French and Indian War spreads to EuÂ�rope in the form of the Seven Years’ War, with EnÂ�gland allying itself with Frederick the Great of PrusÂ�sia in anticipation of hostilities with France.

March 27–April 1 Military: Gaspard-Joseph Chaussegros de Lery takes 360 Canadians and Indi-­ ans on a raid along the southern shore of Lake Ontario to interrupt British com-­ munications between Schenectady and Fort Oswego. To this end, they surround and capture Fort Bull, New York, massacring the garrison of 80 men, and forcing Governor William Shirley to Niagara postpone his offensive from Oswego.

April 18 Military: Indians ambush a patrol of Virginia militia near the Cacapon River, killing a captain and 16 men.

April 29 Science: Benjamin Franklin is elected a member of the prestigious Royal Society in London.

May 17 Diplomacy: Great Britain declares war on France and commences the Seven Years’ War in EuÂ�rope, better known in America as the French and Indian War. However, the act occurred too late for the Royal Navy to intercept a large French convoy headed for Canada with reinforcements under General Louis-Joseph, marquis de Â�Montcalm—an unfortunate occurrence.

May 23 Military: Governor William Shirley of Massachusetts establishes the InÂ�deÂ�penÂ�dent Company of American Rangers in Boston, entrusting it to Captain Robert Rogers. Shirley is singularly impressed by Rogers’s technique for frontier warfare and also raises a force of 50 Stockbridge Indians to support him. Moreover, the new company is paid for by royal funds instead of colonial money. This seminal move formalizes and initiates the light infantry tradition in American military history.

May 31 Military: General Louis-Joseph, marquis de Montcalm, arrives in Quebec with 1,200 men of the La Sarre and Royal Roussillon Regiments. Among his talented subordinates are Brigadier François-Gaston de Lévis and ColÂ�oÂ�nel Louis-­Antoine de Bougainville, a future world explorer. However, Montcalm enters into a con-­ tentious relationship with his superior, Governor General Pierre de Rigaud de Vaudreuil, whom he dislikes intensely. Their ongoing contretemps eventually undermines the French position in Canada.

June Naval: The Royal Navy squadron under Commodore Charles Holmes continues cruising off Louisbourg, Cape Breton Island, encountering smaller enemy forces.

July 3 Military: A 300-­man British/colonial relief force under Lieutenant ColÂ�oÂ�nel John Bradstreet defeats 700 French and Indians, who ambushed him near Fort Oswego, New York. After three hours of sustained combat, the British and Ameri-­ cans unexpectedly took to cold steel, routing their antagonists.

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Rogers, Robert (1731–1795) Soldier Robert Rogers was born in Methuen, Massachusetts, on November 7, 1731, and raised on the frontier near Concord, New Hampshire. He first experienced military service with the militia during King George’s War, performing well but also displaying a propensity for dishonesty and graft. In 1755, he escaped prosecution for counterfeiting in 1755 only by joining the Royal New Hampshire Regiment and accompanied Sir William Johnson on the expedition to Lake George. Here Rogers distinguished himself on many successful scouting forays, so Governor William Shirley authorized him to raise a select force of light infantry, or rangers. It proved to be one of the most successful units on the English side

and extremely adept at Indian-style warfare: screening, scouting, raids, and ambush. On March 13, 1758, Rogers was himself surprised by superior French and Indian forces but gave a good account of himself at the Battle on Snowshoes and survived. On October 6, 1759, he next accomplished one of the most daunting raids of the war by storming into the Abenaki village at St. Francis, then surviving a 200-mile withdrawal through dense forests. He subsequently fought at the capture of Montreal in 1760 and was assigned the task of occupying Fort Detroit, Michigan, in the name of the British Crown. Three years later, Rogers also performed commendably during Pontiac’s Rebellion,

July 23 Military: General John Campbell, earl of Loudoun, arrives at New York to replace Governor William Shirley as British military commander in chief. He also brings with him the 35th and 42nd Regiments of Foot as reinforcements.

August 3 Military: French and Indian officers under Louis Coulon de Villiers capture and burn Fort Granville, Pennsylvania.

August 4 Military: General Louis-Joseph, marquis de Montcalm, departs Fort Frontenac (Kingston, Ontario) and sails across Lake Ontario to attack Fort Oswego. Despite its sizable garrison, the post’s wooden walls are known to be unable to withstand heavy artillery.

August 10 Military: In a lightning strike, General Louis-Joseph, marquis de Montcalm, takes an army of 3,000 men from Fort Frontenac across Lake Ontario, and invests Fort Ontario, Oswego (New York). He there confronts a force of 1,800 provincial troops under Colonel James Mercer and begins siege operations.

August 14 Military: After a brief bombardment that kills Colonel James Mercer, French forces under General Louis-Joseph, marquis de Montcalm, capture Fort Ontario, Oswego (New York), seizing 1,800 colonial provincials and militia. However, the Indians massacre 30 wounded soldiers before the French can restrain them. After razing the earthworks, Montcalm sails back to Montreal with French control of Lake Ontario undisputed.

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where his daring and frontier skill made him a hero on both sides of the Atlantic. Following the return to peace, however, Rogers reverted to his old ways and strayed from the law. Reckless with money, he was almost arrested for indebtedness and fled to London to publish his journals. He then received command of Fort Mackinac, Michigan, where he sponsored several expeditions to find the fabled Northwest Passage to China, but Rogers proved a poor administrator and was court-martialed on the order of General Thomas Gage. Rogers was eventually acquitted and returned to London, where he finally landed in debtor’s prison. After his brother finally paid off his accounts, he was released and returned to Massachusetts in 1775, when the Revolutionary War was in full swing. Rogers

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initially tendered his services to the United States, but General George Washington suspected him of treachery and had him arrested and turned over to the British. The British also had their doubts about him, but he finally gained an appointment as major of the Queen’s Rangers, another light infantry unit. In this capacity, he failed to distinguish himself in fighting around New York in 1776 and finally lost his command. Rogers sailed back to England for the last time in 1780, dissipated by alcohol. He spent the rest of his days in grinding poverty before dying in London on May 18, 1795, all but forgotten. Rogers never surmounted his personal problems in peacetime, but his accomplishments as a daring, innovative light infantry leader mark him as a central figure in the colonial military experience.

September 8 Military: Colonel John Armstrong, commanding 300 Pennsylvania militia, steals upon a Delaware Indian village at Kittanning, Pennsylvania. He then attacks with cold steel at dawn, routing the inhabitants. The Indians suffer 40 killed and 30 homes burned; 11 colonial prisoners are freed.

November 24 Science: Benjamin Franklin attends his first meeting of the Royal Society in London.

1757 Business: Parliament amends its previous Iron Act by encouraging unlimited and duty-free imports of American pig iron and ingots to England. Cherokee chief Attacullaculla, negotiating a trade agreement with South Carolina authorities, expresses surprise that the Europeans do not include women in their negotiations, a standard Native American practice. Technology: Whale oil street lights, designed by Benjamin Franklin, begin showing up on the street corners of Philadelphia.

February 3 Politics: Benjamin Franklin gains appointment as the Pennsylvania assembly’s agent in dealings with the proprietary government.

March 18–23 Military: A force of 1,500 French and Indians under Governor-general Pierre de Rigaud de Vaudreuil unsuccessfully besieges Fort William Henry on Lake

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256â•… Chronology of American History George, New York. They bombard the 474-­man garrison for four days and then retreat back to Canada.

March 22 Military: The French try unsuccessfully to burn some British vessels anchored on Lake George near Fort William Henry, New York.

May 25 Naval: General John Campbell, earl of Loudoun, leads a force of 3,500 British and colonials from New York on a campaign against Louisbourg. Their first stop is at Halifax, although rumors of French vessels there delay their departure until Admiral Charles Hardy sends several Royal Navy sloops ahead to reconnoiter.

June 5 Naval: Commodore de Bauffremont leads five French ships of the line and a frig-­ ate into Louisbourg harbor, joining two frigates already present under Captain Joseph-François de Noble du Revest.

June 19 Naval: Admiral Dubois de La Motte sails into Louisbourg with 11 warships bearing 7,000 reinforcements for the defense of Canada. He has also amassed a force of 18 ships of the line but remains under orders to avoid a general naval engagement.

June 23 Military: Lieutenant Col�o�nel George Monro dispatches Col�o�nel John Parker and 350 men of the New Jersey and New York Regiments in 22 �whaleboats from Fort William Henry to reconnoiter down Lake George.

June 29 Politics: The inspirational William Pitt supplants Henry Fox as prime minister of En�gland and resolves to commit unlimited resources to defeat France in the New World. This requires the government to raise taxes and borrow inordinate amounts of money to sustain the global war effort, which reaches as far as India. Rather than detach British troops from Eu�rope or the Ca�rib�be�an, he offers to reimburse the colonies for raising provincial soldiers and 21,000 are ultimately raised.

June 30 Military: General John Campbell, earl of Loudoun, assembles a large military and naval force of 11,000 men at Halifax but cancels an impending attack upon Louisbourg after learning of French naval reinforcements arriving there.

July Diplomacy: In an attempt to reduce frontier violence against settlers in western Pennsylvania, the colonial government sought to renew their old acquaintance with the Lenni Lenape (Delaware) Indians. This proved no mean task, for the tribe was still angry over land concession arising from the Â�so-­called “Walking Treaty” of 1737. Nonetheless, in July, Governor William Denny, Benjamin Fran-­ klin, and a host of other dignitaries visited Chief Teedyuscung at his main village of Easton on the Delaware River. Despite the usual round of Â�gift-­giving and vows of friendship, no concrete agreement was reached and the colonials returned home Â�empty-­handed.

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Military: French and Indian forces successfully storm Fort Edward, New York, killing the garrison of 32 men in a quick action, then withdraw. English colonists construct Fort Loudoun on the Little Tennessee River to facilitate trade and better relations with the neighboring Cherokee Indians.

July 7 Naval: A troop convoy from Ireland reaches Halifax under the command of Vice Admiral Francis Holburne, who brings reinforcements for the upcoming Louisbourg campaign.

July 23 Military: French, Canadian, and Indian forces ambush a column of 350 New Jersey provincials rowing on Lake George, New York, killing or capturing half. Only 100 make it back to the safety of Fort William Henry.

July 27 General: Benjamin Franklin arrives in London as an agent of the Pennsylvania assembly, remaining there for five years.

August 1–2 Naval: The huge combined expedition of General John Campbell, Lord Loudoun, and Admiral Francis Holburne weigh anchor and sail for their initial objective, Gabarus Bay. En route, they obtain intelligence as to Louisbourg’s strength and defenses and dishearteningly elect to cancel their attack, withdrawing to New York City.

August 3 Military: A force of 6,500 French regulars and militia, backed by 1,500 western Indians, and all under the command of General Louis-Joseph, marquis de Montcalm, makes its sudden appearance before Fort William Henry, New York. The defenders consist of 2,300 British and colonial troops under Lieutenant Colonel George Monro, a doughty Scots veteran. The French immediately begin planting siege batteries to bombard the defenders into submission, seeing that the fort, though well-manned, is not designed to resist artillery.

August 9 Military: A garrison of 2,300 American provincials and British regulars holding Fort William Henry, New York, under Lieutenant Colonel George Monro surrender to the besieging forces of General Louis-Joseph, marquis de Montcalm. Montcalm allows the defenders to surrender with honors of war and depart for Fort Edward. As the defeated troops leave their fortification they are suddenly rushed by Indians, who massacre 30 wounded soldiers before the French can restore order. Another 500 are collared as prisoners and dragged away.

August 15 Military: French forces under General Louis-Joseph, marquis de Montcalm, raze Fort William Henry to the ground and return to Canada. Beforehand, the remaining British prisoners are provided a military escort down to Fort Edward for their own safety.

August 16 Naval: Royal Navy forces under Admiral Francis Holburne appear off Louisbourg to appraise its defenses and just as suddenly leave when Admiral Dubois de La Motte attempts to sortie.

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September 24 Naval: A British naval force under Admiral Francis Holbourne returns to blockading Louisbourg, where it is heavily damaged by storms. Two warships are sunk, and many more are dismasted. The surviving vessels then limp back to Halifax and England for repairs.

October Publishing: The American Magazine, an early compilation of science, philosophy, and belles lettres, begins publishing in Philadelphia. It will fold in 1758.

October 30 Naval: The French squadron under Admiral Dubois de La Motte leaves Louisbourg, Canada, and escorts a convoy of sick soldiers back to Brest, France.

November 12 Military: A combined French, Canadian, and Indian force under Captain Francois Marie Picote de Beletre sweeps down upon the German-speaking settlement at German Flats on the Mohawk River, New York, burning the village and killing 50 defenders. Around 100 women and children are marched back to Canada as prisoners.

December 24 Military: Major Robert Rogers leads 150 rangers on a raid to the outskirts of Fort Carillion, New York, taking several prisoners and burning several buildings before slipping away unscathed into the night.

December 30 Military: General James Abercrombie arrives in New York to replace General John Campbell, Lord Loudoun, as commander in chief of British and colonial forces.

1758 Education: Reverend Jonathan Edwards is appointed president of the College of New Jersey (Princeton University). Religion: In the course of the year the Presbyterian Synods of New York and Philadelphia unite, ending the schism that has afflicted their church since 1741. In Philadelphia, Quaker Anthony Benezet orchestrates yearly meetings for the purpose of devising abolitionist strategies. In April 1775, their efforts culminate in creation of the Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage. Influential Virginia planter William Byrd founds the Bluestone African Baptist Church on his plantation in Mecklenberg, Virginia.

January Military: Indians scalp an English working party outside Fort Edward, New York.

February 9 Military: General Jeffrey Amherst arrives in North America with additional troops for the belated Louisbourg campaign.

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March 10 Military: At Fort Edward, New York, Colonel William Haviland dispatches a group of 200 rangers under Major Robert Rogers, to scout in the vicinity of French-held Fort Carillion (Ticonderoga).

March 13 Military: Major Robert Rogers leads 200 rangers on a patrol near Fort Carillion, New York, where they prematurely spring an ambush against an advance force of 40 French troops at La Barbue Creek. In short order, however, the remaining 700 under Captain Louis-Philippe Le Desu d’Herecourt counterattacks and drives the English and colonials up to the banks of Lake George. The outnumbered rangers are roughly handled before managing to escape with only 54 survivors. This encounter is also known as the Battle on Snowshoes.

March 22 Naval: Admiral Charles Hardy arrives at Halifax from New York and takes command of the station. Religion: Jonathan Edwards, one of the most influential theologians of colonial America and president of the College of New Jersey (Princeton), dies.

April 5 Naval: Admiral Charles Hardy’s flotilla departs Halifax and sails to blockade Louisbourg.

April 28 General: James Monroe, a future president, is born in Monroe’s Creek, Virginia.

May Military: Virginia settlers kill a group of allied Cherokee who were rounding up a herd of wild horses claimed by the settlers. The enraged Indians strike back, slaying 20 settlers, and announce that they are voiding their defensive alliance with Britain. They begin raiding various outposts and settlements in western Virginia, which brings a sharp colonial response in the form of punitive raids.

May 12 Naval: Admiral Edward Boscawen sails into Halifax with reinforcements from Britain and awaits the arrival of additional troops under General Jeffrey Amherst.

May 29 Naval: A British fleet of 157 ships, conveying 13,000 soldiers and 14,000 sailors under Admiral Edward Boscawen and General Jeffrey Amherst departs Halifax and makes for Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island. Among Amherst’s subordinates is a sickly, eccentric 31-year-old brigadier, James Wolfe. Simultaneously with this move, another Anglo-American army is scheduled to begin pressing up Lake Champlain under General James Abercrombie while a third force under General John Forbes will advance upon Fort Duquesne.

June 2 Military: The army of General Jeffrey Amherst, 13,000 strong, attempts landing at Gabarus Bay, Cape Breton Island, and about four miles from the massive fort at Louisbourg. However, the onset of poor weather forces him to postpone the

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Chronology of American History maneuver for several days. The French garrison consists of 3,500 regular troops, 24 companies of marines, 4,000 sailors and militia, and 4,000 civilians.

June 8 Military: As British troops under General Jeffrey Amherst come ashore near Louisbourg, they are met on the beaches by 2,000 men of the French garrison under Governor Augustine de Boschenry de Drucour. The first British wave is repelled by musketry, but other boats slip around the defenders and troops spill ashore under General James Wolfe. These hastily scramble ashore unopposed, march inland, and assail the French flank, driving them back into the city. At length, three brigades headed by Generals Charles Lawrence, Edward Whitmore, and Wolfe begin establishing siege positions. Both sides had lost around 100 men each.

June 11 Military: Rough seas off Louisbourg prevent the transportation of heavy artillery ashore, so General Jeffrey Amherst commences bombardment operations with some six-pounder cannon. Meanwhile, three brigades of regulars and provincials continue establishing siege positions around the fort and commence digging trenches.

June 16 Military: Following the onset of good weather, General Jeffrey Amherst directs that his heavy siege guns be transported ashore from the fleet. Meanwhile, Governor Drucour convinces his naval commander, Jean-Antoine Charry Desgouttes, to scuttle several of his ships to block the nearby channel and deny it to the British.

June 19 Military: British siege guns under the direction of General James Wolfe commence firing at the French defenders of Louisbourg.

June 26 Naval: Once British siege guns silence the French Island battery at Louisbourg, Admiral Jean-Antoine Charry Desgouttes realizes that his fleet is vulnerable to an attack by the Royal Navy. He thereupon orders four warships in the channel to obstruct their progress.

July Military: General John Forbes begins his arduous trek from western Virginia to Fort Duquesne by retracing the steps of General Edward Braddock. Colonel John Bradstreet leads 2,500 New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island provincial troops out of Fort William Henry, New York. They begin rowing toward their objective, Fort Frontenac, on the St. Lawrence River.

July 5 Military: General James Abercrombie amasses a force of 15,000 men at Lake George, New York, then advances by water upon French-held Fort Carillion (Ticonderoga). His goal is to open up a route to the St. Lawrence River, from which Montreal can be assailed. His is the largest army ever assembled in America until the Civil War.

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July 6 Military: General James Abercrombie’s advance stalls following the death of his dashing Â�second-­in-­command, General George Augustus Howe, in a minor skirmish with French light troops outside of Fort Carillion. It is a demoralizing blow to the British to lose such a talented officer before the main blow has been struck.

July 7 Military: General François-Gaston de Lévis reinforces General Louis-Joseph, marquis de Montcalm at Fort Carillion with 400 soldiers; bringing total French strength up to 3,600. Despite the obvious strength of the French position, General James Abercrombie intends to attack without employing his heavy artillery to blast a path through the various defenses.

July 8 Military: A large force of 15,000 British regulars and American provincials under General James Abercrombie hurls itself against Fort Carillion, New York. The 3,500 French defenders, ably led and motivated by General Louis-Joseph, marquis de Montcalm, pour a heavy fire of artillery and musketry into the serried British ranks, repulsing them decisively. Even the vaunted 42nd Highlanders, who hack away at the wooden abattis with their claymores, could not penetrate Carillion’s defenses. By seven Â�o’clock that eveÂ�ning Abercrombie finally admits defeat and draws off with 1,944 casualties. French losses are 377.

July 21 Military: At Louisbourg, a lucky shot from a British siege battery strikes the French 74-­gun ship of the line Entreprenant, igniting its magazine. The resulting explosion spreads fire to the nearby 64-­gun Capricieux and Celebre, which are likewise lost.

July 25 Naval: At Louisbourg, British Â�cutting-­out parties storm and carry the French 74Â�gun Prudent and 64-­gun Bienfaisant; the former runs aground and is set on fire. British losses are seven killed and nine wounded while taking 152 prisoners.

July 26 Military: Captain Augustin de Boschenry de Drucour, commanding the French garrison at Louisbourg, Cape Breton Island, surrenders to a combined British expedition of 14,000 men under General Jeffrey Amherst and Admiral Edward Boscawen. The fortress is then razed, and 6,000 captives, 340 cannon, and five large warships are taken.

August 14 Military: Lieutenant Col�o�nel John Bradstreet departs Fort Stanwix, New York, with 157 British and 3,000 provincials and marches north toward Fort Oswego. They cover 430 miles over the next 11 days.

August 21 Military: The column under Lieutenant Col�o�nel John Bradstreet reaches Fort Oswego, New York, and pauses to await the arrival of small boats and transports before continuing across Lake Ontario to Fort Frontenac on the St. Lawrence River.

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August 25 Military: Lieutenant Colonel John Bradstreet’s column crosses Lake Ontario and disembarks a few miles west of Fort Frontenac (present-day Kingston), Canada. The following day, siege batteries are established and commence firing. The 110-man garrison under Pierre-Jacques Payen de Noylan et de Chavoy is caught completely unaware, while his small fleet of armed vessels lacks rigging and cannot sail.

August 27 Military: Colonel John Bradstreet and 2,500 colonial troops capture Fort Frontenac on the northern shore of Lake Ontario. The French capitulate after a lucky British cannon shot explodes their ammunition magazine. Governor PierreJacques Payen de Noyan is allowed to depart to Montreal with civilians, but his garrison of 50 soldiers and 60 militia are taken into captivity. This victory cuts French communications to the Ohio Valley, impeding their ability to feed their soldiers and secure the loyalty of allied Indians.

August 29 General: New Jersey founds an Indian reservation at Edge Pillock, Burlington County, and sets it aside for 100 surviving Unami Indians.

September Military: General John Forbes continues pressing ahead against French-held Fort Duquesne, western Pennsylvania, with an Anglo-American force of 7,000 men. Among his subordinates is Swiss-born Colonel Henry Bouquet.

September 13 General: General Jeffrey Amherst, conqueror of Louisbourg, receives a thunderous hero’s welcome back at Boston.

September 14 Military: General John Forbes dispatches 850 men under Major James Grant to reconnoiter the vicinity of Fort Duquesne, Pennsylvania, but the garrison sorties and attacks his divided force. In a lopsided engagement, Grant is captured and loses 270 men killed, 42 wounded, and 100 taken prisoner.

September 18 Military: Bumbling General James Abercrombie is relieved of command by General Jeffrey Amherst.

September 24 Naval: A British fleet conveying much-needed reinforcements to America is ravaged by a hurricane.

October Diplomacy: The Treaty of Easton, Pennsylvania, is signed between colonial authorities and 500 representatives of the Delaware, Mingo, and Iroquois nations. It had been arranged by Sir William Johnson, commissioner of Indian Affairs, and Governor William Denny of Pennsylvania, partly to thwart the obstructionist tactics of Chief Teedyuscung of the Delaware. The signers agreed that the Allegheny Mountains were to serve as the boundary for white emigration and settlers would be forbidden from migrating there. More significantly, the agreement effectively strips the French of valuable military allies and the British also offer to return some land illegally appropriated from the Indians.

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October 12 Military: A 600-man French-Indian force under Charles-Phillipe d’Aubry attacks a British supply depot at Fort Ligonier (Loyalhannon, Pennsylvania), which is repulsed with the aid of the 2nd Pennsylvania Regiment under Colonel James Burd. Victory here places British and colonial forces within 50 miles of their final objective, Fort Duquesne.

October 20 Military: General Louis-Joseph, marquis de Montcalm, gains promotion to lieutenant general, and now outranks the adversarial governor- General Vaudreuil.

November Military: The British military advance is stalled for the winter before reaching Fort Dusquesne, but General John Forbes then learns from a deserter that the French outpost is dangerously ill and under-garrisoned. He thereupon assigns 2,500 picked men for a brisk overland march to surprise them.

November 24 Military: Colonel Francois Marie Le Marchand de Lignery, commanding the French garrison at Fort Duquesne, is alerted to that fact that General John Forbes is approaching in overwhelming strength. He therefore blows up the breastworks and slips down the Ohio River to Fort Machault and safety.

November 25 Military: British regulars under General John Forbes and American militia under Colonel George Washington advance upon French-held Fort Duquesne, Pennsylvania, only to find it evacuated. Forbes then renames the place Fort Pitt in honor of Britain’s prime minister.

November 28 Education: Thomas Bray’s Associates establishes a law school for African Americans under the aegis of Reverend William Sturgeon. Over the next few years it also opens schools for black children in New York City; Newport, Rhode Island; and Williamsburg, Virginia.

December Military: George Washington resigns his militia commission for the second time at Williamsburg, Virginia, apparently disillusioned by building roads and blockhouses on the frontier. He will not don a military uniform again for the next 16 years.

1759 Arts: Francis Hopkinson of Philadelphia, a future signer of the Declaration of Independence, pens lyrics to My Days Have Been so Wondrous Free, the first secular song composed by a native colonialist. Business: The Presbyterian Ministers Fund, quite possibly the first life insurance company in North America, is founded in Philadelphia by Thomas and Richard Penn. Diplomacy: In a move that cements English/Iroquois relations, Sir William Johnson, superintendent of Indian Affairs, marries Molly Brant, sister of Mohawk Chief Joseph Brant. It turns out to be a happy union that produces nine offspring,

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Chronology of American History and she gains as the hostess of the couple’s palatial estate at Johnston, New York. Military: In London, a vigorous Prime Minister William Pitt promulgates a warwinning strategy for North America by proposing thrusts against Fort Niagara in western New York, an advance against Montreal up the Champlain River Valley, and a campaign against Quebec down the Saint Lawrence River.

January 6 General: George Washington marries 27-year-old Martha Custis, a wealthy widow, making him one of the most respectable gentlemen of Virginia.

February 12 Politics: Benjamin Franklin receives an honorary doctorate of laws from St. Andrews University in Scotland.

April 3 Science: Halley’s Comet makes its reappearance, as predicted.

May 28 Naval: Royal Navy transports land troops on the Ile-aux-Coudres in the St. Lawrence River to facilitate the movement of General James Wolfe upstream.

May 31 Law: In a continuing effort to discourage licentiousness, the Pennsylvania assembly bans stage plays with a 50-pound fine.

June 6 Naval: A Royal Navy squadron under Admiral Sir Charles Saunders departs Louisbourg, carrying General James Wolfe and 8,500 soldiers in 119 transports. Their goal is to invest and capture Quebec, capital of French Canada.

June 16 Naval: Warships of the Royal Navy under Admiral Sir Charles Saunders sail up the St. Lawrence River and anchor off Bic and St. Barnabe.

June 25 Naval: Royal Navy forces sail up the St. Lawrence River as far as Ile d’Orleans, four miles below Quebec.

June 27 Military: General James Wolfe arrives at Ile d’Orleans and prepares offensive operations against Quebec with 8,500 men. The garrison under General LouisJoseph, marquis de Montcalm, totals 5,000 but many of these are poorly trained militiamen. He therefore adopts a passive strategy of wait-and-see, allowing throngs of Indian and Canadian guerrillas to harass the British from behind. Wolfe, meanwhile, begins preliminary operations by dispatching troops under Colonel Robert Monckton to Pointe Levis opposite the city to establish an advanced base and a siege battery there.

June 28 Naval: French forces at Quebec make a failed fireship attack upon the vessels of Admiral Sir Charles Saunders.

July 1 Military: A force of 2,500 British regulars and colonial provincials under Brigadier General John Prideaux, backed by 1,000 Iroquois under Sir William John-

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son, having reoccupied Fort Oswego, embark on small boats and rows along the southern shore of Lake Ontario. Their goal is to capture French-held Fort Niagara.

July 6 Military: The army of General John Prideaux lands four miles east of Fort Niagara, New York, and makes preparations to besiege it. The post is presently defended by 600 men under Captain Pierre Pouchot de Maupas, who requests help from the army of Captain Francois Marie Le Marchant de Lignery, presently operating in western Pennsylvania.

July 9 Military: General James Wolfe deploys Brigadier General George Townshend’s troops on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River in an attempt to lure the French garrison out into the open. Montcalm, however, refuses to take the bait. He has but 2,000 regulars and 2,500 poorly trained militiamen and waits for the besiegers to make a mistake.

July 18 Naval: Off Quebec, Captain John Rouse manages to slip several large warships and 600 troops past the French garrison to raid downstream.

July 20 Military: Colonel Guy Carleton lands 600 men at Pointe-aux-Trembles; the raid accomplishes little but does demonstrate to General Louis-Joseph, marquis de Montcalm, that his right flank is vulnerable. Brigadier General John Prideaux is accidentally killed and, after a stormy council of war, Sir John Johnson—a provincial officer—is appointed to succeed him. His election also insures continuing support from the 1,000 Iroquois warriors presently under his command. The appointment proves fortuitous, for Johnson decides to vigorously prosecute the siege of Fort Niagara.

July 21 Military: General Jeffrey Amherst leads a large Anglo-American force out from Lake George, New York, and marches north against Montreal up the Lake Champlain Valley.

July 24 Military: A mixed force of British and Indians under Lieutenant Colonel Eyre Massey engages and defeats a French relief column marching toward Fort Niagara at La Belle Famille, western New York. The French, under Captain Francois Marie Le Marchand, advance confidently down the road to the fort in full view of the British, who are hidden in the nearby wood. At a signal, Massey orders his men to rise out of the tall grass and commence firing at the thick French column, bowling over entire platoons. The Iroquois then charge, routing their opponents, killing around 344 soldiers and Indians, and capturing several officers, including Lignery. British losses are 12 dead and 40 wounded.

July 25 Military: After learning of the defeat of his relief column, Colonel Pierre Pouchot de Maupas surrenders Fort Niagara to British and colonial forces under General Sir William Johnson.

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July 26 Military: As General Jeffrey Amherst’s army approaches Fort Carillon (Ticond-­ eroga), the French garrison demolishes that post and falls back to Crown Point, New York.

July 27 Naval: General Louis-Joseph, marquis de Montcalm, makes a second failed attempt to burn the British fleet under Admiral Charles Saunders while it is anchored off Quebec. The French launch no less than 72 fireboats at the British fleet between Pointe Levy and Isle d’Orleans, but heroic efforts by British sailors manage to keep their ships undamaged.

July 31 Military: British forces are directed by an impatient General James Wolfe to land below the French main position on the north bank of the St. Lawrence River. French regulars and militia meet them at the water’s edge near Montmorency and force them back with the loss of 450 grenadiers before Wolfe relents. The French sus-­ tained around 70 casualties. Wolfe suffers a near mental collapse from this reversal, angrily blames his subordinates, and convalesces in bed for several weeks.

August 4 Military: French forces blow up Fort Saint Frederic at Crown Point, New York, and withdraw down the Richelieu River as General Jeffery Amherst’s army advances up the Lake Champlain Valley. The British then halt their offensive there for the winter.

August 9 Military: General Louis-Joseph, marquis de Montcalm, dispatches his best sub-­ ordinate, François-Gaston de Lévis, with 800 men down the St. Lawrence River to check any EnÂ�glish forces advancing from Lake Ontario. This talented officer will be missed in the decisive battle that is coming.

August 10 Politics: The Virginia Act of 1755, which provides Anglican clergy with a sti-­ pend paid for with taxes, is annulled by the British Privy Council.

September Military: The French outpost at Chambly surrenders to British forces under Brigadier General William Haviland.

September 12 Military: Major Robert Rogers leads a large ranger expedition out from Crown Point, New York. His objective is the Indian village of St. Francis on the St. Law-­ rence River, a staging for French attacks. The colonials sail down Lake Cham-­ plain in boats, the first step on a 150-­mile trek. General James Wolfe begins secretly ferrying his troops across the St. Law-­ rence in small boats. Once ashore, ColÂ�oÂ�nel William Howe, the younger brother of the lamented General George Augustus Howe, spearheads an advance up the cliffs to the Plains of Abraham.

September 13 Military: General James Wolfe secretly ferries 4,400 crack troops across the St. Lawrence River and takes up battle formations on the Plains of Abraham

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outside Quebec. Americans are represented in the order of battle by six companies of rangers. General Louis-Joseph, marquis de Montcalm, then sorties from the city with 4,000 men, half regulars and half militia, rather than endure a siege. However, the French advance is compromised by sloppy marching by the militia, which sows confusion in the ranks, at which point Wolfe orders his army to commence firing at 40 paces. Montcalm’s army is cut down in swaths as the British advance with cold steel and put them to flight. French losses are 200 dead and 1,200 wounded to a British tally of 100 killed and roughly 600 injured. The British pursuit is somewhat bungled and the surviving French make it back to Quebec intact, but the fate of New France is sealed after this, the French and Indian War’s only conventional, stand-up engagement. Tragically, both Wolfe and Montcalm are fatally injured and die within hours of each other. At Crown Point, New York, Major Robert Rogers loads 200 rangers and Stockbridge Indians into whaleboats and proceeds up Lake Champlain to Missisquoi Bay (Vermont). His objective is to raid the Indian village at St. Francis. However, two days inland the French discover his boats and burn them, cutting the force off from its supplies. Rogers is undaunted and pens a missive to General Jeffrey Amherst to forward food and supplies to the Connecticut River in New Hampshire.

September 18 Military: Quebec surrenders its garrison of 4,000 soldiers, sailors, and militiamen to the victorious British.

October Military: A Spanish expeditionary force under Colonel Don Diego Ortiz de Pailla marches north from Texas to attack hostile Comanche and Kiowa Indians, assisted by the French. He then raids the Twin Villages and is forced to retreat after a daylong battle.

October 6 Military: A raiding party led by Major Robert Rogers successfully storms into Odanak (St. Francis) at dawn, dispersing the defenders and burning the village. The action results in heavy casualties among the Indians, including warriors, women, and children, while several English women are freed from captivity. The rangers then gather up as much food as they can and hurriedly depart, hotly pursued by vengeful French and Indians. In response to a spate of frontier attacks, Governor William Henry Lyttleton of South Carolina declares his intention to lead an expedition into the heart of Cherokee country.

October 14 Military: Realizing he is being pursued by superior numbers, Major Robert Rogers splits his ranger column into small groups, each one taking a different route back to Wells River. Almost out of food and supplies, the men scavenge as best as they can for the next two weeks.

October 20 Diplomacy: In an attempt to prevent an all-out frontier war, Chief Oconostota of the Cherokee and his entourage arrive at Charles Town, South Carolina, for

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Chronology of American History negotiations. However, they are summarily arrested and forced to march to the frontier with the army of General William Henry Lyttleton. Military: After three weeks of deprivation, Major Robert Rogers leads his surviving rangers to the confluence of the Wells and Connecticut Rivers, but finds no supplies. The major and a handful of volunteers then push on down the river on a raft to secure help.

October 31 Military: Major Robert Rogers and a handful of rangers float into Fort Number 4, New Hampshire, where they arrange food to be sent downstream to the bulk of his survivors.

November 4 Military: Major Robert Rogers, having refitted some rangers at Fort Number 4 in New Hampshire, departs in an attempt to rescue any survivors left in the woods. This concludes the most demanding and celebrated small unit raid of the French and Indian War; the retreat from St. Francis, while successful, cost the elite rangers 49 men.

December 9 Military: Frontier tension between Cherokee and South Carolinians culminates in the First Cherokee War, lasting two years.

December 10 Military: The army of Governor William Henry Lyttleton of South Carolina reaches Fort Prince George on the western frontier, whereupon Oconostota and other remaining Cherokee prisoners are imprisoned to await further developments.

December 13 Arts: Michael Hillegas opens up the first-ever music shop in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

December 17 Diplomacy: Peace Chief Attakullakulla arrives at Fort Prince George, South Carolina, to negotiate the release of Oconostota and other Cherokee hostages. Governor William Henry Lyttleton relents and releases the war chief, but demands that the Cherokee hand over any Indians guilty of murdering settlers before talks continue further. Twenty-two Indians remain hostages at Fort Prince George as a hedge against Cherokee subterfuge.

December 27 Military: A war band of seven Creek Indians creeps into the settlement of Long Canes, South Carolina, and manages to kill 14 inhabitants before retreating.

December 28 Military: An outbreak of smallpox at Fort Prince George, South Carolina, induces Governor William Henry Lyttleton to withdraw his army back to Charles Town. A small garrison under Lieutenant Richard Coytmore remains behind to guard 22 Cherokee hostages. This withdrawal does not go unnoticed by the Indians.

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269

(ca. 1710–1783)

Cherokee chief Oconostota (Groundhog Sausage) was born in Chota (Monroe County, Tennessee). The Cherokee tribe to which he belonged was among the most numerous and powerful tribes of North America. Oconostota matured into an imposing, brave warrior and, in 1736, he is first recorded as belonging to a pro-French faction of the tribe. By dint of wars and diplomacy, he became the Great Warrior, or war chief, of the entire Cherokee nation by 1753. Their trust in his military acumen was well founded and, after gradually realigning with the British, he conducted several successful forays against Choctaw allied to France in 1755. The following year, he defeated the powerful Creek Confederacy at Taliwa, Georgia, and also attacked numerous French outposts along the lower Ohio and Illinois Rivers, following onset of the French and Indian War. However, in 1759 Governor William Lyttleton of South Carolina invited Oconostota to a peace conference—then kidnapped him. He was released the following spring and promptly went to war with his erstwhile allies. On June 27, 1760, his braves massacred the British garrison of Fort Loudoun, and the following October, he defeated a large British column under Colonel Archibald Montgomery at Etchoe Pass. By 1761, the British were forced to commit large numbers of troops against the Cherokee and Colonel James Grant finally defeated Oconostota in a campaign against his homeland. The chief, realizing that the struggle was hopeless, finally made peace with the British and became an ally once again.

In 1763, Oconostota, true to his word, sided with Great Britain during Pontiac’s abortive uprising, and three years later, both he and peace chief Attakullakulla ventured to New York to confer with Sir William Johnson and sign a peace treaty with the Iroquois. For many years thereafter, his people were frustrated by a continual influx of colonial encroachment onto Indian lands, but the chief remained firmly committed to peaceful relations and overlooked these transgressions. The relative weakness of his tribe had converted the former war chief into a staunch advocate of peaceful coexistence, if only to preserve the Cherokee from annihilation. In 1770, he adamantly refused to join a coalition against the English, and during Lord Dunmore’s War of 1774, he declined to support the Shawnee under Cornstalk. In 1775 Oconostota reluctantly parted with an additional 20 million acres of land in North Carolina rather than lose it by force. However, the onset of the Revolutionary War that year finally gave him sufficient pretext to unleash his warriors against the colonists, and he again sided with the British. The Second Cherokee War, an internecine struggle of ambush, murder, and retaliation was waged across the borders of Georgia and North Carolina before American militia under Colonel John Sevier finally overran Oconostota’s Overhill towns in Tennessee. Aged Oconostota finally made peace with his hated enemies and resigned as chief in July 1782. He died at Chota in the spring of 1783, a legendary warrior but unable to stem the tide of white migration overrunning a continent.

1760 Medical: New York begins regulating the medical profession by requiring all doctors and surgeons to pass a test prior to being licensed to practice.

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Chronology of American History Slavery: Richard Allen, an influential religious leader of the African-American community, is born into slavery at Philadelphia. The Virginia legislature approves a 20 percent import duty on incoming African slaves, but the law is negated by the British Crown, which felt the tax excessive and contrary to mercantile interests engaged in the slave trade. South Carolina bans the import of additional slaves, but Parliament dismisses the mea sure owing to its infringement upon mercantile interests in England.

January 19 Military: Bands of hostile Cherokee attempt to infiltrate Fort Prince George, South Carolina, to free some captive chiefs, held as hostages since the Peace of 1759, but fail. Their failure reignites open warfare between the British and the Cherokee.

February 3 Military: Rampaging Cherokee attack the settlement of Long Canes, South Carolina, just as the inhabitants were in the process of relocating to Augusta for greater protection. At least 56 colonials die and 13 wagons are burned.

February 16 Military: Cherokee try to stage a surprise attack upon Fort Prince George, South Carolina, where several ranking hostages are kept. Oconostota lures Lieutenant Richard Coytmore out of the fort for negotiations, whereupon he is shot from ambush. The enraged garrison promptly puts all 22 Cherokee hostages in their possession to the sword in retaliation. This act further fans the flames of full-scale war with the Cherokee.

February 27 Military: The English garrison at Fort Dobbs, North Carolina, repels a determined Cherokee onslaught. The Indians were fired up about the recent slaughter of Indian hostages at Fort Prince George, but provincial troops under Colonel Hugh Waddell stand their ground, and the Cherokee are repulsed with a loss of 10 warriors.

March 6 Military: Fort Ninety Six, South Carolina, is attacked by Cherokee warriors, but they are defeated by a small militia garrison under Captain James Francis.

March 20 General: A raging fire burns 176 warehouses and leaves one-10th of Boston’s population homeless.

April 1 Military: General Jeffrey Amherst is forced to dispatch reinforcements to assist the beleaguered colonies of North and South Carolina, then in the grip of an Indian war. Accordingly, Colonel Archibald Montgomery arrives at Charles Town with 1,200 soldiers, who then march into the heart of Indian territory.

April 12 Arts: Twenty-one-year-old Benjamin West embarks from Gloucester, Massachusetts, for Italy, where he intends to study painting. He is the first American artist to experience European art firsthand.

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West, Benjamin  (178–180) Artist Benjamin West was born in Springfield, Pennsylvania, on October 10, 1738, the son of a Quaker inn keeper. He received little formal education and throughout his whole life could hardly spell, but did exhibit artistic talents of a very high order at an early age. West learned as much technique as possible from traveling itiner-­ ant painters passing through the area and soon gained a reputation for portraiture. From 1746 to 1759, he painted portraits in Pennsylvania while attending the College of Philadelphia with the encouragement of its provost, Dr. William Smith. At this time, he also struck up a close acquaint-­ ance with English expatriate painter John Wollaston in Philadelphia, from whom he acquired a technique for making clothing appear to shimmer. West, after secur-­ ing several lucrative commissions in New York City, accumulated enough money to study art in Italy in 1760, becoming the first native-­born American to do so. There he immersed himself in the neoclassical realism then in vogue and further polished his already accomplished style. By the time West finally migrated to London in 1763, he was among the foremost classical art-­ ists of his day and wished to advocate this new genre among English art circles. His 1768 work entitled Agrippina Landing at Brundisium with the Ashes of Germanicus caused a stir in artistic circles and induced King George III to become West’s official patron. Despite the fact he was a poorly educated colonial and openly sympathetic to the ideals of revolutionary America,

West moved smoothly among England’s political elite and eventually painted two portraits of the monarch that were well received. By 1768, West had befriended the noted Sir Joshua Reynolds and helped to found the Royal Academy of the Arts with him. In 1771, West executed his most famous work, Death of General Wolfe, which was then exhibited at the Royal Academy. Here West not only perfected his subtle use of light and hues, but broke precedent with his insistence on rendering historical scenes with clothing and other accoutre-­ ments from their period. The following year, King George III appointed him his-­ torical painter to the court, making him the only American so honored. And, while he never returned to his native land, West received a steady influx of young artists from America, including John Singleton Copley, Charles Willson Peale, Gilbert Stu-­ art and John Trumbull, all desirous of learning at the hands of the master. West completed around 400 paintings and por-­ traits in his long career, and for many years he was a dominating influence on both sides of the Atlantic. In 1817, he opened an exhibit in Paris, where his Death on a Pale Horse presages the romantic movement in art by a decade. West died in London on March 11, 1820, and, consistent with his renown, he received a lavish state funeral and lay in state at the Royal Academy. In terms of technique and impact on others, he was the most important American artist of his time.

April 20 Military: General François-­Gaston de Lévis sails from Montreal with 4,000 soldiers and 3,000 Canadian militia. He marches toward Quebec with a view to driving General James Murray from the city.

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April 26 Naval: A French force of six frigates and numerous transports sails from Mon-­ treal and disembarks 7,000 troops at Saint Augustin, Quebec, under the capable General Francois Gaston de Levis.

April 28 Military: General James Murray is defeated outside the walls of Quebec (St. Foy) by resurgent French forces under General Francois Gaston de Levis.

May 9 Naval: British defenders of Quebec are heartened by the arrival of the frigate HMS Lowenstoft on the Saint Lawrence River.

May 16 Military: The arrival of British reinforcements on the St. Lawrence River induces besieging French forces under General François-Gaston de Lévis to withdraw toward Montreal.

June 1 Military: British and colonial forces under Col�o�nel Richard Montgomery march into the Cherokee settlement of Keowee and are heavily ambushed. The British sustain 60 casualties but press on and burn the settlement. They then relieve the garrison holding out at Fort Prince George before proceeding onto the Middle Towns.

June 3 Military: A group of 250 American rangers under Major Robert Rogers leaves Crown Point, New York, with orders to proceed north and destroy the French depots at Saint Jean and Â�Isle-­aux-­Noix.

June 6 Military: A French force of 350 regulars, militia, and Indians attacks 200 Ameri-­ can rangers under Major Robert Rogers near the Chazy River. As the French advance, they are suddenly assailed in the rear by a party of 70 rangers who crept up behind them through a bog, forcing their retreat. French losses are around 40, Rogers loses 14 dead and 10 wounded. The Americans then fall back to Isle La Motte to regroup and await reinforcements.

June 15 Military: Major Robert Rogers, with 200 rangers and now reinforced by a com-­ pany of Stockbridge Indians stealthily approaches his objective at Fort Saint Jean, Canada, then decides the post is too heavily manned and fortified to be attacked with any prospect of success. He then moves his force downriver against a softer target, the stockaded village at Â�Sainte-­Therese.

June 16 Military: American rangers under Major Robert Rogers successfully raid �Sainte�Therese, Canada, seizing 78 prisoners. He then declines to attack nearby Fort Chambly, fearing that the garrison has been forewarned, so the Americans return to Lake Champlain.

June 20 Military: A French force of 800 men briefly tangles with a body of American rangers under Major Robert Rogers on the shore of Missiquoi Bay (Vermont)

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and is repulsed. Rogers then proceeds unmolested back to Crown Point, New York.

June 27 Military: A force of 1,200 British regulars under Colonel Richard Montgomery engages a large body of Cherokee warriors defending their town at Echoe (Franklin, North Carolina). The Indians kill 20 soldiers and wound 76 more before the Europeans withdraw in good order. Native losses are not known but presumed as heavy.

July 8 Naval: Captain John Byron, leading five British warships, chases and captures the French frigate Machault and four cargo vessels off Quebec.

July 14 Military: General James Murray departs Quebec City and marches his 2,500 soldiers down the Saint Lawrence River towards Montreal. Two other columns are also in motion for the same objective: General Jeffrey Amherst is approaching from Oswego while Brigadier General William Haviland leads 3,400 men up the Lake Champlain corridor from Crown Point, New York.

August 8 Military: General James Murray’s army circumvents French artillery at Trois Rivieres and sails unimpeded down the Saint Lawrence River. Hostile Cherokee under Oconostota surround and obtain the surrender of Fort Loudoun (Vonore, Tennessee), allowing the 200-man British garrison under Captain Paul Demere to depart unharmed for Fort Prince George, South Carolina. They then discover that the English had not turned over all their surplus ammunition as promised and, instead, partly buried it.

August 9 Military: Around 700 Cherokee Indians ambush a British column departing Fort Loudoun with their families, killing Captain Raymond Demere and 23 soldiers, along with many women and children hostages.

August 10 Military: General Jeffrey Amherst’s force of 10,000 men and 100 siege guns departs Oswego, New York, and sails across Lake Ontario in 900 armed galleys and whaleboats.

August 16 Military: The flotilla of General Jeffrey Amherst proceeds eastward down the St. Lawrence River, encountering slight resistance from French forces deployed at La Presentation (Ogdensburg, New York). The 13-gun corvette Outaouaise is captured offshore after a sharp, three-hour contest.

August 20 Military: General Jeffrey Amherst continues sailing down the Saint Lawrence River toward Montreal, pausing only to engage a small French force at Fort Levis (Chimney Island, New York). After a three-day bombardment, the 200-man French garrison under Captain Pierre Bouchot is compelled to surrender.

August 27 Military: The British juggernaut under General Jeffrey Amherst approaches Varennes, east of Montreal, an act that induces many Canadian militia to surrender.

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274  Chronology of American History General François-Gaston de Lévis’s garrison at Montreal is thereby greatly reduced in available manpower. British forces under Brigadier General William Haviland invest French forces at Â�Isle-Â�aux-Â�Noix on the Richelieu River. ColÂ�oÂ�nel Louis-Antoine de Bougainville, commanding only 1,200 men and 12 cannon, manages to slip away at night through a swamp and makes his way toward Montreal 25 miles distant.

September 5 Military: Brigadier General William Haviland’s column reaches the south bank of the Saint Lawrence River across from Montreal.

September 6 Military: General Jeffrey Amherst, traversing Lake Ontario, lands his army at Lachine, Canada, and marches against Montreal with 17,000 men. At this time the French garrison under General François Gaston de Lévis can muster no more than 2,500 soldiers.

September 8 Military: Facing the inevitable, Governor PierreFrançois de Rigaud, marquis de Vaudreuil, surrenders Â�Montreal—and all of Â�Canada—to British forces under King George III. Painting╇ (Library of Congress) General Jeffrey Amherst, for all intents and purposes ending the French and Indian War. Amherst denies his captives honors of war, holding them accountable for the massacre of British prisoners at Fort William Henry in 1757. This act concludes the Â�century-Â�and-Â�a-half-Â�long struggle between France and EnÂ�gland for the domination of North America. Major Robert Rogers and two companies of rangers are dispatched from Montreal and head west to occupy Fort Detroit, Michigan Territory.

October 26 Politics: After the death of King George II, his grandson ascends to the throne as King George III. Significantly, he is the first member of the Hanoverian dynasty fluent in En�glish.

November 3 Diplomacy: A preliminary peace agreement between France and Britain is signed at Fontainebleau.

November 29 Military: Major Robert Rogers and a body of American troops accepts the surrender of Fort Detroit, Michigan Territory, from Captain Â�François-Â�Marie Picote, sieur de Belesre. Indians of the region, previously used to favorable French terms for obtaining guns, ammunition and other supplies, expect the same treatment from the newcomers. However, when the conquerors prove much less generous in doling out such necessities as gunpowder, widespread dissatisfaction arises.

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1761 Literature: Phillis Wheatley, an eight-year-old black slave girl and future poet, arrives at Boston, Massachusetts. Music: Benjamin Franklin perfects the glassychord, a musical instrument consisting of water-filled glasses spun by foot power. Slavery: The Society of Friends votes to expel any Quakers caught working in the slave trade.

February Diplomacy: General Jeffrey Amherst decrees that the French practice of showering the Indians with gifts and goods is too expensive, overindulgent, and effectively ended. Native Americans have come to rely on these commodities to sustain themselves, however, and their resentment peaks two years later in a major frontier uprising led by a heretofore obscure Ottawa chief, Pontiac.

February 24 Politics: Attorney James Otis forcefully denounces Writs of Assistance (general search warrants) issued to customs officials before the Massachusetts Supreme Court, declaring “An act against the Constitution is void.” This marks the beginning of a decade of entrenched colonial intransigence toward British colonial policies.

March 20 Military: A British force of 2,000 soldiers lands at Charles Town, South Carolina, under Colonel James Grant, and proceeds to march into the Cherokee heartland.

May Politics: James Otis, a distinguished attorney, is elected to the Massachusetts General Court, where he becomes one of the first dissenters against British colonial policy.

May 3 Arts: A presentation of Shakespeare’s Othello in Newport, Rhode Island, is given by the David Douglas Histrionic Academy under the guise of a “moral dialogue.” It draws the wrath of Puritan critics, violence from the crowds, and before long, the Rhode Island General Assembly outlaws stage plays with fines of 100 pounds per actor.

May 22 Politics: The British Board of Trade loses its ability to appoint colonial officers.

May 27 Military: Colonel James Grant, commanding 2,000 British regulars, arrives at Fort Prince George on the western South Carolina frontier. There he is hailed by peace chief Attakullakulla, who entreats him to stop hostilities, but Grant refuses, feeling that proper chastisement has yet to be administered.

June 6 Science: John Winthrop and some American astronomers venture to Newfoundland to study the transit of Venus. The groundbreaking expedition is underwritten by Harvard College for the express purposes of gathering additional information as to the sun’s parallax.

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Otis, James

(1725 –1783)

Politician James Otis was born in Barnstable, Massachusetts, on February 5, 1725, the son of a merchant. He passed through Harvard College in 1743, read law, and was admitted to the Plymouth bar in 1758. Two years later, Otis relocated to Boston where he functioned as king’s advocate general of the vice-admiralty court, a position increasingly politicized by new British customs policies. Otis himself had entered into a grudging dispute with Lieutenant Governor Francis Bernard over the latter’s failure to appoint his father chief justice in 1760, and thereafter his career remained on a collision course with royal authority. His defiance was heightened in 1761 when the admiralty court began issuing writs of assistance that allowed blanket searches and seizures of private property. Otis disagreed with the practice philosophically and thereafter functioned as a defender of merchants. In February 1761, he delivered a riveting, fivehour diatribe against the writs and, while he lost the case, his reputation as an outspoken opponent of British imperial policy was born. Shortly after, he gained a seat in the General Court where he articulated finely tuned arguments against British tax and trade policies. He also embarked on a new career in polemics, and his pamphlets, A Vindication of the Conduct of the House of Representatives (1762) and The Rights of British Colonies Asserted and Proved (1764), were opening shots in a continuing war of words. In them, he disputed the legality of taxation without representation and artfully condemned Parliament’s right to do

so in the colonies. Passage of the Stamp Act in 1765 only heightened his resistance, and he attended the colonial congress in New York and also chaired the local committee of correspondence in Boston. By this time, he had become the doyen of the Patriot movement and one of the earliest symbols of resistance to British policies. For all his fiery denunciation of British policy, at no time did Otis advocate violence against the Crown or severing ties with Great Britain. In fact, he prided himself on his British citizenship and was gradually moderating his stance as time went by. This placed him at odds with more radical elements the likes of Samuel Adams, who began questioning his devotion to the colonies. Otis usually countered criticism by publishing acerbic ripostes in the Boston Gazette. On September 5, 1769, he confronted customs official John Robinson in a coffeehouse and was struck heavily on the head in a brawl. This began his slow descent toward insanity for, although he returned to the General Court and enjoyed moments of eloquence, his injuries basically ended a promising political career. After briefly fighting at Bunker Hill in April 1775, Otis resigned from politics and took no further part in public discourse. On May 23, 1783, he was killed by lightning while viewing a thunderstorm. Otis’s career was unfortunately cut short before the budding resistance movement in Massachusetts blossomed into full-scale revolution, but his artful arguments provided the intellectual foundation upon which that revolution would be waged.

June 7 Military: Colonel James Grant takes 2,000 British soldiers from Fort Prince George, South Carolina, and marches them in a punitive raid against the Cherokee Middle Towns.

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June 10 Military: An Anglo-American military expedition of 2,600 men under Colonel James Grant fights its way to the Cherokee Lower Towns in Oconee, South Carolina, killing 60 Indians in a six-hour battle and forcing them to retreat for want of ammunition. The British then advance and burn the enclave. Anything of use to the Indians, including orchards, granaries, and cornfields, is likewise destroyed. The British spent the entire month burning villages and crops, forcing about 5,000 Cherokee and their families to flee for the interior. This defeat discourages the Indians from further fighting, and peace chief Attakullakulla begins sending emissaries to Grant.

July 21 Military: Cherokee warriors commence besieging Fort Watauga (Sycamore Shoals, North Carolina) over the next two weeks before being driven off by a relief column under Lieutenant Colonel William Russell.

July 25 Diplomacy: The British sign another peace treaty with Micmac, Maliseet, and Passamaquoddy at Halifax, Nova Scotia, ending their participation in the recent conflict.

September 9 Diplomacy: The victorious British hold a large conference with the northwestern Indian tribes at Fort Detroit, declaring their intention not to provide them with ammunition and other goods at the low prices they have been accustomed to under French rule. The ensuing resentment gives rise to Ottawa chief Pontiac’s exhortation for a Native American coalition to drive the English from the Ottawa homeland. Like many contemporaries, Pontiac is under the sway of Neolin, the Delaware Prophet, who calls upon fellow Indians to dramatically reject the white man’s ways.

September 23 Diplomacy: Chief Attakullakulla signs a peace treaty with Lieutenant Governor William Bull in Charles Town, South Carolina, ending the First Cherokee War. In addition to heavy losses sustained in combat, the tribes must also surrender all their holdings in South Carolina and drop any relations with the French.

October 13 Politics: Colonel Henry Bouquet, in an attempt to diffuse frontier tensions arising from white encroachment upon Indian land, summarily forbids any settlement west of the Allegheny Mountains. This is done in an attempt to preserve a provision of the 1758 Treaty of Easton, whereby Pennsylvania agreed not to colonize its western holdings. However, the defeat of France unleashes a pent-up wave of immigrants into the region, whom British authorities are ill-equipped to stop.

November 19 Diplomacy: The Cherokee sign a peace treaty with the colony of Virginia, formally concluding the First Cherokee War.

December 2 Politics: Lord Egremont, secretary of state for the Southern Department, directs colonial governors to secure government approval for any future transactions involving Indian land. Henceforth, all must be approved by the Crown.

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December 9 Politics: In a further tightening of the screws, the British government decrees that all colonial judgeships are subject to approval by the Crown.

December 15 Arts: Jupiter Hammond publishes Salvation by Christ with Penitential Cries, the first known poetry penned by an African American.

1762 Diplomacy: Commissioner of Indian Affairs Sir William Johnson, wishing to compensate still angry Delaware for the loss of lands accruing from the Â�so-­called “Walking Purchase” of 1737, proffers 400 pounds as compensation. Journalism: Wealthy Sarah Updike Goddard helps to finance her son’s paper, the Providence Gazette, and also serves as editor during his absences. She and her coeditor daughter embellish the publication with features on entertainment, which boosts circulation. Politics: James Otis, a distinguished Massachusetts attorney, publishes A Vindication of the Conduct of the Â�House of Representatives. In it he enumerates the legal rights of American colonies as delineated by the EnÂ�glish Constitution. Religion: Neolin, a Lenni Lenape holy man (known to colonists as the Dela-­ ware Prophet), begins agitating among the northwestern tribes to forsake all EuÂ�roÂ�peÂ�an ways and restore Indian traditions. His beliefs gain traction among the Ottawa, Potawatomi, Wyandot, and Ojibway of Â�present-­day Ohio and Michigan, further stoking the flames of resentment against Great Britain. Settlement: The Â�Connecticut-­based Susquehanna Company begins landing set-­ tlers in the region of the Wyoming Valley, ignoring the objections from Pennsylva-­ nia authorities. A violent struggle over land ownÂ�ership gradually unfolds between the two colonies. Slavery: James Derham, destined to be recognized as the first Â�African-­American physician in North America, is born in Philadelphia. Technology: Jared Eliot perfects an indigenous iron smelting technique in Connecticut.

January 2 Diplomatic: Great Britain declares war against Spain, unleashing torrents of American privateers into the Ca�rib�be�an.

April General: Benjamin Franklin is again honored abroad with an honorary doctor-­ ate of civil law from Oxford University. His son William concurrently receives a master of arts degree.

May 3 Music: The St. Cecilia Society, dedicated to the propagation of music, is founded in Charleston, South Carolina.

June 24 Naval: A powerful French squadron of four ships of the line and 800 men under Commodore Charles-Henri-Louis d’Arsac, chevalier de Ternay, unex-­ pectedly drops anchor off Bay Bulls, Newfoundland. The town of Saint John’s,

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Delaware Prophet (fl. 1760s) Delaware spiritual leader The origins of the Delaware Prophet are obscure, as is his denouement. However, while he lived among his people, he exerted a tremendous religious and social impact, with concomitant implications for European settlements along the frontier. For over a century, the Delaware nation (Lenni Lenape) had been pushed off their ancestral lands in Delaware and Pennsylvania by continual white expansion. Worse, from an Indian standpoint, was their gradual abandonment of traditional ways of selfreliance and a growing dependency on tools, clothes, weapons, and gunpowder from their erstwhile adversaries. By the 1760s, tribal life was at the straining point and facing collapse, when the Delaware Prophet suddenly made his appearance and began articulating calls for a strict, nativist revival. He had several contemporaries at the time throughout the Ohio Valley region, but none possessed such a clear and compelling vision. For this reason he was also called “Neolin” (enlightened one’). The Delaware Prophet proved himself to be an eloquent, emotional speaker who invariably wept while addressing his people and relaying a spiritual message that was manifested to him in a dream. He had been contacted by the “Master of Life”—or Great Spirit—who promised to restore the Delaware to their position of greatness if they would only resume their native traditions and renounce all the trappings of white society, especially alcohol and firearms. To underscore the clarity of his message, the Delaware Prophet invari-

ably passed out deerskin maps representing the land the Indians once possessed and what they had lost. He also distributed prayer sticks with an invocation tribal members were to recite every day. Renewed emphasis on moral ethics, family life, and intertribal peace was also stressed. Only in this manner, the Prophet insisted, could the Delaware halt their gradual slide into oblivion. Considering the duress that Native Americans had endured in their contacts with Europeans to date, the Delaware Prophet evoked a powerful message of hope to a willing audience. Those few white missionaries who observed him commented on his tremendous personal presence and widespread following. Foremost among these was the Ottawa chief Pontiac, who fully accepted his call for native renewal— although not at the expense of giving up firearms. Pontiac also differed with the Prophet with respect to the French, who had enjoyed relatively good relations with the Indians and had supplied them with arms and ammunition. Thus the ill-fated Pontiac’s Rebellion of 1763 was a direct consequence of the Delaware Prophet’s teachings. After it was bloodily repressed at great cost to the Indians, his message apparently fell out of favor with his people, and he apparently disappears from history at that point. But his call for a nativist revival would indelibly impact leaders in other tribes and gave rise to subsequent leaders such as Handsome Lake of the Seneca and Tenskwatawa of the Shawnee.

garrisoned by only 300 soldiers, hurriedly surrenders, although word of the invasion is promptly dispatched to Lieutenant Colonel William Amherst at Halifax.

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August 10 Naval: Commodore Colville sails from Halifax with four warships and, 1,400 soldiers under Lieutenant Colonel William Amherst, intending to confront a French squadron situated at Saint John’s, Newfoundland.

August 25 Naval: The French squadron of Commodore Charles-Henri Louis d’Arsac, chevalier de Ternay, is blockaded at Saint John’s, Newfoundland.

September 12 Military: Lieutenant Colonel William Amherst arrives at Newfoundland with 1,400 colonial troops, intending to deal with the small French force occupying Saint John’s.

September 15 Naval: The French squadron of Commodore Charles-Henri Louis d’Arsac, chevalier de Ternay, slips past a British blockading squadron off Saint John’s, Newfoundland, and makes for the open sea.

September 18 Military: The small French garrison of 689 men left behind at Saint John’s, Newfoundland, surrenders to Lieutenant Colonel William Amherst. This eliminates any chance that the town could be used as a bargaining chip in upcoming peace negotiations.

November 1 Politics: Benjamin Franklin arrives, from England, back at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

November 3 Diplomacy: Through the secret treaty of Fontainebleau, France cedes the Isle of Orleans, Louisiana, and all territory west of the Mississippi River to Spain as compensation for recent losses to England.

1763 Medical: Connecticut founds the colonies’ first medical society. Religion: The Moravians issue a collection of hymns written in the Delaware Indian language. In an attempt to deprive French settlers of any potential leadership, the British expel all Jesuit missionaries from the Appalachian region. Settlement: British astronomers Jeremiah Dixon and Charles Mason commence a four-year project to survey the boundary between Maryland and Virginia, eventually known as the Mason Dixon Line. Technology: Henry Williams, inspired by the steam engines of English inventor James Watt, makes a failed attempt at steam-powered boats on the Conestoga Creek, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

February 10 Diplomacy: The Treaty of Paris is signed in Paris, France, concluding the Seven Years’ War and its New World Corollary, the French and Indian War. Victorious Great Britain acquires all of Canada, in addition to Florida and the Caribbe an islands of Tobago, Dominica, and St. Vincent. Spain, under a

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separate agreement, receives New Orleans and all lands west of the Mississippi River, in addition to Cuba and the Philippines. However, Britain’s fiscal ability to garrison and administer such far-flung gains is compromised by national debts approaching 130 million pounds. It falls upon Chancellor of the Exchequer George Grenville to seek previously untapped revenues and defray the cost of governing these newest acquisitions. Unknown at the time, removal of the French threat to America also triggers a profound reevaluation of colonial perceptions toward Great Britain, from that of protector and benefactor to that of oppressor. Societal: The first large, circulating library in America is founded at Annapolis, Maryland, by William Rind.

February 13 Politics: A group of Pennsylvania frontiersmen, known locally as the “Paxton Boys,” arrives in Philadelphia to present Governor John Penn with a list of grievances. Foremost among them is the inability of the government to protect them from Indian attacks, which are increasing due to renewed efforts by the natives to keep Europeans off their ancestral lands. But monetary expenditures for forts and militia is something that the pacifist, Quaker-dominated legislature in Philadelphia is unwilling to do, and the frontiersmen returned home angry and emptyhanded. Consequently, several Scotch-Irish rowdies begin indiscriminate attacks on local Indians, friendly and hostile alike, which contribute to the escalating spiral of violence and retribution.

April 19 Military: Unidentified arsonists burn tribal cabins built for the Delaware by Quakers at Wyoming, Pennsylvania, killing Chief Teedyuscung, a leading proponent of Indian rights.

April 27 Military: Chief Pontiac convenes a gathering of disaffected Ottawa, Ojibway, and Potawatomi near Detroit, all angered over Britain’s refusal to distribute gifts and other commodities. The ensuing war council decides to form a loose confederation and oppose further English encroachment upon Indian land. The beliefs of many warriors, sparked by the Delaware Prophet, encourage them to try to drive Europeans completely out of their area. The strategy they adopt, a simultaneous assault upon numerous and isolated British outposts, proves surprisingly effective.

May 7 Military: In a preview of what would follow, Ottawa warriors under Pontiac ambush a British boat patrol on Lake Saint Claire, Michigan Territory, killing four and taking eight captive.

May 9 Military: A squaw forewarns Lieutenant Col o nel Henry Gladwyn of an impending Indian uprising at Detroit, Michigan Territory. Therefore, when Chief Pontiac and his warriors appear, demanding to be let in for a conference, they are refused. Pontiac then lays siege to Fort Detroit, killing several nearby settlers in the pro cess, to underscore his determination to the defenders.

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Pontiac

(ca. 1720–1769)

Ottawa chief Pontiac was probably born along the Maumee River, northern Ohio, around 1720, the son of an Ottawa father and a Chippewa mother. He matured into a fine warrior and distinguished himself in fighting alongside the French throughout King George’s War (1744–48). He became head chief of the Ottawa in 1754, when the French and Indian War commenced, and might have been present at the defeat of General Edward Braddock near Fort Duquesne. However, the war ended in 1763 as a complete defeat for France, and the English readily filled the vacuum they left behind. This new reality left the Great Lakes Indians in something of a quandary, for they had previously enjoyed prosperous relations with the French, who lavished supplies and gifts upon them. Moreover, the French were concerned with fur, not land, and the influx of English settlers across the Appalachian Mountains began crowding the Indians off their traditional hunting grounds. But Indian anger was especially stoked once General Jeffrey Amherst decided to end the practice of gift giving altogether, proclaiming it an unnecessary extravagance. These moves also coincided with the rise of Neolin, the Delaware Prophet, who promulgated a nativist revival movement to reclaim the land by driving whites—and their culture—away by force. Pontiac was one of many chieftains swayed by the new religion, and in 1762, he began agitating among nearby tribes for an anti-English coalition. He met with tribal heads in April 1763 and outlined a simple yet effective strategy for simultaneously

striking all English outposts in their reach. In this he had the enthusiastic support of the Potawatomi, Huron, Chippewa, and Ottawa peoples. On May 7, 1763, Pontiac’s rebellion commenced with a failed attempt to capture Fort Detroit from a wary British garrison. Thereafter the Indians struck and carried nearly every British fort west of the Appalachians, as planned. It was not until August 1764 that Colonel John Bradstreet arrived at Detroit with a relief column, at which point the Indian coalition began unraveling. Numerous tribes then began surrendering to the English, but the Ottawa held back and remained hostile for another three years. It was not until 1766 that Pontiac was willing to meet with Sir William Johnson at Oswego, New York, and sign a peace treaty. Thereafter, the British Indian Department was careful to ply the various tribes with gifts and annuities as before. The English government, also eager to circumvent future hostilities, issued the Proclamation of 1763 to restrict white immigration to the land east of the Appalachian Mountains. Pontiac, for his part, simply accepted his gifts and returned to his village on the banks of the Maumee River. He lived in obscurity for several years, but his erstwhile allies were angered over their losses and his apparent indifference to them. On April 20, 1767, while visiting the French settlement of Cahokia, Illinois, on business, Pontiac was struck down and killed by Peoria Indians, thought by many to be in the employ of England.

May 16 Military: Wyandot Indians allied to Chief Pontiac attack and capture Fort Sandusky, Ohio. After the garrison was killed, Ensign Christopher Pauli was taken back to Detroit as a prisoner and adopted by an Indian family.

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May 25 Military: A party of Potawatomi Indians capture the distant trading post of Fort St. Joseph (Niles), Michigan Territory, killing 11 soldiers.

May 27 Military: Indians capture Fort Miami (Fort Wayne), Indiana Territory. A large party of Shawnee, Delaware, and Mingo surround Fort Pitt, Pennsylvania, then garrisoned by Captain Simon Ecuyer and 358 smallpox-ridden men.

May 28 Military: When a British convoy of 96 men and 11 bateaux under Lieutenant Abraham Cuyler lands at Point Pelee, Michigan, they are suddenly set upon by a mob of hostile warriors and chased back onto Lake Erie. Some captives are taken and subsequently executed.

June 1 Military: The British garrison of Fort Ouiatenon (Lafayette), Indiana, is massacred by hostile Indians.

June 2 Military: Ojibwa Indians allied to Chief Pontiac capture Fort Michilimackinac, Michigan Territory, through a ruse. They stage a lacrosse game outside the fort’s walls and chase the ball into its open doors, overwhelming the defenders under Captain George Etherington. The Indians kill 27 soldiers and take 15 prisoners. The fort is then razed to the ground.

June 4 Military: Indian forces attack Fort Ligonier, Pennsylvania, but the garrison under Lieutenant Archibald Blane stands firm.

June 16 Military: Seneca and Shawnee forces attack and destroy the British garrison at Fort Verango (French Creek), Pennsylvania.

June 18 Military: Fort Le Boeuf is attacked and destroyed by Seneca and Shawnee allied to Chief Pontiac, but the garrison manages to escape intact.

June 20 Military: A large party of Seneca, Ottawa, Huron, and Chippewa attack Fort Presqu ’Isle (Erie, Pennsylvania), massacring the garrison under Ensign John Christie after allowing them to depart.

June 22 Military: Indians launch a surprise attack upon Fort Pitt, Pennsylvania, and are repulsed. A siege then commences.

June 23 Naval: The British sloop Michigan, guarding the mouth of the Detroit River, is set upon at night by canoes filled with armed warriors. However, the crew is ready. At a given signal, 54 soldiers spring up on deck and commence firing. The Indians suddenly retreat, leaving behind 14 dead and another 14 more wounded.

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June 24 Military: Two Delaware braves visit Major Simon Ecuyer, commanding Fort Pitt, who advise him of the fall of other forts and urge him to surrender before additional tribes arrive and attack. Ecuyer thanks them for the advice and gives as gifts several blankets taken from smallpox patients in the fort. The disease spreads rapidly among the tribesmen and lifts the siege; this is the first recorded instance of biological warfare.

July 13 Military: General Jeffrey Amherst suggests to Col�o�nel Henry Bouquet that the rampaging Indians might be stopped by the introduction of blankets permeated with smallpox. Bouquet demurs, however, and points out that the stratagem is equally hazardous to En�glish soldiers.

July 29 Military: Captain James Dalyell leads a column of 247 British soldiers from Fort Detroit and marches against Pontiac’s main camp.

July 31 Military: British regulars and American provincials under Captain James Daly-­ ell, approaching the main Indian camp of Pontiac, are ambushed while trying to cross Parent’s Creek, Michigan, and are repulsed. The Indians then charge, killing 23 soldiers and wounding 39. Thereafter the stream is known as Bloody Creek.

August 5–6 Military: Â�Swiss-­born ColÂ�oÂ�nel Henry Bouquet leads a mixed force of 30 scouts and 400 Scottish regulars from the 42nd and 79th Highlanders, and some pro-­ vincials from the Royal Americans into battle at Bushy Run (Pittsburgh), 26 miles from Bouquet’s objective at Fort Pitt. En route, he is ambushed by superior numbers of Mingo, Delaware, Huron, and Shawnee and, in a Â�hard-­fought affair, driven up a hill where he entrenches for the eveÂ�ning. Bouquet then enacts a clever stratagem: After hiding two infantry companies in the woods on his right flank, he feigns a retreat with the rest of his infantry farther up the hill. Predictably, the Indians take the bait and charge after them until the reserves suddenly appear on their flank, fire, and charge. The startled attackers are quickly driven back downhill with a loss of 60 braves and then quit the field. Bouquet, having lost 123 men killed and wounded, resumes his relief expedition to Fort Pitt. The reversal at Bushy Run also causes Pontiac’s Â�loose-­knit confederation to start unraveling.

August 10 Military: The Indian siege of Fort Pitt is broken by the relief column of Col�o�nel Henry Bouquet, victor of Bushy Run.

August 21 Arts: Aspiring artist Benjamin West arrives in London to commence his formal studies.

September 2 Naval: The British vessel Huron, anchored off Fort Detroit, is attacked by 340 Chippewa and Ottawa under Chief Pontiac. They nearly overwhelm the crew of 22 men, killing 15 of them, but retreat after the surviving six threaten to blow up the vessel.

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September 9 Business: The Mississippi Company under George Washington seeks a grant of 2.5 million acres near the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. This land is intended as bounty payment for veterans of the French and Indian War.

September 14 Military: Hostile Indians ambush and wipe out a British supply convoy passing through a narrow trail in forbidding terrain known as Devil’s Hole, outside of Fort Niagara, New York. As the battle unfolded, two companies of the nearby 8th Regiment of Foot sortied from the fort to assist the soldiers but were attacked and routed in turn. British losses totaled 72 dead and eight wounded.

September 24 Religion: Spanish officials expel French Jesuits from Louisiana and confiscate their property.

October 7 Politics: In a move calculated to forestall future outbreaks of Indian hostility, King George III signs the Proclamation of 1763 into law which, at a stroke, outlaws all colonial settlements west of the Appalachian Mountains, while future land grants and surveying are expressly forbidden in this area. Moreover, all settlers living across the line are expected to remove themselves to British-controlled territory. It is hoped that such measures will preclude future outbreaks of hostility among Native Americans. As a sop to colonial sensitivities, new colonies are created in Quebec and Florida, but many citizens regard this action as an unwarranted intrusion upon western expansion. They come to resent this growing emphasis on imperial interference.

October 12 Military: Several of Chief Pontiac’s Indian allies desert his faltering confederation and make peace with the British.

October 20 Military: A relief force headed for Detroit under Major John Wilkins is ambushed along the Portage Road near Fort Niagara, New York, losing eight men. Undeterred, they press on to Lake Erie.

October 29 Labor: Chimney sweeps, composed mainly of free African Americans, organize a strike in Charleston, South Carolina, until the city grants them a raise in pay.

October 30 Military: Chief Pontiac, abandoned by his allies, lifts the siege of Fort Detroit and withdraws to the Miami River.

November 5 Law: In the Parson’s Cause, a case regarding back pay for Anglican clergymen, attorney Patrick Henry argues before a jury that an unequivocal pact exists between the rulers and the ruled. He argues that the British government was wrong in forcing Reverend James Maury to accept money in lieu of a traditional tobacco allotment.

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Henry, Patrick

(1736–1799)

Politician Patrick Henry was born in Hanover County, Virginia, on May 29, 1736, part of the lesser frontier gentry. A conspicuous failure at business and farming, he finally studied law and found his niche. In 1763 he participated in the famous Parson’s Cause, which established Henry’s reputation as a strident opponent of British imperial policy and interference in colonial affairs. As a new member of the House of Burgesses, he escalated his diatribes after the Stamp Act of 1765 and sponsored several radical resolutions denouncing Parliament. Eventually he emerged as a leader of the opposition to the traditional tidewater elite in Virginia, gaining considerable renown for thundering oration. For this reason Henry was elected

to that colony’s first committee of correspondence in 1774, and subsequently held seats in the First and Second Continental Congresses. He also emerged as a foil to Governor John Murray, Lord Dunmore, and at one point confronted him with a party of militia and successfully demanded reimbursements for gunpowder seized at Williamsburg. Henry returned to Congress after the Revolutionary War commenced in April 1775, where, curiously, he appeared reticent at the prospects of breaking all ties to Great Britain. This placed him at odds with other radicals like John Adams, so Henry retired from Congress to partake of state affairs. After working several months on a new constitution, he gained appoint-

November 7 Military: A relief boat convoy under Major John Wilkins plies Lake Erie, headed for Detroit, until it is hit by a sudden storm and driven ashore. At least 70 soldiers drown and the rest return to Fort Niagara.

November 16 Military: General Thomas Gage, a distinguished veteran of the French and Indian War, gains appointment as commander in chief of all British forces in North America, with headquarters at New York City.

December Business: To compensate merchant companies who have lost property during the recent Indian war, trader George Croghan organizes the Suffering Traders. This group is the eventual progenitor of the Illinois Company.

December 2 Politics: In a decided shift of policy, the British government instructs colonial governors to first seek approval before giving or designating land grants in or near Indian-held areas. Religion: A group of 20 Sephardic Jews open the new Touro synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island, the first major center of Jewish worship in America. Peter Harrison, a noted local architect, designed the building gratis.

December 14 General: A group of armed Scotch-Irish settlers in and around the Pennsylvania frontier settlement of Paxton is whipped up into an anti-Indian frenzy by their Presbyterian minister, John Elder. A group of rough-hewn Indian fighters, the self-

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ment as the first elected governor. Henry proved himself a capable wartime executive and smoothly oversaw Virginia’s contributions to the burgeoning war effort. He also authorized and procured funding for Colonel George Rogers Clark and his conquest of the Old Northwest. Henry won two more terms as governor before finally stepping aside in favor of Thomas Jefferson in 1779. He then remained in the Virginia House of Delegates for another four years. Henry continued to serve as governor and in the legislature after the war ended in 1783. However, continuing dissatisfaction with the Articles of Confederation led to a movement to replace them with a more centralized federal scheme under the U. S. Constitution. Henry, wary of the onset of tyranny, forcefully spoke against

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its ratification in Virginia for fear of eroding states’ rights. Once the constitution had been approved in 1788, he vigorously campaigned on behalf of adopting 10 amendments that constituted a Bill of Rights. Henry finally retired from public office that year and reconciled himself to a new federal government, although he had estranged himself from his former friends Jefferson and James Madison. In 1799, President George Washington prevailed on him to return to the House of Delegates to oppose the Kentucky and Virginia resolves, but before taking office he died at Red Hill, Virginia, on June 6, 1799. In his long political career Henry gained a welldeserved reputation as a fierce spokesman for liberty, whose forceful delivery kept audiences spellbound.

styled Paxton Boys, then marches under Matthew Smith and James Gibson to the Indian settlement at Conestoga in Lancaster County. Angered by the rumor that known hostile Indians had been seen, the mob massacres six Christian Susquehannock Indians. The 14 survivors hurriedly flee into town and are placed in the local jail for their own protection. Governor John Penn denounces the action and calls for the arrest of the killers, but nobody steps forward to identify them.

December 27 General: The Paxton Boys, angered that local authorities are protecting a group of Christian Indians, attack and slaughter the 14 remaining Susquehannock Indians held for their own protection at the jail in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania assembly consequently threatens the transgressors with arrest and trial, which only stokes their anger further. Seeking to have their grievances addressed directly, the Paxton Boys begin organizing an armed march upon Philadelphia. These rumors prompt Governor John Penn to round up another 125 Christian Indians from nearby Moravian settlements, and bring them into the city for protection.

1764 Business: Ironworks are established in New York and New Jersey by Peter Hasenclever, a former Prussian ironmonger. The second postal district is founded at Charleston, South Carolina for all colonies south of Virginia, including the Bahamas. Education: The College of Rhode Island (Brown University) is founded in Providence, Rhode Island. Its major patrons are the Brown family, wealthy local

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January 26 Education: Fire destroys the extensive Harvard College Library in Cambridge, Massachusetts, although 400 books out on loan are saved.

February Politics: An armed mob of 500 Â�Scotch-­Irish frontiersmen from Paxton, Penn-­ sylvania, marches on the city of Philadelphia, threatening to find and kill every Indian they find there. In a panic the militia is hastily mustered, cannon brought out, and a scratch force is assembled at Germantown to stop the invaders. When the two groups confront each other, Benjamin Franklin approaches them as a negotiator and strikes a deal. Once the ‘Paxton Boys’ demobilize and return home, Franklin will present a list of grievances to the assembly for their consid-­ eration. Surprisingly, their biggest complaint does not involve Indians, but rather the poÂ�litiÂ�cal establishment in Philadelphia. The frontiersmen are upset that the four western counties enjoy considerably less repreÂ�senÂ�taÂ�tion and influence in the legislature than the three eastern ones and redress is sought. A small body of frontiersmen is also conducted into the city to ascertain if Christian Indians sequestered there had been involved in recent attacks on settlements, and left convinced they Â�were not. This diffused the crisis for the present.

February 14 Technology: Having invented a viable spinning and carding machine for the manufacture of textiles, James Davenport founds the Globe Mills in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

February 16 Settlement: A party of 30 Frenchmen headed by Auguste Chouteau founds a settlement in Missouri, soon to be christened St. Louis.

April 4 Societal: The first four displaced French families expelled from Acadia (Nova Scotia) disembark at New Orleans, Louisiana. These are ancestors of today’s Cajuns.

April 5 Politics: Parliament passes the American Revenue Act, also known as the Sugar Act, the first meaÂ�sure undertaken to levy revenues from the American colonies. It doubles existing duties paid on products such as wine, sugar, coffee, textiles, and other imported commodities. This meaÂ�sure is expected to generate 200,000 pounds in additional revenue, to be applied toward maintaining British garrisons across the Â�far-­flung western frontier. And, to improve enforcement of Navigation Acts already on the books, the act authorizes creation of customs agents and duty collection to help thwart incessant smuggling. New admiralty courts, also transfer the prosecution of civil matters to the military, which con-­ ducts its affairs without traditional juries. In sum, the Sugar Act denotes a shift in imperial policy toward the colonies from that of benign neglect to active revenue raising.

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April 10 Law: Virginia attorney Patrick Henry loses the Parson’s Cause case when the Virginia general court rules against the Anglican clergy. Nonetheless, he establishes a precedent for successfully challenging the authority and right of the British government to overturn colonial statutes.

April 12 Diplomacy: Colonel John Bradstreet signs a peace treaty with numerous Great Lakes Indian tribes, although Pontiac’s Ottawa are conspicuously absent from the proceedings.

April 19 Politics: Parliament passes the Currency Act, which forbids colonial governments from printing and issuing paper money. This is enacted to control the inflationary tendencies associated with such tender and also placates the fears of British creditors of being paid off with depreciated script. Henceforth business transactions are to be paid in specie or coin. This places additional hardship on local colonial economies and stirs additional resentment against the government.

May 14 Journalism: The Boston Evening Post publishes its support for colonial opposition to restrictive British trade regulations.

May 24 Politics: In a major political evolution, Massachusetts attorney James Otis argues the illegality of the notion of “Taxation without representation” at a local Boston town meeting. Furthermore, he is among the first to appeal for a unified colonial response to protest the practice.

June 12 Politics: The Massachusetts General Court establishes a committee of correspondence to coordinate grievances over the Sugar Act with other colonies.

July Politics: In a major turn of events, the Pennsylvania assembly votes to declare war on the Delaware and Shawnee tribes harassing frontier settlements, and a bounty is offered for Indian scalps. They also appropriate money for a standing militia—the colony’s first—something they had refused to do even at the height of the French and Indian War. This turn of events signals the end of Quaker political dominance in Pennsylvania politics and greater participation by other groups, each with their own vested interests.

July 10 Business: In London, the Board of Trade approves a plan set forth by Sir William Johnson, George Croghan, and Colonel John Stuart for subdividing northern and southern Indian districts with all trade being supervised by their respective commissioners. The government hopes that better and fairer trade arrangements would pacify the Indians and prevent the outbreak of frontier wars. In the north, Johnson orders that fur trade activities in the Great Lakes occur at either Fort Mackinac or Fort Detroit, a scheme playing directly into the hands of former French traders. However, the plan fails in the South when local governors refuse to crack down on widespread illicit trade.

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July 20 Settlement: An Order in Council awards the region west of the Connecticut River and north of Massachusetts (present-day Vermont) to New York colony. However, New Hampshire continues pressing its claim to the same region and frontier tensions ensue.

July 23 Publishing: Massachusetts attorney James Otis publishes The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved, a polemic against the practice of taxation without representation. Furthermore, he urges local merchants to express their discontent through a coordinated boycott of English goods.

August 26 Military: A British column under Colonel John Bradstreet occupies Detroit, Michigan, following a lengthy siege by Indians.

November 9–14 Diplomacy: Colonel Henry Bouquet meets with Pontiac’s Indian allies at the Muskingum River, Ohio, and manages to secure the release of all white hostages.

December 22 Journalism: Rhode Island governor Stephen Hopkins publishes The Rights of the Colonies Examined in the Providence Gazette, principles of which are then approved by the General Assembly.

1765 Arts: Pennsylvania-born artist Benjamin West sets up a studio in London, the first American to do so, and he teaches aspiring American artists who come abroad to study with him. These ultimately include such future luminaries as Charles Wilson Peale, Gilbert Stuart, John Singleton Copley, and Ralph Earl. Business: John Harmon mills the first chocolate made in the English colonies at Dorchester, Massachusetts. Diplomacy: Deh-he-wa-mis, the former Mary Jemison, marries a Seneca Indian leader, and she receives great tribal stature as an English-speaking mediator and interpreter. Colonel John Stuart, Indian commissioner for the Southern District, reaches an accord with the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations when both sides agree to mark the boundaries of the Florida colonies. Education: Reverend Samuel Occom, a full-blooded Mohegan, and Reverend Nathaniel Walker visit England for the purpose of raising money for Eleazar Wheelock’s Indian Charity School. They will return with an endowment of 12,000 pounds, the largest sum ever raised for a colonial endeavor. Journalism: John Adams criticizes the Stamp Act in a series of essays published in the Boston Gazette; these are subsequently reedited and published in pamphlet form as A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law. Religion: The North Carolina assembly passes the Establishment Act, confirming Anglicanism as the official colonial creed. Curiously, the English government, which had opposed the Vestry Acts earlier in the century, approves of the decision. Friction ensues, however, once local parishes begin opposing the governor’s right to appoint clergymen.

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Occom, Samson

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(1723–1792)

Native American clergyman Samson Occom was born near New London, Connecticut in 1723, a member of the Mohegan tribe indigenous to the area. His mother, Sarah, was a Christian Indian who converted during the height of the “Great Awakening” and desired that her son receive religious instruction. Occom was then entrusted to Reverend Eleazar Wheelock, who ran a school for Native Americans in Lebanon, Connecticut. Despite cultural barriers and Wheelock’s imperious disposition, Occom flourished as a student of religion, learning the Scriptures and becoming familiar with Greek, Hebrew, and English. He was also conversant in several Indian dialects including Oneida. In 1749, even before his education had concluded, Occom was dispatched to eastern Long Island to minister to the Montauk Indians. A popular preacher, he remained with his charge for a decade and married a Montauk convert, Mary Fowler, in 1751. Occom then fulfilled other teaching assignments successfully and in 1759 he became the first Native American ordained in the Presbyterian Church. Plans were then made to dispatch him as a missionary to the Cherokee in Georgia and Tennessee, but a war with white settlers forced him to minister to the Oneida in New York instead. In 1765, Occom was chosen to tour the colonies with the famous evangelical preacher George Whitefield, and shortly after, Wheelock sent him to England with Reverend Nathaniel Whitaker to raise money

for the Indian Charity School. In two years Occom delivered 300 sermons throughout England, raising 11,000 pounds for Wheelock’s enterprise. However, his hopes were dashed in 1768 when he returned to find that Wheelock moved his Indian school to New Hampshire, where it evolved into Dartmouth College for white students. Thoroughly disgusted, Occom left Wheelock and began ministering directly to Native Americans. After the Revolutionary War he founded the settlement of Brothertown in 1791 on Oneida land, so that Indian converts could live their lives without white interference. The following year, he helped construct the first Presbyterian church on Indian land. Occom was also actively engaged in publishing minor books, sermons, and an autobiography, becoming the first native American to write in English. As an author his style is somewhat simplistic, yet very forceful and eloquent. His most renowned work, A Sermon at the Execution of Moses Paul (1772), called upon whites and fellow Native Americans alike to refrain from the excesses of alcohol. Occom also found time to actively oppose numerous attempts of land speculators to seize Indian lands through fraudulence. He spent his final years among the Stockbridge or “Praying Indians” of the Hudson River Valley, and ended up defending their land claims from the more traditional Oneidas. Occom died in eastern New York on July 14, 1792, the first recognized Native American author, and a conscientious servant of his people.

February 5 Politics: While in London, American agent Benjamin Franklin meets with Prime Minister George Grenville to protest the proposed stamp tax then under consideration in Parliament. He is cordially received but otherwise ignored.

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March 22 Politics: King George III authorizes the Stamp Act, which will be enacted as law come November 1, 1765. This statute imposes fees on such varied but commonplace items as legal documents, newspapers, and almanacs, in addition to dice and playing cards. Henceforth, said items purchased are to bear a stamp indicating that the tax has been paid. As before, the English government is casting about looking for additional money to help defray the costs of maintaining large military garrisons along the western frontier, and projected revenues are expected to cover up to one-third of those expenses. But worse, from a colonial perspective, the Stamp Act also requires violators to appear before juryless admiralty courts. Thus, for the first time in 150 years, Parliament has imposed a direct levy upon the North American colonies. Monies collected at that level will not flow into local coffers but, rather, directly into the British treasury. Unforeseen at the time, significant ramifications of the Stamp Act can alienate a broad spectrum of American society, including merchants, lawyers, publishers, landowners, and shipbuilders. The unified, negative response it engenders is both unexpected and unprecedented.

March 24 Politics: To assist the garrisoning of British troops in New York and elsewhere, General Thomas Gage, commander in chief, requests the colonial government to consider a quartering act to provide money, food, and public housing for His Majesty’s troops. Such a measure is approved this day and mandates that, in the absence of public housing, colonial legislatures must subsidize troop shelter over a two-year period; fixed prices are also stipulated for provisions and other services provided to the troops.

May 3 Medical: The College of Philadelphia is founded by Doctors John Morgan and William Shippen and offers the first medical department for professional instruction in the colonies. It subsequently becomes the College of Physicians and Surgeons within the University of Pennsylvania.

May 29 Politics: In a dramatic and fiery diatribe, Patrick Henry denounces British tax policies in the Virginia House of Burgesses and introduces the Seven Virginia Resolves in protest. The fifth of these unflinching demands: that colonial legislatures alone— not Parliament—have the right to impose taxes on their own citizens. When interrupted by cries of “Treason,” Henry boldly asserts, “If this be treason make the most of it.” Emboldened, the delegates eventually approve the Virginia Resolves to protest the Stamp Act and the notion of taxation without representation. But the following day, once Henry and his supporters had departed, the remaining burgesses rescind the inflammatory fifth resolve. Nevertheless, the resolves and proceedings surrounding them are promptly printed and circulated in other colonies.

June 6 Politics: Attorney James Otis convinces the Massachusetts General Court to compose a letter for circulation through the colonies. Significantly, it calls for convening an intercolonial congress to meet and discuss ways of opposing the Stamp Act. The response is overwhelmingly favorable.

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July 17 Military: The French surrender control of Fort Chartres, Illinois Territory, and subsequently move territorial administrative functions to St. Louis (Missouri).

August Military: A party of Creek warriors raids a Choctaw camp at Mobile, killing several and absconding with hostages.

August 13 Politics: The rising tide of sentiment against British tax policies crested when the office of stamp master (tax collector) Andrew Oliver is gutted by rioters organized by the Sons of Liberty. To underscore their displeasure with the man, he is also hanged in effigy from a tree at the corner of Essex and Washington Streets—at which point Oliver resigns from his position. The tree chosen is subsequently hailed as the “Liberty Tree.” Lieutenant Governor Thomas Hutchinson also has a close call when he tries to calm the mob, who stone and chase him. Judging the temper of the times, Governor Francis Bernard also makes a hasty retreat to a Royal Navy warship in Boston harbor.

August 17 Diplomacy: Frontiersman George Croghan meets with Ottawa chief Pontiac at Kaskaskia, Illinois Territory, and broaches the subject of a peace treaty with him. Pontiac, deserted by his erstwhile Indian allies, appears interested. To sweeten the pot, the chief is also offered a pension by the British in exchange for peace—amenities that alienate those who followed him in battle and suffered commensurately.

August 26 Politics: In Boston, the rising tide of antitax violence escalates further when the elegant home of Lieutenant governor Thomas Hutchinson is torched by an angry mob. A party from the Sons of Liberty later sacks a local admiralty court and burns the records.

October 7–21 Politics: The newly assembled Stamp Act Congress convenes in City Hall, New York City, to protest what they consider to be Britain’s arbitrary tax policies. Nine colonies send a total of 28 delegates, who debate and pass 13 resolutions to demand their rights as Englishmen, most particularly the right of trial by jury. They subsequently petition King George III for redress and demand the Stamp Act’s repeal, reiterating their strong belief that only colonial legislatures enjoy the right to levy taxes on them. Failing this, the delegates push for a united boycott on the importation of all English goods as retaliation. By the time the Stamp Act Congress adjourns, it has established a singular political precedent: for the first time in their history, the usually disjointed American colonies have collectively rallied around a single cause. Publishing: Political moderate John Dickinson of Pennsylvania pens and prints his Declaration of Rights and Grievances to protest imposition of the Stamp Act.

October 28 Business: A coterie of influential New York merchants and businessmen agree in principle to support a nonimportation strategy against English goods unless

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Dickinson, John

(1732–1808)

Politician John Dickinson was born in Talbot County, Maryland, on November 13, 1732, the son of a judge. He studied law in Philadelphia before receiving his degree from London’s Middle Temple in 1757. Back home, he relocated to Philadelphia to practice and was also elected to the Pennsylvania legislature. Dickinson was noted for his conservatism, and he clashed with Benjamin Franklin and Joseph Galloway over proposed changes to the proprietary government. However, after the Stamp Act of 1764, he emerged as a leading and articulate spokesman for the colonial opposition. Dickinson was consequently appointed to the Stamp Act Congress in New York, but while he demanded its repeal, he also firmly opposed violence or breaking with Great Britain. In 1767, Parliament passed the Townshend Duties, and Dickinson responded by publishing his famous Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania in support of nonimportation of English goods, but he once again supported reconciliation over confrontation. In the wake of the Coercive Acts of 1774, Dickinson served as a delegate to the First and Second Continental Congresses. In this capacity, he condemned parliamentary arbitrariness and urged the colonies to make preparations to defend themselves, yet he clung stubbornly to the notion of better relations with the homeland. To that end he drafted and signed the Olive Branch Petition, addressed to King George III, which pledged continuing allegiance to the Crown and requested that he repeal the Coercive Acts and other

illegal measures. When the king refused, the influence of Dickinson and other moderates waned significantly, especially after he voted against the Declaration of Independence in July 1776. Before leaving Congress to serve as a colonel of militia, Dickinson lent his expertise to writing the new Articles of Confederation as a system of better governance. In 1777, Dickinson departed politics briefly to fight in the militia, taking part at the battle of Brandywine that fall and eventually rising to brigadier general, but he saw no further action. He then returned to Congress in 1779 and resigned two years later to serve as president of the executive council of Delaware. In 1782, Dickinson gained election as president of the Pennsylvania council. He then served as president of the ill-fated Annapolis Convention of 1786 in Maryland and the following year he attended the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. True to his conservative precepts Dickinson unflaggingly advocated adoption of stronger, more centralized governance. But by 1800 he moderated his conservatism to support the DemocraticRepublican candidacy of Thomas Jefferson for the presidency. Dickinson died in Wilmington, Delaware, on February 14, 1808, little remembered for the important political roles he had played. Never as popular as his more radical contemporaries, he exerted a steadying, calming effect on national discourse and, because of his expository skills, was greatly respected as the “Penman of the Revolution.”

the Stamp Act is repealed. As word of their stance spreads, other cities join the boycott.

October 31 Publishing: The London Book Store opens in Boston, Massachusetts, with 1,200 circulating books at its disposal.

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November 1 Politics: The Stamp Act officially goes into effect, which leads to a spate of mob attacks against colonial courts and tax officials in New York. Participants muse how the violence coincides with celebrations surrounding Guy Fawkes Day, a failed 1605 attempt to blow up Parliament with gunpowder.

December 8 General: Eli Whitney, future inventor of the cotton gin and interchangeable parts for weapons, is born this day at Westboro, Massachusetts.

December 9 Politics: Roughly 250 Boston merchants subscribe to a nonimportation strategy against English goods, which is bound to exert a telling effect as the city is the biggest entrepot for trade in the colonies. Once British exports decline, a committee will arise in Parliament to agitate for the Stamp Act’s repeal.

December 13 Politics: Commander in chief General Thomas Gage wades into the local unrest by requesting the New York assembly to raise the necessary revenues as mandated by the Quartering Act.

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An angry mob protests against the Stamp Act by throwing stamped documents onto a bonfire in Boston, August 1764 (Hulton/Archive)

Arts: Southwark Theater, the first permanent American playhouse, is constructed in Philadelphia. Exploration: Benjamin Cutbird, a trader, voyages down the Mississippi River, astride the Kentucky/Tennessee border, before proceeding downstream to New Orleans to sell a shipment of furs. He is the first American to move and sell beyond the established western frontier. Religion: The first colonial Methodist Church is established on John Street, New York City. St. Paul’s Chapel is constructed as a subsidiary of Trinity Church, New York. Science: Benjamin Franklin, allegedly tired of carrying around two sets of glasses for reading and distance, invents the first bifocal spectacles by joining two separate lenses together. Transportation: New Jersey introduces the “Flying Machine,” a special wagon that can cover the bumpy 90-mile trip from Camden to Jersey City in only two days.

January 17 Politics: Once London merchants, reeling from American nonimportation, petition Parliament to repeal the Stamp Act, opposition leader William Pitt and other leading Whigs step forward to denounce the practice of taxation without representation.

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February 13 Politics: Benjamin Franklin, agent for Pennsylvania in London, testifies before Parliament about the hardships engendered by the Stamp Act. Ominously, he cautions leaders that any attempt to use the military to enforce the collection of taxes could spark armed resistance.

February 22 Politics: In London, the House of Commons, under intense pressure from the merchant’s lobby, votes to repeal the Stamp Act, 276 to 168. Opposition Whig leader William Pitt then lauds the colonies for opposing any tax levied by a body in which they lack representation.

March Business: The Suffering Traders of George Croghan are reorganized into the Illinois Company.

March 5 Politics: Spanish governor Antonio de Ulloa arrives at New Orleans, Louisiana, and begins the formal transfer of authority from France to Spain.

March 17 Politics: Taking their cue from the House of Commons, and responding to the petitions and grievances of London merchants, the British House of Lords likewise rescinds the Stamp Act. The numerous and vocal representations by influential merchants, hurt by the boycott, proves instrumental in its demise.

March 18 Politics: The colonies enjoyed precious little time to savor the repeal of the Stamp Act. This day, Prime Minister Charles Watson-Wentworth, nominally sympathetic to colonial concerns, passes the Declaratory Act through Parliament. More than a face-saving expedient, this legislation unequivocally extends that body’s authority over colonial matters “in all cases whatsoever.” It also mandates that all colonial legislation or acts that question Parliamentary prerogatives are automatically null and void. The new measure is also used to strengthen existing trade laws by authorizing creation of the new American Board of Customs Commissioners. The entire issue of taxation has been diplomatically skirted for the time being, although it will arise again—backed by military force.

April 7 Military: General Guy Carleton, a distinguished military administrator, gains appointment as governor general of Canada. He proves instrumental in placating the French population and winning over their loyalty to Great Britain.

April 26 Politics: The Stamp Act’s repeal occasions wide celebrations in Boston and other places, and nonimportation quickly subsides. Little attention is paid to the Declaratory Act or its implications, however.

July 24 Diplomacy: Pontiac and several other chiefs conclude a peace treaty with Sir William Johnson at Oswego, New York. Johnson promises to continue the previous French practice of annuities. This act ends all hostilities to British settlement of Ohio.

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November 1 Politics: In another political retreat, Parliament withdraws a duty on the import of foreign molasses. However, colonial products intended for northern Europe now must be cleared through British ports in advance.

November 10 Education: Queen’s College (present-day Rutgers University) is chartered in New Brunswick, New Jersey, by the Dutch Reformed Church. Like many institutions founded in the wake of the Great Awakening, Queen’s College offers many practical courses in science alongside traditional curricula.

December 6 Politics: The Massachusetts General Court votes monetary compensation for all victims of antitax violence, but all accused offenders also receive pardons.

December 15–19 Politics: In a new round of political defiance toward Great Britain, the New York assembly refuses to provide revenue to support the Quartering Act. Consequently, an angry royal governor, Henry Moore, suspends the legislature until they comply.

1767 Literature: Phillis Wheatley, a 14-year-old slave in Boston, pens A Poem by Phillis, A Negro Girl, on the Death of Reverend Whitefield, subsequently published by the University of Cambridge in 1770. This eventually brings her renown as a prodigy and establishes her among the earliest female and AfricanAmerican poets. Science: David Rittenhouse, a Philadelphia instrument maker, constructs a planetarium, an apparatus for demonstrating the phases and motions of the planets. Eminent scientist John Winthrop of Harvard composes an early study about the density of comets.

February 22 Religion: Quakers hold their annual meeting in Burlington, New Jersey and, of 60 leaders present, no less than 25 are female.

March 15 General: Andrew Jackson, a future president, is born at Cureton’s Pond, North Carolina.

April 24 Arts: Thomas Godfrey’s The Prince of Parthia, the first American play produced in the colonies, is staged at Philadelphia’s Southwark Theater. However, much popular prejudice persists against theaters for the bad morality they allegedly encourage.

David Rittenhouse, a self-educated scientist, designed and constructed clocks and telescopes. Rittenhouse constructed the first working model of the solar system in 1767 and built an observatory to watch the movement of Venus. He succeeded Benjamin Franklin as the president of the American Philosophical Society in 1791. Engraving (Library of Congress)

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Wheatley, Phillis (ca. 1754–1784) African-American poetess Phillis Wheatley was born in present-day Gambia around 1754, kidnapped by slave traders, and brought to Boston in 1761. There she was purchased by John Wheatley, a local tailor, as domestic help for his wife, Susanna. Unlike the majority of slave owners, the Wheatleys treated their new charge lovingly and allowed her to be educated. In this regard, Wheatley proved herself a child prodigy by rapidly becoming fluent in English and also competent in Greek and Latin. Thus disposed, she readily studied and absorbed history, astronomy, and the

writings of Alexander Pope, Milton, Virgil, Homer, and Ovid. She was also raised in a strict Congregationalist environment and became intensely religious. Wheatley published her first poem anonymously at the age of 12 and gained instant notoriety by composing an elegant elegy honoring the famous revival minister George Whitefield, which was published in 1770 and reached London the following year. In this respect she became the first AfricanAmerican female writer to be published in North America. Three years later she

Title page of Phillis Wheatley's most famous work, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773) (Library of Congress)

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visited England at the behest of Selna Hastings, countess of Huntington, where she was formally introduced to many colonial personages, including Benjamin Franklin. Wheatley thus became celebrated in literary circles for being not only female but also a slave who composed excellent meter and verse. With the countess’s help she went on to publish her first volume, Poems on various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773), which was critically well received at home and abroad. Wheatley returned to Boston in 1774, shortly before the death of Susanna Wheatley, and was manumitted shortly afterward. When the Revolutionary War commenced in April 1775, she wielded her quill on the Patriots’ behalf, penning several elegant lines about General George Washington. This resulted in a friendly missive from the commander in chief and a personal audience with him at his headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in March 1776. Two years later Wheatley

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married a free black, John Peters, with whom she had three children. Unfortunately, none of her offspring survived past infancy and, after her husband abandoned her, she eked out only a marginal existence. Wheatley tried mitigating her circumstances by composing additional volumes of poetry but no Boston-based publisher would consider the jotting of a black authoress. Wheatley died in abject poverty on December 5, 1784, at the age of 31 and was soon forgotten. However, by the 1830s her poetry was rediscovered and published as Memoir of and Poems of Phillis Wheatley (1834) and Letters of Phillis Wheatley, the Negro-slave Poet of Boston (1864). Her works consequently inspired a rising tide of antislavery sentiment in the very city that had once so scorned her. Wheatley’s handicraft was also proffered by abolitionists as proof that the intellectual and creative proclivities of African Americans was in no way inferior to their white counterparts.

June 6 Politics: New York royal governor Henry Moore reconvenes the colonial assembly after a six-month hiatus, once it pledges to approve funding to support the Quartering Act.

June 29 Politics: Charles Townshend, chancellor of the Exchequer, prevails upon Parliament to reopen Pandora’s box and pass the Revenue Act, more popularly reviled as the Townshend Duties. This legislation imposes a tax on glass, lead, paint, paper, and tea, all essential commodities imported by the colonies. Four additional admiralty courts are also created in North America for the prosecution of violators. The revenues raised are furthermore allocated to pay the salaries of colonial officials, rendering them independent of local legislatures for an income. In a move signaling a continuing crackdown on smuggling, the act also provides for a new Board of Customs Commissioners in Boston.

July 11 General: John Quincy Adams, a future president, is born in Braintree, Massachusetts.

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July 23 General: The British government arranges a lottery for dispensing the land of St. John’s Island in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, without regard for the Micmac Indians already living there.

August 10 Politics: As the New York assembly debates funding for the Quartering Act, street violence and protests are orchestrated by the local Sons of Liberty. Rowdy groups commence clashing with British troops over the erection of a “Liberty Pole.”

September 4 Politics: Lord Frederick North succeeds Charles Townshend as chancellor of the Exchequer.

September 8 Religion: The Warren Association is founded to bring Baptist churches in New England in to a loose alliance for settling theological disputes and organizing missionary work. It soon becomes an important regional church group.

October Business: Indian superintendent Sir William Johnson begins licensing traders to conduct business matters north of Lake Superior and the Ottawa River.

October 1 Politics: Parliament passes the Suspending Act, which dissolves the New York colonial assembly for refusing to facilitate provisions of the Quartering Act.

October 28 Politics: A Boston town meeting protests imposition of the Townshend Duties by drawing up a list of British luxury items to be boycotted. As before, nonimportation begins spreading to other port cities such as Providence and Newport, Rhode Island.

November 5 Business: In a sign of mounting imperial control over the colonial economy, the first American Board of Customs Commissioners arrives in Boston.

November 20 Politics: The Townshend Duties take effect just three weeks after the first American Board of Customs Commissioners arrived in Boston. As before, the colonial polity is prepared to meet the challenge head on, and broad-based resistance begins congealing. The author of the legislation, Charles Townshend, never lives to see its implementation—or ramifications.

December Exploration: Daniel Boone conducts his first penetration of the Appalachian Mountains and begins exploring the borders of West Virginia and Kentucky.

December 2 Journalism: John Dickinson of Pennsylvania anonymously pens his Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania to the Inhabitants of the British Colonies and publishes them in consecutive issue of the Pennsylvania Chronicle. These erudite

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Boone, Daniel (1734 –1820) Frontiersman Daniel Boone was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, on November 2, 1734, the scion of a Quaker family. He relocated with his family to Yadkin County, North Carolina, in 1750 and immersed himself in the nuances of frontier life. When the French and Indian War commenced in 1755, Boone fought under General Edward Braddock and was fortunate enough to survive the slaughter that followed. Afterward, in 1767, he joined the Transylvania Company under Richard Henderson and led a small expedition of pioneers and scouts down the famous Cumberland Gap, through the Allegheny Mountains, and into Kentucky. Eventually, he established one of the first white settlements, Boonesboro, in the region. Native Americans, the Shawnee in particular, resented this intrusion and Boone endured many harrowing gun battles and escapes. Despite the danger, Boone, like many frontiersman, saw the Proclamation of 1763 as an unwarranted intrusion upon their free-ranging lifestyle and he sided with the Patriot movement. He then served as captain of Virginia militia until he was captured by the Shawnee in February 1778 and adopted by Chief Black Fish. He was treated very kindly and fondly attached himself to his new family until learning that an attack upon the Boonesboro settlement was pending. He then escaped the village and traveled 160 miles in five days to alert the garrison, which repelled the attack on September 7, 1777. Boone at this time had also run afoul of Colonel George Rogers Clark, who was determined to politically

undermine all attempts to make Kentucky an independent state. Boone then forsook the frontier for politics in 1781 and gained election to the House of Delegates. That June he was briefly seized in a lightning raid by British cavalry under Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton, then released. Boone’s most celebrated military action occurred on August 19, when a party of Kentucky militia under Colonel John Todd pursued a party of Loyalist and Indian raiders under the notorious Simon Girty. Boone, sensing an ambush at the Blue Licks, warned Todd to wait for reinforcements and cross farther downstream, but he was ignored. The Americans were completely defeated in the debacle that followed, and Boone lost his eldest son, Israel Boone, in the action. After the war, Boone became embroiled in numerous legal disputes regarding his holdings in Kentucky and by 1799 had lost them all. That year he relocated to Missouri, then under Spanish control, where he served as a magistrate. When the United States acquired that region under the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, Boone again lost his land titles. It was not until 1814 that Congress restored the elderly scout’s holdings. Boone died in St. Charles County, Missouri, on September 26, 1820, a skilled Indian fighter and an iconic figure of the American frontier. More than any other individual, he captured the public imagination by blazing a wilderness path through Cumberland Gap and helped extend territorial awareness beyond the Allegheny Mountains.

essays oppose the Townshend Duties as unconstitutional, while still acknowledging Parliament’s authority to regulate colonial commerce. He further warns that Britain’s vote to suspend the New York assembly is an implicit threat to all other colonial liberties.

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December 21 Journalism: The Boston Chronicle, a pro- British mouthpiece, begins publication.

1768 Arts: Boston metalsmith Paul Revere casts 92 commemorative silver bowls, one for each member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives who protested to King George III about restrictive British trade legislation. Diplomacy: Iroquois emissaries meet with Sir William Johnson, superintendent of Indian affairs at Fort Stanwix (Rome, New York) and sign the Treaty of Fort Stanwix. This document establishes a new boundary for western settlement that colonists are not to cross, while the Indians cede all their land south of the Ohio River as far as West Virginia and Kentucky in exchange for 10,000 pounds. By and large, the agreement is ignored by settlers, who continue encroaching upon Indian lands. The treaty infuriates the Shawnee, who reside on the land in question and were not privy to the agreement; they determine to resist. Education: Adam Kuhn becomes the first professor of botany by teaching at the College of Philadelphia. Medical: Rioters destroy the homes of two Virginians who allowed themselves to be inoculated against smallpox. This practice, while medically effective, remains suspect among the majority of colonists. Technology: The first foundry for casting printer’s type arises in Boston, Massachusetts.

February 11 Diplomacy: Benjamin Franklin receives appointment as colonial agent for Georgia in London. Politics: In Boston, political agitators Samuel Adams and James Otis compose a circular letter addressed to all colonial assemblies and inform them of Massachusetts’s resolve to resist the Townshend Duties and renew the call for a unified response. The letter acknowledges Parliament’s authority to regulate overseas possessions but denounces its ability to impose taxes without commensurate representation in that body. It also warns that British-paid governors and judges are growing increasingly aloof toward the will of local legislatures.

April 5 Business: The New York Chamber of Commerce is established, with John Cruger serving as its first president.

April 22 Politics: Lord Hillsborough, secretary of state for the colonies, summarily instructs colonial governors to prevent circular letters from being drafted in their respective legislatures. In a major escalation of political tension, he also orders Massachusetts governor Francis Bernard to dissolve the legislature if it fails to retract its own circular letter.

May 8 Publishing: In London, Benjamin Franklin publishes a British edition of John Dickinson’s Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania, which acquires a large readership. He goes on to publish an edition in French.

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Adams, Samuel

303

(1722–1803)

Politician Samuel Adams was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on September 27, 1722, the son of a prosperous brewer. He passed through Harvard College in 1740 but acquired none of his father’s business acumen and failed in several ventures. From 1756 to 1764, he subsequently served as a tax collector, an unsatisfactory position that left him heavily in debt. It was not until imposition of the Sugar Act in 1764 that Adams found his calling as a provocateur and political agitator. He wrote and published forceful essays criticizing British imperial policy, condemned the practice of taxation without representation, and warned fellow colonials that a conspiracy was afoot to rob them of their rights. He also collaborated with merchant John Hancock in recruiting and orchestrating activities of the Sons of Liberty, whose strong-arm tactics were meant to intimidate Loyalist opponents. The resentment and resistance he stirred throughout Boston in 1765–66 was a major cause in the repeal of the Stamp Act. Over the next decade, Adams relied on his incendiary columns to inflame political passions in Massachusetts against the Parliament, and he also instigated resentment and violence against royal governors Francis Bernard and Thomas Hutchinson. He hit a particularly strident tone following the Boston Massacre of 1770 and was instrumental in forcing an agreement with the government to remove all British troops from Boston proper. In 1772, he proved instrumental in organizing the first committee of correspondence, and its declaration anticipates many facets of

the Declaration of Independence. A series of escalating confrontations over the Tea Act, the Boston Tea Party, and the Coercive Acts elevated Adams to the forefront of the Patriot movement. He was among the earliest of those elected to the Continental Congress in 1774 to endorse the notion of independence. Such was his notoriety that General Thomas Gage deliberately refused to cover him in a blanket political amnesty offered in 1775. Once in Congress, Adams’s popularity and effectiveness began to wane, for fiery demagoguery had given way to thoughtful deliberation. He was particularly eclipsed in this regard by his cousin John Adams. But Adams nonetheless served until 1781, being a signatory to both the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation. He then returned to Massachusetts to help champion a new state constitution penned by his more famous cousin. After the war ended in 1783, Adams gained a seat in the state senate, where he actively supported adoption of the new federal constitution five years later. He did so only reluctantly, fearing the onset of tyranny, but in 1789, he was elected lieutenant governor and, four years later, governor. In this capacity he served capably but without distinction. By 1800, Adams had grown alarmed over the growing authority of the Federalist Party, and in 1800, he championed the cause of Thomas Jefferson for president over John Adams. He died in Boston on October 2, 1803, one of the master polemicists of the American Revolution.

May 16 Politics: The Virginia House of Burgesses composes its own circulating letter advocating joint colonial action to thwart any British attempt to “enslave them.” It further presses for “hearty union” in the face of mounting tyranny.

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May 17 Naval: The 50-gun warship HMS Romney docks at Boston as a symbol of British determination to protect customs officials and enforce parliamentary dictates. It certainly emboldens tax officials to act more forcefully than they have been of late.

June 6 Politics: After much haggling, the New York assembly votes to spend 3,000 pounds to support British troops as requested by General Thomas Gage.

June 10 Politics: John Hancock’s sloop Liberty is seized by Comptroller Benjamin Hallowell and Collector Joseph Harrison for Hancock’s failure to pay duties on a cargo of imported Madeira wine. The vessel is then towed from the dock and anchored alongside the warship HMS Romney in a further gesture of defiance. Consequently, a mob orchestrated by the local Sons of Liberty begins roughing up customs officials on the docks.

June 21 Politics: Consistent with instructions from London, Massachusetts governor Francis Bernard demands that the General Court rescind and retract its circular letter protesting the Townshend Duties.

June 30 Politics: In an act of overt defiance, the General Court of Massachusetts refuses to rescind its circular letter on a vote of 92 to 17. Consequently, an angry Governor Francis Bernard dissolves the legislature until he receives compliance.

July 18 Music: The Liberty Song by John Dickinson of Pennsylvania, one of the earliest patriot’s dirges, appears in an issue of the Boston Gazette.

August Education: The Reverend John Witherspoon, a native of Scotland, is appointed president of the College of New Jersey (Princeton).

August 15 Politics: As Boston merchants embrace a new nonimportation policy against British goods, agitators Samuel Adams and James Otis orchestrate noisy celebrations on the anniversary of riots against tax collector Andrew Oliver and the Stamp Act.

August 19 Settlement: Dr. Alexander Trumbull leads 1,400 Greek colonists from Leghorn and Minorca to New Smyrna, East Florida. This is one of the largest single migrations to the New World, but a rebellion against poor working conditions breaks out, and the colony ultimately fails.

August 27 Politics: In a display of solidarity with Boston, New York merchants agree to nonimportation of British goods until the Townshend Duties are repealed.

September 13 Politics: Delegates from 26 Massachusetts towns are elected to attend a provincial convention to protest the closing of the assembly by Governor Francis

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305

Hancock, John (1737–1793) Politician John Hancock was born in Braintree, Massachusetts, on January 23, 1737, orphaned at an early age, and adopted by his wealthy uncle. He passed through Harvard College in 1754 and was groomed to take over the family business. As part of the colonial elite, he visited England in 1760 and witnessed the coronation of King George III. Hancock then lived the life of a typical rich Boston merchant until the Stamp Act passed in 1765. He then developed an avid interest in radical politics, usually in concert with Samuel Adams, and became a central figure in political resistance and commercial

smuggling. In 1768, Hancock’s popularity soared after customs officials seized his vessel Liberty, and the following year, he won a seat in the General Court. In this capacity he agitated constantly against British imperial policy and the presence of British troops in the city. By 1770, he was serving on a Boston town committee formed in the wake of the Boston Massacre. In 1774, he became president of the extralegal provincial congress, and his actions were so distasteful to British authorities that General Thomas Gage especially exempted him and Adams from an amnesty offer in 1775. Prior to the battles of Lexington and Concord, both Hancock and Adams were alerted by rider Paul Revere that the British forces were en route to arrest them and they fled. The following May, Hancock took his seat as a delegate in the Second Continental Congress, quickly rising to become president of that body. In this celebrated capacity he was the first member to sign the Declaration of Independence in July 1776, writing in bold script twice the regular size so that King George III would readily recognize his name without glasses. However, Hancock’s aspirations to serve as commander in chief were dashed with the appointment of General George Washington, and in 1777, he stepped down as president of Congress in favor of Henry Laurens. His remaining tenure in Philadelphia was uneventful, and he resigned his seat in 1778, feeling he could make a bigger impact at home. Hancock was made a major general of Massachusetts militia, but he saw little active duty under General John Sullivan in Rhode Island. However, he remained a popular

John Hancock. Engraving (Library of Congress)

(continues)

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(continued) public figure, well-connected politically, and conspicuous in his patronage, so in 1780, Hancock became the first freely elected governor of Massachusetts, having spent several months working on the new state constitution. He then served nine terms, 1780–85 and 1789–93, while also attending the state constitutional convention in 1788. Hancock initially expressed reservations about the new U. S. Con-

stitution, fearing a return to tyranny, but his qualified support proved enough for ratification. Throughout his long career as a public servant, Hancock never displayed any great talent for politics or original thought, but he was nonetheless a committed Patriot who spent lavishly out of his own pocket to both foment and sustain the revolutionary effort. He died at his home in Quincy on October 8, 1793.

Bernard, the Townshend Duties, and the governor’s reluctance to discuss rumors of the pending arrival of British troops in Boston.

September 23–29 Politics: In Boston, a provincial convention, meeting as an extralegal body, outlines its grievances to Governor Francis Bernard. After denouncing the Townshend Duties, the 70 delegates—representing 66 towns and districts—petition the governor to reopen the assembly.

October 1 Military: Two British regiments, the 14th West Yorks and 29th Worcesters, having transferred from the garrison at Halifax, arrive in Boston to ostensibly support customs officials enforcing the law. They are actually there to raise the military profile of imperial authority, and officials anticipate their presence in town will awe the opposition into compliance. A decade earlier the arrival of Redcoats would have been a welcome sight in the American colonies; presently they draw the ire of the populace and are taunted as “Lobsterbacks.”

October 14 Diplomacy: The Indian Commissioner, Colonel John Stuart, concludes the Treaty of Hard Labor with the Cherokee, which establishes the Virginia boundary farther west and also confirms the previous ceding of tribal land to North and South Carolina.

October 26 Military: General Guy Carleton arrives at Quebec to assume duties as governor general of Canada.

October 28 Politics: French rioters chase Spanish governor Antonio de Ulloa out of New Orleans and onto his ship in the Mississippi River. The protesters are enraged by new laws requiring all wine to be imported from Spain.

October 30 Religion: The Wesley Chapel, the first Methodist church in America, is dedicated in New York City.

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November Diplomacy: At Pensacola, Florida, the Creek agree to shift the border of South Carolina westward and also recognize the border of Georgia at the Ogeechee River.

November 3 Business: In Albany, New York, Sir John Johnson arranges the Treaty of Fort Stanwix to purchase 1.8 million acres of Indian land, southeast of the Ohio River, from the Six Nation Iroquois. This area (Kentucky) is destined for the Indian Company of George Croghan, noted frontiersman and speculator.

1769 Arts: Patricia Lovell Wright, the colonies’ first sculptor, creates a bust of Thomas Penn that remains in Independence Hall, Philadelphia. Business: St. Charles, Missouri, is founded by French trader Louis Blanchette as a trading post. General: Samuel Wharton helps organize the Grand Ohio Company for the purpose of expropriating and colonizing 20 million frontier acres acquired through the Treaty of Fort Stanwix. Industry: Henry William Stiegel commences an intricate glass-making operation at Mannheim, Pennsylvania, soon acquiring a reputation as a noted colonial manufacturer. Anthracite coal is used for the first time in a forge at Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Its use in industrial applications becomes more widespread in the 19th century. Religion: Justus Henry Christian Helmuth, a distinguished Lutheran theologian, arrives at Philadelphia, where he acts as an intermediary between the church in Europe and America. Slavery: A 26-year-old Thomas Jefferson, newly elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses, wages an unsuccessful fight to have slavery abolished.

January Settlement: The first En glish settlers begin arriving along the Watauga River, Tennessee. Nearby Indian tribes watch these developments unfold with consternation.

January 2 Societal: In Philadelphia, the moribund American Philosophical Society unites with the Quaker-oriented American Society for Promoting and Propagating Useful Knowledge. The ubiquitous Benjamin Franklin is appointed president but, because he was in England at the time, his position is filled by noted physician Thomas Bond. The new organization is officially known by the torturous title of American Philosophical Society, Held at Philadelphia, for Promoting Useful Knowledge.

January 10 Business: Regular monthly boats sailing to Suffolk, Virginia, from New York and South Carolina, finally link the northern and southern postal districts.

March 10 Politics: In a sign of mounting discontent with British policy, merchants of Philadelphia lend their support to nonimportation of British goods until the Townshend Duties are repealed.

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March 25 Law: After much legal wrangling, John Hancock’s sloop Liberty, seized for duty violations, is released back to him.

March 30 Politics: The movement toward nonimportation continues moving south, as Maryland merchants join the boycott.

April 20 General: Ottawa chief Pontiac is murdered by Makatchinga, a member of the Peoria tribe, at a trading post in Cahokia, Illinois. Many Indians believe the chief was assassinated by the British for his role in the 1763 uprising. However, the haughty chief had made many enemies by usurping political powers never officially conferred upon him by fellow tribesmen.

May 7 Politics: The Virginia Resolves, a set of nonimportation resolutions, is drafted by George Mason and introduced to the Virginia House of Burgesses by George Washington. Among other things, these reiterate deeply held beliefs that only colonial legislatures may tax their own inhabitants. The resolves are then unanimously adopted while Patrick Henry and Richard Henry Lee pen a petition to King George III enunciating these same principles.

May 17 Politics: The Virginia House of Burgesses is dissolved after rejecting Parliament’s authority to tax them while withholding representation. Undaunted, the members subsequently convene at the Raleigh Tavern in Williamsburg as an extralegal body. There they enact the Virginia Association to enforce the boycott of English goods in concert with other colonies.

June Business: Samuel Wharton, Thomas Walpole, and other Britons found the Grand Ohio Company for the purpose of acquiring land as per provisions of the Treaty of Fort Stanwix. They then petition the British Board of Trade for permission to buy 2.4 million acres of land in western Virginia and eastern Kentucky.

June 7 Exploration: Daniel Boone leads a body of settlers through the Cumberland Gap and into Kan-ta-ke (Kentucky) for the first time. However, the Indian tribes residing there are determined to defend the land they know as the “Great Meadow” and continually raid small groups and settlements.

June 22 Business: Nonimportation of English goods gathers additional support when a convention held at Annapolis, Maryland, lends its support to the movement.

June 31 Politics: Having been petitioned by the Massachusetts House of Representatives, King George III authorizes the removal of Governor Francis Bernard from office for abuse of power. Bernard then sails from Boston this day amid raucous celebrations, while Lieutenant Governor Thomas Hutchinson occupies the catbird seat by succeeding him as acting governor.

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Chronology

Hutchinson, Thomas

309

(1711–1780)

Colonial governor Thomas Hutchinson was born in Boston on September 9, 1711, the son of a wealthy merchant. He entered Harvard College at the age of 12 and worked in his father’s counting house three years later. Hutchinson flourished as a successful businessman and then developed an aptitude for politics and public service. In 1737, he won a seat in the General Court and capably represented Massachusetts in boundary disputes with New York and New Hampshire. In 1754, he attended the famous Albany Convention where he strongly supported

Thomas Hutchinson. Engraving (Library of Congress)

Benjamin Franklin’s plan for a colonial union. In light of his talents, Governor Francis Bernard appointed him lieutenant governor in 1758, and two years later, he also assumed the functions of chief justice. This concentration of power in the hands of a single individual alarmed radicals like Samuel Adams and James Otis, who felt that even well-intentioned men like Hutchinson were a menace to personal and economic liberty. Ironically, Hutchinson, while he acknowledged the legality of measures like the Sugar Act of 1764 and the Stamp Act of 1765, privately felt they were reckless and provocative. Nonetheless, his seeming support for British imperial policy induced the Sons of Liberty to burn his elaborate mansion on August 13, 1765. Hutchinson endured another spate of unrest following passage of the Townshend Duties of 1767, which he also opposed but refused to repudiate. Fortunately, the act was eventually repealed and calm restored to the polity of Massachusetts—until the next crisis. In 1771, Governor Bernard was recalled to England and Hutchinson replaced him as governor. Meanwhile, radicals like John Hancock expended considerable quantities of ink branding the mild-mannered, soft-spoken executive as a bloody tyrant. His political misfortunes crested in 1773 following the passage of the Tea Act. Hutchinson completely misgauged the depth of resentment against British policy. His own refusal to back down from the issue of taxes resulted in the Boston Tea Party of December 1773, which drove up political hostility on both sides of the Atlantic. Worse still, Benjamin Franklin (continues)

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(continued) absconded with several of Hutchinson’s letters to the British government which implied that harsher measures should be taken to enforce royal authority in that unruly colony. These missives, once published, resulted in a public uproar against Hutchinson, and the legislature petitioned Parliament for his dismissal. He was then formally removed from public office on May 13, 1774, and replaced by General Thomas Gage, who initiated de

facto military rule in Massachusetts. Hutchinson then departed for London where he continued to plead for moderation and reconciliation with his former fellow citizens, again to no avail. He spent the remainder of his life living comfortably on a pension and fully expected to return to America when the Revolutionary War ended. Hutchinson died at Brompton, England, on June 3, 1780, before that eventuality.

July 16 Settlement: Franciscan friar Father Junípero Serra establishes San Diego de Alcala as the first permanent settlement on the West Coast of North America.

August 17 General: Spain formally assumes control of the Louisiana territory from France per terms of the Treaty of Fontainebleau—backed by 2,000 soldiers under General Alexander O’Reilly.

November 30 Music: The first recorded notice of amateur musicians playing in professional orchestras appears in the Pennsylvania Gazette.

September 5 Politics: An altercation erupts between attorney James Otis and Tory Commissioner John Robinson over an alleged slight in a Boston coffeehouse. Otis receives head injuries that effectively end his public career as a spokesman against imperial policies. He is still regarded as among the earliest and most forceful of the “Patriots.”

October 12 Politics: Merchants in New Jersey join the still expanding movement for nonimportation of English goods until the Townshend Duties are repealed.

October 28

Junípero Serra (Library of Congress)

1769

Publishing: Loyalist printers John Mein and John Fleeming, whose flyers have impugned the reputation of Samuel Adams and also listed the names of merchants continuing to import English goods, are roughly handled by the Sons of Liberty on King Street, Boston.

Chronology   311

December 13 Education: Eleazar Wheelock founds Dartmouth College as a school for educat-­ ing Native Americans in Lebanon, Connecticut, but within a year it relocates to Hanover, New Hampshire, much to the disgust of his Native American assistant, Reverend Samson Occom, who feels that Indians will be neglected. Dartmouth is a Congregationalist institution and the last of nine such establishments founded prior to the Revolutionary War.

December 16 Publishing: Alexander McDougall, head of the New York Sons of Liberty, anon-­ ymously publishes A Son of Liberty to the Betrayed Inhabitants of the City and Colony of New York. It is immediately condemned as an incendiary and seditious document, and steps are taken to secure his arrest.

1770 Architecture: Thomas Jefferson constructs his first home, Monticello, which draws its inspiration from classical Greek and Roman design. He will remain preoccupied with this project for the rest of his life. Medicine: The Public Hospital for Persons of Insane and Disordered Minds, the first such institution in the colonies, is established at Williamsburg, Virginia. Music: In Boston, William Billings publishes works in The New EnÂ�gland Psalm Singer or American Chorister, marking him as one of the colonies’s most distin-­ guished composers. Population: The population of British North America is estimated at 2,312,000 of which 462,000–20 Â�percent—are Â�African-­American slaves. Settlement: Jesuit missionary Father Sébastien-Louis Meurin founds the first log cabin church in the settlement of St. Louis, Missouri. Slavery: The Rhode Island General Assembly outlaws the further importation of slaves into that colony. George Washington and other prominent Virginians promise not to purchase slaves who had not been in North America for at least a year. They formed part of the Association for the Counteraction of Various Acts of Oppression on the Part of Great Britain, a group designed to cause the British economy economic hardships by not supporting the slave trade.

January 16 Military: British soldiers provocatively hew down the Liberty Pole in New York City and pile its remains in front of a tavern known to be frequented by the Sons of Liberty.

January 19–20 Military: A pitched melee, the Â�so-­called “Battle of Golden Hill,” erupts between British troops and the Sons of Liberty, after the former cuts down the Liberty Pole erected in New York City. One man is killed in the violence and several injured.

January 22 Military: In an attempt to curtail other outbreaks of violence, soldiers in New York City are not allowed to depart their barracks unless accompanied by an officer. This restriction is in direct consequence of to the Â�so-­called “Battle of Golden Hill.”

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January 31 Politics: Lord Frederick North assumes responsibilities as prime minister. Among his first official acts is to lend support to the repeal of the Townshend Duties. Women: A proposed boycott of British tea receives the support of 500 Boston women.

February 8 Law: Alexander McDougall, head of the New York Sons of Liberty, is arrested for publishing a broadside deemed hostile to the colonial assembly. He refuses to either recant his words or post bond, thus remaining incarcerated until his trial. McDougall becomes a very popular political prisoner and is daily visited in jail by many leading dissidents.

The Boston Massacre. Engraving by Paul Revere (Library of Congress)

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March 5 Politics: In Boston, a British soldier strikes a colonial youth taunting him. This causes a mob to form in the street around his guardÂ�house and they start pelting the soldier with snowballs. A British guard under Captain Thomas Preston then hurries to his defense and is likewise attacked. The soldiers then unloose a vol-­ ley in Â�self-­defense, killing five colonials and wounding eight. Among the slain is Crispus Attucks, the first African American to die for his country. This violent clash, soon heralded as the “Boston massacre,” is memorialized by engraver Paul Revere as propaganda for mounting reÂ�sisÂ�tance to British rule.

March 12 Journalism: An inflammatory account of the Boston Massacre appears in the Boston Gazette, replete with pictures of four large coffins.

April 12 Politics: Bombarded by protesting merchants, Parliament hands the colonies another poÂ�litiÂ�cal victory by conceding that the Townshend Duties have failed in their purpose and are finally repealed. The Quartering Act is also allowed to expire without being renewed. This constitutes another major victory for colonial intransigence and, once again, the imposition of nonimportation begins to wane. However, Lord Frederick North wishes to underscore Parliament’s intrinsic abil-­ ity to tax colonies without their consent, and he preserves a minor tax on tea. This seemingly inoffensive act is the catalyst of a major poÂ�litiÂ�cal showdown between Britain and Massachusetts.

May 1 Education: Harvard College suspends the practice of ranking students by the social standing of their families.

June 24 Science: Dr. Benjamin Rush pens the first chemistry textbook in the colonies, A Syllabus of a Course of Lectures on Chemistry.

June 28 Slavery: Quaker leader Anthony Benezet spearheads a successful campaign to found a free school for African Americans in Philadelphia, the Binoxide �House.

July 7 Politics: The New York assembly votes to lift nonimportation restriction on all British Â�goods—except tea.

July 21 Religion: Universalist John Murray migrates from En�gland and settles in New Jersey; there he emerges as a radical spokesman for evangelical Protestantism.

July 25 Politics: Newly released Alexander McDougall takes to the streets to lead protests against the suspension of nonimportation mea�sures against Great Britain.

August 7 Journalism: Boston printer Zachariah Fowle, eager to reach an audience tradi-­ tionally uninterested in newspapers, begins publishing his Massachusetts Spy.

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Attucks, Crispus

(ca. 1723–1770)

African-American martyr Crispus Attucks was probably born in Framingham, Massachusetts, around 1723 and is traditionally viewed as being of mixed African and Natick Indian ancestry. He was therefore most likely a slave who escaped from his master in 1750 and found gainful employment as a sailor or whaler. At the time, it was not unusual for African Americans or Native Americans to work at sea where the dangers were balanced by better treatment and higher rates of pay than those on land. In time Attucks matured into a large, imposing individual, over six feet tall and exuded the intimidating mien typical of his profession. He was in Boston on March 5, 1770, when a street disturbance erupted between a crowd and a lone British sentry on King Street. Tensions were running high in Boston over British imperial tax policies and the populace especially resented the presence of British soldiers on the streets, whom they derided as “Lobsterbacks.” The soldier apparently struck a child who was taunting him, and an angry throng threateningly gathered around his guardhouse. Attucks, who was armed with a piece of cordwood, marched with the crowd in the direction of King Street when a British patrol under Captain Thomas Preston arrived to rescue the soldier. Angry words resulted, the soldiers were then pelted with snowballs, and Attucks apparently strode up to Private Hugh White, 29th Foot, and knocked him down. The British then lost all composure and fired into the crowd, instantly killing Attucks and fatally wounding three others.

The affair then passed into the colonial political lexicon as the “Boston Massacre.” It so inflamed public passions against the British that a deputation under radical Samuel Adams prevailed upon the government to remove all soldiers from the city. On March 8, 1770 the remains of Attucks and the others were displayed in state at Faneuil Hall, where an estimated 12,000 people filed by to pay their respects and subsequently escorted the caskets to the Granary burial ground. The death of Attucks and the others resulted in legal action against Captain Preston and his eight men, who were then charged with murder. Between November 27 and December 5, 1770, the soldiers were effectively defended by their American attorneys, John Adams and Josiah Quincy, with six being acquitted and two found guilty of a lesser charge of manslaughter. In his arguments, Adams ironically painted Attucks as a provocateur, “a stout fellow whose very looks were enough to frighten any person.” Nonetheless, he enjoys national notoriety as among the first martyrs of the American Revolution and also the first African American to fall for his country. In 1888, the state of Massachusetts erected a memorial to Attucks on the Boston Common that was designed by the celebrated sculptor Augustus SaintGaudens. It is ironic that he died for a society that refused to grant him equal rights and would not extend them to fellow African Americans for nearly another century.

October 18 Diplomacy: Indian Commissioner Colonel John Stuart reaches an accord with the Cherokee by signing the Treaty of Lochaber. This agreement shifts the western boundary of Virginia, adding 9,000 square miles to the colony.

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Chronology

Quincy, Josiah

315

(1744–1775)

Attorney Josiah Quincy was born in Boston, Massa-­ chusetts, on February 23, 1744, the son of a wealthy merchant. Raised in Braintree, his wealth afforded him an excellent education and in 1763 he passed through Harvard College with a master’s degree. Quincy next read law under noted jurist Oxen-­ bridge Thatcher and—at the age of only 24–assumed his legal practice following the latter’s death in 1768. In short order, he distinguished himself as a brilliant attorney and was gradually drawn into a radical coterie led by Samuel Adams and John Hancock. A gifted writer, Quincy com-­ posed erudite essays, newspaper articles, and pamphlets on behalf of his Patriots associates, and usually against the regime of Governor Thomas Hutchinson. He was soon hailed as a rising star among the rap-­ idly evolving anti-­British movement, and much was expected from him. The radicals were therefore somewhat dismayed when he joined fellow attorney John Adams in defending Captain Thomas Preston and eight British troops accused of mur-­ der in the Boston Massacre of March 5, 1770. Quincy, however, expressed no such qualms and felt that the rights of all individuals, no matter how unpalatable to public opinion, must be protected. A man of principle, he felt strongly it was far more important to do what was right than what was popular. Consequently, when Quincy and Adams managed to acquit the British of murder charges, most Bostonians cel-­ ebrated in their victory in upholding the rule of law.

As relations with Great Britain grew further estranged, Quincy became commen-­ surately more active in political affairs. In 1772, he served on the Boston committee of correspondence and also collaborated with fellow attorney James Otis in distributing political literature throughout the colony. In 1773, he traveled throughout the colonies to improve his health, but to also act as an emissary from Massachusetts to explain and clarify their resistance to British policies. That December, Quincy also lauded the Bos-­ ton Tea Party and reacted strongly against the punitive Coercive Acts with his pointed polemic, Observations on the Act of Parliament Commonly Called the Boston PortBill (1774). In it, he stridently denounced Parliament’s punishment of an entire colony for the handiwork of a few individuals, and also held that armed British soldiers were a potential threat to personal liberties. For this reason, Quincy urged fellow Americans to begin arming themselves and developing close intercolonial relationships for an inevi-­ table struggle. By now his standing among fellow Patriots was such that they secretly dispatched him to England in September 1774 to confer with sympathetic officials there. He met with Lord Frederick North and William Shelburne, among others, but failed to win concessions. Quincy then departed for Boston in March 1775 but contracted tuberculosis en route and died within sight of land on April 26, 1775. Quincy never lived to see the revolution he so passionately tried to foment, yet he made significant contribu-­ tions to its intellectual underpinnings.

October 24–30 Law: In a sensational trial, Captain Thomas Preston, charged with deaths at the Boston Massacre, is acquitted at his trial thanks to a legal defense mounted by his attorneys, John Adams and Josiah Quincy. He nonetheless

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November 27–December 5 Law: In another stunning upset, six British soldiers charged with murder in the Boston Massacre are acquitted, with two convicted of manslaughter. The latter are promptly branded on the thumb, then released to their superiors.

December 7 Exploration: Hudson’s Bay Company employee Samuel Hearne is assisted by Matonabbee, a Christianized Chipewyan Indian, looking for an important copper mine near the Coppermine River.

December 13 Politics: Radical agitator Alexander McDougall is again jailed for contempt by New York authorities.

1771 General: Benjamin Franklin begins writing an autobiography for his son, William Franklin, governor of New Jersey, although the work will never be completed. When eventually published, it provides enormous insights into the workings of a witty, inventive mind. Slavery: The Massachusetts legislature passes a resolution demanding an end to the slave trade in that colony, but it fails to garner the support of Governor Thomas Hutchinson. Connecticut enacts a statute calling for the prohibition of the slave trade within that colony. For the first time in decades, the total number of Africans exported to the colonies declines, a reflection of mounting hostility to the slave trade.

January 15 Politics: The North Carolina assembly passes the so-called Bloody Act, whereby riotous behavior is legally equated with treason. This legislation is aimed at Rebellious settlers, or Regulators, causing havoc along the colony’s westernmost frontier.

March 14 Politics: Thomas Hutchinson is empowered as governor of Massachusetts; he is the last civilian authority to head that unruly colony, and his ultimate removal bodes ill for the future of American-British relations.

March 19 Military: Governor William Tryon of North Carolina, beset by frontier ruffians called Regulators, mobilizes the militia to protect the frontier courts and their proceedings.

April Exploration: A large expedition headed by frontiersman Daniel Boone, having explored the region of the Licking, Kentucky, Cumberland River and Green Valleys, passes back through the Cumberland Gap into North Carolina.

May 9 Military: General Hugh Waddell leads a force of 243 North Carolina militia from Salisbury to rendezvous with Governor William Tryon at Hillsboro. En

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May 11 Military: Governor William Tryon of North Carolina departs New Bern at the head of 1,200 militiamen and several cannon, intending to crush a frontier rebel-­ lion by Regulators.

May 16 Military: Governor William Tryon of North Carolina and his force of 1,200 colonial militiamen encounter 2,000 backwoods rebels known as Regulators at Alamance Creek. The rebels, poorly armed and disciplined, argue among them-­ selves whether to fight or disband, but Tryon forces the issue by advancing upon them in force. After pelting his opponents with cannon fire that could not be returned, he orders a general advance and engages in a firefight lasting two hours. The Regulators, many of whom are crack shots, inflict some casualties among the militia, but they wilt away at the sight of bayonets. Both sides lose approximately 70 men apiece, but Tryon also hangs six prisoners. Afterward, 6,500 settlers throughout the region are required to sign loyalty oaths to the British Crown. By all these meaÂ�sures, Tryon acquires the reputation of an efficient colonial admin-­ istrator but also a harsh enforcer of colonial law.

May 17 Music: In Boston, Josiah Flagg tenders an early classical concert to the public, featuring works by Handel and Bach.

August Settlement: Frontiersmen from Connecticut refuse to budge from land in Pennsyl-­ vania’s Wyoming Valley, despite threats and entreaties from a proprietary force.

1772 Arts: Noted artist Charles Willson Peale paints a Â�full-­length portrait of George Washington in the uniform of a Virginia militia colÂ�oÂ�nel; this is the first of six such works he will eventually complete through his lifetime. Business: The Watauga Association is established by frontiersmen James Rob-­ ertson and John Sevier for the purpose of acquiring and settling territory ceded by the Six Nations Iroquois in Tennessee. Significantly, it is chartered to operate outside the domain of the 13 existing colonies and constitutes the first local inÂ�deÂ� penÂ�dent government in North America. Religion: Reverend Samson Occom, a Â�full-­blooded Mohegan Indian, composes his Sermon Preached at the Execution of Moses Paul, the first such tract pub-­ lished in EnÂ�glish by a Native American. Slavery: Chief Justice William Murray, Lord Mansfield, decides the case of Knowles v. Somersett, whereby slavery is abolished in EnÂ�gland. This ruling quick-­ ens the pulse of abolitionist movements in the American colonies, who begin pressing for similar meaÂ�sures. Reverend Isaac Skillman of Boston publishes his Oration upon the Beauties of Liberty, which employed a philosophical defense of the right of slaves to rebel. He also demands an immediate end to slavery in the colonies. The Virginia Â�House of Burgesses approves a large tariff on imported Afri-­ can slaves in order to discourage that practice in the colony. The British Crown

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Peale, Charles Willson (1741–1827) Artist Charles Willson Peale was born in Queen Anne’s County, Maryland, on April 15, 1741, and he was apprenticed to a saddler while a young man. Ardently patriotic, he eventually opened up his own business in 1762, but his Loyalist-minded creditors closed him down. Around this time, Peale developed a talent for painting miniature portraits and became so skilled that he was allowed to study under John Hesselius and John Singleton Copley. Business flourished, and several wealthy patrons raised the money for him to visit London in 1767 to study under noted artist Benjamin West. He returned to Maryland two years later, where, in 1772, he painted the first ever portrait of George Washington as a Virginia militia colonel. Peale also became embroiled in the revolutionary politics of his time. These sentiments prompted him to relocate to Philadelphia in 1776, where he painted numerous portraits of leading American politicians and soldiers. In this capacity, he soon gained renown as America’s foremost artist and always sought to incorporate his republican idealism in his work. Peale also dabbled in politics by gaining a seat in the Pennsylvania assembly in 1779, but he resumed active portraiture a year later. Significantly, Washington was his sitter no less than seven times, and from these sessions he created a collection of nearly 60 paintings. John Hancock, Benjamin Franklin, Nathanael Greene, James Monroe, Thomas Jefferson, and Alexander Hamilton were all aptly captured on canvas by his nimble hands. But Peale was no sunshine patriot;

he joined the Continental Army in 1776 and was present in several actions, such as Trenton and Princeton, which he subsequently incorporated in his portraits. Peale also demonstrated a streak of what today would be considered showmanship in his attempt to build a market for public art. To this end he founded his own museum in 1788 to showcase his own talent alongside novelty and natural objects. Foremost among these was his “moving picture” display, which utilized several transparent pieces of art to give an illusion of movement. Such oddities as stuffed rattlesnake skins, buffalo hides, and various animal bones also held center stage. Peale also exhibited considerable interest in natural history, and in 1801, he helped finance the first U.S. scientific expedition, subsequently displaying the first mastodon skeleton to be exhibited publicly. In 1805, he also proved instrumental in helping to found the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts to encourage artistic study. Through all these expedients Peale hoped to secure funding for the arts through national endowments and thus break the traditional dependence upon rich patrons. In his spare time, he also displayed considerable talent for taxidermy, shoemaking, carpentry, dentistry, and optometry. Peale died in Philadelphia on February 22, 1827, an accomplished artist and a public benefactor writ large. He also sired an entire generation of artists, as his sons Raphaelle, Rembrandt, and Titian Ramsay Peale all became distinguished painters.

subsequently will strike down the action owing to its negative effect upon mercantile interests in England.

February 28 Politics: Little noticed at the time, a Boston assembly threatens the British Empire with secession unless their traditional rights as Englishmen are respected.

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April 9 Business: The British attorney general forwards to frontier agent George Croghan a copy of the Camden-Yorke opinion of 1757, which stipulates that the purchase of Indian land does not require patents from the English Crown. This triggers a rush on buying by land speculators who seek to acquire more acreage for sale.

June 9 Naval: The British revenue cutter HMS Gaspee, under Lieutenant William Dudingston, runs aground in Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, while pursuing suspected smugglers. When word gets back to Providence, eight boatloads of volunteers under Captain Abraham Whipple row out to the stricken craft, capture it, then burn it to the waterline. Dudingston, wounded in the fighting, is then arrested for having illegally seized several colonial vessels and remains behind bars until the admiralty agrees to pay his fine.

June 13 Politics: In a display of defiance, Governor Thomas Hutchinson declares that his salary will accrue from tea tax revenues and not the General Court’s coffers. This singularly decreases the influence that body has over him in office, and similar provisions are enacted for Superior Court justices. This newfound independence of the executive and judiciary branches of government is viewed as a threat to the legislature’s traditional self-rule.

August 14 Business: The large Vandalia land grant is approved by the British Crown, subject to boundary revisions by the Board of Trade. Due to the onset of the Revolutionary War, the title to the land is never issued.

August 20 Law: In London, measures are taken to investigate and prosecute the Gaspee affair by establishing a royal commission, which also will enjoy the power to suspend trial by jury. Moreover, the British Crown authorizes a large reward for information leading to the arrest of perpetrators, but no witnesses come forward.

September 2 Politics: The English government finalizes a commission, consisting of Rhode Island governor Joseph Wanton, the Boston vice admiralty judge, and the chief justices of Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey to investigate the burning of the HMS Gaspee and the arrest of all participants.

November 2 Politics: Boston establishes a 21- member committee of correspondence under the aegis of chairmen James Otis, Samuel Adams, and Dr. Joseph Warren. They are tasked with coordinating communications between local town governments throughout Massachusetts to better orchestrate re sis tance to official policies. Publishing: The Boston committee of correspondence compiles and publishes the Boston Pamphlet, decrying British attempts to subvert and enslave the colonies with taxes, troops, and suspension of jury trials.

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Warren, Joseph (1741–1775) Physician, general Joseph Warren was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts, on June 11, 1741, a son of farmers. He passed through Harvard College in 1759, then apprenticed himself to Dr. James Lloyd to study medicine. Warren became licensed to practice in 1763 and gained a reputation as a gifted physician. He was among the earliest members of Boston’s medical community to embrace immunization as a way of combating smallpox and, through that group, met John Adams, a patient. Accordingly, Warren’s politics gradually became radicalized, especially after the Stamp Act of 1765, and he befriended a host of budding radicals like Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and James Otis. He soon exhibited a flair for incendiary politics and quickly emerged as one of Boston’s most outspoken opponents of British imperial policy. Warren gained prominence throughout the colony for his fiery commemoration of the second anniversary of the Boston Massacre in 1772, and two years later was a founding member of the famous Boston committee of correspondence. In 1773, he vigorously protested the Tea Act and may have had a hand in orchestrating the notorious Boston Tea Party that December. By 1774, Warren had emerged as the de facto leader of the Patriot movement once Samuel Adams and John Hancock had been driven underground, and that fall, he sponsored the famous “Suffolk Resolves” condemning the Coercive Acts and urging military preparations to resist tyranny. These were then dispatched to the Continental Congress by his favorite express rider, Paul

Revere. On the evening of April 18, 1775, it was Warren that dispatched Revere on his most famous ride: to alert Adams and Hancock that British troops were marching toward Lexington. Warren arrived there himself the next morning to treat wounded soldiers from the Battle of Concord. In the weeks following the outbreak of violence, Warren functioned as president of the Massachusetts provincial congress and moved quickly to consolidate political support from the populace. He even sent an account of the fighting to England two weeks ahead of General Thomas Gage’s official report. Warren also actively assisted General Artemas Ward in collecting and organizing the disparate New England troops massing outside Boston for a siege. In light of his numerous contributions, Warren became a major general of militia as of June 14, 1775. Three days later, he showed up at Bunker Hill, to partake of the bloody fighting there, but refused to relieve General Israel Putnam of command and served as a volunteer soldier. Warren fought well in battle but was killed at the age of 34 when the British finally overran American defenses. He was then buried in an unmarked grave, but his remains were subsequently identified by Revere, who recognized some artificial teeth he had crafted earlier for the doctor. Warren was eventually interred at Forrest Hill Cemetery with military honors in 1855, one of the first and most lamented martyrs of the Revolutionary War.

November 20 Politics: Samuel Adams and Dr. Joseph Warren pen a declaration of rights and a list of grievances against the British government, which is then circulated throughout Massachusetts. They also petition Governor Thomas Hutchinson to reconvene the General Court.

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1773 Education: Scientist and mathematician John Winthrop is recipient of the first honorary L.L.D. degree issued by Harvard College. Literature: African-American poetess Phillis Wheatley publishes Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. This is only the second volume attributed to an American woman of any race and allows her to be manumitted shortly after its publication. Religion: Reverend Samuel Occom, a Christianized Mohegan Indian, obtains a land tract from the Oneida nation with which he intends to form a colony of “Praying Indians” free from European interference. This will not transpire until 1785. The First Negro Baptist Church is founded in Savannah, Georgia, by George Liele and Andrew Bryan, former slaves. A similar effort is achieved at Silver Bluff, South Carolina. Slavery: In Connecticut, Congregationalist minister Samuel Hopkins and Ezra Stiles, president of Yale College, begin promoting the idea of colonization of West Africa for the first time. The movement gains traction in the early 19th century. Noted Philadelphia physician Dr. Benjamin Rush published An Address to the Inhabitants of the British Settlements on the Slavery of the Negroes in America, one of the more eloquent and effective antislavery tracts of the 18th century. Technology: Inventor Oliver Evans conducts his first successful experiments with steam engines employing a cylinder flue boiler.

January 6 Politics: Massachusetts Governor Thomas Hutchinson presides over a new session of the General Court and sternly lectures members on the respective roles of Parliament and the colonies. He also announces a new policy, that of dispatching suspected felons directly to England for trial, which eliminates the notion of trial by one’s peers. Slavery: A small group of African-American slaves in Massachusetts petition the General Court for their freedom. Previously, residents of Leicester in that colony had elected representatives sworn to present the assembly with legislation outlawing both slavery and the slave trade.

January 12 Education: The first American museum is officially unveiled in Charleston, South Carolina.

February 9 General: William Henry Harrison, a future president, is born in Berkeley, Virginia.

February 27 Religion: Six years of construction culminates in the opening of Christ Church in Alexandria, Virginia. Among the subscribers is George Washington, who purchases a pew for his family and also donates a brass chandelier.

March 12 Politics: The Virginia House of Burgesses authorizes a committee of correspondence consisting of Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, and Richard Henry Lee to initiate communication with other colonial legislatures. Specifically, they are protesting the Gaspee commission’s ability to revoke trial by jury and to dispatch suspects to England.

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Rush, Benjamin

(1746–1813)

Physician Benjamin Rush was born in Byberry, Pennsylvania, on January 4, 1746, the son of a gunsmith. He graduated from the College of New Jersey (Princeton) in 1760, then studied medicine for two years at the College of Philadelphia (today’s University of Pennsylvania). While overseas, he met and befriended Benjamin Franklin in London and, through him, acquired an interest in politics. Rush then completed his studies through two years at the University of Edinburgh and established a medical practice at Philadelphia in 1769. Rush was then one of the besteducated physicians in the colonies, and he also gained appointment as the first professor of chemistry at the College of Philadelphia. In this capacity, he published A Syllabus of a Course of Lectures on Chemistry, the first such text in America. When the Continental Congress convened at Philadelphia in 1774, Rush was on hand to greet them and befriended men such as Patrick Henry,. John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson, although this was done less out of patriotism than to whet his appetite for political intrigue. In June 1776, Rush was himself elected a delegate to Congress where he served on several committees before joining a militia unit to fight at the battle of Princeton in January 1777. In light of his skill, he was made surgeon general of the Continental Army as of April 1777 and published a famous medical tract, Directions for Preserving the Health of Soldiers, which remained a standard text until the War of 1812. But Rush allowed his intrigue to carry him away when he abetted

the Conway Cabal against General George Washington and was forced to resign his post on January 30, 1778. He subsequently joined the teaching staff of the University of Pennsylvania in 1780, where he remained several years and enhanced his professional standing among peers. In addition to his medical interests, Rush was also one of the foremost social reformers of his day. Like his friend Franklin, he was stridently abolitionist and openly urged an end to slavery. Throughout the 1790s, he also pioneered the field of psychiatry and broke new ground by calling for humane treatment of the mentally ill. Rush also advocated better educational opportunities for women, an end to capital punishment, and enlightened prison reform. Rush was actively involved with medical efforts during Philadelphia’s terrible yellow fever epidemic of 1793, and he openly solicited aid from Richard Allen and Absalom Jones of the African-American community. The only controversial blot on Rush’s otherwise meritorious medical career was his adherence to the dated and dangerous practice of bleeding patients in the belief that it could cure a wide range of illnesses. He did so at a time when the practice was under attack by other doctors and becoming discredited. Rush died of typhus in Philadelphia on April 13, 1813, one of the foremost medical figures of his generation. But throughout most of the Revolutionary period, he functioned as a marginal and somewhat disreputable figure.

May 3 General: The Virginia Society for Promoting Useful Knowledge is established and awards its first gold medal to John Hobday for inventing a threshing machine.

May 7 Politics: Rhode Island organizes a committee of correspondence.

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May 10 Politics: Parliament passes the Tea Act, Lord Frederick North’s attempt to rescue the floundering British East India Company from bankruptcy. Because this condition was brought on by colonial boycotts, North seeks to impose a trade monopoly on the importation of tea. British tea is priced more cheaply than foreign teas, so the move will also undercut local merchants and smugglers from the Caribbean. It is an unlikely catalyst for revolution.

May 21 Politics: Connecticut forms a committee of correspondence.

May 27 Politics: New Hampshire forms a committee of correspondence.

May 28 Religion: The Touro Synagogue of Newport, Rhode Island, holds its first service.

June 1 Diplomacy: In the Treaty of Augusta, both Creek and Cherokee representatives agree to cede 2 million acres of western land to the British.

June 2 Politics: Scandal erupts when private correspondence of Massachusetts governor Thomas Hutchinson and Lieutenant Governor Andrew Oliver to the English government is surreptitiously obtained by the General Court and read aloud. Both leaders are apparently calling upon the government for stricter measures against dissent.

June 25 Politics: The Massachusetts legislature, angered by Governor Thomas Hutchinson’s secret demands for harsher measure to stifle dissent, petitions King George III for his removal from office.

July 7 Politics: Governor Thomas Hutchinson, informed that Postmaster Benjamin Franklin arranged for his private correspondence to fall into the hands of the Massachusetts assembly, demands that he be arrested and prosecuted for treason.

July 8 Politics: South Carolina forms its own committee of correspondence.

July 14 Religion: Methodists conduct their first ever annual conference at St. George’s Church, Philadelphia.

September 10 Politics: Georgia creates a committee of correspondence.

September 27 Journalism: Radical agitator Samuel Adams declares a need to organize a congress of colonies to counter the British threat in the Boston Gazette.

October 14 Politics: In a sign of growing resentment against the Crown, a cargo of British tea is torched by a mob in Annapolis, Maryland.

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October 15 Politics: Maryland adopts its own committee of correspondence.

October 16 Politics: The Pennsylvania legislature forms its own committee of correspondence, adopting resolutions that anyone who imports British tea be declared an “enemy to his country.” Local tea agents are also forced to resign from office.

October 23 Politics: Delaware adopts a committee of correspondence.

November 27 Politics: Tensions in Boston escalate following the arrival of the East India Company tea ship Dartmouth. Governor Thomas Hutchinson is nevertheless unrelenting and insists that the requisite duties must be levied by the colony and paid in full no later than December 16.

November 29 Politics: A mass Boston town meeting elects to defy the governor and orders the Dartmouth back to England with the requisite duties in hand. This move prompts Governor Thomas Hutchinson to order harbor masters to restrain all tea vessels in Boston harbor until they can prove the taxes have been paid.

December 8 Politics: North Carolina creates its own committee of correspondence.

December 16 Politics: Another mass rally at Old South Church draws 8,000 attendees, who are harangued by Samuel Adams and others. That night mounting colonial resistance culminates in the so-called Boston Tea Party, whereby the local Sons of Liberty, disguised as Indians, board tea ships Dartmouth, Eleanor, and Beaver at Griffith’s Wharf, then dump 342 chests worth of tea overboard. Property losses to the East India Company are 10,000 pounds. This constitutes a direct challenge by colonials to royal authority, and the wanton destruction of private property induces Parliament to weigh harsh measures against Massachusetts.

December 25 Politics: The General Court of Massachusetts again petitions King George III to remove both Governor Thomas Hutchinson and tax agent Andrew Oliver from office based upon their formerly secret correspondence with the government.

1774 Arts: Distinguished American artist John Singleton Copley emigrates from Boston to London, England, in anticipation of the outbreak of violence there. Business: The Illinois and Wabash land companies are formed to acquire, sell, and settle large tracts of the western frontier. Settlement: James Harrod establishes Harrodsburg, the first permanent settlement to arise in the region of Kentucky. Slavery: The Rhode Island General Assembly again rails against the importation of slaves, declaring all arriving African Americans to be free, regardless of their status. However, this does not pertain to slaves already in the colony.

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Copley, John Singleton (1738–1815) Artist John Singleton Copley was born in Boston, Massachusetts, a son of poor Irish immigrants. After Copley’s father died, his mother married Peter Pelham, a noted engraver, from whom he developed an interest in art. He continued in his father’s trade until the age of 18 and then found his avocation, portrait painting. In this specialized art form, Copley showed real genius for capturing the essence of his sitter in the context of material surroundings, such as fancy clothing or expensive furniture in the background. From a visual standpoint, Copley’s work combined attention to detail with an excellent command of light and dark and was extremely true to life for its day. At the time, Boston experienced a great flourishing of wealthy merchant families who were not averse to flaunting their conspicuous position in society, and a Copley portrait became a worthy status symbol. In time he did highly realistic, yet riveting, paintings of Paul Revere, Samuel Adams, and John Hancock, all of which confirm his reputation as a great artist. Moreover, in 1766 he dispatched a painting entitled The Boy with a Squirrel to London, which captured the admiration of the fastidiously fickle English art world. Consequently, he received invitations from Benjamin West and Sir Joshua Reynolds to study art in Europe. Copley declined for several years and continued painting noted Americans in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, until 1774, when mounting political violence induced him to move abroad. Officially,

he was neutral in the conflict between America and Britain, but his rich family and their allegedly Loyalist sympathies seriously affected his ability to conduct business. That year he toured Italy and France before settling in London and establishing a studio, remaining there for the rest of his life. Once in England, Copley shifted his emphasis from portraits to historical scenes, initially with considerable success. His most notable work in this regard, Watson and the Shark, based on a real incident, encapsulates the struggle between man and nature and also depicts an African American for the first time. In light of his genuine skills, he gained admittance to the Royal Academy of the Arts in 1783. Copley declined to return to the United States once independence had been won and he remained at his London studio, although his later paintings did not elicit the celebrity or popularity of earlier works. Nonetheless, he was visited by John Adams, and then John Quincy Adams who commissioned him for portraits. Copley spent the rest of his life continually losing money and accumulating debts, as his historical works failed to gain the notoriety anticipated, and interest in portraiture was also declining. He died in London on September 9, 1815, secure in his reputation as the first great American painter. His early works in Boston are still regarded as his most significant, and still elicit praise for capturing the confident, buoyant spirit of the newly rich and their position in late colonial life.

Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, while attending the First Continental Congress, prevail on fellow delegates to pass a measure calling to end the slave trade as of December 1 of that year. This provision subsequently forms part

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Watson and the Shark, by John Singleton Copley, oil on canvas, 1782

of the Articles of Association, which was then adopted by Congress in protest of British policies. Jefferson reiterated this call later that year in A Summary View of the Rights of British America, his first published pamphlet. At their annual meeting in Philadelphia, the Society of Friends votes to prohibit Quakers from buying or selling any additional slaves. Those persons already owning African Americans were encouraged to release them soon or face expulsion from the society. Delegates meeting at New Bern, North Carolina, call for an end to the importation of slaves. A slave revolt in St. Andrews Parish, Georgia, leads to the deaths of four Europeans, while the two slaves convicted of leading the rebellion are burned to death.

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January Publishing: The Royal American Magazine, the first such publication to employ illustrations, begins its brief publication run.

January 20 Politics: New York adopts its own committee of correspondence.

January 25 Politics: In another ominous sign of the times, customs official John Malcolm is publicly tarred and feathered in Boston.

January 27 Politics: When Governor Thomas Hutchinson’s report on the Boston Tea Party reaches Prime Minister Lord Frederick North, he angrily concludes that draconian measures are necessary to bring the errant colony of Massachusetts back into line. Failure to do so now imperils the continuing hegemony of Crown and Parliament over its colonies.

January 30 Politics: Benjamin Franklin, implicated in forwarding Governor Thomas Hutchinson’s private correspondence to the Massachusetts General Court, is dismissed as postmaster general.

February 7 Politics: In light of recent events, the British government ignores a petition by the Massachusetts assembly to dismiss Governor Thomas Hutchinson.

February 8 Politics: New Jersey adopts a committee of correspondence.

March 18 Politics: Prime Minister Lord Frederick North, acting upon ministerial prerogatives, crafts the Boston Port Bill for Parliamentary consideration. This legislation mandates the closing of Boston harbor to all trade until the colony pays compensation to the East India Company. This is the first of the so-called Coercive Acts, better known in the colonies as the Intolerable Acts.

March 25 Politics: Parliament unflinchingly passes the Boston Port Bill to punish that city for its role in the Boston Tea Party of last December. The usually bustling port is hereby closed until restitution is paid for the tea destroyed. If, through this action, the English government intends to intimidate the colonies, they sadly miscalculated. Boston now becomes a rallying point, and both legislatures and individuals begin sending food, money, and other supplies in its support.

March 30 Politics: An angry Governor Thomas Hutchinson dissolves the Massachusetts General Court.

April 22 Politics: The New York Sons of Liberty, taking a leaf from their Boston brethren, disguise themselves as Indians, board the English tea ship London, and dump tea into New York harbor.

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Logan

(ca. 1720–1780)

Mingo chief Soyechtowa was born at the Mingo village of Shamokin (Sunbury, Pennsylvania) around 1720, the son of an Oneida chief and a Cayuga woman. The Mingo were actually a part of the Six Nations Iroquois confederacy that lived beyond its traditional homelands in New York. He matured on a frontier where whites and Native Americans easily intermingled and intermarried. His father was also an ally of colonial governor William Penn, and the young man developed an abiding respect for his Quaker secretary James Logan (1674–1751) and adopted his name. Like his father, Logan was favorably disposed toward English settlers and amassed considerable wealth hunting and trapping for them. He never rose to prominence within his own tribe, but Logan’s skill in battle, his fine oratory, and commanding presence made him a significant frontier figure. He supported the English throughout the French and Indian War and again during Pontiac’s Rebellion of 1763. By 1770, the influx of new settlements made hunting and trapping impractical for Indians living in western Pennsylvania, so Logan relocated his family to a new settlement along Yellow Creek near present-day Chillicothe, Ohio. Around this time, increasing competition for land led to a breakdown of heretofore friendly frontier relations, and it was not uncommon for bands of lawless ruffians to randomly murder any group of Native Americans they encountered. Naturally, the Indians responded in kind with atrocities

of their own, and the region grew ripe for internecine frontier strife. Sometime during April 1774, a band of frontiersmen under Daniel Greathouse invited a group of Logan’s family to a drinking party and then murdered them all. At a single stroke Logan lost his parents, brothers and sisters, and several children. This wanton act infuriated him and he initiated a one-man war to exact revenge. In time, Logan could boast of taking no less than 30 English scalps, including women and children. Meanwhile, Governor John Murray, Lord Dunmore, of Virginia, used this outbreak as a pretext to mobilize the militia and attack the neighboring Shawnee. Logan supported Chief Cornstalk in the ensuing struggle, but Indian efforts faltered at the Battle of Point Pleasant on October 10, 1774. The following month, Dunmore concluded a peace treaty at Camp Charlotte, Ohio, but Logan refused to attend. Instead he relayed his feelings to Indian agents, since enshrined as one of the most eloquent examples of Native American elocution. “Who is there to mourn for Logan?” he demanded. “Not one!” Thomas Jefferson at once declared the speech equal to any given in ancient Greece or Rome. Logan for his part supported the British through the Revolutionary War, becoming sullen, addicted to alcohol, and acquiring the reputation of a drunken bully. He was apparently inebriated while on a visit to Detroit in 1780, when he was murdered by a nephew. Years later, a statue was erected to his memory at Auburn, New York.

April 30 Military: A group of frontier ruffians attacks and kills a party of Indians at Logan’s Camp, Virginia, wiping out the entire family of Shawnee chief Logan. This prompts the enraged tribesmen to start a frontier conflict known as Dunmore’s War.

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May Societal: The colonial assembly in Williamsburg, Virginia, issues a strict code of etiquette to guide the behavior of the local community.

May 3 Politics: In another pointed commentary on the state of Anglo-American relations, both Governor Thomas Hutchinson and Solicitor General Alexander Wedderburn are burned in effigy at Boston.

May 12 Politics: The Boston committee of commerce, undaunted by recent punitive measures, demands the reinstatement of nonimportation against English goods unless the Boston Port Bill is revoked. A circular letter to that effect is then drawn up and carried to New York by Paul Revere.

May 13 Military: In a major development, General Thomas Gage, commander in chief of British forces in America, arrives at Boston as the new royal governor. While in office he is backed by the bayonets of four additional infantry regiments.

May 15 Military: Shawnee Indians begin raiding settlements along the Ohio River, and Governor John Murray, Lord Dunmore, begins mobilizing colonial militia to oppose them. A separate column under Colonel Andrew Lewis is expected to rendezvous with the main force on the frontier.

May 17 Politics: The Rhode Island General Assembly passes a motion calling for an intercolonial congress to resist the Coercive Acts. It proves a catalyst for dramatic action on the part of the colonies.

May 20 Politics: King George III signs the next set of the Coercive Acts into law. These are the Massachusetts Government Act, which annuls the colony charter, and the Administration of Justice Act to tighten political and judicial control. Henceforth, all persons accused of capital crimes will have to stand trial in either Britain or a colony other than their own. The government also reserves the right to appoint all colonial officials, and traditional town meetings are expressly forbidden with prior consent of the royal governor.

May 26 Politics: Governor John Murray, Lord Dunmore, dismisses the Virginia House of Burgesses for overt displays of sympathy with Massachusetts. The legislators promptly reconvene at the Raleigh Tavern in Williamsburg to further enunciate their support for Boston, nonimportation, and an intercolonial congress to address all grievances.

June 1 Politics: The Boston Port Bill goes into effect, and all harbor traffic is closed down, pending the payment of restitution to the East India Company.

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June 2 Politics: In another punitive measure, Parliament revises and reinstitutes the Quartering Act, expanding its provisions to encompass all 13 colonies. Moreover, each colony is required to pay for all expenditures associated with maintaining assigned garrisons.

June 5 Publishing: Dr. Joseph Warren pens the Solemn League and Covenant, an agreement by Boston merchants to support another round of nonimportation of English goods.

June 10 Military: Virginia governor John Murray, Lord Dunmore, calls out the militia to deal with a Shawnee uprising along the frontier. The ensuing conflict, known as Dunmore’s War, is viewed by many contemporaries as a way of deflecting political anger away from his administration. Politics: The still dismissed Massachusetts General Court, convening itself in Salem as an extralegal body, approves a resolution calling for an intercolonial congress.

June 14 Politics: Rhode Island becomes the first colony to select delegates to the First Continental Congress; ultimately 11 other colonies follow suit.

June 17 Politics: General Thomas Gage orders the Massachusetts General Court, meeting in Salem, disbanded. Meanwhile, Samuel Adams convenes a Boston town meeting that defiantly vows not to pay damages assessed for the Boston Tea Party.

June 22 Politics: In yet another round of punitive legislation, King George III signs the Quebec Act into law. This establishes a formal government in Quebec and enlarges its boundaries down the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers to preclude any further land claims by colonial settlers. At a single stroke, this move eliminates territories long claimed by Massachusetts, Virginia, and Connecticut. Equally important, the act also guarantees religious freedom for Roman Catholics in Canada, raising fears of “popery” among the largely Protestant colonies.

June 28 Politics: At another large gathering in New York City, Alexander McDougall and Alexander Hamilton publicly rail against British tyranny and call for renewed nonimportation.

August 4 Religion: “Mother” Ann Lee, founder of the monastical Shaker movement, arrives in New York from Liverpool, England. She begins her experimental commune at Watervliet, New York, outside Albany.

August 6 Politics: The Virginia Convention extends the Virginia Association and its boycott of all English goods.

August 10 Politics: Georgia votes to become the only colony not sending a deputation to the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia. They opt instead for a declaration of rights.

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August 17 Publishing: Philadelphia lawyer James Wilson composes his Considerations on the Nature and Extent of the Legislative Authority of the British Parliament. This item postulates the so-called dominion theory, confirming colonial allegiance to the sovereign while rejecting parliamentary hegemony.

August 26 Military: Parliament orders several units of Massachusetts militia, suspected of disloyalty, to disband. However, 2,000 of them defiantly assemble on the Worcester village common and parade with their weapons.

August 27 Business: Richard Henderson, a North Carolina judge, helps establish the Transylvania Company to begin land speculation in the frontier region of Kentucky.

September 1 Military: In another major escalation, General Thomas Gage orders British forces to seize the militia arsenal at Somerville, six miles from Boston. Lieutenant Colonel George Maddison and 260 soldiers of the 4th Foot are assigned to the task, and they fulfill their assignment by taking 260 barrels of gunpowder without incident. Their deceptively easy success, known locally as the “Powder alarm,” convinces many officials that the colonials will not fight British regulars in the field. In this sense, it ominously portends things to come.

September 4 Military: The recent British raid against Somerville (Charlestown), Massachusetts, goes off without violence, but on their return march the British are greeted by thousands of angry, armed militiamen.

September 5 Military: General Thomas Gage, judging the temper of the times, orders the narrow neck of land connecting Boston to the mainland fortified. For all intents and purposes, Boston is now under siege. Politics: A gathering of 56 delegates from all the colonies except Georgia assembles in Philadelphia’s Carpenter’s Hall as the First Continental Congress. This originated as an intercolonial effort to address grievances arising from British imperial policy, as well as coordinating an effective response. The 55 delegates present wrangle with defining their rights as Englishmen as well as a means of defending them. Moreover, radical factions under men like Samuel Adams seek official protests against a British attempt to “enslave” them and urge the colonies to make military preparations to defend themselves.

September 8 Military: Royal Governor Thomas Gage dispatches troops in boats to the outer reachers of Boston harbor to seize some coastal artillery stationed there in a small fort. The British arrive only to discover that the guns are gone.

September 9 Politics: The Massachusetts convention meeting at Suffolk adopts the so-called Suffolk Resolves at the behest of Dr. Joseph Warren, the author. This philippic denounces recent changes in local governance imposed by the Coercive Acts, and

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September 10 Business: By this date British exports have fallen by 90 percent over the previous year; stark testimony to the effectiveness and widespread support of nonimportation.

September 17 Politics: In its first official action, the Continental Congress adopts the Suffolk Resolves to encourage widespread political resistance against the Coercive Acts. This action marks the emergence of that body as a guiding entity for the colonies in their continuing struggle with the homeland.

September 21 Military: George Washington, chairing a volunteer militia committee, dons the blue and buff uniform of the Fairfax County, Virginia, militia for the first time. This eventually becomes the standard uniform of the Continental army.

September 28 Politics: In Philadelphia, Loyalist delegate Joseph Galloway proposes a pragmatic union of the colonies with Great Britain to forestall an outbreak of hostilities. He suggests creating a grand council drawn from all colonies under a governor general appointed by the Crown. The plan fails only narrowly on a vote of six to five, affording demonstrable proof of how divided the delegates are at the moment.

October 5 Politics: General Thomas Gage again orders the extralegal General Court at Salem, now known as the Provincial Congress, to disband. Instead, President John Hancock authorizes a committee of public safety, which then votes to mobilize the militia and begin procuring weapons and supplies.

October 10 Military: Virginia militia under Colonel Andrew Lewis engage and defeat Shawnee warriors under Chief Cornstalk at Point Pleasant near the mouth of the Kanawha River (West Virginia). The Indians, strongly ensconced across the river, repel two militia columns under Colonels Charles Lewis and William Fleming and then withdraw from the battlefield. The militia loses over 200 men in a very sharp action; Indian losses are unknown but presumed equally heavy. Unable to sustain such attrition against a foe enjoying manpower advantages, Cornstalk sues for peace. This is the concluding event of Dunmore’s War.

October 14 Politics: Delegates in Philadelphia adopt the Declaration of Rights and Grievances, consisting of 14 resolutions carefully drawn from natural law and other

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Galloway, Joseph

333

(ca. 1731–1803)

Loyalist politician Joseph Galloway was born in West River, Maryland, around 1731 and he studied law in Philadelphia. He soon established himself as one of the city’s most eminent attorneys and further enhanced his social standing by marrying into a wealthy family. Galloway gained election to the Pennsylvania assembly in 1756, where he formed a deep and abiding friendship with Benjamin Franklin. The two men further cemented their alliance by challenging the proprietary rule of the Penn family and skirmished constantly with the more conservative John Dickinson. The turning point in Galloway’s career happened in 1765 with the passage of the hated Stamp Act. Now speaker of the assembly, he was shocked by riots against British authority and began articulating views more sympathetic to Parliament’s right to tax its colonies. After the Townshend Duties were passed in 1767, Galloway strongly refuted Dickinson’s Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania by reiterating Parliament’s authority to tax the colonies but then argued that legislators must somehow dissuade it from doing so. By strongly proclaiming his Loyalist sympathies, Galloway gained the ire of Franklin and other former allies, but he found favor among the city’s more conservative elements who sent him to the First Continental Congress in 1774. There he gained a measure of notoriety by sponsoring a “Plan of Union” to diffuse the crisis; this mandated creation of an intercolonial legislature headed by a president-general appointed by the king. This was a pragmatic

and effective solution to long-standing colonial grievances, and it was defeated in Congress by only a single vote. However, his old nemesis Dickinson used his influence to have Galloway removed from Congress in October 1774. Galloway remained on the fringes of political debate until July 1776, when the Second Continental Congress signed the Declaration of Independence. This he considered treason and left Philadelphia for New York, where he was a frequent visitor to General William Howe’s headquarters and entreated that leader to attack and capture Philadelphia. Once this was accomplished in October 1777 Galloway was installed as city superintendent and he made life uncomfortable for known Patriots residing there. When the British abandoned Philadelphia in August 1778, Galloway fled with them, a thoroughly detested figure. He next ventured to London to criticize the war effort and assure Parliament of continuing Loyalist support in America. With the end of the war in 1783, Galloway petitioned the Pennsylvania assembly for permission to return, but they refused and confiscated his vast estates. Galloway spent the rest of his life living on a pension in Watford, Hertfordshire, where he died on August 29, 1803. Ironically, his “Plan of Union,” mention of which was expunged from the records of the Continental Congress, anticipated what ultimately emerged as the British Commonwealth a century later.

Enlightenment precepts. It clearly enunciates the litany of complaints by the colonies against the homeland and, most important of all, insists that colonists’ rights as Englishmen have been violated. It specifically mentions the Coercive Acts, the Quebec Acts, and all repressive measures adopted by Britain over the

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Cornstalk (ca. 1720–1777) Shawnee chief Cornstalk (Hokoleskwa) was probably born in western Pennsylvania around 1720, part of the Mekoche division of the Shawnee tribe. He matured into a capable warrior and was active in skirmishes during a period of escalating hostility between Native Americans and English settlers. For this reason his tribe sided with France during the French and Indian War, and Cornstalk also fought with distinction during Pontiac’s Rebellion of 1763. When this affair was crushed, he became a formal hostage and was interned at Fort Pitt. Cornstalk subsequently escaped to a new home at Scioto, Ohio, but thereafter he acknowledged the relative weakness of the Shawnee nation and sought peaceful accommodation with whites wherever possible. At this time the British government issued the Proclamation of 1763, which forbade new settlements beyond the Appalachian Mountains, but this did little to mitigate continuing white encroachment. In one flurry of hostility, the entire family of Mingo chief Logan was murdered by frontiersmen, and Cornstalk attacked several villages in retaliation. Governor John Murray, Lord Dunmore, of Virginia, used this outbreak as a pretext to start an even bigger conflict, Lord Dunmore’s War, in 1774. As it began, two columns of Virginia militia were supposed to rendezvous in West Virginia prior to attacking all Indians in the region. When Cornstalk sent his brother Silverheels to inquire if Cornstalk was going to be attacked, he was unceremoniously murdered at Fort Pitt. In the ensuing war,

Cornstalk and Logan managed to ambush the militia of Colonel Andrew Lewis at Point Pleasant on October 10, 1774. The Indians came close to victory but were ultimately thwarted with heavy losses to both sides. Cornstalk, unable to withstand such attrition, then signed the Treaty of Camp Charlotte, which yielded all Indian land in Kentucky to the British and established a new Indian boundary at the Ohio River. The onset of the Revolutionary War in 1775 did not change Cornstalk’s caution in dealing with whites in a continuing attempt to avert hostilities. In fact, his close proximity to white settlements along the frontier made him conclude that war with the Americans was too hazardous, despite the clamoring of other tribes farther off. For two years he maintained his policy of studious neutrality, even though astute British diplomacy brought many other tribesmen to their side. But in the fall of 1777, the chief felt it proper to visit the Americans at Fort Randolph to ascertain if they intended to make war against him. He and his son, Allanawissica, then ventured to the fort in good faith to air their concerns and were summarily arrested and confined. When angry Shawnee scalped some militia outside the fort, both Cornstalk and his son were murdered in their jail cell as retribution. His passing inflamed the Shawnee against America for the duration of the war and also marked the beginning of an internecine, two-decade-long struggle under Little Turtle and Blue Jacket that did not end until the Treaty of Greenville in 1795.

past decade. While skirting the issue of independence, the declaration reaffirms colonial belief that Parliament has no jurisdiction over America except in matters of commerce and defense. This is the first such document drawn up by a majority of colonies and denotes the gradual radicalization of moderates such as John

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Chronology ╅ 335 Adams and John Dickinson. It also anticipates many of the precepts enunciated in the forthcoming Declaration of In�de�pen�dence.

October 19 Politics: In another display of hostility toward British trade policy, the tea vessel Peggy Stewart is burned by an angry mob at Annapolis, Mary�land.

October 20 Arts: The Continental Congress in Philadelphia suspends theater, gaming, cock fighting, and Â�horse racing to cultivate an atmosphere of morality. Politics: The Continental Congress adopts the Continental Association, mod-­ eled after the Virginia Association, to promote Â�colony-­wide enforcement of non-­ importation of EnÂ�glish goods. The slave trade is also abolished. Implicit is a December 1, 1774, deadline for Parliamentary compliance, lest a complete ban on British exports be enacted the following spring.

October 21 Military: The Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, an extralegal body, author-­ izes a provincial army to supplant the old colonial militia. Headquarter functions are entrusted to a Committee of Safety while another committee oversees logisti-­ cal concerns. Henceforth, all officers suspected of loyalty to the king are ordered discharged. All companies are ordered to elect new officers, who will then elect a regimental staff. Moreover, each company is to cull 50 men for volunteer “Minuteman” companies, a Â�quick-­reaction force of Â�well-­trained men. Across the colony, the training and equipping of armed forces begin in earnest. Politics: In Philadelphia, John Jay, Robert R. Liv-­ ingston, and Richard Henry Lee draft an address to the people of Great Britain, warning them that if tyr-­ anny remains unchecked it will ultimately take root in Britain.

October 26 Military: The Massachusetts Provincial Congress at Cambridge begins reorÂ�gaÂ�nizÂ�ing the colonial militia into a Â�rapid-­response force, the Minutemen. Politics: The First Continental Congress adjourns, having voted to reconvene in Philadelphia on May 10, 1775, if Britain fails to respond to American grievances.

November 17 Military: The Philadelphia Troop of Light Â�Horse, composed of 26 of the city’s young gentlemen, is orÂ�gaÂ� nized as one of the first colonial military units.

November 30 Politics: Thomas Paine, a noted En�glish po�liti�cal agitator, arrives in Philadelphia at the invitation of Benjamin Franklin.

Thomas Paine (National Archives)

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December 1 Slavery: The Fairfax Resolves, authored by George Mason, outlaws the further importation of African slaves into Virginia. Among the signatories is George Washington, who chaired the session.

Mason, George

(1725–1792)

Politician George Mason was born in Stafford County, Virginia, in 1725, the son of a wealthy planter. He inherited great wealth and acquired more through speculation, but viewed public office and the men who held it with disdain. Consequently, despite being well educated and highly knowledgeable in terms of political philosophy, Mason declined to enter public service. But he gradually entered the political arena following the onset of tensions with Great Britain over taxes and imperial policy. Mason then crafted the Virginia Resolves in 1767, which questioned Parliament’s right to tax the colonies without representation. It was subsequently introduced into the House of Burgesses by George Washington, which so angered Governor John Murray, Lord Dunmore, that he dissolved the legislature. On July 18, 1774, Mason next drew up the famous Fairfax Resolves to protest the Coercive Acts and accused the British government of trying to enslave its colonies. Taken together, his two documents helped to intellectually frame the emerging revolutionary ideology of the United States. In 1775, Mason finally abandoned seclusion and sat with the Virginia Committee of Safety, which, among other things, ousted Lord Dunmore from office. He was then tasked with drawing up a new state constitution to replace the old colonial charter. But Mason’s greatest contribution to American political philosophy came in May 1776 when he originated the Virginia Declaration of Rights. The concepts and wording so moved Thomas Jefferson that he

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freely borrowed its precepts and phrasing in his own Declaration of Independence. Despite Mason’s political celebrity he declined public office and never ventured to Philadelphia. Instead, he served in the Virginia House of Delegates and helped orchestrate financing for the Northwest campaign of Colonel George Rogers Clark. After the Revolutionary War ended in 1783, Mason simply returned to an anonymous existence back on his plantation. The ensuing political unrest arising from the Articles of Confederation finally prompted him to return to the public arena in 1787, when he served as a delegate at the Constitutional Convention. Mason generally favored centralized governance with proper safeguards but could not support the document espoused by fellow Virginian James Madison until it contained a Bill of Rights. He also railed against the continuation of slavery and the slave trade, which he regarded as anathema to civilized rule. Mason then joined the Virginia Constitutional Convention as an anti-Federalist and, in concert with Patrick Henry, roundly opposed its ratification. However, once the document was adopted in 1788 and a Bill of Rights was approved, Mason dropped his opposition and returned to his life of privacy. He died at Gunston Hall, Virginia, on October 7, 1792. Mason’s contributions during the revolutionary period are not as well known or celebrated as Jefferson’s or Madison’s, but they permeate the very fabric of American political philosophy and life.

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December 9 Military: A cache of British ordnance and supplies is seized by colonials at Newport, Rhode Island, and sequestered at Providence.

December 13 Politics: A copy of the Suffolk Resolves arrives in London and it is denounced in the halls of government as treason.

December 14 Military: In Boston, General Thomas Gage determines to secure another colonial supply dump, this time at Fort William and Mary in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 50 miles distant. Once the colonial intelligence network catches wind of the scheme, Paul Revere is sent galloping off to warn the local militia. Major John Sullivan then gathers 400 militiamen and leads a preemptive raid against Fort William and Mary to abscond with supplies of gunpowder and can-­ non. He also takes six Redcoats prisoner and, when their officer draws his sword as the British flag is lowered, he is wounded in a scuffle. When Gage’s force arrives the next day, they find the fort sacked and deserted.

1775 Arts: Historian Mercy Warren Otis pens a satirical play, The Group, in which she lampoons Governor Thomas Hutchinson. It was apparently never staged. Medical: Dr. John Jones, whose patients include Benjamin Franklin and George Washington, pens the first surgical textbook written in America, Remarks on the Treatment of Wounds and Fractures. Slavery: The Delaware assembly approves a law outlawing the importation of slaves into the colony but it is vetoed by Governor John McKinly. Noted po�liti�cal agitator Thomas Paine composes an antislavery essay for the Pennsylvania Journal, and argues that slavery ought to be abolished and that newly freed slaves should receive land and jobs as compensation.

January 18 Politics: Georgia’s first Provincial Congress, drawn exclusively from five Â�Patriot-­dominated parishes, assembles in Savannah and votes to express solidarity with the inhabitants of Massachusetts. However, members of the seven Â� Loyalist-­dominated parishes thwart any attempt to send delegates to Philadelphia.

January 27 Politics: Secretary of State for the Colonies William Legge, Lord Dartmouth, instructs General Thomas Gage in Boston to take whatÂ�ever meaÂ�sures are nec-­ essary to enforce the Crown’s authority. At that time, he commands a garrison force of nine regiments and five Royal Artillery companies for a total of 4,000 Â�well-­trained troops. Four large warships in the harbor contribute a further 460 Royal Marines under Major John Pitcairn.

February 1 Politics: In Parliament, Whig opposition leaders William Pitt and Edmund Burke make an impassioned plea for Parliament to repeal the Coercive Acts, to

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Warren, Mercy Otis

(1728–1814)

Writer, historian Mercy Otis was born at Barnstable, Massachusetts, on September 14, 1728, a sister of noted attorney James Otis. Consistent with practices of the day, she received little formal education but was allowed to attend private lessons arranged for her brother. Otis, a voracious reader, also enjoyed unlimited access to her uncle’s library and immersed herself in the nuances of literature, history, and politics. In 1754 she married James Warren, a rising politician, and through him became acquainted with local notables John and Abigail Adams, among others. The Warren house thus functioned as a central meeting place for leading Whig politicians and thinkers, and she frequently surprised visitors by her exacting grasp of politics and history. After her brother was seriously injured during a brawl in 1769, Warren replaced him as the family devotee of politics. Commencing in 1772, she also made her mark by publishing biting political satires aimed principally at Governor Thomas Hutchinson. Foremost among them are The Adulateur (1773) and The Group (1775), celebrated for their pointed and biting commentary on British imperial politics. It had also been heretofore unthinkable for a woman of her day to venture an opinion on politics, let alone an erudite one. Warren possessed what John Adams characterized as the best pen of her age. By the end of the Revolution she had authored and published three works of satire and a volume entitled Poems Dramatic and Miscellaneous, all of which were highly regarded by contempo-

raries. Warren’s literary activity establish her as the earliest female exponent of belles lettres, and among the foremost literary minds of her day, gender notwithstanding. After the war the Warren political dynasty fell into disrepute, principally over its suspected sympathy for Shays’s Rebellion of 1787. Warren was, in fact, an unapologetic Democrat-Republican and increasingly critical of Federalist policies. She embraced the natural rights philosophy contained in the Declaration of Independence and the concomitant rise of democracy and egalitarianism, which many found too radical. In 1788, Warren wrote eloquently against adoption of the Federal Constitution, fearing an imposition of tyranny. She also suffered from estranged relations with her former friend John Adams, following publication of her landmark three-volume History of the Rise, Progress, and Termination of the American Revolution (1805), in which she accused him of harboring monarchical tendencies. These two leading lights were not personally reconciled until 1812, after not speaking for many years. Nonetheless her history is regarded as a significant contribution to understanding of the period, seeing that she possessed firsthand knowledge of many of the participants and events narrated. Warren died at Plymouth on October 19, 1814, having rarely ventured beyond her town, yet possessing a world view remarkable in its scope and complexity. Like Phillis Wheatley, she was among the first American women to publish under her own name.

remove troops from Boston, and to acknowledge colonial views on the issue of taxation. Their plan is overwhelmingly defeated by the members. Closer to home, the Second Provincial Congress meets again in Cambridge, Massachusetts, under John Hancock and Dr. Joseph Warren. Together they initiate preparations for the military defense of the colony.

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February 6 Journalism: John Adams pens The Rule of Law and the Rule of Men in the Massachusetts Gazette, insisting on the supreme authority of provincial legislatures over Parliament.

February 9 Politics: King George III, exasperated by what he considers a wanton display of defiance, summarily declares the colony of Massachusetts in a state of rebellion. What began as a dispute over tea and taxes is lurching inexorably toward armed confrontation.

February 20 Military: The Second Provincial Congress reconvenes at Concord, Massachusetts, and takes positive steps to enhance colonial defenses. These include establishment of a military commissary, the recruitment of Stockbridge Indians, rules for military governance, and an appeal to neighboring colonies for reinforcements and supplies.

February 22 Business: The American Manufactory of Woolens, Linens, and Cottons becomes the first joint stock manufacturing company in the colonies.

February 26 Military: In Boston, General Thomas Gage orders a cache of colonial supplies and cannon stored at Salem, Massachusetts, to be seized by force. The 64th Foot, under Colonel Alexander Leslie, then lands at Marblehead, Massachusetts, and proceeds inland. En route Leslie’s path is blocked by irate civilians and militia, who refuse him passage over the drawbridge. Leslie makes preparations to fire on his antagonists when a deputation under Colonel Timothy Pickering agrees to allow the British across, but only on the condition that they examine the building in question, then depart. Leslie, outnumbered and wishing to avoid a fight, complies. The British then cross the bridge, examine the building in question, then retire across the bridge and sail back to Boston. Henceforth the affair is derided by colonials as “Leslie’s Retreat,” which further emboldens them to confront the Redcoats.

February 27 Politics: Prime Minister Lord Frederick North promulgates the Conciliatory Response for Parliamentary consideration. This act abolishes all new taxes on the colonies once the latter assume fiscal responsibility for their own defense. North, however, addresses it to 13 separate colonial governments to deny the Continental Congress any political recognition.

March 6 General: At Boston, Prince Hall and 14 African Americans are inducted into the British Army Masonic Lodge, the first such fraternal organization for blacks. Hall, a minister, had previously requested permission from the Massachusetts Grand Lodge to form an African lodge and was refused.

March 10 Business: Frontiersman Daniel Boone and 30 woodchoppers are dispatched by the Transylvania Company for the express purposes of cutting the Wilderness Road through the Cumberland Gap and into Cherokee territory.

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March 15 Diplomacy: The Transylvania Company and the Cherokee agree to the Treaty of Sycamore Shoals, whereby the Indians sell a tract of land between the Kentucky River and the Cumberland Valley for 10,000 pounds worth of gifts.

March 22 Politics: In Parliament, Whig opposition leader Edmund Burke rails against the New England Restraining Act being considered in the House of Commons. This legislation would forbid that region from trading with any country other than Britain, Ireland, and the West Indies. He also denounces the practice of taxation without representation and insists that only colonial legislatures are empowered to raise revenues on their own population.

March 23 Military: The extralegal Virginia Convention of Delegates, aroused by recent events in Massachusetts, begins debating defensive measures. At length, outspoken politician Patrick Henry gains appointment as colonel of the 1st Virginia Regiment. He also rails against Governor John Murray, Lord Dunmore’s suspension of the assembly and thunders, “Forbid it, Almighty God—I know not what course others may take; but as for me—give me liberty or give me death!”

March 25 Military: The Virginia Convention mandates that each county will raise, equip, and train a company of infantry or cavalry.

March 30 Military: Royal Governor Thomas Gage sends a brigade of 1,200 British soldiers under Colonel Hugh Percy on a foray from Boston and out along the Charles River in a show of strength. Local militia do not contest their movement but assume defensive positions at the river crossings and the Redcoats, seeking to avoid a fight, simply march back into town without incident. Politics: King George III approves the New England Restraining Act, which sharply limits that region’s ability to trade and bans it outright from the Atlantic fisheries. The bill also extends its provisions to any colony participating in the Continental Association and its boycott of English goods.

April Military: Escalating tensions culminate in creation of the Provisional Army by the extralegal Provincial Congress in Massachusetts. This 30,000-man force is to consist of detachments from all six New England states, supplemented by British cannon seized from various forts. Concord, New Hampshire, is selected as the major entrepot for the force.

April 1 Military: The New York assembly requires all males of military age to enlist in the militia. Settlement: Daniel Boone establishes the settlement of Boonesborough on the Kentucky River at the behest of the Transylvania Company.

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April 5 Military: The Massachusetts Provincial Congress adopts 52 articles of war, principally derived from the 1765 British Articles of War, in the event of hostilities. The preamble carefully delineates the colony’s denial of rebellion or treason and reiterates a long list of complaints against the British government.

April 8 Politics: Governor Josiah Martin of North Carolina, unable to gain compliance from his colonial assembly, orders that body dissolved. Fearing the worst, Martin also places his family on a ship for New York.

April 14 Military: General Thomas Gage receives positive instructions from Secretary of the Colonies William Legge, Lord Dartmouth, authorizing him to employ military force to secure compliance with the Coercive Acts, including the arrest of colonial leaders. However, Gage’s request for 20,000 reinforcements has been turned down as impractical at that time. Slavery: Philadelphia Quakers, assisted by Benjamin Franklin and Dr. Benjamin Rush, found the Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage. This is among the earliest abolitionist societies in America.

April 15 Military: General Thomas Gage, declining to arrest colonial leaders, prepares a picked force of 700 light infantry and grenadiers (flank companies) to make another “powder raid” against Concord and Worcester, Massachusetts. He rejects orders to arrest colonial leaders as impractical and opts instead for a preemptive strike against a military objective. The Redcoats are to be conveyed by long boat across the Charles River in darkness and begin their night march in silence. However, colonial intelligence is tipped off as to their arrival and destination, and numerous riders are sent galloping off to arouse the countryside.

April 16 Military: Dr. Joseph Warren readies dispatch rider Paul Revere to gallop from Boston to Lexington, Massachusetts, to warn John Hancock and Samuel Adams of the British army’s approach. The warning eventually spreads to Worcester, where the local militia successfully relocates all military supplies stored there. Revere also arranges for lanterns to be hung from the steeple of the Old North Church to signal the British route taken: one lamp if by land, two if by sea.

April 18 Military: At night, a British column of 70 picked light troops and grenadiers under Lieutenant Colonel Francis Smith and Major John Pitcairn departs Boston, is ferried across the Charles River at Lechmere Point in great secrecy, and begins the overland march toward Concord. The colonists are prepared for such an occurrence, and riders Paul Revere and William Dawes ride off to warn the militia and leaders John Hancock and Samuel Adams. Both men are caught and detained by the British, however, and it falls upon Dr. Samuel Prescott to deliver the actual message.

April 19 Military: The British column under Lieutenant Colonel Francis Smith trudges along in the darkness from Boston to Concord as church bells peal through the night, denoting their approach. At length, the light infantry is detached ahead

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Revere, Paul

(1735–1818)

Silversmith militia leader Paul Revere was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on January 1, 1735, the son of a silversmith. Endowed with a modest education, he followed into his father’s profession and exhibited genuine skill as an artist, engraver, and metalsmith. Revere served briefly and without distinction in the French and Indian War and afterward he grew increasingly radicalized through his constant association with James Otis and Dr. Joseph Warren. A master propagandist, Revere engraved the famous depiction of the Boston Massacre of March 5, 1770, which was circulated throughout the colonies and did much to harden attitudes toward Great Britain. In the wake of the Tea Act of 1773, Revere also assumed leadership roles in the evolving Patriot resistance and, as part of the Sons of Liberty, he helped orchestrate the infamous Boston Tea Party of December 1773. He next served as a celebrated messenger and

Paul Revere's ride. Painting (National Archives)

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brought copies of the “Suffolk Resolves,” advocating armed resistance against Great Britain, to the Continental Congress. In December 1774 he was tasked with warning the militia at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, that a British raid upon Fort William and Mary was imminent. On April 18, 1775, Revere performed his most celebrated ride by galloping out of Boston to Lexington to warn Samuel Adams and John Hancock that British troops were en route. He and another rider, William Dawes, were apprehended by soldiers en route, but Revere’s ride was subsequently immortalized by poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. He subsequently made his way to Lexington on foot, secured Hancock’s papers, and witnessed the opening shots of the war at Concord. After fighting commenced, he served on a local committee of correspondence and also established a powder mill in Canton to provide the Continental army with ammunition. Revere then rose to major in the militia, and throughout 1778–79 he commanded the garrison at Castle William in Boston harbor. Revere’s later military career remained somewhat under a cloud. In 1778, he commanded an artillery company in General John Sullivan’s army in Rhode Island, acquired little distinction in battle, yet still managed to wrangle a promotion to lieutenant colonel. In this capacity he next commanded artillery in the ill-fated Penobscot Expedition of July 1779 and was later court-martialed for remaining on ship once his cannon were deployed on shore. Consequently, General Peleg Wadsworth accused him of cowardice and neglect of duty, placing him under house arrest. Revere was eventually acquitted of

Chronology

all charges in February 1782, but his reputation remained tarnished for the remainder of the war. After hostilities ceased in 1783, Revere resumed his metalsmith work, gaining renown as one of America’s foremost craftsmen. He also dabbled in the manufac-

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ture of copper bells and naval wares, and even contributed parts to Robert Fulton’s steam engines. Revere remained a common sight on the streets of Boston, still decked out in his revolutionary uniform, until his death there on May 10, 1818.

of the main force under Major John Pitcairn to scout the village of Lexington, Massachusetts. There they find Captain John Parker’s company of 70 minutemen deployed on the local green off to the side. An angry Pitcairn rides up to them and orders them to disperse at once. To defuse a possible confrontation, Parker is in the act of complying when a musket shot suddenly rings out of nowhere. The tired British, feeling themselves under attack, suddenly open fire on the militia against orders, killing eight and wounding nine. It takes Pitcairn several minutes to restore order in the ranks—but a war has begun. Within the hour, the balance of Colonel Francis Smith’s column arrives at Lexington and proceeds to its main objective at Concord. There his grenadiers search the premises for stored weapons—long removed by that time—and they also set fire to a courthouse and several buildings. Meanwhile, a detachment of light infantry under Captain Walter Laurie, sent to guard the North Bridge, is engaged by colonial militia and driven off, losing three killed and eight wounded. His mission complete, Smith then turns his force around and tramps back to Boston. En route his march is continually intercepted and assailed by throngs of angry militiamen who rake the column with a galling musket fire from behind rocks, trees, and all available cover. The British take fearful losses while Smith is wounded and Pitcairn unhorsed. They are almost overwhelmed when suddenly a column under Colonel Hugh Percy reinforces them at Lexington. Percy then skillfully conducts a withdrawal under fire and at the last minute redirects his escape route toward Charleston instead of Cambridge—a ploy that most likely saved his army. The 1,800 British engaged lose 73 killed, and 201 wounded on this momentous day; of roughly 3,800 Americans present the toll reached 49 dead and 94 injured. The incredible news quickly spreads throughout the colonies, and a violent upheaval against continuing British rule finally congeals. Politics: A secret committee in Charleston, South Carolina, removes mail from the British packet Swallow and finds instructions from the government intent on driving the colonies into submission. The correspondence is then forwarded to the Second Continental Congress.

April 20–30 Military: General Artemas Ward assumes command of the Provincial Army gathering at Cambridge, Massachusetts. His 13,000 men slowly envelop Boston

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Chronology of American History from the land side, unofficially besieging it. In one celebrated ride, General Israel Putnam gallops in from Connecticut, covering 100 miles in only 18 hours.

April 21 Military: New Hampshire militiamen arrive at Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the wake of Lexington and Concord. Retaliating against his rebellious legislature, Governor John Murray, Lord Dunmore, orders Royal Marines to seize colonial stores and supplies held at Williamsburg. Colonial forces begin seizing powder supplies and arms from British depots in Charleston, South Carolina.

April 23 Military: The Massachusetts Provincial Congress in Concord calls for a New England “Army of Observation” so as not to appear excessively hostile against the British Crown. The army has an authorized strength of 30,000 volunteers, including 13,000 local troops under General Artemas Ward, who is then joined by Generals William Heath, John Thomas, Joseph Warren, and John Whitcomb. No time is wasted dispatching messengers to neighboring colonies with a plea for immediate reinforcement. Additional forces begin arriving under Generals Nathaniel Green of Rhode Island and John Stark of New Hampshire. When word of the fighting at Lexington and Concord reaches New York City, a party of militiamen under Lieutenant Colonel Marinus Willet storms the public arsenal and seizes weapons stored there.

April 28 Military: Colonel Ethan Allen and a group of the Green Mountain Boys arrive at Castleton (Vermont), to debate seizing the stores and munitions kept at Fort Ticonderoga, New York.

April 29 Military: Major Benedict Arnold of the Connecticut militia marches into Cambridge, Massachusetts, at the head of his militia company. Politics: The Massachusetts Provincial Congress dispatches the schooner Quero to England with word of Lexington and Concord.

May 2 Military: Colonel Patrick Henry directs colonial forces toward Williamsburg, where they recapture powder and other supplies taken from the militia by Governor John Murray, Lord Dunmore. The governor is forced to compensate the colony for any property confiscated.

May 3 Military: Connecticut militia officer Benedict Arnold prevails upon the Committee of Safety in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to provide forces for a preemptive strike against Fort Ticonderoga, New York, to secure the valuable cache of cannon and supplies stored there. Arnold, who is then commissioned a colonel in the Massachusetts militia, receives authority to raise 400 men for the expedition, which promises to net 50 cannon and 20 brass pieces for the Patriot cause. Politics: Benjamin Franklin arrives back at Philadelphia, having lived in London as a colonial agent since 1757. He has since dropped his long-standing policy of reconciliation and is fully committed to the American cause and whatever direction it may take.

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Ward, Artemas

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(1727–1800)

General Artemas Ward was born in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, on November 26, 1727, the son of an attorney. He passed through Harvard College before running a general store and also dabbled in tax assessing. Ward joined the militia as a captain during the French and Indian War, rising to colonel in 1763. Afterward he came home to pursue politics while maintaining his militia connections. In the decade leading up to the Revolutionary War, Ward’s politics were increasingly radicalized through his association with men like John Adams, Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and Joseph Warren. His oftentimes blatant support for the Patriots led Governor Francis Bernard to revoke his commission but he consequently gained a seat on the governor’s council. In October 1774, Ward was elected to the provincial congress at Worcester, where he was appointed brigadier general of militia. In April 1775, though ailing with kidney stones, he mounted a horse and painfully rode to Patriot lines outside of Boston to organize a siege. Then Ward, by dint of his popularity with the troops, was made captain general of militia on April 22, 1775, at the head of 13,000 New England militia. This ad hoc force, poorly trained, equipped, and independently minded, threatened to dissolve at any time but Ward, by sheer dint of his stern Congregationalist personality, somehow kept them intact. In June 1776, he learned through spies that the British under General Thomas Gage were planning an offensive against the American

lines. Ward sought to preempt the move by ordering his troops to occupy Bunker Hill overlooking Charlestown Harbor on the 16th, which precipitated a bloody battle on the following day. The British, though victorious, remained bottled up and Ward received a promotion to major general in the Continental Army. Despite Ward’s popularity throughout New England, he was formally succeeded by General George Washington in July 1776 and remained so for the rest of the siege. He greatly resented being subordinated to a Virginian but nonetheless rendered useful service without rancor. On the evening of March 4, 1776, he ordered troops to seize strategic Dorchester Heights and plant artillery there. This move forced the British under General William Howe to evacuate Boston altogether, but Ward, still feeling slighted, finally resigned from the army on March 20, 1777. He then served as president of the state executive council before being elected to the Continental Congress in November 1779. Ward returned home two years later, successfully ran for a seat in the house of representatives, and became speaker as of 1785. He strongly opposed Shays’s Rebellion of 1786 and three years later was sent to the new U. S. Congress as a Federalist. Ward died on his farm in Shrewsbury on October 28, 1800, having briefly served as the new nation’s highest commander. Though not highly regarded by others, he proved instrumental in keeping the New England army, America’s first military force, intact.

May 5 Naval: The 16-gun sloop HMS Falcon under Captain John Linzee captures an American sloop off Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. He then anchors at the town of Dartmouth to seize another vessel at dockside, but his presence prompts

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Chronology of American History the townspeople to sail two sloops against him, and both prizes are promptly recaptured. The Falcon escapes but loses 15 prisoners.

May 8 Military: A force of 100 Green Mountain Boys under Colonel Ethan Allen departs Castleton, Vermont, intent upon seizing the cannon and stores held at Fort Ticonderoga, New York. When he meets Benedict Arnold en route, the two headstrong leaders grudgingly agree to coordinate their movements. News of the Battles of Lexington and Concord induces the South Carolina assembly to authorize two infantry regiments and a force of rangers.

May 10 Journalism: The Sons of Liberty, directed by Isaac Sears, wrecks the printing press of Loyalist James Rivington. After fleeing to a Royal Navy warship in the harbor, Rivington gains appointment as a government printer in New York. Military: A colonial force of 83 men under Colonels Benedict Arnold and Ethan Allen crosses Lake Champlain in two barges under cover of a rainstorm and surprises the garrison at Fort Ticonderoga, New York. The Americans quickly clamber over the crumbling southern wall and overpower two sentries. When a British officer, Lieutenant Jocelyn Feltham, 26th Foot, demands to know by what authority the American enter His Majesty’s fort, Allen bellows, “Come on out of there, you British sons of whores, or I’ll smoke you out!” The garrison commander, Captain William De la Place, is badly outnumbered and capitulates without resistance. Thus the unlikely pair of Allen and Arnold successfully conclude America’s first offensive operation of the war. Naval: Captain Henry Mowat of the Royal Navy sloop HMS Canceau comes ashore to confer with the inhabitants of Falmouth (Portland), Maine, and is taken prisoner. He escapes soon after but will return in a few months with a vengeance. Politics: When a New York mob threatens Loyalist Dr. Myles Cooper, president of King’s College (now Columbia University), he is rescued by Alexander Hamilton. The Second Continental Congress convenes at Independence Hall, Philadelphia, as they had promised. Peyton Randolph of Virginia is elected president of that body and he begins orchestrating armed resistance to Great Britain. However, there is considerable sympathy for reconciliation with the homeland, if possible.

May 11 Military: A force of Green Mountain Boys under Lieutenant Colonel Seth Warner moves up from Fort Ticonderoga and captures Crown Point, New York, along with another 100 cannon for the Patriot cause. With the southern portion of Lake Champlain in their hands, the Americans are well poised to launch an expedition northward into Canada. Colonial forces storm a royal magazine and confiscate powder supplies in Savannah, Georgia.

May 13 Military: General Artemas Ward, in a calculated show of force, parades his rag-tag “Army of Observation” within gunshot of British lines outside of Boston, eliciting no hostile response. He then provocatively deploys 3,000 men on Char-

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Arnold, Benedict

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(1741–1801)

General, traitor Benedict Arnold was born in Norwich, Connecticut, on January 14, 1741, where he weathered a troubled childhood and deserted his militia unit twice during the French and Indian War. Afterward he set-­ tled down as a merchant at New Haven and was gradually drawn to the Patriot cause. After Lexington and Concord he marched a militia company to Boston and subsequently captured Fort Ticonderoga in concert with forces under Colonel Ethan Allen. He then spearheaded an epic march through the Maine wilderness to partake of the ill-­fated siege of Quebec in December 1775. Badly wounded in the leg, he advanced to briga-­ dier general and next commanded naval forces on Lake Champlain that fought and

Benedict Arnold, with view of Quebec, Canada, in the background. Published by Thos. Hart, 1776, London (Library of Congress)

lost the battle of Valcour Island on Octo-­ ber 11–13, 1776, but caused the British so many delays that they abandoned their invasion of New York. Arnold was made a major general, but with less seniority than others, which deeply angered him and only the intercession of General George Wash-­ ington convinced him to remain in the ser-­ vice. Then, after repulsing a British raid in Connecticut in April 1777, he energetically transferred to the army of General Horatio Gates at Saratoga, New York. There, in Sep-­ tember and October, he was instrumental in winning the Battles of Freeman’s Farm and Bemis Heights, which led to the surrender of General John Burgoyne. Injured again and quite lame, Arnold was rewarded with increased seniority and appointed comman-­ dant of the garrison at Philadelphia. While at Philadelphia, Arnold reached a decisive turning point in his career. He had been charged with fiscal impropriety and demanded a formal court-­martial. He also entered into a romantic liaison with Mar-­ garet Shippen, the beguiling daughter of a Philadelphia Loyalist, who was also a highly paid British spy. Once married, she appar-­ ently convinced Arnold to change sides, and he began a clandestine correspondence with British general Henry Clinton in New York in May 1779. He was further incensed when the court-­martial found him guilty of two minor offenses, and he received a relatively mild rebuke from Washington. Infuriated, Arnold wished to turn over plans for the defense of strategic West Point, New York, in return for a general’s commission and a large sum of money. In June 1780, he prevailed upon Washington to appoint him commander of West Point. He met with British agent Major (continues)

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(continued) John André to make final arrangements. However, André was caught and hanged, while Arnold had to escape to the British side. He spent the last three years of the war fighting on their behalf and conducted many destructive raids in Virginia and Connecticut, which further blackened his reputation. After the war, Arnold migrated to

England where he unsuccessfully entered business. He was also scorned as a turncoat in his adopted nation and made few friends there. Arnold died in London on June 14, 1801, having made crucial contributions to the cause of American independence, yet reviled as the greatest traitor in American history.

lestown Heights, astride Boston harbor. Again the British fail to react, so Ward withdraws his men back to the mainland without incident.

May 15 Politics: In light of the present crisis, the Second Continental Congress urges New York and all other colonies to begin placing themselves in a state of military preparedness.

May 16 Politics: The Massachusetts assembly drafts the first state constitution subject to popular approval, although it is ultimately rejected by the voters.

May 17–18 Military: Colonel Benedict Arnold boards a captured schooner at Skeensboro, New York, and sails to Saint-Johns, Quebec, with 50 soldiers. That post and its 15-man garrison quickly succumb, along with the 16-gun sloop HMS George III and four boats. Hastening back to Ticonderoga, Arnold encounters Colonel Ethan Allen and 60 Green Mountain Boys, intent upon occupying the fort. Disregarding Arnold’s warnings, Allen approaches Fort Saint-John’s only to find it hastily reoccupied by 200 British soldiers and six cannon from neighboring Chambly. The Americans are quickly driven off after losing three prisoners. Naval: Captain James Mugford, commanding the sloop Franklin, captures the British transport HMS Hope off Boston harbor. Its cargo of 1,000 barrels of gunpowder and a like number of muskets is hastily forwarded to the “Army of Observation” outside Boston. Politics: The New York colonial assembly having disbanded, a new Provincial Congress is established to assume the powers of governance.

May 18 Politics: North Carolina Governor Josiah Martin informs authorities in London that he is powerless to stop the population from joining the militia or usurping the roles of government.

May 21 Military: To alleviate supply shortages, General Thomas Gage authorizes forage parties to land on various islands in Boston harbor. However, when a party of troops ventures upon Grape Island, many inhabitants gather into three boats and land there to oppose them. The British withdraw before violence flares.

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May 24 Politics: The Continental Congress elects John Hancock of Massachusetts to be its president after Peyton Randolph resigns. Meanwhile, delegates are heartened by the news of Fort Ticonderoga’s fall. Many hope that success Â�here will induce the province of Quebec (Canada) to join the rebellion.

May 25 Military: The British garrison at Boston is reinforced by the arrival of 2,500 men under Generals John Burgoyne, William Howe, and Henry Clinton. General Thomas Gage now commands a highly trained force of 6,500 men, but the addi-­ tion of three generals to his command bespeaks strong government disÂ�pleaÂ�sure over his handling of affairs. Politics: The Continental Congress votes to begin fortifying Kingsbridge, the Hudson Highlands, and Lake George with no less than 3,000 troops.

May 26 Military: General Artemas Ward orders 30 militiamen under ColÂ�oÂ�nel John Nixon to confiscate livestock on Noddle’s and Hog Islands in Boston harbor.

May 27 Military: Admiral Samuel Graves orders a contingent of 40 Royal Marines to Noddle’s Island, Boston harbor, to attack the American detachment foraging there. The schooner HMS Diana under Lieutenant Thomas Â�Graves—the admi-­ ral’s Â�nephew—is also dispatched to cut off the American retreat. Generals Isaac Putnam and Dr. Joseph Warren counter by rushing in 1,000 reinforcements of their own and two cannon. Heavy skirmishing results in the destruction of the Diana after it runs aground, and the British withdraw. The ensuing fracas proves a rather noisy affair, but both sides suffer only four casualties apiece.

May 29 Politics: In Philadelphia, John Jay pens a declaration to the inhabitants of Que-­ bec to join the Americans as the 14th colony. However, the Catholic, Â�FrenchÂ�speaking population residing there fears cultural absorption by their southern neighbors and opts for neutrality.

May 31 Politics: Mayhem erupts in Philadelphia after Congress votes to abandon Forts Ticonderoga and Crown Point, New York, over strenuous objections by delegates from New York and New EnÂ�gland. At length, they reverse themselves and order the posts held as possible conduits for an invasion of Canada. The local committee from Mecklenberg County, North Carolina, drafts 20 res-­ olutions for its congressional delegates in Philadelphia. These include suspension of royal authority and confirmation of the supremacy of colonial Â�legislatures—they fall just short of declaring inÂ�deÂ�penÂ�dence. Though drawn up, the Â�so-­called Meck-­ lenberg Declaration is never presented to Congress. Meanwhile, Royal Governor Josiah Martin flees to the British sloop HMS Cruizer on the Cape Fear River to await developments.

June 2 Naval: The British cutter HMS Margaretta drops anchor off Machias, Maine, while escorting two timber sloops, Polly and Unity. Their mission is to secure lum-­ ber supplies for the British army in Boston. Ichabod Jones, a Loyalist Â�merchant,

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Chronology of American History is then rowed ashore to arrange the purchase. He assures the inhabitants that the wood is not going to be used to build fortifications in Boston, but they remain skeptical and uncooperative. Politics: The Massachusetts Provincial Congress formally requests that the Continental Congress assume command and responsibility for the burgeoning New England army outside Boston, as it has been raised for the benefit of all Americans. Congress dithers on the offer but does muster the resolve to authorize a pay department for the nascent Continental Army.

June 5 Journalism: To escape censorship, printer Benjamin Edes leaves Boston with his press and types and reestablishes his Boston Gazette in Watertown, Massachusetts. Military: A mob ransacks the colonial arsenal in Williamsburg, Virginia, making off with 400 muskets.

June 6 Military: Once the British begin evacuating New York, Lieutenant Colonel Marinus Willett, backed by the Sons of Liberty, stops and seizes five wagons suspected of smuggling weapons out of the city. The Provincial Congress, feeling this violates a previous agreement with the British, orders the weapons returned but the request is ignored. Naval: A rancorous town meeting held at Machias, Maine, votes to allow Loyalist merchant Ichabod Jones to purchase lumber for the British in Boston. To further coax cooperation, Midshipman James Moore maneuvers his four-gun schooner HMS Margaretta into bombardment position offshore.

June 7 Military: American militiamen seize a British magazine at Turtle Bay, New York City, again without authority of the Provincial Congress.

June 8 Political: Virginia governor John Murray, Lord Dunmore, flees to the safety of HMS Fowley offshore as violence between Patriots and Loyalists escalates.

June 9 Military: Guy Carleton, governor general of Canada, declares martial law in that province, suspends all administrative provisions of the Quebec Act for the time being, and begins recruiting volunteers to augment his understrength forces. Carleton realizes he lacks the resources to deter a serious invasion attempt from the south.

June 10 Politics: As military options look increasingly inevitable, Congressman John Adams of Massachusetts suggests creation of a Continental Army to expedite the war.

June 11 Naval: Loyalist merchant Ichabod Jones again comes ashore at Machias, Maine, to purchase lumber for British troops in Boston. Heated debate continues among the townspeople, who finally agree to sell lumber to Jones. However, when he is suddenly seized and imprisoned by Patriots, Midshipman James Moore anchors the HMS Margaretta offshore and threatens to bombard the town if Jones is hurt

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or his vessel attacked, A mob nevertheless seizes the British transports Unity and Polly and demands that Moore surrender. Instead, he cuts his cable and slips downstream to safety.

June 12 Political: In Boston, General Thomas Gage declares martial law throughout Massachusetts and entreats rebels to lay down their arms and be pardoned. This amnesty is not tendered to either Samuel Adams or John Hancock, who are to stand trial for treason. But Gage’s proclamation, composed by aspiring playwright General John Burgoyne, is overly pompous and elicits ridicule from the populace. Naval: The first naval action of the Revolutionary War occurs when 40 armed lumbermen under Jeremiah O’Brien sail the captured transports Unity and Polly against HMS Margaretta off Machias, Maine. Once adverse winds cripple the latter’s sails, the Americans pull alongside and board, seizing the vessel in a stiff fight. Midshipman James Moore is fatally wounded in the struggle, and the British suffer eight killed and five wounded to an American tally of three killed and two wounded. The Margaretta becomes the first Royal Navy vessel captured by the Americans and its guns are transferred to the Unity, which is renamed Machias Liberty. The state of Rhode Island commissions two armed sloops, the first such vessels approved by public authority.

June 14 Military: General Thomas Gage falls under increasing pressure from subordinates William Howe, John Burgoyne, and Henry Clinton to take some kind of offensive action and secure greater “elbow room” for the Boston garrison. He reluctantly agrees to seize strategic Dorchester Heights, still vacant, before moving on to Roxbury and Charlestown Heights. When that is accomplished, the British will be at liberty to launch an overland assault upon rebel headquarters at Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Continental Congress votes to raise 10 companies of riflemen, two from Maryland and Virginia, and six from Pennsylvania. These constitute the nucleus of the rapidly forming Continental Army and a committee, including George Washington and Philip Schuyler, is tasked with drawing up regulations to govern it. Congress also assumes direct control of all colonial forces gathered outside of Boston, at the behest of the Provincial Congress. For all these reasons this day is considered the birthday of the U. S. Army.

June 15 Military: The extensive network of colonial spies alerts the Committee of Safety in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that General Thomas Gage intends to seize the high ground on Dorchester Heights outside Boston. They react by ordering General Artemas Ward to preempt the move by occupying Bunker Hill on the Charlestown Peninsula. John Adams of Massachusetts, wishing to cement Virginia to the revolutionary cause, nominates fellow delegate George Washington to serve as “General & Commander in Chief of American forces.” Resplendent in the blue and buff uniform of the Fairfax County militia, the imposing, austere Washington inspires confidence and is one of few senior leaders with actual military experience. Unknown at the

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Recruiting poster for the Continental army (Dover Publications)

time, this proves to be one of the most fortuitous appointments in world military history. Congress also authorizes creation of four major generals and five brigadiers to lead the rapidly forming Continental Army. Naval: In another early encounter, two Rhode Island vessels under Captain Abraham Whipple capture a British tender on the Providence River.

June 16 Military: Throughout the night, Colonel Richard Gridley, the Continental Army’s first engineering officer, directs construction of fortifications on Breed’s Hill overlooking Boston harbor. His men dig furiously, constructing a large redoubt on the hilltop before the British can react, and are subsequently reinforced by 1,200 men under Colonel William Prescott and General Israel Putnam. In the early morning hours, they are joined by small groups of soldiers under Colonel Thomas Knowlton, Colonel John Stark, and General Seth Pomeroy, all fighting as volunteers.

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George Washington accepts the nomination as commander in chief, but declines a salary, asking only for a stipend to cover expenses. Charles Lee, Israel Putnam, Philip J. Schuyler, and Artemas Ward are also commissioned as major generals. Congress concurrently throws itself into formalizing the new Continental Army by establishing unit types and strengths, and authorizing the appointment of an engineer, adjutant general, paymaster, commissary general, and quartermaster.

June 17 Military: At dawn, General Thomas Gage is amazed to behold a complex series of earthwork that have miraculously sprung up overnight at Charlestown, Massachusetts. The danger they pose to the Boston garrison finally rouses him to fight. After further consultation, he resolves that a direct display of British military prowess is necessary to cow the rebels into submission. Gage then authorized 2,200 soldiers under General William Howe to land on the peninsula and drive the rebels off by a frontal assault. Given the low regard that professional British officers hold for their adversaries, no particular difficulty is anticipated. Howe’s force then rows across the harbor in barges, and he draws up his command in full battle array before advancing upon the American line as if on parade. Exercising superb fire control, Colonel John Stark and William Prescott allow the vaunted Redcoats to advance within 60 paces before unleashing a devastating, point-blank volley. The attackers are staggered by heavy losses, especially among company grade officers, and flee back down the slopes. An assault on the American right by General Robert Pigot is likewise rebuffed with many casualties. Stunned by the resistance, Howe rallies the survivors and leads them back up the hill a second time. As before, the precise, closely ordered British line approaches to within a few yards of American lines before being scythed down by torrents of accurate musketry. Howe’s entire staff has been shot down beside him, yet he is miraculously unhurt. He then resolves on a final assault to settle matters with cold steel and orders his men to drop their 80-pound backpacks. He is also reinforced by 400 men under General Henry Clinton and a battalion of Royal Marines under Major John Pitcairn. Once again, the British tramp up the steep slopes of Breed’s Hill in perfect formation—no mean task, considering the steep terrain and intense summer heat—and close with the defenders. By this time the Americans have nearly exhausted their supply of ammunition. Their next volley staggers the attackers but fails to stop them. Howe, sword in hand, then leads them over the parapet and into the redoubt. A vicious hand-to-hand struggle erupts along the line as the American defense collapses under the weight of vengeful bayonets. Clinton, against orders, also pitches into the fray and General Israel Putnam finally orders a retreat back to the mainland. The fighting suddenly ceases and the exhausted British decline to pursue. Howe has lost 226 killed and 828 wounded, an appalling 48 percent of forces engaged. American losses were noted as 140 dead (including Dr. Joseph Warren) and 271 wounded. An additional 30 prisoners, principally wounded, are also taken. General Henry Clinton, surveying the carnage, considered the battle “a dear bought victory, another such would have ruined us.”

June 20 Military: General George Washington conducts America’s first military review by parading several Philadelphia militia companies. He is then ordered north by

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Chronology of American History the Continental Congress to assume command of all American forces gathered outside Boston. Politics: Thomas Jefferson arrives as a delegate to the Continental Congress, having taken the seat of his fellow Virginian, Thomas Peyton, who returned to the House of Burgesses.

June 21 Military: An obscure figure, Nathanael Greene, is appointed brigadier general of Rhode Island militia.

June 22 Military: Daniel Morgan is commissioned captain in one of the new rifle companies recruited in Frederick County, Virginia. They immediately begin their 600mile trek to join the main army outside Boston, Massachusetts. Politics: The Continental Congress authorizes an issue of $2 million in paper money to raise arms and supplies for the army—this being the first Continental currency. Delegates pledge that all bills will be redeemed at face value although the scrip is constantly devalued over the next six years and occasions the derogatory phrase “Not worth a Continental.” After long delays, Georgia finally establishes a committee of safety.

June 23 Military: General George Washington and his retinue depart Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he is to assume command of all American forces besieging Boston.

June 25 Military: The Continental Congress appoints General Philip J. Schuyler as commander of the Northern Department in New York. If practicable, they grant him discretionary authority to mount an invasion of Canada and bring that region into the American fold.

June 26 Military: General George Washington, en route to Boston as commander in chief, declares his intention to resign from the military and live as a private citizen once hostilities cease. Politics: A committee tasked with writing A Declaration on Taking up Arms delivers an unsatisfactory first draft; Thomas Jefferson and John Dickinson then join the committee, and work resumes.

June 30 Military: Congress approves 69 Articles of War, drawn mostly from existing British regulations, to govern, discipline, and administer the Continental Army. In contrast with British practices, discipline is somewhat moderated with punishments restricted to 39 lashes, fines restricted to two months’ pay, and prison terms restricted to one month of confinement. The death penalty is reserved openly for the most serious crimes, but rank and file are actively encouraged to attend church to promote good behavior and proper morality.

July 3 Military: General George Washington arrives at Cambridge, Massachusetts, and in his first order, he hopes “that all distinctions of colonies will be laid aside so that one and the same spirit may animate the whole.” Washington’s first

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task is to replace Artemas Ward as commander of the Continental Army, then 14,000 strong but problematically armed, trained, and fed. He then tries imposing greater semblance of military and logistical order on his unruly mob by dividing the army into three wings under Generals Ward, Israel Putnam, and Charles Lee. He then orders the line of fortifications surrounding Boston extended between Dorchester and the Mystic River to further bottle up the British. Washington also takes remedial disciplinary action to transform his armed amateurs into a respectable military force. A barrage of general orders then instruct the men, to promote discipline, improve hygiene, and refine combat effectiveness. But the greatest challenge confronting Washington is expiring enlistments at the end of the year. He will face the daunting prospect of persuading this rather unruly lot to reenlist and submit to the rigors of routine military life.

July 4 Military: General George Washington issues General Order No. 1, declaring to the troops their subordination to the Continental Congress. Some officers, unhappy over the loss of local control, resign rather than submit.

July 5 Politics: In Philadelphia, moderates under John Dickinson extend the Olive Branch Petition to King George III, which reiterates long-standing grievances yet proffers rapprochement with the government. This carefully worded missive is addressed directly to the monarch rather than Parliament, whose authority the Congress refuses to recognize. Furthermore, the petitioners acknowledge their responsibility to the Crown as loyal subjects and beseech him to halt military hostilities in order to schedule peace negotiations. Radicals scoff at this attempt at moderation, but Dickinson cleverly calculates that its rejection will exert a unifying effect upon even the most disparate elements at Philadelphia. The document is to be conveyed to London by Arthur Lee and William Penn, a noted Loyalist.

July 6 Politics: The Continental Congress takes up the revised Declaration of the Causes and Necessities of Taking Up Arms, as written by Thomas Jefferson and John Dickinson. This document not only justifies the outbreak of colonial resistance to British rule, it also declares American intentions “to die free men rather than live as slaves.” The finished draft is then dispatched to be read to the Continental Army outside Boston. Together with the far more conciliatory Olive Branch Petition, the declaration underscores the divided loyalties and sentiments of those present at Philadelphia.

July 8 Military: American forces under Major Benjamin Tupper and Captain John Crane begin probing British defenses by overrunning a small detachment at Boston Neck (Roxbury) and burning a guardhouse.

July 9 Military: At Cambridge, General George Washington convenes a war council to evaluate current affairs. He and his officers decide against fortifying Dorchester Heights for the time being to avoid provoking a sharp military response. Washington feels that his rag-tag ensemble is not up to a stand-up engagement with British regulars in the field, so he settles upon a siege for the time being.

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July 10 Military: General Horatio Gates, as adjutant general, issues orders forbidding free African Americans from serving with the Continental Army. British deserters and youths under 18 are also precluded from the ranks. The Americans capture a British supply vessel with 14,000 pounds of gunpowder at Tybee Island, off the mouth of the Savannah River, Georgia.

July 12 Military: South Carolina militiamen under James Mayson seize Fort Charlotte on the Savannah River, the first military action conducted by troops in that state.

July 13 Diplomacy: The Continental Congress appoints delegates to hold councils with the Iroquois Six Nations in New York to keep them from aligning with the British. Military: In the continuing war of outposts at Boston, General Henry Clinton probes American defenses at Roxbury, totally dispersing them. Clinton subsequently regrets that he lacked sufficient manpower to launch an all-out assault against this ill-prepared assemblage.

July 14 Politics: King George III receives a petition from John Wilkes, lord mayor of London, beseeching him, to cease military operations against the colonies and pursue reconciliation.

July 16 Naval: Jeremiah O’Brien entices the officers of two British schooners, HMS Diligent and Tatamagouche, ashore at Machias, Maine, where they are suddenly seized along with the accompanying vessels.

July 18 Military: General Philip Schuyler arrives at Fort Ticonderoga only to discover it weakly manned and garrisoned by raw troops. Politics: The Continental Congress recommends that colonies pass uniform organizational and equipage standards for their militias, and also to provide armed vessels for the protection of harbors and coasts.

July 20 Societal: The first national day of public humility, fasting, and prayer, adopted by Congress on June 12, 1775, is observed.

July 21 Military: A Massachusetts militia under Major Joseph Vose raids Nantasket Point in Boston harbor and also destroys the lighthouse on Great Brewster Island. The Americans suffer two wounded. Politics: Benjamin Franklin lays his proposal for the Articles of Confederation before Congress. The item is immediately tabled for future consideration, as are recommendations that American ports be opened to trade over the nonexportation measures stipulated by the Continental Association.

July 23 Military: Patriot leader William H. Drayton arrives in the South Carolina backcountry to stir up revolutionary sentiments, but his efforts are thwarted by a

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strong Loyalist presence. He then orders local militia to begin rounding up and detaining Loyalist leaders.

July 24 Military: In New York, General Philip J. Schuyler dispatches a small reconnaissance party under Major John Brown into Canada to gather intelligence about Montreal and ascertain attitudes of the inhabitants.

July 25 Medical: Dr. Benjamin Church gains appointment as the first surgeon general of the Continental Army, over the objections of Paul Revere that he is actually a British spy. Military: The Continental Congress formally assumes the command and control functions of the Continental Army. The first rifle company, commanded by Captain Michael Doudel of York, Pennsylvania, arrives at Cambridge, Massachusetts. In time, American riflemen become renowned for both superb marksmanship and unrelenting insubordination toward authority.

July 26 Politics: Having served in a similar capacity with the royal government, Benjamin Franklin is appointed postmaster general of the new Post Office Department.

July 27 Medical: Congress founds the Medical Corps under the supervision of Dr. Benjamin Church, a suspected British sympathizer, who acquires the title of director general and chief of the Hospital Corps. Military: In Dorset, New Hampshire, the Green Mountain Boys nominate Seth Warner to serve as their new lieutenant colonel; the unpopular Ethan Allen is unceremoniously dropped from the roster.

July 29 Business: Congress founds a redemption plan for all printed currency and mandates that individual colonies must assume responsibility for their respective share of payments. Military: Congress establishes chaplains and appoints Colonel William Tudor as judge advocate general of the Continental Army.

July 31 Military: In a sharp skirmish at Nantasket Point, Massachusetts, a militia under Major Benjamin Tupper attacks and disperses a party of Royal Marines, inflicting 12 casualties and taking 33 captives. American losses amount to three. Politics: The Continental Congress formally rejects Lord Frederick North’s reconciliation plan that was approved by Parliament in February. This signals an end to all colony taxes that raise money to support the British military, but Congress continues insisting that colonial legislatures alone must determined how monies raised are spent.

August 1 Politics: The Continental Congress adjourns its fateful session and votes to reconvene in Philadelphia on September 12, 1775. Women: Thomas Paine, editor of the Pennsylvania Gazette, publishes an essay in favor of women’s rights.

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August 3 Military: General George Washington convenes another war council at Cambridge, Massachusetts, to discuss the dilapidated state of American supplies, especially gunpowder, which are improperly stored under damp conditions and are deteriorating rapidly. They resolve to issue a new appeal to the states for fresh supplies.

August 6 Military: The Virginia Convention appoints Patrick Henry colonel of the 1st Regiment of state militia. However, he proves completely unsuited for military life and quickly returns to politics.

August 8 Military: Captain Daniel Morgan’s rifle company ambles into Cambridge, Massachusetts, from Virginia. As a rule, the riflemen are crack shots and notoriously belligerent toward military authority and discipline. Their tenure outside Boston is marked by mutiny and discontent.

August 14 Military: Major John Brown completes a major reconnaissance mission into Canada and reports back to General Philip J. Schuyler at Fort Ticonderoga. Brown declares that the inhabitants are neutral toward the Revolution while the strategic post of Saint-Johns is only lightly garrisoned. Based on this information Schulyer is encouraged is launch an invasion. Thomas Mifflin gains appointment as the first army quartermaster general, and responsible for the camps, transportation, troop movement, and purely logistical matters.

August 23 Politics: In the latest round of rhetorical flourish, King George III declares in his Royal Proclamation of Rebellion that the American colonies are “misled by dangerous and ill designing men.” He then goes on to promise draconian punishment for all public officials deemed guilty of treason, which further reduces the chances of reconciliation.

August 24 Military: Captain John Lamb and 60 men successfully capture the New York City battery and haul the cannon off despite the presence of the 64-gun HMS Asia anchored off shore. When the British send a barge to investigate, they are fired upon and repelled with the loss of a man. The Asia consequently unleashes a broadside against the battery, triggering a mass exodus from the city.

August 26 Military: General John Sullivan dispatches 1,200 men to build fortifications on Ploughed Hill, Boston, from which American artillery can range the harbor. But as Sullivan completes his task, he is in turn bombarded by two British floating batteries. In the exchange that follows, one of the batteries is sunk by American fire while Sullivan incurs three killed and two wounded. Naval: The Rhode Island legislature directs its delegates at the Continental Congress to propose construction of a new Continental Navy.

August 28 Military: Brigadier General Richard Montgomery leads 1,200 men from Fort Ticonderoga, New York, on a fateful campaign into Canada. He does so in the

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absence of his superior, General Philip J. Schuyler, who is incapacitated by illness. Montgomery is especially eager to take advantage of reputed ill-will the inhabitants harbor toward Great Britain. The men then embark at Ile aux Noix and row northward.

August 30 Military: An ailing General Philip J. Schuyler approves General Richard Montgomery’s decision to invade Canada and heads north with an additional 500 men to join him. Naval: HMS Rose bombards Stonington, Connecticut, for repelling a foraging party, killing two citizens.

September 1 Politics: As predicted by author John Dickinson, King George III refuses to receive the Olive Branch Petition sent to him by Congress. This act convinces many congressional delegates that reconciliation is impossible.

September 2 Naval: General George Washington charters the schooner Hannah of Beverly, Massachusetts, to attack British transports and shipping off Boston. This vessel is considered the first American warship.

September 5 Military: American forces under General Philip J. Schuyler assemble at Ile aux Noix, Quebec, before proceeding down the Richelieu River to Saint-Johns. The defenders consist of 200 British soldiers and some Indians under Major Charles Preston. Having debarked near the fort, an American party is ambushed by Indians, suffering eight dead and nine wounded to a British loss of five dead and five wounded. Discouraged, Schuyler withdraws back to Ile aux Noix for the evening. In a major military development, Colonel Benedict Arnold of Connecticut sails from Newburyport, Massachusetts, with 1,054 men and makes for the Kennebec River. Once ashore, he intends to mount an overland campaign through the Maine wilderness that will bring him to the very gates of Quebec City. This mission is undertaken without the prior knowledge or approval of Congress, with a bare minimum of supplies, and inadequate knowledge of the terrain to be surmounted. Unknown at the time, Arnold’s fabled trek will last 45 days and cover 350 miles—twice as long and as far as anticipated. Naval: The captured fishing schooner Hannah, now outfitted with four small cannon, is pressed into service under army officer Captain John Broughton is ordered to blockade British forces in Boston. This is the first warship of the embryonic Continental Navy.

September 10 Military: An ailing General Philip J. Schuyler makes another bungled advance against the British garrison at Saint-Johns, Quebec, this time at night, and the efforts fail when several American columns begin firing at each other in the dark. Schuyler then quits the field, turns operations over to General Richard Montgomery, and departs for New York to convalesce. Disgruntled riflemen in the camp outside Boston mutiny at Prospect Hill when one of their number is arrested. General George Washington orders a battalion of 500 men to surround the rebels and march them back to camp, which

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Chronology of American History is effected peacefully. Thirty-three men are subsequently court-martialed and fined. Naval: HMS Nautilus, grounded off Beverly, Massachusetts, while chasing an American schooner, is subsequently fired on by militia units. The ship eventually frees itself and escapes with several wounded.

September 11 Military: Outside Boston, an increasingly impatient General George Washington convenes another war council to discuss the possibility of carrying the city by coup de main. His officers, weighing the shabby condition of the army, come down against the plan, and it is dropped for the time being.

September 12 Diplomacy: Virginian representatives and Shawnee tribesmen sign the Treaty of Camp Charlotte, which formally concludes Lord Dunmore’s War. Through its provisions, the Indians cede their hunting grounds in Kentucky and promise to stay north of the Ohio River.

September 13 Politics: The Second Continental Congress reconvenes at Philadelphia, only this time with representatives from all 13 colonies. Georgia, which had been conspicuously absent during the first gathering, now dispatches Lyman Hall as its representative.

September 15 Military: South Carolina militia seize Fort Johnson in Charleston, bringing control of that strategic bay into American hands. While there they unfurl an early American flag consisting of a dark blue background with a white crescent in the upper left corner and the word “Liberty” emblazoned across the flag in white letters. William Campbell, the royal governor, concludes his position is hopeless and hastily retreats to the safety of HMS Tamar offshore.

September 16 Military: At Ile aux Noix, Quebec, General Richard Montgomery’s army is reinforced by the arrival of Lieutenant Seth Warner’s battalion. The Americans now possess 2,000 weatherbeaten men while the British garrison at Saint-Johns has likewise been brought up to 500 soldiers. Undeterred, Montgomery elects to commence formal siege operations once Schuyler returns to New York. Politics: In the South Carolina backcountry, an agreement is reached between Patriot leader William H. Drayton and his Loyalist counterpart, Colonel Thomas Fletchell, to prevent the outbreak of hostilities. Henceforth, all Loyalists pledge to remain neutral and not join any invading armies while the Patriots are obliged to respect their lives and property.

September 18 Military: General Richard Montgomery works to cut the Richelieu River while besieging the British garrison at Saint-Johns, Quebec. Meanwhile, Major John Brown and 135 Americans ambush a British supply train near Fort Chambly, Quebec. Brown is subsequently reinforced by an additional 500 men under Colonel Timothy Bedel, who helps thwart a British effort to recapture the wagons. Naval: At Boston, Admiral Samuel Graves orders all merchant vessels searched for flint, a quartz stone used as ballast, which, if found, is to be thrown overboard.

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Through this expedient, he hopes to deny any possible source of musket flints to the Americans. Graves also learns that he is to be replaced as commander in North America at the end of the year.

September 19 Diplomacy: The Continental Congress appoints a secret committee under Thomas Willing and Robert Morris, to clandestinely solicit military arms and supplies from abroad. France and Spain are the most logical choices to begin their quest. Military: General Richard Montgomery deploys 350 men on the Richelieu River to interdict HMS Royal Savage from entering Lake Champlain. He then advances his siege of Saint-Johns, Quebec, whose fall will open up the road to Montreal.

September 23 Military: The American expedition under Colonel Benedict Arnold departs Gardiner, Maine, and begins advancing through the wilderness in three divisions, each separated by a one-day interval.

September 24 Politics: Despite certain setbacks, Prime Minister Lord Frederick North vows to prosecute the war in the colonies “with the utmost vigor.”

September 25 Military: General Richard Montgomery dispatches Colonel Ethan Allen to Chambly to recruit Canadian volunteers, but while returning he encounters the force of Major John Brown. Together they decide to launch a two-pronged assault against Montreal with 200 men. However, Governor General Guy Carleton detects the weakness of Allen’s advance and orders 35 soldiers and 200 Canadians under Captain Walter Butler to sortie against them. Allen is overwhelmed and captured along with 40 soldiers in a swift riposte. They suffer a further seven killed to a British total of three slain and two wounded. Allen thus becomes the first significant American captive of the war and he is transported and detained in England under harsh conditions. Politics: The Continental Congress refuses to recognize delegates from the proprietary colony of Transylvania due to a conflict with Virginia, which also claims the land.

September 26 Diplomacy: American representatives convene a meeting with Iroquois Six Nations leaders at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Members of various Ohio tribes and the British Indian department are also represented. After some deliberation the Indians pledge their neutrality while the Americans promise to respect the Ohio River as the boundary between the frontier and new settlements. Military: Lethargic general Thomas Gage, derided by the soldiers of his command as “Granny,” is relieved of command at Boston and ordered back to Britain for “consultations.” He is succeeded by the more aggressive and immensely popular General William “Billy” Howe.

October 3 Naval: Rhode Island delegates at the Continental Congress in Philadelphia formally request the construction and funding of a new Continental Navy.

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October 4 Military: Dr. Benjamin Church, head of the army medical corps, is courtmartialed for treason, having corresponded with the enemy, and dismissed. General George Washington refers the matter of punishment to the Continental Congress. He is replaced by Dr. John Morgan, an enterprising physician who advocates widespread use of inoculation of troops against smallpox. Politics: Congress establishes a committee consisting of Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Lynch, and Benjamin Harrison to visit General George Washington’s headquarters outside Boston for top-level strategy discussions. There they will also try and convince him to capture Boston by December, if possible.

October 6 Military: The hard-slogging Canadian expedition of Colonel Benedict Arnold reaches Norridgewock Falls on the Kennebec River, whereupon the men have to portage their vessels and equipment overland by hand.

October 7 Naval: Admiral Thomas Graves authorizes British naval vessels to conduct punitive raids along the New England coast to dissuade privateering operations. A small force under Captain James Wallace then arrives off Bristol, Rhode Island, and bombards the town until it agrees to surrender 40 sheep. The British depart without further incident; two civilian are killed in the action.

October 8 Military: A Council of General Officers declares that African Americans, either free or slave, would be allowed to join the Continental Army.

October 13 Naval: In light of the push for increased naval resources, Congress authorizes Colonel John Glover, a former sailor, to convert several transports into armed warships. They also approve construction of two formal warships, the nation’s first such vessels. A marine committee consisting of Silas Deane, Christopher Gadsden, and John Langdon is then created to oversee such matters.

October 17 Military: A force of 625 men, including 350 newly recruited Canadians under Colonels James Livingston and Timothy Bedel, paddles down the St. Lawrence River, bypasses Saint-Johns, and invests Fort Chambly, Quebec. Naval: Royal Navy warships HMS Canceaux and Halifax under Captain Henry Mowat drop anchor off Falmouth (Portsmouth), Maine, demanding the town’s surrender. When the inhabitants refuse, Mowat commences bombarding the town for nine hours while landing parties go ashore to further the destruction. By the time Mowat departs, he has destroyed 400 buildings and 15 vessels. It is sweet revenge to that officer, who had been previously captured and held by the town’s inhabitants until he escaped. The sheer extent of the destruction enrages New Englanders and further fans the flames of resentment against Britain.

October 18 Military: An American naval unit, assisted by Canadian dissenters, captures the town of Chambly, Quebec, along with 88 prisoners from the 7th Foot and several tons of gunpowder. This victory severs the supply line to the strategic

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British post of Saint-Johns, then besieged by forces under General Richard Montgomery. Politics: Governor William Tryon of New York escapes to the safety of HMS Duchess in New York harbor to avoid arrest. This vessel serves as his floating headquarters for almost a year. Slavery: Thomas Paine composes an antislavery tract for the Pennsylvania Journal calling for the Continental Congress to stop the shameful practice of selling African Americans.

October 23 Politics: In Philadelphia, the Second Continental Congress expressly forbids African Americans from serving in the Continental Army.

October 24–25 Military: British naval forces directed by Governor John Murray, Lord Dunmore, arrives off Norfolk, Virginia, and demands its surrender. However, several units of American riflemen under Colonel William Woodford ashore drive the vessels off, capturing two which run aground.

October 25 Military: The Canadian expedition of Colonel Benedict Arnold struggles to surmount a flooded countryside and freezing weather in the vicinity of Dead River. He also loses the 300-man division of Colonel Roger Enos when they vote to return home.

October 26 Military: General David Wooster reinforces the siege of Saint-Johns with 325 Connecticut troops and is soon joined by Major Barnabas Tuthill with an additional 225 New Yorkers.

October 27 Naval: A congressional committee recommends the construction or purchase of five frigates of 32 guns, five of 28 guns, and three with 24 guns.

October 28 Military: The expedition of General Benedict Arnold, having endured incredible hardship and a spate of desertions, reaches the divide between the Atlantic and St. Lawrence watersheds. He resolves to press ahead even though his men are reduced to eating dogs and shoe leather. General William Howe issues a proclamation forbidding all Boston inhabitants from leaving the city under penalty of death. Henceforth all men of military age are also required to enroll in the local militia for the city’s defense.

October 30 Military: Governor General Guy Carleton, attempting to lift the siege of Saint-Johns, pushes 800 men and Indians across the St. Lawrence River at Longueuil, Quebec, where they are engaged by the Green Mountain Boys under Lieutenant Colonel Seth Warner. The attack collapses in the face of accurate musketry, and an attempted flanking movement is also thwarted, so Carleton withdraws. The Canadian expedition of Colonel Benedict Arnold reaches Sertigan, Quebec, where supplies are purchased for the hungry, half-frozen soldiers.

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Chronology of American History Naval: After some prodding, Congress authorizes construction of two frigates, of 36 and of 29 guns. The naval committee is also expanded to include John Adams, Joseph Hewes, Stephen Hopkins, and Richard Henry Lee.

November 2 Military: General Richard Montgomery gains a significant victory by capturing the British garrison of Major Charles Preston at Saint-Johns following a grueling siege of 55 days. He seizes 41 cannon and 500 captives, among whom is a youthful Captain John Andre, the celebrated spy. The advance to Montreal is now open but the delays incurred at Saint-Johns wasted two months of good weather and the Americans must conduct future operations in the dead of winter. Naval: The naval committee votes to purchase, arm, and rename eight merchant vessels as the core of the new Continental Navy. They are the Alfred, 24 guns; Columbus, 18 guns; Andrew Doria, 14 guns; Cabot, 14 guns; Providence, 12; Hornet, 10; and Fly, eight.

November 4 – 8 Military: General George Washington, his army about to disband due to expiring enlistments, convinces Congress to extend the period of military service to one year. Congress also sets about reorganizing the Continental Army, decreeing that as of January 1, 1776, it will consist of 26 infantry regiments of eight companies each, for a total complement of 728 rank and file. They also prescribe the first official military uniform, consisting of a brown coat with various regiments denoted by collar and cuff colors. Total strength is theoretically set at 20,372 soldiers, but the Americans will be lucky to maintain half that in the field at any given time.

November 5 Military: Disregarding the onset of winter, General Richard Montgomery hurriedly presses onward from Saint-Johns and marches for Montreal, Quebec. Naval: Congress appoints Esek Hopkins the first commander in chief of the Continental Navy, or commodore. A gruff, imperious, and capable sailor, he apparently received the appointment through the influence of his brother Stephen Hopkins, who sits on the naval committee.

November 7 Military: The Continental Congress amends the Articles of War to include treason as a capital offensive, punishable by death. Politics: The Rhode Island General Assembly votes to remove Governor Joseph Wanton from office. Slavery: Governor John Murray, Lord Dunmore, declares Virginia under martial law and orders all law-abiding citizens to flock under his standards. He also issues the first ever emancipation proclamation in American history by granting freedom to all African-American slaves who escape and join the British army. In practice, this policy proves counterproductive and hardens attitudes of the influential planting class against Great Britain.

November 8 Diplomacy: Congress directs the secret committee to purchase arms, ammunition, and supplies through the West Indies by trading American products.

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(1718 –1802)

Naval officer Esek Hopkins was born in North Scituate, Rhode Island, on April 26, 1718, a son of farmers. He joined the merchant marine as a youth, worked skillfully, and within a few years commanded a minor fleet of several commercial vessels. Hopkins gained additional wealth as a successful privateer during the French and Indian War, 1754–63, and eventually acquired a 200-acre farm in Providence along with considerable political influence. In October 1775, the Rhode Island legislature appointed him brigadier general of militia while his elder brother, Congressman Stephen Hopkins, headed up the Marine Committee and sought an appointment for him. On December 22, 1775, Hopkins thus became the first commodore of the nascent Continental Navy, then consisting of only eight converted merchant ships. In January 1776, Hopkins led his eight-ship flotilla out of Chesapeake Bay with orders from Congress to drive British warships from the American coast. However, owing to a discretionary clause, he opted instead to attack Nassau in the Bahamas, which he seized on March 3, 1776. This constituted the first American naval offensive and netted several cannon and a large supply of gunpowder. However, on the return visit, Hopkins’s entire squadron attempted to capture the lone frigate HMS Glasgow on April 6, 1776, and was roundly repulsed. For his mishandling of affairs and alleged disobedience of orders, Hopkins was censured in Congress. His squadron was also broken up, never to sail again in strength.

For several years, Hopkins and his ships remained docked at Providence, Rhode Island, being short of manpower, equipment, and money. He was simply unable to attract the necessary skilled sailors as long as privateers offered them better wages and working conditions. Being unable to sail meant that the British navy could routinely bottle him up in Narragansett Bay at their leisure. Meanwhile, other leaders like John Paul Jones and John Barry scored marked successes on their own. Hopkins further compounded his problems by doling out what money he had in miserly fashion, alienating his own captains. Their complaints made their way back to Congress, which initiated an investigation of the gruff commodore. In this respect, Hopkins was his own worse enemy, and he displayed little regard for congressional authority and publicly ridiculed them for ineptitude. The politicians were unduly angered, and in January 1778, they removed Hopkins from command over the objections of John Adams. Hopkins survived the controversy surrounding his removal, and he served in the Rhode Island general assembly from 1779 to 1786. During this period he also functioned as a trustee of Rhode Island College (present-day Brown University). Hopkins died at his farm in Scituate on February 28, 1802, a rough man in a rough profession. Few questioned his abilities for seamanship, but he proved unequal to the task of running the nation’s new navy. This, in retrospect, would have proven a daunting task and challenged the abilities and patience of men far more capable than himself.

November 9 Military: Colonel Benedict Arnold concludes his remarkable, 350-mile wilderness trek by reaching the St. Lawrence River opposite Quebec City. His command is reduced to 675 men.

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Chronology of American History General William Howe is directed by Secretary of the Colonies William Legge, Lord Dartmouth, to consider evacuating Boston to commence offensive operations against New York. Howe, lacking sufficient naval transports to handle both his army and thousands of Loyalists who wish to leave, decides to remain where he is. Riflemen under Colonel William Thompson repulse a 500-man British foraging party at Phipp’s Farm on Lechmere Point, Boston. The British lose two killed for two Americans wounded but manage to steal 10 cows. The Americans subsequently mount a battery at this point.

November 10 Naval: Congress approves creation of two battalions of Continental marines to supplant its embryonic naval force. Captain Samuel Nicholas is appointed the first commissioned officer of the corps. Politics: Lord George Germain is appointed secretary of state for the colonies, less for his talent than his unwavering support for hard-line policies regarding the war in America.

November 11 Military: Governor General Guy Carleton is hotly pursued by American forces at Montreal and hurriedly withdraws down the St. Lawrence River in a small flotilla. Once at the citadel of Quebec, he intends to make a last stand in Canada. Naval: Captain Simon Tuft and the ship Defiance, blockading Hog Point near Charleston, South Carolina, are attacked by the British vessels HMS Tamer and Cherokee. He nonetheless manages to scuttle four hulks in the channel without casualties.

November 12 Military: General George Washington, as commander in chief of the Continental Army, prohibits recruiting officers from enlisting African Americans into the army, be they free or slave.

November 13 Military: American forces vigorously led by General Richard Montgomery advance and receive Montreal’s surrender. Simultaneously, Colonel Benedict Arnold’s Canadian expedition prepares to cross the St. Lawrence River and assemble outside Quebec.

November 14 Military: Loyalist forces under Governor John Murray, Lord Dunmore, advances from Norfolk to Kemp’s Landing on the Elizabeth River and sweeps aside a smaller force of riflemen under Colonel William Woodford. The Americans withdraw after losing nine killed and 14 wounded.

November 15 Military: A ragged force of 700 men under Colonel Benedict Arnold finally crosses the St. Lawrence River, assembles on the Plains of Abraham where General James Wolfe stood with six times that number in 1759, and tries to bluff the 1,200-man garrison under Lieutenant Colonel Allan MacLean into surrendering. He refuses, and Arnold concludes he needs several cannon and a minimum of 2,000 men to capture the city. The moment of decision is at hand but the Americans have arrived with too little, too late.

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November 16 Military: Colonel Henry Knox is appointed commander of the new Continental Regiment of Artillery, signaling the birth of that army. More significantly, he is dispatched from Boston to Fort Ticonderoga, New York, to retrieve all captured British ordnance stored there. Politics: Whig opposition leader Edmund Burke introduces a bill into Parliament which declares that only colonial legislatures have the authority for raising taxes on their populace. It also lifts all punitive measures against Massachusetts, pardons colonial leaders for their role in recent hostilities and strikes a very conciliatory tone. The bill is overwhelmingly defeated on a vote of 210 to 105.

November 18 Military: Despite attempts at arranging a truce, warfare commences in the South Carolina backwoods when a force of 1,800 Loyalists under Colonel Patrick Cunningham invests the 600 Patriots of Colonel Andrew Williamson at Fort Ninety Six. The contestants spend the next two days pot-shotting each other with few casualties resulting.

November 19 Military: Americans under Colonel Benedict Arnold withdraw 20 miles from Quebec to avoid a possible sortie by Lieutenant Colonel Allan MacLean. He establishes a new camp at Point aux Trembles and awaits developments as MacLean continues strengthening his defenses. The British flotilla under Governor General Guy Carleton retreats down the St. Lawrence River as far as Sorel, where it is suddenly bombarded by American artillery under Colonel John Brown. Many vessels are either sunk or captured, and Carleton himself makes a hairbreadth escape. However, General Richard Prescott and 145 soldiers pass into captivity.

November 20 Journalism: The Sons of Liberty again wreck the printing press of James Rivington in New York City, this time carrying his expensive type press back with them to Connecticut.

November 21 Military: A Patriot militia under Colonel Andrew Williams, having nearly exhausted its gunpowder, concludes a truce with a larger Loyalist force at Fort Ninety Six, South Carolina. Henceforth the Patriots are to destroy their fortification, release all captives, and return to their homes unmolested. A 20-day ceasefire also ensues to permit the leaders of both factions to confer in Charleston. Of little consequence militarily, the “siege” of Fort Ninety Six marks the beginning of a protracted civil war throughout the South.

November 25 Military: Colonel William Woodford and 300 Virginia militiamen are dispatched toward Suffolk to garrison colonial supplies gathered there. This movement induces Governor John Murray, Lord Dunmore, to march and try to intercept the Americans near Great Bridge on the Elizabeth River. Naval: The Continental Congress authorizes privateering against English shipping and urges creation of an admiralty court to allocate prize money.

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November 27 Naval: Captain John Manley, commanding the armed schooner Lee, captures the British ordnance brig HMS Nancy off Cape Ann, Massachusetts. The vessel is heavily laden with munitions, cannon, and a 2,700-pound mortar, which is dubbed “Congress.” The rich haul is immediately dispatched to the army of General George Washington outside Boston.

November 28 Naval: John Adams directs the Naval Committee to adopt regulations for governing the nascent Continental Navy, in effect formally creating that force. These ordinances prescribe rates of pay, rations, discipline, and division of prize money.

November 29 Diplomacy: The Continental Congress creates the Committee of Secret Correspondence to Conduct Foreign Relations. In effect, it functions as a de facto department of state and is tasked with acquiring loans and military supplies from sympathetic European governments. It is also authorized to dispatch government agents abroad to achieve those same ends. The initial members are Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, John Dickinson, Benjamin Harrison, and Thomas Johnson. Military: A body of American riflemen under Colonel William Woodford, apprised that a large British force under Governor John Murray, Lord Dunmore, is approaching, begins assuming a strong defense position at Great Bridge on a bank of the Elizabeth River. In this manner, Woodford hopes he can thwart possible British capture of Suffolk.

December 1 Military: General Richard Montgomery departs Montreal with a small force of 330 men—all he can spare—and sails down the St. Lawrence River to Quebec. There he intends to join forces with Colonel Benedict Arnold’s depleted force at Point aux Trembles and begin siege operations. Both commanders are under an exacting timetable as expiring enlistments, the onset of winter, and endemic supply shortages are all working against them.

December 3 Naval: Lieutenant John Paul Jones hoists the 13-stripe Grand Union flag over the converted merchant vessel Alfred in Philadelphia. This represents both the first time that an American standard has been raised atop a warship and another sign that the Continental Navy is slowly acquiring shape.

December 6 Politics: When word of King George III’s rejection of the Olive Branch Petition reaches Philadelphia, the Continental Congress responds by renewing its vows of allegiance to the Crown and protesting parliamentary actions. Independence is never mentioned.

December 7 Military: General Richard Montgomery is promoted by the Continental Congress to major general, although he never lives to accept it.

December 8 Diplomacy: In Paris, French foreign minister Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes, announces that King Louis XVI has renewed his injunction against loading guns and munitions aboard American vessels anchored in French ports.

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Jones, John Paul (1747–1792) Naval officer John Paul was born in Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland, on July 6, 1747, and he went to sea at an early age. A skilled mariner, he commanded his own vessel at the age of 21, but in 1770 he faced murder charges for flogging a carpenter to death. He was cleared by an admiralty court, but in 1773 he killed another sailor during a mutiny and fled to Virginia under the assumed name of Jones. When the Revolutionary War commenced two years later, he was living in Philadelphia and received a lieutenant’s commission in the Continental Navy. Jones first accompanied Commodore Esek Hopkins on a raid to Nassau in the spring of 1776, on board the Alfred, then received command of his first vessel, the Providence, that same year. He completed several successful cruises aboard a variety of warships, and in June 1777, he hoisted his flag on the new 18-gun sloop Ranger. Jones then cruised the British home waters, seizing the 20-gun sloop HMS Drake in a swift action off the Irish coast. He continued successfully raiding and cruising European waters, until September 1779, when he took control of the former French merchant vessel Bonhomme Richard, so named in honor of Benjamin Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanac. He inherited a worn-down vessel in terrible shape and spent several months making it seaworthy. On September 23, 1779, Jones engaged the new frigate HMS Serapis under Captain Richard Pearson in one of the hardest ship-to-ship encounters ever recorded. The Americans took a pounding throughout most of the nighttime battle,

until Pearson was finally forced to strike his colors. Reputedly, when Pearson demanded that Jones surrender, he defiantly thundered back, “I have not yet begun to fight!” The creaking Bonhomme Richard sank two days later, but Jones, hotly pursued by English warships, skillfully made it back to port in France where he was hailed a hero. Afterward, Jones sailed to America onboard the borrowed warship Ariel and returned to France in 1781 to negotiate claims for his numerous prizes. At that time, King Louis XVI gave him an elaborate sword and made him a chevalier of France. The Continental Congress also struck a gold medal in his honor, Jones being the only Continental Navy officer so honored. Once the Revolutionary War ended in 1783, Congress began selling off its warships and Jones was forced to look overseas for employment. In 1788, he tendered his service to Czarina Catherine II of Russia, was made an admiral, and fought several successful actions against the Turks before losing his commission to court intrigue. He subsequently relocated to Paris and retired from active duty. Jones died there in relative obscurity on July 18, 1792, and was interred in an unmarked grave. It was not until 1905 that his remains were identified, and he was reburied in the chapel at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, with the military honors befitting a national hero. Along with Captain John Barry, Jones is considered to be a founding father of the U.S. Navy and bequeathed to that service traditions of aggressive leadership and victory.

However, the law is never seriously enforced, and France remains an indispensable valuable supply source throughout the war. Military: General Richard Montgomery sends a flag to Quebec, demanding the city’s immediate surrender. Governor General Guy Carleton, surveying the rag-tag forces before him, promptly declines the request. British strategy is to

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Chronology of American History allow harsh winter conditions to eviscerate the Americans, while awaiting their own reinforcements from Europe. Colonel Henry Knox departs Fort Ticonderoga, New York, and begins a peril-­ ous, midwinter transit back to Boston. At this time, his artillery train consists of 40 sleds drawn by 80 oxen.

Knox, Henry (1750–1806) General Henry Knox was born in Boston, Massachu-­ setts, on July 25, 1750, the son of a shipwright. His father died while he was still young, and he worked in a bookstore to help support his large family. Knox eventually developed an interest in military affairs, opened his own bookstore in 1771, and catered exclusively to British military officers. He also became politi-­ cally active in the wake of the Boston Mas-­ sacre of December 1770 and joined a local militia group. When the Revolutionary War broke out in April 1775, Knox volunteered his services to General Artemas Ward dur-­ ing the siege of Boston and was introduced to General George Washington. The two men struck up cordial relations, and Knox was made a colonel of artillery in the Conti-­ nental Army. In this capacity, he performed invaluable service by transporting captured British cannon from Fort Ticonderoga to Cambridge in the spring of 1776, which forced General William Howe to evacuate Boston. In time, Knox emerged as the army’s foremost authority on artillery, and he fought with distinction at Long Island, Trenton, and Princeton. He was instrumental in orga-­ nizing the crossing of the Delaware River in December 1776 under difficult, freezing conditions, playing a significant role in the decisive American victory there. In 1780, he was part of the jury that condemned English spy Major John Andre to death, and he also helped establish both the famous Springfield Arsenal in Massachusetts and the Artillery Academy at Morristown, Pennsylvania, an

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important precursor to West Point. Knox was then conspicuously engaged throughout the siege of Yorktown in September 1781, where his cannon forced the surrender of General Charles Cornwallis and helped secure the final American victory. When General Wash-­ ington bid his officers farewell at Fraunces Tavern on December 4, 1783, Knox was the first officer to shake his hand. He was also a driving force behind founding the Society of the Cincinnati, a politically oriented veteran’s society for former officers. Knox remained actively engaged in mili-­ tary matters after the Revolution, and in 1785, he succeeded General Benjamin Lin-­ coln as secretary of war under the Articles of Confederation. Once the U.S. Constitution was in effect in 1789, he continued in that role at the behest of President Washington. In this capacity, he helped lay down the foun-­ dation for a new U.S. Navy, administered the small but important U.S. Army, and engaged in numerous treaties with Native Americans. He was also acutely aware of weaknesses in the American militia system and persuaded Congress to enact the Militia Act of 1792 in an attempt to revive it. Knox finally left the administration after a simmering dispute with Alexander Hamilton on December 28, 1794, and retired to private life. He resided several years on his estate at Thomaston, Maine, and died there on October 25, 1806. He was one of the Revolutionary War’s outstanding senior officers and regarded as father of the American artillery service.

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December 9 Military: A British force of 600 Loyalists and 200 regulars under Governor John Murray, Lord Dunmore, confront Colonel William Woodford’s 300 American riflemen safely ensconced behind Great Bridge on the Elizabeth River, Virginia. Rather than outflank his adversary, Dunmore impatiently orders Captain Samuel Leslie to storm the bridge head on with his grenadier company. Woodford orders his men to lie low as if the position was undefended, and the British rush up only to receive sudden and accurate fire from concealed troops. Heavily repulsed, Dunmore orders a second charge, which is also defeated with a loss of 13 dead and 49 wounded to one American injured. As the British are in the act of withdrawing, Woodford suddenly sorties across the bridge, trapping Dunmore behind some fortifications The British manage to escape under cover of darkness and head with all speed for Norfolk.

December 10 Military: Expiring enlistments induce many Connecticut soldiers to leave Boston, underscoring a problem that vexes the Continental Army throughout the war.

December 13 Military: Colonel William Woodford and his riflemen, flush with success at Great Bridge, occupy Norfolk, Virginia, and force British forces, under Governor John Murray, Lord Dunmore, to their fleet offshore.

December 14 Naval: Congress creates a marine committee of 13 members, with one seat for each colony, to augment the naval committee. This body is responsible for acquiring and outfitting all warships authorized by the latter.

December 21 Politics: Parliament passes the Confiscation Act for seizing rebel property. If shipping is involved, any crew members so taken are subject to impressment into the Royal Navy.

December 22 Military: A force of 1,400 South Carolina militia under colonels Richard Richardson, Thomas Polk, Alex Martin, and William Thompson gather to help quell a growing Loyalist movement. This force surprises and annihilates a smaller Loyalist detachment at Great Cane Brake on the Reedy River, killing six and taking 130 prisoners. Several of the state’s most wanted Loyalist leaders are among those apprehended. Naval: The Continental Congress authorizes construction of five additional 32gun frigates, five 28-gun frigates, and three 24-gun frigates. The vessels are to be christened Hancock, Randolph, Raleigh, Warren, Washington, Congress, Effingham, Providence, Trumbull, Virginia, Boston, Delaware, and Montgomery. On the balance sheet, this pits a force of 14 vessels and 332 guns against a Royal Navy establishment possessing 89 warships and 2,756 cannon. To provide the Continental Navy with its initial cadre, Dudley Saltonstall, Abraham Whipple, John B. Hopkins, and Nicholas Biddle are all commissioned captain.

December 23 Politics: By dint of royal proclamation, King George III closes the colonies to all foreign commerce and trade, commencing the following March.

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December 28 Diplomacy: French agent Archard de Bonvouloir makes his appearance before the Committee of Secret Correspondence in Philadelphia and assures them of his government’s sympathy and intention to ignore all covert efforts to raise arms and money by the Americans in France.

December 30 Military: In a desperate gamble, General Richard Montgomery and Colonel Benedict Arnold lay out a plan for attacking Quebec, then garrisoned by 1,800 British troops and militia under Governor General Guy Carleton. It is a twopronged affair, with Arnold taking 600 men along the banks of the St. Charles River while Montgomery leads 300 from Cape Diamond down a narrow path south of the city. At a given signal, both columns will simultaneously attack and try to capture the Lower Town, believed to be lightly defended.

December 31 Military: Outnumbered, short on supplies, and faced with expiring enlistments, General Richard Montgomery and Colonel Benedict Arnold launch a desperate attack on the 1,800-man garrison of General Guy Carleton during a howling blizzard. Montgomery personally leads the charge against a fortified position and is among the first killed by enemy fire. Arnold’s 600-man column enjoys better success and overruns several enemy positions, but he is wounded in the leg and evacuated. His successor, Major Daniel Morgan, continues attacking the barricades and enjoys minor success but is ultimately surrounded and forced to surrender. The Americans sustain 30 dead, 42 injured, and 425 captured to a British tally of only five killed and 13 wounded. Arnold then gathers up his surviving soldiers and reestablishes a loose siege of the city. Slavery: General George Washington, faced with expiring enlistments in the Continental Army, reverses course and allows recruiting officers to sign up any free African Americans willing to serve. However, he still opposes using slaves as soldiers.

1776 General: Washington, North Carolina, becomes the first town in the United States named after commander in chief George Washington. Religion: At their annual meeting, the Society of Friends votes to encourage Quakers to shun fellow members who refuse to free their slaves. Free African Americans in Williamsburg, Virginia, found their own African Baptist Church. Slavery: Reverend Samuel Hopkins of Newport, Rhode Island, publishes his antislavery tract entitled A Dialogue Concerning the Slavery of the Africans, and forwards several copies to the Continental Congress for their consideration. Delaware’s new state constitution expressly forbids the importation of African slaves.

January 1 Military: General David Wooster arrives in Canada to assume temporary command of American forces from Colonel Benedict Arnold. At Cambridge, Massachusetts, General George Washington unfurls a new flag with 13 alternating red and white stripes and declares the beginning of a “new army.”

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Naval: A fleet of small British warships under Governor John Murray, Lord Dunmore, anchors off of Norfolk, Virginia, and demands its surrender. When the town refuses, he commences a prolonged bombardment and sends landing parties ashore to complete the destruction. Both sides suffer six killed or wounded.

January 2 Military: By the time fires have been contained, 54 houses are burned by British and Loyalist forces at Norfolk, Virginia. The local committee of safety orders the property of known Loyalists burned as well, and a total of 860 structures is ultimately consumed.

January 3 Military: Secretary of State for the Colonies William Legge, Lord Dartmouth, instructs Royal Governor Josiah Martin of North Carolina to begin raising an army of 20,000 Loyalists, especially from among that colony’s large population of Scottish highlanders. This force is to rendezvous at Brunswick no later than February 15 and prepare to cooperate with a British naval expedition being dispatched to the coast.

January 4 Military: British soldiers uncover the remains of General Richard Montgomery, and he is subsequently interred with full military honors at Quebec. His body reposes in Canada until 1818, when it is reburied at St. Paul’s Church, New York. General George Washington writes the Continental Congress and assures them he will attack Boston as soon as the opportunity arises.

January 5 Naval: Commodore Esek Hopkins of the Continental Navy is instructed by the Continental Congress to depart Philadelphia whenever practicable and sweep the Virginia and Carolina coasts of marauding British vessels. However, if this proves impractical, he is given discretionary authority to attack the Bahamas instead. Politics: Delegates meeting in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, vote to become the first American state by discarding the old colonial charter for a new constitution. This makes provisions for a president and a bicameral legislature.

January 6 Military: General William Howe, eager to rid himself of his annoying subordinate, General Henry Clinton, dispatches him on an amphibious expedition from Boston, to Cape Fear, North Carolina, to cooperate with a large Loyalist force under Governor Josiah Martin. Once there, he will be joined by another squadron sailing from Cork, Ireland, under Commodore Sir Peter Parker and General Charles Cornwallis. It is anticipated that their combined presence will spark a Loyalist resurgence throughout the region. In New York, Alexander Hamilton founds the Provincial Company of Artillery of the Colony of New York with himself as colonel. This remains the oldest, most continuous unit of the U.S. Army and survives today as Battery D, 5th Field Artillery.

January 8 Military: A raid by Major Thomas Knowlton of Connecticut against Charlestown, Massachusetts, interrupts a performance of General John Burgoyne’s farce The Blockade of Boston. The audience, assuming this is part of the play, bursts into laughter, but the Americans subsequently take five prisoners and burn several houses.

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January 9 Politics: After a long delay, the Continental Congress finally promotes the welldeserving Benedict Arnold to brigadier general. Their perceived neglect occasions much resentment in this mercurial leader. Publishing: Thomas Paine publishes his seminal pamphlet Common Sense in Philadelphia, whose lofty rhetoric electrifies the American polity and further enhances the drive for independence from Great Britain. “Everything that is right or reasonable pleads for separation,” he emoted. “The Blood of the slain, the weeping voice of nature cries, ’tis time to part.” It is aimed squarely at common people and breaks all precedent by referring to King George III, heretofore a remote, benign figure, as the “royal brute.” This tract proves one of the most instrumental publications in history and enjoys a print run of half a million copies—enormous for its day.

January 10 Military: Governor Josiah Martin of North Carolina, still on board HMS Scorpion, urges Loyalists to gather at Brunswick, south of Wilmington, and await a large British naval expedition. Both the governor and the British government harbor unrealistic expectations of raising and equipping a 20,000-man force.

January 11 Politics: In Annapolis, the Maryland Convention side with assemblies in New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania by rejecting independence in favor of reconciliation and moderation. Delegates at the Continental Congress are likewise instructed to pursue rapprochement with Great Britain and be receptive toward any conciliatory moves from the king or Parliament.

January 12 Naval: British forces under Captain James Wallace engage Rhode Island militia in a three-hour contest for possession of Patience, Hope, and Prudence Islands in Narragansett Bay. The British sustain three losses, then withdraw.

January 15 Naval: Volunteers out of Newbury, Massachusetts, man three whale boats and capture a British provisions ship.

January 16 Politics: Congress lends its approval to General George Washington’s intention to recruit free African Americans into the Continental Army.

January 17 Front page of Thomas Paine's Common Sense (Library of Congress)

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Military: General Philip J. Schuyler and 3,000 New York militiamen advance upon Johnson Hall,

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Political writer Thomas Paine was born in Thetford, England, on January 19, 1737, the son of a corset maker. He failed continuously at a number of occupations but also developed an interest in political rationalism. In 1774, he had a chance encounter in London with Benjamin Franklin, who then invited him to move to Philadelphia and provided several letters of recommendation. Paine, eager to escape creditors in England, readily complied, and once there he worked capably as editor of the Pennsylvania Magazine. Wielding a muscular prose as forceful as it was persuasive, he penned several antislavery tracts that brought him instant notoriety. Given his distaste for England’s political system and his own beliefs in freedom and equality, Paine slipped easily into the radical circles of revolutionary America. But no one could have anticipated the reaction to his small pamphlet entitled Common Sense, which he anonymously published in January 1776. This seminal polemic was a fiery and effective condemnation of kings and aristocracy that took the American polity by storm. It certainly accelerated public sentiments toward the Declaration of Independence that summer. Common Sense sold over 120,000 copies in only three months, rendering Paine an instant political celebrity. He followed up his success with a series of essays called the American Crisis, wherein he informed his fellow Americans that “These are the times that try men’s souls.” General George Washington was so impressed by its appeal that he ordered it read to all soldiers in the field. Paine

was thereafter admitted to the Continental Congress as secretary of the Committee of Foreign Affairs, where he squabbled with several members and resigned in 1779. He also served as a clerk in the Pennsylvania assembly to raise funds and supplies for the Continental Army. After the Revolutionary War ended, Paine ventured back to England on business matters, but his proclivity for radical politics got him in trouble again. Specifically he denounced Edmund Burke’s attack upon the French Revolution with The Rights of Man (1791), which defended republicanism and called for a revolution against the English monarchy. This publication also met with rapid success, selling over 200,000 copies in only a few months, and was translated into French and German. Paine was then charged with sedition. He fled to France and was elected to the National Assembly as a hero. But in time, he grew dismayed by the violent radicalism of the Jacobins and was imprisoned. From his cell he next composed his most controversial tract, Age of Reason (1794), an outright attack upon organized religion. Paine was eventually released through the intercession of James Monroe in 1794 and he returned to the United States in 1802, completely discredited by his seeming atheism. He then further stoked his unpopularity by publishing attacks on President George Washington, dying in New York City on June 10, 1809, all but forgotten. But for the time he lived, Paine was the most effective pamphleteer of two revolutions.

home of Loyalist Sir John Johnson. Johnson has amassed a force of 700 Loyalists and Indians but surrenders without a shot. Schuyler’s quick action eliminates any Loyalist threat emanating from the Albany region.

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Chronology of American History Naval: Commodore Esek Hopkins sails with his eight-ship flotilla for the first time from Philadelphia and down the ice-choked Delaware River, although he is prevented from getting to sea. Captain Samuel Tucker is also commissioned and appointed to command the frigate Franklin. Slavery: The Virginia convention orders all African Americans caught fighting for the British to be resold to the West Indies.

January 19 Military: The Continental Congress votes to send reinforcements to Canada with troops raised from New Hampshire, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. Colonel Moses Hazen is authorized to raise a regiment of Canadians in Canada. Colonel John Haslet is appointed head of the newly raised Delaware Continentals, one of few American formations to be equipped with bayonets.

January 20 Naval: General Henry Clinton departs Boston with 1,200 men on an amphibious expedition to Cape Fear, North Carolina, to join Royal Governor Josiah Martin and provoke a Loyalist uprising. Once reinforced by the squadron under Commodore Sir Peter Parker and General Charles Cornwallis, his next task is to seize Wilmington as a base of operations.

January 23 Naval: The committee of safety in Elizabethtown, New Jersey, is informed that a British supply vessel, the HMS Blue Mountain Valley, is anchored off the coast. Colonels Williams Alexander and Elias Dayton are then directed to capture the intruder and take four boatloads of volunteers 40 miles out from Sandy Hook, New Jersey. The unsuspecting British, assuming the approaching craft are fishermen, are quickly subdued and brought into port.

January 24 Military: Colonel Henry Knox arduously transports 44 cannon and 16 mortars from Fort Ticonderoga, New York, to American forces at Cambridge, Massachusetts. He accomplishes this remarkable trek across 300 miles of wilderness in the dead of winter, and his arrival decisively tips the military equation at Boston in favor of the Americans. Politics: The Continental Congress authorizes a committee to explore the possibilities of declaring independence from Great Britain and appoints Philadelphia attorney James Wilson as chairman. The recent failure of the Canadian expedition also prompts them to explore ways of better coordinating the war effort, possibly through creation of a board of war.

January 25 Politics: The Continental Congress creates the marine committee, boasting one member from each state, to oversee affairs of the Continental Navy.

January 26 Naval: Admiral Molyneaux Shuldham arrives at Boston to replace the tottering Admiral Samuel Graves. Religion: Father Louis Eustace Lotbiniere becomes the first Catholic chaplain appointed in the Continental Army. He ministers to French Canadians serving with Colonel James Livingston’s regiment.

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Wilson, James (1742–1798) Politician James Wilson was born at Carksendo, Scotland, on September 14, 1742, a son of farmers. He was educated at the University of St. Andrews and the divinity school at the University of Glasgow but dropped out in 1765 and migrated to Pennsylvania. Early on, Wilson developed a mania for rapidly acquiring wealth through land speculation, which he pursued for the rest of his life. He subsequently studied law under John Dickinson in Philadelphia, was admitted to the bar in 1767, and opened up a successful practice at Carlisle. In the period leading up to the break with Great Britain, Wilson also ardently espoused Patriot sentiments and his pamphlet Considerations on the Nature and Extent of the Legislative Authority of the British Parliament (1775) was subsequently distributed to all members of the First Continental Congress. In it he denounced Parliament’s authority over colonial matters and expressed the Lockean belief that all political legitimacy originates from popular consent. Wilson himself was then a delegate to the second congress, where he exhibited a strong conservative streak, and he engineered a delay in approving the Declaration of Independence, feeling it was premature. However, he finally relented and voted in favor of independence on July 2, 1776. True to his conservative leanings, Wilson waxed cautious over the excess of mob democracy, and he especially opposed the radical band of Pennsylvania politicians whose new constitution discarded the governor’s office and ruled through a unicameral legislature. He

was thus unpopular with the lower orders, and on October 4, 1779, they rioted outside his house. Wilson was also turned out of office that year by his more liberal-leaning constituents. In 1782, a conservative tide sent Wilson back to Congress, and he also helped draft a new state constitution with an executive officer in charge. After the war, he argued continually that the Articles of Confederation were inadequate for governing the country, and in 1787, he attended the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia as a delegate. He then served with the Committee on Details and unsuccessfully pushed for the direct election of senators, but his suggestion for an electoral college to choose a president was adopted. Wilson then championed the cause of ratification in Pennsylvania, which was fulfilled that December. In 1789, he also became the first lecturer of law at the University of Pennsylvania but, ambitious as ever, he broached the issue of being appointed chief justice of the new U. S. Supreme Court to President George Washington. That position was eventually given to John Jay, but Washington allowed Wilson to serve as an associate justice. In 1793, his ruling in Chisholm v. Georgia upheld the principle of federal authority over states’ rights, consistent with his conservative leanings. However, all the while, Wilson continued dabbling in land speculation and finally went bankrupt. He then fled Pennsylvania in 1797 to escape creditors and died at Edenton, North Carolina, on August 21, 1798.

February 4 Military: Continental Army forces arrives at New York under General Henry Lee, just as General Henry Clinton’s amphibious expedition anchors in the harbor.

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February 6 Military: Colonel Robert Howe finishes burning the remaining buildings of Norfolk, Virginia, to deny them to the enemy. This once thriving port has now been reduced to ashes.

February 13 Politics: In Philadelphia, James Wilson submits a 6,000-word draft addressing the touchy issue of independence from Great Britain. However, the recent publication of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense negates the document’s relevance, and it is unceremoniously tabled.

February 15 Military: Lieutenant Colonel Donald MacDonald musters 1,400 Loyalist highlanders at Cross Creek, North Carolina, although only one-third possess firearms. He nonetheless begins marching to the coast to join British forces expected there.

February 16 Military: In Cambridge, General George Washington worries over prolonged inactivity and suggests a large-scale attack across the frozen bay with 16,000 men. He then defers to his officers when they suggest that seizing strategic Dorchester Heights and planting Colonel Henry Knox’s newly arrived cannon is more expedient. Such a move is calculated to force British general William Howe to either come out and fight in the open or abandon the city altogether.

February 17 Naval: Commodore Esek Hopkins directs his small armada, consisting of the frigates Alfred and Columbus, the brigs Cabot and Andrew Doria, the sloops Providence and Hornet, and the schooners Fly and Wasp into open waters for the first time. This is the first sortie in strength by the Continental Navy on open water and, although Hopkins has been ordered by Congress to scour the southern coastline for British warships, he uses a discretionary clause in his orders to attack Nassau in the Bahamas instead. Politics: When Congress orders General Charles Lee to succeed General Philip J. Schuyler of New York as head of the northern department, intense resistance erupts from that colony’s delegates.

February 18 Military: A Loyalist force of 1,500 men under Lieutenant Colonel Donald MacDonald, en route to Brunswick, North Carolina, confronts Patriot forces dug in behind Rockfish Creek. The Loyalists then employ boats to cross upstream and continue on their march.

February 23 Military: Loyalists under Lieutenant Colonel Donald MacDonald advance toward Brunswick, North Carolina, but are blocked by Patriot militia under Richard Caswell at Corbit’s Ferry. MacDonald then builds a temporary bridge spanning the Black River and continues on his way. At this juncture the 80-year-old MacDonald is taken ill and replaced by Captain Alexander Macleod.

February 27 Military: The Continental Congress establishes the Northern, Middle, and Southern Departments for the Continental Army.

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An American force of 1,900 Americans under Colonels James Moore, Alexander Lillington, John Ashe, and Richard Caswell confronts 1,500 Loyalist Highlanders under Captain Alexander Macleod at Moore’s Creek Bridge, North Carolina. Inexplicably, Macleod storms the bridge in full view of the defenders, only to discover that the planks have been removed and the poles greased. The attack flounders, Macleod is killed along with 30 soldiers, and 850 prisoners are secured. The Americans suffer one dead and one injured in the three-minute affair. This major defeat forces the British to abandon plans for using nearby Wilmington as a base of operations and also thwarts Governor Josiah Martin’s quest to reestablish royal authority.

February 28 Societal: General George Washington pens a letter of thanks to AfricanAmerican poetess Phillis Wheatley for a poem written in his honor.

February 29 Politics: The Continental Congress deliberates the possibility of entering formal trade agreements with France and Spain—the mere act a sign of de facto independence. The debate sputters on for several hours without resolution.

March 1 Politics: New York delegates pressure the Continental Congress to rescind their appointment of General Henry Lee as head of the Northern Department and restore General Philip J. Schuyler to command. Lee, in turn, gains appointment as commander of the Southern Department, headquartered at Charleston, South Carolina. Naval: The American squadron of Commodore Esek Hopkins rendezvouses off the Bahamian island of Abaco prior to launching a coordinated attack on the capital of New Providence (Nassau). Of the eight vessels that departed Philadelphia in January, the schooners Fly and Wasp have been damaged in a collision and limped home.

March 2 Military: American artillery in Boston provides a nighttime diversion by bombarding the city from Cobble Hill, Lechmere Point, and Roxbury, while troops simultaneously prepare to occupy strategic Dorchester Heights. British counterfire kills six and wounded five.

March 3 Diplomacy: The Continental Congress dispatches Connecticut delegate Silas Deane as agent to France for the purpose of obtaining military supplies. He is also authorized to broach the issue of a military alliance with Foreign Minister Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes. Naval: Royal governor James Wright of Georgia attacks Savannah with naval reinforcements under Commodore Andrew Barkley; 11 merchant vessels are seized in the harbor. General Lachlan McIntosh, shorthanded and tasked with defending the city, does nothing to stop these depredations. However, the marauders are subsequently driven from their base camp on Hutchinson’s Island by fire boats drifted in their direction. Both sides sustain six casualties. The American naval squadron under Commodore Esek Hopkins attacks and captures New Providence on Nassau, the Bahamas, with sailors and 200 marines

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Chronology of American History under Captain Samuel Nicholas. Governor Montfort Browne surrenders after a token defense at Fort Montagu and no losses are incurred by either side. Hopkins lingers there two weeks loading 88 cannon, 15 mortars, and quantities of gunpowder. This is the Continental Navy’s first planned offensive, and all goes off smoothly. However, the commodore’s dilatory pace of sailing enabled the governor to ship off 150 casks of gunpowder prior to his arrival.

March 4 Military: Outside Boston, General John Thomas and engineer Colonel Richard Gridley lead 2,000 men on a nighttime foray to seize Dorchester Heights at night, concealed by an intense artillery bombardment which also masks the noise of their digging. The men press on diligently and by daybreak, the British are amazed to behold a complete line of breastworks and artillery emplacements that have literally sprung up overnight. Admiral Molyneux Shuldham, commanding the Royal Navy at Boston, advises General William Howe to either eliminate the threat to his fleet or evacuate the town completely. Howe initially opts for the former and prepares 2,200 men to storm Castle William, but boisterous weather prevents him from moving. Howe then decides his position is no longer tenable and begins preparing to evacuate the city.

March 9 Military: British and American artillery engage in a lengthy duel at Nook’s Hill, Boston, which drives away unsheltered Continental infantry with five dead. Naval: The Maryland warship Defense, assisted by two militia companies, attacks and drives off the HMS Otter from Chariton Creek, Virginia.

March 12 Naval: The British naval expedition under General Henry Clinton arrives off Cape Fear, North Carolina, and awaits promised reinforcements. However, Clinton then learns of the recent Loyalist defeat at Moore’s Creek and begins recalculating his mission.

March 14 Politics: The Continental Congress recommends disarming all Loyalist sympathizers.

March 17 Military: General William Howe concludes an 11-month siege of Boston by evacuating the town, taking 9,000 troops and 1,000 Loyalists onboard 125 ships. He has also reached an understanding with General George Washington not to burn the town, provided his withdrawal is not interfered with. Once the British depart, Boston is reoccupied by American soldiers under General Artemas Ward. Washington, meanwhile, anticipates that Howe will switch his attention toward New York City and begins shifting men and materiel to that theater.

March 19 Naval: The Continental Congress tables a motion by Samuel Chase that would have permitted attacks on British merchant vessels by the Continental Navy. Instead it encourages the practice of privateering.

March 20 Diplomacy: The Continental Congress creates a deputation consisting of Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Chase, Charles Carroll, and the Reverend John Carroll

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for the purpose of visiting Canada. There they are to entreat leaders to abandon neutrality and join the revolution. They also wish to assure Canadians that their right to worship, as Roman Catholics, will be preserved. Military: The victorious Continental Army savors its first victory by occupying Boston, Massachusetts, without firing a shot. But the Americans warily observe the British fleet, anchored five miles distant at Nantasket Road, as it pauses to take on fresh water and other supplies.

March 23 Naval: The Continental Congress formally authorizes privateering against all British shipping and begins issuing letters of marque.

March 25 Politics: In light of the British evacuation of Boston, the Continental Congress authorizes a gold medal struck with the likeness of General George Washington.

March 26 Politics: The South Carolina assembly enacts statehood by replacing its colonial charter with a new government headed by John Rutledge as president.

March 27 Naval: The last Royal Navy vessel sails out of sight from Nantasket Roads, five miles below Boston, and heads for Halifax, Nova Scotia. Only a few warships will return to maintain a loose blockade of the port.

April 1 Societal: A group of 1,124 Loyalist refugees arrives at Halifax, Nova Scotia, the first of 40,000 such settlers who emigrate there during the Revolution.

April 2 Military: General David Wooster marches from Montreal to Quebec City with reinforcements and supersedes General Benedict Arnold as commander. Arnold, meanwhile, falls off his horse and is evacuated.

April 4 Naval: Captain Abraham Whipple of the 20-gun frigate Columbus captures the six-gun schooner HMS Hawke off Block Island, Rhode Island. This is the first prize actually taken at sea by an American warship.

April 5 Naval: The frigate Alfred under Commodore Esek Hopkins seizes the British bomb brig HMS Bolton under Lieutenant Edward Sneyd.

April 6 Business: The Continental Congress reacts to Parliament’s Prohibitory Act and throws open its ports to all nations except Great Britain. Henceforth, vessels from Spain, Holland, and France are at leisure to engage in commercial activities with the former colonies. Meanwhile, moderates caution that summarily rejecting the British Navigation Acts constitutes de facto independence. Naval: The American naval squadron under Commodore Esek Hopkins engages Captain Tryingham Howe and the Royal Navy’s 20-gun frigate HMS Glasgow off Block Island, Rhode Island, but fails to capture it after a three-hour running battle. The sloop Cabot is severely damaged in the chase and hauled off as the Alfred

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April 7 Naval: Captain John Barry, cruising with the 16-gun brig Lexington off the Virginia Capes, engages and captures the British sloop HMS Edward in a four-hour battle. The Americans lose two killed and two wounded to one Briton dead and one injured. This is the first enemy warship actually taken in a ship-to-ship encounter.

April 8 Naval: The squadron of Commodore Esek Hopkins concludes its only sortie in strength by anchoring at New London, Connecticut. The force is then broken up and never reconstituted again.

April 9 Naval: The American schooner Wasp seizes the British brig Betsey in Christina Creek, Delaware Bay. Slavery: The Second Continental Congress passes a resolution calling for the eventual end to importing African slaves.

April 12 Politics: The North Carolina Provisional Congress approves the so-called Halifax Resolves, which order, for the first time, its congressional delegates to vote for independence from Great Britain.

April 13 Military: General George Washington arrives in New York City and begins preparing its defenses. He fears that if the city falls to the British, they can disrupt communications between the northern and southern colonies.

April 15 Naval: The warships Warren and Providence are launched and commissioned at Providence, Rhode Island.

April 18 Naval: The vanguard of Commodore Peter Parker’s approaching fleet reaches Cape Fear, North Carolina.

April 20 Politics: Admiral Marriot Arbuthnot is commissioned lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia. Naval: HMS Scarborough drops anchor at Halifax, Nova Scotia, and unloads numerous Loyalist refugees, including former royal governor James Wright of Georgia.

April 29 Diplomacy: A congressional delegation consisting of Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Chase, and Charles Carroll arrives at Montreal to encourage Canadians to desert the Crown. The French-speaking Catholic majority there fears assimilation by their southern neighbors and remains aloof to their overtures.

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Barry, John (1745–1803) Naval officer John Barry was born in County Wexford, Ireland, on January 1, 1743, and he took to sea as a cabin boy at the age of 10. After settling in Philadelphia in 1761, he rose to prominence as a sea captain. Once the Revolutionary War erupted in April 1775, he donated his vessel Black Prince to the nascent Continental Navy where it was converted into the armed brig Alfred. Barry himself was commissioned captain in that force in March 1776, commanding the brig Lexington, and with it he secured the tender HMS Edward on April 6, 1776—this was the first combat victory at sea for the United States. He then commanded a succession of vessels, including the frigate Effingham, which he subsequently scuttled to prevent its capture. Barry also found the time to command a gun crew at the Battle of Princeton in January 1777 and subsequently led a boat expedition into Delaware Bay that netted several British supply vessels. In September 1778, Barry embarked on the frigate Raleigh but he was cornered by two British warships and was driven ashore at Penobscot, Maine. He then served admirably while commanding a brig in the Pennsylvania state navy while awaiting a Continental warship. These were in short supply and it was not until February 1780 that his friend General Henry Knox used his influence to obtain the frigate Alliance for him. Barry’s first voyage on the Alliance proved memorable; while conveying diplomats Thomas Paine and John Laurens to France, he captured several privateers

and prizes en route. On the return leg of the journey he was attacked by the British privateers Minera and Mars on April 2, 1780, but through adroit ship handling he captured both. Another stiff fight occurred in calm waters on May 23, 1780, when the British warships Atalanta and Trepassy rowed behind Alliance’s stern and raked it repeatedly. Barry, wounded and tenacious as ever, demanded to be carried topside, the wind then sprang up, and he captured both antagonists. In the fall of 1781, he was selected to convey the marquis de Lafayette to France and then escort a ship back carrying millions of dollars in specie. On March 10, 1783, the Alliance was attacked by three British warships, but Barry outmaneuvered his opponents and badly crippled HMS Sybil, winning the last naval engagement of the war. Afterward he resumed his career with the merchant marine until March 1794, when he was commissioned the senior captain in the new U.S. Navy and was tasked with overseeing construction of the large 44-gun frigate United States. In this capacity he led several cruises of the Caribbean during the Quasi-War with France, and on February 3, 1799, he captured a large French privateer off Martinique. Barry finally resigned from active duty in 1801 on the grounds of declining health and retired at Philadelphia. He died there on September 13, 1803, a harsh yet capable naval leader. Like his great contemporary, John Paul Jones, Barry shares his reputation as “Father of the American Navy.”

May 1 Military: General John Thomas arrives outside Quebec as the new commander in chief of the American forces stationed there. He inherits a force of 1,900 ragged, underfed men and prepares to abandon the siege of that city. Governor General Guy Carleton, meanwhile, bides his time in the city, awaiting reinforcements.

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May 2 Diplomacy: After concluding secret negotiations with Arthur Lee, French foreign minister Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes, convinces King Louis XVI to secretly approve 1 million livres in aid to the rebellious colonies. He also receives similar pledges from the Spanish government. Thus emboldened, the king directs Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais to found a dummy company, Roderigue, Hortalez et Cie, for the purpose of funneling clandestine aid to America. Naval: A large fleet of British warships and transports begins ascending the St. Lawrence River for the relief of Quebec. Aboard is a detachment of troops under General John Burgoyne and the first contingent of Hessian mercenaries under General Baron Friedrich von Riedesel.

May 3 Diplomacy: The British government authorizes General William Howe and his elder brother, Admiral Richard Howe, to serve on a forthcoming peace commission. The admiral is also appointed commander in chief of all naval forces in American waters. Meanwhile Lord George Germain insists that fighting will continue until each colony acknowledges the supremacy of Parliament. Naval: The expedition of Commodore Sir Peter Parker and General Charles Cornwallis arrives off Cape Fear, North Carolina, and joins troops already there under General Henry Clinton.

May 4 Politics: The Rhode Island General Assembly expunges all written allegiances to the English monarch from its charter and declares itself independent under the new title State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.

May 6 Military: Ships bearing reinforcements under General John Burgoyne anchor off Quebec City, bringing British garrison strength up to 13,000 men. Thus augmented, Governor General Guy Carleton launches a 900-man probe of the American encampment outside the city. These men attack and completely rout a 250-man detachment under General John Thomas, but Carleton declines pursuit at this point in favor of offloading the balance of his soldiers. Politics: The Virginia Convention supersedes the House of Burgesses as the state’s representative assembly.

May 8–9 Naval: Row galleys of the Pennsylvania state navy engage the British warships HMS Roebuck and Liverpool on Christiana Creek near Wilmington, Delaware. A protracted gun duel ensues, and the British are forced back downstream with minor losses to both sides.

May 10 Naval: Lieutenant John Paul Jones steps aboard the 12-gun sloop Providence, his first command. Politics: The Continental Congress passes a resolution encouraging all 13 colonies to form new, independent governments. A committee under John Adams of Massachusetts is tasked with composing a preamble to the resolution.

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May 15 Politics: The Virginia Convention instructs its delegates at the Continental Congress to approve of independence from Britain whenever such a vote manifests. Hot debate also ensues over John Adams and his preamble to the resolution endorsing new state governments, so written as to endorse independence from Britain.

May 16 Military: Major Henry Sherburne leads a column of 150 American soldiers from Montreal to reinforce the small American post at the Cedars, 40 miles distant. It quickly dwindles to 100 men through desertion. Politics: The Philadelphia committee of public safety offers six pence for every pound of lead products turned over for military purposes.

May 17 Military: An ailing General John Thomas assembles his shattered command at Sorel on the St. Lawrence River and decides to retreat toward Chambly, Quebec. Naval: Captain John Mugford of the schooner Franklin attacks and seizes the supply ship HMS Hope, along with schooner of gunpowder and scores of entrenchments tools. That night a British cutting-out expedition of 200 men uses 12 boats to attack the Franklin and privateer Lady Washington near Nantasket Roads, Massachusetts, but is bloodily repulsed. The Americans sustain two killed, including gallant Captain Mugford; the British admit to a loss of seven dead.

May 18 Naval: Captain Nicholas Biddle departs the Delaware capes on board the 14-gun Andrew Doria; over the next four months he will seize 10 prizes.

May 19 Military: The 50 men of Britain’s 8th Foot under Captain George Forster, backed by 200 Indians, attack 400 American militia under Major Isaac Butterfield at the Cedars, halfway between Montreal and Quebec. The militia, abandoned by Colonel Timothy Bedel, initially defends its small wooden post until Forster assures Butterfield that the Indians will not massacre. They then capitulate.

May 20 Military: An American relief force of 100 men under Major Henry Sherburne is ambushed near Vaudreuil, Quebec, by soldiers and Indians under Captain George Forster, 8th Foot. The Americans lose another 28 killed and several wounded before Sherburne surrenders.

May 24 Military: General George Washington arrives at Philadelphia for high-level strategic discussions with the Continental Congress. The latter is particularly worried what will happen should New York City fall to the British. Two new committees are also appointed, one to oversee the ensuing campaign and another to explore the possibility of recruiting Native Americans to the war effort.

May 26 Military: Ever-energetic General Benedict Arnold rapidly marches from Montreal and overtakes Major George Forster’s British and Indians at Quinze Chiens, Canada. Rather than risk a massacre of 487 American prisoners, the two

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Chronology of American History commanders agree to release all American captives now for a similar number of British captives in the future. This affair partially erases the disgrace of the Cedars seven days earlier.

May 31 Naval: Commodore Sir Peter Parker’s fleet finally assembles in full strength off Cape Fear and sails for Charleston, South Carolina, in concert with forces under General Henry Clinton.

June 1 Military: A force of 3,000 Americans under General John Sullivan arrives at Saint-Johns, Quebec, and succeeds the gravely ill General John Thomas as commander. Once further augmented by a Pennsylvania brigade under General William Thompson, Sullivan entertains a second siege of Quebec City. He is completely unaware of the magnitude of British reinforcements before him.

June 2 Military: General John Thomas succumbs to smallpox at Chambly, Quebec.

June 4 Military: General Henry Lee arrives at Charleston, South Carolina, succeeding Colonel William Moultrie as commander. He then enters into a sharp dispute with that officer upon ordering Fort Sullivan in the harbor abandoned. Moultrie, however, prevails and goes on to finish constructing and arming that fortification in time to repulse any British attacks. It is constructed of two walls of palmetto logs separated by 16 feet of beach sand, mounts 31 cannon, and boasts a garrison of 420 men.

June 6 Military: General John Sullivan dispatches General William Thompson and 2,000 Americans from Saint-Johns and down the St. Lawrence River to TroisRivieres (Three Rivers), Quebec. He is detailed there to capture a strategic fort lying halfway between Montreal and Quebec, then garrisoned by 800 men. Thompson takes with him the brigades of Generals Anthony Wayne, Arthur St. Clair, and William Maxwell. Politics: At a meeting convened at Harrodsburg, Kentucky, by George Rogers Clark, Kentucky settlers elect delegates to visit Williamsburg, Virginia, and plead for the assembly to annex their region to the state. Such a move will ensure greater funding for defenses along this very dangerous frontier.

June 7 Naval: The 12-gun American privateer Yankee Hero surrenders to the frigate HMS Medford under Captain John Burr after a gallant two-hour struggle off Newburyport, Massachusetts. The large British amphibious expedition under Commodore Sir Peter Parker and General Henry Clinton appears suddenly off Charleston, South Carolina. They badly outnumber the American defenders but also lack maps and knowledge of the local waters to advance farther. Several days thus elapse before the British can mount offensive operations. Politics: Virginian Richard Henry Lee, outraged over Britain’s employment of foreign mercenaries, sounds the tocsin for American independence. He urges creation of foreign alliances, along with adoption of articles of confederation to

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June 8 Military: In Canada, General William Thompson’s 2,000 Americans land near Â� Trois-Â�Rivières and advance inland toward their objective. En route they are betrayed by their guide and end up in a swamp and spend several hours extricating themselves. They are also spotted by the British vessel HMS Martin and fired upon, which alerts the nearby garrison. Unknown to Thompson, the town is occupied by several thousand newly arrived British regulars under General John Burgoyne. ColÂ�oÂ�nel Anthony Wayne’s column makes first contact with the enemy and initially forces them back, but British reinforcements drive the Americans off. Worse, a detachment of light infantry under General Simon Fraser arrives by boat and lands in the American rear, encircling them. Thompson’s entire command stampedes into the swamp and retreats in confusion.

June 9 Military: Americans under General William Thompson are hotly pursued from Â� Trois-Â�Rivières back to their original debarkation point and are shocked to learn that their boats have deserted them. Thompson, his situation hopeless, surrenders while General Anthony Wayne cuts his way through to freedom and marches back to Sorel with 1,100 men. The entire operation has been a disaster for the Americans, who lose 40 killed and 236 prisoners. British casualties amount to eight killed and nine wounded. Facing insurmountable odds, General Benedict Arnold abandons Montreal and marches 300 men for Saint Johns with dispatch. Beforehand he strips the navy yard of tools and timber, shipping them ahead to Crown Point, New York.

June 10 Diplomacy: King Charles III of Spain offers to clandestinely supply the United States with arms and munitions by advancing 1 million livres to the dummy company of Roderigue, Hortalez et Cie. Politics: The Continental Congress, still fumbling with the issue of in�de�pen�dence from Great Britain, decides to postpone any vote on the subject until July.

June 11 Politics: The Continental Congress appoints a committee consisting of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Robert R. Livingston, and Roger Sherman to explore drafting a possible declaration of in�de�pen�dence. Two additional committees are appointed to weigh a confederation scheme of government and a plan to negotiate treaties with foreign powers.

June 12 Politics: John Dickinson is appointed chair of a congressional committee tasked with drafting a plan for governance under new articles of confederation. Given the gravity of the subject, he is to be assisted by one delegate from each colony. The new foreign treaty committee, meanwhile, consists of Dickinson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Harrison, and Robert Morris. The Virginia Convention at Williamsburg adopts the Declaration of Rights as drafted by George Mason. He incorporates �long-�established En�glish precepts enunciated by the Magna Carta, the Petition of Rights, and the Bill of Rights.

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June 13 Military: General John Sullivan, in light of the deteriorating situation in Canada, prepares to abandon that province and retreat into northern New York. His army, 8,000 strong, is in tatters, poorly fed, and barely disciplined—no match for the 8,000 British and Hessian veterans bearing down on them. Naval: American artillery under General Benjamin Lincoln drives HMS Renown from Boston harbor, finally breaking the British blockade there. Politics: The Continental Congress founds the five-member Board of War and Ordnance, to better oversee administration of the Continental Army, along with the Department of Headquarters.

June 14 Military: Governor general Guy Carleton advances to Trois-Rivieres with 8,000 veteran troops under Generals John Burgoyne and Friedrich von Riedesel. This move prompts General John Sullivan to begin embarking troops, equipment, and supplies at Sorel for an eventual return to Crown Point, New York. It also signals the conclusion of the ill-fated American invasion of Canada.

June 16 Military: General Benedict Arnold conducts a rearguard action at Chambly and continues retreating. General Henry Clinton lands 2,000 men on Long Island in Charleston harbor and orders them to attack the city. The maneuver proves impossible, the route inundated with deep shoals, and it is halted. Naval: Captain Seth Harding, commanding a squadron consisting of the Lee, Franklin, Lynch, Warren, and Defense, captures the British transports HMS George and Arabella in Boston harbor. The George, partly manned by soldiers of the 71st Highlanders, resists stiffly and surrenders only after losing 12 killed and 13 wounded. Among the 170 captives taken is Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Campbell, the future conqueror of Georgia. American losses are nine injured.

June 17 Military: Montreal is reoccupied by British and Hessian forces under Governor general Guy Carleton, who begins preparations for invading northern New York. News of the defeat in Canada prompts the Continental Congress to replace General John Sullivan with General Horatio Gates as commander of northern forces.

June 20 Military: American forces under Colonel Rufus Putnam begin construction of Fort Washington on Manhattan’s northern end. Though spacious, it remains an open earthwork lacking a palisade, barracks, water supply, or bomb-proof magazines. Its sole defensive virtue is its position 230 feet above sea level and astride the Hudson River, from which the defenders hope its cannon can interdict the British passage upstream.

June 21 Politics: The New Jersey Provincial Congress deposes and arrests Royal Governor William Franklin—Benjamin Franklin’s son—and begins drafting a new state constitution. It also dispatches a new delegation to the Continental Congress

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General Horatio Gates was born in Maldon, England, in 1728, the son of a tradesman. He joined the army as an officer in 1749, fought competently throughout the French and Indian War, 1754–63, and struck up cordial relations with Colonel George Washington of the Virginia militia. Gates remained in the army afterward, but his lack of a social pedigree and family connections stunted future promotions, so in 1756 he angrily resigned his commission. In 1772, he relocated to Virginia with Washington’s help, where he developed a plantation and joined the minor gentry. When the Revolutionary War erupted in April 1775, Gates threw his lot in with the Americans and was commissioned a brigadier general. In this capacity, he served as Washington’s adjutant general, being one of few Continental Army officers with bona fide military experience. It was his responsibility to train, equip, and administer the maturing Continental Army, and he fulfilled his duties well. Although Gates served competently as a staff officer, overweening ambition drove him to secure higher rank and a field command of his own. He then gained promotion to major general in May 1777, and the following August he supplanted General Philip J. Schuyler as commander of the Northern Department. His arrival coincided with an invasion by a large British army under General John Burgoyne, which Gates, greatly assisted by the able Benedict Arnold, defeated and captured that October. In fact, while Gates timorously

remained behind at headquarters, Arnold took to the field and distinguished himself in close combat. But, now hailed as the “Hero of Saratoga,” he apparently sought to head the entire Continental Army—by replacing his good friend Washington. His purported attempt to accomplish this, the so-called Conway Cabal, disgraced the conspirators, accomplished nothing, and greatly cooled relations between the two former friends. Gates remained idle for two years after Saratoga, until 1780 when he was appointed commander of the Southern Department. This was done without the consent or knowledge of Washington, who preferred General Nathanael Greene for the task. Gates then took his small, malnourished army into combat at Camden, South Carolina, on August 16, 1780, where he was utterly routed by British veterans under General Charles Cornwallis. Gates then ruined his reputation by riding 120 miles nonstop from the battlefield until he reached Hillsboro, North Carolina. He managed to scrape together a command until December 1780, when Greene unceremoniously replaced him. Gates never again commanded in the field, although he did briefly serve on Washington’s staff as an administrator and retired in semi-disgrace in 1783. He lived on his Virginia plantation until 1790, when he manumitted his slaves and relocated to New York City. He died there on April 10, 1806, one of the Revolution’s most controversial senior officers.

with instructions to support any resolution declaring independence, affirming a confederation, or ratifying treaties with foreign powers.

June 23 Politics: Thomas Jefferson, interrupting his activities in Congress, drafts a proposed state constitution for consideration by the Virginia Convention in Williamsburg.

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June 24 Military: The combined forces of Generals John Sullivan and Benedict Arnold cannot contain an advance by Governor general Guy Carleton at Ile aux Noix and Sorel, Quebec. Sullivan concedes the inevitable and the badly hobbled Americans continue falling back on the perceived safety at Crown Point, New York. His men suffer from hunger, disease, and lack of equipment.

June 28 Naval: After innumerable delays due to crossing a sandbar and unfavorable tidal conditions, British naval forces under Commodore Sir Peter Parker begin an attack on Charleston, South Carolina. They first engage a small garrison under Colonel William Moultrie on Sullivan’s Island in the city’s harbor. Parker draws up a double line of eight warships mounting 260 guns and bombards the fort for 10 hours. However, the unique properties of the palmetto logs enable them to simply absorb the British shot with virtually no harm done to the occupants. When a lucky shot brings down the fort’s flagstaff, Sergeant William Jasper bravely mounts the parapet under fire and reraises the standard. Moultrie’s batteries, meanwhile, pour a continual hot fire onto the fleet, completely riddling Parker’s flagship HMS Bristol. This vessel is struck no less than 70 times, its captain killed, and Parker wounded, losing his pants. Worse, when the British attempt to slip three frigates around the fort to enfilade it, they ground in shoal waters. The 20gun HMS Actaeon cannot be refloated and is abandoned and burned by its own crew. By 9 p.m. Parker signals his fleet to withdraw. British losses are 64 killed and 161 wounded to an American total of 17 dead and 20 injured. The former royal governor of South Carolina, William Campbell, is also mortally wounded. Moultrie’s victory makes him a national hero and secures Charleston from British control for another two and a half years. Politics: Thomas Jefferson completes his draft for the Declaration of Independence, with slight alterations by John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, and proffers it to the Continental Congress for their consideration. The Maryland convention unanimously votes to authorize delegates at the Continental Congress to vote for independence.

June 29 Naval: A huge combined expedition under Admiral Molyneux Shuldham and General William Howe anchors off Sandy Hook, New York, signaling the start of British offensive operations in that quarter. British naval vessels chase the American ship Nancy off Cape May, New Jersey, until it grounds. Captain Lambert Wickes then arrives to assist and orders gunpowder supplies opened and the ship set afire. The crew flees as the British board the burning vessel, which suddenly explodes and kills several sailors. The American militia then gathers and fires upon the survivors, who flee. Politics: The Virginia Convention in Williamsburg throws off remaining colonial shackles by discarding its old charter in favor of a new constitution. Noted orator and attorney Patrick Henry is then elected governor by the legislature.

July Diplomacy: A large gathering of Shawnee, Lenni Lenape (Delaware), Ottawa, Cherokee, and Wyandot meets at Muscle Shoals (Alabama) to discuss how to resist increasing white colonization of their ancestral lands. Chief Cornstalk

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declares his intention to ally himself with the British, and many other tribes decide to follow suit.

July 1 Military: Lingering frontier resentment explodes into hostility as the Second Cherokee War erupts along the frontier of Virginia and the Carolinas. Major Andrew Williams of South Carolina, seconded by Captain Andrew Pickens, begin assembling militia forces to counterattack. Politics: The notion of independence sparks a heated debate in the Continental Congress, at the conclusion of which only nine colonies out of 13 are fully pledged in support. Partisans on both sides of the issue begin intensely lobbying over the next day to secure undecided votes.

July 2 Politics: The Continental Congress finally ratifies the Declaration of Independence from Great Britain, 12–0, with delegates from New York abstaining. This seminal document, drafted by Thomas Jefferson with input from Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Roger Sherman, becomes the cornerstone of American political philosophy and traditions. Delegate Caesar Rodney rides furiously to Philadelphia from Delaware to attend the proceedings and dramatically arrives splattered with mud—he votes in favor. Women: New Jersey adopts a new state constitution—the first allowing women the right to vote.

July 3 Military: General William Howe begins disembarking 10,000 troops on Staten Island, New York, in preparation for offensive operations against New York.

Delegates to the Continental Congress approve the Declaration of Independence, held by Thomas Jefferson (National Archives)

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July 4 Politics: At Philadelphia, the Declaration of Independence is signed by President of Congress John Hancock of the Continental Congress and forwarded to the state assemblies for eventual ratification.

July 5 Military: General Horatio Gates makes for Crown Point, New York, to succeed General John Sullivan as head of the Northern Department.

July 6 Journalism: The Declaration of Independence is printed for the first time by the Pennsylvania Evening Post; it occupies the entire front page.

July 7 Diplomacy: Silas Deane arrives in Paris on a mission to ascertain French sympathies and solicit military and financial support. Military: In Canada, Loyalist John Johnson is authorized by Governor general Guy Carleton to begin raising the King’s Royal Regiment from among fellow refugees. General John Sullivan rows the length of Lake Champlain and finally arrives at Crown Point, New York, with 8,000 exhausted, dispirited men. General Philip J. Schuyler subsequently orders them to fall back an additional 10 miles to the perceived safety of Fort Ticonderoga.

July 8 Military: General Andrew Lewis masses a small force of 10 infantry companies, backed by a battery of 18-pound cannon, in preparation for storming Gywnn Island at the mouth of the Rappahannock River. Since May, this locale has served as the de facto headquarters of Royal Governor John Murray, Lord Dunmore, from which he has launched numerous raids against the coastline. Dunmore also enjoys the advantage of two small warships, the Dunmore and HMS Otter, in addition to artillery of his own, but his men are wracked by disease and in poor shape, overall. Politics: The first public reading of the Declaration Independence takes place outside Independence Hall, Philadelphia, to much revelry, applause, and bell ringing.

July 9 Military: A Virginia militia under General Andrew Lewis bombards Gwynn Island, headquarters for former royal governor John Murray, Lord Dunmore. American artillery forces several British warships to ground themselves and also silences Dunmore’s battery on the western end of the island, Murray himself is wounded by cannon fire and decides that the position cannot be held, so he flees with his small fleet up the Potomac River at night. He also abandons 30 AfricanAmerican soldiers, former slaves fighting for the British but now too ill to move. The island is occupied the following morning by 200 soldiers without incident. One American officer dies when his defective mortar explodes. Politics: The Declaration of Independence is read before the assembled Continental Army in New York. The Provincial Congress then commences work on a new state constitution, while a large statue of King George III is torn down and melted into 40,000 musket balls.

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July 11 Naval: Captain Lambert Wickes and the brig Reprisal commence a cruise that seizes four British merchantmen by month’s end.

July 12 Military: Colonel Elijah Clarke and a detachment of Georgia militia rout a band of Cherokee at the juncture of the Broad and Savannah Rivers, killing four and losing three killed and four wounded. Naval: Admiral Richard Howe arrives off Staten Island with 150 ships conveying 11,000 additional soldiers for his brother, General William Howe. The frigates HMS Phoenix and Rose are then dispatched up the Hudson River and anchor off Tappan Zee to interdict American communications there. En route, numerous American shore batteries commence firing, killing six and wounding three. Meanwhile, General George Washington arrives back at New York City to confer with Admiral Howe’s peace emissaries; these he briefly, entertains, then politely dismisses.

July 15 Military: An American militia under Major John Downs successfully defends Lindley’s Fort on Rayborn Creek, South Carolina, against marauding Cherokee and Loyalists, the latter being dressed as Indians. Having thwarted their attack, the defenders sortie and scatter their opponents, taking nine captive. Patriot losses are two killed and 13 wounded. Politics: The New York congressional delegation, having previously abstained from voting on the Declaration of Independence, receives permission from the state convention and approves it unanimously.

July 16 Military: Governor John Murray, Lord Dunmore, temporarily lands at St. George’s Island, Maryland, apparently intending to raid Mount Vernon, Virginia, and capture Martha Washington. However, they are intercepted by local militia and driven off.

July 18 Politics: John Adams frames the so-called “Model Treaty” for anticipated diplomatic relations with other nations.

July 19 Politics: The Continental Congress at Philadelphia votes to have the Declaration of Independence unanimously signed by all 55 delegates.

July 20 Military: Cherokee under Chief Dragging Canoe attack Eaton’s Station on the Holston River, North Carolina, losing 13 killed before withdrawing. The defenders had been alerted in advance by Nancy Ward, the Cherokee war woman. The Indians also unsuccessfully besiege Fort Caswell (Tennessee), but manage to inflict 40 casualties on the defenders.

July 21 Naval: Thoroughly chastised, the squadron of Commodore Sir Peter Parker departs Charleston, South Carolina, and makes for New York.

July 27 Naval: The American brig Reprisal under Captain Lambert Wickes enters St. Pierre Harbor, Martinique, where it is challenged by the British warship HMS

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Chronology of American History Shark, whose captain does not recognize the new Grand Union flag. Wickes then complies with a broadside, and fighting commences between the two vessels, assisted by a nearby French fort. The Shark then withdraws, and the British government subsequently condemns France’s breach of neutrality in this matter.

July 29 Military: General Griffin Rutherford leads an expedition of 2,400 North Carolinians into Cherokee territory, assisted by South Carolina forces under Major Andrew Williamson and Virginians under Colonel William Christiansen.

August 1 Military: Loyalists and Cherokee under Major Alexander Cameron ambush Major Andrew Williamson’s South Carolina militia at Seneca, defeating them and a relief force under Colonel Andrew Pickens. However, the militiamen subsequent rally and counterattack, driving back their antagonists. Among the dead is Francis Salvador, the first Jew to hold elected office in America and the first of his faith to die for his country. Naval: The squadron of Commodore Sir Peter Parker arrives at New York, and adds the soldiers of General Henry Clinton and Charles Cornwallis to those already present. The total force of 32,000 men under General William Howe is the largest expedition organized in North America to that date and includes the 8,000 Hessians of General Leopold von Heister.

August 2 Politics: The Declaration of Independence is finally signed by all 55 delegates to the Continental Congress.

August 4 Military: An American militia under Major Andrew Williamson attack and burn the Cherokee settlements of Sugar Town, Soconee, and Keowee, South Carolina. Over the next eight days, they reduce eight more villages to ashes.

August 5 Military: General Nathanael Greene advises General George Washington that New York City is probably indefensible and ought to be burned to the ground to deprive the British a very useful entrepot.

August 11 Military: A South Carolina militia under Major Andrew Williamson attacks and defeats Cherokee warriors guarding the settlement of Tamassee, which is then burned.

August 12 Politics: To encourage high desertion rates, the Continental Congress offers British soldiers free land as a bounty.

August 16 Diplomacy: Admiral Richard Howe writes to his old friend Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia and informs him of his authority to conduct peace negotiations on Staten Island. Naval: Repeated attacks by American fire rafts convince British frigates HMS Phoenix to withdraw from Tappan Zee and back down the Hudson River to New York City.

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August 20 Military: The capable General Nathanael Greene falls ill on Long Island and is replaced by General John Sullivan. Publishing: The Continental Congress authorizes copies of the forthcoming Articles of Confederation to be published and distributed.

August 21 Naval: Lieutenant John Paul Jones and the 12-gun sloop Providence depart Delaware, on a cruise that nets 16 prizes over three months.

August 22 Military: General William Howe commences his long-awaited offensive by landing 8,000 crack troops at Gravesend Bay, Long Island, and advances inland. General George Washington counters by deploying six additional regiments along Brooklyn Heights and advising General William Heath, in northern Manhattan, to prepare to march south if necessary.

August 24 Military: In a major change of command, General Israel Putnam suddenly replaces General John Sullivan as commander of American forces on Long Island. The defenders then brace themselves for an anticipated British assault upon Brooklyn Heights, but the newly arrived Putnam, unfortunately, knows very little about the surrounding terrain. Naval: General Benedict Arnold assembles a motley collection of schooners, sloops, and gondolas at Crown Point, New York, and sails down Lake Champlain intending to engage superior British naval forces.

August 25–26 Military: Aware of a gap in American lines, General William Howe sends 10,000 men under General Henry Clinton and Colonel Hugh Percy to turn their left flank via Valley Grove (Jamaica Pass). These troops advance stealthily through the night and by daybreak have positioned themselves to attack.

August 27 Military: The Battle of Long Island commences, as British troops under General James Grant launch a diversionary attack upon the American right wing. Meanwhile, the main column under General Henry Clinton expertly turns the American left at Jamaica Pass and takes the division of General John Sullivan from behind. After capturing Sullivan and routing his men, Clinton continues rolling up the American line, while Hessians under General Leopold von Heister pin down their troops in the center. General William Alexander manages to mount a stout defense until he, too, is taken from behind by Clinton and captured. The surviving Americans hastily scamper back to the fortified position along Brooklyn Heights and brace for the inevitable assault. At this juncture, General William Howe stops the pursuit and prepares to commence siege operations. Nonetheless, the Americans have been badly trounced with a loss of 1,300 men to 377 British and Hessians.

August 28 Military: Major Andrew Williamson and General Griffin Rutherford assemble 2,000 North and South Carolina militiamen and march to engage the Cherokee in the western mountains.

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August 29 Military: General George Washington, desperate not to be pinned in his works along Brooklyn Heights, begins evacuating his army to Manhattan during the night. In this he is capably assisted by a regiment of soldier-sailors under Colonel John Glover of Massachusetts. In six hours, 9,500 men and most of their equipment and guns safely make the transit without detection and conveniently covered by an early morning fog. This is one of the war’s most remarkable escapes and enables the Americans to fight on.

September 2 Diplomacy: Recently paroled General John Sullivan arrives at Philadelphia bearing a letter from Admiral Richard Howe, who seeks to meet with a deputation of private citizens. The Continental Congress agrees to debate an appropriate response to the request.

September 3 Military: The Continental Congress instructs General George Washington not to burn New York City if he must evacuate it, but the actual decision to withdraw remains with him. Naval: Lieutenant John Paul Jones of the 12-gun brig Providence again departs Delaware Bay, this time on a cruise near Bermuda that ultimately seizes 16 prizes.

September 5 Diplomacy: The Continental Congress declines to allow Admiral Richard Howe to confer with a delegation of private citizens, but they will allow an authorized deputation to parley with him. This group consists of Benjamin Franklin, an old acquaintance of the admiral’s, John Adams, and John Rutledge. Naval: Inventor David Bushnell supervises deployment of his experimental submarine Turtle against Admiral Richard Howe’s flagship HMS Eagle. The actual attack is entrusted to Sergeant Ezra Lee who is forced to fight strong currents to bring his vessel alongside. He then makes several unsuccessful attempt to bore into Eagle’s copper sheathed hull to attach an explosive device. Lee abandons the attack at this point and releases his explosive, which detonates harmlessly on the surface. Thus, history’s first submarine attack ends in failure, but it sufficiently unnerved enemy commanders, who condemned the Americans for toying with “infernal devices.”

September 7 Military: Rather than evacuate New York City, General George Washington convenes a war council and elects to garrison it with the divisions of Generals Israel Putnam, Nathaniel Greene, and William Heath.

September 9 Politics: In Philadelphia, the Continental Congress discards the designation “United Colonies” in favor of a new name, “United States of America.”

September 10 Military: Governor General Guy Carleton begins advancing his large army of British and Hessian veterans down the Champlain Valley and into northern New York. There is little that the outnumbered troops of General Philip J. Schuyler can do to oppose them should they obtain control of Lake Champlain.

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Bushnell, David (1742–1824) Inventor David Bushnell was born at Saybrook, Connecticut, on August 30, 1742, the son of farmers. Despite his lack of education he proved mechanically inclined and was admitted to Yale College in 1741. There Bushnell developed a fascination with underwater explosives and, by combining a clock device with a large black powder charge, created the first naval mine. He then set about conceiving a practical delivery system for this unique weapon, and the onset of the Revolutionary War in 1775 lent greater urgency to his endeavors. By that fall, he had designed and assembled the American Turtle (or simply Turtle), a primitive, if ingenious, early submarine. It was so christened on account of looking like two turtle shells lashed together but proved perfectly functional. The raft was propelled by a hand-driven screw propeller and operated a system of water pumps to let in or expel water to control its rise or descent. The pilot sat in a small conning tower on top, with a depth gauge and a compass naturally lit by phosphorus. Its offensive power lay with his clock-mine device, which was bored into the underside of a ship’s hull, then armed and released. The submarine then had one hour to egress before the 150 pounds of gunpowder exploded, sinking its intended victim. The Turtle made its inauspicious debut on September 16, 1776, when Sergeant Ezra Lee, struggling with strong tides, tried attaching the clock mine (“torpedo”) to Admiral Richard Howe’s flagship, HMS Eagle. He was thwarted by that vessel’s copper-covered bottom, which the

screw device could not penetrate, but when the device was released to the surface and exploded, it rattled the entire British squadron. Thus Bushnell’s device initiated the first submarine attack in naval history. The Turtle itself was subsequently lost when the transport carrying it was sunk by British artillery on the Hudson River. As the war ground on, Bushnell also experimented with various types of floating mines that were released en masse against British ships offshore. On August 13, 1777, he released a large mine that drifted in the direction of HMS Cerberus, but the device snared on a smaller vessel and exploded, sinking it and killing several men. On December 1777, another mine intended for a large warship sank a small boat instead, killing three men, and forcing the British ships to shoot up any floating object in their vicinity. The sight of British vessels blasting all unidentified objects in their vicinity event was later satirized by poet Francis Hopkinson in his composition “Battle of the Kegs.” (1778). At this juncture Bushnell departed naval warfare and joined the Continental Army as an engineer, where he served competently for the rest of the war. After his discharge, he briefly visited France to unsuccessfully market his ideas, then eventually resurfaced in Georgia as a schoolteacher. He also practiced medicine at Warrenton, Georgia, until his death there in 1824. Despite his failures, Bushnell is regarded as the father of undersea warfare for ushering in the age of submarines.

September 11 Diplomacy: A three-hour peace conference unfolds on Staten Island, New York, between Admiral Richard Howe and American envoys. However, because the admiral has no authority beyond reporting his findings back to London, nothing of importance transpires. The British are also stymied by the fact that

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Chronology of American History their American counterparts flatly refuse to withdraw their Declaration of Independence.

September 12 Military: In the face of a rapidly deteriorating strategic situation, General George Washington opts to abandon Manhattan and commences ferrying his forces to the mainland. Before they depart, Captain Nathan Hale volunteers to remain behind as a spy.

September 15 Military: General William Howe interrupts the American evacuation of New York City by landing his army at Kip’s Bay on Manhattan’s east side. A total of 4,000 crack troops, covered by five Royal Navy warships, row ashore on flatboats, sweeping aside all militia opposition. General George Washington personally rides up and attempts to stem the tide and is nearly captured before General Israel Putnam arrives to help. The shaken Americans then withdraw inland and reestablish their position on Manhattan’s west side near Harlem Heights. Meanwhile, General Charles Cornwallis wades ashore with another 9,000 men and attempts to cut off Washington’s retreat, but is thwarted by a splendid stand by brigades under Colonels John Glover and William Smallwood. Kip’s Bay is a minor disaster for the Patriots, who lose 367 men and 67 cannon; British losses total half that.

September 16 Military: British forces begin pursuing General George Washington’s forces up Manhattan, derisively blowing horns as if on a fox hunt. However, as they enter a defile near Morningside Heights, Washington suddenly turns on them and pushes additional men into the fray. The British stop, stand, and then begin withdrawing, hotly pursued by the newly reinvigorated Americans. The Battle of Harlem Heights proves that Washington’s raw troops can fight effectively when well led and they are treated to the rare sight of British backsides in the process. American losses are roughly 60 men to a British tally of 160. The defeat also forces General William Howe to postpone his offensive for a month.

September 17 Diplomacy: The Continental Congress considers the “Model Treaty” of John Adams as a method of expediting diplomatic relations with France.

September 18 Military: The Continental Congress standardizes the Continental Army by authorizing 88 battalions of infantry from 13 states, according to their population. They further implore that soldiers enlist for the duration of the war to avoid the burden of expiring enlistments.

September 20 Military: In light of recent military reverses, the Continental Congress modifies the Articles of War to better address endemic problems of discipline, administration, and organization within the still shaky Continental Army.

September 21 General: New York City is swept by a destructive fire, apparently touched off by incendiaries, which destroys nearly 300 buildings. British authorities also arrest and detain Captain Nathan Hale for spying when he is recognized by a Loyalist cousin.

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September 22 Military: Captain Nathan Hale is hanged by the British for espionage. He goes to the gallows calmly, declaring “I regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.” Hale thus becomes the nation’s first martyr.

September 24 Diplomacy: After much debate, the Continental Congress approves the Model Treaty of John Adams as the basis of negotiating with foreign governments. It stipulates that “Free ships make free goods,” and affirms the freedom of neutrals to trade noncontraband items. France, in particular, is asked to grant most favored nation status to the United States.

September 26 Diplomacy: The Continental Congress authorizes Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane, and Thomas Jefferson to serve as commissioners to France and secure arms, munitions, and military professionals—especially trained engineers. Arthur Lee subsequently substitutes for Jefferson.

September 28 Politics: Pennsylvania adopts a new state constitution, a unicameral legislature, and a bill of rights.

October 3 Business: The Continental Congress authorizes a loan of $5 million at 4 percent to help finance the war effort; additional funding is expected from France shortly.

October 4 Naval: Governor general Guy Carleton, commanding 13,000 men, orders his fleet of five warships, 20 gunships, and 28 lesser craft down Lake Champlain. General Benedict Arnold’s armada awaits them in the vicinity of Valcour Island.

October 9 Settlement: Spanish missionaries found the settlement of Yerba Buena, California, later to be known as San Francisco.

October 10 Naval: The Continental Congress formally institutes the grade of captain within the Continental Navy and commissions 24 officers in that grade.

October 11 Military: General William Howe, ignoring the protests of subordinates, orders 4,000 men loaded onto transports where they are to pass through Hell’s Gate en route to the Bronx, New York. Once ashore, the men will march rapidly eight miles overland to Kingsbridge to cut off the American escape route from Manhattan. Naval: General Benedict Arnold’s ramshackle flotilla of 15 small vessels is attacked by a large British armada on Lake Champlain near Valcour Island. Arnold sequestered his force in shallow water between the island and the shore, where the prevailing wind blows southerly. The British under Lieutenant Thomas Pringle initially sail past the Americans, then have to beat back against the wind in order to engage them. They then sail directly into Arnold’s defensive arc and are pummeled by cannon fire. The British lose heavily while closing but gradually overpower their opponents, sinking two vessels. Arnold then draws off under

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Chronology of American History the cover of darkness with his remaining 13 craft, having lost 200 men wounded, killed or captured.

October 12 Military: General Charles Cornwallis lands 4,000 troops at Throg’s Neck, New York, in an attempt to outflank American forces still present on Manhattan Island. However, the strip of land chosen is swampy and beset by rising tides. As the British struggle ashore they are attacked by Colonel Edward Hand and his Pennsylvania riflemen, who thwart their attempts to storm across a bridge to the mainland. An additional 1,800 Americans then arrive, bottling up Cornwallis along the beach for the next six days. This action buys General George Washington additional time to evacuate his army from New York City.

October 13 Naval: The British Lake Champlain armada under Lieutenant Thomas Pringle catches up to the fleeing remnants of General Benedict Arnold’s flotilla at Split Rock. The Americans fight a desperate rearguard action but are gradually overwhelmed by numbers. All 13 of Arnold’s vessels are beached and burned while the crews make their way overland to Crown Point. The British have achieved complete control over Lake Champlain but far too late in the season to facilitate military operations.

October 14 Military: General Benedict Arnold abandons Crown Point to the British and walks overland to join the garrison of Fort Ticonderoga. Governor general Guy Carleton, meanwhile, cognizant of the lateness of the season, elects to suspend further operations until after winter has passed. This is one of the most telling decisions of the Revolutionary War, for it grants the tottering American defenses an eight-month respite to strengthen themselves. Thus the recent tactical defeat at Valcour Island is actually a significant American strategic victory.

October 16 Military: General George Washington convenes a war council, recently joined by General Charles Lee. They then elect to evacuate the army from New York and over to White Plains but leave a 2,000-man garrison behind at Fort Washington to obstruct the Hudson River as long as possible. Naval: The Continental Congress censors Commodore Esek Hopkins for disregarding its wishes and attacking New Providence in the Bahamas. This is despite the fact that they had previously granted Hopkins discretionary authority to do so in the first place.

October 18 Military: General William Howe, anxious to end the impasse at New York and catch General George Washington in the act of withdrawing, dispatches Generals Henry Clinton and Charles Cornwallis around the American flank by landing at Pell’s Point (New Rochelle). Once the British successfully storm ashore, they are met by Colonel John Glover’s veteran brigade of 750 men, stoutly posted behind a succession of stone walls. For several hours, every time the British attempt to close, the Americans rise up from behind their cover and pour in a devastating volley at close range. The Redcoats then fell back in confusion to regroup before pressing ahead. After several hours of combat, Cornwallis finally manages to slip

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Chronology â•… 401 a force around Glover’s flank and threatens his rear. The Americans then fall back in good order to Dobb’s Ferry and rejoin the main army. American losses Â�were negligible while the British admit only to three killed and 20 wounded. The action at Pell’s Point is significant in that it prevented Washington’s force from being attacked while it was evacuating New York City; Glover is subsequently thanked by Washington for this splendid rearguard action against stiff odds.

October 22 Military: The Continental Army under General George Washington completes an orderly withdrawal to White Plains, New York. En route, they abandon the village of Marmaroneck, which is subsequently occupied by the Queen’s Rangers under the celebrated Major Robert Rogers. This induces an American force under ColÂ�oÂ�nel John Haslet to suddenly turn and attack the town in an attempt to capture it. They seize Rogers’s advance guard but prove unable to overwhelm the defenders and withdraw. Losses in this sharp little affair are 15 Americans and 66 Loyalists.

October 26 Diplomacy: Benjamin Franklin and Arthur Lee depart Philadelphia for France onboard the Reprisal under Captain Lambert Wickes. Their instructions are to secure diplomatic recognition from the Eu�ro�pe�an community at large as well as arrange for the purchase of eight ships of the line.

October 27 Military: On Manhattan, British forces heavily probe the defenses of Fort Wash-­ ington, New York, and are repelled with loss. General William Howe resolves to revisit this post once the main American army has been dispensed with at White Plains.

October 28 Military: General William Howe and 13,500 British and Hessians square off against General George Washington and 14,500 Americans at White Plains, New York. The Americans occupy a Â�three-­mile line behind the shallow Bronx River, arrayed in three divisions. Howe promptly advances upon them, driving the advance guard of General Joseph Spencer before them. The British then parade themselves dauntingly before the defenders, whereupon Washington divines that Chatterton Hill, an eminence off his right flank, is the key to his Â�whole posi-­ tion. He quickly rushes 2,000 infantry and engineers there under ColÂ�oÂ�nels Joseph Reed and Rufus Putnam, who begin entrenching themselves. British troops under General Alexander Leslie try and fail to storm the point, and it is not until ColÂ�oÂ� nel Johann Rall’s Hessians turn the American right that the defenders fall back. Washington, at this juncture, calls the retreat and falls back in good order to strong positions along White Castle Heights. The victorious Howe, meanwhile, is content to simply occupy the battlefield and fails to mount a vigorous pursuit. American losses are in the vicinity of 150 killed, wounded, and captured; the British sustain roughly twice that.

October 30 Naval: The Continental Congress tries improving the prospects of recruitment for the Continental Navy by allowing crewmen to share up to Â�one-­half of all prize money taken. Up until now, most seamen prefer the more lucrative practice of privateering, which affords better living conditions and higher pay.

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October 31 Military: The Continental Army under General George Washington finishes entrenching in and around North Castle Heights, New York. British forces under General William Howe are strangely quiescent and do not advance.

November 1 Naval: Captain John Paul Jones commences an extended cruise aboard the 24-gun sloop Alfred which culminates in the capture of nine prizes off Nova Scotia.

November 2 Military: An American officer deserts to Colonel Hugh Percy on Manhattan, bringing plans that detail the defenses of Fort Washington.

November 4 Military: In one of the Revolutionary War’s most momentous decisions, Governor General Guy Carleton abandons Crown Point, New York, and withdraws his large army back to Canada for the winter. Carleton is rightfully concerned about supply difficulties, but his reversal grants the disorganized Americans a badly needed respite to strengthen their defenses.

November 7 Military: A New England militia under Colonels John Allen and Jonathan Eddy marches from Machias, Maine, over to Fort Cumberland, Nova Scotia, to besiege that isolated post. However, the garrison of 200 regulars under Colonel Joseph Goreham proves defiant.

November 8 Military: In New York, General George Washington complains to General Nathaniel Greene over Fort Washington’s inability to stop British traffic along the Hudson River and advises him of the possibility it might have to be abandoned. However, he allows Greene discretionary authority to remain there. Washington then begins ferrying the bulk of his army across the river into New Jersey. However, 5,000 men are to remain in North Castle under General Charles Lee, while an additional 3,200 are deployed to Peekskill under General Edward Heath.

November 12 Naval: Captain John Paul Jones of the 24-gun sloop Alfred captures the British transport Mellish after luring it away from an escorting frigate. Its valuable cargo of 10,000 winter uniforms and other military supplies is hurriedly forwarded to American forces in Pennsylvania.

November 13 Military: General Nathanael Greene prevails on General George Washington to maintain a 2,800-man garrison at Fort Washington, New York, despite mounting doubts that the position can be haled.

November 14 Diplomacy: Captain Isaiah Robinson arrives at the Dutch Island of St. Eustatius, West Indies, and receives the first—if unofficial—salute to an American flag by a foreign government. British envoys vigorously protest the incident to the Dutch government, resulting in the governor’s removal.

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Military: Fort Washington, New York, is attacked by British forces. The 2,800man garrison under Colonel Robert Magaw lacks adequate artillery and an accessible water supply, among other things. General William Howe devises a three-pronged assault that hits the post from two different directions. British troops under General Charles Cornwallis and Colonel Hugh Percy have little difficulty overrunning several satellite fortifications, but General Wilhelm von Knyphausen’s Hessians are forced to traverse rough, wooded terrain amply guarded by Pennsylvania riflemen. The Germans charge and are thrown back five times with significant losses and, in the course of battle, an American woman, Margaret Corbin, takes her dead husband’s place at a cannon until being critically wounded. A final charge by Knyphausen finally stampedes the defenders back inside the already overcrowded fort and Magaw decides to capitulate at 3 p.m. This proves a stinging reverse for the Americans, who lose nearly 3,000 men in killed, wounded, and captives, in addition to stores of supplies and cannon; British and Hessian losses are around 400. New York City is hereafter firmly in British hands until the end of the war; Fort Washington is subsequently renamed Fort Knyphausen in honor of its conqueror.

November 18 Naval: The Continental Congress authorizes construction of the 74-gun ship of the line America and five additional frigates mounting 36 guns apiece. Very few of these will actually be built.

November 19–20 Military: Eager to maintain the initiative, General William Howe dispatches 5,000 infantry on flatboats across the Hudson River under General Charles Cornwallis. Their mission is to pursue and harry the fleeing Americans and capture as many supplies as possible. At the last moment, General Nathanael Greene is alerted to their approach and he hastily abandons Fort Lee without a fight. Consequently, the British seize many valuable supplies such as tents, flour, and cannon without a struggle. Greene subsequently unites with the main force under General George Washington at Hackensack.

November 19 Politics: The North Carolina legislature votes to extend its authority over the frontier settlement of Watauga, Tennessee, and annexes it as Washington County.

November 25 Diplomacy: In New York, Colonel Guy Johnson of the Indian Department informs Lord George Germain that the Mohawk, Seneca, and other nearby tribes are willing to side with England.

November 29 Military: American forces besieging Fort Cumberland, Nova Scotia, are driven back by British reinforcements; over 100 prisoners are captured, and these are promptly paroled and sent home. Naval: The Continental brig Reprisal under Captain Lambert Wickes drops anchor at Quiberon Bay, France, with diplomatic envoys Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane, and Arthur Lee onboard. This is the first American warship to ply European waters, and Wickes commences a successful cruise in the Bay of Biscay.

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November 30 Diplomacy: General William Howe, in light of recent military successes, offers to pardon all Americans in arms if they come forward and declare their allegiance to the Crown within the next 60 days. Military: More than 2,000 New Jersey and Maryland militia abandon General George Washington’s army once their terms of enlistment expire. Newly depleted, the Americans continue retiring from the British.

December 3 Military: The remnants of the Continental Army under General George Washington wearily trudge into Trenton, New Jersey, and make preparations to cross the Delaware River into northern Pennsylvania.

December 5 Education: William and Mary College, Virginia, establishes Phi Beta Kappa with five students, becoming the first social fraternity at an American college.

December 6 Military: General William Howe catches up to his advance forces under General Charles Cornwallis at New Brunswick, New Jersey, and begins ordering his troops into their winter quarters. However, Cornwallis is dispatched with light troops toward the Delaware River to scour the banks of any remaining Americans.

December 7 Naval: Newport, Rhode Island, falls to an expedition of 6,000 men commanded by Commodore Sir Peter Parker and General Henry Clinton.

December 11 General: Rumors that General George Washington is going to burn Philadelphia to deny it to the British throws the city into a panic, and General Israel Putnam is dispatched there with troops to restore order.

December 12 Military: The Continental Congress founds the Regiment of Light Dragoons under Colonel Elisha Sheldon, thereby establishing the American mounted arm. Politics: The Continental Congress, threatened by a possible British approach, votes to adjourn and relocate to Baltimore, Maryland, without delay. Before departing, they grant General George Washington near-dictatorial powers to prosecute the war until the present crisis subsides.

December 13 Military: General Charles Lee, having foolishly taken up residence in a tavern three miles from the main American encampment at Morristown, New Jersey, is suddenly captured by a detachment of the 16th Light Dragoons under Lieutenant Colonel Harcourt, his former subordinate. Lee is then succeeded by General John Sullivan.

December 14 Military: General William Howe makes final dispositions of troops for the winter with large detachments at New York; and Amboy, New Brunswick, Princeton, and Trenton, New Jersey. The forwardmost outposts are manned by veteran Hessian troops under Colonel Karl von Donop.

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December 15 Diplomacy: In Paris, British agents approach Benjamin Franklin with offers of reconciliation but stop short of recognizing American independence.

December 19 Publishing: Thomas Paine, then a volunteer aide de camp to General Nathanael Greene, publishes the first of 13 installments to his American Crisis, with its memorable declaration “These are times that try men’s souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country: but he that stands NOW deserves the love and the thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like Hell, is not easily conquered. Yet we have this consolation with us that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.” General George Washington, moved by such lofty prose, orders the tract proclaimed to every unit in his army. His shivering soldiers take heart and are inspired to fight on.

December 20 Military: General John Sullivan crosses 2,000 men across the Delaware River and joins the main American force at Newtown, Pennsylvania. General William Howe writes to Lord George Germain and proposes a spring campaign to capture the American capital of Philadelphia. This constitutes a dramatic shift in British strategic thinking since the start of the war, which previously centered upon separating New England from the rest of the colonies. Politics: The Continental Congress reconvenes at Baltimore, Maryland, while General George Washington assures them that he will use his new powers only to further the war effort.

December 21 Diplomacy: American agents Silas Deane, Arthur Lee, and Benjamin Franklin establish official contacts with representatives of the French government and begin negotiating treaties and loans.

December 24 Military: General George Washington, cognizant that the “game is nearly up,” begins planning for a spectacular coup. He instructs a war council to prepare a midwinter offensive—unheard of at the time—to attack and capture the major Hessian outpost at Trenton. His officers unanimously agree and, to underscore their resolve, “Victory or death” becomes the military password.

December 25 Military: On Christmas night, General George Washington ferries his army across the ice-choked Delaware River in three columns and prepares to attack nearby Trenton. The two supporting columns of General James Ewing and General John Cadwalader are unable to cross, which means that Washington proceeds alone with 2,400 shivering men.

December 26 Military: A ragged force of 2,400 Americans under General George Washington surprises the 1,400-man Hessian garrison of Colonel Johann Rall at Trenton, New Jersey. Advancing under the cover of a terrible ice storm, Washington deploys his men into two columns under Generals Nathanael Greene and John Sullivan to hit the defenders from the north and northeast. Rall, caught completely by surprise, attempts to form a perimeter that is blasted by Colonel Henry Knox’s cannon

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Chronology of American History and outflanked by General Hugh Mercer’s brigade. Rall manages to rally some of his men in an orchard outside of town but is fatally wounded. His men then surrender en masse without further struggle. Hessian losses amount to 1,000 killed, wounded, and captured, while the Americans lose two killed and five wounded. Through this single stroke, brilliantly conceived and masterfully executed, Washington keeps the flagging revolution alive. The victors then hastily escape back across the Delaware River, prisoners and booty in tow.

December 27 Military: General John Cadwalader’s column finally crosses the Delaware River, marches inland toward Burlington, New Jersey, and finds it deserted. He then hastily informs General George Washington in Pennsylvania that the enemy has contracted their lines since Trenton and urges him to recross and return.

December 30 Military: Emboldened by success at Trenton, General George Washington recrosses the Delaware River into New Jersey with 2,000 men and reoccupies the town. There he learns that Generals Charles Cornwallis and James Grant have amassed 8,000 men at Princeton and are readily advancing upon him. Rather than retreat again, Washington orders up General Thomas Mifflin’s 1,600 militiamen from Bordentown, Pennsylvania, and then addresses men whose enlistments have expired, imploring them to remain under arms for at least another six weeks.

December 31 Politics: General George Rogers Clark petitions the Virginia Convention to formally annex the Kentucky settlement and provide directly for its defense. He does so to preempt settlers under Daniel Boone from organizing it as an independent state.

1777 Business: Jeremiah Wilkinson of Cumberland, Rhode Island, invents a new process for the manufacture of nails from cold iron. Slavery: Bucking the tide, the North Carolina legislature reactivates an old colonial law forbidding the manumission of slaves unless their alleged meritorious service was documented and verified by a local magistrate. Societal: New Jersey schools begin separating and segregating students along racial lines.

January 1 Diplomacy: The Continental Congress appoints Benjamin Franklin commissioner to the court of Spain. Military: General James Grant arrives at Princeton, New Jersey, with 1,000 men and posits an additional 600 there to guard supplies. Meanwhile General Charles Cornwallis leads 6,000 Redcoats and Hessians toward Assumpink Creek on the Delaware River, where the Continental Army is reputedly lurking. General George Washington is aware of the British approach, and he dispatches a brigade under Colonel Edward Hand to slow their advance while he entrenches.

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January 2 Military: General Charles Cornwallis advances upon Trenton, New Jersey, seeking to engage the main body of American troops under General George Washington. En route, he encounters the riflemen of Colonel Edward Hand, who tenaciously resist his advance from the woods. It is 5 p.m. before the British reach Assumpink Creek, and Cornwallis, confident he can bag “the Old Fox” on the morrow, calls off his advance. Washington, however, correctly concludes that the British must have stripped the garrisons at Princeton and Brunswick and enacts another bold expedient to attack them. Leaving behind 400 men to stoke campfires throughout the evening, he orders his 5,500-man army to slip quietly around the unsuspecting British in camp and march rapidly under the cover of darkness toward their objectives. The ploy, well-executed, works perfectly, and Cornwallis remains unaware of the ruse until well after daybreak. Naval: Commodore Esek Hopkins learns that the British frigate HMS Diamond has grounded itself in Narragansett Bay, so he resolves to capture it. He then commands the sloop Providence and a battalion of militia, trying unsuccessfully to snare his quarry. When the tide rises, the Diamond floats free and escapes; Hopkins is severely criticized for his mishandling of this matter.

January 3 Military: With General Charles Cornwallis idle before Trenton, the American army under General George Washington surrounds and gradually envelops the British outpost at Princeton, New Jersey. However, his advance troops under General Hugh Mercer and John Cadwalader are roughly handled by the British 17th Foot under Lieutenant Colonel Charles Mawhood, and Mercer is killed. Suddenly, Washington appears on the battlefield with the main force and sweeps the British up; Mawhood manages to cut himself free but the bulk of his force is cornered and captured. The victorious Americans then abscond with as many British supplies as possible and march off for the safety of Morristown just as the lead elements of General Charles Cornwallis’s army enters Princeton. The British commander assumes that Washington is off to raid poorly guarded New Brunswick and marches all night in that direction. American losses in this handsome little victory are around 40 killed and wounded; the British lose 400, principally captured.

January 6 Military: General George Washington marches his exhausted but victorious force into the Watchung Mountains and encampment at Morristown, New Jersey, for the winter. This places him menacingly astride British lines of communication, with their advance posts now restricted to Amboy and New Brunswick. General William Howe, seeking to avoid further losses, orders his lines compacted in and around New York City.

January 15 Naval: Captain Lambert Wickes and the 18-gun brig Reprisal commence a cruise along the coasts of France and Spain that ultimately nets five prizes. Wickes’s presence in French waters angers the British government and a diplomatic row ensues to have him removed.

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January 16 Politics: The region of New England known as the New Hampshire Grants declares its independence from both New York and New Hampshire and establishes the “Republic of New Connecticut” (Vermont).

January 18 Military: General William Heath, acting upon orders received from General George Washington, formally invests Fort Independence, New York, with 3,400 men under Generals Benjamin Lincoln, Charles Scott, David Wooster, and Samuel H. Parsons. However, the garrison of 2,000 crack Hessians is less than impressed by this motley melange, and gamely resists. Politics: The Continental Congress finally authorizes that the names of all signers to the Declaration of Independence be made public.

January 25–29 Military: The Hessian garrison at Fort Independence, New York, sorties suddenly and drives off American troops stationed at nearby Lancey’s Mills. This action convinces General William Heath that the post cannot be taken with the forces he has available, so he concludes the siege. He is harshly reprimanded by General George Washington in consequence.

February 7 Naval: Parliament authorizes privateering against American shipping and begins issuing letters of marque.

February 15 Business: The Continental Congress, faced with spiraling inflation due to an onslaught of paper money, adopts a New England recommendation to enforce rigid price controls. Other states are encouraged to follow suit.

February 19 Military: The Continental Congress awards major general’s commissions to William Alexander, Thomas Mifflin, Adam Stephen, Arthur St. Clair, and Benjamin Lincoln. Hard-fighting Brigadier General Benedict Arnold then angrily tenders his resignation for being overlooked again, but a sympathetic General George Washington persuades him to remain in uniform.

February 25 Military: In London, Lord George Germain appoints General John Burgoyne to share a joint command of troops in Canada with Governor general Guy Carleton. At this time, Burgoyne carefully outlines his ambitious strategy for separating New England from the rest of the colonies, thereby ending the rebellion. He intends to march south from Canada with a crack force of 8,000 men and capture Albany, New York. To do so, he will require the services of a second column marching eastward from Oswego and up the Mohawk River. Burgoyne also assumes that independent forces under General William Howe will likewise march up the Hudson River Valley to completely encircle the Americans. It is a viable strategy but one requiring greater cooperation among senior British leadership than they can muster.

March 3 Military: In a potentially fatal move, Lord George Germain approves General John Burgoyne’s three-pronged strategy to win the war. He also grants General

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William Howe discretionary permission to capture Philadelphia but also advises him that only 5,000 reinforcements are forthcoming.

March 12 Politics: With the Continental Congress back in Philadelphia, it is deluged by foreign officers and adventurers seeking commissions in the Continental Army. To stem the tide, they advise American agents in Europe not to consider future applicants unless they speak good En glish and enjoy pristine recommendations.

March 14 Military: The Continental Army at Morristown precipitously dwindles to 3,000 men as desertions, illness, and expiring enlistments thin its ranks. General George Washington, also facing acute supply shortages, has little recourse but to requisition food from civilians.

March 23–24 Military: A British amphibious force of 500 men sails up the Hudson River and seizes the American supply depot at Peekskill, New York. General Alexander McDougall is powerless to halt the attack until reinforced by Lieutenant Colonel Marinus Willett, who counterattacks and drives the invaders back to their boats. Nonetheless, General George Washington is sufficiently alarmed by this thrust at his supplies to dispatch General William Heath there with an additional eight regiments.

March 26 Military: Lord George Germain finalizes orders for the upcoming campaign season, instructing Governor general Guy Carleton to turn over the bulk of his forces to General John Burgoyne and assist him in field operations where necessary. Naval: The Continental Congress, angered by Commodore Esek Hopkins and his disparaging remarks about them, takes steps to dismiss him from the Continental Navy. That service will lack a senior commander for the remainder of the war.

April 2 Military: General William Howe advises Lord George Germain that manpower shortages preclude an overland advance against Philadelphia, and he proposes transporting his army by sea. This is a sound tactical expedient, but it also removes any chance of Howe being able to cooperate with the army of General John Burgoyne.

April 10 Military: In Paris, Silas Deane recruits Marie-Joseph du Motier, marquis de Lafayette, and Baron Johann de Kalb into the American service. They depart immediately for the United States.

April 11 Medical: The Continental Congress appoints Dr. William Shippen as the new director general of the Continental Army’s medical services. He has previously submitted a detailed plan for reorganizing the department, which met with congressional approval.

April 13 Military: A quick, unexpected attack by British forces under General Charles Cornwallis routs the American detachment of General Benjamin Lincoln at

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Chronology of American History Bound Brook, New Jersey. Lincoln recovers sufficiently, in time to orchestrate a proper withdrawal, and loses six cannon and 26 men. Thereafter General George Washington redeploys his pickets to place them in mutually supporting distance of one another.

April 14 Military: The Continental Congress establishes a large military magazine at Springfield, Massachusetts, which ultimately evolves into the famous Springfield Arsenal.

April 17 Diplomacy: The Continental Congress reorganizes the Committee of Secret Correspondence into a new Committee for Foreign Affairs, chaired by Thomas Paine.

April 25–28 Miliary: General William Tryon, former governor of New York, lands 1,850 men at Compo Beach, Connecticut, and marches against the American depot at Danbury, Connecticut. Resistance proves fleeting and, after burning the town, Tryon marches back to his ships via Ridgefield. The next day, they are intercepted by a body of militiamen under Generals Benedict Arnold, David Wooster, and Gold S. Silliman. Wooster dies in severe fighting and the British continue marching to their ships. On the third day, Arnold manages to scrape together 3,000 militiamen, and he attacks Tryon at Compo Beach, pressing him back severely, until General William Erskine breaks the Americans with a bayonet charge. Tryon’s raid then concludes with a loss of 200 men without inflicting much harm on the enemy; the American loss is half that.

May 1 Diplomacy: The Continental Congress appoints Arthur Lee to succeed Benjamin Franklin as commissioner to Spain.

May 2 Military: The Continental Congress finally elevates Benedict Arnold to major general but, in another perceived slap, he remains junior in seniority to the five men preceding him.

May 3 Naval: Captain Gustavus Conyngham and the 10-gun lugger Surprise captures the British mail packet Prince of Orange in the English Channel and he tows his prize back to Dunkirk, France. A strong diplomatic protest and threats of retaliation against French shipping result in Conyngham’s arrest.

May 5 Military: General George Washington’s efforts at recruiting generally succeed, and the Continental Army at Morristown, New Jersey, is built up to 9,000 men. Furthermore, the new troops are buoyed by the first infusion of weapons and other military supplies obtained from France. The five divisions present are commanded by Generals Nathanael Green, Adam Stephan, John Sullivan, Benjamin Lincoln, and William Alexander.

May 7 Military: Finding his command growing boisterous, General George Washington issues a general order banning cards, dice, and other forms of avarice.

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May 17 Military: The southern frontier begins acting up when British and Loyalists under Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Brown and Major James Prevost rout the American detachment of Colonel John Baker at Thomas’s Swamp, Florida. The patriots lose 40 men in a few minutes, and the Indian massacre several more captives before order is restored.

May 20 Diplomacy: Cherokee under Chief Oconostota cede all their lands in South Carolina in exchange for peace. However, younger and more militant Chief Dragging Canoe refuses to accept the terms and heads south to possibly join up with the Creek confederation.

May 28 Military: General George Washington breaks camp at Morristown, New Jersey, and marches south to the Middlebrook Valley in order to watch British movements in and out of New Brunswick. Naval: Captain Lambert Wickes of the 18-gun Reprisal departs Nantes, France, in concert with the 16-gun brig Lexington and the 10-gun cutter Dolphin. They constitute the first American naval squadron in European waters and capture 18 English prizes by June.

June 7 Naval: The American frigates Boston and Hancock under Captains Hector McNeill and John Manley, respectively, engage and capture the 28-gun British frigate HMS Fox in a long-running fight. The prize is subsequently manned and added to the squadron.

June 12 Military: General Arthur St. Clair arrives at Fort Ticonderoga, New York, with 2,500 men in three brigades under Generals Alexis Roche de Fermoy, John Paterson, and Enoch Poor. St. Clair is aghast to find his charge dilapidated and surrounded by nearby hills sufficiently close and high enough for enemy artillery. He erroneously concludes that the largest of these, Mount Defiance, is far too steep and overgrown to be accessible.

June 14 General: The U.S. flag, traditionally attributed to seamstress Betsy Ross, is adopted as the national symbol by the Continental Congress. This consists of 13 alternating red and white stripes with a blue field in the upper corner boasting 13 stars—one for each state. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson designates this date Flag Day.

June 17 Military: In a major turn of events, General John Burgoyne orders his fine army of 7,000 veteran soldiers to march south from Saint-Jean, Quebec, toward Crown Point, New York. Assisting him in this venture are Generals Simon Fraser, William Phillips, and Friedrich von Riedesel, 400 Indians, 139 cannon, and 28 gunboats. En route, Burgoyne unleashes another of his pompous declarations against the inhabitants which elicits contempt and ridicule.

June 20 Military: General Philip J. Schuyler holds a war council at Fort Ticonderoga now that the British are on the move in Canada. His officers agree that the fort

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Ross, Betsy (1752–1836) Seamstress Elizabeth Griscom was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on January 1, 1752, into a Quaker household. While still young, she developed an interest in sewing and honed her skills as a seamstress as she matured. In 1773 she was ejected from the Society of Friends for eloping with John Ross, son of an Episcopalian rector, and together they operated a successful sewing and upholstery shop. After her husband, a militiaman, was killed in a gunpowder explosion in January 1776, she assumed control of the business. According to tradition, her husband’s uncle, Congressman George Ross, was a personal friend of General George Washington and also aware of her skills at working with fabric. Through him, Ross was introduced to Washington and Robert Morris in June 1776, just as the nation was verging on independence. She was then apparently asked to design a new national flag based on a sketch she originally provided Washington. It is not known if this was undertaken as an official act of Congress or simply a private venture. This was a rectangular design consisting of 13 alternating red and white stripes—one for each state—and an upper corner consisting of blue cloth, with 13 stars arrayed in a circle. Legend has it that she also substituted five-pointed stars for the six-pointed ones originally suggested by Washington. Thus Ross is considered the creative force behind the “Stars and Stripes” flag of lore. The flag itself was apparently sewn in Ross’s parlor and she was assisted by two of her daughters. It was publicly displayed for the first time when

the Declaration of Independence was read aloud on July 8, 1776. In 1777, it is well known that Ross was also called upon to make flags for the Pennsylvania state navy and her work here is completely documented. In 1776, Ross married Joseph Ashburn, a sailor who was captured and died at Plymouth prison in 1782. She then married a third time in May 1783 to John Claypoole, and also joined the nonpacifist Society of Free Quakers, or “Fighting Quakers.” The couple lived happily in Philadelphia, where they continued in the upholstery business until his death in 1817. Ross herself then moved in with one of her daughters until her death there on January 30, 1836 at the age of 84. Her famous relationship to the nation’s flag stems from an 1870 meeting of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, wherein her grandson, William J. Canby, presented a paper. In it he asserted that his grandmother declared on her deathbed her meeting with Washington and her role in designing the flag. These circumstances have never been accurately verified and, since as Canby was only 11 years old at the time, his veracity remains suspect. But Ross is otherwise so indelibly associated with the American flag that she remains a national icon. Her remains have since been relocated to the so-called Betsy Ross House in Philadelphia, one of that city’s top tourist attractions. Like everything else associated with her reputation, whether or not she actually lived there remains a matter of dispute.

should hold out as long as possible before being abandoned. In that instance, General Arthur St. Clair should evacuate his command by boat to Mount Independence.

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June 23 Military: In New Jersey, General William Howe dismisses General Leopold von Heister as commander of his Hessian contingent. He is replaced by the more tractable and capable Wilhelm von Knyphausen. Colonel Barry St. Leger leads a force of 1,800 British, Loyalists, and Indians from Montreal and across Lake Ontario to Fort Oswego, New York. It is anticipated that St. Leger’s diversion up the Mohawk River Valley will distract American attention from General John Burgoyne’s activities further north. However, having been informed that the only real obstacle in his path, Fort Stanwix, is in a state of disrepair, St. Leger forgoes the inconvenience of lugging heavy siege artillery along.

June 26 Military: The British advance guard under General Simon Fraser decamps from Crown Point, New York; the main body under General John Burgoyne follows close at hand. The American army at Fort Ticonderoga, directly in their path, is bracing for an attack they cannot possibly withstand. In New Jersey, General William Howe concludes an intricate series of feints and maneuvers calculated to lure General George Washington out into the open. Failing in that task, he then pulls his army back to the shoreline and begins embarking them for Staten Island, New York.

June 27 Naval: The American squadron under Captain Lambert Wickes concludes a successful foray into the English Channel and returns to Nantes, France, with 18 prizes. En route to port, Wickes is accosted by the much larger ship of the line HMS Burford, and forced to throw all his cannon overboard to lighten the Reprisal and escape capture.

July Diplomacy: A meeting of the Six Nations Iroquois at Oswego, New York, results in a splitting up of that once mighty confederation. In their deliberations, chiefs such as Red Jacket and Cornplanter urge neutrality and caution. But, under the aegis of Chief Joseph Brant, the Mohawk, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca take up the war hatchet on behalf of England. The Tuscarora and Oneida, however, ally themselves with the Americans, signaling deep divisions in the confederation.

July 2 Slavery: Vermont’s new state constitution expressly abolishes slavery within its boundaries.

July 3 Labor: The Continental Congress, in an attempt to attract qualified and highly skilled shipwrights to the Lake Champlain region, offers to pay them the equivalent of $37 per month and a half pint of rum per diem.

July 4 Military: Having encamped within three miles of Fort Ticonderoga, British forces under General John Burgoyne push American defenders from a series of hills around the fort. General William Phillips then audaciously hauls his cannon up the steep, wooded slopes of Mount Defiance to bombard the defenders into

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Cornplanter

(ca. 1735–1836)

Seneca chief Cornplanter (Gyantwakia) was born around 1735 into the Wolf clan of the Seneca nation, the son of an Indian mother and an English father who abandoned them. But because his uncle was an important chief, Cornplanter matured close to the inner circles of tribal leadership. He established his reputation as a fierce warrior during the French and Indian War and may have participated at Braddock’s defeat in 1755. He rose to prominence within his tribe over the next two decades and by the onset of the American Revolution was a respected leader of consequence. This conflict tore at the very fabric of the Six Nation Iroquois confederation. Militant leaders like Joseph Brant of the Mohawk wanted to side with England and fight the Americans, while Cornplanter and his mystic brother, Handsome Lake, urged his people

Cornplanter. Engraving from a painting by F. Bartoli (Library of Congress)

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not to become embroiled in a squabble between whites. But after 1777, the Seneca also sided with England, and Cornplanter took up his war hatchet against the United States. He distinguished himself in several battles, most notably the August 1777 ambush of New York militia at Oriskany. Afterwards Cornplanter conducted several effective raids against frontier settlements, usually acting in concert with John or Walter Butler, and fought well at bloody engagements at Wyoming and Cherry Valley. However, even a warrior as adroit as Cornplanter could not stop General John Sullivan from ravaging the Iroquois homeland in the summer of 1779, and the Indians had no recourse but to regroup and continue raiding. On August 2, 1780 Cornplanter captured numerous settlers in the Schoharie Valley, New York, his father among them, whom he released. After the war ended in 1783 and Great Britain abandoned its allies at the Treaty of Paris, the loss of Indian land to the United States proved inevitable. Cornplanter, a realist, was willing to consent to land sales in order to prevent the Americans from taking everything. In this he was opposed by the opportunistic Red Jacket, who railed against concessions of any kind to enhance his own standing within the tribe. But between 1784 and 1797, Cornplanter signed five treaties that transferred land to the United States, but also averted the war he adamantly sought to avoid. In 1790, the high-handed behavior of settlers toward the Indians induced Cornplanter to visit Philadelphia and confer with President George Washington, who promised better regulation of Indian affairs. The following year, the president asked the chief to facilitate peace talks with the hostile

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Miami Indians under Little Turtle, but these failed. In 1802, Cornplanter ventured to the new capital at Washington, D. C., to confer with a new president, Thomas Jefferson. By now his history of selling land to avoid strife earned him a reputation as a “good Indian,”

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and in 1792, he received a large land grant in western Pennsylvania as a reward. He also argued with his revivalist brother Handsome Lake, and subsequently welcomed Quaker missionaries. Cornplanter died there on January 17, 1836.

submission. General Arthur St. Clair, recognizing the dangers, prepares to evacuate that post with all haste. Naval: At Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Captain John Paul Jones unfurls the new American flag on the Continental warship Ranger for the first time.

July 7 Military: The American garrison under General Arthur St. Clair successfully abandons Fort Ticonderoga and escapes capture by moving by water to Castleton, Vermont. However, his rear guard under Colonel Seth Warner disobeys orders and encamps at Hubbardtown, unaware he has been observed by General Simon Fraser’s British forces. At daybreak on the 7th, Fraser attacks the American encampment, surprising them. The more numerous defenders rally, then begin pressing back the British who are rescued by the sudden appearance of General Friedrich von Riedesel’s Hessians. Though roughly handled, the Americans escape intact, defeating Fraser’s objective. Losses are roughly 350 Americans to 150 British and Germans. Naval: A British squadron consisting of the HMS Rainbow, 44 guns under Commodore George Collier; the Flora, 32 guns; and the Victor 10 guns, gives chase to the American 32-gun frigate Hancock off Halifax, Nova Scotia. Captain John Manley possessed a faster sailing vessel and should have easily outrun his pursuers, but a mishandling of matters leads to the Hancock’s surrender.

July 8 Military: American and British forces skirmish heavily outside Fort Anne, New York, until reinforcements under General William Phillips arrive and drive the defenders out. Naval: General William Howe begins embarking his army onto the British fleet at Staten Island, New York, in preparation for an amphibious descent upon Philadelphia.

July 9 Military: General John Burgoyne arrives with the bulk of his army at Skeensboro, Vermont, although from this point on, his advance is hampered by increasingly wooded terrain. Major William Barton leads a raiding party of 40 men into Newport, Rhode Island, and captures British general Richard Prescott in his bed. Prescott, safely trundled back to Providence at night, will be exchanged for General Charles Lee in captivity. Naval: Captain Gustavus Conyngham departs Dunkirk, France, on the 14-gun sloop Revenge; his ensuing sweep of British home waters nets 20 prizes.

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July 17 Military: John Stark is commissioned a brigadier general of militia by the New Hampshire General Court, and he serves with the understanding that he will summarily ignore any orders given by either the Continental Congress or Continental Army officers. Within a week 1,500 militiamen flock to his colors. Politics: The Vermont Convention convenes in Windsor and approves a state constitution that embraces universal manhood suffrage and also abolishes slavery. Statehood itself, however, is not achieved until 1791.

July 20 Diplomacy: Cherokee and American emissaries conclude the Treaty of Long Island, whereby the tribes are required to cede all their land in western North Carolina east of the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Nolichucky River.

July 23 Military: Polish cavalry leader Count Kazimierz Pulaski arrives at Marblehead, Massachusetts, with a letter of introduction from Benjamin Franklin. Naval: The amphibious expedition of General William Howe departs Staten Island, New York, and sails south for the Pennsylvania coast. By doing so, Howe eliminates any chance that his 18,000-man army can cooperate with General John Burgoyne’s offensive in northern New York. As soon as American military intelligence apprises General George Washington of the move, he begins deploying his forces for the defense of the American capital.

July 25 Military: Faced with a British juggernaut, General Philip J. Schuyler, with 2,600 men under brigadiers John Nixon and Arthur St. Clair, decides that Fort Edward cannot be held and withdraws deeper down the Lake Champlain Valley. Politics: The Continental Congress votes Colonel William Barton an elegant sword for his capture of British General Richard Prescott.

July 26 Military: The column of Lieutenant Colonel Barry St. Leger, 1,800 strong, begins marching up the Mohawk River Valley from Oswego, New York. His first objective is the American outpost at Fort Stanwix (Rome), New York, reputed to be in a state of bad repair.

July 27 Military: Indians attached to the army of General John Burgoyne capture and murder settler Jane McCrea, fiancée of a Loyalist officer. Her death spurs intense resentment toward the British and boosts patriot recruitment efforts.

July 30 Military: Colonel Nicholas Herkimer is advised by Oneida Indian scouts that a large British force is rapidly approaching up the Mohawk Valley toward Fort Stanwix; he hurriedly starts mobilizing the Tryon County militia and assembling a relief expedition at Fort Dayton, New York.

July 31 Politics: The marquis de Lafayette is commissioned a major general by action of the Continental Congress, but he remains without a command or pay. He

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Chronology ╅ 417 subsequently volunteers his ser�vices to General George Washington as an aide de camp.

August 1 Military: General John Burgoyne’s army reaches the right bank of the Hudson River, New York, having been slowed by woods and felled obstacles to a few miles a day. He then makes preparations to begin ferrying his 7,000 veterans to the other side for a final descent upon Albany. Politics: Baron Johann de Kalb arrives in Philadelphia seeking a commission from the Continental Congress, although that body, besieged by foreigners, wavers on the decision.

August 2 Military: ColÂ�oÂ�nel Peter Gansevoort, commanding the 3rd New York Infantry at Fort Stanwix, receives timely reinforcements in the form of 200 men under Lieutenant ColÂ�oÂ�nel Marinus Willett. The latter arrives minutes before 1,800 Brit-­ ish, Loyalists, and Indians surround the fort under Lieutenant ColÂ�oÂ�nel Barry St. Leger. The British then demand the fort’s surrender at the risk of an Indian mas-­ sacre, but Gansevoort, noticing the lack of artillery, refuses.

August 4 Military: ColÂ�oÂ�nel Nicholas Herkimer departs Fort Dayton, New York, in an attempt to relieve the siege of Fort Stanwix. However, his movements are keenly observed by Molly Brant, sister of Mohawk chief Joseph Brant, and she dispatches an Indian messenger to warn the British of his approach. Politics: The Continental Congress, anguished by General Philip J. Schuyler’s inability to stop a large British invasion, appoints General Horatio Gates to suc-­ ceed him as head of the Northern Department.

August 6 Military: General Nicholas Herkimer and 800 militiamen are effectively ambushed by Loyalists and Indians under Sir John Johnson, Cornplanter, and Joseph Brant at Oriskany Creek, six miles from Fort Stanwix. The Americans carelessly entered into a defile with high ridges on either side, and Â�were close to panicking. Herkimer, however, is a study in Â�self-­control; despite serious injuries he calmly puffs on his pipe, reorganizes his line, and beats off several determined attacks. After six hours of fighting and heavy losses to both sides, the Indians grow discouraged and withdraw. Oriskany Creek is one of the bloodiest encoun-­ ters of the entire Revolutionary War, with American losses totaling 400, the Indi-­ ans possibly as high as 150. While the battle raged, Lieutenant ColÂ�oÂ�nel Marinus Willett leads a desperate sortie from Fort Stanwix into the thinly guarded British camp of Lieutenant ColÂ�oÂ� nel Barry St. Leger. The Americans overrun the camp, capture five flags, 21 wagons of supplies, and also burn Indian tents without the loss of a man. St. Leger’s native allies, totally discouraged by the day’s events, begin deserting him in droves.

August 10 Military: General Philip J. Schuyler dispatches a second relief column to Fort Stan-­ wix under General Benedict Arnold and Ebenezer Learned. The decision was not without risk, as Burgoyne’s main body hovers only 29 miles distant at Fort Edward.

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Brant, Joseph (ca. 1742–1807) Mohawk chief Thayendanagea was probably born around 1742, a member of the Wolf Clan of the Mohawk nation. He spent most of his youth in the household of Sir William Johnson, superintendent of Indian Affairs, was baptized into the Anglican Church, and received the Christian name Joseph Brant. Brant was then well educated at the Indian school of Reverend Eleazar Wheelock at Lebanon, Connecticut, becoming fluent in English. He first saw military action fighting under Johnson at Lake George in 1755, and in 1763 he also fought for the British throughout Pontiac’s Rebellion. Around this time, Johnson married his sister Molly Brant, further cementing his ties to England. Afterward, Brant assisted the missionary efforts of Reverend John Stewart by translating religious tracts into the Mohawk tongue. The American Revolution then commenced in

Joseph Brant (Library of Congress)

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1775, and Brant ventured to England with Sir Guy Johnson, under whom he served as a personal secretary. Brant was feted at the court of King George III, had his portrait painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds, and received a commission as captain of Indians. He returned to New York fully committed to the British, but other members of the Six Nations Iroquois under Cornplanter urged caution and neutrality. At length Brant persuaded the majority of the tribes to support England, while the Oneidas and Tuscaroras fought for the United States. In the summer of 1777, Brant commanded Indians as part of Colonel Barry St. Leger’s column and distinguished himself at the Battle of Oriskany that August. Here the Indians ambushed and badly handled American militia under Colonel Nicholas Herkimer, although both sides lost heavily. In the wake of the British defeat at Saratoga in October 1777, their forces had little recourse but to maintain military pressure on American settlements through raiding. Brant personally accompanied or led many such raids, which resulted in the destruction of settlements at Cherry Valley, New York, on November 11, 1778. On July 22, 1779, Brant also cleverly ambushed a pursuing force at Minisink, nearly wiping it out. On August 26, 1781, his Indians also destroyed a detachment of Pennsylvania militia on the banks of the Ohio River. However, the very success of Indian raids sparked a major American counterattack, and throughout the summer of 1779 General John Sullivan’s army ravaged the Iroquois homeland. Brant also had to resist moderates like the Seneca Red Jacket who argued for a separate peace with the United States before all was lost. Brant then resumed his destructive raids

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until the end of the war, which became a time of reckoning for the Six Nations Iroquois. The victorious Americans appropriated most of their land in New York, and Brant was forced to visit London again in 1785 to receive land grants in Upper

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Canada to settle his people. He spent the remainder of his life helping the Mohawks readjust to a new life and also founded the first Anglican Church for the Indians. He died on his estate on November 24, 1807, a noted tribal leader.

August 11 Military: Mounting supply shortages induce General John Burgoyne to detach 800 Hessians and Loyalists under Lieutenant Colonel Friedrich Baum to Bennington, Vermont, to procure horses and supplies. Baum has been assured that the region is friendly to the Crown and that he could expect Loyalist reinforcements to join him there. Unknown to the British, a large body of New Hampshire militia under General John Stark is also headed to the same destination.

August 16 Military: General John Stark, his numbers boosted to 2,000 men following the arrival of Colonel Seth Warner, attacks the Hessian encampment at Bennington, Vermont. He employs an intricate series of double envelopments which strip away Loyalists on the perimeter before driving home on the Hessians’ main defensive works. Lieutenant Colonel Friedrich von Baum, expecting a friendly reception from Loyalists reputedly in the region, is unprepared for the onslaught but nevertheless fights back dutifully. He engages the Americans for two hours until his ammunition gives out, and then, rather than surrender, leads a charge down the hillside with his dismounted dragoons. It is a brave, if futile, gesture, for Baum is killed and the majority of his command captured. For the loss of 30 casualties, Stark kills, wounds, or captures 900 of the enemy, robbing General John Burgoyne of valuable trained manpower when it is needed the most.

August 19 Military: General Horatio Gates arrives at Stillwater, New York, supplanting General Philip J. Schuyler as commander of the Northern Department. He also brings with him reinforcements that boost American strength there to 4,500.

August 22 Military: General George Washington obtains positive intelligence that the British fleet has entered Chesapeake Bay, ostensibly to threaten Philadelphia. He thereupon orders the divisions of Generals John Sullivan and Francis Nash to concentrate at Chester, Pennsylvania, as a precaution.

August 23 Military: General Benedict Arnold’s relief column nears Fort Stanwix, precipitating a panic in Lieutenant Colonel Barry St. Leger’s camp. Previously, Arnold had dispatched the half-witted Hon Yost Schuyler into the Indian camp with tales that the Yankee force approaching them “is more numerous than the leaves on the trees.” After hearing this, the few remaining warriors in camp completely desert their British allies, and St. Leger also makes preparations to flee for Oswego. This

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420  Chronology of American History completely neutralizes the left wing of General John Burgoyne’s offensive and deprives him of needed manpower. Arnold, meanwhile, quickly retraces his steps back to Stillwater with 1,200 men.

August 25 Military: General William Howe debarks 15,000 men at Head of Elk, Mary�land, after spending 32 days at sea. His force is quite emaciated by the experience, so he allows them three days of rest before resuming his drive inland against Philadelphia.

August 31 Military: ColÂ�oÂ�nel William Sheppard and 42 militiamen at Fort Henry (Wheeling, West Virginia) are suddenly besieged by a large Loyalist/Indian force under noted turncoat Simon Girty. They successfully massacre a detachment attempting to reach the fort but cannot dislodge the defenders inside. At one point Major Samuel McCulloch escapes on Â�horseÂ�back and spurs his mount down a 150-­foot cliff to bring reinforcements. The following day, a relief column of 40 mounted riflemen arrives and drives off the attackers; American losses are 23 killed and injured.

September 3 Military: General William Howe commences his Philadelphia campaign by brushing aside a force of American light infantry at Cooch’s Bridge, Delaware. The defenders under General William Maxwell stand their ground effectively until Hessian jaegers (riflemen) turn their position, and they fall back to White Clay Creek. For the United States, this is the first skirmish fought under the new stars and stripes flag.

September 11 Military: General William Howe advances into Pennsylvania and encounters General George Washington’s army of 14,000 men in his path, strongly deployed behind Brandywine Creek. Howe then discovers that the American left flank is not covered, so he dispatches General Charles Cornwallis and 9,000 men to turn it at Chadd’s Ford. Meanwhile, a large Hessian contingent under General Wilhelm von Knyphausen demonstrates before the American center to distract them. As anticipated, Washington does not notice the turning movement until it is nearly too late. He then dispatches a succession of infantry formations from his center to his left in an attempt to stem the flow. No sooner has this position stabilized than Knyphausen launches a Â�full-­scale attack against the weakened center, breaks through, and threatens the entire American force. Washington manages to withdraw from the field in good order, although he loses an entire artillery battery in the proÂ�cess. Howe is once again triumphant, having inflicted 1,200 casualties on the Americans while sustaining 600 of his own. The road to Philadelphia is now open but Washington has again slipped out of the noose and lives to fight another day.

September 12 Military: General Horatio Gates pushes his reinforced army of 6,000 forward to Bemis Heights, New York, only 24 miles north of Albany and 10 miles away from the British encampment of General John Burgoyne. He then orders newly arrived Polish engineer ColÂ�oÂ�nel Tadeusz Kos´ciuszko to construct an intricate line of fortifications and redoubts along the position.

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September 14 Naval: Captain Lambert Wickes is released from imprisonment in France and allowed to depart St. Malo aboard the Reprisal.

September 15 Military: General John Burgoyne, having ferried his men across the Hudson River, advances southward to Fishkill, New York, within five miles of the American position at Bemis Heights. Once in position, he desires to launch a powerful reconnaissance use force to ascertain General Horatio Gates’s defenses and possibly overrun them.

September 17 Politics: For the second time in less than a year, the Continental Congress prepares to flee Philadelphia for fear of a British invasion. Before departing, they again grant General George Washington near-dictatorial powers to prosecute the war.

September 19 Military: General John Burgoyne orders a full-scale advance upon the American lines at Freeman’s Farm, New York. To accomplish this, he draws his army up into three columns: the right flank of 1,800 men under General Simon Fraser, the center of 1,100 men under General James Hamilton, and the right of 1,000 Hessians under General Friedrich von Riedesel. The entire force must traverse rather hilly, heavily forested land in order to reach their objective, a large eminence on the American left for mounting artillery. The attack kicks off but then stalls as Fraser encounters riflemen and light troops under Colonel Daniel Morgan, who fights them to a standstill. The British center then butts up against the brigade of General Enoch Poor, and a seesaw battle of attrition unfolds. General Benedict Arnold, watching from afar, finally prevails upon General Horatio Gates to commit more troops to the center, and General Ebenezer Learned’s brigade charges into the fray. This move forces General William Phillips to march forward with the British reserves and rescue the 62nd Foot from being engulfed. Arnold then disregards Gates’s orders and charges forward with additional troops, threatening to crack Burgoyne’s center. At this juncture, General Friedrich von Riedesel makes a sudden appearance on the American right, causing them to retreat. The Hessian’s quick marching saved the day for Burgoyne, who held the field amid heavy casualties he could scarcely afford. British casualties total more than 500 men, including several regimental commanders deliberately picked off by marksmen. American losses were roughly half that amount. General Fraser, in light of his losses, prevails upon Burgoyne not to renew the attack on the following day. Naval: In an embarrassing upset, the 16-gun American brig Lexington under Captain Henry Johnson is captured by the smaller 10-gun cutter HMS Alert in battle after the former vessel runs out of ammunition off Ushant, France.

September 21 Military: To clear the way to Philadelphia, General William Howe decides to eliminate an American force under General Anthony Wayne that is shadowing his advance. He then selects the highly capable General Charles Grey to attack the enemy encampment at night with cold steel only. Grey expertly steals upon the sleeping Americans and charges them at Paoli, Pennsylvania, routing them. Wayne loses 250 men, mostly bayoneted, for a handful of British casualties. After

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Chronology of American History this sharp and successful night attack, Grey goes by the nickname “No Flint”—a reference to the practice of removing musket flints to prevent accidental discharges at night.

September 23 Military: The British army under General William Howe steals a march on General George Washington by countermarching at night and crossing the Schuylkill River at Flatland’s Ford, thus interposing British troops between Washington and the city of Philadelphia.

September 26 Military: British troops under General Charles Cornwallis reoccupy Philadelphia to the cheers of Loyalist inhabitants. General George Washington, philosophical about the loss, positions his army at Germantown, six miles away, and awaits an opportunity to strike.

September 30 Politics: The Continental Congress, having fled Philadelphia, reconvenes at York, Pennsylvania, which serves as the American capital for the next nine months.

October 1 Naval: The dashing Captain Lambert Wickes is lost at sea when his ship Reprisal flounders and sinks in a storm off Newfoundland.

October 2 Military: With Philadelphia in hand, General William Howe begins scouring the banks of the Delaware River of American fortifications, to use that body of water as a supply route. This day, the famous 42nd Black Watch Highlanders attack and take Billingsport, New Jersey, without a fight. Meanwhile, General George Washington continues watching these developments closely and prepares for a counterattack.

October 3 Military: In New York, General Henry Clinton marches 4,000 men up the Hudson River and into the New York highlands in support of General John Burgoyne. However, this action is intended as a diversion only, and Clinton has no intention of linking up with Burgoyne.

October 4 Military: Judging the moment right, General George Washington masses his army, newly reinforced to 11,000 men, to strike at the dispersed British forces of General William Howe at Germantown. He advances in three columns commanded by Generals John Sullivan, Anthony Wayne, and Nathanael Greene, hoping to surprise and overpower the defenders in camp. The attack, aided by a morning fog, commences well and drives the British back in confusion. Washington then hits an obstacle in the form of the stone house of Loyalist Benjamin Chew, which is garrisoned by the 40th Foot under Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Musgrave. The Americans, lacking artillery, waste valuable time trying unsuccessfully to dislodge the defenders, and the brigade of General William Maxwell suffers heavy losses. Washington then decides to bypass the house completely. Additional confusion breaks out when the division of General Adam Stephan marches out of line and mistakenly fires into Anthony Wayne’s forces. Howe, meanwhile, has collected his

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infantry and begins counterattacking across the line. The Americans slowly yield the battleground to the victorious Howe, who came very close to be destroyed in detail. American losses are 900 men (including General Francis Nash killed) to 500 British casualties, but Washington handled his forces adroitly despite his overcomplicated strategy and the Americans retire in good spirits.

October 4 Journalism: James Rivington returns to New York after several months in England and begins a new publication called Rivington’s New-York Loyal Gazette; next month it is shortened to simply Royal Gazette.

October 6 Military: General Henry Clinton’s expedition up the Hudson River captures both Verplanck’s Point and Fort Clinton on either bank. The defenders under General George Clinton fight stubbornly but are finally ejected by a column commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Campbell. Casualties are nearly equal at 250 men apiece, but the British also seize 67 valuable cannon. Naval: The uncompleted American frigates Congress and Montgomery are burned on the Hudson River to prevent their capture.

October 7 Military: General John Burgoyne, outnumbered and running low on supplies, launches another reconnaissance in force against the American right flank at Bemis Heights, New York. The British are drawn up into three columns with their right commanded by General Simon Fraser, the center under General Friedrich von Riedesel, and the left flank held by a single grenadier battalion under Major John Dyke-Acland. All told, Burgoyne possesses only 1,500 men for this perilous operation. As they advance, they are observed by General Horatio Gates who, in a rare moment of initiative, orders a prompt counterattack. General Enoch Poor’s brigade then closes upon DykeAcland’s grenadiers, dispersing them, while Colonel Daniel Morgan routs an assortment of Canadians and Indians protecting the British right. Only in the center, where von Riedesel’s stout Hessians hold their ground against steep odds, does Burgoyne’s strategy appear to be working. The turning point arrived when General Benedict Arnold, acting without orders, leads General Ebenezer Learned’s brigade in a series of successful charges that dislodge the Hessians from several strong points. The gallant General Fraser, valiantly leading the rear guard, is singled out and shot down by rifleman Timothy Murphy, which deprives the British of their best tactician. Arnold, meanwhile, gathers up additional troops and attacks the Hessian redoubts; he is wounded in the leg again but the defenders are routed and flee to the rear. Burgoyne at this moment judges the day lost and orders a retreat, and preparing to make a last stand at his Grand Redoubt. Sir John Burgoyne (Library of Congress)

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Chronology of American History Fortunately, nightfall terminates the contest. The British losses total near 600 men and 10 cannon while the Americans lose 200 killed and wounded. Burgoyne has little recourse but to withdraw toward Saratoga, pursued now by a force three times his size.

October 8 Military: British forces under General Henry Clinton drive Americans under Generals George and James Clinton from their fortifications on the Hudson River and they fall back upon New Windsor, New York. The British, having occupied Constitution Island, opposite West Point, suddenly halt their successful offensive. General Henry Clinton then writes General John Burgoyne and informs him that he has no authority to unite their respective commands in any capacity and such an order can only come from General William Howe. Daniel Taylor, a Loyalist, is then directed to take the message northward inside a hollowed-out silver bullet.

October 10 Military: In Pennsylvania, British artillery is brought to bear on the American defenders of Fort Mifflin, a muddy-walled position in the middle of the Delaware River. There a garrison of 400 men under Lieutenant Colonel Samuel Smith has no choice but to endure a tremendous bombardment, but they do so stoically and with great heroism.

October 12 Military: As General John Burgoyne begins entrenching himself in and around Saratoga, New York, he is slowly being engulfed by superior forces under General Horatio Gates. Today General John Stark’s brigade of 1,100 New Hampshire militiamen arrives north of Burgoyne’s camp, completely cutting off his escape route. In Pennsylvania, General Thomas Conway begins surreptitiously writing letters critical of General George Washington to General Horatio Gates, suggesting that he should replace him as commander in chief. This is the start of the socalled Conway Cabal. Lieutenant Colonel Samuel Smith and his 400 men continue defending Fort Mifflin in the Delaware River, although this day a sortie they launch upon the British batteries is repulsed.

October 13 Military: With the British army under General John Burgoyne outnumbered, out of supplies, and completely cut off, a board of officers votes unanimously to commence negotiations for surrender. Meanwhile, the Americans capture Loyalist Daniel Taylor and acquire his hollowed-out silver bullet with a message from General Henry Clinton. He is then hanged as a spy.

October 15 Military: The defenders of Fort Mifflin are further rattled when the warships HMS Roebuck and Valiant slip into point blank range on the Delaware River and add to the iron onslaught. Lieutenant Colonel Samuel Smith continues hunkering down behind his muddy walls and endures.

October 16 Diplomacy: Generals Horatio Gates and John Burgoyne, both Englishmen fighting on opposite sides of the same cause, arrange a convention to discuss surrender terms. By the terms of their “Convention,” they agree that Burgoyne’s army

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will be allowed to march to Boston, embark on ships for England, and never return to America.

October 17 Military: General John Burgoyne surrenders 5,728 men, 5,000 muskets, and 37 cannon to General Horatio Gates under terms of the “Convention of Saratoga.” The staffs of both armies then engage in a bit of fraternization, with mutual toasts to General George Washington and King George III. Such amicability does nothing to disguise the fact that, for the first time in history, an entire British army had been captured. More significantly, victory at Saratoga demonstrates the viability of the American Revolution. It quickly prompts the French government to tender formal diplomatic relations and switch from covert to overt military assistance.

October 22 Military: Col o nel Karl von Donop and his force of 1,800 Hessians cross the Delaware River intending to attack the American post of Fort Mercer, New Jersey. The 1,000-man garrison under Colonel Christopher Greene, having strengthened their works, calmly allows the enemy to approach to within range. Von Donop forms his men into two columns and then charges the northern and southern faces of the fort. They are readily shot down in vast numbers by the defenders, who are also assisted by gunboats operating in the river. The Hessians continue attacking bravely until Von Donop is mortally wounded and they finally withdraw. Hessian losses are nearly 500; Greene loses only 35 men. Politics: General William Howe, sensing that he lacks proper support from the government, tenders his resignation and requests to be relieved of command.

October 23 Naval: Admiral Richard Howe orders a large portion of his fleet to sail up the Delaware River and bombard the still-defiant Fort Mifflin into submission. Six warships comply but they are attacked in turn by 12 armed galleys under Commodore John Hazelwood of the Pennsylvania state navy. The 64-gun HMS Merlin and the 19-gun Augusta both ground and are burned to prevent capture.

October 28 Politics: Captain James Wilkinson, aide de camp to General Horatio Gates, arrives at York, Pennsylvania, to announce the victory of Saratoga to the Continental Congress. At that time, he also broaches a confidential letter of General Thomas Conway to an aide of General William Alexander, which thoroughly denigrates the leadership abilities of General George Washington.

November 1 Politics: The Continental Congress elects Henry Laurens to replace outgoing John Hancock as its president.

November 2 Naval: Captain John Paul Jones sails from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, with the 18-gun sloop Ranger and makes for France.

November 3 Politics: General William Alexander alerts General George Washington of General Thomas Conway’s possible subterfuge against him.

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Laurens, Henry (1724–1792) Politician, diplomat Henry Laurens was born in Charleston, South Carolina on February 24, 1724, the son of a prosperous merchant. After being educated in the colonies, he sailed to England and worked three years at a counting house. Afterward he returned to Charleston to receive his inheritance and gradually became one of the colony’s wealthiest men. Laurens also developed an interest in politics, and he served continuously in the assembly during the period 1764–75. He was politically conservative by nature but sided with fellow Americans during the Stamp Act crisis of 1765. In 1771 he took his sons to London to pursue their education there but returned home three years later, still committed to the Patriot cause. In 1775, he served with the extralegal provincial congress, acting as president, heading the committee of safety, and helping draft a new state constitution. Laurens, a committed conservative, remained fully supportive of property rights for Loyalists, which brought him the ire of more radical factions led by William Henry Drayton and Christopher Gadsden. Nonetheless, he was elected a delegate to the Second Continental Congress in June 1777, and the following November, succeeded John Hancock as president. Under his tenure several important pieces of legislation, such as the Articles of Confederation and the French Alliance came to pass, although Laurens was continually upset by what he considered the corrupt practices of other delegates. He resigned as president on December 9, 1778, was succeeded

by John Jay, and resumed his congressional seat for another year. In 1780, Laurens accepted a diplomatic position as commissioner to the Netherlands, although his ship was accosted by the Royal Navy and he was interned at the infamous Tower of London for nearly a year. There he was charged with treason, declared a state prisoner, and denied adequate food and medical attention. Lauren’s health declined precipitously and he never fully recovered. Worse, the British recovered his diplomatic pouch, which indicated the extent to which Holland had been assisting the United States, and led to war between those two nations. In April 1782, Laurens was finally exchanged for General Charles Cornwallis and ordered to Paris as a peace commissioner. There, with Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay, he negotiated the Treaty of Paris which ended the Revolutionary War. Laurens then returned to England for two years to settle business accounts and he also served as unofficial American ambassador. He finally came home to Charleston in January 1785 to discover his business fortunes had suffered heavily during the war. Though his health had declined owing to the harshness of imprisonment, in 1788 he mustered the strength to attend the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. Laurens died back at Charleston on December 8, 1792, one of South Carolina’s most important figures of the colonial period, and a significant diplomatic figure of the Revolutionary War.

November 6 Military: The Continental Congress appoints General Thomas Mifflin, Colonel Timothy Pickering, and Colonel Robert H. Harrison to the newly created Board of War. Neither Mifflin nor Pickering are ardent admirers of General George Washington.

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November 10 Naval: When the Delaware River inadvertently opens up a new channel, the British rush up floating batteries and additional warships to continue pounding Fort Mifflin into submission. Lieutenant Colonel Samuel Smith, commanding the 400man garrison, is seriously wounded and is replaced by Major Simeon Thayer.

November 14 Military: The ever-tenacious defenders of Fort Mifflin are strengthened by the arrival of 450 men under General James M. Varnum. Despite a terrific pounding, their counterfire manages to sink a British floating battery in the Delaware River. Politics: Irish-born Brigadier General Thomas Conway tenders his resignation to the Continental Congress, ostensibly over its refusal to promote him to major general.

November 15 Naval: The Royal Navy slips several large warships to within point-blank range of Fort Mifflin on the Delaware River, dropping 1,000 heavy balls on it every 20 minutes. At this juncture Major Simeon Thayer decides his position is hopeless and orders an evacuation of the post that evening. The gallant American stand has incurred over 300 casualties but delayed the British advance upstream by several weeks.

November 18 Military: General Charles Cornwallis crosses the Delaware River with 6,000 men and begins advancing upon Fort Mercer, New Jersey. General James M. Varnum and Colonel Christopher Greene both decide that position cannot be held and withdraw the garrison intact. Commodore John Hazelwood of the Pennsylvania state navy is also forced to burn several of his armed galleys to prevent their capture.

November 21 Politics: The Continental Congress, alarmed over allegations against Silas Deane in Paris by Arthur Lee, recalls him home to answer the charges.

November 21 Military: In his first independent action, the marquis de Lafayette leads 300 men into a heavy skirmish against a larger Hessian detachment at Gloucester, New Jersey, and defeats them.

November 27 Politics: The Continental Congress recommends that states confiscate the property of all known Loyalists to help finance the war; this act causes a mass exodus to Canada and Europe. Congress also names General Horatio Gates to be president of the Board of War, in concert with Thomas Mifflin and Richard Peters. These men form part of a military clique unfavorably disposed toward General George Washington and are now well situated to discredit him.

November 28 Diplomacy: The Continental Congress appoints John Adams to succeed Silas Deane as commissioner to France.

December 1 Military: Former Prussian officer Baron Friedrich von Steuben arrives at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, with a letter of introduction from Benjamin Franklin.

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December 4 Diplomacy: News of the startling American victory at Saratoga reaches Paris, and Foreign Minister Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes, is now receptive to a formal military alliance. The effort had been temporarily delayed following the fall of Philadelphia.

December 5 Military: General William Howe marches from Philadelphia to Whitemarsh in an attempt to surprise General George Washington in the field, but his intentions are detected by cavalry under Captain Allan McLane. The Americans have also been forewarned by the heroic actions of spy Lydia Darragh, and the British attack fails in its objective. Politics: After a year and a half of debate, the Continental Congress finally adopts the Articles of Confederation as a means of national governance and dispatches it to the state legislatures for ratification. However, the process proves torturously slow, and the actual government is not implemented until March 1, 1781.

December 7–11 Military: Generals William Howe and George Washington spar inconclusively at Whitemarsh, Pennsylvania, for several days but the Americans, forewarned by the spy Lydia Darragh, are able to circumvent defeat.

December 12 Diplomacy: In Paris, Foreign Minister Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes, informs the American commissioners that France’s entry into the war on their behalf is contingent upon Spain’s approval. He requires an additional three weeks to receive a reply from the government in Madrid.

December 13 Politics: The Continental Congress authorizes two inspector generals for the Continental Army who are independent of the commander in chief and answer only to the Board of War.

December 14 Politics: The Board of War ignores General Thomas Conway’s previous resignation and appoints him inspector general of the army—another direct slap at General George Washington.

December 15 Diplomacy: In Paris, the British again broach the subject of reconciliation with Benjamin Franklin but still refuse to recognize American independence.

December 17 Diplomacy: King Louis XVI of France, buoyed by the recent American victory at Saratoga, orders his Council of State to extend full diplomatic recognition to the United States. Moreover, negotiations for a formal treaty of alliance are to begin immediately. Henceforth, American commissioner Benjamin Franklin ignores all future British overtures for a cease-fire. French intervention also constitutes a decisive turning point in the military conduct of the Revolutionary War, soon to be part of a much wider global conflict.

December 19 Military: The 9,000 exhausted men of the Continental Army, driven from Philadelphia, stagger into winter quarters at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Located only

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20 miles from the city, the site affords General George Washington the ability to monitor British movements there closely while also protecting his supply routes. However, a severe trial by deprivation ensues and upwards of 2,500 men—onethird of the force—eventually die from exposure or hunger.

December 23 Politics: General George Washington, wary of recent Congressional probes into military affairs, invites several delegates to his headquarters at Valley Forge to discuss leadership issues. At the heart of concerns is the alleged attempt by General Thomas Conway to have him replaced by General Horatio Gates. In time, fortunately, the so-called Conway Cabal fails to trigger any congressional motions for Washington’s dismissal and the conspirators are ultimately disgraced.

December 27 Politics: The Continental Congress votes to forbid the paroled army of General John Burgoyne to depart Boston until the convention he signed has been ratified by King George III. They also inundate General William Heath with facetious instructions designed to keep the “Convention Army” hostage as long as possible.

1778 Slavery: Quakers in Maryland approve measures mandating the expulsion of all Society of Friends members who retain the use of African-American slaves. Thomas Jefferson prevails upon the Virginia House of Burgesses to approve a statute forbidding the importation of additional slaves into the state.

January 2 Military: Colonel George Rogers Clark confers with Virginia governor Patrick Henry about the necessity of seizing the Mississippi-Ohio River Valley from the British. Such a move would thwart the prospects of Shawnee attacks along the frontier and also facilitate land speculation. Clark has previously won support from such state luminaries as Thomas Jefferson, George Mason, and Richard Henry Lee. The governor acquiesces, and Clark, to disguise his real purpose, declares his intention to protect Kentucky settlements. Naval: Esek Hopkins is finally and formally removed as commodore of the nascent Continental Navy; no successor is ever appointed.

January 5 Naval: American inventor David Bushnell floats numerous mines down the Delaware River, one of which explodes and kills several British sailors. Consequently, the Royal Navy expends a lot or ordnance firing at and detonating mines—and anything else that floats within range. This incident inspires American poet Francis Hopkinson to compose his satirical work, “Battle of the Kegs.”

January 8 Diplomacy: In Paris, Foreign Minister Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes, declares France’s intention to seek a formal military alliance with the United States, in addition to diplomatic relations. Politics: The Continental Congress accuses General John Burgoyne of failing to abide by the terms of his surrender convention, further delaying the departure of his captive army.

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January 13 Military: His army withering away from exposure and malnutrition at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, General George Washington appeals to the Continental Congress for immediate supplies of food and clothing.

January 20 Military: Cavalry captain Henry Lee, scouting British outposts near Valley Forge, is discovered and attacked in turn by 200 enemy dragoons. He and seven men then seek refuge in Spread Eagle Tavern, noisily trick the British into thinking that American reinforcements are arriving, and they hastily depart. For this quick-witted action, Lee is promoted to major by Congress.

January 22 Politics: Oblivious to the suffering at Valley Forge, the Continental Congress begins contemplating a new expedition into Canada. The Board of War then appoints the youthful marquis de Lafayette to lead the effort, seconded by General Thomas Conway.

January 27 Naval: Captain John P. Rathbun of the Continental sloop Providence recaptures New Providence (Nassau) in the Bahamas and raises the Stars and Stripes over a foreign stronghold for the first time. He also seizes five vessels and releases 20 American captives.

January 28 Politics: The marquis de Lafayette flatly refuses to serve with General Thomas Conway in any capacity and expresses his contempt to president of Congress Henry Laurens. Laurens, a strong ally of Washington, now suspects the entire Board of War of complicity in the so-called Conway Cabal.

February Slavery: To offset long-standing manpower shortages, the Rhode Island General Assembly authorizes recruitment of 300 African-American slaves to serve in a special light infantry battalion. By war’s end the Rhode Island Light Infantry was acknowledged as one of the most outstanding units in the Continental Army.

February 4 Military: Baron Friedrich von Steuben arrives at York, Pennsylvania, still lacking a military commission and volunteers to serve as an unpaid aide to General George Washington.

February 6 Diplomacy: In Paris, four weeks of negotiations by Benjamin Franklin, Arthur Lee, Silas Deane, and Foreign Minister Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes, results in a two-part Franco-American entente. This consists of a treaty of amity and commerce , with reciprocal favored-nation status for trade, and a treaty of alliance. All told, the agreement stipulates direct French military intervention in North America should war erupt between France and Great Britain. It further grants the United States a free hand at launching additional campaigns in Canada and Bermuda while the French will do the same throughout the West Indies. This is a decisive moment in the course of the Revolutionary War, which now assumes the dimensions of a global conflict.

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February 7 Military: Noted frontiersman Daniel Boone and 27 other men are captured by hostile Shawnee chief Black Fish along the Lower Blue Licks, Kentucky. Boone is subsequently adopted into the chief ’s family at Chillicothe, Ohio, and treated with great kindness—he leaves them only with reluctance.

February 9 Politics: General George Washington pens an angry missive to General Horatio Gates, rebuking him for his ambiguous posturing throughout the Conway Cabal. This note apparently ends any attempts by Gates and his cohorts to have Washington replaced as commander in chief; the matter subsides quietly.

February 14 Diplomacy: John Adams departs Hough’s Neck, Massachusetts, on board the warship Boston under Captain Samuel Tucker, and sails for Bordeaux, France. Naval: As the Continental warship Ranger under Captain John Paul Jones sails into Quiberon Bay, France, it is saluted by guns of a nearby fort. This is regarded as the first “official” salute from a sovereign nation.

February 16 Politics: Lord George Germain accepts General William Howe’s resignation, although he is ordered to remain on station until a successor is designated.

February 17 Diplomacy: Prime Minister Lord Frederick North, eager to preempt the Americans from entering into a treaty relationship with France, offers to suspend all oppressive acts of Parliament passed since 1763. Whig opposition leaders Charles James Fox and Edmund Burke applaud the decision as too little, too late—then further lampoon the prime minister with news of the recent Franco-American alliance.

February 23 Military: The American encampment at Valley Forge is bolstered by the arrival of former Prussian officer Baron Friedrich von Steuben, who institutes the first systematic training routine in American military history. Steuben, who has misrepresented his credentials and is neither an aristocrat nor a general, proves instrumental in transforming the hobbling Continental Army into a precision military force.

February 26 Politics: The Continental Congress, eager to make up for manpower shortfalls, authorizes the first military draft in American history by allowing states to transfer men from the militia to the Continental Army for nine months.

February 28 Politics: A proposed state constitution for Massachusetts is overwhelmingly rejected by various town meetings. The legislature is then directed ro arrange a special convention for penning a new document.

March 2 Politics: A congressional committee visiting the army encampment at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, makes numerous recommendations to Congress respecting

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Steuben, Friedrich Von

(1730–1794)

General Friedrich Wilhelm Ludolf Gerhard Augustin von Steuben was born in Madgeburg, Prussia (Germany), on September 17, 1730, the son of an army officer. He joined the famous Prussian army at the age of 17, fought capably, and rose to the rank of captain before being discharged in 1763. Thereafter he worked for several petty princes in various capacities, especially as a chamberlain. Around this time he began calling himself “baron” and also affixed the aristocratic title of “von” to his last name, despite his common origins. Around 1777, he left Germany and traveled to France, where American agents were known to be hiring experienced military officers. Steuben then presented himself to Benjamin Franklin as a late lieutenant general in the Prussian army, and received a letter of introduction to the Continental Congress from him. This was despite the fact that Steuben, fluent in French and

German, did not speak a word of English. He nonetheless arrived at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in December 1777, presented his credentials to Congress at York, Pennsylvania, and was then dispatched to General George Washington at Valley Forge. Washington was impressed by Steuben’s military mien, and appointed him acting inspector general. In this capacity he became famous for introducing a simplified version of the famous and feared Prussian drill system to the rag-tag Continentals. Acting as drill master—and swearing profusely—Steuben trained a model company by himself, then made its members drill masters with companies of their own. The system was repeated continuously all winter, and by the time the Continental Army emerged from Valley Forge it exhibited a discipline and efficiency heretofore lacking. The fruits and genius of his labors showed at the Battle of Mon-

Baron von Steuben at Valley Forge, 1777 (National Archives)

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mouth in August 1778, when, for the first time in the Revolutionary War, the Americans proved able to withstand their professional British adversaries in the field. Steuben continues performing staff function until November 1780 when, after lobbying hard for a field command, he joined the marquis de Lafayette in Virginia as his subordinate. However, he failed to flourish in the war of outposts waged there and on April 25, 1781, was outmaneuvered at Point of Fork by Lieutenant Colonel John G. Simcoe and duped into abandoning some valuable supplies. Despite his lackluster performance, Steuben commanded one of the

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three American divisions at Yorktown, where the war effectively ended in October 1781. He then served as a military adviser to Washington until his discharge on March 24, 1784. Steuben took up citizenship and resided at New York City, where his extravagant lifestyle drove him into bankruptcy until Congress agreed to pay the old warrior a pension of $2,800 annually. He then purchased a farm in Remsen, New York, and functioned as president of the conservative-oriented Society of the Cincinnati. The self-styled “baron” died at Remsen on November 28, 1794, having provided the American army with its first brush with military professionalism.

the reorganization of administrative procedures. They also appoint a rather reluctant General Nathaniel Greene to serve as quartermaster general of the military.

March 7 Military: After much consideration, Lord George Germain appoints the highly capable but widely disliked General Henry Clinton to serve as commander in chief of British forces in North America. Clinton will serve longer in this capacity than any other officer. Naval: Captain Nicholas Biddle, commanding the 32-gun frigate Randolph, encounters and fights the much larger 64-gun HMS Yarmouth off Barbados. The two vessels close in the darkness and fight fiercely for 20 minutes until the Randolph apparently receives a magazine hit and explodes. Biddle and 311 of his men die; only four survivors are rescued by the British. This constitutes the single largest loss of naval personnel until the sinking of the USS Arizona in December 1941.

March 8 Military: In light of the new French alliance, General Henry Clinton receives permission to begin planning for another amphibious assault against Charleston, South Carolina, decisively shifting the locus of the war southward.

March 9 Naval: In another naval humiliation, Captains Elisha Hinman and Thomas Thompson, leading the large frigates Alfred and Raleigh, respectively, engage the British sloops HMS Ariadne and Ceres in the West Indies. The British should have been immediately overpowered, but the Americans are outmaneuvered in a lengthy contest, and Hinman of the Alfred strikes his colors with 181 captives.

March 12 Politics: Vermont, still not officially a part of the United States until 1791, appoints Thomas Chittenden to serve as its governor.

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March 13 Diplomacy: In London, the French ambassador duly informs the British government of the recent treaty of alliance with the United States. War between the two nations is now widely anticipated, so England recalls its ambassador from Paris. Military: Loyalists under Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Brown attack Fort Barrington, Georgia, taking 23 captives. The southern frontier will be a hotbed of Loyalist activity for the remainder of the war. Politics: The Continental Congress cancels its much heralded Canadian campaign and also orders the marquis de Lafayette and Baron Johann de Kalb back to their stations within the army.

March 16 Diplomacy: Parliament authorizes Frederick Howard, earl of Carlisle, to head a peace commission with the Americans at Philadelphia. Unlike previous efforts, Carlisle is endowed with broad powers to conduct negotiations and acquiesce to most colonial demands—except independence.

March 18 Military: British light troops under Colonel Charles Mawhood and Major John Graves Simcoe surround and eliminate a militia picket at Quintin’s Bridge, New Jersey, inflicting 40 casualties for a loss of one man. At Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, Baron Friedrich von Steuben commences his celebrated training regimen to turn the rough-hewn Continental Army into professional soldiers. He does so by selecting 120 men as a model company, training them thoroughly in his simplified version of the famous Prussian drill, until they are completely proficient. The men are then broken up and redistributed to their own units to serve as drillmasters. The entire process is continuously replicated and by the time the army emerges from its winter quarters it possesses a discipline and precision heretofore conspicuously lacking. Von Steuben’s contribution proves a major factor in the ultimate American victory.

March 20 Diplomacy: In Paris, American commissioners Benjamin Franklin, Arthur Lee, and Silas Deane are formally received by the glittering court of King Louis XVI. Later, Franklin and the king privately assure each other of their commitment to fulfil treaty obligations.

March 21 Military: British light infantry under Colonel Charles Mawhood and Major John G. Simcoe attacks and eliminates an American militia picket at Judge Hancock’s house, near Hancock’s Bridge, New Jersey. The British eliminate sentries, rush inside, and bayonet all 30 defenders to death, accidently slaying two prominent Loyalists by mistake.

March 26 Politics: Congressmen Francis Dana and Nathaniel Folsom introduce legislation to provide Continental Army officers with half pay for life and their widows with a pension. A furious debate ensues over the next several months.

March 28 Military: The Continental Congress authorizes General Kazimierz Pulaski to raise his own cavalry legion.

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March 31 Diplomacy: Commissioner John Adams, accompanied by his 10-year old son and future president John Quincy Adams, arrives at Bordeaux, France. Naval: In another embarrassing setback for the Continental Navy, the new 28gun frigate Virginia under Captain James Nicholson runs aground in Chesapeake Bay and is set upon by HMS Emerald and Conqueror. Nicholson promptly abandons his vessel, rows to shore, and orders Lieutenant Joshua Barney to surrender the Virginia for him.

April 5 Politics: The Continental Congress votes to allow General John Burgoyne and his staff officers to leave Boston for England, but the bulk of his “convention army” is to remain in captivity.

April 9 Military: The Continental Congress appoints Jeremiah Wadsworth to serve as the new commissary general of purchases to overhaul the inefficient Commissary Department.

April 10 Naval: Captain John Paul Jones departs Brest, France, with the 18-gun sloop Ranger on an extended raid into English home waters.

April 14 Politics: President of Congress Henry Laurens sends a reprimand to General George Washington for questioning recent congressional prerogatives respecting the exchange of prisoners or the treatment of Loyalists. The general, taking the rebuke in stride, simply thanks that august body for its sagacious advice.

April 21 Politics: Elias Boudinot, commissary of prisons, arranges to exchange General Charles Lee for British general Richard Prescott. Once free, Lee’s first action is to visit Congress and complain how other officers have been promoted over him. Lee also personally derogates the leadership of General George Washington in front of Boudinot.

April 22 Diplomacy: The Continental Congress passes a motion branding anyone who accedes to terms established at the forthcoming Carlisle Peace Commission as an enemy of the United States. Naval: Captain John Paul Jones, commanding the 18-gun sloop Ranger, lands 31 men ashore and briefly seizes the English town of Whitehaven. Crew members then spike several cannon in a local fort, burn several vessels, and return to their ship. This act constitutes the first hostile invasion of British soil since 1667.

April 23 Naval: Captain John Paul Jones of the Ranger accosts the small British island of St. Mary’s, intending to kidnap the Earl of Serlkirk as a hostage but finds him absent from his estate. Lady Serlkirk’s family silver is seized instead, but Jones later returns it with an apology.

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April 24 Naval: Captain John Paul Jones and the 18-gun sloop Ranger encounter the 20gun sloop HMS Drake off Carrickfergus, Ireland, and capture it in a sharp action. For a loss of six men killed and wounded, Jones takes 150 prisoners.

April 27 Naval: The Continental Congress votes to purchase 12 additional warships.

April 29 Naval: After much debate, Prime Minister Lord Frederick North elects to reinforce the British fleet of Admiral Richard Howe with 12 additional warships under Admiral John Byron. This is to counter a French fleet known to be approaching America under Admiral Charles, comte d’Estaing.

May 1 Military: British light infantry under Colonel Robert Abercrombie and Major John G. Simcoe attacks an American militia outpost under General John Lacey at Crooked Billet, Pennsylvania. Lacey is surprised and nearly surrounded before fighting his way out with a loss of 60 men. The adroitly handled British lose only nine.

May 4 Diplomacy: The Continental Congress ratifies the treaties of alliance and amity with France and by war’s end that nation provides 10.5 million livres in subsidies and 35 million in loans to assist the American war effort.

May 5 Military: The Continental Congress appoints General Friedrich von Steuben inspector general of the Continental Army on the recommendation of General George Washington. In this capacity, he composes the Blue Book, the first American drill manual, which is further refined by his aides Alexander Hamilton and John Laurens.

May 8 Military: General Henry Clinton arrives at New York as the new British commander in chief. Naval: Captain John Paul Jones of the Ranger docks at Brest, France, with the captured Drake and 200 prisoners.

May 12 Military: Colonel George Rogers Clark departs the Redstone Settlement on a voyage down the Monongahela River to rendezvous with reinforcements gathering at the Falls of the Ohio River.

May 15 Politics: The Continental Congress authorizes half-pay for Continental Army officers, although the tenure is for seven years, not life—provided that they serve for the duration of the war.

May 19–20 Military: The 20-year-old marquis de Lafayette, on his first independent mission, takes 2,200 men on a reconnaissance mission between the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers. When General William Howe is informed of the move at Philadelphia, he detaches General James Grant and 5,000 troops to catch the youthful leader at Barren Hill, Pennsylvania. Howe leads the remaining 6,000 men out of

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Shippen, Margaret (1760–1804) Loyalist spy Margaret “Peggy” Shippen was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on June 11, 1760, into one of that colony’s foremost merchant families. Her father, among his many responsibilities, also served as chief justice of Pennsylvania. Shippen matured into a bright young maiden, excelling in mathematics, and very adept at bookkeeping, accounting, and real estate. And, despite her reputation as the city’s most beguiling belle, she inherited her father’s strict Loyalist sensibilities. With the advent of Philadelphia’s capture by British forces in the fall of 1777, she apparently entered into a romantic relationship with the dashing Major John André until he was ordered back to New York. As a parting gesture, she acquired a lock of his hair as a memento and maintained—at great personal risk—a steady and secret correspondence. Philadelphia was then reoccupied by American forces under General Benedict Arnold, then military governor, and he too was smitten by his acquaintance with the alluring 19-year-old Shippen. The two courted and were married on April 8, 1779, just as Arnold was being buffeted by allegations of fiscal impropriety. He also resented what he deemed—perhaps justly—any lack of recognition from the Continental Congress for his outstanding contributions to the war effort. Arnold’s anger intensified after being found guilty of two misdemeanors for which he was mildly rebuked by his friend and superior, General George Washington. It was precisely at this junc-

ture that the highly intelligent, well-placed Mrs. Arnold prevailed on her husband to switch sides. In the spring of 1779, Arnold began a secret correspondence with General Henry Clinton in New York, wherein he offered to betray highly sensitive military intelligence about American defenses at West Point, New York, for a large sum of money and a general’s commission. After some hesitation, Major André, now head of British military intelligence and still in contact with Shippen, persuaded Clinton to grant Arnold’s request. Arnold and his wife then concocted a clever scheme to carry the matter off. André eventually met with Arnold behind American lines on September 22, 1780, then was caught, and Arnold had to flee for his life. For her part, Shippen hysterically feigned ignorance of the matter and eventually rejoined her husband in New York, while André was hanged. After the war the couple ventured to England where they were introduced to King George III. At that time, Shippen was rewarded with an annual stipend of 1,000 pounds—making her the highest-paid spy of the Revolutionary War. But Arnold made few, if any, friends and also failed in a number of business ventures that left his family saddled with debt. Once he died in 1801 Shippen dutifully used her business acumen to pay off her husband’s debts while raising their five children. She herself died of cancer in London on August 24, 1804, a devoted Loyalist and a highly successful spy mistress.

the city as a distraction. However, when cavalry scout Allan McLane perceives the British maneuver, he alerts Lafayette of the impending trap before it is sprung. Lafayette, though badly outnumbered, cleverly conceals his men around Barren Hill until Grant approaches in force, then aggressively deploys his men as if ready to attack. Grant is taken aback and assumes defensive positions, during which

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Chronology of American History time the Americans slip out of his grasp and back to the safety of the Schuylkill River. His clever ploy foiled by Grant’s ineptitude, the general retraces his steps back to Philadelphia, empty-handed.

May 20 Military: On the Georgia frontier, General Robert Howe arrives at the Altahama River with 550 men, intending to attack General Augustin Prevost at St. Augustine, but his plans go awry when his militia refuses to follow orders.

May 24 Military: Following two years of capable, if controversial service in America, General William Howe sails back to England.

May 27 Military: The Continental Congress overhauls the organization of the Continental Army while adding a provost corps and three engineering companies.

May 28 Military: Colonel George Rogers Clark disembarks at the Falls of the Ohio River to discover that promised reinforcements failed to materialize. He is greeted only by a handful of new volunteers and stops to train his entire force before proceeding further. In a fateful move, General George Washington appoints General Benedict Arnold to serve as future governor and garrison commander of Philadelphia.

May 30 Military: Mohawks under Chief Joseph Brant burn the settlement of Cobbleskill, New York, killing many settlers and capturing others. This attack initiates a long series of frontier raids, which is the only viable British tactic in New York after Saratoga.

June 6 Diplomacy: The Carlisle Commission arrives at Philadelphia, fully empowered to negotiate an end to hostilities with America. They are prepared to offer autonomy to the colonists but refuse to recognize their independence. Had such a sober effort been made prior to the outbreak of hostilities, the turn of events in North America might have been much different. Now it is too late.

June 13 Politics: The Continental Congress debates Lord Frederick North’s conciliatory proposals and insists upon British recognition of American independence. They then draft a proposal declaring their intention to accept peace once King George III has withdrawn his forces.

June 16 Military: General Henry Clinton, fearful that an appearance by the French fleet might cut off his army in Philadelphia, prepares to evacuate that city and return to New York. Two days later he marches 10,000 soldiers northward while a further 3,000 Loyalists embark on Admiral Richard Howe’s fleet. A quick raid by Captain Allan McLane’s cavalry nets 32 British stragglers outside the city.

June 19 Military: General George Washington reacts to the British abandonment of Philadelphia by rousing the Continental Army from its encampment at Valley Forge and maneuvering to intercept General Henry Clinton’s army with 14,500 men.

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General Benedict Arnold arrives at Philadelphia as its garrison commander, and he becomes entirely distracted after meeting Margaret “Peggy” Shippen, the beguiling daughter of a prominent Loyalist.

June 20 Politics: The Continental Congress expresses some anger and disbelief that only three states, New York, Virginia, and New Hampshire, have ratified the new Articles of Confederation. They also reject 22 proposed amendments to the articles as proposed by the states.

June 26 Military: Colonel George Rogers Clark shoots the rapids of the Ohio River with 175 men in flatboats and sails west toward the Illinois Territory.

June 27 Politics: The Continental Congress adjourns its final session at York and votes to reconvene back at Philadelphia.

June 28 Military: General George Washington strikes at the withdrawing British army of General Henry Clinton by attacking its rear guard at Monmouth Court House. The American advance forces are carelessly handed by General Charles Lee, who causes a near rout when ordering his men to retreat, and Clinton swiftly counterattacks. The situation is only saved when Washington makes a sudden appearance at the head of his men, rallies them, and deploys the troops defensively. He also confronts Lee and relieves him of command on the field after a blistering dressing-down. At this point the British make several determined attacks but are as often blasted back by the well-trained Americans, who can now fight their professional adversaries on equal terms for the first time in the war. The divisions of Generals Anthony Wayne, Nathanael Greene, and William Alexander hold their ground, while the artillery of General Henry Knox assails the British flanks. It is at this critical juncture that Mary Ludwig Hayes (Molly Pitcher) replaces her husband as part of a gun crew and mans a cannon. Clinton, convinced the battle is a draw, retires from the field in good order and continues marching for New York. Both sides lost roughly 400 men apiece, with many falling in consequence of the intense summer heat. However, Monmouth Court House is the first time that the Americans successfully engaged the British in an open field.

July 2 Military: General Frederick Haldimand replaces General Guy Carleton as governor general of Canada. Politics: The Continental Congress resumes its deliberations back at Philadelphia.

July 3 – 4 Military: A force of Loyalists under Captain Walter Butler and Seneca under Cornplanter attack American settlements in the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania. When the defenders of Colonel Zebulon sortie and chase after the attackers, they walk right into a devastating ambush. The raiders then promptly charge and rout the militia, killing and scalping 227 men. Butler then goes on to burn eight forts

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McCauley, Mary Ludwig Hays (1754 –1832) Woman soldier Mary Ludwig was born in Trenton, New Jersey, on October 13, 1752, a daughter of German immigrants. After working several years as a domestic houseworker, at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, she met and married barber John Hays, who in December 1775 enlisted in the 1st Pennsylvania Artillery Regiment. Consistent with practices of the time, Mary then followed her husband into the field as a camp follower, performing mundane but useful services such as cooking, washing, and nursing the injured. Over the course of the Revolutionary War thousands of women did likewise, with little recognition for their services. On June 28, 1778, both John and Mary Hays were present at the battle of Mon-

mouth, New Jersey, where the former was detached from his regiment to assist other gunners. He deployed his cannon at a crisis period in the battle, when the army of General Henry Clinton was counterattacking and driving the disorganized Americans before him. The day was also extremely hot, with Mary and scores of other women carrying buckets of water to cool the guns and their crews. At some point in the battle, John collapsed from heat exhaustion while servicing a cannon, and Mary threw down her pitcher, picked up his ramrod, and ably serviced his piece for the remainder of the engagement. In the course of battle a cannonball apparently tore through her skirt, but she ignored the

Molly Pitcher at the Battle of Monmouth (National Archives)

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danger and continued working. Her bravery under fire caught the attention of General Nathanael Greene, who then arranged her introduction to General George Washington. That leader then congratulated Mary for her courage and promoted her to sergeant. In this manner Mary Hays became universally lauded in American military history as “Molly Pitcher”; this was a common nickname at the time for women accompanying an army. It was nevertheless a stirring performance under fire, which demonstrated the pluck of colonial womanhood when aroused. Mary Hays remained in military service as a washerwoman for eight more years without further notoriety, and after her discharge in 1783, she returned to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, as a servant. Her husband John died in 1787 and she married

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another veteran, John McCauley, who was semi-disabled. Mary spent the rest of her life supporting him in near poverty. After he died in 1809 she endured a period of obscurity until 1822, when she petitioned the Pennsylvania general assembly for assistance. It then voted her a $40 annuity in recognition of her military service. Mary Hays, the “Molly Pitcher” of lore, died in Carlisle on January 22, 1832, and was buried with full military honors. During the Revolutionary Centennial of 1876 she was further honored with an elaborate marker placed over her grave. She remains the most popular and best-known woman soldier of the Revolutionary War; her closest competitor was another female artillerist, Mary Corbin, who distinguished herself at the battle of Fort Washington in 1776.

and 1,000 homes and steal 1,000 head of cattle. The Wyoming Valley massacre is one of the war’s biggest frontier atrocities. Colonel George Rogers Clark and his 175 men surround the distant post of Kaskasksia, Illinois, at the confluence of the Mississippi and Kaskaskia Rivers, and peacefully obtain its surrender. Clark is then careful to inform the French inhabitants of the recent treaty of alliance with that nation and they promptly switch sides and join the Americans.

July 5 Naval: The British army of General Henry Clinton is finally ferried over to New York from Sandy Hook by Admiral Richard Howe’s fleet.

July 8 Education: The appointment of Ezra Stiles as president of Yale College marks a dramatic shift at that institution away from the enthusiasm of the Great Awakening and towards the Enlightenment precepts of rationalism and liberalism. Military: Hot on the heels of the retreating British, General George Washington establishes West Point, New York, as the site of his new military headquarters. From this position, he will orchestrate a loose blockade of New York City for the next three years—the war will be won elsewhere. Naval: The 15-vessel fleet of Admiral Charles, comte d’Estaing, arrives off the Delaware capes, but too late to intercept Admiral Richard Howe’s warships. The French then sail north to New York seeking a confrontation.

July 11 Naval: The 15-ship French squadron under Admiral Charles, comte d’Estaing, anchors off New York to coax the British fleet under Admiral Richard Howe out into the open.

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Chronology of American History Howe, somewhat outgunned, declines the invitation and positions his vessels around New York harbor so as to heavily rake the French should they elect to enter. Politics: To help further cement a national identity, the Continental Congress orders the term “United States of America” used on all paper currency issued.

July 20 Military: The forces of Colonel George Rogers Clark peacefully occupy the French settlements of Vincennes (Indiana) thanks to the support of a local priest, Father Pierre Gibault.

July 22 Naval: General George Washington confers with French Admiral Charles, comte d’Estaing, and concludes that the waters of New York harbor are too confined to allow combined operations. Washington then suggests that the French sail to Newport, Rhode Island, and the comte agrees. General John Sullivan is subsequently dispatched there with 1,000 men to begin allied operations.

July 24 Politics: Congressional delegates from Delaware, New Jersey, and Maryland declare their states’ intention to oppose ratifying the Articles of Confederation unless all states with western land claims surrender them to the government.

July 28 Politics: Connecticut politician Silas Deane testifies before a congressional committee to justify his behavior as American commissioner in Paris. Specifically, he must refute charges of profligacy and misuse of public funds leveled against him by Richard Lee.

July 29 Naval: The French squadron of Admiral Charles, comte d’Estaing, arrives off Newport, Rhode Island, and confronts the 6,700-man British garrison of General Robert Pigot. There is very little the French can do until the army of General John Sullivan arrives to begin siege operations.

August 2 Diplomacy: France formally declares war against Great Britain.

August 6 Naval: General Henry Clinton, informed of French naval operations off Newport, Rhode Island, orders the fleet of Admiral Richard Howe to engage them. Howe has recently been reinforced by the squadron of Admiral John Byron and now possesses 20 warships to d’Estaing’s 15.

August 12 Naval: As General John Sullivan’s 10,000 men prepare siege positions outside Newport, Rhode Island, the fleets of Admirals Richard Howe and Charles, comte d’Estaing, spar for advantage offshore. Suddenly they are beset by a squall that scatters and heavily damages both.

August 20 Naval: The wind-damaged fleet of Admiral Charles, comte d’Estaing, sails from Newport, Rhode Island, to Boston for repairs, abandoning the army of General John Sullivan to its fate. They take with them a 3,000-man land contingent that had been operating ashore, which further weakens the Americans.

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Clark, George Rogers (1752–1818) Militia officer George Rogers Clark was born in Charlottesville, Virginia, on November 19, 1752, the son of a farmer. Largely self-taught, he worked as a surveyor and also led numerous expeditions into the unsettled regions of Kentucky. Clarke was serving as a captain of militia when the Revolutionary War broke out in April 1775 and thereafter actively organized frontier defense against hostile Indians. Clark, who enjoyed considerable renown as a frontier figure, then persuaded the Virginia legislature to fund the protection of western settlements, and he gained appointment as colonel. He realized that the British at Detroit were the instigators behind Indian unrest, and in 1777 he prevailed upon Governor Patrick Henry for a campaign against them. Clark was also determined to prevent settlers like Daniel Boone from carving out Kentucky as a separate state and convinced the legislature to annex the region as a Virginia county. In May 1778 he departed with 175 frontiersmen riding flatboats down 120 miles of various rivers, then marched another 120 miles, and captured Kaskaskia, Illinois on July 4, 1778. Having secured the allegiance of French inhabitants living there, Clark pushed on to his final objective, Vincennes, which fell without a shot on July 20. The Americans then departed for home but British governor Henry Hamilton launched an overland campaign to recapture Vincennes on December 17, 1778. This act prompted Clark to organize another midwinter campaign that endured incredible hardships, retaking Vincennes from Hamilton, and cap-

turing him. By this single action Clark again restored American supremacy in the Old Northwest, a fact that the British were forced to acknowledge at the Treaty of Paris in 1783. But despite promises of compensation from the Virginia government, Clark and his men functioned without pay and, as commander, he was forced to advance funds out of his own pocket and incurred great debts. In the final years of the Revolutionary War, Clark mounted several expeditions against the Shawnee in Ohio with good effect. He had campaigned well with scanty resources, but Virginia authorities refused to reimburse him for his expenses, and Clark remained in debt. In 1786, he gained appointment as Indian commissioner and led a final expedition against tribes living along the Wabash River, but then lost his commission through the machinations of General James Wilkinson, a Spanish spy. Destitute, Clark engaged in several aborted western schemes at the behest of the French and Spanish governments, none of which came to fruition. In 1793, he even received a major general’s commission from France in anticipation of their reconquest of the Louisiana territory, but by 1799, Clark returned to Kentucky, disgraced and broke. He died in Louisville on February 13, 1818, a forgotten architect of American frontier expansion. In 1918, the U.S. government erected a $1 million memorial to him at Vincennes, scene of his greatest triumph, and a reminder of his remarkable successes in 1778.

August 26 Diplomacy: George Johnstone, a member of the British Carlisle Commission meeting in Philadelphia, attempts to bribe Congressmen Joseph Reed, Robert Morris, and Francis Dana. He is thereupon ordered home.

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August 29 Military: As the division of General John Sullivan attempts to retreat from Newport, Rhode Island, they are set upon by aggressive General Robert Pigot, commanding the British garrison there. An attack develops at Butt’s Hill when General Francis Smith advances upon the veteran brigade of General John Glover and is handily repulsed. Pigot then directs a large force of Hessians to storm Quaker Hill on his right, but the attack founders in the face of determined resistance by the Rhode Island Light Infantry, composed mainly of African Americans. A prompt counterattack by General Nathanael Greene drives the Germans off. Pigot then suspends the action and Sullivan continues retreating. Both sides lost approximately 300 men apiece in this, the Revolutionary War’s largest battle waged on New England soil.

August 31 Naval: A relief expedition of 5,000 men under General Henry Clinton arrives at Newport, Rhode Island, but too late to influence the outcome of events. Clinton then detaches General Charles Grey to attack and raid Martha’s Vineyard and the Massachusetts coast.

September 4 Diplomacy: The United States concludes a treaty of amity and commerce with the city of Amsterdam, Netherlands, an act infuriating the British government.

September 7–16 Military: Shawnee war parties under Chief Black Fish attack the settlement of Boonesborough, Kentucky. Fortunately, they had been warned in advance by Daniel Boone himself, who escaped Indian captivity to relay the news.

September 11 Naval: Admiral James Gambier arrives at New York to replace Admiral Richard Howe as commander of Royal Navy forces in America. His tenure proves brief and uneventful.

September 13 Military: A force of 450 Indians and Loyalists under Chief Joseph Brant and Captain William Caldwell attack and ravage the settlement of German Flats (Herkimer), New York, along the Mohawk River. The 700 settlers are tipped off in advance and seek refuge in nearby forts, but the raiders go on to burn and loot 100 buildings before departing.

September 14 Diplomacy: The Continental Congress appoints Benjamin Franklin minister plenipotentiary to France, replacing the three-man commission.

September 17 Diplomacy: The United States negotiates its first Indian treaty with the Lenni Lenape (Delaware) tribe, at Fort Pitt (modern Pittsburgh), securing their neutrality in exchange for a pledge to allow their territory to enter the union as a 14th state. The government will eventually conclude a total of 370 such agreements with native Americans, very few of which either were adhered to, or were in the Indians’ best interests.

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September 26 Military: The Continental Congress appoints General Benjamin Lincoln to succeed General Robert Howe as commander of the Southern Department. The decision is made without first consulting General George Washington.

September 27 Naval: Captain John Barry, commanding the 32-gun frigate Raleigh, is accosted off the Maine coast by two British warships. Barry fights well for several hours but ultimately grounds his vessel and burns it to prevent capture. He then escapes back to Boston on foot with 85 crewmen while another 135 are taken prisoner.

September 28 Military: General Charles Grey, in a repeat of his effective performance at Paoli, Pennsylvania, in 1777, advances upon a detachment of American soldiers at Old Tappan, New Jersey. The 100 sleeping men of the 3rd Continental Dragoons under Lieutenant Colonel George Baylor are taken completely by surprise and dispersed. The Americans lose 50 men killed and wounded at no cost to the British; Baylor is among those fatally wounded by a bayonet.

October 3 Diplomacy: Thwarted in their dealings with the Continental Congress, the remaining members of the Carlisle Commission in Philadelphia print an offer of reconciliation to the American people, tendering full pardons for all individuals who accept it within the next 40 days.

October 5 Military: A small force of British infantry under Captain Patrick Ferguson attacks an American encampment on Mincock Island, New Jersey, abetted by the lack of sentries. They then surprise a detachment of cavalry under Colonel Kazimierz Pulaski, inflicting 30 casualties before withdrawing with a loss of six.

October 7 Military: Lieutenant Colonel Henry Hamilton sets out from Detroit with 225 soldiers, French militia, and some Indians to recapture the distant settlement of Vincennes (Indiana). He is heartened to learn that Colonel George Rogers Clark has since withdrawn most of the garrison.

October 28 Diplomacy: The Continental Congress drafts new instruction for Benjamin Franklin in Paris and also informs John Adams that his mission there is complete. Naval: Major Silas Talbot, commanding the sloop Hawke, carefully approaches the British schooner HMS Pigot on the Sakonnet River, Rhode Island. He had previously mounted a kedging anchor to the bowsprit of his vessel, intending to rip away the Pigot’s antiboarding nets as it passed by. The ploy works perfectly and Talbot boards his adversary so quickly that they are driven below deck without loss. Both the Pigot and 45 captives are taken.

November 4 Military: General Henry Clinton, pursuant to instructions from the government, dispatched General James Grant and 5,800 men from New York to the West Indies. The rapidly expanding war in America is forcing the British to spread their resources thin.

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Chronology of American History Naval: Admiral Charles, comte d’Estaing, departs Boston with his fleet, neglecting to inform General George Washington of the change. The fledgling FrancoAmerican alliance has achieved little thus far beyond ruffling many feathers.

November 11 Military: A combined Indian/Loyalist force under Chief Joseph Brant and Captain Walter Butler attacks the American settlement at Cherry Valley, New York, under the cover of a rainstorm. The garrison under Colonel Ichabod Allen is totally surprised, and 40 settlers are tomahawked with another 30 captured. The devastation of this single raid prompts General George Washington to mount a large-scale, punitive action against the Indians that summer.

November 20 Politics: New Jersey ratifies the Articles of Confederation; Maryland remains the only holdout.

November 27 Diplomacy: The British Carlisle Commission sails from Philadelphia to England, having singularly failed to reach a negotiated peace settlement. Military: Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Campbell boards 3,500 men onto ships of Commodore Hyde Parker in New York and prepares to sail southward to the Georgia coast. There he intends to link up with British forces under General Augustin Prevost for an attack upon Savannah, Georgia. Naval: Admiral Richard Howe concludes his service in America by sailing home for England; he is briefly succeeded by Admiral John Byron.

December 4 Military: General Benjamin Lincoln arrives at Charleston, South Carolina, as head of the Southern Department. He begins preparations for driving the British out of neighboring Georgia.

December 5 Journalism: A bellicose Silas Deane publishes his political defense and attacks Arthur Lee and other detractors in the Pennsylvania Packet. Politics: The Continental Congress approves the court-martial sentence of General Charles Lee and he is suspended from active duty for a year.

December 9 Politics: The Virginia assembly annexes all territories recently captured by Colonel George Rogers Clark and names them the County of Illinois. Captain John Todd is appointed the first governor.

December 10 Politics: John Jay is elected president of the Continental Congress to replace outgoing Henry Laurens.

December 11 Military: General George Washington directs the winter deployment of the Continental Army at Middlebrook, New Jersey, from which vantage point he can rapidly advance into Delaware to counter any possible thrusts against Philadelphia.

December 17 Military: The combined British/Indian column of Lieutenant Colonel Henry Hamilton recaptures the distant settlement of Vincennes (Indiana) from Captain

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Chronology   447 Leonard Helm. Hamilton intends to attack Kaskaskia in the spring and drive away ColÂ�oÂ�nel George Rogers Clark. He then mistakenly dismisses his Indian contingent and allows most of his militia to depart.

December 23 Military: A British squadron under Commodore Hyde Parker lands 3,500 sol-­ diers under Lieutenant ColÂ�oÂ�nel Archibald Campbell on Tybee Island at the mouth of the Savannah River. Meanwhile, General Robert Howe collects 700 soldiers and 150 militiamen at Sunbury and marches to the defense of the city.

December 29 Military: Lieutenant ColÂ�oÂ�nel Archibald Campbell, informed that American rein-­ forcements under General Benjamin Lincoln are far off in South Carolina, elects to attack Savannah, Georgia, before they arrive. He then leads 3,500 men against General Robert Howe, who has collected 1,200 soldiers along the Giradeau Road. This is a strong position with swamps on either flank and a stream to his front, but Campbell is informed by a local slave of an obscure path around the rear. He then deploys his light infantry down the secret trail while his artillery bombards the camp from the front. They then charge at a given signal and the American position, struck from front, flank, and behind, crumbles. Howe loses nearly 550 killed, wounded, and captured to a British tally of 13. The road to Savannah is now clear and it remains in British hands until the end of the war. Campbell next appoints himself governor of the only colony reconquered by the British.

1779 Education: Thomas Jefferson, nominal head of William and Mary College, ele-­ vates it to a university by creating schools of medicine, law, and modern languages. He does so by discontinuing older departments such as divinity and grammar.

January 1 Politics: The Continental Congress, unswayed by General Henry Clinton’s argu-­ ments that King George III had signed the Saratoga Convention, refuses to abide by its terms. The captured British and Hessians are then marched into captivity from Boston to Virginia. Military: General George Washington warns Congress not to become ensnared in a new campaign in Canada, fearing that France will ultimately gain control of the region.

January 9 Military: A British force under General Augustin Prevost captures Fort Morris, Georgia, from the Americans, along with 220 prisoners. Following the conquest of Savannah, this victory places eastern Georgia completely under British control.

January 10 Diplomacy: Conrad-Alexandre Rayvenal de Gérard, French minister to the United States, seeks assurances that the recent alliance between the two coun-­ tries will be upheld.

January 11 Naval: The Â�American-­built frigate Alliance departs Boston under Captain Pierre Landais and conveys the marquis de Lafayette back to France. This is the only warship jointly commanded by the allies.

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January 14 Diplomacy: The Continental Congress assures the French minister in Philadelphia that the United States remains bound to observe all treaty commitments with France. Foremost among these is a pledge not to seek a separate peace treaty without prior consultation.

January 20 Politics: A Congressional committee is appointed to investigate the matter of Silas Deane and all allegations against him.

January 23 Military: Beset by chronic manpower shortages, the Continental Congress accepts General George Washington’s recommendation and authorizes a $200 bounty to both new recruits and soldiers who reenlist.

January 29 Military: Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Campbell marches up the road from Savannah to Augusta, Georgia, where he is ambushed by militia under General Samuel Elbert and Colonel John Twiggs. Campbell brushes aside his antagonists and occupies the town, finding it abandoned. For several months Augusta serves as a rallying point for Loyalists seeking to join the British cause. Moreover, Patriots living throughout the region are forced to take an oath of allegiance or have property confiscated.

February 3 Military: General William Moultrie takes up defensive positions at Port Royal Island, South Carolina, in anticipation of a British attack there. When two companies of British under Major William Gardiner appear and attack, they are easily repulsed with loss. Politics: Joseph Reed, president of the Pennsylvania Council, brings charges of abuse and mismanagement against General Benedict Arnold, who angrily demands an inquiry to clear his name.

February 4 Military: The Continental Congress endows General George Washington with authority to take whatever measures he deems necessary to enhance and improve the Continental Army. He is also allowed to resolve all disputes involving rank below that of brigadier general. Naval: In France, Captain John Paul Jones receives command of a beat-up old French merchant ship, the Duc de Duras, which he promptly renames Bonhomme Richard in honor of Benjamin Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanac. Jones spends the next six months scouring the country for guns and other naval implements to outfit his charge.

February 5 Military: Colonel George Rogers Clark, informed of Vincennes’s recapture by Lieutenant Colonel Henry Hamilton, hastily collects 127 frontiersmen and sets off from Kaskaskia in midwinter. What unfolds is one of the most grueling displays of endurance in the entire war. Clark also dispatched Lieutenant Colonel John Rogers and the armed galley Willig down the Mississippi River to circumvent any British movements there.

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Chronology   449 ColÂ�oÂ�nel John Boyd departs Spartanburg, South Carolina, with a detachment of 600 newly recruited Loyalists and takes up a line of march for Augusta, Geor-­ gia. There he hopes to augment the garrison of Lieutenant ColÂ�oÂ�nel Archibald Campbell.

February 10 Military: Patriot militia under ColÂ�oÂ�nels Andrew Pickens, John Dooly, and Elijah Clarke besiege a party of Loyalist cavalry at Carr’s Fort, Georgia. They cut the fort’s water supply and are making preparations to burn it down when intelli-­ gence is received of ColÂ�oÂ�nel John Boyd’s column of Loyalists approaching. Pick-­ ens immediately disengages and redeploys to meet the intruders.

February 11–12 Military: ColÂ�oÂ�nel John Boyd’s Loyalists attempt crossing the Savannah River into Georgia at Cherokee Ford, only to encounter stiff reÂ�sisÂ�tance from Captain James Little is 47 militiamen at McGowan’s BlockÂ�house. Unable to overcome the defenders, Boyd marches his men five miles downstream, constructs rafts, then crosses at Vann’s Creek. Little’s American militia follows and attempts to obstruct their progress Â�here as well but is defeated with a loss of 32 men.

February 13 Military: Lieutenant ColÂ�oÂ�nel Archibald Campbell, alarmed by word of General Benjamin Lincoln’s approach, abandons Augusta, Georgia, and marches hur-­ riedly for Savannah. En route he is trailed closely by an American militia under General John Ashe.

February 14 Military: ColÂ�oÂ�nel John Boyd’s Loyalists encamp at Kettle Creek for the eveÂ� ning, unaware that the British garrison at Augusta has pulled out. Meanwhile, Patriot militia under ColÂ�oÂ�nels Andrew Pickens and Elijah Clarke quietly surround Boyd’s camp unobserved and deploy to its rear. They suddenly lead 350 men in a concerted attack from three directions. Boyd’s Loyalists fight well initially but are gradually overwhelmed and routed with a loss of 40 killed and 70 captured. Pickens loses only 32 men but declines to occupy Augusta and withdraws back into the interior.

February 15 Diplomacy: To further induce Spain’s entry into the war, French minister Con-­ rad-Alexandre Rayvenal de Gérard advises the Continental Congress to give due consideration to the status of Florida and navigation rights on the Mississippi River when drawing up the eventual peace terms.

February 18 Military: Col�o�nel George Rogers Clark and his weary little band arrive at the Wabash River in midwinter. They repose briefly before pushing across 10 miles of flooded, icy plains before reaching their final objective at Vincennes (Indiana).

February 23 Diplomacy: A congressional committee is tasked with drawing up definite peace terms; it includes Gouverneur Morris, Thomas Burke, John Witherspoon, and Samuel Adams. Among other things, it recommends establishment of minimum fixed boundaries, evacuation of all British forces, retention of fishing rights off

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Chronology of American History Newfoundland, free navigation along the Mississippi River and, above all, British recognition of American independence. Military: Colonel George Rogers Clark’s expedition traverses icy, flooded prairies and arrives at Horseshoe Plain prior to pushing on to Vincennes. There he learns from a prisoner that Lieutenant Colonel Henry Hamilton is unaware of his approach and holds the settlement with a small garrison. Encouraged by this positive intelligence, Clark instructs his men to noisily encircle the fort to give an impression of much greater numbers. To underscore his determination, Clark also executes and scalps four Indians in full view of the garrison. Hamilton refuses to surrender, so the Americans commence peppering the defenders with accurate rifle fire, killing several artillerists.

February 25 Military: The Continental Congress votes to raise five companies of rangers for defense of the Pennsylvania frontier. After a daylong siege by American militia, Lieutenant Colonel Henry Hamilton concludes his position is hopeless, and he surrenders 79 men to Colonel George Rogers Clark. This is Clark’s consummate contribution to the Revolutionary War and insures American control of the entire Illinois Territory. By war’s end an estimated 20,000 settlers will have migrated to the region.

February 26 Military: General William Tryon launches another punishing attack by landing 600 troops at Horseneck Landing, Connecticut, and disperses the 150 militiamen under General Israel Putnam. Putnam only escapes by dramatically spurring his horse down a steep hill. Tryon then proceeds to burn a nearby village before withdrawing back to his ships.

March 3 Military: American soldiers and militia under General John Ashe and Colonel Samuel Elbert stop pursuing the British from Augusta, Georgia, and encamp along Briar Creek. They then begin repairing the newly burned bridge and await reinforcements before marching on Savannah. They are unaware that 900 British under Lieutenant Colonel James Prevost have arrived nearby and are quietly deploying around the American rear. At a given signal, Prevost charges and routs 1,200 defenders, who lose 300 men. British losses total 15. The debacle at Briar Creek ends the American reconquest of Georgia for the time being.

March 9 Politics: After considerable delays, the Continental Congress finally approves a $200 bounty for any soldiers joining or reenlisting for the duration of the war. The states are also encouraged to raise 80 battalions of infantry for the Continental Army, either by recruitment or draft, to fulfill their quotas.

March 11 Military: The Continental Congress authorizes creation of a corps of engineers within the Continental Army.

March 13 Naval: A squadron consisting of the Warren, 32 guns, under Captain John B. Hopkins, the Queen of France, 28 guns, under Captain Joseph Onley, and the Ranger, 18 guns, under Captain Thomas Simpson, sails from Boston on a cruise

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of the eastern seaboard. This is one of the largest formations deployed by the Continental Navy in its own home waters.

March 14 Slavery: Colonel Alexander Hamilton writes a letter to President of Congress John Jay extolling the virtues of African Americans and encourages Georgia and the Carolinas to recruit slaves into the army. He also argues that all military service must be rewarded with freedom.

March 29 Slavery: To obviate chronic manpower shortages in the Continental Army in the South, the Continental Congress formally suggests that Georgia and South Carolina recruits 3,000 African-American slaves into the army and emancipate them after the war. As an added incentive, Congress pledges to compensate owners with $1,000 per slave.

April 1 Military: The continuing Cherokee raids by Chief Dragging Canoe prompt a punitive expedition into Tennessee by Colonel Evan Shelby.

April 8 Societal: General Benedict Arnold marries Margaret Shippen, daughter of a leading Philadelphia Loyalist. She is also a highly capable British intelligence agent who undoubtedly encourages him to switch sides.

April 12 Diplomacy: France and Spain conclude the Convention of Aranjuez, formalizing their alliance against Great Britain. Spain, however, declines to recognize the United States at this juncture, viewing it as a potential threat to its holdings in Louisiana and Mexico.

April 23 Military: Governor John Rutledge of South Carolina uses his emergency powers to raise 4,000 militiamen and assist the army of General Benjamin Lincoln. Thus augmented, Lincoln finally crosses the Savannah River and advances upon Augusta.

April 29 Military: General Augustin Prevost launches an offensive by crossing 2,500 men over the Savannah River and advances upon Charleston, South Carolina. This move induces Colonel Alexander McIntosh to abandon Purysburg and withdraw his 220 men to Black Swamp, where he unites with 1,000 soldiers under General William Moultrie. The combined forces then fall back again toward Cossahatchie Bridge.

May 9 Naval: A combined British expedition of 1,800 men under Commodore George Collier and General Edward Mathew anchors off Portsmouth, Virginia, intending to attack Fort Nelson. The 100-man American garrison retreats beforehand and the invaders march unopposed into nearby Gosport and Norfolk, burning both. By the time the raiders withdraw they have sunk 28 vessels and absconded with 1,000 hogsheads of tobacco.

May 10 Military: Philadelphia Loyalist Joseph Stansbury, a prominent merchant, contacts Major John Andre in New York on behalf of General Benedict Arnold.

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Chronology of American History It appears that Arnold is considering switching his allegiance over to the British.

May 11 Military: General William Moultrie force-marches to Charleston, South Carolina, one step ahead of British forces under General Augustin Prévost. Assisted by Governor John Rutledge, Moultrie adds another 600 militiamen to his tally and rejects Prevost’s surrender summons. Suddenly, General Kazimierz Pulaski mounts a cavalry sortie on his own initiative at Haddrels’ Point, unsupported by Moultrie. The Americans are badly repulsed, losing 300 men as casualties or captives. Prevost, however, concludes he is badly outnumbered and withdraws to James Island and thence to Stono Island, which he fortifies against General Benjamin Lincoln’s advancing army.

May 18 Religion: At a conference in Fluvanna County, Virginia, Southern Methodists vote to separate themselves from the Anglican Church of England.

May 21 Business: The Continental Congress appeals to the states to advance $5 million to the national treasury to ameliorate a mounting fiscal crisis.

May 23 Military: To demonstrate his sincerity in defecting, General Benedict Arnold forwards detailed information about American defenses at West Point, New York, to British general Henry Clinton.

May 24 Naval: The amphibious expedition of Commodore George Collier and General Edward Mathew concludes at Portsmouth, Virginia. In a three-week period, they have sunk 150 vessels of various sizes, freed 90 Loyalist prisoners, and liberated 500 African-American slaves.

May 26 Business: Desperate for an influx of cash, the Continental Congress tasks John Dickinson with drafting a new appeal to the states for new taxes to sustain the war effort.

June 1 Military: Generals Henry Clinton and John Vaughan lead 6,000 soldiers up the Hudson River against the American positions at Stoney Point and Verplanck’s Point. The small American garrison hastily flees, leaving the British in control of King’s Ferry, an important choke point on the river, only 12 miles south of strategic West Point. Politics: Thomas Jefferson succeeds Patrick Henry as governor of Virginia.

June 12 Military: General George Washington, alarmed by British incursions 12 miles below his headquarters at West Point, New York, dispatches Major Henry Lee to ascertain their positions. Politics: The Continental Congress receives a strongly worded appeal from army officers endorsing General George Washington’s position of half pay for life after the war.

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June 16 Military: General Augustin Prévost withdraws from Stono Ferry, South Carolina, leaving behind a rear guard of 700 men under Lieutenant Colonel John Maitland. Naval: General Francis McLean sails from Halifax, Nova Scotia, with 700 men to establish a fort on the Bagaduce Peninsula, Maine. From here he will be enabled to secure a steady supply of lumber for the Royal Navy as well as dispatch raiding parties into the neighboring countryside. He is ably assisted by Captain Henry Mowat and three Royal Navy sloops mounting 54 cannon.

June 20 Military: General Benjamin Lincoln leads 1,400 men across Ashley River. He attacks the British rear guard at Stono Ferry, South Carolina, consisting of 900 soldiers under Lieutenant Colonel John Maitland. Anticipating a coordinated assault in conjunction with General William Moultrie, who never appears, Lincoln pushes forward his left and right wings under General Jethro Sumner and Isaac Huger, who drive back men of the 71st Highlanders. The Americans then encounter an abattis, which they prove unable to cut through, and are further thwarted by fierce Hessian resistance. Lincoln, judging the battle lost, withdraws, briefly pursued by Maitland. It was a humiliating defeat for Lincoln, who loses 300 men to a British tally of 125. The victorious Maitland begins withdrawing toward Beaufort.

June 21 Diplomacy: Spain declares war upon Great Britain after receiving French promises of assistance to regain Florida and Gibraltar. And, while denying the United States diplomatic recognition for the time being, the Spanish regime secretly supplies them with subsidies and loans.

June 23 Military: General John Sullivan begins massing troops in the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania prior to launching a massive, punitive expedition against the Iroquois Six Nations heartland. Concurrently, General James Clinton departs Canajoharie, New York, and begins marching toward Otsego Lake, prior to joining Sullivan.

July 1 Politics: Governor Thomas Jefferson orders all Loyalists in Virginia to be processed for immediate deportation.

July 2 Military: Captain Allan McLane ably reconnoiters Stony Point, New York, under a flag of truce, and his report convinces General George Washington that it is vulnerable to a night assault. To facilitate this task, General Anthony Wayne receives command of the elite Light Infantry Regiment. British cavalry under Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton surprises Colonel Elisha Sheldon and the 2nd Continental Dragoons at Poundridge, New York. The heavily outnumbered Americans manage to extricate themselves with the loss of their flag before the British finally withdraw.

July 5 Military: General William Tryon lands a hand-picked force of 2,500 men in New Haven harbor, Connecticut, pushing aside an American militia under

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Lincoln, Benjamin

(1733–1810)

General Benjamin Lincoln was born in Hingham, Massachusetts, on January 24, 1733, the son of farmers. He evinced little interest in politics until the eve of the Revolutionary War, then served in the legislature and the extralegal provincial congress as a delegate. Once fighting commenced in April 1775, Lincoln, who had served in the militia, became a brigadier general of state forces. He met and befriended General George Washington during the siege of Boston and rose to a general of the Continental Army in May 1776. In this capacity Lincoln fought capably at the Battle of White Plains in October 1776, and also in New Jersey that winter. He next advanced to major general in February 1777 and played conspicuous roles in fighting in and around Saratoga in October, which culminated in the surrender of General John Burgoyne. Lincoln, who had been badly wounded, spent several months recuperating, but in September 1778, he gained appointment as head of the Southern Department. This appointment was made with Washington’s consent, and Lincoln, who had never experienced an independent command, proved earnest but inept in that role. On June 29, 1779, he mounted a clumsy attack upon the British rear guard at Stono Ferry, South Carolina, and was badly repulsed. Five months later, Lincoln coordinated efforts with a French expedition under Admiral Charles, comte d’Estaing, which came to grief during the siege of Savannah, Georgia, on October 9, 1779. Lincoln had no sooner withdrawn to his main base at Charleston, South Carolina, than he was

surrounded by British forces under General Henry Clinton and forced to surrender on May 12, 1780. The loss of 5,500 soldiers was the biggest American setback of the entire war, although Lincoln was subsequently paroled and exchanged a few months later. Lincoln never again held an independent field command and rejoined General Washington as a staff officer. He commanded one of three divisions at the successful siege of Yorktown, Virginia, and when General Charles Cornwallis surrendered on October 19, 1781, he accepted the general’s sword from his subordinate. Shortly afterward, Lincoln was tapped to serve as the first secretary of war under the Articles of Confederation and held this position until being replaced by General Henry Knox on March 8, 1785. He returned to civilian life for two years until 1786, when Governor James Bowdoin appointed him commander of Massachusetts militia to put down an armed revolt by Daniel Shays. This he accomplished bloodlessly by January 1787, and the following year, Lincoln became lieutenant governor under John Hancock. He also served as a delegate at the Constitutional Convention in 1788, lending vital support for its eventual ratification. In 1789, President Washington entrusted him with the lucrative post of Collector of the Port of Boston, where he functioned until 1809. Lincoln died at his home on May 8, 1810, hardly an astute military leader, but dependable, loyal, and well liked by contemporaries.

General Andrew Ward. Both sides lose about 50 men apiece, then Tryon orders the town burned before reembarking.

July 6 Military: General George Washington makes a personal reconnaissance of Stony Point, New York, and remains convinced it can be stormed at night.

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July 7 Naval: Lieutenant ColÂ�oÂ�nel Silas Talbot, commanding the 12-­gun sloop Argo, captures the British privateer Lively after a Â�five-­hour battle. He then bags two merchant vessels shortly afterward.

July 8 Military: General William Tryon lays waste to the coastal community of Fair-­ field, Connecticut, burning 83 Â�houses, 100 barns, and numerous churches and schools.

July 9 Military: The Spanish government authorizes Bernardo de Gálvez, governor of Louisiana and Florida, to capture British possessions up the Mississippi River and along the Gulf of Mexico. Politics: The Continental Congress, eager to end waste and profligacy in mili-­ tary procurement, urges states to investigate all persons associated with supply departments and to prosecute those guilty of misdeeds at government expense.

July 10 Military: Col�o�nel John Bowman conducts 250 men on a raid against the Shawnee stronghold at Chillicothe, Ohio, burning many homes and despoiling crops. Chief Black Fish, who had adopted Daniel Boone into his family, is among those slain.

July 11 Military: General William Tryon’s forces descend upon Norwalk, Connecticut, burning another 130 homes, 100 barns, and several vessels. Satisfied by this latest round of punitive actions, Tryon boards his ships and returns to New York.

July 15 Military: The British bastion at Stony Point, New York, falls to an ingenious nighttime assault by General Anthony Wayne. The 1,350 Americans attack in two columns under Wayne and ColÂ�oÂ�nel Richard Butler, while a third column under Major Hardy Murfee mounts a diversion. Taking a page from his own bitter experi-­ ence at Paoli, Pennsylvania, Wayne orders his men to remove their musket flints and rely on cold steel throughout the action. A moonless night and the lack of sentries allows the Americans to approach undetected to within the last few yards, once they begin chopping through the abattis. The 600-­man British garrison under Lieutenant ColÂ�oÂ�nel Henry Johnson is then fooled by Murfee’s diversion, and sor-­ ties after him in the dark. This leaves the fort poorly defended and it is successfully stormed by Wayne and Butler in vicious, Â�hand-­to-­hand fighting. Thus Stony Point, hailed by the British as “Little Gibraltar,” falls in only 30 minutes with a loss of the entire garrison. Wayne’s losses amount to 100 men killed and wounded.

July 17 Military: An exultant General George Washington, personally inspecting the defenses of Stony Point, New York, declares it indefensible and orders it stripped and abandoned. General Henry Clinton, meanwhile, is hastily assembling an expedition to retake it.

July 18 Naval: While cruising in a fog off Newfoundland, Commodore Abraham Whip-­ ple’s squadron, consisting of the frigates Providence and Queen of France, and

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Chronology of American History sloop Ranger, stumbles into a 150-ship British convoy. Whipple, masquerading as a British warship, takes several unsuspecting vessels captive, as does Captain John P. Rathbun of the Ranger. The Americans seize a total of 11 ships with cargos totaling $1 million and manage to convey nine of them safely back to Boston.

July 19 Naval: The Massachusetts state government, alarmed by the establishment of a British fort on the Bagaduce Peninsula, Maine, assembles an amphibious expedition to capture it. This consists of 1,600 men, 19 armed vessels, and 24 transports under Commodore Dudley Saltonstall, assisted by Generals Solomon Lovell and Peleg Wadsworth of the state militia. The celebrated rider Colonel Paul Revere is also on hand commanding the artillery. This is the largest expedition of its kind ever mounted by the Americans, employing three Continental vessels and virtually the entire Massachusetts state navy. It is also undertaken as a private venture, without notifying Congress.

July 22 Military: An American militia force pursuing Mohawks and Loyalists under Mohawk chief Joseph Brant, is subsequently ambushed by them while crossing the Delaware River near Minisink (Port Jervis), New York. Of 150 men present, only 30 survive.

July 24 Naval: The American naval expedition under Commodore Dudley Saltonstall arrives off the Penobscot River, Maine, and maneuvers to begin siege operations of nearby Fort George, then a crude dirt fortification. He briefly engages the three-ship squadron of Captain Henry Mowat and concludes that the confined waters of Penobscot Bay will not allow him to maneuver correctly. Thereafter he declines further naval support to the effort until the militia have dealt with Mowat’s vessels.

July 28 Military: An American militia force under General Solomon Lovell lands on the western face of the Bagaduce Peninsula, Maine, and prepares to storm British positions. The ensuing attack is spearheaded by a contingent of Continental Marines, who drive the British up the slopes and back within Fort George. With the high ground secure, the Americans begin digging siege fortifications. Both sides lose 40 men apiece in this sharp little action.

July 30 Military: A force of 240 Kentucky militia under Colonel John Bowman attacks the Indian settlement of Chalahgawtha, Ohio, but is unable to dislodge the 40 or so warriors defending it. As the Americans withdraw, they are pursued by the Indians, who shoot down several stragglers. An exasperated Bowman finally orders a charge upon the snipers, who return to their village after killing 30 militia and wounding 60.

July 31 Military: A war council at Penobscot, Maine, weighs its options and objectives. General Solomon Lovell suggests that the fleet of Commodore Dudley Saltonstall attack and destroy three British sloops in the harbor. However, Saltonstall with-

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holds all naval support until the guns of nearby Fort George are captured. The impasse continues for several days as American morale plummets. In Pennsylvania, General John Sullivan marshals 2,500 crack troops and commences a massive sweep against Indian settlements in central and western New York. He is assisted by Generals William Maxwell and Enoch Poor, and will shortly be joined by a brigade under General James Clinton.

August 3 Diplomacy: French minister Chevalier Anne Cesar de la Luzerne arrives at Boston with John Adams and is lodged in the home of John Hancock. Naval: Commodore George Collier sails from New York with a small fleet and 1,500 men to rescue the garrison of Fort George, Maine. He is gambling that by arriving quickly, he can trap the entire American expedition in Penobscot Bay.

August 5 Military: American cavalry under General John Glover attacks and defeats Loyalists under Oliver De Lancey at Morrisania (Bronx), New York.

August 7 Military: With affairs at Penobscot ground to a halt, and Commodore Dudley Saltonstall and General Solomon Lovell at loggerheads over the issue of cooperation, both men agree to petition authorities in Boston for reinforcements and suggestions. Naval: Lieutenant Colonel Silas Talbot and the 12-gun Argo engage the 14-gun privateer Dragon off Rhode Island. A four-hour battle ensues until the latter loses its mainmast and surrenders. Shortly after, the British privateer Hannah hove into view, which Talbot attacks and likewise captures.

August 9 Military: General James Clinton departs Otsego Lake, New York, and marches for Tioga to join the main American force under General John Sullivan.

August 11 Military: General Solomon Lovell directs 250 Massachusetts militia to occupy an abandoned battery to lure out the British defenders of Fort George. The latter respond by dispatching 55 soldiers, who charge and easily rout the militiamen. Colonel Daniel Brodhead departs Pittsburgh with 600 militiamen and marches up the Allegheny River to attack Indian villages in northern Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, General John Sullivan’s army marches into Tioga to await the arrival of General James Clinton.

August 12 Military: American forces at Penobscot, Maine, receive positive instructions from the Massachusetts War Board in Boston directing Commodore Dudley Saltonstall to attack and sink all British vessels anchored in the harbor. The Americans then prepare to make an all-out assault upon Fort George—but it is too late for them.

August 13 Naval: Commodore George Collier enters Penobscot Bay with 10 vessels and 1,600 soldiers, lifting the American blockade there. This appearance induces Commodore Dudley Saltonstall to sail upriver and unceremoniously burn all his vessels. Over the next three days, Collier’s mere presence lends to the elimination

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458  Chronology of American History of Saltonstall’s entire squadron of 43 ships, with damages estimated at $8 million. This proves the largest American naval defeat of the war. Commodore John Paul Jones, commanding the Bonhomme Richard, departs L’Orient, France, accompanied by French vessels Alliance, Pallas, Vengeance, and Le Cerf. Jones intends to make a destructive raid in British home waters.

August 15 Military: Noted scout Captain Samuel Brady, commanding an advanced detach-­ ment of ColÂ�oÂ�nel Daniel Brodhead’s army, ambushes a party of hostile Indians on the Upper Allegheny River, killing the noted Chief Bald EaÂ�gle and several warriors.

August 16 Naval: An amphibious expedition of 4,000 men under Admiral Charles, comte d’Estaing, departs Haiti and sails for Savannah, Georgia, to commence siege operations there.

August 17 Diplomacy: The Continental Congress again issues minimum terms for negoti-­ ating peace with Great Britain, demanding inÂ�deÂ�penÂ�dence, definite boundaries, evacuation of American territory, and navigation rights on the Mississippi River. Military: Bernardo de Gálvez of Louisiana departs New Orleans with several hundred Acadian militia, Â�African-­American volunteers, and Â�pro-­Spanish Choctaw on an expedition against Fort Bute and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

August 19 Military: Major Henry Lee deploys 300 Virginia and Mary�land troops to attack Paulus Hook, the last British outpost in New Jersey. This is defended by 350 British and Hessians under Major William Sutherland. Lee carefully reconnoiters his objective beforehand, with the help of noted scout Captain Allan McLane, and detaches 200 soldiers from his 2nd Partisan Corps to do the task. His men are divided into three groups but, en route, half become lost in the dark and the attack is delayed for four hours. The British sentries are alert and fire upon the approaching columns, but Lee finally manages to get his men over a ditch, through a palisade, and into the fort. The ensuing bayonet attack succeeds in overrunning the garrison, save for 50 Hessians in a block�house who refuse to surrender. Lee then withdraws, prisoners in tow, and closely pursued by Loyalists under Col�o�nel Abraham Van Buskirk. His retreat is endangered when boats expected to ferry them across the Hackensack River fail to materialize, which adds another 14 miles to the march. The Loyalists finally overtake the exhausted Patriots at Liberty Pole Tavern but are in turn driven off by additional forces under General William Alexander. This sharp little action costs the British 200 casualties and captives to an American loss of 12; the Continental Congress subsequently strikes Lee a gold medal in his honor. General James Clinton and his 1,500 men trudge into Tioga to join the main American force under General John Sullivan. Both men have been greatly delayed by endemic supply shortages.

August 25 Naval: Admiral Marriot Arbuthnot drops anchor at New York to succeed Admi-­ ral John Byron as commander of Royal Navy forces. He also brings along 3,000 soldiers as reinforcements for General Henry Clinton.

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August 29 Military: General John Sullivan directs an attack on 1,200 Indians and Loyalists guarding the settlement of Newtown (Elmira), New York. The Americans march directly into an ambush staged by Captain Walter Butler and Chief Joseph Brant, then General Enoch Poor works his brigade behind the defenders, scattering them. The Americans lose 36 men; Indian and Loyalist losses are unknown but probably as large. No quarter is shown by either side.

September 1 Business: In a rare moment of fiscal sobriety, the Continental Congress resolves not to issue $200 million in bills of credit. This move is taken to halt or at the very least slow the spiraling depreciation of paper currency.

September 3 Naval: Commodore John Paul Jones lets his squadron cruise along the east-­ ern coast of EnÂ�gland, intent on raiding the port cities of Leith, Edinburgh, and Â�Newcastle-­upon-­Tyne.

September 4–5 Military: General John Sullivan’s army burns large Indian villages at Catherine’s Town and Kindaia, New York. ReÂ�sisÂ�tance to his overpowering force is scattered at best.

September 5 Military: Major Benjamin Tallmadge and 150 dismounted dragoons embark from Shippan Point, Connecticut, cross Long Island Sound, and surprise 500 Loyalists at Lloyd Neck, New York. The bulk are captured and Talmadge returns to Shippan Point without loss.

September 7 Military: General John Sullivan’s division falls upon the Indian settlement of Kanadaseagea, burning it along with crops. The remote British outpost of Fort Bute (Manchac), Louisiana, falls to a Span-­ ish expedition under Bernardo de Gálvez. This grants him control of the water-­ ways down the Amite River and Lakes Maurepas, Pontchartrain, and Borgne into the Gulf of Mexico. The Spanish then press on to their next objective at Baton Rouge.

September 10 Military: The Indian village of Canandaigua falls into the hands of General John Sullivan’s troops, a settlement so large it takes his men two days to burn it.

September 11 Naval: The French fleet of Admiral Charles, comte d’Estaing, consisting of 22 ships of the line, 10 frigates, and 4,000 men, approaches Savannah, Georgia. He begins landing troops at Beaulieu’s Plantation eight miles south of the city, and estab-­ lishes contacts with a group of Americans under General Kazimierz Pulaski.

September 12 Military: Bernardo de Gálvez, with 1,000 men and 13 cannon, surrounds and invests the 300-­man British garrison at Baton Rouge. When ColÂ�oÂ�nel Alexander Dickson refuses to surrender, the Spanish commence bombardment and digging siege trenches.

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September 13 Business: President of Congress John Jay again ask the states to levy additional taxes to fill the nation’s coffers. The plea goes unheeded. Military: Indians and Loyalists under Captain Walter Butler ambush a militia detachment under Lieutenant Thomas Boyd near the village of Geneseo, New York, killing 22 men and torturing two to death. Americans retaliate by capturing the entire village.

September 14 Military: The punitive expedition of General John Sullivan lays waste to the Indian capital of Geneseo, New York, torching 40 Seneca and Cayuga villages in the immediate vicinity. This marks the high tide of Sullivan’s offensive for he fails to press an attack against Fort Niagara, an important Loyalist entrepot and stag-­ ing area for raiding activities. The raiders are thus enabled to regroup at a future date and resume their destructive activities. ColÂ�oÂ�nel Daniel Brodhead concludes his 400-­mile campaign against Indian villages in northern Pennsylvania and returns to Pittsburgh.

September 16 Military: General Benjamin Lincoln marches down from Charleston, South Carolina, and arrives at Savannah, Georgia, with 1,500 troops to assist siege efforts there. Meanwhile, Admiral Charles, comte d’Estaing, demands the surren-­ der of the city in the name of King Louis XVI but then grants General Augustin Prevost’s request for a 24-­hour truce to consider terms. Prevost uses the interval to rush up 800 reinforcements under Lieutenant ColÂ�oÂ�nel John Maitland and oth-­ erwise strengthen his defenses.

September 17 Naval: Lieutenant Col�o�nel Silas Talbot resigns from the Continental Army and is commissioned a captain in the Continental Navy. He is the only army officer in this conflict so disposed.

September 21 Military: Spanish forces under Bernardo de Gálvez captures the remote British post at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, along with 300 prisoners under ColÂ�oÂ�nel Alexan-­ der Dickson. Spanish control does not extend to Natchez and other points along the Mississippi River.

September 22 Naval: Commodore John Paul Jones’s squadron captures two British ships off Flamborough Head, EnÂ�gland, and then espies a large convoy anchored at the mouth of the Humber River.

September 23 Military: As French and American soldiers commence digging trenches outside Savannah, Georgia, their officers begin squabbling among themselves over how to conduct the siege. The onset of hurricane season is at hand and necessitates an early departure by the French fleet. Naval: Commodore John Paul Jones, commanding the 42-­gun Bonhomme Richard while sailing off the British coast near Flamborough Head, encounters a 40-­ship convoy escorted by two British warships: the new, Â�copper-­bottomed 44Â�gun frigate HMS Serapis under Captain Richard Pearson and the 20-­gun sloop

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Chronology   461 Countess of Scarborough. The Americans are assisted by the smaller French ves-­ sels Alliance, Vengeance, Le Cerf, and Pallas. Pearson orders the convoy into port then bravely interposes his vessel between them and the enemy squadron. It is late in the eveÂ�ning before Jones can close with his quarry, and a desperate engagement begins. The creaking Bonhomme Richard and the smartly handled Serapis trade broadsides for several hours in the moonlight, with the Americans getting the worse of it. Suddenly, Pearson loses the headwind while attempting to rake and Jones rams his stern. As the two vessels become snared in each other’s rigging, the fighting continues at close quarters for two more hours. Finally, a grenade is dropped down a hatch on the Serapis by Lieutenant Nathaniel Fan-­ ning, which ignites an ammunition chest and convinces Pearson to strike. The Americans then board and the British colors are struck by Lieutenant Richard Dale. American casualties are 150 out of 237 present; the British suffer 170. The Countess of Scarborough also surrenders to the French 10 minutes later, but Bonhomme Richard is so riddled that it sinks two days later.

September 24 Military: British forces defending Savannah, Georgia, launch a determined sortie against French siege positions, losing 20 men but inflicting at least 70 casualties.

September 27 Diplomacy: The Continental Congress authorizes John Adams to negotiate peace with the British in Paris. John Jay also becomes minister to Spain with authority to negotiate treaties of alliance and commerce.

September 28 Politics: Samuel Huntington is elected to succeed John Jay as president of the Continental Congress.

September 30 Military: General John Sullivan marches his 3,500 men out of Indian territory and back to Fort Sullivan, Pennsylvania. In four months he has torched over 40 Indian settlements along with 160,000 bushels of corn. Moreover, he has dislocated many Iroquois Indians, forcing them to spend the winter months Â�halfÂ�starved and exposed to the elements. Their plight places an enormous logistical burden on the British at Fort Niagara. The remote British garrison at Natchez, Louisiana Territory, falls to Spanish forces under Bernardo de Gálvez.

October 2 Military: The Continental Congress mandates that blue cloth will replace green and buff as the official color of Continental Army uniforms.

October 3 Naval: The victorious squadron of Commodore John Paul Jones reaches Texel, the Netherlands, skillfully evading pursuit by eight British warships.

October 4 Military: Indian and Loyalist forces under Simon Girty ambush Col�o�nel David Rogers at the confluence of the Licking and Ohio Rivers, killing 57 men out of 70. They also capture a shipment of 600,000 Spanish dollars destined for New Orleans.

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Chronology of American History French and American leaders reject a truce by General Augustin Prevost so that he can evacuate women and children in Savannah to escape. That same day allied cannons commence a steady but ineffectual bombardment of British defenses.

October 8 Military: The allied siege of Savannah, Georgia, progresses steadily, but Admiral Charles, comte d’Estaing, grows impatient and wishes to settle the matter quickly by coup de main. General Benjamin Lincoln initially demurs, but eventually plans are drawn up to have militia forces under General Isaac Huger feint across the line while the main allied column of 4,000 men attacks the Spring Hill redoubt. Unfortunately for the allies, General Augustin Prevost has been informed of their plans by a deserter and stationed his best troops there to receive the attack.

October 9 Military: At dawn Franco-American forces under Admiral Charles, comte d’Estaing and General Benjamin Lincoln storm the British fieldworks surrounding Savannah, Georgia. However, the expected diversion by militia under General Isaac Huger fails to materialize when they get lost in a swamp, as do three out of four assault columns. The only force to proceed is 1,200 French and Continentals under General Lachlan McIntosh, which charges repeatedly against the Spring Hill redoubt. They are as often repulsed, although Colonel Francis Marion manages to plant his standard on the parapet before being driven off. General Kazimierz Pulaski then leads an ill-advised cavalry charge against British artillery and is mortally wounded. Admiral d’Estaing is himself twice wounded, rallying his men and leading them back into the fray before the effort finally collapses. Combined allied losses are nearly 1,000 while the British sustain only 155 casualties. The French-American alliance, already tenuous, suffers another heavy blow.

October 11 Military: General Henry Clinton orders that the British base at Newport, Rhode Island, be abandoned and its 3,000-man garrison withdrawn to support impending actions in the South.

October 17 Military: General George Washington orders the Continental Army to assume its winter quarters at Morristown, New Jersey.

October 19 Naval: The French fleet of Admiral Charles, comte d’Estaing, departs Savannah, Georgia and sails for the West Indies to avoid the hurricane season. General Benjamin Lincoln’s army, now outnumbered, falls back to Charleston, South Carolina.

October 21 Diplomacy: The Continental Congress elects Henry Laurens to serve as agent to the Netherlands and also to negotiate a loan and treaties of amity and commerce.

October 22 Politics: The New York Provincial Congress approves an ordinance authorizing confiscation of Loyalist property and also declares former governors John Murray, Lord Dunmore, and William Tryon public enemies.

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October 23 Naval: The Royal Navy quickly and efficiently removes the 3,000-­man British garrison at Newport, Rhode Island, and transports it back to New York. These troops will bolster upcoming operations against Charleston, South Carolina.

October 26 Military: Celebrated light infantry leader Lieutenant ColÂ�oÂ�nel John G. Simcoe of the noted Queen’s Rangers is ambushed and captured at South River Bridge, New Jersey by an American militia. He is exchanged shortly after.

October 28 Military: General Benjamin Lincoln ends the siege of Savannah and begins withdrawing back to Charleston, South Carolina. Naval: The Continental Congress replaces the marine committee with a Â�five-­man Board of the Admiralty and tasks it with overseeing naval matters.

November 7 Military: Â�French-­born ColÂ�oÂ�nel Charles-Armand Tuffin, marquis de la Rouerie, succeeds the fallen Kazimierz Pulaski as head of the Pulaski Legion. In this capac-­ ity he captures a small Loyalist detachment under Major Mansfield Bearmore at Jefferd’s Neck, New York.

November 12 Slavery: The New Hampshire legislature is petitioned by 20 slaves for the aboli-­ tion of slavery in that state.

November 20 Naval: Commodore Abraham Whipple’s squadron, consisting of the frigates Boston, Providence, and Queen of France, and the sloop Ranger, is ordered south to aide in the defense of Charleston, South Carolina.

November 25 Politics: The administration of Lord Frederick North, strongly criticized for the failures in America, survives a vote of no confidence in Parliament. This is despite that fact that Whig leader Charles James Fox has accused the king of abusing his ministerial authority.

December 1 Military: General George Washington completes deploying 12,000 men in their winter quarters at Morristown, New Jersey. This proves another harsh season of deprivation, exposure, death, and desertion, and the army is greatly weakened by the time it emerges in the spring.

December 4 Education: George Wythe becomes the nation’s first professor of law at the Col-­ lege of William and Mary, Virginia.

December 23 Military: The Â�court-­martial of General Benedict Arnold convenes in Philadel-­ phia, although he is charged with relatively minor offenses.

December 26 Naval: General Henry Clinton boards 8,700 men onto the fleet of 90 transports under Admiral Marriot Arbuthnot at New York. He is determined to capture Charleston, South Carolina, which eluded him in 1776 and whose fall would

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Chronology of American History decisively alter the balance of power in the South. Clinton also places the 10,000man New York garrison under General Wilhelm von Knyphausen, the first time a foreigner has been entrusted with such an important command.

1780 Slavery: Newport Gardner founds the African Union Society in Newport, Rhode Island, the region’s first mutual benefit organization to assist free African Americans. Technology: Colonel Benjamin Hanks constructs the first town clock in America and installs it in the Old Dutch Church in New York City.

January 1 Military: A mutiny occurs at the West Point, New York, garrison, and 100 members of a Massachusetts regiment are allowed to depart. They are subsequently rounded up by force, pardoned again, and allowed to rejoin the army.

January 2 Military: The Continental Army at Morristown, New Jersey, endures great suffering and deprivation in winter, owing to extremely low temperatures and a lack of blankets, shelter, and clothing.

January 8 Naval: Captain John Barry sails with the 32-gun frigate Alliance on an Atlantic cruise that nets three merchantmen.

January 9 Military: Alarmed for the well being of his troops, General George Washington makes an emergency appeal to states bordering New Jersey to provide his hungry, shivering troops with food and clothing.

January 10 Military: General Charles Lee, having written an offensive letter denouncing the Continental Congress, is summarily dismissed from the service; he retires to his estate and plays no further role in the war.

January 15 Military: Braving frigid weather, General William Alexander marches 2,500 men from Elizabeth Point, New Jersey, across the channel ice on sleighs against Staten Island. The British are alert for such a movement, however, and fall back behind prepared positions that the Americans are unaware of. After a day of plundering and fruitless marching, Alexander returns to New Jersey with 17 captives and little else.

January 25 Military: British forces on Staten Island retaliate for the recent raid by seizing and burning the New Jersey settlements of Newark and Elizabethtown.

January 26 Military: General Benedict Arnold is court-martialed for financial speculation and malfeasance while commanding the garrison at Philadelphia and found guilty of two minor specifications. He is then mildly reprimanded by General George Washington and fumes indignantly over the sentence.

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January 27 Military: To alleviate the suffering of his troops, General George Washington drastically overhauls supply procedures in New Jersey, dividing that state into 11 districts and requisitioning specific food allotments from each. The scheme works well, and the new influx of food and supplies boosts the health and morale of the men.

January 28 Settlement: North Carolina authorizes founding of Fort Nashborough (Nash-­ ville) along the Cumberland River. This expedient is hoped to defend the adjoin-­ ing regions from ongoing and destructive Indian raids.

February 1 Military: A British amphibious force of 14,000 men under Admiral Marriot Arbuthnot and General Henry Clinton arrives at Tybee Island off Savannah, Georgia, for a brief rest and refit. Meanwhile, the Patriot garrison at Charles-­ ton, South Carolina, musters only 3,200 men under General Benjamin Lincoln. He desires to remove his army from danger but is pressured by Governor John Rutledge and city officials to stay put. Politics: New York State votes to cede all its western holdings to the Continen-­ tal Congress.

February 3 Military: A British/Hessian force of 550 men under Lieutenant ColÂ�oÂ�nel Chap-­ ple Norton departs Fort Knyphausen (Fort Washington), New York, and advances against an American outpost at nearby Mt. Pleasant. His target is 450 Continentals of the 10th Massachusetts under Lieutenant ColÂ�oÂ�nel Joseph Thompson, billeted in and around Young’s Â�House. Norton gains their rear and charges, scattering them with a loss of 125 killed, wounded and captured. British losses are 25.

February 9 Military: A Spanish military expedition under Bernardo de Gálvez reaches Mobile Bay, where he disembarks 750 soldiers. Lieutenant Governor Elias Durn-­ ford, meanwhile, elects to defend Fort Charlotte and await reinforcements as the Spanish begin digging siege entrenchments. Politics: The Continental Congress suggests that the states draft an additional 35,000 men for the army, as well as make monthly contributions of $1.2 million to the national treaÂ�sury. But the states are beset by ongoing fiscal crises of their own and are loath to hand over additional resources for the war effort.

February 10 Naval: The very large amphibious expedition of Admiral Marriot Arbuthnot and General Henry Clinton drops anchor off Charleston, South Carolina. Clinton is determined to avenge his 1776 humiliation �here. Slavery: Paul Cuffe, leading a group of seven free African Americans from Dartmouth, Massachusetts, petitioned the Continental Congress not to impose taxes on them without repre�sen�ta�tion as they �were denied the perquisites of citizenship.

February 11 Military: The combined forces of Admiral Marriot Arbuthnot and General Henry Clinton enter the North Edisto Inlet and land troops on John’s Island. This

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February 14 Military: General Henry Clinton occupies Stono Ferry and James Island near Charleston, South Carolina, in order to entrap the American garrison within their works. Again, General Benjamin Lincoln does not interfere and only strengthens his fortifications.

February 23 Military: The soon to be much-feared British Legion under Lieutenant Col�o�nel Banastre Tarleton overruns a patrol of South Carolina militia near Charleston, killing 10 and capturing 14.

February 24 Military: In a swift riposte, American cavalry under ColÂ�oÂ�nel William Wash-­ ington engages and repels the British Legion of Lieutenant ColÂ�oÂ�nel Banastre Tarleton along the Ashley River, South Carolina. Washington subsequently with-­ draws to Monck’s Corner to await developments.

February 28 Diplomacy: Czarina Catherine II of RusÂ�sia founds the League of Armed Neutral-­ ity in concert with Sweden and Denmark. It aims to protect neutral commerce against all belligerents, a stance that undercuts British efforts to halt international trade with the colonies. The league is ultimately joined by the Netherlands, the Holy Roman Empire (Austria), PrusÂ�sia, Portugal, and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

March 1 Slavery: The Pennsylvania legislature adopts meaÂ�sures calling for the gradual elimination of slavery within state boundaries. This is the first abolitionist ordi-­ nance in America and all Â�African-­American children born after 1780 are consid-­ ered free.

March 3 Military: General Benjamin Lincoln, commanding the American garrison at Charleston, South Carolina, is reinforced by the arrival of 700 Continental sol-­ diers from North Carolina. However, fearful militiamen continue streaming out of the city with their families.

March 5 Slavery: Governor John Rutledge enlists the labor of 600 slaves to construct earthen defenses at Charleston, South Carolina. Among them is a stonework redoubt dubbed “the Citadel,” the site of a future military academy.

March 14 Military: Bernardo de Gálvez and 1,400 men attack Fort Charlotte (Mobile), the capital of British West Florida. Two days later, the 300-­man garrison under Lieutenant Governor Elias Durnford capitulates when a promised relief column from Pensacola fails to materialize in time. The Spanish have been assisted by the American sloop West Florida under Captain William Pickles.

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March 18 Business: The Continental Congress authorizes the Fort to One Act, through which Continental paper money is to be redeemed at one-40th of its face value. This is a move calculated to bring an end to spiraling inflation.

March 20 Naval: Commodore Abraham Whipple, commanding naval units at Charleston, South Carolina, withdraws his small squadron up the Cooper River and sinks several as hulks to obstruct the passage of British warships. Admiral Marriot Arbuthnot, meanwhile, begins maneuvering his fleet into bombardment positions off the coast by slipping five frigates over the sandbar.

March 22 Military: General Wilhelm von Knyphausen, commanding the New York garrison, leads a small raid against Hackensack, New Jersey, to obtain supplies. He returns without incident and begins to feel that the defenses and morale in that state are rather low.

March 23 Military: In another sprightly encounter, cavalry under Col o nel William Washington and Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton clash indecisively at Pon Pon, South Carolina. The Americans incur 10 casualties, then withdraw unmolested.

March 25 Military: General Henry Clinton’s army at Charleston, South Carolina, is augmented by the arrival of Major Patrick Ferguson, a talented light infantry leader.

March 26 Military: In another head-on encounter, Colonel William Washington bests the British Legion under Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton at Rantowles, South Carolina, taking seven prisoners.

March 29 Military: General Henry Clinton marches 7,000 men across the Ashley River and commences the siege of Charleston, South Carolina. With British forces positioned across the neck of the Charleston peninsula, the American garrison of General Benjamin Lincoln is effectively sealed off.

April 1 Military: The British make good progress in their siege and break a parallel trench within 800 yards of Charleston’s defenses.

April 3 Military: General George Washington, alarmed over developments in the Southern Department, orders the veteran General Johann de Kalb to Charleston, South Carolina, taking with him a small but rugged brigade of Maryland and Delaware Continentals.

April 6 Military: By dint of hard slogging, General William Woodford evades British forces and slips into Charleston, South Carolina, with 750 Virginia Continentals.

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April 8 Naval: Admiral Marriot Arbuthnot runs seven frigates and several troop transports past the guns of Fort Moultrie, Charleston harbor, further tightening the noose around the city.

April 10 Military: Discounting the danger to his army, General Benjamin Lincoln declines escaping from Charleston, South Carolina, by crossing Biggin Bridge over the Cooper River. This day, the first series of parallel trenches is completed and General Henry Clinton calls upon the garrison to surrender; Lincoln refuses.

April 13 Military: British artillery and warships commence a monthlong bombardment of Charleston, South Carolina, as their siege trenches are pushed ever closer to the city.

April 14 Military: Although Charleston, South Carolina, is closely invested, there still remains an obscure, viable escape route across the Cooper River leading to Monck’s Corner, 30 miles distant. It is garrisoned by 500 militia and cavalry under General Isaac Huger, who also guards a large train of supplies intended for the city’s defenders. But this day, a roving column of 1,400 cavalry and mounted infantry under Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton and Major Patrick Ferguson gallops outside the American camp. Pressing forward, Tarleton surprises American pickets and charges directly into Huger’s camp. Ferguson then follows up with a savage bayonet attack and the defenders, who fail to make a coordinated stand, are routed. Huger and his usually capable second in command, Colonel William Washington, barely escape capture. The American losses are 100 men killed, injured and taken, along with 200 horses and 42 wagons of supplies captured, to three British wounded. Moreover, this victory closes the only remaining communication route out of Charleston, South Carolina.

April 16 Military: A detachment of the 3rd Pennsylvania Regiment under Major Thomas L. Byles is captured by 300 Hessians directed by Colonel Johann Du Puy at Paramus, New Jersey. The Americans suffer 50 men seized.

April 18 Military: Lieutenant Colonel Francis Rawdon arrives at Charleston, South Carolina, with additional forces, bringing British troop strength up to 10,000.

April 20 Military: With British siege trenches barely 250 yards from the defenses of Charleston, South Carolina, General Benjamin Lincoln summons another war council. His officers ponder capitulation but Lieutenant Governor Christopher Gadsden urges them to fight on, promising a civilian uprising if they try to surrender.

April 21 Military: General Benjamin Lincoln parleys with General Henry Clinton and requests to surrender with honors of war, which is refused.

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April 24 Military: A sortie by 200 Virginia troops storms the first line of British siege works at Charleston, South Carolina, but they withdraw after failing to inflict substantial damage.

April 25 Military: British forces under General Henry Clinton commence a third series of parallel trenches only 30 yards from Patriot defenses at Charleston, South Carolina.

April 28 Military: The marquis de Lafayette returns to Boston after a year’s absence, bearing commissions of lieutenant general and vice admiral for General George Washington.

May 4 Science: The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is founded in Boston, Massachusetts.

May 5 Military: In a sign of things to come, American partisans capture 18 British soldiers after a brief skirmish at Wambaw, South Carolina.

May 6 Military: Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton and 150 troopers of the British Legion pounce on 350 militiamen under Colonel Abraham Buford at Lenud’s Ferry, South Carolina. The Americans were in the act of uniting with a third force under Colonel Anthony White when the British suddenly appear, scattering all three. The Americans lose nearly 100 men captured while Tarleton releases 18 soldiers seized on the previous day.

May 7 Military: Fort Moultrie, guarding the entrance to Charleston, South Carolina, surrenders to the British with a loss of 200 men. Sullivan’s Island is completely occupied the following morning, placing the entire harbor under British control.

May 11 Military: British siege guns are so close to Charleston, South Carolina, that they begin firing hot shot directly into the town. The ferocity of the bombardment finally convinces civilian authorities to ask General Benjamin Lincoln to surrender rather than risk complete destruction.

May 12 Military: General Benjamin Lincoln surrenders 5,400 men, 6,000 muskets, and 400 cannon to General Henry Clinton at Charleston, South Carolina, following a six-week siege. The militia are paroled and allowed to return home but the Continentals pass into captivity. Commodore Abraham Whipple, the frigates Providence, Boston, and the sloop Ranger are also lost. In the course of the siege, Lincoln has sustained only 200 casualties while inflicting 250 on the British. The victorious Clinton, his “southern strategy” off to a victorious start, makes preparations to return to New York while the aggressive General Charles Cornwallis is appointed theater commander in his stead. Charleston is the biggest disaster to befall the United States in the Revolutionary War and also the largest American capitulation until the fall of Bataan in April, 1942.

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Chronology of American History

May 14 Military: Colonel Abraham Buford retreats toward Hillsboro, North Carolina, being the last organized American force left in South Carolina.

May 18 Military: General Charles Cornwallis marches inland with 2,500 veteran troops to stamp out all remaining Patriot resistance in South Carolina.

May 21 Military: Sir John Johnson and Chief Joseph Brant lead a combined Loyalist/ Indian force of 600 men that attacks settlements at Johnstown, New York, killing scores and taking 40 captives.

May 22 Military: Sir John Johnson dispatches half his raiding force of 400 Loyalists and 200 Indians against the village of Caughnawaga, which is burned.

May 23 Military: Having conducted another destructive foray through the Mohawk Valley, Loyalists and Indians under Sir John Johnson attack and burn Johnstown, New York, and then retire unmolested.

May 25 Military: Two Connecticut regiments, subsisting on one-eighth of their assigned rations while also being five months arrears in pay, finally mutiny at Morristown and ignore all appeals by Colonel Return J. Meigs. The rebellion is subsequently quashed by Pennsylvania troops but the incident underscores the widespread deprivation suffered by the army, as well as Congress’s inability to either fund or feed the troops. British captain Henry Bird departs Detroit at the head of 250 French militiamen and Great Lakes Indians to attack the American garrison at the Falls of the Ohio River (Louisville, Kentucky). En route he is joined by an additional 700 warriors.

May 26 General: The noted American poet Philip Freneau is captured at sea when his ship is accosted by HMS Iris. Military: Captain Fernando de Leyba and the 310-man Spanish garrison at St. Louis repulse an attack by 300 British soldiers and 900 Indians under Captain Emanuel Hesse.

May 27 Military: General Charles Cornwallis, unable to overtake fleeing Americans by marching, sends 170 cavalry and 100 mounted infantry under Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton ahead of the main column. His orders are to pursue, find, and destroy Colonel Abraham Buford before he reaches the safety of North Carolina. Tarleton drives his men mercilessly over dusty roads under a blazing sun, covering 105 miles in only two days. En route he almost captures Governor John Rutledge, who recently escaped the surrender of Charleston, South Carolina.

May 29 Military: British forces under Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton encounter an American force under Colonels Abraham Buford and William Washington at Waxhaws Creek, South Carolina. Buford, with 300 men of his 3rd Virginia Conti-

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nentals, refuses an offer to surrender and draws his men up in a single line while his baggage train and artillery leave the field. Though outnumbered two-to-one, the British commander decides to attack the American left and center frontally while simultaneously turning their right. Buford then erroneously instructs his men to hold their fire until the British horsemen are at 10 paces: this enables Tarleton to reach the single row of infantry intact and crash through it. A wild melee ensues as the troopers begin slashing and sabering the fleeing survivors until Tarleton’s horse is killed under him. Enraged British and Loyalists, thinking he has been killed, begin bayoneting several captives before order is restored. Buford’s unit ceases to exist, with losses of 113 killed, 150 wounded, and 203 captured. The heavy death toll generates accusations of atrocity and the ominous charge of ‘Tarleton’s Quarter’ is born. The British sustain only three killed and 12 wounded, having crushed the last organized resistance in South Carolina.

June 1 Naval: A bloody, drawn battle ensues north of Bermuda between the 28-gun frigate Trumbull under Captain James Nicholson and the 32-gun British privateer Watt under Captain John Coulthard. In one of the most protracted fights of the war, Nicholson batters the British hull with several telling broadsides while Coulthard concentrates on American masts and rigging. Combat ceases after several hours and both vessels limp home to safety. The Americans lose 48 men to a British loss of 92.

June 3 Military: A victorious General Henry Clinton proclaims to the residents of South Carolina that all men of military age must actively declare their allegiance to the Crown and enlist in the local militia or be considered rebels. Naval: The American privateer Pickering under Captain Jonathan Haraden, while cruising off the Spanish island of Bilbao, encounters an unidentified vessel in the darkness. This turns out to be the 22-gun privateer Golden Eagle, which he quickly storms and captures. Upon entering Bilbao harbor, Haraden runs headlong into the larger 42-gun privateer Achilles. However, he cleverly drops anchor near the shoals, forcing his adversary to approach head-on under accurate gun fire. At length Achillies is seriously damaged and retreats while hundreds of milling Spanish laud the victors ashore.

June 6 Military: Encouraged by reports of extreme duress in the American camp at Morristown, General Wilhelm von Knyphausen, commanding the New York garrison, sorties with 6,000 men and advances into New Jersey. He is counting on the alleged dissatisfaction of Continental troops to carry the day.

June 7 Military: Colonel Elias Dayton, commanding the 3rd New Jersey Regiment and some militia, engages 2,500 Hessians and British under General Wilhelm von Knyphausen at Connecticut Farms, New Jersey. The militia perform with surprising audacity this day but are slowly driven back until reinforced by General William Maxwell’s Continental brigade. Knyphausen, taken aback by the sheer numbers of militia flocking to oppose him, assumes he cannot safely cross the Rahway River bridge and withdraws. American losses are 65 men killed and wounded; that of the Hessians is unknown but British general Thomas Sterling is

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Chronology of American History among those slain. Rather than retreat to New York, Knyphausen entrenches at De Hart’s Point to maintain a presence in New Jersey. Politics: Massachusetts enacts the first state constitution ever ratified by a popular vote. It also contains a clearly prescribed bill of rights, which, in time, serves as a legal basis for outlawing slavery.

June 8 Military: Satisfied with the progress of the war in the South, General Henry Clinton sails back to New York. Any further campaigning will be conducted by the talented and aggressive General Charles Cornwallis.

June 9 Military: British captain Henry Bird arrives at the Ohio River with 900 militia and Indians, but his native allies refuse to march further and attack settlements near the falls (Louisville, Kentucky). Instead they persuade him to raid less-heavily defended areas along the Licking River. Naval: The 26-gun Massachusetts frigate Protector under Captain John F. Williams engages and defeats the 32-gun privateer Admiral Duff under Captain Richard Stranger off Newfoundland. Americans losses are one killed and five wounded; only 55 British are saved after the prize suddenly explodes.

June 12 Religion: The Shaftesbury Association is founded by Vermont Baptists as a congress of churches and indicative of the rapid growth that sect has experienced during the war years.

June 13 Military: The Continental Congress appoints General Horatio Gates, victor of Saratoga, as the new head of the Southern Department. Again, this is accomplished without consulting General George Washington. Colonel John Moore begins rallying 1,300 North Carolina Loyalists to support the royal cause at his home near Ramsour’s Mills. He ultimately seeks to join and support the army of General Charles Cornwallis, then in South Carolina.

June 20 Military: Colonel Francis Locke leads 1,200 American militia against a Loyalist force of comparable size under Colonel John Moore at Ramsour’s Mills, North Carolina. The Loyalists deploy along the crest of a nearby ridge, which affords them an excellent field of fire, but the Patriots begin infiltrating the woods around their flanks. A stiff fight then ensues between poorly trained amateurs on both sides and the bloody impasse continues until Locke manages to outflank his opponent. Moore is subsequently routed and flees the field. Both sides suffer 150 casualties apiece in this costly and clumsily managed affair, but the American victory serves to dampen Loyalist enthusiasm for supporting the British.

June 21 Military: General Johann de Kalb arrives at Hillsboro, North Carolina, at the head of 1,400 crack Continentals under Colonels William Smallwood and Mordecai Gist. His appeals for food and supplies from the local populace go ignored.

June 22 Military: A British/Indian expedition under Captain Henry Bird attacks Ruddle’s Station, Kentucky, with 1,000 men, mostly Indians. A few shots from Bird’s

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artillery convince the 300 settlers to surrender but as soon as the gates are opened the warriors rush inside, massacring several. After enduring an exceptionally harsh winter at Morristown, New Jersey, General George Washington moves the Continental Army back into the field.

June 23 Military: A combined British/Hessian expedition under General Wilhelm Knyphausen advances from Elizabethtown, New Jersey, and attacks American positions at Springfield. They immediately encounter stout resistance from the New Jersey militia under General Philemon Dickinson at Galloping Hill Road bridge, which further stiffens upon the arrival of General William Maxwell’s Continental brigade. A determined frontal assault fails to dislodge the defenders, so Knyphausen resorts to an enveloping movement. When this maneuver also recoils, Knyphausen simply brings his superior numbers to bear against the regiment of Colonels Elias Dayton and Israel Angell, forcing them back from Springfield. Simultaneously, another British column hits Americans under Colonel Henry Lee defending a bridge on the Vauxhall Road. Again, British numbers prevail and General Nathanael Greene finally orders his men withdrawn to the safety of Short Hills. But Knyphausen, though victorious, was stunned by the extent of American resistance and he questions the wisdom of continuing further. That evening he orders a retreat to the coast and is harried by New Jersey militia every step of the way until the British and Hessians are ferried back to Staten Island. The defense of Springfield costs the Americans around 60 men; enemy losses are unknown but presumed in the vicinity of 300.

July 11 Military: A 5,500-man French expedition under General Jean, comte de Rochambeau, lands at Newport, Rhode Island, and finds the place nearly deserted. General William Heath eventually arrives from Boston to greet him.

July 12 Military: An American militia force of 90 men under Colonels William Hull and Thomas Neal surprises and annihilates a 115-man detachment of the hated British Legion at Williamson’s Plantation. Loyalist captain Christian Huck, having pitched his camp between two rail fences, is unable to maneuver and his men are cut down. The Patriots inflict 90 killed and wounded for the loss of one dead.

July 13 Military: American militia under Colonels Elijah Clarke and John Thomas wipe out a Loyalist detachment at Cedar Springs, North Carolina, killing 35. American losses are put at four dead and 23 wounded. Naval: A British fleet under Admiral Thomas Graves anchors off Sandy Hook, New Jersey, to reinforce Admiral Marriot Arbuthnot.

July 16 Military: British and Indian raiders surprise Captain William Philip and his ranger company at Fisher Summit, Bedford County, Pennsylvania. They kill 10 Americans and capture their commander.

July 19 Naval: The British fleet under Admiral Marriot Arbuthnot anchors off Newport, Rhode Island, and blockades French ships and soldiers positioned there.

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July 20 Military: Partisans under Col�o�nel William R. Davie defeat a larger Loyalist force under Major John Carden at Flat Rock, South Carolina.

July 21 Military: General Anthony Wayne is dispatched with 2,000 Pennsylvania Con-­ tinentals to reduce a 70-­man British stockade at Bull’s Ferry, New Jersey. He bombards the enemy with four 6-­pounder cannon, which prove too light to inflict serious damage, then fails to evict the garrison. Word of approaching British reinforcements induces Wayne to cancel the attack and he hastily falls back to Totowa. American casualties in this affair total over 60.

July 25 Military: General Horatio Gates assumes command of the Southern Depart-­ ment at Coxe’s Mill, North Carolina, succeeding General Johann de Kalb. The latter reverts to his nominal position as commander of the Delaware and MaryÂ� land Continentals.

July 27 Military: General Horatio Gates orders an advance against the important Brit-­ ish supply depot at Camden, South Carolina. At the time he has only a brigade of Delaware and MaryÂ�land Continentals under General Johann de Kalb, and the mounted Pulaski Legion under ColÂ�oÂ�nel Charles-Armand Tuffin. Moreover, Gates, against the advice of his officers, deliberately chooses a barren, direct route to Camden over a circuitous approach via Salisbury and Charlotte. This would entail an additional 50 miles of marching but would take the soldiers though a friendlier, Â�well-­stocked region. The path Gates chooses, while shorter, is strongly Loyalist in tenor, barren, and poorly suited for feeding an army already low on supplies.

July 30 Military: A 600-­man militia force under colÂ�oÂ�nels Isaac Shelby, Elijah Clarke, and Charles McDowell convinces ColÂ�oÂ�nel Patrick Moore and the Loyalist gar-­ rison of Thickety Fort (Fort Anderson), South Carolina, to surrender without a fight. The militia seize 93 captives.

August 1 Military: Chief Joseph Brant and his Mohawks raid the settlements at Cana-­ joharie, New York, killing 15, capturing 50, and burning 53 buildings. He then declines to attack Fort Plank, occupied by a regiment under ColÂ�oÂ�nel Peter Gan-­ sevoort, and withdraws with his booty and captives in tow. General Thomas Sumter and 600 militia unsuccessfully besiege a Loyalist outpost at Rocky Mount, South Carolina. Lacking artillery, ColÂ�oÂ�nel Thomas Neal charges but fails to evict 150 defenders under Lieutenant ColÂ�oÂ�nel George Turn-­ bull. The Americans, completely rebuffed, then withdraw with a loss of 12 men. American militia under ColÂ�oÂ�nel Elijah Clarke engage a force of 210 Loyalists at Green Springs, South Carolina. They have been dispatched there by Major Patrick Ferguson with orders to hunt down Clarke and capture him. Clarke, however, thoroughly routs his adversary in a sharp engagement of 15 minutes. Both sides lose 30 men apiece, but the Loyalist dead are left on the ground. American militia under majors Tristam Thomas and James Gillespie attack a mixed British/Loyalist flotilla under ColÂ�oÂ�nel Ambrose Mills as it floats

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Sumter, Thomas (1734 –1832) Partisan leader Thomas Sumter was born in Hanover County, Virginia, on August 14, 1734, receiving scant education. He fought well in the militia throughout the French and Indian War before being tossed into debtor’s prison. Sumter then relocated to South Carolina and established a frontier trading post and gradually aligned himself with the growing Patriot movement there. During early phases of the Revolutionary War Sumter functioned as lieutenant colonel of the 2nd South Carolina Rifles, and fought in the British attack upon Charleston in June 1776. He then campaigned against the Cherokee on the frontier and against Loyalists in Florida before contracting malaria and resigning his commission in 1778. Sumter distanced himself from military affairs for two years until May 1780, when Charleston was captured by General Henry Clinton. A resurgence of Loyalist activities followed and, after a party of ruffians burned his home, Sumter began recruiting a partisan force. He won an initial skirmish at Williamson’s Plantation on July 12, 1780 and, following the crushing American defeat at Camden the following August, his guerrillas constituted the only organized resistance. His activities grew so annoying to General Charles Cornwallis that he dispatched the fearsome British Legion under Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton after him. On August 18, 1780 the Americans were badly routed at Fishing Creek, and Sumter barely escaped, but then he dutifully regrouped and continued raiding. Now a brigadier general of militia, he managed to inflict a heavy

defeat upon Tarleton at Blackstock’s Hill in November 1780, winning the thanks of Congress. The following year he began mopping up operations against isolated British and Loyalist outposts dotting the Carolina interior, winning several notable victories, but also plundering Loyalist property to pay his men. Sumter also sullenly refused to coordinate his efforts with the American army under General Nathanael Greene, preferring to wage his own private war instead. Exhausted by wounds and reprimanded by Greene for insubordination, Sumter was finally relieved of command by Governor John Rutledge in August 1781. Despite his notorious obstinacy, Sumter was a bona fide war hero throughout the South, and his proclivities for fighting won him the nickname “Gamecock.” After serving several terms in the state legislature he attended the Constitutional Convention in 1788 as an anti-Federalist. He subsequently served in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1789–93 and again, 1797–1801, before winning a seat in the U.S. Senate, 1801–10. Sumter then finally retired from public life but remained dogged by debts until the state legislature voted to cancel them in 1827. Sumter died at Statesburg, South Carolina, on June 1, 1832, the oldest living Revolutionary War general. His heavyhanded tactics and uneven battle record remain topics of controversy, but Sumter provided a useful purpose by always taking the fight to the enemy, whatever the odds. Fort Sumter, Charleston harbor, is named in his honor.

down the Pee Dee River at Hunt’s Bluff, South Carolina. The Americans also deploy a “Quaker” cannon made from a hollowed log which tricks the enemy into surrendering. A British supply vessel moving upstream is subsequently taken.

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August 2 Military: Chief Joseph Brant, commanding 50 Loyalists and Indians, attacks Fort Plank (Canajoharie), New York, but fails to dislodge the defenders and withdraws.

August 3 Military: General Francis Marion and 20 guerrillas join General Horatio Gates as his army crosses the Pee Dee River en route to Camden, South Carolina. Gates, who has no use for irregulars, promptly sends them off on an extended scouting mission.

August 4 Military: The British expedition of Captain Henry Bird concludes when he arrives back at Detroit with 150 American captives. An equal number have been callously murdered by his Indian allies en route, which leads to retaliatory raids into Shawnee territory.

August 5 Military: General Benedict Arnold lobbies hard to become commander of strategic West Point, New York, and is finally appointed by General George Washington. Unknown to all, Arnold is intending to betray that post to the British. General Richard Caswell and 2,000 North Carolina militia join General Horatio Gates’s army at Lynches Creek, South Carolina. The famished men gorge themselves on green peaches and corn en route, which results in extreme gastronomical distress.

August 6 Military: A militia band under General Thomas Sumter attacks the 500-man Loyalist outpost under Major John Carden at Hanging Rock, South Carolina, in concert with forces under Colonel William R. Davie. The 800 Americans are initially successful on the left and center but then pause to loot the enemy camp. This delay allows Connecticut Loyalist infantry to form a square, supported by two small cannon, and beat back successive attacks. The approach of the British Legion from nearby Rocky Mount induces Sumter to call off the attack and retire. The Americans nonetheless inflict 192 casualties for a loss of 12 killed and 41 wounded. Hanging Rock is subsequently abandoned as an outpost.

August 8 Military: Colonel George Rogers Clark and 1,000 men pursue the Shawnee from their main settlement at Chillicothe, Ohio, to the fortified town at Piqua. There he attacks and heavily defeats the Indians, killing 73 in exchange for 20 dead and 40 wounded of his own. Militia commanded by colonels Elijah Clarke and Isaac Shelby are ambushed by Loyalist forces under Major Patrick Ferguson at Cedar Springs, South Carolina. However, the Americans quickly turn the tables on their antagonists, driving them off for a loss of four dead and 23 injured.

August 9 Military: Colonel George Rogers Clark defeats Shawnee warriors on the Little Miami River, Ohio, and torches their village.

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Chronology   477 A British column under General Charles Cornwallis, departs Charleston, South Carolina, and hurriedly marches to reinforce Lieutenant ColÂ�oÂ�nel Francis Rawdon at Camden. He takes with him 2,200 Â�battle-­hardened veterans.

August 11 Military: General Horatio Gates, while crossing Lynches Creek, skirmishes with British light troops under Lieutenant ColÂ�oÂ�nel Francis Rawdon. The Americans flank Rawdon’s position by fording the creek downstream, and he withdraws in good order. This places Gates only 15 miles northeast of Camden, South Carolina.

August 14 Military: General Horatio Gates reaches Rugeley’s Mills, South Carolina, where he is reinforced by 800 Virginia militia under General Edward Stevens and con-­ tinues marching toward Camden. He also dispatches 400 men to join the parti-­ sans of General Thomas Sumter, who intends to raid a British supply train.

August 15 Military: General Horatio Gates receives additional reinforcements in the form of 100 MaryÂ�land Continentals and 300 North Carolina militia. However, he errs in issuing molasses rations, which plays havoc on the digestive tracts of his men. Ironically, as the Americans proceed down the road to Camden, they collide head on with General Charles Cornwallis moving up the same path. A skirmish ensues in the Â�pre-­dawn darkness and then both sides establish camps and await daybreak. American militia and Continentals under ColÂ�oÂ�nel Thomas Taylor are detached by General Thomas Sumter to attack Fort Carey (Wateree Ford), South Carolina. Taylor is successful, capturing ColÂ�oÂ�nel Isaac Carey, 30 prisoners, and 36 wagon-­ loads of provisions. They then retire to Sumter’s camp, snaring an additional 70 British and eight wagons en route.

August 16 Military: General Horatio Gates prepares to engage British forces under Gen-­ eral Charles Cornwallis at Camden, South Carolina. The battlefield is an open field surrounded on either flank by swamps and pine forests. Gates has slightly less than 4,000 soldiers, mostly militia but built around a solid nucleus of Dela-­ ware and MaryÂ�land Continentals under General Johann de Kalb. ColÂ�oÂ�nel William Smallwood commands the 1st MaryÂ�land Regiment in reserve while the Pulaski Legion under ColÂ�oÂ�nel Charles-Armand Tuffin cover the left flank. However, Gates errs grievously by placing all his Virginia and North Carolina militia along his center and left flank, where they confront the best regiments in the British army. Cornwallis, true to his EuÂ�roÂ�peÂ�an training, deploys his elite units, such as the crack Royal Welsh Fusiliers, on his right flank, the traditional “post of honor.” His left consists of regulars and Loyalists under Lieutenant ColÂ�oÂ�nel Francis Rawdon with the British Legion under Lieutenant ColÂ�oÂ�nel Banastre Tarleton in reserve. After a brief artillery exchange, the British advance and ColÂ�oÂ�nel Otho H. Williams, sensing some disorder in their approach, suggests an immediate attack on their right. Gates complies, but his raw militiamen receive one volley from the British, then flee the field en masse. North Carolina levies holding the center likewise depart, and in short order only de Kalb’s Continentals hold their posi-­ tion. These troops withstand several attacks but Cornwallis wheels his entire right flank upon the unsuspecting Americans, covered in smoke and unaware

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Chronology of American History they stand alone. By the time de Kalb realizes the danger it is too late, and his Continentals are nearly surrounded. He goes down fighting, fatally injured by 11 wounds as his remaining soldiers break and flee. Gates himself spurs his horse and ignominiously gallops off at the first sign of disaster, not stopping until he reaches Charlotte, 60 miles distant. Only 700 survivors join him there three days later. American losses are around 250 dead and 800 wounded and prisoner; Cornwallis sustains around 300. This severe defeat literally erases all organized American resistance in South Carolina and most of the South. Cornwallis subsequently orders Tarleton’s cavalry to hunt down the partisan band of Thomas Sumter, then operating in the same area.

August 18 Military: Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton catches the guerrillas under General Thomas Sumter off guard at Fishing Creek, South Carolina, routing them. Sumter’s force, exhausted by a forced march and laden with wagons and prisoners, is unable to outpace his pursuers. Worse, Sumter inadvertently allows them to encamp and repose at Fishing Creek with minimal safeguards, blissfully ignorant that Tarleton is nearby, watching their movements. The British Legion then suddenly charges into the American camp, coming between the militia and their stacked arms, routing them. For a loss of 16 men, the British kill 150 Americans and capture 300 more. Sumter barely escapes the disaster yet immediately begins rallying the survivors to fight again. In concert with Camden, this defeat eliminates organized resistance to British rule in South Carolina. American militia under Colonels Isaac Shelby, Elijah Clarke, and James Williams are sent to attack a British/Loyalist force under Colonel Alexander Innes encamped near Musgrove Mill, South Carolina. An advance guard of 25 men attacks the camp and entices the enemy to pursue, and they charge headlong into a devastating ambush. The Americans inflict 63 killed, 90 wounded, and 70 captured, with a loss of four dead and eight injured. This is the first American triumph since the defeat at Camden and partially boosts morale.

August 20 Military: General Francis Marion surprises a British detachment under Captain Jonathan Roberts at Great Savannah (Nelson’s Ferry), South Carolina. The British had apparently bivouacked on the plantation of General Thomas Sumter, well-known to the Americans, who soundly defeat Roberts. Marion takes 24 captives and repatriates 150 American prisoners.

September 1 Politics: John Hancock becomes the first popularly elected governor of Massachusetts.

September 3 Diplomacy: Henry Laurens, on a diplomatic assignment to the Netherlands, is captured off the coast of Newfoundland by HMS Vestal and imprisoned at the Tower of London. The British retrieve his official papers, hastily tossed overboard, which reveal the extent to which Holland has clandestinely helped the Americans.

September 4 Military: General Francis Marion, with 50 militiamen, routs a detachment of 250 Loyalists under Major Micajah Ganey at Blue Savannah, South Carolina. He

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allows the enemy to walk into a carefully staged ambush that routs the advance guard, then charges full tilt into their ranks. Such aplomb unnerves Ganey’s men, and the majority drop their weapons and flee into the swamps along Little Pee Dee River. Marion loses three men wounded.

September 9 Military: Defying the orders of his superior, General Charles Cornwallis begins his invasion of North Carolina by advancing upon Charlotte. This constitutes a major departure from the systematic southern strategy outlined by General Henry Clinton and imperils British chances for victory.

September 12 Military: Major Patrick Ferguson, pushing into western North Carolina, engages an American force at Cane Creek. This marks the furthest extent of the British advance.

September 14 –18 Military: A body of 430 American militiamen under Colonel Elijah Clarke and James McCall besiege Loyalists and Indians under Colonel Thomas Brown at Augusta, Georgia. The Americans charge and displace the Indians from several outposts until they run headlong into a fortification called the White House. The Loyalist garrison steadily repels them, inflicting 60 casualties, and the Americans finally withdraw in the face of a relief column marching from Fort Ninety-Six. Brown subsequently hangs 13 wounded Patriots from a staircase for violating their parole.

September 20–22 Military: General George Washington and General Jean, comte de Rochambeau, conduct a preliminary strategy conference at Hartford, Connecticut. Washington strongly suggests attacking New York but the French demur until they have a larger fleet in the area. Rochambeau also favors a campaign in the Chesapeake region, but nearly a year passes before this is manifested.

September 21 Military: General Benedict Arnold decides to betray strategic West Point to the British and secretly meets with Major John André. However, when André’s ship HMS Vulture sails off, Arnold is stranded behind enemy lines and spends the night at the home of a local Loyalist. A force of 150 militia under Colonel William R. Davie surprises a 60-man detachment of the British Legion under Major George Hanger at Wahab’s Plantation, North Carolina. Noting a lack of sentries, Davie sends several marksmen into a nearby building to distract the British. He then leads a mounted charge down a lane traversing the plantation, routing Hanger’s command. The entire detachment is nearly annihilated, losing 12 killed and 47 wounded. Davie sustains one man wounded.

September 23 Military: Major John André dons civilian garb and attempts to pass through American lines. He carries concealed in his boot information about West Point’s defenses provided by General Benedict Arnold. After approaching an American checkpoint, André is apprehended by three militiamen, who uncover the secret documentation in his boot heel. Word of his arrest is then quickly passed to Arnold’s headquarters—at which point his treacherous plot begins unraveling.

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September 25 Military: His perfidy unmasked, General Benedict Arnold flees to the British warship HMS Vulture, anchored in the Hudson River, and formally joins the British side. The captive Major John André is then slated to be tried as a spy.

September 26 Military: A large gathering of “Over the Mountain Men” occurs at Sycamore Shoals (Johnson City, Tennessee) as Colonels Isaac Shelby and John Sevier prepare to confront the Loyalists of Major Patrick Ferguson. In time they are joined by 400 Virginians under Colonel William Campbell, 160 North Carolinians under Colonel Joseph McDowell, and additional soldiers under Colonel Benjamin Cleveland. American militia under Colonel William R. Davie engage the advance guard of General Charles Cornwallis’s army at Charlotte, North Carolina. The British Legion under Major George Hanger trots into town and confronts 20 rmilitiamen behind a stone wall. Davie and his small command, backed by 70 riflemen under Major Joseph Graham, withstand two determined charges. Cornwallis then arrives on the scene, berates his embarrassed troopers, and orders light infantry under Lieutenant Colonel James Webster to turn the American right. Davie then withdraws in good order, losing six killed and 13 wounded; British losses are around 22.

September 27 Military: Major Patrick Ferguson, aware that the western militia is pulling together in strength to oppose him, withdraws from the Catawba River, North Carolina, and marches for the perceived safety of King’s Mountain, South Carolina.

September 29 Military: General Francis Marion and 50 militiamen engage a Loyalist contingent of similar size under Colonel John Ball at Black Mingo Creek, South Carolina. After an initial repulse, Marion rallies his men and routs the enemy, killing and capturing 20 of them. American losses are two killed and eight wounded, while the Loyalists incur 16 casualties. Victorious Marion then withdraws to his enclave in the swamps of eastern South Carolina.

October 1 Military: Colonel William Campbell of Virginia accedes to the command of a large force of western militia gathering at Gilbert Town, North Carolina, to oppose Major Patrick Ferguson’s Loyalists. Campbell is then seconded by Colonels Isaac Shelby and John Sevier.

October 2 Military: Major John André is hanged as a spy at Tappan, New York. Like Nathan Hale, his calmness and stoicism at the gallows impresses the American officers present.

October 3 Military: The Continental Congress reduces the standing establishment of the Continental Army to 58 regiments of infantry, four of artillery, and four of cavalry.

October 5 Diplomacy: The Continental Congress endorses the principles behind the League of Armed Neutrality espoused by Catherine II of Russia. It also initiates an investigation of General Horatio Gates for his shameful behavior at Camden.

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October 7 Military: The Continental Congress, finally acting upon the advice of General George Washington, appoints General Nathanael Greene commander of the Southern Department. Patriot militia forces under Colonels William Campbell, Isaac Shelby, Benjamin Cleveland, and John Sevier entrap a large body of Loyalists under Major Patrick Ferguson at King’s Mountain, South Carolina. Ferguson arrays his King’s American Rangers, 900 strong, along the top of a wooded eminence whose slopes are heavily forested and afford the Patriots cover as they approach. The frontiersmen, numbering 1,100 men, quickly surround Ferguson’s position and begin working their way up the slopes, Indian style. The Loyalists respond with several downhill bayonet charges that roll the attackers back but expose the rangers to highly accurate rifle fire from the front and flanks. Within the hour, Shelby forces his way up the southern crest, pushing Ferguson back upon his main encampment. Surrounded and with men falling fast around him, Ferguson rallies a few mounted men and tries escaping but is pierced by six bullets and killed. The Loyalists then try to surrender but receive a taste of “Tarleton’s Quarter” until the colonels can restore order. Ferguson’s entire force is annihilated, with 157 dead, 163 wounded, and 698 captured. The Americans lost only 28 killed and 64 wounded in this very lopsided encounter. This disaster strips General Charles Cornwallis of his best light infantry, and he consequently suspends his invasion of North Carolina for several months. It also revives American hopes while dashing those of regional Loyalists.

October 9 Naval: The Continental sloop Saratoga under Captain John Young captures three British brigs before vanishing without a trace off the Delaware capes.

October 10 Military: A quick raid by 770 Loyalists and Indians under Major Christopher Carleton nets the entire 75-man garrison of Fort Anne, New York, under Captain Seth Sherwood. Politics: The Continental Congress encourages states to relinquish their western territories to the government in the hope that these will be eventually settled and admitted into the union as new states.

October 11 Military: Loyalists and Indians under Sir John Johnson and Chief Joseph Brant capture Fort George, New York, then raid settlements in the vicinity of southern Lake George.

October 13 Military: The Continental Congress promotes Daniel Morgan of Virginia to brigadier general at Hillsboro, North Carolina. He also receives command of all light troops.

October 14 Military: General Charles Cornwallis, now deprived of light infantry, withdraws to Winnsboro, South Carolina, to rest and refit over the winter.

October 15 Naval: General Alexander Leslie sails with 2,500 men from New York on an extended raid in Virginia to support the efforts of General Charles Cornwallis

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482  Chronology of American History in North Carolina. His orders are to raid the coastline, wreck forts, and capture supplies. General Henry Clinton also weighs the possibility of seizing Portsmouth and establishing it as a permanent base of operations against Richmond and the interior. Bernardo de Gálvez sails from Havana, Cuba, with 3,800 men en route to Pensacola.

October 16 Military: A force of 800 Loyalists and Indian settlers under Sir John Johnson and Chief Joseph Brant attack the Schoharie Valley settlements, New York, burn-­ ing several buildings. However, they are unable to dislodge the 200-­man garrison at Middle Fort. When Major Melancthon L. Woolsey attempts to surrender, he is forced by noted marksman Timothy Murphy and others to fight on.

October 19 Military: Sir John Johnson with a mixed force of 1,000 Loyalists and Indians attack and defeat a body of 130 militiamen under ColÂ�oÂ�nel John Brown at Fort Keyser, New York. They then lay waste to the nearby village of Stone Arabia. However, the militiamen subsequently regroup around reinforcements brought up by General Robert Van Rensselaer, who pursues and counterattacks the raid-­ ers at Klock’s Field. The vengeful Patriots brush aside some Mohawks and Hes-­ sians but cannot dislodge Johnson’s main force, sequestered behind improvised breastworks. The presence of a small Loyalist cannon dissuades Van Rensselaer from attacking further, and Johnson beats a hasty retreat after abandoning his guns and baggage.

October 21 Politics: The Continental Congress, after heated debate, accedes to General George Washington’s petition and grants Â�half-­pay to Continental officers for life.

October 22 Military: Captain Walter Vrooman, leading a 60-­man detachment, pursues the raiding force of Sir John Johnson until he is ambushed at Kanadasaga, New York, losing four dead and 56 captured.

October 25 Military: General Francis Marion and 150 partisans surprise Loyalists under ColÂ�oÂ�nel Samuel Tynes at Tearcourt Swamp, South Carolina. Attacking simulta-­ neously in three columns, they rout their opponents, killing three, wounding 14, and capturing 23 without loss. Marion also seizes 80 Â�horses and many valuable supplies.

November 4 Politics: The Continental Congress again appeals to states to meet their quotas of flour, pork, and hay to support the army. Many states remain fiscally strapped, however, and find it impossible to supply more.

November 8 Military: General Charles Cornwallis dispatches Major James Wemyss of the 63rd Foot from Winnsboro, South Carolina, to hunt down troublesome partisans under General Thomas Sumter. Wemyss commands 210 mounted infantry of his own regiment and 40 additional dragoons from the British Legion.

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November 9 Military: A British raiding column of 250 men of the 63rd Regiment under Major James Wemyss surprises 60 Americans under General Thomas Sumter at Fishdam Ford, South Carolina. The British charge directly into the American camp undetected but, highlighted by campfires, they sustain heavy losses. Sumter is roused from his sleep only moments before a party of British dragoons push into his tent, looking for him. The British overrun the encampment and are on the verge of pushing the Georgia militia into the river, when South Carolina troops under Colonel Thomas Taylor hit them with enfilade fire. After a hard fight the British gradually withdraw with seven dead and 25 captured, including Wemyss. Sumter, lucky to have lost only four killed and 14 wounded, likewise beats a hasty retreat to Hawkins Mill on the Tyger River.

November 15 Military: After a month of fruitless campaign, General Alexander Leslie concludes his Virginia raid and departs Portsmouth for New York. The damage he inflicted is less than hoped for and does little to assist the major British effort farther south. An American militia under General Francis Marion attempts to seize Georgetown, South Carolina, which is defended by an 80-man British garrison recently reinforced by 200 Loyalist militia. The two sides skirmish briefly at White’s Bridge, and Marion concludes he lacks sufficient strength to attack and withdraws. He loses two killed and three wounded but secures 12 British captives.

November 20 Military: Hotly pursued, General Thomas Sumter and Colonel Elijah Clark take 1,000 men and make a determined stand against 400 British dragoons and infantry under Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton at Blackstock’s Plantation, South Carolina. The Patriots are strongly posted with the Tyger River guarding their rear and right flank, while several plantation buildings on a nearby hill form their left. Additional troops lay in the nearby woods and await the British advance. Tarleton first commits the 63rd Foot to a frontal assault that drives the militia up the hill, from which an ambush is sprung on them from the buildings. As this drama unfolds, a body of mounted militia manages to slip around the rear of the British dragoons and delivers a point-blank volley that empties many saddles. Tarleton, his army suddenly crumbling around him, then orders his cavalry forward, and they are badly repulsed. But at this critical juncture Sumter is seriously wounded and disabled. The British withdraw from the field, and the Americans pursue them briefly, returning with several captured horses. Tarleton admits to a loss of 50 men while the Americans sustain three killed and four wounded. Sumter, while victorious, is out of action for several weeks.

November 23 Military: A party of 80 dismounted troopers from the 2nd Continental Dragoons under Major Benjamin Tallmadge embarks at Fairfield, Connecticut, and crosses Long Island Sound at night. At night they storm Fort St. George (Brookhaven), New York, guided by Tallmadge, a native of the town. The Americans kill seven and seize 54 prisoners for one man wounded. They also burn 300 tons of hay intended as forage before falling back.

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Chronology of American History

Marion, Francis (ca. 1723–1795) Guerrilla leader Francis Marion was born in Berkeley County, South Carolina, around 1732. He joined the militia during the First Cherokee War of 1759, acquiring a fine military reputation despite the fact he was sickly and semiliterate. In April 1775 he joined the provincial congress as a delegate but was soon after commissioned a captain in the 2nd South Carolina Infantry. In this capacity he helped capture several British arsenals throughout the state, rising to major. Marion subsequently fought well under General William Moultrie at Sullivan’s Island, June 28, 1776, and he accompanied his regiment throughout the ill-fated siege of Savannah, Georgia. On October 9, 1779, Marion mounted the enemy parapet under fire and planted his colors, but the Americans and French were otherwise badly repulsed. He was then sidelined with a broken ankle and returned home to recuperate, which spared him from being captured with the main American army under General Benjamin Lincoln in May 1780. British forces then swarmed over the state, especially following the brilliant victory of General Charles Cornwallis at Camden that August, at which point organized American resistance collapsed. It fell upon men like Marion, Andrew Pickens, and Thomas Sumter, each with a handful of guerrilla followers, to keep the American Revolution alive against steep odds. As a partisan leader, Marion displayed a streak of genius. He usually established his base in the middle of an impassible, thick bog for security, and personally led small-

scale forays against isolated British and Loyalist outposts. He also struck at the rear of the main British army whenever possible and at one point the much feared British Legion under Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton chased the Americans for 26 miles without success. “As for this damned old fox the Devil himself could not catch him,” was Tarleton’s remark, and thereafter Marion was universally lauded as the “Swamp Fox.” And, unlike his more flamboyant contemporary Sumter, he was a priggish, strict disciplinarian who dressed modestly, never drank, and forbade his men from plundering Loyalist property. His success crested in 1781 when Governor John Rutledge promoted him to brigadier general of militia, and he formed a close liaison with the army of General Nathanael Greene. Working in tandem with Continental cavalry under Colonels Henry Lee and William Washington, Marion became the bane of British outposts, and he also performed capably in line at the battle of Eutaw Springs in September 1781. Through his efforts the British and Loyalists had been reduced to a handful of strong points along the coast, and he invariably shadowed their retreat, scooping up stragglers. After the war Marion turned to politics in Charleston, where he served in the state senate from 1784 to 1790. He retired that year and received command of Fort Johnson as a sinecure in light of his distinguished service. Marion died in Berkeley County on February 27, 1795, an indispensable partisan fighter.

November 30 Military: Major Henry Lee gains promotion to lieutenant colonel and receives a legion of 300 dragoons and three companies of picked, light infantry. He then drills them into one of the most feared and effective formations in the Continental Army.

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December 3 Military: General Nathanael Greene arrives at Charlotte, North Carolina, assuming command of the Southern Department from General Horatio Gates. With 2,500 continentals and militiamen he boldly initiates offensive operations against superior British forces.

December 4 Military: Colonel William Washington employs a pine log, or “Quaker gun,” to dupe Colonel Henry Rugeley and 155 Loyalists into surrendering at Rugeley’s Mill, South Carolina.

December 8 Military: Colonel John Sevier and 250 North Carolina militiamen heavily defeat the Cherokee at Boyd’s Creek along the French Broad River, losing one man.

December 12 Diplomacy: Great Britain recalls its ambassador from the Netherlands, following revelations gleaned from the captured papers of American diplomat Henry Laurens.

December 17 Diplomacy: The Continental Congress appoints Francis Dana as minister to Russia, despite his unfamiliarity with the language. He will nonetheless strive to lay a foundation for good relations between the two countries.

December 19 Military: Disregarding the risks, General Nathanael Greene daringly splits his forces by sending General Daniel Morgan and 600 light troops on a wide sweep through South Carolina. He is at liberty to attack the rear of General Charles Cornwallis’s army but is also instructed to rejoin Greene at Cheraw if the British move against American forces gathered there.

December 20 Diplomacy: Great Britain, angered by the extent of Dutch help to the rebellious Americans, declares war on the Netherlands.

December 26 Military: The army of General Nathanael Greene establishes a base camp at Cheraw, South Carolina, to gather in local recruits and possibly strike at General Charles Cornwallis’s army should he advance into North Carolina.

December 28 Military: A force of 280 American cavalry and mounted infantry under Colonels William Washington and James McCall routs a body of Loyalists of comparable size under Colonel Thomas Waters at Hammond’s Store (Abbeville), South Carolina, killing or wounding 150 and taking 40 prisoners. The Patriots lose one man and inflict another crippling blow to Loyalist interests. General Charles Cornwallis, angered by the extent of this partisan attrition, prepares to dispatch Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton after the raiders.

December 30 Military: General Benedict Arnold, now fighting for the British, lands at Hampton Roads, Virginia, and commences a lengthy raid up the James River.

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Greene, Nathanael

(1742–1786)

General Nathanael Greene was born in Warwick, Rhode Island, on August 7, 1742, into a Quaker household. Although he worked in his father’s foundry, he developed an inter-­ est in military affairs and was consequently expelled from the Society of Friends. Greene was elected to the general assembly in 1772, where his military background resulted in an appointment as brigadier general of militia. In this capacity he led Rhode Island forces to Boston in the spring of 1775, where he befriended General George Washington. In June 1775, Greene was made a brigadier gen-­ eral in the Continental Army, becoming the youngest field officer. He functioned capably at Boston but fell ill and missed the defeat at Long Island in August 1776. He also gave poor military advice leading to the capture of Fort Washington, New York, the following November. But Greene redeemed his reputa-­ tion by fighting well at Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, and Germantown over the next few months. In March 1778, he unwillingly gained appointment as quartermaster general of the army at a time when supply functions seemed on the verge of collapse. Fortunately he displayed a surprising aptitude for logistics that literally saved the American army from starvation. More significantly, he acquired solid experience in victualing an army in the field, which served him well after he acquired his own independent command. In the fall of 1780, when American hopes for independence seemed at their nadir, Greene became commander of the Southern Department to succeed the

recently disgraced General Horatio Gates. After refitting and reequipping his tattered force, Greene surprisingly took to the offen-­ sive against the smaller but veteran profes-­ sional forces of General Charles Cornwallis. He did so in order to maintain a strategic ini-­ tiative and to keep the British too preoccu-­ pied with chasing him to invade elsewhere. After dodging a close pursuit by British forces across the Dan River to Virginia, and the stunning upset victory of General Daniel Morgan at Cowpens, Greene fought Corn-­ wallis to a bloody draw at Guilford Court-­ house on March 19, 1781. British losses proved so heavy that Cornwallis withdrew into Virginia, leaving Greene a free hand to attack in the Carolinas. At Hobkirk’s Hill and Eutaw Spring in April and September 1781, Greene fought two more veteran British forces, lost each engagement, yet inflicted such heavy losses that the victors were forced to retreat. By December, Greene had reduced British influence in the Carolinas to a handful of enclaves along the coast—a fact he accomplished by losing all his battles! His brilliant success in the South establishes him as, after Washington, America’s most capable military strategist. After the war, he settled at Savannah, Georgia, where he was perpetually grappling with debt, especially after Congress failed to compensate him for money spent out of his own pocket to support the troops of his command. Greene died there on June 19, 1786, aged only 44 years, yet a major force behind America’s ultimate victory in the Revolutionary War.

1781 January 1 Military: A mutiny among the Pennsylvania line erupts at Mount Kemble, New Jersey, over expiring enlistments. Roughly 2,000 men leave camp determined to

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march on Philadelphia and present their grievances to the Continental Congress. General Anthony Wayne, who sympathizes with the soldiers, harangues them to return to camp but is ignored. A British expedition of, 1,800 men under General Benedict Arnold brushes aside 200 American militia near Jamestown, Virginia, and prepares to march on Richmond. Politics: The Continental Congress makes a final issue of $191 million in paper money as the American economy verges on collapse.

January 2 Military: A Spanish expedition consisting of 60 militia and 60 Indians under Captain Eugene Pourre departs St. Louis (Missouri) and marches for the Britishheld outpost of Fort St. Joseph, Michigan.

January 3 Naval: A British expedition of 100 regulars and 500 Indians under Colonel Johann von Hanxleden sails from Pensacola to attack Spanish forces defending Fort Charlotte at Mobile.

January 4 Military: The marquis de Lafayette, Arthur St. Clair, and John Laurens approach mutinous troops at Princeton, New Jersey, but fail to persuade them to ground arms. In New York, General Henry Clinton, now apprised of difficulties in the American camp, also dispatches agent John Mason to solicit their defection.

January 5 Military: General Benedict Arnold and Lieutenant John G. Simcoe scattered 200 Virginia militia guarding Richmond. They then offer to spare the city if the troops are allowed to confiscate tobacco supplies, but Governor Thomas Jefferson refuses. For two days, Arnold’s men plunder and burn several buildings before finally withdrawing unmolested to Portsmouth.

January 6 Diplomacy: The Continental Congress overhauls the Committee on Foreign Affairs and renames it the Executive Secretary of Foreign Affairs. Military: Colonel James Reed, representing the Continental Congress, arrives at Maidenhead, New Jersey, to confer with mutineers at Princeton. British agent John Mason also clandestinely arrives to begin secret negotiations with the soldiers. General Charles Cornwallis, apprised that General Nathanael Greene has split his forces in two, does likewise and orders Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton and 1,100 men to pursue the light force commanded by General Daniel Morgan. Specifically, Tarleton is to destroy the Americans before they can reunite with their main force under Greene.

January 7 Military: A 150-man Spanish garrison under Lieutenant Ramon del Castro repulses a determined attack on Mobile by a British raiding force out of Pensacola commanded by Colonel Johann von Hanxleden. Spanish losses are 14 killed and 23 wounded while the attackers sustain 38 casualties.

January 8 Military: Mutinous Pennsylvania soldiers accept Colonel James Reed’s offer of amnesty and his pledge that the Continental Congress will honor all its prior

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Chronology of American History pledges to them. The mutiny then collapses and those soldiers eligible for discharge are allowed to leave. Lieutenant Colonel John G. Simcoe and 40 mounted rangers are dispatched to Westover, Virginia, to disperse 150 American militia gathered at Charles City County House, Virginia. Simcoe surprises his quarry in a well-executed night attack, killing 20 and capturing eight; British losses are one dead and three injured.

January 10 Diplomacy: To better harmonize international relations, the Continental Congress establishes an Office for Foreign Affairs. However, months elapse before the positions are actually filled. Military: A large raiding force under General Benedict Arnold departs Westover, Virginia, on a plundering expedition down the James River.

January 11 Military: British agent John Mason, caught soliciting defections among American mutineers, is hanged as a spy at Princeton, New Jersey.

January 14 Military: A Patriot militia detachment under Colonel Peter Horry fights a confused skirmish with Loyalists under Lieutenant Colonel William Campbell of the Queen’s Rangers at Waccamaw Neck, South Carolina. The Americans lose one wounded to a Loyalist tally of three dead and two injured.

January 16 Military: The British Legion of Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton steals a march on the light forces of General Daniel Morgan by crossing the Pacolet River at night and advancing rapidly upon his camp. The Americans hastily scamper off, abandoning their breakfast to the enemy, and fall back until reaching a meadow locally known as Hannah’s Cowpens. Morgan does not dare risk crossing the nearby Broad River with enemy troops at his back, so that night he devises a bold plan to defeat the impetuous Tarleton. He ingeniously arrays his men into three distinct lines: the first, composed of Georgia riflemen, is instructed to fire two volleys at the oncoming British, paying particular attention at British officers, then retire. The second line, militiamen from North and South Carolina under General Andrew Pickens, is likewise ordered to fire two volleys then retreat. Morgan’s third and final line consists of redoubtable Delaware and Maryland Continentals under Colonel John E. Howard, who are to stand fast on the hilltop and swap volleys with the enemy while the cavalry under Colonel William Washington strike Tarleton’s flank. It is a perilous prospect, considering that any American withdrawal is cut off by the river at their rear. Morgan, however, was gambling that his adversary’s famed impetuousness would carry the day for him.

January 17 Military: After a dogged chase, Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton and, 1,100 British troops catch up with General Daniel Morgan’s fleeing forces at Cowpens, South Carolina. As anticipated, he immediately attacks without proper reconnaissance and plunges headlong into the trap laid for him. The first and second lines of Morgan’s force fire two well-aimed volleys apiece, toppling many officers, then quickly withdraw to the rear. The British, though staggered, surge forward

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Morgan, Daniel

489

(ca. 1736–1802)

General Daniel Morgan was born in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, around 1736 and he was raised in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia. He matured into a hard-drinking, two-fisted frontier brawler, and in 1755, he accompanied the ill-fated expedition of General Edward Braddock. Morgan’s brash personality did not readily submit to discipline, and at one point he received 500 lashes for striking a British officer. When the American Revolution broke out in April 1775, he was commissioned a captain in one of the newly raised rifle regiments and marched to Boston. Morgan subsequently accompanied Colonel Benedict Arnold on his epic trek to Quebec that fall, and on December 31, 1775, he distinguished himself by penetrating the city’s defenses before surrendering. Once exchanged, Morgan joined the army of General Horatio Gates by commanding a rifle battalion. In this capacity he bore a conspicuous part in the victories of Freeman’s Farm and Bemis Heights, which led to the capture of General John Burgoyne’s army in October 1777. Morgan then transferred back to the army of General George Washington in New Jersey, where he fought well at Monmouth in August 1778. However, he had grown dissatisfied by what he considered lack of rank and retired from the army in July 1779, once Anthony Wayne was made brigadier general in his place. Morgan, who also suffered from severe arthritis, went home to angrily sulk, recuperate, and await the outcome of events.

In September 1780, General Gates, recently savaged at the defeat of Camden, appealed to Morgan to return to the field. He accepted his belated appointment as brigadier general and accepted command of all light infantry forces in the army of General Nathanael Greene. Thus augmented, he harassed the rear of General Charles Cornwallis’s army until confronted by the muchfeared Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton at Cowpens, North Carolina. Morgan brilliantly arrayed his men in three distinct lines to shoot down the oncoming British, then promptly enveloped them as the survivors advanced. Tarleton was completely crushed, with a loss of 1,000 men, and fled; Morgan had sustained 12 killed and 61 wounded in this, the most complete American victory of the war. Afterward, Morgan was again beset by illness and he withdrew for the remainder of the war. In light of his sterling service the Continental Congress made him one of only eight individuals to receive a gold medal. Morgan then settled back on his farm in the Shenandoah until 1794, when he was called back into service to help suppress the so-called Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania. He also served one term in the U.S. House of Representatives as a Federalist. Morgan, who went by the moniker of “Old Wagoner,” died at Winchester, Virginia, on July 6, 1802. He was probably the most adept light infantry leader on either side of the Revolutionary War and his decisive victory at Cowpens is considered the tactical masterpiece of that conflict.

to engage the veteran Continentals of Colonel John E. Howard, who suddenly feigns a retreat and gives ground. At a given signal Morgan has his regulars suddenly turn around and deliver a point-blank volley into their disorganized pursuers, stunning them. At that precise moment Colonel William Washington spurs his dragoons forward, charges over the hill and takes Tarleton in the flanks, as

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Chronology of American History does the newly reformed militia on the other side of the ridge. It is a superbly executed double envelopment and the British army literally disintegrates. After trading sword cuts with Washington, Tarleton ignominiously flees the field, once his surviving cavalry refuses to charge. Cowpens is an American tactical masterpiece and a crushing blow to General Charles Cornwallis, who has now lost his remaining light troops. British casualties total 110 killed, 229 wounded, and 600 captured, out 1,100 men. Morgan only lost 12 killed and 61 wounded.

January 19 Military: The raiding expedition of General Benedict Arnold, having plundered Cobham and Smithfield, Virginia, next defeats a militia force gathered at Hood’s landing and takes up winter quarters at Portsmouth to await reinforcements. General Charles Cornwallis, once informed of the disaster at Cowpens, begins arduously pursuing American forces under General Nathanael Greene across the northernmost reaches of North Carolina. By dint of rapid marching he hopes to engage and destroy either Greene or General Daniel Morgan before they can unite.

January 20–27 Military: New Jersey troops at Pompton, New Jersey, mutiny and march out of camp, ignoring their officers’s pleas to negotiate. The men get as far as Chatham when they are finally persuaded to ground arms and return.

January 21 Military: General George Washington dispatches General Robert Howe with 500 soldiers to suppress the rebellious New Jersey soldiers.

January 22 Military: American forces under Lieutenant Colonel William Hull attack a Loyalist outpost at Morrisania (Bronx), New York, under Lieutenant Colonel James De Lancey. The Americans are rebuffed and withdraw after inflicting 100 casualties and prisoners while suffering only 18 of their own.

January 24 Military: Cavalry and partisan forces under Colonel Henry Lee and General Francis Marion raid Georgetown, South Carolina, 60 miles north of Charleston. The attack flounders, but the Americans capture Colonel William Campbell and several ranking officers sleeping in a tavern. But, lacking the manpower to storm a nearby fort, both leaders withdraw.

January 25 Military: In a daring move, General Charles Cornwallis lightens his force by burning his baggage and supplies at Ramsour’s Mill, North Carolina. He then resumes doggedly pursuing American forces under General Nathanael Greene.

January 26 Military: General Robert Howe suppresses the mutiny of New Jersey troops with 600 loyal soldiers; two of the ringleaders are subsequently executed, and the rebellion ends.

January 30 Military: The forces of Generals Nathanael Greene and Daniel Morgan unite along the Catawba River, hotly pursued by the British under General Charles Cornwallis.

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February 1 Military: General Charles Cornwallis, while attempting to cross Cowan’s Ford on the Catawba River, North Carolina, is obstructed by 300 militia under General William L. Davidson on the opposite bank. For a few tense moments, Generals Charles O’Hara and Alexander Leslie are thrown from their horses and nearly drown in the strong current. Fortunately for them, the British find another ford downstream and cross to take the Americans from behind. Meanwhile, the elite Coldstream Guards claws its way onto the bank and charges the defenders from the front. Davidson is killed attempting to rally his men, who scatter. Total American losses are four dead and three injured; the British sustain four killed and 36 wounded. British cavalry under Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton cross the Catawba River, ride 10 miles to Tarrant’s Tavern, and engage a body of American militia gathered there. Tarleton’s quick approach apparently surprised the militia for, after fighting briefly, they turned and ran. Both sides incur roughly 120 casualties apiece, but the defeat discourages other militiamen from stepping forward. Wilmington, North Carolina, is occupied by 450 British soldiers under Major James Craig, and Loyalists begin rallying to him there.

February 3 Military: General Daniel Morgan, ailing from arthritis, quits the army and returns to Virginia. Command of the light troops then passes to Colonel Otho H. Williams, while the American army continues retreating toward the Dan River.

February 6 Business: The Continental Congress, groping for better control of the national economy, establishes a Department of Finance at the behest of financier Robert Morris, a leading economic authority.

February 7 Military: The Continental Congress replaces the Board of War with the Department of War, but proves unable to find a compromise candidate to serve as secretary. General Alexander MacDougall is also appointed secretary of marine to administer affairs previously handled by the Board of Admiralty. Politics: The Continental Congress determines to create additional executive offices to govern national finance, war, and maritime matters.

February 9 Military: The army of General Nathanael Greene reaches Guilford Courthouse, North Carolina, closely pursued by British troops under General Charles Cornwallis. Greene subsequently holds a war council and the majority of officers favor retreating until more militia swell their ranks.

February 12 Military: The 120-man Spanish garrison under Captain Eugene Pourre surrounds the British outpost at Fort St. Joseph, Michigan, and obtains its surrender. They are assisted by the sudden appearance of 200 Potawatomie Indians, eager to share in the spoils of conquest. Pourre departs for St. Louis a day later.

February 13 Military: Colonel Henry Lee and his legion suddenly turn upon pursuing British forces under Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton at Dix’s Ferry, North Carolina, routing them in a swift action and killing 18. American losses are one dead.

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Chronology of American History General Nathanael Greene, hotly chased by General Charles Cornwallis for 200 miles, quickly slips across the Dan River on boats previously placed for his utilization and reaches the safety of Virginia. The British, lacking oars and engineers, finally quit. Cornwallis finally controls all of North Carolina, but his lines of communication back to the coast are perilously stretched and susceptible to roving bands of guerrillas.

February 18 Military: General Charles Cornwallis abandons his chase and trudges back toward Hillsboro, North Carolina. Colo nel Otho H. Williams and Henry Lee immediately recross the Dan River to begin harrying his rear guard and outposts.

February 19 Military: General Thomas Sumter marshals his men for an attack against Fort Granby on the Congaree River, South Carolina. Major Andrew Maxwell and his British garrison of 300 soldiers are prepared for the strike and repulse the Americans, who then begin siege operations. Once Sumter learns that Lieutenant Colonel Francis Rawdon has dispatched a battalion to reinforce the garrison, he immediately withdraws.

February 21 Military: Partisans under General Thomas Sumter attack a British garrison at Belleville, South Carolina. The Americans, lacking artillery, are forced to engage in a sniping contest with the defenders. Sumter, meanwhile, moves off with part of his command to ambush a 20-wagon British supply convoy. However, when word is received of a relief column marching from Camden, Sumter again abandons the effort and withdraws.

February 22 Military: General Charles Cornwallis raises the royal standard and summons regional Loyalists to rally under him at Hillsboro, North Carolina. One of the first units to respond is a 300-man infantry battalion under Colonel John Pyle of Chatham County, who is ordered to rendezvous with the cavalry of Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton.

February 23 Military: General Nathanael Greene, rested, rearmed, and reinforced by 600 Virginia militia, crosses his army over the Dan River into North Carolina and advances upon Hillsboro.

February 25 Military: The marquis de Lafayette departs Peekskill, New York, with 1,200 picked infantry to try to halt British depredations in Virginia. He will be assisted there by an additional 1,200 French infantry who will arrive by sea. American partisans under General Francis Pickens and Colonel Henry Lee unexpectedly encounter a 300-man Loyalist force under Colonel John Pyle at Haw River, North Carolina. Pyle mistakes Lee’s cavalry for Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton’s British Legion and allows it to approach and intermingle with his men. At a given signal, Pickens, hiding in the nearby woods, opens fire and the American troopers join in the fray. They quickly cut down 93 men and take 200 captive. This defeat has an immediate dampening effect on Loyalist sympathies in the region.

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Lafayette, marquis de (1757–1834) General Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette, was born at Chavaniac, France, on September 16, 1757, into one of France’s most distinguished aristocratic families. Orphaned at an early age, he joined the army at 13 and later married into the influential Noailles family. Lafayette was destined to enjoy the life of a wealthy nobleman, but in 1776, he was struck by the idealism of the American Revolution and determined to offer the young nation his services. When his family refused to condone his decision, he chartered a boat for Spain at his own expense and was subsequently declared an outlaw by King Louis XVI. Lafayette then arrived at Charleston, South Carolina, in 1777, accompanied by his friend and faithful mentor Baron Johann de Kalb. Whatever the youthful marquis lacked in meaningful military experience he more than made up in boundless enthusiasm for the American cause, and General George Washington appointed him to his military family. In short order Lafayette proved his worth by fighting valiantly at Brandywine and other severe engagements, sustaining a leg wound. On May 28, 1778, he cleverly outmaneuvered British forces at Barren Hills, Pennsylvania, avoiding a snare set for him by General William Howe. Lafayette then served as a military liaison with the French expedition of Admiral Charles, comte d’Estaing, throughout the ill-fated campaign in Rhode Island. He next returned to France in January 1779, where he was briefly arrested and then released by

the king. Lafayette remained a year in Paris pleading the American cause at the court and rejoined Washington in April 1780, at a time when American military fortunes were at their nadir. Lafayette received an independent command in Virginia in 1781, where he constantly skirmished and maneuvered against the wily General Charles Cornwallis. However, once the British entrenched at Yorktown, he quickly invested them until Washington could arrive with the main army, and subsequently commanded an entire division for the rest of the siege. With independence nearly won, Lafayette sailed back to France in December 1781, imbued with a new sense of republicanism, and he championed social and political reforms. During the French Revolution, he commanded the National Guard but was forced to flee to Austria in 1797 and was arrested. He was freed by Napoleon in 1800 and offered a military position, but Lafayette returned home a private citizen in 1800. He then resumed his crusade for liberty after Napoleon’s downfall in 1815 by serving in the Chamber of Deputies. In 1824, Lafayette returned to tour the United States and was greeted with thunderous applause from a grateful nation. Back home once again, he served as a tireless champion for political freedom until his death in Paris on May 20, 1834. Lafayette, a child of privilege, remains an enduring symbol of friendship between France and the United States; he is, quite appropriately, a hero on two continents.

February 28 Military: General Thomas Sumter frontally assaults strongly held Fort Watson, South Carolina, and is bloodily repelled, with 18 killed and 38 captured. This is his third straight defeat in one month, which undermines the morale of his guerrilla band and encourages desertions.

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Pickens, Andrew

(1737–1817)

Guerrilla leader Andrew Pickens was born in Paxton Town-­ ship, Pennsylvania, on September 19, 1737, and relocated with his family to the Waxhaw District of South Carolina as a boy. He was distinguished as a militia leader throughout the First Cherokee War and subsequently aligned himself with the Patriot faction in the ongoing dispute with Great Britain. He fought successfully in many backwoods skirmishes in the first four years of the war but on February 14, 1779, he scored an important victory by attacking and dispers-­ ing a large force of Loyalists under Colonel John Boyd at Kettle Creek, Georgia. He also fought under General Benjamin Lincoln at the unfortunate repulse of Stono Creek in June 1779. However, the Americans endured a spate of bad luck over the next two years that culminated in the capture of Charle-­ ston in May 1780, at which point Pickens disbanded his men, who melted back into the countryside as citizens. He remained neutral until December 1780, when a band of marauding Loyalists plundered his farm, and he rejoined the Patriots under General Daniel Morgan. Aware of his reputation as a fighter, Morgan appointed him in command of his second line at the battle of Cowpens. In this capacity Pickens fought well at the January 17, 1781 victory at Cowpens, and greatly contributed to the rout of Lieuten-­ ant Colonel Banastre Tarleton’s forces. He consequently received a ceremonial sword from Congress and promotion to brigadier general of the South Carolina militia. Over the next three years Pickens continued ply-­

ing his successful guerrilla tactics against British and Loyalist outposts in the Carolina backcountry, usually in concert with cavalry under Colonel Henry Lee. This was the scene of savage, no quarter given, com-­ bat, but Pickens distinguished himself for humane treatment of prisoners and for for-­ bidding his men to plunder. He also fought well in line at the defeat of Eutaw Spring in October 1781, and conducted further cam-­ paigns against the Cherokee before finally laying his musket down in 1782. In light of his stern, unyielding Presbyterian demeanor and his active church membership, he was renowned throughout the South as the “Fighting Elder.” Pickens’s wartime activities rendered him a state hero and he was repeatedly elected to the legislature six times between 1781 and 1793. During the period 1793–95, he also held a seat in the U. S. House of Representatives. Afterward he performed useful service as a surveyor working on the Indian boundary and his former adversaries came to regard him as an honest broker in his dealings with them. Pickens’s popular-­ ity had scarcely declined in 1812 when he was entreated to run for the governorship of South Carolina, but he declined in favor of another term in the legislature. He died at Tomassee, South Carolina, on August 11, 1819. Like his great contemporaries Francis Marion and Thomas Sumter, Pickens and his rag-­tag band of guerrillas kept the Ameri-­ can cause alive at a time when all organized resistance to Great Britain was impossible.

Naval: Previously delayed by a storm, Bernardo de Gálvez again sails from Havana with 1,500 men for Pensacola, East Florida.

March 1 Politics: The Articles of Confederation, submitted to state legislatures four years previously, is finally ratified by Maryland and officially adopted. This

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grants the Confederation Congress authority to weigh more heavily the matters of war, peace, and foreign relations, but still denies it any ability to raise taxes or regulate interstate commerce. It also assumes a new moniker, “The United States in Congress Assembled,” under President Samuel Huntington. This form of governance is to remain in place with little alteration until adoption of a more centralized federal regime in 1789 under the U.S. Constitution.

March 2 Military: Cavalry and mounted infantry under Colonel Henry Lee skirmish with Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton at Clapp’s Mill, North Carolina. The Americans sustain eight casualties to the British 21.

March 3 Naval: The marquis de Lafayette reaches Head of Elk, Maryland, and embarks on boats for Annapolis. Once there he expects to be reinforced by French troops arriving by sea.

March 6 Military: General George Washington arrives at Newport, Rhode Island, to confer with General Jean, comte de Rochambeau, over strategy. Despite ongoing events in the South, Washington remains transfixed by an all-out assault against New York City. The British advance guard under Lieutenant Col- Front page of the Articles of Confederation onels James Webster and Banastre Tarleton attack (National Archives) an unguarded militia camp under Colonel William Campbell at Wetzell’s Spring, North Carolina. As the Americans withdraw across the stream they are reinforced by cavalry under Colonels Henry Lee and William Washington. The Coldstream Guards then stall while pursuing them under heavy fire, until small parties ford further downstream and strike the American flanks. Campbell again withdraws until reinforced by Continentals under Colonel John E. Howard. At this juncture, Webster disengages and the fighting stops. Both sides suffer roughly 30 casualties each but, more significantly, the light troops of Colonel William H. Williams, shadowing the main British body under General Charles Cornwallis, slip across the Haw River to safety. General Thomas Sumter attacks a party of Loyalists under Major Thomas Fraser at Radcliffe’s Bridge on the Lynches River, South Carolina. The Patriots drive their adversaries hard, backing them into a swamp, then withdraw. Sumter’s losses are 10 killed and around 40 wounded. Partisans under Colonel Francis Marion fight off a mixed British/Loyalist detachment under Lieutenant Colonel John Watson at Wiboo Swamp, South Carolina. The Americans lose six killed and 12 wounded.

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March 8 Naval: A French squadron under Admiral Â� Charles-­René Sochet, chevalier Destouches, leaves Rhode Island conveying 1,300 reinforcements for the mar-­ quis de Lafayette in Virginia. They are subsequently pursued by Admiral Marriot Arbuthnot.

March 9 Naval: Bernardo de Gálvez arrives at Pensacola with an armada of 35 ships and 7,000 men. He there confronts a small but determined garrison of 1,600 under General John Campbell behind stout fortifications.

March 12 Politics: In Philadelphia, Virginia delegate James Madison recommends stronger, more centralized powers to force states to fulfill their quotas to the government.

March 14 Military: General Nathanael Greene, augmented by militia drafts to 4,400 men, assumes a strong defensive position at Guilford CourtÂ�house, North Carolina, and awaits the approaching British. Taking a leaf from General Daniel Morgan at Cowpens, he also posts his army in three distinct lines. The first consists of North Carolina militia behind a rail fence, who are to loose two volleys and then retire. These are further buttressed by the presence of two small cannon in the center of their line. The second line is composed of Virginia militia and riflemen positioned in a dense wood, supported on either flank by cavalry under ColÂ�oÂ�nels Henry Lee and William Washington. Greene’s final line consists of 1,400 veteran MaryÂ�land and Virginia Continentals under ColÂ�oÂ�nels Otho H. Williams and Isaac Huger.

March 15 Military: General Charles Cornwallis finally confronts a larger American force under General Nathanael Greene at Guilford CourtÂ�house. The British, mustering only 1,900 veteran bayonets, march 12 miles to the battlefield and immediately deploy around 1:30 p.m. The right wing consists of two regiments under General Alexander Leslie, the left of two regiments under Lieutenant colÂ�oÂ�nel James Webster, and the Guards and reserves under General Charles Â�O’Hara. The British advance upon Greene’s first line, taking heavy losses but routing them. Sorting themselves out, they proceed next upon the Virginians in the woods, who resist stoutly before being overpowered. The American cavalry on each flank hold firm, however, forc-­ ing Cornwallis to wheel his men left and right to negate their enfilade fire. Â�O’Hara and the Guards are then brought up in the center to clinch the deal. Fighting on the flanks forms two separate actions, as the remaining British march on ahead. Cornwallis, sensing victory in his grasp, enthusiastically advances upon Greene’s veteran Continentals on the hilltop, who respond with crushing vol-­ leys of their own and a bayonet charge. The British are then staggered in their tracks and nearly routed when ColÂ�oÂ�nel Washington’s cavalry assail their flanks. But Cornwallis instantly orders his own artillery to fire grapeshot directly into the struggling mass, killing soldiers on both sides. The antagonists then separate in confusion but the highly disciplined British rally first and resume advanc-­ ing. Greene, rather than risk having his army destroyed signals a withdrawal and the Americans draw off intact. Like Bunker Hill, Guilford CourtÂ�house is a dearly bought British victory; Cornwallis loses 93 killed and 439 Â�wounded—oneÂ�fourth of his manpower. American losses are 78 dead, 185 injured and 2,046

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Chronology   497 Â� missing—mostly militia who deserted at the last minute. The British are unable to sustain such attrition, and Cornwallis abandons his conquest of North Carolina. He spends the next several days tending to his wounded.

March 16 Naval: The Battle of Cape Henry is waged as Admiral Â�Charles-­René Sochet, chevalier Destouches, arrives off Chesapeake Bay with 1,300 reinforcements for the marquis de Lafayette. There he encounters a British fleet under Admi-­ ral Marriot Arbuthnot, whose Â�copper-­bottom ships give them a slight speed advantage and allowed them to arrive first. Both sides possess eight warships apiece, with the British enjoying superiority in the amount of metal thrown. The battle then unfolds in heavy seas as the contestants run past each other trading broadsides. However, British superiority in gunnery is neutralized once rough water compels them to keep their lower gun ports closed. Arbuthnot also fails to signal for close action; consequently his van drifts from the battle line and is roughly handled. But after one hour’s fighting, Destouches timidly with-­ draws from the scene and returns back to Rhode Island with a loss of 72 killed and 120 wounded. Arbuthnot lost 30 killed and 73 wounded, but his rigging is badly cut, and he declines to pursue. Nonetheless, the French surrender control of Chesapeake Bay to the British and fail to reinforce Lafayette. Arbuthnot is thereby able to supply and assist the army of General Benedict Arnold in Vir-­ ginia as needed.

March 19 Military: General Charles Cornwallis, his conquest of North Carolina thwarted by heavy losses, marches his surviving soldiers back to Wilmington, 200 miles distant.

March 20 Military: British General William Phillips arrives at Portsmouth, Virginia, with 2,000 men and orders to take command of forces presently under General Bene-­ dict Arnold. His strategy is to do as much damage as possible to the Â�tobacco-­based Virginia economy to deprive the Americans of a valuable source of income.

March 22 Naval: The main French fleet of Admiral Francois, comte de Grasse, departs Brest with 20 ships of the line, three frigates, and 150 transports carry�ing 5,000 soldiers. He sails immediately for the West Indies.

March 24 Military: ColÂ�oÂ�nels Elijah Clarke and James McCall engage and destroy a band of Loyalists under Major James Dunlap at Beattie’s Mill, South Carolina. The Loyalists lose 35 killed and 40 taken prisoner; Dunlap, a particularly treacherous partisan, is murdered while in captivity.

March 26 Military: The marquis de Lafayette marches from Annapolis to Head of Elk, Mary�land, without his promised reinforcements.

April 1 Military: General Nathanael Greene, reduced by desertion to 1,500 soldiers, breaks camp at Ramsey’s Mills, North Carolina, and resumes offensive operations against Lieutenant ColÂ�oÂ�nel Francis Rawdon, commanding British field forces in

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Chronology of American History North and South Carolina. The British are now scattered throughout the countryside in isolated outposts, and Greene intends to reduce them one by one.

April 2 Naval: Captain John Barry, commanding the 36-gun frigate Alliance, is accosted by British privateers Mars and Minerva off the French coast; he captures both.

April 7 Military: General Charles Cornwallis and 1,425 soldiers wearily trudge into Wilmington, North Carolina, to rest, refit, and be resupplied by the Royal Navy.

April 11 Military: Partisans under Colonel William Harden capture the garrison at Fort Balfour, South Carolina, taking 90 captives.

April 14 Naval: The Confederation Congress votes Captain John Paul Jones and his men its thanks, and he appears in person to accept the accolades.

April 15 Military: American forces under General Francis Marion and Colonel Henry Lee unsuccessfully attack the strong Loyalist garrison at Fort Watson, South Carolina, despite plucky defenders and a lack of artillery. Naval: The 32-gun frigate Confederacy under Captain Seth Harding is cornered by British frigates HMS Orpheus, 32 guns, and Roebuck, 44 guns, off the Delaware capes and surrenders without a fight. The vessel is subsequently taken into British service as HMS Confederate.

April 16 Military: Resurgent American militia under General Andrew Pickens and Colonel Elijah Clark surround and besiege Augusta, Georgia, in the absence of British forces. The Loyalist garrison under Colonel Thomas Brown grimly determines to resist as long as possible.

April 18 Military: General Benedict Arnold sorties from Portsmouth, Virginia, with 2,500 men to continue raiding.

April 19 Military: General Nathanael Greene and 1,550 men occupy the old battlefield of Camden, South Carolina, prior to marching on Charleston.

April 23 Military: Eager to resume offensive operations, General Charles Cornwallis departs Wilmington, North Carolina, and advances into Virginia with 1,500 men. In his absence Lieutenant Colonel Francis Rawdon is appointed commander of remaining British field forces in the Carolinas. General Francis Marion and Colonel Henry Lee continue attacking Fort Watson, South Carolina, despite their lack of artillery. The problem is partially solved when Colonel Hezekiah Marham proposes building a platformed log crib so that riflemen can deliver a plunging fire into the British camp. The garrison then surrenders 144 men while American losses total two killed and six wounded. Thereafter, constructing “Marham towers” becomes a standard American tactic.

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April 24 Military: General Nathanael Greene encamps 1,500 veteran soldiers at Hobkirk’s Hill, South Carolina, two miles south from the main British position at Camden. He fully expects to rest his men a few days before proceeding to attack Lieutenant ColÂ�oÂ�nel Francis Rawdon in a few days.

April 25 Military: General Benedict Arnold, reinforced by 2,000 troops under General William Phillips, attacks 1,000 militia under General John Peter Gabriel Muh-­ lenberg at Petersburg, Virginia. Muhlenberg puts on a good front and deploys his men along Blandford Hill as if inviting a frontal assault. The British, advancing in two columns under ColÂ�oÂ�nel Robert Abercrombie and John G. Simcoe, have little difficulty driving the militia from their position but they withdraw in good order. Both sides loses a total of 10 men apiece. Rather than wait to be attacked, Lieutenant ColÂ�oÂ�nel Francis Rawdon scrapes together 900 men at Camden and advances upon General Nathanael Greene at Hobkirk’s Hill, South Carolina. Rawdon deliberately avoids the roads and takes a line of march through the woods to avoid detection until nearly upon his quarry. The Americans are cooking at the time but assume strong defensive positions as the British/Loyalists force approaches. Seeing that Rawdon is attacking along a very narrow front, Greene orders part of his MaryÂ�land and Virginia Continentals under ColÂ�oÂ�nels Otho H. Williams and Isaac Huger to advance and envelop the British from both flanks. The Americans are making good progress when Rawdon’s second line steps up, extends its own flanks, and ends up outflanking the Americans. At this junc-­ ture, the usually solid 1st MaryÂ�land Regiment under ColÂ�oÂ�nel John Gunby inex-­ plicably bolts, and panic ensues along the American line. As the Continentals fall back to redress their ranks, Rawdon sounds the charge and the Americans scatter. Worse, Greene’s artillery is threatened, and only direct intervention by the general saves it from capture. The sudden appearance of cavalry under ColÂ�oÂ� nel William Washington prevents the withdrawal from becoming a rout, and the Americans depart in good order. Greene’s losses are 19 dead, 115 wounded, and 136 missing; Rawdon losses 38 dead and 220 Â�injured—one fourth of his army. He thereupon declines to pursue and simply holds the field. Bernardo de Gálvez begins a formal siege of Pensacola, West Florida, defended by 1,600 EnÂ�glish and Hessians under General John Campbell.

April 27 Military: General Benedict Arnold scatters American militia at Osborne’s, on the James River, Virginia, and engages the 20-­gun ship Tempest, the 26-­gun Renown, and the 14-­gun Jefferson offshore. A chance shot cripples the Tempest, and when its crew abandons ship, the others do likewise. Arnold ultimately burns 24 small ships collected at Hampton Roads while a large store of tobacco is also confiscated. British forces under General William Phillips destroy Chesterfield Court Â�House, Virginia, burning various buildings and supplies.

April 29 Military: The marquis de Lafayette arrives at Richmond with 1,200 men to reinforce the beleaguered defenders. He succeeds Friedrich von Steuben and is ordered to keep the town from being recaptured.

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April 30 Military: Generals Benedict Arnold and William Phillips, wary of recent American reinforcements, retire back to their main encampment at Portsmouth, Virginia.

May 4 Military: General Thomas Sumter and 50 partisans lay siege to Fort Granby, South Carolina, defended by Major William Maxwell and 300 soldiers. Sumter does so in defiance of orders from General Nathanael Greene, who requests his troops as reinforcements. He subsequently departs with some men on another raid toward Orangeburg, leaving the siege to be conducted by Col�o�nel Thomas Taylor.

May 7 Military: Lieutenant ColÂ�oÂ�nel Francis Rawdon receives 50 reinforcements at Camden, South Carolina, and again takes the offensive against the army of Gen-­ eral Nathanael Greene. The Americans, anticipating the moves, withdraw nine miles back to a strong fortified position that dissuades Rawdon from attacking. The British then retrace their steps back to Camden.

May 8 Military: Partisan forces under General Francis Marion surround the fortified mansion of Rebecca Motte and demand the Loyalist garrison’s surrender. After they refuse, the two sides exchange shots over the next four days.

May 9 Military: Bernardo de Gálvez, commanding 7,000 Spanish troops, captures Pen-­ sacola, West Florida, from General John Campbell after touching off his main powder magazine with a lucky cannon shot. The Spanish are initially repulsed but subsequently occupy part of the ruined fortification, prompting a British sur-­ render. For a cost of 74 dead and 198 wounded, de Gálvez inflicts 105 casualties, secures 1,100 prisoners, and acquires ample supplies of guns and ammunition. He now enjoys undisputed possession of West Florida, which remains in Spanish hands until 1819.

May 10 Military: Lieutenant ColÂ�oÂ�nel Francis Rawdon abandons Camden, South Caro-­ lina, and withdraws toward Charleston. He also orders all British outposts in the interior evacuated, save for Fort Ninety-Six.

May 11 Military: The garrison at Orangeburg, South Carolina, surrenders 15 British and 70 Loyalist prisoners to General Thomas Sumter.

May 12 Military: The British garrison at Fort Motte, South Carolina, under Lieutenant Charles McPherson, surrenders 150 men to ColÂ�oÂ�nel Henry Lee and General Francis Marion following a Â�four-­day siege. To accelerate their capitulation, the Americans assault the fort with Â�fire-­tipped arrows. The elÂ�derÂ�ly widow Rebecca Motte, who owns the mansion, not only agreed to the tactic but also produced the bows and arrows for the attack. The Americans sustain two dead.

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May 13 Military: The talented British general William Phillips dies suddenly of typhoid fever at Petersburg, Virginia, and command of British forces there reverts to General Benedict Arnold.

May 14 Business: The Confederation Congress caves in to Robert Morris’s demands for complete control over national fiscal matters, along with the ability to handpick his subordinates. Among them is Jewish financier Haym Solomon. With these conditions met Morris finally assumes his role as superintendent of finance. Military: A Loyalist raiding party under Colonel James De Lancey surprises an American outpost at Croton River, New York, killing Colonel Christopher Greene and wounding 42 soldiers.

May 15 Military: Colonel Henry Lee captures Fort Granby, South Carolina, and takes 352 British and Hessian prisoners under Major Andrew Maxwell. He first tries coaxing their surrender with generous terms, including full honors of war, but it is his firing of a single cannon shot that convinces the garrison to yield. Moreover, Maxwell, a notorious plunderer, is allowed to carry off two wagonloads of booty. American militia under Colonel Thomas Taylor are so enraged by the terms that at one point they threaten to kill the prisoners.

May 18 General: Loyalist prisoners stage a large breakout from Newgate Prison, Connecticut, the site of an abandoned copper mine.

May 20 Military: General George Washington confers with his French counterpart, General Jean, comte de Rochambeau, in Wethersfield, Connecticut. Both agree upon a joint operation against New York City, hopefully in concert with Admiral Francois, comte de Grasse’s powerful fleet, then cruising the West Indies. Washington also dispatches General Anthony Wayne with 1,000 men to reinforce the marquis de Lafayette in Virginia. General Charles Cornwallis slogs into Petersburg, Virginia, and is strengthened to 7,200 men by detachments under General Benedict Arnold.

May 21 Military: Colonel Henry Lee captures two companies of Loyalists and needed supplies at Fort Galpin, South Carolina, securing 126 prisoners for a loss of one man. Because this outpost serves as a depot for the superintendent of Indian Affairs, many valuable trading goods are also confiscated. Its capture also signals that the noose around Augusta is tightening.

May 22 Military: General Nathanael Greene besieges Fort Ninety Six, South Carolina, one of several large British posts still dotting the interior. However, he is down to less than 1,000 men and lacks heavy artillery, while the 550 Loyalists under Colonel John Cruger remain determined to resist. Worse, Colonel Tadeusz Kos´ciuszko initially digs his trenches too close to the fort and the defenders periodically sortie

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Salomon, Haym (ca. 1740–1785) Financier Haym Salomon was born in Lissa, Poland, around 1740, part of an observant Jewish family. He was well educated and well traveled in Europe, gaining fluency in German, Spanish, and French, before arriving in New York in 1772. He quickly established himself as a successful broker and merchant, with important political connections throughout the city. When the Revolutionary War erupted in April 1775, he sided with the Patriots and became responsible for supplying the army of General Philip J. Schuyler in New York. After New York fell to General William Howe in September 1776, Salomon remained behind as an intelligence asset, was arrested for spying, and then assigned to the staff of General Leopold von Heister on account of his linguistic abilities. In this capacity he continued assisting the Americans by encouraging Hessians to desert, and also helped many captives escape by providing them with money. Salomon was again arrested for these activities in 1778 and condemned to be executed, but he managed to bribe a guard and escaped to Philadelphia. In doing so he abandoned his wife and child, who rejoined him two years later in their new abode. Salomon made repeated requests to the Continental Congress for employment, but to no avail. He then set himself up as a commission merchant, specializing in foreign bills of exchange, where his command of French and Spanish proved most useful. In this capacity he worked closely with General Jean, comte de Rochambeau,

as treasurer of the French expeditionary forces. His efforts were attended by much success, which brought him to the attention of Robert Morris, newly appointed superintendent of the Office of Finance. Specifically, Morris hired Salomon to function as a bill broker to help market foreign bills and raise revenue for the tottering American government. By the fall of 1781, his efforts proved instrumental in providing funds to underwrite the decisive Yorktown Campaign that ended the war. But as the economy gradually worsened in 1782, Salomon became the government’s official broker, authorized to market government bills. In doing so he acquired great wealth and a reputation for generosity, helping to fund Philadelphia’s first synagogue and the Traveler’s Aid Society, America’s first Jewish charity. More significantly, he also invested a large sum of his personal holdings, estimated at $600,000, to keep the government afloat. Salomon’s unflinching investment in the government with rapidly depreciating bills left him nearly destitute by war’s end. In 1784, he purchased a house in New York, intending to move back there, but died of illness in Philadelphia on January 6, 1785. Reputedly, Salomon was so impoverished at the time that his family could not afford a proper headstone, hence his grave remains unmarked. But his skill as a financier, coupled with a willingness to invest his personal fortune in the American cause, mark him as one of America’s earliest and most significant Jewish patriots.

and disrupt them. New trenches are subsequently constructed further back, along with a Maham tower allowing riflemen to shoot into the camp.

May 23 Military: Colonel Henry Lee, assisted by militia under Colonel Elijah Clarke, captures Fort Grierson in Augusta, Georgia, killing or capturing the entire 80-man

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Loyalist garrison. The commander, Colonel James Grierson, a particularly brutal partisan, is also murdered in captivity. Lee then proceeds to besiege nearby Fort Cornwallis.

May 24 Military: General Charles Cornwallis departs Petersburg, Virginia, and marches toward Richmond while General Benedict Arnold is ordered back to New York.

May 26 Business: The Confederation Congress accepts a proposal by Robert Morris to establish a national bank. His efforts to stabilize the national economy are further enhanced by receipt of 6 million French livres. Military: General Anthony Wayne, en route to Virginia from York, Pennsylvania, quells a minor mutiny among his troops by executing seven ringleaders, and proceeds without further delay.

May 28 Military: The approach of General Charles Cornwallis at the head of 7,000 British veterans forces the evacuation of Richmond, Virginia. Naval: The 36-gun frigate Alliance under Captain John Barry, returning from a diplomatic mission to France, is attacked in calm waters by the 16-gun HMS Atalanta and the 14-gun Trepassy. Using sweeps, the British ships row themselves into raking position near Barry’s stern, and he is wounded by grapeshot. He is then carried below deck, seriously injured but, after crewmen mention surrendering, Barry orders them to return him topside. Shortly afterwards, the wind springs up and the Alliance easily outmaneuvers its antagonists, capturing both. The Americans lose eight killed and 19 wounded to a British tally of 12 dead, 29 injured, and 169 captured.

June 1 Military: General Henry Clinton, incensed that General Charles Cornwallis has disobeyed orders and invaded Virginia, now suggests that he either advance into the Delaware region or withdraw by sea back to New York. But Cornwallis, enjoying the political support of Lord George Germain, disobeys again and intends to campaign where he is.

June 3 Military: General Henry Clinton receives intercepted dispatches by General George Washington to Congress, outlining his intention to gather strength and attack New York. Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton takes 180 troopers of his British Legion and 70 men of the 23rd Royal Welsh Fusiliers on a raid against Charlottesville, Virginia, in an attempt to snare Governor Thomas Jefferson and his legislature.

June 4 Military: Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton attacks Charlottesville, Virginia, after tearing across 70 miles in only 29 hours. His sudden appearance causes Governor Thomas Jefferson and the legislature to flee for their lives, having been warned moments before by militia captain John Jouett. Jefferson himself departs only minutes ahead of Tarleton’s cavalry, which captures military stores and tobacco. They also capture seven tardy legislators, including Daniel Boone. Meanwhile, the assembly relocates to Staunton, 40 miles to the west.

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June 5 Military: Lieutenant John G. Simcoe directs a raid of 400 men against Point of Fork (at the confluence of the Fluvanna and Rivanna Rivers), Virginia, that tricks General Friedrich von Steuben into retreating. The British then double back and capture badly needed supplies along with 30 prisoners. American militia under General Andrew Pickens and Colonel Henry Lee capture Fort Cornwallis outside Augusta, Georgia, after three failed assaults. Lee ordered a Maham tower built, which allows for plunging rifle fire directly into the enemy camp. He then chimes in with a small cannon, at which point the Loyalists lose heart and capitulate. The American inflict 52 killed and take 334 prisoners for a loss of 40 men. They also capture Colonel Thomas Brown, a talented and heartily despised Loyalist partisan leader.

June 6 Military: An American militia detachment under Colonel Isaac Hayne, having seized Loyalist general Andrew Williamson, is then attacked and defeated by Loyalist cavalry under Major Thomas Fraser. The Americans lose 15 casualties and Hayne is captured.

June 8 Military: General Nathanael Greene, besieging Fort Ninety Six, is reinforced by soldiers under General Andrew Pickens and Colonel Henry Lee. Loyalists under Colonel John Cruger sortie the following morning, seizing a cannon and wounding several soldiers. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Colonel Francis Rawdon is collecting three regiments to form a relief expedition.

June 9 Military: The French army of General Jean, comte de Rochambeau, marches from Newport, Rhode Island, toward New York. A 400-man British raiding force under Lieutenant Colonel John G. Simcoe attacks Seven Islands, Virginia, sacking and burning several tobacco warehouses.

June 10 Military: General Anthony Wayne arrives in Virginia with his brigade of 1,000 men to reinforce the marquis de Lafayette and General Friedrich von Steuben in Virginia. The Americans now possess 4,500 veteran soldiers in the field.

June 11 Diplomacy: The Confederation Congress appoints the United States peace commission, consisting of John Adams, John Jay, Henry Laurens, and Benjamin Franklin. Thomas Jefferson is also appointed but he is preoccupied as governor of Virginia and declines to serve.

June 12 Military: The marquis de Lafayette assumes strong defensive positions along Mechunck Creek to forestall a British offensive against Charlottesville. General Charles Cornwallis declines to attack and falls back upon Richmond.

June 15 Diplomacy: The Confederation Congress modifies the 1779 peace instructions and authorizes conditions of independence and sovereignty only; the commissioners are free to pursue other considerations as they see fit. Benjamin Franklin,

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however, adamantly refuses to bargain away navigational rights on the Mississippi River as the price of additional help from Spain.

June 18 Military: Having completed a third parallel, American forces under General Nathanael Greene assault Fort Ninety Six, South Carolina. His objectives are Fort Holmes and its attendant star redoubt. The Americans are initially successful and clear the abattis, but are driven back by a determined Loyalist sortie. Greene, aware of a British relief column headed his way, finally abandons the siege. As Lieutenant Colonel Francis Rawdon marches to the relief of Fort Ninety Six, he is closely shadowed by militiamen under Colonel Charles Myddleton. As soon as the Americans begin to harass his rear guard, the aggressive Rawdon suddenly turns on his antagonists, routing them.

June 19 Military: General Nathanael Greene abandons the siege of Fort Ninety Six, South Carolina, ahead of a British relief column under Lieutenant Colonel Francis Rawdon. The Americans sustain 55 killed, 70 wounded, and 20 captured to a Loyalist tally of 27 killed and 58 injured. This is also one of the longest conventional sieges of the war, having commenced May 22.

June 24 Military: General George Washington marches his army to Peekskill, New York, awaiting the arrival of General Jean, comte de Rochambeau.

June 26 Military: A party of 40 American soldiers under Captain Amos Morse is ambushed and captured by British forces at Rahway Meadow, New Jersey. The marquis de Lafayette decides to attack and destroy a British raiding column commanded by noted light infantry leaders Lieutenant Colonel John G. Simcoe and Hessian Major Johann Ewald. The British are surprised in camp at Spencer’s Tavern by a cavalry charge under Major William McPherson, which stuns the defenders, but fails to rout them. British troopers then hit the Americans in the flank, as Ewald deploys his jaegers to meet an oncoming rush by American riflemen. Following an intense exchange of fire between the competing marksmen, the Hessians charge through the woods and force the Americans back. Pressing ahead, Ewald next encounters Continental infantry under Colonel Richard Butler and pauses to regroup. At this juncture Simcoe, sensing he is badly outnumbered, retreats and abandons his wounded on the field. The allies speedily withdraw in good order back to Williamsburg, six miles distant, where the main force under General Charles Cornwallis reposes. An aroused Cornwallis hurriedly sorties in strength back to the battlefield only to find the Americans gone and returns to camp. Lafayette’s gambit failed to destroy Simcoe’s elite force, but both sides conducted themselves admirably through a hard-fought action. American losses are given as nine killed, 14 wounded, and 14 missing; the British admit to 10 killed and 23 wounded.

June 29 Military: Lieutenant Colonel Francis Rawdon orders Fort Ninety Six abandoned and withdraws the garrison to the coast.

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July 3 Military: When General Benjamin Lincoln fails to receive French reinforcements at King’s Bridge, New York, he refuses to attack the strong post at Fort Knyphausen. Hessians there under Lieutenant Colonel Ernest von Prueschenck sortie briefly and some skirmishing ensues, but the attackers withdraw to their fortifications. Cavalry under Colonel Armand-Louis, duc de Lauzun, arrives too late to participate and Lincoln retreats with a loss of six killed and 52 wounded.

July 4 Military: General Charles Cornwallis crosses the James River at Jamestown Ford and advances toward Williamsburg, Virginia, with 7,000 men. He anticipates that the youthful marquis de Lafayette will be tempted to interfere with his crossing and makes preparations to surprise him at Green Spring. Several “deserters” are then dispatched to the American camp to inform them that only the British rear guard remains on the north bank. Naval: Admiral Thomas Graves supersedes Admiral Marriot Arbuthnot as commander of the Royal Navy in American waters.

July 5 Military: The marquis de Lafayette, deceived by “deserters” sent into his camp by General Charles Cornwallis, is convinced that the British rear guard is marooned and unsupported on the north bank of the James River at Green Spring, Virginia. He then dispatches General Anthony Wayne and 900 men from his camp at Tyree’s Plantation to investigate—the marquis has also received word that the British army is lurking in the nearby woods and advises caution.

July 6 Military: The armies of Generals George Washington and Jean, comte de Rochambeau, unite at Dobbs Ferry, New York. There the highly professional, spitand-polish French regulars look aghast at their scarecrow-like, tattered American allies. General Charles Cornwallis, having lured an American force under General Anthony Wayne into an ambush at Green Spring, Virginia, prepares to spring the trap. He judiciously lures his quarry across the river while the bulk of his own army deploys in the woods surrounding the causeway. Once the attack is signaled, Cornwallis is stunned to find that Wayne has ordered his 900 men to attack the much larger force. For several tense moments the Americans trade volleys with the entire British army before launching a desperate bayonet charge that momentarily halts their opponents. The marquis de Lafayette also shows up with some light infantry at the last possible moment and assists, as Wayne successfully extricates his command. Cornwallis, dismayed to see his quarry slip through his fingers, cancels the action and withdraws across the James. The Americans suffer 28 dead, 99 injured and 12 missing to a British tally of 75.

July 9 Military: Loyalists under John Doxtader attack Currytown, New York, burning houses and taking several prisoners. General Charles Cornwallis dispatches cavalry under Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton from Cogham, Virginia, on an extended raid into the state’s heartland.

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July 10 Military: American militia under Colonel Marinus Willett attack John Doxtader’s 300 Loyalists at Sharon Springs Swamp, New York. After preliminary skirmishing, he lures Doxtader into a crescent-shaped ambush, routing him and inflicting 40 casualties. Willett loses five killed and nine wounded.

July 17 Military: A British detachment of 600 men under Colonel John Coates, 19th Regiment, is attacked by partisans under General Francis Marion, Colonel Henry Lee, and Thomas Sumter at Quimby’s Bridge, South Carolina. Ignoring the advice of Marion and Lee, Sumter orders Colonel Thomas Taylor to frontally assault a strong position; he is repulsed with heavy losses. Other attacks elicit similar results and, at length, the Americans are obliged to withdraw. They incur 60 casualties while inflicting six dead and 38 injured. Sumter’s mishandling of affairs causes hard feelings among his men, and Taylor swears never to serve under him again.

July 20 Military: General Charles Cornwallis is ordered by General Henry Clinton to department Richmond, Virginia, and march back to Williamsburg on the coast. There he is to establish a strong base from which his army can be supplied and reinforced by sea. Receipt of these instructions is a tipping point in the campaign— and the war. Slavery: A slave uprising near Williamsburg, Virginia, kills one white colonists and burns several buildings.

July 21 Military: Generals George Washington and Jean, comte de Rochambeau, reconnoiter the outskirts of New York, concluding that they lack the numbers and equipment necessary for a successful siege. Stalemate in the northern theater continues.

July 24 Military: A hard-riding cavalry column under Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton, having raided across 400 miles of the Virginia interior, rejoins the main British army at Suffolk. It was a spectacular, dashing endeavor in the spirit of their leader but only inflicts minor damage upon the Americans while wearing out many valuable horses.

July 25 Military: British forces burn the town of Georgetown, South Carolina, just ahead of advancing American forces.

July 26 Military: Engineering general Louis Duportail advises General George Washington that a minimum of 20,000 men is probably necessary to attack New York City with any prospect of success. This represents one-third more manpower than the allies can muster at the time, so the prospects of a southern campaign appear increasingly attractive. The only catalyst required is word from Admiral Francois, comte de Grasse’s French fleet, then cruising the West Indies.

August 1 Military: General Charles Cornwallis arrives at Yorktown at the tip of the Virginia peninsula, astride the York River, and begins entrenching. He also fortifies

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Chronology of American History Gloucester Point on the opposite shore, entrusting its defense to Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton. A force of 280 British and 80 Loyalists under Major James Craig marches from Wilmington, North Carolina, on a 75-mile raid against New Bern.

August 4 Military: South Carolina militia officer Isaac Hayne is hanged by Lieutenant Colonel Francis Rawdon for violating his parole. His death sparks an outcry among the people and further hardens attitudes toward the British.

August 6 Military: A force of 60 Loyalists and Indians under Donald McDonald raids Shell’s Bush, New York, but proves unable to pry John Christian Shell, his wife, and six sons from their two-story blockhouse. The Shell family peppers their antagonists with musket fire and McDonald suffers a mortal leg wound while prying a door open. The raiders then sullenly withdraw, losing 11 killed and six wounded.

August 9 Naval: Captain James Nicholson surrenders the 28-gun frigate Trumbull to the 32-gun HMS Iris and 18-gun brig General Monck after three-fourths of his crew, British deserters, refuse to fight. Nicholson, assisted only by Lieutenants Richard Dale and Alexander Murray, and a handful of men, stoutly resist for half an hour before they are overwhelmed. Ironically, the captors are both former American warships, Hancock and General Washington. Nicholson loses five killed and 11 wounded, and 175 prisoners.

August 10 Diplomacy: After weeks of wrangling, the Confederation Congress appoints Robert R. Livingston as the first secretary of foreign affairs.

August 13 Military: A force of 200 partisans under General Francis Marion, having marched 100 miles to join forces with Colonel William Hardin at Parker’s Ferry, South Carolina, sets an ambuscade for 200 British dragoons under Major Thomas Fraser. After deploying his men along a causeway, Marion lures the enemy into attacking and they are repelled by a galling discharge. Fraser rallies and charges two more times before finally withdrawing, losing around 100 men to no American losses.

August 14 Military: Generals George Washington and Jean, comte de Rochambeau, receive electrifying news from Admiral Francois, comte de Grasse, of his impending arrival in Chesapeake Bay. His missive occasions a joyous outburst from the nominally taciturn Washington, and he immediately proposes altering allied strategy. Previously fixated upon New York, he now favors rapidly marching to Virginia and entrapping General Charles Cornwallis at Yorktown. Rochambeau concurs completely and the allies make preparations to expedite their 400-mile trek in secrecy.

August 19 Military: A British raiding force of 250 soldiers and 80 Loyalists under Major James Craig, marching from Wilmington, arrives at New Bern and torches the town.

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August 21 Military: Generals George Washington and Jean, comte de Rochambeau, carefully decamp and head south to Virginia with 6,000 men. They leave 2,500 soldiers behind under General William Heath to deceive General Henry Clinton into thinking that New York is about to be attacked. Furthermore, false orders are written and allowed to fall into enemy hands while the construction of breadbaking ovens in New Jersey gives the impression of a permanent French presence there. Clinton is completely taken in by their subterfuge. Mohawk raiders under Chief Joseph Brant and Simon Girty capture three American scouts on the Great Miami River, Ohio. From them they learn of the approach of 107 Pennsylvania militiamen under Colonel Archibald Lochry. Brant sends runners to Scioto Falls requesting reinforcements as he prepares to ambush the unsuspecting Americans.

August 22 Military: New York militia under Colonel Albert Pawling defeat a large party of Loyalists and Indians under Captain William Caldwell at Warwarsing, Ulster County, New York, inflicting three killed and four wounded.

August 23 Military: General Nathanael Greene, having rested his men after the rigors of Fort Ninety Six, decamps from High Hills along the Santee River and advances upon British forces garrisoned at Eutaw Springs, South Carolina.

August 24 Military: Colonel Archibald Lochry’s detachment of Pennsylvania militia lands on the banks of the Great Miami River, Ohio. Suddenly they are ambushed and destroyed by Indians under Chief Joseph Brant, who kills or captures the entire force. American losses are 36 killed and 55 taken captive. The latter’s fate remains unknown for two years until the survivors are finally paroled at Quebec. Naval: A French squadron carrying 1,000 troops departs Newport, Rhode Island, under Admiral Jacques, comte de Barras, and makes for Chesapeake Bay.

August 27 Naval: Admiral Samuel Hood arrives at Chesapeake Bay with 14 ships of the line, spoiling for a fight, but finding the waters devoid of enemy ships, he sails for New York to join the main fleet under Admiral Thomas Graves.

August 30 Naval: A French fleet of 24 ships of the line under Admiral Francois, comte de Grasse, arrives off the Virginia capes, securing all water approaches to Yorktown, and begins transferring 3,000 crack soldiers to the marquis de Lafayette at Jamestown, Virginia.

August 31 Naval: Admiral Thomas Graves, reinforced by the squadron of Admiral Samuel Hood, departs New York with 19 ships of the line and makes for Chesapeake Bay. He has no idea that a large French fleet is already there awaiting him.

September 2 Military: General Henry Clinton, finally cognizant of American intentions, alerts General Charles Cornwallis of an impending attack in Virginia. Wishing to provide a diversion on his behalf, Clinton orders General Benedict Arnold on

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Chronology of American History an amphibious expedition against New London, Connecticut, to capture military stores gathered there. Arnold then embarks with 1,732 soldiers of the 38th, 40th, and 54th Regiments of Foot, and various Loyalist detachments. The combined forces of Generals George Washington and Jean, comte de Rochambeau, file through Philadelphia in an impressive military display. There Washington allows several long-suffering units, their pay months in arrears, to petition the Confederation Congress for redress. Robert Morris then arranges a loan from Rochambeau to comply, and the army resumes its march to Elk Head, Maryland.

September 4 Settlement: Spanish settlers in California establish a colony at Los Angeles.

September 5 Naval: The fleets of Admirals Francois, comte de Grasse, and Thomas Graves clash over control of Chesapeake Bay. The French muster 24 ships of the line (1,788 guns) while the British possess only 19 (1,402 guns). As the battle unfolds, the British hold the weather gauge, but Graves refuses to depart from traditional fighting instructions and maneuvers slowly and cautiously. He further errs by allowing the French to depart the bay singly and form their line of battle instead of defeating them piecemeal as Admiral Samuel Hood suggested. Both fleets then approach in light wind that allows only eight British and 15 French vessels of the van to engage. These warships are pummeled in a stiff two-and-a halfhour struggle that concludes with nightfall. The British van, badly outgunned, is severely cut up as is Graves’s own flagship, HMS London. French losses amount to 220; the British around 300. This erstwhile inconclusive engagement nevertheless exerts strategic significance, for General Charles Cornwallis—still sequestered at Yorktown—has not been relieved.

September 6 Military: General Benedict Arnold leads 1,732 soldiers on a punitive raid against New London, Connecticut. Dividing his force into two columns, the first easily storms an unfinished battery at Fort Trumbull on the west bank of the Thames River. Across the river, Fort Griswold is defended by 158 men under Lieutenant Colonel William Ledyard of the militia. The British form up their assault columns and charge uphill under a galling fire, gaining the southern and northeastern walls. However, Lieutenant Colonel Edmund Eyre falls at their heads, along with several ranking officers, for a total of 48 killed and 145 wounded. At this point, Ledyard attempts to surrender but is run through with his own sword by enraged British soldiers, who subsequently bayonet 85 defenders to death. An additional 35 are wounded and 37 captured. After burning 143 buildings in New London and Groton, the raiders embark. The extent of American losses further blackens Arnold’s reputation. Naval: The 24-gun privateer Congress under Captain George Geddes engages the 16-gun sloop HMS Savage under Captain Charles Stirling off Charleston, South Carolina. After a four-hour battle, the British vessel is badly damaged and is boarded by marines under Captain Allan McLane as Stirling strikes his flag.

September 7 Military: Indians surprise and wipe out an American detachment under Lieutenant Solomon Woodworth at Fort Plain, New York. American losses are 26 killed and four wounded.

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September 8 Military: The Franco-American army reaches to Head of Elk, Maryland, and prepares to embark on a sealift provided by the French fleet. George Washington, en route to Williamsburg, stops overnight to sleep at Mount Vernon—his first home visit in six years. As General Nathanael Greene approaches Eutaw Springs, South Carolina, with 2,450 men, he encounters a slightly smaller force of 1,800 under Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Stewart of the 3rd Foot (Irish Buffs). The Americans approach his encampment stealthily, surprising and capturing a party of 40 foragers. Minutes later a party of Loyalist cavalry also goes into the bag, although Major John Coffin escapes and alerts Stewart to the danger. The British are consequently drawn up in battle array when Greene attacks them in three lines. American militia in the first rank fight exceptionally well and loose no less than 17 volleys before yielding to a counterattack. The British then charge directly into Greene’s second line, veteran Virginia and Maryland Continentals under Colonel Jethro Sumner; all fall back in confusion. Greene then orders a counterattack across the line and the Americans surge victoriously through Stewart’s camp. Greene seemed poised to finally win a battle when his soldiers began plundering the campsite. Meanwhile, a picked body of British light infantry and grenadiers under Major John Majoribanks takes defensive positions in a thicket off to the right and defy all American attempts to dislodge them. Colonel William Washington’s cavalry tries and is heavily repelled, with Washington captured. Majoribanks subsequently joins Stewart’s men in a fortified brick house to the rear, from which they continue pouring a heavy fire upon the milling Americans. Gauging the time right, Stewart next orders a charge across the field and the disorganized American give way. The heroic Majoribanks is killed, but Greene, wishing to avert disaster, orders his army to disengage and the British keep the field. Eutaw Springs is one of the hardest-fought actions of the war, producing the highest proportional casualties of any battle. Greene loses 138 killed, 375 wounded, and 41 missing—a loss rate of 42 percent, while Stewart suffers 85 killed, 351 wounded, and 257 missing, or 42 percent. Furthermore, British losses are irreplaceable, so Stewart orders an immediate withdrawal back to Charleston. So Greene has lost his final encounter, but the Carolina interior is now largely free of British influence.

September 10 Naval: A squadron of eight ships of the line and numerous transports under Admiral Jacques, comte de Barras, slips by Admiral Thomas Graves’s British fleet and arrives in Chesapeake Bay, delivering badly needed French siege artillery. His arrival also brings the strength of the French fleet up to 36 ships of the line. Admiral Francois, comte de Grasse, now enjoys uncontested control of the Chesapeake; he also seizes British frigates HMS Iris and Richmond as they try to join Graves.

September 12 Military: A force of 1,000 Loyalists under Colonel David Fanning and Hector McNeill surprise a Patriot detachment at Hillsboro, North Carolina, capturing Governor Thomas Burke and several ranking legislators. However, as the Loyalists withdraw, they are attacked by 400 soldiers under General John Butler at

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Chronology of American History Cane Creek. Fanning drives off assailants but suffers 40 killed and 92 wounded. The Patriots have 40 killed, 210 captured, and 100 injured. Naval: Admiral Thomas Graves, after loitering in the vicinity of Chesapeake Bay for several days, concludes that he is badly outgunned by the French and departs for New York to gather up reinforcements. This singular act forfeits control of the sea to the allies: The army of General Charles Cornwallis is now sealed within its trenches at Yorktown, Virginia, by Admiral Francois, comte de Grasse.

September 14 Military: Advance elements of the combined armies of Generals George Washington and Jean, comte de Rochambeau, reach Williamsburg on French naval vessels. General Charles Cornwallis is assured by General Henry Clinton that an expedition is assembling in New York for his immediate relief and should arrive no later than October 5. This letter, despite the growing allied force before him, dissuades Cornwallis from cutting his way out of the peninsula and escaping into the interior before siege lines are established.

September 15 Military: The allies stage an impressive review of 17,000 men at Williamsburg, Virginia. Present are the divisions of the marquis de Lafayette, Friedrich von Steuben, and Benjamin Lincoln. The French army has likewise assembled seven crack infantry regiments assisted by engineering, cavalry, and artillery units. General Charles Cornwallis at nearby Yorktown can scarcely muster half that total.

September 17 Military: General George Washington, accompanied by General Henry Knox and Louis Duportail, confers with Admiral François, comte de Grasse, on board his flagship Ville de Paris of 110 guns, then the world’s biggest warship. A detailed strategy is finalized whereby the French navy contributes several heavy artillery pieces from the fleet. Ultimately, seven redoubts and six batteries will be brought to bear on the British position. Washington’s return to the army is delayed by adverse winds until September 22.

September 23 Military: Trapped at Yorktown, General Charles Cornwallis contacts General Henry Clinton in New York and prepares him to “hear the worse” if reinforcements are not quickly forthcoming.

September 28 Military: The massed Franco-American army advances from Williamsburg, marches 12 miles, and formally invests British positions at Yorktown, Virginia. In response, General Charles Cornwallis abandons his outer works and retires to fortifications nearer the town. In doing so, he wishes to spare as many of his troops’ lives as possible until General Henry Clinton arrives to relieve him.

September 30 Military: The allies readily occupy the outer ring of General Charles Cornwallis’s defenses at Yorktown, Virginia, which accelerates their timetable for planting siege artillery and digging trenches. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton defends the British toehold at Gloucester, across the bay, from French forces under the comte de Choisy and Colonel Armand-Louis,

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duc de Lauzun. His men surprise and defeat an American reconnaissance party under Colonel Alexander Scammell, who is then mortally wounded while in British custody.

October 1 Military: American batteries planted in the captured British outerworks begin pounding General Charles Cornwallis’s army at Yorktown, Virginia.

October 3 Military: Cavalry under Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton and Colonel Armand-Louis, duc de Lauzun, collide at Gloucester, Virginia, across the bay from Yorktown. During the melee, Tarleton seeks to engage Lauzun in a personal duel but is accidentally unhorsed. Lauzun then personally tries to capture the fallen leader but is prevented from doing so by several members of the British Legion. Tarleton escapes unharmed but the French capture his horse and drive the remaining British back to their own lines. A standoff also develops between a portion of the crack 23rd Royal Welsh Fusiliers and a select Virginia militia battalion under General George Weedon. Fighting eventually peters out, and the British withdraw in good order back to safety. The allies lose five killed and 27 wounded to a British tally of 13 dead and wounded.

October 6 Military: General George Washington symbolically breaks the ground for the first parallel trench at Yorktown, Virginia. Within days, 1,500 sappers and engineers are hard at work digging the first parallel, 2,000 yards long and only 600 yards from the British outer defenses. A quick raid by American partisans on the British depot at Monck’s Corner, South Carolina, nets 80 captives.

October 9 Military: Massed firepower from 100 French and American cannon begins relentlessly pounding British defenses at Yorktown, Virginia, burning the frigate HMS Charon and several transports anchored in the nearby York River.

October 10 Military: Major Lemuel Trescott and 100 men of the 2nd Continental Dragoons capture Fort Slongo (Treadwells Neck), Long Island, along with 21 Loyalist prisoners.

October 12 Military: The initial allied trench at Yorktown is completed and a second one commenced only 300 yards from British defenses. However, because the fatigue parties are under fire from British-held Redoubts Nos. 9 and 10, plans are drawn up to capture them.

October 14 Military: At 8 p.m., a combined assault under Colonel Alexander Hamilton and Guillaume de Deux-Ponts captures redoubts 9 and 10 in Yorktown’s defensive perimeter. Hamilton’s 400 picked troops go forward without flints and use bayonets only. They quickly scramble over the parapet, seizing Redoubt 10 in only 10 minutes. Deux-Ponts has a much rougher go at Redoubt 9, taking 30 minutes and sustaining more casualties. Both positions are subsequently incorporated into allied siege lines, allowing additional cannon to be mounted at even closer range.

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Chronology of American History American losses are nine killed and 31 wounded; the French lose 15 killed and 77 wounded. The British tally is 18 killed and 73 captured.

October 16 Military: General Charles Cornwallis, in a desperate attempt to buy time, launches a sortie by 350 men under Lieutenant Colonel Robert Abercrombie. The British initially overrun a French battery and spike the cannon but are driven back with eight killed and 12 captured. That evening, an attempt by Cornwallis to ferry his entire force across the York River to Gloucester is also foiled by bad weather.

October 17 Military: With no succor in sight, a drummerboy mounts the British parapet and beats for a parley. A British officer is then blindfolded and brought into the headquarters of General George Washington with a request to negotiate terms.

October 18 Military: A military commission under Colonel John Laurens and Viscount Louis-Marie Noailles meets with a British deputation about surrender terms. General George Washington insists on unconditional surrender and adamantly refuses to allow the British honors of war—the exact terms imposed on General Benjamin Lincoln at Charleston in May 1780. The British have no choice but to submit.

October 19 Military: General Charles O’Hara formally surrenders 8,081 officers and men of the Yorktown, Virginia, garrison. General Charles Cornwallis, ashamed by defeat and feigning illness, declines to be present. O’Hara then approaches a group of French officers and attempts to tender Cornwallis’s sword to General Jean, comte de Rochambeau but is curtly redirected to the American side. General George Washington also refuses to accept the sword from a subordinate, and insists that it be handed to his own second in command, General Benjamin Lincoln. The British bands then strike a tune appropriately titled “The World Turned Upside Down,” as the defenders dejectedly file out between the assembled allied armies and stack arms. British combat losses at Yorktown total 156 killed, 326 wounded, and 70 missing. The French lose 60 killed and 197 wounded; the America tally is 23 dead and 56 injured. All senior British officers are subsequently paroled and sent by ship to New York. This capitulation, an even bigger disaster for the British than General John Burgoyne’s at Saratoga in 1777, concludes major military operations. Yorktown also devastates British political will to continue the struggle.

October 20 Diplomacy: After weeks of delay, Robert R. Livingston is finally sworn in as secretary of foreign affairs. It has taken the Confederation Congress nearly 10 months to find a suitable compromise candidate for so sensitive a post.

October 21 Naval: The American privateer Indian captures the British vessel Venus, the first of seven seized on an Atlantic cruise.

October 22 Military: Philadelphia erupts into euphoric celebration as Colonel Tench Tilghman hurriedly arrives with news of the British surrender at Yorktown, Virginia.

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October 24 Military: A 750-man Loyalist/Indian force under Major John Ross attacks and burns the settlement at Warrenbush, New York.

October 25 Military: A force of 750 Loyalists and Indians under Major John Ross, then ravaging the Mohawk Valley, is attacked by 400 New York militiamen under Colonel Marinus Willett at Johnstown Hall, New York. Wavering on Willett’s flanks allows the raiders to escape under cover of darkness, but they suffer 65 casualties to an American loss of 35. Willett then vigorously pursues the marauders.

October 27 Naval: A combined amphibious force of 7,000 men under Admiral Thomas Graves and General Henry Clinton makes its belated appearance off Chesapeake Bay, then promptly returns to New York after learning of General Charles Cornwallis’s surrender. However, General George Washington fails to convince either General Jean, comte de Rochambeau, or Admiral François, comte de Grasse, to accompany him back to New York for a proposed attack there.

October 30 Military: Colonel Marinus Willett, heading 400 New York militiamen and 60 Oneida warriors, overtakes a body of Loyalists and Indians at West Canada Creek (Jerseyfield), New York. The Americans then attack and rout the rear guard, killing the hated major Walter Butler and wounding seven more—like so many of his victims, Butler was scalped as he lay wounded. This proves the last hostile incursion in the region.

November 1 Medical: The Massachusetts Medical Society is founded by physician Cotton Tufts.

November 5 Business: The United States obtains a large loan from the Netherlands, although more money will be needed. Naval: The French fleet of Admiral Francois, comte de Grasse, whose presence at Yorktown proved decisive, departs Chesapeake Bay and makes for the West Indies.

November 6 Military: Colonel Elijah Clarke and his militia ambush a party of pro-British Indians in Wilkes County, Georgia, killing 40 and capturing 40.

November 7 Military: A body of 300 Loyalists under William Cunningham massacres a detachment of 30 American militiamen under Captain George Turner at Cloud’s Creek, South Carolina. During surrender negotiations, a young soldier shoots a Loyalist, and slaughter ensues.

November 10 Military: A division of men under General Arthur St. Clair marches down from Yorktown, Virginia, to reinforce General Nathanael Greene in North Carolina.

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November 18 Military: Sensing the change in military fortunes, British forces under Major James Craig evacuate Wilmington, North Carolina, removing all Loyalists who care to depart with them.

November 25 Politics: National dismay arises in England once Parliament learns of the surrender at Yorktown, Virginia. Prime Minister Lord Frederick North reputedly exclaims, “Oh, God, it is all over!”

November 27 Military: American militia under colonels Isaac Shelby and Hezekiah Marham capture Fairlawn, South Carolina, from the British.

December 1 Military: Major John Doyle, commanding 850 men at Fort Dorchester, South Carolina, abandons his post to advancing forces under General Nathanael Greene. Unknown to Doyle at that time, the Americans only number 400.

December 13 Politics: The recent victory at Yorktown, Virginia, induces the Confederation Congress to declare a national day of thanksgiving and prayer.

December 20 Politics: Disregarding appeals from Lords Frederick North and George Germain, King George III stubbornly refuses to end the war.

December 22 Military: His mission to America complete, the marquis de Lafayette embarks at Boston and sails back to France.

December 28–29 Military: Colonel Henry Lee is rebuffed in his attempt to storm Johns Island, South Carolina, then defended by British regulars under Major James H. Craig. Colonel John Laurens is supposed to attack with one column, but a second force under Major James Hamilton fails to cross the Wapoo Creek, and the operation miscarries.

December 31 Business: The Continental Congress charters the Bank of North America in Philadelphia, an organization founded with $400,000 in capitalization to supply the government with funding. They do so upon the urging of Robert Morris, secretary of finance. Naval: Despite a handful of inspiring ship-to-ship victories, the year ends with only two ships of the Continental Navy, frigates Alliance and Deane, still in commission. Politics: The Confederation Congress finally appoints General Benjamin Lincoln as the nation’s first secretary of war.

1782 Literature: John Trumbull finishes publishing M’Fingal, a lively debate on political matters in poetic form, and it is considered one of the finest American poems ever written.

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Morris, Robert (1734 –1806) Financier Robert Morris was born in Liverpool, England, on January 31, 1734, the son of a tobacco exporter. He eventually migrated to Philadelphia and worked capably in a counting house, rising to the level of partner at the age of 20. Highly successful, he modestly supported the goals and aspirations of the mounting Patriot faction in colonial politics, but stopped short of severing ties to England. However, when the Revolutionary War commenced in April 1775, Morris sided firmly with his country and won a seat in the Pennsylvania assembly. That November, he became a delegate to the Second Continental Congress, where he distinguished himself on a number of committees tasked with fiscal and monetary matters. Morris also performed capably at acquiring weapons and materiel for the Continental Army but weathered charges of war profiteering. On July 2, 1776, he absented himself from signing the Declaration of Independence, which he felt was premature, but subsequently signed it in August. However, he remained dogged by allegations of conflict of interest respecting his personal conduct and finally resigned his seat in 1779. Within a year, the nation’s economic condition was critical, and Congress appointed Morris to serve as the first superintendent of finance. He agreed to do so, but only upon the condition of receiving near-dictatorial powers. He then worked wonders reviving the moribund national credit, oversaw economic expansion and trade, and even issued notes on his own signature, backed by his per-

sonal fortune. He also obtained a $100,000 loan from French general Jean, comte de Rochambeau, to found the Bank of North America—the nation’s first credit institution. Morris then proved instrumental in arranging water transport for General George Washington’s army to Yorktown, Virginia, where he forced the surrender of General Charles Cornwallis and for all intents and purposes, won the war. Morris subsequently continued his efforts to strengthen national governance and finance under the Articles of Confederation. When that failed, he was a delegate at both the Annapolis Convention of 1786 and the Constitutional Convention in 1787 to push for more centralized governance. Two years later President Washington tendered him the post of secretary of the treasury, but Morris declined and chose to serve as U.S. senator from Pennsylvania. As a Federalist, he championed the strong money policies of Alexander Hamilton and also brokered the deal whereby Virginia surrendered territory for a new national capital in exchange for assumption of state debts. However, he speculated heavily in land throughout the Old Northwest and lost heavily. By 1798, he accumulated debts approaching $3 million—an unheard-of sum for the day—and spent three years in debtor’s prison. Morris was released and died in poverty in Philadelphia on May 8, 1806, largely forgotten. But during a critical phase of the American Revolution, his financial wizardly rescued the young nation from bankruptcy until victory was assured.

Medical: Harvard College opens its medical school, signaling that the United States is lessening its dependence for European institutions for doctors and physicians. Religion: Robert Aitken of Philadelphia publishes the first English-language Bible in America. He had to wait until the Revolutionary War voided existing British copyright laws.

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Chronology of American History Slavery: The Rhode Island General Assembly frees Quaco Honeyman from bondage in recognition of his services as a spy during the Revolutionary War. Thomas Jefferson convinces the Virginia assembly to legalize manumission of African-American slaves by private citizens.

January 1 Societal: Loyalists begin evacuating the United States in large numbers and make for new homes in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

January 5 Military: British forces begin evacuating Wilmington, North Carolina, and American forces converge on it from the interior.

January 7 Business: The National Bank opens in Philadelphia to help bolster a seriously flagging national economy and help mitigate a monetary crisis.

January 12 Military: The army of General Anthony Wayne, now reinforced by General Arthur St. Clair, crosses the Savannah River and commences marching across Georgia.

January 23 Military: General Anthony Wayne’s army, having crossed the Savannah River into Georgia, is attacked in camp by several hundred Creek warriors under Chief Guristersigo. The Indians are badly repulsed with 18 killed, and Wayne personally slays the chief in combat.

February 11 Politics: A dispirited Sir George Germain tenders his resignation as English secretary of state, although King George III vows to continue the fight for his colonies.

February 25 Military: General Francis Marion of “Swamp Fox” lore, attacks a British force under Colonel Benjamin Thompson at Wambaw Creek Bridge, South Carolina but is repulsed with a loss of 32 men.

February 27 Politics: In another show of resignation, the British House of Commons, stunned by the defeat at Yorktown, implores King George III to accept peace. America, in this singular instance, is referred to as the “former colonies.”

March 4 Military: A raid conducted by Lieutenant Colonel William Hull at Morrisania, New York, nets 52 Loyalist prisoners and suffers 25 casualties. Politics: The House of Commons passes a resolution denouncing any individual seeking to prolong hostilities with America as the enemy of king and country.

March 5 Politics: In London, a dejected House of Lords empowers King George III to conduct peace negotiations with its “former colonies.”

March 7–8 Military: Colonel David Williamson leads a party of vengeful frontier militia who corral and massacre 96 peaceful Delaware Indians residing at the mission

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of Gnadenhutten, Ohio, with blunt instruments. On the following day, additional Moravian Indians are rounded up and similarly dealt with. The Pennsylvania assembly subsequently votes to condemn the act as “disgraceful to Humanity.”

March 19 Military: Colonel Benjamin Logan dispatches 40 horsemen under Captain James Estill from Estill’s Station (Kentucky) in pursuit of Wyandot raiders who have savaged the settlement of Strode’s Station.

March 20 Military: A party of 25 Kentucky cavalry under Captain James Estill surprises a band of Wyandot warriors at Little Mountain, Kentucky. Their initial volley cuts down a chief and several warriors, then a bitterly contested firefight ensues with additional losses to either side. The surviving seven militiamen are then outflanked and withdraw—Estill is among the dead. Monk, an African-American slave who fought with distinction and saved several white comrades, is manumitted for his bravery. Politics: In a major development, Lord Frederick North resigns as prime minister rather than lose a vote of no confidence. Two days later, he is replaced by Charles Watson-Wentworth, marquis of Rockingham, who forms a new government and initiates direct peace negotiations in Paris.

March 24 Naval: A British naval/Loyalist force of 120 men attacks the privateering center at Tom’s River, New Jersey, driving off the local militia company and burning several homes. American losses are seven dead, four injured, and 13 captured to two British killed and two wounded.

March 25 Religion: Dr. Samuel Seabury is elected the first Anglican bishop of the United States at Woodbury, Connecticut, and he is sent to England for his consecration.

April Education: Washington College, an Episcopal institution, is chartered in Chestertown, Maryland.

April 1 Military: General George Washington relocates his military headquarters to Newburgh, New York while his officers and men, their pay several months in arrears, start grumbling about Congressional neglect. Politics: Prime Minister Charles Watson-Wentworth, marquis of Rockingham, reappoints General Sir Guy Carleton as governor general of Canada. He is then carefully instructed to avoid offensive operations where possible, prepare to evacuate American territory, and make accommodations for all Loyalists wishing to relocate.

April 8 Naval: Captain Joshua Barney of the sloop Hyder Ally is chased by the brig HMS General Monk and the privateer Fair American into the restricted waters of Delaware Bay. Badly outgunned, Barney quietly orders his helmsman to do the opposite of whatever commands he yells. The British vessel, listening intently,

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Chronology of American History incorrectly shadows his moves until Hyder Ally suddenly crosses their bows, delivering a fatal broadside. The General Monk then surrenders with a loss of 53 men killed and wounded; the victorious Barney loses 15.

April 12 Diplomacy: Peace negotiations between Benjamin Franklin and British representative Richard Oswald begin in Paris. Franklin begins judiciously and doggedly pursuing formal recognition of independence, fishing rights off Newfoundland, and free navigation of the Mississippi River. Military: Captain Joshua Huddy, a New Jersey militia officer captured in March, is hanged by Loyalists for the death of Philip White. General George Washington orders retaliation by selecting a captive British officer, Captain Charles Asgill, to hang as well.

April 19 Diplomacy: John Adams secures diplomatic recognition of the United States from the Netherlands and immediately begins negotiating for another large loan.

April 24 Military: American forces under Captain Ferdinand O’Neal wage a fierce and unsuccessful skirmish with British troops at Dorchester, South Carolina, losing nine men as captives.

May 9 Military: General Guy Carleton arrives at New York and replaces General Henry Clinton as British commander in chief in North America. He then begins orchestrating a complete British withdrawal.

May 22 Military: At Newburgh, New York, General George Washington angrily dismisses a suggestion from Colonel Lewis Nicola that he install himself as king of the newly independent nation. “Banish these thoughts from your mind,” the general insists, “and never communicate as from yourself, or anyone else, a sentiment of the like nature.” Taken aback by the stern rebuke, Nicola proves profusely contrite and writes three letters of apology.

May 25 Military: A party of 480 militia under Colonel William Crawford departs Mingo Town, Pennsylvania, on a raid through the Sandusky region of Ohio.

June 4 –6 Military: A detachment of 480 Pennsylvania militiamen under Colonel William Crawford conducts an ill-fated campaign against Indians on the upper Ohio River Valley. En route they are ambushed at Sandusky by a mixed Indian/Loyalist force under Captain William Caldwell. These manage to scrape together 100 men from Butler’s Rangers, some artillery, and large numbers of Great Lakes Indians and Shawnee under noted scout Simon Girty, whose arrival tips the balance. The fighting lasts two days before the Americans are finally surrounded and defeated. A detachment under Major David Hamilton manages to cut through the encirclement and escape. The Americans nonetheless lose eight killed and 27 wounded outright and several prisoners—including Crawford—are slowly tortured to death over a fire. Loyalist and Indian losses are five killed and 11 wounded.

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June 7 Business: The Netherlands formally approves a $1 million loan to the new United States at the behest of minister John Adams.

June 13 Military: Survivors of the recent expedition to Sandusky arrive back at Mingo Town, Pennsylvania, under Colonel David Williamson. He has survived one of the bloodiest frontier setbacks the Americans will suffer during this war.

June 23 Diplomacy: John Jay arrives in Paris from Madrid to assist in peace negotiations. From the onset he perceived that French foreign minister Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes, is maneuvering to place French and Spanish priorities head of treaty obligations with America. He alerts Benjamin Franklin accordingly.

June 24 Military: Former captive Lieutenant Colonel Henry Hamilton is appointed lieutenant governor of Canada.

July 1 Diplomacy: William Petty, earl of Shelburne, succeeds Charles WatsonWentworth as prime minister following the latter’s sudden death. He intends to continue negotiations with America but wishes to extract more from the process than his predecessor.

July 11 Military: British forces commanded by former governor James Wright evacuate 4,000 Loyalists and 5,000 former African-American slaves from Savannah, Georgia, concluding two and a half years of occupation.

July 13 Military: Mohawks under Chief Joseph Brant raid the village of Hannastown, Pennsylvania, but fail to carry the stockade or its defenders.

July 20 Politics: The Confederation Congress adopts the Great Seal of the United States, which has been under development since July 1776.

July 29 Military: The mother of captured British officer Captain Charles Asgill, who is scheduled to be executed for the death of an American prisoner in April, visits Paris and pleads with French foreign minister Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes, for help is sparing his life. Vergennes, visibly moved, informs King Louis XVI and the queen, who authorize him to appeal to General George Washington for clemency. The Confederation Congress subsequently votes for Asgill’s release.

August 7 Military: At Newburgh, New York, General George Washington institutes the Purple Heart, or Badge of Merit, for distinguished military service to the country. Three soldiers are the initial recipients.

August 8 Naval: A small British garrison at Fort Prince of Wales, Hudson Bay, surrenders to a squadron of three French warships.

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August 14 –17 Military: A mixed Loyalist/Indian raiding party of 340 men under Simon Girty and Captain William Caldwell besieges Bryan’s Station, Kentucky, but is repulsed. A relief column is then roughly handled by the Indians, but 17 troopers manage to reach the defenders inside the fort. The Americans suffer four killed and three wounded. Girty and Caldwell then call off their attack with a loss of five Indians slain and many more wounded and fall back to the ruins of Ruddle’s Station, ransacked the previous year. While withdrawing they also deliberately mark their trail, as if inviting the Americans to follow.

August 18 Military: An American relief column of 182 men under Colonel Hugh McGary departs Bryan’s Station and pursues Simon Girty’s raiding party across the Licking River despite signs of impending ambush. Daniel Boone, the noted scout, is familiar with the area and advises McGary against crossing directly. Instead he proposes dividing the force and sending half to ford the river several miles downstream and catch the raiders from behind. He also implores his commander to await reinforcements under Colonel Benjamin Logan. But McGary, having been accused of cowardice by some for delaying, resolves to attack.

August 19 Military: Colonel Hugh McGary divides his force of 182 mounted Kentuckians into three columns and surges across the Lower Blue Licks. Assembling on the opposite bank, they begin ascending the high ground when Simon Girty’s Indians suddenly rise from cover, fire a devastating volley, then charge. McGary’s right and center quickly collapse, while his leftmost column under Daniel Boone struggles to hold its ground. The surviving Kentuckians then flee across the river in panic, leaving the Indians to scalp and mutilate their dead and wounded. The Americans thus lose 77 men in 15 minutes, while a further seven are taken alive and slowly burned to death. Among the slain is Boone’s youngest son, Israel Boone. Girty reports seven killed and 10 wounded.

August 24 Military: Colonel Benjamin Logan and 470 mounted Kentuckians arrive at the Blue Licks battlefield and spend several hours interring the dead. Colonel Daniel Boone recovers his son’s remains and conveys them back to Boone’s Station for burial.

August 27 Military: General Mordecai Gist leads American light troops into action at Combahee Ferry, South Carolina, being roughly handled by larger numbers of British forces. The Americans sustain a loss of 21 men, including Colonel John Laurens, son of politician Henry Laurens, among the dead. The foragers then return to Charleston unimpeded.

September 2 Naval: In Boston, the Americans turn over the new 74-gun ship of the line America to France as compensation of a similar vessel, the Magnifique, which previously sank in the harbor.

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September 8 Religion: Rationalist James Freeman becomes speaker at King’s Chapel in Boston, marking its gradual emergence as the first Unitarian congregation in the United States.

September 9 Diplomacy: In Paris, John Jay discerns that French foreign minister Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes, has dispatched his secretary to London to begin secret negotiations with Great Britain behind America’s back. Benjamin Franklin, once alerted to the ploy, now insists that the British deal with the United States as a single entity, not 13 disparate states.

September 10 Military: General Andrew Pickens leads 316 South Carolina militiamen on a second foray against the Cherokee. He then enters Georgia and is joined by additional militia under Colonel Elijah Clarke.

September 13 Military: Fort Henry, (West) Virginia, is unsuccessfully besieged for three days by 300 Indians and Loyalists. The attackers then try to improvise a cannon out of a hollow log, but it explodes harmlessly. After trying to scale the walls at night and being rebuffed, the attackers draw off.

September 19 Diplomacy: Prime Minister William Petty, Lord Shelburne, acknowledging a fait accompli, authorizes his agents in Paris to negotiate with the United States as a sovereign entity and not a collection of 13 states.

September 20 Military: American militia under Colonel John Sevier defeats the Cherokee of Dragging Canoe at Lookout Mountain, Tennessee. This action finally convinces the Indians to seek peace.

September 24 –28 Naval: Captain John Barry and the 32-gun frigate Alliance capture four heavily laden British merchant ships bound for Jamaica.

September 27 Diplomacy: American and British representatives in Paris begin formal peace negotiations.

September 30 Naval: In one of the final actions of the war, six British barges attack the Maryland barge Protector off Tangier Sound, Chesapeake Bay, capturing it and 80 prisoners, along with Commodore Hezekiah Whaley.

October Education: Liberty Hall Academy is founded in Lexington, Virginia, as a Presbyterian institution. In 1865, it is renamed Washington and Lee University.

October 1 Diplomacy: In Paris, Benjamin Franklin and John Jay indicate to their British counterparts their willingness to negotiate and ignore prior pledges to France—in exchange for a better deal.

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October 5 Diplomacy: British and American negotiators in Paris conclude a preliminary draft of peace terms that defines national boundaries, evacuates British forces, grants fishing rights off Newfoundland, and ensures freedom of navigation along the Mississippi River.

October 8 Diplomacy: John Adams finalizes a treaty of friendship and commerce with the Netherlands; he then departs for Paris.

October 15 Education: Washington College is chartered at Chestertown, Maryland, becoming that state’s first institution of higher knowledge.

October 26 Diplomacy: John Adams arrives in Paris to help finalize peace negotiations with Great Britain.

November 1 Diplomacy: American peace commissioners in Paris, ignoring instructions from Congress, engage their British counterparts—without consulting the French per conditions of the their alliance.

November 4 Military: American and British forces wage a final skirmish near Johns Island, South Carolina, which causes the death of Captain William Wilmot, 2nd Maryland Continentals, and four soldiers. Wilmot is the last army officer to fall in this war.

November 5 Diplomacy: Henry Laurens, released from confinement in the Tower of London, joins the American peace delegation then in Paris.

November 10 Military: General George Rogers Clark leads 1,500 mounted riflemen on a punitive expedition against Shawnee villages around present-day Piqua, Ohio, killing 10 Indians and wounding 10. This is most likely the last combat action of the Revolutionary War.

November 30 Diplomacy: The Treaty of Paris is concluded with British negotiators and signed by Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, Henry Laurens, and John Adams. The document as written completely ignores Spanish protests and claims of lands east of the Mississippi River and also fails to inform France of the proceedings—a direct violation of the 1778 French alliance. However, the treaty is not technically in effect until ongoing conflicts with France and Spain are resolved, and the Confederation Congress will not actually ratify the document until January 14, 1784.

December 5 Arts: John Singleton Copley paints a portrait of Elkanah Watson in London, depicting the first-known artistic rendition of the Stars and Stripes flag on a ship in the harbor. General: Martin Van Buren, a future president, is born in Kinderhook, New York.

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December 14 Military: British general Alexander Leslie evacuates Charleston, South Carolina, taking along 3,800 Loyalists and 5,000 former African-American slaves. The city is then promptly occupied by American troops under General Nathanael Greene.

December 15 Diplomacy: French foreign minister Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes, remonstrates against being left out of peace negotiations with Great Britain but a crisis is averted by deft consultations with Benjamin Franklin. To underscore his mastery of statecraft, Franklin also manages to secure a new loan of 6 million livres from the French government.

December 20 Naval: The American 40-gun frigate South Carolina under Captain John Joyner surrenders to the 54-gun HMS Diomede of Captain Thomas L. Frederick and the 40-gun HMS Quebec off the Delaware capes. American losses are six killed and wounded along with 450 prisoners.

December 24 Naval: General Jean-Baptiste, comte de Rochambeau, embarks his army at Boston and sails away for the West Indies. Under his sound leadership, and open willingness to cooperate with General George Washington, the United States was enabled to win its independence.

December 30 Politics: A congressionally appointed court awards possession of the Wyoming Valley to Pennsylvania.

1783 Education: Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, is founded by the Presbyterians. Publishing: In Goshen, New York, 25-year-old Noah Webster publishes The American Spelling Book, the first volume of his larger A Grammatical Institute of the English Language. Rapidly, this becomes a standard instructional primer for American orthography and uniform pronunciations. Webster subsequently orchestrates a national movement toward a distinctly American way of spelling English words. Slavery: A Massachusetts court, having heard the appeal of John Cuffe and other free blacks who paid taxes throughout the Revolutionary War, rules that they must receive the right to vote within the state. In a final pamphlet before his death, Philadelphia Quaker Anthony Benezet upbraids his fellow Americans for fighting and winning the Revolutionary War for such lofty principles as liberty—yet failing to extend those same advantages to African-American slaves. The Maryland legislature outlaws all participation in the African slave trade but remains silent on the issue of slavery. John C. Derham purchases his freedom from Dr. Robert Dow in Louisiana and is allowed to open up his own medical practice, becoming the first African American so employed. He had previously served as a medical intern under Drs.

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Chronology of American History John Kearsley and George West, becoming a distinguished physician in his own right. By year’s end, all states north of Maryland have enacted laws banning the importation of Africans for use as slaves.

January 6 Military: General Alexander McDougall, Colonel John Brooks, and Colonel Matthias Ogden petition the Confederation Congress for back pay and other amenities. There is a growing sense among military officers that the Congress cannot discharge its obligations to the army—or the nation.

February 3 Diplomacy: The government of Spain extends belated diplomatic recognition to the United States.

February 4 Diplomacy: A sullen King George III officially declares an end to hostilities with America, something he had been reluctant to do for nearly two years.

February 15 Diplomacy: The United States acquires diplomatic recognition from Portugal.

March 8 Business: Secretary of Finance Robert Morris, faced with a huge national debt and uncooperative state governments, threatens to raise taxes and impose duties using powers implied under the Articles of Confederation.

March 10 Military: The Newburgh Conspiracy unfolds as Major John Armstrong anonymously circulates letters complaining about the Confederation Congress’s failure to honor its promises to the army. His missive demands direct action and implores that all officers convene to discuss the problem on the following day. Naval: Captain John Barry and his 36-gun frigate Alliance have the honor of fighting the last American naval action of the war. En route from France and accompanying the French frigate Duc de Lauzun under Captain John Green, they are set upon by the British frigates HMS Alarm, 32 guns, and Sybil, 28 guns, and the 18-gun sloop Tobago off Florida. Barry coolly closes with the Sybil under Captain James Vashon and withholds firing until within pistol shot. He then unlooses a devastating broadside that cripples the British ship. Sybil is dismasted and helpless but Barry moves off to cover the Duc de Lauzun, then transporting half a million dollars in specie. The Americans lose one killed and nine wounded; British losses are unknown but presumed heavier.

March 11 Military: General George Washington, alarmed by implied threats against the Congress as suggested by the Newburgh Conspiracy, forbids a gathering of officers this day and, instead, summons his men for a general meeting on the 15th.

March 15 Military: At Newburgh, New York, General George Washington harangues his officers about duty and honor, strongly denouncing any threats by the military against lawful authority. He personally promises that all issues will be addressed by that body at the appropriate time. Swayed by his example, the officers vote

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to disavow their actions at Newburgh and reaffirm their loyalty to the American government.

March 24 Naval: The Confederation Congress recalls all armed vessels under the American flag.

April 11 Diplomacy: The Confederation Congress officially declares an end to hostilities with Great Britain.

April 15 Diplomacy: A provisional draft of the Treaty of Paris is ratified by the Confederation Congress, eight years having elapsed since the outbreak of hostilities with Great Britain. Congress also orders all naval prisoners released.

April 17 Military: A party of 100 Loyalists and 50 Indians under Captain James Colbert attacks Fort Carlos, Arkansas, seizing 11 captives, but is unable to evict the remaining 40-man garrison under Captain Raymondo Du Breuil.

April 18 Diplomacy: The Confederation Congress suggest paying off the national debt through a revenue system, but the recommendation is defeated by the New York delegation.

April 24 Military: Captain James Colbert abandons the siege of Fort Carlos, Arkansas, and releases his prisoners after hearing of the peace treaty.

April 26 Societal: The last remaining 7,000 Loyalists evacuate New York. To date, more than 100,000 have departed for England or Canada since 1775 and the majority of their properties have been confiscated. The British government subsequently institutes a commission to pay claims damages, and 3.3 million pounds is ultimately dispensed.

May 13 Politics: The Society of the Cincinnati, an influential veteran’s group consisting of conservative- minded officers, is founded at Newburgh, New York. Over 2,000 officers join and George Washington is elected the first president-general.

May 26 Military: The bulk of the Continental Army demobilizes, save for a small formation retained to observe the British evacuation of New York. The soldiers return home without pay but are granted a three-months’s equivalent in promissary notes to be redeemed at a later date.

May 30 Publishing: Benjamin Towne’s Pennsylvania Evening Post begins in Philadelphia as the nation’s first daily newspaper.

June 4 Diplomacy: Robert R. Livingston resigns as secretary of foreign affairs.

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June 13 Military: Disgruntled members of a Pennsylvania regiment protest their lack of pay and threaten to march on Philadelphia to underscore their discontent. Secretary of War Benjamin Lincoln appeals to the mob for calm but is ignored.

June 14 Military: Faced with the prospect of confronting angry Pennsylvania troops in Philadelphia, the Confederation Congress votes to adjourn and flees to Princeton, New Jersey. General George Washington, meanwhile, dispatches troops from Newburgh, New York, in their support.

June 15 Politics: The Confederation Congress, beset by ranks of angry soldiers, is allowed to depart Philadelphia by passing through their serried ranks.

June 17 Politics: The Confederation Congress votes to reconvene at Princeton, New Jersey, while mutinous soldiers in Philadelphia disband without further protest.

July 2 Business: The British government closes West Indian ports to American trade unless it is carried in British bottoms.

July 8 Slavery: Slavery is abolished in Massachusetts through the landmark decision of Commonwealth v. Jenninson. The state Supreme Court under Justice William Cushing decided to free the slave Quock Walker, based upon the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights, which considered all men “born free and equal.”

July 28 Diplomacy: Francis Dana is recalled from St. Petersburg as American agent to Russia; he has spent two fruitless years attempting to secure diplomatic recognition from Czarina Catherine II but is perpetually handicapped by his inability to speak either French or Russian.

September 3 Diplomacy: The Treaty of Paris is formally concluded between the United States and Great Britain in Paris, ending the Revolutionary War after eight years of strife. America now acquires its independence and controls a huge swath of land east of the Mississippi River up to the Great Lakes Region. The British subsequently sign separate treaties with France and Spain.

September 22 Religion: Lemuel Haynes, the first African-American Congregational minister, is ordained at Litchfield, Connecticut, where he preaches to largely white parishes.

October 7 Slavery: The Virginia legislature passes a law manumitting all African-American slaves who served in Continental Army regiments throughout the Revolutionary War.

October 15 Politics: The Confederation Congress approves an Indian policy for dealing with the Northwest Territory, shifts the national boundary westward, and instructs agents to deal with the tribes individually in order to divide them.

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October 18 Military: General George Washington issues orders to departing soldiers of the Continental Army at Rocky Hill, New Jersey, bidding them an affectionate farewell. He is especially keen to solicit their support for the federal government, whatever form it ultimately assumes.

November 2 Military: General George Washington issues his final orders to the remaining soldiers of the Continental Army, exhorting them to “carry with them into civil society the most conciliating dispositions; and that they should prove themselves not less virtuous and useful as citizens, than they have been persevering and victorious as soldiers.”

November 3 Military: The Continental Army is disbanded by Congressional fiat.

November 11 Politics: Annapolis, Maryland, becomes the new temporary capital of the United States until August 1784.

November 25 Military: The last remaining British soldiers embark on transports in New York and are immediately replaced by American forces under General George Washington. This concludes a seven-year hostile occupation and the sense of relief is immediate.

November 26 Politics: The Confederation Congress convenes its new session at Annapolis, Maryland, and votes to alternate residences with Trenton, New Jersey, until a new capital is constructed.

December 4 Military: British forces are withdrawn from Staten Island, New York. George Washington subsequently takes leave of his officers in a tearful ceremony at the Fraunces Tavern.

December 23 Military: General George Washington, having led his country to victory and independence, and pursuant to the wishes of Congress, resigns as commander in chief at Annapolis, Maryland, and tenders his sword to President Thomas Mifflin. Despite many offers to do so, Washington is the man who will not be king.

1784 Business: A group of Scottish, English, and American merchants meets in Montreal to found the North West Company, a direct competitor to the Hudson’s Bay Company for Native American trade and furs. The new United States is beset by a crippling economic depression, further worsened by a wholesale dumping of

George Washington. Painting by Charles Willson Peale (West Point Museum Collections, United States Military Academy)

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Chronology of American History English products on the American market. The situation is worsened by the inability of Congress to establish firm economic policies acceptable to all 13 state governments. The first shipment of American cotton is unloaded on British docks. General: Chief Joseph Brant of the Mohawks begins evacuating traditional lands in upstate New York in favor of a tract of land set aside by the English government at Grand River (Brantford, Ontario), Canada. Music: The spirit of the times, Connecticut poet Joel Barlow was chosen to “Americanize” the religious hymns of English composer Dr. Isaac Watts. These are among the most popular forms of religious music in the former colonies. Politics: A New Haven town meeting invites former Loyalist sympathizers back to their businesses and positions held prior to the outbreak of the Revolutionary War. Publishing: Elizabeth Hunter Holt succeeds her late husband as New York State’s official printer and also goes on to edit and publish the Independent Gazette for a year before turning it over to her daughter and son-in-law. Hannah Adams becomes the first professional woman writer in the United States by publishing An Alphabetical Compendium of the Various Sects, which is a dictionary of religious precepts. Slavery: Legislatures in Connecticut and Rhode Island pass laws abolishing slavery within their borders. The Pennsylvania Abolition Society, dedicated to the eradication of slavery, is founded in Philadelphia. Moreover, the Society of Friends instructs all Quakers owning slaves to immediately manumit them. In Baltimore, a meeting of the Methodist annual conference produces proposals calling on all Methodists holding slaves to either release them immediately or face excommunication. Societal: Irish veterans of the Revolutionary War bind together and found the Society of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick in New York.

January 1 Military: The Continental Army is largely disbanded saved for Jackson’s Regiment, 700 men strong, which is divided between garrisons at West Point, New York, and Fort Pitt, Pennsylvania.

January 14 Diplomacy: The Continental Congress ratifies the Treaty of Paris at Annapolis, Maryland, formally concluding hostilities with Great Britain; the ratification committee is chaired by Thomas Jefferson. The agreement requires that the territories of Kentucky and Illinois fall under American dominion, and also stipulates that British garrisons throughout the Great Lakes region are to be evacuated. In return, the United States pledges to honor Loyalist land claims and compensate all prewar commercial debts.

January 26 General: Benjamin Franklin, incensed that government officials toy with the idea of adopting the bald eagle as the national symbol, demurs. He castigates the bird for possessing “bad moral character” (it constantly hijacks food from smaller birds) and suggests the turkey instead. Business: The Bank of Massachusetts is chartered in Boston.

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February 20 Business: The state of Georgia authorizes the Tennessee Company to make land grants to settlers in the Tennessee River Valley.

February 22 Business: The ship Empress of China, captained by John Greene and partly underwritten by Robert Morris, sailed from New York en route to Canton, China, via Cape Horn. His will be the first American vessel berthed in the “Middle Kingdom.”

March General: John Jacob Astor, a poor German immigrant and future business giant, arrives in Baltimore with seven flutes.

March 1 Politics: In Congress, a committee chaired by Thomas Jefferson of Virginia proposes a “Report of Government for the Western Territory,” a blueprint for governing territories between the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers and the Great Lakes until all are eligible for statehood. This is the beginning of the Northwest Territory once Virginia also offers to cede its western holdings to the government. Jefferson’s motion to ban slavery altogether after 1800 is also defeated by the narrow margin of seven to six.

March 2 Societal: Prince Hall, former slave and now a master leather worker in Boston, Massachusetts, petitions the Grand Lodge of England to charter an African Mason’s lodge.

March 15 Business: The Bank of New York is chartered.

March 17 Business: The Massachusetts House of Representatives hangs a wooden codfish from its ceiling, acknowledging its significance to the state economy.

April 1 Arts: The Southwark Theater, Philadelphia reopens under the direction of Lewis Hallam.

April 8 Diplomacy: The British government violates the Treaty of Paris by specifically ordering Governor General Sir Frederick Haldimand of Canada not to withdraw garrisons from land delegated to the United States until conditions requiring payment of prewar debts and compensation for Loyalists are met. This decision is also taken in response to the pleas of Canadian fur traders who wished to sustain their profitable venture as long as possible. Over the decade these outposts will serve as centers of Indian resistance to American expansion in the Old Northwest.

April 15 Military: Major General von Steuben, the army inspector general, tenders his resignation and Congress rewards him with an elaborate ceremonial sword for his services.

April 23 Politics: Congress passes a Land Ordinance authored by Thomas Jefferson to allow western territories to be administered and allowed to join the union as

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Chronology of American History states and equal partners. Basically, a territory became eligible for statehood once its population equaled that of the smallest state, Rhode Island. One possible snag was Jefferson’s notion that the land should be given free to all settlers, which served as a point of contention with land speculators who wanted it sold in large swaths for eventual subdivision by investors. Nonetheless, this document plan serves as a template for the Northwest Ordnance in 1787.

April 30 Business: Congressional delegates from Maryland and Virginia, eager to stabilize and invigorate the moribund American economy, request the right to pass a navigation act. Under the Articles of Confederation, unanimous approval from all 13 states is necessary; the motion fails when legislators in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania fail to comply.

May Publishing: The Gentleman and Ladies Town and Country Magazine is founded in Boston, Massachusetts. This is the first periodical in the colonies directed at a female readership, but it folds after eight issues.

May 7 Business: Congress passes new guidelines for commercial treaties with other nations based on the “Plan of 1776” and existing agreements with France, Holland, and Sweden. A committee consisting of Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, all in Europe, was also formed to study the question of a treaty with the Barbary powers, preying upon American shipping. Diplomacy: Congress appoints John Jay, then in Europe, to succeed Robert R. Livingston as American secretary of Foreign Affairs.

May 28 Business: Robert Morris, superintendent of finance, proposes his replacement by a Treasury Board of three commissioners. The individuals nominated are Samuel Osgood, Walter Livingston, and Arthur Lee.

June 1 Diplomacy: Creek chief Alexander McGillivray negotiates the Treaty of Pensacola, whereby Spain pledges to protect Indian holdings in Spanish Florida. Provisions also stipulate that the tribes will be provided with sufficient guns and powder necessary to defend themselves. Through this expedient McGillivray determines to keep the newly victorious United States from expanding onto tribal land.

June 2 Politics: New Hampshire adopts a new constitution. North Carolina offers all its western possessions to the government, an act which induces settlers of that region to found the “state” of Franklin under the leadership of John Sevier. Military: The military establishment is reduced again by disbanding Jackson’s regiment of Continentals to a command of 80 men. Captain John Dougherty (now the army’s senior officer) commands the largest contingent of 55 soldiers at West Point while the remaining 25 are garrisoned at Fort Pitt. This is achieved regardless of continuing Indian raids along the frontier and the presence of British forces at Detroit and elsewhere. After second thoughts, Congress establishes

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the 1st U.S. Regiment at a strength of 700 men divided into eight infantry and two artillery companies, both of which enlist for a period of 12 months. Once recruited from New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Connecticut, the unit will be scattered across the western frontier in company-sized detachments under the overall command of Lieutenant Colonel Josiah Harmar.

June 9 Religion: John Carroll of Maryland is appointed by the pope to serves as “Superior of the Missions” for helping to organize the Roman Catholic Church in the United States.

June 15 Business: The Light Horse, owned by Elias Derby, departs Salem, Massachusetts, for St. Petersburg, Russia; it is the first ship displaying an American flag in the Baltic Sea.

June 20 Military: General Henry Knox, the nation’s most accomplished artillerist, resigns from active duty and returns to Boston.

June 24 Arts: The Virginia assembly commissions a marble statue of George Washington and requests Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin to suggest a sculptor. Jean Antonine Pelissier is selected. Aviation: Thirteen-year-old Edward Warren of Baltimore, Maryland, becomes the first American to ride aloft in a balloon.

June 26 Diplomacy: The government of Spain, in a direct violation of the Treaty of Paris, forbids the export of American goods to world markets from their port of New Orleans.

July 31 Diplomacy: Thomas Jefferson arrives in Paris to serve with Benjamin Franklin and John Adams and secure favorable commercial treaties.

August 12 Military: Distinguished wartime veteran Josiah Harmar gains appointment as lieutenant colonel-commandant of the 1st U.S. Regiment and also assumes the title “Commander of the army.” He then relocates to Fort Pitt, Pennsylvania, to join his regiment. His principal activity that winter is to rebuild and regarrison Fort McIntosh on the Ohio River.

August 23 Politics: Settlers in the western reaches of North Carolina gather at Jonesboro under John Sevier to discuss the possibility of organizing a new state tentatively called Franklin.

August 24 Politics: Congress refuses to recognize the state of Franklin, formed from several Tennessee counties that had seceded from North Carolina under John Sevier.

August 30 Business: Captain John Greene drops anchor in Canton, China, Empress of China being the first American ship to do so. He later returns home via Cape

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Chronology of American History Horn with a cargo of silk and spices, enticing other vessels to make the voyage and nets $37,000 in profit—an enormous sum for those days. Diplomacy: France announces limits on American trade with its possessions in the West Indies. Henceforth only ships of 60 tons or less are permitted to import goods, provided they did not compete with similar French products.

September 1 Business: George Washington embarks on a tour of western territories to gauge their potential for future settlement and development.

September 15 Politics: Pennsylvania’s Council of Censors forces the legislature to restore Connecticut settlers in the Wyoming Valley to their holdings, ending a spate of violence raging there since 1783.

September 21 Diplomacy: John Jay formally assumes his responsibilities as secretary of foreign affairs. Journalism: In Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania Packet and Daily Advertiser is founded as the nation’s first successful daily newspaper. Over the next 14 years, it also functions as the nation’s most important business paper.

September 22 General: Russian settlers found colonies at Kodiak Island, Three Saints Bay, Alaska.

September 29 Societal: The English Grand Lodge grants Prince Hall’s request to found an African Masonic lodge in Boston, Massachusetts, although the document does not arrive until 1787.

October 5 Religion: In New York City, Dr. John Henry Livingston is appointed by the Dutch Reformed Church Synod to be professor of theology. This helps establish the first theological Seminary in the United States, which is built in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

October 22

Chief Justice John Jay (Library of Congress)

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Diplomacy: Americans and representatives of the Six Nations Iroquois meet at Fort Stanwix (Rome, New York) to negotiate a peace treaty. This event also marks a pronounced shift in attitudes towards the once-powerful confederation for, whereas the English always negotiated with them as equals, the Americans determined to treat them as a conquered people. Of the Six Nations only the Oneida and Tuscarora, who sided with the United States, were spared from the inevitable land concessions. The ensuing Second Treaty of Fort Stanwix required the four tribes who sided with Great Britain to relinquish claims to all lands west of the Ohio River. The

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sale comes as somewhat of a surprise to Shawnee and Delaware living there, who maintained that the Six Nations had no business selling their land in the first place. Because of this treaty, a loose tribal confederation gradually begins coalescing under Miami Chief Little Turtle to keep settlers out of the Ohio River Valley. However, tribesmen already living there, intact, militarily strong, and untouched by the Revolutionary War, evince no intention of surrendering their domain.

November Education: The Episcopalian Church helps charter St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland. Politics: The North Carolina assembly, upon further reflection, repeals its cession law and tries to regain control of western lands from the runaway “state” of Franklin.

November 1 Business: Superintendent of Finance Robert Morris resigns, leaving the nation with a surplus of only $21,000. The new nation is not only broke after doling out the army’s demobilization pay, Congress also lacks any authority to levy taxes and remains dependent upon the states for contributions to the national treasury. Diplomacy: Georgia concludes the Treaty of Augusta with the Creek Indians, enlarging its boundaries westward from the Tugaloo to the Oconee River. Dissatisfaction with this arrangement among Indians leads to the selection of half breed Alexander McGillivray as head chief or “king.” He proves to be a staunch adversary of American encroachment and maintains his secret alliance with Spain in Florida. Politics: The Confederation Congress convenes in Trenton, New Jersey, and designates commissioners tasked with planning a federal district on the Delaware River.

November 11 Diplomacy: A committee consisting of Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams reports to Congress that while a treaty with the Barbary states is desirable, it will most likely entail dispersing a large bribe—or “tribute”—and that Congress should establish limits on what it is willing to pay.

November 18 Religion: Samuel Seabury, the first American Protestant bishop, is consecrated as head of Scotland’s Protestant Episcopal Church. This was done by a gathering of Scottish bishops in Aberdeen, apparently against the wishes of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

November 24 General: Zachary Taylor, a future president, is born in Orange County Court House, Virginia.

December 5 General: Phillis Wheatley, the earliest-known African-American poetess, dies in abject poverty at Boston.

December 10 Politics: Congress votes to relocate the seat of governance from Trenton, New Jersey, to New York City until a new Federal district can be organized.

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McGillivray, Alexander (ca. 1759–1793) Creek chief Alexander McGillivray (Hippo-ilk-mico) was born in Little Tassie Village (Montgomery, Alabama), the son of a Scottish trader and a Creek woman of the Wind Clan. Because Creek authority was passed down through the mother’s side, his future in tribal leadership was assured at an early age. McGillivray accompanied his father to Savannah and Charleston to work in his counting houses, where he familiarized himself with business and became fluent in English. Unlike many Native American leaders, McGillivray was equally at ease in either world, which facilitated his dealings with both. The onset of the American Revolution in 1775 disrupted McGillivray’s family life when his Loyalist father was deported back to Scotland and he returned to his mother’s tribe inland. Taking advantage of his family connections and his fine reputation as a warrior, McGillivray soon was appointed as chief. Blatantly proBritish, he was also commissioned a colonel in the army, where he served as commissary officer of Indian Affairs in the South. McGillivray also conducted numerous raids upon American settlements in and around Augusta, Georgia, to halt or at the very least delay, white encroachment. He subsequently rallied 600 Creek warriors for the defense of British-held Pensacola, Florida, and his actions greatly delayed the conquest of that region by Spain. After the war ended in 1783, British influence in the region was greatly diminished, while new waves of American settlers began taking Indian land for their own

use. McGillivray, determined to protect his homeland yet cognizant of his military weakness, drew closer to the Spanish in Florida in 1784 by signing a secret alliance to preserve them as a source of guns and ammunition. He also consolidated his tribal rule by proclaiming himself “emperor” of the Creek, and backed up his authority through a force of Indian “constables” to squelch dissent. Nor was he above playing potential friends and enemies against each other. In 1784 he made friendly overtures to the United States, demanded they respect Indian property, and warned them against Spanish intrigues in the region. When diplomacy failed by 1785, he unleashed his warriors against American settlements across the southern frontier, and the United States, hobbled by the weak confederation government, failed to respond effectively. McGillivray may very well have restored the Indian frontier to its 1773 boundaries, but he was sold out by Spain, which sought to avoid a possible war with America. In 1790, McGillivray was invited to New York to confer with newly elected President George Washington, who sought additional land purchases in exchange for fixed borders. To sweeten the pot, they also offered the chief a brigadier generals’s commission and control over all duty-free trade. McGillivray thanked his hosts and agreed to the treaty, then promptly began negotiating with the Spanish. He died in Pensacola, Florida, sometime in 1793, a wily and capable frontier diplomat.

December 14 Politics: The independent state of Franklin is organized under Governor John Sevier by a convention of settlers. The so-called state occupies the frontier region of North Carolina previously ceded to the Federal government in exchange for passage of the Articles of Confederation.

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December 23 Business: George Washington serves as president of the Potomac Company, intending to construct a canal linking the Ohio Valley with the Potomac River. Politics: Congress votes to establish a new federal district to serve as the nation’s capital, which will be located on the banks of the Delaware River. Meanwhile, New York will function as a temporary capital.

December 24 Politics: The Remonstrances Against Religious Assessments is penned by James Madison in defense of the separation of church and state. Its eloquent and pointed persuasiveness convinces the Virginia House of Delegates to thwart a law designed to support all churches with taxes. In this capacity, Madison emerges as an opponent of Patrick Henry and Richard Henry Lee, who support statesubsidized religion.

December 26 Business: The English Parliament votes to allow the importation of American manufactured goods on favorable terms.

December 27 Religion: At their annual “Christmas Conference,” Methodist ministers elect Francis Asbury to serve as first bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States, severing all times with the Anglican Church. The Liturgy and discipline of John Wesley is also adopted. This creed, stridently antislavery at first, softens its objections as the church expands and takes root throughout the South.

1785 Arts: American painter John Singleton Copley is commissioned to paint the children of King George III. Business: The Pennsylvania legislature revokes the Bank of North America’s charter, under the impression that the recent economic downturn can be traced to it. This has been the first such institution owned and operated by merchants. Education: In a landmark speech before the American Academy of Arts and Sciences of Worcester, Massachusetts, Governor James Bowdoin declares that the low levels of African-American intelligence are not due to racial inferiority, but rather lack of educational opportunities enjoyed by others. Labor: The Association of the Tradesmen and Manufacturers of the Town of Boston, one of the earliest trade associations, is founded by 26 trade representatives in Boston, Massachusetts. Medical: Dr. Benjamin Rush orchestrates the first American dispensary in Philadelphia. Politics: Thomas Jefferson prevails on the Virginia legislature to abolish the practice of primogeniture, through which a family’s holdings automatically pass into the hands of the eldest son. Publishing: John Marrant publishes A Narrative of the Lord’s Wonderful Dealings with J. Marrant, a Black, the first autobiography penned by an African American. Slavery: At Baltimore, the Methodist Conference suspends its 1784 ruling that forces all Methodists to manumit their slaves.

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Chronology of American History The Virginia assembly decrees that all Native Americans who are of at least one-fourth African parentage are to be regarded as Africans and subject to all rules and regulations controlling them. The New York state legislature outlaws slavery. John Jay also serves as the president of the New York Society for Promoting Manumission. The general committee of the Virginia Baptists adopts language in their denomination that characterizes slavery as “contrary to the word of God.” Transportation: Regular stagecoach routes begin between Boston, Albany, New York, and Philadelphia. Virginia authorizes the Little River Turnpike, the nation’s first.

January 1 Diplomacy: Lieutenant Colonel Josiah Harmar concludes a treaty with the western Indians at Fort McIntosh, Ohio. The agreement forces the tribesmen to abandon land south of the Great Lakes in exchange for a stipend, but the Shawnee remain hostile and continue raiding. Journalism: The Falmouth Gazette and Weekly Advertiser becomes Maine’s first newspaper.

January 7 Aviation: American inventor Dr. John Jeffries, accompanied by French balloon pioneer Jean-Pierre Blanchard, sails 20 miles across the English Channel from Dover, England, to France in a hydrogen-filled balloon. To keep their improvised craft afloat over water, both men were obliged to throw most of their clothing overboard to lighten it. This is the first such aerial jaunt conducted over that vaunted body of water.

January 11 Politics: Congress convenes at City Hall, New York, now temporary capital of the nation until a new federal district is completed.

January 15 Education: Davidson Academy (present-day George Peabody College) arises at Nashville in the short-lived state of Franklin.

January 21 Diplomacy: At Fort McIntosh, American pressure induces Wyandot, Chippewa, Delaware, and Ottawa Indians to sell their lands in the Ohio territory. The agreement eventually fails owing to Shawnee resistance.

January 24 Politics: Congress, hamstrung by its inability to rein in state efforts to negotiate commercial treaties independent of each other, establishes a committee under James Madison to recommend altering Article IX of the Articles of Confederation. His plan would allow Congress greater latitude in regulating commerce as Maryland, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, New York, Rhode Island, and North Carolina have effected import duties on British goods. The effort ultimately ends in failure.

January 25 Diplomacy: The Treaty of Fort Mackintosh is signed, whereby the Wyandot, Chippewa, Delaware, and Ottawa relinquish all land in Ohio save for a small strip south of Lake Erie.

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January 27 Education: The Franklin College of the Arts and Sciences (now University of Georgia) is chartered by the State of Georgia. This is the first state-supported institute of higher learning in the nation.

February 2 Military: Counterfeit army pay certificates are condemned by Congress, and it offers a $500 reward for offenders.

February 7 Settlement: Georgia designates the land encompassing most of modern-day Alabama and Mississippi as Bourbon County, despite competing Spanish claims on this same territory.

February 24 Diplomacy: John Adams, then in Paris, is appointed minister to England by Congress for the purpose of securing favorable commercial treaties. Given the fractious nature of American governance, with 13 independent state governments vying for favorable terms, Adams is saddled with an impossible task. The British monarch consequently declines to appoint a British minister until this confusion can be sorted out.

February 28 Diplomacy: The British government curtly informs Minister John Adams in London that it is withholding compliance with the Treaty of Paris until all prewar debts are paid and Loyalist refugees adequately compensated. Until such conditions are met, they will maintain armed posts throughout the northwestern lands and Great Lakes region.

March 4 Business: Virginia commissioners including James Madison and George Mason meet with Maryland counterparts in Alexandria, Virginia, to discuss issues pertaining to navigation of Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac River.

March 8 Military: Congress appoints former general Henry Knox to serve as secretary of war, and his coterie consists of three clerks and a messenger. He accepts responsibility for military and naval matters, Indian relations, and land grants for veterans.

March 10 Diplomacy: Thomas Jefferson succeeds Benjamin Franklin as minister to France, befriending the radical philosophers who oppose the monarchical absolutism of their nation. Franklin, meanwhile, departs for Philadelphia where he will serve in the Executive Council of Pennsylvania.

March 11 Diplomacy: Thomas Barclay is instructed by Congress to reach a negotiated treaty with the Emperor Sidi Mohamet of Morocco.

March 25 Business: Commissioners from Virginia and Maryland meet at Alexandria to resolve disputes arising from joint use of Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac River. They adjourn and visit Mount Vernon, Virginia.

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March 26 Diplomacy: The British ambassador in Paris informs Thomas Jefferson that his country could not possibly enter into a binding commercial relationship with such a disorganized regime as America under the Articles of Confederation.

March 28 Business: A deputation of commissioners from Virginia and Maryland meet at Mount Vernon, with George Washington as their host, to draft recommendations for adoption of uniform commercial regulations and currency. They also invite Pennsylvania to join a pact intending to establish water communications from Chesapeake Bay to the Ohio River. This conference proves that usually querulous states can in fact cooperate on issues of mutual concern. Success here emboldens the Virginians to call for another convention at Annapolis, Maryland, the following year to address similar pressing issues.

April Diplomacy: A British order-in-council decrees that only American livestock, grain, and lumber could be imported into the Canadian maritime provinces, and that these commodities had to be carried in British bottoms. This has the effect of dramatically curtailing American trade with Canada.

April 12 Military: With the 1st U.S. Regiment due to be discharged on account of expiring enlistments, Congress authorizes recruitment of another 700 men, this time for three years. Few volunteers step forward, and the regiment remains understrength.

April 19 Politics: Congress accepts Massachusetts’s cession of all western lands.

May Business: Captain John Green’s vessel Empress of China docks back in New York City, following a 15-month sojourn to China. He brings with him valuable cargo of tea and silk, and other high-quality goods such as ceramic bowls.

May 5 Diplomacy: John Sevier, governor the “state” of Franklin concludes the Treaty of Dumpling Creek with the Cherokee, whereby the latter cede much of their territory in modern-day Tennessee.

May 10 Publishing: Thomas Jefferson pens a seminal historical tract, Notes on the State of Virginia.

May 15 Diplomacy: Spanish minister Don Diego de Gardoqui arrives in the United States, under orders not to grant commercial concessions relative to navigating the Mississippi River.

May 17 Business: The Potomac Company, chartered in both Virginia and Maryland, is organized at Alexandria with George Washington as president. Diplomacy: Thomas Jefferson, American minister to France, is received by the court of King Louis XVI.

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May 20 Politics: Congress passes the Land Ordinance of 1785, which establishes an orderly framework for selling off the public domain. It calls for surveyed, 36square-mile townships, as the basis of settlement and for administrative purposes. The area is further subdivided into 36 equal sections, one of which has to be set aside for a public school. The price is fixed at one dollar per acre. Trouble soon erupts when Shawnee already ensconced refuse to part with lands they own, and squatters, who also claim the land by right of occupancy, have to be evicted by soldiers. Technology: Philadelphia artist Charles Wilson Peale creates an exhibition of moving pictures at his Philadelphia gallery. His device employs special lighting and transparent pictures to create a sense of movement.

June 1 Diplomacy: John Adams, American minister to England, is received by King George III.

June 3 Naval: Congress orders the 36-gun frigate Alliance sold, ridding itself of the final Continental Navy warship. Thereafter, the United States lacks any semblance of a navy for the next nine years.

June 23 Business: The state legislature of Massachusetts forbids the export of American goods on British ships and also doubles the import duties of all commodities not arriving in American vessels. The adoption of tariffs gains momentum as individual states seek to develop and protect native industries—more proof of Congress’s impotence in regulating a national economy.

July Naval: Algerian pirates seize the American vessel Maria and hold the crew for ransom. This act commences a decadelong diplomatic struggle to stop the practice, an impossible stance considering America’s lack of a navy.

July 6 Business: Thomas Jefferson proposes a new, decimal system of coinage for the nation, based on the Spanish milled dollar. The denominations sought are gold pieces worth 10 dollars, silver pieces worth one dollar, 10ths of a dollar in silver, and 100ths of a dollar in copper.

July 11 Politics: The Massachusetts legislature approves a resolution in favor of a convention, held at Annapolis, Maryland, for the purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation. The measure never makes it to Congress but does underscore growing political awareness of the present government’s inability to administer the nation and safeguard its well-being.

July 15 Politics: Congress rejects a second attempt to amend the Articles of Confederation by acquiring powers to regulate commerce.

July 20 Diplomacy: Congress appoints John Jay to negotiate with Don Diego de Gardoqui, the Spanish minister, for possible navigation rights on the Mississippi River.

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Chronology of American History He is instructed to insist that the United States enjoy the right to freely navigate anywhere on the river, whereas Gardoqui was ordered to deny the Americans use of the river without cost.

July 25 Military: The Army Quartermaster Department is abolished by Congress; henceforth civilian contractors will handle the matter of provisioning and clothing soldiers. This grossly corrupt and completely inefficient system nearly hamstrings army efficiency.

July 26 Business: Thomas Jefferson proposes to replace the British-style coinage system with one based on Spanish milled dollars.

August 24 Diplomacy: John Jay and Spanish minister Don Diego de Gardoqui begin contentious discussions over American navigational rights on the Mississippi River. Spain presently forbids the export of American goods from the port of New Orleans. A year of fruitless discussion ensues. Business: Oliver Evans constructs the first automatic flour mill in Maryland. By employing numerous innovations such as primitive elevator and conveyor belt technology, the device reduces labor efforts by half.

September 10 Diplomacy: Minister John Adams concludes its first commercial treaty in Germany by reaching an agreement with the Kingdom of Prussia. Both nations will outlaw privateering and abide by the principle of free ships-free goods. Moreover, both sides agree that noncombatants should receive immunity during wartime and that all prisoners of war must receive humane treatment.

September 14 General: An aged Benjamin Franklin arrives back at Philadelphia after his latest absence of nine years in France.

September 20 Business: The Pennsylvania assembly begins levying tonnage duties on any ship whose parent country does not have a trade treaty with the United States.

October 1 Business: The first city directory is published in Philadelphia by Francis Bailey.

October 10 Diplomacy: Spain orders Georgia to drop all pretensions toward the regions of Alabama and Mississippi, which it annexed as Bourbon County the previous February.

October 15 Religion: A new American Shaker community is organized at New Lebanon, New York.

November Religion: In a weeklong ceremony, Mohegan clergyman Samson Occom opens up Eayam Quittoowauconnuck (Brothertown) on Oneida land in New York. He

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intends it as a haven for Christian Indians to repose and escape the corrupting influence of European culture.

November 28 Diplomacy: The United States government and the Cherokee sign the Treaty of Hopewell, which negates a previous arrangement concerning the state of Franklin reached on May 5 and restores all tribal holdings in 1777. It also arranges for the tribe to come under the “protection” of the United States to preclude foreign interference in matters of trade.

December Arts: The American Company presentation of the opera The Poor Soldier is a runaway hit of sorts, lasting 18 performances. This is something of a record for its host, the John Street Theater.

December 5 Business: The Maryland legislature passes legislation allowing Pennsylvania to adopt the same commercial regulations previously agreed to at the Mount Vernon Conference. They also entreat Delaware to join them.

December 8 Diplomacy: A memorial delivered by John Adams formally demands British evacuation of their posts in the Northwest, including Oswego, Niagara, Detroit, and Mackinac, consistent with terms outlined in the Treaty of Paris. However, the American government’s intrinsic inability to have states honor treaty commitments respecting the rights of Loyalists and the collection of all pre–Revolutionary War debts removes all incentives for British compliance.

1786 Arts: Theaters in New York present America’s first extended theatrical engagements by performing plays over a period of several weeks. Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet also debuts in the United States for the first time at the John Street Theater. Labor: Printers in Philadelphia strike for better wages and win; they obtain $6 a week. This is the first recorded labor action in American history. Literature: Susanna Haswell publishes the novel Victoria, establishing her as one of America’s earliest female fiction writers. She also acts on the stage in Philadelphia and plays a trumpet in Boston. Slavery: The New Jersey legislature outlaws slavery and substitutes gradual emancipation in its place. Societal: The Massachusetts state legislature outlaws the practice of interracial marriage. Sports: Clergyman Henry Purcell founds the first American golf club at Charleston’s Green in Charleston, South Carolina.

January Military: Lieutenant Colonel Josiah Harmar’s 1st U.S. Regiment has withered to 200 enlistees when the states fail to meet their recruitment quotas. Meanwhile, Shawnee under Chief Blue Jacket and Miami under Chief Little Turtle continue raiding American settlements deep in Kentucky.

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January 16 Politics: The Virginia legislature adopts Thomas Jefferson’s Ordinance for Religious Freedom, now introduced by James Madison, which subsequently serves as a template for the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It maintains that the government will not establish, support, or endorse any religion, and that all individuals are at complete liberty to follow their conscience in matters of religion. A similar document was first proposed in 1779 but never adopted. The ordinance will reach its highest expression in the provisions of the First Amendment for separation of church and state.

January 21 Politics: Virginia politician James Madison invites all states to send delegates to a convention at Annapolis in the fall, ostensibly to discuss pressing problems of interstate commerce.

January 20 Diplomacy: Congress appoints Major Samuel Shaw to serve as the first U.S. consul at Canton, China.

January 31 Diplomacy: The United States and the Shawnee sign the Treaty of Fort Finney, whereby the latter cedes land west of the Great Miami River.

February 15 Politics: A congressional committee reports on the need for more centralized authority in government, especially in collecting taxes from individual states. Congress, however, takes no action.

February 20 Politics: The New Jersey legislature refuses to pay its share of funds for the national treasury as requested by Congress in 1785. Their defiance further underscores the impotence of the Articles of Confederation.

February 22 Diplomacy: Minister John Adams approaches the Tripolitan ambassador, Abdrahaman, with demands that his nation stop harassing American shipping. In return, he is told that a tribute of 220,000 pounds be paid first.

February 28 Diplomacy: Lord Carmarthen brusquely informs Minister John Adams that Great Britain will not comply with certain provisions of the Treaty of Paris until the Americans do likewise. Specifically they intend to retain military posts around the Great Lakes (Article 7) until all prewar debts have been honored (Article 4). Congress, under the Articles of Confederation, proved unable to secure unanimous permission from the states to do so. Thus the posts at Oswego, Niagara, Detroit, and Michilimackinac remained garrisoned by British troops.

March 1 Business: Rufus Putnam, Benjamin Tupper, Samuel Parsons, and Manasseh Cutler found the Ohio Company of Associates in Boston for the purpose of obtaining 1.5 million acres of land in the Ohio country at a price of 661⁄2 cents per acre.

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April Education: George Washington and other wealthy benefactors open a free school for poor children in Alexandria, Virginia.

May 28 Politics: Congress accepts Connecticut’s cession of its western lands.

June 8 Business: The first-ever mass-produced ice cream in the United States goes on sale in New York City.

June 17 Transportation: The Charles River toll bridge opens up to traffic between Charlestown and Boston.

June 26 Politics: Congress debates a motion put forward by Charles Pinckney for reorganization of government. Their discussion heightens and underscores awareness of weaknesses in the Articles of Confederation.

June 28 Politics: Congress authorizes a reorganization of the Indian Department to curb future abuses at the state level and better regulate the traders and settlers already dealing with the body.

July Military: Secretary of War Henry Knox informs Congress that the military establishment is down to 518 rank and file, a perilous situation considering ongoing frontier hostilities.

July 8 Politics: The Massachusetts legislature adjourns without addressing the petitions of debt- ridden farmers to halt the practice of farm and home foreclosures.

July 12 Politics: Delegates in Philadelphia approve a plan to grant proportional representation in the proposed lower house of representatives. However, this is based on the total of white populations in each state, while an African-American slave is counted as three-fifths of a person.

July 16 Politics: At Philadelphia, the “Connecticut Compromise” ensues when delegates approve that each state in the proposed Senate receive an equal vote.

July 17 Diplomacy: Thomas Barclay, representing the United States, concludes a treaty with the Kingdom of Morocco, resulting in the suspension of attacks against its shipping in the Mediterranean. Thereafter, vessels from either nation are protected from seizure by safe conduct passes and trade is to be conducted on the basis of most-favored-nation status. These liberal terms were reached following the onetime delivery of $10,000 worth of gifts to the emperor—a small sum considering the concession gained. However, the piratical Muslim states of Algiers, Tripoli, and Tunis remain defiant and continue seizing American vessels for ransom, abetted by the new nation’s lack of naval forces to protect its own shipping.

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July 19 Arts: Noted portraitist Charles Willson Peale opens part of his house to the general public to display his artwork and other “natural curiosities.”

July 19–26 Politics: Delegates at Philadelphia debate and vote on 23 “fundamental resolutions” relative to discarding the Articles of Confederation, and the rough draft of a new federal constitution begins to take shape.

July 29 Journalism: The Pittsburgh Gazette is founded, becoming the first American newspaper published west of the Appalachians.

August Business: The severe postwar economic downturn forces the government of Georgia to issue paper money to remain solvent. Its economic woes are compounded by dire predictions from legal authorities that the issuance of script now will become illegal if a new federal constitution ever becomes law.

August 7 Diplomacy: An Indian act is passed by Congress mandating creation of the first two federal Indian reservations, one above the Ohio River and another below it. Each jurisdiction is maintained by a supervisor who reports directly to the secretary of war and is empowered to grant licenses for trading with the tribesmen living there. Politics: Congress is presented with a series of amendments designed to revise and strengthen the Articles of Confederation. These include provisions for a federal court system, congressional control over domestic and international commerce, and authority to raise revenue from the states. A timorous Congress proves unable to reach unanimous agreement for change, as required by the articles, but movement for overhauling the system of national governance gains impetus.

August 8 Business: In another break with England, Congress orders the U.S. currency, presently based on the British system of pounds, shillings, and pence, replaced by a decimal system with dollars, dimes, and pennies. The new system had previously been proposed by Thomas Jefferson in July 1785.

August 15 Politics: Debt-ridden farmers, protesting a wave of farm and home foreclosures, gather in protest at Worcester, Massachusetts, and a wider movement begins to take form.

August 17 General: David Crockett, naturalist, frontier legend, and future congressman, is born in Hawkins County, Tennessee.

August 22–25 Politics: A convention of debt-ridden farmers convenes at Hatfield, Massachusetts, to protest ongoing farm and home foreclosures, lawyer’s fees, and high taxes, and also calls for an issuance of paper money. The crowd is specially angered at the state legislature for adjourning without any consideration for their plight. Pent-up anger begins congealing in the form of action against local courts.

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August 29 Diplomacy: John Jay concludes a less than satisfactory commercial treaty with Spain, which denies the United States navigation rights on the Mississippi River for nearly 30 years. But southern delegates to Congress, angered by such intransigence, refuse to provide the nine votes necessary for passage, and negotiations are suspended. The issue remains unresolved until 1795.

August 31 Politics: An armed mob prevents the court at Northampton from sitting to forestall further foreclosures.

September Military: Vaunted frontier figure General George Rogers Clark prepares to undertake his final campaign against Indians living in the Indiana and Ohio Territories. His plan is to lead a column of 1,200 mounted militia up the Wabash River to attack the Miami settlement, while a second force of 800 soldiers under Colonel Benjamin Logan deals with the Shawnee.

September 2 Politics: Governor James Bowdoin of Massachusetts declares the western section of his state in rebellion and begins mobilizing the militia.

September 5 Politics: An armed mob shuts down the court at Worcester, Massachusetts, in a protest against farm and home foreclosures.

September 9 General: George Washington writes to Robert Morris and declares he wishes to see slavery abolished peacefully and by legislative authority.

September 11–14 Politics: Delegates gather at a conference held in Annapolis, Maryland, for the purpose of exploring the best way of strengthening interstate commerce. John Dickinson, now of Delaware, is chosen president. However, the gathering is beset by a lack of participation, for only 12 delegates from Virginia, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania are in attendance. Southern and New England states are completely absent. New York delegate Alexander Hamilton consequently offers a motion that representatives from all states should convene at Philadelphia in May 1787, for the purpose of considering both commercial and political reforms. The convention subsequently sends out its report, written mainly by Hamilton, to all members of Congress and state legislatures. In light of the ongoing fiscal and economic crises faced by the young nation, the suggestion to meet the following May was favorably received and set in motion a chain of events that forever altered the course of national governance. In this sense, the failed Annapolis Convention was a direct precursor to the dramatically successful Constitutional Convention.

September 20 Politics: The state legislature in Concord is threatened by an armed mob insisting on the issuance of paper money.

September 25 Art: Philadelphia bans all theater performances. Law: The Rhode Island Supreme Court resolves the case of Trevett v. Weeden, and rules that forcing a creditor to accept paper money is an unconstitutional

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548â•… Chronology of American History violation of property guarantees. This establishes the concept of judicial review on a modest scale; henceforth all laws passed by the legislature that run counter to the state constitution are judged null and void.

September 26 Military: Former army veteran Daniel Shays leads 500 disgruntled farmers in an uprising in western Massachusetts and forces the court in Springfield to adjourn. The rebels are determined to prevent additional foreclosures of farmers’ property. In response, Governor James Bowdoin dispatches militia under General William Shepherd to Springfield to safeguard the state courts there.

October Military: General George Rogers Clark endures a setback in his final foray against the Miami when his force mutinies only two days out of Vincennes, Indi-­ ana Territory. He is forced to turn back, but the column of ColÂ�oÂ�nel Benjamin Logan manages to burn several Shawnee settlements.

October 11 Politics: Congress receives notice of the convention to revise the Articles of Confederation in Philadelphia. Debate continues until the following spring.

October 16 Business: A United States mint is approved by congressional action.

October 20 Military: Faced with intractable Indian hostility on the frontier, Congress increases the size of the military establishment to 1,340 men. The two artillery companies already present in the 1st U.S. Regiment are combined with two new companies to form a battalion under Captain John Doughterty. However, recruit-­ ment remains unenthusiastic and few volunteers step forward. Word of Daniel Shays’s rebellion in Massachusetts and the rebels’ march on the federal arsenal at Springfield prompts Congress to authorize Secretary of War Henry Knox to raise 1,340 men. To placate poÂ�litiÂ�cal opposition to stand-­ ing armies, this is done ostensibly for the purpose of frontier serÂ�vice against the Indians. Science: Professor Samuel Williams of Harvard College leads an astronomical field expedition to Penobscot Bay, Maine, to observe a solar eclipse.

October 23 Politics: Congress makes a second plea to the states for power to authorize navigation acts; again it fails to garner unanimous support.

October 26 Literature: A group of influential poets, the Â�so-­called Connecticut Wits, begins publishing the mock serial epic Anarchiad in the New Haven Gazette. Members include Joel Barlow, David Humphreys, John Trumbull and Lemuel Hopkins.

November 6 Politics: James Madison introduces legislation into the Virginia assembly calling for a delegation to be sent to the forthcoming convention in Philadel-­ phia next May. The nominally pessimistic Madison held high hopes for the upcoming event, conceding “I have some ground for leaning to the side of Hope.”

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Shays, Daniel (1747–1825) Rebel leader Daniel Shays was born in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, around 1747, although little else is known of his early life. He was most likely a poorly educated rural farmer eking out a marginal existence. However, he enters the history books following the onset of the Revolutionary War in 1775, when he joined the Massachusetts militia and fought with distinction at the battle of Bunker Hill. Shays then transferred to the state Continental infantry, where he was active at Ticonderoga, Saratoga, and Stony Point. His somewhat lowly social status proved no obstacle to advancement in the military, for in 1777 he was commissioned a captain in the 5th Massachusetts Regiment. Shays was apparently a good soldier and received, among other things, an elaborate sword presented to him by the marquis de Lafayette before he mustered out in 1780. He subsequently settled at Pelham, Massachusetts, and held down several public offices for the remainder of the revolution. After 1783, he returned to farming in western Massachusetts, a region in the grips of a severe economic downturn. Like many farmers, Shays had grown dependant upon severely depreciated paper money to pay his debts, and his hardship increased when merchants began demanding hard currency in coins. Many farmers could not make the transition and became subject to imprisonment for debt and foreclosure of property, thanks to the stiff tax-collection policies of Governor James Bowdoin. Shays became so destitute that he was forced to sell off Lafayette's sword in order to survive. Worse,

when the state legislature, located in the more prosperous eastern half of the state, ignored the farmers’ petitions for relief and adjourned their session, Shays and many farmers took the law into their own hands. In the fall of 1786, Shays led a group of angry farmers to prevent the court of common pleas from seizing more property. They then marched on Springfield to stop the state supreme court from doing the same. This act induced Governor Bowdoin to muster the militia under General William Shepard to stop the rebels and possibly negotiate a peaceful end to the uprising. At this time, Shays stepped forward as an unofficial spokesman, and he agreed that the group would disband peacefully once the court suspended all seizures. However, by January 1787 conditions in the western half of the state had worsened, and the farmers under Shays and Luke Day began taking up arms to protect their property. At length, the mob decided to march on Springfield, site of a state arsenal, where they encountered the militia under Shepard. Firing broke out, two rebels were killed, and the rest dispersed while an army under General Benjamin Lincoln marched against them. Shays’s “rebellion” ended soon after, and he fled to New Hampshire. He died in Sparta, New York, on September 29, 1825. However, his activity impressed the delegates at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, convincing them that the nation needed stronger central government to suppress uprisings and maintain public order. The U.S. Constitution was the result.

November 18 Diplomacy: The U.S. government and the Cherokee conclude the Treaty of Hopewell, South Carolina, which places them under the former’s protection. The government also agrees to curb white encroachment on their remaining ancestral lands.

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November 30 Military: A Massachusetts militia arrests rebel leader Job Shattuck and rebellion against authority collapses in the eastern half of the state.

December 26 Military: Rebellious Daniel Shays assembles 1,200 “Regulators” (poor farmers) and marches onto Springfield, Massachusetts, with Luke Day to disrupt court proceedings and possibly seize the state arsenal there. This act induces an alarmed Governor James Bowdoin to mobilize 4,400 state militia for a period of 30 days to cope with the emergency.

1787 Business: Following a Democratic-Republic resurgence in the Pennsylvania legislature, the Bank of North America is rechartered. The Pennsylvania Society for the Encouragement of Manufactures and Useful Acts is founded in Philadelphia for the promotion of protective tariffs, research, and inventions. It also elects to purchase two carding and spinning machines from England for the purpose of manufacturing cotton and linen. John Cabot and Joshua Fisher open up New England’s first cotton factory at Beverly, Massachusetts, and the technology spreads rapidly throughout New England. As textile manufacturers, however, they will grow increasing dependent upon cotton supplies grown in the South by slave labor. Education: The Philadelphia Young Ladies Academy is founded to avail young women of educational opportunities currently lacking in other cities. In time, it acquires students from all the colonies and as far away as the Caribbean. Dr. Benjamin Rush publishes Thoughts on Female Education and argues that educating women exerts a beneficial effect since it encourages educated children. William Samuel Johnson becomes president of Columbia College, New York. He is the second noncleric to hold such a position in any American or English institution of higher knowledge. The Rhode Island General Assembly enacts a statute forbidding the residents of that state from participating in any part of the slave trade. Slavery: In a move anticipating the Underground Railroad of a later day, Philadelphia Quaker Isaac T. Hopper originates a plan to assist slaves escaping from southern states.

January Military: Despite a major recruitment effort, the military establishment remains 840 men below authorized strength. Congress also drops the enlistment period to one year for new enlistees. However, the government lacks the funds to pay its soldiers for the next two years.

January 5 Law: The North Carolina supreme court upholds the principle that state courts may void acts passed by the legislature deemed unconstitutional.

January 18–19 Military: Governor James Bowdoin requests former general Benjamin Lincoln to come out of retirement and help suppress Shays’s Rebellion. Lincoln agrees and rides for Springfield to command militia forces gathering there.

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January 21 Military: A group of 300 rebels under Daniel Shays begins surrounding the Springfield Armory, Massachusetts, with a view to storming it. Another thousand angry farmers take up blocking positions at Palmer to the east, cutting off the approach of any Hampshire County militiamen.

January 25 Military: Under former army captain Daniel Shays, 1,200 rebellious farmers make an ill-fated attempt to storm the government armory under General William Shepherd, at Springfield, Massachusetts, but are driven off by cannon fire after losing three men killed and 20 wounded. Among the rioters was one Moses Sash, an African-American veteran of the Revolutionary War, who is now indicted for stealing firearms.

January 27 Military: A large militia contingent under General Benjamin Lincoln marches into Springfield, Massachusetts, and secures the government arsenal. Meanwhile, Daniel Shays and his band of rebels have scattered into the countryside.

January 28 Military: General Benjamin Lincoln’s militia forces push rebellious farmers toward Amherst, Massachusetts, while rebel leader Luke Day escapes for New Hampshire.

January 30 Politics: Thomas Jefferson writes to James Madison, declaring, “I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical.”

February 3 Military: General Benjamin Lincoln orders a midwinter night march to surprise rebel forces gathered at Petersham under former army captain Daniel Shays.

February 4 Military: A Massachusetts militia under General Benjamin Lincoln surprises rebel forces under Daniel Shays, dispersing them at Petersham and ending the rebellion. Lincoln takes 140 prisoners but Shays escapes across state lines to Vermont. The insurrection failed in its purposes but does convince the legislature to lower court costs, not impose a direct tax, and to exempt household goods and tools from confiscation arising from debt. The entire episode is a powerful reminder of how powerless the states are when left to confront civil violence by themselves. The greatest efficacy of Shays’s “rebellion” is adding greater impetus and urgency for creation of a stronger central government capable of defending itself. This feeling dovetails conveniently with a host of other factors leading to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia that May.

February 21 Politics: Congress endorses the idea of a constitutional convention to gather at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in May, “for the sole and express purpose of revising the articles of confederation.” South Carolina cedes a narrow strip of frontier land it claims to the central government.

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March 10 Education: The German Reformed Church charters Franklin College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

April 12 General: The Free African Society is established in Philadelphia by Richard Allen, Absalom Jones, and William White as a secular, self-help group. This is among the earliest black social organizations in the United States and tasked with collecting funds to assist the poor, sick, and elderly among the AfricanAmerican community. Its success also stimulates the rise of an independent African-American church.

April 13 Education: The New York legislature mandates creation of a state university governed by a board of regents.

April 16 Arts: Royall Tyler’s comedy The Contrast debuts at the John Street theater in New York City, being the first-ever play featuring an American frontier protagonist. The play lampoons Old World aristocratic virtues.

April 23 Slavery: The Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage, and Improving the Condition of the African Race is rechartered in Philadelphia, assisted by Benjamin Franklin and Dr. Benjamin Rush. Franklin serves as the first honorary president of the society.

May 13 Politics: Former general George Washington arrives at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to officiate over the Constitutional Convention. He is greeted by throngs of well-wishers and escorted by the City Light Dragoons as bells peal and cannons boom in salute.

May 14 Politics: At Philadelphia, only five states send delegates for the proposed convention there and a quorum is thereby impossible. They then await the arrival of delegates pledged from six other states, whereupon all will convene at Independence Hall.

May 25 Politics: George Washington is nominated by Robert Morris to serve as chairman of the Constitutional Convention, with William Jackson as his secretary, and is elected unanimously. A quorum is finally achieved and all states are present save Rhode Island, which ignores the proceedings altogether. Among noted leaders and thinkers present are Elbridge Gerry, James Madison, George Mason, Gouverneur Morris, Roger Sherman, James Wilson, and venerable, 81-year-old Benjamin Franklin. The pressing business of reforming the Articles of Confederation nevertheless begins 11 days late, but the Virginian delegation was preparing to suggest that the Articles of Confederation be dispensed with entirely, and a new framework of governance adopted in its place.

May 29 Politics: In Philadelphia, Virginia delegate Edmund Randolph unveils the socalled “Virginia Plan,” promulgated by James Madison, for ditching the enfeebled

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Jones, Absalom (1746–1818) African-American clergyman Absalom Jones was born a slave in Sussex, Delaware, on November 6, 1746. He was taken into his master’s house as a child and learned to read and write. Jones subsequently relocated with his master to Philadelphia, where he worked in a store by day and attended Anthony Benezet’s school for African Americans at night. Jones then married a fellow slave in 1770, purchased her freedom so that their children would be free, then bought his own freedom in 1784. Philadelphia at that time had the largest urban concentration of blacks in the United States, and Jones initially made his presence felt in the realm of religion. In concert with fellow lay preacher Richard Allen, he broke from St. George’s Methodist Episcopal Church when it insisted that African Americans remain in the balcony. In 1787, they jointly founded the Free African Society, the first self-help and mutual aid society for black Americans in the nation. Its purpose was to help former slaves make the transition to freedom on a moral basis, and discouraged immorality, drunkenness, and gambling. Jones was also outstanding in his denunciation of slavery and government tolerance of the practice. In 1793, Philadelphia was beset by a terrible epidemic of yellow fever, and Jones was quick to organize the African-American community to lend help to Dr. Benjamin Rush as nurses and undertakers. He then resumed his work in religious matters and broke with Allen over the issue of Methodism in 1794 by forming the St. Thomas African Episcopal Church.

More than simply a house of worship, Jones’s church functioned as a community center for social, political, and religious activities and served as a refuge against acute racial hostility. In 1804, Jones became the first African American ordained to the Episcopal priesthood. Like all social activists of his time, Jones assumed the arduous task or helping, educating, and organizing a segment of society that had been systematically downtrodden for over a century. He remained undaunted and energetic in constructing schools for young black people to provide them with the secular and religious tools to survive. These remained private ventures, for there were no state-sponsored educational institutions for African Americans in Pennsylvania at the time. From the pulpit, Jones also continued railing against human bondage and he organized petition drives to both the state legislature and the U.S. Congress to outlaw the practice. Thwarted here, he helped orchestrate a campaign to put fugitive slaves in contact with abolitionist lawyers across the nation. Jones nevertheless felt that African Americans were still required to shoulder their responsibilities to the nation, and during the War of 1812 he helped recruit a city militia outfit, the Black Legion. He also served as grand master of Philadelphia’s black masons. One of his last deeds was to combat the American Colonization Society, which hoped to export free blacks back to Africa. Jones died in Philadelphia on February 13, 1818, a significant social activist.

Articles of Confederation. This proposal suggests creation of a national executive and judiciary, and a bicameral legislature consisting of upper and lower chambers—a republican form of government. It was a nationalist scheme involving new, centralized authority that wielded power at the expense of the states. Moreover, representation in the new congress would be proportional, namely based

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Morris, Gouverneur

(1752–1816)

Politician Gouverneur Morris was born in Morrisania (Bronx), New York, into one of that colony’s most distinguished families. He was well educated at King’s College (now Columbia University) in 1768 and was admitted to the bar at 19. During the approach to the revolution, Morris, like most of his Loyalist family, was reluctant to break from Great Britain on account of the instability it posed to landowners. However, once fighting broke out in April 1775, Morris sided with the Patriots and held a seat in the provincial congress. Here he wielded his facile pen on behalf on a new state constitution, and in 1777, was elected a delegate to the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia. He there signed the Articles of Confederation, though still wary of its repercussions on the landed gentry, and in 1778, he chaired the committee that ultimately rejected Lord Frederick North’s reconciliation proposals. Morris went on to draft diplomatic instructions for Benjamin Franklin in Paris that insisted upon recognition of American independence as a precondition for peace talks. But Morris nonetheless came across as an insufferable aristocrat, and in 1780 he lost his seat. He then relocated to Philadelphia to compose several erudite essays on national finance in the Pennsylvania Packet that brought him to the attention of Robert Morris (no relation), superintendent of finance. Morris was then appointed his assistant and he originated the scheme for a decimal-based national currency subsequently adopted by Thomas Jefferson.

Morris labored in financial matters until 1787, when he represented Pennsylvania in the Constitutional Convention. Here, as an effective and articulate spokesman for centralized governance, he made indelible contributions to the process. Morris delivered more speeches on behalf on the new document than any other delegate, then served as chair of the committee tasked with drafting the final copy. As a conservative he advocated presidents and senators for life, an idea that was rejected, but his notions of an electoral college and checks upon the executive by a two-thirds vote of congress were incorporated. The famous constitutional preamble, “We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union,” also flowed from his expressive hand. Once the new government was in place Morris ventured to France where he witnessed the outbreak of the French Revolution and served as the de facto American minister. He also formed part of the conspiracy to smuggle King Louis XVI out of the country, and the Jacobin regime demanded and received his removal. Morris then returned to New York as a private citizen, although he served in the U.S. Senate as a Federalist from 1800 to 1803. In 1809, he married the controversial Anne Carey Randolph of Virginia, a woman tainted by scandal and murder accusations, but the union proved a happy one. After serving as chairman of the Erie Canal commission in 1810, Morris withdrew from public life and died at Morrisania on November 6, 1816, a strident aristocrat to the end.

on state population. Small states immediately railed against this approach for it denied them the equal status accorded them under the articles. Randolph also proposes enlarging the powers of the central government to include the power to mint coins and conduct foreign relations. Madison’s vision also forms the intellectual template that framed the ensuing discourse for the next four months.

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May 30 Politics: The Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia agrees to three branches of government, executive, legislative, and judicial, to institute a series of checks and balances. In effect, the delegates both embrace the broad outlines of the Virginia plan and agree, in principle, to scrap the Articles of Confederation. However, a drawn-out contretemps ensues over the issue of representation in the new national legislature.

May 31 Politics: The Constitutional Convention approves a motion to allow all members of the proposed House of Representation to be elected by popular vote.

June Military: Major John Hamtramck takes three companies of the 1st U.S. Regiment and begins construction of Fort Knox at Vincennes, Indiana Territory.

June 4 Politics: The Constitutional Convention agrees upon a single executive with the power of veto over all legislation; this can only be overridden by a two-thirds vote in the Congress.

June 6 Politics: Delegates in Philadelphia agree that members of the lower house of the national legislature are to be elected by the popular vote.

June 7 Politics: In Philadelphia, John Dickinson seeks a second, upper house to the Congress, whose members are elected by state legislatures, not popular vote. His motion passes.

June 15 Politics: Delegates at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, debate the merits of the Virginia Plan, which allows for proportional representation in a bicameral legislature. This, however, is opposed by the small states, who will enjoy less influence under the new scheme than the larger ones. The New Jersey Plan, or small-state plan, is then proffered by William Paterson; this intends to modestly revise the Articles of Confederation by retaining the unicameral legislature but granting it powers to tax and regulate commerce, foreign, and interstate matters alike. It also proposes a single legislative chamber whereby all states, large and small, maintain their present equal representation. Debate over the issue of representation consumes nearly another month and deep-seated disagreements nearly scuttle the convention.

June 18 Politics: Alexander Hamilton, delegate from New York and unworried by strong central governance, proposes a strong federal system. This would be countered by a popularly elected House of Representatives.

June 19 Politics: After three days of debate, the Virginia Plan of Edmund Randolph is adopted by a vote of 7 states to 3 in Philadelphia. Hereafter debate revolves around proportional versus equal representation in the federal assembly.

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June 21 Politics: After some debate, the Constitutional Convention adopts the notion of a bicameral legislature with one body elected by popular votes.

June 25 Politics: In Philadelphia, the Constitutional Convention approves a minimum age limit of 30 for the future Senate and also empowers state legislatures to elect them.

July 11 Politics: The Constitutional Convention skirts the contentious issue of slavery and instead, as a concession toward securing southern support, entertains a measure to count three-fifths of the African-American population for purposes of taxation and representation.

July 12 Politics: Delegates in Philadelphia approve James Madison’s idea for establishing representation in the House based on population, although nonvoting African-Americans slaves are counted on a three-fifths basis.

July 13 Politics: Congress passes the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, outlining an official method of organizing and governing lands east of the Mississippi River and north of the Ohio River. Subdivided into various territories, when their populations reach specified levels the ordinance facilitates political transformation into viable states. Most important of all, slavery and indenture are expressly forbidden in the new territory. This law supersedes the Ordinance of 1784 that, while passed, was never enacted. Two groups, the Ohio Company of Associates based in Boston, and the Society of the Cincinnati, wish to initiate wholesale colonization of the frontier with a goal of creating three to five new states (present-day Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota).

July 16 Politics: In Philadelphia, the “Great Compromise,” or Connecticut Plan drawn up by Roger Sherman, Oliver Ellsworth, and William S. Johnson is approved. This pivotal legislation is a deft compromise between the competing Virginia and New Jersey plans and supports creation of a bicameral legislature with equal representation for states in the proposed upper chamber, or Senate, and representation by population in the lower body, the House of Representatives. The fears of the smaller states are now assuaged; previously their unwillingness to adopt the Virginia plan threatened the entire convention with dissolution. A decisive tipping point had been reached in convention activities—and the future of a young nation.

July 25 Politics: Delegates in Philadelphia determine that the chief executive is to be elected not by popular vote, but rather through a college of electors, with each state contributing electors based on their population.

July 26 Politics: The Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia finally cobbles together 23 resolutions that serve as the framework of a proposed constitution. Two more months of debate are required before the document reaches its final form.

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July 31 Military: Colonel Josiah Harmar is promoted to brigadier general, the only officer of such rank in military service.

August 6 –10 Politics: Delegates at Philadelphia debate a new draft constitution for national governance. Among the 23 provisions approved are two-year terms in the House of Representatives, six-year terms for the Senate, and four years for the chief executive, or president. Congress is endowed with the ability to regulate commerce, both foreign and domestic, but also prohibited from legislating on slavery over the next 20 years. But African-American slaves remain counted at a rate of three-fifths of their population for purposes of representation. Despite cordial appearances, deep divisions over slavery are already being manifested between North and South.

August 9 Politics: Congress accepts South Carolina’s cession of its western lands.

August 11 Journalism: John Bradford begins publishing the Kentucky Gazette in Lexington, the first newspaper in that region of the frontier West.

August 18 Politics: The Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia tackles the touchy issue of granting Congress the authority to raise armies and maintain a navy. To many delegates, the notion of standing military establishments are a bane to basic liberties.

August 22 Technology: Inventor John Fitch makes the first public demonstration of a steam-powered vessel on the Delaware River in Philadelphia, but public interest appears to be tepid. His device is powered by oars rather than paddle wheels.

August 23 Politics: The Constitutional Convention votes to empower Congress with the ability to regulate state militias, although states still reserve the right to appoint officers. However, federal laws, where they apply, are also to be the laws of the states.

August 29 Politics: Delegates at the Constitutional Convention grant Congress the power to pass navigation acts but, in another concession to southerners, authorize a fugitive slave clause and forbid interference in the slave trade until 1808.

August 30 Politics: In Philadelphia, constitutional delegates allow amendments to the constitution following approval of two-thirds of all states.

September Business: The ships Columbia and Lady Washington depart Boston, intending to be the first American vessels to trade with the Pacific Northwest. Politics: The first of a series of “Anti-Federalist” essays signed by “Cato” appears in the New York Journal, signaling the beginning of sporadic but determined opposition to the new federal constitution. The Anti-Federalists, as they became known, were basically a group of older politicians such as Patrick Henry and

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Fitch, John

(1743–1798)

Inventor John Fitch was born in Hartford County, Connecticut on January 21, 1743, the son of farmers. His education was limited and he was listless as a youth, abandoning the farm to engage in the merchant marine, clock making, and brass working. Fitch failed conspicuously at all three before marrying in 1767—then abandoning his wife and children. He then relocated to New Jersey, where he spent most of the Revolutionary War doing odd jobs such as button making and clock repair. After serving in the state militia, Fitch relocated to Kentucky to engage in land speculation, lost his money, and was then captured by pro-British Indians. He subsequently endured nine months of imprisonment in Montreal before being released, and he then resettled in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. There he engaged in another failed land deal after the Confederation Congress declined to validate his claims. For reasons that are still obscure, Fitch suddenly hit upon the idea of steam-powered boats. The technology was not new, having been perfected by British inventor James Watt in the 1770s, but in 1785 Fitch constructed one of his own design. He sought out Philadelphia investors, in concert with watchmaker Henry Voight, and drew up plans for a 45-foot craft fitted with by steampowered oars. Working assiduously, Fitch managed to construct a working model while the Constitutional Convention was in town, and on August 22, 1787, he successfully demonstrated his craft. Several former congressmen, including signers of the Declaration

of Independence, were on hand to witness the maiden voyage, but no interest—private or governmental—resulted. But he did manage to secure a 14-year monopoly for steam operations on inland waters if he ever procured a craft to do so. Undeterred, Fitch began working on an even larger vessel and in 1788 he launched the 60-foot Perseverance, which was propelled by side-mounted paddle wheels. This new craft proved perfectly functional and regularly plied the waters between Trenton, New Jersey, and Philadelphia for a year without mishap. However, the project failed for want of public interest. Fitch also became embroiled in a copyright dispute with inventor James Rumsey, who claimed to have invented a steamboat in 1784, and the ensuing lawsuit ruined both men financially. Their struggle was unique in that it partly inspired passage of the Patent Act of 1790 to possibly preclude future conflicts. Fitch, meanwhile, finally obtained a patent from the American and French governments, built another boat, which sank in a storm in 1791, and lost his investors. Financially destitute, he returned to Bardstown, Kentucky, to live in poverty and finally took his own life on July 2, 1798. As a rule, Fitch was an enterprising spirit, but also an eccentric spendthrift with little regard for economy or efficiency. With his departure, another decade lapsed before Robert Fulton finally demonstrated the commercial viability of steamboat transportation with his famous Clermont in 1807.

Samuel Adams, who feared centralized government for fear of abetting the rise of tyranny. They especially worried that the new document, as proposed, lacked a Bill of Rights to guarantee personal liberties. These sentiments came to the attention of James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay, who resolved to counter it with a series of erudite essays of their own.

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September 6 Politics: In Philadelphia, delegates establish a four-year term for the president; if a candidate fails to receive the necessary majority in the electoral college, the decision reverts to a popular vote in the House of Representatives.

September 10 Politics: The Convention meeting in Philadelphia finished the final draft of a proposed constitution as the new basis of governance. The document is largely the product of James Madison, assisted by George Mason of Virginia, Gouverneur Morris and James Wilson of Pennsylvania, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, and Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts. Morris is tasked with providing the final draft.

September 12 General: Prince Hall, a free African American and a Revolutionary War veteran, charters the first Masonic Lodge for blacks, African Lodge No. 459, in Boston. He does so with permission from the Grand Lodge of England.

September 17 Politics: Convention delegates in Philadelphia approves a draft constitution, written by Gouverneur Morris, to upend the existing Articles of Confederation, on a unanimous vote of 10 states to none. The South Carolina deputation was divided while the New Yorkers declined to vote. In some last-minute tinkering, Delegate Nathaniel Gorham of Massachusetts suggests changing the ratio of people to representatives from 40,000 to 30,000. George Washington, in one of his few speaking roles, then arises and endorses the plan, which is approved on a voice vote. The new document establishes three separate but equal branches of government—executive, legislative, and judiciary—as fundamental checks and balances against acquiring too much power. The new government is also required to share power with the states in a federal arrangement. The final document is finally signed by 39 of 42 delegates, with only Elbridge Gerry, George Mason, and Edmund Randolph dissenting. Business then adjourns, and the matter is forwarded to Congress for their consideration.

September 19 Politics: The new U.S. Constitution appears in print for the first time in the Pennsylvania Packet and Daily Advertiser in Philadelphia, its first public exposure.

September 20 Politics: A draft of the proposed Constitution arrives at Congress, and intensive debate ensues.

September 24 Slavery: In An Address to Negroes in the State of New York, African-American poet Jupiter Hammon urges blacks to be dutiful toward their masters until deemed worthy of freedom.

September 26–27 Politics: Congressional delegates defeat a censure motion directed against the recent Constitutional Convention held at Philadelphia for ignoring instructions to merely revise the Articles of Confederation.

September 28 Politics: The Confederation Congress votes to send the proposed Constitution to the states for approval by special ratifying conventions. This removes the matter

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Chronology of American History entirely from the hands of state legislatures or the popular vote. Moreover, Article VII of the document stipulates that passage is contingent upon approval by threequarters of all states, a total of nine.

October 3 Military: Shaken by Shays’s “rebellion” and increasing Indian hostility, Congress backtracks and allows recruits to enlist for three years of service. It also stipulates that the army will retain troops already under arms rather than recruit untrained men.

October 5 Military: Former general Arthur St. Clair is appointed governor of the Northwest Territory and also superintendent of Indian affairs for the region. Winthrop Sargent becomes his secretary. He receives authority to raise militia and wage war in order to secure the territory from hostile tribesmen. St. Clair is also responsible for removing squatters from Indian land to preclude expanding hostilities.

October 16 Naval: Congress unanimously votes to present Captain John Paul Jones with a gold medal.

October 17 Education: Prince Hall, an African-American Revolutionary War veteran, petitions the Massachusetts legislature to construct equal school facilities for black children.

October 26 Diplomacy: The government instructs Governor Arthur St. Clair of the Northwest Territory to formally investigate Indian claims of illegal treaties signed in 1785. However, he is not to alter the existing arrangements unless the changes prove beneficial to the United States.

October 27 Business: The Ohio Company contracts with the Treasury Board of Congress for the purchase of millions of acres in Ohio. Politics: The first of the pro-Constitution essays known collectively as the Federalist Papers appears in the New York Independent Journal under the signature “Publius,” a reference to Publius Valerius Publicola, a defender of the Roman Republic. These 85 poignant arguments urge ratification of the new Federal Constitution and originate from the lucid pens of Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay to counter opposing “Anti-Federalist” responses. The essays continue running through April 1788, at which point they are collected and published as a two-volume collection named The Federalist, a reference to the “federal republic” they advocate. All told, this is a masterful display of political journalism for the purpose of cultivating public opinion.

November 1 Education: The African Free School, among the nation’s first, is established in New York by the Manumission Society. By 1834, it has been joined by seven similar institutions.

November 6 Religion: Dissatisfaction with segregation practices in the Methodist Episcopal Church leads Richard Allen to found the African Methodist Episcopal Church for African Americans in Philadelphia. Allen had previously worshipped at

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Allen, Richard (1760–1831) African-American clergyman Richard Allen was born at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on February 14, 1760, into a slave household. Initially, he and his family belonged to Quaker lawyer Benjamin Chew, who subsequently sold them to an individual in Delaware. Around 1777, Allen underwent a religious experience and he irrevocably reoriented his life towards preaching. He managed to purchase his freedom around 1781, and for six years he toured the South as an itinerant preacher within the Methodist Episcopal Church. Despite a lack of formal education, Allen proved himself adept as a clergyman, taught himself how to write persuasively, and proved a charismatic speaker. He also was adept at spreading the Gospel before mixed black and white audiences, and generally found widespread acceptance. Eventually he settle in Philadelphia as part of St. George’s Methodist Church, where his distinct style of preaching attracted increasing numbers of African Americans, both free and slave, to the church. This tendency soon wore out his welcome in the church, particularly when white parishioners refused to allow blacks to worship on the main floor of the church, insisting that they confine themselves to the balcony. Resentment crested in 1794 when Allen was moved to form the nation’s first independent African-American congregation at Bethel Church in an old, converted blacksmith shop, wherein he functioned as head minister. In 1799, Allen was also installed as the nation’s first African-American Methodist deacon by Bishop Francis Asbury,

and he helped orchestrate the affairs of no less than 16 independent congregations. This status in itself represented a problem for the overwhelmingly white Methodist establishment, which insisted that Allen continue in its fold. He refused; a two-decade-long legal battle for control of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) ensued and was not resolved until 1816, when the Pennsylvania State Supreme Court ruled in Allen’s favor. In addition to church functions, Allen helped spearhead numerous self-help and philanthropic institutions to assist African Americans in their day-to-day struggle against slavery and discrimination. He was outspoken in his support for moderate antislavery agitation for several decades and hid fugitive slaves in the cellar of Bethel Church. Allen certainly forgave contemporaries for their overt racism, and in 1793, when Philadelphia was in the grip of a deadly yellow-fever epidemic, he helped organize and encourage members of his community to assist their neighbors. Desiring to lead by example, he was also successful in numerous entrepreneurial ventures and acquired properties throughout the city. Moreover, because he was not allowed to participate in Methodist Conference meetings, Allen subsequently championed nationwide social and religious movements on behalf of African Americans, a move climaxing in 1830 when he became president of the National Negro Convention Movement. Allen died in Philadelphia on March 26, 1831, a significant African-American reformer of his day.

St. George’s Methodist Episcopal Church until he defied segregated seating in the balcony—and was physically pulled from his knees while at prayer.

November 13 Politics: Thomas Jefferson, then in Paris, writes that he would not object to a rebellion now and then, as “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”

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November 18 Religion: King’s Chapel, the first Unitarian Church in America, is founded with James Freeman as pastor.

December Education: Cokesbury College opens its door in Abingdon, Maryland, being the first Methodist institute of higher learning.

December 3 Technology: James Rumsey demonstrates his version of a steam-powered vessel on the Potomac River, Virginia. This invention is propelled by a jet of water forced rearwards under steam pressure.

December 7 Politics: The Delaware Constitutional Convention becomes the first elected body to ratify the new federal Constitution and does so unanimously. Hereafter it refers to itself as the “First State.”

December 12 Politics: The Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention ratifies adoption by a vote of 46 to 23 after contentious debate.

December 18 Politics: The New Jersey Constitutional Convention unanimously ratifies adoption of a federal constitution.

December 20 Religion: The Shakers (Shaking Quakers) begin a revival movement in New Lebanon, New York, that eventually unleashes religious fervor in Kentucky and other frontier regions.

1788 Arts: Philip Freneau emerges as the nation’s first poet of note with publication of his collection, Miscellaneous Works. Music: The New York Musical Society is founded. Slavery: The Negro Union Society of Newport, Rhode Island, seeks to relocate free African Americans to Africa through emigration. Though disdained at first, the idea of resettlement gains greater credence in the 19th century. The legislatures of Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania reaffirm their opposition to allowing citizens to participate in the slave trade. Societal: Positing herself as a “Publick Universal Friend,” Jemima Wilkinson establishes an experimental community of 300 at Seneca Lake in western New York. There they revel in genderless communal roles, faith healing, and close ties to local Native American tribes.

January 2 Politics: Georgia unanimously ratifies the federal Constitution, becoming the fourth state to do so.

January 9 Politics: Connecticut approves the new Constitution by a vote of 128 to 40, being the fifth state to do so.

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January 20 Religion: Reverend Andrew Bryan becomes the first pastor of the First African Baptist Church in Savannah, Georgia.

February 6 Politics: The Massachusetts convention approves the new Constitution on a relatively close vote of 187 to 168. Leading anti-Federalists like John Hancock and Samuel Adams lend their support only after being assured that a Bill of Rights will be appended at a subsequent date. The convention also suggests numerous amendments, including present-day Article X, which reserves for states all powers not specifically designated for the central government.

February 27 Slavery: African-American activist Prince Hall petitions the Massachusetts legislature to outlaw slavery following an incident in which several free blacks were illegally seized and shipped to the French West Indies as slaves. Governor John Hancock uses his influence to rescue and return the abductees and prevails on the General Court to distribute compensatory damages for any future victims.

March 21 General: New Orleans, Louisiana, is ravaged by a huge fire that destroys a large portion of the city, including most of its old French and Spanish colonial architecture.

March 24 Politics: A Rhode Island popular referendum rejects the new federal Constitution by a vote of 2,945 to 237, largely because the Federalists refuse to participate. The legislature, dominated by rurally based legislators, had defeated attempts by the mercantile-oriented Federalists to schedule a state convention. It is the first and only state to reject ratification until May 1790.

March 26 Slavery: The Massachusetts legislature votes to outlaw slavery and offer monetary compensation to all African Americans who have been kidnapped and sold overseas as slaves.

April 7 Settlement: Rufus Putnam leads a group of Ohio Company of Associates explorers to the mouth of the Muskingum River, Ohio, where they found the settlement of Marietta. This is the first settling of the Northwest Territory, consistent with terms of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, and it serves as the temporary capital. Curiously, they arrive on a barge christened the Mayflower, flagship of the original Pilgrims of 1620.

April 13–14 General: A riot breaks out in New York City when a mob accuses the New York College of Medicine of grave robbing to acquire cadavers for dissection. Three people are killed while Governor George Clinton and Alexander Hamilton are among the injured.

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April 15 Naval: Captain John Paul Jones accepts an admiral’s commission in the Russian navy at the behest of Czarina Catherine the Great.

April 28 Politics: The Maryland Constitutional Convention approves the new document on a vote of 63 to 11, being the seventh state to approve passage.

May Military: In an attempt to stave off white encroachment against Indian land, Creek leader Alexander McGillivray starts a brief internecine frontier war with Georgian settlers.

May 23 Politics: The federal Constitution is approved by South Carolina through a vote of 149 to 73; it is the eighth state to do so.

June 2 Politics: The Virginia convention meets to ponder the new federal Constitution, which is strongly opposed by local anti-Federalist notables such as Patrick Henry, George Mason, and Richard Henry Lee. James Madison leads the proconstitutional faction.

June 13 Law: Former rebel Daniel Shays is pardoned by the state of Massachusetts; he has lived in exile in Vermont since his “rebellion” was crushed.

June 17 Politics: The New York constitutional convention gathers in Poughkeepsie with a large antiFederalist faction under Governor George Clinton. The Federalists, led by Alexander Hamilton, seek to delay a vote until news of successful ratification arrives, from New Hampshire and especially Virginia.

June 21 Politics: The New Hampshire convention adopts the new federal Constitution by a vote of 57 to 46, and also recommends 12 amendments. This is the ninth state to vote in the affirmative so, technically speaking, the new government has been approved.

June 25

George Clinton (Library of Congress)

1788

Politics: In Virginia, James Madison overcomes heated opposition to the new federal Constitution from Patrick Henry and George Mason, and the Virginia convention approves of it 89 to 75. George Washington also lobbies Edmund Randolph for passage, and he agrees on the condition that a Bill of

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Rights is added afterward. While redundant from the standpoint of ratification, Virginia’s support was viewed as essential for the long-term success of the new system of governance.

June 26 General: Portsmouth, New Hampshire, is the scene of raucous celebrations following ratification of the new federalist Constitution; it was the Granite State that pushed it over the threshold.

July 2 Politics: President of Congress Cyrus Griffin of Virginia declares that the Constitution of the United States has been ratified by nine states and is now in effect.

July 8 Politics: A Congressional committee is appointed to oversee a smooth transition to the new form of government; specifically they deal with rules for electing members to the new House of Representatives and choosing electors for a new chief executive, the president of the United States.

July 15 Settlement: Former Revolutionary War general Arthur St. Clair is installed as governor of the Northwest Territory, with headquarters at Marietta, Ohio.

July 26 Politics: The New York convention, deftly manipulated by Alexander Hamilton, votes to unconditionally approve the new federal Constitution by a vote of 30 to 27. The vote, largely symbolic, is essential for displaying widespread national support for the document. Inclusion of a bill of rights is also mentioned as a recommendation.

July 27 Business: The Scioto Company acquires 1,781,000 acres in the Ohio Country and makes preparations to settle all of it north of territory owned by the Ohio Company.

August 2 Politics: The North Carolina convention votes 184 to 84 to withhold ratification of the federal constitution until a second convention weighs a bill of rights.

August 16 Journalism: The 85th and last installment of The Federalist in published in New York.

August 17 Settlement: John Cleves Symmes leads a group of pioneers from New Jersey to the confluences of the Ohio and Great Miami Rivers.

September Business: Trading vessels Columbia and Lady Washington arrive at Nootka Sound, being the first American ships to contact and trade in the Pacific Northwest.

September 13 Politics: President of Congress Cyrus Griffin selects New York City to serve as the temporary seat of government until a new federal district is constructed. He

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Chronology of American History also approves congressional recommendations for the states to select presidential electors on the first Wednesday of the following January. Actual balloting for the new Congress will begin on the first Wednesday of February, and the Congress will then convene on the first Wednesday of March.

September 25 Politics: Congress dispatches 12 amendments (the Bill of Rights) to the states for ratification.

October Business: After many months of spiraling downward, commodity prices finally stabilize and signs of pre-Revolutionary economic prosperity begin to be manifested.

October 2 Military: The contractor tasked with providing the army with uniforms and other accouterments fails to provide the goods as promised, so soldiers at distant outposts are forced to improvise with on-hand supplies. Congress also fails to provide the military with pay. Politics: The Confederation Congress relocates from New York City’s Federal Hall until the building is renovated to receive the new government.

November 1 Politics: The Confederation Congress finally adjourns until the first week of April 1789. Technically speaking, the United States lacks a central government until March 4, 1789.

November 12 Diplomacy: Chief Alexander McGillivray, defeated in his frontier war against Georgia, signs the Treaty of Galphinton, which forces the tribe to recognize the early treaty of Augusta. He is also forced to cede a strip of coastal land along the Altahamaha River.

November 16 Politics: North Carolina, encouraged by the 12 amendments to the federal Constitution, approves a convention for ratification purposes.

November 21 Politics: The North Carolina convention formally approves the new federal Constitution on a vote of 194 to 77.

December Business: The American national economy, spurred on by a rise in commodity prices, begins a gradual postwar recovery. The immediate beneficiary is the South, whose exports of rice, tobacco, indigo, and naval stores to England and France provide a badly needed influx of cash.

December 1 Diplomacy: Spain allows U.S. exports through the port of New Orleans, but only after collecting a 15 percent duty. They do so to convince westerners to assist General James Wilkinson, now a spy for Spain, to separate the lower Mississippi Valley from the United States and establish a Spanish protectorate. Spanish designs are abetted by genuine discontent arising from the failure of the recent Jay-Gardoqui Treaty to be ratified by Congress.

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December 23 Politics: A 10-square-mile federal district along the Potomac River is suggested by the Maryland government, an area it is willing to cede as the future District of Columbia.

December 28 Settlement: The settlement of Losantiville is founded at the mouth of the Big Miami River, Ohio, by colonists under John Cleves Symmes. Two years later, the settlement is renamed Cincinnati in honor of the Society of the Cincinnati, a conservative political interest group organized among Revolutionary War officers.

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B IBLIOGRAPHY ✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰ Adams, Catherine J. “ ‘What I Did Is Who I Am’: African American Women and Resistance to Slavery in Colonial and Revolutionary New England.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 2004. Adams, Gretchen A. “The Specter of Salem in American Culture.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., University of New Hampshire, 2001. Agostini, Thomas C. ‘Cousins in Arms’: Experience and the Formation of a British-American Identity among Regular and Provincial Soldiers during the Seven Years’ War.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., Lehigh University, 2002. Ahearn, Bill. Flintlock Muskets in the American Revolution and Other Colonial Wars. Lincoln, R.I.: Andrew Mowbray Publishers, 2005. Alt, William E. Black Soldiers, White Wars: Black Warriors from Antiquity to the Present. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2002. Amory, Hugh, and David D. Hall, eds. A History of the Book in America. Vol. 1: The Colonial Book in the Atlantic World. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Anderson, Douglas. William Bradford’s Books: “Of Plimouth Plantation” and the Printed Word. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003. Anderson, Fred. Crucible of War: The Seven Years’ War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754–1763. New York: Vintage Books, 2001. Anderson, Fred. The War that Made America: A Short History of the French and Indian War. New York: Viking, 2005. Anderson, Virginia D. Creatures of Empire: How Domestic Animals Transformed Early America. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Anzilotti, Cara. In the Affairs of the World: Women, Patriarchy, and Power in Colonial South Carolina. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2002. Atwood, Craig D. Community of the Cross: Moravian Policy in Colonial Bethlehem. University Park: Pennsylvania State University, 2004. Aubert, Guillaume. “ ‘Francais, Negres et Sauvages’: Constructing Race in Colonial Louisiana.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., Tulane University, 2002. Bach, Rebecca A. Colonial Transformations: The Cultural Production of the New Atlantic World, 1580–1640. New York: Palgrave, 2000. Baker, Jennifer J. Securing the Commonwealth: Debt, Speculation, and Writing in the Making of Early America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005.

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Chronology of American History Brown, Gillan. The Consent of the Governed: The Lockean Legacy in Early American Culture. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2001. Brumwell, Stephen. Redcoats: The British Soldier and War in the Americas, 1755–1763. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Brumwell, Stephen. White Devil: A True Story of War, Savagery, and Vengeance in Colonial America. Cambridge, Mass.: Da Capo Press, 2004. Burgess, Robert S. To Try the Bloody Law: The Story of Mary Dyer. Burnsville, N.C.: Celo Valley, 2000. Burns, William E. Science and Technology in Colonial America. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2005. Burton, Helen S. “Family and Economy in Frontier Louisiana: Colonial Natchitoches, 1714–1803.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss, Texas Christian University, 2002. Callo, Joseph F. John Paul Jones: America’s First Sea Warrior. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 2006. Calloway, Colin G., and Neal Salisbury, eds. Reinterpreting New England Indians and the Colonial Experience. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 2003. Camenzind, Krista. “From the Holy Experiment to the Paxton Boys: Violence, Manhood, and Race in Pennsylvania during the Seven Years’ War.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., University of California, San Diego, 2002. Carlo, Paula W. “The Huguenots of Colonial New Paltz and New Rochelle: A Social and Religious History.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., City University of New York, 2001. Carroll, John M., and Collin F. Baxter. The American Military Tradition: From Colonial Times to the Present. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006. Carter, Susan B. Historical Statistics of the United States: Earliest Times to the Present. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Castillo, Susan, and Ivy Schweitzer, ed. The Literatures of Colonial America: An Anthology. Oxford, England: Blackwell, 2001. Cave, Alfred A. The French and Indian War. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2004. Chan, Alexandra A. “The Slaves of Colonial New England: Discourses of Colonialism and Identity at the Isaac Royall House, Medford, Massachusetts, 1732–1775.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss, Boston University, 2003. Chandler, Alfred D., and James W. Cortada, eds. A Nation Transformed by Information: How Information Has Shaped the United States from Colonial Times to the Present. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. Chet, Guy. Conquering the American Wilderness: The Triumph of European Warfare in the Colonial Northeast. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2003. Ciment, James. Colonial America: An Encyclopedia of Social, Political, Cultural, and Economic History. Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe, 2006. Cinlar, Nuran. “Marriage in the Colonial Chesapeake, 1607–1770: A Study in Cultural Adaptation and Reformulation.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., Johns Hopkins University, 2001. Colley, Linda. Captives. New York: Pantheon, 2002. Conrad, Margaret, and Barry Moody, eds. Planter Links: Community and Culture in Colonial Nova Scotia. Fredericton, N.B.: Acadiensis, 2001.

Bibliography Coombs, John C. “Building ‘the Machine’: The Development of Slavery and Slave Society in Early Colonial Virginia.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., College of William and Mary, 2004. Copeland, David A. Debating the Issues in Colonial Newspapers: Primary Documents on Events of the Period. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2000. Corbett, Theodore G. A Clash of Cultures on the Warpath of Nations: The Colonial Wars in the Hudson-Champlain Valley. Fleischmanns, N.Y.: Purple Mountain Press, 2002. Cotton, John. The Correspondence of John Cotton. Edited by Sargent Bush, Jr. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001. Crego, Carl R. Fort Ticonderoga. Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia, 2004. Cullon, Joseph F. “Colonial Shipwrights and Their World: Men, Women, and Markets in Early New England.” Unpublished diss., University of Wisconsin, Madison, 2003. Curiel, James A. “The Colonial Function of the Conception of the Primative.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., University of California, Davis, 2000. Dale, Elizabeth. Debating and Creating Authority: The Failure of a Constitutional Ideal in Massachusetts Bay, 1629–1649. Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate, 2001. Davis, David B. Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. De Cunzo, La Ann. Unlocking the Past: Celebrating Historical Archaeology in North America. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2005. Deetz, James, and Particia S. Deetz. The Times of Their Lives: Life, Love, and Death in Plymouth Colony. New York: W. H. Freeman, 2000. Derks, Scott, and Tony Smith. The Value of a Dollar: Colonial Era to the Civil War, 1600–1865. Millerton, N.Y.: Grey House, 2005. DeRosa, Robin. “Specters, Scholars, and Sightseers: The Salem Witch Trials and American Memory.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., Tufts University, 2002. Diner, Hasla R., and Beryl Lieff Benderly. Her Works Praise Her: A History of Jewish Women in America from Colonial Times to the Present. New York: Basic Books, 2002. Donahue, Brian. The Great Meadow: Farmers and the Land in Colonial Concord. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2004. Dunn, Walter S. People of the American Frontier: The Coming of the American Revolution. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2005. Einhorn, Robin L. American Taxation, American Slavery. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006. Ekberg, Carl J., Grady W. Kilman, and Pierre Lebeau. Code Noir: The Colonial Slave Laws of French Mid-America. Naperville, Ill.: Center for French Colonial Studies, 2005. Elliott, John H. Empires of the Atlantic World: Britain and Spain in America, 1492–1830. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2006. Fabel, Robin F. A. Colonial Challenges: Britons, Native Americans, and Cribs, 1759–1775. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2000. Faggins, Barbara A. “An Afrocentric Analysis of Contacts between Africans and First Americans in Colonial Virginia.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., Temple University, 2001.

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Chronology of American History Fatherly, Sarah L. “Gentlewomen and Learned Ladies: Gender and the Creation of an Urban Elite in Colonial Philadelphia.” Unpublished Ph. D diss., University of Wisconsin, Madison, 2000. Ferling, John E. A Leap in the Dark: The Struggle to Create the American Republic. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. Ferro, David L. “Selling Science in the Colonial American Newspaper: How the Middle Colonial American General Periodical Represented Nature, Philosophy, Medicine, and Technology, 1728–1765.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 2001. Field, Jonathan B. “The Grounds of Dissent: Heresies and Colonies in New England, 1636–1663.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago Press, 2004. Finch, Martha L. “Corporality and Orthodoxy in Early New England: Plymouth Colony, 1620–1692.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., University of California, Santa Barbara, 2000. Fingerhut, Eugene R., and Joseph S. Tidemann. The Other New York: The American Revolution beyond New York City, 1763–1787. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2005. Fischer, Kirsten. Suspect Relations: Sex, Race, and Resistance in Colonial North Carolina. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2002. Fischer, Kirsten, and Eric Hinderaker, eds. Colonial American History. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell, 2002. Flavell, Julie, and Stephen Conway, eds. Britain and America Go to War: The Impact of War in Anglo-America, 1754–1815. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2004. Fleming, Thomas J. Washington’s Secret War: The Hidden History of Valley Forge. New York: Smithsonian Books/Collins, 2005. Flynn, David T. “Credit and the Economy of Colonial New England.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., Indiana University, 2001. Fowler, William M. Empires at War: The French and Indian War and the Struggle for North America, 1754–1763. New York: Walker, 2004. Frasca, Ralph. Benjamin Franklin’s Printing Network: Disseminating Virtue in Early America. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2006. Fredriksen, John C. America’s Military Adversaries: From Colonial Times to the Present. Santa Barbara, Calif: ABC-Clio, 2001. Fredriksen, John C. Revolutionary War Almanac. New York: Facts On File, 2006. Gagne, Richard H. “Cultural History Carved in Stone: The Colonial American Frontier Revealed in the Traditional Art of Gershom Bartlett’s Gravestones.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., Indiana University, 2004. Geiter, Mark K., and W. A. Speck. Colonial America: From Jamestown to Yorktown. New York: Palgrave, 2003. Gibson, Marion, ed. Witchcraft and Society in England and America, 1550– 1750. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2003. Gilje, Paul A. The Making of the American Republic, 1763–1815. Upper Saddle River, N. J.: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2006. Gilmore, R. J. “ ‘Imagined Bodies and Imagined Selves’: Cultural Transgression, ‘Unredeemed’ Captives, and the Development of American Identity

Bibliography in Colonial North America, 1520–1763.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., York University, 2004. Glatthaar, Joseph T. Forgotten Allies: The Oneida Indians and the American Revolution. New York: Hill and Wang, 2006. Gordon, Elsbeth K. Florida’s Colonial Architectural Heritage. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2002. Graham, Diane S. “Planting, Planning, and Design: A Comparative Study of English Colonial Cities Founded in India, North America, and the Caribbean, 1660–1710.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., State University of New York, Binghamton, 2001. Greenberg, Martin A. Citizens Defending America: From Colonial Times to the Age of Terrorism. Pittsburgh, Pa.: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2005. Greene, Jack P., Rosemary Branta-Shute, and Randy Sparks, eds. Money, Trade, and Power: The Evolution of Colonial South Carolina’s Plantation Society. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2001. Greenspan, Anders. Creating Colonial Williamsburg. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2002. Greenwood, John T., and F. Clifton Berry. Medics at War: Military Medicine from Colonial Times to the 21st Century. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 2005. Greer, Allan, and Jodi Bilinkoff, eds. Colonial Saints: Discovering the Holy in the Americas, 1500–1800. New York: Routledge, 2003. Grenier, John. The First Way of War: American War Making on the Frontier, 1607–1814. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005. Grubb, Farley W. Two Theories of Money Reconciled: The Colonial Puzzle Revisited with New Evidence. Cambridge, Mass.: National Bureau of Economic Research, 2005. Gwyn, Julian. An Admiral for America: Sir Peter Warren, Vice Admiral of the Red, 1703–1752. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2004. Haefeli, Evan, and Kevin Sweeney. Captors and Captives: The 1704 French and Indian Raid on Deerfield. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2003. Hager, Alan, ed. The Age of Milton: An Encyclopedia of Major 17th-Century British and American Authors. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2004. Hall, Joseph M. “Making an Indian People: Creek Formation in the Colonial Southeast, 1590–1735.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., University of Wisconsin, Madison, 2001. Harbury, Katherine E. Colonial Virginia’s Cooking Dynasty. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2004. Harris, Brenda L. “Charleston’s Colonial Boat Culture, 1668–1775.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., University of South Carolina, 2002. Haskell, Alexander B. “The Affections of the People”: Ideology and the Politics of State Building in Colonial Virginia, 1607–1754.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., Johns Hopkins University, 2005. Higginbotham, Don, ed. George Washington Reconsidered. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2001. Hodges, Graham R. The Colonial World & The Young Nation. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.

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Chronology of American History Hoeveler, J. David. Creating the American Mind: Intellect and Politics: in the Colonial Colleges. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2002. Hoffer, Peter C. The Great New York Conspiracy of 1741: Slavery, Crime, and Colonial Law. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2003. Hoffer, Peter C. The Brave New World: A History of Early America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006. Horton, James O. Slavery and the Making of America. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Huff, Randall. The Revolutionary War Era. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2004. Jalalsai, Zubeda. “Puritan Imperialisms: The Limits of Identity and the Indian Missions of Massachusetts Bay.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., State University of New York, Buffalo, 2000. James, Sydney V, Sheila L. Skemp, and Bruce C. Daniels, eds. The Colonial Metamorphoses in Rhode Island: A Study of Institutions in Change. Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 2000. Johnson, Odai. Absence and Memory in Colonial American Theater: Fiorelli’s Plaster. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. Johnson, Odai, and William J. Burling. The American Colonial Stage, 1665– 1774: A Documentary Calender. Cranbury, N.J.: Associated University Press, 2001. Johnston, A. J. B. Control and Order in French Colonial Louisbourg, 1713–1758. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2001. Jones, Joseph F. John Paul Jones: America’s First Sea Warrior. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 2006. Kalter, Susan. Benjamin Franklin, Pennsylvania, and the First Nations: The Treaties of 1736–62. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2005. Kaaye, Harvey J. Thomas Paine and the Promise of America. New York: Hill and Wang, 2005. Keen, David J. “Beyond Fur Trade: The Eighteenth Century Colonial Economy of French North Americas as Seen from Fort de Chartes in the Illinois Country.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., University of Wisconsin, Madison, 2002. Kloss, Michelle L. “The Constructed Self in Colonial American Portraiture.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., University of Maryland, College Park, 2000. Kornwolf, James D., and Georgiana W. Kornwolf. Architecture and Town Planning in Colonial North America. 3 vols. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002. Kulikoff, Allan. From British Peasants to Colonial American Farmers. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000. Lambert, Frank. James Habersham: Loyalty, Politics, and Commerce in Colonial Georgia. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2005. Lannen, Andrew C. “Liberty and Authority in Colonial Georgia, 1717–1776.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., Louisiana State University, 2002. LeMaster, Michelle M. “ ‘Thorough-Paced Girls’ and ‘Cowardly Bad Men’: Gender and Family in Indian-White Relations in the Colonial Southeast, 1660–1783.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., Johns Hopkins University, 2002. Lengal, Edward G. General George Washington: A Military Life. New York: Random House, 2005.

Bibliography Levy, Andrew. The First Emancipator: The Forgotten Story of Robert Carter, the Founding Father Who Freed His Slaves. New York: Random House, 2005. Loescher, Burt G. The History of Roger’s Rangers. Bowie, Md.: Heritage Books, 2001. Logan, Rebecca L. “Witches and Poisoners in the Colonial Chesapeake.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., Union Institute, 2001. Lombard, Anne S. Making Manhood: Growing Up Male in Colonial New England. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2003. Longaker, Mark G. “Rhet/Comp and Revolution: History, Rhetoric and Pedagogy in Colonial and Contemporary American Higher Education.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., Pennsylvania State University Press, 2003. Lounsbury, Carl R. From Statehouse to Courthouse: An Architectural History of South Carolina’s Colonial Capitol and Charleston County Courthouse. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2001. Lounsbury, Carl R. Courthouses of Early Virginia: An Architectural History. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2005. Lustig, Mary Lou. The Imperial Executive in America: Sir Edmund Andros, 1637–1714. Cranbury, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2002. Madaras, Larry, and James M. SoRelle, eds. Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial Issues in American History. New York: McGraw Hill, 2003. Main, Gloria L. Peoples of a Spacious Land: Families and Cultures in Colonial New England. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2001. Mancke, Elizabeth, and Carole Shammas. The Creation of the British Atlantic World. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005. Marston, Daniel. The French-Indian War, 1754–1760. New York: Routledge, 2003. Martin, Jonathan D. “Divided Mastery: Slave Hiring in the Colonial and Antebellum American South.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., New York University, 2000. Matson, Cathy D. The Economy of Early America: Historical Perspective and New Directions. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2006. Mays, Terry M. Historical Dictionary of Revolutionary America. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2005. McClelland-Nugent, Ruth. “Rebels, Heathen, and Heretics: The Problem of Settler Identity in Printed Accounts of English Colonial Crises, with a Particular Focus on Ireland, New England, and Virginia, 1640–1700.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., Dalhousie University, 2000. McConville, Brendan. The King’s Three Faces: The Rise and Fall of Royal America, 1688–1783. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006. McDougall, Walter A. Freedom Just Around the Corner: A New American History, 1585–1828. New York: Perennial, 2005. McDowell, Gary, and Jonathan O’Neil, eds. America and Enlightenment Constitutionalism. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. McGarvie, Mark D. One Nation under Law: America’s Early National Struggles to Separate Church and State. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2005. McGaughty, J. Kent. Richard Henry Lee of Virginia: A Portrait of an American Revolutionary. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004.

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Chronology of American History McNeel, Steven C. “A Long Indefensible Line of Frontiers: Colonel Henri Bouquet’s North American Apprenticeship.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., University of Illinois, Chicago, 2002. McWilliams, James E. “From the Ground Up: Internal Economic Development and Local Commercial Exchange in the Massachusetts Bay Region, 1630– 1705.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., Johns Hopkins University, 2001. Melosi, Martin V. The Sanitary City: Urban Infrastructure in America from Colonial Times to the Present. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000. Menard, Russell R. Migrants, Servants, and Slaves: Unfree Labor in Colonial British America. Aldershot, England: Ashgate, 2001. Mercanti, Jonathan. “Colony in Conflict: South Carolina, 1748–1766.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., Emory University, 2000. Messer, Peter C. Stories of Independence: Identity, Ideology, and History in Eighteenth Century America. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2005. Meyers, Debra A. Common Whores, Vertuous Women and Loveing Wives: Free Will Christian Women in Colonial Maryland. Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 2003. Meyers, Karen. Colonialism and the Revolutionary Period: Beginnings to 1800. New York: Facts On File, 2005. Miller, Kerby A., et al. Irish Immigrants in the Land of Canaan: Letters and Memoirs from Colonial and Revolutionary America, 1675–1815. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. Monaghan, E. Jennifer. Learning to Read and Write in Colonial America. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2005. Morgan, Edmund S. The Genuine Article: A Historian Looks at Early America. New York: W. W. Norton, 2004. Mulford, Carla, and David S. Shields. Finding Colonial Americans: Essays Honoring J. A. Leo Lemay. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2001. Nash, Gary B. The Forgotten Fifth: African Americans in the Age of Revolution. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2006. Nelson, James L. Benedict Arnold’s Navy: The Ragtag Fleet that Lost the Battle of Lake Champlain but Won the American Revolution. Camden, Me.: International Marine/McGraw Hill, 2006. Nelson, John K. A Blessed Company: Parishes, Parsons, and Parishioners in Anglican Virginia, 1690–1776. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002. Nelson, Louis P. “The Material World: Anglican Visual Culture in Colonial South Carolina.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., University of Delaware, 2001. Nestor, William R. The Great Frontier War: Britain, France, and the Imperial Struggle for North America, 1607–1755. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2000. Nestor, William R. The First Global War: Britain, France, and the Fate of North America, 1756–1775. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2000. Norton, Mary Beth. In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis, of 1692. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002. Oatis, Steven J. A Colonial Complex: South Carolina’s Frontiers in the Era of the Yamasee War, 1860–1730. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2004.

Bibliography Olbrys, Stephen C. “ ‘More Weight’: Social Evil, Civil Rights, and the Commodification of the Salem Witch Trials.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., Indiana University, 2003. Olexer, Barbara. The Enslavement of the American Indian in Colonial Times. Columbus, Md.: Joyous, 2005. Oliphant, John. Peace and War on the Anglo-Cherokee Frontier, 1756–1763. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2001. Oliver, Sandra L. Food in Colonial and Federal America. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2005. Olwell, Robert, and Allan Tully. Cultures and Identities in Colonial British America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006. O’Toole, Fintan. White Savage: William Johnson and the Invention of America. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2005. Parrish, Susan S. American Curiosity: Cultures of Natural History in the Colonial British Atlantic World. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006. Patterson, Thomas E. We the People: A Concise Introduction to American Politics. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2006. Piker, Joshua. Okfuskee: A Creek Indian Town in Colonial America. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2004. Plane, Ann Marie. Colonial Intimacies: Indian Marriage in Early New England. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2000. Powell, Allan. Forgotten Heroes of the Maryland Frontier: Christopher Gist, Evan Shelby, Jr., and Thomas Cresap. Baltimore, Md.: Gateway Press, 2001. Proenza-Coles, Christina. “Imagining Communities in Black and White: Social Stratification in Colonial Virginia and Cuba and Its Impact on Nineteenth Century Conceptions of Race and Nation.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., New School University, 2004. Puls, Mark. Samuel Adams: Father of the American Revolution. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. Raphael, Ray. The First American Revolution: Before Lexington and Concord. New York: New Press, 2002. Rassmussen, Birgit B. “Re-Imagining Literary America: Writing and Colonial Frontiers in American Literature.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., University of California, Berkeley, 2003. Read, David. New World, Known World: Shaping Knowledge in Early AngloAmerican Writing. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2005. Reid, John G., et al. The “Conquest” of Acadia, 1710: Imperial, Colonial, and Aboriginal Constructions. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004. Reinhardt, Leslie K. “Fabricated Images: Invented Dress in British and Colonial American Portraits.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., Princeton University, 2003. Reiss, Oscar. The Jews in Colonial America. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2004. Roberts, Cokie. Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation. New York: Perennial, 2005. Rogers, Robert. The Annotated and Illustrated Journals of Major Robert Rogers. Fleischmanns, N.Y.: Purple Mountain Press, 2002. Roper, L. H. Conceiving Carolina: Proprietors, Planters, and Plots, 1662–1729. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.

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Chronology of American History Rose, Alexander. Washington’s Spies: The Story of America’s First Spy Ring. New York: Bantam Books, 2006. Rothschild, Nan A. Colonial Encounters in a Native Landscape: The Spanish and Dutch in North America. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2003. Rowe, Mary E. Bulwark of the Republic: The American Militia in the Antebellum West. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2003. Ruckers, Walter C. The River Flows On: Black Resistance, Culture, and Identity Formation in Early America. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2006. Rutz-Robbins, Kristi A. “Colonial Commerce: Race, Class, and Gender in a Local Economy, Albemarle, North Carolina, 1663–1729.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss, Michigan State University, 2003. St. George, Robert B., ed. Possible Pasts: Becoming Colonial in Early America. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2000. Samford, Patricia M. “Power Runs in Many Channels: Subfloor Pits and West African-based Spiritual Traditions in Colonial Virginia.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 2000. Sandage, Scott A. Born Losers: A History of Failure in America. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2005. Sarson, Steven. British America, 1500–1800: Creating Colonies, Imagining an Empire. London: Hodder Arnold, 2005. Schama, Simon. Rough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves, and the American Revolution. New York: Ecco, 2006. Shoemaker, Nancy. A Strange Likeness: Becoming Red and White in EighteenthCentury North America. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. Silvia, Diane E. “Indian and French Interaction in Colonial Louisiana during the Early Eighteenth Century.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., Tulane University, 2000. Smolenski, John J. “Friends and Strangers: Religion, Diversity, and the Ordering of Public Life in Colonial Pennsylvania, 1681–1764.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., University of Pennsylvania, 2001. Snyder, Holly. “A Sense of Place: Jews, Identity, and Social Status in Colonial British America, 1654–1831.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., Brandeis University, 2000. Spencer, Mark G. David Hume and Eighteenth Century America. Rochester, N.Y.: University of Rochester Press, 2005. Starbuck, David R. Massacre at Fort William Henry. Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 2002. Stevens, Laura M. The Poor Indians: British Missionaries, Native Americans, and Colonial Sensibility. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004. Stutz, Linda L. Within Her Power: Propertied Women in Colonial Virginia. New York: Routledge, 2002. Stuyvesant, Peter. Correspondence, 1647–1653. Edited by Charles T. Gehring. Syracuse, N.Y.: University of Syracuse Press, 2001. Suthren, Victor J. H. The Sea Has No End: The Life of Louis-Antoine de Bougainville. Toronto: Dundurn Group, 2004.

Bibliography Tabbert, Mark A. American Freemasons: Three Centuries of Building Communities. New York: New York University Press, 2005. Taylor, Alan. Writing Early American History. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005. Taylor, Alan. The Divided Ground: Indians, Settlers, and the Northern Borderland of the American Revolution. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006. Thompson, Bruce, ed. The Revolutionary Period, 1750–1783. San Diego, Calif.: Greenhaven Press, 2003. Thompson, Mark L. “National Subjects in a Contested Colonial Space: Allegiance, Ethnicity, and Authority in the Seventeenth-Century Delaware Valley.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., Johns Hopkins University, 2004. Todish, Timothy J. America’s First World War: The French and Indian War, 1754–1763. Fleischmanns, N.Y.: Purple Mountain Press, 2002. Vetere, Lisa M. “All the Rage at Salem: Witchcraft Tales and the Politics of Domestic Complaints in Early and Antebellum America.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., Lehigh University, 2003. Vickers, Daniel, ed. A Companion to Colonial America. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell, 2003. Vigne, Randolph, and Charles Littleton, eds. From Strangers to Citizens: The Integration of Immigrant Communities in Britain, Ireland, and Colonial America, 1550–1750. Brighton, England: Sussex Academic, 2001. Volo, James M., and Dorothy D. Volo. Family Life in 17th and 18th-Century America. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2006. Wald, Kenneth D. Religion and Politics in the United States. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006. Walters, Wendy S. “A Dramatic Evolution of the Colonial Subject: Imaging Authorship in the Performance of History.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., Cornell University, 2000. Ward, Joseph P. Britain and the American South: From Colonialism to Rock and Roll. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2003. Ward, Matthew C. Breaking the Backcountry: The Seven Years’ War in Virginia and Pennsylvania, 1754–1763. Pittsburgh, Pa.: University of Pittsburgh, 2003. Washington, Harriet A. Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present. New York: Doubleday, 2006. Watts, Edward. In This Remote Country: French Colonial Culture in the AngloAmerican Imagination, 1780–1860. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006. Weintraub, Stanley. Iron Tears: America’s Battle for Freedom, Britain’s Quagmire, 1775–1783. New York: Free Press, 2005. Wertheimer, Eric. Underwriting: The Poetics of Insurance in America, 1722– 1872. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2006. Westover, Jeffrey W. “The Colonial Moment: Discoveries and Settlements in Modern American Poetry.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., Boston College, 2000. White, Andrew P. “ ‘Keeping Clear of the Gain of Obsession’: ‘Public Friends’ and the De-mastering of Quaker Race Relations in Late Colonial America.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., Washington State University, 2003.

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Chronology of American History Wilheit, Mary C. “Colonial Surveyors in Southern Maryland.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., Texas A & M University, 2003. Williams, Glenn F. Year of the Hangman: George Washington’s Campaign Against the Iroquois. Yardley, Pa.:Westholme, 2005. Wilson, Richard G. Re-creating the American Past: Essays on the Colonial Revival. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2006. Wood, Bradford J. “The Formation of a Region in Colonial North Carolina: The Lower Cape Fear, 1725–1775.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., Johns Hopkins University, 2000. Wood, Betty. Slavery in Colonial America, 1619–1776. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005. Wood, Gordon S. Revolutionary Characters: What Made the Founders Different. New York: Penguin Press, 2006. Wood, Peter H. Strange New Land: Africans in Colonial America. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. Wood, Timothy L. “Agents of Wrath, Sowers of Discord: Authority and Dissent in Puritan Massachusetts, 1630–1655.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., Marquette University, 2002. Wright, Robert E. The First Wall Street: Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, and the Birth of American Finance. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005. Wulf, Karen. Not All Wives: Women of Colonial Philadelphia. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2000. York, Neil L. Turning the World Upside Down: The War of American Independence and the Problem of Empire. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2003.

CHRONOLOGY OF

AMERICAn HISTORy VOLUME II ★★★

Expansion and Civil War 1789 to 1865

CHRONOLOGY OF AMERICAN HISTORY Volume I Colonization and Independence Beginnings to 1788 Volume II Expansion and Civil War 1789 to 1865 Volume III Industry and Modernity 1866 to 1920 Volume IV Challenges at Home and Abroad 1921 to the Present

CHRONOLOGY OF

AMERICAn HISTORy VOLUME II ★★★

Expansion and Civil War 1789 to 1865

JOHN C. FREDRIKSEN

Chronology of American History Copyright © 2008 John C. Fredriksen All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information contact: Facts On File, Inc. An imprint of Infobase Publishing 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Fredriksen, John C. Chronology of American history / John C. Fredriksen. v. cm. Includes bibliographical references and indexes. Contents. v. 1. Colonization and independence, beginnings to 1788— v. 2. Expansion and Civil War, to 1865—v. 3. Industry and modernity, to 1920— v. 4. Challenges at home and abroad, to the present. ISBN 978-0-8160-6800-5 (set : hc : alk. paper) 1. United States—History— Chronology. 2. United States—Civilization—Chronology. 3. United States— Biography. I. Title. E174.5.F74 2008 973—dc22 2007033964 Facts On File books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk quantities for businesses, associations, institutions, or sales promotions. Please call our Special Sales Department in New York at (212) 967-8800 or (800) 322-8755. You can find Facts On File on the World Wide Web at http://www.factsonfile.com Text design by Kerry Casey Cover design by Salvatore Luongo Printed in the United States of America VB BVC 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 This book is printed on acid-free paper and contains 30 percent postconsumer recycled content.

CONTENTS ✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰ Introduction Chronology

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INTRODUCTION ✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰ aving secured independence, the nascent United States adopted a new, more centralized system of governance under the Constitution in 1789, and George Washington was sworn in as the nation’s first chief executive. The ensuing seven decades proved a period of unprecedented growth and internal consolidation, although not without intermittent bumps along the way. In a military parlance, the American polity struggled with its acceptance of standing professional forces, army and navy alike, in the many conflicts with Native Americans, Tripolitan pirates, revolutionary France, a second showdown with Great Britain, and a war of conquest against Mexico. The military and political institutions survived this repeated buffeting, which left the United States thriving and on the cusp of becoming a two-ocean power. Concurrent with national expansion was a similar boom in the economic and population sectors, both of which experienced steady growth due to the industrial revolution and unprecedented waves of immigration. Millions of new citizens from a dozen nations added to the patchwork ethnic diversity already extant, contributing to the energy and innovations of a young country on the rise. This period also witnessed the rise of a native intelligentsia, which sought out higher vistas by declaring their cultural independence from Great Britain and crafting a uniquely American strain of philosophy, literature, and art. The nation also witnessed the rise of “Jacksonian democracy,” whereby the common man, freed from the restraints of property qualifications, participated in increasingly larger numbers and thereby shaped both politics and parties. Religion itself likewise underwent a resurgence during the so-called Second Awakening, which, in turn, occasioned the rise of numerous and significant reform movements such as temperance, women’s rights, and abolitionism. In sum, self-determination in all its forms took root and flourished for the vast majority of Americans and ushered in a period of unbridled prosperity and freedom. The decades leading up to 1860 also promulgated escalating sectionalism and stridency over the issue of slavery. Perpetuation of that “peculiar institution,” along with its threatened expansion into newly acquired territories, set the stage for an armed confrontation between North and South, and the

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Chronology of American History ensuing civil war, 1861–65, proved a trial by fire for American institutions. Victory here insured that the high ideals espoused by the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, Enlightenment products of the previous century, would finally apply to all Americans. The demon of human bondage was only exorcised by force and at great cost in blood and treasure. It was also an epic struggle, one ushering in the age of “total war” toward noncombatants, along with “modern war”—the rise of technologically sophisticated, mass-produced weaponry. For all the carnage and suffering this entailed, however, the United States once again emerged united, tempered by its fiery rite of passage, and ready for its next stage of evolution as a global power. This volume covers the growth and maturation of the United States from the accession of George Washington to the presidency in 1790 to the end of the Civil War in 1865. Chronologies of American history are standard fare in reference collections but, in a major oversight, these tend to stress social and political events at the expense of military affairs; this volume goes to great lengths to address such deficiencies with a more balanced approach. It also affords treatment of numerous and salient topics of interest to researchers, students, and laypersons alike. Even a simple perusing of the text calls to the reader’s eye such wide-ranging concerns as art, business, diplomacy, literature, medicine, military, politics, publishing, religion, science, slavery, society, and technology in a simple to use and easily accessed format. Space constrains restrict most entries to a single line, but highly important events can command up to a paragraph in coverage. Wherever possible, entries are also assigned an exact year, month, and day for organizational purposes. The text is further buttressed by inclusion of 100 capsule biographies throughout the text denoting individuals of singular import to their passage in time. These are uniform in composition and touch upon birth and death dates, background, education, and other facets in addition to their most obvious concern. The volume is finally rounded out with a 5,000-word bibliography of the very latest scholarship pertaining to most events represented therein, including dissertations and master’s theses, where applicable. Furthermore the pages are replete with numerous and relevant illustrations, which function both as embellishments and visual points of reference. From perusing these pages one can hopefully grasp the imposing pageantry of American history, and all its threads of continuity and points of departure. Nothing or no one has been overlooked in making editorial choices and, while degrees of coverage may vary in length, the author cast the widest possible net for purposes of inclusion. I am deeply indebted to my editor, Owen Lancer, for suggesting this project to me. It was an arduous, nearly exhausting sojourn at times, but I am a better historian for it. ———John C. Fredriksen, Ph.D.

CHRONOLOGY ✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰ 1789 Business: German immigrant John Jacob Astor purchases real estate in New York City’s Bowery, his first step toward creating the nation’s first commercial empire. Literature: William Hill Brown’s The Power of Sympathy; or The Triumph of Nature is the first American novel published. It ponders the consequences of seduction along with the advantages of female education. Publishing: Christopher Colles compiles and publishes A Survey of Roads of the United States of America in New York City, being the nation’s first comprehensive set of road maps. Adam Smith’s seminal book The Wealth of Nations is published in the United States; its laissez-faire approach to economics wields enormous influence on the course of national development. Religion: The Methodist Church establishes the Methodist Book Concern in New York City; this is the first religious publishing house for the advancement of Christian education. Societal: A group of 200 Litchfield, Connecticut, farmers organize the nation’s first temperance group, forswearing any use of alcohol during the farming season.

January Publishing: Bishops Thomas Cooke and Francis Asbury of Philadelphia edit and publish the Arminian Magazine, the nation’s first religious magazine. The Children’s Magazine, the first juvenile publication in the United States, starts publication at Hartford, Connecticut; it survives only three issues.

January 7 Politics: The first presidential electors are elected either by state legislatures or the direct vote of citizens or, as in the case of Massachusetts, by both. Said individuals, once appointed, are free to cast their vote for whomever they like.

January 9 Indian: General Arthur St. Clair, presently governor of the Old Northwest, concludes the Treaty of Fort Harmar with the Indians. This pact reaffirms the previous Treaty of Fort McIntosh. 599

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January 23 Education: The Academy of Georgetown (Georgetown University), the first Catholic institution for higher learning in the United States, is founded by Father John Carroll on the future site of the District of Columbia. It also serves as a seminary for future Catholic clergy.

February 2 Politics: In Virginia, James Madison defeats rival James Monroe for a seat in Congress.

February 4 Politics: All presidential electors cast their ballots, which will not be counted until April 6. Various states then go about electing their senators and representatives.

March 2 Arts: The Pennsylvania state legislature votes to allow the performance of plays, signaling a liberalization of attitudes toward the performing arts along the eastern seaboard.

March 4 Politics: Eight senators and 13 representatives of the first Constitutional Congress convene in New York City, although they are unable to achieve a quorum until more politicians arrive.

April 1 Politics: The House of Representatives is off to an early start by cobbling together 30 members, enough for a quorum, and Frederick A. Mühlenberg of Pennsylvania becomes the first speaker under the Constitution.

April 6 Politics: New Hampshire Senator John Langdon gains appointment as that body’s first presiding officer, although only nine senators are present out of 22. He nonetheless begins tabulating the presidential ballots previously cast in February. Not surprisingly, George Washington is unanimously elected president with 69 votes and John Adams, who receives 39 votes, becomes vice president.

April 8 Politics: The House of Representatives wades into the important issue of raising revenues for the government.

April 14 Politics: George Washington, residing in his home at Mount Vernon, Virginia, is informed by congressional secretary Charles Thomson of his election as president.

April 15 Journalism: John Fenno begins publishing the Gazette of the United States in New York City; it is Federalist in orientation and serves as the government’s de facto mouthpiece. The paper is also backed by Alexander Hamilton.

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Hamilton, Alexander (1757–1804) Politician Alexander Hamilton was born in the West Indies on January 11, 1757, the illegitimate son of a Scottish merchant and a planter’s daughter. He was well-educated locally and sent to a private academy in New Jersey in 1772 to complete his studies. Hamilton subsequently gained entrance into King’s College (Columbia University) to study law when the Revolutionary War broke out in 1775. He quickly joined a militia company, fought well at the battles of Long Island, White Plains, and Princeton, where he garnered the attention of General George Washington. Hamilton subsequently became a lieutenant colonel of Washington's staff but yearned for military glory and

Alexander Hamilton. Engraving (Library of Congress)

accepted a command position in the field. He particularly distinguished himself at Yorktown on October 14, 1781, by carrying out a spectacular nighttime charge on the British fortification. Shortly afterward Hamilton married into the wealthy and powerful Schuyler family of New York and parleyed his considerable energy and genius into a viable career in politics. By 1785 Hamilton had opened a law office on Wall Street, helped to found the Bank of New York, and won a seat in the Confederation Congress. In this last capacity he decried the weakness of the Articles of Confederation and, at the ill-fated Annapolis Convention, agitated for a new Constitutional Convention. He then functioned in Philadelphia as a delegate, but his biggest role was in championing the new document. In concert with James Madison, John Jay, and Thomas Jefferson, he helped write the Federalist Papers, an erudite collection of essays favoring more centralized governance. Once the new Constitution had been ratified and George Washington inaugurated as the first president, Hamilton gained appointment as secretary of the treasury. He immediately distinguished himself in various reports to Congress, advocating creation of a national bank, the assumption of state and national debts at face value, and establishing the new nation’s credit abroad. These positions formed the heart of the then emerging Federalist Party, which called for strong central intervention in and regulation of the economy, and were vehemently opposed by Madison and Jefferson of the new Democratic-Republicans. The growing list of personal enemies finally (continues)

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(continued) forced Hamilton from office in 1795. After 1796 Hamilton continued to intrigue against President John Adams, whom he considered as weak and vacillating in the face of the French Revolution. His opposition conse-­ quently split the Federalists, although he lent his political support to Jefferson as president to keep Aaron Burr from winning. In 1804 Hamilton also opposed Burr for his role in

the Essex Junto, which threatened to detach New England from the Union and led to Burr’s loss as governor. Burr then angrily challenged Hamilton to a duel, mortally wounding him. He died on July 12, 1804, one of the most brilliant and accomplished members of the Revolutionary generation, who single-­handedly established the modern economic outlook of the young nation.

April 16 Politics: George Washington departs Mount Vernon, Virginia, and begins his eight-­day journey to New York to be sworn in as president.

April 21 Politics: John Adams, arriving in New York from Braintree, Massachusetts, is sworn in as vice president and then sits as president pro tempore of the Senate.

April 23 Journalism: America’s first Catholic newspaper, the Courrier de Boston, begins publication.

April 30 Politics: Amid much pomp and excitement, a sullen and grim-­faced George Wash-­ ington takes his oath of office from Robert Livingston on the balcony of Federal Hall in New York City. Once inaugurated, Washington walks into the Senate chamber and delivers his inaugural address, urging “preservation of the sacred fire of liberty.”

May 7 Politics: The nation’s first inaugural ball, honoring George and Martha Wash-­ ington, is held at New York City. Religion: The Protestant Episcopal Church is organized in Philadelphia from the American branch of the Church of England.

May 12 Politics: The Society of Saint Tammany, an amalgam of anti-­Federalist laborers, tradesmen, and political activists, is founded in New York City under William Mooney, the first grand sachem. They derive their name from the Indian Chief who originally greeted William Penn in Pennsylvania, and they gradually evolve into a powerful political lobby.

June 1 Politics: The first act passed by Congress entails the administering of oaths for public office.

July 4 Business: Congress, eager to generate money for the cash-­strapped government, passes its first Tariff Act. This applies to an enumerated list of imported goods by

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Washington, George (1732–1799) President George Washington was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, on February 22, 1732, where he pursued surveying. He joined the militia, was forced to surrender Fort Necessity to the French in 1754, and the following year accompanied General Edward Braddock’s ill-fated expedition against Fort Dusquesne. He sided with the Patriots during the approach to the Revolutionary War and on June 15, 1775, Washington was appointed commander in chief of the new Continental Army. After several hard defeats he finally bested the British and Hessians at Princeton and Trenton in the winter of 1776–77 and thereafter managed to keep the war effort alive with increasing skill and determination. After 1778 he was able to take to the field and threatened British armies garrisoning New York, but he lacked the strength to attack them directly. Therefore, Washington greatly benefited from the military alliance with France, and in October 1781 he and French general Comte de Rochambeau captured the British army of General Charles Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia. This for all intents and purposes ended the Revolutionary War for the United States, a fact confirmed by the Treaty of Paris signed in 1783. In a very real sense Washington was the indispensable man of the revolution, possessing both the strategic grasp and indomitable will to see it through to a successful conclusion. At this juncture several conservatively minded officers on his staff urged him to seize control from Congress and establish himself as king, but

Washington refused. He remained deferential to civilian authority and on December 23, 1783, formally surrendered his sword to Congressional President Thomas Mifflin and retired from the military a private citizen. Washington sought to live the rest of his life in anonymity, but politics and his stature as the nation’s most trusted figure brought him back into the limelight. In 1787 he attended the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia and threw his weight behind more centralized governance. When the constitution was finally ratified, Washington was sworn in as America’s first president in February 1789 and was easily reelected three years later. In this capacity he ruled well and moderately, distancing himself from the mounting ideological discord between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. In 1796 he refused to serve a third term and was succeeded by John Adams. Before leaving he bid his fellow citizens to strive for political unanimity, pursue neutrality in international affairs, and avoid entangling alliances with Europe. Washington then resumed his life as a private citizen until the war scare with France in 1798 required him to come out of retirement and serve as commander in chief once again. Washington died of illness on December 14, 1799, and was widely mourned by fellow citizens. His moderation, common sense, and unimpeachable integrity set the tone for the new American government, thereby insuring its ultimate success. In poll after poll Washington still remains the most admired chief executive.

imposing an 8.5 percent protective duty, although imports arriving in American vessels are assessed at a lower rate.

July 14 Diplomacy: American minister to France Thomas Jefferson is on hand in Paris to witness the fall of the Bastille and the opening shots of the French Revolution.

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July 20 Business: To raise additional funding, Congress passes the Tonnage Act, which assesses foreign cargo entering American ports at a rate of 50 cents per ton.

July 27 Diplomacy: The Department of Foreign Affairs is created by Congress and staffed by John Jay, pending the return of Thomas Jefferson. It is eventually renamed the Department of State.

August 7 Military: The War Department is created by Congress with Henry Knox to be appointed secretary of war a month later. The army at this time consisted of less than 1,000 men who guarded public property and garrisoned the Indian frontier.

September 2 Politics: Congress established the Treasury Department with Alexander Hamilton destined for appointment as first secretary of the Treasury.

September 15 Diplomacy: The Department of Foreign Affairs is renamed the Department of State under Thomas Jefferson.

September 22 Politics: Congress founds the office of postmaster general under the Treasury Department with Samuel Osgood slated to become the first postmaster general.

September 24 Law: Congress passes the Federal Judiciary Act, which establishes a six-man Supreme Court, an attorney general, 13 district courts, and three circuit courts. This is undertaken to establish one part of the system of checks and balances between the three branches of government.

September 25 Politics: Congress votes to submit 12 proposed constitutional amendments to the states; the first 10 are approved as the Bill of Rights in 1791. It is hoped that such measures will calm fears about the power of central governance, for the amendments clearly delineate the rights of individuals and states alike.

September 26 Politics: Congress appoints Edmund J. Randolph and John Jay as attorney general and chief justice of the Supreme Court, respectively. Samuel Osgood becomes postmaster general.

September 29 Military: Mindful of the dangers posed to liberty by a standing professional military, Congress fixes the size of the U.S. Army at 1,000 men, which are divided into eight infantry and four artillery companies. This is all that remains of the once impressive Continental Army, which fought and won the American Revolution. Its work completed, Congress votes to adjourn.

October Religion: Members of the Protestant Episcopal Church convene in Philadelphia for the purpose of declaring their independence from the Church of England; they also revise the Book of Common Prayer.

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October 15 Politics: President George Washington begins a successful tour of New England.

November 20 Politics: New Jersey is the first state to ratify the Bill of Rights.

November 21 Politics: The North Carolina legislature, finally persuaded by the addition of a Bill of Rights, becomes the 12th state to ratify the U.S. Constitution on a vote of 184 to 77.

November 26 Politics: Congress establishes the first national Thanksgiving Day, intended to offer thanks for the Constitution. Anti-federalists protest that a national holiday violates states’ rights.

December General: Virginia yields a tract of land along the Potomac River to the government for the purpose of constructing a new federal district and a national capital. Maryland had previously ceded land in the same region.

December 11 Education: The North Carolina legislature charters the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; its first class graduates in 1798.

December 18 Politics: After considerable wrangling, Virginia finally agrees to relinquish its claims to the Kentucky territory.

December 21 Settlement: Three Yazoo land companies arise in Georgia and purchase from the Georgia legislature 25.4 million acres of land along the Yazoo River. They pay $207,580 for the land, despite the fact that it is also claimed by Spain.

December 22 Settlement: The North Carolina legislature deeds all its western holdings to the United States government.

1790 Business: Duncan Phyfe begins manufacturing exquisitely rendered cabinets at his workshop in New York City, establishing industry and artistic standards for their fine workmanship. Publishing: Dobson’s Encyclopedia, an 18-volume American variant of the already famous Encyclopædia Britannica, begins production and continues over the next seven years. With its unique typefaces and engravings, this is considered a landmark national publication. Religion: Matthew Carey publishes the first Catholic Bible in the United States at Philadelphia; he continues on as a major publisher of Catholic texts. Societal: The Society for Alleviating the Miseries of the Public Prisons, spearheaded by Tenche Coxe, William Howard, and Dr. Benjamin Rush, pushes for changes and improvements in the Pennsylvania penal system. Specifically, they help institute changes in clothing, privacy, religious instruction, and better regulation of guards to avoid abuse. These reforms are first instituted at

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Chronology of American History Philadelphia’s Walnut Street Prison and eventually adopted throughout the state. Transportation: The initial part of PhiladelphiaLancaster turnpike begins operating and ultimately stretches for 61 miles. Its success spurs development of similar roadways throughout New England and the Mid-Atlantic states.

January 14 Business: Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton delivers his first report of public credit to Congress, announcing foreign debt of $12 million and domestic debts of $40 million. Still, he argues that the United States should assume all debts at face value, even through speculators may profit. Hamilton also maintains that the federal government should absorb all state debts accruing from the Revolutionary War in order to bind their allegiance to the new government. All told, it is a bold and farsighted approach to national finance.

February 11

This detailed rendering of an iron gag is an attack on the cruelty in Pennsylvania’s Eastern Penitentiary, a prison notorious for its abuses and atrocities against prisoners, 1835. (Library of Congress)

Slavery: The Society of Friends presents Congress with the first-ever petition calling for the abolition of slavery.

March

Settlement: A group of French expatriates, driven from home by the revolution, establish a settlement at Gallipolis along the Ohio River. They do so at the behest of Joel Barlow, agent and land speculator for the Scioto Company; when the company subsequently fails, the newcomers are stranded.

March 1 Societal: Congress authorizes the Census Act, which calls for a census of the inhabitants of the United States every 10 years.

March 22 Politics: Thomas Jefferson arrives back in New York to assume his post as secretary of state; John Jay is thus enabled to turn his full attention to matters at the Supreme Court.

March 26 Politics: The Naturalization Act is passed by Congress, requiring prospective citizens to establish residency for at least two years.

March 29 General: John Tyler, 10th president, is born at Greenway, Virginia.

April 10 Business: Congress enacts legislation for the protection of patents. It also empowers a three-man board consisting of the secretaries of state and war and the attorney general to award them.

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April 12 Politics: The House of Representatives defeats a proposal for the assumption of debts as proposed by Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton.

April 17 Societal: Benjamin Franklin, doyen of his age, dies in Philadelphia at the age of 84; three days later his funeral draws 20,000 attendees, then the largest–ever public gathering in America.

May 25 Religion: Universalists gather in Philadelphia at the behest of Reverend Elhanan Winchester and Dr. Benjamin Rush. They then promulgate an anti-Trinitarian doctrine declaring that Jesus was a human intermediary between man and God, not his son.

May 26 Settlement: Congress appoints William Blount to head a government for frontier territory ceded by North Carolina south of the Ohio River (Tennessee). This same region was previously known as the “State of Franklin,” a self-governing entity under John Sevier which lasted from 1785 to 1788.

May 29 Politics: Despite anti-Federalist agitation at home and a boycott by other New England states, Rhode Island becomes the l3th and last state to ratify the U.S. Constitution. They do so by a margin of only two votes.

May 31 Law: Congress, bowing to the lucid agitation of Noah Webster, passes the Copy Right Act for the protection of plays, books, and maps, against infringement. Rights are accorded for 14 years with an option to renew for another 14.

June 20 Politics: Alexander Hamilton strikes a deal with James Madison to secure his support for establishing a national federal capital on the banks of the Potomac River in exchange for passage of the Assumption Act. This enables the federal government to absorb state debts dating back to the Revolutionary War.

July 26 Politics: The House of Representatives passes Alexander Hamilton’s plan for assuming states’ Revolutionary War debts on a vote of 34 to 28.

July 31 Business: The first government patent is issued to Samuel Hopkins of Vermont for using potassium carbonate compounds (“pot and pearl ashes”) while manufacturing glass.

August 1 Societal: The government completes the first federal census, which reveals an overall population of 3,929,625; of these, 697,624 are African-American slaves.

August 4 Business: The Funding Act is passed by Congress, which authorizes the Treasury Department to issue bonds at six percent interest in exchange for Revolutionary War bonds to fund the national debt. Moreover, the bonds are funded at face value.

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Webster, Noah (1758–1843) Lexicographer Noah Webster was born in West Hartford, Connecticut, on October 16, 1758, the son of farmers. He enrolled at Yale College in 1774, interrupted his studies briefly to serve in the Continental Army, and finally graduated in 1779. Webster then taught school at Hartford, Litchfield, and Sharon, becoming dissatisfied with the British-style teaching aids of the day. Determined to institute a new and distinctly American form of the English language, Webster compiled and published The American Spelling Book in 1783 and followed up two years later with a grammar book and a reader. These titles were aimed at a juvenile audience but enjoyed amazing success and longevity; by 1830 it is estimated that 15 million copies were in print. Thanks to Webster there are still noticeable differences in spellings between American English and British English to the present day, and the changes were widely embraced by the ardent nationalism then sweeping the nation. In 1782 he also began touring the nation state by state to press for better copyright protection for writers, and in 1790 Congress complied. Webster was also an ardent Federalist, and he became caught up in the political fervor of that decade. He established the shortlived American Magazine in New York City to lessen the dependency on British publications, and also edited American Minerva, the city’s first daily newspaper, and the Herald, a semiweekly. However, Webster

gradually became disillusioned by partisan bickering in the press, and in 1803 he abandoned journalism and retired to New Haven to continue his work on language. In 1806 Webster scored another triumph by introducing A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language. This slim volume contained 5,000 words, including vernacular “Americanisms” not found elsewhere, along with standard spellings. Then, over the next two decades, he worked assiduously on his masterpiece, which was released in 1828 as An American Dictionary of the English Language. This landmark publication incorporated both formal words and those used in everyday speech and listed several definitions and etymologies for the user’s enlightenment. At the time it appeared this was the largest dictionary of its kind and listed over 70,000 words. In 1841 a second, enlarged edition was released as Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary. These endeavors gained Webster national recognition as an original American lexicographer. Webster was also active in the realm of education, and in 1821 he helped establish Amherst College in addition to writing and publishing books on a wide variety of scientific, political, and moral topics. He died at New Haven on May 28, 1843, renowned for helping establish a national system of grammar and spelling. This information was transmitted to generations of students through his “blue-backed speller” of which 1 million copies were in circulation by 1850.

Naval: The Revenue Marine Service is formally established with the purchase of 10 small boats; it gradually evolves into the U.S. Coast Guard in 1915.

August 7 Indian: Secretary of War Henry Knox and Creek Chief Alexander McGillivray sign the Treaty of New York, in which the Creek recognize United States sovereignty over parts of tribal territory. McGillivray is also commissioned a brigadier general but soon after he intrigues with the Spanish to resist American expansion.

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August 10 Business: The ship Columbia under Captain Robert Gray becomes the first American vessel to circumnavigate the globe by departing Boston for Canton, China, and returning three years later. The entire voyage covers 42,000 miles. Gray departs with a cargo of furs and returns with a shipment of tea.

August 12 Politics: Philadelphia becomes the temporary national capital of the United States.

August 15 Religion: Father John Carroll is consecrated as the first Roman Catholic bishop of the United States at the behest of Pope Pius VI. Baltimore, Maryland, is chosen as the site of the first American cathedral see while Carroll emerges as an early leader of note in church history.

September 25 Business: The Massachusetts legislature repeals its state excise tax in the wake of federal assumption of Revolutionary War debts.

September 30 Military: General Josiah Harmar leads an expedition of 353 soldiers and 1,100 Kentucky militia out of Fort Washington (Cincinnati), Ohio, on a punitive expedition against hostile Shawnee and Miami Indians.

October 19 Military: Miami and Shawnee under Little Turtle and Blue Jacket defeat an American militia force under General Josiah Harmar near Fort Wayne, Indiana. Harmar had previously dispatched his men into a large Indian village and then marched out in search of the warriors. Little Turtle then attacked, routing the militia from the field and massacring the regulars where they stood.

October 28 Diplomacy: The Nookta Sound Convention between Spain and Great Britain strengthens British claims to the Oregon territory, a fact disputed by the United States.

December 6 Politics: Congress formally shifts from New York to Philadelphia until the new federal district becomes available.

December 14 Business: Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton makes a second appearance before Congress and promulgates his plan for a Bank of the United States. This institution is envisioned as an instrument to fund the assumption of debts and also help establish national credit.

December 16 Politics: Patrick Henry drafts the Virginia Resolutions in opposition to Alexander Hamilton’s debt assumption plan. Henry, like many others, feels that the scheme caters to monied interests, places commercial interests above agriculture, and cannot pass constitutional muster.

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Little Turtle

(ca. 1752–1812)

Miami chief Little Turtle (Michikinikwa) was born near the Eel River in the vicinity of presentday Fort Wayne, Indiana, around 1752. His father was a Miami chief but, because his mother was from the Mahician, tribal custom dictated that he could not inherit a leadership position. Nonetheless, Little Turtle displayed fine qualities as a warrior and he was eventually made a Miami chief by tribal elders. He was also proBritish by nature and in 1780 his warriors attacked a French-Illinois expedition under Colonel Augustin de la Balme. After the Revolutionary War Little Turtle became a leading spokesman for resistance to white encroachment north of the Ohio River and, in concert with noted Shawnee chief Blue Jacket, formed an anti-American coalition. In 1787 Congress assured the tribes that their hunting grounds would be respected, but within three years a rash of illegal settlements precipitated a fierce frontier war. In 1790 the American government dispatched an armed expedition of 1,400 militia under Colonel Josiah Harmar to punish the tribes for their resistance. However, Little Turtle lured the invaders deeper and deeper into Indian land then ambushed and defeated Harmar in October. His success served as a rallying point for other tribes, and soon the Miami and Shawnee were joined by the Pottawatomie and Ojibwas. Little Turtle had become unquestioned leader of the Native American resistance in the Old Northwest, much in the manner that his predecessor, Pontiac, tried to be, and President George Washington ordered that

an even larger military effort be mounted against him. In September 1791 General Arthur St. Clair marched into the Ohio territory with 2,600 soldiers and militia. As the raw Americans advanced, their poorly disciplined force was weakened by desertion and dwindled to around 1,500 men. Little Turtle observed these developments closely and decided to attack the Americans directly in their camp. This was a dangerous tactic, rarely attempted by Native Americans, but under Little Turtle’s excellent leadership the Americans were surprised on November 4, 1791, and completely routed. More than 600 soldiers were killed and 260 wounded, making this the largest defeat ever suffered at the hands of Native Americans. Within three years the Americans had rebuilt their army under the aegis of veteran General Anthony Wayne, who defeated the Indians at Fallen Timbers on August 20, 1794. Little Turtle had previously cautioned the tribes to make peace with this new invader and was relieved of command, but the following year he submitted to the Treaty of Greenville and thereafter swore his allegiance to the United States. In 1797 he traveled to Washington, D.C., to confer with President Washington, and Indiana territorial governor William Henry Harrison also built a home for him on the Eel River. When the War of 1812 commenced the aged chief offered to fight on behalf of the United States but he died at the Indian agency at Fort Wayne on July 14, 1812. Little Turtle was one of the most accomplished Indian leaders.

December 21 Technology: Samuel Slater introduces Arkwright spindle mill machinery at his cotton mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. He had previously seen such technology in England, then a closely guarded trade secret, came home and

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was able to reproduce the device from memory. Its simplicity of operation allows children as young as 10 to operate it safely and helps stimulate the Industrial Revolution in the United States. Slater also pioneered the practice of breaking down the production process into simple procedures to facilitate manufacturing.

1791 Education: Historian Reverend Jeremy Belknap establishes the Massachusetts Historical Society as an institution dedicated to the collecting and preservation of documents relevant to American history. This is the first and thus oldest such institution in America. Publications: John Adams codifies his aristocratic vision of society by publishing his Discourses on Davalia, which envisions a utopian society ruled by a rich, powerful, and talented elite. It is understandably not well-received by the American public at large and, furthermore, taints him as an elitist. William Bartram publishes his Travels, which describes botanizing expeditions in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. His accounts are highly popular in Europe and stimulate interest in America’s natural landscape. Societal: Andrew Jackson, a hotheaded Tennessee state prosecutor with a penchant for dueling, endures a spate of controversy after marrying Rachel Robards, only to discover that her divorce from husband Lewis Robards has not yet been finalized.

January 1 Politics: George Washington establishes the custom of a presidential reception every New Year’s Day.

January 5 Law: A petition by free African Americans to end the practice of banning blackinitiated lawsuits and refusing to allow blacks to testify in court against whites is rejected by the South Carolina legislature.

January 10 Politics: Vermont, though still not a state, ratifies the U.S. Constitution.

January 28 Business: Secretary of the Trea sury Alexander Hamilton testifies before Congress concerning the organization of a national mint and the coining of money.

February 15 Politics: Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson testifies that the bill chartering the Bank of the United States is unconstitutional by the simple explanation that Congress has been delegated no such authority. His dissent ultimately gives rise to a political party based upon strict interpretation of the Constitution, the Democratic-Republicans.

February 23 Politics: Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton goes before Congress insisting that charting the Bank of the United States is fully constitutional, falling under congressional authority to collect taxes and regulate trade. Hamilton’s

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February 25 Business: President George Washington approves legislation chartering the Bank of the United States, lending credence to Alexander Hamilton’s “loose construction” of implied powers in the U.S. Constitution. Hamilton does so to provide the new nation with a steady source of capital to fund new industries and to insure a sound money supply. The bank itself functions as a depository of government funds and is run by a board of 25 directors, with five of these appointed by the president, the rest by the states.

March Music: “The Death Song of an Indian Chief ” is printed in an issue of The Massachusetts Magazine, becoming the first published orchestral score in the United States.

March 3 Business: Congress passes the Whiskey Act at the behest of Alexander Hamilton, which creates 14 revenue districts and fixes an excise tax on distilled liquors. However, it is widely resented in backwoods areas while the legislatures of North Carolina, Maryland, and Virginia pass resolutions in protest.

March 4 Politics: Vermont, boasting a population of 85,000, gains admittance into the union as the 14th state. Previously, $30,000 had to be paid to the state of New York for lands it long claimed in Vermont.

March 9 Architecture: French engineer Pierre-Charles L’Enfant arrives in Maryland with preliminary designs for the proposed national capital.

March 30 Politics: President George Washington chooses the site of the new federal district on land along the Potomac River, which straddles the settlements of Georgetown, Maryland, and Alexandria, Virginia. This is a 70-square-mile tract that will house the new White House in 1792 and the United States Capitol in 1793. Transportation: The Knoxville Road, linking Virginia’s Wilderness Road to the frontier community of Knoxville (Tennessee), commences construction. In time it serves as a major conduit for settlement.

April 7 Politics: President George Washington begins a tour of the southern states.

April 23 General: James Buchanan, the 15th president, is born at Cove Gap, Pennsylvania.

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April 26 Indian: The Cherokee sign the Treaty of Holston with the United States, whereby they cede land holdings along the upper Tennessee River in exchange for undisputed control of their remaining lands elsewhere.

May Politics: Continuing disputes over the direction of the U. S. government induces Thomas Jefferson and James Madison to tour New York and New England and help organize anti-Federalist factions within those states. This opposition constitutes the origins of the Democratic-Republican (or Democratic) Party, which favors an agrarian-based society dominated by individual landholders.

June Religion: St. Mary’s, the first Roman Catholic seminary in America, is founded by French Suplicans in Baltimore, Maryland.

June 12 Slavery: African-American slaves in Spanish Louisiana, taking inspiration from recent events in Haiti, stage a brief and unsuccessful revolt of their own; 23 slaves are hanged in consequence.

July 4 Business: The Bank of the United States, newly chartered, starts raising capital through a subscription drive.

July 16 Societal: Benjamin Banneker, an African-American mathematician of note, becomes one of three commissioners directed to survey the new federal district along the Potomac River. He performs exceptionally well in this capacity and also introduces the first edition of his successful almanac.

September 6 Education: The University of Vermont is founded at Burlington.

September 17 Military: General Arthur St. Clair, governor of the Northwestern Territory, commands a large expedition from Fort Washington, Cincinnati, in order to establish a chain of fortifications in and around hostile Indian land. In time these are christened Forts Hamilton, St. Clair, Jefferson, Greenville, and Recovery. His force consists of 320 soldiers and 1,100 poorly trained militia.

September 29 Transportation: A canal linking the Schuylkill and Susquehanna Rivers is chartered by the Pennsylvania legislature.

October Diplomacy: George Hammond, the first British minister to the United States, presents his credentials to the government.

October 31 Journalism: The fires of political partisanship are fueled when poet Philip Freneau edits a pro-Jeffersonian piece in the National Gazette in Philadelphia.

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November 3 Education: The University of Vermont is chartered at Burlington; the first class graduates in 1804.

November 4 Military: General Arthur St. Clair and 1,400 militia and soldiers are disastrously defeated by the Miami under Chief Little Turtle near Fort Wayne, Indiana. Sensing indecision on St. Clair’s part, Little Turtle takes the extraordinary tactic of charging directly into the American camp, scattering the defenders. The Americans withdraw with a loss of 637 dead and 261 wounded in the worse defeat ever suffered at the hands of Native Americans.

November 26 Politics: President George Washington begins the practice of meeting regularly with his inner circle to discuss a variety of military, diplomatic, and political issues. This is the origin of the president’s “cabinet.”

December 5 Politics: Alexander Hamilton lectures Congress on the need for a tariff system to protect the fledgling American industries. He also seeks an agricultural bounty system and direct federal funding for such publicly oriented works as roads and canals to help stimulate the growth of national industry and agriculture.

December 12 Business: The Bank of the United States opens its first branch in Philadelphia and is soon followed by other branches in most major cities. The gold and silver owned by this institution is the bulwark of the American currency system.

December 15 Politics: The Virginia legislature ratifies the Bill of Rights and, having brought the number of states so disposed to 10—three-quarters—allows them to go into effect as part of the U.S. Constitution.

1792 Architecture: Ewel Hale constructs the first wooden truss bridge in America at Bellows Falls, Vermont. It consists of two 175-foot spans joined together at an island in midstream. Arts: American-born Benjamin West becomes president of the Royal Academy of London, which affirms his reputation as among the foremost painters of his day. Journalism: The nation’s first political contretemps erupts between dueling columns in the National Gazette, a supporter of Thomas Jefferson, and the Gazette of the United States, a partisan of Alexander Hamilton. Medical: After a smallpox outbreak, 8,000 inhabitants of Boston volunteer for inoculation. Politics: The Democratic-Republican Party begins coalescing nationally around opposition to Alexander Hamilton’s fiscal policies. They are headed by Thomas Jefferson, the leading democrat of his day. Publishing: Henry Marie Brackenridge publishes Modern Chivalry, a pointed satire on the manners of his contemporaries. A popular work, it is revised several times and is enlarged for a new edition in 1815.

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Robert Bailey Thomas edits and publishes the first edition of The Farmer’s Almanac at Grafton, Massachusetts. It is a useful compendium of dates, facts, information on weather, and is leavened throughout with homespun information about New England life. Science: James Woodhouse establishes the Chemical Society of Philadelphia, one of the earliest scientific societies in the nation. Slavery: Virginia political pundit George Mason spearheads the opposition to slavery in his state, denouncing it as an affront to mankind. Furthermore, he views the “peculiar institution” as a slow-acting poison that will ultimately corrupt future generations of politicians.

January Publishing: Thomas Paine unleashes his controversial Rights of Man (in support of the French Revolution), an unvarnished attack upon monarchy and an endorsement of revolution and democracy. He espouses the seemingly radical view that political power rests solely with the will of the majority.

January 12 Diplomacy: South Carolina Federalist Thomas Pinckney is appointed the first American minister to Great Britain and departs with instructions to secure better terms for American trade. Gouverneur Morris, then in France, also gains appointment as minister to that nation.

February 21 Politics: Congress approves of the Presidential Succession Act, which allows for the president pro tempore of the Senate and then the speaker of the House of Representatives to replace the president and vice president in the event of death or removal. Federalists manage to defeat Thomas Jefferson’s attempt to have the Secretary of State placed in line of succession, although this is eventually adopted in 1886.

March 5 Military: General Arthur St. Clair is replaced by General “Mad Anthony” Wayne as military commander of troops in the Northwest Territory.

April Slavery: Presbyterian clergyman David Rice unsuccessfully tries to have slavery excluded from Kentucky during the constitutional convention there.

April 2 Business: The Coinage Act is passed by Congress, whereby a national mint is founded in Philadelphia and a decimal system is instituted. David Rittenhouse, a noted mathematician, becomes the first director of the mint. This establishes a decimal system of coinage with both silver and gold as legal tender; the ratio of silver to gold coins is set at a ratio of 15 to one.

April 24 Arts: A farce, The Yorker’s Strategem, or Banana’s Wedding, is staged in New York; it is the first production to feature non-stereotyped West Indian (African) characters on the stage.

May 8 Military: Faced with a protracted Indian war and endemic manpower shortages for the U.S. Army, Congress passes the Militia Act, which authorizes states to draft eligible males aged 18 to 45 into state service as needed.

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May 11 Exploration: Captain Robert Gray, completing his second circumnavigation of the globe, discovers the Columbia River in the Washington-Oregon Territory. This 1,214-mile-long waterway remains unexplored until 1805.

May 17 Business: A meeting of 24 brokers at the Merchants Coffee House results in establishment of the New York Stock Exchange. Within months it mounts formidable competition to the nation’s first stock exchange, founded at Philadelphia in 1791.

June 1 Politics: Kentucky enters the Union as the 15th state; its constitution reflects the democratizing influence of the frontier and calls for male suffrage and a bill of rights but also allows slavery. Revolutionary War hero Isaac Shelby is elected the first governor.

July 13 Business: The U.S. Mint begins coining a five-cent silver piece, or “half dime,” one of the earliest American coins.

July 18 Naval: Revolutionary war hero John Paul Jones dies at Paris, France, in relative obscurity. His body lays in an unmarked grave until being rediscovered in 1905.

August 21 Politics: A political convention in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, gathers to protest imposition of the whiskey excise tax. A committee headed by Swiss émigré Albert Gallatin then drafts a resolution condemning the tax and seeks a legal remedy to circumvent it. Resistance to the measure is exceptionally profound in frontier regions where surplus grain has traditionally been distilled into liquor.

September 29 Politics: President George Washington, cognizant of mounting resistance to the whiskey excise tax, issues a proclamation that the levy will be collected in full compliance with the law and warns against possible avoidance.

October 2 Politics: President George Washington arranges a meeting between Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson and Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton at his home in Mount Vernon, Virginia. The chief executive tries unsuccessfully to smooth ruffled feathers arising from differing interpretations of the Constitution. Hamilton, furthermore, bluntly accuses Jefferson of opposing the Washington administration and attempting to undermine the government.

October 11 Religion: The first African-American Catholic sisterhood is founded by Antonine Blanc.

October 12 General: The Society of St. Tammany orchestrates the first recorded celebration of Columbus Day in New York City; it does not become a national holiday until 1892. The first memorial to Columbus also rises on this day in Baltimore, constructed of English brick.

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October 13 Architecture: President George Washington lays the cornerstone for the new chief executive office, or President’s Palace, subsequently known as the White House. This is the first public building constructed in the new federal district and has been designed by architect James Hoban, inspired by the duke of Leinster’s Irish mansion.

November 1 Politics: A general election unfolds to select presidential electors for the second presidential election; incumbents George Washington and John Adams are expected to win handily.

November 5 Politics: The Second Congress reconvenes in Philadelphia for its second session.

December 5 Arts: Sheriffs arrest manager Joseph Harper and Boston’s first theater, The New Exhibition Room, is forced to close. The city still rigidly enforces ordinances against theaters. Politics: George Washington is convincingly reelected to a second term as president of the United States with 132 electoral votes. John Adams is also returned as vice president by 77 votes while anti-Federalist George Clinton of New York amasses 50 votes. Curiously, Washington did not originally intend to seek a second term in office; it was only after the conflict between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson arose, along with current difficulties with France, that he felt obliged to be a stabilizing influence in a sea of discord.

1793 Arts: Noted poet Philip Freneau composes “On the Anniversary of the Storming of the Bastille” in honor of the French Revolution, although the ongoing excesses there have caused support elsewhere to wane. Education: Industrialist Samuel Slater institutes a Sunday school to impart reading, writing, and computational skills to his young factory workers in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Journalism: Federalist Noah Webster founds the American Minerva, the nation’s first daily newspaper, in New York City. Law: Town trustees in Lexington, Kentucky, outlaw the practice of horse racing down city thoroughfares for fear of frightening pedestrians. Literature: Elihu Hubbard Smith publishes American Poems, Selected and Original at Litchfield, Connecticut. This work showcases the writings of the so-called Connecticut Wits, including Joel Barlow, Timothy Dwight, Lemuel Hopkins, and John Trumbull, and is a celebration of American literary distinctiveness. Publishing: Jedidiah Morse illustrates and publishes the American Universal Geography, a significant compendium of global geographical information and charts for a curious nation. The first American edition of J. Hector St. John Crevecoeur’s Letters from an American Farmer is published in Philadelphia. This is a collection of poignant and insightful observations on American life by a studious French observer.

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Chronology of American History Societal: Quaker minister John Woolman composes his A Word of Remembrance and Caution to the Rich, a humanitarian tract calling for social reforms, especially abolition of slavery. Transportation: The Middlesex Canal, linking Boston to the Merrimack River, 27 miles away, is constructed.

January 9 Aviation: Frenchman Jean-Pierre François Blanchard conducts the first successful balloon flight in America, rising to 5,800 feet over Philadelphia. His ascent is witnessed by President George Washington.

January 21 Diplomacy: The execution of King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette stuns Europe and forces anti-Federalists in America to reevaluate their sympathy for the ongoing revolution in France.

January 23 Politics: Congress passes a set of resolutions calling on Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton to answer charges of corruption and mismanagement in his department.

February 12 Slavery: A Fugitive Slave Act is approved by Congress outlining the rights of slave owners to recover their property. It also forbids harboring fugitive slaves and assisting in their flight.

February 18 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Chisholm v. Georgia, whereby a citizen of one state may sue another state in federal court.

February 22 Education: Williams College is chartered in Massachusetts, distinct in allowing fluency in French to be substituted for traditional Greek and Latin.

February 28 Politics: A motion to censure Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton fails to pass the House of Representatives. His detractors nonetheless maintain he is the pawn of monied interests.

March 4 Politics: George Washington is sworn into office for a second term as president while John Adams begins his second term as vice president. The only change to the cabinet is the appointment of Timothy Pickering as postmaster general.

April 8 Diplomacy: Edmond-Charles-Édouard Genet (“Citizen Genet”), the new French minister to the United States, arrives at Charleston, South Carolina, seeking American aid in the war against Great Britain. There he violates American neutrality by issuing French letters of marque (thus commissioning) to four privateers to raid English shipping in the Caribbean.

April 16 Technology: Eli Whitney publicly demonstrates his cotton gin; in time this device proves instrumental in preserving slavery and making it profitable.

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Whitney, Eli (1765–1825) Inventor Eli Whitney was born in Westborough, Massachusetts, on December 8, 1765, into humble circumstances. Mediocre as a student, he displayed great aptitude for tinkering in his father’s workshop, and in 1781 he opened a business for manufacturing nails. Whitney used his profits to attend Yale College, from which he graduated in 1782 and then ventured to Georgia to work as a tutor. There he encountered the widow of General Nathaniel Greene, who introduced him to her plantation manager, Phineas Miller. Whitney also experienced his first encounter with slavery, which he disliked and sought technical ways of ending it. He then observed that it took each slave an entire day to separate shortstaple upland cotton from its seeds, a laborious process that had to be accomplished by hand. In April 1793 Whitney conceived and built the so-called cotton gin, a hand-cranked device that would eliminate seeds from cotton in a matter of minutes. This dramatically improved cotton productivity and, far from eliminating slavery, actually made it profitable. For example, in 1790 cotton production amounted to only 4,000 bales; by 1840 that figure had risen exponentially to 1,347,640. Considering the profits to be made exporting cotton to textile markets like England and France, slavery now became a valuable economic lifeline for the South. Worse for Whitney and Miller, although they received a patent for their invention in 1794, it was never enforced by Southern courts and many counterfeit machines were manufactured and

sold. The inventors were then forced into protracted legal disputes, and it was not until 1807 that Whitney’s claim could be validated after spending roughly $100,000 in legal fees. A potential war with France was also looming in 1798, and that year Whitney assured the government that he could easily manufacture 10,000 muskets in only two years instead of the usual 10. He then received a contract from the War Department and proceeded to construct his own factory outside New Haven, Connecticut (Whitneyville), from the ground up. Always the innovator, Whitney insisted on making his own special tools for the task, as well as employing the first water-powered milling machine used in the United States. He also conceived the ingenious idea of interchangeable parts for his weapons. Prior to this, muskets and rifles were individually manufactured by hand and the parts so fashioned would not fit other weapons, a fact that militated against easy repairs in the field. Under Whitney’s system, identical parts were turned out in quantity and could be interchanged on any individual weapon, quickly and easily. Ultimately, it took him 10 years to fulfill his contract, although the government remained highly pleased with his interchangeable concept. Whitney died in New Haven on January 8, 1825, one of the most significant inventors of American history. His cotton gin and musket factory introduced modern manufacturing to America and laid the foundations for its burgeoning industrial revolution.

April 18 Diplomacy: Citizen Genet departs Charleston, South Carolina, and makes his way north to present his credentials to the government in Philadelphia. He receives an enthusiastic welcome from most Americans. Politics: President George Washington discusses the prospects of declaring neutrality during the ongoing war between France and Great Britain. His

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April 22 Politics: President George Washington declares the neutrality of the United States in the ongoing war between Great Britain and revolutionary France and warns American citizens against involvement. Both Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson support Washington’s decision, although the former sympathizes with England and the latter with France.

May 9 Diplomacy: The government of the French republic intends to seize all neutral shipping entering the ports of England, Holland, or the Netherlands. Such a move holds dire implications for the United States which lacks a standing naval force to protect its own commerce.

May 18 Diplomacy: French ambassador Citizen Genet is coolly received by President George Washington, angered by the latter’s unauthorized arming of privateers and other violations of American neutrality.

May 25 Religion: Father Stephen Theodore Badin, a refugee from the French Revolution, becomes the first Roman Catholic priest ordained in the United States.

June 5 Diplomacy: Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson advises French minister Citizen Genet not to transgress upon American neutrality by offering military commissions and arming private vessels as privateers. Genet initially agrees to halt such practices, then promptly arms a fifth vessel and orders it out to sea.

June 8 Diplomacy: Great Britain responds to French depredations at sea by threatening to seize all neutral shipping entering French ports.

July 31 Business: Captain Robert Gray of the ship Columbia reaches Boston after a second circumnavigation of the globe.

August Medical: A yellow fever epidemic strikes Philadelphia, killing more than 4,000 inhabitants. The African-American community, organized by Reverend Absalom Jones and Dr. Benjamin Rush, distinguish themselves in assisting their neighbors.

August 23 Diplomacy: The radical and violent Jacobin regime of France dispatches Joseph Fauchet to the United States as its new minister, and he arrives carrying papers for the arrest of Citizen Genet. Genet then receives political asylum and ultimately marries the daughter of Governor George Clinton of New York.

September 18 Architecture: President George Washington lays the cornerstone for the new United States Capitol (Congress House) in the planned federal district. The new

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structure is designed by William Thornton and James Hoban with distinctly classical overtones.

October 7 Military: General “Mad Anthony” Wayne marches into the Ohio Territory at the head of 2,600 soldiers and militia, determined to crush Indian resistance.

October 28 Business: Inventor Eli Whitney applies for a patent on his new cotton gin. He does so in the mistaken belief that, by making cotton more productive, the new device will make slavery unprofitable; sadly, it has the opposite effect.

November 6 Diplomacy: An Order in Council issued by the government of Great Britain mandates the seizure of any neutral vessels trading with France in the West Indies. Consequently, American crews become subject to seizure and impressment onboard Royal Navy vessels.

November 25 Slavery: Albany, New York, is the scene of a slave uprising and several destructive fires.

December 31 Politics: Thomas Jefferson resigns as secretary of state, feeling that his opinions and council are no longer valued or heeded in the present administration. He then begins agitating for an opposition party to counter the policies of Alexander Hamilton. This is the genesis of the Democratic Republicans, or Democrats.

1794 Architecture: Charles Bullfinch initiates the Classic Revival in American architecture by designing and constructing houses on Tontine Crescent, Boston, in a manner soon designated the Federal style. Arts: Noted painter Charles Willson Peale opens his museum in Philadelphia to promote mass education among the American public. The scientific, historical, and ethnological displays are usually accompanied by a realistically painted background. Music: Supply Belcher publishes The Harmony of Maine, a collection of simple hymns and fugues that were popular among rural audiences on the New England frontier. Societal: Powdering men’s hair is finally passé in all but the stuffiest social circles; henceforth, men’s locks are usually tied with black ribbon into a queue. Transportation: In Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia–Lancaster Turnpike, a 61-mile long, macadam-covered roadway, is finished. Its success as a toll road inspires the construction of similar routes elsewhere.

January 2 Politics: Attorney General Edmund Randolph is appointed the new secretary of state by President George Washington. He replaces Thomas Jefferson but is subsequently found to be working against the administration.

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Bullfinch, Charles

(1763–1844)

Architect Charles Bullfinch was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on August 8, 1763, the son of a wealthy physician. He graduated from Harvard in 1781 and four years later ventured to England to study architecture, especially the neoclassical designs of Robert Adams. Bullfinch came home in 1787, married into a wealthy family, then began working as an architect for his native city. His first assignment was to design a new Massachusetts State House, plans for which were completed and approved in 1798. Another early endeavor was the Beacon Street column, a Revolutionary War monument rising 60 feet and topped with a metal eagle that doubled as a weather vane. As a designer, Bullfinch incorporated the classic tenets of Greek and Roman design, although making them heavier and more robust to render them longer lasting. As his reputation spread, he received other commissions elsewhere, such as the Connecticut state house in Hartford. In 1793–94 Bullfinch grew ambitious, designed and built Tontine Crescent, an expensive row of elegantly designed Boston townhouses for an upscale clientele, but when buyers failed to materialize he went bankrupt. He then served as chairman of the city’s board of selectmen and superintendent of police to supplement his income while designing other buildings. He also functioned as Boston’s chief administrator for two decades, which allowed him to influence design decisions, and left his personal stamp on the city through construction of dozens of public buildings and scores of private homes. Having recouped his losses,

Bullfinch entered his most prolific stage by designing significant buildings throughout the state. In this respect, he became the best known of America’s “colonial” or firstgeneration architects. Proof of Bullfinch’s popularity occurred in 1817 when President James Monroe, then touring New England, was highly impressed by his work and invited him to Washington, D.C. There Bullfinch was to complete the design of the U.S. Capitol building using drawings originally crafted by Benjamin Henry Latrobe, another outstanding draftsman. In practice, Bullfinch left the wings of the capitol as drawn, but he modified the dome by making it taller and more impressive. He also took it upon himself to enlarge the original plan for the capital rotunda, much to the satisfaction of those utilizing it. The structure was finally completed in 1830 and remains the best tribute to his classical innovations. Amazingly, Bullfinch also found time to draw up plans for the Federal Penitentiary and the Unitarian Church before returning to Boston and entering retirement. Prior to that he also designed the capitol building at Augusta, Maine, along with a long list of private dwellings. Bullfinch died in Boston on April 4, 1844, the most accomplished draftsman and architect of his generation. Throughout his lengthy career he was content to approach his task like an aristocratic gentleman of taste, rather than a professional artist. In many respects Bullfinch set the architectural tone for his native town and indelibly defined city architecture as no designer before or since.

January 3 Politics: In light of the British orders in council to seize American shipping carrying French West Indian exports, James Madison proposes seven retaliatory measures in the House of Representatives; none of them are passed but the issues of seizure and impressment remain volatile ones.

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January 13 General: Congress mandates the addition of two stripes and two stars to the American flag, signifying the addition of Vermont and Kentucky.

February Arts: Boston finally repeals its 1750 law prohibiting plays, and the new Boston Theater opens under the auspices of Charles Stuart Powell. Diplomacy: Governor-General Sir Guy Carleton of Canada promises Native American tribes living in northwestern Ohio to return their lands taken if they should support Great Britain in a war with the United States.

February 14 Arts: Samuel Arnold’s opera The Castle of Andalusia is the opening performance for the New Theater in Philadelphia, following lengthy delays caused by the yellow fever epidemic of 1793.

February 28 Politics: Federalists in the U.S. Senate erect a residential technicality to keep Swiss-born Jeffersonian Albert Gallatin from taking his elected seat. Gallatin had apparently failed to fulfill the nine-year residency requirement for the Senate; the Federalists also apparently resent his strident opposition to the Whiskey Tax.

March 5 Law: Congress submits the 11th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to the states for ratification. This measure repeals the Supreme Court’s ruling in Chisholm v. Georgia and restricts federal judicial authority over the states.

March 14 Business: A patent is issued to Eli Whitney for his cotton gin.

March 22 Slavery: Congress outlaws the slave trade with other nations, especially Haiti, then in the throes of a major slave uprising. Southern lawmakers fear that the contagion of rebellion may be exported to their own backyard.

March 27 Naval: The Naval Act of 1794 authorizes the construction of four 44-gun frigates and two 36-gun frigates; these vessels form the nucleus of the nascent U.S. Navy. This is undertaken to stop depredations committed against American commerce by the pirates of Algiers.

April 19 Diplomacy: Supreme Court Chief Justice John Jay gains Senate confirmation as envoy to Great Britain. He is sent there on a mission to secure a favorable commercial treaty.

April 22 Law: The death penalty is abolished by the Pennsylvania legislature for all crimes except murder.

May 1 Labor: The Federal Society of Journeymen Cordwainers (shoemakers) is organized in Philadelphia as America’s first trade union.

May 6 Technology: English mechanic John Hewitt sets up the first steam engine assembled in the United States for the waterworks at Belleville, New Jersey.

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May 8 Politics: Congress creates the Post Office Department.

May 27 Diplomacy: James Monroe is appointed minister to France to replace Gouverneur Morris, whose royalist sympathies have angered the revolutionary French government. John Quincy Adams also gains appointment as minister to the Netherlands.

June 1 Naval: British Admiral Lord Richard Howe attacks a French fleet escorting numerous American cargo ships bound for France. The French are handily defeated in this encounter, celebrated as the “Glorious First of June,” but the American ships escape damage and make landfall.

June 5 Politics: Congress passes the Neutrality Act, forbidding American citizens from joining the army or navy of foreign powers. Foreign vessels are also forbidden from arming or provisioning themselves in American ports. Science: Noted English scientist Joseph Priestley, fearing persecution in Great Britain, arrives at Philadelphia.

June 24 Education: Bowdoin College is chartered at New Brunswick, Maine, under the direction of Congregationalists; its first class graduates in 1806.

June 28 Naval: Congress appoints the first six captains of the new U.S. Navy; John Barry, Samuel Nicholson, Silas Talbot, Joshua Barney, Richard Dale, and Thomas Truxton.

June 30 Arts: The drama Slaves in Algiers, written by Susanna Haswell Rowson, is performed at a theater in Philadelphia. Rowson herself is in the audience in this, its opening performance.

July Politics: The Whiskey Rebellion breaks out in the Monongahela Valley of Western Pennsylvania to protest the federal excise tax on liquor and stills. Consequently tax officials have their houses burned while revenue officials are tarred and feathered. Alexander Hamilton is eager to use the rebellion as a test of the power of the federal government. Religion: The first African-American congregation forms in Philadelphia with the opening of the African Protestant Episcopal Church of St. Thomas under the leadership of Reverend Absalom Jones. It is founded because white parishioners badly mistreated blacks attending St. George’s Methodist Church.

August 7 Military: President George Washington issues a proclamation ordering the socalled Whiskey Rebels to return home. He also mobilizes 13,000 militia from Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia to suppress the uprising.

August 20 Military: General Anthony Wayne and 3,000 well-drilled soldiers and militia crush a 2,000-man Indian coalition under Blue Jacket at the Battle of Fallen Tim-

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bers in northwest Ohio. The battle is fought in an area devastated by tornados and the Americans attack the milling warriors in a well-executed bayonet charge that routs them. Wayne’s losses were 33 killed and 140 wounded; Indian losses are presumed to be lighter but still significant. Previously, Miami chief Little Turtle, who pronounced the energetic Wayne as “the Chief who does not sleep,” urged his fellow tribesmen to seek peace with the Americans, and he was removed from command. This victory clears the way for continued and unobstructed migration into the Old Northwest. The Indians were also embittered that, despite pledges of support, the British did not assist and even locked them out of nearby Fort Miami.

September 10 Education: Blount University (University of Tennessee) is chartered by Presbyterians at Knoxville, Tennessee.

September 24 Military: President George Washington instructs General Henry Lee to march against the tax rebellion in western Pennsylvania. Ultimately 200 rebels are detained, 25 are tried, and two are convicted of treason but subsequently pardoned.

November 1 Arts: Boston lifts its ban on staged plays (in effect since 1750), and the new Boston Theater opens for business.

November 19 Diplomacy: Special envoy John Jay negotiates and signs a commercial treaty with Great Britain, the so-called Jay’s Treaty, which mandates a withdrawal of British forces from the Old Northwest in exchange for payment of pre-Revolutionary War debts. The agreement opens British ports in the British East and West Indies to American shipping while also granting Britain most-favored nation status. Furthermore, joint commissions are to be assembled to resolve the question of illegal seizures at sea, but the question of impressment of American crewmen for service in the Royal Navy is unaddressed.

1795 Architecture: Noted architect Charles Bullfinch designs the Massachusetts State House, hailed as an exemplary example of post-Revolutionary War construction. Education: Judge Nathaniel Chipman of Vermont advocates a view of history that promotes the understanding of social forces rather than military events. Indian: In an attempt to encourage Indian trade and ensure fairer treatment of Native Americans, the Federal government establishes the factory system which will supervise trading activities. Religion: In Philadelphia, Richard Allen is ordained as the first African-American minister in the Methodist Church. Technology: A primitive railroad is first constructed in Boston employing wooden tracks for running up the slopes of Beacon Hill.

January 2 Military: Federalist Timothy Pickering, former postmaster general, replaces Henry Knox as secretary of war.

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Jay, John (1745–1829) Diplomat, Supreme Court justice John Jay was born in New York City on December 12, 1745, the scion of wealthy merchants. As such he was afforded a splendid education and graduated from King’s College (Columbia University) in 1760, with fluency in French, Greek, and Latin. He then clerked several years in a law firm before being admitted to the bar and forming a partnership with his friend Robert R. Livingston. The onset of the Revolution induced Jay to side with the patriots despite his conservative leanings, and in 1774 he served as a delegate at the First Continental Congress. He subsequently sat with the Second Congress before coming home to help author a new state constitution for New York with Gouverneur Morris. After serving as chief justice of New York’s Supreme Court, he returned to Congress in 1778 and was elected president. Then, in 1782, Jay was dispatched as American minister to Spain, where he failed to secure diplomatic recognition for the United States. He then proceeded on to Paris and helped convince ministers John Adams and Benjamin Franklin to seek a peace treaty without French approval. In 1783 he signed the ensuing Peace of Paris and returned home a national hero. Jay was then appointed secretary of state under the Articles of Confederation, but he actively agitated for adoption of more centralized governance. In concert with Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, he contributed several essays to the pro-Constitution series The Federalist and proved instrumental in having the new document approved in New York. In light

of his conspicuous contributions to the nation and his reputation as a sound and prudent jurist, President George Washington appointed him the first chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1789. Jay’s tenure as chief justice proved unremarkable for very few cases of import were brought before him. However, at one point he refused to council Washington and Hamilton on questions of public policy, thereby affirming the separation of powers. His greatest legal contribution came in 1793 when he decided the case of Chisholm v. Georgia. Here he ruled that Georgia could be sued by an individual from another state in federal court, reflecting his Federalist beliefs in strong central governance. Jay’s decision was widely condemned by members of Congress, who passed the Eleventh Amendment to the Constitution to curtail what they perceived as an assault upon state’s rights. Jay’s most challenging work fell in the diplomatic arena, however. In 1795 Washington dispatched him as a special envoy to Great Britain to resolve several trade issues. The resulting Jay’s Treaty did secure the removal of British troops from the Old Northwest and partially opened up the British Caribbean to American goods, but it failed to address preservation of American neutrality at sea during the French Revolution, which caused a political firestorm that also gave rise to the new Democratic-Republican faction under Thomas Jefferson. Jay served two terms as governor of New York before retiring from politics and dying on May 17, 1829, an accomplished public servant.

January 7 Business: A corrupt Georgia legislature sells 35 million acres of land along the Yazoo River (Alabama and Mississippi) to four land companies. In return the state receives a nominal sum.

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January 29 Politics: The Naturalization Act passes Congress, mandating a five-year residency to meet the requirements of citizenship. The renunciation of previous allegiances and titles of nobility are also required.

January 31 Politics: Oliver Wolcott succeeds Alexander Hamilton as secretary of the treasury. Hamilton, however, continues on as an unofficial adviser to President George Washington.

February 25 Education: Union College is chartered at Schenectady, New York, by the Presbyterians; the first class graduates in 1800.

March Politics: Word of the Jay Treaty reaches Philadelphia and triggers a fierce national debate between those already favorably disposed toward France or England.

March 3 Settlement: French immigrants living in the Ohio territory, having been falsely lured there by the Scioto Company, finally obtain the title to their lands at Gallipolis.

April Diplomacy: Thomas Pinckney, then minister to Great Britain, is appointed a special commissioner to Spain.

May Law: Two of 200 “Whiskey rebels” captured are convicted of treason and sentenced to hang; both are subsequently pardoned.

May 22 Arts: A play, The Triumphs of Love by John Murdock, features “Sambo,” the first role for an African American, and also debuts the first Quaker characters. For the first time blacks are not being portrayed as comic, shiftless servants.

June 24 Diplomacy: Jay’s Treaty is ratified by the Senate following a rancorous debate. Its passage has been marred by opposition between Federalists and Republicans, both of whom represent their own specific interests. The latter group is outraged that British seizure of American shipping has not been addressed.

July 19 Settlement: The Connecticut Land Company obtains rights to land in the Northwest along the southern bank of Lake Erie. This is the future site of Cleveland, Ohio, named after company director Moses Cleaveland.

July 22 Journalism: Alexander Hamilton, writing under the nom de plume Camillus, waxes eloquently in favor of the Jay Treaty.

August 3 Indian: General Anthony Wayne and numerous chiefs of the Delaware, Shawnee, Wyandot, and Miami conclude the Treaty of Greenville, whereby they

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Chronology of American History cede the eastern portion of their lands to the United States in return for a fixed boundary. The Old Northwest is now ready for expanded white settlement.

August 14 Diplomacy: President George Washington signs Jay’s Treaty into law over objections from the House of Representatives, which previously tried to scuttle the agreement by voting against funding for its enforcement. This constitutes an important precedent for executive prerogatives over legislative ones.

August 19 Politics: Secretary of State Edmund Randolph resigns from office, officially for corruption but unofficially under allegations that he was in collusion with France in an attempt to scuttle Jay’s Treaty. He is replaced by Timothy Pickering for the time being.

September 5 Diplomacy: The United States concludes a treaty of peace and amity with the Dey of Algiers. Henceforth the Americans will pay $1 million for the release of 115 captive seamen who had been held for 10 years, followed by an annual series of tribute payments. The lack of naval power makes American shipping vulnerable to such coercion.

October 27 Diplomacy: Thomas Pinckney, commissioner to Spain, concludes the Treaty of San Lorenzo to resolve the western and southern boundaries of the United States. He also obtains free navigational rights on the Mississippi River and the ability to deposit cargo at the port of New Orleans.

November 2 General: James Knox Polk, the 11th president, is born at Pineville, North Carolina.

December 10 Politics: Secretary of War Timothy Pickering resigns from office and succeeds Edmund Randolph as secretary of state; President George Washington’s cabinet now consists solely of Federalists.

December 15 Politics: The Senate scuttles John Rutledge’s nomination to succeed John Jay as chief justice of the supreme court, ostensibly over his recent opposition to Jay’s Treaty.

1796 Arts: Noted painter Gilbert Stuart completes his famous portrait of George Washington as the first president, which consists solely of his face. In this manner viewers were calculated to gauge the tremendous depth and character of the sitter. After being displayed at the Boston Athenaeum, it has been placed on permanent loan to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

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Stuart, Gilbert (1755–1828) Painter Gilbert Stuart was born in North Kingston, Rhode Island, on December 3, 1755, and raised in Newport. There he took an interest in art at an early age and was partly tutored there by the Scottish artist Cosmo Alexander. He subsequently accompanied his instructor to Edinburgh in 1771, where Alexander died the following year, and Stuart was forced to subsist on a sailor’s wages. He managed to return home just as the Revolutionary War was about to commence, and in 1775 he fled with his Loyalist-leaning family to Nova Scotia. Stuart then continued on to London, determined to make his living painting portraits. He eventually came to the attention of the great American expatriate artist Benjamin West, who took him in as an apprentice. Unlike West, however, Stuart evinced no interest in the historically themed paintings of West and remained a strict devotee of portraiture. In this he displayed a demonstrable genius for capturing on canvas the vitality and personality of his sitters with remarkably few colors. Within a few years his work was being compared to British masters such as Sir Joshua Reynolds and Sir Thomas Gainsborough. Stuart was allowed to exhibit his work at the Royal Academy, and in 1782 his noted painting of William Grant entitled “The Skater” garnered him great recognition and secured several lucrative commissions. Stuart, however, was careless with money, lived recklessly, and accumulated great debts. In 1787 he fled to Ireland to escape creditors and continue painting until 1792, when his profligacy forced him to return home

once again. This time he finally emerged as the foremost American portraitist of his day. After a brief stay in New York City, Stuart relocated to Philadelphia and gained national renown painting America’s first generation of leaders. Foremost of these was George Washington, who sat for him three times, and the resulting works, depicting the president as stern, remote, yet dignified, remain the most easy identifiable images of that elder statesman. As Stuart’s reputation grew, he also painted portraits of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, James Madison, and Horatio Gates, all exquisitely captured on canvas. In 1805 Stuart moved to Boston to continue his work and, by concentrating strictly upon portraits, he ended up executing almost 1,000 works. This sheer volume of work insured that his paintings would be widely seen and admired around the nation for years to come. Stuart, however, squandered his fortune, lived in debt, and was struck by partial paralysis in 1825. He nonetheless continued working up to the time of his death on July 9, 1828, making him one of the most prolific artists of his day. Stuart’s passing was thus greatly lamented in artistic circles because he set the tone and the standards for American portraiture that lasted through the first half of the 19th century. In fact an entire generation of young artists, including Thomas Sully, John Wesley Jarvis, Samuel F. B. Morse, Chester Harding, John Neagle, Ezra Ames, Matthew Jouett, and Mather Brown were all heavily influenced by his effective techniques.

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Chronology of American History William Dunlap and Benjamin Carr write and stage The Archers, or the Mountaineers of Switzerland, an early American opera, in New York City. It is a variation of the William Tell story. Business: Robert Morris, a highly-respected financier, organizes a syndicate for land speculation; when it eventually collapses he will serve three years in debtor’s prison. Law: The Virginia legislature reforms the state criminal code, reducing the number of crimes eligible for the death penalty. This is indicative of a national trend to de-emphasize or eliminate capital punishment. Literature: “Connecticut Wit” Joel Barlow publishes his poem The Hasty Pudding as a mock epic celebrating the virtues of cornmeal mush, a uniquely American dish. Politics: Albert Gallatin leads a successful effort in the House of Representatives to establish the ways and means committee. Publishing: Amelia Simmons publishes American Cookery, the first American cookbook. Technology: Experiments with the use of gas for illumination are orchestrated in Philadelphia.

January Politics: The House of Representatives issues standards that any individual attempting to coerce or influence Congressmen for their personal gain rather than the public good is to be charged with contempt. The ruling stems from the efforts of Robert Randall who was lobbying Congress on behalf of Great Lakes fur traders.

January 1 Politics: Oliver Ellsworth is appointed Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court to succeed John Jay.

January 27 Military: Maryland Federalist James McHenry succeeds Timothy Pickering as secretary of war.

February 15 Diplomacy: The French government informs minister James Monroe that the ratification of Jay’s Treaty with Great Britain negates all previous agreements with France.

February 18 Business: The newly elected Georgia legislature voids the Yazoo land sales of 1795.

February 29 Diplomacy: President George Washington announces that the Jay Treaty is officially in effect, a fact that deeply antagonizes France and brings the former allies to the brink of warfare.

March 8 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court settles Hylton v. United States, ruling that a carriage tax imposed in 1794 is an indirect levy and, hence, constitutional. This sets an important precedent as, for the first time, the court had weighed the constitutionality of a congressional act.

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March 15 Diplomacy: The Treaty of San Lorenzo between the United States and Spain is unanimously ratified by the U.S. Senate.

April 22 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that all pacts made by the government under the Constitution are, in effect, federal law and supercede all conflicting state laws.

April 30 Diplomacy: Despite heated opposition from the Democratic-Republicans, the Federalist-dominated House of Representatives votes to enforce provisions of Jay’s Treaty.

May 18 Settlement: A new Land Act passed by Congress requires both the surveying of all acreage in the Northwest Territory, and the sale of the same at a public auction for a minimum price of $2 per acre. A credit system is also instituted, allowing prospective purchasers one year to pay. Federal land offices are also established at Pittsburgh and Cincinnati to facilitate sales. However, the greatest beneficiary of this new law are land companies and speculators, as most settlers cannot afford the minimum purchasing price.

June 1 Politics: Tennessee is admitted into the Union as the 16th state with Revolutionary War hero John Sevier serving as the first governor. However, Federalists in Congress restrict the number of members sent from Tennessee to the House of Representatives to one until 1800.

July Diplomacy: Revolutionary France declares that it will try to seize all neutral shipping headed for British ports.

July 11 Settlement: British forces evacuate Fort Detroit in accordance with the Jay Treaty, and the post is reoccupied by Captain Moses Porter and a company of soldiers.

August 17 Societal: The Boston African Society is established as a benevolent group for African Americans.

August 22 Diplomacy: The French government informs Minister James Monroe that he will be replaced for failing to adequately explain the recent Jay’s Treaty between the United States and Great Britain.

August 29 Diplomacy: Minister James Monroe, having made conciliatory statements to the French government, is informed by Secretary of State Timothy Pickering that he is being replaced by Charles C. Pinckney.

September 17 Journalism: President George Washington delivers his farewell address to Congress, outlining his decision not to run for a third term in office. In it he warns against entangling alliances with foreign nations, large, standing military forces,

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Chronology of American History the divisiveness of factions (political parties), and he stresses the importance of stable public credit. In reality, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton are the actual authors of the address.

September 30 Settlement: Moses Cleaveland, director of the Connecticut Land Company, purchases 3 million acres of land from the so-called Western Reserve (Ohio) and begins surveying high ground where the nearby Cuyahoga River empties into Lake Erie. This is the site of the future city of Cleveland.

October 29 Business: The ship Otter under Captain Ebenezer Dorr sails into Monterey Bay, marking the first time that an American vessel has skirted the coast of California.

November Politics: Andrew Jackson is selected as Tennessee’s first delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives.

November 4 Diplomacy: The United States concludes a treaty with the Pasha of Tripoli whereby ongoing capture of American crews and vessels ceases in exchange for ransom and an annual tribute. Similar agreements are already in play with the Barbary states of Algiers and Morocco.

November 15 Diplomacy: The government of revolutionary France declares its suspension of diplomatic relations with the United States over the Jay Treaty and other issues.

December 7 Diplomacy: Charles C. Pinckney, the new American minister to France, presents his credentials to the revolutionary government and is as quickly rejected until French grievances have been addressed. He then returns home. Politics: The third presidential election is decisively and bitterly won by sitting Vice President and Federalist John Adams with 71 electoral votes while Democratic-Republican Thomas Jefferson secures the post of vice president with 68 votes. Jefferson’s close defeat is indicative of rising national dissatisfaction with the Jay Treaty and the Federalists. Adams is also the last Federalist to hold office. Settlement: British forces evacuate Fort Michilimackinac, Michigan Territory, consistent with the terms of the Jay Treaty.

1797 Architecture: Mexican stonemason Isidoro Aguilar designs and begins construction of the main church at San Juan Capistrano, California, which includes a 120-foot bell tower. This imposing structure is subsequently destroyed by an earthquake in 1812. Art: Noted historical painter John Trumbull finishes his monumental Declaration of Independence in Congress at Independence Hall, which ultimately adorns the halls of Congress itself. Business: The firm O’Hare and Craig founds the first frontier glassworks at Pittsburgh.

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Literature: The novel Alcuin by Charles Brockden explores the notion that men and women have far more in common than they realize and, for that reason, ought to enjoy equal rights. Medical: Samuel Latham Mitchell publishes the Medical Repository in Boston; it is the first American medical publication. Publishing: Dr. James Woodhouse, a noted scientist, publishes the first handbook in experimental chemistry at Philadelphia. Societal: Isabelle Graham and a group of 15 Protestant women found the Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children in New York City. Technology: Eli Terry receives the first clock patent for his wooden timekeeping devices. These are sold inexpensively and are rather reliable despite their lack of metal parts. Terry also pioneers the use of waterpower to cut and finish his parts.

January 1 Politics: The seat of New York government relocates from New York City to Albany.

January 23–30 Slavery: Congress receives the first-ever petition by fugitive slaves, four of whom had fled North, to ask for their freedom. However, their plea is rejected following a vigorous debate.

February 8 Technology: The first coal-fired glass-making plant is built at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

February 27 Business: Secretary of State Timothy Pickering reports before Congress on the commercial losses arising from French hostility toward American shipping.

March 4 Politics: John Adams takes the oath of office as the second chief executive of the United States with Thomas Jefferson as his vice president. The cabinet, including Timothy Pickering, Oliver Wolcott, James McHenry, are holdovers from the Washington administration.

May 10 Naval: The new 44-gun frigate USS United States is launched in Philadelphia, becoming the first official warship of the new U.S. Navy. It is also the largest warship of its class in the world and command is awarded to Revolutionary War hero Captain John Barry.

May 15 Politics: President John Adams summons a special session of Congress for the first time to discuss ongoing tensions with France, the recent expulsion of American minister Charles C. Pinckney, projected diplomatic initiatives, and military preparations.

May 31 Diplomacy: In an attempt to avert military confrontation, President John Adams appoints a three-man commission to secure a new treaty of commerce and amity with France. The members are Charles C. Pinckney, Elbridge Gerry, and John Marshall.

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Adams, John

(1735–1826)

President John Adams was born in Braintree, Massachusetts, on October 19, 1735, the son of a farmer. An excellent student, he graduated from Harvard College in 1755, studied law, and was accepted to the bar in the wake of the Stamp Act crisis of 1765. Adams became increasing identified with a radical clique of pro-independence politicians. To that end he served as a delegate to the Continental Congress and lobbied vociferously and effectively on behalf of the Declaration of Independence, which was signed on July 4, 1776. Adams was then dispatched to Europe where he served as minister to France. After a brief return home in 1779 to help write the new Massachusetts constitution, he returned to France to begin secret peace negotiations with Great Britain. Adams, distrusting the French, prevailed upon John Jay and Benjamin Franklin to disregard Congressional instructions and negotiate with the English without informing their allies. In 1780 he served capably as minister to the Netherlands, securing a large loan for the American government. After independence had been secured, Adams relocated to London as the first American minister to that nation. In this capacity he sought normalized relations with England but was continually vexed by Great Britain’s refusal to honor the terms of the Treaty of Paris until all prewar debts were paid in full. He came home in 1788 and was elected vice president under the newly adopted constitution. Adams’s tenure at the center of executive leadership proved an unhappy one, simply because he determined to be strictly

guided by philosophical principles and remain nonpartisan for the national good. At the time national polity was wracked by growing political discord arising from the monetary and governmental policies of arch-Federalist Alexander Hamilton, but Adams dutifully supported the administration of President George Washington. In 1796 he was himself elected the second president of the United States and endured four years of controversy and rising national acrimony over foreign affairs. The French Revolution became a catalyst for the Democratic-Republic opposition of Thomas Jefferson to emerge, and Adams also had to contend with dissent within his own Federalist party. Despite French provocation and Hamilton’s bellicosity, Adams refused to allow the country to slide into war and sought a diplomatic solution. However, he also signed the Federalist-inspired Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 to silence political opposition, which further exacerbated national tensions. He ran again for the presidency in 1800, barely supported by fellow Federalists, and was narrowly defeated by Jefferson. Adams, taking the political upset personally, withdrew from public life altogether and moved back to Braintree, where he engaged in a lucid and furious publishing campaign to defend his term in office. He was not personally reconciled with Jefferson, his ideological adversary, until 1812 but gradually rehabilitated his reputation as an elder statesman. Adams died in Braintree on July 4, 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

June 1 Politics: Secretary of State Timothy Pickering declares that French warships and privateers have seized 300 American vessels.

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June 24 Military: Congress, anticipating an outbreak of war with France, authorizes recruitment of 80,000 militia as a national contingency.

June 26 Technology: Inventor Charles Newbold of New Jersey patents a cast-iron plow; he had spent his entire fortune developing the device but farmers resist the invention out of a misplaced fear of contaminating the soil.

July 8 Politics: The House of Representatives impeaches Senator William Blount of Tennessee on charges that he was conspiring to instigate the Cherokee to attack both the American and Spanish holdings in the Southwest. The Native Americans would obviously lose such an encounter, along with additional lands ripe for speculators. This is the first instance of the House utilizing its powers to remove an elected official.

August 28 Diplomacy: The United States and the Barbary kingdom of Tunis reach an agreement to cease piratical acts against American shipping in exchange for an annual payment of tribute. However, the terms are deemed so offensive that the treaty is not ratified until January 1800.

September 7 Naval: The 36-gun frigate USS Constellation is launched at Baltimore, Maryland, as the new U.S. Navy begins acquiring real combat capabilities.

October 4–18 Diplomacy: In Paris, the XYZ Affair unfolds as American commissioners Charles C. Pinckney, Elbridge Gerry, and John Marshall confront three French negotiators named “X,” “Y,” and “Z,” who rather undiplomatically insist on a $240,000 bribe as a precondition to any treaty negotiations. Pinckney and Marshall eventually depart in a huff while Gerry remains behind to deal with French minister Talleyrand. A naval confrontation is in the offing, the so-called Quasi War.

October 21 Naval: The 44-gun frigate USS Constitution is launched at Boston. This is the second vessel of its class to be acquired by the nascent U.S. Navy and will become America’s most famous and celebrated warship.

1798 Arts: Joseph Hopkinson’s patriotic poem “Hail, Columbia” is published as an indication of anticipated hostilities with France. Business: The 30-ton schooner Jemima is constructed near Rochester, New York, for the trade on Lake Ontario. Literature: Charles Brockden Brown, the nation’s first professional author, publishes his novel Wieland, an early Gothic romance reflecting a strong European influence. Medical: Dr. Valentine Seaman pioneers the first professional instructions in nursing and subsequently publishes them in outline form as an early medical textbook.

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Chronology of American History Settlement: Frontier icon Daniel Boone receives an 850-acre grant from the Spanish government in the Femme Osage District, Louisiana Territory (Missouri). Technology: At New Haven, Connecticut, Eli Whitney introduces his revolutionary concept of interchangeable parts while constructing firearms for the U.S. Army. It greatly facilitates factory production and repairs in the field and is a sign of America’s burgeoning role in the nascent Industrial Revolution. However, Whitney, who has promised the government to construct 10,000 muskets in only two years, lacks a factory and misses his deadline by several years.

January 8 Law: The Eleventh Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which restricts federal judicial authority over the states, is ratified by the states. Specifically, it forbids lawsuits against a state by citizens of other states or foreign nations.

January 17 Diplomacy: In Paris, American commissioner John Marshall formally rejects French attempts to solicit a bribe as a precondition for treaty negotiations. Marshall gives the French until March 18 to reply satisfactorily, then departs.

March 19 Diplomacy: President John Adams informs Congress that a diplomatic solution to French depredations at sea has failed.

April Arts: John Daly Burk’s powerful play, Female Patriotism, or the Death of Joan d’Arc, is staged at the Park Theater in New York City.

April 3 Politics: Details of the XYZ Affair are released to the public by President John Adams with a corresponding outbreak of indignation and anti-French sentiments nationally. America begins girding for the eventuality of war with France.

April 7 Settlement: Congress creates the Mississippi Territory, carved out of parts of present-day Alabama and Mississippi.

April 30 Naval: To further strengthen the defensive capability of the nation, President John Adams prevails upon Congress to create the Department of the Navy under a Secretary of the Navy. This new entity oversees naval administration previously handled by the Department of War.

May 21 Naval: Benjamin Stoddert is appointed the first Secretary of the Navy, and he oversees a tiny naval establishment hovering on the cusp of war with France.

May 28 Military: Congress passes a bill mandating recruitment of a 10,000-man army for three years. Naval: Congress authorizes President John Adams to order naval commanders to engage any French vessel attempting to seize or interfere with American commerce at sea.

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June 6 Law: In a major step, Congress abolishes the practice of imprisoning debtors.

June 13 Diplomacy: Congress votes to suspend commercial activities with France and its colonies.

June 18 Politics: The Federalist-dominated Congress votes to enhance national security through passage of the first of the Alien and Sedition Acts, which effectively clamps down on political opposition to their policies. The first is an amendment to the Naturalization Act, which increases mandatory residency from five to 14 years.

June 25 Politics: Congress passes the Alien Friends Act, which authorizes the president two years to deport any foreigner deemed sufficiently treasonous or dangerous to national defense to warrant removal.

July 2 Military: Former president George Washington gains appointment as commander of the three-year provisional army; Alexander Hamilton is made his second in command and inspector general. Washington, a thoroughly trusted figure, is the only man that the American polity would be comfortable with while leading such a force.

July 6 Politics: Congress passes the Enemy Alien Act to facilitate the wartime arrest and banishment of any resident formerly associated with an enemy power.

July 7 Diplomatic: Treaties of France dating back to 1788 are repealed by Congress; this is the first time that the United States has abrogated a prior commitment. Naval: Lieutenant Stephen Decatur, commanding the 20-gun sloop USS Delaware, captures the 14-gun French privateer La Croyable off New Jersey; this is the first prize of the Quasi-War and is recommissioned at Philadelphia as the USS Retaliation. This victory also signifies the start of Decatur’s impressive career as a naval officer.

July 11 Naval: The U.S. Marine Corps is established by Congress, an outgrowth of the Continental Marines raised during the Revolutionary War.

July 14 Politics: Congress passes the Sedition Act, which stipulates that the author of any published item deemed seditionist to the president, Congress, or government is subject to arrest, imprisonment, and fines. Intended to curb political dissent, it stimulates membership in the Democratic-Republican opposition and politically damages the Federalists.

July 16 Medical: The Marine Hospital Service is established by Congress; it gradually evolves into the U.S. Public Health Service.

August 8 Naval: The secretary of the Navy forbids the service of African Americans from U.S. Navy warships, reversing a trend in effect since the Revolutionary War.

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September 12 Journalism: Benjamin Franklin Bach, Benjamin Franklin’s grandson, is arrested under the Sedition Act for essays he published in the Philadelphia Aurora “libeling” President John Adams. His detention sparks widespread outrage and protest against the Alien and Sedition Acts.

October 12 Settlement: The newly designated Mississippi Territory receives firm boundaries while its capital is fixed at Natchez.

November 16 Naval: British warships accost the 20-gun American frigate Baltimore on the high seas and remove part of its crew, suspected British deserters, for impressment purposes. Politics: Thomas Jefferson drafts the Kentucky Resolutions protesting the Alien and Sedition Acts as unconstitutional, which are then passed by the Kentucky legislature. According to Jefferson, states have a right unto themselves to determine the constitutionality of the acts. This is the origin of the “compact theory” of governance, whereby the United States is a compact between otherwise sovereign states.

November 20 Naval: The schooner USS Retaliation under Lieutenant William Bainbridge is seized by French forces at the Caribbean Island of Guadalupe; the 250-man crew remains in captivity until February 1799.

December 14 Technology: David Wilkinson of Rhode Island receives a patent for his screwthreading machine.

December 24 Politics: The Virginia Resolutions, penned by James Madison, are adopted by the Virginia legislature to oppose the unconstitutionality of the Alien and Sedition Acts permitting states to declare null and void any illegal Congressional act.

December 31 Law: The Supreme Court decides the case of Calder v. Bull, ruling that prohibitions against laws enacted after the commission of a crime apply solely to criminal, not civil, law.

1799 Architecture: Benjamin H. Latrobe’s design for the Bank of Pennsylvania anticipates what becomes known as the Greek Revival movement. It incorporates an Ionic-style portico later commonly found on most large public buildings. Arts: Johann Graupner wears blackface for the first time during the performance of Oroonoko, one of the earliest minstrel shows. Business: The Russian American Company receives from the government of Czar Paul I a monopoly of trade in the northern Pacific region, with headquarters at Sitka, Alaska. Education: Child prodigy Timothy Dwight passes through Rhode Island College (Brown University) at the age of 14; reputedly, he could read the Bible at four.

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Journalism: The Baltimore American becomes the first newspaper outside Washington, D.C., to grant regular coverage to congressional reports and debates. Labor: The Federal Society of Cordwainers initiates the nation’s first labor action by striking for nine days until they receive a wage increase. Medical: Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse creates the first viable vaccination against smallpox at Cambridge, Massachusetts. Religion: Seneca wastrel Handsome Lake, recovering from an alcoholic bout, experiences strange visions that lead him to seek purity through a nativist revival.

Handsome Lake

(ca. 1735–1815)

Seneca prophet Handsome Lake (Skaniadariio) was born at the village of Conwagas along the Genessee River (Avon, New York) around 1735, a member of the Wolf clan of the Seneca tribe. The Seneca then constituted part of the powerful Six Nations Iroquois Confederation and he counted among his family and near relatives noted chief Cornplanter and the distinguished orator Red Jacket. Little is known of Handsome Lake’s childhood or early years other than that he was raised among the Turtle Clan. Like many contemporaries he undoubtedly sided with Great Britain during the American Revolution after which the tribe was punished by the United States by appropriating large tracts of land. The formerly far-ranging Seneca then found themselves hemmed into cramped reservations which began playing havoc upon traditional patterns of tribal, family, and individual behavior. Shortly after the death of his daughter, Handsome Lake took to drinking and became severely alcoholic. He continued degenerating mentally and physically until August 7, 1799, when he experienced the first of four spiritual visions. During these spiritual sojourns Handsome Lake was purportedly instructed by various messengers to stop drinking, oppose all forms of witchcraft as

practiced by his people, and embrace traditional tribal lifestyles and values. The “messengers” underscored their lessons with a warning that the Seneca would be visited by destruction if they did not reform their ways. Struck by the intensity of his visions, Handsome Lake cured himself of his addiction, assumed the role of a tribal prophet, and began preaching among his people. Commencing in 1800 Handsome Lake addressed his conflict-ridden tribe with his unique call for nativist renewal. In fact, he did not hesitate to insist that while change was inevitable, the Seneca did not have to sacrifice their identity. After 1801 and further refinement he expounded upon the concept of Gaiwiio or “Good Word” to reject alcohol, embrace spirituality, and also adopt European-style agriculture to enhance the Seneca’s traditional ties to the land. The new creed also featured coopted Christian features such as silent prayer and confession of one’s sins. He found a ready audience willing to listen and absorb his message although his strident insistence on the persecution of suspected witches caused a major disruption in his conversion efforts. Handsome Lake was nevertheless considered (continues)

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(continued) an important tribal figure, and he gained election to the Seneca tribal council. In that capacity he ventured to Washington, D.C., in 1801 to confer with President Thomas Jefferson over the acquisition of additional tribal lands and discontinuing the sale of alcohol to his people. By the time Handsome

Lake died on the Onondaga Reservation on August 10, 1815, he had managed to halt the sad slide of the Seneca and other tribes into debauchery. Moreover, the tenets of his religion were codified by Blacksnake in 1850 and are still practiced in their present form as the “Longhouse Religion.”

January 30 Politics: The Logan Act, which expressly forbids private citizens to engage in unauthorized diplomatic activities, is approved by Congress. This is enacted in response to Dr. George Logan, a Philadelphia Quaker, who sought to venture to Paris as a private citizen in an attempt to avert war with France.

February 7 Politics: John Fries is arrested by Federal marshals in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, for leading a revolt against federal property taxes in Bucks and Northampton Counties, Pennsylvania. He is tried, convicted, and sentenced to death for treason but is ultimately pardoned by President John Adams.

February 9 Naval: In a smart action off the island of Nevis, Captain Thomas Truxton of the 38-gun frigate USS Constellation captures the French frigate L’Insurgent ; losses in this lopsided affair are three Americans wounded to 29 French dead and 41 injured. Lieutenant John Rodgers and Midshipman David Porter are subsequently detailed to sail the prize into St. Kitts with 173 prisoners. This is a significant victory for the U.S. Navy during the so-called Quasi-War with France. Politics: Congress forbids trade with France and also stops American vessels from entering French ports.

February 18 Diplomacy: Despite the pro-war urgings of Alexander Hamilton, President John Adams appoints William Vans Murray as the new American minister to France. He does so upon the advice of the French foreign minister, Talleyrand, now receptive to American overtures.

February 23 Medical: Congress passes its first national quarantine act, whereby federal officials will assist state authorities in matters respecting medical quarantines.

February 25 Diplomacy: President John Adams, reacting to pressure from arch-Federalist Alexander Hamilton, appoints William K. Davie and Oliver Ellsworth to accompany William Vans Murray to France as ministers plenipotentiary.

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Patrick Henry had originally been selected but then declined on account of age. The three men are charged with reopening peace negotiations with the French republic.

March 29 Slavery: New York approves an emancipation law for the gradual abolition of slavery.

April 1 Publishing: The American Review and Literary Journal commences publication under the aegis of Charles Brockden Brown.

May Business: The American vessel Franklin under Captain James Devereaux drops anchor at the Dutch-controlled island of Deshima in Nagasaki harbor, Japan. He then barters his cargo of cotton, sugar, tin, pepper, and cloves in exchange for the first Japanese mats, lacquered goods, and pans brought back to the United States.

June 6 General: Revolutionary War icon Patrick Henry dies in Charlotte County, Virginia.

June 15 Politics: New Hampshire’s Federalist-dominated legislature passes the New Hampshire Resolutions to rebut the antigovernment Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions.

November 9–10 Diplomacy: Napoleon Bonaparte overthrows the French Directorate and installs himself as First Consul; obsessed by expansionist ambitions in Europe, he proves much more amenable to diplomacy toward the United States.

November 22 Politics: Thomas Jefferson drafts another Kentucky Resolution, passed by the Kentucky legislature, which repudiates the assertion that the federal judiciary alone can determine the constitutionality of acts passed by Congress. Once again, he insists that states have the right to nullify federal laws.

December 12 Politics: The sixth Congress convenes its first session, being the last to boast a Federalist majority.

December 14 General: The new nation suffers its first major loss when George Washington, the most trusted military and political figure of his times, and a beloved national icon, dies at Mount Vernon. His renown is such that even France and England render honors on his passage.

December 26 Politics: Henry Lee, a distinguished Revolutionary War veteran, delivers a famous eulogy to George Washington and proclaims him as “first in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen.”

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1800 Agriculture: John Chapman, a Pennsylvania horticulturist, begins his 50-year career of spreading appleseeds around the region of the Ohio River Valley. For this reason he enters into folklore as Johnny Appleseed. Medical: Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse performs the first cowpox vaccination in America in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Music: Benjamin Carr commences printing his weekly Musical Journal, the first publication devoted to the dissemination of popular music from Europe and the United States. Population: The 1800 census reveals a national population of 5.3 million, including 896,849 African American slaves. Virginia, boasting 900,000 inhabitants, is the most populous state. Publishing: Mason Locke Weems, a Episcopal parson, publishes his celebrated panegyric The Life and Memorable Actions of George Washington, within months of the president’s death. It is an immediate best seller and endures through 87 printings to 1927. “Parson Weems” is best remembered for including his fictional account of a young Washington cutting down the cherry tree. Isaiah Thomas of Worcester, Massachusetts, is the nation’s foremost publisher, with 400 titles in print since the end of the Revolutionary War. His latest is a rendition of the New Testament in Greek. Religion: The Church of the United Brethren in Christ is organized with Philip William Otterbein and Martin Boehm as bishops. It is an outgrowth of the Mennonite community in Pennsylvania.

January 2 Slavery: Free African Americans in Philadelphia petition Congress to end slavery, halt the slave trade, and to allow the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 to expire. Not surprisingly, the petition is allowed to die in committee.

January 7 General: Millard Fillmore, the 13th president, is born at Locke (Summerville), New York.

January 10 Diplomacy: Congress ratifies the recent treaty with Tunis, signed the previous August.

February 1 Naval: The American frigate USS Constellation under Captain Thomas Truxton defeats the French frigate La Vengeance off Guadalupe, but the French vessel escapes after Truxton’s ship loses its mainmast.

February 22 Societal: Philadelphia is the scene of a grand parade in honor of George Washington’s birthday; this is the first public observance of what becomes a national holiday.

March 8 Diplomacy: First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte of France cordially receives American commissioners William Vans Murray, Oliver Ellsworth, and William

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R. Davie. Napoleon, who is planning wars of expansion in Europe, wants to settle his matters with the United States beforehand.

April Politics: The nation’s first political party caucuses for presidential and vice presidential candidates take place over the following two months. In time John Adams and Charles C. Pinckney are selected by the Federalists while Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr will represent the Democratic Republicans.

April 3 Business: Congress extends a franking privilege to Martha Washington, in effect to allow mail sent and received by her to be done so for free. It is gradually extended to all Revolutionary War veterans.

April 4 Business: Congress passes the first Federal Bankruptcy Law pertaining to merchants and bankers; its net result is the release from Debtor’s Prison of financier Robert Morris.

April 24 General: The Library of Congress is founded by a congressional act for the purpose of informing and enlightening members of that body.

April 29 Business: A British court rules on the case of the American vessel Polly, establishing the principle of a “Broken voyage.” Henceforth, American vessels can travel from the French West Indies to France if their cargos are landed at an American port and duties paid on them.

May 6 Politics: President John Adams, convinced that Secretary of War James McHenry is working in collusion with Alexander Hamilton for his defeat in the upcoming presidential election, demands and receives McHenry’s resignation.

May 7 Settlement: Congress carves up the Northwest Territory by imposing a boundary between the Kentucky and Ohio Rivers. The area west of this is christened the Indiana Territory under Governor William Henry Harrison, with its capital at Vincennes. The eastern region (Ohio) remains known as the Northwest Territory with a capital at Chillicothe.

May 10 Settlement: The Public Land Act, sponsored by Governor William Henry Harrison of the Indiana Territory, passes Congress. It creates district public land offices, liberal credit terms for purchasing land, and engenders a surge of land speculation throughout the territory. The minimum purchase is 320 acres, usually beyond what the average settler could afford.

May 11 Naval: In a startling action, Lieutenant Isaac Hull and 100 U.S. Marines hide themselves on board the vessel Sally and sail alongside the French privateer Sandwich off Santo Domingo. They quickly sortie and capture that vessel without a loss, then storm ashore and also take a nearby Spanish fort. Hull then triumphantly sails off without loss.

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May 12 Politics: President John Adams dismisses Secretary of State Timothy Pickering out of a belief that he is secretly conspiring against him in the 1800 presidential election.

May 13 Politics: Virginia Federalist John Marshall replaces Timothy Pickering as Secretary of State at the behest of President John Adams.

May 23 Law: In Richmond, Virginia, James T. Callender is tried and convicted of seditious libel and sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment. This is among the most celebrated cases arising from the Alien and Sedition Acts.

June Politics: The American government begins moving from Philadelphia to the new federalist district recently christened Washington, District of Columbia. This is the first planned capital city in history.

June 12 Politics: Massachusetts Federalist Samuel Dexter is appointed by President John Adams to serve as the new secretary of war.

July 9 Arts: Mount Vernon Gardens, the nation’s first summer theater, opens on Broadway in New York.

August 30 Slavery: A planned rebellion led by African-American slave Gabriel Prosser is revealed to white authorities; Prosser is subsequently hanged along with 36 suspected cohorts.

September 30 Diplomacy: The United States and a new French regime, the Consulate under Napoleon Bonaparte, formalize the Treaty of Morfontaine (or Convention of 1800), which ends the Quasi-War between the two nations while also restoring regular diplomatic relations. The agreement also annuls the alliance of 1778 while leaving the question of compensation for seized American vessels open to future negotiations.

October 1 Diplomacy: France and Spain conclude the secret treaty of San Ildefonso, whereby the colony of Louisiana is transferred back to its former owner, France. Apparently, the ambitious Napoleon Bonaparte, distracted by the outbreak of peace in Europe, now aspires for a revival of French colonial fortunes in North America.

October 12 Naval: The frigate USS Boston under Captain George Little engages and captures the 24-gun frigate Le Berceau off the Massachusetts coast.

October 19 Diplomacy: In an egregious national insult, Captain William Bainbridge is ordered by the Dey of Algiers to convey his emissary to Constantinople aboard the warship USS George Washington. There he is forced to present gifts to the Ottoman government and also fly the Ottoman flag from his masthead.

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November 17 Politics: The seat of government is formally transferred to the new District of Columbia; President John Adams and his wife Abigail occupy the soon-to-benamed White House while Congress convenes its first session there.

December 3 Politics: The presidential election of 1800 pits the Federalist ticket of John Adams and Charles C. Pinckney against Democratic-Republican Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr. It will be decided largely around issues surrounding the Alien and Sedition Act, higher taxes to support a large defense establishment, the reduction of trade with France, and British impressment of American seamen.

1801 Architecture: The first large suspension bridge is erected over Jacob’s Creek, Pennsylvania, to link the settlements of Uniontown and Greensborough. It was inspired by a suspension system pioneered by James Finely of Fayette County in that state. Education: South Carolina College (today’s University of South Carolina) is chartered in Columbia, South Carolina; its first class graduates in 1806. Journalism: The New York Evening Post commences publication as a Federalist mouthpiece. Publishing: Noted Philadelphia publisher Matthew Carey organizes the American Company of Booksellers in New York City, which promotes the latest publications through book fairs. Religion: The second Great Revival commences with the evangelical camp meetings of Presbyterian minister James McGready, who began preaching in Logan County, Kentucky, in 1797. The movement of frontier Protestantism, replete with hellfire and damnation sermons, soon sweeps the upper mid-west. Yale president Timothy Dwight leads a religious revival in Connecticut. Technology: Legendary engraver Paul Revere manufactures the first cold, rolled copper in Boston, Massachusetts.

January 1 Politics: Samuel Dexter is confirmed by the U.S. Senate as secretary of the Treasury.

February 4 Politics: John Jay having refused to hold public office again, President John Adams appoints Virginia Federalist John Marshall as the new chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. This is one of his last official acts in office and, as events prove, among the most influential legal appointments in American history.

February 11 Arts: The play Abaellino, the Great Bandit by William Dunlap commences its amazing 25-year run.

February 11–16 Politics: Once the presidential elector ballots are counted, Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr tie at 73 votes apiece with John Adams, the first incumbent to be defeated, with 65 votes, while Charles C. Pinckney receives 64 votes. To end the impasse the process reverts to the House of Representatives for the first time, as provided by the Constitution.

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Marshall, John (1755–1835) Supreme court justice John Marshall was born in Fauquier County, Virginia, on September 24, 1755, the son of a surveyor. He was imperfectly educated by the time he joined the Continental Army in 1775 as a captain and fought well in several battles. While still in service he enrolled at William and Mary College in 1779, easily mastered law, and was admitted to the bar in 1780. Soon Marshall gained a well-deserved reputation as one of Virginia’s foremost legal authorities. After several terms in the legislature, he served with the state constitutional convention in 1788, lending his support to ratification. In time Marshall, by dint of keen judicial and political insight and a driven personality, emerged as leader of the Federalist party in Virginia. He soon came to the attention of President George Washington, a fellow Virginian, who appointed him a minister to France in 1797. He emerged from the infamous XYZ Affair with a national reputation, and in 1800 President John Adams offered him the position of secretary of war, which Marshall declined. That year Adams was defeated by the Democratic-Republicans of Thomas Jefferson, the first time that one party was about to replace another. Adams, realizing the Federalists had lost control of the government politically, now sought to wield influence over it judicially through the courts. A spate of “midnight appointments” ensued in January 1801 before he left office and Marshall was appointed chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court when John Jay

declined. From the standpoint of shaping the tone of Constitutional law, this proved one of the most significant appointments in American history. As a Federalist, Marshall was determined to preserve strong central governance and check what he viewed as the excesses of democracy. He also wished to render the Supreme Court, heretofore a relatively benign branch of the government, into a first among equals. He had his chance in 1803 by ruling in the famous case Marbury v. Madison, which established the principle of “judicial review.” Thanks to Marshall’s brilliant maneuvers, the Supreme Court would unilaterally determine the constitutionality of all laws passed by Congress, dismissing them if they failed to meet constitutional standards. He also strengthened the court by insisting that each ruling be rendered by a single opinion—his—while dissent was removed from the public forum. A series of important cases followed through which Marshall inevitably sided with the federal government over the states. Another significant ruling, McCulloch v. Maryland, upheld the rechartering of the Bank of the United States, thus reaffirming Alexander Hamilton’s policy of implied powers, or “loose construction,” in the Constitution. Marshall closely directed the judicial and constitutional direction of the United States for 35 years before dying in office on July 6, 1835. Philadelphia’s famous Liberty Bell acquired its celebrated crack while tolling in his memory.

February 17 Politics: The House of Representatives endures an all-night session of 36 deadlocked ballots before Thomas Jefferson is finally elected president and Aaron Burr vice president. Apparently, Alexander Hamilton uses his influence among Federalist delegates to have them cast blank ballots, thereby electing Jefferson. Hamilton sees his old adversary as the “lesser of two evils” when compared to

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the brilliant but erratic Burr. The Federalists also lose control of Congress but now make strident attempts to retain control of the judiciary.

February 27 Politics: The Judiciary Act is passed by Congress; it reduces the number of Supreme Court justices from six to five and also establishes 16 circuit courts nationwide. Administering the federal District of Columbia also becomes a jurisdiction of Congress. Moreover, outgoing President John Adams uses it as a convenient pretext to make several last-minute appointments to the court. Congress this day also assumes control over the District of Columbia.

March 3 Politics: The Judiciary Act enables President John Adams to make several last-minute appointments (midnight judges) to the circuit court, on literally his last day in office, to ensure Federalist domination of the courts. Opposition to these appointments by the Democratic-Republicans under President Thomas Jefferson leads to the landmark judicial ruling in Marbury v. Madison.

March 4 Politics: Thomas Jefferson, the tall, gangling, redheaded philosopher, becomes the first president Aaron Burr (Library of Congress) inaugurated into office in the new national capitol of Washington, D.C. He is also the first DemocraticRepublican to hold high office. In his inaugural address, Jefferson sounds the case for limited government, fiscal frugality, states’ rights, and preserving civil liberties. Aaron Burr is also sworn in as vice president.

March 5 Politics: Revolutionary War hero Henry Dearborn becomes secretary of war while Levi Lincoln is appointed attorney general.

May 2 Diplomacy: James Madison is appointed secretary of state.

May 14 Diplomacy: Pasha Yusuf Karamanli of Tripoli, wishing to increase his tribute demands on the United States, threatens war and cuts down the American flag in at the consulate in Tripoli City. President Thomas Jefferson, determined to protect America’s freedom of the seas, authorizes the outfitting of several naval expeditions against the North African pirates. Politics: Swiss born Albert Gallatin becomes the new secretary of the treasury.

June 2 Naval: Commodore Richard Dale leads the first American naval expedition of four vessels and a complement of U.S. Marines from New York against the Barbary pirates.

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Jefferson, Thomas (1743–1826) President Thomas Jefferson was born in Albemarle County, Virginia, on April 13, 1743, son of a plantation owner. He proved adept as a student, passed through William and Mary College in 1762, and joined the colonial bar in 1767. Jefferson subsequently devel-­ oped an affinity for politics and public service, so he was elected to the House of Burgesses in 1769, remaining there until 1775. Throughout the period lead-­ ing up to the American Revolution he agitated on behalf of the patriots against Great Britain and served as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress. In this capacity he made indelible contributions to the American cause by drafting the memorable Declaration of Independence, which was adopted on July 4, 1776. He then returned to Virginia to serve with the House of Delegates before becoming governor in 1779. After the war ended in 1783 Jefferson served the government in various capacities, most notably as minis-­ ter to France in 1784, where he witnessed

the outbreak of the French Revolution. He then favored adoption of the new U.S.

Thomas Jefferson. Painting by Thomas Sully (National Archives)

June 10 Diplomacy: The Dey of Tripoli declares war against the United States over its cessation of tribute payments.

July Religion: An early Methodist camp meeting unfolds near the Gaspar River Church in Logan County, Kentucky. Soon this practice becomes a common occurrence along the frontier.

July 17 Naval: The squadron of Commodore Richard Dale arrives off Tripoli and imposes a blockade. Meanwhile, the American consul there, James Cathcart, tries in vain to have Pasha Yusuf Karamanli reduce his new tribute demands of a one-­off pay-­ ment of $250,000 and annual payments of $20,000 thereafter.

August Naval: In France, American inventor Robert Fulton creates his viable submarine Nautilus and offers it to Napoleon, who remains skeptical and uninterested.

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Constitution, but only if it contained a Bill of Rights. President George Washington appointed him secretary of state in 1789, but he was increasingly drawn into an ideological struggle with Alexander Ham-­ ilton and other Federalists as to the nature of American governance. He finally broke with them over the issue of Jay’s Treaty in 1795 and went on to help found an oppo-­ sition party, the Democratic-­Republicans. In this capacity he increasingly criticized President John Adams and the oppressive Alien and Sedition Acts before running for the presidency in 1800. He was elected to the office through the House of Repre-­ sentatives, although this required the help of Hamilton to conclusively defeat Aaron Burr. As chief executive, Jefferson set the government down a new path. He sought to reduce the size and influence of gov-­ ernment so as to assist yeoman farmers and deflect an overly ambitious merchant class. Jefferson, a pacifist by nature, was nonetheless determined to protect the American flag at sea, and in 1801 he sent

several naval expeditions into the Mediter-­ ranean to combat the Tripolitan pirates of North Africa. In 1803 he authorized crea-­ tion of the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, to scientifically train the officer corps and secured the Louisiana Purchase from France, which doubled the size of the nation. In 1804 he also dispatched the expedition of Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore this vast region. When British warships attacked American ships at sea in 1807 he launched a complete embargo on foreign trade to punish the offenders; in the end this nearly ruined the economy and had to be repealed. Jefferson left office in March 1809 still a popular public figure, and he retired to his estate at Monticello, Virginia, to write and conduct scientific research. He was not personally recon-­ ciled with his former friend John Adams until 1812 and remained a respected elder statesman until his death at Monticello on July 4, 1826—the 50th anniversary of his Declaration of Independence.

August 1 Naval: In an early naval encounter, the brig USS Enterprise under Lieutenant Andrew Sterett engages and captures the 14-­gun North African vessel Tripoli, killing 30 Algerians and taking 30 captive.

August 7 Religion: The Great Revival of the West increases with a Presbyterian camp meeting at Cane Ridge, Kentucky. Presbyterian minister Barton W. Stone presides over a gathering estimated at 25,000.

August 21 Science: The first mastodon bones are unearthed in Newburgh, New York, causing a popular sensation.

September Engineering: The Cayuga Bridge, a wooden structure more than a mile long and broad enough for four wagons to traverse abreast, is opened in central New York. It is considered one of the technical marvels of its day.

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October 16 Diplomacy: Robert R. Livingston, newly appointed minister to France, departs for Europe.

October 19 Technology: Benjamin H. Latrobe designs and builds the nation’s first freshwater aqueduct system at Philadelphia, which supplies the city year round.

November 1 Education: Middlebury College is chartered at Middlebury, Vermont; its first class graduates in 1802.

November 16 Journalism: Federalists Alexander Hamilton and John Jay join forces to found and publish the Federalist-oriented New York Evening Post. They do so in response to the recent loss of Federalist Stephen Van Rensselaer in his race for the governorship.

December 7 Politics: The Seventh Congress convenes in Washington, D.C., with the Democratic-Republicans in firm control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives for the first time.

December 8 Politics: President Thomas Jefferson, disliking ceremony, renders his first annual message to Congress on paper, a practice that continues until 1913. Camp meetings, such as the one shown here, helped to spread Protestantism to the scattered frontier population. (Library of Congress)

1802

Arts: The New York Academy of Arts is founded in New York City; it is organized and run like a business, with shares of stock bought and sold. Business: Colonel David Humphreys brings back the first shipment of 100 merino sheep from Spain. Soon the fine wool of this animal becomes a staple of the growing textile industry. Sports: New York public law forbids horse racing in public and the sport remains restricted to private organizations, the so-called jockey clubs. Technology: In New York, noted inventor John Stevens develops the first screw (propeller) driven steamboat.

January 7 Education: The American Western University is founded at Athens, Ohio, becoming the first higher education institution in the Northwest Territory. It is also part of the Ohio Company of Associates and is renamed Ohio University in 1804.

January 8 Diplomacy: Consistent with the terms of Jay’s Treaty, a commission determines that the United States owes $2.6 million in pre-Revolutionary war debts, based both on English and Loyalist claims.

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January 15 Education: Jefferson College (today’s Washington and Jefferson College) is chartered in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania.

January 29 General: John James Beckley, former clerk of the House of Representatives, is appointed the first Librarian of Congress by President Thomas Jefferson. Politics: President Thomas Jefferson approaches Congress for a repeal of the Judiciary Act, which he regards as nothing more than a partisan legislation by the Federalists to control the courts.

February 6 Diplomacy: Congress authorizes the arming of merchant vessels in light of a declaration of war by the Pasha of Tripoli. The United States is thus preparing to enter a state of limited war without a congressional declaration. Business: Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin begins a new government policy of fiscal retrenchment to reduce the national debt. However, he does propose federal aid for the purpose of national road construction to facilitate commerce and frontier settlement. Gallatin, consistent with President Thomas Jefferson’s wishes, outlines a plan for severe military reductions and the repeal of all internal taxation.

March 8 Politics: The Democratic-Republican dominated Congress repeals the Judicial Act of 1801 at the behest of President Thomas Jefferson.

March 16 Military: A bill authorizing the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, passes Congress. In promoting its creation, President Thomas Jefferson has two goals for this school: to train professional military engineers whose talents in surveying and road building will greatly facilitate frontier settlement, and to afford political indoctrination for an officer class, rendering them favorably disposed toward democratic republicanism. The site had previously been selected by George Washington.

March 27 Diplomacy: The Treaty of Amiens between France, England, the Netherlands, and Spain brings a temporary halt to harassment of American shipping in Europe.

April 6 Business: The Democratic-Republican controlled Congress repeals all excise taxes, including the hated whiskey tax.

April 14 Politics: The Naturalization Act is restored by Congress to mandate a five-year residency requirement for citizenship; this ends the 14-year tenure stipulated under the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1795.

April 24 Business: Georgia requests help in sorting out the legal entanglement caused by the fraudulent Yazoo land sales of 1795 and the state’s 1796 invalidation of the same. The land in question is then ceded to the federal government, for $1.2 million, which ultimately engenders a landmark Supreme Court decision in 1810.

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April 29 Politics: The Judiciary Act of 1801 is amended by Congress to increase the number of Supreme Court justices to the original number of six, while the court will hold one session per year. Moreover, a system of six circuit courts is established, down from 16, each presided over by a Supreme Court justice.

April 30 Settlement: The Enabling Act is passed by Congress that allows any territory organized from the Ordnance of 1787 to strive for statehood. The Northwest Territory (Ohio) subsequently begins electing delegates for a state constitutional convention, a precedent followed by other territories similarly disposed.

May 1 Diplomacy: President Thomas Jefferson is apprised of and alarmed by Spain’s recent sale of the Louisiana Territory to France. He therefore authorizes his minister in Paris, Robert R. Livingston, to negotiate for land on the Mississippi River to use as a port and thereby preserve American navigation rights. Moreover, Livington is to inquire if France would be willing to sell the land in question.

May 3 General: Washington, D.C., is incorporated as a city and the president is authorized to appoint a mayor.

June 19 Business: French refugee Éleuthère Irénée du Pont opens up his first gunpowder factory at Wilmington, Delaware.

July 4 Military: The U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, is officially opened. This marks the genesis of professionalism in the U.S. Army.

August 11 Diplomacy: Spain and the United States agree to a convention which creates a special commission to settle any claims of one nation’s citizens against the other.

October 2 Business: The U.S. Patent Office becomes a new bureau within the Department of State.

October 16 Diplomacy: In an alarming development, France forbids the United States from depositing cargo at New Orleans, Louisiana, thereby negating an earlier arrangement reached with Spain, the previous owner. President Thomas Jefferson, anxious to preserve American navigation rights along the Mississippi, begins negotiations to purchase New Orleans and West Florida.

November 29 Settlement: At Chillicothe, Ohio, a state convention adopts a new constitution, this being the first step in applying for statehood. This is accomplished over the protests and obstructionism of territorial governor Arthur St. Clair, an aristocratically inclined former soldier. The new document closely mirrors the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 and forbids slavery.

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December 6 Politics: President Thomas Jefferson reemphasizes the necessity of balanced governmental economy in his annual message to Congress. He also declares his intention to further reduce the power of the federal government.

1803 Architecture: New York City Hall is designed and built by John McComb; it is considered today one of the nation’s best surviving examples of Georgian style. Diplomacy: The resumption of warfare between France and Great Britain in Europe leads to continuing attacks upon neutral shipping at sea. Both sides prove equally rapacious towards American commerce, but the new spate of impressment of American seaman by the British leads to escalating national anger over the practice. Religion: The Albrights, professing a combination of Methodist and Lutheran doctrines, is formed when Jacob Albright is ordained in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania. After 1816 they are known as the Evangelical Association. Societal: The first tax-supported public library is founded in Salisbury, Connecticut.

January Exploration: President Thomas Jefferson, desirous of securing friendly relations with Native American tribes in the interior and expanding the nation’s internal commercial boundaries, prevails on Congress to fund a small western exploratory expedition led by two army officers.

January 11 Diplomacy: President Thomas Jefferson appoints fellow Virginian James Monroe as minister plenipotentiary to France and orders him to Paris to join American minister Robert R. Livingston. Monroe is instructed to offer $2 million for the purchase of New Orleans and West Florida—he is authorized to spend upwards of $10 million.

February 4 Arts: William Dunlap, the nation’s first professional playwright, adapts his play The Voice of Nature from a contemporary French work of the same name. This is the earliest example of melodrama for the stage in America, having been pioneered in France, and features starkly drawn villainous and virtuous characters, with the latter usually prevailing.

February 24 Law: The landmark Marbury v. Madison case is dramatically decided by Chief Justice John Marshall of the U.S. Supreme Court. Henceforth the Court declares its implied power to render null and void any action by Congress which is deemed unconstitutional. This is also the first time that the high Court has voided a congressional act. The process of judicial review is thereby established, making the Supreme Court first among equals in the balance of power among the three branches of government.

March 1 Politics: Ohio enters the union as the 17th state; because it is carved from territory established by the Northwest Ordnance of 1787, slavery was already excluded and is never an issue.

March 3 Settlement: Congress authorizes the sale of all uncommitted land within the Mississippi Territory.

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April Science: Naturalist John James Audubon is the first American to practice banding birds for scientific observation.

April 12 Diplomacy: James Monroe, minister plenipotentiary to France, arrives in Paris to assist American minister Robert R. Livingston in an attempt to purchase New Orleans and West Florida from the First Consulate of Napoleon Bonaparte. By this time, Napoleon’s attention has shifted back to warfare on the European continent and he readily abandons prior notions of resurrecting a French empire in the New World. His foreign minister, Talleyrand, inquires how much the United States would be willing to offer for the entire Louisiana Territory.

April 19 Business: With French prodding, Spain reinstitutes the right to deposit stores at New Orleans, an economic essential for American traders there.

May Technology: Benjamin H. Latrobe gives a less-than glowing assessment of the current state of steam technology in his report to the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia. This is only four years before Robert Fulton’s spectacularly successful steamboat Clermont.

May 2 Diplomacy: In Paris, James Madison and Robert R. Livingston arrange to purchase the entire Louisiana Territory (828,000 square miles) for $11 million. This purchase literally doubles the size of the United States and encompasses a region that will eventually give rise to the states of Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Wyoming. The Americans also conclude a convention to assume claims by French citizens against the United States worth $3.7 million. Napoleon Bonaparte, eager to embark on a war of conquest in Europe and already saddled with a costly rebellion in Haiti, sells the land at a bargain price in exchange for a quick infusion of cash.

May 23 Naval: Captain Edward Preble, a stern, no-nonsense disciplinarian, is appointed commodore of the Mediterranean Squadron. His aggressive brand of leadership proves infectious to all ranks.

June 7 Diplomacy: Indiana territorial governor William Henry Harrison concludes a treaty with representatives of nine Native American tribes, whereby the latter cede land along the Wabash River. This constitutes the first white intrusion beyond the fixed barriers established by the 1795 Treaty of Greenville and sparks the rise of nativist resistance throughout the Old Northwest.

August 17 Military: Captain John Whistler marches his company of infantry to the site of present-day Chicago, Illinois, and commences construction of Fort Dearborn.

August 31 Exploration: The first government-sponsored exploratory expedition, headed by army captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, departs down the Ohio River. They will not return from their epic voyage for three years, and their

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Lewis, Meriwether (1774–1809) Explorer Meriwether Lewis was born in Albemarle, Virginia, on August 18, 1774, son of a Continental Army officer. He was attracted to military life and in 1794 he joined the militia to help suppress the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania. Lewis subsequently served with the U.S. Army in 1794 and fought under General Anthony Wayne at the Battle of Fallen Timbers. At that time he also befriended Lieutenant William Clark and the two became lifelong friends. Lewis then completed several tours of duty along the western frontier and served as regimental paymaster at Detroit. However, his fortunes dramatically shifted in 1801 when President Thomas Jefferson invited him to Washington, D.C., to serve as his personal secretary. After the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, Jefferson sought to outfit a small but professional scientific expedition to explore the new region. His goal was to facilitate western migration and also learn more about new furbearing regions to expand trade. He consequently selected Lewis, who was highly adept at astronomy, navigation, and mapmaking, to head the expedition. Once Congress granted approval for the endeavor both Lewis and his friend Clark were commissioned captains in the new “Corps of Discovery.” The two departed St. Louis in May 1804, assisted by the Shoshone woman Sacagawea, and gradually wended their way as far west as Oregon on the Pacific coast. En route they met and befriended numerous tribes of Native Americans who had never heard of the United States. After wintering at Astoria, Oregon, the

party commenced the return leg of its journey, with Lewis and Clark taking separate routes. The expedition finally ended at St. Louis on September 23, 1806, after covering more than 4,000 miles with the loss of only one man through illness. Lewis’s minute observations did much to enhance the geographical, botanical, and scientific knowledge of the region, and President Jefferson appointed him governor of the new Louisiana Territory. Lewis had acquired national renown for his explorations, but temperamentally he was unsuited for political office. Sullen and inflexible, he argued incessantly with local officials and became unpopular with the inhabitants. He was also uncommunicative with superiors back in Washington, D.C., and failed to consult with them in advance about his plans. After only a year and a half in office, Lewis was summoned back to the national capital to explain his boorish behavior to superiors. He was also going east to push for publication of his detailed journals under the aegis of Nicholas Biddle of Philadelphia. Lewis proceeded along the celebrated Natchez Trace—the “Devil’s Backbone”—to a point near Nashville, Tennessee, where he checked into an inn on October 11, 1809. He died there suddenly at the age of 35. It has never been ascertained if Lewis’s death was the result of murder, suicide, or natural causes, and speculation remains rife. Despite a sometimes stormy disposition, his sound leadership proved essential to the conduct of a daring expedition that opened the western frontier to the American nation.

endeavors greatly enhance the scientific and geographical knowledge of the American interior. President Thomas Jefferson, intending to lessen the influence of commercial elites along the east coast, feels that settlement of the frontier will lead to a dominant, agrarian-based, yeoman farmer class, hence the region they inhabit becomes “the bulwark of Liberty.”

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Clark, William

(1770–1838)

Explorer William Clark was born in Caroline County, Virginia, on August 1, 1770, a younger brother of Revolutionary War hero George Rogers Clark. He was raised in Kentucky, exposed to the nuances of frontier life, and also inculcated with the habits and mannerisms of Native American tribes. He joined the U.S. Army as an ensign in 1791 and served under General Anthony Wayne at the Battle of Fallen Timbers, 1794. Around this time he struck up a close acquaintance with fellow officer Ensign Meriwether Lewis, the two becoming fast friends. Clark then returned home in 1796 to manage his plantation in Kentucky, but in 1803 he was contacted by Lewis to join the “Corps of Discovery” established by President Thomas Jefferson to explore the vast reaches of the Louisiana Purchase. In May 1804 Lewis and Clark departed Pittsburgh in keelboats and wended their way westward, greatly assisted by the Shoshone woman Sacajawea. Clark himself was wellversed at dealing with Native Americans, and his tact and diplomacy while encountering numerous tribes insured a peaceful transit. Over the next two years Clark artfully mapped the terrain they covered up as far as the Pacific Northwest and back, which greatly contributed to American knowledge of the interior. Reputedly his draftsmanship was so accurate that the maps required only minor alterations 50 years later. Clark also compiled a military journal of events which was published in 1807, became an instant best seller, and greatly stimulated interest in western migration.

Clark resigned from the military again in February 1807 to become Indian agent of the Louisiana Territory and brigadier general of militia. For the next six years he labored ceaselessly to cultivate better relations with nearby Indians, then stressed by the tide of white encroachment, and conducted several chiefs to Washington, D.C., to confer with President James Madison. He became a familiar fixture at many Indian councils, and they relied upon him for fair and honest advice. Moreover, Clark believed that the best way of promoting good relations between whites and Native Americans was through commerce and feared that unscrupulous traders would incite unrest and violence. When the War of 1812 broke out Clark was tasked with guarding the thinly populated Missouri region from attack, and he was appointed the first territorial governor. Here he was hampered by scanty resources and manpower, but in 1814 he conducted an expedition up the Mississippi River to Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, constructed Fort Shelby, and raised the American flag there. After the war Clark was authorized to conclude several peace treaties with the remaining hostile tribes, and in 1821 he lost his sole bid to become governor of Missouri. He then served as superintendent of Indian affairs at St. Louis for the next 16 years and facilitated their eventual removal to new homelands in the Kansas Territory. Clark died in St. Louis on September 1, 1838, receiving the lavish state funeral usually accorded a national hero.

September 29 Religion: Boston formally dedicates its first Roman Catholic Church.

October 20 Politics: The Senate ratifies the purchase of the Louisiana Territory on a vote of 24 to seven. This had proved something of a thorny issue, ideologically, to the

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Democratic-Republicans, as there was no provision for such an acquisition in the Constitution. President Thomas Jefferson and his followers had no recourse but to backpedal and adopt the Federalist “broad constructionist” interpretation of that document, based on the concept of implied powers.

October 31 Naval: Disaster strikes when the frigate USS Philadelphia under Captain William Bainbridge grounds in Tripoli Harbor while chasing an enemy vessel and is captured; plans are then made by Commodore Edward Preble to destroy the vessel at its berth.

November 12 Naval: The American naval squadron under Commodore Edward Preble establishes a blockade of Tripoli Harbor and warns neutral vessels to steer clear.

December 9 Politics: The Twelfth Amendment to the Constitution is passed by Congress; this mandates that candidates for president and vice president must be on separate ballots to avert tie votes, as happened to Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr in 1800.

December 19 Business: Congress repeals the Bankruptcy Act of 1800.

December 20 Settlement: President Thomas Jefferson, Mississippi Territory governor William C. Claiborne, and General James Wilkinson attend ceremonies at New Orleans, Louisiana, marking the formal transfer of that territory from France to the United States. This fortuitous acquisition literally doubles the size of the United States and pushes it closer to a two-ocean power.

December 24 Societal: American Elizabeth Patterson, daughter of wealthy businessman William Patterson, marries Jerome Bonaparte, younger brother of Napoleon, in Baltimore.

1804 Agriculture: The first agricultural fair is held in Washington, D.C., and soon becomes a common sight in rural and frontier communities. Education: Rhode Island College is renamed Brown University in honor of a wealthy benefactor, Nicholas Brown. Law: Despite its incorporation into the United States, the new Louisiana Territory maintains the Code Napoleon as its legal basis, which is subsequently carried on into statehood. This is in direct contrast to the rest of the country, which utilizes English-based common and statutory laws. Publishing: John Marshall publishes the first volume of his Life of George Washington, with the remaining four volumes appearing up through 1807. It remains the most authoritative biography of this seminal figure for half a century. Religion: Charles Bulfinch designs St. Stephen’s Catholic Church in Boston; it is also known as the New North Church.

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January 5 Politics: Samuel Chase, a federal associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, is investigated by the House of Representatives for allegedly biased conduct in cases involving publisher James T. Callender for sedition and John Fries for his role in a tax rebellion.

February 15 Slavery: The New Jersey legislature adopts laws mandating the gradual emancipation of African-American slaves.

February 16 Naval: In a stunning naval upset, Lieutenant Stephen Decatur leads a cuttingout expedition that recaptures the 38-gun frigate USS Philadelphia in Tripoli Harbor, then burns it under the city’s cannon. Decatur had sailed into the harbor with only 75 sailors on board a captured Tripolitan ketch, pulled alongside, then quickly stormed his objective without loss of life. British Admiral Horatio Nelson declares it the boldest act of his day, and it establishes Decatur as the doyen of the naval officer corps for the next two decades. Politics: Alexander Hamilton publicly slurs Aaron Burr during the New York gubernatorial election, dismissing him as “a dangerous man.”

February 25 Politics: The Democratic-Republicans, holding their first regular party caucus, unanimously nominate Thomas Jefferson for president and George Clinton of New York for vice president.

March 12 Law: The U.S. Senate impeaches John Pickering, a federal district judge from New Hampshire, on the grounds of intoxication, profanity, and other offenses judged detrimental to his performance on the bench. This is the latest manifestation of President Thomas Jefferson’s ongoing strife with the Federalist-dominated courts.

March 26 Settlement: The Land Act of 1804 is passed by Congress to amend the Harrison Land Law of 1800; this lowers the price of public lands to $1.64 an acre and allows the sale of 160 acre units called quarter sections. Credit terms are also liberalized and payments extended for a period of 10 years. Congress establishes the Territory of Orleans in the southern Louisiana Territory, comprising land west the Mississippi River. The remaining land constitutes the new District of Louisiana.

April 25 Politics: Aaron Burr is defeated in his bid for the New York governorship and correctly blames Alexander Hamilton for slandering him in the state press.

April 29 Naval: The Mediterranean Squadron under Commodore Edward Preble captures two Tripolitan warships.

May 14 Exploration: The Lewis and Clark expedition of 33 men departs St. Louis, Missouri Territory, in a keelboat and two pirogue boats, and begins paddling up

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659

(1779–1820)

Naval officer Stephen Decatur was born in Sinepuxent, Maryland, on January 5, 1779, part of a seafaring family. After briefly attending the University of Pennsylvania, he joined the merchant marine at an early age and in 1798 received a midshipman’s commission in the U.S. Navy. Decatur distinguished himself in this capacity throughout the Quasi War with France, 1798–1800, and rose to lieutenant in 1803. That year Decatur accompanied the American squadron dispatched to the Mediterranean to combat the Barbary pirates of North Africa. During the night of February 16, 1804, he led a cutting-out expedition which boarded the captured frigate USS Philadelphia, burned it at its moorings, and safely escaped with the loss of only one man wounded. This singular act captured the American public, established Decatur’s reputation as a daring naval officer, and resulted in his promotion to captain at the age of 24. Until hostilities ceased in 1804, Decatur subsequently distinguished himself in other hand-to-hand actions off Tripoli and furthered his reputation. When the War of 1812 commenced, Decatur was commanding the large, 44-gun frigate USS United States, and on October 12, 1812, he confronted the slightly smaller British 38-gun warship HMS Macedonian. Using superb sailing skills, Decatur expertly devastated his opponent with 70 broadsides, gaining the second surprise victory over the heretofore unbeatable Royal Navy. However, the British fleet soon enveloped the American coastline in a blockade, and Decatur proved unable to get to sea for

two years. On January 15, 1815, he managed to slip the large frigate USS President out of New York harbor but the ship then struck a sandbar during a gale and was badly damaged. He was then set upon by a squadron of British warships, defeated the nearest of these, then surrendered to the remaining two. Defeat did not diminish Decatur’s stature as a national hero, and in the summer of 1815 he commanded a new, nine-ship squadron tasked with stopping Algerian depredations against American shipping. In a short and brilliant campaign he captured two warships and forced the beys of Algiers, Tunisia, and Tripoli to sign peace treaties and pay indemnities. His activity finally ended the scourge of Mediterranean piracy and he sailed home to additional laurels. In November 1815 Decatur won a position on the Board of Navy Commissioners to modernize the administration of that service. He also gained renown by proffering the oft-quoted toast, “Our country! In her intercourse with foreign nations may she always be in the right, but right or wrong—our country!” He performed well for six years but entered into a fatal controversy in 1820 by voting to deny Captain James Barron his promotion. Barron had earlier been disgraced by the 1807 Chesapeake-Leopard affair and he blamed Decatur for conspiring against him and then challenged Decatur to a duel. Decatur readily accepted the challenge and was fatally wounded near Bladensburg, Maryland, on March 22, 1820. He remains the most accomplished naval officer of his age.

the Missouri River toward the interior of the continent. Among them is the 16year-old Shoshone girl, Sacagawea, who has been hired to act as a guide with her French fur-trader husband.

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Sacagawea (ca. 1790–ca. 1884) Indian woman guide Boinaiv (“Grass Maiden”) was born among the Lehmi band of the Shoshone (Snake) nation in central Idaho around 1790, the daughter of a prominent chief. At the age of 11 she was kidnapped by a band of hostile Hidatsa warriors and taken to their village. There she received the name Sacagawea (“Bird Woman”) and lived among the people, traveling with them. At some time in her journeys, Sacagawea encountered the French trader Toussaint Charbonneau, who bought her from captivity and eventually married her. The couple was residing at a Mandan Indian village in present-day North Dakota when an American expedition headed by captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark arrived to spend the winter of 1805 there. Lewis and Clark, realizing they needed experienced capable guides and translators, hired both Charbonneau and his wife to accompany them on their sojourn to the Pacific coast. Sacagawea’s fluency in the Shoshone dialect was considered essential to this task because the expedition would have to obtain horses and other supplies from that tribe in order to cross the Continental Divide. Prior to departing Sacagawea gave birth to a son named Jean Baptiste Charbonneau on February 11, 1805, although this latest addition to the expedition was simply strapped to her back and she marched on with the others that April. As the journey unfolded, Lewis and Clark came to highly value Sacagawea’s linguistic and navigational skills, along with her skills as a botanist. Invariably, at each

campsite, she would go off into the bushes to procure various kinds of edible roots to supplement the soldiers’ meager rations. This teenage guide was apparently quite fearless and on one occasion she dove into a river to rescue many artifacts that had spilled over when a canoe capsized. At length Sacagawea led the party into the heart of the Shoshone homeland, which she recognized but had not visited for many years. The Native Americans of this region believed that a party of men led by a woman invariably came in peace, and their extended their hospitality to the strangers. At this juncture Lewis and Clark were introduced to Chief Cameahwait, whom Sacagawea instantly recognized as her older brother and a tearful reunion ensued. She then explained the need for horses to her hosts, which were provided, and she remained with the expedition as they wintered at the present location of Astoria in Oregon. Sacagawea subsequently accompanied the expedition back east at which point she disappears from the historical record. Certain accounts place her death at Fort Lisa, Nebraska, on December 20, 1812, while tribal traditions maintain she lived among the Wild River Shoshone in Wyoming until 1884, when she died at the age of around 100 years. Regardless of her fate, the youthful Sacagawea made invaluable contributions to the Lewis and Clark expedition, who valued her presence and wrote favorably of her in their journals. Several statues have been erected in her memory in St. Louis, Portland, and other locations.

May 21 Exploring: The Lewis and Clark expedition arrives at the home of frontier legend Daniel Boone in Missouri.

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July 11–12 Politics: Aaron Burr challenges Alexander Hamilton to a duel for his role in derailing the former’s political aspirations in New York. The two men confront each other at Weehawken, New Jersey. Hamilton deliberately misfires his gun while Burr takes deliberate aim and fatally wounds his antagonist. This act effectively ends Burr’s political career.

August 3 – 4 Naval: Commodore Edward Preble takes the unprecedented step of arranging his Mediterranean Squadron in bombardment positions and shelling the port city of Tripoli. His nine ships and nine gunboats engage nine Tripolitan shore batteries, yet the Americans manage to sink three gunboats and capture four more at a cost of 54 casualties.

August 13 Diplomacy: Indiana territorial governor William Henry Harrison arranges the purchase of additional land from the Delaware Indians, this time encompassing the region between the Wabash and Ohio Rivers.

August 18–27 Diplomacy: Indiana territorial governor William Henry Harrison signs two treaties at Vincennes for lands north and south of the Ohio River.

September 4 Naval: The captured brig Intrepid, manned by Lieutenant Richard Somers and 13 sailors, explodes in Tripoli Harbor after its cargo of gunpowder is accidentally detonated, killing everyone on board.

September 25 Politics: The Twelfth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified; hereafter presidential and vice presidential candidates run separately on their own ballots.

October Exploration: A government expedition headed by scientists William Dunbar and Dr. George Hunter departs Natchez, Mississippi, and paddles down the Red and Ouachita Rivers into present-day Arkansas.

October 1 Politics: Jeffersonian stalwart William C. Claiborne is appointed governor of the Territory of Orleans, with his seat of government at the city of New Orleans. The United States is finally in control of the mouth of the Mississippi River, which proves to be a major economic conduit for the interior of the country.

November 2 Exploration: The Lewis and Clark expedition winters near the site of present-day Bismarck, North Dakota. They encamp at a village of friendly Mandan Indians along the banks of the Upper Missouri River, having successfully negotiated treacherous waters on the Missouri River and an encounter with hostile Sioux Indians.

November 3 Diplomacy: Indiana territorial governor William Henry Harrison strikes an accord with the Sac and Fox Indians to acquire five million acres in present-day Wisconsin for the United States. The natives retain the right to remain on the land.

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November 29 Education: The New York Historical Society is founded in New York City by John Pintard, Mayor DeWitt Clinton, Judge Egbert Benson, and Dr. David Hosack. This institution is dedicated to the collection and preservation of important documents relating to American history.

December 5 Politics: In the first presidential election under the Twelfth Amendment, Thomas Jefferson decisively outpolls Charles C. Pinckney with 162 votes to 14 while vice president George Clinton eclipses Rufus King by the identical margin. Moreover, the Democratic-Republicans maintain their large majorities in the Congress and thus completely control the political agenda of the nation.

1805 Art: Painter Charles Willson Peale opens America’s second public art gallery, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, in Philadelphia. The first such institution, the New York Academy of Fine Arts, folded the previous year. Business: The first known shipment of ice is carried by merchant captain Frederick Tudor to the French island of Martinique; thereafter it becomes a valuable export to the tropics and other warm climes. Diplomacy: As warfare escalates in Europe, Napoleon issues the Berlin and Milan Decrees and Great Britain invokes the Orders in Council; both have the effect of barring neutral shipping from entering each other’s harbors at the risk of confiscation. However, the continuing British practice of impressing American seamen for service on Royal Navy warships leads to increasing resentment against that nation. Education: Georgetown College, founded in 1789 as the first Catholic institution of higher learning, is transferred to the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). Exploring: Scientists William Dunbar and Dr. George Hunter conclude their exploration down the Red and Ouachita Rivers and return to Natchez, Mississippi. One result of this government-sponsored endeavor is the first glimpse of mineral wells at Hot Springs, Arkansas. Publishing: Female historian Mercy Warren Otis publishes her Rise, Progress, and Termination of the American Revolution, based on her firsthand knowledge of events and major players. However, her biased treatment of John Adams for aristocratic pretensions leads to a breakdown to their former friendship.

January 11 Settlement: The Michigan Territory is created from a division of the Indiana Territory; William Hull, a distinguished soldier of the Revolutionary War, is appointed the first governor with his seat of government at Detroit.

February 15 Societal: A German-speaking utopian community is created by George Rapp at Harmonie in western Pennsylvania. The 600 inhabitants agree to surrender all their worldly possessions for the betterment of the community.

February 17 Settlement: In Louisiana, New Orleans is incorporated as a city.

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March 1 Law: Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase, having been impeached by the House of Representatives for inappropriate behavior, is tried and acquitted in the Senate. He then resumes his seat on the bench with a somewhat tarnished reputation, but his survival discourages future administrations from attempting to remove judges for political reasons.

March 3 Settlement: Congress establishes the Louisiana Territory from the Louisiana District and enacts legislation confirming all French and Spanish land grants extant. The capital is then designated at St. Louis.

March 4 Politics: Thomas Jefferson is inaugurated for his second term as president while George Clinton is sworn in as vice president, replacing Aaron Burr. In his address the chief executive notes the passing of internal taxation in favor of consumption taxes on luxury items and also speaks favorably about publicly funded public works such as roads.

March 6 Military: A remarkable and improbable military campaign unfolds as American Consul William Eaton and U.S. Marine Lieutenant Presley O’Bannon march from Alexandria, Egypt, with seven marines and 400 Arab and Greek mercenaries. They are determined to storm the Tripolitan city of Derna on the North African coast.

April 7 Exploring: The Lewis and Clark expedition decamps from its Mandan Indian village and resumes paddling up the Missouri River, assisted by the 16-year-old Shoshone guide, Sacagawea. The Corps of Expedition consists of 26 men in six canoes and two large pirogues.

April 26 Exploring: The Lewis and Clark expedition arrives at the mouth of the Yellowstone River.

April 27 Military: A small American expedition commanded by U.S. Consul William Eaton and Marine Corps Lieutenant Presley O’Bannon captures the port city of Derna from Tripolitan forces, assisted by gunfire from the brigs USS Nautilus, Hornet, and Argus under Captain Isaac Hull. The victors suffer 14 casualties, including one dead Marine. Hamet Karamanli, brother of Pasha Yusuf, is then placed on the throne as an opposition figure. This is the first real victory in the war against the Barbary pirates and also the first time the American flag flies over an enemy fortification.

May 1 Slavery: The Virginia legislature enacts a law ordering all free African Americans to leave the state or face imprisonment.

May 25 Labor: Members of the Federal Society of Cordwainers (shoemakers) are arrested by law enforcement authorities and charged with striking for an increase of wages, a violation of English common law. This marks the first time that the judicial system

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May 26 Exploring; The Lewis and Clark expedition attempts crossing the Rocky Mountains down the Jefferson River but is thwarted. They then elect to proceed on foot through the Lemhi Pass and thence across the continental divide.

June 4 Diplomacy: A peace agreement is reached between the United States and the Barbary state of Tripoli; the Americans pay a one-time $60,000 ransom to release Captain William Bainbridge and 306 sailors of the captured USS Philadelphia, but thereafter commerce is assured free passage throughout the Mediterranean Sea without further tribute.

June 11 Exploring: The Lewis and Clark expedition catches its first glimpse of the Great Falls of the Missouri River. General: The newly acquired settlement of Detroit, Michigan, is nearly destroyed in a fire.

July 1 Settlement: Congress carves the Michigan and Indiana Territories from the remaining Northwest Territory.

July 23 Diplomacy: In a case regarding the American vessel Essex, an English court decides that any neutral ship visiting an enemy port can be subject to seizure unless the captain can demonstrate that his final voyage was to an American port. This action, based on the Rule of 1756, clears the way for additional maritime seizures by British warships plying the French West Indies, where most of the trade occurs.

July 25 Politics: Former vice president Aaron Burr arrives at New Orleans, allegedly to help plot a separatist state with that city as its capital.

July 27 Exploring: The Lewis and Clark expedition reaches the three forks of the Missouri River, at which point the exhausted explorers go ashore to rest.

August 9 Exploring: Lieutenant Zebulon M. Pike is ordered by General James Wilkinson to seek out the source of the Mississippi River within territory acquired by the Louisiana Purchase. This day he departs St. Louis with 20 men into the region of present-day Minnesota.

October 1 Exploring: The Lewis and Clark expedition concludes a harsh overland trek through the Bitterroot Mountains and then places its canoes in the waters of the Clearwater River.

October 10 Exploring: Tramping overland from the continental divide, the Lewis and Clark expedition encounters the Snake River, which flows westward. They then paddle downstream and enter the Columbia River a week later.

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Pike, Zebulon M.

665

(1777–1813)

Explorer Zebulon Montgomery Pike was born in Trenton, New Jersey, on January 5, 1777, son of a Continental army officer. He entered his father’s company of the 2nd Infantry at the age of 15 and served with General Anthony Wayne in the Northwest Indian War, 1790–94. Pike’s education to this point had been meager; nonetheless, he possessed considerable drive to excel and studied mathematics, science, and Spanish on his own. Afterward he served in the garrison at Kaskaskia, Illinois, coming to the attention of General James Wilkinson, commanding general of the Louisiana Territory. This huge expanse had been acquired in 1803 and remained largely unexplored. Therefore Wilkinson ordered Pike to outfit a small overland expedition for the purpose of establishing friendly contacts with native Americans living there, invite their chiefs to St. Louis, report on the activities of British traders, identify the source of the Mississippi River, and provide detailed geographic and geological information. Pike departed St. Louis on August 9, 1805 with 20, men and ascended the Mississippi River in a 20foot keelboat. He ventured far upstream and established contacts with the Sioux tribe, wintered on the future site of Fort Snelling, Minnesota, and explored the adjacent region on sled. Pike also encountered Leech Lake, which he wrongly believed was the source of the Mississippi. He then warned British traders off American territory before returning to St. Louis on April 30, 1806. Pike covered 5,000 miles in nine months,

contributing greatly to the knowledge of the American interior. In July 1806 Wilkinson ordered Pike on another foray, this time along the southwestern fringes of the Louisiana Purchase to locate the source of the Red River. He was also to gather military intelligence as to the Spanish army in the region. Pike departed, entered the area known as Colorado and identified the 14,000-foot mountain known today as Pike’s Peak. In January 1807 the expedition turned south toward the Red River and accidentally entered Spanish territory, where Pike and his men were arrested by Spanish authorities and brought to Mexico for questioning. He was then released and arrived back at Natchitoches, Louisiana, a hero. There he was apprised of the arrest of Aaron Burr and Wilkinson’s possible complicity in a conspiracy, but Pike was cleared of any participation. Furthermore, his endeavors, along with that of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, made possible the wave of western immigration that followed in subsequent decades. Pike remained in the military, rising to brigadier general by March 1813 and tasked with outfitting an amphibious expedition on Lake Ontario. His objective was to capture the Canadian town of York (Toronto), Ontario, which was successfully stormed on April 27, 1813. However, a British magazine exploded after the town’s surrender, whereby Pike was mortally wounded by a falling rock. He died later that same day, an enterprising officer and accomplished explorer.

November 7 Exploring: The Lewis and Clark expedition arrives at the source of the Columbia River and catches their first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean from present-day Astoria, Oregon. They also construct Fort Clatsop over the winter, having covered 4,000 miles in 18 months.

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December 4 Politics: In his annual message to Congress, President Thomas Jefferson strikes a untypically bellicose tone, apparently intending to intimidate the Spanish.

December 9 Politics: The Ninth Congress assembles with the Democratic-Republicans enjoying a clear ascendancy over the Federalists by a margin of 27 to seven in the Senate and 116 to 25 in the House of Representatives.

1806 Architecture: Asher Benjamin designs and builds the Old West Church in Boston as a stirring example of the Federal style. Art: Charles Willson Peale depicts the retrieval of fossilized mastodon bones in a painting called Exhuming the Mastodon, quite possibly the first time paleontology has been displayed as art. When the bones are recovered in New York, they are brought to Philadelphia, assembled, and displayed in Peale’s museum of scientific curiosities. Technology: David Melville designs and builds the first gas-powered streetlamps in Newport, Rhode Island.

January Business: President Thomas Jefferson orders the U.S. Mint to stop issuing silver dollars; production will not resume until 1836. Exploring: The Lewis and Clark expedition winters at Fort Clatsop (Astoria, Oregon), spending their time organizing copious notes taken and numerous maps drawn during the previous year. The information they have recorded touches upon science, geography, ethnology, and meteorology. Publishing: Noah Webster, grammarian and lexicographer, compiles his Compendius Dictionary of the English Language, intended to impart standardized American English. He has since abandoned earlier attempts to completely “Americanize” the English language and make it distinct from its European counterpart. Still, his retention of such Americanisms as lengthy, sot, spry, gunning, belittle, and caucus are denounced in certain quarters as “wigwam words” and he is charged with coarsening the language. Transportation: Congress votes funding to construct the Natchez Road, running 500 miles from Nashville, Tennessee, to Natchez, Mississippi.

January 25 Politics: Secretary of State James Madison delivers a blistering condemnation of British harassment of American shipment on the high seas, including the impressment of American seamen. His report stokes the rising tide of anti-English sentiments.

February 12 Politics: The Senate passes a resolution roundly condemning high-handed British behavior on the open seas as a violation of America’s neutral rights. The British ignore the proceedings entirely.

March 29 Transportation: Congress votes to authorize federal funding to construct the Cumberland Road from Cumberland, Maryland, to Wheeling, West Virginia, for

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the economic benefits it will confer. This route ultimately reaches as far west as Vandalia, Illinois.

April Exploring: A 40-man expedition under Captain Richard Sparks and noted astronomer Thomas Freeman depart Natchez, Louisiana Territory, to search for the source of the Red River.

April 5 Business: In Spanish-occupied San Francisco, authorities decide to allow trade relations with new Russian settlements in Alaska. This principally entails the sale of food to keep the settlers from starving over their long winter.

April 18 Business: The Nicholson Act is passed by Congress which forbids the importation of enumerated British products such as brass, hemp, flax, tin, and certain woolen textiles to protect nascent American industries. This is in response to continued harassment of American ships and crews at sea.

April 30 Exploring: The expedition headed by Lieutenant Zebulon M. Pike returns to St. Louis after unsuccessfully searching for the source of the Mississippi River in present-day Minnesota.

May Diplomacy: President Thomas Jefferson instructs William Pinkney to serve as a special envoy to England. Once in London he is to assist American minister James Monroe in seeking a diplomatic end to the British practice of impressment, indemnity for American ships and cargos seized, and a safe resumption of the West Indian trade.

May 19 Education: The Lancastrian system of education, which employs pupil-teachers to instruct less advanced students, debuts in a New York City school. This approach to teaching is considered desirable owing to the lower costs involved in employing students.

May 30 Societal: Andrew Jackson, one-time supreme court justice of Tennessee, enraged over a personal insult, kills lawyer Charles Dickinson in a duel.

June 2 Exploring: Captain Richard Sparks, 2nd U.S. Infantry, departs his camp in Natchitoches, Louisiana, in search of the source of the Red River.

June 5 Sport: In New York City, the horse Yankee is the first animal to trot a mile in two minutes, 59 seconds, breaking the three-minute mile.

June 15 Exploring: The Lewis and Clark expedition ascends the Rocky Mountains to begin its return voyage back to St. Louis. Once across, they divide into three smaller parties to cover and explore as much terrain as possible.

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July 15 Exploring: Lieutenant Zebulon M. Pike departs Fort Bellfontaine, Missouri Territory, to explore and chart parts of the Old Southwest (New Mexico and Colorado). He is officially instructed to avoid violating Spanish territory.

July 20 Political: Brilliant and disgruntled politician Aaron Burr meets on Blenderhasset’s Island in the Ohio River with Irish adventurer Harman Blenderhasset. They are prepared to engage in some kind of private military expedition, possibly in the West, for the purpose of establishing an independent republic.

August Religion: The Brethren is founded by five students at Williams College, Massachusetts, as the first American society to conduct missionary work in foreign countries.

August 3 Exploring: Captain William Clark and his small detachment of explorers reaches the Yellowstone River and begins a descent downstream toward the Missouri River. He is joined there by Captain Meriwether Lewis’s detachment three days later.

August 27 Diplomacy: American minister James Monroe and special envoy William Pinkney meet in London with Lord Holland in an attempt to stop the British practice of impressment and arrange indemnity for property seized on the high seas. Failure to reach an accord may result in reimposition of nonimportation, a position that fails to change British attitudes.

September 23 Exploring: The Lewis and Clark expedition reaches its successful conclusion at St. Louis, two years after it commenced. They cover 7,000 miles of rugged wilderness with the loss of only one man to disease. Beyond the scientific bounty reaped, their labors also demonstrate the viability of reaching the Pacific coast by an overland route.

October 21 Military: In light of continuing tensions with Great Britain, Congress authorizes a new organizational and legal framework for the U.S. Army.

November 15 Exploring: Lieutenant Zebulon M. Pike sees a large mountain, soaring 14,000 feet in height, in the distance while exploring the Southwest; it is subsequently christened Pike’s Peak in his honor. Shortly afterward he is arrested by Spanish authorities for trespassing, then released. Publishing: The Yale University Literary Cabinet debuts as America’s first college magazine.

November 27 Political: General James Wilkinson, a spy for Spain, reveals to President Thomas Jefferson Aaron Burr’s plan for carving out an independent republic from Spanish territory—he does so without implicating himself. Jefferson responds by warning American citizens not to become involved in any illegal military actions against Spain.

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December 12 Slavery: President Thomas Jefferson asks Congress to approve a ban on all slave imports after January 1, 1808.

December 31 Business: Trappers and fur traders around the upper Great Lakes form the Michilimackinac Company in an attempt to mount better competition against the British-owned North West Company, operating in the same region. Diplomacy: American minister James Monroe and special envoy William Pinkney sign a treaty with Great Britain, securing a negligible compromise of the issue of West Indian trade. Insofar as the pressing issues of impressment and compensation remain unaddressed, their efforts are a significant failure.

1807 General: The Boston Athenaeum is founded as a significant source for promoting scholarship and learning among the subscribers. It merges the functions of a library with a social meeting place for the city’s commercial, professional, and scientific elite.

January 22 Politics: President Thomas Jefferson informs Congress of Aaron Burr’s apparent conspiracy; when Burr is informed that his plot has been revealed he attempts to flee the country.

February 10 Exploring: Congress authorizes a complete survey of the U.S. coastline, which is then delegated to the Coast Survey within the Treasury Department.

February 19 Politics: Aaron Burr is arrested in the Mississippi Territory (Alabama) and charged with conspiring to lead an armed expedition into Spanish territory.

March Diplomacy: When President Thomas Jefferson reviews the newly signed MonroePinckney Treaty, which fails to address either the issue of impressment or indemnifications, he refuses to submit it to the Senate for ratification. As such the effort is a failure for American diplomacy.

March 2 Slavery: Following President Thomas Jefferson’s plea, Congress prohibits the further importation of African slaves into the United States after January 1, 1808.

March 20 Diplomacy: President Thomas Jefferson instructs American minister James Monroe and special envoy William Pinckney to resume negotiations to halt British harassment of American shipborne commerce, using their failed 1806 treaty as a starting point.

March 30 Politics: A captive Aaron Burr appears before a federal circuit court headed by Chief Justice John Marshall.

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June 22 Naval: The 52-gun British warship HMS Leopard under Captain Salisbury P. Humphreys, cruising the American coast in search of British deserters, accosts the smaller 39-gun American frigate USS Chesapeake of Commodore James Barron, three miles off Norfolk, Virginia. The British captain demands the right to search Barron’s vessel for deserters and, when he refuses, the British pour several broadsides into the unprepared Americans. Three American sailors are killed and 18 wounded, while four alleged deserters are removed; one is subsequently hanged. Word of the affair triggers intense anti-British activity nationwide, and Commodore Barron is court-martialed and suspended for five years for failing to order his crew to battle stations.

July Exploring: John Colter enters the Bighorn and Yellowstone basins of the Louisiana Territory (Montana and Wyoming).

July 2 Naval: In light of the Chesapeake-Leopard incident, President Thomas Jefferson orders all Royal Navy warships in American waters to depart immediately. Jefferson still hopes that peaceful coercion will avert war and result in improved British behavior.

August 3–September 14 Politics: Aaron Burr, having been arrested on a misdemeanor, is tried for treason in Richmond, Virginia.

August 17–21 Technology: Inventor Robert Fulton makes a successful passage upon the Hudson River in his steamboat, Clermont. This 150-foot-long vessel is powered by a Watt steam engine driving large paddle wheels on either side and can reach a top speed of five miles per hour. Fulton then successfully completes a 62-hour round-trip voyage from New York City to Albany and back, inaugurating the age of steamboat navigation. Commercial operations begin on September 4.

September 1 Law: Aaron Burr is acquitted of treason at his trial in Richmond, Virginia, principally because presiding Judge John Marshall interprets the law of treason strictly. Burr was not present personally when the alleged treason took place, so he is found innocent by default.

October 1 Literature: The Knickerbocker School of American Literature debuts with the publication of Salmagundi; or the Whim-Whams and Opinions of Launcelot Longstuff, Esq., and Others, a collection of satirical jottings by New York writers Washington Irving, William Irving, and James Kirk Paulding. Their writing concentrates on American subject material, rendered in either a realistic or humorous light.

October 17 Diplomacy: The British government announces its decision to enforce even harder its policy to arrest British deserters at sea, even if American seamen are impressed into the Royal Navy.

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671

(1765–1815)

Inventor Robert Fulton was born near Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on November 14, 1765, a son of farmers. While growing up he displayed an aptitude for art and mechanical tinkering and as early as 1779 he was employed by gunsmiths. By 1782 Fulton had established himself as a painter in Philadelphia, but he remained fascinated by the world of engineering. He ventured to England in 1786 to study art under noted expatriate Benjamin West but also beheld a nation in the earliest throes of the Industrial Revolution. Fulton was particularly interested in the promise of new forms of inland transportation, particularly canals, and he developed a double incline system of locks to allow boats to pass through uneven land. He also found the time to secure patents for a marble saw, a flax spinner, and a hemp rope maker. In 1796 Fulton gathered national attention by publishing his booklet A Treatise on the Improvement of Canal Navigation and confidently predicted their close integration with another revolutionary transport system, railroads. However, the onset of the French Revolution prompted him to focus on naval matters, and he spent several years perfecting a practical submarine, the Nautilus, in 1800. This innovative device enjoyed successful trial runs in both England and France, and actually sank a large frigate during a test, but the admiralties of neither country expressed any interest in what they considered a dangerous novelty. Fulton returned to the United States around 1802 where he had the good fortune of meeting Robert L. Livingston, minister

to France and a wealthy potential investor. At that time he had formalized his plans to invent a practical steamship for river travel and through English contacts managed to obtain a working steam engine from the firm of Boulton and Watt. This represented state-of-the-art technology and was a closely guarded secret, but Fulton secured his engine and began designing a ship around it. The first steamship had been successfully built and demonstrated by John Fitch in 1787, but he failed to attract public interest. Fulton, backed by Livingston, now possessed money for both perfecting the design and marketing it. In 1807 this vessel, christened the Clermont, made a successful passage up the Hudson River and back in only 62 hours, initiating regular steamboat service in the United States. Because Livington secured a monopoly, the venture proved extremely lucrative for both men. In the War of 1812 Fulton was also called upon to apply steam technology to military use, and in December 1814 he launched the USS Demologos (“Voice of the People”) at New York, a heavily armored, steam-driven catamaran and predecessor to the modern warship. Fulton died in New York on February 24, 1815, and the vessel was promptly rechristened Fulton the First in his honor. He was America’s first civil and military technologist, pioneering both the new ideas and nascent technology of the rapidly industrialized world. He also helped usher in a revolution in transportation systems, which directly facilitated the growth of America’s economic infrastructure.

October 26 Politics: The Tenth Congress assembles in Washington, D.C., with the Democratic-Republicans still in firm control of both chambers; 28 to six Federalists in the Senate, 118 to 24 in the House.

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November 15 Diplomacy: The Non-Importation Act against British goods becomes law until the persistent harassment of American commerce at sea ends. However, the government of Great Britain remains quite willing to endure such commercial measures to successfully prosecute their war against Napoleon in Europe.

December 14 Business: President Thomas Jefferson declares that the Non-Importation Act against England and France is in force.

December 18 Business: President Thomas Jefferson, faced with continuing seizures of Americans boats and cargos by both France and England, requests a complete embargo on all foreign trade. That same day Congress complies with a 22 to 6 vote in the Senate.

December 21 Business: The House of Representatives approves President Thomas Jefferson’s suggested embargo against all foreign trade, 82 to 44. However, this constitutional right of Congress to control and regulate foreign commerce has disastrous consequences for the American economy and is repealed in 1809.

December 22 Business: President Thomas Jefferson signs the Embargo Act into law, through which he sought to economically punish France and England for their harassment of neutral American shipping. In the end, it has little effect on the belligerents, greatly stimulates smuggling between New England and Canada, and causes considerable harm to the American economy. Still, Jefferson preferred it to war.

1808 Arts: New Orleans constructs an opera house costing $100,000, making it the opera capital of the nation. The New York Academy of Fine Arts also opens with former diplomat Robert R. Livingston serving as president. This act also establishes New York City as a leading center for the arts. American painter John Vanderlyn exhibits his painting Marius in France; the Emperor Napoleon I comments on it favorably. Publishing: The American Law Journal, one of the earliest legal magazines in the United States, begins publishing in Baltimore and is edited by Professor John Elihu Hall of the University of Maryland. Religion: Congregationalist Reverence Jedediah Moore founds the Amherst Seminary in Massachusetts to counter Harvard College’s increasing liberalism. Science: Alexander Wilson publishes the first volume of his attractively illustrated American Ornithology, which runs to nine volumes and is finally completed in 1814.

January 1 Slavery: As of this date the importation of African slaves into the United States is banned. Violators risk having their vessel confiscated, but all slaves captured become property of the states involved and put up for sale.

January 9 Business: The existing Embargo Act is expanded by a new, broadened act.

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February 11 Technology: Judge Jesse Fell conducts an early experiment with anthracite coal in his home at Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. The material is judged too hot for conventional stoves used in the home but might have minor applications in manufacturing and forging.

April 6 Arts: James N. Barker’s play The Indian Princess, or La Belle Sauvage is staged in Philadelphia; this is the first play drawn upon Native American themes and purports to represent incidents in the life of Pocahontas. Business: The New York legislature incorporates John Jacob Astor’s latest enterprise, the American Fur Company, his attempt to pry domination of the fur trade from foreign hands. Within two decades it acquires a near monopoly on the fur trade.

Astor, John Jacob (1763 –1848) Businessman John Jacob Astor was born in Waldorf, Baden (Germany) on July 17, 1763, the son of a butcher. He moved to England at the age of 13 to learn the construction of musical instruments but subsequently migrated to the United States in 1783 and entered the fur trade. A penniless immigrant, Astor clerked for several years in a fur shop in New York, acquired business knowledge firsthand, and slowly tested the lucrative waters of this field. Astor proved so adept at buying and selling furs that by 1786 his business was firmly established and doing a brisk trade in Canada and England. The Jay Treaty of 1794 opened up new venues for trapping in the Old Northwest, and Astor quickly dispatched his agents to acquire furs from American, French, or Canadian trappers, Native Americans, or anyone willing to sell to him. In 1792 he also sponsored the first American commercial vessel to trade with China, where American furs commanded fabulous prices, and brought back the first shipment of Chinese teas, silk, and lacquerware for the burgeoning American market. Astor proved successful in both endeavors and by 1800 he dominated the fur trade throughout North America. In

1808 he capitalized on this by forming the American Fur Company with Ramsey Crooks, through which he aspired to control new fur-bearing lands discovered by Lewis and Clark. In 1811 Astor took the very big risk of establishing a frontier outpost on the Columbia River, Oregon, christened Astoria, in order to monopolize the China fur trade. The following year one of his far west expeditions discovered the South Pass in the Rocky Mountains. Astor subsequently lost Astoria to the British in the War of 1812 but reaped another windfall by offering to finance the war effort by lending the government money at high interest rates. In addition to fur, Astor was one of the first businessmen to recognize the potential in real estate. Early on he parleyed part of his wealth into acquiring hundreds of acres of land in New York City, and by the 1820s he collected an annual sum of $100,000 in rents. He also operated a fleet of eight ships which invariably visited China with furs and brought back valuable and expensive cargos of Oriental exotica, still in demand. By 1834 the fur trade was declining and Astor (continues)

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(continued) sold off his company to a partner and spent the rest of his life attending to real estate matters. By the time he died in New York on March 29, 1848, Astor enjoyed a net worth of $10 million, making him the richest man in America—and allegedly the very individual for which the term millionaire was coined. Shrewd and ruthless in business, he also had a generous streak, and his

will stipulated a specific amount of funding for the Astor Library, which now functions as part of the New York City Public Library system. To this day Astor is still held up as the epitome of the American dream, whereby modest immigrants, through hard work and diligence, can acquire fortunes and happiness deemed unattainable in their native lands.

April 17 Business: The Emperor Napoleon I issues the Bayonne Decree in response to Jefferson’s Embargo Act; this mandates the seizure of all American ships and their cargos in French waters. The resulting losses amount to $10 million.

May 6 Technology: Noted inventor John Steven takes his steam-powered ship Phoenix on the first oceanic cruise for a vessel of this type by sailing from Hoboken, New Jersey, to Philadelphia.

July 12 Journalism: The Missouri Gazette begins circulating in St. Louis, the first newspaper available west of the Mississippi River.

July 16 Business: The Missouri Fur Company is founded by trader Manuel Lisa, Pierre Choteau, and William Clark; this arises as a direct result of the Lewis and Clark expedition and knowledge it revealed of new fur-bearing regions.

October Diplomacy: The British government, in an attempt to smooth over ruffled feathers resulting from the Chesapeake-Leopard Affair of 1807, dispatches special envoy George Rose to the United States to discuss the matter of reparation payments. However, the British also insist on retraction of President Thomas Jefferson’s ordering of their warships out of American waters as a precondition.

October 30 General: When Captain Benjamin Ireson of the schooner Betty refuses to assist a sinking vessel out of fear of losing his own, he is tarred, feathered, and run out of Marblehead, Massachusetts, by angry sailors’ wives. In 1857 his plight is recapitulated in a story by John Greenleaf Whitter called “Skipper Ireson’s Ride.”

November 10 Business: John Jacob Astor activates the American Fur Company in New York City, wherein he is the sole stockholder; this is the first step in establishing the nation’s first business empire. His first goal is to compete successfully with the long established North West Company of Canada for the lucrative fur trade.

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Diplomacy: The Osage sign the Osage Treaty with the United States, whereby they cede all lands north of the Arkansas River (present-day Arkansas and Missouri) and will be relocated to a reservation in nearby Oklahoma. This sets a precedent that will subsequently be applied to the Cherokee and tribes in the Southwest. Transportation: Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin reports to Congress on the status of roads and canals.

December 7 Politics: Thomas Jefferson, declining to run for a third term in office, throws his political support behind Secretary of State and fellow Virginian James Madison in his bid for the presidency. However, the Democratic-Republicans are wracked by dissent as James Monroe and Vice President George Clinton also vie for the nomination. The Federalists again nominate their previous candidates, Charles C. Pinckney and Rufus King; Madison wins the contest handily with 122 electoral votes to 47 for Pinckney and six for Clinton. Clinton nevertheless defeats King for the vice presidency, 113 to 47. However, mounting opposition to the Embargo leads to Federalist gains in the House of Representatives and at the state level.

December 12 Religion: The first American Bible Society is founded in Philadelphia by the Reverend William White for promoting the Scriptures.

December 29 General: Andrew Johnson, 17th president, is born in Raleigh, North Carolina.

1809 Art: Charles Willson Peale executes his painting Family Group, made important by his application of careful observation and objective rendering of its subject. This is the first time American art has been rendered through the prism of techniques better associated with science. Aspiring painter Thomas Sully studies in London under celebrated American expatriate Benjamin West. Business: The Boston Crown Glass Company is incorporated, a status freeing it from taxes, and allows its employees exemption from military service. This particular organization has gained renown for producing glass products deemed superior to its European counterparts. Science: William Maclure’s Observations on the Geology of the United States is published and contains the first geological survey map of the nation.

January 9 Business: The Enforcement Act is passed by Congress to halt smuggling and other illegal trade activities, particularly in New York and New England. The new law mandates strict penalties and confiscation of suspected goods, which only further increases the Embargo’s unpopularity.

February 9 Politics: Arch-Federalist Timothy Pickering of Massachusetts seeks a New England convention to nullify the policy of embargo, which is seriously depressing the regional economy based largely on shipping.

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February 12 General: Abraham Lincoln, 16th president, is born in Hodgenville, Kentucky.

February 17 Education: Miami University is chartered at Oxford, Ohio, although classes will not actually begin until 1824.

February 20 Law: The Supreme Court decides the case of United States v. Peters; Chief Justice John Marshall sides firmly with federal power and declares that Pennsylvania cannot nullify the results of federal court cases.

February 23 Politics: In his address to the state legislature, Connecticut governor John Trumbull chastises the Embargo as unconstitutional and illegally infringing upon states rights and personal liberties. As more and more New England assemblies question the Embargo’s legality, their governors are emboldened to withhold the use of state militias in its enforcement.

March 1 Business: President Thomas Jefferson, facing mounting criticism of the Embargo Act, finally replaces it with the Non-Intercourse Act. This expedient allows resumption of trade with all nations except France and England, until the latter cease their depredations upon American shipping. The net effect of the Embargo Act is to ruin the American economy and establish smuggling patterns into Canada that flourish during the War of 1812. Settlement: The Territory of Illinois is formed by Congress by dividing the Indiana Territory; the new region encompasses the present-day states of Illinois, Wisconsin, and eastern Minnesota.

March 4 Politics: The diminutive, cerebral James Madison is inaugurated as the fourth president, and George Clinton continues on as vice president. Thomas Jefferson, meanwhile, concludes 44 years of public service by retiring to his home at Monticello in Charlottesville, Virginia. There he immerses himself in science, philosophy, and architecture.

March 6 Politics: Robert Smith replaces James Madison as the new secretary of state.

April 19 Diplomacy: President James Madison suspends the Non-Intercourse Act and allows trade with Great Britain. He does so upon the advice of British minister David M. Erskine, who assures Secretary of State Robert Smith that the hated Orders in Council are going to be repealed in June. This is a goodwill gesture to Madison but, unfortunately, Erskine lacks any authority to make this assertion.

April 29 Settlement: Congress approves territorial status for the Illinois region to facilitate migration and possibly shore up its defenses against British-inspired Indian hostilities.

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Madison, James

(1751–1836)

President James Madison was born at Port Conway, Virginia, on March 16, 1751, son of an affluent planter. Well-­educated at home and possessing a lucid, engaging intellect, he attended the College of New Jersey (Princeton) in 1771 before being gradually drawn into the revolutionary politics of his day. Madison, short at five feet six inches in height, ironically exuded the persona of someone both spirited and brainy. In 1776 he joined the Virginia convention tasked with drawing up a new state constitution, befriending another keen intellectual, Tho-­ mas Jefferson, in the process. His greatest work here was in disestablishing the Church of England as an official creed, thereby paving the way for complete freedom of religion. In 1779 Madison also gained a seat in the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia, and after 1781 he began railing against the inherent weakness of the Articles of Confederation. In 1788 Madison became a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia to facilitate the quest for more centralized governance. Here he promulgated the so-­called Virginia Plan, which ultimately served as the basis for the new constitution. He joined fellow nation-­ alists John Jay and Alexander Hamilton in penning erudite essays for The Federalist, a collection of pro-­constitutional newspaper articles. He spent the rest of the year argu-­ ing in favor of its adoption and overcoming formidable resistance from such political stalwarts as Patrick Henry. Once the Constitution was adopted, Madison was appointed minister to France by President George Washington in 1794, and he also served as secretary of state under President Jefferson, 1801–09. His tenure here was marred by America’s con-­

tinuing ensnarement in European wars, principally through the British practice of seizing American ships and impressing their crews. In 1808 he was elected to the presi-­ dency himself and watched helplessly as the nation began its four-­year descent toward renewed conflict with Great Britain. Feel-­ ing he had no recourse, Madison asked Congress for a declaration of war in June 1812 to preserve American republicanism and gain respect on the high seas. However, this was undertaken despite the nation’s general unpreparedness for armed conflict. The first year of fighting proved disastrous (continues)

James Madison (Library of Congress)

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(continued) to the United States, but Madison was easily reelected in the fall of 1812, even though the Republican Party was split and Northerners advanced Governor George Clinton of New York to oppose him. Madison then weathered two more years of hardship before the Treaty of Ghent was signed in December 1814. He was finally succeeded by fellow Vir-

ginian James Monroe in 1816, third member of the so-called Virginia Dynasty. Madison then retired to his estate at Montpelier, Virginia, lived quietly with his celebrated wife Dolley Madison, and died there on June 28, 1836. As “father of the Constitution,” Madison was a little man whose political career had great importance for the United States.

May 22 Politics: The 11th Congress assembles in Washington, D.C., with the DemocraticRepublicans still firmly in control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate. However, unease arising from the Embargo Act has doubled the number of Federalists in the House to 48, and they have also made gains at the state level.

May 30 Diplomacy: George Canning, British foreign secretary, disavows the Erskine Agreement of April 19 and orders minister David M. Erskine back to London. The Orders in Council authorizing the seizure of American ships and crews remain in force.

June Religion: Elizabeth Seton, a Roman Catholic nun, forms her own religious charitable order based on the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul. This is also the first Catholic order organized in the United States.

June 27 Diplomacy: President James Madison appoints John Quincy Adams to be American minister to the Russian court in St. Petersburg.

July 2 Diplomacy: Shawnee statesman Tecumseh, backed by his religious brother Tenskwatawa, begins an intertribal effort to form a defensive alliance against the United States. He is motivated by a burning desire to stop the sale of Indian land and the inevitable influx of American settlers that follows. No less than 30 million acres have been lost by native Americans in the past seven years alone.

July 5 Religion: The African American Abyssinian Baptist Church is organized in New York City.

August 9 Diplomacy: In the latest turn of events, President James Madison reimposes the Non-Intercourse Act against England following that government’s rescinding of the Erskine Agreement of the previous April.

August 17 Religion: Thomas Campbell, representing a dissident Presbyterian group from Scotland, with a small group of followers founds the Christian Association of

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Tecumseh (ca. 1768 –1813) Shawnee chief Tecumseh (“Shooting Star”), member of the Shawnee Panther clan, was born near Piqua, Ohio, around 1768. His father was apparently killed during Lord Dunmore’s War in 1774 and from that time on Tecumseh expressed his undying hatred for whites. He soon proved himself an able warrior and distinguished himself in fighting against Colonel Josiah Harmar and Arthur St. Clair in 1790–91. Tecumseh was later present at the defeat of Fallen Timbers against General Anthony Wayne in 1794 but refused to sign the Treaty of Greenville and left Ohio for Indiana. After a decade of peace William Henry Harrison was appointed governor of the new Indiana Territory and began forcing Indians to sell their land to the United States. Tecumseh, backed by his religiously inspired brother Tenskwatawa (“The Prophet”), cobbled together a coalition of Native Americans to oppose future sales without the consent of all. Harrison, who conferred with the chief on several occasions, remarked how he was struck by the former’s bearing, eloquence, and dignity. However, relations between the two groups deteriorated, and in November 1811 Harrison defeated the Prophet at Tippecanoe Creek while Tecumseh was recruiting among the Creek. Afterward he felt he had no choice but to solicit aid from the English in Canada, and his repeated trips there were held by American politicians as proof that the British were behind Indian unrest in the Old Northwest. In June 1812 this perception was a major cause of the next

round of military confrontation with Great Britain in the War of 1812. Tecumseh again fought with distinction in several battles, and he joined forces with celebrated General Isaac Brock in the capture of Detroit. However, he usually tried in vain to have his warriors spare the lives of captured Americans. He was particularly angered at British Colonel Henry Procter for failing to protect American captives during the siege of Fort Meigs, a turning point in the war. Shortly after, a large American army under General Harrison began pursuing the British and Indians across Lake Erie and into western Ontario. Unwilling to retreat further, Tecumseh berated Procter for timidity and forced him to make an ill-fated stand along the River Thames. On October 5, 1813, Harrison’s cavalry routed the British and nearly captured Procter but met much stouter opposition from Indians positioned in the woods. Combat proved intense and forced the Kentuckians to dismount and fight on foot, at which point Tecumseh was apparently slain. His body was then spirited off by several warriors and buried in an unmarked grave. For the time he lived, this eloquent Shawnee mounted the most effective resistance to white encroachment since the days of Pontiac, a cause that would not be taken up again until the Black Hawk War of 1832. Tecumseh’s cause ultimately failed, but he remained admired by friends and enemies alike for his bravery, vision, and strength of character.

Washington, Pennsylvania. This movement is the genesis of the Disciples of Christ, which rejects all beliefs and practices not specifically mentioned in the Bible.

September 30 Diplomacy: Indiana territorial governor William Henry Harrison concludes the Treaty of Fort Wayne with Indian tribes of southern Indiana. The United

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Campbell, Thomas (1763–1854) Theologian Thomas Campbell was born in County Down, Ireland, on February 1, 1763. Though raised an Anglican, he joined the “seceder” branch of Presbyterianism, which had strong Congregationalist tendencies. He was then educated at the University of Glasgow and trained for preaching within the Antiburgher faction of the church. Campbell began working in 1798 from the pulpit of the Ahorey Church but was disillusioned by the rampant factionalism he encountered. By 1807 he grew thoroughly discouraged and immigrated to the wilds of Pennsylvania to review and hone his religious precepts. In 1808 he accepted work with the presbytery at Chartiers, where he expressed doubts as to the legitimacy of creeds, confession, fast days, and other facets he ascribed to human authority. Such apostasy resulted in his dismissal from the Presbyterian church that September, but he continued on as an itinerant preacher. After continuing reflection, Campbell founded the Christian Association in Washington, Pennsylvania, which served as the pulpit for his new Restorationist program. Here he formally denounced creeds and confessions as divisive and espoused a primitive form of Christianity basely solely upon New Testament scripture. Campbell further enunciated his principles by publishing A Declaration and an Address (1809), which held that perfect comprehension of the Bible, being the revealed word of God, is within the grasp of any rational person. Furthermore, any church practices not specifically mentioned by the Scriptures are

human and not divine in origin, hence irrelevant. Campbell next took the bold step of proclaiming that the New Testament alone forms the sole basis for uniting all Christians. Doctrinal, creedal, or hierarchical practices unmentioned in Scripture were simply irrelevant at best and un-Godly at worst, he maintained. By 1812 Campbell was joined by his son Alexander, and together they preached and established small academies throughout the Old Northwest. He also published and edited an early religious newsletter, the Christian Baptist, which later gave way to the Millennial Harbinger. Reaction proved mixed: Although the laity responded favorably to calls for unity, the Presbyterian community looked askance at this very notion of Restorationism. In 1812 Campbell enjoyed a brief liaison with the Redstone Baptist Church Association, but he became a pariah for attacking Baptist emotionalism at the expense of rationality and was expelled. Eventually his followers, known as “Campbellites,” merged with dissident Methodists, Baptists, and Presbyterians under Barton W. Stone to form an entirely new entity, the Disciples of Christ. Campbell continued working closely with his son and successor Alexander until his death at Bethany College, (West) Virginia, on January 4, 1854. His advocacy of unity and rationality among Christians renders him a significant frontier theologian, whose tenets found their greatest expression in the forthcoming Fundamentalist movement.

States now obtains additional land along the Wabash River, a reality underscoring the urgency of Tecumseh’s call for Indian unity in the face of continual white encroachment.

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December 6 Literature: The writer Washington Irving publishes his History of New York, a parody of Dutch New Amsterdam that also lampoons, among others, Thomas Jefferson, Republicans, Yankees, Swedes, and himself. It becomes a best-selling book and elevates Irving to a writer of international repute, both at home and in Europe.

December 25 Medical: At Danville, Kentucky, Dr. Ephraim McDowell successfully removes a 20-pound ovarian tumor from a female patient for the first time.

1810 Architecture: The Newburyport Bridge is designed and built by John Templeman to span the Merrimack River in Massachusetts. At 224 feet in length, it is considered one of the most famous American suspension bridges of the century. It is not rebuilt until 1909. Arts: The Society of American Artists is organized.

This lithograph depicts the first ovariotomy (removal of an ovary) being performed by Dr. Ephraim McDowell in 1809 in Danville, Kentucky. During the operation, McDowell successfully removed a 20-pound tumor from his 45-year- old patient—without anesthesia. (National Library of Medicine)

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The first road companies begin offering a theater season in Lexington, Kentucky, the first such presentations west of the Appalachian Mountains. Aviation: Balloonists A. R. Hawley and Augustus Post complete a 1,117-mile sojourn from St. Louis, Missouri, before landing in Canada. Business: Cornelius Vanderbilt, 16 years old, commences a ferry service between New York City and Staten Island, the humble beginning of a vast transportation empire. Military: King Kamehameha I of Hawaii unites the many surrounding islands into a single kingdom under his reign. He does so with ships and cannon provided by the British. Music: The Boston Philharmonic Society, America’s first resident orchestra, is founded by former Prussian army musician Johann Christian Gottlieb. The 12-member band, including Gottlieb’s wife, plays to the public on Saturdays. Population: The 1810 census reveals the United States with a population of 7,239,881, including Cornelius Vanderbilt (Library of Congress) 1,378,110 African Americans, overwhelmingly held in bondage. The total number of states is 17. Religion: Congregationalists found the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions to facilitate the dispatch of religious missionaries abroad, especially to India and Asia. A New York law mandates that all slave children be taught to read the Bible.

March 16 Law: The Supreme Court under Chief Justice John Marshall renders an important verdict in Fletcher v. Peck, whereby the Yazoo lands sales orchestrated by the Georgia legislature were subsequently negated by that same body. Marshall rules such a move is unconstitutional according to the law of contracts. This is also the first instance where a state law is judged annulled on constitutional grounds. Consequently the purchasers of Yazoo land under the initial deal are to receive $4 million in federal money for land the government obtained from Georgia in 1802.

March 23 Diplomacy: Napoleon I issues his Rambouillet Decree, which authorizes the additional seizures of American shipping in French ports.

May 1 Diplomacy: The Macon Bill No. 2 passes Congress, which authorizes President James Madison to commence trade with either England or France if American shipping is respected. Failing that, the president is permitted to reimpose nonintercourse upon either nation. French and Royal Navy warships are also forbidden from entering American waters.

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June 23 Business: John Jacob Astor creates the new Pacific Fur Company to exploit the rich and untapped fur-bearing lands of the Pacific Northwest and expand his business empire further west.

July 4 Agriculture: The Agricultural Museum, America’s first farming magazine, debuts at Georgetown, D.C.

July 12 Labor: Members of the Journeymen Cordwainers are tried and found guilty of conspiracy to strike for higher wages in New York City; the violators are then assessed $1 and court costs. This decision reflects the prevailing legal notion that strikes are illegal if supported by a conspiracy, an interpretation that remains in effect until 1842.

August 5 Diplomacy: In a continuing spate of diplomatic subterfuge, the French foreign minister Duc de Cadore informs American minister John Armstrong in Paris that Napoleon’s Milan and Berlin decrees against American shipping will be withdrawn if the United States declares non-intercourse against Great Britain. Napoleon, meanwhile, signs the Trianon Decree to seize any American vessel docked at French ports from May 1809 to May 1810.

September 26 Settlement: American settlers in West Florida rebel against Spain, seize the fort at Baton Rouge, then declare themselves the “Independent Republic of West Florida.” Their ultimate intention is annexation by the United States.

October 1 Societal: Elkanah Watson orchestrates the first Berkshire Cattle Show in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, which sets a precedent for country fairs around the nation. It also coincides with his founding of the Berkshire Agricultural Society to promote crop rotation and use of fertilizer.

October 27 Settlement: President James Madison orders the military occupation of Spanish West Florida, which is then annexed to the Territory of Orleans (southern Louisiana). This region falls between the Perdido and Mississippi Rivers with its capital at Baton Rouge.

November 2 Diplomacy: President James Madison, acting upon the devious actions of the Duc de Cadore, reinstates trade with France and imposes non-importation against Great Britain until the Orders in Council are withdrawn. However, the French fully intend to continue seizing American ships and cargos. The net result of this duplicity is to increase diplomatic tensions between the United States and England.

December 10 Sports: Tom Molineaux, a freed African-American slave from Virginia, is the first American heavyweight boxer. On this day he loses a 40-round match in London to England’s Tom Cribb.

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1811 Literature: Eaglesfield Smith’s novel William and Ellen is published, an early American imitation of Sir Walter Scott’s romanticism. Military: In a major armament breakthrough, inventor John H. Hall designs and builds the first American breech-loading carbine with a higher rate of fire than conventional, muzzle-loading muskets. However, the conservatively minded U.S. Army displays little interest in the weapon and only a handful are procured prior to the War of 1812. Transportation: Inventor John Stevens designs and builds the Juliana, the first steamboat ferry to ply the waters between Hoboken, New Jersey, and New York City. However, because Robert Fulton and Robert L. Livingston own a monopoly on steamboat operations in New York State, Stevens is forced to close his operation.

January 10 Slavery: A large revolt by African Americans occurs in Louisiana when 400 slaves kill a plantation owner’s son then march en masse to New Orleans. U.S. Army troops are called in to suppress the uprising, and 75 slaves are killed; their heads are then placed along the road from New Orleans to the plantation as a warning to prospective rebels.

January 15 Settlement: A secret congressional session authorizes the United States to seize Spanish East Florida if either the inhabitants desire annexation or a foreign power attempts to occupy it. The statue is not publicly revealed until 1818.

February 2 Settlement: Russian settlers establish a fort at Bodega Bay, north of San Francisco, California, around which rises an agricultural and fur-trading colony. It is subsequently known as Fort Ross.

February 11 Diplomacy: President James Madison again suspends all trade with Great Britain for failing to halt the harassment of American commerce at sea. This is the third such imposition in four years yet elicits no change in British behavior towards neutral shipping.

February 20 Business: The Democratic-Republican controlled Congress votes to allow the first Bank of the United States to expire, despite pleas by Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin to recharter it. The institution is opposed by an influential group of “Old Republicans” who feel it a Federalist imposition on the country, by those alarmed by the fact that two-thirds of the stock is owned by British subjects, and by lobbyists who advocate state-chartered banks. Nonetheless, the vote in the Senate is a tie until broken by Vice President George Clinton.

March 2 Diplomacy: Congress, taken in by the deception of French foreign minister Duc de Cadore, authorizes reimposition of non-intercourse against Great Britain unless it rescinds its Orders in Council against American shipping. The British counter by enacting harsher measures to impress American seamen.

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March 4 Business: The Bank of the United States is allowed to expire, an unwise move considering that the nation is on the cusp of renewed hostilities with Great Britain.

April 2 Diplomacy: President James Madison names his heretofore political competitor, Virginian James Monroe, as the new secretary of state.

April 12 Business: A group of colonists sails aboard the vessel Tonquin and lands at Cape Disappointment, Washington, to establish the fur-trading outpost of Astoria. This is accomplished at the instigation of John Jacob Astor, who seeks to ship furs to the lucrative Chinese market directly from the Columbia River. Astoria is also the first American settlement in the Pacific Northwest region.

May Diplomacy: American minister William Pinkney departs England for home, having failed to mitigate the ongoing impasse between the two nations.

May 1 Naval: The 38-gun British frigate HMS Guerriere accosts the American merchant brig Spitfire off Sandy Hook, New Jersey, and impresses an American seaman. A public outcry ensues and prods the government into action.

May 16 Naval: The 44-gun frigate USS President under Captain John Rodgers, cruising off Sandy Hook, New Jersey, to protect American commerce from British depredations, encounters an unidentified vessel in the dark. Shots ring out and broadsides are exchanged before his antagonist is identified as the 22-gun corvette HMS Little Belt under Commander Arthur B. Bingham. The British suffer 13 killed and 19 wounded in the one-sided exchange and are allowed to limp off. The action is hailed throughout the nation as revenge for the British attack on the USS Chesapeake in 1807.

July 8 Indian: Shawnee chief Tecumseh travels south to solicit Creek help in his Indian coalition. Before departing he warns his brother, Tenskwatawa, not to seek a fight with the Americans.

July 31 Military: Frontier settlers in the region of Vincennes, Indiana Territory, call upon federal authorities to uproot an Indian community established along Tippecanoe Creek by the Shawnee Prophet, Tenskwatawa.

September 11 Transportation: Robert Fulton’s sidewheeler steamboat New Orleans sails down the Ohio River from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, until it reaches New Orleans, Louisiana, via the Mississippi River. Thereafter it commences the first regular service on inland waters by steaming between Natchez, Mississippi, and New Orleans.

September 19 Diplomacy: American minister Joel Barlow arrives at Paris, France, demanding clarification of the alleged nullification of the Berlin and Milan decrees. French

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Chronology of American History foreign minister Duc de Bassano shows him the Decree of St. Cloud, supposedly signed by Napoleon and dated April 28, 1810, which has never been published or given to the American embassy.

September 26 Military: Indiana territorial governor William Henry Harrison leads a force of 1,000 soldiers and militia from Vincennes, Indiana, toward the Indian encampment at the confluence of the Wabash and Tippecanoe Rivers. He does so taking advantage of the absence of Tecumseh, who has ventured south to solicit Creek membership in his anti-American coalition.

October 20 Transportation: Robert Fulton’s steamboat New Orleans arrives at Louisville, Kentucky, from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, having covered 700 miles of treacherous waters in two weeks.

November 1 Diplomacy: In light of the Little Belt Affair of the previous May, the American government notifies British minister Augustus John Foster of the nation’s willingness to offer compensation if Great Britain will stop harassing American shipping and rescind the Orders in Council. The British decline but counter with a offer of compensation for victims of the 1807 Chesapeake-Leopard Affair.

November 4 Politics: Elections for the 12th Congress result in a large number of “War Hawks” who seek military confrontation with Great Britain rather than ongoing appeasement. Among their ranks are John C. Calhoun, William Lowndes, Langston Cheves, Peter B. Porter, Richard M. Johnson, Henry Clay, Felix Grundy, and John Sevier. Significantly, while the northern militants agitate for the conquest of Canada, the southerners among them seek annexation of Florida.

November 5 Politics: President James Madison’s annual message to Congress calls for increased spending on national defense and military preparation in the face of French and British predation upon American shipping.

November 7 Military: The Battle of Tippecanoe, Indiana Territory, unfolds as the army of General William Henry Harrison encamps near the makeshift Indian village. At dawn Indians under the Tenskwatawa, the Shawnee Prophet—Tecumseh’s brother—storm into the American camp, nearly overrunning it, but are gradually repulsed by accurate musketry. The victorious Americans then occupy and burn Tippecanoe before withdrawing to safety. Harrison’s losses are 39 killed and 151 wounded; Indian losses are unknown but presumed equally heavy.

November 12 Diplomacy: Secretary of State James Monroe accepts the British offer to compensate victims of the 1807 Chesapeake-Leopard affair.

November 18 Journalism: The Niles Weekly Register is founded at Baltimore by editor Hezekiah Niles; it soon becomes a recognized national newspaper.

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November 20 Transportation: The Cumberland Road (or Old National Road) commences construction with federal funding; this is one of the earliest and largest public works projects in American history. Ultimately, the road will stretch from Cumberland, Maryland, as far west as Vandalia, Illinois, by 1840 and will serve as a major conduit for western expansion. Parts still exist as modern-day U.S. Route 40.

December 16 General: A huge earthquake rattles New Madrid, Missouri, causing the Mississippi River to flow backward and flooding parts of Tennessee. At its height parts of the river were raised or lowered as by much as 15 feet.

1812 Art: John Vanderlyn exhibits a nude painting, Adriane, which shocks contemporary critics at home and nearly ends his artistic career but is favorably received in Paris. Business: The Pennsylvania Company for Insurance on Lives and Granting Annuities is the first such institution to employ actuarial tables. Literary: James Kirke Paulding, writing under the pseudonym Hector Bull-us, publishes The Diverting History of John Bull and Brother Jonathan, which excoriates British attitudes and policies. Medical: Dr. Benjamin Rush publishes Medical Inquiries and Observations upon the Diseases of the Mind, the first national treatise to address mental illness, its probable causes, and cures. Science: The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia is established and attracts a wide public following. Societal: Noted printer Isaiah Thomas founds and endows the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Massachusetts; it remains dedicated to the collection and preservation of early American manuscripts and historical artifacts. Technology: William Monroe of Concord, Massachusetts, uses native graphite to manufacture the first lead pencils sold in America.

January 12 Transportation: Robert Fulton’s steamship New Orleans sails down the Mississippi River from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and reaches the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. The four-month transit is the first of its kind and demonstrates the viability of steam technology on western waters.

January 22 Settlement: Louisiana draws up its first constitution prior to attaining statehood; though a slave state, it still allows French-speaking African Creoles to bear arms and serve in the militia. Many of these are also slave owners.

February 11 Politics: Governor Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts begins the time-honored practice of artfully drawing state election districts to ensure the supremacy of his Democratic-Republican Party in the U.S. House of Representatives. Because this results in a district somewhat shaped like a salamander, the practice enters the political lexicon as “Gerrymandering.”

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February 15 Exploring: William Hunt, having blazed an overland trail from St. Louis, Missouri Territory, arrives at Astoria, Oregon. His trail closely follows what eventually emerges as the Oregon Trail.

March 3 Diplomacy: Congress passes the nation’s first foreign aid bill by authorizing $50,000 to assist survivors of a severe earthquake in Venezuela.

March 12 Military: Georgia militia under Colonel Lodowick Ashley occupy Amelia Island off the Florida Coast to prevent its occupation by British forces.

March 14 Business: With war clouds gathering, Congress authorizes an $11 million bond issue to finance military preparations outlined by President James Madison in the previous November. Five more bonds are issued over the next two and a half years, but the nation remains fiscally handicapped by the lack of a central banking apparatus.

March 18 Military: U.S. Army troops and militia under Colonel Thomas Adams Smith move down the St. Mary’s River, Florida, and gradually besiege Spanish-held St. Augustine, in a halfhearted attempt to capture that province. The ensuing fiasco, conducted with shoestring forces, is known as the “Patriot War” and ends in failure.

April Military: After their defeat at Tippecanoe the past November, Native Americans in the Old Northwest commence an undeclared border war against American settlements in Missouri, Indiana, and Illinois. Both sides fear that a war with Great Britain will lead to all-out conflict in the region.

April 1 Politics: To underscore his dissatisfaction with Great Britain, President James Madison requests a 60-day embargo of British goods. This move is viewed by many of the “War Hawks” as a prelude to armed confrontation.

April 4 Business: Congress approves a 90-day embargo of British goods, while many politicians hope that differences between American and England can be settled peacefully.

April 10 Diplomacy: Great Britain informs the United States that, since Napoleon has failed to retract his Milan and Berlin Decrees, the Orders in Council against neutral shipping remain in effect. Military: In a sign of growing bellicosity, Congress authorizes President James Madison to mobilize up to 100,000 state militia for up to six months. Recruitment goals for the regular U.S. Army, however, remain much more modest as the polity still distrusts standing professional forces.

April 13 Arts: James N. Barker’s play Marmion, adapted from a poem by Sir Walter Scott, is successfully staged in New York City; not surprisingly, its anti-English sentiments resonate with a wartime American audience.

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April 20 General: Vice President George Clinton dies; he is the first vice president to die in office.

April 30 Politics: Louisiana enters the union as the 18th state with its capital at New Orleans and a population of 75,000. Slavery is legal but free, mostly Frenchspeaking citizens of African descent can still bear arms and enlist in the militia. The remaining part of the Louisiana Territory is subsequently renamed the Missouri Territory by Congress.

May 14 Politics: Congress orders the incorporation of the Republic of West Florida into the state of Louisiana.

May 18 Politics: The Democratic-Republican congressional caucus renominates James Madison for the presidency and John Langdon for vice president.

May 26 Education: Presbyterian interests charter Hamilton College in Clinton, New York; its first class graduates in 1814.

May 29 Politics: In Albany, New York, a co ali tion of disgruntled Demo craticRepublicans and Federalists nominates Lieutenant Governor DeWitt Clinton for the presidency. He is distinctly an antiwar candidate.

June 1 Politics: President James Madison dispatches his war message to Congress, citing British intransigence on harassment of trade, impressment of American citizens, blockading of American ports, and agitation of Native Americans—the latter a supposed point deeply angering western politicians.

June 3 Diplomacy: Feeling that war with the United States is inevitable, Governor General Sir George Prevost of Canada arranges a meeting with Shawnee chief Tecumseh at Amherstburg, Ontario.

June 4 Politics: The House of Representatives votes in favor of renewed war with Great Britain, 79 to 49, much to the delight of the “War Hawk” faction.

June 8 Politics: After John Langdon refuses the nomination for vice president, he is replaced by Massachusetts governor Elbridge Gerry.

June 16 Diplomacy: British Prime Minister Lord Castlereagh suspends the Orders in Council against neutral shipping in order to improve the national economic climate at home. This has also been a prime factor in the American movement toward war, but word arrives too late to alter the outcome of events.

June 18 Naval: The harrowing prospect of war with Great Britain pits the young U.S. Navy of 17 warships, 447 guns, and five thousand men against the veteran and

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Chronology of American History haughty Royal Navy of Great Britain boasting 1,048 vessels, 27,800 guns, and 151,500 men. Politics: The U.S. Senate votes 19 to 13 for renewed war with Great Britain, unaware that England has recently suspended the offending Orders in Council. However, the country is badly split by dissent, with New England largely opposing the conflict, and to dissenters it becomes derided as “Mr. Madison’s War.” The ensuing War of 1812 is also the first declared conflict under the Constitution; a declaration of war against France, which has been equally rapacious toward American shipping, fails by only two votes.

June 19 Politics: President James Madison announces that a state of war exists between the United States and Great Britain.

June 26 Diplomacy: President James Madison instructs American envoy Jonathan Russell to negotiate an armistice only on the basis of suspending the Orders in Council and halting the practice of impressment. Politics: Federal Governor Caleb Strong of Massachusetts strongly denounces the War of 1812 and declares a statewide fast in protest.

June 30 Business: Treasury notes amounting to $5 million are authorized by Congress to help finance the war effort.

July 1 Business: To raise additional capital for the war effort, Congress increases the tariff on imported items. Naval: British and Indian forces in the Detroit River capture a transport carrying General William Hull’s personal papers. These are then forwarded to General Isaac Brock, who now knows the exact strength, composition, and strategy of the American invaders.

July 2 Military: Federalist Governor John Cotton of Connecticut declares his intention not to provide the federal government with militia forces, which removes a relatively well-trained pool of manpower from the war effort.

July 12 Military: A force of 1,500 militia and regulars under General William Hull crosses the Detroit River from Michigan and occupies Sandwich, Ontario. The American are counting on Canadian discontent with Great Britain to produce a large number of deserters, but few are forthcoming.

July 15–17 Naval: The frigate USS Constitution under Captain Isaac Hull endures a harrowing chase by a five-vessel British squadron off New York but, by dint of splendid seamanship, he manages to escape undamaged to New York.

July 17 Military: A surprise British raid by 600 British, Canadians, and Indians under Captain Charles Roberts upon the 61-man American garrison of Lieutenant Porter Hanks at Fort Mackinac, Michigan, results in their surrender. Hanks, unaware that war had been declared, surrendered without a shot. This bloodless victory

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encourages increasing numbers of Native Americans to join the British, and their activity further unnerves General William Hull.

July 19 Naval: Ships of the Canadian Provincial Marine attack the American port of Sackets Harbor, New York, only to be driven off by artillery from the USS Oneida, commanded by Lieutenant Melancthon T. Woolsey. Among his cannon is a 32-howitzer nicknamed “Old Sow,” which fires spent British cannonballs back at the enemy.

July 23 Religion: Pacifistic minister William Ellery Channing gives a sermon opposing the War of 1812 and all attempts to stifle opposition in the name of patriotism.

August 5 Politics: Federalist Governor Caleb Strong of Massachusetts joins Connecticut in declaring its refusal to provide the federal government with militia forces necessary to invade Canada, then declares a day of prayer and fasting. Furthermore, public hostility has been openly directed at Major General Henry Dearborn, tasked with defending Boston and the New England coastline.

August 8 Military: General William Hull, feeling threatened by the approach of British reinforcements under General Isaac Brock, abandons Canada and retreats to Detroit. This surrenders the initiative to Brock, who intends to make effective use of it. Mexican revolutionary Bernardo Gutierrez de Lara, assisted by 150 American filibusters (adventurers) under Augustus W. Magee, crosses the Sabine River from Louisiana into Texas, intending to overthrow the Spanish regime.

August 15 Military: A force of 400 Potawatomie Indians massacres the small American garrison of Captain Nathan Heald at Fort Dearborn (Chicago), Illinois Territory, after they are ordered to evacuate that post by General William Hull. The Americans lose 53 soldiers, women, and children, including the noted scout Captain William Wells, who had been raised by Chief Little Turtle. The victorious Indians then burn the fort.

August 16 Military: Convinced he is outnumbered and fearing an Indian massacre, General William Hull timorously surrenders Detroit and 1,200 men to smaller forces under General Isaac Brock and Tecumseh. Victory here gives heart to Native American tribes throughout the region and they begin flocking to the British standard. Brock has also managed to extend British influence and prestige throughout the Great Lakes region. Detroit remains the only American settlement captured by an enemy and its loss shocked the public.

August 17 Politics: A secret Federalist convention in New York City decides to throw its weight behind DeWitt Clinton of New York, a Democratic-Republican.

August 19 Naval: In a startling naval upset off Nova Scotia, the 44-gun American frigate USS Constitution under Captain Isaac Hull defeats the 38-gun frigate HMS

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Chronology of American History Guerriere of Captain James R. Dacres in a half-hour battle. Losses are seven Americans killed and seven wounded to 15 British dead and 64 wounded. The British vessel is so shattered by Constitution’s firepower that it has to be sunk. Hull is the nephew of defeated General William Hull, and his victory does much to restore American morale.

August 23 Military: British General Isaac Brock makes a quick transit from Detroit to Fort George on the Niagara frontier, in preparation for repelling another American invasion. Across the Niagara River, General Stephen Van Rensselaer struggles to assemble a mixed force of untrained soldiers and equally raw militia.

August 29 Diplomacy: Prime Minister Lord Castlereagh declines to accept the peace proposal of American envoy Jonathan Russell, who sought an end to impressment and payment of indemnities for past seizures.

September 11 Military: Native Americans, assisted by escaped African-American slaves, ambush a supply detachment of U.S. Marines at Twelve Mile Creek outside St. Augustine, Florida. Captain John Williams is mortally injured and six of his marines are wounded.

September 17 Military: Former Indiana territorial governor William Henry Harrison is commissioned a brigadier general and tasked with retaking Detroit, Michigan, at the earliest possible opportunity.

September 21 Diplomacy: Czar Alexander I of Russia offers to mediate the dispute between Great Britain and the United States; he does this in order to strengthen the combined British/Russian effort against Napoleon.

September 30 Diplomacy: Admiral Sir John Borlase Warren, commanding at Halifax, Nova Scotia, offers an armistice and peace negotiations to the U.S. government.

October 4 Military: A surprise attack by British forces ousts a small American garrison at Ogdensburg, New York; this removes a threat to British navigation along the St. Lawrence River, the principal British line of communication.

October 9 Naval: Navy Lieutenant Jesse D. Elliot, assisted by army Captain Nathan Towson, attacks and captures the British vessels Detroit and Caledonia as they lay anchored near the Niagara River close to Buffalo, New York.

October 13 Military: The Battle of Queenstown Heights transpires when a mixed force of 1,300 U.S. Army troops and New York militia under General Stephen Van Rensselaer attempt to cross the Niagara River. General Isaac Brock meets the invaders head-on with 1,000 troops and Indians and is killed in action, but the Americans fail to receive promised reinforcements from the New York side. When General Roger Hale Sheaffe arrives with British reinforcements, the invaders under Lieu-

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Scott, Winfield

(1786 –1866)

General Winfield Scott was born in Petersburg, Vir-­ ginia, on June 13, 1786, son of a Revolution-­ ary War veteran. He attended William and Mary College briefly in 1806, then dropped out to study law. The following year Scott enlisted in the U.S. Army as a captain where he proved capable but extremely sensitive toward matters of rank and honor. In 1810 he was court-­martialed for criticizing his superior, General James Wilkinson, and endured a year’s suspension. He passed the time studying European military literature so that when the War of 1812 commenced, he was among the most professional offic-­ ers in his grade. Scott was one of a handful of leaders to garner any recognition, and in July 1814 he joined General Jacob Brown’s Niagara Campaign as a brigadier general. In this capacity he fought well at the bloody battle of Chippewa and Lundy’s Lane, being severely wounded but gaining a national reputation. After the war he remained in service and translated several European drill manuals for army use. By this time his reputation as “Old Fuss and Feathers,” aris-­ ing from his insistence on proper military decorum, was also well-­established. After fighting in the Florida Second Seminole War and helping resolve a tricky border dispute between Maine and Canada, Scott became the army’s senior general in 1841. In this capacity he commanded an army during the War with Mexico and in 1847 conducted one of military history’s most decisive campaigns. Commencing with a large amphibious landing at Veracruz, Scott marched inland, repeatedly defeated larger Mexican forces, and finally occupied the

capital of Mexico City. This act forced the government of General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna to sue for peace and Scott became a national hero again. Success on the battlefield whetted Scott’s appetite for politics, and in 1852 he sought the Whig Party nomination. However, he lost the general election to Democrat Fran-­ klin Pierce and resumed his military inter-­ ests. Though Southern-­born, Scott proved an ardent nationalist and he unflinchingly sided with the North during the approach (continues)

Winfield Scott (National Archives)

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(continued) of civil war. He was President Abraham Lincoln’s senior military adviser before being replaced by General George B. McClellan in 1861 and as Lincoln’s adviser he promulgated the so-called Anaconda Plan. This was a brilliant strategic expedient calling for a military offensive down the Mississippi River valley to cut the Confederacy in half, while a naval blockade throttled its economy. The plan was initially derided as far too cautious by officers who sought to end the war in a

single decisive blow, despite Scott’s warnings that the newly recruited army was too raw for combat. After the defeat at Bull Run in August 1861, Union strategists gradually came to adopting Scott’s overarching strategy. Scott himself retired from the military in the fall of 1861 and relocated to the U.S. Military Academy, West Point. He died there on May 29, 1866, having bequeathed to the U.S. Army tradition of professionalism and the goal of victory it had heretofore lacked.

October 18 Naval: Captain Jacob Jones of the 18-gun sloop USS Wasp engages and captures the 18-gun British brig Frolic with a loss of 10 Americans to 90 Britons. Both vessels are dismasted in combat and subsequently recaptured by the 74-gun ship of the line HMS Poictiers.

October 25 Naval: In the war’s second naval upset, Captain Stephen Decatur and the 44-gun frigate United States capture the 38-gun frigate HMS Macedonian under Captain John S. Carden off the Madeira Islands. The heavier American vessel pounds its adversary into submission in only 30 minutes. Decatur’s losses are five killed and seven wounded to a British tally of 36 dead and 68 injured. The prize is then towed intact to New London, Connecticut, where it enters American service as USS Macedonian and serves until 1828.

October 27 Diplomacy: Secretary of State James Monroe informs Admiral John Borlase Warren at Nova Scotia that the United States will readily enter peace negotiations with Great Britain once it halts the practice of impressment. Naval: Captain David Porter and the 32-gun frigate USS Essex depart the Delaware Capes on a voyage around Cape Horn and into the Pacific. The enterprising Porter is determined to destroy the British whaling fleet operating there.

November Naval: Royal Navy warships begin a blockade of the Delaware River and Chesapeake Bay.

November 19–23 Military: General Henry Dearborn leads a force of barely trained U.S. troops and raw militia north form Plattsburg, New York, intending to capture the strategic city of Montreal. Once they reach the Canadian border, Dearborn’s militia refuses to cross, pursuant to their legal rights, and the invasion is canceled. The only fighting occurs when two columns of troops mistake each other for the enemy and open fire, causing several casualties. It is another ignominious display of incompetence.

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November 27 Naval: Buoyed by the surprising string of victories at sea, Congress authorizes construction of six new 44-gun frigates—none of which are completed in time for the war.

December 1 Military: American forces under General Alexander Smyth make a failed attempt to cross the Niagara River and then withdraw. Anger and disorder breaks out in Smyth’s camp in consequence, and he is soon struck from the army rolls.

December 2 Politics: James Madison, despite the disasters and humiliations of the previous summer, is reelected president over fellow Democratic Republican DeWitt Clinton by an electoral vote of 128 to 89. Elbridge Gerry also defeats Jared Ingersoll for the vice presidency, 131 to 86. However, Federalists in the northeast score an impressive election victory, doubling their number in Congress.

December 24 Diplomacy: American minister and former Connecticut poet Joel Barlow dies in Paris, France, ending all American negotiations with Napoleon.

December 26 Naval: The British admiralty declares Chesapeake Bay and the Delaware River under a state of blockade; as the war continues, the blockade will extend from Maine to Georgia.

December 29 Education: The University of Maryland is chartered in Baltimore and organized around the College of Medicine of Maryland, which had functioned since 1807. Naval: The Americans score a third naval upset when the 44-gun frigate USS Constitution under Captain William Bainbridge engages and defeats the 38-gun British frigate HMS Java off Brazil. The Americans sustain nine dead and 25 wounded to a British tally of 48 killed and 102 wounded. The Constitution’s hull proves so impervious to British cannonballs that it acquires the nickname “Old Ironsides.”

1813 Journalism: Nathan Hale begins editing the Boston Daily Advertiser, which runs until 1917. Religion: Reverend William Ellery Channing begins editing and publishing the Christian Disciple, a liberal Protestant magazine to counter more conservative publications already extant. Technology: Nathaniel Stevens of Andover, Massachusetts, builds a woolen broadcloth mill and begins manufacturing the first flannels.

January 13 Politics: Disgraced Secretary of War William Eustis is replaced by ambitious John Armstrong, author of the 1783 Newburgh Addresses against Congress and a former minister to France.

January 22–23 Military: The Battle of Frenchtown (or River Raisin), Michigan Territory, occurs when 1,000 Americans, mostly half-frozen Kentucky militia under General James

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Chronology of American History Winchester, are overrun by a similar force of British and Native Americans commanded by Colonel Henry Procter. Winchester’s entire force was captured at a loss of 24 British dead and 158 wounded. The Indians, greatly emboldened by the easy victory, take to drinking and massacre around 60 wounded prisoners. Thereafter, “Remember the Raisin!” becomes the battle cry of the Kentuckians.

February 20 Politics: Brigadier General Lewis Cass becomes governor of the Michigan Territory, serving for nearly two decades.

February 14 Naval: The frigate USS Essex under Captain David Porter rounds Cape Horn at the tip of South America, becoming the first American warship operating in the Pacific Ocean.

February 24 Naval: The 18-gun American sloop USS Hornet under Master Commandant James Lawrence captures the 20-gun British sloop HMS Peacock off Guiana, South America. The Americans lose four killed and four wounded to a British tally of five dead and 33 wounded.

March 4 Politics: James Madison is inaugurated for his second term in office as president while Elbridge Gerry replaces the late George Clinton as vice president.

March 8 Diplomacy: President James Madison appoints Swiss-born Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin and Delaware Senator James A. Bayard to a special peace commission slated to join American minister John Quincy Adams at St. Petersburg, Russia. They are there at the invitation of Czar Alexander I, who wishes to mediate the dispute between England and America. However, the British will reject the czar’s offer of help.

March 11 Diplomacy: President James Madison accepts the Russian offer of mediation to end the current war.

March 15 General: At New Orleans, Governor William C. C. Claiborne of Louisiana places a bounty on the head of French pirate Jean Laffite; the flamboyant buccaneer counters by offering an even larger one for the governor’s.

March 27 Naval: Captain Oliver Hazard Perry arrives at Presque Isle (Erie, Pennsylvania) to oversee construction of an American fleet on Lake Erie. This will ultimately consist of two brigs, a schooner, and three gunboats constructed from nearby woods and materials hauled overland from Pittsburgh. To do so he supercedes Captain Jesse Duncan Elliott, gaining his lasting enmity.

April 15 Military: American forces under General James Wilkinson seize and occupy Mobile, Alabama, displacing the Spanish garrison there. Soon the region between the Pearl and Perdido Rivers are under U.S. control.

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April 27 Military: York, Ontario, (Toronto), the provincial capital of Upper Canada, falls to a combined amphibious force of 1,700 men under Commodore Isaac Chauncey and General Henry Dearborn. The actual fighting is accomplished by General Zebulon M. Pike, the noted explorer, who expels 700 British defenders under General Roger Hale Sheaffe, only to die in a British magazine explosion. American losses are 54 dead and around 200 wounded; the British tally is 62 dead, 34 wounded, and 50 missing. Afterward discipline breaks down and the Americans, assisted by Canadian prisoners, burn and loot the settlement. This is the first joint operation by the respective services.

May 1–9 Military: British and Indian forces under General Henry Procter and Shawnee chief Tecumseh besiege Fort Meigs, (Toledo) Ohio. However, the 1,000-man garrison under General William Henry Harrison is determined to resist.

May 4 –5 Military: General William Henry Harrison, once reinforced by Kentucky militia under General Green Clay, sorties from Fort Meigs, Ohio, and captures the British siege battery. The militia, however, are lured inland by the Indians, who then surround and massacre them. Chief Tecumseh roundly castigates General Henry Procter for failing to stop the atrocities. The siege will be lifted in four days and Procter returns to Upper Canada.

May 24 Politics: The 13th Congress assembles in Washington, D.C., with the Democratic Republicans still in firm control. However, the Federalists have made gains in recent elections as, of 36 new seats granted to the House of Representatives, 32 of them are Federalist.

May 26 Naval: The British Admiralty extends their blockade of the American coast from Chesapeake Bay as far south as the Mississippi River, including the ports of Charleston, South Carolina, and Savannah, Georgia. They also begin systematically raiding along the coastline.

May 27 Military: The Battle of Fort George, upper Canada, unfolds when a combined amphibious force under General Henry Dearborn and Commodore Isaac Chauncey attacks and captures the noted post. The British under General John Vincent resist handily but are smothered by American firepower and chased inland by General Winfield Scott until Dearborn erroneously halts the pursuit. Vincent consequently escapes in the direction of Burlington Heights to fight another day.

May 29 Military: The Battle of Sackets Harbor, New York, occurs when GovernorGeneral Sir George Prevost and Commodore Sir James Lucas Yeo make a surprise attack on this strategic American port while Commodore Isaac Chauncey is at Fort George. The 1,200 British initially scatter 500 militia commanded by General Jacob Brown, but prove unable to carry the main works garrisoned by 250 regulars. Once Brown rallies the militia in Prevost’s rear, the governor-general is

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Chronology of American History unnerved and sounds the retreat. The British fall back intact to their fleet and sail away, although considerable damage has been inflicted on American naval stores. Prevost’s losses are about 260 men; Brown sustains around 100 casualties, mostly militia. For his role in the victory, he is also commissioned a brigadier general in the regular army.

June 1 Naval: The 38-gun American frigate USS Chesapeake under Captain James Lawrence, with a new and largely inexperienced crew, engages the crack British frigate HMS Shannon under Captain Philip B. V. Broke outside Boston. In spite of great bravery and sacrifice, the Americans are defeated in a bloody, 15minute engagement in which Lawrence is mortally wounded and Broke critically. American losses are 62 killed and 58 injured to a British tally of 33 killed and 42 wounded—making it one of the bloodiest encounters in the Age of Sail. Lawrence’s dying command of “Don’t give up the ship!” subsequently passes into U.S. Navy tradition as a battle cry.

June 6 Military: The Battle of Stoney Creek, Upper Canada, unfolds when 700 British troops under General John Vincent and Colonel John Harvey attack an American force of 2,000 encamped nearby. Both American generals, John Chandler and William H. Winder, are taken prisoner in the darkness but the British are gradually driven off by daylight. Still, this marks the end of the American offensive on the Niagara peninsula and the surviving troops fall back to Fort George. American losses are 17 dead, 30 injured, and 99 missing while the British sustain 23 killed, 136 wounded, and 55 captured.

June 24 Military: An American military expedition of 600 men under Colonel Charles G. Boerstler comes to grief at Beaver Dams, Ontario, when it is surrounded by British light troops and Indians under Lieutenant James Fitzgibbon. Fitzgibbon then convinces Boerstler that he in fact commands 1,700 men, demands his surrender, and the Americans timidly comply.

July 6 Military: On the Niagara frontier, General Henry Dearborn, whose slow movement and lethargic activity bequeathed him the nickname “Granny,” is replaced by the scheming General James Wilkinson. Meanwhile, Wilkinson’s archenemy, General Wade Hampton, assumes command of troops at Plattsburgh, New York.

July 14 Naval: Lieutenant John M. Gamble becomes the first Marine Corps officer to captain a vessel when he takes charge of the captured British whaler Greenwich in the Pacific Ocean.

August 2 Military: General Henry Procter, goaded into attacking Fort Stephenson, Ohio, by Shawnee chief Tecumseh, is roundly repulsed by a smaller garrison under Major George Croghan. Previously the defenders had masked their only cannon, “Old Betsey,” and allowed the British to approach to within point-blank range before firing. Procter’s failure disheartens his Indian allies and he falls back into

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Canada. British losses are 90 killed and wounded to an American tally of one dead and seven injured.

August 4 Naval: The British Lake Erie squadron under Captain Robert H. Barclay momentarily abandons its blockade of Presque Isle (Erie), Pennsylvania. During his absence, Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry rapidly disarms his vessels, passes them over the sandbar blocking the harbor, then painstakingly rearms. He then begins cruising Lake Erie in search of the enemy with three brigs and five schooners.

August 9 Military: The town of St. Michaels, Maryland, conducts the first American blackout following the approach of a British squadron at night. By extinguishing all city lights and placing lamps in trees and on the masts of vessels, the British gunners fire too high and miss the town.

August 7–11 Naval: The American Lake Ontario squadron under Commodore Isaac Chauncey engages a British force under Commodore Sir James Lucas Yeo in a protracted running fight. However, Chauncey loses two small vessels to stormy weather and another two when they are cut off and captured.

August 14 Naval: The 20-gun American sloop USS Argus under Captain William H. Allen is captured by the 21-gun British brig HMS Pelican under Captain John F. Maples; Allen is mortally wounded in combat. American losses are 10 dead and 14 injured to two dead British and five wounded. Prior to its loss, Argus had captured 27 British vessels in a matter of weeks.

August 18 Military: In Texas, Spanish forces under General Joaquin de Arrendondo attack and scatter a mixed Mexican/American force of 1,300 irregulars at the Medina River. The rebels are quickly pursued back to San Antonio and Spanish control is reasserted over the entire province.

August 30 Military: Disgruntled Upper Creek Indians under Chief William Weatherford (Red Eagle) attack and surprise Fort Mims, Alabama Territory, massacring nearly 500 inhabitants. This is the start of the Creek War which catapults General Andrew Jackson to national fame.

September 4 Religion: John W. Scott begins editing and publishing the Religious Remembrancer in Philadelphia, the nation’s first religious weekly.

September 5 Military: Secretary of War John Armstrong arrives at Sackets Harbor, New York, to confer with General James Wilkinson about his forthcoming St. Lawrence Campaign against Montreal. Noval: The 14-gun brig USS Enterprise under Lieutenant William Burrows defeats the 14-gun British brig HMS Boxer commanded by Captain Samuel Blyth off Portland, Maine. Both Burrows and the British commander are killed

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Chronology of American History in action and are buried in Portland with honors of war. American losses are 13 wounded to a British tally of 28 dead and 14 injured.

September 7 Journalism: The expression “Uncle Sam” to denote the U.S. government first appears in an issue of the Troy Post in New York. It is apparently drawn from the practice of having all government property stamped “U.S.” as well as from the name of a local military supplier, “Uncle Sam” Wilson.

September 10 Naval: The Battle of Lake Erie transpires when an American squadron of 10 vessels under Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry seeks out and engages a smaller British force of six warships under Commodore Robert H. Barclay. As Perry closes, his flagship USS Lawrence becomes separated from his main body and bears the brunt of the entire British squadron. At length his ship is forced to strike its colors but Perry then heroically transfers his command to the USS Niagara under fire and resumes the fight. At length Barclay, seriously wounded, is forced to surrender—the first time in history that an entire British squadron is captured. “We have met the enemy,” Perry wrote laconically, “and they are ours.” Casualties in this three-hour slugfest are 27 Americans killed and 96 wounded to 41 British killed and 94 injured. This is one of few decisive encounters in the War of 1812 and leads to an American invasion of Upper Canada.

September 18 Military: General Henry Procter, reacting to the recent loss of Lake Erie to the Americans, orders an evacuation of Detroit, Michigan, and Malden, Ontario. He begins withdrawing his force back to the Niagara frontier over the protests of Chief Tecumseh and his Indian allies.

September 28 Naval: In a second encounter, the Lake Ontario squadron of Commodore Isaac Chauncey gets the better of Commodore James Lucas Yeo’s British force, driving them headlong into Burlington Bay, Ontario, but failing to destroy them.

October 5 Military: The Battle of the Thames unfolds after 3,000 Americans under General William Henry Harrison overtake fleeing British and Indians under General Henry Procter and Tecumseh. Vengeful Kentuckian cavalry easily disperses the 900-man 41st Regiment in a spirited charge, but they have a harder time dislodging 1,000 Indians from nearby woods. In the fight Colonel Richard M. Johnson is toppled from his horse and wounded but Tecumseh is killed and resistance dwindles. Harrison, facing expiring enlistments, then orders his victorious army back to Detroit. Harrison loses only 12 dead and 22 wounded to a British tally of 12 killed, and 600 captured; Indian losses are unknown but presumed heavy.

October 26 Military: The Battle of Châteauguay occurs when a division of 4,000 Americans under General Wade Hampton advances up the Lake Champlain corridor against Montreal and encounters a force of 1,700 entrenched British, Canadians, and Indians under Lieutenant Colonel Charles De Salaberry. The Americans make a halfhearted attempt to flank the defenders through a swamp and suffer a handful

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November 3 Military: A force of 900 Tennessee cavalry under General John Coffee attacks and destroys the Creek Indian village of Tallasahatchee. The victorious Americans kill 186 warriors and take 86 captives at a cost of five killed and 40 wounded. Among the participants is a very young scout named Davy Crockett.

Crockett, Davy (1786 –1836) Frontiersman Davy Crockett was born near Greeneville, Tennessee, on August 17, 1786, the son of a Revolutionary War veteran. He ran away at the age of 12 and ventured to Baltimore, then returned on his own to the frontiers of his native state. Barely educated, he proved unsuited for farming but was a crack shot with a rifle and an expert tracker. Crockett married and was living near the Alabama border when the Creek War erupted in August 1813. He joined the militia and served under General Andrew Jackson in several pitched battles, including the bloody encounter at Tallasahatchee on November 3, 1813. He then marched to Fort Strother and nearly mutinied with the garrison when they were not discharged as promised. Crockett subsequently joined a mounted battalion and campaigned in Florida, thereby miss-­ ing Jackson’s spectacular victory at New Orleans in January 1815. His first wife died, and he hired a substitute to finish out the remainder of his enlistment. After the war Crockett served as a justice of the peace in Giles County, Tennessee, and he gradually developed a taste for frontier politicking. In 1821 he gained a seat in the state legislature, serving several terms. His natural charm and homespun humor held him in good stead with constituents in 1827, when he was elected to the U.S. House of Represent-­ atives as a Jacksonian Democrat. In fact, in an age of increasing sophistication, Crockett

was one of the first politicians to actively flaunt his rural origins and lack of educa-­ tion. Two years later he switched over to the Whigs and was finally defeated in 1831. He returned to Congress two years later and (continues)

David “Davy” Crockett (Library of Congress)

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(continued) toured the Northeast as a frontier celebrity on behalf of other Whig candidates. Crock-­ ett also strongly opposed President Jack-­ son’s Indian removal policy, but enemies in the Democratic Party managed to defeat his bid for reelection in 1835. In fact, Crockett was sadly out of touch with the Tennessee political establishment, which was totally controlled by Jackson and his cronies. Tiring of politics, Crockett found himself drawn to events in the Mexican province of Texas. The American settlers there had declared their independence from General Antonio López de Santa Anna, who then marshaled his troops against them. Crock-­ ett, meanwhile, arrived at Nacogdoches on January 18, 1836, received a hero’s wel-­

come, and took his oath to the Texas pro-­ visional government. He then continued on to San Antonio with 12 other Tennes-­ seeans and joined the garrison defending the old mission known as the Alamo. The Mexican army under Santa Anna deployed nearby and a costly 13-­day siege unfolded. On March 6, 1836, the Mexicans success-­ fully carried the mission, putting the 186 defenders to the sword, including Crockett. Death in no way diminished his stature as a quintessential American hero and, in fact, elevated him to near mythic pro-­ portions. Enshrined in numerous books and motion pictures, Crockett remains an embodiment of the rough-­hewn Tennessee frontiersman.

November 4 Diplomacy: Foreign Secretary Lord Castlereagh of England writes Secretary of State James Monroe and offers direct negotiations for an end to hostilities. When informed, President James Madison acquiesces and appoints a peace commission consisting of John Quincy Adams, James A. Bayard, Henry Clay, Albert Gallatin, and Jonathan Russell.

November 9 Military: General Andrew Jackson, leading a force of Tennessee militia, attacks and destroys the Indian village of Talladega. The Indians are surrounded and nearly destroyed before they escape through gaps in Jackson’s lines. Creek losses are 299 warriors left dead on the field while the Americans incur 95 killed and wounded. Food shortages then force Jackson back to his main base at Fort Strother.

November 11 Military: The Battle of Crysler’s Farm transpires when General James Wilkinson takes 2,400 men from his St. Lawrence expedition, advances inland, and attacks an 800-­man British force shadowing his advance. Their commander, Colonel Joseph Morrison, proves tactically astute and manages to skillfully repulse several uncoordinated American thrusts against his line. General Leonard Covington is killed before Wilkinson finally calls off the battle and withdraws back to the river to embark. The much-­vaunted American attempt to capture Montreal has ended in defeat and disaster. British losses are 22 dead, 148 wounded, and nine missing to an American tally of 102 killed, 237 wounded, and 100 missing. This concludes operations in Lower Canada, and Wilkinson enters winter quarters.

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November 13 Military: General James Wilkinson lands his chastened force at the Salmon River, New York, where they will spend an uncomfortable winter at French Mills.

November 16 Naval: The British Admiralty extends the blockade northward from Chesapeake Bay and the Delaware River up to Long Island. Only the New England ports still conduct commercial activity.

November 19 Naval: In the Pacific, Captain David Porter of the USS Essex claims the Marquesas island chain for the United States, renaming the biggest island Madison Island.

November 29 Military: A detachment of 950 Georgia militia under General John Floyd and 400 allied Creek under Chief William McIntosh engages and defeats a large party of hostile Creek at Autosee, Mississippi Territory. Both sides sustain considerable losses after hard fighting; Floyd suffers 11 killed and 54 wounded to an Indian loss estimated at 200. After burning the nearby village the Americans withdraw back to the Chattahoochee River.

December 9 Politics: President James Madison addresses Congress on the subject of illegal trade with the enemy, especially along the Canadian border with New York and New England. He then requests a war embargo on such activity.

December 10 Military: General George McClure of the New York militia hastily evacuates Fort George, Ontario, in the face of a possible British attack; before doing so he burns the Canadian village of Newark to deny it to the enemy.

December 17 Business: Congress imposes an embargo on all British goods; this measure is apparently aimed at New England merchants who have been supplying British forces in Canada with food.

December 18 Military: British forces under newly arrived General Gordon Drummond surprise and capture Fort Niagara, New York, setting the stage for intense retaliatory action along the American side of the Niagara River. Captain Nathaniel Leonard is captured, and his command suffers 65 dead, 15 wounded, and 350 captured; British losses are negligible with six dead and five wounded.

December 23 Military: A mixed force of militia and army troops under General Ferdinand L. Claiborne attacks and defeats the Creek at Econochaca (Holy Ground), Mississippi Territory. They manage to kill 30 Indians and almost capture Chief William Weatherford, who jumps off a high bluff and into the waters of the Tallapoosa River below. American losses are one killed and 20 wounded.

December 29–30 Military: British and Indian forces under General Phineas Riall systematically burn American settlements along the Niagara River region, including Black

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Chronology of American History Rock and Buffalo, New York. The militia under General Amos Hall are unable to mount effective resistance and flee the battlefield. For a loss of 112 of his men, Riall inflicts 30 dead, 40 wounded, and 69 captured. The entire Niagara frontier is now systematically laid to waste.

December 30 Diplomacy: The British vessel Bramble arrives under a flag of truce at Annapolis, Maryland, bringing peace dispatches from the English government.

1814 Arts: William Rush, the first noted American sculptor, carves a full-length statue of George Washington in wood. He had previously made a name for himself by sculpting realistic wooden figureheads for vessels. Business: At Waltham, Massachusetts, Francis Cabot Lowell establishes the first factory to house powered cotton spinning and weaving machines in the same building, which greatly enhances efficiency and production. Lowell is also known for a paternalistic attitude toward his work force and a nearby city is named after him. Military: Secretary of War John Armstrong initiates badly needed reforms by establishing military districts and purging the senior officer corps of its deadwood. Younger, more energetic officers like Jacob Brown, George Izard, Winfield Scott, and Eleazer W. Ripley are promoted to command positions in an attempt to revive the flagging war effort. Religion: Reverend Richard Allen establishes the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia. Societal: The first functioning library network west of the Allegheny Mountains emerges in Pittsburgh when several circulating libraries merge. Technology: Francis Cabot Lowell constructs the first American factory capable of processing raw cotton with powered machinery. Lowell had previously observed such equipment functioning in Great Britain, then a closely guarded trade secret, yet managed to smuggle out carefully rendered sketches. The town of Lowell, Massachusetts, is named in his honor.

January 3 Diplomacy: President James Madison receives an invitation from Lord Castlereagh for direct peace negotiations and he accepts.

January 22 Military: Tennessee militia under General Andrew Jackson decides to attack a large Indian encampment at Emuckfau Creek, Alabama Territory. However, the Indians strike first and rout his left flank commanded by General John Coffee. After severe fighting, Jackson extricates his command with a loss of 25 dead and 75 wounded and falls back upon Fort Strother.

January 24 Military: General Andrew Jackson’s rear guard is roughly handled and withdraws in a panic from Enitachopco Creek. American losses are considerable but Jackson manages to keep his command intact. The Tennessee militia are suffering from low morale, food shortages, and the general’s insistence upon rigid discipline.

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January 25 Business: The embargo outlawing trade with the British is modified by Congress when the inhabitants of Nantucket Island off Massachusetts are threatened with famine.

January 27 Military: Congress raises the U.S. Army manpower ceiling to 67,773 men, although only half that amount is ever recruited. However, they defeat a proposal by President James Madison to raise 100,000 men. General John Floyd and 1,300 Georgia and Carolina militia, backed by 400 allied Creeks, encamps at Calabee Creek in the Alabama Territory. That evening they are assailed by Chief William Weatherford, who commands as many as 1,800 braves and the Americans are hard-pressed to maintain their position. The Creeks are finally driven off by artillery fire at dawn; enemy losses are estimated at around 200 while Floyd loses 17 dead and 132 wounded. The extent of losses induce the American to withdraw back to Fort Mitchell, Georgia.

February 9 Diplomacy: Secretary of State Albert Gallatin, en route to Europe for peace talks, is replaced by George W. Campbell.

March 24 Military: Although acquitted by a court-martial, General James Wilkinson is sacked as senior commander along the Northern frontier, and replaced by General George Izard, who assumes command of troops at Plattsburg, New York. Meanwhile, General Jacob Brown is ordered to take charge of affairs along the Niagara frontier.

March 26 Military: Former general William Hull is court-martialed for treason, found guilty, and sentenced to death for his August 1812 surrender of Detroit; in light of his prior service in the Revolutionary War, the sentence is commuted by President James Madison.

March 27 Military: The Battle of Horseshoe Bend, Alabama Territory, is won by 2,500 American troops under General Andrew Jackson. Jackson confronts a large Creek force of 1,300 men and women dug in behind the bend of the Tallapoosa River and attacks with the 39th U.S. Infantry. Resistance is fierce and Lieutenant Sam Houston is severely wounded, but the Indians are gradually crushed and driven into the river. This victory decisively ends the Creek War and renders Jackson a national hero. American losses are 47 dead and 159 wounded while allied Creek and Cherokee lose an additional 23 killed and 47 wounded.

March 28 Naval: The 38-gun American frigate USS Essex under Captain David Porter is attacked and defeated by British warships HMS Phoebe and Cherub off Valparaiso, Chile. American losses are 58 dead, 31 drowned, and 66 wounded to five British killed and 10 injured. Prior to this lopsided engagement, Porter was the first American naval officer to scour the Pacific Ocean for British commerce, and he captured or destroyed nearly 40 whaling vessels. One of the battle’s survivors, 13-year-old midshipman David Farragut, subsequently rises to the rank of admiral during the Civil War.

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March 30 Military: General James Wilkinson and 4,000 of his soldiers brave freezing weather to attack the stone fortification at La Colle Mill, Quebec. The small British garrison refuses to budge, and the Americans incur a loss of 254 casualties before Wilkinson calls off the action. This is one of the most demoralizing setbacks of the war and leads directly to Wilkinson’s dismissal.

March 31 Business: President James Madison declares the Embargo and Non-Importation Acts failures and urges their repeal by Congress.

April 1 Diplomacy: The British and American governments agree to the site of Ghent, Belgium, for their upcoming peace negotiations.

April 6 Military: Emperor Napoleon I is overthrown by an allied coalition; his defeat releases 14,000 veteran British soldiers, “Wellington’s Invincibles,” for service in America.

April 14 Business: Congress repeals the Embargo and Non-Importation Acts although, to protect nascent American industries, war duties are imposed on certain imports for two years after peace arrives.

April 25 Naval: Eager to increase economic pressure upon the United States, the British Admiralty extends its blockade to include all of New England. All told, the Royal Navy is a major factor in the near-collapse of the American economy, which finds itself suffering from high inflation, severe shortages, and virtual bankruptcy.

April 29 Naval: The American sloop USS Peacock under Master Commandant Lewis Warrington defeats the British brig HMS Epervier of Captain Richard W. Wales off Cape Canaveral, Florida. The British, then conveying $120,000 in specie, lose eight dead and 15 injured to two American wounded.

May 1 Military: At Plattsburgh, New York, the efficient, spit-and-polish General George Izard assumes command of the Right Division. Izard is unique among American senior field commanders for being the only one to have received professional military instruction in France. He immediately begins reconstructing an army from the demoralized rabble he inherits.

May 6 Naval: A quick raid by British land and naval forces under Commodore Sir James Lucas Yeo and General Gordon Drummond captures the American depot at Oswego, New York. The port is stormed with heavy loss, but the British goal, heavy cannon intended for the American fleet at Sackets Harbor, had been previously moved upstream.

May 22 Military: For his outstanding successes in the Creek War, Andrew Jackson is commissioned a major general in the U.S. Army and receives command of all

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June 28 Naval: The 18-­gun sloop USS Wasp under Master Commandant Johnston Blakely engages and defeats the 18-­gun British brig HMS Reindeer under Cap-­ tain William Manners in a 19-­minute action. The Americans sustain five dead and 21 wounded to a British tally of 25 killed and 42 wounded. Reindeer is so badly damaged that it is deliberately sunk by the victors.

July 3 Military: The Left Division under General Jacob Brown crosses the Niagara River and captures Fort Erie, Ontario.

Brown, Jacob J.

(1775–1828)

General Jacob Jennings Brown was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, on May 9, 1775, a son of Quaker farmers. He was by turns a teacher, a surveyor, and one-­time secretary of Alexan-­ der Hamilton before moving to upstate New York to farm and serve as a county judge. After President Thomas Jefferson declared an embargo in 1808, Brown took readily to smug-­ gling potash into Canada. However, he also displayed genuine interest in military affairs and in 1809 gained appointment as colonel of the Jefferson Country militia. In this capacity he spent the first months of the War of 1812 guarding a 200-­mile strip of land stretching from Lake Ontario to the St. Lawrence River. Brown, unlike many contemporaries, proved himself an active and energetic leader. On October 4, 1812, he assembled his militia and cannon to defeat a British amphibious raid against Ogdensburg, New York. A year later he surmounted a more serious situation when a British fleet under Governor-­General Sir George Prevost made an amphibious attack against Sackets Harbor, New York, home port of the Navy’s Lake Ontario squadron. Brown’s militia were routed in the initial charge but he rallied them further inland and led them back against the British rear. His activity so unnerved Prevost that he ordered

the attack upon the harbor canceled and quickly sailed back to Canada. As a reward for his dramatic victory Brown was commis-­ sioned a brigadier in the U.S. Army effective July 19, 1813. He subsequently accompanied the ill-­fated St. Lawrence expedition of Gen-­ eral James Wilkinson commanding a brigade, handled his affairs competently, and was one of few senior officers to escape disgrace. For this reason Secretary of War John Armstrong promoted him to major general on January 24, 1814, and tasked him with leading an invasion of the Niagara Peninsula that summer. Brown, assisted by noted leaders Winfield Scott and Eleazar W. Ripley, crossed the Niagara River on July 3, 1814, and two days later his forces won the Battle of Chippewa against veteran British forces. However, his offensive stalled when the fleet under Com-­ modore Isaac Chauncey failed to rendez-­ vous as promised, and British reinforcements under General Gordon Drummond arrived to confront the invaders. Brown and Drum-­ mond clashed heavily at Lundy’s Lane on July 25, 1814, in the hardest fought battle of the war, with each side incurring 900 casual-­ ties. Brown was wounded and spent several (continues)

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(continued) weeks recuperating before resuming command at Fort Erie. On September 17, 1814, he orchestrated a surprise sortie that nearly routed Drummond’s besieging army. In light of his good conduct, Brown was one of two major generals retained in active service after the war. In 1821 he was appointed command-

ing general of the Army and acted in concert with a vigorous new secretary of war, John C. Calhoun, to institute badly needed reforms and also advised President James Monroe and John Quincy Adams on military affairs. Brown died in office on February 24, 1828, an important military figure of the early republic.

July 5 Military: The Battle of Chippewa is won by the Americans when British forces under General Phineas Riall attack General Jacob Brown’s encampment behind Chippewa Creek, Ontario. He encounters the crack brigade of General Winfield Scott, who happens to be exercising his men, and a formal engagement unfolds. Riall, noticing that Scott’s men are dressed in gray cloth, assumes they are militia, but the Americans quickly outmaneuver and outflank their veteran adversaries. The Americans lose 60 dead and 235 wounded to a British tally of 148 killed and 321 wounded. This is also the first triumph of American forces over the British on an open field and proof of their growing military professionalism.

July 22 Diplomacy: The United States signs the Treaty of Greenville with representatives of the Miami, Delaware, Shawnee, and Wyandot Indians, which not only secures the peace but also mandates that they go to war against England.

July 25 Military: The Battle of Lundy’s Lane is fought between the divisions of General Jacob Brown (2,800 men) and General Sir Gordon Drummond (3,200). The engagement commences when the brigade of General Winfield Scott attacks Lundy’s Lane, driving back the force of General Phineas Riall but running afoul of reinforcements brought up by Drummond. The Americans then take a pounding until Brown brings up the rest of his force, the regular brigade of General Eleazar W. Ripley, and militia under General Peter B. Porter. Ripley manages to storm the British battery at the top of the lane and a swirling fight continues around it. At length both sides withdraw with heavy losses although Drummond manages to return in the night and claims the victory. The Americans lose 171 dead, 571 wounded, and 110 missing to a British tally of 84 killed, 559 injured, and 235 captured. Lundy’s Lane is another fine performance by the Americans, but they cannot replace their losses as readily as Drummond. Brown, seriously wounded, orders a withdrawal back to Fort Erie.

August 8 Diplomacy: An American peace commission consisting of John Quincy Adams, James A. Bayard, Henry Clay, Albert Gallatin, and Jonathan Russell arrives at Ghent, Belgium, to negotiate peace with British representatives Lord Gambier, Henry Goulburn, and William Adams. Each side changes its demands according to news received from across the ocean.

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August 9 Indian: The defeated Creek nation submits to the Treaty of Fort Jackson, whereby they cede 23 million acres—two-thirds of their territory in south Georgia, southern Alabama, and east Mississippi—to the United States. This effectively removes one of the last obstacles to white colonization of the South.

August 14 Military: British forces under General Gordon Drummond besiege Fort Erie, Ontario. The Americans, commanded by General Edmund P. Gaines, are alert for such a move and decisively repulse the attacking columns. Disaster strikes when a British force storms the fort, then accidentally touches off a magazine, which explodes. British losses are nearly 1,000—the Americans suffer less than 100 killed and wounded.

August 19 Military: A British army of 4,000 men under General Robert Ross lands at Benedict, Maryland, before proceeding overland to Washington, D.C. His first goal is to attack and destroy the gunboat flotilla of Commodore Joshua Barney presently anchored in the Patuxent River.

August 22 Naval: Commodore Joshua Barney blows up his flotilla of gunboats on the Patuxent River, Maryland, to prevent its capture by British forces.

August 24 Military: At the Battle of Bladensburg the Americans under General William H. Winder are disastrously defeated. Winder possesses 7,000 poorly trained and positioned militia which crumple under an assault by 4,000 of General Robert Ross’s veteran troops. Only a small contingent of U.S. Marines under Commodore Joshua Barney makes effective resistance before being overrun. Losses are 160 Americans dead, wounded, and missing, to 249 for the British. The result is so disgraceful that the conflict becomes derided as the “Bladensburg Races,” and the American capitol now lays at the mercy of the invader.

August 25 Military: British forces under General Robert Ross burn all public buildings in Washington, D.C., ostensibly to avenge the destruction of York, Ontario, in April 1813. They then withdraw unmolested to Admiral George Cockburn’s waiting fleet.

August 27 Politics: President James Madison and some of the American government drifts back into the burned-out remains of Washington, D.C. Secretary of War John Armstrong, who is largely blamed for the debacle, is forced from office and replaced by James Monroe.

August 31 Military: Governor-General Sir George Prevost leads 10,000 crack British troops from Canada and down the Lake Champlain Valley. This is the largest military endeavor of the northern frontier, and the Americans are ill-prepared to contain it.

September 1 Military: British forces land and occupy at the mouth of the Castine River, Maine, then march overland to capture Castine and Bangor. They easily brush

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Chronology of American History aside local militia upstream and force Captain Charles Morris to burn the frigate USS Adams to prevent its capture. Naval: The USS Wasp under Captain Johnston Blakely engages and sinks the 18-gun British brig HMS Avon at sea, losing two dead and one wounded. British losses are 10 killed and 12 wounded.

September 11 Military: A force of 1,500 regulars and a similar number of militia under General Alexander Macomb make a gallant stand at Plattsburg, New York, against 10,000 Peninsula veterans under Governor-General Sir George Prevost. The Americans put up fierce resistance but are on the verge of being outflanked when Prevost, informed of his defeat upon Lake Champlain, cancels the attack. Naval: The Battle of Lake Champlain unfolds as a large British squadron under Commander George Downie rounds Plattsburgh Bay and sails directly into a clever ambush set by Master Commandant Thomas Macdonough. Downie is killed early on and Macdonough is twice knocked unconscious by falling debris before he orders his entire force rotated by springs, which brought the undamaged sides of the warships to bear. For the second time in the war an entire British squadron has been captured. American losses are 52 dead and 59 wounded to a British tally of 84 killed and 10 wounded. Downie’s loss is also a considerable strategic victory for the United States in that it forces Governor-General Sir George Prevost to withdraw his large army back into Canada.

September 13–14 Military: The Battle of Baltimore begins as General Robert Ross is shot by snipers while advancing upon the city and the British attack is commanded by Colonel Arthur Brooke. American militia under General John Stricker then make a determined stand at North Point for several hours before being driven into the city’s field works, but the 4,500 British, badly outnumbered by 15,000 defenders under General Samuel Smith, decline to press the attack. Disheartened, Brooke orders his army withdrawn back to their fleet. Music: Francis Scott Key, a lawyer visiting the British fleet to release a prisoner, was so moved by the naval bombardment of Fort McHenry that he composes the “Star Spangled Banner,” a stirring hymn, on the back of an old envelope. It is eventually adopted as the national anthem. Naval: Warships of Admiral Sir George Cockburn’s armada slip into bombardment positions off Baltimore and pour a heavy fire into Fort McHenry, garrisoned by 1,000 troops and militia under Major George Armistead. The attack proves ineffectual, however, and by dawn of the next day the garrison’s huge American flag is seen waving defiantly in the distance. Despite having more than one thousand rounds fired at him, Armistead loses only four killed and 20 wounded.

September 17 Military: The sortie from Fort Erie occurs when General Jacob J. Brown, having recovered from wounds received at Lundy’s Lane, decides to attack the British siege positions. He details several columns of regulars and militia under General Peter B. Porter to move forward under the cover of a rainstorm, and they successfully seize three of four British batteries. General Sir Gordon Drummond then counterattacks and drives the Americans back into the fort, but the damage is done. The British make preparations to abandon their siege.

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September 25–26 Naval: British forces en route to New Orleans decide to attack the American privateer General Armstrong in the neutral Azores. Captain Samuel Chester Reid, however, is well prepared and repulses several boat attacks with heavy losses. Hopelessly outnumbered, Reid scuttles his ship rather than surrender. The damage inflicted detains the British force for several weeks, hindering their offensive against New Orleans.

October 17 Political: The Massachusetts legislature requests a convention of New England delegates to discuss their grievances against the government. They suggest convening at Hartford, Connecticut, on December 15.

October 19 Military: The 900-man brigade of General Daniel Bissell advances down Chippewa River as far as Lyon’s Creek, Ontario, where it is attacked by 750 British commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Myers. Bissell, by dint of adroit maneuvering, forces his opponent back, burns nearby Cook’s Mills, and retires back to Fort Erie. American losses are 12 dead and 55 wounded to a British tally of one dead and 35 injured. Significantly, this is the last clash between regular forces in Canada and a modest American victory.

October 21 General: Thomas Jefferson sells his entire 7,000-volume book collection to the government to replace those lost in the recent burning of the Library of Congress by British forces. Congress pays out $23,950 for the purchase.

October 29 Naval: Robert Fulton launches the USS Demologos (“Voice of the People”), history’s first armored, steam-powered warship, at New York City. It is 153 feet long, 56 feet across the beam, and weighs 2,475 tons. The formidable vessel is actually a catamaran with two hulls and a steam paddle mounted between them. It also mounts 30 32-pound cannon, two 100-pound Columbiads (super-heavy cannon), and is subsequently christened Fulton the First in his honor after he dies the following spring. This visionary vessel remains on the navy list until June 1829, when it is destroyed by a fire.

November 5 Military: General George Izard orders captured Fort Erie, Ontario, blown up and evacuated. This formally signals the end of campaigning in Canada.

November 7 Military: Acting against the wishes of Secretary of War James Monroe, General Andrew Jackson attacks and captures Pensacola, Florida, from Spanish forces. Resistance is timorous and the Americans sustain only five killed and 11 wounded. Jackson’s victory forces British warships in the harbor to immediately put to sea.

November 26 Naval: A British fleet conveying 7,500 Peninsula veterans under General Thomas Pakenham, the Duke of Wellington’s brother-in-law, departs Jamaica for New Orleans, Louisiana. Capturing this city will insure British control of the Mississippi River.

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December 1 Military: American forces under General Andrew Jackson, marching hastily from Pensacola, Florida, arrive at New Orleans, Louisiana, slightly ahead of the British.

December 13 Military: General Andrew Jackson declares martial law in Louisiana upon learning of the British approach through Lake Borgne.

December 14 Naval: Combined British land and naval forces attack a force of six American gunboats under Lieutenant Thomas ap Catesby Jones at Lake Borgne, Louisiana, capturing them. The American resist tenaciously but are gradually overwhelmed with a loss of six dead, 35 wounded, and 86 captured. British losses were 17 killed and 77 wounded; moreover the effort further delays the British approach upon New Orleans by nine days.

December 15 Politics: The Hartford Convention assembles at Hartford, Connecticut, with 26 Federalist delegates from all six New England states. The meeting is presided over by two Massachusetts delegates, George Cabot and Harrison Gray Otis.

December 23 Military: An American force of 2,000 regulars and militia under General Andrew Jackson, assisted by the 14-gun schooner USS Carolina, attacks 1,600 British encamped along Villiere’s Plantation at night. The attack is fiercely pressed, but darkness, confusion, and a prompt British response force the Americans back. British General John Keane is nonetheless convinced that he is outnumbered and suspends this advance upon New Orleans until reinforcements can arrive. This respite allows Jackson to perfect his defenses below New Orleans and await their approach. Losses are 215 Americans and 275 British killed, wounded, and captured.

December 24 Diplomacy: American and British commissioners sign the Treaty of Ghent which ends the War of 1812. Henceforth all prisoners are to be released and all territory to be restored, save for West Florida, which remains in American hands. Both sides also pledge themselves to a series of commissions to end border disputes between the United States and Canada and disarmament on the Great Lakes. Heretofore pressing issues such as impressment, indemnity, rights of search, and a neutral Indian buffer state are not addressed. Considering the relative military weakness of the United States, the terms are extremely generous and a reflection of Britain’s preoccupation with threatening events in Europe.

1815 Education: Georgetown College, founded in 1789 by Charles Carroll as an early Catholic institution, is chartered as a university by Congress. Religion: The Boston Society for the Moral and Religious Instruction of the Poor is founded in Boston to promote Sunday school education. Transportation: The venerable Connestoga Wagon, in service for over half a century and subject to continual refinements, remains the preferred vehicle of

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choice for long trips from the East to regions of the Mid-West. These stout “prairie schooners” are drawn by teams of four to six horses and can carry several tons of cargo in addition to people.

January 1 Military: At New Orleans, British forces under General Sir Edward Pakenham begin probing American defenses under General Andrew Jackson. They are heavily repulsed by accurate artillery fire and then withdraw.

January 5 Politics: The Hartford Convention, meeting at Hartford, Connecticut, approves various states’ rights proposals, then elects to disband. However, the strident Federalist antiwar stance meets with public derision and leads to the eventual demise of that party.

January 8 Military: The Battle of New Orleans unfolds when British forces under General Sir Edward Pakenham attack the entrenched American position under General Andrew Jackson and are bloodily repulsed. Pakenham is killed and 2,000 of his men become casualties in a few minutes while Jackson incredibly suffers only 13 killed, 39 wounded, and 19 missing. This is the largest battle of the War of 1812, although actually transpiring two weeks after the Treaty of Ghent has been signed. The British are allowed to withdraw through the swamps unmolested.

January 13–15 Naval: The 44-gun American frigate USS President under Captain Stephen Decatur is accosted by a British squadron 50 miles off Sandy Hook, New Jersey. Previously, Decatur’s ship had been damaged after a storm at sea repeatedly battered it against a sandbar. He nonetheless manages to defeat and damage the HMS Endymion before finally succumbing to three additional warships. Decatur’s losses are 24 dead and 56 wounded; the British sustain 25 casualties.

January 20 Business: President James Madison vetoes a congressional bill intended to recharter the Bank of the United States. He does so less out of ideological concerns than undercapitalization and inadequate powers accorded that institution.

February 6 Transportation: Inventor John Stevens of New Jersey receives the first railroad charter in America, intending to cover the route from Trenton to New Brunswick. However, the project never materializes.

February 7 Naval: A three-man board of naval commissioners is created by Congress to assist the secretary of the Navy in administering his charge.

February 11 Diplomacy: Word of the Treaty of Ghent, signed the previous Christmas eve, finally reaches the United States and causes wild outbursts of celebration.

February 17 Diplomacy: The Treaty of Ghent is formally ratified by the Senate, leaving President James Madison to declare that the War of 1812 is over.

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February 20 Naval: Unaware of peace, the 44-gun American frigate USS Constitution under Captain Charles Stewart engages and artfully defeats and captures the British warships HMS Cyane and Levant off Portugal. American losses are three dead and 12 wounded while the British lose 19 killed and 42 wounded.

February 27 Naval: As part of peacetime entrenchment, Congress orders the U.S. Navy’s gunboat flotilla sold off while all warships on the Great Lakes are docked and placed in storage.

March 3 Business: Congress adopts a policy of trade reciprocity with all nations. Military: President James Madison had previously requested a peacetime establishment of 20,000 men, but Congress only approves a new force half that size, 10,000, under two major generals and four brigadier generals. Still, this is twice the authorized manpower of Thomas Jefferson’s day and signals increased political acceptance of an army. Politics: Congress, angered by depredations against American commerce by the Dey of Algiers, authorizes the use of naval force against that kingdom. Apparently the Dey felt he had not been receiving adequate levels of tribute from the United States and resumed seizing ships and crews.

March 23 Naval: The American sloop USS Hornet under Captain Thomas Biddle attacks and captures the British sloop HMS Penguin off the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa. Word of peace had yet to reach the combatants. American losses are one dead and one injured to 10 British killed and 28 wounded.

May Publishing: The first issue of the North American Review is published in Boston. It has been founded by William Tudor, Edward T. Channing, and Richard Henry Dana and is intended to raise the scholarly and literary level of American periodicals.

May 10 Naval: Commodore Stephen Decatur assumes control of a 10-ship armada tasked with ending piratical raids by the rulers of Algiers. His mission is to establish peace in the Mediterranean with force, if need be.

June 17 Naval: The American squadron of Commodore Stephen Decatur captures the 44-gun Algerian frigate Mashouda, killing Admiral Hammida in the process.

June 19 Naval: The 22-gun Algerian brig Estido falls prey to the American Mediterranean squadron under Commodore Stephen Decatur.

June 30 Diplomacy: The Dey of Algiers, awed by the aggressive action of Commodore Stephen Decatur, signs an agreement which ends depredations at sea, releases all hostages without ransom, and ceases all tribute payments. Naval: The last action of the War of 1812 unfolds when the 18-gun sloop USS Peacock under Master Commandant Lewis Warrington engages and defeats the 14-gun HMS Nautilus in the Straits of Sunda. However, once Warrington is

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informed that hostilities had ceased he releases the Nautilus; British losses are six killed and eight injured.

July Indian: The United States and Native American tribes sign the Treaty of Portage des Sioux, which finally removes all Indian resistance to American settlement of lands below Lake Michigan. This is the price the Indians pay for siding with Great Britain in the War of 1812.

July 3 Business: The United States and Great Britain sign a commercial convention eliminating discriminatory duties and also allows Americans to trade in the British East Indies.

July 4 Architecture: Construction begins on the mammoth Washington Monument in Washington, D.C., when the first cornerstone is laid. The structure has been designed by Robert Mills and reflects the Greek revival movement then prevalent in American architecture.

July 26 Diplomacy: The Mediterranean Squadron of Commodore Stephen Decatur drops anchor at Tunis Harbor, where he forces the leaders to sign an agreement to stop harassment of American commerce at sea. Tunis is also forced to pay restitution for allowing the British to seize American vessels in its waters during the War of 1812.

August 5 Diplomacy: Commodore Stephen Decatur and his Mediterranean Squadron make a port call at Tripoli and make the leadership sign a treaty which stops attacks on American shipping, frees all hostages without ransom, and ends all tribute payments. Tripoli also pays compensation for vessels it allowed Great Britain to seize in its waters during the War of 1812.

December 4 Politics: The 14th Congress assembles with the Democratic-Republicans still in firm control of both the House and Senate. Ironically, while still championing agrarian and states’ rights positions, the party of Jefferson has co-opted Federalist positions of protective tariffs, national roads, and a national bank. The Federalists, for their part, have begun to embrace heretofore heretical positions such as states’ rights and protection of civil liberties.

December 5 Politics: In his address to Congress, President James Madison reiterates the call for a national public works program and urges that the Bank of the United States be rechartered, the military be strengthened, and a national university be founded. In many respects the Democratic-Republicans have co-opted many programs previously championed by their Federalist opposition.

1816 Politics: The antiwar sermons of Reverend William Ellery Channing inspire the founding of the Peace Society of Massachusetts. Curiously, Channing was not against waging war in self-defense or for defending a moral principle.

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Chronology of American History Publishing: The Vocabulary is published by John Pickering; this is a compilation of 500 words unique to America, including Native Americans terms in use, and is part of the ongoing effort to nationalize the English language. However, American English still remains closely tied to the mother tongue. Religion: The American Bible Society arises in New York City, whose sole purpose is to increase the distribution of holy scripture. It ultimately prints and distributes the Bible in more than 1,000 languages, worldwide. Sports: Jacob Hyer becomes America’s first boxing champion by defeating Tom Beasley in a bare-knuckles brawl moderated by London Prize Ring Rules.

January 1 General: The national debt is calculated at $127,335,000, roughly $15 per citizen. Politics: Columbus replaces Chillicothe as the capital of Ohio.

January 11 Business: Democratic-Republican leaders Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun, dropping their prior constitutional opposition to a Bank of the United States, call for a 20-year reconstitution with a $50 million capitalization. They also press the case for a strong and uniform national currency to assist in the postwar economic chaos and depression following the War of 1812. They are roundly opposed by Daniel Webster, who wishes congressional laws against banknotes issued by suspended state banks.

January 15 Settlement: The first American to reach California is Thomas Doak, who settles near Santa Barbara.

March 14 Business: Congress approves the Second Bank of the United States with a capitalization of $35 million, including $7 million contributed by the government. The bank is chartered for a period of 20 years, and President James Madison will select five of the 25 directors. The central office is designated for Philadelphia, and William Jones, former secretary of the Navy, is appointed the first president. Significantly, this is the first debate to feature Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, and Daniel Webster as active participants.

March 16 Politics: The Democratic-Republican congressional caucus chooses James Monroe to be its presidential candidate, having defeated Georgia senator William C. Crawford by a vote of 65 to 54. New York Governor Daniel D. Tompkins is chosen for the vice presidency.

March 20 Law: The Supreme Court decides the case of Martin v. Hunter’s Lessee, a case originating in a Virginian appellate court. They rule that the Supreme Court is granted the ability to review state court decisions based upon the 1789 Judiciary Act.

April 10 Business: Congress charters the second Bank of the United States with a lease of 20 years; it begins with a capitalization of $35 million, mostly to be sold in $100 shares to stockholders.

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April 11 Religion: The African Methodist Church is created in Philadelphia under the leadership of Reverend Richard Allen, its first bishop. This is the first independent black church in America.

April 27 Business: The Tariff Act of 1816 is passed by Congress, with the urging of Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun, to extend protective duties previously imposed during the War of 1812. This legislation is aimed primarily at the nascent textile and iron manufacturing sector and imposes rates of between 15 and 30 percent on foreign imports of cotton, textiles, leather, wool, and pig iron among others. It is also the first duty levied for protection purposes, not simply to raise revenue.

April 29 Naval: Congress passes a naval appropriations bill that authorizes construction of nine 84-gun ships of the line, the first in American naval history, along with 12 44-gun frigates. From a design standpoint, the U.S. Navy has finally reached parity in firepower with Royal Navy warships.

May 10 Military: Soldiers construct Fort Howard at Green Bay, Illinois (Wisconsin) Territory; in time it functions as a major center of the fur trade.

May 20 Politics: The inhabitants of Maine vote to cede from Massachusetts and form their own state, but they are derided by the legislature as “childish and irresponsible.”

June Politics: A constitutional convention meets at Corydon, Indiana Territory, for the purpose of gaining statehood.

June 11 Technology: The Gas Light Company of Baltimore, Maryland, is contracted to light streets through the use of coal gas, becoming the first American city so illuminated.

June 16 Science: A major disruption in the usual weather pattern occurs when 10 inches of snow drops in Vermont, New Hampshire, and western Massachusetts. This aberration is attributed to volcanic activity in Indonesia and severely disrupts the agricultural season in New England.

June 22 Societal: DeWitt Clinton becomes grand master of the newly created Grand Encampment of Knights Templar in New York City.

July 9 Indian: The Cherokee reach an agreement with the U.S. government to cede all of their land in northern Alabama.

July 27 Military: American troops and gunboats attack Fort Apalachicola in Spanish East Florida that is garrisoned by fugitive slaves and hostile Seminole Indians. A cannon shot ignites their powder supply, killing 270 defenders.

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August Naval: Commodore Stephen Decatur toasts the United States at a banquet held in his honor by thundering, “Our country! In her intercourse with foreign nations may she always be in the right; but right or wrong, our country!”

September 14 Indian: The Chickasaws cede all their land south of Tennessee to the United States.

October 22 Politics: Secretary of the Trea�sury Albert Gallatin is appointed minister to France by President James Madison; he is replaced by the current secretary of war, William C. Crawford.

December 4 Politics: Â�DemoÂ�cratic-­Republican James Monroe is elected president over Fed-­ eralist Rufus King by 183 electoral votes to 34, while former New York governor Daniel Tompkins becomes vice president. Federalist poÂ�litiÂ�cal fortunes continue to wane nationally, and they only retain sizable influence in Delaware, Connecticut, and Massachusetts.

December 11 Politics: Indiana gains admittance as the 19th state with its new capital at Cory-­ don; slavery is outlawed.

December 13 Business: The Provident Institution for Savings, the first savings bank in Amer-­ ica, opens for business in Boston.

December 20 Business: Congressman John C. Calhoun proposes that $1.5 million paid to the U.S. government by the Bank of the United States be utilized as a public works fund for internal improvements. President James Madison, however, opposes such spending on constitutional grounds.

December 28 Slavery: The American Colonial Society is founded in Washington, D.C., by Presbyterian minister Robert Finley. Its goal is to encourage free African Ameri-­ cans to resettle back in Africa; a direct result of their efforts leads to founding the African republic of Liberia.

1817 Art: After studying in London under Benjamin West, John Trumbull establishes himself as America’s foremost paintÂ�er of historical scenes. His canvas Signing of the Declaration of InÂ�deÂ�penÂ�dence presently adorns the U.S. Capitol. Medical: The nation’s first insane asylum is established at Frankfort, Pennsylvania. Religion: The American Tract Society begins delivering religious literature nationally principally through Methodist circuit riders. Technology: Thomas Gilpon manufactures the first Â�machine-­made paper near Wilmington, Delaware.

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Trumbull, John

(1756–1843)

Painter John Trumbull was born in Lebanon, Con-­ necticut, son of a future governor of that state. As a child he demonstrated a con-­ siderable knack for art and briefly studied under John Singleton Copley before attend-­ ing Harvard College. Trumbull graduated in 1773 and worked as a surveyor in western Connecticut, where his ability to draw accu-­ rate maps assisted land claims. However, when the Revolutionary War broke out two years later he enlisted in the Continental Army as an officer, ultimately serving as an aide to generals George Washington and Horatio Gates. Trumbull had risen to a colo-­ nel at the age of 21 by the time he mustered out in 1777, but he subsequently served as a volunteer in the Rhode Island campaign of 1778. That year he also resumed his artistic studies in Boston, and in 1780 Trumbull obtained special permission to visit London to study under noted American expatriate artist Benjamin West. However, once there, Trumbull was seized and charged with trea-­ son, probably in retaliation for the hanging of British Major John André, and suffered imprisonment. He was finally released through the agency of Edmund Burke and sailed to the Netherlands. There he com-­ pleted the first full-­length study of General George Washington, which was engraved and distributed throughout Europe. In 1783 Trumbull returned to the United States but visited London the following year to study with West, who specialized in large his-­ torical depictions. Trumbull thus was ena-­ bled to make his own detailed works like

The Battle of Bunker Hill and The Death of General Montgomery, which established him as a significant painter of American historical events. Trumbull returned to America in 1789, whereupon Thomas Jefferson sought to make him a personal secretary. Trumbull declined and the two men had a serious falling-­out that was never reconciled. He then spent several years painting historical art and individual portraits which, while well-­rendered, failed to sell in the post-­ war depression. Again seeking employment, Trumbull returned to London to work as secretary to Minister John Jay while painting on the side. He remained there until 1804 and then came home, painted for several years waiting for President Jefferson to offer him a lucrative commission which never came, and returned to London in 1808. Trumbull supported himself with portraiture for nearly a decade before coming home in 1816 and establishing a studio in New York. The following year Congress com-­ missioned him to do a series of large-­scale historical paintings for the new rotunda of the Capitol in Washington, D.C. He then rendered the Signing of the Declaration of Independence, The Surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, and others which remain on permanent display. His fame now assured, Trumbull returned to New York in 1817, where he founded the American Academy of Fine Arts and served as its president until 1835. He died in New York on November 10, 1843, a noted national artist.

January 7 Business: The reconstituted Bank of the United States opens its doors for busi-­ ness in Philadelphia with William Jones as president. Ultimately it possesses 25 offices to augment its operations. However, Jones, its first president, proves him-­ self to be less than a competent appointment.

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Chronology of American History

February 8 Politics: Congress votes to appropriate $1.5 million from the Bank of the United States to begin public works programs. However, President James Madison opposes the move on constitutional grounds.

February 18 Transportation: Congress approves John C. Calhoun’s suggestion to spend the $1.5 million bonus from the Bank of the United States for federally financed public works projects, especially roads and canals. Such emphasis on “internal improvements” are expected to boost the national economy. As a rule New England Federalists oppose the move, fearing it would accelerate the trend toward Western expansion and diminish the commercial importance of their region.

March 1 Politics: The Mississippi Territory is authorized by Congress to hold a constitutional convention as a preliminary to applying for statehood.

March 3 Politics: President James Madison vetoes the so-called Bonus Bill to expand public works projects; he does so out of a belief that the Constitution does not permit the Federal government to be engaged in public works without a constitutional amendment. This is his last official act in office. Settlement: The Alabama Territory is organized from the eastern portion of the Mississippi Territory, with its capital at Fort St. Stephens (Mobile). Transportation: Henry M. Shreve’s steamboat Washington begins a regularly scheduled commercial route up and down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers between Louisville, Kentucky, and New Orleans, Louisiana.

March 4 Politics: James Monroe is inaugurated as the fifth president while Daniel D. Tompkins becomes vice president. Monroe is the last member of the so-called Virginia Dynasty, which has dominated national politics since 1801. However, in this period the Democratic-Republican Party has co-opted many principles of their Federalist opponents, hence Monroe, in his address, declares his support for adequate military and naval forces and the protection of American manufacturing.

March 15 Transportation: The New York legislature, with enthusiastic support from Governor DeWitt Clinton, votes to construct the landmark Erie Canal that reaches from the Hudson River in Albany all the way to Buffalo in the west. This $7 million investment is expected to produce a windfall of profit by opening up Western markets to the state and negate Canadian trade advantages in the Great Lakes region.

March 24 Education: Allegheny College is chartered at Meadville, Pennsylvania.

April 7 Societal: A large riot by African-American slaves in St. Mary’s Country, Maryland, injures several white passersby until rioters are suppressed by police and militia.

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Monroe, James

(1758–1831)

President James Monroe was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, on April 28, 1758, part of the minor gentry. He attended William and Mary College for two years but left to join the Continental Army as a junior officer to fight in the Revolutionary War. He distin-­ guished himself in several sharp battles, was wounded at the Battle of Princeton in 1777, and returned to college to study law under Governor Thomas Jefferson. Monroe then entered politics in 1782 by winning a seat in the state legislature and then served in Congress from 1783 to 1786. The following year he attended the Virginia constitutional convention to oppose adoption of the new government, and in 1788 he was defeated by James Madison for a seat in the new Con-­ gress. In 1790 he was tapped to serve out a term in the U.S. Senate as an anti-­Federalist, but President George Washington neverthe-­ less appointed him minister to France in 1794. His tenure there proved unsuccess-­ ful so he came home to successfully run as governor of Virginia in 1799. Four years later President Thomas Jefferson appointed him minister to France to assist Robert R. Livingston in negotiations that secured the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. He ran for the presidency as a Democratic-­Republican in 1808, lost again to Madison, then was asked to serve as his secretary of state. Monroe held this position for eight years without much distinction, but in the fall of 1814 he replaced the disgraced Secretary of War John Armstrong and performed capably. The Federalist opposition having destroyed themselves by opposing the War of 1812, Monroe had little trouble being elected the fifth president in 1816. As chief executive, Monroe adopted many of the Federalist positions he had previously opposed, like a national bank

and a strong military. He also displayed an uncanny knack for assembling a brilliant circle of politicians in his cabinet, including John C. Calhoun and John Quincy Adams, who remained with him throughout his two terms. Adams was particularly efficient as secretary of state, and in 1819 he arranged for the peaceful acquisition of Florida from Spain. Monroe also enjoyed the luxury of inheriting a nation at peace and basking in the afterglow of newfound nationalism. In fact his eight-­year tenure in office was popularly hailed as the “Era of Good Feel-­ ings.” However, he faced serious challenges in regard to the expansion of slavery and signed the Missouri Compromise of 1820 while doubting its constitutionality. That year Monroe was easily reelected president with all but one electoral vote. In 1823 he (continues)

President James Monroe (Library of Congress)

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(continued) also accepted Secretary of State Adams’s suggestion that the United States formally preclude future Europe an colonization in the Western hemisphere, a policy known as the Monroe Doctrine. Monroe left the White House in 1825 and returned to his native state, where he served as a regent

of the University of Virginia. In 1829 he also served as presiding officer at the Virginia constitutional convention. Monroe, a taciturn individual who wore his hair queued as in the days of the Revolutionary War, died in New York on July 4, 1831.

April 15 Educational: Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, who was trained at the Paris Institute, founds The American Asylum, the first free public school for deaf students, in Hartford, Connecticut. He is assisted there by Laurett Clerc, who is himself deaf, and the two begin devising a comprehensive sign language for English.

April 28–29 Diplomacy: In Washington, D.C., Secretary of State Richard Rush and British minister Charles Bagot sign the Rush-Bagot Agreement, which limits both sides to possessing eight warships and begins the process of demilitarizing the Great Lakes region. In this manner a very expensive naval arms race is avoided and eventually leads to the world’s longest undefended border.

May Politics: President James Monroe begins a celebrated tour of the Northeast and Middle West; his friendly reception in previously Federalist territory indicates that the “era of Good Feeling” is in full play.

July 4 Transportation: Governor DeWitt Clinton breaks ground for the new Erie Canal at Rome, New York; this massive project is intended to link the Hudson River Valley with the Great Lakes, thereby bringing the Great Lakes trade directly to New York City.

July 12 Journalism: The Boston Columbian Sentinel first proclaims President James Monroe’s administration “The Era of Good Feelings,” a euphemism for the surge of nationalism experienced after the War of 1812. As proof, it points to the popular reception of President Monroe as he toured New England and the Northwest that summer. However, as the decade plays out, the American polity is increasingly polarized by sectional differences.

August 29 Slavery: Abolitionist Charles Osborne begins publication of the Philanthropist, unique in demanding the immediate emancipation of all African-American slaves.

September Literature: William Cullen Bryant’s poem “Thanatopsis” appears in the North American Review and is widely praised by British critics. It pioneered serious reflection on nature and death, spawning an entirely new school of American poetry.

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October 8 Military: Congressman John C. Calhoun is appointed secretary of war; although not considered a prestigious appointment, especially considering the disarray the military establishment finds itself in, Calhoun functions as one of the most effective and efficient secretaries in American history. He performs competently while putting U.S. Army administration back on an even keel.

November 20 Military: The First Seminole War commences as Indian warriors, upset over the loss of life at the destruction of Fort Apalachicola in 1816, begin raiding American settlements along the south Georgia border. Many Americans believe that Spanish authorities have also been inciting the Indians’ hostility.

November 30 Military: Vengeful Seminoles ambush a boatload of U.S. Army troops on the Apalachicola River, Florida, killing 36 soldiers, six women, and four children.

December 1 Politics: The 15th Congress assembles with the Democratic-Republicans firmly controlling both the Senate and the House of Representatives.

December 2 Politics: President James Monroe, in his annual address to Congress, differs from his predecessor by supporting the notion that the U.S. Constitution does, in fact, grant authority to fund public works projects. He goes to great length to assure their constitutionality.

December 10 Politics: Mississippi enters the union as the 20th state; slavery is declared legal.

December 26 Military: General Andrew Jackson supercedes General Edmund P. Gaines as commander of American forces combating hostile Seminoles in northern Florida. Secretary of War John C. Calhoun authorizes him to use whatever force he deems necessary to bring the contest to a speedy conclusion.

1818 Arts: Noted artist and mezzotint engraver Bass Otis renders the first known lithograph, etched on stone, for publication in religious magazines. Painter Washington Allston, having studied in London with Benjamin West, returns to the United States and settles at Boston. Business: Englishman Peter Duran introduces the tin can to the United States as a practical method of preserving food. Military: General Andrew Jackson writes President James Monroe through Tennessee Congressman John Rhea that he is able to capture all of Spanish Florida in only two months if granted permission. When Monroe fails to respond to the missive, Jackson interprets his silence as approval to proceed. Technology: The West Point Foundry, a small forge capable of producing cannonballs and other military ordinance, opens at Cold Spring, New York. By the time of the Civil War it will manufacture more than 1.6 million shells and 3,000 artillery pieces.

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January Transportation: The Black Ball Line, consisting of four steamships, commences regularly scheduled service between New York City and Liverpool, England.

January 1 General: The former executive mansion, burned by the British in August 1814 and rebuilt, formally reopens with a new name: the White House. Publishing: Noted scientist Benjamin Silliman becomes publisher and editor of the American Journal of Science and Arts at New Haven, Connecticut, the first such publication in the United States.

January 5 Transportation: The vessel James Monroe departs New York for Liverpool, England, initiating the Black Ball Line’s transatlantic service.

January 6 Military: General Andrew Jackson, anticipating favorable orders, attacks Seminole Indians in Spanish-held Florida. Previously he had written to President James Monroe that he could secure the area within two months, then proceeds without proper authorization.

January 8 Politics: The first petitions calling for Missouri statehood begin arriving at Congress.

March 18 Politics: The Pension Act is passed by Congress, which provides lifetime pensions for surviving veterans of the Revolutionary War.

March 25 Diplomacy: Henry Clay harangues members of Congress to recognize the emerging revolutionary governments of South America; his resolution for the same is defeated as the government, already embroiled with Spain in a dispute over Florida, does not seek to confuse matters further.

April 4 General: Congress limits the number of red and white stripes added to the American flag at 13; henceforth new states will be signified by additional stars.

April 7 Military: General Andrew Jackson’s first foray against the Seminole Indians at St. Marks, Florida, results in the capture of two English traders, Alexander Arbuthnot and Robert Ambrister. Jackson has both men tried for arming and inciting the Seminole toward violence.

April 16 Diplomacy: The Rush-Bagot Agreement for demilitarizing the AmericanCanadian border is passed by the Senate.

April 29 Military: British traders Alexander Arbuthnot and Robert Ambrister are executed by General Andrew Jackson at St. Marks, Florida, for agitating the Seminole into violence against the United States. His harsh treatment triggers a public

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outcry from Great Britain but, in light of his popularity at home, no action is taken to censure him.

May 24 Military: American forces under General Andrew Jackson seize the Spanishheld town of Pensacola, effectively ending the First Seminole War.

May 30 Transportation: Scheduled packet ship service between New York City and Liverpool, England, commences; recent improvements in hull design and other refinements reduce the time spent during an Atlantic transit to 33 days.

June 20 Politics: Connecticut becomes the first state to liberalize its voting franchise by doing away with strict property qualifications.

July 4 Societal: A new U.S. flag is designed with 20 stars, five more than the last revision, although the number of stripes remains fixed at 13.

August 19 Naval: Captain James Biddle of the sloop USS Ontario arrives at Cape Disappointment on the Columbia River and claims the Oregon Territory for the United States.

August 23 Transportation: The 338-ton steamboat Walk in the Water departs Buffalo, New York, and heads for Detroit, Michigan, with 29 passengers. This is the first such vessel on the Great Lakes to afford regularly scheduled service.

September 20 Business: Seth Boyden manufactures the first patent leather in Newark, New Jersey, for use in the production of expensive furniture.

October Military: U.S. troops found Cantonment Martin on the Isle du Vache, Kansas Territory, the first military post in that region.

October 19 Indian: The Chickasaw Indians sign a treaty with the United States whereby they cede all their holdings between the Mississippi River and northern parts of the Tennessee River, a move which opens western Kentucky up to new settlement. In return they receive $300,000 over 15 years.

October 20 Diplomacy: American minister to England Richard Rush and minister to France Albert Gallatin appear in London to conclude the Convention of 1818 with Great Britain. This documents fixes the boundary between the United States and Canada at the 49th Parallel as far west as the continental divide, so the region of Oregon remains open to traders and shipping from both nations for a decade. Moreover, the United States retains fishing rights off Labrador and Newfoundland.

November 28 Diplomacy: Secretary of State John Quincy Adams explains to the government of Spain that General Andrew Jackson’s recent invasion of Florida was in response to Indian raids and runaway slaves. Moreover, he suggests that if the

1818

726  Chronology of American History spanish are incapable of properly administering the territory they should sell it to the United States.

December 3 Politics: Illinois enters the �union as the 21st state with its capital at Kaskaskia; slavery is prohibited.

1819 Architecture: Engineer Benjamin H. Latrobe designs the building to be used as the second Bank of the United States and is the latest example of the Greek revival in American architecture. Latrobe draws his inspiration directly from the Parthenon by incorporating a Doric portico (entrance). Arts: Chester Harding paints Daniel Boone at his home in St. Charles County, Missouri; this is the only known portrait from life. Business: Ezra Daggett and Thomas Kensett begin one of the earliest food can-­ ning enterprises by canning fish products in New York City. Literature: Washington Irving publishes his Sketchbook, which proves a best seller and among the most significant American books of the century. This book seals his reputation as the foremost American writer of his day. Military: Former army officer and West Point commandant Alden Partridge estab-­ lishes Norwich University at Northfield, Vermont, as the first private military college in the country. Partridge, fearing that an elite officer corps constituted a danger to democracy, wishes to impart military skill across a broad cross section of American society. This is the origin of Reserve Officer Candidate Training (ROTC).

January Business: The American economy endures its first financial panic owing to con-­ gressional insistence on curtailing credit and requiring payments in hard cur-­ rency. Consequently, throughout the “panic of 1819,” a number of state banks will collapse with numerous foreclosures on large tracts of western real estate.

January 12 Politics: Henry Clay’s report on events in Florida, whereby he condemns General Andrew Jackson’s conduct in the First Seminole War, fails to pass in Congress.

January 26 Politics: The Arkansas Territory is created by Congress by separating it from the Missouri Territory. An attempt to forbid slavery in the region by New York Congressman John W. Taylor is defeated.

February 2 Law: The Supreme Court under Chief Justice John Marshall decides the case Trustees of Dartmouth College v. Woodward, which reaffirms that a private cor-­ porate charter is a contract and cannot be voided or revised by a state. This is a Federalist, Â�pro-­business decision that stimulates the growth of corporations, free of state control.

February 8 Politics: The �House of Representatives repudiates Speaker Henry Clay and rejects his motion to censure General Andrew Jackson for his role in the First Seminole War on a vote of 107 to 63.

1819

Chronology

Irving, Washington

727

(1783–1859)

Author Washington Irving was born in New York City on April 3, 1783, the son of a wealthy merchant. Though raised in an affluent atmosphere, he proved uninspired as a student before settling upon a law career. Irving subsequently abandoned this to embark on a six-year tour of Europe after which he began writing genteel satirical pieces for his brother’s newspaper, Morning Chronicle. He then continued experimenting as a writer and contributed many popular and erudite essays to the publication Salmagundi (1808) in concert with James Kirke Paulding. Success here finally prompted Irving to try a book-length work, and in 1809 he published A History of New York under the pseudonym Diedrich Knickerbocker. This pretentious parody of New York history was roundly praised for its wit and insights and led to Irving’s appointment as editor of the Analectic Magazine, 1813–14. Following a brief stint in the militia during the War of 1812, Irving then ventured to England in 1815 to confer with noted writer Sir Walter Scott and toured the continent until 1832. There he took various notes of his observations abroad, which were collected into a volume, The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent, published in London in 1820. This proved to be Irving’s most celebrated endeavor, was widely praised on both sides of the Atlantic, and contains the famous short stories “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” Its success brought Irving recognition as America’s first man of letters, as did a subsequent

volume, Bracebridge Sketch Book (1822). The significance of his work at this juncture was in defining the short story format with an engaging dialogue and interweaving of American folklore into the central theme. In 1826 Irving’s career took a different turn altogether when he gained appointment as U.S. Minister to Spain. There he switched over to writing historical biographies of Christopher Columbus and various books concerning Spanish folklore and his travels within that peninsula. He then came home in 1832 and settled at Tarrytown, New York, before conducting several forays to the western frontier in search of new material. The result was A Tour on the Prairies (1835) and The Adventures of Captain Bonneville (1837) which, while competently executed, lacked the sparkle of earlier works. Irving returned to Spain in 1842 and remained there four more years as minister, where his writing principally revolved around biographies. His most significant effort along these lines was a five-volume set entitled George Washington (1855–59), the first serious biography of the noted leader in five decades. Irving died at Tarrytown on November 28, 1859. Few of his later works enjoyed the celebrity of earlier efforts, but these were unique enough to secure his reputation as the first American writer to garner praise from his English counterparts. In a strictly literary sense, Irving helped pioneer and refine the short descriptive story for the generation of writers following in his wake.

February 13 Politics: The Missouri Bill is introduced into Congress, allowing that territory to apply for statehood. Attempts to outlaw slavery in the region by New York Congressman James Tallmadge are passed in the House but subsequently defeated in the Senate. The reason for this is that Missouri will upset the balance between slave and free states, and constitutes the first, real national divide over the issue.

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February 17 Law: The Supreme Court decides the case of Sturges v. Crowninshield, which declares that state bankruptcy laws passed after the signing of a contract are in violation of the contract clause of the Constitution.

February 18 Slavery: Representative John W. Taylor of New York introduces an amendment to the House of Representatives which would bar the importation of slaves to Arkansas once it is admitted as a state; the move is rejected.

February 22 Diplomacy: Secretary of State John Quincy Adams and Spanish minister Luis de Onís conclude the Adams-Onís Treaty in Washington, D.C., whereby Spain cedes East Florida to the United States in return for $2 million. The Americans also renounce any claims to the region of Texas and pledge to pay $5 million in debt owed to Spain by various citizens while a firm boundary is established between American and Spanish territories along the Sabine River.

February 28 Education: Former president Thomas Jefferson founds the University of Virginia at Charlottesville, and he also designs the first buildings constructed there.

March 2 Immigration: Congress instructs ships’ captains to provide descriptive lists of passengers brought to the United States. This is the first attempt to control and regulate immigration. Settlement: The Arkansas Territory is organized from the Missouri Territory with its capital at Arkansas Post.

March 3 Slavery: Congress passes a law providing a $50 reward per slave for anyone reporting the illegal importation of Africans into the United States. Any such slaves apprehended are to be promptly returned to Africa.

March 6 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court under Chief Justice John Marshall decides the seminal case of McCulloch v. Maryland, ruling that it is patently unconstitutional for any state to impose a tax on an agency of the United States government. This thwarts an attempt by Maryland to tax a branch of the Bank of the United States and also reaffirms the Federalist-generated “implied powers” clause of the Constitution. Religion: In his noted sermon “Unitarian Christianity,” Liberal Protestant preacher William Ellery Channing delineates the basic theological points of Unitarianism—which underscores the schism with more conservative Protestant faiths.

April 2 Publishing: John Stuart Skinner edits and publishes the American Farmer, the first successful agricultural journal in the United States, which remains in print until 1897.

April 23 Journalism: The Missouri Intelligencer takes root at Franklin, Missouri; this is the first newspaper published west of St. Louis.

1819

Chronology

Channing, William Ellery

729

(1780–1842)

theologian William Ellery Channing was born in Newport, Rhode Island, on April 7, 1780, the scion of a prominent New England family. He graduated from Harvard College in 1798 and then served as a household tutor in Virginia for several months. His firsthand experiences with slavery seared him and thereafter he was firmly against continuation of that institution. He did, however, respect slave owners and always sought to engage them, not condemn them. Channing returned to Harvard in 1802 to study theology and in June 1803 he became minister of the Federal Street Congregationalist Church in Boston, a position he held for the rest of his life. At the onset of his career, Channing was regarded as a powerful, persuasive speaker, but a relatively minor religious thinker. At this time the prevailing strains of New England theology fell into two distinct camps. The first was a conservative and very strict Calvinist persuasion that promulgated a jealous God, human depravity, and the absence of free will. The second school of thought, the anti-Calvinists, advocated a merciful deity, potential redemption of all mankind, and absolute free will. Channing, at the inception of his career, leaned toward the more liberal end of the argument and espoused broadly liberal sympathies and a profound understanding of human nature and its frailties. It was not until 1815, however, when the struggle between Calvinists and anti-Calvinists spilled heatedly into the public arena, that he was enabled to refine his religious stance.

The turning point for Channing’s career happened in Baltimore in 1819, at the ordination of Jared Sparks. There he delivered his landmark oration, “Unitarian Christianity,” which crystallized the liberal movement and served as a template for the new Unitarian creed. In 1820 he helped arrange a conference of Unitarian ministers, which led directly to the founding of the American Unitarian Association in 1825. To this end Channing also began editing and publishing the newsletter Christian Disciple, which proffered Unitarianism as a rational system of belief, one catering to human intellect. In sum, this was a unique blend of traditional Christian mysticism with renewed emphasis on and respect for human reasoning. The emerging New England intelligentsia found Channing’s message appealing and counted among its adherents such local luminaries as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Oliver Wendell Holmes. Outside of theological matters, Channing also paid considerable attention to the state of American literature, commented on it widely in various erudite journals, and entreated prospective writers to establish a national school of writing to distinguish itself from that of much-copied England. Toward the end of his life Channing also increasingly dabbled in politics, being at the forefront of both the abolition and temperance movements, although he always sought national harmony through innate goodness. Channing died in Bennington, Vermont, on October 2, 1842, the reluctant founder of a new religious movement.

April 26 Societal: The Independent Order of Odd Fellows takes root in America following establishment of Washington Lodge No. 1 in Baltimore, Maryland, through the efforts of Englishman Thomas Wildey.

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May 8 Societal: Seventy-one-year-old King Kamehameha, unifier of the Hawaiian islands, dies in his palace. He is succeeded by his son Liliohilo, who is enthroned as Kamehameha II.

May 24 Transportation: The 330-ton vessel Savannah, a sailing ship partially powered by steam propulsion, departs Savannah, Georgia, and wends its way toward Liverpool, England.

June 6 Exploring: Army topographical engineer Major Stephen H. Long is commissioned by Secretary of War John C. Calhoun to lead an expedition from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to the region south of the Missouri River. The effort lasts two years and thoroughly examines the eastern Rocky Mountains and the area known as the “Great American Desert.”

June 19 Politics: The District of Maine successfully petitions the Massachusetts legislature for statehood.

June 20 Transportation: The steamer Savannah under Captain Moses Rogers crosses the Atlantic and completes the transit from Savannah to Liverpool in only 27 days.

July 23 Naval: Captain Oliver Hazard Perry, hero of the Battle of Lake Erie in 1813, dies of yellow fever while on a diplomatic mission to Trinidad.

September 1 Technology: Jethro Wood receives a patent for a plow with interchangeable parts.

September 24 Indian: The United States concludes the Treaty of Saginaw with the Chippewa Indians of Michigan, gaining the land in and around Saginaw Bay.

October 22 Transportation: A steamboat makes its way from the Hudson River to Utica, New York, being the first vessel to employ that waterway.

December 8 Settlement: The Territory of Maine formally petitions Congress for statehood.

December 14 Politics: Alabama gains admittance to the union as the 22nd state with its capital at Huntsville; slavery is permitted.

1820 Literature: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow publishes his first poem, entitled “The Battle of Lovell’s Pond,” in the Portland Gazette. Medical: Lyman Spalding publishes the U. S. Pharmacopoeia, the first list of government-approved drugs. Politics: The so-called Relief Party is formed during the panic of 1819 for the assistance of debtors. Henry Clay and his followers in the Democratic-Republican

1820

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731

Party oppose it while Andrew Jackson and his supporters embrace it; their respective factions form the basis for the Whig and Democratic parties. Population: A total of 9,638,453 inhabitants is reported by the fourth U.S. Census. Religion: The general synod of Lutheran churches is established. Slavery: Quaker convert Elihu Embree begins publication of his abolitionist newspaper Emancipator at Jonesboro, Tennessee. Societal: New York and New Hampshire pioneer the first state-supported public libraries.

January 23 Politics: The Maine Bill, granting statehood to that region, passes the House of Representatives, but inasmuch as it is a free state, Maine will upset the delicate balance between free and slave states. The matter is then referred to the Senate for resolution.

January 25 Politics: The Illinois state capital is transferred from Kaskaskia to Vandalia.

February Military: The U.S. Army officially refuses to enlist African Americans.

February 6 Societal: The ship Mayflower of Liberia departs New York with 86 free African Americans on board who have elected to return to Africa. They intend to resettle at the British West African colony of Sierra Leone, a refuge for freed slaves over the past three decades.

February 17 Politics: Rather than upset the balance between slave and free states, the Senate crafts the Missouri Compromise, which allows Maine and Missouri to join the union as free and slave states respectively. An amendment proposed by Senator Jesse B. Thomas of Illinois also prohibits slavery in northwestern portions of the Louisiana Territory.

March 3 Politics: The Missouri Compromise passes both houses of Congress following protracted wrangling over the issue of slavery. Maine and Missouri thus enter the Union as free and slave states respectively, although the latter is not admitted until 1821. Because Southern states lag behind their Northern counterparts in population, therefore with fewer members in the House of Representatives, it is essential to maintain parity of slave and free numbers in the Senate. If this becomes a de facto policy to allow one slave state in the Union for every free state, the balance at present stands at 12 apiece.

March 15 Politics: Maine gains admission to the Union as the 23rd state, with its capital at Portland. The region had been administered by Massachusetts since the 1690s, but the influx of new arrivals stimulates calls for independence. The new constitution extends suffrage and educational rights to all.

March 22 Naval: Commodore Stephen Decatur, hero of the War of 1812, dies in a duel with fellow officer Captain James Barron over recriminations dating back to the 1807 Chesapeake-Leopard Affair.

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Chronology of American History

March 30 Religion: King Kamehamea II of Hawaii greets a number of New England missionaries who arrive on the vessel Thadeus.

April 24 Settlement: The Public Land Act passes Congress, mandating a reduction of the minimum price per acre from $2.00 to $1.25 and a reduction in the size of minimum purchases from 160 to 80 acres. The use of credit to acquire land is also abolished.

May 15 Politics: The Tenure of Office Act passes in Congress, which limits the time in office for specific appointed offices to four years. Slavery: Congress brands any participation in the slave trade as an act of piracy, and punishments include both confiscation of the vessel and a possible death penalty.

June 6 Exploring: Major Stephen H. Long’s expedition departs Pittsburgh and makes for the Missouri River.

July 14 –15 Exploring: Major Stephen H. Long’s exploring expedition reaches the eastern Rocky Mountains (Colorado), and a team under Edwin James ascends Pike’s Peak for the first time.

July 19 Societal: At St. Louis, the new Missouri Territory constitution bars the presence of free African Americans and mulattos once statehood is achieved.

September 26 General: Daniel Boone, the iconic frontiersman of his generation, dies in St. Charles County, Missouri, aged 85 years.

November 18 Science: The Connecticut sloop Hero under Captain Nathaniel B. Palmer, while on a seal-hunting expedition south of Cape Horn, South America, sights the Antarctic landmass for the first time.

November 27 Arts: Actor Edwin Forrest debuts on stage for the first time at the age of 15; though critics seem singularly underwhelmed by his performance, he is destined to emerge as one of the nation’s first stage idols.

December 6 Politics: James Monroe easily sails to victory in his bid for reelection as president, swamping John Quincy Adams by 231 electoral votes to 1; Daniel D. Tompkins of New York also remains as vice president with 218 votes.

December 26 Settlement: Moses Austin asks Spanish authorities for permission to settle 300 American families in Texas.

1821 Arts: The African Company, consisting solely of African-American actors, begins performing the classics in New York City.

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Literature: James Fenimore Cooper publishes his novel The Spy, which establishes him as a romantic writer specializing in uniquely American themes. It undergoes three printings in its first year. Publishing: The Saturday Evening Post is founded in New York City.

Cooper, James Fenimore

(1789–1851)

Author James Fenimore Cooper was born in Burlington, New Jersey, on September 15, 1789, the son of a successful landowner and developer. He matured at Cooperstown, New York, and in 1802 attended Yale College but three years later was expelled for raucous behavior. Cooper then tried his hand as a seaman, serving with the merchant marine in 1806 and then joining the U.S. Navy as a midshipman in 1808. He left the service in 1811 to marry a wealthy landowner’s daughter and settled at Cooperstown to live the life of a country gentleman. It was not until 1820 that Cooper evinced any interest in writing, principally through his wife’s dare to compose something better than the British novels of the day. His first attempt, Precaution, basically copied most English literary conventions, but his subsequent effort, The Spy (1821), pioneered a new character, the so-called Cooper Hero, who was invariably a solitary and brave frontier figure. Having found a ready market for his American-oriented novels, Cooper proceeded to compose the Leatherstocking Tales, featuring the archetypical character Natty Bumpo, who was invariably struggling to maintain his love of nature, closeness to Native Americans, and independence in a world of encroaching civilization. In this respect his most famous novel, The Last of the Mohicans (1826), set new standards for establishing the literary connection between Americans and their wilderness heritage. Cooper was the first writer to view nature as a gift from God and therefore to be enjoyed, not plundered. He invariably sought to bal-

ance the needs of society with responsibility toward the environment. Cooper’s success as the first great American novelist led him to tour Europe for many years, where he continued writing and vigorously defended the country’s nascent national literature. However, after returning to Cooperstown in 1833, he was struck by the sweeping change in attitudes brought on by Jacksonian democracy, which he characterized as anarchical. His political treatise, The American Democrat (1838), and his next two novels, Homeward Bound (1838) and Home as Found (1838), which basically reflected his own aristocratic leanings, were badly received by critics and Cooper was roundly abused in the press. He responded with several successful law suits against his detractors, many of which set prevailing standards for libel in the courts, but these only deepened public apathy toward his writings. Nonetheless, Cooper compiled a very useful History of the Navy of the United States (1839) and the final two installments of the Leatherstocking series, The Pathfinder (1840) and The Deerslayer (1841), which were better received. Cooper died at Cooperstown on September 14, 1851, the nation’s first significant author of novels. Despite his somewhat condescending attitude toward the lower orders of society, he indelibly established a distinctly novel format, employing both American themes and American environments, which finally set it apart from British contemporaries.

1821

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Chronology of American History Slavery: The American Colonization Society establishes the nation of Liberia for the resettlement of African-American slaves and freed men. Its capital is Monrovia, named after President James Monroe. Sports: A relaxation of limitations on horse racing in New York results in the construction of tracks in Queens County and on Long Island.

January Slavery: Quaker editor Benjamin Lundy begins publication of The Genius of Universal Emancipation, an early abolitionist journal, at Mt. Pleasant, Ohio.

January 17 Settlement: The Spanish government grants lead mine operator Moses Austin a grant to settle 300 American families on a tract along the lower Brazos River, Texas. He dies soon after and his son, Stephen Austin, subsequently assumes control of the colony.

February 6 Education: Columbian College (present George Washington University) is chartered in the District of Columbia sponsored by Baptist interests.

February 19 Diplomacy: The Senate ratifies the Adams-Onís Treaty for the acquisition of Florida.

February 24 Diplomacy: Mexico declares itself independent from Spain.

March 2 Politics: A second Missouri Compromise vote unfolds in Congress as a compromise arranged by House Speaker Henry Clay admits Missouri into the union but only if it does not discriminate against free African Americans there. The new Missouri legislature will have no choice but to adopt this condition.

March 3 Law: The Supreme Court decides the case of Cohens v. Virginia, which reaffirms the earlier decision in Martin v. Hunter’s Lessee, affirming the Court’s right to review state court decisions.

March 5 Politics: President James Monroe and Vice President Daniel D. Tompkins are inaugurated for their second terms in office. This is also the first time that an inauguration day had been rescheduled so as not to fall on a Sunday.

April 15 Military: President James Monroe appoints General Andrew Jackson as governor of the new Florida Territory.

May Education: English Classical School, the first, free, publicly supported secondary school, opens in Boston. It is subsequently dubbed the English High School, denoting the first use of that term in an educational context.

May 31 Religion: The Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, the nation’s first Catholic cathedral, opens its doors to the faithful in Baltimore, Maryland. It has been under construction since 1806.

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Chronology

735

June 1 Education: The Troy Female Seminary is founded at Troy, New York, by Emma Hart Willard; it serves as America’s first institution of higher education for women. Willard is determined to advance the state of female education, a fact reflected in her curricula of mathematics, history, and philosophy.

July 17 Settlement: General Andrew Jackson, now acting in the capacity of territorial governor, formally receives control of Florida from Spanish authorities.

August 10 Politics: Missouri enters the union as the 24th state with its capital at Jefferson City; its addition brings the total number of slave states to 12, equaling the number of free states.

September 1 Business: A wagon train of goods departs Independence, Missouri, under the command of William Becknell, and threads its way to Santa Fe, New Mexico. This venture is the origin of the famous Santa Fe Trail.

September 4 Diplomacy: Czar Alexander I claims the Pacific coast of North America as far south as the 51st Parallel, including the Oregon Territory already jointly claimed by the United States and Great Britain. Furthermore, the waters of Alaska, previously open to American and British whaling, are now restricted.

October 18 Music: A music book published by Lowell Mason, which includes the noted hymn “Nearer, My God, to Thee,” eventually goes through 22 editions and 50,000 copies.

November 1 Transportation: The noted early steam vessel Walk in the Water sinks in a storm on the Great Lakes.

November 10 Politics: The so-called Albany Regency under Martin Van Buren, a radical faction of the Democratic-Republican Party, dominates a constitutional convention in New York. They manage to liberalize voter suffrage by abolishing all property qualifications; however, these provisions are not extended to free African Americans.

December Slavery: The Maryland supreme state court, in Hall v. Mullin, frees an AfricanAmerican slave whose master has bequeathed him property, since slaves, by definition, are not allowed to own property.

December 18 Education: The University of Alabama is chartered at Tuscaloosa, although classes do not commence until 1831.

1822 Business: Full-scale manufacturing of cotton cloth begins at the mills in Lowell, Massachusetts, one of America’s earliest industrial centers. The largely female

1822

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Chronology of American History

Becknell, William (ca. 1790–1865) Trader William Becknell was probably born in Amherst County, Virginia, around 1790, and he settled in Saline County, Missouri, just prior to the War of 1812. From his few letters that have survived he was apparently barely literate and obtained a scanty education in his youth. In 1814 he served as an ensign in the U.S. Rangers, then resigned the following year. In September 1821, to help mitigate the effects of a national depression, Becknell and four companions took a small convoy of pack animals from Franklin, Missouri, to Colorado. They originally intended to trade with Comanche tribesmen along the southern Rocky Mountains but, after encountering a group of Mexican soldiers who informed them of Mexico’s newly won independence from Spain, they turned south to Santa Fe, New Mexico. Prior to this, Spanish authorities had rigorously arrested all American traders found trespassing on their territory, so Becknell gladly altered his destination. There he found a ready new market for American goods and resolved to return the following year with even more supplies. The new expedition departed Missouri in August 1822, becoming the first western expedition to utilize wagons. Becknell also employed a new route across the Kansas Plains and then followed the Cimarron River south into New Mexico to avoid the treacherous passes of the Colorado mountains. This route facilitated the transit of large wagons directly into Santa Fe but also imposed great hardships on men and animals owing to its arid climate and lack of water. The Americans nonetheless

profited considerably from their exertions, and this is the first recorded use of what later became known as the Santa Fe Trail. It subsequently served as a major avenue of trade and migration into the Old Southwest, and within a few years hundreds of wagons made the trek. Becknell’s pioneering efforts also stimulated the first major trade arrangements between the United States and Mexico. Furthermore, the sheer volume of traffic along the trail prodded the American government to begin using routine military escortsto protect the traders from bands of hostile Indians. These constituted the first American military presence on the southern plains. In 1824 Becknell personally conducted an even larger expedition of 25 wagons and 81 men to Santa Fe, with a considerable profit of $190,000 in gold and furs. He is also known to have explored the region around the Green River Valley, Colorado, but this was to prove his final overland venture. By 1828 he contented himself with operating a small ferry service on the Missouri River, although he subsequently developed a taste for politics and was twice elected to the Missouri state legislature representing Saline County. He briefly served as a captain of Missouri militia during the Black Hawk War. In 1835 he forsook politics to command a ranger company in the Texas War for Independence against Mexico. He eventually settled at Clarksville, Texas, and died there on April 30, 1865. For his success in trading and exploring he remains known as the “Father of the Santa Fe Trail.”

workforce is strictly regulated under paternalistic conditions and receives many benefits missing in more common agrarian settings. John Jacob Astor acquires a near-total monopoly on the fur trade by buying out the few remaining companies still functioning once Congress shuts down the Indian factory system.

1822

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Literature: James Fenimore Cooper’s fourth novel, The Pilot, is an immediate hit with the public. This is also his first attempt to write a maritime novel which surpasses those of Sir Walter Scott. Music: The popular song “The Hunters of Kentucky,” a patriotic paean to the War of 1812, is first sung by Noah Ludlow at New Orleans. Publishing: Noted printer and author Mathew Carey of Philadelphia weighs in on the national economy with his Essays on Political Economy, which stresses the “American System” of high tariffs and internal improvements subsidized by the federal government. Sports: President of Yale Reverend Timothy Dwight outlaws a sports that roughly resembles modern day football; transgressors are to be fined half a dollar.

January Journalism: In a glimpse of things to come, the Nashville Gazette endorses General Andrew Jackson for president.

January 23 Politics: Le Fleur, Mississippi, is renamed Jackson and functions as the new state capital.

March 8 Diplomacy: President James Monroe addresses Congress, imploring them to extend recognition to the new Latin American republics of South America, including La Plata (Argentina), Brazil, Chile, Peru, Colombia, Mexico, and the Federation of Central American States. He delays his decision until the acquisition of Florida has been secured.

March 22 Business: William Henry Ashley, a noted fur trader, places an advertisement in the St. Louis Missouri Republican for 100 volunteers to venture down the Missouri River with him and develop the fur trade; he gets more than 200 applicants. This is the genesis of the successful Rocky Mountain Fur Company.

March 30 Settlement: Congress orders the union of East and West Florida into a single entity, the Florida Territory, led by General Andrew Jackson. This superimposes a territorial organization on the region to replace Jackson’s military arrangements.

April 10 Education: Geneva College (present-day Hobart College) is chartered at Geneva, New York, uniquely offering many nonclassical courses for practical knowledge.

April 27 General: Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th president, is born at Point Pleasant, Ohio.

May 4 Diplomacy: Congress appropriates $100,000 to establish diplomatic missions in several new South American nations. Transportation: President James Monroe vetoes the Cumberland Road Toll Bill, which mandates the levying of state tolls in order to finance repairs along that transportation system. The president feels such authority is not found in the Constitution and recommends passing an amendment to that effect.

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Ashley, William Henry (1778–1838) Fur trader William Henry Ashley was born around 1778 in Powhatan County, Virginia, although he migrated to the Louisiana Territory sometime before it was acquired by the United States in 1803. He settled at St. Louis and engaged in the saltpeter and gunpowder manufacturing trade essential for this frontier region. During the War of 1812 Ashley served as a lieutenant colonel of militia, which also did much to enhance his political reputation. Consequently, when Missouri joined the Union in 1820 he served as the first lieutenant governor. The postwar depression afflected his business fortunes severely, however, and Ashley was forced to seek alternative sources of income. He did so by forming the Rocky Mountain Fur Company in concert with fellow investor Andrew Henry. The fur trade was a century-old occupation on the American frontier, but Ashley proved brilliantly innovative in his business techniques. In 1821 he bought out newspaper advertisements eeking “enterprising young men,” and more than 200 responded. From these he selected 100 of the most capable hunters and trappers and occasionally accompanied them into the field on various forays. In this capacity Ashley acquired firsthand knowledge of what his “mountain men” needed in the bush to succeed. He also instituted the celebrated practice of the “rendezvous,” a yearly frontier gathering by frontiersmen to swap tales, fraternize, and conduct business matters. In this manner Ashley was able to dispatch organized teams of trappers, or “brigades,” further and longer into

the most remote corners of the far west. In 1824 a party of his men under Jedediah Strong Smith discovered the South Pass, which subsequently served as an important conduit for frontier migrations to California and Oregon. Ashley himself headed a large expedition which sailed down the Green River for the first time as far as the fort at Henry’s Fork, contributing to the knowledge of that remote region. In all his frontier endeavors Ashley proved highly successful and mounted the only real competition to the Hudson Bay Company in Canada and John Jacob Astor’s American Fur Company in New York. In 1826 Ashley, now a very wealthy man, sold his interest in the company to Jedediah Smith to reenter the world of frontier politics. He ran failed campaigns for the governorship and the U.S. Senate in 1824 and 1829, but in 1836 he won a seat in the House of Representatives as a Whig. He was elected three times over continual opposition to the antibusiness Jacksonians in Missouri before declining to run a fourth time in 1837. Following another failed attempt to run for governor, in which his highly probusiness leanings militated against him in this preponderantly agrarian state, Ashley retired from public life to attend to his business ventures. He died near Boonville, Missouri, on March 26, 1838, a frontier legend and a very successful entrepreneur. His farsighted leadership completely changed the direction of the fur trade in America and assisted its subsequent expansion westward.

May 30 Slavery: A planned slave uprising by free African-American Denmark Vesey collapses when the plot is revealed to white authorities. A ship’s carpenter by profession, he had previously won his freedom by winning a lottery. Vesey and 34

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other blacks will hang in consequence, and stricter control of slaves throughout the South results.

June 6 Medical: Dr. William Beaumont makes medical history when he tends Alexis St. Martin, who is wounded by a shotgun blast and has a small hole on the side of his stomach. Beaumont uses this access to study his subject’s stomach fluids and conducts the first ever experiments and observation of the human digestive tract.

June 19 Diplomacy: The United States extends formal recognition to the republic of Gran Columbia (Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Panama) under the leadership of noted liberation hero Simón Bolívar.

July Slavery: The South Carolina legislature adopts regulations restricting the movement of free African Americans in the state; the measure even applies to black seamen on shore leave.

July 2 Slavery: Denmark Vesey, a free African American, is hanged in Charleston, South Carolina, for his role in plotting a slave insurrection.

July 7 Business: Missouri trader William Becknell completes the 800-mile journey to New Mexico and arrives at Santa Fe with three wagons of wares.

July 20 Politics: Andrew Jackson is chosen by the Tennessee state legislature to serve as its presidential nominee for the 1824 election. This action dispenses with the previous method of choosing candidates through a congressional caucus and offers greater popular participation, an indication of the onset of Jacksonian democracy.

July 24 Diplomacy: The United States strongly protests Czar Alexander I’s claim of the Pacific northwest coast and threatens war if the Russians attempt to take control.

September 3 Societal: The Sac and Fox Indians conclude a treaty with the United States which allows them to live and hunt on land ceded to the government in Wisconsin and Illinois.

September 15 Business: The Rocky Mountain Fur Company of William Henry Ashley and Andrew Henry commences business operations by employing a select group of “Mountain Men” like Jedediah Smith and Jim Bridger to hunt and trap in the northern Rocky Mountains. They remain a lucrative enterprise until John Jacob Astor surpasses them with his American Fur Company.

October 4 General: Rutherford B. Hayes, the 19th president, is born at Delaware, Ohio.

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October 27 Transportation: The initial 280-mile section of the Erie Canal, linking Albany, New York, to Rochester, is opened.

November 18 Politics: Henry Clay is nominated to run for the presidency by the Kentucky state legislature.

November 29 Politics: Luis Antonio Arguello is appointed the first governor of the new republic of California, now a part of Mexico.

December 12 Diplomacy: The United States extends official recognition to Mexico, headed by former royalist Agustín de Iturbide, who has assumed the title of “emperor.”

December 22 Naval: In an effort to combat a rising tide of piracy in the Caribbean, Congress establishes the West Indies Squadron under Commodore James Biddle. Over the next eight years more than 50 pirate vessels are either captured or destroyed.

1823 Arts: The Hudson River School is formed by a group of American painters who reject classical artistic school of naturalism and embrace the more romantic approach of contemporary Europe. Education: In Vermont, Samuel R. Hall founds the nation’s first school for teachers. Religion: The American Tract Society is founded for the purpose of publishing religion and moral literature. Slavery: The Mississippi legislature approves ordinances which forbid gathering of more than five African Americans in any one place; its also forbids their learning to read and write.

January Business: Nicholas Biddle, a wealthy financier from Philadelphia, gains appointment to head the Bank of the United States. In this capacity he serves with considerable success and the bank prospers until its charter expires in 1836. Publishing: Charles J. Ingersoll rushes to the defense of American culture in his Discourse Concerning the Influence of America on the Mind. He publishes it to silence English critics and maintains that the nation’s greatest contribution is the notion and exercise of self-government. Science: Benjamin Silliman of Yale is the first American scientist to concoct hydrofluoric acid.

January 27 Diplomacy: The United States extends formal recognition to the new nations of Argentina and Chile.

February Law: The Supreme Court, in deciding the case of Green v. Biddle, rules that a contract between two states is as valid as that between two individuals and subject to the same legal standards.

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Biddle, Nicholas

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(1786–1844)

Banker Nicholas Biddle was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on January 8, 1786, a son of Quaker parents. He proved himself a child prodigy by gaining admittance to the University of Pennsylvania at the age of 10, transferring to the College of New Jersey (Princeton University), and graduating as a class valedictorian at 13. Biddle then returned to Philadelphia to study law and in 1804 relocated to France to serve as secretary of American Minister John Armstrong. In 1806 he shifted over to London to serve on the staff of Minister James Monroe and in this capacity absorbed many nuances about national finance and banking. Biddle returned home the following year to resume his legal studies and was admitted to the bar, but he preferred working as editor of the Port Folio, a leading literary magazine. A learned man of letters, Biddle also commenced editing the journals of explorers Lewis and Clark for publication, but in 1814 he won a seat in the state legislature and concentrated on politics. One of his principal endeavors here was defending the first Bank of the United States, which President James Madison allowed to expire with disastrous economic consequences in the War of 1812. The Democratic Republicans soon rechartered the bank after the peace to restore order to the American economy, and in 1819 President Monroe appointed Biddle to its board of directors. He performed capably in this role and in 1822, following the resignation of Langdon Cheves as director, Biddle was appointed

in his place. He held this position for 14 years, longer than any appointee. Biddle proved himself a brilliant financier, and he used the Bank of the United States to orchestrate a flexible money supply that would rise and contract as the economy demanded. Consequently, the American marketplace experienced a period of great stability owing to the pursuit of conservative fiscal policies. Under Biddle’s aegis, the bank also expanded nationally, opening offices in major cities across the nation. The economy thrived, but the notion of central banking and business-oriented policies rankled the new Jacksonian democrats, who attacked it as a bastion of wealth and privilege. Furthermore, Biddle’s aristocratic demeanor and lack of tact in politics played directly into their hands. President Andrew Jackson, who assumed the presidency in 1829, routinely assailed both Biddle and his bank for the elite business clique they represented. Knowing that the bank charter would expire in 1836, Biddle pushed Henry Clay, his ally in Congress, to renew it in 1832, four years ahead of schedule. Jackson, always eager for a political brawl, vetoed the bill and basically terminated the bank. Once the charter expired, Biddle gave it a new lease on life as the Bank of the United States in Pennsylvania and helped restore the American economy during a steep depression, but he finally retired from public life in 1839. The United States thus lacked any central bank until the 20th century. Biddle died in Philadelphia on February 27, 1844.

February 18 Settlement: The Mexican emperor Augustin I reconfirms the Rio Brazos land grant made earlier to Moses Austin, soon to be home to 300 American families led by his son, Stephen Austin.

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March 3 Transportation: Congress authorizes the construction of numerous lighthouses and beacons around the nation’s coastline to facilitate safety and trade.

May Sports: The first competition between racehorses from the North and South is run at the Union Course on Long Island, New York. Northern entry American Eclipse beats out Sir Henry, winning a purse of $20,000 before an audience estimated at 100,000.

May 8 Music: John Howard Payne’s sentimental “Home Sweet Home” became one of the most popular tunes in American history to that date; it is first performed in an obscure play of his. Technology: Gas lighting is employed for the first time at the American theater in New Orleans.

July 14 General: King Kamehameha II dies of measles while onboard a British vessel to visit King George IV in England. He is succeeded by his nine-year-old son Prince Kauikeaouli, but the actual reins of government will be held by Dowager Queen Kaahumanu until he reaches 18.

July 17 Diplomacy: Secretary of State John Quincy Adams tells the Russian minister to the United States that North America is no longer subject to colonization by European or other powers. This directly confronts Czar Alexander I’s claims on the Pacific coast, including Alaska and Oregon and the Holy Alliance’s intention to help Spain reconquer its rebellious colonies in Central and South America.

August 20 Diplomacy: George Canning, the British foreign secretary, suggests to American minister in London Richard Rush that their two nations should cooperate militarily if any countries of the Holy Alliance (France, Austria, Prussia, Russia) attempt to reconquer South America for Spain. Rush’s initial response is favorable.

September 4 Politics: Father Gabriel Richard is elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as a nonvoting delegate from the Michigan Territory; he is the first Catholic priest to serve in Congress.

September 10 Transportation: The Champlain Canal connecting Lake Champlain to the Hudson River, New York, formally opens for business.

September 21 Religion: Eighteen-year-old Joseph Smith apparently has a vision in Palmyra, New York, wherein the angel Moroni appears and tells him where to find a buried religious book made of gold.

November 5 Religion: In a move that must have sent Puritans spinning in their graves, Father William Taylor, a Roman Catholic priest, delivers the prayer invocation during the opening session of the Massachusetts General Court.

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November 7 Diplomacy: Secretary of State John Quincy Adams prevails upon President James Monroe to reject any British offers of alliance to counter European intervention in the New World, warning that they would “come in as a cockboat in the wake of a British man-of-war.” Instead, he champions the idea that the United States ought to act alone in that regard and police the Western hemisphere on its own.

December 1 Politics: Recent elections mark the return of Daniel Webster to the House of Representatives, in which Henry Clay continues serving a speaker.

December 2 Diplomacy: In his message to Congress, President James Monroe outlines the Monroe Doctrine, whereby the United States will not tolerate the colonization of the New World by Europe or any other power. Moreover, he pledges not to become involved in any dispute with existing colonies in Latin America and also declines to participate in European wars. This speech becomes the cornerstone of American diplomacy in the Western Hemisphere.

December 23 Arts: The anonymous poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas” (“Twas the Night before Christmas”) appears in the Troy Sentinel, New York. It originates from the lucid pen of Clement Clarke Moore, a professor of Greek and Oriental literature.

1824 Indian: The Cherokee educator Sequoyah develops the first written alphabet for a Native American language. The ensuing system has a syllabary of 85 characters reflecting the spoken sounds of the Cherokee dialect. Labor: The first strike involving female factory workers occurs in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, when the owners of textile mills proposes a cut in wages and longer hours.

January 24 Education: The Theological Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal Church (today’s Kenyon College) is chartered at Gambier, Ohio; the first class graduates in 1829.

February 10 Politics: Congress approves the General Surveys Bill, which empowers the president to authorize surveys for the construction of roads and canals.

February 14 Politics: William H. Crawford of Georgia is nominated for the presidency by the last congressional caucus despite the fact that only 66 of 216 Democratic Republican delegates are present. Other candidates will be nominated by their state legislatures.

February 15 Politics: The Massachusetts legislature nominates John Quincy Adams for the presidency.

March 1 Transportation: Construction begins on the Morris Canal, New Jersey, intending to link New York City with the Delaware River.

1824

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Chronology of American History

Sequoyah (ca. 1770–1843) Cherokee linguist Sequoyah (“Sparrow”) was born in the Cherokee village Taskigi (Fort Loudoun), Tennessee, around 1770, a member of the Paint Clan. His mother, Wurtee, was apparently related to several important chiefs, while his father is suspected to have been American soldier and trader Nathaniel Gist. The two apparently never married, and she relocated with part of her tribe to presentday Willstown, Alabama, where Sequoyah learned to tend cattle and hunt. However, during one hunting foray he apparently sustained a leg injury that left him permanently lame and thus outside of the usual tribal activities. Sequoyah took to drink in consequence and nearly died before embarking on a life of abstinence. He then gained renown as a silversmith, actively traded with white settlers and traders in the region, and developed a fascination with their “talking leaves” (books). Being intellectually inclined, he then envisioned the advantages Cherokee could enjoy if they had their own alphabet and could transmit and preserve important information on paper. He began experimenting with an Indian syllabary around 1809 by using pictorial symbols but abandoned this approach because of the sheer number of symbols required. The Creek War of 1813–14 then interrupted his studies and he joined a noted Cherokee battalion that served under General Andrew Jackson. In 1818 Sequoyah departed Alabama with his family and settled down in present-day Pope County, Arkansas, with the first wave of Cherokee to move westward. Around

this time he resumed his work creating a Cherokee alphabet despite the taunts of fellow tribesmen and accusations that he was engaging in witchcraft. On one occasion his home was burned down but he persevered. By 1821 Sequoyah had finally perfected his system, which utilized 87 characters to represent all the sounds of the Cherokee dialect. He arrived at this solution by closely studying English, Greek, and Hebrew characters depicted in mission schoolbooks. Then he faced a gathering of elders in the tribal assembly and tested his system with his sixyear-old daughter. They were amazed when she answered all written questions perfectly and the Tribal Council authorized adoption of his syllabary. Formal instruction began and within a few months large numbers of Cherokee could communicate over vast distances by the written word. White missionaries also availed themselves of Sequoyah’s system by translating parts of the Bible into Cherokee. Tribal literacy was firmly established in 1828 with the founding of the Cherokee Phoenix and Indian Advocate, the first Native American newspaper, which was written partly in English and partly in the native dialect. For his role in becoming the only person to ever single-handedly invent a viable alphabet, Sequoyah was awarded a silver medal by his tribe and also became the first Native American voted a pension. In 1843 he departed his new home in Oklahoma to search for a missing band of Cherokee supposedly further west and died of dysentery in Tamaulipas, Mexico.

March 2 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court under Chief Justice John Marshall decides the case of Gibbons v. Ogden, which strikes down a New York State monopoly on steamboat navigation between that state and New Jersey. In his latest, Federalist-

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inspired ruling, he declares such enterprises unconstitutional for only the federal government can regulate interstate navigation and commerce.

March 4 Politics: A nominating convention held at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, seconds Andrew Jackson for the presidency and also selects John C. Calhoun for vice president.

March 19 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Osborn v. Bank of the United States, and under Chief Justice John Marshall decrees that Ohio, a state, cannot tax the bank of the United States, a federal institution.

March 22 Indian: An all-white jury convicts four men of brutally murdering nine Indians at Fall Creek, Indiana; they are the first whites to suffer the death penalty for crimes against Native Americans.

March 30–31 Business: U.S. House Speaker Henry Clay delivers a noted speech defending the practice of protective tariffs and internal improvements to expand domestic economic growth and trade. He defines such policies outlined in the new Tariff Act of 1824 as tantamount to an “American system.”

April 17 Diplomacy: The United States and the Russian government reach an accord on limiting the extent of Russian expansion in the Pacific northwest and removing all commercial restrictions relative to shipping in those waters. This is an early triumph for the Monroe Doctrine, although the Americans are backed by British sea power.

April 30 Transportation: The General Survey Bill passes Congress, whereby federal surveys for proposed road and canal routes, with military, commercial, and postal application, are paid for by the government. This act follows President James Monroe’s contention that Congress ought to establish its authority in matters pertaining to internal improvements. Among the most notable routes covered is the Great Sauk Trail between Detroit and Chicago.

May 12 Arts: The play Superstition by James N. Barker is successfully staged at the Chestnut Theater, Philadelphia. This is one of the earliest attempts to incorporate American history and themes in theatrical drama, in this instance Indian warfare and witch trials.

May 22 Business: Congress adopts Henry Clay’s much-touted Tariff Act of 1824, which raises existing levies on wool, cotton, and iron to 33 percent in an attempt to protect American industry from European competition. However, the South rails against its application to finished cotton used in slave clothing, which now is at an artificially high price.

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Clay, Henry

(1777–1852)

Politician

Henry Clay (Library of Congress)

Henry Clay was born in Hanover County, Virginia, on April 12, 1777, and raised in a log cabin environment. Poorly educated, he nonetheless clerked for a local lawyer and was admitted to the bar in Lexington. Clay won his first election in 1803 when he gained a seat in the state legislature, and six years later he was chosen to complete an unexpired term in the U.S. Senate. In 1810 his constituents sent him back to the U.S. House of Representatives where, by dint of his oratory and political skills, he became speaker. In this capacity Clay, a vocal “War Hawk,” became a driving force behind renewed war with Great Britain in 1812. Two years later he accompanied John Quincy Adams to Ghent, Belgium, to help draw up the peace treaty signed there. He then resumed his role as speaker in 1815 and began promulgating his “American System,” a closely linked policy of high protective tariffs, vast internal improvements, and central banking through a national bank. He

May 24 Business: President James Monroe signs a bill authorizing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to build dams, dredge harbors, and engage in other construction with civilian applications.

May 25 Religion: The American Sunday School Union is organized to promote Sunday School across the nation. Settlement: Tallahassee becomes the capital of the Florida Territory.

May 26 Diplomacy: The United States extends recognition to the newly independent nation of Brazil.

May 27 Arts: John Howard Payne’s successful comedy, Charles the Second, or the Merry Monarch, which he wrote with Washington Irving, begins its run in New York City.

June 17 Indian: Congress establishes the Bureau of Indian Affairs and places it under the jurisdiction of the War Department.

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pursued this agenda with varying luck over the next 30 years but was constantly deflected by other pressing issues arising from slavery. In 1819 Clay proved instrumental in crafting the Missouri Compromise of 1820, whereby slavery was not permissible north of a specific latitude. He also ran unsuccessfully for president in 1824, finished fourth, then used his influence in the house to elect John Quincy Adams over Andrew Jackson. Clay became secretary of state in consequence, and a furious Jackson, who received more popular and electoral votes, accused them of a “corrupt bargain.” Clay strenuously denied any such arrangement, although in 1826 he fought a bloodless duel with John Randolph because of it. The rest of Clay’s career was marked by frustration and rising antagonism with other political leaders. He bitterly opposed Jackson’s decision to veto rechartering of the Second Bank and censured him for withdrawing federal funds and placing them in so-called pet banks. He also denounced

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Jackson’s political adviser and vice president Martin Van Buren’s scheme for independent treasuries but declined to run against him in 1836 owing to Jackson’s overwhelming popularity. However, in 1832 he proved instrumental in helping diffuse the “Nullification Crisis” with South Carolina by adopting a gradual approach to lowered tariffs. In 1840 Clay was eager to run again for the presidency as the Whig candidate and was bitterly disappointed when the nod went to the neophyte William Henry Harrison. He also endured tense relations with Harrison’s successor, John Tyler, who continually vetoed part of Clay’s “American system.” Clay ran again in 1844 and lost to Democrat James K. Polk over the issue of Texas annexation. Clay’s most valuable work was in arranging the “Compromise of 1850,” which allowed slavery to be decided by territorial legislatures, or “popular sovereignty.” Clay died in Washington, D.C., on June 29, 1852, an artful politician widely hailed as the “Great Compromiser.”

June 26 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of the United States v. Planter’s Bank of Georgia, ruling that whenever a bank becomes a party to a business venture it remains liable to a legal suit as a result of that venture.

August 1 Politics: In one of the earliest state-level nominating conventions, New Yorkers gather at Utica to select candidates for governor and lieutenant governor. Here, electors for candidates are chosen directly by popular vote.

August 2 Slavery: The state of Illinois ushers in Emancipation Day to celebrate the anniversary when slavery was abolished within its confines.

August 4 Diplomacy: The United States extends formal diplomatic recognition to the Empire of Brazil under Emperor Dom Pedro.

August 14 General: The aged marquis de Lafayette, French hero of the American Revolution, arrives at New York City to begin a sentimental tour of the nation he helped to found. He is greeted by booming cannon while hundreds of boats lay in the harbor,

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Politics: The Albany Regency, an influential clique of liberal Democrats headed by Martin Van Buren, begins asserting its dominance over state politics. It will dominate New York affairs for 20 years before losing power. Science: Amasa Holcomb begins manufacturing the first American telescopes at Southwick, Massachusetts. Sports: The New York Trotting Club is organized at a race course on Long Island, New York. Technology: Mechanical pressing of glass, the first real innovation in glass production since antiquity, is introduced at several American factories and gains wide acceptance.

January 3 Societal: Scottish industrialist Robert Owen purchases a 20,000-acre estate in Harmony, Indiana, to erect ‘Harmonie,’ one of the earliest utopian communities in America. It will fail two years later, costing him most of his fortune.

January 31 Transportation: The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company is established in Maryland.

February Indian: President James Monroe, upon the urging of Secretary of War John C. Calhoun, begins the process of transporting Native Americans across the Mississippi River and resettling them in the west.

February 9 Politics: John Quincy Adams is elected president of the United States by the House of Representatives with 13 votes to Andrew Jackson’s seven and William H. Crawford’s four. Apparently, Henry Clay’s supporters were told to throw their weight behind Adams so that Clay would be considered for the post of Secretary of State. Jackson, who won a majority of popular votes and a plurality of electoral votes, angrily remonstrates against what he considers a “corrupt bargain.” The ensuing schism consequently divides the Democratic Republicans in two with Clay’s faction forming the National Republicans (Whigs) and Jackson’s supporters the Democrats.

February 12 Indian: Creek Chief William McIntosh signs the Treaty of Indian Springs, surrendering all tribal land in Georgia to state authorities; he is subsequently murdered by angry Indians. The treaty is also repudiated by the government.

March 3 Transportation: Congress authorizes a federal survey of the Santa Fe Trail, linking New Mexico to the Missouri River.

March 4 Politics: John Quincy Adams is inaugurated as the sixth president of the United States, becoming the first son of a prior president to serve as chief executive. His idealistic inaugural address outlines his stance against using political patronage, a stance that will deprive him of valuable allies.

March 7 Diplomacy: Henry Clay gains appointment as secretary of state, and Joel R. Poinsett becomes the first American minister to Mexico. He is best known for introducing a shrub now called the poinsettia.

1825

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Chronology of American History

Adams, John Quincy (1767–1848) President John Quincy Adams was born in Braintree, Massachusetts, on July 11, 1767, the son of attorney John Adams, the future second president. As a youth he accompanied his father abroad, was well-educated at leading schools throughout Europe, and in 1787 he graduated from Harvard College. Adams was subsequently admitted to the Massachusetts bar, but a series of essays defending President George Washington’s neutral policies won him an appointment as minister to the Netherlands in 1794. This was followed by a stint of diplomatic service in Europe, after which he returned home and gained a seat in the U.S. Senate as a Federalist. Like his father, Adams was a dour and strident moralist, completely above partisanship, which gained him the ire of fellow Federalists. Therefore, in 1809 he switched over to the DemocraticRepublicans under Thomas Jefferson and became U.S. Minister to Russia at St. Petersburg. In this capacity he served diligently and in 1814 Adams relocated to Ghent, Belgium, to conduct peace negotiations with Great Britain. With skill and tact he formulated the Treaty of Ghent that December, which ended the War of 1812 and granted no territorial concessions to the English. He came home a hero and was appointed secretary of state under President James Monroe. Adams’s flare for diplomacy was never more apparent when he arranged the Rush-Bagot Agreement with England in 1818, which demilitarized the Great Lakes and drew the U.S. Canadian border along the 49th Parallel.

The following year he concluded the AdamsOnís Treaty, which secured the province of Florida for the United States, but his biggest contribution was in rejecting a British proposal for providing joint security for the New World, in favor of the United States solely assuming such responsibility—the so-called Monroe Doctrine. In 1824 Adams was one of four candidates running for the presidency and, when no one individual was a clear majority, the issue was decided in the House of Representatives. Adams became president with the help of Henry Clay, while the popular Andrew Jackson accused the two men of a “corrupt bargain.” His tenure in office was an extremely unhappy one, vexed by the Jacksonian faction of the party that controlled Congress and defeated all proposals for internal improvements on a lavish scale. In 1828 Adams heavily lost his reelection bid to Jackson, but two years later he made history by becoming the first former executive to win a seat in the House of Representatives. Over the next 17 years Adams gained a reputation as “Old Man Eloquence” for his articulate stances on many divisive issues such as nullification, the tariff, and—above all—slavery. In this capacity he introduced so many abolitionist petitions that the House adopted a gag rule to forbid all debate on the subject. In 1841 Adams found the time to appear before the Supreme Court to help free slaves taken in the celebrated Amistad Case. He died while still serving in Congress on February 23, 1848.

March 24 Settlement: The new Mexican state of Coahuila-Texas announces that American settlers are welcome.

April 10 General: Aged hero the marquis de Lafayette arrives at New Orleans where he is greeted by enthusiastic crowds and showered with gifts.

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July 4 Transportation: Extending the Cumberland Road from Wheeling, (West) Virginia, through Ohio is discussed; from this point forward it is known as the National Road.

June 17 Politics: Daniel Webster’s oration at the Battle of Bunker Hill celebration gains him renown for oratorical brilliance.

July 19 Religion: The liberal wing of the New England Congregational community founds the American Unitarian Association in Boston. Members have been inspired by an oration delivered by William Ellery Channing in 1819.

August 19 Indian: The U.S. government brokers a peace treaty among competing Chippewa, Iowa, Potawatomi, Sioux, Sac, and Fox Indians at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. It is hoped that by establishing firmer boundaries between the tribes the frontier violence many be averted.

September 6 Settlement: General Simon Perkins helps to establish the city of Akron, Ohio, an important stop along the projected Ohio and Erie Canal. Its name is Greek for “City on the Hill,” so-called from being located on the highest point of the projected canal system.

October Politics: The Tennessee state legislature again nominates Andrew Jackson as its presidential candidate in the 1828 election—three years hence.

October 26 Transportation: Construction on the Erie Canal is finished, and New York City is now linked to the Great Lakes region via the Hudson River, the Mohawk River, and Lake Oneida. Governor DeWitt Clinton is on hand to symbolically dump two kegs of Lake Erie water into New York Harbor. The final waterway is 550 miles in length at its terminus of Buffalo. The economic importance of the canal cannot be overstated—its reduces travel time into the interior by one-third and shipping costs by nine-tenths of previous rates. Consequently, New York emerges as the major Atlantic port and the principle conduit for New England emigration and settlement out west. For this reason the strategic Middle West is gradually dominated by a Northern culture and political outlook, rather than a Southern one.

November 8 Arts: Samuel F. B. Morse becomes the first president of the New York Drawing Association, founded by dissenters attending the New York Academy of Arts.

November 19 Arts: New York is introduced to grand Italian opera when Il barbiere di Siviglia (“The Barber of Seville”), debuts in all its costumed glory, replete with a cast of several well-known Italian singers.

1825

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December 1 Education: Queen’s College, New Brunswick, New Jersey, is renamed Rutgers College in honor of a benefactor, ColÂ�oÂ�nel Henry Rutgers. It becomes a university in 1924.

December 5 Politics: The 19th Congress assembles in Washington, D.C., with the �Demo�cratic�Republicans still in firm control; the Federalists are no longer a po�liti�cal factor at the national level. However, the ruling party is split into factions both supporting and opposing President John Quincy Adams, who now enjoys tenuous support at best.

December 6 Politics: President John Quincy Adams makes his first annual address to Con-­ gress, a sweeping declaration of his support for continuing internal improve-­ ments, creation of a national university, a national astronomical observatory, and federal support for the arts and sciences. However, this approach wins few friends among states’ rights Southerners in Congress.

December 26 Diplomacy: At the urging of the president, Congress appoints two envoys to attend the Panama Congress proposed by Simón Bolívar to promote a Â�pan-­Latin American confederation. ReÂ�sisÂ�tance to the suggestion is one cause of the growing rivalry between John C. Calhoun and Martin Van Buren.

1826 Journalism: William Cullen Bryant, a noted poet, is appointed editor of the New York EveÂ�ning Post. Music: Noted Italian tenor Manuel del Popolo Vincente Garcia performs for a season at the Park Theater in New York, where he also aspires to orÂ�gaÂ�nize a permanent Italian opera company for the city. Publishing: The National Philanthropist becomes the first journal entirely dedi-­ cated to the promotion of temperance. Religion: Congregationalists found the American Home Missionary Society, which reaches its peak activity during the Civil War years. Science: Joseph Henry begins experiments with electricity, inventing insulated wires, magnets, and other devices essential for the invention of telegraphs. Technology: The first experimental steam locomotive is constructed in Hobo-­ ken, New Jersey, by John Stevens, and is run along a circular track.

January 6 Journalism: The newspaper United States Telegraph, edited by Duff Green, debuts in Washington, D.C., beginning as a stridently Â� anti-­Adams mouthpiece of the Andrew Jackson poÂ�litiÂ�cal clique. Its arrival signifies the growing factionalism that will ultimately tear the Â�DemoÂ�cratic-­Republican party into DemoÂ�crats and Whigs. Law: James Kent, law professor at Columbia College in New York, begins publish-­ ing his Commentaries on American Law, which becomes a standard canon for understanding constitutional and common law.

January 24 Indian: The Creek and the United States sign the Treaty of Washington, whereby the tribe surrenders most of its land in western Georgia, but less than what had

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been previously negotiated in the 1827 Treaty of Indian Springs. They are thus allowed to remain on their lands until January 1, 1827.

February 4 Literature: James Fenimore Cooper publishes The Last of the Mohicans, a phenomenal best seller on both sides of the Atlantic with two million copies ultimately sold.

February 7 Education: Presbyterian and Congregational denominations unite to found Western Reserve University in Hudson, Ohio, with its first class graduating in 1830.

February 13 Societal: The American Society for the Promotion of Temperance (modernday American Temperance Society) is founded in Boston by a mixed group of clergymen and lay people. They have been motivated by the preaching of Lyman Beecher.

February 17 Military: Governor George M. Troup of Georgia, determined to prevent the arrival of federal troops in the western part of his state, calls up the state militia.

March 3 Societal: Radical reformer Fanny Wright establishes her model commune in Nashville, Tennessee, which she christens Nashoba. She quickly gains the ire of locals by allowing blacks and whites to associate closely.

March 9 Education: Lafayette College, named after the Revolutionary War hero and affiliated with the Presbyterian Church, is chartered at Easton, Pennsylvania.

March 14 Diplomacy: Congress votes to send only two observers to the projected congress of Latin American republics to be held in Panama in the summer. As it turns out, neither is able to reach the conference in time.

March 30 Politics: John Randolph of Roanoke, Virginia, a master of political invective, stridently denounces President John Q. Adams and Secretary of State Henry Clay as “The combination of the puritan with the blackleg.” Clay, taking the insult personally, challenges Randolph to a duel.

April 8 Politics: Secretary of State Henry Clay and Jacksonian partisan John Randolph of Roanoke wage a bloodless duel over the latter’s accusation that Clay made a “corrupt bargain” by supporting the candidacy of John Quincy Adams.

April 26 Diplomacy: The United States concludes a treaty of amity and commerce with Denmark. Technology: Samuel Morely of Orford, New Hampshire, receives the first patent for a two-chambered, internal combustion engine.

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May 2 Diplomacy: The United States extends formal recognition to the newly independent nation of Peru.

July 4 General: This day, two preeminent founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, die at Monticello, Virginia, and Braintree, Massachusetts, respectively.

August 2 Politics: Daniel Webster movingly eulogizes both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson in a major address at Faneuil Hall, Boston. Their nearly simultaneous passing concludes a seminal period of American history.

August 22 Exploring: Jedidiah Strong Smith departs the Great Salt Lake, Utah, and makes for California through the Cajon Pass of the Rocky Mountains.

September 3 Naval: The frigate USS Vincennes under Captain F. B. Finch sails from New York on a four-year mission to circumnavigate the globe for the first time under the American flag.

September 12 Politics: The Anti-Masonic Party is founded in New York following the alleged abduction and murder of former Freemason William Morgan for revealing the organization’s secrets; this is the first third party in American history.

October 7 Transportation: The Quincy Tramway, America’s first railroad, consisting of steel tracks and horse-drawn wagons, is constructed at Quincy, Massachusetts. It is designed to transport stone from a quarry to the Neoponset River, three miles distant, for transportation to the new Bunker Hill Monument.

October 23 Arts: The Bowery Theater, boasting the largest stage in New York City, opens; it remains a center for vaudeville and minstrel-type performances for nearly a century.

October 26 Religion: Newly ordained Ralph Waldo Emerson delivers his first sermon in Boston, Massachusetts.

November Politics: Congressional midterm elections result in marked gains for the antiAdams, Jacksonian faction of the Democratic-Republicans, who now control both houses of Congress.

November 11 Settlement: A Royal Navy vessel under Captain Frederick Beechey maps San Francisco Bay.

November 27 Exploring: A wagon train headed by Jedidiah Strong Smith arrives at San Diego, California, having utilized the Rocky Mountain Cajon Pass (South Pass) for the first time.

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1827 Literature: Edgar Allan Poe publishes Tamerlane and Other Poems anonymously in Boston; it barely garners attention from the literary world. Publishing: The American Quarterly Review is founded in Philadelphia by Robert Walsh, who counts among his contributors noted writers George Ticknor, George Bancroft, and James Kirke Paulding. The Journal of Commerce begins publishing in New York City under Arthur Tappan. Francis Lieber, a German political philosopher and refugee, begins compiling his Encyclopedia Americana, and organizes it along German lines of research and scholarship. Sarah Josepha Hale publishes her first novel, Northwood, which is also the first antislavery novel.

January 10 Business: The House of Representatives passes a bill calling for imposition of even higher duties than imposed by the Tariff Bill of 1824, which has thus far failed to eliminate British textile competition. A sectional split develops over its passage, with the North favoring it and the South opposing it.

February 2 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Martin v. Mott, ruling that the president alone has the constitutional power to mobilize the state militias. These actions cannot be negated by state authorities.

February 7 Arts: The art of toe dancing (ballet) is introduced by ballet dancer Francisque Hutin at the Bowery Theater, New York. Her scantily clad appearance so shocked American sensibilities that every woman in the lower tier of the theater reputedly left the theater in a huff. The rest responded with calls for an encore.

February 17 Military: U.S. Army troops are dispatched to Creek lands in Georgia to prevent premature surveying of tribal lands, yet Governor George M. Troup mobilizes the state militia to oppose them. The transfer of land stipulated in the Treaty of Washington, signed the previous January, has not yet occurred.

February 28 Politics: The Senate defeats an attempt to impose higher tariffs on textiles, the Woolens Bill, when Vice President John C. Calhoun casts the decisive, tiebreaking vote against it. High tariffs become a matter of increasingly shrill sectional discord in national politics from this point on. Transportation: The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad is chartered by the state of Maryland; it is the first business of its kind licensed to carry both passengers and freight.

March 13 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Ogden v. Saunders, ruling that any contract signed after the passage of a bankruptcy law is governed by all provisions of the same.

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March 16 Journalism: John Russworm and Samuel Cornish edit and publish Freedom’s Journal, the first newspaper by and for African Americans.

March 29 Societal: The utopian community of New Harmony, Indiana, is disbanded, having cost founder Robert Owen an estimated $125,000 after a tumultuous two years.

May Transportation: The Mauch Chunk railroad, a descending nine-mile track powered by gravity, connects the Carbondale, Pennsylvania, coal mines to the Leigh River.

May 8 Settlement: The site for Cantonment Leavenworth is fixed in the Kansas Territory; this is the future site of Fort Leavenworth, erected to provide protection for commerce along the Santa Fe Trail. It is constructed and named for Colonel Henry H. Leavenworth, a noted War of 1812 soldier who had been dispatched there by Brigadier General Henry Atkinson, another significant frontier administrator.

May 14 Business: The declining price of wool induces farmers and manufacturers to convene in Philadelphia to discuss their options.

July 2 Politics: In an early dispute over economic policy, Thomas Cooper, president of South Carolina College, declares that the high tariff policy of the government favors the industrial North at the expense of the agricultural South. Thanks to this moving presentation, resistance to high tariffs begins to coalesce statewide.

July 4 Slavery: New York formally abolishes slavery, granting freedom to 10,000 former slaves, now new citizens.

July 23 Sports: The first public swimming pool opens in Boston and is frequently attended by 61-year-old John Quincy Adams, who enjoys using the six-foot diving board.

July 26 Indian: The Cherokee Nation, with its capital at New Echota, Georgia, adopts a constitution patterned after the American model.

July 30 Business: Following the failure of congressional action, a convention of 100 delegates from 13 states convenes at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and calls for higher tariffs to protect the wool industry and producers of hemp, flax, and iron products.

August 6 Diplomacy: The United States and Great Britain renew their 1818 commercial treaty and also resolve to continue joint occupation of the Oregon Territory.

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August 14 Labor: Journeyman tailors in Philadelphia mount a strike.

September 19 General: Legendary frontier figure Jim Bowie kills a sword-armed man in a duel at Vidalia, Louisiana, with a knife purportedly of his own design. Thus the “Bowie Knife” passes into legend.

September 22 Religion: At Palmyra, New York, Joseph Smith claims to have received instructions to dig up a mysterious book with golden pages. He is then assisted in translating its passages, which reveal a story of the lost tribes of Israel.

October 10 Science: Scientist Joseph Henry delivers a paper at the Albany Institute which discusses early experiments with electromagnetism; this is an essential first step in the development of devices such as the telegraph.

October 17 Women: Methodist minister Salome Lincoln becomes the first American woman to conduct a public lecture tour, delivering the first address at her church in Raynham, Massachusetts.

November 15 Indian: The Creek sign an additional treaty with the United States, finally ceding their remaining land in western Georgia.

December 3 Politics: The midterm congressional elections result in additional gains for the anti-Adams, pro-Jacksonian faction of the Democratic-Republican Party, with 26 to 20 Senators and 119 to 94 Representatives. This leaves President John Quincy Adams with fewer friends in Congress.

December 24 Politics: The pro-Jacksonian majority in Congress refuses to endorse the protectionist, high tariff proposals from the memorial of a recent convention in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

1828 Arts: One of the earliest debuts of blackface minstrels occurs in Louisville, Kentucky, in the form of “Jim Crow,” a character invented by white comedian Thomas Dartmouth Rice. In this rapidly flourishing form of entertainment, African Americans are invariably stereotyped as ignorant knaves and perform various song and dance routines. Labor: The first recorded strike by textile workers unfolds in Paterson, New Jersey; the affair lasts 10 days and fails to win participants their desired 10-hour day. Literature: Nathaniel Hawthorne debuts with the publication of his first novel Fanshawe, written anonymously. Politics: William Ladd founds the American Peace Society, and he also edits and publishes its periodical.

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Hawthorne, Nathaniel

(1804 –1864)

Writer

Nathaniel Hawthorne (Library of Congress) Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts, on July 4, 1804, son of a sea captain and descended from several lines

of distinguished Puritans. His father died in Hawthorne’s youth, and he absorbed from his reclusive mother a tendency toward reflective isolation. Hawthorne subsequently attended Bowdoin College in Maine, performing well academically, and counted among his classmates such future luminaries as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Franklin Pierce. Thereafter he returned to Salem to work in various odd jobs and city positions while aspiring to be a writer. His first novel Fanshawe (1828) was published anonymously and garnered no favorable notice. Hawthorne enjoyed better success with a collection of short stories, Twice-Told Tales (1837) and Mosses from an Old Manse (1846) before switching over to historical romances. In the interim he was forced to hold down several positions in the local customshouse but in 1850 finally triumphed with the publication of The Scarlet Letter

Publishing: John James Audubon, a noted painter and naturalist, publishes the first volume of his epic Birds of America; this seminal series of five volumes, will be completed in 1838 and artfully depicts 1,065 species in their natural habitats. Sarah Josepha Hale becomes one of the earliest female editors by taking charge of Godey’s Lady’s Book. Sports: A group of famous artists founds the United Bowman of Philadelphia, the nation’s first archery club. Technology: Scientist Joseph Henry invents insulation for copper wire in Albany, New York, an essential step toward the transmission of electricity.

January 12 Diplomacy: The United States and Mexico agree to establish their mutual border along the Sabine River, identical to the terms established for Spain in 1819.

January 24 Education: The Indiana legislature charters Indiana College at Bloomington; it awards its first degrees in 1830.

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(1850), since regarded as an American literary masterpiece. He then demonstrated his mastery of the genre with The House of Seven Gables (1851) and The Blithedale Romance (1852), both of which are representative of Hawthorne’s gift for darkly themed stories and sweeping allegories of good and evil. He was also adept at employing Puritan history as a vehicle for commenting upon contemporary American life. He then backpeddled completely to produce two highly popular children’s titles, A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys (1852) and Tanglewood Tales for Girls and Boys (1853). Success here finally granted him the financial security so conspicuously missing in his earlier days. Despite his penchant for solitude, Hawthorne associated with the influential writer’s circle of the Transcendentalist Club and enjoyed cordial relations with Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Bronson Alcott. However, he remained a marginal figure within that larger body of

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contemporary talent, obsessed by the allure and power of evil to eclipse the greatest optimism. In 1842 Hawthorne married Sophia Peabody of Salem, from one of that city’s most prominent families, yet was so embarrassed over informing his family of the engagement that reputedly none of them attended the wedding. In 1852 Hawthorne’s college friend Pierce ran for the presidency and Hawthorne composed a campaign biography for him. Once Pierce was elected he appointed Hawthorne U.S. Consul in Liverpool, England, and then Italy. Back home at Concord in 1860, he found the time and inspiration to pen The Marble Faun and Our Old Home, his last major works. Hawthorne died in Plymouth, New Hampshire, on May 19, 1864, while en route to visit his friend Pierce. By dint of effective prose and captivating imagery, he had become one of the most accomplished American writers of this or any other age.

January 30 Transportation: In Charleston, the South Carolina Canal and Railroad Company is chartered to construct what will become known as the Charleston-Hamburg Line.

January 31 Politics: The antiadministration Jacksonians in Congress, determined to embarrass President John Quincy Adams, pass an excessively high tariff bill on several protected items, while repealing those on the New England wool industry. They fully expect the president, who agrees with protectionist legislation, to veto the move.

February 21 Journalism: At Echota, Georgia, Cherokee linguist Sequoyah and editor Elias Boudinot begin publishing the Cherokee Phoenix, the first newspaper written in a Native American language. The paper employs a system of characters, each denoting a unique Cherokee utterance or sound.

March 24 Transportation: The Pennsylvania legislature appropriates funding to construct a railroad from Philadelphia to Columbia; this is the first publicly funded venture of its kind in the nation.

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Audubon, John James (1785–1851) Naturalist John James Audubon was born in San Domingo (Haiti) on April 26, 1785, the illegitimate son of a French naval officer. He was raised and well-educated in France and served as a cadet in the French navy, 1796– 1800, before immigrating to the United States in 1803. Audubon initially worked managing an estate at Norristown, Pennsylvania, where proximity to nearby woods piqued his interest in nature. There he first discovered his fascination for wildlife, especially birds. Audubon had always been interested in animal behavior and he became the first individual to scientifically “band” the legs of birds to identify them in their yearly migrations. After marrying a local woman in 1808, he relocated to Louisville, Kentucky, to operate a general store with a business partner and take in the rough, frontier nature of his new abode. His closeness to the natural world inspired him to take up a brush and he began painting birds in their natural habitats. In fact, Audubon had been a gifted artist ever since childhood and his preoccupation with ornithology brought him hours of delight and a source of additional income. In 1810 he moved again to the frontier region of Henderson, Kentucky, selling goods and painting birds until his a business failure forced him back to Louisville. During the Panic (depression) of 1819 he was forced into bankruptcy and moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, to work as a taxidermist in the Western Museum there. It was at this period that he decided to sever his business connections and paint birds full time.

For six years Audubon and his artist partner Joseph Mason traveled the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers looking for appropriate subjects to capture on canvas and by 1826 had amassed a considerable body of work. He tried publishing his work in America, meeting only with scorn, then ventured to England to find a sponsor. Surprisingly, his labors were enthusiastically received in London and Edinburgh, and so highly regarded were his renditions that he was inducted into the Royal Society. More important, he secured financial support to publish his mammoth series Birds of America over the next 11 years by offering it on a subscription basis to wealthy collectors and naturalists. The final product boasted 435 hand-colored aquatint engravings that depicted 1,065 species of birds. The result was an instant success on both sides of the Atlantic, and Audubon returned to America in 1839 to continue his work. He subsequently wrote the equally impressive five-volume set The Ornithological Biography (1831–39) and an illustrated catalog, Synopsis of Birds of North America (1839). Audubon’s success propelled him to the front rank of famous American naturalists, and all his books have been continually republished. His last work, The Viviparous Quadrapeds of North America (1852–54) dealt with mammals and was partially finished by his son. Audubon died at Hudson, New York, on January 27, 1851, among the earliest and most influential of American naturalists.

April 21 Publishing: At Amherst, Massachusetts, Noah Webster finishes his An American Dictionary of the English Language, a seminal reference book two decades in the making. The final product contains 70,000 entries, more than any other such

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Boudinot, Elias (ca. 1803–1839) Cherokee editor Galagina (Male Buck) was born near Rome, Georgia, around 1803, into the Cherokee nation. He belonged to a prominent tribal family as his father, David Oowatie, was an individual of some repute, and his younger brother, Stand Watie, was a future Confederate general. The Cherokee by this time had been partly acculturated by their exposure to American civilization and Galagina was sent north to attend a missionary school at Cornwall, Connecticut. His benefactor in this regard was the retired New Jersey philanthropist Elias Boudinot and Galagina adopted his name as a token of respect. Boudinot performed well in his studies but incurred a measure of controversy when he fell in love with a local white girl, Harriet Ruggles Gold, and married her over parental objections. This act led to the closing of the Indian school at Cornwall, and Boudinot returned home to his tribe in Georgia. Well-educated by Cherokee standards, he gained appointment as editor of the tribal newspaper Cherokee Phoenix, thereby becoming the first Native American editor of a major publication. The Cherokee at that time were being buffeted by increasing demands by Georgia authorities to sell their lands and migrate west. Boudinot, printing in both English and the Cherokee alphabet developed in 1828 by Sequoyah, argued strenuously against the sale of any tribal holdings. In 1833 he also published a novel entitled Poor Sarah; or, The Indian Woman in the Cherokee language. However, the tribe was increasingly torn by factions both for and against relocating to the west. The

major shift in Boudinot’s career occurred in 1832, after returning from a fund-raising event in Boston, when he switched sides and advocated selling traditional land under the best possible terms before it was seized by whites. This brought him in direct conflict with Chief John Ross, who vigorously condemned the practice of selling land with consent of the entire tribe, and Boudinot was forced out as editor. By 1835 the so-called Treaty Party within the Cherokee nation had evolved and were willing to sell their land to the American government. That year Boudinot, accompanied by John Ridge, Major Ridge, Stand Watie, and others, visited Washington, D.C., and signed the Treaty of New Echota for the tribes’ removal to the Indian Territory. This was accomplished without the consent of Ross and other senior chiefs, but on May 23, 1836, the treaty was ratified by the U.S. Senate by a single vote. This act set in motion the notorious “Trail of Tears,” whereby one-fourth of the Cherokee died in transit to new homes out west. Boudinot established himself there in September 1837 and resumed his publishing activities, principally through the translation of the New Testament and other religious tracts into Cherokee. However, tribal loyalists never forgave him for his role in signing the relocation treaty, and on June 22, 1839, Boudinot, the Ridges, and others associated with it were assassinated at Park Hill, Arkansas. His fate is indicative of the cultural conflict of tribes caught between two worlds.

dictionary, and includes many immigrant and Native American words specific to the New World and the United States. Curiously, he completed it while living in Cambridge, England, where most of the research was performed.

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April 28 Diplomacy: The U.S. Senate ratifies the agreement with Mexico to fix their mutual boundary along the Sabine River.

May 19 Politics: President John Quincy Adams, not to be outwitted by Jacksonian adversaries in Congress, slyly signs the so-called Tariff of Abominations into law. New Englanders in Congress, against whom the bill was aimed, also strongly support it for the protection of American industry it affords. This proves a major Machiavellian triumph for the beleaguered executive.

May 24 Business: The Reciprocity Act passes Congress, whereby discriminatory duties are abolished on trade with favorable, reciprocating nations.

July 4 Transportation: Aged Charles Carroll, the only surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence, assists in groundbreaking ceremonies for the new Baltimore and Ohio Railway. The first operational section of track will be utilized by horse-drawn trains, but by 1830 the conversion to steam will be complete.

July 14 Exploring: A small expedition headed by noted scout Jedediah Smith comes to grief near the Sacramento River, California, when hostile Indians attack and kill 18 men.

July 21 Journalism: The Mechanic’s Free Paper gives exclusive coverage to the first strike by textile workers in Paterson, New Jersey—and the ensuing use of militia to end it.

August 11 Labor: A group of small businessmen form the first labor-oriented party in Philadelphia by gaining temporary control of the city council; in this capacity they agitate for a 10-hour working day, abolishing debtor’s prison, and universal education. Their success establishes a trend, and similar organizations rise in New York and Boston.

October 16 Transportation: The Delaware and Hudson Canal, running from Honesdale, Pennsylvania, to Kingston, New York, opens for business. Its primary function is to permit shipments of anthracite coal from Pennsylvania coalfields to industrial centers in the Northeast.

December 3 Politics: A blistering presidential campaign concludes with Andrew Jackson defeating John Quincy Adams by a vote of 178 electoral votes to 83; John C. Calhoun remains in office as vice president after defeating Richard Rush by similar margins. Jackson won the crucial state of New York thanks to the adept machinations of Martin Van Buren.

December 12 Diplomacy: The United States concludes a treaty of peace and navigation with Brazil.

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December 19 Politics: The recently passed “Tariff of Abominations” is condemned by the South Carolina legislature as unconstitutional, unjust, and oppressive. Vice President John C. Calhoun also contributes an anonymous essay entitled “South Carolina Exposition and Protest” extolling state sovereignty and nullification by a single state. This is the genesis of what becomes known as the “Nullification Crisis,” and a precursor to the events of 1861.

December 20 Indian: The Georgia legislature passes a bill which declares all laws passed by the Cherokee nation null and void after June 1, 1830.

December 30 Politics: The Georgia legislature condemns the new Tariff of 1828.

1829 Labor: The Fellenberg Manual Labor Institution is established at Greenfield, Massachusetts; this is the first official labor school in the nation. Publishing: German philosopher and refugee Francis Lieber published the first volume of his seminal Encyclopedia Americana, which runs 13 volumes and is finished in 1833. This is the first reference work to be erudite, yet written for a general audience. Religion: Political agitation against Roman Catholics and immigrants, resulting in street violence and several blatantly anti-Catholic publications eventually give rise to the Native American Party, better known as the “Know-Nothings.”

January 9 Settlement: The House of Representatives defeats a bill mandating construction of a military fort in the Oregon Territory and establishment of a territorial government there.

February 4 –5 Politics: The Virginia and Mississippi legislatures denounce the “Tariff of Abominations” on constitutional grounds.

February 24 Politics: The Virginia legislature votes to find the new Tariff of 1828 unconstitutional.

March 2 Societal: Dr. John Dix Fisher founds the New England Asylum for the Blind in Boston; this is the nation’s first such institution.

March 4 Politics: Andrew Jackson is inaugurated seventh president of the United States. His inaugural address mentions frugal governance, support of states’ rights, a fair Indian policy, and reorganizing the federal civil service. The pressing issues of tariffs, the Bank of the United States, and public works go unaddressed. He also introduces the so-called spoils system (political patronage) on a larger scale than previously practiced. Moreover, the ensuing boisterous celebrations by rough-hewn frontiersmen and onlookers suggest that Jacksonian “democracy” has arrived with a vengeance.

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Jackson, Andrew (1767–1845) President

Andrew Jackson (National Archives)

Andrew Jackson was born in the Waxhaw settlement, South Carolina, on March 15, 1767. Though young, Jackson served in the American Revolution and was slashed by a British officer for refusing to polish his boots. Thereafter he expressed an inveterate hatred of England. Afterward he studied law in North Carolina, was admitted to the bar, and relocated to Tennessee to commence his practice. In 1796 he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as the state’s sole congressional member, and the following year gained appointment to the U.S. Senate. He returned home soon after and served many years on the state supreme court, gaining the reputation as a tough, single-minded individual. When the Creek War erupted in August 1813, Jackson was commissioned a major general of militia and he commenced a series of successful battles against the Indians. In March 1814 he crushed the Creeks at Horseshoe Bend, then proceeded to Pensacola and captured it from the Spanish for

March 23 Indian: President Andrew Jackson writes to the Creek and orders them to either conform to the laws of Alabama or remove themselves across the Mississippi River.

April 15 Politics: Once in office, President Andrew Jackson comes to rely exclusively on his unofficial “kitchen cabinet” consisting of lawyers Amos B. Kendall and William B. Lewis and editor Duff Green.

May 17 General: John Jay, revolutionary diplomat and first chief justice of the Supreme Court, dies in Bedford, New York.

May 29 Transportation: Construction begins on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal at Georgetown.

June 4 Naval: The USS Demologos, the world’s first steam warship, better known as Fulton the First, catches fire and burns in New York Harbor. So strong was the

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aiding the Indians. At that time Great Britain was launching a major invasion against New Orleans to take control of the Mississippi River, but Jackson reached the city ahead of them and entrenched. On January 8, 1815, he bloodily repelled them in the largest land battle of the War of 1812, ironically fought two weeks after the Treaty of Ghent had been signed. Now a national hero, he was next tasked with subduing hostile Seminole Indians in 1818, invaded Spanish-held Florida, and executed two English traders found assisting them. Though widely criticized in political circles, Jackson’s actions proved popular with the public and he was not officially castigated. Budget cuts forced him from the army in 1821, and he parleyed his immense popularity into national politics. Jackson ran for the presidency in 1824, winning the most popular and electoral votes, but the election went to John Quincy Adams thanks to Henry Clay’s activity in the House of Representatives. He angrily remonstrated against what he considered a “corrupt bargain” and ran again in 1828.

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That year he handily defeated Adams and was sworn in as the seventh president. His ascent heralded the trend toward “Jacksonian democracy” in which the plight of the common man was widely addressed. Jackson came down hard on South Carolina for its nullification of high tariffs and also allowed the charter of the Bank of the United States to expire. To a man of his frontier sensibilities, the bank represented a bastion of elite commercial interest at the expense of average citizens. Jackson also agitated for the removal of the Cherokee and other native Americans to designated area beyond the Mississippi to acquire their land. Jackson was roundly reelected in 1832, at which point he authorized the withdrawal of all federal money from the Bank of the United States and its redistribution among state institutions. Jackson left office in March 1837 a highly popular and successful executive who did much to expand the power and prestige of the presidency. He died at his home, The Hermitage, in Tennessee, on June 8, 1845, a singularly willful leader.

prejudice against steam power in the sail-dominated U.S. Navy that for many years the vessel performed only minor service as a receiving ship.

July 23 Technology: William Austin Burt of Detroit, Michigan, receives the first patent for a mechanical typewriter; this proves a somewhat crude device, quickly supplanted by machines featuring a keyboard.

July 29 Indian: A treaty signed between the United States and the Chippewa, Ottawa, and Potawatomi results in the loss of Indian land in the Michigan Territory.

August Sports: John Stuart Skinner founds the first sports periodical, American Turf Register and Sporting Magazine, in Baltimore, Maryland.

August 8 Transportation: The Stourbridge Lion, America’s first steam locomotive, runs on tracks owned by the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company. This Britishbuilt device runs at 10 miles per hour for the entire distance between Carbondale to Honesdale, Pennsylvania. However, at seven tons, it is considered far too

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Chronology of American History heavy for tracks designed to be used with horses, and the entire route must be reinforced.

August 25 Diplomacy: Secretary of State Martin Van Buren instructs American minister to Mexico Joel R. Poinsett to purchase the states of Texas and Coahuila from that government. However, the Mexicans spurn President Andrew Jackson’s offer to purchase these territories, home to several thousand American settlers and squatters.

September 15 Slavery: The Republic of Mexico, through its Guerrero Decree, abolishes slavery throughout the country, including Texas.

October 16 Business: The Tremont Hotel in Boston becomes America’s first luxury hotel and pioneers such innovations as private bedrooms with locks, soap and a pitcher of water in every room, indoor water closets (toilets), clerks and bellboys. Its success inspires many imitators across the nation. Diplomacy: The Mexican government dismisses Joel R. Poinsett, the American minister, and he is called back to Washington, D.C.

October 17 Diplomacy: Anthony Butler becomes chargé d’affaires in Mexico and is instructed to continue with negotiations for purchasing land. Transportation: The Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, a 14-mile artificial waterway funded by a combination of private investors, the federal government, and state governments, opens between Chesapeake Bay and the Delaware River.

November 7 Labor: Ebenezer Ford, president of the New York City Carpenter’s Union, wins a seat to the New York State Assembly; he is the first labor union member to hold public office.

November 13 Sports: Diver Sam Patch is killed when he attempts to dive 125 feet headfirst into the Genesee River, New York.

December 2 Slavery: Perhaps as a sop to prospective American settlers, Mexican President Guerrero exempts Texas from a national antislavery decree.

December 8 Politics: In his first message to Congress, President Andrew Jackson broaches the issue of sharing surplus federal revenue with the states. He also questions the constitutionality of the Bank of the United States, probably a result of learning that the institution worked actively against his election.

December 22 Transportation: The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad commences service along the 13-mile strip of track from the main city to Ellicott’s Mills. However, the initial cars are pulled by horses, not locomotives, although they reach and sustain speeds of up to 12 miles an hour along metal tracks.

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December 29 Settlement: Senator Samuel A. Foot of Connecticut authors a resolution calling for a moratorium on public land sales out west.

1830 Business: Lowell, Massachusetts, is the site of a new woolen mill operated along the lines of the Waltham system. This entails women living in closely managed dormitories and attracts the daughters of rural farmers. Education: Francis Wayland, president of Brown University, becomes head of the American Institute of Instruction, the nation’s oldest educational association. Population: The latest U.S. Census records a population of 12,866,020. Publishing: In Philadelphia, Ladies’ Magazine, published by John Lauris Blake, is becoming the first successful woman’s magazine in America. It is eventually edited by Sarah Josepha Hale, one of the earliest and most successful women editors. By concentrating on features of interest to women such as fashion and morality, it eventually builds a readership Woman and girl in fashionable clothing, of 150,000. 1862 (Library of Congress) Religion: Alexander Campbell and his followers establish the Disciples of Christ, which rejects all creeds and confessions in favor of New Testament beliefs and practices. They are also known as “Campbellites.” Settlement: Plans are drawn up for the city of Chicago; it rises on the site of old Fort Dearborn, which has been an army post for 27 years. Transportation: The relatively slow start of railroads can be gauged by the fact that this year only 73 miles of track exist as opposed to 1,277 miles of canals. However, this ratio will dramatically reverse itself as railroad technology, particularly as it relates to the design and construction of tracks, is perfected.

January 17 Politics: Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri accuses the author of the Foot Resolution as opposing the continuing political and economic growth of the West, a charge he then levels at the northeastern political establishment. However, the issue of land sales is soon lost over the bigger issue of the nature of the American government under the Constitution.

January 19–27 Politics: Senator Robert Y. Hayne of South Carolina engages Daniel Webster of Massachusetts in a debate over what appears on the surface to be land sales in the west but actually touches upon the more serious issue of states’ rights versus federal power—especially in regard to nullification. This debate ominously arrays Northerners and Southerners against one another, and Webster delivers one of

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Hale, Sarah (1788–1879) Editor Sarah Josepha Buell was born in Newport, New Hampshire, on October 24, 1788, into a modest household. At this time girls were denied the educational opportunities afforded boys, but she was carefully tutored by her parents and brother, a student at Dartmouth. In 1813 she married attorney David Hale, raised a family, and received additional education and encouragement from her husband. Hale had previously dabbled in publishing poems and various short pieces in regional newspapers, but after her husband died in 1822 she took to publishing as a vocation. This was an unusual career decision for a woman at the time, but Hale was well-trained and motivated. Her first novel, Northwood, a Tale of New England, received critical acclaim in 1827, and the following year she accepted publisher John Lauris Blake’s invitation to serve as editor of his Ladies’ Magazine. In this capacity, Hale quickly distinguished herself as a first-rate editor with keen insights as to the female reading audience. Completely devoted to enhancing female education, Hale insisted that the magazine be enlightening and entertaining in equal measure. She also resisted commercial pressures to include elaborate plates of the latest fashion in favor of erudite discussions of politics, domestic practices, morality, and history. Moreover, at a time when most American magazines simply reprinted materials from their British counterparts, Hale actively cultivated original pieces from such noted women writers such as Lydia Sigourney, Sarah Whitman, and Maria Fuller. She was also acutely interested

in dispensing advice for the rearing of children, and in 1830 her book Poems for Our Children contained the endearing “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” Interestingly, Hale distanced herself from the feminism and insisted that men and women exist in different spheres and ought to confine their respective talents to the same. She also favored the colonization of African Americans rather than abolition and assimilation. The panic of 1837 forced the Ladies’ Magazine into receivership and it was acquired by Philadelphia publisher Louis Godey. A new publication, Godey’s Lady’s Book, was the result, and he invited Hale to continue on as editor from Boston. Here she was forced to accept the inclusion of fashion-orientated materials which she considered superfluous but continued lacing her issues with useful and informative columns. Hale remained in Boston until 1841, when she moved her entire operation to Philadelphia. She continued functioning capably in this capacity until 1877, at which time the publication enjoyed a circulation of 150,000—the nation’s largest. She also found the time to pen numerous books on cooking and household management, mastery of which she considered a moral imperative for all women as housewives and mothers. Hale finally retired from the editor’s desk at the age of 89 and she died at Philadelphia on April 30, 1879. She enjoyed a remarkable 50-year stint as one of the nation’s most successful editors, an accomplished writer, and the first domestic diva.

the great speeches of American history by declaring, “Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable!” The original issue of public land sales is entirely overlooked in this struggle to define the Federal union.

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Chronology   769

Webster, Daniel

(1782–1852)

Politician Daniel Webster was born in Salisbury, New Hampshire, on January 18, 1782, the son of an impoverished Revolutionary War veteran. He attended the noted Phillips Exeter Acad-­ emy and subsequently graduated from Dart-­ mouth College in 1801 before studying law and opening a successful practice. In 1813 he gained election to the U.S. House of Repre-­ sentatives as a Federalist and in this capacity roundly opposed the War of 1812. Webster then quit Congress in 1816 to practice law in Boston, gaining national renown for argu-­ ing before the U.S. Supreme Court on three occasions. In 1819 he won the celebrated Dartmouth College v. Woodward when the Court under Chief Justice John Marshall upheld the nature of contract law. That year Webster also helped win McCulloch v. Maryland on behalf of the Second Bank of the United States, and in 1824 he successfully argued the case of Gibbons v. Ogden in favor of unfettered interstate commerce. He then was elected to the U.S. Senate from Massa-­ chusetts as a northern Whig and functioned as an exemplary spokesman. In 1830 he par-­ ticularly distinguished himself in a constitu-­ tional debate with Robert Y. Hayne of South Carolina, declaring “Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable.” Two years later he sided with President Andrew Jack-­ son in the Nullification Crisis, despite his strong affiliation with the anti-­Jacksonian Whig Party. He then opposed the president over his refusal to recharter the Second Bank of the United States. Webster apparently felt that Jackson’s removal of federal deposits to “pet banks” could be an issue propelling him to the White House. In 1836 Webster was one of several Whig candidates to seek the party nomination, but in the end they split the vote and Democrat

Martin Van Buren won. Webster functioned several more years in the opposition until 1840, when he became a strong supporter of a new Whig candidate, William Henry Harrison. After Harrison won he appointed Webster sec-­ retary of state and continued in that position after John Tyler succeeded Harrison a month later. In this capacity Webster negotiated the Webster-­Ashburton Treaty of 1843 to settle a boundary dispute with Canada then resigned to run for the Senate when Tyler vetoed a new national bank. In 1844 Webster failed to receive the Whig nomination for president, so he campaigned on behalf of Henry Clay, who then lost to James K. Polk. Afterward Web-­ ster stridently opposed the war with Mexico, (continues)

Daniel Webster (Library of Congress)

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(continued) the expansion of slavery into the new territories, and supported the Wilmot Proviso. However, in March 1850 he outraged his constituents by defending the Fugitive Slave Act as essential for the Union at that point. In July 1850 he served again as secretary of state under President Millard Fillmore and two years later was bitterly disappointed

when he was again passed over for the Whig nomination in favor of General Winfield Scott. Webster died at Marshfield, Massachusetts, on October 24, 1852, an outstanding orator and the major spokesman for the North during a period of rising sectional tensions. He, along with Clay and John C. Calhoun, helped define the national agenda.

February 4 Transportation: The Camden and Amboy Railroad, New Jersey’s first such business, is chartered.

March 12 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court settles the case of Craig v. Missouri, ruling that state loan certificates, intended for circulation, are bills of credit and patently unconstitutional.

March 15 Politics: The Louisiana legislature votes to endorse the Tariff of 1812.

March 28 Diplomacy: The United States and Denmark conclude a treaty for the adjustment of indemnity claims.

March 31 Politics: The Pennsylvania legislature endorses Andrew Jackson for the presidency.

April 6 Diplomacy: A postrevolutionary government in Mexico adopts laws to halt American immigration into Texas and also prohibits the importation of AfricanAmerican slaves. American settlers living there under prior arrangements consider this a violation of their “rights.” Religion: Joseph Smith founds the Church of the Latter-day Saints (Mormons) at Fayette, New York; he draws inspiration from religious visions and translations of messages on golden tablets. These were reputedly revealed to him by the angel Moroni. He then goes on to publish his influential The Book of Mormon, setting the stage for one of America’s most powerful religious sects. Mormonism is a uniquely American creed which holds that the country was colonized by a lost tribe of Israel, and that God has special message—and mission—for the United States.

April 10 Business: A covered wagon train departs Missouri for the Rocky Mountains under the leadership of Jedediah Strong Smith and William Sublette. This year they also sell their holdings to what emerges as the Rocky Mountain Fur Company.

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Smith, Joseph (1804 –1844) Mormon prophet Joseph Smith was born in Sharon, Ver-­ mont, on December 23, 1805, a son of poor farmers. He endured a hardscrabble existence while maturing along the fron-­ tiers of western New York, and around 1820 Smith began experiencing a series of religious visions. Here both God and Jesus Christ appeared to him and revealed the location of several golden plates buried in the ground and allegedly deposited by the Indian descendants of lost Hebrew tribes. Smith was then enabled to decipher the plates through magic and published his treatise, The Book of Mormon, in 1830. This is the genesis of a uniquely American sect, the Mormons, who derive their name from a supposed American prophet. Smith began preaching to his neighbors, winning many converts. He then formally organized the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-­day Saints on April 6, 1830, which was distinguished by its insistence of church ownership of all property, placing all political power in the church, and recognition of Smith as the sole prophet. As the Mormon community grew it experienced friction with more traditionally minded Christians, and in 1838 Smith relo-­ cated his church and its followers to western Missouri. This led to further strife with other communities and an outbreak of violence in which Smith was arrested and detained for several months. Ultimately, he was forced to relocate church and followers alike to a new abode in Illinois, christened Nau-­ voo. Though viewed with suspicion, Smith gained respectability among state politicians for his ability to deliver 12,000 Mormon votes to whomever he pleased. He was thus able to achieve considerable autonomy in running church affairs, and also recruited, trained, and equipped his own militia force, the Nauvoo Legion.

While at Nauvoo, Smith continually updated and refined church doctrine and his role as prophet. In 1844 he pronounced his community as independent of the United States while church elders crowned him king of this kingdom of God on Earth. Smith also began harboring political aspirations and at one point proffered himself as a presidential candidate on a platform of establishing a “theodemocracy” and the abolition of slav-­ ery. A breaking point occurred around this time when he apparently also introduced the practice of multiple wives, or polygamy, among church leaders. This struck dissi-­ dents within the Mormon ranks as antithe-­ tical to proper religion and also outraged (continues)

Joseph Smith, Jr. (Library of Congress)

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(continued) more traditional Protestant communities that practiced monogamy. The final break occurred when a breakaway newspaper, The Nauvoo Expositor, openly criticized Smith for polygamy and exposed him as a false prophet. Church loyalists then attacked and destroyed the press upon Smith’s orders, at which point he was arrested and charged

with disorderly conduct. He was then lodged in the Carthage jail for his own safety, but a mob stormed in, killing Smith and his brother. Smith was only 38 years old at the time, but his reputation as one of the 19th century’s most charismatic religious figures was assured. He was replaced by a new leader, Brigham Young.

April 13 Politics: In a sign of continuing political and sectional tension, President Andrew Jackson toasts a dinner held in honor of Thomas Jefferson by thundering, “Our Federal Union—it must be preserved!” Vice President John C. Calhoun then offered a Southern riposte, declaring, “The Union—next to our liberty, the most dear.”

May 7 Diplomacy: The United States and Turkey conclude a treaty of commerce which opens up the Black Sea region to American commerce.

May 20 Business: Import duties on tea, coffee, salt, and molasses are reduced by Congress.

May 21 Politics: The Foot Resolution, calling for restrictions on western land sales, is tabled in the Senate.

May 24 Transportation: The first 13-mile section of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad opens between Baltimore and Ellicott’s Mills.

May 27 Transportation: The Maysville Road Bill, which would have funded construction of a 60-mile road in Kentucky, is vetoed by President Andrew Jackson—his first use of executive authority in that regard. He opposes federal subsidies for public works projects that are confined to one state and not part of a larger system of overall national improvement.

May 28 Indian: The Indian Removal Act is signed by President Andrew Jackson, mandating the forced relocation of several Eastern Indian tribes to reservations located across the Mississippi River. Through this expedient, the government can acquire thousands of square miles of pristine Indian land east of the river. In return the tribes receive $500,000 in compensation and an annuity. Debate over the bill is marked by intense acrimony, with opponents insisting it is the best alternative to gradual annihilation and by detractors insisting it is both cruel and inhumane.

1830

Chronology   773

Calhoun, John C. (1782–1850) Politician John Caldwell Calhoun was born in Abbe-­ ville District, South Carolina, the son of an affluent judge and slave owner. He gradu-­ ated from Yale in 1804, began a successful law practice, and in 1808 commenced a long career in politics by winning a seat in the state legislature. Calhoun, intense, reserved, and profound, successfully stood for a seat in the U.S. House of Repre-­ sentatives in 1811 where he functioned as a prominent “War Hawk” agitating for war with England. As such he voted for an increased military establishment and became closely associated with Henry Clay. Afterward Calhoun’s political career bore all the trappings of an ardent nationalist through his vocal support for a strong mili-­ tary, internal improvements, and protective tariffs to assist industry. In 1817 President James Monroe appointed him secretary of war, a disgraced office since the disasters of the recent conflict, yet he applied himself with such energy, diligence, and foresight in this capacity that in 1824 he was enabled to run for the vice presidency with John Quincy Adams. His name was frequently mentioned as a possible presidential contender, but in 1828 he deferred to Andrew Jackson and once served as his vice president. His ten-­ ure with Jackson proved unhappy, owing to conflicting personalities, Calhoun’s prior criticism of Jackson’s behavior during the First Seminole War in Florida, and the ris-­ ing tide of sectionalism occasioned by high tariffs. The breaking point occurred in 1832 when South Carolina threatened to “nullify” high tariffs and Calhoun penned an anon-­ ymous pamphlet defending the practice. When Jackson threatened military force to collect the tariff, Calhoun broke precedence by resigning from office and he was replaced by Martin Van Buren. He then gained elec-­

tion to the U.S. Senate from his home state and spent nearly two decades as the South’s leading political intellect and spokesman. The remainder of Calhoun’s career was buffeted by the rise of strident abolitionism in the North, which called for an immedi-­ ate end to slavery. He was quick to defend that “peculiar institution” and argued that the Congress had no constitutional ability to thwart its continued existence anywhere in the nation. To this end he supported the annexation of Texas as a slave state but also opposed the war with Mexico as an unnecessary evil. He particularly railed against the Wilmot Proviso on constitutional grounds for outlawing slavery in territory acquired from Mexico. Calhoun subse-­ quently found himself working both with (continues)

John C. Calhoun (Library of Congress)

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Chronology of American History

(continued) and against two other fine minds, Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, in a failed attempt to accommodate rising national hostility over sectionalism and secession. His health failing, Calhoun nonetheless remained a strident Southern nationalist to the end and

opposed the Compromise of 1850 for failing to ensure the continued existence of slavery. He died in Washington, D.C., on March 31, 1850, having been spared from witnessing the very civil war that would destroy his beloved South.

May 29 Settlement: Congress passes the Preemption Act to protect squatters from land speculators and claim jumpers; henceforth any settler established on public land in the past year is entitled to purchase up to 160 acres at $1.25 an acre. Duties on molasses and salt are also reduced.

May 31 Transportation: President Andrew Jackson vetoes federal subscription to stock in the Washington Turnpike Company, considering it a local and state project.

June 5 Naval: The frigate USS Vincennes under Captain F. B. Finch returns to New York, being the first U.S. warship to successfully circumnavigate the globe.

July 15 Indian: The United States and representatives from the Sac, Fox, and Sioux conclude a treaty that cedes all Indian land encompassing present-day Iowa, Missouri, and Minnesota. This transpires over the objections of a principal chief, Black Hawk.

August 4 Settlement: Civil engineer James Thompson begins laying out the town of Chicago, Illinois.

August 28 Transportation: The Tom Thumb, the first steam-powered locomotive made in America, successfully runs along the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad from Baltimore to Ellicott’s Mills. Prior to this, American steam trains had been acquired from the English.

September 11 Politics: The Anti-Masonic Party demonstrates its political viability by holding its first convention in Philadelphia, attracting numerous delegates.

September 15 Indian: The Choctaw and the United States conclude the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, whereby the tribe transfers eight million acres of land east of the Mississippi to the government. They are then entitled to resettle on land set aside for them in present-day Oklahoma.

September 16 Literature: In an attempt to prevent the aged frigate USS Constitution, “Old Ironsides,” from being sold and broken up, Oliver Wendell Holmes writes and pub-

1830

Chronology

775

lishes the poem “Old Ironsides” in the Boston Daily Advertiser. His effort proves so popular that the Navy Department rescinds its order to mothball the vessel.

September 18 Transportation: On its return leg of a trip to Baltimore, the locomotive Tom Thumb races a horse and loses owing to mechanical failure.

September 27 Indian: The United States and the Choctaw nation conclude the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, whereby the tribe’s remaining land east of the Mississippi is ceded in exchange for new homes in the designated Indian Territory (Oklahoma).

September 30 Politics: The Kentucky legislature nominates Henry Clay as its presidential candidate.

October 5 Diplomacy: Secretary of State Martin Van Buren discusses opening trade with the West Indies with British minister Sir Charles Vaughan. General: Chester A. Arthur, the 21st president, is born at Fairfield, Vermont.

November 2 Transportation: Another early locomotive, the Best Friend of Charleston, completes its first sojourn down the Charleston-Hamburg Railroad; its becomes the first train to complete regularly scheduled runs.

November 26 Technology: During a visit to England, Robert Stevens invents the improved “T-rail” rail track, which is still employed to present times.

December Slavery: Once the American schooner Comet is wrecked on the Bahamas, British authorities declare that the slaves it was carrying are now free. Women: Robert Dale Owen publishes Moral Physiology, the first American manual to touch upon the sensitive issue of birth control. Most newspapers refuse to carry advertisements promoting it, but the book nonetheless sells 25,000 copies.

December 6 Politics: President Andrew Jackson delivers his annual address to Congress, reiterating his opposition to the Bank of the United States and proposing internal improvements financed by distributing federal surpluses back to the states.

December 7 Journalism: Supporters of President Andrew Jackson choose Francis P. Blair to edit a pro-administration newspaper, the Washington Globe, as a semiofficial mouthpiece. Jackson relies on this new paper as his old ally, Duff Green of the U.S. Telegraph, has become a supporter of Henry Clay.

1831 Arts: Yale University establishes the Trumbull Gallery in honor of alumnus and artist John Trumbull. Medical: Dr. James Guthrie successfully synthesizes chloroform, an early and effective anesthetic, in his laboratory at Sackets Harbor, New York.

1831

776

Chronology of American History Slavery: A resolution in the Georgia senate offers a $5,000 reward for the arrest and conviction in a state court of abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison. Technology: Inventor Joseph Henry creates the first practical electric bell using primitive magnets and copper wire; it becomes one of the first electrical devices with domestic applications. Transportation: The steamboat Yellowstone of the American Fur Company is the first such vessel to ascend the Missouri River.

January Religion: To escape violence and persecution, Joseph Smith and 70 Mormon followers relocate from New York to Kirtland, Ohio. This is the site of what they hope will be New Zion. Slavery: Free African Americans in the Washington, D.C., area are arrested and whipped for owning copies of William Lloyd Garrison’s abolitionist newspaper The Liberator.

January 1 Slavery: William Lloyd Garrison, radical abolitionist, begins publication of his newspaper The Liberator in Boston, vowing “I will not retreat a single inch, and I will be heard.” He also intends to remain in print until the last of African Americans is released from bondage; Garrison keeps his word and does not fold until 1865.

January 15 Transportation: The steam locomotive Best Friend of Charleston becomes the first American train to actually haul passengers, in this instance on a run between Charleston and Hamburg, South Carolina, as part of the South Carolina Railroad. Soon Isaac Dripps invents the trademark grill eventually seen on all locomotives, nicknamed the “Cowcatcher.”

February 2 Politics: Senator Thomas Hart Benton, a nominal Jacksonian ally, frames the debate on the National Bank by attacking it as “too great and powerful to be tolerated in a Government of free and equal laws.”

February 3 Business: Congress passes a new Copyright Act which extends the rights and benefits of the original 1790 act from 14 to 28 years. An additional 14 years is permitted if asked for by the author’s wife or children.

February 15 Politics: In a move indicative of the breech between President Andrew Jackson and Vice President John C. Calhoun, the latter publishes letters critical of the president’s behavior during the First Seminole War of 1818. In consequence, an angry Jackson chooses New York’s Martin Van Buren as his running mate.

March 4 Politics: Former president John Quincy Adams, whom many believed was ruined as a political figure, becomes the first former executive to win a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Plymouth, Massachusetts.

March 5 Transportation: The West Point, the first locomotive utilizing a four-wheeled truck, debuts on the South Carolina Railroad.

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March 18 Indian: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case Cherokee v. Georgia, ruling that the Cherokee are not a sovereign nation but rather a “domestic dependent” and cannot sue in federal court. The Indians were trying to stop Georgia from applying its laws on their land, where gold had recently been discovered.

April 5 Diplomacy: The United States and Mexico conclude a commercial treaty.

April 7 Politics: Secretary of War John H. Eaton resigns from the cabinet of President Andrew Jackson to protest the snubbing of his wife, Peggy O’Neale, a former barmaid, whom administration wives consider unacceptable. This act leads to a spate of resignations and by a day later all cabinet officials have either left or been replaced.

April 18 Education: The University of the City of New York is chartered; it becomes New York University after 1896.

April 26 Law: The New York legislature decriminalizes indebtedness and abolishes prison terms for it.

May 26 Education: The Methodists charter Wesleyan University at Middletown, Connecticut, becoming the oldest institution of higher learning associated with that sect.

June 11 Societal: The Annual Convention of People of Color, the first large gathering of free African Americans, convenes at the Wesleyan Church in Philadelphia. There they approve measures to study the conditions of blacks in America overall, weigh the possibility of resettling in Canada, and oppose efforts of the American Colonization Society.

June 27–30 Indian: Black Hawk, head chief of the Sac and Fox and a distinguished warrior from the War of 1812, reluctantly agrees with General Edmund P. Gaines to move his people from their traditional homeland in Illinois across the Mississippi River and into new lands in Iowa. They nearly starve there over the winter, which occasions an unexpected return to their former abodes.

July 4 Diplomacy: American minister in Paris William C. Rives presses damage claims against France dating back to the Napoleonic Wars. The French have been dragging their feet, citing counterclaims by their own citizens. Ultimately France pays out $5 million in claims, the Americans $300,000. General: Former President James Monroe dies in New York City at the age of 73. Music: The song “America,” written to the traditional British tune “God Save the King,” is arranged and played by Dr. Samuel Francis Smith for the first time in Worcester, Massachusetts.

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Black Hawk (ca. 1767–1838) Sac and Fox chief Black Hawk (Makataimeshekikiak) was born near Rock Island, Illinois, around 1767, into the Thunder Clan of the Sac and Fox Indian nation. He matured into an outstanding warrior and by 1788 was functioning as a minor chief. By this time the tribe had established friendly relations with the United States, although these soured after 1804 when efforts accelerated to have the Indians sell their traditional hunting grounds. Black Hawk, in particular, refused to move from his village at Saukenuk and continually declined Indiana territorial governor William Henry Harrison’s offers of compensation. When the War of 1812 erupted, Black Hawk readily joined Tecumseh’s pan-Indian coalition against the United States, defeating American troops in several actions. His most successful battle occurred in September 1814 when his braves attacked Major (and future president) Zachary Taylor’s small force on the Rock River, Illinois, forcing them to retreat. It was not until 1816, a year after the Treaty of Ghent had been signed, that Black Hawk finally and sullenly made peace with his hated adversaries. An uneasy truce prevailed for the next two decades, but in 1829 the Illinois state government under Governor John Reynolds began pressing Black Hawk’s tribe to migrate west across the Mississippi River. The old chief refused and in 1831 the local militia was assembled to evict them by force. Black Hawk, wishing to avoid hostilities, then slipped quietly across the river into Iowa, which seemed to diffuse the emergency for the moment.

The Sac and Fox spent a desperate winter in Iowa, nearly starving to death. To circumvent further suffering, on April 5, 1832, Black Hawk ordered his 1,400 tribesmen back across the Mississippi to reoccupy their old homeland. A party of two Indians was sent ahead under a white flag to assure the whites they meant no harm, but when militiamen killed the messengers, Black Hawk went to war. Several costly skirmishes ensued over the intervening weeks while General Henry Atkinson collected a force of militia and soldiers to deal with the intruders. On May 12, 1832, the Indians were soundly defeated by Atkinson at the Battle of Bad Ax, principally by the armed steamboat Warrior. Black Hawk’s band scattered and he was eventually captured and taken to Fort Monroe, Virginia, by Lieutenant Jefferson Davis. He was also introduced to President Andrew Jackson before being released into the custody of Keokuk, a rival chief far more amicably disposed toward Americans. While in captivity Black Hawk dictated his memoirs to Indian agent Antonine LeClaire, which were published in 1833 and became a best seller. In them the old chief excoriates the whites for their injustice against Native Americans, and he carefully recounts his many victories over them in the field. Black Hawk continued to live quietly at Keokuk’s village in Iowa until his death on October 3, 1838. Significantly, the so-called Black Hawk War to which his name is indelibly associated was the last act of Native American resistance east of the Mississippi River.

July 20 Politics: President Andrew Jackson appoints Roger B. Taney of Maryland to serve as attorney general.

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779

July 26 Politics: Vice President John C. Calhoun elaborates on the doctrine of nullification in his “Fort Hill Letter,” reiterating that states possess the right to both accept and reject actions taken by the federal government at their own discretion.

August Religion: Mormon founder Joseph Smith selects Independence, Missouri, to serve as his Holy City of Zion. William Miller, a Baptist preacher, founds the Seventh-Day Adventist movement in American Protestantism and predicts the imminent return of Jesus Christ between 1843 and 1844 based on his interpretation of the books of Daniel and Revelation.

August 1 Politics: Lewis Cass of Ohio gains appointment as the new secretary of war.

August 8 Politics: Louis McLane of Delaware becomes the new secretary of the treasury.

August 9 Politics: A political gathering in New York City nominates John C. Calhoun for the presidency. Transportation: New York’s first steam locomotive, the De Witt Clinton, initiates service on the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad.

August 10 General: The first reference to the U.S. Flag as “Old Glory” occurs in a toast by sea captain William Driver of Salem, Massachusetts. The expression gains widespread use by the middle of the century.

August 13–23 Slavery: Reverend Nat Turner, a radical slave preacher, leads a bloody rebellion in Southampton, Virginia, killing 70 whites. The rebellion is then speedily crushed by local militia and Turner is captured. He and 12 others are hanged for their participation, while an additional 100 slaves are killed in fighting.

August 28 Naval: In response to the attacks by Sumatran pirates on American shipping in the Far East, President Andrew Jackson orders Captain John Downes of the frigate USS Potomac to undertake punitive actions against them.

September 26 Arts: Robert Montgomery Bird’s abolitionist play The Gladiator, set in Roman times during the days of Spartacus, begins a successful run in New York City. It stars noted actor Edwin Forrest in one of his earliest roles as a romantic hero. Politics: The Anti-Masonic Party, which appeared suddenly as the third national party and now has chapters in 13 states, holds its first national convention. Attorney William Wirt of Maryland is nominated as its presidential candidate with Amos Ellmaker of Pennsylvania as vice president.

September 30 Politics: A gathering of free trade advocates in Philadelphia drafts a message to Congress, written by Albert Gallatin.

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Cartoon illustrating Nat Turner’s uprising against southern whites╇ (Library of Congress)

October 13 Societal: Riots break out at the Park Theater in New York City when En�glish actor Joshua R. Anderson, who publicly criticized Americans, emerged on the stage.

October 26 Politics: Advocates of protective tariffs gather at a convention in New York City.

November 11 Slavery: Radical preacher Nat Turner is hanged at Jerusalem, Virginia, for his role in the violent slave uprising of the previous August.

November 12 Transportation: John Bull, an Â�EnÂ�glish-­built locomotive, begins clacking down the tracks on the Camden and Amboy Railroad, New Jersey.

November 19 General: James A. Garfield, 20th president, is born at Orange Township, Cleve-­ land, Ohio.

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December 5 Politics: National elections keep the Democrats in control of Congress. John Quincy Adams is elected to the House of Representatives from Massachusetts; he is the first former chief executive returned to Congress.

December 12 Politics: The new National Republican Party convenes its first nominating convention in Baltimore, Maryland, and selects Henry Clay for president and John Sergeant of Pennsylvania for vice president. The party platform attacks President Andrew Jackson for patronage and abuses of veto power, supports Clay’s “American system” and seeks to recharter the Bank of the United States. Slavery: Former president John Quincy Adams, now holding a seat in the House of Representatives, presents 15 Pennsylvania petitions calling for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia.

December 26 General: Stephen Girard, one of the nation’s wealthiest men, dies and leaves his fortune to the founding of Girard College, dedicated to the education of poor, white male orphans.

1832 Arts: Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s play Pizarro is staged in Columbus, Georgia, with genuine Creek Indians playing the role of Native Americans and performing authentic Indian dances to an amazed audience. Education: The Perkins Institute, the first school dedicated to teaching the deaf, is opened in Boston by Samuel Gridley Howe. Literature: The collected poems of William Cullen Bryant are published and hailed by the North American Review as the best American verse to have been written. Medical: New Orleans is ravaged by epidemics of cholera and yellow fever which kill 5,000 inhabitants. Music: The Boston Academy of Music opens, being the first American institution to offer advanced musical instruction. Publishing: William A. Alcott authors The Young Man’s Guide as a directory of proper manners and morality in a variety of social settings and situations. It is widely read and accepted. Religion: Evangelical preacher Charles G. Finney establishes the Second Presbyterian Church in New York City. Science: The pseudoscience of phrenology is brought to America by Austrian Johann Kaspar Spurnzhiem; it holds that the moral character and intellectual capacity of an individual can be gauged by the shape of his skull. Societal: Oranges and lemons begin arriving in large shipments from Sicily and gain popularity as part of the national diet; previously, such delicacies were reserved for the very wealthy. Sports: William Trotter becomes the nation’s first sportswriter by contributing a column to the newspaper The Traveler.

January 6 Slavery: The New England Anti-Slavery Society is founded in Boston; it strongly opposes the resettlement of African Americans in Africa.

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Finney, Charles G. (1792–1875) Theologian Charles Grandison Finney was born in Warren, Connecticut, on August 29, 1792, the son of farmers. He matured on the frontier of Jefferson County, New York, where he studied law with a view toward opening a practice. However, 1820 marked the beginning of the Second Great Awakening, a profound religious revival movement among frontier communities, and Finney found himself increasingly drawn into biblical studies. The turning point in his life occurred in October 1821 when he underwent a dramatic conversion experience and committed his life to Christ as an evangelical minister. Finney was particularly gifted in this capacity, being flamboyant, physically imposing, and—thanks to his legal training—a fine orator. He began attending and preaching at frontier revival meetings through western New York and in 1824 was ordained as a Presbyterian minister. His fiery sermons, in which he challenged parishioners to step forward and accept Jesus as their personal savior, gained in popularity and won thousands of converts. Finney even took his message to the factories of the northeast by visiting Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, where a newly emergent middle class readily accepted his message of salvation. In 1832 he established the Second Presbyterian Church in New York, again with considerable success. The secret to Finney’s persuasiveness was his insistence that all people are sinners, that hell was very real, and that only a personal relationship with God through direct prayer could save them

from eternal damnation. However, strict adherents of Calvinism, who insisted that most people are preordained for hell, found his message heretical and he was forced from the Presbyterian assembly. Undaunted, Finney established the Broadway Tabernacle in 1836 and then associated himself with the Congregationalist Church. In 1835 he also accepted the position of teacher of theology at Oberlin College, Ohio, and he alternated between the two positions. In 1837 Finney relocated to Ohio as pastor of the First Congregational Church in Oberlin, where he continued to teach and preach with little interruption. In 1849–50 and 1859–60 he carried his message of hope to England, and he also served as president of Oberlin College after 1851. In this capacity he championed social causes such as temperance and urged abstention from alcohol, tobacco, and other stimulants. Furthermore, as an evangelical Christian, Finney stridently opposed slavery as a sin. He was upset with President Abraham Lincoln’s moderate accommodation of it during the early period of the Civil War and criticized him for failing to pursue the matter of civil rights for African Americans. Finney continued successfully preaching at Oberlin well past his retirement, and he died there on August 16, 1875. He is a significant figure of the Second Great Awakening for his emotional innovations in preaching, which have since become hallmarks of mainstream evangelical Protestantism in America.

January 9 Business: Congress begins agitating to extend the Bank of the United States’ charter three years ahead of its expiration date. This is despite heavy political criticism from westerners and others who view it as a symbol of aristocracy and corporate privilege.

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January 21 Politics: President Andrew Jackson enacts a “reform” program by rewarding numerous governmental positions to his circle of political friends. New York Democrat William Marcy summarizes the practice when he declares “To the victor go the spoils of the enemy.” Slavery: Thomas Jefferson Randolph, grandson of the former president, presses the Virginia legislature to adopt his grandfather’s plan for the gradual abolition of slavery.

February 2 Education: Denison Literary and Theological Institution (Denison University) is chartered in Granville, Ohio, by the Baptists; its first class graduates in 1840.

February 6 Naval: Captain John Downes of the USS Potomac launches a landing party against pirates at Qualla Battoo, Sumatra. The Americans destroy four forts, kill 150 pirates, along with Rajah Po Mohamoet, their leader, suffering only two killed and 11 wounded. The surviving Malays agree not to harass American vessels. Transportation: An essay in the Ann Arbor, Michigan, newspaper Emigrant is the first to suggest the possibility of a transcontinental railroad.

February 10 Business: Henry Clay, seeking to embarrass President Andrew Jackson with a useful campaign issue, convinces Nicholas Biddle, director of the Bank of the United States, to press for rechartering four years before the original grant expires.

March 3 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Worcester v. Georgia, ruling that the federal government enjoys jurisdiction over Indian affairs in a state. For this reason, Georgia laws have no relevance on Indian land. The state legislature, appreciably upset, refuses to acknowledge the court’s decision. Moreover, President Andrew Jackson, a firm states’ right supporter, bellows, “John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it!”

March 19 Societal: Mrs. Francis Trollope publishes her book, The Domestic Manners of the Americans, which excoriates them as a bunch of unsophisticated bumpkins. Not surprisingly, her work is itself savagely lampooned throughout the country as an example of British upper-class snobbery.

March 24 Indian: The Creek sign a treaty with the United States which cedes that last of their territory east of the Mississippi. Shortly after they are to be relocated to new lands in present-day Oklahoma.

April 6 Military: Chief Black Hawk suddenly moves his Sac and Fox tribe back across the Mississippi River to traditional hunting grounds in Illinois. Frightened farmers then fire on a group of Indians bearing a white flag and Black Hawk orders them killed. The so-called Black Hawk War ensues, and among those called to serve in this brief conflict are Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis.

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April 7 Education: Pennsylvania College is chartered in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, under Lutheran auspices; its first class graduates in 1834.

May 1 Settlement: Army captain Benjamin Bonneville leads a large wagon train from Fort Osage, Missouri, as far as the Columbia River, Oregon. He then goes off on his own to explore the West for an additional three years.

May 9 Indian: Seminole chiefs conclude the Treaty of Payne’s Landing with the United States, which cedes their land in exchange for new homes west of the Mississippi River. However, many chiefs are angry over the settlement and begin coalescing around Osceola, a quasi-religious figure.

May 16 Diplomacy: The United States and Chile conclude a treaty of peace and commerce.

May 21–22 Politics: The new Democratic Party convenes its first national convention at Baltimore, Maryland. In a newly adopted rule that endures until 1936, candidates Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren need two-thirds of the delegates to win the party nomination but both are chosen unanimously. Van Buren also replaces John C. Calhoun, who intends to run for a senate seat in South Carolina.

May 23 Business: John Quincy Adams reports a tariff bill to lower rates from the Tariff of 1828 but still retains some protectionist features.

June Medical: A cholera epidemic sweeps through New York City, killing 4,000 inhabitants.

June 11 Business: A bill to recharter the Bank of the United States passes through the Senate 28 to 20.

June 26 Military: A skirmish between Mexicans and Texans in the Battle of Velasco results in the first bloodshed between the opposing groups.

June 28 Medical: The first appearance of Asiatic cholera in the United States occurs in New York, leading to 2,225 deaths in that city alone. It is eventually spread by human contact to the frontiers and has a devastating impact on many Indian tribes.

July 3 Business: The National Bank bill passes the House of Representatives on a vote of 107 to 85.

July 9 Religion: Henry Clay’s proposal for a National Fast Day is defeated in the U.S. Senate after a bitter debate. He makes his plea for divine assistance to help combat an ongoing cholera epidemic.

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July 10 Business: With great relish, President Andrew Jackson vetoes a bill intending to recharter the Bank of the United States. He does so to oppose the conservative policies of its chief officer, Nicholas Biddle, which apparently favor corporations and the wealthy. He is also alarmed that the largest group of stock owners are also foreigners. Jackson thereby accepts Henry Clay’s challenge to use the institution as a campaign issue in the upcoming contest.

July 13 Exploring: Henry R. Schoolcraft, leading an exploration party, discovers that Lake Itasca, in Minnesota, is the source of the Mississippi River. Politics: As anticipated, the U.S. Senate fails to muster the two-thirds vote necessary to override President Andrew Jackson’s veto of the Bank of the United States. This sets the stage for its second disbandment in 1836.

July 14 Business: The Tariff Act of 1832 is signed into law by President Andrew Jackson; while it lowers duties, many Southerners still view it as favoring the rapidly industrializing North at their expense.

August 2 Military: General Henry Atkinson, assisted by a fleet of steamships, decisively defeats the Sac and Fox Indians under Chief Black Hawk at the Battle of Bad Axe, Michigan. This engagement concludes the final episode of Native Indian resistance east of the Mississippi River.

September 21 Indian: After Chief Black Hawk surrenders himself to American authorities, the surviving Sac and Fox Indians under Chief Keokuk sign a treaty obliging them to remain on land west of the Mississippi River. This reaffirms a treaty first signed in 1804, since denounced by Black Hawk as fraudulent.

October Arts: Painter George Catlin, determined to capture on canvas the rapidly vanishing Indian way of life, continues painting various chiefs and tribes along his 2,000-mile sojourn up the Missouri River.

October 14 Indian: In light of recent events, the Chickasaw agree to cede all their land east of the Mississippi River to the United States.

October 26 Politics: A new state constitution adopted by Mississippi allows many state officials to be elected, not appointed.

November 14 General: Charles Carroll, last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence, dies in Baltimore at the age of 95.

November 19–24 Politics: In a major escalation of political tension, a special convention in South Carolina adopts an ordinance which nullifies the Tariffs of 1828 and 1832. They also declare their right to secede from the Union if state authority is challenged

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Atkinson, Henry

(1782–1842)

General Henry Atkinson was born in North Carolina in 1782, and in 1808 he joined the U.S. Army as a captain in the Third Infantry. He served in various capacities throughout the War of 1812, rising to colonel of the Sixth Infantry by 1815. Atkinson remained at Plattsburgh, New York, until 1819, when Secretary of War John C. Calhoun ordered him on an expedition to the Great Plains for the purpose of impressing Native Americans living there with the power of the United States. This was the first military expedition outfitted with new steamboats and much was expected of it. In July of that year Atkinson shepherded nearly 1,000 men up the Missouri River from St. Louis, but mechanical difficulties forced him to stop for the winter at Council Bluffs, Nebraska. He nonetheless received command of the Ninth Military district, headquartered at St. Louis, from which he helped orchestrate the construction of roads and forts to facilitate frontier exploration and migration. In 1820 Atkinson dispatched Major Stephen H. Long on his noted exploring expedition to the Rocky Mountains and across the great “American desert.” In 1825 he advanced to brigadier general and conducted a second foray to the mouth of the Yellowstone River (Wyoming), there to conclude the first treaties with several tribes inhabiting that region. In this manner trade relations and exploration were greatly facilitated. That same year Atkinson chose the site for the celebrated Jefferson’s Barracks in St. Louis, the army’s only school for infantry. In 1827

he next dispatched Colonel Henry Leavenworth into the Kansas Territory to establish a post there, which later evolved into Fort Leavenworth, another important frontier post. The western frontier at this time could be a violent, dangerous place, and in 1827 Atkinson was required to accompany troops in Wisconsin to contain a revolt by the Winnebago Indians. Affairs became more violent in 1832 when a dissident band of Sac and Fox Indians under Chief Black Hawk abrogated an earlier agreement to relocate across the Mississippi River and returned to their homelands in Illinois. Atkinson then formed an army out of state militia and army troops pursued and then engaged Black Hawk at the Battle of Bad Axe on August 2, 1832. The Americans vigorously pursued the fleeing Indians to the banks of the Mississippi and used the steamship Warrior to bombard them. The tribesmen were completely defeated in this, the last gasp of Native American resistance east of the Mississippi River, with Black Hawk captured and his tribesmen forcefully relocated. President Andrew Jackson was thus empowered to accelerate his timetable for Indian removal. In 1837 and 1840 Atkinson was tasked with removing the Potawatomi and Winnebago tribes, respectively, to new homes before dying at Jefferson Barracks on June 14, 1842. He was an important military and administrative figure throughout the middle plains region, and Fort Atkinson, Iowa, is named in his honor.

by Federal force. Once the South Carolina legislature passes the ordinance, the state is on an eventual collision course with the federal government.

November 26 Transportation: New York City begins employing the first horse-drawn street cars operated by the New York & Harlem Railroad.

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Mathias Baldwin’s new locomotive Old Ironsides makes its debut run in Philadelphia.

November 27 Politics: The South Carolina legislature unhesitatingly adopts the nullification ordinance, even if it provokes a military response from the federal government. President Andrew Jackson places Federal troops in Charleston Harbor on the alert.

December 4 Politics: President Andrew Jackson makes his annual address to Congress, calling for tariff rates to be lowered. To many it appears he is trying to mollify radical elements in South Carolina.

December 5 Politics: In his bid for reelection Andrew Jackson overwhelmingly defeats Henry Clay, accruing 219 electoral votes to 49. A major factor in Jackson’s victory is his continuing opposition to rechartering the national bank, which secure him scores of votes from the frontier and farmlands of America. Meanwhile, Vice President John C. Calhoun is successfully elected to the Senate from South Carolina and resigns from office. His native state casts 11 electoral votes for John Floyd of Virginia rather than give them to Jackson.

December 10 Politics: President Andrew Jackson, having ordered federal forts in Charleston, South Carolina, reinforced, sternly warns that no state will be allowed to secede and “disunion by armed force is treason.” He determines to fiercely suppress any attempt to leave the Union—by force, if necessary.

December 12 Politics: Henry Clay introduces a bill to distribute surplus federal revenue accruing from federal lands back to the states; the measure is vetoed by President Andrew Jackson.

December 13 Politics: Robert Y. Hayne, a strident defender of states’ rights, is elected governor of South Carolina.

December 18 Diplomacy: The United States and Russia conclude a commercial treaty.

December 20 Politics: Governor Robert Y. Hayne of South Carolina issues a declaration defying President Andrew Jackson’s opposition to nullification and secession. Throwing down the gauntlet here incites Jackson to invoke whatever means are necessary to preserve the Union.

December 27 Politics: Gulian Verplanck of New York introduces a measure to further reduce tariffs into Congress.

December 28 Education: St. Louis College University is chartered in Missouri; it is the only Roman Catholic institution of higher learning west of the Appalachian Mountains.

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1833 Arts: Swiss painter Karl Bodmer accompanies Prince Maximilian of Germany on an extended tour of the Missouri River region and begins painting numerous Indian tribes and chiefs in great detail. For many now extinct tribes such as the Mandan, this is the only record of their daily existence. Curiously, the explorers are guided by maps first drawn in 1804 by the Lewis and Clark expedition. Education: The Haverford School Association (Haverford College) is founded at Haverford, Pennsylvania as the first Quaker institute for higher learning. Labor: The General Trades Union is formed by all the trade unions in New York City while their president, Ely Moore, is elected to Congress. Literature: Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “MS Found in a Bottle” wins a $50 prize sponsored by the Baltimore Saturday Visitor. John Pendleton Kennedy subsequently arranges for Poe to publish additional works as editor of the new Southern Literary Messenger. Music: Lowell Mason founds the Boston Academy of Music to educate children and music instructors. Politics: The 18-year-old Kauikeouli is crowned king of Hawaii under the name Kamehameha III. Religion: The Congregational Church is disestablished in Massachusetts, finally severing the final connection between church and state. Slavery: Former president James Madison becomes president of the American Colonization Society to convince free African Americans to migrate back to the Dark Continent. Societal: Peterborough, New Hampshire, founds the nation’s first tax-supported public library at the behest of Reverend Abiel Abbot. This is the oldest public library in the United States, save for the Library of Congress, which was founded in 1800. Transportation: The vessel Ann McKim is launched at Baltimore; this is the first of the long, slim “clipper ships” that are designed for speed rather than cargo. This class of ships establishes many world speed records that are not broken until long after the Civil War period. However, as a class it remains subject to continual refinement in design and reaches its highest expression of beauty and efficiency in the ships of Donald McKay of Boston.

January 1 Publishing: The Knickerbocker Magazine debuts in New York City; within a few years it will be the nation’s most popular and influential literary magazine.

January 16 Politics: The South Carolina state convention denounces President Andrew Jackson as “King Andrew” for his stance against nullification and begins raising volunteers to defend the state by force if need be. Jackson, determined to keep South Carolina in the fold, asks Congress for a “Force Bill” to enforce compliance of the tariff law.

February 5 Education: Newark College (University of Delaware) is chartered in Newark, Delaware, by Presbyterians; it graduates its first class in 1836.

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February 12 Politics: Henry Clay, ever a moderating influence, introduces a bill that gradually lowers tariffs over a 10-year period to 20 percent. This move mollifies most Southern states and leaves South Carolina out on a limb.

February 15–16 Politics: President Andrew Jackson, having asked Congress for a “Force Bill” to enforce the Tariff Acts of 1828 and 1832, is criticized in the Senate by John C. Calhoun.

February 16 Law: The Supreme Court decides the case of Barron v. Baltimore, ruling that state governments are not subject to the Bill of Rights, as this is a strictly federal jurisdiction.

February 20 Politics: The Senate passes both President Andrew Jackson’s “Force Bill” and Henry Clay’s Compromise Tariff Bill, both of which the president signs. Only John Tyler of Virginia opposed the former. This ends the nullification crisis and confrontation is averted.

February 25 Technology: Samuel Colt successfully patents his six-shot revolving pistol, the first marketable rapid-fire weapon in history. It is also the first gun to be handled effectively while on horseback and wields an indelible impact on events along the western frontier.

March 2 Business: A resolution by the U.S. House of Representatives approves continuing use of the Bank of the United States, but President Andrew Jackson demands that all funds be withdrawn and redistributed to state institutions. This move causes considerable dissent in the president’s cabinet. Politics: The Nullification Crisis continues as President Andrew Jackson signs the “Force Bill” to authorize military use to collect tariffs in South Carolina. He also signs Henry Clay’s compromise tariff, which gradually reduces the rates imposed.

March 4 Politics: Andrew Jackson is inaugurated for his second term as president of the United States and Martin Van Buren is sworn in as vice president, replacing John C. Calhoun, who has resigned from office to successfully stand for a Senate seat in his home state.

March 15 Politics: Aware that Andrew Jackson follows through on his threats to use force, the South Carolina state convention rescinds its Ordinance of Nullification in light of Henry Clay’s Compromise Bill; however, three days later it defiantly votes to nullify the now superfluous “Force Bill.”

March 19 Politics: President Andrew Jackson decides to remove all government deposits from the Bank of the United States; considerable debate ensues within his own cabinet as to the legality and expedience of the move.

1833

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Chronology of American History

Colt, Samuel (1814 –1862) Manufacturer Samuel Colt was born in Hartford, Connecticut, the son of a textile mill owner. He worked in his father’s mill in Ware, Massachusetts, until 1830, and then went to sea. There, on a voyage to India, Colt conceived the idea of a rapid-fire handgun utilizing a revolving cylinder that stored the bullets. Firing the device would advance the cylinder, placing the next loaded chamber in line with the hammer and barrel. Thus configured, such a weapon could load and discharge at much higher rates of fire than the muzzle-loading ordnance extant. After touring the country to raise money while demonstrating “laughing gas” (nitrous oxide), Colt built several functioning prototypes and applied for a patent. He then established the Patent Arms Manufacturing Company in Paterson, New Jersey, and commenced production on his new Colt “revolver,” but the military was uninterested. He was then forced to liquidate his assets and spent several years tinkering with underwater mines and telegraph cables. Fortunately for Colt, the United States declared war on Mexico in 1846 and the army finally realized the military potential of his weapon. To this end General Zachary Taylor dispatched Texas Ranger Captain Samuel Walker to confer with Colt and further refine the weapons. The resulting “Walker Colt” was the first real production model, which became a standard sidearm throughout this conflict. However, insomuch as Colt no longer owned a factory, he forged a partnership with Eli Whitney, Jr., to manufacture the guns in Whitneyville, Connecticut.

Over the next few years Colt continually refined his weapon, selling more than 200,000 to civilians and military personnel alike. In combat the Colt handgun’s good accuracy and rapid fire proved instrumental in allowing frontiersmen and armed groups like the Texas Rangers to defeat and subdue fierce nomadic tribes like the Comanche. Mass production also brought the price down so that even lowly settlers, alone and wandering the frontiers, could effectively defend themselves. By 1856 Colt had established a new manufacturing plant at Hartford which employed the very latest assembly techniques, interchangeable parts, and a highly skilled and educated work force. He also pioneered the use of new, precision lathes, specialized cutting and stamping machines, and gas-fed lighting. In 1860, when the Civil War seemed imminent, Colt received and fulfilled an order for 200,000 of the New Model Army Pistols for the U.S. Army. Colt, a multimillionaire, died at Hartford on January 10, 1862 at the age of 47; he was estimated to have a net worth of $10 million. Having become the most important arms manufacturer in American history, his efforts also wielded an enormous impact on the field of early mass production techniques. It was his simple, deadly Colt .45 pistol, however, that made the biggest impact of all, becoming an iconic symbol of the rough and tumble Wild West. His efficient manufacturing, coupled with low pricing, made it possible for the average settler to afford the luxury of selfdefense.

March 20 Diplomacy: The United States and the Kingdom of Siam conclude a treaty of commerce; this is the first agreement reached between America and an Oriental nation.

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April 1 Business: U.S. Attorney General Roger B. Taney upholds the legality of removing federal deposits from the Bank of the United States.

April 1–13 Settlement: At San Felipe de Austin, American settlers living in Texas assemble and vote to separate Texas from Mexico. They are angry over the government’s refusal to recognize their “right” to own slaves.

May Education: Oberlin College, Ohio, becomes the first coeducational college by enrolling both men and women; two years later it is the first higher learning institution to matriculate African Americans.

June 1 Politics: Continuing dissent over the issue of withdrawing funds from the Bank of the United States and redistributing them to the states forces President Andrew Jackson to reorganize his cabinet. Secretary of the Treasury Louis McLane is reappointed Secretary of State while William J. Duane occupies the former office.

June 6 Politics: President Andrew Jackson begins a tour of the states, starting in Virginia and proceeding up to New Hampshire.

August Labor: The General Trades Union of New York begins agitation for a National Trade Union, a general labor federation incorporating all crafts. Ely Moore, a New York printer, is elected the first president and is subsequently sent to Congress. Politics: John Quincy Adams declines to confer a honorary degree upon President Andrew Jackson from Harvard College, decrying the chief executive as an “illiterate barbarian.”

August 1 Labor: Shoemakers in Geneva, New York, successfully strike for a wage increase.

August 20 General: Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd president, is born in North Bend, Ohio.

August 28 Slavery: Great Britain outlaws slavery in its empire leaving the United States increasingly isolated regarding its perpetuation.

September 1 Journalism: Benjamin H. Day edits the New York Sun, the country’s first penny newspaper; its smaller size and lower price is expected to attract a wider readership. It foregoes the usual discussion of politics in favor of human-interest stories, outlandish crimes, and police court news. The tabloid press had arrived.

September 10 Politics: President Andrew Jackson declares that the government will no longer deposit money with the Bank of the United States, but Secretary of the Treasury William J. Duane hotly contests such a move.

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Chronology of American History

September 18 Politics: President Andrew Jackson has Attorney General Roger B. Taney submit a brief to his cabinet regarding the legality of removing funds from the Bank of the United States. In it he signals that the role of the presidential cabinet is as his personal organ.

September 21 Diplomacy: The United States concludes a commercial treaty with the Sultan of Muscat (Oman).

September 23 Politics: After Secretary of the Treasury William J. Duane refuses to remove government funds from the Bank of the United States, he is sacked and replaced by Roger B. Taney of Maryland.

September 26–October 1 Business: The so-called “Bank War” begins once Secretary of the Treasury Roger B. Taney orders federal money withdrawn from the Bank of the United States as per President Andrew Jackson’s executive order. The funds are then transferred to 23 state institutions, soon derogated as “pet banks.”

November 15 Politics: Massachusetts Democrat and future Civil War general Benjamin F. Butler gains appointment as attorney general.

November 13 Science: The inhabitants of Alabama are treated to a spectacular astronomical display as Earth passes through the Leonid Shower, resulting in 10,000 streaking lights per hour.

November 16 Music: The Italian Opera House opens its door at Leonard and Church Streets in New York City. It caters to the city’s cultural elite, and season boxes are available for as much as $6,000.

December Slavery: The Female Anti-Slavery Society is organized in Philadelphia under the aegis of Lucretia C. Mott, seeing that the male-dominated American Anti-Slavery Society will not allow women.

December 3 Politics: In his annual address to Congress, President Andrew Jackson defends his decision to withdraw federal funds from the Bank of the United States. He justifies his action by declaring that the bank took a partisan stance against him during the 1832 election.

December 6 Slavery: The American Anti-Slavery Society is organized in Philadelphia by Theodore Weld, an abolitionist minister, and Arthur and Lewis Tappan, wealthy New York merchants.

December 11 Politics: The Senate demands to see a copy of the papers presented by then Attorney General Roger B. Taney to the cabinet of President Andrew Jackson in September, but Jackson refuses, citing the executive branch’s independence of the legislature.

1833

Chronology

Mott, Lucretia Coffin

793

(1793–1880)

Reformer Lucretia Coffin was born in Nantucket, Massachusetts, on January 3, 1793, the daughter of a whaling captain. During her father’s absences she was raised and educated by her mother, who instilled in her a sense of selfsufficiency and discipline. Her family then converted to Quakerism, a sect that generally granted women equal rights and responsibilities, and she subsequently attended a Quaker school in Poughkeepsie, New York. She taught there many years and eventually married James Mott, a fellow teacher, in 1811. In 1827 she and her husband sided with the more liberal Hicksite faction of the Society of Friends and both became more actively involved in the nascent abolitionist movement upon relocating to Philadelphia. Women at this time were discouraged from voicing their opinions publically but Mott, never one to be silenced, organized the Female Anti-Slavery Society of Philadelphia. Five years later she expanded her efforts to help establish the Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women. While acting in this capacity she was frequently harassed and her meeting halls were sometimes burned by angry mobs, but, for this reason, Mott became known for her calmness and grace under duress, as well as her engaging delivery. In 1840 she ventured to London with William Lloyd Garrison to attend the World Anti-Slavery Convention, where she and other female delegates were turned aside. However, there she also encountered a young and impressionable Elizabeth Cady Stanton, another pioneering feminist, who

became a protégée. At this time they began planning a national conference to address the gross inequities suffered by women at the hands of society. In 1848 Mott, assisted by Stanton and others, orchestrated the first women’s rights convention at Seneca Falls, New York. This was the genesis of the women’s rights movement in the United States and a springboard for the careers of many young feminists in attendance. Mott, however, felt that the convention’s resolution for immediate suffrage rights was far in advance of public opinion at that time. Mott followed up this success in 1850 with her publication Discourses on Women, which portrayed female subordination as artificial and based more on laws, customs, and lack of education than biological necessity. In the decade approaching the Civil War Mott and her husband became actively involved in the Underground Railroad and opened their house up to fugitive slaves. Deeply pacifistic, she was disillusioned by conflict when it erupted in April 1861 but found solace in the fact that the abolition of slavery was now inevitable. After 1865 Mott became active in the antiwar movement as well as her usual commitments to the Society of Friends. She remained a familiar speaker at many such events until her death in Philadelphia on November 11, 1880. In an age of growing stridency and militance among the feminist movement, Mott invariably came across as a kindly mother figure, a calculated image which belied her otherwise steely resolve.

December 26 Politics: Henry Clay introduces motions to censure President Andrew Jackson and Secretary of the Treasury Roger B. Taney for their role in removing funds from the Bank of the United States.

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794  Chronology of American History

December 31 Technology: Obed Hussey patents the first success-­ ful, Â�horse-­drawn grain reaper; this makes him a direct competitor with Cyrus H. McCormick, who has also invented a similar device.

1834 Education: The Wabash Manual Labor College is founded at Crawfordsville, Indiana, by the Presbyte-­ rians; its first class graduates in 1838. Publishing: Historian George Bancroft writes and publishes the first volume of his seminal History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent; the final volume appears 40 years later in 1874. The Southern Literary Messenger, a significant regional journal, begins publication in Richmond, Vir-­ ginia, with Edgar Allan Poe as its foremost editor. Religion: Â�Anti-­Catholic protesters burn an Ursuline Convent in Boston, Massachusetts. Societal: The Adelphi Club is founded in Philadel-­ phia, Pennsylvania; this is the oldest association for gentlemen in the country and subsequently renames itself the Philadelphia Club.

January 3 Settlement: When Stephen F. Austin ventures to Mexico City with a petition from American settlers requesting inÂ�deÂ�penÂ�dence from Mexico, he is arrested and imprisoned for eight months by General Antonio Shown Â�here is The Â�Anti-­Slavery Almanac, López de Santa Anna. This act leads to continuing published yearly by the American Â�Anti-­Slavery deterioration of Â�Mexican-­American relations. Society.╇ (Library of Congress) Technology: Thomas Davenport of Vermont con-­ structs the world’s first electric motor, which incor-­ porates the basic design still utilized today. He died in 1851 without ever finding a practical application for his device.

January 29 Labor: When Irish laborers working on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal riot, President Andrew Jackson orders Secretary of War Lewis Cass to contain the violence with army troops. This is the first instance when federal forces intervene in a labor dispute.

February 14 Diplomacy: The United States and Spain sign the Van Ness Convention in Madrid to settle any continuing claims between them.

March 28 Politics: The Senate votes 26 to 20 to pass Henry Clay’s censure of President Andrew Jackson and Secretary of the TreaÂ�sury Roger B. Taney for removing fed-­

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Chronology

795

eral funds from the Bank of the United States. This move is ultimately expunged from the records on January 16, 1837.

April 4 Politics: The House of Representatives passes four resolutions in favor of General Andrew Jackson’s banking policies.

April 14 Politics: The evolving National Republican Party adopts the new name of Whigs (an English political term), while Henry Clay and Daniel Webster serve as its most prominent members. They are extremely anti-Jacksonian in tenor and outlook.

April 15 Politics: President Andrew Jackson protests the motion to censure in the Senate and claims he has not been given an opportunity to defend himself, despite the fact that he is charged with an impeachable offense.

May 7 Politics: An angry Senate votes 27 to 16 to not include President Andrew Jackson’s remarks in their official record.

June 15 Settlement: Fur trader Nathaniel J. Wyeth founds Fort Hall on the Snake River, Idaho, soon a major stopover along the Oregon Trail.

June 20 Indian: An act of Congress denotes all land west of the Mississippi River, minus populated regions of Missouri, Louisiana, and Arkansas, as “Indian Country.”

June 21 Technology: Cyrus McCormick secures a patent for his first horse-drawn mower and reaper, an invention soon to revolutionize agricultural production. This device cuts grain and it moves along then gathers it in sufficient quantities for a sheaf to be quickly tied. This device not only increases production, but its also lowers a farmer’s dependency on high-priced seasonal labor for harvesting purposes.

June 24 Politics: In their latest political confrontation with President Andrew Jackson, the U.S. Senate refuses to confirm Roger B. Taney as his secretary of the treasury.

June 28 Business: The Second Coinage Act increases the ratio of silver to gold coins by 16 to 1, which undervalues silver coins and drives them from circulation on account of hoarding. Transportation: In New York, the Harlem Railroad’s first engine explodes shortly after completing a run; many view its destruction as divine intervention against this new technology.

June 30 Indian: The Department of Indian Affairs is established by Congress to administer Native American policies west of the Mississippi River. It also sets aside

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McCormick, Cyrus H. (1809–1884) Inventor Cyrus Hall McCormick was born in Rock-­ bridge County, Virginia, on February 15, 1809, the son of stern Presbyterian farmers. He was imperfectly educated but always dis-­ played a talent for tinkering and inventing, particularly as it related to agriculture. In 1831 McCormick created a hillside plow that allowed cultivation of uneven ground and then went on to develop his famous horse-­ drawn mechanical reaper. This device was pulled across an area full of ripened wheat and then would cut it and automatically bundle it for harvesting. As interest devel-­ oped in his device, McCormick acquired the Cotopaxi Iron Works to begin mass produc-­ tion although the panic of 1837 soon drove him into bankruptcy. McCormick was also engaged in a bitter lawsuit with Obed Hus-­ sey, who had invented a similar machine and, ultimately, the patent for McCormick’s reaper entered into the public domain. By 1843 he realized that the small-­scale farms of Virginia and New England did not rep-­ resent the best market for his product, so he licensed production of the device to factories in New York and Ohio. When these prod-­ ucts proved of inferior design and construc-­ tion to his own, McCormick relocated his thriving business to Chicago in 1847, much closer to a region heralded as the “bread-­ basket of the nation.” In time he adopted modern, mass-­production techniques and stocked his workplaces with the latest time-­ saving technology. His 1,500-­man workforce was also among the most educated and

highly paid in the nation, but with his patent in the public domain, McCormick faced stiff competition from other firms and he decided to counter them by possessing the best orga-­ nization available. By 1860 McCormick was building and selling 5,000 reapers annually, and his busi-­ ness endeavors were enhanced by a scheme of centralized regional offices to handle pro-­ motion, sales, and repairs efficiently. His company was also unique in offering gener-­ ous credit arrangements for customers and offered one of the first money-­back guaran-­ tees in business history. The presence of an estimated 80,000–90,000 of his reapers in Northern fields throughout the Civil War also paid dividends by ensuring that the Union and its armies enjoyed a readily available sur-­ plus of food, in contrast with the slowly starv-­ ing South. In sum, the McCormick reaper was also a significant but frequently over-­ looked contributor to the ultimate Union victory. McCormick himself took an interest in politics and in 1864 he ran for Congress on the Peace Ticket and lost handily. He was also closely involved with doctrinal matters within the Presbyterian Church and helped found and finance the McCormick Theologi-­ cal Seminary of Chicago. McCormick him-­ self largely personified the strict Calvinistic approach to life, being hardworking, pious, and abstentious toward smoking and drink-­ ing. He died in Chicago on May 13, 1884, one of the most successful and farsighted entrepre-­ neurs of American history.

the Indian Territory (Oklahoma) as a reservation for tribes displaced from tribal lands in the East.

July 4 Slavery: In Philadelphia, the Annual Convention of People of Color adopts a reso-­ lution making July 4 a day of prayer and contemplation for all African Americans. Abolitionists and pro-­slavery crowds riot in New York City.

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797

July 4 –12 Slavery: The Chatham Street Chapel in New York City is the scene of an eightday riot between pro- and anti-slavery advocates. Several adjoining homes and churches are destroyed or damaged in the process.

August 1 Slavery: The British Empire under Queen Victoria formally abolishes slavery.

August 11 Religion: An anti-Catholic riot at Charlestown, Massachusetts, results in the destruction of an Ursuline Convent; nobody was injured in the attack.

October Slavery: Pro-slavery advocates riot in Philadelphia, damaging or destroying 40 African-American homes and two churches.

October 14 Technology: Henry Blair receives a patent for his corn harvester; he is also the first African American so rewarded.

October 28 Indian: The United States government insists that the Treaty of Payne’s Landing be observed by all Seminole Indians living in Florida, with many tribal leaders under Chief Osceola refusing to comply.

November 1 Transportation: A new railroad is completed between Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Trenton, New Jersey.

December 1 Politics: Abraham Lincoln, a little-known frontier lawyer, is seated for the first time in the Illinois House of Representatives.

December 2 Diplomacy: Three years after France signed the spoliation treaty with the United States, agreeing to pay restitution for abuses during the Napoleonic wars, no payments have been made. President Andrew Jackson, in his annual message to Congress, suggests seizing French property in retaliation. He also mentions that the national debt will be paid off by New Years’ Day.

1835 Labor: A New York court decides the case of The People v. Fisher, whereby labor strikes for higher wages are judged conspiratorial, hence illegal. Literature: A noted compilation, The Collected Works of James Kirke Paulding, is published and well-received. Publishing: French political observer Alexis de Tocqueville publishes his Democracy in America in Belgium; it is soon translated into English to become a classic analysis of national politics. As a whole, the author is favorably impressed by the American quest to secure both liberty and equality and is pleased with the balance struck thus far. Catherine Martha Sedgwick, soon to be one of the most popular female authors in America, publishes her first novel, The Linwoods, a romantic piece set in the waning days of the American Revolution.

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Chronology of American History Slavery: Influential Unitarian leader William Ellery Channing begins publishing antislavery pamphlets with his first title, simply called Slavery. Technology: Gas lighting for guests and hallway lighting debuts at the American House in Boston.

January Politics: The Whig Party of Massachusetts elects Daniel Webster to be its presidential candidate while those in Tennessee nominate Hugh L. White. The Whigs hope to deny the Democrats a majority of electors and thus force the election into the House of Representatives. The national debt is finally paid off, leading to political bickering as to how surplus revenue is to be allocated and spent. Societal: Lucius Manlius Sargent begins publishing his stories about temperance, and he becomes the most popular writer on the subject over the next 25 years. Technology: Samuel F. B. Morse demonstrates an early version of his new communications device, the telegraph. It is initially limited to a range of 40 feet but improves with continual refinement.

January 30 Crime: President Andrew Jackson survives an assassination attempt when house painter Richard Lawrence fires two pistols at him which misfire. The transgressor is subsequently found insane and committed to an asylum.

February 14 Education: Marietta College is founded at Marietta, Ohio, by the Congregationalists; its first class graduates in 1838.

March 3 Business: Congress establishes branches of the U.S. Mint in New Orleans, Louisiana, Charlotte, North Carolina, and Dahlonega, Georgia.

March 17 Settlement: The town of Milwaukee, long used as a gathering point for regional Native Americans, is formally incorporated as a town within the Michigan Territory.

April 25 Diplomacy: France finally begins payments on American spoliation claims but also demands that President Andrew Jackson apologize for calling for reprisals; Jackson angrily refuses.

May 6 Journalism: The New York Herald begins as a penny paper, edited by James Gordon Bennett; it is pro-slavery and also a mouthpiece for the Tammany Hall Democratic machine.

May 1–June 29 Politics: A constitutional convention meeting in Detroit adopts guidelines that specifically outlaw slavery.

May 20 Politics: The Democratic National Convention, meeting at Baltimore, nominates Martin Van Buren of New York for the presidency and Richard M. Johnson of Kentucky for the vice presidency.

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June 5 Slavery: A National Negro Convention in Philadelphia objects to the use of “African” or “Colored” and seeks to remove them from the black vernacular.

June 30 Settlement: The attempts at greater centralization by Mexican dictator Santa Anna leads to increasing friction between that ruler and American settlers in Texas. Col�o�nel William B. Travis and a group of armed colonists take control of a Mexican fort at Anahuac in protest while other Texans skirmish with Mexican cavalry near Gonzales.

July Diplomacy: President Andrew Jackson wishes to purchase the region known as Texas, but Mexican president Santa Anna refuses.

July 6 General: John Marshall, the influential chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, dies in Philadelphia. President Andrew Jackson then nominates his friend Roger B. Taney to succeed him. Two days later the famous Liberty Bell in Philadel-­ phia develops its celebrated crack while tolling for Marshall. Taney, meanwhile, weathers a storm of criticism in the Senate and will not be confirmed until 1836.

July 29 Slavery: A mob in Charleston, South Carolina, burns antislavery literature sent there by abolitionists in New York. The city postmaster, Alfred Huger, requests the postmaster general to forbid such materials to be mailed to the state.

August Slavery: The American Â�Anti-­Slavery Society mails 75,000 tracts to inhabitants throughout the South, excoriating slave ownÂ�ers.

August 10 Societal: A crowd of Â� antiblack citizens in Canaan, Connecticut, attacks and burns the Noyes Academy after it enrolls a number of Â�African-­American children.

August 26 Journalism: The Demo�crats publish their first party platform in the Washington Globe.

October 2 Military: A party of Texas volunteers defeats a detachment of Mexican cavalry near the Guadalupe River in central Texas; this is the opening round of the Texas Revolution.

October 21 Slavery: A Â�pro-­slavery mob drags abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison through the streets of Boston with a rope around his neck to protest his Â�views—he spends the night at the city jail for his own safety. His assailants apparently became dis-­ traught when he declared that “all men are created equal.” Another mob heckles and interrupts EnÂ�glish abolitionist George Thompson as he addresses the Female Â�Anti-­Slavery Society in Boston.

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Garrison, William Lloyd (1805–1879) Abolitionist

William Lloyd Garrison (Library of Congress)

William Lloyd Garrison was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, on December 10, 1805, the son of a poor family. He worked as a printer’s apprentice at 13 to help his family and subsequently entered the profession of journalism. Garrison, who inherited from his mother an intense religiousness, next became coeditor of the National Philanthropist, a temperance newspaper, at 21 and began circulating within various reform movements. Foremost among these was the abolitionists headed by Quaker publisher Benjamin Lundy, who convinced Garrison to edit his paper Genius of Universal Emancipation in 1828. However, Garrison’s views gradually became radicalized and he broke with Lundy over the latter’s demand for forced repatriation back to Africa. Thereafter he vociferously insisted on immediate emancipation of all African-American slaves without compensation to their owners. Such a stance established Garrison on the radical fringes

October 29 Politics: An extreme wing of Jacksonian Democrats, known locally as the Equal Rights Party, meets at Tammany Hall, New York, to oppose the mainstream candidates chosen by their party. The radicals then acquire the nickname “Loco Focos” after the newly developed friction matches used to light candles once the gaslights had been turned off to silence them.

November 1 Indian: Large portions of the Seminole tribe under Chief Osceola steadfastly refuse to be relocated from Florida and threaten to resist by force; this defiance precipitates the Second Seminole War.

November 23 Technology: Henry Burden of Troy, New York, receives a patent for his horseshoe-making machine; this device can churn out horseshoes at the rate of 60 a minute. Much later it functions as a major source of horseshoes for Union cavalry during the Civil War.

November 24 Law: In an attempt to enforce order along its frontiers, the Texas Provincial Government establishes a new mounted constabulary, the Texas Rangers.

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Chronology

of abolitionism, elevated him to leadership within the movement, and in 1831 he began publishing his own newspaper, The Liberator. “On this subject I do not wish to think, speak, or write with moderation,” he declared in the first issue, “I am in earnest—I will not equivocate—I will not excuse—I will not retreat a single inch—and I WILL BE HEARD.” His uncompromising stance against slavery coincided with a rising tide of abolitionism in the Northeast, and in 1833 Garrison established the American Anti-Slavery Society. Beyond his radical stance, this was unique in allowing women to participate fully, along with African Americans. In fact, Garrison became an outspoken advocate of women’s suffrage, temperance, and other social causes. Garrison’s strident radicalism soon caused a rift within his own organization. He openly condemned Christianity and the U.S. Constitution for their toleration of slavery, which lost him many supporters. He also steadfastly refused to work within the political system for change, calling instead

801

for pacifism and moral suasion to achieve an end to slavery. Garrison’s strident agitation led to confrontation with pro-slavery mobs, and in 1835 he was dragged through the streets and nearly killed before being rescued by police. By 1840 his tactics caused the American Anti-Slavery Society to break into warring factions, but he remained true to his own precepts. Garrison was sympathetic toward radicals like John Brown but completely disagreed with their methods. It was not until the advent of the Civil War in April 1861 that he finally accepted the notion that war can sometimes be used for the eradication of evil, and he finally abandoned his pacifism. Following adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution in 1865, which abolished slavery, Garrison finally folded his tent, ceased publication of the Liberator, and withdrew from public life altogether. He died at Roxbury, Massachusetts, on May 24, 1879, a driving force behind abolitionism—if at times its own worst enemy.

November 30 General: Samuel Clemens, better known by his pseudonym Mark Twain, is born as Halley’s Comet makes its scheduled appearance; ironically he dies in 1910 during the comet’s return.

December Transportation: The Carrollton Railroad opens for business in New Orleans, replacing its horse-drawn passenger cars with steam engines.

December 2 Politics: In his message to Congress, President Andrew Jackson, cognizant of antiabolitionist violence in Charleston, South Carolina, recommends that the U.S. Mail be forbidden from distributing antislavery publications there.

December 7 Politics: The 24th Congress convenes with a strong Whig presence—they hold 25 seats to 27 Democrats, and James K. Polk is voted the new speaker of the House of Representatives.

December 8–9 Military: Texan forces drive a Mexican force under General Martin Perfecto Cos out of San Antonio after three days and nights of intense fighting.

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Chronology of American History

December 15 Settlement: American settlers in Texas, determined to resist Mexican president Santa Anna’s new centralized government—including its sweeping antislavery regulations—declare their intention to secede from Mexico rather than abandon their “right” to own slaves.

December 16 Politics: A gathering of Whigs and Anti-Masons at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, nominates William Henry Harrison to run for the presidency. They also select Francis Granger of New York for the vice presidency.

December 16–18 General: New York City is ravaged by a huge fire that damages more than 600 buildings and inflicts $20 million in damages.

December 21 Education: Oglethorpe College is chartered at Milledgeville, Georgia, by the Presbyterians; its first class graduates in 1839.

December 28 Military: In opening skirmishes of the Second Seminole War, Indian Agent Wiley Thompson is murdered at Fort King, Florida, by a war party headed by Chief Osceola while Major Francis L. Dade is ambushed outside Fort Brooke, losing 110 men.

December 29 Indians: The Cherokee sign another treaty at New Echota, ceding all their lands east of the Mississippi River for $5 million, for new homes in the newly designated Indian Territory (Oklahoma).

Osceola (ca. 1804 –1838) Seminole chief Osceola was probably born around 1804 along the Tallapoosa River on the Georgia-Alabama border, a part of the Lower Creek Nation. This group had been under duress in the face of white encroachment and parts had relocated to Florida in concert with escaped AfricanAmerican slaves and became part of the related Seminole nation. Little is known of his youth, but Osceola’s name is most likely a corruption of the phrase asi yohola or “black drink crier,” a term with religious connotations. He apparently matured into a fine warrior with a commanding presence and around 1832 was noted as a tustenugge, or war chief. In this capacity Osceola railed against the continuing loss of land to the United States. Two years

1835

earlier Congress approved the Indian Removal Bill, which mandated the forced relocation of Native Americans across the Mississippi River to new homes in Arkansas. However, this was done in violation of an earlier treaty signed in 1823, which granted the Indians the right to existing lands until 1832. Moreover, that year the government forced tribal elders to conclude the Treaty of Payne’s Landing, whereby the Seminole were to surrender all their holdings in Florida and move to Arkansas. It also stipulated the surrender of all African-American refugees who had since been absorbed into the tribe. Because one of Osceola’s two wives was a mulatto he refused to comply. In 1833 Indian Agent Wiley Thompson arrived in Florida with

Chronology

803

1836 Arts: James N. Baker’s play Court Of Love, adapted in 1817 from a French play, is staged at the Arch Street Theater in Philadelphia to popular reviews. Education: William Holmes McGuffey publishes the First Reader and Second Reader, which become widespread and standard schoolbook texts. These booklets imparted literature, morality, and selected writings from famous English-language authors. Educational reformer William A. Alcott publishes The Young Woman’s Guide and the Young Mother, which proffers practical advice and upholds traditional norms of morality. Journalism: No less than 500 abolitionist societies are functioning throughout the North as the movement gains momentum. Literature: Ralph Waldo Emerson publishes a book entitled Nature, the first example of a literary and philosophical movement known as Transcendentalism. In it he expresses a profound regard for the natural world and the attitude that spirituality and self-awareness are essential for proper living. He also proffers it to counter the tenants of Unitarianism, which he regards as a religious orthodoxy. Medical: German immigrant Constantine Hering is licensed to found the North American Academy of the Homeopathic Healing Art in Allentown, Pennsylvania. This is the first such institution in the world. Religion: Noted Unitarian minister William Ellery Channing publishes The Abolitionist, a stinging indictment on the moral implications of slavery. Slavery: The Massachusetts Supreme Court declares that any slave brought within state borders is declared free.

the Treaty of Fort Gibson, intending to enforce earlier agreements, but Osceola reputedly drew his knife and defiantly stabbed the parchment in front of the Americans. He was then arrested and held in shackles for several days until, feigning a change of heart, Osceola was released. Once free Osceola made immediate preparations to go to war. On December 28, 1835, he attacked the Indian Agency at Fort King, killing Thompson, while other Seminoles massacred the army patrol of Major Francis L. Dade near Wahoo Swamp. This violence precipitated the Second Seminole War, one of the costliest guerrilla conflicts ever waged by the United States. For seven years America dispatched hundreds of troops and militia, waged several skirmishes, large and small, but failed to awe the Indians into surrendering. Osceola,

for his part, was tricked into a parley by General Thomas S. Jesup and then treacherously captured on October 21, 1837. He was transported to Fort Moultrie, South Carolina, where he was interned and had his portrait painted by George Catlin. Despite public outrage over the manner in which the chief was taken, Osceola remained behind bars and died there of illness on January 30, 1838. He was buried with full military honors but his Seminole compatriots waged an incessant partisan war until 1842, when a truce was signed. At that time the exhausted tribesmen decided to allow the government to deport 3,000 members to new homes in Arkansas, but at least 300 holdouts, inspired by Osceola’s example, defiantly refused. The fact that Seminole still reside in Florida to this day is his greatest legacy.

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Chronology of American History

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

(1803–1882)

Philosopher

Ralph Waldo Emerson (Library of Congress)

Ralph Waldo Emerson was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on May 25, 1803, the son of a Unitarian minister. His father died during his infancy and he endured a hardscrabble existence but still won admission to Harvard College at the age of 14. Emerson proved himself adept intellectually, and after graduating he enrolled at the college’s divinity school to study theology. He began his career as a Unitarian minister in 1826 at Boston’s famous Second Church and also served on the Boston School Committee. Emerson also fell deeply in love with and married Ellen Tucker in 1829, but when she suddenly died a year and a half later he underwent a period of personal crisis. He then dejectedly left the ministry and went to Europe to reevaluate his life. There Emerson encountered noted British philosopher Thomas Carlyle, whose ideas prompted a new perspective on spirituality. He then returned to Concord intending to serve as a lecturer and essayist, remaining there the rest of

Transportation: Work starts on the Illinois and Michigan Canal, designed to connect Chicago with the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers. Women: Ernestine L. Rose submits to the New York legislature the first petition for married women to own their own property.

January Slavery: Radical abolitionist James G. Birney publishes the first issue of his journal Philanthropist in New Richmond, Ohio.

January 4 Politics: A convention gathers at Little Rock, Arkansas Territory, and draws up a constitution for approaching statehood; in accordance with the Missouri Compromise, slavery is accorded legal status.

January 9 Education: Spring Hill College arises at Spring Hill, Alabama, under Roman Catholic auspices; the first class graduates in 1837. This is also the first Catholic institute of higher learning in the Deep South.

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Chronology

his life. His efforts coincided with the rising popularity of the public lyceums, or lecturing circuit, which gave him an immediate and well-heeled audience eager for his ideas. It was through this medium that Emerson established himself as the nation’s foremost transcendentalist philosopher, a school of thought and spirituality which opposed formal religion, materialism, and slavery—hallmarks of American life in the 1840s. His two publications, Nature (1836) and Essays (1844), are considered brilliant examples of the genre, and in 1840 he also lent his writing skills to the new publication The Dial, edited by Margaret Fuller. In 1837 Emerson gained national notoriety for delivering an address called “The American Scholar,” which called for breaking all intellectual ties with Europe in pursuit of a new, nativist philosophy. Emerson was by nature rather detached and cerebral, but the onset of Civil War brought him fully into the abolitionist movement. He lectured widely and effectively against the evils of slavery, arguing

805

that the system must be destroyed. In addition to excoriating Southerners, he also castigated Northerners for their complicity for tolerating the system as long as they had. For this reason he hailed the notorious raid of John Brown and welcomed the onset of hostilities to expunge servitude from American society. When the Civil War erupted in April 1861 Emerson evinced little faith in President Abraham Lincoln, who had campaigned on the basis of containing slavery—not eliminating it—but he gradually came over to the president’s side. Emerson publicly rejoiced at the Emancipation Proclamation in January 1863 and openly hailed Lincoln as a national martyr following his assassination. After the war Emerson resumed writing several erudite booklets such as Society and Solitude (1870) and Letters and Social Aims (1876) while continually combating the onset of senility. He died in Concord on April 27, 1882, one of the most original transcendental thinkers, essayists, and lecturers in American history, and certainly the most influential.

January 11 Slavery: Petitions are presented to Congress by Senator James Buchanan for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia; these are immediately denounced by Senator John C. Calhoun as slanderous toward the South.

January 15 Diplomacy: President Andrew Jackson reiterates his demand for reprisals against France for failing to make payments on spoliation claims; behind the bluster he also delivers a conciliatory message to the French government, which stops short of the apology they demanded.

January 20 Diplomacy: The United States and Venezuela conclude a treaty of peace, amity, and commerce.

January 27 Diplomacy: The government of Great Britain offers to mediate the spoliation dispute between the United States and France.

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January 30 Education: The Indiana Baptist Manual Labor Institute (today’s Franklin College) is founded in Franklin, Indiana.

February 18 Business: The Bank of the United States, whose charter expired and was not renewed by Congress, receives a state charter to be reinstated as the Bank of the United States of Pennsylvania.

February 23–March 6 Military: General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna leads a force of 3,000 soldiers against a motley garrison of 187 Texans under Colonel William B. Travis at the Alamo, in San Antonio, Texas.

March 1 Business: The now defunct Bank of the United States is brought back with a state charter as the Bank of the United States of Pennsylvania.

March 2– 4 Politics: Texan settlers convene in Washington, Texas, to draw up and pass a declaration of independence from Mexico; they also appoint Sam Houston to command their tiny army. However, when their agents George Childress and Robert Hamilton are dispatched to Washington, D.C., they are considered persona non grata because the American government declines to grant Texas recognition. March 2 is henceforth celebrated as Texas Independence Day.

March 6 Military: In a final rush, Mexicans under General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna capture the American outpost at the Alamo, San Antonio, Texas. Among the defenders is the noted frontiersman Davy Crockett, who was apparently taken alive then executed by firing squad. Instead of cowing Texan resistance, the martyrdom of the Alamo further galvanized resistance.

March 9 Slavery: In the Senate, John C. Calhoun moves that abolitionist petitions be barred from presentation; his effort is defeated.

March 11 Slavery: Senator James Buchanan’s motion that the Senate both consider and then reject abolitionist petitions easily passes.

March 13 Military: Alamo survivor Susanna Dickinson is released by General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna and she returns to Gonzalez, Texas, with a message that further resistance “is hopeless.”

March 15 Politics: Roger B. Taney is confirmed as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court by the Senate.

March 16 Politics: A new constitution is adopted by Texas delegates at Washington, Texas; thus is born the Independent Republic of Texas; slavery is formally legalized.

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807

Taney, Roger B. (1777–1864) Supreme court justice Roger Brooke Taney was born in Calvert County, Maryland, on March 17, 1777, into a slave-owning family associated with the minor gentry. Tutored at home, he entered Dickinson College at the age of 15 and graduated with honors in 1795. He then pursued law successfully and gained admission to the state bar in 1799. Politically, Taney was a Federalist although he broke with his party over the War of 1812 and subsequently realigned himself with the Democratic-Republicans. In 1816 he was elected to the state senate, where he served five years, and in 1827 accepted the position as state attorney general. Taney was widely regarded as an outstanding lawyer and legal scholar, and also outspoken in his support for the Democratic Party under Andrew Jackson. As such he came to the president’s attention through party officials and in 1831 he joined Jackson’s cabinet as the new attorney general. In this capacity he always upheld the president’s political agenda as a strict loyalist. In 1832 Taney authored the legal reasoning behind the president’s veto of extending the charter of the Second Bank of the United States. The following year he supported the constitutionality of Jackson’s decision to withdraw federal money from the Second Bank of the United States and was ultimately appointed Secretary of the Treasury when no other individual was willing to perform the task. As a Southerner, Taney also upheld the notion of AfricanAmerican slavery, supporting South Carolina’s decision to legally forbid free blacks from entering that state. Despite his pre-

dictable opinion about blacks, which was consistent with a man of his breeding and background, Taney still enjoyed a reputation for possessing one of the country’s best legal minds. The biggest turn in Taney’s career came on December 28, 1835, when President Jackson appointed him U.S. Supreme Court justice to succeed the late John Marshall. His succession changed the overall tenor of the court from Marshall’s consistent profederal government outlook and replaced it with one more favorably disposed toward states’ rights. Proof of this was manifested in the landmark case of Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge, which Taney decided in favor of the state of Massachusetts over a company enjoying monopoly rights. His refusal to recognize the doctrine of implied contract allowed states greater latitude in matters of public interest. However, Taney’s most notorious decision came with Dred Scott v. Sanford in 1857, which determined that slaves were property and could be moved across state lines with impunity. This had the effect of not only negating the Missouri Compromise, which restricted slavery from northern area of the nation, but also called for increased enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law. The negative reaction to Taney’s reasoning soured opinions of him, and during the Civil War he functioned far less effectively. He died in Washington, D.C., on October 12, 1864, reviled by contemporaries as a pro-slavery judge, but subsequently regarded as one of the most effective chief justices of American history.

March 17 Politics: American settlers meeting in Washington, Texas, adopt a new constitution; slavery is officially adopted.

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March 23 Technology: A steam-powered press designed by inventor Franklin Beale produces its first coins for the U.S. Mint.

March 27 Military: Mexican forces under General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna capture a detachment of 350 Americans under Captain James W. Fannin, then massacre them. The Mexicans continue devastating American settlements on their march to Galveston Bay.

April 20 Settlement: The Wisconsin Territory is carved out of the western Michigan Territory by Congress; frontier figure Henry Dodge is appointed as the first governor.

April 21 Military: A Texan force of 900 men under General Sam Houston attacks and routs the 1,300-strong Mexican army under General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto. A surprise attack catches the Mexicans off guard and the Texans completely overrun their camp to the fierce battle cry of “Remember the Alamo!” Santa Anna is captured and he suffers 630 killed and

Houston, Sam

(1793–1863)

Politician Sam Houston was born near Lexington, Virginia, on March 2, 1793, and he matured

Sam Houston (Library of Congress)

1836

on the Tennessee frontier. Possessing little formal education, he ran away to escape farm life and spent several years among the nearby Cherokee Indians. When the Creek War erupted in 1813 he joined the U.S. Army as an ensign in the 39th Infantry, fought with distinction at General Andrew Jackson’s bloody victory of Horseshoe Bend on March 28, 1814, and was severely wounded. Thereafter Houston functioned as an government agent to the Cherokee nation and assisted their removal to the Indian Territory set aside for them across the Mississippi River (Oklahoma). He finally resigned from the military in 1818 and returned to Tennessee to study law. Houston then embarked upon a successful political career, winning several terms in the U.S. House of Representatives and also winning the governorship. He also served as a major general of militia until an unexplained separation from his wife in 1829 prompted his resignation.

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730 captured. Texan losses are nine dead and 30 injured. This startling upset virtually assures Texas independence from Mexico.

April 27–28 Slavery: The nation’s first antislavery convention transpires outside of Granville, Ohio, and is attended by 192 delegates.

May 10 Diplomacy: Having been assisted by Viscount Palmerston, the British foreign secretary, President Andrew Jackson declares that the last of four spoliation payments has been received from France.

May 11 Journalism: The Dubuque Visitor becomes the first newspaper printed in the Wisconsin Territory.

May 14 Diplomacy: General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna signs two Treaties at Velasco, Texas, both recognizing the Independent Republic of Texas and withdrawing all Mexican forces beyond the Rio Grande River; the Mexican Congress subsequently repudiates them.

Houston then withdrew from polite society altogether, and he moved back among the Cherokee, where he took a Native American wife and was inducted into the tribe. Thereafter Houston acted constantly for the Cherokee and made several trips to Washington, D.C., on their behalf. In 1832 President Jackson dispatched him to the Mexican province of Texas to negotiate with the Comanche for the safe conduct of American goods. This trip proved a major turning point in his career. While in Texas, Houston became caught up in the emerging war for independence and in 1833 attended the San Felipe Convention that outlined statehood and promulgated a constitution. This act brought upon them the wrath of General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, who marched north from Mexico City to crush the insurgents in the spring of 1836. By this time Houston had been appointed commander in chief of all Texas forces, and he withdrew in the face of superior Mexican numbers until reaching San Jacinto. There,

on April 21, 1836, he launched a surprise counterattack that routed Santa Anna’s army and captured him. With Texas independence now assured, Houston was elected the first president of the republic as of September 1836, serving two years. He then fulfilled two terms in the Texas legislature before becoming president again in 1841–44. After the war with Mexico, 1846–48, Texas was formally annexed to the United States and Houston served as a U.S. Senator for the next 14 years. Though Southern-born, he was an ardent nationalist and always voted as a pro-Union Democrat. In this capacity he railed against the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which made slavery legal in the new territories, and his pro-Union stance finally led to his defeat in 1859. Houston then served another term as Texas governor. He roundly condemned secession and was finally forced from office in March 1861. He died at Huntsville, Texas, on July 26, 1836, out of touch with his now Confederate constituents but still acknowledged as the “Father of Texas.”

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May 25 Diplomacy: John Quincy Adams hoping to prevent war with Mexico opposes the possible annexation of Texas. The entire issue has set anti-slave Northerners against pro-slave Southerners. Furthermore, hereafter the House ponders “gag rules” to table any or all slavery-related petitions for the remainder of the session.

May 26 Politics: Pro-slavery Southerners in the House of Representatives enact a “gag” rule to prevent the discussion of abolitionist petitions presented before Congress; the new measure prevents the issue of slavery from being discussed on the floor. Another resolution states that Congress has no business debating slavery or interfering with it in the District of Columbia. John Quincy Adams, dubbed “Old Man Eloquence” because of his doggedness, bitterly condemns the rule.

May 31 Business: Tycoon John Jacob Astor opens up the luxurious Astor Hotel in New York City. It sets new standards for high-fashion accommodations and rapidly becomes the most fashionable meeting place in town.

June 15 Politics: Arkansas joins the Union as the 25th state; it also legalizes slavery. Its statehood bill had been introduced three years earlier but it took three years to gain admission until a free state, Michigan, also joined.

June 23 Business: Congress passes the Deposit Act, whereby specified banks in each state will hold public deposits. It also requires all surplus government revenue over $5 million to be distributed as a loan to the states based on their population.

June 28 General: James Madison, founding father, author of the U.S. Constitution, and fourth president of the United States, dies at his estate at Montpelier, Virginia.

July 1 Diplomacy: Even through Congress votes in favor of recognizing the Texas Territory, President Andrew Jackson, seeking to avoid war with Mexico, declines all moves toward annexation and maintains a strict policy of neutrality.

July 2 Politics: Congress votes to punish any postmaster who deliberately withholds the delivery of mail; this negates any attempts to keep abolitionist materials from being sent to the South by post. The Post Office is also directed to accept newspapers and pamphlets as deliverable items.

July 11 Business: To halt skyrocketing inflation accompanying an onslaught of paper money then in circulation, President Andrew Jackson imposes a Specie Circular which requires all sales involving federal land be conducted with gold and silver. The legislation also intends to deprive speculators of financial power but

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Chronology   811 actually places all the credit in their hands, a major cause of the ensuing panic of 1837.

July 12 Journalism: A Â�pro-­slavery mob in Cincinnati, Ohio, destroys a factory which man-­ ufactures the type used by James Birney’s abolitionist newspaper Philanthropist.

September Politics: The inhabitants of newly in�de�pen�dent Texas petition the United States government for annexation.

September 1 Women: A wagon train full of missionaries advances through the South Pass and arrives at Walla Walla, Washington, with Protestant missionaries Dr. Marcus Whitman and H. H. Spaulding. They also include Narcissa Whitman and Eliza Spaulding, who become the first American women to cross the Rocky Mountains and settle in Oregon. The party has been dispatched there by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.

September 16 Diplomacy: The United States and Morocco conclude a treaty of peace and friendship.

September 19 Literature: Boston’s noted Transcendental Club begins its first unofficial and loosely structured meetings. It acts as a magnet for such Â�like-­minded writers and phiÂ�losÂ�oÂ�phers as Emerson, William Ellery Channing, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, and others.

October 22 Politics: Sam Houston becomes the first president of the new Republic of Texas, having defeated Stephen F. Austin; Mirabeau B. Lamar becomes vice president. A colorful frontier character, Houston is known as “The Raven.”

November Literature: Noted satirist Washington Irving complains about the apparent obsession with materialism among his fellow Americans, coining the phrase “the almighty dollar.”

November 30 Diplomacy: The United States signs a commercial treaty with the Â�Peru-­Bolivian Confederation.

December 5 Politics: In his annual message to Congress, President Andrew Jackson reiter-­ ates his reasons for issuing the Specie Circular.

December 7 Politics: Martin Van Buren defeats Whig candidate William Henry Harrison by a vote of 170 electoral votes to 73; competing Whig candidates Daniel Webster and Hugh L. White fared even poorer. However, when none of the four vice presidential candidates garner a majority, the issue is referred to the Senate for resolution.

December 10 Education: Emory College is chartered in Oxford, Georgia, by the Methodists; the first class graduates in 1841.

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December 12 Politics: Senate Whigs issue a resolution calling for the repeal of the Specie Circular.

December 27 General: Stephen F. Austin, a founder of both the American colony in Texas and the Independent Republic established there, dies at the age of 43 at Columbia, Texas.

1837 Arts: Painter Thomas Cole produces a landmark work of the Hudson River school of landscape artists entitled “In the Catskills,” which incorporates visually romantic themes in a rural setting. Business: John Deere starts his company at Grand Detour, Illinois, and manufactures steel-faced plows; in time they trigger an agricultural revolution as “the plow that broke the plains.” Literature: Nathaniel Hawthorne publishes his second volume, Twice-Told Tales, which chronicles historical nuggets drawn from New England’s colorful past and presents several as moral allegories. Medical: Dr. William W. Gerard of Philadelphia performs the first clinical tests of typhus and typhoid fever, scientifically concluding that they are entirely different ailments. Politics: The American Peace Society condemns war and all warlike activities. Religion: The Quaker-dominated American Moral Reform Society is founded in Philadelphia; among its tenets are to refrain from wearing mourning clothes for the dead and restricting elaborate funeral services as this imposes hardships upon the less fortunate. Societal: Norwegian immigrant Ole Rynning publishes True Account of America for the Information and Help of Peasant and Commoner, which triggers a wave of Scandinavian immigration over the next two years.

January 1 Economics: The Distribution Bill, designed to relieve the federal government of all surplus monies, is enacted. Henceforth, governmental books are to be balanced, $5 million is to be set aside as working capital, and all remaining funds are to be redistributed to the states.

January 25 Journalism: The New Orleans Picayune is founded; its takes its name from the small coin, or “picayune,” that each issue costs.

January 26 Politics: Michigan joins the union as the 26th state; slavery is outlawed to balance off the admission of Arkansas. Prior to this a long-standing border dispute with Ohio also required resolution, and the new state acquires the 470-squaremile area known as the Toledo Strip in consequence.

February Law: The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the case of New York v. Miln, whereby a state court requires all ship captains to keep lists of immigrants coming into the country.

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Chronology   813

Deere, John (1804 –1886) Inventor John Deere was born in Rutland, Vermont, on February 7, 1804, and he received scanty education. He was nevertheless appren-­ ticed to a blacksmith at 17 and acquired a reputation for high-­quality metalwork. Deere subsequently owned his own black-­ smith shop but lost it in the panic of 1837 and migrated to Grand Detour, Illinois, to start anew. Here he encountered farming conditions radically different from those in New England and envisioned a self-­cleaning plow that would facilitate work in the sticky soil conditions. That year Deere designed a new plow that worked far more efficiently in the clays and sods of the mid-­west. This device was made of the finest stainless steel and was distinctly wedge-­shaped for better cutting power. Sales proved slow at first, but by 1848 Deere was among the leading manufacturers in Illinois. He established his factory at Moline, Illinois, to be adjacent to the Mississippi River and enjoy easier access to larger markets. Further refinements led to better plows and a wider variety of designs, and by 1857 the John Deere Company was making and selling 13,000 plows a year. Moreover, his constant flow of tech-­ nical innovations to assist farmers greatly enhanced agricultural output through his region, with commensurate profits to farm-­ ers and their attendant markets. The “plow that broke the plain” was born. In addition to improving farm tech-­ nology, Deere also pioneered aggressive marketing and advertising techniques. He continually built up a surplus of inventory

while dispatching an army of company rep-­ resentatives through the countryside and Canada to actively hawk his wares, rather than wait for orders. Deere products were thus a common sight at country fairs nation-­ wide, and he also advertised heavily in pub-­ lications like the Prairie Farmer to reach as wide a consumer base as possible. By 1860 he was experimenting with metal plows that featured interchangeable parts, seed drills, and steam-­powered tractors. The onset of the Civil War in 1861 afforded Deere additional outlets for business through the construc-­ tion of thousands of wagons, carriages, and harnesses for army use. His steady supply of steel plows to innumerable farmers also insured that the North had a considerable abundance of food supplies to fuel the war effort. By 1868 his company was incorpo-­ rated as Deere & Company, although actual leadership had been handed down to his son. Deere, freed from administrative con-­ cerns, poured his energy and talents into the development of new agricultural equipment. By the time he died in Moline on April 16, 1886, his firm was the unquestioned leader with respect to sales, distribution, market-­ ing, and service organizations nationwide. By enabling farmers to greatly enhance food production at relatively little cost, Deere made indelible contributions to the growth and maturation of the American agricultural sector. His innovative devices also allowed the first wave of migrants to the mid-­west to successfully populate and thrive in their new environment.

Congress is petitioned by 56 British authors requesting that national copyright protection be extended to their works.

February 6 Slavery: The U.S. House of Representatives passes a resolution denying slaves the right to petition Congress.

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February 8 Politics: The Senate elects Democratic Richard M. Johnson to serve a second term as vice president.

February 11 Law: The Supreme Court decides the case of Briscoe v. Bank of Commonwealth of Kentucky, ruling that all banks owned by states can issue bills of credit for public circulation.

February 12 Labor: A mob of unemployed workers, demonstrating against the high costs of rent and food in New York City, ransacks a flour warehouse.

February 14 Business: The Supreme Court decides the case of Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge, ruling that one company cannot claim a monopoly on transportation routes. Chief Justice Roger B. Taney rules that the interests of the community outweigh those of a single corporation, a complete reversal of perspective from the Marshall Court.

March Business: As proof of an impending economic downturn, the Herman Briggs Company of New Orleans, a major cotton firm, goes bankrupt. The price of cotton has plunged to nearly half its former value.

March 1 Business: Congress adopts a bill to rescind President Andrew Jackson’s Specie Circular of July 11, 1836, mandating the purchase of public land with gold and silver; the president kills it with a pocket veto.

March 3 Diplomacy: On his last day in office, President Andrew Jackson finally recognizes the independence of the Republic of Texas and appoints Alcee La Branche as chargé d’affaires. Law: A congressional bill increases the number of Supreme Court Justices from seven to nine.

March 4 Politics: Democrat Martin Van Buren is inaugurated as the eighth president and Richard M. Johnson is also sworn in as his vice president. Van Buren is also the first chief executive born after the Declaration of Independence was signed. Outgoing Andrew Jackson, meanwhile, publishes his Farewell Address, implores fellow citizens to place loyalty to the union above all else, and attacks the practices of speculation, monopolies, and paper currency.

March 17 General: Andrew Jackson departs the political limelight of Washington, D.C., and heads for his home in Tennessee, reputedly with only $90 in his pocket. He leaves behind the legacy of an expanded voting franchise, but deep divisions between the business community, farmers, and laborers.

March 18 Education: The University of Michigan is chartered at Ann Arbor, Michigan; its first class graduates in 1841.

1837

Chronology   815

Van Buren, Martin

(1782–1862)

President Martin Van Buren was born in Kinderhook, New York, on December 5, 1782, the son of a tavern keeper. Though poorly educated, he clerked at a law office while young and was admitted to the bar in 1803. Van Buren was a vivacious character, and in 1813 he gained election to the state senate as a Democratic-­Republican and opposed Governor DeWitt Clinton’s canal policy. He spent several years in and out of political office before establishing a political clique called the “Albany Regency” and was then appointed to the U.S. Senate in 1821. In this capacity Van Buren opposed the Federalist policies of President John Quincy Adams and threw his support behind a new con-­ tender, Andrew Jackson, while also oppos-­ ing internal improvements. After Jackson became president in 1828, Van Buren quit the governorship of New York to serve in his cabinet as secretary of state. Van Buren achieved several positive accomplishments by opening American trade with the British West Indies and acquiring French compen-­ sation for abuses during the Napoleonic wars. He then resigned from the cabinet at Jackson’s request to serve as minister to England, although the vote was blocked in the Senate by John C. Calhoun. In 1832 he was tapped to run as Jackson’s vice presi-­ dent and loyally supported his anti-­bank, hard money policies over the next four years. Though a Northerner, Van Buren was also vocal in his support of the rights of slaveholding states. In 1836 he was nominated as Jackson’s heir apparent, faced down a badly divided Whig opposition, and won the presidency by reaching out to both Northern and Southern Democrats. His ability to cobble together such an alignment earned Van Buren a reputation as “The Magician.”

Van Buren had no sooner taken power than the hard currency policies of his prede-­ cessor resulted in the panic of 1837, a very deep and prolonged economic depression. The best Van Buren was willing to do to counter this malaise was creation of an independent treasury to deposit the federal funds that had been withdrawn from the now defunct Bank of the United States. His popularity was also diminished by the out-­ break of a civil war in Canada and tensions along the Maine border with the province of New Brunswick. Van Buren lost much of his southern support by failing to support the annexation of Texas, which he feared would cause a war with Mexico. By 1840 the Whigs had united behind William Henry Harrison, and Van Buren was soundly defeated in the celebrated “Log Cabin Campaign” in which (continues)

President Martin Van Buren (Library of Congress)

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Chronology of American History

(continued) he was successfully portrayed as a wealthy elitist. In 1844 Van Buren sought the Democratic party nomination, but his wavering over Texas allowed the expansionist James K. Polk to win it instead. Feeling betrayed by Southerners, he ran as a third-party candidate in 1848, which

allowed Whig Zachary Taylor to win New York and the White House at the expense of Lewis Cass. Van Buren remained interested in national politics while in retirement, and he died at Kinderhook on July 24, 1862, both admired and reviled as “The Old Fox.”

General: Grover Cleveland, the 22nd and 24th president, is born at Caldwell, New Jersey.

March–May Business: The supply of credit shrinks nationally, ushering in the panic of 1837. This is one of the largest economic disruptions in American history.

April 20 Education: Horace Mann, a determined reformer, is appointed the first secretary of the newly created Massachusetts Board of Education, and he serves until 1848. He subsequently wields an indelible influence in terms of modernizing curricula and opening public education to all American children.

May 10 Business: New York banks stop making specie payments, triggering the panic of 1837, in which 618 banks fail nationwide. This is on account of President Andrew Jackson’s Specie Circular, mandating the sale of federal land in gold and silver, which drained the valuable metals to the West. The ensuing inflation

This engraving shows a white teacher barring African-American children from entering a school. (Library of Congress)

1837

Chronology   817

Mann, Horace (1796 –1859) Educator Horace Mann was born in Franklin, Massa-­ chusetts, on May 4, 1796, the son of farmers. Disliking farm work, he was well-­educated by private tutors and gained admittance to Brown University in 1816, graduating with honors three years later. Mann joined the Massachusetts bar in 1823 and won a seat in the state legislature. In Boston he encoun-­ tered noted reformer Dorothea L. Dix. They cooperated on creating the state’s first men-­ tal hospital, penal reforms, and other social matters, and Mann developed an abiding interest in education. At that time public education was practically nonexistent and affluent families generally sent their chil-­ dren through private academies. In 1837 Mann advanced legislation creating the Massachusetts School Board of Education, from which he resigned his legislative seat to serve as secretary. He always believed that common schools could be a great equal-­ izer for all classes, especially in imparting morality and social mobility. Mann thereby successfully pushed for creation of three normal schools specifically designed to train teachers, and he was also the first educa-­ tor to stress the need for personal hygien-­ ics and physical fitness. He also compiled and published the first annual education reports that statistically reflected progress and anticipated problems statewide. Most important of all, Mann extended the school year to six months and made attendance compulsory for all Massachusetts children. No mere bureaucrat, he also toured educa-­ tional facilities throughout his charge and also founded the Common School Journal,

among the earliest educational magazines, and served as its editor for a decade. Dur-­ ing his tenure, no less than 50 new schools were constructed statewide, replete with new textbooks and school libraries. In all these capacities, Mann single-­handedly revolutionized both the concept and qual-­ ity of public education, with dramatic and sustainable results. His methods were then exported to other states and countries, granting him considerable renown. In 1848 Mann resigned from the educa-­ tional board to win a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives as a Whig. In this capacity he proved a vocal opponent to the exten-­ sion of slavery into the territories, although the animosity he encountered induced him to abandon politics after 1852. That year he made an unsuccessful bid to become governor of Massachusetts as the Free-­Soil Party candidate and quit politics altogether. Mann subsequently accepted the position as president of Antioch College, Ohio, where he proved instrumental in updating the curricula and also created a teaching program. He also further distinguished himself by insisting on equal treatment for female students. How-­ ever, the college ultimately failed and was sold. Mann died of exhaustion in Ohio on August 2, 1858, only two weeks after exhort-­ ing Antioch’s graduating class to win “some kind of victory for humanity.” His strong belief in the virtues of public education, coupled with an unyielding determination to enhance it for the benefit of all citizens, establishes him as one of the leading Ameri-­ can social reformers of the 19th century.

and speculation were major causes of the depression that followed and lasted until 1841.

June 10 Business: The Connecticut legislature adopts the first general incorporation law.

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July 4 Literature: On the 62nd anniversary of the Battle of Concord in 1775, Reverend Ralph Waldo Emerson first pens the lines to a poem that includes the phrase, “The shot heard round the world.”

August Medical: The outbreak of smallpox in North Dakota claims 1,500 Native Americans of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara tribes.

August 4 Politics: The newly inde pen dent Republic of Texas petitions Congress for immediate annexation as a slave state; the move is supported by Southerners and opposed by Northerners. In the end the issue of slavery prevents any action on the request.

August 25 Politics: The U.S. government formally notifies the Republic of Texas that their request for annexation has been denied. The move was defeated in the U.S. Senate by the Whigs, who oppose admission of another slave state; the vote of 35 to 16 is short of the necessary two-thirds majority.

August 31 Education: Ralph Waldo Emerson delivers his landmark “American Scholar” speech for the Harvard Phi Beta Kappa Society. In it he calls for a philosophical basis to create and perpetuate uniquely American schools of art, literature, and thought.

September 4 Technology: Inventor Samuel F. B. Morse files for a patent to cover his newly invented device, the telegraph, before seeking government and private investment to allow production.

September 5 Politics: President Martin Van Buren addresses a special session of Congress to promote specie currency and he also criticizes state-chartered banks. He feels it necessary to have federal funds kept in depositories which are independent of state banks.

September 12 Military: Mexican forces invade the province of New Mexico and brutally crush a rebellion against authority there.

October 2 Business: The succession of bank failures leads to a suspension of paying surplus federal revenues to the states.

October 12 Business: Congress, eager to ameliorate the panic of 1837, authorizes the use of short-term treasury notes, not to exceed $10 million. This major economic contraction follows a decade of unprecedented economic growth and speculation.

October 14 Politics: A bill to secure the annexation of the Republic of Texas, having passed the Senate, is tabled by the House of Representatives.

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Chronology

819

October 21 Military: American forces under General Thomas S. Jesup treacherously seize Seminole Chief Osceola under a flag of truce in Florida.

October 31 Business: William Procter and James Gamble begin their famous firm with an initial investment of $7,102.

November 7 Slavery: Abolitionist editor Elijah Lovejoy is killed by a mob in Alton, Illinois; now a martyr, his death causes an outcry and a resurgence in the antislavery movement nationwide.

November 8 Education: Mary Lyon opens Mount Holyoke Seminary in South Hadley, Massachusetts, to afford women educational benefits similar to those received by men at college. It initially enrolled 80 students and within a year had to turn down 800 applicants for want of living space. The first class graduates in 1838.

December 4 Politics: In the face of renewed attempts to introduce antislavery petitions into Congress, Northern and Southern Democrats impose an even more stringent “gag rule” to squelch the endeavor. The move is roundly criticized by former president John Quincy Adams.

December 8 Slavery: Wendell Phillips, an outstanding orator, publicly eulogizes the murdered editor Elijah Lovejoy; this is his first abolitionist speech, “The Murder of Lovejoy,” and commences a distinguished career as an agitator.

December 19 Politics: The U.S. House of Representative adopts a strengthened “gag rule” requiring all petitions or papers concerning slavery to be automatically tabled without discussion.

December 25 Military: A force of 1,000 soldiers and militia under General Zachary Taylor attack and defeat Seminoles at Okeechobee Swamp, Florida. An intense threehour struggle ensues in knee-deep water and the Americans suffer 26 dead and 112 wounded before the Indians finally quit. Seminole losses are lighter but they cannot afford such attrition and revert back to guerrilla warfare.

December 29 Politics: A group of Canadians, angered by American support for rebels under William Lyon Mackenzie, attacks and burns the American steamer Caroline on the American side of the Niagara River. Apparently the vessel had been chartered by Canadian rebels to run arms and ammunition to Navy Island in the Niagara River. The death of American Amos Durfee triggers an outbreak of anti-British sentiments nationwide. Technology: Hiram Avery and John Avery Pitts of Winthrope, Maine, receive a patent for a combination thresher/fanning mill they had invented. It becomes the most popular brand of machine for nearly half a century.

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1838 Music: Lowell Mason becomes the nation’s first superintendent of music instruction in a public school system thanks to the Boston School Committee. Publishing: James Fenimore Cooper, recently arrived from an extended stay in Europe, publishes his nonfiction work The American Democrat, which criticizes the excesses of democracy from a purely aristocratic perspective. The book is unfavorably reviewed and diminishes the author’s once stellar popularity with the reading public. Religion: Unitarian leader William Ellery Channing, intent upon promulgating a creed of self improvement, publishes his philosophical tract Self Culture. He proffers it as an alternative to strict Calvinist theology. Slavery: The so-called Underground Railroad is started by abolitionists to provide runaway African-American slaves with an escape route to the North. Abolitionist Robert Purvis of Philadelphia becomes its unofficial president. Technology: Standardized brass clocks are created by John and Lyman Hollingsworth of South Braintree, Massachusetts; they sell for only $2.00 as opposed to $40 for a wooden version.

January 3–12 Slavery: John C. Calhoun introduces a resolution that legitimizes slavery in the district of Columbia. The motion passes but the Senate declines to annex any slaveholding regions and expand the potential number of slave states.

January 5 Politics: President Martin Van Buren issues a neutrality proclamation and warns American citizens not to become embroiled in the ongoing Canadian revolution, especially by assisting the rebels fighting Great Britain. He also orders General Winfield Scott to command troops and militia along the northern border to stop arms-smuggling to the rebels.

January 26 Law: Tennessee posts the first prohibition law outlawing the sale of alcohol in taverns and stores.

February 14 Slavery: John Quincy Adams introduces 350 antislavery petitions into the House of Representatives to protest the new “gag rule,” and all the petitions are promptly tabled.

February 16 Women: The Kentucky legislature extends suffrage to widows whose children are of school age.

March 26 Business: The Senate passes legislation to create an independent treasury so that the government may administer its own monies.

March 31 Business: The first commercial silk mill opens at South Manchester, Connecticut.

April 19 Societal: The Massachusetts legislature, eager to bring alcohol consumption under control, mandates that hard liquor can be sold only in lots of 15 gallons or more.

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April 23 Transportation: Transatlantic steamship ser vice commences at New York when the British steamship Sirus docks in the harbor after a transit of only 17 days. That same day the large, 1,340-ton American steamship Great Western begins plying the Atlantic on regularly scheduled voyages between New York and Bristol, England; it reaches New York in only 15 days. British engineers are concurrently developing new techniques of converting wood-powered steam engines to far hotter coal-generated devices, but the eclipse of the speedy, beautiful clipper ship, in which the Americans enjoy a decided edge, is still not at hand.

April 25 Technology: The peril of new technology is underscored when the steamer Moselle explodes on the Ohio River near Cincinnati, killing 100.

May 17 Slavery: A pro-slavery mob burns Philadelphia’s Pennsylvania Hall to the ground after it has been extensively used by the Female Anti-Slavery Society for abolitionist meetings. Quaker leader Lucretia Mott is undeterred by the violence and presses ahead with her agenda.

May 18 Exploring: Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, a capable, hot-tempered martinet, receives command of the U.S. Exploring Expedition in Washington, D.C. This is the first government-funded attempt to acquire scientific knowledge around the globe.

May 21 Business: President Andrew Jackson’s Specie Circular of July 11, 1836, now largely blamed for the panic of 1837, is revoked by Congress.

May 29 Politics: Americans outraged by the Canadian burning of the steamship Caroline in American waters attack and burn the Canadian vessel Sir Robert Peel in the St. Lawrence River. Anti-British sentiment also flares in the form of secret “Hunter’s Lodges” to assist rebels trying to overthrow the Canadian government.

June 12 Settlement: The Iowa Territory is separated from the Wisconsin Territory by Congress; it includes much of the Dakotas and Minnesota.

June 14 Technology: At least 140 people are killed when the steamer Pulaski explodes off the North Carolina coast.

June 25 Business: The House of Representatives defeats an attempt to create an independent treasury due to a split between Democrats; the “Loco-Focos” agree with President Martin Van Buren about the move but more conservative elements side with the Whigs in opposing it.

July 4 Settlement: Congress establishes the Territory of Iowa with Robert Lucas as the first governor.

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July 7 Transportation: The rapidly expanding railroad network is designated by Congress as a postal route.

August 13 Business: Banks in New York are finally able to resume payment in gold and silver specie.

August 18 Exploration: U.S. Navy Lieutenant Charles Wilkes leads a six-ship exploring expedition from Hampden Roads, Virginia, into the Pacific and Antarctic oceans. This is a large and impressive four-year endeavor and the first scientific expedition funded entirely by the federal government. The numerous scientists and specialists on board will make reports on hydrography, geology, botany, geography and related fields.

September 3 Slavery: Using the identity papers of an African-American sailor, Frederick Douglass slips out of bondage in Baltimore, Maryland, and embarks on his career as an outspoken abolitionist.

Douglass, Frederick (ca. 1817–1895) African-American abolitionist Frederick Augustus Bailey was born a slave in Tuckahoe, Maryland, around 1817; he never knew his father and scarcely saw his mother. At the age of eight he was sent to Baltimore to work as a domestic, where he learned to read and write from his mistress until her husband stopped her. As a young man Bailey was sent to a plantation in the countryside and made several escape attempts. In 1838 he borrowed a free African-American sailor’s papers and sailed to New York and freedom. Bailey eventually settled in New Bedford, Massachusetts, where he married and adopted the surname Douglass, but found his new abode only slightly less hostile. He had no recourse but to work as a low-paid laborer until 1841, when he was asked to speak at an abolitionist meeting at Nantucket. Douglass, with power and eloquence, transfixed the crowd, many of whom began to doubt that he was ever a slave. He countered by writing and publishing The

1838

Frederick Douglass (National Archives)

Chronology   823

October Indian: U.S. soldiers under General John E. Wool rounds up and begins relocat-­ ing the few remaining Cherokees from their tribal homes in Georgia; this exodus becomes known in Indian lore as the “Trail of Tears.”

October 12 Politics: The Republic of Texas, having failed to be annexed by the United States, elects Mirabeau B. Lamar president to succeed Sam Houston. Thereafter Texas pursues an independent foreign policy and establishes diplomatic relations with various European countries.

October 30 Education: Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio, becomes the first institution of higher learning to admit women as full-­fledged students. Religion: Governor Lilburn Boggs decrees that Mormons living in Missouri are to be treated as enemies and mobs attack them, killing 17 members. This violence triggers a mass migration to Illinois under Brigham Young; prophet Joseph Smith is imprisoned at the time.

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass in 1845, at the instigation of students from Har-­ vard College. The book proved an immediate best seller and made Douglass a celebrity in abolitionist circles, but, as a former slave, he also feared being recaptured and sailed to England for two years. In 1847 he resettled at Rochester, New York, where he published and edited the newspaper North Star for many years. A year later he also declared his support for women’s rights and was a featured speaker at the Seneca Falls convention. Doug-­ lass by this point had befriended many white abolitionists, but he gradually broke with Wil-­ liam Lloyd Garrison over the latter’s refusal to become engaged in active politics. In 1858 Douglass was also approached by radical abo-­ litionist John Brown for help in his planned attack on Harper’s Ferry, but Douglass diplo-­ matically declined, citing the plan’s futility. The onset of the Civil War in 1861 gave Douglass a new platform upon which he could advocate emancipation and equal rights. He met twice with President Abraham Lincoln

and pressed hard for him to allow the wide-­ spread use of African-­American volunteers in the army as combat soldiers. Lincoln, fearing a white backlash, did so only reluctantly but after 1863 black regiments were commonly raised and deployed. Ultimately, half a mil-­ lion African Americans served in the army and navy, acquitting themselves with distinc-­ tion. After the war, Douglass was the only African-­American leader with any national stature, and he remained a ceaseless spokes-­ man for civil rights and an end to violence against former slaves during the Reconstruc-­ tion period. A staunch Republican, he sup-­ ported the administration of Ulysses S. Grant and became consul-­general to the Republic of Haiti. In 1870 he began publishing The New National Era, and two years later President Rutherford B. Hayes appointed him U.S. Mar-­ shal for the District of Columbia. Douglass, a man of great intelligence, integrity, and purpose, died in Washington, D.C., on Feb-­ ruary 20, 1895. He was the leading African-­ American spokesman of his day.

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November Politics: In midterm congressional elections, the Whigs wrest control of Congress away from the Democrats, leaving President Martin Van Buren unsupported in the national legislature.

November 7 Politics: Noted Whig William H. Seward is elected governor of New York.

November 21 Politics: President Martin Van Buren issues a second proclamation warning American citizens not to assist rebels in Canada under the pain of severe penalties.

November 26 Diplomacy: The United States and the Kingdom of Sardinia conclude a treaty of commerce.

December Indian: Escorted by U.S. troops under generals Winfield Scott and John E. Wool, the last of 14,000 Cherokee are forcibly relocated from their tribal homelands in Georgia and marched overland to Oklahoma. Around 4,000 Indians die en route, and the ensuing hardship and struggle come to be known as the “Trail of Tears.”

December 3 Slavery: Whig Joshua Giddings becomes the first avowed abolitionist member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

December 11 Politics: The new “Atherton Gag” rule, promulgated by Representative Charles G. Atherton of New Hampshire, is adopted by the House of Representatives to preclude any discussion of slavery. The measure is adopted by every new session until 1844.

December 26 Education: Wake Forest College is chartered at Wake Forest, North Carolina, by the Baptists; its first class graduates in 1839.

December 28 Education: The Greensborough Female College is chartered by Methodists at Greensborough, North Carolina.

1839 Business: In New York, Hunts’ Merchant Magazine becomes the nation’s first business periodical. Education: Horace Mann, Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education, institutes the first public normal schools for all children; attendance is mandatory. Jared Sparks is installed at Harvard as the nation’s first professor of American history. Literature: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow publishes Voices of the Night, his first volume of poems; however, his work languishes without public or critical recognition until 1847. Religion: Mormon leader Brigham Young moves his adherents to Nauvoo, Illinois, where they establish a town. Previously, they had been violently ejected from the settlements in Missouri while leader Joseph Smith was imprisoned.

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Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth

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(1807–1882)

Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born in Portland, Maine, on February 27, 1807, into an established New England family. He was well-educated at the Portland Academy before attending Bowdoin College in 1821, where Nathaniel Hawthorne was his classmate. Longfellow proved himself adept as a student and enjoyed a facility for foreign languages, so upon graduating in 1825 the college trustees took the unusual step of proffering their young charge a teaching position. Longfellow, who determined early on to work as a writer, readily accepted, although he was required to travel to Europe for additional study. He came home in 1829, was happily married to Mary Storer Potter, and in 1833 published his first picturesque travel sketches, Outre-Mer: A Pilgrimage Beyond the Sea. The book was well-received and the following year Longfellow accepted a teaching position at Harvard. He also undertook another extensive literary tour of Europe, although his life was tempered by tragedy when his wife suddenly died. Longfellow consoled himself by becoming engrossed with moody and mystical German romanticism, which left its mark on his subsequent writings. In 1839 he wrote both his first romantic novel, Hyperion, and his first volume of poetry, Voices of the Night. The latter established him as an American original and sold 43,000 copies. He then furthered his national reputation with the publication of Evangeline (1847), a sentimental narrative poem concerning the French exodus from Acadia.

By 1854 Longfellow was financially secure enough to resign from Harvard and pursue writing full time. A year later he produced The Song of Hiawatha, an epic narrative poem about an Indian chief that was partly inspired by a Finnish epic. In 1858 he scored another popular work with The Courtship of Miles Standish, another historically oriented epic poem. However, the death of his second wife in a fire in 1861 profoundly affected Longfellow and he turned to translating European works to console himself. His treatment of Dante’s Divine Comedy appeared in three volumes, 1865–67, and is regarded as a definitive translation. By this time Longfellow basked in an international reputation as America’s most adept poet, and in 1868 he received honorary degrees from both Cambridge and Oxford. However, he shunned publicity and preferred to work in solitude in his home at Cambridge, Massachusetts. Longfellow remained extremely active in his final years, producing such varied and well-regarded works as The Christus: A Mystery (1872), which examined Christianity at various points in its evolution as a creed. Longfellow died in Cambridge on March 24, 1882, long heralded an American sage. His poetry closely mirrored his own life, exhibiting sweetness, gentleness, and romanticism, yet unmistakably tinged with melancholy. In homage to his renown, a memorial bust was placed in his honor at the Poet’s Corner of Westminister Abbey; Longfellow was the first American writer so honored.

Settlement: Sacramento, California, is founded as a Swiss settlement by John Sutter. Slavery: Abolitionist Theodore Dwight Weld publishes a book entitled American Slavery as It Is, a scathing expose gathered from eyewitness accounts and other sources. One avid reader, Harriet Beecher Stowe, is so moved by its sordid tale of woe that she is inspired to write Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

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Chronology of American History Technology: Inventor Charles Goodyear discovers the vulcanizing process for creating rubber when he accidentally drops a mixture of rubber and sulfur on a hot surface. Women: Mississippi is the first state to allow women to control their own property without legal guardians.

January Politics: Governor John Fairfield of Maine empowers land agent Rufus McIntire to expel Canadian loggers from land claimed by his state.

January 1–2 Naval: A landing force from the warships USS Columbia and John Adams attacks pirate forts on Quallah Battoo, Sumatra, in retaliation for new attacks on American commerce. The survivors pay reparations and promise to halt all harassment.

January 7 Business: The Washington Silver Mine, the nation’s first, is chartered in Lexington, North Carolina.

January 12 Technology: Anthracite coal is used to smelt iron for the first time in Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania.

January 19 Diplomacy: The United States and the Netherlands conclude a treaty of commerce and navigation.

February 7 Slavery: Henry Clay, intent upon running for the presidency as a Whig, condemns abolitionism and declares its adherents have no constitutional right to interfere with slavery where it is already extant. In doing so he is appealing to conservatives in both the North and South and declares, “I had rather be right than be president.”

February 11 Education: The University of the State of Missouri (today’s University of Missouri) is chartered at Columbia, Missouri; the first class graduates in 1843.

February 12 Diplomacy: Canadians logging in the disputed Aroostook region of Maine refuse to leave the disputed area and arrest land agent Rufus McIntire when he tries to expel them. Maine and New Brunswick then begin mobilizing for war, but the situation is diffused by General Winfield Scott, who is ordered to arrange a truce until a boundary commission can work out a defined border.

February 20 Societal: Dueling in the District of Columbia is outlawed by Congress.

March 3 Agriculture: Congress grants $1,000 to the Patent Office to promote seed distribution, statistical research, and experimentation in the name of advancing national agriculture. Military: In light of heightened tensions along the Maine–New Brunswick border, Congress passes an act authorizing the recruitment of 50,000 volunteers.

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March 23–25 Diplomacy: War of 1812 veterans General Winfield Scott and Lieutenant Governor John Harvey of New Brunswick, who last met at the Battle of Lundy’s Lane in 1814, agree not to introduce military force into the disputed Aroostook region of Maine. This agreement lays the basis for a peaceful resolution of the conflict.

April 11 Diplomacy: The United States and Mexico sign a treaty calling for the arbitration of claims made by Americans.

May 10 Religion: The Mormons under Joseph Smith formally establish their new headquarters in Illinois following their violent expulsion from Missouri.

June Naval: The Texas navy obtains the steamship Zavala, among the first warships of its kind.

August 26 Slavery: African slaves commandeer the Spanish slave ship Amistad and sail it into Connecticut. There it is impounded despite calls by the Spanish government for its return. The Americans, however, take the issue to the courts and in March 1841 the Africans are released.

September 25 Diplomacy: France signs a treaty with the Republic of Texas, the first European nation to confer recognition.

November 13 Politics: A gathering of moderate abolitionists constituting the Liberty Party nominates James G. Birney of Kentucky as the abolitionist candidate for the presidency, with Pennsylvanian Thomas Earle for vice president.

December Technology: In New York, Samuel F. B. Morse imports the first camera, or Daguerre, into the United States from France and also begins taking the first photographs, known as daguerreotypes. The process involves exposing copper plates, coated with silver, to iodine fumes while behind a lens.

December 4 Politics: A convention of Whigs at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, nominates William Henry Harrison over Henry Clay for the presidency. The outspoken Clay has numerous enemies from his many years in office, and he withdraws after the first ballot to promote party unity. States rights advocate John Tyler also becomes a vice presidential candidate. The problem with the Whigs at this juncture is that they lack a viable platform to run on and are simply organized around their common opposition to the Democrats.

1840 Labor: The Beacon, an antireligious, pro-labor publication, begins publishing in New York City. Literature: In Boston, the intellectual circle known as the Transcendentalists begins publishing their own journal, The Dial, with Margaret Fuller at the helm,

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Chronology of American History one of the earliest female editors. It features works by such noted writers as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Theodore Parker, among others. Noted writer Richard Henry Dana publishes his Two Years Before the Mast, which draws upon the author’s experiences in the U.S. Navy. He is especially appalled by the practice of flogging and subsequently crusades to have it abolished. James Fenimore Cooper returns to public favor with the publication of his French and Indian War novel, The Pathfinder. This is the latest installment of his ongoing Leatherstocking Series. Edgar Allan Poe publishes his Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, which includes his classic story “The Fall of the House of Usher”; it is critically wellreceived but the author fails to acquire a wide readership. Medical: Dr. Willard Parker initiates the first clinic attached to a medical college at the Philadelphia College of Physicians and Surgeons. Dr. Chapin Aaron Harris founds the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery in Baltimore, Maryland; it is subsequently incorporated into the University of Maryland. Intent upon making dentistry a recognized profession, Dr. Horace A. Hayden founds the American Society of Dental Surgeons in New York City. Military: Captain Gabriel J. Rains, campaigning against the Seminole Indians in Florida, hits upon the idea of buried explosive charges triggered by a passerby; this is the origin of antipersonnel weapons or land mines. Population: The latest census reveals a population of slightly more than 17 million inhabitants, reflecting a 30 percent growth over the previous decade. Publishing: In his pamphlet An Essay on a Congress of Nations, William Lash calls on Congress to establish guidelines and principles for international law and an international court. Religion: Joseph Smith ventures to England and addresses 4,000 potential Mormon converts who gradually immigrate to his colony at Nauvoo, Illinois. Science: William Cranch Boyd constructs an astronomical observatory at Harvard College to replace the device he previously used at his home in Dorchester, Massachusetts. John William Draper of New York University takes the first crude photograph of the moon, thereby initiating the nation’s pioneering role in astronomical photography.

January 8 Slavery: The House of Representatives reaffirms its gag rule against introducing antislavery petitions; however, the margin in favor is dwindling with a final vote of only 114 to 108

January 12 Business: The Senate again passes legislation to found an independent treasury; passage in the House is now required.

January 13 General: The steamship Lexington burns and sinks near Eaton’s Neck, New York, killing 140 passengers.

January 19 Exploring: The exploring expedition under Lieutenant Charles Wilkes catches a glimpse of the southern continent Antarctica, which is promptly dubbed “Wilkes Land.” Settlement: Austin is chosen as the new capital of the Republic of Texas.

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March 2 Education: Bethany College is chartered in Bethany, Virginia (West Virginia), by the Disciples of Christ; the first class graduates in 1844.

March 4 Education: Richmond College (today’s University of Richmond) is chartered in Richmond, Virginia, by various Baptist groups; its first class graduates in 1849.

March 31 Labor: A 10-hour workday is established for federal employees engaged in public works by President Martin Van Buren.

April 1 Politics: The abolitionist Liberty Party holds its first national convention in Albany, New York, intending to draw upon the 150,000 members of abolitionist societies across America in the upcoming election. James G. Birney of Kentucky again receives the nod to run for president with Thomas Earle running as vice president.

May 5–6 Politics: The Democratic Party convenes at Baltimore, Maryland, for their national convention; they renominate Martin Van Buren for the presidency and also make the first ever national stance on slavery by declaring their opposition to any congressional attempts to interfere with the “peculiar institution.” Their platform also espouses a strict constructionist doctrine of the Constitution and opposes a national bank and federal money for internal improvements. Significantly, this is the last Democratic convention before the Civil War to embrace principles found in the Declaration of Independence.

May 6 Settlement: The town of St. Paul is founded in present-day Minneapolis by a group of Swiss immigrants.

June 12 Women: A meeting of the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London, England, convenes but excludes women delegates from its proceedings. Among the Americans snubbed are Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, who are denied seating despite the pleas of fiery abolitionist Wendell Phillips. Rejection here induces Stanton and Mott to hold a women’s conference in New York at a subsequent date.

June 30 Business: The House of Representatives approves the Independent Treasury Act over continuing opposition from the Whigs.

July 4 Business: President Martin Van Buren signs the Independent Treasury Act into law, whereby the government acquires exclusive rights to manage its own monies and also creates specific depositories to hold all funds. Such institutions, or subtreasuries, are established at Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, Charleston, St. Louis, and New Orleans. This is the first instance in many years whereby Northern and Southern Democrats momentarily unite to overcome bitter Whig opposition.

August 26 Diplomacy: The United States and Portugal conclude a treaty of commerce and navigation.

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November Diplomacy: Canadian deputy sheriff Alexander McLeod, charged with the murder of American Amos Durfee when the schooner Caroline was burned, is arrested and charged with murder in New York.

November 13 Diplomacy: Great Britain recognizes the Republic of Texas and also concludes a commercial treaty.

December 2 Politics: William Henry Harrison defeats Martin Van Buren for the presidency with 234 electoral votes to 60 while John Tyler becomes vice president. The Whigs also take control of Congress; this is the first complete loss of political power by a party since 1800. This is also the first modern campaign in the sense that the Whigs pioneer the use of slogans, placards, songs, floats, and transportable log cabins to emphasize Harrison’s unique frontier nature over Van Buren’s aristocratic nature. “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too” had become the Whig campaign mantra.

December 13 Diplomacy: Henry Stephen Fox, British minister to the United States, demands that the Americans release Canadian deputy sheriff Alexander McLeod from jail in New York.

December 26 Diplomacy: Secretary of State John Forsyth refuses an English demand to release Canadian deputy sheriff Alexander McLeod, charged with murder, from jail in New York. British minister Henry Stephen Fox is informed that the state of New York enjoys exclusive jurisdiction over the case.

1841 Indian: Frontier artist George Catlin publishes his two-volume Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Condition of the North American Indian, which includes 300 of his engravings. He is disturbed that many Indian cultures are on the verge of disappearing. Literature: Ralph Waldo Emerson writes and publishes his first series of transcendentalist Essays, confirming him as a noted thinker and writer. James Fenimore Cooper publishes The Deerslayer, the last installment of his Leatherstocking Tales. This concludes a classic series of frontier novels featuring Natty Bumpo, also known as Hawkeye, a garrulous frontier figure who is far more in tune with nature than civilization. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow publishes Ballads and Other Poems, and his spirited narrative technique establishes him as a noted writer. Military: The moniker “Old Fuss and Feathers” is first applied to General Winfield Scott, long renowned for his attention toward military dress and decorum. Settlement: A party of 48 wagons traverses the Oregon Trail, the Humbolt River, and the Sierra Nevada Mountains, to arrive safely at Sacramento, California. Societal: A group of Transcendentalists under George Ripley establish a utopian farming community, the Brook Farm Institute of Agriculture and Education, nine miles from Boston. Members pursue a balanced life of simple living combined with high intellectual pursuits.

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Chronology

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Catlin, George (1796–1872) Painter George Catlin was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, on July 26, 1796, the son of a lawyer. He studied law in Connecticut and began a successful practice at home in 1819, but Catlin had always exhibited a fascination with Native Americans. By this time he had also displayed a genuine talent for painting portraits. In 1823 he stopped his legal work and decided to parley his artistic infatuation into a viable career by doing portraiture in Philadelphia and observing Native American delegations as they occasionally appeared in the city. To raise money he ventured to Albany, New York, in 1828 to paint Governor DeWitt Clinton, a wealthy sponsor, and also met Clara Bartlett Gregory, whom he eventually married. That same year he ventured to Buffalo to paint the noted Seneca orator Red Jacket and also commenced formal ethnological studies of Native Americans. In time Catlin expressed a fervent desire not only to capture Native Americans on canvas but also to help preserve their rapidly vanishing way of life. By 1830 he had amassed sufficient money to relocate to St. Louis and study Indians in detail. In this capacity he met and befriended General William Clark, governor of the new Indian Territory, who invited him along on various trips up the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. Catlin was thus able to encounter more remote tribes such as the Blackfeet, Crow, Cree, Mandan, and Sioux, all of which he carefully documented. By 1836 Catlin had executed more than 500 superbly rendered paintings and portraits of various tribes and individuals,

foremost among them the aged Shawnee Prophet Tenskwatawa, brother of Tecumseh. The following year he established “Catlin’s Indian Gallery” in New York City, whose vivacious art whetted the public’s appetite for knowledge about Indians and was a great commercial success. For the rest of the decade Catlin relocated to Europe with his wide-ranging collection and enjoyed considerable success displaying it there. As a body of work, the art is significant for preserving Indian village life, games, war dances, ceremonies, and other activities long forgotten. Catlin then returned home on a national tour but enjoyed considerably less success in Philadelphia, Boston, or an encore performance in New York. To bolster his income he next took to publishing, and his Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Condition of the North American Indians (1841) which, while well received, did not produce the windfall anticipated. He then tried to sell his body of work to Congress without success and later used the whole as collateral, losing them. Catlin subsequently lived in Europe from 1852 to 1857 and was commissioned by noted explorer Baron Wilhelm von Humbolt to undertake a painting expedition to South America. He returned to New York in 1870 and spent several years publishing works about his experiences among Native Americans and appealing for better treatment of them. Catlin died in Jersey City, New Jersey, on December 23, 1872, a pioneering artist and cultural anthropologist.

In Massachusetts, reformer Dorothea L. Dix begins her personal crusade to improve living conditions and treatment of the mentally ill. Sports: The nation’s first unofficial boxing championship unfolds with Tom Hyer defeating challenger John McCluster.

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Chronology of American History

Dix, Dorothea (1802–1887) Reformer Dorothea Lynde Dix was born in Hampden, Maine, on April 4, 1802, the daughter of a Methodist preacher. Despite an unhappy childhood and a life of grinding poverty, she matured into a dutiful young woman with an iron will and a strict sense of morality. Dix served as headmistress of a Boston “Dame School” for young girls, but so energetically that in 1836 she was forced to visit England to recoup her health. There she encountered numerous social reformers, which inspired her to carry on similar work in the United States. To this end she began teaching at the House of Correction in East Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1841 and three years later composed a report for the state legislature about the abuses heaped upon the mentally ill. Dix then capitalized on this success by launching a nationwide crusade to afford better treatment of insane men and women. Due to her efforts, the number of mental institution increased from 32 in 1843 to 123 by 1880. In 1845 she also collaborated with educator Horace Mann on a book entitled Remarks on Prisons and Prison Discipline in the United States, whose humane and farsighted suggestions were eventually adopted by penologists. However, in 1854 President Franklin Pierce vetoed legislation mandating federal involvement in mental health matters, and Dix suffered a near collapse. She then went abroad for her health while supervising reform efforts in Scotland, the Channel Islands, France, Russia, and Turkey. Dix came home in 1856 and continued her usual investigat-

ing, publishing, and lobbying on behalf of the mentally ill. Dix was arguably one of the nation’s most famous women by the advent of Civil War in April 1861, and she tendered her services to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. Accordingly she gained appointment as chief of nurses for the Union Army and drew upon her organizational and institutional experience to recruit thousands of nurses for the war effort. She also imparted high ethical standards on prospective candidates and required them to be at least 30 years old and plain looking to weed out adventurers. However, Dix’s own religious prejudices were so marked that she forbade Catholic nuns or any other religious order which she found offensive from joining. Her strident morality and despotic behavior also garnered her a reputation as “Dragon Dix,” but largely through her efforts the Nurse Corps was one of the resounding success stories of the Civil War and closely paralleled the efforts of Englishwoman Florence Nightingale during the Crimean War. As an indication of her personal commitment to her charge, Dix labored the entire war without pay. Afterward, she took up the cause of caring for orphans and the blind at a national level. Dix left public life in 1881 and retired to one of the hospitals she had founded in Trenton, New Jersey, some 35 years earlier. She died there on July 17, 1887, somewhat imperious and opinionated but also a sincere champion for the ill and disadvantaged.

January 3 Literature: Aspiring writer Herman Melville joins the whaler Acushnet at Fairhaven, England, bound for the South Seas. His experiences greatly influence his writings and ultimately inspire Moby-Dick, his most celebrated novel.

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March 4 Politics: William Henry Harrison is sworn in as the ninth president of the United States and the first Whig chief executive. Daniel Webster is also appointed the new Secretary of State after Henry Clay declines the post.

March 9 Slavery: The U.S. Supreme Court rules in favor of the 53 Africans seized when the Spanish slaver Amistad sailed into American waters, and they are released and allowed to return to Africa.

March 17 Diplomacy: The United States and Peru sign a claims convention.

April Publishing: Graham’s Magazine commences publication in Philadelphia with Edgar Allan Poe as associate editor, who also publishes his “Murders in the Rue Morgue,” the first detective story.

April 4 Politics: William Henry Harrison dies in office of pneumonia, becoming the first chief executive to be succeeded by his vice president.

April 9 Politics: President John Tyler gives his inaugural address, stressing fiscal sobriety. However, many observers question if he is simply an acting president as the Constitution makes no clear provisions for succession in office. Tyler ultimately prevails on a congressional vote to install him as president. A Democrat and a devout believer in states’ rights, he is nonetheless at odds with the Whig majority over many touchstone issues.

April 10 Journalism: Horace Greeley begins publishing the New York Tribune, a Whigoriented penny paper. He gradually emerges as one of the nation’s most influential writers and a major force behind the future Republican Party.

May Business: Sam Houston opens the port of Houston, Texas, to stimulate trade and commerce. Settlement: The first covered-wagon train departs Sapling Grove, Kansas, and makes for California via the Stanislaus River.

May 19 Religion: Theodore Parker, a noted Unitarian preacher, delivers his landmark address “On the Transient and Permanent in Christianity” in South Boston. He takes the extraordinary stance that Jesus Christ was not supernatural in nature and that the Scriptures deserve no special reverence.

June 19 Military: A group of Texas irregulars and military adventurers embarks on a campaign to capture Santa Fe, New Mexico, from the Mexican Republic.

June 20 Technology: Samuel F. B. Morse receives a patent for his new telegraph.

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Harrison, William Henry (1773–1841) President William Henry Harrison was born in Charles City, Virginia, on February 9, 1773, son of a leading colonial politician. He studied at Hampden-Sydney College and the University of Pennsylvania before being commissioned lieutenant in the U.S. Army in 1792. Harrison fought well under General Anthony Wayne and retired from the military in 1795 as a captain. He then functioned as secretary of the Northwest Territory before being elected to Congress in 1799. The following year President John Adams appointed Harrison territorial governor of the Indiana Territory, which he remained for the next 12 years. His tenure was marked by aggressive acquisition of Native American land, resentment of which gave rise to Tecumseh’s anti-American coalition. In 1811 he won a narrow victory over the Shawnee Prophet Tenskwatawa at Tippecanoe, and in the War of 1812 he gained a major general’s commission in the U.S. Army. In this capacity he withstood British and Indian forces during the siege of

William Henry Harrison (Library of Congress)

July 7 Politics: Henry Clay initiates his own fiscal proposals in the Senate to repeal the Independent Treasury Act, increase tariffs, establish a new national bank, raise higher tariff revenues, and return money accruing from federal land sales to the states. These programs are hallmarks of the Whig ideology. However, President John Tyler considers Clay’s maneuver an attempt to usurp his role as nominal party leader.

July 28 Politics: The Senate passes Henry Clay’s Fiscal Bank Bill to establish a new Bank of the United States (called the Fiscal Bank) in the District of Columbia.

August 6 Business: Whig majorities in both houses of Congress pass a bill resurrecting a new institution, the Fiscal Bank of the United States.

August 9 General: The steamship Erie catches fire and sinks in Lake Erie, killing 175 passengers.

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Chronology

Fort Meigs, Ohio, in May 1813, forcing them back into Canada. Harrison subsequently took to the offensive, chased the fleeing British into western Ontario, and on October 5, 1813, he fought and won the Battle of the Thames, Ontario, where Tecumseh was killed and his confederation shattered. He then served briefly in New York before a disagreement with Secretary of War John Armstrong prompted his resignation. Harrison’s status as a national war hero was nonetheless assured and in 1818 he received a congressional gold medal. In 1815 he also helped negotiate the Spring Wells Treaty with various Indian tribes, securing additional lands. In 1816 Harrison was elected again to the House of Representatives from Ohio, and in 1825 the state legislature appointed him to the U.S. Senate. In 1828 President John Quincy Adams appointed him the first American minister to Colombia, but he clashed with President Simón Bolívar and was recalled by President Andrew Jackson the following year. Harrison returned to private life in 1829 but

835

he resumed active campaigning following the rise of the Whig Party in 1834 and two years later he was one of several party presidential nominees, easily the most popular because of his military reputation. He subsequently lost the election to Democrat Martin Van Buren in 1836 but began planning to resume the struggle in 1840. In this he was greatly assisted by the onset of the Panic (depression) of 1837 that greatly eroded popular support for the Democrats. That year the Whigs adopted the so-called Log Cabin strategy that posited Harrison as a frontier war hero and featured campaign songs, catchy slogans, and all the trappings of the very Jacksonian democracy that Van Buren failed to take advantage of. Once coupled with John Tyler as vice president, the two men successfully campaigned under the national slogan of “Tippecanoe and Tyler, too,” defeating the incumbent. In March 1841 Harrison was sworn in as the first Whig president. However, he died a month later of illness on April 4, 1841, the first chief executive to perish in office.

August 13 Business: The Independent Treasury Act is repealed by Congress at the behest of Henry Clay, and the Secretary of the Treasury resumes his responsibilities for public funds and the use of state banks for depositing funds. This measure is a necessary precondition for establishing a new national bank.

August 16 Politics: President John Tyler, who regards Henry Clay’s Fiscal Bank Bill as unconstitutional, vetoes it. The Senate then fails to muster sufficient votes for an override. The Whigs are generally enraged by Tyler’s conduct, believing that he had previously agreed to sign such legislation.

August 19 Politics: Congress implements a uniform system of bankruptcy so that individuals can declare bankruptcy; it endures three years and allows 33,730 individuals to claim bankruptcy.

August 29 Societal: Cincinnati, Ohio is the scene of a violent anti-black street rioting which lasts for five days.

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Tyler, John

(1790–1862)

President John Tyler was born in Charles City County, Virginia, on March 29, 1790, the son of wealthy planters. He graduated from William and Mary College in 1807, studied law, and was admitted to the bar two years later. Tyler took an interest in politics and from 1811 to 1815 he served in the state legislature before being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1816 as a DemocraticRepublican. In 1827 he served two terms as governor before standing for a seat in the U.S. Senate as a Democrat. Politically, Tyler was an outspoken advocate of states’ rights, and he also opposed both internal improvements and a second national bank as unconstitutional. In 1828 he supported the election of Andrew Jackson to the presidency but then railed against his threatened use of force during the nullification crisis of 1831. He was also highly critical of the way Jackson arbitrarily withdrew government deposits from the Bank of the United States. Tyler thus found himself

President John Tyler (Library of Congress)

September 3 Politics: Both houses of Congress adopt a second bank bill which addresses President John Tyler’s constitutional concerns.

September 4 Settlement: Congress passes the Distribution-Preemption Act which allows settlers to purchase for a minimum price land they have illegally settled on. This ends a long-running dispute as to whether public land policy should focus on revenues or settlement. However, the distribution of profits to the states is rescinded should tariff rates rise beyond 20 percent.

September 9 Politics: Unswayed by political compromises, President John Tyler again vetoes the bill reestablishing a national bank.

September 11 Politics: President John Tyler’s cabinet, angered by his recent veto of the bank bill, resigns from office save for Secretary of State Daniel Webster. Tyler then appoints new members for the South, thereby increasing that region’s influence upon presidential decisions.

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in a curious alignment with Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and other politicians of the new Whig party. However, in February 1836, the Democratic Virginia legislature ordered Tyler to remove Clay’s Senate censure resolution against Jackson, and, rather than submit, Tyler resigned his seat, quit the party, and formally joined the Whigs. In this capacity he was tapped as William Henry Harrison’s vice presidential running mate in the 1840 election. He provided a measure of geographical balance to the ticket even while having very little in common with Harrison. As vice president, Tyler was envisioned as an obstacle to the Whig platform as long as Harrison was in charge. However, after only a month in power, Harrison suddenly died of illness and Tyler became the first vice president to succeed the chief executive. First he had to weather a period of political questioning of whether he was simply acting president or really president. Tyler then established the precedent that he had, in fact, been constitutionally mandated to succeed to the presidency

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with all the powers of that office. Despite the fact that the Whigs now controlled the government, Tyler refused to fall in line behind Clay, who was the de facto head of the party. He thus twice vetoed the rechartering of the Bank of the United States, then also rejected a revised tariff and Clay’s plan to distribute revenue from land sales back to the states. This cost him the continuing allegiance of Whig members in his own cabinet, for they all resigned with the exception of Secretary of State Daniel Webster, who remained in office only long enough to conclude the famous Webster-Ashburton Treaty. Tyler then replaced his cabinet with Southerners while pushing for the annexation of Texas to appease them. When it was rejected by the Senate, the administration acquired it through a joint resolution of Congress. In 1844 Tyler threw his support behind Democrat James K. Polk, and in 1860 he attended the Washington Peace Convention to circumvent civil war. Tyler subsequently joined the Confederate House of Representatives but died on January 18, 1862 before taking his seat.

October 4 Politics: In Rhode Island, where only 4,000 adult males and their eldest sons can vote out of a population exceeding 100,000, disenfranchised men gather at an unauthorized convention to demand to be enfranchised. The ensuing People’s Party under Thomas Dorr seeks to update the state constitution, which was approved in 1663 by King Charles II.

October 12 Politics: A New York court acquits Canadian sheriff Alexander McLeod of murdering Amos Durfee during the burning of the American steamship Caroline. This removes a major point of contention between the United States and Canada.

October 27 Slavery: A group of slaves being transported to New Orleans seizes control of the vessel Creole, sails to the British port of Nassau in the Bahamas, and is declared free. They summarily ignore all American attempts to recover them.

October 29 Education: In New York City, Catholic Bishop John Joseph Hughes urges public funding for parochial schools.

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November Settlement: John Bidwell leads the first organized wagon train across the Rocky Mountains, along the Oregon Trail and into Sacramento, California. They had previously departed Sapling Grove, Kansas, with 69 adults and children.

December 16 Settlement: A bill is introduced by Missouri Senator Lewis Linn to facilitate expanded migration to the Oregon Territory by providing military escorts and land grants to males of voting age. It is not passed but heightens British awareness of American ambitions in that region.

December 27–29 Politics: A majority of voters approve the so-called People’s Constitution to enlarge the voter franchise in Rhode Island.

1842 Labor: The Massachusetts state supreme court decides the case of Commonwealth v. Hunt ruling that trade unions are lawful organizations, they are not responsible for illegal acts by individuals, and that strikes which close shops are legal. This marks a reversal of traditional judicial hostility toward organized labor. Naval: Pistol manufacturer Samuel Colt begins experimenting with a submarine battery (underwater mines). Settlement: Dr. Elijah White, newly appointed Indian agent for the Oregon Territory, conducts a party of 130 people and 18 wagons overland there from Independence, Missouri. Slavery: When fugitive slave George Lattimer is seized by authorities in Boston, local abolitionists insist that he be allowed to purchase freedom from his master in Virginia. Societal: The Sons of Temperance is founded in New York and draws heavily upon Masonic rights and rituals. For this reason it is criticized by the competing American Temperance Union for excluding its members at their meetings. Technology: Samuel F. B. Morse successfully lays the first underwater telegraph cable between Castle Garden and Governor’s Island, New York.

January 1 Societal: Exhibitor par excellence Phineas T. Barnum, a former newspaper editor, opens the American Museum in New York City. He employs hoaxes and extravagant, sensationalized advertising to lure an unsuspecting public inside.

January 2 Engineering: The first wire suspension bridge is opened across the Schuylkill River, at Fairmount, Pennsylvania.

January 24 Politics: Citizens from Haverhill, Massachusetts, petition Congress to allow the Union to be peacefully disbanded; it is presented by former president John Quincy Adams.

March 1 Slavery: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Prigg v. Commonwealth of Massachusetts, ruling that state law forbidding the seizure of fugitive slaves is

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Barnum, P. T.

839

(1810–1891)

Showman Phineas Taylor Barnum was born in Bethel, Connecticut, on July 5, 1810, and he went to work at the age of 15 when his father died. By turns a shop owner, director of lotteries, and a newspaper editor, he once spent several weeks in jail for libel and relocated to Philadelphia in search of gainful employment, There he encountered Joice Heth, an elderly African American, whom a small town huckster promoted as President George Washington’s original nurse. In a flash Barnum saw an opportunity so he acquired the rights to exhibit Heth, backed by an outlandish publicity campaign, and made his reputation as a showman. In 1840 he ventured to New York and acquired John Scudder’s American Museum, which he transformed from a collection of curiosities into a showcase for the bizarre. Barnum stuffed his displays with unusual and usually contrived objects, physically deformed people, and novelties such as jugglers and automated displays, backed by outlandish claims and promotions. The public, paying 25 cents a head, readily attended and apparently enjoyed such imaginative deceptions, particularly the exhibit marked “egress”—leading to the exit. For two decades Barnum cemented his reputation as “America’s greatest showman” through the likes of celebrities such as 25-inch-tall “General Tom Thumb” and gained formal introduction to many heads of state, including President Abraham Lincoln, King Louis Philippe of France, and Queen Victoria of England. For all his skill at hucksterism, Barnum was a shrewd businessman and a good judge of popular

taste. For that reason he invited soprano Jenny Lind, the “Swedish Nightingale,” on a successful nationwide tour that also netted him a large fortune. His autobiography, first published in 1855 and repeatedly updated and reprinted, sold nearly a million copies—at least according to him. Advancing age did nothing to inhibit Barnum’s sense of adventurism and fun. He acquired a small traveling circus, expanded the routine with the usual exotic acts and claims, then successfully toured the nation touting “the Greatest Show on Earth.” The public responded in droves, and in 1881 Barnum joined forces with a younger competitor, James A. Bailey, to found the famous “Barnum & Bailey’s Three Ring Circus,” which became a staple of family entertainment for over a century. When not engaged in his usual moneymaking schemes, Barnum turned to politics and served several terms in the Connecticut legislature. He continued pursuing his traveling circus with great energy, imagination, and personal delight until 1891, when his health began to fail. Ever the showman, when near death he reputedly asked a local newspaper to print his obituary in advance so that he could read it. The vivacious Barnum died in Philadelphia on April 7, 1891, just hours after inquiring about the daily box office receipts. Beyond being America’s premier entertainer and a fine judge of public psychology, he raised the level of mass entertainment to new levels, anticipating by decades the huge response to the new motion picture industry.

unconstitutional. However, the court maintains that the actual capture of such fugitives rests entirely with the federal government and state officials need not concern themselves.

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March 3 Labor: Massachusetts approves the first law restricting children in factories under the age of 12 to 10 hours of work per day.

March 4 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Dobbins v. Commissioners, ruling that states cannot tax the salary of Federal officials.

March 7 Education: Ohio Wesleyan University is chartered in Delaware, Ohio, by the Methodists; the first class graduates in 1846.

March 21–23 Slavery: Abolitionist representative Joshua Giddings champions the seizure of slaves by England in the Creole case and is censured by Southerners in the House. Giddings then resigns from Congress, only to be reelected in the following May.

March 30 Business: The Tariff Act of 1842, a piece of highly protective legislation, is passed by Congress and raises tariffs to the levels authorized by the Tariff Act of 1832. Medical: The first recorded use of ether during surgery is made by Dr. Crawford W. Long of Jefferson, Georgia.

March 31 Politics: Henry Clay, disgusted by the Whig Party’s inability to formulate programs, resigns from Congress. He intends to spend the next several years rebuilding his party from the ground up before returning to the Senate in 1849.

April 4 Diplomacy: British minister Alexander Baring, Baron Ashburton, presents his credentials in Washington, D.C. He is authorized to commence wide-ranging negotiations with Secretary of State Daniel Webster in a bid to head off future border disputes between America and Canada.

April 12 Business: The Mutual Life Insurance Company is chartered in New York, being the first company of its kind.

April 18 Politics: Dissident and disenfranchised males in Rhode Island elect Thomas W. Dorr to serve as governor while the political establishment reelects Samuel W. King to the same office. Both sides then appeal to President John Tyler for assistance.

April 25 Societal: Noted British writer Charles Dickens becomes the toast of New York City when he arrives, is feted by literary circles, and raises money for the relief of London slums. He also denounces slavery and seeks international copyright laws to protect authors everywhere.

May 2 Exploring: Col o nel John C. Frémont begins his four- year exploration of the Rocky Mountains and Wyoming; success here will make him a national figure.

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Chronology

Frémont, John C.

841

(1813–1890)

Explorer John C. Frémont was born in Savannah, Georgia, on January 21, 1813, the illegitimate son of a French emigrant and an upper class Southern woman. He was raised in Charleston, South Carolina, and briefly attended Charleston College in 1831, where he excelled at mathematics before being expelled. After holding down several minor posts, Frémont came to the attention of politician Joel R. Poinsett, who arranged for Frémont to receive his lieutenant’s commission in the U.S. Army. In this capacity he accompanied French scientist Joseph N. Nicollet on a two-year expedition through the Iowa territory and finally found his calling. In 1841 he also met and married the daughter of influential Missouri Senator Thomas Hart Benton and now possessed a powerful sponsor. Consequently, between 1842 and 1849 Frémont conducted four famous expeditions throughout the American West, contesting the notions of Major Stephen H. Long that the region was entirely desert and uninhabitable. Among his many achievements was thoroughly mapping the South Pass of the Rocky Mountains, which subsequently served as an important conduit for western migration to the Pacific coast. In 1843 Frémont teamed up with noted scout Kit Carson and covered another 6,500 miles from the Great Salt lake, Utah, over the Sierra Nevada desert and into California and back. He also gained fame by publishing his reports to Congress, which became an immediate best seller and stimulated settlement. Frémont was in California when the Mexican War broke out in 1846. He

helped arrange the Bear Flag revolt in California and gained appointment as governor through Commodore Robert F. Stockton but was subsequently arrested by General Stephen W. Kearny for insubordination. He still remained popularly regarded as “The Pathfinder.” Frémont was cleared of all charges at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, but he nonetheless resigned his commission in a huff. He then gained appointment as the first U.S. senator from California. Frémont, despite his Southern roots, was an avowed abolitionist, and in 1856 he became the first candidate to run for the presidency with the new Republican Party. Aged but 43 years, he was also the youngest ever to run for such high office. Frémont, however, was badly drubbed by Democrat James Buchanan and returned to private life. When the Civil War erupted in April 1861, he was commissioned a brigadier general by President Abraham Lincoln and placed in charge of the sensitive region of Missouri. However, Frémont angered Lincoln and slaveholding Northerners alike through his unauthorized emancipation efforts of 1861 and was removed from the post. He subsequently transferred east to serve in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, where he was badly defeated by General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson at Cross Keys in 1862. Fremont was talked out of running for the presidency in 1864 and subsequently served as territorial governor of Arizona, 1878–81. He died in New York on July 12, 1890, a celebrated frontier figure.

May 3 Politics: Thomas W. Dorr, elected governor of Rhode Island under the new “People’s Constitution,” is sworn into office over the objections of the previous executive, Samuel W. King.

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May 18 Military: The so-called Dorr’s War breaks out in Rhode Island when disenfranchised male supporters of Thomas W. Dorr try and fail to seize the local arsenal. He flees the state but subsequently returns and is arrested.

May 20 Sports: The Union Course on Long Island, New York, is the scene of a huge racing event between Boston, a horse from the North, and Fashion, a horse from the South. Fashion wins the event by running a four-mile course in seven minutes and 32 seconds, a new record. An estimated 50,000 racing fans are on hand to view the proceedings.

June 10 Exploring: Lieutenant Charles Wilkes returns to New York City after sailing 90,000 miles around the Pacific and Antarctica. This concludes the ambitious United States Exploring Expedition, although work on the published report continues until 1844 and runs to five volumes.

June 25 Politics: Congress passes the Reapportionment Act, requiring that Congressmen be elected by district.

June 29 Politics: President John Tyler vetoes a revenue bill that would maintain tariffs above the 20 percent level as per the Compromise Tariff of 1833. The legislation also mandates that the government suspend distribution of revenue surpluses from federal land sales to the states.

August 9 Business: President John Tyler vetoes a second tariff bill combining higher duties with continuing distribution of surplus revenue to the states. Diplomacy: The Webster-Ashburton Treaty is concluded between Secretary of State Daniel Webster and Lord Ashburton to mitigate boundary disputes and other issues. Among other things, the Maine/New Brunswick border is finalized, the United States obtains navigation rights on the St. John River, Great Britain grants America all territory from Lake Superior to the Lake of the Woods (Minnesota), and the British government officially apologizes for the Caroline affairs. This marks a turning point in previously stiff and formal relations between the two nations.

August 20 Diplomacy: The Senate ratifies the Webster-Ashburton Treaty by a wide margin of 39 to nine.

August 26 Business: July 1 is defined by Congress as the start of the new fiscal year.

August 30 Business: President John Tyler signs a third Tariff Act which raises the level of duties to the levels of 1832 and also ends the distribution of surplus federal revenues when tariffs rise above a specific level.

September 11 Military: In a spate of ongoing border hostility, Mexican soldiers invade and capture San Antonio from the Republic of Texas.

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October 3 Settlement: Marcus Whitman, determined to draw attention to the Oregon Territory, journeys to Washington and Boston in the middle of winter.

October 13 Naval: Commodore Lawrence Kearney and his East India Squadron begins arriving at Chinese ports to commence diplomatic and trade negotiations with Manchu dynasty officials.

October 20–21 Naval: Commodore Thomas ap Catesby Jones, commanding the East Pacific Squadron, mistakenly seizes the Mexican settlement of Monterrey, California, having been falsely informed that the United States and Mexico are at war. When correctly informed by the American consul, Thomas O. Larkin, he apologizes for the mistake and departs.

October 21 Military: In Texas, Mexican troops attack and kill a number of Texans in the so-called Dawson Massacre.

December Societal: Dr. Charles Frederick Ernest Minnegerode, a German political exile, sets up the first Christmas tree in the United States.

December 1 Naval: The only instance of mutiny aboard a U.S. Naval warship occurs when Commander Alexander S. Mackenzie hangs three individuals for allegedly plotting aboard the USS Somers. One individual, Midshipman Philip Spencer, is son of the present secretary of war.

December 30 Settlement: President John Tyler, at the behest of Secretary of State Daniel Webster, declares that the Hawaiian islands are off-limits to any prospective colonial powers.

1843 Arts: Hiram Powers finishes sculpting his noted work, “Greek Slave.” Business: Benjamin T. Babbitt introduces powdered soap and markets his new product with free samples; it is tremendously successful and eventually known throughout the country. Diplomacy: George Brown, American minister to the Hawaiian Islands, refuses to support attempts by France and England to secure the region’s independence. Literature: Edgar Allan Poe furthers his reputation as a master of the macabre with the publication of his minor masterpiece The Tell-Tale Heart, a first-person narrative about psychotic delusions. Medical: Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes publishes a highly respected essay, “The Contagiousness of Puerperal Fever,” in the New England Quarterly Journal of Medicine. A yellow fever epidemic strikes hard throughout the Mississippi Valley, killing 13,000 inhabitants. Music: Daniel Decatur Emmet, composer of the song “Dixie,” leads the Virginia Minstrels, first known minstrel troupe to perform in New York City. His use of blackface singers sets the precedent for minstrel acts that follow.

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Chronology of American History Publishing: Historian William Hickling Prescott publishes The Conquest of Mexico, a compelling and highly accurate narrative that sells thousands of copies. Religion: German Jews living in New York City found the B’nai B’rith. Science: The world’s largest telescope is mounted at the Harvard Astronomical Observatory. The device was obtained through private subscription and marks the founding of American astronomy. Slavery: The Vermont legislature votes to void the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793.

January Societal: Reformer Dorothea Lyn Dix testifies before the Massachusetts legislature on behalf of better treatment of the insane and mentally ill. Her address, “Memorial to the Legislature of Massachusetts,” excoriates long accepted practices of abuse and leads to reforms. The Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor in New York City, an umbrella organization of many diverse charities and social groups, is founded in New York City. Its success leads to similar agencies in Brooklyn, Boston, and elsewhere.

Engraving showing underground lodgings of the poor, Greenwich Street, New York City (Library of Congress)

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January 29 General: William McKinley, the 25th president, is born at Niles, Ohio.

February 3 Settlement: The Oregon Bill of Missouri Senator Lewis Linn, intended to stimulate migration there, is approved by the Senate. This authorizes the construction of military posts to protect settlers and also land grants to prospective settlers.

February 25 Diplomacy: British warships raise their flags over the Hawaiian Islands.

March 3 Business: Congress repeals the Bankruptcy Law of 1841.

April Politics: The Rhode Island political establishment, shaken by the outbreak of Dorr’s War, writes a new constitution that incorporates an expanded voting franchise.

May Exploration: Colonel John C. Frémont commences his second exploring expedition across the Rocky Mountains, down the Snake and Columbia Rivers, and into the San Joaquin Valley of California.

May 2 Settlement: Settlers convene at Champoeg, Oregon Territory, for the purpose of establishing their own government. They eventually adopt a constitution drawn from the Iowa model.

May 8 Politics: Secretary of State Daniel Webster resigns from office, ostensibly over President John Tyler’s intention to annex Texas; he is replaced by Abel P. Upshur.

May 22 Settlement: A wagon train with 1,000 prospective settlers departs Independence, Missouri, for the purpose of settling in the Oregon Territory. All arrive safely in October.

May 29 Exploring: Colonel John C. Frémont departs Kansas City, Missouri, accompanied by noted scout Kit Carson, on a march to explore the region between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific coast. His endeavors yield a highly accurate migration route to Oregon.

June Politics: The American Republic Party, an anti-Catholic, nativist organization, is founded in New York City. They intend to deny the right to vote or hold office to anybody not born in the United States. Within two years the group evolves into the Native American Party. Several American delegates attend the World Peace Conference in London, England.

June 1 Slavery: Self-styled Sojourner Truth (Isabella Bomefree, later Baumfree, also Isabella Hardenbergh Van Wagenen), towering at six feet in height, commences

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Chronology of American History her career as a spellbinding abolitionist speaker in Brooklyn, New York.

June 15 Diplomacy: Mexico and the Republic of Texas agree to a truce in fighting.

June 17 Politics: Daniel Webster attends the dedication of the Bunker Hill Monument in Boston, Massachusetts, delivering one of his most memorable orations; President John Tyler is in attendance.

July 5 Settlement: Settlers meeting at Champeog, Oregon Territory, construct a constitution based on that of the Iowa Territory; it functions as a provisional government until the federal government accepts jurisdiction over the region.

July 12 Religion: Mormon prophet Joseph Smith announces a divine revelation sanctioning the practice of multiple wives, or polygamy. This practice causes a rift in the Mormon rank and file and further stirs antagonism from more traditional sects in the vicinity of Nauvoo, Illinois. Sojourner Truth (Library of Congress)

July 26

Diplomacy: Royal Navy warships under Admiral Richard Thomas remove the dictatorial Lord George Paulet from Hawaii, who had illegally claimed the islands for Britain, and restore King Kamehameha III to his throne.

August 14 Military: Florida’s Second Seminole War ends; it was the most protracted and expensive Indian conflict of United States history.

August 22 Slavery: At the annual National Convention of Colored Men in Buffalo, New York, speaker Henry Highland Garnett raises eyebrows by calling for a national slave insurrection.

August 23 Diplomacy: Mexican dictator General Antonio López de Santa Anna warns the United States not to annex the Republic of Texas—such a move would be regarded as an act of war. In light of the republic’s increasing ties with European nations, the U.S. government is forced to pay more attention to the region.

August 30–31 Politics: The Liberty Party convenes in Buffalo, New York, and nominates abolitionist James G. Birney of Michigan for the presidency and Thomas Morris of Ohio for the vice presidency. Their platform denounces the expansion of slavery.

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Chronology

Truth, Sojourner

847

(ca. 1797–1883)

African-American abolitionist Isabella Bomefee (later, Baumfree) was born a slave in Ulster County, New York, around 1797, where most of her 12 brothers and sisters were sold off. She then worked for her master, married, and watched in horror as most of her own offspring were taken and sold. In 1826 Baumfree escaped from her plantation and moved in with the Van Wagenen family, taking their name and working as a domestic until slavery was abolished the following year. Concurrently, she began experiencing religious visions and departed for New York City. There she took up residence with the family of preacher, Elijah Pierson, and commenced her own evangelical work by saving prostitutes. Around 1833 she began a close association with a religious fringe group called Kingdom of Matthias in Ossining, New York, and subsequently returned to New York in 1843. That year, while traveling and preaching on Long island, she experienced another religious conversion and began calling herself Sojourner Truth. This marked the beginning of her celebrated career as a charismatic evangelical speaker in her own right for Truth, over six feet tall and powerfully vocal, began a personal crusade on behalf of love, brotherhood, and temperance. She relocated to a communal village in Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1843, and there befriended abolitionists Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, and early feminist writer Olive Gilbert. In 1850 Gilbert wrote and published The Narrative of Sojourner Truth, which became a best seller and made the author a national

celebrity. The next year Truth attended and addressed a woman’s convention at Akron, Ohio, where she delivered her moving and poignant “Ain’t I a woman?” speech that captivated her audience. Truth by this time had also added abolitionism to her litany of personal crusades and she vocally supported both the Civil War and the raising of African-American regiments to wage it. She also continually addressed feminist gatherings and raised money for black soldiers through her busy lecturing schedule. In fact, one of her own sons served as a private in the famous 54th Massachusetts Infantry. In 1864 she was invited to the White House to meet with President Abraham Lincoln and also joined the National Freedmen’s Bureau to help assist newly liberated slaves assimilate into society. Noted abolitionist writer Harriet Beecher Stowe lauded her as the “Libyan Sybil” for her unceasing efforts to eliminate slavery. After the war Truth actively agitated for Congress to grant free land to former slaves out west, but she was ignored. She also took issue with her former friend Douglass and opposed the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Constitutional Amendments because women’s rights were still not addressed. Truth continued preaching religion and championing suffrage well into her advanced years until illness and infirmity forced her to retire to a sanatorium at Battle Creek, Michigan. She died there on November 26, 1883, receiving the largest funeral ever accorded an African-American woman.

September 29 Indians: Texas representatives Edward Terrant and George Terrell sign a peace accord with representatives of nine Indian tribes at Bird’s Fort, North Texas.

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October 16 Settlement: Secretary of State Abel P. Upshur informs Texas minister Isaac Van Zandt that the United States is interested in annexing the republic. When informed of the move, President Sam Houston declines for the time being, not wishing to be rejected in the senate by antislavery Northerners. He also desires to maintain Great Britain’s diplomatic and economic support.

November 9 Diplomacy: The United States and France conclude an extradition convention.

December 5 Naval: The USS Michigan, which is both the first all-iron and prefabricated warship, is assembled in sections at Erie, Pennsylvania. The vessel was constructed at Pittsburgh and transported overland to Lake Erie.

December 30 Education: Cumberland University is chartered at Lebanon, Tennessee, by the Presbyterians; the first class graduates this same year.

1844 Arts: Mathew Brady establishes his first daguerrotype studio in New York City, becoming the world’s first celebrated photographer. Literature: Ralph Waldo Emerson publishes his second series of Transcendentalist Essays, which prove popular and confirm his position as a noted writer and philosopher. Medical: The American Journal of Psychiatry begins publication as the first specialized medical publication. The Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane (today’s American Psychiatric Association) is also founded. Publishing: The Transcendentalist publication The Dial is suspended after 16 issues; it is nonetheless a landmark publication for printing works by noted writers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. Religion: The Baptist Church splits into northern and southern denominations over the issue of slavery. Amos Bronson Alcott, father of noted writer Louisa May Alcott, establishes a utopian community near Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Societal: The New York Prison Association arises to assist newly discharged prisoners in need because of their destitute condition.

January 15 Education: The University of Notre Dame is chartered at South Bend, Indiana, by Roman Catholics; its first class graduates in 1849.

January 16 Diplomacy: Secretary of State Abel P. Upshur assures Texas President Sam Houston that any treaty annexing Texas will pass by the necessary two-thirds vote.

February 15 Politics: At Nauvoo, Illinois, Mormon prophet Joseph Smith declares his candidacy for the presidency and prepares for a nationwide speaking tour.

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February 23 Education: The University of Mississippi is chartered by the state legislature at Oxford, Mississippi; its first class graduates in 1851.

February 28 Naval: An accidental cannon burst on the steam frigate USS Princeton kills Secretary of State Abel P. Upshur and Secretary of the Navy Thomas Gilmer among others.

March Exploring: Colonel John C. Frémont shepherds his expedition through the Sierra Nevada Mountains toward Sutter’s Fort in Sacramento, California.

March 6 Politics: John C. Calhoun is affirmed as the new secretary of state, replacing the recently deceased Abel P. Upshur.

March 21 Religion: Christ fails to reappear on this day as predicted by Adventist William Miller, so he revises his date to October 22.

March 22 Journalism: A letter by Andrew Jackson favoring annexation of Texas is published in the Richmond Enquirer.

March 27 Journalism: Samuel Bowles begins editing the Springfield Republican in Springfield, Massachusetts.

March 29 Naval: Uriah Philips Levy is the first person of Jewish extraction appointed a captain in the navy.

April Societal: German immigrants living at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, brew the first lager beer, a drink that gains in popularity throughout the region.

April 4 Religion: The agrarian/utopian Fouirerists sect meets in New York and elects George Ripley as their president.

April 12 Diplomacy: Secretary of State John C. Calhoun negotiates a treaty of annexation with the Texas minister in Washington, D.C. Once approved, it allows Texas to enter the Union as a territory, not a state.

April 18 Slavery: Secretary of State John C. Calhoun writes a letter to British minister Sir Richard Pakenham, strongly defending the institution of slavery.

April 22 Politics: A bill for the annexation of Texas, drawn up by Secretary of State John C. Calhoun, is submitted by President John Tyler to the Senate for ratification. It provides for the assumption of $10 million in Texas debts by the United States. He also warns of the risk of abolition should Great Britain be allowed to interfere with the process and seeks speedy passage.

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Chronology of American History

April 25 Medical: Dr. John Sappington publishes his Theory and Treatment of Fevers, being the first medical text to advocate the use of quinine for treating malaria.

April 27 Journalism: Presidential aspirants Martin Van Buren and Henry Clay publish letters opposing the contemplated annexation of Texas in the Washington Globe and the National Intelligencer, respectively, with negative effects for both. Van Buren’s stance induces Andrew Jackson to endorse James K. Polk, while Clay is branded as an opportunist for subsequently stating he would support annexation if it could be accomplished without a war.

May 1 Politics: Henry Clay becomes the Whig nominee for the presidency while Theodore Frelinghuysen of New Jersey get the vice presidential nod. The party platform remains silent as to the issues of the annexation of Texas and a national bank.

May 6–July 8 Religion: Violent clashes between Protestants and Catholic immigrants in Philadelphia result in 20 deaths and around 100 injured. This affair indicates the growing strength of the nativist movement in eastern cities.

May 24 Communications: Samuel F. B. Morse sends the first message “What hath God wrought!” over telegraph wires from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore, Maryland. Instantaneous communication over large areas is now technically feasible.

May 25 Technology: Stuart Perry of Newport, Rhode Island, receives a patent for one of the earliest gasoline-powered motors.

May 27–29 Politics: The Democratic nomination convention in Baltimore selects James K. Polk of Tennessee to run for the presidency and George M. Dallas of Pennsylvania for vice president after nine ballots. They run on a militant platform of annexing Texas and adopt the slogan “Fifty-Four Forty or Fight,” a reference to the proposed boundary of the Oregon Territory—even at the expense of war with Great Britain. Sitting president John Tyler is also nominated by a faction within the party, but his chances of winning are virtually nil.

June 8 Politics: The Texas Annexation Bill fails in the Senate on a vote of 35 to 16 for fear that creation of another slave state entails a political showdown between North and South. Many Northerners also view the document as a “slaveholder’s conspiracy.” President John Tyler now realizes he will never muster the necessary two-thirds vote in this polarized body, so he begins pushing for a joint congressional resolution which requires only a simple majority.

June 20 Business: Samuel F. B. Morse obtains a patent for his new telegraph.

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Chronology

Morse, Samuel F. B.

851

(1791–1872)

Inventor Samuel Finley Breese Morse was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on April 27, 1791, son of a Calvinist minister. He studied at the elite Phillips Academy in Andover before being admitted to Yale College. Here he displayed great talent as a portrait artist before marrying and settling in New York, where Morse helped establish the National Academy of Design in 1826. Previously, Morse had impressed noted artist Washington Allston, who invited him to study at his studio in England. He then visited that country repeatedly, and Morse was touring there in 1829 when he had a chance encounter with inventor Charles Thomas Jackson, who convinced him of the practicality of sending messages with electrical impulses—a notion that subsequently dominated Morse’s life. He then found work teaching art at New York University, plowing all his spare money and time into making electromagnetic communication a reality. After teaming with investors Alfred Vail and Leonard Gale in 1837, Morse finally invented a viable scheme for sending signals over a wire through a transmitter and a receiver. The mechanism also employed an ingenious series of dots and dashes, combinations of which represented numbers or letters, making it possible to decipher a message quickly. This system eventually became known as the Morse Code. All told it was a relatively simple solution to a very complex task, and it held immediate implications for the nation at large.

Morse’s device had many practical applications yet it was greeted with scepticism and generated very little enthusiasm. He initially proffered it to the government in 1837, but it displayed no interest. It was not until 1844 that Congress finally appropriated $30,000—a huge sum in those days—to string up a 40-mile telegraph line between Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, Maryland. On May 24, 1844, Morse typed out the cryptic message, “What hath God wrought?” and a communications revolution began. In fact, the telegraph indelibly impacted the course of American history as it accompanied the railroads west and, through the instantaneous delivery of messages, helped conquer vast distances. For the first time in history a network of wires could connect even the most remote frontier settlement with large urban centers on the East Coast, promoting a greater sense of national unity. Telegraphs were also extensively utilized by both sides in the Civil War, proving useful in communications and intelligence work. Morse went on to found the Magnetic Telegraph Company in 1845, although the company struggled and ultimately merged with the Western Union Corporation in 1856. Within a few years this relatively simple device was being employed throughout the world. Morse eventually retired to his home in Poughkeepsie, New York, to reap a fortune in licensing fees. He died there on April 2, 1872, having ushered in a revolution in global communications.

June 25 Politics: Rhode Island rebel leader Thomas W. Dorr is tried and sentenced to life imprisonment for treason; he is paroled a year later.

June 26 Societal: President John Tyler marries Julia Gardner in New York City; he is the first chief executive to exchange vows while in office.

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June 27 Religion: Mormon prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum are killed by a mob in the Carthage, Illinois, jail after being arrested for destroying the press of a dissident Mormon.

July 1 Politics: Henry Clay attempts straddling the fence over Texas annexation to attract Southern votes; the ploy costs him Northern votes instead.

July 3 Diplomacy: The United States concludes the Treaty of Wang Hiya with China, which opens five ports to trading and grants extraterritoriality rights to Americans working and living there.

July 29 Sports: The New York Yacht Club, the nation’s oldest, is founded in New York with steamboat magnate John Cox Stevens serving as its first commodore.

Young, Brigham

(1801–1877)

Mormon leader Brigham Young was born in Whitingham, Vermont, on June 1, 1801, into poverty. His family of devout Methodists subsequently relocated to New York, where he worked as a house painter. In 1832 the already religious Young encountered Mormon prophet Joseph Smith, and converted to his church. Three years later he was elevated to number three in the Quorum of Twelve Apostles, an indication of the trust Smith and other church elders placed in him. At this time Mormon communities were constantly on the move owing to overt hostility from other sects, and in 1835, when Smith was jailed and the church expelled from Missouri, it was Young who helped orchestrate the mass relocation to Nauvoo, Illinois. He also functioned as a charismatic recruiter for the church, so in 1839 Smith dispatched him to England where he met with considerable success. Young returned to Illinois two years later to gain appointment as the church’s fiscal agent and in 1844 had accepted Smith’s

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Brigham Young (Library of Congress)

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August 7 Exploring: Colonel John C. Frémont’s expedition reaches St. Louis, Missouri, after a lengthy trek from South Pass to the Great Salt Lake, the Oregon Country, and back home across the Sierra Nevada desert.

August 8 Religion: Mormons in Nauvoo, Illinois, elect Brigham Young to serve as their new church leader to replace the murdered Joseph Smith.

August 13 Women: A newly adopted constitution in New Jersey drops property qualifications to expand the franchise and also allows direct election of the governor. However, it also deprives women of their right to vote.

August 20 Politics: President John Tyler, although nominated by a faction within the Democratic Party, removes himself from the presidential race. His refusal to press for Texas annexation forces him to become the first chief executive not to seek a second term.

new emphasis on polygamy for church leaders, taking three wives. That year Smith also decided to run for the presidency and began touring the country. He was murdered by a mob at Carthage, Illinois, in July that year and Young hurried back from Boston to find the Mormon Church virtually leaderless and in a state of panic. Because he was such a well-known and trusted person, Young easily defeated several contenders to become the second president of the Church of Jesus Christ and the Latter Days Saints. Young’s first priority as president was to assure the safety of his followers, and he began canvassing western explorers for possible new venues of settlement. In 1846 he decided to move the entire Mormon community to the Great Salt Lake Basin (present-day Utah) and the following spring led a small group of pioneers to explore and lay the groundwork for the new state of Deseret (“Land of the Honeybee”). Young handled his charge capably and within a year 12,000 Mormon adherents had settled into their new theocracy. To these were

eventually added another 70,000 converts from Europe who ultimately established 357 churches throughout the region. After the Mexican War, in which the Mormons contributed a battalion of infantry, the U.S. government began organizing the territories, and the Mormons fell into the new jurisdiction of Utah. President Franklin Pierce recognized Young’s authority and appointed him territorial governor, but his successor, James Buchanan, did not agree, and he appointed non-Mormon authorities. This led to a brief outbreak of hostilities and army troops were dispatched to restore order in 1857–58. Young went into hiding but eventually accepted federal authorities. He then continued administering church matters with great success and in 1850 established the University of Deseret (today’s University of Utah). Young died in Salt Lake City on August 29, 1877, one of the wealthiest and most accomplished leaders in church history and recognized for conducting one of the great mass migrations of American history.

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September 19 General: William A. Burt, a government surveyor, was working on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan near Lake Superior when he noticed that his compass readings were inexplicably off by 87 degrees. Subsequent investigation discovers the Marquette iron range, one of the nation’s largest.

October 22 Religion: Much to the disappointment of Adventist William Miller, Christ fails to make his reappearance a second time, as predicted.

November 1 Politics: A convention meeting in Iowa City, Iowa, adopts a new constitution to facilitate statehood.

December 3 Politics: By a vote of 108–80, John Quincy Adams prevails upon the House of Representatives to rescind the gag rule forbidding discussion of antislavery petitions. President John Tyler also addresses Congress this day and formally requests the annexation of Texas through a joint resolution rather than a treaty. This maneuver requires a simple majority in both houses instead of two-thirds of the Senate.

December 4 Politics: James K. Polk, campaigning under the bellicose slogan “54–40 or Fight,” defeats Henry Clay for the presidency, winning largely on his expansionist appeals for the annexation of Texas, Oregon, and California. He is also the first dark-horse candidate to win the White House, having defeated the obvious frontrunner, Martin Van Buren who opposed annexation. Clay lost New York, and hence his best chance for the White House, due to the strong showing of James G. Birney’s abolitionist Liberty Party.

December 12 Politics: Sam Houston steps down as president of the Republic of Texas and is succeeded by Anson Jones.

1845 Arts: Social satire on the stage unfolds with Anna Cora Mowatt’s play Fashion, which deals with the social aspirations of a newly affluent family. Education: The Boston school system is the first to pioneer the practice of written examinations. Labor: George Henry Evans begins editing the Workingman’s Advocate, an early newspaper devoted to labor issues. The Industrial Congress of the United States, a pioneering labor organization, is founded in New York City. Although well-intentioned, initially, it is eventually dominated by Tammany politics and corrupted. Publishing: Colonel John C. Frémont writes and publishes The Report of the Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains in the Year 1842 and to Oregon and Northern California in the Years 1843–44, which makes him a national hero and elevates interest in the West. Moreover, the maps he incorporates in the text will guide a generation of settlers out West.

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This engraving shows Irish emigrants getting ready to leave famine-stricken Ireland for the United States. (Library of Congress)

Religion: The Methodist Episcopal Church splits into Northern and Southern conferences over the issue of slavery. Science: Alfred Beach establishes the periodical Scientific American, which continues today as a preeminent outlet for publication of scientific investigations. Societal: The Great Potato Famine begins in Ireland leading to a mass influx of 1.5 million. immigrants over the next few years. The Temple of Honor, a combination temperance society and Protestant fraternal order, is founded in New York City to promote abstinence and good moral behavior. Their ceremonies are marked by secret passwords and colorful costumes. Sports: The Knickerbockers, an early baseball team, is formed using modern rules established by Alexander J. Cartwright.

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Chronology of American History Transportation: The Rainbow, another of the sleek and beautiful American clipper ships, is launched at New York by John W. Griffiths. Their speed and efficiency in conveying cargo is establishing the United States as a major maritime power. Women: Pioneer feminist and transcendentalist Margaret Fuller publishes her landmark tome Woman in the Nineteenth Century, which urges members of her gender to be more independent.

January 23 Politics: Congress imposes a national election day for all presidential contests; they choose the first Tuesday of November in an election year.

January 25 Politics: The House of Representatives approves the annexation of Texas by a vote of 120 to 98.

January 29 Literature: In New York, Edgar Allan Poe publishes his collection The Raven and Other Poems, which garners him instant recognition as a unique and original writer.

February 1 Education: The Congress of the Republic of Texas grants a charter to the Texas Baptist Educational Society to establish a college at Independence (modern-day Baylor University).

February 3 Settlement: The House of Representatives approves a bill establishing a government in the Oregon Territory, including the disputed border region with Great

Poe, Edgar Allan

(1809–1849)

Writer Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston on January 19, 1809, the son of impoverished actors. His mother died during his infancy and his father abandoned his family, so he was raised by John Allan of Richmond, a wealthy benefactor. Poe briefly attended the University of Virginia in 1826 and dropped out on account of gambling. He then ventured to Boston in search of work and also published his first volume of poetry, Tamerlane and Other Poems, which garnered no attention. Poe then joined the U.S. Army as an artillery private, rising in this capacity to the rank of sergeant. Following the death of his foster mother in 1829, he quit the army and returned to Virginia and was again supported by his benefactor Allan. In 1830

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he gained admission at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, but had apparently lost interest in military life and was expelled for bad behavior. Listless Poe then drifted to Baltimore where his short story “MS. Found in a Bottle” won a competition sponsored by the Baltimore Saturday Visitor. He subsequently returned to Richmond to serve as editor of the Southern Literary Messenger, which profited through inclusion of short stories, poetry, and his notorious, scathing book reviews. In 1835 Poe married his 13-year-old cousin Virginia Clemm and began drinking heavily. He then lost his editorship and ventured back to New York in 1837 to publish short stories and edit various magazines. Here Poe composed

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Britain. However, it makes no provisions for the legal protection of slavery, which kills its chances for passage in the Senate.

February 20 Politics: President John Tyler vetoes a congressional bill to prevent the Treasury from paying for ships ordered by the administration.

February 27 Politics: The Senate approves a bill for the annexation of Texas, 27–25, with minor modifications by Senator Thomas Hart Benton.

February 28 Politics: Both houses of Congress pass a joint resolution for the annexation of Texas by a simple majority, a ploy which nullifies the Senate requirement of a two-thirds vote.

March 2 Settlement: President John Tyler signs the congressional joint resolution to allow the annexation of Texas, the first instance of this device used for acquiring new territory. Henceforth, Texas is to be admitted as a state, not a territory, and up to four new states can be carved from the general area.

March 3 Business: Congress passes the Postal Act, which reduces postage to five cents per half ounce for 300 miles and also confers subsidies to steamships carrying mail. Politics: Florida enters the union as the 27th state; slavery is lawful, to counterbalance Iowa, a free state.

several significant pieces, including “The Fall of the House of Usher,” which marked him as a distinct, if disturbing, writer. By 1841 he had advanced to the editorship of Graham’s Magazine and wrote “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” which was the first detective story. This was followed by another macabre tale, “The Masque of the Red Death,” after which he resumed drinking and was fired. After several more failed attempts at writing and editing, Poe composed his most famous poem, “The Raven,” which brought him instant recognition as an accomplished writer. He subsequently held down editorial positions with the New York Evening Mirror, the Broadway Journal, and Godey’s Lady’s Book, in which he wrote excoriating reviews of contemporary writers and

became highly unpopular with many literary circles. Poe himself sank deeper in depression and alcoholism following the death of his young wife in 1847, all the while penning several noteworthy poems including “Ulalume,” “El Dorado,” and others. However, financial and emotional security continued to elude him and he drank heavily. He was found lying on a Baltimore street, was taken to a hospital in a stupor, and died there on October 7, 1849. Given the misery associated with his life, Poe demonstrated a fascination for and a mastery of conveying disturbing, dreamlike images in his writing. His melancholy attracted French poet Charles Baudelaire, who carefully translated Poe’s work after his death and rendered him the first American writer to be admired in that country.

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Polk, James K. (1795–1849) President James Knox Polk was born in Mecklenberg County, North Carolina, on November 2, 1795, and raised in Tennessee. He graduated from the University of North Carolina with honors in 1818 and commenced a legal practice two years later. By this time Polk had established his credentials as an ardent supporter of Andrew Jackson, and in 1825 he was elected to the House of Representatives as a Democrat. As a politician, he was also disciplined and focused on issues he considered important, never wavering in pursuit of them. Polk thus flourished as a party leader over the next 14 years, and by 1835 he had risen to house speaker. In this capacity he strongly embraced Jackson’s fiscal policies and helped him attack the Bank of the United States. In 1839 he left Congress at the behest of the party and was elected governor of Tennessee, serving one term. Polk subsequently lost two gubernatorial races, then turned his attention back to national politics. Here he was a vocal proponent of the acquisition of the

President James K. Polk (Library of Congress)

Both houses of Congress override President John Tyler’s veto of a bill prohibiting the payment of naval vessels; this is also the first executive veto to be dispensed with in such manner.

March 4 Politics: James Knox Polk is inaugurated as the 11th president; his address proclaims the “clear and unquestionable” title to the Oregon Territory, and annexation of Texas remains strictly an American prerogative. George M. Dallas is also sworn in as vice president.

March 6 Diplomacy: General Juan Almonte, Mexican minister in Washington, D.C., is angered by President James K. Polk’s inaugural address relative to Texas and removes himself from the capitol.

March 10 Naval: Historian George Bancroft is appointed secretary of the navy by President James K. Polk.

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Oregon Territory and the annexation of Texas, positions he used to his advantage after President Martin Van Buren made known his opposition to the latter. Van Buren greatly angered Jackson and most of the Democrats, so in 1844 they made Polk the first dark horse candidate to win the party election at his expense. Polk went on to defeat the Whig candidate Henry Clay, whose last-minute endorsement of Texas annexation cost him thousands of antislavery votes in the North. He was now both the 11th president and, aged 49 years, also the youngest man to hold that office to date. Polk came to office with four major goals in mind: the annexation of Texas, the acquisition of Oregon, the possible purchase of California from Mexico, and a lowering of tariffs. After some intense saber-rattling and a campaign slogan of “Fifty Four Forty—or Fight!” he reached a compromise with Great Britain and peacefully divided the territory along the 49th parallel. He also accepted the annexation

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of Texas to the United States, which led to a break in diplomatic relations with Mexico. Polk then dispatched troops under General Zachary Taylor into the disputed region between the Nueces and Rio Grande River in Texas, the Mexicans attacked an American cavalry patrol, and war was declared on May 13, 1846. The ensuing conflict proved a rout, and by the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the United States paid Mexico $15 million for California, New Mexico, and Arizona. Previously, he also pushed the Walker Tariff Act through Congress in 1846, which lowered rates significantly. However, Polk’s very success cost him political support, for the acquisition of new territory revitalized the issue of slavery expansion and heightened abolitionist cries. Polk, a tireless worker, departed Washington, D.C., in 1849, in broken health. He died at Nashville, Tennessee, three months later on June 15, 1849, a highly effective chief executive but one whose very success in expansionism laid the groundwork for the Civil War.

March 28 Diplomacy: The government of Mexico severs relations with the United States upon learning of the congressional resolution for annexing Texas, and American minister Wilson Shannon is also ordered home.

May Exploring: Colonel John C. Frémont initiates his third expedition in the West with 60 armed men. This time he is to survey the central Rocky Mountains and the Great Salt Lake, but Frémont quickly becomes embroiled in California politics during the ensuing Mexican War.

May 14 Politics: A new constitution adopted by a state convention in Louisiana drops property qualifications for voting and also allows for direct election of the governor.

May 28 Military: President James K. Polk dispatches American forces under General Zachary Taylor into southwestern Texas to preclude any Mexican invasions. This

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Chronology of American History is despite the fact that, by the tenets of international law, the region remains Mexican territory. This provocative act is setting the stage for armed conflict.

June 4 Arts: Leonora, penned by William Henry Fry, becomes America’s first grand opera and is staged at the Chestnut Street Theater in Philadelphia at the author’s expense. Fry is also the first American to promote opera to the general public.

June 8 General: Andrew Jackson, War of 1812 hero and a very popular president, dies near Nashville, Tennessee.

June 15 Politics: Secretary of State James Buchanan assures the government of Texas of military protection once it agrees to the terms of annexation. To underscore this point, General Zachary Taylor is ordered to move his small army of 1,500 men to a point “on or near the Rio Grande” River.

June 23 Settlement: In a special session, the Texas Congress approves the move of annexation to the United States.

June 27 Politics: Rhode Island rebel Thomas W. Dorr, serving a life sentence for treason, is granted an amnesty by the state legislature.

July Political: As a sign of the times, John L. O’Sullivan, editor of the United States Magazine and Democratic Review, coins the term manifest destiny, denoting America’s apparent God-given right to control the destiny of North America.

July 1 Literature: Henry David Thoreau commences his celebrated and solitary sojourn at Walden Pond, Massachusetts. Through his writing it subsequently becomes the most celebrated communing with nature ever recorded.

July 4 Settlement: A Texas political convention held at San Philipe de Austin approves annexation terms; specifically, that Texas will not be divided into more than four new states and would also acquire statehood immediately with a transitional period from territorial status.

July 5–7 Politics: The first gathering of the Native American Party meets in Philadelphia with a handful of delegates from New York and Pennsylvania. As a rule they are anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant.

July 12 Diplomacy: Secretary of State James Buchanan seeks to end the Oregon Territory dispute by offering to settle on a boundary running along the 49th parallel. Sir Richard Pakenham, the British minister in Washington, D.C., declines to accept without first mentioning the offer to his government.

July 19 General: New York City suffers from another huge fire that destroys $6 million in property.

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July 31 Military: Bolstered to a strength of 3,500 men, General Zachary Taylor marches his army to the Nueces River and assumes defensive positions near Corpus Christi.

August 28 Slavery: Frederick Douglass, fearful of being kidnapped from the north and returned to his master in Maryland, emigrates to England where he will confer with English abolitionists.

September 23 Sports: In New York, the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club is founded.

August Societal: Martial law is declared in Delaware County, New York, after antipatroon rioting claims the life of a local sheriff.

October 10 Naval: Secretary of the Navy George Bancroft initiates the formal opening of the Naval School (U.S. Naval Academy after 1850) at Annapolis, Maryland. Captain James Buchanan, a vigorous, no-nonsense disciplinarian, is appointed its first superintendent, and he effectively lays the groundwork of the first graduating class in 1854.

October 13 Politics: Voters in Texas approve both annexation to the United States and a new state constitution.

October 17 Diplomacy: Thomas O. Larkin gains appointment as U.S. consul in Monterey, California. He is instructed by President James K. Polk to entice Californians into favoring annexation to preclude any chance of intervention by a foreign power. American minister John Black reports from Mexico City that the Mexican government would be willing to discuss the matter of Texas once American naval vessels are withdrawn from the Veracruz region.

November 10 Diplomacy: John Slidell is authorized to purchase Texas, New Mexico, and California from Mexico for up to $36 million. He also is to try to fix the Texas boundary at the Rio Grande River. The United States and Belgium conclude a treaty of commerce and navigation.

December 2 Politics: In his first address to Congress, President James K. Polk declares that all of North America, especially the Oregon Territory, is off-limits to European colonization. He also calls for an end to the joint occupation of that region, apparently intending to claim the entire region. His heightened version of the Monroe Doctrine becomes popularly regarded as the “Polk Doctrine.” Domestically, the president calls for tariff revision and an new independent treasury system.

December 16 Diplomacy: The Mexican government of President José Joaquin Herrera refuses to recognize special American minister John Slidell; Herrera is then overthrown by the Mexican military under Mariano Paredes y Arrillaga.

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December 27 Diplomacy: British minister Sir Richard Pakenham requests that the Americans reiterate their offer to establish the Oregon boundary along the 49th Parallel.

December 29 Politics: Texas is admitted to the Union as the 28th state; slavery is legal. The stage is now set for war with Mexico.

1846 Literature: Herman Melville acquires a literary reputation following publica-­ tion of his novel Typee, based upon his own experiences on exotic Pacific isles. However, the author never acquires a large following during his own lifetime, and he is not recognized for his literary genius until the 20th Century. Margaret Fuller, America’s foremost female editor and critic, publishes her Papers on Literature and Art. Politics: To discourage further outbreaks of anti-­rent rioting in New York, a new liberal constitution is adopted that substitutes perpetual leases with fee simple ones. Science: Swiss scientist Louis Agassiz, a leading authority on zoology and geology, arrives at Boston and eventually acquires a teaching position at Harvard College. Technology: The Eastern Exchange Hotel opens in Boston, being the first such public building heated by steam.

Melville, Herman

(1819–1891)

Writer Herman Melville was born in New York City on August 1, 1819, the son of a well-­ to-­do merchant. His father died bankrupt in 1832, forcing young Melville to quit the Albany Academy he was attending and work to support his family. Listless and unhappy as a youth, he served as a crew member on board a Liverpool-­bound packet ship in 1837, and in 1841 he slipped on board a whaling ship and headed for the South Seas. There he deserted his vessel during a port call at Nuka Hive in the Pacific and lived three years among the natives with a shipmate. He experienced several adven-­ tures on other ships and among cannibals, but in 1843 he sailed to Hawaii and enlisted in the U.S. Navy as a seaman. Melville then

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returned home on board the frigate USS United States in 1844. Once ashore he set-­ tled in at Lansingburg, New York, to take up writing. At first he drew upon his own expe-­ riences in the South Seas and used them as the background for his first two romantic novels, Typee (1846) and Omoo (1847), both of which were well received. His next maritime endeavor, Redburn (1849) was much more ambitious, using techniques of allegory while discussing political and religious issues, and it was a commercial failure. He followed up with a straightfor-­ ward adventure, White-Jacket (1850), an exposé of harsh and draconian life onboard an American man of war, again, based upon the author’s own experiences. The following

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Erastus Brigham Bigelow develops power looms capable of manufacturing intricate tapestries and carpets at his factory in Clinton, Massachusetts. Richard M. Hoe develops the first rotary printing press, capable of printing 8,000 newspapers an hour.

January Business: Statistician James DeBow edits and publishes The Commercial Review of the South and Southwest, or DeBow’s Review, which contains revealing insights as to the economic life of this region. It enjoys the largest circulation of any magazine in the South.

January 5 Politics: The House of Representatives adopts a resolution for ending joint Anglo-American occupation of the Oregon Territory.

January 12 Diplomacy: American envoy John Slidell’s report of his unsuccessful attempt to purchase territory from Mexico reaches President James K. Polk.

January 13 Military: President James K. Polk orders General Zachary Taylor to increase military pressure on the Mexican government by shifting his 3,500-man “Army of Observation” further south from the Nueces River to the left bank of the Rio Grande. This move is calculated to either induce negotiations or spark an armed conflict.

year Melville wrote what was to become his signature work, Moby-Dick (1851). This was another allegorical novel set against the background of whaling, and whose dark and foreboding themes are regarded as a psychological counterpoint to the open and cheerily optimistic of historical romantic jottings of the day. The book was not critically well-received at the time, owning to its complex and radically different nature, but it has since been accepted as an American masterpiece. Melville subsequently raised the ire of readers with his next novel, Pierre, another dark and disturbing tale with a violent ending. He tried to recoup his finances by contributing various short pieces to leading periodicals of the day, including Putnam’s Magazine. He then resorted to his usual

themes with a black comedy entitled The Confidence Man (1857), a set of stories narrating human gullibility and extortion, which failed to sell. Melville then withdrew from the commercial marketplace for contemplation and several European pilgrimages, in which he took inspiration from architecture and painting. In 1866 he accepted the position of inspector at the New York Customshouse, while he dabbled unsuccessfully in poetry. He was then deeply affected by the deaths of both his sons, quit the customshouse in 1885, and began work on a new maritime novel, Billy Budd. This was a tragedy whereby a single sailor is sacrificed for the benefit of all, but it was not published until 1924. Melville, a dark and disturbing genius, died in New York on September 28, 1891.

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January 27 Exploring: Colonel John C. Frémont reaches Monterey, California, with a small body of soldiers. This time, however, his “expedition” is not tasked with exploring but, rather, preparing the region for annexation.

February 3 Military: General Zachary Taylor receives orders to advance his army, now risen to 3,500 men, to the banks of the Rio Grande.

February 5 Education: The University of Lewisburg (today’s Bucknell University) is chartered at Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, by the Baptists; its first class graduates in 1851.

February 6 Diplomacy: In Mexico City, American minister John Slidell reports to superiors that the Mexican government under General Mariano Paredes is resolving to fight the United States out of the belief that Great Britain will also declare war over Oregon.

February 10 Religion: A mass migration of 12,000 Mormons from Nauvoo, Illinois, to Council Bluffs on the Missouri River begins in earnest. The exodus is conducted by Brigham Young, successor to the murdered Joseph Smith.

February 19 Politics: The Texas state government assembles in Austin for the first time, whereupon it officially transfers authority from itself to the U.S. government.

February 26 Diplomacy: Secretary of State James Buchanan informs U.S. Minister in London Alan McLane that he is to discuss the Oregon matter with his British opposites should they raise the issue of joint occupation.

March 3 Military: Mexican General José Castro, commanding at Monterey, California, orders the small force of Colonel John C. Frémont out of the region.

March 12 Diplomacy: General Mariano Paredes y Arrillaga, the new president of Mexico, also refuses to receive American envoy John Slidell, at which point he returns to Washington, D.C.

March 26 Education: Madison University (today’s Colgate University) is chartered in Hamilton, New York, by the Baptists.

March 27 Settlement: A bill to allow free homesteading is introduced by Representative Andre Johnson of Tennessee, but the measure is defeated.

March 28 Military: General Zachary Taylor occupies the left bank of the Rio Grande River, internationally recognized as Mexican territory, while Mexican forces at Matamoros directly across from them also commence building fortifications.

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April 10 Education: St. John’s College (Fordham University) is chartered in the Bronx, New York, by Roman Catholics; its first class graduates in 1846.

April 12 Military: Mexican General Pedro de Ampudia issues an ultimatum to General Zachary Taylor, insisting that he withdraw his forces back beyond the Nueces River lest a general engagement result.

April 13 Transportation: The Pennsylvania Railroad Company is created for the purpose of joining an existing track from Lancaster to Harrisburg as far west as Pittsburgh.

April 23 Diplomacy: The joint Anglo-American occupation of Oregon is ended by Congress, although provisions are made for a possible compromise.

April 25 Military: A force of 1,600 Mexican cavalry ambush a small American mounted patrol near the Rio Grande, killing 11 men, wounding five, and capturing 63. When informed, President James K. Polk uses the skirmish as a convenient pretext for war. Politics: Anticipating the worst, President James K. Polk begins writing his war message to Congress, citing Mexico’s refusal to receive envoy John Slidell and the government’s refusal to pay of claims by American citizens.

April 26 Military: General Zachary Taylor, in light of open hostility between Mexican and American forces, informs the government that “hostilities may now be considered as commenced.”

April 27 Diplomacy: A congressional resolution to end joint Anglo-American occupation of Oregon is signed by President James K. Polk. Moreover, the president now insists that a boundary be fixed along the 49th Parallel. Music: The high-powered Christy Minstrels open at Palmo’s Opera House in New York City; they are credited with bringing minstrelsy to its highest form as an entertainment art.

April 30 Military: A large Mexican army surges across the Rio Grande River, forcing American troops under General Zachary Taylor to fall back 10 miles to Point Isabel. From here Taylor intends to protect his base and lines of supply.

May Naval: President James K. Polk declares the coastline of Mexico, along both the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean, under a state of blockade.

May 3 Military: In a major escalation of military tensions, Mexican units bombard American-held Fort Taylor, directly opposite Matamoros, along the Rio Grande.

May 4 Law: The Michigan legislature abolishes capital punishment for the first time in American history.

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May 8 Military: The Battle of Palo Alto ensues when 2,000 American troops under General Zachary Taylor engage 4,000 Mexicans commanded by General Mariano Arista. Taylor clearly prevails in what develops into a protracted artillery duel lasting three hours and Arista withdraws to better positions at Resaca de la Palma. American losses are nine dead and 47 wounded to a Mexican tally of 320 killed and 380 wounded. Among the dead was the celebrated artillerist Major Samuel Ringgold, one of the earliest heroes of the Mexican War.

May 9 Military: The Battle of Resaca de la Palma is fought when General Zachary Taylor’s force of 2,000 Americans attacks a larger Mexican force in a combined cavalry and infantry assault. In a celebrated charge, Captain Charles May of the dragoons seizes both a Mexican battery and General Romulo Diaz la Vega. General Arista’s right flank gives way and the retreating Mexicans are then enfiladed by American artillery. Taylor’s losses are 33 killed and 89 injured to a Mexican tally of around 547 dead or wounded. Politics: When word of the April 25 skirmish between Mexican and American troops arrives in Washington, D. C., the cabinet of President James K. Polk votes unanimously to go to war.

May 11 Politics: In his war message to Congress, President James K. Polk accuses the Mexicans of invading to “shed American blood on American soil.” The House then votes 174 to 14 in favor of war.

May 12 Military: The Senate approves a declaration of war against Mexico, 40 to 2, and authorizes $10 million and up to 50,000 soldiers to fight it. However, its proves to be a divisive issue nationally, with Southerners supporting the conflict to gain additional slave states and Northerners opposing it.

May 13 Politics: The declaration of war against Mexico is signed by President James K. Polk. However, the decision is unpopular with many leading politicians; John Quincy Adams denounces it as “a most unrighteous war,” while John C. Calhoun, deploring a war of aggression, abstains from voting.

May 17–18 Military: American forces under General Zachary Taylor cross the Rio Grande River and occupy Matamoros.

May 21 Diplomacy: President James K. Polk gives the government of Great Britain one year’s notice for ending the joint occupation of the Oregon Territory.

June 3 Military: Colonel Stephen W. Kearny departs Fort Leavenworth, Kansas Territory, on an expedition against Santa Fe, New Mexico, and then California. There he is to be supported by naval forces under Commodore John D. Sloat, then stationed off the western coast of Mexico.

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Kearny, Stephen W.

(1794–1848)

General Stephen Watts Kearny was born in Newark, New Jersey, on August 30, 1794, and in 1810 he passed through Columbia College in New York. He was commissioned a lieutenant in the 13th Infantry shortly before the War of 1812 broke out, fighting bravely at the Bat-­ tle of Queenstown Heights. Wounded and captured, Kearny was exchanged in a few months but saw no additional combat. After the war he transferred over to the 2nd Infan-­ try and performed several years of garrison duty in Missouri. In 1819 Kearny accom-­ panied General Henry Atkinson on his famous steamboat foray up the Yellowstone River, initiating a 30-­year frontier career. In 1823 he advanced to major, helped direct the Second Yellowstone Expedition, and constructed the famous Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis in 1826. He then served at various posts in Wisconsin and the Indian Territory (Oklahoma) before becoming lieu-­ tenant colonel of the newly raised 1st Dra-­ goon Regiment in 1833. In this capacity he accompanied Colonel Henry Leavenworth on his ill-­fated Pawnee expedition of 1834 and assumed command when Leavenworth died of illness en route. Kearny rose to full colonel in 1836 and also penned an impor-­ tant tract, Carbine Manual, or Rules for the Exercise and Maneuvers of the U. S. Dragoons (1837). He then rose to command the Third Military District, a region encompass-­ ing most of the Great Plains, and in 1845 he shepherded a major expedition along the Oregon Trail to South Pass, securing it as a major conduit for western migration. His final peacetime activity was establishing Fort Kearney, Nebraska, in 1846. When the Mexican War commenced in 1846 Kearney rose to brigadier general in command of the so-­called Army of the West.

He was then tasked with conquering New Mexico and installing an American govern-­ ment there. This he accomplished on August 10, 1846, and then departed for California with 300 dragoons. En route he encoun-­ tered the noted scout Kit Carson, whom he ordered along, and learned that California had already been subdued by forces under Commodore Robert F. Stockton. Kearny then dismissed 200 of his men and pro-­ ceeded westward with only 100 dragoons. However, he arrived at Los Angeles to find the city up in arms against the invaders, and on December 2, 1846, his small force was nearly defeated by a larger force of Mexican lancers at the Battle of San Pascual. Kearny was severely wounded but eventually teamed (continues)

Stephen Watts Kearny (Library of Congress)

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(continued) up with Stockton to finally subdue the unruly inhabitants. After the victory, Kearny was directed by the government to establish a government, although Stockton had already done so on his own authority and appointed Colonel John C. Frémont as governor. When Frémont refused to step down Kearny had

him arrested and marched back to Fort Leavenworth to face charges of insubordination. Consequently, Frémont’s father-in-law, U.S. Senator Jesse Hart Benton, blocked Kearny’s well-deserved promotion to major general. He died suddenly of illness on October 31, 1848, a noted frontier figure.

June 6 Politics: To gather additional support for his war with Mexico, President James K. Polk submits a British treaty to the Senate for a speedy resolution of the Oregon issue. This delineates the border along the 40th Parallel to Puget Sound and thence through the Juan de Fuca Strait. In return, Polk agrees to lower the tariff on certain items.

June 10 Diplomacy: The United States and the German kingdom of Hanover conclude a treaty of commerce and navigation.

June 14 Settlement: American settlers under William B. Ide proclaim the Republic of California at Sonoma, assisted by a small group of soldiers under Colonel John C. Frémont. Because the design of their new flag incorporates a bear, this event becomes known as the Bear Flag Revolt.

June 15 Diplomacy: Secretary of State James Buchanan and British minister Sir Richard Pakenham sign an accord ending the dispute over Oregon. The 49th Parallel becomes the official boundary between the United States and Canada with some minor adjustments still to be made along the Strait of Juan de Fuca and southern Vancouver Island. This is a major diplomatic breakthrough that calms the ruffled waters between the two nations.

June 17 Education: Iowa College (today’s Grinnell College) is chartered in Davenport, Iowa, by Congregationalists; its first class graduates in 1854. Journalism: James Russell Lowell, a vocal opponent of the Mexican War, publishes his “Bigelow Papers” in the Boston Courier in protest.

June 18 Diplomacy: The Senate ratifies the Oregon Territory Treaty with Great Britain.

June 19 Sports: The first matched baseball game unfolds at Hoboken, New Jersey, when a club known simply as the New York Nine routs the Knickerbockers, 23 to 1. The rules had previously been established by Alexander J. Cartwright of the defeated team.

June 26 Business: English repeal of the Corn Laws leads to increased imports of American grain.

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July 5 Politics: Americans living in Sonoma, California, proclaim army explorer John C. Frémont as leader of the new “Republic of California.”

July 7–9 Naval: Commodore John D. Sloat captures Monterey, hoists the American flag, and claims California for the United States. Commander John B. Montgomery subsequently takes control of San Francisco.

July 20 Diplomacy: Commodore James Biddle arrives at Yedo (Tokyo) Bay and unsuccessfully tries to coax the Tokugawa shogunate into establishing diplomatic relations. This constitutes the first visit of American warships to the Land of the Rising Sun.

July 22–25 Military: Colonel Stephen W. Kearny, commanding the Army of the West, marches from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas Territory, to Bent’s Fort where the Santa Fe Trail and the Arkansas River meet.

July 23 Naval: Commodore Robert F. Stockton supersedes Commodore John D. Sloat as commander of American naval forces off the California coast.

July 24 Military: At Sonora, Colonel John C. Frémont accepts command of the California Battalion.

July 31 Business: President James K. Polk signs the Walker Tariff Bill, which lowers duties on several luxury goods.

August 2 Military: Colonel Stephen W. Kearny marches his Army of the West from Bent’s Fort into the deserts of New Mexico.

August 6 Business: Congress approves the In de pen dent Trea sury Act, recreating government-run subtreasuries across the nation. Settlement: A Wisconsin state government meets the approval of Congress.

August 8 Politics: Pennsylvania Representative David Wilmot appends the “Wilmot Proviso” to a $2 million appropriations bill for financing the war with Mexico. Drawing upon the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, this measure forbids the importation of slavery into any prospective territory acquired from Mexico. Its net effect is to pit Northern and Southern politicians against each other over this highly divisive issue.

August 10 General: The Smithsonian Institution is chartered in Washington, D.C., by Congress in honor of English scientist James Smithson, who left the institution $500,000 in 1829 for the dissemination of knowledge to society. American physicist Joseph Henry is appointed secretary general. It continues growing and supporting a number of scientific endeavors to present times.

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Chronology of American History Politics: Congress adjourns without passing the “Two Million Bill” and its attendant Wilmot Proviso. Slavery is thus permissible in new territories acquired from Mexico.

August 13 Naval: Commodore David F. Stockton joins forces with Colonel John C. Frémont in a campaign to seize Los Angeles.

August 17 Journalism: The first West Coast newspaper, the California, begins publishing at Monterey. Military: The Army of the West under Colonel Stephen W. Kearny occupies Las Vegas, New Mexico, and declares that region part of the United States. In his march Kearny has covered 1,000 miles of searing desert without the loss of a man or a single shot being fired.

August 16 Diplomacy: General Antonio López de Santa Anna, having reached an agreement with President James K. Polk for peace negotiations, is allowed to pass through the U.S. Navy blockade and lands at Veracruz.

August 17 Politics: Commodore Robert F. Stockton claims California for the United States—then declares himself acting governor.

August 18 Settlement: Having covered 800 miles of desert in an epic trek, Colonel Stephen W. Kearny occupies Santa Fe, New Mexico, and sets up a provisional government there.

August 19 Military: The American army under General Zachary Taylor departs Matamoros and marches for Monterrey, capital of Nuevo Leon state. He also declares an eight-week armistice.

September 10 Technology: A patent is issued to Elias Howe for the first sewing machine to employ an eye-point needle.

September 14 Military: Formerly disgraced General Antonio López de Santa Anna is appointed Mexican commander in chief.

September 20–25 Military: The Battle of Monterrey erupts as the 6,640-man army of General Zachary Taylor attacks 5,000 Mexican troops under General Pedro de Ampudia garrisoning the city. Intense house-to-house fighting is required before the Americans flush the defenders, including the heavily fortified Bishop’s Palace, at which point Ampudia requests and receives an armistice in exchange for departing the city. American losses are 120 dead and 33 injured to an estimated Mexican loss of 430, killed and wounded.

September 22–23 Politics: Colonel Stephen W. Kearny issues a law code for New Mexico and also appoints Charles Bent to serve as governor.

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Mexicans under Captain José Maria Flores revolt against American rule, seizing control of San Diego, Santa Barbara, and Los Angeles. Flores is then appointed acting governor.

September 25 Military: A column of American troops under Colonel Alexander W. Doniphan is detached from the Army of the West by Colonel Stephen W. Kearney and marches southward to join an army under General John E. Wool. Kearny himself then departs Santa Fe, New Mexico, and heads for California with 300 men.

October 6 Military: Colonel Stephen W. Kearny, en route to California, encounters noted scout Kit Carson, who informs him about the conquest of California. This news encourages Kearny to send 200 of his men back to Santa Fe, New Mexico, while he continues ahead with the remaining 100.

October 8 Military: At San Luis Potosi, Mexico, General Antonio López de Santa Anna drops his “understanding” with President James K. Polk regarding peace talks and begins rallying his dispirited forces to attack the American invaders.

October 13 Military: The War Department informs General Zachary Taylor that his suggested eight-week armistice has been disapproved.

October 16 Medical: Dr. William Thomas Morton, a Boston dentist, uses ether for the first time while performing dental surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital. The promise of painless surgery subsequently garners much national attention for anesthesia.

November 5 Politics: Commodore David Stockton receives orders from the Navy Department to recognize Colonel Stephen W. Kearny as governor of California, as well as commander in chief of American forces there.

November 15 Naval: American warships under Commodore David Connor attack and seize the Mexican city of Tampico on the Gulf Coast of Mexico.

November 16 Military: Saltillo, capital of Coahuilla, Mexico, is occupied by American forces under General Zachary Taylor without a shot being fired.

November 19 Politics: President James K. Polk, wary that General Zachary Taylor, a Whig, does not support his policies, wishes to deflate the latter’s political capital by consenting to an amphibious expedition against Veracruz by General Winfield Scott.

November 22 Military: General Zachary Taylor is informed by the government that the truce with Mexico is negated.

November 23 Military: General Winfield Scott is appointed commander of a large amphibious expedition intending to land on the Mexican coast and march overland to the capital of Mexico City.

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November 25 Military: An small American column under Colonel Stephen W. Kearny advances from New Mexico into California.

December Politics: Rather than pay taxes for what he considers an unjust war, poet Henry David Thoreau is arrested and spends a night in jail at Concord, Massachusetts.

December 6–10 Military: The Battle of San Pascual is waged between a force of 50 dragoons commanded by General Stephen W. Kearny and 200 lancers under Major Andreas Pico. The Americans rashly charge superior numbers and are handily repelled, although Pico does not use his manpower to any advantage. At length the Mexicans attack and withdraw several times until reinforcements arrive and the Americans keep the field with 30 percent losses.

December 12 Diplomacy: The United States and New Granada (Colombia) sign a treaty that affords the Americans transit rights across the Isthmus of Panama. New Granada is also assured of its sovereignty over the area. Military: American forces under Colonel Stephen W. Kearny occupy San Diego, California, then march northward toward Los Angeles.

December 14 Military: Colonel Alexander W. Doniphan and 1,000 volunteers from the Army of the West depart Santa Fe, New Mexico, and march south to Chihuahua to rendezvous with General John E. Wool.

December 25 Military: A column of American volunteers under Colonel Alexander W. Doniphan defeats 1,200 Mexican cavalry under Lieutenant Colonel Ponce de Léon at the Battle of Las Cruces, securing New Mexico for the United States.

December 27 Military: American forces under Colonel Alexander W. Doniphan defeat Mexican forces at El Brazito, then occupy the town of El Paso.

December 28 Politics: Iowa joins the Union as the 29th state with its capital at Iowa City; slavery is outlawed. Its admission balances off the previous addition of Florida, a slave state.

December 29 Military: General Zachary Taylor’s army occupies Victoria, capital of Tamaulipas state, Mexico.

1847 Arts: Robert Ball Hughes casts the first life-size bronze statute in America, a likeness of mathematician Nathaniel Bowditch, which is then placed over his grave in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Astor Place Opera House, with a seating capacity of 1,500, opens in New York City. It is the largest such building in America and hosts Verdi’s Ernani as its opening show.

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Business: Cyrus McCormick opens a new factory in Chicago to mass-produce his highly successful grain reapers. Labor: The New Hampshire legislature restricts the working day to 10 hours. Literature: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow writes and publishes Evangeline, a romantic, narrative poem of French settlers expelled from Acadia. Music: Noted songwriter Stephen Foster pens a catchy tune entitled “Oh, Susannah,” based upon African-American music he encountered at church meetings. Women: The cause of women’s rights advances slightly when the Vermont legislature allows them to keep full ownership of their property at the time of marriage; however, wives still require a husband’s permission in order to transfer ownership of their property.

January Military: A battalion of 300 Mormons, recently recruited in Utah, arrives in California to bolster the American garrison but does not see any fighting.

January 3 Military: General Winfield Scott, preparing for a major amphibious assault against Veracruz, Mexico, commandeers 9,000 soldiers from the army of General Zachary Taylor at Carmago in northern Mexico. Taylor, whose forces now consist of raw and unreliable volunteers, is then ordered to remain on the defensive at Monterrey.

January 8 Military: A force of sailors, U.S. Marines, and U.S. Dragoons under Commodore Robert F. Stockton and General Stephen W. Kearny engage a larger Mexican force of infantry and lancers at San Gabriel, California. The Americans form a square and beat back repeated cavalry attacks, then advance up nearby heights and drive off the enemy infantry.

January 10 Military: Newly promoted General Stephen W. Kearny captures Los Angeles from insurgents, ending active resistance to American rule.

January 13 Diplomacy: Mexican forces under Major Andreas Pico conclude the Treaty of Cahuenga with Colonel John C. Frémont, which formally brings fighting in California to an end. This concludes 25 years of Mexican rule and ushers in a period of American dominance.

January 14 Military: General Zachary Taylor receives new instructions from the War Department ordering him to maintain defensive positions while 9,000 of his best soldiers are siphoned off for a forthcoming amphibious expedition. He correctly deduces that Democrat President James K. Polk is determined to deflect his political mettle as a Whig presidential candidate.

January 16 Politics: Commodore Robert F. Stockton, still believing that he enjoys civil authority in California, appoints Colonel John C. Frémont as governor. This sets both men on a collision course with General Stephen W. Kearny, who also has orders making him governor.

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Chronology of American History The House of Representatives passes a bill authorizing a territorial government for Oregon, which also excludes slavery.

January 18 Education: Fort Wayne Female College (Taylor University) is chartered at Fort Wayne, Indiana, by the Methodists.

January 19 Military: Governor Charles Bent is killed at Taos, New Mexico, by insurgents.

January 22 Politics: General Zachary Taylor, a presidential aspirant, fears he is being unfavorably manipulated by President James K. Polk and criticizes the commander in chief in the New York Morning Express. Five days later he is reprimanded by Secretary of War William L. Marcy.

February 1 Publishing: Noah Webster’s Speller is the first title ever published in the Oregon Territory.

February 4 Military: Missouri troops under Colonel Sterling Price recapture Taos, New Mexico, from Mexican rebels.

February 5 Military: Defying the orders of both the government and General Winfield Scott, General Zachary Taylor marches west from Monterrey and toward Saltillo. His army then consists mostly of 5,000 raw volunteers stiffened by a handful of regular troops under General John E. Wool.

February 8 Politics: Supporters of President James K. Polk in the House of Representatives introduce a bill for $3 million for the possible acquisition of territory from Mexico. The final bill has a “Wilmot Proviso” outlawing slavery attached.

February 13 Politics: General Stephen W. Kearny receives orders to establish a government in Monterey, California, while Colonel John C. Frémont still considers himself governor at Los Angeles.

February 16 Education: The University of Louisiana (Tulane University) is founded as a state institution at New Orleans, Louisiana, and absorbs the Medical College of Louisiana.

February 18 Military: At Tampico, Mexico, General Winfield Scott establishes a civil administration for occupied territory and leaves most political matters in the hands of local officials. This is the first such system practiced by the United States.

February 19 General: A relief expedition finally rescues the Donner party, stranded in the Sierra Nevada Mountains all winter. Accusations of cannibalism emerge. Slavery: The Senate adopts the wartime appropriations bill—minus the Wilmot Proviso to exclude slavery from any territory acquired from Mexico. When the House subsequently approves the bill as written, the issue of slavery in the territo-

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ries remains unaddressed. However, John C. Calhoun introduces four resolutions to protect slavery as an institution no matter where it may be instituted—unofficially negating the Missouri Compromise of 1820. Moreover, Calhoun insists that the government has no business making laws which deprive states of their rights under the Constitution. His argument subsequently serves as the basis for secession in 1861.

February 22–23 Military: The Battle of Buena Vista is waged when 15,000 Mexican troops under General Antonio López de Santa Anna attack General Zachary Taylor’s force of 5,000 men, strongly arrayed on good defensive terrain. The enemy, exhausted after a 250-mile march through the desert, makes several strong but uncoordinated attacks upon Taylor’s lines and is beaten back piecemeal by the adroit tactics of General John E. Wool. A desperate charge by Colonel Jefferson Davis of the Mississippi Rifles also saves some American cannon from imminent capture. After two days of fighting, the demoralized Mexicans retreat to Mexico. This is Taylor’s finest hour; he suffers 264 dead and 450 wounded to a Mexican toll estimated at 2,000.

February 25 Education: The State University of Iowa (University of Iowa) is chartered by the state’s first general assembly; its first class graduates in 1858.

February 28 Military: The expedition of Colonel Alexander W. Doniphan defeats a Mexican force at Rio Sacramento and then occupies the city of Chihuahua.

March 1 Politics: The Senate accepts the “Three Million Bill” for the war with Mexico, although it drops the Wilmot Proviso; this version then passes the House on a vote of 115 to 81.

March 3 Business: The first adhesive-style postage stamps are approved by Congress; previously postage was paid in cash upon receipt of the mail. Settlement: The Senate tables the House version of the Oregon Bill, excluding slavery from the region. Technology: Congress approves funding to provide gas lighting of the Capitol grounds.

March 9 Military: The Battle of Veracruz unfolds when the army of General Winfield Scott, covered by American warships under Commodore David Conner, storms ashore at nearby Collado Beach with 10,000 men. Once a lodgement is secure, the American advance begins siege preparations to convince the large garrison of Castle San Juan de Ulua to surrender.

March 27 Military: The fortified city of Veracruz under General Juan José Landero surrenders 3,000 troops to American forces under General Winfield Scott, who has sustained a loss of only 13 dead and 55 wounded. The city subsequently serves as a vital supply base throughout the ensuing drive against Mexico City.

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April Military: With Veracruz to their rear, General Winfield Scott’s army of 9,000 men commence marching down the National Road toward Mexico City. The Americans depart hurriedly to beat the oncoming yellow fever season. Meanwhile General Antonio López de Santa Anna, desperate to save his capitol, musters every available soldier to stop the Americans.

April 15 Diplomacy: President James K. Polk appoints State Department veteran Nicholas P. Trist to negotiate a peaceful end to the Mexican War.

April 16 Religion: Brigham Young departs Council Bluffs on the Missouri River and marches with a small group of Mormons into the west, looking for a suitable place to settle.

April 17–18 Military: General Winfield Scott wins the Battle of Cerro Gordo by attacking 14,000 Mexican soldiers under General Antonio López de Santa Anna. In a series of slashing maneuvers the Americans inflict 1,100 casualties and seize 3,000 prisoners and 40 cannon at a cost of 64 dead and 350 wounded. The advance upon Mexico City resumes in earnest.

April 19 Medical: In Poughkeepsie, New York, James Smith invents and markets the first cough drops.

April 26 Communications: Samuel F. B. Morse founds the Magnetic Telegraph Company to commence telegraph service between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. Politics: The Mexican War is denounced as “wanton, unjust, and unconstitutional” by the Massachusetts legislature.

May 1 Science: Princeton Physicist Joseph Henry is appointed first director/secretary of the newly opened Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

May 7 Medical: The American Medical Association is organized in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, under Dr. Nathan Smith Davis.

May 31 Politics: General Stephen W. Kearny arrests Colonel John C. Frémont when he disobeys a direct order to step down as governor of California. Kearny then appoints Colonel Richard B. Mason to serve in his place before transporting the unruly Frémont back to Washington, D.C., to face a court martial.

June 6 Diplomacy: Nicholas P. Trist, chief clerk of the Department of State, begins peace negotiations with Mexico through British minister Charles Bankhead.

July 1 Business: The U.S. Post Office Department issues its first stamps in five- and tencent denominations with the likenesses of Benjamin Franklin and George Washington, respectively. These are also the first stamps to employ an adhesive backing.

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July 21–24 Settlement: Brigham Young and a small group of Mormon followers reach the Great Salt Lake in present-day Utah after an arduous trek from Council Bluffs, Iowa. The first wave consists of 143 men, three women, and two children. Young subsequently founds the state of Deseret with himself as governor.

July 26 Technology: A miniature electric train is built by Moses Gerrish of Dover, New Hampshire; this consists of two cars, one with the motor and batteries and one for passengers.

August 6 Military: General Winfield Scott’s army is reinforced at Puebla by troops under General Franklin Pierce. Thus augmented, the Americans launch their final drive against the Mexican capital.

August 19–20 Military: The army of General Winfield Scott edges closer to Mexico City by defeating General Antonio López de Santa Anna at Contreras and Churubusco. The Mexican position was very strong and included Irish-American deserters of the San Patricio Battalion. A stiff fight ensues for the deserters realize that capture means execution by hanging, but at length the Americans force the Mexican position. Scott’s losses are around 1,000 while Santa Anna sustains 3,000 killed and wounded. The advance upon Mexico City continues.

August 24 Diplomacy: Mexican and American armies observe the Armistice of Tacubaya while Nicholas P. Trist, chief clerk of the Department of State, engages Mexican officials in peace negotiations.

August 27 Diplomacy: Mexican and American emissaries begin peace negotiations but are slated for failure.

September Politics: The Native American Party convenes in Philadelphia and nominates General Zachary Taylor for the presidency and Henry A. S. Dearborn of Massachusetts to become vice president.

September 6 Diplomacy: The Armistice of Tacubaya fails after Mexican officials reject American peace proposals, which included the ceding of all land north of the Rio Grande River.

September 8 Military: The Battle of Molino del Rey unfolds as General Winfield Scott’s 8,000 troops attack and carry strong Mexican positions manned by 10,000 soldiers with artillery and cavalry. The initial charge by General William J. Worth is bloodily repulsed, but the Americans regroup and gradually force the defenders back. General Antonio López de Santa Anna suffers more than 2,000 casualties and 685 captured while Scott suffers 117 dead, 653 wounded, and 18 missing. Among the first American officers to enter the captured town is Lieutenant Ulysses S. Grant.

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September 11 Arts: The Thespian is the first theater to open in the Hawaiian Islands.

September 12–13 Military: The Battle of Chapultepec is waged as 8,000 men under General Winfield Scott attack a like number of Mexicans directed by General Antonio López de Santa Anna. Among the defenders are 60 military cadets, many who lose their lives and are enshrined as national heroes. The American carry the city after stiff fighting and lose 450 men killed and wounded; Mexican losses are around 1,800.

September 14 Military: The victorious army of General Winfield Scott occupies Mexico City after a brilliant campaign of maneuver. In England, the famous Duke of Wellington pronounces Scott “the greatest living soldier.”

September 16 Military: General Winfield Scott promulgates General Order No. 20, which establishes military rule through occupied Mexico. He eventually assesses Mexico $3 million to support the occupation. Politics: General Antonio López de Santa Anna resigns as president of Mexico and makes preparations to leave the country. His tenure in that capacity has proven disastrous to the nation.

October 1 Science: In Nantucket, Massachusetts, Maria Mitchell, a librarian and amateur astronomer, discovers a new comet. She is subsequently rewarded by a gold medal from the king of Denmark and membership within the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

November Politics: Members of the abolitionist-minded Liberty Party convene in New York and nominate John P. Hale of New Hampshire for president and Leicester King of Ohio for vice president.

November 16 Diplomacy: Peace commissioner Nicholas P. Trist is ordered back to Washington, D.C.

November 19 General: Steamboats Talisman and Tempest collide on the Ohio River, killing 100 passengers.

November 22 Diplomacy: American envoy Nicholas P. Trist learns that the new government of Mexico under Manuel de la Pena is ready to negotiate peace terms. General Antonio López de Santa Anna has since been dismissed as head of Mexican forces and fled. He also ignores the order for his recall. General: The steamship Phoenix catches fire and sinks on Lake Michigan, killing 200 Dutch immigrants.

November 26 Military: General Zachary Taylor leaves northern Mexico for the United States.

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November 29 Military: Marcus Whitman and 13 settlers are killed by Cayuse Indians at their mission in the Oregon Territory.

December 3 Journalism: Former slave Frederick Douglass begins editing and publishing the abolitionist newspaper North Star. Military: General Zachary Taylor arrives at New Orleans to thunderous applause. Rumors also abound that the conquering hero intends to parley his national popularity into a political career.

December 5 Religion: Brigham Young is formally elected president of the Mormon Church at Winter Quarters, Nebraska. Young, who is savvy at both business and politics, proves a fortuitous choice to replace the murdered Joseph Smith.

December 6 Politics: An obscure frontier lawyer named Abraham Lincoln takes his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

December 12 Diplomacy: The government of New Granada (Colombia) agrees to a treaty with the United States to guarantee the neutrality of the Panamanian isthmus. Both sides are fearful that a European power might seize the isthmus for their own use and build a canal.

December 14 Slavery: The notion of “popular sovereignty,” the ability of territorial legislatures to decide the question of slavery on their own, is introduced by Senator D. S. Dickinson of New York.

December 22 Politics: Abraham Lincoln, in his first address to the House of Representatives, denounces the outbreak and objectives of the Mexican War.

December 29 Politics: Presidential aspirant Lewis Cass of Michigan endorses the concept of “popular sovereignty” to allow territorial legislatures to decide whether or not to allow slavery. This approach allows skittish politicians to sidestep the emotional issue altogether.

1848 Labor: The first Chinese laborers to reach America, three men, disembark at San Francisco, California. Settlement: President James K. Polk offers to purchase Cuba from Spain for $100 million; he is politely refused. Slavery: The Vermont legislature passes a resolution that calls for outlawing slavery in the new territories and abolishing it in Washington, D.C. Societal: The Revolution of 1848 in Germany leads to a mass influx of German immigrants and political refugees into the United States. Women: In a major boost to women’s rights, the New York legislature grants women equal property rights.

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January 2 Diplomacy: Despite the fact that he has been ordered home, peace commissioner Nicholas P. Trist initiates peace negotiations with Mexican officials.

January 3 Education: Girard College is founded by financier Stephen Girard in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, who stipulates that only white orphaned males may enroll there.

January 10 Slavery: Illinois Senator Stephen A. Douglas introduces a resolution forbidding the introduction of slavery into the Oregon Territory until such a time that the local legislature deems otherwise.

January 24 Settlement: James W. Marshall, then building a sawmill in the American River near Sutter’s Fort, California, unearths a gold nugget. Word of his discovery triggers a wild stampede into the region by those seeking an easy fortune, better known as the “Gold Rush.”

January 31 Military: Colonel John C. Frémont is court-martialed for disobedience by General Stephen W. Kearny, found guilty, and cashiered from the military. President James K. Polk approves of the sentence but eventually restores him to duty. Upon further reflection, Frémont resigns his commission anyway to prospect for gold out West.

February 2 Diplomacy: American peace commissioner Nicholas P. Trist and Mexican officials conclude the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, ending the Mexican War. The Americans secure 500,000 square miles of new territory encompassing the new states of Texas, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado. In return the Mexicans receive $15 million in compensation and an addition $3.2 million in damage claims. The burgeoning republic is now a transcontinental world power stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, although heated conflict over the issue of slavery accelerates.

February 15 Arts: The play A Glance at New York by Benjamin Baker sets off a rage for theater productions depicting city life.

February 18 Military: General Winfield Scott retires as commander of American forces in Mexico.

March 1 Societal: John Humphreys Noyes establishes a utopian farming community called “Perfectionist” in Oneida, New York.

March 10 Diplomacy: The Senate ratifies the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo with a vote of 38 to 14 and also approves the wartime appropriations bill, minus the divisive Wilmot Proviso. Education: Augustinian College (Villanova University) is chartered at Villanova, Pennsylvania, by the Augustinian Fathers.

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March 15 Journalism: News of the discovery of gold in California first breaks in a San Francisco newspaper, but initially few readers actually notice.

March 23 Politics: Former president John Quincy Adams dies in the U.S. House of Representatives.

March 29 General: John Jacob Astor, one of America’s first entrepreneurs, dies in New York at the age of 84. At this time he has a net worth of $20 million and is the nation’s richest individual.

April Business: The Pacific Mail Steamship Company is formed to handle the increased traffic in mail to the West Coast.

April 24 Business: The Chicago Board of Trade becomes the nation’s first such institution to facilitate trade in agricultural products.

May Journalism: A group of six New York newspapers headed by Moses Beach agree to subsidize the cost of relaying foreign news by telegraph from Boston, the first port of call for most transatlantic vessels; this is the genesis of the Associated Press. Previously they had experimented with carrier pigeons to scoop competitors.

May 22–26 Politics: The Democrats’ national convention convenes in Baltimore to select Lewis Cass of Michigan as their candidate for the presidency and William O. Butler of Kentucky for the vice presidency. The party platform militates against any attempt to debate the slavery question in Congress.

May 29 Politics: Wisconsin joins the Union as the 30th state; slavery is outlawed.

May 31 General: The papers of former president James Madison are purchased for the Library of Congress.

June 2 Politics: The abolitionist Liberty League gathers in Rochester, New York, to nominate Gerrit Smith of that state for the presidency and Charles E. Foot of Michigan for the vice presidency.

June 3 Diplomacy: The United States concludes a treaty with the Republic of New Granada whereby the United States gains right of way to cross the Isthmus of Panama in exchange for guaranteeing the region’s neutrality.

June 7–9 Politics: The Whig Party convenes in Philadelphia to select General Zachary Taylor as its presidential candidate and Millard Fillmore of New York as vice president. Taylor’s success in the recent Mexican conflict and his reputation as “Old Rough and Ready” makes him a genuine national hero.

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June 12 Military: The American army ends its successful occupation of Mexico City.

June 13 Politics: Various labor organizations meet in Philadelphia and nominate Ger-­ rit Smith of New York and William S. Waitt of Illinois to serve as candidates for president and vice president, respectively.

June 22 Politics: A group of progressive, antislavery former DemoÂ�crats known as “Barn-­ burners” convenes at Utica, New York, selecting Martin Van Buren for president and Henry Dodge of Wisconsin for vice president.

June 27 Slavery: When Indiana Senator John D. Bright issues an amendment to the Oregon Bill that extends the line drawn for the Missouri Compromise through to the Pacific, it is immediately opposed by John C. Calhoun of South Carolina. He insists that neither Congress nor territorial legislatures can deny the constitu-­ tional right to own slaves. Technology: The first public use of air conditioning occurs at the Broadway Theater in New York City. This device, invented by J. E. Coffee, is powered by steam and pushes 3,000 feet of cool air per minute.

July 4 Architecture: The cornerstone for the Washington Monument is laid in Wash-­ ington, D.C.

July 18–19 Women: Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton orÂ�gaÂ�nize the first women’s rights convention at Wesleyan Methodist Church, Seneca Falls, New York. Reso-­ lutions are passed stipulating that women should enjoy equal rights, should be educated in the laws, and should be able to vote and speak in public without suffering indignities.

July 26 Education: The University of Wisconsin is chartered in Madison, Wisconsin, as a state institution; its first class graduates in 1854.

August 9 Politics: Diverse antislavery groups meeting in Buffalo, New York, form the new Free-Soil Party. They then nominate Martin Van Buren for the presidency with Charles Francis Adams of Massachusetts as vice president. As a group they are uniformly opposed to slavery or its expansion into new territory, and support internal improvements and free homesteads to settlers. Their slogan: “free soil, free speech, free labor, free men.”

August 10 Military: In New York, explosive bullets are patented by Walter Hunt.

August 14 Politics: A bill orÂ�gaÂ�nizÂ�ing the Oregon Â�Territory—without Â�slavery—is signed by President James K. Polk with the support of Southern legislators, apparently with the understanding that other regions may include the “peculiar institution.”

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Stanton, Elizabeth Cady (1815–1902) Feminist leader Elizabeth Cady was born in Johnstown, New York, on November 12, 1815, the daughter of a successful attorney and judge. Atten-­ tive as a child, she became distraught upon hearing her father repeatedly tell female clients that they had no rights to their own property or even their own children in the event of divorce. Early on she resolved to change this. Cady was well-­educated by con-­ temporary standards, having taught herself Greek and Latin, and subsequently attended Emma Willard’s Female Seminary in Troy, New York. As she matured she became increasingly drawn into social causes such as temperance and abolitionism. In 1839 she married abolitionist leader Henry Stanton, but only after insisting he strike the word obey from the traditional wedding vows. The following year the couple visited the World Anti-­Slavery Convention in London as delegates, and Stanton was furious when she was not allowed in on account of her gender. However, there she encountered the noted Quaker activist Lucretia Mott, and the two resolved to sponsor a convention for women’s rights once they returned to the United States. Stanton, fully preoccupied with raising several children, was unable to orchestrate such a gathering until 1848, when it met in her hometown of Seneca, New York. Forceful and determined, she penned the “Declaration of Sentiments” calling for women’s suffrage—the right to vote. This seminal event is considered the birth of American feminism which gathered greater momentum toward the end of the century. Stanton, an excellent writer and speaker, then lobbied New York legislators for reforms that would benefit women, and in 1860 women were granted guardianship of children and property in divorce cases.

The onset of the Civil War deepened Stanton’s resolve to support abolition, although she decried President Abraham Lincoln as too accommodating toward slavery. Afterward she stridently insisted that the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amend-­ ments to the U.S. Constitution, which extended freedom and voting rights to former African-­American slaves, also be extended to women. Stanton, however, had underestimated resistance to female suffrage and equal rights, especially in light of the Reconstruction period’s emphasis on black emancipation. Her unrelenting stance caused a split in the feminist movement with the more conservative-­minded Ameri-­ can Woman Suffrage Association declining (continues)

Elizabeth Cady Stanton (Library of Congress)

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(continued) to uphold the principle of equal rights. Yet Stanton, strongly supported by her friend and associate Susan B. Anthony, insisted on both, and in 1869 they founded the more radical National Woman Suffrage Association. The ensuing schism split the feminist movement for more than two decades, and it was not until 1890 that the breech was

mended. That year Stanton was elected president of the combined organizations, and she also found time to work on the Women’s Bible, which was edited to remove all derogatory references to women. Stanton died in New York on October 26, 1902, one of the most talented female leaders of her generation.

August 19 Journalism: The discovery of gold in California is first reported in the New York Herald, triggering a literal stampede to the West by hordes of ambitious fortune seekers.

August 24 General: More than 200 Americans die when the ship Ocean Monarch catches fire off Caernarvonshire, Wales.

September Science: Science in the United States receives a major boost through founding of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, jointly sponsored by a group of American and Canadian scientists.

November 1 Education: Reformer Samuel Gregory opens the Boston Female Medical School as the nation’s first medical institute for women; there are 12 students in the first class.

November 7 Politics: Whig candidate Zachary Taylor wins the presidential election with Millard Fillmore as his vice president, defeating their Democratic opposites Lewis Cass and William O. Butler. Taylor, though Southern-born and a slave owner himself, is not especially committed to the expansion of slavery into other areas. Furthermore, his quest has been facilitated by Free Soil candidate Martin Van Buren, who received 291,263 votes at the Democrats’ expense. This is also the first election simultaneously held in every state.

December 5 Societal: President James K. Polk authenticates the recent discovery of gold deposits in California, which further fans the flames of western migration in search of easy gains.

December 15 Diplomacy: The United States and Great Britain conclude a postal treaty in London.

December 22 Politics: Southern congressmen caucus in Congress on the issue of slavery and how best to protect it as an institution.

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1849 Arts: New York City hosts the Great Chinese Museum, depicting various aspects of everyday life in the Middle Kingdom. Business: The American Horologe Company, the first factory to build watches in America, is founded in Roxbury, Massachusetts. Medical: In Geneva, New York, Elizabeth Blackwell becomes the first female college student to receive a degree in medicine anywhere in the world. Publishing: Henry David Thoreau publishes his essay “Civil Disobedience” to justify his refusal to pay taxes to support the Mexican War. He also advocates an activist citizenry to protest government misbehavior. Transportation: The Pacific Railroad, intending to link St. Louis to Kansas City, is chartered. Stagecoach service commences between Independence, Missouri, and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

January Politics: A gathering of 69 Southern congressmen meets again in Washington, D.C., to discuss their grievances against the North and plan strategy. Publishing: The Lily, the first women’s rights journal, is published under the aegis of Amelia Bloomer. She also pioneers a loose set of clothing known as “Bloomers” to promote better health and movement, but they fail to catch on.

January 22 Politics: John C. Calhoun pens the “Address of Southern Delegates,” signed by 47 Southerners, which rails against Northern transgressions against the South with respect to the preservation of slavery.

February 7 Law: The Supreme Court disallows New York and Massachusetts from levying a tax upon newly entered aliens. Sports: Tom Hyer, the de facto American heavyweight boxing champion, defeats Englishman Yankee Sullivan by knocking him out. He then retires from the ring undefeated for want of a challenger.

February 13 Education: Otterbein University is chartered in Westerville, Ohio, by the United Brethren; its first class graduates in 1857.

February 27 Education: William Jewel College is chartered in Liberty, Missouri, by the Baptists; its first class graduates in 1855.

February 28 Societal: The vessel California drops anchor in San Francisco harbor, and the first wave of gold seekers clambers ashore. Others arrive from China and Australia, and by years’s end they are joined by 100,000 like-minded fortune hunters.

March 3 Business: Congress authorizes issuance of the gold dollar and the $20 Double Eagle coin. Politics: The Home Department is established by Congress for the purpose of establishing Indian policy, sale of public land, and assisting those who wish

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This 1849 print, The Way They Go to California, lampoons the rush to California by gold seekers, many of whom went to outlandish lengths to get there and stake a claim before the next person. (Library of Congress)

to develop their holdings out West. It eventually becomes known as the U. S. Department of the Interior.

March 4 Settlement: An act establishing the Minnesota Territory is signed by President James K. Polk.

March 5 Politics: Zachary Taylor is inaugurated as the second and final Whig president; Millard Fillmore is sworn in as vice president.

March 10 Slavery: The Missouri legislature votes in favor of “popular sovereignty” to decide the issue of slavery in the new territories.

April 12 Business: The first mail service from the Atlantic, overland across Panama, and then up the Pacific coast is achieved.

May 10 Arts: A riot ensues at the Astor Place Opera House in New York when British actor George Macready impugns his American audience for rudeness; 22 people die and 36 are wounded before the militia restores order.

May 17 General: More than 400 buildings and 27 steamships are destroyed or damaged by a fire in St. Louis, Missouri.

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Chronology   887

Taylor, Zachary (1784 –1850) Soldier, president Zachary Taylor was born in Montebello, Vir-­ ginia, on November 24, 1784, son of an army officer. He was raised on a plantation in Kentucky, joined the army in 1808, and distinguished himself in the War of 1812 at Fort Harrison and other occasions. He resigned briefly in 1815 but won reappoint-­ ment through President James Madison and served the next 21 years on the western fron-­ tier. In 1832 Taylor fought as a colonel in the Black Hawk War and five years later marched to Florida to fight against the Seminole. On December 25, 1837, he soundly defeated them at Okeechobee Swamp, winning pro-­ motion to brigadier general. By this time he had also acquired the colorful but appropriate nickname of “Old Rough and Ready.” In 1846 President James K. Polk ordered Taylor’s army to occupy part of Texas in anticipation of war with Mexico, and in 1846 he defeated Mexi-­ can armies in three successive battles at Palo Alto, Resaca de la Palma, and Monterrey. Tay-­ lor suspected that Polk and other Democrats were trying to derail his political ambitions when they stripped his army of soldiers for a new invasion by General Winfield Scott. Tay-­ lor then disregarded orders to remain on the defensive, advanced southward, and defeated a Mexican force four times his size at Buena Vista in February 1847. This victory made him a national hero and he began receiving serious consideration as a potential Whig candidate in the upcoming presidential election. Taylor, a slave-­owning nationalist, had never voted in a presidential election before and knew relatively little about politics, yet was viewed as potentially attractive to voters in both the North and South. The party convention that year confirmed this belief when he edged out better known contenders such as Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and Winfield Scott to win the nomination.

Fortunately for Taylor and the Whigs, the Democratic opposition had split into two warring factions with party regulars backing Lewis Cass while dissidents favored Martin Van Buren of the Free Soil Party. This feud allowed Taylor to win the essential state of New York and, with it, the White House. The garrulous old general was somewhat tactless in office and determined to remain aloof from partisanship and above politics. However, the nation was being riven by the prospect of extending slavery into territo-­ ries acquired from Mexico. Taylor, Southern himself and a slave owner, firmly opposed this and wished to allow California into the Union as a free state. Fellow Southerners dis-­ sented for it would upset the delicate balance (continues)

Zachary Taylor (Library of Congress)

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(continued) of power between free and slave states in the Senate, but whenever they mentioned secession Taylor threatened to hang anyone attempting it. He only reluctantly agreed to the “Compromise of 1850” allowing territorial legislatures to decide if they were to

permit slavery or not. His administration also oversaw the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty with Great Britain, for joint control of any canal built in Panama. Taylor died suddenly of illness in office on July 9, 1850, before his effectiveness was fully established.

June 15 General: Former president James K. Polk dies suddenly in Nashville, Tennessee.

July Slavery: Harriet Tubman escapes from slavery in Maryland and becomes an active member of the slowly forming “underground railroad.”

August 11 Politics: President Zachary Taylor forbids American citizens from participating in armed incursions, or filibusters, against Cuba.

September 1–October 13 Settlement: A constitutional convention meets at Monterey, California, at the behest of General Bennett Riley, and an antislavery provision is adopted.

November 4 Medical: Elizabeth Blackwell, who is blind in one eye, becomes the first female graduate of Geneva College, New York, with a medical degree.

November 13 Politics: A new constitution is approved by a constitutional convention in Monterey, California, and a formal application for statehood is made.

November 14 Engineering: The world’s longest suspension bridge opens for traffic across the Ohio River at Wheeling (West Virginia), Virginia.

November 22 Education: Austin College is chartered in Huntsville, Texas, by the Presbyterians; its first class graduates in 1850.

December 4 Politics: President Zachary Taylor asks Congress to allow California in as a new state. However, Southerners are riled at the prospect of creating another free state which will leave them in the minority. When Senator John C. Calhoun begins floating the idea of secession, Taylor warns any such attempt will be crushed even if he has to command troops in person.

December 22 Politics: As a sign of growing regionalism and partisan division, Georgian Howell Cobb is finally voted speaker of the House of Representatives after three weeks of turmoil and 63 ballots.

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December 20 Diplomacy: The United States and the kingdom of Hawaii conclude a treaty of friendship, navigation, and trade.

1850 Agriculture: In an attempt to control caterpillars, New York City imports eight pairs of EnÂ�glish sparrows which prove highly successful. Arts: Emanuel Leutze, an American expatriate artist living in Germany, renders his famous painting, “Washington Crossing the Delaware.” It is currently dis-­ played on the wall of the west staircase in the U.S. Â�House of Representatives. Business: At Â�mid-­century, the textile industry is the first manufacturing sector to achieve relatively large scale, nationally. The North boasts 564 factories, prin-­ cipally in New EnÂ�gland, while the South possesses 166. Moreover, the Northern establishments rely heavily upon a mostly female workforce. Journalism: The Weekly Oregonian (Portland) and the Deseret News (Salt Lake City) are the first newspapers published in the far west. Literature: Nathaniel Hawthorne publishes The Scarlet Letter, and it becomes an immediate best seller for touching upon the long suppressed subject of adul-­ tery. More than 4,000 copies sell in the first 10 days. Herman Melville publishes White-Jacket, which graphically describes the harsh treatment endured by sailors onboard U.S. warships. Music: American composer and pianist Louis Moreau Gottschalk tours France and Switzerland with positive reviews. Politics: Tammany Hall, long a force in New York City politics, reaches new heights of influence under the aegis of Fernando Wood. He institutes charitable serÂ�vices for poor immigrants who then support this growing poÂ�litiÂ�cal machine. Population: The new census reveals a population of 23.2 million residents. Publishing: Harper’s Monthly Magazine begins publishing in New York City, intending to bring condensed versions of great literary masterpieces to its Ameri-­ can readership. Photographer Mathew Brady breaks new artistic ground by publishing his compilation Illustrious Americans. Societal: Â�Anti-­Catholic biases manifest in the newly founded Supreme Order of the Star Spangled Banner, which subsequently serves as a progenitor of the Â�antiÂ�immigrant Â�Know-­Nothing Party. Technology: John E. Heath invents the first agricultural binder for tying grain. Transportation: The first federal land grant specifically granted for railroad construction is awarded to a proposed line running from Chicago, Illinois, to Mobile, Alabama. The American clipper ship Stag Hound, designed by noted shipwright Donald McKay, sets a speed record of 13 days from Boston to the equator. McKay goes on to build some of the fastest vessels of his age.

January 2 Diplomacy: The United States concludes its first commercial treaty with El Salvador.

January 29 Politics: Henry Clay, still striving to preserve the Â�Union from secession and armed conflict, returns to the Senate after a Â�seven-­year hiatus. He then issues a

1850

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Chronology of American History

McKay, Donald

(1810–1880)

Shipwright Donald McKay was born in Nova Scotia, Canada, on September 4, 1810, the son of farmers. In 1827 he relocated to study the art of shipbuilding in New York and worked as an apprentice shipwright at the firm of Isaac Webb. His good performance attracted the attention of another shipbuilder, William Currier, who induced McKay to move to Wiscasset, Maine, and Newburyport, Massachusetts, and ply his trade. He did so in 1841 and proved so successful that he was able to form a partnership with William Pickett to construct packet ships. His designs proved both beautiful and functional, so in 1845 he was invited by noted merchant Enoch Train to move again to East Boston and construct vessels for his forthcoming Boston-to-Liverpool packet line. Bewteen 1845 and 1853 McKay designed and constructed no less than 49 packet ships for Train and other maritime concerns. His ships universally won plaudits for their handsome lines, rugged construction, and speeds that were usually higher than rival designs. However, the discovery of gold in California and Australia, combined with the opening of new markets in Japan and China, required a new class of vessels that were both larger and faster than the contemporary packets. This new emphasis on speed gave rise to an entirely new school of design, the magnificent clipper ship, which would dominate seaborne commerce for several decades. In time McKay proved himself to be the world’s greatest designer of clippers. He constructed his first vessel, the Stag Hound,

in 1850, and it was a radical departure from commercial vessels extant. Long, low, with raking lines, it sported very tall masts and very wide canvass sails by contemporary standards. Stag Hound was thus not only larger than its competitors but also much faster even when fully loaded. McKay’s most famous design, the Flying Cloud, was another beautiful example of the shipwright’s art. Huge at 1,800 tons, it was nonetheless the fastest clipper ever built and established a world speed record of only 89 days between New York, around Cape Horn, and thence to San Francisco. His follow-on design, Sovereign of the Seas, was not as speedy but much larger at 2,421 tons and mounting masts 93 feet high that carried 12,000 square feet of canvas. McKay’s masterpiece, the Great Republic, was larger still, displacing 4,500 tons and boasting four huge masts. However, this vessel caught fire and burned while under construction and McKay incurred great financial loss. The emergence of new steamships meant that the heyday of clipper ships had ended, and he visited England in order to study steam propulsion. There he became convinced of the superiority of ironclad, steam driven warships and came home to construct several for the U.S. Navy during the Civil War. McKay died at Hamilton, Massachusetts, on September 20, 1880, having constructed some of the most lovely, legendary vessels in maritime history. The last sailing ship he constructed, Glory of the Seas, remained in active service until 1923.

series of resolutions known as the Compromise of 1850. Through them California is admitted into the Union as a free state, based on the free will of the population, although with the understanding that all territory acquired from Mexico is subject to the same conditions.

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February 5–6 Politics: Deliberation intensifies over Henry Clay’s proposed Compromise of 1850, with an ailing John C. Calhoun insisting that the North “cease agitation of the slavery question.” Clay, meanwhile, warns the South not to seek secession as a solution to their problems.

February 22 General: The Library of Congress purchases the manuscript of George Washington’s Farewell Address.

March 4 Politics: In his final appearance in the U.S. Senate, ailing John C. Calhoun is too weak to read an address so it is presented by a colleague. In it he attacks Henry Clay’s recent compromise for failing to provide the South with guarantees. Societal: The home of Wisconsin politician John B. Smith is destroyed by a mob angered by his legislation taxing whiskey and beer.

March 7 Politics: Daniel Webster, a longtime opponent of Clay and a strident opponent of slavery, agrees that to preserve the Union, Northerners must accept that “peculiar institution” for the time being. This causes a decided downturn in his popularity and occasions some righteous indignation from noted poet John Greenleaf Whittier.

March 11 Education: The Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, the first such institution designated for females, is incorporated in Philadelphia.

March 12 Politics: California formally applies for statehood.

March 31 Politics: John C. Calhoun, the “Cast Iron Man” of South Carolina and a formidable spokesman-philosopher of the South, dies at 69.

April 19 Diplomacy: The United States and Great Britain conclude the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, pledging that any canal across Panama will be neutral, no attempt will be made to control Central American countries, and both countries are sworn to help defend it.

April 27 Transportation: The Collins Line, an American concern, embarks on head-tohead competition with the famous British Cunard Line with the launching of its new steamship liner Atlantic.

May 8 Politics: After much haggling, Henry Clay’s Compromise of 1850 becomes two compromise bills; the first covers the territories while the second outlaws the slave trade in the District of Columbia.

May 25 Settlement: The inhabitants of New Mexico begin forming their own state government, which does not include provisions for slavery, despite Congressional nonaction.

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Chronology of American History

June 3 Indian: Settlers in Oregon hang five Cayuse Indians accused of perpetrating the massacre of the Whitman party; this is the first use of capital punishment in the territory.

June 3–12 Slavery: Southern leaders convene in Nashville, Tennessee, for a conference on slavery and state’s rights. Secession is openly advocated by some delegates, but in the end the moderates prevail and only modest resolutions are passed. Among them is the suggestion that slavery be continued as far as the Pacific along lines established by the Missouri Compromise.

June 17 General: The steamship Griffith catches fire on Lake Erie, killing 300 passengers.

July 1 Business: Monthly overland mail service is initiated between Independence, Missouri, and Salt Lake City, Utah.

July 8 Religion: The Mormon colony on Beaver Island, Lake Michigan, crowns James Jesse Starng as its king; continuing tension with mainlanders in 1856 leads to the colony’s disbandment. Settlement: To date 42,300 immigrants have passed through Fort Laramie, Wyoming, en route to California in search of easy fortune.

July 9–10 General: President Zachary Taylor dies of cholera and is succeeded by Millard Fillmore.

July 25 Settlement: The discovery of gold along the Rogue River, Oregon, provides impetus to a new wave of fortune seekers.

May 22 Exploring: Lieutenant Edwin Jesse De Haven takes the ships Advancer and Rescue from New York on an Arctic expedition to locate the lost British explorer Sir John Franklin, missing since 1845. The effort is underwritten by Henry Grinnell, a wealthy New York merchant and philanthropist.

August 21 Transportation: The Collin Line transport steamer Atlantic sets a new transatlantic record by reaching Liverpool in only 10 days, four and a half hours.

September Politics: A Whig convention held at Syracuse, New York, is divided over the Compromise of 1850, which leads Francis Granger and his conservative element to gradually take control.

September 6–17 Politics: Congress passes five bills largely inspired by Henry Clay’s Compromise of 1850; California gains admittance as a free state, slavery in Utah and New Mexico remains unrestricted, Texas is reimbursed $10 million for land lost to New Mexico, the slave trade is abolished in the District of Columbia, and a strengthened Fugitive Slave Act is adopted. All five bills are signed into law by

1850

Chronology   893

Fillmore, Millard

(1800–1874)

President Millard Fillmore was born in Cayuga, New York, on January 7, 1800, the son of impoverished farmers. While helping on the family farm he studied law and was admitted to the state bar in 1823. In this capacity Fillmore befriended influential editor Thurlow Weed and joined the Anti-­ Masonic Party in 1828, gaining election to the state legislature. His most notable accomplishment there was abolition of imprisonment for debt. In 1833 Fillmore was elected to the first of three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served intermittently until 1843. He also left the Anti-­Masonic Party and joined the new Whigs to counter the policies of President Andrew Jackson. In this capacity he became a close ally of Speaker Henry Clay, although in 1844 Fillmore lost the presidential party nomination along with a race for the New York governorship. Undaunted, he employed Clay’s support to become the Whig vice-­presidential candi-­ date with Zachary Taylor in the victorious 1848 election. The following spring he was sworn into office and, while largely margin-­ alized by Taylor, made clear his opposition to Taylor’s rigid stance against extending slavery into the territories. However, fur-­ ther disagreement between the two leaders ended following Taylor’s death in office on July 9, 1850, and Fillmore took his oath as the 13th president. Thus situated, he broke ranks with the radical abolitionist Whigs such as Weed and New York Senator Wil-­ liam H. Seward and joined forces with moderates such as Daniel Webster, whom he appointed secretary of state. The Fillmore administration was a marked departure in policy from that of his predecessor, James K. Polk. Whereas Polk was strongly expansionist, Fillmore

sought to avoid conflict and placed a pre-­ mium on cooperation and preservation of the Union. To this end he readily agreed to sign Clay’s Omnibus Bill—the “Compromise of 1850”—which included the notorious Fugitive Slave Act. For this he was roundly condemned by Whigs and Northerners, but his strong enforcement placated Southern-­ ers at a critical juncture of national history. Fillmore, while he did not approve of slav-­ ery, felt it was a necessary evil and had to be enforced to gain Southern compliance on other pressing issues. Perhaps his most significant accomplishment was the dis-­ patching of a naval squadron under Com-­ modore Matthew C. Perry in 1854 which opened up the cloistered government of Japan for the first time in nearly 300 years. However, Fillmore’s decision to strongly (continues)

Millard Fillmore (Library of Congress)

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(continued) enforce the Fugitive Slave Act created anger in the North and cost him the party nomination in 1856. He therefore ran for re-election with the nativist Know-Nothing Party, appealed for national unity, and finished third behind James Buchanan and John C.

Frémont. Fillmore then returned to Buffalo, New York, where he helped found the University of Buffalo, an academy of arts, and a historical society. He died there on March 8, 1874, still defending his attempts to keep the country intact despite the row over slavery.

President Millard Fillmore. The Fugitive Slave Act , in particular, rapidly escalates the bitterness and acrimony between slave owners and abolitionists.

September 12 Arts: In a major coup for promoter P. T. Barnum, noted soprano Jenny Lind, the “Swedish Nightingale,” successfully debuts at the Castle Garden in New York City. Barnum is charging up to $1,000 for tickets and has booked Lind for 150 sold-out shows.

September 20 Transportation: Senator Stephen A. Douglas successfully lobbies for a federal land grant to build a rail line from Chicago, Illinois, to Mobile, Alabama. This is the first land grant of its kind.

September 27 Arts: Edwin Booth, a great American actor of the 19th century, debuts in New York at the age of 16; his brother John Wilkes Booth, gains notoriety as President Abraham Lincoln’s assassin.

September 28 Naval: Flogging is banned from the U.S. Navy and merchant marine as a form of punishment. However, corporal punishment is still routinely administered in schools to keep students in line. Politics: President Millard Fillmore appoints Mormon leader Brigham Young to serve as territorial governor of Utah.

October 21 Slavery: In Chicago, Illinois, a city council refuses to endorse the new Fugitive Slave Act.

October 23–24 Women: The first national women’s rights convention is held in Worcester, Massachusetts (the first women’s convention of any kind was held at Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848). More than 1,000 delegates from 11 states are in attendance, and they approve plans to create political and educational committees.

November 11–18 Politics: Southern politicians meet again in Nashville, Tennessee, where secession from the Union is openly discussed. However, moderate states like Georgia seek to remain in the Union provided the recent compromise is not violated.

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895

December 13–14 Politics: A Georgia state convention declares its willingness to remain in the Union but will, in fact, secede if Northern states do not honor the Compromise of 1850.

December 21 Diplomacy: Chargé d’affaires Chevalier Hulseman writes a letter to Secretary of State Daniel Webster protesting American aid being sent to rebels in Hungary during the 1848 uprising against Austria and Russia. Webster responds that the United States has a vested interest in European revolutions, particularly those invoking the same principles upon which America was founded.

1851 Architecture: Designer Thomas W. Walter is commissioned to enlarge the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., and he adds new wings in the Greek revival style, even through it has run its course and is considered passé. Journalism: Horace Greeley publishes Karl Marx’s Revolution and Counter Revolution as a serial in the New York Tribune. John B. L. Soule, editor of the Terre Haute Express, prints an editorial entitled “Go West Young Man.” When Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune, prints the column in full, he becomes indelibly associated with the slogan. However, as he always insisted, it originated with Soule. Literature: Herman Melville publishes his novel Moby-Dick, a quintessential American masterpiece relating the struggle of man against nature, good against evil. It remains one of literature’s greatest accomplishments. However, it is little understood by contemporaries and fares badly at the hands of reviewers. Nathaniel Hawthorne publishes The House of Seven Gables, which centers around a curse leveled against a house during the Salem witch trials. Music: Stephen Foster’s catchy song “Old Folks at Home” (Swanee River) becomes a sentimental favorite in America and Europe. Politics: Sixty American delegates attend a Europe an peace conference in London. American concert pianist Louis Moreau Gottschalk tours Spain giving performances and is favorably received. Publishing: Historian Francis Parkman publishes the first installment of his epic work on the French and Indian War, The Conspiracy of Pontiac. Religion: The Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) is founded in Cleveland, Ohio, the outgrowth of informal Bible meetings by groups of young men. Slavery: The Supreme Court decides the case of Strader v. Graham, ruling that slaves returning to Kentucky via Ohio are still subject to Kentucky laws. Abolitionist Frederick Douglass splits with William Lloyd Garrison over the strategy to deal with slavery; Douglass wants to preserve the Union and end slavery directly while Garrison wishes to dissolve the Union and have free states distance themselves from slave-owning ones. Societal: The Asylum for Friendless Boys is founded in New York to provide care for abused, neglected, or exploited children; this is the first serious challenge to a father’s supremacy in determining child welfare. The ongoing potato famine leads to a record 250,000 Irish immigrants to America.

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Greeley, Horace

(1811–1872)

Journalist Horace Greeley was born in Amherst, New Hampshire, on February 3, 1811, into a poor household. His education proved scanty, but early on he developed what became a lifelong passion for journalism and in 1826 Greeley served as an printer’s apprentice. He relocated to New York City in 1831 seeking full-time work, functioned capably as a journalist, and by 1834 was able to found his own publication, the New York. He also became politically active and in 1838 began contributing essays and editorials to the Daily Whig. Greeley acquired the reputation as an effective, opinionated, and hard-hitting editor, so in 1840 Thurlow Weed appointed him editor in chief of the Log Cabin, a successful political newspaper that did much to promote the presidential campaign of William Henry Harrison. A year later Greeley founded his most important paper, the New York Tribune, with himself as editor in chief. In it he filled the pages with a zeal for social, moral, and political reform on a variety of contemporary issues. Foremost among these was abolition, for which he excoriated North and South alike for their complicity in perpetuating what he considered pure evil. Greeley, however, proved not so selective in the stances he championed, and he invariably allowed free space for the socialist-oriented Fourierists and even regularly corresponded with German revolutionary Karl Marx. Nonetheless, the New York Tribune set new and high standards for journalism, principally through such talented

writers as Charles A. Dana and woman’s suffrage champion Margaret Fuller. With the approach of the Civil War, Greeley waxed highly indignant over political expedients such as the Compromise of 1850 and the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. He also championed the free soil movement along the frontier, and his slogan “Go West young man” epitomized his belief in the democraticizing opportunities of that region. In 1854 Greeley finally broke with the dying Whigs and was a charter member of the new Republican Party with their uncompromising stand against slavery. However, Greeley proved lukewarm in his endorsement of Abraham Lincoln for president, owing to the latter’s intention to restrict slavery, not end it, and in 1864 he only supported the president’s reelection at the last minute. That year he also conducted a one-man peace mission to the Confederate capital in an attempt to reach a negotiated settlement. Greeley’s postwar stances on a variety of issues also proved controversial and cost him many readers. In 1867 he sought to promote national reconciliation by signing a bail bond for imprisoned Confederate president Jefferson Davis and he also advocated a full civil rights agenda for newly freed African Americans. In 1872 he also ran for the presidency as a Democrat and was soundly trounced by Ulysses S. Grant. Greeley died at Pleasantville, New York, on November 29, 1872, the most effective journalist and newspaper editor of his generation.

Technology: Dr. William P. Channing and Moses Gerrish install the first American electric fire alarm in Boston

January 23 Settlement: The name Portland, Oregon, is chosen for a newly incorporated city on the basis of a coin toss; the other contending name was Boston.

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January 28 Education: North Western University (Northwestern University) is chartered in Evanston, Illinois, by the Methodists; the first class enters in 1855.

January 29 Education: Brockway College (modern Ripon College) is chartered in Ripon, Wisconsin, by Congregationalists and Presbyterians; the first class graduates in 1867.

February 1 Diplomacy: France drops demands that the Hawaiian Islands pay homage to France once the latter submits to American protection.

February 13 Education: The University of Minnesota is chartered by the territorial legislature, but classes will not commence until 1869. Heidelberg College is chartered in Tiffin, Ohio, by the German Reformed Church; the first class graduates in 1854.

February 15 Slavery: A mob of angry African Americans rescues Shadrack, an escaped slave, from a Boston jail in defiance of the new Fugitive Slave Act. The new law is the source of much bitterness in the North and widens the growing rift with the South.

February 18 Education: Westminister College is chartered in Fulton, Missouri, by Presbyterians; its first class graduates in 1855. Slavery: President Millard Fillmore cautions citizens of the North to obey the new Fugitive Slave Law, even though emotions and resistance are running high.

March 3 Business: Congress drops the postage rates to three cents for a half-ounce carried up to 300 miles. The coining of three-cent silver pieces is authorized by Congress.

March 25 Exploring: Major James Savage, while pursing a band of renegade Indians, stumbles onto the Yosemite Valley, California.

April 25 Politics: President Millard Fillmore, angered by the presence of Southerners in armed filibusters against Spanish-held Cuba, speaks of “palpable violations” of American neutrality and warns citizens to not to participate.

May 3 General: San Francisco suffers from a major fire which consumes 2,500 buildings and inflicts damage estimated at $12 million. Publishing: Gleason’s Pictorial Drawing Room Companion, the nation’s first illustrated weekly, debuts in New York City.

May 6 Technology: Dr. John Gorrie receives a patent for one of the earliest ice-making machines, although he dies of exhaustion four years later while attempting to raise money to manufacture it. The device is originally intended to cool the rooms for patients suffering from fever.

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May 15 Transportation: The Erie Railroad, connecting Pierpont and Dunkirk, New York, opens for business. It is 483 miles long, making it the world’s longest railroad line.

May 19 Transportation: In a significant milestone, the first train to complete all 483 miles of the Erie Railroad stops at Dunkirk, New York, from New York City. This signifies that New York and the Great Lakes are linked by rail.

May 29 Women: The second Women’s Rights Convention convenes at Akron, Ohio; delegates are entranced by the tall, gaunt figure of Sojourner Truth, who is a charismatic speaker.

June 2 Societal: The Maine legislature forbids the manufacture and sale of alcoholic liquors throughout the state.

June 3 Sports: The New York Knickerbockers become the first baseball team in history to wear uniforms, in this instance, straw hats, white shirts, and blue trousers.

June 5 Journalism: In Washington, D.C., Harriet Beecher Stowe’s antislavery story Uncle Tom’s Cabin begins as a serial in the abolitionist paper National Era.

June 9 Law: A crime wave hits burgeoning San Francisco, California, so leading citizens encourage fellow citizens to band together and enforce the laws—by force.

July 10 Education: California Wesleyan College (The College of the Pacific) is chartered in Santa Clara, California, by the Methodists; its first class graduates in 1858.

July 23 Indian: The United States and the Sioux nation conclude the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux, whereby the tribe surrenders all land in Iowa and most of the holdings in Minnesota.

August 11–12 Military: Cuban refugee Narcisco López leads a force of American filibusters to commence a revolt against the island’s Spanish rulers. This is in direct violation of President Millard Fillmore’s declaration against such activities.

August 12 Technology: Isaac Merritt Singer receives a patent for his revolutionary sewing machine, which employs a continuous stitching action. He is then promptly sued by Elias Howe, who earlier produced a similar device.

August 16 Military: Spanish authorities capture and execute 51 American filibusters found assisting Cuban rebels; a further 80 are imprisoned until Congress agrees to pay Spain $80,000 for their release.

August 21 Politics: Riots break out in New Orleans and the Spanish consulate is sacked after word of the execution of 51 Southern filibusters arrives.

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August 22 Sports: The United States yacht America under Commodore John C. Stevens defeats 14 British competitors and wins a prestigious race sponsored by the Royal Yacht Club of England. Such racing prowess confirms a growing national reputation for designing and constructing world-class vessels. The trophy, taken back to the United States, becomes known as the America’s Cup and is successfully defended until the Australians take it in 1984.

August 31 Transportation: Donald McKay’s beautiful 225-foot clipper ship, Flying Cloud, sets a record sailing from New York to San Francisco in 89 days and eight hours; the record for this class of vessel is never bettered.

September 18 Journalism: The New York Daily Times (New York Times after 1857) debuts in New York City with Henry Jarvis Raymond as its editor.

October 8 Transportation: The Hudson Railroad, connecting New York City with Albany, formally opens.

October 22 Politics: For a third time, President Millard Fillmore warns fellow Americans not to become embroiled in filibustering expeditions, in this instance against Mexico.

December Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides Cooley v. Board of Wardens of the Port of Philadelphia, ruling that states may regulate their own local commerce.

December 1 Politics: Unionist candidates, buoyed by the compromise of 1850, win several Congressional seats in Mississippi, Alabama, and South Carolina. The South is not yet ready for secession, but radical abolitionists score a coup with the selection of Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts.

December 5 General: Failed Hungarian revolutionary Louis Kossuth arrives in New York City, receiving tumultuous applause.

December 16 Technology: Hiram Hayden of Waterbury, Connecticut, receives a patent for a process designed to shape brass bowls.

December 24 General: A huge fire guts the Library of Congress, destroying two-thirds of its collection of 35,000 volumes, including many volumes sold by Thomas Jefferson in 1815.

December 29 Arts: In New York City, notorious Irish beauty and adventurer Lola Montez (Marie Gilbert) wows an American audience in the play Betley, the Tyrolean.

1852 Education: The Massachusetts legislature passes the nation’s first compulsory school attendance law; students between eight and 14 are required to attend at

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Chronology of American History least 12 weeks of school per year. Many of the bill’s supporters also oppose children laboring in the textile mills. Journalism: A new western newspaper, the Missouri Democrat, is founded and calls for the abolition of slavery. Labor: The National Typographical Union is founded in Cincinnati, Ohio. Publishing: Godey’s Lady’s Book under Sarah Josepha Hale begins publishing articles about women in the workforce, especially in the heretofore maledominated world of business and industry. Slavery: To counter a rising tide of abolitionist literature, pro-slavery advocates publish The Pro Slavery Argument in defense of their position. Societal: Massachusetts, Vermont, and Louisiana, expressing alarm over alcoholic consumption, pass prohibition ordinances. Technology: Alexander Bonner Latta designs and constructs the first truly effective steam fire engine for the fire department in Cincinnati, Ohio. Its highly efficient boiler can shoot as many as six jets of water. Transportation: The Pennsylvania Railroad is completed, linking Pittsburgh and Philadelphia by rail. However, it employs a different track gauge from the competing Erie Railroad of New York to prevent its expansion through Pennsylvania to Ohio.

January Diplomacy: President Millard Fillmore agrees to dispatch Commodore Matthew C. Perry and a squadron of modern warships to the closed nation of Japan to open diplomatic relations. This is no mean feat as the ruling Tokugawa shogunate has sealed Japan off from the world since the 17th century. Politics: A new Democratic splinter group, “Young America,” gradually appears with its own mouthpiece, the Democratic Review. They espouse nationalist, expansionist viewpoints and are openly sympathetic to European and South American revolutionaries.

January 5 Diplomacy: President Millard Fillmore announces the release of several Americans captured by Spain in Cuba, and he urges Congress to pay reparations for damages inflicted upon the Spanish consulate at New Orleans by irate citizens. Business: A large gathering of Southern businessmen from 11 states convenes at New Orleans to review economic conditions throughout their region.

January 15 Medical: The Jew’s Hospital is founded in New York City by Simon Sampson; it is subsequently known as Mt. Sinai Hospital.

January 28 Slavery: Radical abolitionist Wendell Phillips declares that “Eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty” while addressing the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society.

February 6 Law: The Supreme Court decides the case of Pennsylvania v. Wheeling Bridge, ruling that Virginia does not have a right to bridge a stream or river within another state’s boundaries.

February 20 Transportation: The Michigan Southern Railroad is completed, enabling train service between the east and Chicago, Illinois.

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Phillips, Wendell

(1811–1884)

Abolitionist Wendell Phillips was born in Boston, Mas-­ sachusetts, on November 29, 1811, the scion of one of that state’s most distin-­ guished families. Well educated at the Bos-­ ton Latin School, Phillips was admitted to Harvard where he received his law degree in 1833. By dint of his patrician lineage and background, he was expected to enjoy an accomplished career in law and public ser-­ vice. However, Phillips reached a turning point in 1835 when he witnessed a mob accost radical abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison and drag him through the street by a rope. He was so outraged by the event that thereafter he dedicated himself to the cause of civil liberties and social justice. Two years later, following the murder of abolitionist Elijah Lovejoy in Illinois, Phil-­ lips issued the first of his stirring orations in Lovejoy’s memory, gaining instant rec-­ ognition as a leading abolitionist spokes-­ man. This position was further reinforced in 1837 when he married the wealthy Ann Terry Greene, who induced him to abandon his law practice and become a full-­time abolitionist. Within a few years he gained national renown as one of the movement’s most impassioned speakers after Garrison. He also started to champion the rights of Irish Catholics, whom he viewed as another exploited class. Phillips was quickly sought after as a speaker and earned considerable fees for each engagement. By dint of his acerbic wit and thunderous delivery, he found his niche as the nation’s most sought after political agitator. Phillips also spoke on a number of nonpolitical, cultural issues, and one speech, “The Lost Arts,” was pub-­

licly rendered more than 2,000 times. He took the unusual position of urging that the Union be dissolved rather than compromise its moral integrity by being associated with slave states. The onset of Civil War in April 1861 only further enhanced Phillips’s reputa-­ tion as a radical abolitionist. He openly attacked the U.S. Constitution for its toler-­ ance of slavery and refused to support Pres-­ ident Abraham Lincoln for his measured approach to the problem. In fact, Phillips condemned the president for what he per-­ ceived as Lincoln’s political accommoda-­ tion of that “peculiar institution.” After 1865 Phillips ended his long association with Garrison, who withdrew from politics, and replaced him as head of the American Anti-­Slavery Society, now dedicated to civil rights for newly freed African Ameri-­ cans. He also used his high public visibility to push for women’s suffrage and other social issues. Even at this late date, Phillips captivated and entertained his audiences through clever use of invective, which simultaneously demonized and insulted the opposition. He also relied heavily on his wife Ann’s advice, freely admitting that she was usually ahead of him with respect to social issues. Toward the end of his long career, Phillips began espousing labor rights, especially an eight-­hour workday. He also rushed to the defense of newly arrived Chinese immigrants to stop their exploitation and abuse. Phillips died in Boston on February 2, 1884, one of the most memorable orators in American his-­ tory and a strident advocate for change.

March 13 Publishing: America’s first comic publication, Diogenes, His Lantern, debuts in New York.

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This illustration idealizes slavery; the reality was that picking cotton for long hours, six days a week, was grueling work. (Library of Congress)

March 19 Labor: Ohio is the first state to protect women and children working in factories, restricting both to 10-hour workdays.

March 20 Publishing: Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, or Life Among the Lowly, is published in Boston and sells 1.2 million copies in 16 months. This critical rendition of slavery arouses intense feelings in both the North and South, although it is denounced in some quarters as inaccurate. She subsequently compiles a Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin to demonstrate her veracity.

May 9 Religion: The Cathedral in Baltimore, Maryland, is the site of the first Roman Catholic Church Council held in America.

June 1–6 Politics: The Democratic National Convention meets in Baltimore and nominates Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire for the presidency after 49 ballots, along with William R. King of Alabama for the vice presidency. Their platform opposes further congressional discussion of the slavery issue and posits the Compromise of 1850 as the best possible solution.

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Stowe, Harriet Beecher (1811–1896) Writer Harriet Elizabeth Beecher was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, on June 14, 1811, into a prominent Calvinist family. From her preacher father she inherited a strict Calvin-­ ist sense of intellect, piety, and morality that characterized her subsequent life. Beecher was well educated by attending the Litch-­ field academy and subsequently studied and taught at her sister’s school in Hartford. In 1832 she accompanied her family to Cincin-­ nati, where her father functioned as presi-­ dent of Lane Theological Seminary, and taught at the Western Female Institute. In 1936 she married fellow teacher Calvin E. Stowe and also began writing short stories for several magazines. Her first collection, The Mayflower, appeared in 1843 and, with her husband’s encouragement, she contin-­ ued refining her style. Around this time Stowe had an opportunity to visit the South, where she was repulsed by the institution of slavery and dedicated herself to abolition-­ ism. The Stowes found the newly passed Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 equally repug-­ nant. Her experiences thus moved her to compose a serial story initially published in the abolitionist newspaper National Era in 1851, and the following year it was published as a book entitled Uncle Tom’s Cabin. This novel, released in two volumes, proved a national sensation and was an immediate best seller. It sold 1.2 million cop-­ ies within a year with even larger numbers sold in England and Europe. Stowe’s story focused on the harshness of slavery and equally condemned North and South for their complicity in its perpetuation. Not unexpectedly, Southern reviewers reviled the book and in some regions it became positively dangerous to own a copy. Stowe’s moving epic provided a badly needed jolt to the fractured abolitionist movement, which

saw her as their new literary champion. In 1856 Stowe wrote and published another antislavery novel, Dred, which also sold in large numbers. In 1853 Stowe, an international celeb-­ rity, ventured to England on a speaking tour and received an antislavery petition signed by half a million women. Back home, and despite her antislavery sentiments, however, she never firmly aligned herself with aboli-­ tionists, whom she regarded as too extreme, and sought abolition through moral suasion, as per her Calvinist background. To con-­ front the rising tide of Southern criticism toward her work Stowe also complied and (continues)

Harriet Beecher Stowe (Library of Congress)

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904  Chronology of American History

(continued) published A Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin to document the abuses mentioned. President Abraham Lincoln, upon meeting the author in 1862, reputedly exclaimed, “So this is the little lady who started our big war!” After the Civil War ended, Stowe resumed writing and changed her topic matter to nostalgia and New England life. In 1869 she visited

England again and endured a spate of contro-­ versy by suggesting that the celebrated poet Lord Byron had committed adultery with his half sister—an assertion now believed as true—which cost her much of her European readership. Stowe died in Hartford on July 1, 1896, indelibly associated with the most famous novel of the century.

June 16–21 Politics: The Whig Party convenes at Baltimore and finally nominates General Winfield Scott for the presidency after 49 ballots. William A. Graham of North Carolina is also selected for vice president while their platform reaffirms the Compromise of 1850 states’ rights, and internal improvements.

June 29 General: Henry Clay, a leading national figure for nearly half a century, dies in Washington, D.C., of tuberculosis.

July 3 Business: Congress establishes a branch of the U.S. Mint in San Francisco, reflecting the tremendous growth that region has experienced since 1848.

July 4 Slavery: At Rochester, New York, noted abolitionist Frederick Douglass addresses an audience and questions if it is appropriate for African Americans to celebrate the Fourth of July, since many are held in bondage throughout the South.

August 2 Sports: The first-­ever intercollegiate contest is held between competing rowing teams from Yale and Harvard at Lake Winnepesaukee, New Hampshire; hard-­ rowing Harvard wins by four lengths.

August 11 Politics: The Free-­Soil Party meets in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and nominates John P. Hale of New Hampshire for the presidency and George W. Julian of Indiana for vice president. Their party platform condemns both slavery and the Compromise of 1850, while also supporting free homesteads and fewer restrictions on immigration.

September 22 Arts: Actor and playwright George L. Aiken does a stage adaptation of Har-­ riet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin in Troy, New York, and dramatically recreates the brutality and injustice of slavery, furthering hardening Northern attitudes against it. The play runs for 100 consecutive nights.

October Religion: In New York, Reverend Thomas Gallaudet founds St. Ann’s Church to minister to the deaf.

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October 24 General: Daniel Webster, a great poÂ�litiÂ�cal figure of the century, dies at Mans-­ field, Massachusetts.

October 26 Politics: Abolitionist Senator Charles Sumter aggressively denounces the Fugi-­ tive Slave Act in a Â�four-­hour diatribe and then submits a resolution against it.

November 2 Politics: DemoÂ�crat Franklin Pierce defeats Whig General Winfield Scott for the presidency by a count of 254 electoral votes to 54. Whig power has been diluted poÂ�litiÂ�cally as Â�Union-­oriented Southerners have shifted their allegiance over to the DemoÂ�crats. Free Soil candidate John P. Hale also receives a paltry 156,000 votes, a good indication of his own party’s decline.

November 5 Technology: The American Society of Civil Engineers is founded in New York City.

November 21 Education: �Union Institute (Duke University) is chartered in Randolph County, North Carolina, by the Methodists; its first class graduates in 1853.

December Politics: With the Whigs and Free-Soilers in irreversible decline, the new Ameri-­ can, or Nativist, Party is gaining strength and popularity. It is somewhat secre-­ tive originally and acquires the nickname “Know Nothing” Party as members profess to know nothing about its machinations. It is also Â�anti-­Catholic and Â�antiÂ�immigrant in persuasion.

1853 Architecture: The 1853 exhibition in New York City is Â�housed in the brand new Crystal Palace, constructed entirely from cast iron and glass, and features the largest dome in the United States. Law: The police force in New York becomes the first in the nation to don blue uniforms. Medical: New Orleans is stricken by a yellow fever epidemic that kills 11,000 inhabitants. Music: Henry Steinway (Heinrich Steinweg) opens his piano factory in New York City. Publishing: Sara Payson Willis, writing under the nom de plume Fanny Fern, publishes a volume of sentimental verse entitled Fern Leaves from Fanny’s Portfolio, which sells 70,000 copies in one year. Religion: The Norwegian Evangelical Church of America is founded in Wiscon-­ sin by immigrants. The Kong Chow Temple of San Francisco becomes America’s first Buddhist temple. Sports: A local sports rivalry commences when the Â�all-­New York baseball team beats the Â�all-­Brooklyn team in a series Â�play-­off, winning two games to one. Transportation: The New York Central Railroad is formed following the merger of 10 smaller railroad lines.

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Chronology of American History Women: Amos Bronson Alcott and his wife present a petition to the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention requesting that the voting franchise be extended to women.

January 8 Arts: The first bronze equestrian statue of General Andrew Jackson is unveiled in New Orleans, Louisiana, to commemorate the 38th anniversary of his victory over the British. The artist, Clark Mills, does a masterful job balancing the horse on its rear legs, and Congress ultimately paid him $32,000.

January 12 Education: Willamette University is chartered at Salem, Oregon, by the Methodists; its first class graduates in 1859. It is also the first institution of higher learning west of the Rocky Mountains.

February Publishing: Una, a woman’s suffrage magazine, is published by Pauline Wright Davis and Caroline H. Dall in Washington, D.C.

February 11 Music: The 24-year-old concert pianist Louis Moreau Gottschalk debuts at Niblo’s Garden in New York City to rave reviews. He is rapidly becoming the nation’s first musical celebrity.

February 12 Education: Illinois Wesleyan University is chartered in Bloomington, Illinois, by the Methodists; its first class graduates in 1853.

February 21 Business: The Coinage Act of 1833 is passed by Congress, reducing the amount of silver used in coins smaller than one dollar. $3 gold pieces are also put in circulation.

February 22 Education: Eliot Seminary (Washington University) is chartered in St. Louis, Missouri, by the Unitarians; its first class graduates in 1862.

February 25 Settlement: Voters choose Sacramento to serve as the new capital of California.

March 2 Settlement: Congress divides the Oregon Territory by creating the new Washington Territory.

March 4 Military: The Army Appropriation Act passed by Congress contains $150,000 for a national survey of the best transcontinental railroad routes; it is incumbent upon the War Department to select the most viable one. Politics: Democrat Franklin Pierce becomes the 14th president of the United States and the fourth Democrat. He is the first executive to deliver his inaugural address from memory and pledges to uphold the Compromise of 1850. Vice President William R. King is administered the vice presidential oath in Cuba, an island Pierce aspires to seize.

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Chronology

Pierce, Franklin

907

(1804 –1869)

President Franklin Pierce was born in Hillsborough, New Hampshire, on November 23, 1804, the son of a prominent Democratic politician who served as state governor. After passing through Bowdoin College in 1827, Pierce studied law, was admitted to the state bar three years later, and successfully stood for a seat in the state legislature. In 1833 he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, served two terms, and won appointment to the Senate. He then left national politics to return home and serve as the attorney general of New Hampshire while also remaining active in local Democratic politics. When the Mexican War broke out in 1846 Pierce was commissioned a brigadier general of volunteers and campaigned with General Winfield Scott at the battles of Contreras, Churubusco, and Mexico City. Despite years of public service, Pierce was relatively unknown to most Americans, a factor which stood him in good stead as the 1852 presidential election approached. Because leading candidates Lewis Cass, James Buchanan, and Stephen A. Douglas were national figures and unpalatable to large sections of the nation due to their stand on slavery and other controversial issues, Pierce won the party nomination as a compromise candidate. That year he defeated Whig candidate General Scott for the presidency by only 50,000 votes, becoming the 14th president. Once in power, Pierce sought to function as a nationalist and brought a number of talented Northerners and Southerners into his cabinet, including William L. Marcy

of New York and Jefferson C. Davis of Mississippi. He also sought to enforce provisions of the so-called Compromise of 1850, especially the Fugitive Slave Law, to placate the South and possibly end all further debate on the topic. This stance, however, only further roiled the political waters and gave greater impetus to the rising tide of abolitionism. Pierce enjoyed greater success in terms of territory and in 1853 he orchestrated the Gadsden’s Purchase from Mexico, which finished the outline of the continental United States. His sought after domestic tranquility, but received a major jolt with the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which he readily signed, despite the fact that it negated the earlier Missouri Compromise of 1820 and allowed slavery to expand into the territories. This resulted in a small-scale but de facto civil war in Kansas, and various attempts to establish a legal government there ended farcically. In 1854 his administration was further embarrassed by the Ostend Declaration issued by James Buchanan in Europe, which declared that if Spain did not sell Cuba to the United States it might be seized by force. By this time Pierce was viewed as politically inept and in 1856 he lost the Democratic nomination to Buchanan. He then retired to New Hampshire to defend his record, and throughout the Civil War he attacked the policies of Abraham Lincoln until his death in Concord on October 8, 1869. The wellintentioned Pierce is regarded as one of the least effective presidents of American history.

March 7 Military: After resigning his senate seat in protest of the Compromise of 1850, Jefferson Davis of Mississippi is appointed the new secretary of war by President Franklin Pierce. He proves surprisingly effective in this role.

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March 15 Arts: A stage adaptation of Uncle Tom’s Cabin opens at Purdy’s Theater in New York City, with provisions for “respectable” African Americans to attend in separate seating.

March 31 Education: The Louisiana State Seminary of Learning and Military Academy (Louisiana State University) is chartered in Alexandria, Louisiana; its first class graduates in 1869.

April 1 Education: Ohio Wesleyan Female College is chartered in Delaware, Ohio.

April 13 Education: Loyola College is chartered in Baltimore, Maryland, by Roman Catholics; the first degrees are awarded this year.

April 18 General: Vice President William R. King dies of tuberculosis in office; President Franklin Pierce continues to function without a vice president for most of his term in office.

May Technology: Gail Borden obtains a patent for a process he developed which creates evaporated milk in a vacuum. This ensures a steady and safe supply of milk to city-dwelling children.

May 19 Diplomacy: President Franklin Pierce instructs special envoy James Gadsden to negotiate with Mexico for the purchase of additional land from Mexico, suitable for railroad passage from Texas to California. This is done at the behest of Southern interests, eager to have a train route to the Pacific coast.

May 31 Science: Dr. Elisha Kent Kane conducts the Second Grinnell Arctic Expedition from New York City onboard the brig Advance, still searching for the lost party of Sir John Franklin. The party becomes icebound in Kane Basin two years later and finally makes its way overland to Upernivik, Greenland, in 1855.

June Diplomacy: To better project the image of the United States as a democracy, Secretary of State William Marcy orders all American diplomats abroad to dress modestly.

June 3 Education: Central College is chartered in Pella, Iowa, by the Baptists; its first class graduates in 1861.

June 8 Diplomacy: The expedition of Commodore Matthew C. Perry enters Yedo (Tokyo) Bay, Japan. The United States is anxious to open regular commercial and diplomatic relations as well as secure coaling and repairing rights. They also seek to end the cruel practice of either killing or abusing shipwrecked sailors who wash up on Japanese soil. The xenophobic Japanese distrust the Americans but are impressed by their steam-powered warships.

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Chronology

909

Perry, Matthew C. (1794–1858) Naval officer Matthew Calbraith Perry was born in South Kingston, Rhode Island, on April 10, 1794, a younger brother of Oliver Hazard Perry, victor of the Battle of Lake Erie. He joined the U.S. Navy as a midshipman in 1809 and saw some active duty in the War of 1812 under Captains John Rodgers and Stephen Decatur. Over the next three decades Perry fulfilled numerous positions at sea and ashore which established him as one of the foremost naval officers of his generation. The Czar of Russia was reputedly so impressed by his commanding demeanor that he was tendered a commission in the Russian navy. He rose to captain in 1837 and assumed command of the USS Fulton, the navy’s first side-paddle steamship. This assignment convinced Perry of the need to modernize the fleet, and thereafter he pushed superiors into the wholesale adoption of steam technology. In 1839 Perry assumed command of the navy’s first gunnery school off Sandy Hook, New Jersey, handled his responsibilities adroitly, and rose to commodore in June 1841. In this capacity he served as commandant of the Brooklyn Navy Yard and oversaw construction of two superb steam frigates, the USS Missouri and Mississippi, which further demonstrated his mastery of this technology. During the War with Mexico, Perry next replaced Commander David F. Conner as commander of the Gulf Coast Squadron and directly assisted the landing of General Winfield Scott’s army at Veracruz. He then sailed back to New York in 1848 before accepting one of the most

dramatic and significant diplomatic missions in American history. In 1853 President Millard Fillmore ordered Perry to take a squadron of the latest steam warships across the Pacific to establish diplomatic relations with Japan. That nation had been hermetically sealed off from the world by the Tokugawa shogunate in 1630 and isolated for nearly 250 years. Perry’s orders were to establish friendly relations, open several cities to American trade, and have the Japanese stop cruelly treating shipwrecked American sailors washing up on their shores. Perry’s four vessels appeared suddenly in Edo Bay (Tokyo) on July 8, 1853, and the awestruck Japanese christened them the “Black Ships” because of their color. The commodore, a tall, dignified figure, then met with panic-stricken Japanese couriers, handed them a letter from President Fillmore, and then departed, promising to return in several months. The Americans then sailed back to Edo in February 1854, and found Japanese officials willing to negotiate with these technologically advanced strangers. Perry was painfully polite to his new hosts and even showered them with numerous gifts, including a miniaturized steam locomotive, won them over, and laid the groundwork for the Treaty of Kanagawa to commence trade and diplomatic relations. Perry then came home to a hero’s greeting to serve on the navy’s efficiency board. He died at New York City on March 4, 1858, one of the most accomplished naval diplomats and officers in American history.

July 4 Women: Women’s rights crusader Amelia Bloomer creates a sensation in Hartford, Connecticut, by wearing her Turkish style pants called “Bloomers.” A political and fashion statement, they fail to catch on.

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July 6 Societal: The National Council of Colored People is founded at Rochester, New York, and votes to encourage vocational training for African Americans.

July 14 Diplomacy: In Japan, Commodore Matthew Perry presents the Tokugawa shogunate with a letter from President Millard Fillmore, inviting them to open diplomatic relations. He then departs, granting them several months to deliberate and reply.

August 29 Music: Dazzling French orchestra conductor Louis-Antoine Jullien employs a giant drum in his concerts at Castle Garden in New York City.

September Education: Nonsectarian Antioch College, Ohio, headed by former education supervisor Horace Mann, opens its doors to both male and female students.

September 10 Indian: In Oregon, settlers conclude the Treaty of Table Rock with nearby Indians to obtain land in exchange for $60,000; the sum is never paid.

September 15 Societal: Charles Jewett, librarian of the Smithsonian Institution, oversees the nation’s first librarians’ convention in New York City, which convenes at the City College of New York.

October 15 Sports: Englishman Yankee Sullivan is declared heavyweight boxing champion on a technicality when his opponent, John C. Morrissey, departs the ring for a few moments to confront spectators who heckled him.

November 3 Military: A group of American filibusters under former attorney William Walker capture the Mexican town of La Paz, Lower California, which he proclaims as an independent republic. Officials at San Francisco repudiate his actions and refuse to send him supplies as requested.

December 24 General: The steamship San Francisco catches fire and sinks off the California coast, killing 240 out of 700 passengers.

December 30 Diplomacy: Special envoy James Gadsden concludes a treaty with the Mexican government for the purchase of 29,640 square miles of desert along southern Arizona and New Mexico at a cost of $15 million. The terrain in question is flat and ideal for a railroad to the Pacific. This is also the final territorial acquisition by the continental United States, or Lower 48, and the border remains fixed today.

1854 Education: Farmer’s High School of Pennsylvania (Pennsylvania State College) is chartered at University Park, Pennsylvania, by the state legislature. It is the first Pennsylvania state school. Literature: Henry David Thoreau publishes his famous memoir entitled Walden, which holds that freedom is only possible once man rediscovers him-

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Thoreau, Henry David

(1817–1862)

Philosopher Henry David Thoreau was born in Con-­ cord, Massachusetts, on July 12, 1817, to very modest circumstances. After passing through the Concord Academy he attended Harvard College on a scholarship. Ironi-­ cally, he graduated the same week that noted writer Ralph Waldo Emerson gave his landmark “American Scholar” address, although their lives would not intersect for some time. Thoreau originally taught at his brother’s school, where he pioneered what became a personal trademark—long field trips through the woods to study nature. He quit after two years to work in his father’s pencil factory but finally became acquainted with Emerson by attending the Transcen-­ dentalist Club and began writing and edit-­ ing for the group’s magazine, The Dial. In 1843 Thoreau departed for Staten Island, New York, to serve as a tutor at the home of Emerson’s brother, but he soon lost interest and returned to Concord. After working in his father’s factory he saved enough money to conduct a personal sojourn at nearby Walden Pond, where he lived for two years in relative isolation. This experience indel-­ ibly impacted Thoreau and helped crystal-­ lize his emerging philosophy. Whereas most Transcendentalists remained somewhat indifferent to a relationship to God and nature, Thoreau immersed himself in nature, proffering it as a panacea for living in a mod-­ ern world corrupted, as he saw it, by materi-­ alism and greed. Hereafter he saw nature not simply as an object of beauty to behold but also as a means of discovering one’s self, and the inner peace this would convey. He had tried selling publishers on this radical notion through titles like A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849) and Walden (1854), both of which he ended up printing himself. At the time these and other publica-­

tions gathered very little attention for either the author or his philosophy. In addition to ruminating about nature, Thoreau was also becoming drawn into the world of politics. A profound abolitionist, in 1846 he refused to pay a poll tax levied to support the Mexican War and spent a night in jail for it. His subsequent essay (continues)

Title page of Walden, by Henry David Thoreau (Library of Congress)

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(continued) “Resistance to Civil Government” became a classic study of political resistance and inspired such diverse admirers as Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King. In 1859 Thoreau also broke with his usual placidity to strongly defend and laud radical abolitionist John Brown for his failed attempt to seize Harper’s Ferry and incite a slave rebellion. For the most part, however, Thoreau was content to live simply in his single room to expound upon nature and the utter necessity

of making peace with it. He continued writing and publishing philosophical tracts and essays about the harmonizing effect of nature until his death at Concord on May 6, 1862. While he lived Thoreau never gained, or even sought, recognition for his immensely original philosophical thinking. That celebrity arrived later in the 20th century, when he was hailed as one of America’s most vital and influential intellectuals, an exponent of freedom through personal awareness.

self through simplicity and nature and should not be obsessed by material pursuits. Music: Noted composer Stephen Foster scores another popular hit with the sentimental “Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair.” Publishing: Mary Jane Holmes, soon to be America’s most widely read novelist, publishes Tempest and Sunshine, or, Life in Kentucky. By 1905 she has written 39 books with a total of two million copies sold. Societal: Both the Boston Public Library and the Astor Library, New York City, open their doors to the public. The Children’s Aid Society constructs a lodging house in New York City for boys. They offer an integrated program including work in an industrial school coupled with religious training. Technology: In Boston, the firm of Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson invents a hand gun with a faster mechanism for rotating the cylinder which holds the bullets. They also try to fashion ammunition that utilizes brass cartridges instead of paper ones.

January 1 Education: Ashmun University (Lincoln University) is chartered at Chester, Pennsylvania, as the first free college for African Americans.

January 4 Slavery: Illinois senator Stephen A. Douglas seeks to divide the central plains region into the Kansas and Nebraska territories. Moreover, he embraces the notion of “popular sovereignty” to allow either one to settle the issue of allowing slavery or forbidding it on their own. However, this arrangement negates the 1819 Missouri Compromise as both territories lie above the antislavery line adopted by that act. The ensuing debate invigorates and stokes both pro- and anti-slavery sentiments in Congress. Douglas earnestly believes in self-governance but also seeks to cement Southern support for his political ambitions.

January 13 Education: Tualatin Academy and Pacific University (today’s Pacific University) is chartered in Forest Grove, Oregon, by Presbyterian and Congregationalist groups; its first class graduates in 1863.

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Douglas, Stephen A. (1813–1861) Politician Stephen Arnold Douglas was born in Brandon, Vermont, on April 23, 1813, the son of a doctor. Well educated but restless, he studied law briefly then drifted west in 1833, finally settling down in Jacksonville, Illinois, where he gained admission to the local bar. Douglas, a decidedly short but highly energetic individual, found his calling in politics and became a moving force behind the state Democratic Party. After holding down several state and federal positions, Douglas was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1843, where he proved an outstanding proponent of Manifest Destiny, national expansion, Texas annexation, and war with Mexico. In 1846 he was especially critical of President James K. Polk for not pressing the boundary of Oregon to the 54th parallel, and instead settling with Great Britain for a new border along the 49th. Though not a slaveholder himself, Douglas was willing to tolerate the “peculiar institution” to keep Northern and Southern factions of the party acting in harmony. After the successful war with Mexico, 1846–48, of which Douglas was a vocal proponent, the new territory kindled a national debate over whether or not slavery should be allowed to expand there. Because Douglas had been elected to the U.S. Senate in 1847 and now chaired the Committee on Territories, his various decisions were at the very center of the controversy. Douglas sought out an intelligent compromise about slavery that would satisfy both Northern and Southern Democrats. He helped put through the Compromise of 1850 to win Southern support for his

much-touted Illinois Central Railroad Act, which in turn allowed the issue to be resolved on the basis of “popular sovereignty,” or the territorial legislature. This bought the nation a few years of peace on the subject, but in 1854 Douglas helped promulgate the Kansas Nebraska Act, which expanded the potential for slavery previously excluded by the Missouri Compromise of 1820. Douglas, despite his best efforts to placate both sides, now opened a Pandora’s box of national acrimony, particularly over the admittance of Kansas as a slave state. Still, in 1852 and 1856 he was a serious contender for the Democratic presidential nomination but lost twice. In 1857 he broke politically with fellow Democrat James Buchanan over the illegally adopted Lecompton Constitution, which legalized slavery, and whose stance cost him his Southern base. In 1858 he engaged Republican challenger Abraham Lincoln to a series of celebrated debates over the issue of slavery; although Douglas, long hailed as the “Little Giant,” was reelected by the state legislature, Lincoln garnered national attention for his uncompromising position on slavery. Douglas became the Democratic nominee in 1860, although he had lost Southern support within his party which went to Kentucky’s John C. Breckinridge. Lincoln won the election and, after the Civil War began, Douglas roundly condemned Southern secession and sought to keep the Union intact. He died in Chicago on June 3, 1861, a skillful party operator.

January 16–17 Slavery: Senators Archibald Dixon of Kentucky and Charles Sumner of Massachusetts sponsor competing resolutions intending to repeal and reaffirm the 1819 Missouri Compromise, respectively.

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January 18 Diplomacy: American filibusterer William Walker sets himself up as president of the new republic of Sonora, crafted from uniting the existing Mexican states of Sonora and Baja, California.

January 24 Politics: A group of Democrats come out against the impending KansasNebraska Act, which they condemn as a “slaveholder’s plot.” They also publish an appeal that helps organize the new Republican Party.

February Education: The Iowa Conference Seminary (Cornell College) is chartered at Mt. Vernon, Iowa, by the Methodists; its first class graduates in 1858.

February 13 Naval: The squadron of Commodore Matthew C. Perry anchors off Yokohama, Japan, and awaits the Emperor’s reply toward establishing trade and diplomatic relations with the United States. The Tokugawa shogunate’s inability to effectively deal with foreign “barbarians” in this instance will lead to its ultimate downfall in 1868.

February 28 Diplomacy: Spanish officials in Havana, Cuba, seize the American vessel Black Warrior and levy a fine for an error in the ship’s papers. The United States, eager to acquire that island, begins using the episode as a convenient pretext for war. Politics: Various antislavery groups assemble at Ripon, Wisconsin, to discuss the creation of a new political organization to replace the by-now defunct Whigs. Thereafter, the new Republican Party begins emerging in various northern states.

March 31 Diplomacy: Commodore Matthew C. Perry concludes the Treaty of Kanagawa with the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, whereby the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate are opened to American trade. American seamen shipwrecked in Japanese waters are also afforded protection. Perry then impresses his hosts with several examples of advanced Western technology, including a miniature steam railway engine, which are given as gifts.

April 4 Diplomacy: Secretary of State William Marcy inquires of David Gregg, American envoy in Hawaii, if King Kamehameha III is receptive to annexation by the United States.

April 26 Settlement: In response to the Kansas-Nebraska Act, Eli Thayer begins the Emigrant Aid Society to encourage abolitionists to settle in Kansas and allow it to become a free state. Its success triggers formation of various other secret societies to ensure that Kansas enters the Union as a slave state.

May 6 Business: Cyrus W. Field receives a company charter and a 50-year monopoly to lay a transatlantic cable; the device will not actually be laid until 1866.

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Burns, Anthony (1829–1862) Fugitive slave Anthony Burns was most likely born in Stafford County, Virginia, in 1829, the son of African-American slaves. As such he was denied all formal education but managed to acquire some literacy from playing with white children. He subsequently converted to the Baptist Church and served as an itinerant preacher among fellow slaves. However, at one point he injured his right hand and was incapable of hard labor. Burns, then fearing deportation into the Deep South, escaped with the aid of a white sailor and made his way to Boston in March 1854. There, on May 24, 1854, he was arrested by federal authorities at the behest of his former master and under terms of the controversial Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. This act reaffirmed slaves as rightful property, mandated prompt return to their owners, and carried stiff penalties for failing to do so. However, word of Burns’s arrest and his impending deportation thoroughly aroused the abolitionistminded inhabitants of Boston who staged a mass protest outside of Faneuil Hall. The crowd was being addressed by Wendell Philips when a riot broke out in an attempt to free Burns from captivity and a sheriff was killed. During court proceedings, Burns was represented by noted attorney Richard Henry Dana, who called vigorously but futilely for his release. Crowds still thronged the courthouse so the militia had to be called out to escort the prisoner from his cell. On May 26, 1854, Burns was escorted by armed troops to a Boston dock, where he boarded a vessel and was shipped back to Virginia. The

entire episode is estimated to have cost the federal government $15,000—an enormous sum at the time—for the return of this one fugitive slave. Burns was imprisoned for five months following his return and was also sold by his original owner to David McDaniel, a speculator. McDaniel had meanwhile been contacted by a group of Bostonians who offered to purchase the man’s freedom for $1,500. His owner agreed and Burns returned North in March 1855 as a free man, publicly hailed as the “Lion of Boston.” Continuing donations allowed Burns to attend the Preparatory Department of Oberlin College, where he studied theology and was formally ordained a Baptist preacher. Burns preached briefly at Indianapolis, Indiana, before the climate of racial hostility forced him to relocate to St. Catherine’s, Ontario, as pastor of the fugitive slave community there. He died in that capacity on July 27, 1862, without further notice. Burns’s notoriety may have been brief but also decisive; in the wake of his ordeal, no other fugitive slaves were forcibly repatriated from the North. Moreover, the entire episode added greater moral and political impetus to the rising tide of abolitionism. No less than eight northern states subsequently passed “personal liberty laws” to further infringe upon compliance with the Fugitive Slave Act. In turn, Southerners pointed to the episode as proof that there was a Northern conspiracy to deny them the right to slavery, an issue that would be settled by civil war.

May 26 Politics: After a contentious session, the Kansas-Nebraska Act passes through Congress. The bill creates two new territories with “popular sovereignty” to decide the issue of slavery. Many Northerners openly denounce the act and threaten to ignore the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 as it applies to the territories.

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Chronology of American History Slavery: In Boston an abolitionist mob led by Wendell Phillips attacks a Federal courthouse where fugitive slave Anthony Burns is imprisoned. They subsequently arrange for Burns to purchase his freedom.

May 31 Diplomacy: President Franklin Pierce again entreats fellow Americans to refrain from fighting in illegal filibustering expeditions, such as has happened in Mexico.

June 5 Diplomacy: The United States and Great Britain conclude the Reciprocity Treaty which allows American vessels the right to fish along the Atlantic coast of Canada while Canadian ships can do the same as far south as the 36th Parallel. Duty-free entry for crops and other goods are also allowed.

June 29 Diplomacy: The Senate ratifies the so-called Gadsden Purchase between the United States and Mexico, although at the reduced price of $10 million.

July Settlement: A federal land office opens in the Kansas Territory to sell property to competing pro- and anti-slavery factions vying for political control.

July 6–13 Politics: A group of antislavery politicians, including former Whigs, Free Soilers, and abolitionist Democrats, convene in Jackson, Michigan, and officially found the new Republican Party. Its platform unequivocally denounces both the KansasNebraska Act and the Fugitive Slave Law, demands their repeal, and supports the end of slavery within the District of Columbia.

July 19 Slavery: In Wisconsin the state supreme court rules that the Fugitive Slave Act is unconstitutional and frees a citizen accused of assisting a runaway.

August 3 Settlement: Congress passes the Graduation Act to sell off remaining public lands at reduced prices ranging from 12 cents to $1 per acre.

September 15 Journalism: The Kansas Weekly Herald begins publishing at Leavenworth as the first newspaper in the Kansas Territory.

October 4 Politics: Abraham Lincoln, a little-known congressman, delivers a major address at Springfield, Illinois, wherein he condemns the Kansas-Nebraska Act, supports gradual emancipation of African slaves, and also acknowledges the political rights of Southerners. In light of the heightened awareness of the issue of slavery, Lincoln begins garnering greater national attention from those who oppose it.

October 7 Politics: Pennsylvania Democrat Andrew H. Reeder is appointed territorial governor of Kansas by President Franklin Pierce.

October 16 Slavery: In Peoria, Illinois, Abraham Lincoln denounces the Kansas-Nebraska Act and demands the eventual emancipation of African Americans held in bondage. “No man is good enough to govern another man without that other’s consent,” he insists.

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October 18 Diplomacy: American ministers to Spain, Great Britain, and France confer in Ostend, Belgium, and issue the so-called Ostend Manifesto. This declaration demands that Spain sell Cuba to the United States before the latter simply seizes it. It is indicative of President Franklin Pierce’s expansionist tendencies and causes renewed dissension among antislavery Northerners.

November Politics: Members of the Protestant-oriented Know-Nothing Party gather at Cincinnati, Ohio, for their national convention. There they design a platform calling for the exclusion of Roman Catholics and immigrants from public office, along with a 21-year residency requirement for citizenship.

November 13 General: The emigrant ship New Era is shipwrecked off the New Jersey coast, killing 300 passengers.

November 29 Politics: J. W. Whitfield of Kansas is elected to the House of Representatives after 1,500 pro-slavery border ruffians from Missouri cross the state line to vote for him.

December 30 Business: The Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company of New Haven, Connecticut, becomes America’s first oil corporation.

1855 Education: The Elmira Female College opens its doors at Elmira, New York, as one of the earliest institutions of higher education to grant college degrees to women. The American Journal of Education commences publishing with Henry Barnard as its first editor; this is the first magazine dedicated to the teaching profession. Journalism: The Daily News, a mouthpiece for New York City’s Tammany machine, begins publishing. Literature: Herman Melville’s latest novel, Israel Potter: His Fifty Years of Exile, tells the tale of an American Revolutionary War veteran. Its naval aspects are vividly rendered in highly dramatic style. Walt Whitman debuts by self-publishing his first collection of poems, Leaves of Grass, which is almost completely ignored. However, Ralph Waldo Emerson is favorably impressed and congratulates the author “at the beginning of a great career.” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow publishes his epic poem The Song of Hiawatha; overall this is part of a larger literary trend seeking to portray Native Americans as noble savages. Publishing: Former slave and abolitionist orator Frederick Douglass publishes his autobiography, My Bondage, My Freedom, in response to charges that a man exhibiting his eloquence could never have been raised a slave. Josiah Bartlett edits and publishes the first edition of his Famous Quotations, updated versions of which remain standard library reference books to the present day. The publishing firm D. Appleton & Company obtains the rights and plates to Noah Webster’s A Grammatical Institute of the English Language, more commonly known to generations of school children as the Blue-back Speller. This

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Whitman, Walt (1819–1892) Poet Walt Whitman was born in West Hills, Long Island (New York), on May 31, 1819, the son of poor farmers. After complet-­ ing his primary education he worked as a printer’s devil at the age of 12 with various newspapers in and around the city. Whit-­ man also taught school for added income while contributing minor literary pieces to leading magazines such as Brother Jonathan, American Review, and Democratic Review. Whitman advanced to editor of the newspaper Brooklyn Eagle in 1846, then lost his job two years later because of his overtly “Free-­Soil” sympathies. He then drifted to New Orleans to work briefly for the New Orleans Crescent, returned to New York, and sold real estate with his father to make a living. However, Whit-­ man was indelibly touched by what he saw while traveling and it inspired him to experiment with poetry constructed from radically differing verse forms. In this sense he had been influenced by writers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, and he began writ-­

Walt Whitman (Library of Congress) ing about and celebrating robust individu-­ alism in his youthful democratic nation.

change of ownership does nothing to reduce the primer’s immense popularity; over the next 40 years it sells one million copies annually. Religion: In Utah, Mormon leader Brigham Young declares that so much as a single drop of African blood is sufficient grounds for denying men to serve in the church priesthood. Slavery: Salmon P. Chase, a committed abolitionist, is elected governor of Ohio. Societal: Point Loma, San Diego, California, constructs the first lighthouse employed on the Pacific coast. Transportation: A noted suspension bridge is built over the Niagara River by John Augustus Roebling. Women: Sarah Josepha Hale begins a long campaign to eliminate the word female when referring to women in public life.

January 9 Diplomacy: The United States is awarded $119,330 in compensation from Great Britain for its role in emancipating African-­American slaves from the shipwrecked Creole in 1841.

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Chronology

All told, Whitman’s writing “style” was distinctly rambling and almost disjointed— he was never beholden to conventional norms of rhythm and rhyme. In 1855 he collected 12 poems and published them at his own expense under the title Leaves of Grass. The book was a critical failure but did gather a favorable and congratulatory response from Emerson. Whitman published a failed second edition in 1856, despite the fact that Emerson’s praise was engraved on the cover. This was followed by a third edition in 1860, by which time Whitman’s unique and experimental forms with free verse had begun attracting critical notice abroad, particularly in England. The Civil War represented a turning point in Whitman’s fortunes, for in 1862 he departed for Virginia to search out his wounded brother and subsequently took up residence in Washington, D.C. There he worked incessantly as a male nurse and invariably brought small gifts to dying soldiers, regardless of whether they were Union or Confederate. The experience of

919

war and death seared Whitman emotionally, and in 1865 he published a significant body of poems entitled Drum Taps which included, among other things, a touching eulogy to the late president Abraham Lincoln. From that point on Whitman held down several administrative posts with the government, being fired from several on account of some of his more scandalous, sexually-charged poems. In 1873 he suffered a stroke and departed from Camden, New Jersey, to live with a brother. In 1892 he published his final and definitive version of Leaves of Grass, which finally sold well, along with two significant prose works, Democratic Vistas (1871) and Specimen Days (1882). Whitman died at Camden on March 26, 1892, an undefinable commodity in his day, but a hero and inspiration to the “beat” generation of poets during the later half of the 20th century. He also enjoyed considerable popularity throughout Europe, where his poems were translated into several languages.

January 16 Politics: The first Nebraska territorial legislature convenes in Omaha City.

January 25 Education: Iowa Wesleyan College is chartered at Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, by the Methodists; its first class graduates in 1856.

February 6 Education: Eureka College is chartered in Eureka, Illinois, by the Disciples of Christ; its first class graduates in 1860. Slavery: Ralph Waldo Emerson addresses the Anti-Slavery Society in New York City, suggesting that $200 million would be sufficient money to purchase slaves from their owners.

February 10 Education: Kalamazoo College is chartered in Kalamazoo, Michigan, by the Baptists; its first class graduates in 1855. Societal: Congress extends citizenship to children born in the United States, and to foreign-born women who marry U.S. citizens.

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February 24 Law: President Franklin Pierce signs a bill creating the first U.S. Court of Claims, thereby eliminating the prior method of petitioning Congress for claims against the government.

March 3 Diplomacy: The inflammatory Ostend Manifesto, threatening to annex Cuba to the United States, is published and a public uproar ensues. Secretary of State William Marcy declines to support its assertions in any way. Military: Secretary of War Jefferson Davis suggests that Congress appropriate money for the importation of 333 camels as an experiment for traversing the deserts of the Old Southwest; total cost for the effort is $30,000.

March 30 Politics: The Kansas territorial legislature is marred by pro-slavery candidates when 5,000 Missouri border ruffians cross over state lines to vote on their behalf; they thus win the election. Newly appointed governor Andrew H. Reeder remains wary of an outbreak of violence.

April 28 Education: Santa Clara College (the University of Santa Clara) is chartered at Santa Clara, California, by Roman Catholics; its first class graduates in 1857. Societal: Boston outlaws racial segregation in all public schools.

April 30 Education: The College of California is chartered at Oakland, California, by Congregationalists and Presbyterians; its first class graduates in 1864. This is also the first West Coast institution to offer a large and varied curriculum based on colleges in the East.

May 9 Slavery: John Mercer Langston, the first African American elected to public office, addresses a meeting of the Anti-Slavery Society in Brownhelm County, Ohio.

May 21 Slavery: The Massachusetts legislature enacts a personal liberty law to circumvent enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act.

June 5 Politics: The anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant Native American Party (or KnowNothing Party) renames itself the American Party during its national convention in Philadelphia.

July 2 Politics: The pro-slavery Kansas territorial legislature, convening in Pawnee, passes extremely pro-slavery ordinances and then expels all abolitionist legislators from that body.

July 31 Politics: President Millard Fillmore removes Governor Andrew H. Reeder as territorial governor of Kansas for illegal land speculation and appoints Wilson Shannon of Ohio in his stead.

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August Slavery: In Kansas, newly arrived John Brown and his son join the antislavery militia.

August 4 Diplomacy: President Franklin Pierce appoints Townshend Harris to serve as the first American consul to Japan. Politics: Abolitionist politicians and supporters meet at Lawrence, Kansas, to hold their own constitutional convention and to protest the fraudulently elected legislature in Pawnee.

August 6 Societal: Nativist violence flares in Louisville, Kentucky, as mobs attack and kill 20 Irish and German immigrants at the behest of the local Know-Nothing Party.

September 3 Diplomacy: Notorious American filibuster William Walker establishes himself as dictator of Nicaragua in Central America.

September 5 Politics: Antislavery societies convene at Big Springs, Kansas, and ask Congress to admit the territory as a free state. They also declare the existing territorial legislature illegal, and therefore null and void. This move coincides with the arrival of numerous arms shipments to the territory, whereby an antislavery militia, the Free State Forces, begins to coalesce.

September 17 Societal: The Boston Public Library, the first such institution in Massachusetts, formally opens its doors to the public. In addition to its valuable book collection, the library has since become famous as a depository for important historical manuscripts.

September 28 Societal: Many Chinese flee the vicinity of Seattle, Washington, after the AntiChinese Congress convenes in Puget.

October 1 Politics: With the help of “border ruffians,” the pro-slavery Kansan J. W. Whitfield is again returned to the House of Representatives.

October 9 Politics: Not to be outdone, antislavery settlers in Kansas elect Andrew W. Reeder, the former governor, to serve as their congressman. Technology: Joshua C. Stoddard of Worcester, Massachusetts, receives a patent for a steam calliope.

October 17 Religion: Reform Rabbi Isidor Kalisch convenes the first conference of Jewish rabbis at the Medical College in Cleveland, Ohio.

October 23 Slavery: Free-Soilers gather at Topeka, Kansas, and adopt a constitution which is not only antislavery but forbids African Americans from entering the territory altogether. Battle lines are now starkly drawn between pro-slavery and abolitionist factions, and an undeclared guerrilla war erupts across the frontier.

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November 3 Societal: A white mob led by the mayor, the sheriff, and other elected officials attacks the Chinese district of Tacoma, Washington, and violently evicts the residents.

November 9 Military: U.S. Army troops arrive at Tacoma, Washington, and arrest many of those involved in anti-Chinese violence.

November 26 – December 7 Politics: The so-called Wakarusa War erupts when 1,500 “border ruffians” from Missouri cross into Kansas intending to attack the abolitionist settlement at Lawrence. However, after appraising the town’s strong defenses, manned by Free State forces, they balk and withdraw.

December 8 Diplomacy: President Franklin Pierce officially denounces William Walker’s filibustering efforts in Nicaragua.

December 15 Politics: Free-Soilers in Kansas ratify the so-called Topeka Constitution which outlaws slavery.

December 29 Military: Resentful Seminoles under Chief Billy Bowlegs attack the army patrol of Lieutenant George Hartstuff at Big Cyprus Swamp, Florida, killing several soldiers and precipitating the Third Seminole War.

1856 Business: After a four-year hiatus, the whaling vessel E. L. B. Jenny returns to New Bedford, Massachusetts, with 2,500 barrels of spermaceti in its hold. This voyage marks the beginning of a resurgent whaling industry based in New England. Economic editor and author Freeman Hunt publishes Wealth and Worth, which posits that business is a significant enough activity to be considered part of the national culture. He therefore predicts that business education will one day rival similar programs already established for medicine and law. Communications: The Western Union Telegraph Company is founded and begins stringing up an extensive network of telegraph wires around the country. Thanks to the inventiveness of Samuel F. B. Morse, large segments of the nation will soon be capable of instantaneous communication. Education: A German language kindergarten opens in Watertown, Wisconsin, the first such facility in the United States. At this time progressive German educator Friedrich Froebel wields increasing influence on the course of American education. Literature: John Greenleaf Whittier’s poem “The Barefoot Boy” is published, becoming one of his most endearing and enduring compositions. Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes Dred, A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp to highlight the economic and moral evils of slavery; it sells well but fails to achieve the notoriety of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Ralph Waldo Emerson publishes his English Traits, a bemusing collection of character and personality sketches drawn while he visited England in 1833 and 1847.

1856

Chronology

923

The romantic novel Lena Rivers by Mary Jane Holmes sells one million copies in a single year, affirming her position as America’s best-selling authoress. Publishing: Commodore Matthew C. Perry publishes his Narrative of the Expedition of an American Squadron to the China Sea and Japan Performed in the Years 1852, 1853, and 1854, which contributes to growing awareness of the Far East and its potential as a market. Slavery: Governor James H. Adams of South Carolina, fearing that his farmers lack sufficient numbers of slaves, proposes suspending the 1807 law prohibiting the slave trade. Technology: Swedish expatriate John Ericsson invents the caloric engine, driven by hot air; large and heavy, it is too cumbersome for applications beyond factory work. Transportation: The Illinois Central Railroad is completed and commences running from Galena and Chicago to Cairo, making it the longest continuous route in the nation. It also has the economically valuable effect of linking Lake Michigan to the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers.

January 15 Politics: In Kansas, Free-Soilers elect their own governor, Charles Robinson, along with their own legislature.

January 24 Politics: President Franklin Pierce denounces the efforts of free soil Kansans to elect their own governor and legislature as the existing territorial governor, Wilson Shannon, has already certified the pro-slavery legislature. Slavery: Georgia Senator Robert A. Toombs ventures to Boston, Massachusetts, and gives a speech at the Tremont Temple defending slavery.

February 2 Politics: As Congress becomes more polarized over the issue of slavery it is becoming harder to find consensus candidates to serve in leadership positions; after a two-month fracas Democrat Nathaniel Banks is finally elected speaker of the House of Representatives.

February 11 Politics: President Franklin Pierce orders pro-and antislavery elements in the Kansas Territory to stop fighting.

February 22 Indians: In the Oregon Territory, Yakima Indians kill members of the Geisel family and hold several others hostage. Politics: The American Party (formerly the Know-Nothings) convenes and nominates Millard Fillmore for the presidency and Andrew J. Donelson of Tennessee as vice president. Their platform retains its anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant stances. The new Republican Party holds its first national convention in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and there decides to convene a presidential nominating convention the following June.

February 22 Transportation: The first California railroad is built and runs from Sacramento to Folsom.

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924  Chronology of American History

March 1 Music: American composer George F. Bristow debuts his Second Symphony in D Minor with the New York Philharmonic. This is one of a handful of scores written by Â�native-­born composers.

March 4 Politics: Congress is petitioned by the antislavery government in Topeka, Kan-­ sas, for statehood; Illinois senator Stephen A. Douglas subsequently submits a bill that would admit the state only after a new constitutional convention.

March 26 Transportation: Â�Steam-­powered street trains run for the first time between Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts.

April 1 Communication: Western �Union Telegraph is established to handle telegraphic business in the far West.

April 3 Education: St. Lawrence University is chartered at Canton, New York, by the Universalists; its first class graduates in 1863.

April 21 Transportation: The first railroad bridge across the Mississippi River is con-­ structed between Rock Island, Illinois, and Davenport, Iowa.

April 29 Military: The first shipment of camels arrives in Texas as part of a U.S. Army experiment in desert travel.

May Music: Boston is the scene of a very large music festival featuring a chorus of 600 and a full symphony orchestra.

May 1 General: Â�Pro-­slavery border ruffians attack and burn underground railroad sta-­ tions in Lawrence, Kansas, killing one man. This inflames abolitionist passions and incites radicals to violence.

May 21–25 General: After Â�pro-­slavery elements attack and kill a Free-Soiler at Lawrence, Kan-­ sas, radical abolitionists under John Brown murder five Â�pro-­slavery men at Pottawato-­ mie Creek. This initiates a period in territorial history known as “Bleeding Kansas.”

May 22 Politics: In response to a heated diatribe delivered in the Senate against Andrew P. Butler of South Carolina, Charles Sumner of Massachusetts is accosted and caned by Congressman Preston Brooks for insulting his uncle. The attack results in serious injuries for Sumner and renders him an abolitionist martyr throughout the North.

June 2–5 Politics: The DemoÂ�cratic National Convention meets in Cincinnati, Ohio, and nominates James Buchanan to be their presidential candidate while John C. Bre-­ ckinridge of Kentucky emerges as the vice presidential nominee. The party plat-­ form again endorses the Compromise of 1850 as the most rational way of dealing with the slavery issue.

1856

Chronology

925

June 2 Politics: The antislavery wing of the American Party (Know-Nothings) nominates John C. Frémont for the presidency and W. F. Johnson of Pennsylvania for vice president.

June 17–19 Politics: The Republican Party convenes its first presidential convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and chooses John C. Frémont as its standard bearer with William L. Dayton for vice president. Their platform opposes “popular sovereignty,” insists that Congress has authority to regulate slavery, favors admitting Kansas as a free state, and favors construction of a railroad that would reach the Pacific coast.

July 3 Politics: The House of Representatives votes to admit Kansas as a free state, but the bill dies in the Senate, and the issue remains unresolved until after the general election.

July 4 Arts: Henry Kirke Brown’s equestrian statue of George Washington is unveiled at Union Square, New York City; money for this impressive sculpture was gathered from subscriptions. Military: U.S. Army troops, dispatched from Fort Leavenworth, force the Free State Legislature in Topeka to disband.

July 17 General: A Sunday school outing near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, ends in a railroad disaster that takes the lives of 66 children.

July 20 Religion: The so-called Handcart Migration begins as a mass migration of Mormons from Nebraska to Salt Lake, Utah.

August Business: In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Joseph Schlitz takes control of the August Krug Brewery, renames it after himself, and begins catering to the large German populace there.

August 1 Politics: In light of the turmoil in “Bleeding Kansas,” the U.S. House of Representatives refuses to seat delegates from either pro-slavery or abolitionist factions.

August 10 General: Hurricane winds and tides lash Last Island, Louisiana, killing 400 people.

August 18 Politics: When Governor Shannon of Kansas resigns from office, John W. Geary is appointed by President Franklin Pierce to succeed him.

August 30 Military: A band of 300 pro-slavery militia arrack John Brown’s abolitionists in the town of Osawatomie, Kansas, and are repulsed. Politics: Congress adjourns without resolving the issue of “Bleeding Kansas,” which the Republicans intend to make a campaign issue.

1856

926

Chronology of American History

September 15 Military: Newly appointed Kansas territorial governor John W. Geary calls upon U.S. Army troops to prevent 2,500 “border ruffians” from Missouri from invading his charge.

September 17 Politics: Remnants of the Whig Party gather in Baltimore and endorse the American Party candidates Millard Fillmore and Andrew P. Donelson for president and vice president, respectively. Their platform also cautions against the increasingly strident and sectionalized nature of national politics.

September 21 Transportation: The newly completed Illinois Central Railroad commences running trains between Chicago and Cairo, Illinois; at 700 miles it is the longest stretch of track in the nation. Construction of the system consumed the energies of 10,000 workmen.

October 7 Technology: Cyrus Chambers of Pennsylvania invents the first functional device able to fold book and newspaper sheets; it also proves an excellent device for folding the heavy gauge paper associated with almanacs of the day.

November 4 Politics: Democrat James Buchanan defeats Republican John C. Frémont for the presidency in a contest decided largely along regional lines, North against South. The vote in the electoral college is 174 to 111; former president Millard Fillmore, now running as the candidate of the American and Whig parties, captures only a single state. Hereafter the Whigs cease exerting political influence at the national level.

December 20 Education: Newberry College is chartered in Newberry, South Carolina, by the Lutherans; its first class graduates in 1866.

December 28 General: Woodrow Wilson, the 28th president, is born in Staunton, Virginia.

1857

1857

Business: The Pennsylvania Railroad obtains a transportation monopoly in that state by purchasing the main canal system there. The John Deere Factory in Moline, Illinois, is producing and selling 10,000 steel plows a year. Education: Peter Cooper founds Cooper Union in New York City to provide education for the working class. Politics: Irish expatriate John O’Mahoney forms the secret Fenian Movement in New York City. They function as revolutionaries dedicated to removing British rule from Ireland and Canada. Publishing: Hinton Rowman publishes The Impending Crisis in the South, which postulates that slavery has impoverished great numbers of whites in the region; it is immediately banned throughout the South. The influential journals Atlantic Monthly under James Russell and Harper’s Weekly under George William Curtis make their debut. Societal: The Mardi Gras celebrations held at New Orleans feature large, decorative floats for the first time.

Chronology

927

Sports: The America’s Cup, won in an English boating race, is installed in the New York Yacht Club by the crew of the winning vessel America under Commodore John C. Stevens. The rules of baseball are further refined in Chicago, Illinois, with games now restricted to nine innings. Technology: The first passenger elevator is employed at the Haughwout Department Store in New York City. Transportation: New York and St. Louis are finally connected by rail once the last length of track is laid.

January 12–15 Politics: Kansas territorial governor John W. Geary vetoes a bill passed by the pro-slavery legislature calling for a census and a constitutional convention. He remains determined to establish fair and impartial elections.

January 15 Slavery: Radical abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison calls for dismemberment of the United States to preclude any association, political or otherwise, with slave states. The slogan for the Disunion Convention meeting at Worcester, Massachusetts, is “No Union With Slaveholder.”

February 21 Business: Congress invalidates foreign coins as legal tender.

March 3 Business: The Tariff Act of 1857 passes through Congress, which mandates a lowering of duties by 20 percent and also expands the list of duty-free imports. Communications: Congress appropriates $70,000 for Cyrus Field to lay the first transatlantic cable from Newfoundland to Ireland. After several mishaps, the project is finally completed on August 5, 1858.

March 4 Politics: James Buchanan is sworn in as the 15th president of the United States and the fifth Democrat. His inaugural speech reflects familiar themes of popular sovereignty and noninterference with slavery, although he condemns the outbreak of violence in Kansas. John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky also takes his oath as vice president.

March 6 Law: The Supreme Court decides the seminal case of Dred Scott v. Sanford. In this case the slave Dred Scott, who had been taken by his master from Missouri to Illinois—a free state—and then back, sued for his freedom. However, the Court, under Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, rules that Scott, as a slave, was at no time a citizen and, hence, lacks the legal ability to sue. This decision enforces the precedent that Congress cannot interfere with people’s property, including slaves, anywhere in the United States. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 is thus negated and the Court’s ruling sparks a new wave of outrage in the North.

May Societal: The plight of poverty-stricken women in Boston, Massachusetts, is partly alleviated with the opening of Channing House, under the aegis of Harriet Ryan Albee.

May 1 Politics: Massachusetts adopts a literacy test as a requirement for voting.

1857

928

Chronology of American History

Buchanan, James (1791–1868) President James Buchanan was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on April 23, 1791, a son of farmers. He graduated from Dickinson College in 1809, studied law, and in 1814 he won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives as a Federalist. He switched over to the new Democratic Party after 1828 and in 1834 was elected to the U.S. Senate. Buchanan was a masterful politician, gaining reelection three times, and in 1846 his name was frequently mentioned as a presidential candidate. However, that year he lost out to James K. Polk, who appointed him secretary of state. In this capacity Buchanan agreed perfectly with Polk’s expansionist sentiments, and he negotiated a treaty with England for the acquisition of Oregon along the 49th Parallel without a war. He also opposed the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the Mexican War, 1846–48, in preference to annexing even larger swaths of territory. Buchanan, a Southern sympathizer and essentially pro-slavery, also

James Buchanan, 15th president of the United States (Library of Congress)

May 21 Diplomacy: In Nicaragua, William Walker’s regime is overthrown by forces working for Cornelius Vanderbilt.

May 26 Politics: Robert J. Walker of Mississippi succeeds John W. Geary as governor of the Kansas Territory, and he pledges to have any new constitution proffered by a convention ratified by a fair, popular vote. Dred Scott, the slave at the epicenter of a recent Supreme Court ruling, is freed by his owner.

June 2 Technology: James Ethan Allen Gibbs of Mill Point, Virginia, receives a patent for his twisted-loop, rotary hook sewing machine.

June 16 Military: Camels imported to Texas for the U.S. Army are ridden overland to California as a test of their viability as livestock. The soldiers find them smelly and ill-tempered.

1857

Chronology

pushed Spain hard to sell the island of Cuba, which would then be brought in as a slave state. He maintained his presidential aspirations in 1848 and 1852, although he was passed over twice, and President Franklin Pierce appointed him ambassador to England. In this capacity he helped craft the Ostend Manifesto of 1856, which basically declared that if Spain did not sell Cuba to the United States it might be annexed by force. His obvious pro-Southern stances endeared him to Southern Democrats, and in 1856 they helped him secure the party nomination. Buchanan handily defeated John C. Frémont, the first Republican candidate, and was sworn in as the 15th chief executive. Once in power, the Buchanan administration was immediately buffeted by mounting national discord over the issue of slavery. On March 6, 1857, the Supreme Court handed down its infamous Dred Scott decision, which nationalized slavery and outraged many Northerners. Buchanan hoped that this ruling would settle the slavery issue once and for

929

all, but it escalated the rhetoric and sectional antagonism instead. He then compounded his problems by assuming a pro-slavery stance over the issue of Kansas, its pro-slavery constitution, and whether or not it must gain admittance into the Union as a slave state. Here he ran afoul of Senator Stephen A. Douglas, the most powerful Democratic senator, who denounced his decision as against popular sovereignty. By 1858 he was dealing with a hostile, Republican-dominated Congress, who were dead set against the expansion of slavery into new territory. Buchanan’s final crisis was in the fall of 1860, following the victory of Abraham Lincoln as president, which induced South Carolina to secede from the Union. He roundly condemned the decision but took no strenuous actions against the rebels and left the White House a thoroughly discredited man. Buchanan spent the rest of his life defending his administration before his death at Lancaster on June 1, 1868. His politically indecisive nature proved a major cause behind the civil strife he sought so earnestly to avoid.

June 18 Diplomacy: The United States and Japan reach an accord whereby American vessels are allowed to trade at the port of Nagasaki, which has hosted Dutch merchants for two hundred years.

June 23 Technology: William Kelley receives a patent for his process of steel manufacturing, which entails blowing cold air through molten iron. Ironically, Henry Bessemer of England also arrived at the same process independently. Steel, which is much harder than the iron it replaces and rust resistant, marks an important advance as a building block of a modern technological base and infrastructure.

June 27 Science: In the first conservationist discourse, an essay in Scientific American warns that the population of whales is seriously declining owing to the insatiable appetite for whale oil to light lamps.

July 31 Settlement: Alfred Cumming arrives in Utah to replace Brigham Young as territorial governor; his arrival sparks dissent and the brief “Mormon War.”

1857

930  Chronology of American History

August 14 Communication: British and American ships anchor at Valentia Bay, Ireland, to begin to lay down the first transatlantic cable.

August 24 Business: The panic of 1857 begins after a New York branch of the Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company fails, the first of 4,932 firms to go under this year. Â�Over-­speculating in railway securities and real estate are the cause of the crash.

September 11 Religion: After President James Buchanan orders Brigham Young removed as governor of the Utah Territory, Mormon fanatic John D. Lee encourages nearby Indians to murder 120 California settlers in the Mountain Meadows Massacre.

September 15 General: William Howard Taft, the 27th president, is born in Cincinnati, Ohio.

October 4 Military: In Utah, Mormons of the Nauvoo Legion attack a U.S. Army supply train, inflicting no losses but burning several wagons.

October 5 Politics: Governor Robert Walker of the Kansas Territory authorizes strictly monitored elections within his charge. Several thousand fraudulent ballots are discarded in consequence, and the Free State Party wins control of the legislature.

October 6 Sports: The American Chess Association is orÂ�gaÂ�nized in New York City during the first American Chess Congress. There, 20-­year-­old Paul C. Morphy of New Orleans, Louisiana, easily wins the American Championship. He subsequently tours EuÂ�rope, defeating all players opposing him, and reigns as the nation’s first international chess master.

October 19–November 8 Politics: Â�Pro-­slavery delegates meeting in Lecompton, Kansas, adopt a new constitution which legalizes slaves as property. When Governor Robert Walker objects, President James Buchanan approves of the convention to promote DemoÂ� cratic Party unity.

November Diplomacy: Notorious filibuster William Walker tries returning to Nicaragua but is arrested by the U.S. Navy en route and sent back to the United States.

December 8 Politics: In his first address to Congress, President James Buchanan seeks to employ U.S. Army troops to restore order in Utah and also voices his support for the new Â�pro-­slavery constitution in Kansas.

December 9 Politics: DemoÂ�crat Stephen A. Douglas, a presidential aspirant, denounces the Kansas Â�pro-­slavery constitution in the Senate, which places him at odds with President James Buchanan.

1857

Chronology   931

December 21 Politics: The Â�pro-­slavery constitution is approved by voters once the Free State Party members boycott the convention.

1858 Architecture: Frederick Law Olmstead begins designing Central Park in New York City. Work begins on St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City; this is an expression of Gothic revival style as interpreted by architect James Renwick. Arts: Pioneering photographer Matthew Brady establishes studios in New York and Washington, D.C. Business: The Panic of 1857 continues into the new year with another 4,222 businesses failing. The first Macy’s store opens for business in New York City, which pioneers a fixed price policy, now an established retail custom. Education: John Gorham Palfrey, formerly editor of the North American Review, publishes his History of New EnÂ�gland; it establishes new critical standards in historiography. Publishing: Lowell Mason’s musical compilation, Carmina Sacra, first pub-­ lished in 1841, has sold 500,000 copies to date and is the most popÂ�uÂ�lar music text in America. Religion: A religious revival begins in New York and Philadelphia this year and begins sweeping the nation. It is characterized by daily prayer meetings and is probably brought on by hardships occasioned by the panic of 1857. Science: The first dinosaur skeleton, a Â�plant-­eating Hadrosaur, is unearthed in Haddonfield, New Jersey. Societal: Birth control, heretofore a taboo subject publicly, is openly discussed in H. C. Wright’s book The Unwelcomed Child; of the Crime of an Undesigned and Undesired Maternity. Sports: The National Association of Baseball Players convenes its first-ever meeting and adopts rules pioneered by the New York Knickerbockers. Technology: Richard Esterbrook manufactures steel pens for the first time in his factory at Philadelphia. Transportation: George M. Pullman designs and builds the first sleeper cars; these are initially used on the Chicago and Alton Railroad. Women: The Ladies Christian Association is founded in New York.

January 4 Politics: The Â�pro-­slavery constitution comes up for a second vote in Lecompton, Kansas, and this time is defeated by the majority of Free State Party members.

January 6 Education: The University of the South is chartered in Sewanee, Tennessee, by the Episcopalians; its first class graduates in 1873.

February 2 Politics: President James Buchanan asks Congress to admit Kansas into the Â� Union as a slave state, even though the majority of convention members have rejected the Â�pro-­slavery Lecompton constitution.

1858

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Chronology of American History

February 3 Politics: Illinois Demo cratic senator Stephen A. Douglas leads a revolt by Northern Democrats against President James Buchanan over the latter’s stance on Kansas as a pro-slavery state; he regards it as a violation of popular sovereignty.

March 23 Politics: The Senate votes to allow Kansas into the Union as a slave state. This is despite the dubious legality of the Lecompton constitution, which had already been rejected by the voters there.

March 27 Indian: The Second Seminole War ends when Chief Billy Bowlegs visits Washington, D.C., and signs a peace treaty authorizing the removal of his band from Florida to Oklahoma.

April 1 Politics: The House of Representatives adds a provision to the Kansas bill whereby the Lecompton constitution is to be submitted to a new popular vote.

April 6 Politics: In an angry message, President James Buchanan insists that Mormons are defying federal law and “Levying war against the United States.”

April 12 Sports: Fireman’s Hall, Detroit, is the scene of the first U.S. billiards championship, when Michael J. Phelan defeats John Seereiter in a grueling, nine-hour match. Among the “genteel” audience in attendance were several ladies.

May 4 Politics: In a compromise move, moderate Democrat William B. English of Indiana proposes to allow Kansas into the Union if the pro-slavery constitution is ratified by the inhabitants.

May 11 Military: A force of 100 Texas rangers under Rip Ford surprise and attack a hostile Comanche village in Oklahoma, routing the defenders and killing several braves along with Chief Iron Jacket. Politics: Minnesota enters the Union as the 32nd state; slavery is outlawed.

May 17 Military: U.S. soldiers are defeated in an engagement with Nez Perce Indians at Rosalia, Washington Territory.

June 13 General: The steamship Pennsylvania explodes on the Mississippi River, killing 160 passengers.

June 16 Politics: The Illinois Republican Party nominates Abraham Lincoln to challenge Democratic incumbent Stephen A. Douglas for his seat in the U.S. Senate. Douglas has angered many on both sides of the slavery debate by straddling the issue, but Lincoln’s stance is refreshingly unequivocal: “A house divided against itself cannot stand . . . . I believe that this government cannot endure permanently half-slave and half-free.”

1858

Chronology

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June 18 Diplomacy: The United States and China conclude a treaty of peace, friendship, and commerce.

June 26 Military: A column of U.S. Army troops under no-nonsense Colonel Albert S. Johnston occupies Salt Lake City, Utah, finding it largely deserted by the Mormons.

July 20 Sports: A showdown between baseball teams from New York and Brooklyn is also the first baseball game for which an admission fee—50 cents—is charged. Onlookers throng the Fashion Race Course on Long Island to watch Brooklyn lose, 22–18.

July 29 Diplomacy: American consul to Japan Townsend Harris finalizes a sweeping treaty with the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, which opens additional ports to trade, grants resident rights to Americans, and formalizes diplomatic representation in both nations.

August 2 Politics: Voters in Kansas reject the Lecompton pro-slavery constitution for a third time and, with it, their bid for statehood. The entire issue has split the Democratic Party, encouraged Southern extremists, and handed the Republicans a significant campaign issue.

August 16 Communication: President James Buchanan exchanges salutations with Queen Victoria of England over the new transatlantic cable.

August 21– October 15 Politics: The gaunt, gangly Abraham Lincoln takes on shorter, stouter Stephen A. Douglas, the “Little Giant,” in a series of seven energetic debates. Lincoln castigates slavery outright while Douglas, if not exactly defending that “peculiar institution,” reiterates that all Americans living in territories have the right to vote their preference. In the end Lincoln wins the popular vote but Douglas is subsequently reelected by the Democratically controlled legislature. Lincoln nevertheless emerges as a national spokesman for the antislavery movement.

September Politics: A professor and several students from Oberlin College, Ohio, rescue a fugitive slave named John and convey him safely to Canada.

September 2 Communication: The much vaunted transatlantic cable, 3,000 miles long, breaks down after only 28 days of operation owing to faulty insulation.

September 24 Indian: In the Oregon Territory, the Yakima War ends with a treaty signed between Colonel George Wright and several tribal representatives.

October 7 Transportation: A stagecoach belonging to the Overland Mail Company arrives in Los Angeles, California, from St. Louis, Missouri, covering 2,600 barren miles of deserts and plains in only 24 days.

1858

934

Chronology of American History

October 16 Literature: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s epic poem “The Courtship of Miles Standish” is published. This fictitious account of the love triangle between Standish, his friend John Alden, and Priscilla proves a best seller in England, selling 10,000 copies in a single day. To date Longfellow has sold an estimated 300,000 volumes, making him of one the most popular poets of his generation.

October 25 Politics: New York senator William H. Seward, a presidential aspirant, delivers an important address at Rochester, presciently predicting armed conflict over the issue of slavery.

October 27 General: Theodore Roosevelt, the future 26th president, is born in New York City.

December 6 Politics: In his annual message, President James Buchanan implores Congress to grant him the authority to purchase Cuba and also place northern Mexico under a “temporary protectorate.”

1859 Arts: A group sculpture called “Slave Auction” is dramatically rendered by artist John Rodgers. Business: The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company (A&P) has its origins in a general store that opens on Vesey Street in New York City. Education: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Journalism: The Democrat, published at Sioux Falls, becomes South Dakota’s first newspaper. Medical: Dr. Elias Samuel Cooper founds the first medical college on the West Coast as part of the University of the Pacific. Societal: George Washington’s former home at Mount Vernon, Virginia, is declared a national monument. Technology: The Fifth Avenue Hotel, New York City, boasts the first hotel passenger elevator installed in America.

January 5 Politics: The Illinois state senate reelects Stephen A. Douglas to the U.S. Senate, although Abraham Lincoln’s performance in the race has captured national attention.

February 14 Politics: Oregon joins the Union as the 33rd state; slavery is outlawed.

March 7 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court overturns a verdict by the Wisconsin State Supreme Court in the case of Ableman v. Booth, involving Sherman Booth, an abolitionist editor jailed for violating provisions of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act. The state court, viewing the act as manifestly unconstitutional, freed Booth, but the Supreme Court, noting that states cannot negate federal laws, orders him imprisoned again. The Wisconsin legislature then passes a resolution defending its state sovereignty.

1859

Chronology

935

March 26 Music: American composer George F. Bristow performs his Third Symphony in F with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra; he is emerging as the most notable of native-born classical composers.

April 4 Music: Dan D. Emmett’s infectious air Dixie is performed for the first time by Bryant’s Minstrels at Mechanics Hall, New York City. As events unfold this seemingly innocuous song becomes the de facto—if unofficial—national anthem of the Confederate States of America.

April 9 Literature: Samuel Clemens (the future Mark Twain) begins working on the Mississippi River as a steamboat pilot.

April 23 Journalism: The Rocky Mountain News begins publication at Auraia (Denver) as Colorado’s first newspaper; it sells for 25 cents in either coin or gold dust.

May 9–19 Business: The annual Southern commercial convention meets in Vicksburg, Mississippi, and passes several resolutions demanding the repeal of all government restrictions upon slavery, in effect reopening the slave trade. The delegates feel that it is incumbent upon the federal government to protect private property, no matter what its form.

May 12 Women: In New York City, the Ninth Annual Women’s Rights Convention is addressed by Susan B. Anthony, who denounces the power of white males over women and African Americans.

June Business: The Comstock Lode, a huge deposit of silver, is uncovered near present-day Virginia City, Nevada, and precipitates another stampede of fortune seekers throughout the region. Over the next two decades $300 million in gold and silver is extracted.

June 30 Sports: French daredevil Charles Blondin crosses Niagara Falls on a tightrope for the first time, observed by 25,000 spectators. Subsequent stunts of his include crossing while blindfolded, with a wheelbarrow, with a man on his back, and on stilts.

July 1 Sports: Students from Williams College and Amherst College, Massachusetts, square off in the first intercollegiate baseball game in nearby Pittsfield. Amherst stomps the competition, 66–32.

July 5–29 Politics: Another constitutional convention unfolds at Wyandotte, Kansas, and a new document is drafted which specifically prohibits slavery.

July 26 Sports: A rowing team from Harvard prevails in the first intercollegiate regatta held at Lake Quinsigamond, Massachusetts, by defeating contenders from Yale and Brown universities.

1859

936  Chronology of American History

August 27 Business: Oil is struck near Titusville, Pennsylvania, by Edwin L. Drake, who goes on to erect the nation’s first oil Â�well—and the rise of a vital industry. Drake’s initial output is only 20 barrels per day, but within three years 128 million gallons have been extracted. The kerosene derived from oil quickly replaces Â�whale oil as a fuel for lamps.

September Business: Farmers in need of better ways of rapidly shipping their grain stocks to markets back east form the Merchants Grain Forwarding Association in Chicago.

September 1 Transportation: The first modern sleeping car is built and operated by George M. Pullman.

October 3 Sports: The United States loses an international cricket match to an En�glish team at Hoboken, New Jersey; the contest lasts three days before a winner is declared.

October 4 Politics: The antislavery Wyandotte Constitution is approved by voters in Kan-­ sas by a Â�two-­to-­one margin.

Engraving of the Harper’s Ferry (as it was then known) insurrection depicting the U.S. Marines storming the engine Â�house while John Brown and his followers fire through holes in the doors.╇ (Library of Congress)

1859

Chronology   937

October 16–18 Slavery: Radical abolitionist John Brown leads a mixed group of blacks and whites who seize the federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, in a failed attempt to establish a separate “country” for African Americans in the Appala-­ chian Mountains. However, their quixotic quest dies when a detachment of U.S. Marines under Army Colonel Robert E. Lee storms their position and forces their surrender.

November 24 Music: Adelina Patti, a European-­born, American-­trained coloratura soprano, debuts in New York City. She subsequently becomes one of Europe’s most highly regarded singers, and one of the most highly paid entertainers of her day.

Brown, John

(1800–1859)

Abolitionist John Brown was born in Torrington, Con-­ necticut, on May 9, 1800, the son of a tanner. He matured in a very religious household and embraced his parent’s stri-­ dent abolitionist views toward slavery. Despite his religious fervor, Brown proved something of a misfit in the business world, continually failing at driving cattle, tanning, farming, and selling wool. This inability to secure gainful employment meant that his 20 children from two marriages always endured a hardscrabble existence. However, by 1849, Brown found his calling as part of the rising abolitionist movement in the northeast. After living in a community estab-­ lished for free African Americans in North Elba, New York, he relocated his family to Ohio, where he served as a conductor with the “Underground Railroad.” Brown, fired by intense religiosity, always expressed the belief that the demon of slavery could only be exorcized by bloodshed—and he gradu-­ ally believed he was chosen as the instru-­ ment of God’s wrath. As such, in the wake of the Kansas-­Nebraska Act of 1854, which allowed the issue of slavery to be settled by “popular sovereignty,” Brown moved once

again to Kansas to combat the pro-­slavery factions moving into the territory. He was (continues)

Issued in the North during the Civil War, this melodramatic portrayal of John Brown meeting a slave mother and her child on his way to execution was symbolic and used for propaganda purposes. (Library of Congress)

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(continued) an active participant in violence between the two groups, and in May 1856 he and his sons murdered five settlers suspected of proslavery beliefs. Over the next three years, he also became transfixed by a scheme to instigate an armed slave uprising throughout the south and repeatedly traveled back east to seek financial support to establish a guerrilla base in the mountains of modern-day West Virginia. On October 17, 1859, Brown and a group of 21 followers, including several free African Americans, attacked and captured the U.S. Government arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia. Several men were killed in the process, and the guerrillas took several hostages while waiting for the insurrection to foment. Instead, the raiders were surrounded and attacked by a company of U.S. Marines commanded by Colonel Robert E. Lee. In the fighting that followed, 10 of Brown’s party were killed and he was cap-

tured along with six others. The following November he was tried at Charles Town on charges of murder, conspiracy, and treason, found guilty, and sentenced to death. Brown seemed to welcome his fate, realizing that his sacrifice would transform him from a violent religious zealot into an abolitionist martyr. He was executed on December 2, 1859, having roiled the national polity into fury over his actions, both pro and con. Northerners came to see him as a selfless hero sacrificing himself in a noble cause while Southerners castigated him as proof of a Yankee plot intended to end slavery. Within two years, Brown fulfilled his wish with the advent of the Civil War, through which slavery was finally expunged through blood and fire. In light of his role in precipitating the crisis, he was immortalized in the North through the popular song “John Brown’s Body,” a hymn frequently sung by Union armies marching south.

December Business: A new gold rush in the vicinity of Pike’s Peak, Colorado, brings an estimated 100,000 prospectors into the region.

December 2 Slavery: Radical abolitionist John Brown, convicted of criminal conspiracy and treason, is publicly hung at Charles Town, Virginia. Southerners note with alarm how many Northerners, while disagreeing with his tactics, approve his goals. Brown, moreover, waxes philosophical over his defeat; having failed to incite an insurrection, he hopes that his execution and martyrdom will ignite a civil war that will kill off slavery as an institution. As writer Henry David Thoreau presciently and prophetically observed, “This is sowing the wind to reap the whirlwind, which will soon come.”

December 5 Politics: As an indication of mounting and rampant sectionalism, the U.S. House of Representatives spends two months trying to select a compromise speaker and finally settles upon William Pennington of New Jersey. Charles Sumner of Massachusetts resumes his seat in the U.S. Senate after his caning by Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina.

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December 14 Slavery: The Georgia legislature, eager to preserve its slave population at present levels, enacts a new law which forbids deeds or wills from manumitting slaves after the death of their owner.

December 17 Slavery: The Georgia legislature votes to have any African American indicted on vagrancy be sold into bondage.

December 19 Slavery: President James Buchanan, in his message to Congress, rails against the foreign slave trade, yet pledges to protect American vessels from searches at sea by ships of the Royal Navy.

1860 Education: In Boston, educator Elizabeth Peabody opens an experimental English-speaking kindergarten based on the successful German model. Literature: Nathaniel Hawthorne publishes The Marble Faun, his last romantic novel. Ralph Waldo Emerson publishes his essay The Conduct of Life, which touches upon science, culture, faith, and morality. Medical: Dr. Abraham Jacobi becomes the first physician of children’s diseases at New York Medical College. Population: The latest census reveals a population of 31 million inhabitants, including 4 million slaves. Religion: Olympia Brown becomes the first woman admitted to a theological school when she matriculates at St. Lawrence University, New York. Sports: San Francisco sponsors its first baseball games.

February 1 Politics: After 44 ballots, Demo crat William F. Pennington emerges as speaker and takes his chair in the U.S. House of Representatives. He does so only after the withdrawal of fellow Democrat John Sherman, whose own candidacy was hobbled by his prior endorsement of an antislavery tract. The contest highlights growing factionalism within the Democrats over that “peculiar institution.”

February 2 Politics: Mississippi senator Jefferson Davis introduces extreme resolutions defending the legality of slavery in both slave states and the territories that guarantee the return of fugitive slaves to rightful owners.

February 15 Education: The Illinois Institute (Wheaton College) is founded in Wheaton, Illinois, by the Methodists.

February 22 Labor: A successful work stoppage by 22,000 shoe workers in Lynn and Natick, Massachusetts, leads to higher wages. The strike is the most significant of the period and also notable in that it involved large number of women workers.

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February 23 Politics: The Kansas Territorial Legislature Â�re-­adopts the antislavery Wyandotte Constitution over the veto of Governor Samuel Medary.

February 27 Arts: Presidential aspirant Abraham Lincoln poses for photographer Mathew Brady in New York City; Lincoln later attributes his election victory to this effec-­ tive portrait. Politics: Illinois attorney Abraham Lincoln speaks at New York’s Cooper Â�Union, delivering his first memorable address in the East. Â�Here he strongly denounces the extremism of “popÂ�uÂ�lar sovereignty” and remains conciliatory toward the South. However, he remains adamantly opposed to the extension of slavery into the territories.

March 6 Labor: Hundreds of Massachusetts shoemakers, including scores of women, march out from their workplaces in protest. At nearby New Haven, Connecticut, candidate Abraham Lincoln expresses his support for the strikers.

March 9 Diplomacy: Niimi Masaoki, the first Japa�nese ambassador dispatched abroad, arrives at San Francisco onboard the warship USS Powhatan.

March 19 Women: Suffragette Elizabeth Cady Stanton testifies before the New York State legislature in Albany to obtain her right to vote.

March 20 Education: St. Stephen’s College is chartered in Annandale, New York, by the Episcopalian Church; its first class graduates in 1861.

April 3–13 Communication: The first deliver of the noted “Pony Express” mail serÂ�vice com-­ mences a year ahead of the first transcontinental telegraph; riders need only 11 days to traverse the 157 separate stations, each seven miles apart, between St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California. In this instance Tom Hamilton arrives with a satchel stuffed with 49 letters and three newspapers.

April 23–May 3 Politics: In the face of a mounting sectional schism, the DemoÂ�cratic Party holds its nominating convention at Charleston, South Carolina. However, when the majority fails to approve a territorial slave code, representatives from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and South Carolina withdraw in protest on April 30. The remaining participants, unable to muster a Â�two-­thirds majority behind any one candidate, vote instead to adjourn and reassemble on June 18.

April 30 Slavery: The American warship USS Mohawk seizes the Spanish slave trader Wildfire off the coast of Florida.

May 9–10 Politics: Baltimore, MaryÂ�land, is the site of the Constitutional Whig Party nominating convention; this entity is drawn from remnant of the American and

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Brady, Mathew B.

(ca. 1823–1896)

Photographer Mathew B. Brady was born in Warren County, New York, around 1823, the son of Irish immigrants. By 1839 he had become infatuated with portraiture and ventured to New York City to study under noted art-­ ist Samuel F. B. Morse. Morse, however, had recently returned from France, and he brought back samples of the new technology known as “daguerreotype,” a primitive form of photography employing silver-­coated copper plates. Brady took readily to the new medium and opened up his own studio in 1844. In practice, he proved himself a visual virtuoso by pioneering new techniques of lighting, composition, and use of makeup on his subjects. Brady gained renown as one of the nation’s foremost portrait artists and acquired a loyal and well-­heeled clientele. In 1845 he also commenced a personal project entitled Illustrious Americans, a compilation of 24 noted citizens artfully photographed which he finally published in 1850. The title was particularly well-­ received in England, earning him a medal. Success here led to collaboration with other noted photographers, especially Alexander Gardner, who introduced Brady to the new “wet plate” process. This innovation cre-­ ated a negative on glass, allowing an endless number of reproductions to be printed from the original. Such was Brady’s renown that in 1860 presidential aspirant Abraham Lin-­ coln sat for him in New York City; Lincoln considered the resulting photo so flattering that he attributed his election victory to it. In time Lincoln became one of Brady’s most frequently covered subjects, who masterfully captured both his profound intellect and intense sadness on film. The onset of the Civil War in 1861 prompted Brady to expand his reputation

by become history’s first combat photog-­ rapher. He outfitted a specially darkened wagon that followed the Union army in the field, and he shot thousands of photographs covering generals, landscapes, troop forma-­ tions, and battlefield dead. He also hired noted photographers such as Gardner and Timothy O’Sullivan, but was not above claiming credit for their own excellent work. (continues)

Mathew B. Brady (Library of Congress)

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(continued) Still, the thousands of haunting images captured on glass by Brady constitute the first modern photograph coverage of a major conflict and part of the nation’s historical record. Unfortunately, Brady’s quest for coverage proved his own undoing, and by war’s end he was seriously in debt. He was forced to sell his entire collection of 6,176 negatives for a paltry $2,840—a fraction of his original investment. In 1875 the government paid him an additional $25,000 for exclusive rights to the photos, most of

which ended up in either the Library of Congress or the National Archives. Brady, however, remained a ruined man and took to drinking. He managed to maintain a small studio in New York, a mere shadow of his former business, and died in poverty on January 15, 1896. Still, he made indelible contributions to the advancement and aesthetics of photography through his pioneering techniques, and his reputation as America’s most famous photographer endures.

Whig parties. They then chose John Bell of Tennessee as their candidate for the presidency with Edward Everett of Massachusetts as his vice president. They also strongly denounce sectionalism and secessionism.

May 16 Politics: The Republican Party convenes its nominating convention in Chicago, Illinois. The leading candidate, William H. Seward, is regarded as too radical on the issue of abolitionism, so he succumbs on the third ballot to Abraham Lincoln of Illinois. Hannibal Hamlin of Maine is then chosen as vice president. Lincoln triumphs by positing himself as a moderate on the subject of slavery; he opposes its expansion into the territories but pledges not to interfere where it already exists.

May 24 – 25 Politics: The U.S. Senate, controlled 36–24 by the Democrats, adopts Senator Jefferson Davis’s pro-slavery resolutions. However, the acrimony this engenders only widens rift between Northern and Southern delegates, particularly within the Democratic Party.

June 9 Publishing: Malaeska: The Indian Wife of the White Hunter by Ann Sophie Stevens debuts in New York City as the first of the Irwin P. Beadle “Dime Novel” series. These prove immensely popular in their day.

June 11 Politics: Southern Democrats who abandoned the party convention in Charleston, South Carolina, assemble in Richmond, Virginia, in a strategy session. They vote to reconvene again in Baltimore on the 28th.

June 18–23 Politics: The Democratic Party reconvenes its nominating convention in Baltimore, Maryland, in the absence of many Southern delegates. They nonetheless nominate Stephen A. Douglas for president with Herschel V. Johnson of Georgia as his vice presidential running mate. Their platform endorses the notion of “popular sovereignty” in the territories.

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June 20 Politics: President James Buchanan vetoes the Homestead Bill, believing that Congress lacks the constitutional authority to grant land to individuals.

June 28 Politics: Southern delegates, who had previously absented themselves from the Democratic Party convention, convene in Baltimore, Maryland, as the National Democratic Party. They nominate former vice president John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky as their standard bearer with Joseph Lane of Oregon as vice president, while the party platform unequivocally supports the expansion of slavery into the territories.

August 6 Military: American filibusters under William Walker attack and seize Trujillo, Honduras, storming a customhouse whose revenues are property of the British government. Walker is soon after compelled to surrender to a British warship and is taken captive.

August 31 Diplomacy: Secretary of State Lewis Cass, alarmed by a major French incursion into Mexico, warns the government of Napoleon III that a military occupation of that country is unacceptable to the United States.

September 8 General: The steamer Lady Elgin collides with the lumber vessel Augusta on Lake Michigan and sinks; 300 passengers are killed.

September 12 General: Notorious filibuster William Walker is turned over to Honduran authorities by the British, tried, and executed by firing squad.

September 17 General: The large steam vessel Commonwealth is destroyed by fire at Groton, Connecticut.

November 6 Politics: Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin win the presidential contest by carrying 18 free states with 1,866,452 popular votes and 180 electoral votes— none of them from southern states. The Northern Democratic ticket of Stephen A. Douglas and Herschel V. Johnson registers second with 1,376,957 votes and 120 electoral votes while the competing National Democratic ticket of John C. Breckinridge and Joseph Lane are third with 11 slave states, 849,781 votes, and 72 electoral votes. Finishing fourth is the Constitutional Unionist ticket of John Bell and Edward Everett with 588,879 popular votes and 39 electoral votes. Lincoln’s triumph proves short-lived and precipitates secessionist tremors throughout the South.

November 7 Politics: Defiant authorities in Charleston, South Carolina, take umbrage over Abraham Lincoln’s recent victory; they raise the traditional palmetto flag over city hall and detain a federal army officer caught in the act of transferring military supplies from the Charleston arsenal to Fort Moultrie.

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November 8 Music: Noted minstrel writer Stephen C. Foster copyrights the song “Old Black Joe,” which differs from previous compositions by not using African-American dialects in the lyrics and expressing genuine sentimentality.

November 9 Politics: President James Buchanan summons a very divided cabinet to discuss the mounting secession crisis. Northerners Lewis Cass, Jeremiah S. Black, and Joseph Holt strongly favor preserving the federal union by force if necessary, while Southerners Howell Cobb, Jacob Thompson, and John B. Floyd oppose military intervention of any kind. Military: Partisans in Charleston, South Carolina, attempt to seize federal arms stored at Fort Moultrie.

November 10 Politics: The South Carolina legislature reacts to Abraham Lincoln’s victory by authorizing a convention to contemplate secession from the Union. In Washington, D.C., South Carolina senators James Chestnut and James H. Hammond also resign their seats and return home.

November 13 Politics: The South Carolina legislature authorizes raising 10,000 volunteers to defend the state from a possible Northern invasion.

November 14 Politics: Georgia congressman Alexander H. Stephens addresses the state legislature at Milledgeville and implores members to oppose secession and uphold constitutional law.

November 15 Military: Major Robert Anderson, U.S. Army, himself a slave-owning Southerner, is ordered to take command of the federal garrison at Fort Moultrie in Charleston harbor, South Carolina. Naval: Lieutenant Thomas A. Craven, commanding the naval installation at Key West, Florida, orders landing parties to secure nearby Forts Taylor and Jefferson against possible seizure by “Bands of lawless men.”

November 18 Politics: The Georgia legislature, following South Carolina’s lead, procures $1 million to purchase arms and begin training troops.

November 19 Arts: Adelina Patti, soon touted as the nation’s foremost opera star, debuts at the French Opera House in New Orleans, Louisiana.

November 20 Politics: President James Buchanan is advised by Attorney General Jeremiah S. Black of his obligation to protect public property from illegal seizure, but also of the necessity of refraining from use of military force unless violence is first instigated by the secessionists. He is further counseled not to wage offensive warfare against rebellious states, but rather to rely upon the courts to uphold the law.

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November 23 Military: Major Robert Anderson reports on the defensive weaknesses of Fort Moultrie, Charleston harbor, and suggests transferring his garrison to nearby Fort Sumter, offshore.

November 30 Politics: The Mississippi state legislature begins drawing up articles of secession.

December 1 Politics: The Florida legislature convenes to ponder and debate the growing secession crisis.

December 3 Politics: The 36th Congress convenes its second session in Washington, D.C. Slavery: A public memorial to abolitionist John Brown, organized in Boston, Massachusetts, by Frederick Douglass, is disrupted by pro-slavery agitators.

December 4 Politics: President James Buchanan delivers his final State of the Union address to Congress, noting with trepidation that different sections of the country were “now arrayed against each other.” He attributes the mounting secession crisis to the machinations of free states and questions the constitutionality of using military force to interfere with that process. Buchanan nonetheless opposes secession despite his strong sympathies for the South.

December 5 Politics: President-elect Abraham Lincoln strongly disputes the conclusions of President James Buchanan’s recent State of the Union address.

December 6 Politics: The House of Representatives appoints the Committee of Thirty-Three, with one member from each state, to discuss the present crisis and suggest possible solutions.

December 8 Politics: Secretary of the Treasury Howell Cobb, a Georgian, feels that is inevitable at this juncture and tenders his resignation. He is briefly succeeded by Philip F. Thomas of Maryland. President-elect Abraham Lincoln approaches his political rival William H. Seward and asks him to serve as secretary of state in his new administration. Seward readily agrees, although less out of altruism than a sense than the “incompetent” Lincoln needs an experienced politician to serve as his de facto “prime minister.”

December 10 Politics: A delegation of South Carolinians meets with President James Buchanan in Washington, D.C., assuring him that federal troops and installations will not be disturbed in the event of secession. The president remains unconvinced and begins mobilizing military resources for action. Furthermore, Buchanan continues wrestling with the issue of eventually dispatching reinforcements to the South. The South Carolina legislature endorses a secession convention, set to convene in Columbia on December 17.

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December 11 Military: Major Don Carlos Buell arrives at Fort Moultrie, Charleston harbor, with instructions from the War Department for Major Robert Anderson. Apparently, Secretary of War John B. Floyd, a Virginian, refuses to dispatch reinforcements there to avoid provoking a confrontation.

December 12 Politics: Secretary of state Lewis Cass, furious over President James Buchanan’s unwillingness to forward military reinforcements to protect military installations in Charleston, South Carolina, resigns from office in protest. The Committee of the Thirty-three, meeting in the U.S. House of Representatives, offers more than 30 well-intentioned suggestions for avoiding civil war and secession—none of them viable.

December 13 Politics: President James Buchanan finally decides not to send reinforcements to Fort Sumter, Charleston harbor, despite the urging of several cabinet members. In Washington, D.C., seven senators and 23 representatives from across the South sign a manifesto encouraging secession from the Union.

December 14 Politics: The Georgia state legislature entreats Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, and South Carolina to appoint delegates to a forthcoming secession convention. All willingly comply.

December 17 Politics: The Secession Convention convenes in Columbia, South Carolina. Attorney General Jeremiah S. Black, a close confidant of President James Buchanan, is temporarily appointed secretary of state to succeed Lewis Cass. However, even Black cannot prevail upon Buchanan to reinforce military posts; the president is convinced that the South will be more pliable if troops are withheld.

December 18 Politics: In an attempt to stave off violence and conciliate Southerners, Senator John J. Crittenden of Kentucky promulgates the “Crittenden Compromise,” which restricts slavery to the boundaries of the old Missouri Compromise (1819) and also extends that line across the continent. Slavery is thus precluded from Northern territories but otherwise left intact. Significantly, President-elect Abraham Lincoln opposes the measure.

December 19 Politics: Delegates to the South Carolina Convention declare that no Federal soldiers can be sent to the forts in Charleston harbor.

December 20 Politics: In light of the mounting sectional crisis, the U.S. Senate appoints the Committee of Thirteen to investigate state affairs and seek possible solutions to avert civil war. Democrat Edward M. Stanton is appointed attorney general to replace Jeremiah S. Black. The South Carolina state convention meeting at Charleston votes 169 to 0—unanimously—to secede from the United States, declaring all prior associations

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with that entity null and void. This single act sets in motion a chain of events culminating in a mammoth military confrontation between North and South. Charleston’s inhabitants nonetheless slip into near-delirious celebrations.

December 22 Politics: The South Carolina state convention demands that the federal government yield control of Forts Moultrie and Sumter, along with the U.S. Arsenal in Charleston, to state authorities. Three commissioners are then dispatched to Washington, D.C., to present those demands.

December 24 Politics: Governor Francis W. Perkins of South Carolina declares his state free and independent of the United States, consistent with the “Declaration of Immediate Causes” issued by the convention. In Washington, D.C., Senator William J. Seward proffers a last-minute constitutional amendment mandating that Congress must not interfere with slavery as it exists in the states. He also seeks jury trials for any fugitive slaves apprehended in free states.

December 26 Military: Major Robert Anderson, commanding the Union garrison at Fort Moultrie, South Carolina, remains cognizant of the dangers facing his command. Henceforth, under the cover of darkness and upon his own initiative, he surreptitiously transfers his soldiers from the mainland to the more defensible post of Fort Sumter in nearby Charleston harbor.

December 27 Military: South Carolina state forces occupy Fort Moultrie and Castle Pinckney in Charleston harbor. This constitutes the first act of overt military aggression against the U.S. government. Naval: South Carolina forces seize the U.S. revenue cutter William Aiken in Charleston harbor. Politics: President James Buchanan expresses his surprise and regrets to southern congressmen that the garrison in Charleston slipped away to Fort Sumter, but he refuses ordering them back to the mainland.

December 28 Politics: A South Carolina delegation arrives in Washington, D.C., demanding that President James Buchanan removes all Federal troops from Charleston. He receives the delegates only as private citizens and again declines all demands for removing U.S. troops. Meanwhile, General in Chief Winfield Scott opposes abandoning the fort and urges Secretary of War John B. Floyd to dispatch immediate supplies and reinforcements.

December 29 Politics: President James Buchanan requests and receives the resignation of Secretary of War John B. Floyd after he insists on removing Federal forces from Charleston, South Carolina.

December 30 Military: The U.S. Arsenal at Charleston, South Carolina, is seized by state forces. They also occupy all remaining Federal property in the city save for Fort Sumter in the harbor.

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Chronology of American History Politics: The continuing seizure of Federal property by South Carolina authorities prompts threats of additional resignations among President James Buchanan’s cabinet if he fails to take more forceful action.

December 31 Politics: Postmaster general Joseph Holt is appointed acting secretary of war following the resignation of John B. Floyd. President James Buchanan also refuses another demand by Southern Commissioners to withdraw Federal troops from Charleston. Finally, upon the repeated insistence of Secretary of State Jeremiah S. Black, he reluctantly orders the Army and Navy Departments to mobilize troops and ships for the relief of Fort Sumter. Lines are being inexorably drawn in the sand and must be crossed soon by one side or the other. In the U.S. Senate, the Committee of Thirteen fails to reach accord on any possible political solutions, including the so-called “Crittenden Compromise.”

1861 Arts: The play East Lynne by English authoress Mrs. Henry Wood enjoys great success as a stage play and a novel, despite its reputation for rather crude melodrama. Antonio Pastor debuts on Broadway with his new format of “Vaudeville” shows, which are fast-paced yet suitable for the entire family. By the turn of the century, Vaudeville is the leading form of popular entertainment. Business: The U.S. Postal Service begins delivering goods along with letters for the first time. Education: Yale University becomes the first institute of higher learning to establish doctorates of philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees along the German model. Sports: The New York Clipper, a local newspaper, offers the first baseball trophy. Deerfoot, a Seneca tribal runner, handily defeats all opponents in running matches staged throughout Great Britain.

January 2 Military: The defense of Washington, D.C., is entrusted to Colonel Charles P. Stone, who begins organizing the District of Columbia militia. Politics: President James Buchanan refuses a letter from the South Carolina commissioners. The nominally sympathetic chief executive then orders preparations to get underway for reinforcing the garrison at Fort Sumter, South Carolina. General Winfield Scott prevails upon the president to employ a civilian steamer, rather than a military transport, which would arrive quicker and draw less attention.

January 3 Military: Fort Pulaski, near the mouth of the Savannah River, is peacefully occupied by Georgia state forces upon the orders of Governor Joseph E. Brown. Politics: The War Department summarily cancels instructions from former Secretary of War John B. Floyd to transfer heavy cannon from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to various points throughout the South. The South Carolina commission departs Washington, D.C., deeming its mission a failure. The Delaware legislature, although permitting slavery, votes unanimously to remain with the Union.

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Florida’s State Convention assembles in Tallahassee to weigh the matter of secession.

January 4 Military: The U.S. Arsenal at Mount Vernon, Mobile, is peacefully occupied by Alabama state forces under orders from Governor Andrew B. Moore.

January 5 Naval: The supply vessel Star of the West departs New York for Fort Sumter, South Carolina, carrying food supplies and soldiers as reinforcements. The warship USS Brooklyn, originally intended for the mission, is not used by General Winfield Scott, who feels that a civilian vessel will appear less provocative. Politics: Senators from seven Southern states, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, confer in Washington, D.C., over the possibility of secession. They ultimately urge slave states to leave the Union and establish a confederacy of their own.

January 6 Politics: Governor Thomas H. Hicks of Maryland, despite being governor of a slave state, endorses the Union and wades in heavily against secession.

January 7 Politics: The U.S. House of Representatives approves Major Robert Anderson’s recent and unauthorized transfer of Federal forces to Fort Sumter, South Carolina. State conventions in Mississippi and Alabama begin debating secession from the Union.

January 8 Politics: President James Buchanan urges Congress to consider adopting the “Crittenden Compromise.” Secretary of the Interior Jacob Thompson, the last remaining Southerner in President James Buchanan’s cabinet, tenders his resignation over the Star of the West’s departure. Before leaving Washington, D.C., he cables authorities in Charleston, South Carolina, of that vessel’s departure.

January 9 Military: Artillery manned by South Carolina state forces at Fort Moultrie and Morris Island fires upon the transport Star of the West as it approaches Charleston harbor. No damage is inflicted and it retires back to New York unscathed. Technically speaking, these are the first hostile shots of the Civil War, and Major Robert Anderson, commanding Fort Sumter’s garrison, protests the action to Governor Francis W. Pickens. However, Anderson orders his men to stand down and make no attempt to interfere. Politics: The Mississippi State Convention meeting in Jackson votes to secede on a vote of 84 to 15—becoming the second state to depart.

January 10 Military: Federal troops under Lieutenant Adams J. Slemmer, garrisoning at Fort Barancas at Pensacola, Florida, spike their cannon and retire offshore to Fort Pickens on nearby Santa Rosa Island. Local forces soon confiscate the navy yard, but Fort Pickens remains in Union hands for the duration of hostilities.

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Chronology of American History The U.S. Arsenal and Barracks at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, are confiscated by state forces under Braxton Bragg under the orders of Governor Thomas O. Moore. Politics: Senator Jefferson Davis addresses the U.S. Senate, requesting immediate action on and approval of Southern demands. However, he decries using force and seeks to resolve the crisis through constitutional means. William H. Seward gains appointment as secretary of state. Florida’s state convention adopts secession on a 62 to 7 vote, becoming the third state to secede.

January 11 Military: South Carolina governor Francis W. Pickens demands the surrender of Fort Sumter, Charleston harbor; Major Robert Anderson politely yet curtly declines. Politics: The Mississippi delegation to the U.S. House of Representative walks out of Congress. The New York legislature underscores its determination to uphold the Union by passing several government resolutions in its favor. The Alabama State Convention approves secession on a 61 to 39 vote, becoming the fourth state to leave the Union.

January 12 Politics: The Ohio legislature votes overwhelmingly to support continuation of the Union.

January 13 Military: An unofficial truce emerges between South Carolina authorities and the garrison at Fort Sumter, in Charleston harbor. Politics: President James Buchanan entertains an envoy dispatched from South Carolina Governor Francis W. Pickens and declares that Fort Sumter will not be surrendered to state authorities. The president also receives a communiqué from Major Robert Anderson, who alerts him of his worsening situation.

January 14 Politics: The House of Representatives Committee of Thirty-Three fails to agree upon any compromise solution to stave off civil war. Chairman Thomas Corwin next proposes a constitutional amendment to protect slavery where it exists; it passes but is never ratified by any state. The South Carolina legislature summarily declares that any Union attempt to reinforce Fort Sumter is tantamount to war.

January 15 Military: Major Robert Anderson receives a second summons to surrender Fort Sumter, Charleston harbor; again he politely refuses.

January 16 Politics: The U.S. Senate effectively defeats the “Crittenden Compromise,” insisting that the U.S. Constitution must be obeyed, not amended.

January 18 Education: Vassar Female College is founded in Poughkeepsie, New York, to offer women an education comparable to that received by men. Military: South Carolina officials make their third demand for the surrender of Major Robert Anderson and Fort Sumter, Charleston harbor, which is again respectfully declined.

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Politics: Former postmaster general Joseph Holt becomes secretary of war to replace Virginian John B. Floyd. The Massachusetts legislature votes to offer the Federal government men, money, and matériel in its struggle to preserve the Union.

January 19 Politics: The Georgia State Convention in Milledgeville approves secession on a 208 to 89 vote, becoming the fifth state to secede from the Union. The Virginia General Assembly entreats all states to send delegates to a National Peace Convention in Washington, D.C.

January 21 Politics: Jefferson Davis of Mississippi, accompanied by Clement C. Lay and Benjamin Fitzpatrick of Alabama, and Stephen R. Mallory and David L. Yulee of Florida, make dramatic farewell addresses in the U.S. Senate chamber in Washington, D.C., then depart for home. Davis in particular is deeply troubled by the course of events and is said to pray for peace that evening. The New York legislature votes to uphold the Union by force, if necessary. Rabid abolitionist Wendell Phillips hails the decision of slave states to secede, feeling that their continued presence is detrimental to the remaining free states.

January 22 Politics: New York Governor Edwin Morgan orders all weapons and gunpowder supplies previously sold to Georgia impounded. This prompts a sharp rebuke from Governor Joseph E. Brown, who seizes several Northern vessels in retaliation. The Wisconsin legislature votes to concur with New York’s stand on preserving the Union.

January 23 Naval: Commander John A. B. Dahlgren removes cannon and ammunition from the Washington Navy Yard in the event of a possible attack, storing much of the latter in the attic of a building. Politics: The Massachusetts legislature votes in agreement with New York’s pledge to uphold the Union.

January 26 Politics: At Baton Rouge, the Louisiana State Convention approves secession on a vote of 113 to 17, becoming the sixth state to secede.

January 29 Politics: Following a congressional vote, Kansas joins the Union as its 34th state; significantly, its constitution explicitly outlaws slavery.

January 31 Military: Louisiana officials orchestrate the seizure of the U.S. Branch Mint and Customs House at New Orleans, along with the U.S. Revenue schooner Washington.

February Literature: South Carolina poet Henry Timrod publishes his ode “Ethnogenesis,” which calls for a distinctly Southern civilization. For this and subsequent war poems he is lauded as the “Laureate of the Confederacy.”

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February 1 Politics: The Texas State Convention, convening in Austin, votes 166 to 7 in favor of secession, becoming the seventh state to secede. A public referendum is also scheduled to approve the measure.

February 3 Politics: Louisiana senators Judah P. Benjamin and John Slidell withdraw from the U.S. Senate and return home.

February 4 Politics: The Peace Convention, summoned by Virginia, assembles in Washington, D.C., under former president John Tyler. It consists of 131 members from 21 states, but none of the seceded states are represented. Representatives from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina assemble in Montgomery, Alabama, and form a Provisional Congress of the Confederate States of America with Howell Cobb of Georgia functioning as president.

February 5 Politics: President James Buchanan reiterates to South Carolina officials his determination that Fort Sumter, Charleston harbor, will not be yielded to state authorities. The Peace Conference in Washington, D.C., votes to earnestly resolve the outbreak of sectional violence both diplomatically and constitutionally.

February 7 Indian: The Choctaw Nation declares its allegiance with the Confederate States of America. Politics: The Secession Convention at Montgomery, Alabama, begins formally drafting plans for a provisional government in the form of a confederacy of states.

February 8 Politics: President James Buchanan authorizes a $25 million loan for current expenditures and redemption of treasury notes. Southern delegates at Montgomery, Alabama, proffer and unanimously approve the Provisional Constitution of the Confederate States of America—thereby founding the Confederacy. This document, while quite similar to its U.S. equivalent, explicitly declares and protects the right to own slaves. While the importation of slaves remains banned, the existing Fugitive Slave Law is strengthened.

February 9 Politics: Jefferson Davis of Mississippi, who is absent from the constitutional convention in Montgomery, Alabama, is unanimously elected provisional president of the Confederate States of America. Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia becomes provisional vice president. Moreover, the Provisional Confederate Congress pledges that all laws extant under the U.S. Constitution, which do not conflict with its Confederate counterpart, will be upheld. Voters in Tennessee roundly defeat a move to convene a secession convention, 68,282 to 59,449.

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February 10 Politics: A rather surprised Jefferson Davis is alerted by telegram of his election to the Confederate presidency. He had been anticipating a military commission of some kind but nonetheless agrees to the appointment.

February 11 Politics: President-­elect Abraham Lincoln departs Springfield, Illinois, and wends his way toward Washington, D.C. He will not return alive.

Davis, Jefferson (1808–1889) President, Confederate States of America Jefferson Davis was born in Christian County, Kentucky, on June 3, 1808, and raised in Mississippi. After briefly attending Transylvania University he applied to the U.S. Military Academy in 1825 and gradu-­ ated four years later in the middle of his class. As a second lieutenant in the 1st U.S. Infantry, he fought briefly in the Black Hawk War of 1832 under General Zachary Taylor and conducted Sauk Chief Black Hawk into confinement at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri. In May 1834 he married the daughter of General Taylor, but withdrew from society for a decade following her untimely death. It was not until 1844 that Davis emerged to successfully run for a seat in Congress. He resigned two years later to fight in the Mexican war he had so strenuously advo-­ cated, and successfully commanded the 1st Mississippi Rifle Regiment at the battles of Monterrey and Buena Vista. Davis returned to Mississippi a hero and subsequently won appointment to complete an unfinished term in the U.S. Senate in 1853, until Presi-­ dent Franklin Pierce appointed him secre-­ tary of war. In this capacity, Davis displayed considerable foresight and innovation. In the spring of 1857 Davis was easily ree-­ lected to the Senate, where he continually and eloquently championed states rights and slavery. On January 21, 1861, he deliv-­ ered an anguish-­ridden farewell speech to

the Senate before departing to tender his ser-­ vices to the emerging Confederate States of America. Once home Davis fully expected to become a major general of state forces, (continues)

Jefferson Davis (National Archives)

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(continued) but on February 9, 1861, he was genuinely surprised to learn that the secessionist congress, meeting in Montgomery, Alabama, nominated him to serve as president. Davis was inaugurated in the spring of 1861 at Montgomery, then transferred the seat of Confederate government to Richmond, Virginia, to shore up support from that state. In this capacity the problems Davis encountered as Confederate commander proved insurmountable. He clashed repeatedly with talented yet headstrong leaders like Pierre G. T. Beauregard and Joseph E. Johnston, periodically relieving them at inopportune times. As Confederate fortunes waned, Davis lacked the authority to decisively shift manpower from one

theater to the next owing to resistance from state governments. He was thus forced to invoke measures like conscription, taxation, and confiscation to strengthen the overall Confederate position. When he and his entourage were seized by General James H. Wilson’s cavalry at Irwinville, Georgia, on May 10, 1865, the Confederate States of America had reached its denouement. Davis, who never applied for a pardon and never renewed his citizenship, died in poverty at Beauvoir, Mississippi, on December 6, 1889. For many decades thereafter, in the minds of many fellow Southerners, he remained the embodiment and symbol of the Confederacy’s proud and defiant “Lost Cause.”

Jefferson Davis travels from his plantation in Brierfield, Mississippi, to attend inauguration ceremonies at Montgomery, Alabama.

February 12 Politics: The Provisional Congress of the Confederacy at Montgomery, Alabama, votes to establish a Peace Commission to the United States.

February 13 Military: A detachment of U.S. Army troops under Colonel Bernard J. Dowling defeats a band of Chiricahua Apache at Apache Pass, Arizona; in July 1894 he receives the Congressional Medal of Honor for this action. Politics: The electoral college counts the requisite votes and declares Abraham Lincoln the new chief executive.

February 16 Politics: Confederate president-elect Jefferson Davis arrives at Montgomery, Alabama, amid thunderous applause.

February 18 Military: In an act widely condemned as treasonous, General David E. Twiggs surrenders all U.S. Army installations in Texas. Politics: Jefferson Davis of Mississippi is inaugurated as provisional president of the Confederate States of America, declaring, “Obstacles may retard, but they can not long prevent the progress of a movement sanctified by its justice and sustained by a virtuous people.” Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia, who initially opposed secession, becomes vice president. The glittering assembly is then serenaded by military bands that strike up the catchy air popularly known as “Dixie,” which becomes the unofficial national anthem of the Confederacy.

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February 19 Politics: The Confederate Convention in Montgomery, Alabama, elects Judah P. Benjamin of Louisiana as attorney general, Christopher G. Memminger of South Carolina as secretary of the treasury, John H. Reagan of Texas as postmaster general, Robert Toombs of Georgia as secretary of state, and Leroy P. Walker of Alabama as secretary of war.

February 20 Politics: The Provisional Confederate Congress declares the Mississippi River open to navigation and commerce. They also pass legislation creating a Confederate Department of the Navy.

February 21 Naval: Stephen R. Mallory, the former U.S. senator from Florida, is chosen as the Confederate secretary of the navy. Politics: President Jefferson Davis receives a missive from South Carolina governor Francis W. Pickens requesting immediate action on Fort Sumter. Pickens regards the continuing presence of the Federal garrison as an affront to “honor and safety.”

February 22 Politics: Passing through Baltimore, Maryland, president-elect Abraham Lincoln is warned of a possible attempt upon his life and finishes his journey to Washington, D.C., on board a secret train.

February 23 Politics: President-elect Abraham Lincoln arrives in Washington, D.C., amid a sense of mounting national consternation and foreboding over the fate of the nation. Texas voters affirm secession by a three-to-one margin.

February 25 Politics: Judah P. Benjamin takes his oath as Confederate attorney general; this multitalented individual will hold several positions within the new government, excelling in all.

February 27 Naval: Congress authorizes the Navy Department’s request for seven heavilyarmed steam sloops to augment existing naval strength. Politics: As a continuing gesture of averting hostilities, President Jefferson Davis appoints three commissioners for possible peace negotiations with Washington, D.C. The Peace Commission meeting in Washington, D.C., proposes no less than six constitutional amendments to forestall the outbreak of cession and violence. None of them prove viable.

February 28 Politics: The House of Representatives adopts an amendment proposed by Thomas Corwin which reaffirms slavery’s status where it already exists. Presidentelect Abraham Lincoln fully concurs with the legislation. Calls for a state convention to weigh the possibility of secession are narrowly defeated by a popular vote in North Carolina. The Confederate Congress agrees to a $15 million domestic loan. The Colorado Territory is formed from the western half of the Kansas Territory, and William Gilpin gains appointment as governor.

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March 1 Military: Pierre G. T. Beauregard is commissioned brigadier general, C.S.A. Major Robert Anderson alerts the government that the garrison at Fort Sumter, Charleston harbor, must be either supplied and reinforced or evacuated without further delay. His provisions dwindle rapidly and he will soon have to capitulate by default. Politics: President-elect Abraham Lincoln appoints Pennsylvania politician Simon Cameron to be his new secretary of war. The Provisional Confederate States of America assumes formal control of events at Charleston, South Carolina.

March 2 Business: Congress passes the Morrill Tariff Act, which raises duties from five to 10 percent to protect American manufacturers. Politics: The U.S. Senate refuses compromise solutions advanced by the Peace Convention in Washington, D.C., over the objections of Kentucky Senator John J. Crittenden. This ends all attempts at political accommodation.

Lincoln, Abraham (1809–1865) President Abraham Lincoln was born near Hodgenville, Kentucky, on February 12, 1809, the son of a backwoods family. He endured childhood poverty while living on the frontiers of Indiana, becoming essentially selftaught. Lincoln eventually settled upon a career in law in Springfield, Illinois, and served as a militia captain during the brief Black Hawk War of 1832. The future commander in chief saw no combat save for, in his own words, “many bloody battles with mosquitoes.” Lincoln subsequently acquired a taste for politics, joined the Whig Party, and in 1847 won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. In this capacity he stridently opposed both the Mexican War and the expansion of slavery into newly acquired territories. In 1858 Lincoln ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for the U.S. Senate against Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, and he captured national attention through a series of lively debates. Consequently, the gaunt and gangly attorney saw his political capital

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Abraham Lincoln (Library of Congress) soar and in 1860 he handily won the party’s nomination for the presidency. He ran—and

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President James Buchanan admits the new territories of Nevada and Dakota.

March 3 Military: President Jefferson Davis appoints General Pierre G. T. Beauregard as commander of Confederate forces in the vicinity of Charleston, South Carolina. He is instructed to prepare for military action against the Federal garrison marooned at Fort Sumter in the harbor. Politics: President-elect Abraham Lincoln dines with his cabinet for the first time and tours the Senate. Meanwhile, General Winfield Scott, commanding general of the U.S. Army, dourly informs Secretary of State William H. Seward that mounting a relief expedition to recuse Fort Sumter, Charleston harbor, appears impractical.

March 4 Naval: The Navy Department, which currently operates 42 warships, recalls all but three from foreign stations to assist in the impending crisis. Politics: Abraham Lincoln is formally inaugurated as the 16th president of a less-than-united United States and is sworn in by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney.

won—on a platform dedicated to halting the expansion of slavery, not its abolition. However, Lincoln’s ascension was construed as a direct threat to the South’s “peculiar institution,” and in December 1860 South Carolina seceded from the Union. This defiance induced other Southern states to follow and a new entity, the Confederate States of America, was already extant by the time Lincoln took his oath of office. No newly sworn-in chief executive ever confronted a more daunting, dangerous situation than did Lincoln in the spring of 1861, with a small standing army and the Southern third of the nation up in arms against the Federal government. Despite his prior lack of military training, Lincoln displayed an astonishing grasp of strategy based on the North’s overwhelming preponderance in terms of manpower and industry. Commencing at Bull Run, the Federal war effort remained beset by a secession of hesitant, if not outright blundering, leaders. Generals George B.

McClellan, John Pope, Ambrose E. Burnside, and Joseph Hooker all tried and failed to defeat the Army of Northern Virginia under General Robert E. Lee. It was not until the spring and early summer of 1864 that the redoubtable General Ulysses S. Grant pinned Lee’s army within its works at Richmond, while General William T. Sherman advanced upon him from behind. Lee then surrendered to Grant at Appomattox on April 9, 1865, effectively ending military operations in the East. All the while Lincoln took to the podium and pleaded for lenience toward the former Confederates and national reunification without vindictiveness. The president never lived to see the country reunited as on April 14, 1865, he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C. Lincoln, the awkward, intensely sadlooking leader who had labored so intently and successfully at keeping the nation whole, became the first chief executive assassinated in office.

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Chronology of American History His first address declares that the Union is “perpetual” and cannot be undone by secession. Moreover, he reiterates his belief that slavery cannot be allowed in the territories but is willing to leave it intact where it already exists. He remains conciliatory, assures the South it will not be attacked, and appeals to “the better angels of our nature.” Hannibal Hamlin of Maine also becomes vice president, with William H. Seward as secretary of state, Salmon P. Chase as secretary of the treasury, and Edward Bates as attorney general. The Confederate Convention, assembled at Montgomery, Alabama, officially adopts the “Stars and Bars” flag of seven stars and three stripes as its official symbol.

March 5 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln discusses the plight of Major Robert Anderson at Fort Sumter, South Carolina. The major telegraphs him that his supplies are due to run out within four to six weeks, after which he will have little recourse but surrender. Furthermore, both Anderson and General Winfield Scott concur that the post cannot be successfully held by less than 20,000 troops. Time is running out for a peaceful resolution, but Lincoln continues to try to deal with the delicate situation in a nuanced way.

March 6 Politics: The Confederate Congress authorizes recruitment of 100,000 volunteers for 12 months. President Jefferson Davis appoints Martin J. Crawford, John Forsyth, and A. B. Roman as special commissioners to deal with Republican officeholders in Washington, D.C., seeing that President Abraham Lincoln refuses to acknowledge their credentials.

March 7 Naval: Gideon Welles, a former Connecticut newspaper editor, is sworn in as the 24th secretary of the navy. Politics: The Missouri State Convention displays a strong pro-Union streak and votes against secession, yet also considers the “Crittenden Compromise” a possible avenue for averting war.

March 9 Politics: At Montgomery, Alabama, the Confederate Convention authorizes the raising of military forces. They also pass a coinage bill and issuance of treasury notes in denominations ranging from $50 to $1 million.

March 11 Politics: The Constitution of the Confederacy is unanimously adopted by the Confederate Convention at Montgomery, Alabama, and passed along to constituent states for ratification. It is based primarily upon the existing U.S. Constitution but differs in explicitly condoning the practice of slavery.

March 13 Military: Captain Nathaniel Lyon, a pugnacious, aggressive officer by nature, is appointed commander of the U.S. Arsenal at St. Louis, Missouri. Politics: Despite pressure from within his own cabinet, President Abraham Lincoln directly orders Secretary of States William H. Seward not to receive Confederate peace emissaries. Through this expedient he avoids any appearance of legitimizing the Confederate government in Montgomery. He also dispatches

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former navy officer Gustavus V. Fox on a mission to Fort Sumter, South Carolina, to evaluate the possibility of succoring the garrison.

March 15 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln inquires of his cabinet whether or not a relief attempt ought to be mounted to resupply the garrison at Fort Sumter, South Carolina. The majority, especially Secretary of State William H. Seward, deems such a move as provocative and advises against it. The Confederate Congress thanks the state of Louisiana for enriching its coffers with $536,000 appropriated from the U.S. Mint at New Orleans.

March 16 Diplomacy: President Jefferson Davis appoints three special ministers, William L. Yancey, Pierre A. Yost, and Dudley Mann, to visit Europe in the quest for diplomatic recognition. They are instructed to use cotton as economic leverage, whenever possible, for securing such support. Politics: The Arizona (Territory) State Convention at Mesilla votes in favor of secession.

March 18 Diplomacy: President Abraham Lincoln appoints Charles Francis Adams as minister to Great Britain. Politics: The Arkansas State Convention defeats a motion to secede on a vote of 39 to 35, then schedules a public referendum on the issue that summer. Governor Sam Houston of Texas, having refused to take an oath of allegiance to the Confederacy, is forced to retire from office.

March 21 Naval: Former navy officer Gustavus V. Fox, pursuant to orders from President Abraham Lincoln, reconnoiters Fort Sumter and Charleston harbor, South Carolina, with a view toward relieving the garrison there.

March 22 Politics: Governor Claiborne F. Jackson of Missouri fails to convince his constituents to join the Confederacy, after which the state’s citizens sharply divide into pro- and anti-Federal camps.

March 28 Politics: To break the impasse, President Abraham Lincoln resolves to mount a seaborne expedition to succor the Federal garrison at Fort Sumter, Charleston harbor, and orders it dispatched no later than April 6, 1861. His cabinet also divides on the matter, three to two in favor with Secretary of War Simon Cameron abstaining. In effect, the wily Illinois attorney is subtly maneuvering his Southern counterpart into firing the first shot.

March 31 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln orders a second relief expedition, this time to assist the federal garrison at Fort Pickens, Florida, which guards the entrance to Pensacola harbor.

April 1 Politics: Secretary of State William H. Seward strongly recommends that President Abraham Lincoln abandon Fort Sumter, South Carolina, while more defensible posts along the Gulf of Mexico be fortified. He further suggests that a war

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Chronology of American History with Europe would serve as a “panacea” to unify the North. Lincoln courteously thanks the secretary for his sage advice—then declares he intends to run his own administration.

April 3 Naval: Confederate artillery on Morris Island, Charleston harbor, opens fire on the Union vessel Rhoda H. Shannon in the second instance of hostile shots being fired.

April 4 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln approves the strategy outlined by Gustavus V. Fox and informs Major Robert Anderson at Fort Sumter, Charleston, of an impending relief expedition. However, he still grants that officer discretionary authority to respond to any attack the Southerners may launch. The Virginia State Convention in Richmond rejects an ordinance of secession, 89 to 45.

April 6 Politics: South Carolina governor Francis W. Pickens is advised by President Abraham Lincoln that an expedition is underway to supply—not reinforce—the Federal garrison at Fort Sumter, Charleston harbor. Moreover, if no resistance is mounted he pledges that no additional soldiers will be dispatched.

April 7 Military: To increase pressure upon Major Robert Anderson, General Pierre G. T. Beauregard forbids any further communication between Fort Sumter, Charleston harbor, and the shore.

April 8 Military: In response to the relief expedition dispatched toward Fort Sumter, Charleston harbor, Confederate authorities begin undertaking military preparations and planting artillery batteries.

April 10 Naval: The steamer Baltic departs New York in a second attempt to relieve the garrison at Fort Sumter, Charleston, with naval agent Gustavus V. Fox on board. En route it is joined by the USS Pawnee off Hampton Roads, Virginia. Lieutenant John L. Worden arrives at Pensacola, Florida, on official business and receives permission from General Braxton Bragg to visit Fort Pickens.

April 11 Military: As a sovereign state, the South cannot tolerate the impending approach of a Union supply vessel to victual Fort Sumter; assist constitutes an egregious affront to their self-proclaimed independence. General Pierre G. T. Beauregard is therefore ordered by Confederate authorities to demand the immediate capitulation of Fort Sumter, Charleston harbor. Anderson again flatly refuses their request but, as a sop to Southern sensitivities, he informs Beauregard that he is nearly out of supplies and must yield the palm by April 15 regardless. The Confederates nevertheless give Anderson 24 hours to strike his colors or they will commence bombarding. Politics: Three Confederate peace emissaries depart Washington, D.C., having failed to reach an acceptable solution with Secretary of State William H. Seward. Meanwhile, Federal troops are ordered into the nation’s capital, seeing that it is completely surrounded by potentially hostile territory.

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April 12 Military: The Civil War, a monumental struggle in military history and a defining moment for the United States, is about to unfold. At 4:30 a.m. the shoreline of Charleston harbor erupts in flame as 18 mortars and 30 heavy cannon, backed by 7,000 troops, commence a withering bombardment on Fort Sumter. Major Robert Anderson, commanding only 85 men, 43 civilian engineers, and 48 cannon, weathers the storm of shells and waits until daybreak before responding with six cannon of his own. To Captain Abner Doubleday goes the honor of firing the first Union shot of the war. Naval: The USS Pawnee, the U.S. Revenue Cutter Harriet Lane, and the steamer Baltic, commanded by Gustavus V. Fox, arrive in Charleston harbor with food supplies for Fort Sumter. Having arrived too late to assist the garrison, they remain passive spectators while the bombardment continues.

April 13 Military: After 34 hours of continuous shelling, a lucky Confederate shot slices through Fort Sumter’s flagstaff at 12:48 p.m. and Major Robert Anderson decides that the wiser course is to surrender. He therefore raises the white flag at 2:30 p.m. and the firing ceases while surrender ceremonies are planned for the following day. Curiously the garrison is unhurt despite being hit by an estimated 4,000 shells. However, the affair is perceived as an overt act of Southern aggression, helps galvanize the heretofore tepid sentiments throughout the North, and grants President Abraham Lincoln the moral authority necessary for waging war against his countrymen. Naval: Relief ships under Gustavus V. Fox continue loitering outside Charleston harbor, South Carolina, unwilling to approach closer in the face of hostile fire. His mission completed, Lieutenant John L. Worden returns to Washington, D.C., from Fort Pickens, Florida. En route he is arrested by Confederate authorities near Montgomery, Alabama, and imprisoned.

April 14 Military: Major Robert Anderson formally capitulates at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, to Confederate authorities. The only casualties he sustains in 24 hours of fighting are two killed and four wounded, who ironically fall when a pile of ordnance accidently ignites during a 100-gun salute to the American flag. The captives are then rowed ashore and subsequently entertained by the cream of Charleston society before departing with Gustavus V. Fox and his ad hoc squadron. “We have met them and we have conquered,” Governor Francis W. Pickens crows as the first act in a long and bloody drama concludes. Settlement: Mormons found Franklin, the first permanent settlement of the Oregon Territory; prior attempts have wilted in the face of harsh Native American resistance.

April 15 Politics: In a move designed to deny the Confederacy diplomatic recognition, President Abraham Lincoln declares not war but rather a state of insurrection in the South and calls for 75,000 three-month volunteers to suppress it. However, service by African Americans is declined. Lincoln also requests a special meeting of Congress to convene on July 4—Independence Day. Not surprisingly, the call to arms is denounced and ignored by the governments of North Carolina, Kentucky,

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Interior view of Fort Sumter on April 14, 1861, after its evacuation. (National Archives) and Virginia. By contrast, the New York legislature militantly endorses the Union causes and votes $3 million to support war efforts.

April 16 Politics: Virginia governor John Letcher informs President Abraham Lincoln that his state will not furnish troops for what he considers the “subjugation” of the South.

April 17 Naval: The USS Powhatan under Lieutenant David D. Porter arrives at Fort Pickens, Florida, and debarks an additional 600 troops to bolster the sailors and marines already there. Thus the best harbor of the Gulf of Mexico is retained by the Union for the remainder of the war. Politics: Secessionists gather at Baltimore in large numbers. The Virginia State Convention, reacting strongly to President Abraham Lincoln’s call to arms, votes 88 to 55 for secession. The proposal is then forwarded to the public for ratification. President Jefferson Davis begins soliciting applications for Confederate letters of marque and reprisal, in effect establishing a force of Southern privateers. The governments of Missouri and Tennessee refuse to raise the requested number of militia forces.

April 18 Military: The 6th Massachusetts Infantry rides the rails from New York to Baltimore, Maryland, en route to Washington, D.C.

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Colonel Robert E. Lee declines an offer from President Abraham Lincoln to command all Union forces. Lieutenant Roger Jones orders his command of 50 men to burn the U.S. Armory at Harper’s Ferry, western Virginia, thereby preventing its tooling facilities from falling into enemy hands. Fire destroys the buildings along with 15,000 rifled muskets, but the local population extinguishes the flames before the valuable factory tools, dies, and equipment are destroyed.

April 19 Military: The 6th Massachusetts, transferring between railroad stations in Baltimore, Maryland, is violently attacked by pro-Southern rioters. Shots are exchanged, resulting in four soldiers killed and 36 wounded. These are the first Union casualties, while 11 civilians are also slain. Seething secessionists also begin cutting rail and telegraph lines leading toward the capital. For several anxious days Washington, D.C., remains temporarily cut off from the rest of the Union. Naval: To interrupt any flow of food or war materiels from abroad, President Abraham Lincoln declares a naval blockade of the Confederate coastline. This effort encompasses all the ports of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas and so overwhelms the relatively small U.S. Navy that its implementation is gradual. In time the blockade intensifies to stranglehold proportions and emerges as a major factor in the economic collapse of the Confederacy.

April 20 Aviation: Balloonist Thaddeus S. C. Lowe makes a record flight of more than 90 miles from Cincinnati, Ohio, to the coast of South Carolina in only nine hours. Military: Colonel Robert E. Lee tenders his resignation from the U.S. Army. To obstruct the passage of Federal troops to Washington, D.C., secessionist mobs burn several raillines out of Baltimore. This requires reinforcements to arrive by water and then rebuild the tracks as they proceed on foot, slowing their progress. Naval: Captain Charles S. McCauley hurriedly and prematurely orders the Gosport Navy Yard in Norfolk, Virginia, burned and evacuated. The resulting destruction is less-than complete and the dry docks become operative again in a few weeks. The Confederates also retrieve no less than 1,200 heavy naval cannon which they implant at fortifications as far west as Vicksburg, Mississippi. McCauley’s badly botched withdrawal from Norfolk proves an embarrassing windfall for the Confederacy. The venerable USS Constitution, “Old Ironsides” of War of 1812 fame, is towed to safety from Annapolis, Maryland, by a steamship. The U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis is abandoned and transferred north to Newport, Rhode Island, for the duration of the war while the campus buildings serve as barracks for Union troops.

April 21 Naval: Confederate forces reoccupy Gosport Navy Yard, Virginia, and salvage the old steam frigate USS Merrimack; in a few months this vessel is reincarnated as the ironclad CSS Virginia. Politics: Rioting and civil disorder continue in Baltimore, Maryland, including sabotage of nearby railroad lines.

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Chronology of American History Pro-Union delegates meeting in Monongahela County in western Virginia discuss a secession movement of their own from the Confederacy. Slavery: The USS Saratoga captures the cargo vessel Nightingale, which is found laden with 961 African slaves. The U.S. government has officially banned trafficking in human cargo since 1808.

April 22 Naval: Captain Franklin Buchanan, commanding the Washington Navy Yard, tenders his resignation in anticipation of Maryland’s apparent impending secession—he is not reinstated once his state remains loyal and he ultimately joins the Confederacy. Buchanan is succeeded by Captain John A. B. Dahlgren, another distinguished officer.

April 23 Military: General Robert E. Lee becomes commander of the Virginia state forces. Politics: President Jefferson Davis offers aid to Confederate sympathizers in Missouri if they would attack and seize the U.S. Arsenal in St. Louis. An assembly of free African Americans in Boston, Massachusetts, demands that Federal laws preventing their enrollment in the state militia be repealed.

April 25 Military: The 8th Massachusetts under General Benjamin F. Butler defiantly parades through Washington, D.C., following its lengthy march around Baltimore, Maryland. In a daring raid, Union Captain James H. Stokes arrives at St. Louis, Missouri, by steamer, where he removes 12,000 rifled muskets from the U.S. arsenal there. The weapons are then deposited at Alton, Illinois, for militia use, which proves a critical blow to Confederate sympathizers gathering in the region.

April 26 Military: General Joseph E. Johnston arrives and receives command of Confederate forces in Virginia then guarding the capital of Richmond. Politics: Georgia governor Joseph E. Brown orders all debts owned to Northern firms repudiated.

April 27 Naval: President Abraham Lincoln extends the Union blockade to encompass the coasts of Virginia and North Carolina following their secession. Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles also authorizes the interdiction of Confederate privateers at sea. Politics: President Abraham Lincoln authorizes suspension of writs of habeas corpus for security matters between Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C. General Winfield Scott is entrusted with adjudicating all incidents arising from this crackdown. The Virginia Convention proffers its capital of Richmond as an alternative to Montgomery, Alabama.

April 29 Politics: The Maryland House of Delegates decisively votes down secession by a margin of 53 to 13. The Provisional Confederate Congress convenes its 2nd session at Montgomery, Alabama, granting President Jefferson Davis war powers and authority

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to raise volunteers, make loans, issue letters of marque, and command land and naval forces. This is done in direct reaction to President Abraham Lincoln’s insurrection declaration and his call for volunteers. Women: Elizabeth Blackwell, the nation’s first female doctor, establishes the Women’s Central Association for Relief to better coordinate the myriad of smaller war-relief groups arising. Her organization serves as the precursor for the much larger U.S. Sanitation Commission.

April 30 Military: Colonel William H. Emory evacuates Fort Washita in the Indian Territory (Oklahoma) and heads north towards Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. His withdrawal renders the nearby Five Civilized Tribes (Cherokee, Chickasaw, Cree, Choctaw, and Seminole) vulnerable to Confederate influence.

May 1 Military: Soldiers killed in the Baltimore riots are interred with full military honors in Boston, Massachusetts. General Robert E. Lee orders additional Confederate forces concentrated in the vicinity of Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, presently commanded by Colonel Thomas J. Jackson. Governor Samuel W. Black of the Nebraska Territory calls out volunteer forces to assist the Union.

May 3 Military: President Abraham Lincoln issues a call for 42,000 three-year volunteers, with 10 new regiments for the U.S. Army and an additional 18,000 personnel for the navy. This brings existing manpower ceilings to 156,000 soldiers and 25,000 sailors. General Winfield Scott, the senior American commander, unveils his socalled Anaconda Plan for defeating the Southern rebellion to President Abraham Lincoln. Basically, it entails a gunboats’ support drive down the Mississippi River by 60,000 troops, which commences at Cairo, Illinois, and ends at New Orleans, Louisiana. Concurrently, the U.S. Navy will tightly blockade the Confederate coast to strangle all trade with Europe. Derided at the time by younger officers favoring a swift and decisive military campaign, Scott’s strategy is not formally enacted until 1864, and then in slightly modified form. Lincoln spends the next three years looking for a general to execute it forcefully.

May 6 Military: The Confederate-leaning Missouri State Guard under General Daniel M. Frost establishes a training camp near St. Louis at the behest of Governor Claiborne F. Jackson. Meanwhile, Captain Nathaniel Lyon, commanding the Federal garrison at St. Louis, refuses all demands to remove his troops from the city. Naval: The Confederate Congress mandates the issuance of letters of marque and reprisals to privateers. Politics: President Jefferson Davis signs a bill passed by the Confederate Congress declaring a state of war with the United States. The state legislature in Arkansas approves a secession ordinance by 69 to 1, becoming the ninth state to depart while the Tennessee legislature votes 66–25 to become the 10th. The latter also authorizes a public referendum on the issue, before the decision is finalized.

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May 7 Military: President Abraham Lincoln appoints newly repatriated Major Robert Anderson to recruiting duties in his native state of Kentucky. Naval: The U.S. Naval Academy staff, students, and supplies finally board the steamer Baltic and the venerable frigate USS Constitution, prior to locating to a new venue at Newport, Rhode Island. Politics: Once the Tennessee legislature formally endorses secession, riots erupt between pro- and anti-Union sympathizers in Knoxville. The eastern half of the state remains a strong Unionist enclave throughout the war and a region of concern to the Confederacy.

May 9 Naval: Confederate Secretary of the Navy Stephen R. Mallory orders Commander James D. Bulloch to England as the Confederacy’s naval agent. There he engages in a battle of wits with American minister Charles Francis Adams while clandestinely acquiring ships, guns, and ammunition. Politics: President Jefferson Davis authorizes enlisting upwards of 400,000 volunteers for three years or the duration of the war. The quotas are enthusiastically met at first.

May 10 Military: General Robert E. Lee is made commander of all Confederate forces in Virginia, along with states’ forces. Violence erupts in St. Louis, Missouri, between Southern sympathizers and U.S. Army troops backed by a large German-speaking population. Around two dozen civilians and two soldiers die in fighting as Captain Nathaniel Lyon energetically rounds up General Daniel Frost and 625 Missouri State Guard troops at Camp Jackson. However, his rashness drives many undecided civilians into the enemy’s ranks and an additional 30 are killed in subsequent rioting. Naval: Confederate Secretary of the Navy Stephen R. Mallory alerts the Committee of Naval Affairs in Congress that the acquisition of a heavily armored stem vessel is “a matter of the first necessity.”

May 11 Military: Continuing secessionist unrest in St. Louis, Missouri, results in seven additional civilian deaths at the hands of the 5th Reserve Regiment. Colonel William S. Harney also arrives back in town and succeeds Captain Nathaniel Lyon as garrison commander.

May 13 Diplomacy: In a move which antagonizes the Lincoln administration, the government of Great Britain recognizes both North and South as belligerents. This is a discrete nod in terms of recognizing the Confederacy as an equal partner in the upcoming struggle, but Queen Victoria’s adherence to strict neutrality otherwise dashes Southern hopes for immediate recognition and military intervention on their behalf. Military: Baltimore is secured by Federal forces under General Benjamin F. Butler, who both occupies Federal Hill and imposes martial law without prior authorization. General George B. McClellan is appointed commander of the Department of the Ohio.

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Politics: Virginia delegates from the western portion of the state, who disagree with secession, convene a convention of their own in Wheeling and discuss joining the Union as a new state.

May 14 Diplomacy: U.S. Minister Charles F. Adams arrives in London, England, where it is expected that his pristine abolitionist credentials will resonate favorably at the Court of St. James. Military: John C. Frémont, a popular explorer and one-time presidential candidate, becomes a major general in the U.S. Army. Irvin McDowell and Montgomery C. Meigs are appointed brigadier generals. General Benjamin F. Butler consolidates his grip upon Baltimore, Maryland, and arrests noted secessionists including Ross Winans, who had previously invented a steam cannon. Governor Thomas H. Hicks also issues calls for four regiments to defend both the city and the national capital. Major Robert Anderson is instructed by President Abraham Lincoln to assist Kentucky Unionists wherever possible, despite that state’s avowed neutrality.

May 15 Military: Major Robert Anderson, defender of Fort Sumter and the first Northern war hero, is promoted several ranks to brigadier general, U.S. Army. Union General Benjamin F. Butler relinquishes command of the Department of Annapolis and arrives at Fortress Monroe, Virginia, where he gains promotion to major general of volunteers. He is succeeded by General George Cadwalader. Colonel William S. Harney, commanding St. Louis, Missouri, implores citizens to ignore secessionist attempts to raise militia. However, he takes no steps to interfere with secessionist activities.

May 16 Politics: Tennessee is formally admitted into the Confederacy under Governor Isham Harris.

May 17 Indian: Chief John Ross declares neutrality for Cherokee throughout the Indian Territory, although the tribe continues splintering into pro- and anti-secessionist factions. Politics: President Jefferson Davis agrees to a $50 million loan to the Confederate government along with the distribution of treasury notes. He also signs legislation admitting North Carolina into the Confederacy.

May 18 Politics: Arkansas formally joins the Confederate States of America. Politician Francis P. Blair contacts President Abraham Lincoln concerning his suspicions about Colonel William S. Harney, commanding officer at St. Louis.

May 20 Politics: The Provisional Confederate Congress elects to relocate itself from Montgomery, Alabama, to Richmond, Virginia, where it will remain until 1865. This move is calculated to shore up the Old Dominion’s ties to the Confederacy, but it also shifts the strategic locus of the war northward. At the behest of Governor Beriah Magoffin, the legislature of the strategic state of Kentucky declares neutrality in the upcoming struggle.

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Chronology of American History The North Carolina State Convention in Raleigh votes to become the 10th state to secede and also ratifies the Confederate Constitution.

May 21 Diplomacy: A bellicose Secretary of State William H. Seward issues Dispatch No. 10 for Minister Charles F. Adams in London, which threatens war with England. In light of prevailing military and political realities, Adams simply ignores it. Military: Colonel William S. Harney, commanding Federal forces in Missouri, enters into a convention with Missouri State Guard commander General Sterling Price. Harney agrees not to introduce Federal troops into the state if the Southerners can maintain order. Both Francis P. Blair and Captain Nathaniel Lyon condemn the agreement, regarding it as treasonous.

May 23 Politics: A popular vote for secession in Virginia is 97,750 in favor and 32,134 against. However, efforts continue on the 50 western counties of the state to remain with the Union. Slavery: General Benjamin F. Butler, commanding Fortress Monroe, Virginia, refuses to hand over three runaway slaves to their owners by declaring them “contraband of war.” This establishes an important precedent for allowing thousands of slaves to escape to Union lines and freedom.

May 24 Military: General Samuel P. Heintzelman’s 13,000 Federal soldiers occupy Alexandria and Arlington Heights, Virginia, bolstering the defenses of Washington, D.C. However, when 24-year-old Colonel Elmer E. Ellsworth of the 11th New York Regiment (Fire Zouaves) removes a Confederate flag from a hotel in Alexandria, he is shot by innkeeper James T. Jackson, who is then himself killed. Ellsworth enjoys the melancholy distinction of becoming the North’s first officer fatality.

May 25 Law: Secessionist John Merryman is imprisoned by Union authorities in Baltimore, Maryland, for recruiting Confederate troops and sabotaging railroad lines and bridges. Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, acting in the capacity of a Federal circuit court judge, issues a writ of habeas corpus on Merryman’s behalf to release him, but the local commanding officer recognizes no authority other than the commander in chief ’s. Taney subsequently writes that only Congress possesses the power to suspend habeas corpus. Politics: President Abraham Lincoln attends the funeral of Colonel Elmer E. Ellsworth after his remains lay in state at the White House. “So much of promised usefulness to one’s country, and of bright hopes for one’s self and friends,” a somber Lincoln writes, “have rarely been so suddenly dashed, as in his fall.”

May 26 Communication: U.S. Postmaster General Francis P. Blair announces the suspension of all mail service to the Confederate states. Military: General George B. McClellan orders three columns of Union forces to advance on Grafton in western Virginia in order to secure the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. This rail line constitutes the strategic link between the capital and the western states.

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May 27 Politics: Supreme Court Justice Roger B. Taney again declares the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus unconstitutional, which President Abraham Lincoln promptly ignores in light of circumstances.

May 28 Military: General Irvin McDowell is appointed commander of the Department of Northwestern Virginia, including newly acquired Alexandria. Politics: The American Peace Society fails to achieve a quorum at its annual meeting, proof that it message is completely out of touch with prevailing sentiments.

May 29 Women: Dorothea L. Dix approaches Secretary of War Simon Cameron and offers to assist organizing hospital services for Federal forces.

May 30 Slavery: Secretary of War Simon Cameron instructs General Benjamin F. Butler at Fortress Monroe, Virginia, that fugitive slaves crossing into Union lines are not to be returned but, rather, fed and given work around military installations.

May 31 Military: General John C. Frémont supercedes General William S. Harney as Union commander in Missouri. The latter’s agreement with General Sterling Price over the introduction of Federal troops in the region is also abrogated.

June 1 Diplomacy: In a major defeat for Confederate privateering, the government of Great Britain forbids armed vessels of either side from bringing prizes into English ports. However, this stance does not prevent British shipyards from clandestinely constructing warships for use by the Confederate Navy.

June 3 Military: Indiana troops under General Thomas A. Morris surprise and easily defeat a Confederate detachment under Colonel George A. Porterfield at Philippi in western Virginia. This “victory,” greatly exaggerated in the press as the “Philippi Races,” clears the Kanawha Valley of Southerners and provides greater impetus for breaking with the Confederacy altogether. Politics: Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, the “Little Giant” who defeated Abraham Lincoln in his bid for the Senate, dies in Chicago at the age of 48. The North loses one of its most eloquent and forceful spokesmen.

June 8 Politics: Tennessee voters approve a secession ordinance by 109,913 votes to 47,238, and they join the Confederacy as the 11th and final state to do so. However, the eastern counties remain active in the Union cause.

June 9 Military: General Benjamin F. Butler decides to dislodge Confederate forces gathered at Big Bethel, Virginia, only eight miles from his main position at Hampton. The transit, however, goes badly with many units becoming lost. Worse, the 5th New York Infantry (Zouaves), resplendent in their gray uniforms, are mistaken for Confederates and fired upon, sustaining 21 casualties. Politics: The Sanitary Commission is organized to provide nursing, sanitation, and other support functions for Union forces.

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June 10 Military: Federal troops under General Ebenezer Pierce number 4,400, attack 1,500 Confederates led by General John B. Magruder at Big Bethel, Virginia. The green, inexperienced Union soldiers are committed piecemeal against enemy entrenchments by their commander; then are beaten back, principally by the welltrained 1st North Carolina under Colonel Daniel H. Hill. Federal Captain Nathaniel Lyon, reappointed to command the St. Louis garrison, storms out of negotiations with pro-Southern governor Claiborne F. Jackson and Missouri State Guard commander General Sterling Price. He then “declares war” on the state of Missouri and prepares to deal with his opponents by force. Naval: Confederate Lieutenant John M. Brooke, a gifted naval engineer, receives orders to convert the former steam frigate USS Merrimack into the ironclad CSS Virginia. Women: Dorothea L. Dix becomes Superintendent of Woman Nurses to help supervise medical services within the U.S. Army.

June 11 Military: Colonel William W. Loring resigns his commission as commander of the New Mexico Territory and is succeeded by Colonel Edward R. S. Canby. Politics: Pro-Union delegates meeting at Wheeling, Virginia, form an alternate government in the western-most reaches of that state and elect Francis H. Pierpont as governor, along with two U.S. Senators.

June 13 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln lends officials to the U.S. Sanitation Commission to assist sick and injured soldiers, as well as render assistance to their families.

June 14 Military: Robert E. Lee is promoted to full general, C.S.A.

June 15 Military: Federal troops under Captain Nathaniel Lyon forcibly occupy the capital of Jefferson City, Missouri, while 1,500 poorly armed and trained Confederate sympathizers under Governor Claiborne F. Jackson encamp at nearby Booneville.

June 16 Communication: Congress passes the Pacific Telegraph Act which authorizes construction of a new telegraph line reaching from Missouri to California. Military: Confederate forces under General Robert S. Garnett seize Laurel Hill in western Virginia and subsequently occupy strong positions at Rich Mountain. Badly outnumbered by troops of the nearby Department of the Ohio under General George B. McClellan, he initiates a series of raids to keep larger Union forces off balance.

June 17 Aviation: President Abraham Lincoln is treated to a demonstration of new balloon technology by Professor Thaddeus S. C. Lowe. Military observers present appreciate the potential use of such craft as battlefield reconnaissance platforms. Diplomacy: The government of Spain declares its neutrality but, taking England’s lead, recognizes the Confederacy as a belligerent power.

1861

Chronology â•… 971 Military: General Nathaniel Lyon and 1,700 Federal troops aggressively pursue up the Missouri River retreating Missouri State Guard forces under Governor Claiborne F. Jackson. After a 20-­minute stand they flee to the southwestern corner of the state. More importantly, Â�Union forces now control the lower Missouri River, and Lyon warns all inhabitants in the region of stern punishment for pos-­ sible acts of treason. Politics: Â�Union delegates meeting in Wheeling, Virginia, unanimously declare their inÂ�deÂ�penÂ�dence from the Confederacy. Pro-­Union inhabitants of Greeneville, Tennessee, rally to keep their region of the state out of Southern hands.

June 19 Indian: Cherokee Chief John Ross repeats his stance of neutrality and reminds fellow tribesmen of previous obligations to the United States. Politics: Â�Pro-­Union delegates gathered at Wheeling, Virginia, elect Francis H. Pierpont to be provisional governor of the western portion of that state.

June 20 Politics: The governor of Kansas calls upon citizens to orÂ�gaÂ�nize and repel any Â�pro-­secessionist attacks emanating from Missouri.

June 22 Politics: Â�Pro-­Union sympathizers gather in Greenville, Tennessee, vote to for-­ mally declare their allegiance to the United States.

June 23 Aviation: Professor Thaddeus S. C. Lowe rises in his balloon to observe Confed-­ erate deployments at Falls Church, Virginia. This is one of the earliest American reconnaissance flights. Naval: Armored conversion of the CSS Virginia (née USS Merrimack) continues apace at Norfolk, Virginia, under the direction of John Mercer Brooke. Publishing: Congress founds the U.S. Government Printing Office in Washing-­ ton, D.C.; today it is the largest printing concern in the world.

June 27 Naval: A major strategy session unfolds in Washington, D.C., with representa-­ tives of the army, navy, and coast survey in attendance. The newly created Block-­ ade Strategy Board includes Captain Samuel F. Du Pont, Commander Charles H. Davis, and other military notables, and it becomes a key planning body whose policies remain in effect throughout the war. Confederates repel an attempt to land forces at Mathias Point, Virginia, by gunboats USS Pawnee and Thomas Freeborn. Commander James H. Ward, a former superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy, dies in action, becoming the Navy’s first officer fatality.

June 28 Business: To facilitate construction of a transcontinental railway, the Central Pacific Railroad Company is incorporated at Sacramento, California. Naval: The Blockade Strategy Board resolves to seize a port in South Carolina or Georgia to serve as a coaling station and help sustain the blockade effort offshore.

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June 29 Military: Amid mounting war fever, President Abraham Lincoln is briefed on military strategy by generals Winfield Scott and Irvin McDowell. However, Scott protests against committing raw soldiers to combat at this stage of the conflict and argues—unsuccessfully—against seeking victory in a single, decisive battle.

June 30 Naval: Captain Raphael Semmes, commanding the CSS Sumter, evades the USS Brooklyn off New Orleans, Louisiana, and commences his celebrated career as a commerce raider.

July Arts: Matthew Brady is commissioned to make a carefully documented photographic record of the Civil War, backed by a team of 20 talented associates. This is the first war so documented and the results are truly impressive, but it ultimately leads to his financial ruin.

July 1 Politics: The War Department decrees that military volunteers will be recruited from both Kentucky and Tennessee, despite the former’s neutrality and the latter’s secession.

July 2 Politics: The new pro-Union legislature of western Virginia convenes at Wheeling. President Abraham Lincoln confers with General John C. Frémont over strategy in the vital and sensitive region of Missouri, which is wracked by secessionist unrest.

July 4 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln addresses a special session of the 37th Congress and pleads for $4 million and an additional 400,000 men. Having exhausted all avenues for a peaceful settlement, he makes clear his intention of waging war solely against the Confederate government—and not the South itself. He also explains and justifies his recent suspension of habeas corpus as strictly a wartime expedient.

July 5 Military: Colonel Franz Sigel, leading a detachment of 1,100 German-speaking volunteers, advances upon a larger force of 4,000 Missouri militia under Governor Claiborne F. Jackson near Carthage. The Confederates decide to attack Union lines, which are posted upon a hilltop, at which point Sigel, badly outnumbered, falls back.

July 6 Military: General George B. McClellan, commanding the Department of the Ohio, prepares to order an Indiana brigade under General Thomas A. Morris to advance upon Confederate troops gathered at Laurel Hill in western Virginia. He intends to simultaneously lead the main body of three brigades in a similar movement against enemy forces at nearby Rich Mountain. Naval: Confederate raider CSS Sumter under Captain Raphael Semmes docks at Havana, Cuba, with six Northern prizes in tow.

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July 7 Military: General Nathaniel Lyon, commanding Union forces at Springfield, Missouri, is reinforced by troops under Major Samuel D. Sturgis. He now possesses 7,000 men, but remains outnumbered two-to-one by the recently invigorated Confederates.

July 8 Naval: While cruising the Potomac River, the screw tug Resolute espies and retrieves two mysterious looking objects—which turn out to be the first confederate “torpedoes” (mines) encountered in the war.

July 9 Politics: The U.S. House of Representatives resolves not to oblige Union soldiers to return fugitive slaves.

July 10 Indian: The Creek Nation concludes a peace treaty with agent Colonel Albert Pike of the Confederacy. Military: Having reconnoitered enemy positions, General George B. McClellan commences his offensive in western Virginia by dispatching General William S. Rosecrans to dislodge enemy troops from Rich Mountain, while another force under General Thomas A. Morris advances upon Confederates gathered at Laurel Hill. Politics: General Abraham Lincoln assures General Simon B. Buckner, head of the Kentucky militia, that Union forces will not violates his state’s neutrality.

July 11 Military: General William S. Rosecrans and 2,000 Union troops defeat Colonel John Pegram’s 1,300 Confederates at Rich Mountain in western Virginia, after marching all night through a heavy downpour. Victory here places Union forces astride General Robert S. Garnett’s lines of communication, and he begins withdrawing from Laurel Hill while pursued by the main force under General George B. McClellan. Politics: The U.S. Senate formally expels absent members from Arkansas, North Carolina, Texas, and Virginia. One senator from Tennessee is also ejected but Andrew Johnson, a loyalist from the eastern region of that state is allowed to retain his seat.

July 12 Indian: Colonel Albert Pike arranges treaties between the Confederacy and the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes residing in the Indian Territory (Oklahoma). Military: Colonel John Pegram surrenders 555 Confederates to General William S. Rosecrans at Beverly, western Virginia, which is subsequently occupied by the main Union force under General George B. McClellan. Southerners under General Robert S. Garnett, anxious to escape a closing pincer movement, hurriedly march from Kaler’s Ford on the Cheat River to nearby Corrick’s Ford.

July 13 Military: General Robert S. Garnett’s Confederates are defeated at Corrick’s Ford (Carricksford) in western Virginia, by General Thomas A. Morris’s Indiana brigade. Union losses are variously reported as from 10 to 53 in number, while

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Chronology of American History the Confederates admit to 20. Significantly, Garnett is the first general officer on either side killed in action. Politics: The House of Representatives expels Missouri member John Clark on a vote of 94 to 45.

July 14 Military: Command of Southern forces in western Virginia reverts to General Henry R. Jackson. Meanwhile, a Union push under General Robert Patterson stalls south of Harper’s Ferry after encountering a stiff defense by General Joseph E. Johnston. Patterson’s timidity and hesitancy to fight occasions him the unflattering nickname of “Granny” from his troops.

July 16 Military: Anxious to maintain the strategic initiative on the heels of good progress in western Virginia, General Irvin McDowell orders his 32,000 men toward Manassas Junction. “On to Richmond!” becomes the national mantra—despite the fact that McDowell’s recruits only cover six miles to Fairfax Court House. Another two days are required to reach Centreville, 22 miles distant from the capital, and his dilatoriness grants Confederate forces under General Pierre G. T. Beauregard a badly needed respite to collect and reposition themselves to meet him. Naval: In a reversal of fortunes, the Confederate prize crew aboard the captured S. J. Waring is overpowered by its crew—led by William Tilghman, an AfricanAmerican sailor. The ship subsequently arrives in New York six days later.

July 17 Military: President Jefferson Davis orders General Joseph E. Johnston to reinforce General Pierre G. T. Beauregard in Virginia. For this first time in military history large numbers of troops are strategically shuttled from one front to another by train, bringing Confederate numbers at Manassas Junction to nearly match Union strength.

July 18 Diplomacy: Secretary of State William H. Seward instructs American ministers in England and France to endorse the previously rejected 1856 Declaration of Paris, which outlawed privateering. However, this move is scuttled when the government of neither European nation will apply it to the Confederacy. Military: General Irvin McDowell dispatches a reconnaissance in force under General Daniel Tyler toward Confederate forces collected at Centreville, Virginia. These soldiers skirmish with Southerners posted across a creek for an hour before the 12th New York makes an ill-advised charge and is blasted back by heavy rifle fire emanating from the dense woods.

July 19 Military: Newly arrived General John Pope warns the inhabitants of northern Missouri that treasonable activity would be punished promptly, “without awaiting a civil process.” Naval: The Captain-General of Cuba orders all the Northern prizes brought into Havana by Captain Raphael Semmes of the CSS Sumter released.

July 20 Journalism: The New York Tribune is the first newspaper to adopt the political pejorative “Copperhead” (a poisonous snake found in the South) for any Northern politician opposing the war effort.

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Military: General Joseph E. Johnston arrives at Manassas Junction, Virginia, with reinforcements and succeeds General Pierre G. T. Beauregard as senior commander, although he allows the latter to retain overall command. General Irvin McDowell, meanwhile, decides that the Confederate right is too strong to assail frontally and seeks an unguarded crossing point nearer to Beauregard’s left flank. All told, McDowell conceives a viable enough battle plan but entrusts it to men and officers too inexperienced to execute it properly. Politics: The third session of the 1st Provisional Confederate Congress convenes in Richmond, Virginia, for the first time. President Jefferson Davis declares that Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia have allied themselves to the Confederacy and that the new capital is now permanently established at Richmond.

July 21 Military: A momentous day unfolds with the predawn movement of General Daniel Tyler’s division, which begins groping through the darkness at 2:00 a.m. Four hours later his cannon begin lobbing shells on Confederate positions behind the stone bridge across Bull Run. After two hours of heavy fighting the Southerners give way in confusion and the Federals resume advancing in the direction of Henry House Hill. A brigade of five Virginia regiments under General Thomas J. Jackson deploys in their path, assisted by several batteries, and ferociously resists a Union onslaught by 18,000 men. Jackson’s aggressive defense greatly inspires the Southerners and, sensing victory and the exhausted state of their antagonists, Beauregard orders a sudden advance across the entire line with the trademark “Rebel yell.” McDowell’s tired, demoralized soldiers withdraw in confusion and headlong into a well-dressed throng of civilians gathered by the roadside to witness their anticipated “victory.” The first major engagement of the Civil War ends in a tactical triumph for the Confederacy with Southern losses of 1,982 to a Union tally of 2,896. Naval: The U.S. Marine Corps receives its baptism of fire when a battalion commanded by Major John Reynolds loses nine killed, 19 wounded, and 16 missing.

July 22 Military: The three-month enlistment of many Union volunteers begins expiring, allowing many of them to be discharged. President Abraham Lincoln counters by signing two bills authorizing one million three-year volunteers. General George B. McClelland is ordered to succeed the now-disgraced General Irvin McDowell. Politics: Consistent with the “Crittenden Compromise,” the House of Representatives votes for war to preserve government under the Constitution and save the Union, while preserving the status quo over slavery. The measure is likewise taken up for consideration by the Senate. The Missouri State Convention, meeting at Jefferson City, votes overwhelmingly in favor of the Union and also relocates the capital to St. Louis. Secessionist governor Claiborne F. Jackson, however, declares himself the only legitimate political authority in that state.

July 24 Military: General Jacob D. Cox engages and disperses Southerners under General Henry A. Wise at Tyler Mountain in western Virginia. The town of Charleston is

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Chronology of American History subsequently evacuated in the face of mounting Union pressure and the Kanawha Valley is soon free of Confederates. Politics: Congress authorizes the position of assistant secretary of the Navy, along with legislation “for the temporary increase in the navy.”

July 25 Politics: Congress authorizes the recruitment of volunteers, offering those serving two years a $100 bonus. Tennesseean senator Andrew Johnson moves to adopt the “Crittenden Compromise” in the U.S. Senate and it passes 30 to five. This mandates and reaffirms that the war is being waged to preserve both the Constitution and the Union, and not to abolish slavery. Confederate Secretary of State Robert Toombs, having resigned to join the military, is replaced by Robert T. Hunter.

July 27 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln confers with newly arrived General George B. McClellan in Washington, D.C. The chief executive urges a strategic offensive with advances into Tennessee by way of Virginia and Kentucky. McClellan, who is not as easily stampeded into action as his predecessor, respectfully demurs.

July 28 Military: In light of the deteriorating situation in western Virginia and the death of General Robert Garnett at Carricksford, the little-known General Robert E. Lee is ordered to take command of Confederate forces there.

July 29 Politics: Horace Greeley, previously the hawkish editor of the New York Tribune, writes to President Abraham Lincoln and suggests peace negotiations to end the fighting.

July 30 Politics: The Missouri State Convention votes 56–25 to declare the gubernatorial seat open, thereby deposing Confederate-leaning Claiborne F. Jackson as chief executive. Slavery: General Benjamin F. Butler seeks clarification in his orders from the War Department as to policies respecting the great number of escaped African Americans in his camp.

July 31 Military: President Abraham Lincoln elevates a heretofore obscure army officer, Ulysses S. Grant, to brigadier general of volunteers in Illinois. This turns out to be one of the most decisive military appointments of the war and a harbinger of victory in the war. Politics: Pro-Union forces in Missouri are bolstered by the election of Hamilton R. Gamble as governor.

August 1 Military: President Jefferson Davis urges General Joseph E. Johnston to maintain the strategic initiative with further offensive actions against Union forces still in Virginia. Naval: Gustavus V. Fox, a former naval officer, gains appointment as assistant secretary of the Navy.

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August 2 Military: Union forces under General Nathaniel Lyon and Confederates under General Ben McCulloch clash at Dug Springs, Missouri. Lyon, badly outnumbered, orders his men back to Springfield to regroup. Politics: Congress approves virtually all President Abraham Lincoln’s acts and appropriations deemed necessary to pursue the war effort, along with issuances of bonds and tariff increases to raise revenue. To better fund the war effort, Congress also passes its first-ever national income tax of 3 percent on incomes over $800.

August 3 Aviation: In another early application of aerial reconnaissance, John LaMountain lifts off the deck of the USS Fanny in a balloon while anchored off Hampton Roads, Virginia, and observes Confederate gun positions at Sewell’s Point. Naval: Congress directs the Department of the Navy to design and construct three ironclad prototypes. They also institute an “Ironclad Board” to study and recommend the acquisition and deployment of ironclad warships. Politics: Governor Isham G. Harris of Tennessee seeks to visit with authorities in Richmond, Virginia, and discuss ways of shoring up tenuous Confederate authority in his state.

August 5 Business: President Abraham Lincoln signs legislation authorizing the first national income tax of three percent on all incomes over $800. Politics: The first session, 37th Congress, concludes its monumental, 34-day special session and adjourns.

August 6 Slavery: President Abraham Lincoln signs the First Confiscation Act, which emancipates all African-American slaves found in the employ of Confederate armed forces, either as laborers or soldiers.

August 7 Naval: The U.S. government authorizes construction of seven ironclad gunboats under engineer James B. Eads of St. Louis, Missouri, for riverine service: USS Cairo, Carondelet, Cincinnati, Louisville, Mound City, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis. These vessels gradually emerge as the nucleus of Union naval power along strategic western water routes.

August 8 Military: General Ulysses S. Grant takes command of Union forces at Ironton, Missouri. Slavery: Secretary of War Simon Cameron declares that citizens are not obliged to obey the Fugitive Slave Law as it pertains to secessionists. He further orders General Benjamin F. Butler not to return escaped slaves to their Confederate owners.

August 9 Military: A force of 12,000 Confederates under generals Ben McCulloch and Sterling Price converge upon Springfield, Missouri, and encamp near Wilson’s Creek, 10 miles to the southwest. The aggressive General Nathaniel Lyon, rather than abandon the town without a fight, musters his 4,200 Federals and prepares to launch a preemptive strike of his own.

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August 10 Military: Union General Nathaniel Lyon initiates the Battle of Wilson’s Creek by storming Confederate campsites at 5:30 a.m. General Franz Sigel, meanwhile, stealthily advances upon the Southern camp from below and rousts Confederate cavalry deployed there. General Ben McCulloch, however, reacts quickly to this threat and dispatches troops that drive Sigel off, securing the Confederate rear area. Lyon, unaware of Sigel’s debacle, holds his ground as Price commits two frontal assaults in superior force and he is killed. The Federals consequently draw off in orderly fashion. Losses at Wilson’s Creek proved nearly equal with the Union suffering 1,317 casualties to a Southern tally of 1,230.

August 11 Journalism: Citing aid and comfort to the enemy, the government suspends postal privileges to the New York Daily News for the next 18 months. This is the first of five Northern newspapers silenced for alleged Confederate views.

August 14 Military: General Charles C. Frémont declares martial law in St. Louis, Missouri, and begins confiscating the property of suspected Confederate sympathizers.

August 15 Military: General Robert Anderson, formerly commander at Fort Sumter, assumes control of the Department of the Cumberland (Tennessee and Kentucky). However, his health is compromised by bouts of nervous exhaustion attributed to his recent ordeal and he retires from active duty soon afterward. In view of Confederate successes in Missouri, General John C. Frémont pleads with the War Department for immediate reinforcements. President Abraham Lincoln, cognizant of the threat to this vital border state, authorizes an immediate transfer of troops. Politics: President Jefferson Davis orders all remaining Northerners out of Confederate territory within 40 days.

August 16 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln reiterates that the South remains in a state of insurrection and declares all commercial intercourse between loyalist and rebellious states prohibited.

August 17 Military: Henry W. Halleck is promoted to major general, U.S. Army.

August 18 Journalism: New York newspapers Journal of Commerce, Daily News, Day Book, and Freeman’s Journal are summarily banned from publishing for alleged disloyalty.

August 19 Journalism: The Southern-leaning editor of the Essex County Democrat (Massachusetts) is accosted by a mob, tarred, and feathered. Newspaper offices in Easton and West Chester, Pennsylvania, are also accosted by pro-Union mobs over their suspected Southern sympathies. Politics: Pro-slavery expatriates from Missouri petition for their state to join the Confederacy even while driven from office.

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August 20 Military: General George B. McClellan formally assumes control of the newly constituted Department and Army of the Potomac. This vaunted force becomes a permanent fixture in the struggle for Virginia over the next four years.

August 24 Diplomacy: President Jefferson Davis appoints James M. Mason of Virginia to be special commissioner to Great Britain, John Slidell of Louisiana as special commissioner to France, and Pierre A. Rost of Louisiana as special commissioner to Spain. Each man is specifically instructed to seek diplomatic recognition for the Confederacy and, with it, the ability to acquire arms and ammunition. Naval: A combined Union expedition assembles at Hampton Roads, Virginia, under Commodore Silas H. Stringham. This powerful force mounts 143 rifled cannon while Stringham, a capable veteran of many years with the Mediterranean Squadron, is well-versed in the latest fort-reducing tactics perfected during the Crimean War. Captain Andrew H. Foote is appointed to replace Captain John Rodgers as commander of the gunboat flotilla on the western waters. Politics: President Abraham Lincoln informs Governor Beriah Magofin of Kentucky of his refusal to withdraw Union troops already in Kentucky, regardless of its professed neutrality.

August 27 Naval: The naval expedition under Commodore Silas Stringham anchors off Hatteras Inlet, North Carolina, and prepares to attack and land troops to storm nearby forts Clark and Hatteras. These are garrisoned by 350 men of the 7th North Carolina under Colonel William F. Mountain and are poorly situated to resist such a powerful force.

August 28 Naval: To seal off Pamlico Sound, an important blockade-running route, a combined expedition of eight warships and two transports under Commodore Silas Stringham takes up bombardment positions off Hatteras Inlet, North Carolina. Around 10 a.m. he forms his vessels into a fast moving circle offshore which continuously bombards Confederate positions with a heavy, plunging fire.

August 29 Military: General Benjamin F. Butler lands 900 soldiers and occupies Forts Hatteras and Clark at Hatteras Inlet, North Carolina. The Union thus secures its first toehold in Southern territory, and the inlet performs useful service throughout the war as a coaling and resupply station for the blockading squadron offshore.

August 30 Military: Without prior authorization, General John C. Frémont proclaims a conditional emancipation declaration in Missouri and frees all slaves belonging to Confederate sympathizers. President Abraham Lincoln, after learning of his actions, declares them dictatorial and potentially alienating for slave-owning Unionists in the region.

August 31 Military: General William S. Rosecrans takes three brigades of Ohio troops, 6,000 strong, and marches south from Clarksburgh, western Virginia, intending to attack Confederates under General John B. Floyd at Carnifex Ferry. Naval: The Navy Department abolishes the daily rum ration for sailors.

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September 1 Education: Mary Chase, an African-American freedwoman, starts the first school for contrabands (escaped slaves) in Alexandria, Virginia. Military: General Ulysses S. Grant arrives at Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and takes nominal command of Union forces throughout southeastern Missouri.

September 2 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln, eager to placate slaveholding border states, instructs General Charles Frémont in Missouri to “modify” his emancipation proclamation—in effect, countermand it.

September 3 Military: In a major development, General Leonidas K. Polk orders Confederate forces to violate Kentucky neutrality and preempt any possible Union advances there. General Gideon Pillow responds by occupying Hickham, Clark Cliffs, and Columbus, establishing a continuous war front now stretching from Missouri to the Atlantic Ocean.

September 5 Military: General Ulysses S. Grant prepares his forces gathered at Cairo, Illinois, for an immediate occupation of Paducah, Kentucky, at the strategic confluence of the Tennessee and Ohio Rivers. The mouth of the Cumberland River is also nearby. Naval: Captain Andrew H. Foote reports for duty at St. Louis, Missouri, replacing Commander John Rodgers.

September 6 Diplomacy: The U.S. Consul in London is alerted of the purchase of steamers Bermuda, Adelaide, and Victoria by Confederate agents. Military: Federal troops under General Ulysses S. Grant advance south from Cairo, Illinois, to Paducah, Kentucky, at the mouth of the Tennessee River, to forestall its capture by Confederates. Grant then appoints General Charles F. Smith to assume command of all Union forces in western Kentucky after he hastens back to Cairo. Naval: Gunboats USS Tyler and Lexington under Commander John Rodgers provide useful support during General Ulysses S. Grant’s occupation of Paducah, Kentucky, which places the mouth of the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers under Union control.

September 9 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln is advised by his cabinet to relieve the erratic but popular General John C. Frémont from command in Missouri. The president nonetheless relents for the time being and instructs General David Hunter to convey additional troops there as reinforcements.

September 10 Military: General Albert S. Johnston is appointed commander of all Confederate forces in the West. General William S. Rosecrans and 6,000 Union troops attack 2,000 Confederates under General John B. Floyd at Carnifex Ferry in western Virginia. The Federals press forward into a stretch of the Gauley River and clear a heavily wooded area, capturing many Southern supplies. Floyd hastily shuttles his com-

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mand across the river under the cover of darkness and destroys the nearby ferry to avoid a pursuit. In western Virginia, General Robert E. Lee prepares his command to pass over to the offensive. He formulates a complicated plan to isolate and storm the Union outpost atop Cheat Mountain, for its possession would sever Northern communications along the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike.

September 11 Military: General Robert E. Lee and 15,000 Confederates launch an overly complex and unsuccessful attack upon General J. J. Reynolds and his 2,000 Union troops at Cheat Mountain and Elkwater, western Virginia. The assailants are hampered from the onset by rough terrain and heavy rainfall, and then are misled by prisoners into thinking that they are outnumbered. Lee, alarmed by the supposed approach of Union reinforcements, then calls off the attack and unceremoniously withdraws, an inauspicious debut for the Confederacy’s premier soldier. Politics: President Abraham Lincoln orders the emancipation declaration of General John C. Frémont modified to conform with existing acts of Congress, which are far less strident on the issue of freeing slaves. The Kentucky legislature, angered by Confederate violation of its neutrality, demands the immediate removal of all Southern forces from its territory. A similar call applying to Federal troops is defeated by pro-Unionists.

September 12 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln dispatches a personal emissary to St. Louis and again instructs General John C. Frémont to modify his emancipation proclamation—which he considers a potential threat to Kentucky’s allegiance. He also orders Federal troops to arrest of 31 members of the Maryland legislature suspected of collusion.

September 13 Military: President Jefferson Davis and General Joseph E. Johnston heatedly argue over the Confederate seniority systems respecting generals; this initiates a permanent estrangement between the two men. General Sterling Price, seeking to maintain the strategic initiative, marches from Wilson’s Creek and besieges Lexington, Missouri—midway between Kansas City and St. Louis—with 7,000 state guards.

September 14 Naval: Lieutenant John H. Russell fights the first pitched naval engagement of the Civil War at Pensacola, Florida, by sailing the frigate USS Colorado past Confederate batteries at night, then leading 100 sailors and marines on a cutting-out expedition that nets several vessels.

September 15 Military: General Robert E. Lee, bested at Cheat Mountain, directs the Confederate evacuation form Virginia’s westernmost counties. Consequently, he earns the unflattering sobriquet of “Granny.” Recent operations reflect badly upon Lee as a military leader, and plans are afoot to transfer him to a quiet sector in South Carolina. Politics: President Abraham Lincoln confers with his Cabinet about the necessity of removing the erratic General John C. Frémont as commander of Missouri.

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Chronology of American History General John C. Frémont has politician Frank P. Blair, his most vocal critic, arrested in St. Louis, Missouri.

September 16 Military: Confederate general Sterling Price is reinforced and tightens his grip around Lexington, Missouri, while Union defenders under Colonel James A. Mulligan, 23rd Illinois, await promised assistance from St. Louis. Unbeknownst to him, General John C. Frémont fails to assist the beleaguered garrison. Naval: The Ironclad Board recommends to Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles the construction of three new ironclad warships—Monitor, Galena, and New Ironsides. The former is a revolutionary new turreted design promoted by Swedish émigré engineer John Ericsson.

September 18 Military: General Sterling Price’s Confederates fiercely assail the Union perimeter at Lexington, Missouri, and cut the garrison off from their water supply. At day’s end, with few losses to either side, Price calls off the attack and allows the intense heat to do its work. Politics: The Kentucky legislature authorizes the use of force to expel Confederate forces from its territory.

September 19 Military: Advancing Confederates under General Felix Zollicoffer attack and drive Union troops from Barboursville, Kentucky. The Southerners then commence erecting strong defensive positions across Cumberland Gap, Bowling Green, and Columbus. Naval: The North Atlantic Blockading Squadron under Commodore Louis M. Goldsborough is ordered to commence operating off the coasts of North Carolina and Virginia.

September 20 Military: Colonel James Mulligan, 23rd Illinois, surrenders 2,800 Union troops at Lexington, Missouri, to General Sterling Price after a nine-day siege. Price’s men ingeniously employed dampened bales of hemp as movable breastworks, which they rolled ahead of their advance. General John C. Frémont’s unwillingness or inability to lift the siege causes many in St. Louis and Washington, D.C., to question his competence.

September 25 Military: President Jefferson Davis and General Joseph E. Johnston engage in another heated contretemps, this time over Southern strategy and the allocation of resources. Slavery: The Navy Department authorizes employment of African-American “contrabands” onboard naval vessels. They will begin drawing pay at the rank of “boy,” $10 per month and one ration per day.

September 27 Military: President Abraham Lincoln and General George B. McClellan engage in protracted debate as to resuming offensive operations in Virginia. The general feels that his Army of the Potomac is not yet ready for field operations whereas Lincoln is taking political heat over its perceived inactivity.

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Ericsson, John

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(1803–1889)

Shipwright John Ericsson was born in Langsbansbytten, Sweden, and he joined the corps of mechanical engineers as a cadet at the age of 14. He then served in the Swedish army as a lieutenant of topographical engineers, where he remained until emigrating to England in 1827. Ericsson was a confirmed tinkerer, and in 1829 he designed and built the experimental locomotive Novelty for his English hosts. This device was capable of reaching then unheard of speeds of 30 miles per hours. Ericsson also dabbled in marine engineering, designing a viable screw propeller for steam warships to replace the clumsy side paddles. The conservative British admiralty expressed no interest in the device, but Ericsson had a chance encounter with U.S. Navy Captain Robert F. Stockton, who convinced him to move to America. Stockton subsequently used his political influence to have Ericsson design and build the navy’s first steam frigate, the USS Princeton, and in 1844 this became the world’s earliest propeller-driven warship. Beyond propulsion, its many innovations included placement of the engines below the waterline to avoid hostile fire, and two new 12-inch diameter cannons, one designed by Stockton and one by Ericsson, on the deck. After an unfortunate explosion killed Secretary of the Navy Abel P. Upshur, Ericsson found himself blacklisted and was unable to find work with the Navy for the next 15 years. He simply turned his attention to applying the new steam technology to domestic merchant vessels.

It was not until the advent of the Civil War in April 1861 that Ericsson found favor with the Navy Department again. The government was concerned that the Confederates were building new classes of iron warships and accepted bids for Union ironclads to counter them. Ericsson trumped the competition by submitting designs for a radical new warship, the USS Monitor, which was a low-lying vessel with a single revolving turret housing two cannon. Though often derided as looking like a “cheese box on a raft,” this ship was the world’s first modern warship. On March 9, 1862, the Monitor, under Lieutenant John L. Worden, successfully confronted the Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia off Hampton Roads, Virginia, fighting the larger vessel to a draw and preserving the Union blockade of Norfolk. The success of Ericsson’s design led to several new classes of warships, hereafter known generally as monitors, for the U.S. Navy, and they became the focus of American ship construction. Ericsson, for his part, patriotically turned over his unpatented plans to other engineering firms to facilitate rapid construction. By war’s end ships of his design proved instrumental in blockading the South, leading to its ultimate demise. After the war Ericsson continued designing new warships for the navy, including the high speed Destroyer of 1878. He died in New York on March 8, 1889, one of the most influential shipwrights of history. At the behest of the Swedish government, his remains were returned home, carried there on a monitor-class vessel he helped pioneer.

October 1 Aviation: Inventor and balloonist Professor Thaddeus S. C. Lowe is appointed head of the Union Army’s nascent aeronautical section. Military: President Abraham Lincoln appoints General Benjamin F. Butler to command the Department of New England, created largely for the purposes of

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Chronology of American History raising and training new troops for future operations. He also requests action on a large naval expedition to the South Atlantic coast to carve out a coaling station. At Centreville, Virginia, President Jefferson Davis and generals Joseph E. Johnston and Pierre G. T. Beauregard continue arguing over strategy. At length they agree to consolidate their positions and restrain from launching offensive operations into Northern territory until at least the following spring. Naval: Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles opposes issuing letters of marque and reprisal against the South as it inadvertently implies recognition of national sovereignty.

October 2 Politics: Governor Andrew B. Moore of Alabama warns tradesmen against charging exorbitant prices for their goods and services.

October 3 Diplomacy: Louisiana Governor Thomas O. Moore summarily bans cotton exports in a move to force England and France to recognize Confederate independence. Military: General Joseph J. Reynolds advances from Cheat Mountain with 5,000 men to dislodge a Confederate force gathered at Camp Bartow, along the southern fork of the Greenbrier River, western Virginia. Unable to turn their flank, Reynolds simply withdraws back to Cheat Mountain and an impasse settles in over the region.

October 4 Indian: The Confederacy concludes a treaty with the Shawnee, Seneca, and Cherokee in the Indian Territory. Naval: President Abraham Lincoln approves a contract for constructing the U.S. Navy’s first ironclad warships; among them is John Ericsson’s revolutionary USS Monitor.

October 7 Naval: The steam-powered ironclad CSS Virginia (née USS Merimack), completely armored and redesigned by Confederate naval engineer John M. Brooke, makes its brief but ominous debut off Hampton Roads, Virginia. Politics: President Abraham Lincoln dispatches Secretary of War Simon Cameron with a letter to General Samuel R. Curtis and inquires if General John C. Frémont should be replaced as commanding officer in Missouri.

October 9 Military: General Braxton Bragg orders 1,000 Confederates under General Richard H. Anderson across Pensacola Bay to attack Union-held Fort Pickens on Santa Rosa Island, Florida. The attack stalls and a quick sweep by the Federal garrison nets several stragglers as the Southerners withdraw.

October 10 Slavery: President Jefferson Davis, writing to General Gustavus W. Smith, briefly ponders the use of African-American slaves as laborers for the Confederate army.

October 12 Naval: Newly launched Confederate ram CSS Manassas under Commodore George N. Hollis departs New Orleans, Louisiana, and ventures down the Mississippi River accompanied by the armed steamers Ivy and James L. Day. A stiff

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Sailors relaxing on the deck of the USS Monitor. (Library of Congress)

engagement develops in which Hollis rams the USS Richmond and Vincennes, running them aground.

October 14 Law: To discourage treasonable activity, President Abraham Lincoln orders General Winfield Scott to suspend writs of habeas corpus anywhere in the region from Washington, D.C., to Maine. Slavery: Secretary of War Simon Cameron orders General Thomas W. Sherman to organize and arm fugitive slaves into military squads at Port Royal, South Carolina.

October 16 Politics: President Jefferson Davis denies requests by Confederates to return home and serve in their state militia in lieu of regular army service.

October 17 Naval: After some deliberation, Commodore Samuel F. Du Pont informs Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles that Port Royal, South Carolina, is an inviting target and would constitute an important asset to the blockading effort.

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October 18 Political: President Abraham Lincoln meets with his Cabinet over continuing dissatisfaction with General in Chief Winfield Scott and his probable retirement. He also experiences problems prying troops from the armies of generals William T. Sherman and George B. McClellan for the upcoming Port Royal expedition.

October 20 Military: General George B. McClellan, eager to test Confederate responses and pressured by radical Republicans to resume the offensive, orders politicianturned-soldier Colonel Charles P. Stone to dispatch troops from Poolesville, Maryland, and demonstrate along enemy lines near Leesburg, Virginia.

October 21 Military: Acting upon faulty intelligence, Colonel Edward D. Baker ferries 1,700 men of his brigade across the Potomac River at Ball’s Bluff, Virginia, beneath a 100-foot-high ledge overlooking that waterway. He does so without proper reconnaissance and remains unaware strong Confederate forces under Colonel Nathan G. Evans are posted in the woods above him. An unequal battles ensues for three and a half hours until Baker is killed and his command succumbs to panic. The Federals lose nearly 1,000 men, mostly drowned or captured.

October 22 Military: General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson is ordered to lead Confederate forces into the Shenandoah Valley of western Virginia.

October 23 Naval: Crew members of the captured Confederate privateer Savannah are tried in New York on charges of piracy and threatened with execution. Though convicted, their sentences are never carried out.

October 24 Communication: The vaunted “Pony Express” is finally disbanded after being made obsolete by the first transcontinental telegraph service. It nonetheless provided valuable service by informing the far western states of recent political and military events back East. The new telegraph is something of a technological marvel, having taken the past 16 months to span 3,000 miles between Washington, D.C., and San Francisco, California. Politics: President Abraham Lincoln relieves General John C. Frémont of command in Missouri and replaces him with General David Hunter. He also attends funeral services for Colonel Edward D. Baker, a close friend, recently killed at Ball’s Bluff, Virginia.

October 25 Naval: Swedish inventor and engineer John Ericsson begins constructing his revolutionary, one-turret warship USS Monitor at Greenpoint, New York.

October 28 Military: General Albert S. Johnston arrives and relieves General Simon B. Buckner as commander of the Confederate Army Corps of Kentucky at Bowling Green.

October 29 Naval: A huge combined expedition of 17 warships, 25 supply vessels, and 25 transports under Commodore Samuel F. Du Pont, conveying General Thomas

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W. Sherman and 13,000 Federal troops, departs Hampton Roads, Virginia. This force, the largest American armada assembled to date, is intending to capture Port Royal, South Carolina, and make a Union lodgment midway between Charleston and Savannah, Georgia.

October 30 Military: President Jefferson Davis complains to General Pierre G. T. Beauregard about publishing excerpts from his report on the Battle of First Manassas (Bull Run) “to exalt yourself at my expense.” The two leaders are never reconciled.

October 31 Military: The ailing, 75-year-old General in Chief Winfield Scott, once the premier officer of his era, voluntarily resigns as head of Union forces. He then retires in virtual isolation to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, for the remainder of the war. Politics: Secessionist-leaning Missouri legislators meet at Neosho and again vote to join the Confederacy. Thus the state remains simultaneously claimed by both belligerents.

November 1 Military: Thirty-four-year-old General George B. McClellan gains appointment as the new general in chief to succeeded the ailing Winfield Scott. In light of his youth, dash, and reputation, much is expected of him. General Ulysses S. Grant arrives at Cairo, Illinois, to take charge of the District of Southeast Missouri. Rumpled and nondescript in appearance, he proves himself aggressively disposed and begins formulating plans to evict Confederate forces from their strong point along the bluffs at Columbus, Kentucky.

November 2 Military: Incorrigible General John C. Frémont is relieved of command of the Department of the West at Springfield, Missouri, and is temporarily replaced by General David Hunter.

November 4 Naval: The huge naval expedition of Commodore Samuel F. Du Pont anchors off Port Royal, South Carolina. Meanwhile, Confederate vessels under Commodore Josiah Tattnall fire upon the Coast Survey ship Vixen and USS Ottawa as they reconnoiter the two-mile-wide channel entrance. Politics: President Jefferson Davis, frustrated in his inability to reach an agreement with General Pierre G. T. Beauregard over strategy, solicits advice from senior generals Samuel Cooper and Robert E. Lee. He is also increasingly aware of rumors accusing him of political ineptitude.

November 5 Military: General Robert E. Lee assumes responsibilities as head of the newly constituted Department of South Carolina, Georgia, and East Florida. General John C. Frémont, still commanding the Department of the West, orders General Ulysses S. Grant on a diversionary attack against Columbus, Kentucky. He anticipates this maneuver will keep Confederate forces occupied and unable to cross the Mississippi River into Missouri.

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November 6 Politics: President Jefferson Davis is formally reelected chief executive of the Confederate States of America and slated to serve a six-year term. Vice President Alexander H. Stephens likewise remains in office, as do members of the first permanent Confederate Congress.

November 7 Military: Approximately 3,000 Union troops under General Ulysses S. Grant debark at Hunter’s Farm, three miles above his objective at Belmont, Missouri. His opponent, General Gideon Pillow, commands 2,500 men and Grant’s enthusiastic soldiers storm into their camp. Despite entreaties from Grant and other officers, order breaks down and they embark on a headlong plundering spree, which allows Pillow to be reinforced by Confederates under General Leonidas K. Polk. Grant has little choice but to cut his way through enemy lines to the riverbank and escape, but the affair demonstrates his willingness to undertake offensive missions. Naval: The South Atlantic Blockading Squadron of 77 vessels under Commodore Samuel F. Du Pont debarks the 16,000 Federal troops of General Thomas W. Sherman off Port Royal Sound, South Carolina, halfway between Charleston and Savannah, Georgia. The Union thus acquires a second lodging on the Confederate coastline; in time Port Royal/Hilton Head emerges as a major supply center for the blockading squadron.

November 8 Naval: The screw sloop USS San Jacinto under Captain Charles Wilkes boards the British mail packet Trent in Old Bahama Channel and forcibly removes Southern envoys James M. Mason and John Slidell. This is an egregious violation of international law and threatens to embroil the United States in a new war with Great Britain.

November 9 Military: Federal troops under General Thomas W. Sherman, assisted by gunboats, advance from Port Royal, South Carolina, and capture the city of Beaufort on the Broad River. Confederate department commander General Robert E. Lee expresses concern to superiors in Richmond over the Union’s ability to land troops anywhere, at will. In a major shake-up of command, General Henry W. Halleck becomes head of Federal troops in the newly designated Department of Missouri (Missouri, Arkansas, Illinois, and western Kentucky), while General Don Carlos Buell replaces General William T. Sherman as head of the Department of the Cumberland.

November 11 Aviation: Professor Thaddeus S. C. Lowe, Union chief of army aeronautics, rides an observation balloon launched from the gunboat G. W. Custis while anchored in Chesapeake Bay. Meanwhile, a torchlight parade unfolds in Washington, D.C., in honor of General George B. McClellan, now hailed as the savior of the Republic. Military: General George B. Crittenden assumes command of Confederate troops in the District of Cumberland Gap, Tennessee. His chief subordinate, General Felix K. Zollicoffer, is assigned to hold southeastern Kentucky but also not to expose his men by remaining south of the Cumberland River.

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November 12 Naval: The British-built steamer Fingal arrives at Savannah, Georgia, with a store of military supplies. The vessel is subsequently taken into Confederate service as the CSS Atlanta.

November 13 Politics: George B. McClellan contemptuously snubs President Abraham Lincoln, when the latter calls upon his headquarters, by retiring to bed. Henceforth, the general will be summoned to the White House when consultations become necessary.

November 15 Indian: A mixed force of 1,400 Texans under Colonel Douglas H. Cooper and allied Cherokee, Choctaw, and Chickasaw Indians arrive at Canadian Creek, Indian Territory (Oklahoma), intending to fight the 1,000 Union-leading Creeks gathered there under Chief Opothleyahola. However, they discover that the enemy has slipped away, so Cooper orders a pursuit toward nearby Round Mountain. Military: President Abraham Lincoln and his cabinet begin focusing their attention upon the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, the Confederacy’s second largest city and a port of strategic significance. In choosing an experienced leader to spearhead an amphibious expedition and capture it, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles selects Captain David G. Farragut, a 60-year-old Tennesseean known for his aggressive tactics. Naval: The USS San Jacinto under Captain Charles Wilkes arrives at Fortress Monroe, Virginia, with captured Confederate emissaries James M. Mason and John Slidell. This is the government’s first inkling of what had transpired at sea, and Wilkes is hailed in the press as a hero. Religion: The U.S. Christian Commission is organized as a wartime extension of the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA). They are designated to forward supplies and other forms of assistance to Union troops.

November 16 Naval: Confederate Secretary of the Navy Stephen R. Mallory accepts bids for four heavily armed ironclad vessels. Politics: To preclude a potentially ruinous war with Great Britain, Postmaster General Montgomery Blair and Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts urge the immediate release of Confederate envoys James M. Mason and John Slidell.

November 18 Indian: A detachment of the 9th Texas under Colonel Douglas H. Cooper, assisted by allied Indians, skirmish with Creek warriors under Opothleyahola at Round Mountain, Indian Territory (Oklahoma). The Federal Indians are driven off yet skillfully extricate themselves and retire. Naval: Commodore David D. Porter is tasked with acquiring and supplying numerous gunboats for the long anticipated campaign against New Orleans, Louisiana. Politics: Confederate Kentuckians gather at Russellville and adopt a secession ordinance. Like Missouri, this state has separate legislatures in both Northern and Southern camps. A convention of North Carolina loyalists meets at Hatteras to both denounce secession and reaffirm their allegiance to the Union. Marble Nash Taylor is then elected provisional governor of captured portions of the state.

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November 20 Military: General George B. McClellan, a superb organizer and disciplinarian, reviews 70,000 men of the Army of the Potomac near Washington, D.C. In contrast to the amateurish forces hastily gathered the previous summer, visitors favorably comment on the military deportment and martial ardor of all ranks. Slavery: General Henry W. Halleck, newly arrived at the Department of Missouri in St. Louis, declares General Order No. 3, which excludes all African Americans from army camps within his jurisdiction.

November 21 Military: Confederate General Lloyd Tilghman becomes commander of strategic Forts Henry and Donelson on the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers, respectively. These are lynchpins of Confederate defense in the central theater and their retention is critical to the Southern war effort. Politics: The Confederate Cabinet is reorganized with Judah P. Benjamin succeeding LeRoy P. Walker as secretary of war.

November 24 Military: Confederate Colonel Nathan B. Forrest mounts a prolonged cavalry raid against Caseyville and Eddyville, Kentucky, initiating what becomes a spectacular career. Naval: The USS San Jacinto under Captain Charles Wilkes drops anchor in Boston, Massachusetts, whereupon captured Confederate envoys James M. Mason and John Slidell are imprisoned at Fort Warren.

November 25 Military: Confederate Secretary of War Judah P. Benjamin orders pro-Union guerrillas captured in Tennessee to be tried and executed if found guilty of burning bridges.

November 26 Naval: A banquet honoring Captain Charles Wilkes is held in Boston as diplomats begin weighing the international ramifications of his actions. Politics: A constituent convention gathers at Wheeling, Virginia, and adopts a resolution of secession against Virginia to establish an independent state.

November 27 Diplomacy: National indignation runs high in Great Britain once word of the Trent Affair circulates. Signs and editorials declaring an “outrage on the British flag” appear as war with America seems in the offing.

November 28 Politics: The Confederate Congress inducts Missouri as the 12th Confederate state.

November 29 General: In an act of defiance, farmers in the vicinity of Charleston, South Carolina, and Savannah, Georgia, burn their cotton crops rather than see them confiscated by Union forces.

November 30 Diplomacy: The British cabinet headed by Foreign Secretary Lord John Russell, greatly incensed by the Trent Affair, demands both a formal apology and the immediate release of Confederates James M. Mason and John Slidell. The British

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minister to the United States, Lord Lyons, is also instructed to depart Washington, D.C., if a satisfactory response is not forthcoming in one week.

December 1 Diplomacy: The British cabinet prepares for war with the United States by dispatching 6,000 troops to Canada and sending Admiral Sir Alexander Milne to Halifax, Nova Scotia, with 40 vessels mounting 1,273 cannon. Politics: Secretary of War Simon Cameron reports to President Abraham Lincoln as to what should be done about the thousands of African-American slaves flocking into Union lines. Lincoln agrees with the report but, desperate to maintain the allegiance of slave-owning border states like Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri, orders all mention of emancipation or military service removed. He prefers to have Congress address both issues.

December 2 Law: General Henry W. Halleck is authorized to suspend writs of habeas corpus within the Department of Missouri. Military: Secretary of War Simon Cameron reveals that U.S. forces comprise 20,334 soldiers and 640,637 volunteers.

December 3 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln, in his message to Congress, suggests that slaves appropriated from Southern owners be allowed to emigrate northward. He also reiterates his belief that the Union must be preserved by every means at the government’s disposal.

December 4 Diplomacy: Queen Victoria of England forbids all exports to the United States, especially materials capable of being used for armaments. Military: From his headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri, General Henry W. Halleck condones and authorizes all punitive measures against Confederate sympathizers within his jurisdiction. These include the death penalty for any citizen caught assisting rebel guerrillas. Politics: The U.S. Senate expels former vice president John C. Breckinridge from its ranks on a vote of 36 to 0. Since the previous November Breckinridge has been serving as a Confederate major general. Religion: Southern Presbyterians gather in Augusta, Georgia, to separate themselves from their Northern brethren. They then found the Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States of America.

December 5 Politics: Congress entertains petitions and bills intended to abolish slavery throughout the land.

December 6 Journalism: Pro-Union newspaper editor William G. Brownlow is arrested by Confederate authorities on charges of treason in Knoxville, Tennessee.

December 7 Naval: The USS Santiago de Cuba under Commander Daniel B. Ridgley accosts the British ship Eugenia Smith at sea and removes Confederate purchasing agent J. W. Zacharie of New Orleans, Louisiana. Coming on the heels of the Trent affair, this act exacerbates tensions between the two nations.

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December 8 Indian: Pro-Union Creek leader Opothleyahola and 1,000 warriors arrive at Bird Creek (Chusto-Talasah), Indian Territory (Oklahoma), and assume defensive positions. The chief then dispatches a messenger to the hostile tribes indicating that he does not wish to spill blood, but his determination to fight unsettles many of Colonel Douglas H. Cooper’s Indians and they begin deserting him. Religion: The American Bible Society begins distributing up to 7,000 Bibles a day to Union soldiers and sailors.

December 9 Indian: Pro-Confederate Cherokee, Chickasaw, and Choctaw, assisted by the 9th Texas under Colonel Douglas H. Cooper, attack Pro-Union Creek under Opothleyahola at Bird Creek (Chusto-Takasah) in the Indian Territory (Oklahoma). Resistance is fierce initially, but gradually the Creek flanks retreat and Opothleyahola’s center also falls back. However, the Confederates remain dogged by supply shortages and prove unable to pursue the fleeing Creek. Politics: In light of recent military disasters at Bull Run and Ball’s Bluff, Congress votes 33 to three to establish an oversight committee to monitor military events. This becomes infamously known as the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War and proves to be the bane of many senior Union leaders.

December 10 Politics: The Confederate Congress admits the expatriate “government” of Kentucky into the Confederacy as its 13th state. It thus joins Missouri as having representatives in both belligerent camps.

December 11 General: Charleston, South Carolina, is ravaged by a destructive fire that consumes half of the city.

December 13 Military: Newly appointed General Robert H. Milroy elects to attack Confederate positions atop nearby Allegheny Mountain in western Virginia. Laboring up the heavily wooded slopes he is handily repulsed, at which point the rebels counterattack downhill and scatter their Union antagonists.

December 14 Military: General Henry H. Sibley assumes control of Confederate forces along the Upper Rio Grande River, along with the New Mexico and Arizona Territories. He begins military preparations for an offensive to secure the region.

December 16 Politics: Congressman Clement Vallandigham of Ohio, soon vilified as a “Copperhead,” introduces a resolution commending Captain Charles Wilkes for his role in the Trent affair.

December 17 Diplomacy: Armed forces of Great Britain, France, and Spain attack and occupy Veracruz, Mexico, ostensibly seeking reparations for unpaid debts. However, once Napoleon III begins maneuvering to seize political control of that nation, the two other belligerents remove their troops. The French emperor seeks to take advantage of America’s preoccupation with civil war for his own gain.

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Religion: Commodore Henry H. Foote institutes regular Sunday services on board his fleet of gunboats on the Cumberland River.

December 19 Diplomacy: Lord Lyons, British minister to the United States, informally alerts Secretary of State William H. Seward of his instructions, namely, that the Americans must unconditionally release Southern commissioners James M. Mason and John Slidell, who have been illegally removed from the British vessel Trent. The American government has one week to respond satisfactorily, after which time Great Britain is withdrawing its ambassador in anticipation of war.

December 20 Politics: The influential Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War is formally instituted in the U.S. Congress following the disastrous rout at Ball’s Bluff in the previous October. It is comprised mainly of Radical Republicans like Benjamin F. Wade and Zachariah Chandler of Michigan, and tasked with closely scrutinizing the conduct of the president and his senior commanders throughout the war.

December 21 Politics: The U.S. Congress institutes the Navy Medal of Honor as the nation’s highest military award granted to that service. Initially it is intended for enlisted ranks, and officers are not eligible to receive it until 1915.

December 22 Military: General Henry W. Halleck reiterates orders that any individuals found sabotaging Union railroads or telegraph lines will be immediately shot without civil trial.

December 23 Diplomacy: British ambassador Lord Lyons formally presents Secretary of State William H. Seward his ultimatum for the release of the two imprisoned Confederate commissioners.

December 24 Education: Waco University is established in Waco, Texas, by the Baptists.

December 25 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln celebrates Christmas with his family and later that day confers with legal authorities over the disposition of the imprisoned Confederate envoys. Slavery: General Ulysses S. Grant orders the expulsion of fugitive African Americans from Fort Holt, Kentucky.

December 26 Diplomacy: An international crisis is averted when President Abraham Lincoln’s cabinet concurs that the seizure of James M. Mason and John Slidell is illegal and that the two captives should be released and allowed to continue on to Europe. Secretary of State William H. Seward then orders their release from confinement at Fort Warren, Boston, blaming the entire matter on a “misunderstanding” by Captain Charles Wilkes.

December 27 Diplomacy: Secretary of State William H. Seward alerts House and Senate Foreign Relations Committees as to President Abraham Lincoln’s decision to free

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Chronology of American History Confederate agents James M. Mason and John Slidell from detention at Fort Warren, Boston. He also provides British minister Lord Lyon with a lengthy diplomatic note—not an apology—explaining the American response.

December 28 Military: Colonel Nathan B. Forrest leads a detachment of 300 Confederate cavalry toward Sacramento, Kentucky. En route he encounters a smaller force of 168 Union troopers under Major Eli Murray. The Federals charge headlong into twice their number of Southerners, then are assailed on both flanks and scattered. Triumphant in the first of his many scrapes, the future “Wizard of the Saddle” returns to Greeneville, hotly pursued by 500 cavalry under Union Colonel James Jackson, 3rd Kentucky Cavalry.

December 31 Military: Noting the inactivity of Union forces in the East, a despondent President Abraham Lincoln anxiously cables General Henry W. Halleck in St. Louis, Missouri, and hopes to hear of offensive operations in that theater at least. “Are you and General Buell in concert?” he inquires.

1862 Architecture: Alexander T. Stewart builds the nation’s largest retail store in New York City, eight stories tall and constructed from steel and stone. Education: The State College of Agriculture and Mechanics (today’s University of Maine) is founded at Orono, Maine. Journalism: A little-known writer, Samuel Langhorne Clemens, begins working as a journalist in Virginia City, Nevada, under the nom de plume Mark Twain. The Golden Age of Lewiston becomes the first newspaper published in the Idaho Territory. Medical: Dr. Louis Elsberg opens the first public clinic for throat diseases at the Medical College of New York. Publishing: Noted painter and artist Winslow Homer accompanies Union armies into the field, creating many notable illustrations for Harper’s Weekly magazine. William G. Brownlow publishes his anti-Southern diatribe, The Rise, Progress, and Decline of Secession, which sells 100,000 copies in the North. He had previously been imprisoned by Confederate authorities in Knoxville, Tennessee, for displaying overt Unionist sympathies. Sports: The first fully enclosed baseball fields are constructed at Union Grounds, Brooklyn, New York.

January 1 Diplomacy: Confederate agents James M. Mason and John Slidell board the HMS Rinaldo off Provincetown, Massachusetts, and sail for Great Britain via Halifax. Military: General in Chief George B. McClellan remains sidelined by illness as President Abraham Lincoln frets over his continuing military inactivity. General Thomas J. Jackson, eager to secure the lightly defended town of Romney, western Virginia, orders 8,500 Confederates under General William W. Loring, from their winter quarters at Winchester. However, no sooner do they depart than temperatures plunge to freezing and the men, lacking heavy overcoats, suffer severely.

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January 6 Military: President Abraham Lincoln ignores cries by Radical Republicans to replace General George B. McClellan, then ill with typhoid fever, over allegations of military inactivity. Lincoln also continues urging General Don Carlos Buell, commanding the Army of the Ohio in Kentucky, to assume an offensive posture. Naval: In response to critical shortages of trained manpower, Commodore Andrew H. Foote suggests drafting soldiers to serve on the gunboat fleet. The army proves reluctant to comply, and General Ulysses S. Grant suggests that guardhouses be emptied to assist the navy.

January 8 Politics: President Jefferson Davis contacts fugitive Missouri governor Claiborne F. Jackson and assures him that his state is not being neglected by the Confederate government. He also presses the governor to raise additional troops to offset Union advantages in manpower.

January 9 Naval: Commodore David G. Farragut of the USS Hartford formally takes charge of the Western Gulf Blockading Squadron. Thus situated, he is tasked with orchestrating the capture of New Orleans, Louisiana, an essential aspect of overall Union strategy. Farragut, cognizant of the dire necessity for utmost secrecy, instructs his wife to burn any correspondence she receives from him.

January 10 Military: President Abraham Lincoln expresses alarm to Secretary of War Simon Cameron over the apparent lack of military activity in the West. Believing themselves heavily outnumbered, Union forces abandon strategic Romney, western Virginia, to advancing Confederates under General William W. Loring. That leader also enters into a bitter contretemps with General William L. Loring over charges he abused his soldiers by marching them during bitterly cold weather. Politics: Confederate-leaning Missourians Waldo P. Johnson and Trusten Polk are expelled from the U.S. Senate.

January 11 Politics: Secretary of War Simon Cameron resigns from office amid charges of corruption and mismanagement. President Abraham Lincoln subsequently nominates former attorney general Edwin M. Stanton, a confidant of General George B. McClellan, as his successor. The appointment proves fortuitous as Stanton infuses military administration with energy and efficiency. Naval: Commodore Louis M. Goldsborough assembles a large naval expedition of 100 vessels off Hampton Roads, Virginia.

January 12 Naval: The naval expedition of Commodore Louis M. Goldsborough sails from Hampton Roads, Virginia, in preparation for an attack upon strategic Roanoke Island, North Carolina. He is also conveying 15,000 Union troops under General Ambrose Burnside.

January 13 Military: President Abraham Lincoln again urges generals Henry W. Halleck and Don Carlos Buell to initiate offensive operations in the western theater.

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Chronology of American History General George B. McClellan refuses to consult with either the president or other officials as to his impending plan of operations. Moreover, he disagrees with the president’s strategy of attacking along a broad front. Naval: Lieutenant John L. Worden, still convalescing from months of Confederate captivity, is appointed commander of the revolutionary new vessel USS Monitor, then under construction on Long Island, New York. Commodore Louis M. Goldsborough and his 100-ship expedition arrive off Hatteras Inlet, North Carolina. Once on station he reiterates orders that gunners must be completely trained and familiar with the new Bormann fuses fitted to 9-inch shrapnel shells.

January 16 Military: General Felix K. Zollicoffer disobeys orders from General George B. Crittenden by positioning Confederate troops north of the Cumberland River, Kentucky, where they must fight with a river at their backs. Shortly after Crittenden arrives with reinforcements, he concludes that the water is running too high to safely recross. He thus intends to make the most of his subordinate’s mistake by attacking an oncoming Union column at Logan’s Cross Roads.

January 17 Naval: Federal gunboats USS Conestoga and Lexington conduct a preliminary reconnaissance of the Tennessee River past Confederate-held Fort Henry. The detailed information they convey helps formulate plans for its capture.

January 18 General: Former president John Tyler dies in Richmond, Virginia, at the age of 62. Military: General George H. Thomas, having enticed Confederate troops north of the Cumberland River to attack him, encamps 4,000 Union troops at Mill Springs, Kentucky. Reconnaissance parties dispatched toward the river confirm that General George B. Crittenden’s Confederates are approaching and will strike the Federals at dawn.

January 19 Military: A force of 4,000 Confederates under General Felix K. Zollicoffer and William H. Carroll attack the Union encampment at Logan’s Cross Roads, Kentucky. Braving heavy rain and mud, the Southerners overrun the Union pickets at daybreak and drive them headlong into the main defensive line commanded by General George H. Thomas. The Confederates charge one more time but Thomas, expecting the move, stations the newly arrived brigade of General Samuel P. Carter obliquely, and his men catch the Southerners in a deadly enfilade. Zollicoffer then mistakenly gallops toward the Union position in a fog and is shot dead from the saddle. Crittenden’s men then break and flee back to Beech Grove with Thomas in pursuit. Confederate losses are 125 killed, 309 wounded, and 99 missing to 40 Union dead, 207 wounded, and 15 missing.

January 20 Naval: At the behest of Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles, the Union Gulf Blockading Squadron is reorganized into two distinct formations: the East Gulf Blockading Squadron and the West Gulf Blockading Squadron, with the latter

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commanded by Commodore David G. Farragut. His fleet consists of 17 steam warship and 19 mortar boats under his foster brother, Commander David D. Porter.

January 23 Military: As General Thomas J. Jackson leads his Stonewall brigade out from Romney, western Virginia, General William W. Loring feels that his own command has been deliberately left in an exposed position only 20 miles from Union lines. Loring and other officers then violate the chain of command by petitioning friends in the Confederate Congress for a change in orders.

January 26 Military: General Pierre G. T. Beauregard transfers from the Eastern Theater to the West, where he is subordinate to General Albert S. Johnston. Meanwhile, command in Virginia remains with General Joseph E. Johnston.

January 27 Diplomacy: Emperor Napoleon III of France declares that the American conflict infringes upon trade relations with France, but that he will observe a policy of strict neutrality. Politics: President Abraham Lincoln, exasperated by the lack of initiative displayed by Union commanders, issues General Order No. 1. This mandates a general offensive against the Confederacy from various points along the line. February 22—George Washington’s birthday—is selected as the deadline to commence combined operations by both army and navy forces.

January 28 Naval: Commodore Andrew H. Foote advises General Henry W. Halleck to begin riverine operations against Forts Henry and Donelson soon before the water levels of the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers begin subsiding.

January 30 Diplomacy: Recently released Confederate envoys James M. Mason and John Slidell arrive at Southampton, England, and are cordially received. Military: General Henry W. Halleck, at St. Louis, Missouri, finally authorizes combined operations against Confederate strong points at Forts Henry and Donelson. General Ulysses S. Grant, eager to assume the offensive, brooks no delay putting his command in motion. Naval: John Ericsson’s revolutionary ironclad USS Monitor, derided by many onlookers as “a cheese box on a raft,” is launched at Greenpoint, Long Island, amid thunderous applause. Trial runs begin immediately.

January 31 Diplomacy: Queen Victoria of England further dampens Southern hopes by reiterating her stance of observing strict neutrality in matters of war. Nonetheless, the British advise Confederate agents of their displeasure over having Southern ports blocked by obstacles. Military: Confederate Secretary of War Judah P. Benjamin orders General Thomas J. Jackson to relocate those portions of his command from Romney, western Virginia, to Winchester. Jackson, now aware that General William W. Loring has violated the chain of command behind his back, sullenly complies—then resigns

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Chronology of American History from the army. Fortunately for the Confederacy, President Jefferson Davis refuses to accept it and, assisted by Virginia governor John Lechter, he persuades Jackson to remain in uniform. Politics: President Abraham Lincoln finally issues his Special War Order No. 1, which requires an advance on Manassas Junction, Virginia, by the Army of the Potomac, no later than February 22, 1862. General George B. McClellan, however, simply ignores the directive and continues training his recruits to a fine edge. Slavery: Radical Republicans demand that General George B. McClellan attack Southern positions immediately, along with deliberately freeing slaves and enlisting them in the army. The general, however, steadfastly declines to turn a war to save the Union into a social crusade to free African Americans held in bondage. Transportation: Congress passes the Railways and Telegraph Act, empowering the president to commandeer any rail facility deemed essential for the war effort.

February 1 Military: Confederate forces under General Henry H. Sibley advance from El Paso, Texas, into New Mexico, intending to conquer that region for the South.

February 2 Military: General Ulysses S. Grant departs Cairo, Illinois, on his campaign against Confederate-held Fort Henry on the Tennessee River. He embarks 17,000 troops on river transports, accompanied by Commodore Andrew H. Foote’s gunboats. Grant intends to land near Panther Creek west of the fort and cut the garrison’s escape.

February 3 Military: President Abraham Lincoln and General George B. McClellan continue at loggerheads over an exact timetable for resuming offensive operations into Virginia. They also differ on strategy, with the president leaning toward a direct, overland campaign while the general wishes to sidestep Confederate defenses by landing on the enemy’s coast. Naval: The Federal government resolves to treat Confederate privateersmen as prisoners of war rather than prosecute them as pirates. This forestalls any chance that Union naval personnel might be hanged in retaliation.

February 4 Naval: The gunboat squadron of Commodore Henry H. Foote begins sounding out Confederate defenses at Fort Henry on the Tennessee River. Several moored mines (“torpedoes”) have also been worked free by the fast current and are examined closely by naval personnel. Slavery: Members of the Confederate Congress at Richmond, Virginia, debate the virtues and vices of utilizing free African Americans for service in the Confederate army. Such a commonsense remedy to address endemic manpower shortages is never seriously entertained, however.

February 5 Diplomacy: Queen Victoria lifts all restrictions against transporting guns, ammunition, and other military stores to Southern ports. Music: The poem “Battle Hymn of the Republic” by Julia Ward Howe debuts in an issue of Atlantic Monthly. It is subsequently arranged to the popular tune “John Brown’s Body.”

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Howe, Julia Ward (1819–1910) Author Julia Ward was born in New York City on May 27, 1819, the daughter of a wealthy banker. Family affluence enabled her to receive an excellent education, including the Classics, languages, geometry, history, and literature. Consequently, she always exhib-­ ited a scholarly streak, and in 1839 she vis-­ ited Boston on her own to confer with noted female author Margaret Fuller. She then mar-­ ried Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe, a noted phi-­ lanthropist, in 1843, and settled in Boston. In addition to raising her family, she actively edited her husband’s abolitionist newspaper, The Commonwealth, for many years. She also began dabbling in fiction and poetry against her husband’s wishes. After her first volume, Passion Flowers, was published in 1854, the couple separated. Howe nonetheless continued writing and publishing and also became active in abolitionist and woman suffrage issues. Though pacifist by nature, she strongly supported President Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War. In 1862, after vis-­ iting troops in the field, she reputedly wrote her most famous composition, “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” while sleeping in a tent. It was first published in the Atlantic Monthly in 1862, then the poem was set to the tradi-­ tional tune of “John Brown’s Body,” becom-­ ing in time the unofficial anthem of the Union Army. This celebrated composition rendered her national recognition as one of the coun-­ try’s most talented female writers. After the war, Howe parleyed her talents and energies into the woman suffrage move-­

ment. In 1868 she founded the New England Woman’s Club in Boston which evolved into the larger American Woman Suffrage Associ-­ ation. While Howe supported women’s rights, she frowned upon the gender-­exclusive femi-­ nists like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, who maintained that men were an obstacle to progress, and also delved into other social issues at hand. Howe, by con-­ trast, welcomed male participation in her organization and restricted her activities to women’s rights. In the end her conserva-­ tive strategy triumphed with the founding of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, when the competing schools of thought merged and were reconciled. Howe was also ardently pacifistic and she was horrified by the carnage associated with the Franco-­Prussian War of 1870–71. She pub-­ lished an international appeal to women in 1870 and the following year presided over the new Woman’s International Peace Associa-­ tion. Howe also found the time to continue writing poetry, fiction, and a biography of her heroine Margaret Fuller. Advancing age notwithstanding, Howe reached her peak of social activism in 1888 when she conducted a lengthy speaking tour of the West Coast. She retained her recognition as one of America’s most influential women and in 1908 was the first female inducted into the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was also made its president. She died while serving in this capacity in Newport, Rhode Island, on October 17, 1910.

February 6 Military: General Ulysses S. Grant commences his strategic flanking move-­ ment with a concerted drive against Confederate-­held Fort Henry on the Tennes-­ see River. Meanwhile, Southern general Lloyd Tilghman hurriedly evacuates his 3,400-­man garrison to Fort Donelson, 10 miles distant on the Cumberland River, before his escape is blocked.

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Chronology of American History Naval: Commodore Andrew H. Foote leads a flotilla of four ironclads and three wooden gunboats against Fort Henry on the Tennessee River, and opens fire at a range of 1,700 yards. General Lloyd Tilghman remains behind with 100 artillerists and 17 cannon to mount an “honorable defense” while his garrison escapes intact.

February 7 Military: General Ulysses S. Grant, having secured Fort Henry, maps out his strategy for attacking Fort Donelson, Tennessee, on the Cumberland River. Unlike Fort Henry, this is a spacious, well-sited position encompassing 100 acres within its outer works, being both amply garrisoned and armed with heavy cannon. Naval: A large naval expedition under Union captain Louis M. Goldsborough departs its anchorage at Hatteras Inlet, North Carolina, steams into Croatan Sound, and attacks Roanoke Island. Inexplicably, this strategic point is undermanned and poorly situated to receive an attack of this magnitude.

February 8 Military: Three Union brigades under generals Jesse Reno, John G. Parke, and John G. Foster, totaling 10,000 men, advance upon Confederate defensive works on the northern end of Roanoke Island, North Carolina. Southern positions crumble under the onslaught and surrender. Moreover, possession of Roanoke Island impedes communications with Norfolk, Virginia, leading to its eventual abandonment. The recent fall of Fort Henry, Tennessee, prompts General Albert S. Johnston to order Confederate forces under General William J. Hardee to depart the south bank of the Tennessee River and march for Nashville. Politics: In light of the Roanoke disaster, the Confederate Congress tasks an investigative committee to explore the behavior of General Henry A. Wise along with allegations of incompetence against General Benjamin Huger, overall theater commander. Secretary of War Judah P. Benjamin is slated for some scrutiny. Moreover, as the administration of President Jefferson Davis reels from the fall of Fort Henry, a pervasive sense of gloom settles upon the Confederacy.

February 9 West: General Gideon J. Pillow supercedes generals Bushrod J. Johnson and Simon B. Buckner as commander of Confederate-held Fort Donelson, Tennessee.

February 10 Naval: Captain Franklin Buchanan complains that he still lacks the necessary trained crewmen to render his nearly completed steam ram CSS Virginia operational. West: Union general Samuel R. Curtis, commanding the 12,000-man Army of the Southwest, departs Rolla, Missouri, and marches against the Missouri Home Guard under General Sterling Price. He intends to drive them into Arkansas to preclude any interference with the main Union thrust underway down the Mississippi River.

February 11 Military: Union forces under generals John A. McClernand and Charles F. Smith begin marching 15,000 men overland from Fort Henry to Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River, Tennessee, despite heavy rains. The fort’s garrison, meanwhile, receives a new commander, General John B. Floyd.

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Transportation: The U.S. Military Rail Roads are established by Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. These are adopted to insure the safe and efficient coordination of military transport along thousands of miles of rail line, nationwide. Consequently, rail-borne Union logistics achieve a degree of effectiveness unmatched by its Southern counterpart.

February 12 Military: General Ulysses S. Grant directs 15,000 Union troops marching overland to invest Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River, Tennessee, now defended by 21,000 Confederates under General John B. Floyd. The Federals are directed to begin siege operations under the watchful eyes of generals John A. McClernand and Charles F. Smith, in concert with various gunboats offshore.

February 14 Naval: At 3:00 p.m. Commodore Andrew H. Foote’s gunboat flotilla commences bombarding Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River, Tennessee, at one point closing to within 400 yards. However, the Confederate guns, situated on a 150foot-high bluff overlooking the river, are well served and subject the Union fleet to a plunging fire. Politics: President Abraham Lincoln seeks to pardon all political prisoners consenting to take a loyalty oath.

February 15 Military: At 6:00 a.m., Confederate defenders under generals John B. Floyd and Gideon J. Pillow suddenly sortie from Fort Donelson, Tennessee, in a bid to escape. Their attack penetrates the division of General John A. McClernand, but then stalls as the Confederate leaders argue among themselves what to do next. Meanwhile, General Ulysses S. Grant, who is on the river conferring with Commodore Henry H. Foote, hastily repairs back to camp and organizes a sharp counterattack that drives the Southerners back into their post. General Albert S. Johnston arrives in Nashville, Tennessee, to coordinate the rapidly crumbling Confederate line. As a precaution, Governor Isham Harris removes all his state papers and flees south. A Confederate column of 3,000 men under General Henry H. Sibley march from Mesilla, New Mexico Territory, and against Union-held Fort Craig. That post is presently garrisoned by 1,000 regulars under Colonel Edward R. S. Canby.

February 16 Military: The Confederate bastion of Fort Donelson, Tennessee, surrenders to General Ulysses S. Grant. Previously, generals John B. Floyd and Gideon J. Pillow abandon their command and ignominiously flee, leaving General Simon B. Buckner to capitulate. The victorious Grant takes 15,000 Southerners captive, along with 20,000 stands of arms, 48 field pieces, 57 heavy cannon, and considerable supplies. For winning the first significant land action of the West, he is lionized in the newspapers as “Unconditional Surrender” Grant and subsequently gains promotion to major general. The Confederate column of General Henry H. Sibley arrives outside Fort Craig, New Mexico Territory. Sibley, however, considers it too strong to attack directly and decides to bypass it, possibly luring the garrison out into the open on nearby floodplains.

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February 17 Naval: The formidable ironclad ram CSS Virginia is commissioned—with the equally redoubtable Captain Franklin Buchanan at the helm.

February 18 Politics: The first-ever elected Confederate Congress convenes in Richmond, Virginia.

February 19 Military: The Confederate Congress in Richmond, Virginia, orders the release of 2,000 Federal prisoners. Union troops under General Charles F. Smith seize and occupy Clarksville, Tennessee, along with nearby Fort Defiance. General Henry H. Sibley orders his Confederate column of 3,000 men across the Rio Grande River at Valverde Ford, five miles north of Union-held Fort Craig, New Mexico. As anticipated, Colonel Edward R. S. Canby sorties his own 2,000man garrison—mostly untrained New Mexico volunteers, and marches hard to prevent the Southerners from crossing. Naval: Commodore Andrew H. Foote’s gunboats assist in the capture of Fort Defiant and Clarksville, Tennessee, which Confederates hastily evacuate upon his approach. The commodore then urges General William F. Smith to advance quickly upon Nashville while the Cumberland River is running high.

February 20 General: President Abraham Lincoln’s 12-year-old son William Wallace (“Willie”) Lincoln dies at the White House of typhoid fever. Naval: Commodore David G. Farragut arrives at Ship Island, Mississippi, and prepares to launch what Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles has deemed, “the most important operation of the war,”—the expedition against New Orleans, Louisiana. In light of the twin disasters of Forts Henry and Donelson, the Confederate government sanctions an evacuation of Southern troops from Columbus, Kentucky. Tennessee governor Isham Harris relocates the Confederate state capital to Memphis once Nashville is threatened by advancing Union forces.

February 21 Military: Union troops under Colonel Edward R. S. Canby engage General Henry H. Sibley’s marauding Confederates at Valverde, New Mexico Territory, five miles north of strategic Fort Craig. After a stout but indecisive fight, Canby disengages and marches back to the fort, which is still a menace to Confederate lines of communication. Politics: Colonel Charles P. Stone is removed from command and arrested on orders from the Committee on the Conduct of the War. He is blamed with betraying troops defeated at Ball’s Bluff, Virginia, the previous October and is imprisoned 189 days without trial. Slavery: Nathaniel Gordon, a convicted slave trader, is hanged in New York City; this is the first application of capital punishment for the outlawed practice.

February 22 Politics: In Richmond, Virginia, President Jefferson Davis is inaugurated as the first elected head of state of the Confederate States of America. His presidential

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address places blame for the present hostilities squarely on the North and considers their stance against states’ rights in violation of principles established by the American Revolution. Alexander H. Stephens continues on as his vice president. From this point on, the Southerners consider their constitution and government as permanent, not provisional.

February 23 Military: General Benjamin F. Butler is tapped to serve as commander of the new Department of the Gulf. General Albert S. Johnston takes command of the Confederate Central Army at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and begins marshaling his forces. General John Pope becomes commander of the Army of the Mississippi at Commerce, Missouri. Politics: President Abraham Lincoln appoints Senator Andrew Johnson of Tennessee to serve as military governor of the pro-Union eastern portion of his state.

February 24 Naval: Captain Franklin Buchanan of the CSS Virginia is ordered by Confederate Secretary of the Navy Stephen R. Mallory to sortie his James River Squadron against Union vessels anchored off Hampton Roads, Virginia, as soon as practicable.

February 25 Business: The Legal Tender Act is approved by President Abraham Lincoln. This is the nation’s first government-sponsored paper money system. The new currency, known popularly as greenbacks, is intended only as a wartime expedient to allow the Treasury Department to pay its bills. Ultimately, $400 million are in circulation by war’s end. Communication: The War Department is authorized to commandeer all telegraph lines and services to facilitate and prioritize military communications. Military: Union General William Nelson, assisted by the gunboat USS Cairo, bloodlessly occupies Nashville, Tennessee. This is the first Southern state capital and a significant industrial center captured by the North. Thereafter it serves as a base of operations and supply center for the Army of the Ohio under Don Carlos Buell. Naval: The new Union ironclad USS Monitor is commissioned at Long Island, New York, with Lieutenant John L. Worden commanding. It is a revolutionary design featuring a single, rotating turret housing two 11-inch Dahlgren smoothbore cannon. Being mostly underwater, it also employs a forced draft ventilation system for the crew.

February 27 Politics: Like his northern counterpart, President Jefferson Davis finds it necessary to suspend writs of habeas corpus as a wartime expedient. He then declares martial law in Norfolk and Portsmouth, Virginia, as Union forces begin approaching in force.

February 28 Politics: An anxious President Jefferson Davis advises General Joseph E. Johnston, commanding Confederate forces in Virginia, to formulate contingency plans for evacuating men and materiel to safety, if necessary.

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March 1 Military: Confederate General Pierre G. T. Beauregard begins distributing troops along an arc stretching from Columbus, Kentucky, past Island No. 10 on the Mississippi River, and Fort Pillow, Tennessee, as far south as Corinth, Mississippi. General Albert S. Johnston also starts moving his command from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, toward an eventual rendezvous with Beauregard at Corinth.

March 2 Military: Confederate forces under General Leonidas K. Polk finally abandon their strong point at Columbus, Kentucky, and withdraw south. The garrison and its 140 cannon are subsequently relocated across the Mississippi River to New Madrid, Missouri, and Island No. 10, under General John P. McCown.

March 3 Naval: A naval expedition under Commodore Samuel F. Du Pont attacks and captures Cumberland Island and Sound, Georgia, along with Fernandina and Amelia Islands, Florida. Fort Clinch, seized by a crew from the USS Ottawa, is the first Federal installation retaken during the war.

March 4 Politics: The U.S. Senate confirms Senator Andrew Johnson as military governor of Tennessee with a rank of brigadier general. Military: General Earl Van Dorn marches 16,000 men from the Boston Mountains, Arkansas, toward the Missouri border. He is determined to engage the smaller Union army of General Samuel R. Curtis somewhere in the extreme northwest corner of Arkansas.

March 6 Military: General Samuel R. Curtis and 10,000 Union troops entrench along Sugar Creek, near Pea Ridge and Elkhorn Tavern, Arkansas, in anticipation of a major Confederate assault. General Earl Van Dorn then arrives and begins testing the Northern position, finding it too strong to be assailed frontally. He then orders his men on a night march around Curtis to cut him off from Missouri and attack from behind. Politics: President Abraham Lincoln urges Congress to offer monetary compensation to any state which willingly abolishes slavery. The measure is roundly rejected by several state legislatures. The Confederate Congress allows military authorities to destroy any cotton, tobacco, or other stores deemed of use to the enemy if they cannot be safely relocated.

March 7 Military: Confederate forces under General Earl Van Dorn conduct a complicated night march around Pea Ridge, Arkansas, to catch the Union Army of the Southwest from behind. However, General Samuel R. Curtis quickly perceives the danger and simply orders his entire command to perform an “about face.” This move immediately negates whatever advantage Van Dorn’s wearying maneuver sought to achieve. The action commences across the line when General Sterling Price’s Missourians launch two desperate charges and are heavily repelled. A final assault at sunset pushes the Union line back 800 yards but fails to break it.

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March 8 Military: Fighting resumes at Pea Ridge, Arkansas, once Confederate artillery bombards the position of General Samuel R. Curtis, who then constricts and consolidates his line. Curtis then deduces that the Southerners are nearly out of ammunition and attacks, driving Van Dorn’s force off in confusion. Pea Ridge is the first major Union victory in the far West and thwarts Confederate hopes of invading Missouri for two years. Naval: The ironclad ram CSS Virginia under Captain Franklin Buchanan sorties from Norfolk, Virginia, and engages wooden vessels of the Union blockading squadron off Hampton Roads. Buchanan slams into the sloop USS Cumberland, then riddles the Congress at close range with heavy gunfire. A third ship, the Minnesota, grounds itself in anticipation of being attacked. Buchanan, who is wounded by gunfire from the shore, then breaks off the action. The USS Monitor under Lieutenant John L. Worden, having survived a perilous transit from New York, arrives off Hampton Roads, Virginia, in the evening. Politics: President Abraham Lincoln issues General Order No. 2, which reorganizes the Army of the Potomac into four corps. It also stipulates that one of these corps be detached for the purpose of defending Washington, D.C., and the assignment falls upon General Irvin McDowell’s command.

March 9 Naval: Around 9:00 a.m. Lieutenant Catesby ap Roger Jones takes the ironclad ram CSS Virginia out of Norfolk, intending to finish off the grounded USS Minnesota off Hampton Roads. Approaching his quarry, he is startled to see the low-lying and strange-looking Monitor sail directly in his path. Over the next four hours the iron giants duel at close range before thousands of spectators. Both vessels, heavily armored, fire repeatedly yet fail to inflict serious damage on each other before the contest subsides. This dramatic but inconclusive engagement heralds the dawn of iron warships in naval warfare and the passing of wooden vessels.

March 10 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln pays a bedside visit to Lieutenant John L. Worden, wounded in the eye during the clash between USS Monitor and CSS Virginia.

March 11 Military: General Henry W. Halleck is appointed commander of all Union forces in the West through an amalgamation of the Departments of Kansas, the Missouri, and the Ohio into a new Department of the Mississippi. Politics: President Abraham Lincoln, disillusioned by General George B. McClellan’s lack of aggressiveness, issues War Order No. 3. This removes the reluctant leader as general in chief, although he retains command of the Army of the Potomac. Henceforth, all generals are to report directly to Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. President Jefferson Davis refuses to accept the reports of generals John B. Floyd and Gideon J. Pillow concerning the fall of Fort Donelson, and he unceremoniously removes both from command.

March 13 Military: General George B. McClellan convenes a war conference at Fairfax Court House, Virginia, and finalizes his strategy against Richmond. Rather than

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Buchanan, Franklin (1800–1874) Confederate admiral Franklin Buchanan was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on September 17, 1800, and in January 1815 he commenced his naval career by becoming a midshipman. He completed several Mediterranean cruises, handled his affairs competently, and by 1841 had risen to the rank of commander. That year he took command of the new steam frigate USS Mississippi until 1844, when Secretary of the Navy George Bancroft tasked him with drafting plans for a proposed naval academy. Buchanan complied and his scheme so impressed Bancroft that when the academy opened at Annapolis, Maryland, in 1845, Buchanan gained appointment as its first superintendent. In this capacity he proved himself a tough, no-nonsense administrator that placed the fledgling school on a firm footing. Buchanan then sought a combat command, and in 1846 he received command of the sloop USS Germantown for use in the Mexican War. Seven years later he commanded the steam frigate USS Susquehanna, Commodore Matthew C. Perry’s flagship, on the expedition to open Japan. Buchanan made captain in 1855 and spent the next several years commanding the Washington Navy Yard. However, in April 1861, fearing that his native state of Maryland would secede and join the Confederacy, he tendered his resignation. That state remained loyal to the Union, however, but when Buchanan applied for reinstatement the Navy Department refused. He dithered for months pondering his fate before finally visiting Richmond, Virginia, and tender-

ing his service to the Confederate States of America. In September 1862 Buchanan became a captain in Confederate service and was posted as chief of the Bureau of Orders and Details. He performed well as always but chafed in an administrative role and sought out a more active command. Then, in February 1862, he took charge of the Chesapeake Squadron and spent several weeks converting the captured Union steam frigate USS Merrimac into the Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia. On March 8, 1862, Buchanan made history by sailing down to Hampton Roads and sinking several wooden warships belonging to the Union blockading squadron. The age of modern naval warfare had dawned, but Buchanan exposed himself recklessly, was wounded, and consequently missed the dramatic engagement with the Union ironclad USS Monitor on the following day. After several months of convalescence, Buchanan assumed command of Confederate naval forces at Mobile, Alabama, including the giant ironclad CSS Tennessee. On August 5, 1864, he bravely waged a losing battle with Admiral David G. Farragut and was captured. Buchanan was subsequently exchanged a few weeks later but saw no more active duty. Afterward he served as president of Maryland Agricultural College before dying at his home in Talbot County on May 11, 1874. Aggressive and hard-hitting, Buchanan was the ideal candidate to usher in the age of modern, heavily armored warships.

campaign overland from Urbana on the Rappahannock River, he elects to shift his Army of the Potomac by boat up the York and James Rivers to outflank strong Confederate defenses. General Ambrose E. Burnside lands three brigades of 12,000 Union troops at Slocum’s Creek on the Neuse River, North Carolina, supported by 13 gun-

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boats. His objective is New Bern, the state’s second-largest city and an important railhead. A heavy bombardment from General John Pope’s siege guns at Point Pleasant, Missouri, induces Confederate forces under General John P. McCown to evacuate their base at New Madrid for Island No. 10 in the Mississippi River. He abandons tons of valuable supplies in the process. Politics: President Abraham Lincoln approves of plans of operation along the Virginia coast by General George B. McClellan’s Army of the Potomac. He urges that leader, “at all events, move such remainder of the army at once in pursuit of the enemy.” Slavery: New army regulations forbid officers from returning fugitive African-American slaves to their owners. Failure to comply is punishable by court-martial.

March 14 Military: General Ambrose E. Burnside leads 12,000 Union troops through mud and rain on an advance toward New Bern, North Carolina, the former colonial capital. Confederate defenders under General Lawrence O. Branch resist doggedly for several hours until a militia unit in his center suddenly flees. New Bern is then occupied by Burnside’s victorious Federals that afternoon. The loss in matériel to the Confederacy proves significant, and the Union gains another base for projecting military strength further inland.

March 15 Military: General Ulysses S. Grant is exonerated of misconduct by General Henry W. Halleck, and he resumes command of Union forces in Tennessee. Naval: Commodore Andrew H. Foote’s flotilla of six gunboats and 121 mortar boats unleashes a preliminary bombardment of Confederate defenses on Island No. 10 in the Mississippi River.

March 16 Military: Federal troops under General John Pope, in concert with Commodore Henry H. Foote’s gunboat flotilla, initiate combined operations against Confederate positions on Island No. 10 in the Mississippi River. This post, well sited and heavily armed, presents a formidable obstacle to all river navigation.

March 17 Military: The Army of the Potomac—105,000 strong—begins embarking at Alexandria, Virginia, for an amphibious transit to Fortress Monroe on the York and James Rivers. Through this maneuver General George B. McClellan hopes to outflank strong Confederate defenses guarding the capital of Richmond. Naval: The CSS Nashville slips past blockading vessels USS Cambridge and Gemsbock off Beaufort, North Carolina. The Navy Department is quite embarrassed by its failure to stop the raider, and Assistant Secretary Gustavus V. Fox pronounces it “a Bull Run for the Navy.”

March 18 Politics: President Jefferson Davis appoints Confederate Secretary of War Judah P. Benjamin as his new secretary of state to replace outgoing Robert M. T. Hunter, who has been elected to the Senate in Richmond.

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March 20 Military: General Benjamin F. Butler assumes command of the Department of the Gulf at Ship Island, Mississippi, prior to operations against New Orleans, Louisiana.

March 21 Military: Colonel Turner Ashby alerts General Thomas J. Jackson that General Nathaniel P. Banks is withdrawing two divisions of Union troops from Winchester in the Shenandoah Valley. Jackson, fearing that these soldiers are en route to reinforce the Army of the Potomac’s drive against Richmond, determines to lure them back.

March 22 Military: General Manfield Lovell, commanding the Confederate garrison at New Orleans, Louisiana, reports that he has six steamers available for the city’s defenses, but the inhabitants are dismayed once the bulk of Confederate naval assets are deployed upriver. Confederate cavalry under Colonel Turner Ashby mistakenly report to General Thomas J. Jackson that Union strength at Kernstown, western Virginia, is about 4,000 strong, the same as his own. In fact General James Shields commands at least twice as many men, with most of them hidden in nearby copses. Naval: The future CSS Florida, presently disguised as the British steamer Oreto, departs Liverpool for Nassau. There the vessel is to be renamed and outfitted with four 7-inch cannon. This is the first such English vessel constructed for the Confederate navy, and it is clandestinely secured through the efforts of naval agent James D. Bulloch.

March 23 Military: General Thomas J. Jackson concludes an impressive two-day march by covering 41 miles in two days and then attacks at Kernstown, Virginia. However, Union General Nathan Kimball continuously feeds more men into the fray and fights the Southerners to a draw. Once increasing numbers of Federals surge forward, Jackson’s entire line falls back in semi-confusion out of town. Kernstown, while a Confederate tactical defeat, harbors immense strategic implications, for President Abraham Lincoln orders General Irvin McDowell’s I Corps detained at Washington, D.C., thereby depriving the Army of the Potomac of their services in the upcoming Peninsula Campaign. It also heralds the start of Jackson’s sizzling Shenandoah Valley Campaign, one of the Civil War’s most legendary undertakings, which affirms his reputation for tactical wizardry. Union soldiers commence digging a 12-mile long, 50-foot wide canal astride the Mississippi River to allow Union gunboats to bypass strong Confederate defenses on Island No. 10.

March 24 Slavery: The continuing unpopularity of emancipation is underscored in Cincinnati, Ohio, when radical abolitionist Wendell Phillips is pelted by eggs.

March 25 Military: Major John M. Chivington of the 1st Colorado Volunteers is ordered to attack a Confederate force lodged near Santa Fe, New Mexico Territory. He arrives at the far end of Glorietta Pass that evening, capturing several sentinels, and prepares to storm the enemy camp at dawn.

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Naval: Confederate Secretary of the Navy Stephen R. Mallory orders Commodore Josiah Tattnall to replace the wounded Captain Franklin Buchanan at Norfolk, Virginia.

March 26 Military: In an early morning raid, Colonel John M. Chivington, 1st Colorado Volunteers, advances through Glorietta Pass, New Mexico Territory, and attacks Confederates under Major Charles L. Pryon encamped at Johnson’s Ranch. A last minute charge by Union cavalry against the Southern rear guard nets several prisoners, then Chivington orders his men back to Kozlowski’s Ranch to regroup.

March 27 Military: Colonel William R. Scurry’s 4th Texas arrives at Johnson’s Ranch, New Mexico Territory, to reinforce a Confederate detachment under Major Charles L. Pryon. The Southerners then brace themselves for an anticipated Union attack and, once it fails to materialize, Scurry resumes the offensive by marching through Glorietta Pass. Naval: Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton informs naval engineer Charles Ellet to commence building numerous steam rams at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Cincinnati, Ohio, capable of thwarting the new Confederate ironclad known to be under construction at Memphis, Tennessee.

March 28 Military: Union troops at Johnson’s Ranch near Glorietta Pass, New Mexico, are reinforced by a detachment under Colonel John P. Slough. Major John M. Chivington, 1st Colorado Volunteers, then leads his force back through Glorietta Pass and happens upon the lightly guarded Confederate baggage train at Johnson’s Ranch, which is captured. This spells the end of General Henry H. Sibley’s Confederate offensive and he withdraws back to Texas.

March 29 Military: General Albert S. Johnston assembles his Army of Mississippi at Corinth, Mississippi, by amalgamating the armies of Kentucky and Mississippi into a single structure with General Pierre G. T. Beauregard as his second in command, and generals Leonidas K. Polk (I Corps), Braxton Bragg (II Corps), William J. Hardee (III Corps), and George B. Crittenden (Reserve). Confederate General William W. Mackall arrives and replaces the disgraced General John P. McCown as commander of New Madrid, Missouri, and Island No. 10 in the Mississippi River.

April 2 Military: Confederate spy Rose Greenhow is expelled from Washington, D.C., by Federal authorities. Skirmishing continues between opposing pickets around Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee, as General Pierre G. T. Beauregard conceives an overly complex order of battle that places all three Confederate corps in three distinct waves of attacks, a tactic exacerbating mass confusion in the swirl of battle.

April 3 Military: President Abraham Lincoln remonstrates General George B. McClellan over his failure to assign a corps of 20,000 men to man the defenses of

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Chronology of American History Washington, D.C. He reiterates his demand that the I Corps of General Irvin McDowell be assigned the task of defending the national capital. General George B. McClellan makes final preparations to direct his massive Army of the Potomac on its drive against Richmond, Virginia. A talented disciplinarian and organizer, he commands 112,000 well-trained men. Massed Confederate forces under General Albert S. Johnston decamp from Corinth, Mississippi, and begin groping toward Union positions at Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee. Their movement is dogged by driving rain and poor marching discipline that many commanders feel might alert the defenders of their approach. Slavery: The U.S. Senate abolishes slavery in the District of Columbia on a 29 to 14 vote.

April 4 Military: With his army of 112,000 men assembled on the York Peninsula, Virginia, General George B. McClellan finally begins his long-awaited campaign against Richmond. In contrast to the slapdash Union forces of the previous year, the Army of the Potomac is well-trained, well-led, and eager to prove its mettle in combat. Naval: Covered by darkness and rain, the ironclad USS Carondelet under Commander Henry Walke dashes past Confederate batteries on Island No. 10 on the Mississippi River. The Southerners are now cut off from reinforcements from downstream while Union forces under General John Pope can safely cross the Mississippi River to the Tennessee shore.

April 5 Military: The Army of the Potomac begins marching in the direction of Yorktown, Virginia, then defended by 15,000 Confederates under General John B. Magruder. Magruder conducts elaborate ruses like erecting false “Quaker guns” along his line while continually marching his men around to give an impression of greater numbers. General George B. McClellan is completely taken in by the deception and pauses to commence siege operations. Massed Confederates under General Albert S. Johnston prepare to strike Union positions at Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee. Despite entreaties from General Pierre G. T. Beauregard and others to relent, Johnston determines to hit the invaders hard next day, declaring “I would fight them if they were a million.” Politics: General Andrew Johnson, military governor of his home state of Tennessee, suspends several city officials in Nashville when they refuse to take an oath of allegiance to the Union.

April 6 Military: On this momentous day the Battle of Shiloh erupts at dawn as 44,000 Confederates under General Albert S. Johnston surprise 39,900 Union troops under General Ulysses S. Grant. Grant is then at his headquarters in nearby Savannah, Tennessee, seven miles distant, and actual leadership devolves on General William T. Sherman. However, General Johnston is fatally injured while directing combat from his saddle. General Pierre G. T. Beauregard then assumes tactical control of events and orders up 62 cannon to blast Federal defenders in the so-called Hornet’s Nest. Meanwhile Grant returns to camp once fighting commences and begins organizing a coherent defense, backed by gunboats on

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the Tennessee River. Beauregard briefly tests Grant’s new position, judges it to be too well defended to be carried by his exhausted soldiers, and the fighting ceases. Naval: Throughout the bloody fighting at Shiloh, heavy and accurate gunfire from Federal gunboats USS Tyler and Lexington assist the last-ditch Union defenses.

April 7 Military: General Ormsby M. Mitchel recruits Union spy James J. Andrews for a clandestine raid behind enemy lines to sabotage railroad lines between Atlanta, Georgia, and Chattanooga, Tennessee. Andrews then solicits 22 volunteers from General Joshua W. Sill’s Ohio brigade and gradually infiltrates them by small teams into Marietta, Georgia, where the scheme is to commence. The struggle at Shiloh resumes at 7:30 a.m. as Union forces under General Ulysses S. Grant, newly reinforced, mount a spirited counterattack to regain ground lost in the previous day’s fighting. The Confederates under General Pierre G. T. Beauregard resist gamely but slowly yield to superior numbers. Casualties at Shiloh stun both North and South alike due to their sheer enormity. Grant, with 65,000 men engaged, loses 13,047 while the 44,000 Confederates sustain losses of 10,694. The reality of modern warfare has tellingly hit the contestants. Naval: The Federal gunboat USS Pittsburgh slips past Island No. 10 on the Mississippi River and joins the Carondelet in covering General John Pope’s army as it is ferried to the Tennessee shore. The noose is tightening around the Confederate defenders. Slavery: The U.S. government concludes a new agreement with Great Britain for a more aggressive suppression of the slave trade.

April 8 Military: General William W. Mackall surrenders 4,500 Confederates on Island No. 10 in the Mississippi River to General John Pope. Considering the difficult terrain and tricky currents to be surmounted, Pope performed well. Moreover, his victory constitutes the latest in a series of disasters for the Confederacy in the West. President Abraham Lincoln subsequently assigns Pope to command the newly organized Army of Virginia. Federal troops under General Ulysses S. Grant advance from Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee, in pursuit of General Pierre G. T. Beauregard’s withdrawing Confederates. General William T. Sherman engages them briefly but is capably contained by the rear guard directed by Confederate General Nathan B. Forrest. Naval: Commodore David G. Farragut runs the last of his West Gulf Blockading Squadron vessels over the Southwest Pass bar and into the Mississippi River. He then assembles his 24 warships, mounting 200 large-caliber cannon, along with 19 mortar ships under Commander David D. Porter, and makes for Head of Passes. Politics: President Jefferson Davis proclaims martial law in East Tennessee to suppress the activities of pro-Union inhabitants.

April 9 Naval: Confederate Secretary of the Navy Stephen R. Mallory, convinced that the biggest threat to New Orleans, Louisiana, is the Mississippi River Squadron of Commodore Andrew H. Foote, refuses to allow Confederate vessels at Fort Pillow, Tennessee, to shift southward.

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Chronology of American History Politics: President Abraham Lincoln, frustrated by General George B. McClellan’s lack of aggressiveness, confers with Cabinet members over what to do. The chief executive then suggests several lines of attack for the Army of the Potomac and entreats McClellan to attack immediately, insisting, “But you must act.” The Confederate Congress approves a conscription measure over the protest of many politicians who feel this is a violation of the states’ rights and personal liberties.

April 10 Military: General Joseph E. Johnston assumes command of Confederate forces in the Peninsula district of Virginia, and reinforcements gradually raise Southern manpower to 34,000. Johnston nevertheless waxes pessimistic about resisting the Army of the Potomac, thrice his size, for long. After weeks of methodical preparation, Union artillery commanded by Captain Quincy A. Gillmore commences shelling Fort Pulaski on Cockspur island, Savannah harbor. His highly accurate, rifled Parrott cannons fire penetrating shells that systematically decimate the fort’s defenses. The engagement is a test for the Union’s new ordnance against traditional masonry fortifications. Slavery: President Abraham Lincoln signs a joint congressional resolution stipulating gradual emancipation of African-American slaves. It is aimed primarily at the border states and grants “pecuniary aid” in exchange for voluntary compliance.

April 11 Military: Fort Pulaski, Georgia, surrenders to Union Captain Quincy A. Gillmore following a heavy bombardment of 5,725 shells from nearby Tybee Island. This battle also marks the first employment of long-range, rifled ordnance with impressive results against older, masonry defenses. General Henry W. Halleck replaces General Ulysses S. Grant at Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee, over allegations of Grant’s drunkenness, although he remains in charge of the District of West Tennessee. Command of the Army of the Tennessee temporarily reverts to General George H. Thomas. Slavery: Following the Senate’s cue, the House of Representatives votes 93 to 39 to gradually abolish slavery in the District of Columbia.

April 12 Military: Major James J. Andrews and 22 Union volunteers steal the Confederate locomotive named General and three freight cars at Big Shanty, Georgia, then head northward toward Chattanooga, Tennessee. Their mission is to destroy railroad bridges leading to the city but the plan is thwarted by rainy weather. Once the General finally runs out of steam and is abandoned, the spies flee into the woods where the majority are captured. Andrews and seven volunteers are executed as spies on June 7, 1862, but eight men eventually escape captivity and the rest are exchanged. The raiders become the U.S. Army’s first recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor in March 1863. The episode has entered Civil War folklore as the “Great Locomotive Chase.”

April 13 Slavery: General David Hunter, commanding the vicinity of Fort Pulaski, Georgia, declares his region free of slavery and begins unilaterally manumitting all African Americans under his jurisdiction.

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April 14 Military: A high-level war meeting convenes in Richmond, Virginia, where General Joseph E. Johnston pleads with superiors to abandon the Yorktown– Warwick River line before General George B. McClellan attacks in overpowering strength. However, President Jefferson Davis and his chief military adviser, General Robert E. Lee, balk at the suggestion, observing that it necessitates the abandonment of Norfolk. Naval: Federal mortar boats under Commodore Andrew H. Foote commence bombarding Fort Pillow, Tennessee, astride the Mississippi River. This fortification lays 60 miles south of Island No. 10 and guards the northern approaches to Memphis. The exchange of fire is intermittent over the next seven weeks.

April 15 Military: At a special war council held in Richmond, Virginia, President Jefferson Davis breaks the strategic impasse by ordering General Joseph E. Johnston to move his army to Yorktown on the Peninsula and reinforce General John B. Magruder’s troops holding the line there.

April 16 Military: With Union forces only 10 miles from his capital and an endless stream of bad news from the West, President Jefferson Davis authorizes conscription to maintain existing Confederate manpower levels. Consequently, all white males aged 18 to 35 become eligible for three years of service. This is also the first coercive military conscription in American history. Naval: Commodore David G. Farragut begins massing the 17 warships of his West Gulf Blockading Squadron, including the gunboats of Commodore David D. Porter, below Forts Jackson and St. Philip, Louisiana. These aged structures, one on either side of the Mississippi River, are situated 12 miles above Head of Passes, mount 90 cannon, and are further backed up by a “mosquito squadron” of small warships under Captain George N. Hollis. Slavery: President Abraham Lincoln signs a bill outlawing slavery in the District of Columbia on a compensatory basis—$300 per slave. However, African Americans escaping from masters still loyal to the Union remain subject to the existing Fugitive Slave Act and must be returned.

April 17 Military: Confederate reinforcements bring the strength of General Joseph E. Johnston’s force along the Yorktown–Warwick River line up to 53,000 men. He nonetheless remains largely outumbered by the Army of the Potomac, which fields roughly twice that number.

April 18 Naval: Commodore David G. Farragut dispatches Commander David D. Porter with 20 mortar boats to bombard Forts Jackson and St. Philip on the Mississippi River. Porter, convinced he can neutralize these positions through firepower alone, begins pelting them with 200-pound mortar for the next five days.

April 21 Military: To offset manpower advantages enjoyed by the North, the Confederate government authorizes creation of special guerrilla formations by passing the Partisan Ranger Act, then adjourns its first session.

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Farragut, David (1801–1870) Admiral David Farragut was born in Campbell’s Station, Tennessee, on July 5, 1801, the son of a U.S. Naval officer. He was orphaned at New Orleans and adopted into the family of Captain David Porter, a noted American sailor. Farragut accompanied his stepfather on the frigate USS Essex as a midshipman during its heroic sortie around Cape Horn and into the Pacific Ocean, where it decimated the British whaling fleet. He subsequently survived Porter’s defeat in February 1814 at the hands of British warships HMS Phoebe and Cherub and returned to the United States on board a cartel (exchange) vessel. Over the next 45 years he functioned capably in various grades and capacities, rising to captain in 1855. In this capacity he served in California constructing naval facilities at Mare Island in San Francisco Harbor. Farragut was residing with his family in Norfolk, Virginia, when the Civil War erupted in April 1861, forcing him to relocate to New York City. However, on account of his

David G. Farragut (National Archives)

April 24 Naval: Commodore David G. Farragut, impatient for success and concluding that the bombardment of Forts Jackson and St. Philip has been ineffectual, determines to run his entire fleet past them in the dark. At 2:00 a.m. in the predawn darkness, his 17 vessels steam by the forts in three divisions. Confederate defenders under General Johnson K. Duncan unleash a heavy cannonade but inflict very little damage. With Porter’s single, decisive stroke, the fate of New Orleans, Louisiana, is decided.

April 25 Military: Federal artillery under General John G. Parke commence bombarding Fort Macon on Bogue Banks Island off Beaufort, South Carolina. At length Colonel Moses J. White surrenders, and his garrison of 300 Confederates pass into captivity. Naval: The Union flotilla under Commodore David G. Farragut captures the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, following a brief exchange with Confederate gunners at English Turn. The Mississippi River is running high at the time and enables the fleet to point its cannon directly over the levee and toward the city. The Confederacy thus loses its largest and wealthiest seaport, while the North acquires a splendid base for operations farther upstream.

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Southern origins, he was not entirely trusted by the Navy Department and was restricted to supervising a retirement board. It took the intercession of his stepbrother, Captain David Dixon Porter, to secure command of the West Gulf Blockading Squadron in January 1862. In this capacity Farragut successfully ran Confederate defenses at Forts Jackson and St. Philip on the Mississippi River on the night of April 24, 1862, then sailed on and forced the important Confederate city of New Orleans to surrender. This decisive victory placed Union forces at the mouth of the Mississippi River and allowed for armed forays directly into the Confederate heartland. Farragut subsequently ran numerous Southern defenses on the Mississippi River, bombarded Vicksburg, Mississippi, but was unable to capture it with army troops. After additional good service back in the Gulf of Mexico, Farragut was worn out and he returned home to New York to recuperate, receiving a hero’s welcome. On August 5, 1864, he confronted his greatest naval chal-

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lenge by attacking heavily guarded Mobile, Alabama, the last remaining gulf port of the Confederacy. To accomplish this his fleet had to run a gauntlet of minefields, took some losses, then exclaimed, “Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!” This advance brought him into contact with the large Southern ironclad CSS Nashville under Admiral James Buchanan, which he subdued after an intense battle. When Mobile finally surrendered on August 23, 1864, Farragut gained promotion as the first vice admiral in U.S. history. Failing health precluded his participation at the capture of Fort Fisher, North Carolina, and he spent the rest of the Civil War performing blockade duty on the James River. In 1866 Farragut advanced to full admiral, another distinction, and commanded the European Squadron on an extended goodwill tour from 1867 to 1868. Farragut died while inspecting the Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Navy Yard, on August 14, 1870. He is distinct in becoming America’s first admiral and among the most effective combat officers of naval history.

April 26 Diplomacy: President Abraham Lincoln pays a courtesy call upon the French warship Gassendi, anchored at the Washington Navy Yard.

April 27 Naval: U.S. Naval forces accept the surrender of Fort Livingston on Bastian Bay, Louisiana, and crewmen from the USS Kittatinny hoist the Stars and Stripes over its ramparts. Nearby forts Quitman, Pike, and Wood also capitulate later that afternoon.

April 28 Military: The Confederate garrisons of Forts Jackson and St. Philip, on the Mississippi River, mutiny against General Johnson K. Duncan and surrender 900 prisoners to Union forces under Commander David D. Porter. Naval: The British steamer Oreto anchors at Nassau, the Bahamas, and waits to be manned by Confederate sailors. It is eventually impressed into Southern service as the CSS Florida.

April 29 Military: In Virginia, a skittish General Joseph E. Johnston, painfully cognizant of the vast array of Union siege artillery before him along the Yorktown–Warwick

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Chronology of American History River line informs superiors that he is withdrawing inland as soon as practicable. He does so rather than be bombarded into submission. Politics: In Louisiana, city officials formally surrender New Orleans to Federal authorities. However, raising the American flag over the customs house occasions outbursts of anger and indignation from the populace.

April 30 Military: Confederate forces under General Thomas J. Jackson advance from Elk Run, western Virginia, toward Staunton in driving rain. This proves one of the war’s most impressive forced marches and bequeaths to troops involved the sobriquet “Jackson’s foot cavalry.” General Henry W. Halleck finalizes his reorganization of the Armies of the Mississippi with General Ulysses S. Grant as second in command, George H. Thomas and the Army of the Tennessee (right wing), John Pope and the Army of the Mississippi (left wing), John A. McClernand (reserve wing), and Don Carlos Buell and the Army of the Ohio acting independently.

May Aviation: Pioneering balloonist Professor Thaddeus S. C. Lowe becomes the first man to make military reconnaissance photographs while flying above Confederate lines near Richmond, Virginia. He takes no less than 64 overlapping pictures and is also the first man to transmit military intelligence by telegraph while airborne.

May 3 Military: General Joseph E. Johnston begins withdrawing 55,000 Confederates from Yorktown, Virginia, before heavy Union siege ordnance can commence firing. The Army of the Potomac, stalled a month while planting siege guns, can now begin moving up the Peninsula in pursuit.

May 4 Military: General George B. McClellan’s Army of the Potomac occupies the Yorktown–Warwick River line recently abandoned by Confederate forces. As the Southerners under General Joseph E. Johnston funnel through Williamsburg in retreat, McClellan advances after them in pursuit and in great number, but also cautiously. Movement on either side is hampered by continual downpours that turn the roads to mud. Confederate forces evacuate Tucson, New Mexico Territory, ahead of the “California column” of Colonel James H. Carleton. Meanwhile, the main Southern army under General Henry H. Sibley straggles into El Paso, Texas, following their arduous campaign in the West.

May 5 Agriculture: Congress authorizes creation of the Department of Agriculture, headed by a commissioner. As such, it will not be accorded cabinet rank until 1889. Military: A Union force of 41,000 men commanded by General Edwin V. Sumner confronts a determined Confederate rear guard numbering 32,000 at Williamsburg, Virginia. The Southerners are posted at Fort Magruder under General James Longstreet, in the center of their line, and they rebuff an attack by General Joseph Hooker’s division. On the Confederate left, General Winfield

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S. Hancock’s Union brigade suddenly appears behind enemy lines around 3:00 p.m. and begins shelling the surprised Southerners with cannon fire. Confederate brigades under generals Jubal A. Early and Daniel H. Hill try to outflank the intruders and are repelled in turn. Sumner fails to take advantage of the situation and an impasse settles across the battlefield. Williamsburg, the first pitched battle of the Peninsula Campaign, proves both indecisive and characterized by heavy casualties: Union losses are 2,239 while the Confederates sustain 1,703. Politics: President Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton board the steamer Miami and sail to Hampton Roads, Virginia, to prod General George B. McClellan to greater efforts.

May 7 Military: Confederate General Thomas J. Jackson nudges his footsore host from Staunton, western Virginia, toward the outskirts of McDowell. As the 10,000 Confederates deploy to engage the next morning, Union reinforcement arrives in the form of General Robert C. Schenk’s brigade, giving the defenders 6,000 rank and file. Naval: President Abraham Lincoln tours the ironclad USS Monitor off Fortress Monroe, Virginia.

May 8 Military: At 4:30 p.m., General Thomas J. Jackson leads 10,000 Confederates in an attack against 6,000 Federals under General Robert H. Milroy at McDowell in western Virginia. Union troops nonetheless charge up the heavily wooded hill, firing into an open copse where the Southerners had deployed, and inflict heavy losses. Confederate General Edward Johnson and his Army of the Northwest grimly repulse every attack as Jackson labors to rush up additional troops. At length Milroy orders a retreat while Confederate troopers under Colonel Turner Ashby pursue and round up numerous stragglers.

May 9 Military: President Abraham Lincoln diplomatically admonishes General George B. McClellan for not moving more vigorously upon the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia, seemingly within his grasp. Naval: The ailing Confederate commodore Andrew H. Foote, wounded at the capture of Fort Donelson, is relieved by Captain Charles H. Davis above Fort Pillow, Tennessee. Slavery: General David Hunter declares that all African-American slaves in his newly created Department of the South (Florida, Georgia, South Carolina) are emancipated. Willing slaves are also welcomed to be armed and incorporated into the army.

May 10 Military: The Gosport Navy Yard at Norfolk, Virginia, is occupied by Union forces under General John E. Wool, whose movements are partially directed from offshore by President Abraham Lincoln. The mighty steam ram CSS Virginia is now deprived of a berth as it draws too much water to be concealed further up the James River. Naval: The scratch-built Confederate River Defense Fleet of eight converted steam rams under Captain James E. Montgomery bravely sorties at Plum Run Bend on the Mississippi River, just north of Fort Pillow, Tennessee. He fiercely engages seven U.S. Ironclads under Commodore Charles H. Davis in one of the

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Chronology of American History few squadron actions of the Civil War. Once the formidable USS Carondelet moves into firing range it punishes the Confederates with rifled cannon fire and Montgomery withdraws to the safety of Fort Pillow.

May 11 Naval: Because the large ironclad ram CSS Virginia draws too much water to operate further up the James River, Commodore Josiah Tattnall unceremoniously scuttles it off Craney Island, Virginia, to prevent capture. The Northern Blockading Squadron now enjoys unfettered access up the James as far as Drewry’s Bluff.

May 12 Military: The Army of the Potomac under General George B. McClellan advances to White House, Virginia, looming to within 22 miles of the Confederate capital Richmond. Naval: Crewmen of the former CSS Virginia gather under Lieutenant Catesby ap Roger Jones at Drewry’s Bluff on the James River, where they man an artillery battery. This is a formidable position rising 100 feet above the river and is only seven miles from Richmond, Virginia, so its defense is imperative. Politics: President Abraham Lincoln declares the captured ports of Beaufort, North Carolina, Port Royal, South Carolina, and New Orleans, Louisiana, open to trade. He hopes that the resumption of commercial life will encourage and strengthen their political bonds to the North. Pro-Union sympathizers hold a convention in Nashville, Tennessee, under the watchful gaze of Federal troops.

May 13 Slavery: Harbor pilot Robert Smalls and eight African-American coconspirators abscond with the Confederate steamer Planter, sail from Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, and surrender to the USS Onward offshore. Societal: The seemingly inexorable approach of the Army of the Potomac places the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia, in a panic. President Jefferson Davis sends his wife Varina out of the city for safety.

May 15 Naval: Commodore John Rodgers leads the ironclads USS Monitor, Galena, and Nauguatuck up the James River until they encounter the formidable Confederate defenses along Drewy’s Bluff, seven miles below Richmond, Virginia. The ensuing battle is one-sided as the Union ships, outgunned and unable to circumvent obstacles in their path, take a pounding. Rodgers then limps back to Norfolk, and Richmond is saved. Politics: Rude behavior by New Orleans women toward Union occupiers prompts an angry General Benjamin F. Butler to issue his infamous General Order No. 28, the so-called Woman Order. This stipulates that any female disrespectfully disposed toward Federal troops will be arrested and treated as a prostitute. The act offends Southern sensibilities and triggers indignation across the Confederacy.

May 17 Military: Union troops under General Jacob D. Cox commence moving across the Flat Top Mountains of western Virginia, with a view toward severing the

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Virginia & Tennessee Railroad. To prevent this General Humphrey Marshall plans to attack from the east on the following day while General Henry Heath’s division is ordered to strike from the south. Cox, fearing himself out numbered, withdraws completely. Naval: The USS Sebago and Currituck escort troop transport Seth Low several miles down the Pamunkey River, Virginia, forcing Confederates to burn or scuttle 17 vessels to prevent capture. However, the river at this point is so narrow that the vessels are obliged to run backwards for several miles before turning their bows around.

May 18 Naval: Commander Stephen D. Lee demands the surrender of Vicksburg, Mississippi, but Confederate General Martin L. Smith refuses. A year will elapse before the “Gibraltar of the West” succumbs to Union forces.

May 19 Slavery: President Abraham Lincoln countermands General David Hunter’s unauthorized emancipation order as it relates to his Department of the South (South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida).

May 20 Military: Confederate General Thomas J. Jackson’s rapidly moving command swells to 17,000 men with the arrival of General Richard S. Ewell’s contingent in the Luray Valley, western Virginia. Jackson is determined to prevent General Nathaniel P. Banks from reinforcing the Army of the Potomac. Settlement: Congress passes the Homestead Act, which insures settlers 160 acres of land if they remain on the land for five years and cultivate their plots. Southerners heretofore opposed the measure, fearing that it would attract overwhelming numbers of abolitionist homesteaders to the territories. Three million acres is ultimately distributed among 25,000 citizens by war’s end, which facilitates the coming tide of western settlement.

May 21 Military: Stalled eight miles from the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, and ignoring his numerical superiority over the Confederates, General George B. McClellan calls for reinforcements. To that end, the I Corps of General Irvin McDowell prepares to march overland from Washington, D.C., to join him. Confederates under General Thomas J. Jackson move northward in the Luray Valley via passes in the Massanutten Mountains and approach the isolated Union outpost at Front Royal. His movements are effectively masked by cavalry under Colonel Turner Ashby, who completely confounds Union General Nathaniel P. Banks.

May 23 Military: A force of 23,000 Confederates under General Thomas J. Jackson bursts upon a rather surprised Union garrison at Front Royal, Virginia. En route General Richard Taylor is hailed by notorious spy Belle Boyd, who relays useful intelligence as to Union dispositions about the town. Thus informed, Jackson pushes forward men of his 1st Maryland, C.S.A., to clear Front Royal and prevent Union forces from burning two valuable bridges. Front Royal quickly succumbs to the Southern onslaught and the Federals retreat.

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May 24 Military: Pursuing Confederates under General Thomas J. Jackson maneuver to intercept retreating Federals under General Nathaniel P. Banks at Newtown, western Virginia, but are slowed by the delaying actions of cavalry commanded by General John P. Hatch. Jackson’s alarming progress, however, induces President Abraham Lincoln to order General Irvin McDowell’s I Corps halted at Fredericksburg and redirected back into the Shenandoah Valley. Politics: The defeat at Front Royal stings Union authorities into action, and President Abraham Lincoln orders General John C. Frémont to gather up his forces and drive the Confederates from the Shenandoah Valley. He also advises General George B. McClellan that promised reinforcements are not forthcoming at this time.

May 25 Military: President Abraham Lincoln, chafing over the stalled Union offensive outside Richmond, Virginia, again urges General George B. McClellan to resume his advance. “I think the time is near when you must either attack Richmond or give up the job and come to the defense of Washington,” he declares. The Army of the Potomac, reduced to a crawl before Richmond, Virginia, becomes divided by the Chickahominy River, with three Union corps lodged on its north bank and two below. This situation prompts General Joseph E. Johnston to contemplate an offensive stroke against the commands of generals Edwin V. Sumner, William B. Franklin, and Fitz John Porter, and possibly defeat them. Having prevailed over Union forces below Winchester, General Thomas J. Jackson hurriedly marches his weary men toward another engagement in that town. General Richard S. Ewell’s division advances against General Nathaniel Banks’s troops on the right, while the Louisiana Brigade of General Richard Taylor simultaneously strikes their right. Banks’s tactical ineptitude costs him 2,019 casualties while the Southerners sustain barely 400. Over the past three days Jackson’s command has netted 3,030 prisoners, 9,000 firearms, and such a trove of quartermaster stores that the Confederates jocularly refer to their defeated adversary as “Commissary Banks.” General Pierre G. T. Beauregard decides to abandon Corinth, Mississippi, to superior Union forces and preserve his own army of 50,000 men. He then concocts a number of clever stratagems to convince General Henry W. Halleck that the Confederates are actually being reinforced and intend to fight. Politics: President Jefferson Davis expresses disappointment that General Joseph E. Johnston has not commenced his offensive battle against the much larger Army of the Potomac. Nonetheless, he insists “We are steadily developing for a great battle, and under God’s favor I trust for a decisive victory.”

May 28 Military: Confederate cavalry under General J. E. B. Stuart arrives at Richmond, Virginia, with intelligence that the much-feared approach of General Irvin McDowell’s I Corps from Fredericksburg will not transpire. This development further prods General Joseph E. Johnston, commanding Confederate forces in Virginia, to cancel his impending lunge at three Union corps north of the Chickahominy River in favor of attacking the remaining two corps on the south bank. Roughly 50,000 Union troops under generals Irvin McDowell, John C. Frémont, and Nathaniel P. Banks begin concentrating in the vicinity of Harper’s

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Ferry, western Virginia, to cut off and possibly annihilate marauding Confederates under General Thomas J. Jackson. All are encouraged by an anxious President Abraham Lincoln, who urges them “Put in all the speed you can.”

May 30 Military: General Joseph E. Johnston makes a close reconnaissance of Union forces looming within 10 miles of Richmond, Virginia, and observes how they are physically divided by the rain-swollen Chickahominy River. He elects to concentrate 51,000 men against the combined III and IV Corps of General Samuel P. Heintzelman and Erasmus D. Keyes, unsupported on the south bank. However, Johnston’s execution is compromised by overreliance on verbal commands, which further complicates matters for his inexperienced officers and men. Confederates under General Thomas J. Jackson withdraw from Winchester, Virginia, to avoid encirclement by three converging Union columns. General Turner Ashby’s cavalry is left behind to constitute a rear guard, and the town is subsequently secured by Federal troops under General James Shield. Union forces under General Henry W. Halleck secure 2,000 Confederates prisoners at Corinth, Mississippi, following the withdrawal of General Pierre G. T. Beauregard. Halleck thus secures a vital transportation link and severs the vital Memphis & Charleston, and Mobile & Ohio Railroads but is nonetheless criticized for his dilatory pace. In truth, it has taken the glacial Halleck 30 days to cover only 22 miles from Pittsburg Landing.

May 31 Military: Federal troops under General George B. McClellan continue their glacial advance upon Richmond, Virginia, but topography requires him to further split his forces along either bank of the rain-swollen Chickahominy Creek. This deployment prompts General Joseph E. Johnston to destroy the isolated III and IV corps under generals Samuel P. Heintzelman and Eramus D. Keyes at Fair Oaks on the south bank. The impending Confederate onslaught, though wellplanned, is hobbled from the onset from poor staff work and overreliance on verbal orders. Hard fighting manages to oust the division of General Silas Casey from its position and captures several batteries, but the Federals promptly re-form and establish new lines to the rear. Johnston’s secondary attack at nearby Seven Pines fares little better. Union troops under redoubtable Phil Kearny fiercely resist General W. H. C. Whiting’s advance and repulse him. A second attack mounted by Whiting also falters, at which point General Joseph E. Johnston arrives to personally supervise matters. Johnston is then seriously wounded by a ball in the shoulder and succeeded by a dithering General Gustavus W. Smith, who orders his remaining forces from the field.

June 1 Military: Confederate forces resume their offensive by striking the Army of the Potomac at Seven Pines, Virginia. The Southerners deliver their charges fiercely, but in piecemeal fashion, and they are driven off in disarray. At length General Robert E. Lee gallops up from Richmond to succeed General Gustavus W. Smith and he orders the fighting stopped at 1 p.m. The Confederates, who did most of the attacking, lose 6,134 men to a Union tally of 5,031. President Jefferson Davis next assigns Lee to succeed the tottering Smith as field commander. Unknown at

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Chronology of American History the time, a corner had been turned in the military course of events—and a brilliant new chapter was about to unfold. Politics: An anxious President Abraham Lincoln telegrams and implores Gen-­ eral George B. McClellan to “Hold all your ground, or yield any inch by inch in good order.”

June 3 Naval: Prolonged bombardment by Federal gunboats on the Mississippi River convinces Confederate defenders to abandon Fort Pillow, Tennessee. The nearby city of Memphis is likewise poorly garrisoned, save for a weak naval squadron.

June 5 Politics: In another deft blow against slavery, the United States recognizes the largely black nations of Liberia and Haiti; President Abraham Lincoln formalizes the process by appointing diplomatic ministers to both nations.

June 6 Naval: At 4:20 a.m. Union gunboats under Commander Charles H. Davis weigh anchor off Island No. 45, two miles north of Memphis, Tennessee, and make

Lee, Robert E.

(1807–1870)

General

Robert E. Lee (National Archives)

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Robert Edward Lee was born at Stratford, Westmoreland County, Virginia, on Janu-­ ary 19, 1807, a son of famed Revolutionary War hero “Light Horse Harry” Lee. He entered the U.S. Military Academy in 1825 and graduated four years later second in his class—without a single demerit. Lee then received his second lieutenant’s commission in the elite Corps of Engineers and joined the staff of General Winfield Scott dur-­ ing the Mexican War, 1846–48. He ended the war as a brevet lieutenant colonel and between 1852 and 1855 also served as superintendent of cadets at West Point. Lee next served in Texas until 1859 and then, during a furlough at home, commanded a detachment of U.S. Marines that captured abolitionist John Brown at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia. In 1860 the gathering war clouds induced General-­in-­Chief Scott to tender Lee a ranking position within the Fed-­ eral army, but he respectfully declined and joined the Confederacy. By March 1862 Lee

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directly for the city. A small Confederate squadron of steam rams under Captain James E. Montgomery sorties to confront them as thousands of spectators line the riverbanks to observe. Davis feigns a retreat and Montgomery pursues until he is surprised in midstream by Union rams sailing four abreast. Confederate losses in the ensuing rout total around 100 with another 100 captured. Davis, having dispensed with his adversary, brooks no delay in making Memphis his prize. All western Tennessee is not firmly in Union hands, and this latest acquisition, the Confederacy’s fifth largest city, subsequently functions as a vital staging area for operations against Vicksburg, Mississippi.

June 8 Military: The main portion of the Army of the Valley under General Thomas J. Jackson camps at Port Republic, western Virginia, prior to advancing against Union forces commanded by General James Shields. Seven miles away General Richard S. Ewell’s force of 5,000 men assumes defensive positions at Cross Keys, anticipating a major thrust there by General John C. Frémont’s forces. At length Frémont approaches Ewell’s position with 12,000 men but, before serious fight-

was at Richmond acting as a senior military adviser to President Jefferson Davis. He then launched an audacious series of hard, pounding attacks on General George B. McClellan—the Seven Days’ Battles—which drove him back from the gates of Richmond. Lee then audaciously gambled upon an invasion of Union territory, carried the war directly into Maryland, and waged another hard-fought clash with McClellan at Antietam on September 17, 1862, which nearly proved disastrous until Lee was rescued by the sudden appearance of General Ambrose P. Hill’s division. Shortly afterward, the Army of the Potomac attacked Lee as he sat entrenched behind strong field fortifications at Fredericksburg on December 13, 1862. The result was a lopsided slaughter with 13,000 Federal losses to a Confederate tally of 5,300. In the spring of 1863, General Joseph Hooker led a reconstituted Army of the Potomac across the Rapidan River but Lee’s ensuing attack brilliantly crushed Hooker’s flank and induced him to retreat. In the summer

of 1863 Lee sought to maintain the strategic initiative by reinvading Northern territory. His plan quickly went awry when General J. E. B. Stuart led his cavalry on a spectacular ride into Pennsylvania—which deprived the Army of Northern Virginia of its reconnaissance capabilities. Consequently, when Lee collided with Union forces under General George G. Meade at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on July 1–3, 1863, Lee’s bloody defeat marked the high tide of Confederate military fortunes. His next contest of strength occurred in the late spring of 1864 against General Ulysses S. Grant, conqueror of Vicksburg. Over the next year Grant pinned Lee within his fortifications at Richmond while another Army under General William T. Sherman advanced upon him from Georgia. Lee, having fought magnificently, finally surrendered on April 9, 1865. After the war he spurned lucrative offers of employment to serve as president of Washington College in Lexington, Virginia. Lee died at Lexington on October 12, 1870, an iconic figure of the Civil War.

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Chronology of American History ing can develop, he suddenly disengages and falls back down the Keezletown Road.

June 9 Military: Confederates under General Thomas J. Jackson cross a narrow wagon bridge over the North River to attack General Erasmus B. Tyler’s brigade at Port Republic, western Virginia. Tyler arrays his 3,000 men in a line anchored by a sevengun battery, and Jackson orders General Richard Taylor’s Louisiana brigade against the Union left to storm it. By 11:00 a.m. Tyler, heavily outnumbered, orders a withdrawal which degenerates into a rout. Union losses amount to 1,108, including 558 prisoners, while the Southerners incur roughly 800 casualties, dead and wounded. Port Republic is the sixth and final rout of Jackson’s remarkable Shenandoah Valley Campaign. Since the previous March his famous “foot cavalry,” whose strength peaked at 17,000 men, have slogged 676 miles, won four pitched battles and several skirmishes while defying all attempts by 60,000 Federals to snare them. Most importantly, Jackson’s endeavors repeatedly siphoned off valuable Union manpower that might have been better employed before Richmond. “God has been our shield,” Jackson modestly concludes, “and to His name be all glory.”

June 10 Military: General Henry W. Halleck authorizes General Ulysses S. Grant, John Pope, and Don Carlos Buell to resume independent command of their respective armies. Grant, as the senior officer present, acts again as theater commander, and the tempo of events in the West once again escalates.

June 11 Diplomatic: In a sternly worded missive to Minister Charles F. Adams in London, British prime minister Lord Palmerston protests the behavior of General William F. Butler toward civilians at New Orleans.

June 12 Military: At 2:00 a.m. General J. E. B. Stuart bursts into his headquarters, declaring “Gentlemen, in ten minutes every man must be in the saddle.” His 1,200 Virginian troopers then commence their dramatic and celebrated ride from Richmond, Virginia, and around the Army of the Potomac. Stuart is tasked with verifying rumors that General George B. McClellan’s right flank is “up in the air” to facilitate a new offensive envisioned by new commander General Robert E. Lee.

June 13 Military: General J. E. B. Stuart’s cavalry reaches a threshold after filing through Old Church, Virginia, on the right flank of General George B. McClellan’s army. No Confederate unit had ever penetrated Union lines this far but, rather than retrace his steps, Stuart boldly plunges ahead and begins his circular ride to fame.

June 14 Military: General J. E. B. Stuart’s cavalry destroys the bridge over the Chickahominy River at Forge Site to prevent a Union pursuit and completes its ride around the Army of the Potomac’s left flank. Previously, the Confederates had been pursued by Federal cavalry under Colonel Philip St. George Cooke, Stuart’s father-in-law.

June 15 Military: General J. E. B. Stuart gallops into Richmond, Virginia, ahead of his troopers, with important military intelligence about the Army of the Potomac.

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His 100-mile jaunt brings General Robert E. Lee welcome information about the dispositions of the Union V Corps under General Fitz John Porter, presently unsupported on the north bank of the river. Lee, eager to break the impasse near Richmond, begins concocting a plan for Porter’s defeat. Politics: With amazing perspicacity, President Abraham Lincoln informs a worried General John C. Frémont that Confederate reinforcements, seemingly headed for the Shenandoah Valley, are most likely a ruse to mask General Thomas J. Jackson’s transfer to Richmond, Virginia.

June 16 Military: At 2:00 a.m. Union general Henry W. Benham rouses the divisions of generals Horatio Wright and Isaac I. Stevens and orders them to attack Confederate emplacements at nearby Secessionville, South Carolina. The local Southern commander, Colonel Thomas G. Lamar of the 1st South Carolina Artillery, is apprised of Benham’s intentions and prepares a two-mile-long position, crowned by heavy cannon, to receive him. The ensuing battle is a minor disaster for the Federals, and Benham loses 107 killed, 487 wounded, and 80 captured to a Confederate tally of 52 killed, 144 injured, and 8 missing.

June 17 Military: General Braxton Bragg, a close friend and confidant of President Jefferson Davis, succeeds the ailing General Pierre G. T. Davis as commander of the Confederate Western Department. Bragg is a capable strategist and an accomplished logistician, but his garrulous disposition and fits of indecision alienate all but the most faithful subordinates.

June 19 Naval: Commander Matthew F. Maury reports to Confederate Secretary of the Navy Stephen R. Mallory on mining operations along the James River. He also broaches the use of galvanic batteries and the CSS Teaser, the first naval vessel to be outfitted as a minelayer; it also carries the first Confederate observation balloon. Slavery: President Abraham Lincoln signs legislation outlawing slavery in all the territories.

June 23 Military: General Robert E. Lee assembles his commanders at the Dabb’s House near Richmond, Virginia, and outlines his offensive against the Army of the Potomac’s right wing under General Fitz-John Porter. He plans to concentrate no less than 55,000 men against Porter’s 30,000-strong V Corps by throwing the combined weight of generals Thomas J. Jackson, James Longstreet, Daniel H. Hill, and Ambrose P. Hill in a single, coordinated strike. Politics: President Abraham Lincoln, disillusioned by General George B. McClellan’s fabled cautiousness, ventures to West Point, New York, to confer with former general in chief Winfield Scott.

June 25 Military: The Army of the Potomac edges to within six miles of the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia, the closest Union forces will approach in three years. General George B. McClellan, desiring to place heavy cannon on the city’s outskirts to bombard it, orders Oak Grove, a section of swampy wooded terrain

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Chronology of American History to his front, wrested from the enemy. Union forces acquire Oak Grove at the cost of 626 men while the Confederates suffer 441 casualties, but no one could have anticipated that the strategic initiative is passing suddenly and irretrievably over to the South.

June 26 Military: Throughout the morning three Confederate divisions under generals James Longstreet, Daniel H. Hill, and Ambrose P. Hill march and concentrate 47,000 men in the vicinity of Mechanicsville, Virginia. Opposing them were 30,000 Federal troops of General Fitz-John Porter’s V Corps, strongly entrenched behind Beaver Dam Creek. The aggressive General A. P. Hill orders a frontal assault against Porter but his well-positioned soldiers have little difficulty blasting back the enthusiastic Confederates. Lee’s battle plan misfires spectacularly and with a loss of 1,484 Confederates to 361 Federals. His sudden pugnaciousness perplexes and unnerves General George B. McClellan, who orders Porter to abandon his strong position. McClellan also begins shifting his base of operations from the Pamunkey River to Harrison’s Landing on the James River. This is the first stirring of what many participants on either side ridicule as the “Great Skedaddle.”

June 27 Military: The Union V Corps under General Fitz-John Porter retires four miles southeast from Mechanicsville, Virginia, and establishes a new defensive perimeter along a swampy plateau near Gaines’s Mill. Confederates under General Robert E. Lee pursue smartly, and he determines to make another concerted attack on the new position. The charge is spearheaded by 4,000 fresh troops, but fighting is intense and bloody before Union forces finally abandon their strong plateau. Porter then withdraws in good order toward Chickahominy Creek and closer to General George B. McClellan’s main force. Gaines’s Mill is the most costly of the so-called Seven Days’ Battles, with Confederate losses of 7,993 to a Union tally of 6,837. General Braxton Bragg directs 3,000 men of General John P. McCown’s division to transit by rail from Tupelo, Mississippi, to Chattanooga, Tennessee, to join the army of General Edmund Kirby-Smith. The movement takes six days and proceeds smoothly, which convinces Bragg that larger transfers of men and supplies could be shuttled there before Union forces can respond effectively. Politics: President Abraham Lincoln formally accepts the resignation of the controversial explorer, soldier, and politician John C. Frémont.

June 28 Military: General George B. McClellan withdraws from Richmond, Virginia, and bitterly concludes he is losing the campaign for want of promised reinforcements. General Robert E. Lee, meanwhile, having analyzed McClellan’s temperament, orders his army on an intricate move down four different roads in an attempt to surround and possibly cripple his timid opponent. Naval: At 2:00 a. m., Admiral David G. Farragut and Commander David D. Porter slip their respective squadrons past heavy Confederate gun emplacements at Vicksburg, Mississippi, suffering 15 killed and 30 wounded—trifling considering the amount of ordnance poured upon them.

June 29 Military: General John B. Magruder, advancing east from Williamsburg, Virginia, with 11,000 men, cautiously probes the region for Union forces. Contact

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with the Federals is finally established at Allen’s Farm around 9:00 a.m., although Magruder suddenly finds himself confronting the entire II Corps of 26,000 men under General Edwin V. Sumner, backed by 40 cannon. Thus far Magruder’s “pursuit” availed him little beyond 626 casualties. Sumner’s mishandling of affairs cost him 919 men and he also abandons 2,500 sick and injured soldiers. Overnight the II Corps withdraws to new positions at White Oak Swamp and Glendale.

June 30 Military: General Robert E. Lee, intent upon destroying at least a portion of General George B. McClellan’s Army of the Potomac, issues another set of complicated attack plans to catch the fleeing Federals in a pincer at Glendale. By 4:00 p.m. that afternoon an exasperated Lee can only count on 19,000 men of generals James Longstreet and Ambrose P. Hill, and they charge the center of the Union line, then strongly posted behind White Oak Swamp Creek. General George A. McCall is captured, but before the Southerners can exploit their breakthrough and seize vital crossroads, they are evicted by savage, hand-to-hand fighting and the combat draws down with nightfall. Lee’s losses at White Oak are 3,673 while McClellan sustains 3,797.

July 1 Military: Having failed to destroy the Army of the Potomac at White Oak Swamp the previous day, General Robert E. Lee maneuvers to deliver one last and possibly crushing blow against them at Malvern Hill, a 150-foot-high rise flanked by swamps and other obstacles, and ably manned by General Fitz-John Porter’s V Corps. Porter’s secure flanks promise to funnel any Confederate attack directly up the center of his waiting line, which is crowned by 100 pieces of field artillery. Lee nevertheless commits his army to several costly and futile assaults and then relents after suffering 5,650 casualties to a Union tally of 3,007. The Seven Days’ Campaign reaches its bloody conclusion with Union forces pushed far from the Southern capital of Richmond, Virginia. The Confederacy is thus preserved for another three-and-a-half years at a cost of 20,141 casualties. The Army of the Potomac, which handled itself well under excruciating circumstances, loses 15,849. Most important of all, the campaign defines General Robert E. Lee as an assertive and offensive-minded battle captain, much given to calculated risks. Warfare in the Eastern Theater now largely revolves around him. Union forces under Colonel Philip H. Sheridan engage a large force of 4,700 Confederates under General James R. Chalmers at Booneville, Mississippi, 20 miles south of Corinth. Chambers presses hard against Sheridan’s pickets, who are carrying the latest Colt revolving rifles, and is repelled. Sheridan’s aggressive handling of troops also catches the eye of General Henry W. Halleck, who arranges his promotion to brigadier general. Naval: The Western Flotilla under Commodore Charles H. Davis unites with the naval expedition of Admiral David G. Farragut above Vicksburg, Mississippi. This commingling of fresh and saltwater squadrons represents an impressive effort by both. Politics: To meet mounting wartime expenditures, President Abraham Lincoln raises the federal income tax to three percent on all incomes over $600 per annum. (The first income tax passed in 1861 was never enforced.) The Bureau of Internal Revenue is founded to collect all monies.

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Chronology of American History Religion: An anti-polygamy act, aimed at Mormons of the Utah Territory, is passed by Congress. Transportation: Congress passes the Pacific Railroad Act, authorizing construction of the first transcontinental railroad. This will be accomplished by the Union Pacific Railroad laying down a track from Nebraska to Utah, where it will meet another line constructed from California by the Central Pacific Railroad.

July 2 Education: President Abraham Lincoln signs the Land-Grant College Act (or Morrill Act), which transfers 30,000 acres of public land to educational institutions throughout the North, for the purpose of promoting studies relating to agriculture, engineering, and military science. Politics: President Abraham Lincoln authorizes the “ironclad test oath” to extract loyalty from all Federal employees, and it is eventually extended to include government contractors, attorneys, jurors, and passport applicants. Furthermore, citizens in Federal-occupied regions of the South are likewise required to pledge their allegiance.

July 7 Military: President Abraham Lincoln visits General George B. McClellan at Harrison’s Landing, Virginia, to discuss recent events. The general blames his recent setback upon a lack of promised reinforcements, and he also urges the president to adopt a more conservative approach to strategy—and abolition.

Photograph showing a construction train on the Union Pacific Railroad (Library of Congress)

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July 10 Military: The newly designated Army of Virginia under General John Pope positions itself in the Shenandoah Valley and reminds inhabitants of their obligation to assist Union efforts. He also promises swift justice for any treasonable or harmful deeds against military personnel.

July 12 Military: The Congressional Medal of Honor, established in 1861 to honor naval personnel, is expanded to include soldiers. Naval: Faced with falling water levels on the Yazoo River, the large Confederate ironclad CSS Arkansas under Lieutenant Isaac N. Brown sorties into the Mississippi River and heads south toward Vicksburg, Mississippi.

July 13 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln seeks congressional action to compensate states willing to voluntarily abolish slavery. He also informs Secretary of State William H. Seward and Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles of his intention to draft an initial “emancipation proclamation” for the Cabinet to examine.

July 14 Military: General John Pope exhorts his Army of Virginia by declaring that “The strongest position a soldier should desire to occupy is one from which he can most easily advance against the enemy.” He then deploys his men between Washington, D.C., and Confederate forces to draw their attention away from General George B. McClellan’s Army of the Potomac. Politics: President Abraham Lincoln approves legislation for a Federal pension system to assist all widows and children of Union soldiers killed in the war. Meanwhile, 20 representatives from border states announce their opposition to the president’s compensated emancipation plan.

July 15 Military: Apaches under Mangas Coloradas and Cochise engage California troops under Colonel James H. Carleton at the Battle of Apache Pass, New Mexico Territory (Arizona). Naval: Union vessels under Commodore Charles H. Davis attack the newly built Confederate ironclad CSS Arkansas under Lieutenant Isaac N. Brown as it churns down the Mississippi River. Both sides sustain damage but the Arkansas escapes intact and remains a menace to Union shipping throughout the region.

July 16 Naval: David G. Farragut is formally appointed rear admiral by Congress, the first officer in the U.S. Navy to hold such rank. President Abraham Lincoln also signs legislation conferring promotions to all serving flag officers.

July 17 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln approves the Second Confiscation Act, which mandates freedom for any African-American slaves reaching Union lines. Those wishing to emigrate outside the United States will also receive assistance. Various kinds of property useful to the Confederate war effort are also subject to seizure. However, escaped slaves in loyal border states remain subject to return under the Fugitive Slave Act.

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July 19 Politics: Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune, composes a letter to President Abraham Lincoln and calls upon him to free the slaves as a means of weakening the Confederacy.

July 21 Arts: James Sloan Gibbons publishes his noted poem “We Are Coming Father Abraham” in the New York Evening Post; it is subsequently set to music by Stephen Foster and Luther O. Emerson. Politics: President Abraham Lincoln discusses with his cabinet the possible employment of African-American soldiers, but no action is taken at this time.

July 22 Military: Colonel Nathan B. Forrest and 1,000 Confederate cavalry capture Murfreesboro, Tennessee, defeating a Union garrison of 1,200 men. He does so by overrunning the camps of the 9th Michigan and 7th Pennsylvania Cavalry, then bluffing the still intact 3rd Minnesota to surrender. Confederate raiders under Colonel John H. Morgan return to Livingston, Tennessee, after a spectacular raid through Kentucky. The Federals also learn that a Confederate operative working for Morgan had tapped into their telegraph lines and intercepted army dispatches for the past 12 days. Naval: The USS Essex under Captain William B. Porter, accompanied by the ram Queen of the West, resumes attacking the Confederate ironclad CSS Arkansas off Vicksburg, Mississippi. Both Union vessels are driven off without seriously damaging their opponent, which defiantly steams past Vicksburg’s batteries and challenges the Federals to fight. Politics: President Abraham Lincoln unveils a draft of his Emancipation Proclamation to his Cabinet, which frees all African Americans held in bondage throughout the South. However, he heeds Secretary of State William H. Seward’s suggestion to postpone its unveiling until after a significant military victory by the North. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton then announces that the army can appropriate personal property for military purposes and also employ freed African Americans as paid laborers. Federal and Confederate officials reach an agreement on a method for exchanging prisoners of war. It functions effectively until the fall of 1863, when Union complaints over the treatment of African Americans results in its cancellation.

July 23 Military: General Henry W. Halleck, newly arrived general in chief in Washington, D.C., discusses the possibility of joint operations between generals George B. McClellan and John Pope. Union cavalry under Colonel Hugh J. Kilpatrick, advancing from Fredericksburg, Virginia, raids Confederate supplies gathered at Carmel Church until driven off by General J. E. B. Stuart. General John Pope tightens restrictions upon the inhabitants of the Shenandoah region by insisting that all military-age males take an oath of allegiance or face deportation to the South. General Braxton Bragg begins skillfully transferring 31,000 Confederate troops from Tupelo, Mississippi, to Chattanooga, Tennessee—a distance of 776

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miles—in one of the largest Southern rail movements of the war. However, Bragg leaves behind two independent and feuding leaders: generals Sterling Price at Tupelo and Earl Van Dorn at Vicksburg, each commanding 16,000 men.

July 24 Naval: Falling water levels on the Mississippi River and rising sickness induce Admiral David G. Farragut to remove his squadron from below Vicksburg, Mississippi, to New Orleans, Louisiana, following a two-month hiatus. Moreover, his experience outside Vicksburg convinces him that the city will never be taken by naval forces alone. Politics: Martin Van Buren, the eighth president of the United States, dies in Kinderhook, New York.

July 29 Military: Federal authorities arrest Confederate spy mistress Belle Boyd at Warrenton, Virginia, and she is sent to the Old Capital Prison in Washington, D.C. The first elements of the Confederate Army of Mississippi arrive at Chattanooga, Tennessee, concluding a strategic transfer of resources from the Deep South back to the center. General Braxton Bragg skillfully cobbles together a force of 30,000 men for an impending offensive into Kentucky. Naval: Ship “209,” christened Enrica, departs Liverpool, England, ostensibly for sea trials. It actually heads for Nassau, the Bahamas, for service with the Confederate navy as the infamous commerce raider CSS Alabama.

July 31 Diplomacy: U.S. Minister Charles F. Adams badgers Foreign Secretary Lord Russell not to allow the newly launched Enrica (the future CSS Alabama) to leave port. The British government dithers five days before Lord Russell issues the requisite orders, but beforehand Confederate agents slip aboard and sail it away, ostensibly for conducting sea trials. Ultimately, this vessel accounts for the destruction of 60 Union merchant ships. Military: Generals Braxton Bragg and Edmund Kirby-Smith confer at Chattanooga, Tennessee, and hammer out a strategy for the upcoming Kentucky campaign. The former, while senior, fails to exert his authority over Kirby-Smith, who insists upon a virtually independent command. Politics: President Jefferson Davis directs that any Union officer captured from General John Pope’s Army of Virginia is to be treated like a felon. This is in retaliation for any Southern citizens shot for treason under Pope’s draconian administration of the Shenendoah Valley.

August 2 Diplomacy: Secretary of State William H. Seward orders American Minister to England Charles F. Adams to ignore any British offers of mediation between North and South.

August 4 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln issues a call for 300,000 drafted militia to serve nine months; this levy is never enacted. Yet, despite persistent manpower shortages, he declines the services of two African-American regiments from Indiana, suggesting instead that they be employed as laborers.

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August 5 Military: General John C. Breckinridge is ordered by General Earl Van Dorn to attack the Union enclave at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, with his 2,600 Confederates and accompanied offshore by the ironclad CSS Arkansas. The Union garrison of 2,500 soldiers under General Thomas Williams deploys to receive him, and a sharp action erupts in very dense fog around 4:30 p.m. Fighting finally subsides around six hours later when Breckinridge concedes defeat and orders his command back to Vicksburg, Mississippi. Naval: The large Confederate ironclad CSS Arkansas under Lieutenant Henry K. Stevens steams down the Mississippi River to assist the expedition against Baton Rouge, Louisiana. His mission is to neutralize Union gunboats, but his craft sustains a broken propeller shaft en route and proves unable to effectively support the military effort ashore.

August 6 Indian: A starving band of Mdewkanton Santee (Sioux) Indians arrives at the Lower Agency, Minnesota, where Chief Little Crow (Taoyateduta) pleads with agent Andrew F. Myrick for promised foodstuffs. However, war activities delay the arrival of treaty payments from Washington, D.C., and local authorities refuse to give Little Crow the credit necessary to feed his people. Despite desperate entreaties for help, Myrick rebuffs the Indians, declaring “So far as I am concerned, if they are hungry, let them eat grass.” The chief and his entourage angrily depart, incensed at white indifference to their plight. Naval: A Federal naval flotilla under Commander David D. Porter of the USS Essex attacks and further damages the large ironclad CSS Arkansas near Baton Rouge, Louisiana. That vessel has a broken propeller shaft and, when it runs aground, Lieutenant Henry K. Stevens orders it scuttled to prevent capture.

August 7 Military: A force of 24,000 Confederates under General Thomas J. Jackson decamps from Gordonsville, Virginia, and marches north to Orange Court House. However, because General Ambrose P. Hill completely misinterprets his orders and fails to leave camp, the usually hard-marching Confederates cover only eight miles.

August 8 Law: Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton suspends writs of habeas corpus throughout the country to facilitate cases against treason and draft evasion. Military: Federal authorities again release and parole Confederate spy Belle Boyd from Old Capitol Prison, in Washington, D.C., citing lack of evidence to detain her further.

August 9 Military: Aware that Confederates under General Thomas J. Jackson are converging upon his position near Cedar Mountain, Virginia, General Nathaniel P. Banks deploys 9,000 Federal troops at its base to confront Jackson, who then attacks without proper reconnaissance with two divisions, but at 4:30 p.m. Banks commits his entire reserves to battle, which outflank the Confederates and threaten to roll up their line. However, Jackson is rescued in timely fashion as the first elements of General A. P. Hill’s division come trudging up the road and his line is stabilized. Banks then withdraws his men and the Southerners retain

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Chronology

Little Crow

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(ca. 1820–1863)

Sioux chief Little Crow (Taoyateduta) was born into the Mdewkanton (Santee) band of the Sioux nation around 1820, near present-day St. Paul, Minnesota. His father was a hereditary chief and around 1834 Little Crow assumed control of the band. Contact with white settlers in this remote region was increasing, but the chief seems to have been amicably disposed toward them. In 1846, after he was injured in an altercation with his brothers over the use of alcohol, Little Crow approached the Indian agency at nearby Fort Snelling about sending missionaries among the Indians to promote temperance. In 1851 he was a signatory to the Treaty of Mendota, whereby the Santee ceded most of their territory to settlers and moved onto reservations. Resentful Indians perpetuated the Spirit Lake Massacre in 1857, at which point Little Crow volunteered to help pursue those responsible. The following year he ventured to Washington, D.C., with a tribal delegation to further negotiations and secure an annuity of goods and food to assist his people. However, by 1861, the government was absorbed by the Civil War and the Indian Department neglected its responsibilities of feeding the Indians as promised. By the summer of 1862 the Santee were reduced to eating their own horses to survive, and when Little Crow angrily remonstrated to agent Andrew Myrick that stockpiled supplies were deliberately being withheld, Myrick told him and his people to eat grass. Tensions then flared when angry Santee braves murdered five white settlers and Little Crow, sensing the

inevitability of conflict, began orchestrating an armed uprising. On August 18, 1862, armed Sioux swooped down on unsuspecting white settlements, killing upwards of 400 men, women, and children. The defiant Myrick was among those slain, and his mouth was then stuffed with grass. The Indians continued on a rampage until a force under General Henry H. Sibley could organize itself and counterattack. The Sioux were then decisively beaten at Wild Lake on September 23, 1862, and many prisoners were seized. President Abraham Lincoln spared most of them from the hangman’s noose, but on December 26, 1862, 38 braves went to the scaffold in the largest mass execution in American history. For his part, Little Crow escaped capture and made his way to Canada, but British authorities refused to help. He then returned to Minnesota the following year with a small band of warriors and resumed depredations against settlements. However, on July 3, 1863, he was shot and killed by farmers while picking berries. Little Crow’s remains were then flung upon a garbage heap, where they remained for several months, although his skeleton eventually made its way into the collections of the Minnesota Historical Society. In 1971 the bones were turned over to his descendants and interred at a Sioux burial ground in South Dakota. For the time it was fought, Little Crow’s uprising was one of the bloodiest Indian conflicts in American history and initiated removal of the Sioux from their ancestral homelands.

possession of the field. Jackson loses 1,334 men to a Union tally of 2,353, which leads participants to dub the engagement “Slaughter Mountain.”

August 13 Military: General Robert E. Lee begins advancing his Army of Northern Virginia from the Peninsula and toward Gordonsville, Virginia. He begins by dispatching

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Chronology of American History 30,000 men under General James Longstreet by rail, where they are scheduled to link up with the corps of General Thomas J. Jackson.

August 14 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln confers with a delegation of free African Americans at the White House and suggests Central America as a possible venue for colonization. The suggestion is badly received by many black leaders, especially Frederick Douglass, who accuses the president of “contempt for Negroes.”

August 16 Military: General Edmund Kirby-Smith departs Knoxville, Tennessee, with 10,000 men and plunges headlong through the Cumberland Gap and into Kentucky. This action initiates a concerted Southern effort to reclaim that state for the Confederacy.

August 17 Indian: Half-starved Sioux tribesmen stage an uprising in southwest Minnesota by killing five settlers on their farm in Acton Township. Chief Little Crow, when informed of the action, realizes that war with the whites is unavoidable and takes to the warpath. The result is a savage, six-week conflict claiming upwards of 600 lives.

August 18 Indian: Rampaging Sioux warriors attack the Upper and Lower Indian Agencies, Minnesota, killing 20 people including Agent Andrew J. Myrick, whose mouth is then stuffed with the very grass he told the Indians to eat. A detachment of 46 soldiers under Captain John Marsh, 5th Minnesota, advancing to rescue the settlers is then ambushed at Redwood Ferry and nearly annihilated with the loss of 24 soldiers. Politics: President Jefferson Davis, addressing the newly convened second session of the Confederate Congress in Richmond, Virginia, excoriates the behavior of General Benjamin F. Butler at New Orleans, Louisiana.

August 20 Indian: A large gathering of Mdewkanton Santee (Sioux) warriors under Chief Little Crow attack Fort Ridgely, Minnesota, and are repulsed by 180 soldiers and three cannon under Lieutenant Timothy Sheehan. The garrison loses six killed and 20 wounded while Santee casualties are considerably heavier. The Indians draw back but continue the siege while awaiting reinforcements. Journalism: New York Tribune editor Horace Greeley pens his “Prayer of Twenty Millions” in an unabashed plea for the abolition of slavery.

August 21 Politics: Confederate military authorities issue a directive to execute any Northern officers found commanding African-American troops. Generals David Hunter and John W. Phelps, in particular, are likewise to be treated as felons if captured for their roles in arming slaves to fight in the Union army.

August 22 Indian: Chief Little Crow of the Mdewkanton Santee (Sioux) is joined by another 400 warriors of the Sisseton and Wahpeton bands, for a total of nearly 800. These then make another aborted attack upon the 180-man garrison of Fort Ridgely, Minnesota, and are again repulsed with 100 casualties. Federal troops sustain three killed and 13 wounded.

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Journalism: President Abraham Lincoln responds to New York Tribune editor Horace Greeley and candidly admits he intends to neither preserve nor destroy that “peculiar institution.” Lincoln is in a bind to keep slave-owning border states loyal to the North out of military considerations. “My paramount objective is to save the Union,” he insists.

August 23 Indian: The town of New Ulm, Minnesota, is attacked by 400 rampaging Mdewkanton Santee (Sioux) under Chief Little Crow. The town, stoutly defended by civilians under Judge Charles Flandreau, is nearly consumed by fire but the Indians are repulsed and withdraw. The whites lose 36 dead and 23 wounded; Sioux losses are unknown but presumed to be as heavy. Military: General J. E. B. Stuart attacks Catlett’s Station, Virginia, headquarters of General John Pope. He thus seizes 300 captives, Pope’s personal baggage and uniform, along with his military correspondence. General Robert E. Lee is thereby informed of Union strategy to unite Pope’s 51,000-man Army of Virginia with the 100,000-strong Army of the Potomac under General George B. McClellan. Lee begins formulating a plan to crush Pope before the two forces can merge.

August 24 Military: In a stunningly bold maneuver, General Robert E. Lee divides the Army of Northern Virginia by detaching 25,000 men under General Thomas J. Jackson’s corps on a rapid march to destroy the Orange & Alexandria Railroad, thereby cutting General John Pope’s supply line. Meanwhile, his remaining 30,000 men under General James Longstreet remain in place until Pope takes the bait. Naval: Having received its armament, CSS Alabama is commissioned into Confederate service off Terceria, Azores, under celebrated raider Raphael Semmes.

August 25 Military: General Thomas J. Jackson’s corps detaches itself from the Army of Northern Virginia and advances to the Rappahannock River. By dint of hard slogging the Southerners cover 56 miles in only two days—one of the most impressive performances of the entire war—and arrive behind General John Pope’s Army of Virginia. Jackson also manages to interpose himself between Pope and the Union capital at Washington, D.C. Politics: To placate Radical Republicans and alleviate manpower shortages, Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton authorizes the recruitment of up to 5,000 African-American soldiers. Orders are then cut for General Rufus Saxton, military governor of the South Carolina Sea Islands, to raise five regiments of black troops for military service in the field. Much is anticipated from this pilot program.

August 26 Military: In a surprise move, Confederate forces led by General Isaac Trimble storm into Manassas Junction, Virginia, capturing General John Pope’s main supply base. The malnourished Confederates of General Thomas J. Jackson, looking more like scarecrows than soldiers, gleefully gorge themselves. Naval: Captain Franklin Buchanan is promoted to rear admiral for his conduct on the CSS Virginia on March 8, 1862, the first Confederate naval officer so honored.

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August 27 Indian: A relief column of 1,400 soldiers under Colonel Henry H. Sibley arrives at Fort Sibley, Minnesota, from distant Fort Snelling. Meanwhile, a detachment of troopers under Major Joseph R. Brown is ambushed at Birch Coulee, losing 16 killed and 44 wounded. Military: General John Pope, stung by the capture of his supply base at Manassas Junction, hurriedly marches from behind the Rappahannock River in search of Confederates under General Thomas J. Jackson. Jackson, meanwhile, is staying along the Warrenton Turnpike to await the arrival of General James Longstreet’s corps. The most perilous part of General Robert E. Lee’s gambit is about to be launched.

August 28 Military: Generals Robert E. Lee and James Longstreet force a passage through Thoroughfare Gap, Virginia, to engage the main Union army. In the process they encounter and brush aside a division under General James B. Ricketts and cavalry forces commanded by General John Buford. Two Confederate divisions of General Thomas J. Jackson surprise and attack a force of 2,800 Union troops under General Rufus King at Groveton, Virginia. However, as the heady Southerners advance anticipating an easy victory they charge headlong into the “Black Hat” brigade of General John Gibbon at Brawner’s Farm. A fierce fight of two hours ensues before both sides withdraw exhausted and depleted. Jackson loses 1,200 men out of 4,500 committed while Union forces sustain 1,100 casualties out of 2,800 present. General Braxton Bragg’s Confederate Army of Mississippi, soon to be redesignated the Army of Tennessee, proceeds northward from Chattanooga and into Kentucky proper, several days behind a second column under General Edmund Kirby-Smith. Politics: Congress founds the Department of Engraving and Printing with five employees.

August 29 Military: General Thomas J. Jackson assumes defensive positions along an unfinished railroad berm near Groveton, Virginia, as Union forces under General John Pope mass 65,000 men for an attack. The Second Battle of Manassas begins as generals Franz Sigel and Joseph Hooker assail Jackson’s line while the V Corps under General Fitz-John Porter detects the approach of General James Longstreet’s 30,000 Confederates on Pope’s left flank. Porter immediately notifies his superior as to the danger confronting his army, but Pope nonetheless orders him to attack Jackson’s position at once. Porter disobeys and prepares to face Longstreet; his insubordination costs him his career but probably spared the Army of Virginia from annihilation.

August 30 Military: The Second Battle of Manassas resumes as Union troops, ordered by General John Pope to pursue supposedly defeated Confederates, find them still occupying string defensive position instead. Regardless, General Fitz-John Porter’s V Corps surges forward and assails Jackson’s right, and waves of blue-coated infantry surge forward. Suddenly a massed charge, spearheaded by General John B. Hood’s Texan Brigade, begins rolling up the Union left. Jackson, seeing his

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Federal opponents suddenly waver, orders his own men forward in front and Pope’s army dissolves. Losses at Second Manassas are severe with Pope reporting 16,054 men lost while Lee sustained 9,197. Moreover, the Southerners are in no position to take the war northward into Maryland. General Mahlon D. Manson, bolstered by the arrival of troops under General Charles Cruft, pours 6,500 Federal soldiers—mostly new recruits—into defensive positions six miles below Richmond, Kentucky. General Patrick R. Cleburne’s Confederates then attack and dislodge the defenders, who fall back in confusion through the streets of Richmond. Southern losses are 98 killed, 492 wounded, and 10 missing while Manson suffers 206 killed, 844 wounded, and 4,303 captured. The Southern invasion of Kentucky is off to a productive start.

August 31 Military: The Union Army of Virginia under General John Pope regroups and rallies at Centreville, Virginia, as General Robert E. Lee dispatches the fast moving command of General Thomas J. Jackson on a forced march around the Union left to possibly cut their retreat from Washington, D.C.

September 1 Military: Confederates under General Thomas J. Jackson, resting around Ox Hill and Chantilly, Virginia, are suddenly accosted by Union forces from General Joseph Hooker’s division. Fighting commences around 4:00 p.m. when additional Federals under General Isaac I. Stevens, IX Corps, advance down Warrenton Pike and charge. These are then bolstered by the appearance of General Philip Kearny’s brigade, which laces into advancing Confederates and closes a gap in Union lines. However, Kearny, while conducting a personal reconnaissance ahead of his troops, stumbles into Confederate pickets and is shot dead. Losses in this brief but intense encounters are estimated at 500 Confederates and 700 Federals.

September 2 Indian: A detachment of soldiers is attacked in camp at Birch Coulee, Minnesota, by Santee warriors under Big Eagle (Wambdi Tanka). They manage to keep their attackers at bay for the next 31 hours. Military: President Abraham Lincoln, ignoring the advice of his Cabinet, restores General George B. McClellan as head of the Army of the Potomac, a decision widely hailed by soldiers in the ranks. The bumbling and recently disgraced General John Pope, meanwhile, continues on without an official command.

September 3 Military: General John Pope complains to General in Chief Henry W. Halleck that his recent debacle is due to General Fitz-John Porter’s refusal to obey orders and General George B. McClellan’s inability to provide timely support. Politics: Kentuckian Joseph Holt is appointed judge advocate general of the United States.

September 4 Military: The Army of Northern Virginia under General Robert E. Lee moves 40,000 men across the Potomac River at White’s Ford, Virginia, and filters into Maryland. The invasion of the North commences. Naval: The CSS Florida under Lieutenant Joseph N. Maffit plunges past Union vessels and enters Mobile Bay, Alabama. His success results in an official rebuke

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Chronology of American History for local Union commanders and demands for better management of the blockade effort.

September 5 Military: General John Pope is formally relieved of command and ordered back to Washington, D.C., for reassignment. General in Chief Henry W. Halleck then orders that his Army of Virginia is to be consolidated within the Army of the Potomac under General George B. McClellan.

September 6 Military: General John Pope accepts the military equivalent of Siberian exile by assuming command of the Department of the Northwest (Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, and the Nebraska and Dakota Territories). There he is primarily concerned with ending a deadly Sioux uprising.

September 7 Military: The Union capital at Washington, D.C., panics as Confederate forces under General Robert E. Lee occupy Frederick, Maryland—within striking distance. General George B. McClellan, newly reappointed as commander of the Army of the Potomac, sallies forth from the capital to engage them.

September 8 Military: General Robert E. Lee issues a proclamation to the inhabitants of Maryland, assuring them that “We know no enemies among you, and will protect all, of every opinion.” Regardless, public attitude toward the invaders remains tepid. Naval: Commodore John Wilkes assembles the West India Squadron (a mobile or “flying” squadron) and is tasked with halting depredations by Confederate raiders CSS Alabama and Florida.

September 9 Military: As the Army of Northern Virginia passes through Frederick, Maryland, General Robert E. Lee expresses concern about the sizable Union garrison holding Harper’s Ferry, as it could threaten his rear. He therefore issues Special Order No, 191 which detaches the corps of General Thomas J. Jackson back into the Shenandoah Valley to capture that strategic post while General James Longstreet’s corps advances toward Hagerstown. Lee has again daringly—and dangerously—split his army in two.

September 10 Military: The Confederate corps of General Thomas J. Jackson, accompanied by the divisions of generals Lafayette McLaws and John G. Walker, depart their cantonment near Frederick, Maryland, and execute a converging movement against Harper’s Ferry in western Virginia. Meanwhile, General James Longstreet continues marching toward Hagerstown, leaving the Army of Northern Virginia badly dispersed and subject to defeat.

September 13 Military: Private Barton W. Mitchell of the 27th Indiana accidently finds a copy of General Robert E. Lee’s Special Order No. 191 wrapped around a discarded cigar. Once informed, General George B. McClellan suddenly realizes that the Southerners are scattered and subject to defeat. Inexplicably, he waits 16 hours before putting the army in motion while his golden opportunity ebbs.

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Harper’s Ferry in western Virginia is being enveloped by a three-pronged Confederate maneuver. General Lafayette McLaws’ division occupies neighboring Maryland Heights across the river while General John G. Walker positions his force on nearby Loudoun Heights. The 12,000-man Union garrison under Colonel Dixon S. Miles is thus speedily trapped by 23,000 Confederates now enjoying superiority in both numbers and position.

September 14 Military: General George B. McClellan sorties his entire Army of the Potomac, intending to catch the dispersed Confederates of General Robert E. Lee before they can regroup. He orders the IX Corps under General Jesse L. Reno and the I Corps of General Joseph Hooker to march their respective ways through Fox and Turner’s Gaps near South Mountain, but they encounter General James Longstreet’s command. Longstreet then feeds the brigades of generals Robert Rodes and John B. Hood into the fray, and they slowly give ground. The Federals clear South Mountain by 10 p.m., with 28,500 men pushing back 17,850 Confederates. Losses in this severe engagement amount to 2,325 Union to 2,685 Confederate. The Federal noose is slowly drawing shut. Cognizant of General Robert E. Lee’s dispersed Army of Northern Virginia, General George B. McClellan dispatches the VI Corps of General William B. Franklin to advance with all haste through Crampton’s Gap, Maryland. They encounter a smaller Confederate force yet their two divisions of 12,800 men take nearly all day to batter their way up the hillside and flush the defenders from the heavily wooded slopes. By 6:00 p.m. the exhausted Southerners begin streaming down the mountainside in confusion and Franklin is finally positioned to pitch full force into General Lafayette McLaws’ division at Harper’s Ferry. However, he overestimates the size of Confederate forces opposing him and encamps for the night. Confederate artillery ringing Harper’s Ferry, western Virginia, begins bombarding Union positions to force the garrison of Colonel Dixon S. Miles into submission. The shelling is intense and intimidating, but relatively few injuries result. Worse, in light of the Battle of South Mountain, Jackson must seize the town no later than the next morning, lest General Robert E. Lee be forced to cancel his invasion of Maryland. General Sterling Price occupies Iuka, Mississippi, with 15,000 soldiers prior to uniting with General Braxton Bragg in Kentucky. General Ulysses S. Grant, however, sees a opportunity to trap and destroy the exposed Confederates. He therefore orders columns under generals William S. Rosecrans and Edward O. Ord to approach Iuka from different directions and catch the defenders in a pincer movement.

September 15 Military: General Robert E. Lee instructs his Army of Northern Virginia, presently strung out along the hills of Sharpsburg, Maryland, to begin consolidating to thwart a possible attack by superior Union forces. He also recalls the army of General Thomas J. Jackson from the Shenandoah Valley immediately. After a prolonged bombardment in which Colonel Dixon A. Miles is mortally wounded, General Julius White surrenders the Union garrison at Harper’s Ferry, western Virginia, to General Thomas J. Jackson. For a loss of 39 dead

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Chronology of American History and 247 injured, the Southerners kill 44, wound 173, and seize 12,520 prisoners, a like number of small arms, 73 cannon, tons of supplies and equipment, and innumerable livestock. This is the largest Federal capitulation of the Civil War; Jackson quickly rounds up his prize and proceeds back to Antietam, Maryland, with alacrity.

September 16 Military: General Robert E. Lee, buoyed by the recent seizure of Harper’s Ferry, western Virginia, determines not to leave Maryland without a fight and positions his army along a series of low hills at Sharpsburg (Antietam), He initially musters only 18,000 troops, but lethargic movements by the Army of the Potomac allow two divisions of General Thomas J. Jackson’s corps to arrive and deploy on the Confederate left. Jackson’s final division under General Ambrose P. Hill is still at Harper’s Ferry, 17 miles distant, and under orders to join the main body at once.

September 17 Military: The Battle of Antietam commences at 5:30 a.m. when 12,000 soldiers of General Joseph Hooker’s I Corps advance against the Confederate left under General Thomas J. Jackson. Hooker makes good progress against the first row of defenders in a cornfield until General John B. Hood’s Texas brigade bursts onto the scene and drives him back. Jackson then counterattacks across the line and is himself heavily repulsed in turn. In the Confederate center General Daniel H. Hill leads 5,000 men slung along the length of a sunken road which acts as a trench. Heavily pressed, Hill is forced to retire though a deadly enfilade dropping men in clumps and bequeaths his position a nickname of “Bloody Lane.” The locus of combat then shifts over to the Confederate right where General Ambrose Burnside’s men make repeated and ineffectual attempts to cross the stone bridge over Antietam Creek. He finally succeeds at 3:00 p.m. and advances, but Burnside’s own left is suddenly assailed by General Ambrose P. Hill’s “Light Division,” and the Federals are driven back to their starting point. McClellan, with 75,000 present (although 25,000 were not engaged), suffers 12,410 casualties while Lee, who could ill-afford such attrition, loses 11,172. The combined total of 3,500 dead and 17,100 wounded renders this the single bloodiest day in American military history. General Braxton Bragg’s Confederates capture 4,000 Union troops under Colonel John T. Wilder at Munsford, Kentucky, but only after a curious play of chivalry unfolds. Wilder, an amateur soldier, arrives at General Simon B. Buckner’s headquarters under a flag of truce and seeks his advice as a gentleman. The general willingly obliges his visitor by taking him on a tour of Confederate lines to highlight their superiority in numbers. Wilder, finally convinced, agrees to lay down his arms. Slavery: The failure of General Robert E. Lee at Antietam grants President Abraham Lincoln the military pretext he sought to announce his Emancipation Proclamation.

September 18 Military: General Robert E. Lee disengages and begins ferrying the Army of Northern Virginia across the Potomac River at Blackford’s Ferry, Maryland, and back into Virginia. He departs having sustained thousands of casualties, but superior forces under General George B. McClellan fail to intervene or even actively pursue.

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September 19 Military: Union columns of 9,000 men each under generals William S. Rosecrans and Edward O. C. Ord march west and south of Iuka, Mississippi, attempting to crush 15,000 Confederates under General Sterling Price between them. However, Price’s cavalry alerts him of their approach and he prepares to attack Rosecrans before the two forces can unite. General Henry Little’s division then spearheads the Southern assault, which crumples the Union left and seizes nine cannon of the 11th Ohio battery. Price abandons his tactic by nightfall and elects to join up with Confederate forces under General Earl Van Dorn, who is himself planning an attack upon Corinth. Casualties are 86 Southerners killed, 408 wounded, and 200 captured to a Union tally of 141 men dead, 613 injured, and 36 missing.

September 20 Military: A Confederate division under General Ambrose P. Hill advances against two Union brigades crossing Boetler’s Ford into Virginia. As he deploys to attack, his men come under severe fire from 70 Union field pieces posted across the river. The Confederates nonetheless advance and drive the Federals back across the stream into Maryland. Naval: Admiral Samuel F. du Pont warns Assistant Secretary of the Navy Gustavus V. Fox of the perils facing any contemplated attack upon Charleston, South Carolina. “It is a cul-de-sac,” he declares, “and resembles a porcupine’s hide turned outside in than anything else, with no outlet—you go into the bag—no running forts as at New Orleans.” His warnings go unheeded by the Navy Department.

September 22 Slavery: The Emancipation Proclamation is unveiled by President Abraham Lincoln and which promises freedom for all African Americans currently held as slaves in secessionist states. However, it carefully skirts the issue as it pertains to liberating blacks in northern border states. Public reaction is decidedly mixed and ranges from euphoria in New England to angry protest elsewhere, but Lincoln’s stance also lessens chances that either England or France will intervene on the Confederacy’s behalf and shed blood to preserve the institution of slavery, long banned in Europe.

September 23 Indian: As Little Crow’s band of 800 Mdewkanton Santee (Sioux) warriors flee up the Minnesota Valley, they are pursued by 1,600 volunteers and troops under Colonel Henry H. Sibley. Sibley then encamps for the evening at Lone Tree Lake (reported as Wood Lake) and Little Wolf suddenly turns and springs on his pursuers, attacking at dawn. Fortunately for Sibley, when several of his men try to desert they run headlong into the Indians and the entire camp is thus alerted. The Santee are subsequently repulsed by artillery; Chief Mankato and 30 warriors are killed. Sibley then presses ahead and the bulk of the Santee surrender en masse. The soldiers then rescue 269 white hostages while taking 2,000 Native Americans prisoner, many of whom are slated for execution for their earlier atrocities against settlers. Journalism: President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation appears in the Northern press for the first time; reactions are mixed and range between antipathy and admiration.

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September 24 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln authorizes suspension of all writs of habeas corpus as sought by Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. Furthermore, military trials are now required for all persons suspected of dodging the draft or encouraging disloyal practices. A three-day conference of Union governors convenes in Altoona, Pennsylvania, at the behest of Governor Andrew G. Curtin. They gather to pledge continuing support for the president and sound out new ideas as to how best prosecute the war. The Confederate Congress adopts the seal of the Confederacy.

September 27 Politics: The Second Confederate Conscription Act is enacted, mandating that all males between 35 and 45 years of age be subject to military service. It also makes allowances for religious-based conscientious objectors, provided they pay a $500 exemption tax. Slavery: The first regiment of former African-American slaves, the Chasseurs d’Afrique, musters into Union service at New Orleans, Louisiana, at the behest of General Benjamin F. Butler.

September 28 Military: The armies of Confederate generals Sterling Price and Earl Van Dorn unite at Ripley, Tennessee, prior to launching offensive operations against the vital railroad junction at Corinth, Mississippi. Van Dorn, who enjoys seniority over the resentful Price, is regarded as nominal commander.

September 30 Military: A strong detachment of 4,500 Union and territorial troops under General Edward Salomon skirmishes with a small Confederate detachment at Newtonia, Missouri. Newly arrived Southerners under Colonel Douglas H. Cooper are roughly handled by Cooper’s men and are only rescued by the timely appearance of Colonel Joseph O. Shelby’s 5th Missouri cavalry, accompanied by several mounted battalions of Cherokee, Chickasaw, and Choctaw. Salomon consequently orders a retreat in the direction of Sarcoxie, accomplished under close pursuit.

October 1 Military: The 50,000-man Army of the Ohio under General Don Carlos Buell departs Louisville, Kentucky, in four columns; three of these will concentrate at Perryville while a fourth is ordered to move toward Confederate-held Frankfort. Their movements are complicated by incessant heat and shortages of water. In a fateful move, General John C. Pemberton arrives at Vicksburg, Mississippi, superceding General Earl Van Dorn as commander of the Department of Mississippi and East Louisiana. Naval: All army vessels of the Western Gunboat Fleet are formally transferred from the U.S. War Department to the Navy Department. Command of the newly designated Mississippi Squadron now devolves upon Captain David D. Porter, who replaces less aggressive Commodore Charles H. Davis.

October 2 Politics: In a less-than subtle hint, President Abraham Lincoln sets up his tent right next to General George B. McClellan’s headquarters in an attempt to spur that officer to greater efforts.

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October 3 Military: Confederate forces numbering 22,000 troops under generals Earl Van Dorn and Sterling Price Attack 23,000 Union troops commanded by General William S. Rosecrans at Corinth, Mississippi. The latter deploys his men in several, mutually supporting lines of defense with all intervals between them covered by carefully sited cannon. The impetuous Van Dorn encounters the first line of Union earthworks around 9:30 a.m., after which the Confederates, with great gallantry and heavy losses, grind the defenders back toward their second line of entrenchments. That night Van Dorn redeploys his army in a semicircle around the town and its chain of five lunettes (batteries).

October 4 Military: At 4:00 a.m., confederates under General Earl Van Dorn resume attacking General William S. Rosecrans’s defensive works at Corinth, Mississippi. By dint of hard fighting and heavy sacrifice, part of General Martin E. Green’s division storms and seizes the Robinson lunette (battery) while his remaining brigades actually force their way into the town. Van Dorn finally concedes defeat around 1:00 p.m. and orders a withdrawal to Ripley. Federal casualties are put at 2,520 while Van Dorn sustains 4,233—losses the Confederacy can ill afford in this theater. Politics: In the Confederate-held capital of Frankfort, Kentucky, Governor Richard Haws takes his oath of office with General Braxton Bragg in attendance. However, the attendant festivities are suddenly canceled when word arrives of 20,000 approaching Union troops.

October 5 Diplomacy: British Prime Minister Lord Palmerston and Foreign Secretary Lord Russell have up to this point leaned in favor of recognizing the Confederacy, a position facilitated by embarrassing Union defeats of the spring and summer. Their plans are derailed by word of Antietam and the Emancipation Proclamation for the British government would never condone fighting to preserve the institution of slavery. Military: General Earl Van Dorn’s Confederates retreat from Corinth, Mississippi, and onto Holly Springs and are intercepted by Union troops under General Edward O. C. Ord along the Hatchie River, Tennessee. An intense but indecisive clash erupts and the Southerners continue retreating.

October 6 Military: A frustrated President Abraham Lincoln orders General Henry W. Halleck to prod dithering General George B. McClellan into action. “The President directs that you cross the Potomac and give battle to the enemy or drive him south,” Halleck’s telegram read, “Your army must move now while the roads are good.” McClellan, true to character, largely ignores the directive.

October 7 Military: The III Corps of General Charles C. Gilbert, Army of the Ohio, trudges down the Springfield Road near Perryville, Kentucky, and his arrival prompts the Confederate Army of Mississippi under General Braxton Bragg to begin massing its 16,000 men for an attack. However, due to poor cavalry reconnaissance, he is unaware that two more corps under General Don Carlos Buell arrive that evening, raising Federal totals to 25,000.

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October 8 Military: General Don Carlos Buell arranges his 25,000 men for battle near Perryville, Kentucky. At 10:00 a.m., General Braxton Bragg arrives at the front and orders the Confederates forward against the Union left. General William J. Hardee is also directed to mass his troops along the center to keep Union forces at bay. At 2:00 p.m., General Leonidas K. Polk’s command, infiltrating through an unguarded ravine, suddenly turns the Union left and violently drives it back. In the reformed center, the Union III Corps handily repels a Southern attack by Colonel Samuel Powell’s brigade, and troops under General Philip H. Sheridan begin pressing their lines. Fighting rages on until darkness and Bragg, while he had won a tactical victory, finally perceives he is badly outnumbered and withdraws in good order back to Harrodsburg. The Battle of Perryville proves a costly encounter for both sides: Buell records 4,211 casualties while Bragg sustains 3,405.

October 10 Military: General J. E. B. Stuart leads his force of 1,800 Confederate troopers out of Darkesville, Virginia, and fords the Potomac River near Black Creek, Maryland. His orders are to destroy the Cumberland Valley railroad bridge near Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, a major supply artery for the Army of the Potomac. Politics: President Jefferson Davis encourages the Confederate Congress to draft 4,500 African Americans for the purpose of constructing fortifications in and around Richmond, Virginia.

October 11 Naval: Confederate raider CSS Alabama under Captain Raphael Semmes captures and burns the Union vessel Manchester. Semmes learns from reading captured New York newspapers the dispositions of several U.S. Navy warships looking for him. Politics: President Jefferson Davis modifies the draft law to exempt all persons owning 20 or more slaves. This rule serves to heighten a pervasive sense of class conflict, and many Southerners accuse Davis of waging “a rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight.”

October 12 Naval: Confederate commander and noted oceanographer Matthew F. Maury pilots the Herald past the Union blockade off Charleston, South Carolina, then sails for England to purchase additional warships for the South.

October 13 Military: President Abraham Lincoln again urges General George B. McClellan to resume offensive operations. “Are you not being over-cautious when you assume that you can not do what the enemy is constantly doing?” he pointedly inquires. McClellan nevertheless refuses to budge and spends several days reorganizing and resting the Army of the Potomac. Defeated Confederates under General Braxton Bragg and Edmund KirbySmith filter back through the Cumberland Gap into Tennessee. Their heralded invasion of Kentucky, representing the high tide of Confederate fortunes in the center region, dismally fails.

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October 14 Politics: Elections held in Pennsylvania, Iowa, Ohio, and Indiana result in Democratic Party gains. The new members largely oppose emancipation and favor peaceful accommodation with the Confederacy.

October 16 Military: The Department of the Tennessee is resurrected with General Ulysses S. Grant as commander. He begins marshaling men and resources for an immediate campaign against Vicksburg, Mississippi.

October 17 Military: Colonel John H. Morgan takes 1,800 cavalry and departs from his Confederate camp, 25 miles southeast of Richmond, Kentucky, on his second major raid of the war. He the gallops for the lightly defended town of Lexington, intending to take it by storm.

October 20 Military: President Abraham Lincoln instructs former politician-turned-general John A. McClernand to command the newly formed Army of the Mississippi, then mount an expedition with troops from Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa, against Vicksburg, Mississippi. This action complicates and infringes upon efforts already underway by General Ulysses S. Grant.

October 21 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln urges elections in Tennessee for new state and congressional officials. President Jefferson Davis advises General Theophilus H. Holmes of Confederate plans for an offensive to clear Tennessee and Arkansas of Federal forces.

October 24 Military: General Don Carlos Buell is sacked as commander of the Army of the Ohio for failing to aggressively pursue General Braxton Bragg’s defeated army, now safely resting at Knoxville and Chattanooga, Tennessee.

October 25 Military: President Abraham Lincoln again urges General George B. McClellan to commit the Army of the Potomac to offensive operations in Virginia. When McClellan informs the president of his fatigued horses, an angry chief cables back, “Will you pardon me for asking what the horses of your army have done since the battle of Antietam that fatigue anything?”

October 26 Military: After continual prodding, General George B. McClellan finally crosses the Potomac River back into Virginia, but so cautiously that General Robert E. Lee’s Confederates easily interpose themselves between the invaders and Richmond. President Abraham Lincoln is nonetheless “rejoiced” at the news. The Union Army of the Mississippi under General John A. McClernand is disbanded and reassigned, largely through the machinations of General Ulysses S. Grant.

October 29 Politics: The steady stream of bad news from the West convinces President Jefferson Davis that the Confederacy lacks the manpower and arms to defend

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Chronology of American History everything. “Our only alternatives are to abandon important points,” he cautions, “or to use our limited resources as effectively as circumstances will permit.”

October 30 Diplomacy: The Emperor Napoleon III suggests that France, Russia, and Great Britain conduct a joint mediation effort to end the American war. Failing that, he recommends recognizing the Confederacy. Navy: The U.S. Navy Department announces a $500,000 reward for the capture of Confederate raider “290” (CSS Alabama). A dozen warships, better employed elsewhere, are unnecessarily sent off in pursuit.

October 31 Naval: To compensate for its lack of warships, the Confederate Congress authorizes a Torpedo Bureau under General Gabriel J. Rains and an embryonic Naval Submarine Battery Service headed by Lieutenant Hunter Davidson. The numerous devices they test and deploy prove menacing to Union vessels at sea, in harbors, and especially on rivers—ultimately sinking 40 ships.

November 1 Slavery: General Benjamin F. Butler, commanding the garrison at New Orleans, Louisiana, imposes new restrictions on movement in and out of the city. In another controversial move, he also emancipates all African-American slaves from non-loyal owners.

November 4 Politics: Northern Democrats win significant elections in New York, New Jersey, Illinois, and Wisconsin, but Republican victories in California and Michigan offset these losses and the party retains control of the House of Representatives. Technology: In Indianapolis, Indiana, Richard J. Gatling receives a government patient for his revolutionary, multibarreled, rapid-fire Gatling gun, a precursor to modern machine guns. Functional models are developed by the end of the war but are rarely committed to combat operations.

November 5 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln, exasperated by General George B. McClellan’s dilatoriness, finally orders him replaced as head of the Army of the Potomac by General Ambrose E. Burnside.

November 8 Military: After a stormy and controversial tenure commanding the Department of the Gulf at New Orleans, Louisiana, General Benjamin F. Butler is replaced by General Nathaniel P. Banks. To preempt any celebrations by the populace, Butler peremptorily closes all breweries and distilleries within his jurisdiction.

November 9 Military: General Ambrose E. Burnside assumes command of the Army of the Potomac, a position he never sought and tried twice to refuse. Acting upon his instructions, Union cavalry under Colonel Ulric Dahlgren dashes spectacularly through Confederate positions at Fredericksburg, Virginia, taking 54 prisoners. This feat proves that the town’s defenses are weak, and Burnside plans for an offensive there.

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November 10 Military: General Joseph Hooker replaces General Fitz-John Porter as V Corps commander in the Army of the Potomac. Porter is slated to undergo court-martial proceedings for his role in the Second Battle of Manassas.

November 14 Military: Newly installed General Ambrose E. Burnside, commanding the Army of the Potomac, effects a major reorganization of his charge by placing generals Joseph Hooker, Edwin V. Sumner, and William B. Franklin as Commanders of the new Right, Central, and Left Grand Divisions, respectively. These new formations consist of two corps apiece.

November 15 Military: General Ambrose E. Burnside initiates an advance upon Falmouth, Virginia, by first feinting toward Warrenton. An excellent organizer, his troops cover 40 miles in two days of hard slogging and arrive opposite the town of Fredericksburg on the Rappahannock River. Burnside’s alacrity also left the Confederate high command perplexed as to his location and intentions. Naval: President Abraham Lincoln and several Cabinet members narrowly escape injury when an experimental Hyde rocket accidentally explodes during a demonstration at the Washington Navy Yard.

November 17 Military: The Union Right Grand Division under General Edwin V. Sumner deploys at Falmouth, Virginia, directly across from Fredericksburg on the Rappahannock River. This concludes an impressive, 40-mile march by the usually plodding Army of the Potomac, orchestrated by General Ambrose E. Burnside. This maneuver proves so stealthy that General Robert E. Lee temporarily loses contact with his adversary.

November 18 Military: The Army of the Potomac under General Ambrose E. Burnside continues occupying Falmouth, Virginia, behind the Rappahannock River and directly opposite the heights of Fredericksburg. However, the general takes no offensive actions over the next three weeks, allowing Confederates under General James Longstreet to arrive.

November 21 Military: General Ambrose E. Burnside demands that the mayor of Fredericksburg, Virginia, surrender. When he refuses, Burnside advises him to evacuate women and children from the town.

November 22 Military: General Ambrose E. Burnside reverses himself and assures the mayor of Fredericksburg, Virginia, that he will not fire into the town. In exchange, he expects no hostile actions on behalf of its inhabitants. Politics: Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton releases the majority of political prisoners still in army custody.

November 24 Military: President Jefferson Davis elevates General Joseph E. Johnston to commander of Confederate troops in the west, succeeding generals John C. Pemberton

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Chronology of American History and Braxton Bragg. He is specifically tasked with guiding Pemberton in the defense of Vicksburg, Mississippi.

November 26 Military: President Abraham Lincoln confers with General Ambrose E. Burnside at Aquia Creek, Virginia, over his prospective assault upon Fredericksburg. The general seeks a direct attack while the president argues for a multipronged approach. At length the general’s view prevails.

November 28 Military: In a preemptive strike, Union General James G. Blunt and 5,000 men attack 2,000 Confederate cavalry under General John S. Marmaduke at Cane Hill, Arkansas. The Southerners are driven into the Boston Mountains, but Blunt declines to pursue for fear of becoming surrounded. However, his presence induces General Thomas C. Hindman to attack his isolated column anyway.

November 29 Military: General John B. Magruder arrives to take charge of the District of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. He makes recapturing the port city of Galveston an immediate Confederate priority and begins marshaling the requisite men and ships necessary for a surprise attack. Naval: General John B. Magruder orders the Confederate steamers Bayou City and Neptune outfitted with bales of cotton “armor” and transformed into “cotton-clads.” They will figure prominently in the upcoming attack upon Galveston, Texas.

November 30 Military: After incessant delays, pontoons and other bridging equipment requested three weeks earlier by General Ambrose E. Burnside arrive at Falmouth, Virginia. The Army of the Potomac is now enabled to cross the Rappahannock River to Fredericksburg, but during this interval General Robert E. Lee rushes 35,000 men under General James Longstreet to fortify the heights above the city.

December 1 Slavery: President Abraham Lincoln proffers a plan for compensated emancipation to the 37th Congress, but it elicits little enthusiasm. “In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free,” he insists. Lincoln also promises to assist those willing to be colonized elsewhere.

December 3 Military: General Thomas C. Hindman marches his Confederate Army of the Trans-Mississippi, 11,000 strong, from Van Buren, Arkansas, in bitter, winter weather. His goal is to strike and destroy the outnumbered Union division of General James G. Blunt at Cane Hill. However, Blunt is alert to the danger and appeals to General Francis J. Herron at Springfield, Missouri, for immediate assistance. General Joseph E. Johnston arrives to coordinate military operations of General John C. Pemberton at Vicksburg, Mississippi, and General Braxton Bragg at Nashville, Tennessee. This additional level of authority, however, further complicates an already Byzantine command structure.

December 5 Indian: President Abraham Lincoln pardons the bulk of 303 Santee (Sioux) warriors slated for execution for their role in a bloody uprising. The final number condemned to be hanged is 38.

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December 6 Military: In one of the most amazing forced marches of the entire Civil War, two Union divisions from the Army of the Frontier under General Francis J. Herron slog 100 miles from Springfield, Missouri, and miraculously arrive at Fayetteville, Arkansas, to reinforce General James G. Blunt at Cane Hill. This is a remarkable accomplishment that preserves the Union war effort in Arkansas.

December 7 Military: General John H. Morgan and 2,400 Confederate cavalry surprise and capture Hartsville, Tennessee, along with 1,800 Union soldiers under Colonel Absalom B. Moore. General Thomas C. Hindman commences the Battle of Prairie Grove, Arkansas, by advancing upon the footsore host of General Francis J. Herron, eight miles from Fayetteville. He possesses 11,000 men and outnumbers his opponent but, having achieved strategic surprise, Hindman inexplicably assumes defensive positions. Fighting commences around 9:30 a.m., when the aggressive Herron attacks what he perceives to be a small Confederate force. He is badly repelled in a series of charges while subsequent Confederate advances are likewise driven back by superior Union artillery. General James G. Blunt then hurriedly marches to Prairie Grove with his own fresh troops, and fighting continues until nightfall. Union forces totaling 8,000 men sustain 1,251 casualties while 11,000 Confederates endure 1,317. Hindman, short on supplies, has little option but to withdraw.

December 8 Arts: Augustin Daly debuts his production of the German play “Leah” the Forsaken by S. H. Von Mosenthal; he subsequently produces scores of plays translated from German, French, and other languages. Politics: President Abraham Lincoln recommends Captain John L. Worden for a vote of thanks from the U.S. Congress over his role in commanding the USS Monitor at Hampton Roads.

December 10 Politics: The U.S. House of Representatives approves a bill creating the new state of West Virginia on a vote of 96 to 55.

December 11 Military: The Army of the Potomac under General Ambrose E. Burnside begins bridging its way across the Rappahannock River to Fredericksburg, Virginia. However, as the fog lifts his engineers receive heavy sniper fire from General William Barksdale’s Mississippi brigade. Burnside then orders his artillery to bombard Fredericksburg in retaliation, which inflicts considerable damage but fails to dislodge the snipers. At length seven boatloads of volunteers row themselves across the river under fire and finally flush the Southerners from the town.

Ambrose E. Burnside (National Archives)

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1050  Chronology of American History Confederate General Nathan B. Forrest rides with 2,500 troopers out of Columbia, Tennessee, intending to harass Â�Union lines of communication. His goal is to wreck portions of the Mississippi Central and Mobile & Ohio Railroads. Forrest’s first objective, however, is the nearby town of Lexington.

December 12 Military: While vengeful troops of the Army of the Potomac are preoccupied with a looting binge at Fredericksburg, Virginia, General Robert E. Lee hastily summons the corps of General Thomas J. Jackson from positions further down-­ stream and he occupies the right flank of Lee’s line. By nightfall General Ambrose E. Burnside has finished crossing the Rappahannock River and deploys 112,000 men below Confederate positions. Naval: The Federal ironclad USS Cairo under Commander Thomas O. Selfridge strikes a Confederate “torpedo” (mine) on the Yazoo River, Mississippi, and sinks. This is the first of 40 Â�Union vessels lost to new, submerged Confederate ordnance.

December 13 Military: The Battle of Fredericksburg, Virginia, commences at 10:00 a.m. A dense fog suddenly lifts and reveals to Southerners under General Robert E. Lee an Â�awe-­inspiring sight of serried ranks of Â�blue-­coated infantry advancing up the slopes toward them. The first thrust is committed against Lee’s right when

Battle of Fredericksburg, Virginia, December 13, 1862. Lithograph by Currier & Ives╇ (Library of Congress)

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General William B. Franklin commits generals George G. Meade and John Gibbon to strike General Thomas J. Jackson’s corps. Despite an early breakthrough, Jackson’s riposte proves decisive: he dispatches the divisions of Jubal A. Early and Daniel H. Hill to slash at both Union flanks and they chase the Federals back down the slope with loss. Burnside’s main attack then unfolds against the Southern center, up a steep hill called Marye’s Heights, ably manned and defended by General James Longstreet. General Edwin V. Sumner’s Grand Division, assisted by part of General Joseph Hooker’s command, 60,000 men in all, bravely charge Confederate positions uphill and are mowed down with great slaughter. Fighting eases by nightfall after Burnside sustains 12,653 casualties while the wellprotected Confederates endure 5,377. Lee aptly remarks “It is well that war is so terrible. We should grow too fond of it.”

December 14 Military: The Army of the Potomac under General Ambrose E. Burnside begins withdrawing back across the Rappahannock River as Confederates under General Robert E. Lee continue strengthening their defenses. Lee summarily ignores General Thomas J. Jackson’s suggestion to counterattack across the line and possibly destroy the entire Union force.

December 15 Military: The Army of the Potomac completes withdrawing across the Rappahannock River, covered by darkness and heavy rainfall. Prior to retreating, General Ambrose E. Burnside sent a flag to General Robert E. Lee requesting a temporary truce to retrieve the Union dead—and those still alive after two days of exposure to the cold. Lee magnanimously grants his request.

December 16 Military: The Army of the Potomac reoccupies Falmouth, Virginia, where General Ambrose E. Burnside issues a directive accepting full responsibility for the disaster at Fredericksburg.

December 17 Politics: Radical Republicans precipitate a cabinet crisis for President Abraham Lincoln by demanding the resignation of Secretary of State William H. Seward and replacing him with Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase. Highly insulted, Seward tenders his resignation to the president, who summarily refuses to accept. Religion: General Ulysses S. Grant issues General Order No. 11, expelling the Jews from his theater of operations. “The Jews, as a class violating every regulation of trade established by the Treasury Department, and also department orders,” it read, “are hereby expelled from the department within twenty-four hours from the receipt of this order.” In a few weeks Grant is ordered to rescind the directive.

December 18 Military: General Nathan B. Forrest and 2,500 Confederates attack a Union cavalry detachment under Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll that is defending the town of Lexington, Tennessee. Forrest’s men clatter across an unburned bridge on the Lower Road, flanking a portion of the defenders. Ingersoll manages to repel three headlong charges by the Confederates but is eventually overrun and surrenders.

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December 20 Military: The XIII Corps, consisting of 32,000 Union troops in four divisions under General William T. Sherman, embarks on transports at Memphis, Tennessee, and sails down the Mississippi River. Sherman intends to flank Confederate defenses at Vicksburg, Mississippi, and pin down reinforcements at Grenada to prevent them from reaching the city. In a spectacularly effective move, Confederate cavalry under General Earl Van Dorn captures a primary Union stockpile at Holly Springs, Mississippi, netting $1.5 million worth of supplies and 1,500 prisoners. He does do by utilizing superb marching discipline, which keeps Union forces unsure as to his intentions and objective. Van Dorn then orders the bulk of supplies burned, tracks torn up, and telegraph wires cut. Holly Springs is one of the most devastating cavalry raids of the war and has dire consequences for General Ulysses S. Grant.

December 21 Military: General Ulysses S. Grant, having lost his main supply base at Holly Springs, Mississippi, to rampaging Confederate cavalry under General Earl Van Dorn, evacuates Oxford and marches back to Memphis, Tennessee. This withdrawal terminates his first attempt to attack the Confederate citadel at Vicksburg, Mississippi.

December 23 Politics: President Jefferson Davis excoriates Union General Benjamin F. Butler for his treatment of civilians in New Orleans, Louisiana, and threatens to hang him if caught.

December 26 Indian: Federal authorities at Mankato, Minnesota, simultaneously hang 38 Santee (Sioux) Indians for their complicity in a bloody uprising. This remains the largest mass execution in American history. Military: The 43,000 Army of the Cumberland under General William S. Rosecrans begins advancing from Nashville, Tennessee, and toward General Braxton Bragg’s Confederates at Murfreesboro. However, the advance is dogged by cold, wet weather and effective resistance by Southern troopers under General Joseph Wheeler. The XIII Corps under General William T. Sherman disembarks 32,000 men at Johnson’s Plantation near the mouth of the Yazoo River. This places Union forces on the northern outskirts of Vicksburg, Mississippi, and only six miles from the city. However, the 6,000 defenders already present are speedily being reinforced by troops from nearby Grenada to a total strength of 14,000. Naval: The Federal gunboat under Commodore David D. Porter, having escorted General William T. Sherman’s expedition up the Yazoo River, begins shelling the Confederate defenses on nearby Hayne’s Bluff to cover the landing of troops.

December 27 Military: Confederate cavalry under General John H. Logan captures 600 Union prisoners in a surprise attack upon Elizabethtown, Kentucky. He then begins uprooting tracks and trestles belonging to the Louisville & Nashville railroad, a vital supply line.

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Union forces under General William T. Sherman encounter increasing Confederate resistance north of Vicksburg, Mississippi. They still press southward, traversing nearly impassible terrain, bayous, and swampland before reaching their objective at Chickasaw Bluffs. Sherman gradually discovers only four practical approaches to the bluffs, all of which are amply covered by well-sited Confederate batteries.

December 28 Military: A column of Confederate cavalry under General J. E. B. Stuart successfully tangles with Federal cavalry near Selectman’s Fort on Occoquan Creek, taking 100 captives. He then gallops off for Burke’s Station, only 12 miles from Washington, D.C., and telegraphs a humorous message to Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs as to the poor quality of Union mules. General Earl Van Dorn, commanding 3,500 Confederate cavalry, safely slips through Union lines, crosses the Tallahatchie River, and arrives safely back at Grenada, Mississippi. His spectacularly successful raid covers 500 miles in two weeks and completely cripples the impending Federal attack upon Vicksburg. Outside Chickasaw Bluffs, Mississippi, General Frederick Steele’s 4th Division makes a preliminary probe of Confederate defenses near Blake’s Levee but is halted by heavy artillery fire and defensive works erected in his path. General William T. Sherman remains determined to attack in force but is still uninformed of the Union disaster at Holly Springs, which allowed Southern troop strength to rise to 14,000 men. Politics: In an attempt to diffuse rising class tensions, the Confederate Congress strikes a clause in its Conscription Act which allows draftees to hire substitutes to take their place.

December 29 Military: The 32,000 Union troops of XIII Corps under General William T. Sherman attack prepared Confederate defenses along Chickasaw Bluffs, six miles north of Vicksburg, Mississippi. They withstand a maelstrom of Southern rifle and artillery fire from the heights and are bloodily repelled. Further attack serves only to lengthen the casualty lists so Sherman suspends the action at nightfall. Union losses in this lopsided affair total 1,776 to a Confederate tally of 207. The defeat also ends the first Federal attempt to capture Vicksburg.

December 30 Military: General William S. Rosecrans and 43,000 men of his Army of the Cumberland trudge into Murfreesboro, Tennessee, from Nashville, having taken three days to cover 30 miles in bad weather. He then establishes his line running roughly running north to south behind Stone’s River, across which sat 37,000 Confederates of the Army of Tennessee under General Braxton Bragg. Both leaders intend to attack the following day by hitting their opponent’s right flank.

December 31 Military: At 6:00 a.m., the Confederate Army of Tennessee under General Braxton Bragg launches an all-out assault against the Union Army of the Cumberland along Stone’s River near Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Fleeing Federals withdraw nearly three miles before General Alexander McCook organizes new defensive lines. General William S. Rosecrans then energetically visits all threatened points

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Chronology of American History along his line, brings up new units, and consolidates his defenses. Bragg, meanwhile, remains far behind at headquarters, relying solely on reports to stay abreast of battlefield developments and, hence, the fresh division of General John C. Breckinridge remains uncommitted. This proves a grave mistake for, had they been deployed earlier, they might have tipped the balance in favor of the South. Bragg is nonetheless convinced that he has won the contest and telegraphs word of his “victory” to authorities in Richmond, Virginia. Moreover, he fully expects to find the Federals gone and in full flight from their positions by daybreak. General Nathan B. Forrest and 1,200 Confederate cavalry engage the 2nd Union Brigade under Colonel Cyrus L. Dunham at Parker’s Cross Roads, Tennessee. However, Forrest’s plans are suddenly overturned by the sudden and unexpected appearance of John W. Fuller’s 3rd Brigade, which surprises the Confederates from behind. In the ensuing confusion, Forrest orders his men to charge through Union lines and cut themselves an avenue of escape. Parker’s Cross Roads proves a rare setback for Forrest, and his sheer survival adds further luster to his reputation. Naval: The famous ironclad USS Monitor, en route from Hampton Roads, Virginia, to Beaufort, North Carolina, sinks in a gale off Cape Hatteras while under tow. Sixteen crewmen perish and 47 are rescued by the USS Rhode Island. Politics: President Abraham Lincoln approves an act establishing West Virginia as the 35th state.

1863 Arts: The painting The White Girl by artist James McNeill Whistler causes a sensation in Paris art circles. Business: John D. Rockefeller founds his first petroleum refinery in Cleveland, Ohio. The Travelers Insurance Company, which offers the first such coverage to travelers, is founded by James G. Batterson. Ebenezer Butterick begins offering stylish clothing patterns cut from paper templates by children, and they prove an immediate success with homemakers. Labor: The Brotherhood of Railway Locomotive Engineers forms. Fincher’s Trades Review, an influential trade paper, begins publishing in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Literature: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow publishes his Tales of a Wayside Inn, a collection of six narrative tales.

January Religion: In a letter to the commanding general of Missouri, President Abraham Lincoln announces that all Southern Churches behind Federal lines are to be exempted from any kind of interference. Sports: Roller-skating becomes all the rage in many Northern cities. The fourwheeled device had been invented by James L. Plimpton. A new rule in the still evolving game of baseball mandates that both balls and strikes are to be called.

January 1 Military: Combat at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, is suspended as both sides redress ranks and attend to their wounded. At daybreak General Braxton Bragg is flum-

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moxed to find that the Union Army of the Cumberland stands its ground defiantly before him. Both sides then gird themselves for renewed combat next day. A surprise attack is mounted by General John B. Magruder upon Galveston, Texas. In the predawn darkness he quickly moves 1,500 men and several cannon onto Galveston Island and attacks a Union garrison consisting of 250 men of Colonel Isaac Burrell’s 42nd Massachusetts. The Confederates prevail in stiff fighting and the garrison surrenders. Naval: A sortie by Confederate “cotton-clads” Bayou City and Neptune under Major Leon Smith pitches into the Union blockading squadron under Commander William B. Renshaw off Galveston, Texas. Both sides lose men and vessels but Renshaw, perceiving the battle lost, orders his squadron into deeper water. He and 12 other Union sailors perish when demolition charges explode prematurely. Galveston remains a Southern enclave for the rest of the war. Politics: “I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within designated states, and parts of states, are, and henceforth shall be free,” President Abraham Lincoln declares. His Emancipation Proclamation becomes law, although it liberates only African Americans in Confederate territory. Slaves in Union-held area strategic border states of Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri are exempt

Thomas Nast’s engraving celebrates the emancipation of the Southern slaves with the end of the Civil War. (Library of Congress)

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Chronology of American History and remain in bondage for the time being. As anticipated, Lincoln’s Proclamation appeals to the governments of France and England, further diminishing European sympathy for the South, and with it the likelihood of military intervention on their behalf.

January 2 Military: General Braxton Bragg, after surveying the new line held by General William S. Rosecrans along Stones River, Tennessee, decides to renew the struggle. He then commits his remaining intact formation, the Kentucky division under General John C. Breckinridge, to strike the Union left flank partially anchored along the river. Breckinridge moves forward, charges directly into the teeth of massed Union artillery posted across the river, and is bloodily repelled with 1,700 casualties. His defeat signals the end of the battle and many senior Confederate leaders, including General Leonidas K. Polk, implore Bragg to retreat. Rosecrans holds the field and claims a narrow tactical victory, but at the horrendous cost of 13,249 casualties among 41,000 men present. Confederate losses of 10,266 out of 34,739 engaged, while smaller numerically, are proportionately larger and represent attrition that the Confederacy cannot sustain in this theater.

January 4 Religion: General in chief Henry W. Halleck orders General Ulysses S. Grant to rescind his controversial Order No. 11, which expelled all Jews from his jurisdiction.

January 7 Journalism: An editorial in the Richmond Inquirer denounces the Emancipation Proclamation as “the most startling political crime, the most stupid political blunder, yet known in American history.” Politics: The Democratically controlled Illinois State Legislature roundly condemns President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation and excoriates the chief executive for turning the war from a conflict to save the Union into a crusade to liberate African Americans.

January 10 Military: In a celebrated court-martial, General Fitz-John Porter is cashiered and dropped from the army list for disobeying orders at the Battle of Second Manassas. Not only does this action deprive the Union army of a highly capable leader but the verdict itself remains in contention until finally being overturned in 1879.

January 11 Military: A force of 32,000 Union troops under General John A. McClernand and Admiral David D. Porter attack and capture Confederate Fort Hindman (Arkansas Post) under General Thomas J. Churchill. Churchill realizes the hopelessness of his position and capitulates that evening. McClernand captures 4,791 Confederates, who also lose two dead and 81 wounded, along with 17 cannon, thousands of weapons, and tons of ammunition. Naval: The paddle steamer USS Hatteras, cruising 30 miles off Galveston, Texas, is approached at night by a mysterious vessel. It turns out to be the Confederate raider CSS Alabama under Captain Raphael Semmes, which sinks the Hatteras in a fierce engagement of only 13 minutes. Semmes rescues the entire crew whereupon Union vessels redouble their efforts to track down this elusive foe.

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Federal gunboats under Admiral David D. Porter effectively shell the strong Confederate works of Fort Hindman (Arkansas Post) on the Arkansas River. Naval fire proves devastatingly effective at reducing both batteries and fortifications, and Porter notes, “No fort ever received a worse battering, and the highest compliment I can pay to those engaged is to repeat what the rebels said, “You can’t expect men to stand up against the fire of those gunboats.”

January 12 Politics: The 3rd Session of the 1st Confederate Congress convenes at Richmond, Virginia, where President Jefferson Davis addresses them, still hoping for eventual European recognition. Davis also sharply criticizes the Union’s recent Emancipation Proclamation.

January 13 Slavery: In South Carolina, Union Colonel Thomas W. Higginson begins recruiting former African-American slaves for his 1st South Carolina Volunteer Infantry.

January 17 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln signs legislation allowing for the immediate payment of military personnel. He also asks Congress for currency reforms to halt mounting inflation throughout the North.

January 18 Military: Acting upon the orders of General Henry Heth, the 64th North Carolina under Colonel James A. Keith sweeps through Shelton Laurel, western North Carolina, looking for Northern sympathizers. At length he nets 15 male captives, most of whom are not involved in bushwhacking operations; these are subsequently executed and buried in shallow graves. Southerners are outraged by the atrocity, and an investigation ensues.

January 20 Military: The Army of the Potomac under General Ambrose E. Burnside begins its infamous “mud march.” No sooner does his turning maneuver commence than inclement weather begins and troops, supplies, and the all-important pontoon bridges bog down on muddy roads.

January 21 Military: The march of the Army of the Potomac under General Ambrose E. Burnside is stymied by heavy rain and inclement conditions during its attempted flank march to the Rappahannock River, Virginia. His columns are bedeviled by roads so choked with mud that supply wagons sink up to their axles. Politics: President Abraham Lincoln endorses revocation of the infamous “Jew Order” of General Ulysses S. Grant because it “proscribed an entire religious class, some of whom are fighting in our ranks.”

January 22 Military: General Ambrose E. Burnside’s offensive across the Rappahannock River into Virginia stumbles and finally ends on account of heavy rains and impassible mud. After heated consultation with subordinates, Burnside cancels his “master stroke” and orders the men back into camp at Falmouth, Virginia.

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January 23 Military: A demoralized—and rather soggy—Army of the Potomac settles back into winter quarters at Falmouth, Virginia, directly across from Fredericksburg. General Ambrose E. Burnside, agitated by the performance of subordinates, issues General Order No. 8, which peremptorily strips generals Joseph Hooker, Edwin V. Sumner, and William B. Franklin of their respective commands.

January 25 Military: General Ambrose E. Burnside is removed as commander of the Army of the Potomac and replaced by boisterous General “Fighting Joe” Hooker, one of his loudest critics. Generals Edwin V. Sumner and William B. Franklin, however, remain relieved of duties pending a court of inquiry. Politics: Massachusetts Governor John A. Andrew authorizes recruitment of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, composed entirely of African Americans and led by white officers.

January 27 Indian: In response to Shoshone attacks upon settlers and miners in the Great Basin region, Colonel Patrick E. Connor of the 1st California Cavalry leads 300 soldiers on an expedition against the encampment of Chief Bear Hunter on the Bear River, Idaho Territory. After a raging conflict of several hours, Bear Hunter and 224 Indians are slain, with an additional 124 women and children taken prisoner. Federal losses are 21 dead and 46 wounded. Journalism: Philadelphia journalist A. D. Boileau is arrested for allegedly publishing anti-Union editorials in his Journal. Naval: The ironclad monitor USS Montauk under Captain John L. Worden spearheads a Federal assault upon Fort McAllister on the Ogeechee River, Georgia. Admiral Samuel F. du Pont, who orders the attack, is disappointed by the results, especially the inaccuracy and slow rate of fire of his vessels. “If one ironclad cannot take eight guns,” he reasons, “how are five to take 147 guns in Charleston Harbor.” Again, the Navy Department ignores his warning.

January 28 Politics: President Jefferson Davis warns General Theophilus Holmes of the dangers confronting his Trans-Mississippi Department. “The loss of either of the two positions—Vicksburg or Port Hudson—would destroy communication with the Trans-Mississippi Department,” he writes, “and inflict upon the Confederacy an injury which I am sure you have not failed to appreciate.”

January 29 Politics: The Confederate Congress authorizes a loan of $15 million from French financiers. A pensive President Jefferson Davis inquires of General John C. Pemberton at Vicksburg, Mississippi, “Has anything or can anything be done to obstruct the navigation from the Yazoo Pass down?”

January 30 Military: General Ulysses S. Grant, officially placed in charge of western operations at Milliken’s Bend, Louisiana, begins formulating a new strategic campaign against Vicksburg, Mississippi.

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Naval: Admiral David D. Porter’s squadron begins sweeping the Yazoo River for supplies of cotton to deprive the Confederacy of this valuable commodity. Captured bales are also employed as additional “armor” on his ships.

January 31 Naval: Obscured by a thick haze, the Confederate steam rams CSS Palmetto State and Chicora, under commanders Duncan R. Ingraham and John R. Tucker briefly sortie against the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron off Charleston, South Carolina. The Confederate vessels then withdraw to Charleston after a stiff fight, having dented—but not broken—the Union blockade.

February 1 Business: By this period of the war inflation erodes the Confederate dollar to where it has the purchasing power of 20 cents. Naval: The ironclad USS Montauk under Captain John L. Worden, assisted by Seneca, Wissahickon, Dawn, and mortar boat C. P. Williams, again attack Fort McAllister on the Ogeechee River, Georgia. Montauk sustains 48 hits in the fourhour exchange, none of them critical. However, little damage is inflicted on the enemy.

February 2 Agriculture: Congress appropriates $3,000 to distribute cotton and tobacco seed throughout the Union.

February 3 Diplomacy: Secretary of State William H. Seward receives an offer through the French embassy in Washington, D.C., to mediate the war. His response will be forthcoming. Politics: The U.S. Congress votes Captain John L. Worden its thanks for services rendered as captain of the USS Monitor at the Battle of Hampton Roads in 1862.

February 5 Diplomacy: Queen Victoria outlines her reasons to Parliament for refusing to get involved with mediation efforts between the North and South, namely because the South’s prospects for success are dwindling. Military: General Joseph Hooker reorganizes the Army of the Potomac and dispenses with his predecessor’s “grand divisions” scheme. A new nine-corps structure is then imposed under generals John F. Reynolds (I), Darius N. Couch (II), Daniel E. Sickles (III), George G. Meade (V), John Sedgwick (VI), William F. Smith (IX), Franz Sigel (XI), Henry W. Slocum (XII), and George Stoneman (U.S. Cavalry Corps).

February 6 Diplomacy: Secretary of State William H. Seward unilaterally rejects a French offer to mediate hostilities.

February 8 Journalism: Alleged disloyal statements lead the Chicago Times to be temporarily suspended from publication.

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February 10 General: Despite the ongoing drama of Civil War, promoter P. T. Barnum manages to grab headlines by arranging the marriage between the diminutive “General Tom Thumb” (Charles S. Stratton, only two feet, five inches tall) to the equally tiny Mercy Lavinia Warren at Grace Church, New York. The wedding is Â�well-­attended.

February 11 Diplomacy: In London, Confederate agent James M. Mason addresses the Lord Mayor’s banquet over the desirability of recognizing the Confederacy.

February 16 Politics: The U.S. Congress authorizes the Conscription Act, affecting all men aged between 20 and 45, to address the inadequacies of voluntary enlistment. However, substitutes can still be hired for $300.

February 17 Journalism: The order suspending publication of the Chicago Times is rescinded by General Ulysses S. Grant.

February 18 Politics: Â�Union troops break up and disperse a convention by DemoÂ�crats in Frankfort, Kentucky, whose activities they construe as Â�pro-­Confederate.

February 19 Journalism: Federal troops convalescing in a hospital at Keokuk, Iowa, angered by antiwar sentiments expressed in the local newspaper Constitution, hobble over and ransack the news office. Politics: President Jefferson Davis contacts General Joseph E. Johnston, noting anxiously how little confidence General Braxton Bragg solicits from his seÂ�nior subordinates. “It is scarcely possible in that state of the case for him to possess the requisite confidence of the troops,” Davis notes. However, the president is not disposed toward removing his old friend and confidant from command, a reluctance with fatal consequences for the South.

February 23 Diplomacy: Pennsylvanian Simon Cameron, former secretary of war, resigns his post as minister to Rus�sia.

February 24 Naval: Confederate vessels CSS William H. Webb and Beatty, assisted by the newly captured Queen of the West, attack and repeatedly ram the ironclad USS Indianola below Warrenton, Mississippi. Outnumbered and outmaneuvered by the faster craft, Indianola sustains serious damage and Commander George Brown surrenders.

February 25 Naval: The USS Vanderbilt captures the British merchant vessel Peterhoff off St. Thomas in the Ca�rib�be�an, sparking a diplomatic row over the disposition of mail found onboard. Eventually, President Abraham Lincoln orders the craft and all confiscated mail returned to their rightful own�ers. Politics: The U.S. Congress approves a national banking system drawn up by Secretary of the Trea�sury Salmon P. Case, whereby participating institutions

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reserve up to one-third of their capital in U.S. securities. These, in turn, serve as a basis for issuing national bank notes (currency) to the public to facilitate long-term financing of the war effort. This system lasts with little change until the establishment of the Federal Reserve in 1913. The Confederacy, which operates without such fiscal safeguards, is forced to issue more than $1 billion in paper money and endures crippling inflation.

February 26 Indian: Upon further reflection, the National Council of Cherokee Indians abolishes slavery, renounces its prior affinity for the Confederacy, and rejoins the Union.

March 2 Military: Congress authorizes four new major generals and nine new brigadiers for the U.S. Army, with an additional 40 major generals and 200 brigadiers for the volunteers. Conversely, 33 senior military officers are dismissed from the service for a variety of reasons. Transportation: Congress establishes the standard railroad gauge (width) at four feet, eight and one half inches; this has since become a world standard for most railways.

March 3 Business: Jay Cooke is named Federal agent tasked with promoting the sale of war bonds. Diplomacy: Congress passes a resolution condemning offers of mediation as “Foreign intervention.” Indian: Congress agrees to subsidize the removal of all Native Americans from Kansas. Politics: President Abraham Lincoln signs the Enrollment or Federal Draft Act, whereby all able-bodied males from 20 to 46 years of age are eligible for military service. This is the first such legislation enacted by the government. Congress approves a loan of $300 million for the year 1863. It also formally and finally suspends writs of habeas corpus as a wartime expedient. Science: The National Academy of Sciences, a private, nonprofit organization, is founded for the purpose of promoting science and research. Settlement: The Idaho Territory is formed by Congress, culled from parts of the adjoining Washington and Dakota Territories, and incorporating present-day Montana and Wyoming.

March 5 Journalism: In Columbus, Ohio, rampaging Union troops gut the editorial offices of the newspaper Crisis for allegedly printing pro-Southern editorials. Military: General Earl Van Dorn advances with 6,000 Confederates against the Union position at Thompson’s Station, Tennessee. The defenders consist of 2,857 Federal soldiers and cavalry, supported by six cannon, under Colonel John Coburn. A final charge by Colonel Nathan B. Forrest breaks Union resistance and Coburn surrenders.

March 8 Military: A sudden raid by Captain John S. Mosby and his Confederate rangers captures General Edwin H. Stoughton in his headquarters at Fairfax County

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Chronology of American History Court House, Virginia, along with 32 prisoners and 58 horses. The general was then asleep in his bed only to be rudely awakened by a slap to his backside— delivered by Mosby himself.

March 10 Law: In the Prize Cases, the Supreme Court approves the legality of the Union naval blockade on a 5–4 vote. They do so by legitimizing the blockade of a sovereign state while simultaneously denying that the Confederate States of America actually exists as a nation. The Court also rules that while only Congress has the authority to declare war, Lincoln, as commander in chief, has the authority to suppress a rebellion through military means. Politics: President Abraham Lincoln signs a general amnesty for all soldiers, presently absent without leave (AWOL), to rejoin their units by April 1, 1863.

March 14 Military: General Nathaniel P. Banks advances 30,000 men of his Army of the Gulf upon Port Hudson, Louisiana. It is now painfully apparent to Union authorities that this position, second in strength only to Vicksburg, Mississippi, itself, must be reduced by assault in the near future. Naval: Admiral David G. Farragut’s squadron of seven ships runs past Confederate batteries at Port Hudson, Louisiana, at 11:00 p.m. His flagship, the USS Hartford, is lashed alongside the Albatross, weathers a storm of shot and shells, and makes the final passage intact, but accompanying vessels Monongahela and Richmond are turned back, thus Farragut is cut off from part of his force for several weeks. Union Admiral David D. Porter pushes his gunboats, mortar boats, and four tugs up the Yazoo River to secure Steele’s Bayou above Vicksburg, Mississippi.

March 16 Naval: Federal gunboats of the Yazoo River Expedition engage Fort Pemberton at Greenwood, Mississippi, whereupon the ironclad USS Chillicothe receives eight direct hits, suffers 22 casualties, and drifts helplessly. Failure here terminates General Ulysses S. Grant’s second attempt to circumvent the northern defenses of Vicksburg.

March 17 South: A force of 2,100 Union cavalry and six guns under General William W. Averell advance from Morrisville, Virginia, then cross the Rappahannock River intending to surprise Confederate cavalry stationed at Kelly’s Ford. The startled Southerners then advance to meet the intruders with 800 men. Averell lines up his five regiments abreast behind a stone wall, lets the Confederates gallop to within close range, then rakes them with intense artillery and carbine fire. Charges and countercharges ensue throughout the afternoon before Averell ends the contest and withdraws across the river in good order. Though indecisive, Kelly’s Ford alerts Southern horsemen to the growing proficiency of their Northern counterparts. The youthful Southern gunner John “Gallant Pelham” is also mortally wounded.

March 18 Politics: The Democratically controlled state legislature of New Jersey passes a number of peace resolutions condemning all aspects of the war effort and demanding a negotiated ending. This prompts a sharp rebuke from state regi-

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ments in the field, who pass resolutions of their own condemning the legislature’s activities as “wicked” and “cowardly.”

March 21 Military: General William T. Sherman’s expedition to Steele’s Bayou gropes along the tree-choked riverbanks, much harassed by snipers and man-made obstacles in its path. Progress remains slow but determined as they proceed to rescue Admiral David D. Porter’s gunboat squadron, then trapped at Deer Creek.

March 25 Military: General Nathan B. Forrest and his Confederate cavalry column attack Union troops at Brentwood, Tennessee, consisting of 520 men of the 22nd Wisconsin under Colonel Edward Bloodgood and 230 men of the 19th Michigan posted south of the town. Both Federal detachments surrender but, as the Southern marauders withdraw, they are set upon by a third force of Union cavalry under Colonel Green C. Smith and lose some wagons and supplies.

March 26 Politics: The Confederate Congress in Richmond, Virginia, approves the Impressment Act, authorizing government agents to seize slaves and foodstuffs to supply the military establishment. Waste and abuse in its enforcement lead several state governments to condemn this practice. Slavery: Voters in the new state of West Virginia approve the gradual emancipation of all African Americans.

March 27 Indian: President Abraham Lincoln entertains numerous Native American leaders at the White House and implores them to take up agriculture. “I can see no way in which your race is to become as numerous and prosperous as the white race,” he lectured, “except by living as they do, by the cultivation of the earth.”

March 30 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln announces that April 30, 1863, will be designated a national day of fasting and prayer.

April 1 Naval: The USS Tuscumbia under Admiral David D. Porter hosts Generals Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman on a grand reconnaissance of the Yazoo River as far as Hayne’s Bluff. The nature of the terrain and other imposing natural obstacles convince Grant to turn his attention to operations below the city.

April 2 Military: General Ulysses S. Grant meets with Admiral David D. Porter to promulgate a final plan of operations against Vicksburg, Mississippi. They decide that while forces under General William T. Sherman mount a large-scale diversion along Hayne’s Bluff to the north, the bulk of the army under Grant will march south down the west bank of the Mississippi River. There they will embark and be carried across to the Confederate shore by Porter’s fleet. Politics: Richmond, Virginia, is the scene of an infamous “bread riot.” That morning a small crowd of women and boys announce that they are marching from the capitol square to obtain bread. Numerous onlookers gradually swell the procession’s ranks to 1,300 people, who grow unruly and demand action. Full-scale rioting and looting then erupt, with many businesses being ransacked.

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April 4 Diplomacy: American minister Charles F. Adams loudly protests the impending departure of the vessel Alexandria, destined for eventual serÂ�vice with the Con-­ federate navy.

April 5 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln meets with General Joseph Hooker at Fre-­ dericksburg, Virginia, to discuss strategy. At that time both leaders concur that the object of future military operations should center upon the destruction of General Robert E. Lee’s army, with Richmond, Virginia, a secondary concern.

April 6 Diplomacy: The British government seizes the newly completed vessel Alexandria to placate the U.S. government. However, it is eventually released by the courts to the Confederacy.

April 7 Naval: Admiral Samuel F. du Pont’s ironclad squadron launches its long antici-­ pated attack against Charleston, South Carolina. His slow firing monitors are only able to loose 139 rounds while 77 Â�well-­handled Confederate cannon pour in 2,000 shells upon them. Consequently, all nine vessels are struck repeatedly with the USS Keokuk suffering 90 hits near or below the waterline, which renders it nearly uncontrollable. Du Pont, who had anticipated much worse, suspends the action at nightfall, thankful that the day was “a failure instead of a disaster,” although defeat Â�here will cost him his command.

April 8 Naval: The badly battered ironclad USS Keokuk sinks outside of Charleston, South Carolina. However, its signal book is eventually recovered by the Confeder-­ ates, who can now decipher the squadron’s communications.

April 10 Politics: President Jefferson Davis exhorts his countrymen to forego the planting of cotton and tobacco in favor of foodstuffs desperately needed by Confederate forces. “Let fields be devoted exclusively to the production of corn, oats, beans, peas, potatoes, and other food for man and beast,” he lectures, “and all your efforts be directed to the prompt supply of these articles in the districts where our armies are operating.”

April 12 Military: President Abraham Lincoln is informed by General Joseph Hooker that he wishes to swing around General Robert E. Lee’s flank and threaten Rich-­ mond, Virginia. The president reminds the general that the destruction of Lee’s army remains a paramount objective. The XIX Corps of Union General Nathaniel P. Banks, numbering 16,000 men in three divisions, marches up the Teche River toward Irish Bend on Bayou Teche, Louisiana, to capture Fort Bisland. Banks moves two divisions overland while directing the 4,500 men of General Curvier Grover’s division to land north and cut their retreat.

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April 13 Military: At Irish Bend, Louisiana, Confederate forces gird themselves to deliver an early morning strike against superior forces under General Nathaniel P. Banks. General Richard Taylor, rather than be crushed between Banks and General Curvier Grover, determines to attack at dawn and allow the fort’s garrison to escape. His men carefully skirt Union positions along the riverbank, assume an offensive posture, and prepare to strike the Federals at dawn to allow the garrison to escape.

April 14 Military: Confederates under General Richard Taylor abandon Fort Bisland, Louisiana, and then attack the Union encampment of General Curvier Grover. The Southerners get the best of it and manage to escape while Grover remains in camp and his force sustains 600 casualties. Taylor then withdraws to safety, although he is forced to scuttle the recently recaptured CSS Diana. Fort Bisland, meanwhile, is occupied by General Nathaniel P. Banks.

April 15 Military: Union General John G. Foster sails down the Pamlico River, North Carolina, to relieve the siege of New Bern, forcing Confederates under General Daniel H. Hill to withdraw. General Ulysses S. Grant masses 45,000 troops at Milliken’s Bend, Louisiana, 10 miles north of the Confederate bastion of Vicksburg, Mississippi. He then orders General James B. McPherson’s corps down the west bank of the river to New Carthage, while additional forces under General William T. Sherman begin forming before Chickasaw Bluff. Naval: Confederate raider CSS Alabama under Captain Raphael Semmes captures and burns the Union whalers Kate Cory and Lafayette off Fernando de Noronha, Brazil.

April 16 Military: Union forces under General John G. Foster advance inland from Washington, North Carolina, and tangle with the rear guard of General Daniel H. Hill at nearby Kinston. Naval: A gala ball held at Vicksburg, Mississippi, is rudely interrupted by the river squadron of Admiral David D. Porter, who passes 12 transports past Confederate batteries posted on nearby bluffs. The action lasts two and a half hours but, despite a withering cannonade, Porter succeeds brilliantly. Most of his vessels sustain light damage but the steamer Henry Clay is sunk and the gunboat Forest Queen is disabled. The squadron then berths off New Carthage, Mississippi, and prepares to transport the army of General Ulysses S. Grant over to the Confederate shore. Politics: President Jefferson Davis signs legislation permitting minors under 18 to hold military commissions.

April 17 Military: Union Colonel Benjamin H. Grierson embarks on an ambitious, 16day diversionary raid from La Grange, Tennessee, down through the heart of Mississippi and thence to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. To complete this 600-mile sojourn, he takes with him 1,700 troopers of the 6th and 7th Illinois Cavalry, the 2nd Iowa, and a horse battery.

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April 18 Military: The Federal gunboat USS Stepping Stones under Lieutenant William B. Cushing, carrying 270 soldiers, suddenly raids Confederate-held Fort Huger on the Nansemond River, Virginia. Before the garrison can react, the Federal forces charge into the fort, seizing 137 prisoners and five cannon, then depart. Politics: The Confederate Congress authorizes a volunteer navy to encourage the outfitting of privateers at private expense.

April 20 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln declares that the new state of West Virginia be established from the westernmost counties of Virginia as of June 20, 1863.

April 21 Military: Union cavalry under Colonel Benjamin H. Grierson skirmishes with Confederates at Palo Alto, Mississippi. Grierson, hotly pursued by Southerners, cleverly splits his column by sending Colonel Edward Hatch and the 2nd Iowa off to threaten the Mobile & Ohio Railroad. The Confederates, as anticipated, take the bait and mistakenly chase after Hatch, leaving Grierson to complete his raid through Mississippi almost unopposed. Naval: A convoy of additional Union army transports passes the batteries at Vicksburg, Mississippi, at night and under fire. These then join the main fleet at New Carthage and prepare to transport the army of General Ulysses S. Grant across the river en masse. This feat proves one of the most decisive improvisations of the war.

April 24 Business: To combat spiraling inflation, the Confederate Congress levies a 10 percent “tax in kind” on all produce harvested throughout the South. This move is greatly resented by the agrarian sector, which is already subject to requisition by the Confederate commissary and quartermaster offices. Military: The combined Army of the Tennessee under General Ulysses S. Grant reaches Hard Times Plantation, Louisiana, on the left bank of the Mississippi River. There he immediately orders the troops ferried on transports directly across to Bruinsville, Mississippi, on the Confederate shore. Colonel Benjamin H. Grierson’s Union cavalry storms into Newton Station, Mississippi, seizing a newly arrived ammunition train and tearing up miles of valuable track belonging to the Southern Mississippi Railroad. This places the raiders only 100 miles east of the Confederate bastion of Vicksburg, and General John C. Pemberton orders his reserve force of five infantry and artillery regiments from Jackson to intercept them. Politics: President Abraham Lincoln authorizes General Order No. 100, the so-called Liber Code, an early attempt to codify and standardize laws pertaining to the conduct of war.

April 27 Military: At Falmouth, Virginia, the 134,000-man Army of the Potomac is put into motion by General Joseph Hooker. Hooker takes 75,000 men down the banks of the Rappahannock River, intending to deploy them in the region known as the Wilderness, 10 miles behind Confederate lines. No previous Union com-

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mander has enjoyed such a numerical preponderance over General Robert E. Lee before.

April 29 Military: General John Stoneman’s Union cavalry division crosses the Rappahannock River into Virginia and commences a major raid. However, not only does this endeavor prove largely ineffectual, it also strips the Army of the Potomac of its cavalry and, with it, the ability to scout and reconnoiter densely wooded terrain. Naval: Admiral David D. Porter’s gunboat squadron bombards Confederate batteries on the Mississippi River at Grand Gulf, Mississippi. After five hours of continuous combat, Porter’s army transports skirt the remaining batteries without incident as Federal forces bypass Grand Gulf altogether.

April 30 Military: The Army of the Potomac under General Joseph Hooker marches 309 miles down the banks of the Rappahannock River and crosses 10 miles behind General Robert E. Lee’s position at Fredericksburg, Virginia. Considering the size and complexity of the operation, Hooker executes it brilliantly and catches the Southerners off guard. General Ulysses S. Grant ferries the XIII Corps of General John A. McClernand and the XVII Corps of General James B. McPherson (23,000 men in all) across the Mississippi River at Bruinsburg, Mississippi. At a stroke Grant bypasses strong Confederate defenses and carves out a lodgement on the east bank of the river, only 35 miles below the bastion at Vicksburg. Naval: The gunboat squadron and transports of Admiral David D. Porter cover and ferry the army of General Ulysses S. Grant across the Mississippi River at Bruinsburg, Mississippi, 10 miles below Grand Gulf. Confederate defenses at Vicksburg are laid bare and Grant is now capable of attacking that erstwhile impregnable bastion from the rear.

May 1 Medical: The New York Hospital for Ruptured and Crippled Children is dedicated in New York. Politics: Peace Democrat Clement L. Vallandigham gives a speech in Mount Vernon, Ohio, in which he denounces “this wicked, cruel, and unnecessary war.” Such speech marks him for eventual arrest. Military: Elements of the Army of Northern Virginia under General Thomas J. Jackson arrive near Chancellorsville, Virginia, and tangle with advanced Union pickets nearby. However, this aggressive display by the Confederates unnerves General Joseph Hooker, who inexplicably orders his Army of the Potomac into the woody morass known as the Wilderness. Meanwhile, Southern cavalry under General J. E. B. Stuart skillfully discern that the Union right flank is “up in the air” and subject to be turned. General Robert E. Lee, sizing up his adversary, next orders Jackson to take 30,000 men—the bulk of his army—on a circuitous, 14-mile end run around Hooker’s exposed right. He is hoping for a decisive attack that will cripple his more numerous adversary. Advancing inland from Bruinsburg, Mississippi, General Ulysses S. Grant masses 23,000 men and attacks 8,000 Confederates under General John S. Bowen

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The Battle of Chancellorsville, May 1– 4, 1863. Lithograph by Currier & Ives (Library of Congress)

at Port Gibson. Stout fighting ensues but Union numbers prevail and the Southerners are forced from the field. With his bridgehead now secure, Grant’s offensive begins to gather momentum. He also takes the bold and risky expedient of cutting his own supply line, carrying all essential impedimenta on the backs of his soldiers and foraging off the land. Slavery: The Confederate Congress authorizes military tribunals to execute any white Union officers caught commanding African-American soldiers. Black soldiers seized in uniform, if not killed outright, are to be promptly sold as slaves.

May 2 Military: Proceeding all night with speed and great marching discipline, 30,000 Confederates under General Thomas J. Jackson steal their way around the Army of the Potomac’s right flank at Chancellorsville, Virginia. At 6:00 p.m. his men slash into the unsuspecting Federals with a vengeance while they are preparing dinner. They crumble under the Southern onslaught, reeling back two miles. Jackson, ignoring the mounting confusion around him, rides forward on a personal reconnaissance and is accidentally shot by men of the 18th North Carolina. Federal forces under General Ulysses S. Grant bridge Bayou Pierre outside Port Gibson, Mississippi, and begin fanning out across the countryside. He next

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intends to seize the town of Edwards Station, 16 miles east of Vicksburg, to cut the Vicksburg & Jackson Railroad and isolate the garrison. Union cavalry under Colonel Benjamin H. Grierson fight their final skirmish with Confederate forces at Robert’s Ford on the Comite River, Louisiana, before clattering into Baton Rouge and safety. He concludes his spectacular raid with a loss of only three dead, seven injured, and nine missing; five ailing soldiers have also been left behind for treatment. Confederate losses are estimated at 100 dead, 500 captured, 2,000 weapons taken, and more than 50 miles of railroad track and telegraph lines destroyed.

May 3 Military: At first light the struggle around Chancellorsville, Virginia, renews. General J. E. B. Stuart mounts 50 cannon atop Hazel Grove and bombards the Union forces of General Joseph Hooker. Hooker, though still outnumbering his opponents two-to-one, clings to his defensive posture and, suddenly stunned by a falling column, he orders the Army of the Potomac to retreat back to the Rappahannock River. This act convinces General Robert E. Lee that Union forces lack the stomach to attack, and he unhesitatingly divides his force again and marches off with General Richard A. Anderson’s division to meet a new Union threat developing in his rear. Combat at Chancellorsville occasions very heavy losses to both sides: Hooker suffers 17,287 casualties while Lee sustains 12,463. Moreover, Lee and the South are now deprived of General “Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson, who dies of his wounds shortly afterward. This loss irreparably shatters the most outstanding tactical duo of the Civil War, and Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, while formidable, is never quite as devastatingly effective. General John Sedgwick’s VI Corps, numbering 19,000 men, is ordered by General Joseph Hooker to storm the heights of Fredericksburg, Virginia. Resistance proves stout, and on his third charge Sedgwick orders his men to settle the issue with cold steel alone and the Confederates are ejected from their works. The VI Corps then proceeds west towards Chancellorsville until it collides with General Cadmus M. Wilcox’s brigade on a high ridge, upon which sits Salem Church. Heavy fighting ensues; Sedgwick suffers 1,523 casualties to a Southern tally of 674. Colonel Abel D. Streight surrenders 1,500 men of his “Mule Brigade” to General Nathan B. Forrest at Cedar Bluff, Alabama. Forrest, possessing only 600 troopers, surrounds his opponent and, by constantly parading them and a single battery, gives the impression of a far larger force. Naval: The gunboat squadron of Admiral David D. Porter moves to engage Confederate batteries at Grand Gulf, Mississippi, and finds that the defenders have fled beforehand. “The Navy holds the door to Vicksburg,” he writes to General Ulysses S. Grant.

May 4 Military: The Battle of Salem Church, Virginia, continues as General John Sedgwick keeps attacking Confederate positions. However, General Robert E. Lee, having boldly divided his army again, dispatches General Richard H. Anderson’s division to assist the defenders. Outnumbered and nearly outflanked, the Federals skillfully withdraw toward the Rappahannock River and entrench. Total

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Chronology of American History Union casualties for the day number 4,700; Confederate losses are unknown but presumed lighter.

May 5 Politics: Having denounced the war as “wicked and cruel,” Clement L. Vallandigham, a Northern Democrat or “Copperhead,” is arrested at his home by Union solders. As he is removed to the headquarters of General Ambrose E. Burnside at Cincinnati, Ohio, riots ensue and culminate in the burning of several pro-administration newspaper offices. Sports: In Charleston, Maryland, Joe Coburn becomes the new national heavyweight boxing champion by knocking down Mike McCoole after 63 rounds.

May 8 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln declares that all foreigners wishing to become citizens remain eligible for military service under the draft.

May 9 Politics: To oversee the new national bank, Congress appoints Hugh McCulloch to be Comptroller of Currency.

May 10 Military: The incomparable General Thomas J. Jackson, publicly renowned as “Stonewall” and admired by soldiers on both sides, dies of pneumonia at Guiney’s Station, Virginia. His passing proves an irreparable loss to General Robert E. Lee and the Confederate war effort.

May 11 Politics: Testy Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase, having been disapproved on an appointment, angrily tenders his resignation to President Abraham Lincoln; it is not accepted.

May 12 Military: At 9:00 a.m., General John A. Logan’s 3rd Division of General James B. McPherson’s XVII Corps advances upon Raymond, Mississippi, encountering strong resistance from General John Gregg’s Confederates. McPherson then commits his entire corps, 12,000 strong, and cracks the Southern right wing. Gregg subsequently disengages and falls back in good order toward Jackson. General Ulysses S. Grant then alters his strategy toward Vicksburg; rather than be caught between the two fires of General John C. Pemberton to the west and General Joseph E. Johnston to the east, he intends to seek each out individually and defeat them piecemeal.

May 13 Military: General Joseph E. Johnston arrives at Jackson, Mississippi, to find a small garrison of 6,000 men under General John Gregg, and declares “I am too late.” He realizes two full Union Corps are presently marching up toward the city and gives orders to evacuate troops and other supplies immediately. He also instructs General John C. Pemberton at Vicksburg to take his 22,000 men and catch the Federals between the two forces.

May 14 Military: General Robert E. Lee attends a high-level strategy conference in Richmond, Virginia, where he advocates a risky but potentially rewarding scheme for invading Pennsylvania and defeating Federal forces on their own soil. Such a

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move would further discredit the Republican Party and possibly secure European intervention on the Confederacy’s behalf. Around 9:00 a.m., the advance guard of General James B. McPherson’s XVII’s Corps makes contact with Confederate outposts around Jackson, Mississippi. General William T. Sherman also sends his men forward and seizes several poorly guarded cannon. Confederates under General John Gregg then disengage and escape north from the city. General Ulysses S. Grant now obtains a strategic railroad junction east of Vicksburg.

May 15 Journalism: Angry Federal troops storm the offices of the newspaper Jeffersonian in Richmond, Indiana, and ransack it on account of its supposedly proSouthern sentiments.

May 16 Military: General John C. Pemberton places his 22,000 men along a commanding position known locally as Champion’s Hill, Mississippi, roughly halfway between Jackson and Vicksburg. The 32,000-man army of General Ulysses S. Grant then arrives and deploys the XIII Corps of General John A. McClernand on his right and the XVII Corps of General James B. McPherson on his left. By 5:30 p.m., Pemberton’s battered force is in full flight across Baker’s creek, burning the bridge behind them. Grant, by dint of rapid marching, prevents two disparate Confederate forces from uniting against him and defeats both decisively. Union losses are 1,838 to a Southern tally of 3,840.

May 17 Military: General John C. Pemberton, routed at Champion Hill the day previously, prepares to defend a bridgehead along the west bank of the Big Black River, 12 miles east of strategic Vicksburg, Mississippi. At 5:00 a.m., the first elements of General John A. McClerand’s XIII Corps encounters Confederate pickets, and by 10:00 a.m. Southern forces are streaming across the Big Black in defeat. Pemberton manages to fire the remaining bridge over the river but his men do not stop running until they reach the outskirts of Vicksburg, Mississippi. Big Black River is another debacle for the South, which loses 1,751 killed, wounded, and missing, along with 18 artillery pieces. Union casualties come to 279.

May 18 Diplomacy: In yet another blow to Confederate aspirations, Foreign Secretary Lord Russell declares to the House of Commons that Great Britain has no intention of intervening in the American conflict. Military: Union forces under General Ulysses S. Grant cross the Big Black River and take up storming positions outside the Confederate bastion of Vicksburg, Mississippi. Southern defenses appear outwardly hopeless, but General John C. Pemberton declares his intention to fight to the last. That same day General Joseph E. Johnston frantically wires the general and warns him not to become trapped within the city.

May 19 Military: A preliminary attack by General Ulysses S. Grant upon Vicksburg, Mississippi, is repelled with heavy loss. Politics: To end divisive sentiments arising from the arrest and detainment of Ohio Peace Democrat Congressman Clement L. Vallandigham, Secretary

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Chronology of American History of War Edwin M. Stanton orders him released and deported to Confederate lines.

May 22 Military: President Jefferson Davis implores General Braxton Bragg in Tennessee to come to the aid of Vicksburg, Mississippi, if possible. General Ulysses S. Grant again launches a frontal assault upon the defenses of Vicksburg, Mississippi, hitting a three-mile stretch of entrenched positions after a continuous and heavy bombardment. Of the 45,000 Union troops committed, 3,199 become casualties. Confederate losses appear to be less than 500. Grant then resigns himself to commencing the formal siege operations he sought to avoid, although food shortages, intense summer heat, and civilian discomfort all take their toll on the defenders. Politics: The U.S. War Department establishes the Bureau of Colored Troops to better coordinate recruitment of African Americans from all regions of the country.

May 23 Politics: Confederate Secretary of War John A. Seddon strongly suggests to President Jefferson Davis that their forces in the Trans-Mississippi Department mount an offensive to help relieve the pressure on Vicksburg, Mississippi. Specifically, he cites the capture of Helena, Arkansas, as a possible objective.

May 27 Military: At 6:00 a.m., General Nathaniel P. Banks launches his long-anticipated attack upon Confederate-held Port Hudson, Louisiana. The combined assaults on the northern breastworks by generals Christopher Auger and Godfrey Wetzel become separated in rough terrain and are defeated piecemeal. A subsequent advance by General Thomas W. Sherman is also repelled, and Banks finally suspends the attack. Union losses are 1,995 while the Confederates record 235 casualties. Port Hudson also witnesses the first large-scale employment of African-American troops, who acquit themselves well.

May 28 Military: The 54th Massachusetts Infantry, composed entirely of African- American soldiers and white officers, parades through Boston under Colonel Robert G. Shaw, a wealthy Boston Brahmin and devoted abolitionist. The unit then ships out for Hilton Head, South Carolina, to serve in the siege of Charleston.

May 30

Flag of the 22nd Regiment U.S. Colored Troops depicting an African-American soldier bayoneting a fallen Confederate soldier. (Library of Congress)

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Military: General Robert E. Lee reorganizes his Army of Northern Virginia into four corps: General James Longstreet (I), General Richard S. Ewell (II), General Ambrose P. Hill (III) and General J. E. B. Stuart (Cavalry Corps.

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May 31 Military: In a high-level strategy session at Richmond, Virginia, President Jefferson Davis openly expresses to General Robert E. Lee his disdain for General Joseph E. Johnston’s handling of affairs outside of Vicksburg, Mississippi.

June 1 Journalism: General Ambrose E. Burnside again closes the offices of the Chicago Times over their allegedly disloyal comments, creating another public uproar and a political headache for President Abraham Lincoln.

June 2 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln orders Peace Democrat Clement L. Vallandigham transported to Wilmington, North Carolina, for detention as an enemy alien. Slavery: Harriet Tubman, guiding a force of Union troops up the Combahee River, South Carolina, helps burn a plantation and free 800 African-American slaves. She does so with the blessing of her commander, General David Hunter.

Tubman, Harriet (ca. 1820–1913) African-American abolitionist Aramita Tubman was born into slavery on a plantation in Dorchester County, Maryland, around 1820. She eventually adopted her mother’s name of Harriet and worked many years as a domestic, and at the age of 13 she was struck violently in the head as punishment, suffering periodic seizures thereafter. In 1844 she married a free black named John but feared that her family might be broken up and sold. She thereupon fled with her brothers to Philadelphia and was rescued by Quakers working in the abolitionist movement. Rather than enjoy her newfound freedom, Tubman chose to return repeatedly to the South incognito, eventually rescuing her aged parents from enslavement. She received no help from her husband, who remarried and remained in Maryland, but over the next decade Tubman was responsible for rescuing 300 African Americans and conducting them northward to freedom along the celebrated “underground railway.” This was in spite of the fact that the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 meted out stiff punishment to any person

caught aiding an escaping slave. So notorious did Tubman become that her former owners offered a $40,000 reward for her capture. She also strongly supported radical abolitionist John Brown in his attempt to foment a slave insurrection and was deeply disappointed when it failed. When the Civil War commenced in April 1861, Tubman unflinchingly offered her service to the Union army as a nurse, a scout, and a spy. She proved especially useful to abolitionist-minded General David Hunter in South Carolina, and received a travel pass usually reserved for important dignitaries. Tubman enjoyed considerable celebrity among plantation slaves throughout the war, who assisted her, fed her, and sheltered her throughout her many dangerous forays into the Confederacy. After the war Tubman continued her activities assisting the freedmen while also caring for her elderly parents and numerous orphans. Her gallant wartime efforts (continues)

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(continued) notwithstanding, the government refused to grant her the same pension usually allotted to white nurses–$20 a month–until the 1890s. Undaunted, Tubman became closely associated with civil rights and woman’s suffrage, frequently being engaged as a public speaker at political events. She was also essential for establishing the first African Methodist Episcopal Church in upstate New York. Tubman labored in both obscurity and poverty until 1869 when Sarah Bradford published Harriet Tubman, The Moses of Her People, which brought

in additional funds. She used the money to found the Harriet Tubman Home for Aged Negroes, which has since become a national landmark. Tubman contracted pneumonia and died on March 10, 1913, and a memorial plaque was dedicated in the town of Auburn, New York, by noted civil rights leader Booker T. Washington. On August 28, 2003, New York Governor George Pataki declared that March 10 would be celebrated as Harriet Tubman Day in honor of her selfless achievements and sacrifice.

June 3 Military: General Robert E. Lee begins his second invasion of the North by moving 75,000 men of his Army of Northern Virginia from Fredericksburg, Virginia, toward the Shenandoah Valley. General Ambrose P. Hill’s corps is temporarily detained near Fredericksburg until needed.

June 4 Journalism: President Abraham Lincoln orders Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton to revoke General Ambrose E. Burnside’s suspension of the Chicago Times.

June 5 Military: Fighting erupts at Franklin’s Crossing on the Rappahannock River as troops of General Ambrose P. Hill’s command skirmish with the Union VI Corps under General John Sedgwick. The stiff resistance encountered convinces Sedgwick that the Southerners are still present in force and he reports his findings to General Joseph Hooker. That leader, unconvinced, next orders several cavalry forays to ascertain enemy intentions.

June 6 Military: At Brandy Station, Virginia, General J. E. B. Stuart holds a grand review of 8,000 Confederate cavalry for a large crowd of political dignitaries and spectators gathered onto railroad cars.

June 7 Diplomacy: French military forces occupy Mexico City at the behest of Emperor Napoleon III. Military: At 5:30 a.m., General Henry E. McCulloch leads 1,500 Confederates in an attack against 1,061 Federals at Milliken’s Bend, Louisiana, and withdraws after three hours of heavy fighting. African-American soldiers, who suffer disproportionately high casualties, murder several captured Southerners after learning that they had killed black captives in their custody. Union losses in this affair

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tally 101 dead, 285 injured, and 266 missing while the Confederates sustain 44 killed, 131 wounded, and 10 missing.

June 8 Military: The Army of Northern Virginia under General Robert E. Lee arrives at Culpepper Court House, Virginia, where General J. E. B. Stuart stages another elaborate cavalry review. Stuart, a jaunty, supremely confident gamecock, delights in displaying his finely honed troopers, but he is nonetheless slated to receive some rather unexpected—and unwelcome—visitors. At Falmouth, Virginia, General Alfred Pleasonton musters his Union cavalry corps, two infantry brigades, and six light batteries, 11,000 men in all, to reconnoiter across the Rappahannock River. His mission is to locate the main body of Confederates and ascertain if they are moving north onto Union territory.

June 9 Military: At 4:00 a.m., General John Buford’s brigade of Union cavalry splashes across the Rappahannock River at Beverly, Virginia, while, four miles downstream, General David M. Gregg’s force crosses at Kelly’s Ford. General Alfred Pleasonton has thrown two columns against the known headquarters of General J. E. B. Stuart in an attempt to catch the wily trooper in a coordinated pincer movement. Stuart, with 9,500 troopers scattered over a wide area, immediately dispatches riders out to assemble the command at Brandy Station while he organizes defenses along Fleetwood Hill. Stiff and indecisive fighting erupts before Pleasonton, perceiving dust clouds on the horizon, assumes that columns of Confederate infantry are approaching. He then signals his men to withdraw and the fighting ceases. Brandy Station is the largest mounted action of the war and a tactical victory for the Confederates, who hold the field and inflict 936 Union casualties for a loss of 523 men. However, the 10-hour struggle underscores in bold relief the excellent progress Union cavalry has achieved under capable leadership. Naval: Union mortar boats resume their protracted bombardment of Vicksburg, Mississippi, designed to cut off resupply efforts and undermine civilian morale. On average, they hurl 175 heavy explosive shells into the city every day while its inhabitants cower in nearby caves.

June 11 Politics: In an act of defiance by Ohio Peace Democrats, they nominate Clement L. Vallandigham as their gubernatorial candidate, despite the fact the Confederate government has shipped him off to Canada.

June 12 Military: General Richard S. Ewell, advancing along the Blue Ridge Mountains of western Virginia, detaches General Richard E. Rodes’ division and a cavalry brigade of General Albert G. Jenkins toward the town of Berryville to drive out an 1,800-man Union garrison under Colonel Andrew T. McReynolds.

June 14 Military: At 4:00 a.m., General Nathaniel P. Banks hurls another assault against Confederate defenses at Port Hudson, Louisiana. This time the infantry division of General Halbert E. Payne charges the strong entrenchments at Priest Cap and, despite heroic efforts, is repelled with 1,805 casualties. The well-protected Confederate defenders lose only 22 killed and 25 wounded.

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Chronology of American History The Confederate II Corps under General Richard S. Ewell engages a Federal force under General Robert H. Milroy at Winchester, western Virginia. Milroy initially believes that the enemy to his front are simply a large foraging party, but by the time he realizes that the entire Army of Northern Virginia is bearing down on him, it is too late. The general hastily convenes a war council that elects to spike its artillery, burn its baggage trains, and evacuate Winchester under the cover of darkness. However, Ewell has anticipated such a move and he instructs General Edward Johnson to position his men along Martinburg Turnpike at Stevenson’s Depot and cut off Milroy’s retreat. Politics: President Abraham Lincoln anxiously goads General Joseph Hooker into some kind of action to oppose this latest Confederate incursion. “If the head of Lee’s army is at Martinsburg and the tail of it on the Plank Road between Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, the animal must be very slim somewhere. Could you not break him?”

June 15 Military: Confederates under General Edward Johnson successfully ambush retiring forces under General Robert H. Milroy at Stevenson’s Depot, four miles north of Winchester, Virginia. Among the huge haul they capture is 2,500 prisoners, 300 wagons, 300 horses, and 23 cannon. Union combat losses add another 905 dead and 305 wounded to the tally while Johnson suffers 47 killed, 219 wounded, and three missing. This victory clears Federal forces from the Shenandoah Valley and facilitates General Robert E. Lee’s impending invasion of Pennsylvania. Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston again wires General John C. Pemberton at Vicksburg, Mississippi, that his position is hopeless and that he must evacuate the city immediately and save his army. However, Pemberton never receives the message owing to cut telegraph wires, and he remains trapped within his works by Federal forces under General Ulysses S. Grant. Politics: President Abraham Lincoln calls for 100,000 militia to muster in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio, and West Virginia, to thwart recent Confederate advances northward. The approach of the Army of Northern Virginia toward Pennsylvania soil causes outbreaks of excitement and panic at Baltimore, Maryland.

June 16 Military: The new Confederate offensive leads to a furious spate of telegrams between General in Chief Henry W. Halleck and General Joseph Hooker as to General Robert E. Lee’s intentions. Hooker wants to rush troops north and confront Lee above Washington, D.C., while Halleck insists that he follow the Southerners and relieve the garrison at Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia, en route.

June 17 Military: As the Army of Northern Virginia under General Robert E. Lee advances north into Maryland, General J. E. B. Stuart is ordered to screen his right flank from prying Federal eyes. His Union opposite, General Alfred Pleasonton, is determined to uncover Confederate intentions and come to grips with his gray-coated adversaries. Colonel Thomas Munford, 5th Virginia Cavalry, is also scouting in the vicinity of Aldie, Virginia, when he brushes up against Union troopers under General Hugh J. Kilpatrick. Fighting is intense but dies down for

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the evening; Union losses for the day total around 300 to a Confederate tally of 100. Naval: The ironclad USS Weehawken under Captain John Rodgers, assisted by the Nahant, engage Commander William A. Webb and the formidable steam ram CSS Atlanta in Wassaw Sound, Georgia. Atlanta grounds in the channel during its approach and is subsequently worked free, but its rudder is damaged and the ship steers erratically. Rodgers’ vessels then slip quickly into point-blank range and pound their adversary into submission after a 15-minute struggle, another serious loss for the struggling Confederate navy.

June 18 Military: General Ulysses S. Grant summarily relieves General John A. McClernand from command of the XIII Corps for insubordination and replaces him with General Edward O. C. Ord. The final straw came when McClernand issues unauthorized, laudatory statements to his men which praise them for their role in the failed assault upon Vicksburg, Mississippi, while denigrating the performance of other units.

June 20 Business: Jay Cooke oversees creation of the first National Bank in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and also spearheads the drive for Union war bonds. These endeavors result in the first uniform national currency for many states once banks begin issuing national bank notes. Military: Union cavalry under General Alfred Pleasonton increases pressure on the mounted screen of General J. E. B. Stuart, now left unsupported east of the Blue Ridge Mountains. He orders General David M. Gregg’s division to attack General Wade Hampton’s Confederates at Goose Creek, Virginia, while another force under General John Buford threatens to outflank them. Politics: West Virginia joins the Union as the 35th state and a stalwart Union ally. Moreover, its constitution mandates the gradual emancipation of all AfricanAmerican slaves.

June 22 Military: General J. E. B. Stuart receives discretionary and somewhat vague instructions from General Robert E. Lee, ordering him to alternately raid Union supply lines while guarding the army’s right flank when it advances northward into Pennsylvania.

June 23 Military: The Army of Northern Virginia under General Robert E. Lee nears Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, with several disparate Union columns groping along in pursuit.

June 24 Naval: Admiral John A. B. Dahlgren is relieved of duties at the Washington Navy Yard, D.C., and ordered to succeed Admiral Samuel F. du Pont as the new commander of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron.

June 25 Military: General J. E. B. Stuart leads three cavalry brigades north from Salem Depot, Virginia, to join the main Confederate army north of the Potomac River. However, Stuart’s interpretation of his otherwise discretionary orders ultimately

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Chronology of American History draws him away from the main theater of operations, hindering Confederate intelligence-gathering abilities at a time when the whereabouts of pursuing Union forces are unknown.

June 26 Naval: Admiral Andrew H. Foote dies in New York City of wounds received in the siege of Fort Donelson in February 1862. Confederate schooner CSS Archer under Lieutenant Charles W. Read boldly attacks and sinks the U.S. revenue cutter Caleb Cushing at Portland, Maine, but subsequently surrenders to the USS Forest City after expending his last ammunition. This concludes the dashing career of Read who, in the span of only 19 days, captures 22 vessels despite 47 Union craft on the lookout for him.

June 27 Military: President Abraham Lincoln appoints General George G. Meade to replace General Joseph Hooker as commander of the Army of the Potomac. Confederate cavalry under General J. E. B. Stuart clashes with Union forces at Fairfax Court House, Virginia, taking some prisoners. He then approaches the town, eager to secure supplies abandoned by General Joseph Hooker, but is surprised and nearly captured in a sudden charge by 86 troopers of the 11th New York Cavalry. Fortunately, Stuart and his retinue are rescued in time by the 1st North Carolina Cavalry under Colonel Laurence S. Baker, who abruptly pushes the attackers back. The dashing leader is apparently so pleased that he intends to continue raiding the Union rear, instead of joining the Army of Northern Virginia as planned.

June 28 Military: General Robert E. Lee is startled to find strong Union forces gathering at Frederick, Maryland, and threatening his rear. Their exact intentions remain hazy as all of Lee’s cavalry under General J. E. B. Stuart has departed on a deep raid through Union territory. Then Lee, as a precaution, orders his dispersed command to concentrate in the vicinity of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, an important road junction. General John C. Pemberton, defending the vital Confederate bastion at Vicksburg, Mississippi, is petitioned by his soldiers to surrender rather than see the entire force starve to death. After a seven-week siege, the final curtain is about to fall.

June 30 Military: General John F. Reynolds is ordered by General George Gordon Meade to occupy the vital road junction at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The town is then occupied by a cavalry division under General John Buford who, cognizant of its value, prepares his command to defend it. He briefly skirmishes with part of General Henry Heth’s division, sent to Gettysburg to forage for shoes, but when the latter informs General Ambrose P. Hill of the presence of Federal troops at the junction, Hill blithely dismisses the notion. Marauding Confederate cavalry under General J. E. B. Stuart skirmishes with Union troopers under General Elon Farnsworth at Hanover, Pennsylvania. An inconclusive fight unfolds as Union reinforcements arrive under generals Hugh J. Kilpatrick and George Custer, while the Confederates receive General Fitzhugh

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Lee. Rather than rejoin the Army of Northern Virginia, then concentrating at Gettysburg, Stuart now takes his command on an even wider detour around pursuing Union forces. Politics: President Abraham Lincoln ignores continuing pressure to reappoint General George B. McClellan as head of the Army of the Potomac.

July 1 Military: Early this morning the Confederate division of General Henry Heth forages for shoes in the vicinity of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, when they unexpectedly encounter dismounted Union cavalry under General John Buford. Sharp fighting commences as the Southerners impulsively charge and are repelled by rapid firing Spencer carbines. Combat then intensifies as generals Oliver O. Howard and Abner Doubleday arrive with the Union XI and III Corps, respectively, as does the entire Confederate II Corps under General Richard S. Ewell. Quick maneuvering allows the rebels to roll up Howard’s line and soon his troops are streaming through Gettysburg in confusion. Disaster is only averted when General Winfield S. Hancock comes galloping up at the head of his II Corps and occupies the high ground along Cemetery Hill. This act allows the Army of the Potomac to occupy excellent defensive terrain around Gettysburg that evening. Casualties for the day amount to 9,000 Federals and 6,800 Confederates. A Confederate staff officer finally locates the elusive cavalry of General J. E. B. Stuart and orders him to repair to the main army under General Robert E. Lee at Gettysburg with all haste. General William S. Rosencrans climaxes his successful Tullahoma Campaign by bloodlessly occupying Chattanooga, Tennessee, as Confederates under General Braxton Bragg withdraw. This is one of the most outstanding instances of strategic maneuvering during the entire Civil War. Politics: The Missouri State Convention votes to end slavery on July 4, 1870.

July 2 Military: At Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, 75,000 Confederates confront 85,000 Federals, whose defensive line resembles a fishhook with its right anchored on Culp’s Hill to the north, then running the length along Cemetery Ridge to a large hill called Little Round Top on its extreme left. Lee determines to defeat the enemy where he finds him, over objections by General James Longstreet, and orders strong attacks on both Union flanks. At one point the Southern advance nearly carries them through the Union line, but a sharp countercharge by General Winfield S. Hancock pushes them back downhill. A crisis develops on the extreme Union left at Little Round Top as a tremendous firefight unfolds between Colonel Joshua Chambers’ 20th Maine and an Alabama brigade sent to dislodge him. His ammunition failed, Chambers decides the issue with a sudden bayonet charge down the slope that routs his adversaries and saves the Union left. Meade then correctly predicts that Lee, foiled on either flank, will direct the bulk of his efforts at the Union center the next day. Late in the afternoon, General J. E. B. Stuart stumbles into the headquarters of General Robert E. Lee at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. An exasperated Lee, who entered the fight without accurate information for lack of mounted reconnaissance, curtly declares, “Well, General Stuart, you are here at last.”

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Chronology of American History Politics: Confederate vice president Alexander H. Stephens writes to President Abraham Lincoln about prisoner exchanges and potential discussions to end the war. Lincoln responds that he is not interested.

July 3 Military: At 1:00 p.m., General Alexander E. Porter’s 140 cannon commence bombarding the Union line at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The Federals respond in kind with 100 cannon of their own, initiating the largest artillery duel in American history. At 3:00 p.m., Confederates from the divisions of generals George E. Pickett, Johnston Pettigrew, and Isaac Trimble advance from the nearby woods and into what amounts to a killing ground, for Union batteries are carefully sited for interlocking fields of fire. Only a handful of surviving Confederates penetrate Meade’s defense but are quickly swallowed by the Union reserves. Eventually thousands of wounded and stunned survivors stream back across the field toward Seminary Ridge in abject defeat. General Robert E. Lee, surveying the carnage around him, is heard to murmur “It is all my fault, my fault.” Confederate cavalry under General J. E. B. Stuart, conspicuously absent during the first two days of fighting, is now ordered to seek out and assail the Union rear. En route he encounters Union cavalry under General David M. Gregg, who fights the Southerners to a standstill in one of the biggest mounted clashes of the war. The overworked brigade of General George A. Custer particularly distinguishes itself with repeated, headlong charges which induce Stuart to relinquish the field. The debacle at Gettysburg represents the turning of the tide of Confederate military fortunes. Three days of ferocious combat with a determined adversary enjoying stark terrain advantages depletes the Army of Northern Virginia by an estimated 20,451 men. The actual loss may have been as high as 28,000—a horrific toll of irreplaceable, trained manpower. The Army of the Potomac is equally savaged with losses of 23,049. Generals John C. Pemberton and Ulysses S. Grant arrange an armistice to confer about surrender terms at Vicksburg, Mississippi. Grant bluntly informs his opposite: “You will be allowed to march out, the officers taking with them their side arms and clothing, and the field, staff, and cavalry officers one horse each. The rank and file will be allowed all their clothing but no other property.” Naval: The onset of surrender negotiations at Vicksburg, Mississippi, signals an end to the ongoing naval bombardment of the city by Admiral David D. Porter’s Mississippi River Squadron. Naval personnel had fired 16,000 rounds from a variety of ships, gunboats, and mortar craft, in addition to 13 naval guns hauled ashore.

July 4 Diplomacy: Confederate vice president Alexander H. Stephens rides the CSS Torpedo down the James River under a flag of truce and steams to Hampton Roads, Virginia. There he hopes to confer with Union officials in an attempt to spur dialogue between the two governments, but Federal authorities turn him back. Indian: Chief Little Crow, who initiated the Santee (Sioux) uprising in Minnesota almost a year earlier, is shot dead by farmers while picking berries. Military: Despite pleas and entreaties from President Abraham Lincoln, General George G. Meade declines to pursue or hound the fleeing Confed-

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erates. In light of horrific casualties recently sustained by his Army of the Potomac at Gettysburg, and the disorganization this entails, his reluctance is understandable. The Army of Northern Virginia under General Robert E. Lee withdraws in good order from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and marches for Williamsport, Maryland, to recross the Potomac River into Virginia. Progress is slow owing to incessant rain and a wagon train of wounded stretching 17 miles. The Confederate citadel of Vicksburg, Mississippi, surrenders to General Ulysses S. Grant after a brutal, seven-week siege. Union losses for the entire campaign come to 800 killed, 3,900 wounded, and 200 missing out of 77,000 committed. The Southerners lost 900 dead, 2,500 wounded, 200 missing, and 29,491 captured. The Confederacy is now completely cut in two along the Mississippi River. “Grant is my man,” an ebullient President Abraham Lincoln beams, “and I am his the rest of the war.” Union forces defending Helena, Arkansas, under General Benjamin M. Prentiss withstand a determined Confederate attack from generals Theophilus H. Holmes and Sterling Price. Unable to make any headway and unwilling to withstand a withering cannonade, the Southerners concede defeat and withdraw after losing 380 dead, 1,100 wounded, and 1,100 captured out of 7,600 present. The Federals sustain only 239 killed, wounded, and missing.

July 5 Military: General William T. Sherman marches from Vicksburg, Mississippi, at the head of 40,000 troops divided among the corps of generals Frederick Steele, Edward O. C. Ord, and John G. Parke. His missions is to recapture Jackson by driving General Joseph E. Johnston out from behind the Big Black River.

July 6 Naval: Admiral John A. B. Dahlgren relieves Admiral Samuel F. du Pont as commander of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron off Port Royal, South Carolina. Du Pont’s removal is as much about friction with Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles as it is his failure before Charleston.

July 8 Military: General John H. Morgan crosses the Ohio River at Cumming’s Ferry, Kentucky, and begins raiding Indian and Southern Ohio. His appearance stimulates some anxiety over the rekindling of pro-Confederate “Copperhead” activities throughout that region.

July 9 Military: Confederate General Franklin Gardner surrenders Port Hudson, Louisiana, to the Army of the Gulf under General Nathaniel P. Banks. The Southerners lost roughly 146 killed, 447 wounded, and 6,400 captured while Union casualties topped 708 dead, 3,336 injured, and 319 missing. Victory here removes the last Confederate obstacle on the Mississippi River, now freely navigable as far as St. Louis, Missouri, for the first time in two years.

July 10 Military: The siege of Charleston, South Carolina, begins as General Quincy A. Gilmore lands 3,700 Federal troops of General George C. Strong’s brigade on Morris Island, overpowering Confederate forces stationed there. Gilmore next

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Chronology of American History begins preparing to overrun Battery Wagner commanded by General William B. Taliafero. Naval: Admiral John A. B. Dahlgren initiates a second naval siege of Charleston, South Carolina, by bombarding Confederate positions on Morris Island. The ironclads USS Nahant, Weehawken, Catskill, and Montauk are subsequently damaged by Confederate shore batteries, none seriously.

July 11 Diplomacy: American minister to England Charles F. Adams denounces the British practice of building ironclads and outfitting blockade runners for use by the Confederacy. He makes it clear to Foreign Secretary Earl John Russell that American patience with such transgressions is running out. Military: A determined Union assault upon Battery Wagner, Charleston harbor, South Carolina, is launched by General Quincy A. Gilmore. However, Gilmore is unaware that the garrison has been recently enlarged to 1,200 men and his attack is easily rebuffed with losses of 49 killed, 123 wounded, and 167 missing. The Southerners sustain only six dead and six wounded.

July 12 Military: Troops under generals William T. Sherman and Joseph E. Johnston spar in the vicinity of Clinton, Mississippi. Union forces unleash a prolonged bombardment of Confederate positions when suddenly a brigade commanded by Colonel Isaac Pugh attacks Southern redoubts defended by General John C. Breckinridge. Pugh, his advance unsupported, loses 500 men out of 800.

July 13 Journalism: President Abraham Lincoln admonishes General John M. Schofield, commanding in Missouri, for his arrest of William McKee, editor of the St. Louis Democrat, for alleged antiwar activity. Societal: Violent antidraft riots erupt in New York City shortly after the first names are read for induction. At length a seething mob of 50,000 Irish émigrés attacks the draft office, burning it to the ground. Over the next four days violence escalates until Federal troops arrive to restore order. More than 1,000 people, principally African Americans targeted by the mob, are either killed or injured.

July 14 Military: The Army of Northern Virginia steadily evacuates Williamsport, Maryland, behind two divisions under General Henry Heth that act as a rear guard. However, General George A. Custer’s cavalry brigade sweeps into nearby Falling Waters, rounding up several stragglers. General John Buford’s division is also approaching but General Hugh J. Kilpatrick simply orders two companies of the 6th Michigan Cavalry to charge the Confederates. The Federals capture 719 prisoners, three battle flags, and two cannon, but Southern losses would have been even greater had Kilpatrick waited until he had his entire force. Politics: President Abraham Lincoln, disillusioned by General George G. Meade’s lax pursuit of retreating Confederates, indelicately informs him, “Your golden opportunity is gone and I am distressed immeasurably because of it.”

July 15 Military: After the Arkansas River becomes fordable, Union General James G. Blunt assembles 3,000 men (mostly Native Americans and African Americans)

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and two batteries for a preemptive strike against 6,000 Confederates gathering at Elk Creek, Indian Territory (Oklahoma). He intends to disperse General Douglas H. Cooper’s command before he is reinforced by an additional 3,000 Confederates under General William L. Cabell. Politics: Stricken by news of Gettysburg, Vicksburg, and Port Hudson, a somber President Jefferson Davis intones, “The clouds are truly dark over us.”

July 16 Military: General Joseph E. Johnston begins a nighttime evacuation of Jackson, Mississippi, rather than face envelopment by General William T. Sherman. He accordingly falls back across the Pearl River covered by darkness and withdraws 30 miles eastward.

July 17 Indian: General James G. Blunt, leading 3,000 Union troops, attacks 6,000 Confederate Creek, Choctaw, Cherokee, and Texans under General Douglas H. Cooper at Honey Springs, Indian Territory (Oklahoma). The aggressive Blunt outflanks Douglas twice before his Indians mount a whooping counterattack that grants him time to cross the Elk River to safety. Blunt’s prompt action saves the Indian Territory for the Union. This is also the first time that Native Americans confront and fight large numbers of African Americans.

July 18 Military: A second Federal assault upon Battery Wagner, Charleston harbor, South Carolina, is courageously spearheaded by Col onel Robert G. Shaw’s 54th Massachusetts Infantry, recruited entirely from African Americans, which clambers up the fort’s parapet and plants its flag despite heavy fire. Consequently, Sergeant William H. Carney becomes the first black soldier to win the Congressional Medal of Honor, despite a bloody repulse. Union casualties total 1,515 while the Confederates sustain 36 dead, 133 injured, and five missing. Naval: Admiral John A. B. Dahlgren’s ironclad squadron lends heavy supporting fire during the failed assault against Battery Wagner, Charleston harbor. His vessels close to within 300 yards of Confederate works, but the moment they cease fire to allow the Union infantry assault, the defenders suddenly emerge to repel them.

July 22 Business: The New York Chamber of Commerce releases figures stating Union losses at sea to Confederate raiders at 150 vessels worth $12 million. This is stark testimony to the effectiveness of oceanic raiders like CSS Alabama, Florida, and Georgia.

July 26 Military: After a continuous running fight of several days, Confederate General John H. Morgan and his

Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren standing by a Dahlgren gun on the deck of the USS Pawnee. (Library of Congress)

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Chronology of American History remaining 364 troopers surrender at Salineville, Ohio. Morgan is slated for confinement at the Ohio State Penitentiary in Columbus. Politics: Kentucky Senator John J. Crittenden, author of the “Crittenden Compromise” of 1860, dies at Frankfort, Kentucky. Former Texas governor Sam Houston, who refused to take an oath to the Confederacy and was driven from office because of it, dies at his ranch at the age of 70.

July 29 Diplomacy: Queen Victoria informs Parliament that she sees “No reason to depart from the strict neutrality which Her Majesty has Observed from the beginning of the contest.” This is the latest blow against Confederate hopes for recognition and direct military assistance.

July 30 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln threatens to execute captured Confederate officers and subject Southern soldiers to hard labor if captured Union officers are harmed in any manner for leading African-American troops, or if former slaves now wearing a Federal uniform are sold back into bondage.

August 1 Military: Noted Confederate spy Belle Boyd is again arrested at Martinsburg, West Virginia, and sent to Washington, D.C., for internment. Naval: Admiral David D. Porter formally succeeds Admiral David G. Farragut as commander of all naval forces and operations along the Mississippi River. Farragut, worn out and ailing, is preparing to go on extended leave to recover his health. Politics: To ameliorate mounting desertion problems, President Jefferson Davis offers an amnesty to all ranks presently without leave, warning them that they have no choice but “victory, or subjugation, slavery, and utter ruin of yourselves, your families, and your country.” To that end he announces a pardon to all Confederate army deserters who rejoin their units within the next 20 days. A throng of an estimated 3,000 Democrats at Mattoon, Illinois, gathers to hear Peace Democrat John R. Eden denounce the administration of President Abraham Lincoln. Cole County remains a hotbed of antiwar agitation for the rest of the struggle.

August 3 Politics: To discourage continuing violence, New York Governor Horatio Seymour asks President Abraham Lincoln to suspend conscription in his state. The president flatly refuses.

August 6 Politics: President Jefferson Davis assures a jittery Governor Milledge L. Bonham of South Carolina of his continuing support for the defense of Charleston “which we pray will never be polluted by the footsteps of a lustful, relentless, inhuman foe.”

August 8 Military: General Robert E. Lee tenders his resignation to President Jefferson Davis over his recent failure at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, but Davis refuses to accept it.

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August 10 Politics: At a meeting with President Abraham Lincoln, abolitionist Frederick Douglass stridently protests the inequity of pay between black and white soldiers, despite assurances from recruiters that they would be paid the same.

August 12 Naval: The experimental submarine CSS Hunley arrives at Charleston, South Carolina. This novelty consists of an iron steam boiler that has been waterproofed and fitted with tapered bow and stern sections. The Hunley is 40 feet long and only 3.5 feet in diameter, being propelled by five men operating a crankshaft-driven propeller. General Pierre G. T. Beauregard, commanding the city’s defenses, is intrigued by the device and seeks to impress it into active service as soon as testing is completed.

August 16 Military: After considerable prodding from the government, General William S. Rosecrans pushes his Army of the Cumberland out of Chattanooga and toward the Georgia border. Due to mountainous terrain before him, he plans to spread out into three widely spaced columns to cover all three passes, a risky ploy that endangers his command with utter defeat.

August 18 Technology: Intrigued by new weapons, President Abraham Lincoln test fires a new, rapid-fire Spencer carbine at Treasury Park, Washington, D.C. This weapon gives Federal cavalry units a decided edge in firepower over Confederate units still armed with muzzle-loading rifles.

August 20 Indian: Colonel Kit Carson commences his “scorched earth” policy against the Navajo in the New Mexico Territory, being further assisted by Ute, Zuni, and Mescalero Apache tribesmen. All captives taken are then transferred to a new reservation at Bosque Rendondo for resettlement.

August 21 Military: William C. Quantrill and 450 Confederate irregulars and partisans storm into Lawrence, Kansas, a noted abolitionist center and hotbed for Union “jayhawker” activities. Over the next four hours they systematically round up and execute 180 men and boys, then set fire to 185 buildings. It is the largest single atrocity of the Civil War.

August 25 Military: General Thomas Ewing, commanding the Union Border District in Missouri, issues General Order No. 11. This controversial measure forces 20,000 residents of Bates, Cass, Jackson, and parts of Vernon Counties, long suspected of collaborating with Confederate guerrillas, to abandon their homes. These structures are then peremptorily burned in retaliation for the Lawrence massacre.

August 26 Military: Union cavalry under General William W. Averill skirmishes heavily with Confederate forces at White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. His 2,000 troopers dash headlong into a like number of Confederates under Colonel George S. Patton, attack repeatedly across densely wooded terrain, and are defeated.

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Carson, Kit (1809–1868) Frontier scout Christopher (“Kit”) Carson was born in Madison County, Kentucky, on December 24, 1809, and in 1811 he accompanied his family to Boone’s Lick, Missouri. Carson, who was barely educated and semiliterate his whole life, briefly apprenticed himself to a saddler, but he ran away at the age of 16 to join an expedition to Santa Fe, New Mexico. He then found his calling in exploring and trapping along the vast western frontier, which occupied him for the rest of his life. Carson proved himself particularly adept at trapping and Indian fighting and made several forays in and out of the Mojave Deserte region by 1831. That year he was badly wounded in a skirmish against the Blackfeet and subsequently married an Arapaho woman in an Indian ceremony. His reputation as a scout received a decided boost after encountering Lieutenant John C. Frémont on a riverboat near St. Louis. Frémont prevailed upon Carson to serve as his scout during an army exploring expedition, June–October, 1842, and he effectively discharged his duties. Frémont then published the results of his efforts, which gained Carson national recognition. He subsequently accompanied Frémont on two more expeditions, 1834–44 and 1845 and was in California when the war with Mexico erupted in 1846. Carson campaigned actively for the conquest of Los Angeles and was traveling east with dispatches when he encountered the cavalry column of Colonel Stephen W. Kearny. Kearny impressed Carson into his expedition as a scout, where he fought well

at the disastrous skirmish of San Pascual, December 6, 1846. He then rode to Washington, D.C., with dispatches and was commissioned a lieutenant in the elite Regiment of Mounted Riflemen by President James K. Polk. The appointment was blocked by enemies in the Senate, however, and Carson returned to Taos, New Mexico, to live as a private citizen. In the postwar period Carson found useful work as a government Indian agent and worked exclusively with the Ute tribe. In this capacity he accused Territorial Governor David Meriwether of insensitivity toward Native Americans, which led to his arrest, but he was later restored. When the Civil War broke out in April 1861, Carson joined the 1st New Mexico Volunteer Infantry as its colonel, and he fought well against Confederate forces at the Battle of Valverde on February 21, 1862. He then served under the harsh General James H. Carleton in administering Indian affairs throughout New Mexico and Arizona, which spawned outright war among uncooperative Apache and Navaho tribesmen. Carson ignored Carleton’s orders to liquidate the offending tribes but did conduct a harsh, scorchedearth policy that drove them into submission and led to their relocation onto reservations. On March 13, 1865, Carson was brevetted to brigadier general for good service, and the following year he assumed command of Fort Garland, Colorado. He died on May 23, 1868, shortly after resuming duties as an Indian agent.

August 29 Naval: The experimental submarine CSS Hunley, under Lieutenant John A. Payne, tragically sinks on a trial run in Charleston harbor, South Carolina, killing all six crew members. The vessel apparently foundered in the wake of the steamer Etiwan after its hatches were opened for better ventilation.

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September 1 Naval: Admiral John A. B. Dahlgren leads his ironclad force in a five-hour night action against Confederates at Fort Sumter, Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. The vessels steam to within 500 yards of the embattled fortress before firing, and they receive 70 hits from shore batteries before the action is suspended at daybreak.

September 2 Slavery: To curtail mounting manpower shortages, the Alabama state legislature considers arming slaves to serve in the army.

September 3 Indian: Union troops under General Alfred Sully attack a hostile Santee (Sioux) village at Whitestone Hill, Dakota Territory, killing an estimated 200 inhabitants. The Americans then burn the village and withdraw with 156 captives.

September 5 Diplomacy: After being prodded by American minister Charles F. Adams, British Foreign Secretary Lord Russell confiscates two “Laird rams” before they can be seized by Confederate agents in England. Previously, Adams warned his hosts in no uncertain terms that “it would be superfluous for me to point out to your lordship that this is war.” Government seizure of these heavily armed vessels ends a prolonged diplomatic sore point between London and Washington.

September 6 Military: Confederate forces manning batteries Wagner and Gregg on Morris Island, Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, are secretly evacuated by General Pierre G. T. Beauregard. This final act concludes 60 days of near continuous bombardment by Union land and naval forces—one third of the 900 defenders have become casualties.

September 7 Military: A small Confederate battery of 42 men under 20-year-old Lieutenant Richard W. Dowling, 1st Texas Heavy Artillery, engages a 4,000-man amphibious expedition under General William B. Franklin at the mouth of the Sabine River. Dowling allows the vessel to approach to within close range before opening fire with his masked batteries at 4:00 p.m. Within minutes two Union gunboats are forced to strike their colors and the rest dejectedly sail back to New Orleans. Naval: Admiral John A. B. Dahlgren demands the surrender of Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor, South Carolina, and once it refuses he conducts a personal reconnaissance in force with the ironclads USS Weehawken and New Ironsides. After Weehawken grounds in the channel, the New Ironsides interposes itself between Fort Moultrie and the stricken vessel, taking 50 hits. Both vessels eventually return to safety.

September 9 Diplomacy: The British government formally initiates steps to prevent the two “Laird rams” from leaving the country or entering Confederate service. Military: General James Longstreet’s I Corps of 15,000 veteran troops begins loading into trains in Virginia for a nine-day trek to Lafayette, Georgia, to reinforce General Braxton Bragg in Tennessee.

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Chronology of American History The strategic city of Chattanooga, Tennessee, surrenders to the Army of the Cumberland under General William S. Rosecrans without a shot being fired. General Braxton Bragg and the Army of Tennessee then fall back 28 miles to Lafayette, Georgia, to await reinforcements form the east. Naval: Admiral John A. B. Dahlgren launches a nighttime assault against Fort Sumter, Charleston harbor, South Carolina, with 413 sailors and U.S. Marines under Commander Thomas H. Stevens. The Southerners, having earlier recovered a codebook from the sunken USS Keokuk, decipher Union signals and anticipate their attack. The Federals are consequently rebuffed with a loss of 100 prisoners.

September 10 Military: Confederate forces under General Sterling Price evacuate Little Rock, Arkansas, for nearby Rockport, whereupon General Frederick Steele’s Federals advance and establish a pro-Union administration there. This is the latest blow to the Confederacy, still reeling from the loss of Vicksburg, and it imperils the Trans-Mississippi Department under General Edmund Kirby-Smith.

September 11 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln authorizes General Andrew Johnson, military governor of Tennessee, to form a civilian government. Lincoln also declines to accept General Ambrose E. Burnside’s latest attempt to resign.

September 13 Military: General Braxton Bragg orders General Leonidas K. Polk to attack and overwhelm the isolated Union XXI Corps under General Thomas L. Crittenden at Lee and Gordon’s Mills in northern Georgia. Polk, however, dithers and fails to maneuver in a timely fashion, so this part of the widely scattered Army of the Cumberland escapes annihilation. General William S. Rosecrans finally recognizes the danger and orders his army to concentrate.

September 18 Military: The Army of the Cumberland and the Army of Tennessee confront each other across Chickamauga Creek, Georgia. For once Confederate forces outnumber the Federals, having massed 68,000 men to a Union tally of 58,000. General Braxton Bragg seeks to impose himself between General William S. Rosecrans and his main supply base at Chattanooga, Tennessee, but skirmishes with Union cavalry along Reed’s and Alexander’s bridges delay the move a full day.

September 19 Military: The Battle of Chickamauga begins once advanced elements of General George H. Thomas’s XIV Corps encounter Confederate cavalry under General Nathan B. Forrest. As fighting escalates both General Braxton Bragg and General William S. Rosecrans cancel their respective plans for the day and continually feed new units into an ever-expanding fray. The day’s combat occasioned serious losses to both sides and little else. That evening, following the arrival of General James Longstreet’s veteran I Corps, Bragg appoints him to command his left wing while General Leonidas K. Polk leads the right.

September 20 Military: General Braxton Bragg intends to renew combat at Chickamauga at dawn, but confusion and delays preclude any Confederate action before 9:00

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a.m. The pattern of fighting resembles that of the previous day, and another bloody stalemate appears in the offing until fate intervenes. General William S. Rosecrans is mistakenly informed that a gap has developed in the center of his line so he orders General Thomas J. Wood’s division to plug it. No sooner does Wood redeploy than General James Longstreet’s I Corps burst through, arrayed six brigades deep. This unexpected onslaught completely sweeps away the Union center and right, carrying off Rosecrans and several ranking leaders in a tumultuous retreat. Only the XIV Corps of General George H. Thomas, which assumed strong defensive positions along Snodgrass Hill, holds its ground against steep odds. This is the bloodiest day of the war in the West with Union casualties of 16,179 to a Southern tally of 17,804. Bragg’s lackluster leadership causes further rifts in an already fractious chain of command.

September 21 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln repeatedly orders General Ambrose E. Burnside at Knoxville, Tennessee, to reinforce General William S. Rosecrans’s shattered army at Chattanooga, but he refuses to budge.

September 22 Military: General William S. Rosecrans continues rallying the Army of the Cumberland at Chattanooga, Tennessee, while General Ulysses S. Grant dispatches three divisions of the XV Corps from Vicksburg, Mississippi, to assist him. Meanwhile, the Confederate Army of Tennessee leisurely occupies the high ground around the city to commence a siege.

September 24 Diplomacy: The Confederate government appoints Ambrose D. Mann its special agent to the Holy See in Rome. Naval: A total of eight Russian warships gradually arrive and visit New York City. They are seeking refuge in American ports as Great Britain and France are threatening war over the Polish insurrection, although the move is widely interpreted throughout the North as a sign of diplomatic support. Another squadron of six vessels eventually anchors in San Francisco, California, and the Russians are warmly received by the political establishment.

September 25 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln castigates General Ambrose E. Burnside at Knoxville, Tennessee, for not reinforcing Union forces besieged at Chattanooga. “Having struggled,” he write, “to get you to assist General Rosecrans, and you have repeatedly declared you would do it, and yet you steadily move to the contrary way.” Upon further reflection the letter is not sent.

September 27 Military: President Abraham Lincoln again implores General Ambrose E. Burnside at Knoxville, Tennessee, to forward reinforcements to assist General William S. Rosecrans at Chattanooga. “My order to you meant simply that you should save Rosecrans from being crushed out, believing if he lost his position, you could not hold East Tennessee in any event.” General Braxton Bragg, determined to starve out the Army of the Cumberland from Chattanooga, Tennessee, orders General Joseph Wheeler’s cavalry to raid tenuous Union lines of communication throughout the 60-mile-long Sequatchie Valley.

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October 1 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln instructs General John M. Schofield, commanding Union forces in Missouri, to place renewed emphasis on the restoration of civilian rule and domestic tranquillity. “Your immediate duty, in regard to Missouri, now is to advance the efficiency of that establishment and to so use it, as far as practicable, to compel the excited people there to leave one another alone.”

October 3 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln designates the last Thursday in November Thanksgiving Day. Slavery: Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton authorizes liberated AfricanAmerican slaves to enlist in Maryland, Tennessee, and Missouri.

October 5 Naval: The CSS David, a torpedo boat with an especially low silhouette and equipped with an exploding spar, steams out of Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, at night and intends to fatally jab USS New Ironsides below the waterline. That vessel is struck and sustains heavy damage while the David, its boilers extinguished by the blast, drifts helplessly alongside its victim for several minutes before escaping.

October 6 Military: Confederate guerrillas under William C. Quantrill attack what they thought was an isolated Union outpost at Baxter Springs, Kansas. Dressed in captured blue uniforms, they trot over to a column of 100 men and several wagons before shooting. Only General James G. Blunt and a third of his command manage to escape; the remainder are captured and then murdered.

October 9 Diplomacy: The British government apprehends the so-called North Carolina and Mississippi, the two formidable “Laird rams” nearing construction at Birkenhead, England, rather than risk a possible war with the United States. Military: General Joseph Wheeler ends his spectacular dash through the Sequatchie Valley by recrossing the Tennessee River at Muscle Shoals, Alabama. In a week he guts Union supply lines, inflicts 2,000 casualties, captures more than 1,000 wagons, burns five bridges, tears up miles of track, and ruins millions of dollars in equipment. This spectacular raid nearly throttles the Army of the Cumberland, already on half-rations.

October 10 Military: President Jefferson Davis arrives at Chattanooga, Tennessee, to confer with General Braxton Bragg over military strategy. He is also there to quell seething unrest between Bragg and many senior subordinates.

October 13 Politics: Republican governors prevail during elections held in Indiana, Iowa, and Ohio. Foremost among these is Andrew Curtin, Pennsylvania’s pro-war administrator and staunch ally of President Abraham Lincoln. By contrast, Peace Democrat Clement L. Vallandigham, who ran for the Ohio governorship while exiled in Canada, is roundly trounced by a pro-war Republican.

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October 14 Military: General Ambrose P. Hill, tramping through Warrenrton, Virginia, perceives the rearguard of General George G. Meade strung out and fording the Broad Run at Bristoe Station. He decides to attack at once, unaware that the entire II Corps of General Gouverneur K. Warren lays in wait behind a railroad embankment at right angles to his approach. The Confederate attack, thoroughly enfiladed, collapses after 40 minutes with a loss of 1,361 men. The Federals suffer only 548 casualties.

October 15 Naval: The day before it is to be committed to combat, the experimental Confederate submarine CSS Hunley disastrously founders a second time in Charleston harbor, killing all seven crew members including Horace L. Hunley, its inventor. Nonetheless, General Pierre G. T. Beauregard orders the craft recovered and refitted.

October 16 Military: President Abraham Lincoln, acting through the offices of General in Chief Henry W. Halleck, urges General George G. Meade to attack General Robert E. Lee’s forces, but he continues resisting such prodding. Lee, meanwhile, falls back and assumes strong defensive positions along the Rappahannock River in Virginia.

October 17 Military: General William S. Rosecrans is formally relieved of command from the Army of the Cumberland and succeeded by General George H. Thomas. The new commander calmly reviews the perilous situation of his army at Chattanooga, Tennessee, and declares “We will hold the town ’till we starve.”

October 19 Military: As anticipated, Confederate cavalry under General J. E. B. Stuart is attacked by General Hugh J. Kilpatrick’s Union troopers at Warrenton, Virginia. Just as fighting commences, General Fitzhugh Lee’s 2nd Virginia Cavalry suddenly strikes the flank and rear of General George A. Custer’s brigade while Stuart leads the 1st North Carolina forward at the charge. The Federals rapidly about face and run with vengeful Confederates hotly pursuing them. This embarrassing affair became jocularly known as the “Buckland Races.”

October 23 Military: General Ulysses S. Grant arrives at Chattanooga, Tennessee, and, accompanied by General George H. Thomas, he advances to within gunshot range of Confederate lines below Lookout Mountain for a peek at enemy dispositions. His curiosity satisfied, Grant next orders a new supply route established from Bridgeport to the beleaguered garrison, the so-called “Cracker Line.” Politics: President Jefferson Davis relieves General Leonidas K. Polk as corps commander of the Army of Tennessee, to end tensions with his superior, General Braxton Bragg. He is replaced by General William J. Hardee.

October 27 Military: General Joseph Hooker commences operations to reopen the Tennessee River and thus facilitate the flow of Union supplies to Chattanooga, Tennessee. He also posts a force under General John W. Geary, XII Corps, at Wauhatchie Station to guard his line of communications.

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October 29 Military: A predawn Confederate attack unfolds against Union positions at Wauhatchie Station, Tennessee. General Micah Jenkins’s division of four brigades hits the Union camp hard in the darkness, but Federal troops under General John W. Geary rally and, by firing at muzzle flashes, resist stoutly. By 3:00 a.m., Jenkins has retreated back to Lookout Mountain; the all-important “Cracker Line” survives intact.

November 2 Politics: A Pennsylvania committee, tasked with organizing festivities surrounding the dedication of a Union cemetery for soldiers fallen in the Battle of Gettysburg, invites President Abraham Lincoln to attend the ceremony, scheduled for November 19. To their delight and surprise, the chief executive accepts the invitation, and he begins working on a short speech to codify his justification for the war effort.

November 3 Military: At Bayou Borbeau, Louisiana, three Federal divisions of General William B. Franklin’s XIX Corps encamp carelessly and beyond mutual supporting distance. General Richard Taylor, though outnumbered two-to-one, masses his Confederates for a sudden attack upon General Stephen G. Burbridge’s exposed division. Burbridge, unable to reform his crumbling line, falls back three miles to the camp of General George F. McGinnis for support.

November 5 Slavery: President Abraham Lincoln rebukes General Nathaniel P. Banks for his tardy efforts at reestablishing civilian government in Louisiana which, he insists, must assure African Americans “On the question of permanent freedom.”

November 7 Military: The Army of the Potomac pushes two bridges over the Rappahannock River, Virginia, and runs into stiff fights at Kelly’s Ford and Rappahannock Station. General William H. French, commanding the I, II, and III Corps, proceeds across the River at Kelly’s Ford en masse, catching the Confederate division of General Robert Rodes by surprise. North Carolina troops guarding the ford are overwhelmed by the sudden attack and largely captured, leaving Union forces now firmly established on the south bank of the Rappahannock. Five miles upstream, General John Sedgwick moves his V and VI Corps rapidly against Rappahannock Station, defended by the celebrated “Louisiana Tigers” of Colonel Harry T. Hays and a division under General Robert Hoke. Heavy fighting stops at nightfall, and General Robert E. Lee somewhat naturally assumes that the enemy would not attack further that night, so he declines to reinforce the bridgehead. That same evening, through a driving downpour, Sedgwick unleashes his 6th Maine in a bayonet charge that completely startles the “Tigers.” The Confederate defenders are crushed with 1,600 prisoners taken, forcing Lee to withdraw to Culpeper Court House.

November 11 Politics: President Jefferson Davis, ever concerned about the situation before Chattanooga, Tennessee, cautions General Braxton Bragg to “not allow the enemy

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to get up reinforcements before striking him, if it can be avoided.” Defeat here might lead to another thrust into the Confederate heartland.

November 14 Military: General James Longstreet’s 15,000 Confederates begin crossing the Tennessee River at Loudoun, Tennessee, en route to Knoxville. Meanwhile, General Ambrose E. Burnside gallops into the town beforehand to personally evacuate the 5,000 Union troops stationed there and shepherds them back to Knoxville. A curious parallel race unfolds as the two forces—almost within gunshot of each other—slog through ankle-deep mud to reach the city first.

November 15 Military: The I Corps of General James Longstreet and a division of Union troops under General Ambrose E. Burnside march on through driving rain and deep mud to reach Knoxville, Tennessee, first. Throughout their arduous ordeal the contestants are separated only by one mile and a bend in the Tennessee River. Burnside, anxious to avoid being trapped outside the city, redoubles his efforts to reach Campbell’s Station ahead of the enemy. Longstreet, meanwhile, dispatches General Lafayette McLaw’s division to capture the crossroads ahead of him.

November 16 Military: The Confederate corps of General James Longstreet and a retiring Union division under General Ambrose E. Burnside depart Lenoir, Tennessee, in the early morning darkness. Burnside, feeling he is losing the race, orders his baggage burned to pick up speed. The Union column fortuitously reaches Campbell’s Station just 15 minutes ahead of the Confederates and deploys to give battle. Longstreet then dispatches the brigade of General Evander M. Law around the Union position to strike it from behind while another division under General Lafayette McLaw strikes Burnside’s right. Both attacks are repelled in heavy fighting, and Longstreet finally concedes.

November 18 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln, somewhat depressed over the illness of his son Tad, boards a special train that whisks him to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, for the purpose of dedicating a military cemetery.

November 19 Military: As Union forces of General Ambrose E. Burnside race to fortify the city of Knoxville, Tennessee, he orders a cavalry brigade of 700 men under General William P. Sanders to contest the Confederate advance under General James Longstreet. Sanders does exactly that and contains his antagonists for several hours before being killed, the only Southern-born Union general to fall. Fort Loudoun is subsequently renamed Fort Sanders in his honor. Politics: A gathering of 15,000 citizens at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, is harangued by stirring oratory by Edward Everett over the course of two hours. Onlookers are next greeted by the spectacle of a gaunt, towering President Abraham Lincoln striding over to the podium. In only two minutes he completes his “Gettysburg Address,” one of the most seminal political speeches in all history. “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created

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Chronology of American History equal,” it began. The audience listened in raptured silence, applauding lightly and not fully comprehending the import of what they had just heard, but in only 272 words, Lincoln codifies the ideals of the American republic and the absolute necessity for preserving it.

November 20 Politics: Unhappy over his recent address at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, President Abraham Lincoln contacts Edward Everett saying “I am pleased to know that, in your opinion, the little I did say was not a failure.”

November 23 Military: General Ulysses S. Grant, prior to assaulting the main Confederate defenses of General Braxton Bragg along Missionary Ridge, Tennessee, orchestrates a clever reconnaissance in force near the enemy’s center. He orders General George H. Thomas to parade the IV Corps in full view of enemy positions along Orchard Knob and, at precisely 1:30 p.m., Union forces suddenly lurch forward, completely dispersing their astonished opponents. This easy success allows Grant to deploy his troops at the very foot of Lookout Mountain, and he also employs Orchard Knob as his headquarters for the remainder of the campaign.

November 24 Military: At 8:00 a.m., General Joseph Hooker masses his three divisions—12,000 men—to the foot of Lookout Mountain, Tennessee, and begins scaling toward the 1,100-foot summit. Confederates under General Carter L. Stevenson, who can scarcely muster 2,693 men to oppose them, resist fiercely but ultimately yield to the Federal juggernaut. By evening Hooker has achieved all his objectives and the following morning, when a clinging fog finally disperses, Union leaders are relieved to behold the Stars and Stripes flying boldly from the summit.

November 25 Military: At Chattanooga, Tennessee, the final struggle between General Ulysses S. Grant, with 64,000 men, and General Braxton Bragg, commanding 46,000, unfolds. At 10:00 a.m. General William T. Sherman takes 16,000 men on a concerted drive against the Confederate right anchored upon Missionary Ridge, but his lack of progress induces Grant to mount diversions elsewhere to prevent Bragg from shifting reinforcements to his right. General Joseph Hooker’s command then attacks through Rossville gap from Lookout Mountain on Bragg’s left to threaten the Southern rear, but he is delayed by the necessity of building a bridge. Grant finally orders General George H. Thomas to advance and seize Confederate rifle pits fronting their main position along Missionary Ridge. Thomas quickly overruns the defenders and then—without orders—continues charging up the slope, driving the enemy before him. The Confederate stranglehold on Chattanooga is decisively and dramatically ended through Grant’s bold stroke. Union casualties are 5,335, only marginally lighter that the Confederate tally of 6,687.

November 26 Military: Five corps of the Army of the Potomac under General George G. Meade successfully cross the Rapidan River, Virginia, covered by a fog. Meade is now counting on the speed and stealth of his 85,000 men to crush the widely dispersed right wing of the Army of Northern Virginia before it can concentrate

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to oppose him. However, events quickly go awry as the marching order breaks down, units become entangled, and valuable time is lost. The Southerners react quickly and effectively to the new threat.

November 27 Military: No sooner has the Army of the Potomac successfully crossed the Rapidan River than General William H. French’s III Corps takes the wrong road and spends several hours countermarching about. The delay allows the Army of Northern Virginia to deploy the division of General Edward Johnson at Payne’s Farm, Virginia, and heavy fighting erupts. Elements of General Ambrose P. Hill’s III Corps and General Jubal A. Early’s II Corps also arrive, at which point Meade suspends the action. Confederate losses are 545 while the Union tally is not recorded. Confederate General Patrick R. Cleburne, mustering only 4,157 men, confronts a force twice his size under General Joseph Hooker at Ringgold Gap, Georgia. The Federals are immediately blasted back with losses while a column is dispatched to ascend the mountain of Cleburne’s flank. These too stumble headlong into a clever ambush and are sent scampering back down the slope. Cleburne is finally ordered by General William J. Hardee to withdraw, but his stiffly fought rear guard buys the Southerners four precious hours and inflicts 507 Union casualties. Cleburne sustains 20 dead, 190 wounded, and 11 missing.

November 29 Military: At 6:00 a.m., the Confederates launch a desperate attack against Fort Sanders at Knoxville, Tennessee, despite frightfully cold weather. Three brigades of infantry go forward as ordered but, lacking ladders, prove unable to surmount the deep, ice-filled ditch surrounding the works. General James Longstreet loses 129 killed, 458 wounded, and 226 missing, while the defenders endure five killed and eight wounded.

November 30 Military: President Jefferson Davis grants General Braxton Bragg’s request that he be relieved of command in the Army of Tennessee at Dalton, Georgia, and he is temporarily succeeded by General William J. Hardee.

December 1 Military: Notorious Southern spy Belle Boyd, suffering from typhoid fever, is again released from a Federal prison in Washington, D.C., and warned to steer clear of Union territory. Technology: Samuel D. Gooddale of Cincinnati, Ohio, receives a patent for his stereoscope, which allows for three-dimensional views of photographs.

December 3 Military: General James Longstreet’s I Corps abandons its siege of Knoxville, Tennessee, and enters into winter quarters at nearby Greenville. From this position he is at liberty to remain in the theater or march to rejoin General Robert E. Lee’s main force in Virginia.

December 7 Politics: The 4th Session of the First Confederate Congress gathers in Richmond, Virginia. President Jefferson Davis there acknowledges the failures of the previous year but declares “The patriotism of the people has proven equal to every sacrifice demanded by their country’s need.”

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December 8 Politics: To exacerbate the growing rift in Southern politics, President Abraham Lincoln addresses the opening of the 38th Congress and proffers his Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction to all Southerners willing to take a loyal oath. In it he offers to recognize the sitting government of any seceded state provided that at least 10 percent of all male voters submit to the oath and abolish slavery. This amnesty does not apply to high ranking Confederate officials or former army officers who resign to fight for the South, but Radical Republicans in Congress find its tone too conciliatory.

December 12 Politics: Henceforth, the Confederate government refuses to accept any supplies sent from the North to Union captives.

December 14 Military: General James Longstreet attacks Bean’s Station, Tennessee, at 2:00 a.m., startling but not dislodging Union cavalry under General James M. Shackleford. At length Shackleford conducts an orderly withdrawal through Bean’s Gap to Blain’s Cross Roads and digs in behind a rail breastwork. Fighting in harsh winter weather inflicts roughly 200 casualties on either side. Politics: President Abraham Lincoln grants Mrs. Mary Todd—his sister-in-law—a general amnesty after she visits the White House and takes a loyalty oath.

December 16 Military: President Jefferson Davis, forgiving past difficulties, appoints General Joseph E. Johnston to succeeded General William J. Hardee as commander of the Army of Tennessee. General Leonidas K. Polk is also promoted to head of the Army of Mississippi.

December 17 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln promulgates plans for a Federal Bureau of Emancipation to assist liberated African Americans. Congress, however, fails to enact the requisite legislation until March 1865.

December 18 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln, displeased with General John M. Schofield’s handling of civilian affairs in Missouri, suggests to Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton that he be simultaneously relieved and promoted to major general, thereby avoiding any ruffled feathers.

December 27 Military: General Joseph E. Johnston arrives at Dalton, Georgia, to take charge of the Confederate Department of Tennessee and its attendant and much battered army.

December 28 Politics: The Confederate Congress in Richmond, Virginia, abolishes the practice of hiring draft substitutions and also modifies the detested tax in kind.

December 31 Politics: President Jefferson Davis appoints North Carolina senator George Davis as interim Confederate attorney general to replace outgoing Wade Keyes.

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1864 Business: George Presbury Rowell founds the nation’s first advertising agency in Boston, Massachusetts. Conservation: George Perkins Marsh, a noted lawyer and scholar, publishes Man and Nature, or, Physical Geography as Modified by Human Action; this is a pioneering appeal for land conservation and geological study. Education: The Columbia Institution for the Deaf, Dumb, and Blind is established in Washington, D.C., by Congress and at the behest of Edward Miner Gallaudet. The University of Kansas is founded at Lawrence, Kansas. General: The phrase “In God We Trust” appears for the first time on minted two-cent pieces. Journalism: The Frontier Scout is published at Fort Union, North Dakota, as that territory’s first newspaper. Labor: Cigar makers and iron molders both form their own respective unions. Religion: The Tremont Temple is established in Boston, Massachusetts, by Baptists; it features significant lay participation in all church matters. Sports: Former boxing champion John Morrissey establishes the Saratoga Race Track at Saratoga, New York, and also organizes the first stakes races. The Park Place Croquet Club of Brooklyn, New York, is the first such organization in the country. The first recorded curve ball is thrown by William A. Cumming of the Brooklyn Stars in a game against the Brooklyn Atlantics. Technology: Steel made from the British Bessemer process is introduced to the United States at Wyandotte, Michigan. The plant in question manufactures highgrade steel rails for the railroads. Transportation: The New York State legislature rejects Hugh B. Wilson’s request for a franchise to construct the first subway system beneath New York City.

January 2 Slavery: Irish-born general Patrick R. Cleburne petitions for the arming of African Americans in the Confederate army to address endemic manpower shortages. Not only does President Jefferson Davis ignore the recommendation but he deliberately denies Cleburne his well-deserved promotion to lieutenant general because of it.

January 4 Military: President Jefferson Davis instructs General Robert E. Lee to begin requisitioning food from civilians to feed his troops as it becomes necessary.

January 5 Indian: Colonel Christopher “Kit” Carson begins his protracted winter campaign against hostile Navajo in the Canon de Chelly region of the New Mexico Territory. General James H. Carleton, commanding the department, anxiously wires government officials that his numerous prisoners are suffering from want of winter clothing and requests stocks from the Indian Department.

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Chronology of American History Politics: More than 1,000 African-American citizens of New Orleans, Louisiana, including a handful of surviving War of 1812 veterans, petition President Abraham Lincoln for the right to vote.

January 7 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln, beset by a rash of army desertions, invariably commutes the death sentences of offenders and insists “I am trying to evade the butchering business lately.”

January 11 Slavery: Senator John B. Henderson of Missouri proposes a joint resolution for the abolition of slavery, which ultimately becomes the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

January 13 Music: Stephen Foster, one of the nation’s most popular songwriters, dies in New York City at the age of 37. One of his last compositions was the noted and popular “Beautiful Dreamer.” Politics: President Abraham Lincoln instructs generals Quincy A. Gilmore in Florida and Nathaniel P. Banks in Louisiana to begin reconstituting civil authority “with all possible dispatch.” President Jefferson Davis advises General Joseph E. Johnston against falling back from his present strong position at Dalton, Georgia, declaring “I trust you will not deem it necessary to adopt such a measure.”

January 19 Politics: The pro-Union Arkansas constitutional convention embraces antislavery provisions in its new document.

January 20 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln advises General Frederick Steele, commanding the District of Arkansas, to schedule free elections as soon as possible to reestablish a free civilian government.

January 21 Politics: A gathering of pro-Union citizens in Nashville, Tennessee, proposes a constitutional convention bent on abolishing slavery.

January 22 Politics: Isaac Murphy becomes governor of the free-state portions of Arkansas following a vote by the state convention.

January 23 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln approves a policy whereby plantation owners must recognize freedom for all former slaves and hire them on the basis of contract law.

January 26 Diplomacy: William L. Drayton, U.S. Minister to France, expresses embarrassment over the presence of several Confederate cruisers operating in French waters and his government’s inability to deal with them at present.

January 27 Politics: President Jefferson Davis summons General Braxton Bragg to Richmond, Virginia, for consultation as long as his “health permits.”

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January 28 Military: General Jubal A. Early directs generals Edward L. Thomas and Thomas L. Rosser on a combined infantry/cavalry raiding force from New Market, Virginia, toward Union positions in the Allegheny Mountains. Their goal is to secure forage for the horses and the cattle to feed the men.

January 31 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln again urges General Nathaniel P. Banks at New Orleans, Louisiana, to begin reinstituting civilian authority, leaving him “at liberty to adopt any rule which shall admit to vote any unquestionably free state men and none others. And yet I do wish they would all take the oath.”

February 1 Military: The House of Representatives resurrects the rank of lieutenant general, U.S. Army, with Ulysses S. Grant in mind. General George E. Pickett attacks Union forces under General Innis N. Palmer at Batchelder’s Creek, North Carolina, inflicting 326 casualties and forcing the Northerners back into New Bern. However, two Confederate columns under General Seth M. Baton and Colonel James Dearing perceive Federal defenses at Fort Anderson as too formidable and the attack is canceled. Politics: President Abraham Lincoln authorizes a draft of 500,000 men to serve three years or for the duration of the conflict.

February 3 Politics: To better suppress espionage, desertion, and disloyalty, President Jefferson Davis recommends suspension of writs of habeas corpus in cases arising from such charges.

February 6 Politics: The Confederate Congress outlaws the importation of luxuries or the possession of U.S. paper money. It also mandates that half of tobacco and food exports must be surrendered to government agents before ships are allowed to clear ports.

February 7 Diplomacy: William Preston becomes the Confederate envoy to Frenchcontrolled Mexico. The Confederacy supports Napoleon III’s occupation of the country and its puppet emperor Maximilian in the hope of gaining diplomatic recognition and possible military intervention.

February 9 Arts: President Abraham Lincoln sits through a photographic session; one portrait is subsequently engraved and utilized on the U.S. five-dollar bill.

February 12 Military: President Abraham Lincoln entertains General Hugh K. Kilpatrick at the White House, whereupon the latter discusses plans for a possible raid against Richmond, Virginia, to free Union prisoners kept under squalid conditions there. The president listens intently to the blustering trooper and eventually grants his approval.

February 14 Military: Meridian, Mississippi, falls without resistance to Union forces led by General William T. Sherman, who covers 150 miles in 11 days. The corps of

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Chronology of American History General Leonidas K. Polk, badly outnumbered, gives ground before it. Sherman then begins systematically destroying all buildings, supplies, and railroads in his earliest application of what becomes known as “total war.” Ultimately, 155 miles of track, 61 bridges, and 20 locomotives are laid waste.

February 15 Politics: The Confederate Congress appropriates $5 million for a sabotage campaign based in Canada. It is to be orchestrated by Thomas C. Hines, who intends to meet with, and coordinate his actions with, the Peace Democrats from the North. Meanwhile, President Jefferson Davis evinces concern that General William T. Sherman might march from Meridian, Mississippi, and directly into Montgomery, Alabama.

February 17 Naval: The submarine CSS Hunley under Lieutenant George E. Dixon sinks the 1,934-ton Union screw sloop USS Housatonic under Captain Charles W. Picketing in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. Hunley apparently survives the explosion long enough to signal to shore that it is returning, then inexplicably sinks, killing all hands. Housatonic also enjoys the melancholy distinction of being the first warship in history lost to a submarine attack. Politics: The Confederate Congress suspends writs of habeas corpus as they relate to arrests made under the authority of the president or secretary of war. They also expand the draft to include all white males between the ages of 17 and 50. Another act authorizes the employment of African Americans as army laborers. Confederate vice president Alexander H. Stephens continues protesting the suspension of habeas corpus, insisting it is “Far better that our country be overrun by the enemy, our cities sacked and burned, and our land laid desolate, than that the people should suffer the citadel of their liberties to be entered and taken by professed friends.” In light of this opposition, the Georgia legislature counters with a resolution reaffirming that state’s support for the war effort and all it may entail.

February 18 Politics: Abraham Lincoln declares the port of Brownsville, Texas, open for business and terminates the Federal blockade there.

February 19 Societal: The Knights of Pythias, a fraternal and benevolent society, is founded in Washington, D.C., by Justus H. Rathbone and 12 other associates.

February 20 Military: The Battle of Olustee, Florida, transpires between generals Thomas Seymour and Joseph Finnegan, with both sides numbering roughly 5,000 men apiece. The Northerners advance upon Finnegan’s force, strongly dug in behind entrenchments, but Seymour orders them to charge. The attackers are beaten back with loss and Seymour uses his remaining bridge under Colonel James Montgomery to cover his retreat. He loses 1,861 men—a staggering loss rate of 34 percent—while Finnegan sustains 946, or 20 percent. Consequently, Florida is secured for the Confederacy. Naval: Admiral John A. B. Dahlgren, greatly alarmed by the loss of the USS Housatonic to a Confederate submarine attack, suggests to Navy Secretary Gideon Welles that the government offer a $20,000–30,000 reward for the cap-

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ture or destruction of any such craft. “They are worth more to us than that,” he concludes.

February 22 Military: Confederate cavalry under General Nathan B. Forrest attacks and defeats a larger Union rear guard under General William Sooy Smith near Okolona, Mississippi. However, resistance stiffens as the Southerners engage the main Union body and several of Forrest’s charges are bloodily repelled. Two Union countercharges likewise fail with the loss of six cannon, and Smith ultimately retreats in the direction of Pontotoc. Politics: Senator Samuel Pomeroy of Kansas, viewing President Abraham Lincoln as unelectable, begins a covert attempt to have Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase drafted as the Republican Party’s standard bearer for this year. However, once his “Pomeroy Circular” is printed, it creates an uproar and a backlash against Chase, who promptly ends his candidacy for the presidency. He also offers to resign but Lincoln declines to accept. Michael Hahn is elected governor of the free-state portions of Louisiana.

February 23 Politics: Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase absents himself from cabinet meetings in light of disclosures surrounding the recent “Pomeroy Circular.”

February 24 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln signs legislation to compensate slave owners in Union-controlled regions by paying them $300 for each of their slaves who enlist in the Union army. The U.S. Senate, following the House of Representatives, votes to create the rank of lieutenant general.

February 25 Military: General John M. Palmer and his XVI Corps continue probing Confederate positions at Buzzard Roost Gap, Georgia, but encounter heavy resistance. After a flanking move by General Jefferson C. Davis along the western side of the imposing ridge, Palmer calls off the attempt and withdraws for the evening. Union losses are 289 casualties to 140 Confederates, but afterward General George H. Thomas divines the strategy of sending Union troops through Snake Gap Creek, 15 miles behind Confederate lines, to outflank the defenders.

February 26 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln reaffirms his faith in General Benjamin F. Butler and also commutes all death sentences for desertion to imprisonment for the duration of the war.

February 27 Military: Andersonville Prison, near Americus, Georgia, a 161⁄2-acre log stockade, receives its first Union captives. Crowded and squalid from the onset, it gains infamy as the worst prison site in the Confederacy.

February 29 Politics: The U.S. Congress formally revives the rank of lieutenant general at the behest of President Abraham Lincoln.

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March 1 Military: A Union cavalry column under General Hugh J. Kilpatrick, meeting resistance as he approaches the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, suddenly cancels the raid, veers away, and recrosses the Chickahominy Creek. Colonel Ulric Dahlgren, meanwhile, finding the James River swollen and impassible, decides to shift his attack from the east, then also suspends the attack and begins circling back to rejoin Kilpatrick. Politics: President Abraham Lincoln nominates General Ulysses S. Grant for the rank of lieutenant general.

March 2 Politics: The U.S. Senate confers the rank of lieutenant general on Ulysses S. Grant.

March 4

Ulysses S. Grant (National Archives)

Politics: The U.S. Senate confirms Andrew Johnson as governor of Tennessee. Pro-Union governor Michael Hahn is sworn into office at New Orleans, Louisiana.

March 5

Politics: Confederate authorities issue new regulations mandating that all Southern vessels donate half their cargo capacity to government shipments. This is undertaken as much to reduce wartime profiteering as to alleviate mounting supply shortages.

March 8 Military: General Ulysses S. Grant formally accepts his commission as lieutenant general in a ceremony at the White House, then meets and confers with President Abraham Lincoln for the first time. Grant thus becomes the first American military leader to hold such lofty rank since George Washington.

March 9 Military: General Ulysses S. Grant succeeds General Henry W. Halleck as general in chief, with the latter being demoted to chief of staff. Furthermore, to maintain good relationships with the Army of the Potomac, Grant retains General George G. Meade as the commander of that force.

March 12 Military: Sweeping leadership changes are finalized in the Union army with General Ulysses S. Grant in overall command of military operations, General Henry W. Halleck serving as chief of staff, General William T. Sherman leading the Military Division of the Mississippi, and General James B. McPherson heading both the Army and Department of the Tennessee. Naval: Admiral David D. Porter leads a Union armada of 13 ironclads, four tinclads, and four wooden gunboats up the Red River, Louisiana, in concert with the Shreveport Expedition of General Nathaniel P. Banks. Meanwhile, army trans-

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ports convey the 3rd Division, XVI Corps of General Andrew J. Smith up as an advanced force.

March 13 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln, after receiving a signed petition from African Americans in Louisiana, encourages Governor Michael Hahn to consider drafting a new state constitution that allows minorities to vote. Curiously, of the 1,000 blacks signing the document, no less than 27 had previously served under General Andrew Jackson in the War of 1812 with a promise of freedom that was subsequently reneged on.

March 15 Politics: Michael Hahn, newly elected governor of Louisiana, receives powers previously reserved for the military government as civilian authority is slowly revived and reinstituted. This event proves a forerunner of what ultimately transpires during Reconstruction in the postwar period.

March 18 Military: General William T. Sherman formally gains appointment as commander of the Military Division of the Mississippi. Slavery: Pro-Union Arkansas voters ratify a new constitution mandating the abolition of slavery.

March 19 Politics: The Georgia state legislature grants President Jefferson Davis a vote of confidence and, following the next significant Confederate victory, desires that peace talks be conducted with Washington, D.C, but solely on the basis of recognizing Southern independence.

March 21 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln approves legislation allowing the Nevada and Colorado territories to become states.

March 23 Military: General Frederick Steele, ordered into the field by the War Department and beset by chronic supply shortages, reluctantly leads 10,400 Union troops out of Little Rock, Arkansas. His mission is to proceed east and link up with the Red River Expedition of General Nathaniel P. Banks. Steele objects to campaigning as the roads, such as they are, remain poor while his flanks are vulnerable to attack by hard-riding Confederate cavalry.

March 24 Military: General Nathaniel P. Banks finally arrives at Alexandria, Louisiana, a week behind schedule, before leading the Union drive up the Red River toward Shreveport. He receives additional bad news in the form of declining water levels on the river itself, which jeopardizes continuing naval support from Admiral David D. Porter’s gunboats. Undeterred, Banks elects to proceed.

March 25 Military: General Nathan B. Forrest attacks and captures the town of Paducah, Kentucky, with his force of 2,800 troopers. Colonel Stephen G. Hicks, the garrison commander, refuses to surrender and withdraws his 665 men into the safety of

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Chronology of American History nearby Fort Anderson, where he repels a Confederate attack. Forrest then withdraws with 50 captives and 400 horses, some of which are confiscated from civilians.

March 27 Military: Union prisoners begin arriving en masse at Camp Sumter in Andersonville, Georgia. Once filled to capacity, it becomes the most squalid and infamous prison camp throughout the South.

March 28 Politics: Charleston, Illinois, is the scene of violent antiwar rioting, aimed at Union soldiers on furlough. Throngs of Democrats gather to hear antiwar Congressional candidate John R. Eden speak, as hundreds of soldiers mill around in curiosity. Once liquor begins flowing, shots are suddenly exchanged between the two sides and Democrats under Sheriff John O’Hare begin retrieving hidden weapons from nearby wagons. Six men are killed and 20 injured by the Knights of the Golden Circle (Copperheads) before the violence is suppressed by additional troops. An additional 50 Democrats are arrested, with 29 held indefinitely by military authorities at Springfield until a clemency order from President Abraham Lincoln releases them.

March 29 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln prevails upon General George G. Meade to forsake a court of inquiry pertaining to his performance at the battle of Gettysburg. For several months now the general has weathered blistering attacks upon his leadership by the Northern press.

April 1 Military: General Frederick Steele, having waited in vain for cavalry reinforcements under General John M. Thayer, departs Arkadelphia, Arkansas, and begins to march for the Red River, Louisiana. All men and animals under his command are already on half rations while his progress is dogged by Confederate cavalry under Joseph O. Shelby and John S. Marmaduke.

April 4 Diplomacy: In light of French aggression toward Mexico, the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passes a resolution protesting the policies of Napoleon III. It reaffirms American resolve never to recognize a monarchical regime arising in the Western hemisphere at the behest of any European power, consistent with the Monroe Doctrine. The Congress also lends its moral support to rebel forces under President Benito Juarez.

April 6 Military: The army of General Nathaniel P. Banks wends its way along the banks of the Red River and along a narrows toward Shreveport, Louisiana. The route is poorly chosen for Banks’s army is strung out for miles in single file in the bayou wilderness and susceptible to attack by General Richard Taylor. Slavery: The Convention of Louisiana, meeting in New Orleans, adopts a new state constitution abolishing slavery.

April 8 Military: The Union Army of 18,000 men under General Nathaniel P. Banks moves along single file toward Mansfield, Louisiana, where it is suddenly attacked by 8,000 Confederates led by General Richard Taylor at Sabine Crossroads. Taylor observed how attenuated the Union force was and ordered his command forward.

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The rebels crash through two Federal lines, overrunning Banks’ artillery and wagon train, which they stop to plunder. Banks, soundly thrashed, retreats with a loss of 2,235 men. Taylor, in comparison, captures 20 cannon, 200 wagons, and 1,000 draft animals for less than 1,000 casualties.

April 9 Military: Union strategy for an all-out push against the Confederacy is finalized by General Ulysses S. Grant into five major components: General Nathaniel P. Banks is to capture Mobile, Alabama; General William T. Sherman will drive deep into Georgia from Tennessee and seize Atlanta; General Franz Sigel is to advance down into the Shenandoah Valley, breadbasket of the Confederacy; and General Benjamin F. Butler will descend upon Richmond, Virginia, from the south bank of the James River. Most importantly, General George G. Meade’s Army of the Potomac is to seek out and rivet their attention upon General Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia. Politics: The U.S. Senate approves the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution by a vote of 38 to six. The legislation, aimed at outlawing slavery, is then passed to the House of Representatives for ratification. General Nathaniel P. Banks consolidates 15,000 men of his shaken army, soon reinforced by two veteran corps from General Andrew J. Smith’s XVI Corps, along Pleasant Hill, Louisiana. General Richard Taylor then advances upon the Federals at 9:00 a.m. with 12,000 men and attacks. The rebels are soundly repulsed in stiff fighting and Taylor gradually withdraws, which rescues Banks from his previous defeat at Mansfield. Union losses are 1,506 to a Confederate tally of 1,621. The Northerners still continue retreating to Grand Ecore, spelling an end to the vaunted Red River Campaign.

April 10 Military: Union forces under General Frederick Steele encounter stiff Confederate resistance from General Sterling Price at Prairie D’Ane, Arkansas, and a running battle ensues over the next four days. However, with the Red River campaign of General Nathaniel P. Banks now ignominiously defeated, Steele suddenly finds himself marooned deep behind enemy lines with few supplies and no prospect of reinforcements.

April 11 Politics: The pro-Union administration of Governor Isaac Murphy is inaugurated at Little Rock, Arkansas.

April 12 Military: General Nathan B. Forrest leads 1,500 Confederate cavalry in an attack upon Fort Pillow, Tennessee, on the Mississippi River, then guarded by 557 Union soldiers, including 262 African Americans, under Major Lionel F. Booth. The Confederates succeed after a bloody fight, at which point many of the black soldiers are murdered. Confederate losses are 14 dead and 86 wounded, a pittance compared to the Federal tally of 231 killed, 100 wounded, and 226 captured—only 58 blacks are taken alive.

April 15 Politics: Governor Andrew Johnson of Tennessee delivers a speech in Knoxville endorsing the principles of emancipation.

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April 17 Military: General Ulysses S. Grant suspends all prisoner exchanges until the Confederates release identical numbers of Union captives—an impossible demand, given their restricted manpower. Confederate authorities strongly disagree with his dictates, and the practice of prisoner exchanges halts altogether, depriving the South of an important source of trained military manpower.

April 18 Military: Confederate cavalry under General John S. Marmaduke detects a party of 1,170 Union soldiers near Poison Springs, Arkansas, and advances to give battle with 3,335 troopers. Southern numbers gradually assert themselves and the Federals suddenly break in panic and flee to the rear. Poison Springs is a significant Union defeat for it requires General Frederick Steele’s army, at Camden, on the defensive, where it languishes on half rations.

April 19 Naval: The huge Confederate steam ram CSS Albemarle under Commander James W. Cooke attacks the Federal blockading squadron off Plymouth, North Carolina, Nathan Bedford Forrest (Library of Congress) sinking the USS Southfield and killing Commander C. W. Flusser. The surviving Union vessels then draw off, leaving the nearby army garrison unsupported. Politics: The U.S. Congress passes legislation admitting Nebraska as a state.

April 20 Military: The government reduces rations accorded to Southern prisoners of war in retaliation for mistreatment of Union captives. General Robert F. Hoke attacks and captures 2,800 Union soldiers and a large quantity of supplies at Plymouth, North Carolina, after a three-day siege. Key to his success was the sudden appearance of the steam ram CSS Ablemarle, which bombarded the defenders from offshore. Confederate losses are 163 killed and 554 wounded.

April 21 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln confers with the governors of Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa.

April 22 Slavery: President Jefferson Davis writes General Leonidas K. Polk respecting African-American prisoners. “If the negroes are escaped slaves, they should be held safely for recovery by their owners,” he states, “If otherwise, inform me.”

April 25 Military: A force of 4,000 Confederate cavalry under General William L. Cabell surprises a Union wagon train at Mark’s Mills, Arkansas, catching the armed guard of Colonel Francis M. Drake in a pincer. Cabell seizes 240 wagons and

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1,700 prisoners as only 300 Federals escape back to their main force at Camden. Moreover, the enraged Southerners also murder 150 African-American slaves who had attached themselves to the column. Outnumbered and nearly surrounded by Confederates under generals Edmund Kirby-Smith and Sterling Price, General Frederick Steele abandons Camden, Arkansas, and retreats to Little Rock. He begins methodically evacuating that night and cleverly slips past Confederate outposts without detection.

April 27 Diplomacy: President Jefferson Davis dispatches a special commissioner to Canada to help possibly negotiate a truce with the United States.

April 28 Naval: Admiral David D. Porter’s flotilla remains trapped on the Red River by receding water levels. The admiral himself is resigned to the necessity of scuttling his entire squadron to prevent its capture, and he advises Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles that “you may judge my feelings at having to perform so painful a duty.”

April 29 Naval: Admiral David D. Porter’s gunboat flotilla is almost completely stranded on the Red River near Alexandria, Louisiana, by receding waters. Fortunately, succor arrives in the form of army engineer Colonel Joseph Bailey, who proposes building a series of dams to raise the water. The result is one of the best improvisations of the entire war. Politics: The U.S. Congress increases all import duties by 50 percent to better fund the war effort.

April 30 General: Five-year-old Joe Davis, son of President Jefferson Davis, dies of injuries received at a fall from the Confederate White House in Richmond, Virginia. Military: The Battle of Jenkin’s Ferry, Arkansas, unfolds as Confederate cavalry under General John S. Marmaduke attacks a Union rearguard under General Samuel Rice. Meanwhile, General Frederick Steele successfully passes the bulk of his army over the Sabine River and extricates his command. Men of the 2nd Colored Infantry subsequently murder several Southern prisoners in retaliation for atrocities against them at Poison Spring in April. Naval: To assist the gunboat squadron of Admiral David D. Porter, engineer Colonel Joseph Bailey begins constructing a dam of logs across the Red River. “Two or three regiments of Maine men were set to work felling trees,” Porter notes, “Everyman seemed to be working with a vigor seldom equaled.” Slavery: President Jefferson Davis issues orders to return all captured slaves found fighting in Union ranks back to their rightful orders “on proof and payment of charges.”

May 2 Military: General Franz Sigel leads 6,500 Union troops out of Winchester, Virginia, and down the Shenandoah Valley Pike toward New Market. His goal is to deny the Confederacy any food or cattle grown in this highly productive region. Politics: President Jefferson Davis addresses the opening session of the Second Confederate Congress, accusing Northerners of “barbarism” through their

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Chronology of American History “plunder and devastation of property of noncombatants, destruction of private dwellings, and even edifices devoted to the worship of God.”

May 3 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln and his cabinet discuss the recent murder of African-American prisoners at Fort Pillow, Tennessee.

May 4 Military: Generals Ulysses S. Grant and George G. Meade direct the Army of the Potomac across the Rapidan River, Virginia, toward the heavily forested area known as the Wilderness. They lead a veteran force of 122,000 men, divided into four commands: General Winfield S. Hancock’s II Corps, the V Corps under General Gouvernor K. Warren, John Sedgwick’s VI Corps, and General Ambrose E. Burnside’s IX Corps. General William T. Sherman advances his force of 110,000 men from Chattanooga, Tennessee, and against Confederate forces under General Joseph E. Johnston. The Union goal is Atlanta, Georgia, an important communications hub. Politics: The U.S. House of Representatives passes the punitively worded WadeDavis Reconstruction Bill, 73 to 59, over President Abraham Lincoln’s objections. Curiously, Radical Republicans like Thaddeus Stevens find the measure far too conciliatory to their liking.

May 5 Education: The Society of Friends founds Swarthmore College near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Military: The Battle of the Wilderness erupts once General Gouvernor K. Warren’s V Corps encounters General Richard S. Ewell’s II Corps along the Orange Turnpike Road. Warren is well situated to sweep the Southerners before him, but insurmountable delays grant Ewell time to rush up reinforcements. Two miles south, General Winfield S. Hancock’s II Corps engages General Ambrose P. Hill’s III Corps in fierce fighting. An all-out Confederate advance surges ahead initially, but Hill is halted by General George W. Getty’s division, VI Corps, who stands long enough for Hancock to bring sufficient numbers up. Naval: The ironclad ram CSS Albemarle under Commander James W. Cooke, escorted by the smaller Bombshell and Cotton Planter, steams into Albemarle Sound off Plymouth, North Carolina, to engage the Federal squadron anchored there. However, Captain Melanchton Smith keeps the Southerners under a steady bombardment and, with Albemarle damaged and maneuvering badly, Cooke orders his vessel back up the Roanoke River for repairs.

May 6 Military: The Battle of the Wilderness continues as General Winfield S. Hancock’s II Corps, advancing down the Orange Plank Road, smashes into General Ambrose P. Hill’s III Corps, nearly breaking it. Suddenly General James Longstreet makes his belated appearance with the veteran I Corps and strikes Hancock’s left and rear. Longstreet is then seriously wounded by friendly fire while General Micah Jenkins, riding alongside him, is killed. Delays ensue, and when the Confederates finally sort themselves out and advance, they encounter entrenched Federal troops backed by artillery and are repulsed.

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Two miles away, General John Sedgwick’s VI Corps renews its struggle against General Richard S. Ewell’s II Corps along the Orange Turnpike. A fresh Confederate division under General John B. Gordon then manages to work its way around the Union right and charges, severely disrupting their entire line. The onset of nightfall dampens further fighting, and both sides settle in behind entrenchments. Worse, the dry vegetation and undergrowth are set ablaze by the fighting, and hundreds of wounded soldiers, unable to crawl to safety, perish in the flames. The Wilderness is a dazzling tactical upset by General Robert E. Lee, who tackles an opponent twice his size in an area where he is least expected—and handles him roughly. Grant, who endured the ignominy of having both flanks turned, suffers frightful losses of 17,666; Confederate casualties, through not recorded, are probably in the vicinity of 8,000, but Grant is undeterred and maintains the strategic initiative by sidestepping around Lee’s left flank, inching ever closer to Richmond, Virginia, and forcing the indomitable Southerners to follow.

May 7 Military: The struggle for the Wilderness concludes once General Ulysses S. Grant sets a strategic precedent by ignoring his losses and slipping around the Confederate flank. He then marches 12 miles southeast to Spotsylvania Court House. General Philip A. Sheridan has only the division of General Wesley Merritt available to him, and these troops are sent trotting down the road to Spotsylvania. En route General George A. Custer’s brigade runs headlong into General Fitzhugh Lee’s dismounted Confederates at Todd’s Tavern, skirmishing furiously. Additional cavalry units are fed into the fray, but the Southerners manage to keep their line intact and Spotsylvania remains in their hands. Union losses are around 250, the Confederates sustain possibly half as many. The Atlanta Campaign begins. General William T. Sherman, commanding the armies of the Cumberland (General George H. Thomas), the Ohio (General John M. Schofield), and the Tennessee (General James B. McPherson), roughly 112,000 men, advances upon Dalton, Georgia. There he confronts the Army of Tennessee under General Joseph E. Johnston, who commands 62,000 Confederates. These are organized into two corps under generals John B. Hood and William J. Hardee, while a third corps under General Leonidas K. Polk is en route from Mississippi. Southern mounted troops are entrusted to the highly capable General Joseph Wheeler.

May 8 Military: Thousands of soldiers from both sides file into positions along a threemile front at Spotsylvania Court House, Virginia. General Gouvernor K. Warren’s V Corps and General John Sedgwick’s VI Corps then charge the Southerners headlong in their fieldworks, being heavily repulsed. That night General Robert E. Lee instructs his men to continue felling trees, digging trenches, strengthening the entire line with them.

May 9 Military: General George Crook, riding at the head of 6,155 Union troops, advances into southwestern Virginia to destroy a portion of the Virginia & Tennessee Railroad. En route he encounters 2,400 Confederates and 10 cannon under

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Chronology of American History General Albert G. Jenkins at Cloyd’s Mountain. A bloody impasse continues for several hours until a Union column suddenly appears on the Southern left and rolls up their line. Crook then burns the New River Bridge, thereby obtaining his objective.

May 10 Military: Determined to test Confederate defenses, General Ulysses S. Grant begins organizing large-scale assaults near Spotsylvania, Virginia. He believes that General Robert E. Lee has sufficiently weakened his center by reinforcing both flanks and singles out the “Mule Shoe” in consequence. Colonel Emory Upton, who arrays his 12 regiments in a densely packed assault column, charges forward and penetrates the Mule Shoe’s left flank, overturning General Richard Rodes’s division and taking 1,000 prisoners. The lodgment, however, is not properly supported and ultimately fails, but Grant remains highly impressed by Upton’s innovation; he vows to try the same experiment with an entire corps next day. Three brigades of Confederate troopers under General J. E. B. Stuart arrive at Beaver Dam Station, Virginia, hotly trailing General Philip H. Sheridan’s cavalry column. Though outnumbered, Stuart dispatches a brigade under General James B. Gordon to harass the Union rear while deploying generals William C. Wickham and Lunsford L. Lomax into blocking positions at the junction of Yellow Tavern, only six miles north of Richmond. Union General James B. McPherson declines pushing ahead through Snake Gap Creek, Georgia, and commences fortifying his position. Unknown at the time, he was opposed only by a single cavalry brigade under General James Canty. McPherson then digs in and awaits developments. General Joseph E. Johnston’s line of retreat thus remains intact and, when apprised of the danger, he immediate shifts his forces to safer ground. Naval: Back on the Red River, the dam constructed by Colonel Joseph Bailey is deliberately breached and the ironclads USS Mound City, Pittsburgh, and Carondelet successfully shoot the rapids. Admiral David D. Porter is delighted and informs Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles that “The passage of these vessels was a beautiful sight, only to be realized when seen.”

May 11 Military: Ignoring heavy losses, General Ulysses S. Grant renews the struggle at Spotsylvania Court House by attacking the Confederate center again. This time he instructs the entire II Corps of General Winfield S. Hancock drawn up into dense attack columns to spearhead the assault. Meanwhile, General Robert E. Lee carefully monitors Union movements and concludes that Grant is preparing to slip around his left flank again. He inadvertently orders all artillery removed from the Mule Shoe, rendering it more vulnerable to attack. At 11:00 a.m., a tremendous cavalry fight erupts as 4,500 Confederates under General J. E. B. Stuart are attacked by twice their numbers under General Philip H. Sheridan at Yellow Tavern, Virginia. The attackers are repelled, but Stuart is mortally wounded in the stomach and Sheridan is forced to withdraw eastward down the Chickahominy River. Union losses are 704 men while the Southerners sustain more than 300—including the irreplaceable Stuart, who dies the following day.

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May 12 Military: The struggle at Spotsylvania Court House, Virginia, is renewed as General Ulysses S. Grant launches a bruising frontal assault against the center of General Robert E. Lee’s line. General Winfield S. Hancock’s II Corps, arrayed in dense columns, slams irresistibly into the Mule Shoe and overwhelms General Edward Johnson’s “Stonewall Brigade,” capturing him, 3,000 prisoners, and 20 cannon. Then a vicious, point-blank musketry duel breaks out which degenerates into hand-to-hand fighting, bayonets rasping, and rock throwing. The melee occasions such terrible carnage that the area is christened “Bloody Angle” by the survivors. At length Grant is forced to call off the attack, which affords stark testimony to the power of Confederate fieldworks, which have elevated the lowly spade to that of rifles and cannon in tactical significance. Union losses are 18,339 men to 10,000 Confederates.

May 13 Naval: The USS Louisville, Chillicothe, and Ozark, last of Admiral David D. Porter’s gunboats, dash over a wing dam on the Red River, Louisiana, and float off to safety. The ingenuity of army engineers under Colonel Joseph Bailey saved an entire squadron from imminent capture or destruction.

May 14 Military: The armies of generals William T. Sherman and Joseph E. Johnston confront each other in full battle array at Resaca, Georgia. The Federals muster 100,000 men and the Confederates, recently joined by a corps under General Leonidas K. Polk, number 60,000. Union troops manage to storm a line of Southern earthworks along Camp Creek, situated on some low-lying hills, a significant gain enabling them to post artillery pieces and shell the entire Confederate line. The toughest struggle, however, is waged on the Union left, where aggressive General John B. Hood successfully attacked along the Dalton-Resaca wagon road until a division dispatched by General George H. Thomas drives them back. More hard fighting is anticipated on the following day. General Franz Sigel resumes advancing with 6,500 men toward New Market, Virginia, as 5,500 Confederates under General John C. Breckinridge assume strong defensive positions. Breckinridge then suddenly sends forward two infantry brigades linked by a dismounted cavalry force, and they sweep through the town by driving Sigel’s men before them. However, when a gap forms in his line, Breckinridge is forced to commit 264 cadets (or ’Katydids”) from the nearby Virginia Military Institute to fill it. At 3:00 p.m., the Confederates crown the heights and seize two cannon while the defeated Federals withdraw across the Shenandoah River to safety.

May 15 Military: The Battle of Resaca resumes as Union forces under General Joseph Hooker engage the Confederates of General John B. Hood on the Union left. Meanwhile, General William T. Sherman orders a division of the XVI Corps across the Oostanaula River to seize a strategic railroad bridge in the Southern rear. General Joseph E. Johnston, his lines of communication now imperiled, expertly disengages, throws a pontoon bridge over the Oostanaula, and withdraws to safety in the predawn darkness. Losses in the two-day struggle are roughly 6,000 Union and 5,000 Confederates as Sherman continues pushing ever deeper into Georgia.

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May 16 Military: General Pierre G. T. Beauregard leads 18,000 Confederates in a sharp attack against General Benjamin F. Butler’s Army of the James near Drewry’s Bluff, Virginia. General Robert Ransom’s men charge and capture General Charles A. Heckman and 400 prisoners before ammunition shortages force him to halt. Meanwhile, Southerners under General Robert F. Hoke hit the Union center but, becoming lost in the fog, his attack sputters. Butler then withdraws behind fortifications along Bermuda Hundred. Confederate losses are 2,506 while the Union sustains 4,160 casualties. The Federals are now completely corked into the Peninsula, unable to move.

May 19 General: Literary circles are saddened to hear of the death of noted New England writer and novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne at Plymouth, New Hampshire.

May 20 Military: General Ulysses S. Grant directs the Army of the Potomac south and east in an attempt to outflank Confederate defenses along the Mattaponi River, Virginia. His objective is Hanover Station, 24 miles north of Richmond, where the Virginia Central Railroad intersects with the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac Railroad, two major Southern supply arteries. General Pierre G. T. Beauregard, intending to further pen up General Benjamin F. Butler’s Army of the James in the Bermuda Hundred Peninsula, attacks Union positions at Ware Bottom Church, Virginia. Initially, the divisions of generals Alfred H. Terry and Adelbert Ames are hard pressed before counterattacking and driving their antagonists back to their starting positions. Union losses are roughly 800 to 700 for the Confederates, but Butler remains effectively hemmed in and unable to assist the main drive outside of Richmond, Virginia.

May 21 Diplomacy: Secretary of State William H. Seward instructs U.S. Minister to France John Bigelow that, while he is to remonstrate against French activities in Mexico, he must avoid outright belligerence until after the Civil War has been successfully concluded. Military: Bested by Southern fortifications around Spotsylvania, General Ulysses S. Grant begins probing Confederate lines near Milford Station, Virginia. He is surprised by the lack of strong resistance and prepares to sidestep around General Robert E. Lee’s left flank and appear in force across the Anna River.

May 23 Military: The II Corps of General Winfield S. Hancock deploys on the northern bank of the North Anna River at Chesterfield Ford while the XI Corps under General Ambrose E. Burnside lands at Jericho Mills. Meanwhile the V and VI Corps under generals Gouvernor K. Warren and Horatio G. Wright, respectively, fan out into the area west of Jericho Mills.

May 25 Military: The XX Corps under General Joseph Hooker, advancing upon New Hope Church, Georgia, collides headlong into General John B. Hood’s Confederates. The Federals are initially repulsed until Hooker masses two entire divisions and charges the troops of General Alexander P. Stewart. Stewart, however, clings

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tenaciously to his ground, and at length Hooker retires with 1,600 casualties. This encounter places Union troops only 25 miles northeast of Atlanta.

May 26 Settlement: The Montana Territory is carved out of the Idaho Territory and establishes its preliminary capital at Bannock.

May 28 Diplomacy: Puppet Emperor Maximilian of Austria lands at Veracruz, Mexico, in order to assume his throne. A political neophyte, he is backed by the machinations of French emperor Napoleon III and opposed by Mexican politician-turnedguerrilla Benito Juarez. The United States considers his presence a violation of the long-stated Monroe Doctrine, but it is too absorbed by civil war to lodge much beyond diplomatic protests.

May 31 Military: General Ulysses S. Grant’s Overland Campaign to Richmond, Virginia, while a costly tactic, succeeds brilliantly at the strategic level. In one very bloody month he has forced the redoubtable Army of Northern Virginia from field positions along the Rapidan River to the very gates of the Confederate capital. Politics: Radical Republicans, dissatisfied with President Abraham Lincoln, nominate former general John C. Frémont in Cleveland, Ohio, as their party candidate for the presidency. They also choose General John Cochrane of New York as vice president. Among Frémont’s strongest supporters is African-American abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who feels that Lincoln is far too leniently disposed toward Southerners in his reconstruction plans.

June 2 Military: At Cold Harbor, Virginia, General Ulysses S. Grant prepares his men for a frontal assault against what he perceives are weak Confederate lines. However, he cancels the operation after General Winfield S. Hancock’s II Corps, exhausted by marching in hot weather, arrives in poor condition. Grant reluctantly postpones his attack another day, allowing General Robert E. Lee additional time to fortify and dig in.

June 3 Military: The Battle of Cold Harbor unfolds across a continuous, seven-mile front dotted by earthen fortifications and interlocking fields of fire. The Southern position, manned by 59,000 men, confronts 108,000 Federal troops. General Ulysses S. Grant then orders his men to charge across open fields in dense columns as the defenders unleash withering torrents of bullets and canister, cutting them down in droves. Within 30 minutes 7,000 Federals are casualties, while the Confederates sustain roughly 1,500 loses. It is the biggest military blunder of Grant’s career and the Northern press begins assailing him as a “butcher.” General Robert E. Lee had won his final open-field battle, for Cold Harbor also marks an end to the mobile phase of the Overland Campaign to Richmond, Virginia. Since May, both sides have absorbed tremendous losses, with Union casualties exceeding 50,000. The Southern toll exceeds 32,000 which, while numerically smaller, actually constitutes a higher percentage of their army, 46 to 41 percent. General Ulysses S. Grant, moreover, receives a constant and steady flow of reinforcements, whereas Confederate manpower resources are dwindling.

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June 5 Military: Having advanced down the Shenandoah Valley as far as Harrisonburg before turning east, General David Hunter leads 15,000 Union troops on to engage 5,600 Confederates under General William E. Jones at Piedmont, Virginia. Charging through a gap in the Southern line, the Federals capture all of Jones’s artillery and his line shatters. Jones is killed rallying his command, which loses 1,600 men to a Union tally of 780.

June 7 Politics: The Republican Party convenes in Baltimore, Maryland, to nominate its presidential and vice presidential candidates. Assisted by several pro-war Democrats, they are able to portray themselves as the “National Union Convention.”

June 8 Politics: The Republican Party convention held at Baltimore, Maryland, renominates Abraham Lincoln to run for the presidency. However, sitting Vice President Hannibal Hamlin is dropped in favor of Tennessee governor Andrew Johnson, a Southern War Democrat, whose presence will broaden the ticket’s appeal. Their platform calls for a military end to the rebellion and ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to abolish slavery.

June 9 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln endorses a constitutional amendment to outlaw slavery.

June 10 Diplomacy: The Austrian prince Maximilian is crowned emperor of Mexico at the behest of France and his throne is backed by a large French army. He is competing with fugitive president Benito Juarez for the hearts of Mexicans. Military: In a display of tactical virtuosity, General Nathan B. Forrest and 3,500 Confederate cavalry rout a Union force twice its size at Brice’s Cross Road, Mississippi. Forrest anticipated that General Samuel D. Sturgis would commit his cavalry to battle first, followed by his infantry, and he determined to defeat each as they came up. Eager to maintain the battlefield initiative, Forrest next unleashes simultaneous attacks that strike the Union left, right, and center while a small force maneuvers around Sturgis’s rear. The tiring Federals, hit from all sides, suddenly bolt and careen headfirst into their own wagon and artillery train, overturning both. Forrest, defeating twice his numbers, suffers 492 casualties and inflicts 2,240. Politics: In light of a growing manpower crisis, the Confederate Congress authorizes military service for all males between the ages of 17 and 50.

June 11 Military: General Philip H. Sheridan rides into Trevilian Station, Virginia, where he encounters the dismounted division of General Wade Hampton waiting for him in the woods. He quickly dispatches the Michigan brigade of General George A. Custer to turn Hampton’s flank and slash his rear, which he does with aplomb. Custer then dashes in between Hampton and General Fitzhugh Lee’s divisions, capturing 50 wagons, 800 prisoners, and 1,500 horses. Lee is tardy sorting his command out but then begins pressing the unsupported Custer hard. At the last

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minute Sheridan gallops up with reinforcements, and the Southerners retire with an additional 500 Confederate prisoners taken.

June 12 Military: General Philip H. Sheridan’s cavalry renews its clash with generals Wade Hampton and Fitzhugh Lee at Trevilian Station, Virginia. However, Hampton’s well-positioned troopers repel seven Union charges, at which point Sheridan concludes his raid and rides back to the main Union force at Petersburg. Trevilian Station is one of the largest cavalry clashes of the entire war and among the most costly: Sheridan admits to 735 casualties while the Confederate loss is estimated at roughly 1,000.

June 14 Military: In a major feat, Union engineers construct the 2,100-foot-long James River bridge from Windmill Point to Fort Powhatan, Virginia. It enables General Ulysses S. Grant to quickly shift his army across the river and threaten Petersburg. General Robert E. Lee is completely taken unawares.

June 15 Politics: The Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution fails to be ratified by the House of Representatives, falling 13 votes short (95 to 66) of the two-thirds majority required for passage. The U.S. Congress passes legislation granting equal pay to African-American soldiers. For many months black personnel refused to accept less pay than their white counterparts in protest. Former congressman and Peace Democrat Clement L. Vallandigham arrives in Ohio following his Canadian exile. He thereupon resumes his activities for securing a negotiated peace with the Confederacy.

June 16 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln, addressing the Sanitation Fair in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, declares “War, at best, is terrible, and this war of ours, in its magnitude and duration, is one of the most terrible.” He assures his audience, however, stating “We accepted this war for a worthy object, and the war will end when that object is attained.”

June 18 Military: The siege of Petersburg, Virginia, begins in earnest once General Robert E. Lee and 50,000 bedraggled, hungry men defend a line 26 miles in circumference while simultaneously guarding the four railroads out of the city that constitute his supply line. In contrast, General Ulysses S. Grant leads 110,000 well-fed, well-equipped soldiers, backed by a steady stream of reinforcements that the Confederates cannot match. The past four days of fighting along the city’s outskirts cost the Union 10,586 casualties while the Southerners lost around 4,000. General David Hunter’s 18,000 Union troops renew their attack upon Lynchburg, Virginia. However, newly arrived Confederates under General Jubal A. Early boost the defenders to 14,000, who resist tenaciously. Hunter concludes that the enemy has been reinforced overnight and outnumbers him, so he orders an ignominious retreat back up the Shenandoah Valley. Early then recaptures the strategic initiative by energetically pursuing his larger adversary.

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June 19 Naval: The USS Kearsarge under Captain John A. Winslow engages the CSS Alabama under Captain Raphael Semmes off Cherbourg, France. The Union vessel enjoys a slightly larger crew and marginally heavier armament, along with the decided advantage that Alabama’s ammunition has deteriorated from lengthy exposure to salt air. Both vessels handle their guns well; Kearsarge receives 28 hits, including a potentially disastrous strike by a 100-pound shell that fails to explode. On the other hand, the Union gunnery is superb and inflicts tremendous hull damage to its adversary, puncturing the Alabama repeatedly. Within an hour the ship is listing and Semmes, unable to dash for the French coast, abandons ship. This action terminates the South’s most celebrated commerce raider.

June 21 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln visits Union troops in the siege lines of Petersburg, Virginia, making a conspicuous target for snipers in his tall, stovepipe hat. Confederate Secretary of the Treasury Christopher G. Memminger resigns over criticism of his handling of monetary affairs.

June 22 Military: General Ulysses S. Grant, confronting strong Southern defenses before him at Petersburg, Virginia, tries his time-honored tactic of shifting troops around their flank in a bid to extend and weaken their lines by cutting the Weldon Railroad. General David B. Birney’s II Corps and General Horatio G. Wright’s VI Corps advance through dense woods to reach their objective, but General Cadmus M. Wilcox’s division holds fast while generals William Mahone and Bushrod R. Johnson assail Birney’s flanks. The struggle is savage and rout the veteran Union division of General John Gibbon, taking 1,600 prisoners. General John B. Hood exceeds his orders to extend the Confederate left at Kennesaw Mountain by launching an unauthorized assault with 11,000 men against Union positions at Kolb’s Farm, Georgia. General Joseph Hooker, commanding 14,000 troops and 40 cannon, is forewarned of Hood’s approach and makes careful preparations to receive him. Concentrated rifle and artillery fire mow down the charging Confederates and Hood ultimately withdraws with 1,500 casualties to a Union total of 250.

June 23 Military: Union generals David B. Birney and Horatio G. Wright repeat their attack upon Confederate defenses guarding the Weldon Railroad, Virginia, with their II and VI Corps, respectively. A strong initial advance recovers all ground lost on the previous day, but a stubborn defense mounted by General William Mahone blocks them from reaching the railroad. At dusk the Federals again withdraw below the Jerusalem Plank Road with 2,962 casualties.

June 24 Slavery: The Maryland Convention gathers and votes to abolish slavery.

June 25 Military: Colonel Henry Pleasant’s 48th Pennsylvania, composed mostly of miners from Schuykill County, begins tunneling beneath Confederate defenses at Petersburg, Virginia. The plan is to run a 511-foot shaft beneath a South Carolina

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battery positioned at Elliott’s Salient and stock it with 8,000 pounds of gunpowder. Over the next month, General Ambrose E. Burnside also specially trains a division of African Americans under General Edward Ferrero to spearhead the assault once the charges have been detonated.

June 27 Military: General William T. Sherman wages the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, Georgia, against General Joseph E. Johnston. The Confederates are skillfully arrayed along high ground strewn with large boulders and trees—affording a perfect killing ground for troops advancing from below. The first Union wave consists of two divisions from General John A. Logan’s XV Corps, Army of the Tennessee. General William W. Loring responds with intense rifle and artillery fire, dropping Federals in bloody clumps. The main thrust against Johnston’s line occurs further south at Cheatham’s Hill, stoutly defended by General William J. Hardee’s corps. Up the hillside go 8,000 men from divisions under generals Jefferson C. Davis and John Newton, XIV Corps, heavily raked by fire from above which depletes their ranks. Sherman finally calls off the attack after losses of 3,000 men, including two generals killed; Johnston sustains about 750 casualties. Politics: Abraham Lincoln accepts the Republican Party nomination for the presidency.

June 28 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln signs legislation repealing the Fugitive Slave Act, a major irritant that helped spark the present conflagration.

June 30 Politics: The U.S. Congress approves the Internal Revenue Act to help finance the war. Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase tenders his resignation to President Abraham Lincoln who, much to his surprise, accepts it. “You and I have reached a point of mutual embarrassment in our official relation which seems cannot be overcome,” Lincoln writes, “or longer sustained, consistently with public service.”

July 1 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln appoints William P. Fessenden as his new secretary of the treasury. The U.S. Senate passes the vindictive Wade-Davis plan for reconstruction 26 to three, with 20 abstaining.

July 2 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln, finding the Wade-Davis plan for reconstruction too harsh for his liking, weighs simply not signing it and allowing it to die by pocket veto. Transportation: Congress authorizes the Northern Pacific Railroad to construct a line running from Lake Superior to Portland, Oregon, and thereby facilitate new settlements.

July 4 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln signs legislation modifying certain aspects of the Enrollment Act of 1863, striking the clause allowing substitutes to be purchased for $300.

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Chronology of American History The president also clashes with Radical Republicans over the tenor of reconstruction in the Wade-Davis Bill, which would have placed conditions solely in the hands of Congress. Lincoln specifically objects to provisions requiring loyalty oaths by 50 percent of each state’s 1860 population. In the end, he simply kills the measure by not signing it. Societal: The Bureau of Immigration is established by Congress to facilitate the importation of contract laborers.

July 5 Politics: New York Tribune editor Horace Greeley receives peace feelers from the Confederate government and he contacts President Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln allows him to meet with the individuals at Niagara Falls, New York.

July 7 Military: General Ulysses S. Grant, realizing the seriousness of Confederate thrusts in Maryland, rushes General James B. Rickett’s division (VI Corps) to Baltimore by rail, and from there it will march on foot to Monocacy Junction. There it will reinforce General Lew Wallace, holding the intersection with 3,000 men, who is contemplating a desperate holding action.

July 8 Military: A hodgepodge of Union troops under General Lew Wallace assumes defensive positions behind the Monocacy River near Frederick, Maryland, to defend the national capital from General Jubal A. Early’s advancing Confederates. On the day before battle he cobbles together a force of 6,000 men from various sources, which is all that stands in the way between the rebels and Washington, D.C.

July 9 Military: The Confederate Fabian tactics of General Joseph E. Johnston, which have so infuriated General William T. Sherman, unfortunately draw the ire of President Jefferson Davis. Seeking a possible pretext to relieve Johnston, whom he personally despises, Davis dispatches General Braxton Bragg to his headquarters on a “fact-finding” mission. Johnston, meanwhile, continues withdrawing from the Chattahoochee River to Peachtree Creek, only three miles north of Atlanta, Georgia. General Lew Wallace, with 6,000 troops, confronts 14,000 Confederates under General Jubal A. Early at Monocacy, Maryland. General James B. Rickett’s veteran division easily repels two charges by General John B. Gordon as the Southerners gradually work their way around the Union left. A final charge by General William R. Terry’s Virginia brigade dislodges the defenders and Wallace orders his entire force withdrawn up the Baltimore Pike in good order. Union losses are 1,800, while the Confederates sustain around 700. The road to Washington, D.C., is now wide open, but Monocacy delays Early’s advance by 24 hours and grants the capital time to shore up its defenses.

July 10 Military: Confederates under General Jubal A. Early file through Rockville, Maryland, to confront Union defenders at Fort Stevens, outside Washington, D.C. That post is only manned by 209 inexperienced artillerists but President Abraham Lincoln blithely exclaims “Let us be vigilant but keep cool. I hope neither Baltimore nor Washington will be sacked.”

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July 12 Military: Confederates under General Jubal A. Early withdraw from the vicinity of Washington, D.C., and are cautiously shadowed by General Horatio G. Wright’s Federal forces. For a few tense moments President Abraham Lincoln, visiting the parapets, is under enemy fire, and young Lieutenant Oliver Wendell Holmes (a future Supreme Court justice) unthinkingly shouts “Get down, you fool!”

July 14 Military: A force of 7,500 Confederates under generals Stephen D. Lee and Nathan B. Forrest gather to attack General Andrew J. Smith outside of Tupelo, Mississippi. Lee insists that they charge the awaiting Federals head on, and they are repeatedly decimated by concentrated rifle and artillery fire. Tupelo proves a surprising Union victory, but Forrest’s command survives the debacle intact and still functioning. Union losses are 674 to a Confederate tally of 1,326.

July 16 Politics: A pensive President Jefferson Davis telegraphs General Joseph E. Johnston at Atlanta, Georgia, “I wish to hear from you as to your present situation and your plan of operation so specifically as will enable me to anticipate events.” Johnston matter-of-factly replies, “As the enemy is double our number, we must be on the defensive. My plan of operations must therefore depend upon that of the enemy.”

July 17 Military: General Joseph E. Johnston is preparing to pounce on the isolated Army of the Cumberland under General George H. Thomas at Peachtree Creek, Georgia. Suddenly, a telegram arrives from President Jefferson Davis announcing his replacement by the impetuous, highly aggressive General John B. Hood. Davis’s antipathy for the highly capable Johnston proves a turning point in the course of events.

July 20 Military: No sooner does the 20,000-man Army of the Cumberland under General George H. Thomas cross Peachtree Creek, Georgia (three miles north of Atlanta), than it is set upon by 19,000 Confederates under newly appointed General John B. Hood. The hardest fighting occurs on the right wing where General Edward C. Walthall’s Confederates lace into the divisions of generals Alpheus S. Williams and John W. Geary, XX Corps, whereby the latter is nearly surrounded and hard-pressed for over three hours. Hood’s gambit ultimately fails so he suspends further fighting at 7:00 p.m. and orders a retreat. Peachtree Creek is the first of his highly audacious but ultimately futile attempts to save Atlanta, and it costs him 2,500 men to a Union tally of 1,779 killed, wounded, and missing.

July 22 Military: General John B. Hood initiates the Battle of Atlanta by ordering General William J. Hardee’s corps to strike at the Army of the Tennessee under General James B. McPherson. However, Hardy errs in not moving troops far enough to the east and, instead of turning McPherson’s left flank, he attacks him head on. Tragedy strikes Union forces when McPherson, reconnoitering ahead of his troops, stumbles onto a Confederate picket and is shot dead. Federal reinforcements then storm across the field in turn, driving the gray coats before them

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Chronology of American History and restoring their lines. Hood’s second sortie proves another costly failure that depletes his army of 8,000 men while Union losses are 3,722. Politics: President Jefferson Davis orders General Edmund Kirby-Smith to assist the Army of Tennessee under General John B. Hood. In light of the fact that the Mississippi River is full of Union gunboats, this proves an impossible order to fulfill.

July 23 Politics: The Louisiana State Convention adopts a new constitution which outlaws slavery.

July 24 Military: General Jubal A. Early’s 14,000 Confederates engage the smaller Union VIII Corps under General George Crook at Kernstown, Virginia. Crook’s 8,500 men initially withstand several charges until they are finally flanked by General John C. Breckinridge and driven from the field. Crook’s defeat would have been more costly had Early not mishandled his cavalry and he escapes intact. Unfortunately for the South, their victory here convinces the political establishment in Washington, D.C., that vigorous, new leadership is required to secure the Shenandoah region.

July 28 Indian: General Alfred Sully engages a large number of hostile Teton Lakota (Sioux) in their camp at Killdeer Mountain (North Dakota). Sully is looking for remnants of the Santee (Eastern Sioux) responsible for staging a bloody uprising in Minnesota two years earlier, especially their notorious chief, Inkpaduta. The latter sought refuge among his Teton brethren, who prepare to wage battle rather then turn him over. Sully takes the unusual step of deploying his 3,000 men in a hollow square and advancing in this formation upon the camp. This walking wall of firepower gradually evicts the Teton from their campsite and they flee, losing an estimated 150 warriors. Sully sustains five dead and 10 wounded. Military: General Oliver O. Howard and the Army of the Tennessee advance upon East Point, Georgia, determined to sever the last remaining rail links to Atlanta. Confederate General John B. Hood dispatches the corps of generals Stephen D. Lee and Alexander P. Stewart to hit the Union left flank at Ezra Church and roll it up. The Southerners advance as ordered but, instead of striking Howard’s flank, they mistakenly veer into the front of General John A. Logan’s XV Corps. By the time the Confederates depart Ezra Church they had lost upwards of 5,000 men to a Union tally of only 562. The battle dissuaded the Federals from cutting Atlanta’s rail lines and so depletes Hood’s army that hereafter he is forced on the defensive.

July 30 Military: The Battle of the Crater unfolds as fuses to an explosive-laden tunnel, dug beneath Confederates lines at Petersburg, Virginia, are lit. At 4:45 p.m., the ground beneath Elliot’s Salient erupts furiously, destroying an artillery emplacement and killing 278 North Carolina troops. The Union force pauses 15 minutes before charging into the smoking crater, which measures 1,870 feet long, 80 feet wide, and 30 feet deep. The Confederates recover more quickly than expected, rush reinforcement to the threatened point, and shoot downward into the mill-

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ing Federal troops. Union losses are 3,798 while the Southerners sustain 1,491 casualties. General George Stoneman’s cavalry column departs the outskirts of Macon, Georgia, and attempts circling around the city to cross the Ocmulgee River. He advances as far as Hillsboro before being set upon by General Alfred Iverson and three brigades of Confederate troopers near Sunshine Church and surrenders with 700 men. This “raid” proves one of the biggest cavalry fiascos of the entire war and nearly paralyzes General William T. Sherman’s mounted arm for several weeks.

August 4 Military: General William T. Sherman, pursuant to his strategy of circling Atlanta, Georgia, from the west, orders General John M. Schofield’s Army of the Ohio, reinforced by General John M. Palmer’s XIV Corps, Army of the Tennessee, to storm Confederate earthworks near Utoy Creek. Success here places Union troops within two miles of the strategic railroad junction at East Point.

August 5 Naval: At 6:00 a.m., Admiral David G. Farragut launches an all-out attack against Confederate defenses guarding Mobile Bay, Alabama. Disaster strikes when the ironclad USS Tecumseh detonates a torpedo and sinks 30 seconds later with a loss of 90 crewmen. “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!” is Farragut’s response to the crisis as his flagship Hartford plunges directly through the Confederate minefield intact. He next confronts the large steam ram CSS Tennessee under the equally redoubtable Admiral James Buchanan, which tries repeatedly ramming the Hartford. Farragut easily dodges his slower adversary while all 17 ships of his squadron pummel it with intense cannon fire. Buchanan finally lowers his flag at 10:00 a.m., as Farragut wins another bold gamble and closes the Confederacy’s last remaining port on the Gulf Coast. Politics: Radical Republicans Benjamin Wade and Henry W. Davis denounce President Abraham Lincoln for pocket vetoing their reconstruction legislation and campaign openly to replace him. “The authority of Congress is paramount and must be respected,” they insist.

August 6 Military: General Philip H. Sheridan arrives at Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia, to assume command of the Army of the Shenandoah, consisting of the VI Corps under General Horatio G. Wright, the VIII Corps under General George Crook, the XIX Corps under General William H. Emory, and three cavalry divisions led by General T. A. Tolbert.

August 7 Military: General Ulysses S. Grant’s choice of 33-year-old General Philip H. Sheridan to lead the Army of the Shenandoah causes consternation among President Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. Both men fear that the youthful Sheridan is too inexperienced for so delicate a mission, but Grant insists on having this aggressive, headstrong firebrand at the helm.

August 10 Military: General Philip H. Sheridan leads Union forces out of Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia, and into the Shenandoah Valley as Confederates under General Jubal A. Early watch warily.

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August 15 Military: General Philip H. Sheridan withdraws toward Winchester, Virginia, inducing Confederates under General Jubal A. Early to follow. Sheridan is acting under orders to move with caution, and he is believed to be facing upwards of 40,000 Southerners. President Abraham Lincoln’s precarious political fortunes preclude any embarrassing defeats this close to the national election. Early, however, misinterprets such behavior as timidity.

August 16 Military: Union cavalry under General Wesley Merritt engages General Richard H. Anderson’s Confederate division at Front Royal, Virginia. A swirling saber melee also erupts between Southern troopers of General William C. Wickham and Union cavalry under General Thomas C. Devlin as the former tries to ford the Shenandoah River. A decisive charge by Devlin sends his opponents scampering and he seizes two flags and 139 prisoners.

August 18 Military: General Ulysses S. Grant refuses Confederate requests to resume prisoner exchanges. This act deprives the South of critically needed trained manpower, but also prolongs the hardships of Union prisoners languishing in poorly maintained Confederate prisons. In truth, the South can barely feed its own soldiers, let alone captives. Confederate forces attack General Winfield S. Hancock’s II Corps at Deep Bottom Run, Virginia, and are repelled with loss. General Ulysses S. Grant remains convinced that Southern defenses north of the James River have not been depleted, so he recalls Hancock’s expedition back to Petersburg. Operations in this vicinity cost the Union 2,901 casualties to a Confederate tally of about 1,500. At 4:00 p.m., General Gouvernor K. Warren’s V Corps attacks and captures Globe Tavern and portions of the Weldon railroad outside Petersburg, Virginia. General Pierre G. T. Beauregard, commanding at Petersburg, quickly dispatches General Henry Heth’s division to slash at Warren’s left flank. Timely Union reinforcements from the divisions of generals Samuel W. Crawford and Lysander Cutler make a timely appearance and drive the Southerners back into the city. Still, General Robert E. Lee must take the Weldon Railroad back and intact.

August 19 Military: General Gouvernor K. Warren’s V Corps is reinforced at Weldon Station, Virginia, by three divisions of the IX Corps, plus General Gershom Mott’s division from the II Corps. These arrive and deploy in time to meet a large Southern counterattack orchestrated by General Ambrose P. Hill. By nightfall, Warren’s position has been heavily jostled, but control of this section of the Weldon Railroad remains in Union hands. Federal losses for the day are 4,455 while Confederates are thought to have sustained around 1,600. A surprise raid by 2,000 Confederate cavalry under General Nathan B. Forrest briefly captures Memphis, Tennessee, and the local Union commander, General Cadwallader C. Washburn, only escapes in his nightclothes. Forrest then resumes raiding Federal supply lines with near impunity over the next two months. His success even elicits backhanded praise from General William T. Sherman, who refers to him as “that devil Forrest.”

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August 23 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln expresses pessimism over his reelection chances, noting “It will be my duty to cooperate with the President-elect, as to save the Union between the election and the inauguration, as he will have secured his election on such ground that he cannot possibly save it afterwards.”

August 25 Military: At 5:00 p. m., Confederates under General Ambrose P. Hill savagely assault the Union II Corps under General Winfield S. Hancock at Ream’s Station, Virginia. Hill’s 10,000 men initially rebounded of the divisions of generals Nelson A. Miles and David M. Gregg, until parts of the former suddenly gave way. General John Gibbon’s veteran division, exhausted from fatigue, also stumbles badly in combat and runs. Union losses in these embarrassing affairs are 2,372 while the Southerners sustain only 700 casualties.

August 26 Military: A convention of African Americans in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, advance resolutions calling for the commissioning of black military officers.

August 29 Politics: The Democratic National Convention convenes in Chicago, Illinois, where noted “Copperhead” Clement L. Vallandigham delivers the keynote address.

August 30 Politics: The Democratic Party convention in Chicago, Illinois, adopts a peace platform demanding an immediate end to hostilities with the South. Their stance is virtually the mirror opposite of that adopted by President Abraham Lincoln and the Republicans.

August 31 Military: General William J. Hardee leads 20,000 Confederates against a similarsized force under General Oliver O. Howard at Jonesboro, Georgia. The Federals are strongly positioned in a semicircle on high ground and enjoy a clear field of fire. Hardee’s piecemeal attacks continually disintegrate in the face of concentrated rifle fire and he finally withdraws after suffering 2,000 casualties. Howard loses a mere 178. Politics: The Democratic Party convention in Chicago, Illinois, nominates former general George B. McClellan as its candidate for president and George H. Pendleton of Ohio for vice president.

September 1 Military: Confederates under General William J. Hardee are attacked by superior Union forces as the struggle at Jonesboro, Georgia, continues. General William T. Sherman designs an elaborate movement by several corps, but Union attacks are poorly coordinated and beaten off with considerable loss. Sherman’s men finally penetrate Southern defenses, taking hundreds of prisoners from General Daniel C. Govin’s brigade. Union losses are 1,274 out of 20,460 present; the Confederates suffer 911 out of 12,661 engaged. Hardy’s heroic stand permits General John B. Hood sufficient time to slip out of Atlanta before Sherman’s noose can close around it.

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Sherman, William T.

(1820 –1891)

General Tecumseh Sherman was born in Lancas-­ ter, Ohio, on February 8, 1820, the son of a judge. Orphaned at an early age, he became a ward of Senator Thomas Ewing, who subsequently christened him William. Sherman, with his stepfather’s patronage, then gained appointment to the U.S. Mili-­ tary Academy in 1836 and graduated near the top of his class four years later. He joined the third U.S. Artillery as a second lieutenant and fought in Florida’s Sec-­ ond Seminole War until 1841. Sherman then fulfilled a long stint of garrison duty throughout the Deep South, where he thor-­ oughly familiarized himself with the people and geography. Sherman greatly admired the South and evinced genuine affection for the Southerners, but after the Civil War commenced in 1861 he departed Louisiana

William Tecumseh Sherman (Library of Congress)

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for St. Louis, Missouri, and sought to regain his army commission. He then commanded a brigade under General Irvin McDowell at Bull Run on July 21, 1861, being one of few officers to distinguish himself in combat. Sherman then rose to brigadier general the following August and transferred to the District of Cairo, Illinois, where he became acquainted with General Ulysses S. Grant during the campaign against Forts Henry and Donelson in February 1862. The high-­ strung Sherman and the low-­key Grant struck up a cordial relationship that lasted the remainder of the lives. He commanded a division in Grant’s Army of the Tennes-­ see and fought conspicuously at the bloody Battle of Shiloh, April 5–6, 1862. Sherman, who had commanded the pickets that day, had been surprised by Confederates under General Albert S. Johnston, but he effec-­ tively rallied his command and contributed to the final Union victory. Over the next two years Sherman fought capably under Grant and in the spring of 1864 succeeded him as com-­ mander of the western frontier. In this capacity he undertook his most famous endeavor, the conquest of Atlanta, Geor-­ gia, by overcoming the skilled defensive tactics of General Joseph E. Johnston and then the ferocious onslaughts of General John B. Hood. Atlanta fell on September 2, 1864, after which Sherman embarked on a campaign of “total war” against the Southern populace and burned a 60-­mile swath of destruction across the South. By the time the war successfully concluded in April 1865, he had devastated large tracts of land throughout Georgia and South Carolina. Sherman rose to lieu-­ tenant general in July 1866 while head-­

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ing the Division of the Missouri. Three years later newly elected President Grant appointed him commanding general of the army with four stars, becoming only the second individual in American history so honored. Over the next decade Sherman worked earnestly to improve conditions in

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the army and foster greater professionalism, including the wholesale adoption of German staff methods. Sherman retired from the military in November 1883 and resisted calls to enter politics as a Republican. He died in New York City on February 14, 1891.

September 2 Military: “So Atlanta is ours and fairly won,” General William T. Sherman telegraphs President Abraham Lincoln, after the city surrenders to the XX Corps of General Henry W. Slocum. This single act rekindles President Abraham Lincoln’s sagging election prospects while exerting a distressing effect throughout the South. Over the past four months Union forces have sustained 4,432 dead and 22,822 wounded while the Confederates endure 3,044 killed and 18,952 injured. Naval: Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles receives permission to mount a large amphibious assault against Fort Fisher, Wilmington, North Carolina. Success here will close down the South’s remaining seaport. Slavery: To offset critical manpower shortages, General Robert E. Lee advises President Jefferson Davis of the necessity of replacing white laborers with African Americans, thereby freeing the former for military service.

September 3 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln, in honor of recent victories at Mobile, Alabama, and Atlanta, Georgia, declares the upcoming September 5 a day of national celebration and prayer for such events “call for devout acknowledgment to the Supreme Being in whose hands are the destinies of nations.”

September 5 Slavery: Voters in Louisiana ratify a new constitution abolishing slavery.

September 7 Military: General William T. Sherman issues Special Order No. 67 to the inhabitants of Atlanta, Georgia, requiring all 1,600 families to evacuate the city immediately. “War is cruelty and you cannot refine it,” he declares to the city’s mayor, “When peace does come you may call on me for anything. Then I will share with you the last cracker.”

Ruins of a train depot, blown up on Sherman’s departure from Atlanta, Georgia (Library of Congress)

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September 8 Politics: Former general George B. McClellan accepts the Democratic Party nomination for the presidency, but rejects their peace platform and declares “The Union is the one condition of peace—we ask for no more.” He nonetheless continues railing against President Abraham Lincoln’s handling of the war.

September 9 Military: General Joseph Wheeler, having completed his latest raid against Union supply lines in Tennessee, recrosses the Tennessee River at Florence, Alabama, and gallops home. In fact, his endeavors achieve very little for Union repair crews quickly restore damaged sections of track. The next result of Wheeler’s activities are to deprive General John B. Hood of excellent cavalry during a critical phase of the Georgia campaign.

September 11 Military: Generals William T. Sherman and John B. Hood conclude a 10-day truce to facilitate the evacuation of citizens and their belongings from Atlanta, Georgia. When petitioned by the inhabitants to reconsider, Sherman states “You might as well appeal against the thunderstorm as against these terrible hardships of war.” The age of total war has arrived with a vengeance.

September 16 Military: At dawn General Wade Hampton’s cavalry charges a Union force at Coggin’s Point, Virginia, completely dispersing elements of the First D.C. Cavalry and the Thirteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry. The raiders then abscond with 2,486 head of cattle—and 300 prisoners—in a line stretching seven miles long. Hampton arrives back behind Confederate lines the next day after committing the largest incident of cattle rustling in American history. Rebecca West, a Union spy in Winchester, Virginia, observes the departure of General Joseph Kershaw’s Confederate cavalry division and 12 cannon from the army of General Jubal A. Early. She manages to relay the information back to General Philip H. Sheridan, then conferring with General Ulysses S. Grant over strategy at Charlestown, West Virginia. News of the transfer induces Sheridan to attack Early immediately. Grant concurs fully, laconically stating “Go in,” then departs.

September 17 Politics: Former general John C. Frémont withdraws his name from the election contest and urges a united Republican Party front under Abraham Lincoln. He fears that a Democratic victory might lead to either recognition of the Confederacy or the survival of slavery.

September 19 Military: At 2:00 p.m., General Philip H. Sheridan’s army, totaling 35,000 men, attacks the 12,000 Confederates of General Jubal A. Early at Winchester, Virginia. Heavy fighting forces Southerners under General Stephen Ramseur to give way, but generals Richard Rodes and John B. Gordon strike back in a vicious counterattack that stuns the XIX Corps. An equally desperate cavalry charge by General Fitzhugh Lee then fails to stop approaching Union troopers under generals Wesley Merritt and William W. Averill, and Confederate resistance collapses around 5:00 p.m. Union loses are 5,018 to a Confederate tally of 3,611, but Early hastily withdraws to Fisher’s Hill.

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Politics: President Jefferson Davis advises the governors of South Carolina, North Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Virginia, and Florida that recent proclamations requiring aliens to either serve in the army or leave are depriving the Confederacy of many skilled workers. Moreover, he insists that “harmony of action between the States and Confederate authorities is essential to public welfare.”

September 22 Military: The Battle of Fisher’s Hill erupts that afternoon when 28,000 Union troops under General Philip H. Sheridan begin probing General Jubal A. Early’s line. Early, who possesses only 9,000 men, suspects that a ruse of some kind is in play and prepares to retreat. Suddenly, two divisions of Federal cavalry under General George Crook emerge screaming down the hillside on Early’s left flank, sweeping aside the dismounted troopers of General Lunsford L. Lomax. Early’s Confederates are thoroughly thrashed, losing 1,235 men and 14 cannon to a Union tally of 456. Sheridan declines to pursue his defeated enemy further, preferring instead to hold back and commence implementing a “scorched earth” policy to devastate the fertile Shenandoah. Politics: President Jefferson Davis arrives by train at Macon, Georgia, and assures compatriots that “Our cause is not lost.”

September 23 Diplomacy: In Japan, the Tokugawa shogunate, feeling heavy pressure from the United States and other European nations, agrees to open Yokohama and selected other ports to Western vessels. Politics: President Abraham Lincoln requests the resignation of Postmaster General Montgomery Blair as a concession to Radical Republicans in the upcoming election.

September 24 Military: General Philip H. Sheridan lopes down the Shenandoah Valley but, instead of pursuing defeated Southern troops, he begins burning crops to eliminate the Confederacy’s breadbasket. This occurs with the complete approbation of General Ulysses S. Grant, who advises “If the war is to last another year we want the Shenandoah Valley to remain a barren waste.” The single-minded Sheridan does not disappoint his superior. Politics: President Abraham Lincoln appoints William Dennison the new postmaster general to replace the outgoing Montgomery Blair.

September 25 Military: President Jefferson Davis arrives at Palmetto, Georgia, to confer with General John B. Hood over strategy. Because of personality clashes, Hood transfers the ornery General William J. Hardee. Davis also approves of Hood’s daring strategy for invading Tennessee to strike at Union supply lines, in the hope of forcing General William T. Sherman to evacuate Georgia in pursuit.

September 27 Military: Confederate guerrillas under William “Bloody Bill” Anderson ride into Centralia, Missouri, and proceed systematically plundering the town and robbing its inhabitants. He next apprehends 23 unarmed Union musicians on a train and has them summarily executed. The tragedy continues once Major A. V. E. Johnson rides into town with 158 newly recruited men of his 39th Missouri Infantry, mounted on

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Chronology of American History mules. Johnson and most of his men die in an ambush, and then the guerrillas return to Centralia to kill off any remaining soldiers. By the time “Bloody Bill” completes his black deed, 116 Federals are dead.

September 29 Military: Two divisions of the V Corps under General Gouvernor K. Warren strike Confederate positions along the Squirrel Level Road near Poplar Springs Church, Virginia. The defenders and their position are quickly overrun but delays by General John G. Parke’s IX Corps enable General Ambrose P. Hill to rush up reinforcements and counterattack. Flanked by generals Henry Heth and Cadmus M. Wilcox, Parke abandons his gains and falls back among Warren’s troops at Peeble’s Farms. General David B. Birney’s X Corps of 18,000 men attacks up the slopes of New Market Heights, Virginia, spearheaded by General Charles A. Paine’s division of African Americans. The black troops encounter heavy fire and dogged resistance, losing 800 men in an hour, but tenaciously forge ahead and carry the earthworks in a tremendous display of courage and sacrifice. Significantly, of 16 Congressional Medals of Honor awarded to African Americans in the Civil War, no less than 14 originate here. General Edward O. C. Ord’s XVIII Corps surges ahead against Fort Harrison, Virginia, then garrisoned by 800 inexperienced artillerists. The Federals have little experience taking their objective but beat off an attack that Confederates retreating from New Market Heights manage to launch. Union troops then begin entrenching and strengthening their lines for the inevitable Southern counterattack the following day.

September 30 Military: Eager to prevent Union troops from lengthening his trench lines, General Robert E. Lee arrives at Richmond, Virginia, with eight infantry brigades to recapture Fort Harrison, Virginia. He launches the divisions of generals Robert F. Hoke and Charles Field in a bid to overwhelm the defenders, but the entrenched Federals easily repel four determined charges. Union losses over the past two days top 3,300 while the Confederates lose approximately 2,000.

October 2 Military: President Jefferson Davis appoints General Pierre G. T. Beauregard as commander of the Division of the West to better coordinate the actions of generals John B. Hood and Richard Taylor. In truth, Davis regards “the little Cajun” as meddlesome and seeks to end his interference in the critical Eastern theater of operations, nor is Beauregard able to achieve much in the West. Confederate forces at Saltville, Virginia, including guerrillas under Champ Ferguson and a Tennessee brigade led by General Felix H. Robertson, defeat a detachment of the Fifth U.S. Colored Cavalry and then execute upwards of 100 wounded soldiers. Several of their white officers are also murdered.

October 4 Politics: U.S. Postmaster General William Dennison joins President Abraham Lincoln’s cabinet. Societal: Syracuse, New York, is the scene of the “National Convention of Colored Citizens of the United States,” with 144 delegates drawn from 18 states.

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October 5 Military: A division of Confederates under General Samuel O. French, numbering 3,276 men, is tasked with capturing a major Union supply depot at Alltoona Pass, Georgia. That post is defended by 2,025 Union soldiers under the recently arrived General John M. Corse, who counts on both rugged terrain and rapidfire Henry repeating rifles to thwart the enemy. The Southerners attack from the south and west for several hours, but Corse invariably sweeps his antagonists back down the slopes. Union losses are 706 while the Confederates sustain 897. Politics: President Jefferson Davis appears before cheering crowds at Augusta, Georgia, and lauds them with ringing oratory, predicting a complete Confederate victory. “Never before was I so confident that energy, harmony, and determination would rid the country of its enemy,” he declares, “and give the women of the land that peace their good deeds have so well deserved.”

October 6 Journalism: The Richmond Inquirer breaks new ground by printing an essay promoting the use of African-American soldiers for the Confederacy. The idea is gaining greater currency, although President Jefferson Davis is never reconciled to it.

October 7 Military: General Robert E. Lee again determines to recapture Fort Harrison, Virginia, to restore his siege lines outside Richmond. He then orders two overworked divisions under generals Robert F. Hoke and Charles W. Field to drive Union forces from the Darbytown Road. The Confederates encounter stiff opposition from General Alfred H. Terry’s division, X Corps, at Johnson’s Farm. Hoke also makes a tardy appearance and fails to advance, at which point Lee calls off the action. Confederate casualties are 1,350 to a Union tally of 399. The army of General Philip H. Sheridan continues its policy of burning crops and confiscating livestock at Woodstock, Virginia. To date his men have destroyed 2,000 barns, 70 flour mills, driven off 4,000 head of cattle, and killed 3,000 sheep. Sheridan vows that when he is finished the region “will have little in it for man or beast.” Naval: The USS Wachusett under Commander Napoleon Collins decides to attack and capture the Confederate raider CSS Florida at Bahia, Brazil, after learning that Lieutenant Charles M. Morris and most of his crew are ashore. Florida surrenders after a brief struggle, having previously accounted for 37 Union prizes. However, the nature of its seizure, a blatant violation of Brazilian neutrality, results in diplomatic protests.

October 9 Military: Union cavalry brigades under generals George A. Custer and Wesley Merritt engage the Confederate cavalry division of General Thomas L. Rosser at Tom’s Brook, Virginia. As Custer leads 2,500 troopers to confront Rosser’s 3,500 men, he recognizes his adversary as an old West Point roommate and doffs his hat before engaging. Merritt, meanwhile, crashes headlong into opposing troops, routing them while Custer ends up chasing Rosser’s command for 20 miles. This is the biggest triumph of the Union mounted arm over its vaunted adversary and becomes celebrated as the “Woodstock Races.”

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October 11 Politics: The recent round of elections in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana demonstrate support for President Abraham Lincoln.

October 12 General: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Roger B. Taney, head of that body since 1835, dies in Washington, D.C. He wrote the majority opinion for the infamous Dred Scott decision of 1857 which reaffirmed the status of African Americans as property, thereby exacerbating sectional tensions.

October 13 Politics: Maryland narrowly approves a new constitution mandating the abolition of slavery. The margin is only 30,174 to 29,799, a 375-vote margin.

October 17 Military: General John B. Gordon and topographical engineer Captain Jedediah Hotchkiss steal upon the Union encampment at Cedar Creek, Virginia, ascend Massanutten Mountain, and closely examine their deployment. They discern that General Horatio G. Wright’s left flank is entirely “in the air” and subject to a sudden flanking attack. This intelligence is immediately relayed to General Jubal A. Early.

October 18 Military: Indomitable General Jubal A. Early, upon learning that General Philip H. Sheridan is absent from his army, plans to attack the Union encampment at Cedar Creek. Acting upon General John B. Gordon’s advice, he sends three divisions along differing paths that ultimately converge behind the exposed VIII Corps of General George Crook, on their left. This march, carried out under extreme secrecy, is one of the most audacious turning movements of the entire war.

October 19 Military: Lieutenant Bennett H. Young and his band of 20 Confederate Kentuckians slip across the Canadian border and attack three banks in St. Albans, Vermont, 15 miles from the border. Two citizens are shot, one fatally. After absconding with $20,000, the Southerners set fire to several buildings and try fleeing back into Canada. As word of their crime spreads, however, a nearby Union officer forms a posse and chases after them. They the catch the raiders on Canadian soil and turn them over to the proper authorities for processing and extradition. At 5:00 a.m., the Battle of Cedar Creek erupts as the Confederate divisions of generals Clement A. Evans, Stephen Ramseur, and John Pegram plunge out of an early morning fog and pitch into the Union camp of General Horatio G. Wright. The Federal VIII and IX Corps, flanked and completely surprised, crumble before the Southern onslaught. Fortunately, General Philip H. Sheridan is returning from his strategy session in Washington, D.C., and encounters refugees as he approaches Cedar Creek. “Little Phil” then spurs his horse for 12 miles and rallies his men for a swift counterattack. The exhausted, disorganized Confederates offer little resistance and bolt from the field after suffering 2,810 casualties. Sheridan’s losses are put at 5,671, but Southern resistance in the strategic Shenandoah Valley is finally broken.

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October 20 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln decrees that the last Wednesday of every November will be celebrated as “a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to Almighty God, the beneficent Creator and Ruler of the Universe.”

October 22 Naval: Confederate Secretary of the Navy Stephen R. Mallory writes to President Jefferson Davis, defending his decision to deploy the CSS Tallahassee and Chickamauga as commerce raiders rather then detaining them at Wilmington, North Carolina, as part of the local defenses. “A cruise by the Chickamauga and Tallahassee against the northern coasts and commerce would at once draw a fleet of fast steamers from the blockading squadron off Wilmington in pursuit of them,” he reasons, “and this alone would render such a cruise expedient.”

October 23 Military: The Battle of Westport, Missouri, unfolds as Confederates under General Sterling Price fend off numerous Union forces. General James G. Blunt brushes up against Southern cavalry expertly led by General Joseph O. Shelby and is rebuffed. However, Price cannot spare the reserves to mount a pursuit, for General Alfred Pleasonton looms across Big Blue River, pressing upon his rear. At length General Samuel R. Curtis reinforces Blunt and they force their way across Brush Creek just as Pleasonton is closing in from behind. Price’s army then bolts the field and flees in confusion toward the southwest. Casualties are roughly 1,500 apiece in this, the last major engagement of the Trans-Mississippi region.

October 26 Military: Confederate outlaw William “Bloody Bill” Anderson is killed in a Union ambush at Richmond, Missouri.

October 27 Military: An advance by 43,000 Union troops commences against the South Side Railroad, below Petersburg, Virginia, in the early morning rain. General Geoffrey Weitzel’s main thrust is blunted while an African-American brigade under General John Holman slips around the Southern flank and charges. Holman’s progress is subsequently stymied by stiff resistance offered by General William Mahone’s Southerners, and Weitzel, seeing further gains as impossible, orders his men withdrawn. Union losses are 1,103 to a Confederate tally of 451. Concurrently, an even larger operation unfolds near Hatcher’s Run when the II Corps under General Winfield S. Hancock, the V Corps of General Gouverneur K. Warren, and the IX Corps under General John G. Parke march seven miles southwest of Petersburg through driving rain. Parke’s command encounters heavy resistance from General Cadmus M. Wilcox’s Confederate division and stops. Nightfall closes the engagement at Hatcher’s Run, and the Federals retire in good order back to their lines. Hancock suffers 1,700 casualties whereas Confederate losses are estimated at 1,000. General Ulysses S. Grant subsequently concludes offensive operations and settles into winter quarters. Naval: The imposing Confederate ram CSS Albemarle is sunk by a spar torpedo operated by 21-year-old Lieutenant William B. Cushing on the Roanoke River, North Carolina. Cushing utilized two 30-foot steam launches, each outfitted with a 14-foot-long spar torpedo, and a crew of 15. The Albemarle is fatally damaged

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Chronology of American History and sinks, as does Cushing’s own vessel, and he is forced to swim to shore. Only Cushing and one other member of the expedition make it back safely; the remaining 13 fall captive.

October 28 Military: James G. Blunt’s division surprises and attacks General Sterling Price’s retreating army at Newtonia, Missouri. However, quick reactions by General Joseph O. Shelby and his “Iron Brigade” allow the bulk of Confederate forces to escape to safety.

October 31 Politics: Nevada becomes the nation’s 36th state. Its two Republican-leaning U.S. senators will assist the abolitionist programs of President Abraham Lincoln and the state’s three electoral votes will also support the president’s reelection bid.

November 1 Politics: The new Maryland state constitution, abolishing slavery, is enacted.

November 2 Military: Secretary of State William H. Seward informs the mayor of New York that Confederate agents arriving from Canada are planning a campaign of arson to burn the city down by election day.

November 4 Naval: Artillery under General Nathan B. Forrest attacks and sinks three Union paddle-wheelers on the Tennessee River near Johnsonville, Tennessee. His latest raid disrupts the flow of Union supplies and results in considerable damage; four gunboats, 14 steamers, 17 barges, 33 cannon, 150 captives, and 75,000 tons of supplies ruined. Total losses to the Union exceed $6.7 million.

November 6 Politics: More than 100 Copperheads and Confederate sympathizers are arrested by Colonel Benjamin Sweet in Chicago, Illinois. They are allegedly plotting to seize the polls on election day, stuff the ballots, then burn the city down. None of those apprehended are ever brought to trial.

November 7 Politics: The 2nd Session of the 2nd Confederate Congress convenes in Richmond, Virginia. President Jefferson Davis declares that the Confederacy still desires a negotiated settlement with the North, but only on the basis of independence. Despite the recent fall of Atlanta, Georgia, Davis assures his compatriots, “There are no vital points on the preservation of which the continued existence of the Confederacy depends.”

November 8 Politics: The Republican ticket of Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson decisively wins reelection by 2,330,552 votes to 1,835,985 for Democrat George B. McClellan. This translates into 212 Republican electoral votes to 21 for the Democrats; McClellan carries only New Jersey, Delaware, and Kentucky. This margin of 55 percent of votes cast is so large that all 81 electoral votes of the seceded states would not have altered the outcome. Moreover, Lincoln receives his highest percentage of support from soldiers and sailors fighting on the front lines.

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November 9 Military: The army of General William T. Sherman organizes itself into two wings under generals Oliver O. Hazard (XV, XVII Corps) and Henry W. Slocum (XIV, XX Corps) prior to marching upon Savannah, Georgia. Sherman then declares that “the army will forage liberally on the country during the march” as he intends to ignore his own lines of communication. All ranks are expected to refrain from destroying private property, if possible, but this proves an even greater application of “total war.” Politics: At a party celebrating his election victory, President Abraham Lincoln implores his countrymen to remain steadfast in their pursuit of final victory and reunite the country under a single banner.

November 13 Military: General Jubal A. Early is ordered back to New Market, Virginia, and from there to dispatch part of his army from the Shenandoah Valley to the defenses of Petersburg. This act concludes his celebrated Valley Campaign of 1864, which involved 1,670 miles of marching and 75 pitched battles of various sizes.

November 14 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln accepts General George B. McClellan’s resignation from the U.S. Army.

November 15 Military: General William T. Sherman departs a thoroughly devastated Atlanta, Georgia, and lumbers toward Savannah and the sea with 62,000 men. Most notoriously, he also embarks on a 60-mile-wide swath of destruction across the state, destroying anything of use to the Confederacy. His unequivocal object is to “make Georgia howl,” and within 21 days Sherman’s “bummers” inflict damage on the South approaching $300 million, leaving a twisted, blackened landscape in their wake.

November 17 Politics: President Jefferson Davis dismisses outright any notion by Georgia state senators that they should conclude a separate peace treaty with the U.S. government.

November 18 Military: President Jefferson Davis instructs General Howell Cobb of Georgia to mobilize the state’s entire militia force to oppose the advance of General William T. Sherman. He then entrusts the whole to the command of General William J. Hardee.

November 19 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln lifts the blockades from Norfolk, Virginia, and Pensacola, Florida, declaring them open for business.

November 21 Military: The Army of Tennessee under General John B. Hood advances 31,000 men and 8,000 cavalry from Florence, Alabama, and toward Nashville, Tennessee, to threaten Union lines of communication. However, his timetable has been delayed three weeks by General Nathan B. Forrest’s absence, and during that interval General George H. Thomas enlarges the defenses of Nashville.

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November 25 Indian: Colonel Christopher “Kit” Carson leads 200 charging cavalry through a hostile Kiowa encampment near Adobe Walls, Texas. Simultaneously, his Ute and Apache allies steal the warriors’ horses. However, the survivors flee into nearby Comanche lodges with pleas for help, and soon hundreds of angry warriors begin massing to attack the intruders. Carson, suddenly confronted by the largest body of Native Americans he has ever encountered, quickly ducks behind the ruins of Adobe Walls where the fire of two 12-pound mountain howitzers keep the milling warriors at bay. Several hours of long-distance fire ensue before the Americans and their allies escape to the safety of New Mexico in the darkness. Carson suffers two dead and 10 wounded; Indian losses are between 50 and 150, due mainly to cannon fire. Military: Confederate agents dispatched from Canada set fire to 10 New York hotels in an unsuccessful attempt to burn the city down. One Southern perpetrator is caught and eventually hanged.

November 27 Naval: The Union steamer USS Greyhound, then functioning as the floating headquarters of General Benjamin F. Butler, explodes and sinks in the James River, Virginia, with a high-level conference in progress. Fortunately, Butler, General Robert Schenck, and Admiral David D. Porter escape unharmed. This accident is most likely the result of Confederate sabotage, whereby an exploding “coal torpedo” was inadvertently shoveled into the Greyhound’s boiler.

November 29 Indian: Colorado militia under Colonel John M. Chivington attack a peaceful Cheyenne camp at Sand Creek, Colorado. The Indians under Chief Black Kettle had been directed there by military authorities with the understanding that they would be safe. Nonetheless, vengeful militiamen sweep down upon the sleeping camp at dawn with artillery and then charge, killing all they encounter. Black Kettle and up to 149 Cheyenne, including women and children, are cut down and scalped. Militia losses are nine dead and 40 wounded.

November 30 Military: General John M. Schofield arrives at Franklin, Tennessee, with 15,000 men of his IV and XXII Corps, and begins strengthening the city’s defenses. Within hours he is accosted by 23,000 Confederates of General John B. Hood’s Army of Tennessee, approaching from positions south of the town. Hood’s initial charge catches two brigades of General George D. Wagner’s division out in the open, sweeps them aside, and charges directly into Federal trenches beyond. The defenders are obliged to hold their fire until the cheering Southerners are nearly on top of them, then unleash a concentrated fusillade stopping men by the hundreds. Hood’s men, compacted into a dense mass, resist violently but are cut down in droves by rifle and artillery fire on either flank. The Battle of Franklin costs Hood 6,252 men and six generals, including the talented Patrick L. Cleburne, while Union loses total 2,326.

December 5 Naval: In reporting on affairs at sea, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles declares “The blockade of a coastline, greater in extent that the coast of Europe

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from Cape Trafalgar to Cape North, is an undertaking without precedent in history.”

December 6 Military: General George H. Thomas is ordered by General Ulysses S. Grant to attack Confederate forces gathering outside Nashville, Tennessee, and “wait no longer for remount of your cavalry.” Politics: President Abraham Lincoln, in a conciliatory move, appoints Radical Republican and former secretary of the treasury Salmon P. Chase as the fifth Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court to succeed the recently deceased Roger B. Taney.

December 9 Military: General Ulysses S. Grant, frustrated by the perceived lack of aggressiveness by General George H. Thomas, orders General John M. Schofield to succeed him as theater commander. The directive is subsequently suspended when Thomas informs Grant that his intended attack has been canceled on account of heavy snowfall. The onset of freezing weather may have inconvenienced Thomas, but it causes the poorly clad and sheltered Confederates under General John B. Hood to shiver in their trenches.

December 10 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln appoints General William F. Smith and Henry Stanberry as special commissioners to report on civil and military matters west of the Mississippi River.

December 13 Diplomacy: Charles Coursel, a Montreal police magistrate, declares that he has no authority to detain Lieutenant Bennet Young and his 20 compatriots for their role in the raid on St. Albans, Vermont, and releases them on bond. A diplomatic uproar ensues and Secretary of State William H. Seward notifies British authorities of his intention to nullify the Rush-Bagot Agreement of 1817. This measure had previously demilitarized the U.S.–Canadian border along the Great Lakes region after the War of 1812. Naval: An ailing and fatigued Admiral David G. Farragut arrives in New York City onboard the USS Hartford, receiving his second hero’s welcome by its inhabitants.

December 14 Military: The weather near Nashville, Tennessee, has moderated, and General George H. Thomas informs anxious superiors of his intention to attack General John B. Hood’s Confederate camp next day. True to form, he begins methodically and unhurriedly arranging his men for battle.

December 15 Military: The Battle of Nashville commences as General George H. Thomas unleashes the XVI and IV Corps against the Confederate left wing under General Benjamin F. Cheatham. Simultaneously, a large diversionary attack by General James B. Steedman’s African-American troops sustains heavy loss but pins down the Confederate right. All the while General John B. Hood is furiously shifting troops around to support his overextended line but it crumbles under the weight

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Chronology of American History of the Union assault. Hood is badly drubbed and should have withdrawn that evening but he defiantly elects to make another stand.

December 16 Military: The Battle of Nashville resumes as General George H. Thomas, surprised that General John B. Hood’s Confederates have not retreated, renews his drive against their reformed left wing. In the ensuing rout, the Federals capture General Edward Johnson and nearly all of Hood’s artillery. Only the onset of darkness and the timely arrival of General Nathan B. Forrest’s cavalry prevents the Army of Tennessee from completely disintegrating. Hood’s losses total 5,962 while Thomas, the methodical pugilist, loses 3,057.

December 17 Military: President Jefferson Davis glumly informs General William J. Hardee that he cannot reinforce the defenses of Savannah, Georgia, with units drawn from the Army of Northern Virginia.

December 18 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln pleads for an additional 300,000 volunteers to bolster the Union army’s depleted ranks in anticipation of a final, victorious drive.

December 21 Military: Savannah, Georgia, falls to Union forces under General William T. Sherman, thereby completing his 285-mile “March to the Sea.” He telegrams President Abraham Lincoln, “I beg to present to you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah with 150 heavy guns and also about 250,000 bales of cotton.”

December 23 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln approves congressional legislation creating the rank of vice admiral; David G. Farragut becomes the first naval officer so honored, and he acquires rank equivalent to that of lieutenant general.

December 24 Naval: The USS Louisiana, packed with explosives and intended to be detonated under the guns of Fort Fisher, Wilmington, North Carolina, accidently ignites 250 yards from its objective. When this fails to appreciably damage the defenses, 60 Union warships under Admiral David G. Farragut begin a concerted bombardment which strikes the fort with 155 shells per minute.

December 25 Military: An attack upon Fort Fisher, Wilmington, North Carolina, by the Army of the James under General Benjamin F. Butler, transpires. He lands 2,200 men at 2:00 a.m. and advances inland, thinking that the defenders have been silenced. Suddenly, Confederate gunners unleash a torrent of shot and shell that keeps the attackers 50 yards from their objective. Butler is so nonplussed by the stout defense that he summarily cancels the entire operation and withdraws to the fleet offshore.

December 28 Military: General Ulysses S. Grant admits to President Abraham Lincoln that operations against Fort Fisher, North Carolina, are a complete fiasco, and

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he insists that General Benjamin F. Butler be sacked for “Gross and culpable failure.” Societal: Congress enacts a law forbidding racial discrimination in the hiring of letter carriers.

December 30 Military: President Abraham Lincoln, less politically vulnerable since his landslide reelection, relieves General Benjamin F. Butler as commander of the Army of the James. Politics: Maryland politician Francis P. Blair contacts President Jefferson Davis and suggests conferring with him in Richmond, Virginia, as a peace overture to “explain the view I entertain in reference to the state of affairs of our country.”

December 31 Military: Union forces settle comfortably into their siege lines outside of Petersburg and Richmond, Virginia, being constantly reinforced to a strength of 110,000 men and capably led by General Ulysses S. Grant. By contrast, the once formidable Army of Northern Virginia of General Robert E. Lee withers away through illness, desertion, and combat. His 66,000 gaunt, ragged soldiers remain fierce and devoted but also perish in the cold and mud of trench warfare. The results of Grant’s war-winning strategy—to pin Lee inside his works and weaken him through sheer attrition—is never more apparent.

1865 Arts: Yale University establishes the first department of fine arts under Professor John F. Weir. Business: John Batterson Stetson establishes a hat factory in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and his unique design, the “Stetson” (or “Ten-Gallon Hat”) proves immediately successful throughout the West. Education: The Indiana Agricultural College (Purdue University) is chartered at Lafayette, Indiana. Cornell University is founded at Ithaca, New York, by Erza Cornell and Andrew Dickson White. The Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky (University of Kentucky) is founded at Lexington, Kentucky. Journalism: The San Francisco Examiner and the San Francisco Chronicle, edited by William Moss and Michael Harry DeYoung, respectively, begin publishing. Literature: Walt Whitman publishes his celebrated collection of war poems entitled Drum Taps. Mary Mapes Dodge writes Hans Brinker; or, The Silver Skates, soon acknowledged as a children’s classic. Publishing: Historian Francis Parkman continues his series on Canada with Pioneers of France in the New World. Science: Swiss-born Harvard naturalist Louis Agassiz commences a 19-month expedition to Brazil and the Amazon region to study and collect indigenous fishes. Sports: The National Association of Baseball now boasts a total of 91 clubs, proof of that sport’s burgeoning popularity nationwide.

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Chronology of American History John Wesley Hyatt receives a patent and a $10,000 prize for perfecting a composition billiard ball to replace the more expensive ivory ones then in use. Technology: The Fredonia Gas, Light, and Water Works Company of Fredonia, New York, is the first business to sell natural gas for lighting purposes.

January 2 Naval: Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles contacts Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton and expresses the dire necessity for capturing and closing Wilmington, North Carolina, “the only port by which any supplies whatever reach the rebels.”

January 3 Military: General Alfred H. Terry receives command of the forthcoming joint expedition against Fort Fisher, Wilmington, North Carolina. At this stage of the war even General Benjamin F. Butler’s political allies cannot salvage his waning military fortunes.

January 4 Naval: Admiral David D. Porter begins laying out his strategy for the reduction of Fort Fisher, Wilmington, North Carolina. He intends to use a naval brigade, consisting of sailors and U.S. Marines, to hit the fort frontally while army troops work their way around the rear.

January 5 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln authorizes James Singleton to pass through Union lines and enter the Confederacy; his mission is to unofficially encourage peace negotiations.

January 6 Politics: U.S. Representative J. M. Ashley of Ohio renews the political drive to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. “If slavery is wrong and criminal, as the great body of Christian men admit,” he declares, “it is certainly our duty to abolish it.” President Jefferson Davis pens a caustic letter to Vice President Alexander H. Stephens and claims that Stephens’ whispering campaign against him is undermining Southern morale. “I assure you that it would be a source of the sincerest pleasure to see you devoting your agenda and animated ability exclusively to upholding the confidence and animating the spirit of the people to unconquerable resistance against their foes,” he lectures.

January 7 Indian: A large body of 1,000 Cheyenne and Sioux warriors, angered over the 1864 Sand Creek massacre, attack the frontier settlement of Julesburg and Valley Station, Colorado Territory. The Indians send a small detachment forward to lure the garrison out, and a party of the 7th Iowa Cavalry under Captain Nicholas J. O’Brien obliges them. Fortunately, the intended ambush miscarries when it is sprung too early, and the troopers scamper back to the fort and safety. The warriors, unable to overcome such strong defenses, subsequently loot and burn nearby settlements.

January 9 Military: General John B. Hood straggles into Tupelo, Mississippi, with remnants of the once-proud Army of Tennessee. President Jefferson Davis intends

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to transfer the bulk of the survivors eastward to contest the advance of General William T. Sherman in the Carolinas. Politics: President Abraham Lincoln dispatches Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton to Savannah, Georgia, for discussions with General William T. Sherman. Among the issues raised is Sherman’s alleged mistreatment of African-American refugees. U.S. Representative Moses Odell, a New York Democrat, endorses the proposed constitutional amendment to outlaw slavery, insisting that “The South by rebellion has absolved the Democratic party in the North from all obligation to stand up longer for the defense of its ‘cornerstone.’ ” The Tennessee constitutional convention approves an amendment abolishing slavery and places it up for a popular vote.

January 10 Politics: Heated debate in the U.S. House continues as to a constitutional amendment to abolish slavery. Representative Fernando Wood of New York insists its passage negates any chance for peaceful reconciliation with the South.

January 11 Military: Despite freezing weather, 300 Confederate cavalry under General Thomas L. Rosser attack a Union encampment at Beverly, West Virginia. The defenders, comprising detachments from the 8th and 34th Ohio Cavalry, are caught by surprise and overwhelmed before serious resistance is mounted. Rosser secures 583 captives, 100 horses, 600 rifles and—above all—10,000 rations to feed his hungry men. Slavery: The Missouri constitutional convention approves an ordinance abolishing slavery.

January 12 Naval: Admiral David D. Porter arrives off Wilmington, North Carolina, with a fleet of 59 warships and 8,000 men commanded by General Alfred H. Terry. This is the largest Union armada and combined amphibious expedition of the entire war. Politics: Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton confers with African-American leaders in Washington, D.C., over how to best assimilate freed slaves into society. Garrison Frazier, the group spokesman, suggests that blacks continue farming the land until they are able to purchase it. And, despite allegations of callous indifference by General William T. Sherman toward “contrabands,” Frazier states “We have confidence in General Sherman, and think that what concerns us could not be in better hands.” Senior Maryland politician Francis P. Blair confers with President Jefferson Davis in Richmond, Virginia, sounding out possible overtures for peace. To facilitate a possible rapprochement, Blair suggests mounting a joint military expedition against the French in Mexico. Davis dismisses the scheme as quixotic but acquiesces to sending Confederate representatives to confer with President Abraham Lincoln in February.

January 14 Military: Union troops under General Alfred H. Terry land outside Fort Fisher, Wilmington, North Carolina, and move quickly to prevent Confederate

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Chronology of American History attempts to reinforce the garrison. Nevertheless, 350 soldiers under General H. C. Whiting make it through Union lines, and bring the fort defenders up to 2,000 men. Naval: The armada of Admiral David D. Porter, mounting 627 heavy cannon, begins its reduction of Confederate defenses at Fort Fisher, Wilmington, North Carolina. Porter moves his ships to within 1,000 yards of the fort and delivers a meticulously aimed fire of 100 shells per minute. Within hours the bulk of Fort Fisher’s armament has been dismounted or made useless.

January 15 Military: General Alfred H. Terry commences an all-out assault on Fort Fisher, Wilmington, North Carolina, with three brigades commanded by generals Newton M. Curtis, Galusha Pennypacker, and Louis H. Bell. Resistance is fierce and all three Union brigadiers are either killed or wounded in fierce, hand-to-hand fighting lasting eight hours. Terry then commits his final brigade under General Joseph C. Abbott and the defenders are overpowered by 10:00 p.m. Combined Union losses are 1,341 while the Confederates sustain roughly 500 with an additional 1,500 taken. Naval: Admiral David D. Porter orders his ironclad monitors to point-blank range of Fort Fisher, Wilmington, North Carolina, and maintains a withering bombardment of Confederate defenses. Once the fort’s heavy cannon are silenced, the naval brigade goes forward in three desperate charges that are repelled but also distract the defenders from army troops circling from behind. For their role in this significant victory, no less than 35 sailors and marines win the Congressional Medal of Honor.

January 16 Politics: Maryland politician Francis P. Blair conveys a letter from President Jefferson Davis to President Abraham Lincoln, suggesting the commencement of peace talks “between the two nations.” Lincoln, like Davis, dismisses any notion of a joint expedition against Mexico, but agrees to attend a peace conference slated for February. The Confederate Congress, lacking confidence in President Jefferson Davis’s conduct of military affairs, passes a resolution, 14 to 2, to appoint General Robert E. Lee as general in chief, and also to restore General Joseph E. Johnston as commander of the Army of Tennessee. Slavery: General William T. Sherman issues Special Field Order No. 15 which confiscates land on the Georgia coast for the express purpose of settling AfricanAmerican refugees. He later insists this is nothing but a temporary expedient until the refugees can be resettled inland on a more permanent basis.

January 18 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln hands Francis P. Blair a letter for President Jefferson Davis, demonstrating his willingness to negotiate peace for the inhabitants of “our one common country.”

January 19 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln inquires of General Ulysses S. Grant about the possibility of finding Robert Lincoln, his eldest son, a staff position. Grant subsequently appoints him assistant adjutant general with a rank of captain.

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President Jefferson Davis, intent upon shoring up support for his flagging reputation as a war leader, convinces a reluctant General Robert E. Lee to serve as general in chief of Confederate forces. Lee consents but cautions “I must state that with the addition of immediate command of the army, I do not think I could accomplish any good.”

January 20 Politics: Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, recently arrived from Savannah, Georgia, confers with President Abraham Lincoln as to recent conversation he held with General William T. Sherman.

January 21 Military: General William T. Sherman begins relocating his headquarters from Savannah, Georgia, to Beaufort, South Carolina. Over all, his march through the Carolinas has been plagued by heavy rains.

January 22 Naval: Lieutenant John Low, C.S.N., sails the steamer CSS Ajax from Dublin, Ireland, and makes for Nassau, the Bahamas, to receive its armament. However, adroit work by American minister Charles F. Adams dissuades the British from allowing any guns to be shipped there.

January 23 Politics: President Jefferson Davis, reacting to pressure from the Confederate Congress, signs the General in Chief Act which makes General Robert E. Lee supreme military commander.

January 24 Military: Reversing himself, General Ulysses S. Grant now approves of renewed prisoner exchanges. This influx of new Confederate manpower is calculated to exacerbate existing food shortages.

January 27 Politics: President Jefferson Davis begins choosing a commission to conduct informal peace talks as suggested by Francis P. Blair. This ultimately consists of Vice President Alexander H. Stephens, Senate President Robert Hunter, and Assistant Secretary of War John A. Campbell. They are authorized to discuss political moves to arrange an armistice, although Southern independence must be the ultimate goal.

January 31 Military: General Robert E. Lee is appointed general in chief of Confederate forces in light of continuing dissatisfaction over President Jefferson Davis’s handling of military affairs. Politics: The U.S. House of Representatives finally musters the two-thirds majority vote (119 to 56) and ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to abolish slavery. This legislation was previously passed by the Senate on April 8, 1864, and is now handed off to the states for ratification.

February 1 Politics: Illinois becomes the first state to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which formally abolishes slavery.

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Chronology of American History John Rock, an African-American attorney from Boston, Massachusetts, becomes the first minority lawyer to argue before the U.S. Supreme Court. Confederate Secretary of War James A. Seddon resigns due to office political pressure.

February 2 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln departs Washington, D.C., to meet with Confederate peace commissioners at Hampton Roads, Virginia. Rhode Island and Michigan are the second and third states to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment.

February 3 Politics: President Jefferson Davis dispatches Confederate Vice President Alexander H. Stephens, John A. Campbell, and Robert M. T. Hunter to confer with President Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of State William H. Seward onboard a ship off Hampton Roads, Virginia. The meeting deadlocks since the Southerners insist on independence as a precondition for peace, while Lincoln will only accept their unconditional surrender. Maryland, New York, and West Virginia ratify the Thirteenth Amendment for a total of six states.

February 4 Military: General Ulysses S. Grant orders Union forces to cut off Southern wagon trains near Hatcher’s Run, Virginia, along the Boydton Plank Road. The II Corps under General Andrew A. Humphreys, the V Corps of General Gouvernor K. Warren, and a cavalry under General John M. Gregg draw the assignment. Politics: President Abraham Lincoln returns to Washington, D.C., somewhat distraught that nothing has been accomplished through direct peace negotiations. He then assures General Ulysses S. Grant, “Nothing transpired, or transpiring, with the three gentlemen from Richmond is to cause any change, hindrance, or delay of your military plans or operations.”

February 5 Military: General Gouverneur K. Warren’s V Corps launches a renewed offensive along the Boydton Plank Road near Hatcher’s Run (Dabney’s Mill), Virginia, while General Andrew A. Humphrey’s II Corps likewise occupies the nearby Vaughan Road. The Confederates then launch several strong attacks throughout the course of the day but are repulsed, and Humphreys is reinforced overnight by General David M. Gregg’s cavalry division. Politics: President Abraham Lincoln floats the idea of offering $400 million to slave states if they will surrender by April 1. His cabinet uniformly rejects the suggestion, however, so Lincoln abandons it.

February 6 Military: Heavy fighting resumes along Hatcher’s Run, Virginia, as Confederate forces of General John B. Gordon’s division slam into the exposed V Corps of General Gouverneur K. Warren. In the course of heavy fighting Southern general John Pegram falls in action, but renewed onslaughts by General Clement A. Evans gradually force the Federals off the Boydton Plank Road.

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Politics: In reporting to the Confederate Congress the recent conference held at Hampton Roads, President Jefferson Davis denounces President Abraham Lincoln for insisting upon unqualified submission as the sole basis for peace. He declares this unacceptable and vows that the fight for Southern independence will go on. General and former vice president John C. Breckinridge is appointed the new Confederate secretary of war to replace outgoing James A. Seddon.

February 7 Military: Fighting continues at Hatcher’s Run, Virginia, as Union forces finally and successfully extend their siege lines at a cost of 1,512 casualties. Southern losses are unknown but presumed as heavy. Worse, General Robert E. Lee’s defensive perimeter is now stretched to 37 miles in length just as General Ulysses S. Grant again prepares to shift his forces further leftward. Politics: Maine and Kansas ratify the Thirteenth Amendment; the Delaware legislature fails to muster the necessary two-thirds majority.

February 8 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln signs a U.S. House resolution declaring that 11 states of the soon-to-be defunct Confederacy should not enjoy representation in the electoral college.

February 9 Politics: Upon the recommendation of General Robert E. Lee, now general in chief, President Jefferson Davis enacts a pardon for all Confederate deserters who report back to their units with 30 days. Slavery: Unionists in Virginia ratify the Thirteenth Amendment, outlawing slavery.

February 12 Politics: The Electoral College meets and confirms President Abraham Lincoln’s election victory on a vote of 212 to 21.

February 13 Diplomacy: Lord John Russell informs American diplomats in London of the government’s unease over recent buildups of naval strength along the Great Lakes region, contrary to the 1817 Rush-Bagot Agreement. The British are summarily informed that the buildup is in direct response to the Confederate raid on St. Albans, Vermont, on October 19, 1864, which was launched from Canada. Politics: Reacting to complaints from west Tennessee politicians, President Abraham Lincoln admonishes military authorities there, insisting that “the object of the war being to restore and maintain blessings of peace and good government, I desire you to help, and not hinder, every advance in that direction.”

February 17 Military: Union forces under General William T. Sherman accept the surrender of Columbia, capital of South Carolina, from city officials. Meanwhile, General Wade Hampton’s cavalry burns enormous stockpiles of cotton bales before departing, sparks from which ignite several uncontrollable fires. Southerners are convinced that the city has been torched on Sherman’s orders and mark it as a defining atrocity of the war.

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Chronology of American History Politics: The U.S. Congress repudiates all debts accrued by various Confederate governments.

February 18 Military: Charleston, South Carolina, is occupied by Union forces under General Alexander Schimmelfenning. For many Federals, the capture of the “fire eater” center of the Confederacy is sweet revenge. Politics: General Robert E. Lee agrees in principle to the notion of arming slaves to fight for Southern independence but feels they must be fighting as free men.

February 20 Politics: The Confederate House of Representatives approves the use of AfricanAmerican slaves as soldiers.

February 21 Military: General Robert E. Lee alerts Confederate Secretary of War John C. Breckinridge that, if absolutely necessary, he will abandon Richmond, Virginia, and make all haste for Burkeville to maintain communication with Confederate forces in the Carolinas. He also requests that General Joseph E. Johnston be returned to active duty as the health of General Pierre G. T. Beauregard appears fragile.

February 22 Military: Union forces under General John M. Schofield occupy Wilmington, North Carolina, closing the last remaining port of the Confederacy from the land side. The Federals are now poised to conduct military operations toward the interior of the state and, to facilitate this, Schofield orders all railroad tracks in the vicinity repaired. Slavery: Tennessee voters approve a new state constitution that abolishes slavery while Kentucky legislators reject the Thirteenth Amendment.

February 23 Politics: The Thirteenth Amendment is ratified by Minnesota.

February 24 Military: General William T. Sherman vigorously protests to General Wade Hampton the alleged murder of several Union soldiers on a foraging expedition. Hampton replies that his government authorizes him to execute any Federals caught burning private property.

February 25 Military: General Joseph E. Johnston arrives at Charlotte, North Carolina, to resume command of the Army of Tennessee and all Confederate forces extant in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. He now leads a skeleton force of 25,000 ragged, hungry men, observing, “in my opinion, these troops form an army far too weak to cope with Sherman.”

February 27 Military: Generals Philip H. Sheridan and Wesley Merritt take 10,000 cavalry down the Shenandoah Valley toward Lynchburg, Virginia, intending to sever the Virginia Central Railroad and the James River Canal. They command the 1st Cavalry division of General Thomas C. Devlin and the 3rd Cavalry Division of General George A. Custer.

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March 1 Politics: The Thirteenth Amendment is ratified by Wisconsin but rejected by New Jersey.

March 2 Military: The 3rd Cavalry Division of General George A. Custer clatters up to Waynesboro, Virginia, where it observes 2,000 Confederates under General Gabriel C. Wharton’s division drawn up on a ridge line, supported by a few hundred cavalry under General Thomas L. Rosser. Custer quickly perceives that Wharton lacks the manpower to cover both his flanks and dispatches three dismounted regiments to encircle the Confederate left. He sounds the advance and his flankers burst through the woods on Wharton’s flank and then leads his two remaining brigades on a thunderous charge through the Confederate center. The Southerners simply dissolve under the onslaught and General Jubal A. Early and his staff flee from the field. Custer takes 1,600 prisoners, 17 flags, 11 cannon, and 200 wagons for a loss of nine dead and wounded.

March 3 Business: To better regulate finances, the U.S. Congress levies a 10 percent tax on state bank notes to drive them out of circulation. These are then replaced by bank notes drawn from institutions belonging to the national banking system. It is a move calculated to improve centralized financing for the war effort. Politics: President Abraham Lincoln, acting through Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, instructs General Ulysses S. Grant to ignore any of General Robert E. Lee’s intimations toward peace unless he surrenders first. Slavery: Congress institutes the Bureau for the Relief of Freedmen and Refugees (Freedmen’s Bureau) to assist former African-American slaves to find work and education and obtain land. This, in effect, constitutes the nation’s first social welfare agency and is tasked with helping 4 million liberated slaves adjust to freedom.

March 4 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated for a second term in Washington, D.C. Despite the carnage and acrimony of the past four years he strikes a conciliatory tone with his adversaries. “With malice towards none; with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive to finish the work we are in,” he declares, “to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan—to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.” In contrast to Lincoln’s stunning eloquence, newly elected Vice President Andrew Johnson delivers a rambling, incoherent speech that offends many in the audience. Tennessee Unionist William G. Brownlow is elected governor to replace Andrew Johnson.

March 5 Politics: Comptroller of Currency Hugh McCulloch is appointed Secretary of the Treasury, replacing William Fessenden, who resigned after winning a seat as U.S. Senator from Maine.

March 6 Military: The 600-man expedition of General John Newton encounters Confederate resistance under General William Miller at Natural Bridge, Florida. The

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Chronology of American History Federals make repeated attempts to outflank them but find Southern defenses too strong to storm. Miller is also reinforced to a strength of 1,000 men, so Newton falls back and entrenches on an open pine barren. This minor Confederate victory prevents the state capital at Tallahassee from being attacked.

March 7 Politics: Admiral David D. Porter testifies before Congress, proffering some salty commentary as to the leadership abilities of generals Benjamin F. Butler and Nathaniel P. Banks.

March 8 Slavery: The Confederate Congress authorizes African-American slaves to bear arms for military service on a vote of nine to eight.

March 9 Military: General Robert E. Lee warns Confederate Secretary of War John C. Breckinridge about endemic supply shortages and “Unless the men and animals can be subsisted, the army cannot be kept together, and our present lines must be abandoned.” The Battle of Kinston, North Carolina, unfolds as General Braxton Bragg attacks soldiers of General Jacob D. Cox’s XXII Corps. He does so by dispatching General Robert F. Hoke’s division on a flank attack that dislodges Federals under General Samuel P. Carter, while General Daniel H. Hill undertakes a similar move against the Union right. However, neither commander can dislodge a second Union line commanded by General Thomas H. Ruger and the Southern offensive stumbles. Bragg then orders his men across the Neuse River and back into Kinston. Union loses are 1,257 while the Confederates suffer only 134. Politics: President Abraham Lincoln accepts the resignation of John P. Usher as secretary of the interior and appoints Assistant William Otto to succeed him. Vermont ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment.

March 10 Military: Covered by an early morning fog, Confederate cavalry led by generals Wade Hampton and Joseph Wheeler successfully attacks sleeping cavalry of General Hugh J. Kilpatrick at Monroe’s Crossroads, North Carolina. Kilpatrick, surprised and clad only in his undershirt, narrowly evades capture as the Southerners under General Matthew Butler gallop through his camp, sweeping up all in their path. The Federals gradually rally and recapture their bivouac, and Hampton withdraws in good order back to Fayetteville. Kilpatrick insists that his losses are no greater than 190, while killing 80 Confederates and taking 30 prisoner. The affair becomes popularly known on both sides as the “Battle of Kilpatrick’s Pants.”

March 11 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln declares an amnesty for all army and navy deserters returning to their units within two months. Failure to do so results in a loss of citizenship.

March 13 Politics: Desperate to secure additional manpower, President Jefferson Davis reluctantly signs the “Negro Soldier Law” allowing slaves to serve in the Confed-

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erate army. The legislation implies that individuals who serve may be manumitted at a later date with the permission of their owner and state legislatures. Had such pragmatic measures been approved earlier the men might have mitigated continual Confederate personnel shortages and wielded a positive impact on the Southern war effort.

March 14 Diplomacy: Despite Southern overtures toward emancipation, Lord Palmerston declares to Confederate envoys James M. Mason and Duncan F. Kenner that English diplomatic recognition is now a closed issue, especially seeing that the war, in all likelihood, will terminate in a Union victory very shortly.

March 15 Military: General William T. Sherman orders his army out of Fayetteville, North Carolina, and toward Goldsborough. Meanwhile, Union cavalry under General Hugh J. Kilpatrick advances to Averasboro and headlong into General William J. Hardee’s division of 6,000 men, strongly posted with a swamp on their right and the Black River to their left. Kilpatrick backs off until additional Federal forces can come up.

March 16 Military: The Battle of Averasboro erupts as General Hugh J. Kilpatrick’s pushes the 8th Indiana Cavalry forward. These push back skirmishers from Colonel Alfred Rhet’s brigade but then are stopped cold by the main Confederate body under General Lafayette McLaws. All four divisions of the Union XX Corps under General Henry W. Slocum then deploy on the field and drive the Southerners back into their fieldworks. Fighting continues as the Union troops attempt to flank McLaws with scant success and the battle unwinds by nightfall. General William J. Hardee subsequently orders the Confederates to fall back upon Smithville, which they accomplish without incident.

March 17 Military: General Edward R. S. Canby begins his drive toward Mobile, Alabama, with 32,000 men of the XVI and XII Corps; his opponent, General Dabney H. Maury, only musters 2,000 rank and file. Canby intends to catch the city in a pincer, with one column under General Frederick Steele proceeding out of Pensacola to the east as he leads another force from the west along the shore of Mobile Bay. However, progress is slow owing to the muddy condition of the roads they must pass over, and corduroy has to be laid to allow the passage of heavy artillery. Politics: The 2nd Session, 2nd Confederate Congress adjourns, although in a pique over President Jefferson Davis’s insinuation of obstructionism.

March 19 Military: The Battle of Bentonville, North Carolina, commences as General Henry W. Slocum orders General William P. Carlin’s division, XX Corps, down the Goldsborough Road toward Cole’s Plantation. En route he encounters large numbers of heavily entrenched Confederates and halts. Desperate fighting breaks out along the line as hard-charging Southerners fail to break through Union lines. The conflict winds down with nightfall as both sides bring up additional reinforcements.

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March 20 Military: The right wing of General William T. Sherman’s army under General Oliver O. Howard marches toward Bentonville, North Carolina, to reinforce the left wing under General Henry W. Slocum. His arrival boosts Union numbers to 60,000—three times the size of his Southern opponent. Confederates under General Joseph E. Johnston, meanwhile, continue strengthening their fortifications and are especially eager to protect Mill Creek Bridge, their only escape route, from being seized.

March 21 Military: The Battle of Bentonville resumes as General William T. Sherman dispatches General Joseph A. Mower’s division to turn the Confederate left and rear while the main Union force demonstrates to their front. Mower makes surprisingly good progress and nearly reaches Mill Creek Bridge before being violently assailed on both flanks and driven back. However, General Joseph E. Johnston simply lacks the manpower to follow up his success and he orders the army to withdraw northwest toward Smithville. Bentonville is the last conventional clash of the Civil War and both sides perform admirably. Union casualties are 1,646 to a Confederate tally of 2,606.

March 22 Military: General James H. Wilson, at the head of 13,500 Union cavalry, crosses the Tennessee River from Gravelly Springs, Tennessee, and gallops into northern Alabama. His objective is to seize the Confederate munitions center at Selma and commands the divisions of generals Edward M. Cook, Eli Long, and Emory Upton; this is also the largest cavalry force ever fielded in American military history. Wilson, determined to confuse the defenders while en route, divides his command into three columns and takes three separate but mutually supporting routes.

March 23 Military: The combined forces of generals William T. Sherman and John M. Schofield, numbering in excess of 100,000 men, unite at Goldsborough, North Carolina. Thus far Sherman has covered 425 miles from Savannah, Georgia, in only 50 days and with no major mishap. It is a logistical and organizational triumph that far exceeds his better known “March to the Sea” in complexity and difficulty. Politics: President Abraham Lincoln and his son Tad depart Washington, D.C., for City Point, Virginia, outside Petersburg, to confer with General Ulysses S. Grant.

March 24 Military: General Robert E. Lee, in light of his slowly eroding defenses in and around Petersburg, Virginia, conceives his final tactical offensive of the war. He orders General John B. Gordon to take elements of several Confederate corps and seize a portion of nearby Union lines. A breakthough would undoubtedly force General Ulysses S. Grant to concentrate his forces near the break, thereby allowing the Army of Virginia to slip out of Petersburg and join General Joseph E. Johnston in North Carolina. Politics: President Abraham Lincoln arrives at Fortress Monroe, Virginia, prior to meeting with General Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman at City Point.

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March 25 Military: At 4:00 p.m., the Battle of Fort Stedman, Virginia, begins as Confederate pioneer companies silence outlying Union pickets and remove their abatis (defensive obstacles). Then General John B. Gordon launches 11,000 Southerners into Union trenches near Fort Stedman, surprising the defenders and capturing the fort and Batteries X, XI, and XII. However, General John Hartranft leads 4,000 men back to the trenches, recaptures Fort Stedman, and forces Gordon’s veterans back. Lacking the manpower necessary to contest the Union advance, the Confederates fall back in disorder, losing 3,500 men, including 1,500 prisoners. Union casualties amount to 1,044; Lee now has little recourse but to prepare for the abandonment of Petersburg. Politics: President Abraham Lincoln arrives at City Point, Virginia, and meets with General Ulysses S. Grant.

March 28 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln, generals Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman, and Admiral David D. Porter confer on the steamship River Queen to discuss postwar policy toward their former adversaries. Lincoln, fearful of continuing guerrilla activity, instructs them to offer generous terms to the vanquished in order to bring them back into the fold quickly.

March 31 Military: Union forces under General Philip H. Sheridan continue turning the Confederate right flank at Dinwiddie Court House, Virginia. He is suddenly assailed in the left flank by General George E. Pickett’s division and violently shoved back, but Pickett, cognizant of how dangerously thin his force is stretched, withdraws to Five Forks under cover of darkness. Moreover, General Robert E. Lee fears for the precariousness of his perimeter and explicitly instructs Pickett to “Hold Five Forks at all hazards.”

April 1 Military: The Battle of Five Forks, Virginia, begins as General Philip H. Sheridan orders cavalry under generals George A. Custer and Thomas C. Devlin to slash at the Confederate right flank while his remaining forces engage and pin them frontally. Inexplicably, Confederate generals George E. Pickett and Fitzhugh Lee are absent as the struggle develops, being at a fish bake several miles to the rear. Sheridan then orders his cavalry to charge the entire Confederate line and it buckles and breaks. Victory at Five Forks cost the Union 986 casualties while the Confederates lost 4,400 men in addition to 11 flags and four cannon. Worse still, General Robert E. Lee has no recourse but to abandon Richmond to save his army from encirclement. Union cavalry under generals Eli Long and Emory Upton press 1,500 Confederate cavalry under General Nathan B. Forrest at Ebenezer Church, Alabama, where he awaits the arrival of General James R. Chalmer’s division. At 4:00 p. m., the first Union wave under Long gallops forward, crashes into the Confederate center, and is repulsed. Another part of Upton’s men hit Forrest’s center-left, held by Alabama militia, and they bolt and collapse the entire line. Federal losses amount to 12 dead and 40 wounded to a Confederate tally of 300, mostly captured.

April 2 Military: General Ulysses S. Grant decisively orders an all-out assault on Confederate defenses ringing Petersburg, Virginia. At 4:30 a. m. General Horatio G.

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Chronology of American History Wright’s VI Corps storms the Southern right at Fort Fisher, as far as Hatcher’s Run, and fatally ruptures General Robert E. Lee’s line. The XXIV Corps also charges down Boydton Plank Road, routing the defenders while redoubtable General Ambrose P. Hill dies rallying his men. General Robert E. Lee orders the immediate evacuation of Petersburg, Virginia, and advises President Jefferson Davis to relocate the seat of Confederate government far from Richmond. Thus the siege of Petersburg, which commenced on June 15, 1864, successfully terminates with Union losses of 5,100 killed, 24,800 wounded, and 17,500 captured; Confederate losses over this same period are variously estimated at between 28,000 and 38,000. General James H. Wilson arrives before Selma, Alabama, a heavily fortified city guarded by 5,000 men under General Nathan B. Forrest. Wilson immediately dispatches General Eli Long’s division to attack the Confederate right while dismounted; the troopers cross 600 yards of open space, taking heavy losses. Wilson then decides the issue with a thundering charge down the Selma Road which finally scatters the defenders. Forrest’s losses are 2,700 captured and 102 cannon seized; Union casualties are 46 dead, 300 wounded, and 13 missing. Politics: As Confederate defenses around Richmond, Virginia, collapse, a greatly relieved President Abraham Lincoln telegraphs General Ulysses S. Grant, “Allow me to tender to you, and all with you, the nation’s grateful thanks for this additional and magnificent success.”

April 3 Military: Union forces under General Godfrey Weitzel, commanding the largely African-American XXV Corps, prepares to occupy Richmond, Virginia. At 5:30 a.m., he sends forward an advance party under Major Atherton H. Stevens, which is received by civil authorities at city hall. Richmond then formally capitulates to Union forces, who promptly raise the Stars and Stripes over the state capitol. President Abraham Lincoln, visiting General Ulysses S Grant in Petersburg, happily declares “Thank God I have lived to see this. It seems to me that I have been dreaming a horrid dream for four years, and now the nightmare is gone.” Politics: President Jefferson Davis and his cabinet arrive by special train in Danville, Virginia.

April 4 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln ventures up the James River to Richmond, Virginia, aboard the USS Malvern. Once ashore he is escorted by Admiral David D. Porter and 10 sailors to the Confederate White House, all the while being greeted by throngs of former African-American slaves. Many of these reach out and touch Lincoln’s person to convince themselves that he is not an apparition. President Jefferson Davis, pausing momentarily at Danville, Virginia, calls on fellow Southerners not to lose hope for ultimate victory is certain from “our own unquenchable resolve.”

April 5 Military: General Robert E. Lee, preparing to depart Amelia Court House, Virginia, is now joined by the troops of General Richard S. Ewell, bringing his strength up to 58,000. Lee then determines to attack Union forces under generals Philip H. Sheridan and George G. Meade directly in their path at Jetersville and cut themselves free. Three divisions under General James Longstreet are readied to march,

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but Lee cancels the move and instead opts for a night march around the Union left flank, followed by a quick dash to Farmville where promised supplies should be waiting. Federal forces continue milling around their fortifications until 10:30 p.m. when General Ulysses S. Grant arrives to personally supervise the pursuit. Politics: As President Abraham Lincoln delights sitting in Jefferson Davis’s chair, he is approached by Confederate Assistant Secretary of War John A. Campbell, himself a former U.S. Supreme Court justice, who requests that the president help maintain the rule of law in Virginia. Secretary of State William H. Seward is severely injured in a carriage accident in Washington, D.C.

April 6 Military: The Battle of Sayler’s Creek unfolds as the Army of the Northern Virginia, retreating from Amelia Court House to Farmsville, Virginia, inadvertently separates into three parts. Closely pursuing Union forces are thus able to exploit gaps between the commands of generals Richard S. Ewell, Richard H. Anderson, and John B. Gordon with disastrous effect. The Southerners initially repulse the Union advance as they pour over the flooded Sayler’s Creek, but the division of General George W. Getty effectively flanks the defenders. Ewell’s entire line is then promptly double-enveloped and surrenders 3,400 prisoners. A similar drama develops to Ewell’s right-rear, where a Union cavalry division under General Wesley Merritt attacks General Richard H. Anderson’s corps. Here the weak formations of generals George E. Pickett and Bushrod Johnson dissolve in the face of a mounted charge by General George A. Custer. As Southern defenses buckle, Anderson’s survivors flee into the woods and Federal troops round up another 2,600 captives, 300 wagons, and 15 cannon. The final act to play occurs on the Confederate left where 17,000 men of General Andrew A. Humphrey’s II Corps engages General John B. Gordon’s rear guard, numbering only 7,000. Gordon is presently protecting a Southern wagon train bogged down in the mud and Humphrey quickly sends a strong column around his left. Gordon quickly abandons the field to save his command, although an additional 1,700 men are taken prisoner. Sayler’s Creek proves a black day for the Army of Northern Virginia, which loses 7,700 men and eight generals—one-fifth of its entire strength. Union losses amount only to 166 killed and 982 wounded. This also represents one of the largest numbers of Americans captured in battle until Bataan, 1942.

April 7 Diplomacy: The U.S. government, having lost millions of dollars in shipping to the English-built CSS Alabama and other raiders, begins a lengthy litigation process seeking restitution. Politics: An anxious President Abraham Lincoln, upon hearing that General Robert E. Lee might capitulate if cornered, implores General Ulysses S. Grant to “Let the thing be pressed.” Tennessee ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment while William G. Brownlow, an unabashed Unionist, is inaugurated as governor.

April 8 Military: Rather than surrender, General Robert E. Lee seeks to break through Union cavalry under General Philip H. Sheridan blocking his path at Appomattox

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Chronology of American History Court House. At a council of war held late that night, Lee and his generals agree to attack Sheridan in the morning then press onto Lynchburg.

April 9 Military: Palm Sunday. General Robert E. Lee directs generals John B. Gordon and Fitzhugh Lee to attack General Philip H. Sheridan’s forces at Appomattox Court House, Virginia. The Federal troopers are gradually dislodged from their position when Lee discerns Union General Edward O. C. Ord’s entire Army of the James drawn up in battle formation behind them. He finally acknowledges the futility of fighting further and parleys with Union authorities to discuss surrender terms. At 1:30 p.m., General Robert E. Lee, accompanied only by his secretary, meets with General Ulysses S. Grant and formally surrenders the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House, Virginia. The terms proffered by Grant are generous, whereby all of Lee’s 30,000 survivors are paroled and allowed to go home, officers are permitted to retain sidearms, and all horses and mules remain with their rightful owners. In a kindly gesture, Union forces issue 25,000 rations to the half-starved Confederates. The harsh and bloody Civil War, the most costly conflict in American history, reaches its humane and dignified denouement. Fort Blakely, Mobile, Alabama, is besieged by 45,000 Federal troops once General Frederick Steele is joined by the main force under General Edward R. S. Canby. An assault force of 16,000 then attacks the Confederate defenses at noon, covered by the fire of 37 field pieces and 75 siege guns. Their success prompts General St. John R. Liddell to surrender after 20 minutes of fighting. Union losses

This painting depicts the surrender of Robert E. Lee and his army at the Appomattox Court House, Virginia, to General Ulysses S. Grant (Library of Congress)

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are 113 killed and 516 wounded while the Southerners incur 629 casualties and 3,423 men and 40 cannon captured.

April 10 Military: General Robert E. Lee issues Order No. 9 and thanks the men and officers of the Army of Northern Virginia, who had served him famously over the past three years, in victory and now defeat. “With an increasing admiration of your constancy and devotion to your country,” Lee writes, “and a grateful remembrance of your kind and generous consideration of myself, I bid you an affectionate farewell.” Politics: President Abraham Lincoln is accosted by happy crowds in Washington, D.C., and then asks a military band to strike up Dixie, “one of the best tunes I have ever heard.” President Jefferson Davis, upon learning of General Robert E. Lee’s capitulation, hastily departs Danville, Virginia, and makes for Greensborough, North Carolina. News of General Robert E. Lee’s surrender sparks wild celebrations in northern cities.

April 11 Politics: President Abraham Lincoln delivers his final public address to enthusiastic crowds gathered about the White House. He again pleas for magnanimity and peaceful reconciliation with the inhabitants of former secessionist states.

April 12 Military: The vaunted Army of Northern Virginia formally capitulates at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, to General Joshua L. Chamberlain. As General John B. Gordon leads a column of weather-beaten 28,000 Southerners along the Richmond Stage Road, completely lined by Union forces, Chamberlain orders his men to present arms to the solemn procession. The salute is returned in kind. Politics: President Jefferson Davis, readying to flee Greensborough, North Carolina, confers with General Joseph E. Johnston about the potential surrender of remaining Confederate forces. He then authorizes Johnston to meet with Union authorities and get the best terms possible.

April 13 Politics: Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton orders the military draft suspended and also reduces supply requisitions.

April 14 Military: General Robert Anderson hoists the American flag over the battered remnants of Fort Sumter, Charleston harbor, South Carolina. It is the identical standard lowered by him on April 14, 1861. Politics: In his final cabinet meeting, President Abraham Lincoln reiterates his call for reconciliation with the South, and then repairs to Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C., to attend the play “Our American Cousin.” At 10:15 p.m., Lincoln is suddenly shot by actor John Wilkes Booth, who then escapes. Meanwhile, Secretary of State William H. Seward, recovering in his home from a recent accident,

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Chronology of American History survives an assassination attempt by Lewis Powell. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton declares martial law throughout the District of Columbia and initiates a massive dragnet to snare the assassins.

April 15 Arts: In recognition of President Abraham Lincoln’s death, all theaters in New York City close for the next ten days. Politics: President Abraham Lincoln dies at 7:22 a.m., leaving Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton to reputedly declare “Now, he belongs to the ages.” Vice President Andrew Johnson is then sworn in as the nation’s 17th chief executive by Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase; Johnson’s first request is to ask members of Lincoln’s cabinet to retain their offices. President Jefferson Davis departs Greensborough, North Carolina, on horseback and rides all night towards Lexington.

April 16 Military: General James H. Wilson’s army occupies Columbus, Georgia, after brushing aside a hodgepodge collection of Confederates and militia, taking 1,200 captives and 52 cannon. The victorious troopers then commence burning several factories, 100,000 bales of cotton, 15 locomotives, and 200 rail cars. Another column under General Edward M. McCook seizes West Point, destroying an additional 19 locomotives and numerous railcars.

April 17 Politics: John Wilkes Booth, who broke his leg after assassinating President Abraham Lincoln, hides near Port Tobacco, Maryland, where he awaits transportation over the Potomac River to freedom. The body of President Abraham Lincoln lies in state in the East Room of the White House, Washington, D.C. President Jefferson Davis and his entourage arrive at Salisbury, North Carolina.

April 18 Military: Confederate forces under General Joseph E. Johnston agree to surrender 37,000 men to General William T. Sherman at Durham Station, North Carolina. However, terms of their “Memorandum or Basis of Agreement” will be viewed in Washington, D.C., as overly generous and disavowed. Sherman will also be accused of overstepping his authority and ordered to renegotiate the pact with identical terms used at Appomattox.

April 19 Politics: Funeral services are held for President Abraham Lincoln in Washington, D.C., and huge crowds throng the proceedings. President Jefferson Davis and his remaining cabinet flee to Charlotte, North Carolina.

April 20 Politics: Arkansas ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment.

April 21 General: A train bearing the casket of President Abraham Lincoln departs Washington, D.C., for Springfield, Illinois, as immense crowds of mourners gather along the tracks en route.

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April 22 Crime: John Wilkes Booth and his accomplice David E. Herold escape in a small rowboat from Maryland to Virginia.

April 24 Crime: Presidential assassins John Wilkes Booth and David E. Herold make their way to Port Conway, Virginia. Politics: President Andrew Johnson formally rejects the surrender agreement reached between generals William T. Sherman and Joseph E. Johnston. He then dispatches General Ulysses S. Grant to Raleigh, North Carolina, to personally inform Sherman of his displeasure.

April 25 Crime: Union troops chase assassins John Wilkes Booth and David E. Herold to Bowling Green, Virginia, just south of the Rappahannock River. The two fugitives seek refuge in the barn belonging to farmer Richard H. Garrett.

April 26 Crime: John Wilkes Booth is cornered in a barn near Bowling Green, Virginia, while attempting to escape from Federal troops and dies of his wounds. His accomplice, David E. Herold, is apprehended. Military: Generals Joseph E. Johnston and William T. Sherman meet again at Durham Station, North Carolina, and renegotiate a surrender agreement with identical terms to those offered at Appomattox, Virginia. Politics: President Jefferson Davis departs Charlotte, North Carolina, and heads for the Trans-Mississippi region, intending to carry on a guerrilla struggle for Southern independence.

April 27 General: At 2:00 a.m., boilers on the steamer Sultana explode with a deafening roar, hurling crew and passengers alike into the frigid waters of the Mississippi River. By the time help finally arrives from Memphis, Tennessee, two hours later, more than 1,700 people have perished from burns and hypothermia. Only 600 are fished from the waters alive. Sultana remains the single biggest maritime disaster in United States maritime history and eclipses the more famous Titanic disaster 47 years hence.

April 28 Politics: The train bearing President Abraham Lincoln’s casket pauses briefly at Cleveland, Ohio, where 50,000 citizens come to pay their final respects. President Jefferson Davis accepts the resignation of Confederate Secretary of the Treasury George A. Trentholm from his cabinet.

April 29 Politics: President Andrew Johnson issues an executive order lifting commercial restrictions against all Southern states except Texas, still technically at war with the United States. President Jefferson Davis and his entourage reach Yorksville, South Carolina.

April 30 Military: General Edward R. S. Canby holds preliminary talks with General Richard Taylor at Mobile, Alabama, as to the latter’s forthcoming capitulation.

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Chronology of American History Afterward, Taylor returns to his headquarters at Meridian, Mississippi, and makes preparations.

May 1 Politics: President Andrew Johnson calls for a board of nine army officers to try the eight individuals accused of participating in Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. President Jefferson Davis reaches Cokesbury, South Carolina, en route to the Florida coast. There they hope to catch a fast vessel and make for Texas.

May 2 Politics: President Andrew Johnson accuses a fugitive Jefferson Davis of complicity in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln and offers $100,000 for his capture. President Jefferson Davis arrives at Abbeville, South Carolina, and heads for Washington, Georgia, escorted by four brigades of cavalry under General Basil W. Duke. Members of his cabinet begin disputing his intention of renewing their struggle through guerrilla warfare. Confederate Secretary of Navy Stephen R. Mallory tenders his resignation to President Jefferson Davis at Washington, Georgia. Societal: The New York legislature authorizes the first paid fire department in New York City.

May 3 Politics: The funeral train bearing the remains of President Abraham Lincoln pulls into Springfield, Illinois, its final stop. Confederate Secretary of State Judah P. Benjamin resigns from President Jefferson Davis’s cabinet and eventually flees to England.

May 4 Military: General Richard Taylor formally surrenders all Confederate forces east of the Mississippi River to General Edward R. S. Canby at Citronelle, Alabama. He receives the identical terms proffered to General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox and is also allowed to employ steamships to send his men home. Politics: Abraham Lincoln is laid to his final rest at Springfield, Illinois.

May 5 Crime: The nation’s first train heist occurs when an engine belonging to the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad is stopped and robbed at North Bend, Ohio. Politics: Connecticut ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment to abolish slavery. President Jefferson Davis and his dwindling coterie arrive at Sandersville, Georgia.

May 6 Politics: President Andrew Johnson appoints General David Hunter to head the military commission tasked with trying those implicated in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. The accused are prosecuted by Joseph Holt, Judge Advocate General, U.S. Army.

May 9 Crime: The trial of eight suspected conspirators begins in Washington, D.C. Politics: President Andrew Johnson declares the naval blockade will remain in place for two more weeks to impede any escape by fugitive Confederate leaders.

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Francis H. Pierpont receives official recognition as governor of Virginia; previously he headed Unionist Virginians in the Union-controlled portion of the state. President Jefferson Davis is re united with his wife Varina at Dublin, Georgia.

May 10 Military: Dreaded Confederate guerrilla William C. Quantrill is mortally wounded and captured in a Union ambush near Taylorville, Kentucky. He dies in prison shortly afterward. Politics: President Andrew Johnson declares armed resistance “virtually at an end” although sporadic skirmishes persist in rural parts of the South. President Jefferson Davis and his wife Varina are captured near Abbeville, Georgia, by men of the 1st Wisconsin Cavalry under Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin Pritchard—part of General James H. Wilson’s command. His arrest signals the end of Confederate government.

May 12 Societal: President Andrew Johnson appoints General Oliver O. Howard to head the new Freedmen’s Bureau.

May 13 Military: Colonel Theodore H. Barrett arrives in Texas to take command of Union troops under Colonel David Branson and leads them into combat at Palmetto Ranch. They engage a force of Confederate cavalry under Colonel John S. Ford, who deftly outflanks the overconfident Federals. Barrett promptly falls back, pursued by the Southerners, who chase him for 17 miles. Union losses are estimated at 130 killed, wounded, and captured; the Confederates are thought to have suffered far less. Palmetto Ranch is the last pitched Civil War encounter west of the Mississippi River.

May 16 Politics: President Jefferson Davis, his family, and several ranking Confederate officials are placed on steamers and sent down the Savannah River, Georgia, and call at Port Royal, South Carolina.

May 22 Politics: President Andrew Johnson opens all Southern seaports as of July 1 with the exception of four harbors in Texas: Galveston, La Salle, Brazos Santiago, and Brownsville. President Jefferson Davis arrives in chains at Fortress Monroe, Virginia, and will remain confined there until May 13, 1867.

May 23 Military: The Grand Army of the Republic parades in a mass review at Washington, D.C., and flags are permitted to fly at full mast for the first time in four years. Sadly, not one of the 166 African-American regiments raised during the war is present during the festivities. The army of General William T. Sherman, sporting a much looser appearance than the spit-and-polish Army of the Potomac, victoriously tramps its way through Washington, D.C. Moreover, Sherman still seethes over his contretemps with Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton and the surrender terms imposed on General Joseph E. Johnston, so he refuses to shake Stanton’s hand.

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Chronology of American History Politics: The Piedmont government, a collection of Unionist politicians from Virginia, formally occupies the state capital at Richmond.

May 26 Military: General Simon B. Buckner, representing General Edmund Kirby-Smith, surrenders to General Edward R. S. Canby’s deputy General Peter J. Osterhaus at New Orleans, Louisiana. This completely dissolves all remaining Confederate forces west of the Mississippi River. General Joseph O. Shelby, however, angrily spurs 1,000 followers southward into Mexico to help found a military colony.

May 27 Politics: President Andrew Johnson empties the prisons of almost all Southerners still incarcerated by the military.

May 29 Diplomacy: In a detailed letter, American minister Charles F. Adams outlines to British foreign minister Lord John Russell that British-built Confederate warships are responsible for the destruction of 110,000 tons of American shipping—and compensation is in order. The damage wrought proves so extensive that the United States forfeits its prior status as the world’s largest maritime carrier. Politics: President Andrew Johnson proclaims an amnesty and pardon agreement to any former Confederates submitting to a loyalty oath. He also extends recognition to four new state governments established by his predecessor, along with plans for readmitting Southern states back into the Union. Johnson’s continuation of moderate reconstruction or, as he deems it, Restoration, spells trouble at the hands of Radical Republicans who are intent on exacting a measure of revenge for the erstwhile rebels. William H. Holden gains appointment as provisional governor of North Carolina.

June 2 Diplomacy: The government of Great Britain officially rescinds belligerent status from the Confederate States of America. Military: General Edmund Kirby-Smith formally surrenders Confederate forces at Galveston, Texas, to General Edmund J. Davis. The articles of capitulation are signed aboard the USS Fort Jackson. Politics: President Andrew Johnson pardons Lambdin P. Milligan, a notorious “Copperhead” agitator, from hanging.

June 6 Politics: President Andrew Johnson orders all remaining Confederate prisoners of war released after they take a loyalty oath. Voters in Missouri approve a new constitution abolishing slavery.

June 13 Politics: President Andrew Johnson appoints William L. Sharkey as provisional governor of Mississippi, continuing his policy of reestablishing civilian authority as quickly as possible.

June 17 Politics: President Andrew Johnson appoints James Johnson and Andrew J. Hamilton as provisional governors of Georgia and Texas, respectively.

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June 21 Politics: President Andrew Johnson appoints Lewis E. Parsons to serve as provisional governor of Alabama.

June 22 Naval: Confederate raider CSS Shenandoah under Lieutenant James I. Waddell fires the last shots of the Civil War while capturing six Union whalers in the Bering Sea. Waddell hears rumors that the war has ended from his captives but disbelieves them.

June 23 Indian: General Stand Watie surrenders his Confederate Cherokee at Doaksville, Indian Territory (Oklahoma). He is the last ranking Confederate officer to lay down his arms. Politics: President Andrew Johnson declares the Union naval blockade of all Southern states officially ended.

June 24 Politics: President Andrew Johnson lifts all commercial restrictions from states and territories west of the Mississippi River.

June 30 Crime: A military commission finds all eight conspirators charged with the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln guilty. David E. Herold, Lewis Payne, George A. Atzerodt, and Mary E. Surratt are sentenced to hang while Dr. Samuel Mudd, Samuel Arnold, and Michael O’Laughlin receive life sentences. Edward Spangler receives six years in prison.

July Journalism: Edwin Lawrence Godkin founds The Nation in New York City, a weekly publication concerned with politics and the arts.

July 1 Politics: President Andrew Johnson declares all Southern ports now open to foreign commerce and shipping. New Hampshire ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment.

July 7 Crime: Four individuals found guilty of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln go to the gallows in Washington, D.C. Four others are slated to serve their sentences on the Dry Tortugas Islands, Florida.

July 13 Politics: President Andrew Johnson appoints William Marvin provisional governor of Florida.

July 19 Politics: Governor Madison J. Wells implores the inhabitants of Louisiana to take the oath of allegiance or lose their right to vote.

August 2 Naval: Lieutenant James I. Waddell of the CSS Shenandoah learns from the British vessel Barracouta that the Civil War has ended in a complete Union victory. Fearing that he and his crew will be charged with piracy, and ignoring protests from many sailors, Waddell orders the vessel to make way for England.

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August 21 Politics: The Mississippi state legislature negates its secessionist ordinance and also abolishes slavery.

August 28 Naval: Admiral David D. Porter is appointed the sixth superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy, and he orchestrates its transfer back to Annapolis, Maryland, from Newport, Rhode Island. Porter serves four years there, rising to vice admiral.

September 1 Education: Former general Robert E. Lee becomes president of Washington College, Virginia.

September 4 Journalism: A heated editorial in the New York Times calls for Jefferson Davis’s trial so as to demonstrate that the recent failed rebellion was a crime.

September 5 Politics: The South Carolina legislature, once the epicenter of secession, formally nullifies its ordinance to do the same.

September 14 Diplomacy: Representatives of nine Native American tribes (Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Osage, Seminole, Seneca, Shawnee, and Quapaw) gather at Fort Smith, Arkansas, to sign a treaty of loyalty to the United States.

October 2 Politics: Former general Robert E. Lee takes his oath of allegiance to the United States and receives a full pardon.

October 11 Politics: Former Confederate vice president Alexander H. Stephens and several high ranking cabinet officials are paroled by President Andrew Johnson.

October 12 Politics: President Andrew Johnson declares an end to martial law in Kentucky.

November 3 Naval: Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles instructs all U.S. Navy vessels to render proper honors upon entering English ports. This diplomatic nicety is resumed once the British government retracts belligerent status from the now defunct Confederacy.

November 5 Naval: Lieutenant James I. Waddell docks the USS Shenadoah at Liverpool, England, after covering 58,000 miles and seizing 38 Union prizes. His is the final Confederate flag struck. Following a few days of confinement, Waddell and his crew are released by British authorities and allowed to leave.

November 9 Politics: The North Carolina legislature overturns its 1861 secession ordinance, outlaws slavery, and elects new members to Congress.

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November 10 Crime: Captain Henry Wirz is hanged by Union authorities for his role as commandant of notorious Andersonville Prison, Georgia. He is the only Confederate military officer so punished.

November 13 Politics: The South Carolina state legislature ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment.

November 18 Literature: Little-known writer and social commentator Samuel Clemens (“Mark Twain”) begins his celebrated literary career by publishing “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” in the weekly magazine The Nation.

November 24 Societal: The Mississippi state legislature passes laws concerning vagrancy, labor service, and other “black codes” aimed at regulating African Americans and defining their role in greater society. Henceforth, blacks are forbidden from serving on juries, cannot testify against white persons in a court of law, cannot bear arms, and cannot assemble in large numbers. Collectively, these are an early manifestation of what becomes known as “Jim Crow” laws in the 20th century.

December 1 Politics: The government revokes wartime suspension of writs of habeas corpus, except in states of the former Confederacy, the District of Columbia, and the New Mexico and Arizona Territories.

December 2 Politics: The Alabama state legislature ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment, granting the requisite three-fourths approval by the states to render it law.

December 4 Politics: The 39th U.S. Congress convenes and the House of Representative institutes the Joint Committee on Reconstruction to oppose what is perceived as moderate tendencies by President Andrew Johnson. Known as the “Committee of Fifteen,” it consists of nine Republicans and six Democrats, and votes consistently along party lines. Among its first actions is disputing the credentials of newly elected senators and representatives from former Confederate states, hence denying them seats in Congress. According to senator and Radical Republican Charles Sumner, the South has committed “State suicide.” The Thirteenth Amendment is ratified by North Carolina but it fails in Mississippi.

December 5 Diplomacy: Secretary of State William H. Seward instructs American minister to France John Bigelow to express, in no uncertain terms, American displeasure with France’s occupation of Mexico. Politics: The Georgia legislature ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment.

December 6 Politics: In his first annual message to Congress, President Andrew Johnson declares with “gratitude to God in the name of the people for the preservation of the United States.”

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December 11 Politics: The Thirteenth Amendment is ratified by Oregon.

December 12 Politics: The U.S. Senate appoints the “Joint Committee on Reconstruction” at the behest of William P. Fessenden of Maine.

December 14 Politics: U.S. Representative Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania, an outspoken Radical Republican, assumes the mantle of leadership within the “Committee of Fifteen.”

December 18 Politics: Secretary of State William H. Seward declares the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, approved by 27 states, as formally adopted. Thus, after two and a half contentious centuries, the incubus of slavery is finally expunged from the American polity and psyche alike. However, in many places throughout the states of the former Confederacy, it is supplanted by equally repugnant “Jim Crow” laws which are not finally eliminated until the Civil Rights Act of 1964—a century hence.

December 24 Politics: The Ku Klux Klan is founded in Tennessee as a secret society intent upon terrorizing newly freed African Americans. Former Confederate general Nathan B. Forrest is installed as the first Grand Wizard, although he eventually resigns once members resort to violence against blacks.

December 25 Business: The Union Stockyard opens in Chicago, Illinois, and wields a profound impact on the economic growth of the midwest and prairies by facilitating the soon-to-be thriving cattle industry.

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B IBLIOGRAPHY ✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰ Adair, Douglass G. The Intellectual Origins of Jeffersonian Democracy: Republicanism, the Class Struggle, and the Virtuous Farmer. Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, 2000. Allgor, Catherine. A Perfect Union: Dolley Madison and the Creation of the American Nation. New York: Henry Holt, 2006. Allison, Robert J. Stephen Decatur: American Naval Hero, 1779–1820. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2005. Angevine, Robert G. The Railroad and the State: War, Politics, and Technology in Nineteenth-Century America. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2004. Ayers, Edward L. Crucible of the Civil War: Virginia from Secession to Commemoration. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2006. ———. What Caused the Civil War?: Reflections on the South and Southern History. New York: Norton, 2005. Baker, Anne. Heartless Insanity: Literature, Culture, and Geography in Antebellum America. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2007. Baker, Jean H. Sisters: The Lives of America’s Suffragists. New York: Hill and Wang, 2005. Baker, Jennifer J. Securing the Commonwealth: Debt, Speculation, and Writing in the Making of Early America. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005. Ball, Durwood. Army Regulars on the Western Frontier, 1848–1861. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2001. Banner, Stuart. How the Indians Lost Their Land: Law and Power on the Frontier. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2005. Basker, James G., ed. Early American Abolitionists: A Collection of Anti-Slavery Writings, 1760–1820. New York: Gilder Lehrman Institute of America, 2005. Beck, Paul N. The First Sioux War: The Grattan Fight and Blue Water Creek, 1854–1856. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 2004. Belko, W. Stephen. The Invincible Duff Green: Whig of the West. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2006. Berube, Claude, and John A. Rodgaard. A Call to the Sea: Captain Charles Stewart of the USS Constitution. Dulles, Va.: Potomac, 2005. Blackman, Ann. Wild Rose: The True Story of a Civil War Spy. New York: Random House, 2005. 1184

Bibliography Blair, Jayne E. The Essential Civil War: A Handbook to the Battles, Armies, Navies, and Commanders. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2006. Blake, David H. Walt Whitman and the Culture of American Celebrity. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2006. Bohan, Ruth L. Looking into Walt Whitman: American Art, 1850–1920. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2006. Bowling, Kenneth R., and Donald R. Kennon, eds. Establishing Congress: The Removal to Washington, D.C., and the Election of 1800. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2005. Braden, Bruce, ed. “Ye Will Say I am no Christian”: The Thomas Jefferson/John Adams Correspondence on Religion, Morals, and Values. Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 2006. Brands, H. W. Andrew Jackson: His Life and Times. New York: Doubleday, 2005. Bratt, James D. Antirevivalism in Antebellum America: A Collection of Religious Voices. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2006. Brown, Kent M. Retreat from Gettysburg: Lee, Logistics, and the Pennsylvania Campaign. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005. Brown, Susan M. “U.S. Soldiers and Veterans in War, Peace, and Politics during the Revolutionary War and State-Formation Period.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., New School University, 2005. Buel, Richard. America on the Brink: How the Political Struggle over the War of 1812 Almost Destroyed the Young Republic. New York: Palgrave, 2005. ———. Historical Dictionary of the Early American Republic. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2006. Buell, Lawrence, ed. The American Transcendentalists: Essential Writings. New York: Modern Library, 2006. Buinicki, Martin T. Negotiating Copyright: Authorship and the Discourse of Literary Property Rights in Nineteenth-Century America. New York: Routledge, 2006. Burin, Eric. Slavery and the Peculiar Solution: A History of the American Colonization Society. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2005. Burnstein, Andrew. Jefferson’s Secrets: Death and Desire at Monticello. New York: Basic Books, 2005. Butts, Michele T. Galvanized Yankees on the Upper Missouri: The Face of Loyalty. Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2003. Calonius, Erik. The Wanderer: The Last American Slave Ship. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2006. Campbell, Robin D. Mistresses of the Transient Hearth: American Army Officers’ Wives and Material Culture, 1840–1880. New York: Routledge, 2005. Carey, Charles W. The Mexican War: “Mr. Polk’s War.” Berkeley Heights, N.J.: Enslow, 2002. Carmichael, Peter S. The Last Generation: Young Virginians in Peace, War, and Reunion. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005. Carroll, Lorraine. Rhetorical Drag: Gender, Impersonation, Captivity, and the Writing of History. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 2006. Cashin, Joan E. First Lady of the Confederacy: Varina Davis’s Civil War. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2006.

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Chronology of American History Casto, William R. Foreign Affairs and the Constitution in the Age of Fighting Sail. Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina, 2006. Cawardine, Richard. Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006. Chhibber, Pradeep K., and Ken Pollman. The Formation of National Party Systems: Federalism and Party Competition in Canada, Great Britain, India, and the United States. Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, 2004. Clinton, Catherine, and Nina Silber, eds. Battle Scars: Gender and Sexuality in the Civil War. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. Cogliano, Francis D. Thomas Jefferson: Reputation and Legacy. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2006. Cohoon, Lorinda B. Serialized Citizenships: Periodicals, Books, and American Boys, 1840–1911. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2006. Colaiaco, James A. Frederick Douglass and the Fourth of July: Speaking Truth to America. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. Corps, Terry. Historical Dictionary of the Jacksonian Era and Manifest Destiny. Lanham Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2006. Coski, John M. The Confederate Battle Flag: America’s Most Embattled Emblem. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press, 2005. Crapol, Edward P. John Tyler: the Accidental President. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006. Creighton, Margaret S. The Colors of Courage: Gettysburg’s Forgotten History, Immigrants, Women, and African Americans in the Civil War’s Defining Battle. New York: Basic Books, 2005. Cunningham, Noble E. Jefferson vs Hamilton: Confrontations that Shaped a Nation. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000. Currie, David P. The Constitution in Congress: Democrats and Whigs, 1829– 1861. Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press, 2005. Daehnke, Joel. In the Works of Their Hands is Their Prayer: Cultural Narrative and Redemption on the American Frontiers, 1830–1930. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2003. Davis, Clark. Hawthorne’s Shyness: Ethics, Politics, and the Question of Engagement. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005. Davis, David B. Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. DePalma, Margaret C. Dialogue on the Frontier: Catholic and Protestant Relations, 1793–1883. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 2004. Derks, Scott. The Value of a Dollar: Colonial Era to the Civil War, 1600–1865. Millerton, N.Y.: Grey House Publishing, 2005. Dershowitz, Alan M. America on Trial: Inside the Legal Battles that Transformed Our Nation. New York: Warner Books, 2004. Deyle, Steven. Carry Me Back: The Domestic Slave Trade in American Life. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Doolen, Andy. Fugitive Empire: Locating Early American Imperialism. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2005. Doutrich, Paul R. Shapers of the Great Debate on Jacksonian Democracy: A Biographical Dictionary. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2004.

Bibliography Dudley, Wade G. Splintering the Wooden Wall: The British Blockade of the United States, 1812–1815. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 2003. Earle, Peter. The Pirate Wars. New York: Thomas Dunn Books/St. Martin’s Press, 2005. Edling, Max M. A Revolution in Favor of Government: Origins of the U.S. Constitution and the Making of the American State. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. Einhorn, Robin L. American Taxation, American Slavery. Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press, 2006. Eisenberg, John. The Great Match Race: When North met South in America’s First Sports Spectacle. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006. Elazar, Daniel J., and John Kincaid, eds. The Covenant Connection: From Federal Theology to Modern Federalism. Lanham, Md.: Lexington, 2000. Elkin, Stephen L. Reconstructing the Commercial Republic: Constitutional Design After Madison. Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press, 2006. Emerson, W. Eric. Sons of Privilege: The Charleston Light Dragoons in the Civil War. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2005. Escott, Paul D. Military Necessity: Civil-Military Relations in the Confederacy. Westport, Conn.: Praeger Security International, 2006. Etcheson, Nicole. Bleeding Kansas: Contested Liberty in the Civil War Era. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2004. Fazio, Michael W. The Domestic Architecture of Benjamin Henry Latrobe. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006. Finkleman, Paul, ed. Encyclopedia of the New American Nation: The Emergence of the United States, 1754–1829. 3 vols. Detroit, Mich.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2005. Finseth, Ian F., ed. The American Civil War. New York: Routledge, 2006. Foletta, Marshall. Coming to Terms with Democracy: Federalist Intellectuals and the Shaping of an American Culture. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2001. Foos, Paul. A Short, Offhand, Killing Affair: Soldiers and Social Conflict during the Mexican-American War. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002. Ford, Lacey K., ed. A Companion to the Civil War and Reconstruction. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell, 2005. Fowler, Damon L., ed. Dining at Monticello: In Good Taste and Abundance. Charlottesville, Va.: Thomas Jefferson Foundation, 2005. Francaviglia, Richard V., and Douglas W. Richmond, eds. Duel Eagles: Reinterpreting the U.S.–Mexican War, 1846–1848. Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press, 2000. Frazier, Harriet C. Runaway and Freed Missouri Slaves and Those Who Helped Them, 1763–1865. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2004. Fresonke, Kris. West of Emerson: The Design of Manifest Destiny. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003. Furstenberg, François. In the Name of the Father: Washington’s Legacy, Slavery, and the Making of a Nation. New York: Penguin Press, 2006. Gabler-Hover, Janet, and Robert Sattelmeyer, eds. American History Through Literature, 1820–1870. 3 vols. Detroit, Mich.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2005.

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Chronology of American History Gaff, Alan D. Bayonets in the Wilderness: Anthony Wayne’s Legion in the Old North West. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2004. Gaido, Daniel. The Formative Period of American Capitalism: A Materialist Interpretation. New York: Routledge, 2006. Garvey, T. Gregory. Creating the Culture of Reform in Antebellum America. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2006. Gershenson, Harold P. America the Musical, 1776–1899: A Nation’s History through Music. Greensboro, N.C.: Kindermusik International, 2005. Giertz, John B. “The Lincoln-Douglas Campaign of 1858: A Constitutive Theoretical Analysis.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., Regent University, 2005. Gilje, Paul A. The Making of the American Republic, 1763–1815. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2006. Ginzberg, Lori D. Untidy Origins: A Story of Women’s Rights in Antebellum New York. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005. Goldschmidt, Henry, and Elizabeth McAlister, eds. Race, Nation, and Religion in the Americas. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. Goodrich, Thomas. The Darkest Dawn: Lincoln, Booth, And the Great American Tragedy. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005. Goudie, Sean X. Creole America: The West Indies and the Formation of Literature and Culture in the New Republic. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006. Gough, Barry. Fighting Sail on Lake Huron and Georgian Bay: The War of 1812 and Its Aftermath. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 2002. Graber, Mark A. Dred Scott and the Problem of Constitutional Evil. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Grant, James. John Adams: Party of One. New York: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 2005. Grant, Susan-Mary, and Peter Parish, eds. Legacy of Disunion: The Enduring Significance of the American Civil War. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2003. Greenberg, Amy S. Manifest Manhood and the Antebellum American Empire. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005. Grenier, John. The First Way of War: American War Making on the Frontier, 1607–1814. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005. Griffin, John C. Abraham Lincoln’s Execution. Gretna, La.: Pelican Publishing Co., 2006. Groom, Winston. Patriotic Fire: Andrew Jackson and Jean Laffite at the Battle of New Orleans. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006. Gunn, Giles, ed. A Historical Guide to Herman Melville. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Guttridge, Leonard F. Our Country, Right or Wrong: The Life of Stephen Decatur, the U.S. Navy’s Most Illustrious Commander. New York: Forge, 2006. Hagedorn, Ann. Beyond the River: The Untold Story of the Heroes of the Underground Railroad. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002. Hankins, Barry. The Second Great Awakening and the Transcendentalists. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2004. Hannings, Bud. Forts of the United States: An Historical Dictionary, 16th through 19th Centuries. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2005.

Bibliography Hart, Gary. James Monroe. New York: Times Books, 2005. Harris, Sharon M. Executing Race: Early American Women’s Narratives of Race, Society, and the Law. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2005. Helton, Tina L. “The Literary Frontier: Creating an American Nation (1820– 1840).” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., Louisiana State University, 2005. Henkin, David M. The Postal Age: The Emergence of Modern Communications in Nineteenth-Century America. Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press, 2007. Hess, Earl J. Field Armies and Fortifications in the Civil War: The Eastern Campaigns. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005. Hessinger, Rodney. Seduced, Abandoned, and Reborn: Visions of Youth in Middle-Class America, 1780–1850. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005. Hewett, Elizabeth. Correspondence and American Literature, 1770–1865. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Holtz, Jeffrey. Divergent Visions, Contested Spaces: The Early United States Through the Lens of Travel. New York: Routledge, 2006. Holzer, Harold. Lincoln at Cooper Union: The Speech that Made Abraham Lincoln President. New York: Simon and Schuster Paperbacks, 2005. Homestead, Melissa J. American Woman Authors and Literary Property, 1822– 1869. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005. Horn, James, Jan Ellen Lewis, and Peter S. Onuf, eds. The Revolution of 1800: Democracy, Race, and the New Republic. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2002. Horton, James O., and Lois Horton. Slavery and the Making of America. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Hutson, James L. Stephen A. Douglas and the Dilemma of Democratic Equality. Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield, 2006. Hyslop, Stephen G. Bound for Santa Fe: The Road to New Mexico and the American Conquest. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2002. Janin, Hunt. Claiming the American Wilderness: International Rivalry in the Trans-Mississippi West, 1528–1803. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2006. Johnson, Odai. Absence and Memory in Colonial American Theater: Fiorelli’s Plaster. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. Johnson, Paul E. The Early American Republic, 1789–1829. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. Kagan, Robert. Dangerous Nation. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006. Kaplan, Amy. The Anarchy of Empire in the Making of U.S. Culture. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2005. Kastor, Peter J. The Nation’s Crucible: The Louisiana Purchase and the Creation of America. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2004. Kaufmann, J. E., and H. W. Kaufmann. Fortress America: The Forts that Defended America, 1600 to the Present. Cambridge, Mass.: Da Capo Press, 2005. Ketchum, Ralph, ed. Selected Writings of James Madison. Indianapolis, Ind.: Hackett Pub., 2006. Keyssar, Alexander. The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States. New York: Basic Books, 2000. King, Desmond. The Liberty of Strangers: Making the American Nation. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.

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Chronology of American History Knetsch, Joe. Florida’s Seminole Wars. Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia, 2003. Knudson, Jerry W. Jefferson and the Press: Crucible of Liberty. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2006. Kohn, Denise, Sarah Meer, and Emily B. Todd. Transatlantic Stowe: Harriet Beecher Stowe and European Culture. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2006. Kopper, Kevin P. “Arthur St. Clair and the Struggle for Power in the Old Northwest, 1763–1803.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., Kent State University, 2005. Lambert, Frank. The Barbary War: American Independence in the Atlantic World. New York: Hill and Wang, 2005. Lanning, Michael L. The Civil War 100: The Stories Behind the Most Influential Battles, People, and Events in the War Between the States. Naperville, Ill.: Sourcebooks, 2007. Larkin, Jack. Where We Lived: Discovering the Places We Once Called Home: The American Home from 1790 to 1840. Newtown, Conn.: Taunton Press, 2006. Larson, John, and Michael Morrison, eds. Whither the Early Republic: A Forum on the Future of the Field. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005. Lause, Mark A. Young America: Land, Labor, and Republican Community. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2005. Leiner, Frederick C. The End of Barbary Terror: America’s 1815 War Against the Pirates of North Africa. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. Lenner, Andrew C. The Federal Principle in American Politics, 1790–1833. New York: Rowman and Littlefield, 2001. Leonard, Gerald. The Invention of Party Politics: Federalism, Popular Sovereignty, and Constitutional Development in Jacksonian Illinois. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002. Leonard, Thomas M. James K. Polk: A Clear and Unquestionable Destiny. Wilmington, Del.: Scholarly Resources, 2000. Levine, Bruce C. Confederate Emancipation: Southern Plans to Free and Arm Slaves during the Civil War. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. ———. Half Slave and Half Free: The Roots of Civil War. New York: Hill and Wang, 2005. Levinson, Irving W. War within War: Mexican Guerrillas, Domestic Elites, and the United States of America, 1846–1848. Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press, 2005. Link, William A. Roots of Secession: Slavery and Politics in Antebellum Virginia. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003. Longacre, Mark G. Rhetoric and the Republic: Politics, Civic Discourse, and Education in Early America. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2007. Lundin, Roger. There Before Us: Religion and American Literature from Emerson to Eliot. Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans, 2006. Malcomson, Robert. A Very Brilliant Affair: The Battle of Queenstown Heights, 1812. Toronto, Ont.: Robin Brass Studio, 2002. McAfee, Thomas B. Inherent Rights, the Written Constitution, and Popular Sovereignty. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 2000.

Bibliography McCaffrey, James M. The Army in Transformation, 1790–1860. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2006. McCarthy, Timothy P., and John Stauffer, eds. Prophets of Protest: Reconsidering the History of American Abolitionism. New York: New Press, 2006. McDonald, Robert M. S., ed. Thomas Jefferson’s Military Academy: Founding West Point. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2004. McDougall. Freedom Just Around the Corner: A New American History, 1585– 1828. New York: Perennial, 2005. McNutt, Donald J. Urban Revelations: Images of Ruin in the American City, 1790–1860. New York: Routledge, 2006. McWilliams, John. New England’s Crises and Cultural History: Literature, Politics, History, Religion, 1620–1860. New York. Cambridge University Press, 2004. Mason, Matthew. Slavery and Politics in the Early American Republic. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006. Matson, Cathy D. The Economy of Early America: Historical Perspectives & New Directions. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2006. May, Robert E. Manifest Destiny’s Underworld: Filibustering in Antebellum America. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002. Mayo, Louise A. President James K. Polk. New York: Nova Science Publishers, 2006. Meyer, David R. Networked Machinists: High-Technology Industries in Antebellum America. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006. Meyers, Karen. Colonialism and the Revolutionary Period: Beginnings to 1800. New York: Facts On File, 2005. Milder, Robert. Exiled Royalists: Melville and the Life We Imagine. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. Miller, Susan A. Coacoochee’s Bones: A Seminole Saga. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2003. Mills, Bruce. Poe, Fuller, and the Mesmeric Arts: Transition States in the American Renaissance. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2006. Missall, John, and Mary Lou Missall. The Seminole Wars: America’s Longest Indian Conflict. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2004. Mitton, Steven H. “The Free World Confronted: The Problem of Slavery and Progress in American Foreign Relations, 1833–1844.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., Louisiana State University, 2005. Monroe, Dan. Shapers of the Great Debate on the Civil War: A Biographical Dictionary. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2005. Morrisey, Will. Self-Government, the American Theme: Presidents of the Founding and Civil War. Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, 2004. Moser, Harold D. Daniel Webster: A Bibliography. Westport, Conn.: Praeger Publishers, 2005. Nabers, Deak. Victory of the Law: the Fourteenth Amendment, the Civil War, and American Literature, 1852–1867. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006. Neely, Mark E. The Boundaries of American Political Culture in the Civil War Era. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005. Neff, John R. Honoring the Civil War Dead: Commemoration and the Problem of Reconciliation. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2005.

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Chronology of American History O’Brien, Sean-Michael. In Bitterness and Tears: Andrew Jackson’s Destruction of the Creeks and Seminoles. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2003. Olegario, Rowena. A Culture of Credit: Embedding Trust and Transparency in American Business. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2006. Oliver, Sandra L. Food in Colonial and Federal America. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2005. Onuf, Nicholas G. Nations, Markets, and War: Modern History and the American Civil War. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2006. Onuf, Peter S., and Leonard J. Sadosky. Jeffersonian America. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell, 2002. Osborne, William M. The Wild Frontier: Atrocities during the American-Indian War from Jamestown to Wounded Knee. New York: Random House, 2000. Pacheco, Josephine F. The Pearl: A Failed Slave Escape on the Potomac. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005. Pasley, Jeffrey L. “The Tyranny of Printers”: Newspaper Politics in the Early American Republic. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2001. Patterson, Benton R. The Generals: Andrew Jackson, Sir Edward Pakenham, and the Road to New Orleans. New York: New York University Press, 2005. Paul, R. Eli. Blue Water Creek and the First Sioux War, 1854–1856. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2004. Pennell, Melissa M. Masterpieces of American Romantic Literature. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2006. Person, Leland S. A Historical Guide to James Fenimore Cooper. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. Peterson, Anna L. Seeds of the Kingdom: Utopian Communities in the Americas. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Pfau, Michael. The Political Style of Conspiracy: Chase, Sumner, and Lincoln. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2005. Phillips, Jerry. Romanticism and Transcendentalism: 1800–1860. New York: Facts On File, 2005. Portnoy, Alisse. Their Right to Speak: Women’s Activism in the Indian and Slave Debates. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2005. Preston, Daniel, and Marlena C. DeLong, eds. The Papers of James Monroe. 2 vols. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2003–2004. Prushankin, Jeffrey S. A Crisis in Confederate Command: Edmund Kirby Smith, Richard Taylor, and the Army of the Trans-Mississippi. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2005. Reid, Brian H. Robert E. Lee: Icon for a Nation. London: Weidenfield and Nicolson, 2005. Reid, Stuart. The Secret War for Texas. College Station: Texas A & M University Press, 2007. Remini, Robert V. Andrew Jackson and His Seminole Wars. New York: Viking, 2001. Resendez, Andres. Changing National Identities at the Frontier: Texas and New Mexico, 1800–1850. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005. Reynolds, David S. John Brown, Abolitionist: The Man Who Killed Slavery, Sparked the Civil War, and Seeded Civil Rights. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005.

Bibliography ——— Walt Whitman. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Richards, Jeffrey H. Drama, Theater, and Identity in the American New Republic. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005. Riss, Arthur. Race, Slavery, and Liberalism in Nineteenth-century American Literature. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Roberts, David. A Newer World: Kit Carson, John C. Frémont, and the Claiming of the American West. New York: Touchstone Books, 2000. Robertson, Andrew W. The Language of Democracy: Political Rhetoric in the United States and Britain, 1790–1900. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2005. Robertson, Lindsay G. Conquest by Law: How the Discovery of America Dispossessed Indigenous Peoples of Their Lands. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Robinson, Armistead L. Bitter Fruits of Bondage: The Demise of Slavery and the Collapse of the Confederacy, 1861–1865. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2005. Rosen, Fred. Gold! The Story of the 1848 Gold Rush and How It Shaped a Nation. New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2005. Rossignol, Marie-Jeanne. The Nationalist Ferment: The Origins of U.S. Foreign Policy, 1789–1812. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2004. Rothman, Adam. Slave Country: American Expansion and the Origins of the Deep South. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2005. Rugemer, Edward B. “The Problem of Emancipation: The United States and Britain’s Abolition of Slavery.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., Boston College, 2005. Saillant, John. Black Puritan, Black Republican: The Life and Thought of Lemuel Haynes, 1753–1833. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. Schroeder, John H. Commodore John Rodgers: Paragon of the Early American Navy. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2006. Schweitzer, Ivy. Perfecting Friendship: Politics and Affiliation in Early American Literature. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006. Seefeldt, Douglas, Jeffrey L. Hantman, and Peter S. Onuf, eds. Across the Continent: Jefferson, Lewis and Clark, and the Making of America. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2005. Shankman, Andrew W. Crucible of American Democracy: The Struggle to Fuse Egalitarianism and Capitalism in Jeffersonian Pennsylvania. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2004. Siddali, Silvana R. From Property to Person: Slavery and the Confiscation Acts, 1861–1862. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2005. Siemers, David J. Ratifying the Republic: AntiFederalists and Federalists in Constitutional Time. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2002. Silber, Nina. Daughters of the Union: Northern Women Fight the Civil War. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2005. Silbey, Joel H. Storm Over Texas: The Annexation Controversy and the Road to Civil War. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Silverstone, Scott A. Divided Union: The Politics of War in the Early American Republic. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2004. Singer, Jane. The Confederate Dirty War: Arsons, Bombings, and Plots for Chemical and Germ Attacks on the Union. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2005.

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Bibliography Wallenstein, Peter, and Bertram Wyatt-Brown, eds. Virginia’s Civil War. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 2005. Warshauer, Matthew. Andrew Jackson and the Politics of Martial Law: Nationalism, Civil Liberties, and Partisanship. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2006. Watkins, William J. Reclaiming the American Revolution: The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions and Their Legacy. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004. Watson, Harry L. Liberty and Power: The Politics of Jacksonian America. New York: Hill and Wang, 2006. Wayne, Tiffany K. Encyclopedia of Transcendentalism. New York: Facts On File, 2006. Weber, Jennifer L. Copperheads: The Rise and Fall of Lincoln’s Opponents in the North. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. Weddle, Kevin J. Lincoln’s Tragic Admiral: The Life of Samuel Francis Du Pont. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2005. Weierman, Karen W. One Nation, One Blood: Interracial Marriage in American Fiction, Scandal, and Law, 1820–1870. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2005. Weitz, Mark A. More Damning than Slaughter: Desertion in the Confederate Army. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2005. Wertheimer, Eric. Underwriting: The Poetics of Insurance in America, 1722– 1872. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2006. Widmer, Edward L. Martin Van Buren. New York: Times Books, 2005. Wilentz, Sean. Andrew Jackson. New York: Times Books, 2005. ———. The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln. New York: Norton, 2005. Williams, Heather A. Self-Taught: African American Education in Slavery and Freedom. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005. Williams, Patrick G., Charles Bolton, and Jeannie M. Whayne, eds. A Whole Country in Commotion: The Louisiana Purchase and the American Southwest. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2005. Williams, Susan S. Reclaiming Authorship: Literary Women in America, 1850– 1900. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006. Wills, Garry. Negro President: Jefferson and Slave Power. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2005. ———. Henry Adams and the Making of America. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2005. Winders, Richard B. Crisis in the Southwest: The United States and the Struggle over Texas. Wilmington, Del.: SR Books, 2002. Wood, John H. A History of Central Banking in Great Britain and the United States. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005. Wooton, David, Ed. The Essential Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers. Indianapolis, Ind.: Hackett, 2003. Wright, Daniel S. The First Cause Is to Our Sex: The Female Moral Reform Movement in the Antebellum Northeast, 1834–1848. New York: Routledge, 2006. Wright, Gavin. Slavery and American Economic Development. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2007.

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Chronology of American History Wright, Robert E. The US National Debt, 1787–1900. 4 vols. London: Pickering & Chatto, 2006. Young, Jeffrey R. Proslavery and Sectional Thought in the Early South, 1740– 1829. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2006. Young, Michael P. Bearing Witness Against Sin: The Evangelical Birth of the American Social Movement. Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press, 2006. Zacks, Richard. The Pirate Coast: Thomas Jefferson, the First Marines, and the Secret Mission of 1805. New York: Hyperion, 2005.

CHRONOLOGY OF

AMERICAn HISTORy VOLUME III ★★★

Industry and Modernity 1866 to 1920

CHRONOLOGY OF AMERICAN HISTORY Volume I Colonization and Independence Beginnings to 1788 Volume II Expansion and Civil War 1789 to 1865 Volume III Industry and Modernity 1866 to 1920 Volume IV Challenges at Home and Abroad 1921 to the Present

CHRONOLOGY OF

AMERICAn HISTORy VOLUME III ★★★

Industry and Modernity 1866 to 1920

JOHN C. FREDRIKSEN

Chronology of American History Copyright © 2008 John C. Fredriksen All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information contact: Facts On File, Inc. An imprint of Infobase Publishing 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Fredriksen, John C. Chronology of American history / John C. Fredriksen. v. cm. Includes bibliographical references and indexes. Contents. v. 1. Colonization and independence, beginnings to 1788— v. 2. Expansion and Civil War, to 1865—v. 3. Industry and modernity, to 1920— v. 4. Challenges at home and abroad, to the present. ISBN 978-0-8160-6800-5 (set : hc : alk. paper) 1. United States—History— Chronology. 2. United States—Civilization—Chronology. 3. United States— Biography. I. Title. E174.5.F74 2008 973—dc22 2007033964 Facts On File books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk quantities for businesses, associations, institutions, or sales promotions. Please call our Special Sales Department in New York at (212) 967–8800 or (800) 322–8755. You can find Facts On File on the World Wide Web at http://www.factsonfile.com Text design by Kerry Casey Cover design by Salvatore Luongo Printed in the United States of America VB BVC 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 This book is printed on acid-free paper and contains 30 percent postconsumer recycled content.

CONTENTS ✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰ Introduction

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INTRODUCTION ✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰ ictory in the Civil War may have reunited a shattered polity into the same union, but major and largely unexpected changes proved to be a consequence. First, states of the former Confederacy were subject to a long and contentious healing process—Reconstruction—before sectional differences were finally mitigated and the whole of the boat returned to the fold. This sometimes painful process occasioned the rise of the “New South,” whereby a traditional reliance on a crop-based, agrarian economy was slowly supplanted by a burgeoning industrial base more consistent with the ongoing industrial revolution. However, social progress was blemished by a stark racial dichotomy, for newly freed African-American slaves now confronted the racially stringent regime of “Jim Crow” and were deliberately denied a seat at America’s increasingly bountiful table. A century would pass before meaningful laws were enforced to correct such injustices, whose negative ramifications haunt us still. Likewise, explosive economic growth brought on by rapid industrialization and by revolutions in communication (telephones) and transportation (railroads) brought on concomitant social dislocation and poverty. In fact, the so-called Gilded Age was characterized by the vast accumulation of wealth by a handful of “robber barons,” while laborers of every race remained bereft of even basic social services to mitigate the lingering effects of dislocation, mass urbanization, and periodic economic downturns. The inherent and sometimes glaring inequities of capitalism throughout this period ushered in the modern labor movement, which, despite a few violent interludes, peacefully acquired better wages and working conditions for all involved. These changes came about much less from altruism on behalf of employers than from congressional legislation and Supreme Court decisions that granted both labor, and the collective bargaining they represented, an effectiveness and cogency they heretofore had lacked. Thus, by the first year of the “Roaring Twenties,” the most pressing social problems had been obviated by intelligent change instead of violent upheaval, and America was well on its way to cultivating a peaceful and prosperous middle class.

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Chronology of American History The United States also underwent profound readjustments on the world scene. The nation’s traditional and cherished isolationism slowly gave ground to a new imperialist impulse, along with a mounting realization of its role to play among the community of nations. America garnered its first overseas possessions in the wake of a predictably successful war with Spain in 1898, and acquired the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico as part of its nascent empire, at the same time annexing the republic of Hawaii. These acquisitions may have paled in comparison to European efforts in Africa and elsewhere but nonetheless represented a complete reversal of attitudes toward the outside world. Two decades later, buoyed by sustained economic growth and immigration, the United States emerged as a world power to reckon with, and successfully parlayed its newfound vigor into becoming the final arbiter of World War I. By 1920 the United States was a colossus astride the globe and a far cry from the self-centered collection of states of only six decades previous. A vigorous, confident America had finally taken its place upon the world stage, with even bigger advances in store for it. This volume covers the growth and expansion of the United States from the end of the Civil War to the first year of the so-called Roaring Twenties. Chronologies on American history are standard fare in reference collections but, in a major oversight, these tend to stress social and political events at the expense of military affairs; this volume goes to great lengths to address such deficiencies with a more balanced approach. It also affords treatment of numerous and salient topics of interest to researchers, students, and laypersons alike. Even a simple perusing of the text calls to the reader’s eye such wide-ranging concerns as art, business, diplomacy, literature, medicine, military and naval affairs, politics, publishing, religion, science, slavery, society, and technology in a simple to use and easily accessed format. Space constraints restrict most entries to a single line, but highly important events can command up to a paragraph in coverage. Wherever possible entries are also assigned an exact year, month, and day for organizational purposes. The text is further buttressed by inclusion of 100 capsule biographies denoting individuals of singular import to their passage in time. These are uniform in composition and touch upon birth and death dates, background, education, and other facets in addition to their most obvious concern. The volume is finally rounded out with a 5,000-word bibliography of the very latest scholarship pertaining to most events represented therein, including dissertations and master’s theses, where applicable. Furthermore the pages are replete with numerous and relevant illustrations that function both as embellishments and visual points of reference. From perusing these pages one can hopefully grasp the imposing pageantry of American history, and all its threads of continuity and points of departure. Nothing or no one has been overlooked and, while degrees of coverage may vary in length, the author cast the widest possible net for

Introduction ix purposes of inclusion. I am deeply indebted to my editor, Owen Lancer, for suggesting this project to me. It was an arduous, nearly exhausting sojourn at times, but I am a better historian for it. ———John C. Fredriksen, Ph.D.

CHRONOLOGY ✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰ 1866 Agriculture: Southern states, divested of slaves, try recruiting Chinese and other laborers to work their farms but without success. The lack of cash to pay former slaves gradually gives rise to the oppressive sharecropping system. Crime: The chain gang system begins when the Georgia legislature approves the hiring of convicted criminals to provide labor for private companies. Education: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology begins the first formal courses in architecture. The New Hampshire College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts (today’s University of New Hampshire) is founded at Durham. Indian: General Philip H. Sheridan declares there are at least 100 million buffalo presently ranging the western prairies and plains. He feels that killing off the bison will deprive hostile Plains Indians of their ability to feed and clothe themselves, inducing their surrender. Literature: Poet John Greenleaf Whittier publishes “Snow-Bound,” his most celebrated composition. Former Confederate officer John Esten Cooke publishes his novel Surry of Eagle’s Nest, a sympathetic and romantic view of the antebellum South. In time he emerges as the leading writer of this historical genre. Medical: Several large cities are ravaged by the onset of a cholera epidemic; with St. Louis alone losing an average of 200 people a day. Military: The army of the United States, one million men strong, begins demobilizing back to its prewar standing establishment of around 11,000 men; the bulk of men still under arms are in African-American regiments. U.S. Army troops under General George Crook engage in a protracted struggle against the Northern Paiute (Snake) Indians, who have been raiding mines in southern Oregon and Idaho. Nearly 50 battles and skirmishes ensue over the next two years. Publishing: Scottish photographer Alexander Gardner publishes Gardner’s Sketch Book of the War, which contains many shocking and graphic illustrations of carnage and ruins. Religion: The first Greek Orthodox parish in America takes root at New Orleans, Louisiana.

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Sheridan, Philip Henry

(1831–1888)

General Philip Henry Sheridan was born in Albany, New York, on March 6, 1831, a son of Irish immigrants. After receiving some rudimentary education he clerked at a store in Somerset, Ohio, until he gained admittance to the U.S. Military Academy in 1848. Sheridan, short and fierce tempered, was suspended a year on account of fighting, and graduated a year late in 1853. He then saw active service as an infantry officer throughout the western frontier; when the Civil War commenced in April 1861, he was captain and quartermaster in Missouri. He then embarked on one of that conflict’s most meteoric military careers, commencing on July 1, 1862, when he thrashed twice his number of Confederates at Booneville, Mississippi, which brought him promotion to brigadier general. He then fought with distinction at the bloody battles of Perrysville and Murfreesboro. Sheridan subsequently command the XX Corps in the ill-fated Chickamauga Campaign, but redeemed himself by a brilliant charge that climaxed the Union victory at Chattanooga in the fall of 1863. Sheridan then accompanied General Ulysses S. Grant east to assume command of all his cavalry, and he continually harassed Confederate supply lines in the Overland drive to Richmond, Virginia. But his seminal contribution to the war came in August 1864 when he took charge of Union forces in Virginia’s strategic Shenandoah Valley. He immediately attacked Confederates under General Jubal A. Early, routing them three times at Winchester, Fisher’s Hill, and Cedar

Creek—and winning the last engagement only after a 12-mile dash to rally his shaken command. In the spring of 1865 he was active in operations around Richmond, and his victory at Five Forks sealed the Confederacy’s doom. Shortly after, his cavalry cut off General Robert E. Lee and induced him to surrender at Appomattox, Virginia. After the war Sheridan briefly commanded American troops deployed along the Mexican border to induce French occupying forces to leave. In 1867 he was called upon to partake of Reconstruction activities in Louisiana and Texas, but his harsh administration led President Andrew Johnson to reassign him to the Department of the Missouri to fight hostile Indians. Sheridan helped plan and execute the strategy that drove the hostile Kiowa, Comanche, and Cheyenne into submission by 1869, and the following year he served as an observer with the Prussian army during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71. Returning west, he helped direct final operations that brought both the Sioux and Nez Perce into submission by 1877; in November 1883 he supplanted William Tecumseh Sherman as commanding general of the army. In this capacity he authorized additional operations that resulted in the capture of the Apache Geronimo by General Nelson A. Miles in 1887. Sheridan then received the coveted rank of four-star general prior to his death at Nonquitt, Massachusetts, on August 5, 1888. He was one of the most pugnacious and aggressive military leaders in American history, and among the most successful.

Societal: Charlie Goodnight and Oliver Loving perfect the cattle drive from Texas to Colorado and with it trail-drive industry; this endeavor quickly transforms the lowly cowboy into a figure of frontier mythology. Sports: The schooner Henrietta, captained by James Gordon Bennett, becomes the first vessel to win a transatlantic yacht race, completing a run between

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Crook, George

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(1829–1890)

General George Crook was born in Dayton, Ohio, on September 23, 1829, and he graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1852. He initially assumed frontier duties in the Northwest until 1861 when he was commissioned as colonel of an Ohio volunteer regiment during the Civil War. Crook fought with distinction in a number of important engagements, including South Mountain and Antietam, and in 1863 he transferred to the cavalry and commanded a division in the bloody Battle of Chickamauga. He subsequently joined up with General Philip H. Sheridan in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, and saw close action at Winchester, Fisher’s Hill, and Cedar Creek, which finally crushed the Confederate army of General Jubal A. Early. Shortly afterward Crook was breveted a major general and he commanded cavalry forces under Sheridan throughout the decisive Petersburg campaign. Crook was retained in the peacetime establishment with his regular rank of lieutenant colonel and was posted to the region near Boise, Idaho. In this capacity he helped end an internecine Indian war that had raged for several years and in 1871 was sent to the restless Arizona Territory. Here Crook was tasked with pacifying the militant Apache under Cochise, which he accomplished in two years, and was rewarded by a promotion by two grades to brigadier general. In 1875 Crook transferred north to the Department of the Platte to keep a watchful eye upon the Sioux and Cheyenne following the discovery of gold in the Black Hills. The following year

a large uprising erupted in the region and Crook command a column of troops dispatched to help envelop the hostiles. Instead, he was engaged and nearly defeated by Crazy Horse at the Rosebud River on June 17, 1876, and effectively knocked out of the campaign. The Indians were eventually defeated and by 1882 Crook was back as head of the Arizona Territory. His opponent this time was the wily Geronimo, who conceded only after Crook took the unusual expedient of hiring disaffected Apache scouts to track him. Beforehand, Crook was obliged to chase the fugitive band into the Sierra Madre Mountains of Mexico before he surrendered and was brought back to a reservation. In 1885 Geronimo again escaped and Crook chased after him, but authorities decided to appoint General Nelson A. Miles, the new regional commander, to finish the task. Crook strongly protested when General Sheridan ordered all Apache—friendly or not—deported to Florida, an act that ended their friendship. Crook wound up back commanding the Department of the Platte in 1886. Two years later he advanced to major general and head of the Department of the Missouri with headquarters in Chicago, Illinois. Crook distinguished himself from many contemporaries associated with Indian fighting by calling for better treatment of Native Americans, and he spoke out publicly on their behalf. He died in Chicago on March 21, 1890, universally acknowledged as one of the nation’s greatest Indian fighters, yet an ardent champion of Native American rights.

Sandy Hook, New Jersey, and the Isle of Wight in 13 days, 21 hours, and 45 minutes. Technology: The first oil pipeline is constructed at Pithole, Pennsylvania, to carry that valuable liquid five miles from its source to a nearby railway. River barges and wagons steadily become obsolete as oil transports.

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January 1 Civil: General John B. Sanborn is appointed governor of the Indian Territory (Oklahoma) and is tasked with overseeing Reconstruction activities as they relate to freedmen living in the region. The Five Civilized Tribes living in the region have been slaveholders for decades.

January 2 Women: Suffrage crusader Elizabeth Cady Stanton writes a column in a New York newspaper to inform female readers that the proposed Fourteenth Amendment threatens to exclude and forever disenfranchise women on the basis of gender.

January 4 Naval: The armed tug USS Narcissus strikes Egmont Reef off the Florida coast and sinks with the loss of all 32 crew.

January 8 Politics: Anticipating the eventual move toward Reconstruction, Representative Samuel Shallaberger of Ohio declares that Southern states, by virtue of secession, have forfeited their constitutional rights as part of the Union. He also maintains that Congress alone is in a position to restore them.

January 9 Education: Union troops open a school for African Americans in an army barracks at Nashville, Tennessee; it is named in honor of General Clinton B. Fisk, head of the Freedmen’s Bureau and the following year receives a charter as Fisk University.

Johnson, Andrew (1808–1875) President Andrew Johnson was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, on December 29, 1808, a son of poor farmers. Barely educated, he relocated with his family to Greeneville, Tennessee, where he ran a tailor shop. A self-made man, Johnson also taught himself how to read and write with help from a woman that he ultimately married in 1827. As Johnson’s business flourished, so did his appetite for politics and he began winning election to statewide offices as a pro-slavery Jacksonian Democrat. He capped his career at home in 1857 by gaining appointment to the U.S. Senate as a moderate Southerner. In this capacity he crusaded hard for passage of a homestead law and was bitterly disappointed when it died at the hands

1866

of Southern opposition. However, Johnson supported Senator Jefferson Davis’s call for constitutional guarantees for slavery in the new territories and supported his presidential candidacy in 1860. The victory of Republican Abraham Lincoln, however, galvanized secessionists throughout the South, yet Johnson remained loyal and became the only Southern Democrat still serving in the Senate. By 1862 his native state of Tennessee had been recaptured by Union forces and President Lincoln tapped him to serve as military governor there. Johnson, now firmly committed to abolitionism and the Union, performed capably under difficult conditions and arranged for Tennessee to convene a constitutional convention to out-

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January 24 Women: Dr. Mary E. Walker is the first woman to receive a Congressional Medal of Honor for her services as a spy in 1864, for which she spent several months in a Confederate prisoner of war camp.

February 5 Religion: In Lynn, Massachusetts, Mary Baker Patterson posts a remarkable recovery from a serious fall she sustained three days earlier and attributes her healing to religious faith, specially the biblical passage Matthew 9:2. This incident forms the basis of the Christian Science movement.

February 11 Politics: Senator Jacob H. Howards (Michigan) summons former Confederate general Robert E. Lee to testify before his panel investigating conditions in the South. A two-hour grilling produces little of substance and the general departs.

February 12 Diplomacy: Secretary of State William H. Seward dispatches a note to the French government and demands that it remove all military forces presently occupying Mexico. General: President Andrew Johnson and other dignitaries attend the first public commemoration of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday in Washington, D.C.

law slavery. By 1864 war weariness threatened Lincoln’s reelection prospects, so he nominated Johnson to run as his vice president to garner the votes of pro-Union Democrats. Once elected, Johnson arrived in Washington, D.C., to take his oath of office the following March. However, Johnson was suffering from the effects of typhoid fever and gave a rambling, incoherent speech that greatly embarrassed Lincoln and his administration. He was kept at arm’s length from cabinet meetings until April 15, 1865, the day after the president’s assassination. Johnson’s presidency failed due to the highly charged and retributive atmosphere of national politics and his own shortcomings as a politician. He proved surprisingly lenient toward former Confederate leaders, pardoning them en masse, then angered

Congress by persistently vetoing legislation intended to improve the lot of newly freed African-American slaves. Consequently, radical Republicans enjoyed a resurgence in the fall of 1866, but Johnson continued to ignore and defy their mandate by replacing military commanders in the South that he felt were too liberal. Congress responded by accusing him of violating the newly passed Tenure of Office Act on February 25, 1868, but the ensuing Senate trial failed by a single vote to impeach him. He then fulfilled his term in office, although essentially ignored by Congress. Johnson returned home; in 1875 he was reelected to the Senate before dying at Cater Station on July 31, 1875. He and William Jefferson Clinton remain the only two presidents to have been impeached by Congress.

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James, Jesse

(1847–1882)

Outlaw Jesse Woodson James was born in Centerville, Missouri, on September 5, 1847, the son of a Baptist preacher. His father left the family to minister to miners in California and died there, while his mother remarried several times. James matured on the roughhewn Missouri frontier, where justice was frequently dispensed with a bullet. His family, like many in the region, owned slaves and was openly pro-Confederate in their sympathies. This made them prime targets for raids by pro-Union Jayhawkers during the Civil War, and they were apparently accosted several times before Jesse and his older brother Frank joined Confederate partisans under Captain William Clarke Quantrill. In this capacity they participated in scouting, screening, and ambushes, along with the murder of several Union prisoners foolish enough to surrender to them. Sometime in 1864 the James brothers switched allegiances by joining William “Bloody Bill” Anderson’s guerrillas, also infamous for violent atrocities. The Civil War ended in 1865 and James tried surrendering to Union forces, but they opened fire and wounded him seriously. He and Frank then went into hiding and decided to apply their military skill as raiders to robbing banks. On February 13, 1866, they launched their criminal careers by hitting the bank in Liberty, Missouri, killing a bystander in the process. Subsequently they operated alone and on other occasions in concert with the Younger brothers, Cole, James, and Robert. Considerable folklore sprang up around their activities and their ability to appear

suddenly, rob banks, then vanish into the wilderness. It was not until a heist at Gallatin, Missouri, in 1869 that Jesse and Frank were clearly identified as perpetrators of a crime. As the years ground on, Jesse and Frank turned to the lucrative business of robbing trains, which were rapidly becoming a staple of modern life along the Missouri frontier. The well-financed railroad companies determined to stop their depredations and hired detectives from the famous Pinkerton agency to apprehend them. The sleuths never did corner Jesse or Frank, but on January 5, 1875, they apparently tossed a bomb into their house, killing a younger brother. On September 7, 1876, the duo, again allied with the Youngers, unfortunately hit the First National Bank of Northfield, Minnesota, killing a bank clerk. This time, in the ensuing shootout, Frank and Jesse were both wounded, two members of the gang killed, and all three of the Youngers captured. The two brothers simply disappeared into the countryside until the turmoil died down, since, up through 1880, they enjoyed the sympathy and protection of the region’s impoverished residents. But their criminal activities spurred several state legislatures to offer a large reward for their capture—dead or alive. This proved too tempting for Robert Ford, a member of Jesse’s gang, who gunned him down on April 3, 1882, while he stood on a chair straightening a picture. Despite his well-deserved reputation as a robber and murderer, Jesse James remains an iconic figure of Wild West mythology.

February 13 Crime: Former Confederate bushwhackers Frank and Jesse James organize their own outlaw band in Missouri and rob the Clay County Savings Association of $60,000—a fabulous sum for its day.

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February 19 Politics: Congress expands the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, allowing the military complete jurisdiction over any individual who denies recently freed African Americans their civil rights. President Andrew Johnson, however, vetoes the act, calling it unconstitutional for expanding federal jurisdiction into former Confederate states still legally denied representation in Congress. He also maintains that its provisions for military trials violate the Fifth Amendment. Johnson’s recalcitrance serves only to widen the rift between the executive and legislative branches.

February 22 Politics: President Andrew Johnson addresses a gathering of former Copperheads and other political supporters at a candlelight vigil supporting his recent veto. However, in an inflammatory speech he condemns leading Republican senators Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner as traitors. Such brazen sentiments cause a complete decline in party support for his political agenda.

February 26 Medical: In New York City, where a raging cholera epidemic has claimed the lives of 2,000 people, the Metropolitan Board of Health is created to both clean up tenements and help screen for unhealthy immigrants.

March 2 Politics: The Joint Committee on Reconstruction forwards a resolution mandating that former Confederate states will not be admitted to Congress without the express permission of that body. However, this punitive measure does not include guidelines for allowing such future admission to transpire legally.

March 17 Diplomacy: The United States formally abrogates the Marcy-Elgin Reciprocity Treaty of 1854 as it relates to offshore fishing and duty-free commodities from Canada. Emotions are running high as to perception of the pro-Confederate sympathies of Great Britain, and negation of this treaty is viewed as the quickest manner of diplomatic retaliation.

March 21 Military: Congress authorizes the first two national soldiers’ homes at Dayton, Ohio, and Tagus, Maine, for the relief of totally disabled officers and men.

March 27 Civil: Congress enacts the Civil Rights Bill of 1866 to counter sometimes flagrant violations of African-American rights by vengeful Southerners, especially newly adopted “Black Codes.” Although very specific with regard to delineating rights, its overall tone is moderate and responsible—thus even objective supporters are shocked when President Andrew Johnson vetoes the legislation on constitutional grounds.

April 1 Business: America acquires its first business monopoly after Western Union absorbs the U.S. Telegraph Company, resulting in an entity worth $46 million. The new arrangement allows uniform rates to be imposed on all parts of the nation.

April 2 Politics: President Andrew Johnson formally declares the Civil War over in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South

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Chronology of American History Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. Only Texas remains to be reconciled. Other than this proclamation, no treaty or document is signed to signify the end of hostilities.

April 5 Diplomacy: After several years of American threats and agitation, Emperor Napoleon III of France announces his decision to withdraw all his forces supporting the regime of Emperor Maximilian of Mexico. This is accomplished over the next 11 months and in the shadow of 50,000 U.S. troops poised on the TexasMexico border.

April 6 Politics: In Decatur, Illinois, Dr. B. F. Stephenson and Reverend W. J. Rudolph help organize the Grand Army of the Republic, a lobbyist organization drawn entirely from Union Civil War veterans. At its height, it will boast a membership exceeding 409,000.

April 9 Civil: Congress overrides President Andrew Johnson’s veto of the 1866 Civil Rights Bill by a single vote, signaling the executive’s relative powerlessness for influencing essential congressional decisions. This is also the first time in history that a chief executive’s veto has been defeated. The new bill restores rights to African Americans that were lost in the earlier Dred Scott decision of the U.S. Supreme Court. However, its provisions do not apply to Native Americans, who pay no taxes.

April 10 Societal: The cause of animal welfare is greatly advanced by founding of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), with philanthropist Henry Bergh as its first president. Among its many chores are sheltering and caring for homeless domestic animals, helping to enforce game laws, and advising farmers in the care of livestock.

April 17 Politics: Federal authorities release from prison former Confederate official Clement C. Clay despite his being accused of conspiring in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. Jefferson Davis, former president of the Confederacy, is the sole remaining political prisoner.

April 28 Civil: Representatives of the Crow and Choctaw nations sign a treaty with the United States in Washington, D.C., to outlaw slavery and settle the freedmen on their own lands. A federal governor is also appointed to supervise Reconstruction activities throughout the Indian Territory (Oklahoma). Politics: Senator William Fessenden of the Joint Committee on Reconstruction proffers some proposals that water down strident Northern demands for full voting rights for African Americans and other measures. He is confident that when Southern politicians reject these moderate measures, Congress will be positioned to impose even harsher legislation.

May 2– 4 Civil: A pitched battle between African Americans and angry whites erupts at Memphis, Tennessee, with 46 people killed and numerous black schools and residences burned. General George Stoneman, commanding the Department of Ten-

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nessee, is highly criticized for failing to intervene with Federal troops in a timely manner.

May 6 Naval: The ironclad USS Miantonomoh, accompanied by the side-wheel vessels Ashuelot and Augusta, becomes the first vessel of its class to cross the Atlantic Ocean under its own power, departing from New York Harbor. Assistant Secretary of the Navy Gustavus Fox is also on board to fulfill a technical mission in Europe.

May 10 Women: Suffragette Susan B. Anthony presides as president of the 11th National Women’s Rights Convention in New York City. Within days the new American Equal Rights Association is founded with Lucretia Mott as its president. Its goal is to link various radical movements to push for suffrage for women and African Americans.

Anthony, Susan Brownell

(1820–1906)

Reformer Susan Brownell Anthony was born in Adams, Massachusetts, on February 15, 1820, the daughter of a prominent abolitionist. Born into a family with deep Quaker roots, she absorbed her father’s passion for social activism and circulated among the leading lights of that movement, including Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, and Wendell Phillips. Anthony was also

Susan B. Anthony (Library of Congress)

well-educated for a woman of her period and taught at various schools including the Canajoharie Academy, New York State, in 1849, where she served as headmistress. Firmly committed to temperance, she found her efforts stymied by male compatriots and concluded that women deserve a voice of their own in politics. Anthony befriended fellow suffragette Elizabeth Cady Stanton in 1851 and attended her first women’s rights convention the following year. From that point on she became a tireless voice on behalf of women’s rights and suffrage, actively campaigning door to door throughout New York State and at the state legislature. In 1860 she scored her first success by convincing it to pass the Married Woman’s Property and Guardianship Law, which granted females the right to conduct their own financial affairs and property matters, and ensured their ability to retain all earnings. The following year the Civil War erupted and Anthony plunged headlong into the crusade to free African Americans (continues)

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(continued) from bondage. By 1865, when emancipation was a reality, she suddenly changed her tack and opposed granting freedmen the right to vote if it were also denied highly educated white women. Once again, resistance from male compatriots in the movement forced her to associate with more radical feminists to achieve her desired goal. In 1866 Anthony helped found the American Equal Rights Association and three years later, in concert with Stanton, she established the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) to oppose the Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, guaranteeing the right of black males to vote, if the same rights were not extended to white women. Anthony was also never to forsake direct action in her beliefs and in 1872 she registered and voted in the presidential election of that year, then forbidden for women,

and was arrested and fined. She defiantly refused to pay the fine but the charges were dropped and she resumed her agitations. In 1890 the NWSA resolved its differences with the more conservative American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA); they merged to become the National American Woman Suffrage Association, and two years later Anthony served as its second president. After 1900 she began actively touring the United States and Europe on behalf of women’s suffrage and lived to see it achieved in New Zealand (1893) and Australia (1902). Anthony never lived to see that eventuality in the United States for she died in Rochester, New York, on March 13, 1906. But the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution passed in 1920 and women’s right to vote, a dream in Anthony’s day, finally became a reality.

May 13 Military: Colonel Henry B. Carrington and the 18th U.S. Infantry advance up the Bozeman Trail, Wyoming Territory, to commence construction of Fort Phil Kearny. This incursion is greatly resented by Sioux warriors under Chief Red Cloud, who begins urging his people to take up arms against the intruders.

May 16 Business: Congress introduces a new five-cent piece called the “nickel,” minted from copper and not more than 25 percent nickel.

May 29 General: Winfield Scott, hero of the War of 1812 and the Mexican War, and progenitor of the “Anaconda Strategy” that led to victory in the recent Civil War, dies at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, aged 80 years.

May 31– June 1 Societal: A gathering of 600 Irish veterans of the Civil War, members of the secret Fenian Society, crosses the Niagara River from New York into Canada, skirmishing with local militia before recrossing and being arrested. However, they are gradually released and Canadian damage claims go unpaid.

June Indian: A peace council is summoned at Fort Laramie, Wyoming Territory, between U.S. Army representatives and Lakota chiefs Red Cloud, Man-Afraidof-his Horse, and Spotted Tail. At issue is white encroachment along the Boze-

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Red Cloud

1207

(1822–1909)

Oglala chief Red Cloud (Mahpiua Luta) was born along the North Platte River in Nebraska in 1822 as part of the Oglala Sioux nation. He matured into a fierce and crafty warrior, and made a reputation for himself among tribesmen as chief of the Bad Face military society. By 1865 he had risen to prominence among his people as chief, just when the United States was preparing to construct an immigrant road through Nebraska and Wyoming into Montana. The Sioux under Red Cloud angrily departed peace talks at Fort Laramie and declared they would fight rather than allow construction in their territory. Commencing with the Fetterman Massacre of December 21, 1866, and over the next two years, Red Cloud led a devastating guerrilla war that flummoxed army attempts to contain it. Consequently, travel along the Bozeman Trail became impossible and garrisoning the forts C. F. Smith, Phil Kearny, and Reno proved hazardous at best. A new agreement was finally reached at Fort Laramie in November 1868, but Red Cloud himself did not formally sign until the three forts had been abandoned and burned. Only then did he agree to lay down his arms and relocate to a reservation, the so-called Red Cloud Agency, in Nebraska. Cognizant of the strength of the American government, he thereafter served as a peace missionary and frequently visited Washington, D.C., to plea for better treatment of his people. Red Cloud also met with white audiences in cities throughout the East Coast and asked them to pressure the government

to treat Native Americans more fairly. Consequently, the Fort Laramie treaty was revised by Congress and rendered more favorable toward the Oglala. Persistent white encroachment on the Black Hills regions of South Dakota, held as sacred to the Sioux and other tribes, resulted in the large Indian uprising of 1876. Restive warriors under Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull took to the field to fight, but Red Cloud expressly forbade braves living on his reservation from taking the war path. This was a sagacious decision in light of what followed, but Red Cloud’s seemingly timid leadership fell out of favor among younger Indians who preferred bellicosity to peace. He may also have had a hand in the arrest and murder of Crazy Horse, whom he regarded as a threat to his leadership. However, the government suspected Red Cloud was assisting the rebels and in 1878 ordered his tribe relocated to the Pine Ridge Agency of South Dakota. There the machinations of agent V. Trant McGillycuddy resulted in Red Cloud’s dismissal as chief, which further diminished his reputation among the Oglala. Nonetheless, he adamantly opposed his people participating in the Ghost Dance religion and subsequent fighting at Wounded Knee in December 1890. Red Cloud continued living among his people at Pine Ridge, declining in both health and influence, until his death there on December 10, 1909. In his heyday, he was a peerless warrior who not only defeated the United States, but also dictated the terms of peace to it.

man Trail in the Powder River region, and concurrent attacks against miners and settlers. Government agents ply their guests with many gifts, but when it is made clear that the army intends to construct a series of forts in the region, Red Cloud and his entourage storm out of the meeting, promising war.

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June 16 Civil: Northern radicals in Congress, upset by tales of wholesale discrimination and violence against African-American citizens in the former Confederacy, propose the new Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution; this seminal document defines civil rights on a strict constitutional basis. Moreover, any state that deliberately denies blacks their rights will, in turn, be denied representation in Congress. President Andrew Johnson urges Southerners to ignore it, insisting it cannot apply to states denied representation in Congress; the radicals posit Southern passage of the amendment as the price for readmission.

June 20 Naval: At Newchwang (Ying-K’oo), China, Lieutenant John W. Philip leads a boat load of 100 sailors from the USS Wachusett ashore to hunt for a band that assaulted the American consul there.

June 21 Naval: Congress establishes the Hydrographic Office to continue ocean mapping activities previously carried out by the prewar Hydrographical Office. Politics: In Congress, the Joint Committee of Fifteen, composed of both radicals and moderates, reports on the manner in which the pressing issue of Reconstruction should be handled. The committee insists that former Confederate states have abrogated their rights to representation, and that terms for readmission can be managed only by the Congress and not the executive branch.

June 25 Diplomacy: The United States joins Great Britain, France, and the Netherlands in pressing Emperor Meiji after his Japanese government abrogates payments from the $3 million Shimonoseki indemnity. However, the American representative proffers new terms, and offers to suspend $2 million of the debt provided that the emperor replaces the existing 20 percent tariff with a 5 percent one and opens two additional cities to trade. Meiji, badly outmatched, submits to the terms for the time being. Naval: Congress creates the rank of full admiral and bestows it on Vice Admiral David G. Farragut in tribute to his Civil War service.

July Indian: The U.S. Army begins constructing Forts Reno, Phil Kearny, and C. F. Smith on the Bozeman Trail, Wyoming, which is land claimed by the Lakota Sioux nation. Angry warriors under Chief Red Cloud begin gathering to repel the intruders.

July 1 Business: Congress, determined to stop states from issuing their own currency, imposes a 10 percent tax on all state bank notes. This move drives scrip from the market and leads back to a unified national currency.

July 4 Art: In New York City, John Jay, grandson of the first chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, declares to a banquet of prominent city dwellers his intention to found a world-class art institute in that city; it eventually becomes the Metropolitan Museum of Art. General: Fires rage through Portland, Maine, destroying 1,500 buildings and inflicting damages estimated at $10 million.

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Indian: The Delaware nation sells its remaining lands to the Missouri River Railroad Company, while the U.S. government guarantees payment for the same.

July 13 Military: Congress passes legislation to allow an army officer of any branch to head up the U.S. Military Academy, West Point. Prior to this the superintendent was always an engineering officer.

July 16 Politics: Both houses of Congress handily override President Andrew Johnson’s veto of an act determined to strengthen the Freedmen’s Bureau. The bureau is now empowered with an ability to try by military court any individual charged with depriving African Americans of their rights.

July 19 Politics: The Tennessee legislature, firmly controlled by Radical Republicans, votes to become the first Southern state to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment; shortly afterward, it is restored to Congress and the Union.

July 25 Military: Congress votes to honor Ulysses S. Grant by promoting him to the rank of full general, the first officer since George Washington to hold such a rank.

July 27 Communication: The steamship Great Eastern completes laying the Atlantic Cable between Ireland and the United States in only two weeks. The previous attempt occurred 12 years earlier under businessman Cyrus Field, but his cable broke after a few days of operation. The State Department is now in almost instantaneous communication with its European representatives.

July 28 General: Congress passes a law authorizing the use of the metric system for measurements. Military: President Andrew Johnson signs an act that fixes the postwar military establishment at 45 infantry and six cavalry regiments, totaling 54,302 men. This is the first time that the U.S. Army has been greatly expanded after a war, but falls short of the 80,000 recommended by the commanding general, Ulysses S. Grant. The new force is expected to play a prominent role in Reconstruction activities.

July 30 Civil: Race riots in New Orleans lead to the deaths of 48 whites and African Americans, with an additional 150 injured, forcing even moderate Northerners to begin abandoning their political support for President Andrew Johnson.

August 1 Military: The War Department issues orders for the hiring of Indian scouts to work with the U.S. Army on the frontier. Prospective recruits are to receive the same pay and allowances as regular cavalry troopers; 474 are hired in the first year.

August 12 Military: In another alarming development for the Plains Indians, Captain Nathaniel C. Kinney, 18th U.S. Infantry, begins construction of Fort C. F. Smith along the northernmost reaches of Wyoming’s Bozeman Trail.

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August 14 –16 Politics: In Philadelphia, President Andrew Johnson tries to shore up moderate supporters by establishing the National Union Party. This is intended as a foil to counter the Radical Republicans under Senator Thaddeus Stevens, but Johnson’s overt sympathy for fellow Southerners causes moderate Northerners to resist joining in significant numbers.

August 20 Labor: The unexpected growth of industry in the North, coupled with the rise of unsafe working conditions and other detriments to workers’ well-being, induces the National Labor Congress to convene in Baltimore, Maryland, under Ira Stead and George E. McNeill. This is the genesis of the National Labor Union, which will boast 60,000 members, although years will pass before it possesses the clout needed to have labor-oriented legislation passed by Congress; the immediate goal is acceptance of an eight-hour day. Politics: President Andrew Johnson declares that the insurrection has finally ended in Texas and that “peace, order, tranquility, and civil authority now exists throughout the whole of the United States of America.”

August 28 Politics: President Andrew Johnson commences a two-week speaking tour of major Northern cities to shore up his sagging political support, but he is dogged by radical protesters at every stop.

September Indian: Fort Smith, Arkansas, is the scene of a gathering of U.S. officials and former Confederate Indian tribes for negotiations to settle accounts dating from the Civil War. The Americans impose harsh conditions and make the vanquished tribesmen free their slaves, sell off their lands in the western Indian Territory (Oklahoma), and permit the construction of railroads through their remaining territory.

September 1 Indian: Noted Navajo leader Manuelito, tired of being hounded and pursued by superior forces, finally surrenders his 23-man band to the U.S. Army and is promptly relocated to the Bosque Redondo Reservation in New Mexico.

September 21 Military: Two regiments of African Americans, the 9th and 10th U.S. Cavalry, are activated under white officers. In time they will gain renown as the “Buffalo soldiers,” the name given them by the Plains Indians who fought them.

September 23 Arts: The “Black Crook,” ostensibly the world’s first musical comedy—or burlesque—debuts in New York City and complaints arise over a dance number by scantily clad women.

September 25 Societal: A report in Scientific American states that the number of individuals worth $100,000 or more has increased dramatically over the past 25 years.

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October 3 General: The steamer Evening Star sinks at sea en route from New York City to New Orleans, killing 250 passengers.

October 10 Women: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, denied the right to vote but still eligible to run for public office, unsuccessfully stands for a seat in the 8th Congressional District, New York, receiving only 24 votes.

October 13 Civil: Civil rights for African Americans receives a major setback when the Texas legislature rejects the Fourteenth Amendment; this is the first Southern state to do so and inspires the remaining 10 to do likewise.

November Politics: The latest round of congressional elections results in large, anti-Johnson majorities in both houses, ensuring congressional dominance of the national agenda at the executive’s expense.

November 16 Diplomacy: Secretary of State William H. Seward proposes joint military action with France against the “Hermit Kingdom” of Korea, after the latter’s forces attack the transport General Sherman and murder its crew. France is likewise angered by the murder of Roman Catholic missionaries in this highly xenophobic society.

November 20 Societal: Union army veterans having founded the Grand Army of the Republic, a national organization, establish their first encampment at Indianapolis, Indiana.

December 6 Military: Oglala Sioux warriors under chief Miniconjou attack a wagon train outside Fort Phil Kearny, Wyoming, hoping to lure the relieving force into a trap. Cavalry under Captain William Fetterman attack and pursue the elusive Indians as far as Lodge Trail Ridge, then wisely turn back.

December 17 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court, in deciding Ex parte Milligan, rules that militaryimposed martial law and sentences are unconstitutional outside of theaters of war or in those areas where civil courts already function. Consequently, Lambdin P. Milligan, a Confederate sympathizer imprisoned in Indiana since 1864, is released. The decision also defines limits on military authority initiated by the federal government.

December 21 Military: Lakota, Arapaho, and Cheyenne warriors under Red Cloud, angered by the intrusion of white soldiers on their traditional hunting grounds, lure a troop of 80 soldiers under Captain William J. Fetterman into a deadly ambush near Fort Phil Kearny (Wyoming), killing all. This act precipitates a two-year struggle for control of the Bozeman Trail, Idaho Territory, and underscores the military’s inability to adequately police the frontier.

December 29 Arts: A multilingual performance of Othello is staged at the Winter Garden in New York City, with parts being delivered in both English and German.

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December 31 General: Businessmen and Chinese dignitaries attend a gala “Grand China Mail Dinner” in San Francisco, California, hosted by Governor Frederick F. Low. On the morrow the steamer Colorado will leave American waters for China, initiating monthly mail service.

1867 Art: American sculptor John Rogers unveils a series of three Civil War scenes, or group statuary, at the Paris Exposition. The American Water Color Society is founded by Samuel Coleman and John D. Smillie, with the former serving as the first president. Education: The Agricultural College of West Virginia (today’s University of West Virginia) is founded at Morgantown. Johns Hopkins University is chartered at Baltimore, Maryland, with the first classes held in 1876. The University of Illinois is chartered at Urbana; the first classes meet in 1868. After a 30-year absence, noted philosopher and sage Ralph Waldo Emerson is welcomed back to the same Harvard University that had scorned him for advocating personal spirituality at the expense of organized religion. Indian: Senator James R. Doolittle, chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, promulgates a report favoring the reservation system as a way of curtailing Indian-white hostilities. The ongoing decimation of buffalo herds has left the tribesmen in desperate straits; relocation to a reservation, where they can be taught agriculture and self-sufficiency, is viewed as a humane alternative to extermination by military means. Law: The U.S. Supreme Court declares to be unconstitutional federal and state loyalty oaths enacted to prevent former Confederate officials from practicing certain professions. Military: For the first time since the Mexican War, the army updates its drill manual by adopting Colonel Emory Upton’s new Infantry Tactics. Publishing: Inspirational writer Horatio Alger, Jr., publishes his first piece, Ragged Dick, in the magazine Student and Schoolmate. This and many stories that follow invariably cast the boundless opportunities of the “American dream” in a romantic light, and touch a popular chord in youthful readers. Within a decade Alger sells over 20 million copies of his success-oriented novels, making him one of the most successful authors in American history. Augusta Jane Evans’s romantic novel St. Elmo, concerning the success and vindication of a poor girl, sells one million copies and inspires people to name streets and babies after it. James Cruikshank publishes his Primary Geography, a principal school book text for the next three decades. Societal: New York City enacts the nation’s first tenement house laws to help improve declining standards of living due to a crush of new immigrants. The regulations touch upon minimum standards of space, lighting, ventilation, and sanitation, but enforcement proves so slipshod that conditions actually worsen. Cigarettes, long a staple of European tobacco culture, begin showing up in the United States for the first time.

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Alger, Horatio (1832–1899) Writer Horatio Alger was born in Revere, Massachusetts, on January 13, 1832, the son of a stern Unitarian minister. His father steered him toward life in the ministry and he was classically educated at Gates University. Alger performed well enough to gain entry into Harvard University in 1848, where he performed well in the Classics and French, but displayed no great propensity for religion. Alger consequently tutored and wrote journalistic essays after 1852, but pressure from his father forced him into Harvard’s Divinity School, from which he graduated in 1860. Again, Alger exhibited no real enthusiasm for preaching and, after receiving his inheritance, he ventured to Paris, France, for a year to indulge in some feckless hedonism. He then returned to the United States in 1861 and failed to obtain a commission during the Civil War, so after three more years of teaching and writing he resigned himself to the ministry and was ordained in the Brewster, Massachusetts, Unitarian Church on December 8, 1864. Once again, Alger’s lack of interest in religion manifested and within two years he resigned from the pulpit and relocated to New York City to pursue his sole passion—writing. Prior to this Alger had tried his hand at composing novels, such as Bertha’s Christmas Vision (1856), Nothing to Do, A Tilt at Our Best Society (1857), and Frank’s Campaign, or What a Boy Can Do (1864), none of which garnered either critical or financial success. However, a momentous turn in Alger’s fortunes occurred in 1866 when he befriended the management of the

local Newsboys Lodging House, a home for wayward youth. Drawing upon his religious training and the natural empathy it generated for street urchins, Alger felt inspired to write about their plight and possible succor. Alger’s first efforts manifested in a short story entitled “Ragged Dick,” which was published serially in the magazine Student and Schoolmate. It concerned itself with the rise of a poor child through honesty, frugality, and hard work, and proved an immediate success. Boston publisher A. K. Loring then pulled the installments together into a single volume, which also sold well, and proffered Alger a generous contract for six more books along these lines. Alger willingly complied, churning out such potboilers as Luck and Pluck (1869), Tattered Tom (1871), and the like, all of which promoted the ethos of hard work, discipline, and sacrifice as essential ingredients of personal success. All told, Alger composed no less than 119 books, all of which touched upon this identical theme of hard work and inevitable reward. They connected empathically to the ready audience of young boys and girls, who would purchase 20 million copies by the turn of the century, and make Alger the most successful children’s author in American history. Alger himself proved something of a generous spendthrift, and bankrupted himself and his fortune by assisting the Newsboys Lodging House and its inhabitants. For this reason he suffered a nervous breakdown and died in poverty at his sister’s house in Natick, Massachusetts, on July 18, 1899.

Sports: Edward P. Weston wins a long-distance walking contest by covering the distance between Portland, Maine, and Chicago, Illinois, in only 26 days. He pockets $10,000 for his effort. Technology: Christopher Latham Sholes perfects a working example of the typewriter, also calling it by that name.

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Chronology of American History Transportation: George Pullman incorporates the Pullman Palace Car Company and within two years is operating a fleet of 48 luxury cars on three different railroads.

January 1 Communication: The 340-foot-long steamship Colorado departs San Francisco, California, and sails westward to establish direct mail service with China.

January 7 Politics: Radical Republicans, fed up with President Andrew Johnson’s obstructionism, are ready for action. Representative James M. Ashley of Ohio introduces articles of impeachment to empower the Judiciary Committee to consider removing the president and it passes easily.

January 8 Civil: Full voting suffrage is extended to African Americans in Washington, D.C., over the veto of President Andrew Johnson. This further demonstrates the supremacy of Congress in setting the national agenda and underscores the Radical Republican drive toward universal manhood suffrage.

January 22 Politics: The 40th Congress, determined to challenge the power of President Andrew Johnson, votes to convene a special session on March 4.

January 23 General: Extremely cold weather in New York leaves the East River completely frozen over and several thousand people either stand on it or cross over on foot.

January 31 Politics: Congress extends manhood suffrage to all males over 21 years of age throughout the territories, regardless of race.

February 7 Civil: A deputation of African Americans led by Frederick Douglass visits the White House and implores President Andrew Johnson to push voting rights for former slaves.

February 9 Science: President Ulysses S. Grant establishes the U.S. Weather Service as a unit within the army. They are tasked with monitoring weather conditions, nationwide, and possibly giving advanced warning of storms.

February 18 Education: The Augusta Institute (forerunner to today’s Morehouse College) is founded in Atlanta, Georgia, for the benefit of African Americans.

February 25 Transportation: A congressional resolution is adopted to promote a survey of Darién, Panama, as the site for a potential canal across the isthmus, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

March 1 Civil: The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution has been rejected by 12 out of 37 states, including 10 former members of the Confederacy. This recalcitrance further stokes the resentment of Northern radicals in Congress, prompting harsher legislation from them.

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Four African-American women participate in a cooking class (Library of Congress)

Settlement: Nebraska is admitted into the Union as the 37th state, with its capital at Lancaster subsequently renamed Lincoln. President Andrew Johnson had vetoed the bill allowing it to join, fearing that the addition of two Republican senators would enable the Senate to impeach him, but he was overridden.

March 2 Business: Congress repeals all excise and income taxes on people earning less than $1,000. Civil: The First Reconstruction Act passes Congress over the veto of President Andrew Johnson. Henceforth, states of the former Confederacy (minus Tennessee) are to be divided into five military districts controlled by an army general. For the purpose of maintaining order in many defiant areas, the military government is authorized to arrest and try suspects involved in activities against African Americans. Only passage of the Fourteenth Amendment by former state legislatures, which guarantees the civil rights of blacks, will terminate this occupation.

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Chronology of American History Moreover, while poor and landless whites are eligible to vote, former Confederate authorities remain disenfranchised. Education: Howard Normal and Theological Institute for the Education of Teachers and Preachers (precursor to today’s Howard University) is chartered in Washington, D.C., under the aegis of General Oliver O. Howard. It is the first educational institution directed at African Americans to enjoy formal university facilities. Morehouse College in Augusta, Georgia, also opens its doors to former African-American slaves. Military: Senator Thaddeus Stevens forces the Command of the Army Act through Congress, whereby all orders issued by the executive must first pass through the commanding general of the army, Ulysses S. Grant. This act halts President Andrew Johnson from dealing directly with military governors in his capacity as commander in chief. Congress is determined to politically emasculate its uncooperative chief executive. Politics: The powerful Radical Republican, Senator Thaddeus Stevens, arranges for the Tenure of Office Act to pass through Congress; this further weakens the presidency by denying it the right to dismiss officials requiring Senate approval. Thus Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, who has been in league with the radicals, cannot be discharged. The act is on somewhat dubious constitutional grounds, but nonetheless remains on the books until 1926.

March 4 Politics: In its latest move to up the political ante, Congress votes to reconvene again that month rather than wait the usual nine months to begin the new session. Through this expedient, the legislature again asserts its domination over the executive office.

March 5 Civil: Virginia authorities find grounds to discount up to 1,000 votes by African Americans, leading many blacks to question the goodwill of their white neighbors and Reconstruction in general.

March 7 Labor: Shoemakers in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, feeling threatened by the onset of technology, found the Order of the Knights of St. Crispin as their own labor union. Their purpose is to protect themselves against the introduction of machinery and possible competition from apprentices with less seniority.

March 11 Military: President Andrew Johnson, as per the will of Congress, appoints five commanders to the five military districts established by the First Reconstruction Act. They command 20,000 occupation troops, including several hundred black militiamen, and are tasked with registering former slaves to vote and seeing to it that they participate in elections without violence.

March 12 Diplomacy: In an apparent triumph for Secretary of State William Henry Seward and a resurgent Monroe Doctrine, the last French troops are finally shipped home from Mexico. However, the Austrian prince Maximilian refuses to abdicate and elects to meet his fate at the hands of an angry populace. The Americans decline to intervene.

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March 13 General: Former Confederate president Jefferson Davis, hailed throughout the South as the “Caged Eagle,” is released from his confines at Fortress Monroe, Virginia, on a $100,000 bond. He still faces trial for treason.

March 23 Civil: When Southern states recalcitrantly fail to summon constitutional conventions, Congress passes a second Reconstruction Act over the veto of President Andrew Johnson. This legislation empowers the five military governors to summon state constitutional conventions, seeing that state authorities have failed to do so. In this manner former African-American slaves will be elected as representatives to the forthcoming conventions and will bear active roles in formulating policy.

March 27 Military: When Alabama fails to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment, military rule is imposed on that former Confederate state.

March 29 Diplomacy: The United States has a new player to contend with on the continent as the British North America Act is signed in London, and the Dominion of Canada is born under Prime Minister Sir John A. MacDonald. Journalism: The Pulaski Citizen of Tennessee is the first newspaper to publicly expound upon the Ku Klux Klan, a highly secretive, rituals dominated organization dedicated to white supremacy and the suppression of former AfricanAmerican slaves. The essay refers to it as the “Invisible Empire of the South.”

March 30 Diplomacy: Secretary of State William Henry Seward arranges the purchase of Russian Alaska from the czar’s foreign minister, Edouard de Stoeckl. This huge tract of seemingly useless land is derided by many as “Seward’s Folly,” but turns out to be one of the most lucrative acquisitions in American history. The Russians are liquidating their holdings in the New World for fear that Britain is planning to seize them by force. Their main financial asset in the region, the Russian-American Company, is in poor shape financially and apparently not worth fighting for. The Russians also see Alaska as a convenient American buffer zone between Siberia and British Canada. The price of $7.2 million—two cents an acre—struck both sides as a fair price.

April Military: Captain J. M. Williams leads several companies of the 8th U.S. Cavalry on a raid against hostile Apache near Fort Whipple, Arizona; some 50 Native Americans are slain.

April–May Law: Two cases are handled by the U.S. Supreme Court, Georgia v. Stanton and Mississippi v. Johnson, and the Court decides that it lacks the ability to block enforcement of Reconstruction legislation.

April 7 Military: Following a failed conference at Fort Larned, Kansas, 1,400 troops under General Winfield S. Hancock advance into the Central Plains region

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Chronology of American History with a view toward intimidating into submission the indigenous tribesmen, then harassing the Kansas Pacific Railroad. Recalcitrant Lakota and Cheyenne villages are singled out for punishment, but the highly mobile Native Americans easily evade their antagonists and counter by attacking wagon trains and stagecoaches.

April 9 Military: U.S. troops under General Winfield Scott Hancock burn abandoned Cheyenne and Sioux villages at Pawnee Fork, Kansas, to underscore his displeasure over their raiding activities. Politics: The Senate, convinced by Secretary of State William H. Seward of Alaska’s usefulness, ratifies the acquisition treaty by a vote of 27 to 12, only a single vote larger than the necessary two-thirds margin. Its purchase signifies the nation’s growing awareness of the Pacific and Arctic regions for commerce and security, despite derogatory cries of “Seward’s Folly.”

April 12 Military: General Winfield S. Hancock unsuccessfully parleys with Cheyenne and Sioux chiefs Tall Bull and Pawnee Killer, at the conclusion of which the Indians slip out of their village, which Hancock vindictively burns. The enraged Indians regard this act as a declaration of war and begin wholesale raiding of settlers and stagecoaches.

May Societal: The Ku Klux Klan is officially founded at Nashville, Tennessee, with former Confederate general Nathan B. Forrest as Grand Wizard. It is formed to check the social progress of African Americans and Northern radicals, by force, if need be. This first incarnation will gradually dissolve by 1869 and Forrest, who renounces the use of violence, will resign.

May 9–10 Women: Suffrage crusader Lucretia Mott presides over the American Equal Rights Convention in New York City, and collects signatures for a memorial to Congress on the subject of women’s rights.

May 13 Civil: Former Confederate president Jefferson Davis is released from prison at Fort Monroe, Virginia, on $100,000 bail, although he is still ordered to stand trial.

May 22 Societal: In New Orleans, the Knights of the White Camelia is founded to oppose the Radical Republican agenda of civil rights for former African-American slaves. “White supremacy” is gathering impetus throughout the Old South.

June 1 Military: Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer leads his 7th U.S. Cavalry into the area between the Platte and Arkansas Rivers to clear it of hostile Sioux and Cheyenne warriors raiding there. Over the next two weeks, the splendidly mounted Native Americans avoid the cavalry and Custer grows frustrated from lack of action.

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Custer, George Armstrong (1839–1876) Soldier George Armstrong Custer was born in New Rumley, Ohio, on December 5, 1839, and in 1857 he gained entrance to the U.S. Military Academy, West Point. He proved somewhat of a slovenly student, was nearly court-martialed for dereliction of duty, and graduated at the bottom of his class in 1861. However, the onset of the Civil War that year led to his commissioning into the cavalry, and Custer first tasted battle at Bull Run that August. He proved himself a dashing trooper, served as aide-de-camp to General George B. McClellan in 1862, and the following year rose to brigadier general at the age of 23. Custer was a literal whirlwind in combat, with his long blonde hair flowing at the front of his command—and lost no less than 11 horses killed under him. On May 11, 1864 he waged one of his most important actions, at Yellow Tavern, Virginia, where the legendary Confederate leader, General J. E. B. Stuart, was mortally wounded. That year he also served under aggressive general Philip H. Sheridan and effectively hounded Confederates under General Robert E. Lee until they finally surrendered at Appomattox in April 1865. Custer was now a national war hero and a brevet major general, but under the demobilization scheme adopted by the U.S. Army he reverted to his linear rank of captain in 1866. The following year, in light of his sterling reputation and wartime celebrity, Custer advanced two grades to become lieutenant colonel of the newly formed 7th U.S. Cavalry and was posted to Kansas to fight Indians.

Custer’s first action in the West was as part of the thoroughly muddled campaign of General Winfield Scott Hancock along the Middle Plains in 1866. The following year he faced a court-martial for being absent without leave, but was reinstated to active duty within a year. In 1868 he teamed again with General Sheridan and that November his men surprised and defeated a Cheyenne encampment under Chief Black Kettle at the Washita River, which, while regarded by many as atrocious, convinced many hostile bands to return to reservations. The army then reorganized and disbanded the 7th U.S. Cavalry, forcing Custer to serve two years in Kentucky, but it was reinstated in 1873. That year Custer wrote his best-selling memoir My Life on the Plains, which further enhanced his national following. In 1874 he conducted a large-scale reconnaissance of the Black Hills region, sacred to Sioux and Cheyenne alike, discovering gold there. The large influx of prospectors pushed the Indians living there into open hostility by 1876, and Custer was initially assigned to the large cavalry column of General Alfred H. Terry. That June Terry dispatched Custer to scout the large Indian encampment along the Little Bighorn River, Montana, but was ordered to avoid a fight. Custer, however, disregarded his instructions and attacked, being then surrounded and killed by several thousand mounted warriors on June 25, 1876. The death of the vainglorious Custer and his men shocked the nation and ensured his legacy as one of America’s most controversial Indian fighters.

June 11 Naval: The latest attempt to establish diplomatic relations with the “Hermit Kingdom” of Korea ends tragically when navy lieutenant Hugh W. McKee is fatally speared on Kanghoa Island.

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June 13 Naval: The warships USS Wyoming and Hertford conduct a punitive raid on the Chinese island of Formosa (Taiwan) in retaliation for the latter’s murder of the crew of the ship Rover, which shipwrecked there. A landing party scatters a party of natives, losing one man to combat and suffering 14 cases of sunstroke.

June 19 Sports: Ruthless wins the first annual Belmont Stakes at Jerome Park, New York, with a winning time of three minutes, five seconds and a purse of $1,850. This remains the oldest of the American Triple Crown races.

June 21 Diplomacy: The United States and Nicaragua conclude the Dickinson-Ayon Treaty, a commercial treaty granting the Americans free transit rights across that nation, to facilitate trade between the two oceans.

July Indian: Congress appoints General William T. Sherman to head the U.S. Peace Commission, tasked with negotiating peace settlements with various warring tribes on the Central Plains. Western politicians in Congress, however, resent what they view as leniency and call for harsher retaliation against the Indians.

July 1 Diplomacy: In a major development, the British North America Act of 1867 comes into effect, creating a new nation in North America, the Dominion of Canada, from the colonies of Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Under this arrangement the various provinces enjoy a large degree of local autonomy while technically remaining under the British Crown. It is also undertaken to preclude any annexation attempt by the United States, either by direct force or by gradual assimilation.

July 3 Diplomacy: A five-vessel diplomatic mission, sent to establish diplomatic relations with Korea, has achieved nothing but the loss of one officer, and formally withdraws its attempt.

July 6 Settlement: President Andrew Johnson submits the Alaska acquisition treaty to the House of Representatives to secure both money and a mechanism for administrating the territory.

July 12 Settlement: The first group of white settlers arrives at Cheyenne Village, weeks before the Wyoming Territory is officially organized.

July 15 Military: Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer, disgusted by lack of fighting and unaware of General William S. Hancock’s intentions, summarily decides to abandon the field and march back to Fort Hays, Kansas, from the Platte River region. They arrive in slightly over two days, having covered 150 miles of rough terrain in remarkably good time. Custer then rides on from Fort Hays an additional 60 miles to Fort Harker to stay with his wife. There he will be arrested for taking leave without absence and ultimately suspended from rank and command for a year.

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July 19 Civil: Congress passes the Third Reconstruction Act over President Andrew Johnson’s veto to circumvent such Southern obstructionism as boycotting the polls; the new act declares that a simple majority of those caring to vote are deemed sufficient for ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment and readmission into the Union. Furthermore, the power to determine voter eligibility is granted to military commanders administering the South.

July 25 Women: A constitutional convention held in New York decisively rejects an amendment granting women the right to vote by a tally of 125 to 19.

August 1 Military: Roving Sioux and Cheyenne warriors attack a party of 20 woodcutters under Lieutenant Sigismund Sternberg outside of Fort C. F. Smith on the Bozeman Trail, Wyoming Territory, but are repulsed by rapid-fire weaponry in the ensuing “Hayfield Fight.” Reinforcements from the fort arrive six hours later and the Indians ride off; their losses are unknown but the Americans sustain three dead and three injured.

August 2 Military: A large band of Sioux attacks a 30-man army detachment outside Fort Phil Kearny, but Captain James W. Powell, 27th U.S. Infantry, manages to circle his wagons and repel his assailants until relief arrives. This skirmish becomes celebrated as the “Wagon Box Fight” and is the last pitched encounter of Red Cloud’s War. American losses are six dead and two wounded while the Indians are thought to have suffered as many as 60 dead and 120 wounded. Thereafter Red Cloud avoids direct confrontation with army troops and resumes raiding.

August 12 Politics: When Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton bluntly informs President Andrew Johnson that the new military governors must answer directly to Congress and not him, Johnson demands his resignation. Stanton refuses under the terms of the newly passed Tenure of Office Act. The president then suspends his secretary and nominates General Ulysses S. Grant, the commanding general of the army, to replace him. Johnson also summarily dismisses existing military governors and replaces them with men of his own, more lenient persuasion.

August 13 Literature: Aspiring writer Augustin Daly pens the melodrama Under the Gaslight in New York City, which goes on to a successful print run.

August 28 Settlement: The USS Lackawanna under Captain William Reynolds drops anchor at Midway Island in the Pacific, 1,300 miles northwest of Hawaii, and claims that atoll for the United States. It does so at the behest of the China Mail Steamship Company, which desires to utilize it as a mid-oceanic coaling station; the name derives from the fact that it lies midway between the ports of San Francisco, California, and Yokohama, Japan. In World War II this seemingly insignificant speck of land will play a highly important role.

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September 5 Business: In a sign of sectional healing, Southern cattle drovers and Northern meat dealers celebrate the arrival of 35,000 Texas longhorn cattle at Abilene, Kansas, the first stop on the Kansas Pacific Railroad. This run was the brainchild of Illinois meat dealer Joseph M. McCoy, who realized that cows worth only $3 a head in Texas could fetch $40 apiece at northern markets.

September 30 Diplomacy: The Senate, aided by political enemies of President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William Henry Seward, defeats a proposed treaty to promote trade reciprocity with the kingdom of Hawaii.

October 3 Technology: The sewing machine, invented by Elias Howe, wins a gold medal at the Paris Exhibition; however, Howe dies in Brooklyn that same year.

October 18 Settlement: Troops under General Lovell H. Rousseau formally take possession of Alaska from the Russian empire. Indian: Alaska becomes part of the United States, although without the compliance of indigenous Eskimos and other Native Americans, who are now subject to whatever laws the new owners choose to enforce on them.

October 21–28 Indian: Indian commissioners and representatives of the Kiowa, Cheyenne, and Comanche nations meet at Medicine Lodge Creek (near Fort Larned, Kansas) and conclude a treaty to establish the first federal reservations for Native Americans. In this manner the tribesmen relinquish 90 million acres of land in return for smaller parcels in the Indian Territory (Oklahoma). But despite pledges to live in peace, many bands of Kiowa and Comanche prove restive, and sporadic fighting ensues for another decade.

October 24 Diplomacy: In another setback for Secretary of State William Henry Seward, the Senate balks at an attempt to purchase the Danish West Indies (Virgin Islands) for $7.5 million. Apparently, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles sought their acquisition as a strategic link between the Caribbean and Europe but the islands are retained as a Danish possession for the next four decades.

October 25 Religion: Maimonides College, the first rabbinical college in the nation, opens in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, although it will close in 1873 due to lack of support.

November 20 Politics: In a political first, the House Judiciary Committee votes five to four to begin impeachment proceedings against President Andrew Johnson. The chief executive is being charged with “high crimes and misdemeanors.”

December Military: The army disbands the 125th U.S. Colored Infantry, the last AfricanAmerican infantry unit in the army. Thereafter the few remaining blacks are retained in the 9th and 10th U.S. Cavalry, the “Buffalo Soldiers.”

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December 2 Arts: English author Charles Dickens arrives in New York City for a literature reading; lines at the box office stretch nearly a mile long.

December 3 Politics: President Andrew Johnson delivers a defiant annual address to Congress, insisting that it is the executive’s duty to stand his ground on the office’s rights, regardless of the political consequences.

December 4 Agriculture: Oliver Hudson Kelley, formerly a clerk in the Department of Agriculture, founds a new, secret organization called the Patrons of Husbandry (Grangers) in Washington, D.C. It intends to give farmers a bigger and more unified voice in legislation affecting them. The organization is also unique for its day by accepting women as full participants.

December 7 Politics: The House of Representatives temporarily votes down the attempt to impeach President Andrew Johnson; the attempt will be repeated in the new year.

December 19 General: A train derailment at Angola, New York, kills 44 passengers.

December 28 Settlement: The United States formally declares ownership of Midway Island, which was claimed by an American naval vessel the previous August. Significantly, this constitutes the first territory acquired outside the continent.

1868 Arts: Sculptor Hiram Powers finishes his latest celebrated work, Clytie, at his home in Florence, Italy. Business: Armour and Company, a meat-packing concern, begins this year as a pork packing plant associated with the Chicago Grain Commission. Education: The University of Minnesota is chartered at Minneapolis and holds its first classes in 1869. General: The Harnisch & Baer Ice Cream Parlour of San Antonio, Texas, helps patrons cope with the blazing summer heat by inventing the ice cream soda, soon a national best-seller at soda fountains everywhere. Indian: Navajo chiefs Manuelito, Baboncito, and others venture to Washington, D.C., to meet with President Andrew Johnson over the horrendous living conditions assigned to them at the Bosque Redondo Reservation, New Mexico Territory. They then petition their “Great Father” for repatriation to their ancestral homelands. Journalism: Noted author Charles A. Dana becomes managing editor of the New York Sun. Labor: Railway conductors form their own union, thereby adding to the rise of railroad brotherhoods. Literature: Wilkie Collins’s classic mystery, The Moonstone, appears serially in Harper’s Weekly. Medical: The surgeon general orders that thousands of Native American skulls be collected from battlefield and grave sites for examination and scrutiny at the

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Chronology of American History Army Medical Hospital. Through this expedient the army hopes to demonstrate the intellectual inferiority of the Indians. Publishing: After two decades of writing, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow finally completes his religious tract Christus–A Mystery. Authoress Harriet Beecher Stowe writes and publishes Men of Our Times and The Chimney Corner. The first issue of The World Almanac is published by the New York World. Religion: Sunday sermons by Congregationalist Henry Ward Beecher of Brooklyn, New York, prove so popular that they sell in printed form for five cents a copy. Societal: The Ku Klux Klan adopts a constitution declaring its objectives to be chivalry, humanity, mercy, and patriotism. However, its immediate purpose is intimidation of newly freed African Americans and white supremacy throughout the South. Merchant banker Walter Loomis Miller bequeaths a $2 million endowment for creation of a public reference library in Chicago, Illinois, which will become known as the Newberry Library. Sports: An estimated 200,000 skaters use New York’s Central Park every year; one reason for the sport’s popularity is that it can be enjoyed equally by both genders at the same location. The new sport of velocipeding (bicycle riding) is gaining rapid popularity in America, three years after its introduction in France. Technology: Abram S. Hewitt introduces the open-hearth process to the American steel industry at Trenton, New Jersey. This innovation permits greater extraction of sulphur and phosphorus, thus facilitating steel production. Elisha Otis’s safety elevator, first demonstrated in 1854, allows for the construction of very high office buildings. The new Equitable Life Assurance Company building in New York City, under construction and expected to reach 130 feet in height, is designed around this useful device. Women: Carolina Severance founds the New England Women’s Club to advance the cause of suffrage and equal rights; author Julia Ward Howe is chosen the first president.

January 1 Publishing: Suffragette Susan B. Anthony publishes a weekly journal called The Revolution, edited by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, that advocates women’s suffrage and other concerns.

January 3 Diplomacy: In an event of global implications, Japan’s tottering Tokugawa shogunate is overthrown by forces loyal to Emperor Meiji, who now assumes direct control of national affairs.

January 7 Indian: The U.S. Peace Commission, created by Congress to investigate the state of Native Americans, points a finger at gross corruption in the Bureau of Indian Affairs, particularly those tasked with administering Indian reservations. According to a report issued by the commission, their neglect and duplicity has exacerbated already trying conditions for the tribesmen.

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January 10 Politics: The Senate Committee on Military Affairs issues a report that clears Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton of any wrongdoing in his decision to resist dismissal.

January 11 Politics: General Ulysses S. Grant, commanding general of the army, requests to be relieved of command rather than violate terms of the Tenure of Office Act.

January 13 Politics: Citing the newly passed Tenure of Office Act, the Senate votes 35 to six and refuses to condone President Andrew Johnson’s attempt to dismiss Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton from his post.

January 14 Military: General Ulysses S. Grant resigns as secretary of war and turns the office back to its previous occupant, Edwin M. Stanton. President Andrew Johnson is greatly angered by what be considers a political betrayal by Grant.

January 16 Technology: Detroit fish dealer William Davis receives a patent for his refrigerator car, invented for the safe transportation of fruit, fish, and other perishables to distant markets. This invention consequently alters the commerce and business of agriculture.

February 4 Naval: A landing party from the USS Oneida goes ashore at Hiogo, Japan, to protect American citizens living there from attack by rebels trying to oust the Tokugawa shogunate.

February 5 Diplomacy: Emperor Maximilian and Empress Carlotta refuse to desert their throne in Mexico, despite the fact that France, under intense American pressure, is pulling out their bodyguard of 10,000 troops.

February 7 Naval: Admiral Charles H. Davis, commanding the screw sloops USS Guerriere and Quinnebaug and three smaller vessels, anchors at Montevideo, Uruguay, to protect American interests there during a local insurrection.

February 11 Naval: The new screw-powered cruiser USS Wampanoag becomes the navy’s fastest vessel with a sustained speed of 17 knots, a record not eclipsed until 1889.

February 21 Politics: President Andrew Johnson, having previously suspended Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, now dismisses him from office over differences with his Reconstruction policy; General Lorenzo Thomas gains appointment as his interim replacement. Through this measure Johnson is deliberately seeking a Supreme Court decision on the Tenure of Office Act, which he believes is unconstitutional. Moreover, Johnson directly orders military commanders throughout the South to report directly to him and to ignore both Congress and the commanding general of the army, Ulysses S. Grant. Stanton counters by barricading himself in his office, refusing to leave as per the Tenure of Office Act.

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February 22 Politics: In the House of Representatives, Radical Republican Thaddeus Stevens drafts a formal resolution of impeachment against President Andrew Johnson for attempting to violate the Tenure of Office Act. Though weak and ailing, he chooses this day to bitterly denounce the chief executive because it is George Washington’s birthday.

February 24 Politics: In the House of Representatives, John Covode of Pennsylvania offers up articles of impeachment against President Andrew Johnson for “high crimes and misdemeanors,” which passes 126 to 47. Faced with 11 articles of impeachment, President Andrew Johnson appoints former attorney general Henry Stanbury to represent him during his trial in the U.S. Senate; Johnson himself boycotts the proceedings entirely.

March 5 Politics: The Senate begins arranging its chamber for the impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson, a first in American history.

March 11 Politics: Congress approves a third supplementary Reconstruction Act mandating that state constitutions will be ratified by a simple majority of those Southerners actually casting votes. It effectively counters the trend toward intimidation and disenfranchisement of African Americans throughout the South, although only over President Andrew Johnson’s veto.

March 13–May 26 Politics: The impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson commences in the Senate chambers amid much public interest and political rancor. While technically being tried for violating the Tenure of Office Act, frustrated Radical Republicans hope to make an example of the Tennessean for opposing Reconstruction. Passions run high but a two-thirds vote is still required to remove the chief executive.

March 23 Education: The University of California is chartered in Berkeley by merging with the College of California under terms of the 1866 Morrill Land Grant College Act. It continues the policy of maintaining courses and academic standards similar to older establishments found in the East.

March 26 Politics: Former Confederate president Jefferson Davis is formally charged with treason by the Richmond Circuit Court.

March 27 Politics: The radically controlled Congress passes a law to circumvent Supreme Court interference aimed at invalidating Reconstruction legislation or procedures.

April 29 Indian: General William T. Sherman signs the Treaty of Fort Laramie with the Sioux nation, ending a costly frontier conflict. The victorious Red Cloud demands and gets the army to disband all its posts along the Bozeman Trail, Wyoming Territory. Furthermore, all territory east of the Big Horn Mountains and north of the North Platte River is affirmed as exclusively Indian. Several bands of Sioux

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and Cheyenne also agree to be relocated to reservations in Montana, Wyoming, and the Dakotas.

May Medical: The American Journal of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children appears in New York, becoming the first specialized medical journal published in America. Musical: In Boston, the First Triennial Festival boasts what critics hail as the only satisfactory performance of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony in America.

May 16 Politics: President Andrew Johnson survives a test vote, 35 to 19, on the issue of impeachment. Senate managers then obtain a 10-day recess to try and change a handful of votes. The president is being tried for alleged violations of the Tenure of Office Act and Command of the Army Act.

May 20 Publishing: Author Horatio Alger proffers his first story, Ragged Dick, or Street Life, in New York as a copyrighted book. This seemingly inauspicious title strikes a chord with young readers and becomes a huge success.

May 20–21 Politics: The Republican Party national convention convenes in Chicago, Illinois, and nominates General Ulysses S. Grant on the first ballot. Schuyler Colfax of Indiana is selected as his vice presidential running mate—proof of the growing significance of the Midwest to national politics. The party platform fully endorses Radical Reconstruction.

May 28 Politics: In a dramatic hush, the trial of President Andrew Johnson concludes in the U.S. Senate. The vote is then tallied and the impeachment, which requires two-thirds of the Senate, or 54 votes in favor, fails by a single vote, cast by Kansas senator Edmund G. Ross. Ross is never again elected to political office, but the stability of the American system, based on the intrinsic difficulty of removing a chief executive for spurious reasons, is reaffirmed. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton resigns from office.

May 30 Societal: Decoration Day (later, Memorial Day), a time to embellish local Civil War graves, is celebrated nationwide for the first time. The date has been chosen by General John A. Logan, commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, who calls upon Union veterans to decorate military graves with flowers.

June 1 General: Former president James Buchanan dies at the age of 77. Indian: The U.S. government and the Navajo conclude the Treaty of 1868, whereby the tribe is allowed to return to its ancestral homeland in the territory of northern Arizona and New Mexico, and reside on a 3.5-million-acre reservation. This terminates the tribe’s four-year internment under substandard conditions at Bosque Redondo, New Mexico. Military: John M. Schofield, an accomplished Civil War general and a determined military reformer, gains appointment as secretary of war, where he will serve for a year.

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June 10 Sports: The Second Belmont Stakes is won by General Duke, running with a time of three minutes, two seconds.

June 22 Politics: Arkansas gains readmission into the Union and representation in Congress after endorsing universal manhood suffrage with regard to race.

June 23 Technology: Christopher Sholes, Carlos Glidden, and Samuel Soule of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, receive a patent for a new writing device, which they call a typewriter.

June 25 Labor: Congress authorizes an eight-hour working day for government employees, although the private sector will be extremely slow in adopting similar measures. Politics: Congress allows Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, and South Carolina readmission into the Union with representation through an “Omnibus Act passed over President Andrew Johnson’s veto.” Texas remains the only holdout.

July Indian: The U.S. Army under General George Crook finally prevails in its threeyear struggle with the Northern Paiute (Snake) Indians when their leaders surrender at Fort Harney, Oregon. Publishing: Anton Roman publishes The Overland Monthly in San Francisco, California, which will become an outlet for many struggling new writers including Jack London and others.

July 4 –9 Politics: The Democrats hold their national convention in New York City, nominating Horatio Seymour of New York and Francis P. Blair of Missouri as their presidential and vice presidential candidates, respectively. The party strenuously objects to the policies of Radical Reconstruction.

July 9 Politics: The Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratified by the states; it irrevocably grants citizenship and all the privileges therein to all citizens, born or naturalized, including former African-American slaves. It also releases the federal government from any debts accrued while combatting a rebellion against the United States.

July 14 Settlement: The House of Representatives votes to appropriate funds to purchase Alaska, 113 to 43.

July 15 Diplomacy: Mexican president Benito Juárez restores republican rule to his country following an internecine, five-year struggle against French occupation. Former emperor Maximilian will be arrested and executed.

July 25 Settlement: Congress creates the Territory of Wyoming as the western regions are occupied by increasing numbers of settlers.

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July 27 Naval: Congress authorizes legislation to allow Japanese midshipmen to attend the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, provided their government shoulders the cost. A total of 16 Japanese nationals graduate from the academy between 1869 and 1906, and several reach the rank of admiral in their own service.

July 28 Civil: Secretary of State William H. Seward declares the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution as having been passed by two-thirds of all states, and thereby ratified. Henceforth, all African Americans and naturalized immigrants are accorded full civil rights, although this does not apply to Native Americans. Debts accrued during the Civil War years are also validated, unless they originated as part of the insurrection. Diplomacy: In San Francisco, California, the United States concludes the Treaty of Burlingame with representatives of the Manchu dynasty of China, establishing regular steamboat service between the two nations. This also opens the floodgates of Chinese immigration to the United States, cheap “coolie” laborers being needed for the vast network of railroads then under construction. Curiously, the Chinese government is represented by Anson Burlingame, the former American minister to that country, who hopes that venerable nation will be viewed and treated as an equal among Western powers.

August Publishing: Author Bret Harte publishes his story “The Luck of Roaring Camp” in the Overland Monthly, gaining national attention.

August 5 Business: John and Charles Deere formally incorporate their highly successfully farm tool business as Deere & Company.

August 11 General: Radical senator Thaddeus Stevens dies in Washington, D.C. He has arranged to have his remains interred in an African-American cemetery at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to underscore his belief in “equality of man before his creator.”

August 13 Naval: The bark USS Fredonia and the gunboat Wateree are struck by a tidal wave outside Arica, Peru, and sunk with a loss of 27 sailors. The force of the water carries both vessels 1,500 feet inland.

August 26 Literature: Louisa May Alcott publishes her semi-autobiographical novel Little Women, which goes on to sell two million copies.

August 29 Military: To track marauding Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Sioux war bands that are raiding along the Saline and Solomon Rivers in Kansas, Major George A. Forsyth departs Fort Hays with 50 mounted volunteers. Transportation: The Mt. Washington Cog Railroad, unique in its ability to traverse directly up mountain slopes, is opened to the public at Mt. Washington, New Hampshire.

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Alcott, Louisa May (1832–1888) Writer Louisa May Alcott was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania, on November 29, 1832, the daughter of noted transcendentalist philosopher Amos Bronson Alcott. In 1844 she relocated to Boston where her father made several attempts to found a communal, utopian community at Fruitlands. She endured a hardscrabble existence of poverty and simplicity in accordance with her father’s beliefs, but her childhood was enlivened throughout by constant association with his circle of friends, including Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Early in life Alcott realized that she was doomed to a life of deprivation if alternative sources of income did not generate sufficient money to ameliorate her situation. She thus entered the workforce at the age of 16 and performed menial tasks like sewing and substitute teaching, but Alcott subsequently discovered she had a talent for expository prose. Her first book of fairy tales, Flower Fables, was published in 1855, six years after it was written, but failed to garner much attention. She nevertheless continued writing and publishing essays in various venues and by 1860 had become a featured writer in the prestigious Atlantic Monthly. After the Civil War commenced in 1861, Alcott volunteered her services as a nurse in Washington, D.C., rendering erudite sketches of what she saw and accomplished in that capacity. In 1862 she compiled and published them in a booklet called Hospital Sketches, which finally gained her crucial recognition as an aspiring female writer.

Alcott followed up with a novel entitled Moods, which was well-received, and after the war she toured Europe before returning home to serve as editor of the children’s publication Merry Museum. It was not until 1868 that Alcott acquired national recognition through the publication of her two-volume novel Little Women. This seminal work is basically an autobiographical account of life at Concord, Massachusetts, in which she plays the character Jo and her three sisters flesh out the remaining cast. Little Women received instant celebrity as a children’s classic and was translated into several languages; in the 20th century it was also made into several motion pictures. Alcott thus basked in the wealth and fame that had eluded her earlier in life and she turned her attention to politics and social reform. In this capacity she soon emerged as a champion for women’s suffrage and temperance, while continuing to write successful autobiographical novels such as An Old Fashioned Girl (1870), Little Men (1871), and Jo’s Boys (1886). She consequently used the luxury of time and resources to speak on lecturing circuits on behalf of many causes, invariably enjoying a large audience. She also tried her hand at family history in the book Silver Pitchers (1876), which painfully recounts her father’s failed attempt to establish his Fruitlands commune. Alcott, who had suffered poor health since her Civil War days, died in Boston on March 6, 1888, among the foremost female authors of her generation.

Civil: When the Georgia legislature expels 27 African-American members, military rule is declared and the state’s congressional representation is once again voided and military governance is again imposed.

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September 17–25 Military: A scouting party of 50 men under Major George A. Forsyth is attacked by 600 mounted Cheyenne, Lakota, and Arapaho Indians on Beecher’s Island along the Republican River. A nine-day siege ensues in which the Americans take significant losses but invariably drive the Indians off with superior firepower. The Americans are finally rescued by a party of African-American troopers, the famed 10th U.S. Cavalry or “Buffalo soldiers.” Forsyth loses five dead and 18 wounded to an estimated 32 dead Indians. Among the noted casualties are Roman Nose, a celebrated Cheyenne war chief, and Lieutenant Frederick Beecher, nephew of abolitionist Henry Ward Beecher, for whom the battle is named.

October 1 Agriculture: New York’s Rochester Agricultural Fair brings in 50,000 attendees from around the country. Journalism: Editors of the New York Times apologize to readers for the increased advertising space in a paper that is now 12 pages long. However, commercial demands for more ads cannot be ignored financially.

October 7 Indian: The U.S. Peace Commission confers with General William T. Sherman in Chicago, Illinois, and the majority of members decide that Native American peoples should no longer be recognized as sovereign states, thus removing the necessity of having to make treaties with them. The commission is disbanded thereafter.

October 21 General: San Francisco is badly battered by a large earthquake; damage estimates total upward of $3 million.

November 3 Politics: Republican presidential candidate Ulysses S. Grant crushes his Democratic opponent Horatio Seymour with 214 electoral votes to 80. With 3 million in favor and 2.7 million against, Grant’s majority in overall votes is only 309,000; apparently, the 700,000 African-American votes cast, under military protection, went to the Republican Party and tipped the balance. Schuyler Colfax becomes vice president.

November 7 Indian: A peace treaty is concluded between Chief Red Cloud of the Lakota Sioux nation and General William T. Sherman, whereby the Americans agree to disband their forts and other structures along the Bozeman Trail, Idaho Territory (Wyoming). In exchange, the Sioux receive new land in the Dakotas and agree to remain to reservations there. The government also pledges to provide food, supplies, and schooling, along with clothing and seeds.

November 11 Sports: The New York Athletic Club sponsors the first indoor amateur track and field meet, establishes the rules for future meets, and also constructs the first cinder track.

November 12 Military: An army column under Colonel Alfred E. Sully, which includes the 7th U.S. Cavalry under Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer, rides south from Fort

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Chronology of American History Dodge to curtail raiding Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians. The campaign, however, begins almost a month late owing to the tardiness of supplies.

November 13 Military: Colonel Jacob Zeilin, U.S. Marine Corps commandant, proffers the eagle, globe, and anchor emblem as the new symbol of the corps and it is quickly approved by the secretary of the navy.

November 15 Military: In response to recent despoliations by hostile Comanche, Major Andrew W. Evans leads six companies of the 3rd U.S. Cavalry, accompanied by infantry and artillery, out of Fort Bascom, New Mexico Territory, in search of the raiders.

November 23 Military: General Philip H. Sheridan, commanding the Department of the Missouri, departs Camp Supply, Oklahoma, on a long winter raid to locate elusive Indian war bands. His campaign is spearheaded by the 7th U.S. Cavalry under Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer, something of a neophyte when it comes to Indian fighting.

November 27 Military: In a terrible atrocity, the 7th U.S. Cavalry under Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer attacks the peaceful Southern Cheyenne band of Chief Black Kettle in its camp. Black Kettle, a noted voice for peace and accommodation with whites, desperately tries to surrender but is killed, along with his wife and 103 fellow tribesmen. American losses come to 21 killed—including Captain Louis M. Hamilton, grandson of Alexander Hamilton—and 14 wounded. This represents a victory over the Southern Plains Indians, but resentment over the massacre among neighboring Arapaho, Cheyenne, and Comanche bands will trigger a frontier war lasting several years and consuming hundreds of lives on both sides.

December 3 Politics: The treason trial of former Confederate president Jefferson Davis commences in Richmond, Virginia, before circuit judges Salmon P. Chase and John C. Underwood.

December 8 Naval: Jiunzo Matsumura becomes the first Japanese national admitted to the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, from which he graduates in 1873 and eventually rises to admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy.

December 25 Politics: In one of his last acts as president, Andrew Johnson invokes executive clemency and declares a general amnesty for all former Confederate officials. Thus about 300 senior Confederate leaders are pardoned, closing the last chapter of the Civil War.

1869 Arts: Sculptor Thomas Gould finishes his work West Wind, depicting a young girl surrounded by drapery, and is commissioned to make seven copies. Business: Henry J. Heinz and L. C. Noble found a company in Sharpsburg, Pennsylvania, for the purpose of producing grated horse radish. This is the beginning of a major food industry giant.

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Education: Harvard University offers the first summer class, a geology course taught by Dean Nathaniel S. Shaler. Exploring: John Wesley Powell, a one-armed Civil War veteran, becomes the first white to navigate the Colorado River down the entire length of the Grand Canyon, Arizona. Indian: President Ulysses S. Grant appoints General Ely S. Parker, a full-blooded Seneca, to serve as commissioner of Indian affairs. During the Civil War Parker served on Grant’s military staff, and he fully supports the president’s goal of “civilizing” Native Americans by teaching them agriculture. Sitting Bull becomes an important shaman within the Lakota Sioux nation. This is an untraditional appointment by tribal standards but, now confined to a reservation, they recognize the need for strong leadership in their dealings with whites. Literature: Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes her Oldtown Folks, which draws on her familiarity with small-town New England life and mannerisms. Medical: Massachusetts establishes the first state board of health in the nation. Military: Congress, in a cost-cutting measure, reduces the standing military establishment to 25 regiments and four regiments of African-American regulars are consolidated into two, the 24th and 25th U.S. Infantry. Music: The usually grim Prohibition Party scores an unexpected hit with the public by playing its hit song, “Little Brown Jug.” This is another sign of the party’s growing acceptance. Publishing: Horatio Alger follows through on his success by publishing Luck and Pluck, another in his continuing saga of rags to riches novels. He is slowly becoming the apostle of the self-made man. Religion: The Northern Paiute (Snake) prophet Wodziwob begins preaching a new religion to Native Americans in Oregon: All the whites will someday die, all dead Indians will be returned to life, and their traditional ways of life will be restored. In tenor and effect it strongly resembles the Ghost Dance movement of two decades hence. Sports: The Poughkeepsie Ice Yacht Club is the first such organization in the United States and it spawns similar and competing outfits along the Hudson River. Women: The budding Equal Rights Association is wracked by dissent and splits into two factions: radicals under Elizabeth Cady Stanton of the National Woman Suffrage Association and moderates under Lucy Stone’s American Woman Suffrage Association. They split over the question of African-American suffrage, which Stanton and other radicals refuse to support because women remained disenfranchised. Distinguished women writers Catherine E. Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe join forces to publish a new magazine, The American Woman’s Home, which emphasizes the role of the domestic woman, with useful tips on organization, lighting, and kitchen use.

January Indian: Chief Tochoway of the Comanche, upon meeting a fierce and scowling General Philip H. Sheridan at Fort Cobb, pronounces himself a “good Indian.” Sheridan’s apocryphal and cold-hearted riposte is, “The only good Indian is a dead Indian.”

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January 3 Diplomacy: R. R. Valkenburg, the U.S. minister to Japan, is granted an audience with Emperor Meiji in Edo (Tokyo) to assure the United States of the stability of his regime despite some ongoing resistance of the Tokugawa navy.

January 12 Politics: African Americans make their first attempt to organize at the national level by founding the National Convention of Colored Men, with former slave Frederick Douglass as their president. The group calls for the protection of both black suffrage and educational opportunities for their children.

January 14 Diplomacy: The United States and Great Britain conclude the JohnsonClarendon Convention to secure reparation payments from the latter for damages inflicted on American shipping by the British-supplied Confederate raider CSS Alabama. However, it will fail to pass the Senate. This day the United States and Colombia sign a treaty granting Americans the right to construct a canal in Panama, while Colombia maintains sovereignty of the area. However, the agreement will not be ratified by either national legislature.

January 19 Women: The organized women’s movement begins in Washington, D.C., when Susan Brownell Anthony is elected president of the American Equal Rights Association.

January 23 Labor: Massachusetts organizes the first state bureau of labor.

January 25 Indian: In Washington, D.C., a deputation of Quakers meets with president-elect Ulysses S. Grant and urges a peaceful resolution to the ongoing Indian conflict. They strongly suggest replacing military personnel with people of a Christian persuasion, but also recommend assimilation to inculcate Native Americans with agriculture and other tenets of “civilization.”

February 6 General: The iconic figure Uncle Sam is rendered for the first time with facial whiskers, by Thomas Nast for an issue of Harper’s Weekly; heretofore he has been drawn clean shaven and this updated version will become the de facto national symbol.

February 12 Technology: A patent is issued to James Oliver for his improved plow design, which is made of iron with a cutting edge formed from tempered steel. This is an essential feature for homesteading on the prairies, where the temperature can drop to 40 degrees below zero, rendering the ground rock-hard for months.

February 15 Education: The University of Nebraska is chartered at Lincoln and holds its first classes in 1871. Politics: President Andrew Johnson having proclaimed a general amnesty for all former Confederate officials, the treason trial of former president Jefferson Davis comes to a close.

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Nast, Thomas (1840–1902) Illustrator Thomas Nast was born in Ludwig, Bavaria, on September 27, 1840, and accompanied his family when they immigrated to New York City six years later. Nast was educated locally and displayed considerable artistic talent, so in 1855 he applied for work at the offices of Leslie’s Weekly and worked as an illustrator. Periodicals at this time had turned increasingly to wood-block illustrations to lure their readership, and Nast proved adept at rendering the simplistic yet effective line illustrations then in vogue. In 1859 he switched over to the New York Illustrated News, where he effectively rendered John Brown’s funeral for northern audiences. He next went to England to cover various boxing matches and then to Italy, where he carefully rendered sketches of Garibaldi’s revolt of 1860. When the Civil War commenced in 1861 Nast ardently embraced the Union cause and the following year he transferred his skills to the important publication, Harper’s Weekly. Here he turned out a seemingly endless flow of drawings for public consumption, invariably displaying Union forces in a positive light while excoriating the Confederates through caricature. So popular and reassuring were his drawings that President Abraham Lincoln once described him as “our best recruiting sergeant.” After the war Nast turned his vitriolic pen upon President Andrew Johnson for his opposition to Reconstruction and African-American civil rights. In his new capacity as a caricaturist, he began illustrating his subjects with distorted or exaggerated physical traits to drive

home their positive or negative aspects. Thus a new, politically inspired art form was born. Nast reached the heights of national popularity and influence in the 1870s when he conducted his own visual vendetta against the corrupt Tammany Hall Democrats controlling New York City through patronage and bribes. His unflattering rendition of ring leader William Marcy “Boss” Tweed proved particularly effective, giving the impression of a beady-eyed owl. So effective and politically damaging were his caricatures to machine politicians that Nast was reputedly offered $200,000 to stop, a bribe that he promptly declined. By 1874 he had also penned the Democratic donkey, the Republican elephant, and the Tammany tiger as potent and enduring political symbols. He was also an important contributor to the popular American image of Santa Claus. After Tweed died in 1878 Nast lost one of his most popular targets, so he turned his wrath upon labor unionists and Catholics, although with less effect. By the 1880s new forms of illustration were evolving and Nast failed to adapt artistically. His work began showing up less frequently in popular magazines, and in 1884 Harper’s Weekly finally terminated his contract. In 1902 Nast was facing a retirement in poverty so President Theodore Roosevelt appointed him to serve as U.S. consul in Guayaquil, Ecuador. He died while serving in this capacity on December 2, 1902, one of the nation’s first and most effective political cartoonists.

February 24 Business: Congress, responding to renewed pressure from business, passes Senator Justin Morrill’s Tariff Act to protect American industry and raise revenues.

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February 27 Civil: Congress, alarmed by continuing violence against African-American voters, passes the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which affirms the right to vote, regardless of race or ethnicity. Furthermore, its conditions apply unconditionally to both Northern and Southern states. The measure will then pass on to the states for ratification.

March Indian: At Sweetwater Creek, Texas, Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer rescues two American women from a band of hostile Cheyenne and takes hostages of his own, whereupon the tribesmen surrender and agree to be sent to a reservation.

March 4 Politics: Former general Ulysses S. Grant, Civil War hero, is inaugurated the 18th president of the United States in Washington, D.C. He is the second Republican to hold high office after Abraham Lincoln and, at 46, the youngest.

March 5 Politics: President Ulysses S. Grant appoints Elihu B. Washburne to serve as secretary of state for five days until his appointment as minister to France can be confirmed by the Senate. Washburne was an Illinois congressman who had

Grant, Ulysses S. (1822–1885) General, president Hiram Ulysses S. Grant was born in Point Pleasant, Ohio, on April 27, 1822, a son of farmers. He was admitted to the U.S. Military Academy in 1839, where he changed his name to Ulysses S. Grant and graduated in the middle of his class in 1841. Grant then served in the infantry as a captain throughout the Mexican War of 1846– 48, performing with distinction. Disillusioned with the peacetime establishment, he resigned his commission in 1854 and embarked on a succession of failed business ventures. After the Civil War erupted in 1861, Grant rejoined as a colonel and then brigadier general of Illinois troops. He proved an effective, offense-minded commander, and by January 1862 had driven the Confederates from the strategic

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Forts Henry and Donelson on the Tennessee River. On April 6, 1862, he repulsed a heavy Confederate attack at Shiloh, Tennessee, and in July 1863 he captured the Southern bastion of Vicksburg, Mississippi, splitting the confederacy in half. The following November he routed the Confederates at Chattanooga and was brought east by President Abraham Lincoln to confront the redoubtable General Robert E. Lee in Virginia. Commencing in the spring of 1864, Grant fought an overland slugfest with Lee, losing heavily yet inexorably forcing the Confederates back to their capital of Richmond. Lee was then pinned in his works as Union forces under General William T. Sherman began coming up from Savannah. When Lee attempted to flee

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proved especially helpful during Grant’s Civil War career and Grant, now chief executive, always rewarded his friends.

March 8 Military: President Ulysses S. Grant appoints General William T. Sherman to succeed him as the four-star commanding general of the army. Philip H. Sheridan becomes a lieutenant general.

March 9 Naval: In Washington, D.C., Adolf E. Borie is selected to serve as secretary of the navy.

March 10 Education: Charles W. Eliot becomes the first non-clergyman president of Harvard University and embarks on a program to update that institution’s outmoded curriculum. Specifically, he seeks to introduce a system of electives that balances newer professional and business study with traditional classic and liberal arts courses. In time his reforms greatly affect higher education throughout the country.

March 11 Politics: Hamilton Fish, a wealthy New York businessman and friend of President Ulysses S. Grant, gains appointment as secretary of state to replace Elihu Washburne, who held the office only five days before becoming U.S. minister to France. Fish will prove himself highly competent is this role.

Petersburg, Virginia, Grant expertly boxed the rebels in and forced their surrender on April 9, 1865. For helping to win the Civil War and thus preserve the American Union, Grant became the nation’s most honored military hero. Radical Republicans dissatisfied with President Andrew Johnson convinced Grant to run for the presidency in 1868, when he won a narrow popular victory. He assumed his office on March 4, 1869; while well-intended and personally honest, he had surrounded himself with men far less scrupulous than himself. His first term in office was subsequently wracked by scandal, corruption, and continuing unrest over Reconstruction. During the 1872 election cycle, dissident Republicans bolted from the party and supported the nomination of Democrat Horace Greeley, but Grant none-

theless racked up another electoral victory. However, his second term was simply a continuation of the first, and an embarrassing stream of corruption scandals ensued. On a positive note, his secretary of state, Hamilton Fish, negated a possible war with Spain and also signed the Treaty of Washington in 1871, which improved relations with Great Britain. Otherwise, Grant seemed detached from the controversies swirling around him. In 1880 die-hard supporters nominated him for a third time, but he failed to win. He then resided in New York City and lost a fortune in poor investment schemes. Grant was then persuaded by his friend Mark Twain to write his personal memoirs, which were published after his death in New York on July 23, 1885. He remains one of history’s greatest generals.

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March 13 Military: President Ulysses S. Grant appoints John A. Rawlins to serve as the new secretary of war; he will die of tuberculosis after only six months in office.

March 15 Military: In a remarkable display of nerve, Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer, accompanied only by a single lieutenant, rides into the Cheyenne camp of Chiefs Medicine Bow and Little Robe to parley. When several chiefs are induced to visit the American camp they are suddenly taken hostage, at which point Custer threatens to hang them if three white women being held hostage are not released. The Cheyenne comply and, thoroughly intimidated, also promise to return to their reservation as soon as their ponies regain strength.

March 18 Business: Congress, in an attempt to bring down the vast amount of paper money still in circulation, passes the Public Credit Act, stipulating that payment of all government bonds be made in gold. However, the problem of how to redeem the $356 million in greenbacks (paper currency) issued during the war years is unresolved and will remain a hotly debated issue.

March 28 Military: Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer’s 7th U.S. Cavalry rides wearily into Camp Supply, marking the end of the Washita Campaign. Hostile Indians have been removed or eliminated from the Great Plains between the Platte and Arkansas rivers.

April 5 Military: Daniel F. Blakeman, the oldest surviving veteran of the American Revolution, dies at the age of 109.

April 6 Military: Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer shepherds his 7th U.S. Cavalry back to Fort Hays, Kansas, ending General Philip H. Sheridan’s winter campaign against hostile Plains Indians.

April 7 Sports: The Cincinnati Red Stockings becomes America’s first professional baseball team; George Wright, shortstop, is also the highest paid athlete in the nation, with a salary of $1,400 a year.

April 10 Civil: The Fifteenth Amendment is ratified by Georgia, Mississippi, Texas, and Virginia, allowing these former Confederate states to regain admission into the Union. Indian: In concert with President Ulysses S. Grant’s Peace Policy, Congress creates the Board of Indian Commissioners to help supervise federal spending on tribesmen by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA); in practice it will simply become another part of the web of corruption working against Native Americans. Law: An act of Congress raises the number of Supreme Court justices from seven to nine.

April 13 Diplomacy: The Senate rejects the Claredon-Johnson Treaty to settle the Alabama claims arising from British warships built for the Confederate navy. Because

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the British refuse to apologize for their actions and offer only a paltry $15 million in compensation, Charles Sumner, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, excoriates the treaty, killing its chances for passage and it fails to pass, 54 votes to one. Societal: The National Grange convenes its first national meeting in Washington, D.C.; Iowa, Minnesota, and New York all boast statewide chapters. Technology: A patent is issued to inventor George Westinghouse for his airbrake, which greatly improves the safety of railroad operations.

April 15 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Texas v. White, ruling that secession is unconstitutional, hence illegal—as recent events have strongly underscored.

Apri1 16 Civil: Ebenezer Don Carlos Bassett becomes the first African-American diplomat when he is assigned as minister resident and consul general to Haiti.

May 10 Transportation: The first transcontinental railroad is completed when an engine from the westward-bound Union Pacific meets an engine from the eastwardbound Central Pacific Railroad near Promontory Summit, Utah. The track uniting them is sealed by a golden spike wielded by Leland Stanford, chief executive of the Central Pacific, while a military band of the 21st U.S. Infantry serenades the affair. Railroads are fast becoming the most vital part of America’s transportation network and four more transcontinental lines will be built by the turn of the century. A journey across the breadth of the United States now takes only a week instead of three months.

May 15 Women: The National Woman Suffrage Association is founded by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, with the latter functioning as president; their goals are voting rights for women and the ability to hold public office.

May 24 Exploring: One-armed John Wesley Powell makes the first of four expeditions down the Colorado River, especially in the region of the Grand Canyon. With congressional funding and approval, he will repeat the hazardous task in 1871, 1874, and 1875.

May 28 Indian: Vengeful Cheyenne destroy part of the Union Pacific track along Fossil Creek, Kansas.

June 1 Technology: Up-and-coming inventor Thomas Alva Edison receives his first patent for an “electrographic vote recorder.” The device itself performs well but fails to gain commercial notice.

June 5 Sports: The third annual Belmont Stakes is won by Fenian, who runs a time of three minutes and four seconds.

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Edison, Thomas Alva

(1847–1931)

Inventor

Thomas Alva Edison, with phonograph (Library of Congress)

Thomas Alva Edison was born in Milan, Ohio, and raised in Port Huron, Michigan, where he received only three months of formal schooling. Afterward he served as a railroad newsboy and in 1863 graduated to become a telegraph operator. Edison, possessed of a quick, intuitive mind, began experimenting with electricity and by 1869 he obtained his first patent for an electrical vote recorder. He then relocated to New York City to work with the firm of Pope, Edison, & Co., and began churning out a multiplicity of useful and practical new inventions. These early devices included the quadruplex telegraph that could transmit four messages simultaneously. Edison then parlayed his newfound wealth into his own research facility at Menlo Park, New Jersey, where he attempted to capture sound on metal discs. The resulting phonograph was successfully constructed in 1877 and the following year demonstrated before the Royal Institution in London and

June 8 Technology: Ives W. Gaffney of Chicago receives the first patent issued for a vacuum cleaner.

June 9 Military: Major Eugene Carr leads eight troops of the 5th U.S. Cavalry and three companies of Pawnee scouts out of Fort McPherson, Nebraska, in search of hostile Cheyenne under Tall Bull. Naval: Secretary of the Navy Adolf E. Borie orders construction of the navy’s first torpedo station on Goat Island, Newport, Rhode Island.

June 15 Music: Musical afficionados are rocked in Boston’s new Coliseum by a chorus of more than 10,000 people and an orchestra of 1,000 instruments. The occasion is in celebration of the end of the Civil War and restoration of the Union. Sports: Mike McCoole defeats English expatriate boxer Tom Allen in St. Louis, Missouri, after nine rounds and claims the heavyweight championship.

June 18 Naval: The U.S. Navy, being a force in transition from sail power to steam, orders ships to rely upon wind power unless circumstances are “most urgent.”

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President Rutherford B. Hayes in Washington, D.C. His next task was the development of an incandescent light bulb for home use to supplant existing electric arc lights that were impractical for home use. A period of his intensive trial and error experimentation culminated in the first functioning light bulb, capable of staying lit for 15 hours by dint of its carbon filament. The device was patented on November 1, 1879, and proved revolutionary for bringing the warm glow of electric light into households across the world. Edison also underscored its utility on New Year’s Eve of that year by lighting up the entire city of Menlo Park, with 3,000 spectators brought in on trains to behold the spectacle. In 1887 Edison subsequently founded the General Electric Company in West Orange, New Jersey, where he continued research and development schemes at his usual furious clip. Edison’s next technological breakthrough came in the realm of motion pictures. In 1891 he perfected his kinetograph camera and kinteoscope viewer through which projected

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sequential images could be viewed for the first time. He also began working arduously to perfect a practical electric cell battery for automobiles in 1900 and eight years latter settled upon a nickel hydrate/iron oxide model with lithium hydroxide added for extended life. As a researcher, Edison was a devout practitioner of “trial and error” experimentation, with scant regard for theoretical science and mathematics. For this reason, his techniques were falling behind by the advent of World War I, when weapons research technology required increasing levels of sophistication, but he still managed to patent no less than 54 devices relevant to naval warfare. Afterward he went on to establish the Naval Research Laboratory, the only weapons-dedicated American institute until World War II. The onset of old age did little to diminish Edison’s enthusiasm or imagination, and by 1930 he had developed a strain of crossbred rubber plants that yielded latex. Edison died in West Orange on October 18, 1931, the embodiment of Yankee ingenuity and American know-how.

June 26 Naval: In Washington, D.C., George M. Robeson becomes the 26th secretary of the navy.

June 29 Diplomacy: Secretary of State Hamilton Fish orders U.S. Minister to Spain Daniel E. Sickles to help negotiate a settlement of difficulties between that nation and Cuba on the basis of independence and an end to slavery. The Spanish, however, reject any attempt at American interference along with a negotiated settlement with rebel forces.

July 4 Settlement: Captain Charles W. Raymond and a small army detachment arrive at British Fort, Lower Yukon, exactly on the Arctic Circle, and use astronomical observations to prove that the post is on American soil. British traders residing there will be evicted and the post renamed Fort Hamilton, Alaska. Transportation: The first railroad bridge across the Missouri River is opened by the Burlington Railroad.

July 11 Military: Major Eugene Carr’s 5th U.S. Cavalry, assisted by Pawnee scouts led by William “Buffalo Bill” Cody, surprises and overruns a Cheyenne village at

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Chronology of American History Summit Springs on the South Platte River in Colorado Territory. The Indians are routed and suffer 52 dead, including Chief Tall Bull, and 17 women captured. One American is wounded. This defeat effectively demoralizes the remaining Cheyenne war bands, who begin straggling back onto their reservations.

July 12 Diplomacy: Secretary of State Hamilton Fish meets with the Canadian finance minister, John Rose, in Washington, D.C. Both desire better relations but Fish makes clear American dissatisfaction with Great Britain’s stance over the Alabama claims. Rose promises to broach the matter with Prime Minister William Gladstone when he visits England the following year. His appearance will coincide with the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War and a strong wish by Gladstone to patch up relations with the United States.

July 13 Societal: Violent anti-Chinese riots break out in San Francisco when newly arrived immigrants, willing to work for the lowest possible wages, incur the wrath of competing laborers. Racial animosity against Asians is on the rise along the West Coast.

Twain, Mark (1835–1910) Author

Mark Twain (Library of Congress)

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Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born in Florida, Missouri, on November 30, 1835—the year of Halley’s Comet—and raised in the nearby frontier town of Hannibal. Poorly educated and losing his father early in life, he went to work as a child to help support his family. Working initially as an apprentice printer, he began contributing journalistic pieces to local newspapers and in 1856 changed jobs by becoming a river boat pilot on the Mississippi River. From this occupation he adopted his famous nom-de-plume of Mark Twain—a reference to the depth of river waters. When the Civil War broke out in 1861 Twain and his brother fled to Nevada to escape military service and he worked as a reporter in various newspapers in Virginia City. Relocating to San Francisco, he wrote his noted first essay, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” for the New York Saturday Press, which gained him some notoriety. Twain then

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August 11 Literature: Samuel Langhorne Clemens, writing under the pseudonym Mark Twain, publishes his book Innocents Abroad; this satyrical contrast between the United States and Europe becomes his first best-seller.

August 16 Arts: Noted dramatist Augustin Daly becomes manager of the Fifth Avenue Theater, New York City.

September 1 Politics: The National Temperance Convention, meeting at Chicago, forms the new Prohibition Party, drawn from 500 men and women from 20 states.

September 6 General: A coal mining disaster at Avondale, Pennsylvania, leads to the death of 106 miners by suffocation.

September 24 Business: Fluctuations in the gold market, cleverly manipulated by Jay Gould and James Fisk, induce President Ulysses S. Grant to sell off $4 million in

traveled abroad for many years before producing his distinctly satirical commentary entitled Innocents Abroad (1869), which was critically acclaimed and brought him national recognition. He then settled down in Hartford, Connecticut, to compose some of the most representative American literature ever written. This included a travelogue, Roughing It (1872), a satire, The Gilded Age (1873), and his immortal children’s classic, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), which confirmed his reputation as the preeminent American humorist of his day. Subsequent works such as the historical novel The Prince and the Pauper (1881) and the semi-autobiographical Life on the Mississippi (1883) added to his literary largesse of wry observation and sparkling humor. In 1884 he published his second fictional masterpiece, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, concerning a youthful and selfwilled outcast from the world of gentle society. Twain enjoyed less success in business matters; his overinvestment in a proposed mechanical typesetter, combined with the

panic of 1893, left him deeply in debt. He thereupon embarked on a worldwide lecture tour to raise money, while also composing a number of lesser works. Twain, a first-class cynic regarding human nature, gradually succumbed to outright pessimism and bitterness about his fellow man. Later works such as The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson (1894) and The Mysterious Stranger (posthumous, 1916) invariably touched upon mankind’s innate cruelty toward itself. Following the death of his beloved wife Olivia in 1904, Twain traveled abroad more and wrote less. True to his dire—and inescapably ironic prediction— he died in the year of Halley’s Comet’s return, on April 21, 1910, in Hartford, Connecticut. Twain, hailed as a literary genius in his day, has been equally regarded in Europe and his numerous works were translated into several languages. In concert with Theodore Dreiser and Jack London, his homespun tales and twinkling humor perhaps best capture the American spirit—and mounting cynicism—of his day.

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Gould, Jay

(1836–1892)

Financier Jayson Goul­d was born in Roxbury, New York, on May 27, 1836, the son of a farmer. Indifferentl­y educated, he briefl­y operated a l­eather tannery before moving to New York City as a merchant. There he discovered his uncanny tal­ent as a stockbroker and for monetary specul­ation on nearby Wal­l­ Street; over the next 12 years he amassed a minor fortune. By this time Goul­d’s penchant for manipul­ation and outright deceit, combined with personal­ ruthl­essness to succeed, had become preval­ent. His ensuing success can be attributed to the skil­l­ and guil­e with which he acquired rundown rail­roads, made improvements, then sol­d them at a huge gain whil­e using his corporate profits for additional­ specul­ation and outright bribes. In 1867 Goul­d began dabbl­ing in rail­roads and was angl­ing to obtain control­ of the Erie Rail­road, pl­acing him in direct com-­ petition with another grasping mil­l­ionaire, Cornel­ius Vanderbil­t. However, Vanderbil­t had met his match in Goul­d who, in l­eague with fel­l­ow schemers Daniel­ Drew and James Fisk, il­l­egal­l­y issued 100,000 shares of new stock, then took the profits to Al­bany, New York, where they bribed numerous l­eg-­ isl­ators to l­egal­ize their ownership. Goul­d next embarked on a vast expansion of the Erie l­ine and sol­d it off at an enormous profit before it overreached and bankrupted itsel­f in 1875. Previousl­y, he had acquired the Wabash Line, used principal­l­y to carry wheat stores to markets, and conceived a scheme to push up the price of gol­d, weaken the dol­l­ar, and encourage foreign merchants

to purchase more grain carried by his rail­-­ road. President Ul­ysses S. Grant was inad-­ vertentl­y compl­icit in the scheme but, to counter it, he ordered the U.S. Treasury to sel­l­ off its gol­d stocks and l­ower that val­u-­ abl­e commodities price. This move defeated Goul­d’s pl­oy compl­etel­y but al­so triggered “Bl­ack Friday” on September 24, 1869, and ushered in a l­engthy economic depression. Undeterred, Goul­d simpl­y resumed his successful­ specul­ation activities and by 1872 he was weal­thy enough to begin buy-­ ing up rail­roads again. This time his object was acquisition of the Texas and Pacific Rail­road, ownership of which al­l­owed him to infl­ate the price of his possessions, sel­l­ them, and reap windfal­l­ profits on capital­ gains. In 1889 he set his sights on acquir-­ ing the Union Pacific and Missouri Pacific rail­roads. Control­ of this l­ine gave Goul­d a transportation empire stretching from Boston and New York to St. Louis and Denver. He al­so turned his attention to transportation networks in New York City, and he gradual­l­y gained ownership of that city’s el­evated train system. Goul­d then cl­everl­y and quietl­y acquired the Western Union Tel­egraph Company and the Ameri-­ can Union Tel­egraph Company, al­ong with the tel­egraph network of the Bal­timore and Ohio Rail­road—granting him a communica-­ tions monopol­y. Goul­d died in New York City on December 2, 1892, hugel­y weal­thy and universal­l­y acknowl­edged as the arche-­ type “robber baron” of the age of industrial­ capital­ism.

bul­l­ion, dramatical­l­y pl­unging its market val­ue in onl­y 15 minutes. The ensu-­ ing crash wil­l­ become revil­ed as “Bl­ack Friday,” wil­l­ ruin thousands of gol­d specul­ators, and wil­l­ greatl­y tarnish Grant’s publ­ic reputation, especial­l­y when it is l­earned that his brother-­in-­l­aw, Abel­ Rathbone Corbin, has been cl­andes-­ tinel­y assisting Goul­d and Fisk. The crash is demonstrabl­e proof of the inherent

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instability of America’s unregulated “boom or bust” economy throughout the Gilded Age.

September 28 Settlement: The army outpost at Fort Sill, Indian Territory, hosts the first post office erected in that region, with John S. Evans as its first postmaster. The ground for this particular fort had been personally laid out by General Philip H. Sheridan.

October 8 General: Former president Franklin Pierce dies in Concord, New Hampshire, aged 65.

October 25 Military: President Ulysses S. Grant nominates William W. Belknap to succeed John M. Rawlins after the latter dies in office. Although a major general in the Civil War, Belknap’s conduct will lead to a serious scandal in the Grant administration.

October 27 General: The steamboat Stonewall catches fire and sinks in the Ohio River near Cairo, Illinois, killing 200 passengers.

November 6 Sports: Rutgers defeats Princeton 6–4 in the first intercollegiate football game, held at New Brunswick, New Jersey.

November 13 Sports: Princeton routs Rutgers 8–0 in the second intercollegiate football game, distinguished by its use of the “rebel yell” during plays.

November 29 Diplomacy: General Orville E. Babcock, President Ulysses S. Grant’s personal secretary, signs a treaty with the Dominican Republic in order to annex it outright. The move is supported by the president but disavowed by Secretary of State Hamilton Fish, who fails to lend it support during Senate consideration. Another agreement to lease Samana Bay as a naval base is also signed but never makes it to debate.

December 6 Labor: The first gathering of the National Negro Labor Convention results in the founding of the Colored National Labor Union in Washington, D.C. Politics: President Ulysses S. Grant’s annual message to Congress stresses his neutrality toward the ongoing insurrection on the island of Cuba, despite losses to American property holders there. However, he maintains that America retains its freedom of action regarding future events on that island.

December 9 Labor: Garment cutter Uriah S. Stephens founds the Noble Order of the Knights of Labor in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with only 11 tailors. Within a year it will have chapters across the nation, although it will remain a largely secret organization owing to the uncertain legal status of unions.

December 10 Women: The Wyoming Territory passes a law allowing women the right to vote within its confines. This move reflects the egalitarian frontier spirit and a trend toward greater freedom throughout the West. Ironically, women had been allowed to vote in New Jersey until 1807.

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December 22 Civil: Congress insists that Georgia must ratify the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution in order to regain its representation. This move underscores the need to keep army troops at various points through the South to ensure compliance with civil rights legislation.

December 24 General: Former secretary of war Edwin M. Stanton dies in Washington, D.C., only four days after he was nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Grant.

1870 Agriculture: Vermont farmers perfect the famous Red Macintosh apple, renowned for its appealing appearance and juicy flavor. It soon becomes a national best-seller and a staple of fruit stands everywhere. Arts: John La Farge finishes his stained glass window work entitled Battle Window for installation at Memorial Hall, Harvard University. Congress incorporates the Corcoran Art Gallery in Washington, D.C., so named after financier William C. Corcoran, who bequeathed the institution $300,000 in 1859, plus an additional $1 million to acquire a collection. Paris supplants London as the center for American artists abroad, and aspiring painters like William Morris Hunt, John La Farge, and James Abbott McNeill Whistler all study there. Bronson Howard, the only American dramatist able to earn a living from stage works, produces his newest work entitled Saratoga. Business: The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company is founded for the express purpose of importing and distributing tea and coffee to a growing market; it will grow into the nation’s largest chain of grocery stores. Education: Harvard and Princeton universities begin the nation’s first comprehensive graduate student programs. The Stevens Institute of Technology is founded at Hoboken, New Jersey, with classes commencing in 1871. Wellesley College, Massachusetts, is founded as a female seminary. The Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College (today’s Ohio State University) is chartered at Columbus. St. Ignatius College (Loyola University) is founded in Chicago; classes had been meeting on campus since 1869, a year before it was officially chartered. Labor: The success and appeal of unions is marked by a burgeoning membership, presently at 300,000. Literature: Scribner’s Magazine is founded and is unique in giving preference to American writers such as Edward Eggleston, Joaquin Miller, Bret Harte, and Frank Stockton. For this reason it becomes one of the leading magazines of the decade. Military: Congress fine-tunes the peacetime military establishment by reducing to 30,000 men, approving new pay scales for all ranks, and granting a pension after 30 years of service. Population: The ninth census reveals a population of just under 40 million, centered north and east of Cincinnati, Ohio. Publishing: Lucy Stone of the National Woman Suffrage Association founds Woman’s Journal as its official mouthpiece.

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Chronology

Whistler, James

1247

(1834 –1903)

Painter James Abbott McNeill Whistler was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, on July 10, 1834, the son of an army engineering officer. He traveled abroad with his father and lived in Russia from 1843 to 1849, while his father directed construction of a railroad for the czar. Whistler initially studied drawing at the Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg in 1845, and returned to America following his father’s death in 1849. He then matriculated through the U.S. Military Academy, dropped out on account of failing chemistry, and subsequently worked with the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. Here Whistler acquired excellent training in etching and printmaking, so he quit and relocated to Paris to formally study art, especially the school of realism represented by Gustave Courbet. He never again returned to the United States. Whistler began painting and etching, and by 1858 had several pieces displayed at the Royal Academy in London. By then, however, he had dispensed with the refined and moralistic nuances of Victorian painting and determined to create “art for art’s sake.” In 1863 Whistler achieved considerable fame and notoriety by depicting his Irish mistress in a composition entitled “The White Girl,” which had been rejected by both the Royal Academy and Paris Salon but openly embraced by the Salon de Refuses in Paris. He also turned out a long series of atmospheric etchings, “Views of the Thames,” that were generally well received in 1871, and the following year painted the work for which he is indel-

ibly associated, Arrangement in Black and White, more popular known as Whistler’s Mother. However, in 1877 his creation Falling Rocket was so degraded by critic John Ruskin that Whistler sued him for libel. This precipitated the most sensational art trial of the century; although Whistler won the case, he so gratuitously insulted judge and jury that they rewarded him only a single farthing as compensation. Whistler’s trial rendered him bankrupt and unable to continue much longer in England, so he was commissioned by the Fine Arts Society to visit Venice for another series of etchings. The resulting body of work was among Whistler’s finest within this milieu, and he adopted a new style of painting with thin lines and tonal coloring. His art sold well and he returned to London with a new mistress, and on January 31, 1885, delivered a noted address, “Ten O’Clock,” which summarized his unique approach to esthetics. In 1887 Whistler also began dabbling in the art of lithography, which he pursued for a decade with commendable creativity and flair, and also rendered several portraits characterized by their emphasis on tone and atmosphere rather than precise likeness. Whistler’s art was invariably many years ahead of his critics and they never cordially embraced him, but in 1886 he presided over the Royal Society of British Artists and in 1897 the International Society of Sculptors and Engravers. He died in London on July 17, 1903, and was inducted into the national Hall of Fame in 1930.

Thomas Bailey Aldrich publishes his semi-autobiographical novel The Story of a Bad Boy, which forgoes the usual moralizing in favor of a more gritty reality. Sports: William H. Fuller develops the art of figure skating, which is eventually exported around the world.

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Chronology of American History Walking continues as the nation’s most popular spectator sport, but it is gradually being edged out by bicycling. Pimlico Racetrack is constructed at Baltimore, Maryland, by racing enthusiasts eager to emulate the success of Saratoga Springs, New York. Technology: Gustavus Franklin Swift perfects a working model of the refrigerated railroad car, essential for shipping beef and other perishables from Chicago to markets in the East.

January 2 Engineering: Work on the Brooklyn Bridge, a new suspension project to be constructed entirely from steel, begins. When finished it will span the East River from Park Row, Manhattan, to Washington Street, Brooklyn.

January 4 Labor: A telegraph operator’s strike begins and expands throughout the nation, potentially affecting all 300,000 union members.

January 10 Business: John D. Rockefeller incorporates the Standard Oil Company in Cleveland, Ohio, initiating what will become a huge business empire with a capitalization of $1 million. Diplomacy: President Ulysses S. Grant, convinced by land speculators that acquisition of the Dominican Republic might prove profitable, dispatches his

Rockefeller, John D.

(1839–1937)

Industrialist John Davidson Rockefeller was born in Tioga County, New York, on July 8, 1839, a son of farmers. He relocated to Cleveland, Ohio, at an early age, passed through the local schools, and began working as a clerk at the age of 16. Rockefeller proved remarkably adept at business matters, particularly accounting, and in 1859 he acquired a partner for a commodity trading firm that flourished throughout the Civil War. Always seeking outlets for innovation, Rockefeller entered the new petroleum business in 1863, bought out his partners, and within two years owned the largest such firm in Cleveland. Business boomed and he subsequently expanded his company vertically by acquiring timber tracts, chemical factories, and

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tanker cars, while also cutting deals with railroads to achieve their best rates. By January 1870 all these threads dramatically came together with the founding of the Standard Oil Company of Ohio, which served as a testimony to Rockefeller’s visionary business acumen. Through dint of effective, cost-cutting management, hard bargaining, and imaginative acquisitions, Standard Oil dominated the American oil industry by 1878, and reaped whirlwind profits in an age characterized by governmental neglect and non-regulation. In 1882 he followed this up by establishing the Standard Oil Trust, a sweeping industrial combination of different subsidiaries, verging on the edge of monopoly, that finally prodded

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personal secretary, Orville E. Babcock, to negotiate a treaty of annexation. He also ignored the usual nuances of State Department protocol and submits the proposed treaty to the Senate for ratification.

January 15 Journalism: A donkey is used for the first time to portray the Democratic Party in a cartoon by Thomas Nast, published in Harper’s Weekly.

January 20 Diplomacy: American minister to Colombia Stephen A. Hurlburt signs a second treaty with that government to secure American rights in the Panama region, although with the proviso that any canal constructed had to maintain strict neutrality in time of war. The Colombia senate ratifies this new agreement but it dies in the U.S. Senate over the neutrality clause. Thus America still lacks the rights to construct its coveted Panama Canal.

January 23 Military: Major Eugene Baker directs two squadrons of cavalry to attack a Piegan (Blackfoot) village in northern Montana as retribution for past raids. The troopers kill 173 Native Americans and take an additional 143 captive. However, the public reacts badly to the massacre and forces Congress to scuttle a bill transferring the Bureau of Indian Affairs back to the War Department.

Congress to pass the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. Rockefeller’s success became the source of his own undoing when, in 1892, the Ohio Supreme Court ordered his trust broken up, largely after the revelation of muckracking journalists such as Henry Demarest Lloyd, who had published excoriating exposés about the company and its practices. Rockefeller countered seven years later by creating the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, which functioned profitably until the U.S. Supreme Court also ordered its dismantling in 1911. By this time Rockefeller had retired from active management to concentrate on other matters more dear to him. As one of the world’s most successful and wealthiest individuals, he surprised critics by also proving to be one of the leading philanthropists of his day. In 1891 he

founded and endowed the new University of Chicago with a grant of $35 million; it is now regarded as one of America’s leading institutions. This was followed by the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, New York City, in 1901 (now Rockefeller University), the General Education Board in 1902, and the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial Foundation named after his wife in 1913. All told it is estimated that during his long lifetime, Rockefeller contributed more than $550 million to charities and philanthropies, more than any other individual. Curiously, despite his great success and tremendous wealth, he remained to the end a modestly disposed, publicity-shy individual, almost nondescript. Rockefeller died in Ormond Beach, Florida, on May 23, 1937, one of the most astute and generous businessmen in American history.

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January 24 Naval: The steamer USS Oneida collides with the British vessel City of Bombay off Yokohama, Japan, and sinks with the loss of 117 crewmen, including its three senior officers. The British vessel refused to stop and render assistance.

January 26 Civil: Virginia passes the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution, thereby regaining its representation in Congress. Moreover, members of the state legislature must take an oath swearing to never amend their constitution to deprive African Americans of their rights.

February 7 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Hepburn v. Griswold, ruling that the Legal Tender Act is not retroactive, hence debts contracted prior to its approval in 1862 and 1863 cannot be repaid with treasury notes.

February 9 Science: Congress approves the National Weather Bureau, which initially functions as part of the U. S. Army Signal Corps.

February 12 Women: The legislature of Utah Territory grants full suffrage to women voters and also allows them to hold public office and attend college.

February 14 Arts: Thomas Blades DeWalden produces his play Kit the Arkansas Traveler, the first successful frontier drama for the stage.

February 23 Civil: Mississippi regains admission to Congress after ratifying the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution, although only after legislative members affirm that they will not pass any constitutional amendments to deprive African Americans of their civil rights. However, violence against blacks is on the rise and 63 deaths will be recorded this year alone.

February 25 Civil: Reverend Hiram R. Revels of Mississippi, the first African American elected to either the U.S. Senate or Congress in general, takes his seat as a Republican. There he pleads that Georgia should be denied entry into the Union until all the proper political safeguards have been ratified and put into effect. A literate, persuasive college graduate, he is cheered by colleagues upon entering the chamber.

March 30 Civil: Secretary of State Hamilton Fish declares the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution to be ratified and in effect. Henceforth states are forbidden from denying rights on the basis of race—although enforcement of the law proves faulty.

March 31 Politics: Texas becomes the last former Confederate state to gain readmission into the Union and representation in Congress, on the same terms as Virginia and Mississippi.

April Indian: A deputation of Lakota Sioux under Red Cloud visits Washington, D.C., for talks with President Ulysses S. Grant. The issue in question is the impending

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relocation to a reservation as stipulated by the Treaty of Fort Laramie in 1868. However, when terms of the “treaty” are read to Red Cloud, he strongly denounces them as lies, says that he signed no such documents, and utterly refuses to abide by its terms. “It is all lies!” he declares, then storms out of the meeting.

April 27 Crime: In Helena, Montana, convicted robbers J. L. Compton and Joseph Wilson are the last criminals to be executed from the notorious “Hangman’s Tree.” General: In Richmond, Virginia, the floor of the supreme court building collapses, killing 61 and injuring 12.

May 10 Sports: Englishman Jem Mace defeats Tom Allen in 10 rounds at Kennersville, Louisiana.

May 13 Diplomacy: In a major development, Great Britain finally recognizes the rights of naturalized American citizens and promises to respect them when they go abroad. An earlier British refusal to do so was a direct cause of the War of 1812 as it related to the impressment of Americans into the Royal Navy. Politics: Determined to overcome Southern recalcitrance toward Reconstruction, Congress approves a force bill that allows federal courts and officers to enforce provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment.

May 19 Military: Sergeant Emanuel Stance, of the 9th U.S. Cavalry, becomes the first African-American soldier to win the Congressional Medal of Honor in the post– Civil War era. Stance distinguished himself in a surprise attack upon Apache raiders, routing them.

May 25–27 Military: Armed groups of Irish army veterans, the so-called Fenians, begin raiding across the Canadian border in an attempt to provoke hostilities with Great Britain. At length they will be detained and arrested by Canadian and American authorities.

May 31 Civil: With the encouragement of Senator Benjamin Butler, the Enforcement Act of 1870 (or Ku Klux Klan Act) is adopted by Congress to forestall continuing violence against African Americans in the South. This enables aggrieved persons to sue other parties should they be deprived of their rights. Labor: The Union Pacific prefers to hire Chinese laborers at $32.50 a month rather than pay $52 for whites; such disparity in payment leads to preferential hiring and to a great deal of racial antagonism and strife.

June Indian: Chief Red Cloud of the Lakota Sioux, having concluded two months of fruitless negotiations in Washington, D.C., ventures to New York City, delivers an impassioned speech at Cooper Union, and asks the white audience’s help in achieving justice.

June 4 Sports: The fourth annual Belmont Stakes goes to Kingfisher, who clocks in at two minutes, 59 seconds.

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June 12 Politics: President Ulysses S. Grant dismisses Attorney General Ebenezer R. Hoar over the latter’s refusal to support Grant’s ill-advised scheme to annex the Dominican Republic. Amos T. Ackerman, a Southerner, is appointed in his place.

June 16 Diplomacy: In the House of Representatives, a resolution passes to recognize the Cuban rebels as belligerents, but staunch opposition by President Ulysses S. Grant and Secretary Hamilton Fish results in several amendments that recognize the difficulties on that island, yet fail to extend any recognition to the insurgents.

June 17 Naval: Sailors under Lieutenant Willard H. Brownson of the screw sloop USS Mohican row up the Teacapan River, Mexico, in search of pirates and burn one of their vessels at anchor.

June 22 Law: Recognizing the growing influence and responsibilities of the attorney general’s office, Congress establishes the Department of Justice as the government’s first law enforcement agency; today it supervises all government police agencies, including the FBI and the Bureau of Prisons. Politics: President Ulysses S. Grant dismisses Special Commissioner of Revenue David A. Wells after he insists on the necessity of reforms.

June 30 Military: The growth of military professionalism is greatly abetted by the appointment of Lieutenant Colonel Emory Upton as commandant of cadets at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point. Politics: The U.S. Senate refuses to approve Secretary of State Hamilton Fish’s treaty entailing annexation of the Dominican Republic on a tie vote of 28 to 28, and political ramifications ensue. Leading the charge against the measure is Senator Charles Sumner, who is now permanently estranged from President Ulysses S. Grant and loses chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

July 4 Sports: The steamer Robert E. Lee under Captain John W. Cannon wins an epic 1,100-mile riverboat race down the Mississippi by defeating the Natchez. The contestants departed New Orleans, Louisiana, and raced upstream against the currents. The winner arrived at St. Louis in three days, 18 hours, and 14 minutes. The Natchez under Captain Thomas P. Leathers, who claimed to have been delayed by fog above Devil’s Island, crossed the line six hours later.

July 8 Diplomacy: The Senate signals its intent to authorize a recent treaty between Great Britain and the United States to help suppress the still lucrative African slave trade.

July 12 Technology: Inventor brothers John and Isaiah Hyatt receive a patent for developing celluloid, an early step in the process of developing cheaper, synthetic materials such as plastic. Here it is used as a substitute for ivory in billiard balls.

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July 14 Business: Congress passes the Internal Revenue and Tariff Act of 1870, which eliminates excise taxes while lowering tariffs and duties on only a selected few items. This vote is indicative of the political clout of American industry, which seeks protection from European competition. Diplomacy: Secretary of State Hamilton Fish refines the Monroe Doctrine with a “no transfer” corollary declaring that any territory in the Western Hemisphere belonging to one major power cannot be transferred over to another, and must be declared independent. This stance is directed at maintaining the independence of Santo Domingo.

July 15 Politics: Georgia, having gained readmission into the Union and then having lost it for refusing to admit African Americans to its legislature, makes amends and regains admittance as a state with congressional representation. Technically speaking, it is the last former Confederate state so disposed.

July 24 Transportation: The first railroad car to depart San Francisco, California, pulls into New York City, initiating the first transcontinental route across America; such extensive travel is now a practical reality and proof of America’s expanding mobility.

August Indian: The army begins recruiting African-Seminole Indian scouts from Florida to serve along the southwest border, usually in concert with the two black cavalry regiments stationed there.

August 1 Women: Women cast their vote for the first time in Utah Territory.

August 4 Politics: Democrats, with the backing of white supremacists, gain control of the North Carolina legislature. This marks a resurgence of violence and obstructionism against civil rights for African Americans throughout the South as the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments are routinely ignored. In effect, Reconstruction is being systematically dismantled.

August 8 Sports: For the first time in 12 years, the British enter the yacht Cambria in a contest to win back the America’s Cup. It sails against 23 other boats belonging to the New York Yacht Club, but the contest is won by the American vessel Magic.

August 16 Sports: Pitcher Fred Goldsmith demonstrates his curveball before an astonished crowd of onlookers at the Capitoline Grounds, Brooklyn, New York.

August 22 Exploring: Lieutenant Gustavus C. Doane, U.S. Army, leads an expedition of five soldiers to Lake Yellowstone; they become the first white men to behold what subsequently becomes Yellowstone National Park.

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September 6 Women: In Laramie, Wyoming, Mrs. Laura Swain becomes the first American woman to legally cast a ballot in that territory since New Jersey women lost the right to vote in the 1800s. In New York City, radical magazine editor Victoria Claflin Woodhull opens the first female-owned and -operated stock firm in the United States.

September 19 Music: Swedish operatic singer Christine Nilsson makes her triumphant American debut at Steinway Hall, New York.

October 3 Business: Secretary of the Interior Jacob D. Cox, who had urged caution and restraint in utilizing the nation’s natural resources, is forced to resign under pressure from the industrial lobby. Previously, Cox had labeled them “robber barons.”

October 4 Politics: President Ulysses S. Grant appoints Benjamin H. Bristow to serve as the first solicitor general of the United States.

October 12 General: Robert E. Lee, celebrated military leader and an enduring icon of the Confederacy, dies in Richmond, Virginia, at the age of 63.

October 29 Naval: After the side-wheeler steamer USS Saginaw strikes a reef near Ocean Island in the mid-Pacific, a boatload of five volunteers under Lieutenant John

Woodhull, Victoria Claflin (1838–1927) Reformer Victoria Claflin was born in Homer, Ohio, on September 23, 1838, into a large and very spiritualistic family. She and her sisters claimed to be clairvoyant and accompanied their father’s traveling spiritualist show across the Midwest for many years. She married Dr. Canning Woodhull at the age of 16, divorced him in 1864, and retained his name. Around this time she also became a devotee of free love, enjoying trysts with several men while still living with her ex-husband. In 1868, Woodhull, accompanied by her younger sister, Tennessee Claflin, ventured to New York where they encountered millionaire businessman Cornelius Vanderbilt, who was interested in spiritualism. Vander-

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bilt lent them money and assistance, so she and her sister opened Woodhull, Claflin, and Company, the nation’s first female-owned stockbrokerage firm. They then cashed in on their newfound notoriety, handled their duties to investors attentively, and made a small fortune. Woodhull followed up this success by founding her own newspaper, Woodhull and Claflin’s Weekly, in 1870, in which she promoted free love, women’s suffrage, and socialism. A committed revolutionary, she published the first edition of Karl Marx’s The Communist Manifesto in 1872 in her paper. However, Woodhull’s stature as a suffragette was never fully accepted by many contemporaries because of her radicalism

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G. Talbot sails off to Hawaii to obtain help for the survivors—a distance of 1,500 miles.

November 1 Military: The U.S. Army deploys sergeant-observers from the Signal Service across 22 cities to simultaneously monitor and telegraph weather conditions. These are the first-ever networked observations and constitute the beginnings of the National Weather Service.

November 8 Politics: In Missouri, a co ali tion of liberal Republicans and hard- line Democrats elects the anti-radical Republican Benjamin G. Brown as governor. This is consistent with a trend throughout the South to slowly dismantle Reconstruction.

December 5 Politics: For the first time since 1860, the U.S. Congress convenes in Washington, D.C., with members from all 41 states represented. The American polity is finally reunited.

December 10 Women: Governor John Campbell of Wyoming Territory signs a bill granting women the right to both vote and hold public office.

December 12 Civil: Congressman Joseph H. Rainey of Georgetown, South Carolina, becomes the first African American sworn into the U.S. House of Representatives.

and seeming disdain for the Victorian mores of 19th-century America. She confirmed her reputation for audacity in April 1870 by declaring herself a candidate for the presidency of the United States while also nominating African-American civil rights leader Frederick Douglass to serve as her vice president—but he declined to run. The following year she became the first woman to appear before the House Judiciary Committee and capably presented her case for women’s suffrage and equal rights. After failing to win the White House, Woodhull embarked on a personal vendetta against two of her most strident critics, novelist Harriet Beecher Stowe and her sister Catherine Beecher. She formally accused their brother, noted preacher Henry Ward Beecher, of conducting an affair with one

of his parishioners; he was subsequently put on trial for adultery. After Beecher was acquitted, Woodhull was countersued for libel in 1873 and, while likewise acquitted, the scandalous nature of her conduct cost her many former supporters. Feeling abandoned, Woodhull moved to England with her sister, and continued to write and lecture on behalf of women’s rights. In 1882 she married the wealthy banker John B. Martin, and settled into his country estate at Norton Park, Worcestershire. Between 1892 and 1910 Woodhull and her daughter, Zulu Maud Woodhull, edited and published a new magazine, The Humanitarian, to promote socialist viewpoints. She died in England on June 10, 1927, a memorable and all-too-frequently controversial spokeswoman for equality between the genders.

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December 15 Diplomacy: In his annual address to Congress, President Ulysses S. Grant urges Congress to reconsider the annexation of Santo Domingo, based on the island’s potential value in terms of commerce and regional defense.

December 16 Religion: African-American separatists under Bishop Robert Paine of the Methodist Episcopal Church found the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in Jackson, Tennessee.

December 20 Naval: A boatload of five volunteers under Lieutenant John G. Talbot, having sailed for 31 days and covered 1,500 miles to reach Hawaii, reaches landfall. Tragically, the lieutenant drowns in heavy surf coming ashore, along with four shipmates, and only coxswain William Halford survives to get help for his shipmates still marooned on Ocean Island. For his efforts, Halford wins the Congressional Medal of Honor.

December 21 Arts: Theater producer Augustin Daly introduces the comedic play Saratoga by Bronson Howard in New York City.

1871 Architecture: Richard Morris Hunt, who trained in France at the Ecole de Beaux-Arts in Paris, designs and builds the Lennox Library in New York City. This is one of the first introductions of French design in the United States. Arts: James McNeill Whistler’s painting Arrangement in Grey and Black, better known as Whistler’s Mother, goes on display at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Conservation: Aided by railroads and improved firearms, white hunters arrive in droves along the southern plains and begin decimating buffalo herds for hides and cheap leather. Education: The Yale University pamphlet The Needs of the University underscores the growing necessity for emphasizing science in modern college curricula, although not necessarily at the expense of a classical education. Smith College is chartered at Northhampton, Massachusetts, as a woman’s institute. Journalism: The Daily Illinois, published at the University of Illinois, becomes the nation’s first undergraduate newspaper. Indian: Ely S. Parker, commissioner of Indian affairs, is investigated by Congress on charges of corruption. Parker, himself a Native American, will subsequently be cleared of all charges but nonetheless will resign and return home to Fairfield, Connecticut. Literature: Edward Eggleston’s novel The Hoosier Schoolmaster sells 500,000 copies. Poet Walt Whitman publishes “Passage to India,” his last significant poem. Louisa May Alcott publishes Little Men, the sequel to her famous Little Women. Publishing: Naturalist John Burroughs publishes his book Wake-Robin to promote popular interest in ornithology.

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In light of expanding global communications, Unitarian clergyman James Freeman Clarke writes and publishes his two-volume study Ten Great Religions, a popular tome that goes through 21 editions by 1886. Societal: Cowboys are gaining national attention due to their close association with the massive cattle drives to western railheads for shipment to eastern markets. Long feted and glamorized for rugged individualism, their life is a tough, Spartan one, replete with dangerous working conditions and low pay. By the late 1880s they will be a fading commodity, largely replaced by railroads and fencedin ranges. Sports: The National Rifle Association (NRA) forms in response to a rekindled interest in marksmanship brought on by the Civil War and the large numbers of sharpshooters it produced. Technology: A patent is issued to the firm Balthaser Kreischer for its unique hollow tiles, both light and fire resistant, that prove popular in the construction of industrial buildings. Andrew Smith Hallidie invents the mechanical devices necessary for the development of cable cars, soon to be a San Francisco hallmark. Transportation: The first Grand Central Station, constructed of webbed, wrought iron, arises in New York City as a hub for several interconnecting railroads serving the city and its boroughs.

January 11 Women: The House Committee on the Judiciary receives a memorial from editor and stockbroker Victoria Claflin Woodhull requesting that suffrage rights be extended to women; the memorial is tabled without further discussion. Consequently, Woodhull will begin an extensive speaking engagement to mobilize women.

January 13 Military: To assist and protect Revenue Department operations, U.S. Marines from the Brooklyn Navy Yard raid a nearby shantytown to seize an illegal distillery operating there.

January 19 Civil: The Colored National Labor Union petitions Congress for a national system of educational and technical training for African Americans. Indian: General George Stoneman commences a winter campaign against Apache Indians who have been attacking settlers in Arizona Territory.

February 7 Diplomacy: President Ulysses S. Grant and Secretary of State Hamilton Fish agree to appoint members to a Joint High Commission to resolve long-standing questions regarding American—British—Canadian relations. The commission is to meet in Washington, D.C., later this spring, despite threats from Senator Charles Sumner, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

February 21 Politics: The District of Columbia adopts a territorial form of government to promote greater political autonomy.

February 24 Politics: The addition of senators from Georgia grants the South full political representation for the first time since 1860.

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February 28 Civil: To assist enforcement of the Fifteenth Amendment, Congress imposes federal supervision of elections in any city with a population over 20,000. They also enact a second force bill authorizing federal courts and marshals to control the process.

March 3 Indian: In a major reversal, the government adopts the Indian Appropriation Act of 1871. This declares that Native Americans are no longer viewed as sovereign entities, but rather as wards of the state. To placate critics, President Ulysses S. Grant promulgates his own peace policy by assigning a myriad of religious groups to reservations to pacify, educate, and “civilize” the Indians. Politics: President Ulysses S. Grant forms a Civil Service Commission, under George W. Curtis, to investigate corruption in government; however, it lacks real authority and possesses only cosmetic appeal.

March 4 Politics: The Georgia congressional delegation is again seated now that the state has ratified the Fifteenth Amendment, which makes Southern representation complete.

March 9 Politics: Senator Charles Sumner is forced from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at the behest of President Ulysses S. Grant, for opposing the Dominican Republic annexation treaty. Sumner adamantly refuses to allow that measure to be ratified.

March 17 Sports: The National Association of Professional Baseball Players is organized to replace the amateur-oriented National Association.

March 18 Education: In Cotton Gin Port, Mississippi, white teacher Sarah A. Allen is forced by the local Ku Klux Klan to leave her school for African-American children.

March 27 Education: The Arkansas Industrial University (today’s University of Arkansas) is founded at Fayetteville, Arkansas.

April 1 Education: Inventor Alexander Graham Bell employs his father’s use of “visible speech” (lip reading) to teach the deaf. His work in this field will lead to creation of the telephone.

April 3 Indian: Upon the urging of Commissioner of Indian Affairs Ely S. Parker, Congress votes to forbid the United States from negotiating treaties with Native Americans, through the simple proposition that the tribes are not sovereign entities capable of enforcing or upholding whatever it is they sign. This will not stop the actual practice of concluding treaties if an advantage is to be gained.

April 5 Diplomacy: President Ulysses S. Grant, unable to overcome the stiff opposition of Senator Charles Sumner to the proposed annexation of Santo Domingo, finally withdraws the effort from consideration.

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(1847–1922)

Inventor Alexander Graham Bell was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on March 3, 1847, the son of a distinguished speech physiologist. Like his father, Bell studied both speech and sound at the University of Edinburgh and the University of London, and worked as his assistant. Professionally, he was very interested in teaching and perfecting technology for deaf students. In 1870 Bell sailed to Canada for his health and a year later relocated to Boston, Massachusetts, to work at a school for the deaf. Success here resulted in a professorship at the Boston University School of Oratory, where he also enjoyed the time and means for applying the newest electrical technology to the problem of transmitted sound. In 1875 Bell patented a multiplexing telegraph system, but he remained intrigued by the possibility of electrical transmission of human voices over the wires. Aided by his assistant, Thomas A. Watson, Bell finally achieved success on June 3, 1875, and successfully transmitted a faintly audible message. A patent was applied for on February 14, 1876, but only hours before inventor Elisha Gray had patented a similar device. This led to a lengthy succession of lawsuits and counter-lawsuits between Bell and others who claimed to have invented the telephone; several of the suits went all the way to the Supreme Court, but in the end Bell prevailed. On March 10, 1876, Bell perfected his liquid amplifying transmitter and broadcast the first complete and perfectly audible message ever delivered through the electronic milieu: “Mr. Watson, come here; I want you.” Thereafter

Bell found several investors and incorporated the Bell Telephone Company on July 9, 1877. Through perseverance and technical acumen, Bell had initiated a complete revolution in human communication. Bell’s company and its device proved enormously lucrative, so in 1879 he turned control over to Gardiner G. Hubbard of the Clark Institute for the Deaf, and moved to Washington, D.C., to continue his research. There he invented numerous and ingenious devices such as the light-actuated photophone, an audiometer, and an electrical metal detector, first used to find bullets lodged in the body of President James A. Garfield in 1881. Bell also found the time to circulate within academe and publish Science, the journal of the National Association for the Advancement of Science. He then found time to serve as president of the National Geographic Society, 1896–1904, and also served as regent of the Smithsonian Institution in 1898. Bell remained active in various fields up through his later years, when he became passionately involved in the developing field of aviation. In this capacity he helped fund Samuel P. Langley’s early experiments with powered kites. In 1907 Bell also founded the Aerial Experiment Association, which helped fund the successful endeavors of aeronaut Glenn H. Curtiss. Bell remained active in promoting science until his death at Baddeck, Nova Scotia, on August 2, 1922. He was eulogized as one of the foremost inventors of his day and in 1950 was inducted into the National Hall of Fame.

April 7 Transportation: Congress passes the Illinois Railroad Act, which establishes a commission to fix maximum rates on railroad and warehouse use, in an attempt to regulate the rapidly expanding industry.

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April 10 General: With his usual flourish, outlandish promoter P. T. Barnum unveils his “Great Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan, and Hippodrome” in Brooklyn, New York. It will prove to be a popular draw for waves of curiosity seekers, greatly enriching the proprietor.

April 12 Business: Charles Pillsbury becomes head of the flour mill business C. A. Pillsbury & Company of Minneapolis, Minnesota.

April 20 Civil: Senator Benjamin F. Butler forces passage of the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 to support enforcement of the Fourteenth Amendment. This authorizes the president to suspend writs of habeas corpus and employ federal troops if necessary, and also outlines specific procedures and penalties for the process.

April 30 Indian: Enraged settlers and vigilantes massacre 100 peaceful Apache at Camp Grant, Arizona, where they are still under federal protection. Public indignation results but little is done to comfort the survivors and hostilities continue intermittently over the next 15 years.

May Naval: When a group of American warships enters the kingdom of Korea seeking to establish diplomatic relations, they are fired upon by shore batteries. Sailors and marines are landed in consequence and they burn and destroy five Korean forts, then sail away without the desired relations.

May 1 Indian: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Boudinot v. United States, ruling that an 1866 treaty with the Cherokee outlawing a tobacco tax is rendered null and void by a newer 1868 tax law. This establishes the “last-in-time” principle, allowing Congress to systematically gut all previous treaty obligations and promises. Its net effect is to further erode the notion of tribal sovereignty. Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Knox v. Lee, reversing an earlier decision reached in 1870 through Hepburn v. Griswold. Henceforth, the Legal Tender Act is declared constitutional and treasury notes issued during the Civil War are considered legal currency.

May 3 Exploring: Lieutenant George M. Wheeler, U.S. Army Engineers, leads a party of 30 men out of Camp Halleck, Nevada, to begin mapping the area south of the Central Pacific Railroad. He is also to provide accurate information relative to Indian tribes in the region, sites for possible military operations, and possible routes for roads or railroad tracks.

May 8 Diplomacy: Secretary of State Hamilton Fish and British minister Sir John Rose formalize the Treaty of Washington for the purpose of establishing a joint commission to arbitrate fishing and boundary disputes, along with spoliation claims leveled against Britain for depredations inflicted upon Union shipping during

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the Civil War by the British-built raider CSS Alabama. Existing fishing arrangements between Canada and America are also renewed. Consequently, the German kaiser will be asked to serve as an arbitrator in settling the question of the Juan de Fuca Strait in Washington Territory while Brazil, Italy, and Switzerland will assist in settling the claims.

May 10 Politics: The Equal Rights Party nominates crusading editor and advocate of free love Victoria Claflin Woodhull for president and African-American civil rights leader Frederick A. Douglass for vice president.

May 11 Women: The National Woman’s Suffrage Association descends upon New York City to combat the deletion of women from the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments.

May 18 Military: A band of hostile Kiowa under Satanta attacks a civilian wagon train hauling freight to Fort Griffin, Texas, and perpetrates the Salt Creek Prairie massacre by killing seven men and absconding with 41 mules.

May 24 Diplomacy: The Senate ratifies the Treaty of Washington at the behest of Secretary of State Hamilton Fish. This establishes an international commission at Geneva, Switzerland, to resolve the issue of damages arising from the British-built Confederate raider CSS Alabama during the Civil War.

May 27 Indian: Kiowa chief Satanta, having boasted of his role in the Salt Creek Prairie massacre, is confronted at the Fort Sill Agency by General William T. Sherman, who orders his arrest. When the Indians appear determined to resist, Colonel Benjamin H. Grierson suddenly deploys his 10th U.S. Cavalry and three tribal leaders are taken into custody.

May 30 Naval: Commodore John Rodgers, commanding the screw frigate USS Colorado and several smaller vessels, ascends the Han River in Korea. He is carrying Frederick Low, U.S. minister to China, in an attempt to establish relations with the reclusive leaders of the “Hermit Kingdom.” Several land forts fire upon the intruders and Rodgers promptly silences them. The commodore then demands a formal apology for the action; when one is not forthcoming, he prepares his force for action.

June 10 Naval: The American warships USS Monocacy and Palos put ashore 700 sailors and marines on the Han River, Korea, who storm and destroy several Korean forts that fired on the American squadron a few days previous. The defenders resist to literally the last man before the positions are carried and 243 Koreans are killed. American losses are three dead and seven wounded—no less than 15 Congressional Medals of Honor are awarded to sailors and marines for this stout action.

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Chronology of American History Sports: The fifth annual Belmont Stakes is won by Harry Bassett, who gallops around the track in two minutes and 56 seconds.

June 29 Exploring: Captain Charles F. Hall sails from New York City with the screw tug USS Polaris, voyaging northward on an ill-fated expedition to the Arctic.

July 2 Exploring: Captain J. W. Barlow leads a small party of engineers and explorers from Chicago, Illinois, to Yellowstone Lake, with orders to accurately map the headwaters of the Yellowstone River.

July 8 Journalism: New York City kingpin William Marcy “Boss” Tweed is exposed by a series of articles published in the New York Times, and he will ultimately be charged with accepting $200 million in fraudulent contracts. As nominal head of the Tammany Hall political machine, he has run the political life of the city for several decades. Millionaire Jay Gould helps him stay out of jail by posting a $2 million bail bond.

July 12 Religion: Rioting between Scotch Irish Protestants and Irish Catholics in New York City leaves 31 dead, including two policemen.

July 28 Literature: Struggling writer Walt Whitman, who first published Leaves of Grass in 1855, completes his latest work, Democratic Vistas, which strongly critiques the shortcomings of American democracy. It proves to be another wellintentioned but basically ignored endeavor.

July 30 General: The steamer Westfield, operating as part of the Staten Island Ferry service, New York, suddenly explodes in the harbor, killing 72 passengers and injuring 135 more.

September 4 Law: A citizen commission is appointed in New York City to investigate the alleged corruption of Tammany Hall and, especially, of Democratic Party leader William Marcy “Boss” Tweed. This commences a long campaign of political reform in America.

September 5 Arts: Augustin Daly successfully stages the play Divorce, which enjoys a successful run in New York and lasts 200 performances.

September 16 Exploring: Lieutenant George M. Wheeler’s exploring party starts up the Colorado River into the Grand Canyon, assisted by a dozen Mojave Indians as guides.

September 30 Literature: The first installment of the Hoosier Schoolmaster by Edward Eggleston is published in the magazine Hearth and Home; it is destined for fame and best-seller status once published in book form.

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October Indian: In the Indian Territory, civil war briefly erupts within the Creek tribe between adherents of Sands, a traditionalist chief who opposes the new Creek constitution, and modernists under Samuel Checote, who quells the rebellion.

October 2 Religion: The federal government arrests 70-year-old Mormon leader Brigham Young for practicing polygamy—he has 16 wives—but he is allowed to remain at home pending trial.

October 8–11 General: Beginning at 9:30 p.m., Chicago is ravaged by a huge fire that kills 250 people, destroys 17,450 buildings, and leaves 98,000 homeless. Total damage is estimated at $196 million and includes Abraham Lincoln’s first draft of the Emancipation Proclamation, destroyed when the Chicago Historical Society goes up in flames.

October 9 General: Drought conditions lead to a fire in Peshtigo, Wisconsin, that kills 600 and devastates 2,000 square miles of forest land.

October 14 General: Chicago mayor Roswell Mason, surveying the wreckage of his once proud city, places survivors in the hands of the Chicago Relief and Aid Society, which had been founded 11 years previously and now caters to the needs of 90,000 homeless.

October 20 Exploring: The small expedition of Lieutenant George M. Wheeler, marooned on the Colorado River near Diamond Creek, Arizona, and nearly out of food, is succored by a rescue party.

October 23 Sports: The U.S. yacht Columbia successfully defends the America’s Cup.

October 24 Societal: Continuing resentment against Chinese immigrant laborers leads to 15 lynchings in Los Angeles, California. The violence stems from the abduction of a Chinese woman by feuding secret gangs (tongs) and the subsequent murder of an investigating police officer.

October 26 Crime: William Marcy “Boss” Tweed is indicted on corruption charges following an expository essay published in the New York Times. It is estimated that Tweed and his inner circle have pilfered between $30 million and $200 million through falsifying contracts, bills, and other business dealings.

November 10 Journalism: New York Herald reporter Henry Morton Stanley tracks down explorer David Livingstone at Ujiji in the heart of Central Africa (Lake Tanganyika) and utters that immortal greeting, “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”

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1872 Agriculture: In Lunenburg, Massachusetts, Luther Burbank develops the socalled Burbank potato, which proves a popular variety to large and small growers alike. Architecture: Henry Hobson Richardson designs the elegant First Baptist Church in Boston on the site of the New Brattle Square Church. The Old Art Museum begins construction under the influence of John Ruskin, who ardently promotes medieval architecture against what he considers the gaudy, immoral forms expressed in Renaissance designs. Business: The Pennsylvania Railroad and the South Improvement Company sign a contract initiating secret rebates, one of many pernicious business practices of the era. Education: The University of Oregon is established with campuses at Eugene and Portland. Journalism: The Boston Globe begins publishing in Boston, Massachusetts. Literature: Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens) publishes his book Roughing It, which includes satyrical accounts of life in the Wild West, replete with gambling, fist fights, stagecoach rides, and an account of his visit to Hawaii. Reverend Edward Payson Roe writes his Barriers Burned Away, a novel about the great Chicago fire that proves to be an immediate best-seller. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow publishes his famous historical poem, “The Courtship of Miles Standish.” Military: After field-testing more than 100 types of firearm, the army settles upon the .45-caliber Springfield breechloading rifle as its principal firearm. Publishing: Continuing growth in popular and trade magazines results in publications such as Publishers Weekly and Popular Science Monthly. Religion: The Russian Orthodox Church relocates its episcopal see from Sitka, Alaska, to San Francisco, California. The recent American purchase of Alaska by the United States disestablished the church as an organ of the state. Charles Taze Russell, a Presbyterian lay member, founds his own sect, the Rusellites (Jehovah’s Witnesses). Settlement: Dodge City, soon to be a celebrated fixture of Western folklore, is laid out roughly five miles from Fort Dodge, Kansas. Technology: In Washington, D.C., Luther Chicks Crowell invents a machine to churn out flat-bottomed paper bags which prove essential for shopping purposes.

February Sports: More proof of the growing popularity of roller skating can be had in remote Cheyenne, Wyoming, which opens its first rink this month.

February 2 Politics: Congress passes a law mandating that, commencing in 1876, all congressional elections are to fall on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.

February 17 Diplomacy: The Senate, rejecting a rising tide of imperialism in American foreign relations, turns down a proposed treaty that would have established coaling

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stations on the Pacific island of Pago Pago and also authorized the United States to serve as “protector” of Samoa.

February 22 Politics: The National Labor Convention assembles in Columbus, Ohio, to nominate David Davis of Illinois for the presidency and Joel Parker of New Jersey as vice president. Labor is determined to flex its growing muscles in the political arena in an attempt to curb the excesses of business and industry. The Prohibition Party holds its first nominating convention at Columbus, Ohio, selecting James Black of Pennsylvania for the presidency and Reverend John Russell of Michigan for vice president.

March 1 Conservation: Congress, under pressure to preserve the nation’s natural wilderness from exploitation and despoliation, authorizes creation of Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming Territory, as a public preserve. This is the first concerted federal attempt to preserve a part of the natural environment for the benefit of the entire population.

March 5 Politics: President Ulysses S. Grant, noting the increasing importance of the Pacific region to American trade and commerce, appoints a commission to explore the possibility of constructing a canal across the Isthmus of Panama at Darien.

March 23 Journalism: The Indianapolis Sentinel is the first newspaper to label the Republican enemies of James G. Blaine as “Mugwumps.”

April 3 Indian: Major Elmer Otis unsuccessfully confers with Modoc leader Captain Jack, who refuses to return to the Klamath reservation in Oregon. The Modoc and Klamath are traditional enemies and do not reside easily on the same terrain.

April 7 Business: Anson Singer and Elisha Gray establish the Western Electric Company in New York City.

April 10 Societal: Julius Sterling Morton, a future secretary of agriculture, begins the practice of Arbor Day, a festival of tree planting, in Nebraska.

April 26 General: A severe earthquake rattles the settlement of Lone Pine, California, killing 27 and injuring 60.

April 29 Crime: A gang led by brothers Frank and Jesse James holds up and robs the Deposit Bank in Columbia, Kentucky. Having killed a cashier and being unable to open the vault, they simply abscond with $200 found in a drawer.

May 1 Politics: A gathering of liberal-minded Republicans in Cincinnati, Ohio, unhappy with the administration of President Ulysses S. Grant, nominates New York Tribune editor Horace Greeley and Benjamin Gratz Brown to oppose him.

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Chronology of American History Unsatiated, additional men under Carl Schurtz then leave and establish their own Republican Party with William S. Grosbeck as their candidate.

May 5–6 Politics: The Republican national convention convenes in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and includes the first-ever African-American delegates to attend a presidential convention. Not surprisingly, Ulysses S. Grant receives their nomination on the first ballot, despite the tangle of corruption allegations around his associates in office. He remains a beloved soldier-figure and national hero to most of his constituents. This is also the first party convention in which African Americans are allowed to participate; William B. Gray of Arkansas, B. B. Elliott of South Carolina, and John Roy Lynch of Mississippi all deliver speeches from the rostrum.

May 9–10 Politics: Activists calling themselves the Equal Rights Party meet in New York City and nominate Victoria Claflin Woodhull for president and civil rights advocate Frederick Douglass for vice president.

May 22 Civil: Congress passes the Amnesty Act, which allows many Southerners to hold public office despite provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment. A core element of 600 former Confederates remains without their full rights. Diplomacy: President Ulysses S. Grant asks the Senate to ratify a treaty signed between U.S. Navy commander Richard W. Meade and various Tutuila chiefs on the Samoan Islands. The harbor at Pago Pago, halfway between Hawaii and Sydney, Australia, is described as one of the best in the Pacific, and is of special concern to various steamship companies. The Senate, however, declines to act.

May 23 Politics: President Ulysses S. Grant receives an important endorsement when the Workingmen’s National Convention meets in New York City and votes as a block to support him.

June 1 Sports: The sixth annual Belmont Stakes is won by Joe Daniels, who gallops around the course in two minutes and 58 seconds.

June 5–6 Business: President Ulysses S. Grant, politically posturing ahead of the election, endorses the Tariff Act of 1872, which imposes a 10 percent reduction on all imported items.

June 10 Civil: The Republican-dominated Congress disbands the Freedmen’s Bureau, unrealistically insisting that newly freed African Americans in the South stand on their own. Previously, the department doled out badly needed medical supplies, food, and schooling to those in need; its passing signals that Reconstruction is almost defunct.

June 17 Music: Devotees of classical music flock to hear famous Austrian composer Johann Strauss conducting his equally celebrated composition, the “Blue Danube” waltz, backed by a 2,000-man orchestra. The festivities are part of the World’s

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Peace Jubilee and International Music Festival, held to commemorate the end of the Franco-Prussian War. The event has been arranged by American composer P. S. Gilmore, who specializes in performances utilizing maximum instrumentation; he is better known as the author of “When Johnny Comes Marching Home.”

July 6 Indian: T. B. Ordenal, superintendent of Indian affairs in Oregon, is ordered by the Bureau of Indian Affairs to relocate the Modoc band under Captain Jack to the Klamath reservation—by force, if necessary. The stage is now set for an internecine war.

July 9 Political: The Democratic Party assembles in Baltimore, Maryland, and nominates New York Tribune editor Horace Greeley as its presidential candidate. Benjamin Gratz Brown of Missouri is selected as vice president. It is a curious and self-defeating choice as Greeley had previously criticized the Democrats on a number of important issues.

July 26 Military: In another provocative move, Colonel S. D. Stanley takes a large military expedition, supported by Gatling guns, out from Fort Rice, Dakota Territory, and begins surveying land east of Bozeman, Montana.

July 27 Military: War parties of Hunkpapa Sioux, angered by the army’s incursion into the region east of Bozeman, Montana, launch a night attack upon the camp of Major Eugene M. Baker, 2nd U.S. Cavalry, who is scouting ahead of the main column under Colonel S. D. Stanley. Two soldiers are killed in the so-called Battle of Poker Flat, and the expedition turns back.

August Business: In Chicago, Aaron Montgomery Ward establishes Montgomery Ward & Company with a new approach to the business of retail merchandising—direct marketing and sales by mail. His first catalog lists and details 150 items of use to the modern consumer.

September Military: Colonel Ranald Slidell Mackenzie surprises a large Comanche encampment at McClellan’s Creek, killing 20 Indians and capturing 130 prisoners and 3,000 ponies. American losses are one dead and three wounded.

September 3 Politics: “Straight” Democrats meet at Louisville, Kentucky, and nominate Charles O’Conor of New York for president and John Quincy Adams II of Massachusetts for vice president.

September 4 Journalism: The Credit Mobilier scandal is exposed in the New York Sun after the directors of the Union Pacific Railroad form a company and reward themselves with lucrative construction contracts. The new outfit, Credit Mobilier of America, enjoyed deep pockets and made payouts of various sorts to congressmen, cabinet officials, and others, Vice President Schuyler Colfax among them. The

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Ward, Montgomery (1843–1913) Businessman Aaron Montgomery Ward was born in Chatham, New Jersey, on February 17, 1843, the descendant of a Revolutionary War general of the same name. After dropping out of school to work as a barrel and brick maker, he opted to sell dry goods at various stores in the Midwest, including at Chicago, Illinois, St. Louis, Missouri, and St. Joseph, Michigan. It was while working in this capacity that Ward became cognizant of a major complaint by farmers in the region: They could buy only a small selection of goods from local stores and usually at inflated prices. Ward then hit upon the idea of selling fine products to farmers by mail at a reasonable price, which would completely eliminate the middleman and his markup. He also intended to buy in bulk from manufacturers, to lower overall unit prices. Furthermore, all sales were to be conducted with cash, not credit, in another effective, cost-cutting measure. Returning to Chicago in 1872, he and his business partner George R. Thorne invested $2,400 and began marketing 30 items from a onepage catalog out of their one-room office. Business, as expected, boomed and the two began expanding both their inventory and their mail-order catalog, which reached 150 pages by 1876. To increase consumer confidence, Ward began the unprecedented practice of offering complete money-back guarantees for any product deemed unsatisfactory. Cash-strapped farmers, grateful at the opportunity to enjoy luxury items usually beyond their grasp, responded in droves and by 1888 annual sales had

skyrocketed to $1 million. In fact, Ward had so cut into the local dry goods business throughout the region that store owners protested by collecting and burning his catalogs in public. But Ward also had a powerful ally in the newly formed Farmer’s National Grange, an agrarian political lobby, whose endorsement resulted in a steady flow of repeat consumers. In gratitude he proudly proclaimed his company, “The Original Grange Supply House.” The growth of Ward’s business had, by 1900, prompted him to locate to the newly constructed Ward Tower at Michigan Boulevard and Madison Street in Chicago. Within two years a rival company, Sears & Roebuck, was offering stiff competition and began surpassing him in their annual volume of sales. But by this time, Ward had retired from actual company operations, although he still held the title of president. He was also politically active and highly civic minded, spending million of dollars in legal action to keep the Chicago waterfront unspoiled and free of commercial growth. By 1901 Ward withdrew from the business to his luxury home in Highland Park. He died there on December 7, 1913, having successfully pioneered the revolutionary mail-order merchandising business. His wife subsequently donated a large part of the family fortune, roughly $8.5 million, to charitable causes, especially Northwestern University, which constructed a medical and dental school in his memory. Today Montgomery Ward has 400 retail stores, 50,000 employees, and annual sales exceeding $7 billion.

story represents an early expression of “muckraking” journalism. It is also the latest damning evidence of the corruption-ridden administration of President Ulysses S. Grant.

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September 11 Naval: James Henry Conyers becomes the first African American admitted to the U.S. Naval Academy as a cadet; he resigns a year later owing to deficiencies in mathematics and French.

September 14 Diplomacy: An international tribunal established by the 1871 Treaty of Washington awards the United States $15.5 million in claims against Great Britain for its role in supplying the Confederate navy with the CSS Alabama during the Civil War. This successful commerce raider sank 100,000 ton of Union shipping before being itself sunk in 1864. Moreover, the success of this tribunal, comprised of members from Switzerland, Italy, and Brazil, anticipates later efforts at international arbitration.

September 25 Politics: The Liberal Colored Republicans meet in Louisville, Kentucky, to nominate Horace Greeley and B. Gratz Brown for president and vice president, respectively.

October 1–11 Indian: General Oliver O. Howard, assisted by noted scout Thomas Jeffords, gains an audience with renegade Apache leader Cochise in the Dragoon Mountains. Cochise agrees to relocation to a reservation in his Chiricahua homeland, but only if Jeffords, a personal friend, serves as his agent.

October 21 Diplomacy: Under the terms of the Treaty of Washington, which established commissions to settle boundary disputes between the United States and Great Britain, the San Juan Islands between Washington Territory and British Columbia are awarded to the Americans. The decision is reached under the aegis of Kaiser Wilhelm I of Germany, who had been asked to serve as an arbiter.

November 1 Transportation: An editorial in the New York Times predicts an early demise for the velocipede—or bicycle—when compared to the overall utility of the horse.

November 5 Diplomacy: Ever-expanding Japan signs an agreement with the United States, promising to uphold provisions of a treaty signed between Commodore Perry and the “king” of the Ryukyu Islands in 1853. Politics: President Ulysses S. Grant is resoundingly reelected with 3.5 million votes to Horace Greeley’s tally of 2.8 million and an electoral vote of 286 to 66. The Republicans also sweep both houses of Congress, and the new members include seven African Americans. Women: Susan B. Anthony and several women activists are arrested in New York for trying to register and vote in a presidential election. The transgressors are fined $100.

November 7 Naval: Captain Benjamin S. Briggs sails his brig Mary Celeste from New York harbor for Genoa, Italy, accompanied by his wife, daughter, and eight crewmen. The ship will be found drifting intact but abandoned at sea on December 4, with all hands missing; the mystery has never been solved.

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November 11 General: Boston is ravaged by a huge fire that kills 13 people and inflicts $75 million in damages across 65 acres.

November 14 Indian: A strong earthquake rattles Chelan Indian settlements in Washington State, prompting Christian missionaries to frighten the natives into adopting Christianity. Instead, an angry Chief Nmosize has their mission burned to the ground.

November 19 Law: In New York City, William “Boss” Tweed is convicted of swindling the city out of $200 million and receives a 13-year sentence. He is reportedly livid over having to serve it in a state penitentiary rather than a local county jail.

November 28 Military: Fighting breaks out between cavalry under Captain James Jackson and a group of belligerent Modoc Indians who refuse to return to the Klamath Reservation in Oregon. One soldier dies and seven are wounded to a Modoc tally of two killed and three wounded. The Indians will slink off into the nearby lava beds of northern California and defy the troopers to evict them.

November 30 Indian: A group of hostile Modoc, migrating south from Oregon under Hooker Jim, surprises and kills 18 settlers.

December Military: U.S. troops corner a band of Tonto Apache at Salt River Cave, New Mexico, and make a desperate last stand. The Americans, aided by ricochet, fire directly into the cave and slaughter the defenders.

December 2 Politics: Representative Luke P. Poland of Vermont heads the newly assigned committee investigating the scandal surrounding the Credit Mobilier construction wing of the Union Pacific Railroad.

December 9 Civil: African-American army veteran Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback becomes acting governor of Louisiana and also the first black governor in U.S. history.

December 28 Military: Army captains William M. Brown and James Burn attack a group of Yavapai Apache at Skull Cave on the Salt River Canyon, Arizona Territory, killing 76.

1873 Arts: Artist George Inness spearheads a revival in romantic landscapes with his famous painting Home of the Heron, which also establishes him as the leading devotee of French-inspired sentimentalism in painting. Business: Adolph Coors establishes a beer brewery in Denver, Colorado. Education: Susan Elizabeth Bow opens the Des Peres School in St. Louis, Missouri, which functions as the nation’s first public kindergarten. She is assisted by two apprentices and instructs 68 students in her first semester there.

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Richard Greener, a Harvard graduate, becomes the first African-American professor of metaphysics at the University of South Carolina. Publishing: St. Nicholas Magazine for children is founded with Mary Mapes Dodge as editor. It will soon emerge as an influential publication for young people and feature original essays by Mark Twain, Rudyard Kipling, Louisa May Alcott, Howard Pyle, and Robert Louis Stevenson. The popular biweekly Home Companion begins in Cleveland, Ohio, and continues in publication until 1957. Aspiring writers Thomas Bailey Aldrich, Edward Eggleston, and Bret Harte all publish successful fiction novels and collections. Americans get a dose of what will later be called science fiction when Jules Verne’s adventure saga Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea is translated into English and becomes a best-seller. Medical: The nation is swept by recurring epidemics of yellow fever, cholera, and smallpox, especially in the South. Bellevue Hospital, New York City, becomes the first nursing education institution in the United States; it draws upon the theories of the famous British nurse Florence Nightingale. Military: Once Congress grants all Civil War veterans burial rights in national cemeteries, Secretary of War William W. Belknap selects the design for grave markers, which is still in use today. Music: Composer Sidney Lanier writes several noted compositions for the lute, including “Field-larks and Blackbirds” and “Swamp Robin.” Religion: The Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the first such Reform Judaism group in the United States, is organized in Cincinnati, Ohio, under Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise. Societal: Decoration Day (later, Memorial Day) first becomes a legal holiday in New York. Sports: English bookmakers make their appearance at American racetracks, signaling the end to informal wagering between owners and spectators. Marksmanship enjoys a huge revival in post–Civil War America with 100,000 riflemen attending a shooting match in Creedmore, Long Island, alone. Technology: The new and more powerful explosive nitroglycerine is first employed in construction of the Hoosac Tunnel in western Massachusetts.

January 7–9 General: Minnesota is beset by a raging blizzard that sweeps the plains and inflicts heavy damage on property and livestock.

January 8 Politics: Prince William Lunalilo of Hawaii is crowned King Lunalilo; he is the first elected monarch of the islands.

January 17 Military: Colonel Frank Wheaton, 21st U.S. Infantry, musters 400 soldiers in an attack upon Captain Jack’s Modoc positions in the Tule Lake lava beds of northern California. Indian resistance is tenacious and the Americans are forced back with 35 killed and 25 wounded.

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February 12 Business: Congress passes the Coinage Act of 1873, whereby silver coins are removed from circulation because silver is so rare it has exceeded gold (bullion) in value. This move, in turn, opens the government to charges of a gold standard conspiracy. Free silver advocates will consider this act the “Crime of ‘73,” especially after extensive silver deposits are uncovered out West.

February 27 Politics: Congressmen Oakes Ames and James Brooks are accused by a House committee investigating the Credit Mobilier scandal of corruption and taking bribes. Their expulsion is recommended, but in the end they will only be censured.

March 1 Technology: Christopher E. Sholes, who invented a working typewriter in 1868, goes into business with E. Remington & Sons (a gun manufacturer) to manufacture typewriters on a mass basis. In time Remington machines will dominate the business office world.

March 3 Environment: Congress passes the Timber Culture Act, which promises an additional 160 acres to any settler who promises to plant trees on a quarter of his land. Politics: Congress generously raises its own pay by 50 percent along with that of the president and justices of the Supreme Court; the move is badly received by the public and condemned in the press as the “Salary Grab Act.” They also proffer the Coal Lands Act, which doles out coal-bearing acreage to anyone who can afford the $10-$20 an acre price, subject to limits of 120 acres per person or 320 acres per group. Societal: Congress passes an act forbidding the mailing of obscene literature, at the behest of Anthony Comstock, secretary of the Society for the Suppression of Vice. This marks the rise of attempts to impose a straitlaced conservative morality upon the nation.

March 4 Journalism: The first issue of the Congressional Record is published; it reports exclusively on the activities of the Congress. Politics: Ulysses S. Grant is inaugurated for his second term in office; Henry Wilson is the new vice president.

March 27 Military: A column under Captain George M. Randall, 23rd U.S. Infantry, surprises an Apache camp near Turret Peak, Arizona Territory, killing 23 Indians. The dispirited survivors begin returning to their reservation.

April 6 Indian: General George Crook accepts the surrender of 300 Yavapai Apache at Camp Verde, Arizona, who are then dispatched to new lives on reservations.

April 11 Indian: General Edward R. S. Canby, commanding the Department of the Pacific, attempts to placate warring Modoc Indians by meeting with tribal leaders near the Tule Lake lava beds in northern California. However, he is treacherously shot

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and killed by Captain Jack (Kintpuash), along with a peace commissioner, which will lead to renewed efforts by the U.S. Army to surround and finally crush the insurgents. Canby is the only regular army general killed in an Indian war.

April 14 Civil: Armed whites storm into Colfax, Louisiana, killing most of the African Americans living there. Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the Slaughter House Case, which relates directly to provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment. They rule that the federal government does not have jurisdiction over all matters pertaining to civil rights, nor is it applicable to cases related to property rights—in effect, reaffirming state sovereignty.

April 15 Military: Colonel Alvin C. Gillem, 1st U.S. Cavalry, supported by howitzers, attacks Modoc Indian positions in the Tule Lake lava beds of northern California. Despite intense shelling, the Indians suffer no casualties and repulse another American advance with a loss of seven dead and 13 wounded.

April 26 Military: Modoc warriors under Scarfaced Charley surprise a company of the 1st U.S. Cavalry in camp outside the Tule Lake lava beds of northern California, killing 18 and wounding 16. The defeat leads to the replacement of Colonel Alvin C. Gillem.

May 1 Business: The first penny post cards are issued by the U.S. Post Office.

May 7 General: Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase of the U.S. Supreme Court, a founder of the Republican Party and a staunch advocate for civil rights, dies in New York City. Naval: The screw sloop USS Tuscarora puts 200 men ashore at Panama (then part of Colombia) to protect American lives and property during a revolutionary upheaval.

May 10 Military: Modoc Indians again sortie from their strongpoint in the Tule Lake lava beds of northern California and surprise army troops encamped there. Five Americans die and another 12 are wounded, but the Modoc lose five killed, among them Ellen’s Man, an important leader. This leads to dissension in the Modoc camp, and a band under Hooker Jim surrenders to the army. He also agrees to help apprehend Captain Jack.

May 13 Military: Colonel Ranald Slidell Mackenzie departs Fort Clark, Texas, at the head of the 4th U.S. Cavalry and heads south into Mexican territory to attack renegade bands of Kickapoo Indians encamped along the San Rodrigo River.

May 18 Military: A detachment of the 4th U.S. Cavalry under Colonel Ranald Slidell Mackenzie crosses into Mexico without government permission and attacks a hostile Kickapoo settlement at Nacimiento. They round up 317 survivors and take them back to reservations in Kansas. Mexican protests over the incursion will be ignored.

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May 27 Sports: The first annual Preakness Stakes is run at Pimlico, Maryland, and won by Survivor, who gallops across the line in two minutes and 43 seconds. In time it is grouped with the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont Stakes to form the Triple Crown of horse racing.

June 4 Indian: Several Modoc bands under Hooker Jim, having sensed the futility of fighting the U.S. Army long-term, assist in the capture of Kintpuash (Captain Jack) near the Lost River, California. He is subsequently tried and hung for the death of General Edward R. S. Canby.

June 7 Sports: The seventh annual Belmont Stakes is won by Springbok with a time of three minutes and one second.

June 12 Exploring: A small exploring party under Captain W. A. Jones, Corps of Engineers, departs Fort Bridger, Wyoming Territory, and begins blazing a new trail into the Yellowstone region. Specifically, he is seeking a military route that will connect Yellowstone to the nearby Union Pacific Railroad line.

June 20 Military: Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer leads 10 troops of his 7th Cavalry as part of a 1,500-man column out of Fort Rice, Dakota Territory, and up the Yellowstone River. His mission is to scour the region for hostile Cheyenne and Sioux who have been harassing the Northern Pacific Railroad. When his commanding officer, Colonel David S. Stanley, is removed from command for drunkenness, Custer will take charge of the ensuing campaign.

July 3 General: President Ulysses S. Grant proclaims that the Centennial Exposition of 1876 will be held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, birthplace of the nation.

July 21 Crime: The Jesse James gang robs a train belonging to the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad near Adair, Iowa, making off with $3,000 from the delivery car’s safe.

August General: Swarms of locusts plague western farms, already hard-pressed by high debt for seed, tools, and machinery. Many small farmers are thus forced to sell their lands at a loss and begin migrating in large numbers to the cities to look for work.

August 1 Technology: San Francisco’s first cable car, designed by British-born Andrew Hallidie, commences operations by scaling the 2,781-foot-long track up Nob Hill on a daily basis.

August 2 General: Portland, Oregon, is ravaged by a great fire that destroys 22 city blocks.

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August 4 Military: Lieutenant Col­oÂ�nel George A. Custer, scouting ahead of his main body with only his brother and 20 mounted scouts, is suddenly attacked by 300 Sioux and Cheyenne warriors along the Tongue River, Montana. Custer deploys his men in the grass, until they suddenly rise and deliver several Â�point-­blank volleys into the mounted mass, driving them back in confusion. The enraged Indians then dis-­ mount and begin surrounding the defenders, but Custer and his men are rescued in the nick of time by the 7th Cavalry, which rides up to their rescue. Custer’s adroit handling of his men, coupled with aggressive tactics, averts what might have been a minor disaster.

August 6 Diplomacy: The United States and Japan sign a postal convention whereby the former is allowed to help establish a modern mail serÂ�vice. The Americans also take steps to lower the extraterritoriality of its citizens living there, ordering them to observe various JapaÂ�nese laws respecting hunting, the press, and quar-­ antine Â�regulations. In this manner Japan will slowly attain equality with Western powers.

August 11 Military: The 7th U.S. Cavalry under Lieutenant Col­oÂ�nel George Armstrong Custer attempts to engage a large Sioux village near the mouth of the Big Horn River. His 450 men are attempting to wade a river in front of the village when a party of warriors under Crazy Â�Horse outflanks them and begins closing in from the rear. Caught between two fires, Custer signals his men to mount, orders the regimental band to play “Garryowen,” and the Â�hard-­bitten troopers suddenly charge the enemy. The Indians scatter before the onslaught and escape from the battlefield while Custer recrosses the Yellowstone River at his leisure. American losses are three killed and four wounded to an estimated loss of 40 dead Indians. After this engagement the Sioux fail to mount any more serious reÂ�sisÂ�tance to the intruders.

August 18 Sports: Mount Whitney, which, at 14,495 feet, is the tallest peak in the United States, is successfully scaled by John Lucas, Charles Begole, and A. H. Johnson.

August 27 Diplomacy: In light of growing social discord in Cuba, Secretary of State Ham-­ ilton Fish warns Spanish authorities to begin reforms on that island in order to restore stability. He also mentions that several groups in the United States desire to invade Cuba and annex it outright. Naturally, this stance will lead to a deterio-­ ration of relations between the two countries.

September 18 Business: The brokerage firm Jay Cooke & Company fails and triggers a Â�five-­year economic depression; this year over 5,000 businesses will Â�fail—all as a result of 12 years of economic excess based upon Â�over-­trading, Â�over-­production, and Â�overÂ�speculation. The panic of 1873 is a watershed moment in the economic history of the nation and will not be fully mitigated until 1879, with an increasing emphasis on cooperation between business and labor.

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September 20 Business: The Stock Exchange, reeling from the closure of Jay Cooke & Company, closes its doors for 10 days. In response the Treasury Department releases $26 million in greenbacks, slated for recall in January 1874.

September 23 Sports: Englishman Tom Allen wins the world heavyweight boxing championship by defeating American Mike McCoole neat St. Louis, Missouri.

October 3 Indian: At Fort Klamath, Oregon, Kintpuash (Captain Jack) and four other Modoc leaders are hung for the murder of peace commissioners, while 150 of their followers are sent to live at Fort Quapaw, Indian Territory (Oklahoma). It is not until 1909 that some are allowed to return to the Klamath Reservation in Oregon.

October 9 Naval: Fifteen naval officers, seeking an outlet for dissident points of view, form a professional society at Annapolis, Maryland, that will eventually be called the United State Naval Institute, with its own publication, the Proceedings.

October 18 Sports: Conferees from Yale, Princeton, Rutgers, and Columbia universities establish the first football conference at a hotel in New York City and draft an initial code of rules. These resemble soccer more than anything else, and in a few years the game will revert to the more modern “Boston Game” preferred by Harvard.

October 31 Diplomacy: Spanish gunboats capture the American steamer Virginius, which is carrying arms and insurgents bound for Cuba. Fifty-three crew members, including eight Americans, will ultimately be executed by military authorities. Secretary of State Hamilton Fish negotiates compensation to the families, but public hostility mounts toward what is viewed as an act of aggression. War seems a distinct possibility.

November Societal: The Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) is founded in Cleveland, Ohio, with a view toward establishing prohibition, nationwide.

November 19 Law: William Marcy “Boss” Tweed, the Democratic Party leader who controlled Tammany Hall, is convicted of 102 counts of fraud. He consequently receives a 12-year sentence and is fined $12,550. Currier and lves print (1874) showing a young woman as a warrior for temperance (Library of Congress)

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November 27 Engineering: Construction is completed on the Hoosac Tunnel, 26 feet wide and 4.7 miles long,

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which burrows through a spur in the Green Mountains, Massachusetts. This is the second longest railroad tunnel in the world and connects the Connecticut River valley to the Hudson River valley.

November 29 Diplomacy: Secretary of State Hamilton Fish and Spanish admiral José Polo de Bernabe agree to settle damages arising from the Virginius affair by paying $80,000 to the survivors’ families—despite the fact that the vessel was illegally flying an American flag and was aiding Cuban rebels on the island. The agreement curtails any sentiments for war and annexation for the time being.

1874 Agriculture: The Colorado beetle, better known as the potato bug, finally completes its migration to the East Coast and inflicts great damage to potato crops. Arts: Martin Milmore begins work on his Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument in Boston, Massachusetts, initiating a distinct and ornate style in American public sculpture. Business: The Krug Brewery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is renamed the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company. Medical: Dr. Andrew T. Still of Baldwin, Kansas, begins the new practice of osteopathy, or therapy based on the manipulation of the skeleton and muscles. Military: Congress slashes the size of the U.S. Army down to 25,000 men, forcing it to eliminate all recruiting efforts. Politics: The Social Democratic Workingmen’s Party is organized, based on the principles of German socialist Ferdinand LaSalle, which are evolutionary and not revolutionary. Publishing: Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) and Charles Dudley Warner publish the novel The Gilded Age, a caustic satire on the corruption and rampant speculation of the day. Writer Edward Eggleston enjoys critical success with his novel The Circuit Rider, concerning a frontier preacher. Historian Francis Parkman publishes The Old Regime of Canada, the next volume in his epic historical series. Religion: Liberal theologian John Fiske publishes Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy, arguing that religion and the scientific theories of evolution espoused by Charles Darwin are not mutually exclusive. In fact, society, by its many trials and tribulations, weeds out the weak while only the strong and better equipped survive. This is the origin of “social Darwinism.” Science: Governor W. H. Jackson, who is also an avid photographer, discovers ancient Pueblo “cliff dwellings” along the Manco River, Colorado Territory. Societal: The Philadelphia Zoological Gardens, America’s first public zoo, opens in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Sports: The new sport of lawn tennis appears in the United States, having been imported from Bermuda by New Yorker Mary Ewing Outerbridge. She also lays out the first tennis court, replete with nets, balls, and rackets, on Staten Island. Technology: Construction of the Eads Bridge over the Mississippi River at St. Louis, Missouri, employs pneumatic foundation casings for the first time.

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Chronology of American History Stephen Field of New York City pioneers invention of the third rail, which safely and conveniently provides streetcars with an electric current.

January 13 Labor: Frustrated with unemployment, a mob riots in Tompkins Square Park, New York City.

January 20 Politics: Congress, reacting to public pressure and resentment, repeals the “Salary Grab Act of 1873,” although raises for the president and Supreme Court justices are left intact.

January 21 Law: Late chief justice Salmon P. Chase of the U.S. Supreme Court is replaced by Morrison R. Waite; the Senate had rejected President Grant’s earlier nominees, George Henry Williams and Caleb Cushing.

January 31 General: The Minnesota legislature votes to give $5,000 in aid to farmers beset by a destructive locust infestation. Other plains states so afflicted soon follow suit.

February 3 Civil: In Jackson, Mississippi, Blanche K. Bruce becomes the first AfricanAmerican U.S. senator elected from that state. Politics: King Lunalilo dies suddenly in Hawaii, leaving several competitors scrambling to succeed him.

February 12 Politics: After Hawaiian legislators elect Prince David Kalakaua to succeed the late king Lunalilo, supporters of Queen Emma riot and gut the palace. A bitter power struggle ensues.

March 8 General: Former president Millard Fillmore dies at 74 in Buffalo, New York.

March 11 Business: The Wisconsin state legislature, prodded by the Grange, passes the Potter Law to regulate railroad and freight rates within its boundaries. This is a major victory over the lumber and railroad monopolies.

March 22 Religion: The Young Men’s Hebrew Association is founded in New York City under President Lewis May.

March 23 Business: The Iowa legislature, with backing from the local Grange, passes the so-called Grange Laws to regulate freight rates within that state. This move frustrates the ability of tycoons like Cornelius Vanderbilt and Jay Gould to set their own rates, while protecting farmers and railroad managers. This also constitutes a major victory for the Grange, whose influence is slowly growing nationwide.

April 14 Business: The House of Representatives passes the Legal Tender Act, which adds $18 million in greenbacks to the $383 million already in circulation.

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Vanderbilt, Cornelius (1794–1877) Businessman Cornel­ius Vanderbil­t was born in Port Rich-­ mond, Staten Isl­and, New York, on May 27, 1794, the son of farmers. Exceptional­l­y wil­l­ful­, he dropped out of school­ at 11 and five years l­ater purchased a sail­boat to raise money by giving rides. Vanderbil­t displ­ayed acute busi-­ ness acumen at an earl­y age, and by the War of 1812 he possessed a fl­eet of schooners and a contract with the government to sup-­ pl­y various forts around New York City. By 1818 Vanderbil­t correctl­y guessed that steam was the future of transportation, so he man-­ aged a smal­l­ fl­eet of steamboats with Tho-­ mas Gibbons and chal­l­enged Robert Ful­ton’s monopol­y of the traffic on the Hudson River. When Ful­ton’s monopol­y was overthrown by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1829, Vanderbil­t acquired his own steamboat l­ine, undercut al­l­ the competition, drove them out of business, and ended up with a virtual­ monopol­y of his own. He owed his success to the incessant pl­owing of profits back into the business, and to offering the publ­ic both l­uxury accom-­ modations and l­ower fares than competitors. So successful­ did this enterprise prove that Vanderbil­t garnered the nickname “Commo-­ dore” and became a mil­l­ionaire by 1846. The fol­l­owing year he acquired a steamboat l­ine in Nicaragua, which was temporaril­y taken over by competitors, but he cut his own rates, drove them out of business, and acquired another monopol­y to the Pacific just as the famous gol­d rush was commencing. Vander-­ bil­t subsequentl­y acquired three l­uxury l­iners for the transatl­antic passage from New York to Le Havre, France, but when the Civil­ War

commenced in 1861 he donated them to the U.S. Navy as warships. He al­so bought up and refurbished many ol­der vessel­s and then sol­d them to the government for use as bl­ock-­ ade vessel­s. By 1862 Vanderbil­t foresaw that rail­-­ roads woul­d prove of increasing importance as a national­ transportation network, and began quietl­y and methodical­l­y purchasing fail­ing l­ines. He began by purchasing the New York & Harl­em Rail­road, and with it he initiated New York City’s first streetcar service. Vanderbil­t then vanquished Dan-­ iel­ Drew in a l­ong and costl­y struggl­e to consol­idate the Harl­em River Rail­road and the New York Central­ Rail­road, which he accompl­ished with the hel­p of the New York l­egisl­ature in 1869. However, Vanderbil­t met his match when he took on Drew, James Fisk, and the wil­y Jay Goul­d for control­ of the Erie Rail­road in Pennsyl­vania. When the l­atter fl­ooded the stock market with 100,000 issues of fraudul­ent stock, which Vanderbil­t purchased by mistake, he l­ost heavil­y and then withdrew from the competition. This setback proved temporary, for in 1873 his acquisition of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Rail­road compl­eted the first direct l­ink between the metropol­itan hubs of New York and Chicago. Vanderbil­t then survived the panic of 1873 by arranging construction of the Grand Central­ Terminal­ in New York. Vanderbil­t died in New York on January 1, 1877, with a net worth exceeding $100 mil­-­ l­ion, which marked him as the most success-­ ful­ business tycoon of his day.

April 15–May 15 Politics: With backing from President Grant, Republ­ican El­isha Baxter becomes governor of Arkansas, ending a viol­ent dispute with Democratic contender James Brooks. Armed supporters of either side have kil­l­ed 20 men and federal­ troops are required to restore order.

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April 22 Business: President Grant vetoes the Legal Tender Bill, which calls for $18 million in additional paper money, for fear of stimulating inflation.

May 4 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Bartemeyer v. Iowa, ruling that the sale of liquor does not fall under the privileges and immunities clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Politics: Secretary of the Treasury William A. Richardson resigns after revelations that he allowed a friend to reap windfall commissions while collecting taxes for the U.S. government.

May 8 Labor: Massachusetts adopts a 10-hour work day for women and children under 18, the first in the nation.

May 16 General: The Williamsburg Dam, Massachusetts, breaks at the Ashfield Reservoir and floods the Mill River valley, inflicting 100 deaths and damage amounting to millions of dollars.

May 21 General: Nellie Grant, the president’s daughter, marries Algernon Frederick Sartoris in a White House ceremony; it is the third wedding on the premises.

May 26 Sports: The second annual Preakness Stakes is won by Culpepper, who turns in a time of two minutes and 56 seconds.

June 13 Sports: The eighth annual Belmont Stakes is won by Saxon, who completes the course in two minutes and 39 seconds. This also marks the first year that the distance run was one and a half miles.

June 18 Agriculture: To assist farmers whose crops have been destroyed by locusts, Congress passes an act allowing them to temporarily evacuate their holdings without risk of losing their claims to the land. In this manner the residents may seek employment elsewhere for the time being.

June 20 Business: Congress fixes the amount of greenbacks in circulation at $382 million. Politics: A board of three commissioners, appointed by the president, is installed as the new government of Washington, D.C. The previous territorial form of governance is abolished, and the inhabitants are disenfranchised and lose their nonvoting representative in Congress.

June 27 Military: A large raiding party of Cheyenne, Kiowa, and Comanche Indians under Quanah Parker and Lone Wolf attacks the fortified trading post called Adobe Walls in the Texas Panhandle. However, the sharpshooting hunters opposing them, being equipped with high-powered rifles, commence felling braves at a mile’s distance. Unable to overcome such stout resistance, the discouraged war-

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riors retire after a few hours of one-sided combat. However, this action signifies the start of the Red River War.

July General: The Rocky Mountains are suddenly beset by hungry locusts who infest the region in a swarm of biblical-scale proportions. These winged hordes promptly descend on the fertile plains states, devouring everything in sight and causing millions of dollars in crop damages. Indian: Commanding General William T. Sherman announces the end of President Ulysses S. Grant’s “peace policy” toward Native Americans and instructs General Philip H. Sheridan to aggressively pursue and punish all hostile tribes. Sherman himself relocates his headquarters to Chicago, Illinois, after continual disagreements with Secretary of War William W. Belknap.

July 2 Military: Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer leads 10 companies of his 7th U.S. Cavalry out of Fort Abraham Lincoln, Dakota Territory, and begins exploring the Black Hills region. This is a part of the Great Sioux Reservation and the intrusion does much to escalate hostilities between both sides. As if to underscore the ramifications of this endeavor, within two days Custer’s Crow scouts abandon the column for fear of Sioux retaliation. Custer is in the region to verify the presence of valuable mineral deposits, especially gold, and he is accompanied by civilian specialists in geology, topography, and paleontology.

July 4 Engineering: James Buchanan Eads, renowned for constructing gunboats during the Civil War, erects the world’s largest steel arch bridge over the Mississippi River at St. Louis, Missouri. The bridge has been seven years in the making and constitutes a milestone in engineering.

July 27 Military: At Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, General John Pope orders men of the 6th U.S. Cavalry and 5th U.S. Infantry to begin marshaling at Fort Dodge to conduct sweeps against hostile Indians along the southern plains.

July 30 Military: The cavalry column of Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer wends its way along the banks of French Creek, Dakota Territory, where the soldiers begin to encounter gold deposits, consistent with the reports of various prospectors.

August 2 Indian: General George A. Custer announces the discovery of gold in the Black Hills region of the Dakota Territory, a tract previously reserved by treaty for the Sioux nation. This news will result in an influx of miners and prospectors onto Indian land, which will greatly anger the inhabitants.

August 4 –18 Societal: The Chautauqua Movement is founded by Methodist clergyman John H. Vincent and Ohio industrialist Lewis Miller. It starts as a summer school for Sunday teachers but expands its program to promote reading and discussion of major national events. Its derives its name from Lake Chautauqua in western New York.

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August 21 Religion: Congregationalist preacher Henry Ward Beecher of the Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, New York, is cleared on charges of adultery leveled against him by Theodore Tilton. The trial has commanded great public attention, and speculation only increases after the jury split 9-3 in favor of Beecher.

August 30 Military: The military expedition of Lieutenant Col onel George A. Custer trots back into Fort Abraham Lincoln, Dakota Territory, after exploring the Black Hills region of the Great Sioux Reservation. It had been an impressive jaunt covering 1,205 miles in 60 days and was accomplished without violence. The intrusion will do much to exacerbate tensions with tribes claiming the hills as sacred land, as hungry prospectors begin swarming into the region. Colonel Nelson A. Miles leads the 5th U.S. Infantry and the 6th U.S. Cavalry in a lengthy pursuit of Cheyenne war parties along the Red River. The ensuing running skirmish lasts five hours and culminates with a successful stand by the warriors at Tule Canyon, Texas, at which point Miles withdraws due to lack of provisions.

September Agriculture: A large settlement of Menonnite emigrants from Russia introduces the drought-resistant “Turkey Red” strain of wheat to America.

September 9–12 Military: Hostile Kiowa and Comanche under Lone Wolf, Satanta, and Big Tree attack Major William R. Price’s supply train along the Washita River, Texas, and will be rebuffed after a three-day siege.

September 14 Politics: When Democratic candidate John McEmery supposedly defeats Republican governor William P. Kellogg in Louisiana, violence breaks out between feuding groups, especially white supremacists and carpetbaggers. President Ulysses S. Grant, recognizing Kellogg as the legitimate governor, dispatches federal troops under General Philip H. Sheridan to his support.

September 15 Business: An American delegation attends the first international postal conference held at Berne, Switzerland. Their goal is to help standardize international mailing procedures and rates.

September 17 Politics: Backed by federal bayonets, Republican William P. Kellogg is sworn in as governor of Louisiana.

September 18 Societal: The Nebraska Relief and Aid Society is founded to assist farmers hard hit by the recent locust infestation and will actively collect and distribute money and supplies to those in need. The swarms of insects have been so dense of late that they literally block out the sun.

September 28 Military: A column of the 4th U.S. Cavalry under Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie surrounds and attacks a body of Kiowa, Cheyenne, and Comanche Indians at Palo Duro Canyon, destroying their winter camp and food supplies, and stam-

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peding 1,500 ponies. This demoralizing defeat forces many of the warriors to surrender at reservation agencies.

November 3 Politics: Mid-term elections return control of the House of Representatives to the Democrats for the first time since 1860. The Republicans, as a reflection of public anger against mounting corruption, lose 89 seats in the House and four in the Senate. In New York, Samuel J. Tilden, the politician responsible for breaking up the William “Boss” Tweed Ring, is elected governor on a reform platform. His success in prosecuting and eliminating graft will make him a viable candidate for the next presidential election.

November 7 Politics: Cartoonist Thomas Nast uses an elephant to symbolize the Republican Party for the first time, in an issue of Harper’s Weekly.

November 18–20 Politics: The Women’s Christian Temperance Union is created from a gathering of delegates from 17 states in Cleveland, Ohio, with Annie Wittenmyer as president. As a social movement, temperance is slowly gaining traction within large sections of society, particularly among women, who frequently bear the brunt of drunken spouses.

November 24 Technology: Joseph F. Glidden obtains a patent for barbed wire, a highly significant device that will be used to keep cattle from ranging off a rancher’s land. Barbed wire was originally developed for use in the Civil War as an anti-personnel device, but this is the first known civilian application. Cattle raising becomes an expanding industry throughout the Great Plains.

November 25 Politics: The Greenback Party, comprised largely of farmers from the South and West, convenes for the first time at Indianapolis, Indiana. They call for currency inflation, an end to payment of debts in cash (gold), and repayment of debts and mortgages with “cheaper” paper money.

December 7 Civil: Race rioting outside a courthouse in Vicksburg, Mississippi, results in the deaths of 75 African Americans. The cause was removal of a carpetbag sheriff by angry Southerners. Politics: In his annual address to Congress; President Ulysses S. Grant urges the resumption of specie payments.

1875 Agriculture: In Santa Rosa, California, Luther Burbank continues crossbreeding plants on a commercial scale, producing new strains of plants, berries, fruits, grains, and vegetables. Arts: Sculptor John Rogers cashes in on the growing vogue for miniature plaster statuary groups, such as his The Checker Players and The Slave Market, selling 100,000 copies.

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Chronology of American History Sculptor Daniel Chester French creates the famous statue in Boston, Massachusetts, entitled The Minuteman. Thomas Eakins’s painting Gross Clinic is hailed as a marvel of realism in the style of French artists Jean Léon Gérôme and Léon Joseph Florentin Bonnat. Business: In Brooklyn, New York, Thomas Adams invents the first chewing gum by using chicle, which is derived from the tropical evergreen tree. General: Advertising itself as “The Greatest Show on Earth,” promoter P. T. Barnum unveils his famous three-ring circus, covered by the biggest canvas tent in the world. Literature: Henry James publishes his important work A Passionate Pilgrim and Other Tales, which underscores his celebrated command of psychology and realism. Medical: In Kirksville, Missouri, Dr. Andrew T. Still develops a new branch of medicine he dubs as osteopathy. George F. Green patents the dental drill in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Music: As an indication of the growing cultural respect for music, Harvard appoints John Knowles Paine to a professorship in that discipline, the first such tenured chair in the nation. Publishing: The Naval Institute of the United States begins publishing its Proceedings at Annapolis, Maryland. Religion: Forceful evangelist Dwight L. Moody explodes on the revival scene as a preacher, relaying a simple biblical message about the saving of souls at a time when most clergymen are concerned with social reforms. Hebrew Union College is founded at Cincinnati, Ohio, being one of the oldest rabbinical seminaries in the country. Isaac Mayer Wise is the first president and has an enrollment of nine students, initially. In Portland, Maine, James A. Healy is the first African-American bishop in the Catholic Church. Societal: The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children is founded with Henry Bergh as its first president. Sports: In Boston, unpadded baseball gloves are introduced by first baseman Charles G. Waite.

January 14 Business: Congress passes the Specie Resumption Act, which provides for gold to be exchanged for legal tender in an attempt to bring down the total number of greenbacks still in circulation from $382 million to $300 million. It attempts to balance the needs for currency inflation in the West and “sound money” policy in the East, and finally closes the book on Civil War financing.

January 25 Agriculture: The commissioner of agriculture is ordered by Congress to distribute $30,000 of seed to farmers whose land has been devastated by locusts. This is performed under the objection of constitutional purists, including President Ulysses S. Grant, who deems such assistance illegal. Crime: Pinkerton detectives raid the farmhouse of outlaws Frank and Jesse James, burning down their barn with fire bombs, but the pair are not present. Despite their reputation as wanton murderers, the brothers enjoy some local popularity as modern-day versions of Robin Hood.

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James, Henry

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(1843–1916)

Author Henry James was born in New York City on April 5, 1843, the son of a theologian and a brother of philosopher William James. His father ensured that he had an extremely eclectic education by taking him to Europe constantly, while also providing private tutors. James entered Harvard Law School in 1862 but he dropped out to publish essays and critical reviews. He then became a regular contributor to the Nation while living in Cambridge, Massachusetts, from 1865 to 1869, during which time William Dean Howells, editor of the Atlantic Monthly, also encouraged him to write fiction. His first effort, A Passionate Pilgrim and other Tales (1871), struck what became for him a recurrent theme, namely, the sharp contrast between rough-hewn Americans abroad and their more sophisticated counterparts in Europe. By 1875 James had relocated to Paris to pursue writing, and became intimately acquainted with impressionists such as Ivan Turgenev, Gustave Flaubert, and Emile Zola. A year later he settled in London and continued publishing novels on his favorite theme, the conflict of civilizations. In 1879 he published his first famous novel, Daisy Miller, and followed it up with The Portrait of a Lady (1881), which is considered a masterwork of this genre. With time James gradually abandoned his obsession for national traditions and focused more on characters as they developed morally and intellectually. This steady flow of work included stories such as The Siege of London (1885), the short story

“A Turn of the Screw,” and The Awkward Age (1899). Though successful as a novelist, he began dabbling with writing drama for the stage in 1890 but failed miserably after a concerted, five-year effort. He abandoned the stage upon being jeered by the audience after his play “Guy Domville” debuted in 1895. Undeterred, James returned to writing and produced some of his best work to date. Between 1899 and 1904 he published his trilogy, The Wings of the Dove, The Ambassadors, and The Golden Bowl, which further cemented his reputation as among the finest exponents of impressionistic fiction. His themes now centered upon the relationship of individuals to society as a whole, along with delineating an ethical framework that he held essential to the maintenance of civilized society. He returned to the United States in 1904 and toured the country with his brother before venturing back to Lamb House, Rye, England. James suffered from a nervous ailment in 1909, which slowed his output, but his final works, such as The American Scene (1907), proved as popular as ever. He was also showered with literary laurels, including an honorary doctorate from Harvard in 1911 and a similar degree from Oxford a year later. He was disturbed by the outbreak of war in Europe and angered by America’s neutrality, so he contributed by helping hospitals and Belgian war refugees and also became a naturalized British subject. He died in London on February 28, 1916, shortly after receiving the Order of Merit from King George V.

January 30 Diplomacy: The United States and King Kalakua of Hawaii conclude a reciprocity treaty whereby sugar products can be imported duty-free. Furthermore, third powers are excluded from acquiring any Hawaiian trade relations and the Americans are free to establish a protectorate to enforce the same.

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Moody, Dwight L. (1837–1899) Evangelist

Dwight Lyman Moody (Library of Congress)

Dwight Lyman Moody was born in Northfield, Massachusetts, on February 5, 1837, and relocated to Boston at 17 to work as a cobbler. A Unitarian since birth, Moody came into contact with Congregationalists through membership in the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) and thereafter he was indelibly drawn to religion. In 1856 he joined the Congregationalists and moved to Chicago to work as a shoe salesman. Significantly, he remained a layman and was never ordained as a full minister. Moody was gradually attracted by evangelical work in nearby slums and he formed a church for children there by 1858. Upon the advent of the Civil War in 1861, he forsook his occupation altogether, worked full-time for the YMCA as a director, and also served with the U.S. Christian Commission to administer to Union troops. However, it was not until 1872 that Moody embarked upon the avocation that would bring him renown. That year he ventured to England and began preaching

February 10 Societal: Congress votes an additional $150,000 to assist midwestern farmers dislocated by locust infestations.

March 1 Civil: Congress passes the Civil Rights Act, which guarantees access to all public facilities to African Americans and also allows them to serve on juries. This bill was originally championed by the late senator Charles Sumner, an ardent proponent of equality.

March 3 Business: Congress authorizes the minting of 20-cent silver pieces. Politics: The Tariff Act of 1875 is approved by Congress; this bill raises duty levels by 10 percent.

March 4 Politics: Former president Andrew Johnson resumes his seat in the U.S. Senate, where he serves for the next five months.

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at a local church while on a YMCA business trip. When 400 people responded to his religious call for salvation, Moody committed his life to preaching and spreading evangelical Christianity. Unlike many contemporaries, Moody addressed the laity in direct, friendly terms and, in a simplified message, accentuated that salvation is attainable only through personal rebirth in Christ. Otherwise, he eschewed all theological debate and nuance, preferring instead to concentrate on the pursuit of individual salvation. He also specialized in preaching to the urban masses, long neglected by government and the business community, and found them a receptive audience. In successive tours of England in 1872 and 1873, Moody preached to an estimated three million people. Success made him a wonder of the evangelical movement and he determined to carry his message to every American city. Moody was an outstanding organizer thanks to his business background, and he toured nearly all major American urban centers with impressive success. He was

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also theologically astute enough to avoid local disputes between either liberal or conservative ministers, seeking instead to unite them in his common cause of saving souls. Moody proved himself a whirlwind of activity, inexhaustibly preaching at various locales for weeks on end while, backed by musician Ira Sankey, who pioneered the new and popular form of gospel hymn. Together the two men electrified the preaching circuit and helped usher in a late-19thcentury revivalism. Mindful of his legacy, Moody also established two private secondary academies in Northfield and the famous Chicago (now Moody) Bible Institute for the instruction of urban lay evangelicals. In 1886 he also inaugurated the Student Volunteer Movement to assist the YMCA to expand and enhance Protestant missionary efforts. Moreover, his mass effort presaged and stimulated the fundamentalist streak in the modern American evangelical movement by many decades. Moody died at Northfield on December 22, 1899, one of the most influential religious figures in American history.

March 5 Civil: Blanche Kelso Bruce of Mississippi becomes the first African American to serve a full term in the U.S. Senate.

March 6 Indian: Bested in the brief but bloody Red River War, over 800 Cheyenne under Chief Gray Beard surrender to authorities at the Darlington Agency, Indian Territory (Oklahoma).

March 15 Religion: Archbishop John McCloskey of New York City becomes the first American Roman Catholic cardinal and is invested at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

March 18 Diplomacy: The Senate ratifies the recent reciprocity treaty with Hawaii, which allows duty-free imports and excludes foreign nations from expropriating any islands.

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Chronology of American History Recent cross-border raids by hostile Apache Indians force Secretary of State Hamilton Fish to explain the American inability to contain them in a note to Mexico’s foreign minister. Greater cooperation between the militaries of both sides is also encouraged.

March 30 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Minor v. Happersett, ruling that the Fourteenth Amendment does not preclude states from establishing suffrage requirements. This will be used as a pretext for denying women the right to vote.

April 12 Diplomacy: When a coterie of generals overthrows the short-lived Spanish republic and installs Alfonzo XII as king of Spain, Secretary of State Hamilton Fish instructs Caleb Cushing, the U.S. minister in Madrid, to recognize the de facto regime. Meanwhile, the Americans intend to keep pressing the Spanish to end the Cuban rebellion by making necessary reforms.

April 25 Indian: Another party of civilian geologists confirms the presence of gold in the Black Hills region, Dakota, setting the stage for a bloody showdown with the Sioux nation, which regards the region as sacred.

May Indian: Exhausted Comanche war bands under Quanah Parker surrender to military authorities at Fort Sill, Indian Territory (Oklahoma). Parker, who is halfwhite, strikes up cordial relations with Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie, whom the Indians have dubbed “Bad Hand” on account of a Civil War injury.

May 1 Journalism: According to the St. Louis Democrat, John McDonald, a supervisor of internal revenue in St. Louis and a close friend of President Ulysses S. Grant, is involved in a scandal known as the Whiskey Ring. This is a conspiracy between distillery owners and revenue officers who defraud the government through nonpayment of liquor taxes. A full-scale investigation begins under the aegis of Secretary of the Treasury Benjamin H. Bristow.

May 3 Diplomacy: The United States joins the Universal Postal Union whereby several nations share postal services. Indian: Chief Kicking Bird of the Kiowa, who identified tribal leaders active in the Red River War in Texas to U.S. authorities, dies under mysterious circumstances— possibly poisoned by rivals for cooperating with the Americans.

May 7 General: The steamboat Schiller, en route from New York to Hamburg, Germany, runs aground off the English coast, killing 200 passengers.

May 10 Politics: Secretary of the Treasury Benjamin H. Bristow informs President Ulysses S. Grant that his personal secretary, General Orville Babcock, has been implicated in the so-called Whiskey Ring scandal.

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May 17 Sports: The horse Aristides wins the first Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs, Kentucky, with a run of two minutes, 37 seconds, and jockey Oliver Lewis takes a purse of $2,850. The race will remain a one and one-quarter-mile track reserved for three-year-old horses.

May 21 Indian: A party of 72 disaffected Kiowa, Cheyenne, and Arapaho Indians arrives at Fort Marion, Florida, to begin new lives on a reservation. Though separated by a thousand miles from the bulk of their fellow tribesmen, the newcomers are looked after by Richard Pratt, a former army officer, who entreats his charges to learn English and adopt white customs, yet preserve their memories as warriors with pencil and paper “hide paintings.”

May 27 General: The French Catholic Church in Holyoke, Massachusetts, catches fire and burns to the ground, killing 120 parishioners.

May 28 Sports: The third annual Preakness Stakes is won by Tom Ochiltree with a time of two minutes, 43 seconds.

May 29 Politics: President Ulysses S. Grant declares that he will not run for a third term as president.

June 2 Communication: Lieutenant Adolphus W. Greely, 4th U.S. Infantry and a future explorer of note, runs the first telegraph wire through Indian Territory and establishes a direct link between Fort Bliss, Texas, and Fort Sill (Oklahoma).

June 3 Technology: Alexander Graham Bell, while experimenting with telegraphs as a possible tool for teaching the deaf, actually hears his assistant trying to pluck a stuck transmitter spring over the wires—an important step toward creation of the telephone.

June 12 Sports: The ninth annual Belmont Stakes is won by Calvin, who turns in a time of two minutes, 42 seconds.

July Religion: The noted evangelical minister Dwight Lyman Moody begins preaching in cities throughout the East, leading to a general revival movement.

July 31 General: Former president Andrew Johnson dies at Cater’s Station, Tennessee, aged 66.

September 1 Labor: In Pennsylvania, a murder conviction leads to the breakup of a violent Irish miners’ association known as the Molly Maguires. However, public opinion will begin to pressure for improving conditions in the shafts.

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September 10 Conservation: The American Forestry Association is organized in Chicago, Illinois, by Dr. John A. Wardner, to facilitate the conservation of natural resources on a national scale.

September 16 Communication: The first Fast Mail train departs Grand Central Station, New York City, initiating a mailing innovation.

October Indian: Government attempts to either buy or force the Sioux off their land in the Dakotas result in a large and bloody conflict under Chiefs Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull.

October 12 Politics: Anti-greenback candidate Rutherford B. Hayes is elected to the governorship of Ohio.

October 30 Religion: Christian Science founder Mary Baker Eddy begins publishing her magazine Science and Health, which expounds upon the tenets of her faith.

November 17 Societal: Helena Petrovna Blavatsky founds an American chapter of the Theosophical Society in New York to promote the universal brotherhood of humanity along with comparative studies of Eastern philosophy and religion. Blavatsky, or “H. P.,” as she prefers to be called, also places a strong emphasis on reincarnation and psychical powers.

November 22 General: Vice President Henry Wilson dies at 63; he was one of the founders of the Republican Party.

November 23 Transportation: A National Railroad Convention unfolds at St. Louis, Missouri, drawing 800 delegates from 31 states. Among them is former Confederate president Jefferson Davis, who heads the Mississippi delegation.

December Indian: In a major escalation of tensions, the federal government orders the Sioux nation to return to its reservations no later than January 31 or face military action. This is despite the fact that prospectors are presently working on the Black Hills section of land allotted to the Indians. Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse begin marshaling their warriors for action. Religion: In Brooklyn, New York, extra trolley tracks have to be laid on the ground to accommodate the throng wishing to hear the evangelical preacher Dwight Lyman Moody, a former shoe salesman bereft of formal theological training.

December 4 Crime: Convicted swindler William “Boss” Tweed manages to escape confinement in New York City and flees to Cuba and then to Spain. There he will eventually be arrested by authorities and returned to finish his incarceration.

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Crazy Horse

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(ca. 1849–1877)

Sioux chief Crazy Horse (Tashunca-Uitco) was born near present-day Rapid City, South Dakota, around 1849, a member of the Oglala Sioux nation. He first came to the attention of tribal elders during the Red Cloud War by playing prominent roles in the Fetterman Massacre of December 21, 1866, and the Wagon Box Fight on August 2, 1867. He distinguished himself in combat as a warrior, but was considered unusual for a Sioux brave due to his reserved nature and insistence upon not taking scalps. After 1868 Crazy Horse refused to follow Red Cloud onto reservations established for the Sioux by the American government and took a band of approximately 1,200 Native Americans northward to join the followers of Sitting Bull. Approximately half of these were Cheyenne, owing to his marriage to a tribal woman. Once settled, he resumed his traditional ways of raiding Crow villages, hunting buffalo, and attacking prospectors looking for gold on Indian land. In 1873 Crazy Horse skirmished briefly with a future antagonist, Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer; two years later Custer would certify that gold had been discovered in the Black Hills region of South Dakota. This land, regarded as sacred to the Sioux, had been promised to them by government agents and they greatly resented the intrusion. Worse, in December 1875 the Bureau of Indian Affairs issued an ultimatum that any Indian not confined to a reservation by the end of January 1876 would be considered as hostile and subject to military action. This threat prompted the

Sioux and others to mobilize several thousand mounted warriors in open defiance, and a large-scale uprising broke out. Crazy Horse, the quiet warrior, was destined to play a prominent role in one of the final, defining acts of the Indian wars. Crazy Horse assumed command of approximately 1,600 Sioux and Cheyenne warriors. On June 17, 1876, he attacked the mounted column of General George Crook along the Rosebud River, fighting it to a draw and inflicting considerable losses. Consequently, Crook withdrew from the field to regroup and was unable to rendezvous with another column under General Alfred H. Terry. The spearhead of this force, the 7th U.S. Cavalry under Custer, happened upon the large Indian encampment at Little Bighorn River and attacked before reinforcements could arrive. Crazy Horse, aided by Gall and other chiefs, promptly sallied out of the village, attacked en masse, and killed Custer and all 261 of his men. The army then renewed its efforts to crush the uprising, and another force under Colonel Nelson A. Miles drove Crazy Horse’s band all winter long. The chief finally surrendered to authorities on May 5, 1877, and he was interned at the Fort Robinson agency. General Crook was alerted by Red Cloud and other Sioux elders, who resented the youthful chief ’s influence, that he might be plotting a rebellion. Crazy Horse, however, resisted arrest and died after being bayoneted on September 7, 1877. He is regarded as among the greatest of Native American military leaders.

December 6 Politics: The 44th Congress assembles with the first Democratic majority in the House of Representatives since 1859. Meanwhile, the Republicans maintain a solid lead in the Senate.

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Sitting Bull (ca. 1831–1890) Hunkpapa chief Sitting Bul­l­ (Tatanka Iyotake) was prob-­ abl­y born around 1831 al­ong the Grand River in modern South Dakota. As part of the Hunkpapa Sioux nation, he dis-­ tinguished himsel­f as a warrior earl­y in manhood and by 1856 headed the Strong Heart mil­itary society. Sitting Bul­l­ first skirmished against the U.S. Army dur-­ ing Littl­e Crow’s uprising in Minnesota in 1862, yet became more highl­y prized among his peopl­e as a shaman, or medi-­ cine man, for the great number of visions he experienced whil­e dancing. By 1866 he had emerged as a nominal­ l­eader of the Hunkpapa and their nominal­ al­l­ies, the Lakota Sioux, and al­so became cl­osel­y identified with noted war chief Crazy Horse of the al­l­ied Ogl­al­a. As a l­eader, Sitting Bul­l­ strongl­y resented and resisted white encroachment on Indian l­ands, and he repeatedl­y warned the numerous white representatives he encountered that he woul­d resist any attempt to rel­ocate his peopl­e to a reservation. The Sioux

Sitting Bull (National Archives of Canada)

December 15 Politics: The Democratic control­l­ed House of Representatives passes an anti-­ third term resol­ution to discourage Ul­ysses S. Grant from running again. The president, in any event, has publ­icl­y decl­ined to do so.

December 25 Journalism: Mel­vil­l­e E. Stone, Wil­l­iam Doughtery, and Percy Meggy found the Chicago Daily News in Chicago, Il­l­inois.

December 30 Technology: The Carnegie Steel­ Mil­l­ in Braddock, Pennsyl­vania, is the first American pl­ant to empl­oy the new Bessemer process for removing impurities from mol­ten iron with air. The resul­t is a steel­ of much higher qual­ity and strength for buil­ding purposes.

1876 Architecture: Frederick Law Ol­msted and Cal­vert Vaux compl­ete their work on New York City’s Central­ Park, hereafter a vital­ part of that city’s social­ and artistic l­ife.

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managed to coexist in an uneasy relation with frontier settlements until 1874, when gold was discovered in the Black Hills region of South Dakota, which triggered an influx of miners and prospectors. Tensions crested in the fall of 1875 when General Alfred Terry warned all Indians to be on a reservation by the following January or be considered hostile and subject to a military response. “You won’t need any guides,” was Sitting Bull’s response. “You can find me easily, I won’t run away.” In time his encampment was swollen by 2,500 to 4,000 warriors; under enlightened leadership from Crazy Horse, Gall, and others, they turned back General George Crook’s column at Rosebud Creek, then destroyed part of Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer’s 7th U.S. Cavalry at Little Bighorn. However, the Indians then broke up and dispersed for the winter, with vengeful army troops in hot pursuit, and Sitting Bull’s band sought out safety in Canada by May 1877. After years of deprivation in Canada, Sitting Bull and 187 Hunkpapa finally

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returned to the United States and surrendered to authorities in July 1881. Following two years of confinement at Fort Randall, he was released and relocated to the Standing Rock Reservation. Much to his surprise, Sitting Bull had become a legendary and popular figure among whites, and he toured a year with William “Buffalo Bill” Cody’s Wild West Show to thunderous applause. Despite his newfound fame, Sitting Bull insisted that he was still chief of his people and sought to return to them. He continued living a quiet life until 1890 when the new “Ghost Dance” religion took root among the impoverished Indians and promised to deliver them from their white oppressors. Sitting Bull looked askance at these developments and did not endorse them, but army officials suspected he was secretly fomenting an uprising and dispatched Apache reservation police to arrest him. Fighting ensued and Sitting Bull was mortally wounded; he died on December 15, 1890, the most famous symbol of Indian resistance.

Arts: Painter John La Farge is commissioned to provide the first mural decoration in an American church by working at Trinity Church, Boston. Erasmus D. Palmer completes the bronze casting entitled Chancellor Robert R. Livingston in the U.S. Capitol’s Hall of Statuary; previously, the work won a medal at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, marks a turning point in American sculpture as prospective artists are able to study firsthand various works by European masters who have turned away from the neoclassical style. Business: In Topeka, Kansas, English entrepreneur Fred Harvey introduces his clean-scrubbed, neatly attired “Harvey Girls” to wait on hungry railroad customers at his dining room above the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad. The approach will prove eminently successful and he will soon open similar ventures along the entire length of the line. Henry J. Heinz of Sharpsburg, Pennsylvania, comes up with the novel idea of putting ketchup in bottles for use in both restaurants and homes. Education: Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, opens the first college fraternity house to a chapter of the Kappa Alpha Society.

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Eddy, Mary Baker

(1821–1910)

Theologian

Mary Baker Eddy (Library of Congress)

Mary Baker was born in Bow, New Hamp-­ shire, into a famil­y of strong Puritan roots. Sickl­y as a chil­d, she remained inexpl­icabl­y subject to nervous col­l­apses as an adul­t. Baker was nonethel­ess hap-­ pil­y married to George W. Gl­over in 1843, al­though he died of il­l­ness within a year. In 1853 she remarried, to Daniel­ Pat-­ terson, a dentist, al­l­ the whil­e remaining sidel­ined by frequent il­l­ness. Around this time Baker devel­oped an interest in faith heal­ing, and in 1862 became intrigued by the nonmedical­ principl­es of Dr. Phineas P. Quimby of Portl­and, Maine. Surpris-­ ingl­y, Baker found her ail­ments cured and she became an enthusiastic discipl­e of Quimby’s techniques. She then sus-­ tained serious spinal­ injuries in a fal­l­ and began pursuing Bibl­e-­based heal­ing tech-­ niques, what she subsequentl­y described as “Christian Science.” Fol­l­owing her sec-­ ond divorce in 1866 Baker began formu-­ l­ating and col­l­ating the groundwork for her newfound rel­igious faith. In 1875 she wrote and publ­ished her ground-­breaking

The Harvard Lampoon, the first undergraduate humor magazine, begins pub-­ l­ishing at Harvard University. Journalism: Joel­ Chandl­er Harris begins writing for the Atlanta Constitution, commencing a 31-­year tenure there. Literature: Herman Mel­vil­l­e publ­ishes his Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land, recounting his 1857 journey to the Middl­e East, but the book does l­ittl­e to enhance his reputation. Mark Twain publ­ishes his seminal­ work, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, hail­ed as an American cl­assic by many but barred by publ­ic l­ibraries in Brookl­yn and Denver as unfit for young readers. The book is based partl­y upon the author’s experiences as a Mississippi River pil­ot. Noted poet Wil­l­iam Cul­l­en Bryant finishes two of his most cel­ebrated com-­ positions, “A Lifetime” and “The Fl­ood of the Years.”

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book, Science and Health with the Key to the Scriptures, which hol­ds that il­l­ness is il­l­usory and can be obviated by purel­y mental­ desire, citing Jesus curing the pal­-­ sied crippl­ed as a scriptural­ exampl­e. Baker, furthermore, bel­ieved that matter and physical­ existence are il­l­usionary, whereas mind, l­ife, and spirit are al­l­ exten-­ sions of God himsel­f. More controversial­ tenets of her faith incl­ude the refusal­ by devout members to seek medical­ hel­p when il­l­, and al­so to deny that practice to sick chil­dren. In 1877 she married one of her fol­l­owers, Asa G. Eddy, and two years l­ater formal­l­y founded her “Church of Christ, Scientist.” She enjoyed consid-­ erabl­e success attracting converts, and in 1881 the Massachusetts Metaphysical­ Col­l­ege was establ­ished in Boston and administered under her aegis. Baker’s success in founding and enl­arg-­ ing her creed al­so l­ed to numerous publ­ica-­ tions both expl­aining and propagating it. By 1883 she had commenced editing the Chris-­

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tian Science Journal and in 1895 had al­so establ­ished what she deemed her “Mother Church,” the First Church of Christ, Sci-­ entist, in Boston to keep dissenters in l­ine. Membership increased so exponential­l­y that she was forced to introduce a Church Manual that same year, which imposed her decidedl­y autocratic by-­l­aws for govern-­ ance. In 1898 the Christian Science Sentinel began publ­ication, fol­l­owed by the noted Christian Science Monitor in 1908. In addi-­ tion to preaching, Baker was al­so active in promoting equal­ity of the sexes, femal­e suffrage, and femal­e property rights. She gradual­l­y rel­inquished active control­ of the church fol­l­owing her retirement to Chest-­ nut Hil­l­, Boston, in 1908, but maintained a keen interest in church matters. Baker died in Boston on December 3, 1910, one of the most infl­uential­ women in American theol­-­ ogy and the onl­y American woman to have spawned a major worl­d rel­igion. In 1995 Baker was inducted into the National­ Wom-­ an’s Hal­l­ of Fame.

Military: Congress establ­ishes manpower l­evel­s for the U.S. Army at 27,442 rank and fil­e, a number that does not change substantial­l­y until­ the Spanish-­ American War of 1898. The secretary of war al­so directs al­l­ inspectors general­ to report to l­ocal­ commanders instead of the War Department, thereby ending their reputation as spies for higher headquarters. Science: Yal­e researcher Josiah Wil­l­ard Gibbs publ­ishes “On the Equil­ibrium of Heterogeneous Substances” in Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences; Gibbs is best regarded as the father of thermodynamics, which forms the basis for modern chemistry. Societal: Harvard University l­ogician Charl­es Saunders Peirce originates the new and uniquel­y American phil­osophy he cal­l­s pragmatism. Sports: James Gordon Bennett of the New York Herald introduces pol­o to the United States at Dickel­’s Riding Academy in New York City. Fred W. Thayer of Harvard University introduces the catcher’s mask to basebal­l­. Technology: Inventor Thomas A. Edison creates a mimeograph device that empl­oys a stencil­ and a frame for providing near-­exact dupl­icates of material­s drawn; in effect, this is the first practical­ copying machine.

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January 1 Societal: The Philadelphia Mummers Parade is formed to commemorate the American Centennial, however, the city does not officially recognize the event until 1901. The practice dates to colonial times, being a cross between the Swedish custom of celebrating New Year and the English tradition of presenting the Mummer’s play wherein St. George slays the dragon.

February Politics: Secretary of War William W. Belknap is accused of suborning a bribe by contractor Caleb P. Marsh; an investigation uncovers that Belknap has received nearly $25,000 in kickbacks from the Indian trading post lobby.

February 2 Sports: Morgan G. Bulkeley becomes president of the newly founded National League of Professional Baseball Clubs in New York City. At present they have teams from Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Hartford, Louisville, New York, Philadelphia, and St. Louis.

February 7 Diplomacy: A special interoceanic canal commission reports its findings to President Ulysses S. Grant, strongly suggesting that a canal be constructed through Nicaragua. A naval commission also reports its findings in the subject and both conclude that the most viable route for a new waterway is through Nicaragua, not Panama, owing to better climate and less formidable terrain. This decision will deflect American attention from Panama for the next 20 years.

February 24 Politics: General Orville E. Babcock, President Ulysses S. Grant’s personal secretary, is found not guilty of any complicity with the so-called Whiskey Ring scandal.

March 1 Diplomacy: Secretary of State Hamilton Fish admits his failure to garner European support to help end the seven-year-old insurrection in Cuba, which has resulted in the destruction of American property and the execution of Cubanborn Americans. He has thus been reduced to reiterating old demands for Spain to make the requisite reforms on the island.

March 2 Politics: The House of Representatives votes impeachment proceedings against Secretary of War William W. Belknap for having clandestinely received a $6,000 bribe from individuals involved in the Indian trade; he resigns from office this same day to escape prosecution.

March 7–10 Communication: Alexander Graham Bell receives a patent for his new device, the telephone, which promises to revolutionize human communication over vast distances. He makes the first effective use of it three days later by summoning his assistant from another room.

March 8 Military: Alphonso Taft gains appointment as secretary of war, although he serves only three months before transferring as attorney general. His son, William Howard Taft, will be elected president in 1909.

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March 16 Military: In a preliminary skirmish, the 3rd U.S. Cavalry under Colonel Joseph Reynolds surprises a combined Lakota/Cheyenne village along the Powder River, Montana Territory. The defenders are initially stampeded but eventually rallied by Chief Crazy Horse and led back into battle. Their determined, frenzied approach so unnerves Reynolds that he sounds the retreat, abandoning several bodies and one wounded trooper to the Indians. His superior, General George Crook, is furious over Reynolds’s failure to hold the village and files court-martial charges against him. This defeat also alerts the tribesmen that the army is beginning to bear down on them in large numbers; they prepare themselves accordingly.

March 27 Law: The U. S. Supreme Court decides the case of United States v. Cruikshank, ruling that the Fourteenth Amendment protects African Americans from discrimination by state governments, not individuals. This is another blow against the faltering campaign to secure civil rights throughout the South.

April 2 Sports: In the first official baseball game of the National League, Boston defeats Philadelphia on a score of six to five. The first run is hit by James “Orator Jim” O’Rourke.

April 18 Politics: In a bit of self-aggrandizement, President Ulysses S. Grant vetoes a bill intended to reduce the chief executive’s salary. This is a leftover fight arising from the “Salary Grab” act of 1873.

April 20 Science: The American Chemical Society is founded in New York City for the advancement of research and development in the field of chemistry.

April 24 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Walker v. Sauvinet, ruling that the Sixth and Seventh Amendments to the Constitution are not covered by the Fourteenth Amendment, hence states are at liberty to modify or abolish trial by jury at their leisure.

May 10 Business: The Eli Lilly Company, specializing in pharmaceuticals, is founded in Indianapolis, Indiana. Societal: Fifty-six countries open exhibits at the Centennial Exposition at Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, to showcase such exotic and up-and-coming technologies as telephones, typewriters, and refrigerator railcars. This is a most impressively staged celebration, with cannon, an 800-voice choir, and 4,000 foreign and American dignitaries, including Emperor Dom Pedro II of Brazil.

A print showing the game of baseball, ca. 1890 (Library of Congress)

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May 15 Politics: James G. Blaine, House minority leader, falls under the scrutiny of the Judiciary Committee over charges of having favored railroad interests in 1869 while he was speaker. Sports: The second annual Kentucky Derby is won by Vagrant, who runs the course in two minutes, 38 seconds.

May 17 Politics: The Prohibition Party holds its national convention in Cleveland, Ohio, nominating Green Clay Smith of Kentucky as its presidential candidate and Gideon T. Stewart of Ohio for vice president.

May 18 Politics: The new Greenback Party convenes its first national convention in Indianapolis, Indiana, nominating Peter Cooper of New York for president and Samuel F. Cary of Ohio for vice president. Their platform insists upon repeal of the Specie Resumption Act and the wholesale creation of paper money.

May 22 Military: In Washington, D.C., James D. Cameron is tapped to replace Alphonso Taft as secretary of war.

May 23 Sports: Joe Borden of Boston pitches the National League’s first no-hitter and the first in baseball history; he will subsequently be sent to the showers and ends the season as the club groundskeeper.

May 25 Sports: The fourth annual Preakness Stakes is won by Shirley, who finishes first with a time of two minutes, 40 seconds.

May 29 Military: A cavalry column under General George Crook rides from Fort Fetterman and swings north as part of a three-pronged strategy to ensnare hostile Indians in the Little Big Horn region of Montana Territory. En route, Crook is to rendezvous with 260 Shoshoni and Crow allies who have volunteered to fight their hereditary enemy, the Sioux.

June Military: The army launches a coordinated campaign against the Sioux and other hostile Native Americans who are resisting moves to place them on reservations. Three columns advance toward a large gathering of Indians along the Big Horn River; the first is commanded by General George Crook, marching north from Fort Fetterman, while the second column under Colonel John Gibbon moves east from Fort Ellis, Montana. A third column marches west from Fort Lincoln in the Dakota Territory, under General Alfred H. Terry

June 5 Politics: James G. Blaine reads letters to the House Judiciary Committee, from contractor Warren Fischer, which appear to exonerate him from charges of favoring specific railroad interests while he was Speaker of the House.

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June 6 Societal: Dr. Walter Fleming organizes the Imperial Council of the Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, which is the American branch of the Masonic Lodge.

June 8 Indian: Lakota shaman Sitting Bull has a strong vision of upside-down soldiers— symbolic of death—that inspires his warriors with confidence for the coming fight.

June 10 Sports: The 10th annual Belmont Stakes is won by Algerine, who turns in a time of two minutes, 40 seconds.

June 14 –16 Politics: In Cincinnati, Ohio, Rutherford B. Hayes receives the Republican Party’s nod to run for the presidency as their candidate; William A. Wheeler of New York is to be his vice president. The former frontrunner, James G. Blaine, is defeated after six ballots, undoubtedly due to ongoing investigations as to his possibly illegal connections to the Union Pacific Railroad.

June 17 Military: General George Crook leads 1,700 cavalry men into combat against a similar number of Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne under Crazy Horse at the Rosebud River valley, Montana Territory. Rather than skirt the army’s flanks and harass them, Crazy Horse changes tactics and unexpectedly charges the troopers head on. The ensuing struggle lasts six hours and entails scores of casualties to both sides but ends in a draw. The Americans reportedly lose only 10 dead and 21 wounded, but Crook’s column is so incapacitated that it will be effectively removed from the campaign for two months; Indian losses are not known but presumed equally heavy.

June 22 Military: Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer and his 7th U.S. Cavalry move down the Little Bighorn River, hoping to rendezvous with Colonel John Gibbon’s force and catch hostile Indians in a pincer movement. They are assisted by 35 Arikara, Crow, and Dakota Indians serving as scouts. General Alfred H. Terry has specifically ordered the impetuous Custer not to engage the enemy until the force under Colonel John Gibbon is within supporting distance. Custer, true to form, will ignore his instructions.

June 24 Military: A cavalry column under Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer espies a large encampment of Cheyenne and Sioux warriors under Gall, Crazy Horse, and Two Moons; he disobeys orders and prepares to attack, without waiting for reinforcements.

June 25 Military: The Battle of Little Bighorn unfolds as Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer and six companies of his 7th U.S. Cavalry, totaling little more than 250 men, attack an Indians encampment housing an estimated 6,000 Cheyenne and Sioux, of which roughly 2,000 are warriors. Repulsed, Custer hastily forms

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Chronology of American History a skirmish line on a nearby hilltop while detachments under Major Marcus A. Reno and Captain Frederick W. Benteen are pinned and unable to assist him. The Indians surround the Americans and gradually whittle down their number before finally settling the issue in a bold rush. The 7th loses 268 dead—Custer and his brother among them—and 50 wounded in less than two hours. Indian losses are not recorded but may have been as high as 100. The defeat stuns public opinion and prompts the government to pursue the war more vigorously. Curiously, this is not the biggest military defeat at the hands of Native Americans—that melancholy distinction remains with General Arthur St. Clair in 1791.

June 27 Communication: At the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, onlookers are captivated by a public demonstration of Alexander Graham Bell’s new contraption, the telephone. As Bell recites Hamlet’s soliloquy at one end, Emperor Dom Pedro II of Brazil, at the receiving end, exclaims, “It talks!” Military: The main body of General Alfred E. Terry’s force arrives at Little Bighorn and rescues the survivors of Major Marcus A. Reno’s detachment. The great mass of victorious Indians, meanwhile, has split up into various groups and dispersed.

June 26 Political: The nation is electrified by news of Custer’s defeat and the War Department is under renewed pressure to punish the Indians for their bellicosity.

June 27–29 Politics: The Democratic Party holds its nominating convention in St. Louis, Missouri, selecting Samuel J. Tilden of New York and Thomas A. Hendricks of Indiana as its presidential and vice presidential candidates, respectively. The party platform demands repeal of the Resumption Act of 1875.

July 4 Arts: African-American artist Edward M. Bannister wins first prize at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, for a painting entitled Under the Oaks.

July 17 Military: A group of U.S. Cavalry engages and defeats a party of Cheyenne, killing Chief Yellow Hand. The chief is then scalped by the celebrated scout William F. Cody, who will later restage this success in his Wild West Show under the stage name of Buffalo Bill.

July 20 Sports: The Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes (ICAAA) is founded at Saratoga, New York, by delegates from 14 colleges gathered there for a track meet. It is the earliest and most significant amateur athletic organization.

July 25 Business: Congressman Richard P. Bland of Missouri introduces a bill to the House of Representatives to issue silver coinage in unlimited quantities. He also coins the term “Crime of ’73” to describe the act that terminated silver production in the first place.

August 1 Politics: Former secretary of war William W. Belknap is acquitted by the U.S. Senate of accepting bribes for the sale of posts within the Indian trade. The major-

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ity of the 25 senators voting for acquittal feel it is not necessary to impeach an official who has already resigned from office. Settlement: Colorado joins the Union as the 38th state and, because of the year of its admittance, is popularly known as the Centennial State.

August 2 Crime: Frontier icon James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok is murdered by Jack McCall, a local drunkard, while playing cards in Deadwood, Dakota Territory.

August 11–12 Sports: The America’s Cup is successfully defended by the yacht Madeline, which fends off a strong challenge from the Canadian Countess of Dufferin.

August 15 Military: Congress reacts to the Little Bighorn disaster by authorizing an additional 2,500 cavalrymen to the U.S. Army, but no new units are created to the order of battle. Instead, the recruits are simply added to flesh out existing cavalry companies.

September Indian: Chief Sitting Bull manages to escape pursuing American troops and reach Canada. The bulk of his fellow Sioux, however, will be mercilessly hounded throughout the winter months until they finally consent to deportation to reservations. Religion: The adultery trial of Reverend Henry Ward Beecher of the Plymouth Church in Brooklyn, New York, ends in a hung jury and he resumes his duties. The verdict weighs badly upon Victoria Clafflin Woodhull, who instigated the lawsuit.

September 7 Crime: Gangs led by Jesse James and Frank Younger cooperate by hitting a bank in Northfield, Minnesota, but are rebuffed by angry, armed citizens. Three of the bandits are killed and three captured. Sports: Englishman Joe Goss defeats Tom Allen in 27 rounds and becomes the world’s heavyweight boxing champion.

September 9 Military: Vengeful troopers under Captain Anson Mills, 3rd U.S. Cavalry, engage a band of Lakota Sioux under Chief American Horse at the Battle of Slim Buttes. The Indians are scattered and take up defensive positions in a gulch, killing three troopers and wounding 12. The noted war chief American Horse is fatally wounded in the stomach before Crazy Horse arrives with reinforcements. The battle continues nonstop until the main column under General George Crook arrives, at which point the Indians simply disengage and disappear. American Horse’s

Henry Ward Beecher (Library of Congress)

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Chronology of American History death is upheld as appropriate revenge for Custer’s death, even though his participation at Little Bighorn has never been confirmed.

October 6 Societal: In Philadelphia, Melvil Dewey becomes president of the newly formed American Library Association (ALA), the first professional organization for librarians and libraries. Dewey himself is responsible for creating the Dewey decimal system of classification, still widely used by many public libraries.

November Education: Juliet Corson founds the first cooking school in New York City.

November 7 Politics: In the presidential election, Democrat Samuel J. Tilden receives a majority of the popular vote—4.2 million to 4.0 million—but fails to obtain the necessary electoral votes in order to defeat Rutherford B. Hayes. The contest in the electoral college is tighter still, 184 votes for Tilden—one short of winning—to 163 for Hayes. With electoral votes from Florida, Louisiana, Oregon, and South Carolina openly disputed, the contest heads to the House of Representatives in what becomes one of the most contested presidential elections of American history.

November 14 Military: Colonel Ranald Slidell Mackenzie departs Fort Fetterman, Wyoming Territory, at the head of 2,200 men in an attempt to find and defeat Crazy Horse. His column includes a force of 400 Indian scouts from various allied tribes, and will proceed through deep snow up the Bozeman Trail toward the Powder River region.

November 20 Diplomacy: In Mexico, Porfirio Díaz overthrows President Lerdo de Tejada, initiating a military dictatorship that will rule with little interruption until 1911.

November 23 Crime: William “Boss” Tweed is returned to New York by Spanish authorities, even though they do not enjoy an extradition treaty with the United States. Sports: The Intercollegiate Football Association has its origins when delegates from Yale, Harvard, Columbia, Rutgers, and Princeton gather at Massachusetts House in Springfield, Massachusetts, to discuss drawing up standard rules. At that time the British rugby-style rules favored by Harvard are adopted by all the colleges present.

November 25 Military: General George Crook dispatches a cavalry column under Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie, 4th U.S. Cavalry, to attack a Cheyenne village in the Bighorn Mountains, Dakota Territory. The troopers, thirsting to avenge the death of Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer and his men, will storm into the sleeping village with a vengeance, killing 40 inhabitants and scattering the rest. Chiefs Dull Knife and Little Wolf will manage to escape their pursuers, but only after the loss of their pony herd and village. American losses are six dead and 26 wounded, but the tribesmen, especially women and children, will now endure sub-zero weather with only the clothing on their backs.

December 5 General: A fire at Conway’s Theater in Brooklyn, New York, kills 289 people. This is the city’s biggest theater fire.

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Politics: President Ulysses S. Grant, apologizing to Congress for his many missteps, claims they were “errors of judgement, not of intent.” He nonetheless leaves behind a legacy tainted by stock manipulation, the Whiskey Ring, and the Credit Mobilier scandals.

December 6 Politics: The presidential electors of Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina, apparently swayed by the presence of federal troops in their domain, cast their votes for Rutherford B. Hayes, even though Samuel J. Tilden had easily won the popular vote. Congress is then forced to wade into the process and decide what to do next.

December 12 Politics: Congressman Henry W. Blair of New Hampshire proposes a constitutional amendment advocating prohibition for the first time. The movement is slowly gathering force and, with it, political respectability.

December 13 Business: The House passes a bill authored by Congressman Richard P. Bland to authorize unlimited coining of silver but the Senate fails to take up the cause.

December 14 Politics: Democrat Wade Hampton of South Carolina, undeterred by the presence of federal troops in his state, is sworn in as the new governor of South Carolina. His rise, coming at the expense of a Republican candidate who also claims to have won, signals that Reconstruction is finally dead in that state.

December 25 Publishing: In New York City, former army engineer Henry M. Robert writes and publishes his Pocket Manual of Rules of Order for Deliberative Assemblies to help organizations conduct their routine affairs in an orderly, productive manner. It has since become known as Robert’s Rules of Order, and is still widely employed today.

December 29 General: A bridge collapse over a gorge in Ashtabula, Ohio, sends several cars of a Pacific Express train into the abyss, killing 90 passengers.

1877 Arts: Thomas Eakins paints his controversial work entitled William Rush Carving the Allegorical Figure of the Schuylkill River, which arouses considerable antipathy for its inclusion of a nude figure. Business: In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Charles Elmer Hires has combined birch bark, spikenard, sarsaparilla, and hops into a delectable concoction he calls “root beer.” The product sold so well during the Centennial Exposition last year that he intends to sell packets of the formula by mail. Journalism: The Washington Post is founded in Washington, D.C. Labor: Despite a brief resurgence, labor unions are in decline, with membership dropping from 300,000 to only 50,000, and the number of unions shrinking from 30 to only nine. Literature: Sarah Orne Jewett publishes her first major work, Deephaven, which draws deeply upon local color for describing her story set against a small New England town.

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Chronology of American History Henry James publishes The American, which delineates a tale of American naivety set against a background of Old World sophistication and intrigue. Science: Astronomer Asaph Hall discovers two moons orbiting the planet Mars, which are christened Phobos and Deimos. Sports: The Westminster Kennel Club holds its first annual dog show at Gilmore’s Garden in New York City, with many breeds present. Boston is baseball’s National League pennant winner with 31 wins and 17 losses. Technology: In Rochester, New York, George B. Selden perfects a viable, twocycle “gasoline carriage” but fails to obtain a patent for nearly two decades. Moreover, the gasoline engine has yet to demonstrate any inherent advantages over the more commonly employed steam power. Boston is the scene of the first interconnection of phone lines, or a switchboard, which greatly facilitates the mounting volume of calls. Prolific tinkerer Thomas Edison patents the phonograph a decade after he invented it.

January 2 Politics: The swearing in of Democrat George F. Drew as governor of Florida is another indication that the reign of “carpetbaggers” is over, along with federally orchestrated Reconstruction.

Miles, Nelson A.

(1839–1925)

General Nelson Appleton Miles was born in Westminster, Massachusetts, on August 8, 1839, and he subsequently lived in Boston. There he clerked by day and studied military history at night; after the Civil War commenced in April 1861, he used his savings to help raise a company of volunteers for the 22nd Massachusetts Infantry. Miles then served capably as a lieutenant in the fierce battles of the Peninsula, Antietam, and Fredericksburg in 1862, after which he transferred as lieutenant colonel of the 61st New York Infantry. He was next conspicuously engaged at Chancellorsville in 1863, being serious wounded, and was awarded a Congressional Medal of Honor in 1892 for heroism under fire. By war’s end the 26-

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year-old Miles was a major general of volunteers in the Army of the Potomac, and a veteran of virtually every major engagement fought by it. He then served as commandant of Fortress Monroe, Virginia, where he kept the former Confederate president Jefferson Davis in chains until public pressure forced the government to relent. Miles was then retained in the peacetime establishment as a full colonel of the 5th U.S. Infantry, and posted to the western frontier. Once again, he distinguished himself in combat against Native Americans by helping to pacify the Sioux and Cheyenne under Crazy Horse in 1876, and he also captured Chief Joseph and his band of Nez Perce the following year. In 1886 he replaced General George Crook

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January 8 Military: General Nelson A. Miles, having captured a number of Cheyenne women and children in a village near Wolf Mountain, Montana Territory, is attacked by Sioux and Cheyenne warriors under Crazy Horse, attempting to rescue them. However, Miles is well prepared to receive them with artillery and the Indians are repulsed with few losses to either side.

January 29 Politics: Congress passes the Electoral Commission Bill, whereby 15 members are chosen to settle the election dispute between Samuel J. Tilden and Rutherford B. Hayes. The commission, which is split between nine Republicans and eight Democrats, is supposed to pick a final, independent member but, when none can be found, Justice Joseph P. Bradley, a Republican, will be selected.

February 1 Diplomacy: After months of wrangling, Secretary of State Hamilton Fish acquiesces to the inclusion of Belgian prime minister Maurice Delfosse to serve on the Washington Treaty arbitration commission.

March 1 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Peik v. Chicago and Northwest Railroad Company, ruling that states possess the ability to regulate commerce that originates within their own boundaries. In a related case, Munn v. Illinois, the Court

in Arizona and pursed renegade Apache chief Geronimo for 18 months until he surrendered. Four years later Miles was called upon to settle unrest caused by the Ghost Dance religion among the Sioux, whereupon his subordinates were involved in the Wounded Knee Massacre of December 29, 1890. This sorry affair terminated three centuries of conflict between whites and Native Americans, and Miles was brought to Governor’s Island, New York, to command the Department of the East. There, in 1895, he gained appointment as commanding general of the army. Despite his rank and reputation, Miles played only a token role in the SpanishAmerican War of 1898 by orchestrating the conquest of Puerto Rico. He also got himself in trouble by publicly remarking on

Admiral George Dewey’s report on Admiral Winfield S. Schley’s behavior in that conflict. In 1902 Miles toured the Philippine Islands and aroused controversy for comments relating to the treatment of prisoners of war there. It was no secret that President Theodore Roosevelt disparagingly regarded him as a “brave peacock,” but nevertheless he promoted Miles to lieutenant general in 1901. In this capacity he roundly criticized Secretary of War Elihu Root for trying to establish a general staff along the German model and abolish his office altogether. Miles, who harbored presidential aspirations of his own, was bitterly disappointed when neither party asked him to run. He retired from active duty in 1903 and died in Washington, D.C., on May 15, 1925, one of the foremost soldiers of his age.

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Chronology of American History again rules in favor of states wishing to regulate warehouse and intrastate rates. Both cases represent significant victories for the Grange Movement, which is determined to prevent industry giants from running small operators out of business.

March 2 Politics: The Electoral Commission votes along party lines and the Senate president declares that Rutherford B. Hayes should receive the disputed electoral votes. Apparently, the Republicans won over the Southern Democrats by promising to remove all federal troops from the South, appoint at least one southerner to the cabinet, and appropriate funding for railroad construction in the South. Hayes thus becomes president of the United States by edging out Samuel J. Tilden 185 electoral votes to 184. William A. Wheeler also becomes vice president.

March 3 Politics: Rutherford B. Hayes is inaugurated as the 19th president of the United States. He does so on Saturday in a private ceremony as opposed to Sunday, in a public event, to thwart cat calls of “Rutherfraud.” Settlement: Congress passes the Desert Land Act to encourage the development of arid acreage in the Great Plains and Southwest. It promises plots of 640 acres

Hayes, Rutherford B.

(1822–1893)

President

Rutherford B. Hayes (Library of Congress)

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Rutherford Birchard Hayes was born in Delaware, Ohio, on October 4, 1822, a son of farmers, and in 1842 he graduated from Kenyon College. He subsequently obtained a law degree from Harvard University in 1845 and established a successful practice in Cincinnati. Beyond gaining social prominence, Hayes also dabbled in Whig politics and, although he never enthusiastically embraced abolitionism, he later joined the Republican Party. After the Civil War commenced in 1861, Hayes joined the 23rd Ohio Volunteers as a major and fought with distinction under generals George Crook and Philip H. Sheridan. He sustained no less than four wounds, one of them serious, and mustered out of the service with the rank of major general of volunteers. His war record catapulted him to political prominence in his home state, and in 1864 he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives while still in uniform. In 1866 he returned home to successfully run as governor of Ohio. He com-

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at 25 cents per acre if the owner will irrigate his soil. In practice the majority of land claims will be made fraudulently and most land will end up in the hands of cattle ranchers.

March 4 Politics: Rutherford B. Hayes is publicly inaugurated the 19th president of the United States in Washington, D.C.

March 5 Politics: Having promised southern Democrats that he would appoint a southerner to his cabinet in exchange for their electoral support, President Rutherford B. Hayes selects David M. Key of Florida to serve as his postmaster general. This is but the first volley of the policy to deliberately dismantle Reconstruction throughout the South and reduce African Americans living there to a permanent underclass.

March 12 Military: In Washington, D.C., President Rutherford B. Hayes appoints George W. McCrary his new secretary of war. Politics: William Maxwell Evarts, a distinguished attorney with little experience in foreign affairs, is appointed secretary of state by President Hayes.

pleted two terms in office, characterized by a moderate reform impulse, but then declined renomination to a third term. Hayes resumed his legal practice with his usual success, and in 1875 ran for the governorship a third time and won. This victory brought him to the attention of party elders and the following year he attended the Republican nominating convention as a dark horse candidate. The anticipated favorite, James G. Blaine, had been implicated in several scandals, and after several ballots Hayes defeated him for the party’s nomination. The ensuing general election, proved fraught with controversy; although Democrat Samuel J. Tilden had won the popular vote, the returns from four states—South Carolina, Florida, Louisiana, and Oregon—were contested. Because the Republicans controlled Congress they sent a bipartisan delegation to investigate voting practices in those states, then voted 8–7 along party lines to elect Hayes. Hayes was sworn into office twice, once in a private ceremony to avoid protest, and

publicly on March 5, 1877. Once in power, he fulfilled a deal made with Southern Democrats to secure the election and ordered all remaining federal troops out of the South. This act effectively ended Reconstruction and abandoned African Americans living there to white supremacist rule. Hayes also alienated party regulars by enacting civil service reforms to end political patronage and dismissed Chester A. Arthur as collector of customs in New York. He also maintained a strong currency stance to avoid inflation, opposed a Chinese exclusionary bill on the grounds that it violated an earlier agreement, and also opposed a long and violent railroad strike in 1877. In 1880 Hayes chose to honor his pledge not to seek a second term in office, and he returned to Ohio to practice law. He also distinguished himself in calling for reforms of the national penal system and in 1883 became president of the National Prison Association. Hayes died in Fremont, Ohio, on January 17, 1893, a capable, honest, but colorless bureaucrat.

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March 13 Naval: Former congressman Richard W. Thompson is sworn in as the 27th secretary of the navy.

April Transportation: Executives of the four leading, or “trunk,” railroads form a cabal to fix rates among themselves and cut workers’ wages by 10 percent. Their machinations are facilitated by the ongoing depression and the dilapidated state in which it has left the labor movement.

April 3 Military: Lieutenant Colonel William R. Shafter leads a column of troops over the Mexican border to Piedras Negras to secure the release of two jailed Mexican nationals who had previously assisted the army. The episode engenders a diplomatic row between the United States and Mexico.

April 10 Politics: President Rutherford B. Hayes, pursuant to his agreement with southerners, orders federal troops removed from South Carolina. Through this expedient Hayes is officially ending the Reconstruction period, which will leave African Americans to bear the brunt of discrimination and worse throughout the former Confederacy.

April 20 Indian: Indian agent John Clum arrests Apache chief Geronimo on the Ojo Caliente Reservation, Arizona Territory, and transfers him to the San Carlos Reservation.

April 24 Politics: President Rutherford B. Hayes orders the last remaining federal troops withdrawn from New Orleans, Louisiana, finally leaving the South, as the white inhabitants declare, “redeemed.” This closes the curtain on the corrupt and extravagant period known as “Carpetbag Rule” and is the price Hayes has to pay for southern compliance with his election. Reconstruction is finally—and formally—over.

May Indian: General Oliver O. Howard orders the remainder of the “non-treaty” Nez Perce Indians off their ancestral homes in the Snake River region of Oregon and onto reservations. Chief Joseph and other leaders seek to comply but resentment is growing.

May 5 Indian: Noted Lakota warrior Crazy Horse surrenders himself, 1,000 warriors, and 2,500 ponies at Camp Robinson, Nebraska. Observers note he does not appear broken in spirit but is chanting war songs along with his followers.

May 7 Military: U.S. troops under General Nelson A. Miles engage and defeat a party of hostile Lakota under Chiefs Lame Deer and Iron Star in their camp along Muddy Creek, Montana Territory. The chiefs are slain even though they had laid down their weapons and attempted to surrender. Sioux losses are 14 dead while the Americans sustain four killed and seven wounded.

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Geronimo (ca. 1829–1909) Apache chief Goyahkla (“One who yawns”) was born near the headwaters of the Gila River, Arizona, around 1829, into the Chiricahua Apache band. He matured into a man of considerable prowess and intelligence, serv-

Geronimo (New York Public Library)

ing as both a minor war chief and a shaman. In 1856 Mexican marauders killed his mother, wife, and children at Janos, Chihuahua, and he swore to take revenge. He then so audaciously raided Mexican settlements that they dubbed him Geronimo (“Jerome”) and the name became popularized. Soon after, Geronimo joined the Apache raiders under Cochise and began attacking American settlements until General George Crook finally pacified the tribe and resettled them onto the San Carlos Reservation, New Mexico Territory. Here the Chiricahua were lodged with western Apache peoples and tensions between the two groups ran high. Geronimo by this time had risen in the tribal hierarchy to war chief and, anxious to regain his nomadic existence, he led a renegade band of warriors off the reservation in 1878. For three years Geronimo conducted his traditional hit-and-run operations, usually against the hated Mexicans, and in 1881 he boldly returned to San Carlos to recruit new members. General Crook was forced to pursue the marauders into Mexico where, assisted by Apache scouts and Mexican troops, he finally cornered Geronimo in 1886 and convinced him to surrender and be deported to a new abode in Florida. Two days later he and 39 members of his band escaped from the reservation again, at which point the government, angered by what they considered Crook’s leniency, replaced him with the hard-bitten General Nelson A. Miles. For 18 months the elusive Apache easily evaded Miles and his forces, totaling 5,000 men, bounty hunters, and a like number of Mexican troops. In September 1887 Miles finally cornered the band and induced them (continues)

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(continued) to surrender with the understanding that they would return to the San Carlos Reservation after two year’s confinement. However, President Grover Cleveland chose to ignore this arrangement and ordered Geronimo and his followers deported to military facilities at Fort Pickens, Florida. The Apache were treated as prisoners of war and kept in close confinement until 1894, when they were transferred to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, to learn farming. Geronimo, who had by now converted to Christianity, toured frequently with William “Buffalo Bill” Cody’s Wild West Show, and also attended the

Louisiana Purchase Exposition at St. Louis in 1904, where he signed autographed pictures for an eager populace. The following year he was allowed to march in President Theodore Roosevelt’s inaugural procession, although still regarded as a prisoner of war. At this time he also dictated his autobiography to historian S. M. Barrett, which was published in 1906 as Geronimo’s Story of His Life. The wily Apache raider, who had caused the Mexicans and Americans such grief and turmoil, died quietly at Fort Sill on February 17, 1909, still technically regarded as a prisoner of war.

May 17 Politics: Former president Ulysses S. Grant begins an international goodwill trip.

May 22 Sports: The third annual Kentucky Derby is won by Baden Baden, who runs the track in two minutes and 38 seconds.

May 24 Sports: The fifth annual Preakness Stakes is won by Cloverbrook, posting a time of two minutes and 45 seconds.

June Military: Army forces under General Nelson A. Miles defeat the ragged band of Nez Perce under Chief Joseph, forcing them to continue retreating toward Canada.

June 1 Arts: Sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Wyatt Eaton, Walter Shirlaw, and Helena De Kay found the Society of American Artists. Diplomacy: President Rutherford B. Hayes, angered by the incursions of Mexican bandits and Apaches onto American soil, orders the military commander in Texas, General O. C. Ord, to pursue the transgressors into Mexico if necessary. The order greatly angers President Porfirio Díaz, who then orders his troops to stand their ground and confront the intruders.

June 9 Sports: The 11th annual Belmont Stakes is won by Cloverbrook with a run of two minutes and 46 seconds. He is the first horse to also win the Preakness.

June 13 Indian: Youthful Nez Perce warriors, angered by their mistreatment by whites, kill four settlers in the Wallowa Valley, Washington Territory, and flee. Troops under General Oliver O. Howard will be hurriedly dispatched in pursuit.

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Joseph (ca. 1840–1904) Nez Perce chief Joseph was born Hin-mah-to-yah-lat-kit (Rolling Thunder Down from the Mountains) in Oregon Country’s Wallowa Valley around 1840, part of the Nez Perce tribe. His father, also named Joseph, was head chief of his band and in 1863, after gold was discovered on their land, he refused to renegotiate an 1855 land cession treaty with the U.S. government. However, other bands within the Nez Perce nation did so and the government insisted that the new agreement apply to all bands, including those refusing to sign. In 1873 Joseph succeeded his father as chief and vigilantly refused all efforts to surrender his ancestral homelands to white settlers. However, in 1877 President Ulysses S. Grant declared the Wallowa Valley open for settlement and instructed General Oliver O. Howard to remove any resisters by force. Joseph was greatly saddened by such strong-arm tactics but decided to vacate his homeland peacefully, as requested. However, angry braves disobeyed orders and killed several settlers in revenge, at which point Howard dispatched army troops to forcibly remove the Nez Perce. The two sides collided at White Bird Canyon on June 1, 1877, where Captain David Perry’s cavalry was badly repulsed by the Indians. On July 11 the soldiers tried again with similar results but Joseph, realizing he lacked the resources to beat the United States, ordered his people to march toward the Bitterroot Mountains and ally themselves with the Crow. His band slipped effortlessly into Montana through the Lolo Pass, but on August 9, 1877, they were sur-

prised by Colonel John Gibbon and both sides took heavy losses. When Joseph also learned that the Crow, far from being his allies, were being recruited by the army to track him, he changed the object of their march to Canada to join Chief Sitting Bull’s Sioux. The Nez Perce continued retreating in good order, generally obeying Joseph’s strictures against killing and scalping unarmed civilians, while several army columns began converging on them. On September 13, 1877, they defeated an attack by Colonel Samuel Sturgis at Canyon Creek before finally encamping along Snake Creek in the Bear Paw Mountains of Montana Territory. Unfortunately, Colonel Nelson A. Miles managed to surround the Indians, steal their ponies, and bombard them for six days before Joseph, eager to end his people’s suffering, agreed to surrender on October 5, 1877. “Hear me my chiefs, my heart is sick and sad,” he solemnly declared. “From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever.” The survivors were then removed to new homes in the Indian Territory (Oklahoma), despite the pleas of soldiers like Howard and Miles, who greatly respected Joseph as a military leader. Eventually the Nez Perce were allowed to migrate and resettle at the Colville Reservation, Washington, despite repeated entreaties to return home. Joseph died on the reservation on September 21, 1904, an enduring symbol of Native American resistance to white encroachment upon their lands.

June 14 General: The nation celebrates Flag Day for the first time, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Stars and Stripes. However, it will never become a legal holiday and is observed solely through presidential proclamation.

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June 15 Diplomacy: The Halifax Commission, arranged by the Treaty of Washington, meets to resolve long-standing American/Canadian disputes as to fishing rights off Newfoundland and the Grand Banks. Military: Henry O. Flipper becomes the first African American to receive his 2nd lieutenant’s commission from the U.S. Military Academy, West Point. His deployment options are limited on account of his race and he is posted immediately with the all-black 10th U.S. Cavalry, the famous “Buffalo Soldiers.”

June 17 Military: The Nez Perce War intensifies when Chief Joseph’s band engages two troops of cavalry under Captain David Perry, 1st U.S. Cavalry, ambushing them in White Bird Canyon, Washington Territory. Indian fire kills 24 Americans while Joseph sustains three wounded and flees with 400 tribesmen eastward over the Rocky Mountains before reinforcements can arrive.

June 21 Crime: Ten members of the violent Irish miner’s organization called the “Molly Maguires” are hung for murder. The society, heavily infiltrated by detectives from the Pinkerton Agency, will shortly after be disbanded.

July 11–12 Military: General Oliver O. Howard surprises the Nez Perce encampment of Chief Looking Glass on the Clearwater River, Idaho Territory, and attacks

Flipper, Henry O. (1856–1940) African-American soldier Henry Ossian Flipper was born in Thomasville, Georgia, on March 21, 1856, the son of slave parents. After the Civil War he attended schools run by the American Missionary Association, applied to the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, in 1873 and gained admittance under the auspices of a Republican representative, James C. Freeman. Flipper was not the first minority student to matriculate at West Point; two other African Americans, Michael Howard and James Webster, had preceded him in 1870, but neither graduated. He endured rigorous academic demands and intense racial animosity for four years and graduated 50th in his class of 76 on June 14, 1877. Flipper was then commissioned a second lieutenant in

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the all-black 10th U.S. Cavalry, the famous “Buffalo Soldiers,” and served under Colonel Benjamin Grierson along the western frontier. He functioned capably for four years by performing routine duties such as mosquito control at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and installing telegraph wires in and out of Fort Elliott, Texas. His most significant accomplishment was during the 1880 Indian war against the renegade Apache Victorio, whereby Colonel Grierson highly commended his conduct as an officer and a soldier. However, while serving as acting commissary of subsistence at Fort Davis, Texas, Flipper was charged with embezzling $3,000 of government property—a charge he vehemently denied— and was court-martialed. He was eventually

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with 400 soldiers and 100 volunteers, backed by artillery and Gatling guns. The Indians, however, fight tenaciously and hold their ground long enough for their families to flee eastward toward the perceived safety of the Bitterroot Mountains. American losses are 13 dead and 27 injured to an Indian tally of four killed and six wounded.

July 16 Labor: Violence erupts once President Rutherford B. Hayes orders federal troops and militia to break up a strike at the Baltimore and Ohio Railway in Martinsburg, West Virginia. This represents the first use of troops against workers since Andrew Jackson’s time.

July 17 Labor: Workers walk off their jobs with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, precipitating the Great Strike of 1877. Soon after, the strike will begin spreading to other portions of the country, as workers begin demanding better conditions and a 10 percent hike in pay. It also will usher in the phenomenon of so-called sympathy strikes by factory workers, indicating that labor wields an increasingly enormous clout. This is the first major labor action in American history.

July 20 Labor: Militia troops fire point-blank into a crowd of angry workers in Baltimore, Maryland, killing nine and wounding several more. More then 50 people die over the next four days before order at the railway station is restored to its owners.

cleared of all charges relating to theft, but his superior, Colonel William R. Shafter, found him guilty of “conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman.” Flipper was consequently discharged from the service on June 30, 1882, which he attributed to the prejudice of his peers. Back in civilian life, Flipper applied the talents he learned in the military to good effect. From 1893 to 1901 he served as a special agent for the Justice Department and also distinguished himself as a cartographer for various Mexican and American mining companies. Fluent in Spanish, he translated several treatises on Mexican law and in 1921 Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall appointed him his assistant. In this capacity he joined a commission tasked with the location, construction, and operation of

railways in Alaska. Two years later he quit his government post to work for a number of oil companies in the United States and Venezuela, publishing a legal treatise on the latter nation. Flipper died at Atlanta, Georgia, on May 9, 1940, all but forgotten. However, after the U.S. armed forces were desegregated in 1947, moves were taken to reexamine Flipper’s court-martial proceedings. Officials found it so blatantly racist that they reversed the verdict and granted him an honorable discharge. Moreover, in 1977 a bust of Flipper was formally unveiled at West Point, signifying recognition from the very institution that had once so scorned him. Then, in December 1978, his remains were reinterred with full military honors, bequeathing West Point’s first African-American graduate the respect denied him in life.

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July 21 Labor: Striking workers and militiamen struggle for control of the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, railyard; an ensuing fire consumes 2,000 cars along with $10 million in property.

July 26 Labor: Police, assisted by federal cavalry, attack a group of milling workers in Chicago, Illinois, killing 19.

July 31 Labor: After several days of violence and deaths, the railroad strike of 1877 begins winding down as workers are cajoled or forced back to work without winning the conditions they struck for. However, the extent of the strike demonstrates the newfound cohesiveness of the labor movement.

August Crime: Notorious Texas gunslinger John Wesley Hardin is sentenced to 25 years in prison for the death of Sheriff Charles Webb. He is reputed to have slain no less than 40 men in various confrontations and will finally be paroled in 1902. Indian: A body of around 940 Northern Cheyenne under Little Wolf and Dull Knife arrives at the Cheyenne and Arapaho Indian Agency in Indian Territory, where they take up residence with the Southern Cheyenne. However, relations are tense once the newcomers refuse to affiliate themselves with the others.

August 1 Business: In Boston, Massachusetts, the Bell Telephone Company is incorporated with 5,000 shares of stock. In addition to owner Alexander Graham Bell, the firm employs one full-time worker, Thomas Watson. To date, 778 telephones are in actual service.

August 9–10 Military: Six companies of the 7th U.S. Infantry under Colonel John Gibbon surprise the Nez Perce fugitives at Big Hole River, Montana Territory, killing 89 Indians, including many women and children. However, the Indians quickly regroup and resist tenaciously, driving the Americans off. Gibbon suffers 30 dead and 34 wounded and the elusive Native Americans successfully disengage and flee their pursuers at night. However, Chief Looking Glass, who insisted that the tribe stop here to rest, loses much of his influence.

August 19 Military: A Nez Perce raiding party surprises army troops at Camas Meadows, Washington Territory, and absconds with 150 mules.

August 29 General: The querulous Mormon leader Brigham Young dies in Utah Territory. With his passing, the government is finally willing to allow the territory to apply for formal statehood, assuming it denounces the practice of polygamy.

September 2 Indian: The Mimbreno Apache leader Victorio, fed up with horrid living conditions at the San Carlos Reservation, Arizona Territory, stages a mass escape with 300 followers and begins roaming and raiding across New Mexico.

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September 5 Indian: Noted warrior Chief Crazy Horse is killed by troops at Fort Robinson, Nebraska, after resisting arrest. The commanding officer was apparently unnerved at growing unrest among Indians living at the fort and suspected the chief of complicity.

September 13 Military: Six troops of the 7th U.S. Cavalry under Colonel Samuel D. Sturgis attempt to trap the fleeing Nez Perce Indians at Canyon Creek north of the Yellowstone River, Montana Territory. He then launches a slow advance into the canyon under an exchange of long-range rifle fire, but the Indians beat off their antagonists with considerable loss and elude their pursuers once again. Sturgis loses three dead and 11 wounded, and will be roundly criticized for his handling of the affair.

September 30 Military: Following a pursuit of 1,700 miles, army troops under General Nelson A. Miles overtake the Nez Perce under Chief Joseph at Bear Paw Mountain, Montana Territory, and a bloody battle ensues. The Americans are roundly repulsed by accurate Indian fire, losing 21 killed and 38 wounded—including many officers—in a few minutes. Miles then elects to pursue a siege of their position as additional forces come up to reinforce him. The Nez Perce are now within 40 miles of the Canadian border—and sanctuary.

October 5 Indian: Additional fighting at Bear Paw Mountain results in the death of Nez Perce chief Looking Glass. Then Chief Joseph and his half-starved band surrender to Colonel Nelson A. Miles—within a few miles of the Canadian border. This concludes an epic 1,700-mile trek and pursuit by four different army columns. At the time the chief eloquently declares, “I am tired; my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever.” The surviving 200 warriors and 600 women and children will be dispatched to new homes on a reservation in Oklahoma. However, an estimated 300 men, women, and children under Chief White Bird apparently slip through American lines and reach Canada.

October 9 Business: President Rutherford B. Hayes, ignoring local objections, signs an executive order allowing the Southern Pacific Railroad to expand into the New Mexico and Arizona territories.

October 17 Indian: Chief Sitting Bull and his entourage meet with General Alfred A. Terry in their camp in Canada, whereupon the general urges the malcontents to lay down their arms and return home. Sitting Bull angrily denounces Terry for the hardships inflicted upon his people and tells him to “go back home where you came from.”

November 5 Business: Congressman Richard P. Bland again forwards his bill for the monitization of silver at a ratio of 16 to one, gold. New silver strikes in Nevada, Utah, and Colorado are prompting mine owners to apply pressure on legislators for action. The Senate, however, refuses to take any action.

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November 23 Diplomacy: The United States, in accordance with terms of the Halifax Commission established by the Treaty of Washington, votes to award Great Britain $5.5 million for past fishing rights off Newfoundland. The American commissioner present, Ensign Kellogg, dissents from the opinion but the nation is honor bound to make reparations.

November 24 Naval: The steamer USS Huron is shipwrecked in a storm off Nags Head, North Carolina, with a loss of 98 sailors.

November 29 Technology: In a fit of creativity, inventor Thomas A. Edison and assistant John Kreusi spend the entire night reciting the poem “Mary had a Little Lamb” into their new phonograph recorder and are continually pleased to hear Edison’s voice played back.

December 15 Technology: From his office at Menlo Park, New Jersey, Thomas A. Edison files for a patent for his newly invented sound recorder, or phonograph.

1878 Arts: Edward Kemeys, America’s foremost authority on animal sculpture, displays his group Bison and Wolves at the Paris Salon to rave reviews. Business: In Cincinnati, Ohio, the firm of William Procter and James Gamble begins marketing its own distinct brand of cleanser it calls “White Soap.” Albert Pope establishes the first bicycle factory at Hartford, Connecticut, to cash in on the cycling craze. Education: In an early clash between science and fundamentalism, geology professor Alexander Winchell is dismissed from Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, for scientifically contradicting biblical chronology. Exploring: John Wesley Powell publishes his account of an 11-man expedition that successfully navigated down the Green and Colorado rivers in 1869 for the first time; they covered 1,048 miles in 98 days. Indian: The Bureau of Indian Affairs is authorized by Congress to begin hiring Native Americans to serve as police forces on reservations. It is hoped this move will reduce tensions with Native Americans, but it will actually heighten tensions because those hired are regarded as traitors. In a major development, John Lorenzo Hubbell, a trader on the Navajo Indian Reservation, successfully convinces his neighbors to turn their creative talents to making and selling Native American artifacts such as blankets, children’s dolls, silver work, and rugs. In return, Hubbell will sell their work through an exclusive mail-order service nationwide, with profits to the Navajo and to Hubbell. Journalism: The Philadelphia Times is the first newspaper to successfully publish a Sunday edition. Literature: Henry James composes his newest book, The Europeans, which for the first time features Europeans in an American setting. Sidney Lanier’s celebrated poem “The Marshes of Glynn” appears in an anonymous anthology entitled Masque of Poets.

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Medical: Noted cowgirl and marksman Martha “Calamity Jane” Canary puts aside her guns long enough to assist victims of a raging smallpox epidemic in Deadwood, Dakota Territory. Publishing: Moses Coit Tyler publishes his pioneering study entitled History of American Literature, 1607–1765. Science: Albert A. Michelson invents the interferometer, which accurately gauges distance by measuring light waves with an accuracy of 99.999 percent. Precise astronomical measurements of the solar system are now possible. Furthermore, this work establishes the theoretical groundwork for Albert Einstein to propose his Theory of Special Relativity in 1905. Societal: Americans in the Gilded Age are becoming obsessed with proper manners and deportment in social settings, hence a rise in publications advising readers on etiquette, such as The Social Etiquette of New York, P. G., or Perfect Gentleman, and Success in Society. Sports: Boston is the National League baseball pennant winner with 41 wins and 19 losses. Technology: George Eastman begins manufacturing photographic dry plates, an important step in the modernization of photography. The first milking machine with commercial applications is invented in Auburn, New York.

January 1 Labor: The Knights of Labor reforms itself as a national organization and intends to organize all workers into a single union. However, its penchant for flirting with violent socialist splinter groups continually undermines its own efforts.

January 10 Women: In a ground-breaking development, Senator Aaron A. Sargent introduces the Women’s Suffrage Amendment into Congress, although nearly half a century will lapse before it is adopted in 1919.

January 14 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Hall v. De Cuir, ruling that public transportation, such as railroads and steamships, is not required to provide equal accommodations for all passengers, regardless of their race.

January 17 Diplomacy: In a nod to growing awareness of the outside world, the Senate ratifies a treaty with the Pacific island of Samoa, which grants the U.S. Navy permission to establish a coaling station at Pago Pago. Both sides are determined to limit German and British influence in the region.

January 28 Communication: New Haven, Connecticut, sports the nation’s first telephone exchange, which possesses eight lines and services 21 phones.

February Crime: Nineteen-year-old William Bonney, the future outlaw “Billy the Kid,” is baptized under fire during a four-day range war between rival cattle interests, the so-called Lincoln County War.

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February 10 Diplomacy: After years of American pressure, Spain agrees to the convention of El Zanjon, which ends the Cuban rebellion for the time being. The gradual abolition of slavery is among the provisions agreed to, which will ensure peace on the island for the next 15 years.

February 19 Technology: A patent is issued to inventor Thomas A. Edison for a soundrecording gadget called a “phonograph.”

February 21 Communication: New Haven, Connecticut, issues the first-ever telephone directory.

February 22 Politics: The Greenback and Labor parties unite at Toledo, Ohio, to form a new entity, the Greenback Labor Party. As such they stand for more paper currency, unlimited coinage of silver, restrictions on Chinese immigration, and fewer hours for workers. This year they will elect 14 representatives to Congress.

February 28 Business: Congress, pressured by western silver-mining interests, approves the Bland-Allison Act providing for the minting of silver coins but imposing a restriction of $2 million to $4 million worth of metal per month to avoid inflation. It passes over President Rutherford B. Hayes’s veto and is undertaken to placate farmers and silver miners out West, who have been pressing Congress for free coinage ever since large deposits of the metal were uncovered in 1876.

March 23 Diplomacy: Secretary of State William Maxwell Evarts, who has delayed recognition of the Porfirio Díaz regime in Mexico until all border disputes have been resolved, finally instructs John W. Foster, the U.S. minister in Mexico City, to do so. Díaz, through his iron-fisted regime, has managed to restore order and civility to his country and normal relations are again possible.

April Education: Richard Henry Pratt, who has lived among and studied the Cheyenne and Kiowa Indians for several years, founds the Indian Branch of the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute in Virginia to help educate children of Native Americans. Eventually, he intends to follow through with a school of his own.

April 16 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Reynolds v. United States, ruling that First Amendment freedom of religion rights do not extend to “criminal” or “immoral” behavior such as polygamy. The decision is aimed squarely at the Mormon Church.

May Medical: The South is beset by a massive yellow fever epidemic that claims 14,000 lives, 4,000 in New Orleans alone. The nation responds to the crisis with $400,00 in donations, and by dispatching innumerable doctors, nurses, and supplies to afflicted regions.

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May 18 Diplomacy: Ferdinand de Lesseps, whose company constructed the famous Suez Canal in Egypt, is granted the right, by the Colombian government, to construct a similar waterway at the Isthmus of Panama.

May 21 Sports: The fourth annual Kentucky Derby is won by Day Star, with a time of two minutes and 37 seconds.

May 27 Sports: The fourth annual Kentucky Derby goes to Duke of Magenta, who runs the course in two minutes and 41 seconds.

May 30 Military: On the camas prairie of Idaho Territory, Bannock Indians kill two settlers who allowed their hogs to devour all the camas root essential to the Bannock diet. Then 200 warriors take to the war path under Buffalo Horn and commence raiding the vicinity. In response, the army under General Oliver O. Howard will be sent to round up the entire tribe, regardless of whether or not they participated in attacks against whites, and they will be deported en masse to the Yakima Indian Reservation in eastern Washington Territory.

May 31 Business: Congress passes an act requiring that the $347 million of Greenbacks still in circulation continue on as valid currency.

June 3 Agriculture: Congress passes the Timber Cutting Act to encourage the cutting of timber on public land in order to increase farm acreage. However, this also increases erosion rates and will lead to the acquisition of even larger swaths of land by the timber industry. They also pass the Timber and Stone Act, which parcels out nonagricultural land at $2.50 per acre in lots of 160 acres.

June 8 Military: A raiding party of 200 Bannock Indians under Buffalo Horn, having killed numerous settlers, encounters stiff resistance at Silver City, Idaho Territory, and is repulsed. Buffalo Horn is among those slain, although the raiding party will subsequently be swelled by additional Paiute, Oyte, and Egan Indians to around 450. Sports: The 12th annual Belmont Stakes is won by Duke of Magenta with a time of two minutes and 43 seconds.

June 11 Political: Inhabitants of the District of Columbia finally obtain a constitution through the Organic Act passed by Congress but still lack voting rights in either local or national elections. Moreover, a board of three commissioners is delegated to make legislative suggestions to Congress. This consists of two residents and one U.S. Army engineer who are empowered to recommend legislation to Congress.

June 18 Societal: Congress establishes the United States Life-Saving Service, the first such organization in the world. It originally functions as part of the Treasury Department but in 1915 will be combined with the Revenue Cutter Service to form the U.S. Coast Guard.

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June 23 Military: Troopers under Captain Reuben Bernard, 1st U.S. Cavalry, surprise Bannock raiders in their camp at Steens Mountain, Oregon, although the Indians manage to escape at night.

July 8 Military: General Oliver O. Howard encounters a large number of Bannock and other Indians entrenched at Birch Creek, Oregon, but he manages to outflank their position in heavy fighting, forcing them to flee south.

July 11 Politics: In an attempt to promote reform of the civil service, President Rutherford B. Hayes arranges for the Senate to remove Chester A. Arthur as collector of the Port of New York. Also departing is naval officer Alonzo B. Cornell, who has refused to carry out his investigative functions as port naval officer. Both individuals obtained their sinecures through the office of Senator Roscoe C. Conkling of New York, who heads the corrupt Republican machine in New York. Despite the controversial nature of his election, Hayes is determined to ferret out corruption and improve the standing of the Republican Party.

July 25 Diplomacy: The United States, determined to end the period of “unequal treaties” with Japan, signs a new agreement granting the Japanese greater control over its commercial and foreign relations. This is done over the protests of European nations present, who now have little recourse but to pursue equal treaties of their own.

August 21 Law: In a sign of mounting professionalism, the American Bar Association is founded at Saratoga, New York, being the first national organization for lawyers. James O. Broadhead serves as its first president.

September 9 Indian: A body of 300 Northern Cheyenne under Dull Knife and Little Wolf, chafing under reservation life in Oklahoma, breaks free to begin trekking back to ancestral homes in Wyoming and Montana Territories. Apparently, they cannot cohabit peaceably with the more acculturated Southern Cheyenne already there in the Indian Territory. The army will pursue them with 10,000 soldiers for six weeks before overtaking the fugitives.

September 27 Military: Northern Cheyenne under Little Wolf and Dull Knife flee to Smoky Hill, Kansas, and pause at Punished Woman’s Creek only to be surprised and set upon by pursuing army troops. After some inconclusive fighting, the Cheyenne, men, women, and children, escape confinement and resume retreating north.

October 15 Business: Anticipating eventual success, inventor Thomas A. Edison founds the Edison Electric Light Company on 65th Street in New York City, even though he has yet to perfect commercial applications of the light bulb. Nonetheless, he enjoys the backing of J. P. Morgan, noted financier.

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October 23 Military: A party of Northern Cheyenne under Dull Knife, exhausted and starving, finally surrenders to the U.S. Cavalry and is taken to Fort Robinson, Nebraska. A party of diehards under Little Wolf refuses to give up and escapes.

October 27 Crime: A gang of thieves under George L. Leslie burglarizes the Manhattan Insti-­ tute for Savings and absconds with $3 million. Two accomplices are eventually caught and prosecuted, but “Western George” escapes justice once again.

November Medical: The South continues in the grip of a major yellow fever epidemic, cen-­ tered upon New Orleans, Louisiana, which ultimately kills 14,000 people.

November 5 Politics: Â�Mid-­term elections deliver control of both Â�houses of Congress to the DemoÂ�crats for the first time since 1858. No less than 14 members of the new Greenback Labor Party also win seats in the Â�House of Representatives.

November 9 Naval: The Â�steam-­powered sloop USS Ticonderoga departs Hampton Roads, Virginia, on a Â�two-­year cruise to circumnavigate the globe. Its mission is to visit 40 ports, expand existing trade relations, and seek out new ones.

December Indian: Cheyenne under Chief Dull Knife make a desperate break for freedom by escaping from their reservation in northern Oklahoma and march through winter harshness back to their ancestral homeland in Montana. Eventually they will be rounded up and returned by army troops at a tremendous cost in lives.

December 9 Business: The greenback notes issued during the Civil War years are finally redeemable at face value; eastern banks, which had earlier purchased a vast quan-­ tity of the scrip at depreciated value, stand to make a killing.

December 17 Journalism: Joseph Pulitzer acquires the failing St. Louis Dispatch for $2,500 and then merges it with John A. Dillon’s St. Louis Post; the new entity, the St. Louis Â�Post-­Dispatch, will become a profitable enterprise.

1879 Architecture: Madison Square Garden is opened to the public in New York City; it will function as one of the world’s great entertainment centers. Art: Sculptor Daniel Chester French unveils his bust of Ralph Waldo Emerson, which dramatically conveys strength and character with delicacy. Communication: Boston and Lowell, Massachusetts, boast the nation’s first intercity telephone system. Education: Radcliffe College is founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as part of Harvard University. Indian: Frank Hamilton Cushing, a Â�self-­trained Smithsonian anthropologist, takes up residence with the Zuni of Arizona/New Mexico territory to study them. Cushing completely adopts Native American dress and manners, wins their trust,

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Pulitzer, Joseph (1847–1911) Publisher Joseph Pulitzer was born in Budapest, Hungary, on April 10, 1847, the son of a grain dealer. He migrated to the United States in 1864 and briefly served in the Union army before relocating to St. Louis, Missouri, as a laborer. He eventually found work with the German-language newspaper Westliche Post and inadvertently won a seat in the state legislature as a Republican when party officials jokingly nominated him to run in a strong Democratic district. Pulitzer, however, won the election and acquired a reputation by combating corruption and graft. He tired quickly of politics and decided that journalism was a better route for policing society’s ills. Accordingly, in 1872 Pulitzer purchased the St. Louis Post and then the St. Louis Dispatch, which he combined into a new entity, the Post-Dispatch. From the onset Pulitzer distinguished himself from contemporaries by crusading hard against gambling, tax dodging, encouraging cleaning and repairing of the streets, and generally making St. Louis a more habitable city to live in. Success here prompted Pulitzer to move to New York City, where he obtained the failing New York World from financier Jay Gould for $346,000. Buttressed by new, more aggressive reporting, including coverage of crime and human interest stories, Pulitzer quickly turned his investment around and used it as a promotional mouthpiece for the Democratic Party. In 1885 he took another stab at politics by successfully standing for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, but he again grew disenchanted and resigned after

a few months to return to journalism. By 1887 he had founded the New York Evening World, with a Sunday edition, which also proved a lucrative venture. By 1890 Pulitzer’s eyesight was fading just as his biggest battle, a struggle for circulation with newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst and his New York Morning Journal, was unfolding. Hearst used his wealth to raid Pulitzer’s editorial offices and stole many of his best writers by offering better wages. Although blind, Pulitzer relied on his secretaries to be his eyes and countered by trying to outdo Hearst’s trademark sensational reporting of crime, corruption, and other headline grabbing lead-ins. This trend toward sensationalism reached its peak in the period leading up to the Spanish-American War of 1898, and is generally regarded as jingoistic “yellow journalism.” Pulitzer apparently experienced a change of heart at this point and reverted to his more responsible, disciplined style of reporting. His paper was also skewed toward the common man, being anti-monopoly and pro-union in outlook. In 1903 Pulitzer announced his support for the Columbia University School of Journalism, which finally opened in 1912 and, commencing in 1917, also awarded Pulitzer prizes for excellence in reporting, fiction, history, and music. Pulitzer himself died on his yacht off South Carolina on October 29, 1911. More than a crusading journalist, he help set standards of excellence for accurate reporting that are still utilized around the world.

and begins writing some of the most highly detailed studies of the Southwestern Indians ever attempted. Literature: Albion W. Tourgee, a former carpetbagger judge, pens his novel A Fool’s Errand. This is the first story set against the background of Reconstruction.

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Henry James publishes Daisy Miller, one of his most popular early titles, which features a young American heroine. Medical: In Detroit, Michigan, the Parke-Davis pharmaceutical company introduces the concept of standardized dosages. Publishing: Economist Henry George promulgates his controversial book Progress and Poverty, which advocates a single tax on land to replace all other forms of revenue. Sports: Providence wins the National League baseball pennant with a season record of 55 wins and 23 losses. Technology: Charles F. Brush installs the first electrical lighting system at Cleveland, Ohio, although he employs arc lights for illumination instead of the soondominant incandescent lamp.

January 1 Business: Secretary of the Treasury John Sherman orders a resumption of specie payments as per the Specie Resumption Act of 1875. He doubts there will be a rush to redeem greenbacks, despite the fact that they are now redeemable at face value in coin.

January 2 Indian: Despite threats and entreaties from the commander of Fort Robinson, Nebraska, Dull Knife refuses to return his band of Northern Cheyenne to the reservation in Indian Territory (Oklahoma). The officer then cuts off all food and water to the tribesmen to induce them to return. The Indians, sick of this mistreatment, begin making plans to break from their confinement.

January 9 Indian: Cheyenne refugees under Dull Knife, confined to army barracks at Fort Robinson, Nebraska, since January 2 without food or water, stage a mass exodus; roughly half escape and these will be hunted down in the snow over the next three weeks.

January 13 Arts: The Mulligan Guard Balls, a musical farce satirizing post–Civil War military organizations, proves a big hit in New York City.

January 14 Indian: Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce appears before Congress and appeals for help to feed, clothe, and house his suffering tribesmen. Aid is forthcoming, but his request to be allowed to return to his ancestral homeland in Oregon’s Wallowa Valley is denied.

January 15 Arts: New York City audiences are captivated by the wit and inane humor of Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta H. M. S. Pinafore; it will become a commercial success and spawn homegrown imitators.

January 25 Military: Congress passes the Arrears of Pension Act to secure back payment of military pensions retroactively to the day of discharge.

January 27 Business: Inventor Thomas Alva Edison receives a federal patent for his practical incandescent lamp, one of the seminal inventions of human history.

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February 15 Women: Congress passes a law permitting female lawyers to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, although each must have argued cases before their state supreme court for at least three years to qualify.

February 22 Business: Frank W. Woolworth and W. H. Moore hit upon a new business scheme of selling practical commodities at a fixed price, five cents. This is the basis behind their first “five cent store” in Utica, New York, and the start of a commercial empire.

March 1 Politics: Now that Democrats control Congress they attach a rider to the Army Appropriations Act that denies the president any authority to use federal troops to enforce civil rights provisions of the Enforcement Acts of 1865 and 1874. However, President Rutherford B. Hayes, in concert with radical and liberal Republicans, vetoes the attempt four consecutive times. This fight marks the resurgence of the executive branch, whose power has waned since the days of Andrew Johnson. Societal: President Rutherford B. Hayes vetoes a bill limiting future Chinese immigration on the basis that it conflicts with the Burlingame Treaty of 1868.

March 3 Indian: The United States Bureau of Ethnology is founded in Washington, D.C., in order to collect and analyze materials pertaining to Native Americans

Woolworth, Frank W. (1852–1919) Businessman Frank Winfield Woolworth was born in Rodman, New York, on April 13, 1852, a son of farmers. He was educated locally and also worked on his father’s farm, but craved to enter the retail business. He eventually accepted work in a dry goods store for a minuscule salary—$3.50 for an 84-hour week—and one day noticed how goods he arranged for a five-cent liquidation sale sold quickly. Woolworth then conceived an entire store functioning along these lines, so in 1879 he started his own small business, “The Great 5-Cent Store,” in Utica, New York. He enjoyed some success but his location was less than ideal for steady business and the effort ultimately failed. Undeterred, he opened up a new store in

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Lancaster, Pennsylvania, heartland of the thrifty Pennsylvania Dutch, again enjoying considerable success despite the fact he had marked up part of his inventory to include items priced at 10 cents. But an important part of Woolworth’s overall strategy was in pioneering new concepts of retail business. He routinely purchased entire inventories directly from manufacturers, cut out the middleman, and passed the savings along to the public at low retail prices. This also preempted competitors from stocking the same goods. Furthermore, he saw that a critical factor in customer satisfaction was the sheer variety of goods on shelves. Under Woolworth’s scheme relatively luxurious items such as toothpaste and facial cream

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and their rapidly disappearing culture. Major John Wesley Powell (U.S. Army) also becomes the bureau’s first director. In time, the reports and essays issued by bureau writers will influence an entire generation of American cultural anthropologists. Science: The United States Geological Survey is founded by Congress as a bureau within the Department of the Interior. The director chosen is Clarence King, renowned for demanding high professional standards.

March 27 Military: A ragged band of Northern Cheyenne under Little Wolf finally surrenders to Lieutenant William Philo Clark, 2nd U.S. Cavalry, at the Little Missouri River, Montana Territory. The troopers quickly round up 33 warriors, 43 women, and 43 children, along with 250 ponies, and escort them to Fort Keogh. There Little Wolf and several warriors join the U.S. Army to serve as scouts.

April 12 Religion: Mary Baker Eddy founds the Church of Christ, Scientist in Lynn, Massachusetts, to restore the concept of healing to religion.

April 18 Law: A court decides the case of Ponca v. Crook, which establishes the legal fact that Native Americans are considered human beings under U.S. law and must be dealt with accordingly. The ruling issues from the case of Chief Standing Bear, who in January 1879 left his assigned reservation in the Indian Territory and began wandering back to ancestral lands in Nebraska. En route he was returned

were within the purchasing ability of local housewives. By 1881 Woolworth had two successful stores in Pennsylvania and new outlets were continually added to the chain with partners who also functioned as managers. Business flourished, and Woolworth felt emboldened to move his main store to Manhattan, New York, in order to be closer to wholesale suppliers. He also was cognizant of attracting customers through window displays, in which he took a keen interest, and Woolworth personally designed an eye-catching storefront that became the company’s trademark. Between 1890 and 1910, Woolworth’s chain enjoyed phenomenal success, with 631 outlets and an average intake of $60 million. In 1912 Woolworth eliminated five of his top competitors by merging with them and

incorporating the company with $65 million in assets. He was now one of the nation’s wealthiest individuals, and in 1913 he paid $13.5 million for construction of the Woolworth Building in New York City, which, at 792 feet and 60 stories in height, was the world’s tallest building. At the grand opening ceremony, the exterior lights were switched on by President Woodrow Wilson himself. In 1909 his first store in England opened its doors and by 1919 the company had over 1,000 stores in operation worldwide, with annual sales in excess of $107 million. Woolworth died in Glen Cove, Long Island. New York, on April 8, 1919, possibly the most successful retailer in history to that point. He forever changed the landscape of retail business and made the “five and ten cent” store a reassuring staple of consumer life.

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Chronology of American History by army troops under General George Crook. Several concerned attorneys sued the government on behalf of the Indians and obtained a favorable ruling.

April 29 Politics: The army appropriations bill is vetoed by President Rutherford B. Hayes over a provision that would forbid federal troops from being dispatched to oversee congressional elections, presumably in the South. This is a Democratic ploy to nullify the Force Bill and also violates the constitutional equality of all three branches of government.

April 30 Business: Boston, Massachusetts, adopts the first factory inspection law in the nation, authorizing governors to dispatch police officials to any organization suspected of safety violations.

May Business: Frank W. Woolworth opens his second five-cent store, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the humble beginning of a vast commercial empire that, by 1919, will consist of 1,000 stores. He does so by pioneering the vision of mass-produced, low-cost goods for average consumers. Indian: A band of renegade Bannock and Shoshone Indians called Sheepeaters begin raiding white settlements throughout Idaho Territory, living free and eating settlers’ sheep. Army troops will be called in to round them up and they will eventually be imprisoned in Vancouver, Washington.

May 7 Societal: Anti-Chinese sentiment crests in California with the inclusion of a new clause in the state constitution that forbids the employment of any Chinese workers. This is accomplished at the behest of Denis Kearney of the Working Man’s Party, who invariably closes his firebrand speeches with a declaration that “The Chinese must go.”

May 8 Technology: George B. Selden of Rochester, New York, applies for a patent relative to his “horseless carriage”—a gasoline-driven automobile. He continually refines his design but will not receive a patent until 1895, after several competitors have already entered the field.

May 9 Indian: Sitting Bull and his entourage attempt to return to the United States from Canada, but they are blocked by Colonel Thomas H. Rutger, 18th U.S. Infantry, which occupies Fort Assiniboine, Montana Territory.

May 11 Societal: A bill passed by Congress to restrict Chinese immigration is successfully vetoed by President Rutherford B. Hayes. He does so because it violates statutes of the 1868 Burlingame Treaty, which guarantees free immigration.

May 20 Sports: The fifth annual Kentucky Derby is won by Lord Murphy, who clocks in at two minutes, 37 seconds.

May 24 Sports: The seventh annual Preakness Stakes is won by Spendthrift, running at two minutes, 48 seconds.

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June Civil: An exodus of African Americans inexplicably departs Mississippi and makes for St. Louis, Missouri, in the belief that they will find better living conditions there. By August 5,000 refugees are in or near the city and the mayor warns them that he cannot possibly provide for all of them.

June 14 Military: Lieutenant James A. Moss takes the African-American 25th U.S. Infantry Bicycle Corps on a strenuous mobility test from Fort Missoula, Montana Territory, to St. Louis, Missouri, 900 miles distant. The trip is successfully completed in 40 days but bicycles fail to catch on as a means of conveyance.

June 5 Sports: The 13th annual Belmont Stakes is won by Spendthrift, coming in at two minutes 48 seconds.

June 24 Sports: A rowing team from the University of Pennsylvania wins the first Child’s Cup by defeating teams from Columbia, Princeton, and Cornell.

June 28 Naval: The Jeanette, a former Royal Navy vessel, becomes the first American vessel outfitted with a shipboard electric lighting system. It will subsequently serve as a polar research vessel until it is crushed by an ice pack. Transportation: Congress authorizes the Mississippi River Commission, with seven members appointed by the president, to investigate the current navigability of that great and constantly shifting waterway.

June 30 Military: General E. O. C. Ord, reacting to the defeat at Little Bighorn, places renewed emphasis on the theory and practice of marksmanship by directing weekly target practice for troops in his Department of California.

August 7 Exploring: Lieutenant George Washington De Long sails from San Francisco, California, in the Jeanette, accompanied by a crew of 28 men. He thus begins an ill-fated attempt to explore the waters of the North Pole. The expedition is also underwritten by the New York Herald. Military: The War Department, taking its cue from General E. O. C. Ord of the Department of California, institutes new target practice regulations by allowing each soldier 20 rounds per month. The best shots will then be rewarded with prizes and furloughs.

September 4 Military: Renegade Apache under Chief Victorio attack the 9th U.S. Cavalry in camp outside the Ojo Caliente Reservation, Arizona, killing eight troopers and stealing numerous horses. This act precipitates a prolonged cross-border conflict between whites and Apache in the Southwest.

September 10 Indian: At the White River Agency in Colorado, Indian agent Nathan C. Meeker becomes embroiled in a dispute with nearby Ute Indians and requests military assistance to preserve order.

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September 16 Military: Major Thomas T. Thornburgh departs Fort Steele, Wyoming, Territory, with 400 men of his 4th U.S. Infantry, and marches south to assist the White River Agency in Colorado.

September 29 Indian: Ute Indians under Chief Jack (Nicaagat), angered by a harsh government agent, ambush an army column under Major Thomas T. Thornburgh at the Battle of Milk Creek, killing him and 30 soldiers. The Indians suffer 23 dead before returning to the White River Agency and murdering agent Nathan C. Meeker.

October 11 Military: Colonel Ranald Slidell Mackenzie’s 5th U.S. Cavalry arrives at White River Agency, Colorado, and the Ute gathered there are subsequently forced to surrender and release several white hostages. Shortly after the tribesmen will be forcibly retired to the Uintah Reservation in Utah.

October 6 Indian: The Carlisle Indian School opens at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, under the auspices of Richard Henry Pratt, and begins grammar instruction for 82 young Sioux. This is the first such institution not affiliated with a reservation.

October 19–21 Technology: In Menlo Park, New Jersey, Thomas A. Edison, utilizing a carbonized cotton thread in a vacuum, observes that it burns for 24 hours without overheating. He is moving ever closer to perfecting the light bulb, which will finally happen when he substitutes carbonized bamboo with tungsten.

October 31 Indian: U.S. Army troops are sent to arrest Chief Big Snake of the Ponca tribe for moving to a Cheyenne reservation 100 miles from his assigned area. Once sent back to the Ponca Indian Agency he will resist orders to arrest him and will be killed by soldiers.

November Indian: Ponca chief Standing Bear, upset about conditions on his reservation, begins a speaking engagement throughout eastern cities to denounce the hardships inflicted upon his people. He is favorably received by large white audiences, but the government still refuses to let him leave the Indian Territory (Oklahoma).

December 10 Military: In Washington, D.C., Alexander Ramsey is appointed the new secretary of war to replace George W. McCrary.

December 31 Technology: From his laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey, inventor Thomas A. Edison arranges a public demonstration of his new incandescent light bulb. The technology had manifested in one form or another previously, but Edison perfected it by enclosing the filament in a gas-filled glass bulb. The affair is witnessed by several thousand people, brought in by special trains.

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A group of young Native American men and women at the U.S. Indian School, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, participate in an art class. (Library of Congress)

1880 Agriculture: This decade witnesses an accelerated departure from the traditional crops of tobacco and cotton in the South in favor of a more diversified variety of plants, including fruits, peanuts, and vegetables. Architecture: Henry Hobson Richardson completes Bellaman House in Cohasset, Massachusetts, the first of his influential shingled designs. Arts: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, under construction for a decade, opens its doors in New York City, and functions as one of the world’s greatest art collections. Forced by public convention to avoid depicting nudes, French-trained painters like Abbott Thayer and Thomas Dewing revert to showing young American girls as angels, water fairies, and the like. Business: Ira Remsen discovers the formula for saccharin, an artificial sweetener 300 times stronger than regular sugar. In New York City, English baker Samuel Bath Thomas invents a new kind of toasted muffin he calls an “English.”

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Chronology of American History Education: Martha Carey, studying at a college in Switzerland, becomes the first American woman to receive her Ph.D. and graduates summa cum laude. The Indian University (subsequently Bacone College) is founded by the Baptist Home Mission Society in Tahlequah, Indian Territory (Oklahoma). The first class will consist of three students. Engineering: The American Society of Mechanical Engineers is formed to facilitate the growth of scientific literature as it relates to mechanization. Literature: Former Civil War general Lew Wallace publishes his most famous novel, Ben-Hur, about the early days of Christianity and the Roman Empire. It sells 300,000 copies over the next 10 years and will be made into two motion pictures in the next century. Mark Twain publishes his A Tramp Abroad, a good-natured travel narrative of his tour of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Aging Henry Wadsworth Longfellow publishes Ultima Thule, his next to last collection of poems. Music: John Knowles Paine performs his Second Symphony in Boston, Massachusetts, which is wildly received by critics and audience alike. Population: The U.S. Census reveals a population of 50,155,783 while New York becomes the first American city with over five million inhabitants. Publishing: Margaret Sidney’s (Harriet Lothrop) booklet Five Little Peppers and How They Grew will become a children’s classic, with over two million copies sold over the next five decades. Historian Henry Adams, son of President John Quincy Adams, anonymously publishes Democracy, which is a cynical insider’s view of power politics in Washington, D.C. The participation of women in sports is on the rise and includes such diverse activities as archery, tennis, croquet, cycling, swimming, fencing, and skating. Chicago wins the National League baseball pennant with 67 wins and 17 losses. Technology: Inventor George Eastman develops and patents a roll of film for cameras, supplanting the single plate system. The safety razor is developed by the Kampfe brothers in New York City, making the problematic practice of shaving much safer. The Sherwin-Williams Company of Cleveland, Ohio, perfects an all-purpose house paint based on a standard formula. Transportation: Within five decades, American railroads have laid 93,671 miles of track, which covers virtually all settled regions of the nation.

January Business: The U.S. Supreme Court decides a case between the large Santa Fe Railroad and the small Denver & Rio Grande line, allowing the latter to construct a track from Pueblo, through the Royal Gorge, and into Salt Lake City.

January 27 Technology: A patent is issued to Thomas A. Edison for his new and revolutionary incandescent light bulbs. Man’s age-old struggle with darkness is about to take a decided turn for the better.

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Adams, Henry Brooke

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(1838–1918)

Historian Henry Brooke Adams was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on February 16, 1838, a son of Charles Francis Adams and a grandson of John Quincy Adams, sixth president of the United States. The Adams family at this time was among the most respected in the nation, and he matured amidst an atmosphere of high culture, perpetual debate, and intellectual discourse. Consequently, Adams was easily accepted into Harvard University in 1854, where he handled himself capably, if without great distinction. After graduating in 1858 Adams toured Germany and Italy and interviewed the Italian patriot/ revolutionary Giuseppe Garibaldi for the Boston Courier. He subsequently returned home to serve as a secretary to his father, now a congressman from Massachusetts, and resettled in Washington, D.C. He also began writing numerous historical essays for the North American Review, which garnered him national attention, but in 1861, following the onset of the Civil War, he was dissuaded from seeking a military commission and instead accompanied his father abroad to England, where his father served as U.S. minister. Adams continued mixing in elite circles, which served to broaden his social horizons and stoke his intuitive grasp of history and politics. He returned once again to Washington, D.C., in 1868 and settled into the role of a brilliant and acerbic social and political commentator. In this capacity he proved himself most unpopular with men close to the center of power, who were greatly relieved when he

relocated to Boston in 1870 to teach history at Harvard. It was as an historian that Adams finally found his intellectual niche. He helped pioneer the seminar system of historical instruction, which called upon students to proffer their own opinions and interpret relevant empirical evidence, as opposed to simply memorizing facts and events. In 1872 he also married a highly intelligent woman, Marian Hooper, in whom his restless soul finally found a mate. When not teaching, Adams found time to serve as editor of the prestigious magazine North American Review, to which he contributed many scintillating articles. But in researching and publishing history Adams had few peers, and his books Documents Relating to New England Federalism (1877), The Life of Albert Gallatin (1879), John Randolph (1882), and his magnum opus, History of the United States during the Administrations of Jefferson and Madison (1889–91) gained renown for his mastery of the discipline. In 1877 Adams quit Harvard and returned to Washington, D.C., to further pursue his research and also found time to tour Europe with his wife. He was profoundly shaken by her suicide in 1885 and became increasingly reclusive. In 1904 he privately printed a medieval text, MontSaint-Michael and Chartres, immediately hailed as a classic, and his autobiography, The Education of Henry Adams in 1907, which posthumously received a Pulitzer prize. Adams died in Washington, D.C., on March 26, 1918.

February 2 Technology: Wabash, Indiana, becomes the first American city to employ electric lighting, although on a small scale. The technology has been provided by the Brush Electric Company of Cleveland, Ohio.

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Chronology of American History Women: Belva Ann Bennett Lockwood becomes the first American female attorney to argue before the U.S. Supreme Court. She does so in presenting the merits of fellow lawyer Samuel R. Lowery, who becomes the fifth African American to work at the Court.

February 4 Arts: Steele MacKaye’s domestic drama Hazel Kirke opens at the Madison Square Theater in New York, signaling a gradual shift from romantic productions to more realistic themes.

February 12 Indian: President Rutherford B. Hayes issues a warning against squatters trying to settle on land reserved for Native Americans. The area in question lies south of Kansas, Arkansas, and Missouri, but will ultimately be ceded to westerners in 1889.

February 19 Journalism: The Houston Post is organized by journalist Gail Borden.

February 24 Diplomacy: With the return of stability along the southern border and expanding commercial ties to the Mexican regime of President Porfirio Díaz, President Rutherford B. Hayes rescinds his June 1, 1877, order granting American forces the right of “hot pursuit” onto Mexican soil to chase bandits and renegade Indians. After this point investments will pour into Mexico and cordial relations resume.

March 1 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court, drawing upon the Fourteenth Amendment, decides the case of Strauder v. West Virginia, ruling that excluding African Americans from jury duty is unconstitutional. The ruling does not affect the status of women, whose appearance on jury panels remains problematic.

March 4 Media: The New York Daily Graphic is the first newspaper to employ half-tone photographs as illustrations on a daily basis.

March 8 Diplomacy: President Rutherford B. Hayes declares that any canal built across the Isthmus of Panama will fall completely under the aegis of the United States. This is after Frenchman Ferdinand de Lesseps testifies before Congress as to his intentions toward neutrality.

March 12 Crime: In an attempt to halt a rise in bank robberies, Inspector Thomas Byrnes of the New York City police establishes a “dead line” along Fulton Street, below which any known criminal will be apprehended immediately.

March 18 Business: French Canal Company official Ferdinand de Lesseps testifies before Congress that his company is devoid of ties to the French government and that the canal he is attempting to build in Panama is a private, commercial venture. In doing so he allays fear of possible European intervention in the hemisphere, which would invoke the Monroe Doctrine.

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March 24 Religion: Commissioner George Railton and seven women establish the American chapter of the Salvation Army in Philadelphia. This is both an evangelical and philanthropic organization that preaches salvation through good works; it was originally founded in London in 1865 by William Booth. Despite its uniforms and military demeanor, it is unique for according women members complete equality in its hierarchy.

April Politics: George Milton helps organize the National Farmers Alliance, a precursor to the People’s Party of 1892, in Chicago, Illinois. His efforts are enthusiastically received because small farmers have been downtrodden by high tariffs, floods, droughts, inflated railroad rates, and high interest on loans and mortgages. Technology: Charles F. Brush employs his arc lamp system to completely illuminate the town of Wabash, Indiana. However, the device will prove less versatile than Thomas A. Edison’s incandescent light bulb and soon fade into oblivion.

April 18 Military: A patrol under Captain Henry Carroll, 9th U.S. Cavalry, is surprised by Apache in Dog Canyon, New Mexico Territory, losing several troopers when large boulders are suddenly rolled on top of them.

May 18 Sports: The sixth annual Kentucky Derby is won by Fonso with a time of two minutes, 37 seconds.

May 28 Sports: The eighth annual Preakness Stakes is won by Grenada, who turns in a run of two minutes, 40 seconds.

May 30 Sports: In College Station, West Virginia, Irish-American boxer Paddy Ryan knocks out Joe Goss, his English opponent, after 87 grueling bare-knuckle rounds to become world heavyweight champion. He is also the first American pugilist boxer to win the title in his first recorded fight.

June 2–8 Politics: The Republican Party convention, after considerable infighting, finally nominates James A. Garfield to serve as its compromise presidential candidate on the 36th ballot. Chester A. Arthur, a relatively unknown public official from New York, is selected for the vice presidency to appease the “Stalwart” faction of the party, which favors former president Ulysses S. Grant. Senator Blanche Kelso Bruce of Mississippi becomes temporary chairman of the convention, the first African American to serve in this capacity.

June 9 Politics: The National Greenback Labor Party convenes in Chicago, Illinois, to nominate James B. Weaver of Iowa for president and B. J. Chambers of Texas for vice president.

June 14 Sports: The 14th annual Belmont Stakes is won by Grenada, who crosses the line after two minutes, 47 seconds.

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June 17 Politics: The Prohibition Party holds its national convention, nominating Neal Dow of Maine and A. M. Thompson of Ohio as its candidates for president and vice president.

June 22–24 Politics: In Cincinnati, Ohio, the Democratic Party convention selects former general Winfield S. Hancock of Pennsylvania for president and William H. English of Indiana for vice president. Significantly, there is little to choose between the platforms of the major parties as both cater to interest groups created by the enormous shift from a largely agrarian-based society to an industrial one. The acquisition of money becomes a driving force behind the lust for office, and badly needed social reforms for the common man and woman lag far behind in political priorities.

July 3 Diplomacy: The United States and several European powers convene in Madrid and agree that Morocco, then in the grip of an independence movement, will not be “protected” by foreign powers.

July 29 Military: Colonel Benjamin H. Grierson leads the African-American 10th U.S. Cavalry (“Buffalo Soldiers”) out from Fort Quitman, Texas, and begins a long pursuit of Apache raiders under Victorio. It will end indecisively once the Apache flee across the border into Mexico.

October 1 Music: John Philips Sousa becomes the 14th and most celebrated conductor of the U.S. Marine Corps Band. Under his 12-year tenure the band gains national renown and tours repeatedly.

October 4 Education: The University of Southern California is founded in Los Angeles, California, with classes beginning this same year.

October 15–16 Military: American forces under Colonel George Buell, assisted by Colonel Joaquin Terrazas and 350 Mexican militia, corner the renegade Apache band of Victorio at Tres Castillos, Mexico. The Americans are then sent home as the Mexicans attack, killing the chief and 78 Apache, while 62 are captured and used as slaves.

October 27 Diplomacy: In Chile, U.S. minister Isaac P. Christinacy reports to Secretary of State William Maxwell Evarts that Chile has failed to accede to an offer from the United States to help end its ongoing war with Peru and Bolivia over mineral deposits in Tarapaca.

November 2 Politics: After a rancorous, mud-slinging campaign, Republican James A. Garfield wins the presidential election with a popular vote of 4,453,295 votes to 4,444,082 for Democrat Winfield S. Hancock—the margin in the decisive state of Pennsylvania is razor close at only 9,464. Garfield also amasses 214 electoral votes to Hancock’s 155. Chester A. Arthur becomes vice president while Repub-

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Sousa, John Philip (1854–1932) Composer John Philip Sousa was born in Washington, D.C., on November 6, 1854, the son of a Portuguese father and a German mother. He displayed an amazing aptitude for music as a child, and at 13 he was playing band instruments. In his late teens Sousa enlisted with the Marine Band and also served as orchestra director at a variety house and for various comedy troupes. In 1876 he was profoundly influenced by French composer Jacques Offenbach, in whose orchestra he played at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, and where he also encountered noted band leader Patrick Gilmore. Sousa subsequently returned to Washington where, in 1880, he signed on as director of the U.S. Marine Band, which he completely reorganized, modifying its instrumentation and expanding its musical repertoire. In 1892 he left and formed his own group, the New Marine Band, which he formulated more for concerts than marching performances, and during the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago he entertained thousands of spectators on a daily basis. Listeners were enthralled by Sousa’s ability to energetically conduct his players in a wide variety of toe-tapping compositions, as well as traditional airs. The musical director of the exposition was so nonplussed by Sousa’s performance that he canceled his own symphonic and choral events. Around this time Sousa began composing his own marching tunes, such as “The March King” and “The Washington Post March,” which enhanced his reputation as one of the nation’s leading musicians. So famous did Sousa’s band

become that it began touring the United States and Canada in 1893, with commercial and critical success. This was followed up by four trips to Europe and an audacious tour around the world, heretofore unprecedented by a marching band. In 1897 Sousa composed his most famous and most enduring piece, “Stars and Stripes Forever,” which remains a perennial national favorite during Fourth of July celebrations and on patriotic occasions. After the Spanish-American War broke out in 1898 he served as musical director with the VI Army Corps and, following American entry into World War I in 1917, he assumed command of all naval bands. After the war Sousa resumed his touring activities and also began dabbling in higher forms of music such as comic operas. He had been greatly impressed by the amazing popularity of British composers Gilbert and Sullivan, and wrote no less than 10 comic operas of which The Bride Elect, El Capitan, and The Free Lance proved commercially successful. The multifaceted Sousa also proved himself a fair hand at writing, producing three novels and a manual for playing violin and trumpet, along with a highly regarded memoir entitled Marching Along (1928). Sousa died in Reading, Pennsylvania, on March 6, 1932, quite easily the most successful composer and conductor of his time. His 40 years as bandmaster grossed an estimated $40 million in receipts, and established him as one of the most influential forces in American musical history.

licans also regain control of the House of Representatives. Power in the Senate, meanwhile, is evenly divided and shared with two independents. In Tenafly, New Jersey, suffragettes Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton make a public display when they are again denied the right to vote in

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Chronology of American History national elections by the polling booth attendant. At this juncture they have been pushing for women’s suffrage for 30 years.

November 8 Arts: Noted French actress Sarah Bernhardt debuts in a production of Alexander Dumas’s La Dame aux Camelias at Booth’s Theater in New York City. She especially wows the audience with her melodramatic “death” scene at the end of the play.

November 9 Naval: The steam-powered sloop USS Ticonderoga under Commodore Robert W. Shufeldt returns to Hampton Roads, Virginia, after a two-year diplomatic sojourn, having covered 36,000 miles and called upon more than 40 ports worldwide. This is the first global circumnavigation performed by a U.S. Navy steam vessel.

November 17 Diplomacy: The United States and China amend the Burlingame Treaty of 1868 with the Chinese Exclusion Treaty. This severely curtails—but does not stop—Chinese coolie immigration, while travel by academics, business people, and travelers remains unaffected.

December 20 Technology: The arc lighting system of Charles F. Brush is employed to light up an entire mile of New York’s Broadway.

1881 Agriculture: Judge James J. Logan of Santa Cruz, California, develops a new type of fruit called the Loganberry, which is a cross between blackberries and raspberries. Architecture: Henry Hobson Richardson designs a suburban station for the Boston & Albany Railroad in Auburndale, Massachusetts, which is regarded as among his finest efforts. William Kissam Vanderbilt’s home at Fifth Avenue and 52nd Street, New York, which cost $3 million to complete and furbish, initiates a period of chateaus and palaces constructed by America’s wealthy—largely as monuments to themselves. Art: The depiction of children and motherhood, captured on canvas by Mary Cassatt, garners rave reviews in Paris. Although living abroad, she is regarded as America’s finest woman artist. John Singer Sargent paints his Vernon Lee and Portrait of Lady, anticipating what will become a brilliant career celebrated for his command of elegance, pose, and light colors. Actor William Gillette tries his hand as a playwright by penning the realistic melodramas The Professor and Esmeralda in which he himself plays the leading roles. Civil: The Tennessee legislature passes the first of many “Jim Crow” laws to keep African Americans segregated on trains and prohibited from riding first class. Education: The Wharton School of Finance and the Economy is founded as part of the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia. Joseph Wharton, a wealthy industrialist, contributes $100,000 to the project, being the first of its kind in the nation.

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Sargent, John Singer

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(1856–1925)

Artist John Singer Sargent was born in Florence, Italy, to American parents, and he first studied art at the Academy of Fine Arts there. He also traveled throughout Italy, France, and Germany as he matured, invariably sketching the numerous sights he beheld. Singer was therefore exceptionally well prepared when he began formal art instruction at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, in 1874. Two years later he visited the United States to claim his American citizenship, then returned to France for more study. Sargent proved himself a talented painter and began exhibiting his works at the Salon as early as 1877, winning honorable mention for the composition En Route pour la Peche. However, his predilection for understated tones and brilliant highlights was ahead of its time, artistically, so he failed to find a patron. In 1884 his most famous work, Madam X, debuted at the Salon and created such a scandal that it had to be withdrawn. Here he depicted the fair-skinned Madame Gautreau, a fabled and ravishing Parisian belle, in a distinctly low-cut evening gown and with so much suggested sensuality that critics were stunned. Sargent consequently closed shop amidst a storm of criticism and relocated to London where his vivid and imaginative compositions were also coldly received. He then surrendered to the inevitable and began painting portraits on a commission basis, quickly gaining recognition as one of the leading portraitists of his day. Again, Sargent disregarded the stately visual

nuances of the period, substituting instead his own sense of directness and spontaneity. By 1890 his reputation was such that peeresses and notables throughout England were lining up to be rendered on canvas, although around this time he had tired of portraiture and turned to landscape and decorative works. In light of his success in Europe, Sargent returned to the United States and was widely praised in artistic circles throughout Boston, Massachusetts. For this reason he was commissioned to execute a large series of murals inside the Boston Public Library, which took two decades to complete, and he also lent his skills in painting the interior of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. In 1897 Sargent became one of a handful of American painters inducted into the Royal Academy, London. By 1910 Sargent was back in Italy, touring the Alps, and capturing their majesty in a new medium, watercolor, and the resulting work is considered among his very best. In 1918 the British government commissioned him an official war artist and he produced such memorable works as Gassed and General Officers of the Great War. The art scene by this time was dominated by abstraction-minded modernists with little regard for Sargent’s dramatic realism and he became regarded as both passé and a “society painter.” He died in London on April 15, 1925, openly regarded as America’s most technically astute portraitist, whose mastery influenced a generation of modern artists.

The Storrs Agricultural School (today’s University of Connecticut) is founded at Storrs, Connecticut. General: Coney Island, New York, is rapidly becoming an area for swimming and recreation, and includes its own boardwalk, which runs three-quarters of a mile out over the ocean.

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Luna Park at Coney Island, N.Y. (Library of Congress)

Literature: Joel Chandler Harris publishes Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings, about the wise pronouncements of an aged former slave. In doing so he introduces American readers to Br’er Rabbit, Br’er Fox, and a host of humorous characters. Harris, a journalist with the Atlanta Constitution, spent several years interviewing freedmen and carefully noting the intrinsic wisdom of their folk tales. He also meticulously reproduces the exact dialects then in use. Henry James completes Portrait of a Lady, regarded as another of his early masterpieces, along with Washington Square, which depicts American life at home. The newest edition of Walt Whitman’s perennial Leaves of Grass is withdrawn from circulation by publishers in Boston over charges of indecency. Naval: In New Jersey, schoolteacher and Irish expatriate John Holland invents the first practical submarine for naval warfare. He has been inspired by Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues under The Sea and hopes his invention will one day be used against warships of the Royal Navy. Publishing: Richard Watson Gilder becomes editor of The Century Illustrated Magazine, which specializes in the memoirs of Civil War generals and other leaders.

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His sister Jeanette also contributes to what can be called the nation’s first gossip column. Helen Hunt Jackson publishes her A Century of Dishonor, a scathing account of the mistreatment of Native Americans by the federal government. It is extremely well-received by whites in sympathy with the Indians and their plight. Science: Geologist Clarence E. Dutton concludes the first extensive survey of the Grand Canyon region, and begins publishing erudite scientific papers on its formation. Societal: The first summer camp for city children is established at Squam Lake, New Hampshire, and leads to the founding of similar camps in New York, Pennsylvania, and throughout New England. Sports: The United States Lawn Tennis Association is formed during a meeting of eastern clubs. Chicago wins the National League baseball pennant with a record of 56 wins and 28 losses. Technology: Lewis Latimer obtains a patent for the first incandescent light bulb.

January 7 Naval: In Washington, D.C., Nathan Goff is appointed secretary of the navy; he serves only two months.

January 19 Communication: The Western Union Telegraph Company of Jay Gould and William H. Vanderbilt acquires the American Union and several smaller telegraph firms, gaining a telegraph communications monopoly for the first time.

January 24 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Springer v. the United States, ruling that federally imposed income tax laws are not the type of direct levy (such as a real property tax or poll tax) proscribed by constitutional law.

February 9 Medical: Army surgeon general George Miller Sternberg uncovers the existence of the deadly pneumococcus germ cell, which causes pneumonia, a discovery that will establish him as the “father of American bacteriology.”

February 19 Societal: Kansas is the first state to embrace prohibition and outlaw the sale of liquor, except for medicinal, mechanical, or scientific purposes.

February 22 Societal: President Rutherford B. Hayes, himself married to a stern prohibitionist nicknamed “Lemonade Lucy,” bans the sale of liquor at military posts.

March 3 Business: Congress creates a central registration agency for the protection of company trademarks, recognizing that corporations have now expanded to national enterprises.

March 4 Agriculture: Expanding overseas trade prompts Congress to begin passing plant and produce quarantine legislation. Politics: James A. Garfield is inaugurated as president of the United States, with Chester A. Arthur his vice president.

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Garfield, James A., (1831–1881) President James Abram Garfield was born near Orange, Ohio, on November 19, 1831, into a hardscrabble existence. He worked as a canal boy before attending the Geauga Academy in Chester, Ohio, then continued his education at the Eclectic Institute in Hiram. Garfield was a devout member of the Disciples of Christ and served as a preacher in local churches before gaining admission to Williams College, Massachusetts. Strongly abolitionist, he also dabbled in Republican Party politics and in 1859 gained election to the Ohio senate. He served two years before resigning to help recruit the 42nd Ohio Volunteers, serving with them as lieutenant colonel throughout the Civil War. Garfield proved himself adept as an officer and fought with distinction at the bloody encounters of Shiloh and Chickamauga. He had risen to brigadier general of volunteers before winning election to the U.S. House of Representatives from his own district in

James A. Garfield (Library of Congress)

March 5 Military: President James A. Garfield appoints Robert Todd Lincoln, eldest son of President Abraham Lincoln, to serve as secretary of war. Politics: President James A. Garfield appoints James G. Blaine as secretary of state to placate the “Half Breed” faction of the Republican Party, but Blaine’s unpopularity with rank-and-file members leads to pronounced splits within party ranks. Blaine, in fact, has little practical experience in diplomatic matters and more or less secured his position through his status within the party.

March 7 Naval: In Washington, D.C., William H. Hunt is appointed secretary of the navy. He inherits a tottering force in considerable disrepair, as only 52 vessels out of 140 in commission are completely seaworthy.

March 23 Politics: President James A. Garfield makes another divisive appointment in Judge William H. Robinson, who becomes collector of customs for the Port of New York. This is a lucrative post previously manipulated by New York senator Roscoe Conkling, who will briefly obstruct the nomination in the Senate.

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l­ate 1863. Garfiel­d was a natural­ pol­itician and easil­y won reel­ection over the next 17 years, al­though in 1874 he was marginal­l­y tainted by the infamous Credit Mobil­ier scandal­. He was al­so a l­oyal­ party operative and in 1866 voted for the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson. In 1876 Gar-­ fiel­d accompanied the controversial­ group of “visiting statesmen” to Louisiana during the presidential­ el­ection of that year and, as a member of the El­ectoral­ Commission, voted to instal­l­ Rutherford B. Hayes in the White House over his Democratic rival­. Despite his renowned agil­ity in straddl­ing issues and prospering by it, Garfiel­d was a firm fiscal­ conservative, advocated sound money (hard currency) pol­icies, and strenuousl­y opposed infl­ationary greenbacks. In 1880 Garfiel­d was appointed to the U.S. Senate by the Ohio state l­egisl­ature, but fate intervened and he never occupied his seat. That year the Republ­ican Party nom-­ inating convention was deadl­ocked in a three-­way spl­it between Ul­ysses S. Grant, Ohio senator John Sherman, and New York

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senator James G. Bl­aine. On the 36th bal­l­ot, Garfiel­d suddenl­y became the compromise candidate between warring factions within the party al­though, to pl­acate the “Stal­warts,” who embraced entrenched pol­itical­ patron-­ age, he was paired with New Yorker Ches-­ ter A. Arthur. The two went on to win the el­ection and Garfiel­d was sworn into office the fol­l­owing March. Once in office, Gar-­ fiel­d angered the “Stal­warts,” reforming the civil­ service and attempting to outl­aw pol­iti-­ cal­l­y based patronage. He al­so vigorousl­y asserted his presidential­ power of appoint-­ ment by ignoring candidates chosen by Sena-­ tor Roscoe Conkl­ing of New York, a l­eading Stal­wart. However, the extent of a ful­l­ tenure in office wil­l­ never be known for on Jul­y 2, 1881, at a Washington rail­road station, he was fatal­l­y wounded by disappointed office seeker Charl­es J. Guiteau, l­ingering for 11 weeks before final­l­y dying in El­beron, New Jersey, on September 19, 1881. He was suc-­ ceeded by Vice President Arthur who, much to the pol­itical­ establ­ishment’s surprise, con-­ tinued Garfiel­d’s reforms of the civil­ service.

May 7 Exploring: Lieutenant Adol­phus W. Greel­y takes a 25-­man contingent to Al­aska for the purpose of establ­ishing a meteorol­ogical­ station. He wil­l­ subsequentl­y found Fort Conger on Canada’s El­l­esmere Isl­and. Military: In another sign of mounting professional­ism in the mil­itary, General­ Wil­l­iam T. Sherman establ­ishes the Infantry and Caval­ry School­ at Fort Leav-­ enworth, Kansas. Today it functions as the Army Command and General­ Staff Col­l­ege.

May 16 Politics: Senators Roscoe Conkl­ing and Thomas Pl­att obstruct the nomination of James G. Bl­aine as secretary of state, and both wil­l­ resign in protest when they are approved. Surprisingl­y, the New York State l­egisl­ature wil­l­ decl­ine to reel­ect them. This episode is additional­ proof that the executive branch has recovered some of its former power since the days of Reconstruction.

May 17 Sports: The seventh annual­ Kentucky Derby is won by Hindoo with a time of two minutes, 40 seconds.

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Greely, Adolphus (1844–1935) Explorer Adolphus Greely was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, on March 27, 1844. He volunteered for military service in 1861 and fought in several Civil War engagements, being wounded three times and promoted in rank from private to major. In 1865 he was one of the few volunteer officers allowed to join the regular peacetime establishment, as a second lieutenant. In this capacity he served with the U.S. Army Signal Corps and was busily engaged in erecting telegraph lines from Texas to California and from the Dakotas to the Washington Territory. Greely, however, was a serious student of meteorology and an avid reader of scientific publications respecting polar exploration. In 1881, after Congress authorized American participation in the first International Polar Year, he was appointed to command the first American expedition to the Arctic Circle. In July of that year he sailed with 25 men from Newfoundland aboard the Proteus and disembarked at Lady Franklin Bay on the eastern periphery of Ellesmere Island. Having established a base camp at Fort Conger, Greely sent out exploring parties that discovered Lake Hazen, Greely Fjord, and advanced to the farthest northern point then achieved. Unfortunately, scheduled provision ships failed to arrive in 1882 and 1883 so his party was faced with starvation. Greely then conducted his party 200 miles southward along a prearranged route to Cape Sabine where, in June 1884, seven survivors were finally rescued in emaciated condition. Greely was initially criticized for

the loss of life but an official court of inquiry exonerated him. All told, it was an extremely heroic three-year endeavor and in 1886 he received promotion to captain. In 1887 President Grover Cleveland arranged for Greely to be promoted several ranks to brigadier general, whereupon he became head of the U.S. Army Signal Corps. Here he was tasked with laying down thousands of miles of telegraph lines and submarine cables across the United States and to Alaska, Cuba, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico. He pushed for the army’s adoption of the first wireless technology and also served as chief of the U.S. Weather Service until 1891 when its responsibilities were transferred to the Department of Agriculture. In all these occupations Greely acquitted himself well and rose to major general in 1906. He then successively commanded the Northern Military Division and Pacific Military Division, and rendered useful humanitarian service in the wake of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Greely finally retired from service in 1908 and turned to writing his memoirs and also composed various and widely respected scientific tracts. He had previously served as a founder and promoter of the new National Geographic Society, which was the recipient of his personal library and scrapbooks. In 1935 his service was officially honored by a Congressional Medal of Honor. Greely died in Washington, D.C., on October 20, 1935, one of the most distinguished explorers and soldier-scientists of his day.

May 21 Arts: Noted actor William H. Gillette stars in a production of the play The Professor at Madison Square Garden in New York City; he also wrote it. Societal: Clara Barton, formerly an army nurse in the Civil War, founds the American chapter of the International Red Cross and will serve for many years as its presi-

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Barton, Clara

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(1821–1912)

Reformer Cl­ara Harl­ow Barton was born in North Oxford, Massachusetts, on December 25, 1821, the daughter of a sol­dier. Her father, a veteran of the Indian wars, sought to imbue his daughter with a sense of discipl­ine, pur-­ pose, and singl­e-­minded determination to succeed—traits she displ­ayed throughout her l­ife. Barton taught briefl­y, then cl­erked sev-­ eral­ years at the U.S. Patent Office in Wash-­ ington, D.C. When the Civil­ War erupted in 1861, she joined the 6th Massachusetts Regiment as a nurse and fol­l­owed it into combat at such bl­oody fiel­ds as Bul­l­ Run and Antietam. She al­so l­obbied Congress for permission to establ­ish her own rel­ief agency, which operated independentl­y of Dorothea A. Dix’s Army Nurse Corps. Bar-­ ton’s cool­ness under fire and al­l­-­around exempl­ary behavior paved the way for other women to participate directl­y in the war effort. In 1864 General­ Benjamin Butl­er el­evated her to chief nurse of his Army of the James, and in February 1865 President Abra-­ ham Lincol­n authorized her to establ­ish an office dedicated to finding and identifying the remains of deceased sol­diers. In this capacity Barton performed inval­uabl­e work exhuming human remains at the notori-­ ous Andersonvil­l­e prison in Georgia, where she hel­ped to identify and bring 13,000 individual­s to their final­ resting pl­aces. She al­so testified before the Joint Committee on Reconstruction in the spring of 1866, and Congress was so impressed by her demeanor that they voted her an additional­ $15,000 to continue to work with missing men. Now a

national­ cel­ebrity, Barton frequentl­y toured the country and l­ectured the publ­ic about her wartime experiences in 1866–68. Barton fel­l­ il­l­ in 1869 and visited Europe to recuperate. She arrived in time to wit-­ ness the bl­oody Franco-­Prussian War of 1870–71 and gained firsthand exposure to the Swiss-­based rel­ief agency, the Red Cross. Indel­ibl­y impressed, Barton returned home determined to establ­ish an American chapter. In 1877 she al­so l­obbied Congress to accept provisions of the Geneva Con-­ vention, which recognized the neutral­ity of rel­ief workers. This act was signed into l­aw by President Chester A. Arthur in 1882, one year after a Red Cross chapter had final­l­y been chartered in the United States, with Barton as its first president. She then worked tirel­essl­y, orchestrating rel­ief efforts for victims of the 1889 Johnstown, Pennsyl­-­ vania, fl­ood and demonstrated the viabil­ity of Red Cross efforts in disaster situations. In 1898 the 77-­year-­ol­d Barton arrived in Cuba to supervise Red Cross operations during the Spanish-­American War, al­though her autocratic demeanor al­ienated mil­itary authorities. Nonethel­ess, in June 1900 Presi-­ dent Wil­l­iam McKinl­ey signed the bil­l­ that institutional­ized the Red Cross on a national­ basis. Barton was gradual­l­y eased out as head of her agency on account of age, al­though she spent the l­ast eight years of her l­ife l­ob-­ bying on behal­f of humanitarian rel­ief agen-­ cies. She died at Echo, Maryl­and, on April­ 12, 1912, having dispersed an estimated $2 mil­l­ion of aid in the interest of humanity.

dent. America now joins a dozen European nations pl­edged to uphol­d the neutral­ity of medical­ personnel­ and al­so the humane treatment of prisoners of war.

May 27 Sports: The ninth annual­ Preakness Stakes is won by Saunterer with a run of two minutes, 40 seconds.

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June 2 Diplomacy: Great Britain agrees to pay the United States $105,305 in compensation after Canadians tear American fishing nets in Fortune Bay, Newfoundland. This easy accommodation reflects the return to power of Liberal prime minister William Gladstone, who seeks closer relations with America.

June 7 Sports: The 15th annual Belmont Stakes is won by Saunterer, who turns in a run of two minutes, 47 seconds.

June 13 Exploring: The yacht Jeanette under Lieutenant George Washington De Long, caught in Arctic ice floes for several months, is finally crushed. This will force the crew of 28 to make their way overland to Siberia, where only two will survive.

June 24 Diplomacy: Several European nations are put on notice by Secretary of State James G. Blaine that they are not to make outlandish promises of support or intervention to French engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps as he begins digging a canal across the Panamanian isthmus. He therefore urges Great Britain to acquiesce to changes in the 1854 Clayton-Bulwer Treaty already in effect.

June 28 Naval: Secretary of the Navy William H. Hunt establishes a naval advisory board under Admiral John Rodgers in light of that service’s dilapidated condition. The board will recommend immediate construction of several modern, steel-hulled vessels.

July Transportation: The railroad line from Durango, Colorado, to Chama, New Mexico—undertaken through prohibitively desolate territory—is finished at a cost of $140,000 per mile.

July 2 Politics: In Washington, D.C., President James A. Garfield is shot and fatally wounded by Charles J. Guiteau, an unemployed and mentally disturbed individual. Garfield becomes the second chief executive to be shot while in office and will linger in pain for nearly three months with a bullet lodged near his spine.

July 4 Civil: Booker T. Washington, a noted civil rights advocate, charters the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama, with himself as principal. Washington, who is an advocate of gradual change, feels African Americans can gain a toehold in modern society only through technical training, especially because the Old South is gradually turning away from its traditional reliance on cotton and other crops in favor of industrialization. Crime: Notorious outlaw William C. Bonney (Billy the Kid), wanted for the murder of 21 men, is shot down in Fort Sumner, New Mexico Territory, by Sheriff Pat Garrett, a former friend.

July 6 General: In a celebrated feat of heroism, 15-year-old Kate Shelby crossed a damaged bridge in Boone County, Iowa, trudges another mile and a half in a driving rainstorm to the nearest telegraph office, and alerts authorities that the bridge

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Washington, Booker T. (1856–1915) African-American educator Booker Taliaferro was born in Franklin County, Virginia, on April 5, 1856, the son of an African-American slave mother and a white father whom she never married. He was raised near Malden, West Virginia, after being freed by the Civil War and went to work in the salt furnaces and coal mines at the age of nine. Despite a menial existence, he thirsted for knowledge and attended a night school for blacks, adopting there the surname Washington. In 1872 Washington spent his life savings to enroll at the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, a trade school for African Americans, and he supported himself by performing janitorial work. Washington then zestfully threw himself into educating former slaves with

Booker T. Washington (Library of Congress)

considerable success, and in 1881 he was selected as the first president of the newly founded Tuskegee Institute. For many years Washington struggled to attract qualified black students and white benefactors to his school, and by dint of his affable and charismatic personality, transformed the struggling school into a thriving campus of 100 buildings, a student body of 1,500, a professional faculty of 200, and an endowment of $200 million. Success here catapulted him into the front ranks of an embryonic black national leadership, and in 1895 Washington delivered his famous “Atlanta Compromise” speech at the Cotton States and International Exposition. Here Washington recommended that blacks accept racial discrimination as a temporary expedient until, through hard work and education, they acquired sufficient economic and social clout to press for equality. Many white leaders openly praised his approach to gradually ending segregation while the majority of blacks, impressed by his ability to raise money for their colleges and education, also embraced him as their de facto national spokesman. Washington’s success crested in 1901 when President Theodore Roosevelt invited him to become the first African-American leader to dine at the White House. White southerners were outraged, but again Washington had demonstrated his appeal to moderates. The black community gradually made some progress, despite the rampant discrimination and segregation in many parts of the country, and a rising generation of new black leadership began questioning Washington’s accommodationist policies. Foremost among these was black intellectual (continues)

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(continued) W. E. B. DuBois, who encouraged blacks to forego technical training in favor of classical education, and demand equality through political action and the courts. In fact, Washington had quietly been assisting in lawsuits intended to end discrimination and restore black suffrage throughout the South, but he remained aloof from more militant leaders. Determined to enhance

the economic viability of African Americans, he founded the National Negro Business League while his autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901) is considered a classic of American literature. Washington died in Tuskegee, Alabama, on November 15, 1915, one of the earliest and most effective black spokesmen and educators of American history.

over the Des Moines River is down. Her prompt action spares an oncoming train and its passengers from inevitable disaster.

July 12 Diplomacy: Through mutual agreement, the United States, Great Britain, and Germany recognize Malietoa Laupepa as king of the Samoan Islands.

July 19 Indian: Fugitive Indian leader Sitting Bull (a shaman, not a chief ) surrenders himself to federal authorities at Fort Buford, Dakota Territory, with 45 warriors, 67 women, and 73 children. His capitulation marks the end of the largest and most violent Indian uprising in the West; the captives will be detained two years at Fort Randall before being assigned to a reservation.

August 1 Education: The University of Texas is chartered at Austin.

August 5 Indian: In a heated tribal dispute, Lakota Sioux Crow Dog kills his cousin Spotted Tail over his alleged negotiating and cooperating with whites. Indian tradition requires that he make financial restitution to the slain man’s family, but outraged whites demand his imprisonment.

August 8 Labor: The Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners is formed in Chicago, Illinois, from 36 delegates representing 11 cities. Peter McGuire is elected the first president.

August 24 Science: Lieutenant Adolphus W. Greeley is chosen to establish a scientific observatory in northern Greenland, assisted by a team of 24 workers.

August 30 Indian: Colonel Eugene A. Carr, 4th U.S. Cavalry, arrests the White Mountain Apache prophet Nakaidoklini, who preaches Indian supremacy and separation from whites, and imprisons him at Fort Apache to interrupt his steadily increasing following. When resentful tribesmen from the nearby San Carlos Reservation begin swarming around the fort and fighting breaks out, the prophet is gunned

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down. His death prompts Geronimo, a disciple of Nakaidoklini, to lead a band of his people away from the reservation.

August 31 Sports: The first national championship of the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association plays out at Newport, Rhode Island, and the first-ever singles crown is won by Richard D. Sears.

September 7 Arts: Sidney Lanier, long considered the leading southern poet, dies of tuberculosis contracted while a prisoner of war at Lynn, North Carolina.

September 19 General: President James A. Garfield dies of blood poisoning arising from his injuries, at Elberon, New Jersey.

September 20 Politics: Chester A. Arthur becomes the 21st president of the United States. Despite his reputation as a “machine politician” in New York, he deter-

Arthur, Chester Alan (1829–1886) President of the United States Chester Alan Arthur was born in Fairfield, Vermont, on October 5, 1829, the son

Chester Alan Arthur (Library of Congress)

of a Baptist minister. His family moved constantly, but in 1844 he gained admission to Union College, Schenectady, New York, to study law. He graduated four years later, clerked several years in a New York City law office, and was admitted to the bar in 1854. At this time Arthur became closely entwined with Republican Party politics and, due to his background in abolitionist work, won two important cases on behalf of African-American slaves. The first involved obtaining freedom for slaves who had been transported across state lines into New York, and the second resulted in non-discriminatory seating for blacks on all New York trolley cars. When the Civil War erupted in 1861 he joined the staff of Governor Edwin D. Morgan as quartermaster, with a rank of brigadier general, and essayed his tasks competently. He lost his position when a Democrat came to power in Albany in 1863, and returned to New York City (continues)

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(continued) to practice law. Afterward Arthur became closely identified with the widely accepted practice of patronage (or “spoils”) and built up his political capital accordingly. In 1871 President Ulysses S. Grant appointed Arthur to the lucrative post of customs collector for the Port of New York, whereby he controlled 1,000 agents, enjoyed an income of $50,000 per year, and helped organize and fund state party activities. However, in 1878 President Rutherford B. Hayes decided to sack Arthur, who was never implicated in any corruption scheme, in an attempt to curtail the practice of widespread patronage. Two years later he was chosen to run as vice president with main candidate James A. Garfield in order to placate an ongoing battle between reform and conservative elements. Arthur was sworn into office in the spring of 1881 but was elevated to the presidency on September 19, 1881, when Garfield, struck down by an assassin’s bullet two months earlier, died of his wounds. Not much was

expected of Arthur, a bluff, impeccably dressed individual with no apparent genius for politics, but he surprised his reform-minded critics. Despite his reputation as a “spoilsman,” he proved to be completely honest in his handling of national matters and signed on fully to the reform agenda of Congress. To this end he vetoed the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which he felt abrogated an earlier treaty with China, and also signed the Pendleton Act of 1883 and created a national bureaucracy to eliminate patronage completely. Arthur also took active interest in national defense and promoted increased spending and modernization for the U.S. Navy. By 1884 Arthur was aware that he was fatally ill with Bright’s disease and did not campaign vigorously for election. Party elders edged him out in favor of James G. Blaine, who subsequently lost to Democrat Grover Cleveland. Arthur then lost interest in the party and they in him, so he returned to New York and died in relative obscurity on November 18, 1886.

mines to distance himself from former associates, like former senator Roscoe Conkling.

October Indian: Apache chief Geronimo and 74 militant followers, fed up with life on the San Carlos Reservation, stage a mass escape and flee to Mexico.

October 15 Sports: American Angler, the first sport fishing magazine, is published and edited in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by William C. Harris.

October 22 Music: The Boston Symphony Orchestra performs its first concert.

October 26 Crime: Deputy Marshal Wyatt Earp, his brothers Virgil and Morgan, and “Doc” Holliday corner the violent Clanton brothers and their minions at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona.

October 30 Exploring: Arctic explorer George Washington De Long dies of starvation while trying to reach safety in a lifeboat. His vessel, the Jeanette, was crushed by ice on June 13 while traversing the Bering Sea.

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November 3 Naval: Captain William Devan becomes commander of the first inland station of the U.S. Life Saving Service, at Louisville, Kentucky. He is tasked with assisting shipwrecked passengers and sailors along the Ohio River and will make his first rescue only four days later.

November 8 Diplomacy: The government of Mexico declines Secretary of State James G. Blaine’s offer to arbitrate a simmering border dispute with Guatemala. He did so in an attempt to circumvent any European intervention; in the end Guatemala will surrender control of Chiapas province to Mexico.

November 9–10 Sports: The yacht Mischief successfully defends the Americas’s Cup against the Canadian challenger Atalanta.

November 14 Law: The trial of Charles J. Guiteau, charged with the assassination of President James A. Garfield, begins in Washington, D.C.

November 17 Labor: Samuel Gompers helps found the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions of the United States out of dissidents within the Noble Order of the Knights of Labor. Gompers, a pragmatist and a political moderate, proffers his group as an alternative to the more radical, violent, and socialist groups then coalescing around labor issues.

November 18 Transportation: The blow of a single railroad spike initiates construction of the Georgia Pacific Railroad, intending to link the city of Atlanta with coal mines in Alabama.

November 29 Diplomacy: Secretary of State James G. Blaine issues an invitation to 18 Latin American nations to attend a precedent-breaking hemispheric peace conference in Washington, D.C.

November 30 Naval: The steamer USS Rodgers, scouting in St. Lawrence Bay, Canada, for survivors from the ill-fated Jeanette expedition, catches fire and sinks without the loss of life.

December 1 Diplomacy: Secretary of State James G. Blaine declares American ownership of Hawaii and that the islands are no longer subject to foreign colonization as per dictates of the Monroe Doctrine.

December 5 Politics: The 47th Congress assembles with Democrats controlling the Senate and Republicans the House of Representatives. President Chester A. Arthur, in his first annual address to the Congress, suggests removing party control from the process of granting federal civil service commissions.

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Gompers, Samuel

(1850–1924)

Labor Leader Samuel Gompers was born in East London, England, on January 27, 1850, the son of a poor cigar maker. Barely educated, he moved with his family to New York City in 1863 and the following year he joined the Cigarmaker’s Union. At this time Gompers was exposed to the socialist theories of German writer Karl Marx and others, but he rejected revolutionary theories in favor of pragmatic gains. Committed to workers, Gompers reorganized the Cigarmaker’s Union in 1877 by instituting strike and pension funds, as well as asserting control of the international union over local chapters. However, Gompers proved unique among contemporaries by completely forgoing radicalism and activism in favor of the relentless pursuit of higher wages, benefits, and working security. He would not hesitate to call for strikes where necessary, but otherwise strenuously avoided political action or affiliation. Gompers also preferred to concentrate on highly skilled tradesmen rather than help organize unskilled, uneducated workers, as the Knights of Labor was doing. Such was his success in managing labor matters that in 1881 the Federation of Organized Trade and Labor Unions arose under his aegis. Five years later Gompers reorganized this into the American Federation of Labor (AFL) with himself as president. Gompers served in this capacity, with the exception of 1895, for the next four decades and capably advanced the living standards of skilled workers within his organization. By this time the Knights of Labor was experiencing rapid decline, owing to its

disastrous flirtation with violent socialists, and the AFL emerged as the nation’s largest labor organization. Gompers determined to avoid the Knights’ fate by stridently opposing socialists in the AFL and resisting all calls to form a radicalized labor party. Gompers always posited himself as a team player, invariably focused on improving the lot of his members, and therein lay the secret of his success. On the downside, Gompers’s refusal to address the real plight of unskilled workers added impetus to the International Workers of the World (IWW, or “Wobblies”), a very radical and violent organization calling for the complete reordering of society. Gompers nonetheless insisted that the conflict between labor and capital was a false one, and that unions and management were obliged to work in harmony for the benefit of all. To this end, in 1901 he helped create the National Civic Union, consisting of businessmen willing to deal with conservative union leaders like himself. Gompers was also the first union leader to enjoy national stature and throughout World War I his support was actively courted by President Woodrow Wilson. He cheerfully obliged the president, immersed himself in the war effort, and continually lambasted socialists and pacifists. Consequently, he was invited by Wilson to sit in on all important labor-management discussions and also attended the Versailles Peace Conference as a labor adviser. Gompers died in San Antonio, Texas, on December 13, 1924, the most influential labor leader in American history.

December 12 Politics: President Chester A. Arthur accepts the resignation of James G. Blaine as secretary of state and appoints Frederick T. Frelinghuysen as his successor.

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December 19 Diplomacy: Secretary of State James G. Blaine, having lost his chief benefactor when President James A. Garfield died, resigns from office and is replaced by Frederick T. Frelinghuysen. A major project Blaine had been fomenting, a PanAmerican movement, will be allowed to wither until 1889.

1882 Education: The University of South Dakota is chartered at Vermillion. The American School of Classical Studies is founded in Athens, Greece, to encourage the study of the classics. General: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is honored with a bust in the poet’s corner of Westminster Abbey in London, the first American so honored. William Horrick of Racine, Wisconsin, develops the first malted milk by mixing milk with extract of wheat and malt barley. Indian: Traditionalists and non-traditionalists in the Creek nation come to blows in the so-called Green Peach War, which erupts in a peach orchard and takes several lives. Ultimately, U.S. Army troops are called in to track down and arrest the traditionalists. Journalism: Albert Pulitzer acquires the New York Morning Journal, a publication specializing in sensationalism. Labor: At the behest of labor leader Samuel Gompers, Governor Grover Cleveland signs legislation outlawing the practice of manufacturing cigars in tenement houses, also known as “sweat shops.” This law is subsequently struck down by the Supreme Court. Literature: Mark Twain publishes his historical romance The Prince and the Pauper, set in the reign of King Edward VI. Frank R. Stockton’s short story “The Lady or the Tiger” appears in Century Magazine. It will prove to be extremely popular with generations of readers and he republished in countless anthologies of American fiction. Medical: Professor Granville Stanley Hall is appointed to a special lectureship in psychology at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, one of the nation’s earliest departments to specialize in that discipline. Naval: Lieutenant Commander French Ensor Chadwick, an authority on investigating foreign naval establishments, is appointed the first American naval attaché in London, England. Publishing: Historian Henry Adams publishes his biographical study John Randolph as part of his ongoing study of the founding fathers. Theodore Roosevelt publishes his The Naval War of 1812, one of the first objective analyses of that conflict. Sports: The National Croquet Association is formed to help foment standardized rules of play. The U.S. Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association is founded by teams from Harvard, Princeton, and Columbia. Chicago wins the National League baseball pennant with 55 wins and 29 losses. They also split a two-game interleague playoff with Cincinnati of the American League in a forerunner of the World Series. Technology: Appleton, Wisconsin, is the scene of the nation’s first hydroelectric dam, which provides power to the neighboring area.

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January 2 Business: Industrial tycoon John D. Rockefeller creates the Standard Oil Trust in New York City, thereby circumventing the laws of various states infringing on his ability to govern his organization. In this manner he eliminates competition among the 40 companies comprising the trust by placing them under a single management. This is the first industrial monopoly in America and its success inspires other large corporations to follow his example and form their own trusts.

January 15 Law: The so-called Star Route mail fraud case erupts, implicating Senator S. W. Dorsey, Republican of Arkansas, and other leading politicians. This involves the deliberate marking of expenses along otherwise unprofitable mail routes, these being marked with a “star” on the official schedules. Subsequent investigation leads to the resignation of Second Assistant Postmaster Thomas J. Brady.

January 25 Law: Charles J. Guiteau is found guilty of assassinating President James A. Garfield and is sentenced to death.

Sullivan, John Lawrence (1858–1918) Athlete John Lawrence Sullivan was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts, on October 15, 1858, a son of Irish immigrants. After working as a laborer he was drawn into fighting on account of his impressive physical strength. In 1877 he won his first fight at Boston’s Dudley Street Opera when fighter Tom Scannell challenged any man in the house to meet him. Sullivan readily accepted and knocked Scannell off the stage in one round. He emerged as the statewide champion within two years, which carried some risk, for boxing was illegal in most cities throughout the country. Nonetheless, Sullivan, now nicknamed “The Boston Strong Boy,” waged his first title match against champion Paddy Ryan in Mississippi City, Mississippi, in 1882, knocking him out after nine rounds. At this time, boxing employed the so-called London Prize Ring rules, calling for bare knuckles and grappling. Sullivan, no giant at 5 feet 10 inches, 190 pounds, was both exceptionally powerful,

1882

John L. Sullivan, in a lithograph by Currier & lves, ca. 1883 (Library of Congress)

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January 26 Diplomacy: In an attempt to discredit the policies of James G. Blaine, Secretary of State Frederick T. Frelinghuysen releases all private correspondence concerning the wars between Chile, Peru, and Bolivia. This has the effect of undercutting negotiations of U.S. minister William H. Trescott, who is coldly informed of the matter by his Chilean counterpart. This move will cost the United States much of its influence in the region.

February 2 Religion: The Roman Catholic Church, caught in the growing popularity of fraternal benefit organizations, establishes the Knights of Columbus at New Haven, Connecticut, under Father Michael McGivney. In addition to advancing Catholic interests, the Knights are also tasked with promoting benevolence, religious and racial tolerance, and patriotism.

February 7 Sports: Novice boxer John L. Sullivan bludgeons Paddy Ryan in the ninth round at Mississippi City, Mississippi, replacing him as bare-knuckle champion of the world. He will subsequently tour the country, offering $500 to anyone who can

lightning fast, and usually overpowered his opponents. He also cut a larger than life figure with a boisterous, outgoing personality, and a ravenous appetite for liquor and high living. Between official matches, Sullivan accompanied various exhibitions, challenging anyone from the public to withstand three rounds in the ring with him for $500; the prize went uncollected. The public bought readily into his flamboyance, and he became the sport’s first identifiable hero. As the years went by Sullivan continued racking up impressive victories, which included 43 wins (29 knockouts), one loss, and three draws. On July 8, 1889, he savored his final bare-knuckle brawl in Ritchburg, Mississippi, putting away challenger Jake Kilrain after 75 grueling rounds. Shortly afterward, boxing discarded the London Prize Ring rules in favor of the new Marquis of Queensberry rules, which mandated gloves, forbade grappling, and instituted threeminute rounds. Sullivan, heavily addicted to drinking and usually out of shape, could not adapt to them.

On September 7, 1892, Sullivan fought and lost his final match against James J. “Gentleman Jim” Corbett, who knocked him down in 21 rounds. Thereafter he had the common sense to retire gracefully from the ring save for an occasional exhibition match. He fought one more time professionally, in 1905, by knocking out Jim McCormick in two rounds at Grand Rapids, Michigan, then hung up his gloves after a brilliant career spanning 25 years. Sullivan, flamboyant and popular as ever, then toured the nation to lecture on the evils of alcohol, and also penned his colorfully titled autobiography, Life and Reminiscences of a 19th Century Gladiator (1892). He is also one of few world-class athletes to fraternize with world leaders such as President Theodore Roosevelt and King Edward VII of England, who were also fans. Sullivan died, almost penniless, in Abington, Massachusetts, on February 2, 1918, the last bare-knuckle fighting champion and among America’s earliest sports legends.

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Chronology of American History last four rounds with him; boxing is on its way to a respectable and profitable sporting venture.

February 25 Politics: A Reapportionment Act passes Congress, which enlarges the House of Representatives from 293 to 325 members. Technology: New York City sports the first electrically lit Christmas tree.

March General: Flooding along the Mississippi River this month destroys thousands of buildings along the riverbank and leads to 85,000 homeless. The root cause of the disaster is over-extensive timber cutting and soil exhaustion, which allows the water to run excessively.

March 16 Diplomacy: After intense urging by Clara Barton, head of the American Red Cross, the Senate ratifies the Geneva Convention of 1864, which outlines the care of wounded war personnel. Most European nations and several from South and Central America also sign on.

March 22 Religion: In a swipe at Mormonism, Congress passes an act sponsored by Senator Charles F. Edmunds of Vermont, which forbids polygamists from holding public office. Various penalties are also delineated.

March 23 Exploring: A boat commanded by Engineer George W. Melville, having arrived at a settlement on the Lena Delta, Siberia, with word of the research vessel Jeanette’s survivors subsequently returns to their campsite, only to find their frozen corpses. However, the expedition’s records will be recovered intact and prove a useful cautionary tale for prospective explorers of this hostile region. Naval: In Washington, D.C., the secretary of the navy establishes the Office of Naval Intelligence.

March 31 Politics: The widows of former presidents James K. Polk, John Tyler, and James A. Garfield are all voted a special $5,000 a year pension by Congress.

April Indian: Apache renegades Geronimo and Juh slip into the San Carlos Reservation, kill the chief of Indian police, then convince many of their Chiricahua tribesmen to follow them into the hills as raiders.

April 3 General: Notorious outlaw Jesse W. James (alias Thomas Howard) is murdered by Robert Ford, a member of his own gang, in St. Joseph, Missouri, for a $10,000 reward. Ford then flees the scene and will never receive it.

April 4 Diplomacy: President Chester A. Arthur vetoes the Chinese Exclusion Treaty on the basis that it violates the Burlingame Treaty of 1868, which allowed for unlimited immigration.

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April 17 Naval: In Washington, D.C., William E. Chandler becomes the 30th secretary of the navy and leads efforts to renew that tottering force of wooden ships and Civil War–era ordnance.

April 19–23 Indian: Restive Apache on the San Carlos Reservation, Arizona, kill the local police chief and then recruit members of the resident Warm Spring tribe to join their warrior band. Lieutenant George A. Forsyth will pursue the raiders as far as Â�HorseÂ�shoe Canyon, where an indecisive skirmish is waged; the renegades Â�high-­tail it into Mexico. Forsyth, reinforced by a detachment of the 6th U.S. Cavalry, will mount a Â�cross-­border chase until a Mexican infantry unit orders them out of the country.

April 26 Law: President Chester A. Arthur seeks mili-­ tary authorities to deal with “The Cowboys,” a group of terrorists who have been harassing and attacking inhabitants in the territory of Arizona.

April 28 Civil: Textile manufacturer John Fox Slater establishes a fund under his name for the edu-­ cation of emancipated African Americans and endows it with $100,000. This constitutes the first major philanthropy of its kind.

May 6 Politics: Congress overrides President Chester A. Arthur’s veto of the Chinese Exclusion Act, which excludes the entrance of Chinese labor-­ ers for 10 years. Total immigration for the period 1868–82 has been over 200,000.

May 8 Labor: New York City trade � unionist Pete J. Maquire proposes a national labor holiday, which the local Knights of Labor celebrate on this day.

May 15 Business: In light of burgeoning surpluses in the national treaÂ�sury, Congress authorizes a Tariff Commission, staffed by nine members appointed by the president. The chairmanship will go to John L. Hayes, secretary of the National Asso-­ ciation of Wool Manufacturers, who can hardly be considered an impartial judge of Â�free-­market economics.

This cartoon by Thomas Nast shows a Democratic tiger and a Republican elephant joining forces to remove a Chinese immigrant who hangs on desperately to a tree labeled "Freedom to all."╇ (Library of Congress)

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May 16 Naval: Samuel Powhatan Carter is elevated to rear admiral in the U.S. Navy. During the Civil War, Carter served as a major general in the Union army and is thus the only senior military officer to have ever attained the ranks of both general and admiral. Sports: The eighth annual Kentucky Derby is won by Apollo, who runs the course in two minutes, 40 seconds.

May 19 Naval: Commodore Robert W. Shufeldt, commanding the screw sloop USS Swatara, comes ashore in Korea and commences diplomatic negotiations.

May 22 Diplomacy: The United States and Korea—the self-styled “Hermit Kingdom”— sign a treaty of friendship and commerce with Commodore Robert W. Shufeldt, the first official act between the two nations. Diplomatically, the Americans feel that an independent Korea is in their best economic interests, but the rising Japanese empire is also preparing to act according to perceptions of its own needs.

May 27 Sports: The 10th annual Preakness Stakes is won by Vanguard with a run of two minutes and 44 seconds.

June Labor: The Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers initiates several strikes nationwide, as workers begin flexing their collective bargaining abilities.

June 8 Sports: The 16th annual Belmont Stakes is won by Forester with a time of two minutes, 43 seconds.

June 24 Sports: Richard Higham becomes the only umpire expelled from baseball’s National League for dishonesty.

June 30 General: Charles Guiteau is hung for the murder of President James A. Garfield.

July 14 Naval: The warships USS Lancaster, Quinnebaug, and Nipsic land sailors ashore at Alexandria, Egypt, to protect American lives and property during a British bombardment of that port.

July 17 Military: Captain Adna Romanza Chaffee, leading elements of the 3rd and 6th U.S. Cavalry, perceives a White Mountain Apache ambush set for him along the East Clear Creek, Arizona. He adroitly outflanks the Indians and attacks, driving them back with such heavy losses that they retire to their reservation.

July 26 Diplomacy: The United States declares it will abide by provisions outlined by the Geneva Convention of 1864 respecting the care of wounded soldiers in wartime. It thus joins 16 other signatories to employ Red Cross personnel.

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Chaffee, Adna Romanza

1357

(1842–1914)

General Adna Romanza Chaffee was born in Ashtabula, Ohio, on April 14, 1842. After the Civil War commenced in 1861, he left home in order to join an Ohio volunteer regiment, but en route encountered a recruiting party from the 6th U.S. Cavalry and signed on as a private. He rode with the regiment for the next 27 years. Chaffee proved himself a capable soldier and served with distinction at such bloody battles as the Peninsula, Antietam, Brandy Station, and Gettysburg. He fought so well that Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton had him commissioned a second lieutenant and he ended the war a captain after participating in 54 major battles and skirmishes. Chaffee continued in the peacetime establishment and fought under generals George Crook and Nelson Miles in campaigns against the Comanche and Apache throughout the Old Southwest. He helped orchestrate the army victory at Painted Creek, Texas, in March 1868, and won a brevet promotion to major. In 1888 he transferred to the 9th U.S. Cavalry, the famous African-American “Buffalo Soldiers,” as brevet lieutenant colonel and in 1897 took up teaching responsibilities at the Cavalry School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. When war with Spain commenced in 1898, Chaffee gained appointment as a brigadier general of volunteers in General Henry Lawton’s 2nd Division, and in this capacity fought with distinction at the July 1, 1898, Battle of El Caney, Cuba. Faced with dug-in defenders he adroitly brought up his artillery and led a charge by the 12th Volunteer Infantry, which

clinched the victory. For his efforts, Chaffee received a brevet promotion to major general and served in Cuba after the war as chief of staff under General Leonard Wood. In 1900 Secretary of War Elihu H. Root directed Chaffee to lead American forces in the so-called Boxer Rebellion in China. Landing with troops from the Philippines, he marched them overland to Peking (Beijing), helped storm the city gates on August 14, 1900, and rescued the diplomatic legation there. His tactful treatment of the inhabitants, and the good behavior of his men, were widely praised by the Chinese. He advanced to major general in 1901, relieved General Arthur MacArthur as commanding general of the Philippines, and conducted closing operations against the militant Moro rebels. Once home, Chaffee pinned on his third star as a lieutenant general and became the first-ever chief of staff in the U.S. Army by 1904. This was a new position, patterned after the German army model, in order to streamline military administration and better harmonize relations with the president, or commander in chief. In this capacity he also ventured to Europe to observe military maneuvers, then concluded his lengthy career by resigning on February 1, 1906. Chaffee subsequently settled in Los Angeles, California, to serve as president of the Board of Water Works and died there on November 1, 1914. A consummate professional, Chaffee remains the only American soldier to have risen to lieutenant general from the rank of private.

August 2 Politics: Congress approves a $19 million Rivers and Harbor Bill but President Chester A. Arthur, who views it as a “pork barrel” measure with $14 million set aside for special interests, vetoes it.

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August 3 Societal: Congress clamps down on immigration for the first time by imposing selective admission, which excludes paupers, criminals, and the insane; new arrivals are also subject to a 50 cent head tax. Over the next eight years five million immigrants still arrive.

September Military: General George Crook, an effective and humane leader, assumes command of the Department of Arizona, secures the San Carlos Reservation, then prepares to cross into Mexico with 50 troopers and 200 Apache scouts in order to capture the renegade Geronimo.

September 4 Technology: Thomas A. Edison’s steam-powered electrical power station, located on Pearl Street in New York City, begins supplying active current to 60 buildings. This also powers his incandescent light bulbs placed throughout the city, and New York begins basking in the glow of electric light.

September 5 Labor: New York City hosts the first Labor Day parade, further recognition of the importance of labor unions to the political and economic vitality of the nation. No less than 30,000 participants turn out for the occasion, first suggested by Peter J. McGuire of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters.

September 25 Sports: Baseball teams from Providence and Worcester play the first major league doubleheader.

October 5 Crime: Wanted outlaw Frank James turns himself in at Jefferson, Missouri, where he will be tried on a count of first-degree murder.

October 24–26 Indian: In Alaska, the Tlingit Indians demand 200 blankets from the Northwest Trading Company for the accidental deaths of two of their members. A party of U.S. Navy sailors, tasked with keeping the peace, decides to punish the tribesmen by demanding a payment of 400 blankets. When the Tlingit refuse, the sailors bring up a Gatling gun and flatten their village, killing six children. This outrage prompts Congress to reorganize Alaskan law enforcement.

November 6 Arts: English socialite-turned actress Lily Langtry appears in a production of As You Like It at the Fifth Avenue Theater in New York City. Considered a mediocre actress, she revels in her scandalous reputation and the public responds accordingly.

November 7 Politics: Former Buffalo mayor Grover Cleveland is elected governor of New York, presaging a Democratic resurgence nationwide. The Democrats also gain 50 seats in the House of Representatives, taking control of that body.

November 10 General: Canadian Alexander Graham Bell becomes a naturalized American citizen.

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November 15 Diplomacy: Lieutenant Commander French Ensor Chadwick arrives in London, England, as the first American naval attaché.

November 30 Sports: The U.S. Naval Academy football team loses its first-ever game to the Clifton Football Club, 8–0.

December Indian: In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Herbert Walsh and Henry Panacoast found the Indian Rights Association to lobby for better treatment of Native Americans. They recruit many wealthy easterners to their cause, assemble a lobby group in Washington, D.C., and soon emerge as an influential voice in deciding subsequent U.S. Indian policy.

December 4 Politics: The nine-man tariff commission recommends that existing rates on various commodities be cut by 20 to 25 percent; their report is ignored by Congress.

December 11 Technology: Thomas A. Edison uses 650 incandescent light bulbs to illuminate Boston’s Bijou Theater for the first time. The occasion is the opera Iolanthe by British playwrights Gilbert and Sullivan.

December 16 Indian: President Chester A. Arthur issues an executive order establishing the Hopi Indian Reservation in the heart of their ancestral homeland, although Navajo also living their refuse to leave peacefully.

1883 Arts: Benjamin F. Keith opens the first of his 400 vaudeville theaters in Boston, Massachusetts, which gives a big boost to that popular and rapidly growing form of entertainment. Business: George S. Parker, a 16-year-old resident of Salem, Massachusetts, invents a game he calls Banking and aspires to have his own manufacturing firm to market his recreational ideas. Education: The Modern Language Association (MLA) is founded in Baltimore, Maryland, for the purpose of promoting the study of literature and linguistics. Indian: Lake Mohonk, New York, hosts the first-ever “Friends of the Indian” Conference. These largely Protestant reformers advocate assimilation into the cultural mainstream as the best way of preserving Native American rights. They hope to persuade Con-

Poster for a popular vaudeville show (Library of Congress)

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1360â•… Chronology of American History gress to adopt programs geared toward teaching Indians agriculture to transform them into private landowners. Literature: Mark Twain publishes his Â�semi-­autobiographical account Life on the Mississippi River, soon hailed as an American classic and among that author’s most popÂ�uÂ�lar efforts. Edgar Watson Howe, having been continually rejected by publishing Â�houses, Â�self-­publishes The Story of a Country Town, a pioneering work of naturalistic fiction. Publishing: The diary of late explorer George Washington De Long, who died two years earlier of starvation awaiting rescue in the Arctic, is published as Voy-­ age of the “Jeanette.” Sociologist Lester Frank Ward publishes his Dynamic Sociology, which holds that the human mind is capable of taking an active role in human evolution. Sociologist Willard Graham Sumner publishes Psychic Factors in Civilization, which holds that only the fittest individuals in a given society survive, especially through hard work and individualism. This is another stream in the ongoing evo-­ lution of what generally becomes regarded as “Social Darwinism.” Sarah Winnemucca, a Northern Paiute Indian and former U.S. Army trans-­ lator, publishes Life among the Paiutes, which is the first book ever written by a Native American woman. Proceeds from the book fund various speaking engagements in the East in which she rails against abuses heaped upon her fel-­ low tribesmen. Cyrus H. K. Curtis founds the monthly Ladies’ Home Journal which gains a wide circulation on the basis of its fine editorship, fiction, and feature articles. Religion: Salish Indian John Slocum has a religious experience in which he meets the Christian God, who promises that Native Americans will prosper by swearing off drinking, smoking, and their indigenous shamans and healers. This is the start of the Indian Shaker movement, which gathers strength and influence among tribes living in Washington State, Oregon, and British Columbia. Societal: The Southern Immigration Association is formed to promote EuÂ�roÂ� peÂ�an immigration to the South. Sports: The first recorded bicycle Â�race—with two Â�entrants—is won by G. M. Hendrie. Boston wins the National Baseball League pennant with 63 wins and 35 losses. The Kentucky Derby race held annually in Louisville, Kentucky, is shortened to one and Â�one-­quarter miles. Technology: Lewis E. Waterman invents the first practical fountain pen using the principle of capillary action. The growing acÂ�cepÂ�tance of electricity stimulates a concurrent wave of domes-­ tic inventions such as electric fans, sewing machines, irons, and stoves for every-­ day use at home. Prolific inventor George WestingÂ�house beings experimenting with Â�longÂ�distance natural gas pipelines. Transportation: The Northern Pacific Railway of Jay Cooke and Henry Villard completes laying tracks from Lake Superior to Portland, Oregon. Concurrently, the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad opens up a direct route from Kansas City, Missouri, to Los Angeles, California.

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January 10 General: The Newhall House, a hotel in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, burns to the ground, killing 71 people.

January 16 Politics: Pressed by the need to overhaul the national bureaucracy, particularly the spoils system, the House of Representatives passes the Civil Service Act of Senator George H. Pendleton. This bill establishes a bipartisan, three-man commission tasked with establishing competitive entrance examinations to hire workers on the basis of merit, not party affiliation.

February 14 Diplomacy: Secretary of State Frederick T. Frelinghuysen appoints Samuel G. Benjamin the first minister resident to Persia (renamed Iran in 1935). Labor: New Jersey becomes the first state to legalize trade unions, a sign of the growing acceptance of workers’ rights.

February 15 General: Severe flooding in Cincinnati, Ohio, results from excess cutting down of trees and the erosion of topsoil by wasteful farming methods. Pressure is mounting nationwide for improved education of farmers and workers along these lines.

February 16 General: More than 70 miners lose their lives in flooding at the Wilmington Coal Field’s Shaft No. 2 in Braidwood, Illinois.

February 22 Diplomacy: Congress votes to return a $785,000 indemnity received from Japan after a nobleman there fired on American shipping off Shimonoseki in 1860.

February 23 Education: The University of North Dakota is chartered at Grand Forks, and classes commence the following year.

February 27 Technology: A patent is granted to Oscar Hammerstein for his first, practical cigar-rolling machine. His invention proves so lucrative that he is able to bankroll the production of several operas and opera houses throughout the nation.

March Military: Renegade Apache under Geronimo leave their winter quarters in Mexico and begin raiding white settlements across southeastern Arizona and New Mexico.

March 3 Business: Congress orders the U.S Postal Service to reduce rates to two cents per half-ounce. Naval: In an attempt to completely modernize the U.S. Navy, currently rated as the world’s 12th largest, Secretary of the Navy William E. Chandler convinces Congress to authorize the construction of three steel cruisers, USS Atlanta, Boston, and Chicago, along with a dispatch vessel, Dolphin. These are the first such vessels acquired since the Civil War and will lead to what becomes known as the “Steel Navy.”

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March 4 Politics: The Mongrel Tariff Act is passed by Congress, which removes excise taxes from liquor and tobacco to reduce the size of government surpluses, and also reduces rates on other commodities by 5 percent but otherwise maintains high protectionist rates of between 35 and 40 percent.

March 21 Military: An Apache raiding party of 23 warriors under Chato raids across the Mexican border into Arizona and kills 11 settlers without interference from the U.S. Army, which has turned out in force looking for them.

March 24 Communication: The first long-distance telephone service becomes operational between New York City and Chicago. Labor: In a sign of the times, cowboys in the Texas Panhandle strike to protest dwindling work and skimpy pay.

March 26 General: Mrs. Alva Vanderbilt throws an elaborate party for New York City’s high society that costs an estimated $75,000. Over 1,000 guests arrive, including former president Ulysses S. Grant.

April 10 Indian: The Bureau of Indian Affairs authorizes creation of courts of Indian offenses. These are three-member boards working in concert with Indian reservation police to handle and adjudicate violations of the ban against traditional tribal religious ceremonies. In this manner it is hoped that Native Americans may better restrain themselves from religious practices that incite violence against whites.

April 11 Education: Spellman College, destined to educate African Americans, is founded in a basement at Atlanta, Georgia.

April 23 General: The state of Texas purchases the famous ruins of the Alamo from the Roman Catholic Church, converting it into a national shrine.

May 1 Military: Captain Emmet Crawford, 4th U.S. Cavalry, leads a cavalry column into the central Mexican highlands in order to smoke out the renegade Apache band of Geronimo. In this quest he is ably assisted by loyal Apache scouts willing to work for the army.

May 9 Journalism: Joseph Pulitzer purchases the New York World from Jay Gould for $346,000, whereupon it will function as an unofficial mouthpiece for the Democratic Party.

May 15 Military: Troopers under Captain Emmet Crawford, 4th U.S. Cavalry, surprise an Apache encampment under Chato and Benito at San Bernardino Springs, Arizona, killing 30 warriors and burning nine lodges. This defeat sufficiently unsettles the Indians that they begin voluntarily returning to the San Carlos Reservation.

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May 17 General: Wil­l­iam Frederick Cody, who goes by the moniker of “Buffal­o Bil­l­,” opens his famous “Wil­d West” show at Omaha, Nebraska, to rave reviews. His el­aboratel­y staged presentation hel­ps shape the popul­ar imagery associated with cowboys by displ­ays of horsemanship, marksmanship, and mock battl­es empl­oy-­ ing genuine Native American warriors. The l­atter constantl­y amaze white audi-­ ences with their equestrian and martial­ prowess.

Cody, William Frederick

(1846–1917)

Showman Wil­l­iam Frederick Cody was born in Scott County, Iowa, on February 26, 1846, the son of an Indian trader. He matured in a rugged frontier environment and, whil­e barel­y edu-­

cated, becoming adept at scouting, shoot-­ ing, and horsemanship. He was working as a horse wrangl­er and messenger when the Civil­ War erupted in 1861, and he then (continues)

W. F. (Buffalo Bill) Cody shown standing sixth man from the left (Library of Congress)

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(continued) participated in anti-slavery “Jayhawking” activities. Two years later he joined the 9th Kansas Cavalry as a scout and fought alongside Union forces in campaigns throughout Tennessee and Missouri. After the war ended Cody worked for a meat supplier contracted with victualing the Kansas Pacific Railroad, during which time he claimed to have singlehandedly shot 4,280 buffalo. Cody returned to military service, 1868–72 as a scout and actively campaigned against hostile Native Americans on the plains. This activity brought him to the attention of author E. Z. C. Judson (“Ned Buntline”) who began writing serialized and highly fictional accounts of Cody’s life and accomplishments for popular dime novels. In 1872 Cody appeared in Judson’s play Scouts of the Plains under the stage name “Texas Jack” Omohundro. It was in this capacity that his talent for theatrics and self-promotion became fully realized; after touring several cities, he recognized the great public interest in frontier life and lives. But in 1876 Cody rejoined the U.S. Army as a scout under Colonel Nelson A. Miles, fought gallantly in the Battle of Summit Springs that July, and personally killed and scalped Chief Yellow Hand of the Cheyenne in a single duel. Cody’s rising reputation as a frontier hero and his considerable appetite for aggrandizement led to his most famous

effort, “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show.” This was an elaborately staged production featuring genuine cowboys famously adept at riding and shooting, alongside real Native American warriors and families who performed in mock battles and also provided white audiences with spectacular native dances. The project, somewhat contrived to glamorize Cody’s role in the depicted events, was tremendously successful and it toured the nation for 30 years. Among the performers routinely displayed were Annie Oakley and Chief Sitting Bull. Cody’s ensemble even performed for Queen Victoria’s Jubilee in London in 1887, and subsequently toured continental Europe to the delight of audiences there. In light of his skill as a scout, General Philip H. Sheridan also called upon him to escort Grand Duke Alexis of Russia on a celebrated hunt. Cody’s business fortunes began declining in 1913; his celebrated tour finally folded and business debts forced him to remain on the road with other productions until 1916. He then retired to an extensive land tract granted to him by the state of Wyoming, where the city of Cody was eventually built. Cody himself died at Denver, Colorado, on January 10, 1917, having contributed to the romantic vision of the Wild West, cowboys, and Native Americans more than any other individual.

May 23 Sports: The ninth annual Kentucky Derby is won by Leonatus, who runs in two minutes, 43 seconds.

May 24 Engineering: The Brooklyn Bridge, a marvel of mechanical engineering designed by John A. Roebling (who died during construction), is opened amidst great pomp by President Chester A. Arthur. Fourteen years in the making, it spans 1,595 feet, weighs 18,000 tons, and connects Brooklyn directly to Manhattan. It is also the first large suspension bridge to employ steel wire and steel parts for structures

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suspended by the cables. Festivities surrounding its opening are attended by an estimated one million people.

May 26 Sports: The 11th annual Preakness Stakes is won by Jacobus with a time of two minutes, 42 seconds.

June Military: General George Crook, assisted by Apache scouts, locates the dissident band lead by Geronimo in the Sierre Madre Mountains. The militant Apache then meet with the general and, after much discussion, finally agree to give up. The event reflects the highest credit upon Crook, a humane man who felt that the Indians must be dealt with fairly in order to circumvent violence.

June 2 Sports: The first baseball game illuminated by electric lights plays out at Fort Wayne, Indiana, where the home team defeats Springfield 19–11.

June 7–August 21 Naval: The screw steamer USS Trenton is the first naval vessel to receive electrical lighting while berthed in New York harbor. The Edison Lighting Company installs no less than 238 lamps at various parts of the ship at a cost of $5,500.

June 9 Sports: The 17th annual Belmont Stakes is won by George Kinney with a run of two minutes, 47 seconds. Transportation: The first elevated railroad debuts at an exposition in Chicago, in this instance a 15 horsepower electric train traveling on a three-foot gauge track high above the ground.

June 16 Sports: The New York Giants stage the first Ladies Day game, whereby women are admitted to the park for free.

June 30 Diplomacy: The United States, angered by the large award granted to Canada by the Halifax Commission and Britain’s own reluctance to pay reparations for an incident in January 1878, informs the British that it is abrogating the fisheries section of the 1871 Treaty of Washington, effective in 1885.

July 4 Business: By this date one million tons of ore have been extracted from the Gregory Mine in Helena, Montana.

August Exploring: Lieutenant Adolphus W. Greely, short on food and never relieved by a promised supply vessel, departs Fort Congar, Alaska, and marches south to spend the winter at Camp Sabine.

August 13 General: The luxurious Kimball House, a tony establishment in Atlanta, Georgia, is razed to the ground in a serious fire that injures nearly 1,000 people.

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September Aviation: John J. Montgomery, a teacher at Santa Clara College, performs the earliest known heavier-than-air glider flight from a 300-foot hill near Otay, California, which carries him a distance of 600 feet. Indian: Lakota shaman Sitting Bull is invited to deliver a speech at the opening of the Northern Pacific Railroad in Bismarck, North Dakota. He willingly obliges, then declares to his audience, “I hate all white people. You are thieves and liars. You have taken away our land and made us outcasts.” The appointed translator ignores Sitting Bull’s rant and delivers a laudatory, prepared speech—which is roundly applauded.

September 3 Transportation: The Northern Pacific Railroad finally completes its northernmost tier, running nonstop from Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Tacoma, Washington.

September 8 Transportation: The nation acquires a second transcontinental railroad when the Northern Pacific completes its line from Ashland, Wisconsin, to Portland, Oregon.

September 15 Education: The University of Texas at Austin, which had been authorized in 1876, finally begins classes.

September 21 Communication: The United States and Brazil initiate direct telegraph service.

October 15 Civil: The U.S. Supreme Court Strikes down the Civil Rights Act of 1875 that granted African Americans equal access to public places, arguing that it cannot stop individual actions against them, only those imposed by states. Henceforth, Congress may address infringements happening only at the state level.

October 20 Diplomacy: The American minister to Chile, Cornelius A. Logan, plays only a minor role in arranging a peace treaty between Chile and Peru, which sign the Treaty of Ancon.

October 22 Arts: The spacious and opulent Metropolitan Opera House opens along an entire block between 39th and 40th Streets at Broadway in New York City. No less than 1,989 patrons can be accommodated in relative splendor, which costs investors $1.7 million. The occasion is a lavish performance of Faust by Charles François Gounod. Immediately, the “Met” supercedes the 14th Street Academy of Music as the epicenter of operatic performances. General: New York City hosts the first annual New York Horse Show, drawing 299 contestants. Various kinds of animals are included in the competition, including police, fire, and draft horses, although the latter are soon dropped due to undesirable class distinctions of the owners.

November 1 Military: General Philip H. Sheridan replaces William T. Sherman as commanding general of the army, although he will not obtain his fourth star until June 1888.

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November 18 Transportation: To further harmonize service, the United States and Canada adopt a unified time system with four zones, 15 degrees wide, imposed across the North American continent. They are and remain Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific as measured westward from the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, England.

December 4 General: The Sons of the American Revolution are founded in New York City to perpetuate the popular memory of that conflict and those who partook of it. Naval: President Chester A. Arthur vows to Congress that the United States will not become embroiled in a naval arms race such as the one presently unfolding in Europe.

December 17 Indian: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Ex Parte Crow Dog, ruling that the chief, sentenced to death by a white territorial court for the murder of another Indian, must be set free. They insist that the ruling infringes upon the sovereignty of the Lakota nation—a verdict that enrages non-Indians.

December 18 Labor: Typographical Union No. 6 organizes the first nationally noticed boycott by striking the New York Tribune.

1884 Architecture: The 10-story Home Life Insurance Building is designed and constructed by William Le Baron Jenney. Built upon the new principle of employing a skeleton of steel girders, it is the first building known as a “skyscraper.” Arts: Painter John Singer Sargent causes a considerable stir in Paris with his Mme. Gautreau, which prominently features a sexy, decolleté black dress. Complains about its obvious eroticism will prompt its removal from public display. Winslow Homer retires to his cottage at Scarborough, Maine, where he will live for the remainder of his life and concentrate on marine paintings. Business: In Worcester, Massachusetts, Sam Jones unveils his movable lunch wagon, replete with fold-away seats for patrons to utilize while eating. In this manner, the dining room is brought to the consumer. Communication: Long distance telephone service begins between Boston and New York City. Education: Tulane University is established by the Louisiana legislature in New Orleans. The American Historical Association is founded at Saratoga, New York, as the first professional organization for historians. Today it is located in Washington, D.C. General: Showman P. T. Barnum acquires Jumbo, a huge bull elephant, from the London Zoological Society. Indian: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Elk v. Wilkins, ruling that John Elk, a Ponca Indian living among whites in Nebraska, is legally a Native American for franchise reasons and, hence, cannot be registered to vote. In sum, the Fourteenth Amendment does not apply to Indians, even those who depart from tribal membership.

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Homer, Winslow (1836–1910) Painter Winslow Homer was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on February 24, 1836, and he was apprenticed to a lithographer in 1855. Without prior artistic training he proved himself adept in this field, and in 1857 he moved to

New York to open up his own studio. Here Homer made a name for himself by selling illustrations to popular magazines such as Ballou’s Pictorial and Harper’s Weekly. In the spring of 1861 he was dispatched to

The Unruly Calf, by Winslow Homer, 1875 (Library of Congress)

Literature: Helen Hunt Jackson publishes her best-selling novel Ramona, which is a plea for better treatment of Native Americans. Eventually, the tale is made into four movies and a play performed annually in Hemet, California. Medical: The Memorial Hospital for the Treatment of Cancer, the first such institute in the nation, is established in New York City. Military: Inventor Hiram Maxim invents the world’s first practical machine gun, a single barrel weapon capable of shooting 660 rounds per minute. U.S. Army rifles are provided with a rear sight to correct for the natural drift of bullets in flight. Publishing: Historian Francis Parkman publishes Montcalm and Wolfe as part of his seminal series on the conquest of Canada. Joel Chandler Harris composes his Mingoy, and Other Sketches in Black and White, which examines the lives of poor Georgia whites in detail.

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Washington, D.C., to sketch the inauguration of President Abraham Lincoln. After the Civil War erupted, Homer spent many months in Virginia drawing and painting the various multitudes of military life including camp scenes, drills, and battles. His grasp for realism, combined with his command of light and composition, were regarded as exceptional, so his works entitled Sharpshooter on Picket Duty and Prisoners from the Front were displayed at the National Academy of Design. At this time he was also regarded as among the finest graphic artists of his time. However, Homer wished to move on from drawings and engravings, so after the war he ventured to France and studied water color. He adapted readily to this new medium, which suited his talent for graphic style perfectly, and his outlay of new works in many ways presaged the noted French impressionists by several decades. Moreover, Homer’s landscape and western-themed compositions such as Snap the Whip were displayed to public acclaim at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876. His artwork underwent another transformation in 1881 when he visited England for two years and stayed at the seaside town of Tynemouth. This experience reawakened his long-suppressed love for the sea and hereafter he concentrated his best efforts on maritime themes.

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Homer returned to America in 1883 and settled down at the desolate enclave of Prout’s Neck, Maine, to live in nearcomplete isolation. Over the next two decades he turned out some of his finest efforts, including maritime paintings like the famous Eight Bells and The Fog Warning. He also renewed his acquaintance with nature and completed outdoor compositions renowned for natural composition and vivid colors. Between 1884 and 1889 Homer also dabbled in etching nature scenes on metal plates, but these achieved none of the popularity or acclaim of his oil and watercolor paintings. Foremost among his latter efforts were natural depictions of the rugged Adirondack Mountains and the dense woodlands of nearby Quebec, in which he camped every summer with his brother Charles. Winslow continued living in seclusion and turning out vivid renditions of the sea and wilderness until his death at Prout’s Neck on September 29, 1910. By this time he was heralded as America’s foremost artist and an exemplary pioneer of naturalist painting. His works remain celebrated, command high prices on the art market when available, and conspicuously adorn several of the nation’s leading art museums.

Ottmar Mergenthaler perfects the linotype automatic typesetting machine, capable of forming an entire line of type as a single piece of metal—in time it will revolutionize publishing. Artist Elihu Vedder composes over 50 detailed drawings for an illustrated edition of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, rendering it a significant publication. Religion: In Allegheny, Pennsylvania, Charles Taze Russell and six fellow Adventists found the International Bible Students Association, better known as Jehovah’s Witnesses. Sports: Yale wins the national college football championship with eight wins and one draw. Moses Fleetwood Walker becomes the first African-American player in the American League by signing on with Toledo.

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Chronology of American History Richard D. Sears win the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association men’s singles for the fourth consecutive year. Providence wins the National League baseball pennant with 84 wins and 28 losses. They subsequently defeat the New York Metropolitans in a three-game series. Technology: Architect William L. Jenney incorporates a steel skeleton for the first time while building the 10-story Home Insurance Building in Chicago, Illinois. The American Institute of Electrical Engineers is founded as an umbrella organization for all facets of the electrical industry. Telephone poles and wires have become so unsightly in New York City that the city fathers order all wires placed underground. In Rochester, New York, inventor George Eastman perfects an inexpensive roll of film covered by its own photographic emulsion, which allows average people to operate their own cameras with great success.

January 1 Literature: Samuel Langhorne Clemens, “Mark Twain” to his growing readership, publishes one of his most famous novels, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. It crosses into a previously taboo area by casting his African-American friend Jim, not as a buffoon but rather as a father figure to the wayward boys Huck and Tom Sawyer.

January 18 General: The steamer City of Columbus strikes a reef off Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, and sinks, killing 103 passengers. Only 21 can be rescued from the freezing water by the revenue cutter Dexter.

February 9 General: A severe outbreak of tornadoes across the South kills 700 people.

February 14 General: The Ohio River overflows its banks again, cresting at 71 feet and causing extensive damage in the vicinity of Cincinnati, Ohio.

March 3 General: A severe riot erupts outside a jail in Cincinnati, Ohio, over the issue of lax enforcement of justice. Militia is called in to restore order but violence continues for the next six days, resulting in 45 deaths and 135 injured. Law: The U.S. Supreme Court rules in favor of allowing Congress the power to print treasury notes (“Greenbacks) as legal tender in peacetime.

March Indian: Militant Apache leader Geronimo voluntarily returns to the San Carlos Reservation, Arizona, but begins to agitate unrest among his fellow tribesmen.

March 4 Societal: In another victory for prohibition, the Iowa legislature prohibits the sale of alcoholic beverages.

March 6 Women: President Chester A. Arthur receives suffragist Susan B. Anthony and 100 activists at the White House, where they implore him to speak on behalf of women’s rights in his next inaugural address.

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March 12 Education: The Mississippi Industrial Institute and College (today’s Mississippi University of Women) is chartered at Columbus, Mississippi.

March 13 General: A coal mine accident kills 112 miners at Pocahontas, Virginia.

March 30 General: An angry crowd, incensed over the manslaughter conviction of William Berner in Columbus, Ohio, goes on a rampage in Cincinnati and 56 of the rioters die at the hands of militia before order can be restored.

April Labor: A strike by miners at the Hocking Valley, Ohio, coal mines elicits public sympathy initially, but this sours once the strikers resort to violence.

April 24 Exploring: Commander Winfield Scott Schley leads the steamers USS Alert, Bear, and Thetis from New York City to search the North Pole for possible survivors of Lieutenant Adolphus W. Greely’s expedition.

May 10 Politics: Theodore Roosevelt, a highly outspoken and somewhat unpopular member of the New York Assembly, announces his decision not to seek reelection in the fall. This decision comes on the heels of the deaths of his wife and mother on the same day in the previous February.

May 14 Politics: Benjamin F. Butler, a former Democrat and Radical Republican, is nominated for president by the new Anti-Monopoly Party. Their platform mandates better regulation of rapidly growing trusts and corporations that are working together to preclude competition. They also endorse a new, graduated income tax.

May 16 Sports: The 10th annual Kentucky Derby is won by Buchanan, who runs the course in two minutes and 40 seconds.

May 17 Settlement: The recent discovery of gold in Alaska leads an onslaught of fortune seekers into that vast region, so Congress authorizes the Organic Act, which leads to creation of the District of Alaska. Through this expedient it is now subject to the same laws as the state of Oregon; it will not become an organized territory until 1912.

May 19 General: Baraboo, Wisconsin, becomes the home of the five Ringling brothers and their “Circus,” which features no animals but does dazzle the audience with skilled juggling and acrobatics.

May 23 Sports: The 12th annual Preakness Stakes is won by Knight of Ellerslie with a time of two minutes, 39 seconds.

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May 28 Politics: The Greenback Party convenes in Indianapolis, Indiana, and nominates Benjamin F. Butler for president and Alan M. West of Mississippi for vice president.

May 29 General: Congress authorizes creation of the Bureau of Animal Industry within the U.S. Department of Agriculture with Dr. Daniel Elmer Salmon as its head.

June General: Noted engineer James Buchanan Eads is awarded the prestigious Albert Medal from the British Society for the Encouragement of Art, Manufacturing, and Commerce, being the first American so honored. Labor: The Knights of Labor convenes in Chicago, Illinois, and passed resolutions supporting an eight-hour work day, the incorporation of unions, and an age limit of 14 years for child labor.

June 3–6 Politics: The Republican Party holds its national convention in Chicago, Illinois, and on the fourth ballot nominates James G. Blaine of Maine for the presidency and former general John A. Logan of Illinois for the vice presidency. Many liberal Republicans, aghast at Blaine’s association with corruption, abandon the party.

June 4 Sports: The 18th annual Belmont Stakes is won by Panique with a run of two minutes, 42 seconds.

June 5 Politics: Civil War hero William T. Sherman declines to run for the presidency as the Republican nominee, famously declaring, “I will not accept if nominated and will not serve if elected.”

June 16 Politics: Liberal Republicans, or “Mugwumps” (an Algonquin term for “Big Chief ”) meeting in New York City agree to support whomever the Democratic Party is going to nominate, should he prove liberal enough. Like many voters, they are moved by a spirit of reform and modernity, signaling a shift from the agrarian-dominated policies of a decade ago, and toward industrialism, labor and women’s rights, and control of giant trusts.

June 22 Exploring: A relief expedition under Commander Winfield Scott Schley reaches Lieutenant Adolphus W. Greely’s scientific observatory on Cape Sabine, Grinnell Land (Greenland), discovering that only six of its 24 occupants have survived—on a diet of moss, lichen, and seal skin.

June 27 Labor: Congress authorizes the new Bureau of Labor Statistics under the existing Department of the Interior, to collect vital economic statistics and help address growing and legitimate social grievances.

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July 4 Sports: Itinerant cowboys from Texas and Mexico stage what is possibly the nation’s first and only bullfight at Dodge City, Kansas, but it fails to garner much public interest.

July 5 Societal: Congress further amends laws affecting Chinese immigration by expanding the term “Laborer” to include hucksters, peddlers, or anyone drying or preserving shells or fish. New regulations also maintain that Chinese resident since 1882, who have since returned to China, must obtain a visa from the U.S. consul before coming back.

July 8–11 Politics: The Democratic Party holds its national convention in Chicago, Illinois, selecting Grover Cleveland of New York for president and Thomas B. Hendricks of Indiana for vice president. Cleveland is the first Democrat to receive backing from the liberal wing of the Republican Party.

July 23 Politics: The Prohibition Party meets in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and nominates John P. St. John of Kansas to be its presidential candidate and William Daniel of Maryland to serve as vice president.

July 26 Transportation: Cleveland, Ohio, initiates the world’s first electric street car service, powered by a third rail hidden under the track.

July 30 Politics: The Labor Party holds its national convention in Chicago, Illinois, and backs the Democratic Party slate.

August 1 Politics: Campaign mudslinging commences in earnest when a missive of Republican James G. Blaine is published in Harper’s Weekly, which suggests a role in the Credit Mobilier scandal. It ends with the declaration “Burn this letter!” Meanwhile, Republicans harp over the fact that Grover Cleveland had apparently sired an illegitimate child—to which he freely admits.

August 5 General: The forthcoming Statue of Liberty has the first cornerstone of its pedestal (151 feet high) laid on Bedloe’s (Liberty) Island, New York.

August 26 Technology: Ottmar Mergenthaler receives a patent for his linotype printing machine, a device that greatly facilitates the growth and maturation of newspapers and also accelerates the mass production of books. As such it represents a pivotal point in the evolution of the information industry.

September 1 Education: The United States Industrial Training School (today’s Haskell Indian Nations University) opens in Lawrence, Kansas, being the first such institution dedicated to the instruction of Native Americans.

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September 15 Politics: Republicans endorse the campaign slogan, “Ma, Ma, Where’s my Pa?” after learning that Democratic presidential candidate Grover Cleveland has sired an illegitimate child.

October 1–November 1 Diplomacy: Washington, D.C., hosts the International Prime Meridian Conference whereby Greenwich, England, is selected as the prime meridian, now the basis for determining mean time and longitude.

October 6 Naval: The U.S. Naval War College, the world’s first graduate-level military establishment, is founded at Newport, Rhode Island, under the aegis of Admiral Stephen Bleecker Luce, who also serves as its first president.

October 29 Politics: Reverend Samuel D. Burchard gives a speech in New York, endorsing James G. Blaine for the presidency, in which he accuses the Democratic Party of symbolizing “Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion.” This incendiary phrase alienates Irish-American voters, who will refuse to vote for Blaine when he fails to disavow the remark.

November 4 Politics: Democrat Grover Cleveland defeats Republican James G. Blaine by a vote of 4.9 million to 4.8 million; Blaine, who had criticized the Roman Catholic Church, loses the crucial state of New York by only 1,149 Irish-American votes, which tips the Electoral College in his opponent’s favor, 219 to 182. Thomas A. Hendricks is also elected vice president; they are the first Democrats to occupy the White House since James Buchanan, 1857–61. The Democrats also control the House of Representatives. Robert La Follette is elected to Congress from Wisconsin, becoming the first of a new breed of “socially conscious” politicians intent upon reforming the nation. Journalism: Samuel Sidney McClure founds the first newspaper syndicate in the United States, McClure’s Syndicate. This is reflective of the medium’s growing popularity and its importance in disseminating useful information to a newshungry populace.

November 15 Diplomacy: The United States sends a delegation to the International Berlin Conference on African Affairs, which agrees to help end the African slave trade but is silent on European acquisition of Africa itself.

December 6 Architecture: The capstone is finally placed atop a finished Washington Monument in Washington, D.C. Diplomacy: The State Department renews the 1884 treaty with Hawaii but adds a clause allowing U.S. warships to drop anchor at Pearl Harbor on Oahu, and also to construct a coaling station there. The Hawaiians, wishing to continue their fruitful commercial alliance, readily agree to the amendment.

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December 10 Diplomacy: Secretary of State Frederick T. Frelinghuysen sends a new Nicaraguan canal treaty to the U.S. Senate, that includes provisions for a “perpetual alliance” between the two nations in the interest of canal security.

December 16 General: New Orleans, Louisiana, hosts the World Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition. The lights are turned on by President Chester A. Arthur, who flips a switch from the Oval Office in Washington, D.C.

December 22 Diplomacy: In an attempt to reduce existing tariffs, Secretary of State Frederick T. Frelinghuysen submits reciprocal trade treaties with Spain and Santo Domingo to the U.S. Senate—however, both agreements will eventually be withdrawn from consideration.

1885 Architecture: Henry Hobson Richardson designs the Marshall Field Building in Chicago, Illinois, marking a new age in the design of large, commercial structures. Arts: Realistic art reaches new heights with William Michael Harnett’s After the Hunt, which is purchased for a New York saloon after dazzling onlookers in Paris. Sculptor John Donoghue finishes his most celebrated piece, Young Sophocles, as part of his ongoing series of classically inspired work. The Mikado by British playwrights Gilbert and Sullivan premieres in New York City. Business: The American Economic Association is formed from a group of German-trained academics who feel that the “hands-off ” or laissez-faire approach to national economics is not adequate to answer all of society’s needs. They also fear that the continuing deterioration of workers’ living standards may usher in widespread class warfare, pitting the very poor against the very rich. Forwardthinking individuals such as Andrew Carnegie, Woodrow Wilson, and Henry C. Adams are among the group’s founders. Education: Stanford University is founded at Palo Alto, California. The University of Arizona is chartered at Tucson by the territorial legislature. Medical: Dr. Edward Livingston Trudeau, convinced that cold, dry air was responsible for curing his own case of tuberculosis, opens the Adirondack Cottage Sanatorium at Saranac Lake, New York, for patients suffering from this dreaded malady. This is the first such institution in the country. Military: The U.S. Army arsenal at Watervliet, New York, begins casting modern, rifled artillery tubes. Music: African-American musician/composer Scott Joplin arrives at St. Louis, Missouri, and begins developing a unique American style of music known as ragtime; this is the earliest known form of jazz and draws upon syncopated West African rhythms.

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Carnegie, Andrew

(1835–1919)

Industrialist Andrew Carnegie was born in Dunfermline, Scotland, on November 25, 1835, the son of a weaver. He matured amidst poverty, was poorly educated, and finally relocated to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with his family in 1848. There Carnegie sought work with a local telegraph office as a messenger and within two years had energetically advanced himself to a keyboard operator. He then transferred to the Pennsylvania Railroad to serve as secretary under Thomas A. Scott, the western division superintendent. Carnegie, exposed to the nuances of management, flourished in the role and gradually rose to become superintendent of the Pittsburgh division. Ever ambitious, he quit the company in 1865 to form the Keystone Bridge Company and enjoyed a successful period of diversifying his rapidly expanding business empire. After 1873 Carnegie shifted his considerable business acumen to the production of steel,

Andrew Carnegie (Library of Congress)

Literature: William Dean Howells publishes his novel The Rise of Silas Lapham, a well-regarded work concerning the rise of a self-made man in the heart of Bostonian society. Publishing: Josiah Royce, a respected Harvard philosopher, composes his first major work entitled The Spirit of Modern Philosophy. Former president Ulysses S. Grant, dying of cancer, publishes his two-volume Personal Memoirs, which proves immensely popular and rescues his family from impending poverty. William W. Warren’s book, History of the Ojibways, Based upon Traditions and Oral Statements, is published 30 years after the death of its author, a halfIndian Minnesota legislator. Religion: Congregationalist minister Josiah Strong publishes a new social gospel entitled Our Country, which condemns the accumulation of wealth by the few and calls for church involvement to address social problems. Science: Daniel Elmer Salmon, a veterinarian, is the first scientist to describe the bacteria Salmonella, which he believes is the source for food poisoning. Sports: Richard D. Sears wins the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association championship for the fifth consecutive year. Princeton University wins the national college football championship with nine wins and no losses or ties.

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then a central commodity in the modernization of American industry and urbanization. Stingy with profits, he stole a march on competitors by invariably ploughing profits back into the company, hiring the best technicians and chemists, and using the very latest technical innovations such as the Bessemer process. By 1900 his Carnegie Steel Corporation, which owned everything from ore fields to productive factories, was among the largest companies in the world and certainly the most lucrative. Most of this success can be attributed to Carnegie’s uncanny grasp of business and marketing, but also to able subordinates he acquired, such as Henry Clay Frick and Charles M. Schwab. By the time Carnegie sold his controlling interests in the company to financier John Pierpont Morgan in 1901 for $500 million, he had become the world’s wealthiest individual. In an age generally dominated by selfcentered “robber barons,” Carnegie also set an important precedent through his deeply felt beliefs about noblesse oblige. In 1889 he

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set forth these principles in an essay entitled “The Gospel of Wealth,” which held that rich industrialists have a moral obligation to donate a portion of their acquired fortunes to the needy and society itself. Accordingly, Carnegie donated millions of dollars toward the advancement of a personal passion—public libraries—and helped establish 2,811. He also donated money for the purchase of 4,092 church organs at a time when such devices were viewed as prohibitively expensive luxury items for most churches. Carnegie also possessed the foresight to perpetuate his generosity long after he was gone, and so founded the Carnegie Institute of Technology, the Carnegie Institute of Washington, the Carnegie Institute for the Advancement of Teaching, and, most significantly of all, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, totaling an estimated $350 million in the name of philanthropy. Carnegie died in Lenox, Massachusetts, on August 11, 1919, one of the first “captains of industry,” and a positive force in the promotion of culture, education, and science.

The administrators of Harvard University, looking askance at football as too violent for its own good, cancel the entire season on their campus. Chicago wins the National League baseball pennant with 87 wins, 25 losses; it also splits the third interleague playoff series against St. Louis of the American Association, one game apiece and one draw. Technology: Faced with increasing urbanization and mounds of garbage, many cities resort to burning refuse in furnaces for the first time. This proves particularly urgent in the Midwest, where pigs fed garbage have contracted trichinosis, which was passed on to human hosts. Garbage disposal poses serious health and sanitation problems throughout the nation. Asbestos curtains are used for the first time for fire protection in large American theaters, nationwide. The first gasoline pump is operated by Sylvanus Bowser of Fort Wayne, Indiana. In Boston, Massachusetts, Charles Tainter and Alexander Graham Bell construct a practical recording device called a graphophone, which employs a rotating cardboard drum. Transportation: Montgomery, Alabama, is the first large southern city to employ streetcars.

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Joplin, Scott

(1868–1917)

African-American composer Scott Joplin was born in Texarkana, Arkansas, on November 24, 1868, the son of a former slave turned railroad worker. Despite their poverty, Scott’s talent for music was carefully nurtured by his parents and he was allowed to play a neighbor’s piano. A friendly German musician in the neighborhood also gave him free lessons in theory and harmony, especially as it related to European composers. As he matured, Joplin left home to play piano and cornet in various honky-tonks and bars across the South and Midwest. It was here that he first encountered and absorbed the new musical form known as “ragtime,” which was heavily based on the repetitive West African rhythms of former slaves. A turning point in his career happened in 1893 when he played in a band at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois. There Joplin was encouraged by pianist Otis Saunders to write down his compositions for posterity. Feeling that the future held little promise for ragtime, his first two published pieces, “A Picture of Her Face” and “Please Say You Will” mimicked conventional waltz songs. By 1896, however, Joplin had finished touring for the time being and enrolled at the George Smith College for Negroes at Sedalia, Missouri, to formally study music in all its nuances. He also taught piano to local ragtime composers and played frequently at the Maple Leaf Club in town, where his talents impressed John Stark, a white music publisher. With his encouragement, Joplin went on to compose his “Maple Leaf Rag” in 1899 and Stark gave him a royalty

contract yielding him one cent per copy sold, unheard of in its day. He consequently reaped a windfall when “Maple Leaf Rag” became one of the nation’s most popular songs, selling nearly half a million copies. Success here led to Joplin’s reputation as the king of ragtime writers. Over the ensuing decade Joplin wrote profusely and greatly amplified the number of popular ragtime tunes extant. As a composer, his music embraced a happy and toe-tapping melody in contrast with that emerging and soon to be dominant form of African-American music—jazz. To assist fellow musicians, in 1908 Joplin also wrote and published The School of Ragtime: Six Exercises for the Piano to better highlight his unique style of syncopation. However, he resented that the majority white population regarded most ragtime music as distinctly déclassé; wishing to be taken seriously for his craft, he branched out into more acceptable forms. He began composing his own ragtime operas and ballets, none of which received serious funding and were haphazardly staged. Joplin labored especially hard on his final production, the formal opera Treemonisha, which was performed only once, in 1915. Joplin died in New York on April 11, 1917, according to legend, from a broken heart. However, his music was revived and nationally popularized by the 1973 movie The Sting, and in 1976 Treemonisha was formally staged to critical success. In light of his contributions to American music, Joplin received a posthumous Pulitzer Prize in 1976.

January 4 Indian: The Ahantchuyuks of Oregon sign an accord with the United States and agree to be settled on a reservation.

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Medical: In Davenport, Iowa, surgeons successfully perform the first appendectomy.

January 17 Societal: The Old Time Printers Association celebrates Benjamin Franklin’s birthday for the first time, acknowledging his indelible contributions to the field of publishing.

January 18 Naval: U.S. Marines from the gunboat USS Alliance land at Aspinwall, Panama (Colombia), to protect a railroad against revolutionary violence.

January 24 General: The New Orleans Exposition opens, drawing exhibits and visitors from around the world, including Japan, China, Austria, Britain, France, and several South American nations.

January 29 Diplomacy: On a vote of 32 to 23, the U.S. Senate declines to ratify the 1884 treaty to build a canal across Nicaragua, on the basis that it violates the 1854 Clayton-Bulwer Treaty and places the United States in a perpetual defensive alliance with Nicaragua. Its rejection also suggests that the American polity is reticent about making large-scale commitments abroad.

February 11 Politics: President Chester A. Arthur vetoes a bill for the parents of disabled soldiers and sailors, citing its potential for abuse and corruption. Two weeks later his veto will be sustained.

February 21 Architecture: The Washington Monument, the cornerstone of which was laid on July 4, 1848, is finished by the Army Corps of Engineers and publicly dedicated. It soars to a height of 555 feet, weighs 81,120 tons, and requires 898 stair steps to reach the top. Total construction costs are $1.2 million, an astronomical sum for its day.

February 23 Diplomacy: After further reflection, the U.S. Senate votes to reconsider the rejected canal treaty with Nicaragua, but President Chester A. Arthur withdraws it from consideration over its “perpetual alliance” clause.

February 25 Politics: Congress passes a law outlawing the unauthorized enclosure (fencing) of public lands with barbed wire throughout the West. This underscores their determination that public land is reserved for public use.

February 26 Diplomacy: A U.S. delegation under John A. Kason attends the Berlin Conference, arranged by France and Germany for discussions over the disposition of the Congo River in Central Africa. Henry M. Stanley, the famous newsman who encountered explorer Dr. David Livingstone on November 10, 1869, is also present. Labor: Congress, pressured by the Knights of Labor and other groups, passes the Contract Labor Law that forbids employers from soliciting workers abroad in

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Chronology of American History exchange for free passage to America. Previously, companies had been importing and utilizing foreign workers as a means of breaking strikes.

February 28 Communication: The new American Telephone and Telegraph Company is incorporated in New York City and begins planning to provide interstate phone service. Its first projected phone line will connect New York to Philadelphia.

March 3 Business: The U.S. Post Office initiates Special Delivery ser vice. Improved accounting since the Star Route scandal of 1882 has resulted in better profits, which are then passed along to the public Conservation: The California legislature authorizes the first state forest in the United States. Diplomacy: A joint resolution of Congress authorizes the United States to unilaterally abrogate the fisheries reciprocity section of the Treaty of Washington, signed with Great Britain in 1871. Law: Congress passes the Major Crime Act to place Native Americans living on reservations subject to American laws. This is intended to upend the 1883 Supreme Court decision of Ex Parte Crow Dog.

Cleveland, Stephen Grover

(1837–1908)

President Stephen Grover Cleveland was born in Caldwell, New Jersey, on March 18, 1837, the son of a Presbyterian minister. He went to work at 16 after his father died and never attended college, but instead clerked in a law office in Buffalo, New York, and was admitted to the bar in 1859. There he established a successful practice and partook of politics by joining the Democratic Party. Cleveland did not fight in the Civil War but elected to purchase a substitute and remain home to care for his aged mother. Afterward his skill and honesty in politics resulted in election to several local posts, including sheriff. Cleveland’s career passed a major milestone in 1881 when he became mayor of Buffalo after campaigning on a platform to reform the city’s corrupt politics. He achieved this skillfully, lived up to all his campaign promises, and completely distanced himself from the state’s entrenched and corrupt political bosses. Consequently, in 1882 Cleveland

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Grover Cleveland (Library of Congress)

Chronology

1381

Military: Congress authorizes creation of a Board of Fortifications and Coast Defenses to evaluate the defensive status of the American coastline and make recommendations. It also passed a measure creating the rank General of the Army, the seniormost military officer.

March 4 Politics: Grover Cleveland is inaugurated as the 22nd president of the United States while Thomas A. Hendricks becomes vice president. Former president Ulysses S. Grant is reappointed a general in the army and then placed on the retired list so that the retirement pay this confers will alleviate his family’s poverty.

March 5 Military: President Grover Cleveland appoints attorney William C. Endicott to serve as his secretary of war.

March 6 Politics: President Grover Cleveland appoints Thomas F. Bayard as the new secretary of state; he is an attorney of considerable standing within the Democratic Party, but otherwise lacks much experience in international affairs.

became governor of New York, where he furthered his reputation for honest and open government. This earned him the enmity of political machines like Tammany Hall and its cronies, but Cleveland enjoyed popular support for his anti-corruption measures and in 1884 he gained the party nomination for the presidency. Cleveland gained a narrow victory over the Republican candidate, James G. Blaine, who was tainted by the specter of corruption, and became the first Democrat to occupy the White House since 1860. Again, he vigorously pursued honesty in government by passing extensive civil service reforms, but his favorable stance toward tariff reduction cost him popular support and in 1888 he lost his reelection bid to Republican Benjamin Harrison. Although he lost the electoral college count, Cleveland won the popular vote. Cleveland returned to practicing law after the election and by 1892 the Republicans had lost popular support owing to their advocacy of the McKinley Tariff. He once

again became the Democratic presidential candidate and defeated Harrison, while his party also regained control of Congress. However, his second term coincided with the panic of 1893, a lengthy economic depression that eroded his own political position. Cleveland, a fiscal conservative, was out of step with many fellow Democrats by refusing to embrace the notion of “free silver” to inflate the currency and assist landowners and farmers to pay debts. In 1894 party members were further alienated when the president deployed federal troops to help quell the Pullman railroad strike, after which he appeared too friendly to big business. By 1896 most party activists had fallen under the sway of the charismatic populist William Jennings Bryan, who won the presidential nomination, and Cleveland retired to private life. He remained active in community and business affairs at Princeton, New Jersey, where he died on June 24, 1908. Cleveland remains the only chief executive whose two terms in office were not consecutive.

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March 7 Naval: In Washington, D.C., William C. Whitney is appointed the 31st secretary of the navy.

March 13 Indian: President Grover Cleveland warns squatters not to abscond with land set aside for Native Americans in the Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma).

March 16–May 25 Naval: U.S. Marines from the steamer USS Galena, sloop of war Iroquois, and screw sloops Shenandoah and Swartara are landed again at Aspinwall, Panama (Colombia), for the protection of the railroad across the isthmus.

March 18 Education: Bryn Mawr College is opened at Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.

April 3 Politics: In a major shake-up, Land Commissioner William A. J. Sparks suspends all titles to land that are suspected as being fraudulent. This act releases 2.7 million acres in the West for settlement by prospective owners, not land speculators.

May 14 Sports: The 11th annual Kentucky Derby is won by Joe Cotton, who runs the course in two minutes, 37 seconds.

May 17 Indian: Restless Apache chief Geronimo again leads 42 Chiricahua men and 92 women out of the San Carlos Reservation, Arizona, and steers for the Sierra Madre Mountains in Mexican territory. He is particularly angered by reservation rules outlawing the consumption of tiswin, a traditional alcoholic drink. Army troops under General George Crook begin an immediate search for him.

May 22 Indian: After persuasive pleading, Chief Joseph is allowed to take 150 Nez Perce survivors and relocate to the Coleville Indian Reservation in Washington Territory, although the Indians are still denied the right of return to their ancestral home in the Wallowa Valley of Oregon. Sports: The 13th annual Preakness Stakes is won by Tecumseh with a time of two minutes, four seconds.

June–October General: Noted Lakota shaman Sitting Bull joins William “Buffalo Bill” Cody’s Wild West Show as it tours the United States and Canada. He is well received by the public and well-paid by Cody, who gives him a beautiful gray circus horse as a gift once his contract expires and he returns to the Great Sioux Reservation.

June 6 Sports: The 19th annual Belmont Stakes is won by Tyrant, who runs the track in two minutes, 43 seconds.

June 19 General: The imposing Statue of Liberty, a gift from the French people, arrives at New York City where it will be prepared for eventual display on Bedloe’s Island.

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July 1 Business: Congress orders the postal rates lowered to two cents an ounce, with second-class postage set at one cent a pound. Diplomacy: The United States formally withdraws from the fisheries reciprocity section of the 1871 Treaty of Washington with Great Britain. Canada informs the United States that American vessels violating its waters will be apprehended.

July 7 Technology: G. Moore Peters of Xenia, Ohio, obtains a patent for his table loading machine that is ultimately employed for the mass manufacturing of cartridge bullets.

July 13 Military: A party of the 4th U.S. Cavalry under Captain Wirt Davis, assisted by 100 Indian scouts, crosses the Mexican border in search of the renegade Apache Geronimo and his band. However, the wily Native Americans easily evade their pursuers.

July 23 General: Former general and president Ulysses S. Grant dies of tongue cancer in New York at the age of 63.

August 8 General: Ulysses S. Grant is buried amidst much ceremony and solemnity in New York City. The funeral procession past his coffin at City Hall lasts for two days and nights; many former Confederate generals who opposed him are also in attendance.

August 10 Transportation: Baltimore hosts the first electric railroad in the United States; operated by Leo Daft, its cars are powered by electricity passed down from overhead wires.

August 17 Settlement: President Grover Cleveland orders all illegal fences torn down on Indian territory in the West. These have been placed there largely by business interests and squatters.

September 14 –16 Sports: The U.S. yacht Puritan successfully defends the America’s Cup from British challenger Genesta.

September 30 Societal: In Rock Springs, Wyoming Territory, English and Swedish immigrant miners attack the local Chinese immigrant community, killing 28 and injuring 15.

November Military: Despite the presence of General George Crook and 3,000 soldiers patrolling the Mexican border, a band of Apache under Josanie slips past them and begins raiding white settlements in Arizona and New Mexico, killing 38 settlers before returning to their sanctuary in Mexico.

November 9 Transportation: Under the watchful eyes of army guards, workers of the California Southern Railroad drive the final spike into new tracks laid through the Cajon Pass.

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November 19 Religion: In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a gathering of Hebrew delegates under Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise signs their declaration of “independence” from Orthodox Judaism and starts their own Reform branch. These adherents reject all parts of traditional Mosaic law deemed inconsistent with modern civilization, especially Zionism, and do not agitate for an eventual return to Israel.

November 25 Politics: Vice President Thomas A. Hendricks dies in office at 66; no successor is ever named.

December 1 Business: In Waco, Texas, Wade Morrison invents a new “brain tonic” he calls “Dr. Pepper,” so named after his girlfriend’s father.

December 7 Politics: The 49th Congress assembles with Republicans controlling the Senate and Democrats in charge of the House of Representatives.

December 8 Politics: President Grover Cleveland makes his first address to Congress, and calls for an end to mandatory coinage of silver as it eventually will supplant all the gold then in government banks. He also calls for a new commission to discuss with Great Britain the issue of fishery rights off Canada.

December 18 Politics: A majority report outlining a reduction of jurisdiction for the Appropriations Committee is adopted by the House of Representatives.

December 20 Sports: William B. Curtis breaks several weight-lifting records by hoisting 3,239 pounds with a harness.

1886 Arts: William Gillette pens the drama Held by the Enemy, the first play concerning itself with the Civil War. James Abbott McNeill Whistler is elected president of the Royal Society of British Artists. Painter Thomas Eakins is expelled from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts for using undraped models in his art classes. Business: The Whiskey Trust is formed from 80 distilleries; operationally, it patterns itself after the highly successful Standard Oil Trust. In Atlanta, Georgia, John Stith Pemberton perfects the formula for a tasty tonic he calls Coca Cola—its primary ingredient is the highly addictive drug cocaine. Indian: In New York State, Mohawk Indians are hired as ironworkers to construct a bridge over the St. Lawrence River. They perform so well that several companies begin soliciting their talents as workers. Literature: Henry James publishes Princess Casamassima, a novel concerning the social tensions underlying upper-class life in London. Frances Hodgson Burnett pens her famous children’s story Little Lord Fauntleroy, sumptuously illustrated by Reginald Bathurst Birch.

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Publishing: Cosmopolitan Magazine is founded in Rochester, New York; a year later it will relocate to New York City. Millionaire philanthropist Andrew Carnegie publishes his new book Triumphant Democracy, in which he condemns monarchies. Religion: An ongoing dispute between liberal and orthodox Congregationalist forces erupts at the Andover Theological Seminary, where five professors are charged with espousing liberal views on religion; only one is found guilty. In Chicago, Illinois, celebrated evangelical leader Dwight L. Moody establishes the Bible Institute for Home and Foreign Missions. Today it is called the Moody Bible Institute. Augustus Toltan is ordained in Rome as the first African-American Catholic priest. Societal: Dr. Stanton Coit, founder of the Neighborhood Guild, opens the first Settlement House aimed at serving the poor and dispossessed. Sports: England and the United States wage the first international polo match at Newport, R.I., which will be swept by the more experienced visitors, 10–4 and 14–2. Yale University wins the national college football championship with nine wins, no losses, and one tie. Richard D. Sears wins the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association men’s singles for the sixth consecutive year. Chicago wins the National League baseball pennant with 90 wins and 34 losses; however, they will lose the interleague playoff to St. Louis of the American Association, two games to four. Technology: Elihu Thompson receives a patent for the electric welding machine, which will effectively replace riveting and greatly enhance future automobile manufacturing.

January Military: The Endicott Board, headed by Secretary of War William Endicott, promulgates a plan to fortify 28 major harbors in the United States with various fortifications and 2,362 cannon.

January 1 Sports: The first Tournament of Roses unfolds as a competition between highly decorated horse carriages, adorned by native flowers, at Pasadena, California, followed by a day of athletic events.

January 4 Arts: Willard Spenser finishes The Little Tycoon, one of the earliest comic operas penned by an American.

January 9 Indian: From his sanctuary in Mexico, renegade Apache chief Geronimo sends a messenger to General George Crook declaring his intention to surrender within a few weeks.

January 19 Politics: Congress passes the Presidential Succession Act, which provides for cabinet members to succeed a president or vice president in the order that their

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Chronology of American History office was created, beginning with the secretary of state. This law will remain in effect until 1947. Politics: In Maine, state coopers, and ship and wharf owners petition Congress for a tax on foreign shipping to protect them from competition.

February 7–8 Societal: Seattle, Washington, is the scene of anti-Chinese violence that forces 400 individuals from their homes before troops are sent to restore order. The immigrants will be packed aboard the steamer Queen of the Pacific and shipped to San Francisco after residents collect the money for their transit.

February 14 Business: The first shipment of oranges picked from California groves departs by rail for east coast markets.

February 15 Politics: A protectionist-minded Congress defeats Representative William R. Morrison’s tariff bill for reducing duties.

February 23 Technology: In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Charles Martin Hall perfects a more efficient method of extracting aluminum from ore by using electrolytes. This will trigger a dramatic reduction in the price of that valuable substance, whish heretofore had been used only for making jewelry and other novelties.

March Technology: In Great Barrington, Massachusetts, George Westinghouse and William Stanley demonstrate the first electrical alternating current system.

March 1 Politics: President Grover Cleveland duly informs the Senate that a chief executive can, despite the Tenure of Office Act, lawfully remove officials without their consent.

March 4 Education: The University of Wyoming is chartered at Laramie.

March 6 Labor: Jay Gould’s Missouri-Pacific Railroad is beset by a labor action when the Knights of Labor go on strike, throwing the entire 5,000 miles of track into idleness. The dispute will be settled in May without any gain to the workers.

March 22 Technology: A steam generator built and owned by Sidney Mitchell and Fred Sparling powers an electrical generator that lights up Seattle, Washington Territory, for the first time.

March 25 Military: General George Crook again prevails upon renegade Apache chief Geronimo to depart his Mexican enclave and be returned to the San Carlos Reservation after a two-year incarceration in the East. However, the Indians change will their minds at the last moment and disappear, prompting an angry War Department to sack Crook altogether and replace him with the hard-bitten General Nelson A. Miles.

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April 1 Indian: The War Department reneges on an arrangement between General George Crook and Apache chief Geronimo when 77 Chiricahuas are shipped to Fort Marion, Indian Territory. Crook, for his part, is disgusted by this display of bad faith and resigns from the military to champion the cause of Native American rights.

April 8 Politics: Missouri representative Richard P. Bland introduces a bill to the House of Representatives mandating the free coinage of silver; it is only narrowly defeated.

April 13 Politics: Senator Orville H. Platt of Connecticut finds that the Senate’s reliance on secrecy in executive sessions is not found in the Constitution and introduces a measure to halt the practice; its is tabled without further discussion.

April 22 Labor: President Grover Cleveland becomes the first chief executive to suggest that the Congress set up an independent agency to arbitrate labor disputes. He specifically mentions creation of a labor commission.

April 29 Diplomacy: Upon the recommendation of President Grover Cleveland, the Senate debates an extradition treaty with Japan, which provides for a mutual exchange of any criminals who have fled to either nation. All remaining provisions of extraterritoriality are also ended.

May 1– 4 Labor: Roughly 100,000 workers from the Knights of Labor, the Black International Anarchists, and other trade unions simultaneously strike across the nation to demand an eight-hour work day. This is a major display of national strength by the burgeoning labor movement.

May 3 Labor: Police fire onto violent strikers at the McCormick Reaper Manufacturing Company, killing six people. That night anarchist Augustus Spies harangues a sympathetic crowd gathered at Haymarket Square, demanding revenge.

May 5 Labor: Violence again erupts in Chicago when police confront a throng of strikers at Chicago’s Haymarket Square. The proceedings are peaceful until a bomb is tossed in the middle of the police and explodes, killing seven and wounding 50. Eight anarchists are then arrested for murder; public opinion, aghast at the attack, begins swinging against labor radicals.

Reproduction of anarchist handbill distributed prior to the Haymarket Riot of 1886 (Library of Congress)

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Chronology of American History Military: Captain Henry Lawton, 4th U.S. Cavalry, takes a troop of soldiers and 100 Apache scouts out of Fort Huachuca, Arizona, to begin looking for the renegade Apache leader Geronimo. They spend the next four months searching in vain for the wily leader and his equally agile band.

May 10 Civil: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Yick Wo v. Hopkins, ruling that an alien is a person for legal purposes, and her or his rights are protected under the Fourteenth Amendment; therefore, municipal ordinances discriminating against Chinese laundries are unconstitutional. Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad, ruling that a corporation, under the Fourteenth Amendment, is considered a person for legal purposes and cannot be deprived of rights or profits without due process. This proves a major boost to business.

May 14 Sports: The 12th annual Kentucky Derby is won by Ben Ali, who runs the course in two minutes, 36 seconds.

May 16 Military: Congress passes legislation authorizing that attendees of the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, are to be commissioned second lieutenants upon graduating.

May 21 Sports: The 14th annual Preakness Stakes is won by The Bard, who finishes in two minutes, 45 seconds.

June 3 General: President Grover Cleveland marries Frances Folsom, the muchyounger daughter of his former law partner. He is the first chief executive to tie the knot in the White House.

June 5 Sports: The 20th annual Belmont Stakes is won by Inspector, who finishes in two minutes, 41 seconds.

June 19–August 20 Law: Anarchists arrested for the death of several police officers in the Haymarket Square riot stand trial under Judge Albert Parsons. Eight defendants are arraigned and eventually found guilty, although the actual perpetrators will never be found.

June 29 Labor: Congress authorizes trade unions to begin incorporating themselves in an attempt to address the growing needs of industrial workers.

June 30 Politics: Congress, responding to public pressure, founds a Division of Forestry within the Department of Agriculture. Its first director is Dr. Bernhard E. Fernow. Religion: Baltimore bishop James Gibbons becomes the second cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States.

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August 3 Naval: Congress considers acquisition of two ironclads, an armored cruiser and a motor torpedo boat as part of its ongoing naval modernization program initiated by Secretary of the Navy William C. Whitney. Whitney also reorients the service toward modernity and the latest technology. By the turn of the century the United States will boast the world’s third largest navy.

August 6 Naval: Congress authorizes construction of the armored cruiser USS Maine and the armored battleship Texas; these 6,000-ton vessels are considered to be the nation’s first battle wagons.

August 17 Military: Captain Moses Harris, 1st U.S. Cavalry, establishes the Fort Yellowstone Guards in Wyoming Territory to protect Yellowstone Park from vandalism and illegal poaching.

August 19 Arts: American playwright and producer Augustin Daly leads the first Englishspeaking dramatic troupe to perform in Paris and Berlin; public and critical reaction proves tepid.

August 20 Law: Eight anarchists tried for the deaths of seven policemen in the Haymarket Square riot are found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. In legal circles, the trial and conviction on circumstantial evidence is regarded as shoddy and questionable.

August 24 Indian: Renegade Apache chief Geronimo confers under a flag of truce with Lieutenant Charles B. Gatewood and agrees to surrender, but only to General Nelson A. Miles in person.

September 4 Indian: Renegade Apache chief Geronimo concludes a 1,600-mile pursuit and surrenders to General Nelson A. Miles at Skeleton Canyon, Arizona. Both he, his 20-man band, and 13 accompanying women are immediately deported to new homes in Fort Pickens, Florida. A 15-year, internecine struggle involving the Arizona and New Mexico territories and Mexico is finally drawing to a close.

September 9 –11 Sports: The U.S. yacht Mayflower successfully defends the America’s Cup from British challenger Galatea.

September 16 Politics: The Anti-Saloon Republicans hold their convention in Chicago, Illinois, another sign of reform-minded political activism within the major parties.

October General: Griswold Lorillard makes fashion headlines with a rakish, tailless dress coat at the annual autumn ball at the Tuxedo Club in Tuxedo, New York. It will subsequently become known as a tuxedo.

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October 12 General: Flooding along the Texas coast, brought on by gale force winds, kills 250 people.

October 25 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of St. Louis and Pacific Railway Company v. Illinois, denying states the ability to regulate that interstate commerce which originates within its own state boundaries. State legislatures therefore lose their ability to regulate the affairs of trusts, corporations, railroads, and other combines, although Congress stands ready to pick up the slack.

October 28 General: President Grover Cleveland presides over ceremonies dedicating the 225-ton, 152-foot-tall Statue of Liberty in New York harbor. This iconic monument is a gift of the French people and the creation of sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi. Newspaper editor Joseph Pulitzer of the New York World has underwritten the pedestal upon which it arose. More importantly, Lady Liberty will serve as a beacon of freedom to millions of immigrants arriving over the next decades.

November 2 Politics: Mid-term elections leave the Republicans in charge of the Senate and Democrats still controlling the House of Representatives.

November 19 General: Former president Chester A. Arthur dies in New York City at the age of 56.

December 7–8 Labor: Samuel Gompers and Adolph Strasser organize the American Federation of Labor (AFL) from 25 diverse labor groups representing 150,000 workers. The AFL becomes the cutting edge in labor matters over the next decade, with Gompers acting capably as president. Under his enlightened aegis the AFL quickly supplants the Knights of Labor, which has discredited itself by associating with anarchists and socialists. Gompers also supports the widespread proliferation of local unions, something the autocratically minded Knights oppose.

December 10 Labor: Leonora Barry, an investigator with the Knights of Labor, encounters a corset factory that imposes a 10-cent fine for any worker caught eating, laughing, or talking.

1887 Statue of Liberty, Bedloe (later Liberty) Island, New York, 1890 (Library of Congress)

1887

Arts: Sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens finishes his celebrated statue of President Abraham Lincoln for Lincoln Park in Chicago, Illinois.

Chronology

1391

Business: The U.S. Post Office grants free mail delivery to all communities with populations over 10,000. The five Merritt brothers uncover a large iron ore deposit in the Mesabi range of Minnesota, an immense boon to the nation’s rapidly expanding steel industry. Conservation: Theodore Roosevelt founds the Boone and Racket Club for the protection of game and to prevent the needless slaughter of large animals. Education: Clark University is founded at Worcester, Massachusetts, as an institution that will offer quality education at lower cost than similar schools. Indian: The Great Serpent Mound in Adams County, Ohio, thought to have been constructed by the Hopewell Indian Culture of 3,000 b.c., is purchased for study by the Harvard University Peabody Museum. George Bushotter, a Lakota Sioux and a graduate of the Hampton Institute, is hired by the Bureau of Ethnology in Washington, D.C. In this capacity he makes indelible contributions to the linguistic and cultural knowledge of his people. Journalism: Daring female reporter Nellie Bly (Elizabeth Cochrane) has herself committed to an insane asylum on Blackwell’s Island, New York, then recounts what she saw in her book Ten Days in a Mad House.

Bly, Nellie (1867–1922) Journalist Elizabeth Cochrane was born in Cochran Mills, Pennsylvania, on May 5, 1864, the daughter of an accomplished industrialist. She lost her father at an early age and, after her mother remarried and divorced, she moved in with relatives at Pittsburgh. Cochrane, who was distinctly “Tom Girl” in outlook, decided to forsake teaching, the usual employment for young women, and pursue journalism. In this she exhibited a genuine flair for investigating important stories and relaying them with accurate and scintillating prose. However, her gender proved an obstacle and work was not forthcoming. One day, after writing a scathing letter to the editor of the Pittsburgh Dispatch and adroitly defending a woman’s right to seek employment as she wished, editor George A. Madden invited her in for an interview. Singularly impressed by her moxie attitude, Madden entrusted her

with several minor essays on women. These proved competent and interesting to the readership and she became one of the few woman journalists of her day, publishing under the pseudonym “Nelly Bly”—possibly after a popular Stephen Foster song. She quickly proved herself a crack investigative journalist with a “nose for news” and the daring to push her craft to the limits to get a story. Bly, investigating the dangerous and unsanitary working conditions women and children endured in the Pittsburgh area, took a job in a factory and gave a firsthand account of hazards encountered there. Her reporting led to a number of local reforms but also great indignation from the business community, which pressured the Pittsburgh Dispatch to halt her reports. Bly was subsequently sidelined with social and cultural (continues)

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(continued) events, but she chafed under the assignment and in 1886 spent several months in Mexico reporting on the impoverishment encountered there. The biggest turn in Bly’s career occurred when she relocated to New York City and was hired by John Cockerill and Joseph Pulitzer of the New York World. In this capacity, she outdid her reputation for daring by having herself committed to an insane asylum for 10 days to report on the abuses there. Bly then pretended to have committed a crime in order to get arrested and cover abuses endured by women in the criminal justice system. Employment agencies, medical clinics, and corrupt lobbyists were also subject to her scathing scrutiny,

and her reports inevitably led to immediate reforms. But her most notorious stunt came in 1889 when she determined to beat the imaginary record set forth in Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days; she traveled alone across the globe by ship and train, returning to cheers in New York on January 25, 1890. Her sojourn took only 72 days. Bly married industrialist Steven Livingston Seaman in 1895 and left journalism for many years but returned in 1914 to cover World War I for the New York Evening Journal. She died in New York City on January 27, 1922, an extremely popular cultural hero and a trail-blazing journalist who inspired generations of women reporters.

In San Francisco, California, William Randolph Hearst assumes control of the San Francisco Chronicle. Literature: Poet Eugene Field composes two of his most famous poems for the Chicago Morning News, “Little Boy Blue” and “Dutch Lullaby.” Media: Eadweard Muybridge publishes Animal Locomotion, the first photographic study of a living creature in motion; he conclusively proves that a horse, at full gallop, actually has all four feet in the air at one point. Military: Noted explorer Adolphus W. Greely gains promotion to brigadier general and is also made chief of the Signal Corps. Publishing: Historical romances and sketches about the antebellum South are aptly captured in Thomas Nelson Page’s book In Old Virginia. Theodore Roosevelt, an aspiring historian, publishes volume one of his noted series The Winning of the West. Science: Stephen F. Baird, U.S. Commissioner of Fishes and Fisheries, is the driving force behind the new Marine Biological Laboratory at Wood’s Hole, Massachusetts. Physicists Albert A. Michelson and Edward W. Morely conclusively demonstrate that the velocity of the Earth exerts no influence on the speed of light; this fact will eventually inspire a young Albert Einstein to espouse his Special Theory of Relativity. Societal: Melvil Dewey establishes the New York State Library in Albany, New York, and serves as chief librarian. He is also responsible for creating the “Dewey Decimal System” for cataloging books for storage and retrieval.

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(1863–1951)

Publisher Wil­l­iam Randol­ph Hearst was born in San Francisco, Cal­ifornia, on April­ 29, 1863, the son of a mil­l­ionaire businessman and successful­ pol­itician. Something of a spoil­ed scion, he was admitted to Harvard Uni-­ versity in 1883 but was kicked out two years l­ater for pl­aying practical­ jokes on professors. Hearst subsequentl­y devel­oped an interest in journal­ism, and in 1887 he convinced his father to l­et him purchase the fail­ing San Francisco Examiner and then turn it into a successful­ venture on behal­f of his father’s pol­itical­ career. Hearst, showing a fl­air for hysterical­ stories and other l­ures, accompl­ished his goal­, then ventured to New York City to invade the real­m of news-­ paper magnate Joseph Pul­itzer. He obtained the fail­ing New York Journal, l­aced it with comic strips, a col­or Sunday section, racy stories about crime, pol­itics, and societal­ gossip, whil­e reducing the paper’s price to a penny. The resul­t was record sal­es, and the fol­l­owing year Hearst bought out the New York Evening Journal. As a publ­isher, Hearst regul­arl­y raided Pul­itzer’s staff by offering his best writers and editors better sal­aries, whil­e al­so promoting his own pop-­ ul­ist brand of Democratic pol­itics. To this end he strongl­y supported the candidacy of Wil­l­iam Jennings Bryan in 1896, and al­so stoked publ­ic sentiments for war with Spain through his unique brand of sensational­-­ ized, jingoistic coverage known as “yel­l­ow journal­ism.” In this manner both Hearst and Pul­itzer hel­ped fan the fl­ames of publ­ic resentment against Spain in Cuba and were a contributing factor to the confl­ict that fol­l­owed. At one point before hostil­ities commenced, Hearst engaged the services of noted artist Frederic Remington, who was instructed to provide gripping scenes, real­

or imagined, and l­et the editors decide what the content and story l­ine woul­d be. Hearst’s success as a journal­ist stoked his own pol­itical­ ambition and in 1902 he was el­ected to the U.S. House of Repre-­ sentatives for two terms. In 1905 he nar-­ rowl­y missed becoming mayor of New York, the fol­l­owing year he was defeated for the governor’s office, and in 1909 he again l­ost a bid for the mayorship. Al­l­ the whil­e he continuousl­y added to his publ­ishing empire with magazines such as Cosmopolitan and (continues)

William Randolph Hearst (Library of Congress)

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(continued) Harper’s Bazaar. By 1913 he began extending his influence into the new business of motion pictures and acquired two companies and a stable of young actresses, several of whom he married and then divorced. Stridently anti-British, Hearst opposed America’s entry into World War I, which did little to diminish the overall popularity of his publications. By 1920 one in four Americans read a Hearst paper every day,

and he controlled no less then 20 dailies, 11 Sunday papers, the King Features syndication service, the International News Service, and six magazines. Hearst also built a $30 million mansion for himself at San Simeon, California; his career allegedly inspired the hit 1941 movie Citizen Kane. He died in Beverly Hills on August 14, 1951, having assembled one of the largest communication empires in history.

Sports: The first American golf club arises at Foxburg, Pennsylvania, as a result of John Mickle Fox’s trip to Scotland to learn the game. Yale University wins the national college football championship with nine wins, no ties, and no losses. Richard D. Sears wins the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association men’s singles for the seventh consecutive time. Detroit wins the National League baseball pennant with 79 wins and 45 losses; it also bests the American Association’s St. Louis team 10 games to five in the interleague series. The Philadelphia Cricket Club hosts the first-ever woman’s singles championship, won by Ellen Hansell.

January 9 Diplomacy: In Washington, D.C., British minister Lord Sackville-West protests American seizure of three Canadian vessels allegedly sealing in Alaskan territorial waters.

January 20 Diplomacy: The Senate agrees to ratify the 1875 treaty with Hawaii, which promotes reciprocal trade and allows the United States to construct a naval base at Pearl Harbor, Oahu.

January 29 Military: Congress authorizes construction of the Cavalry and Light Artillery School at Fort Riley, Kansas, although five years will lapse before the facilities are finished and instruction can commence.

February 3 Politics: Congress passes the Electoral Count Act, making each state responsible for the validity of vote counts in every national election. Congress will intervene only if a state is unable to come up with an accurate decision or if the tally proffered is deemed fraudulent.

February 4 Business: Reacting to the complaints of farmers and other small businessmen, Congress passes the Interstate Commerce Act to bring federal regulation of cor-

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porations, trusts, and other economic combines. It creates a five-man commission to see that freight haulers charge reasonable and uniform rates across state lines. This finally grants the government regulatory oversight over heretofore freewheeling big business.

February 8 Indian: To begin phasing out the reservation system, Congress passes the General Allotment Act (or Dawes Severalty Act), which no longer recognizes them as sovereign nations. Moreover it provides each Indian family on federal land 160 acres. Moreover, to prevent Native Americans from being tricked into selling their holdings, the land will be held in trust by the federal government for 25 years. This is the latest attempt by concerned whites to save Native Americans through “assimilation.”

February 11 Politics: President Grover Cleveland vetoes the Dependent Pension Bill, which would extend benefits to servicemen with non-military-related disabilities, in an attempt to cap retirement expenditures and potential fraudulent claims. He does so at the risk of alienating large and influential veteran groups like the Grand Army of the Republic.

March 1 Military: To provide a professional cadre of enlisted soldiers to assist the medical profession in the field, Congress authorizes the Army Hospital Corps. This relieves line units from having to assign the requisite personnel.

March 2 Agriculture: Congress passes the Hatch Act to fund experimental farming stations in most states to study the best methods of farming, eradicating diseases and pests, and preventing rampant topsoil erosion. Annual appropriations to each station are also provided by the act. Through such expedients American agriculture is finally assuming a more scientific approach to the challenge of conservation. Diplomacy: Canadian fishermen begin harassing American shipping off the Grand Banks following American abrogation of the fishing settlement with Great Britain in the 1875 Treaty of Washington.

March 1 Medical: The War Department establishes the Army Hospital Corps to employ hospital stewards, acting hospital stewards, and privates.

March 3 Diplomacy: To retaliate against Canadian seizures of American vessels found in their waters, Congress empowers the president with the ability to retaliate by barring Canadian ships, fish, and other products from American ports. However, President Cleveland declines to enforce these measures, hoping instead to reach a sweeping accommodation in future negotiations on the topic. Religion: Congress passes a bill authorizing the government to seize property belonging to the Mormon Church, and those lands so taken will not be returned until the practice of polygamy is renounced.

March 5 Politics: In a major move toward restoring executive independence, Congress repeals the 1867 Tenure of Office Act and now allows the president to suspend or

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Chronology of American History remove individuals as per the Constitution. This is a major political triumph for President Grover Cleveland, who has pushed the legislators hard toward restoring the traditional independence and authority of the executive office.

April 5 Business: The five-man board under Thomas Cooley, appointed by President Grover Cleveland for regulating rail rates, meets for the first time in Washington, D.C. This action constitutes a major victory for the Grange and small farmers, and enjoys wide congressional support.

April 19 Education: Catholic University is chartered by Congress in Washington, D.C.; this is the first institution of higher learning owned by the Roman Catholic Church in America.

May 3 Business: In Chicago, Illinois, the American Cattle Trust is founded in an attempt to corner the cattle market.

May 11 Sports: The 13th annual Kentucky Derby is won by Montrose with a time of two minutes, 39 seconds.

May 13 Sports: The 15th annual Preakness Stakes is won by Dunbine, who runs the course in two minutes, 39 seconds.

May 26 Sports: New York becomes the first state to legalize racetrack betting.

June 7 Politics: President Grover Cleveland signs an order allowing the return of captured Confederate flags to the southern states, which triggers a chorus of protests from Union army veterans.

June 9 Sports: The 21st annual Belmont Stakes is won by Hanover, who crosses the finish line at two minutes, 43 seconds.

June 15 Politics: Vociferous protests by Republican politicians and angry Union army veterans force President Grover Cleveland to rescind his order restoring captured Confederate battle flags to the South; this will not actually transpire until 1905.

June 20 General: In London, England, noted female marksman Phoebe Ann Annie Oakleyi Mozee (publicly known as Annie Oakley) gains an audience with Queen Victoria after a thrilling exhibition of her unerring aim. “What a wonderful little girl!” is the monarch’s exclamation.

June 25–July 26 Diplomacy: In Washington, D.C., representatives from the United States, Great Britain, and Germany convene to discuss control of the Pacific island of Samoa. When Germany insists it enjoys a mandate, the meeting concludes without a resolution. Secretary of State Thomas Bayard, however, suggests adjourning for

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Oakley, Annie (1860–1926) Markswoman Phoebe Anne Mozee was born in Darke County, Ohio, on August 13, 1860, the daughter of farmers. According to legend she began shooting guns at the age of eight with unerring aim; after her father died in a blizzard, she began hunting game and selling it to support the family. At the age of 15 she apparently won a shooting match against vaudeville marksman Frank E. Butler in Cincinnati; they eventually married and frequently toured with vaudeville circuses. In 1884 she allegedly captivated the noted Sioux Chief Sitting Bull with a shooting display at St. Paul, Minnesota, whereupon the chief adopted her under the name “Watanya Cicila” (Little Sure Shot). In 1885, she adopted the stage name of “Annie Oakley” and joined up with William “Buffalo Bill” Cody’s Wild West Show, gaining national renown as a performer. In truth, Oakley was an infallible markswoman with handguns, rifles, or shotguns. A standard act over the next 17 years was to shoot a cigarette out of her husband’s mouth and a coin from between his fingers. Off-season, she was active in regularly scheduled shooting matches throughout the Midwest, routinely defeating men in what was touted as a purely masculine sport. On one occasion Oakely hit with a pistol 943 balls out of 1,000 that were tossed in the air and, on another, scored 4,772 hits out of 5,000 balls with a shotgun. Given her remarkable skills, she was naturally touted as a western heroine, but in person Oakley remained shy, reserved and, consistent with

her Quaker heritage, read the Bible daily. She was also very generous with her prizegenerated income, donated freely to charities and orphanages, and even assisted other women to pay for a college education. Her modest disposition notwithstanding, the diminutive and attractive Oakley was hailed as “America’s sweetheart” or “The Peerless Lady Wing Shot” and was one of the few women of her day to enjoy national renown Oakley’s reputation resulted in her touring abroad with Cody in France, Spain, Italy, Austria, and especially Britain, where she enthralled Queen Victoria. On another occasion, Crown Prince Wilhelm of Germany (later, Kaiser Wilhelm II) had the ashes shot off his cigarette at 30 paces. In 1901 Oakley sustained serious injuries in a train wreck but recuperated and continued touring until 1913 when she and her husband finally retired. During World War I both frequently came out to trains to entertain the troops with sterling displays of their marksmanship, which had not diminished with age. In 1925 Oakley and her husband returned to Darke County, Ohio, where she died at Greenville on November 3, 1926. Since then she has been the subject of several biographies, along with a musical written by Irving Berlin, Annie Get Your Gun. Oakley remains an iconic figure of the Wild West and one of the most intriguing female personalities of American history. For many years after her passing, complementary theater tickets, punched as if they had been shot by bullets, were labeled “Annie Oakleys.”

several months to see how events play out. Germany responds with aggressive action in the islands to enforce its will.

July 26 Military: A milestone of sorts is passed when the 12th U.S. Infantry is assembled at Buffalo, New York, and conducts regimental-level exercises as an integrated

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Chronology of American History unit for the first time since 1866. Previously, the small size of the American army and the vast frontier that it was tasked with guarding required units to be dispersed in penny packets at various forts.

August 1 Politics: President Grover Cleveland “pocket vetoes” (refuses to sign) what he considers an overly extravagant rivers and harbors act.

August 10 General: A bridge in Chatsworth, Illinois, collapses under the weight of a train, killing 100 people and injuring scores more.

August 19 Diplomacy: Four German warships drop anchor at Apia in the Samoan Islands and capture King Malietoa, a deed that sets Germany on a collision course with Great Britain and the United States. Transportation: The first train chugs into Santa Barbara, California.

September 5 Labor: New York is the first state to recognize Labor Day as a legal holiday.

September 17–30 Sports: The U.S. yacht Volunteer successfully defends the America’s Cup from the British challenger Thistle.

October 11 Diplomacy: Despite German aggression in Samoa, Secretary of State Thomas Bayard cautions strict neutrality; nonetheless, the warship USS Adams is dispatched to the islands.

November 5 Indian: U.S. Army troops are called into the Crow Agency, Montana Territory, to put down a perceived uprising. In fact, a party of Crow warriors under Sword Bearer had been celebrating a successful raid on a Blackfoot camp and accidentally fired into the agent’s house. In the ensuing scuffle, Sword Bearer and eight Crow are slain.

November 11 Crime: Five anarchists found guilty in the Haymarket explosion 18 months earlier in Chicago meet their death on the scaffold. An even bigger casualty is the image of organized labor, now tinged with radical violence, which causes public sentiment to turn against improved wages, working conditions, and an eight-hour work day.

November 22 Diplomacy: The six-member Anglo-American-Canadian commission meets in Washington, D.C., to hammer out an agreement respecting the Canadian fisheries. Two months will elapse before a mutually agreeable treaty can be worked out.

November 23 Civil: Striking African Americans at Thibodaux, Louisiana, are fired upon by sheriff ’s deputies and local militia, leaving 20 dead and several more injured. The workers had been striking for hire wages payable in cash, and not scrip redeemable only at company stores.

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December 5 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Mugler v. Kansas, ruling that states enjoy a constitutional right to prohibit the manufacture of alcoholic beverages. Politics: The 50th Congress assembles with Republicans controlling the Senate and Democrats controlling the House of Representatives.

December 6 Politics: President Grover Cleveland makes a bold statement against the continuation of tariffs on both necessities and luxuries, and calls for their reduction. The mounting public perception is that such tariffs are actually subsidizing certain businesses at the expense of others. Cleveland does so after first consulting his own party, thereby infuriating high-tariff advocates.

1888 Architecture: Charles Follum McKim begins a new main building for the Boston Public Library on Copley Square, based upon Italian Re nais sance precepts. In Washington, D.C., General Thomas Lincoln Casey begins construction of the new main building for the Library of Congress. Art: Lin Levi Earner and John T. Boyle travel westward, using Native Americans as subjects for various paintings and bust sculptures. Celebrated muralist John La Farge completes his vast work of art, the Ascension, for the chancel in the Church of the Ascension, New York. Education: The growing professionalization of American scholarship is reflected by the founding of such organizations as the Geological Society of America, the American Folklore Society, the American Mathematical Society, and the National Statistical Society. Media: In a major technological and commercial leap, George Eastman invents the Kodak No. 1, a square box camera already loaded with a roll of film. Prospective photographers simply take the pictures then mail the entire unit back to Eastman’s factory for professional processing. Photography, heretofore limited by expense and expertise to a handful of specialists, now becomes a popular hobby. The dawn of the “snapshot” is at hand. Music: Composer Arthur William Foote receives critical acclaim in Boston for his choral work “The Wreck of the Hesperus.” He is also the vanguard of a new movement informally known as the Boston Classicists. After 12 years of study in France and Germany, composer Edward A. MacDowell returns to the United States, becoming the first American composer to become as highly regarded as contemporary Europeans. Marine Corps Band conductor John Philip Sousa composes his famous march “Semper Fidelis” for the corps. Publishing: Journalist Edward Bellamy writes a utopian fantasy entitled Looking Backward, 2000–1887, which discusses the problems of industrialized society and posits nationalization and wealth distribution as the best possible solutions. It will become an unexpected million-seller with something of a cult following as “Bellamy Clubs” begin springing up around the country to advocate change.

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Chronology of American History Historian John Fiske publishes The Critical Period of American History, 1783–1789 while Henry C. Lea completes another seminal study, The History of the Inquisition in the Middle Ages. Theodore Roosevelt publishes his book Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail, the first manifestation of his life-long crusade for the preservation of wildlife and big game. English ambassador James Bryce pens his The American Constitution, an erudite and favorable discussion of American political institutions and law that is widely read in both nations. Science: Hungarian-born scientist Nikola Tesla arrives in the United States, where he makes significant contributions to the advancement of electrical engineering. His most significant invention is the alternating current motor. The Lick Observatory arises on Mount Hamilton near San Jose, California, largely funded by a $700,000 bequest from financier James Lick. At the time it utilizes the most powerful telescopes in existence. Sports: The founding of the St. Andrews Club in Yonkers, New York, affords additional proof that golf is making considerable inroads among the sporting set. Yale University wins the national college football championship with 13 wins, no ties, no losses. Tim Keefe of New York is the first baseball pitcher to win 19 consecutive games. Henry W. Slocum wins the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association’s singles championship for men, while Bertha L. Townshend takes the women’s division. New York wins the National League baseball championship with 84 wins, 47 losses; they subsequently win the interleague playoffs by defeating the American League’s St. Louis team six games to four. Technology: Frank J. Sprague constructs the first electric trolley system in Richmond, Virginia.

January 3 Business: In Washington, D.C., Marvin Chester Stone invents a drinking straw made from manila paper and coated with paraffin wax. They prove an immediate hit at soda parlors nationwide.

January 13 Science: The National Geographic Society is founded by a board of 33 individuals determined to diffuse knowledge of geography to the general public. Graham Greene Hubbard is elected its first president.

January 21 Sports: The Amateur Athletic Association is founded to protect amateur athletes from unscrupulous promoters and to promote sport “for sport’s sake.”

February 15 Diplomacy: Secretary of State Thomas F. Bayard and British colonial secretary Joseph Chamberlain reach an agreement on Canadian fishing rights in the Bayard-Chamberlain Treaty, signed at Washington, D.C. The Senate will refuse to ratify the agreement because of its provision for reciprocal tariffs, but amiable relations over the issue continue to manifest once the Americans are allowed to purchase local licenses to fish the waters. This ad hoc arrangement will be renewed every two years until a lasting solution is finally proffered in 1912.

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Electric trolleys competed with automobiles for space on city streets. (Library of Congress)

February 19 General: Mount Vernon, Illinois, is devastated by a violent tornado, which kills 35 people.

February 22 Politics: The Industrial Reform Party convenes in Washington, D.C., and nominates Albert E. Redstone of California for president and John Colvin of Kansas for the vice presidency. This is the latest manifestation of growing concern for economic issues of the day. Sports: In Yonkers, New York, Scottish-born John Reid teaches three of his neighbors how to play a new imported game called golf.

March 12 Diplomacy: The United States and China conclude a new treaty that both excludes additional Chinese immigration for 20 years and pays China an indemnity of $276,619 for coolies killed in anti-Chinese riots. However, the treaty is never ratified because the Senate will insist on a provision to forbid the 20,000 Chinese who have returned to China to visit from returning. General: The Great Blizzard of 1888 strikes the Northeast with a 36-hour snowfall that cuts all transportation and communication, kills 400 people, and inflicts $25 million in damages in New York City alone. The city is literally brought to a

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Chronology of American History standstill for 48 hours before normal conditions can resume; all communication to and from Boston has to be relayed via England.

April 24 Business: In London, England, the American Oil Company is founded as Standard Oil’s first foreign affiliate.

May Arts: Ernest Thayer’s play about baseball, entitled Casey at the Bat, is successfully staged at Wallack’s Theater, New York City.

May 3 Engineering: Two opposing tunnels dug into the sides of Mount Rainier, Washington, converge into a single transit route.

May 10 Diplomacy: Despite a lukewarm reception by President Grover Cleveland, Congress passes a resolution inviting 18 Latin American nations to a Pan-American conference in Washington, D.C., in 1889.

May 11 Sports: The 16th annual Preakness Stakes is won by Refund with a time of two minutes, 49 seconds.

May 14 Sports: The 14th annual Kentucky Derby is won by MacBeth, who runs the course in two minutes, 38 seconds.

May 15 Politics: The Equal Rights Party holds its national convention in Des Moines, Iowa, being unique in its insistence for women’s suffrage. Belva Ann Lockwood, the first woman attorney to argue before the U.S. Supreme Court, is nominated for president.

May 16 Politics: The Union Labor Party gathers in Cincinnati, Ohio, nominating A. J. Sweeter of Illinois and Charles E. Cunningham of Arkansas for president and vice president, respectively.

May 17 Naval: Massachusetts becomes the first state to authorize a naval militia, which, in concert with other states that follow, will ultimately spur creation of a new Naval Reserve. Politics: The United Labor Party also convenes its national convention in Cincinnati, Ohio, naming Robert H. Cowdrey of Illinois and W. H. T. Wakefield of Kansas for president and vice president, respectively.

May 31 Politics: The Prohibition Party holds its national convention and nominates Clinton B. Fisk of New Jersey for president and John A. Brooks of Missouri for vice president.

June 4 Crime: Governor David B. Bill signs legislation making New York the first state to substitute electrocution for hanging in capital crimes cases.

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June 5–7 Politics: The Democratic Party holds its national convention in St. Louis, Missouri, whereby Grover Cleveland is renominated by acclamation. Allen G. Thurman is also chosen to run as vice president.

June 6 Sports: The 22nd annual Belmont Stakes is won by Sir Dixon with a time of two minutes, 40 seconds. Jimmy McLaughlin, his jockey, completes his sixth Belmont Stakes win.

June 13 Labor: In recognition of new social forces at work in society, Congress creates the Department of Labor, although it will not acquire cabinet status until the next century.

June 19 Naval: A 25-man party of U.S. Marines is landed at Chemulpo, Korea, and marches into the capital of Seoul for the protection of American citizens living there. This port will gain lasting fame eight decades later—after being renamed Inchon—as the site of a much larger Marine Corps landing in 1950.

June 19–25 Politics: The Republican Party convenes its national convention in Chicago, Illinois, and nominates Benjamin Harrison of Indiana for president on the eighth ballot. Levi P. Morton of New York is also chosen as vice president. Their platform endorses high tariffs and reflects domination by big industrialists. But they also endorse using the money accumulated by tariff revenues to fund pensions for Civil War veterans, thereby winning popular support from the influential Grand Army of the Republic and other veterans’ groups.

July 10 Transportation: The first all-steel bridge on the west coast is opened by the Union Pacific Railroad in Oregon.

July 13 Diplomacy: With congressional backing, Secretary of State Thomas F. Bayard invites Latin American nations to an inter-American conference in Washington, D.C., in the following year.

July 27 Technology: Philip W. Pratt successfully demonstrates an electric automobile in Boston, Massachusetts. The new device resembles a tricycle and is powered by storage batteries.

July 29 Medical: Jacksonville, Florida, is beset by a raging epidemic of yellow fever; 450 deaths are reported.

August 14 Military: General John McAllister Schofield succeeds the late Philip H. Sheridan as commanding general of the army.

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August 15 Politics: The American Party convenes its national convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and nominates James L. Curtis of New York and James R. Gree of Tennessee for president and vice president, respectively.

August 21 Diplomacy: Republicans in the Senate manage to scuttle the recent BayardChamberlain Treaty, but amicable relations with Canada, especially as it relates to fishing rights, are on the upswing, regardless.

September 7 Naval: The trend toward naval modernization continues when Congress authorizes construction of the steel cruiser USS New York and six smaller vessels.

October 1 Labor: Congress passes legislation allowing federal labor arbitration to help mediate railroad disputes. The president is also empowered to appoint an investigatory commission that can also act as a board of conciliation. Societal: Congress, in a nod to western labor interests, forbids any Chinese migrants who left the country from returning.

October 21 Politics: In an early example of political dirty tricks, British ambassador Lord Sackville-West responds to a letter purportedly written by “Charles F. Murchison,” an English expatriate and naturalized American citizen, who is asking for advice on who to vote for in the upcoming election. It is actually written by George Osgoodby, a California Republican, and when Lord Sackville-West tells him to vote for Democrat Grover Cleveland, the letter is published and enrages IrishAmerican voters throughout New York. Lord Sackville-West is subsequently recalled from Washington, D.C.

November 6 Politics: President Grover Cleveland wins a majority of the popular vote with 5.5 million votes to Benjamin Harrison’s 5.4 million, but Harrison carries the essential state of New York, winning the Electoral College vote 233 to 168. The Republicans also win a majority of seats in the House of Representatives, thereby controlling both chambers. The secret ballot is introduced for the first time during a municipal election in Louisville, Kentucky, and will spread quickly throughout the nation. Ironically, Australia was the first nation to employ secret ballots, as early as 1858; South Carolina will be the last state to adopt the system in 1950.

November 14 Naval: The outbreak of civil war on the Pacific island of Samoa prompts a landing by U.S. Marines from the gunboat USS Nipsic to protect American lives and property there.

November 25 Business: The first commercial quantities of aluminum are readied for shipment in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

December Naval: German forces, working to suppress an active uprising in Samoa, briefly seize and hold a small American ship flying the national flag. The U.S. vice consul

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in Apia then wires the matter to Washington, D.C., requesting the presence of a naval squadron.

December 20 Naval: In a less-than-subtle hint, the vessels USS Galena and Yantic drop anchor at Port-au-Prince, Haiti, inducing authorities there to free a recently detained American steamer.

December 24 General: The Mississippi River steamboat Kate Adams catches fire and sinks, killing 25 passengers.

December 26 General: The steamship John H. Hana catches fire on the Mississippi River, leading to 30 deaths.

1889 Architecture: The 11-story Tower Building becomes the first steel-skeleton building in New York City, unique in its ability to carry its weight through girders and columns down to the foundation. Arts: David Belasco and Henry De Mille pen the successful play The Charity Ball, which opens at the Lyceum in New York City. Business: New Jersey adopts a law allowing holding companies to be formed, ostensibly to circumvent provisions of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. For this reason the Garden State will be home to many of the first giant corporations. The first electric-powered sewing machines are manufactured and sold by Singer Manufacturing Company in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Communication: The first coin-operated telephones are installed at Hartford, Connecticut, inviting users to spend their money while conversing over longer distances. Education: Barnard College for women is founded on the campus of Columbia University. The University of New Mexico is chartered at Albuquerque. Indian: Pioneering ethnologist J. Walker Fewkes uses newly invented phonograph technology to record Indian speech and music for the first time. His subjects in this instance are Native Americans living along the Passamaquoddy Bay in Maine. Congress passes the Sioux Bill, which breaks up the Great Sioux Reservation into six smaller gatherings and opens nine million acres of former Indian land to whites. The Indians each receive 320-acre allotments for settlement purposes. Literature: Mark Twain publishes A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, a satyrical account of a modern industrialist in the supposedly chivalrous Middle Ages. Lafcadio Hearn publishes his unusual tale of natural destruction in Chita: A Memory of Last Island. Media: Noted photographer and Danish immigrant Jacob Riis shocks the nation with his extensive collection of photos depicting the hardship and deprivation of immigrants and urban poor in New York City. Medical: In Rochester, Minnesota, brothers William J. and Charles H. Mayo, both successful surgeons, open a hospital that gains renown as the Mayo Clinic. Susan La Flesche, a full-blooded Omaha Indian, graduates from the Women’s College of Medicine in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and becomes the first female

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Hearn, Lafcadio (1850–1904) Writer Patricio Lafcadio Tessima Carlos Hearn was born on the Greek island of Leukas on June 27, 1850, the son of a British army surgeon and a Greek woman. At the age of six he was sent to live with a great-aunt in Dublin, Ireland, after which he was educated at schools in England and France. Hearn was an extremely bright individual and especially fluent in the literary nuances of Romance languages such as French and Spanish. In 1863, however, he suffered from an accident that destroyed his left eye while the right one was grotesquely swollen from overuse. He thus matured into a rather disfigured and extremely short individual, possessing an extreme inferiority complex. Nevertheless, Hearn ventured to the United States in 1869, and he settled in New York City, seeking work as a writer. Failing here, he moved on to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he met and befriended printer Henry Watkin, who gave him food, shelter, and comradeship as he learned a trade. Hearn eventually found work with the local Inquirer, where his columns proved both interesting and beautifully rendered, but his liaison with a local African-American woman cost him his job. He ended up moving to New Orleans at the behest of another employer. Hearn, who had by now developed an obsession for folklore, especially that touching upon the bizarre and unusual, contributed many articles on local culture and also expertly translated several French romance stories, including Theophile Gavtier’s One of Cleopatra’s Nights (1882).

Several books on obscure legends and stories followed, each invariably touching upon the grotesque, strange, or romantic, and in 1888 he relocated to the West Indies in search of new materials. There he also composed his first two novels, Chita (1889) and Youma (1890), which, despite their plodding story lines, were engagingly written and reaffirmed Hearn’s reputation as a first-class writer. Back in New York and nearly penniless by 1890, Hearn was commissioned by a magazine to visit Japan, but, upon arriving, he quarreled with his editor and quit. Japan by this time had been open for 40 years, but no systematic attempt had been made to translate its literature or folklore for the benefit of Western audiences. Hearn, after accepting a teaching position in a government school at Matsue, eventually married a Japanese woman belonging to an impoverished samurai family, and proceeded to absorb all the fabled culture of his new clime. Commencing with Glimpses of Japan (1894) he researched, collated, and wrote no less than 12 significant titles on Japanese culture and folklore, translating and preserving such important tales as the famous ghost story Kwaidan. His success resulted in a teaching position at the prestigious Imperial University of Tokyo, where he functioned as a highly respected professor of literature. Curiously, Hearn himself never learned to speak or write Japanese and was wholly dependent upon his wife and colleagues for translation. He died in Tokyo on September 26, 1904.

Native American physician. She subsequently returns to the Omaha Reservation in Nebraska, being the only physician available to more than 1,000 residents. Music: Composer Edward MacDowell successfully performs his “Second Piano Concerto” at Chickering Hall in New York City, his first major success since returning from a decade of study in Germany and France.

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Publishing: Theodore Roosevel­t publ­ishes the second vol­ume of his noted his-­ tory The Winning of the West, which is wel­l­ received. Edward W. Bok becomes editor of Ladies’ Home Journal and begins expos-­ ing his readership to thoughtful­ essays and material­s by Mark Twain, Rudyard Kipl­ing, and other noted writers. Women respond favorabl­y to the change and subscriptions increase exponential­l­y over the next decade. Social: Reformer Jane Addams establ­ishes the settl­ement house, Hul­l­-­House, in Chicago in an attempt to meet the needs of the poor; it wil­l­ soon become a national­ l­andmark and a ral­l­ying point for social­ activists. The Sons of the American Revol­ution, a patriotic organization, is founded in New York City from the descendants of that confl­ict.

Addams, Jane (1860–1935) Reformer Jane Addams was born in Cl­earvil­l­e, Il­l­i-­ nois, on September 6, 1860, the daughter of a prominent state senator. She l­ost her mother at the age of three and grew very cl­ose to her father in consequence, becom-­ ing indel­ibl­y impressed by his ingrained bel­iefs as an abol­itionist and community l­eader. In 1877 Addams entered the Rock-­ ford Femal­e Seminary to study medicine and graduated as a student l­eader in 1881. She next attended the Woman’s Medi-­ cal­ Col­l­ege in Phil­adel­phia, but, affl­icted by il­l­ness and chronic depression, Add-­ ams dropped out after a few months of study. Not sure what to do with hersel­f and cognizant of the barriers pl­aced upon women by a mal­e-­dominated society, Add-­ ams next ventured to Europe in 1883–85 and again in 1887–88, where she encoun-­ tered Toynbee Hal­l­ in London. This was a reform-­minded community for ministerial­ students to minister to poverty, and Add-­ ams returned home determined to appl­y these same principl­es in concert with her friend, El­l­en Gates Starr. The two agreed that the upper cl­asses must hel­p shoul­der responsibil­ity for social­ disl­ocation aris-­ ing from America’s rapid industrial­ization.

In 1889 they pool­ed their resources and acquired Hul­l­-­House in one of Chicago’s (continues)

Jane Addams (Library of Congress)

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(continued) worst immigrant slums and championed relief for the poor. Addams also intended her experiment to be an avenue for welleducated white women to learn about poverty and take active steps toward mitigating it. Hull-House soon proved itself amazingly successful and by 1893 was offering residents day care, a gymnasium, a playground, boarding facilities, sewing instruction for girls, and a full range of artistic activities and outlets. Success here garnered Addams national renown and by 1907 Hull-House comprised no less than 13 buildings built over a city block. Addams’s success prompted her to tackle the issue of poverty on a national scale and she immersed herself in politics. Aligning herself with progressive movements, she championed collective bargaining, union representation, a shorter work week, better welfare standards, and legal protection for immigrants in the face of unscrupulous

landlords and employers. Her efforts paid off in 1899 when Chicago established the first juvenile court in the United States, and she also vociferously advocated compulsory education. Consequently, Addams became much sought after as a public speaker and energetically took up the cause of world peace. In 1910 she became the first woman to receive an honorary degree from Yale University and also hosted former president Theodore Roosevelt, a fellow progressive, at several tours of Hull-House. Addams also took up her various causes by writing several books, including her classic autobiography, Twenty Years at Hull-House (1910). She continued working selflessly in the name of the poor and in 1931 jointly shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Columbia University president Nicholas Murray Butler. Addams died in Chicago on May 21, 1935, and her funeral was attended by thousands of mourners.

Sports: An issue of Collier’s Weekly contains a list by Caspar Whitney of the first allAmerican football team, comprising the very best players from 11 college teams. New York wins the National League baseball championship with 83 wins and 43 losses, and also defeats Brooklyn of the American Association six games to three. The U.S. Lawn Tennis Association single championships are won by Henry W. Slocum and Bertha L. Townsend in their respective divisions. Brooklyn wins the National League baseball championship with 86 wins, 43 losses; a playoff with the American League’s Louisville team ends in a draw of three games apiece. Technology: Recent advances in the Bessemer steel process make possible the forging of steel “I beams,” essential for erecting the skeleton of modern, high-rise skyscrapers. The first examples are manufactured by the firm of Jones and Laughlin at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Aspiring inventor Thomas A. Edison creates the first practical motion picture film using materials provided by George Eastman. Transportation: The safety bicycle is invented with two wheels of equal diameter, front and back. They replace the earlier and more dangerous versions with an enormous front wheel and smaller trailing wheel that were inherently unstable.

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Women: The General Federation of Women’s Clubs is established, reflecting a trend toward greater advancement in female education and opportunities, combined with a growing interest in community and national affairs.

January 1 Indian: Wovoka, a Northern Paiute prophet, begins preaching a new religion based upon a holy vision. Having met God, he maintains that the Earth will be restored to Native Americans if they do not kill living things and avoid drinking liquor. This is the genesis of the so-called Ghost Dance religion, a rapidly growing phenomenon that many white onlookers misconstrue as a militant conspiracy masking as religion.

January 12 Naval: In response to German actions in Samoa, Admiral Lewis A. Kimberly is dispatched there with the warships USS Trenton, Nipsic, and Vandalia.

January 15 Politics: President Grover Cleveland informs Congress of the German seizure of an American vessel in December last and the dispatch of naval reinforcements there. An armed confrontation of some kind appears in the offing.

January 23 Medical: In Chicago, Illinois, the Provident Hospital becomes the first training ground for African-American nurses.

January 24 Crime: The Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company is robbed of $500,000.

January 28 Labor: New York City suffers from a transit worker’s strike that ends a few days later without any tangible gains to the strikers.

January 30 Education: The University of Idaho is chartered at Moscow, Idaho.

February 2 Publishing: Frank A. Munsey published the first issue of his Munsey’s Weekly, which includes moralistic stories and pieces by rags-to-riches avatar Horatio Alger.

February 5 Diplomacy: President Grover Cleveland, wishing to avert a war with Germany in the Pacific, accepts Chancellor Otto von Bismarck’s invitation to confer in Berlin and settle the Samoan question.

February 11 Agriculture: The Department of Agriculture is accorded cabinet status through an act of Congress, reflecting that farming has evolved into big business—with the political clout to match. Norman J. Colman, the commissioner of agriculture, becomes the first secretary.

February 20 General: Congress incorporates the Maritime Canal Company of Nicaragua to facilitate construction of a canal across that nation. The company itself is to remain under American control.

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February 22 Settlement: President Grover Cleveland signs a bill granting statehood to North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Washington Territories. Also, a two-millionacre plot in the heart of Indian Territory (Oklahoma), presently unused by any tribe, is opened up for settlement by whites.

February 27 Politics: Congress, goaded by German high-handedness in Samoa, appropriates $500,000 to protect American interests in the islands and an additional $100,000 to construct a fortified naval base on Pago Pago.

March 2 Business: The Kansas legislature passes the first-ever antitrust law to bring large corporations and other economic combines under control and subject them to better regulation. Within a year several other states follow suit, although no state can legally prevent a corporation, founded elsewhere, from doing business within its boundaries. Pressure consequently mounts for greater federal antitrust legislation.

Harrison, Benjamin

(1833–1901)

President Benjamin Harrison was born in North Bend, Ohio, on August 20, 1833, part of an

Benjamin Harrison (Library of Congress)

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illustrious American family. His grandfather, William Henry Harrison, was a famous War of 1812 general and president of the United States, while his great grandfather, Benjamin Harrison, fought in the Revolution and signed the Declaration of Independence. After graduating from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, Harrison read law and two years later established a successful practice in Indianapolis, Indiana. He also developed an interest in Republican Party politics and began occupying minor posts at the state level. During the Civil War, Harrison helped raise the 70th Indiana Infantry, serving as its colonel, and rendered useful service in Tennessee and throughout the Georgia campaign. He retired from military service with a rank of brigadier general in 1865 and resumed his political activities back in Indiana. As a radical, he opposed both liberal Republicans and the Greenback Party, a stance that cost him the gubernatorial nomination in 1872. Harrison was

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Diplomacy: President Grover Cleveland claims control over the entire Bering Sea region, principally to stop the slaughter of fur seals by Canadian hunters, and authorizes the seizure of vessels violating the area. Congress cites its 1867 treaty with Russia over ownership of the Pribilof Islands as the basis of its claim, but the claim remains unrecognized by international law. The British, in particular, regard this matter as a serious offense.

March 4 Politics: Benjamin Harrison is inaugurated as the 23rd president of the United States, with Levi P. Morton as his vice president.

March 5 Military: Redfield Procter is selected by President Benjamin Harrison to serve as his secretary of war. Politics: President Benjamin Harrison appoints James G. Blaine to serve as secretary of state, and wishes him to resume his previous policy of cultivating good relations with Latin American nations.

again the party nominee four years later and he lost the general election, but his efforts brought him to the attention of national party leadership. In 1880 he headed the Indiana delegation to the Republican nominating convention and ensured the selection of James A. Garfield for the presidency. Harrison subsequently declined a cabinet appointment, choosing instead to serve as U.S. senator from Indiana. There he proved himself a strong supporter of civil service reform, the Interstate Commerce Act, and Indian affairs, but he was not reelected in 1887. However, the following year he won the party’s nomination for the presidency and defeated incumbent Grover Cleveland in the Electoral College; he finished second in the popular vote. Harrison was something of a dull and dour figure personally and his tenure in office proved equally unimpressive. His greatest successes came in the field of foreign policy, largely through the talents of Secretary of State James G. Blaine, and include the first Pan-American Conference,

establishment of a tripartite protectorate in Samoa, and a Hawaiian annexation treaty. His most controversial interlude was in a near-declaration of war against Chile for the deaths of American sailors killed in a riot, which resulted in Chile’s payment of a $75,000 indemnity. Domestically, Harrison also embraced the Sherman Anti-Trust Act to rein in big business and the McKinley Tariff Act to increase protective rates, but he fumbled badly by signing the politically motivated Sherman Silver Purchase Act, and for allowing the Veteran’s Bureau to engage in notorious expenditures that drained the treasury. By 1892 Harrison had alienated the public, along with many in his own party, and he was defeated by Cleveland in the general election. Harrison appeared relieved to depart Washington, D.C., and he returned to Indianapolis to practice law. He was again extremely successful and at one point the nation of Venezuela hired him as counsel in their dispute with Great Britain, 1898–99. He died in Indianapolis on March 13, 1901, sincere but undistinguished.

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March 6 Naval: In Washington, D.C., former Union army general Benjamin F. Tracy becomes the 32nd secretary of the navy.

March 14 Diplomacy: To anticipate a possible clash with Great Britain and Germany over control of the Pacific island of Samoa, President Benjamin Harrison sends three American representatives to the Berlin Conference on Samoa.

March 15–16 Diplomacy: The navies of the United States, Great Britain, and Germany deploy several warships in the vicinity of Samoa, then in the grips of a civil war. Hostility between the various ships seems imminent when most are sunk by a sudden typhoon. The gunboat USS Nipsic, the screw steamer Trenton, and the screw sloop Vandalia are lost, along with 49 crew members.

March 18 Business: In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the Philip Best Company, a local brewery, is reorganized by former German immigrant Frederick Pabst and renamed the Pabst Brewery Company.

April 22 Settlement: The government opens land in the Indian Territory (Oklahoma) to settlement by white settlers and a celebrated race by 50,000 homesteaders—the Oklahoma Land Rush—takes place to claim it. Previously, the government paid $4 million to the tribes for two million acres of scrubby, arid land, and the settlements of Guthrie and Oklahoma City rapidly take shape. Many prospective inhabitants have sneaked into the area sooner than permitted by law, thereby giving rise to the nickname “Sooners.”

April 29–June 14 Diplomacy: The governments of the United States, Great Britain, and Germany agree in Berlin to back King Malietoa’s claim to the throne of Samoa, thereby reducing tension between the three competing nations. Joint supervision and administration of the islands is also allowed for. General: The centennial of George Washington’s inauguration takes place in New York City amidst large-scale festivities involving President Benjamin Harrison and literally thousands of participants. Stanford White creates an exquisite stone arch, which still stands today in Washington Square, astride the campus of New York University.

May 1 Business: In Atlanta, Georgia, Asa Briggs Candler acquires rights to the name “Coca Cola” from its previous owner, John Stith Pemberton, and continues marketing the popular soft drink.

May 9 Sports: The 15th annual Kentucky Derby is won by Spokane with a time of two minutes, 34 seconds—a record run.

May 10 Sports: The 17th annual Preakness Stakes is won by Buddhist, who runs the course in two minutes, 17 seconds.

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May 13 Politics: A little-known New York politician named Theodore Roosevelt is appointed civil service commissioner by President Benjamin Harrison.

May 31 General: Johnstown, Pennsylvania, a center for the steel-making industry, is destroyed when the dam holding back rain-swelled Conemaugh Lake, 18 miles distant, breaks. The raging floodwaters—towering 40 feet high—completely level the town eight minutes later, killing 5,000 people and inflicting $10 million in damages. The nation responds by sending $3 million in relief aid and supplies to the survivors.

June Societal: Millionaire Andrew Carnegie publishes his essay “Gospel of Wealth” in the North American Review, and promulgates the first systematic theory of American philanthropy. In it he not only defends capitalism as the best way of securing a fortune, but also insists that business should donate part of its wealth to redress the system’s inherent inequities.

June 5 Sports: Amateur boxer James J. Corbett defeats pro boxer Joe Choynski in 27 rounds with a left hook—allegedly after breaking two knuckles.

June 6 General: A fire in Seattle, Washington, destroys 64 acres of the downtown business district.

June 10 Societal: The United Confederate Veterans is founded at New Orleans, Louisiana, with former general John B. Gordon, presently governor of Georgia, as its first president.

June 13 Sports: The 23rd annual Belmont Stakes is won by Eric with a time of two minutes, 47 seconds.

June 14 Diplomacy: In Berlin, the United States, Great Britain, and Germany formalize a tripartite protectorate (The General Act of Berlin) over the kingdom of Samoa to forestall the outbreak of any violence among them. Under its terms King Malietoa is restored to power, assisted by a council consisting of members from each of the three nations. This is the first time in American history that America is jointly governing an overseas domain.

June 21 Technology: The Maxim machine gun, designed by American-born inventor Hiram Maxim, is successfully demonstrated at Annapolis, Maryland. This selfloading , continuous-fire device has a cyclic rate of 750 rounds a minute and ushers in a new age of modern firepower.

July 8 Business: The Wall Street firm of Dow Jones & Company begins publishing a four-page business newspaper called the Wall Street Journal, to provide coverage

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1414â•… Chronology of American History for both business and national news. It will evolve into a business publication of paramount influence and authority.

July 12 Music: Eu�ro�pe�an recognition of American composers manifests at the Paris Exposition with per�for�mances of works by Edward MacDowell and other noted composers.

July 23 Sports: Boxer John L. Sullivan beats Jake Kilrain after 75 rounds in Richburg, Mississippi, winning a $20,000 prize and the title of world champion. This will be the last contest held in the United States employing the London Rules for Â�bare-­knuckle brawling, as subsequent fights employ the Marquis of Queensberry rules requiring gloves.

July 30 Naval: A detachment of U.S. Marines from the gunboat USS Adams comes ashore at Honolulu, Hawaii, during a period of civil unrest to protect the Ameri-­ can legation stationed there.

August 3 Indian: The recently defeated Sioux nation is forced to cede 11 million acres of land in Dakota Territory to the United States.

September 9 Arts: Bronson Crocker Howard’s play Shenandoah, concerning conflicting loy-­ alties during the Civil War, successfully opens at the Star Theater in New York City.

October Civil: An African American wins his case against the Bijou Theater in Milwau-­ kee, Wisconsin, after it refused to seat him.

October 2 Diplomacy: Washington, D.C., hosts the First International Conference of Amer-­ ican States and establishes the International Bureau of American Republics to promote a unified customs Â�union. EighÂ�teen Latin American countries, except for the Dominican Republic, are in attendance. Ironically, it is presided over by newly reappointed secretary of state James G. Blaine, who first conceived the idea in 1881 and seeks hemispheric relations based on “friendship, not force.” A Pan-American Â�Union is formed to encourage greater cooperation among the neighbors.

October 7 Education: Seth Low is appointed president of Columbia University in New York City; his 12-­year tenure will be marked by the transformation of that institu-­ tion from a small college to a vibrant university.

November 2 Settlement: North and South Dakota join the American Â�Union as Â�full-­fledged states, with capitals at Bismarck and Pierre, respectively.

November 8 Settlement: Montana breaks off from Oregon Territory and gains admission to the �Union as a state, with its capital at Helena.

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November 11 Religion: The first congress of Roman Catholic laity in America gathers at Baltimore, Maryland. Settlement: The Washington Territory joins the Union as the 42nd state, with its capital at Olympia.

November 14 Journalism: Nellie Bly (Elizabeth Cochrane), a daring female reporter for Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World, begins an ambitious voyage around the world to beat French writer Jules Verne’s fictional 80-day voyage by his protagonist Phileas Fogg.

November 26 General: In Lynn, Massachusetts, 80 acres of the downtown business district is gutted by a raging fire that started in the engine room of a shoe factory.

November 30 Education: The Wisconsin legislature passes a law requiring mandatory English lessons for all schoolchildren aged seven to 14 years of age to ensure the assimilation of great numbers of German and Polish immigrant students.

December Labor: Members of farm organizations like the Northern Alliance and the Southern Alliance meet in St. Louis, Missouri, with the Knights of Labor to discuss a platform of proposals. These include free coinage of silver, the elimination of national banks, government ownership of railroads and telegraphs, and land ownership restricted to American citizens. In many respects the endeavor anticipates what ultimately emerges as the Populist movement of the following decade.

December 2 Politics: The 51st Congress assembles with the Republicans in control of both houses, and for the first time since 1875.

December 6 General: Former Confederate president Jefferson Davis dies in New Orleans, widely mourned by his former compatriots and a defiant symbol of the “Lost Cause.” To the bitter end Davis refused to have his citizenship restored.

December 14 Societal: The American Academy of Political and Social Science begins in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, marking a continuing trend in the professional specialization of various disciplines. This year they are joined by the American Physical Association and the American Dialect Society.

1890 Agriculture: Macadamia nuts are imported from Australia by E. W. Jordan for harvesting in Hawaii. Architecture: Designer Louis H. Sullivan completes the Chicago Auditorium in Chicago, Illinois, regarded as one of the greatest structures of its kind in the world. Arts: Victor Herbert and Reginald De Koven become the most celebrated exponents of light comic operas then in vogue on the American stage, more proof of the growing sophistication of popular taste in the “Gilded Age.”

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Business: The National Carbon Company of New York City invents and markets the first commercial dry cell battery, which it christens Ever Ready. Conservation: Congress acts to found Sequoia and Yosemite national parks to protect endangered plants and wilderness from hunters and timber interests. Literature: A collection of poems by the late Emily Dickinson is published posthumously by her sister, although the publisher, nervous about public reaction, alters many compositions. The work is not well received by critics. Medical: William James, an avid practitioner of the unique American philosophy of pragmatism, pens the memorable book Principles of Psychology, which forever alters that discipline into a laboratory science. Music: Pioneering musician Charles Buddy Bolden forms one of the earliest jazz bands in New Orleans, Louisiana; it will serve as a training ground for several early jazz devotees. Population: The latest census reveals a population of nearly 63 million people, with the population center 20 miles east of Columbus, Indiana. Publishing: John Nicolay and John M. Hay, former secretaries under President Abraham Lincoln, publish their 10-volume biography, Abraham Lincoln: A History; it quickly becomes a standard biography. John W. Burgess puts forth a startling new interpretation of law and governance in his Political Science and Comparative Constitutional Law. In it he calls for historic and legal analysis of social and political institutions at the expense of heretofore unquestioned precepts of natural law. New York City journalist Jacob A. Riis pens a touching story of urban slums and the misery they generate in his How the Other Half Lives, which stimulates reform efforts in terms of improved building codes and labor conditions. The book singularly impresses one rising politician, Theodore Roosevelt. The English novel Black Beauty by Anna Sewell is published at the behest of the American Humane Society. Religion: The rising tide of Social Gospel, or church socialism, is reflected in the book Burning Questions by Reverend Washington Gladden. He, like many contemporaries, evinces concern for those caught up in the hardships of rapid industrialization and seeks better working conditions and pay for laborers. The new Ghost Dance religion continues spreading rapidly among the dispirited Plains Indians, beset by crop failures, disease, and confinement upon reservations. Whites in the region fear that these new beliefs will incite Native Americans into warring against them. Societal: In social circles the faster two-step form of dancing replaces more traditional styles like the polka, the gallop, and the reel. William “Buffalo Bill” Cody imports 15 horsemen from Georgia (Russia) to ride in his Wild West Show; Homes of the poorer classes, Chattanooga, these are the first Georgians to enter the country. Tennessee (Library of Congress)

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Sports: The U.S. Lawn Tennis Association singles championship is won by Oliver C. Campbell and Ellen C. Roosevelt in their respective divisions. Technology: Charles B. King receives the first patent for his pneumatic hammer. The introduction of cyanide into the gold extraction process allows production of that valuable metal to be doubled within eight years. This success has political consequences, for it undermines the argument for the free coinage of silver.

January Military: Congress authorizes the addition of a pound of vegetables to the daily diet of all soldiers, although it falls upon the secretary of war to determine the exact proportions the new ration will assume.

January 7 Naval: The cruiser USS Baltimore under Captain Winfield Scott Schley becomes the first American naval vessel rigged as a mine layer.

January 23 Labor: In Columbus, Ohio, the National Federation and the Knights of America and the World merge to found a new organization, the United Mine Workers (UMW). For the time being they enjoy cordial relations with the American Federation of Labor (AFL). Naval: The USS Cushing, constructed and launched at Newport, Rhode Island, becomes the first torpedo boat in American naval history. Due to the experimental nature of the craft, it is assigned to work with the so-called Squadron of Evolution for experimental work. Transportation: A train from the Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe Railroad sets a speed record of 78.1 miles per hour on a run from La Junta, Colorado, to Chicago, Illinois.

January 25 Journalism: Daring female reporter Nellie Bly of the New York World completes her around the world voyage by ship and train in only 72 days, 6 hours, and 11 minutes. Labor: The American Federation of Labor is formed from various remnants of the Knights of Labor and other groups to improve the oftentimes scandalously poor working conditions in the coal mining industry.

January 31 Business: James Buchanan Duke founds the American Tobacco Company, which is later expanded into a monopoly for plug tobacco and snuff. He soon gains renown as the undisputed “King of tobacco” for his ability to virtually dictate the price of the crop, industry-wide.

February 4 Diplomacy: The Senate ratifies the Samoan Treaty in concert with Great Britain and Germany. This places the island chain under joint control of the three powers, thereby making the U.S. Navy coaling station on Pago Pago more secure.

February 8 Indian: The commissioner of Indian affairs, in concert with the General Allotment Act of 1887, directs all Indian schools to celebrate Indian Citizenship Day.

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1418  Chronology of American History This event is intended to extol the virtues of U.S. citizenship, along with those of private property, in a continuing attempt to assimilate Native Americans.

February 10 Settlement: The government opens up to settlement 11 million acres of land acquired from the Sioux in 1889.

February 14 Politics: Speaker of the Â�House Thomas B. Reed sets a preÂ�ceÂ�dent by counting only those members present, as opposed to those answering a roll call, to circum-­ vent absenteeism or silence as a means of preventing a quorum.

February 18 Women: Various women’s suffrage groups merge to form the National Woman’s Suffrage Association under Elizabeth Cady Stanton; women can now vote and hold office in several western states, but much work remains to be done in pro-­ moting equality in this vital demoÂ�cratic function.

February 24 General: The Â�House of Representatives designates Chicago as the site for the World’s Columbian Exposition, to be held in honor of the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America.

March 3 Civil: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Louisville, New Orleans, and Texas Railway v. Mississippi, ruling that states can provide separate facilities and accommodations for white and black passengers. Moreover, it rules this require-­ ment does not infringe upon interstate commerce.

March 10 Education: Senator Henry W. Blair of New Hampshire prevails on the Senate to pass the Â�so-­called Blair Education Bill, which would earmark $120 million to the states for the eradication of illiteracy. However, the meaÂ�sure will die in the Â�House.

March 24 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad v. Minnesota, ruling that states cannot set fees so as to deny a “reasonable profit,” which is a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. However, “persons” in this instance are railroad corporations and the decision sets back the course of social justice by a deÂ�cade.

April 14 Diplomacy: Nations attending the Pan-American conference in Washington, D.C., pass a resolution creating the Pan-American Â�Union. This is an outgrowth of growing poÂ�litiÂ�cal solidarity among Latin American nations, and the Â�union prom-­ ises to offer technical information and other serÂ�vices to all member nations.

April 23 Naval: The USS Cushing is commissioned into active serÂ�vice as the navy’s first torpedo boat.

April 28 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Leisy v. Hardin, ruling that state laws forbidding liquor from passing their boundaries are unconstitutional. This is another blow against state sovereignty.

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May Publishing: Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan publishes his seminal work, The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660–1783, which will be translated into several languages and become a de facto policy for several of the world’s naval establishments. This classic analysis of naval power holds that nations cannot

Mahan, Alfred Thayer (1840–1914) Naval officer, author Alfred Thayer Mahan was born in West Point, New York, on September 27, 1840, the son of an instructor at the U.S. Military Academy. He attended Columbia University for two years before transferring to the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland, from which he graduated second in his class in 1859. Over the next four decades he served conscientiously in a variety of naval capacities, both on sea and ashore. When the Civil War broke out in 1861 he was assigned to the blockading squadron of Admiral John A. D. Dahlgren, was retained in the peacetime establishment after 1865, and in 1883 he published his first book, The Gulf and Inland Waters, as part of a Civil War history. Mahan rose to captain in 1885, by which time he enjoyed a reputation for sterling scholarship, so the following year he was invited to deliver a series of lectures to students at the U.S. Naval War College at Newport, Rhode Island. His ideas were well received and in 1889 he was made the second president of the college. These activities spurred him to research the strategic and historical nuances of naval power, and in 1890 he published his seminal text, The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660–1783. Here Mahan held that all great nations and empires must possess adequate naval forces to ensure their safety and continuing viability. Coming as it did on the eve of the Spanish-American War and the acquisition of overseas territory, his thesis was widely embraced and helped justify

new naval construction programs. Moreover, Mahan’s treatise became an immediate best-seller overseas, was translated into several languages, and became standard reading for British, German, and Japanese naval officers. It also cemented his reputation as America’s leading naval theorist and, after being widely endorsed by politicians such as Theodore Roosevelt, provided political impetus for continuing naval rearmament. In 1892 Mahan followed up his initial success by writing The Influence of Sea Power upon the French Revolution and Empire, also regarded as a classic examination of naval strategy. That year he again served as president of the War College, and in 1893 he captained the cruiser USS Chicago in a goodwill tour of European waters. In this capacity he was highly feted by the British government and received honorary degrees from both Cambridge and Oxford. Mahan finally retired from active duty in 1896 but lent his expertise to a naval strategy board throughout the SpanishAmerican War. Afterward he served on the U.S. delegation to the peace conference at The Hague in 1899 and in 1902 crowned his success by being elected president of the American Historical Association in Washington, D.C. Mahan died there on December 1, 1914, among the most influential military writers in history. His various publications articulated the foundations of strategy that influenced naval affairs throughout the 20th century.

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Chronology of American History become world powers without command of the sea lanes, and his precepts become fashionable in naval circles around the globe. It will force political and military thinkers in the United States to reevaluate their traditional isolationism in an increasingly imperial age.

May 1 Business: The Bank of America fails in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, precipitating the collapse of several nearby financial institutions and the American Life Insurance Company.

May 2 Settlement: Congress establishes the Oklahoma Territory from land previously reserved for the Cherokee, Creek, Seminole, Chickasaw, and Choctaw nations. This is the final piece of contiguous land created in the United States proper or “lower 48.”

May 14 Sports: The 16th annual Kentucky Derby is won by Riley with a time of two minutes, 45 seconds.

May 19 Arts: Actor and matinee idol Richard Mansfield stars in a production of Beau Brummel by William Clyde Fitch. Fitch, who specializes in social dramas, wrote the play specifically for Mansfield and it will proves to be a hit in both America and Europe.

May 24 Aviation: George Francis Train, flying in a balloon, beats reporter Nellie Bly’s record by traveling around the world in 67 days, 13 hours, three minutes, and three seconds.

May 30 Architecture: In New York, the cornerstone of Stanford White’s all-marble Washington Memorial Arch is laid.

June 9 Arts: Composer Reginald de Koven’s comic operetta Robin Hood successfully debuts in Chicago, and will run for 3,000 consecutive performances.

June 10 Sports: The 18th annual Preakness Stakes is won by Montague, who runs the course in two minutes, 36 seconds. The 24th annual Belmont Stakes is won by Burlington, with a time of two minutes, seven seconds.

June 16 Military: To further promote professionalism, Congress modifies the promotion system for all officers under the grade of brigadier general. Officers can now be transferred within a given branch with loss of rank or seniority. Additionally, regimental officers below the rank of major are now subject to examination to ensure minimum levels of competence.

June 27 Political: President Benjamin Harrison appoints James Tanner, commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, as commissioner of pensions. “God help

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the surplus!” he declares after taking his oath of office. Under Tanner’s aegis the number of pensioners rises from 676,000 to 970,000 and includes men who served a minimum of 90 days, as well as widows and orphans, and the stipend paid out mushrooms from $90 million to $150 million annually.

June 29 Politics: The Federal Elections Bill, also known as the Force Bill of 1890, is sponsored by Henry Cabot Lodge. This mandates federal supervision of federal elections to ensure that African-American voting rights are not infringed upon. It passes in the House of Representatives but fails to gain traction in the Senate.

June 30 Naval: Secretary of the Navy Benjamin F. Tracy issues his first annual report and calls for the construction of no less than 20 armored battleships to defend the nation’s home waters.

July 2 Business: Ohio senator John Sherman introduces the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, one of the most significant pieces of reform legislation since the Civil War. It intends to curb the excesses of corporations, trusts, and other economic combines that have been running amok and without meaningful regulation for the past two decades. The precedent is set, but the act itself is rather ambiguously worded, fails to establish precisely what a trust is in legal parlance, and will fail to halt the growth of monopolies and combines. Civil: The House of Representatives passes a Force Bill mandating federal supervision of national elections to protect the rights of African Americans. However, its failure in the Senate seems to signal to southerners that civil rights are a fair target for violence and discrimination. Diplomacy: The United States becomes a signatory to the International Act for the Suppression of African Slave Trade; the Senate will grant its approval in 1892.

July 3 Settlement: Idaho becomes the 43rd state in the Union, with its capital at Boise.

July 10 Women: Wyoming, the 44th state, is also the first to enter the Union with women’s suffrage already in play. Legislators insisted that this provision of the territorial constitution be kept intact should statehood be granted.

July 13 General: A tornado descends upon Lake Pepin, Minnesota, killing nearly 100 people.

July 14 Business: The Sherman Silver Purchase Act is passed by Congress. It supplants the Bland Allison Act of 1878 by calling for the purchase of 4.5 million ounces of silver per month. The treasury then issues legal tender notes against that amount, which are redeemable at face value. Overall the act will deplete the U.S. gold reserve and weaken confidence in the national currency.

July 26 General: A tornado strikes the tenement district of Lawrence, Massachusetts, killing eight and injuring 28 in only three minutes.

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July 30 Naval: Political violence in Buenos Aires, Argentina, causes the steamer USS Tallapoosa to land U.S. Marines to protect the American legation there.

August 6 Crime: William Kemmler becomes the first man electrocuted for murder at Auburn Prison, New York, although it takes several charges to finally kill him.

August 8 Business: Congress counters the pro-business stance of the U.S. Supreme Court by passing the Original Package Act. This negates the Leisy v. Hardin decision by upholding the right of states to regulate merchandise coming in from other states. Thus dry states like Kansas are enabled to forbid the sale of out-of-state liquor within their own boundaries. Labor: The Knights of Labor flexes its muscles by calling for a strike on the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad; the action lasts six weeks and resolves nothing. Naval: The cruiser USS Baltimore is detailed to carry the body of Swedish naval engineer John Ericsson, father of the famous Civil War ironclad Monitor, back to his homeland for burial.

August 30 Business: Congress authorizes the Department of Agriculture to inspect shipments of pork destined for foreign markets. Recent shipments of tainted pork to Europe have caused an uproar and resulted in strict import restrictions.

September 3 Politics: The Single Tax National League is founded at Cooper Square, New York, and calls for the imposition of a single tax on all real estate. The league bases its precepts on the writings of economist Henry George, author of the radical study Progress and Poverty (1879).

September 24 Politics: In Indianapolis, Indiana, various farmers’ groups and Greenbackers coalesce into a new organization, the People’s Party. As a group they seek expanded silver coinage to help farm mortgage debt, along with lower tariffs and better regulation of banks and railroads.

September 25 Conservation: Congress creates Yosemite Park, California, to prevent the further depletion of trees and wildlife in the area.

September 29 Business: Congress mandates that all unused railroad land be forfeited by the companies owning the land; this is undertaken to stimulate new construction by the industry.

October Religion: Daniel F. Royer, agent of the Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota, is worried about Lakota embrace of the new Ghost Dance religion, fearing that it might spark an uprising. He therefore urges the government to dispatch U.S. Army troops to the reservation to maintain order.

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October 1 Business: The McKinley Tariff Act passes Congress, raising protectionist duties to their highest-ever rate—49.5 percent. However, it does include provisions for tariff reciprocity with other nations for the first time. Among the items enumerated is opium, taxed at $10 a pound if imported for medicinal purposes. Military: Weather Ser vice Activities are transferred by Congress from the U.S. Army Signal Corps to the Department of Agriculture to reduce military expenditures. Science: Congress creates the Weather Bureau under the aegis of the Department of Agriculture. This relieves the Army Signal Corps of its weather-gathering activities.

October 6 Religion: The Mormon Church formally disavows the practice of polygamy.

November 1 Civil: The Mississippi constitution is amended to include a law predicating suffrage on voter ability to understand specific parts of that document. It is adopted to preclude poorly educated African Americans from voting. This act signals the rise of “Jim Crow” laws elsewhere.

November 4 Politics: The new Southern Alliance elects Benjamin Tillman governor of South Carolina; this is the first victory over the entrenched power of the aristocratic Bourbon Democrats, although the newcomers are just as strident against African Americans as their predecessors. The Democrats regain control of the House of Representatives; their victory is seen as a backlash against the high tariffs recently adopted. The Republicans retain solid control of the Senate.

November 17 Indian: Newly appointed Indian agents, perceiving the outbreak of the socalled Ghost Dance religion within the Sioux nation, interpret this as a potential uprising. Upon their instigation, General Nelson A. Miles will send army troops and Apache Indian police in their employ onto the Pine Ridge Agency, South Dakota, to restore order. Ultimately, 100 troopers of the 8th U.S. Cavalry will arrive.

November 29 Sports: The first Army-Navy football game is played at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, and navy wins the “battle” decisively, 24 to 0. Thereafter the game—and its concomitant rivalry—will become an annual fixture in the sporting world.

December 1 Politics: A meeting between members of the Southern Alliance, the Farmers’ Mutual Benefit Association, and the Colored Farmers Alliance meets briefly in Ocala, Florida, to form a possible alliance. However, they will prove unable to transcend racial animus and their efforts come to naught. They also reject overtures from the Knights of Labor to form a political party.

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December 15 Indian: Apache tribal police, ordered by Standing Rock Reservation agent James McLaughlin to arrest Sitting Bull, end up shooting him and engaging in a firefight with enraged tribesmen; 13 Native Americans are killed in the exchange. Chief Big Foot then escapes from the reservation with his band and makes for the Pine Ridge Agency to ask Red Cloud for protection. This marks the outbreak of the “Ghost Dance War,” the final conflict between the U.S. Army and the Plains Indians.

December 28 Military: A detachment of the 7th U.S. Cavalry under Major Samuel Whiteside overtakes Big Foot’s fleeing band and orders them to the cavalry camp at Wounded Knee. Big Foot, ill with pneumonia, peacefully submits, along with his followers; Whiteside kindly dispatches his surgeon to tend to the ailing chief, and also issues rations to the hungry Indians.

December 29 Military: Ongoing tensions between the Lakota Sioux and the 7th U.S. Cavalry under Colonel James W. Forsyth explode at Wounded Knee Creek, South Dakota. Forsyth arrives with the balance of the regiment and begins disarming and detaining several Indian leaders associated with the Ghost Dance religion, particularly the Miniconjou Sioux chief, Big Foot, but the tribesmen refuse to give them up. Fighting breaks out when angry braves fire upon the soldiers, who then return fire into the crowd. A one-sided slaughter ensues for the Native Americans, with 84 men (including Big Foot), 44 women, and 18 children slain and a further 51 wounded. American losses are 19 dead and 33 wounded. This is the final, bloody act in the long war against the Plains Indians and elicits an outpouring of public sympathy for their plight.

December 30 Military: Hostile Sioux ambush a patrol of the 7th U.S. Cavalry at White Clay Creek, Montana, forcing a detachment of the 9th U.S. Cavalry to march to its relief. General Nelson A. Miles begins deploying 3,500 men around the Pine Ridge Reservation to crush the “rebellion.”

1891 Architecture: Daniel H. Burnham and John W. Root, disciples of the Romanesque revivalist Henry Hobson Richardson, design and construct the Masonic Temple in Chicago, Illinois. Towering 20 stories high, it will be for a brief time the tallest building in the United States. Arts: Edwin Booth, a force of nature in terms of the stage, closes his celebrated four-decade acting career with a final performance in Hamlet. Thirteen-year-old George M. Cohan makes his stage debut in Peck’s Bad Boy. Augustus Saint-Gaudens completes a monumental tribute to the late Mrs. Henry Adams in Rock Creek Cemetery, Washington, D.C., entitled Grief. Business: The American Sugar Refining Company is created under a New Jersey charter by Henry O. Havemeyer. He has relocated here after New York antitrust laws broke it up.

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Photograph of a Sioux village taken in 1890, one month before the events at Wounded Knee (Library of Congress) Crime: Congress orders construction of the first federal penitentiaries at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, Atlanta, Georgia, and McNeil’s Island, Puget Sound, Washington. These constitute the government’s first non-military prisons. Education: John D. Rockefeller donates the first payment of $35 million to found the University of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois. Throop Polytechnic Institute (California Institute of Technology) is founded in Pasadena, California. Indian: In an attempt to assist the Inuit Indians of Alaska, Presbyterian missionary Sheldon Jackson introduces the practice of herding reindeer imported from Siberia. The natives are taught how to care for the animals by members of the Sami people (Lapp), recruited in Norway for that reason. Congress passes the Act for the Relief of Mission Indians, whereby 32 small reservations are established throughout southern California. Literature: Ambrose Bierce, a San Francisco journalist subsequently noted for his fascination with the supernatural, debuts in the literary world with his Tales of Soldiers and Civilians. Sophia Alice Callahan becomes the first Native American woman author by publishing her novel A Child of the Forest, which concerns life among the Creek Indians in the Muskogee Indian Reservation (Oklahoma). Aging sage Walt Whitman publishes his final collection of poetry, Goodbye, My Fancy.

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Chronology of American History Military: Lieutenant John J. Pershing is assigned as professor of military science and tactics at the University of Nebraska, while also taking classes toward a law degree. Religion: New Testament scholar Orello Cone publishes his Gospel Criticism and Historical Christianity, which establishes new parameters for religious historiography.

Pershing, John J. (1860–1948) General John Joseph Pershing was born in Laclede, Missouri, on September 13, 1860, a son of farmers. In 1882 he gained admission to the U.S. Military Academy and graduated four years later as cadet captain. Pershing subsequently served with the 6th U.S. Cavalry, and participated in military actions against the Apache under Geronimo and the Sioux under Sitting Bull before serving as instructor of military tactics at the University of Nebraska, 1891–95. After taking his law degree there, Pershing returned to West Point in 1897–98 as instructor of tactics and also fought in the Spanish-American War as a captain. In this capacity he befriended Lieutenant Colonel Theodore Roosevelt and subsequently served in the Philippine campaign against Moro rebels. Pershing enjoyed considerable success there and was personally congratulated by President Roosevelt, who appointed him military attaché to Tokyo during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05. Roosevelt then took the unprecedented step of promoting Pershing to brigadier general, over the heads of 862 officers enjoying more seniority. He then returned to the Philippines and finally crushed all resistance by 1913 before coming home to serve along the troubled U. S.-Mexican border. In 1916, following the guerrilla attacks in New Mexico by rebel forces of Pancho Villa, Pershing commanded a punitive expedition into Mexico to hunt down the elusive raider. His quest was aided by America’s first use of military aircraft, but the campaign ended

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anticlimactically a year later without capturing Villa. Still, his capable performance in this difficult task enhanced his reputation as an efficient planner and organizer. When the United States entered World War I in 1917, President Woodrow Wilson appointed Pershing commander of the newly raised American Expeditionary Force (AEF), and he arrived in France ahead of his troops to begin planning and training operations. As American numbers swelled he received temporary promotion to four-star general in October 1917, which gave him greater leverage when dealing with Allied senior commanders. Specifically, Pershing refused to allow the AEF to be broken up and distributed as reinforcements for the war-weary French and British armies and he determined to keep his army a unified American force. The Doughboys were finally committed to combat in the spring of 1918 to blunt a determined German offensive, and then assumed offensive operations at St. Mihiel and MeuseArgonne, slowly driving the enemy before them. At war’s end Pershing returned home a national hero and received the rank of general of the army, a distinction held only by George Washington in 1799. He then served as army chief of staff until 1924, although his rank required him to remain on active duty for the remainder of his life. Pershing’s book, My Experiences in the World War, also won the Pulitzer Prize in 1931. He died in Washington, D.C., on July 15, 1948, among the foremost generals of his time.

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Congregationalist minister Washington Gladden publishes his Who Wrote the Bible, an attempt to bridge the gap between new Bible interpreters and those possessing more orthodox views. It will subsequently serve as a standard text for religious instruction at the YMCA. Science: Student astronomer George L. Hale of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology takes the first photographs of the sun with a specialized device called a spectroheliograph. He subsequently serves as professor of astrophysics at the University of Chicago and director of the Mount Palomar observatory. Sports: Yale University wins the national college football championship with 13 wins, no losses, and no ties. The U.S. Lawn Tennis Association singles championship is won by Oliver S. Campbell and Mabel E. Cahil, in their respective divisions. Boston wins the National League baseball championship with 87 wins, 51 losses. However, no interleague playoff is held as the American Association disbands following a disappointing season. Technology: In Chicago, Illinois, Whitcomb L. Judson receives a patent for a contraption he calls the “zipper.” He envisions that one day it will replace all the buttons on clothing.

January 1 Indian: Army burial crews inter the frozen corpses of 146 men, women, and children killed at the Wounded Knee Massacre. A further 300 were also wounded and are presently in the care of friends and relatives on the reservation.

January 15 Indian: U.S. Army troops under General Nelson A. Miles surround the Pine Ridge Reservation and demand the surrender of Chief Kicking Bear, a Ghost Dance advocate, and 5,000 of his tribesmen. The chief, mindful of the slaughter at Wounded Knee, capitulates peacefully in the last formal surrender of the Plains Indian Wars. Four hundred years of internecine conflict between whites and Native Americans draws to an end.

January 20 Politics: King Kalakaua of Hawaii dies suddenly in San Francisco, California.

January 29 Politics: Upon the death of King Kalakaua, his sister, Princess Liliuokalani, ascends the Hawaiian throne to succeed him. Fluent in English and decidedly outspoken, she opposes America’s continuing presence in the islands and promotes “Hawaii for the Hawaiians.”

January 31 Indian: Affairs at the Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota, fall into the hands of agents with more sympathetic views toward Native Americans and the final bout of hostility fades.

February Military: Congress passes a law requiring army officers to retire at 64 years of age.

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February 28 Indian: Congress amends the General Allotment Act, reducing the acreage granted to individual Indian families to 80 acres. Also, the allotments are now eligible to be leased to non-Indians by the rightful owners.

March 1 Law: In 1881 the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the federal income tax as constitutional based on the fact that it falls outside the usual interpretation of a “direct tax” since it is not apportioned among states in proportion to their population. That said, they also ordered the amounts collected returned to the states, which occurs this day. Military: The War Department, eager to deflect Native-American attention from warlike preparations, authorizes the recruitment of 26 companies of Indian scouts—one per each regiment in the army.

March 3 Business: Congress passes an updated copyright act for the protection of authors from pirate publishers. However, many nations, including Great Britain, will still refuse to recognize international copyright agreements. Conservation: Congress, sensitive to public pressure, repeals the Timber Culture Act of 1873 and supplants it with the Forest Reserve Act of 1891, which sets aside 21 million acres of public land as 13 national forest reserves. These will become national forests in 1907. Law: Congress authorizes creation of the Circuit Court of Appeals to relieve the Supreme Court of some appellate jurisdiction. The system initially consists of 11 districts, each with three to 15 circuit judgeships. Naval: The office of assistant secretary of the navy is reactivated and James Russell Soley, a former Naval Academy professor, is tapped to fill it. Societal: Congress, faced with an economic depression and the lack of frontier land, creates the superintendent of immigration to better administer the process. Over 500,000 new citizens will be added this year alone and 3.7 million will arrive over the next decade.

March 4 Law: Congress passes the International Copyright Act, which extends reciprocal copyright protection to authors from Great Britain, France, Belgium, and Switzerland. It will subsequently serve as a template for expanding protection toward intellectual property around the globe.

March 5 Military: In Washington, D.C., Stephen B. Elkins gains appointment as the new secretary of war.

March 9 Naval: The army adjutant general issues Order No. 28, authorizing recruitment of eight troops of Native American cavalry and 19 companies of Indian infantry. Tribes such as the Crow and former enemies like the Sioux are all readily sought.

March 14 Crime: A jury indicts 11 Sicilian immigrants for the murder of an Irish chief of police in New Orleans, and insinuates they are part of an underground “Mafia” gang. However, those implicated—including three Italian nationals—are murdered in jail by a mob and the Italian consulate will demand compensation.

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March 31 Diplomacy: The Italian government, enraged by the murder of 11 of its citizens in New Orleans, demands compensation, but when Secretary of State James G. Blaine refuses, Italy recalls minister Francesco Fava from Washington, D.C. Italy then withholds its diplomatic representative for the next 12 months in protest.

April 4 Arts: Noted actor Edwin Booth faces his final curtain call while performing in the title role of Hamlet at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

April 7 Labor: Nebraska is the first state to pass laws mandating an eight-hour work day.

April 13 Indian: President Benjamin Harrison, in an attempt to cure the endemic corruption associated with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, mandates that all prospective employees be subject to civil service examinations.

A cartoon criticizing the corruption of the Office of Indian Affairs (Library of Congress)

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April 14 Politics: President Benjamin Harrison begins a month-long tour of the South and West.

May 5 Music: The Music Hall on 57th Street, New York City, opens with a series of Rus sian compositions conducted by the noted composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Because the building was largely financed by financier Andrew Carnegie, it will be renamed Carnegie Hall in 1898 and house the New York Philharmonic.

May 13 Sports: Kingman, ridden by African-American jockey Isaac Murphy, wins the Kentucky Derby; for Murphy this is his third such triumph.

May 19 Education: William Marsh Rice founds the Rice Institute (Rice University) in Houston, Texas, although instruction does not commence until 1912. Politics: The farm-oriented Northwestern Alliance founds the Populist Party in Cincinnati, Ohio, and holds its first and very enthusiastic national convention. The platform includes government ownership of all railroads, free coinage of silver, an eight-hour working day, and a graduated income tax.

June Science: Dr. George Koening, while prospecting in Canon Diablo, Arizona, uncovers meteorite remains with diamonds in them.

June 10 Sports: The 25th annual Belmont Stakes is won by Foxford, who turns in a time of two minutes, eight seconds.

June 15 Diplomacy: The United States and Great Britain conclude a modus vivendi (a temporary agreement) whereby only 7,500 seals will be taken from the region of the Pribilof Islands, Alaska. With this arrangement, the dangerous and provocative American practice of seizing Canadian vessels on the high seas ceases.

July 4 Naval: The warship USS Charleston seizes the Chilean rebel vessel Itata in the port of Iquique, Chile, after allegations that it violated American neutrality by purchasing arms at San Diego, California.

July 20 Labor: State troops are called in to help suppress a violent coal mine strike at Briceville, Tennessee. Thereafter, 200 convicts will be transferred from the jails to the pits to help break the strike.

August 19 Societal: President Benjamin Harrison attends festivities marking the Battle of Bennington, Vermont (1777), and joins numerous New England governors in dedicating a huge stone monument.

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August 24 Technology: Thomas A. Edison receives a patent for his new motion picture camera, or what he calls a kinetoscope, a hand-cranked device for viewing moving pictures through a peep hole in a box.

August 28 Diplomacy: Much to the disgust of Chilean revolutionaries, the American minister in Valparaíso grants shelter to members of the recently overthrown regime of President José Manuel Balmaceda. Popular resentment begins brewing against the United States. Naval: U.S. Marines from the cruisers USS Baltimore and San Francisco are landed at Valparaíso, Chile, to protect the U.S. consulate during an ongoing civil war. Politics: President Benjamin Harrison visits Salt Lake City, Utah, where he addresses the Mormon community on the virtues of monogamy.

September 9 Labor: African-American laborers in Arkansas and Georgia, seeking a wage increase to $1.00 per day, go on strike but to little avail.

September 22 Indian: An additional 900,000 acres of Indian land in Oklahoma are opened to settlement by the government. The region, owned by the Sauk, Fox, and Potawatomi nations, has been ceded to the United States, but through treaties rather less than scrupulous.

October 1 Education: Leland Stanford, Jr., University, opens its doors at Palo Alto, California; it is endowed in his son’s memory by millionaire railroad president Leland Stanford, Sr.

October 3 Military: New drill and modernized regulations are issued by the War Department for the infantry, cavalry, and artillery.

October 16 Diplomacy: War looms when two American sailors from the USS Baltimore under Captain William S. Schley are killed by a mob at the True Blue Saloon in Valparaíso, Chile, and 16 others are injured. The locals are apparently angered by the recent American seizure of a boat carrying arms for local rebels. Education: Thomas Jefferson Foster, editor of the Shenandoah Herald, opens the nation’s first correspondence school to teach miners the proper techniques of mine safety. It continues today as the International Correspondence School in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

October 18 Sports: William “Plugger Bill” Martin wins the first six-day international bike race at Madison Square Garden, New York, by grinding out 2,093.4 miles without collapsing from exhaustion, like the majority of contestants.

November 3 Politics: Former senator William McKinley, who lost his seat due to his hightariff stance, is elected governor of Ohio.

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November 9 Arts: Charles H. Hoyt’s play A Trip to Chinatown begins its celebrated run of 650 consecutive performances, the longest theater run to date.

December Sports: James Naismith invents the game of basketball at the School for Christian Workers at Springfield, Massachusetts. He does so to keep his students physically active throughout the winter.

December 7 Politics: The 52nd Congress assembles with Republicans in control of the Senate and Democrats in control of the House of Representatives. Many of the latter are openly sympathetic to the rising tide of “people’s movements” across the country.

December 9 Politics: President Benjamin Harrison, in his annual address to Congress, declares that Chilean police were involved in the recent attack upon American sailors in that nation and that an apology and reparations are required to end the crisis.

December 11 Diplomacy: In Washington, D.C., Chilean foreign minister Manual A. Matta takes out ads in local newspapers to claim that President Benjamin Harrison’s recent accusations against his country are patently false and that Chile will prevail. Tensions are quickly mounting between the two nations, particularly after one of the dead American sailors is laid in state at Independence Hall, Philadelphia.

December 29 Technology: Thomas A. Edison receives a patent for his new wireless telegraphy, which transmits signals through the air without the use of wires.

1892 Agriculture: The boll weevil, an agricultural pest originating from Central America, makes its unwelcome appearance in Texas by causing severe damage to cotton crops. However, it has the unintended consequence of forcing southern farmers to diversify their crops with long-term improvements in agriculture. Architecture: Budding architect Frank Lloyd Wright designs his first building, the Charnley House, in Chicago, Illinois, while working for the firm of Adler and Sullivan. Arts: With assistance from financier George W. Vanderbilt, the American Fine Arts Society is formed from the amalgamation of the Society of American Artists, the Arts Students’ League, and the Architectural League. Business: In New York, the Edison Electric Company of Thomas Edison and the rival Thomson-Houston Electric Company under George Westinghouse merge into a bigger entity, General Electric. Education: President William Rainey Harper of the University of Chicago breaks new ground by introducing summer sessions for the academic school year. General: The Ferris wheel, carrying 40 passengers up to heights of 250 feet, is patented by its inventor, George W. G. Ferris.

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(1867–1959)

Architect Frank Lloyd Wright was born on June 8, 1867, in Richland Center, Wisconsin, where his mother reared him in the innovative kindergarten education techniques of Frederick Froebel and encouraged him to be an architect. In 1884 he enrolled at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, to study architecture but dropped out a year later, and in 1886 he apprenticed himself to Louis H. Sullivan in Chicago. Wright learned everything he could about designing buildings over the next five years and by 1893 he felt ready to strike out on his own. Even at the onset of his professional career, Wright embodied a completely different approach to his profession and declined to simply imitate contemporary neoclassical and neo-Gothic styles. He always strove to make buildings mesh with their environments, as well as designing accommodations for the people who inhabited them. Wright labeled his approach as “organic architecture.” In his first notable endeavor, the Frederick G. Robie House (Chicago, 1909), Wright encompassed what came to be known as the “Prairie Style,” a low-lying structure with simple straight lines, designed to blend in with the vast expanse of a western landscape. The design brought him international acclaim and by 1909 he had constructed three other prairie houses in Chicago, Highland Park, and River Forest, Illinois. His philosophy toward designing commercial buildings also pioneered the use of mechanical ventilation and steel furnishings, along with innovative,

robust construction. For example, Wright’s Imperial Hotel, constructed in Tokyo with a strengthened steel structure, was the only major building to survive the disastrous Kanto earthquake of 1923. Between 1909 and 1944 Wright enjoyed a productive “second period” in which he honed and perfected his “organic architecture” technique. The foremost example of this was his own home and studio, “Taliesin” (Welsh for “Shining Brow”), along with the Kaufmann House (1937) of Bear Run, Pennsylvania, the Johnson Wax Company Administration Building, Racine, Wisconsin, and the campus of Florida Southern University in Lakeland. But he reached his peak of productivity and creativity in the wake of World War II when commissions literally poured in. Among the noted buildings he designed were the Unitarian Church (1947), Madison, Wisconsin, the Beth Shalom Synagogue (1959), Elkin Park, Pennsylvania, and the revolutionary, six-story Guggenheim Art Museum in New York City, which he began in 1943 and finally finished in 1959. This is perhaps his best known and most celebrated effort, with its daring, spiral structure. Wright received a Gold Medal from the American Institute of Architects in 1949, and he had designed around 600 distinct buildings by the time he died in Phoenix, Arizona, on April 9, 1959. For seven decades Wright pioneered dramatically innovative structures around the world, and did much to set the standards for contemporary architectural esthetics.

Indian: Guidelines for revising tribal courts are issued by the federal government. Henceforth, proscribed activities such as performing the sun dance, scalp dance, or war dance can be punished by courts of Indian offenses with punishment ranging up to 30 days’ imprisonment. Literature: Walt Whitman publishes the final edition of his seminal volume Leaves of Grass.

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Chronology of American History William Dean Howells pens The Quality of Mercy, which examines the relationship between economic life and crimes of individuals. Medical: Lieutenant Colonel George Miller Sternberg, an army doctor, publishes A Manual of Bacteriology, which is a seminal treatise in the prevention of infectious diseases. The rise of psychology as an independent discipline is abetted by creation of the American Psychological Association. The first college of osteopathy is founded at Kirksville, Missouri. Music: The cycling craze is aptly captured in the popular ditty Daisy Bell and its “bicycle built for two.” White musician Jack “Papa” Laine forms his Reliance Band, which gains renown for its ability to mimic the “hot” music of African Americans. This is most likely the origin of white Dixieland jazz. Popular composer Charles K. Harris enjoys great success and popularity with his song After the Ball Is Over, which plays repeatedly at the Chicago Exposition of 1893. Oscar Hammerstein opens his Manhattan Opera Company in New York City, where he gradually emerges as a force in musical productions in direct competition with the larger Metropolitan Opera Company. Publishing: Thomas Nelson Page’s The Old South proffers readers a vivid and sentimental glimpse of plantation life and days gone by. Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is printed in the United States for the first time and rapidly becomes one of the best-selling works of fiction. Vogue Magazine starts publishing in New York City. Religion: A bitter theological dispute unfolds when Charles A. Briggs, professor of theology at the Union Theological Seminary in New York City, is tried and convicted of heresy for taking a liberal approach to biblical doctrine. Rather than discharge its distinguished scholar, the seminary sever its ties with the Presbyterian Church and becomes nondenominational. Science: From the Lick Observatory in California, astronomer Edward Emerson Barnard discovers a fifth satellite orbiting the planet Jupiter. Societal: Alcohol, long the bane of Native American communities, is formally banned by Congress through passage of the Intoxication in Indian Country Act. Henceforth, the sale or even transportation of liquor is forbidden in Indian territory. Sports: Yale University wins the college football championship with 13 wins, no losses, and no ties. The U.S. Lawn Tennis Association singles championships are won by Oliver S. Campbell and Mable Cahill in their respective divisions. Boston wins the National League baseball championship with 102 wins, 48 losses. Technology: Hungarian expatriate scientist Nikola Tesla unveils an electric motor capable of running efficiently on alternating current. In Baltimore, Maryland, William Painter perfects both the bottle cap and the capping machine with salubrious results for the soft drink industry.

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January 1 Societal: Ellis Island, New York Harbor, becomes the welcoming pad for millions of emigrants from around the world. Before it closes in 1954, more than 20 million individuals will pass through its facilities.

January 11 Diplomacy: The United States approves international agreements outlawing the African slave trade.

January 16 Business: The major silver mines at Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, are closed down owing to escalating freight rates and diminishing silver prices.

January 21 Diplomacy: President Benjamin Harrison demands an apology for the Chilean foreign minister’s remarks that sparked a confrontation between American sailors in Valparaíso, Chile, and a local mob. Failure to do so will result in a break in diplomatic relations—and possibly war.

January 25 Diplomacy: President Benjamin Harrison, incensed by the recent attack on U.S. sailors by a Chilean mob, considers a declaration of war against that nation for an attack on the uniform and flag of the United States.

January 26 Diplomacy: The new Chilean foreign minister, Luis Pereira, openly apologizes for the attack upon U.S. sailors in his nation last fall and offers to pay reparations of $75,000 to family members.

January 27 Diplomacy: After the threat of war implied by President Benjamin Harrison, the Chilean government apologizes and agrees to pay a $75,000 indemnity to the families of two sailors killed by a mob in Valparaíso the previous fall.

February 12 General: Abraham Lincoln’s birthday is declared a national holiday for the first time.

February 29 Diplomacy: The United States and Great Britain resolve to end a dispute involving seal hunts in the Bering Sea by submitting it to international arbitration. Previous to this, the Americans had seized several Canadian vessels they charged with violating the ban. The ensuing commission consists of members from Italy, France, and Sweden.

March Business: The Ohio Supreme Court, in a major decision, orders the Standard Ohio Trust dissolved and the Standard Oil Company of Ohio to cut all links with its parent company.

March 18 Sports: After a rider was discovered using an electric spur on his horse at Guttenberg, New Jersey, all jockeys are formally forbidden form using anything but a whip and a spur while horse racing.

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April 1 Labor: Miners at the silver mine in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, go on strike and the ensuing campaign of violence and sabotage resembles a minor guerrilla war.

April 12 Diplomacy: The United States pays a $25,000 indemnity to the families of Sicilian immigrants lynched by a mob at New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1891.

April 19 Indian: President Benjamin Harrison opens an additional three million acres of Indian land for settlement in Oklahoma, this time displacing the Cheyenne and Arapaho.

May 5 Societal: Congress passes the Geary Chinese Exclusion Act, which mandates that all Chinese residing within the United States must register with the government or face deportation. Immigration will be severely curtailed for another decade.

May 11 Sports: The 18th annual Kentucky Derby is won by Arza, who turns in a time of two minutes, 41 seconds.

May 20 Politics: Monarchy police arrest liberal politicians in Hawaii, suspecting a plot to overthrow the government.

May 28 Conservation: Scottish-born naturalist John Muir founds the Sierra Club as an organization and a political lobby for conservation purposes. He does so after beholding the stark beauty of California’s Yosemite Valley and becomes singularly determined to preserve the region’s giant sequoia trees from the lumberman’s ax.

June 3 General: Florida observes the birthday of former Confederate president Jefferson Davis for the first time as an official holiday.

June 4 Politics: Secretary of State James G. Blaine resigns from office, apparently seeking the Republican Party presidential nomination.

June 7–10 Politics: The Republican Party convenes its national convention in Minneapolis, Minnesota, renominating Benjamin Harrison for president on the first ballot at 535. Aspirants James G. Blaine and William McKinley are handily defeated with tallies of 183 and 182, respectively. Whitelaw Reid, editor of the New York Tribune, is selected for the vice presidency.

June 9 Sports: The 26th annual Belmont Stakes is won by Patron with a time of two minutes, 47 seconds.

June 21–23 Politics: The Democratic Party holds its convention in Chicago and nominates former president Grover Cleveland of New York as its presidential candidate,

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John Muir (Library of Congress)

while Adlai E. Stevenson of Illinois becomes the vice presidential candidate. The platform, dominated by radicals, demands an end to high tariffs.

June 26 Labor: The Homestead Mill, owned by the Carnegie Steel Company and administered by Henry Clay Frick, will be the site of a protracted strike, which breaks out today. The main issue revolves around recognition of the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers, which Frick refuses to do. The strike will last five months without any gain for the workers.

June 29–July 1 Politics: The Prohibition Party gathers in Cincinnati, Ohio, for its convention and selects John Bidwell of California for president and James B. Cranfill of Texas for vice president.

July 4–5 Politics: The Populist Party holds its first-ever national convention in Omaha, Nebraska, and nominates James B. Weaver of Iowa for president and James G. Field of Virginia for vice president. The party platform endorses coining more silver to pay off soaring mortgage debts with cheaper dollars. Few southerners care to attend, however, because of the large number of African Americans present at the proceedings.

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Frick, Henry Clay

(1849–1919)

Industrialist Henry Clay Frick was born in West Overton, Pennsylvania, on December 19, 1849, a son of farmers. Barely educated, he clerked capably in nearby stores for many years and gradually developed an incisive business acumen. With backing from banker Thomas Mellon, Frick began amassing coal fields and coke ovens around Pittsburgh in 1871 to facilitate steel production throughout western Pennsylvania. His company, Frick and Company, proved extremely lucrative, and he continued ploughing money back into his firm to obtain more assets and the very latest technology. By 1879 Frick was a millionaire and his success brought him to the attention of local industrial magnate Andrew Carnegie. Impressed by his administrative abilities, Carnegie appointed Frick chairman of his Carnegie Steel Corporation in 1889. In this capacity he introduced a major reorganization of the company structure, rendering it even more cost-effective and efficient. Furthermore, a major move, accomplished over Carnegie’s objections, was acquisition of iron ore mines near Lake Superior, whose raw materials greatly facilitated the company’s overall industrial output. In 1892 Frick orchestrated the rise of the new Carnegie Steel Company with assets of $25 million, making it the largest such business concern in the world. But Frick’s major failing, from a management standpoint, was his abject refusal to accommodate unions or strikers. After he instituted a cut in piecework rates to induce greater output, the Amalgamated Iron and Steel Workers embarked on a vit-

riolic strike that gained national notoriety. Frick responded with a militancy of his own and imported 300 strikebreakers from the Pinkerton Detective Agency to dislodge the workers, and a pitched battle ensued wherein 10 men were killed. Ultimately, the Pennsylvania National Guard arrived to restore order and Frick himself was shot and stabbed by an anarchist during the proceedings. He survived, but the incident reflected badly on his reputation and also marked the end of his harmonious association with Carnegie. Continuing differences between the two men resulted in Frick’s acrimonious departure in 1900; they never spoke again. In 1901 Frick helped financier John Pierpont Morgan to organize the new United States Steel Corporation from the old Carnegie Steel Company and he was ultimately installed as its director. He served here, and on the boards of other large corporations, for nearly two decades, all the while endowing many hospitals and educational institutions, and even providing Pittsburgh with a large park. Having distinguished himself by his active philanthropy, Frick also amassed a huge, lavish art collection from around the world. By the time he died in New York City on December 2, 1919, he was one of the world’s wealthiest men, and recognized as one of the most astute businessmen of his generation. His house in New York City has since been converted into the Frick Art Reference Library and opened to the public as one of that city’s greatest cultural assets.

July 6 Labor: A pitched battle is waged between striking steel workers and Pinkerton detectives brought in to break the strike at Homestead, Pennsylvania; 10 people are killed and hundreds wounded in the fracas.

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July 9 Labor: The Homestead Steel strike ends when 7,000 state troops are ordered in to restore order; they remain onsite for three months.

July 11 Labor: Violence erupts between strikers and strikebreakers at the silver mines of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, until federal troops are deployed there.

July 12 Labor: Pennsylvania governor Robert Pattison calls in militia troops to protect Pinkerton strikebreakers at the Carnegie Steel Company.

July 14 Labor: U.S. Army troops arrive to end a strike by silver miners at Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, and enforce order by declaring martial law. Societal: Congress grants a $50 per month pension to all Civil War veterans wounded in action.

July 23 Indian: Congress bans the sale of alcoholic beverages on all Indian land. Labor: Federal troops ordered in to break the strike by silver miners at Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, round up violent offenders and place them in cattle-like stockades.

July 27 Societal: Congress grants a pension of $8.00 per month to survivors of the Second Seminole War, 1835–42, followed by a $12 per month pension to nurses who served in the Civil War.

July 29 Politics: Secretary of State James G. Blaine resigns from office and is replaced by John Watson Foster, an experienced career diplomat.

August 4 Crime: In Fall River, Massachusetts, Lizzie Borden is accused of the grisly axslaying of her father and stepmother. She will be tried and acquitted, but the case will give rise to a well known and macabre jingle.

August 20 Diplomacy: In response to Canadian toll collectors on the Sault Sainte Marie Canal, President Benjamin Harrison orders American canal keepers to do the same.

August 27 General: New York City’s Metropolitan Opera House, a centerpiece for music appreciation, is consumed by fire and destroyed.

August 28 Politics: The Socialist Labor Party convenes its national convention in New York, nominating Simon Wing of Massachusetts for the presidency and Charles H. Matchet of New York as vice president.

August 30 Medical: The Hamburg-American liner Moravia docks in New York, bringing with it a dangerous outbreak of cholera.

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September Technology: William Morrison publicly demonstrates his electric automobile in the streets of Des Moines, Iowa. Its appearance causes such a stir that the police are called in to force throngs of onlookers out of his way.

September 7 Sports: James “Gentleman Jim” Corbett defeats John L. Sullivan in 21 rounds at New Orleans, Louisiana, becoming the world champion. This is also the first recorded use of the Marquis of Queensberry rules in America, which require gloves and Â�three-­minute rounds.

September 8 Societal: Given unrest arising from the massive influx of emigrants from EuÂ�rope and elsewhere, educators James B. Upham and Francis Bellamy compose and publish the 29-­word “Pledge of Allegiance” in the magazine Youth’s Companion. They hope it will find widespread acÂ�cepÂ�tance in the classroom.

September 22 Technology: Charles and Frank Duryea of Springfield, Massachusetts, perfect the first marketable American automobile, although the first working example had been constructed by George B. Selden in 1879. This nevertheless marks the beginning of a major national industry and a transportation revolution, and Dur-­ yea will continue manufacturing cars until 1917.

September 26 Music: A new band led by former Marine Corps Band director John Philip Sousa debuts at Stillman Music Hall, New Jersey, and plays some innovative new tunes; but members of the public still want to hear his patriotic standbys like “The Thun-­ derer” and “Semper Fidelis.”

September 27 Music: Noted Czech composer Antonín Dvorˇák arrives at Hoboken, New Jersey, as director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York City.

October 3 Education: The University of Idaho opens its doors to students after being char-­ tered in January 1889.

October 5 Crimes: The infamous Dalton gang is destroyed when brothers Bob and Emmett are killed while attempting to rob a bank at Coffeyville, Kansas.

October 15 Indian: President Benjamin Harrison opens an additional 1.8 million acres of Indian land in Oklahoma, formerly belonging to the Crow, to white settlement.

October 20–23 General: Vice President Levi Morton officiates at the dedication of the World Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois, gathered to celebrate the 400th anni-­ versary of America’s discovery. Music is provided by John Philip Sousa, who resigned from the U.S. Marine Corps to assemble his own band. The fair itself is spread out among 644 acres, with 155 acres consigned for the actual displays inside several magnificent buildings. The many buildings constructed for the affair

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are rendered in the distinctive U.S. Classical style, which spells an end to prevailing Gothic and Romanesque trends.

October 28 General: Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is ravaged by a fire that destroys 26 acres of property and inflicts $5 million in property damages.

November 8 Politics: In a surprising comeback bid, Democrat Grover Cleveland defeats incumbent Republican Benjamin Harrison for the presidency by a popular vote of 5.5 million to 5.1 million, and an Electoral College count of 277 to 145. Former senator Adlai Stevenson becomes vice president and the Democrats regain control of both chambers of Congress.

November 14 Labor: The Homestead Steel Mill strike is called off after five months without any appreciable gains for the strikers. Many of the men lost their jobs permanently and this reverse constitutes a major defeat for the heretofore powerful Amalgamated Association of Steel and Iron Workers. It also alerts corporations that they can survive lengthy strikes by shifting the bulk of work to non-union facilities.

December 2 General: Jay Gould, one of the most outlandish and freewheeling entrepreneurs of the early industrial age, dies at the age of 56. His estimated value is $72 million.

December 19 Education: The University of Oklahoma is opened at Norman.

December 27 Architecture: Construction begins on the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine, which is intended to be the largest church in the United States. The massive, Romanesque complex, designed by the firm of George Lewis Heins and Christopher Grant La Farge, will be 601 feet long and 146 feet wide. In 1911 the plans will be modified for a more Gothic approach, but the structure remains unfinished to this day.

1893 Architecture: The Manhattan Life Insurance Company, at 17 stories the first structure to rise above the Trinity Church steeple, is constructed in New York City. Frank Lloyd Wright completes the Winslow residence in Chicago, Illinois, which is his first independent commission. Louis H. Sullivan greatly distinguishes himself in his design for the Transportation Building at the Colombian Exposition. Art: The play Shore Acres by James A. Herne, part of a growing trend in American drama to focus on domestic themes, opens successfully in Boston and runs for 133 performances. Frederick W. MacMonnies sculpts the riveting fountain at the Court of Honor at the Columbian Exposition, consisting of 27 lifelike figures surrounding a great white ship. This work establishes him as Augustus Saint-Gaudens’s greatest prodigy.

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Chronology of American History Little Egypt (Catherine Devine) introduces the art of belly dancing at the Columbian Exposition, garnering considerable celebrity—and notoriety. Business: In New York City, L. C. Tiffany perfects his decorative Favrile glass for the purpose of adorning screens and lampshades, his art ultimately culminating in the “Tiffany lamp.” In Chicago, the first self-service eateries—or cafeterias—open at the Columbian Exposition and enjoy great success. They cater perfectly to an American populace that is constantly on the move. Communication: Once the patent on the Bell telephone expires, the Bell Telephone Company forfeits its monopoly and other companies pick up the slack, introducing phones and services into areas not previously covered. Conservation: The American buffalo (bison), which had roamed the prairie regions in herds of up to 20 million strong, has been reduced to less than 1,000 animals due to reckless hunting. This animal, essential to the life of regional Native Americans and symbolic of the American West, is seriously threatened with extinction. Education: In New Mexico, the Fort Defiance Boarding School opens under the aegis of the Presbyterian Church, and Navajo agent Dana Shipley tries to make attendance compulsory for all Navajo children. This will spark a violent outbreak in which Dana is physically assaulted. Indian: The Quechan Indians of southern Arizona are coerced into an allotment agreement with the U.S. government, forcing them to surrender most of their land along the Colorado River in exchange for smaller, permanent plots of land for each household. Literature: Author Stephen Crane pens the novel Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, about a youthful prostitute, but he is forced to publish it himself for lack of publisher interest. Still, it represents part of a growing trend in literature to focus upon the grittier aspects of American life. Ambrose Bierce pens a chilling collection of supernatural tales entitled Can Such Things Be? Robert Louis Stevenson publishes the first American edition of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Military: The U.S. Army adopts the .30-caliber Krag-Jorgensen rifle, the first American firearm to possess a five-round clip. It replaces the single-shot Springfield Model 1873 rifle. Music: Nellie Melba of Australia and Emma Calve of France, two classical sopranos, debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Melba will become such a popular figure that a peach dessert will be named after her. Religion: The huge Mormon Temple is finally completed at Salt Lake City, Utah, following four decades of construction and expenditures of $6–12 million. Societal: Under Commissioner James Tanner, the annual military pension appropriation rises from $81 million to $135 million—much to the relief of poor veterans and widows caught in a depression. Lillian D. Wald founds the Livingston Street Settlement in New York City to assist the vast number of poor and indigent living there. Sports: The game of ice hockey is introduced to the United States from Canada and games are initially played at Yale and Johns Hopkins universities.

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Crane, Stephen

1443

(1871–1900)

Author Stephen Crane was born into a large family at Newark, New Jersey, the son of a Methodist minister. He was well educated but proved himself an indifferent student and successively dropped out of Lafayette College and Syracuse University for lack of interest. By 1891 he was living a Bohemian existence in New York City’s Bowery, whose poverty struck him deeply, and there he discovered a penchant for writing. After penning several descriptive essays for the New York Herald and the New York Tribune, Crane penned his first novel, entitled Maggie: A Girl of the Streets. This was a stunningly graphic novel of deprivation and exploitation, and no publisher would accept it, so Crane published it on his own. The book did not sell well but he was undeterred and continued associating himself with two noted writers, Hamlin Garland and William Dean Howells. Backed by their encouragement, in 1895 Crane began writing a Civil War novel entitled The Red Badge of Courage, which renders the experience of combat in vicarious and dramatic terms. The book proved an instant success and is regarded as a classic of American historical fiction. Crane’s instant celebrity is all the more surprising, considering his complete lack of military or combat experience. That same year he also released his first volume of poetry, entitled The Black Riders, distinguished by a stark descriptive symbolism marking it as a significant departure and transition point from Victorian and toward modern poetry.

Crane subsequently worked as a reporter for a newspaper syndicate and he was dispatched on voyages to the West and Mexico, where he produced some of his finest short stories and essays. He also embarked on a tryst with hotel keeper Cora Stewart, who became his lifelong companion. While on a small steamer to Cuba the boat sank and Crane was heroically involved in rescuing the survivors. The affair served as the template for one of his best short stories, “The Open Boat.” Crane transferred to the Hearst newspaper syndicate in 1897 and covered the war between Greece and Turkey in the Balkans He next ventured to England and befriended such literary luminaries as Henry James, H. G. Wells, and Joseph Conrad. Crane also found time to produce an excellent novella, “The Monster,” and quite possibly his finest short stories, “The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky,” “Death and the Child,” and “The Blue Hotel.” When the Spanish-American War commenced in 1898, Crane landed in Cuba with the American troops and provided graphic descriptions of combat there for the New York World. By now he was fatally stricken with tuberculosis, and ventured one more time to England to recuperate. He managed to publish a second and final volume of poems entitled War Is Kind before dying at Badenweiler, Germany, on June 5, 1900, at the age of 28. In his short but vivid career, Crane produced a highly impressionistic, symbolic prose that altered and invigorated the American realism of his day.

Princeton University wins the national football championship with 11 wins, no ties, and no losses. The U.S. Lawn Tennis Association’s singles championships are won by Robert D. Wrenn and Aline Terry in their respective divisions.

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Chronology of American History The Chicago Fly Casting Club sponsors the first national fly casting tournament at the Columbian Exposition, Chicago, Illinois. The sport will soon gather a national following and its own amateur association. Boston wins the National League baseball championship with 86 wins, 44 losses. Technology: The process for manufacturing Velox paper is perfected by Leo H. Baekeland, to whom the George Eastman Company pays $1 million to acquire the patent. Transportation: In the decade since 1883, the number of bicycles nationwide has risen to over one million.

January 4 Religion: The government offers amnesty to Mormon polygamists on the condition that future laws against the practice are observed.

January 5 Religion: The first apostolic delegate to the United States is dispatched by Pope Leo XIII.

January 9 Military: At Fort Riley, Kansas, the School for Cavalry and Light Artillery finally opens for instruction after its facilities are completed.

January 16–17 Settlement: Ambassador John L. Stevens, backed by pineapple planters under Sanford E. Dole, overthrows the regime of Queen Liliuokalani in Hawaii. He is assisted by a detachment of 300 marines from the nearby cruiser USS Boston. The victors then establish a Committee of Safety before Stevens recognizes the new administration—without permission from the State Department—and starts negotiating a treaty of annexation. Incredibly, all this transpires without the American government being informed beforehand.

January 17 General: Former president Rutherford B. Hayes dies at the age of 70.

January 19 Diplomacy: Without losing a beat, the new provisional government in Hawaii dispatches a commission to Washington, D.C., for the purpose of requesting annexation.

February 1 Diplomacy: Ambassador John L. Stevens, still lacking authorization from the State Department, declares Hawaii an American protectorate and orders American flags flown from government buildings. Media: Inventor Thomas A. Edison opens his motion picture lot at his factory at West Orange, New Jersey. It is christened the “Black Maria” after its resemblance to police paddy wagons.

February 15 Politics: Ambassador John L. Stevens of Hawaii blithely submits a treaty of annexation to the U.S. Senate.

February 17 Education: The University of Montana is chartered in Missoula, Montana, and classes will begin two years later.

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February 24 Business: The failure of the Philadelphia and Reading railroads, saddled by a $125 million debt, signals the start of the panic of 1893. This year alone 74 rail-­ roads will fall into receivership, 600 banks fail, and 15,000 businesses collapse.

March 1 Diplomacy: Congress, through its Diplomatic Appropriation Act, creates the rank of ambassador to outrank numerous consuls and ministers. Henceforth, American ministers will hold the rank of diplomat in nations to which they are assigned.

March 3 Indian: Faced with a massive influx of ambitious white settlers into the Indian Ter-­ ritory, Congress establishes the Dawes Commission under former senator Henry Dawes to review existing allotment arrangements with Indian leaders there.

March 4 Politics: Grover Cleveland is inaugurated as the 24th president of the United States—the only chief executive whose two terms in office are Â�non-­consecutive. Adlai E. Stevenson becomes vice president.

March 5 Military: In Washington, D.C., President Grover Cleveland appoints Daniel S. Lamont to serve as his secretary of war.

March 6 Politics: DemoÂ�cratic president Grover Cleveland appoints Republican Walter Quintin Gresham to be secretary of state, although he completely lacks experi-­ ence in diplomatic matters.

March 7 Naval: In Washington, D.C., Hilary A. Herbert, a former Confederate officer, is sworn in as the 33rd secretary of the navy.

March 9 Diplomacy: President Grover Cleveland has the recent Hawaii Annexation Treaty withdrawn from Senate consideration owing to irregularities surrounding its creation. He also dispatches special envoy James H. Blount to the islands to investigate recent occurrences there.

March 10 General: Boston is ravaged by a huge fire causing $5 million in damages.

March 14 Architecture: The posh, 10-­story Waldorf Hotel, artfully designed by Henry Janeway Hardenberg, opens in New York City.

March 25 Labor: In New Orleans, strikers of the Workingmen’s Amalgamated Council are found guilty of conspiracy in conducting a Â�city-­wide general strike; this is the first time that strikers have been so accused under the terms of the Sherman Â�Anti-­Trust Act.

March 27 Communication: In Boston, Massachusetts, Alexander Graham Bell makes the first Â�long-­distance phone call by conversing with company officials in New York City.

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March 30 Diplomacy: Thomas F. Bayard becomes the first American with ambassadorial rank to the Court of St. James in Great Britain. Prior to this the highest rank held by American diplomats was minister.

April 6 Sports: Pugilists Andy Bowen and Jack Burke spar for seven hours, 19 minutes without a clear winner; this remains the longest boxing match in the history of the sport.

April 13 Diplomacy: Special envoy James H. Blount puts an end to the four-month-old American “protectorate” of Hawaii by ordering U.S. Marines off the islands. The pro-annexation movement in those islands is thus checked, if temporarily.

April 21 Business: Once the gold reserve falls below the $100 million mark, due to the overvaluation of silver, the government orders the issuance of gold certificates suspended. This signals the beginning of the panic of 1893, which will be perpetuated by the continuing shrinkage of gold reserves.

May 1 General: President Grover Cleveland officiates at the opening of the World Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois, celebrating the 400th anniversary of America’s discovery, which draws an estimated 27 million people by the fall. The U.S. Post Office issues its first commemorative stamps to mark the occasion.

May 5–June 27 Business: Securities fall dramatically and a temporary panic ensues on the New York Stock Exchange; the value of the U.S. silver dollar falls to 60 cents in gold. The crisis will be temporarily averted by a $6 million loan by clearinghouse banks, but by year’s end 600 banks and 15,000 businesses have failed. Four years of uninterrupted hardship will ensue.

May 10 Sports: The 19th Annual Kentucky Derby is won by Lookout, who runs a time of two minutes, 39 seconds. Transportation: In Batavia, New York, Train No. 999 of the New York Central & Hudson River railroad is clocked going down a slight grade while pulling four cars at a blazing 112.5 miles per hour, a new land speed record

May 15 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court finds the Geary Exclusion Act, leveled against Chinese immigrants, to be constitutional.

May 24 Societal: The Anti-Saloon League takes root at Oberlin, Ohio, before branching out nationwide.

June 10 Sports: The 27th Belmont Stakes is won by Comanche, who tears up the course in one minute, 53 seconds.

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June 14 Societal: The mayor of Philadelphia orders the first national observance of Flag Day, with flags draped over every public building in the city.

June 20 Labor: Militant unionist Eugene V. Debs founds the American Railway Union in Chicago, Illinois, and within a year it will boast 150,000 adherents in 465 lodges.

June 24 Medical: The Army Medical School open under the auspices of General George M. Sternberg, Surgeon General, to ensure proper instruction for Medical Corps personnel. Among its most distinguished alumni will be Walter Reed and Josiah Gorgas.

June 26 Politics: Governor John P. Altgeld of Illinois, urged on by Clarence Darrow and other reformers, pardons the last three surviving anarchists convicted of murder

Debs, Eugene V.

(1855–1926)

Reformer

Caricature of Eugene Debs, pictured wearing a crown labeled "Deb's American railway union." (Library of Congress)

Eugene Victor Debs was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, on November 5, 1855, the son of French immigrant parents. He dropped out of school to work on the railroads, ultimately rising to locomotive fireman, but lost his job during the depression of the 1870s. In 1874 Debs joined the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and also edited the Fireman’s Magazine, whereby he questioned why railroad workers were perpetually divided along trade lines. His commitment to organized labor grew over the ensuing decade and in 1893 he founded the inclusive American Railway Union (ARU). Debs was officially against violence, but when members of his union rioted during the famous Pullman Strike, he was jailed for contempt of court for failing to call off the strike. While serving a six-month sentence, Debs was exposed to the writings of German political philosopher Karl Marx and he formally converted to socialism. He wished very much to parlay his labor instincts into political action, and in 1898 Debs created (continues)

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(continued) the Social Democratic Party. Three years later he also established its successor, the more militant Socialist Party of America. Debs strongly felt that the ongoing struggle between capital and labor ensured continuing class struggle and inequity; because no single union could be entrusted with protecting workers’ rights, he advocated a cooperative commonwealth that would better serve workers than the profit system. However, Debs carefully couched his radicalism in pacifistic terms, denounced violence, and promoted peaceful change. He also proved himself to be a fiery orator and his party nominated him five times to the presidency, in 1900, 1904, 1908, 1912, and 1920, and he usually received 6 percent of the national vote. Debs ultimately failed to expand the Socialists into a viable political force due to his inability to reconcile moderate factions with increasingly radical counterparts. His reputation as a moderate was further enhanced in 1917 when he denounced the autocratic Bolshevik revolution in Russia and refused to join the Communists.

In 1916 Debs began vocally criticizing the neutrality policies of President Woodrow Wilson and predicted that he was leading the country down a path toward war. When the United States entered World War I in 1917, he was arrested for sedition under the newly passed Espionage Act and received a 10-year sentence. Undeterred, Debs ran for president a fifth time, in 1920, from his prison cell and received one million votes. He was finally pardoned and released in 1921, but by now his influence had begun to wane. The excesses of the Communist Revolution in Russia had badly split the Socialists at home and membership dwindled. Debs himself suffered from poor health and he died in Elmhurst, Illinois, on December 20, 1926, a successful labor leader but a failed politician. Ironically, many of the radical positions he staked out, such as abolishing child labor, women’s suffrage, and a graduated income tax, were eventually coopted by the political mainstream and made law.

in the Haymarket Square riot of May 1886. He believes their trial and conviction were fraudulent, but this leniency costs him his political career.

June 27 Business: The New York Stock Market continues to plummet after the government of India switches from a silver standard to gold. The root of the problem is the incessant draining of gold reserves due to an influx of silver certificates still redeemable at face value.

June 30 Politics: President Grover Cleveland, under pressure to take measures to improve the sinking economy, requests a special session of Congress to convene on August 7 and repeal the Sherman Silver Purchase Act.

July 1 Medical: President Grover Cleveland successfully receives treatment for mouth cancer. However, the operation is conducted in secret, on board a friend’s yacht, as it is feared that word of his illness might precipitate an even greater sense of crisis in the nation.

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July 12 Education: Professor Frederick Jackson Turner, a young historian from the University of Wisconsin, delivers a paper at the Columbian Exposition entitled “The Significance of the Frontier in American History.” His revisionist thesis, which holds the frontier at the center of America’s political experience, will influence national historiography for nearly a century and establish Turner as among the most significant historical scholars of his generation. His argument will also shape the treatment of Indian-white relationships for the next half-century.

Turner, Frederick Jackson

(1861–1932)

Historian Frederick Jackson Turner was born in Portage, Wisconsin, on November 14, 1861, the son of a successful journalist and local historian. In 1880 he enrolled at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he fell under the influence of Professor William F. Allen, who impressed on him the need to interpret empirical evidence carefully and methodically before rendering historical verdicts. Turner was also inculcated with the need to understand institutional history as a conduit to national culture. He graduated in 1884 and then received his master’s degree before attending the graduate history department at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. There Turner penned a dissertation entitled “The Character and Influence of the Indian Trade in Wisconsin,” which was competently researched, written, and argued, and resulted in his receipt of a doctorate in 1888. Turner then returned to Wisconsin to teach frontier history, his career specialty, from 1889 to 1910. However, in 1893, at a meeting of the American Historical Society in Chicago, he delivered the most significant paper of his career, “The Significance of the Frontier in American History,” which stimulated a complete reevaluation as to the source of American character, culture, and political tradition. Unlike historians schooled in more traditional European-

oriented historiography, Turner insisted that it was the frontier, the sheer physical environment of North America, that transformed European settlers into American colonists. Furthermore, he epitomized national leaders such as Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, and Abraham Lincoln as logical products of the frontier clime. In the century since its promulgation, not every school of historical thought has concurred with the so-called Turner thesis, but it marked a major break from the staid historical traditions of his day. More importantly, it also laid the groundwork for newer, more incisive, and compelling schools of thought in the 20th century. Fame did not sit easily with Turner for he spurned it and preferred teaching students the science of historical inquiry back at Wisconsin. Nor was the volume of his professional literature very impressive, owing to the patience and exacting methodology that became his scholarly trademark. But he did elaborate on his central thesis in the books Rise of the New West, 1819–1829 (1906) and his volume of essays, The Frontier in American History (1920), which were generally convincing and highly regarded. In 1910 Turner left Wisconsin to (continues)

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(continued) teach history at Harvard University, where he remained until his retirement to southern California in 1924. There he continued his historical inquiries at the noted Huntington Library in Pasadena, until his death there on March 4, 1932. One of his last works, The Significance of

Sections in American History, was published posthumously and received a Pulitzer Prize. Quiet, modest, and unassuming, Turner would undoubtedly be amused by his reputation for redirecting the course of American historiography down entirely new paths.

July 17 Diplomacy: Special Commissioner James H. Blount’s report on the Hawaiian situation is delivered to Secretary of State Walter Q. Gresham and points an accusing finger at Minister John L. Stevens for orchestrating a coup.

August 1 Naval: The newly commissioned cruiser USS New York joins the fleet, being both heavily armed and armored, and possessing a top speed of 21 knots. Politics: Populists and Republicans meeting at Chicago, Illinois, found the National Bimetallic League, which demands the repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act and a return to silver coinage at a rate of 16 to one. Strong banking reforms are also suggested.

August 7 Politics: The 53rd Congress assembles with the Democrats in control of both houses. President Grover Cleveland requests action on the repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, even if it alienates fellow Democrats who prefer easy credit; he will ultimately prevail but the ensuing fight will badly wound the Democratic Party.

August 10 Societal: The first group of Chinese laborers are deported from San Francisco for non-registration under the Geary Chinese Exclusion Act.

August 13 General: A large fire in Minneapolis, Minnesota, inflicts $2 million in damage and leaves 1,500 homeless.

August 15 Diplomacy: An international arbitration commission decides in favor of Great Britain over a seal hunting dispute in the Bering Sea with the United States. Henceforth, Britain will receive compensation worth $542,169 for vessels seized and Canadian ships will be allowed into the disputed region, but seal hunting is banned within 60 miles of the Pribilof Islands.

August 23–29 General: Severe storms and cyclones rattle Savannah, Georgia, and Charleston, South Carolina, leaving 1,000 dead in their wake.

August 31 Politics: Socialist and militant activist Emma Goldman is arrested in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for trying to incite a riot while addressing a throng of unemployed workers.

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September 7 Societal: Canada and the United States agree for the first time to monitor the flow of illegal immigra-­ tion, especially from Canada’s Pacific coastal ports.

September 16 Settlement: The sale of six million acres, the �so� called Cherokee Strip, acquired from the Cherokee of Oklahoma for $8.5 million in 1891, leads to a land rush stampede by 100,000 prospective settlers.

September 17 Medical: A severe outbreak of yellow fever is reported in Brunswick, Georgia.

October 2 General: The Gulf Coast of Louisiana is lashed by a powerful storm that kills 2,000 people, mostly near Grand Isle, Louisiana.

October 13 Sports: The U.S. yacht Vigilant successfully defends the America’s Cup from the British challenger Valkyrie.

October 23 Arts: Charles T. Dazey’s melodramatic play In Old Kentucky opens in New York City and will run for 27 seasons in either a New York theater or on the road.

Emma Goldman, 1934╇ (Library of Congress)

October 30 Business: After intense infighting and acrimonious debate, the �Demo�cratic�controlled Congress votes to repeal the Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890, and does so at the behest of President Grover Cleveland. The Demo�crats are badly split on the issue and the Republicans provide the balance necessary for victory. However, silver will become a major factor in the presidential election of 1896.

November 3 Military: Congress instructs the War Department to detail up to 100 officers for the purpose of teaching military science at colleges.

November 7 Women: Populist governor Davis H. Waite encourages a popÂ�uÂ�lar vote in Colo-­ rado to successfully secure women’s suffrage.

December 16 Music: Talented Czech composer Antonín Dvorˇák premieres his famous Sym-­ phony No. 9, “From the New World,” at Carnegie Music Hall in New York City. He conceived the piece while vacationing at a Bohemian community in Iowa.

December 24 Technology: Henry Ford constructs his first successful, Â�two-­cylinder, Â�four-­cycle, gasoline engine in Detroit, Michigan.

December 25 Arts: The successful play Shore Acres by James A. Herne is transplanted from Boston to a lengthy run at Daly’s Theater in New York.

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December 31 Business: By this time, the grim tol­l­ of business fail­ures in the panic of 1893 encompasses 74 rail­roads, 600 banks, and no l­ess than 15,000 smal­l­ businesses. Now that national­ gol­d reserves have fal­l­en to bel­ow $80 mil­l­ion, no rel­ief is in sight.

1894 Arts: Mary Cassatt, one of a handful­ of professional­ woman painters in America, unveil­s her l­atest creation, La Toilette, at the Paris Exposition. Scul­ptor George Grey Barnard unveil­s his massive work, Struggle of the Two Natures in Man, at the Paris Sal­on to rave reviews.

Ford, Henry

(1863–1947)

Industrialist Henry Ford was born on Jul­y 30, 1863, the son of a prosperous framer. As a chil­d he del­ighted in mechanical­ tinkering and went to work for the Edison Il­l­uminat-­ ing Company in Detroit, Michigan, eventu-­ al­l­y befriending the noted inventor, Thomas Edison. Ford proved himsel­f adept at engi-­ neering and eventual­l­y rose to chief engi-­ neer, but he grew preoccupied with the new form of transportation cal­l­ed “horse-­ l­ess carriages,” or automobil­es. Ford quit Edison’s firm in 1896 and constructed his first gasol­ine buggy on bicycl­e wheel­s. He subsequentl­y worked with the Detroit Auto-­ mobil­e Company in 1899 and the Henry Ford Motor Company a few years l­ater, but it was not until­ 1903 that he coul­d capital­ize the Ford Motor Company with a $28,000 l­oan from Detroit coal­ deal­er Al­ex Y. Mal­comson. This time, however, Ford was armed with a revol­utionary marketing strategy to mass-­produce cars as quickl­y and cheapl­y as possibl­e, thereby tapping into the vast middl­e cl­ass of consumers. In 1908 this pl­an cul­minated in the design and production of his l­egendary Model­ T, or “Tin Lizzy,” which was bare-­bones, highl­y

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Henry Ford (Library of Congress)

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Business: J. P. Morgan founds the Southern Rail­road Company, the first such organization to function efficientl­y in this region. His methodical­, businessl­ike approach to management spel­l­s an end to the piratical­ methods of earl­ier tycoons such as Jay Goul­d and other “robber barons.” Cream of Wheat, to become a stapl­e of American breakfasts for over a cen-­ tury, makes its successful­ and tasty debut this year. In Lancaster, Pennsyl­vania, Mil­ton Hershey establ­ishes his l­andmark Hershey Chocol­ate Company, which offers the del­ectabl­e confectionary in a smal­l­ rectan-­ gul­ar sl­ab and at prices avail­abl­e to everyone. Indian: Cyrus Thomas publ­ishes his Report on the Mound Explorations of the Bureau of Ethnology, which del­ineates research into the ancient burial­ mounds of Ohio. Whereas previous generations refused to ascribe to Native Americans the abil­ity to erect such compl­icated structures, and attributed them to foreigners such as the Egyptians or Aztecs, Thomas concl­usivel­y proves that they were the handiwork of eastern Indians. Journalism: Defeated in his bid to become U.S. senator from Nebraska, Wil­-­ l­iam Jennings Bryan becomes editor of the Omaha World Herald and a popul­ar speaker on the national­ l­ecture circuit.

rel­iabl­e, and priced at onl­y $850 per unit. It represented a compl­ete departure from cur-­ rent trends in the automotive industry, which hel­d that automobil­es were basical­l­y toys for the rich. In 1913 Ford originated another rev-­ ol­utionary concept, the assembl­y l­ine, which speeded up production and, being accom-­ pl­ished at waist-­l­evel­, l­essened the exertions of l­aborers working it. Consequentl­y, savings were passed on to the consumer and prices fel­l­ further stil­l­. Ford was al­so unique among contemporaries by offering his workers $5.00 per day—twice the pay of other companies— to ensure l­oyal­ty. By 1927 no l­ess than 15 mil­l­ion Model­ Ts had been manufactured, making Ford the worl­d’s l­argest and most prosperous automobil­e company. Ford, however, was hardl­y the model­ of a modern corporate executive. He was autocratic by nature and reserved al­l­ major and minor business decisions to himsel­f. Consequentl­y, Ford kept cranking out onl­y one variant of Model­ Ts in one col­or—

bl­ack—whil­e other companies gradual­l­y began offering different makes and col­ors to increasingl­y sophisticated buyers. He thus fel­l­ six years behind other manufacturers in adopting such critical­ and standard features as hydraul­ic brakes, eight-­cyl­inder engines, and modern transmissions. Sal­es sl­umped accordingl­y and were onl­y partl­y revived by introducing the Model­ A in 1932. Ford was al­so mil­itantl­y anti-­union and stridentl­y refused to recognize the United Auto Work-­ ers (UAW), going so far as to hire a private pol­ice force to squel­ch union activities in his pl­ants. He al­so engaged in somewhat bizarre publ­ic rel­ations stunts l­ike outfitting a “peace ship” for Europe in 1914 and al­l­ow-­ ing anti-­Semitic essays to be publ­ished in his newspaper, the Dearborn Independent. However, more than any other individual­, Henry Ford put America “on wheel­s” and pioneered modern industrial­ manufacturing techniques with great success. He died in Dearborn, Michigan, on April­ 7, 1947.

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Morgan, John P. (1837–1913) Financier John Pierpont Morgan was born in Hartford, Connecticut, on April 17, 1837, the son of a prominent banker. He passed through the University of Göttingen in 1857 and then settled in New York City to pursue finance. Morgan proved adept at juggling money matters and in 1862 he opened his own bank, the forerunner of the famous J. P. Morgan & Company. He began acquiring railroads in 1869 with the purchase of the Albany and Susquehanna Railroad, and subsequently branched out into other regions. Morgan, unlike self-serving raiders like Jay Gould, was a consummate organizer who imposed greater efficiency on his charges, making them both stable and profitable. Such was his renown that by 1893, when the national economy was reeling from questionable monetary policies brought on by free-silver advocates, Morgan was requested by the government to singlehandedly save the gold reserve. He did so by selling government bonds for gold through his overseas agents and, while reaping whirlwind profits in the process, spared the nation from economic collapse. In 1901 Morgan felt strong enough to take on millionaire industrialist Andrew Carnegie by acquiring his Carnegie Steel Company, merging it with other acquisitions, and creating an entirely new entity, the United States Steel Corporation under Henry Clay Frick. This was then the world’s largest company and sufficiently centralized to allow American steel to be manufactured for export abroad. Naturally, the acquisition of all this wealth in the hands of a single

individual made the government suspicious, and in 1904 Morgan’s Northern Securities Company was dissolved by the Supreme Court. Morgan was nevertheless also active in the founding of such large corporations as General Electric and the International Harvester Company, which enhanced his reputation as the nation’s preeminent financier. Morgan may have been unpopular with the political establishment, but he also proved indispensable to it. In 1907, with the economy heading into the grip of a possible depression, he rallied the New York financial community at the government’s request, assessed the resources of participating banks and trust companies, then bailed out those on the verge of collapse. Morgan and his allies were acting in the capacity of a central bank, which the country sorely lacked, so in 1913 Congress created the Federal Reserve System to back up member institutions. Morgan, secretive by nature, refused to publicly divulge exactly what he owned or controlled, so in 1912 Congress formed the Pujo Committee to ascertain exactly that. They reported that the House of Morgan controlled 72 directorships in 47 major corporations, although no further action was taken. Morgan also invested considerable wealth in acquiring the world’s finest private art collection, which today forms the basis of the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. Morgan died in Rome on March 31, 1913, the only banker in American history who twice salvaged the national economy.

Labor: The American Federation of Labor (AFL), taking its lead from President Samuel Gompers, votes down attempts to adopt socialist reform programs. Gompers has decided it is more prudent to work within capitalism than against it and concentrates on shorter hours, better wages, and safer working conditions.

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Literature: Anthony Hope publishes his historical romance The Prisoner of Zenda, which becomes a classic. Mark Twain publishes his under-appreciated novel called The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson. Margaret Marshall Saunders writes her dog story, Beautiful Joe, which eventually sells a million copies nationwide. English writer Rudyard Kipling, living in Brattleboro, Vermont, publishes The Jungle Book, one of his most celebrated tales. William Sydney Porter (the future writer O. Henry) buys a printing office in Austin, Texas, and begins publishing his ill-fated magazine, Iconoclast. Media: Inventor Thomas Edison shoots The Sioux Ghost Dance, the first film to deal with Native American rituals. Barely a minute in duration, it affords millions of easterners a firsthand glimpse of Native American customs and culture. Medical: Dr. Edward Livingston Trudeau opens his enlarged Adirondack Sanatorium Cottage with the aid of philanthropist George C. Cooper; he subsequently conducts the first large-scale experiments on tuberculosis. Military: Congress passes legislation requiring that all recruits enlisting in the U.S. Army be citizens, less than 30 years of age, and fluent in English. Music: Victor Herbert of the 22nd New York Regiment Band composes his first successful operetta, Prince Ananias. Charles Lawler composes “The Streets of New York,“ which becomes a popular song in music halls. The constant clatter of upright pianos along New York City’s 28th Street—the music publishers’ row—gains that street the nickname “Tin Pan Alley.” Population: The Report on Indians Taxed and Not Taxed, issued by the Bureau of the Census, reveals that Native-American populations are at historic lows, less than 250,000 individuals—a 40 percent decline from the last census taken in 1850. Publishing: William Hope Harvey’s otherwise insignificant booklet Coin’s Financial School, which advocates free silver, sells 300,000 copies. Accomplished writer Lafcadio Hearn publishes Glimpses of Japan while living there in situ, attempting to demystify this inscrutable Asian country for American audiences. Henry Demarest Lloyd, one of the earliest muckraking journalists, pens Wealth against Commonwealth, an excoriating account of the Standard Oil Company that calls for it to be broken up. In the latest sign of growing military professionalism, the United States Infantry Association begins publishing its first professional magazine, the Infantry Journal. Science: The Lowell Observatory is founded by astronomer Percival Lowell at Flagstaff, Arizona; he believes that there might be intelligent life on Mars. Sports: Hugh Duffy of the Boston Nationals earns the highest batting average in a single season, .438. Yale University wins the national college football championship with 16 wins, no losses, and no ties. Baltimore wins the National League baseball championship with 89 wins, 39 losses.

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Bryan, William Jennings (1860–1925) Reformer William Jennings Bryan was born in Salem, Illinois, on March 19, 1860, into a very religious household. He graduated from Illinois College in 1881 and four years later received a law degree from Union College in Chicago. Bryan subsequently opened a successful practice in Lincoln, Nebraska, where he also dabbled in politics and became closely identified with progressive, farm-oriented stances and issues. A captivating orator, he gained election to the House of Representatives in 1890 from a nominally Republican district and was reelected two years later. In this capacity he vigorously touted agrarian interests, especially the notion of “free silver,” until losing a bid for the Senate in 1896. However, Bryan indelibly impressed like-minded members of the Democratic Party and, following his electrifying “Cross of Gold” speech at the party convention that year, he gained their nomination for the presidency. Here Bryan broke new ground by campaigning vigorously by train, address-

William Jennings Bryan (Library of Congress)

January 8 General: The Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois, is ravaged by a huge fire that destroys nearly all of its magnificent structures, with damage estimated at $2 million.

January 11 Religion: St. Sava’s Church, the first Serbian Orthodox Church in America, is consecrated in Jackson, California.

January 17 Business: A $50 million bond issue is authorized by the Treasury Department to restore the national gold reserve; this issue largely fails, gold supplies continue to dwindle, and most bonds are purchased by banks.

January 29 Naval: In Rio de Janeiro, Rear Admiral A. E. K. Benham uses American warships to break a blockade established by Brazilian monarchist rebels attempting to subvert the republic. The Americans are eventually joined by British vessels and together they save the tottering regime of President Moraes Barros.

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ing thousands of citizens in hundreds of stops. He gained a respectable 6 million votes in the ensuing election, but finally lost to Republican William McKinley. This was also the first presidential campaign wherein traditional sectional issues were wholly supplanted by those concerning class and wealth, an outgrowth of the rapid industrialization and urbanization that the country was then experiencing. Bryan remained the nominal party leader, and in 1900 he again received his party’s nomination, only to lose again to McKinley by a wider margin. He also found time to serve as editor of the newspaper Commoner, which articulated the concerns of farmers and populists nationwide. Bryan’s rapport for the average man, particularly hard-pressed farmers, gained him the moniker of “The Great Commoner,” and in 1908 he again secured the party’s nomination, losing in this instance to Republican William Howard Taft. Defeat did little to diminish Bryan’s political capital within the party, and in 1912 he helped orchestrate the nomination of Woodrow

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Wilson as president, who went on to win the general election. Given Bryan’s stature within the party, he was assured a major appointment in return for his activism, and in 1913 President Wilson made him secretary of state. In this capacity he made a genuine effort to parlay his idealism into national policy by fostering bilateral treaties for arbitration of international disputes. He was also sternly determined to keep America out of World War I and resigned his position when Wilson sent what he considered a bellicose protest to Germany over the Lusitania sinking in 1915. Back in private life, Bryan resumed his editorial and speaking activities, although to a continually smaller audience. He relocated to Florida in 1921 and there helped draft a resolution for the state legislature to ban the teaching of evolution in schools. Bryan’s last public appearance was during the famous “Scopes Monkey Trial,” where attorney Clarence Darrow eviscerated his stance on science and creationism. Bryan died in Dayton, Ohio, on July 26, 1925, shortly after the trial.

January 30 Law: The Lexow Committee is appointed by the New York state senate to investigate scandals within the New York City Police Department and other agencies.

February Sports: The Jockey Club is founded to encourage professional racing standards and thoroughbred horse breeding.

February 2 Naval: The venerable screw sloop USS Kearsarge, which sank the Confederate commerce raider Alabama in 1864, strikes a reef in the West Indies and sinks. However, its illustrious name will subsequently be transferred to a new battleship under construction, becoming the only vessel of its class not christened after a state.

February 4 Journalism: Today’s issue of the New York World contains the first printing of a color comic strip by Walter McDougall and Mark Fenderson, entitled The Unfortunate Fate of a Well-Intentioned Dog.

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February 8 Civil: Congress repeals the Enforcement Act of 1871, leaving the voting rights of African Americans in the hands of southern racial supremacists. Henceforth, prospective black voters in Mississippi are required to answer specific questions about the U.S. Constitution when challenged to do so.

February 13 General: The collapse of the Gaylord Mine in Plymouth, Pennsylvania, kills 13 miners.

February 20 Women: Suffragettes Isabelle Beecher Hooker, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony appear before a Senate committee to argue for women’s voting rights. Despite a lack of action at the federal level, there has been progress in Wyoming and Utah.

March 14 Crime: The Woodward, Oklahoma, train station is accosted by the Doolin gang, which robs passengers but leaves the safe intact.

March 17 Diplomacy: The United States and China conclude a supplementary Chinese Exclusionary Treaty whereby most Chinese laborers are denied migration rights to America, but those already living in America will enjoy rights and protections equal to those of other foreigners.

March 25 Labor: Businessman Jacob S. Coxey leads a small band of unemployed workers out of Massillon, Ohio, intending to march to Washington, D.C., and gather congressional attention and relief of their plight.

March 30 Politics: President Grover Cleveland vetoes the so-called Bland Bill of Missouri representative Richard Parks Bland, which would have authorized the coinage of silver bullion. Consequently, Bland promises to make silver a leading issue in the upcoming presidential election.

April 5 Labor: A coal mine strike in Connellsville, Pennsylvania, erupts into violence and 11 men are killed. The strikers are protesting the dark dangerous conditions under which they work and all too frequently die.

April 10 Conservation: Congress approves a bill placing restraints and conditions upon seal hunting in the Bering Sea.

April 14 Media: Inventor Thomas A. Edison gives a public demonstration of his moving picture camera, or kinetoscope, at 1155 Broadway, New York. The crude images include a boxing match, a dancing girl with bare ankles, and a child bathing. Success here will lead to a rash of so-called kinetoscope parlors across the nation.

April 20 General: A mine accident at Franklin, Washington, claims 37 lives.

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Labor: A large number of coal miners—136,000—strike in several states, including Ohio, for improved wages and working conditions.

April 24 General: At least 37 miners die in a tunnel disaster at Franklin, Washington.

April 30 Societal: A party of 400 protesters under Jacob Sechler Coxey marches from Ohio to Washington, D.C., to protest unemployment. The leaders of “Coxey’s Army,” anticipating a favorable reception from members of Congress, intend to demand large-scale public works programs to mitigate their poverty. However, Coxey is arrested for trespassing and his followers disband.

May 6 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Regan v. Farmer’s Loan and Trust Company, ruling that the Court can determine the reasonableness of rates, be they set by legislatures or state commissions. It is another victory for the Court’s somewhat antiquated laissez-faire view of economics.

May 11 Labor: The Pullman Palace Car Company, having reduced payroll and wages without a concomitant reduction in prices charged at workers’ homes and mandatory company stores, faces a strike by members of the militant American Railway Union. The ensuing struggle will be bitter and replete with violence, pillage, and the destruction of company property.

May 15 Labor: The New Jersey legislature passes the first laws in the nation to outlaw discrimination against workers based upon union membership. Sports: The 20th annual Kentucky Derby is won by Chant, who runs the course in two minutes, 41 seconds.

May 17 Sports: After a three-year hiatus, the Preakness Stakes resumes with its 19th running and is won by Assignee with a time of one minute 49 seconds.

May 31 Diplomacy: The U.S. Senate rules that the government of Hawaii can keep its own government and also warns outside nations from interfering with the independence of the islands. Otherwise, the Americans decline to annex the islands outright at this time.

June 19 Sports: The 28th annual Belmont Stakes is won by Henry of Navarre, who finishes in one minute, 56 seconds.

June 21 Politics: The Democratic Silver Convention in Omaha, Nebraska, receives a jolt when Congressman William Jennings Bryan delivers a rousing speech on behalf of free silver and a 16 to one ratio. This speech will establishes Bryan as a force within progressive American politics.

June 26 Labor: Eugene V. Debs, president of the American Railway Union (ARU), calls a general sympathy strike for members of the Pullman Palace Car Company; over

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Chronology of American History 50,000 miles of railroad track and service are affected. Still, the Railway Managers Association refuses to deal with the workers and summons 3,600 deputy marshals to break their strike. Technology: German inventor Karl Benz receives a U.S. patent for his gasolinepowered automobile.

June 28 General: Congress, cognizant of the mounting influence of the labor movement, declares that this day will be celebrated as Labor Day in honor of working men nationwide. The idea was first proposed in 1882.

July 2 Labor: In a major upset, President Grover Cleveland issues an injunction against railroad strikers because of their disruption of interstate commerce and postal service. This is a major blow against the union’s two main weapons, striking and boycotts. Cleveland does so at the behest of Attorney General Richard Olney, a former member of the Railway Manager’s Association, who expresses no sympathy for the strikers. The injunction specifically orders Eugene V. Debs to call off the strike, which he will refuse to do.

July 3 Labor: U.S. Army troops are deployed to Chicago to enforce a court injunction against the railroad strike against the Pullman Company. Illinois governor John P. Altgeld protests the move on constitutional grounds, insisting that the problem is local and does not merit federal intervention. In any case the American Railway Union strikers, agitated by Eugene V. Debs, are unmoved.

July 4 Settlement: Judge Sanford Dole becomes president of the Republic of Hawaii after deposing Queen Liliuokalani. He does so in contravention of orders from Washington, D.C.

July 6 Labor: U.S. deputy marshals fire upon striking railway workers in Kensington, Illinois, killing two. Naval: Sailors and marines from the cruiser USS Columbia are landed at Bluefields, Nicaragua, to protect American lives and property against civil unrest.

July 8 Labor: U.S. Army troops fire upon an unruly mob of strikers at Hammond, Indiana, killing one and wounding a dozen more.

July 10 Labor: Eugene V. Debs is indicted by a federal grand jury for his failure to comply with a court injunction against striking railroad workers. He is then indicted for criminal conspiracy and contempt of court.

July 20 Labor: U.S. Army troops are withdrawn from the Chicago area, but rampaging strikers have managed to set fires and burn $3 million in property.

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July 24 Naval: The outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War, with Japanese troops invading the Korean Peninsula, results in the landing of 50 U.S. Marines from the cruiser USS Baltimore to protect the American legation at Seoul.

July 26 Arts: Augustus Thomas’s play New Blood successfully opens in Chicago; it is a riveting account of the Pullman strike and highlights the conflict between labor and capital.

August 1 General: A fire in Chicago inflicts $3 million in property damage.

August 3 Labor: The Pullman strike is canceled by the American Railway Union, which, now abandoned by more conservative trade unions, has gained nothing by its actions. An estimated $80 million in property and wage losses is the result—along with several lives. Moreover, the organization has been crushed and no new industrial unions will be attempted until the 1930s.

August 7 Diplomacy: The United States formally recognizes the Republic of Hawaii under President Sanford Dole and also warns off foreign powers by cloaking it in the Monroe Doctrine. Interference in the islands now runs the risk of assaulting U.S. sovereignty.

August 18 Settlement: Senator Joseph Maull Carey of Wyoming sponsors the Carey Act, passed by Congress, which grants states up to one million acres of public land for settlement if owners agree to undertake irrigation measures. Societal: Congress establishes the Bureau of Immigration.

August 28 Politics: The Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act passes Congress under heavy opposition and becomes law without the signature of President Grover Cleveland; this law lowers tariffs by nearly 50 percent and also includes the first graduated income tax on incomes over $4,000. Senator John Sherman of Ohio denounces the measure as “socialism, communism, devilism.”

September 1 General: Hinckley, Minnesota, experiences a severe wind storm during a town fire that spreads to nearby communities, kills 500 people, scorches 160,000 acres, and renders thousands of survivors homeless.

September 4 Labor: Around 12,000 tailors in New York City go on strike to protest “sweat shops,” horrid work conditions, and piecework pay rates.

November 4 Politics: In mid-term elections, the Republicans sweep both houses of Congress, leading 43–49 in the Senate and 244–105 in the House of Representatives.

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November 13 Business: With gold reserves still plummeting, the Treasury Department offers a second $50 million bond to redress the balance. Public response is tepid and most of the loan is taken up by New York banks.

November 22 Diplomacy: Japan and the United States conclude a commercial treaty in Washington, D.C., although tensions remain over the issue of immigration.

November 25 Journalism: The Boston Globe prints the first color supplement on the day of a Harvard-Princeton game.

November 30 Diplomacy: The sultan of the Ottoman Empire invites an American delegation to investigate the massacre of Armenians in the Sassoun district, but President Grover Cleveland declines to get involved. Armenian refugees in America, angered by what they perceive as indifference to their plight, begin organizing politically.

December 14 Crime: Captain Timothy J. Creeden admits to a New York state senate committee that he paid $15,000 to receive his captaincy; his admission leads to a wider investigation of the New York City Police Department. Labor: Radical union leader Eugene V. Debs is sentenced to six months in jail for failing to heed a court injunction against striking railroad workers. He was articulately but unsuccessfully defended by his attorney, Clarence Darrow.

December 22 Sports: The U.S. Golf Association is formed from five clubs in New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Illinois. They intend to create standard rules, establish tournaments, and otherwise promote the game, but two decades will lapse before golf becomes anything more then a pastime of the wealthy.

December 29 General: A Christmas festival fire at Silver Lake, Oregon, kills 40 people.

1895 Architecture: Daniel H. Burnham continues pioneering the use of steel frame architecture, in the-16 story Reliance Building of Chicago, Illinois. Arts: Illustrator Charles Dana Gibson perfects and publishes drawings of his ideal of the model woman, the so-called Gibson Girl, who is slender, aloof, and highly beautiful. His visage plays a major role in how Americans of this generation, particularly women, see themselves. Voluptuous stage actress Lillian Russell gains both recognition and notoriety as America’s first sex symbol; her social affairs and many private flings garner far more attention than her talent. Civil: African-American author Ida B. Wells publishes “The Red Record,” a shocking statistical pamphlet detailing lynching in the South. Indian: Comanche leader Quanah Parker is removed from the Court of Indian Offenses because he has followed tribal tradition and possesses several wives. Literature: Neophyte novelist Stephen Crane publishes his riveting Civil War novel, The Red Badge of Courage, at the age of 23. The book becomes renowned

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for its realism and grasp of armed combat, despite the author’s complete lack of military experience. Music: Ben R. Harley’s song “You’ve Been a Good Old Wagon but You’ve Done Broke Down” contains the first identifiable ragtime features. It will become a standard number in New Orleans jazz houses. Organist and composer George W. Chadwick begins compiling his “Symphonic Sketches,” drawn largely from the streets and fields of America. He is the most creatively versatile member of the so-called Boston Classicists. Publishing: Elbert Hubbard establishes the Roycroft Press in East Aurora, New York, and with it begins publishing a monthly literary magazine, The Philistine. Field and Stream Magazine begins publication. Sports: Pennsylvania win the national college football championship with 14 wins, no ties, no losses. The U.S. Lawn Tennis Association singles championships are won by Fred H. Hovey and Juliette P. Atkinson in their respective divisions. Baltimore wins the National League baseball championship with 87 wins, 43 losses. Women take so readily to biking that their otherwise long skirts are shortened an inch from the ankle by necessity, although the hems remain weighted down with lead in the interest of preserving modesty. Bikes have become so numerous of late that they actually outnumber horses in some communities and are known popularly as “silent steeds.” Technology: The first pneumatic bicycle tires are manufactured in Hartford, Connecticut. Transportation: It is estimated that at least 300 of the newfangled motorcars are chugging their way across America’s largely unpaved road system. Gasolinepowered vehicles constitute only 20 percent of those in service; the remainder are either steam or electric driven. Women: Suffragette Elizabeth Cady Stanton publishes her Women’s Bible, which removes all offensive references to that gender.

January 5 General: Tragedy strikes as the Kenyon-Connell Company warehouse in Butte, Montana, catches fire, detonating stored boxes of dynamite and killing several employees.

January 6 Religion: In Rome, Pope Leo XIII, though pleased with the growth of Catholicism in the United States, is alarmed by its insistence upon secularism and calls for greater cooperation between church and state.

January 14 Labor: Riots arising from a strike by trolley operators in Brooklyn, New York, have to be subdued by state militia.

January 16 Politics: Liliuokalani, former queen of Hawaii, is arrested and jailed under a charge of treason, along with 200 supporters. According to her detractors, she has been plotting to overthrow the Republic of Hawaii.

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January 21 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of United States v. E. C. Knight, ruling that the Sherman Anti-Trust Act applies only to those monopolies engaged in interstate commerce. It then draws a fine line between manufacturing and commerce, declaring that a sugar combine cannot be affected by the act. This ruling temporarily renders the Sherman Act legally impotent.

January 22 Business: Representatives from several hundred manufacturing concerns gather at Cincinnati, Ohio, to found a national lobbying organization calling itself the National Association of Manufacturers. It is the latest sign of the growing technical and intellectual sophistication of the business sector, now an underpinning of the consumer-oriented economy.

February 8 Business: National gold reserves continue plunging downward, to $41 million, but Congress fails to pass a bill requiring that notes redeemed in gold cannot be reissued. The result is a continuing run on the nation’s gold reserves. Meanwhile, the government arranges a federal gold purchase of $62 million from J. P. Morgan and August Belmont to make up the difference.

February 11 General: Congress establishes the Gettysburg National Military Park, consisting of 2,400 of the most desperately contested acres in American history.

February 20 Diplomacy: President Grover Cleveland receives a congressional nod to help arbitrate a lengthy border dispute between Venezuela and British Guiana, now intensified by the discovery of gold in the region. Great Britain, however, stridently declines any such assistance.

February 23 Diplomacy: Cubans resume their rebellion against Spanish rule when Spain suspends its constitutional guarantees of 1878. The United States, with extensive property holdings on the island, takes a keen interest in the restoration of peace.

February 24 Journalism: Recent Spanish cruelty toward members of the Cuban population suspected of harboring revolutionaries, is increasingly reported in American newspapers. This marks the rise of “yellow journalism,” in papers controlled by Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, which is jingoistic by nature and seeks to embroil the United States in a conflict abroad.

March 2 Naval: Congress continues its modernizing trend by authorizing construction of the battleships Kearsarge and Kentucky.

March 5 Politics: A minority of “Silver Democrats” in the House of Representatives led by Richard P. Bland of Missouri begins a campaign for “free silver” coinage at a rate of 16 silver to one gold. The idea is gaining in popularity thanks to the eloquent agitation of former congressman William Jennings Bryan, who has left his seat to begin a speaking tour, affording more proof that the party

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is turning against President Grover Cleveland and his preference for the gold standard.

March 8 Naval: Proof of expanding American interests on a global scale is evinced today when U.S. Marines from the cruisers USS Baltimore and Atlanta are sent ashore at Chenfoo, China, and Boca del Toro, Colombia, to protect American lives and property during intervals of unrest.

March 13 Naval: The John P. Holland Company of New York contracts with the Navy Department to construct the service’s first submarine.

March 18 Societal: A body of 200 African Americans from Savannah, Georgia, relocates to the U.S.-founded nation of Liberia in Africa, continuing a trend that began in 1822.

March 20 General: Nearly 60 miners are killed in a coal mine explosion at Red Canyon, Wyoming.

April 17 Military: Japan’s sweeping victory over China in the Sino-Japanese War is finalized by the Treaty of Shimonoseki, whereby the Korean Peninsula becomes independent and the islands of Formosa and the Pescadores are ceded to the victor. This puts the world on notice that Japan, which had been living in feudalism only three decades before, has become a regional power to reckon with.

April 27 Diplomacy: A dispute over the Mosquito Islands of Nicaragua leads to the landing of Royal Marines there to secure reparations. President Grover Cleveland decides that the British are in their rights and their action does not constitute a violation of the Monroe Doctrine, but he is assailed in the press by Republicans for appeasement.

May 6 Sports: The 21st annual Kentucky Derby is won by Halma with a time of two minutes and 37 seconds.

May 15 Politics: Free coinage advocates from 17 states gather for a convention at Salt Lake City, Utah Territory.

May 20 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Pollock v. Farmer’s Loan and Trust Company, ruling that the income tax provision of the Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act, which levies taxes on all incomes over $4,000, is unconstitutional for directly taxing a specific segment of society. Consequently, the $80,000 collected thus far is to be returned to its rightful owners. The Court also decides the case of United States v. E. C. Knight Co., removing interstate monopolies from the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, thereby weakening the federal government’s control over such practices.

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May 25 Sports: The 20th annual Preakness Stakes is won by Belmar who finishes in one minute, 50 seconds.

May 27 Labor: The U.S. Supreme Court decides In re Debs that the Sherman AntiTrust Act can be applied against organized labor by declaring federal injunctions against them legitimate on the grounds that they are interfering with interstate commerce and the mails.

June 1 Journalism: Staunch Kansas Republican William Allen White becomes editor of the Emporia Gazette, and readily takes on that state’s more populist establishments.

June 8 Politics: President Grover Cleveland appoints Richard Olney to serve as the new secretary of state.

June 11 Technology: Charles E. Duryea receives a patent for an automobile he first designed in 1893.

June 12 Politics: President Grover Cleveland invokes neutrality laws and warns citizens against aiding Cuban rebels against the government of Spain, although popular sympathy is being framed and fanned by the “yellow journalism” of publishers like William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer.

June 25 Diplomacy: Joseph Chamberlain gains appointment as Great Britain’s colonial secretary; he will initiate a major program to harmonize relations with the United States, thereby fostering global “Anglo-Saxon unity.”

July 4 Arts: Wellesley College professor Katherine Lee Bates composes her singular poem “America the Beautiful” for a church publication, the Congregationalist.

July 20 Diplomacy: Secretary of State Richard Olney, invoking the Monroe Doctrine, sends a decidedly arrogant telegram to English foreign minister Lord Salisbury, and declares the United States master of the Western Hemisphere and virtually invulnerable to attack. The British, unimpressed, will ignore the telegram. This hubris is in reference to an ongoing border dispute between Venezuela and British Guiana, where gold has been discovered.

August 15 Naval: The USS Texas is commissioned, becoming the first armored battleship to serve in the U.S. Navy. However, because its armament is designed off-center, the ship will quickly be reclassified as a second-class warship once more modern designs with centerline main battery turrets are built.

August 19 Crime: Notorious gunslinger John Wesley Hardin is gunned down in a saloon in El Paso, Texas. He is shot point-blank in the back by Sheriff John Selman before Hardin can carry out alleged threats to kill the sheriff ’s son.

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August 31 Sports: The Latrobe, Pennsylvania, Y.M.C.A. football team trounces its rivals from Jeanette, 12–0, in the first professional game. John Brailier, a quarterback with the Latrobe team, is paid $10 for his services—making him the nation’s first professional, paid athlete.

September 7–12 Sports: The U.S. yacht Defender successfully fends off a challenge by the British vessel Valkyrie II.

September 9 Sports: Delegates to the American Bowling Congress gather for the first time in Beethoven Hall, New York City, as a ruling body for the sport, nationwide. As such it will standardize rules and equipment and also plan national tournaments.

September 17 Naval: The USS Maine, originally built as an armored cruiser but now reclassified as a second-class battleship, is commissioned into service. The ship will serves for only three years before being destroyed by an accidental explosion that brings on a war.

September 18 Civil: The Cotton States and International Exposition unfolds in Atlanta, Georgia, to showcase that region’s participation in the age of industrialization. Among the guest speakers is African-American reformer Booker T. Washington, who appeals for accommodation between the two races until such time that equal rights can be granted. His controversial stance subsequently becomes known as the Atlanta Compromise and garners the speaker a national reputation.

September 27 General: A self-proclaimed Irish National Convention meets in Chicago, Illinois, where the use of force to free Ireland from Great Britain is discussed openly.

October 4 Sports: Nineteen-year-old Horace Rawlins, an English expatriate and former caddy, wins the first U.S. Open golf tournament at Newport, Rhode Island.

October 5 Military: General Nelson A. Miles replaces John McAllister Schofield as commanding general of the U.S. Army.

October 12 Technology: The world’s first electrical power grid, designed by Croatian expatriate Nikola Tesla, is constructed by the Westinghouse Electric Company at Niagara Falls; the new system employs no less than 10 large generators that utilize the alternating current principle invented by Tesla.

October 21 Business: The Southern California Fruit Exchange (today’s Sunkist Growers) is incorporated.

November 2 Sports: The 29th annual Belmont Stakes is won by Belmar, who runs the course in two minutes, 11 seconds.

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November 5 Business: George B. Selden finally obtains a patent for an automobile he first designed in 1879; the designer christens his new device a “road engine.” However, judging from the extent of infringements on the patent and the legal actions that ensue, this becomes and will remain the most controversial litigation in automotive history. Women: The new Utah constitution is written with a passage to include women’s suffrage.

November 6 General: The boiler at the Detroit Evening Journal explodes, killing 40 workers.

November 15 General: Turkish militants, convinced that Western powers are clandestinely spreading Christianity in the predominately Muslim land, burn several Americanowned missions at Marash and Harput. The U.S. government will demand a $100,000 indemnity for property destroyed.

November 20 Naval: The USS Indiana, the first modern American battleship sporting a centerline turret armament, is commissioned.

November 26 Diplomacy: British foreign minister Robert A. T. Gascoyne-Cecil, Lord Salisbury, responds unfavorably to Secretary of State Richard Olney’s invocation of the Monroe Doctrine in a border dispute between Venezuela and British Guiana. The British insist the dispute is none of America’s business.

November 28 Sports: The first automobile race transpires on a 54-mile course from Chicago to Evanston, Illinois. A car built and driven by Charles E. Duryea is declared winner after covering the distance in seven hours and 53 minutes. His closest competitor is a Benz automobile shipped in from Germany.

December 2 Politics: The 54th Congress assembles with the Republicans in charge of both houses; a total of 13 Populists are also in the two chambers.

December 17 Societal: The Anti-Saloon League is officially founded as a national organization in Washington, D.C., only a year after its humble origin in Oberlin, Ohio.

December 17–21 Diplomacy: President Grover Cleveland angrily addresses Congress with the belligerent correspondence from Lord Salisbury regarding the boundary dispute between Great Britain and Venezuela. He then demands and receives $100,000 to form a commission to arbitrate the boundary dispute, consistent with the norms of the Monroe Doctrine, which forbids European territorial aggression in the Western Hemisphere. Although war does not seem imminent, Cleveland has certainly roiled the waters between the two nations.

December 25 Business: A large deposit of natural gas is struck at Iola, Kansas, sparking efforts to retrieve it for industrial purposes.

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1896 Aviation: Aeronautical pioneer Samuel P. Langley constructs a steam-powered model airplane that flies for 90 seconds across the Potomac River. Business: Brothers Charles E. and J. Frank Duryea commence building 10 automobiles a year; they will win several races and establish themselves as a force on the early American automotive scene. General: The New York Aquarium is established to provide both public entertainment and a center of ichthyological studies. Journalism: The New Orleans Picayune begins a column for the lovelorn by Elizabeth Meriwether Gilmer, writing under the nom de plume Dorothea Dix. Finley Peter Dunne creates a column by “Mr. Dooley,” a fictional Irish barkeep who proffers pointed and frequently unsavory commentary about Chicago’s political and social scenes. Literature: Sarah Orne Jewett pens another local-color masterpiece entitled The Country of the Pointed Firs, which highlights ongoing problems in the Maine wilderness. Mark Twain publishes Joan of Arc, his final major work. A third edition of Emily Dickinson’s poems is published, containing more newly discovered material.

Dickinson, Emily

(1830–1886)

Poetess Emily Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, on December 10, 1830, the daughter of a successful politician and treasurer of nearby Amherst College. She attended Amherst Academy and performed sufficiently well enough to be admitted into the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, but Dickinson disliked being away from home and dropped out. At this point she began showing signs of reclusiveness that characterized her later adult life, the cause for which biographers and historians can only speculate. The most given explanation was a failed romance with a “dear friend,” Benjamin Newton, who was too poor to marry, or the brilliant preacher Reverend Charles Wadsworth. In any event, Dickinson rarely, if ever, left the confines of her parent’s home after 1848. By all accounts she was a bright, even gifted individual, yet morose and pathologically isolated from

contemporary society. Throughout most of her life, poetry appears to have been her only source of solace and at the same time, since her works were continually rejected by publishers, simply another source of pain. Dickinson had apparently begun writing verse as early as teenhood, but she did the bulk of her composing in the years 1858–66. She possessed what today is considered a marvelous sense of unorthodox diction and meter, with a predilection for recurring themes of metaphysical speculation, God, romance, and death. However, coming at the time when it did, her poetry proved far too unorthodox for the closely prescribed Victorian standards of her day, and she never published under her name. The only exception was the Springfield Republic in 1852, when two anonymous and heavily (continues)

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(continued) edited pieces appeared. In 1862 she turned to Atlantic Monthly editor Thomas Wentworth Higginson for help and advice and, while he did not publish her poems, he did proffer useful advice and the two became friendly correspondents. Dickinson died at her home on May 15, 1886, alone and in near obscurity. Dickinson’s rise to fame came posthumously. During her lifetime her 1,775 compositions were kept neatly arranged in a large ebony box and in 1890 her friend Higginson was asked by her sister, Lavinia Dickinson, to edit and publish some of them. The three collections of poetry, all heavily edited by Higginson, appeared in 1890, 1891, and 1896, and were badly received by contempo-

rary critics. It was not until the 20th century, when the syntax and meter norms of contemporary poetry had vastly changed, that Dickinson’s genius was finally recognized. Several more volumes appeared over the ensuing decades, but it was not until 1955 that Harvard University published a definitive, annotated edition of all 1,775 poems. Present-day scholars continue to hail her as one of the most original and creative voices in American poetry, ahead of such literary luminaries as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John Greenleaf Whittier, and Sidney Lanier. The equally eccentric Walt Whitman, writing in a similarly disjointed and unmelodic style, is considered her closest rival for laurels.

The religious novel In His Steps by Charles M. Sheldon becomes one of the year’s best-sellers. Harold Frederic’s controversial novel The Damnation of Theron Ware dishes dirt on the religious hypocrisy of small-town Methodists and causes a popular stir. Media: R. F. Outcault pens the first comic strip, The Yellow Kid, in the New York World. Captions adorn the kid’s baggy, yellow shirt, thus giving a novel, “yellow journalism,” to the sensationalistic, jingoistic brand of journalism so prevalent in that day. Military: The 14th U.S. Infantry and detachments from other regiments arrive in Alaska to help map and survey land routes and mineral resources in that largely uncharted wilderness. Music: In an attempt to elevate music studies at the college level, Columbia University appoints Edward A. MacDowell as head of its new Music Department. He is one of the first composers to stimulate interest in a genuine form of orchestral music based upon Native American and African-American melodies. Noted conductor John Philip Sousa creates his legendary composition, “Stars and Stripes Forever,” which remains a perennial and patriotic favorite among Americans. Theodore A. Metz pens the highly popular song, “There’ll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Night.” Publishing: Theodore Roosevelt finishes the fourth and final volume to his mammoth study The Winning of the West. Spanish-born George Santayana, now a Harvard University philosopher, publishes his The Sense of Beauty. Religion: William Ashley “Billy” Sunday, a former professional baseball player, turns to evangelical Christianity, becoming one of the nation’s most sought after

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preachers. Before dying in 1935 he will conduct 300 revivals and be heard by an estimated 100 million people. John Alexander Downie, a Scot who arrived in America by way of Australia, founds his Christian Catholic Church, which will grow to encompass 100,000 members and include its own tabernacle at Zion, Illinois. The Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (or yeshiva) is founded in New York City; it is the first such institution in the United States. Sports: Princeton wins the national college football championship with 10 wins, no losses, and one tie. Baltimore wins the National League baseball championship with 90 wins, 39 losses.

January 1 Diplomacy: President Grover Cleveland appoints an investigating committee to explore the boundary dispute between Venezuela and British Guiana. The British government, already preoccupied by fears of an expanding war in South Africa, reluctantly agrees to cooperate.

January 4 Settlement: After five unsuccessful attempts, Utah (the name is derived from the local Ute Indians) becomes the 45th state admitted to the Union, with its capital at Salt Lake City. This was not possible until the Mormon Church officially renounced the practice of polygamy; also, Utah’s constitution promotes women’s suffrage.

January 6 Business: Gold reserves continue plummeting to dangerous new levels owing to a fourth bond issue worth $100 million and a recent deal with the banking establishment under J.P. Morgan. Because the government continues to redeem bonds in gold, the reserves keep dwindling. Editor Joseph Pulitzer of the New York World coins the term “robber barons” to describe the parties involved.

January 25 Diplomacy: Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain of Great Britain seeks a diplomatic rapprochement with the United States after the Boer War breaks out in southern Africa and the emperor of Germany telegrams the rebels (largely of Dutch descent) congratulations.

January 29 Medical: Dr. Emil H. Grube utilizes X rays for the first time during the treatment of breast cancer. They are measured in units called roentgens after their discoverer, Conrad Roentgen of Germany, and are used to selectively burn malignant cells.

February 10 Journalism: In a streak of unabashed “yellow journalism,” the American press describes the cruel Spanish general Valeriano Weyler as “the Butcher.”

February 28 Diplomacy: Congress grants the rebels in Cuba “belligerent rights” and also offers the Spanish government American cooperation if it chooses to negotiate with them.

March 6 Transportation: Charles Brady King designs and tests the first car driven in Detroit, Michigan. Among the many observers present is a Henry Ford, who becomes fixated on automobiles.

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March 16 Settlement: The U.S. Supreme Court settles a lengthy border dispute between Texas and Oklahoma.

March 20 Military: U.S. Marines are landed at Cortino, Nicaragua, to protect American citizens after a revolution breaks out there.

April 4 Diplomacy: In Washington, D.C., Secretary of State Richard Olney contacts Spanish minister Enrique de Lome and offers to mediate the dispute between Spain and Cuban rebels. The minister politely but firmly declines the offer.

April 6 Diplomacy: Congress seeks to grant the Cuban rebels belligerent status and offers American assistance to Spain as an arbitrator—with a view toward independence. Sports: A team of athletes from the United States participates in the first modern Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, winning nine of 12 events—an amazing event considering they arrived completely out of shape after a long ocean trip and had no time to warm up. James B. Connolly, by winning the hop, skip, and jump, is anointed as the first Olympic champion in more than 15 centuries.

April 23 Technology: Koster and Bial’s Music Hall in New York City is the site of another public display of Thomas A. Edison’s new motion picture technology, or Vitascope. A short black and white film, wows the onlookers and a New York Times writer considers the program “Wonderfully real and singularly exhilarating.” Word of mouth is making the “flickers” the most popular entertainment in America.

May 2 Naval: The gunboat USS Alert dispatches a landing party ashore at Cortino, Nicaragua, to protect American lives and property in an interval of unrest.

May 6 Civil: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the seminal case of Plessy v. Ferguson, ruling that “separate but equal” does not deprive African Americans of civil rights as defined by the Fourteenth Amendment. This will give rise to the infamous “Jim Crow Laws,” which formalize racial discrimination throughout the South. Sports: The 22nd annual Kentucky Derby is won by Ben Brush with a time of two minutes, seven seconds.

May 12 Military: The all-African-American 25th Infantry Bicycle Corps is formed at Fort Missoula, Montana, under Second Lieutenant James A. Moss, a white officer. This is the only such unit in the world and seeks to test the viability of such light and reliable transportation for military applications.

May 18 Indian: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Talton v. Mayes, ruling that the Bill of Rights does not apply to Indian tribal court proceedings, seeing that tribal governments predate the Constitution.

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Media: William Randolph Hearst scores a minor publishing coup by convincing cartoonist R. F. Outcault to transfer his noted strip, the Yellow Kid, from a paper owned by rival Joseph Pulitzer to his own New York Journal.

May 22 Diplomacy: Spain declines American offers of help for negotiating with Cuban rebels, which spells the end of President Grover Cleveland’s hands-off approach to the issue.

May 27 General: A large tornado rips through St. Louis and East St. Louis, killing 306 people and displacing 5,000 more. Damage is estimated at $13 million. Politics: The Prohibition Party convenes in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to nominate Joshua Levering of Maryland for president and Hale Johnson of Illinois to be vice president. The free silver-oriented National Party nominates Charles E. Bentley for president.

June 2 Sports: The 30th annual Belmont Stakes is won by Hastings, who runs the course in two minutes, 24 seconds.

June 4 Business: At Detroit, Michigan, Henry Ford completes his first Ford automobile in a brick work shed. Once finished, the new vehicle will prove wider than the exit door, which has to be knocked down.

June 6 Sport: The 21st Preakness Stakes is won by Margrave with a time of one minute, 51 seconds.

June 11 General: The house where Abraham Lincoln died on April 15, 1865, is declared a national historic monument.

June 16–18 Politics: The Republican Party hosts its national convention in St. Louis, Missouri, and nominates William McKinley for the presidency, chiefly through the machinations of Cleveland industrialist Mark Hanna. However, 34 “Silver Republicans” bolt the proceedings to support like-minded candidates of the Democratic Party. Garret A. Hobart of New Jersey is also chosen as vice president while the party platform endorses both high tariffs and the gold standard.

June 28 General: A cave-in at a coal mine in Pittston, Pennsylvania, kills 58 miners.

July 4 –9 Politics: The Socialist Labor Party meets in New York City and nominates Charles H. Machett of New York and Matthew Maguire of New Jersey as president and vice president, respectively.

July 7–11 Politics: The Democratic Party, badly split over the issue of silver, convenes its national convention in Chicago, Illinois, and selects Nebraskan William Jennings Bryan as its nominee for president. Bryan thunders off with one of his trademark,

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Chronology of American History rousing speeches on behalf of free silver, declaring, “You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.” This stance forces numerous “gold Democrats” to depart the proceedings and form a splinter group of their own, the “National Democrats.” Arthur Sewall, a Maine banker who still supports free silver, is nominated for the vice presidency.

July 18 Sports: James Foulis wins the U.S. Open golf tournament.

July 22–24 Politics: Western, or “Silver Republicans,” convene a convention of their own in St. Louis under Henry M. Teller of Colorado and endorse William Jennings Bryan for president and Arthur Sewall for vice president. The Populist Party, also meeting across town, likewise throws its support behind Bryan but, to maintain its distance from the Democrats, chooses Thomas Watson for the vice presidency.

July 25 Politics: The People’s (Populist) Party holds its national convention and nominates William Jennings Bryan for president and Thomas E. Watson of Georgia for vice president.

July 30 General: A train accident near Atlantic City, New Jersey, kills 60 passengers.

July 31 Indian: In Jackson Hole, Wyoming, white settlers kill three Bannock Indians, including one child, and the government orders Major Adna Romanza Chaffee there with troops to restore order and prevent the outbreak of fighting.

August 6 General: Gold is discovered on the Klondike River of Canada’s Yukon territory, near the border of Alaska, sparking another major gold rush. Within two years 25,000 gold seekers will be braving freezing weather and permafrost conditions to extract the precious metal from the ground.

August 15 Journalism: Republican editor William Allen White of the Emporia Gazette pens a noted column entitled “What’s the Matter with Kansas?” following an ugly confrontation with irate populists. This attack on Democrats subsequently makes its way into every major newspaper and will be coopted by the presidential campaign of William McKinley.

August 16 Settlement: Word of the gold strike near Dawson in Canada’s Yukon, close to the Alaska border, triggers a stampede of 18,000 prospectors; they will be joined by 100,000 more by year’s end.

September Societal: Nathaniel Hawthorne’s daughter, Rose Hawthorne Lathrop, establishes a free home in New York City for poor cancer patients.

September 2–3 Politics: The National (gold standard) Democrats who abandoned their party after it embraced William Jennings Bryan, assemble a convention of their own

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at Indianapolis, Indiana, and choose John M. Palmer of Illinois and Simon B. Buckner of Kentucky for president and vice president, respectively.

September 7 Sports: The first racetrack for automobiles opens in Narragansett, Rhode Island, where a handful of mechanical daredevils hope to propel America into the horseless carriage age. Several spectators, singularly unimpressed by their technical endeavors, allegedly yell “Get a horse!”

October 1 Business: The U.S. Post Office establishes rural free delivery (R.F.D.) areas across Virginia, with the rest of the nation soon to follow. This move ends the long-standing cultural and intellectual isolation suffered by remote regions of the nation and also stimulates the rise of mail-order retail businesses nationwide.

October 26 Journalism: In New York City, editor Adolph Ochs, determined to produce a respectable newspaper, unlike the Hurst and Pulitzer scandal sheets, arranges the purchase of the failing New York Times. His approach is to disavow the sensationalism then in vogue and give readers nothing less than “All the news that’s fit to print.”

November Sports: The Amateur Hockey League, the first in the nation, is organized in New York City. This Canadian import sport is growing in popularity wherever ice can be found for extended periods.

November 3 Politics: In a taut and highly emotional campaign, Williams Jenning Bryan has traveled has 1,800 miles to deliver 600 speeches, earning the moniker “Boy orator of the Platte.” Low-key William McKinley, in contrast, has conducted his “front porch” campaign and addressed thousands of voters who stop outside his Ohio home. Meanwhile, his campaign manager, millionaire Mark Hanna, distributed millions of campaign leaflets and hired an army of campaign speakers to tour the nation for him. In the end McKinley defeats Bryan with a popular vote of 7.1 million to 6.5 million and an electoral count of 271 to 165. The campaign has been stridently negative, with many business owners warning workers they will no longer have jobs if Bryan is elected. Still, the results are relatively close considering that the well-heeled Republicans spent over $47 million while the impoverished Democrats, deserted by big business, had only $300,000 in their coffers. Nonetheless, this victory spells the doom of attempts to put silver on a parity with gold and also signals the demise of the Populist Party. The Republicans maintain control of both chambers of Congress. Women: Idaho adopts women’s suffrage as an amendment to the state constitution.

November 12 Diplomacy: In Washington, D.C., Secretary of State Richard Olney and British minister Sir Julian Pauncefote agree to terms for establishing an arbitration treaty between Great Britain and Venezuela. The panel consists of two American Supreme Court justices, two British high court justices, a member appointed by Sweden, and one from Venezuela.

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December 10 Diplomacy: Queen Liliuokalani ( jibed in the press as “Queen Lil”) arrives at San Francisco on a goodwill tour of the United States.

December 15 Sports: The first ice hockey league game is played in America when the St. Nick’s Skating Club shuts out the Brooklyn skaters, 15–0.

1897 Architecture: John Merven Carrere and Thomas Hastings begin work on the New York Public Library building along Fifth Avenue. The finished product will strongly reflect the design principles espoused by the Ecole de Beaux Arts in Paris. Literature: Novelist S. Weir Mitchell pens Hugh Wynne, Free Quaker, considered to be his finest historical work. The novel Soldiers of Fortune by Richard Harding Davis becomes an instant best-seller, although the author gradually lapses into obscurity. From his home in Brattleboro, Vermont, British writer Rudyard Kipling writes another successful novel, Captains Courageous. Edwin Arlington Robinson pens a collection of noted poems entitled The Children of the Night. Media: The Katzenjammer Kids, a cartoon strip by Rudolph Dirks appearing in the New York Journal, becomes the first cartoon strip to utilize speech balloons. Medical: The American Osteopathic Association is founded, indicative of osteopathy’s rising relevance to medical practice. Politics: The entire faculty of the Kansas Agricultural College is dismissed for failing to wholeheartedly endorse populism. Publishing: Moses Coit Taylor finishes his Literary History of the American Revolution. Charles M. Sheldon, a Congregationalist minister, writes In His Steps, which exhorts young people to see what they can accomplish by emulating Jesus Christ for a year. It proves an immediate best-seller and will sell eight million copies. William James, leader of the pragmatist philosophical movement, publishes a collection of his beliefs in The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy. Science: The Yerkes Observatory, constructed under the aegis of the University of Chicago, is opened at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. It is named after its major benefactor, traction magnate Charles Tyson Yerkes. Societal: The citizens of Cheyenne, Wyoming, begin celebrating Frontier Day, which will continue as a five-day Wild West Show. Sports: The U.S. Lawn Tennis Association singles championships are won by Robert D. Wrenn and Juliette P. Atkinson in their respective divisions. Boston wins the National League baseball championship with 93 wins, 39 losses.

January 11 Diplomacy: The Olney-Pauncefote Treaty, which makes accommodations for arbitration between Great Britain and the United States, is submitted to the Senate by President Grover Cleveland; however, it will never be ratified. Still,

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the effort is indicative of a warming trend between the two nations and better cooperation. Women: In Utah, M. H. Cannon is chosen to become Utah’s first state senator.

January 12 Business: The National Monetary Conference assembles at Indianapolis, Indiana, to convince Congress to adopt a long-range monetary strategy pegged to the gold standard. This is another indication that gold levels are on the upswing and prosperity is returning to the land.

January 26 Societal: The New Orleans Board of Aldermen, cognizant that they will never be able to outlaw prostitution, resolve to allow it to flourish along Basin Street near the French Quarter, only. Thereafter the area will jocularly be known as “Storyville” after Alderman Sidney Story, who proposed the measure.

January 30 Architecture: Henry Janeway Hardenberg begins designing the lavish, 10-story Astoria Hotel in New York City.

February 2 Diplomacy: Prodded by American agitation, Great Britain and Venezuela sign an accord to settle their boundary dispute through arbitration. This precludes any need for American assistance or diplomatic intervention and the arbitration commission created by President Grover Cleveland is dismissed. General: A raging fire guts the Pennsylvania state capitol in Harrisburg; a new building will not be completed on the same site until 1906.

February 17 Societal: Phoebe A. Hearst and Alice M. Birney found the National Congress of Mothers in Washington, D.C. This is a precursor to the National Congress of Parents and Teachers (PTA) in 1924.

February 21 Politics: In a major political payoff, industrialist Mark Hanna is appointed U.S. senator from Ohio, replacing John Sherman who becomes the new secretary of state. Hanna has been an unstinting supporter of newly elected William McKinley and was instrumental in his recent victory over populist William Jennings Bryan.

March 1 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Allgeyer v. Louisiana, ruling that the Fourteenth Amendment protects all freedoms associated with making contracts. The legal concept “free of contract” also surfaces for the first time.

March 2 Politics: In one of his last acts in office, President Grover Cleveland vetoes a bill subjecting migrants to a literacy test on the basis that it is “a radical departure.”

March 4 Politics: William A. McKinley is inaugurated the 25th president of the United States while Garett A. Hobart becomes vice president. In his inaugural address he promises that war will be the last resort in sorting out the nation’s difficulties.

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McKinley, William (1843–1901) President William McKinley was born in Niles, Ohio, on January 29, 1843, and spent much of his childhood in the neighboring town of Poland. He subsequently attended Allegheny College for one semester before dropping out due to illness, and he later found work as a teacher and post office clerk. In 1862 he joined the 23rd Ohio Volunteers under Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes, fought well in several battles, and mustered out three years later with a rank of major. Afterward McKinley attended the Albany Law School, then passed the Ohio bar exam and established a practice in Canton, Ohio. By this time he had developed an infatuation for Republican Party politics and held several statewide offices before gaining election to the U.S. House

of Representatives in 1876. In this capacity he favored high tariffs and civil service reform, which culminated in his appointment as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. Here McKinley pushed through the protectionist tariff act that bears his name to increase rates previously lowered by President Grover Cleveland. However, he lost his seat due to the gerrymandering of Democrats and returned to Ohio in 1891. That year he successfully ran for the governorship of his home state, which he held until January 1896. As the decade ground on, McKinley was increasingly less disposed to support the free coinage of silver to stimulate inflation and lessen the monetary burden on farmers, and came to embrace the gold

March 5 Politics: President William McKinley appoints John Sherman, a former Ohio senator, as secretary of state; he will serve little over a year due to illness. Russell A. Alger, a distinguished Civil War general and former commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, is appointed secretary of war by President William McKinley.

March 6 Naval: In Washington, D.C., John Davis Long, former governor of Massachusetts, becomes the 34th secretary of the navy.

March 15 Politics: The 55th Congress assembles with Republicans in firm control of both houses.

March 17 Sports: In Carson City, Nevada, Bob Fitzsimmons defeats “Gentleman Jim” Corbett for the world heavyweight boxing championship, toppling him in 14 rounds. This is the first boxing match recorded on film, with three cameras present.

March 22 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of United States v. Trans-Missouri Freight Association on a five to four vote, finally ruling that railroads are, in fact, subject to tenets of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.

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standard of his party. In 1896 he ran for the presidency, with the assistance of millionaire Marcus Hanna, on a platform that called for hard currency and high tariffs, and that year he handily defeated the free silver populist candidacy of William Jennings Bryan. Once in office, McKinley signed the Dingley Act, which raised tariff rates. However, the balance of his administration became overwhelmingly absorbed by the issues of war and peace, along with an increasing desire to obtain the overseas possessions befitting a great power. Cuba was then in the throes of a protracted rebellion against Spain, and McKinley fell under mounting pressure to go to war and protect American sugar interests on that island. The trend was accelerated following the accidental sinking of the battleship USS Maine on February

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15, 1898, and war was finally declared that April. The Americans easily triumphed in this one-sided contest, but McKinley proved no outright imperialist and the country had to settle for an independent Cuba and control over the Philippines until selfgovernance was possible, while Hawaii, Guam, and Puerto Rico received territorial status. McKinley nonetheless basked in the afterglow of his successful “little war,” and in 1900 he easily defeated Bryan in a political rematch. This time he was paired with Theodore Roosevelt, a popular New York progressive, who served as his vice president. McKinley anticipated his second term would be dominated by administering these new acquisitions, but on September 6, 1901, he was shot by anarchist Leon F. Czolgosz, in Buffalo, New York, and died eight days later.

April Business: President William A. McKinley dispatches a commission to Europe to sound out the concept of international bimentalism.

April 19 Sports: John J. McDermott wins the first running of the Boston Marathon, with a run of two hours, 55 minutes, and 10 seconds.

April 22 Naval: Inventor Simon Lake constructs and tests the submarine Argonaut, which is both fully submersible and manageable under water. This craft, 36 feet long and powered by a 30 horsepower gasoline engine, depends on a hose floating from the surface to provide air to both crew and propulsion engine. Sports: Louis Sockalexis, a full-blooded Penobscot Indian, becomes the first Native-American professional baseball player when he signs with the Cleveland Spiders.

April 23 Indian: The Choctaw and Chickasaw nations sign the Atoka Agreement with the U.S. government, which doubles their land assignments under the Allotment Treaty to 320 acres.

May 4 Sports: The 23rd annual Kentucky Derby is won by Typhoon II, who runs the course in two minutes, 32 seconds.

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May 5 Diplomacy: The Japanese government, incensed over Hawaii’s discriminatory policy toward its immigrant workers, dispatches the warship Naniwa to voice its discontent. Japan’s minister in residence, H. Shimamura, then warns the Hawaiians to stop the practice immediately, or war would follow. Settlement: The governor of New York signs a new charter allowing for an increase in the size of New York City through the absorption of neighboring boroughs.

May 22 Journalism: William Randolph Hearst begins whipping up a popular frenzy against Spain over its atrocious treatment of Cuban rebels, most of it fictitious. Yellow journalism is ramping up the rhetoric for war.

May 24 Politics: Congress appropriates $50,000 for the relief of Americans living in Cuba during a period of upheaval.

May 29 Sports: The 31st annual Belmont Stakes is won by Scottish Chieftain with a time of two minutes, 32 seconds.

May 31 Military: The U.S. Army discharges the last of its Indian scouts, although Native Americans continue serving in the ranks as regular soldiers.

June 2 General: From England, essayist Mark Twain cables to a New York newspaper his oft-quoted declaration, “The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.”

June 7 Diplomacy: Secretary of State John Sherman complains to the Spanish government over its alleged treatment of Cuban rebels.

June 8 Sports: The 22nd annual Preakness Stakes is won by Paul Kauvar, who crosses the line in one minute, 51 seconds.

June 15 Politics: The Social Democracy of America is formed by Victor L. Berger and Eugene L. Debs in Chicago, Illinois, principally from remnants of the American Railway Union and other socialist groups. The following year it adopts the moniker of Social Democratic Party.

June 16 Diplomacy: A treaty of annexation is signed by Secretary of State John Sherman and the government of Hawaii. The Senate, however, fails to ratify.

June 19 Diplomacy: The empire of Japan, which secretly covets Hawaii for its own, protests the recent annexation of the islands by the United States. It presently has 25,000 nationals working in the islands.

June 27 Diplomacy: Secretary of State John Sherman fires off a diplomatic protest to Spain over the cruel suppression of Cuban rebels by General Valeriano Weyler, whom the American press has labeled “the Butcher.”

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July 2 Labor: Mines in Ohio and Pennsylvania are shut down by a strike of 75,000 workers.

July 7 Business: The Republican-controlled Congress passes the Dingley Tariff Bill, which raises protectionist rates to their highest-ever levels—up to 91 percent on wool, 97 percent on sugar, and 119 percent on tobacco—an overall average of 57 percent. However, the effort is redundant because many American products no longer require protection from foreign competitors.

July 14 General: The first shipment of $750,000 in gold from Alaska arrives at San Francisco on board the vessel Excelsior. Three days later another shipment worth $800,000 will arrive, precipitating a rush to the north by fortune seekers. Eventually 100,000 people will make their way to the gold fields seeking an easy fortune.

July 24 Transportation: President William A. McKinley appoints a commission tasked with studying the possibility of a canal across Nicaragua.

September 1 Labor: Striking coal miners in Hazleton and Lattimer, Pennsylvania, are fired upon by deputy sheriffs, and 20 men die, in one of the first actions by the new United Mine Workers, which has orchestrated strikes in that state, West Virginia, and Ohio—finally winning the vaunted eight-hour work day.

September 17 Sports: Englishman Joe Lloyd wins the U.S. Open golf tournament.

September 18 Diplomacy: U.S. minister to Madrid Stewart L. Woodford is instructed by the State Department to demand that Spain cease its destructive war against Cuban rebels. Moreover, the Spanish have until November 1, 1897, to submit a favorable response.

September 25 Transportation: The German Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, then the world’s largest ship, sails majestically into New York harbor.

October 1 Transportation: Boston unveils the nation’s first underground railroad, or “Subway,” at Tremont Street, stretching one and one-half miles beneath the city from Allston to Cambridge. The system can handle up to 400 cars at once and has cost taxpayers $4.3 million.

October 6 Diplomacy: The new and moderately disposed Spanish premier, Praxedes Mateo Sagasta, assumes control of the government, and he both recalls the repressive general Valeriano Weyler from Cuba and ends the practice of concentration camps. Cubans consequently receive a greater degree of political autonomy. However, the American press, under men like William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, is still actively promoting war for its own sake and continues to

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November 13–28 Diplomacy: To placate U.S. criticism, the Spanish government formally dismisses and recalls Governor General Valeriano Weyler after a brutal two-year reign. Because of his excesses he is branded in the American press as “the Butcher.” His replacement is General Ramón Blanco, a man of more moderate disposition. Plans for Cuba’s eventual political autonomy are also adopted and made public.

December 6 Politics: President William A. McKinley, in his annual address to Congress, voices optimism that the Cuban problem can be resolved peacefully.

December 22 Diplomacy: Following assurances from Secretary of State John Sherman and the payment of reparations for damages inflicted upon Japanese nationals in Hawaii, the emperor’s government withdraws its protest against the islands’ annexation treaty with the United States.

1898 Architecture: Chicago architects Dankmar Adler and Louis H. Sullivan design the terra cotta Bayard Building in New York City. Arts: The National Institute of Arts and Letters is created by the American Social Science Association. The first group of American impressionist painters has a group exhibit for the first time in New York City; their effort heralds the growing popularity of this art form. The play Origins of the Cake Walk, written and performed entirely by African Americans, is the first all-black minstrel show performed for white audiences in New York City. Business: By now the United States is producing 10 million tons of steel per annum, more than Germany and Great Britain combined. The widespread application of steam turbines and electric motors is also dramatically changing the nature of American industry. The Kellogg brothers of Battle Creek, Michigan, add malt flavoring to groundup corn and produce the first good-tasting corn flakes—soon to be a staple of the American breakfast. In New Bern, North Carolina, Caleb Bradham formulates a new soda to compete with the highly successful Coca-Cola—he names it Pepsi-Cola. Education: Dr. Carl A. Schenck opens the Biltmore Forest School, the nation’s first institute for the scientific study and application of forestry. Indian: Roughly 500 Native Americans, representing 23 tribes, are allowed to perform their native dances and rituals at the Trans-Mississippi Exposition in Omaha, Nebraska. Literature: The novel David Harum by Edward Noyes Westcott sells 400,000 copies and over a million copies over the next quarter century. Tragically, the

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author, who had been rejected by six publishers, dies before it is published by D. Appleton. Henry James pens The Turn of the Screw, one of his finest horror masterpieces. Charles Major’s historical romance, When Knighthood Was in Flower, becomes a national best-seller. Media: At 36 minutes in length, The Passion Play becomes one of the longest motion pictures assembled to date and concerns itself with religious themes. Music: “The Rosary,” a sentimental song by Robert Cameron Rogers with music by Ethelbert Nevin, becomes a popular song for the next 25 years. Settlement: Nome, Alaska, is founded on the Seward Peninsula as a result of an ongoing gold rush. Sports: Harvard wins the national college football championship with 11 wins, no ties, no losses. The U.S. Lawn Tennis Association singles championships are won by Malcolm D. Whitman and Juliette P. Atkinson in their respective divisions. Boston wins the National League baseball championship with 102 wins, 47 losses.

January 1 General: The New York legislature enlarges New York City by consolidating it with four surrounding boroughs: Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island. This day Robert Van Wyck is sworn is as mayor of the five boroughs, which, while sharing police, fire, and other services, will retain a degree of self-governance. Naval: Admiral Montgomery Sicard positions his squadron near the Dry Tortugas, Florida, in anticipation of war with Spain.

January 7 Science: Alexander Graham Bell is appointed president of the National Geographic Society in Washington, D.C.

January 12 Diplomacy: A riot breaks out in Havana among Spanish and Cuban loyalists, who denounce both autonomy and the liberal policies of General Ramón Blanco. Fitzhugh Lee, the U.S. minister, is convinced that attempts at reform in the face of such resistance would lead only to chaos and asks the U.S. government to dispatch a warship to the vicinity as a show of strength.

January 15 Diplomacy: Spanish forces cordon off the U.S. consulate in Havana to protect it from pro-Spanish rioters.

January 24–25 Naval: The battleship USS Maine under Captain Charles D. Sigsbee drops anchor at Havana harbor, Cuba, ostensibly on a goodwill call, but it is actually present to help protect American lives and property.

February 8 Agriculture: In Chicago, Illinois, the Butter and Egg Board is constituted to grade both products on a consumer basis. Military: Due to the onslaught of prospectors during the Klondike gold rush, the U.S. Army establishes a safety zone to protect private property in that region.

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1484â•… Chronology of American History Four companies of the 14th U.S. Infantry are dispatched to preserve law and order.

February 9 Diplomacy: Enrique Dupuy de Lôme, the Spanish minister to the United States, resigns and composes a letter highly unflattering to the United States in general and President William McKinley in parÂ�ticÂ�uÂ�lar. When William Randolph Hearst obtains a copy and publishes it in his New York Journal, it sparks national indig-­ nation toward Spain. De Lôme is forced to leave the country immediately.

February 15 Naval: The 6,700-­ton battleship USS Maine sinks at anchor in Havana harbor with the loss of 260 sailors out of a total complement of 358, apparently from an internal explosion. However, this costly accident is treated in the American press as an act of sabotage, possibly by a hostile mine, which further fans prowar senti-­ ments nationwide. In time, “Remember the Maine!” becomes a stirring battle cry and a conÂ�veÂ�nient pretext for intervention in Cuba.

February 18 Military: In Alaska, the 14th U.S. Infantry is established as a military peacekeep-­ ing force to protect miners and their property. The army is tasked with patrolling a “safety zone” in order to root out criminals and troublemakers.

The U.S. battleship Maine╇ (Library of Congress)

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February 23 Naval: Anticipating hostilities with Spain, the Navy Department orders several warships to concentrate at Key West, Florida.

February 25 Naval: Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt, anticipating war with Spain, secretly orders Commodore George Dewey at Hong Kong to attack the Pacific Squadron of Admiral Patricio Montojo in the Philippines, if war is declared, and then to capture Manila.

Dewey, George (1837–1917) Admiral George Dewey was born at Montpelier, Vermont, on December 26, 1837, and he attended Norwich University before transferring to the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland. Dewey graduated in 1858 and rose to lieutenant in 1861 in time for active service during the Civil War. In 1862 he accompanied the squadron of Captain David G. Farragut and rendered useful service in the capture of New Orleans and operations along the Mississippi River. Dewey finished the war performing blockade duty and he remained in the peacetime establishment, successively rising to commander in 1872, captain in 1884, and commodore by 1896. The U.S. Navy at this time was undergoing a period of transition from sail to steam, and Dewey immersed himself in the nuances of modern propulsion and ordnance. His expertise landed him the post as president of the Board of Inspection and Survey in 1895, chief of the Bureau of Equipment in 1889, and president of the Board of Inspection and Survey in 1895. In all these capacities he helped established criteria for the newest class of battleships. In 1897 Dewey requested sea duty and Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt appointed him commander of the Asiatic Squadron based at Hong Kong. He was functioning in this capacity when the Spanish-American War

erupted in 1898, and Roosevelt immediately ordered him to engage the Spanish naval force at Manila in the Philippines. On May 1, 1898, Dewey led his force of four modern cruisers and two gunboats into Manila Bay to engage an older but similarly sized Spanish force. Addressing the captain of his flag ship, Dewey said, “You may fire when ready, Gridley.” The Americans completely outgunned their adversary, sinking all the Spanish ships, with only eight injuries on the American side. The lopsided nature of his victory rendered him a national hero. Dewey lingered in Philippine waters long enough to assist General Wesley Merritt in capturing the city of Manila before returning to the United States in triumph. Previously, he had received promotion to rear admiral and obtained the thanks of Congress. Dewey’s reception in New York was thunderous and the Democratic Party openly courted him to run as its presidential candidate. Dewey, who cared little for politics, toyed with the offer but declined, so in 1899 he received the special rank of admiral of the navy, the highest grade ever held by an American naval officer. This required him to remain on active duty for life, and he soon gained appointment as head of the General Board (continues)

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(continued) of the Navy. In this capacity, Dewey helped guide and orchestrate the ongoing naval construction program, which resulted in the acquisition of fleets of modern warships in time for World War I. Dewey published his memoirs in 1913, which were well received,

and then died in Washington, D.C., on January 26, 1917. His smashing victory at Manila Bay in 1898 secured his reputation as a famous naval commander and set the stage for America’s emergence as a global power to reckon with.

February 28 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Holden v. Hardy, ruling that a Utah statute mandating an eight-hour working day for miners is valid. It is an important victory for the labor movement and paves the way for other favorable decisions.

March 6 Naval: The 10,200-ton battleship USS Oregon is dispatched from Puget Sound, Washington, for Key West, Florida, under Captain Charles E. Clark. The move is undertaken in anticipation of war with Spain. More importantly, the fact that it takes 67 days and 14,760 miles to round Cape Horn and deploy where needed underscores the need for a Central American canal to connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

March 8 Diplomacy: When Great Britain, alarmed at the rapid colonizing of China by German, Austrian, Italian, Russian, and Japanese forces, appeals to the United States for military assistance in maintaining the “Open Door” trade policy, it receives a rude shock when President William McKinley flatly refuses to approve of special concessions to one power. Military: Congress expands the army by adding the 6th and 7th U.S. Artillery Regiments to the military establishment.

March 9 Politics: In a fit of bellicosity, Congress approves $50 million in defense appropriations, with half earmarked for the U.S. Navy; at present, the navy is well prepared for strife but the U.S. Army is undermanned, underequipped, and needs to be fleshed out by enthusiastic and well-trained volunteers.

March 11 Military: As President William McKinley wavers over the issue of conflict, the War Department begins mobilizing its forces for war with Spain.

March 14 Naval: In Spain, Admiral Pascual Cervera y Topete hoists anchor in Madrid and sails for the Cape Verde Islands in an ill-fated attempt to reinforce Cuba.

March 16 Diplomacy: The Senate Foreign Relations Committee presents a Hawaiian annexation resolution to Congress, although proponents fail to muster the two-thirds vote necessary for adoption. However, aggressive posturing by the government of Japan forces Congress to revisit the issue.

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March 17 Diplomacy: Senator Redfield Proctor, a former peace activist, has no sooner returned from a visit to Cuba than he appears before the U.S. Senate and calls for an indictment of Spanish policies toward that island. His testimony lends additional impetus to growing public sentiment toward war with Spain. Naval: The USS Holland, the navy’s first commissioned submarine, is launched at the Crescent Shipyard, New Jersey, under the command of Lieutenant H. H. Caldwell.

March 18 Naval: A “Flying Squadron” consisting of the battleships USS Texas and Massachusetts, along with cruisers Brooklyn, Columbia, and Minneapolis, is entrusted to Acting Commodore Winfield Scott Schley for the purpose of guarding the Atlantic coastline against possible attack by Spain.

March 24 Naval: Captain William T. Sampson replaces Admiral Montgomery B. Sicard as commander of the North Atlantic Squadron while his own promotion to admiral is pending.

March 25 Aviation: Theodore Roosevelt, assistant secretary of the navy, recommends to the secretary of the navy that several “scientific officers” be appointed to investigate any military applications for Dr. Samuel P. Langley’s purported “flying machine,” then under development.

March 27 Diplomacy: Mindful of mounting pressure for war, President William McKinley makes a peace gesture by instructing Stewart L. Woodford, American minister to Spain, to demand a truce with the Cuban rebels, dismantling of all concentration camps, and American arbitration for a peaceful solution.

March 28 Journalism: William Randolph Hearst, editor of the New York Journal, declares to artist Frederic Remington, working clandestinely in Cuba, “You furnish the pictures and I’ll furnish the war.” Yellow journalism is quickly and effectively fanning public sentiment in the direction of armed conflict. Naval: The official report on the loss of the USS Maine is finally presented to Congress. Ignoring the evidence, the report concludes that the vessel was sunk by an underwater explosion, possibly from a mine. They decline to state whose mine it was, possibly that of Cuban rebels, which in itself is additional proof that Spain has failed to maintain order in the islands. Societal: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of United States v. Wong Kim Ark, ruling that American citizenship cannot be determined or rewarded on the basis of race. Henceforth, Chinese children born in the United States are not subject to deportation under the Chinese Exclusion Act even if both of their parents are Chinese nationals. It is a landmark decision in the course of American racial relations.

March 31 Diplomacy: The Spanish government responds to the American near-ultimatum on the ongoing crisis in Cuba. The new liberal regime reiterates its call for an end

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Remington, Frederic (1861–1909) Painter Frederic Remington was born in Canton, New York, on October 4, 1861, the son of a Union cavalry officer. He was educated locally before gaining admission to the Yale University School of Fine Arts in 1878. Remington proved adept as an artist but was dissatisfied with the techniques taught to him at Yale, so he dropped out in 1880 to pursue what for him proved a lifelong calling: the Wild West. Arriving in Montana, he worked as a ranch-hand and cowboy for several months, carefully noting all the nuances of life around him. Remington came east in 1881 and sold his illustrations to Harper’s Weekly, which readily published his finely detailed and vividly rendered work. He returned to the West in 1883 and bought

a sheep farm in Kansas, but after it failed he temporarily settled in Kansas City, Missouri. Remington sketched and painted profusely, then returned to New York to sell his additional work to Harper’s Weekly. He also enrolled in the Student Art League in New York City to enhance his style, but in 1887 Harper’s commissioned him to go west and accompany U.S. Army troops in their dealings with Native Americans. Back in his element, Remington artfully depicted cowboys, cavalrymen, Indians, and settlers, set against a broad tableau of the impressive but rapidly shrinking Wild West. He deliberately sought close proximity to both nature and his intended subjects to enhance all depictions of them as they lived out their lives. Success

to concentration camps, which had been resurrected by General Ramon Blanco, and the possibility of an armistice. However, Spain flatly rejects any American attempt at mediation. President William McKinley regards the response as unsatisfactory in light of the circumstances.

April 5 Diplomatic: In a prelude to hostilities, President William McKinley recalls the U.S. consuls from Havana. The storm clouds of war gather rapidly.

April 9 Diplomacy: Responding to American pressure, General Ramón Blanco, governor general of Cuba, proffers an armistice to rebel forces and closes the concentration camp housing prisoners. The Spanish government is desperate to avoid strife with the United States yet no mention is made of granting Cuban independence.

April 10 Diplomacy: The government of Prime Minister Praxedes Mateo Sagasta in Madrid informs the American minister there that Spain is willing to negotiate Cuban independence.

April 11 Politics: President William McKinley, under pressure from the public and political arenas, backtracks from his anti-war stance and delivers a “War Message” to Congress, while being less than candid about the recent Spanish embrace of peace initiatives. Not surprisingly, many government officials and the national press are vocally in favor of war, and generally sway public opinion in that direction. However, the chief executive balks by not directly requesting war, and leaves Congress

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here resulted in Century Magazine commissioning him to do a series on Native Americans struggling to adjust to new lives on the reservation. Remington also became a distinguished essay writer on western subjects, becoming both widely published and read. In 1895 Remington began the next important phase of his artistic career by taking up sculpting. Like his paintings, his creations were highly detailed and celebrated for combining the vivacity of action with the mood of the moment. To ensure authenticity, Remington always kept a wide variety of military, cowboy, and Indian clothing and artifacts in his studio to draw upon. Two of his works, The Bronco Buster and The Wounded Bunkie proved especially appealing to art critics, who gushed over their lifelike qualities and attention to detail.

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During the Spanish-American War of 1898, William Randolph Hearst dispatched him to Cuba as a war correspondent and artist, and he subsequently toured Germany, Russia, and North Africa looking for good material to sketch or paint. By the time Remington died at his home in Ridgefield, Connecticut, on December 26, 1909, he had rendered no less than 3,000 drawings, illustrations, and paintings, along with 25 highly acclaimed bronze castings, eight volumes of memoirs, and many other writings. More than any other individual, Remington captured on canvas the essence of a heroic, departed ideal—the Wild West in eclipse—bringing it to vivid life for millions of readers in the comfort of their homes. For this reason he is considered one of the greatest promoters of the American frontier and a gifted artist.

to choose among conflict, negotiation, or inactivity. Consequently, nine days of heated debate ensue.

April 15 Military: The War Department orders troops and equipment concentrated in several ports along the Gulf of Mexico, although the order is quickly rescinded when facilities there are found lacking. Eight corps are planned with each commanded by a major general.

April 19 Politics: Congress passes a war resolution predicated upon Spain’s recognition of Cuban independence and the immediate evacuation of the island by Spanish forces, granting President William McKinley authority to use American military and naval power to achieve those ends, as necessary. The resolution also declares that the United States has no interest in controlling Cuba but intends simply to deliver that island over to its inhabitants. Sports: Ronald J. McDonald wins the second Boston Marathon with a run of two hours, 42 minutes.

April 20 Diplomacy: Stewart L. Woodford, the U.S. minister to Spain, has his passport revoked before delivering an ultimatum to the Spanish government.

April 21 Diplomacy: Sensing the futility of further deliberation and determined to defend its national sovereignty and sense of honor, Spain breaks diplomatic relations with the United States.

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April 22–23 Military: Congress passes the Volunteer Army Act aiming to create a force of 125,000 men, including recruitment of the 1st Volunteer Cavalry, command of which is handed to Colonel Leonard Wood. Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt resigns from office to serve as its lieutenant colonel. The U.S. Army is almost doubled from its current strength to 65,000 for the duration of hostilities. Naval: A blockade is imposed upon the island of Cuba by the North Atlantic Squadron under Admiral William T. Sampson, and the gunboat USS Nashville captures the Spanish steamer Buenaventura in the Gulf of Mexico, the war’s first prize. Over the course of the war, the navy acquires 128 vessels and expands in size from 12,500 men to 24,123.

April 23 Military: President William McKinley authorizes a call-up of 125,000 volunteers for the U.S. Army.

April 24 Diplomacy: Spain formally rejects American demands to recognize Cuban independence and declares war on the United States.

April 25 Diplomacy: The United States declares war with Spain, retroactive to the 21st, when the Spanish cut diplomatic relations. This is the first major conflict waged by America since the Civil War.

Wood, Leonard

(1860–1927)

Physician, general Leonard Wood was born in Winchester, New Hampshire, on October 9, 1860, and he graduated from Harvard University with a medical degree in 1884. He then joined the U.S. Army as a contract physician in 1886 with the rank of lieutenant and served in the Arizona Territory under General Nelson A. Miles. Wood, although a doctor, fought in several pitched battles against renegade Apache under Geronimo, and he received the Congressional Medal of Honor. He then fulfilled more routine duties along the frontier before transferring to the Department of the East as the personal physician to Presidents Grover Cleveland and William McKinley. In this capacity he befriended and struck up cor-

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dial relations with Theodore Roosevelt, then assistant secretary of the navy. When the Spanish-American War broke out in 1898, Wood gained appointment as colonel of the 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry, the noted “Rough Riders,” with Roosevelt as lieutenant colonel. He was mostly sidelined with administrative tasks, but in 1898 he was appointed military governor of Santiago, Cuba, with a rank of major general of volunteers. Wood distinguished himself in this capacity and subsequently served as military governor of the entire island until it organized a new government in 1901. Two years later he arrived in the Philippines as governor of volatile Moro Province, reestablished order there, and became a major

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Naval: Commodore George Dewey’s squadron, anchored off the coast of China, is ordered into action against the Spanish fleet in the Philippines by Secretary of the Navy John D. Long. Politics: In Congress the Teller Amendment is added to the declaration of war, asserting that the United States will not attempt to seize control of Cuba.

April 26 Military: Congress reorganizes U.S. Army infantry regiments by authorizing a third battalion to each, along with two additional companies per unit. All companies extant are also increased to a strength of 100 men apiece. Politics: Secretary of State John Sherman, in declining health, resigns and is replaced by William R. Day.

April 27 Naval: Admiral George Dewey sorties his squadron, consisting of the modern steel cruisers USS Olympia, Boston, Baltimore, and Raleigh, and the gunboats Petrel and Concord from Hong Kong. He then steers directly toward Manila Bay to seek and destroy the Pacific Squadron of Admiral Patricio Montojo. The fleet under Admiral William T. Sampson silences Spanish batteries at Point Rubalcava, northwestern Cuba, with fire from the cruisers USS New York and Cincinnati, assisted by the monitor Puritan.

general in the regular army at Roosevelt’s behest. From 1906 to 1910 Wood commanded the Philippine Division capably, then returned to the United States where President William H. Taft appointed him chief of the general staff. Thus empowered, Wood struggled to bring the army’s various and nearly autonomous departments under his control, and arranged for the retirement of Adjutant General Frederick C. Ainsworth when he resisted change. By the time Wood stepped down in 1914, the General Staff was a centralized, strategy-making body, well prepared for modern warfare. As the United States drifted toward entry into World War I, both Wood and Roosevelt expressed dismay over the lack of military preparedness, nationwide, so they initiated citizen training camps at Plattsburgh, New

York, to encourage volunteers. Wood also proved less than politic in his criticism of President Woodrow Wilson; consequently, command of the American Expeditionary Force went to General John J. Pershing, an officer of great talent but less seniority. Wood found himself exiled and commanding an obscure training facility at Camp Funston, Kansas, for the duration of hostilities. Nevertheless, he remained a popular national figure and in 1920 Wood dabbled in politics by vying for the Republican Party presidential nomination. This went to Warren G. Harding after eight deadlocked ballots, and Wood was next deployed to the Philippines as governor general. He remained there until 1927, then returned to the United States for medical treatment, dying in Boston, Massachusetts, on August 7, 1927.

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April 28 Politics: President William McKinley appoints William Rufus Day to replace John Sherman as secretary of state. Like his predecessor, Day is relatively inexperienced in the nuances of diplomacy and resigns within a year.

April 29 Naval: The Spanish Atlantic Fleet of Admiral Pascual Cervera y Topyete departs the Cape Verde Islands and sails for Cuba with the antiquated cruisers Infanta Maria Theresa, Vizcaya, Almirante Oquendo, and Cristóbal Colón, plus destroyers Furor, Pluton, and Terror. Its exact whereabouts remain a complete mystery to the American fleet looking for him, prompting fears of an attack on the U.S. coastline. The American cruiser USS Marblehead and armed yacht Eagle briefly exchange fire with the Spanish gunboats Galacia and Vasco Núñez de Balboa at Cienfuegos, with little damage inflicted.

April 30 Naval: The battleship USS Oregon, having rounded Cape Horn from San Francisco, puts into Rio de Janeiro to recoal.

May 1 Naval: The Battle of Manila Bay ensues as the American squadron under Admiral George Dewey enters the bay to find the Spanish force under Admiral Patricio Montojo waiting for him, anchored in line abreast formation. He then barks “You may fire when ready, Gridley,” to the commander of his flagship, USS Olympia, and it joins cruisers Boston, Baltimore, Raleigh, Concord, and gunboat Petrel in a shooting spree against the obsolete Spanish vessels, sinking all seven of them in five passes. Montojo loses both his fleet and 371 killed and wounded while Dewey sustains only nine wounded. The lopsided nature of this decisive victory renders Dewey a national hero.

May 1–30 Medical: The threat of disease to troop concentrations, brought about mainly through poor planning, nonexistent sanitation, and tainted food, becomes painfully apparent when 80 officers and 2,520 enlisted men die before a shot is fired.

May 2–3 Naval: The gunboat USS Petrel dispatches a landing party to seize the Spanish naval arsenal at Cavite while other troops disembark from the cruisers Baltimore and Raleigh to capture Corregidor Island in Manila Bay.

May 4 Naval: Congress authorizes construction of three additional battleships, 16 torpedo boat destroyers, 12 torpedo boats, and one gunboat. This is the largest crash construction program for the navy since the Civil War. Sports: The 24th annual Kentucky Derby is won by Plaudit, who runs the course in two minutes, nine seconds.

May 8 Military: General Nelson A. Miles is ordered to begin preparing his 70,000 regulars and volunteers for an amphibious descent upon Havana. Naval: The torpedo boat USS Winslow is driven from Cardenas Bay, northwestern Cuba, by heavy fire from three Spanish gunboats.

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May 11 Naval: Torpedo boat USS Winslow reenters Cardenas Bay, Cuba, supported by the cruiser Machias and gunboats Hudson and Wilmington. The vessels are then ambushed by a masked Spanish battery using smokeless powder, which kills five and wounds five on the Winslow in an hour-long duel. Ensign Worth Bagley becomes the navy’s first and only officer fatality in this war. The cruiser USS Marblehead and the gunboat Nashville shell the beach at Cardenas, Cuba, and also launch several boatloads of sailors in an attempt to sever communication cables between Havana and Madrid, but the Americans are driven off by heavy artillery fire from the shore. Four Americans die and five are wounded.

May 12 Civil: In a major setback to African Americans, the new Louisiana state constitution promotes disenfranchisement with property qualifications and literacy tests. Thus the sheer number of African-American voters in that state legally shrinks from 130,000 to only 5,000—and similar ploys will be adopted by most southern states. Naval: The American fleet under Admiral William T. Sampson bombards San Juan, Puerto Rico, with the battleships Indiana and Iowa, cruisers Detroit and New York, and several monitors and gunboats. Spanish counterfire proves ineffectual. However, once Sampson is convinced that the main Spanish squadron is not anchored there, he hauls off and heads west.

May 13 Naval: Captain C. F. Goodrich orders his armed auxiliary USS Saint Louis to dredge the seabed east of San Juan de Puerto Rico to cut the underwater cable to St. Thomas.

May 14 Naval: As the gunboats USS Vicksburg and Annapolis patrol the waters outside Havana harbor, they perceive the small Spanish vessels Conde de Venadito and Nueva España attempting to run their blockade. Shots are exchanged as the American auxiliaries Mayflower, Wasp, Tecumseh, and Osceola arrive to help, and the Spanish turn hard about and make for the safety of the harbor.

May 16 Naval: American cruisers USS Saint Louis and Wompatuck enter shallow water near Santiago, Cuba, to find and cut the telegraphic cable leading to Jamaica. Heavy fire from shore batteries drives them back to deep water but the two ships will enjoy better success on the following day.

May 17 Naval: Admiral William T. Sampson’s flagship USS New York sails rapidly to Key West, Florida, frantically searching for the Spanish fleet, and intercepts the vessel Carlos F. Rosas off Havana. His straggling fleet will gradually join him over the next two days.

May 18 Naval: The battleship USS Oregon drops anchor at Barbados to recoal, having covered 14,000 miles around Cape Horn in two month’s sailing time.

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May 19 Military: President William McKinley authorizes General Adolphus W. Greely, chief of the Signal Corps, to take control of the nation’s telephone and telegraph systems. He is also tasked with intercepting Spanish communications for intelligence purposes—and on this day a dispatch is received announcing the arrival of the Spanish fleet at Santiago, Cuba. The Americans transport Filipino guerrilla leader Emilio Aguinaldo from Hong Kong to help fight the Spanish. Naval: Badly outgunned, Admiral Pascual Cervera y Topete takes his Spanish fleet of four cruisers and three destroyers within the confines of Santiago harbor, Cuba, where it joins the 19,000-man garrison of General Arsenio Linares. Meanwhile, the Americans remain ignorant of Cervera’s whereabouts and suspect he is actually positioning himself to bombard the U.S. coastline. Commodore Winfield Scott Schley is therefore ordered to take his “Flying Squadron” and blockade the port at Cienfuegos.

May 20 Naval: While cruising in international waters, the USS Wompatuck finds the underwater cable connecting Guantánamo, Cuba, to Cape Mole, Haiti, and cuts it.

May 23 Naval: Clara Barton sails aboard the Red Cross ship State of Texas to Tampa, Florida, awaiting the U.S. invasion of Cuba.

May 24 Naval: The battleship USS Oregon, having sailed from Puget Sound, Washington, and around Cape Horn, finally reaches Jupiter Inlet, Florida, after a 67-day transit and just in time to rendezvous with the main American fleet under Admiral Winfield Scott Schley. Their long voyage only highlights the strategic needs for a Panama canal.

May 25 Military: America troopships depart San Francisco, California, with 2,000 army troops under General Thomas M. Anderson, destined for Manila. This is the vanguard of a 14,000-man force assembling under General Wesley Merritt, the VIII Corps. They depart upon the recommendation of Major General Nelson A. Miles, who feels that they should acquire a land base to prevent a second Spanish fleet from arriving. Politics: President William McKinley asks for an additional 75,000 volunteers to fight in the war.

May 26 Naval: Commodore Winfield Scott Schley shepherds his squadron, consisting of battleships USS Massachusetts and Texas, cruisers Brooklyn and Marblehead, plus three armed auxiliaries, to within 20 miles of Santiago harbor, Cuba. That evening he is reinforced by the cruiser Minneapolis and two more armed auxiliaries. Sports: The 32nd annual Belmont Stakes is won by Bowling Brook, with a time of two minutes, 32 seconds.

May 28 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that citizenship exists without regard to race or color. Consequently, a child born to Chinese parents in America is exempt from the Chinese Exclusionary Act.

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Military: To maintain rank seniority in the military, Congress mandates that all officers transferring from the regulars to the volunteers do so without losing any of their accumulated seniority. Naval: Cannon fire from the armed tugs USS Uncas and Leyden flattens a Spanish blockhouse near Cardenas, Cuba.

May 29 Naval: An American fleet under Commodore Winfield Scott Schley inadvertently discovers the fleet of Admiral Pascual Cervera y Topete anchored in Santiago harbor, assumes blockading positions, and waits for the Spanish to emerge.

May 31 Naval: Admiral Winfield Scott Schley tests the defenses of Santiago harbor, Cuba, by sailing his squadron close to land where the battleships USS Massachusetts and Iowa exchange fire with shore batteries. Little damage results to either side and the Americans withdraw leisurely.

June 1 Labor: Congress passes the Erdman Arbitration Act, legitimizing government’s role as an arbitrator in labor disputes involving interstate carriers. Blacklisting union laborers also becomes illegal. Military: A chartered vessel of Signal Corps men arrives off the Cuban coast and begins cutting offshore Spanish communication cables until being driven off by artillery fire. Naval: Admiral William T. Sampson arrives off Santiago, Cuba, with the battleship USS Oregon, the cruiser New York, and the torpedo boat Porter. He takes command of all American naval forces from Commodore Winfield Scott Schley.

June 3 Naval: Lieutenant Richmond P. Hobson attempts to scuttle his vessel, the collier USS Merrimac, and trap the Spanish fleet at Santiago harbor, but his vessel is thwarted by artillery fire and sinks near the edge of the channel. Hobson is then captured along with seven volunteers, but all will receive the Congressional Medal of Honor for the attempt. Congress authorizes receipt of the Dewey Medal to all officers and men who fought in the Battle of Manila Bay. This is the first official American campaign medal.

June 6 Naval: The American squadron under Admiral William T. Sampson enters Santiago harbor and begins shelling the defenders. After several hours the squadron withdraws intact, having inflicted three Spanish dead and 14 injured ashore. Five are killed and 14 wounded aboard the Spanish cruiser Reina Mercedes.

June 7 Naval: Admiral William T. Sampson’s squadron, off the town of Caimanera, bombards and destroys a Spanish battery at Playa del Este. Then the cruiser USS St. Louis runs the boom in the harbor and anchors off Fisherman’s Point to receive two Cuban guerrillas with information about Spanish defenses. Sampson decides that the 7,000-man garrison is too large to tackle before the arrival of a larger landing force.

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June 9 Diplomacy: Secretary of State William Rufus Day requests Congress to authorize a commercial commission to China to preempt Europe an and Japanese domination of the market there. With the Americans firmly ensconced at Manila for the foreseeable future, expanded trade with the Middle Kingdom seems inevitable.

June 10–14 Military: The invasion of Cuba commences at Guantánamo Bay when American cruisers USS Marblehead and Yankee under Commander Bowman H. McCalla anchor off Playa del Este and disembark 647 U.S. Marines under Lieutenant Colonel Robert W. Huntington. The Spanish garrison of 6,000 men under General Felix Pareja Mesa prepares to attack the intruders. Sports: The 23rd annual Preakness Stakes is won by Sly Fox with a time of one minute, 49 seconds.

June 12 Military: Spanish forces counterattack the American beachhead at Guantánamo, Cuba, and are handily repulsed by the U.S. Marine contingent. Two Americans die and seven more are wounded. Guerrilla leader Emilio Aguinaldo proclaims a new Philippine insurrection with a view toward driving out the Spanish, if possible, and the Americans, if necessary.

June 13 Business: Congress passes the War Revenue Act, imposing excise taxes on tea, tobacco, liquor, and inheritances. A bond issue of $400 million is also authorized, but brings in only half that amount. Naval: When the Spanish torpedo boat Galicia mistakenly approaches the converted cruiser USS Yankee off Cienfuegos, Cuba, it is hastily driven off by heavy cannon fire.

June 14 Military: An invasion force of 17,000 regulars and volunteers sails in 32 transports from Tampa, Florida, under the command of General William R. Shafter and makes for Santiago, Cuba. A force of 600 U.S. Marines under Lieutenant Colonel Robert W. Huntington, assisted by Cuban guerrillas, outflanks and drives off a Spanish detachment at Cuzco Well, Guantánamo, killing 60 and taking 18 prisoners. Naval: The American squadron is strengthened by the arrival of the experimental, 930-ton cruiser USS Vesuvius, which is armed with high-explosive gun-cotton ordnance. For this reason it is nicknamed the “dynamite cruiser.”

June 15 Naval: The cruisers USS Marblehead and Suwanee, assisted by the battleship Texas, shell and destroy a Spanish fort at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. This action helps marines ashore consolidate control of this vital port, which will function as the principal coaling station for the main fleet off Santiago and also as a major entrepot for the invasion of Puerto Rico. Journalist Stephen Crane, author of The Red Badge of Courage, comes ashore with the marines and will publish an account of their activities.

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June 17 Naval: German warships under Admiral Otto von Diederichs, disregarding blockade rules established by Commodore George Dewey, sail into Manila harbor, apparently intending to lease bases in the region.

June 18 Military: Congress streamlines the system of military justice by allowing enlisted personnel to be tried by courts-martial headed by a single officer and restricted to a specific list of punishments. Sports: Fred Herd wins the U.S. Open golf tournament.

June 20 Military: The naval expedition carrying the 17,000-man V Corps under General William R. Shafter arrives off Santiago, Cuba. Naval: A small task force under Captain Henry Glass of the cruiser USS Charleston hails the Spanish garrison at Guam with a gunshot, then sends a messenger ashore to find out why the garrison has failed to respond. The Spanish commander apologizes for his seeming rudeness, but then explains that he faces a complete lack of ammunition. Moreover, his 60-man garrison has not been informed as to the state of war.

June 22 Military: The main expeditionary force of 17,000 men under General William R. Shafter disembarks at Daiquirí, only 15 miles east of its main objective at Santiago. Because of the lack of boats and other landing craft the men are forced to jump into the surf and wade ashore. Scattered fighting costs the invaders one killed and four wounded. Naval: At Puerto Rico, a sortie by Spanish cruiser Isabel and destroyer Terror is rebuffed by heavy fire from the American auxiliary USS Saint Paul. Isabel withdraws back to port but Terror is heavily damaged and ends up beached.

June 24 –25 Military: An American cavalry division under the impetuous (and formerly Confederate) leader, General Joseph Wheeler, pushes forward and defeats Spanish forces under General Antero Rubin in a minor action at Las Guasimas, Cuba, driving them back to Santiago. Among the 1,000 troops engaged are the so-called Rough Riders under Colonel Leonard Wood and Lieutenant Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, who receive their baptism of fire, and the veteran 10th U.S. Cavalry (African-American “Buffalo Soldiers”). The Americans lose 16 killed and wounded while Spanish losses are around 10. Assistant Surgeon James Robb Church, 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry, will win the Congressional Medal of Honor for rescuing wounded men under fire.

June 28 Indian: Charles Curtis, a Kaw Indian from Kansas, sponsors the Curtis Act to impose land allotments on the Five Civilized Tribes in the Indian Territory (Oklahoma), while also dissolving the existing tribal governments there. Eventually, this will promote the territory’s ultimate incorporation into the state of Oklahoma. Military: General William Rufus Shafter is alerted by Cuban spies that the 8,000-man Spanish garrison of Manzanillo has broken through guerrilla lines

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Colonel Roosevelt and his Rough Riders atop the hill they captured, Battle of San Juan Hill, 1898 (Library of Congress)

and is hurrying toward their main position at Santiago. This intelligence prompts Shafter to attack Santiago at once before the reinforcements can deploy. Naval: Off San Juan, Puerto Rico, the auxiliary cruiser USS Yosemite attacks and drives the Spanish transport Antonio Lopez ashore, then destroys it by shelling. This is despite covering fire from two Spanish cruisers and a torpedo boat accompanying the hapless vessel.

June 30 Military: Commodore George Dewey lands General Thomas M. Anderson’s 2,400 troops ashore at Manila to secure a port for his fleet, and he also transports guerrilla leader Emilio Aguinaldo back from Hong Kong to fight the Spanish. Naval: The American armed yachts USS Hornet and Hist engage and sink a small Spanish gunboat at Niquero Bay, Cuba, and then are joined by the armed tug USS Wompatuck. The three vessels then venture inland toward Manzanillo

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harbor and sink the Spanish vessel Centenila, but are driven back by artillery fire from surviving Spanish gunboats.

July 1 Military: The battles of El Caney and San Juan Hill unfold as the Americans seek to surround Santiago, Cuba. In the former engagement, two brigades under Generals Adna Romanza Chaffee and William Ludlow attack 650 dug-in Spaniards commanded by General Joaquín Vara de Rey, who enjoy the advantage of superior Mauser rifles and smokeless ammunition. The defenders are outnumbered ten-to-one but put up a valiant defense that holds the Americans at bay for seven hours. General Henry Lawton’s division finally carries the heights at a cost of 81 killed and 360 wounded; the Spanish lose 248 killed and wounded along with 300 captured. The balance of General William R. Shafter’s V Corps is committed to storming San Juan Hill, overlooking Santiago. A division under Jacob F. Kent moves forward to brush aside the 500 Spanish defenders from the hillside, only to be shot down in large numbers by Mauser-wielding snipers. The “Rough Riders” under Lieutenant Colonel Theodore Roosevelt give way under the fusillade but are saved by the timely intervention of the 9th U.S. Cavalry, the famous “Buffalo Soldiers.” The Americans then regroup and charge, finally swamping both San Juan Hill and nearby Kettle Hill. The victors lose 140 killed and 940 wounded, and Santiago is now on the verge of being captured. Naval: The American gunboats USS Scorpion and Osceola pay a return visit to the harbor at Manzanillo, Cuba, to knock out any surviving Spanish land batteries, but encounter heavy fire and withdraw after several hours. The American Expeditionary Force, with 115 officers and 2,386 men, disembarks outside Manila in the Philippines, escorted by the cruiser USS Charleston.

July 2 Naval: Spanish authorities, unwilling to allow the squadron of Admiral Pascual Cervera y Topete to be captured or scuttled at Santiago, Cuba, order the admiral to sortie immediately to at least salvage their honor. Cervera complies and withdraws 1,200 sailors, who have been manning the city’s defenses, back aboard his ships and prepares to make way.

July 3 Naval: Admiral Pascual Cervera y Topete sorties his fleet from Santiago, Cuba, and attempts to run for the open sea. However, the American “Flying Squadron” under Commodore Winfield Scott Schley intercepts him with the battleships Indiana, Iowa, Oregon, and Texas, plus the cruiser Brooklyn. Cervera, who possesses only four cruisers and two destroyers, is badly outgunned and his force is mauled, being either sunk or driven ashore, with a loss of 474 killed and wounded. The Americans lose only one dead and 10 injured. Credit for this lopsided victory will prove controversial when Admiral William T. Sampson, who appeared toward the close, insists that it be considered his—much acrimony ensuing.

July 4 Military: American forces en route to the Philippines pause briefly to occupy Wake Island in mid-Pacific. Naval: The Americans sink the captured Spanish cruiser Reina Mercedes at the mouth of Santiago harbor in order to block it.

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Chronology of American History The Spanish mail steamer Alfonzo is run aground and burned by the American armed yacht Hawk and the gunboat Castine seven miles west of Havana.

July 6 Diplomacy: Congress passes a bill for the annexation of Hawaii, despite the protests of anti-imperialists in both chambers. The recent acquisition of the Philippines makes the islands infinitely more useful from a strategic viewpoint.

July 7 Diplomacy: President William McKinley, ignoring remonstrances from Democrats and anti-imperialists, readily signs the Hawaii Annexation Treaty. This act preempts similar designs on the islands by the Japanese, and its acquisition will prove to be of immense strategic significance during the next century.

July 8 Naval: Admiral George Dewey seizes Isla Grande near Manila, prior to moving on the city. American naval units force the German gunboat Irene out of the immediate vicinity.

July 9 Military: With the Spanish fleet destroyed, General William R. Shafter orders a general advance upon Santiago and closes off all possible escape routes.

July 10 Military: American forces begin probing the Spanish defenses of Santiago, Cuba, assisted by shellfire from the cruisers USS Brooklyn, New York, and Indiana. Casualties are light on either side.

July 11 Naval: A convoy arrives off Siboney, Cuba, with army reinforcements under General Nelson A. Miles.

July 12 Naval: The USS Eagle chases the Spanish blockade-runner Santo Domingo aground onto Piedras Point, Cuba, burning it.

July 13 Naval: To forestall any German attempt at occupation, Commodore George Dewey orders the ships USS Raleigh and Concord to seize Grande Island in Subic Bay. The German vessels retire upon their approach, but their presence underscores the European desire to annex the islands if the Americans fail to do so.

July 14 Medical: Volunteers from the largely African-American 24th U.S. Infantry perform nursing duties to thousands of soldiers and volunteers afflicted by malaria and yellow fever.

July 16 Naval: The cruiser USS Nashville assists Cuban rebels to seize the northeastern port of Gibara, Cuba.

July 17 Military: Santiago, Cuba, under General José Toral surrenders to General William R. Shafter, who takes 24,000 prisoners and 97 cannon. The conquest of Cuba has cost the United States 243 dead and 1,445 injured; General Leonard Wood is installed as the town’s military governor.

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Chronology â•… 1501 Naval: The surrender of Spanish forces at Santiago caps seven days of nonstop naval bombardment and concludes with an additional eight vessels captured.

July 18 Military: In an attempt to sort out the orÂ�ganÂ�iÂ�zaÂ�tionÂ�al chaos, the Quartermaster Department creates the Division of Transportation to oversee all matters pertain-­ ing to rail and water transport for men and materiel. Naval: American gunboats USS Wilmington, Helena, Hist, Hornet, Wompatuck, Scorpion, and Osceola enter Manzanillo’s harbor and begin shelling Spanish ves-­ sels anchored there; six enemy gunboats and two steamers are either sunk or crippled by accurate gunfire.

July 21 Military: General Nelson A. Miles sails from Guantánamo, Cuba, with 3,400 volunteers and makes for the island of Puerto Rico, escorted by the battleship USS Massachusetts and cruisers Columbia, Dixie, Gloucester, and Yale. Naval: American gunboats approach the port of Nipe, on the northern coast of Cuba, and sink the dispatch vessel Jorge Juan in one of the last hostile encounters of the war.

July 25 Military: American naval forces capture Guánica, Puerto Rico, meeting little reÂ�sisÂ�tance; General Nelson A. Miles is also present, being the last time that a seÂ�nior military commander accompanies troops in the field. General Wesley Merritt arrives at Cavite with 10,700 reinforcements of VIII Corps for the conquest of Manila. The Americans are to be assisted by Filipino guerrilla leader Emilio Aguinaldo, who has plans of his own.

July 26 Diplomacy: The Spanish ambassador requests peace terms through the French ambassador, and the “Splendid Little War” comes to its victorious conclusion.

July 27 Military: On Puerto Rico, General Nelson A. Miles is joined by an additional 3,300 troops and volunteers under General James H. Wilson, and makes prepara-­ tions to advance on the settlement of Ponce.

July 28 Military: American forces under General George Garretson easily occupy the city of Yauco, Puerto Rico, with minimal Spanish re�sis�tance The general then pronounces the inhabitants as free from Spanish rule, which ensures a friendly reception.

July 29 Military: In the Philippines, men of General Wesley Merritt’s VIII Corps move through guerrilla lines and take up siege positions around the city of Manila.

July 30 Diplomacy: President William McKinley lays out peace terms to Spain, includ-­ ing Cuban inÂ�deÂ�penÂ�dence, American acquisition of Puerto Rico, and the immedi-­ ate occupation of Manila until a formalized treaty is signed.

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July 31 Military: American forces on Puerto Rico are reinforced by the arrival of 2,900 regular soldiers under General Theodore Schwan. General Francis V. Greene and his men repulse a Spanish attack at Malate, outside Manila, losing 10 dead and 33 wounded.

August 1 Medical: The War Department is advised that of 17,000 soldiers committed to Cuba, no less than 4,200 have contracted illnesses, principally yellow fever. The unhealthy soldiers are ordered into quarantine at Montauk Point, Long Island, to keep them from public view. By war’s end, 90 percent of American casualties will be a result of disease and poor sanitation, not combat. Military: American troops under General Nelson A. Miles move inland on Puerto Rico, capturing the settlements of Arroyo and Guayama with little struggle.

August 3 Military: General Nelson A. Miles is reinforced by 3,700 volunteers under General Peter C. Hains at Arroyo, Puerto Rico. With 17,000 men in hand, Miles then begins advancing in four prongs against the 8,000-man Spanish garrison still holed up on the island.

August 6 Naval: A naval landing party from the USS Ampitrite captures a lighthouse outside of San Juan, Puerto Rico, assisted by gunfire from the cruiser USS Cincinnati.

August 7 Military: General Wesley Merritt, commanding VIII Corps, issues an ultimatum to General Fermín Jáudenes y Alvarez to surrender the city of Manila, Philippines, or face attack. Jaudenes agrees but insists on a minimum battle of some kind to assuage Spain’s honor.

August 8 Military: In a series of mopping up operations, American forces under General Theodore Schwan probe the outlying defenses of San Juan, Puerto Rico, before military activity on the island ceases. Total casualties are four killed and 40 wounded.

August 9 Military: Admiral George Dewey and General Wesley Merritt formally demand that Manila’s Spanish garrison surrender. The Spanish refuse and fighting commences. General James H. Wilson defeats Spanish forces in a smart action at Coamo, Puerto Rico, then moves on to capture several towns. The Americans lose six wounded to a Spanish tally of 40 killed and wounded and 170 captured.

August 12 Diplomacy: Spain declares its acceptance of American terms by signing a peace protocol; the Spanish garrison on Puerto Rico also capitulates. Cuba thus gains its independence, while the United States acquires the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico for the foreseeable future. Naval: An American task force appears off Manzanillo, Cuba, and silences several Spanish batteries while Cuban guerrillas harass the garrison. This is the last fighting on the island before word of peace arrives.

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Settlement: The Republic of Hawaii formally transfers its sovereignty to the United States amidst local celebrations and festivities. This act ends the indigenous monarchy, and President Sanford Ballard Dole of the provisional government is sworn into office as governor.

August 13 Military: The Spanish garrison of Manila resists combined forces under Admiral George Dewey and General Wesley Merritt, unaware that the war has ended. They capitulate the following day, surrendering 13,000 prisoners and 22,000 stands of arms. American losses are five killed and 38 wounded. However, the victors are hard-pressed to maintain order among Filipino nationalists, who demand immediate access to the city, yet are kept out. In sum, the Spanish-American War has cost $250 million, 5,462 American lives—overwhelmingly through disease—and an additional 1,604 wounded. The United States has finally acquired an overseas empire and will settle into its new role as a global power. This ends a century of Filipino resistance to Spanish rule.

August 14 Naval: The armed lighthouse ship USS Mangrove engages two Spanish gunboats off Caibarién, Cuba, but learns of the armistice after a white flag is raised. These are the final shots of the Spanish-American War.

August 23 Diplomacy: An Anglo-American Joint High Commission assembles in Quebec, Canada, and Washington, D.C., to settle a number of pressing issues between the United States, Great Britain, and Canada. Foremost on the agenda is resolution of the Alaska boundary question, along with revision of the 1854 Clayton-Bulwer Treaty respecting an isthmian canal.

August 26 Military: General Wesley Merritt is ordered out of the Philippines to Paris, France, to partake of peace negotiations. He is succeeded by General Elwell S. Otis, an unpopular leader, and many officers will request other assignments.

August 31 Military: Volunteer troop strength crests at 216,029 officers and men; when combined with the army regulars, this makes a total military establishment of 275,000—the largest since 1865.

September 5 Arts: Ernest L. Blumenstein and Bert Philips arrive at Taos, New Mexico, to help found the Taos Art Colony. Both men, and a host of artists joining them, are struck by the singular beauty of the rugged landscape surrounding them.

September 8 Diplomacy: Sensing an opportunity, the Japanese government signals its willingness to support a joint occupation of the Philippines with the United States, but the offer is politely declined.

September 9 Diplomacy: Secretary of State William R. Day begins selecting a deputation of American peace commissioners.

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September 10 Labor: Deputy sheriffs open fire on rioting miners at Hazleton and Lattimer, Pennsylvania, killing 20. However, the strike is settled the following day, and the miners win an eight-hour day, biweekly pay, and the abolition of company stores.

September 15 Arts: The American Social Science Association in New York helps found the National Institute of Arts and Letters.

September 20 Politics: President William McKinley appoints John Hay to replace William Rufus Day as secretary of state. A career diplomat, he is well qualified for the position, unlike his two predecessors.

September 29 Diplomacy: The Philippine revolutionary assembly convenes at Malolos and declares its independence from both Spain and the United States.

September 30 Military: The U.S. Army fights its final pitched encounter with Native Americans near the Leech Lake Agency, Minnesota, when a band of Chippewa opens fire on a detachment of the 3rd U.S. Infantry sent there to maintain order. A two-day siege will ensue until reinforcements arrive; American losses are six dead and 14 wounded.

October 1 Diplomacy: American and Spanish diplomats begin official peace talks in Paris.

October 6 Arts: Edmond Rostand’s play Cyrano de Bergerac premieres at the Garden Theater in New York City, becoming one of the best attended productions of the time.

October 12 Labor: Fighting erupts at the Virden, Illinois, coal mine when management attempts to bring in African-American workers to break a strike; 13 people die and 25 are injured in the ensuing riot.

October 25 Diplomacy: President William McKinley formally decides that Spain must cede the entire Philippine archipelago to the United States, even though public opinion is widely divided on the subject. He does so less in the spirit of imperialism than as a mission to bring “civilization” to its inhabitants.

November 4 Naval: U.S. Marines drawn from the cruisers USS Baltimore, Raleigh, and Boston are landed and march overland to Peking (Beijing), China, to guard the American legation there.

November 8 Politics: In midterm elections, the Republicans garner additional strength in Congress, controlling the Senate, 53–26, and the House of Representatives, 185–163.

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Theodore Roosevelt, having returned from Cuba a war hero, wins easy nomination to run for the governorship of New York.

November 16 Military: The Transport Corps is established by the secretary of war and placed under the aegis of the quartermaster general of the army. San Francisco, California, and New York City are designated official home ports.

November 19 Politics: In Boston, Massachusetts, an anti-imperialist league is organized by those firmly opposed to the idea of annexing foreign territory. They soon become a focal point of opposition to the new war in Southeast Asia.

November 23 Naval: A study issued by Paymaster W. B. Wilcox and Cadet Leonard R. Sargent, who have visited the interior of Luzon, accurately predicts that the inhabitants will resist any attempt by the United States to impose a new colonial regime. Their finds will be reported to Admiral George Dewey but fail to alter the course of subsequent events.

November 26 General: Ignoring storm warnings, the steamer Portland departs Boston for its run to Portland, Maine, and flounders in heavy seas with 163 lives lost.

December 6 Politics: Democrat George C. Vest of Missouri pushes forward a resolution in Congress that strictly forbids American annexation of the Philippine Islands. The issue is hotly debated but then rendered moot following ratification of the Treaty of Paris four days later.

December 10 Diplomacy: The United States and Spain conclude the Treaty of Paris, whereby the Philippines are ceded to the Americans for a sum of $20 million, along with Puerto Rico and Guam. Cuba is also declared free and the Spanish pledge to pay $400 million for all Cuban debts. This concludes nearly four centuries of Spanish rule in the Western Hemisphere and what newspapers have touted as “a splendid little war.” America has finally acquired an overseas empire at very little cost.

December 26 Military: Army troops under General Marcus P. Miller arrive off the island of Mindoro, Philippines, but prove unable to negotiate a peaceful landing with the locals. The men eventually sail back to Manila.

1899 Architecture: The Schelsinger and Mayer department store in Chicago, Illinois, designed by Louis Sullivan, becomes the first modern commercial-style building in America. In Minneapolis, Minnesota, grain magnate Frank Peavy astounds critics by constructing an 80-foot-tall grain elevator that does not collapse under it own weight. Arts: William Gillette stars in a stage production of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. Business: The first motorized mail delivery occurs on a mail route in Cleveland, Ohio, and covers 126 stops along 22 miles in only 10 hours, 27 minutes. This is less than half the time required by horse-drawn carriages.

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Chronology of American History Education: The University of Chicago’s John Dewey, presently head of the trendsetting Laboratory School, pens School and Society. This text, which postulates that learning begins with actual life experience rather than traditional curricula, revolutionizes American educational theory and practice.

Dewey, John (1859–1952) Educator John Dewey was born in Burlington, Vermont, on October 20, 1859, the son of a local merchant. After passing through the local school system with little distinction, he was admitted to the University of Vermont and graduated with honors in 1879. Dewey then taught school for two years before attending Johns Hopkins University, where he acquired his doctorate in 1884. Thus augmented, he taught philosophy at the universities of Minnesota and Michigan before finally settling at the University of Chicago to head the Department of Philosophy, Psychology, and Pedagogy in 1894. It was in this capacity that Dewey first distinguished himself as an educational reformer of the first rank. In 1896 he established his so-called Laboratory School to test his evolving theories of education, which questioned the intellectual utility of the traditional rote learning and memorization approaches. Dewey then transferred to the faculty of Columbia University in New York City, where he worked with the famous Teachers College there. Basically, Dewey embraced William James’s philosophy of pragmatism, which emphasized results over dogma, and fashioned his own scientifically oriented school of “instrumentalism.” Here, Dewey postulated that education was an outgrowth of the accumulation and assimilation of experiences, which, in turn, helped shape a well-balanced personality and broad-based cognitive awareness. His efforts dovetailed with the ongoing “progressive movement”

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in American education, and his approach was widely hailed. In terms of social implications, Dewey was especially concerned that America not adopt a class-based education that restricted the rich to self-enrichment and the poor to handling manual tasks. It was essential, he felt, that everyone be equipped to function at their intellectual and creative best for the betterment of society in general. Moreover, he held that only education would permit the poorest classes the means and ability to succeed economically and become useful, contributing members of society. Dewey’s success at promulgating his theory marked him as one of the nation’s leading educational thinkers, and he was also called upon to act as an adviser to educational systems in several developing nations. When not teaching, Dewey was extremely busy in a variety of fields and by turns served as president of the American Psychological Association, the American Philosophical Society, and the American Association of University Professors. He was also a highly respected and prolific writer with a long list of distinguished titles to his credit, including The School and Society (1889), Democracy and Education (1916), and The Problems of Men (1946). Dewey finally retired from Columbia University in 1930, but he remained active in social, political, and educational affairs until his death in New York City on June 1, 1952. He is considered one of the nation’s greatest philosophers and educational reformers.

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Literature: Booth Tarkington publishes his first novel, The Gentleman from Indiana, concerning a crusading newspaper editor. Military: The new, enlarged military establishment constricts to 155,772 officers and men, and finds itself deployed in two different theaters at opposite ends of the globe. Music: Scott Joplin finally writes down one of his energetic compositions, which is published by John Stillwell Stark under the title of “Maple Leaf Rag.” The name derives from the Maple Leaf Club in Sedalia, Missouri, where Stark first heard Joplin play, and its success catapults “ragtime” to the forefront of American musical genres. Publishing: Professor Thorstein Veblen of the University of Chicago publishes his humorous but excoriating Theory of the Leisure Class, which attacks the excesses of the rich. He maintains that America has become engrossed in a culture of conspicuous consumption, which, beyond being wasteful, fails to serve the greater society beneficially. African-American reformer W. E. B. DuBois publishes a landmark sociological study, The Philadelphia Negro, which emphasizes historical and environmental factors when assessing societal matters, not race or genetics. Simon Pokagon, a Potawatomie scholar, has his autobiographical romance O-Gi-Maw-Kwe-Mit-I-Gwa-Ki (Queen of the Forest) published posthumously in his native tongue. It is later translated into English. Societal: Wielding a Bible and an ax, militant prohibitionist Carrie Nation begins her anti-saloon drive in Medicine Lodge and Kiowa, Kansas. Public vice will never be quite the same. Sports: Harvard wins the national college football championship with 10 wins, no losses, and one tie. The U.S. Lawn Tennis Association singles championships are won by Malcolm D. Whitman and Marion Jones in their respective divisions.

January 3 Transportation: An editorial in the New York Times coins the word “automobile” for the first time.

January 5 Diplomacy: Filipino guerrilla Emilio Aguinaldo, disturbed by the lack of independence in the recent peace treaty, summons a revolutionary assembly at Malolos to discuss what to do next. He is prepared to fight the newly victorious Americans, if necessary. The United States, concerned about the viability of its Open Door Policy, files an official protest to France concerning the latter’s attempt to expand its economic interests in Shanghai, China.

January 9 Arts: Noted German opera star Ernestine Schumann-Heink debuts in Lohengrin at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. Diplomacy: The Senate ratifies the Treaty of Paris, ending the Spanish-American War. Military: General Ewell S. Otis meets with guerrilla leader Emilio Aguinaldo in an attempt to circumvent an outbreak of hostilities, but lacks the authority to grant Filipinos the right to vote or any similar manifestation of independence.

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DuBois, W. E. B. (1868–1963) African-American reformer William Edward Burghardt DuBois was born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, on February 23, 1868, into a racially mixed family. After graduating as valedictorian from high school he attended Fisk University, Tennessee, in 1884, receiving a bachelor of arts degree four years later. In 1888 DuBois entered Harvard University, graduated cum laude in 1890, and also served as one of six commencement speakers. He pursued graduate studies at the University of Berlin, 1892– 94, and subsequently served as professor of Greek and Latin at Wilberforce University, Ohio. DuBois finally received his doctorate in history from Harvard in 1895, whereupon he joined the faculty of Atlanta University, Georgia, teaching history and economics. He first came to the attention of fellow scholars with his pioneering book entitled The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study (1899). However, DuBois was also becoming active in civil rights matters, to protest the baleful discriminatory practices suffered by African Americans in the United States. In 1903 these attitudes crystalized in the book Souls of Black Folk, wherein he rejected outright the accommodation policies of Booker T. Washington and called for an immediate end to racism. In 1905 DuBois figured largely in creation of the Niagara Movement to push for political change; in 1909, when it merged with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), DuBois served as editor of its journal Crisis.

In this capacity he distinguished himself by his acerbic commentaries about white institutions while also flaunting black pride. DuBois was also an outspoken advocate of independence for African nations held as colonies, and in 1900, 1919, 1921, 1923, and 1927 he attended various Pan African conferences. DuBois parted company with the NAACP in 1934 by opposing its commitment to integration and instead advocating separatist nationalism and black-owned businesses, schools, and economic cooperatives. However, he rejoined them in 1944 as director of special research and in 1947 served as a consultant to the new United Nations. By this time DuBois was becoming increasingly bound up in politics and polemics. A lifelong socialist, he attended various peace conferences in Communist China and the Soviet Union, expressing open admiration for these closed and supposedly egalitarian societies. In 1951 he was tried by the government for being the agent of a foreign power but was acquitted. DuBois formally joined the Communist Party in 1961 and relocated to Ghana at the behest of President Kwame Nkrumah. There he continued espousing Pan-African sentiments while working on his massive Encyclopedia Africana. DuBois died in Accra, Ghana, on August 27, and received a state funeral. He is regarded as one of the most outspoken and intellectually gifted African-American leaders of the pre– civil rights era.

January 15 Arts: Poet Edwin Markham, inspired by a painting by Jean François Millet, publishes the poem “Man with a Hoe” in the San Francisco Examiner. This is a protest against the brutal modernization of agriculture and is eventually published in all major newspapers within the United States.

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Nation, Carrie (1846–1911) Reformer Carrie Amelia Moore was born in Garrard County, Kentucky, on November 25, 1846, into an intensely religious household. She accompanied her family as they migrated constantly between Kentucky, Missouri, and Texas, although during the Civil War her slave-owning father lost heavily. By 1865 they had finally settled at Belton, Missouri, where she attained a teaching certificate at a state normal school. Two years later she married Dr. Charles Gloyd, although he was an incurable alcoholic and soon died and left her with an infant son. This loss created an inveterate hatred of alcohol and saloons in Carrie. It was not until 1887 that she married David Nation, a lawyer and minister, taking his name. She and her spouse gradually relocated to Medicine Lodge, Kansas, where, in 1899, a raging fire stopped just short of the hotel they lived at. From this point forward Nation believed that she was divinely protected, and she also began experiencing religious hallucinations. Around this time she became active in the small but vocal prohibitionist movement and founded her own group, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. Nation—tall, stern, and physically impressive—began orchestrating praying and singing demonstrations outside local taverns. In 1899 her seemingly pacifist methods forced Medicine Lodge to close a saloon, but these pious tactics failed elsewhere. Kansas at this time was officially a dry state where liquor was outlawed, and by 1890 antiprohibitionists were pressing for a repeal of the law. Many openly flaunted their defiance by

selling alcohol in public, and the charismatic Nation was determined to stop this. Commencing in 1900 Nation and her followers began hurling bricks through technically illegal saloons; when that failed, she invariably strode in armed with a Bible and an iron rod, then smashed every liquor container within her reach. She also held numerous rallies in Wichita and Topeka, exhorting her largely female crowds to violence in the name of the Lord, and upending private property to underscore her wrath. Such excesses landed her in jail but also rendered her the darling of the prohibition movement, nationwide. Through lectures and other public events, Nation raised the money to post her bond. She funded a shelter for wives of alcoholics, and also directed the publication of journals like The Smasher’s Mail and The Hatchet to broaden membership. The latter derived its name from her practice, as of January 21, 1901, of brandishing a large metal hatchet whenever she raided an illegal saloon. Nation also published her best-selling autobiography, The Use and Need of the Life of Carry A. Nation. But as the novelty of her violent raids wore off, she came more to symbolize aggression and reckless behavior than reform. Her health finally faded and she withdrew from public scrutiny to recuperate in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas. Nation died after a brief illness at Leavenworth, Kansas, on June 9, 1911, having bequeathed urgency and a moral impetus to the rising tide of prohibitionism in America.

January 17 Settlement: The gunboat USS Bennington under Commander Edward D. Taussig lands and occupies Midway Island for the second and final time.

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January 20 Politics: President William McKinley appoints the Philippine Commission under Jacob G. Schurman. They suggest that the United States administer the island until such a time that the inhabitants are enabled to rule it in an orderly manner; this is a process that continues nearly half a century, ending in 1946. An American presence precludes any attempts by Imperial Germany, which has a sizable fleet in the region, from annexing the islands to its own empire. Acquisition of this Asian land also brings the United States in direct competition with Japan, which defeated China in 1895, acquiring Korea as a protectorate, and in preparing to deal with the Russian empire. Meanwhile, revolutionaries convened by guerrilla leader Emilio Aguinaldo approve national independence irrespective of American rule.

February 1 Diplomacy: The United States formally acquires Guam from Spain as per the Treaty of Paris.

February 4 Military: Filipino guerrillas under Emilio Aguinaldo, angered that the Philippines have not been granted immediate independence, attack American outposts along the San Juan River, Manila. A protracted and frequently bloody struggle now ensues as the United States is embroiled in its first Asian war.

February 5 Military: General Arthur MacArthur’s brigade sweeps north of Manila, driving Filipino guerrillas before them and capturing a fortified ridge overlooking the city. American losses are 44 dead and 194 wounded. Naval: The cruiser USS Charleston, the monitor Monadnock, and the gunboats Callao and Concord provide supporting fire for army operations outside Manila.

February 6 Diplomacy: The Treaty of Paris is ratified by the Senate on a vote of 57 to 27, despite strident opposition from anti-imperialists who feel that acquisition of foreign land is contrary to cherished political principles of self-governance. Hence the margin of victory in securing a two-thirds majority is only one vote. Nonetheless, the Americans, like Japan and many European nations, have acquired overseas possessions by force of arms. It is an imperial age.

February 10 Military: U.S. Army troops under General Arthur MacArthur attack Filipino guerrilla forces at Caloocan, Philippines, supported by naval gunfire. The town falls quickly, along with a railroad station and several hundred cars.

February 11 Naval: The gunboat USS Petrel bombards a rebel fort at Iloilo City, Philippines, after which a landing party is sent ashore to capture the position.

February 14 Diplomacy: Senator Augustus O. Bacon of Georgia introduces a resolution in the U.S. Senate granting independence to the Philippines, but it is narrowly defeated when Vice President Garret A. Hobart breaks a tie vote by voting against it. Politics: The use of voting machines in federal elections is authorized by Congress, although it remains up to individual states to utilize them or not.

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MacArthur, Arthur (1845–1912) General Arthur MacArthur was born in Chicopee, Massachusetts, on June 2, 1845, and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He failed to gain an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy when the Civil War commenced in 1861, so he joined the 24th Wisconsin Infantry as a second lieutenant. Despite his youth, being only 16 at the time, MacArthur went on to compile a brilliant war record. He fought heroically at the bloody 1862 battles of Perryville and Murfreesboro, winning promotion to captain. But his greatest feat was during the Union victory at Missionary Ridge on November 25, 1863, when the 24th Wisconsin stalled after being raked by enfilade fire and he seized the regimental flag, charged up the hill, and planted it on the enemy’s ramparts. For this act MacArthur was awarded a Congressional Medal of Honor in 1890. He fought well throughout the campaign of 1864 in the West, winning promotion to lieutenant colonel and taking command of his regiment at the age of 19. For this reason, MacArthur became hailed throughout the Union army as the “Boy Colonel,” for having led his men forward in nine pitched battles, sustained two serious wounds, and won four promotions. He was the youngest regimental-grade commander on either side to direct actual combat operations. MacArthur mustered out after the war to study law, but he rejoined as a lieutenant in 1866 and remained a captain for nearly two decades. He served throughout the Southwest and in 1885 received a campaign medal for operations against the renegade Apache Geronimo. He subsequently trans-

ferred to the new Cavalry and Infantry School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, before being billeted with the adjutant general’s office in Washington, D.C. MacArthur’s biggest contribution here was instituting mandatory examinations for promotion of any officer below the rank of colonel. During the Spanish-American War of 1898, MacArthur gained promotion to brigadier general and sailed to the Philippines in command of volunteer forces. After helping to secure the capture of Manila, he employed a deft combination of swift military action and humane civic programs like building schools to help suppress the rebellion of guerrilla leader Emilio Aguinaldo. In 1900 he rose to brigadier general in the regular army, advanced into central Luzon, and captured a succession of rebel outposts. With the rebellion crushed MacArthur later served as governor of the islands and he instituted many democratic reforms. He was promoted to major general, but also quarreled with governor William Howard Taft and was replaced by General Adna Romanza Chaffee. In 1904–05 MacArthur was detailed as an observer to the RussoJapanese War and he advanced to lieutenant general commanding the Division of the Pacific in September 1906. He was the army’s senior officer at the time, but stormy relations with President Theodore Roosevelt precluded his appointment as army chief of staff. MacArthur concluded 47 years of service by resigning in June 1909. He died in Milwaukee on September 5, 1912; General Douglas MacArthur was his son.

February 20 Diplomacy: The Anglo-American Joint High Commission meeting in Quebec, Canada, and Washington, D.C., is disbanded. Neither the United States, Great Britain, nor Canada was able to peacefully resolve issues surrounding the Alaskan

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Chronology of American History boundary and the proposed isthmian canal. After a cooling-off period, the commissioners will try again.

February 22 Literature: Elbert Hubbard pens the inspirational if somewhat inaccurate story “A Message to Garcia” in the magazine Philistine. It concerns itself with the efforts of Captain Andrew Rowan to run a letter to Cuban rebel leader General Calixto Garcia Iniquez during the Spanish-American War.

February 24 Naval: Marines and sailors from the gunboat USS Marietta deploy at Bluefields, Nicaragua, to protect American lives and property.

March 2 Conservation: Congress establishes Mount Rainier National Park in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State. Military: An additional 35,000 volunteers are authorized by Congress to help suppress an ongoing insurgency in the Philippines led by former ally Emilio Aguinaldo. However, in a major change, their officers are now tendered federal, not state commissions—a complete break from the state militia tradition. The U.S. Army is also enlarged by 3,000 men to flesh out existing regiments. Naval: Congress authorizes creation of the rank admiral of the navy for Admiral George Dewey; he is the only officer in American naval history so honored. This is also the first military rank to waive the mandatory retirement age.

March 3 Naval: To better project American power abroad and show the flag, Congress authorizes construction of three new battleships, three armed cruisers, and six protected cruisers. The Naval Personnel Act of 1899 merges line and engineering officers equally to end intractable hostilities among the navy’s officer corps, It also requires the curricula at the U.S. Naval Academy to include more courses on engineering. Politics: Admiral John G. Walker is appointed head of the third Isthmian Canal Commission to investigate the best possible route for building a canal across Central America. Given America’s global responsibilities across two oceans, the canal shifts from an economic advantage to a strategic imperative. Congress formulates a code of criminal law for the District of Alaska.

March 11 Diplomacy: Due to the death of King Malietoa, the Samoan islands are divided into American, British, and German spheres of influence complicated by violence from competing successors. In the end American and British marines will depose the German candidate, Mataafa, and place Tamu on the throne. The Germans will then request a three-man commission be appointed to investigate the entire Samoan issue.

March 25–31 Military: Kansas and Nebraska volunteers under Colonel Frederick Funston overcome desperate Filipino resistance and capture their capital at Malolos, suffering 500 casualties in the process. However, insurgent leader Emilio Aguinaldo escapes and his followers withdraw rapidly upon Tarlac to renew the contest.

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April 1 Naval: An American naval force is landed on the island of Upolu, Samoa, to protect Americans living there from tribal warfare, but it is attacked and suffers seven dead and seven wounded.

April 19 Sports: Lawrence J. Brignolla wins the third running of the Boston Marathon, turning in a time of two hours, 54 minutes, 38 seconds.

April 24 Labor: Rioting miners at Wardner, Idaho, having been refused a raise to $3.50 a hour, riot and destroy $250,000 worth of equipment.

April 27 General: A violent tornado tears through northern Missouri, killing 40 people and injuring over 100. Military: Colonel Frederick Funston leads his 20th Kansas Volunteer Infantry into action against a superior force of Filipino guerrillas at the Rio Grande de Pampanga River, routing the defenders. Consequently, Funston and two of his men win the Congressional Medal of Honor.

April 28 Diplomacy: A deputation representing the Filipino resistance requests peace terms from General Elwell Stephens Otis, who insisted upon unconditional surrender. The rebels then withdraw their peace offer.

April 29 Labor: Miners at Wardner, Idaho, strike for better wages, but when owners refuse to allow them to close the mine, the workers blow it up, inflicting $250,000 in damages.

May 4 Sports: The 25th annual Kentucky Derby is won by Manuel, who runs the course in two minutes, 12 seconds.

May 18–July 29 Diplomacy: The First Hague Peace Conference convenes in the Netherlands at the behest of Czar Nicholas II, it will lead to the eventual establishment of the Permanent Court of International Arbitration. Delegates from the United States are in attendance, although they still insist on upholding the Monroe Doctrine for resolving disputes in their region of influence. A total of 26 nations are in attendance.

May 25 Sports: The 33rd Belmont Stakes is won by Jean Bereaud, who finishes in two minutes, 23 seconds.

May 30 Sports: The 24th annual Preakness Stakes is won by Half Time, who finishes in one minute, 47 seconds.

June 9 Sports: Heavyweight champion Bob Fitzsimmons is dethroned in 11 rounds by challenger James J. Jeffries at Coney Island, New York.

June 10–13 Naval: Filipino insurgent positions at Cavite, Philippines, are bombarded by U.S. Navy monitors and gunboats, in concert with army sweeps against them.

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June 12 Crime: A gang led by Butch Cassidy and Harry Longabaugh (“The Sundance Kid”) knocks off a bank in the small railroad town of Wilcox Station, Wyoming, absconding with a haul estimated at $60,000. General: New Richmond, Wisconsin, is ripped by a tornado that kills 250 people.

June 30 Transportation: The U.S. Army acquires several electricity-driven trucks as potential transport vehicles but will abandon the effort two years later when their batteries prove incapable of holding a charge for sufficient periods of time. On Long Island, New York, cyclist Charles Murphy covers a mile in only 57 seconds.

July Military: In the Philippines, the VIII Corps of General Ewell S. Otis loses 8,000 volunteers when their enlistments expire; the Americans are thus forced to wage a guerrilla war with only 20,000 men until reinforcements can arrive in the fall.

July 1 Religion: The Christian Commercial Men’s Association of America founds the Gideons International with its own unique spin on evangelicalism; their purpose is to deposit Bibles in hotel rooms across the nation.

July 10 Religion: The North American Buddhist Mission is established in San Francisco, California, under the aegis of Kakuryo Nishijima and Shuye Sonoda. The sect in question is Jodo Ching-T’u, which stresses enlightenment, self-reliance, and the notion of karma—that actions in a previous life will affect present events.

July 19 Military: The poor performance of ill-prepared and ill-equipped U.S. Army and Volunteer troops in recent hostilities results in the resignation of Secretary of War Russell A. Alger. For every soldier killed in action, no less than 13 died of illness. Captain Bernard Byrne leads two companies of the 6th U.S. Infantry against bolo-wielding tribesmen occupying the village of Bobong. The defenders are driven off after heavy fighting.

July 29 Diplomacy: At The Hague, Netherlands, the United States signs a convention to join the Permanent Court of International Arbitration. However, the U.S. delegation has insisted that cases involving the Monroe Doctrine must be exempted.

August 1 Military: In Washington, D.C., Elihu Root is appointed the new secretary of war by President William McKinley. Root is a determined reformer, partly inspired by the writings of the late general Emory Upton.

August 5 Business: Ambitious Henry Ford founds his Detroit Automobile Company in Detroit, Michigan.

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August 14 Diplomacy: Jacob G. Shurman, chairman of the Philippine Commission, returns from the Pacific and issues a report to Congress favoring retention of the islands, although independence should be granted at some indeterminate date in the future. However, establishment of an effective means of self-governance will be essential to the entire process.

August 17 Civil: The National Afro-Council convenes its first annual convention in Chicago, Illinois, mostly to discuss the high number of lynchings occurring throughout the South.

September–October Military: American forces in the Philippines take advantage of the dry season and push several columns forward into the central plains of Luzon to clear out any remaining pockets of guerrillas.

September 6 Diplomacy: The United States is determined to prevent China from being dismembered and colonized by Western powers and Japan, although more for commercial reasons that altruism. For this reason, Secretary of State John Hay instructs all American Most lynching victims were African-American ambassadors in nations that have treaties and long- men, such as the one in this photograph. (Library term leases in China to request an “Open Door” policy of Congress) granting equal treatment to all foreigners living there. Such agreements will preclude any moves toward “spheres of influence” that would further weaken the ancient “Middle Kingdom” or infringe upon free trade.

September 12 Diplomacy: The Chinese government protests what it considers America’s disregard for friendly relations, its discriminatory laws against Chinese immigrants in Hawaii and the Philippines in particular.

September 15 Sports: Willie Smith wins the U.S. Open golf tournament.

September 18–23 Naval: The cruisers USS Charleston and Baltimore join U.S. Navy gunboats and monitors in a bombardment of Filipino insurgents at Olongapo, Philippines, at the head of Subic Bay. The transport Zafiro then lands troops that storm ashore and take their position.

September 25 Naval: Filipino guerrillas ambush the armed boat Urdaneta under Naval Cadet Welborn C. Wood along the Pampanga River, Luzon. Wood and four crewmen die and four are captured; his becomes the only naval vessel lost in the Philippine Insurrection.

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October 1 Diplomacy: The Venezuelan Boundary Commission, established by the United States, Great Britain, and Venezuela, reports its findings. The disputed region that occasioned its creation is awarded to British Guiana, while Venezuela receives the mouth of the Orinoco River and 5,000 square miles in the interior.

October 4 Military: Ongoing difficulties in the Philippines result in the dispatch of additional ships and troops at the behest of Admiral George Dewey. A total of 30,963 men are ultimately garrisoned there.

October 8 Naval: U.S. Marines go ashore at Novaleta, Philippines, assisted by gunfire from the gunboats USS Callao and Petrel, and capture the position.

October 14 Technology: President William McKinley takes a Stanley Steamer for a spin, becoming the first chief executive to drive an automobile. The “horseless buggy” is a dramatic improvement over conventional modes of transportation, but, given its still considerable expense, editorial mavens at the Literary Digest pronounce automobiles as mere toys for the rich, predicting that they will never rival bicycles in popularity.

October 16–20 Sports: The U.S. yacht Columbia successfully defends the America’s Cup against the British challenger Shamrock I. News of the victory is then relayed for the first time by wireless transmission to the offices of the New York Herald.

October 20 Diplomacy: Great Britain, eager to gain traction on the isthmian canal under consideration, strong-arms Canada to accept an Alaskan boundary settlement favoring the United States. This is a considerable victory for Secretary of State John Hay, who finally settles a contentious issue.

November 2 Naval: The cruiser USS Charleston hits a reef near Camiguin Island, Philippines, and is shipwrecked without loss of life.

November 11 Military: When the 33rd U.S. Volunteer Regiment is ambushed by Filipino guerrillas at San Jacinto, Major Peyton March turns the tables on the guerrillas, defeating them. American losses are 21 dead and wounded.

November 13 Military: American troops of General Arthur MacArthur’s division storm into Tarlac, the last capital of Filipino guerrillas. The insurgents melt away into the jungle to conduct small-scale raids and ambushes.

November 21 General: Vice President Garret A. Hobart dies at Paterson, New Jersey.

November 24 Military: A sweep by American forces through the Luzon region under General Ewell Stephen Otis nets the renegade president of the Philippine Congress and its secretary of state and treasurer. The main island of the Philippines is now in

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American hands, but the occupiers are dogged by fanatical Muslim guerrillas farther south.

November 26 Naval: The battleship USS Oregon and the cruiser Baltimore dispatch landing parties ashore that seize and occupy the old Spanish navy yard of Olongapo at Subic Bay on Luzon.

December 2 Diplomacy: The United States, Great Britain, and Germany reach a new accord over the Samoan Islands, agreeing to abolish the monarchy there and, by terms of the Samoan Partition Treaty, divide the archipelago among themselves. The Americans, for their part, receive all islands east of the 171st meridian and also award Germany $20,000 in reparations for damage to their embassy during the fighting.

December 4 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Addyston Pipe & Steel Co. v. United States, ruling that companies negotiating among themselves to eliminate competition violate the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. Politics: The 56th Congress assembles with the Republicans still in control of both houses.

December 5 Business: President William McKinley, taking his cue from the Supreme Court, addresses Congress by declaring that trusts and other economic combines require closer congressional attention and regulation. This is a bold stance for a Republican executive previously beholden to big business for his success, and signals a change in attitude toward unchecked economic forces.

December 7 Diplomacy: Congressman William P. Hepburn introduces a bill calling for the construction of an isthmian canal without British agreement, although it fails to garner serious consideration.

December 9 Military: Lieutenant Colonel Robert L. Howze directs his 34th U.S. Volunteer Infantry in a sizable victory over Filipino insurgents on the island of Luzon. The three-hour engagement destroys a brigade-size unit of guerrillas.

December 18 Military: General Henry W. Lawton, a very tall individual made even more conspicuous by his white raincoat and pith helmet, is shot by a sniper and killed on the firing line near San Mateo, Philippines. He is the highest ranking fatality of the insurgency.

December 24 Transportation: Public transit in Boston, Massachusetts, reaches a historic milestone when the last horse-drawn car is withdrawn from service on Boylston Street.

1900 Arts: The self-taught Albert Pinkham Ryder comes into his own as a force in American painting, with his most celebrated work, Toilers of the Sea, finished this year.

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Chronology of American History Sculptor Hermon Atkins MacNeil win a medal at the Paris Exposition for his dramatic renderings of Native-American life. In Chicago, the Jane Addams social settlement house founds the nation’s first “little theater,” whose inhabitants include social workers, artists, and painters. Business: This year 187,000 automobiles will roll off the production lines, signaling America’s rapid transition to mechanization. The Olds Company establishes the first quality-production automobile plant in America at Detroit, Michigan, after being capitalized at $350,000. The machines are hand-assembled one at a time with parts purchased from other companies, and only 400 are turned out in the first year of production. Civil: The National Negro Business League is founded by reformer Booker T. Washington. Communication: A record 1.3 million telephones are at work throughout the nation, and the number keeps growing yearly. Labor: The vaudeville circuit is thoroughly jostled by the appearance of a group calling themselves the White Rats, a union for actors demanding higher wages. To combat sweatshop conditions and dismally small wages, the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union is founded. Literature: Writer Theodore Dreiser, soon to be considered one of America’s finest writers, publishes his first novel, Sister Carrie, only to have Doubleday, his publisher, withdraw it from circulation. The story concerns the degradation of a man at the hands of an immoral woman. An edited edition will be reissued in 1912, but the complete, unaltered story will not be made available until 1981. Dreiser is so distraught that he considers suicide and will not complete another novel for the next 11 years. Smart Set begins monthly publication under the enlightened aegis of William D’Alton Mann, featuring original stories by Mary Austin, Ambrose Bierce, Theodore Dreiser, O. Henry, and Jack London. Irving Bacheller pens Eben Holden, A Tale of the Old Country, which sells 300,000 copies. L. Frank Baum writes his seminal fantasy tale, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Jack London publishes his first collection of short stories, entitled The Son of the Wolf. Media: Dramatic motion picture footage is taken of disasters at Bayonne, New Jersey, and Galveston, Texas, ushering in the age of film journalism. The Eastman Kodak Company breaks into the commercial photography market by introducing the Brownie Box camera, which is completely self-contained with film inside. The price is only one dollar, which places it in the hands of thousands of amateur photographers. Military: U.S. Army troop concentration in the Philippines rises to 64,000 men, and operations are expanded to include the islands of Samar, Leyte, and Jolo. Music: The song “Goodbye Dolly Gray” is popularized by soldiers departing for war in the Philippines. Population: The latest census reveals a tally of 76 million citizens, with the center of population six miles south of Columbus, Indiana. Societal: Growing access to public education has reduced illiteracy rates to 10.7 percent.

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1519

London, Jack (1876–1916) Author Jack Griffith London was born in San Francisco, California, on January 12, 1876, the illegitimate son of a spiritualist. As a young man he proved aimless, wandered around constantly, and assumed petty jobs such as working for the Fish Patrol in his native city. He continued loafing about until 1893 when he joined the merchant marine as an able-bodied seaman and shipped to Japan. London came home a year later, drifted about, and was arrested in New York City for vagrancy before returning home to complete his high school diploma. In 1896 he enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied one year before dropping out. By this time London’s brushes with poverty had made him a committed socialist, but he also developed a penchant for writing. He joined the Klondike gold rush the following year, developed scurvy, and was forced home to recover. While recuperating he penned several short stories based on his wilderness experiences, which were published in periodicals, in 1901 he pulled them together in a collection called The Son of the Wolf. American literature at this time was characterized by its polish and pretensions toward gentility, such as in the refined writings of Henry James, but London’s style was blunt, muscular, and fixated upon the primitive. In 1903 he wrote and published his masterpiece, The Call of the Wild, which is a paean to the survival of the fittest in a very harsh environment. Despite London’s socialist leanings, he very much embraced a Darwinian social outlook in his

writings, where only the strongest are best equipped to survive. His subsequent novels, such as White Fang (1906) and The Sea Wolf (1904), touched upon similar themes and all rose to become national best-sellers. In 1903 London moved to England to live in its slum areas, which provided grist for his new novel The People of the Abyss, a scathing critique of the inequities of capitalism. Returning home he finally settled at Glen Ellen, California, and continued churning out autobiographical titles like The Cruise of the Snark, concerning his voyage to the South Pacific, along with socialist-oriented diatribes such as The Iron Heel (1907), Burning Daylight (1910), and The Valley of the Moon (1913). London also composed one of the best eyewitness accounts of the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906, and later published what he saw while serving as a war correspondent in the Russo-Japanese War. London subsequently found the time to pen three semi-autobiographical books, Tales of the Fish Patrol (1905), The Road (1907), and John Barleycorn (1913), considered among his finest work. In 1914 he served as a news correspondent at Veracruz, Mexico, alongside American forces, although his continuing dependency on alcohol led to divorce and declining health. He committed suicide at his home on November 22, 1916, an immensely prolific writer and among the most widely read authors of his day. London’s two-fisted prose neatly bridges the gap between Mark Twain’s adventurous yarns and Ernest Hemingway’s war stories.

Manufacturers churn out four billion cigarettes this year, although they are still seen as effete when compared to more “manly” products, such as cigars, pipes, and chewing tobacco. Sports: Tennis player Dwight F. Davis offers the Davis Cup for competition between tennis players from the United States and Great Britain.

1900

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Chronology of American History The U.S. Lawn Tennis Association singles championship is won by Malcolm D. Whitman and Myrtle McAteer in their respective divisions. Yale University wins the national college football championship with 12 wins, no ties, and no losses. Brooklyn wins the National League baseball championship with 82 wins and 54 defeats. Technology: The increasing use of the Bessemer process for steel manufacture results in a record output of 10 million tons, with half of that going to steel rails. Transportation: The New York Central Railroad, which controls 10,000 miles of track, becomes the nation’s largest transportation entity. The extent of railroad track laid has mushroomed from 37,000 miles in 1865 to over 193,000, over which three and a half times as much freight is shipped annually. At the start of the new century, the United States possesses roughly 8,000 automobiles and 150,000 miles of paved roads.

January Business: In Tacoma, Washington, the Frederick Weyerhaeuser Company is incorporated. Naval: In the Philippines, navy gunboats support army troops in attacking and seizing the Batan Islands from Filipino insurgents.

January 2 Transportation: New York City deploys its first electric-powered buses, which rumble silently up and down Fifth Avenue. Fare is set at five cents.

January 4 Military: In the Philippines, U.S. Army troops begin a concerted campaign to root out insurgents in Cavite, which will last for an entire month and be attended with considerable success.

January 7 Military: The 38th U.S. Volunteer Infantry handily defeats a larger body of Filipino irregulars at Patol Bridge, Cavite, killing over 100 insurgents in a two-hour battle.

January 20 Civil: In Washington, D.C., African-American congressman G. H. White of North Carolina introduces legislation to have lynching declared a federal offense; it is not passed.

January 25 Politics: The House of Representatives expels Mormon congressman Brigham Henry Roberts of Utah because of his alleged polygamy.

January 29 Sports: The new American Baseball League is formed in Chicago, Illinois, but is denied recognition by the previously existing National League.

February Naval: Navy gunboats enjoy an active month in supporting army operations by participating in the captures of Biniktgan village, Perez, and Pasacao from Filipino insurgents.

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February 5 Diplomacy: Secretary of State John Hay and British foreign minister Sir Julian Pauncefote conclude the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty, which allows the United States sole construction rights for building a canal across the Isthmus of Panama. In return, the Americans swear to uphold the neutrality of the canal and allow passage to shipping of all nations.

February 6 Politics: Governor Theodore Roosevelt of New York stridently declares that he will never accept the vice presidency should it be tendered to him. However, a myriad of political enemies in New York are striving to accomplish just that—to get rid of him.

February 10 Naval: Commodore Seaton Schroeder gains appointment as the first naval governor of American Samoa, whose administration is under the Navy Department.

February 20 Naval: U.S. Marines from the gunboat USS Nashville assist army troops in the reduction of Calapacuan, Philippines.

March 5 General: The new Hall of Fame is founded at New York University in New York City with a goal toward promoting the lives and accomplishments of famous Americans.

March 6–9 Politics: The Social Democratic Party convenes its national convention in Indianapolis, Indiana, choosing Eugene V. Debs of Indiana for president and Job Harrison of California for vice president.

March 13 Naval: The secretary of the navy, reluctant to copy the army and adopt a general staff that would control naval planning, instead founds a general board of senior admirals, which will function in an advisory capacity only. Admiral George Dewey is called upon to initially head the board.

March 14 Business: Congress passes the Gold Standard Act, which establishes a gold dollar at 25.8 grains and places all U.S. currency on a parity with that precious metal. The national gold reserve, previously diminished, has rebounded back to $150 million due to new sources in Alaska, Africa, and Australia. The act also establishes national banks in towns of 3,000 or less to assist the agrarian sector. Politics: The governor of Utah vetoes legislation aimed at easing the prosecution of polygamy cases.

March 20 Diplomacy: In something of a diplomatic and economic coup, Secretary of State John Hay declares that the “Open Door” policy for China has been accepted—if sullenly—by the Great Powers: Britain, Germany, Italy, Russia, and Japan. This ensures that China, militarily weak and subject to colonization, will be commercially accessible to the United States.

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March 24 Business: Andrew Carnegie incorporates his new Carnegie Steel Company in New Jersey with little hindrance from the nearly defunct Sherman Anti-Trust Act. With a capitalization of $160 million—unprecedented for its day—it is the largest conglomerate in the world. Military: The U.S. Army guides creation of the Puerto Rico battalion at San Juan, Puerto Rico, to assist it in security matters.

April Business: Standard Oil Company makes dividend payments of $20 million for the first quarter of 1900, the largest such dividend claim by any corporation to date. Naval: The Filipino insurgent vessel San Jose is captured by the gunboat USS Paragua off the Philippine coast.

April 12 Politics: Congress passes Senator Joseph Foraker’s act to confirm Puerto Rico’s status as an unconsolidated territory under American control, and a government is appointed with a governor and a bicameral legislature. Preparations are thus made to end all vestiges of military rule. The island’s inhabitants, however, will not obtain American citizenship until 1916. Provisions of the Dingley Tariff Act are extended to the island.

April 15 Sports: A. L. Riker wins an early automobile race at Springfield, Long Island, by tearing up 50 miles in two hours, three minutes.

April 19 Sports: Canadian James J. Caffrey wins the fourth Boston Marathon by crossing the line at two hours, 39 minutes, and 44 seconds.

April 25 Transportation: In New York City, the Cuba Company prepares to invest $8 million to construct railroads on that island.

April 30 General: John Luther “Casey” Jones, a celebrated railroad engineer of the Illinois Central Railroad and captain of the “Cannon Ball Express,” is killed in a train collision near Vaughn, Mississippi. He sacrifices himself to save the lives of his passengers and is subsequently canonized in numerous ballads and folk tales. Settlement: Hawaii obtains territorial status from Congress.

May Naval: Gunboats USS Pampanga and Paragua assist in the capture of Masing and Santa Margarita, Leyte, as part of the ongoing reduction of Filipino insurgent bases. Four enemy vessel are also captured or sunk.

May 1 General: More than 200 miners are killed in an explosion at Scofield, Utah.

May 3 Sports: The 26th annual Kentucky Derby is won by Lieutenant Gibson, who runs the course in two minutes, six seconds.

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May 9–10 Politics: The People’s Party meets in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and nominates William Jennings Bryan for president and Charles A. Town of Minnesota for vice president. However, a splinter group within the party arranges its own gathering at Cincinnati, Ohio, and nominates Wharton Baker of Pennsylvania and Ignatius Donnelly of Minnesota for the same offices.

May 11 Sports: Boxing champion James J. Jeffries successfully defends his title against challenger James J. Corbett at Coney Island, New York, winning by a knockout after 23 rounds.

May 14 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Knowlton v. Moore, ruling that the inheritance tax imposed by the War Revenue Act of 1898 is constitutional. Settlement: Sanford Ballard Dole, who has served as provisional president of the Republic of Hawaii since 1894, is appointed the first territorial governor by President William McKinley. Societal: A group of steely women prohibitionists led by Carrie Nation descends upon various saloons and liquor stores throughout Kansas, gutting several.

May 15 Military: General Ewell S. Otis is replaced as governor and commander in the Philippines by General Arthur MacArthur, who now commands 63,000 soldiers.

May 18 Naval: Edwin Conger, U.S. consul at Peking (Beijing), China, expresses great concern over mounting anti-foreign hostility from secret revolutionaries known as “Boxers” and requests that the legation receive additional U.S. Marines from the Asiatic Fleet.

May 20–October 28 Sports: The Olympic Games transpire in Paris, France, and athletes from the United States finish second behind France, with 20 medals.

May 22 General: A raging fire consumes 64 buildings in Lakeview, Oregon.

May 24 Sports: The 34th annual Belmont Stakes is won by Ildrim with a time of two minutes, 21 seconds.

May 26 Communication: In Alaska, the U.S. Army Signal Corps begins constructing a telegraph cable to connect that remote region to Washington, D.C. Military: The War Department issues Order No. 155 to establish an Army War College for regular commissioned officers. This will be a graduate-level institution for regularly commissioned officers, and General Samuel B. Young will serve as its first president.

May 29 Sports: The 25th annual Preakness Stakes is won by Hindus, who crosses the finish line in one minute, 48 seconds.

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May 31 Military: A contingent of U.S. Marines and sailors from the battleship USS Oregon and cruiser Newark form part of a 337-man force dispatched to Peking (Beijing) for the purpose of protecting diplomatic legations there from rampaging Chinese rebels, or “Boxers.”

June 2 Politics: The Socialist Labor Party convenes in New York and chooses Joseph P. Maloney of Massachusetts and Valentine Remmel of Pennsylvania for president and vice president, respectively.

June 4 Politics: A deputation of four men headed by Judge William Howard Taft arrives at Manila to help organize a government of the Philippine Islands. However, insurgent leader Emilio Aguinaldo continues to direct guerrilla operations against the 60,000 troops garrisoning the islands.

June 5 Military: A small patrol of soldiers of the 28th U.S. Volunteer Infantry engages guerrillas at Payapay, Philippines, killing 14 insurgents. The American company commander is slain in action.

June 6 Military: Congress resurrects the title of lieutenant general for the commanding general of the army, Nelson A. Miles.

June 10 Military: British admiral Sir Edward Seymour leads an international force of more than 2,000 soldiers (including more than 100 Americans) from Tientsin to Peking for the purpose of reinforcing the diplomatic legations besieged there. Skirmishes en route cost four American dead and 28 wounded among the 290 casualties sustained.

June 13 Military: Chinese Boxers attack a train carrying an international force under Admiral Sir Edward Seymour, including American sailors and marines, bringing it to a standstill outside Tientsin.

June 14 Settlement: The territorial status of Hawaii becomes official and President William McKinley appoints Sanford B. Dole as the first governor.

June 15 Music: In New York City, virtuoso pianist Ignace Jan Paderewski funds an endowment of $10,000 as a reward to the best orchestral composers in America.

June 16 Naval: The gunboat USS Villalobos captures its 22nd Filipino insurgent craft in two months of operations in Philippine waters.

June 17 Military: Heavy attacks by Chinese Boxers force an international relief force under Admiral Sir Edward Seymour to withdraw from the relief of Peking (Beijing). Naval: At the Chinese port of Taku, the gunboat USS Monocacy is shelled by Chinese army forts but is ordered not to return fire, along with allied vessels, for fear of precipitating a war with the government.

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June 18 Naval: The gunboat USS Nashville makes a high-speed transit from the Philippines with 140 U.S. Marines, whom it lands this day at the port of Taku. Once ashore the contingent marches hastily for Tientsin, about 37 miles away.

June 19–21 Military: In China, an international force is cobbled together for the relief of the diplomatic legations trapped in Peking (Beijing). General Adna Romanza Chaffee also takes charge of the American contingent in the Philippines, consisting of the 9th and 14th U.S. Infantry, two troops of the 6th U.S. Cavalry, and a battery from the 5th U.S. Artillery. Politics: The Republican Party holds its convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and renominates William McKinley for the presidency. Again, industrialist Mark Hanna is behind the scenes securing his victory. But the height of the evening is when Theodore Roosevelt shows up in his “Rough Rider” attire, delivers a rousing campaign speech, and wins the vice presidential nod by acclamation. Roosevelt feels his nomination is a ploy by political enemies in New York to remove him from power and influence. The party platform stresses the gold standard, the prevailing stance in foreign policy, and a canal across the Isthmus of Panama.

June 20 Military: In China, xenophobic nationalist factions incite the so-called Boxer Rebellion, trapping diplomatic delegations in the fortress-like Imperial City in Peking and drawing a multinational expeditionary force to their rescue. The ailing Manchu dynasty under Dowager Empress T’zu Hsi, also wishing to rid itself of foreigners, belatedly throws its support to the rebels; scores of Christian missionaries, along with thousands of converts, are massacred.

June 21 Military: General Arthur MacArthur, determined to undermine guerrilla resistance, offers an amnesty to Filipino insurgents.

June 22 Military: The international relief force under Admiral Sir Edward Seymour captures the Hsiku Arsenal, six miles out of Tientsin, China. They halt to await reinforcements.

June 27–28 Politics: The Prohibition Party meets in Chicago, Illinois, and nominates John G. Woolley of Illinois for president and Henry B. Metcalf of Rhode Island for vice president.

June 30 General: A fire on the piers of Hoboken, New Jersey, destroys several steam ships, kills 326 passengers, and inflicts $10 million in damages.

July Naval: Navy gunboats support U.S. Army operations in and around Samar and Mindanao, Philippines, sinking or capturing 12 more insurgent craft.

July 3 Diplomacy: Secretary of State John Hay, alarmed by the Boxer Rebellion in China but equally determined to preserve the “Open Door” policy with respect

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Chronology of American History to trade, dispatches a circular letter declaring his search for a solution that will achieve peace and impartial world trade. He also insists that Chinese sovereignty be respected after the rebellion is eventually crushed.

July 4 –6 Politics: The Democratic Party convenes in Kansas City, Missouri, and unanimously selects William Jennings Bryan as its standard bearer, with Adlai Stevenson as vice president. Moreover, the party platform denounces imperialism and the gold standard, demanding an end to both.

July 8 Military: The 9th U.S. Infantry under Colonel Emerson H. Liscum arrives at Taku, China, from the Philippines, and then marches 37 miles to join allied forces at Tientsin.

July 13 Military: American troops from the 1st Marines and 9th U.S. Infantry, totaling 1,021 men under Colonel Emerson H. Liscum, assist allied forces in storming the walled Chinese city of Tientsin. Liscum’s losses are 18 dead and 22 wounded, while two officers and one private later are awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. The overall effort is directed by British general A. R. F. Dorward and is the first occasion that Americans have cooperated with a foreign military power since 1779.

July 16 Military: A detachment of the 28th U.S. Volunteer Infantry attacks and drives 400 Filipino insurgents from their stronghold at Barrio de Talaug, Philippines.

July 17 Military: Soldiers of the 28th U.S. Volunteers, backed by the gunboat USS Villalobos, rout a larger detachment of insurgents at Taal, Batangas, the Philippines.

July 26–29 Military: The balance of General Adna Romanza Chaffee’s American Expeditionary Force arrives at Taku, China, consisting of elements from the 14th U.S. Infantry, the 6th U.S. Cavalry, and 5th U.S. Artillery. Once ashore they immediately set out overland to join allied forces at Tientsin.

August 2 Military: The diplomatic legations besieged in Peking are heartened by the arrival of a letter from Lieutenant Colonel J. S. Mallory, who declares that a column of 10,000 soldiers is marching to their relief. Naval: The gunboat USS Pampanga enjoys an active month hunting down Filipino insurgent craft, destroying no less than nine bancas (small coastal craft) in August alone.

August 5–6 Military: Allied forces storm across Chinese defenses along the Pei-Ho River and in the city of Yang Ts’un; the victory costs the Americans seven dead and 65 wounded.

August 8–10 Sports: Longwood, Massachusetts, is the scene of the first international lawn tennis competition for the Davis Cup, which the United States wins three matches to none. Ironically, Dwight F. Davis, who had put up the cup, will be among the winners.

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August 13–14 Military: A force of 2,500 Americans under General Adna Romanza Chaffee batters its way past Chinese rebels, storms the gates of Peking, and secures all foreign dignitaries holed up there for the past three months. He does so in conjunction with 12,000 Russian, German, British, Austrian, and Japanese soldiers. In action, musician Calvin Titus, 14th U.S. Infantry, will clamber up the city’s high walls and plant the American flag under fire, winning a Congressional Medal of Honor.

August 15 Military: A two-gun battery under Lieutenant Charles P. Summerall, 5th U.S. Artillery, blasts open the gates to Peking’s Forbidden City, and troops rush in to disperse all remaining Boxers.

August 28 Military: Men of the American Expeditionary Force under General Adna Romanza Chaffee participate in the allied victory “celebration” held in Peking’s Forbidden City.

September Aviation: Wilbur and Orville Wright perfect a working full-scale glider that incorporates “wing warping” for effective lateral control while airborne. This is the first such vehicle successfully tested. Medical: Colonel Walter Reed, an army doctor, begins researching the cause of yellow fever, which has killed thousands of soldiers in the Spanish-American War, and will conclude that the disease is spread by mosquitoes. His work at controlling the pest will completely eradicate the disease from Cuba within a year.

September 7 Diplomacy: By terms of the Boxer Protocol, the Americans receive an indemnity of $24 million, but in 1905 will return half of this sum to the Chinese government. The funds are subsequently used to dispatch students to American universities.

September 8 General: Galveston, Texas, is lashed by a powerful hurricane packing 120 mile per hour winds; it kills 6,000 people, destroys 3,600 structures, and inflicts damages estimated at $25 million. Worse, chaos and wide-scale looting ensue in its aftermath until a commission city government is established to restore order. Naval: The gunboat USS Panay sweeps the Philippine coast of insurgent craft, sinking four small vessels.

September 17 Business: Due to a strike by 112,000 miners, the price of anthracite coal in New York City zooms from $1.00 to $6.50 per ton. Military: Troops of the 15th U.S. Infantry and 37th U.S. Volunteers storm a fortified insurgent village on Luzon, taking considerable casualties.

September 18 Politics: Hennepin County, Minnesota, hosts the first direct primary in American history, eventually to be adopted by the rest of the nation.

October Military: In the Philippines, General Ewell S. Otis leads 12,600 American soldiers in a concerted sweep north of Manila. His mission is to root out guerrillas under Emilio Aguinaldo, then fighting to obtain complete independence from

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Wright, Orville (1871–1948) Aviator Orville Wright was born in Dayton, Ohio, on August 19, 1871, the son of a minister in the United Brethren Church. An older brother, Wilbur, with whom his own career was indelibly entwined, was born in 1867. Neither boy completed high school but both displayed amazing aptitude for mechanical tinkering. In 1892 they opened and operated a successful bicycle repair shop and began designing, constructing, and marketing their own bikes. They had also become enthralled by the achievements of pioneer glider pilots Otto Lilienthal of Germany and Octave Chanute in the United States, and absorbed all the professional literature available. The Wrights then decided to apply their technical and engineering knowhow into designing and constructing a powered glider of their own. In 1899 the Wrights corresponded with aviation pioneer Samuel Langley, who provided them with the most up-to-date charts and tables on aerodynamic lift. The brothers then constructed a large free-flying glider and, upon the advice of the U.S. Weather Bureau, assembled their machine at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, for test flying in 1901. However, the information provided by Langley proved faulty, so the Wrights returned to Dayton to recalculate their endeavors. In 1902 they constructed the world’s first wind tunnel, tested hundred of designs for optimum lift, then flew a modified glider at Kitty Hawk with a new wind-warping control system, the precursor of today’s ailerons. Results were encouraging, so the only remaining obstacle

was construction of a light-weight internal combustion engine to drive a pair of propellers for thrust. When no machine shop could construct such a device, the Wright brothers built their own engine and returned to Kitty Hawk for a test flight. After years of trial and error, history was finally made. On December 17, 1903, Orville Wright became the first man to successfully fly a heavier than air machine on a 12 seconds, 120 foot flight. Brother Wilbur then went aloft for 59 seconds and 852 feet, and the age of aviation had dawned. Over the ensuing four years they constantly upgraded their machine’s performance, receiving a government patent in 1906. Two years later the War Department asked the Wrights to build a machine capable of flying 40 miles per hour for 125 miles with a pilot and passenger. Tragedy struck that year when a machine piloted by Wilbur crashed, killing Lieutenant Tom Selfridge of the U.S. Army Signal Corps. Three years later Orville lost his elder brother to disease, and also entered into a protracted lawsuit with Glenn H. Curtiss over the issue of exactly who invented ailerons. In 1915 Wilbur finally retired from the aviation business and settled down in Dayton, Ohio, to pursue research. That year President Woodrow Wilson appointed him a member of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), with which he served until his death in Dayton on January 30, 1948. A quiet, nondescript individual, Orville Wright remains celebrated as the first man to slip the surly bounds of Earth.

the United States. An intense guerrilla bush fight erupts with hundreds of U.S. casualties and thousands of Filipinos killed or wounded. Naval: The gunboats USS Panay and Callao support several army operations resulting in the capture of Carles, Balsen, Estabcia, and Malabung, Philippines, along with two insurgent vessels.

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Reed, Walter

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(1851–1902)

Army surgeon Walter Reed was born at Belroi, Virginia, on September 13, 1851, the son of a Methodist minister. He passed through the University of Virginia with a medical degree in 1869 and subsequently studied at Bellevue Medical Hospital College, New York City, obtaining a second degree. Reed held down various health-related positions in the city until 1875, when he was commissioned a lieutenant in the U.S. Army Medical Corps. In this capacity he served at posts along the western frontier, performed capably, and in 1891 attended Johns Hopkins University Medical School to study microscopic bacteriology. Two years later Reed joined the faculty of the Army Medical School, where he sought out the cause for such diseases as cholera and typhoid fever. He also distinguished himself as a medical scholar through the publication of many respected journal articles on disease and its probable vectors (transmitters). Reed’s first triumph came in the wake of the Spanish-American War of 1898 as head of the typhoid commission, attacking a malady that killed soldiers at a rate 50 times faster than combat. By drawing upon his bacteriological expertise, he conclusively proved that filthy camp conditions were breeding grounds for flies that carried infected waste materials through human contact. He then advocated a more stringent emphasis on sanitary procedures, and the army was able to virtually eliminate this scourge from its ranks. Reed was subsequently sent to Cuba in 1900 as head of the Yellow Fever Commission to investigate the cause and pos-

sible prevention of that vicious affliction. A prevailing theory that it was borne by mosquitoes was hardly new and, in fact, had been proposed by Alabama physician Josiah Nott as early as 1848. The notion had been revived recently by Cuban doctor Carlos Juan Finley, and Reed decided to subject it to scientific testing and observation. This involved deliberately exposing volunteers to bites by the suspected mosquito species Aedes aegypti, which produced 22 cases of the disease. Several of these subjects died by February 1901, but through their sacrifice Reed positively ascertained the cause of yellow fever and ordered immediate steps to counteract it. Swamps and other breeding grounds for the insects were then drained throughout Cuba, and yellow fever, with a reported 1,400 cases in 1900, completely disappeared by two years later. The same remedies were applied throughout the disease-ridden Panama Canal Zone with equally startling success. Reed had since returned to Washington, D.C., to resume teaching at the Army Medical School, but in 1902 Harvard University and the University of Michigan granted him honorary degrees. Unfortunately, he had only been appointed head of the Army Medical Library in Washington when he died suddenly from appendicitis. In his distinguished medical career Reed had helped the world rid itself of two terrible and widespread scourges that had afflicted humanity since the dawn of time. The large and impressive Walter Reed Army Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, was dedicated in his honor.

October 3 Military: The American Expeditionary Force under General Adna Romanza Chaffee is withdrawn from China and sails back to the Philippines, although 2,100 soldiers are left behind to guard railroads.

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October 5 Sports: Englishman Harry Vardon wins the U.S. Open golf tournament.

October 12 Naval: The USS Holland (SS-1) deploys as the U.S. Navy’s first commissioned submarine. Designed by inventor John P. Holland, the craft is 53 feet in length, 10 feet at the beam, has a crew of six, and a submerged speed of two knots.

October 15 Music: Symphony Hall in Boston, Massachusetts, opens to the public with a program that includes a chorale by J. S. Bach and works by Ludwig von Beethoven.

October 16 Diplomacy: Germany and Great Britain, alarmed by the vast number of Russians deployed in Manchuria in the wake of the Boxer Rebellion, agree to Secretary of State John Hay’s “Open Door” policy, which forsakes any territorial gains at Chinese expense. Transportation: Given the horseless carriage’s dramatic rise in popularity, the Automobile Club of America (AAA) meets for the first time. However, they are still vying with 18 million horses and 10 million bicycles as America’s most popular form of transportation.

October 21–23 Military: A 20-man patrol from the 28th U.S. Volunteers is ambushed by 400 Filipino rebels at Looc, Luzon, but successfully defends itself, killing 75 insurgents for a loss of four wounded. Their commander, Captain George W. Berger, will win the Congressional Medal of Honor.

November 3–6 Transportation: The Automobile Club of America (AAA) sponsors the nation’s first car show at Madison Square Garden, New York. Among the vendors present are Firestone Rubber Company, B. F. Goodrich, and Ransom E. Olds of later Oldsmobile fame.

November 5 Diplomacy: The Cuban constitutional convention approves a document that fails to declare the special relationship between that country and the United States, so General Leonard Wood, who heads the military government there, rejects it as unacceptable.

November 6 Politics: Republican William McKinley handily defeats Democrat William Jennings Bryan for the presidency, amassing a popular vote tally of 7.2 million to 6.3 million, and an Electoral College count of 292 to 155. Theodore Roosevelt, who earlier swore he would never accept the vice presidency, readily occupies that office—to the relief of New York’s political establishment. However, he has cut a popular figure by campaigning in his “Rough Rider” hat, traveling 21,000 miles, and delivering 700 thunderous speeches. The Republicans also maintain control of both chambers of Congress.

November 12 Naval: The gunboat USS Bennington supports army troops in the capture of rebel positions at Borongon on Samar, Philippines. Fire from the warship drives off the insurgents before they can burn down the town.

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November 15 Education: Millionaire financier Andrew Carnegie founds the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in this latest example of high-minded philanthropy.

December 8 Military: A small detachment of the 1st U.S. Cavalry defeats a body of 200 insurgents at Lake Taal, Philippines.

December 10 Diplomacy: The Japanese government torpedoes an American request to negotiate with China for permission to construct a naval base in Fukien Province, in which the Japanese claim concession interests. Apparently, the United States is not above seeking territorial privileges from China, under the right circumstances.

December 13 Naval: The station ship USS Yosemite is sunk and five sailors are lost in a typhoon that strikes at Apra Harbor, Guam.

December 16 Business: Industrialist Mark Hanna and labor leader Samuel Gompers become president and vice president, respectively, of the new National Civic Federation, designed to peacefully arbitrate labor disputes.

December 20 Diplomacy: The U.S. Senate ratifies the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty on the isthmian canal, after amending it with provisions that are not acceptable to the British government. Specifically, the Americans inserted a clause permitting them to use military force to defend the canal and also removed attempts to internationalize the canal. A disappointed secretary of state, John Hay, tenders his resignation to President William McKinley, who refuses to accept it. Another round of highlevel talks are scheduled in London.

December 24 Diplomacy: The Ottoman government pays the United States $83,600 in reparations for property belonging to the American Missionary Board that was destroyed in anti-Western unrest in 1895. To help “coax” the Turks along, the Americans dispatch a warship into their waters.

December 29 Diplomacy: The State Department finalizes negotiations for purchasing the Virgin Islands.

1901 Arts: Maurice Prendergast is the first American painter to recognize the unique genius of Paul Cézanne; he returns from Paris to imitate Cézanne with several works of his own. This year he also receives a medal at the Pan-American Exhibition in Buffalo, New York. The sculpture of Herbert Adams is displayed at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, garnering high praise. Aviation: Wilbur and Orville Wright construct a second large glider for testing at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, which proves unsuccessful. Somewhat discouraged, they return to Dayton, Ohio, to begin anew.

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Chronology of American History Indian: Journalists George Bird Brinnell and Charles Lummi found the Sequoyah League in New York and Los Angeles as a philanthropic organization for the preservation of Indian culture. However, the group is beset by condescending attitudes and opposes schooling for Native Americans for their perceived backwardness. Literature: Muckraking journalist Frank Norris writes The Octopus, the first of a planned trilogy of novels aimed at exposing the corruption and excess of big business. In this installment, farmers of California’s San Joaquin Valley are pitted against the Southern Pacific Railroad. Media: Thomas A. Edison shoots a film entitled New York in a Blizzard, which advances the technical art and versatility of motion picture photography. Military: Congress is alarmed after the adjutant general reports that there is not one regiment of the regular U.S. Army in the continental United States—all have been deployed to either the Caribbean or the Pacific. Politics: The Social Democratic Party under Eugene V. Debs, and reform elements within the Socialist Labor Party, unite to form the Socialist Party. Publishing: African-American reformer Booker T. Washington publishes his classic autobiography, Up From Slavery, which supports his notion that blacks should not seek civil equality with whites until they have first secured the economic ability to support it. Whites generally agree with his approach but many blacks find it condescending. Sports: Michigan wins the national college football championship with 11 wins, no losses, no ties. The U.S. Lawn Tennis Association singles championships are won by William A. Larned and Elizabeth Moore in their respective divisions. Pittsburgh wins the National League baseball championship with 90 wins and 49 losses. Chicago prevails in the first American League baseball championship with 83 victories and 53 defeats. Technology: Reginald A. Fessenden receives a patent for the first American wireless transmitter; the first actual transmission was achieved six years earlier in Europe by Guglielmo Marconi. King C. Gillette designs and manufactures modern safety razors with disposable blades.

January Naval: U.S. Navy gunboats are particularly active in Philippine waters, capturing no less than 18 insurgent vessels on the Imus River near Cavite.

January 10 Business: Oil is discovered for the first time at the Big Spindletop formation near Beaumont, Texas, initiating a drive to extract more “black gold” from the region. This will mark a rapid shift in political domination from the cattle and railroad sectors to the drilling industry.

January 24 Diplomacy: The United States concludes a treaty with Denmark for acquisition of the Danish West Indies (Virgin Islands), but it fails to pass muster in the Danish parliament. The transaction is finally completed in 1917.

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January 27 Indian: Creek radical Chitto Harjo, a follower of the traditionalist Crazy Snake religion, is arrested by federal marshals in Indian Territory for his strident opposition to allotment. The marshals act upon the urging of Chief Pleasant Porter, who feels that rebel agitation is a threat to his leadership.

January 31 Medical: In Cuba, a detachment of the U.S. Army Medical Corps under Major Walter Reed concludes its first yellow fever experiments to identify and isolate the cause.

February 2 Arts: Giacomo Puccini’s opera Tosca debuts at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Civil: Lieutenant Benjamin O. Davis, Sr., becomes the first African American to receive an army commission. Military: The Army Reorganization Act is approved by Congress, fixing the standing establishment at 30 infantry regiments, 15 cavalry regiments, an artillery corps of 50 batteries, and 126 companies of coastal artillery. Total manpower ceilings are now at 88,619. Congress creates the U.S. Army Dental Corps and the U.S. Army Nurse Corps with 202 members. It also approves legislation creating the Philippine Scouts, which will come to number 7,000 men and be regarded as an elite formation within the military.

February 6 Medical: Major Walter Reed of the U.S. Army Medical Corps reports to the Pan-American Medical Conference in Havana, Cuba, that the dreaded malady is spread by the striped mosquito Stegomyia calopus (renamed Aedes aegypti).

February 9 Diplomacy: Secretary of War Elihu Root informs General Leonard Wood, commanding the military government in Cuba, of what additional clauses must be amended to the new Cuban constitution in order to make it acceptable. Specifically, the United States wants to reserve the right to intervene in Cuba to both preserve political order and prevent a foreign invasion.

February 21 Military: Vice president– elect Theodore Roo se velt officiates at groundbreaking ceremonies for the U.S. Army War College at the Washington, D.C., barracks. Politics: Newly liberated Cuba adopts a constitution patterned after the American model.

February 25 Business: The United States Steel Corporation is incorporated in New Jersey at the behest of John Pierpont Morgan, becoming the first company with assets in excess of $1 billion—the largest in the world. Morgan does so, in defiance of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, to buy out Andrew Carnegie, and reputedly makes $70 million in profit for his efforts.

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February 26 Military: A body of the 28th U.S. Volunteer Infantry, backed by the gunboat USS Calamines, ventures up the Agusan River, Philippines, and storms insurgent strongpoints at Bacona and San Mateo.

March Music: Porter Steele composes the song “High Society,” which gradually becomes a standard tune among jazz musicians of New Orleans.

March 2 Military: Congress passes the Army Appropriations Act, which includes an amendment by Senator Orville Platt of Connecticut, stipulating that American forces will not depart Cuba until the island is capable of self-rule. Congress also establishes a protectorate over the island and obtains the right to lease naval stations.

March 3 Business: The United States Steel Corporation under Henry Clay Frick becomes the first billion-dollar company in America when it is capitalized at $1.4 billion.

March 4 Politics: William McKinley is inaugurated president of the United States for a second time; Theodore Roosevelt, a vociferous and progressive reformer, soon to be the bane of the political establishment, takes his oath as vice president.

March 12 Societal: In another example of constructive philanthropy, millionaire Andrew Carnegie bequeaths $5.2 million to establish a New York public library system with 39 branches to serve the entire city.

March 13 General: Former president Benjamin Harrison dies in Indianapolis, Indiana, at the age of 67.

March 21 Arts: A revival of the play Uncle Tom’s Cabin initiates another successful run in New York and other large cities.

March 23 Military: Macabebe scouts allied with American forces under Colonel Frederick Funston capture guerrilla leader Emilio Aguinaldo at Palawan, Luzon. The colonel was posing as a prisoner of war and was led directly to his intended quarry by the unsuspecting rebels.

April 2 Military: Filipino guerrilla Emilio Aguinaldo finally admits defeat, takes an oath of loyalty to the United States, and urges all remaining guerrillas to lay down their arms.

April 19 Military: The Philippine Insurrection is formally declared over. Curiously, American public opinion feels that the conflict was unnecessary and that the islands should have been granted their independence. Sports: Canadian James J. Caffrey wins the fifth Boston Marathon with a time of two hours, 29 minutes, 23 seconds.

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April 29 Sports: The 27th annual Kentucky Derby is won by His Eminence by crossing the finish line after two minutes, seven seconds.

May 1 Military: A troop from the 1st U.S. Cavalry defeats a larger body of hold-out insurgents around Mount Solo, Philippines.

May 3 General: Raging fires destroy 1,700 buildings, cause $11 million in damage, and leave 11,000 homeless in Jacksonville, Florida.

May 9 Business: A struggle between the large investment concerns of Hill-Morgan and Kuhn, Loeb, and Company ensues over control of the Great Northern and Northern Pacific railroads. Inflated stock will send the markets crashing elsewhere and a panic will ensue until the dueling giants reach a settlement that saves the banking structure. The ensuing merger, the Northern Securities Corporation, is capitalized at $400 million and monopolizes transportation routes between the Great Lakes and the Pacific Coast. The merger gains the ire of Vice President Theodore Roosevelt, who swears to take on the giant trusts and corporations as soon as he is enabled to.

May 23 Sports: The 35th Belmont Stakes is won by Commando with a time of two minutes, 21 seconds.

May 27 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court settles the case of De Lima v. Bidwell, ruling that Puerto Rico, now an American possession, cannot have duties levied against goods it sends to the mainland. However, the Court also upholds the Foraker Act of 1900, whereby citizenship is not automatically conferred.

May 28 Sports: The 26th annual Preakness Stakes is won by The Parader, who cross the finish line after one minute, 47 seconds.

June 1 Transportation: A functioning motorized bicycle designed by Carl Hedstrom, a precursor to the motorcycle, is unveiled to various newspapers at Springfield, Massachusetts.

June 12 Politics: The Cuban Constitutional Convention agrees to conditions outlined by the Platt Amendment and submits to becoming an American protectorate— provided Cuban sovereignty is not infringed upon. However, the United States reserves the right to intervene militarily to preserve Cuban political order and “independence” when deemed necessary.

June 15 Sports: Willie Anderson wins the U.S. Open golf tournament.

July 1 Military: Indigenous forces in Puerto Rico are again reorganized as the Provisional Regiment of Infantry and placed on the regular army roster.

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Chronology of American History Naval: No less than 60 new warships are under construction for the U.S. Navy, reflecting America’s new awareness of global responsibilities.

July 3 Military: Four years after the Spanish-American War, Sergeant Major Edward L. Baker, Jr., receives the Congressional Medal of Honor for heroism at Santiago, Cuba, while under fire. Naval: The armed vessel USS Basco trades fire with Moro (Muslim) insurgents on the Gandara River, Samar, Philippines. Politics: Judge William Howard Taft is appointed civil governor of the Philippines, formally concluding military rule there. With the insurrection nearly crushed, the Americans are incrementally allowing the populace to have greater autonomy and say in local affairs.

July 25 Business: President William McKinley, taking another cue from the Supreme Court, declares a free trade policy with Puerto Rico.

July 29 Politics: At a meeting held at Indianapolis, Indiana, various warring socialist factions agree to unite for a common cause under the banner of the new Socialist Party.

September Aviation: In Dayton, Ohio, Orville Wright designs a functioning wind tunnel, in which a gasoline engine powers a metal fan for the purpose of testing his experimental aircraft models. This is in all likelihood the first known application of this important technology.

September 2 Politics: While attending the Minnesota State Fair, Vice President Theodore Roosevelt allegedly utters the West African proverb “Speak softly and carry a big stick” in reference to the conduct of American foreign policy. It will quickly catch on in the national lexicography and become the subject of innumerable political cartoons.

September 6 Politics: President William McKinley is shot and fatally wounded by an assassin at the Pan-American Exhibition in Buffalo, New York. His assailant, Leon Czolgosz of Cleveland, Ohio, is a known anarchist.

September 7 Diplomacy: With the Boxer Rebellion crushed, the United States, Japan, and several European powers conclude a treaty with the Manchu dynasty in Peking (Beijing), through which China agrees to pay an indemnity of $333 million over 40 years for deaths and loss of property arising from the rebellion. The American take is $25 million, but two-thirds of this is subsequently cancelled and returned to China.

September 14 Politics: President William McKinley dies of his injuries at Buffalo, New York, the third chief executive assassinated in office. He is succeeded that

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same day by the ebullient vice president, Theodore Roosevelt. His succession to the White House proves a distinct shock to big business and political bosses nationwide; at 42 years of age, he is the youngest man to occupy the White House.

Roosevelt, Theodore (1858–1919) President Theodore Roosevelt was born in New York City on October 27, 1858, the scion of a socially prominent family. Beset by childhood ailments, he embarked on a vigorous lifestyle to strengthen himself, and in 1880 he graduated from Harvard University with honors. Roosevelt then ran for the New York legislature as a change-oriented progressive, won handily, and also began a long publishing history with his first book, The Naval War of 1812 (1882). He failed in his attempt to become mayor in 1886, but President Benjamin Harrison, impressed by

President Theodore Roosevelt (left) with John Muir (Library of Congress)

his larger-than-life persona, appointed him to the Civil Service Commission. Roosevelt excelled at promoting the public’s interest, and success here resulted in his appointment to head New York City’s Board of Police Commissioners. His performance proved so diligent that President William McKinley made him assistant secretary of the navy. Roosevelt pushed hard to improve the life and working conditions of sailors, and wholeheartedly embraced the naval theories of Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan, who advocated a big navy for the United States. When the Spanish-American War commenced in 1898, Roosevelt resigned from office to become lieutenant colonel of the 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry, the selfstyled “Rough Riders,” which he led with distinction at the Battle of San Juan Hill. His performance netted him nomination for a Congressional Medal of Honor, but Roosevelt’s incessant complaining about poor rations and living conditions for the troops alienated key congressional constituencies, and he was dropped for consideration. He then parlayed his status as war hero into a successful run for the New York governor’s office, where he alienated special interests by championing consumer affairs at the expense of big business. By 1900, party regulars were eager to rid themselves of Roosevelt so they nominated him to run as vice president under McKinley, and the team won handily. When McKinley was assassinated (continues)

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(continued) six months later, Roosevelt became, at the age of 42, the youngest individual to ever serve as president. Once in office, Roosevelt never forsook his reformist impulses and always acted in the best interests of both the nation and the common man. He immediately championed trust-busting activities, along with the National Park system and the Department of Labor, to both protect the environment and improve working conditions. The public was enthralled by his bravado and resoundingly elected him to a second term in 1904; the fol-

lowing year he arbitrated the Russo-Japanese War, winning the Nobel Peace Prize. Mindful of America’s position in the world, global Roosevelt dispatched a force of gleaming new battleships, the “Great White Fleet,” on an impressive and global goodwill tour. True to his word, he declined to run for office in 1909 and retired from public life, but remained a strident critic of President Woodrow Wilson’s neutrality through the first year of World War I. Roosevelt died on Long Island on January 6, 1919, a champion of social reform and the architect of a modern military establishment.

September 16 Naval: The new battleship USS Illinois is commissioned and will serve in various capacities until 1956.

September 28 Military: A body of 400 guerrillas and villagers surprises and overruns Company C, 9th U.S. Infantry, under Captain Thomas Connell, at Balangiga, Samar Island, Philippines. Forty-eight Americans perish while 36 manage to escape to the river and flee; the extent of the massacre triggers harsh retaliatory measures from General Jacob Smith.

September 28–October 4 Sports: The U.S. yacht Columbia successfully defends the America’s Cup by fending off British challenger Shamrock II.

October Indian: In Oklahoma, members of the Five Civilized Tribes—the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Seminole nations—are granted citizenship after being deprived of their land by unscrupulous dealings and land agents.

October 7 Arts: Author Booth Tarkington pens the play Monsieur Beaucaire, based on his novel of the same name, and it successfully debuts in Philadelphia.

October 16 Civil: President Theodore Roosevelt shocks the nation by inviting AfricanAmerican reformer Booker T. Washington to the White House. The visit, which greatly angers the South, will come back to haunt Roosevelt when he seeks a third term. But the event also marks Roosevelt’s independence from prevailing political norms and his concern for improving race relations.

October 22 Diplomacy: Mexico City hosts the Second Pan-American Conference, aimed at stimulating greater inter-American trade and cooperation.

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November 2–15 Naval: The gunboat USS Vicksburg bombards Moro insurgents near Nipanipa on Samar, Philippines, and subsequently lands sailors in support of Marine Corps operations there.

November 16 Transportation: In New York City, a French automobile driver establishes a new land speed record for covering a mile—52 seconds.

November 17 Military: Secretary of War Elihu Root initiates the Army War College in Washington, D.C., for postgraduate training of military officers. This is an outgrowth of concerns over the army’s relatively poor performance in the recent war with Spain.

November 18 Diplomacy: The United States and Great Britain conclude the second HayPauncefote Treaty, whereby the former secures the right to construct, operate, and defend a canal across the Isthmus of Panama, as well as guaranteeing the canal’s neutrality in conveying the vessels of other nations. This updates the 1850 Clayton-Bulwer Treaty ensuring joint rights in the region.

November 24 Naval: The battleship USS Iowa and three gunboats land marine detachments at the Isthmus of Panama during a period of unrest to protect American lives and property.

November 28 Civil: The new Alabama state constitution disenfranchises African-American voters by imposing literacy, property, and other qualifications upon them. Among the most artful is the “grandfather clause,” which denies them the right to vote if their grandfather (a presumed slave) never voted.

December 3 Business: President Theodore Roosevelt brooks no delay in agitating for giant trusts and corporations to be brought under control by declaring to Congress that they need to be regulated “within reasonable limits.” Roosevelt also argues for an eight-hour work day and greater protection for women and children employed in federal work. Still, he acknowledges the contributions of the “captains of industry” to American economic prowess.

December 13 Naval: The ongoing contretemps between Rear Admirals William T. Sampson and Winfield Scott Schley crests with the final report of a court of inquiry requested by the latter. It both criticizes him for his supposedly slovenly search for the Spanish fleet, yet credits him for the victory at Santiago. The verdict will do little to end the feuding between the two men or their respective factions in the naval high command.

December 16 Diplomacy: The Second Hay-Pauncefote Treaty respecting an isthmian canal is ratified by the U.S. Senate. This new document repudiates the 1850 ClaytonBulwer Treaty and expressly allows the United States to build and control a canal

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Chronology of American History in Central America. British acceptance marks their belief that the United States is becoming an equal partner in the rapidly budding Anglo-American detente.

December 28 Military: Major Littleton W. T. Waller is dispatched from Lanang, Philippines, on a punitive expedition into Samar to retaliate for the Balangiga massacre of September 28. He takes with him only 56 U.S. Marines, two scouts, and 33 porters and quickly becomes lost in the dense foliage.

1902 Architecture: The McMillan Commission issues its report for renovation of Washington, D.C., suggesting that a mall be created from the White House to the Lincoln Memorial. This plan will eventually be adopted, although it entails removing Union Station and tracks belonging to the Pennsylvania Railroad. Arts: Prolific playwright Clyde Fitch produces two successful plays, The Stubbornness of Geraldine and The Girl with Green Eyes, both indicative of the trend toward strong characterization in American presentations. Sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens completes Victory, a winged bronze statuette representing the American spirit. Business: In New York City, the new dessert Jello, created by Pearl B. Wait and marketed by Frank Woodward, is an instant success and sales top $250,000 this year alone. Indian: Suffragette Eva Emery Dye publishes The Conquest: The True Story of Lewis and Clark, in which she inaccurately portrays Shoshoni guide Sacajawea as the key to the expedition’s success. Charles A. Eastman, physician, Dartmouth graduate, and Dakota Sioux, publishes the story of his tribal upbringing in My Indian Boyhood, which also calls for continuing respect of Native-American cultures. Alexander Posey begins publishing the fictionalized opinions of Fus Fixico, who satirically comments upon Creek life and manners in the publication Indian Journal. Literature: Owen Wister pens The Virginian, which becomes a best-seller and is regarded as a classic of the Western genre. The author dedicates it to President Theodore Roosevelt, a close friend. Author Henry James, returning home after a sojourn of several years in England, composes his latest effort, The Wings of the Dove. Music: Hughie Cannon writes the very popular song, Bill Bailey, Won’t You Please Come Home, which becomes standard fare among New Orleans jazz musicians. The popular song In the Good Old Summertime sells a million copies. Publishing: The new, reform-minded age spawns a host of publicly conscious writers including Ida Tarbell, Frank Norris, Lincoln Steffens, and Jack London. The blind but determined social worker Helen Keller pens her successful autobiography, The Story of My Life. George Barr McCutcheon pens his novel Brewster’s Millions, an immediate best-seller that will subsequently serve as the basis for six motion pictures. Jack London, heretofore distinguished as a short story writer, pens his first novel, A Daughter of the Snows.

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Author and activist Helen Adams Keller was born in Tuscumbia, Alabama, on June 27, 1880, and developed normally until the age of 19 months when an ailment rendered her deaf, blind, and mute. Nevertheless, the precocious child displayed signs of high intelligence by the age of six, whereupon she was examined by Alexander Graham Bell. Bell determined to assist and he dispatched Miss Anne Mansfield Sullivan of the Perkins Institution as an instructor. Sullivan proved herself a gifted teacher while Keller was a gifted student, and within weeks the latter began to associate objects with words spelled out on her fingers and palm. Sullivan remained Keller’s teacher and close confidante until her death in 1936. As Keller became more adept at expressing herself, and revealed herself to have an agile, inquisitive, and highly expressive mind, she arrived at the Perkins Institute in Boston to learn Braille. She subsequently learned how to speak at the Horace Mann School for the Deaf by sensing the position of a person’s lips, making sounds, and imitating lip and tongue motions. Another challenge was to master lip reading, which she accomplished by placing her hand on the lips and throat of a speaker. By 14 Keller had progressed to the point where she could enroll at the WrightHumason School for the Deaf, New York, and two years later she returned to Massachusetts to attend the Cambridge School for Young Ladies. Surprisingly, she gained admittance to Radcliffe College in 1900 and graduated with honors in 1904. Considering the obstacles in her path, Keller was by all

accounts a steely, gifted individual, determined to succeed. Keller’s amazing success story made her an inspiration to handicapped people everywhere, and she parlayed national recognition into a useful career as their spokesperson. She began writing eloquently about her experiences as a blind person and published essays in Ladies Home Journal, The Century, McClure’s, and Atlantic Monthly. Keller did so at a time when disabilities such as blindness were distinctly taboo for publishers, yet she invariably conveyed a sense of hope and wonderment to her audience. Success here was followed by her autobiography, The Story of My Life (1902), and many other well-regarded publications. By 1913 she functioned as a spokesperson for her American Federation of the Blind, which she founded with a $2 million endowment fund, and gave lectures and speaking tours around the world. Keller was personally committed to improving the treatment of the blind and deaf around the world, and their removal from mental institutions. In recognition of her pioneering efforts and indomitable spirit, Congress awarded her with a Medal of Freedom in 1963. Keller died in Westport, Connecticut, on June 1, 1968, universally acclaimed as one of the world’s greatest women. Her life story was also dramatically and effectively portrayed by actresses Patty Duke and Anne Bancroft in the movie The Miracle Worker (1962), a dramatic and emotional tour de force for which the latter received an Oscar for best actress.

President Theodore Roosevelt publishes his Outdoor Pastimes of an American Hunter, which helps to popularize “roughing it” in the wild nationwide. Sports: Michigan wins the national college football championship with 11 wins, no ties, and no losses.

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Chronology of American History The U.S. Lawn Tennis Association singles championships are won by William S. Learned and Marion Jones in their respective divisions. Pittsburgh wins the National League baseball championship with 103 victories and 36 defeats. Philadelphia wins the American League baseball championship with 83 victories and 53 defeats. Technology: Arthur D. Little receives a patent for rayon (cellulose ester), another important synthetic product.

January 1 Military: The traditional blue uniform of the U.S. Infantry, which, during the recent war with Spain, proved too inviting a battlefield target, is formally replaced by one made of olive drab. Sports: The first post-season college football game unfolds at Pasadena, California, between the University of Michigan and Stanford University; the Wolverines easily clinch the game, 49–0. After 1929 this event will be christened the Rose Bowl.

January 4 Politics: The French-owned Panama Company, eager for a government buy-out, lowers the asking price of its holdings from $103 million to $40 million.

January 6 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Capital Dairy Company v. Ohio, ruling that states can prohibit the sale of certain items within their boundaries but cannot prevent them from being transported on an interstate basis. The product in question was “oleomargarine,” an early butter substitute. Military: Parts of the small punitive expedition of Major Littleton W. T. Wallker straggle into Basey, Samar, after wandering in the dense jungle for a week. The exhausted, half-starved survivors are incapable of further exertions and await an army relief expedition.

January 13 Indian: The commissioner of Indian affairs, in an attempt to speed along the process of assimilation, orders all Native-American males to cut their hair. Those who refuse face a possible suspension of government annuities.

January 18 Transportation: The Walker Commission, encouraged by the lowered asking price for the French-owned Panama Company, votes that any future canal be constructed through the Isthmus of Panama, not Nicaragua. They do so at the behest of President Theodore Roosevelt, who is convinced that this is the best possible route.

January 24 Diplomacy: The U.S. Senate approves a treaty acquiring the Virgin Islands from Denmark but the Danish Rigsdag rejects it by one vote. The Americans are trying to preclude any chance that the Germans may establish naval bases in the Caribbean; the process will continues until 1917.

January 25 Arts: The successful musical Floradora closes its New York City run after 547 performances.

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February Indian: Federal marshals again arrest Creek rebel leader Chitto Harjo, an adherent of the traditionalist Crazy Snake religion, and he is sent to the penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas, for nine months.

February 10 Medical: In a major development, Dr. Charles Wardell Stiles announces the discovery of the intestinal parasite hookworm, which is prevalent in poor whites throughout the South. This crippling affliction is probably the source of the myth that poor southern whites, or “crackers,” are lazy.

February 18 Military: U.S. Army forces capture the rebel outpost at Lukban, Samar, Philippines, which effectively crushes all organized resistance on that island.

March 3 Military: The new Corps of Artillery is founded by consolidating the coastal, light, and heavy artillery into a single entity. This becomes the largest single branch in the U.S. Army.

March 6 Politics: Congress creates the Bureau of the Census as a division within the Department of the Interior.

March 9 Diplomacy: In an attempt to cultivate better relations, Kaiser Wilhelm II dispatches his brother, Prince Henry, to tour the United States.

March 10 Business: President Theodore Roosevelt, determined to bring Big Business to heel, orders Attorney General Philander C. Knox to bring charges against the huge Northern Securities Company under articles of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. This will bring leading tycoons such as J. P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, Edward H. Harriman, and James J. Hill under government scrutiny.

March 17 Military: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ new full-dress uniform is so favorably received that it stimulates new uniforms for all branches of the military.

April 6 Diplomacy: Businessman Jacob Schiff of New York City appeals to Secretary of State John Hay to condemn the ongoing persecution of Jews in Rumania.

April 16–19 Naval: Numerous landing parties are dispatched from the gunboat USS Machias, the cruiser Cincinnati, and several lesser vessels to restore order in the Isthmus of Panama area. Bolstered by this sizable contingent, Admiral Silas Casey is enabled to encourage a truce between local rebels and the Colombian troops fighting them.

April 19 Sports: Samuel A. Mellor wins the sixth Boston Marathon by crossing the finish line in two hours, 43 minutes, 12 seconds.

April 29 Societal: The Chinese Exclusionary Act is enlarged to include any Chinese laborers who might migrate from the Philippines or other island territories.

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May 1 Naval: In Washington, D.C., former Massachusetts congressman William H. Moody becomes the 35th secretary of the navy.

May 2 Military: In response to recent Moro attacks against working parties constructing a road to Lake Lanao, Philippines, Colonel Frank D. Baldwin leads a largescale attack again a Moro fort at Pandapatan, Bayang. After a devastating artillery barrage, the Americans advance at bayonet point, forcing the fierce Muslim warriors to surrender. Baldwin loses 10 dead and 40 wounded to some 300 to 400 Moros killed and wounded.

May 3 Sports: The 28th annual Kentucky Derby is won by Alan a Dale with a time of two minutes, eight seconds. Jockey Jimmy Winkfield wins his second Derby title.

May 12 Labor: John Mitchell leads 140,000 members of the United Mine Workers (UMW) on strike for higher wages and an eight-hour work day. The union is willing to negotiate for better money and working conditions, but mine owners refuse to participate in any talks. The ensuing walkout, while lengthy, is not marred by violence.

May 14 Diplomacy: The eruption of Mount Momotombo in Nicaragua convinces many undecided politicians that a canal built through Panama would prove less susceptible to the vicissitudes of nature.

May 20 Military: The military governor of Cuba, General Leonard Wood, begins withdrawing the last of his troops from the newly independent island, now led by President Tomas Estrada Palma. This move confers recognition that the Cuban people are ready for self-governance—but the Americans still insist they can return under provisions of the Platt Amendment. Prior to departing, Wood proved instrumental in modernizing Cuban schools and helping establish a new constitution and other laws.

May 22 Sports: The 36th annual Belmont Stakes is won by Masterman after crossing the finish line in two minutes, 22 seconds.

May 27 Indian: Congress passes the so-called Dead Indian Act, which allows Native Americans, who have inherited their land allotments, to sell them to whites. Sports: The 27th annual Preakness Stakes is won by Old England, who runs the course in one minute, 45 seconds.

June 2 Politics: Oregon adopts voter initiatives to circumvent the state legislature— direct primaries and the recall of elected officials. Under President Theodore Roosevelt’s progressive agenda, politics is making society more responsive to larger segments of the population than it had previously.

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June 9 Business: The automatic food dispenser, or Automat, the product of Joseph Horn and Frank Hardart, debuts on Chestnut Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It proves a great convenience for a populace increasingly on the go.

June 15 Transportation: Efficient handling of trains reduces the New York Central Railroad’s run from New York to Chicago to 20 hours.

June 17 Conservation: Congress passes the Newlands Reclamation Act, which mandates the construction of irrigation dams throughout the West. This forms part of President Theodore Roosevelt’s concerted effort to accentuate the environment in government policy and also serves as the nucleus of his drive for national parks.

June 26 Politics: Congress passes the Isthmian Canal Act of Senator John Coit Spooner, authorizing President Theodore Roosevelt to purchase the stalled French canal project for $40 million, as well as to seek an alternative route if the French government declines to sell. However, the Americans would then have to deal directly with the Colombian government, which will decline to sign a treaty that compromises its sovereignty.

June 28 Politics: Senator Henry Cabot Lodge holds secret committee meetings regarding alleged American atrocities in the Philippines, and summons such august figures as Admiral George Dewey, General Ewell S. Otis, and General Arthur MacArthur, but no report will ever be issued.

July 1 Diplomacy: Congress passes the Philippine Government Act, which establishes a commission to administer the islands and renders the inhabitants citizens of their country, not the United States. It also provides for an 81-member assembly, elected under American supervision, with two-year terms in office. The Taft Commission, appointed two years earlier, is to serve as a supervisory agency.

July 4 Diplomacy: President Theodore Roosevelt declares the Philippine insurgency over, establishes civil government in the Philippines through an executive order, and also pardons any remaining political prisoners or rebels. The islands’ inhabitants now enjoy the U.S. Bill of Rights (save trial by jury or bearing arms) and can elect a lower legislature. Military: The Philippine insurgency is declared officially over, having taken the lives of 4,000 Americans and over 20,000 Filipinos. Expenditures are calculated at $170 million. Politics: In his Fourth of July oration at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, President Theodore Roosevelt cautions half a million listeners that concentrated wealth in the hands of a few is a menace to society if said resources are not employed correctly. He is loudly cheered.

July 12 Transportation: A train called the Twentieth Century Limited makes its New York to Chicago run in only 16 hours, a new record.

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July 14 Military: The War Department introduces new, russet-colored footwear to the military, hence the birth of the “brown shoe” army.

July 17 Conservation: The Newlands Reclamation Act, sponsored by Nevada congressman Francis G. Newlands, is passed by Congress; this bill appropriates funds for no less than 16 dams in western states and will also use profits accrued from the sale of public lands for related projects.

July 30 Labor: State militia is called upon to suppress a riot of coal miners at Shenandoah, Pennsylvania.

August 8 Sports: An American tennis team defeats its British opposites three matches to two, winning the Davis Cup. Law: Oliver Wendell Holmes, a respected jurist, is appointed an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. He is known for supporting the public interest over private profits.

August 11 Diplomacy: Secretary of State John Hay directs the State Department to protest Rumanian persecution of the Jews and asks all signatories of the 1878 Berlin Treaty to work on their behalf. The appeal is largely ignored.

Holmes, Oliver Wendell (1841–1935) Supreme Court justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on March 8, 1841, son of noted physician and writer Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. As such he matured in the intellectually charged atmosphere of his father’s intimate circle, which included Ralph Waldo Emerson. Holmes was admitted to Harvard University in 1857, performed well, and graduated four years later as class poet. The Civil War had broken out by then and, like many Boston Brahmins, he enlisted in a Massachusetts volunteer regiment to fight. Holmes served with distinction and was wounded three times in close combat at Ball’s Bluff, Antietam, and Fredericksburg before mustering out as a captain in 1864. That year he entered Harvard Law

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School, obtained his degree two years later, and was admitted to the state bar in 1867. By this time he was torn between his legal practice and pursuing philosophy, so he compromised by serving as editor of the American Law Review from 1870 to 1873. In this capacity he contributed many erudite essays and established himself as one of the most eloquent legal writers in American judicial history. He also rendered a useful service in editing and updating the 12th edition of James Kent’s Commentaries on American Law. A turning point in Holmes’s career came in 1881 when he was invited to deliver a series of lectures at the Lowell Institute of Boston; these were subsequently compiled and published in a thin volume entitled The

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August 12 Business: The International Harvester Company is incorporated in New Jersey with a capitalization of $120 million; as a company it will manufacture and market 85 percent of all farm machines sold in the United States. Despite a tendency toward excess, Big Business is amply demonstrating that a national economy as large as that of the United States is best served by large, efficient corporations, provided they conduct themselves in a civilized manner.

August 19 Politics: President Theodore Roosevelt begins a speaking engagement tour of New England to press his case against big trusts and monopolies. His populist message is wildly received.

August 31 Women: In Saratoga, New York, the equestrian Mrs. Adolph Ladenburg wears a split skirt to facilitate horseback riding, creating a sensation.

September Aviation: Brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright construct a third glider, with better flight characteristics, and complete nearly 1,000 non-powered flights of up to 600 feet in distance. General: Forest fires in Washington State consume an estimated 12 billion feet of prime timber. Military: For the first time, army and militia troops hold joint exercises with navy battleships along the New England coast.

Common Law (1881), which established Holmes as one of the most significant legal scholars of his day. In truth, he was always quick to question the validity of accepted legal truth and insisted, “The life of the law has not been logic; it has been experience.” After holding down the Weld Chair of Law at Harvard in 1882, Holmes was made chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court. He served in this capacity for 19 years, rendered 1,300 opinions, and further enhanced his reputation for jurisprudence. Such was Holmes’s renown that in 1902 President Theodore Roosevelt, then searching for an associate justice for the Supreme Court who shared his vision for progressive reform, appointed him to the nation’s highest bench at the age of 61. Holmes, in three decades of conscientious service that

included 6,000 opinions, again distinguished himself as the “great dissenter,” for in seven noted cases he questioned long-standing judicial norms and argued for judicial restraint, especially as it related to regulating the national economy. This was the start of his “sociological jurisprudence” with due consideration for the interrelationship between law and social institutions. Holmes carefully nuanced his constitutional reasoning and legal philosophy, combining them with a fine literary style, and emerged as the Court’s most influential thinker since Chief Justice John Marshall. He finally retired from the Supreme Court in 1932 and died in Washington, D.C., on March 6, 1935, just shy of his 94th birthday. Holmes is significant for pioneering new and modernistic strains of legal thinking and constitutional development.

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September 3 General: Disaster is narrowly averted in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, when President Theodore Roosevelt’s horse-drawn carriage is struck violently by a speeding street car. One Secret Service man is killed but the indomitable Teddy sustains only a cut lip.

September 15 Diplomacy: The United States and Mexico become the first two nations to utilize the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague, in this instance over a dispute concerning interest back payments.

September 20 General: Birmingham, Alabama, is the scene of a tragic church fire that kills 115 people.

October 11 Sports: Lawrence Auchterlonie wins the U.S. Open golf tournament.

October 16 Labor: President Theodore Roosevelt appoints a commission under Judge George Gray to recommend solutions to the recent strike by anthracite coal miners in Pennsylvania. This constitutes the first federal government action on behalf of labor.

October 21 Labor: John Mitchell, president of the United Mine Workers Union, declares the strike in Pennsylvania at an end after winning a 10 percent wage increase, although his union remains unrecognized. But management’s decision not to accept arbitration plays badly in the press, costs them popular support, and adds impetus to President Theodore Roosevelt’s ongoing antitrust campaign.

November 4 Politics: Midterm elections result in gains by both Republicans and Democrats over smaller parties, but the former retains tight control over both chambers.

November 24 Naval: The USS Bainbridge (DD-1) is commissioned as the U.S. Navy’s first destroyer and forerunner of an entirely new class of warship. These high-speed vessels are specifically designed to outrun and destroy smaller torpedo boats, hence their name.

December 8 Law: Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., is seated as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

December 12–19 Diplomacy: Venezuela’s inability to pay off its debts results in a blockade by ships belonging to Great Britain, Germany, and Italy. However, the United States prevails on these powers to relent from military action to recover their money and to refer the case to arbitration after President Cipriano Castro also consents to the process.

December 29 Diplomacy: Secretary John Hay informs Argentina’s foreign minister Luis M. Drago that he is sympathetic to the “Drago doctrine”—European nations should

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not intervene militarily in a country to collect debts owed—as it is very similar to the Monroe Doctrine in reference to similar practices. Naval: A new USS Maine is christened to replace the battleship lost in Havana harbor in 1898.

1903 Architecture: Frank Lloyd Wright finishes another early masterpiece of his, the Larkin Administration Building in Buffalo, New York. Business: Operating from a wagon, James Lewis Kraft opens a successful cheese distributing business in Chicago, Illinois. Conservation: President Theodore Roosevelt designates Pelican Island, Florida, as the first federal wildlife refuge. Engineering: The Williamsburg Bridge becomes the second major work to span the East River in New York City. Indian: Anthropologist Jesse Walter oversees U.S. government publication of Hopi kachina drawings in 21st Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology. These drawings will subsequently wield great influence on painters of the “Traditional Indian Style” up through the 1930s. Journalism: Joseph Pulitzer bequeaths $2 million to Columbia University to establish a graduate school of journalism. Literature: Kate Douglas Wiggin publishes Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, an all-time children’s classic that will sell over one million copies in this year alone. Henry James displays more of his highly polished verbal mastery with the publication of his latest novel, The Ambassadors, which underscores the difference between American and European cultural nuances. Heretofore obscure writer Jack London publishes his first landmark novel, The Call of the Wild, concerning the clash of nature and civilization, with both bound up in a greater struggle for survival. Max G. Anderson becomes the first de facto male movie star by acting in The Great Train Robbery, which was made by Edwin Porter. It is also considered the first film to exhibit a plot. The magazine Camera Art is founded by Alfred Stieglitz to advance the creative aspects of photography. The motion picture industry receives a major boost when brothers Harry J. and Herbert Miles found the first film exchange, which allows producers to sell their product to one buyer for relatively high prices. This influx of money makes films highly profitable and will spur construction of thousands of movie theaters across the nation. Publishing: Frank Norris publishes his novel The Pit, further underscoring the hardships of the nation’s farmers when pitted against big business. In Atlanta, Georgia, social activist W. E. B. DuBois publishes The Souls of Black Folk to challenge the accommodationist views of African-American leaders such as Booker T. Washington. Muckraking journalist Ida Tarbell begins serial publication of her exposé, The History of the Standard Oil Company, in McClure’s Magazine, which specializes in exposing graft and corruption.

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Chronology of American History Science: The colorless, odorless substance helium is discovered in a natural gas field in Dexter, Kansas. It is lighter than air, like hydrogen, but as yet has little commercial application. Sports: Princeton wins the national college football championship with 11 wins, no losses, no ties. The U.S. Lawn Tennis Association singles championships are won by Hugh L. Doherty and Elizabeth Moore in their respective divisions.

January 17 Naval: German warships shell Fort San Carlos, Venezuela, in an attempt to wrest back payments out of the government. The United States considers this a violation of the Monroe Doctrine, files an official complaint with Germany, and orders Admiral George Dewey to conduct maneuvers in the Caribbean with a fleet of 50 warships.

January 20 Arts: The play Wizard of Oz, adapted from L. Frank Baum’s children’s book of the same name, premieres at the Majestic Theater in New York City.

January 21 Military: Congress passes the Dick Act, which completely revitalizes the old Militia Act of 1792 and equips state troops with the same training, discipline, and weapons as the regular establishment. The new organization is called the National Guard.

January 22 Diplomacy: Secretary of State John Hay and Colombian chargé d’affaires Tomás Herrán agree to provisions of the 1902 Hay-Herrán Act granting the Americans a 99-year lease on a 10-mile-wide strip of land in the Panama Isthmus (a province of Colombia). In return, the Colombians will receive $10 million and an annual fee of $250,000. However, they refuse to consider ceding sovereignty over any part of their land to the United States—or to anyone else.

January 24 Diplomacy: A commission of three Americans, two Canadians, and one Briton are assigned to resolve the boundary dispute between Canada and Alaska, specifically, the ownership of the so-called panhandle region.

February 11 Politics: Congress, inspired by President Theodore Roosevelt’s sweeping plans for social justice, passes the Expedition Act to prioritize anti-trust cases at the circuit court level. The measure also appropriates $500,000 to further expedite the process.

February 13 Diplomacy: Various European nations inform the State Department that they are willing to accept United States arbitration concerning the resolution of Venezuela’s debt problems. President Theodore Roosevelt also insists that better methods of accountability must be instituted by Latin American nations to enforce their fiscal obligations.

February 14 Military: To facilitate greater centralization of the U.S. Army along German lines, Congress, upon the urging of Secretary of War Elihu Root, authorizes crea-

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tion of a General Staff Corps. This will ensure harmonious activity among the infantry, cavalry, artillery, and other branches of the service, as well as promote better liaison service between the top military brass and the secretary of war—a civilian. The actual staff will consist of 45 officers under the aegis of the chief of staff of the army. Politics: Congress creates the Department of Commerce and Labor; it becomes the ninth cabinet-level office under the president. George B. Cortelyou becomes the first secretary.

February 16 Societal: Suffragette Susan B. Anthony donates her extensive book collection to the Library of Congress.

February 19 Business: The reform-minded Congress passes the Elkins Act, which disallows rebates on published freight rates; however, enforcement does not extend itself to the actual setting or regulating of rates. Progressives like Senator Robert La Follette of Wisconsin feel that the measure does not go far enough.

February 23 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Champion v. Ames, ruling constitutional a federal law prohibiting the sale of lottery tickets by mail from one state to another. In this respect “federal police power” can, under certain circumstances, supersede state police powers, and it serves as the basis for federal regulation of food, drugs, and other commodities. Naval: President Theodore Roosevelt signs a lease for the use of Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, as a naval base; it is spacious and strategically located to afford speedy access to the Windward Passage.

March 17 Diplomacy: The Hay-Herrán Treaty respecting Panama is ratified by the Senate in order to acquire a strip of land for a new canal there.

March 21 Labor: The Anthracite Coal Strike Commission, appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt, scores a major victory for organized labor by declaring illegal any discrimination toward union member in terms of hiring. Most demands of the United Mine Workers are met, but the union itself remains unrecognized. Naval: U.S. Marines from the cruisers USS Olympic, San Francisco, and Raleigh are landed at Puerto Cortés, Honduras, to protect the U.S. embassy during a period of revolutionary unrest.

March 22 Labor: A special commission reports to President Theodore Roosevelt that shorter hours and a 10 percent pay hike would prove instrumental in ending the anthracite coal dispute.

March 29 Communication: Thanks to Guglielmo Marconi’s wireless system, regular news service commences between New York and London.

April–May Military: Captain John J. Pershing leads army troops to suppress the militant Moro sultan of Bacolod, Philippines, destroying several Moro fortifications.

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April 1 Naval: The cruiser USS Atlanta dispatches a party of marines ashore at Santo Domino, Dominican Republic, to protect the American consulate there during a period of unrest.

April 7 Military: Captain John J. Pershing’s troops attack strong Moro positions at Bacolod, Philippines, with a massed artillery bombardment, then move in with bayonets to finish off the defenders. The position falls and Pershing allows many Moros to escape—to describe the power of the American army and discourage further outbreaks.

April 20 Sports: John C. Lorden wins the seventh Boston Marathon by crossing the line in two hours, 41 minutes, 29 seconds.

April 27 Sports: The Jamaica Race Track opens on Long Island, New York, drawing “A-list” celebrities from across the nation. Among those in attendance are glamour queen Lillian Russell, Jim Buchanan, James “Diamond Jim” Brady, and John Warne Gates.

April 28 Diplomacy: Despite international objections over Russia’s refusal to evacuate its troops from Manchuria, Secretary of State John Hay informs President Theodore Roosevelt that the region lacks any vital American interests and is not worth military intervention.

May 1 Societal: New Hampshire ends 48 years of prohibition by issuing liquor licenses.

May 2 Sports: The 29th annual Kentucky Derby is won by Judge Himes, who crosses the finish line at two minutes, nine seconds.

May 12 Indian: Despite vocal protests, the California supreme court decrees that the small Cupeno tribe has no legal title to lands it traditionally occupies in San Diego; they are ordered onto a nearby reservation.

May 23 Politics: Wisconsin becomes the first state to adopt direct primary elections; by 1948 the system will be employed in all states. Sports: The first transcontinental car trip begins when H. Nelson Jackson and Sewell K. Crocker depart San Francisco, California, and make haste for New York City in a 20-horsepower “buggy” designed by Alexander Winton.

May 27 Sports: The 37th annual Belmont Stakes is won by Africander, with a time of two minutes, 23 seconds.

May 30 Sports: The 28th annual Preakness Stakes is won by Flocarline, who runs the track in one minute, 44 seconds.

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May 31 General: Flooding of the Kansas, Missouri, and Des Moines rivers kills 200 people, inflicts $4 million in property damage, and leaves 4,000 people homeless.

June 11 Military: Secretary of War Elihu Root is on hand at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, to present 64 diplomas to the graduating class of officers. Heading that list is Lieutenant Douglas MacArthur.

June 17 Arts: Victor Herbert’s Babes in Toyland premieres in Chicago and soon becomes one of the best known operettas in America.

June 20 Diplomacy: The senate of the Republic of Colombia rejects the Hay-Herrán Treaty concerning Panama, which greatly incenses President Theodore Roosevelt. Sports: Another transcontinental car trip ensues as Tommy Fetch and M. C. Karrup leave San Francisco in a 12-horsepower Model F Packard and head for New York City.

June 23 Military: The U.S. Army adopts the Springfield M-1903 rifle, itself an adaptation of the famous German Mauser rifle, as its first semiautomatic infantry weapon. This durable and highly accurate .30-caliber rifle remains a frontline weapon up through the advent of World War II.

June 27 Sports: Willie Anderson wins the U.S. Open golf tournament.

June 28 Diplomacy: In Washington, D.C., Secretary of State John Hay meets with Russian ambassador Count Cassini to protest his nation’s refusal to evacuate Manchuria as promised. The United States has urged Russia to do so out of concern for their mutual good relations, but the rising Japanese Empire vigorously protests and will gird itself for war.

July 4 Communication: The Pacific cable is finally laid and connected between San Francisco, California, and Manila, the Philippines. President Theodore Roosevelt has the honor of dispatching the first message and an answer returns only 12 minutes later. Politics: To underscore the evils of child labor, social activist and labor leader Mother Jones leads an army of maimed and mutilated children out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Oyster Bay, New York, where she intends them to picket President Theodore Roosevelt’s summer home at Oyster Bay, Long Island. The president has announced that he will not be receiving any visitors while on vacation.

July 16 Diplomacy: In a move to build anti-Russian public sentiment over the Manchurian issue, Secretary of State John Hay deliberately manipulates a petition against Russia’s persecution of Jews signed by American citizens.

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July 23 Business: Henry Ford organizes the Ford Motor Company in Detroit, Michigan, and serves as its president. He has designed his Model A car to be as simple, practical, and affordable as possible and posits it as a gasoline-powered “family horse.”

July 25 Politics: Panamanian leaders, incensed over Colombia’s possible refusal to approve the Hay-Herrán Treaty to build a canal, begin consorting with American leaders of the New Panama Canal Company and the Panama Railway to plan a revolution.

July 26 Transportation: A Packard automobile completes a 52-day sojourn by driving safely from San Francisco, California, to New York City without mishap. Within two years 80,000 cars will be plying the roads of America, democratizing the “Age of the Automobile.”

August 8 Military: Lieutenant General Nelson A. Miles, commanding general of the army, retires from active service after 42 years in the field. He is replaced by the much younger but equally capable lieutenant general Samuel B. M. Young. Sports: Tennis teams from Great Britain defeat the United States four to one, winning this year’s Davis Cup.

August 12 Diplomacy: The Colombian senate rejects the Hay-Herrán Treaty signed the previous January, which stimulates an uprising in Panama.

August 15 Military: In a bid to improve military intelligence gathering, the Division of Military Information is transferred to the Office of the Chief of Staff from the Adjutant General’s Office.

August 16 Military: In Washington, D.C., Lieutenant General Samuel B. M. Young is installed as the U.S. Army’s first chief of staff, although he will serve only six months in this capacity.

August 21 Sports: A 12-horsepower Packard Model F driven by Tommy Fetch and M. C. Karrup sputters into New York City after a 51-day sojourn from San Francisco, California. The day of cross-country automotoring is at hand.

August 22–September 3 Sports: The U.S. yacht Reliance successfully defends the America’s Cup from British challenger Shamrock III.

September 7–13 Naval: Marines from the cruiser USS Brooklyn land in Beirut, Syria (Lebanon), to protect students and the campus of American University during a period of insurrection. This is also the U.S. Navy’s first intervention in one of the world’s most volatile trouble spots.

October 1–October 13 Sports: Baseball history is made in the first post-season playoff between the National and American Leagues, involving the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Boston

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Red Stockings. Pittsburgh takes three games but Boston wins five and takes the World Series. All told, a stunning debut for the new American League.

October 8 Diplomacy: The United States and China sign a new commercial treaty aimed at opening the Manchurian cities of Mukden and Antung to American trade. This is undertaken to strengthen the “Open Door” principle in light of Russia’s refusal to withdraw from the region.

October 13 Arts: The musical Babes in Toyland by Victor Herbert debuts in New York as an unqualified success.

October 17 Naval: In Washington, D.C., the General Board issues a secret plan advocating the construction of 48 battleships and auxiliaries by 1920. The blueprint remains hidden from public scrutiny for a decade but does influence naval funding for nearly two decades.

October 20 Diplomacy: In London, the Joint Commission created to resolve a boundary dispute between Alaska and Canada rules in favor of the United States. Henceforth, the line separating Alaska and Canada will run along the top of the mountain crests between them. The Americans, in return, yield Pease and Wales islands to Canada. The final vote is four to two, with both Canadian delegates angrily dissenting.

October 22 Business: In Detroit, Michigan, the Electric Motor Vehicle Company sues the new Ford Motor Company for violating several of its patents.

October 27 Diplomacy: Panamanian revolutionaries, visiting New York City, are advised by several “parties” that they have support from the White House and the State Department—including the possible deployment of American warships—should they revolt against Colombia.

November 3 Diplomacy: Officials in Panama, instigated by France and the United States, prepare to rebel against Colombia and declare their independence. The revolt is openly encouraged and assisted by members of the Panama Canal Company and also enjoys the tacit approbation of President Theodore Roosevelt. Naval: Secretary of the Navy Charles Darling orders the cruiser USS Nashville and two other warships into Panamanian waters, where they deploy a detachment of U.S. Marines to prevent any incursion by Colombian troops.

November 4 Diplomacy: Panama officially declares its independence from Colombia. Naval: The warship USS Nashville and its complement of marines are prepositioned in the Panama region to preclude any possibility of intervention by Colombian forces. Captain John Hubbard orders his marines to seize the Panama Railroad at Colón to deprive Colombian authorities of its use.

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November 6 Diplomacy: The United States, eager to begin construction of a new and strategic canal, quickly recognizes the new government of Panama, along with French operative Philippe Bunau-Varilla. Negotiations commence immediately in Washington, D.C., over construction and navigation rights for the proposed waterway.

November 13 Diplomacy: Panama dispatches its first minister to the United States, who is also a former member of the Panama Canal Company.

November 18 Diplomacy: The United States and Panama conclude the new Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty, by which the United States acquires permanent rights to a 10-mile-wide corridor of land stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, upon which a new canal is to be built. The lease is in perpetuity; in return Panama receives $10 million and a $250,000 annuity for 10 years. Moreover, America is to guarantee both Panamanian independence and the neutrality of the canal. The Colombian government, facing a fait accompli and not wishing to fight a war with the United States, declines to contest the proceedings.

November 23 Arts: Italian opera star Enrico Caruso, one of the 20th century’s most accomplished tenors, meets with good reviews during his debut in Rigoletto at the New York Metropolitan Opera House.

November 26 Diplomacy: The Panamanian government, angered by the terms of the HayBunau-Varilla Treaty signed in Washington, D.C., reluctantly decides to agree to those terms when the Americans declare their intention to seek a new agreement with Colombia if they refuse. Panamanians nonetheless are angered by the sizable American presence on their territory and question its legality. However, all parties are faced with a fait accompli. President Theodore Roosevelt, a major player in the scheme, can finally begin construction of his beloved Panama Canal.

December 17 Aviation: The world’s first powered flight takes place at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, when a heavier-than-air device piloted by Orville Wright flies 120 feet in 12 seconds. He has won this honor through a coin toss. Brother Wilbur Wright then takes the machine up for a second flight, lasting 59 seconds and covering 852 feet. From this modest and decidedly rickety beginning the new aviation age is launched.

December 18 Naval: Captain George C. Thorpe and 19 U.S. Marines escort a U.S. diplomatic mission across Ethiopia to the city of Addis Ababa.

December 27 Music: Singer Henry Armstrong belts out the echo song “Sweet Adeline” for the first time at the Pops Sunday Nights in New York City. It becomes a popular example of “Barber Shop Quartet” singing.

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The Panama Canal under construction (Library of Congress)

December 30 General: A fire at the Iroquois Theater in Chicago, Illinois, kills 602 attendees. The sheer magnitude of the loss prompts state and local governments to establish new theater codes with thicker fire walls, bigger exits, and better fireproofing.

1904 Architecture: Frank Lloyd Wright finishes the Unity Temple in Chicago, Illinois, which is also the first building designed entirely for poured concrete construction. The Gothic chapel, constructed at the U.S. Military Academy by Bertram Goodhue, signals a rebirth of Gothic design for religious and academic buildings. Arts: A production of Richard Wagner’s opera Parsifal at New York’s Metropolitan Opera elicits harsh criticism for alleged “profanity, sacrilege, and blasphemy.” Gutzon Borglum sculpts his artistic tour de force Mare of Diomedes, which is critically acclaimed. Civil: African-American activists, protesting the increasingly segregated and unequal treatment they are receiving throughout the South, embark on a widespread boycott of streetcars in Atlanta, Augusta, New Orleans, Mobile, and Houston.

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Chronology of American History Labor: The National Child Labor Committee is formed to monitor hours and working conditions for thousands of children laboring in textile mills and other factories. Law: Thomas L. Sloan, an Omaha Indian and Yale Law School graduate, becomes the first Native American to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court. Literature: Henry James pens his latest novel, The Golden Bowl. Medical: The National Tuberculosis Foundation is created. Music: Composer Arthur Farwell begins a nationwide tour extolling the virtues of Russian and French music, while also showcasing his own compositions, which draw heavily from folk music and Native-American themes. Axel Christensen publishes his Instruction Book No. 1 for Ragtime, which attempts to teach this complicated form of proto-jazz in only 20 lessons. Publishing: Muckraking journalist Lincoln Steffens writes an excoriating account of municipal corruption in his book The Shame of the Cities. Journalist Ida Minerva Tarbell’s various exposés from McClure’s Magazine are collected and published as History of the Standard Oil Company. This is a sensational exposé of the giant monopoly and an early example of what will become known as “muckraking.” Sports: Pennsylvania wins the national college football championship with 12 wins, no losses, no ties. President Theodore Roosevelt inadvertently starts a national craze for jujitsu by having his Japanese instructor call regularly at the White House. The U.S. Lawn Tennis Association singles championships are won by Holcombe Ward and May Sutton in their respective divisions. The Third Olympiad transpires in St. Louis, Missouri. The World Series is called off when John McGraw, manager of the National League New York Giants, refuses their participation after enduring prior verbal abuse from Ban Johnson, president of the American League. Technology: The oil-powered diesel engine is showcased for the first time at the St. Louis Exposition by German inventor Rudolf Diesel. Transportation: The growing technical proficiency of automobiles is reflected in the rise of the nation’s first speed limits in New York City. Thereafter most large cities opt for 10 miles an hour, small cities 15 miles per hour, and rural regions a scorching 20 miles per hour.

January 3 Naval: The cruiser USS Detroit sends its detachment of U.S. Marines ashore at Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, to protect American lives and property during an insurrection.

January 4 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Gonzales v. Williams, ruling that citizens of Puerto Rico, while not American citizens, cannot be denied access to the mainland. Politics: President Theodore Roosevelt sends a message to Congress and defends his recent actions during the revolt in Panama.

January 5 Naval: The transport Zafiro disembarks 103 sailors and marines to serve as legation guards in Seoul, Korea, as a precaution against possible unrest.

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January 9 Military: Civil War veteran General Adna Romanza Chaffee is installed as the second army chief of staff.

January 11 Military: William Howard Taft is appointed the new secretary of war by President Theodore Roosevelt; his attention will be dominated by the continuing occupation of the Philippines and the building of the Panama Canal.

January 12 Transportation: Henry Ford, operating a machine of his own design, establishes a new automobile speed record of 91.37 miles per hour over frozen Lake St. Clair, Michigan.

January 17 Naval: The new cruiser USS Detroit and the Civil War–era screw sloop Hartford—Admiral David G. Farragut’s Civil War flagship—again put landing parties ashore at Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, in response to recent outbreaks of violence.

February 7–8 General: The business district of Baltimore is ravaged by a huge fire that destroys 2,600 buildings but takes no lives. Property losses are estimated at $80 million, making it the biggest fire loss since Chicago in 1871.

February 11 Naval: Insurgents in the city of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, fire upon the American steamer New York. This act draws a sharp response from the cruisers USS Columbia and Newark, which land 300 sailors and marines ashore, then provide covering fire as they drive the rebels from the city.

February 20 Diplomacy: The State Department issues a circular note to Japan and Russia, then locked in the Russo-Japanese War, and requests that they observe the “Open Door” policy respecting Manchuria.

February 23 Diplomacy: The Senate ratifies the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty, enabling the United States to commence building a canal across the Isthmus of Panama.

February 25–27 Naval: Continuing violence in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, along with perceived threats to the U.S. consulate there, results in marines being landed ashore from the training ship USS Yankee.

February 29 Politics: With the United States now poised and able to project strength in both the Atlantic and Pacific regions, construction of a Central American canal becomes a project of strategic importance. To that end President Theodore Roosevelt appoints a seven-man Panama Canal Commission to help expedite the task.

March 7 Military: A force of 800 men of the U.S. Army and the Philippine Constabulary, under Colonel Joseph Duncan, assaults the Moro strongpoint on the crest of Bud Daju, a volcanic peak. After hard fighting the allies stand on top of the

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Chronology of American History bloodied slope with 21 killed and 75 wounded. The Moros, who fought fanatically, were mowed down by machine gun and artillery fire and suffered hundreds of casualties.

March 8 Politics: President Theodore Roosevelt appoints Admiral John G. Walker to head the seven-man commission supervising construction of the Panama Canal.

March 11 Indian: Congress passes the Pipelines Act, which enables oil companies to construct pipelines through Indian land without the permission of its inhabitants. This is principally applied to tribes living in Oklahoma, where oil has recently been uncovered. Transportation: William G. McAdoo, president of the New York and New Jersey Railroad, is the first man to walk through the new Morton Street Tunnel, which connects New York and New Jersey under the Hudson River.

March 12

Oklahoma well strikes oil. (Library of Congress)

Naval: The outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War results in marines being landed from the cruiser USS Cincinnati for the purpose of evacuating American civilians from Seoul and Chemulpo, Korea.

March 14 Business: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Northern Securities v. United States, ruling that the giant conglomerate had, in fact, violated the Sherman Anti-Trust Act and has to be dissolved into its component parts. This is the first victory in President Theodore Roosevelt’s effort to rein in big business from its profiteering excesses.

March 21 Music: New York City hosts a month-long tribute to conductor Richard Strauss at Carnegie Hall, wherein several of his most noted compositions are rendered.

April Indian: Apache war chief Geronimo becomes a living exhibit at the World’s Fair in St. Louis; he hawks his photograph for 10 cents apiece.

April 13 Naval: During a gunnery exercise onboard the battleship USS Missouri, a powder accident results in the suffocation death of 36 sailors. Robert Edward Cox, Mons Monssen, and Charles S. Schepke all win Congressional Medals of Honor for extinguishing the fire.

April 15 General: In New York City, Andrew Carnegie founds a $5 million Hero Fund for the benefit of those who risk their lives in helping others or lose their lives in the effort.

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April 19 Sports: Michael Spring wins the eighth Boston Marathon by crossing the finish line at two hours, 38 minutes, and four seconds.

April 22 Diplomacy: Panama formally turns over to the United States land for the projected canal project.

April 23 Arts: The American Academy of Arts and Letters is founded in New York City.

April 24 Military: Congress introduces a new Medal of Honor policy that requires all claims to be accompanied by official documents outlining the deed for which the medal is to be awarded.

April 25 General: Homespun humorist Will Rogers makes his debut at Madison Square Garden, New York, with Colonel Zack Mulhall’s troupe.

April 30 Music: When the Louisiana Purchase Exposition opens in St. Louis, Missouri, revelers are greeted by Andrew B. Sterling’s noted composition “Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis.” Among the many innovations debuting are iced tea and ice cream.

May 1–5 Politics: The Socialist Party meets in Chicago, Illinois, and nominates Eugene V. Debs and Benjamin Hanford for president and vice president, respectively.

May 2 Sports: The 30th annual Kentucky Derby is won by Elwood with a time of two minutes, eight seconds.

May 4 Politics: The United States obtains legal control of the Panama Canal Zone from the French Panama Canal Company.

May 5 Sports: Denton True “Cy” Young of the American League Boston Americans pitches the first perfect game by not allowing a single opposing player to reach first base.

May 10 Engineering: John Findley Wallace is appointed chief engineer of the Panama Canal project.

May 14 Sports: St. Louis, Missouri, hosts the third modern Olympiad, in which the United States takes 21 gold medals.

May 23 Transportation: European steamship companies reduce their steerage rates to only $10 per person. This will greatly facilitate the passage of roughly one million immigrants to the United States annually. The voyage itself is still cramped, dirty, and generally unpleasant.

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May 25 Sports: The 38th annual Belmont Stakes is won by Dehli, who crosses the finish line at two minutes, six seconds.

May 28 Sports: The 29th annual Preakness Stakes is won by Bryn Mawr, who runs the course in one minute, 44 seconds.

May 30 Naval: The cruiser USS Brooklyn lands its detachment of marines ashore at Tangier, Morocco, in response to the kidnapping of an American citizen. He is eventually repatriated.

June 16 General: A fire and explosion onboard the steamer General Slocum in the East River, New York, kills 1,030 passengers.

June 21–23 Politics: The Republican Party convenes its national convention in Chicago, Illinois, and Theodore Roosevelt easily wins renomination for the presidency. Charles W. Fairbanks of Indiana becomes his vice presidential candidate.

June 22 Diplomacy: President Theodore Roosevelt, when informed of the kidnapping of Ion Perdicaris, a naturalized U.S. citizen, by Moroccan chieftain Raisuli, demands his release, bellowing “Perdicaris alive or Raisuli dead!” A warship will be dispatched to Tangiers to underscore the point, but Secretary of State John Hay instructs the U.S. minister there not to employ force without explicit instructions from the State Department.

June 27 Military: The War Department directs that the seven army service schools at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, be consolidated into a single entity. It does so at the behest of Colonel Arthur L. Wagner, an influential proponent of military education.

June 29–30 Politics: The Prohibition Party holds its national convention in Indianapolis, Indiana, selecting Silas C. Swallow of Pennsylvania and George W. Carroll of Texas for president and vice president, respectively.

June 30 Diplomacy: The United States protests British military activity in Tibet as a violation of Chinese sovereignty; the British respond that the Chinese government has been remiss in maintaining order in the region, and that they reserve the right to do so on their own.

July 1 Civil: The Kentucky legislature levies a $1,000 fine and a $100-a-day penalty for educational institutions allowing both white and black students. Naval: In Washington, D.C., Paul Morton becomes the 36th secretary of the navy.

July 2 Politics: The Socialist Labor Party nominates Charles H. Corregan of New York for the presidency.

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July 4 Communication: President Theodore Roosevelt sends a message across the Pacific Ocean to Manila by way of the cable at San Francisco, California, and receives a reply 12 minutes later. The age of global communication has dawned. Politics: The People’s (Populist) Party gathers in Springfield, Illinois, to choose Thomas E. Watson of Georgia for the presidency and Thomas H. Tibbles of Nebraska for vice president.

July 6–9 Politics: The Democratic Party holds its national convention in St. Louis Missouri, nominating Alton B. Parker of New York for president and Henry G. Davis of West Virginia for vice president.

July 9 Sports: Willie Anderson win the U.S. Open golf tournament.

July 25 Labor: A strike by 25,000 textile workers begins in Fall River, Massachusetts. The ensuing struggle will be long and bitter, but will call national attention to the deplorable conditions in their work environment. Transportation: As if to underscore the growing viability and popularity of automobiles in American popular culture and transportation, a procession of 59 vehicles chugs out of New York City and heads for the St. Louis World’s Fair.

August 10 Transportation: A convoy of 59 automobiles reaches St. Louis, Missouri, from New York City, whereupon city elders proclaim “Automobile Day” at the World’s Fair.

August 31 Politics: The Continental Party convenes in Chicago, Illinois, and selects Austin Holcomb of Georgia for president.

September 3 Arts: Anne Crawford Flexner’s play Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch, adapted from a novel by Alice Hegan Rice, opens at the Savoy Theater in New York City. Transportation: An Oldsmobile automobile driven by L. L. Whitman pulls into New York City after departing San Francisco, California, 33 days earlier.

September 9 Crime: New York City deploys its first horse-mounted units to patrol the streets.

September 26 General: Lafcadio Hearn, a journalist who has lived many years in Japan and worked ceaselessly to learn the language and transmit the culture to his fellow Americans, dies in Tokyo.

September 28 Women: A woman smokes a cigarette on an open motorcar in New York City and is promptly arrested after being warned, “You can’t do that on Fifth Avenue.”

October 7 Naval: In Seattle, Washington, the battleship USS Nebraska becomes the first capital ship constructed on the West Coast for the U.S. Navy.

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October 8 Sports: Automobile racing receives a big boost with the running of the first 300-mile Vanderbilt Cup Race, which is sponsored by aficionado William K. Vanderbilt. First across the finish line is a 90-horsepower French Panhard driven by George Heath, who covers the 10 laps in five hours, 26 minutes, 45 seconds at an average speed of 70 miles per hour. Races like this prove the superiority in performance of gasoline-powered vehicles over competing electric and steam designs.

October 19 Business: The Consolidated and the American and Continental Tobacco companies are merged by James Buchanan Duke into a new entity, the American Tobacco Company. He now wields an effective nationwide monopoly on snuff, plug, and cigarette production.

October 27 Transportation: The first parts of the New York subway system are completed under the aegis of Alexander E. Orr. This particular section connects City Hall to 145th Street. Other excavations continue on a subterranean link between New York and New Jersey via the Morton Street Tunnel; it will be the first subterranean transport system to run under both land and water.

November 2 Religion: Evangeline Booth becomes commander of the Salvation Army in America.

November 8 Politics: Republican Theodore Roosevelt is handily reelected by a margin of 7.6 million votes to 5 million for Democrat Alton B. Parker, and an electoral count of 336 to 140. For the first time since the Civil War, Missouri falls into the Republican column. Charles W. Fairbanks of Indiana becomes vice president; the Republicans also control both chambers of Congress. Roosevelt, in perhaps his only major misstep, prematurely declares that he will not seek a third term in office.

November 15 Arts: Ethel Barrymore stars in the highly popular play Sunday at the Hudson Theater in New York City.

December 6 Diplomacy: In a speech to Congress, President Theodore Roosevelt outlines his “corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine, which declares America’s moral responsibility to address any wrongful behavior by any foreign country upon nations in the Western Hemisphere. Specifically, the president hopes to preclude European intervention in America’s backyard for the purpose of collecting debts. This international paternalism, however well intentioned, greatly annoys Latin American nations and will be revoked in 1930.

December 10 Business: The Bethlehem Steel Corporation is founded in Pennsylvania, by Charles M. Schwab, who also owns the U.S. Shipbuilding Company. He intends to make his acquisition more competitive by employing the latest Bessemer process for manufacturing high-grade steel.

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1905 Arts: George Pierce Baker founds his 47 Workshop at Harvard University to offer professional instruction in playwriting techniques. Aviation: Wilbur Wright, taking off in a redesigned aircraft, manages to stay aloft for 38 minutes and cover 24 miles. The dream of heavier-than-air flight is rapidly becoming an everyday reality. Business: Taste buds in New York City are exposed to the simple Italian dish of rolled bread dough, tomato sauce, and cheese—called “pizza” by its creator, immigrant restauranteur Gennaro Lombardi. It quickly joins spaghetti and lasagna as part of the Italian cuisine that will move into the cultural and gastronomic mainstream. Indian: Tribal leaders in the Indian Territory petition Congress to allow them to form their own new state to be called “Sequoyah,” Congress rejects the plan, thereby allowing the region to be incorporated into the future state of Oklahoma. Literature: Edith Wharton pens The House of Mirth, about the interactions of wealthy sophisticates and their sordid influence on the life of a young woman. Thomas Dixon, Jr., publishes The Clansman, a historical novel sympathetic to the activities of the Ku Klux Klan during Reconstruction. Jack London finishes his novel, The Game, which is concerned with prizefighting. Media: John P. Harris and Harry Davis invent a new form of entertainment, the nickelodeon, or movie theater, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Within three years there are over 10,000 nickelodeons in business. Publishing: Harvard philosopher George Santayana publishes his five-volume The Life of Reason, which is touted as the “biography of the human intellect.” Science: George Ellery Hale finishes the Mount Wilson Observatory near Pasadena, California, under the auspices of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, D.C. Sports: In Hot Springs, South Dakota, Owen Patrick Smith launches the greyhound racing industry by hitching a stuffed gray rabbit to a motorcycle, circumventing public complaints about slaughtering live hares. Chicago wins the national college football championship with 11 wins, no losses, no ties. Marvin Hart wins the world boxing championship by knocking out Jack Root in 12 rounds. The U.S. Lawn Tennis Association singles championships are won by Beals C. Wright and Elizabeth Moore in their respective divisions. At Wimbledon, England, May G. Sutton becomes the first American and the first foreigner to win the women’s singles championship. Transportation: The number of automobiles on America’s roads has risen to 77,988, but many people still dismiss them as a novelty compared to horse and bicycle. Women: Offices and factories see a gradual increase in the number of women employed, in some instances completely displacing the men.

January 5 Transportation: In Baltimore, Maryland, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad introduces the nation’s first electric locomotives.

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January 13 Diplomacy: Secretary of State Hay, alarmed by the recent war in Asia between Japan and Russia and its potential adverse effects on free trade, declares America’s intent to maintain both the integrity of China and the “Open Door” policy.

January 18 Aviation: The Wright brothers offer the U.S. Army priority in purchasing their new airplane device, but General G. L. Gillespie subsequently declares the government’s lack of interest. Naval: Naval and Marine Corps personnel, backed by the cruiser USS Detroit, assume control of the Dominican Republic’s customs service to infuse it with greater efficiency.

January 21 Diplomacy: The “Roosevelt Corollary” is tested for the first time when the Dominican Republican reneges on its debts to Great Britain. Rather than tolerate military intervention to force compliance, President Theodore Roosevelt insists on the placement of American officials to handle that island’s finances until it is out of debt. Through this expedient the president hopes to bring down the rate of corruption from 90 percent of all receipts to a mere 50 percent. The agreement is rejected by the Senate, but the president nonetheless orders its provisions carried out.

January 27 Military: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers begins construction activities for the Alaskan Road Commission.

January 30 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Swift & Co. v. United States, ruling in favor of a governmental attempt to break up a “beef trust.” However, no injunction is issued against the company itself, and the monopoly it maintains continues intact.

February 7 Diplomacy: The cash-strapped government of the Dominican Republic, faced with possible European intervention to collect debts owed, signs an agreement with the United States that invokes the new “Roosevelt Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine.

February 20 General: A mine explosion at Virginia City, Alabama, kills 116 miners. Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Jacobson v. Massachusetts, ruling that states are within their purview when enacting mandatory vaccination laws. The case stems from a refusal by Seventh Day Adventists to receive inoculation on religious grounds.

February 23 Societal: The Rotary Club is founded in Chicago by lawyer Paul Harris. It acquires its name because members, derived from the professions, are expected to rotate through different offices on a weekly basis.

March 3 Naval: Congress approves funding to construct the battleship USS South Carolina, the final vessel in the first stage of President Theodore Roosevelt’s naval expansion program.

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March 4 Indian: Apache chief Geronimo is temporarily released from imprisonment and invited to ride in the inauguration parade of President Theodore Roosevelt. At the time, he also asks the new chief executive for permission to return to his home in Arizona, but Roosevelt declines, citing opposition from the state’s inhabitants. Politics: Theodore Roosevelt is inaugurated president of the United States for his first full term in office. Charles W. Fairbanks is also sworn in as vice president and both men behold the largest inaugural parade ever staged.

March 31 Diplomacy: President Theodore Roosevelt appoints a customs receiver to manage the Dominican Republic’s monetary affairs until it has paid off the last of its $32 million in debts. In this manner the president hopes to forestall any European attempts to collect their money by force of arms.

April 12 Architecture: The New York Hippodrome, with a seating capacity of 5,000, is opened to the public.

April 17 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Lochner v. United States, ruling that a state law limiting the number of hours that bakers can work interferes with the right to free contract and is thus unconstitutional.

April 19 Sports: Frederick Lorz wins the Boston Marathon, crossing the finish line in two hours, 38 minutes, 25 seconds.

May 1–24 Military: The Moros, a Muslim tribe living on Jolo Island in the Philippines, revolt against American attempts to end slavery and tribal feuds in the southern Philippines. It will take U.S. Army troops three campaigns to finally quell fanatical resistance.

May 10 Sports: The 31st annual Kentucky Derby is won by Agile, with a time of two minutes, 10 seconds.

May 11 General: A tornado races through Snyder, Oklahoma, killing 100 people.

May 13 Military: Hiram Cronk, the oldest surviving veteran of the War of 1812, dies at the age of 105.

May 24 Sports: The 39th annual Belmont Stakes is won by Tanya with a time of two minutes, eight seconds.

May 27 Sports: The 30th annual Preakness Stakes is won by Cairgorn, who runs the course in one minute, 45 seconds.

May 31 Diplomacy: Representatives of the Japanese Empire, militarily victorious over Russia in Asia but nearing financial exhaustion, approach the United States to

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Chronology of American History mediate the conflict on their behalf. President Theodore Roosevelt, cognizant that the fighting in Manchuria threatens to overturn the “Open Door” policy, readily agrees to serve as a mediator.

June 7 Business: In New York City, a 1,250-square-foot plot on Wall Street sells for the hefty sum of $700,000. Diplomacy: The American ambassador to Russia, George von Lengerke Meyer, convinces Czar Nicholas II that a negotiated peace settlement to end the RussoJapanese War is in his own best interest. The recent destruction of the Russian fleet in the Tsushima Straits—on May 27, 1905—underscores the futility of carrying on the fight.

June 10 Diplomacy: Acting upon a Japanese request, President Theodore Roosevelt invites the empires of Russia and Japan, at war in the Far East since 1904, to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, for peace talks. The president intends to take a proactive role in negotiations and perhaps broker a deal favorable to American interests.

June 11 Transportation: The “Twentieth Century Limited,” an 18-hour express service between New York and Chicago, is initiated by the New York Central Railroad.

June 18 Transportation: Not to be upstaged by the competition, the Pennsylvania Railroad also offers express, 18-hour service direct to Chicago. However, both they and the New York Central will experience train wrecks and service will be suspended.

June 27–July 8 Labor: William D. “Big Bill” Haywood organizes the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or “Wobblies”) in Chicago, Illinois, setting it apart from the more conservative and craft-oriented American Federation of Labor (AFL). Their goal is to unite all industrial workers and have unions control the means of production.

July 1 Conservation: Congress passes an Agricultural Appropriations Act, whereby the bureau of forestry is redesignated as the National Forest Service. Naval: In Washington, D.C., Maryland attorney Charles J. Bonaparte, a grandnephew of French emperor Napoléon Bonaparte, becomes the 37th secretary of the navy.

July 3 Sports: Marvin Hart succeeds the retired James J. Jeffries as world boxing champion by knocking out Jack Root in the 12th round at Reno, Nevada. Notably, Jeffries, who quit the sport for lack of a suitable opponent, served as referee.

July 7 Diplomacy: President Theodore Roosevelt appoints former secretary of war Elihu Root to replace John Hay as the new secretary of state.

July 8 Diplomacy: President Theodore Roosevelt, seeking a proactive role in world affairs, intervenes in the Moroccan crisis between France and Germany, and

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persuades both to attend an international conference and arbitrate the issue. He seeks to preclude the outbreak of a war that nobody wants.

July 13 Civil: A gathering of African-American leaders under W. E. B. DuBois, dissatisfied by the conciliatory stance of Booker T. Washington, issues a “Declaration of Principles” to push for equal rights and economic opportunity for all racial groups. This event accentuates the split between DuBois and his great contemporary, Booker T. Washington, who seeks economic opportunity before racial equality. Because the meeting transpires at Fort Erie, Ontario, within the vicinity of Niagara Falls, this subsequently becomes known as the Niagara Movement.

July 17 Science: It takes a Supreme Court decision, but Oregon farmer Elias Hughes is forced to relinquish his ownership of the noted Willamette meteorite.

July 20 Diplomacy: To protest what they consider unfair and discriminatory immigration policies, Chinese nationals begin a boycott of American goods and services. Their government, while apologetic toward the Americans, takes no real moves against the protesters.

July 21 Business: The Chinese begin boycotting American goods following U.S. adoption of laws barring educated Chinese from entering the country. Naval: The gunboat USS Bennington suffers a boiler explosion while docked at San Diego, California, whereby 60 sailors die and 40 more are injured. Congress awards no less then 10 Medals of Honor for heroism in saving lives on board.

July 22 Medical: New Orleans is again ravaged by an epidemic of yellow fever and will sustain 400 deaths before the malady is brought under control that fall by governmental anti-mosquito programs. Naval: The exhumed remains of Revolutionary War naval hero John Paul Jones are escorted from France to Annapolis, Maryland, by a squadron consisting of the cruisers USS Brooklyn, Chattanooga, Galveston, and Tacoma, plus a French cruiser.

July 24 Naval: Amidst pomp and ceremony, the remains of John Paul Jones are laid to rest in the crypt below the U.S. Naval Academy chapel in Annapolis, Maryland. They were in an unmarked grave in France until discovered the previous April.

July 25 Engineering: Railroad builder John F. Stevens arrives in Panama to serve as chief engineer of the ongoing canal project. Work is stymied at present over whether to construct the canal at sea level or to employ various elevated locks, as well as concern over periodic outbreaks of deadly tropical maladies.

July 29 Diplomacy: Secretary of War William H. Taft agrees with Japanese foreign minister Taro Katsura that the United States will not interfere with Japanese designs on Korea if they will concurrently renounce all interest in the Philippines. This

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August 9–September 5 Diplomacy: President Theodore Roosevelt surprisingly arranges a peace treaty between the feuding empires of Russia and Japan, becoming a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize. The victorious Japanese, having obtained Korea as a protectorate in 1895, now seize it outright as a colony and gain a foothold on the Asian mainland. They also acquire parts of the Liaotung Peninsula (Manchuria), but only half of Sakhalin Island and no indemnity from the cash-strapped Russians. Harsher Japanese terms may have left the Russians no choice but to keep on fighting.

August 25 Military: Secretary of War Elihu Root orders creation of a new Signal Corps school for junior officers at Fort Leavenworth, with courses in photography, electricity, and acoustics.

August 29 Business: Banker J. Pierpont Morgan sells a 28-mile strip of railroad track belonging to his American China Development Company, to the Chinese government for $6.7 million. The decision, made at the option of company stockholders, angers President Theodore Roosevelt, who feels that Americans must never concede financial assets or control of such assets abroad.

September 6–December 30 Business: President Theodore Roosevelt appoints Charles Evans Hughes to investigate the big insurance companies to expose schemes to defraud small policyholders as well as corruption. Major legislative reforms will result to correct such abuse, and Hughes, whose success will render him a national figure, will eventually be appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

September 22 Sports: The U.S. Open golf tournament is won by Willie Anderson.

October 1 Education: In New York City, the Juilliard School of Music, destined to become one of the nation’s most renowned, is founded.

October 3 Arts: David Belasco’s play The Girl of the Golden West opens in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and will enjoy a successful three-year run. Giacomo Puccini will subsequently adapt it for his opera La Fanciulla del West, the first such composition with an American theme.

October 5 Aviation: In a circular flight that ranges 24 miles, Wilbur and Orville Wright solve a difficult equilibrium (balance) problem in their nascent airplane.

October 9–14 Sports: The second annual World Series unfolds as the New York Giants (NL) defeat the Philadelphia Athletics (AL) four games to one.

October 15 General: Portland, Oregon, marks the centennial of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with large-scale festivities.

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October 16–22 Military: Captain Frank R. McCoy’s company of the 22nd U.S. Infantry, assisted by Philippine Scouts, surprises and defeats a Moro chief in his camp along Malang River, Jolo Island, killing him and numerous supporters.

October 23 Arts: Edwin Milton Royle’s play The Squaw Man opens at Wallack’s Theater in New York City; it concerns the life of a British nobleman who chooses to live among the Indians of Wyoming.

October 31 Arts: George Bernard Shaw’s play Mrs. Warren’s Profession is shut down by the New York City police after one performance, at the insistence of the Society for the Prevention of Vice and Anthony Comstock. In retaliation, Shaw will coin the word “Comstockery” to denote flatulent, excessive morality.

November 1 Medical: Aggressive moves against mosquito breeding grounds in New Orleans, Louisiana, restrict a yellow fever outbreak to 451 deaths; 10 times that number died during the last sizable epidemic in 1878.

November 8 Technology: The Chicago and North Western Railroad installs electric lighting on its “Overland Run” from Chicago to San Francisco. This move pressures other railroads to provide similar luxuries for their passengers to remain competitive.

November 10 Politics: President Theodore Roosevelt, seeking to professionalize the Foreign Service, signs an executive order allowing appointments on the basis of testing and selection for all officers below the rank of ambassador or minister. Secretary of State Elihu Root founds a board to conduct written and oral examinations to this same end.

November 25 Media: In New York City, noted photographer Alfred Stieglitz opens a photo galley on Fifth Avenue for the purpose of promoting an esthetic—as opposed to a technical—approach to photography.

December 5 Politics: In his annual address, President Theodore Roosevelt asks that the Alaska District be granted delegation status by Congress; in this manner it will acquire a non-voting representative. He also welcomes immigrants of the “right kind,” who work hard, learn English, and inculcate American customs and values.

December 30 Crime: In Caldwell, Idaho, Governor Frank Steunenberg is killed by a bomb at his front gate. Because he was brutal in his relations with striking workers of the militant Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), the union will be suspected of arranging his murder.

1906 Arts: Ruth St. Denis, a devotee of modern dance, successfully debuts in New York City.

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Chronology of American History Russian actress Alla Nazimova debuts in New York City with an Englishspeaking troupe of Russian actors; they present Ibsen’s play Hedda Gabler to critical acclaim. Producer George M. Cohan unveils Forty-Five Minutes from Broadway, his most successful musical to date. Playwright George Bernard Shaw has no less than six productions in New York City this year; Caesar and Cleopatra, Arms and the Man, Man and Superman, John Bull’s Other Island, and Major Barbara. His previous production of Mrs. Warren’s Profession was closed down by censors. Opera singer Geraldine Farrar makes her U.S. opera debut after a successful engagement in Berlin. Business: Breakfast history is made when the Kellogg brothers of Battle Creek, Michigan, introduce their own brand of toasted corn flakes. Rather then face numerous lawsuits, the Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia, replaces cocaine with caffeine as a soft drink additive. Communication: Inventor Lee De Forest perfects the diode tube, a seminal device for the development of wireless communication. Indian: Angel DeCora, a painter and illustrator, joins the faculty of the Carlisle Indian School and encourages her charges to incorporate native designs and patterns into more modernist formats. As head of the Department of Native American Art, she also crusades to promote and preserve Indian artwork. Literature: Legendary Western writer Zane Grey pens his first novel, The Spirit of the Border. Eventually he will write 60 novels and sell 13 million copies.

Cohan, George M.

(1878–1942)

Composer George Michael Cohan was born in Providence, Rhode Island, on July 3, 1878, into a family of talented vaudevillians. He joined the act at an early age as a violinist and a dancer, and toured with his family across the country. Cohan was only a teenager when his talent for song writing first manifested in 1895 when he composed the popular tune “Hot Tamale Alley,” and a host of others. By 1901 he was a conspicuous part of the “Four Cohans” and also finished his first successful musical, entitled The Governor’s Son. Physically, Cohan was diminutive and nondescript, but on stage he seethed with an energy and enthusiasm that onlookers found irresistible. He was also unabashedly patriotic and ardently

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sincere, always thanking his audience at the conclusion of each successful show. Largely on the basis of his exuberant personae, the Cohan family became the nation’s highest paid vaudeville performers. By 1904 Cohan’s writing had matured into Little Johnny Jones, with such perennial favorites as “Give My Regards to Broadway,” and his signature tune, “Yankee Doodle Dandy.” Two years later his play George Washington, Jr. featured another favorite tune, “You’re a Grand Old Flag.” America’s entry into World War I afforded new venues and vistas, and Cohan’s highly successful composition, “Over There,” became a mantra for the national war effort with one million copies of sheet music sold. However, by

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Jack London writes White Fang, his sequel to Call of the Wild and another successful story Mark Twain privately publishes his sardonic essay “What Is Man?” as a Platonic dialogue. O. Henry (William Sydney Porter) publishes his first collection of short stories, entitled The Four Million; by the time he dies in 1910, this prolific writer pens more than 250 engaging short stories. Media: Photographer Edward Curtiss, bankrolled by financier John Pierpont Morgan, begins traveling west to take extensive portraits of Native Americans for a 20-volume set to be entitled North American Indians. In it he helps perpetrate the romantic myth of Indians as “children of nature” and thereby predisposed to gradually disappear and make way for “civilization.” Military: A military study of American coastal defenses judges them as unfit to repel a large amphibious invasion, with Chesapeake Bay, astride the nation’s capital, being completely undefended. Music: Ferdinand “Jelly Roll” Morton debuts on the ragtime scene by composing “The King Porter Stomp,” which grafts onto the melodic St. Louis style of Scott Joplin a heavy New Orleans beat. Pioneering producer Oscar Hammerstein founds his second Manhattan Opera Company, determined to break up the heavy influence of German opera by staging of French and Italian works. Publishing: Muckraking journalist Upton Sinclair pens his seminal novel The Jungle, a stinging indictment of the Chicago meat packing industry, the hardships

1920 Cohan had a bitter falling out with his longtime business partner B. F. Keith and departed to concentrate on his own Broadway musical productions. Cohan spent the next two decades working closely with Sam H. Harris and wrote and produced several memorable entertainments, including Little Nellie Kelly (1922) and Song and Dance Man (1923) in which he also starred. No less then 30 successful plays were mounted between 1920 and 1937, which established Cohan as one of the driving forces behind the American musical. In 1932 he took time off from Broadway to appear in a motion picture, The Phantom President, but generally disliked film and preferred the stage. In 1933 he also starred in the production of Eugene O’Neill’s drama Ah, Wilderness!, with favo-

rable reviews, and in 1937 took on the stage role of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the Rodgers and Hart musical I’d Rather Be Right, which enjoyed a run of 266 performances. In light of his brilliant achievements and unstinting patriotism, Congress voted Cohan a special medal in 1940 and two years later his biography was filmed as Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) with noted actor/dancer Jimmy Cagney in the title role. The iconic film, a rousing war-time production, subsequently won a best picture Oscar. Cohan died in New York City on November 5, 1942, one of America’s legendary musical talents. Memory of his sterling contributions to the genre remains strong, and in 1968 the musical play George M!, based on his life and featuring his very best songs, successfully debuted.

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Sinclair, Upton

(1878–1968)

Author Upton Sinclair was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on September 20, 1878, the scion of a socially notable but destitute family. He took to writing at the age of 15 to raise money for college and in 1897 graduated from the City College of New York; he also attended Columbia University to study law. But Sinclair’s first love was writing, and in 1900 he moved to Quebec and wrote his first novel, Springtime and Harvest, which sold relatively well. Three novels over the next four years failed to generate further notice, but in 1906 he penned the book that made him famous, The Jungle, with which he intended to spur membership in the Socialist Party. Though a fiction work, it presented a realistic account of the grisly and unsanitary meat packing industry of Chicago and triggered a public outrage. President Theodore Roosevelt was so impressed that he invited Sinclair to the White House for consultations, then pressed Congress to pass the Pure Food and Drug Law that same year. Buoyed by success, Sinclair tried to establish an experimental socialist colony at Helicon Hall, New Jersey; now, as a self-styled muckraker, he determined to expose everything that he considered wrong about American society. A succession of novels followed touching upon various themes, including King Coal (1917), a labor polemic, The Profits of Religion (1918), entwining the church with capitalism, Oil (1927), regarding political corruption, and Boston (1928), protesting the Sacco-Vanzetti case. In addition to displaying fine writing skills, Sinclair

was also adept as a researcher and always based his protests upon proven facts. In any case, the money he acquired through writing was invariably spent in the cause of promoting the Socialist Party, so he was increasingly viewed as a political extremist and impugned as such. Between 1939 and 1953, Sinclair penned 11 novels in his Lanny Budd adventure series, which did not touch upon socialism as a panacea but did embrace social reform. One entry, Dragon’s Teeth (1942), which touched upon the rise of Nazism, won the Pulitzer Prize for best fiction. In addition to writing, Sinclair was also active politically, and he unsuccessfully stood for office five times as a Socialist between 1906 and 1930. In 1934 he ran again, this time as a Democratic gubernatorial candidate, and campaigned on his EPIC Program (End Poverty in California), which also failed. The net result of his agitation was to unite unemployed workers with political liberals, which facilitated a Democratic victory in California in 1938. Sinclair also proved instrumental in establishing the California chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). He died in Bound Brook, New Jersey, on November 25, 1968, having donated an estimated $1 million on behalf of his political beliefs. In retrospect, Sinclair was too idealistic to succeed politically, but his success with The Jungle and the remedial measures it engendered mark him as the most significant “muckracker” in American political history.

it imposes on workers, and the potential for selling tainted products to the unsuspecting public. President Theodore Roosevelt will be so disturbed by it that he will summon Sinclair to the White House for consultations.

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Noted Apache chief Geronimo dictates and publishes the Story of His Life. He is in military detention, but S. M. Barrett receives special permission from President Theodore Roosevelt for access to the prisoner. Nonetheless, Geronimo refuses to answer questions through Asa Daklugie, his interpreter, and insists that Barrett write down only what he dictates. Sports: Princeton wins the national college football championship with nine wins, no losses, one tie. The U.S. Lawn Tennis Association singles championships are won by William J. Clothier and Helen Homans in their respective divisions.

January 12 Sports: Alarmed by the increasing number of deaths due to head and neck injuries, the Intercollegiate Sports Association changes football rules to allow and encourage use of the forward pass. By throwing the football, less emphasis is placed on bruising, mass wedges.

January 16 Military: Lieutenant John C. Bates is installed as the new army chief of staff; he is the last Civil War veteran to occupy the post and will serve only three months.

Football game between Yale and Princeton (Library of Congress)

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January 16–April 7 Diplomacy: The United States participates in an international conference on the status of Morocco, held at Algeciras, Spain, to defuse a potential crisis among Great Britain, France, and Germany. The U.S. representative, Henry White, is ordered to remain in close contact with President Theodore Roosevelt throughout the proceedings.

February 12 Music: The graduating class of the U.S. Naval Academy is serenaded by a new march entitled “Anchors Aweigh” by bandmaster Charles A. Zimmerman. After lyrics are adopted in 1907 it will gradually become the official navy tune.

February 17 Societal: President Theodore Roosevelt gives away his daughter Alice in a marriage ceremony at the White House. The groom, Nicholas Longworth of Ohio, is a congressman from that state.

February 23 Diplomacy: The Japanese government assures the secretary of state of a “gentleman’s agreement” not to issue additional visas to workers trying to immigrate to the United States. Sports: Tommy Burns knocks down Marvin Hart after 20 rounds in Los Angeles, California, becoming the world’s heavyweight boxing champion. Curiously, the reigning retired champion, James J. Jeffries, refereed the fight.

March 6 Diplomacy: The Chinese government, under strong pressure from President Theodore Roosevelt, issues an edict that condemns both anti-foreign sentiments and anti-American boycotts. This act ends agitation on the part of nationalistic students and tensions will abate.

March 6–8 Military: A detachment of the 6th U.S. Infantry under Lieutenant Gordon Johnson attacks and destroys a Moro fort at Bad-Dajo, Philippines, routing the defenders. They are assisted by a naval detachment under Ensign H. D. Cooke, in this, the final action of the Philippine Insurrection.

March 12 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Hale v. Heinkel, ruling that witnesses in antitrust suits are required to testify against their employers and produce written evidence when so asked by the courts—without a plea of immunity.

March 17 Journalism: President Theodore Roosevelt coins the modern concept of the “muckraker,” in an address to the Gridiron Club in Washington, D.C. Although the president condemns their excesses, the term will quickly gain traction in journalistic parlance to denote crusading, socially reformist news coverage.

April 7 Communication: Lee De Forest manages to transmit a wireless message from New York to a receiving station in Ireland by utilizing a 40,000-watt transmitter

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at Manhattan Beach. A transatlantic transmission had already been achieved by Guglielmo Marconi in 1901, but De Forest’s new triode-based technology will make radio transmission practical and efficient. Diplomacy: The United States joins Italy, France, Spain, Germany, Great Britain, and Austria-Hungary in signing the Act of Algeciras, which upholds the territorial integrity of Morocco. Curiously, Germany had requested that the United States arrange the meeting to preclude establishment of a French protectorate over the region, but the final settlement authorizes French-Spanish police powers and control of financial institutions.

April 13 Naval: A turret fire strikes the battleship USS Kearsarge off Cape Cruz, Cuba, killing sight sailors and injuring four. Sailor George Breeman and Chief Boatswain Isidor Nordstrom win the Congressional Medal of Honor for saving shipmates.

April 16 Military: In Washington, D.C., Major General James Franklin Bell becomes the new army chief of staff.

April 18 General: San Francisco is devastated by a huge temblor and following fires that destroy four square miles of the city, level 25,000 structures, kill 478, and render 500,000 homeless. Property damage—mostly caused by the fire—is estimated at $400 million and is worsened by widespread looting. For the first time in history, automobiles and trucks are utilized on a large scale to rescue and transport survivors. Military: General Frederick Funston organizes California National Guard troops and his own 22nd U.S. Infantry and 6th U.S. Cavalry to effect an extensive relief effort following the San Francisco earthquake. Fort Mason and the Presidio within the city become refugee camps. Naval: Navy and Marine Corps personnel on Mare Island in San Francisco Bay come ashore to assist survivors of the earthquake. Religion: In an earthquake of another sort, Anglican minister Algernon Sidney Crapsey is tried at Batavia, New York, for having allegedly preached against the divinity of Jesus Christ. His ensuing trial will be covered closely by newspapers both at home and in England.

April 19 Sports: Timothy Ford wins the 10th Boston Marathon and bounds across the finish line in two hours, 45 minutes, and 45 seconds.

April 22–May 2 Sports: The American Olympic team wins 12 medals at Athens, Greece, even though the results will not be recognized by the International Olympic Committee.

April 28 Business: In New York, Charles Evans Hughes successfully goads the state legislature to adopt a reform package intended to overhaul the life insurance business.

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Chronology of American History Henceforth, companies are forbidden from speculative investment of company funds, and from holding stock in banks and trust companies.

May 2 Sports: The 32nd annual Kentucky Derby is won by Sir Huon, who runs the track in two minutes, eight seconds.

May 8 Indian: Congress passes the Burke Act, which transfers control of Indian land allotments from states to the federal government. The secretary of the interior is also empowered to eliminate the trust period of 25 years for Native Americans deemed assimilated and capable of administering their own affairs. This also entitles them to sell their lands to white interests, if desired. Politics: Congress passes a law authorizing the seating of an Alaska delegate.

May 17 Indian: Congress passes the Alaska Allotment Act, which extends provisions of the 1887 General Allotment Act to Native American tribes in the Alaska district.

May 21 Diplomacy: The United States and Mexico reach accord on a treaty that agrees on the distribution of waters of the Rio Grande River to agriculture.

May 22 Sports: The 31st annual Preakness Stakes is won by Whimsical with a time of one minute, 45 seconds.

May 26 Naval: In New York City, Lewis Nixon claims to have invented a device that will allow submersible craft to “see” and “hear” while underwater.

May 30 Sports: The 40th annual Belmont Stakes is won by Burgomaster, who finishes in two minutes, 20 seconds.

June 4 Politics: The Reynolds and Neill Commission, appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt to investigate the meat-packing industry after he read Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, reports its findings to the public. The ensuing tale of woe will provide a great impetus for passage of the Food and Drug Act later this month.

June 8 Indian: Congress passes the Antiquities Act, which outlaws the pilfering of Indian archaeological sites on federal lands, although excavation is possible to qualified individuals through government permits.

June 25 Crime: The murder of architect Stanford White in New York City by Harry K. Thaw, husband of a former White mistress, causes a national sensation. The perpetrator insists that the wealthy White had been engaged in a fling with his wife, former chorus girl Evelyn Nesbit. Military: Congress expands the U.S. Army Ordnance Corps with a brigadier general for its new chief. In Dover, New Jersey, the Picatinny Arsenal opens as the army’s first gunpowder production facility.

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June 29 Business: After bitter debate over state and property rights, Congress passes the Hepburn Act to augment the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC). This new legislation allows freight rates charged by railroads, pipelines, and terminals to be both scrutinized by the commission and regulated as necessary. It forms the latest part of President Theodore Roosevelt’s campaign to rein in big business. Anti-rebate facets of the 1903 Elkins Act are also incorporated. Sports: Alex Smith wins the U.S. Open golf tournament. Technology: President Theodore Roosevelt orders that the forthcoming Panama Canal employ a more complicated lock-type system, capable of raising and lowering vessels across uneven terrain, rather than a sea-level approach. In a sense he is deliberately challenging the project engineers to excel at something that has never been attempted on so vast a scale.

June 30 Business: Congress, reeling from public pressure arising from the publication of Upton Sinclair’s muckraking book The Jungle, passes the Meat Inspection Act to establish tight government inspection of the meat packing industry. The Pure Food and Drug Act also passes into law, forbidding tainted or mislabeled products from interstate commerce. Dr. Harvey Wiley of the Department of Agriculture gains appointment as administrator of both acts.

July 18 Diplomacy: The United States and Mexico act cooperatively to help mitigate a war among El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. Under this scheme their respective presidents will arbitrate the present dispute.

July 25 Military: African-American soldiers from the 25th U.S. Infantry, assisted by troops of the Philippine Constabulary, defeat an attack by Pulahane fanatics armed with razor-sharp bolo knives.

July 27–31 Diplomacy: Secretary of State Elihu Root attends the Third Annual Pan American conference at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where he promotes mutual cooperation and respect—despite recent American behavior in Panama. His speech and approach anticipate the “Good Neighbor” policy of the 1940s.

August Politics: Aspiring presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan stumbles badly at a speech before Democrats gathered at New York’s Madison Square Garden by proposing state ownership of railroads.

August 3 Diplomacy: President Theodore Roosevelt dispatches William Howard Taft to Cuba to assist President Tomás Estrada Palma and establish a provisional government under American control until new elections can be held. Military: The “Army of Cuban Occupation” is organized around five infantry regiments, two cavalry regiments, and several artillery batteries. The whole is then dispatched from the mainland to assist in the restoration of law and order on the island.

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August 13–14 Civil: Civilians in Brownsville, Texas, accuse members of the African-American 25th U.S. Infantry of nighttime gunfire near the town. All three companies present will be arrested, court-martialed, and dismissed from the army. Transportation: The Pennsylvania Railroad, concerned with fire hazards, declares that it will purchase only steel railroad coaches instead of wooden ones.

August 23 Diplomacy: Beset by unrest and rebellion over disputed election results, President Tomás Estrada Palma of Cuba seeks American aid in restoring order. President Theodore Roosevelt proves all too obliging.

September 3 Military: Secretary of War William Howard Taft is dispatched to Cuba with U.S. Army troops to assist the government there in curtailing an insurrection and restoring order.

September 6 Indian: The establishment of a church and a school in the Hopi village of Oraibi splits the tribe into progressive and traditionalist factions, which will engender much friction and violence. At length the anti-white traditionalists will be driven off the reservation and their lands confiscated.

September 13–18 Naval: The cruiser USS Denver arrives in Cuban waters under Commander John Caldwell to restore public order and uphold American lives and property. However, when he dispatches 130 U.S. Marines ashore at Santiago, they are ordered back aboard by President Theodore Roosevelt.

September 14 Naval: The gunboat USS Marietta under Commander William Fullam drops anchor off Cienfuegos, Cuba, and sends half its crew ashore to protect American sugar mills from rebel extortion threats.

September 22–24 Civil: One of the worst race riots erupts in Atlanta, Georgia, and consumes the lives of 21 persons before martial law can be imposed. This happens after several newspapers openly endorse the disenfranchisement of African Americans and the revival of the Ku Klux Klan. Conservation: President Theodore Roosevelt signs legislation designating Devil’s Tower, Wyoming, as a national monument. It is the first natural formation so designated.

September 26 Naval: The General Board of the Navy, faced with the possibility of fighting a Pacific war with the rising empire of Japan, conceives the Orange War Plan. It calls for, among other things, a surface fleet three times larger than the present one—48 projected capital warships—granting the United States the largest such force in the world. Only then can the United States engage the Japanese navy across a vast and distant arena with any prospect of success. The basic tenets of this strategy will remain in place until the advent of World War II.

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September 29 Diplomacy: A provisional government is installed in Cuba by Secretary of War William Howard Taft, who is also tapped to serve as acting governor. He is backed by 2,000 U.S. Marines from the battleship USS Louisiana and accompanying vessels.

October 3 Diplomacy: Agreeable to the Platt Amendment, Nebraska attorney Charles E. Magoon is appointed governor of Cuba until order and prosperity are restored on that island.

October 6 Military: General Frederick Funston arrives at Havana, Cuba, with advanced elements of a 6,000-man occupation force. Resistance from rebels fighting the government fails to materialize.

October 9–14 Sports: The Chicago White Sox (AL) win the third annual World Series of baseball by downing the Chicago Cubs (NL) four games to two.

October 11 Societal: Children of oriental parentage are ordered by the San Francisco Board of Education to attend schools that are oriental in population. President Theodore Roosevelt, anxious to prevent a flare-up of anti-Americanism in Asia, works to convince the mayor of San Francisco to rescind the law upon his own promise to restrict Japanese immigration to that state.

October 14 Diplomacy: The Japanese government protests that the segregation of students along racial lines in San Francisco violates the treaty of 1894.

November 4 Politics: Newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, running for the governorship of New York, is narrowly defeated by Charles Evans Hughes, who wins based on his performance as investigator of life insurance companies.

November 6 Politics: Mid-term elections trim Republican numbers in the House of Representatives but leave them firmly in control of both chambers.

November 9 Diplomacy: President Theodore Roosevelt becomes the nation’s first chief executive to travel abroad in office when he boards the battleship USS Louisiana and sails to Panama to inspect the progress of the new canal. This is something of a pet project for the strategically minded Roosevelt and, when completed, will be among his proudest and most touted accomplishments.

November 14 General: President Theodore Roosevelt arrives in Panama to inspect progress on the canal being dug there. In many respects he is an inspirational figure to millions of citizens and the personification of America’s “can do” spirit. He will be dissatisfied with the progress being made under civilian engineer John Stevens and begin planning his replacement.

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November 22 Communication: The Morse code combination “SOS” is adopted as a universal distress signal for ships at sea and is still so employed; it will be supplemented by the expression “Mayday” (a phonetic pronunciation of the French term m’aider, “help me”).

November 23 Indian: The Creek Crazy Snake religious leader, Chitto Harjo, testifies before Congress as to the evils of allotment and demands an end to it on Creek land. Though impressed with his impassioned elocution, the senators ignore his pleas. Societal: Italian singer Enrico Caruso, having touched a woman’s forearm with his elbow in Central Park, New York, is tried and found guilty of molestation.

November 28 Sports: Heavyweight champion Tommy Burns and John “Philadelphia Jack” O’Brien fight to a draw in 20 rounds at Los Angeles, California.

December 3 Politics: Alaska’s sole non-voting delegate finally takes his seat in Congress.

December 4 Religion: The ecclesiastical trial of Reverend Algernon Sidney Crapsey for heresy concludes with a guilty verdict, and he is defrocked and dismissed from the Anglican Church.

December 10 General: Despite his reputation for wielding a “big stick,” President Theodore Roosevelt receives the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in ending the RussoJapanese War, 1904–05, becoming the first American and the first chief executive so honored.

December 12 Diplomacy: Following acrimonious debate, the Senate votes to approve the Act of Algeciras, which reaffirms that Morocco is to maintain its territorial integrity under French and Spanish supervision. Critics question whether the United States has any business intruding upon an essentially European matter. Politics: Oscar S. Straus of New York City becomes the first Jew to occupy a cabinet post after President Theodore Roosevelt appoints him secretary of commerce and labor.

December 17 Naval: In Washington, D.C., former secretary of commerce Victor H. Metcalf gains appointment as the 38th secretary of the navy.

December 24 Communication: Reginald A. Fessenden makes the earliest known wireless communication with voice and music from his private home at Branch Rock, Massachusetts, to a receiving station in Scotland. The dawn of mass radio communication is at hand.

December 29 Sports: The Intercollegiate Athletic Association holds its first annual convention to establish sound guidelines for the conduct of future collegiate athletics.

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December 30 Military: The War Department issues a general order for all soldiers to be issued metal identification pendants, or “dog tags,” with individual serial numbers.

1907 Architecture: Frank Lloyd Wright designs and constructs the Robey House in Chicago, Illinois, establishing him as one of the nation’s most creative architects, with a genuine flair for harmonizing his creations within their environments. Henry Janeway Hardenberg’s design for the Plaza Hotel in New York City epitomizes early 20th-century luxury. The American Institute of Architects awards its first AIA gold medal to England’s Sir Aston Webb. Arts: The operetta The Merry Widow by Franz Lehar plays its first U.S. performance and is well received. Florenz Ziegfeld debuts as one of the most artful producers of Broadway variety shows with his Follies of 1907, featuring beautiful dancers and gradually employs popular entertainers like Fanny Brice, Eddie Cantor, and W. C. Fields.

Ziegfeld, Florenz (1867–1932) Producer Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr., was born in Chicago, Illinois, on March 21, 1867, a son of the Chicago Musical College founder, Florenz Ziegfeld, Sr. In 1892 his father dispatched him to Europe to scout potential talent for Chicago’s upcoming Columbian Exposition, but instead Ziegfeld returned with vaudeville entertainers and the Great Sandow, a German strongman act. The exposition proved a great success and whetted Ziegfeld’s appetite for producing stage shows. He served as Sandow’s manager for three years, made $250,000, then settled in New York City to manage the career of comedian Lew Weber. He returned to Europe in 1896 and returned with Polish-born beauty Anna Held, whom he employed as an actress, and told reporters that she owed her flawless white skin to daily milk baths. Such hubris was part of Ziegfeld’s strongly held belief that whatever money he spent on promotion would always come back in the form of ticket sales. In fact this sensationalism did have the desired effect, and the public flocked to

see his shows. Ziegfeld, displaying a touch of opulence for which he would become renowned, also frequently dressed Held in diamonds and $20,000 gowns. Furthermore, to heighten dramatic effect, he surrounded her with tall, beautiful chorus girls in the manner of the Folies Bergère, which he had attended in Paris. He eventually coopted this format with his famous and tremendously successful Ziegfeld Follies, which he staged for the first time on a theater roof in New York City on July 8, 1907. True to form, Ziegfeld assembled a huge cast of beautiful and opulently attired showgirls and ran them through elaborately scripted dance sequences. The concept proved a smashing success with the public and earned $120,000 in a single season. Thereafter, Ziegfeld continued producing his Follies on an annual basis, and the tall, thin, undeniably sexy “Ziegfeld Girl” became the national standard for beauty. (continues)

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(continued) In addition to dance routines, Ziegfeld was always on the lookout for new talent, especially for singers and comedians, and at one time or another he helped launch the careers of such Broadway notables as W. C. Fields, Fanny Brice, Eddie Cantor, Fred and Adele Astaire, and Will Rogers. In this manner such notable songs as “Shine on Harvest Moon” (1908) and “By the Light of the Silvery Moon” (1909) became national favorites. He also spent lavishly in producing new and more elaborate stage shows such as The Century Girl (1916), Kid Boots

(1924), and his greatest creative triumph, Show Boat (1927), which featured the music of Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein. In many ways Ziegfeld did much to develop and define the American Broadway musical, one of the nation’s most unique and original art forms. However, he failed to keep abreast of evolving popular taste and by the mid-1920s both his Follies and musicals, costing up to $300,000 to mount, began losing money. Bad health forced him to retire to Hollywood, California, where he died of a heart attack on July 22, 1932.

Education: The College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts (today’s University of Hawaii) is founded in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii. Journalism: In Cleveland, Ohio, the Scripps-MacRae League of Newspapers is reorganized as the United Press news agency. This points to a trend in news reporting that is standardized, efficient, and thorough, in stark contrast to the sensationalism of the previous decade. Literature: Elinor Glyn’s novel Three Weeks, which describes an illicit love affair, is quickly suppressed in Boston but still manages to sell hundreds of thousands of copies nationwide. O. Henry publishes two volumes of collected works, The Trimmed Lamp and Heart of the West. Media: The Chromophone process combines color film with sound and is first publicly demonstrated in Cleveland, Ohio. Actress Florence Lawrence, probably the first motion picture actress to receive star treatment, joins the Vitagraph Company. The Selig Film Company of Chicago, Illinois, hard at work on a film version of The Count of Monte Cristo, finds itself snowed out of its northern abode and sends a film crew to Los Angeles, California, to finish the production. The uniformly warm climate begins attracting film interest in the region. The celebrated firm of Currier and Ives, which was founded in 1834 and has produced over 4,000 lush prints illustrating American history and life, is finally disbanded due to intense competition from photography. Publishing: Distinguished historian Henry Adams privately publishes his autobiography, The Education of Henry Adams, for select friends. In it he rails that his education failed to prepare him for modern life and that he has experienced skepticism and loss of faith. Harvard philosopher William James publishes his Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking, which neatly encapsulates this unique but typical American form of philosophy. Its precepts declare that the meaning and truth

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Chronology â•… 1585 of any idea are functions of its practical outcome, indicative of a national culture based on action and enterprise. Sports: The first notable baseball players are Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers, and Frank Chance of the Chi-­ cago Cubs (NL) who perfect the art of the double play and help win this year’s World Series. Yale wins the national college football champion-­ ship with nine wins, no losses, one tie. In Great Britain, May G. Sutton wins the wom-­ en’s singles title. The U.S. Lawn Tennis Association singles cham-­ pionships are won by William A. Learned and Evelyn Sears in their respective divisions. Religion: Walter Rauschenbusch of the Rochester Theological Seminary, New York, pens Christianity and the Social Crisis, urging the application of Chris-­ tian principles to society’s problems. Science: Professor Albert Abraham Michelson of the University of Chicago wins the Nobel Prize in physics for his work in meaÂ�surÂ�ing the speed of light. Technology: Lee De Forest develops the thermionic amplifier tube from his earlier audion amplifier, ena-­ bling telephone transmissions across the country. In Chicago, Illinois, Alva J. Fisher of the Hurley William James╇ (Library of Congress) Machine Company invents the first Â�electricity-­driven washing machine, which, from a conÂ�veÂ�nience stand-­ point, far surpasses Â�hand-­cranked models in the Â�marketÂ�place. The General Electric Company in New York City invents a brighter, longer burning light bulb by replacing the conventional carbon filament with one made of tungsten. The trick is in drawing the filament into very fine wires. A portable vacuum cleaner designed by James M. Spangler is sold to the Hoover Suction Sweeper Company of Cleveland, Ohio, ushering in a new age of conÂ�veÂ�nience for Â�houseÂ�wives. Transportation: Frank Briscoe founds the Brush Motor Company to build and market his Â�two-­seat, 12-­horseÂ�power runabout. This is one of the first automo-­ biles specifically designed and priced for the middle class, but the company folds within three years. The first commercial gasoline station is opened in Seattle, Washington.

January 8 Naval: President Theodore RooÂ�seÂ�velt directs that all American naval vessels be prefixed with the designation of “United States Ship” (USS).

January 15 Diplomacy: The United States pressures King Leopold II of Belgium to relin-­ quish his personal control of the Â�mineral-­rich Congo region, and allow it to be governed by the Belgian parliament. This is undertaken to abolish slavery and stop inhumane treatment of local tribesmen.

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Chronology of American History Secretary of State Elihu Root informs the Chinese government that, owing to an accounting error, U.S. property loses in the Boxer Rebellion were over-evaluated by half. Therefore, he is returning $12.5 million to the Chinese treasury. Military: President Theodore Roosevelt discharges 167 African-American soldiers from the ranks after three of their number engaged in a shooting spree in Brownsville, Texas. The president—and others—feel that the men are maintaining a conspiracy of silence to protect the three.

January 17 Crime: The shivering residents of Adams, Oregon, half-frozen after an unexpected chill, hold up an Oregon and North train to secure fuel for warmth.

January 20 Women: In Chicago, Professor W. I. Thomas publishes his Sex and Society, which attempts to explain why women cannot become scholars.

January 22 Arts: Richard Strauss’s opera Salome is performed at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City, but viewers are so shocked by the Dance of the Seven Veils and the display of John the Baptist’s head on a platter that it closes after one performance.

January 23 Indian: Charles Curtis, a full-blooded Kaw Indian from Oklahoma, is the first Native American elected to the U.S. Senate as a Republican.

January 25 Military: After further reflection, the Coastal and Field Artillery are separated and reconstituted as individual branches of the service.

January 26 Politics: Mindful of the public anger at corporate influence over politicians, Congress passes an act that outlaws big business from contributing to any political campaign for national office.

February Societal: President Theodore Roosevelt, eager to head off a diplomatic crisis with Japan over the issue of segregated schools, invites the San Francisco School Board to Washington, D.C., for a conference.

February 8 Diplomacy: The United States and the Dominican Republic, in an attempt to stave off foreign intervention over non-payment of debts, invoke a convention formally allowing American officials to collect customs and pay off creditors. President Theodore Roosevelt has insisted upon the action to fend off any potential European intervention that might cause him to invoke the Monroe Doctrine; the republic’s debts are gradually and successfully retired.

February 12 General: The vessel Larchmont sinks off Long Island Sound and 131 passengers lose their lives.

February 20 Societal: An immigration commission is created by Congress, which also revises and updates existing regulations. They will amend the Immigration Act to

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preclude Japanese workers with passports from arriving in the United States from any nation other than Japan itself. This is undertaken to end Japanese charges of discrimination.

February 24 Diplomacy: President Theodore Roosevelt reaches a “gentlemen’s agreement” with Japanese representatives in Washington, D.C., whereby Japan agrees to deny passports to its nationals seeking to immigrate to the United States. The Japanese also acknowledge the American right to refuse entry to any or all Japanese attempting to enter the country on visas issued to other countries.

February 25 Diplomacy: Supporting President Theodore Roosevelt’s “corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine, the Senate ratifies an agreement made with the bankrupt Dominican Republic allowing the United States to supervise its customs collections until Great Britain and other foreign creditors have been paid off. This is a near-duplicate of a 1905 treaty that failed to pass.

February 26 Politics: Congress passes a General Appropriations Bill that increases their pay to $7,500 per annum, while the president and cabinet officials receive $12,000. Societal: Congress forms a commission to study the problems caused by the largely unskilled laborers flooding into the country. Labor leaders like Samuel Gompers of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) complain that they are driving down the wages of American workers. Another sticking point is that the bulk of new arrivals are from southern and eastern Europe, and of either Catholic or Jewish ancestry.

March Crimes: In Englewood, New Jersey, the writing cooperative established by muckracking author Upton Sinclair is completely gutted by fire; the police suspect arson.

March 2 Military: Congress abolishes the rank of lieutenant general but reconstitutes the Adjutant General’s Department.

March 5 Communication: Lee De Forest broadcasts a recording of Rossini’s “William Tell Overture” via wireless from the Telharmonic Hall, Manhattan, to the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

March 13 Business: Precipitous drops in the stock market induce a brief financial panic and foreshadow troubles that manifest later in the year. Societal: President Theodore Roosevelt signs the Immigration Act of 1907 into law, which includes restrictions on the immigration of Japanese laborers. This is done to placate San Francisco school authorities, who have begun discriminating against children of Japanese ancestry but have agreed to halt the practice in exchange for immigration constraints.

March 14 Conservation: President Theodore Roosevelt appoints Theodore E. Burton chairman of the Inland Waters Commission, now tasked with studying problems

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Chronology of American History facing the nation’s waterways and lakes. This is a preliminary move in the establishment of more national parks.

March 21 Military: U.S. Marines are deployed to Honduras to help suppress a rebellion there and to protect American citizens and property, especially the profitable banana plantations.

April 1 Engineering: Continuing technical difficulties and slow progress prompt an overhaul of the Panama Canal Commission, now headed by Lieutenant Colonel George W. Goethals (Army Corps of Engineers). A major stumbling block to the project is the recurring outbreak of diseases like malaria and yellow fever, which have yet to be controlled.

April 19 Sports: Canadian Tom Longboat, an Onondaga Indian, wins the 11th Boston Marathon by crossing the line at two hours, 24 minutes, 24 seconds—shaving a full five minutes from the previous record time.

April 28 Naval: U.S. Marines from the gunboat USS Paducah land at Laguna, Honduras, to protect American property during a war between that country and Nicaragua.

May Societal: Miss Anna M. Jarvis prevails on the city fathers of Grafton, West Virginia, to hold the first informal celebration of Mother’s Day. By 1911 it is informally observed in every state. Transportation: New York City receives its first fleet of French-built taximeter cabs.

May 6 Sports: The 33rd Kentucky Derby is won by Pink Star with a time of two minutes, 12 seconds.

May 21 Sports: The 32nd annual Preakness Stakes is won by Don Enrique, who crosses the finish line at one minute, 45 seconds.

May 24 Naval: U.S. Marines march from Laguna, Honduras, overland to Choloma, to protect American lives and property during a border war with Nicaragua.

May 30 Sports: The 41st Belmont Stakes is won by Peter Pan, who runs the course at two minutes, 15 seconds.

June 1 Naval: The Committee on Imperial Defence in London, cognizant that a future war with America would prove self-defeating, abolishes its holdings in the Caribbean, along with the venerable naval base at Halifax, Nova Scotia. This is done in recognition that Imperial Germany, with a large, modern navy under construction, is Britain’s greatest security threat; Royal Navy assets are transferred back to home waters.

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June 6 Education: Dropsie College for Hebrew and Cognate Learning is founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It functions as a postgraduate college for rabbinical and biblical studies.

June 15–October 15 Diplomacy: The United States attends the Second Hague Peace Conference, in concert with 45 other nations, and supports a resolution authored by Luis M. Drago of Argentina for rules to forbid war as a mechanism for collecting debts. The motion is eventually accepted—a victory for the Monroe Doctrine—but another ambitious proposal, establishment of a World Court to peacefully resolve disputes, is defeated.

June 19 Politics: Cattle interests, alarmed by President Theodore Roosevelt’s land reservation policy, gather in Denver, Colorado, to organize a protest.

June 21 Sports: Alex Ross wins the U.S. Open golf tournament.

July 1 Aviation: The Army Signal Corps establishes its Aeronautical Division to assume control of all observation balloons and any aviation equipment the military subsequently acquires.

July 14 Diplomacy: The Chinese government, delighted by a $12.5 million rebate arising from the Boxer War indemnity paid to the United States, informs Secretary of State Elihu Root that the funds will be spent on sending Chinese students to study at American colleges.

July 28 Crime: In a celebrated trial, labor leader William “Big Bill” Haywood is found innocent of the murder of Idaho governor Frank Steunenberg. He has been defended by Clarence Darrow, an attorney specializing in socially tinged cases. However, Haywood’s colleague, Harry Orchard, admits to the deed and takes the fall.

July 30 Politics: The Philippine Assembly, supervised by American officials, elects members in the Philippines’s first-ever national election.

August 1 Aviation: Army aviation is born when the Office of the Chief of the Signal Corps directs that an “Aeronautical Division” be formed to study and acquire balloons, heavier than air machines, and all matters pertaining to the military applications of manned flight.

September 12 Transportation: The British steam liner Lusitania makes a record crossing of the Atlantic by sailing from Queenstown (now Cobh), Ireland, to New York City in only five days and 54 minutes. At 32,000 tons displacement it is the largest steamship in the world.

September 17 Politics: Oklahoma adopts a new constitution that includes provisions for prohibition.

1907

1590â•… Chronology of American History

October 1 Business: The national economy, overheated by a spate of Â�over-­capitalization, is hurt by a downturn in the stock market; the ensuing panic of 1907 leads to a run on the banks. Eventually, the cause will be attributed to the rigidity of the Â�bond-­secured currency system.

October 8–12 Sports: The Chicago Cubs (NL) win the fourth World Series by defeating the Detroit Tigers in four games (also, one tie).

October 16 Business: When bankers Charles W. Morse and F. Augustus Heize fail to pur-­ chase the firm United Copper, a run commences on New York’s Knickerbocker Trust Company and the Trust Company of America. This threatens to upend the American economy from Wall Street. Diplomacy: The first session of the Philippine Legislative Assembly is opened by Secretary of War William Howard Taft. This is an important step toward eventual inÂ�deÂ�penÂ�dence.

October 21–22 Business: A run on the Knickerbocker Trust Company leads to its collapse and signals the end to many similar institutions, also stimulating higher prices and increased unemployment. To stabilize the situation, the TreaÂ�sury Department increases bank deposits and borrows heavily from willing financiers like J. P. Morgan. The crisis stabilizes but a congressional inquiry ensues that ultimately leads to major reforms of the currency and banking systems.

October 28 Transportation: Milwaukee initiates the first electric train serÂ�vice, between itself and the suburb of Cedarburg, Wisconsin, confirming a trend in Â�inner-­city, Â�commuter-­oriented transportation.

November 4 Business: With deftness and determination, financier J. Pierpont Morgan accosts various trust presidents and secures from them a $25 million loan to salvage some failing banks in New York City. Morgan purchases the firm of Tennessee Coal and Iron to prevent it from going bankrupt. Through all these mea�sures J.P. will prevent the economy from sliding into a panic and depression, and does so with the telephoned permission of President Theodore Roo�se�velt.

November 14 Diplomacy: Secretary of State Elihu Root arranges a Central American peace conference in Washington, D.C., with emissaries from five nations in attendance. In light of armed conflict throughout the region, they agree to establish and sup-­ port a Central American court of justice and also conclude a peace treaty.

November 15 Media: H. C. Fisher’s comic strip Mr. Mutt (later, Mutt and Jeffâ•›) appears in the San Francisco Chronicle and is the first comic to appear on a daily basis, includ-­ ing Saturdays.

November 16 Settlement: Oklahoma, a region previously set aside for Native Americans, becomes the 46th state, its constitution supporting prohibition. The name is

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Choctaw in origin and denotes “home of the red people,” even though the Indian Territory now ceases to exist. Women: Chemist Mrs. Ellen Richards pens an essay in Women’s Journal in which she extolls the success of women in the workforce; she also assures men that “They have nearly done everything and the heavens have not fallen.”

December 2 Sports: World heavyweight boxing champion Tommy Burns takes 10 rounds to defend his title against England’s Gunner Moir in London, England.

December 6 General: A coal mine explosion in Monongah, West Virginia, claims the lives of 361 miners; this is one of the worst industrial disasters in American history.

December 10 Science: Physicist Albert A. Michelson of the University of Chicago becomes the first American to receive the Nobel Prize in physics for his spectroscopic research on the properties of light.

December 16 Naval: President Theodore Roosevelt, determined to signal to the world that the United States will defend its interests by force if necessary, dispatches Commodore Robley “Fighting Bob” Evans out to see with his “Great White Fleet” of 16 modern battleships. Roosevelt observes their departure from Hampton Roads, Virginia, while aboard the presidential yacht Mayflower. Evans will then conduct the fleet on a 15-month, round-the-world excursion to South America, Australia, and—above all—Japan, then seen as a rising, and potentially rival, naval power.

December 19 General: The coal mine at Jacobs Creek, Pennsylvania, suffers a explosion that kills 239 miners.

December 20 Diplomacy: Representatives from the United States, Mexico, and three Latin American nations confer in Washington, D.C., to end the ongoing war among El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala. Honduras is made a neutral state and a court of justice is established at Cartago, Costa Rica, for continuing the arbitration process.

December 23 Aviation: Specification No. 486 is issued by General James Allen, the army’s chief signal officer, outlining requirements for acquiring a military airplane. Prospective bids are to be accompanied by a check for 10 percent of the purchasing price of $25,000. The new machine is expected to be capable of carrying two passengers aloft for one hour at 40 miles per hour.

1908 Architecture: The New York City skyline gains a familiar sight as the 47-story Singer Building is constructed this year. Art: Robert Henri, John Sloan, George Luks, and other young artists clustered around New York’s Washington Square form the “Ashcan School,” which departs from traditional norms of landscape and figures in favor of gritty realism. Social themes, like the suffering of the poor in urban landscapes, are another prevalent genre.

1908

1592â•… Chronology of American History Italian diva Luisa Tetrazzini makes her New York debut after a successful tour of San Francisco. British dancer Isadora Duncan completes a second, successful tour of the United States, and this time performs dances inspired by Greek figures on ancient pottery. Business: In light of difficulties engendered by the panic of 1907, Senator Nelson W. Aldrich heads a special commission to investigate the banking system and make recommendations. President Theodore RooÂ�seÂ�velt, while determined to rein in big business, is distancing himself from radical, Â�anti-­business politicians like Senator Robert La Follette. The first sky advertising unfolds as an airplane tows a box kite fitted with a trapeze artist to market a theatrical attraction in New York City. The International Paper Company begins marketing its disposable, Â�wax-­covered drinking cup, which it christens the Dixie Cup. It joins paper bags and drinking straws as the latest application of business savvy catering to the American consumer. Engineering: In Los Angeles, California, construction begins on the Owens Val-­ ley aqueduct, intended to bring fresh water to the city year round. Indian: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Winters v. United States, ruling that Indian water rights, in this instance at the Fort Belknap Reserva-­ tion, Montana, enjoy priority over other prospective users. The Bureau of Indian Affairs filed the suit to protect water previously promised to Native Americans to assist them in agriculture and assimilation. Congress passes new regulations allowing the regular sale of Indian allot-­ ments by inhabitants of mixed ancestry. Courts are also allowed to appoint white guardians to act on behalf of Indian allottees, but the net result is to drive more Indian land into the hands of hungry agents and speculators. Literature: John Fox, Jr., publishes his novel The Trail of the Lonesome Pine, which employs his extensive knowledge of the Cumberland Mountains of Ken-­ tucky; it becomes a Â�best-­seller. Mystery writer Mary Roberts Rinehart writes The Circular Staircase, which successfully launches a long career. Jack London’s new novel The Iron Heel predicts the rise of fascism. American expatriate Gertrude Stein, living in Paris, composes her first novel, Three Lives. Media: In New York City, Max Kiss, foundÂ�er of the Â�Ex-­Lax Company, is among the first businessmen to pitch his product with filmed advertisements in film theaters. Medical: The U.S. Navy establishes its own Nurse Corps under the direction of Esther Voorhees Hasson. Military: Carl M. Wheaton of Newtonville, Massachusetts, declares that his formula for poison gas, which he has developed in private, will be an effective weapon in some future war. Music: Â�RusÂ�sian-­born violinist Mischa Elman makes his first appearance at Carn-­ egie Hall in New York City. Publishing: Noted magician Harry Houdini publishes The Unmasking of Robert Houdin, a biography of his great French contemporary. Science: A large cache of dinosaur bones is unearthed at Jensen, Utah, among the largest such finds in North America.

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Sports: Pennsylvania wins the national football championship with 11 wins, no losses, one tie. The U.S. Lawn Tennis Association singles championships are won by William A. Larned and Maud Barger-Wallach in their respective divisions. Technology: The growing emphasis on domestic convenience for housewives results in a spate of household appliances, such as the electric toaster and the electric iron. A woman’s work may never be done, but it is certainly getting easier and fashionable. Women: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Muller v. Oregon, ruling that an Oregon law limiting the maximum hours a women can work is constitutional and does not violate the liberty of contract statute of the Fourteenth Amendment. Distinguished writer Julia Ward Howe becomes the first woman admitted into the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Letters.

January 1 Arts: Noted Czech conductor Gustav Mahler makes his spectacular New York debut with a lavish production of Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde at the Metropolitan Opera House.

January 17 Communication: The Times Tower in New York City receives its first wireless radio message from Puerto Rico.

Harry Houdini (Library of Congress)

January 21 Aviation: The chief of the Signals Branch of the army issues specifications for a lighter-than-air dirigible capable of carrying two passengers at 20 miles per hour for a minimum of two hours. Women: Provisions of the Sullivan Ordinance of New York City prohibit women from smoking in public places.

February 1 Naval: The battleship USS Mississippi is commissioned; it will be be the first ship of its class to launch and handle airplanes on board.

February 3 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Loewe v. Lawlor, ruling that attempts by labor to boycott a specific industry are tantamount to conspiracy in restraint of trade, and therefore illegal under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. This is the first time that the act has been applied against labor.

February 10 Aviation: Wilbur and Orville Wright win the nation’s first contract to build a military aircraft for the U.S. Army at a cost of $30,000. The finished craft is expected to be delivered no later than August 1909, and carry two people at 40 miles per hour over a distance of 125 miles.

1908

1594

Chronology of American History Diplomacy: The United States and France conclude a treaty requiring them to refer all difficulties that cannot be resolved by diplomacy to the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague. This is the first of 25 such treaties that Secretary of State Elihu Root will sign over the next year.

February 12 Transportation: The first around-the-world car race begins in New York City and continues on to Alaska, Siberia, and Paris. Six cars and crews from the United States, Italy, France, and Germany participate but only three will finish, still a remarkable accomplishment considering the crudity of the technology.

February 18 Diplomacy: In concert with President Theodore Roosevelt’s “gentleman’s agreement” with Japan, the moratorium on Japanese worker immigration to the United States will be observed. Moreover, upon Roosevelt’s insistence, workers holding Canadian, Mexican, or Hawaiian passports are likewise forbidden from entering the country.

March 1 Military: In another sign of growing military professionalism, a new Quartermaster School is established at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

March 4 General: A fire at the Colinwood grammar school near Cleveland, Ohio, kills 175 children.

March 8 Aviation: The secretary of war approves three bids to build the nation’s first military aircraft for $25,000, although only the Wright brothers are signed to fulfill the contract within 200 days.

March 20 Diplomacy: Secretary Elihu Root designates the Division of Far Eastern Affairs, which is the first geographic division within the State Department. Such specific organization allows it to be staffed by experts in their field.

April Education: In Columbia, Missouri, the University of Missouri opens a professional school of instruction for journalism. This is in response to the burgeoning growth of magazines, newspapers, and other publications requiring such skills.

April 1 Naval: The new battleship USS Idaho is commissioned; it is the last of the older, pre-dreadnought class to be employed by the U.S. Navy. This day President Theodore Roosevelt also asks Congress to provide another four battleships.

April 2–3 Politics: The People’s (Populist) Party convenes its national convention in St. Louis, Missouri, and selects Thomas E. Watson of Georgia and Samuel W. Williams of Indiana for president and vice president, respectively.

April 11 Diplomacy: Secretary of State Elihu Root and British ambassador James Bryce signs the Root-Bryce Treaty in Washington, D.C., which allows for a definitive settlement of any remaining boundary issues affecting North America. They also

1908

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1595

agree to an International Fisheries Commission to examine and arbitrate any fishery issues that might arise between the United States and Canada. This is the latest sign of the growing rapprochement between the two former antagonists.

April 12 General: Large sections of Chelsea, Massachusetts, are gutted by fire, leaving 10,000 people homeless and inflicting an estimated $10 million in property damages.

April 13 Religion: In a move to lighten up, the New England Methodist Episcopal Conference votes to lift a ban on dancing, card playing, and theater going.

April 20 Sports: Thomas P. Morrissey wins the 12th Boston Marathon with a time of two hours, 25 minutes, 43 seconds.

April 23 Military: Congress establishes the Army Medical Reserve Corps to support the standing force with a ready pool of medically trained personnel as needed.

April 25 Naval: The USS Chester is commissioned as the navy’s first turbine-powered vessel; it subsequently performs diplomatic functions.

April 27–October 31 Sports: The U.S. Olympic team wins 15 of 28 events in London, England, netting 23 gold medals.

April 30 Societal: A total of 267 towns in Massachusetts vote to impose prohibition, with Worcester, population 130,000, being the largest among them—76 saloons close and 2,000 people are put out of work.

May 1 Politics: The United Christian Party nominates Daniel B. Turney of Illinois for the presidency.

May 5 Diplomacy: The United States and Japan conclude a five-year arbitration agreement, during which period any issues between the two nations that cannot be resolved by diplomacy are to be referred to the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague. Sports: The 34th annual Kentucky Derby is won by Stone Street, who crosses the finish line at two minutes, 15 seconds.

May 10–17 Politics: The Socialist Party holds its national convention in Chicago, Illinois, nominating Eugene V. Debs of Indiana for president and Benjamin Hanford of New York for vice president. Societal: Grafton, West Virginia, holds the first formal observance of Mother’s Day.

May 11 Military: Congress approves of a military pay increase for the first time since 1876; the base pay of privates is set at $15.00 per month.

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Chronology of American History

May 13 Women: The U.S. Navy Nurse Corps recruits its “Sacred Twenty,” the first women to officially serve in that capacity; they are employed at the Naval Hospital in Washington, D.C.

May 13–15 Conservation: The governors of 44 states attend a conservation conference held at the White House, whereupon President Theodore Roosevelt declares that problems associated with crowded water routes cannot be separated from other issues surrounding natural resources. The issues are highlighted in a report issued by the Inland Waterways Commission.

May 14 Medical: The army adopts new fitness regulations requiring infantry officers to be capable of riding 30 miles a day on horseback for three days, coast artillery officers to walk 50 miles in three days, and all regimental officers to submit to an annual physical exam. Those individuals failing the exam are to be referred to a retirement board.

May 28 Labor: Congress enacts a law regulating child labor in the District of Columbia, with a view toward prompting similar legislation in the states.

May 30 Business: The Aldrich-Vreeland Act is passed by Congress, which allows banks to issue notes backed by bonds of state and local governments. It also establishes a National Monetary Commission to evaluate banking and currency systems at home and abroad. Sports: The 42nd annual Belmont Stakes is won by Colin; no time is recorded.

June 2 Sports: The 33rd annual Preakness Stakes is won by Royal Tourist, who finishes in one minute, 46 seconds.

June 8 Conservation: The National Conservation Commission is founded under the chief of the U.S. Forest Service, Gifford Pinchot. He is tasked with routine monitoring and reporting on water, timber, soil, and mineral resources for the first time on a systematic basis.

June 16–20 Politics: The Republican Party assembles in Chicago, Illinois, for its national convention. Because President Theodore Roosevelt, despite a buoyant national standing, declines to run for a third term, the party chooses William H. Taft of Ohio to succeed him. James S. Sherman of New York is chosen as Taft’s vice president. The party platform still reflects Roosevelt’s strong stance on antitrust action, conservation, and tariff reduction.

June 23 Diplomacy: The United States suspends diplomatic relations with Venezuela over that country’s refusal to pay compensation to American citizens injured during revolutionary activities there.

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Chronology

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June 24 General: Former president Grover Cleveland dies in Princeton, New Jersey, at the age of 71.

June 29 Religion: The Sapienti Consilio issued by Pope Pius X in Rome declares that the United States is no longer a region for missionary work.

July Sports: At the Olympic Games held in Paris, France, Ray C. Ewry of New York wins two gold medals for the standing high jump and the standing broad jump. This gives him a total of 10 such awards since 1900.

July 2– 4 Politics: The Socialist Labor Party gathers at New York City for its national convention and picks August Gillhaus of New York and Donald L. Munro for president and vice president, respectively. Their preferred candidate for the presidency, Martin R. Preston of Nevada, is currently incarcerated there on a murder charge.

July 7 Naval: The destroyer USS Decatur under Ensign Chester W. Nimitz runs aground at Batangas, Philippines; he is subsequently court-martialed and found guilty of “neglect of duty,” although allowed to remain on active duty without further recrimination.

July 7–10 Politics: The Democratic Party holds its national convention in Denver, Colorado, again choosing William Jennings Bryan for the presidency. John W. Kern becomes his vice presidential running mate. The party platform favors antimonopoly actions, tariff reductions, and a national income tax.

July 15–16 Politics: The Prohibition Party, encouraged by recent victories at the state level, meets in Columbus, Ohio, and chooses Eugene W. Chafin of Illinois for president and Aaron S. Watkins of Ohio for vice president.

July 20 Aviation: Signal Corps Dirigible No. 1 arrives at Fort Myer, Virginia.

July 27 Politics: The Independence Party convenes to nominate Thomas L. Hisgen of Massachusetts for president and John Temple Graves of Georgia for vice president. Temporary chairman of the event is none other than newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst.

July 30 Sports: An American car team reaches Paris and is declared the winner of the first around-the-world race. A team from Germany had actually arrived four days earlier, but they were penalized 30 days for shipping their cars by rail to Seattle, Washington.

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Chronology of American History

August 10 Agriculture: President Theodore Roosevelt announces creation of the Country Life Commission to take a closer look at rural life in the United States. Overall, farmers have largely overcome their traditional hardscrabble existence and are enjoying unprecedented prosperity and productivity.

August 12 Aviation: The Signal Corps begins testing Dirigible No. 1 at Fort Myer, Virginia.

August 15 Civil: Governor Charles S. Deneen declares martial law in Springfield, Illinois, after race riots result in the lynching of several African Americans. The attack was triggered when a white woman claimed to have been attacked and raped by a black man. Naval: Battleships USS Illinois and Rhode Island, along with the transport Prairie, are the first naval vessels to have onboard post offices.

August 20 Sports: President Theodore Roosevelt, an avid sportsman, personally invites the American car team that won the first around-the-world auto race to the White House.

August 24 Crimes: In Yellowstone National Park, a single bandit manages to hold up and accost 17 coaches on the road between the sites of Old Faithful and Thumb. His trick is to employ a well-placed bend in the road.

August 28 Sports: Fred McLeon wins the U.S. Open golf tournament.

August 29 Sports: The successful U.S. Olympic team, winner of 23 gold medals, is honored by public festivities in New York City.

September 3–17 Naval: Lieutenant George C. Sweet and Naval Constructor William McEntee are the first naval observers at Fort Myer, Virginia, where they evaluate the airplane trials of Wilbur and Orville Wright.

September 9 Aviation: Army lieutenant Frank P. Lahm becomes the nation’s first military airplane passenger when he accompanies Orville Wright on a test hop at Fort Myer, Virginia. Lahm subsequently becomes one of the original 24 aviators appointed by the army.

September 12 Aviation: A biplane flown by aeronautical pioneer Orville Wright stays aloft for one hour, 14 minutes, and 20 seconds, a new world’s record.

September 14 Business: General Motors is incorporated in Detroit, Michigan, at the behest of William C. Durant, director of the Buick Company, which becomes the conglomeration’s first acquisition. Unlike Henry Ford, who intends to concentrate on just one basic model, Durant intends diverse lines to appeal to as wide a clientele as possible.

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September 17 Aviation: The perils of new airplane technology are underscored when pioneering aeronaut Orville Wright crashes his machine at Fort Myer, Virginia, killing his passenger, Lieutenant Thomas W. Selfridge of the U.S. Army Signal Corps. This is the first recorded airplane fatality; the War Department will suspend additional flight testing until 1909.

September 21 Aviation: Undeterred by recent mishaps, Wilbur Wright establishes a new endurance record over Le Mans, France, by flying for 92 minutes.

October 1 Business: The United States and Great Britain agree to a two-cent postage rate between them. Transportation: Henry Ford makes automotive history by unveiling his famous Model T car (affectionately known as a “Flivver” or “Tin Lizzie”); priced at $850 and less expensive than most automobiles, it is still beyond the reach of most consumers. However, as Ford masters the latest techniques of mass production, prices will gradually fall to a more affordable $310 per unit by 1926. The age of mass motoring is rapidly becoming a practical reality, spurring the development of interstate highways and other new forms of commuting.

October 10–14 Sports: The Chicago Cubs (NL) take baseball’s fifth annual World Series by defeating the Detroit Tigers (AL) four games to one.

November 3 Politics: Republican William Howard Taft defeats Democrat William Jennings Bryan for the presidency, winning by 7.6 million popular votes to 6.4 million, with an Electoral College count of 321 to 162. James S. Sherman becomes vice president and the Republicans also control both chambers of Congress.

November 16 Music: Gifted conductor Arturo Toscanini makes his brilliant debut at the Metropolitan Opera House by conducting tenor Enrico Caruso in Verdi’s lavish production Aida.

November 17 Arts: Playwright Edward Sheldon begins his distinguished career with the staging of his play Salvation Nell at the Hackett Theater in New York City. It will run for 71 performances.

November 28 General: The Marianna coal mine in Monongahela, Pennsylvania, suffers an explosion and an internal collapse; over 100 miners are entombed in consequence.

November 30 Diplomacy: The United States and Japan sign the Root-Takahira Agreement, which extends trade concessions made to Japan in 1905 and requires both sides to respect the “Open Door” trade policy in China, along with China’s political independence. Moreover, they pledge to recognize the status quo as it exists in Asia, specifically in Korea and the Philippines.

1908

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Chronology of American History

December Societal: The Red Cross sells Christmas seal stamps to raise money for tuberculosis research and will ultimately pull in $135,000.

December 1 Naval: In Washington, D.C., Assistant Secretary of the Navy Truman H. Newberry is promoted to be the 39th secretary.

December 2 Religion: The Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America, which includes most Protestant denominations, is established at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. No less than 30 denominations are in attendance.

December 4 Naval: The United States, along with nine other naval powers, attends the London Naval Conference to clearly delineate the rules of naval warfare. The ensuing declaration will touch upon blockades, contraband, convoys, destruction of neutral prizes, and compensation for ships and materials illegally seized.

December 21 Politics: An elderly Andrew Carnegie testifies before Congress, imploring members to scale back tariffs and other protectionism. “Take back your protection,” he implored. “We are now men, and we can beat the world at the manufacture of steel.”

December 24 Societal: The Society for the Prevention of Vice prevails upon the mayor of New York City to revoke theater licenses unless the managers agree to abstain from presenting immoral films and also to stay closed on Sundays.

December 26 Sports: In Sydney, Australia, boxer Jack Johnson defeats Tommy Burns in the 14th round. He thus becomes the first African American to become world heavyweight champion—a fact that does not sit easily with race-conscious fight fans in the United States.

December 27 General: In Nyack, New York, doomsday prophet Lee J. Spangler and his followers await the end on a mountain while bedecked in white gowns made for the occasion.

1909 Architecture: Charles F. McKim of New York City wins this year’s AIA gold medal. Daniel H. Burnham proposes his “city beautiful” concept for Chicago, Illinois, which encompasses transportation, parks, and living space practically rendered around the metropolitan area. Arts: Mary Louise Cecilia Guinan commences her acting career by appearing in the musical The Gay Musician. Business: In its first year of operating as an efficient, modern corporation, General Motors corners 19 percent of the burgeoning automobile market, selling 25,000 vehicles and raking in $29 million.

1909

Chronology

Johnson, Jack

1601

(1878–1946)

African-American boxer John Arthur Johnson was born in Galveston, Texas, on March 31, 1878, a son of former slaves. While working as a stevedore at the Galveston shipyards he learned how to box from his workmates and subsequently defeated several of the toughest men in town in bare-­knuckle brawls. On February 25, 1901, a professional fight was arranged between Johnson and heavyweight boxer Joe Choynsky; Johnson lost but both men were jailed for violating a ban on fighting. While imprisoned for three weeks, Choyn-­ sky helped Johnson to continue honing his

skills. In time Johnson, standing over six feet tall and weighing 230 pounds, matured into a formidable fighter and from 1902 to 1908 he fought and won bouts around the country. However, prevailing public sentiment would not tolerate the notion of a black boxer, and it was not until December 26, 1908, that John-­ son was allowed into the ring with the white champion, Tommy Burns. Owing to racial sensitivities at home, the fight was staged at Sydney, Australia, and Johnson needed only three rounds to dispatch Burns. His celebrity as America’s first black heavyweight cham-­ (continues)

Jack Johnson and James Jeffries in the world Championship battle, July 4, 1910 (Library of Congress)

1909

1602

Chronology of American History

(continued) pion caused an outcry in sports circles, and the search began for a “great white hope” to put the defiant Johnson back in his place. At length the retired champion James J. Jeffries was coaxed out of retirement and squared off against Johnson in a celebrated match at Reno, Nevada, on July 4, 1910. Johnson completely dominated the fight, openly taunting his opponent before the match was called in the 14th round. This win resulted in a prize purse of $120,000 for Johnson along with the satisfaction of knowing he had successfully crossed the color line and defeated two white champions. It also resulted in a white backlash in favor of having boxing banned outright, along with an increased hostility to African Americans in general. Johnson was riding high but ever prone to controversy. His marriage to Etta Duryea, a white woman, in 1911 enraged public opinion. After her suicide a year later, he married another white woman, Lucille Cameron, in 1912 and was brought up on

charges of violating the 1910 Mann Act, forbidding the transportation of women across state lines for immoral purposes. Johnson was convicted by an all-white jury that year so he fled to Canada while appealing on bond. He subsequently made his way to Europe and performed exhibition fights for several years, all the while living and spending extravagantly. In 1915 Johnson accepted a challenge to fight Jess Willard in Havana, Cuba, where, older and out of shape, he was knocked down in 26 rounds. Johnson subsequently claimed he had been paid to deliberately throw the fight, which embroiled the sport in further turmoil. He remained exiled until 1920, when he surrendered to authorities and served a one-year sentence. After his release Johnson returned to the ring to fight professionally before finally retiring from the sport in 1921. He died in a car crash in Raleigh, North Carolina, on June 10, 1946. In his day, Johnson was easily the world’s best known and most controversial athlete.

Communication: The first wireless message is sent from New York City to Chicago. Indian: The “Last Great Indian Council,” so named by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, convenes among selected chiefs at the site of the Little Big Horn battle. The Four Mothers Society arises on Creek lands in Oklahoma to foster the preservation of traditional, communal ownership of land, and also to apply pressure on Congress to remove restrictions on the sale of allotments. Labor: The violence-prone Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or Wobblies) under William “Big Bill” Haywood, brings lumber production in Montana almost to a halt. Their enthusiasm for arson and sabotage continues to alarm more conservatively minded unions such as the American Federation of Labor (AFL). Literature: Jack London publishes his autobiographical novel Martin Eden, concerning a successful seaman who eventually commits suicide at sea. O. Henry pens two more collections, Roads of Destiny and Options. Media: Cartoonist Winsor McCay creates the first animated cartoon short, entitled Gertie the Dinosaur, which consists of 10,000 hand-drawn illustrations. It proves amazingly successful and provides a greater impetus for the embryonic animation industry. Photographer Lewis Hine delivers the lecture “Social Photography” and pleads that its imagery be used to stimulate social change and reform.

1909

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Medical: Congress bans the use or importation of opium, which continues to flourish around the world. Music: African-American composer W. C. Handy writes a campaign song for Tennessee politician Edward H. Crump, which subsequently becomes known as “Memphis Blues.” This is the first music recognized as “blues” and also the first time it is written down with notes. Freddy Keppard replaces “Buddy” Bolden as head of the Olympia Band, a leading New Orleans jazz ensemble. Celebrated Irish tenor John McCormack debuts in the United States to favorable reviews. Publishing: Reformist author Herbert D. Croly writes The Promise of American Life, concerning contemporary social problems. Sports: Yale wins the national college football championship with 10 wins, no losses, no ties. The University of Wisconsin at Lacrosse is the first college to adopt the name “Indians” for its sports team, setting a precedent soon followed by other institutions. Technology: Inventor Leo H. Baekeland refines the process of manufacturing bakelite, a thermosetting resin and a major advance in the manufacturing of plastics. Given its high electrical resistance, the substance will prove especially useful as insulation. Transportation: To date Henry Ford has manufactured 19,051 of his famous Model Ts. To concentrate on volume, an essential part of bringing unit prices down, Ford constructs only one model—available only in black. Women: Automobiles and women’s fashions converge as the “Outdoor Girl” look replaces the pale, dainty “Gibson girl” as the trend setter. Fashion designers are hard-pressed to design clothes that are shorter and less cumbersome for road use.

January 9 Diplomacy: The United States, eager to dispel any lingering resentment by Colombia, concludes three treaties by which the latter receives the first 10 annuity payments scheduled for Panama. In return, Panamanian independence is fully recognized. However, most Colombians will remain angered by the loss of Panama and the treaties will never be ratified.

January 11 Diplomacy: The United States and Great Britain conclude a treaty on boundary waters along the Canadian and U.S. border. Disputes that may arise will be referred to an International Joint Commission.

January 13 General: President Theodore Roosevelt, after hearing of army complaints about his executive order requiring heightened physical fitness requirements, rides horseback 100 miles across Virginia to underscore his point.

January 22 Conservation: President Theodore Roosevelt addresses Congress on the issue of national conservation and urges members to create federal agencies to safeguard the nation’s natural resources.

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January 27 Diplomacy: The United States and Great Britain agree to submit their simmering dispute over the Newfoundland fisheries to the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague. Naval: The Commission on Naval Reorganization is formed by President Theodore Roosevelt, which advocates breaking up the Navy Department into five divisions, the heads of which would constitute a military council to advise the secretary of the navy. The plan will never be adopted by Congress but does highlight the trend toward administrative reform in the services. Politics: President Theodore Roosevelt appoints Robert Bacon to succeed Elihu Root as the new secretary of state.

January 28 Diplomacy: The United States withdraws its last allotment of troops from Cuba following the election of President Miguel Gomez, which signals the restoration of civil authority.

February 8 General: Napoléon’s death mask, which had been missing since the Civil War, finally returns to the Louisiana State Museum.

February 9 Medical: Congress outlaws possession of opium for anything but medicinal purposes.

February 12 Civil: A gathering of 60 African-American and white leaders calls for a national conference on the status of blacks in America. General: An estimated one million New Yorkers attend ceremonies marking the 100th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday; the public is harangued by noted speakers such as Booker T. Washington and Mayor George B. McClellan, son of the Civil War general. Sports: In New York City, a fox terrier named Charles Warren Remedy wins the coveted Westminster Kennel Club award for the third year in a row.

February 19 Settlement: Congress allows certain western states to double the maximum standard homestead area to 320 acres to facilitate sales.

February 21–22 Naval: The Great White Fleet under Admiral Charles Sperry (Commodore Robley “Fighting Bob” Evans being ill) returns to Hampton Roads, Virginia, after circumnavigating the globe in 46,000 miles. The fleet is reviewed by President Theodore Roosevelt from aboard the presidential yacht Mayflower. His carefully choreographed parade by 16 new battleships favorably impresses host nations with American power, Japan in particular, but also highlights to U.S. Navy planners the acute need for additional coaling stations worldwide. The trip also illustrates a pressing need for various vessels like destroyers and cruisers to support the capital ships.

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March Aviation: The Glenn H. Curtiss Motor Works at Hammondsport, New York, becomes part of the Herring-Curtiss Company. This year they will go on to sell what is probably the first commercially available aircraft to the New York Aeronautical Society. The price is $5,000.

Curtiss, Glenn Hammond

(1878–1930)

Aviator Glenn Hammond Curtiss was born in Hammondsport, New York, on May 21, 1878, the son of a harness maker. He worked as a telegraph messenger and with the Eastman Kodak Company in Rochester, New York, before returning home to open up a bicycle shop. Curtiss became interested in racing, won several trophies, and parlayed his newfound interest in speed into designing and constructing motorcycles. He set several records at Ormond Beach, Florida, in 1907, and gradually expanded his burgeoning interest in the new field of aeronautics. His first experience came in developing an engine for the dirigible California Arrow, which won a prize at the St. Louis’s Louisiana Purchase Exposition in 1904, and a year later he designed and constructed Dirigible No. 1 for the U.S. Army. Shortly afterward his efforts came to the attention of Alexander Graham Bell, founder of the Aerial Experiment Association, and in 1907 Bell appointed Curtiss director of the association’s laboratory at Hammondsport. In this capacity Curtiss built his first airplane, the June Bug, in 1908, winning the Scientific American Trophy for the first public flight of more than a kilometer. In 1909 he represented the Aero Club of America in a 25-mile race and won the trophy a second time, and also took the Prix de la Vitesse at the First International Aviation Meet in France. A year later Curtiss conducted a nonstop flight from Albany to New York, winning his third Scientific American prize and $10,000 from the New York World. By this time Curtiss was

weighing the potential for aircraft operating off bodies of water, and in 1909 he installed pontoon floats on the June Bug, renamed it the Loon, and successfully took off and landed at San Diego. Two years later Curtiss took home the Collier Trophy for demonstrating the first viable seaplane, and he also won a costly lawsuit with the Wright brothers over his invention of the aileron to assist airplanes in turning. In 1913 he also won the Smithsonian Institution Langley Prize for his successful work in pioneering hydroplanes. The onset of World War I witnessed a dramatic expansion of the American aviation industry, and Curtiss quickly emerged as the nation’s largest airplane manufacturer. His greatest contribution to the war effort were his JN training planes, the beloved Jenny, of which 5,000 were constructed. Curtiss also constructed innumerable flying boats for the U.S. Navy and Royal Navy, which proved decisive in helping to eliminate the U-boat threat. After the war three Curtiss NC flying boats became the first aircraft to successfully cross the Atlantic Ocean. Curtiss himself was growing less interested in aviation by this time and dabbled in other ventures, especially real estate in Florida, various experimental automobiles, and a streamlined mobile trailer. In 1929 the Curtiss Company merged with the rival Wright Aeronautical Company to form the Curtiss-Wright Company, in which Curtiss served as director. He died while serving in that capacity on July 23, 1930, a leading aeronaut and aviation pioneer.

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March 3 Military: Congress orders a complete investigation of the August 1906 shooting “incident” at Brownsville, Texas, suspecting that racism may have played a part in the dismissal of three companies of the primarily African-American 25th U.S. Infantry. Most of the soldiers are subsequently reinstated and allowed to return to their unit. Naval: Congress thwarts an attempt by President Theodore Roosevelt to transfer Marine Corps personnel from ships to shore by mandating that 8 percent of all ship complements consist of naval infantry.

March 4 Conservation: The Lacey Act is enacted by Congress, which is designed for the purpose of protecting bird life by supporting existing state laws against indiscriminate hunting and killing. This has become essential, given the increasing popularity of feathers as a fashion item. Politics: William Howard Taft, a portly man weighing over 300 pounds, is inaugurated as the 27th president of the United States; James S. Sherman is sworn in as his vice president. Taft, by nature a plodding, meticulous law-

Taft, William Howard (1857–1930) President William Howard Taft was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on September 15, 1857, part of a socially prominent family. He passed through Yale University with honors in 1878, attended the Cincinnati Law School, and opened a successful practice. Taft also became active in Republican Party circles, and in 1882 President Chester A. Arthur appointed him district collector of internal revenue. Five years later he served as a judge on the state superior court and in 1890 President Benjamin Harrison made him solicitor general before the U.S. Supreme Court. Taft handled himself adroitly in legal matters and a year later gained appointment as a federal judge. In this capacity he was the first federal jurist to declare that workers have a right to strike, while also making clear his ambition to sit on the Supreme Court himself one day. However, in 1901 President William McKinley made him the first civilian governor of the newly acquired Philippine Islands and, once more, Taft dis-

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William Howard Taft (Library of Congress)

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yer, represents a radical departure from the hard-charging dynamism of his predecessor.

March 5 Politics: President William Howard Taft appoints Chase Knox to succeed Robert Bacon as secretary of state; he is a former corporate lawyer who, like Taft, will become closely identified with the crafting of “Dollar Diplomacy” to advance American business interests abroad.

March 6 Naval: In Washington, D.C., George von Lengerhe Meyer is appointed the 40th secretary of the navy.

March 7 General: The California legislature designates this day as Arbor Day in honor of the great horticulturist, Luther Burbank.

March 12 Military: President William Howard Taft appoints Jacob McGavock to serve as his secretary of war.

tinguished himself in all legal and administrative matters. He also thoroughly enjoyed himself, so much so that he declined invitations from President Theodore Roosevelt to serve as a Supreme Court justice. Taft returned home in 1904 to serve as Roosevelt’s secretary of war and one of his most trusted political advisers. Roosevelt was so impressed by Taft’s legal and political acumen that he arranged for Taft to receive the Republican Party’s presidential nomination in 1908. Taft, basking in the glow of Roosevelt’s highly successful administration, easily defeated Democrat William Jennings Bryan and gained the White House. Taft’s ensuing tenure in office proved productive, but also extremely unhappy for him. Quiet and circumspect, he was the complete opposite of Roosevelt’s pit bull persona when it came to political fighting, and he shunned confrontation in favor of consensus. He also closely allied himself with conservative Speaker of the House Joseph Cannon, which angered many of the more progressive members of his party.

Taft did manage to pass laws allowing for the direct election of U.S. senators, implementing income taxes, and overhauling the postal system, but Republicans fractured over the issue of tariffs. When Taft supported higher rates, Roosevelt accused him of selling out to business and challenged him for the party nomination. When Taft prevailed, Roosevelt ran as a third party “Bull Moose” candidate, spilt the electorate, and thus allowed Democrat Woodrow Wilson to win the election. He thereupon left politics to serve as president of the American Bar Association until President Warren G. Harding fulfilled his lifelong ambition by appointing him chief justice of the Supreme Court. He enjoyed a very fruitful, productive tenure on the bench, displaying considerable judicial flair, and died in that capacity on March 8, 1930. Taft, a towering figure weighing over 300 pounds, was also the largest man to ever occupy the White House. He proved less than a decisive chief executive but his various accomplishments were significant.

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March 15 Arts: William Vaughn Moody’s play Faith Healer opens in St. Louis and is about a roving mystic who loses his power in a midwest community after he falls in love.

March 23 Science: Former president Theodore Roosevelt departs on a year-long expedition to Africa, which will result in the collection of 3,000 specimens of large game for the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum. He has received an advance of $50,000 from Scribner’s Magazine for recounting his experiences.

March 27 Civil: When 15 African Americans are forced out of a town adjacent to Hickory Ground, Oklahoma, they relocate to that locale, only to be accused of stealing from local white families. Police are called in to arrest the trespassers, fighting ensues, and 15 people are killed. Creek leader Chitto Harjo, leader of the Crazy Snake movement, is accused by white authorities of inciting the violence, but when authorities try to arrest him another gun battle breaks out and he flees to parts unknown.

March 30 Engineering: The Queensboro Bridge, a cantilever-designed structure, opens over the East River in New York City, further connecting Manhattan Island to the other boroughs.

April 1 Diplomacy: The United States withdraws its armed forces from Cuba once President José Miguel Gomez is functioning in office.

Peary, Robert

(1856–1920)

Explorer Robert Peary was born in Cresson, Pennsylvania, on May 6, 1856, and he obtained a degree in civil engineering from Bowdoin College in 1876. Three years later he joined the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Service, served five years, then transferred to the U.S. Navy as a civil engineer in 1881. Peary was subsequently tasked with surveying a proposed Atlantic-Pacific canal through Nicaragua, 1884–86; he handled his charge competently, but nothing became of the project. Meanwhile, he had become fascinated by reading literature about the Arctic, then a largely unexplored region, and he began pressing superiors for an expedition into the heart of Greenland. In 1891 Peary conducted his first foray northward and over

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the ensuing 18 months sledded across the snowy wilderness of what became known as Peary Land. He returned with much useful scientific information but remained obsessed in becoming the first man to physically reach the North Pole. Peary’s daring made him something of a national celebrity, and in 1893–95, 1896, and 1897 he conducted three more expeditions to Greenland, each time venturing farther north. On one occasion he returned to the United States with two large meteorites that he had uncovered, and in 1898 he published his account in the book Northward Over the “Great Ice.” Back home Peary convinced superiors to let him try again and that year he obtained a five-year leave from

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April 6 Science: After 36 days in a howling wilderness, Admiral Robert Edwin Peary reaches 90 degrees north—the North Pole—for the first time; he is accompanied by four Inuit and Matthew Henson, his African-American assistant. Once there he raises the American flag and claims the region for the United States—something that will never be acted upon. Unknown to the admiral at the time, Dr. Frederick A. Cook reached the same spot a year earlier and their dispute will remain a source of scientific contention for decades. In the course of seven expeditions to the far north, Peary has lost all but two toes to frostbite.

April 9 Politics: Congress passes the protectionist Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act. Although it does reduce rates, to an average of 38 percent, the move greatly angers and alienates progressives like Senator Robert La Follette of Wisconsin, who pronounces the deal a “sell out” to big business. Republicans of his persuasion begin casting about for a better presidential candidate for 1912.

April 19 Sports: Henri Renaud wins the 13th Boston Marathon by crossing the line at two hours, 53 minutes, 36 seconds.

May 3 Journalism: A wireless telegraphic press message is sent from New York and received in Chicago for the first time. The rise of instantaneous communication

the navy to reach the North Pole. Between 1898 and 1902 he tried and failed several times to attain his objective, although each time gradually inching closer to success. Back home Peary parlayed his celebrity into raising money for future expeditions; assisted by the Peary Arctic Club, he had the specially constructed icebreaker Roosevelt outfitted for the harsh environment to try again. Then he doggedly steamed and sailed to within 175 miles of his quest, only to be turned back by horrendous weather conditions. Undeterred by defeat, Peary published his book Nearest the Pole in 1907 and the following year prepared for his final maximum effort. He proceeded with 24 men, 19 sleds, and 133 dogs, yet took only four Inuit and African-American Matthew

A. Henson to the Pole, which he finally reached on April 6, 1909. However, after returning home Peary learned that Dr. Frederick Cook, who had accompanied him in 1891, claimed to have reached the pole a year earlier. A contentious and acrimonious debate ensued, but in the end Peary’s claim was officially recognized. In 1910 he published The North Pole and received both the thanks of Congress and, a year later, promotion to rear admiral (retired). Peary subsequently championed air power and in 1918 he organized the National Aerial Patrol Commission while also chairing the National Committee on Coast Defense by Air. This intrepid explorer, who lost several toes to frostbite pursuing his dream, died in Washington, D.C., on February 20, 1920.

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Chronology of American History makes the transmittal of news much easier for the news-hungry public, thereby fueling the growth of newspapers and news agencies. Sports: The 35th annual Kentucky Derby is won by Wintergreen with a time of two minutes, eight seconds.

May 12 Sports: The 34th annual Preakness Stakes is won by Effendi, who races to the finish in one minute, 39 seconds.

May 22 Settlement: President William Howard Taft opens 700,000 acres of virgin land in Idaho, Montana, and Washington to new settlement.

May 24 Diplomacy: Secretary of State Chase Knox, acting upon the advice of the State Department Far Eastern Division adviser, Willard Straight, agrees to encourage American businessmen to increase their investments in China, particularly respecting railroad development. This is an early manifestation of President William Howard Taft’s “dollar diplomacy.”

May 26 Aviation: At Fort Myer, Virginia, Dirigible No. 1 successfully makes its first flight test.

June 1 Civil: The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is founded by W. E. B. DuBois as a counterweight to the more conciliatory policies of Booker T. Washington. DuBois, educated at Harvard, is demanding equality and equal opportunity for African Americans as soon as possible. He intends to act vigorously through moral suasion and the courts. General: The Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition is opened at Seattle, Washington, by President William Howard Taft in Washington, D.C., where he presses a telegraph key fashioned to look like a gold nugget.

June 2 Sports: The 43rd annual Belmont Stakes is won by Joe Madden, who finishes in two minutes, 21 seconds.

June 11 Military: Chinese student Ting Chia is among 103 cadets who graduate from the U.S. Military Academy, class of 1909. George S. Patton will be another distinguished alumnus.

June 25 Sports: George Sargent wins the U.S. Open golf tournament.

June 27 Sports: The U.S. Lawn Tennis Association singles championships are won by William A. Larned and Hazel Hotchkiss in their respective divisions.

July 12 Politics: The Sixteenth Amendment is approved by Congress to authorize an income tax, and the amendment passes to the states for ratification. It will not be accepted until 1913.

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July 15 Diplomacy: President William Howard Taft, eager to maintain the balance of power in China to safeguard American interests there, approaches the Chinese government with the aim of allowing U.S. banks to participate in its national railroad development. This becomes part of a broader program known as “Dollar Diplomacy.”

July 27 Aviation: After a year’s suspension, Orville Wright takes up a modified airplane and sets a new endurance record of one hour, one minute, and 40 seconds. He does so while flying with a passenger, another first.

August 2 Aviation: After observing several flights, a skeptical U.S. Army acquires its first airplane—a Wright Flyer—by purchasing it from the Wright brothers. The builders earn a $5,000 bonus by flying their machine at 42.5 miles per hour—2.5 miles faster than stipulated in the contract. Business: The Philadelphia Mint begins issuing the Lincoln penny, designed by Victor D. Brenner, which replaces the half-century-old Indian-head penny.

August 5 Politics: President William H. Taft signs the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act, which makes some minor reductions but otherwise accomplishes little.

August 6 Women: An automobile driven by Alice Huyler Ramsey, president of the Women’s Motoring Club of New York, tears into San Francisco, California, after a twomonth sojourn from New York. She is accompanied by three female companions to underscore the growing mobility of the alleged weaker sex.

August 16 Aviation: An increasingly aerial-minded Navy Bureau of Equipment seeks authority from the secretary of the navy to purchase two “heavier than air flying machines,” but the secretary demurs, claiming that the service has no use for them at this time.

August 26 Conservation: Charles W. Eliot presides over the first National Conservation Congress in Seattle, Washington, which has attracted delegates from 37 states.

September 1 Science: In a major scientific altercation, Dr. Frederick Cook of Brooklyn, New York, insists that he reached the North Pole on April 21, 1908, beating out Admiral Robert E. Peary by nearly a year.

September 2 Women: In Peru, climber Annie Peck Smith becomes the first person to scale Mount Huascarán, highest peak in that nation.

September 4 Arts: Winchell Smith’s play The Fortune Hunter opens in New York City, commencing his career as a dramatic caricaturist.

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September 10 Medical: Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, hosts neurologist Sigmund Freud and his devoted disciple Carl Jung in a series of lectures about psychoanalytic theory.

September 27 Conservation: Like his predecessor, President William Howard Taft remains committed to national conservation and orders three million acres of oil-bearing land set aside as a national preserve. This includes Teapot Dome, Wyoming, which will become a byword for political scandal.

October 8–16 Sports: The Pittsburgh Pirates win baseball’s sixth annual World Series by edging out the Detroit Tigers (American League) four games to three.

October 26 Aviation: Lieutenant Frank E. Humphreys, having been tutored by Wilbur Wright, is the first U.S. Army officer to complete a solo flight at College Park, Maryland, and he subsequently conducts several flights in concert with another early aviator, Frank P. Lahm. However, the nation will be slow to realize the military application of airplanes.

November 5 Aviation: At College Park, Maryland, Lieutenant George C. Sweet becomes the first naval officer to fly when he accompanies army pilot, Lieutenant Frank P. Lahm, aloft as a passenger.

November 6 Diplomacy: In another example of “dollar diplomacy,” designed to counteract growing Japanese influence in China, the United States offers to help finance the construction of railroads in Manchuria. However, the bid fails to gain approval from either Japan or Russia. Furthermore, Great Britain, closely allied to Japan in Asia, does not want to upset their cozy relationship. Thus the attempt at internationalizing Manchuria’s railroads will fail.

November 11 Music: Celebrated Russian pianist Sergei Rachmaninoff makes his American debut at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts.

November 12 Societal: Statistics collected by government agencies point to rises in the cost of living along with a decline in overall family size—proof that the two are not mutually exclusive.

November 13 General: An explosion in the St. Paul Mine at Cherry, Illinois, kills 259 miners, further underscoring the need for improved safety measures and technology.

November 18–December 16 Diplomacy: After the Nicaraguan regime of liberal president José Santos Zelaya executes 500 conservative rebels, including two Americans, President William Howard Taft dispatches a force of warships and marines to the region in protest.

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November 22 Business: In Dayton, Ohio, the Wright Company takes form with a $1 million capitalization from banker Augustus Belmont; with interest in aviation on the rise, they intend to build and sell aircraft directly to the military—and the public.

December 1 Diplomacy: After the Zelaya dictatorship in Nicaragua executes two Americans involved in a rebellion against the government, the State Department orders the Nicaraguan minister in Washington, D.C., to leave the country. Naval: A new administrative scheme is adopted by the Navy Department, with four new bureaus to administer fleet operations, materiel, inspections, and personnel. Moreover, the head of each division will report directly to the secretary of the navy in an advisory capacity. Bureau chiefs are restricted to eight years in office.

December 2 Business: Financier J. Pierpont Morgan enlarges his fiscal empire by acquiring the Equitable Life Assurance Company, along with its banks. His disclosed resources are reported as $2 billion, but his actual worth as head of several interlocking corporations and banks is 10 times that.

December 16 Diplomacy: American aid helps rid Nicaragua of the José S. Zelaya dictatorship, thereby setting the stage for additional “dollar diplomacy” in Central America.

December 18 Naval: To underscore its displeasure with the revolutionary regime of Nicaraguan dictator José S. Zelaya, U.S. Marines are sent to that beleaguered nation aboard the transport Buffalo, although Zelaya will resign from power before they land.

December 31 Engineering: The Manhattan Bridge, a suspension-type structure, opens over New York City’s East River as the fourth span into the island of Manhattan.

1910 Arts: The New Palace Theater, the first entertainment establishment catering entirely to African Americans, opens in the Harlem district of New York City. The Stieglitz Photo Session Gallery in New York City showcases a collection of art by the rising generation of American artists, including Max Weber, John Marin, Gaston Lachaise, and others. Aviation: Los Angeles, California, hosts the nation’s first aviation meet, and a crowd of up to 50,000 people watch in amazement as aeronautical pioneers Louis Paulham of France and Glenn H. Curtiss break several air speed records. Business: Scientific methods to create more efficient management and production are advocated by Frederick W. Taylor in his pamphlets A Piece Rate System and Shop Management. The concept of “Taylorization” becomes synonymous with modernization in business practices. Education: Johns Hopkins University is singled out in a report on medical education as the only American institution to achieve parity with its European counterparts.

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Chronology of American History General: Andrew Carnegie funds his Carnegie Endowment for International Peace with a $10 million donation. Literature: In London, Idaho poet Erza Pound begins his celebrated career as the leading spokesman for the new imagist movement with the appearance of his book of essays entitled The Spirit of Romance. Florence Barclay pens her novel The Rosary, which sells 500,000 copies. O. Henry publishes his last collected works, Whirligigs and Strictly Business, before dying. Medical: Educator Abraham Flexner, writing for the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, publishes his Medical Education in the United States and Canada, which exposes inferior standards and methods in 155 medical schools nationwide; consequently half of those mentioned either close or embark on reforms. Music: Self-taught musician Carrie Jacobs Bond composes one of her most successful compositions, “A Perfect Day.” Population: The latest census reveals a population of nearly 92 million people, with the center of population at Bloomington, Indiana. However, due to the rapid influx of poor immigrants, only half the populace has a high school diploma or its equivalent. Publishing: Pioneering social activist Jane Addams publishes Twenty Years of Hull House, a detailed and humorous account of her intense devotion to serving Chicago’s poor; it will go on to be a best-seller. Religion: The publication of a small pamphlet entitled The Fundamentals: A Testimony of Truth kindles the modern fundamentalist movement in American religion. It proffers five basic doctrinal points, or “truths,” regarding Christianity: scriptural accuracy, the Virgin Birth, Christ’s resurrection, vicarious atonement, and the Second Coming. Science: Physicist Robert Millikan of the University of Chicago discovers that electrons carry a negative charge and that the charge is constant. This confirms a basic belief of modern physics and advances human understanding of that intricate field. Societal: Greater access to public education results in an illiteracy rate of 7.7 percent, down three points from the turn of the century. New York City claims 540,000 Jews of varied European and Middle Eastern ancestry, making it the center of American Jewry. German Jews, who have been in the country longer, tend to frown upon the new arrivals from eastern Europe. Sports: Harvard wins the national college football championship with eight wins, no losses, one tie. F. R. Steel sets a record for the largest fish ever caught by a rod and reel when he hauls in an 83-pound salmon from the Umpqua River, Oregon. Barney Oldfield, driving an imported Benz automobile, sets a land speed record of 133 miles per hour at Daytona Beach, Florida. Transportation: Pennsylvania Station in New York City, designed after the Tepidarium of the Baths of Caracalla in Rome, opens to the public.

January Business: In a move to compete against automotive giant General Motors, Benjamin Briscoe founds the United States Motor Company to manufacture Maxwell automobiles.

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January 4 Naval: The new battleship USS Michigan is commissioned, representing the newest and most modern warship of its class. Unlike earlier vessels, this displaces 16,000 tons, carries a main armament of 12 eight-inch guns, and is an answer to the revolutionary HMS Dreadnought, the first modern battlewagon, launched by the Royal Navy in 1906.

January 7 Conservation: A political squabble erupts between Secretary of the Interior Richard A. Ballinger and the head of the Forest Service, Gifford Pinchot, when Pinchot accuses the former of giving away protected land to big business. President William Howard Taft will then dismiss Gifford, a political ally of former president Theodore Roosevelt, and his administration will be attacked in the press.

January 13 Communication: The Metropolitan Opera House is rigged with microphones to allow a live broadcast of Enrico Caruso singing excepts from I Pagliacci and Cavalleria Rusticana.

February 10 Societal: Publisher William D. Boyce establishes the Boy Scouts of America in Washington, D.C., which had earlier been founded in Great Britain. The United States is the 12th nation to open a chapter of this growing organization.

February 28 Arts: The graceful and talented Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova makes her American debut at the American Opera House.

March 2 Aviation: Lieutenant Benjamin D. Foulois becomes the first military aviator to fly west of the Mississippi River when he performs a solo flight over Fort Sam Houston, Texas. He does so after being told by superiors to teach himself how to fly!

March 17 Societal: The Camp Fire Girls is established at Lake Sebago, Maine, by educators Luther Halsey Gulick and other concerned parties.

March 19 Politics: In a move to break the power of Speaker of the House Joseph G. Cannon of Illinois, a combination of Democrats and insurgent Republicans under Nebraska progressive George W. Norris votes to have members to the Committee on Rules elected by the main body, rather than chosen by the speaker. Henceforth, the speaker is ruled ineligible to serve on this committee.

March 26 Politics: The Immigration Act of 1907 is amended so that paupers, criminals, anarchists, and diseased people are no longer eligible for admittance to the United States.

April 18 Women: Congress is besieged by suffragettes and receives a petition signed by 500,000 women demanding the right to votes; Congress declines to take action at this time.

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April 19 Sports: Fred L. Cameron wins the 14th Boston Marathon by finishing in two hours, 28 minutes, 52 seconds.

April 21 General: Mark Twain, who was born during an earlier appearance of Halley’s Comet, dies on this day during its scheduled return, aged 74 years. In a typically ironic twist, Twain had predicted his passing on this exact occasion.

April 22 Military: General Leonard Wood, a progressive reformer, gains appointment as the new army chief of staff.

April 23 General: An unexpected cold snap in the Midwest damages $30 million of crops and property.

April 25 Law: Governor Charles Evans Hughes of New York is appointed an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court by President William Howard Taft.

May 1 Civil: The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is finalized in New York City by African-American social activist W. E. B. DuBois; the remainder of its board—Jane Addams, John Dewey, and John E. Milholland—are white. The organization is partly financed by millionaire philanthropist Andrew Carnegie.

May 7 Sports: The 35th Preakness Stakes is won by Layminister, who completes the course in one minute, 40 seconds.

May 10 Sports: The 36th annual Kentucky Derby is won by Donau with a time of two minutes, six seconds.

May 11 Conservation: Congress creates Glacier National Park in Montana.

May 16 Politics: Responding to a recent rash of deadly accidents, Congress authorizes creation of the Bureau of Mines under Dr. Joseph Austin Holmes as a division of the Department of the Interior. Its purpose is to concoct and issue official regulations for the operation of mines, among the world’s most hazardous work sites.

May 18 General: Planet Earth holds its collective breath as it passes through the tail of the oncoming Halley’s Comet. Nothing unusual happens, but tremendous fear induces miners to refuse to work underground this day, while other families hide in shelters awaiting the worst.

May 19 Naval: U.S. Marines from the gunboats USS Paducah and Dubuque land at Bluefields, Nicaragua, to protect American lives and property from violence arising from a battle between government troops and local rebels.

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May 30 Sports: The 44th Belmont Stakes is won by Sweep, who crosses the finish line in two minutes, 22 seconds.

June Indian: Congress passes the Omnibus Act, which updates the 1906 Burke Act and establishes “competency commissions” to gauge if Native-American allotment owners are capable of selling their own holdings. Military: The U.S. Army accepts delivery of its first aluminum canteens and a cup featuring a folding handle.

June 18 General: Former president Theodore Roosevelt leaves the United States for a trip to Europe where he reviews the German kaiser’s troops and also lectures at the Sorbonne and Oxford. Business: The Mann-Elkins Act passes Congress at the behest of President William Howard Taft; it is intended to bring railroad, telegraph, and telephone companies under the purview of the law. It establishes a special Commerce Court of five judges who will hear complaints and appeals of the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), which is empowered to suspend rate hikes for 10 months while investigating specific companies. The commission is also empowered to levy charges directly against offenders without waiting for the attorney general to begin legal action. Sports: Alex Smith wins the U.S. Open golf tournament.

June 19 Societal: Spokane, Washington, is the first American city to celebrate Father’s Day, at the behest of the Ministerial Association and the YMCA. Former president Theodore Roosevelt, returning from his year-long trek into deepest, darkest Africa, receives a hero’s welcome in New York City. While on safari he reportedly bagged some 3,000 specimens for the Museum of Natural History. The enthusiastic hunter plans a book to delineate his exciting adventures abroad.

June 20 Settlement: Congress authorizes the territories of New Mexico and Arizona to commence forming state governments in order to join the Union.

June 24 Communication: Congress requires that all vessels leaving the United States be equipped with radio equipment.

June 25 Business: A postal savings system is founded by Congress at the behest of President William Howard Taft, whereby depositors are offered a 2 percent interest rate. The system endures until 1967. Politics: The Publicity Act is adopted by Congress whereby all members are to report campaign contributions received. Women: Congress adopts the Mann Act, which precludes immigration by European women (“white slaves”) to work in American bordellos. The act also forbids women from crossing state lines for “immoral purposes.”

June 26 Sports: The U.S. Lawn Tennis Association singles championships are won by William A. Learned and Hazel Hotchkiss in their respective divisions.

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June 30 Aviation: Aeronautical pioneer Glenn Curtiss conducts history’s first aerial bombing test by dropping several dummy weapons on Keuka Lake, New York. His target is a series of flagged buoys laid out in the general shape of a battleship and 15 of his 17 projectiles score “hits.” Several admirals observing the proceedings remain unimpressed and dismiss any potential threat to capital warships.

July 2 Exploring: Oscar Tamm is the first person to drive across the Arctic in an automobile.

July 4 Law: Chief Justice Melville Weston Fuller of the U.S. Supreme Court dies. President William Howard Taft replaces him with Associate Justice Edward Douglas White, marking the first time an associate justice has been elevated to chief justice. Sports: Heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson, an African American, successfully defends his title by knocking down an older and out of shape, white former champion, Jim Jeffries, in 15 rounds. The failure of this latest “Great White Hope” to beat Johnson sets off a wave of recrimination and violence against blacks nationwide.

July 11 Business: In the skies over Columbus, Ohio, Phil Parmelee flies an airplane towing a 500-yard-long silk banner to promote a local department store. Naval: The submarine USS Bonita accidentally collides with the gunboat Castine off Provincetown, Massachusetts, in the first recorded underwater accident. Bonita escapes without damage, but the Castine is hurriedly beached to prevent sinking.

July 11 Aviation: At Sheepshead Bay, New York, Lieutenant Jacob E. Fickel fires a 1903 Springfield rifle from an airplane for the first time, presaging the advent of aerial warfare.

July 12 Aviation: Aeronaut Glenn H. Curtiss, in order to demonstrate the viability of aerial bombardment, drops several oranges onto a ship below his airplane. Diplomacy: American delegates attend the Fourth International Conference of American States in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where conventions on copyrights and inventions will be passed.

July 20 Media: The Christian Endeavor Society of Missouri begins a campaign to ban all motion pictures that depict kissing between couples who are not married.

August 31 Politics: Former president Theodore Roosevelt embarks on a 5,000-mile, 16state speaking tour to drum up support for progressive causes. He begins with a famous New Nationalism speech at Osawatomie, Wisconsin, in which he expounds upon the “new nationalism” and announces his famous “square deal.” However, the net result of his tour will be to drive a deeper wedge between himself and mainstream Republicans under President William Howard Taft. It is

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little appreciated at the time that Taft’s record on progressive legislation is both impressive and admirable.

September Aviation: The Boston-Harvard air meet is won by Englishman Claude GrahamWhite, who finishes the 33-mile course first and taker home the $10,000 prize.

September 2 Aviation: At Hammondsport, New York, Blanche Stuart accompanies a Curtiss biplane aloft, becoming the first American woman to fly in an airplane.

September 7 Diplomacy: The International Court of Arbitration at The Hague decides the issue of the Newfoundland Fisheries in favor of the United States, and grants it the right to purchase water and bait in Newfoundland. A commission is also founded to settle additional disputes with Great Britain over fishing.

September 10 Arts: Playwright George M. Cohan successfully debuts his satirical play Get-RichQuick Wallingford, concerning America’s overweening ambition for success.

September 20 Diplomacy: Secretary of State Chase Knox, eager to thwart Japan’s railroad monopoly in Manchuria, agrees to float a sizable developmental loan to the Chinese government. However, the loan is never issued owing to intense opposition from Japan, and the indifference of Russia, France, and Great Britain.

October 1 Journalism: Offices of the Los Angeles Times are blown up by the McNamara brothers after the management favors the open shop; 20 people are killed and 17 injured. No less than 38 workers associated with the International Association of Bridge and Structural Iron Workers are subsequently convicted.

October 3 Arts: The Fred Karno comedy troupe premieres the play The Wow-Wows at the Colonial Theater in New York City. Critics pan the effort but do favorably comment on the pantomime skills of British comedian Charles Chaplin.

October 17–23 Sports: The Philadelphia Athletics (AL) win baseball’s seventh annual World Series by defeating the Chicago Cubs (NL) four games to one.

October 18 Aviation: Commander Walter Wellman loses control of the 228-foot-long dirigible America during its first attempt to fly across the Atlantic, and it crashes off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. The crew is rescued by a passing British steamer yet has the satisfaction of having established a new, 71 hour, 1,000-mile duration record.

October 22–30 Naval: Captain Washington Irving Chambers, a former battleship commander, attends the International Air Meet at Belmont Park, New York. Singularly impressed by the military potential of what he beholds, Chambers will become a staunch advocate of naval aviation at a time when such views are held as heretical by the naval establishment.

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October 24 Arts: Victor Herbert’s operetta Naughty Marietta debuts in Syracuse, New York, and success here will result in a Broadway performance the following month.

October 26 Aviation: Aeronautical pioneer Ralph Johnson flies his Bleriot airplane to 9,714 feet over Long Island, establishing a new altitude record.

November 8 Politics: Mid-term elections restore Democratic control of the House of Representatives for the first time since 1894. Among the numerous victors are Victor L. Berger of Wisconsin, the first socialist to win a seat, a young state senator from Duchess County, New York, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and a new governor of New Jersey, Woodrow Wilson. Oregon adopts a presidential preferential primary while women’s suffrage advances in Washington State.

November 14 Aviation: A Curtiss biplane piloted by civilian Eugene Ely flies from a wooden platform erected on the aft deck of the cruiser USS Birmingham off Hampton Roads, Virginia; this is the first time an aircraft has been launched from a warship.

December 10 Arts: Giacomo Puccini’s opera La Fanciulla del West, based upon David Belasco’s 1905 play The Girl of the Golden West, is staged by the Metropolitan Opera Company in New York, becoming the most talked about production of that season. The brilliant and fiery conductor, Arturo Toscanini, receives no less that 52 enthusiastic curtain calls, at the conclusion of which the Met manager places a silver wreath atop his head.

December 14 General: The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace is founded.

December 23 Aviation: In San Diego, California, Lieutenant Theodore G. “Spuds” Ellyson becomes the first naval officer to earn his wings by flying the first naval aircraft, a Curtiss A-1 Triad.

December 31 Naval: As an indication of American naval expansion, by this date the U.S. Navy boasts a total tonnage of 717,202, making it the second-largest surface force in the world, after Great Britain’s Royal Navy. An additional 824,162 tons are under construction.

1911 Indian: The newly founded Boy Scouts of America undertakes programs to preserve the nation’s Native-American folklore, if in a highly romanticized manner. This is one of the earliest attempt to impart some facets of non-white culture on the majority white population. The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Choate v. Trappe, ruling that the Choctaw and Cherokee of Oklahoma remain wards of the U.S. government and, hence, are not subject to taxation by the state of Oklahoma.

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Literature: America’s appetite for Western fiction with rugged heros and pure heroines is amply demonstrated by Harold Bell Wright’s The Winning of Barbara Worth, which goes on to sell 1.5 million copies. Wright enjoyed similar success over the next 40 years. Theodore Dreiser’s second novel, Jennie Gerhardt, sells well enough that his publisher finally reprints his first book, Sister Carrie (1900). Sixes and Sevens, a collection of O. Henry works, is published posthumously. The Outcry is Henry James’s latest novel. Media: In Hollywood district of Los Angeles, California, the Nestor Company establishes the first bona fide film studio in that soon to be fabled town. Music: Irving Berlin, one of America’s defining musical composers, has a big success in his early composition, “Alexander’s Ragtime Band.”

Berlin, Irving (1888–1989) Composer Israel Baline was born in Tyumen, Russia, on May 11, 1888, the scion of a poor Jewish family. He relocated with his parents to New York City in 1893 to escape persecution and then adjusted to a difficult life on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. His first exposure to music was at the local synagogue, in which his father occasionally served as cantor. Baline left home at the age of 14 and started singing in saloons along New York’s Bowery; in 1907 he published his first song, “Marie from Sunny Italy,” under the moniker Irving Berlin. What happened next is astonishing in the annals of American music for Berlin possessed no formal training in the musical arts and could neither read nor notate music. In quick succession he penned a number of catchy tunes for the various vaudeville acts then in vogue, gaining a reputation as an expert lyricist. In 1911 Berlin was quick to capitalize on the growing ragtime trend by penning his first nationally recognized hit, “Alexander’s Ragtime Band.” His stature in the music industry soared in consequence, and by 1914 he had completed his first two musicals entitled Watch Your Step and Stop, Look, and Listen. The advent of American involvement in World War I afforded him

additional opportunities to shine, and he penned the successful show Yip,Yip, Yaphank with its signature song, “Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning.” During the postwar period Berlin carved out a niche for himself in the growing art of the American musical. Here he had the good fortune of working closely with the brilliant producer Florenz Ziegfeld and wrote impressive scores for the Ziegfeld Follies of 1919, 1920, and 1927. The advent of sound in motion pictures took Berlin’s musical artistry to new levels, and he composed numerous and successful scores for such diverse films as Cocoanuts (1929), Top Hat (1935), Follow the Fleet (1936), and Holiday Inn (1942), featuring leading stars such as the Marx Brothers and Fred Astaire. Berlin was extremely productive throughout the World War II period and wrote the iconic musical This Is the Army and its catchy tunes, “This Is the Army, Mr. Jones,” and “I Left My Heart at the Stage Door Canteen.” But in 1938 Berlin composed perhaps his most famous song, “God Bless America,” which seemed to encapsulate the national sentiments of the era. Once (continues)

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(continued) powerfully rendered by singer Kate Smith, it became popularly regarded as the country’s unofficial national anthem; in 1955 Congress awarded him a gold medal for it. A generous man, Berlin donated residuals from the song to the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of America. In the 1940s Berlin enjoyed his greatest smash single, “White Christmas” (1942), which was subsequently sung by crooner

Bing Crosby and sold millions of copies around the world. In 1963 he was further honored with a prestigious Tony Award for lifelong contributions to the musical stage. The prolific Berlin, who penned an estimated 800 songs in his lifetime, died in New York City on September 22, 1989, at the age of 101. He remains an enduring symbol of genius and patriotism in American music.

Publishing: The socialist movement founds its own magazine, The Masses, to advance the proletarian viewpoint. In another sign of growing professionalism, the Field Artillery Journal begins publication. Societal: In New York City, the new National League on Urban Conditions, faced with an influx of African Americans from the South, strives to help the new arrivals find housing and jobs. Sports: Cy Young, the towering Ohioan who has reigned for 22 years as baseball’s premier pitcher, resigns from the Boston Red Sox, his team for the past eight years. Princeton wins the national college football championship with eight wins, no losses, two ties. Technology: The automobile self-starter is perfected by Charles F. Kettering and offered to General Motors. This is a big improvement over the hand-cranked machines presently on the market. Elmer Sperry invents the gyrocompass, an essential tool for assisting airplanes in navigation.

January 10 Diplomacy: In a quest to secure greater monetary stability, the United States and Honduras conclude a pact allowing the former to control all customs collection in the latter.

January 11 Military: President William Howard Taft requests $5 million from Congress for military fortifications throughout the Panama Canal Zone and another $7 million for cannon, barracks, searchlights, and a garrison there.

January 15 Aviation: In San Francisco, California, a Wright biplane piloted by Lieutenants Philip O. Parmelee and Myron Sidney Crissy conducts the first live bomb drop in aviation history. The 36-pound weapon successfully detonates after being dropped from an altitude of 1,500 feet.

January 18 Aviation: A Curtiss biplane piloted by civilian Eugene Ely lands on a wood platform at the stern of the battleship USS Pennsylvania, marking the first aerial

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landing on a ship. Ely than turns his craft around and takes off to land ashore, demonstrating the viability of naval aviation.

January 21 Aviation: A Wright Flyer piloted by Lieutenant Paul W. Beck relays the first radio-transmitted message while aloft over Selfridge Field, Michigan. The test is conducted at an altitude of 100 feet and the receiver picks up the message at a distance of 1.5 miles. Politics: The National Progressive Republican League is founded by Senator Robert La Follette of Wisconsin, who intends pushing for more responsive national governance, especially the direct election of senators and citizen initiatives to bypass legislatures. Senator Jonathan Bourne of Oregon is selected as the first president. Their party platform is increasingly attractive to Theodore Roosevelt, who has grown estranged from mainstream Republicans under President William Howard Taft.

January 26 Aviation: At North Island, San Diego, California, aeronautical pioneer Glenn H. Curtiss impresses U.S. Navy authorities by demonstrating the viability of his amphibious airplane, which he calls a “flying boat.” Diplomacy: To enhance North American trade, President William Howard Taft proposes reciprocal tariffs between the United States and Canada.

February 1 Naval: A landing party of sailors and marines goes ashore at Puerto Cortés, Honduras, to protect American lives and property from revolutionary violence.

February 3 Technology: Inventor Charles F. Kettering’s self-starter for automobiles is publicly demonstrated for the first time by Henry Leland, president of the Cadillac Division, General Motors. This device will spell the eventual end of arduous hand cranking, which means that women can safely operate vehicles without the assistance of male companions.

February 11 Diplomacy: The United States and Japan renew their Commercial Treaty of 1894 and also formalize their previous “gentleman’s agreement” respecting immigration, in a new commerce and navigation treaty. This is a reflection of Secretary of State Chase Knox’s deeply held belief that controlling immigration is an integral and non-negotiable part of national sovereignty, even if unmentioned in a treaty.

February 14 Military: Fighting bolo-wielding fanatics in the Philippines has convinced the U.S. Army that it needs a hand gun with greater stopping power, and on this day it adopts the famous M1911 Colt .45 automatic pistol. This is a clip-fed weapon firing a very large projectile with tremendous stopping power and replaces the smaller Colt .38 revolver. It will remain in service with many military institutions until the present.

February 17 Aviation: In San Diego harbor, California, aviator Glenn Curtiss demonstrates the first flying boat by landing alongside the anchored battleship USS

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Chronology of American History Pennsylvania, which then hoists the flying boat aboard by a crane. The craft is then lowered back into the water and Curtiss flies back to base.

March 3 Aviation: The secretary of war authorizes the army’s first aviation appropriation of $125,000 to fund 51 members of its Aviation Section. Thereafter expenditures directed toward airplanes, air fields, and all requisite equipment and training will climb steadily. Medical: Congress establishes the U.S. Army Dental Corps.

March 7 Diplomacy: Internal unrest and a revolution in Mexico led by Francisco I. Madero against dictator Porfirio Díaz induce President William Howard Taft to deploy 20,000 American troops along the U.S. border. Fighting has been so intense that throngs of Americans have gathered along the border to watch the contestants flog each other.

March 18 Engineering: Former president Theodore Roosevelt officiates at ceremonies marking the opening of the Roosevelt Dam, constructed on the Salt River, 75 miles northeast of Phoenix, Arizona.

March 25 General: The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory of New York City, an archetypical sweatshop, burns to the ground, killing 145 workers, mostly Italian and Jewish immigrant women who jump from 10th-story windows to escape the flames. When a subsequent investigation discovers that the building lacked a sprinkler system and had its exit doors bolted, the tragedy will stimulate revised fire codes and labor laws.

April 11 Aviation: The U.S. Army establishes its first permanent flying school outside College Park, Maryland, although fliers are expected to train at Augusta, Georgia, during the winter months. Crime: In New York City, the owners of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory are indicted on charges of first- and second-degree manslaughter stemming from the horrific fire and loss of life at their establishment a week earlier.

April 12 Aviation: Lieutenant Theodore Gordon Ellyson emerges from the Curtiss Aviation Center, San Diego, California, as the navy’s first pilot. He goes on to establish a number of records in his distinguished career.

April 13 Military: Captain Julien E. Gaujot, 1st U.S. Cavalry, takes his troop across a field of fire at Agua Prieta, Mexico, and removes a body of Mexican regulars to safety, apparently with the permission of local rebels.

April 14 Diplomacy: President William Howard Taft, concerned for the safety of America’s southern border, insists that feuding Mexican parties cease fighting along that region. Mexican president Porfirio Díaz rejects the suggestion and disavows any responsibility for the outbreak of violence.

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April 19 Arts: Edward Knoblock’s rendition of Kismet is staged at the Knickerbocker Theater in New York City, introducing American audiences to the ethos of the Arabian Nights. Sports: Clarence H. DelMar wins the 15th annual Boston marathon with a time of two hours, 21 minutes, 39 seconds.

May 1 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of United States v. Grimaud, ruling that the federal government, by dint of “administrative discretion,” has authority over the states in deciding forest reserves.

May 5 Business: After the government decides to close all coal-bearing lands in Alaska, the irate inhabitants of Cordova shovel 350 tons of coal off ships and into the harbor.

May 8 Aviation: At the behest of naval observer Captain Washington Irving Chambers, the navy’s chief of the Bureau of Navigation makes a formal requisition for two Curtiss A-1 Triad biplanes—signaling the birth of naval aviation.

May 12 Diplomacy: The State Department dispatches W. Morgan Shuster to Teheran, Persia, to help administer and reform the shah’s finances.

May 13 Sports: The 37th annual Kentucky Derby is won by Meridian, who finishes in two minutes, five seconds.

May 15 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Standard Oil Company (New Jersey) v. United States, ruling that the trust has committed “unreasonable” restraint of trade under terms of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. Henceforth the corporation is summarily ordered to divest itself of its 37 component companies. In this manner the Court also establishes the new legal principle of “the rule of reason” for future regulation.

May 17 Sports: The 36th annual Preakness Stakes is won by Watervale with a time of one minute, 51 seconds.

May 22 Military: Henry Lewis Stimson is appointed secretary of war, and he presses for greater authority of his office over the chief of staff of the army.

May 25 Diplomacy: Mexico enjoys what will be a brief respite in its civil war when forces loyal to liberal reformer Francisco I. Madero gain control of the government and depose Porfirio Díaz. The Americans, having watched these violent events unfold in apprehension of being drawn into them, are greatly relieved.

May 29 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of United States v. American Tobacco Company, ruling that the American Tobacco Company is in violation

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Chronology of American History of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. In doing so the Court aspires to loosen James Buchanan Duke’s grip on the tobacco industry. However, consistent with the new principle of “rule of reason,” his company is reorganized instead of dissolved.

May 30 Sports: Ray Harroun wins the first Indianapolis 500 auto race in six hours, 42 minutes, eight seconds with an average speed of 74.59 miles per hour.

June 6 Diplomacy: The United States and Nicaragua sign the Knox-Castrillo Convention, which provides for American customs and bank loans, along with the right to intervene in Nicaragua’s internal affairs. Neither this nor a similar agreement reached with Honduras will be ratified by the Senate, which will lead to further instability in the region.

June 11 Military: The U.S. Army establishes the School of Fire at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, as its new artillery school.

June 17 Sports: The U.S. Lawn Tennis Association singles championships are won by William A. Larned and Hazel Hotchkiss in their respective divisions. For Larned, this is the seventh time he has captured the title, a feat equaled only by Richard Sears in the 1880s.

June 24 Military: Once Mexican revolutionaries overthrow the regime of Porfirio Díaz, the 20,000 American troops lining the U.S. southwestern border are withdrawn by President William Howard Taft. Sports: John J. McDermott wins the U.S. Open golf tournament.

July 1 Aviation: At Lake Keuka, New York, aeronautical pioneer Glenn Curtiss successfully demonstrates his A-1 Triad aircraft built for the U.S. Navy. The craft flies for five minutes at an altitude of 25 feet. Media: Cartoonist George Herriman begins his popular comic strip Krazy Kat and Ignatz in the New York Journal; it features a love-struck feline perpetually assailed by a brick-wielding mouse.

July 7 Conservation: The United States, Canada, Russia, and Japan conclude a treaty that bars pelagic seal hunting in the North Pacific over the next 15 years. Thanks to overhunting, seal populations have dwindled from four million to 100,000 and face a real prospect of extinction. The Japanese strongly resisted the move initially, and capitulated only after President William Howard Taft appealed directly to the emperor.

July 15 Medical: Research conducted by Captain W. W. Russell of the U.S. Army Medical Corps highlights the need for compulsive typhoid vaccination for all army personnel.

July 22 Diplomacy: Congress approves President William Howard Taft’s call for tariff reciprocity with Canada. However, talk of annexation arouses Canadian indigna-

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Federalists watching the advance of rebels at Ojinaga, Mexico╇ (Library of Congress)

tion toward the tariff issue. Conservative opposition congeals around the slogan “Union Jack or Old Glory.”

July 24 Diplomacy: The United States and Japan renew their prior commercial treaty, but with an “understanding” that JapaÂ�nese laborers are not to be issued passports to America.

July 26 Diplomacy: President William Howard Taft signs legislation promoting recipro-­ cal trade with Canada. The deal has been brokered by Secretary of State Chase Knox and Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier. The meaÂ�sure passes handily in Con-­ gress, but the Canadian parliament, bound up in a nationalist surge, defeats it.

August Indian: The last surviving member of the Yahi tribe comes out of seclusion near Oroville on the Feather River, north of Sacramento California, and is adopted by anthropologist Alfred Kroeber of the University of California, San Francisco. The newcomer is called “Ishi”—the Yahi word for “man”—and he spends the rest of his life being scrutinized by researchers. Military: Army troops are employed to help fight raging forest fires in Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon.

August 3 Diplomacy: The United States, Great Britain, and France conclude an agreement requiring them not to fight a fourth nation with which a general arbitration treaty

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Chronology of American History exists. However, the Senate will fail to support the measure for legal reasons and President William Howard Taft will withdraw it from consideration.

August 22 Settlement: President William Howard Taft vetoes Arizona’s application for statehood owing to provisions in its constitution allowing for the removal of judges. Taft, himself a lawyer, feels that this is a threat to the independent judiciary.

August 31 Naval: The battleship USS Utah is placed in commission under Captain William S. Benson, a future chief of naval operations.

September Aviation: The U.S. Navy establishes its aviation camp at Greenbury Point in Annapolis, Maryland, across from the U.S. Naval Academy. The fact that it shares property with the midshipmen’s rifle range, and is susceptible to errant rounds, speaks volumes as to the navy’s attitude toward airplanes.

September 8 Military: A new campaign hat is adopted by the U.S. Army; it will gain renown as the “Montana Peak” or “Smokey the Bear” hat and usually be associated with drill instructors.

September 12 Aviation: Calbraith P. Rodgers embarks on the first cross-country flight by leaving Sheepshead Bay, New York, in a Burgess biplane.

September 21 Diplomacy: The issue of reciprocal tariffs between the United States and Canada is defeated when new elections place anti-reciprocity nationalists in charge of the Canadian parliament. Careless talk about the annexation of Canada has apparently upset the neighbor to the north.

September 24 Naval: The gunboat USS Pampanga disgorges a landing party upon Basilan Island, Philippines, which captures it after a stiff fire fight with rebel forces. Five Congressional Medals of Honor will be awarded in consequence.

September 26 Arts: George Broadhurst enjoys popular and critical success with his play Bought and Paid For, which is staged at the Playhouse in New York City.

September 30 Aviation: Aeronautical pioneer Cromwell Dixon, aged 19 years, becomes the first man to fly an airplane over the Rocky Mountains; he will die in a crash two days later.

October 12 Indian: The first meeting of the Society of American Indians (SAI) convenes in Columbus, Ohio, with 50 distinguished delegates, each a leader in their field. As a group they openly question the value of assimilation and urge the greater society to respect Native Americans and their culture.

October 14 –26 Sports: The Philadelphia Athletics (AL) win the eighth annual World Series of baseball by defeating the New York Giants (NL) four games to two.

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October 16 Politics: The National Conference of Progressive Republicans convenes its firstever national convention in Chicago, Illinois, nominating Robert La Follette for the presidency. They hope to capitalize on the growing split between progressives and mainstream Republicans.

October 26 Business: In the latest round of antitrust activity, the government files suit against U.S. Steel for alleged violations of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.

November 1 Business: In Detroit, Michigan, William C. Durant hires Swiss-born auto engineer Louis Chevrolet as part of his expanding General Motors. It is Chevrolet’s intention to offer a low-price, dependable machine that will effectively compete with the Model T of Henry Ford.

November 4 –14 Naval: The cruiser USS Albany lands a detachment of 24 marines at Shanghai, China, to guard a cable station after the eruption of what will become the Chinese Revolution.

November 5 Aviation: Calbraith P. Rodgers completes the first-ever cross-country flight by touching down at Long Beach, California, in a Burgess biplane. It has taken him seven weeks to cover 3,220 miles; he was airborne for a total of 82 hours and four minutes and glides in after his engine completely failed.

November 10 General: Philanthropist Andrew Carnegie establishes the Carnegie Corporation of New York with an endowment of $125 million. Its goal is to disseminate knowledge through various educational projects; this becomes one of the earliest large foundations concerned with the promotion of scholarship and charitable causes.

November 24 Naval: The armored cruiser USS Saratoga departs Shanghai and sails north for Taku, China, where its landing party will guard missionaries.

November 29 Diplomacy: The Russian empire, angered by the arrival of W. Morgan Shuster at Teheran to help modernize the shah’s finances, invades northern Persia in retaliation. The region had been promised to Russia by the 1907 Anglo-Russian Alliance.

December 11 Diplomacy: The “Chester Concession” of Colby M. Chester, who arranged the latest example of “dollar diplomacy” in the Ottoman Empire by financing railroad construction, ends this day when its American investors back out of the deal.

December 14 Naval: The armored cruiser USS California becomes the first American capital warship to enter the channel at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The Hawaiian Dredging Company has been hard at work widening the channel by 1,100 feet and to a uniform depth of 35 feet.

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December 18 Diplomacy: The United States, angered by Russia’s refusal to grant passports to Jewish Americans and other clergymen, revokes an 1832 treaty.

December 22 Military: Army troops under Captain John J. Pershing surround and capture the Moro stronghold of Bid Dajo, Philippines, taking several prisoners.

December 23 Politics: Theodore Roosevelt, watching the continuing divide between traditional and conservative Republicans, declares his availability for the presidency in a private letter.

1912 Arts: Irish playwright John Millington Synge’s work The Playboy of the Western World debuts in Boston, Philadelphia, and New York, accompanied by public disorder from those who regard his cavalier treatment of the Irish as insulting. Etcher-lithographer Joseph Pennell renders artistic treatments of the Panama Canal and its intricate engineering. Business: America’s growing sweet tooth is partly assuaged by the appearance of Oreo cookies and Life Saver candy. Also debuting this year is Ocean Spray Cranberry Sauce and Hellman’s Mayonnaise.

Sandburg, Carl (1878–1967) Poet Carl August Sandburg was born in Galesburg, Illinois, on January 6, 1878, a son of Swedish immigrants. He dropped out of the eighth grade to support his family and eventually took a number of menial jobs around town. At 19 he wandered off to work in the wheat fields of Kansas, rode freight trains, and enjoyed an adventurous hobo existence. He enlisted in the U.S. Army once the Spanish-American War commenced in 1898 and was shipped to Cuba, but saw no action. Instead, Sandburg was dismayed by poor living conditions and at the hundreds of common soldiers who perished from disease without firing a shot in battle. Back home he briefly enrolled at Lombard College to study the poetry of Walt Whitman,

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but he soon dropped out and worked as a salesman in New Jersey. In 1904 Sandburg returned home again, only this time as a member of the Socialist Party where he met his future bride, Lillian Steichen. He also garnered a reputation as a competent journalist and writer working for socialist papers in Milwaukee and Chicago. It was not until 1910 that Sandburg found his avocation as a poet. His first efforts, including his famous composition “Chicago,” were all rejected by the American Magazine in New York, but found a willing home in the Chicago periodical Poetry in March 1914. He followed this up with a collected volume of verse entitled Chicago Poems (1916), which were distinguished by their gritty use of everyday

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In Freeport, Maine, Louis L. Bean commences selling his outdoor-oriented clothing line, especially rubber boots. When several of these prove defective, he pioneers the practice of unconditional refunds. General: The Japanese government makes a gift of cherry trees to the United States, which are then planted along the Tidal Basin in Potomac Park, Washington, D.C. They continue blooming each spring and remain a major tourist attraction. Journalism: Editor William Randolph Hearst embarks on his quest to become the nation’s newspaper magnate by beginning to acquire various newspaper chains. Within two decades he will control no less than 30 papers. Literature: American poetry, which has lagged somewhat behind fiction, receives a decided boost when Harriet Monroe founds and edits Poetry: A Magazine of Verse in Chicago, Illinois. It is best remembered for showcasing the talents of aspiring poets such as Carl Sandburg, Amy Lowell, Erza Pond, T. S. Eliot, and others. Theodore Dreiser publishes The Financier, the first installment in a planned trilogy about predatory businessman Frank Cowperwood. Western writer and former dentist Zane Grey publishers Riders of the Purple Sage, his most famous and best-selling novel. Media: The short movie The New York Hat by D. W. Griffith stars Canadian actress Mary Pickford, soon to be hailed as “America’s sweetheart.” By this juncture nearly five million Americans are attending movies daily. Medical: Yale professor Elmer V. McCollum discovers the nutritional values of vitamins A and B, especially for correcting dietary deficiencies.

vernacular and irreverent rhyming similar to that of his hero Whitman. In 1918 Sandburg ventured to Europe as a war correspondent and a year later covered the race riots in Chicago. In 1919 the Poetry Society of America awarded him its prize for his second collected volume, Cornhuskers (1918). Despite his reputation for charmingly awkward verse, Sandburg became increasingly obsessed with historical biography and spent nearly two decades researching and writing a massive, four-volume tome about his Illinois hero, Abraham Lincoln. The second installment, Lincoln: The War Years (1939), garnered him the Pulitzer Prize for history in 1940 and a gold medal from the Academy of Arts and Letters in 1952. Sandburg continued dabbling in poetry but grew increasingly fixated upon writing about

politics. He gradually shifted his allegiance away from the Socialists to the Democrats, penning exuberant pieces about Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal. In light of his national popularity, Sandburg took to the airwaves on behalf of the Office of War Information and also composed the book Home Front Memo (1943), which extolled the virtues of wholehearted participation in World War II. A few years later he penned his first fictional novel entitled Remembrance Rock (1948), which fared poorly with critics, but then bounced back three years later with his Complete Poems (1950), which garnered him his second Pulitzer Prize. Sandburg, a commoner whose poetry and affection for everyday people set him apart from his contemporaries, died at home in Flat Rock, North Carolina, on July 22, 1967.

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Pickford, Mary

(1892–1979)

Actress Gladys Louise Smith was born in Toronto, Ontario, on April 8, 1892, the daughter of an alcoholic workman. After her father died in 1898, she began working on the stage at the age of six to help support the family. After gradually making her way down to New York City, she was hired by producer David Belasco to star in his production of The Warrens of Virginia in 1907; it ran successfully for two years. By now she had also adopted the stage name of Mary Pickford, after one of her grandmothers, and in 1909 she caught the eye of film director D. W. Griffith of Biograph. She then demanded and received from Griffith $10 per day—twice what he originally offered—and over the next two years turned out 81 pictures for Biograph. The art of filmmaking was in its infancy, but Pickford distinguished herself on the silent screen by an ability to emote effectively without grandiose gestures. Leaving Biograph for Carl Laemmle’s Independent Motion Pictures (IMP) in 1911, she later went to Majestic, back to Biograph, and then over to Adolph Zukor’s Famous Players in 1913 for the astronomical sum of $500 per week. Two films she made in 1914, Hearts Adrift and Tess of the Storm Country, proved commercially successful and cemented her status as the industry’s first female mega-star. Admirers literally went wild over her public appearances and police were frequently called in to restrain them. Such was Pickford’s star power that in 1916 she signed a contract for $1 million over the next two years, along with the right to choose her own directors and cameramen. Ensuing

productions such as The Poor Little Rich Girl and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm added further luster to her reputation, and Pickford became popularly hailed as “America’s Sweetheart.” Beyond her sweet and demure looks, Pickford proved herself a businesswoman and quite capable of dealing with the industry giants. In 1919 she teamed with her future husband, Douglas Fairbanks, comedian Charlie Chaplin, and D. W. Griffith to establish a new production studio, United Artists. Her first film here, Pollyana (1920), earned more than $1 million at the box office, as did subsequent blockbusters such as Little Lord Fauntleroy (1921) and a remake of Tess of the Storm Country (1922). When Pickford married Fairbanks in 1920, they gained a heightened celebrity as Hollywood’s first couple and moved into a luxurious new mansion named Pickfair. In 1927 Pickford and Fairbanks were responsible for founding the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from which she received an Oscar for her only sound production, Coquette (1929). Pickford quit acting in the 1930s, although she continued to produce and write scripts for over a decade. She never emotionally recovered after divorcing Fairbanks in 1936, turned to alcoholism, and spent the rest of her life a recluse. In 1976 the Academy awarded her an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement but she declined to receive it in public. Pickford died in Beverly Hills on May 29, 1979, with an estate worth $50 million. She was America’s first superstar.

Surgeon Alexis Carrel of the University of Chicago wins the Nobel Prize in physiology and medicine for his work in transplanting organs and suturing blood vessels. Music: The catchy song Waiting for the Robert E. Lee is the most popular song of the year. In 1952 musical authorities will vote it the best song of the first half of the 20th century.

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Publishing: Albert Bigelow Paine publishes Mark Twain: A Biography, in three volumes. Progressive historian Charles Austin Beard commences his controversial interpretations of American social, political, and economic history by writing The Supreme Court and the United States.

Beard, Charles Austin

(1874–1948)

Historian Charles Austin Beard was born in Knightstown, Indiana, on November 27, 1874, into a family with strong Quaker roots. After helping to edit the weekly newspaper Knightstown Sun, he entered DePauw College in 1894 and graduated four years later Phi Beta Kappa. Beard then completed some work at Chicago’s Hull House, which forever made him a progressive politically. In 1898 he followed up his reformist impulse by attending Oxford University’s socially minded Ruskin Hall for a year, then came home to take fellow historian Mary Ritter as his wife. Beard subsequently attending Columbia University where he obtained his master’s in history, 1903, followed by his doctorate, 1904, then went on to teach as part of the regular history faculty. In this capacity he proved himself adept as both a teacher and a scholar, being popular with his charges and penning several notable works, including The Development of Modern Europe (1907–08) and American Government and Politics (1910), which functioned as a definitive text book for many decades. However, in 1913 Beard researched and published his most controversial book, An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States, which proved a seminal text in American historiography. Beard, a progressive, challenged the long-held and nationalistic assumptions of scholars like George Bancroft and Frederick Jackson Turner by trying to demonstrate the economic ulterior motives of the Founding Fathers. From a methodological standpoint,

he also rummaged through treasury records of 1790 for the first time and used this economic data to underscore his thesis that the architects of the Constitution were men of property and wealth, and that the document they proffered was specifically designed to uphold their economic prominence. Needless to say, Beard’s thesis was soundly attacked by more conservative scholars and subsequent generations of historians have excoriated his habit of ignoring other forms of empirical evidence. But Beard was the first American scholar to deliberately interject economic analysis into the historical process, thereby intellectually modernizing that discipline. Beard continued teaching at Columbia with little interruption until 1917, when he quit Columbia in protest of the firing of three faculty members who protested military conscription in World War I. Two years later he was instrumental in assisting progressive educational reformer John Dewey to found the New School for Social Research, the nation’s first college for adults. Beard then withdrew into seclusion to his home in Milford, Connecticut, where he and his wife continued writing several notable history texts, especially The Rise of American Civilization (1927). By this point he was also active in political circles, strongly embraced isolationism, and harshly criticized the foreign policy of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in two respected books. Beard died at his home in Milford on September 1, 1948, revered as the most influential American historian of his generation.

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Chronology of American History African-American educator and poet James Weldon Johnson pens a fictional memoir entitled Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a scathing exposé of American racism and its effect on the biracial protagonist. It will be recognized as a work of seminal significance in black literature. Societal: The rise of ragtime music is accompanied by the growing popularity of fast dance steps supposedly based on animal movements, such as the fox trot, the crab step, the kangaroo, the turkey trot, and the bunny hug. The United States accepts around 5,000 Russian pacifists who fled Russia to escape mandatory military service. Sports: Harvard wins the national college football championship with nine wins, no ties, no losses. Arizonan Louis Tawanima, a Hopi Indian, wins a silver medal at the Summer Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden. January: Aeronautical pioneer Glenn H. Curtiss builds and demonstrates a new kind of flying boat in San Diego Bay, which has a single 60-horsepower motor driving two propellers.

January 6 Settlement: New Mexico joins the Union as the 47th state, with its capital at the 300-year-old city of Santa Fe.

January 7 Politics: President William Howard Taft recommends to Congress that the United States adopt an annual budget, it being the only large nation operating without one.

January 9 Military: U.S. Marines are landed in Honduras to protect American lives and property in a rebellion against President Manual Bonilla.

January 12 Labor: Textile workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts, go on strike to protest lowered wages and aberrant sweatshop conditions. The ensuing protest will last two months, indicating the strength in the East of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) under William D. “Big Bill” Haywood.

January 14 Military: U.S. Cavalry under Captain E. G. Peyton, assisted by Philippine Scouts, make a sweep of Jolo Island and capture several bands of renegade Moros.

January 22 Military: The city of Tientsin is occupied by U.S. Army troops to protect American lives and property as the Chinese Revolution against the Manchu dynasty continues. Transportation: The Florida East Coast Railroad connects Key West to the mainland for the first time; it eventually goes out of business because of storm damage.

February Military: The course of military reforms apparently rankles aged general Fred C. Ainsworth, adjutant general of the army, who writes an insulting memo to the army chief of staff, Leonard Wood. Upon Wood’s recommendation, Secretary of War Henry Lewis Stimson relieves Ainsworth, but then allows him to retire rather than face a court-martial.

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Young women protesting unfair labor conditions╇ (Library of Congress)

February 5 Arts: Rachel Crothers’s play He and She opens and explores the heretofore taboo discussion of a woman trying to juggle home life and a career at the same time. The role of women in modern society is a recurrent theme in many of Croth-­ ers’s subsequent efforts.

February 11 Naval: The sunken battleship USS Maine is raised from Havana Harbor by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

February 14 Naval: The USS Skipjack becomes the U.S. Navy’s first Â�diesel-­powered subma-­ rine, under Captain Chester W. Nimitz. The craft subsequently serves as a test bed for underwater radio transmission and gyrocompass navigation. Settlement: Arizona gains admission as the 48th state after striking down consti-­ tutional clauses allowing the removal of sitting judges. Once statehood is granted, however, the clauses will be immediately restored.

February 17 Medical: The War Department publishes its first physical examination test for prospective pi�lots at a time when the effects of prolonged flying on human

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February 23 Aviation: As the U.S. Army becomes more firmly committed to acquiring airplanes, it issues a new rating for “military aviator” and stipulates that prospective candidates must be able to reach and hold an altitude of 2,500 feet in a 15 mile per hour wind and make a dead stick landing within 150 feet of a designated area.

February 25 Politics: Former president Theodore Roosevelt announces his candidacy for the White House as a progressive, if asked. His estrangement toward more conservative Republicans is now complete.

March 1 Aviation: Over Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, Captain Albert Berry jumps from an airplane via a trapeze bar and deploys a parachute for the first time. He lands safely from an altitude of 1,000 feet.

March 7 Diplomacy: Senator Henry Cabot Lodge manages to amend an impending U.S. treaty with France and Great Britain, which would have referred all international disputes to the International Court of Arbitration at The Hague. Lodge’s changes concern Senate approval in cases touching upon the Monroe Doctrine and the outlawing of Asian immigration and render the treaty untenable.

March 12 Women: The Girl Guides, precursor to the Girl Scouts, is formed by Daisy Gordon and 10 girls at Savannah, Georgia. Their first excursion is to an unused stable own by Gordon’s aunt.

March 13 Labor: Textile workers at the mills in Lawrence, Massachusetts, win a pay raise after three months of labor strife that cost two lives. This is a major victory for the IWW and company leaders are blaming foreigners for the unrest.

March 14 Arts: Brian Hooker’s opera Mona opens at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City, after winning a $10,000 prize from the company. Business: The Justice Department takes steps to prevent the Southern Pacific and Union Pacific railroads from merging. A subsequent court decision will prevent the move on the basis that it would stifle competition. Diplomacy: The United States formally bans arms shipments to the opponents of Francisco I. Madero’s Mexican regime.

April 6 Aviation: Captain Washington J. Chambers. head of the U.S. Navy’s flight department, suggests using the word “airplane” to replace the term “aeroplane” then in vogue. He also suggests such commonplace terms as landing gear and fuselage.

April 7 Politics: The Socialist Labor Party convenes to nominate Arthur E. Reimer of Massachusetts for the presidency.

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April 14 –15 General: The British luxury liner RMS Titanic—heralded as unsinkable—strikes an iceberg off Newfoundland and sinks rapidly, with a loss of 1,513 lives, including many Americans. Only 700 survive. The extent of the disaster prompts the federal government to launch a thorough investigation, with safety recommendations in mind.

April 19 Sports: Michael J. Ryan wins the 16th Boston Marathon by crossing the line at two hours, 21 minutes, 18 seconds.

May 1 Transportation: The federal government, having concluded its investigation of the Titanic disaster, orders all steamships to carry sufficient lifeboats for the conveyance of all passengers.

May 5–July 22 Sports: The U.S. Olympic team takes 23 medals at Stockholm, Sweden, and also finishes first in the unofficial team championships. Onlookers thrill to the debut of Native-American athlete Jim Thorpe, who wins gold medals for the pentathlon and the decathlon.

May 11 Aviation: Rear Admiral Bradley A. Fiske becomes the first flag officer to take off and land on water in a hydroaeroplane at Salem, Massachusetts. The experience reaffirms his belief that airplanes have an important use as scouting craft at sea. Sports: The 38th annual Kentucky Derby is won by Worth with a time of two minutes, nine seconds.

May 13 Politics: Congress passes a constitutional amendment allowing the direct election of senators through the popular vote. Up to the present, they have been appointed by state legislatures.

May 15 Sports: The 37th annual Preakness Stakes is won by Colonel Holloway, who crosses the finish line in one minute, 56 seconds.

May 17 Politics: The Socialist Party convenes its national convention at Indianapolis, Indiana, again nominating Eugene V. Debs for the presidency. Emil Seidel of Wisconsin is his vice presidential running mate.

May 19 Naval: In consequence of the recent Titanic tragedy, the cruiser USS Bellingham begins patrolling the North Atlantic on the first ice patrol. Within two years this activity is conducted on an international basis, and America’s part is assumed by the U.S. Coast Guard.

May 22 Aviation: Marine Corps aviation begins when Lieutenant Alfred A. Cunningham is assigned to flight instruction at the Burgess Company in Marblehead, Massachusetts. He is ultimately designated Naval Aviator No. 5.

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May 23 Naval: American gunboats USS Paducah, Nashville, and Petrel drop anchor off Guantánamo and Nipe Bays, Cuba, to afford protection to American-owned sugar mills in the vicinity.

May 28–June 5 Naval: U.S. Marines from the transport USS Prairie go ashore on the island of Cuba and maintain order in 26 towns after revolutionary activity breaks out.

May 30 Sports: Joe Dawson wins the second Indianapolis 500 auto race by crossing the finish line in six hours, 21 minutes, six seconds at an average speed of 78.72 miles per hour.

June 1 Aviation: Lieutenant Henry H. (“Hap”) Arnold reaches a record-breaking altitude of 6,540 feet in a Burgess-Wright biplane.

June 4 Labor: The Massachusetts legislature, under intense pressure from labor leaders, passes the nation’s first minimum wage law for the state’s lowest-paid workers.

June 5 Aviation: In Augusta, Georgia, Lieutenant Colonel Charles B. Winder of the Ohio National Guard becomes the first officer of that service to begin flight training. Military: President William Howard Taft orders a contingent of 750 U.S. Marines deployed to Cuba to protect American lives and property there. Taft’s usual response is best described as “dollar diplomacy,” whereby he will refrain from the use of force and interject new capital to stabilize oppressive but friendly regimes.

June 7 Aviation: An airplane manned by Captain Charles DeForrest Chandler and Lieutenant T. D. Milling fires an automatic weapon while airborne for the fire time. From an altitude of 250 feet the cloth target they select is struck several times.

June 12 General: A huge volcanic eruption on the Alaskan island of Katmai buries the village of Kodiak—100 miles distant—in hot ash. Military: The U.S. Army adopts the so-called Munson Last as its standard footgear for military personnel.

June 15 Sports: The U.S. Lawn Tennis Association singles championships are won by Maurice E. McLoughlin and Mary K. Browne in their respective divisions.

June 18–22 Politics: The Republican Party holds its national convention in Chicago, Illinois, whereby William Howard Taft, ably assisted by conservative party stalwarts Elihu Root and Warren Harding, staves off a strong challenge by Theodore Roosevelt and secures renomination. Roosevelt and his supporters subsequently storm out of the proceedings and found their own “Bull Moose” Party, hopelessly splitting the Republican national constituency. James S. Sherman is renominated for the vice presidency.

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June 19 Labor: Congress passes a new labor law requiring an eight-hour day for all personnel working under federal contracts.

June 20 Diplomacy: In light of the successful foundation of the Chinese Republic in October 1911, Secretary of State Chase Knox instructs the United States to join a six-nation consortium for granting developmental loans to China. However, this would entail official recognition of Russian and Japanese rights in Manchuria, something that nationalists under President Yuan Shih-k’ai are loath to do. Ultimately, the Americans will withdraw from the consortium.

June 22 Politics: Republican Party supporters of Theodore Roosevelt, who consider the nomination of William Howard Taft as illegitimate, call upon the former chief executive to head a third party effort.

June 25–July 2 Politics: With the Republican Party in tatters, it remains to be seen if the Democrats can take advantage of the situation. At first the stalwart and seemingly too radical William Jennings Bryan is considered the party favorite, but after 46 ballots he loses to the relatively little known governor of New Jersey, Woodrow Wilson. Thomas R. Marshall of Indiana is selected for vice president and the platform adopted is virtually identical to that of the progressive “Bull Moose” Party.

July 2 Journalism: Mrs. Joseph Pulitzer lays the cornerstone for the new School of Journalism at Columbia University in New York City.

July 5 Aviation: Captain Charles DeForrest Chandler and Lieutenants Thomas D. Milling and Henry Arnold qualify to become the army’s first “Military Aviators” and are the first recipients of a new golden badge. Arnold, in particular, will enjoy a close and successful association with the growth and maturation of American military air power.

July 8 Sports: In New York City, Giants pitcher Rube Marquard has his 20-game winning streak ended when his team loses to the Chicago Cubs, 7–2.

July 10–12 Politics: The Prohibition Party meets and nominates Eugene W. Chafin of Arizona for the presidency and Aaron S. Watkins of Ohio for vice president.

July 12 Media: In Los Angeles, film producer Adolf Zukor acquires and releases the French film Queen Elizabeth through his Famous Players Film Company. This title, starring beloved French actress Sarah Bernhardt and Louis Mercanton, reflects the growing interest of American audiences in foreign films. This production is so well made that it garners respect for motion pictures as an art form.

July 16 Naval: A patent is issued to Admiral Bradley Fiske for the design of an air-launched torpedo, one of his many innovative designs with military applications.

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July 18 Labor: In Seattle, Washington, sailors raid local offices of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), ransacking them.

July 27 Naval: In another pioneering wireless transmission, a Wright B-1 hydroaeroplane transmits the letter D in Morse Code while flying over Chesapeake Bay. It is received by the torpedo boat Bailey at one mile’s distance.

August 2 Business: Congress passes Senator Henry Cabot Lodge’s so-called Lodge Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, extending its scope to include the activities of all foreign corporations. The issue in question is the potential Japanese acquisition of companies in Baja California, Mexico. The Americans are concerned that any land legally appropriated by a foreign power can be turned into a naval or military base. Sports: John J. McDermott wins the U.S. Open golf tournament.

August 4 Naval: Revolutionary violence against President Adolfo Díaz in Nicaragua prompts the landing of 100 sailors and marines at Cortino, who then march overland to guard the American legation in Managua.

August 5–7 Politics: In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, disgruntled progressive Republicans formally constitute the Progressive (“Bull Moose”) Party and nominate Theodore Roosevelt for the presidency. Hiram Johnson of California is chosen as his vice presidential running mate. Their platform espouses tariff reductions, changes in state and federal election laws, stricter oversight of combines and corporations, women’s suffrage, and better labor laws respecting women and children.

August 12 Aviation: In an augury of things to come, three Signal Corps airplanes participate in military maneuvers at Bridgeport, Connecticut. Specifically, the craft are tested as radio and reconnaissance platforms for close cooperation with ground troops.

August 13 Communication: The explosive growth of radio technology induces Congress to pass the Radio Act, which mandates all prospective radio operators to obtain licenses from the Department of Commerce and Labor. However, commercial uses for broadcast technology have yet to appear.

August 14 Military: A force of 2,500 U.S. Marines deploys in Nicaragua to protect a possible overland canal route from foreign occupation. This move stems from that country’s inability to pay off debts owed to European banks. President William Howard Taft will subsequently arrange a treaty whereby American banks can handle Nicaraguan finances until the debts have been accounted for; as before, it will fail to pass muster in the Senate.

August 24 Business: Congress authorizes a parcel post system to go into effect within a year.

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The Panama Canal Act is passed by Congress granting rebates (toll-free passage) to all American vessels engaged in the coastal trade, a violation of the HayPauncefote Treaty with Great Britain. This being an election year, both parties heartily endorse the measure, despite its dubious legal standing. Military: Congress creates the Quartermaster Corps by incorporating the existing Quartermaster, Pay, and Subsistence departments into a single entity. Naval: Off Shanghai, China, U.S. Marines are ordered ashore to protect American citizens and property during an interval of revolutionary violence. Settlement: The Alaska Territory is created by Congress.

August 28–30 Naval: Continuing unrest in Nicaragua leads additional marines to go ashore at Cortino from the cruisers USS California and Denver to maintain order.

September 4 Naval: Colonel Joseph H. Pendleton lands 790 men of the 1st Provisional Marine Regiment at Cortino, Nicaragua, to help bolster security and order in that warwracked region. They are shortly after joined by 323 sailors and marines from the armored cruiser USS Colorado.

October 1 Civil: In Kentucky, the Lincoln Center, dedicated to the vocational training of African Americans, is opened over the protests of leaders like W. E. B. DuBois, who prefer education to be integrated. Labor: The New York legislature passes laws mandating a 54-hour work week.

October 4 Naval: In the town of Masaya, Nicaragua, U.S. Marines and sailors from the armored cruiser USS California attack and storm a rebel position at nearby Coyotope Hill. The defenders are routed and lose several men killed, including their commander, General Benjamin Zeledon.

October 6 Naval: Colonel Joseph H. Pendleton conducts 1,200 sailors and marines on a campaign to storm the rebel strongpoint at León, Nicaragua. Six Americans are wounded but the insurgents are routed and organized resistance to the government collapses.

October 8–16 Sports: The Boston Red Sox (American League) win the ninth annual baseball World Series by defeating the New York Giants (National League) four games to three.

October 15 Politics: Former president Theodore Roosevelt is shot and seriously wounded by an assassin in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but in a bravura performance typical of the man, he insists on giving his acceptance speech before being taken to the hospital. “It takes more than that to kill a bull moose,” he scoffs. The rugged outdoorsman fully recovers in two weeks, and his swagger will again catch national headlines.

October 26–December 18 Aviation: Lieutenant John H. Towers conducts the first attempt to spot submerged submarines from the air; he reports that 800 feet appears to be the

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October 30 Politics: James S. Sherman, the prospective Republican vice president, dies suddenly at Utica, New York, and is replaced by Nicholas Murray Butler, then president of Columbia University.

November Women: Arizona, Kansas, and Oregon all grant women the right to vote; the move for a federal amendment to that affect is slowly gathering impetus.

November 4 Arts: George C. Hazelton and J. Harry Benrimo produce their play Yellow Jacket at the Fulton Theater in New York City; it is unique in trying to capture and explain Chinese social conventions for American audiences.

November 5 Politics: Democrat Woodrow Wilson defeats Republican William Howard Taft and Bull Moose Progressive Theodore Roosevelt. Wilson rolls up an impressive electoral win of 435 votes to Roosevelt’s 88 and Taft’s 8, and a popular margin of 6.2 million to 4.1 million for Roosevelt, and 3.4 million for Taft. Wilson also secures no less than 40 states in his column, one of the most lop-sided tallies in U.S. history. Socialist Eugene V. Debs accounts for 901,000 votes, more than twice the amount he received in any prior election. Overall, intra-party fighting among the Republicans badly split their vote and allowed the Democrats to cruise back into power for the first time since Grover Cleveland. They also gain control of the Senate.

November 12 Aviation: Lieutenant Theodore G. Ellyson (USN), manning a Curtiss A-1 Triad hydroaeroplane, is successfully catapulted from a specially designed barge in the Anacostia River near Washington, D.C. This technology is essential if aircraft are ever to be launched at sea from large warships.

November 27 Aviation: The U.S. Army Signal Corps purchases its first three Curtiss F biplane flying boats, which also serve in the U.S. Navy under the designation of C-1.

November 30 Aviation: A Curtiss C-1 flying boat piloted by Lieutenant Theodore G. Ellyson is flight-tested on Lake Keuka at Hammondsport, New York. The U.S. Navy will ultimately acquire and operate flying boats through the Vietnam War.

December 7 Medical: In Chicago, Illinois, Dr. James B. Herrick makes the first clinical diagnosis of a coronary thrombosis (heart attack) in a living patient.

December 10 General: The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to Secretary of War Elihu Root. Science: Alexis Carrel is awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine for his work in vascular structures and the transportation of blood.

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1913 Arts: Paul Manship showcases his new sculpting style, which is very smooth, in the style of antiquity, and exerts considerable influence on younger artists. Seneca artist Jesse Cornplanter provides illustrations for Alfred C. Parker’s book The Code of Handsome Lake; progenitor of the Longhouse religion. Business: In New York City, toy designer Alfred C. Gilbert introduces his Erector Set for prospective young engineers and builders. Civil: Julius Rosenwald, president of Sears and Roebuck, establishes a scholarship fund for African Americans. Indian: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of United States v. Sandoval, ruling that Native Americans, as wards of the state, remain solely the responsibility of federal, and not state, authority. The Chiricahua Apache, following 17 years of internment at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, are allowed by the federal government to return to the Mescalero Apache Reservation in south-central New Mexico. Literature: Eleanor Hodgman Porter writes her childhood classic Pollyanna, which will sell one million copies. Willa Cather, having resigned the editorship of McClure’s Magazine, publishes the novel O Pioneers! Henry James pens A Small Boy and Others. Jack London publishes Valley of the Moon and John Barleycorn, the latter recounting the author’s bouts with alcoholism. Media: Hollywood, California, by dint of its spectacular and constant good weather, begins to displace the New York City area as the center of the motion picture industry. Future movie mogul Cecil B. DeMille begins screening his six-reel epic The Squaw Man, about an English aristocrat and rancher who chooses to live among Native Americans. This impressive effort, originally budgeted at $15,450, comes under the wire at $47,000 but proves to be Hollywood’s first commercial success. George McManus introduces the comic characters Maggie and Jiggs in his strip Bringing Up Father. Medical: Bela Schick devises the so-called Schick Test for detecting susceptibility to diphtheria in children. Military: To promote better management, the army is divided into six geographic departments—Eastern, Central, Western, Southern, Philippine, and Hawaiian. Publishing: Progressive historian Charles Austin Beard breaks with the nationalist tradition of the 19th century and publishes his controversial An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States. In it he strives to demonstrate the overarching influence of monied interests in the genesis of that seminal document—a theory immediately refuted by more conservative scholars. Science: Columbia University scientist Thomas Hunt Morgan publishes his Heredity and Sex, respecting his experimentation with fruit flies to confirm the Mendelian law of inheritance. It is a major contribution to human understanding of genetics. Societal: Ragtime dancers Irene and Vernon Castle introduce a new dance called the turkey trot in a hit Broadway play called The Sunshine Girls. This marks the beginning of the wing dance craze across America.

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Chronology of American History Sports: Pitcher Walter Johnson of the Washington Senators (American League) sets a new baseball record by pitching 56 consecutive innings without allowing a run to score. Harvard wins the national college football championship with nine wins, no losses, no ties. Technology: Henry Ford grafts the conveyor belt principle of the meat packing industry to automobile manufacturing; soon his factory is churning out 1,000 units daily. Mass production dramatically lowers the pricing of individual cars, giving Ford Motor products a decisive marketing advantage. The company also pays the highest wages in the industry—$5.00 per day—and has an eight-hour work day, which buys labor peace, encourages worker satisfaction, and helps pump money back into the local economy.

Thorpe, Jim

(1888–1953)

Athlete James Francis Thorpe was born near Prague, Indian Territory, on May 28, 1888, of halfIrish and half-Potowatomi and Kickapoo Indian parentage. He worked on his father’s farm for many years while attending local Agency schools and in 1904 enrolled at the famous Indian School at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, to study tailoring. From the onset Thorpe, now six feet tall and 185 pounds of hard muscle, displayed incredible physical prowess and on one occasion cleared a five-foot, nine-inch-high bar while dressed in civilian clothes. This feat induced legendary coach Glenn S. “Pop” Warner to allow Thorpe to join the Carlisle varsity football team; during the ensuing season he helped defeat some of the best collegiate teams in play. In 1908 Thorpe received third team AllAmerican status and the following year he played semi-professional baseball in North Carolina. He was paid for his services, sometimes $15 per week over a period of two years and, while not a great hitter, acquitted himself well. Thorpe returned to Carlisle in 1911 and that year helped score a decisive victory over a previously undefeated Harvard team by kicking four field goals, two from 40 yards away, for an 18–15 win. The follow-

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Jim Thorpe kicks the football during a game in October 1912. (Cumberland County Historical Society) ing year Thorpe was named All-American for the second consecutive time. In 1912

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January Sports: The Amateur Athletic Union decides that Jim Thorpe, who played professional baseball, is a professional athlete and therefore not eligible to keep the gold medals he won in the 1912 Olympics.

January 6 Aviation: Naval maneuvers off Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, employ several aircraft for the first time. The machines will be constantly evaluated for a period of eight weeks as the potential “eyes of the fleet.”

January 11 Business: President-elect Woodrow Wilson declares that American business must “be set absolutely free of every feature of monopoly.”

February 1 Naval: The Naval Postgraduate School opens its doors in the former marine barracks at the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland.

February 2 Architecture: Grand Central Terminal, one of the most elegant and spacious public buildings in the world, officially opens in New York City.

February 9 Diplomacy: Encouraged by U.S. ambassador Henry Lane Wilson, politician Félix Díaz and General Victoriano Huerta begin plotting to overthrow Mexico’s popularly elected reformer, President Francisco I. Madero.

he accompanied the American team to the World Olympics held in Stockholm, Sweden, turning in outstanding performances in field and track. Thorpe’s combined score of 8,413 points was a thousand higher than his nearest competitor and resulted in two gold medals. King Gustav pronounced him “the greatest athlete in the world.” Unfortunately for Thorpe, in 1913 it was learned that he had been paid for playing baseball in North Carolina from 1909 to 1910, which made him a professional athlete and ineligible for his Olympic medals. He made tearful entreaties to keep his awards and claimed he did not knowingly violate any rules, but the awards were returned. Thorpe then played baseball for a few years before signing on in professional football in 1915 with the Canton Bulldogs. Here he turned in another outstanding performance, helping them to win several championships, and

in 1920 he gained appointment as president of the American Professional Football Players Association (today’s National Football League). He then reverted to baseball and concluded his athletic career with the Chicago Cardinals in 1929. Thorpe, however, was beset by alcoholism; he married and divorced several times and languished as a bit player in several obscure Hollywood movies. In 1932 he had his autobiography ghostwritten as Jim Thorpe’s History of the Olympics; he served in the Merchant Marine during World War II and died in relative obscurity in Lomita, California, on March 28, 1953. Four years earlier, he outpolled both Harold “Red” Grange and legendary Babe Ruth for the Associated Press’s choice for greatest football player and greatest male athlete, respectively, of the first half of the 20th century. In 1982 the International Olympic Committee returned Thorpe’s gold medals to his family.

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February 14 Politics: President William Howard Taft vetoes a bill requiring literacy tests for immigrants.

February 17 Arts: The Associations of Painters and Sculptors of New York City organizes the International Exhibition of Modern Art to showcase 1,600 contemporary European works in the United States, with examples of Cubist, abstract, impressionist, and postimpressionist art. Among them is Marcel Duchamp’s Nude Descending a Staircase, which shocks purists. Because the exhibit is held at the 69th Regiment Armory, it will enter the artistic lexicon as the Armory Show, wielding a considerable influence on the subsequent direction of American art and artists.

February 22 Diplomacy: When Mexican president Francisco I. Madero is assassinated by General Victoriano Huerta, President William Howard Taft declines to recognize the new regime until specific concessions are granted to the United States. This does not stop Huerta from gaining diplomatic support from European regimes.

February 25 Labor: William “Big Bill” Haywood of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) leads a strike of silk workers in Paterson, New Jersey, to protest the introduction of multiple looms. The effort will fold after five months with no gain for the participants. Politics: The Sixteenth Amendment is ratified by 38 states and adopted, levying a graduated income tax upon the entire nation without apportionment and on the basis of state population.

February 27 Politics: Former president Theodore Roosevelt coins the expression “lunatic fringe,” in a letter to Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, and applies it to political extremists of every sort.

February 28 Business: A House Banking and Currency Committee headed by Representative Arsene Pujo reports that the concentration of money and power in the hands of “money trusts” is more entrenched than ever, thanks to an internecine web of interlocking directories, shady stock purchases, and other fiscal maneuvering. Consequently, the government embarks on a remedial program of banking and currency reforms to curtail these excesses. The federal banking system is also examined for possible changes.

March 1 Business: The Physical Evaluation Act is passed by Congress, which enables the Interstate Commerce Commission to determine the actual value of railroad property for the purposes of establishing freight rates and property values. Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the Minnesota Rate Case, ruling that states have the power to regulate commerce within their own borders provided regulations do not conflict with federal laws already in place. Politics: Congress overrides President William Howard Taft’s veto of the WebbKenyon Interstate Liquor Act, making it illegal to ship alcoholic liquid to states that have outlawed them. This is a major victory for the Anti-Saloon League.

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March 2 Aviation: Given the inherent risk of flying, the army establishes flight pay at 35 percent over the usual base pay for prescribed aviation duties. At this juncture only 30 officers receive this emolument.

March 3 Women: A parade of 5,000 women marches through Washington, D.C., demanding suffrage rights; it is set upon by rowdies and other malingerers. The effort is timed for the day before Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration to gain national attention for their cause.

March 4 Politics: Woodrow Wilson is inaugurated president of the United States. Like Theodore Roosevelt, he is a reformer intent upon drastic and meaningful changes for the betterment of average people, a program he entitles the “New Freedom.” Congress splits the Department of Commerce and Labor in half, granting both cabinet status. A Board of Mediation and Conciliation is also established to promote labor peace.

March 5 Aviation: In response to a possible border crisis with Mexico, the 1st Provisional Aero Squadron formed with five pilots, seven Wright pushers, and 21 enlisted men at Augusta, Georgia. The unit will be shipped to Texas City, Texas, for additional training before field operations.

Suffragists marching in New York City, 1913 (Library of Congress)

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Wilson, Woodrow (1856 –1924) President Thomas Woodrow Wilson was born in Staunton, Virginia, on December 28, 1856, the son of a Presbyterian minister. He inherited from his father stern moral convictions and a personal sense of mission that defined his entire life. Wilson passed through Princeton University in 1879, studied law, and opened a successful practice in Atlanta, Georgia, before receiving his doctorate in history from Johns Hopkins University in 1886. He subsequently taught at Princeton and rose to become president of that institution in 1902. In 1910 he received the Democratic nomination for the governorship, which he easily won, and pursued an agenda of modernization and reform. Wilson proved successful and popular, so in 1912 he received the party’s nomination for the presidency. When former president Theodore Roosevelt also ran against incumbent William Howard Taft, and split the Republicans, Wilson was elected to the White House. Once in office, he embraced

Thomas Woodrow Wilson (Library of Congress) the notion of strong executive action and enacted a reform-minded agenda includ-

Medical: Dr. Harry E. Harvey is the first certified dentist to serve with a naval vessel when he is berthed aboard the hospital ship USS Solace. Naval: In Washington, D.C., Josephus Daniels gains appointment as the 41st secretary of the navy; shortly afterward he names Franklin D. Roosevelt his assistant secretary. Politics: President Woodrow Wilson appoints Democratic Party stalwart William Jennings Bryan to serve as his new secretary of state. Despite his high recognition in the party, he is little qualified for the role.

March 6 Aviation: During winter naval maneuvers at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, a C-1 flying boat piloted by Lieutenant John H. Towers and Ensign Godfrey DeC. Chevalier successfully performs spotting and reconnaissance flights in concert with surface vessels. In this instance they espy a column of battleships and alert a squadron of destroyers, who then attack.

March 11 Diplomacy: In a major policy speech, President Woodrow Wilson voices his disapproval of the brutal regime of General Victoriano Huerta in Mexico. This

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ing a revised tariff, the Federal Reserve Act, and imposition of the first federal income tax. But his domestic agenda was quickly dominated by foreign affairs, first in 1914 when he dispatched naval forces to Veracruz, Mexico, in retaliation for the seizure of American sailors, and then directly into Mexico proper in 1916 to pursue the bloody guerrilla forces of Pan-­ cho Villa. But Wilson’s biggest challenge was steering the United States down a neutral course in World War I, especially after 128 American lives were lost during the sinking of the British liner Lusitania. After the resumption of unrestricted sub-­ marine warfare against American shipping by Germany in 1917, Wilson asked for and received a declaration of war. Over the next year and a half the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) under General John J. Pershing proved decisive in the ensuing German defeat on the Western Front, after which Kaiser Wilhelm II abdi-­ cated and sued for peace. Wilson’s entrenched sense of idealism prompted him to personally represent the

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United States in the Paris Peace Talks, where he advocated a groundwork for last-­ ing peace through adoption of his “Four-­ teen Points.” These political principles were intended to enshrine self-­determination among all peoples, fix national boundaries, and also create a permanent international body to halt future outbreaks of violence by arbitration. However, the Allies were far more focused upon exacting puni-­ tive measures against Germany and Aus-­ tria, and Wilson was largely ignored. In 1919 he suffered a bigger defeat when the Republican-­dominated Congress blocked his attempt to have the United States join the newly created League of Nations. Felled by a stroke and declining in health, Wilson hobbled to the end of his adminis-­ tration and was succeeded by Republican Warren G. Harding in 1921. His vision of an international peacekeeping body barely materialized, but in 1919 he received the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts. Wilson died in Washington, D.C., on February 3, 1924, a headstrong moralist but an effec-­ tive chief executive.

position is much to the disgust of Ambassador Henry Wilson in Mexico City, who ardently champions the new regime. Wilson also terminates the practice of “dol-­ lar diplomacy” by withdrawing American support for special business interests in foreign lands.

March 12–April 21 Labor: A strike by 150,000 garment workers begins in New York City to pro-­ test long hours and low wages; it gradually spreads to Boston and will favora-­ bly be settled with recognition of the International Ladies Garment Worker’s Union.

March 18 Diplomacy: President Woodrow Wilson terminates American participation in the international loan consortium bankrolling railroads and other projects in China, citing that nation’s loss of “administrative independence.” Wilson also feels that better service will be rendered to China by first recognizing the repub-­ lic under President Yuan Shih-­k’ai. In this he is supported by J. V. A. McMurray, head of the State Department’s Far Eastern Division.

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March 21–26 General: The Ohio River floods Â�low-­lying land in Ohio and Indiana, killing 700 people, leaving 200,000 homeless, and inflicting $175 million in damages. Dayton, Ohio, is particularly hard hit when the Miami River overflows its banks. Subsequently, the Army Corps of Engineers will be permanently assigned to flood control and to assist in rescue operations.

April 7 Naval: The USS Jupiter becomes the navy’s first Â�electrically Â�powered vessel in commission; in 1922 it will be converted into the USS Langley (CV-­1), the nation’s first aircraft carrier.

April 8 Politics: President Woodrow Wilson becomes the first chief executive to address Congress in person since John Adams in 1800, and he outlines a new tariff pro-­ gram that is favorably received. The practice had stopped when Thomas Jefferson had his report read by a clerk.

April 10 Aviation: Per�for�mance standards are established by the secretary of the navy for the new qualification of Navy Air Pi�lot.

April 19 Societal: The California legislature passes the Webb Act, or Alien Land Act, which forbids aliens from either owning or leasing arable land for more than three years. Though not mentioned specifically, the mea�sure is aimed at Japa�nese immigrants and adopted over the protests of President Woodrow Wilson. Sports: Fritz Carlson wins the 17th Boston Marathon with a time of two hours, 25 minutes, 14 seconds.

April 24 Architecture: The new Woolworth Building, the largest for its day at 55 stories and 792 feet in height, opens in New York City. The imposing structure has been designed by Cass Gilbert with a distinctly Gothic flair. Moreover, its cost of $13.5 million has been borne entirely by the Woolworth Company, a sign of their com-­ mercial success. Diplomacy: Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan secures 21 arbitration treaties from countries sworn to abstain from war until their cases can be argued before an international commission. No hostile action can be taken before the commission, which is granted an entire year to study each problem, issues its report.

May 2 Diplomacy: The United States is the first Western power to extend official recog-­ nition to the new Republic of China, under the dictatorial president Yuan Â�ShihÂ�k’ai. President Wilson’s decision Â�here is heavily influenced by the opinions of Christian missionaries living and working in China.

May 10 General: Congress designates the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day. Sports: The 39th annual Kentucky Derby is won by Â�Donerail—a 91 to 1 Â�longshot— who finishes first after two minutes, four seconds.

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May 14 General: Business tycoon John D. Rockefeller funds the Rockefeller Foundation, chartered by the New York State legislature, with an initial endowment of $100 million. This is one of the biggest donations in the history of philanthropy and is designed to assist international aid efforts.

May 19 Civil: The Webb Alien Land-Holding Bill, which outlaws Japanese immigrants in California from owning land, is signed into law by California governor Hiram W. Johnson. This move not only earns him the ire of the Japanese government, but also angers President Woodrow Wilson, who is concerned with improving international relations.

May 20 Sports: The 38th annual Preakness Stakes is won by Buskin, who finishes in one minute, 53 seconds.

May 30 Sports: Frenchman Jules Goux wins the third annual Indianapolis 500, finishing the course in five hours, 35 minutes, and five seconds at an average speed of 75.93 miles per hour.

May 31 Politics: Buoyed by a rising tide of populism, the Seventeenth Amendment is handily ratified by the states; this allows for the direct election of senators by voters. Previously, they had been chosen by state legislatures; this move will enhance popular control of the “Millionaire’s Club.”

June 2 Labor: Backed by Labor Department mediation, a strike involving railroad clerks and the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad is resolved.

June 9 Military: The U.S. Army establishes the curiously named School for Musketry at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, a precursor to the Infantry School.

June 13 Military: The 8th U.S. Infantry and Philippine Scouts under Captain John J. Pershing capture the final Moro stronghold at Bud Bagsak on Jolo Island, effectively crushing the rebellion at the cost of 27 casualties. Pershing himself leads at the front and greatly distinguishes himself in combat, although critics will charge he perpetrated a massacre. Sports: The 45th annual Belmont Stakes is won by Prince Eugene with a time of two minutes, 18 seconds.

June 14 Sports: The U.S. Lawn Tennis Association singles championships are won by Maurice K. McLaughlin and Mary K. Browne in their respective divisions.

June 19 Business: The U.S. Supreme Court decides that Minnesota may establish railroad rates within its own borders, provided that they do not conflict with federal laws regarding interstate commerce.

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June 20 Aviation: Over Annapolis, Maryland, Ensign William D. Billingsley is thrown from his Wright B-2 aircraft at 1,500 feet and plummets to his death, becoming the navy’s first aviation-related fatality. His passenger, Lieutenant J. H. Towers, is also tossed overboard but manages to cling to the craft until it crashes in the water, and he is seriously injured. In consequence safety belts will become standard equipment on all naval aircraft.

June 21 Aviation: In Los Angeles, California, Georgia Broadwick becomes the first woman to successfully parachute from an airplane.

June 23 Business: President Woodrow Wilson urges Congress to enact sweeping banking and currency reforms.

June 30 General: Thousands of Civil War veterans, Union and Confederate alike, commiserate at the carefully preserved battlefield of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on the battle’s 50th anniversary.

July 1 Labor: In Massachusetts, the nation’s first minimum wage law goes into effect. Transportation: The Lincoln Highway Association is formed for the purpose of promoting a direct road link between New York City and San Francisco, California.

July 7 Naval: A U.S. Marine detachment from the cruiser USS Albany lands at Shanghai, China, to protect American lives and property.

July 25–28 Sports: In Wimbledon, England, an American tennis team wins the Davis Cup, defeating a British team for the honors, three matches to two.

August 16 Diplomacy: Mexican president Victoriano Huerta rejects President Woodrow Wilson’s proposed armistice to stop the ongoing fighting in his country.

August 26 Engineering: The mile-long Keokuk hydroelectric dam, then the world’s largest, is finished across the Mississippi River at Keokuk, Iowa, to assist in flood control measures and to provide electric power to a large area.

August 27 Diplomacy: In light of continuing revolutionary turmoil in Mexico, President Woodrow Wilson still declines to recognize the reactionary regime of General Victoriano Huerta and instead adopts an official policy of “watchful waiting.” This is based on the general’s refusal to schedule free elections and cease brutalizing the Mexican populace. However, this approach contrasts sharply with that of Great Britain, Germany, and France, who readily establish relations.

September Labor: The United Mine Worker’s Union calls a strike against businesses in Colorado that lasts three months and is finally called off after violence and federal intervention.

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September 5–7 Naval: American citizens are evacuated from Ciaris Estero, Mexico, by U.S. Marines from the transport USS Buffalo.

September 12 Arts: Community drama exponent Percy MacKaye presents his Sanctuary, a Bird Masque at ceremonies surrounding the opening of the Meriden Bird Club in Meriden, New Hampshire.

September 19 Sports: Francis Ouimet wins the U.S. Open golf tournament in a major upset—he is only 20 years old.

October General: Flooding in southern Texas kills 500 people and inflicts $50 million in property damage.

October 3 Business: At the urging of President Woodrow Wilson, Congress passes the Underwood-Simmons Tariff Act, which reduces protective duties on 958 items while a further 100 become duty- free. Cotton and wool products are especially singled out, sustaining a 50 percent reduction rate and now averaging 27 percent—the first time tariff rates have fallen to below 30 percent since the Civil War. The shortfall in revenues will be made up by the new graduated income tax, which levies a 1 percent tax on corporate incomes of more than $4,000.

October 5 Aviation: At Hammondsport, New York, the navy conducts its first extended trials of amphibian flying boats. These are regular Curtiss A-2 aircraft fitted with a flying boat hull and three-wheeled landing gear.

October 7 Aviation: The secretary of the navy, cognizant of the growing importance of aviation to the fleet, appoints an aeronautical board under Captain Washington Irving Chambers, who strongly pushes for an aeronautical center at Pensacola, Florida. Moreover, an aviation office is established within the secretary’s office and action will begin to equip every capital vessel with at least one scout plane.

October 7–11 Sports: The Philadelphia Athletics (AL) win baseball’s 10th annual World Series by defeating the New York Giants (NL) four games to one.

October 10 Transportation: President Woodrow Wilson hits a button in the White House and ignites explosives at the Gambo Dike, Panama. A centuries-old quest for an easier transit from the Atlantic to the Pacific is at hand as the waters of two oceans intermingle in the man-made channel.

October 15 Women: In Rockville Centre, Long Island, activist Mrs. Wilmer Kearns holds a series of baby shows to overcome the notion that suffragettes are not good mothers.

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October 16 Diplomacy: Governor Francis Burton Harrison of the Philippines determines to appoint a majority of Filipinos to the Philippine Commission that governs the islands.

October 27 Diplomacy: President Woodrow Wilson, pressured by the business lobby to intervene in the Mexican Revolution to protect American investments and property, solemnly declares that the United States “will never again seek one additional foot of territory by conquest.” Sports: The heretofore little-known football team from Notre Dame University trounces the Army team, 35–13, through the unique forward-passing abilities of Gus Dorais and Knute Rockne.

November 7 Diplomacy: In the face of spiraling instability in Mexico, President Woodrow Wilson unsuccessfully requests that the regime of General Victoriano Huerta abdicate. Huerta summarily refuses to comply.

November 13 Diplomacy: To avoid tension with the United States, Great Britain’s foreign minister, Sir Edward Grey, adopts President Woodrow Wilson’s policy of “watchful waiting” before conferring complete recognition upon General Huerta. The British, cognizant of the potentially explosive situation in Europe, do not wish to alienate a powerful ally in any war with Germany and its allies.

November 24 Diplomacy: President Woodrow Wilson dispatches another diplomatic note requesting that General Victoriano Huerta resign from power. When he refuses, the Americans declare their intention not to impede arms shipments to the rebels fighting the government.

December Media: English comedian and pantomime actor Charlie Chaplin joins Mack Sennett’s Keystone Film Company, where he begins to develop his legendary “Tramp” character for the silver screen.

December 10 General: Elihu Root, now serving as president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, wins the Nobel Peace Prize.

December 23 Business: A reform-minded Congress passes the Owen-Glass Federal Reserve Act, creating a bank note currency more responsive to a rapidly changing marketplace. The act also creates 12 regional Federal Reserve banks and requires all national banks to join the system by depositing two-thirds of their reserves in a common account. State financial institutions may join if they wish. The entire system falls under the aegis of a newly installed Federal Reserve Board of seven members, tasked with preventing speculators from upsetting the national economy. This is the most sweeping reform of the national currency and finance system since 1863 and is aimed at curbing the influence of the de facto Wall Street “trust.”

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December 30 Communication: A naval station at Arlington, Virginia, successfully picks up a wireless radio message broadcast from the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France, further demonstrating the viability of instantaneous global communication. The transmission in question flashed at Paris time, 6:40 a.m.

1914 Arts: The Whitney Studio Club is established in New York City as a gathering place for artists and a gallery for their latest work.

Frost, Robert Lee

(1874–1963)

Poet Robert Lee Frost was born in San Francisco, California, on March 26, 1874, the son of a handyman. His father died at an early age and the family returned east to live with their grandparents in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Frost proved himself adept as a student and graduated as class valedictorian in 1892, but his academic career proved spotty and he dropped out of Dartmouth College after one semester. By 1894 he had published a few poems in local newspapers, but spent the next few years performing odd jobs as a teacher, mill worker, and reporter. Frost next gained admission into Harvard University in 1897 and performed well before dropping out in 1899 to tend to family needs. In 1900 his grandfather provided him with a farm in Derry, New Hampshire, where he proceeded to creatively absorb the local surroundings and vernacular dialect of the inhabitants. After 12 years of farming in obscurity, he moved with his family to England in 1912, and befriended such literary luminaries as Ezra Pound. Frost finally took to composing poetry full time the following year, and his volume, entitled A Boy’s Will, was well received in England and praised by critics in America. This success was followed by a new volume in 1914, North of Boston, which established him as

one of the world’s great poets overnight. Frost employed a unique system of writing in deceptively simple composition—it very much resembled daily conversation— yet proffered a rich and colorful descriptive power. Moreover, it was uniquely and invariably centered around his rural New England background and employed distinctively ornate “heroic couplets,” Frost’s mastery of which distinguished him as a great innovator. But more than anything else, he stuck to his distinctly American and traditional format in an age of internationalized and experimental styles of poetry. Frost returned to the United States in 1915, whereupon he received many offers of professorships, fellowships, or residencies at numerous universities, including Michigan, Dartmouth, and Harvard. But he was mostly preoccupied by living on his farm and writing award-winning volumes of poetry such as West-running Brook (1928), A Further Range (1936), and In the Clearing (1962). So highly regarded had Frost’s writing become that he received no less than four Pulitzer Prizes for poetry (1924, 1931, 1937, and 1943), the most ever received by a poet. And, as one of the most honored poets (continues)

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(continued) of the 20th century, Frost also obtained no less than 40 honorary degrees and he embarked on several goodwill trips around the world at the behest of the State Department. His poetry improved with age and accolades kept pouring in; in 1958 he was made poetry consultant to the Library of

Congress and in 1962 Congress voted him a gold medal. One of his last public appearances was at the inauguration of John F. Kennedy in 1961, whereupon he recited his work, “The Gift Outright.” Frost died in Boston on January 29, 1963, widely applauded as one of the world’s poet laureates.

Literature: Robert Frost gains international recognition when his compilation of poems, North of Boston, is published. Poet Vachel Lindsay publishes The Congo and Other Poems, calling attention to his penchant for strong rhythms; he is becoming the acknowledged leader of the new poetry movement. T. S. Eliot settles in England and will remain there until 1932, by which time he will be widely regarded as one of the 20th century’s leading poets. Aspiring poet Joyce Kilmer publishes her noted composition “Trees.” Media: Actor Chauncey Yellow Robe, a Lakota Sioux Indian, addresses a meeting of the Society of American Indians (SAI) and openly criticizes the depiction of Native Americans in recent films, especially The Indian Wars Refought (1914), produced by a film company owned by William “Buffalo Bill” Cody. Music: John Alden Carpenter composes “Adventures in a Perambulator,” a descriptive suite with distinctly modern tendencies. African-American composer W. C. Handy, unable to find a white publisher for his work “St. Louis Blues,” publishes it on his own accord and founds the first blackowned and operated music company. His activities, and those of others, are nationalizing and popularizing the unique musical genre of American blues and jazz. Publishing: Former light bulb vendor Edgar Rice Burroughs publishes the first novel in his soon to be famous Tarzan of the Apes series. Reporter John Reed published his eyewitness account, entitled Insurgent Mexico. Former president Theodore Roosevelt publishes an account of his South American exploring expedition in Through the Brazilian Wilderness. Progressive politics receives a national mouthpiece when reformer Herbert Croley publishes and edits The Republic magazine, assisted by Walter Lippmann. Progressive historian Charles Austin Beard continues his assault on historical orthodoxy by publishing his The Economic Origins of Jeffersonian Democracy. Lieutenant George S. Patton, presently master of the sword at the Mounted Service School at Fort Riley, Kansas, writes the manual Saber Regulations as a standard military text. Science: Inventor Robert H. Goddard receives a patent for a liquid-fueled rocket, powered by a combination of liquid ether and oxygen, although actual flight testing will not commence until 1926.

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Societal: The waltz and the two-step are quickly replacing the graceful cotillion as the most fashionable dances of high society. Sports: Army wins the national college football championship with nine wins, no losses, no ties. Yale University opens the Yale Bowl, the first great football stadium, with a seating capacity of 80,000. The Cleveland Spiders rename themselves the Cleveland Indians in honor of the late Louis Sockalexis, the first Native American to play professional baseball. Technology: In Detroit, Michigan, the Cadillac car company develops the first V-8 automobile engine, with eight cylinders working a single crankshaft. Transportation: Between “Aug. 14, 1914 to Aug. 13, 1915” 1,108 ships pass through the newly opened Panama Canal, confirming its utility as a strategic commercial asset.

January 1 Aviation: In Tampa, Florida, Tony Jannus opens the first commercial airline to conduct regular runs between that city and St. Petersburg, a distance of 46 miles. He operates only two small flying boats and business flourishes only through March—the end of tourist season. Military: The U.S. Army turns over administration of Moro Province, Philippines, to civil authorities. Naval: Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels institutes mandatory off-duty education for all enlisted men in an attempt to raise academic standards. He subsequently starts the practice of allowing 100 enlisted men to compete for entry into the U.S. Naval Academy yearly.

January 3 Communication: The United States and Germany establish direct wireless communications.

January 7 Aviation: The 1st Aero Squadron, U.S. Army, is formally organized by the chief of signals at San Diego, California, with eight airplanes, 20 officers, and 90 men. Transportation: The vessel Alexander La Valley becomes the first ship to pass through the entire length of the Panama canal; the Canal will open officially on August 14.

January 13 Transportation: Orville Wright is awarded an important airplane balancing patent at the expense of Glenn H. Curtiss, another early aircraft manufacturer.

January 20 Aviation: The naval aviation force arrives at Pensacola, Florida, and consists of nine officers, 23 enlisted men, and seven aircraft. The latter have to utilize tents to protect them from the sunshine and the station’s regular facilities are in disrepair. Business: President Woodrow Wilson appeals to Congress for strengthened antitrust laws. Law: A circuit court of appeals overturns a Wisconsin law that bases marriage on eugenics (selective reproduction for desirable genetic traits).

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January 27 Diplomacy: An executive order by President Woodrow Wilson establishes a permanent civil government for the Panama Canal Zone.

January 28–February 9 Naval: U.S. Marines from the battleship USS South Carolina, accompanied by forces from Britain, France, and Germany, land at Port-au-Prince, Haiti, as part of an international peacekeeping force.

February 3 Diplomacy: President Woodrow Wilson, eager to assist Mexican Constitutionalists in their struggle against the bloody dictator, General Victoriano Huerta, agrees to ship them arms without condition or concession.

February 4 Diplomacy: George Goethals is appointed by Congress as first governor of the Panama Canal Zone’s permanent civil government.

February 13 Music: Victor Herbert and others help found the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) at the Hotel Claridge, New York City, and Herbert is tapped as the first director. The rising commercial viability of published music requires greater monitoring and collection of residuals than ever before.

February 16 Naval: Congress creates a national naval militia force to supplement the standing establishment in wartime.

Sanger, Margaret

(1883–1966)

Reformer Margaret Higgins was born in Corning, New York, on September 14, 1883, into a large Catholic household. Her free-thinking father greatly influenced her outlook on life before his early death. She then completed nurse training at the White Plains Hospital, New York, and in 1900 she married William Sanger, keeping his name after they divorced some time later. As a nurse, Sanger worked exclusively in New York City’s povertystricken East Side, and she was especially moved by the hardships of poor women with more children than they could adequately care for. She was especially horrified by the numerous deaths occasioned by self-induced abortions. Their suffering prompted her to join the Socialist Party and she began advo-

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cating various birth control methods. She also published articles on women’s health for the radical newspaper The Call, along with books such as What Every Girl Should Know (1916) and What Every Mother Should Know (1917). However, her attempt to publicly disseminate such knowledge was thwarted by the 1872 Comstock Act, which classed birth control information with obscene matter and outlawed it. Nevertheless, in 1913 she began publishing her family planning magazine Woman Rebel, and produced six issues before she was indicted for trafficking obscene publications in the mails. Sanger subsequently fled to Europe to escape prosecution, and returned only after the indictment had been lifted by the

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March Journalism: Margaret Sanger’s feminist newspaper The Woman Rebel is mailed this month to 2,000 subscribers.

March 12 Naval: The new battleship USS Texas is placed in commission; this future veteran of World War II fighting resides today at San Jacinto, Texas, as a war memorial.

March 15 Diplomacy: President Woodrow Wilson, reacting to British complaints that the 1912 Panama Canal Act, allowing American vessels free passage through the Canal Zone, violates the previous Hay-Pauncefote Treaty, asks for its repeal.

March 21 Sports: Canadian Norman N. Scott wins the U.S. figure skating championship for men, while the women’s title goes to Bostonian Theresa Weld.

March 23 Military: A fire sweeps through horse stables at the Cavalry School at Fort Riley, Kansas, killing 29 animals.

April Media: Director Mack Sennett begins production of America’s first six-reel motion picture, Tillie’s Punctured Romance, starring Marie Dressler and Charlie Chaplin.

New York Court of Appeals. Emboldened, she next founded the National Birth Control League in 1914, followed by the nation’s first abortion clinic in Brownsville, New York, in 1917. This act resulted in her arrest for creating a public nuisance, but another favorable ruling from the Court of Appeals legalized the right of doctors to counsel patients as to birth control. Increasing public support for Sanger’s stance on reproductive rights led her to organize various birth control conventions in the United States and elsewhere, and by 1921 she had established the Birth Control Conference in New York City. This led, in rapid succession, to the founding of the National Committee on Federal Legislation for Birth Control in 1928 and the Birth Control Federation of America in 1939, which merged

to become the Planned Parenthood Association in 1942. In 1927 she also addressed the first World Population Control Conference in Geneva, Switzerland, which garnered her worldwide fame. Sanger, always eager to extend the benefits of her crusade to women around the world, organized the new International Planned Parenthood Federation in 1947 and was elected its president in 1953. In this capacity, she undertook highly visible and successful tours of Japan and India to promote contraceptive devices on a global scale. True to her socialist leanings, Sanger opposed American participation in World War II and believed wars were the by-product of population surpluses. Sanger, an ardent champion of a woman’s right to choose, died in Tucson, Arizona, on September 6, 1966.

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April 1 Diplomacy: The Isthmian Canal Commission of Panama is replaced by a permanent civilian government under George W. Goethals.

April 2 Military: In Washington, D.C., General William W. Wootherspoon is chosen to serve as the new army chief of staff.

April 6 Diplomacy: The United States and Colombia try their hand at rapprochement by signing the Thomson Urrutin Treaty, which clears up any lingering “misunderstandings” from the Panamanian revolt and also pays the Colombians a $25 million indemnity. In return, the Colombians recognize Panama’s independence. However, the U.S. Senate torpedoes the proposal by refusing to apologize for American actions in Central America, despite ratification by its Colombian counterpart.

April 9 Diplomacy: President Woodrow Wilson has refused to recognize the violent regime of Mexico’s General Victoriano Huerta, which was never elected to power. Consequently, when a boatload of American sailors from the USS Dolphin go ashore at Tampico to purchase supplies, they are arrested by Mexican authorities and briefly detained. The local commander, General Morelos Zaragoza, orders the captives released and apologizes to the U.S. consul there. However, and without authorization, Admiral Henry T. Mayo, commanding the Atlantic Fleet’s Fourth Division, demands a 21-gun salute to the American flag by his Mexican hosts. Tensions between the two nations increase. President Wilson has been handed a convenient pretext for directly intervening in Mexico’s civil war on behalf of the Constitutionalists.

April 10 Medical: Dr. Alexis Carrel performs a successful heart operation on an animal while also suspending its blood circulation for several minutes—a major medical advance with implications for human surgery.

April 11 Diplomacy: The Mexican leader, General Victoriano Huerta, refusing to bow to Admiral Henry J. Mayo’s demand for a 21-gun salute to the flag, simply apologizes for the temporary seizure of American sailors.

April 14 Naval: President Woodrow Wilson, feeling obliged to support Admiral Henry T. Mayo, orders the Atlantic Fleet into Tampico Bay. He also gives the Mexican government until April 18 to fire an official salute to the American flag as penance.

April 16 Labor: Jacob S. Coxey organizes another “army” to march on Washington, D.C., on behalf of unemployed workers. He organized the first such march in 1894.

April 19 Diplomacy: President Woodrow Wilson ignores pressure from European nations, which have invested heavily in Mexico, to recognize the regime of General Victoriano Huerta, and asks Congress for authority to use military force to gain Mexican compliance. He will receive it three days later.

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April 20 Labor: In Ludlow, Colorado, National Guard troops fire into striking miners, killing 18. Labor officials condemn the act as cold-blooded murder, but state officials maintain they were simply trying to maintain order. Sports: Canadian James Duffy wins the 18th Boston Marathon with a time of two hours, 25 minutes, one second.

April 21–22 Naval: A U.S. Navy force lands 800 marines and sailors under Admiral Frank Friday Fletcher at Veracruz, Mexico, seizing control of all customs facilities and cutting off the regime of General Victoriano Huerta from German arms shipments. Street and roof fighting costs the Americans 17 dead and 63 wounded to a Mexican tally of 126 killed and 195 injured. No less than 55 Congressional Medals of Honor will be awarded, the highest number ever for a single action. Moreover, international pressure begins building on Huerta to resign from power and leave the country.

April 22 Diplomacy: The regime of General Victoriano Huerta breaks off diplomatic relations with the United States for its intervention at Veracruz.

April 25 Aviation: In the Gulf of Mexico, Lieutenant Patrick N. L. Bellinger flies his AB-3 flying boat from the battleship USS Mississippi and heads over the occupied city of Veracruz to scout for mines in the harbor. This is the first American aircraft operating in a combat zone. Diplomacy: To avert all-out war between the United States and Mexico, President Woodrow Wilson accepts an offer by the ABC Powers (Argentina, Brazil, Chile) to mediate the difficulties between them. He also hopes to use their influence to remove the Huerta regime from power. Military: In light of heightened tensions along the Mexican border, officers enrolled in cavalry and artillery courses at Fort Riley, Kansas, are hurriedly graduated and sent back to their parent units.

April 28 Military: President Woodrow Wilson orders U.S. Army troops to cross the Mexican border and restore order in Tampico, Mexico, where American sailors have been seized and harassed.

May 2 Military: General Frederick Funston is appointed commander of all American forces presently occupying Veracruz, Mexico. His force consists of 3,607 soldiers and 3,446 marines.

May 5–6 Military: Captain Douglas MacArthur leads a daring, nighttime reconnaissance through the lines outside Veracruz, Mexico, and returns with three captured locomotives.

May 6 Naval: A reconnaissance flight by Lieutenant Patrick N. L. Bellinger takes antiaircraft fire over Veracruz, Mexico, which wounds his observer, Lieutenant Richard C. Saufley—America’s first aerial casualty.

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May 8 Education: The Smith-Lever Act passes Congress, allowing the Department of Agriculture and land grant colleges to help establish systematized education for those engaged in agriculture. Funding for the program is split between the federal government and state agencies.

May 7 Societal: President Woodrow Wilson signs legislation denoting the second day of May as Mother’s Day and urges countrymen to display the U.S. flag to express “our love and reverence for mothers and country.”

May 9 Sports: The 40th annual Kentucky Derby is won by Old Rosebud, who finishes in a record two minutes, three seconds.

May 20–June 30 Diplomacy: The ABC Arbitration Commission, gathered to settle the ongoing dispute between the United States and Mexico, rejects the American claim for indemnity payments but also calls upon General Huerta to resign from power.

May 21 Sports: The 39th annual Preakness Stakes is won by Holiday, who finishes in one minute, 53 seconds.

May 29 Literature: Author Edgar Lee Masters publishes his first effort at poetry in the magazine Reedey’s Mirror.

May 30 Science: Lassen Peak in California’s Sierra Nevada range erupts with steam plumes and ash, becoming North America’s sole active volcano. Sports: Rene Thomas wins the fourth annual Indianapolis 500 in six hours, three minutes, 45 seconds and with an average speed of 82.47 miles per hour.

June 11 Diplomacy: In a move calculated to placate Great Britain, Congress repeals the 1912 Panama Canal Act, which granted American vessels an exemption from tolls levied upon everyone else.

June 13 Sports: The U.S. Lawn Tennis Association singles championships are won by Norris Williams II and Mary K. Browne in their respective divisions.

June 20 Sports: The 46th annual Belmont Stakes is won by Luke McLuke, who crosses the finish line in two minutes, 20 seconds.

June 28 Diplomacy: In Sarajevo, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, crown prince of the AustroHungarian Empire, is assassinated by Serbian fanatic Gavrilo Princip, prompting the empire to deliver an ultimatum to Serbia. The path to the charnel house called the “Great War” will begin on July 28, when the empire declares war on Serbia.

July 1 Aviation: In Washington, D.C., the Office of Naval Aeronautics is constituted to facilitate the future development of aerial operations within that branch. Captain

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Mark L. Bristol will gain eventual appointment as the first “Director of Aeronautics” that fall. Naval: Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels orders all wine rations to be eliminated from flag and wardroom messes on all U.S. vessels.

July 11 Naval: The new battleship USS Nevada, the first naval vessel to utilize fuel oil for propulsion, slides off the way at Quincy, Massachusetts. This is an enhanced design capable of bringing more firepower–10 14-inch guns—to bear on targets than previous ships of its class.

July 15 Diplomacy: Mexican general Victoriano Huerta resigns from power and abandons the country to the Constitutionalists, just as the ABC mediation commission meets at Niagara Falls. Because their services are no longer needed, the commission will disband.

July 18 Aviation: The new Aviation Section is instituted as part of the Army Signal Corps at an assigned strength of six aircraft, 67 officers, and 260 enlisted personnel. It is tasked with supervising all aeronautical activities conducted by the army, including balloons, airplanes, and the signaling apparatuses employed.

July 27 Diplomacy: President Woodrow Wilson intervenes in the Santo Domingo civil war by appointing John Franklin Fort to lead the Fort Commission there to bring about new elections that will be both “fair and free.” That done, the Americans pledge to recognize the new government and provide security measures to stop the fighting.

July 28 Diplomacy: World War I begins when Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia, setting off an interlocking series of defensive alliances that coalesce as the Triple Alliance (Central Powers) and the Triple Entente (Allies). The United States, perhaps unrealistically, hopes that it can steer a neutral course throughout these proceedings.

July 29 Transportation: The eight-mile-long Cape Cod Canal opens and connects Cape Cod to Buzzard’s Bay, Massachusetts. It also trims the Boston to New York sail by 75 miles.

July 31 Business: The London Stock Exchange closes due to the onset of hostilities in Europe, and is closely followed by the American Stock Exchange. Soon all major stock exchanges, worldwide, will have closed.

August 1 Military: Kaiser Wilhelm II, unable to prevent Russia from mobilizing its vast army, declares war on the czar but also orders the major part of his army to tramp through neutral Belgium and toward France.

August 3 Diplomacy: The Great War—not to become known as World War I until 1934—rapidly expands as Germany declares war on France. The French, thirsting to avenge their humiliation in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, readily pick up the gauntlet.

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Chronology of American History Engineering: Army engineer, Colonel George W. Goethals, completes construction work on the Panama Canal six months ahead of schedule, a monumental task facilitated by the elimination of malaria and yellow fever from the region by Colonel William Gorgas.

August 4 Diplomacy: Great Britain, alarmed by the kaiser’s aggression and enjoying a defensive treaty with France and Russia, declares war on Germany. Earlier in the decade, Britain might have remained neutral save for the existence of Imperial Germany’s powerful navy, which is a direct challenge to British control of the sea. Meanwhile, President Woodrow Wilson signs the first of 10 proclamations of neutrality and also tenders his services as a mediator to the warring powers.

August 5 Diplomacy: The United States under President Woodrow Wilson declares its neutrality, as it had during the Napoleonic conflagration of a century ago, but also proffers the president’s services as a mediator. The United States concludes the Bryan-Chamorro Treaty with Nicaragua, obtaining the right to build a canal there, with a 99-year lease, for $3 million. The Americans also obtain the right to construct a naval base in the Gulf of Fonseca. However, the Senate strikes clauses permitting the United States to have stewardship over Nicaragua’s foreign affairs.

August 6 Diplomacy: After Austria-Hungary declares war on Russia, Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan appeals to all European powers to observe the 1901 Declaration of London, which declares the sea lanes open to neutral shipping and that neutral shipping is to be protected. However, the rules say nothing about submarines—a lapse the Germans are fully capable of exploiting. The government also dispatches $5 million in gold to assist Americans stranded in Europe by the fighting. Military: Denis Patrick Dowd, Jr., sails to France and joins the French Foreign Legion, in effect, becoming the first American to fight in World War I. He will ultimately fly in the Lafayette Escardrille and die in a plane crash in 1916. Naval: The cruiser USS Tennessee is loaded with $5.8 million in bullion and sent to Europe to assist Americans stranded there by the outbreak of war.

August 10–September 6 Journalism: The pro-German weekly newspaper The Fatherland begins publication under George Sylvester Viereck. Military: The army establishes an experimental military training camp at Plattsburgh, New York, to provide for a reserve of trained leaders in wartime.

August 11 Diplomacy: Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan requests that warring European powers and also Japan do not extend their conflict to China and the Pacific region. However, both Great Britain and Japan will readily seize German possessions in China and elsewhere, in the western Pacific.

August 14 Arts: Salisbury Field and Margaret Mayo pen the popular farce Twin Beds, which opens this day at the Fulton Theater in New York with great success. It reflects the growing craze for twin beds and exotic dances like the tango.

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August 15 Diplomacy: Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan informs American financiers like J. P. Morgan that lending money to belligerents is counter to America’s stated policy of neutrality. However, American views on the subject will evolve with time. Sports: An Australian tennis team wins the Davis Cup by defeating the Americans three matches to two. Transportation: An engineering marvel, the Panama Canal opens for commerce only 12 days after a steamer made a preliminary passage. Over 240 million cubic yards of earth have been moved to construct the canal, which cost $366 million, buts its presence shortens the voyage between the American coastlines by 7,000 miles. Disease carried off 6,000 workers over the decade-long construction period.

August 19 Arts: Elmer Rice’s first play, On Trial, opens in New York City, and pioneers the dramatic technique known as the flashback, adding a new dimension to dramatic storytelling. Diplomacy: President Woodrow Wilson again strongly declares American intentions to maintain neutrality and urges Americans to be “impartial in thought as well as action.” Moreover, the country is sharply divided in its sympathies between the Allies (France and Britain) and the Central Powers (Austria-Hungary and Germany).

August 20 Diplomacy: As it had done in the Napoleonic Wars a century earlier, Great Britain issues an order in council respecting trade at sea to curtail the influx to Central Europe of raw materials and other commodities necessary for the German military and economy. This draws ire from the United States over neutrality violations.

August 21 Sports: Walter Hagen wins the U.S. Open golf tournament.

August 23 Diplomacy: Japan, sensing an easy acquisition of foreign territory in China, declares war against Germany.

August 26 Military: The Russian army, ill equipped and led, is disastrously defeated by the Germans at Tannenberg (now in northern Poland), and suffers losses so huge that the czar’s military threat is diminished for the rest of the war.

August 27 Diplomacy: Santo Domingo, then under an American protectorate, elects Dr. Ramon Baez as its provisional president until more permanent elections can be scheduled for the fall.

August 29 Women: In New York City, a parade of 1,500 women, solemnly wearing black armbands, marches down Fifth Avenue to call for peace in Europe.

September 2 Business: The Bureau of War Risk Insurance is established within the Treasury Department to provide up to $5 million in coverage to ships going in harm’s way.

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September 5 Diplomacy: President Woodrow Wilson orders the U.S. Navy to provide wireless stations for direct communication to Europe. This privilege is extended to German diplomats in the United States, despite the fact that they encode their messages. Military: Against all odds, French forces stop the overextended German army along the Marne River; by the end of the year both sides will have dug themselves into elaborate trench systems. On the Western Front the mobile phase of World War I will end and a terrible, three-year period of attrition will begin.

September 15 Military: Another impressive German victory at the Masurian Lakes in presentday Poland further cripples the Russian war effort.

September 26 Business: The five-man Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is established by Congress to identify and eliminate any or all unfair corporate practices affecting interstate commerce, thereby preserving meaningful competition. To avoid any appearance of partisanship, no more than three members may belong to a single party. In practice it is very similar to the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), established earlier to regulate railroads.

September 28 Diplomacy: After the government of Great Britain rejects Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan’s appeal to observe naval rules outlined in the Declaration of London, American ambassador Walter Hines Page protests any contemplated violations of neutrality at sea. No threat of war results from said violations, but the two nations will maintained a constant dialogue to secure a “sense of proportion” for British activities thereof.

October Military: In light of escalating combat along the Mexican border, and the threat of a spillover, elements of the 9th and 10th U.S. Cavalry are dispatched to the town of Naco on the Arizona-Sonora border.

October 9–13 Sports: The Boston Braves (NL) sweep the 11th annual baseball World Series by downing the Philadelphia Athletics (AL) in four straight games.

October 10–12 Naval: The collier USS Jupiter becomes the first U.S. Navy vessel to transit the Panama Canal, en route to Philadelphia from the West Coast.

October 15 Business: Congress passes the Clayton Anti-Trust Act, an important piece of legislation that greatly strengthens unions in their dealings with corporations. The act also outlaws interlocking directorates and any schemes for price fixing that would constitute a monopoly. In sum, the new law updates and strengthens the Sherman Anti-trust Act already on the books. Labor also benefits as boycotts, strikes, and peaceful picketing are no longer subject to court injunctions—a major victory for unions. Diplomacy: President Woodrow Wilson, pressured by financiers with millions of dollars invested in European holdings, reverses himself and declares that he will allow shipments of gold and the extension of credit to European belliger-

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ents. France and Great Britain prove to be the biggest benefactors, along with American farmers, as food will be the largest commodity purchased through credit.

October 16 Diplomacy: With the German army having overrun Belgium in the first few days of the war, American ambassador Brand Whitlock informs the State Department of widespread famine, which promises to be exacerbated with the onset of winter. Herbert Hoover, then in London, begins organizing a food relief effort to avert disaster. By acting in concert with Whitlock and Hugh Gibson, the American liaison in Berlin, a tragedy for the Belgian people will be averted.

October 20 Women: Margaret Sanger, the 35-year-old suffragette, flees New York on a train bound for Montreal after violating the Comstock Law by publishing information about birth control in her newspaper, The Woman Rebel.

October 22 Politics: Congress passes the Revenue Act, which imposes the first graduated income tax on all incomes over $3,000. Funding brought in will offset that lost through tariff reductions in the 1913 Underwood-Simmons Act.

November 2 Naval: Great Britain, responding to increasingly effective attacks by German U-boats, issues the Declaration of London, which renders the North Sea a military area. Henceforth, all neutral shipping plying its sea lanes do so at the risk of search and seizure. The British, while willing to confiscate cargoes, always offer compensation for goods removed, thereby lessening the sting. Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan protests such interference, but Britain is determined to deny Germany any chance of securing valuable military supplies and raw materials by sea.

November 3 General: The Rockefeller Foundation loads $3 million in Christmas gifts, food, and relief materials for the Belgians and other war refugees. Politics: Mid-term elections result in net gains for the Democrats, who now control both chambers of Congress.

November 13 Labor: A two-month-old strike by copper miners in Butte, Montana, collapses after mine officials withdraw recognition from the union involved. Their victory has been abetted by a split in the miners’ union, roughly half of whose members oppose the union’s violent tactics.

November 23 Military: With General Victoriano Huerta gone from power, the United States begins disengaging itself from military commitments in Mexico by withdrawing its expeditionary force under General Frederick Funston from Veracruz. President Woodrow Wilson instructs General Funston to simply depart and not hand power over to any given faction in the city.

December Politics: The National Security League, created to lobby for improved military preparedness, is founded.

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December 7 Naval: Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan dispatches the gunboat USS Machias to Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Once there the vessel will land 50 marines ashore, seize the $500,000 gold reserve of the national bank, and convey it back to New York for safekeeping.

December 8 Music: Irving Berlin writes Watch Your Step, a “syncopated” musical show, and the first of many such productions that will render him a major figure of the American stage and entertainment industry.

December 10 Science: Theodore William Richards, who has completed useful work in the atomic weight of various elements, becomes the first American to win the Nobel Prize in chemistry.

December 14 General: Political cartoonist John Gruelle invents the “Raggedy Ann Doll” for his daughter Marcella, which will subsequently be marketed as a classic children’s toy.

December 24 Aviation: The first German air raid on England serves as a wake-up call for U.S. Army officials, who will commence studying its military implications.

1915 Art: Painter John Martin, a leading devotee of modernism, presents his watercolor Woolworth Building, a trend-setting piece that occasions much commentary. Max Weber finishes his work entitled Chinese Restaurant, heavily imbued with Oriental art techniques; it is savaged by more conservative art critics. The Provincetown Players is founded in Massachusetts by a coterie of artists and writers under George Cram Crook; in time they will emerge as the nation’s most innovative theater group and wield considerable impact. Sculptor James Earle Fraser renders his noted piece End of the Trail at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. It depicts a slumping and exhausted Plains Indian warrior in such vivid detail and symbolism that it wins a gold medal in the art competition. Education: Emory University is chartered by Methodists in Atlanta, Georgia, assisted by a $1 million grant from Asa Griggs Candler of Coca-Cola fame. Henry Roe Cloud founds the Roe Indian School in Wichita, Kansas, the only prep school for Native Americans. Roe himself is a Yale University graduate and also a member of the Winnebago. General: During a rather tedious debate in the U.S. Senate, Vice President Thomas R. Marshall famously quips, “What the country really needs is a good five-cent cigar.” Labor: The first Mohawk steelworkers are hired to help construct Hell’s Gate Bridge in New York City; several will settle in Brooklyn as steelworkers. Literature: Edgar Lee Masters publishes his collection of short stories entitled Spoon River Anthology, which marks him as a major literary figure. Medical: Joseph Goldberger of the U.S. Public Health Service discovers that certain vitamin deficiencies are behind the condition known as pellagra.

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Science: The government sets aside an eight-acre tract of land in northern Colorado and Utah to establish Dinosaur National Monument. This will prove to be one of the greatest paleontological treasure troves in the world, and in 1938 it will be expanded to encompass 200,000 acres. Sports: Cornell wins the national college football championship with nine wins, no losses, no ties. In Cambridge, Massachusetts, Norman Tabler sets a new record for the mile run by finishing in four minutes, 12.6 seconds, two seconds faster than the previous record. Ty Cobb, a ferocious hitter with the Detroit Tigers, also steals 96 bases this season, making him the greatest base-stealer in baseball history.

Cobb, Ty

(1886–1961)

Athlete Tyrus Raymond Cobb was born in Narrow Banks County, Georgia, on December 18, 1886, the son of a school administrator and politician. He developed an interest in baseball while residing in nearby Royston and joined the South Atlantic League’s Augusta baseball team in 1904. Cobb did so over family objections, but, in so much as he had been playing sandlot ball most of his childhood, his decision was irreversible. In short order he established himself as an outstanding hitter and an adroit base stealer, winning local accolades as the “Georgia Peach.” And, at a time when the game was dominated by pitching, Cobb was endowed with a hitting average of .300 per season—unheard of for its time. The turning point in his career happened on August 27, 1905, when he left the minors and signed up with the Detroit Tigers, where he remained for the next 21 years. Again, Cobb gained national renown for his hitting, with an all-time average of .411 in 1911, and remained the game’s star gate attraction for two straight decades. He so dominated baseball during the decade 1909–19 that sports scholars refer to this period as the “Cobbian game.” Ironically, throughout his tenure, the Tigers routinely were in contention for the World Series—yet

never took the big one. Cobb also distinguished himself as a base stealer supreme, whose quickness, speed, and physical roughness toward opposing athletes made him a formidable opponent. He reveled in his reputation as the “most hated man” in baseball. However, Cobb had trouble adjusting after 1920 when a better ball de-emphasized raw hitting power in favor of sporting guile. The greatest exponent of these tactics was the up-and-coming Babe Ruth, who dominated the ensuing “Ruthian” period of the game. But Cobb remained a force to reckon with, even after he signed on with the Philadelphia Athletics in 1926, with a hitting average of .357, but his legs began giving out. By the time he retired in 1928, he had amassed an incredible 43 records of which only one has been broken. These include highest lifetime battling average (.367), most batting championships (12), most runs scored (2,244), most seasons batting .300 or better (23), and total bases stolen (829). Against this sterling accomplishment must be weighed Cobb’s somewhat glaring personal shortcomings. As a player he was insolent, a physical bully toward teammates and opponents alike, (continues)

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(continued) and notoriously racist toward African Ameri-­ cans. It is not an exaggeration to say that, through his professional career, Ty Cobb was thoroughly disliked as an individual. Nevertheless, when the first ballot was taken for the new Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936, Cobb easily beat out all other contenders to be the first inductee, including the by-­now

legendary Ruth. Old age seems to have mel-­ lowed the bellicose Cobb somewhat for he gave much of his wealth away to charity and established the Cobb Educational Founda-­ tion to assist needy students in his native state. The “most hated man in baseball” died in Atlanta, Georgia, on July 17, 1961, admired but by and large unloved.

Women: Margaret Sanger publishes her book about birth control, Family Limitation; she will be taken to court by the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice and eventually jailed.

January 2 Politics: The Senate approves legislation that would require literacy testing for all immigrants.

January 7 Military: In El Paso, Texas, General Hugh Scott enters into negotiations with Mexican guerrilla leader Pancho Villa in an attempt to end fighting along the U.S.-­Mexico border.

January 18 Diplomacy: President Yuan Shih-­k’ai of China, having received a secret list of 21 demands from the Japanese government, publishes them in an attempt to solicit help from the United States and Great Britain.

January 21 Naval: The cruiser USS San Diego suffers a boiler explosion and Fireman Second Class Telesforo Trinidad will win the Congressional Medal of Honor for saving his shipmates.

January 23 Naval: The cruiser USS Washington under Captain Edward L. Beach arrives off Cap Haitien where meetings are scheduled with the rebel leader, General Sam. The Americans insist on accompanying the insurgents south to monitor their activities and prevent excesses.

January 25 Communication: Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, places a 3,000-­mile long-­distance call from New York to San Francisco to his associate of 39 years, Dr. Thomas A. Watson, and repeats his oft-­quoted phrase, “Mr. Watson, come here, I want you.” Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Coppage v. Kansas, ruling that states cannot stop employers from declining to hire workers with union membership.

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January 26 Conservation: In the spirit of former president Theodore Roosevelt, Congress enacts legislation creating Rocky Mountain National Park. This impressive park boasts 65 peaks more than 10,000 feet in height.

January 28 Naval: The American cargo ship William P. Frye is torpedoed without warning by a German U-boat in the South Atlantic. In light of the need to enhance coastal security, Congress creates the new U.S. Coast Guard by combining the Revenue Cutter Service and the Left Saving Service. The new force is placed under the Treasury Department in time of peace and tasked with the suppression of contraband shipping and patrolling nearby sea lanes. In wartime the Coast Guard will function with the Navy Department. Societal: President Woodrow Wilson vetoes a bill that would have mandated literacy testing for immigrants.

January 30 Diplomacy: President Woodrow Wilson dispatches his friend, Colonel Edward M. House, on the British vessel Lusitania, to try to achieve a negotiated settlement in Europe. German recalcitrance toward mediation, in this instance, stokes greater sympathy toward the allies. Politics: The German-American League, in concert with various Irish-American lobbying groups, pressures the government to blockade France and Great Britain from receiving any American armaments.

February Arts: The Neighborhood Playhouse, a theater devoted to cultivating experimental American and European drama, is founded on Grand Street in New York City. The Washington Square Players are established at the Bandbox Theater on 57th Street in New York City. In time they wield indelible influence as devotees of modern drama.

February 4 Naval: Germany counters the British blockade by establishing a war zone around the British Isles, one in which it is forbidden for neutral vessels to enter. Henceforth, German submarines, or U-boats, will sink any neutral shipping without stopping to rescue passengers or other personnel. The kaiser insists upon such measures because Great Britain refuses to implement naval rules espoused by the London Declaration—to which Britain and Germany are signatories.

February 6–20 General: The Panama-Pacific International Exposition is held at San Francisco to commemorate the Panama Canal’s opening; upwards of 13 million people are in attendance to partake of the first public airplane rides in the nation.

February 8 Media: D. W. Griffith’s 12-reel, Civil War saga Birth of a Nation debuts in Los Angeles. It is based on Thomas Dixon’s 1905 novel The Clansman and, despite a sympathetic treatment of the Ku Klux Klan during Reconstruction, it remains a hallmark film for introducing many modern film techniques, in sum, transform-

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Chronology of American History ing motion pictures from a novelty into a serious art form. African Americans, however, are greatly angered by its overtly racist depictions.

February 10 Diplomacy: President Woodrow Wilson, alarmed for the safety of American shipping and lives, warns Germany that it will be held strictly accountable

Griffith, D. W.

(1875–1948)

Film director David Wark Griffith was born in Oldham County, Kentucky, on January 22, 1875, the son of an impoverished, former Confederate army officer. After holding down several odd jobs he discovered his passion for acting and also spent several years attempting to write plays. It was not until 1908 that Griffith managed to sell several film scripts to New York’s Biograph Company and within a year was allowed to direct as well. Here he carved out a successful niche for himself and over the next five years completed several commercially successful short films for Biograph. More importantly, Griffith was never satisfied with the creativity of the status quo and he began pioneering new techniques of photography, composition, lighting, and storytelling. His short pictures were generally well received and proved instrumental in launching the careers of silent screen favorites such as Mary Pickford, Mack Sennett, Lionel Barrymore, and the Gish sisters. By 1913 Griffith was able to leave Biograph and establish his own independent company. Two years later he shot and completed one of film history’s most seminal features, The Birth of a Nation (1915), which forever altered the technical largesse of cinema. Here he introduced sweeping camera pans and tracking shots, extreme close-ups, and other photographic techniques regarded as commonplace today. He also wove together a powerful tale with identifiable characters and a viable plot to grab and hold audience interest. The Birth of Nation, extremely long

1915

at 12 reels, was also the most expensive film of its time and cost $100,000 to make, yet it eventually brought in unheard of profits. It was also highly controversial and picketed by social groups such as the NAACP for favorably portraying the Ku Klux Klan during Reconstruction. All told, Griffith’s bold, innovative directing style completely altered the motion picture landscape in relation to the viewing audience, forever transforming it from a novelty into an art form. Griffith followed up his success with an even bigger, even more ambitious production, Intolerance (1916), which cost almost half a million dollars and was the world’s first history spectacular. In 1917 he ventured to Great Britain to assist the war effort there and shot Hearts of the World (1918), an antiGerman diatribe that became one of the most successful films of the entire wartime period. Back in the United States, Griffith teamed up with Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and Charlie Chaplin to form their own Hollywood studio, United Artists. Other successful titles followed, but by 1927 Griffith’s taste and style had fallen out of synch with the growing sophistication of American audiences, especially following the introduction of sound. By 1931 his career was effectively over and he retired from the business. He spent the last years of his life in obscurity before dying in Hollywood on July 23, 1948. Despite the lethargy of his later 17 years, Griffith is easily the most influential American film director for completely redefining the silver screen.

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for any or all losses incurred at sea. This declaration reflects the mounting deadliness of U-boat warfare against unarmed surface shipping. Wilson also protests the British decision to ignore the neutral status of shipping in a war zone. Both belligerents will violate rules of international warfare as it suits their war aims.

February 15 Diplomacy: Robert Lansing, the State Department counselor, strives for a modus vivendi (a temporary arrangement) between Great Britain and Germany by suggesting that the former no longer arm its passenger vessels while the latter’s U-boats no longer torpedo them. The notion is rejected by both parties.

February 17 Politics: President Woodrow Wilson’s attempt to have Congress pass a Ship Purchase Bill, authorizing federal acquisition of vessels to bulk up the American merchant fleet, is defeated by a combination of Republicans and insurgent Democrats.

February 18 Diplomacy: Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan, once aware of Japan’s secret “21 demands” upon China, confronts the Japanese ambassador, who explains that the so-called demands are actually “requests.”

February 23 Politics: Governor Emmet D. Boyle of Nevada signs legislation reducing to six months that state’s residency requirement to secure a divorce.

March 1 Military: Captain George Van Horn Moseley of the Army General Staff submits a plan for universal military training to the U.S. Senate’s Military Committee. A lively debate ensues.

March 3 Naval: Congress approves the Naval Act of 1915, which stipulates creation of a naval reserve and a new post, the chief of naval operations. This position is designed to give senior naval officers more control over administration of the service.

March 15 Diplomacy: Great Britain, determined to strangle the German war machine economically, issues an order-in-council declaring that nation’s ports under a state of blockade. Britain intends to stop all German shipping before it reaches either the North Sea or the English Channel.

March 25 Naval: The submarine F-4 sinks with the loss of all 21 crew members off Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii.

March 30 Diplomacy: President Woodrow Wilson issues a diplomatic protest to Great Britain over its blockade of German ports. However, the British, who will end up confiscating tons of valuable goods from neutral ships for their own war effort, are adamant.

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April 4 Diplomacy: German diplomats demand that the United States protest Great Britain’s blockade of German ports and allow the United States to trade freely with Germany.

April 5 Sports: In Havana, Cuba, Jess Willard wins the world heavyweight boxing championship by defeating Jack Johnson in 26 rounds. Sports writers will variously ascribe the win to Willard’s effective punching or the hot Cuban sun. But for the man in the street, a Great White Hope has appeared to take back the title from a very talented African-American pugilist.

April 13 Aviation: Lieutenants Thomas D. Milling and B. Q. Jones are detached from the 1st Aero Squadron and ordered to report for duty along the Mexican border—with a single airplane. They are there to find the location of notorious bandit leader Francisco “Pancho” Villa.

April 17 Naval: During salvage operations to raise the submarine F-4 off Honolulu, Hawaii, diver William F. Loughman’s air hose becomes ensnared until Chief Gunner’s Mate Frank W. Crilley dons a diving suit and rescues him, winning the Congressional Medal of Honor.

April 19 Sports: Canadian Edouard Fabre wins the 19th Boston Marathon by finishing in two hours, 31 minutes, 41 seconds.

April 20 Aviation: A single plane piloted by Lieutenants Thomas D. Milling and B. Q. Jones of the 1st Aero Squadron flies the army’s first combat reconnaissance mission along the Mexican border.

April 30 General: President Woodrow Wilson creates Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 3 on 9,481 acres of the Teapot Dome Reserve, Wyoming. This will be the site of a future political scandal.

May 1 Naval: German U-boats sink the American tanker Gulflight in the Atlantic Ocean southwest of England, killing three sailors; the German government promises to make speedy reparations. However, badly outnumbered by the Royal Navy on the surface, undersea warfare is Germany’s only method of challenging British maritime supremacy. On this same day, German ambassador Count von Bernstorff reiterates a warning in New York newspapers for neutral civilians not to travel on vessels known to be carrying war materiél for the Allies.

May 7 Naval: The huge Cunard liner Lusitania sinks in 18 minutes after being torpedoed off the southeast coast of Ireland by the German U-20; 1,198 of her 1,924 passengers—with 128 Americans (including 63 children)—are among the dead.

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Despite the fact that the vessel was illegally carrying munitions in its hold, this single act dramatically shifts American public opinion against Germany. United States neutrality is again being compromised by events at sea—as before the War of 1812.

May 8 Sports: The 41st annual Kentucky Derby is won by Regret with a time of two minutes, five seconds. This is the first time a filly wins the race and also marks the return of powerful contestants from eastern stables.

May 10 Diplomacy: German Ambassador to the United States, Count von Bernstorff, cognizant of mounting American anger over the sinking of the Lusitania, offers public condolences. President Woodrow Wilson, now presented with a real specter of war, will opt to pursue strict neutrality.

May 11 Diplomacy: In light of Japan’s secret 21 demands to the Chinese Republic, President Woodrow Wilson refuses to endorse any agreement between the two powers that does not specifically honor the “Open Door” trade policy or the territorial integrity of China. Naval: In Washington, D.C., Admiral William S. Benson is appointed the first chief of naval operations (CNO).

May 14 Diplomacy: Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan, to placate public opinion, fires off a harshly worded protest to the German government over the sinking of the Lusitania and the need for Germany to make immediate reparations. However, he admits to the Austrian ambassador that the letter is only a bluff meant for domestic consumption; once the Germans are informed, they refuse to either apologize or make reparations.

May 15 Civil: The U.S. Supreme Court declares that so-called grandfather clauses aimed at dissuading African Americans from voting are unconstitutional on the basis of race discrimination.

May 17 Sports: The 49th annual Preakness Stakes is won by Rhine Maiden, who crosses the line in one minute, 58 seconds.

May 24 Business: Secretary of the Treasury William G. McAdoo serves as chairman of the Pan-American Financial Conference in Washington, D. C. Technology: Inventor Thomas A. Edison announces his new “telescribe” to record telephone conversations.

May 28 Diplomacy: The German government responds to President Woodrow Wilson’s diplomatic note and insists that the sinking of the Lusitania was a legitimate act of war, seeing that the vessel was armed and carrying military munitions intended for Allied armies.

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May 31 Diplomacy: The British ambassador informs Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan that the Lusitania was positively not armed when it was attacked by a submarine. Sports: Ralph De Palma wins the fifth annual Indianapolis 500 auto race, finishing in five hours, 33 minutes, 55 seconds, with an average speed of 89.84 miles per hour.

June 1 Aviation: The U.S. Navy signs a contract to acquire its first lighter-than-air vehicle, the dirigible DN-1.

June 3 Business: The district court of New Jersey rules that the United States Steel Corporation is lawful and not in violation of antitrust laws.

June 5 Sports: The 47th annual Belmont Stakes is won by The Finn, who finishes in two minutes, 18 seconds.

June 7 Diplomacy: Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan, an avowed pacifist, tenders his resignation rather than sign a second, more strongly worded protest over the sinking of the Lusitania. He feels strongly that President Woodrow Wilson is leading the nation down a path to war.

June 9 Diplomacy: President Woodrow Wilson issues the second Lusitania note, demanding reparations and an end to hostile actions against neutral shipping. Moreover, he insists that the United States will not recognize Germany’s war zone around the British Isles.

June 12 Sports: The U.S. Lawn Tennis Association singles championships are won by William M. Johnson and Molla Bjurstedt in their respective divisions. This marks the first time that the men’s competition is held at Forest Hills, New York.

June 17 Politics: Former president William Howard Taft helps organize the League to Enforce Peace, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; this will serve as a prototype for the League of Nations.

June 18 Sports: Jerome D. Travers wins the U.S. Open golf tournament.

June 23 Politics: President Woodrow Wilson appoints Robert Lansing to replace William Jennings Bryan as the new secretary of state. Lansing, a career diplomat, has extensive experience in several diplomatic capacities.

July 1 Communication: Telephone rates in New York City fall to five cents per minute. Naval: Continuing unrest in Haiti prompts deployment of the cruiser USS Washington at Cap Haitien to secure American lives and property. Admiral William B.

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Caperton ashore to help establish direct radio communication between his vessel and the American consulate.

July 2 Crime: Erich Muenter, a German instructor at Cornell University, exacerbates tensions by exploding a bomb in the U.S. Senate reception room and then shooting financier J. P. Morgan for representing British interests. He is eventually jailed but subsequently commits suicide.

July 8 Diplomacy: The German government responds to President Woodrow Wilson’s second Lusitania note, saying that Americans can travel safely in well-marked neutral vessels, despite recent attacks on the Cushing and Gulflight.

July 13 Labor: The New York court of appeals rules that the state’s workmen’s compensation act, signed the previous May, is constitutional.

July 15 Diplomacy: A briefcase erroneously left on a subway train by Dr. Heinrich F. Albert, German propaganda chief for the United States, is quickly obtained by American intelligence operatives. The documents outline a concerted effort of espionage and subversive activities involving many German diplomats and worse—German-Americans like George Sylvester Viereck. The German government agrees to pay reparations for a U-boat attack on the American ship Nebraska.

July 16 Naval: The battleships USS Missouri, Ohio, and Wisconsin are the first warships to wend their way through the Panama Canal, confirming its utility as a strategic asset.

July 21 Civil: The U.S. Supreme Court strikes down as unconstitutional the so-called grandfather clause of the Oklahoma and Maryland state constitutions, whereby African Americans and immigrants are denied the right to vote if the grandfather never did. Diplomacy: After agonized reflection, President Woodrow Wilson sends a third Lusitania note that unequivocally states that further infringement of American rights at sea will be viewed as “deliberately unfriendly.” The United States is drifting in the direction of armed confrontation with Germany, something Wilson has previously and strenuously tried to avoid. Meanwhile, the German government submits the issue of American reparations to the International Court of Arbitration at The Hague.

July 21 Politics: Fearing the worst, President Woodrow Wilson instructs Secretary of War Lindley M. Garrison and Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels to draw up plans for increased defense expenditures to be submitted to Congress that fall.

July 22 Military: President Woodrow Wilson and Secretary of State Robert Lansing are briefed as to the intelligence and espionage activity of the German agent, Franz Rintelen von Kleist, then operating in the United States with a Swiss passport under the name of Emil V. Cache.

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July 24 General: The excursion steamer Eastland capsizes at its pier in Chicago, Illinois, killing 852 passengers and crew.

July 25 Naval: The American vessel Leeanaw is sunk by German U-boats off the coast of Scotland, along with its shipment of flax.

July 27 Communication: The United States and Japan establish their first wireless communications, a major development between the two rising powers.

July 28 Military: U.S. Marines from the cruiser USS Washington are deployed to Portau-Prince, Haiti, following the assassination of President Vilbrun G. Sam, to protect American lives and property. Haitian insurgents (known as Cacos) attack the American detachment once ashore and lose six members; two Americans die, including the nephew of American labor leader Samuel Gompers. A protectorate will ensue until stability can be restored.

July 29 Aviation: The 1st Aero Squadron is transferred from Augusta, Georgia, to new facilities at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, under Captain Benjamin D. Foulois. Once established, a crew and aircraft are dispatched to Brownsville, Texas, to support the army’s border patrol efforts. Naval: Land parties of U.S. Marines from the collier USS Jason and gunboat Nashville go ashore at both Port-au-Prince and Cap Haitien, Haiti, to restore order and protect American interests.

July 31 Transportation: A Model T Ford driven by Dr. Kingman Selig becomes the first automobile admitted into Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming.

August 4 Naval: The battleship USS Connecticut drops anchor off Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and send ashore five companies of U.S. Marines to seize the local arsenal and disband warring factions.

August 5 Diplomacy: The Latin American Conference meets in Mexico to debate what can be done to offset growing poverty and instability in South and Central America. Of increasing concern to the Mexican government are the activities of celebrated guerrilla-rebel Francisco “Pancho” Villa.

August 10 Military: A series of volunteer camps is established at Plattsburgh, New York, under the aegis of General Leonard Wood for the purpose of exposing civilians to the rigors of military discipline. In this manner a valuable, trained cadre of men will be made available without resorting to a military draft, which President Woodrow Wilson deems imprudent at this time. At El Paso, Texas, General Hugh Scott again confers with Mexican rebel leader Francisco “Pancho” Villa and convinces him to stop extorting money from American mining companies in Mexico, and also return all personal property he has pilfered.

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August 11 Diplomacy: Secretary of State Robert Lansing, in concert with representatives from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Guatemala, and Uruguay, urges Mexico’s warring factions to make peace with each other and restore civil authority.

August 13 Naval: Continuing instability results in the deployment of 850 marines from the armored cruiser USS Tennessee under Colonel Littleton W. T. Waller. Rather than confront the Americans head on, the Caco rebels withdraw into the interior to wage an incessant guerrilla campaign.

August 15 Journalism: The contents of the secret German spy dossier of Heinrich F. Albert are published in the New York World, further inflaming public sentiments against Germany. Several diplomatic members, officials of the Hamburg-American Steamship Line, and even German Americans are implicated.

August 16–17 Military: Men of the 27th U.S. Infantry are rushed into Texas City, Texas, when that town is inundated by floodwaters brought on by a sudden storm.

August 19 Diplomacy: The British ambassador in Washington, D.C., Sir Cecil Spring Rice, informs his hosts that cotton is to be added to the list of contraband materials subject to seizure at sea, but that Great Britain will purchase it in bulk to prevent falling prices. Naval: German U-boats sink the British liner Arabic off Ireland with the loss of two American lives, despite new regulations requiring them to surface and warn vessels in advance.

August 26 Civil: An enraged mob in Marietta, Georgia, lynches Leo M. Frank, 29, for the murder of Mary Phagan, 14. He had been found guilty in a controversial trial, tinged by anti-Semitism, and sentenced to death, but Governor John M. Slayton commuted the sentence to life imprisonment. In 1986, on the basis of new evidence, Frank’s conviction will be overturned and he will be viewed as a victim of bigotry. Diplomacy: President Woodrow Wilson, wishing to grant an appearance of “strict neutrality,” declares that the U.S. government will neither restrict nor favor war loans to the Allies.

September 1 Diplomacy: In Washington, D.C., German ambassador Johann-Heinrich von Bernstorff declares that U-boats will no longer sink passenger liners without first warning them (“The Arabic Pledge”). Through this expedient it is hoped that more neutral lives may be spared; German-American relations are temporarily restored.

September 3 Politics: President Woodrow Wilson announces his intention to seek increased military expenditures to ensure an adequate national defense in wartime. In light of strong isolationist sentiments, he pledges to do so in the most rational and responsible manner possible.

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September 6 Diplomacy: The British release documents captured at sea that implicate Austrian ambassador Constantin Theodor Dumba as being behind an extensive plan for Austro-German espionage and sabotage in the United States. When published, the public reaction will further sour attitudes toward the Central Powers and result in the recall of Dumba to Vienna.

September 9 Naval: After an explosion aboard the destroyer USS Decatur, Chief Watertender Eugene P. Smith wins the Congressional Medal of Honor for rescuing several injured sailors.

September 11 Diplomacy: Secretary of State Robert Lansing, wishing to give every appearance of neutrality and impartiality, requires all British armed merchant vessels to post a bond stating that their armament is for defensive purposes only. This is done in order to prevent attacks upon surfaced German U-boats, which are then at their most vulnerable to cannon fire.

September 16 Diplomacy: A protectorate is established in Haiti by the United States, and the marines will remain there in force for 19 years—but nevertheless fail to install a more stable administration.

September 27 Military: U.S. Marines push inland from Cap Haitien toward Haut du Cap, fighting off numerous Caco ambushes. By day’s end they account for 60 rebels killed, while sustaining two dead and eight wounded.

September 29 Communication: President Theodore N. Vail of the American Telegraph and Telephone Company makes the first transcontinental wireless (radio) phone call.

October 5 Diplomacy: To avoid the outbreak of war, Germany officially apologizes to the United States for sinking the Lusitania and offers to pay reparations. This is a triumph for American diplomacy, but forestalls the inevitable conflict for only two years.

October 8–13 Sports: The Boston Red Sox (AL) win baseball’s 12th annual World Series by beating the Philadelphia Phillies four games to one. Previously, the Red Sox obtained a little-known pitcher named Babe Ruth from the Baltimore Orioles.

October 9 Sports: Racing driver Gil Anderson wins the Astor Cup at Sheepshead, New York, by establishing a new speed record of 102.6 miles per hour.

October 15 Business: American bankers organized by J. Pierpont Morgan arrange a $500 million loan to France and Great Britain to help them underwrite the war effort against Germany—the largest loan in history to this date.

October 19 Diplomacy: One major achievement of the Latin American Conference in Mexico is diplomatic recognition of Constitutionalist president Venustiano Carranza

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as the legitimate ruler by the United States, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Guatemala, and Uruguay. Consequently, an arms embargo will be slapped on that war-torn country, except to areas controlled by Carranza. But guerrilla leader Francisco “Pancho” Villa, who has been deliberately omitted from these proceedings, continues to be a nuisance in the countryside—determined to get attention, somehow, and roil the waters against Carranza. Naval: The U.S. Navy founds a submarine station at New London, Connecticut.

October 21 Communication: The first transatlantic radiophone communication, placed by AT&T president Theodore Vail, is made between Arlington, Virginia, and the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France. The world is gradually becoming a smaller place.

October 27 Aviation: Oscar A. Brindley establishes a new seaplane record by flying 544 miles nonstop along the California coast in only 10 hours.

November 1 Aviation: In Mineola, New York, the 1st Aero Company, New York National Guard, is organized under Captain Raynall C. Bolling. It consists of four officers, 40 enlisted men, and seven aircraft on loan from the New York City Aero Club.

November 2 Military: Caco rebels raid marine headquarters at Le Trou, Haiti, and are bloodily repelled by Colonel Littleton W. T. Waller with a loss of 38 lives.

November 4 Politics: President Woodrow Wilson, acting against the advice of William Jennings Bryan and other progressives, formally endorses the concept of civilian military training camps as a precursor to an all-out draft.

November 5 Aviation: In Pensacola Bay, Florida, the cruiser USS North Carolina successfully launches an AB-2 flying boat from its catapult in this, the first shipboard launching of an aircraft from a vessel underway. Announcement of the feat is made by the assistant secretary of the navy, Franklin D. Roosevelt. Diplomacy: Secretary of State Robert Lansing strongly protests Great Britain’s continuing search and seizure policy on the high seas against neutral shipping. He urges the British to conform to international law and “the sanction of the civilized world.” Military: U.S. Marines attack Fort Capois, Haiti, a major Caco rebel strongpoint; the defenders flee into the jungle and it falls without loss.

November 7 General: The tranquility of Chicago is shattered by 40,000 men angrily demonstrating against the closing of saloons on Sunday. Naval: An Austrian submarine torpedoes the Italian liner Ancona, carrying 27 American passengers.

November 9 Military: In view of the conflict in Europe, Secretary of War Lindley M. Garrison proposes a new concept he calls the “Continental Army,” which would consist of 400,000 volunteers and replace the National Guard as a ready reserve. The

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Chronology of American History concept sparks acrimonious debate in Congress and President Woodrow Wilson ultimately comes down against it. Diplomacy: Admiral William B. Caperton convinces the new Haitian government to sign a treaty granting the United States charge of its customs house and other public works. A new Haitian constabulary, staffed by Marine Corps officers and sergeants, is also formed.

November 16 Military: U.S. Marines storm the Caco stronghold at Fort Rivière, Haiti, killing 50 rebels and capturing 25 without the loss of a man.

November 17 Naval: Major Smedley D. Butler leads a mixed force of U.S. Marines and sailors from the battleship USS Connecticut in a successful assault upon Haitian rebels at Fort Rivière, Haiti; over 50 Cacos are slain in combat.

November 19 Aviation: Seven aircraft of the U.S. Army Air Service begin the first squadronlevel cross-country flight, which commences at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and will end at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, 429 miles distant. Labor: Joe Hill, a radical song writer for the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), is executed in Salt Lake City, Utah, for the murder of a grocer. He was convicted of the crime without any witnesses, and IWW president William “Big Bill” Haywood will make his death a national cause célèbre.

November 25 Societal: William J. Simmons revives the Klu Klux Klan in Atlanta, Georgia.

November 30 General: An explosion and fire guts a Du Pont munitions plant at Wilmington, Delaware, and sabotage is suspected.

December 1 Aviation: The U.S. Navy formally opens the Naval Flying School at Pensacola, Florida, with an officer, three instructors, and 12 mechanics. Politics: The American government expels two German military attachés, Franz von Papen (a future German chancellor) and Karl Boy-Ed, on the suspicion of possessing plans for sabotage. The head of the German Trade Union Mission and the Austrian ambassador are also expelled.

December 4 Civil: Georgia grants Colonel William J. Simmons, a failed preacher and salesman, a new charter for his “new” Klu Klux Klan, the first public manifestation of that organization since it dissolved in the 1870s. In its latest incarnation, the Klan reaches new heights of membership, not only in the South but in midwestern states as well. General: Industrialist Henry Ford, a pacifist, outfits the Norwegian vessel Oskar II to sail to Europe as a “peace ship,” although no public figures of consequence agree to sail with it. His efforts for a negotiated settlement will soon collapse. Naval: Admiral Frank Friday Fletcher is the first officer of his grade to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor for his cool-headed performance while under fire at Veracruz, Mexico, in April 1914.

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December 7 Military: Angered by the Lusitania sinking and buffeted by the winds of war, President Woodrow Wilson reverses himself and asks Congress to fund a standing army of 142,000, with 400,000 trained soldiers in reserve. Naval: President Woodrow Wilson seeks a crash naval expansion program totaling $500 million for the purchase of 10 battleships, six battle cruisers, 10 cruisers, 50 destroyers, and 100 submarines.

December 10 Business: An automobile milestone is reached when Henry Ford rolls out his one-millionth Model T car at Detroit, Michigan.

December 18 General: President Woodrow Wilson, a widower, marries Edith Bolling Galt in Washington, D.C.

December 27 Labor: Youngstown, Ohio, is the scene of a strike by the Iron and Steel Workers Union, who demand and receive an eight-hour day among other concessions.

1916 Architecture: New York City drastically modifies its building code to allow buildings of unlimited height to adorn its skyline. Gotham is about to be born. William Wells Bosworth designs the buildings for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s new campus, situated along the banks of the Charles River in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Arts: The Ballet Russe under Serge Diaghilev debuts to rave reviews at New York City’s Metropolitan Opera House, more proof of America’s rising interest in ballet. The tercentenary of the death of Shakespeare is marked in New York City with numerous and sundry productions of his most famous plays all summer long. Ethel Barrymore stars in the play Our Mrs. McChesney by Edna Ferber and shines as a businesswoman in the petticoat trade. In Massachusetts, the Provincetown Players stage the play Bound for Cardiff by Eugene O’Neill, soon to be acknowledged as America’s most significant playwright. Humorist Will Rogers, now part of the Ziegfeld Follies, declares to his audience, “All I know is what I read in the papers.” Business: American commerce with the Allied powers in Europe mushrooms to $3 billion, a four-fold increase from 1914. Significantly, trade with the Central Powers has dipped by 70 percent. In Chicago, Illinois, John Wright, son of noted architect Frank Lloyd Wright, invents Lincoln Logs for children so that they may design and construct their own buildings. He got his inspiration while visiting Tokyo, Japan, and observing his father construct the new Imperial Hotel. Education: Progressive Columbia University educator John Dewey pens his influential treatise Democracy and Education, which suggests that intelligence is the ability to change one’s environment and that all training in this respect should be modified accordingly. He coins the term “progressive education” to denote the process.

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Chronology of American History Stanford University psychologist Louis Madison Terman develops an intelligence test and coins the notion of “I.Q.,” or intelligence quotient. Indian: In New York City, businessman George Gustav Heye founds the Museum of the American Indian, utilizing his own huge collection of Indian artifacts for display purposes. Literature: Carl Sandburg showcases his poetic merits by publishing his Chicago Poems, signaling the rise of the American Midwest as a force in American literature. Mark Twain’s short story The Mysterious Stranger is published posthumously. Theodore Dreiser’s novel The Genius is suppressed in New York City in this, the latest case of censorship. Media: D.W. Griffith astounds audiences with the mammoth sets of his new film Intolerance, which includes scenes of Babylon, the Crucifixion, the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, and attacks upon modern strikers. Medical: Researchers at Johns Hopkins University identify the clotting abilities of heparin, which marks an important advance in the study of internal clotting and contributes directly to the development of drugs like dicumarol. Military: General John Taliaferro Thompson invents a functioning .45-caliber submachine gun. Adopted by the U.S. military, it will gain infamy—and popularity— among gangsters as the “Tommy gun.” Music: French experimentalist composer Edgard Varese arrives in the United States after being rejected for service by the French military. The Dixieland Jazz Band opens at Schiller’s Café in Chicago, Illinois, and helps spread the popularity of this uniquely American music form. Science: The National Academy of Sciences organizes the National Research Council. Societal: Prohibition is adopted by the states of Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Utah, which encompass some 32 million inhabitants. Sports: Pittsburgh wins the national college football championship with eight wins, no losses, and no ties. The Montreal Canadiens win the Stanley Cup of hockey by defeating Portland, 15 goals to three. Transportation: America’s love affair with automobiles is in full bloom, with truck and car production exceeding 3.5 million for the first time. Henry Ford’s mass production techniques mean that Ford automobiles represent one-third of all vehicles sold this year. The price of a Model T drops to only $360 in 1916, well within the means of average workers. The total amount of railroad track in the United States tops 254,000 miles, the highest total it will ever reach, before beginning a slow and steady decline.

January 1 Sports: The Rose Bowl post-season college football game, begun in 1902, resumes after a hiatus of 14 years; Washington State waylays Brown University, 14-0. The game becomes an annual sports fixture hereafter.

January 5 Military: A coup attempt against the national palace at Port-au-Prince, Haiti, is easily repulsed by U.S. Marines on guard there; five Cacos are killed without loss.

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January 6 Aviation: Instruction commences at the Navy Flight School, which mushrooms to 58 officers, 431 enlisted men, and 33 seaplanes by year’s end.

January 7 Diplomacy: In light of increasing American pressure, the German government announces that it will strictly abide by the international rules of maritime warfare.

January 10 General: Forces of Mexican revolutionary Francisco “Pancho” Villa, seeking to ensnare the United States in a war with the regime of Venustiano Carranza, stop a train and execute 18 American mining engineers in Santa Ysabel, Sonora.

January 17 Aviation: The United States is on the cusp of war with Germany, yet the strength of the U.S. Army Air Service is only 49 personnel and 25 aircraft. Sports: The Professional Golfers Association (PGA) is founded.

January 24 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Brushaber v. Union Pacific, ruling that the federal income tax is constitutional. Naval: Gunner’s Mate Wilhelm Smith wins the Congressional Medal of Honor for rescuing shipmates from a gas-filled room aboard the battleship USS New York.

January 25 Business: U.S. yearly exports total $3.5 billion, in excess of $1.7 billion over imports.

January 27 Politics: President Woodrow Wilson embarks on a national speaking tour to emphasize military preparedness.

January 28 Law: President Woodrow Wilson appoints Louis D. Brandeis an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, the first Jew so nominated.

February 2 Politics: A resolution is introduced into Congress that requires President Woodrow Wilson to warn American travelers not to sail on vessels belonging to the belligerents. Wilson strongly demurs and the motion is tabled.

February 10 Diplomacy: Germany reverses its previous restraints at sea and declares that all armed merchant vessels will be subject to attack without warning after March 1. Military: Secretary of War Lindley M. Garrison, angered by President Woodrow Wilson’s insistence upon expanding the National Guard instead of his proposed “Continental Army,” resigns from office.

February 17 Politics: Representative Jeff McLemore, fearing that the United States is being drawn deeper into war, offers a resolution to curb travel on Allied vessels by U.S. citizens. It is eventually tabled.

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Brandeis, Louis Dembitz (1856–1941) Supreme Court justice Louis Dembitz Brandeis was born in Louisville, Kentucky, on November 13, 1856, a son of Jewish refugees escaping revolutionary turmoil in Bohemia (now, Czech Republic). After being educated at various schools in Louisville and in Dresden, Germany, Brandeis gained admittance to Harvard Law School in 1877, and graduated four years later with the highest academic record ever achieved there. He gradually settled into a legal practice in Boston, Massachusetts, with a fellow schoolmate and gained distinction as a socially conscious attorney. In fact, Brandeis invariably acted on a deeply held belief that the law should be responsive to the needs of an everchanging society and thus had an obligation to evolve with it. Highly successful, his wealth enabled him to work as an unpaid counsel for organizations such as the New England Policy Holder’s Protective Committee, where he devised a cheaper means

Louis Brandeis (Library of Congress) of proffering meaningful coverage to average working people. The Massachusetts legisla-

February 18 Diplomacy: The United States and Nicaragua sign the Bryan- Chamorro Treaty, which grants America sole right to a canal route and a 99- year lease of several islands in the Gulf of Fonseca for naval bases. Both nations subsequently ignore a Central American Court of Justice injunction against the agreement.

February 22 Diplomacy: Colonel Edward House, a personal adviser of President Woodrow Wilson, meets with British foreign secretary Sir Edward Grey and signs the House-Grey memorandum, which declares that the United States will call for a negotiated peace in Europe, if asked by France and Britain. Moreover, should the Germans reject said overture the Americans “would probably enter the war against Germany.” However, no action results.

February 24 Military: Acting Secretary of War Hugh L. Scott inquires of the War College Division if there are any comprehensive plans extant in the event of war with Germany. He is somewhat surprised to learn there are none.

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ture was so impressed by the scheme that it was adopted in 1907, with several other states following suit. In 1911 he concluded an exhaustive study of the railroad industry to prove that the wholesale application of Frederick W. Taylor’s new scientific management could save the industry millions of dollars, which could then be passed on to consumers. Brandeis was also very active in labor issues and resorted to a new legal technique, the so-called Brandeis brief, whereby legal points would be buttressed with extensive social and economic information. His willingness to take up seemingly unpopular causes for free, and usually win the case, earned him a reputation as the “People’s attorney.” In 1914 Brandeis published his landmark book, Other’s People’s Money, in which he decried the growing concentration of wealth into the hands of the upper classes. His agitation on behalf of working people brought him to the attention of President Woodrow Wilson, who employed him for several years as a

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private counsel. The turning point in Brandeis’s fortunes occurred in 1916, when Wilson chose to seat him on the U.S. Supreme Court as an associate justice. The appointment proved controversial, seeing that Brandeis was the first Jew so nominated, and he weathered a storm of anti-Semitism and charges of radicalism before being confirmed by the U.S. Senate. He then served with distinction over the next 23 years, and is best remembered as a dissenting voice on behalf of personal freedoms, a trait he shared with his great contemporary, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. With few exceptions, Brandeis opposed what he considered the erosion of constitutional freedoms by the exigencies of modern society. However, his reverence for that document induced him to argue that constitutional issues should appear before the Supreme Court only as a last legal resort. Brandeis consciously restrained from political activity as associate justice, although he did percolate among Zionist circles. Brandeis died in Washington, D.C., on October 5, 1941.

Politics: President Woodrow Wilson, though fearing for the safety of Americans at sea, informs a Senate committee that he will not countenance restrictions on their right to travel.

February 25 Politics: Senator Thomas P. Gore promulgates a strong anti-travel resolution to restrict American use of Allied shipping; it is eventually tabled.

February 29 Labor: The South Carolina legislature raises the minimum age for working in mills, mines, and factories from 12 to 14 years. The last such legislation was passed by Pennsylvania in 1848.

March 2 Music: Gustav Mahler’s “Eighth Symphony” debuts with the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra, backed by a mixed chorus of 800 voices. Critics feel that the piece does not justify such enormous production values.

March 7 Military: Newton D. Baker, a pacifist, gains appointment as the new secretary of war. He replaces outgoing Lindley M. Garrison, who resigned over President

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Chronology of American History Woodrow Wilson’s refusal to convert National Guard units into part of the standing military establishment. Politics: A resolution by Representative Jeff McLemore of Texas, requiring President Woodrow Wilson to warn all Americans from venturing to Europe on belligerent vessels, is defeated by wide margins in Congress.

March 9 Military: A body of 500 Mexican guerrillas of General Francisco “Pancho” Villa ups the international ante by raiding Columbus, New Mexico, and killing 18 Americans before being rebuffed by six companies of the 13th U.S. Cavalry under Colonel H. J. Slocum. The raiders lose about 100 men in the battle and ensuing pursuit. The attack will also prompt President Woodrow Wilson to prepare an American expeditionary force of 15,000 men under General John J. “Black Jack” Pershing to corner the elusive raiders wherever they are hiding in Mexico.

March 15 Military: The House of Representatives passes the Army Reorganization Bill to update and modernize the ossified U.S. Army and bring it into combat-ready shape. General John J. Pershing leads three brigades of 3,000 American troops on a punitive expedition into Mexico to apprehend the guerrilla leader Francisco “Pancho” Villa. They cross and begin fanning out into the stark countryside, but are under orders to proceed no farther south than Chihuahua Province.

March 16 Aviation: The 1st Aero Squadron, acting upon orders from the War Department, begins readying pilots and equipment at Columbus, New Mexico, to support the punitive raid of General John J. Pershing into Mexico.

March 20 Arts: Zoe Akins’s play Magical City is staged at the Bandbox in New York City, marking the author’s successful debut as a playwright.

March 24 Naval: A U-boat sinks the unarmed French ship Sussex in the English Channel, without warning, violating the so-called Arabic Pledge and killing three Americans. President Woodrow Wilson lodges a formal protest over the sinking.

March 28–29 Military: After a 17-hour forced march, the 7th U.S. Cavalry surprises a force of 500 Mexican guerrillas at Guerrero, Mexico, killing 40 and driving off the rest.

April Publishing: Apache and Native American intellectual Carlos Montezuma begins publishing the newsletter Wassaja to critique and comment upon the failings of Bureau of Indian Affairs policy. It also propagates activities of the Society of American Indians (SAI), which he serves as a founding member.

April 1 Communication: The U.S. Army establishes a radio telegraph link between Namiquipa and El Valle, Mexico, in order to maximize communications with the six aircraft presently scouting the Mexican border for guerrillas. Ultimately, the Signal Corps creates 19 such stations to form a comprehensive communications net.

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April 5 Aviation: The 1st Aero Squadron establishes its base camp at San Geronimo, Mexico, in order to cooperate with the punitive expedition of General John J. Pershing.

April 8 Military: General John J. Pershing, whose strength has been augmented to 7,000 troops, pushes southward toward Colonia Dublan, Mexico, in his search for Mexican guerrillas. This places the Americans 400 miles south of the Mexican border; being denied the use of national railroads, they employ new motor transport companies to ensure a steady flow of supplies and ammunition.

April 10 Sports: The first game under the auspices of the new Professional Golfers Association (PGA) is held at Siwanoy Golf Course in Bronxville, New York, and won by James M. Barnes.

April 12 Arts: Noted Russian ballet dancer Vaslav Nijinsky debuts at the Metropolitan Opera House as part of the famous Ballets Russes. Military: Two troops of the 13th U.S. Cavalry under Major Frank Tompkins engage Mexican irregulars at Santa Cruz de Villegas, Mexico. The Americans lose three dead and seven wounded to an estimated 40 Mexican casualties.

April 13 Diplomacy: At Parral, Mexico, General John J. Pershing ignores an ultimatum issued by the governor of Chihuahua to withdraw his soldiers at once from the province. The general replies that his orders come from the president of the United States.

April 15 Military: The U.S. Navy orders 3,500 of the newly developed Lewis drum-fed machine guns, which will become a standard infantry weapon for the U.S. Marine Corps and also be employed as a defensive weapon on seaplanes. This deadly device has been developed by Colonel Isaac N. Lewis, and the army eventually obtains 18,400 such weapons.

April 16 Aviation: In France, the Escadrille Americaine is formed at Luxeuil-les-Baines from American volunteer pilots as part of the French Aeronautique Militaire. It sees extensive service in the skies over the Western Front and in December is renamed the Lafayette Escadrille after the famed Revolutionary War hero, Marquis de Lafayette.

April 18 Diplomacy: The State Department again warns Germany to relent in its attack against civilian targets at sea or risk a break-off in diplomatic relations. By this time the once divided and isolationist American public increasingly sides with President Woodrow Wilson and his wartime preparations.

April 19 Sports: Arthur V. Roth wins the 20th Boston Marathon by crossing the line in two hours, 27 minutes, and 16 seconds.

April 23 Politics: The Socialist Labor Party meets in New York and selects Arthur E. Reimer of Massachusetts for president and Caleb Harrison of Illinois for vice president.

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April 26 Education: The New York City Board of Education votes down military training in public schools.

May Military: U.S. Marines land at Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic, to restore order; they will remain until 1924.

May 3 Naval: The gunboat USS Castine under Commander Kenneth Bennett, accompanied by the transport Prairie, drops anchor off Santo Domingo and deploys two companies of U.S. Marines under Captain Frederic Wise to protect American lives and property during a period of political unrest on that island.

May 4 Diplomacy: In light of the Sussex sinking, Germany, not wishing to antagonize the United States further, agrees to the terms of President Woodrow Wilson’s ultimatum to halt attacks upon civilian vessels at sea—for the time being.

May 5 Military: U.S. Army Apache scouts under Major Robert Le Howze attack and disperse a larger force of irregulars at Ojos Azules, Mexico, killing 60 guerrillas without loss. Howze consequently wins the Congressional Medal of Honor. Naval: U.S. Marines from the gunboat USS Castine and transport Prairie come ashore on the Dominican Republic following a revolt against President Juan Isidro Jiminez by his own minister of war.

May 8 Diplomacy: Secretary of State Robert Lansing accepts for the time being German assurances that, to save lives, all merchant vessels will be stopped and warned before being sunk. However, he blithely ignores Germany’s insistence that the United States make Great Britain also observe international law regarding blockades.

May 9 Military: President Woodrow Wilson mobilizes additional forces of the Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico National Guard along the U.S./Mexican border, at which point President Venustiano Carranza orders all American forces inside his country to leave immediately.

May 12 Naval: Additional U.S. Marines from the store ship USS Culgoa are landed in the Dominican Republic to enforce stability. Admiral William B. Caperton also arrives to negotiate with rebel general Desiderio Arias; within two days the rebels will depart Santo Domingo voluntarily.

May 13 Aviation: The first seven pilots belonging to the Escadrille Americaine see action in the skies over Alsace, then part of Germany. Indian: The Society of American Indians declares that this day will be observed as “Indian Day” to both celebrate the achievements of Native Americans and call attention to their poverty and social problems. Sports: The 42nd Kentucky Derby is won by George Smith with a time of two minutes, four seconds.

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May 15 Military: U.S. Marines, collected to storm the rebel stronghold of Fort Ozama, Santo Domingo, have given the garrison until this day to evacuate or face attack. The rebels comply and withdraw into the interior.

May 16 Sports: The 40th annual Preakness Stakes is won by Damrosch, who finishes in one minute, 54 seconds.

May 18 Aviation: Sergeant Kiffin Yates Rockwell of the Escadrille Americaine downs a German observer craft over Thann, in the Alsace region, the first aerial kill for an American pilot in the Great War.

May 20 Arts: Noted painter Norman Rockwell provides his first cover illustration for an issue of the Saturday Evening Post. In time he will emerge as America’s foremost illustrator with a special flair for capturing the nuances of middle America on canvas. Media: New York governor Charles S. Whitman vetoes a bill authorizing motion picture censorship.

May 22 Military: General “Pancho” Villa’s men again slip across the American border into Texas, attack the settlement of Glen Springs, and kill three soldiers and a child. The guerrilla leader is determined to provoke a war between the United States and Mexico at any cost.

May 27 Politics: In a major policy speech, President Woodrow Wilson sets forth his agenda to establish America’s role in world affairs and to forsake its cherished tradition of isolationism. He also insists that the time is right for the United States to act like a leader in international affairs, and suggests that a world organization dedicated to the maintenance of peace is also necessary.

May 30 Sports: Dario Resta wins the sixth Indianapolis 500 by finishing in three hours, 34 minutes, 17 seconds, at an average speed of 84 miles per hour.

June Aviation: In Seattle, Washington, aeronautical newcomer and former lumber salesman William E. Boeing flies the first airplane made at his Boeing Airplane Company. The navy will place an order for 50 of his Model C floatplanes.

June 1 Military: U.S. Marines under Major Charles Hatch, assisted by cannon fire from the gunboat USS Sacramento, storm the rebel outpost of Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, driving the garrison deep into the interior. One marine officer is slain in combat.

June 3 Medical: Given the preponderance of horses in the American military, President Woodrow Wilson signs legislation creating the Veterinary Corps, which provides one officer/doctor and 16 enlisted men per 400 animals.

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Chronology of American History Military: Congress passes the National Defense Act, which intends to raise personnel levels of the U.S. Army from 175,000 to 225,000 and that of the National Guard to 2.4 million over the next five years. The designation Army of the United States (AUS) is also adopted and applied to the Regular establishment and those Reserve and National Guard elements under federal jurisdiction. Officer training courses (ROTC) are also established on college campuses as the nation begins girding itself for war.

June 7–10 Politics: The Progressive Party convenes its national convention in Chicago, Illinois, where members enthusiastically renominate Theodore Roo se velt for the presidency. He declines, and throws his support behind Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes, who gets the nod, along with Charles W. Fairbanks of Indiana as vice president. However, the choice of Evans will leave the party badly split. The Republican Party also meets in Chicago at this time and nominates Charles Evans Hughes for the presidency and Charles W. Fairbanks for vice president. Sports: The 48th annual Belmont Stakes is won by Friar Rock, who crosses the finish line at two minutes, 22 seconds.

June 12 Sports: The U.S. Lawn Tennis Association singles championships are won by Molla Bjursted and Norris William II in their respective divisions.

June 14 Politics: For the moment, President Woodrow Wilson has accepted German assurances that they will refrain from sinking merchant vessels; nonetheless, he leads a military preparedness march in Washington, D.C.

June 14 –16 Politics: The Democratic Party holds its nominating convention in St. Louis, Missouri, and easily renominates Woodrow Wilson for president and Thomas R. Marshall for vice president. They will campaign under the party slogan “He kept us out of war,” all the while girding the country for a military showdown with Germany on behalf of the Allied powers.

June 15 General: President Woodrow Wilson signs a bill that incorporates the Boy Scouts.

June 16 Military: General Jacinto Trevino, commanding Mexican forces in northern Mexico, warns General John J. Pershing that his continuing stay in that country is viewed as a hostile action. Politics: President Woodrow Wilson is nominated for a second term by the Democratic Party convention. The party platform adopted embraces staunch internationalism abroad with progressive programs at home.

June 17 Diplomacy: The Mexican consul at Brownsville, Texas, angrily informs his American counterpart that American forces currently deployed in his country are subject to attack unless withdrawn immediately.

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June 18 Aviation: Over Verdun, France, Aviator H. Clyde Balsey becomes the first American shot down while flying with the Escadrille Americaine. The French air commander flies to his airfield to present the seriously wounded Balsey with a Military Medal and a War Cross. Military: As military operations in Mexico expand, additional National Guard troops are mobilized for service along the border.

June 20 Diplomacy: Secretary of State Robert Lansing informs his Mexican counterpart that U.S. forces will most definitely not be withdrawn from northern Mexico until either order is restored or Francisco “Pancho” Villa is apprehended.

June 21 Military: A fight between the 10th U.S. Cavalry, the famous African-American “Buffalo Soldiers,” and Mexican regulars at Carrizal results in 10 Americans dead, 10 wounded, and 23 captured. Mexican casualties total 74 dead, including General Felix U. Gómez. President Venustiano Carranza will reiterate his demand that the foreigners leave Mexican soil immediately. President Woodrow Wilson will again refuse until order and security are restored along the entire 2,000-milelong border. Naval: Colonel Joseph H. Pendleton lands at Montecristi, Dominican Republic, with the 4th Provisional Marine Regiment to engage and pursue rebel forces fighting there.

June 23 Aviation: Pilot Victor Emmanuel Chapman, flying with the Escadrille Americaine in France, is shot down and killed near Verdun, France, becoming the first American military casualty of World War I. Brave to the point of recklessness, Chapman had been shot down seven times in six weeks but also claimed four German kills.

June 25 Military: Mexican president Venustiano Carranza, eager to defuse a mounting border crisis with the United States, orders the release of 17 American servicemen captured at Carrizal.

June 26 Military: A column of U.S. Marines under Colonel Joseph Pendleton departs Montecristi, Santo Domingo, and marches 75 miles overland to dislodge a rebel strongpoint at Santiago.

June 30 Sports: Charles Evans, Jr., wins the U.S. Open golf tournament.

July 4 Military: A marine column under Colonel Joseph Pendleton advances upon Santiago, and forces rebels gathered there to surrender. The Americans will next prepare to take over administrative control of the island.

July 11 Transportation: President Woodrow Wilson signs the Shackleford Good Roads Bill to provide $5 million in national road construction programs and promulgate a system of highway classification. The act is based on revenue sharing and

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Chronology of American History applies only to those states that can afford matching funds. Presently, over three million automobiles ply the roads of America, along with 250,000 trucks and commercial vehicles.

July 13 Aviation: At Mineola, New York, the 1st Aero Company, New York National Guard, is mobilized for service along the Mexican border.

July 17 Agriculture: Congress passes the Federal Farm Loan Act (Rural Credits Act), which establishes a system of 121 land banks and the Federal Farm Loan Board for efficient lending and collecting of money to the agrarian sector.

July 18 Business: The British Official Gazette lists 80 American firms that are officially blacklisted for trading with the enemy. The Americans, in turn, repeatedly charge the British with violations of American neutrality by searching ships and removing cargoes. Britain will later relax its restrictions in order to avoid countermeasures.

July 21 Politics: The Prohibition Party convenes its national convention at St. Paul, Minnesota, and selects Frank Hanley of Indiana and Ira D. Landrith of Massachusetts for president and vice president, respectively.

July 22 Labor: A bomb thrown by strike leader Thomas Mooney explodes during a Preparedness Day parade in San Francisco, kills 10 people, and wounds 40 more. Mooney will be sentenced to death for the deed while an accomplice, Warren K. Billings, will receive life.

July 28 Diplomacy: The Mexican government submits a proposal to smooth out its differences with the United States, and it is accepted by Acting Secretary of State Frank L. Polk.

July 30 General: A series of explosions at a munitions dump on Black Tom Island, on the Jersey City side of New York harbor, apparently rigged by German saboteurs, inflicts $22 million in damages. The force of the explosions shatters windows as far away as Times Square, New York.

August 4 Diplomacy: Denmark finally agrees to sell the Virgin Islands to the United States for $25 million, concluding a process that began in 1902. This will establish a stronger American naval presence in the Caribbean and preempt any German attempt to gain the islands for basing purposes. The islands are to be administered by an appointed governor, but will also enjoy home rule.

August 11 Agriculture: Congress passes the Warehouse Act, which authorizes loans to farmers based upon the storage of major crops in authorized places. It also initiates federal farm assistance programs that will continue to the present time.

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August 16 Conservation: Canada and the United States sign a treaty for the protection of migratory birds throughout North America.

August 19 Naval: Congress establishes the U.S. Naval Reserves while the state naval militias are federalized as the National Naval Volunteers. Politics: Representative William A. Jones introduces the Jones Bill to guarantee independence to the Philippines once a “stable government” is functioning, but sets no timetable. It will pass both chambers of Congress and, while exerting little substantive effects, will dissuade Congress from spending additional money for naval and military bases there.

August 21 Religion: In New York City, the Catholic National Committee on Public Morals condemns socialism as “alien radicalism” and excoriates its potential for corrupting society. It also stridently condemns the depiction of women in recent motion pictures, citing their immorality.

August 25 Conservation: Congress establishes the Office of National Parks, Buildings, and Reservations within the Department of the Interior. In 1934 it will become the National Park Service.

August 28 Aviation: Major Benjamin D. Foulois reports that his 1st Aero Squadron, despite severe operational conditions, has managed to complete 540 reconnaissance flights, covering 19,533 miles, and staying aloft for 346 hours without serious mishap.

August 29 Aviation: The Naval Flying Corps is officially founded at a strength of 150 officers and 350 enlisted men, along with a Naval Flying Reserve Corps. Congress authorizes creation of the first Coast Guard Aviation Division, but funding will not materialize until 1926. Diplomacy: Congress passes the Jones Act (or Organic Act) for the Philippines, reiterating America’s intention to facilitate Filipino independence and carve out the machinery for self-governance, especially an elected bicameral legislature. Self-governance remains an essential precondition for independence. Military: A Council of National Defense to advise the president is established, consisting of six cabinet members and a qualified civilian staff to advise the commander in chief on industrial, technical, social, and economic preparedness for conflict. They are tasked with planning for transportation, munitions, labor, raw materials, and other commodities essential for modern warfare. Naval: Congress passes the Naval Preparedness Act (“Big Navy”) to enlarge and modernize the U.S. Navy for possible conflict in European waters. This $91.2 million expenditure has been fine-tuned to include 10 battleships, six battle cruisers, 10 scout cruisers, 60 destroyers, and 67 submarines—which would make the U.S. Navy the world’s largest and best equipped. The Navy Department authorizes the Marine Corps Reserve, which will subsequently be subdivided into the Fleet Marine Corps Reserve, the Marine

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Chronology of American History Corps Reserve A, the Marine Corps Reserve B, and the Volunteer Marine Reserve. The cruiser USS Memphis is struck by a tidal wave off Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and sinks with the loss of 40 sailors. Three individuals win Congressional Medals of Honor for saving shipmates, including one awarded posthumously.

August 31 Military: Returns indicate that 111,954 men of the National Guards are deployed along the U.S./Mexican border, including two entire divisions from Pennsylvania and New York.

September 1 Labor: Congress finally passes the long-sought-after Keating-Owen Act to bar all products made with child labor from interstate commerce. Consequently, 1.8 million child laborers cannot work in mines until they are 16, and cannot manufacture products that cross state lines until the age of 14. Young boys were often a source of cheap labor in the mining industry. (Library of Congress)

September 2

Communication: At North Island, San Diego, two naval aircraft transmit messages to each other for the first time and at a distance of two miles. Diplomacy: Germany, militarily dominant in Europe at the moment, inquires of the United States if it is still willing to mediate. President Woodrow Wilson declines to act on the initiative until after the upcoming election.

September 3 Labor: Continuing with his reform impulse, President Woodrow Wilson signs the Adamson Eight Hour Act, which mandates an eight-hour work day, with time and a half for overtime, as it relates to the railroads. In this manner he averts a national strike by railroad workers slated for September 4; the president is accused of catering to union workers in an election year.

September 7 Labor: Congress enacts the Workmen’s Compensation Act, which covers 500,000 federal employees. Naval: The United States Shipping Board is created to acquire merchant ships for naval purposes, such as the conveyance of military forces abroad. Its activities are abetted by the Emergency Fleet Corporation, capitalized at $50 million, to purchase or rent the vessels in the event of war. Politics: Congress passes measures to retaliate against British commerce, by denying their shipping the use of American ports and also keeping out all products competing with the American equivalents. Its enforcement will be voluntary and thus President Woodrow Wilson will enjoy a threat of U.S. retaliation whenever he chooses to employ it. However, the British are careful not to strictly enforce their own measures, and a potential crisis passes.

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September 8 Women: In Atlantic City, President Woodrow Wilson addresses the annual convention of the National American Woman’s Party, but declines to directly endorse a suffrage amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Addressing 4,000 delegates, Dr. Anna Shaw then demands of the president, “We have waited long enough to get the vote. We want it now.”

September 12 Aviation: Lieutenant T. W. Wilkinson conducts the first successful flight of an airplane guided by a gyroscope invented by Elmer Sperry. This automatic control greatly ensures the accuracy and safety of long-distance flying.

September 30 Military: The National Research Council is founded to better stimulate and coordinate high- level scientific developments with potential military application. Sports: The Boston Braves (NL) defeat the New York Giants 8–3 in the second game of a doubleheader, halting the Giants’ record-breaking 26-game winning streak.

October 7–12 Sports: The Boston Red Sox (AL) clinch the 13th annual baseball World Series by defeating the Brooklyn Dodgers (NL) four games to one. Newly acquired pitcher Babe Ruth hurls in a six-hit win.

October 16 Women: Margaret Sanger opens the first birth control clinic in Brooklyn, New York; she will subsequently be arrested for “maintaining a public nuisance.”

October 17 Naval: The new and fated battleship USS Arizona is commissioned; today it lies entombed at the bottom of Pearl Harbor, Oahu, the victim of a Japanese aerial attack in 1941.

October 20 Aviation: Congress appropriates $17 million for the construction of 375 airplanes, although most will be so obsolete they will be employed only as training craft. Diplomacy: Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany writes President Woodrow Wilson a letter asking him to initiate steps to broker possible peace arrangements. He also hints that the course of the war might require Germany to reverse its prior decisions to restrict its U-boat warfare.

October 28 Naval: The British steamer Marine is sunk at sea by U-boats, without warning and killing six Americans.

November 5 Labor: In Everett, Washington, gunfire riddle a boat load of striking members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), killing five and wounding 31. An additional 74 Wobblies are jailed in Seattle for the murder of two sheriff ’s deputies two days earlier.

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November 7–9 Politics: Democrat Woodrow Wilson easily wins reelection with 9.1 million votes to Charles Evans Hughes’s total of 8.5 million, and with an electoral count of 277 to 254. However, Wilson captured California by only 4,000 votes and it will take three days to confirm the fact. His party also maintains control of both chambers of Congress. Societal: In Chicago, Illinois, 40,000 protesters hit the streets to bemoan “dry” Sundays in that hard-drinking town. Women: Montana voters make Republican Jeanette Rankin the first woman seated in the House of Representatives.

November 18–19 Aviation: Seven Curtiss JN-4s of New York’s 1st Aero Company are flown from Mineola, New York, to Princeton, New Jersey, ostensibly to attend a football game but also to showcase their equipment and cross-country abilities to the public.

November 24 Diplomacy: A joint United States-Mexico commission draws up contingency plans to establish a joint border guard system, but the proposal will be rejected by President Venustiano Carranza.

November 27 Business: In light of problems arising from the cash-strapped French and British economies, the Federal Reserve advises member banks against investing in foreign short-term treasury bills. The warning proves a minor irritant to the Allies, who continue to raise the bulk of their war funding from the seemingly inexhaustible resources of America.

November 29 Military: U.S. Marines impose martial law in Santo Domingo until its domestic affairs can be sorted out and order restored, while Captain Harry S. Knapp is appointed military governor; the marines will remain in place until 1924 but make little progress in restoring domestic stability.

November 30 Music: In New York City, George Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers marks the opening of the Metropolitan Opera season.

December 12 Diplomacy: Germany, representing the Central Powers (including Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire), declares to the United States its desire for a negotiated peace. However, it declines to state that, if the effort fails, the Germans will have little recourse but to resurrect unlimited submarine warfare against all shipping.

December 18 Conservation: The United States and Canada conclude another treaty protecting migratory birds from indiscriminate slaughter throughout North America. Diplomacy: President Woodrow Wilson, still hopeful he can avoid involvement in a foreign conflict, writes and asks the warring powers to declare their war aims and the criteria for peace negotiations. He reaffirms America’s interest in an abiding world peace with an eye toward future generations.

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December 21 Business: The New York Stock Exchange, reacting to Secretary of State Robert Lansing’s assertion that the United States is slowly being drawn toward war, rises to a 15-year high. Prospective defense contractors are the biggest gainers, with larger profits to follow should conflict erupt.

December 26 Diplomacy: The government of Imperial Germany responds to President Woodrow Wilson’s peace inquiry and, while it agrees to an eventual meeting of belligerent delegates in a neutral area, it declines to state peace terms for the present. German foreign secretary Arthur Zimmerman, fearing meddling in these matters by President Woodrow Wilson, does not wish the Americans to be privy to the process and wishes to avoid what he considers their naive interference.

December 29 Settlement: The Stock Raising Homestead Act is passed by Congress to double the homestead allowance to 640 acres of grazing land, exclusive of mineral and coal-bearing areas.

December 30 Diplomacy: The Allied powers do not accept Germany’s “desire” for a negotiated settlement, which effectively ends President Woodrow Wilson’s attempt at mediation.

1917 Arts: Sarah Bernhardt, aged 72 years, begins her final, triumphant tour of the American stage by wowing audiences with her youthful performances in several Shakespearean productions. Noted artists and illustrators such as Charles Dana Gibson, James Montgomery Flagg, and Howard Chandler Christie lend their talents to posters and ads designed to whip up virulent, anti-German sentiment in support of the war effort. It is Flagg who creates the famous recruiting poster of Uncle Sam declaring, “I want you for the U.S. Army.” In effect, mass media has been drafted. Aviation: The lighter-than-air gas helium is manufactured in vast quantities for the first time, for use in military balloons in France. It is less flammable than the hydrogen gas already in use for the same purpose. Business: By this date Americans have lent over $2 billion to the Allies in the form of loans, which, in turn, has been largely spent domestically on food and munitions. Before a first shot is fired the country is in the throes of a war prosperity boom. Education: The Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines (today’s University of Alaska) is founded at College (Fairbanks), Territory of Alaska. Engineering: Hell Gate Bridge, a steel, cantilevered structure spanning the Harlem River between the Bronx and Manhattan opens for railroad ser vice. It will become one of the most innovative non- suspension bridges in the world. Literature: Author Hamlin Garland writes his autobiography, A Son of the Middle Border, which speaks to the hardships of living on a farm. His style is best known for paving the way to new levels of realism in writing.

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Chronology of American History Jack London’s last novel, Jerry of the Islands, is published posthumously. Edwin Arlington Robinson publishes Merlin, the first volume of a poetic trilogy based upon the Arthurian legend. American expatriate poet T. S. Eliot, living in London, publishes his first compilation, Prufrock and Other Observations. Social activist Upton Sinclair publishes King Coal, a novel about hardships in the mining industry. Media: By this juncture, English comedian Charlie Chaplin has produced, directed, or starred in several successful motion pictures, making him the nation’s premier film comic. Hollywood begins supporting the war effort by employing actors and actresses like Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford to promote the Liberty Loan drives. Pickford, celebrated as “America’s sweetheart,” is the first woman to make more than a million dollars in the film industry. Film celebrity is rapidly reaching cult status in America. Music: Storyville, New Orleans, a center for both prostitution and honky-tonk jazz, is closed upon the insistence of the U.S. Navy. This begins a mass exodus of jazz musicians from the city. George M. Cohan pens his famous song “You’re a Grand Old Flag,” which becomes a patriotic favorite in these difficult times. Science: Irving Langmuir, a specialist in molecular chemistry, sets new standards in determining molecular measurements.

Charlie Chaplin in A Dog's Life, with Edna Purviance (Library of Congress)

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The European starling, introduced in America at the turn of the century, has multiplied so exponentially in its new home that ornithologists consider it a pest. Sports: Georgia Tech wins the national college football championship with nine wins, no losses, no ties. The Seattle Metropolitans win the National Hockey League’s Stanley Cup by defeating the Montreal Canadiens three games to one. Transportation: There are 4.8 million cars and trucks pounding the roads of America, with an additional 1.8 million cars and 181,000 trucks manufactured this year alone.

January Diplomacy: European heads of state respond to President Woodrow Wilson’s request for stated peace terms as the basis of a negotiated settlement. These terms include German payment of reparations, evacuation of all occupied territory, and the reorganization of eastern Europe following expulsion of the Ottoman Empire from Europe. Societal: Over 7,000 people attend an anti-prostitution drive in San Francisco headed by the Reverend Paul Smith; 200 brothels will be closed.

January 1 Sports: Oregon wins college football’s second annual Rose Bowl game by trouncing Pennsylvania, 14–0.

January 6 Aviation: The secretaries of war and of the navy are encouraged by an Army and Navy Board to acquire several lighter-than-air ships based on the proven Zeppelin design.

January 10 Diplomacy: President Woodrow Wilson receives answers to his inquiry about peace terms from the belligerent powers and is somewhat dismayed to learn that the terms are so rigid and unyielding on both sides as to preclude any chance for peace.

January 11 General: A large foundry in New Jersey blows up, apparently the work of German saboteurs.

January 13 Naval: The cruiser USS Milwaukee, attempting to help refloat the grounded submarine H-3, is stranded off Eureka, California, and wrecked without loss of life.

January 16 Diplomacy: The German foreign secretary sends a coded dispatch to Germany’s minister in Mexico City, authorizing him to forge an alliance between the two countries in anticipation of war with the United States. In this event, Germany would help Mexico recapture Arizona, Texas, and New Mexico.

January 17 Settlement: The United States purchases the Virgin Islands from Denmark for $25 million; their acquisition allows the navy to establish coaling stations and other advanced bases in the Caribbean.

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January 22 Diplomacy: President Woodrow Wilson outlines his Ten Points to Congress, emphasizing the necessity of creating a worldwide mechanism for enforcing peace, in effect, a federation of peace-loving nations. He also calls for “peace without victory,” which the belligerent powers, having sacrificed a generation of young men in the trenches of Europe, are not willing to adopt.

January 28 Military: President Woodrow Wilson orders General John J. Pershing to withdraw all American forces from Mexico, in effect, ending the futile pursuit of Francisco “Pancho” Villa. The Americans have roughly 11,500 men in the vicinity of Colonia Dublan, supported by a fleet of 170 trucks.

January 29 Politics: President Woodrow Wilson vetoes a congressional bill mandating literacy tests for immigrants, insisting that it would not be a litmus test for good citizenry.

January 31 Military: The German war effort, invigorated under the leadership of Marshal Paul von Hindenburg, abandons prior restrictions on undersea warfare in a deliberate attempt to starve England into submission—a tactic that will nearly succeed. Neutral shipping in war zones has until February 1 to depart or risk being sunk. Hindenburg undertakes this even at the risk of U.S. intervention, believing that the German army can defeat the Allies before the Americans can arrive in force. The note is delivered to the American government by Germany’s ambassador, Count Johann-Heinrich von Bernstorff. This naval escalation proves to be a grave military miscalculation.

February 2 Politics: In Oyster Bay, New York, former president and Rough Rider Theodore Roosevelt begins agitating for a divisional command of American volunteers to serve on the Western Front. His request will be politely declined by Secretary of War Newton D. Baker.

February 3 Diplomacy: President Woodrow Wilson breaks off diplomatic relations with Germany over its renewal of unrestricted submarine warfare. Naval: German U-boats sink the American vessel Housatonic off the coast of Sicily following a one-hour warning. However, the Allies have begun employing the convoy system, which will drastically reduce ship losses; improved antisubmarine tactics and technology partially neutralize the threat.

February 5 Arts: The musical Canary Cottage by Oliver Morosco, Elmer Harris, and Earl Carroll, premieres at the Morosco Theater in New York City. Military: In Mexico, the last detachment of American forces under General Frederick Funston withdraws to American territory. This officially concludes the Punitive Expedition. Societal: Congress passes an immigration law by overriding President Woodrow Wilson’s veto. Among its provisions are literacy tests for newcomers and a ban on all Asian laborers other than Japanese, while all other newcomers are required to pass a literacy test.

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February 7 Diplomacy: The U.S. Senate votes 75 to five to back President Woodrow Wilson’s diplomatic break with Germany.

February 12 Naval: In light of mounting unrest in Cuba, the gunboat USS Paducah sends the bulk of its crew ashore to protect American lives and property.

February 15 Naval: Commander Dudley Knox of the gunboat USS Petrel drops anchor off Santiago, Cuba, and strikes a bargain with rebels not to allow governmental vessel to enter. In return the rebels pledge not to scuttle a vessel in the channel and thus block it.

February 19 Diplomacy: The State Department declares the liberal rebellion in Cuba to be “lawless and unconstitutional,” then vows to oppose it.

February 23 Education: Congress passes the Smith-Hughes Act, which creates the Federal Board for Vocational Education and provides matching funds for trade and agricultural schools.

February 24 Diplomacy: British naval intelligence reveals to the U.S. State Department the existence of the so-called Zimmermann note. This was sent from German foreign secretary Arthur Zimmermann to his ambassador in Mexico, instructing him to encourage that country to fight against the United States in return for receiving Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. He also advised Mexico to seek Japanese assistance, if possible.

February 25 Military: A force of 220 U.S. Marines from the Atlantic Fleet comes ashore at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and occupies the city, while an additional 200 land in Oriente Province for the protection of American-owned sugar plantations.

February 26 Naval: When President Woodrow Wilson asks Congress for permission to pass the Armed Ship Bill, which will arm merchant vessels, a group of pacificist senators under Robert La Follette manages to filibuster its passage.

March 1 Politics: The State Department publishes the so-called Zimmermann telegram, conveniently provided by Great Britain, concerning German intrigues in Mexico. Predictably, it unleashes a wave of public anger against Germany. The House of Representatives passes the Armed Ship Bill, but the Senate is unable to stop a filibuster by Senator Robert La Follette and others.

March 2 General: Congress passes the Jones Act (or Organic Act), which declares Puerto Rico an unincorporated American territory and grants citizenship to the island’s inhabitants. An American-style government and an appointed governor are also established.

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March 3 Business: Congress passes its first excess profit tax, progressively structured from 20 percent to 60 percent, to help subsidize military spending. It is applied on all corporate profits in excess of 7 percent to 9 percent of capital. Diplomacy: The United States dispatches Ambassador Henry P. Fletcher to Mexico once the government of President Venustiano Carranza receives recognition.

March 4 Naval: President Woodrow Wilson signs the Naval Appropriations Bill; at $157 million, it is the largest naval expenditure in history to this date.

March 5 Diplomacy: The State Department is informed of the Russian Revolution and the abdication of Czar Nicholas II. Russian participation in World War I will decline from this point forward, and it will become strategically imperative for the Allies that America enter the conflict soon to redress the balance of manpower. Politics: Woodrow Wilson is inaugurated for his second term as president in Washington, D.C. His first term had proved an eventful four years and war clouds are fast gathering on the horizon. Thomas R. Marshall begins his second term as vice president.

March 8 Business: The Federal Reserve Board revises its attitude toward foreign loans, in light of deteriorating conditions with Germany, and now views them as essential to U.S. trade. Military: Rather than be captured by government forces, large numbers of Cuban rebels in Santiago surrender to landing parties from the USS San Francisco, Olympia, and Machias. Politics: The Senate invokes the cloture rule in a threatened filibuster concerning the arming of U.S. merchant vessels. This maneuver allows a cut-off of debate once two-thirds of those present vote in favor of it.

March 9 Naval: President Woodrow Wilson, having been assured by his attorney general that he possesses the power as commander in chief, orders merchant vessels to be armed without the consent of Congress. U.S. Navy vessels are also ordered to return fire if attacked by submarines.

March 12 Naval: U-boats sink the American merchant vessel Algonquin.

March 17 Diplomacy: The administration of Cuban president Garcia Menocal declares a general amnesty on that island, thereby paving the ground for the evacuation of all U.S. forces there. Music: In New York City, the word jasz ( jazz) is used for the first time to describe that racy, indigenous American music form, variously ascribed to AfricanAmerican ragtime, the blues, and other New Orleans formats. However, many fear that its free-flowing, suggestive tones are corrupting youthful listeners, who are its greatest devotees. Naval: German U-boats sink the American vessel City of Memphis.

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Women: The Navy Department authorizes the recruitment of women as “yeomanettes” to perform clerical tasks and other functions. A total of 11,275 will step forward to serve their country during the Great War.

March 18 Naval: German U-boats attack and sink the American ships Vigilancia and Illinois.

March 19 Labor: Railroad managers cooperating with the defense program accept the principle of an eight-hour day to eliminate any chance of a labor slowdown.

March 20 Politics: In light of renewed German aggression on the high seas, the cabinet unanimously advises President Woodrow Wilson to make a declaration of war. On the following day he calls for a special session of Congress.

March 22 Diplomacy: The March Revolution having forced the czar to abdicate, the United States recognizes the provisional government led by Prince Lvov, soon to be followed by Aleksandr Kerensky. The government of Kaiser Wilhelm II declares through its Foreign Office that there will be no further negotiations with the United States over the issue of neutrality. Henceforth, any American ships caught in the war zone are subject to attack like all other vessels. Politics: In New York City, a crowd of 12,000 cheering supporters of the American Rights Committee gathers at Madison Square Garden to demand war with Germany. War fever begins sweeping this erstwhile isolationist nation.

March 31 Aviation: U.S. Marines on Haiti are bolstered by the arrival of seven Curtiss HS2 flying boats, which touch down at Bizoton. Military: The Council of National Defense establishes the General Munitions Board to better coordinate what is slowly becoming a vast national war effort. In practice, it lacks enforcement powers and will be relatively ineffective. Settlement: The United States takes formal possession of the Virgin Islands from Denmark, having paid $25 million for them. The move precludes any possible seizure by Germany and helps to guard the strategic Panama Canal.

April Indian: The commissioner of Indian affairs promulgates new regulations regarding the sale of Indian allotments by removing all restrictions on any owner who has less than one-half Indian ancestry or has otherwise been judged competent to manage his own affairs.

April 2 Diplomacy: After outlining German aggression, President Woodrow Wilson formally asks the Senate for a declaration of war “to make the world safe for democracy.” Women: Representative Jeanette Rankin, Republican of Montana, takes her seat as the first woman in the House of Representatives.

April 4 Business: For the first time, wheat zooms past $2.00 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade. Diplomacy: The U.S. Senate votes 82 to 6 in favor of war against Germany.

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April 6 Military: Despite recent saber rattling by President Woodrow Wilson and several years of advance warning, the United States enters World War I essentially unprepared, especially for protracted land warfare in western Europe. The U.S. Army numbers around 200,000 men, lacks any tanks or armored vehicles, has no capacity to produce modern artillery, and possesses only 50 qualified military aviators. Music: On the day war is declared, prolific song writer George M. Cohan writes and releases his famous song, “Over There.” In the war fever that follows the jingle eventually becomes something of a national mantra. Politics: Once the House of Representatives passes the proposed declaration of war against Germany 373 to 50, the measure goes to President Woodrow Wilson, who signs it. The matter has taken 13 hours of emotional debate to settle; Republican congresswoman Jeanette Rankin casts her vote in the negative. This conflict unleashes social and economic forces that will lead inevitably to a second and greater conflagration, World War II.

April 13 Naval: The battleship USS New Mexico, the first capital ship utilizing a turbine electric drive, is launched in New York City.

April 14 Journalism: An executive order by President Woodrow Wilson creates the Committee on Public Information as an government agency tasked with monitoring news and propaganda releases. Editor and journalist George Creel is made director.

April 16 Naval: The Emergency Fleet Corporation is chartered by Congress and capitalized at $50 million in order to buy, lease, and construct merchant vessels for the war effort.

April 18 Naval: In something of a turn of fortunes, the armed American transport Mongolia fires upon a surfaced U-boat in the Atlantic, wrecking the sub’s conning tower.

April 19 Business: Cotton reaches 21.25 cents per pound on the New York Exchange, the highest price since the Civil War. Military: The newly acquired Virgin Islands receives a garrison of three companies of U.S. Marines, who will mount coastal batteries to deny harbor facilities to the Germans. Sports: William F. Kennedy wins the 21st Boston Marathon by finishing in two hours, 28 minutes, 37 seconds.

April 21 Diplomacy: Mexico’s new ambassador, Ygnacio Bonilles, presents his credentials in Washington, D.C.

April 24 Aviation: Captain William “Billy” Mitchell becomes the first officer of the U.S. Army Air Service to fly over enemy territory; he subsequently becomes an outspoken—if outlandish—supporter of American air power.

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Business: Congress passes the Liberty Loan Act to raise money for the war effort through public subscription; five consecutive loan drives by Secretary of the Treasury William G. McAdoo will net $20 billion by April 1919.

April 28 Military: Congress adopts the Selective Service Act to begin raising a wartime army and submits it to President Woodrow Wilson for his approval.

May 1 Military: To facilitate the vast transportation network necessary for the transfer of thousands of soldiers to the Western Front, recruiting offices make a special plea for volunteers to consider joining the Railway Engineers. In fact, detachments from the 11th, 12th, and 13th Railway Engineers will arrive first in Boulogne, France, ahead of most combat units.

May 2 Military: The War Department alerts General John J. Pershing, then on duty at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, that he may be tapped to serve as commander of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) in France. Sports: Fred Tonet of the Cincinnati Reds (NL) pitches the first double no-hit, nine-inning baseball game by defeating the hitless Chicago Cubs.

May 4 Naval: Admiral William S. Sims is dispatched to Great Britain as the American naval liaison to the British Admiralty; he advocates quickly deploying navy antisubmarine assets to European waters to combat the U-boat threat. Commander Joseph K. Taussig, leading Destroyer Squadron Eight, anchors at Queenstown, Ireland, with the USS Conyngham, Davis, McDougal, Porter, Wainwright, and Wadsworth. When queried by a British commander as to when he will be ready for action, Taussig shoots back, “We are ready now, sir!”

May 11 Civil: President Woodrow Wilson is petitioned by the Central Committee of Negro College Men, who seek an officer’s training camp for qualified African Americans. Business: The price of what passes $3.11 per bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade, at which point trading is suspended.

May 12 Sports: The 42nd annual Preakness Stakes is won by Kalitan, which finishes with a time of one minute, 54 seconds. The 43rd annual Kentucky Derby is won by Omar Khayyam with a time of two minutes, four seconds.

May 17 Military: President Woodrow Wilson signs the Selective Service Act to induct all men between 21 and 30 to the colors, commencing June 5, 1917. This is the first military conscription passed since 1863 and will ultimately induct three million men out of 24 million registered. Ultimately, army manpower will rise to over four million while the navy expands to 500,000. Several political figures oppose the draft and argue that any military recruiting should be accomplished strictly on a volunteer basis. Another unusual provision of the act is the banning of liquor from all training camps.

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Sims, William Sowden

(1858–1936)

Admiral William Sowden Sims was born on October 15, 1858 in Port Hope, Ontario, to an American father, and relocated with his family to Pennsylvania in 1872. He gained admittance to the U.S. Naval Academy in 1876 and four years later reported for duty with the Atlantic Fleet, where he remained until 1888, and then with the Pacific Fleet, sailing there until 1897. Sims proved himself a capable seaman and officer, and he penned a treatise on navigation that was long employed by both the navy and merchant marine. Up through 1900 he also served as naval attaché in St. Petersburg, Russia, and Paris, France, with the American embassies there. Sims then transferred to the China Station as gunnery inspector with the Asiatic Fleet and grew anxious at the inferiority in gunnery standards he found there. He then composed a detailed brief outlining the cause of said deficiencies; when the Navy Department ignored him, he willfully violated the chain of command by appealing directly to President Theodore Roosevelt. The blustery chief executive was so impressed that he brought Sims to Washington, D.C., to serve as inspector of target practice until 1909, and he also functioned as the president’s naval aide. Thus empowered, Sims brought about changes in technology and technique that revolutionized American naval gunnery and made it comparable or superior to all others extant. His outspoken nature got him into trouble while commanding the battleship USS Minnesota on a goodwill trip to Britain in 1910, when

he promised the full support of the United States if war should erupt in Europe. This earned him a thorough dressing down from President William Howard Taft, but he still gained command of the Atlantic Torpedo Flotilla in 1913 and spent the next two years honing the navy’s torpedo tactics. Sims rose to rear admiral and vice admiral in 1917, and then completed a term as president of the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. After the United States became embroiled in World War I, President Woodrow Wilson dispatched Sims to Europe as commander of American naval assets there. Unlike his army counterpart, General John J. Pershing, Sims proved an ardent Anglophile and he cheerfully subordinated the American fleet to the more experienced Royal Navy. In this capacity he also helped orchestrate the highly successful system of convoys to help diffuse the U-boat threat. Sims gained promotion to full admiral in 1918, and the following year he returned to the United States to command the Naval War College. Outspoken as always, in 1920 he penned a scathing critique of naval capabilities in the late war, which garnered him not only the ire of Congress, but also an official investigation. In 1920 he wrote his memoir, The Victory at Sea, with Burton J. Hendrick, and won the Pulitzer Prize for history. Sims died in Boston on September 28, 1936, unruly, strongly disliked by many in the naval establishment, but easily one of the most influential reformers in American naval history.

May 24 Military: The First Expeditionary Division is assembled from various army units stationed in Texas under the command of General William L. Sibert. This unit will spearhead the transfer of American forces to the Western Front.

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May 26 Diplomacy: Former secretary of state Elihu Root is dispatched to Russia in an attempt to convince the socialist government there to remain in the war. The trip results in a $325 million loan to the regime of Aleksandr Kerensky. Military: Secretary of War Newton D. Baker informs General John J. Pershing of his appointment as commanding officer of the new American Expeditionary Force (AEF), slated for eventual deployment in France. In this capacity he is ordered to keep the Americans unified as a single fighting force and not parcel then out in detachments to bolster the Allies.

May 29 Military: General John J. Pershing sails with his staff from New York City on the SS Baltic. He departs ahead of his army, still being organized from scratch. Naval: The U.S. Navy commences routine convoy duty in the North Atlantic in anticipation of escorting thousands of troops and millions of tons of supplies and equipment to the Europe an theater. This move is accomplished by the newly formed Cruiser and Transport Force under Admiral Albert Gleaves; in time it will be placed under the operational control of the larger and more experienced Royal Navy. Considering the scope of the U-boat menace, results are impressive.

June 1 Naval: The Supreme War Council agrees that Allied shipping should be concentrated in the Atlantic region for the purpose of carrying U.S. Army troops to Europe as quickly as possible.

June 3 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Hammer v. Dagenhart, ruling that the Keating-Owen Child Labor Act of 1917 is unconstitutional owing to its infringements upon local regulation of labor conditions.

June 4 Diplomacy: Despite the fact that China has broken off diplomatic relations with Germany, Secretary of State Robert Lansing convinces them not to declare war, but rather to develop a modern economy. However, buoyed by secret agreements with Britain, France, and Japan, the Chinese government will eventually go to war.

June 5 Aviation: The 1st Aeronautical Detachment, under Lieutenant Kenneth Whiting, lands at Bordeaux and Saint-Nazaire, France, becoming the first military aviation unit deployed to continental Europe. They have been transported by the colliers Jupiter and Neptune. Military: By this date and as per the Selective Service Act, 10 million young American men have registered for military service.

June 7–9 Military: The 1st Infantry Division, two brigades, begins assembling at Hoboken, New Jersey, for transportation overseas to France.

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June 8 General: Electrical insulation catches fire in the Speculator Mine, Montana, killing 164 men. Military: General John J. Pershing and his staff of 150 officers, clerks, and enlisted men arrive in England aboard the liner SS Baltic. These are the first American troops ever to arrive in Europe.

June 9 Naval: Six armed yachts belonging to the U.S. Patrol Squadron sail from New York and make for Brest, France, to assist in patrol and minesweeping operations.

June 13 Military: General John J. Pershing and his entourage arrive in Paris, France, future headquarters of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF). Being concerned about the inadequate level of training among his regular-army troops, he will not allow them to be committed to combat operations until the fall. The 5th Marine Regiment under Colonel Charles A. Doyen sails from New York for France, where it is to perform ground operations in concert with army troops.

June 14 Military: General John J. Pershing takes up residence in Paris, France, with the advance detachment of his American Expeditionary Force (AEF). Though under tremendous pressure to place his command under French or British guidance, he determines to keep the AEF—with an anticipated strength of one million men—an independent force. Politics: President Woodrow Wilson, using his Flag Day speech as a platform, declares that soldiers will be transported to France as practically as possible and also trained there, in areas being secured by General John J. Pershing.

June 23 Military: The War Department authorizes recruitment of the U.S. Army Ambulance Service for direct attachment to French combat divisions already on the line. Such a move will release thousands of French soldiers employed in this capacity for service at the battlefront. Ultimately, the unit will be comprised of 184 officers, 4,858 soldiers, and 13 ambulance sections.

June 15 Politics: Congress approves the Espionage Act, with fines of up to $10,000 and prison terms of up to 20 years for any person infringing upon the war effort or assisting the enemy. It also allows the Post Office Department to censor and control the circulation of potentially seditious materials, usually from socialists. This constitutes the most repressive censorship since the Alien and Sedition Act of 1798.

June 16 Sports: The 49th Belmont Stakes is won by Hourless, who finishes in two minutes, 17 seconds.

June 26 Military: The U.S. 1st Division crosses the Atlantic and arrives in Saint-Nazaire, France, under the command of General William L. Sibert—the first of nearly a

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million troops that will follow. Their arrival has an ebullient effect on the French populace, exhausted after three years of terrible sacrifice. Sports: Pitcher Ernie Shore of the Boston Red Sox (AL) defeats the Washington Senators in a perfect baseball game (no hits or walks), four to zero. The U.S. Lawn Tennis Association singles championships are won by R. Lindley Murray and Molla Bjursted in their respective divisions.

July Naval: Determined to neutralize the U-boat menace, the United States suspends the building of capital vessels in favor of smaller ships capable of antisubmarine warfare.

July 4 Aviation: Rantoul, Illinois, is the site of the first military airfield for training purposes. At this time the United States, which invented the airplane, possesses only 55 obsolete aircraft. It will end the war with 16,801 combat aircraft in service, obtained mostly from France. Military: In Paris, France, the U.S. 1st Division parades down the Champs Elysées before marching off to various training grounds. Then Colonel Charles E. Stanton, delivering a speech at the gravesite of the Marquis de Lafayette, America’s oldest friend and ally, boldly declares to the war-weary French nation, “Lafayette, nous voici!” (Lafayette, we are here!).

July 5 Military: The 1st Division, AEF, arrives at its training area of Gondrecourt, where it will be paired with the veteran French 47th Division to sharpen its tactical abilities. A direct line of communications between the camp and AEF headquarters in Paris is established under the direction of General R. M. Blatchford.

July 14 Military: Lieutenant Louis J. Genella, serving with the Army Medical Corps alongside British forces, becomes the first American soldier wounded in France.

July 19 Media: The Signal Corps is instructed to take extensive film and photographic footage of combat operations and other military endeavors in western Europe. Given the primitive state of wireless communication, it also accepts responsibility for more than 15,000 AEF carrier pigeons, trained as messengers.

July 20 Military: Blindfolded army officers draw 10,500 capsules to determine the sequence in which registered men are to be drafted into the armed forces.

July 23 Naval: The cruiser USS Pittsburgh suffers a deadly casemate explosion. Lieutenant Willis Winter Bradley and Seaman Ora Graves will win the Congressional Medal of Honor for saving their shipmates.

July 24 Aviation: The Army Aviation Section receives its first large appropriation from Congress, $640 million; the number of aircraft operated will rise exponentially from 16 in 1912 to 19,023 by 1918. Significantly, the bulk of 4,500 new military

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Chronology of American History aircraft manufactured in the United States will be either naval patrol craft or army trainers; virtually all combat aircraft will be French in origin. The majority of those built in America will be powered by a reliable motor designed by the Packard Motor Car Company, the so-called Liberty Engine, of which 15,131 will be constructed by war’s end. Amazingly, the first working example will be designed and built in only 33 days. Military: In Paris, General John J. Pershing confers with his British counterpart, Field Marshal Haig, about Allied strategy, insisting that the Americans remain an independent force.

July 27 Naval: North Island off San Diego, California, is officially taken over by the U.S. Army and Navy; it time it will emerge as one of the navy’s most important air stations on the West Coast.

July 28 Military: The hobbling General Munitions Board is replaced by a more effective organization, the War Industries Board.

August Publishing: Laura E. Richards and Maude Howe receive the first Pulitzer Prize awarded in journalism for their biography entitled Julia Ward Howe. A work by French ambassador Jean Jules Jusserand, With Americans of Past and Present Days, is also honored.

August 5 Aviation: In Columbus, New Mexico, the 1st Aero Squadron under Major Ralph Royce prepares to transfer its personnel to training facilities in Avord, France.

August 10 General: Congress passes the Lever Food and Fuel Act to increase food production, and it will be ably administered by Herbert Clark Hoover. Harry A. Garfield is named fuel administrator and both are tasked with facilitating production while cracking down on speculation. Congress authorizes other measures such as price fixing to control and modulate the domestic economy on a wartime footing.

August 14 Aviation: An aircraft piloted by Lieutenant Edward O. McDonnell conducts the first experimental torpedo drop over Huntington Bay, New York; the dummy ordnance bounces off the water and strikes the plane, nearly downing it. Significantly, this test comes five years after Admiral Bradley Fiske patented such a concept. Military: The 42nd Division, the first National Guard formation to be deployed to France, begins organizing under General William A. Mann. This composite division has units from 26 states and the District of Columbia, hence its nickname of “Rainbow Division.” President Woodrow Wilson nominates 184 officers to serve as generals in Europe and dispatches the list to the U.S. Senate for confirmation, it includes 37 major generals and 147 brigadier generals.

August 18 Communication: The first direct, two-way communication between an army airplane and an airfield is made at Langley Field, Virginia.

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August 19 Military: According to figures released by the War Department, outfitting the U.S. Army’s “Doughboys” will cost the taxpayer $156.50 per soldier. The most expensive item is the Springfield rifle—$19.50 apiece. Sports: Managers John McGraw and Christy Mathewson of the New York Giants and Cincinnati Reds (both NL) are arrested in New York City for violating an ordinance against playing ball on Sunday.

August 20 Communication: Two army aircraft flying from Langley Field, Virginia, establish the first two-way radio communication while airborne.

September 1 Military: General John J. Pershing transfers his AEF field headquarters from Paris, France, to Chaumont, where he occupies the French army’s old Damremont barracks.

September 2 Politics: The House of Representatives forms a group known as “The Inquiry” at the behest of President Woodrow Wilson, to explore the problems associated with reaching a realistic peace settlement in Europe.

September 4 Military: Four members of U.S. Base Hospital No. 5, operating with British forces at Dannes-Camiers, France, are the first American servicemen killed in action when German airplanes bomb their facility.

September 5 Military: The U.S. 11th Engineer Regiment sustains its first losses when two members are injured by shellfire while working on a railroad at Gouzeaucourt, France, with British forces.

September 16 Naval: The U-61 unsuccessfully attacks the destroyer USS Cassin off Mine Head, Ireland, prompting Gunner’s Mate Osmond K. Ingram to roll a depth charge over the side to destroy the attacker. He is thrown overboard instead, becoming the first American sailor killed in action; Ingram will receive a posthumous Congressional Medal of Honor.

September 17 Naval: After the cruiser USS Huntington releases an observation balloon, the pilot is ensnared in the rigging and is dragged underwater; Ship’s Fitter Patrick McGunigal promptly dives overboard, cuts the ropes, and rescues him, winning a Congressional Medal of Honor.

September 18 Labor: Federal officials raid the office of the International Workers of the World (IWW) in Chicago, Illinois, on account of its antiwar agitation, although its nominal head, William D. “Big Bill” Haywood, is attempting to quiet discontent and opposition to the war effort.

September 21 Military: Major General Tasker H. Bliss becomes chief of staff of the U.S. Army.

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September 22 Military: General Hugh L. Scott departs as army chief of staff and briefly retires, but he will be recalled to active duty as a battlefield inspector and commander of the 78th Division.

September 27 Military: The 101st Field Artillery becomes the first regimental-size National Guard unit to deploy, at Coetquidan, France, as part of the 26th (New England) Division.

October 1 Business: The Second Liberty Loan drive of $3 billion at 4 percent is launched, ending six weeks later and oversubscribed by half.

October 2 Military: General Peyton C. March leaves the 1st Field Artillery Brigade to become commander of all AEF artillery in France.

October 3 Business: The War Revenue Act is approved by Congress, increasing business and personal tax levels, while establishing new duties in the form of excise, excess-profit, and luxury taxes. All serve as a major source of federal income during the war.

October 6 Business: Congress passes the Trading with the Enemy Act to grant the government control over foreign trade and the ability to censor foreign mail. Moreover, several German-owned factories in the United States are seized; a War Trade Board empowered with the ability to license imports and exports is also founded. Military: General John J. Pershing is promoted to full general (four-star) as American Expeditionary Force manpower exceeds 90,000 and approaches combat capacity.

October 6–15 Sports: The Chicago White Sox (AL) win baseball’s 14th annual World Series by defeating the New York Giants (NL) four games to two.

October 7 Military: Headquarters, AEF, alerts the War Department of its projected “Priority Schedule” to ship the bulk of 1.3 million soldiers to Europe in six, corps-level phases. Each army corps is to consist of six divisions, while the last phase to account for tank and rear area personnel.

October 9 Military: General George T. Bartlett is appointed commander of all American forces stationed in England.

October 10 Military: At Langres (Haute-Marne), France, the first AEF antiaircraft troops undergo training. Nearby facilities are also constructed to facilitate trench mortar training.

October 13 Engineering: After 12 years of construction, the impressively engineered Catskill Aqueduct is dedicated by Mayor John P. Mitchell at ceremonies in New

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York City’s Central Park. This device, intended to deliver to the city year-round supplies of fresh water, is 92 miles long, most of it cut through solid rock, and cost $177 million.

October 15 Civil: An initial batch of African-American officers receive their officer’s commissions at Des Moines, Iowa, the first of 1,300 so honored. Ultimately, 400,000 blacks will serve in the ranks, performing with distinction when allowed to fight.

October 16 Women: Four female suffragettes are arrested for picketing outside the White House on behalf of a woman’s right to vote. They are sentenced to six months’ imprisonment.

October 18 Military: The Transport Service under General William F. Atterbury is created as a department under the commander, Services of Supply. It is tasked with controlling and coordinating all canals, ports, and railroads associated with the AEF war effort.

October 21 Military: The U.S. 1st Division assumes advanced positions in the vicinity of Lunéville (Nancy), France, which the youthful soldiers promptly dub “Looneyville.” Due to their overall inexperience as combat troops, each American unit is attached to a more seasoned French division in the line.

October 22 Sports: In Montreal, Canada, the National Hockey League (NHL) replaces the National Hockey Association.

October 23 Military: Sergeant Alex Arch, Battery C, 6th Field Artillery, fires the first American artillery shells of the war at German lines near the Swiss border. The unit is equipped with rapid-fire French 75 mm cannon.

October 24 –25 Military: Italian forces retreat over 60 miles after a humiliating defeat at the hands of Austro-German forces at Caporetto, in the Italian Alps. Allied forces are required to siphon off valuable troops from France to reinforce the Italians. General John J. Pershing is also pressured to provide manpower to fill in gaps along the Western Front, although he continues to insist that the AEF remains an independent army.

October 26 Military: At Borumont, France, the U.S. 2nd Division begins to take shape under the leadership of General Omar Bundy. This unique formation consists of a brigade of soldiers and another of U.S. Marines.

October 27 Music: Russian violinist Jascha Heifetz astounds American audiences in New York City with his subtle yet powerful technique, and is hailed as equaling the greatest living masters in this art.

October 30 Military: Secretary of War Newton D. Baker, apprehensive over a possible shortage of electricity in heavily industrialized regions such as western New York, asks

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Chronology of American History engineers to act judiciously on the newly created Power Section of the civilian War Industries Board and Conserve Resources.

October 31 Military: The U.S. 26th (“Yankee”) Division under General Clarence Edwards arrives for duty at Neufchâteau, France, becoming the first fully organized formation abroad. It boasts a complement of 28,000 men—roughly twice the size of the average British, French, or German division.

November 1 Naval: The patrol boat USS Alcedo, a former yacht, is torpedoed and sunk off the French coast by UC-71, with the loss of 22 sailors. This is the first American vessel sunk in World War I. Seaman Tedford C. Mann risks his life closing a flooded compartment on board the converted yacht USS May, winning a Congressional Medal of Honor.

November 2 Diplomacy: The Lansing-Ishii Agreement is signed between the United States and Japan whereby Secretary of State Robert Lansing agrees to recognize that Japan has special interests in China, and Viscount Kikujiro Ishii pledges to respect Chinese independence relative to the U.S. Open Door policy, respecting trade. Japan will interpret this acquiescence as recognition of Japan’s “special” interest in, and influence over, her giant neighbor.

November 2–3 Military: A nighttime German trench raid at Bathelemont, along the RhineMarne Canal, results in the deaths of three American soldiers from Company F, 16th U.S. Infantry, 1st Division, along with five wounded and 12 captured. However, the defenders have resisted fiercely and several of the raiders are also killed or taken in this sharp little action. Women: A New York State constitutional amendment allows for women suffrage.

November 7 Diplomacy: The United States does not recognize the Bolshevik regime in Russia, which has overthrown the tottering socialists of Aleksandr Kerensky. A new and utterly ruthless leader, Vladimir Lenin, emerges to take his place.

November 9 Business: Secretary of State Robert Lansing, eager to forestall continuing Japanese influence in China, declares plans to begin a banking consortium to provide loans and other financial assistance to assist them.

November 11 Diplomacy: In Russia, a Bolshevik counterrevolution has toppled the moderate regime of Aleksandr Kerensky and put into power a radical revolutionary, Vladimir Lenin. The new regime is committed to getting Russia out of World War I as soon as possible and at any price—a stance that has the Western Allies gravely concerned. Women: An important political threshold is crossed when the New York State legislature passes a constitutional amendment allowing women to vote. This is the first time that a major state has embraced suffrage.

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November 17 Naval: The destroyer USS Fanning espies a German submarine stalking the coast of Ireland, rolls out depth charges, and sinks the U-58. This is the only enemy craft sunk by U.S. warships during World War I.

November 18 Aviation: U.S. Navy pilots conduct their first flying boat patrols of the war, operating out of Naval Air Station Le Croisic, France. Business: To promote conservation, the Federal Fuel Administration orders that all electrical advertising be turned off on Thursdays and Saturdays.

November 19 Naval: The British merchant vessel Rose accidental rams and sinks the American destroyer USS Chauncey off Gibraltar, Spain, killing 21 crew members, including Commander Walter E. Reno.

November 20–December 4 Military: The U.S. 11th, 12th, and 14th Engineers accompany a large British offensive in the Cambrai sector, putting down railway tracks and sustaining casualties. This is the first offensive in which American troops are committed to combat operations, and “Cambrai” becomes the first campaign streamer of the war.

November 21 Aviation: In a preview of things to come, the navy demonstrates an “aerial torpedo” (flying bomb) at Amityville, New York. This precursor to the guided missile carries a 1,000-pound warhead, has a range of 50 miles, and flies at speeds of 90 miles per hour.

November 25 Diplomacy: In light of the Bolshevik coup d’état, the State Department declares its intention to recognize ambassador Boris Bakhmetev of the previous Provisional Government. President Woodrow Wilson regards the Communist takeover of Russia as illegal and refuses to extend diplomatic recognition.

November 28 Military: The General Staff College is founded at Langres, France, for the benefit of field-grade officers. The First Army Tank School also takes root there, under Colonel George S. Patton.

December 4 Naval: The submarine E-1 (formerly Skipjack) departs Newport, Rhode Island, intending to be the first such craft to cross the Atlantic Ocean under its own power.

December 6 Naval: German submarine U-53 torpedoes and sinks the destroyer USS Jacob Jones off the Isles of Scilly; it sinks in only eight minutes. Only 38 of the 108-man crew survive, although the Germans will inform the Americans at Queenstown, Ireland, of the survivors’ locations.

December 7 Diplomacy: The United States formally declares war on the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

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Chronology of American History Military: With Colonel Douglas MacArthur as its Chief of Staff, the 42nd “Rainbow” Division, comprised of National Guard units from every state in the Union, lands safely in France. Naval: Admiral Hugh Rodman conducts Battleship Division Nine, consisting of the USS Delaware, Florida, New York, and Texas, to Scapa Flow off the north coast of Scotland, there to join the British Main Fleet at anchor.

December 12 Military: The largely African-American 93rd Division embarks from Hoboken, New Jersey, for the Western Front. However, black soldiers have received a low priority in terms of equipment and training, so many are armed and outfitted with equipment provided by France.

December 14 Military: General Robert Lee Bullard, known as an aggressive leader, assumes command of the 1st Division in France.

December 17 Naval: Submarine F-1 collides with its stablemate F-3 and sinks off San Pedro, California, killing 19 sailors. During a heavy storm in the Bay of Biscay, Boatswain’s Mate John Mackenzie secures a loose depth charge by hand and holds it until it can be discharged overboard; he wins the Congressional Medal of Honor.

December 18 Politics: Congress approves the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which outlaws the manufacture and possession of intoxicating beverages, and passes it along to the states for ratification. By this time 29 states have adopted prohibitionist ordinances of one kind or another.

December 20 General: Two passenger trains collide at Louisville, Kentucky, resulting in the death of 46 passengers.

December 22 Politics: The congressional group called “The Inquiry” reports its findings to President Woodrow Wilson, citing the war weariness of Europe and the need to change from militarism, secret treaties, and the old diplomacy. Their findings stoke Wilson’s idealism and longing to advance the liberal ideals of peace and social progress.

December 25 Arts: The play Why Marry? by Jesse Lynch Williams opens at the Astor Theater in New York City.

December 26 Transportation: President Woodrow Wilson, concerned that the sheer size of the war effort may lead to serious congestion in the nation’s railroad system, orders that the railroads be placed under governmental supervision.

December 27 Naval: A German torpedo slices into the converted yacht USS Santee off Queenstown, Ireland, but the Santee limps back into port with no casualties.

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December 31 Military: American manpower along the Western Front is reported at 174,664 officers and men, although very few of the troops have as yet undergone real combat experience. AEF headquarters, meanwhile, has mushroomed to 547 officers, 229 field clerks, 3,471 enlisted men, and 22 interpreters. Transportation: William G. McAdoo—the president’s son-in-law—becomes director general of the newly formed U.S. Railroad Administration, which imposes government control over the national railroad net for the duration of the war. Concurrently, the War Department supplements this effort by creating the Purchase, Storage and Traffic Division under General George W. Goethals.

1918 Architecture: New York City boasts three new and impressive buildings this year; the Commodore and Pennsylvania hotels, and St. Bartholomew’s Church. Arts: Why Marry? by Jesse Lynch Williams becomes the first play to win a Pulitzer Prize. Actor Walter Hampden debuts as Hamlet and is immediately hailed as the most compelling American stage presence since Edwin Booth. Russian actress Alla Nazimova appears a revival of plays by Henrik Ibsen, including A Doll’s House and Hedda Gabler. The Carolina Playmakers opens under the supervision of Professor Frederick H. Koch of the University of North Carolina. Its purpose is to present dramas and folk tales of significance to the South. Indian potter Maria Martinez develops her unique black on black style by adding cow dung to her kiln, rendering parts of the urn shiny and other parts matte. Education: Mississippi becomes the last state to pass a compulsory education law for children. General: In a spate of anti-German sentiment, works by Ludwig von Beethoven are removed from concert performances while sauerkraut is nicknamed “liberty cabbage.” Literature: Willa Cather publishes My Antonia, a sentimental novel of prairie life. Carl Sandburg publishes another volume of poetry, entitled Cornhuskers. Booth Tarkington composes The Magnificent Ambersons, a three-generation story set in Indianapolis. Advanced portions of James Joyce’s controversial novel Ulysses, published in the journal Little Review, are burned by the Post Office Department as pornographic. Media: Charlie Chaplin, already among Hollywood’s most celebrated screen figures, does his bit for the war effort by appearing in the comedy Shoulder Arms. Medical: The global influenza pandemic begins sweeping the United States, killing a half-million people over the next two years. Publishing: The Education of Henry Adams by noted historian Henry Adams is published posthumously. In it he laments the rise of modern society and how his otherwise splendid education left him unprepared for life.

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Chronology of American History Religion: The United Lutheran Church reorganizes by gathering together 45 divided synods under one theological roof. Sports: Pittsburgh wins the national college football championship with four wins, one loss, no ties. Women: As men of military age are drafted into wartime service, over one million women are brought into factories, offices, and other workplaces to replace them. Their good performance will lend greater impetus to the drive for universal women’s suffrage.

January–March Military: As they acquire combat proficiency, American divisions are deployed in the trenches at various sectors along the Western Front, relieving exhausted French formations and also providing some support to British units in the field.

January 1 Sports: The fourth annual Rose Bowl Tournament is won by the Mare Island (San Francisco) Marines, who beat the Camp Lewis Army team 19–7. The Boston Marathon is suspended this year as a wartime expedient.

January 7 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Arver v. United States, ruling that Congress is empowered by the Constitution to authorize conscription in times of war. This is one of several legal challenges to the legality of the military draft. Naval: The Naval Overseas Transportation Service is founded at Hampton Roads, Virginia, under Commander Charles Belknap. This department will grow to a strength of 450 vessels and is tasked with the safe transfer of tons of war materiel to the European theater.

January 8 Diplomacy: Ever the altruist, President Woodrow Wilson declares his famous “Fourteen Points” for establishing and maintaining world peace. His most radical point is creation of a worldwide body of nations dedicated to arbitration and the guarantee of mutual security for all countries, regardless of size. The Europeans, bound up in their ancient hatreds and animosities, remain somewhat unsettled by what they consider a naive approach to human affairs. Nonetheless, thousands of copies of the “Fourteen Points” will be air-dropped over Germany in a major propaganda effort. On a related point, President Woodrow Wilson declines a French request for Allied intervention in Siberia.

January 9 Military: The African-American 93rd Division is assigned directly to the French army to alleviate a growing manpower crisis. Here, blacks will receive a measure of respect and camaraderie conspicuously lacking in their white counterparts. In what is, in all likelihood, the final encounter between the U.S. Army and Native Americans, soldiers from the 10th Cavalry trade shots with a small band of Yaqui Apache from Mexico that has crossed over into Atacosa Canyon, Arizona. No casualties result and the transgressors are eventually arrested and sent to jail for 30 days.

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January 10 Women: In a major development, the House of Representatives passes a resolution to submit a constitutional amendment to allow federal women’s suffrage.

January 13 Military: AEF Line of Communications headquarters moves from Paris, France, to Tours—closer to the Western Front.

January 15 Military: The new U.S. I Corps is formed at Neufchâteau, France, under the command of General Hunter S. Liggett. The Americans are girding themselves for a more active combat role.

January 21 Music: To allay the anti-German hysteria sweeping the nation, the New York Philharmonic Society bans the playing of all works by modern German composers.

January 26 General: Food administrator Herbert Hoover calls for one meatless, two wheatless, and two porkless days per week to promote conservation. Military: The U.S. Army Tank Corps is created under General Samuel D. Rockenbach; as examples of military technology, tanks are still in their infancy and the majority of machines operated by the Americans are French in origin.

February 1 Aviation: The U.S. Army Air Service forms its first operational squadrons in France, equipped largely with French-built fighters and bombers. By war’s end no less than 45 combat squadrons will be present, representing 800 pilots and 500 observer/tail-gunners.

February 5 Aviation: Lieutenant Stephen W. Thompson of the 1st Aero Squadron shoots down a German Albatros pursuit craft over Saarbrücken, Germany, scoring the first American victory over an enemy aircraft. Military: The 26th (Yankee) Division takes its assigned position in the Chemin des Dames sector to assist the French Sixth Army. In this capacity the 101st Regiment will become the first National Guard unit to see combat in the trenches.

February 6 Naval: The passenger ship Tuscania, carrying 2,179 men of the 32nd Division (Michigan and Wisconsin National Guard), is torpedoed by the U-77 and sunk at sea. This is the first American troopship sunk in the war by hostile fire; 267 men are killed.

February 8 Journalism: General John J. Pershing authorizes a weekly service newspaper to be named Stars and Stripes; 71 issues are printed before the war ends.

February 12 Arts: Broadway closes down its theater district to help conserve coal. Military: The U.S. Army begins the practice of assigning serial numbers to enlisted personnel; officers do not receive them until 1921. Naval: The first keel is laid at Hog Island Shipyard, Philadelphia, for transports to be acquired through the Emergency Fleet Corporation.

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February 14 Music: In New York City, George Gershwin’s infectious song “Swanee” (named after the Suwannee River in Georgia and Florida) is sung for the first time.

February 15 Aviation: Noted dancer Vernon Castle dies in an airplane accident while serving as a flight trainer at Fort Worth, Texas.

February 16 Aviation: The 2nd Balloon Company is deployed at Royamieux in the Toul sector of the Western Front; though little-heralded, the Balloon Section will make 5,866 ascents during the war for reconnaissance and artillery spotting purposes. Major J. T. McNarney’s 89th Aero Squadron arrives at Châtillon-sur-Seine, France, for the purpose of instructing aerial observers. Music: After several weeks in the trenches, American soldiers on leave in Aixles-Bains are serenaded by a band from the African-American 369th Infantry, the “Harlem Hellfighters.”

February 18 Aviation: The 95th Pursuit Squadron is the first American fighter formation to deploy in France, but its first combat patrols do not commence for another month. The famed Lafayette Escadrille is disbanded by France so that its 90 veteran pilots may be inducted directly into the U.S. Air Service, mostly with the 103rd Aero Squadron.

February 25 General: Work begins on the Muscle Shoals Dam across the Tennessee River, which will provide new sources of electricity for the burgeoning war effort.

February 26 Military: American troops receive a rude introduction to chemical warfare when they encounter German phosgene and chloropicrin gas for the first time. High casualties are reported.

March 3 Diplomacy: The Bolshevik regime in Russia signs the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany and leaves the war, permitting the immediate transfer of thousands of veteran German soldiers to the Western Front. The United States is on the ground in France in strength but is still in the process of building a competent, modern force.

March 4 Business: President Woodrow Wilson appoints Wall Street broker Bernard Baruch to head the newly reorganized War Industries Board, with broad powers to better coordinate industry. Naval: The collier USS Cyclops hoists anchor at Barbados in the West Indies and sails off, only to disappear without a trace. The fate of its 280 officers and men will never be known.

March 6 Military: President Woodrow Wilson announces four new military decorations: the Distinguished Service Cross, the Distinguished Service Medal, war service chevrons, and wound chevrons.

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March 7 Sports: The U.S. figure skating championships are won by Mrs. Seton R. Beresford of England in women’s singles, Nathaniel W. Niles, men’s singles, and Niles with Theresa Weld taking the pairs.

March 11 Aviation: Lieutenant Paul Baer of the 103rd Pursuit Squadron becomes the first American pilot to win the Distinguished Service Cross for singlehandedly tackling seven German fighters, downing one.

March 12 Military: The African-American 369th Infantry of Colonel William Hayward, renowned as the “Harlem Hellfighters,” is assigned to the French 16th Division at Givry-en-Argonne, France.

March 13 Military: The 2nd Division is transferred to the Sommedieu sector near Verdun, France, to begin service with the French X Corps.

March 15 Aviation: American pilots flying Nieuport 28 fighters conduct their first indepen dent patrols of the Western Front over Villeneuve- les-Vertus, south of Epernay.

March 16 Military: The 3rd Division under General Joseph T. Dickman arrives at the 9th Training Area, Châteauvillain, France, to hone its skills before being committed to combat.

March 19 Aviation: Ensign Stephen Potter, flying long-range patrol missions with the Royal Flying Corps, become the first naval aviator to shoot down an enemy seaplane near the German island of Heligoland in the North Sea. General: As an additional conservation effort, Congress passes legislation to advance clocks one hour from the end of March to the end of October Daylight Savings Time. Naval: Destroyer USS Manley accidentally rolls against the side of auxiliary cruiser HMS Motagua, which detonates the destroyer’s depth charges stored above deck. The Manley loses 56 crewmen but manages to limp into port with the rear third of its hull under water.

March 21–April 6 Business: Congress passes the Railroad Control Act, which formalizes government control of all rail lines on a regional basis for the duration of the war. Military: General Paul von Hindenburg, determined to defeat the Western Allies before they are infused by American reinforcements, launches his famous “Kaiserschlacht” across the Western Front. This time the Germans come equipped with new stosstruppen (infiltration) tactics, which will drive the British and French back to within 40 miles of Paris. Despite the untried nature of his 300,000 men, General John J. Pershing offers to commit them to battle to stem the German onslaught. Elements of the 6th Engineers, attached to British units along the Somme River near Péronne, France, are engaged in resisting the German offensive, which

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Chronology of American History that penetrated 37 miles. They nonetheless will hold their position at WarfuséeAbancourt until relieved, with the loss of 78 men, including 25 killed.

March 22 Military: The AEF begins training the U.S. Army Tank Corps at Bourg, France, with Renault machines provided by France.

March 23 Military: As an indication of recent German success, heavy artillery shells fired from the mammoth cannon known as “Big Bertha” begin striking Paris suburbs from a distance of 75 miles. The U.S. Army’s newly formed II Corps is deployed in the Pas-de-Calais region, within the British 1st Army area. No commanding general is assigned at this time and the troops continue training activities.

March 25 Aviation: Ensign John F. McNamara, a U.S. Navy aviator, conducts the service’s first attack by bombing a U-boat off the coast of England.

March 26 Military: To help cope with the developing crisis, Marshal Ferdinand Foch is appointed supreme allied commander along the Western Front, and granted responsibility for coordinating Allied movements across a broad front. Colonel Raynall C. Bolling is on a ground reconnaissance mission when he is killed in action, becoming the highest ranking fatality of the war thus far. Because he formerly commanded New York’s 1st Aero Squadron, Bolling Air Field, Washington, D.C., will be dedicated in his honor.

March 29 Women: Government statistics released today show that 1.4 million women are dutifully employed in America’s factories and munitions plants, contributing mightily to the war effort. Millions of others remain at home, dutifully knitting socks and other useful articles for the “boys” in France.

March 31 General: President Woodrow Wilson signs legislation authorizing Daylight Savings Time to provide an additional hour of daylight per work day. This first attempt is disliked by farmers and ultimately repealed in 1919. Military: The 26th (Yankee) Division is rushed forward to the Toul sector, where it relieves the 1st Division and assorted French units.

April 5 Business: The War Industries Board under Bernard Baruch approves creation of the War Finance Corporation to support war industries with loans and bond sales totaling $3.5 billion, thereby aiding banks in financing wartime production. Military: Renewed German offensives have split French and British armies and advanced to within 10 miles of the main British supply depot at Amiens. American forces are gradually becoming involved in prolonged ground actions, although many more are needed to stabilize the front and rebuff the attackers.

April 6 Business: The government kicks off a third Liberty Loan drive with a goal of $3 billion at 4.5 percent.

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American soldiers manning a firing position behind barbed wire in a trench at Dieffmatten, in Alsace (National Archives)

April 8 Aviation: The 1st Aero Squadron, which is assigned observation duties, becomes the first U.S. air unit committed to combat operations along the Western Front. Labor: To handle labor disputes in perilous times, the National War Labor Board under Frank P. Walsh and former president William Howard Taft is founded. It bans strikes and lockouts but still recognizes the rights of unions to organize and use collective bargaining.

April 9–27 Military: Continuing German pressure along the Lys River forces the British to abandon Ypres while the French withdraw to Rheims. The only American units involved in the fighting are some engineer, medical, and air service squadrons. As a final German push begins toward Paris, the Allies anxiously wait for the first combat deployment of General John J. Pershing’s troops to threatened sectors.

April 10 Business: Congress passes the Webb-Pomerene Act for promoting export trade by excluding export associations from antitrust laws. For the time being, combines will not be prosecuted under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.

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Chronology of American History Military: Troops from the 32nd Division are utilized as a replacement source for the 41st Division, which is then advanced into the combat zone.

April 11 Naval: German submarine U-73 torpedoes and sinks the cargo ship SS Lake Moor off the coast of Scotland, bagging the first of eight vessels belonging to the Overseas Transport Service.

April 14 Aviation: Lieutenants Alan F. Winslow and Douglas Campbell of the 94th Pursuit Squadron become the first army combat pilots to shoot down German aircraft over the aerodrome at Toul, France. Military: Marshal Ferdinand Foch, recently appointed as supreme commander in an attempt to stave off defeat, specifically requests President Woodrow Wilson to transfer more troops to the western front as soon as possible. However, General John J. Pershing is determined to keep the American Expeditionary Force fighting as a single entity and not to parcel it out to plug gaps in Allied lines.

April 15 Arts: Henry Franklin Gilbert, a leading promoter of American dance, stages Dance in Place Congo at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. This symphonic poem is a ballet set to Creole music and brings the author immediate recognition.

April 17 Naval: After the munitions vessel Florence H. sustains an internal explosion in Quiberon Bay, France, Ship’s Cook Third Class Jesse Whitfield and Quartermaster Frank Monroe Upton, serving on the nearby destroyer USS Stewart, dive overboard to rescue a drowning man; both receive Congressional Medals of Honor.

April 20 Labor: The Sabotage Act is passed by Congress to thwart the antiwar activities of the Industrial Workers of the World.

April 23 Military: Lieutenant Commander Alexander Gordon Lyle, serving with the 5th Marine Regiment in France, rescues a wounded corporal under heavy fire, saves his life by administering surgical aid, and later is awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.

April 28 Aviation: Captain Edward V. Rickenbaker shoots down a German Pfalz D-III pursuit craft over Toul, France, the first of 26 victories. A former race car driver, he originally reached France as General John J. Pershing’s chauffeur but volunteered for combat and will ultimately win the Congressional Medal of Honor.

May 3– 4 Military: German mustard gas shells surprise the 18th Infantry at VillersTournelles, inflicting 900 casualties.

May 11 Sports: The 44th annual Kentucky Derby is won by Exterminator with a time of two minutes, 10 seconds.

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Rickenbacker, Eddie

1727

(1890–1973)

Pilot Edward Vernon Rickenbacher was born in Columbus, Ohio, on October 8, 1890, a son of Swiss immigrants. Eventually he anglicized his name to Rickenbacker and, following the death of his father, also dropped out of school to help support his family. Early on he developed a passion for automobiles and, despite his lack of technical training, acquainted himself with the fundamentals of engineering. Rickenbacker gradually gained national attention as a race car driver and, commencing in 1911, he was a regular racer at the Indianapolis 500. In 1917 he established a land speed record of 134 miles per hour at Daytona Beach, Florida. After the United States entered World War I he tried to enlist in the U.S. Army but was turned down for want of education but eventually allowed to join the staff of General John J. Pershing as a driver. Rickenbacker, however, thirsted for combat; assisted by his friend, Colonel William “Billy” Mitchell, he underwent flight training at the Tours Aviation School. He proved himself a natural flier and in March 1918 Rickenbacker was posted to the 94th Pursuit Squadron, with its famous “hat in the ring” insignia. He was a winged dervish in combat, shooting down no less than 26 German planes and observation balloons by war’s end and becoming America’s ace of aces. Highly decorated, he returned home to accept a Congressional Medal of Honor and also wrote his best-selling memoir, Fighting the Flying Circus (1919). Through his inspired leadership and aggressive tactics, the 94th Pursuit Squadron racked up a

total of 69 kills, making it the highest scoring American formation of the war. Back in civilian life, Rickenbacker returned to his first love—cars—and founded the Rickenbacker Motor Company. In this capacity he pioneered many innovations, such as four-wheeled braking, but he went out of business by 1926. Undeterred, he obtained a controlling interest in the Indianapolis Speedway and worked as an engineer at General Motors before assuming the mantle as general manager of a failing GM subsidiary, Eastern Airlines. Exercising considerable business acumen, Rickenbacker turned the company completely around in three years and became its president. In 1934 he openly criticized President Franklin D. Roosevelt for his perceived hostility to the aviation industry, which made him something of a pariah in political circles. Nevertheless, during World War II Secretary of War Henry Stimson sent him on a tour of Pacific air facilities in 1942, but Rickenbacker’s plane crashed and he endured a harrowing three weeks at sea in a lifeboat. After being rescued, he came home and wrote a popular book about his experience, Seven Came Through (1943). He also resumed his leadership of Eastern Airlines, which continually posted profits throughout a difficult period for the airlines. He retired from the industry in 1963 and toured the country on behalf of various conservative causes. Rickenbacker, popularly known as “Lucky Eddie,” was a bona fide hero who did much to advance public awareness and appreciation of modern aviation.

May 12 Naval: Six high-speed, wooden U.S. Navy subchasers, part of what becomes known as the “Splinter Fleet,” arrive in Great Britain. Of 121 such vessels committed to combat, only two are lost to mines.

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May 13 Business: The Post Office Department issues the first airmail stamp, at 24 cents.

May 15–16 Communication: Airmail service debuts between New York City, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia utilizing Army Aircraft lieutenants George L. Boyle and H. P. Culver (USA) flying rickety Curtiss JN-4H “Jennie” biplanes. When Boyle crashes in Maryland, Culver lands to retrieve the mail and continues on to New York. Sports: The 43rd annual Preakness Stakes, run in two divisions, is first won by War Cloud in one minute, 53.6 seconds (first division), and Jack Hare, Jr., who crossed the line in one minute, 53.4 seconds (second division).

May 16 Politics: Congress passes the Sedition Act, which enhances the Espionage Act of 1917 by declaring illegal any advocacy of treason, or any criticism directed at the government, conscription, or the American flag. It is aimed principally at socialists and other pacifists. The highest profile casualty is Representative Victor L. Berger, a Socialist elected to the House in 1910, who is not allowed to be seated after gaining reelection this year. Ultimately, 2,000 war resisters will be indicted and jailed.

May 18 Aviation: The 96th Bomber Squadron become the first to be fielded by the American Expeditionary Force at Amanty aerodrome, France. There they begin familiarizing themselves with the excellent Breguet 14 bombers purchased for them from the French.

May 19 Military: General Tasker H. Bliss departs the post of army chief of staff and is reassigned as War Department representative to the Supreme War Council at Versailles, France. Transportation: Determined to enhance internal transportation during wartime, Congress authorizes $1 billion for railroad maintenance and upkeep.

May 20 Military: General Peyton C. March is promoted to full general, relieved of duties as chief of artillery in Europe, and reassigned as army chief of staff in Washington, D.C. Naval: The battleship USS New Mexico, the first capital warship driven by electric power, is officially commissioned at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. This vessel is 624 feet long and displaces 32,000 tons. Politics: Congress passes the Overman Act, which enables the president to reorganize government agencies quickly in the interest of promoting efficiency.

May 21 General: A fire destroys much of downtown Mobile, Alabama, consuming 40 blocks and over 200 homes. Naval: German submarine UC-58 torpedoes and sinks the Naval Overseas Transportation Service tanker William Rockefeller, killing three crewmen.

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Ensign Daniel Augustus Joseph Sullivan, while serving aboard the converted yacht Christabel, singlehandedly secures depth charges scattered around the deck by a depth charge detonation; be will he awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.

May 24 Naval: The cruiser USS Olympia arrives off Murmansk, near the Arctic coast of Russia, where it sends ashore a landing party as part of an Anglo-American occupation force intended to keep the port from falling into the hands of the Bolsheviks.

May 27–29 Military: The successful German offensive rolls on when their units cross the Aisne River, seize Soissons, and directly threaten Paris by pressing on to the Marne River. The French government considers relocating to Bordeaux for its own safety, while the U.S. 2nd and 3rd Divisions are placed on alert in case French reinforcements cannot halt the Germans.

May 28 Business: The American Railway Express Company is formed through a merger of the Adams, American, Wells-Fargo, Southern, Great Northern, and Western Express companies. They do so with the government’s blessing and to bring about a more efficient rail service in wartime. Military: General Robert Lee Bullard’s 1st Division undergoes its baptism of fire by launching a determined attack against German positions at Cantigny, spearheaded by Colonel Hanson E. Ely’s 28th Infantry. The green but enthusiastic Americans drive elements of the German 82nd Reserve Division from the town, then hold it against repeated counterattacks. The “Doughboys,” despite their lack of experience, prove themselves full of fight and eagerly come to grips with their more veteran adversaries.

May 30 Military: The German offensive rumbles on to the Marne River, only 50 miles from Paris, while the U.S. 3rd Division is brought up by rail to help defend ChâteauThierry and other river crossings in concert with French reinforcements.

May 31 Military: Secretary of War Newton D. Baker orders that conscientious objectors work on farms without pay. Naval: German submarine U-90 torpedoes the transport President Lincoln, sinking it with the loss of 26 crewmen. Lieutenant Edouard V. Izak is taken prisoner but will subsequently stage a daring escape and turn over valuable tactical knowledge about U-boat operations. He will be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.

May 31–June 5 Military: The 3rd Division gains the nickname “Rock of the Marne” by successfully repelling repeated German attacks along its sector, particularly at ChâteauThierry. But German gains elsewhere have produced a vast bulge in the Allied line—a salient—that will have to be reduced.

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1730â•… Chronology of American History

June 1 Journalism: Pulitzer prizes are awarded in the categories of poetry, fiction, biog-­ raphy, and history, including James Ford Rhodes, A History of the Civil War, 1861–1865, for history and Jesse Lynch Williams for Why Marry? for drama. Military: Soldiers and marines of the 2nd Division deploy into trenches around Â�Château-­Thierry, directly in the German line of advance toward Paris.

June 3 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Hammer v. Dagenhart, ruling that a law passed in 1916 prohibiting the transportation across state lines of all items made from child labor is unconstitutional. It also maintains that the federal government exceeded its authority to regulate such matters.

June 3–â•›4 Military: The 2nd Division proves instrumental in halting the German drive toward Paris at Â�Château-­Thierry, further upsetting von Hindenburg’s timetable. Losses are 187 dead and 636 wounded. The Americans prepare to counterattack at Belleau Wood, which is viewed as lightly defended. Naval: In a patriotic gesture, nearly one hundred vessels of various description, intended to assist the war effort, are launched.

June 6–25 Aviation: The 91st Observation Squadron, the Air SerÂ�vice’s first dedicated recon-­ naissance unit, begins making photo runs in the Toul sector of France. Over the next few months it performs a useful serÂ�vice for the troops by spotting artillery for them. Military: The 4th Marine Brigade of the 2nd Division carves a name for itself by taking Bouresche, Vaux, and Belleau Wood from the Germans in a bloody, Â�two-­week struggle that costs 285 officers and 7,585 Â�men—a staggering 55 percent loss rate. Despite their relative inexperience, the Americans perform well and enthusiastically against their skilled opponents. Lieutenant Weedon E. Osborne, 5th Marine Regiment, will posthumously be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for rescuing several wounded marines at Belleau Wood before being killed.

June 8 Business: Attorney Felix Frankfurter is appointed head of the War Labor Policies Board to coordinate the activities of labor boards and other agencies and head off labor unrest by equalizing labor conditions. Naval: American vessels under Admiral Joseph Strauss assist the Royal Navy in laying an extensive mine field across 240 miles of the North Atlantic from Scotland to Norway to curtail German U-boat activity. They will ultimately lay Â�four-­fifths of the 70,263 mines deposited there.

June 9 Military: The German juggernaut again gathers strength and advances upon Paris on a front between Noyon and Montdidier. French and American troops are forced back six miles in a week of fighting, yet manage to consolidate their lines.

June 11 Military: Lieutenant Orlando Henderson, Medical Corps, 5th Marine Regiment, continues working at a dressing station despite enemy artillery and gas shells,

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saving several wounded soldiers and carrying a wounded officer to safety. For devotion to duty he will receive a Congressional Medal of Honor.

June 12 Aviation: French-built Breguet 14 bombers manned by the 96th Bomber Squadron conduct their first offensive operations against the enemy and drop the first American bombs of the war on the Dommary-Baroncourt railyards, France. All told, American bombers unload 196 tons of ordnance behind German lines, sometimes as far back as 160 miles.

June 13 Medical: No less than 30 ambulance sections, each sporting 25 ambulances, are culled from the AEF in France and sent to assist Allied forces in Italy.

June 15 Military: General George W. Read assumes command of II Corps and prepares to support the British army’s Somme offensive. In this capacity, Read will also command British and Australian divisions. Sports: The 50th annual Belmont Stakes is won by Johnren, who finishes at two minutes, 20 seconds.

June 16–17 Military: At Belleau Wood, France, the 7th Infantry and the 3rd Division arrive to relieve the 4th Marine Brigade, badly cut up after two weeks of incessant combat; fighting to take the entire sector resumes. American forces consisting of the 24th Infantry and 5th and 7th Cavalry suddenly storm across the Mexican border into Juárez, routing irregulars under Francisco “Pancho” Villa and killing several hundred.

June 17 Military: Captured German documents reveal a very high appraisal of the youthful and inexperienced American fighting men.

June 20 Music: An editorial in the New Orleans Times-Picayune denounces jass ( jazz) music as a license toward unethical behavior, due to its close association with Storyville, the only district in the city where prostitution is legal.

June 22 Military: The 4th Marine Brigade rejoins the 3rd Division at Belleau Wood and resumes attacking the stubborn German defenses there. Naval: The cargo vessel California, belonging to the Naval Overseas Transportation Service, strikes a mine in the Bay of Biscay and sinks. Sports: The U.S. Lawn Tennis Association singles championships are won by Lindley Murray and Molla Bjurstedt in their respective divisions.

June 26 Military: After three weeks of difficult fighting, the 4th Marine Brigade finally ejects the last of the German defenders out of Belleau Wood, France. Victory here signifies the growing influence of American forces in the overall military equation along the Western Front.

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June 27 Military: In Washington, D.C., Secretary of War Newton D. Baker draws the first draft number under the Selective Service Act. The decision as to who will actually serve in the ranks is in the hands of local draft boards.

June 28 Military: The Gas Service, AEF, is formally expanded into the Chemical Warfare Service.

June 29 Naval: The cruiser USS Brooklyn lands its detachment of U.S. Marines on the Siberian coast of the Sea of Japan, at the port of Vladivostok, Russia, to safeguard the American consulate there. The entire country is now in the throes of a violent revolution.

July 1 Naval: German submarine U-86 torpedoes and sinks the transport Covington off Brest, France, killing six crewmen.

July 2 Politics: In an attempt to close down potential fifth column activities, Congress revokes the charter to the National German-American Alliance. Anti-German frenzy is at full throttle, with citizens of that nation denounced as barbaric “Huns.” German Americans are Anglicizing their names to avoid further stigma, and even Berlin, Iowa, has been renamed Lincoln.

July 4 Military: General John J. Pershing announces that American troop strength in France has exceeded one million; ultimately, the United States will commit 19 divisions to the fray, each twice the size of the veteran but exhausted German counterparts. Corporal Thomas A. Pope, 131st Infantry, greatly distinguishes himself in combat at Hamel, France, by singlehandedly wiping out a German machine gun nest; he will win the first Congressional Medal of Honor given to a soldier in this war.

July 7 Military: At Remiremont, France, General William M. Wright’s III Corps is redesignated as V Corps. Meanwhile, General Hunter Liggett’s I Corps deploys west of Château-Thierry with the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 26th, and 28th Divisions and the French 167th Division.

July 9 Military: The U.S. Army introduces the rank of warrant officer within the Mine Planter Service, then part of the Coast Artillery. The practice can be traced back to 1896 with the initial authorization of headquarter (field) clerks.

July 11 Naval: German submarine U-92 torpedoes and sinks the transport Westover off the French coast, killing 11 sailors.

July 13 Military: General Robert Lee Bullard is appointed commander of the III Corps at Meaux, France, and moves his troops into the region west of Soissons.

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July 14 Aviation: Lieutenant Quentin Roosevelt, at age 21 the youngest son of former president Theodore Roosevelt, is shot down and killed in action over France while flying with the 95th Pursuit Squadron.

July 15 Military: American front line deployments are nearly complete with 26 U.S. infantry divisions at the front. Their preponderant manpower grants the Allies numerical superiority over the Germans for the first time in months because American fullstrength formations have twice the personnel of their German equivalents.

July 15–18 Military: Eight American divisions, comprising 85,000 troops, are engaged in the Second Battle of the Marne (or Aisne-Marne Offensive), which finally blunts the waning but still determined German offensive in the vicinity of Rheims. The 3rd and 28th Divisions are particularly distinguished in combat and seal off several cracks in the French line before the Germans can pour through. Their stand forces the Germans to abandon their vaunted offensive after heavy casualties and allows Marshal Ferdinand Foch to counterattack along the Soissons-Rheims salient. One million American troops are present in-theater and their impact on the course of military events increases daily.

July 16 Communication: The federal government assumes control of all telephone and telegraph systems for the duration of the war.

July 17 Military: President Woodrow Wilson agrees to deploy U.S. forces in northern Russia, around Murmansk and Archangel, and at Vladivostok in Siberia for the purpose of protecting mountains of military stores and evacuating soldiers of the Czech Legion who are fleeing eastward, across Asia, from the Red Army. Ultimately, 7,000 Americans from the 85th Division and a like number of Japanese will be deployed in Siberia, near the Manchurian border.

July 18–August 2 Military: The French army strikes suddenly at German positions along the Aisne-Marne salient, catching the enemy off-guard, with the U.S. 4th and 26th divisions capturing several strategic positions. Success here marks the beginning of the end for Imperial Germany.

July 19 Naval: The armored cruiser USS San Diego strikes a German mine off Fire Island, New York, and sinks with the loss of six crewmen. The device had been laid there by U-156.

July 19–31 Military: The U.S. 1st and 2nd Divisions gradually overpower German reinforcements in the ongoing Aisne-Marne counteroffensive, seizing all land west of the Soissons/Château-Thierry highway. Meanwhile, the 4th and 26th Divisions also advance, seizing much ground, along with several thousand prisoners. A total of nine divisions—310,000 men—are thrown into battle and sustain 67,000 casualties.

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Chronology of American History As the 6th Marine Regiment battles its way forward at Vierzy, France, Pharmacist’s Mate John Henry Balch and Lieutenant Joel Thompson Boone brave heavy enemy fire to treat the wounded and bring forward badly needed medical supplies—both will be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.

July 21 Naval: German submarine U-156 fires 80 rounds at the tugboat Perth Amboy off Nauset Bluffs, Massachusetts; some of the shells go astray, and strike the mainland. This is the first enemy action on American soil during the war.

July 23 Military: General Omar Bundy is temporarily appointed commander of the VI Corps at Neufchâteau, France, initially fulfilling a training and administrative role.

July 25 Aviation: Lieutenant Frank Luke, soon to gain renown as America’s “Balloon Buster,” arrives with a group of replacement pilots at Saints, France. Military: The 332nd Infantry is detached from the 83rd Division and sent to Marseilles, France, for eventual shipment to the Italian Front, where it will serve with British units.

July 26 General: The U.S. Food Board under Herbert Hoover reduces the sugar ration to two pounds a month for the duration of the war. Similar curtailments are also imposed on wheat, meat, and energy in the form of lights.

Luke, Frank

(1897–1918)

Pilot Frank Luke was born in Phoenix, Arizona, on May 19, 1897, and he joined the U.S. Army Signal Corps directly out of high school in 1917, following American entry into World War I. He volunteered for the U.S. Air Service and received his flight training at Rockwell Field in San Diego, California. Luke proved himself a natural-born flier and was the first member of his class to fly solo. In January 1918 he shipped to France as a newly commissioned second lieutenant and spent several months receiving additional training at the flight instruction school at Issoudun. Luke was initially employed as a ferry pilot and, chafing under such restraint, agitated for a combat assignment. In July 1918 he received his wish and transferred

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to the 27th Aero Squadron, 1st Pursuit Group. Luke quickly acquired a reputation for being a fine pilot and a superb aerial marksman, although he was a loner by nature and not given to group tactics. He shot down his first German plane by violating orders and breaking formation, which led to the first of several official reprimands. Luke silenced his critics by continually racking up his tally, and within six weeks he was credited with four aircraft and 14 observation balloons. In fact, the extremely dangerous practice of “balloon busting” became something of a career specialty for Luke. These lumbering craft were not only difficult to set afire, but also were heavily defended by anti-aircraft batteries only 1,000 feet beneath them and usually a

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July 25 Women: In California, Annette Adams becomes the nation’s first female district attorney.

July 27 Sports: William Harrison “Jack” Dempsey, a future world heavyweight contender, knocks out Fred Fulton in 18 seconds at Harrison, New Jersey.

July 28–August 5 Military: Combined Allied forces, including 54,000 Americans, begin probing weakened German lines at the salient along the Somme River. At length the 42nd Division crosses the Ourcq River under heavy fire, seizes its objectives, and is finally relieved by the 4th Division. The 32nd Division also takes to the offensive and captures Fismes on the south bank of the Vesle River. Additional fighting will last another month, wiping out the Aisne-Marne salient and further draining the Germans of men and materiel.

July 29 Military: To unravel some long- standing logistical logjams, General John J. Pershing appoints General James G. Harbord to head the Ser vices of Supply Department, AEF, at Tours, France. He will quickly whip the myriad of ports, bases, supply dumps, schools, and personnel depots into great efficiency.

squadron of fighter planes circling nearby. Luke’s practice was to stalk balloons near dusk when they were being reeled in for the night, destroy them, and escape before German defenses could react. His tactics proved extremely effective during a single week in September 1918, when he downed no less than 13 enemy craft. It was dangerous work, and his Spad XIII fighters returned so peppered by bullet holes that they were scrapped. However, Luke’s solitary habits made him unpopular with other fliers and he was ordered to team up with a newcomer, Lieutenant Joseph Wehner. The two men became close friends and an efficient aerial team that flamed several more balloons and aircraft. Their luck ended on September 19, 1918, when they engaged balloons protected by a squadron of Fokker D-VII

fighters. In a sizzling combat, Luke shot down three Fokkers and two balloons, but Wehner was killed. Thereafter Luke was flying for revenge and on September 28, 1918, he took off in the evening alone and against orders for a sortie behind enemy lines. In a spectacular dogfight he claimed two more Fokkers and three additional balloons before being wounded and forced to crash-land near Murvaux. Rather than surrender the next morning, Luke fought back desperately with his pistol until he was killed. In this manner he became the first American pilot to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor, posthumously. He is credited with 18 official kills, making him the second-highest American ace of the war, after Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, although his unofficial tally is much higher.

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Chronology of American History

August 7 Military: To better harmonize relations among the regular U.S. Army, National Guard, and the wartime National Army, General Peyton C. March, army chief of staff, issues an order consolidating all disparate elements into “one army.”

August 9 Business: The War Industries Board orders the production of automobiles halted so that companies may channel their energies into making munitions and other military supplies.

August 10 Military: General John J. Pershing finally receives permission to form the U.S. First Army as an independent strike force with Colonel George C. Marshall as his operations officer. Now the various American divisions in the field are brought under his personal command. Pershing does so with the blessing of Marshal Ferdinand Foch, who is now confident in the Americans’ fighting abilities. A force of 10,000 Americans joins Japanese forces for a joint occupation of the port of Vladivostok, Russia.

August 12 Communication: The U.S. Post Office takes over all airmail delivery from the military, freeing pilots and resources for the war effort.

August 14 Military: General William S. Graves departs Camp Fremont, California, for Vladivostok, Russia, to take command of the American Expeditionary Force in Siberia. Once there he is ordered to declare a strict policy of neutrality in light of the ongoing civil war.

August 15 Aviation: The Northern Bombing Group, consisting entirely of U.S. Navy aviators, begins independent bombing operations with a raid against submarine pens at Ostend, in German-occupied Belgium Military: The 27th and 31st Infantry detached from service in the Philippines land at Vladivostok, Russia, to guard the Trans-Siberian Railroad and allow the anti-Bolshevik Czech Legion to escape intact. This move is also aimed at preventing Japan from dominating Russia’s Far Eastern coastline.

August 16 Military: Old habits die hard, so General John J. Pershing orders that all distinctions between the U.S. Army, the National Guard, the Reserve Corps, and the National Army are henceforth eliminated, along with their distinct badges. “This country has but one army,” he declares to the troops, “The United States Army.”

August 17 Military: Eighty-five thousand American troops assist the French by attacking north of the Soissons-Rheims line and grinding forward to the Belgian border.

August 18 Military: In Lorraine, hard-hitting general Joseph T. Dickman is promoted to commander of IV Corps, composed of the 1st, 82nd, and 90th Divisions. The 28th, 32nd, and 77th Divisions assist a French drive at Oise-Aisne by seizing the critical town of Juvigny, at which point German defenders begin falling back.

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August 19 Music: In New York City, the musical Yip, Yap, Yaphank by Irving Berlin premieres.

August 21 Aviation: When a Macchi M-5 flying boat flown by Ensign George Ludlow is shot down by Austrians at Pola, a second craft piloted by Quartermaster Charles H. Hammann, drops down and lands on the Adriatic, rescuing Ludlow; Hammann will be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. Military: Nearly 108,000 American troops reinforce British forces in Belgium prior to an all-out assault against Ypres. The chief of the Tank Corps, General Samuel D. Rockenbach, declares the 326th, 327th, 344th, and 354th Tank Battalions operational and ready for combat in the forthcoming St. Mihiel offensive.

August 23 Naval: Admiral Thomas S. Rodgers arrives at Bantry Bay, Ireland, with the battleships USS Nevada, Oklahoma, and Utah, to preclude German battlecruiser raids against North Atlantic convoys.

August 26 Arts: The play Lightnin’ by Winchell Smith and Frank Bacon opens at the Gaiety Theater in New York City; with 1,291 performances, it will enjoy one of the longest runs in Broadway history.

August 27 Diplomacy: The United States, believing that the German government cannot be trusted, declines Pope Benedict XV’s recent peace proposal. Naval: In a disastrous incident involving friendly fire, the armed transport vessel S. Felix Taussig mistakenly opens fire on the subchaser SC-209 off Long Island, New York, killing or injuring 18 crewmen.

August 29 Societal: Labor Department statistics reveal a 17 percent increase in the cost of living in and around New York City.

August 29-–September 11 Military: The I and II Corps of the the First Army (AEF) take up advanced positions in the Lorraine sector, supported by the French II Colonial Corps. General John J. Pershing is in nominal control, but he places his force at the disposal of France’s Marshal Pétain to ensure Allied unanimity.

September Medical: A deadly influenza epidemic begins along the East Coast of the United States; it will spread to 46 states and kill 500,000 people within a year—10 times the toll lost in combat.

September 1 Military: General William S. Graves arrives at Vladivostok to assume command of American forces deployed to Siberia. He is there strictly to assist in the evacuation of the Czech Legion marooned there and not to get embroiled in the ongoing Russian civil war. Secretary of War Newton D. Baker has ordered the baseball season cut short to keep the public focused on the war effort.

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September 3–4 Military: The 28th and 77th Divisions hound retreating German forces out of the Aisne-Marne salient, completely abandoning the Vesle River region. Both will then be transferred to the First Army in anticipation of the Meuse-Argonne offensive.

September 4 Military: British leaders deflect 4,500 American soldiers from Archangel to Murmansk, to protect the Murmansk railroad and supply dumps against Bolshevik forces. However, the British do so without informing the American government and not until after the fact. The soldiers will remain in place for the next nine months.

September 5–11 Sports: The Boston Red Sox (AL), greatly assisted by Babe Ruth’s pitching, win the 15th annual World Series by defeating the Chicago Cubs (NL) four games to two. Team members will each receive $1,102.51, the lowest payment ever accorded World Series winners.

September 6 Naval: A battery of five 14-inch naval cannon (nicknamed the “Woozlefinches”) commanded by Rear Admiral Charles R. Plunkett commences fire upon German forces near Soissons. This is the first known instance of such heavy naval ordnance being brought to bear in a land engagement.

September 7 Military: The 27th U.S. Infantry, fresh from the Philippines, assists a Japanese division in clearing Bolshevik troops from the Ussuri region of Siberia. Once the city of Khabarovsk is taken, the flags of both nations will fly side by side at the newly seized railroad station.

September 10 Aviation: The first Chicago to New York airmail trip is completed in 10 hours, five minutes.

September 12–16

Babe Ruth (Library of Congress)

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Aviation: Colonel William “Billy” Mitchell, a farsighted aerial strategist, commands 600 aircraft in America’s first, large-scale aviation offensive against St. Mihiel. When supporting French, British, and Italian units are added to the mix, Mitchell commands a force of 1,476 aircraft and 30,000 servicemen. Military: The First Army under General John J. Pershing, numbering 550,000 men, storms into the St. Mihiel salient south of Verdun, which was 25 miles across and 16 miles deep and had been securely occupied by the Germans since 1914. This was the first independent offensive conducted by the Americans, who overcome stout resistance and take 15,000 prisoners, 443 guns, and 7,000 casualties in four days of intense combat. Exhausted and outnumbered, the heretofore formidable German army begins reeling back toward its own border. Pershing wants to con-

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tinue the drive toward Mez to maintain the initiative, but Marshal Ferdinand Foch refuses and redirects the Americans toward the Meuse-Argonne sector.

September 13 Military: At Viéville-sous-les-Côtes, France, Captain Ernest N. Harmon of the 2nd Cavalry conducts the AEF’s only mounted charge by breaking up a German withdrawal, taking many prisoners. The battle also marks the debut of the U.S. Army Tank Corps, spearheaded by the 304th Tank Brigade under Lieutenant Colonel George S. Patton, which performs adroitly despite thick mud and incessant mechanical failures.

September 14 Labor: Socialist Eugene V, Debs is sentenced to 10 years in prison for advocating sedition at a recruiting booth in Canton, Ohio, a violation of the Espionage and Sedition Acts. He will be paroled in 1921.

September 15 Journalism: Newsman Edgar Sisson publishes documents that he claims offer substantive proof that Bolshevik leaders Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky are German agents. These materials, subsequently proven to be forgeries, are apparently released with the approval of President Woodrow Wilson, who seeks greater public support for sending U.S. troops to Russia. Military: Hospital apprentice David E. Hayden, serving with the 6th Marine Regiment at Thiaucourt, France, dresses a wounded marine and carries him back to safety under fire; he will be awarded a Congressional Medal of Honor. Naval: The transport Mount Vernon is torpedoed 200 miles west of Ushant, France, and loses 36 crewmen but stays afloat and manages to limp back to Brest.

September 16 Military: U.S. forces skirmish with Bolsheviks near Obozerskaya, northern Russia, suffering numerous casualties. Naval: The cargo vessel Buena Ventura is torpedoed by U-46 off the Spanish coast, sinking with a loss of 19 crew members.

September 17–25 Military: General John J. Pershing shepherds the First Army into advanced positions in the Lorraine sector, 20 miles north of Verdun, and makes preparations to launch a concerted drive against German positions at Sedan and Mézières.

September 19 Aviation: The daring pilot, Lieutenant Frank Luke, is grounded by his commanding officer and ordered on a six-day leave in Paris. Over the past 17 days he has shot down 14 heavily defended balloons and four aircraft.

September 20 Military: Major General Read directs his II Corps to assist the British Fourth Army in their attack upon Péronne, France, in preparation for storming the socalled Hindenburg Line into Germany itself.

September 24 Aviation: Naval aviator Lieutenant David S. Ingalls, flying a British Sopwith Camel with the RAF’s No. 213 Squadron, shoots down his fifth German aircraft in six weeks and becomes the navy’s first and only ace of World War I.

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September 25 Aviation: Lieutenant Edward V. Rickenbaker, patrolling alone in the skies over Billy, France, singlehandedly tackles a patrol of seven German aircraft, shooting down a fighter and an observation craft. For this deed he will become the first American airman to win the Congressional Medal of Honor. Military: General John F. O’Ryan leads his 27th Division (New York) into battle alongside British and Australian troops just below the Hindenburg Line. Naval: Chief Machinist’s Mate Francis Edward Ormsbee, observing a training aircraft crash in the waters off Pensacola, Florida, dives into the water, saves the gunner, then makes repeated unsuccessful attempts to rescue the pilot trapped in his craft; he will win a Congressional Medal of Honor.

September 26 Naval: German submarine UB-91 torpedoes and sinks the Coast Guard cutter Tampa off Great Britain, killing 115 sailors.

September 26–October 3 Indian: Fourteen Choctaw code talkers are actively involved in U.S. Army communications throughout the Meuse-Argonne Campaign. The French government is so impressed at their ability to baffle German intelligence that they are inducted in as Chevaliers de l’Orde National du Mérite. Military: The First Army under General John J. Pershing launches its longawaited offensive by attacking German positions in the Argonne Forest, with 896,000 Americans attacking along a 200-mile front in concert with 135,000 French. The battle kicks off at 2:30 a.m. with the massed firing of 2,700 American cannon all along the intended front. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Colonel George S. Patton leads his 304th Tank Brigade once again into action at Cheppy, where he is wounded but remains with the troops. German resistance is both plucky and professional, but the defenders are slowly forced back by sheer numbers. This encounter represents the largest number of Americans committed to a single battle until 1944.

September 28–30 Military: The African-American 370th Infantry, attached to the French XXX Corps, fights with distinction in the lines between Vauxaillon and Canal de l’Oise à l’Aisne.

September 29 Aviation: Lieutenant Frank Luke, the celebrated “balloon buster,” receives the first posthumous Congressional Medal of Honor of this war after crash-landing behind German lines at Murveau, France, and being killed on the ground. Previously, he had unofficially scored 18 kills in 18 days, including both aircraft and balloons, and is thought to have bagged 10 additional probables. Military: The II Corps continues cooperating with the British Fourth Army in reducing the Hindenburg Line. The 27th and 30th Divisions attack parts of the heavily fortified line, taking all objectives, then halt to be relieved by Australian divisions. The German chief of staff, unable to halt the influx of one million American soldiers, advises the government of Kaiser Wilhelm II to request an armistice. Naval: The battleship USS Minnesota strikes a mine off the Delaware Capes and is slightly damaged without injuries to its crew.

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September 30 Naval: The Naval Overseas Transportation Service ship Ticonderoga engages in a desperate, two-hour surface battle with U-152 while engaging in convoy duty in the North Atlantic. The transport is finally sunk by a torpedo and only 24 out of 237 crewmen survive; Lieutenant Commander James J. Madison, captain of the Ticonderoga, will win the Congressional Medal of Honor.

October Medical: The deadly and highly contagious influenza epidemic that commenced along the East Coast in September has spread westward to 46 states and will kill 500,000 people—10 time the fatalities experienced in World War I. Over all, the malady will kill 20 million people worldwide, twice the loss in four years of modern warfare.

October 1 Military: At Tours, France, the Service of Supply Department releases impressive figures: American base ports have handled 25,588 tons of supplies every day for the month of September while 10,398 soldiers were also disembarked. Both commodities were handled by the American railway service, currently operating over 10,000 locomotives and freight cars. Women: Despite encouragement from President Woodrow Wilson, who views women’s suffrage as a “vitally necessary war measure,” the Senate votes 62 to 34 in favor of a federal amendment allowing women the right to vote but is two votes shy of the two-thirds majority needed to pass.

October 2 Naval: American naval units assist Allied forces in clearing mines and screening against submarines during a large raid against Austrian shipping at Durazzo, Albania.

October 2–7 Military: Major Charles W. Whittelsey, commanding the 307th and 308th Infantry Regiments, takes his objectives in the Argonne Forest, France, but is immediately surrounded by Germans and cut off. The Americans cling to their position tenaciously for five days until their final carrier pigeon, “Cher Ami,” arrives at headquarters to describe their plight. For commanding the “Lost Battalion,” Whittelsey will win a Congressional Medal of Honor.

October 4–12 Military: The First Army under General John J. Pershing continues rumbling forward across the Meuse-Argonne line, rescuing the “Lost Battalion” and gradually sweeping the region of German defenders. The I, III, and V Corps all perform superbly in the face of heavy losses and intense opposition, pausing only on October 12 for a well-deserved respite.

October 5 Sports: Captain Eddie Grant, previously a National League infielder with the New York Giants, is killed in the Argonne Forest while leading Company H, 307th Infantry, as it labored to rescue the “Lost Battalion.”

October 6 Politics: In Germany, a moderate parliamentary government forms under a new chancellor, Prince Max of Baden, and informs President Woodrow Wilson of its willingness to accept his Fourteen Points as a basis for peace negotiations.

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October 8 Military: Private Alvin York, a former conscientious objector and a fabulous marksman, singlehandedly captures a 132-man German patrol at Chéhéry, Argonne Forest, France. This singular act makes him the war’s most famous hero and will earn him a Congressional Medal of Honor.

October 8–November 11 Military: Regiments belonging to the 93rd Division fight alongside French forces on the Vosges Front near the Swiss border.

October 9 Naval: Chief Gunner’s Mate Oscar Schmidt, Jr., observing an explosion on a nearby subchaser, dives overboard to rescue a critically injured sailor dangling from the ship’s bow; he will win the Congressional Medal of Honor. Politics: With his army mutinying, his navy in revolt, and Allied armies poised on his border, Kaiser Wilhelm II prepares to abdicate the throne and exile himself to the Netherlands. The new German government begins contacting President Woodrow Wilson on the basis of his Fourteen Points.

October 10 Religion: The Native American Church of Oklahoma is incorporated, which is a unique synthesis of Christian and Native-American beliefs. Central to its ceremonies is the hallucinogenic plant peyote, which purportedly allows worshippers to communicate with, and obtain revelation from, God.

York, Alvin

(1887–1964)

Soldier Alvin York was born in Pall Mall, Tennessee, on December 13, 1887, one of 11 children born to a poverty-stricken family. Forced to hunt and provide food at an early age, he became a superb marksman. York, a large, stout individual, was much given to drinking, gambling, and fighting until 1911, when he underwent a religious conversion and joined the Church of Christ and Christian Union. Consistent with the doctrines of his new creed, he became a church elder and a committed pacifist. York accordingly applied for conscientious objector status when America entered World War I in 1917, but it was denied by the draft board. He was then inducted into the U.S. Army as a private and consistently astounded drill instructors with his shooting abilities. As

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York was preparing to ship to Europe he made it clear to superiors his unease about fighting in combat, at which point they referred him to his battalion commander, Major George E. Buxton, a Bible scholar. For three days the two men debated chapter and verse relating to war and the moral obligations it posed to men of good conscience. The major granted him a two-day leave to think it over and York agonized but returned ready to fight. For him the war had become a moral crusade. He then arrived in France as a corporal and part of G Company, 328th U.S. Infantry, 82nd Division. It was in this unlikely capacity that York was to make world history and form part of the American military mythos of World War I.

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October 12 Military: More bad news for the Germans: General Robert Lee Bullard’s 2nd Army is activated at full strength along the St. Mihiel front, with the 7th, 37th, 79th, and 92nd Divisions in the front lines and the 28th Division training in reserve.

October 13–15 Diplomacy: President Woodrow Wilson, responding to a German offer to accept his Fourteen Points as the basis for peace, insists that German armies cease their inhumane practices and that arbitrary rule must cease in Germany. Prince Max of Baden, the chancellor, accepts these terms unconditionally. General: Huge forest fires sweep through Minnesota and Wisconsin, killing roughly 1,000 people.

October 14 Aviation: The Marine Corps commits its first aircraft to combat by executing a strike against German-held railyards in Belgium; Lieutenant Ralph Talbot and Corporal Robert G. Robinson will become the first marine aviators to win Congressional Medals of Honor.

October 14–16 Military: In their final drive, massed Americans of the 29th and 33rd Divisions advance on a broad front in concert with French forces driving north on the east bank of the Meuse River. After intense fighting, men of the 42nd Division storm the town of Côte de Châtillion, gaining a lodgement on the Hindenburg Line.

York was committed to combat in the Argonne Forest and on October 8, 1918, he led 17 men on a patrol into the German sector. They stealthily surprised and captured a small enemy detachment, including the major of a machine gun battalion. Suddenly York’s soldiers came under fire from several emplacements and six died while the rest were pinned down guarding their German prisoners. York crept forward to engage the Germans and singlehandedly shot down 17 enemy gunners. When the Germans realized their opponent was a single American soldier, a party of seven men rushed his position in a column. York, his rifle out of ammunition, pulled out his pistol and expertly shot down all seven of his antagonists with unerring aim. At this point the captive German major pleaded

with him to stop and agreed to make his men surrender. York consented and his men then rounded up 132 prisoners and marched them back to an incredulous battalion headquarters. When General John J. Pershing heard of York’s exploit, he pronounced him, “the greatest civilian soldier of the war.” Consequently he received a Congressional Medal of Honor and 50 other decorations. Afterward, York returned to Tennessee and lived the rest of his life in semi-seclusion, only allowing his biography to be published in 1928 and also acting as an adviser to the patriotic film Sergeant York (1941) starring Gary Cooper. York continually gave away any money he accrued from his celebrity as a national hero, and died in near-poverty at Nashville on December 2, 1964, a unique and humble American hero.

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October 16 Politics: Congress passes a wartime measure barring entry into the United States of any alien who advocates overthrowing the government by force. Military: General John J. Pershing turns over tactical command of the First Army to General Hunter Liggett while he advances to become commander of the American Group of Armies, in addition to serving as commander in chief of the AEF.

October 18 Military: The II Corps, having advanced 20 miles, liberated 15 villages, and taken 3,400 Germans captive, is congratulated by General Sir Henry Rawlinson, British Fourth Army. Women: The U.S. Army reverses itself and abandons the Women’s Overseas Corps (WOC); instead, a new Army Service Corps, drawn from recruits of “limited service,” is organized to fulfill similar tasks.

October 19 Business: The fourth Liberty Loan drive formally ends; it is estimated that onefourth of the population—20 million people—purchased war bonds.

October 20 Military: New 155 mm cannon belonging to the 11th Artillery Regiment are brought up in support of the 89th Division at Romange, France. This represents the heaviest field ordnance deployed by the AEF.

October 21 General: Margaret B. Owen of New York City sets a new typewriting record of 170 words per minute, without mistakes. Military: General John J. Pershing orders the First Army to gird itself for renewed combat along the Meuse-Argonne front once fresh troops are brought up and exhausted divisions taken out of the line.

October 22 Military: The First Army resumes its drive eastward through the Meuse-Argonne sector, with the 3rd Division capturing Bois de Forêt and the 89th Division seizing parts of Romange Heights. General John J. Pershing is determined to maintain the strategic initiative and keep the Germans on the defensive.

October 24-–November 4 Military: A small contingent of American troops aids in a successful Italian offensive at Vittorio Veneto, north of Venice, which finally crushes Austrian resistance.

October 25 Politics: President Woodrow Wilson campaigns for a Democratic Congress to be returned in upcoming elections. The ploy backfires, because Wilson had previously asked the nation to refrain from partisanship during the war; the incoming Congress will be Republican dominated.

October 27 General: The 2,320-ton Canadian Pacific steamer Princess Sophia slams into an uncharted reef during a storm and sinks off the coast of Alaska, killing 343 passengers. Only a dog will eventually be rescued.

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Military: The 78th Division advances and captures Grandpré, which assists the advance of the French Fourth Army. The 332rd Infantry, the only American combat formation on the Italian Front, captures several bridgeheads across the Piave River for Allied forces.

October 28 Journalism: Former president Theodore Roosevelt weighs in on the issue of an armistice and demands the unconditional surrender of Germany in articles published in the Kansas City Star. He also rails against President Woodrow Wilson’s idealism and the notion of a league of nations. Military: In Italy, the 332nd Infantry pursues Austrian troops north as far as the Tagliamento River before consolidating its gains.

October 29 Aviation: Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, the leading American ace, claims his 25th and 26th German kills. Curiously, he is flying a French-built Spad XIII fighter plane because the United States possesses no comparable craft.

October 31 Military: The First Army temporarily halts its offensive for one day at the behest of the French army. American ground forces take advantage of the delay in offensive operations to realign themselves for a final push toward Sedan. Their mission now is to sever the strategic Metz-Sedan-Mézières railroad.

November 1 Naval: Boatswain’s Mate John Otto Siegel distinguishes himself by rescuing several sailors from the burning schooner Hjeltenaes, nearly dying himself from smoke inhalation; he will win the Congressional Medal of Honor.

November 1–7 General: Five wooden subway cars of Brooklyn Rapid Transit derail at high speed, killing 100 passengers. Military: General John J. Pershing orders a resumption of offensive operations to break through the Meuse-Argonne front. The first wave sweeps over Barricourt heights and proceeds to lace into the Hindenburg Line. After four days of intense fighting the German general staff orders its army to fall back from the Meuse line. Three days later the Americans will have pursued them to the town limits of Sedan, cutting the strategic railroad line there.

November 4 Diplomacy: The Austro-Hungarian Empire accepts an armistice at the Villa Giusti in Padua, Italy. Military: The 5th Division, III Corps, throws bridges across the Meuse River in concert with adjoining French forces and begins a push toward Montmédy.

November 5 Diplomacy: President Woodrow Wilson finally cables Allied peace terms to Germany after a month of armistice negotiations. The major stumbling block was Allied refusal to accept the president’s Fourteen Points; ultimately, they agree to a mere handful, with reservations. Military: The U. S. I Corps is ordered to storm the communications center at the heart of Sedan while elements of the V Corps assist on the right flank. Some confusion results when the 1st Division crosses into zones assigned to the 42nd

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Chronology of American History and 77nd Divisions, but at length the Americans take the high ground in front of the city. Meanwhile, General John J. Pershing alerts the Second Army under General Robert Lee Bullard to prepare for an advance between the Moselle River and Etang de Lachaussée. Politics: Mid-term elections end with Republicans winning control of both chambers of Congress. One possible explanation is that President Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points for establishing peace were perceived as too soft on Germany—in the words of Theodore Roosevelt, a Republican Congress would demand much harsher terms for surrender.

November 6 Diplomacy: German and French diplomats begin formal negotiations for an armistice.

November 7 Journalism: An armistice with Germany is erroneously reported in New York City newspapers after a faulty United Press dispatch arrives from France. It is retracted within hours after joyous pandemonium erupts citywide. Military: The First Army under General John J. Pershing, having pierced German defenses at Sedan, allows French forces the honor of regaining their own city while the Americans press on toward Longwy and Briey.

November 9 Diplomacy: Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicates, ending the Hohenzollern dynasty in Germany, and is replaced by Socialist Friedrich Ebert. Germany itself begins a long political transformation from autocratic empire to republic. Media: English comedian Charles Chaplin, already a fixture of the American silver screen, announces that he married actress Mildred Harris in Los Angeles, California, on October 23. Naval: The Naval Overseas Transportation Service cargo ship Saetia strikes a mine and sinks near Fenwick Island, Delaware.

November 10–11 Military: With fighting along the Western Front in its dying gasps, the First Army continues to advance by crossing the Meuse River and approaching the city of Verdun. It falls upon the gunners of Battery E, 11th Field Artillery, supporting the 6th Division, to fire the final artillery salvo of the war at Beaufort, France. By this period, the First Army has sustained 26,000 dead and 95,000 wounded, but has also captured 25,000 Germans and 874 guns, and inflicted 100,000 casualties.

November 11 Diplomacy: The German government agrees to an armistice to take place at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month; four years of internecine conflict and slaughter stop, while the exhausted but jubilant Allies pause to celebrate. Military: For their part in turning back the tide, the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) loses 130,174 dead (50,604 in combat and the rest by disease) and 203,460 wounded. This total seems almost trivial beside the combined Allied/ Central Powers tally of over eight million dead. Financial expenditures total nearly $42 billion, and American intervention decisively tipped the military bal-

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ance in favor of the Allies. On the final day of the war, the American war machine musters 1,078,222 combatants in Europe. Politics: News of peace triggers jubilant celebrations throughout the streets of America.

November 17 Military: Eight infantry divisions advance toward the German border to begin occupation duties.

November 18 Politics: President Woodrow Wilson, a historian with a sense of destiny, declares his intention to attend the peace conference in Paris. However, many citizens view this as a sign of the president’s egotism and self-importance, and Republicans decry that no member of the Senate will be present and only one Republican.

November 20 Military: A final count proves that the Americans hold 44,934 German prisoners, who are promptly repatriated in return for 2,082 of their countrymen.

November 21 Aviation: Major J. E. Booth and Lieutenant J. Spencer fly a DeHaviland DH-4 bomber 700 miles nonstop from Mount Clemens, Michigan, to Mineola, New York, in only four hours. Politics: President Woodrow Wilson signs the Wartime Prohibition Act, a temporary ban on the manufacture and production of alcoholic beverages unless for export.

November 29 Military: The 76th Division is the first American unit slated for transport back to the United States from France.

December 1 Military: American troops under General Joseph T. Dickman begin the military occupation of Germany, popularly known as the “Watch on the Rhine.” The British transport Mauretania drops anchor in New York harbor, and disembarks 4,467 returning soldiers. The newly formed Third Army advances into Germany to occupy a stretch of land between Luxembourg and the Rhine River near Koblenz.

December 4 Aviation: A flight of four Curtiss JN-4 Jennies under Major Albert D. Smith lifts off from San Diego, California, to begin the first coast-to-coast flight by army pilots. Diplomacy: The idealistic president Woodrow Wilson sails for negotiations in Europe, bringing with him an army of historians, geographers, politicians, and economists to assist him in hammering out a lasting peace. He is also accompanied by advisers Herbert C. Hoover and Bernard Baruch. The war-weary Europeans are finally warming to his high hopes for mankind, and he will receive an enthusiastic welcome.

December 6 Military: Demobilization and occupation duties highlight the need for additional Military Police (MP) companies; ultimately, 51 are organized and distributed about various bases in Europe.

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December 8 Military: Troops of the Third Army establish a bridgehead across the Rhine River in order to occupy the city of Koblenz.

December 13 Diplomacy: President Woodrow Wilson and his entourage arrive at Brest, France, aboard the SS George Washington, determined to make their mark on history. Upon disembarking they are serenaded by the band of the 38th Division while an entire artillery regiment lines both sides of the street running from the docks to the town. Military: Upon further reflection, AEF headquarters elects to retain and deploy five more divisions for occupation duties in Germany and Luxembourg. However, the bulk of the army is marching to the port of Brest for transport back to the United States.

December 14 Arts: The opera Il Trittico by Giacomo Puccini receives its world premiere at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.

December 16 Sports: William Harrison “Jack” Dempsey advances toward eventual acquisition of the world heavyweight boxing championship by knocking out Carl Morris in only 14 seconds at New Orleans, Louisiana.

December 22 Aviation: Major Albert D. Smith coaxes his four Curtiss JN-4 Jennies into Jacksonville, Florida, successfully completing the first coast-to-coast flight by army pilots.

1919 Education: The Institute for International Education is founded largely through the efforts of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, to assist students in international education. Indian: The Bureau of Indian Affairs confiscates large numbers of Northern Cheyenne horses to free up additional land for their cattle. The animals are then summarily slaughtered and served up to the owners as rations, over the latter’s objections. Literature: James Branch Cabell writes his erotic fantasy Jurgen, A Comedy of Justice, which is banned initially but eventually gathers a large following. Music: In a distinct break from the traditional romantic style, piano composer writes “The White Peacock” for a ballet presentation held at the Rivoli Theater, New York, where it is enthusiastically received. Aspiring entertainer Fanny Brice sings “My Man” on Broadway. Publishing: The Pulitzer Prize is posthumously awarded to Henry Adams for his autobiography, The Education of Henry Adams, and to Sherwood Anderson for his collection of short stories, Winesburg, Ohio. Literary scholar and critic H. L. Mencken publishes a major work entitled The American Language. Journalist John Reed publishes his popular account of the Russian Revolution, Ten Days That Shook the World.

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Religion: Father Divine (George Baker), a charismatic African-American evangelic, explodes on the religious scene with national impact for many black Americans. His doctrinal message not only touches spiritual matters, but also proffers practical advice on economic equality, responsibility, and even everyday life. Many of his followers express a belief that he is actually God incarnate. Science: Robert H. Goddard releases his visionary tract “A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes,” which will serve as a basis for modern rocketry. Dr. John B. Watson pens Psychology from the Standpoint of a Behaviorist, which maintains that human behavior is by and large a product of environmental conditioning. Sports: Harvard University wins the national college football championship with nine wins, no losses, and one tie. The NHL Stanley Cup playoffs are canceled due to the onset of an influenza epidemic, which sickens several players and kills one. At the time the Seattle Metropolitans and the Montreal Canadiens enjoyed two wins apiece and one tie.

January 1 Sports: The fifth Tournament of Roses Association football game is won by the Great Lakes Naval Training Station Team over the Mare Island Marines, 17 to 0.

January 6 General: Former president Theodore Roosevelt dies at his home in Oyster Bay, New York; his health and spirits suffered following the death of his son in the Great War.

January 15 General: Two million gallons of molasses are released when a storage tank owned by the Purity Distilling Company of Boston, Massachusetts, suddenly bursts. The ensuing and very sticky tidal wave sweeps down city streets, killing 21 people and injuring 40.

January 18 Diplomacy: The victorious Allied powers sit down to begin negotiating a peace treaty, represented by President Woodrow Wilson for America, Prime Minister Lloyd George for Britain, Premier Georges Clemenceau for France, and Premier Vittorio Orlando for Italy. In a deliberate snub, Germany does not gain representation until the treaty is ready to be signed the following May. Nonetheless, the Germans hope to utilize Wilson’s Fourteen Points as the basis for negotiations, but France and Britain are more intent upon extracting punitive measures. These stern dictates, harshly imposed and vigorously enforced, will have the net effect of gradually crushing the German economy and inadvertently laying the groundwork for a second world war.

January 19 Military: U.S. Army troops stationed at Shenkhursk, northern Russia, heavily repel a major attack by Bolshevik forces.

January 21 Labor: In Seattle, Washington, the militant International Workers of the World (IWW) strikes area shipyards while carrying red flags and making anti-capitalist speeches. Mayor Ole Hanson calls this behavior to the attention of the government, which feels it is the product of Communist subversion and agitation.

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January 29 Politics: After Nebraska ratifies the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (to take effect one year later), signifying the adoption of prohibition against the manufacture or consumption of alcoholic liquor, it is formally declared ratified. This is the first amendment that has had a seven-year time limit on the ratification process; it will be the first amendment to be repealed.

February 14 Diplomacy: An idealistic president Woodrow Wilson presents a draft of the League of Nations covenant to members of the Paris Peace Conference, consisting of the United States, Great Britain, France, Italy, and Japan. The draft is accepted, which is surprising, considering how the Allied powers ignored Wilson’s other Fourteen Points for achieving lasting peace with Germany.

February 21 Aviation: The prototype Thomas Morse fighter (MB-3) makes its maiden flight and will eventually be accepted into production as the first American-designed fighter aircraft; 200 will be constructed—the largest order for military aircraft during the next 17 years.

March 2– 4 Politics: In Washington, D.C., Senator Henry Cabot Lodge collects a statement with 37 Republican senators’ signatures, declaring their opposition to the Covenant of the League of Nations. Specifically, they object to Article X of Part I, requiring member states to defend each other, which fails to take into account the Monroe Doctrine.

March 3 Aviation: A Boeing aircraft flies the first international airmail run from Seattle, Washington, to Vancouver, British Columbia.

March 10 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Schenck v. United States, ruling that the Espionage Act does not violate the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and restraints on free speech are acceptable in situations where “a clear and present danger” is at hand. On the basis of this decision, labor activist Eugene V. Debs is sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment for interfering with the military draft. The U.S. Supreme Court also rules in Abrams v. United States that the distribution of antiwar pamphlets protesting American intervention in Siberia falls under the purview of the 1918 Sedition Act, although Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes writes a memorable dissenting opinion.

March 12 Communication: Lieutenant Harry Sadenwater demonstrates the viability of aerial radio broadcasts by conversing with the secretary of the navy while airborne in a naval flying boat 65 miles from Washington, D.C.

March 15–17 Societal: A gathering of 1,000 delegates from various units within the American Expeditionary Force in Paris, France, founds the American Legion to promote veterans’ issues. Its potential membership is over one million.

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March 31–April 4 Military: Bolshevik forces launch a heavy assault upon Allied defenses at Bolshie Ozerki, northern Russia, where men of the 339th Infantry and the British Yorkshire Regiment bloodily repulse them.

April 9 Arts: Edward Sheldon’s medieval play The Jest opens at the Plymouth Theater, New York, and features the up-and-coming talents of John and Lionel Barrymore. It becomes the most successful production of the year.

April 10 Diplomacy: Special agent William C. Bullitt, having conferred with Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin in April, whereby the Russian agreed to armistice terms with the Allies, is disappointed that Allied leaders in Paris, France, are not interested in negotiating, and the offer fades.

April 17 Diplomacy: Herbert Hoover, who had arranged a campaign for Russian food relief, is unable to convince revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin to turn over all Russian rail and road transportation to foreigners for distribution purposes. Thus another attempt at rapprochement with the Bolsheviks fails. Media: In an early display of star power, director D.W. Griffith joins actors Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, and Mary Pickford in founding a new studio, United Artists.

April 19 Sports: Carl W. A. Linder wins the 23rd Boston Marathon by crossing the line at two hours, 29 minutes, and 13 seconds.

May 1 Military: Men of the 339th Infantry, preparing to hand over their position to Russian White forces, are suddenly assailed along the Vaga River, northern Russia, by superior Bolshevik forces. Once again the attacks are defeated with little loss to the Americans.

May 8 Aviation: Seaplane Division One, consisting of three Curtiss NC-4 flying boats under Commander John H. Towers, lifts off from Air Station Rockaway, New York, and wings its way east to Portugal via the Azores. En route two craft are delayed by mechanical failure.

May 10 Sports: Sir Barton wins the 45th annual Kentucky Derby with a time of two minutes, nine seconds.

May 14 Sports: Sir Barton adds another notch to his saddle by winning the 44th annual Preakness Stakes, crossing the line at one minute, 53 seconds.

May 19 Aviation: Sergeant Ralph W. Bottriell safely demonstrates the “Type A” parachute by jumping from a USD-9 aircraft over McCook Airfield, Ohio.

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May 27 Aviation: A Curtiss NC-4 flying boat piloted by Lieutenant Commander A. C. Read reaches Lisbon, Portugal, after flying across the Atlantic via Newfoundland and the Azores—a voyage of 18 days. This signifies the first successful transatlantic crossing by an aircraft, no mean feat considering the crudity of aviation technology.

May 30 Military: The last American formation of the Army Expeditionary Force parades through Archangel, northern Russia, and conducts Memorial Day services at the city cemetery before finally departing Russian soil for good.

May 31 Aviation: Lieutenant Commander A. C. Read touches down in English waters with his Curtiss NC-4 flying boat. Sports: The seventh annual Indianapolis 500 car race is resumed following a two-year hiatus, and Howard Wilcox is the winner with a time of five hours, 40 minutes, and 42 seconds, at a speed averaging 88.05 miles per hour.

June 2 Literature: Poet Carl Sandburg wins the Pulitzer Prize for his collection entitled Cornhuskers, and Booth Tarkington wins for his generational, historical novel The Magnificent Ambersons. Politics: In Washington, D.C., Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, vocal in his denunciation of Communists, has his home badly damaged in a bomb attack. This act prods him to prepare an all-out assault on all radical groups throughout the nation in what will be called the “Red Scare.”

June 4 Women: In a major development, Congress approves the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution—allowing women’s suffrage—and passes it along to the states for ratification.

June 11 Sports: Walter Hagen wins the U.S. Open golf tournament.

June 12 Military: General Douglas MacArthur, aged 39 years, becomes the youngest superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, New York, with orders to “revitalize and revamp” his charge.

June 21 Sports: The U.S. Lawn Tennis Association championships are won by Hazel Hotchkiss and William M. Johnston in their respective divisions.

June 25 Military: An American patrol from the 27th Infantry is attacked by Allied Japanese forces near Sviyagino, Siberia, with one officer wounded. Company A, 31st Infantry, engages large Bolshevik forces at Romanovka, Siberia, losing 19 dead and 25 wounded—one of the costliest encounters of the occupation.

June 28 Diplomacy: The Allied powers impose the Treaty of Versailles upon a defeated Germany, forcing it to admit guilt for starting the war, surrender all colonies

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plus the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine, and also pay reparations to the tune of $15 billion. Austria-Hungary is also separated into two new countries. In sum, the terms adopted constitute a departure from President Woodrow Wilson’s overly optimistic Fourteen Points for lasting peace. However, the signatories agree to creation of a new international organization to mitigate potential crises, the League of Nations, which will cause the U.S. Senate to question the entire treaty.

June 29 Politics: A crowd of 40,000 Irish sympathizers gathers in Fenway Park, Boston, to hear Irish patriot Eamon de Valera appeal for political support for a free and independent Ireland. Sports: Sir Barton completes his historic first sweep of the Triple Crown by winning the 51st annual Belmont Stakes with a time of two minutes, 17 seconds. He thus becomes the first horse to win all three races since they began running yearly in 1875.

July 1 Communication: Initial daily mail service is established between Chicago, Illinois, and New York City.

July 4 Sports: In Toledo, Ohio, the ferocious brawler Jack Dempsey (“The Manassa Mauler”) becomes heavyweight boxing champion by knocking out Jess Willard in only three rounds.

July 7 Transportation: Lieutenant Colonel Dwight D. Eisenhower accompanies a convoy of army trucks from Washington, D.C., to San Francisco, California, in a display of motorized mobility. Averaging six miles per hour, the column reaches its objective in nine weeks.

July 10 Diplomacy: An ailing President Woodrow Wilson presents the newly signed Treaty of Versailles to the U.S. Senate and appeals for its passage, insisting it is the only guarantor of future peace.

July 11 Naval: Congress passes the Naval Appropriations Act of 1919, which contains funding to convert the collier USS Jupiter into the U.S. Navy’s first aircraft carrier, the Langley.

July 14 Economy: The United States formally lifts its wartime embargo on Germany and resumes regular business relations with the defeated nation. However, crushed by the Treaty of Versailles, Germany remains hobbled by grinding poverty and mounting political unrest.

July 21 General: The balloon Wing Foot, owned and operated by the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, smashes into the Illinois Trust and Savings Company building in LaSalle, Illinois, killing 12 and injuring 28.

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July 23 Business: The price of hogs on the hoof rises to $23.50 per hundredweight, a record high level.

July 30 Naval: The submarine G-2 sinks near New London, Connecticut, drowning three sailors.

August 5 Military: U.S. Army forces, having endured a horrific Rus sian winter at Archangel, and with morale in some units bordering on mutiny, are finally withdrawn on ships and depart at the behest of Secretary of War Newton D. Baker; the Army Expeditionary Force has suffered 400 casualties in various skirmishes.

August 7 Labor: The Actor’s Equity Association calls a theater strike in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia, until it will garner official recognition from management.

August 9 Aviation: The U.S. Navy begins construction of its first rigid airship, the dirigible ZR-1, its Shenandoah, which is 682 feet in length and inflated by helium, a nonflammable gas safer than the hydrogen employed in Europe.

August 14 Journalism: A court rules that Henry Ford has been libeled by the Chicago Tribune, which called him an anarchist.

August 31–September 2 Politics: Dissidents and more radical elements of the Socialist Party, consisting mostly of Russian expatriates, adopt a hammer and sickle banner adorned with the slogan “Workers of the World Unite!” However, the new Communist Labor Party under journalist John Reed forms in disagreement over their call for an immediate revolution in the United States.

September 1 Labor: In Portland, Oregon, 20,000 union members press for adoption of the Plumb Plan for joint ownership of all railroads by workers, management, and the government. They also demand the immediate withdrawal of American troops from occupied portions of Russia.

September 3 Military: General John J. Pershing assumes the newly created rank of General of the Armies of the United States, with five stars—becoming the only officer in American military history to hold such rank while still on active duty. Politics: An ailing president Woodrow Wilson commences a national speaking tour to promote his pet project, the League of Nations. However, his going over the U.S. Senate’s head to appeal to voters alienates supporters in that body. He also does so against the advice of his doctors, who feel the strain will prove too great.

September 8 Politics: President Woodrow Wilson stumps in Omaha, Nebraska, on behalf of the Versailles Treaty and its component League of Nations. Numerous polls

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highlight public support for the treaty, but Wilson has yet to surmount stern Republican opposition in the U.S. Senate.

September 9 Labor: Massachusetts governor Calvin Coolidge, faced with a large police strike in Boston, calls outs the National Guard and hires new patrolmen to replace them, declaring, “There is no right to strike against the public safety by anybody, anywhere, any time.”

September 11 Naval: U.S. Marines land in Honduras to help stop a serious uprising by followers of radical Rafael López Gutiérrez against deposed president Francisco Bertrand.

September 20 Sports: Jim Barnes win the PGA golf tournament.

September 22 Labor: Radical Socialist William Z. Foster leads a strike of 365,000 workers against the U.S. Steel Corporation and other firms still clinging to a 12-hour work day.

September 25 Politics: President Woodrow Wilson, ill and exhausted after promoting the League of Nations in several states, collapses in Pueblo, Colorado, and he cancels his national tour. Governance falls into the hands of Vice President Thomas R. Marshal, best known for his quip, “What this country needs is a good five cent cigar.”

October 1–9 Sports: The Cincinnati Reds (NL) win baseball’s 16th annual World Series by defeating the Chicago White Sox (AL) five games to three in a nine-game series, which system remains in play from this year until 1921.

October 2 Politics: President Woodrow Wilson suffers a stroke in Washington, D.C., and for many weeks his life hangs in the balance.

October 6 Communication: The submarine H-2, operating on the Hudson River, successfully transmits the first radio message while submerged.

October 7 Arts: The romantic opera Apple Blossoms, penned by Fritz Kreisler and Victor Jacoby, successfully opens at the Globe Theater in New York City. It also features some stunning footwork by dancers Fred Astaire and his sister Adele.

October 9 Sports: Cincinnati wins the World Series, but scandal will erupt when it is learned that several players on the Chicago team accepted bribes to deliberately throw the series. The national press quickly refers to the dishonored team as the “Black Sox.”

October 12–15 Aviation: A DeHavilland DH-4 bomber flown by Lieutenant Belvin Maynard departs Roosevelt Field, New York, and flies to San Francisco and back, covering 5,400 miles in the first transcontinental flight.

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October 28 Societal: To enforce the strictures of Prohibition, Congress passes the Volstead Act over President Woodrow Wilson’s veto; it defines an intoxicating beverage as consisting of more than 1 percent alcohol. That chemical is also closely regulated for industrial, medicinal, and sacramental purposes. The legislation contains enforcement provisions for the Eighteenth Amendment.

November Indian: In Riverside, California, non-Indian Jonathan Tibbet helps to found the Mission Indian Federation to confront the Bureau of Indian Affairs about compensation for lands taken during the process of relocating to reservations. The group also pushes for full American citizenship and the abolishment of the BIA altogether.

November 7 Politics: J. Edgar Hoover, director of the General Intelligence Division (GID) of the Bureau of Investigation, initiates nationwide sweeps against known radical groups. Some 450 prisoners are taken into custody, although 411 will be released five months later without charges ever being filed against them.

November 11 Labor: In Centralia, Washington, a riot between American Legionnaires and members of the militant Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or “Wobblies”) results in three deaths. Labor leader Wesley Everett will subsequently be lynched and discovered hanging from a tree.

November 16 Indian: Congress passes the Indian Veteran’s Citizenship Bill, which proffers full citizenship rights upon all Native Americans serving in, or discharged honorably from, the American military.

November 19 Diplomacy: The U.S. Senate, unswayed by President Woodrow Wilson’s arguments and upset over mutual defense provisions of the League of Nations, defeats ratification of the Versailles Treaty on a vote of 55 to 39. This ensures that one of the most popular conflicts in American history ends on a note of dissent and acrimony.

November 20 Aviation: Tucson, Arizona, opens its first municipal airport immediately south of the city, which is still operational to this day.

November 21 Diplomacy: President Woodrow Wilson orders his four peace commissioners in Paris, France, to come home following the U.S. Senate’s rejection of the Versailles Treaty. Their absence will underscore American abrogation of responsibility in helping to mitigate Europe’s severe postwar readjustment difficulties.

November 27 Business: Congress passes the Edge Act, which enables U.S. banks to combine for the purpose of financing foreign trade without violating the antitrust laws extant. This move will lead to formation of the American and Foreign Banking Corporation and the Mercantile Bank of the Americas, which prove highly influential in world trade and finance.

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December 15 Arts: British playwright John Drinkwater premieres his play Abraham Lincoln at the Cort Theater, New York, featuring Frank McGlynn in the leading role. It is soon judged the best production of the season.

December 21 General: The army transport USS Buford, christened the “Soviet Ark,” departs for Russia with 246 Russian immigrants accused of Communist subversion and violence. Among them is the outspoken activist Emma Goldman.

December 22 Law: Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, upset by what he perceives as an influx of Communist-leaning “Reds,” authorizes additional raids and arrests of suspected members nationwide. His stoking of anticommunist hysteria will result in some unfortunate detentions but does increase public approval for his cause.

December 23 Naval: The U.S. Navy launches the USS Relief, its first vessel constructed from the keel up as a hospital ship. The new ship has a capacity of 500 beds and employs the most modern medical facilities in the world.

December 25 Naval: The U.S. Navy organizes several gunboats into the Yangtze Patrol, for the purpose of protecting American interests along that vital Chinese waterway.

1920 Business: In Detroit, Michigan, Alfred P. Sloan, Jr., vice president of General Motors, introduces the new concept of “planned obsolescence” in automobile marketing, namely, yearly alterations in design and style to gently hint to consumers that the car they are driving today is passé. Thus motivated, the middle class is sure to “keep up with the Joneses” and buy a new car. Education: Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts, opens the first graduate school of geography under Wallace Walter Atwood, previously a professor of physiography at Harvard University and now president of Clark itself. Reformer John Dewey pens his Reconstruction in Philosophy, which denounces metaphysics as escapist fare for the aristocratic class with little relevance in solving societal problems. Literature: Sinclair Lewis publishes a controversial book, Main Street, his condemnation of the dreary life in a midwestern town, which becomes regarded as an American literary classic. Media: The popular films Mark of Zorro, starring Douglas Fairbanks, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, with John Barrymore, debut this year in Chicago, Illinois. Music: A jazz craze starts in Europe once the Paul Whiteman Band begins a lengthy and celebrated tour. Population: The latest U.S. census indicates a population of slightly over 105 million people with the center located at Spencer in Owen County, Indiana. This is the first time that the percentage of rural population declines to less than half, in this instance to 30 percent—a major demographic shift toward the cities. Publishing: Aspiring author F. Scott Fitzgerald publishes his first novel, This Side of Paradise, which is widely acclaimed and establishes his literary reputation.

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Van Wyck Brooks pens The Ordeal of Mark Twain, considered a controversial biography of the noted writer. E. Phillips Oppenheim enjoys great success with his spy epic The Great Impersonation, which eventually sells a million copies. Justin H. Smith’s The War with Mexico and Albert J. Beveridge’s The Life of John Marshall both receive the Pulitzer Prize. Science: Noted astronomer Albert A. Michelson accurately measures the diameter of a star for the first time by proving that Alpha Orionis, or Betelgeuse, a supergiant star, is 260 million miles in diameter. Societal: American life expectancy has risen to a median of 54.09 years, up from 49.24 in 1901. The national illiteracy rate falls to 6 percent, down 1.7 percent from 1870—a new low. Sports: The University of California wins the national college football championship with nine wins, no losses, and no ties. Transportation: Railroad track mileage climbs to 253,000 miles, the highest it will ever reach before declining on account of automobiles and air travel. Sinclair Lewis (Library of Congress) Automobiles are firmly entrenched in American life, with roughly 15 million registered and in daily use and with an estimated one in four families purchasing a car every year.

January 1 Sports: Harvard University wins the sixth annual Tournament of Roses Association football game by edging out Oregon, 7–6.

January 2 Law: Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, assisted by a youthful J. Edgar Hoover, continues his vendetta against suspected Communists and their sympathizers. Federal agents ultimately arrest and detain 6,000 persons, and 556 recent Russian emigres are deported back home in the “Red Scare.”

January 5 Media: The Radio Corporation of American (RCA) is founded in New York City with a capitalization of $20 million.

January 16 Politics: The Eighteenth Amendment—Prohibition—goes into effect nationwide and with the best of intentions, only to stimulate a rise in organized crime and illegal alcohol production. Religion: In a major public relations stunt, evangelical preacher William “Billy” Sunday leads 10,000 followers in Norfolk, Virginia, in a mock funeral for “John Barleycorn” (alcohol).

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Law officals raid a cellar during Prohibition (Library of Congress)

January 18 Education: In a move to regulate teachers’ political preferences, State Commissioner Frank B. Gilbert of New York rules that members of the Communist Party are subject to dismissal from the public school system.

January 20 Diplomacy: Mexican president Venustiano Carranza, faced with a possible rupture in relations with the United States, accepts Secretary of State Robert Lansing’s demand that he allow American firms to continue drilling for oil with provisional permits. President Woodrow Wilson disagrees with Lansing’s strongarm tactics and begins looking for a convenient pretext to dismiss him.

February 2 Arts: Eugene O’Neill’s first play, Beyond the Horizon, is staged at the Morosco Theater in New York City to rave reviews and will subsequently win the Pulitzer Prize for best drama.

February 13 Politics: President Woodrow Wilson requests and obtains the resignation of Secretary of State Robert Lansing allegedly for holding unauthorized cabinet meetings while Wilson was incapacitated.

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February 25 Politics: In Washington, D.C., President Woodrow Wilson appoints Bainbridge Colby as his new secretary of state.

February 28 Transportation: The Railroad Labor Board is created by the newly-passed Esch-Cummins Transportation Act to supervise railroad regulation, now that the government’s wartime control is returned to private ownership. The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) also requires railroads to establish and observe “fair” rates.

March Crime: Eight members of the militant Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) are sentenced to 25 years imprisonment for several murders committed outside their union hall in Centralia, Illinois.

March 1 Business: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of United States v. United States Steel, ruling that this large corporation does not constitute an illegal monopoly.

March 2 Law: New Jersey, flaunting the Eighteenth Amendment, declares that 3.5 percent beer is legal, which sets the stage for a constitutional showdown with the federal government.

March 18 Naval: The submarine H-1 grounds itself on a shoal off Santa Margarita Island, California, killing three sailors. Six days later the vessel will be lost during a salvage attempt.

March 19 Diplomacy: The Treaty of Versailles again comes before the U.S. Senate for ratification and once more fails to secure the necessary two-thirds vote. Thus the United States does not become a member of the League of Nations, so ardently championed by President Woodrow Wilson.

March 20 Sports: The U.S. figure skating championships are won by Sherwin C. Badger and Theresa Weld, singles, and Theresa Weld and Nathaniel W. Niles, pairs.

April 1 Military: The last remaining U.S. Army units are withdrawn from Vladivostok, Russia, where the net effect of American involvement has been to limit Japanese expansion there. Politics: Five members of the Socialist Party are expelled from the New York State legislature on account of their membership; moreover, when legally elected back to their seats, they are again refused permission to attend sessions. The Red Scare is on the rise across the nation. Sports: The Ottawa Senators take the NHL Stanley Cup by defeating the Seattle Metropolitans three games to two.

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April 19 Sports: Peter Trivoulidas of Greece wins the 24th Boston Marathon by crossing the line at two hours, 29 minutes, and 31 seconds.

April 20–September 12 Sports: The unofficial American team playing at the Olympic Games in Antwerp, Belgium, takes nine gold medals.

May 5 Politics: In South Braintree, Massachusetts, Italian immigrants Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are arrested and carted off to jail on charges of armed robbery and the murder of a factory paymaster. The evidence against them is flimsy, but, due to their alleged association with anarchists, emotions run high over the case, which becomes a cause célèbre.

May 5–10 Politics: The Socialist Labor Party convenes in New York City and nominates William Wesley Cox of St. Louis, Missouri, for president and August Gilhaus of Brooklyn, New York, for vice president.

May 7 Politics: Assistant Secretary of Labor Louis Post appears before a House Rules Committee and effectively testifies against the excesses of the ongoing Red Scare campaign by Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, which begins to turn public attention against Palmer.

May 8 Sports: Paul Jones wins the 46th annual Kentucky Derby with a time of two minutes, nine seconds.

May 14 Politics: The Socialist Party holds its convention in New York City and nominates Eugene V. Debs (still in jail) for president and Seymour Stedman of Ohio for vice president.

May 18 Sports: Man o’ War takes the 45th annual Preakness Stakes by galloping across the finish line in one minute, 51 seconds.

May 20 Diplomacy: Congress issues a joint resolution declaring the end of hostilities against Austria, but it is vetoed by President Woodrow Wilson out of bitterness toward those who scuttled the Versailles Treaty.

May 31 Sports: Gaston Chevrolet wins the eighth Indianapolis 500 auto race by completing the course in five hours, 38 minutes, 32 seconds at an average speed of 88.62 miles per hour.

June 4 Military: The Army Reorganization Act is passed by Congress, which sets manpower limits for the U.S. Army at 300,000.

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June 5 Naval: The Merchant Marine Act is passed by Congress, which directs the government-controlled Shipping Board to sell its vessels to commercial shipping companies. The Merchant Fleet Corporation is also authorized to supply loans to shipping firms and to continue operating unsold government-owned vessels.

June 8–12 Politics: The Republican Party holds its national convention in Chicago, Illinois, and nominates Warren G. Harding of Ohio for president when front-runners General Leonard Wood and Frank O. Lowden of Illinois deadlock. Harding and his running mate, Calvin Coolidge, differ completely in taste and temperament, with Harding being an “old pol” chosen to run from a “smoke-filled room” and the detached, intellectual Coolidge selected as a political counterweight to machine-style politics. Harding will campaign on a theme of returning the nation to “normalcy.”

June 10 Business: Congress enacts the Water Power Act, which also creates the Federal Power Commission to regulate power plants nationwide. Now the secretaries of war, interior, and agriculture possess the ability to regulate all waterways on public land in their spheres of influence. Thanks to wartime legislation, all sectors of the economy are working in close synchronization and less like a federation than at any time in American history.

June 12 Sports: Man o’ War wins the 52nd annual Belmont Stakes with a time of two minutes, 14 seconds.

June 28-–July 6 Politics: The Democrats convene in San Francisco, California, where frontrunners William G. McAdoo and A. Mitchell Palmer remain deadlocked after 38 ballots. Party bosses then lean toward James M. Cox, formerly governor of Ohio, for president and the relatively unknown Franklin D. Roosevelt of New York for vice president.

July 3 Sports: At Wimbledon, England, William T. Tilden wins the men’s singles tennis championship.

July 6 Aviation: A Navy Curtiss F-5L seaplane makes the first flight assisted by a radio compass for navigation purposes, venturing from Hampton Roads, Virginia, to the battleship USS Ohio, then 94 miles out at sea, then back home, entirely by radio signals.

July 7 Diplomacy: The United States resumes trade relations with Russia but refuses to recognize the Communist regime in power there. The government also continues to restrict mail and travel service to that embattled nation.

July 9–16 Sports: The United States routs Australia at the Davis Cup international tennis tournament, taking the trophy home for the first time since 1913.

1920

Chronology â•… 1763

July 12 Naval: Surface assets of the U.S. Navy are reor�ga�nized into the Atlantic, Pacific, and Asiatic fleets.

July 13–16 Politics: The Farmer Labor Party, which has formed only a month previously, meets in Chicago, Illinois, and chooses Parley P. Christensen of Utah for president and Max S. Hayes of Ohio for vice president.

July 21–22 Politics: The Prohibition Party meets in Lincoln, Nebraska, to nominate Aaron S. Watkins of Ohio for president, as the old warÂ�horse William Jennings Bryan has declined the nod. David Leigh Colvin of New York is nominated for vice presi-­ dent. Ohio, the “Buckeye State,” appears to have a lock on presidential nominees this year, with three in the offing.

July 27 Sports: The American vessel Resolute defends the America’s Cup against British challenger Shamrock IV.

August 1 Civil: Â�Jamaican-­born black nationalist leader Marcus Garvey, resplendent in his military attire, addresses 2,000 delegates in Harlem, New York City, to kick off a Â�month-­long meeting of the Universal Negro Improvement Association.

August 10 Diplomacy: President Woodrow Wilson declares he cannot recognize the Communists under Vladimir Lenin in Rus�sia because the government cannot be trusted to honor agreements signed. He, like many others, anticipates that the populace will rise up and depose the regime

August 13 Sports: Ted Ray of En�gland wins the U.S. Open golf tournament.

August 21 Sports: J. Fowler Hutchinson wins the PGA golf tournament.

August 26 Women: With ratification in Tennessee completed, the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitu-­ tion, granting women’s suffrage in local, state, and national elections, is finally enacted.

September Sports: The New York legislature passes the Â� so-­called Walker Law, which legalizes boxing in that state and also regulates the conduct of all matches. Other states will rapidly follow suit with similar legislation.

Marcus Garvey╇ (Library of Congress)

1920

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September 1–2 Naval: The submarine S-5 leaks and sinks in 194 feet of water off the Delaware Capes. By filling the aft ballast tanks with air the stern rises to the surface and the crew escapes through a hole cut in the hull.

September 6 Crime: A bomb explodes in front of the House of Morgan on Wall Street, New York, killing 29 people and wounding 200 others. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer renews his activities against the “Red Scare,” although with less public support and more circumspection. Sports: The U.S. Lawn Tennis Association singles championships are won by William T. Tilden and Molla Bjurstedt Mallory in their respective divisions.

September 8 Communication: The first bi-coastal mail flight takes off from New York City and arrives in San Francisco, California, four days later.

September 28 Sports: Eight members of the Chicago White Sox are indicted on having thrown baseball’s 1919 World Series to the Cincinnati Reds after taking bribes. This is the first serious scandal in American sports, although the ensuing trial ends in acquittal.

October 5–12 Sports: The Cleveland Indians (AL) win the 17th annual World Series by downing the Brooklyn Dodgers (NL) five games to two.

October 14 Aviation: The navy conducts aerial bombing tests against the old battleship USS Indianapolis in Chesapeake Bay, to determine the accuracy of projectiles and how well a vessel can withstand the effect of near misses.

October 30 Societal: In an ominous development, the Ku Klux Klan parades en masse through the streets of Jacksonville, Florida, underscoring its rapid growth as a political force.

November 1 Arts: Eugene O’Neill’s African-American oriented play The Emperor Jones debuts at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City; it concerns a black porter who becomes the leader of a West Indian nation. African drums are employed throughout the production to heighten dramatic effect.

November 2 Media: KDKA in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, becomes the first commercially licensed radio station with regularly scheduled broadcasting. Its first public announcement is to declare the presidential election results. Politics: Republican Warren G. Harding wins the presidential election with 404 electoral votes to Democrat James M. Cox’s tally of 127; the popular vote is roughly 16 million for Harding to nine million for Cox. The Republicans also enjoy slightly increased majorities in both chambers of Congress, thanks in no small part to women’s votes, which are largely in favor of Harding. A California voter initiative strictly forbidding Japanese immigrants from owning American property passes overwhelmingly, another indication of intense anti-Asian sentiments on the West Coast.

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Parade of the Klu Klux Klan through counties in Virginia (Library of Congress)

November 8 Sports: In light of the notorious “Black Sox Scandal” of 1919, Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis gains appointment as the new baseball commissioner. The move comes about after the failure of the National Baseball Commission to properly police the game.

November 9 Diplomacy: The United States strongly objects to Japanese possession of the remote Pacific island of Yap, which sits directly astride a proposed underwater cable route. Great Britain supports the Japanese position but France convinces the United States to engage in direct bilateral talks in 1921.

November 20 Crime: In Cicero, Illinois, gangster boss Hymie Weiss fails to successfully storm the headquarters of rival leader Al Capone, using a convoy of cars and several hit men.

November 23 Diplomacy: Despite a long and entrenched British position in the Middle East, the United States protests Britain’s apparent monopoly of oil rights there and seeks to implement another Open Door policy for equal commercial rights. The Standard Oil Company of New York begins pressing the British and Arab governments for oil exploration rights in this overlooked but soon to be strategic region of the world.

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November 27 Politics: Vice president–elect Calvin Coolidge addresses a crowd in New York City, declaring that “civilization and profits go hand in hand.”

December 10 General: Outgoing president Woodrow Wilson receives the Nobel Prize for peace, despite the fact that his celebrated Fourteen Points have been ignored by the victorious Allies.

December 11 Diplomacy: Secretary of State Colby departs on a goodwill tour of Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina to encourage greater Pan-American cooperation.

December 14 Diplomacy: A congressional resolution is introduced asking President Woodrow Wilson to invite the governments of Japan and Great Britain to a conference to be held in Washington, D.C., for the purpose of imposing restrictions and reductions on naval construction.

December 21 Arts: America’s hunger for musical productions is readily apparent when Jerome Kern’s extravaganza Sally debuts at the New Amsterdam Theater in New York City, grossing an unprecedented $38,985 in only one week.

1920

M APS ✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰

1772

Chronology of American History

Worcester

1774

Chronology of American History

New Mexico Territory

Oakland

Haymarket Riot 1886

Maps

1777

1778

Maps

Slim Buttes 1876

Sioux

Modoc War 1873

Sioux War 1862

Great Salt Lake

Canyon de Chelly 1864

Sand Creek Massacre 1864 Washita 1868

B IBLIOGRAPHY ✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰ Abel, Richard. Americanizing the Movies and “Movie-Mad” Audiences, 1910–1914. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006. Ackerman, Kenneth D. Boss Tweed: The Rise and Fall of the Corrupt Pol Who Conceived the Soul of Modern New York. New York: Carroll & Graf, 2005. Adams, Matthew L. “When Cadillacs Crossed Poland: The American Relief Administration in Poland, 1919–1922.” Unpublished master’s thesis, Armstrong Atlantic State University, 2005. Allerfelt, Kristofer. Beyond the Huddled Masses: American Immigration and the Treaty of Versailles. New York: I. B. Tauris, 2006. Arthur, Anthony. Radical Innocent: Upton Sinclair. New York: Random House, 2006. Baggett, James A. The Scalawags: Southern Dissenters in the Civil War and Reconstruction. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2003. Baker, Bruce E. “Devastated by Passion and Belief: Remembering Reconstruction in the Twentieth-Century South.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 2003. Baker, Jean H. Sisters: The Lives of America’s Suffragettes. New York: Hill and Wang, 2005. Barber, William J., ed. The Development of the National Economy: The United States from Civil War through the 1980s. London: Pickering & Chatto, 2004. Barnett, Louise K. Touched by Fire: The Life, Death, and Mythic Afterlife of George Armstrong Custer. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2006. Beatty, Jack. Age of Betrayal: The Triumph of Money in America, 1865–1900. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2007. Beer, Janet, Anne-Marie Ford, and Katherine Joslin, eds. American Feminism: Key Source Documents, 1848–1920. New York: Routledge, 2003. Benedict, Michael L. Preserving the Constitution: Essays on Politics and the Constitution in the Reconstruction Era. Bronx, N.Y.: Fordham University Press, 2006. Benfey, Christopher E. G. The Great Wave: Golden Age Misfits, Japanese Eccentrics, and the Opening of Old Japan. New York: Random House, 2003. Bennett, David A. “U.S. Army Problems Associated with the Bozeman Trail Defense.” Unpublished master’s thesis, Minnesota State University, Mankato, 2005. Bercaw, Nancy. Gendered Freedoms: Race, Rights, and the Politics of Household in the Delta, 1861–1875. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2003. 1783

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Bibliography Chace, James. 1912: Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft & Debs—the Election That Changed the Country. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005. Chachere, Karen A., and Christopher C. De Santis. “Visually White, Legally Black: Miscegenation, the Mulatto, and Passing in American Literature and Culture, 1865–1933.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., Illinois State University, 2004. Cimbala, Paul A. The Freedmen’s Bureau: Reconstructing the American South after the Civil War. Malabar, Fla.: Krieger Pub., 2005. Clark, Judith F. The Gilded Age. New York: Facts On File, 2006. Clark, Michael D. The American Discovery of Tradition, 1865–1942. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2005. Claybaugh, Amanda. The Novel of Purpose: Literature and Social Reform in the Anglo-American World. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2007. Coats, Stephen D. Gathering at the Golden Gate: Mobilizing for War in the Philippines, 1898. Fort Leavenworth, Ks.: Combat Studies Institute Press, 2006. Colby, Jason M. “Jim Crow Empire: Race and U.S. Colonialism in the Caribbean Basin, 1865–1930.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., Cornell University, 2005. Conlin, Gregory S. “The Cause Not Lost”: Southern Women and the Racist Ideology of the Lost Cause.” Unpublished master’s thesis, Minnesota State University, Mankato, 2006. Conolly-Smith, Peter. Translating America: An Immigrant Press Visualizes American Popular Culture, 1895–1918. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Books, 2004. Cook, Jennifer C. Machine and Metaphor: The Ethics of Language in American Realism. New York: Routledge, 2006. Cotkin, George. Reluctant Modernism: American Thought and Culture, 1880–1900. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004. Cozzens, Peter. The Army and the Indian. Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books, 2005. Crouch, Barry A. The Dance of Freedom: Texas African Americans during Reconstruction. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2007. Dame, Frederick W. The United States as an Emerging World Power, 1890–1920. Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press, 2003. Davis, Joseph H. An Improved Annual Chronology of U.S. Business Cycles since the 1790s. Cambridge, Mass.: National Bureau of Economic Research, 2005. Dawes, James. The Language of War: Literature and Culture in the U.S. from the Civil War through World War II. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2005. Dempsey, L. James. Blackfoot War Art: Pictographs of the Reservation Period, 1880–2000. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2007. Denmark, Lisa L. “At the Midnight Hour: Optimism and Disillusionment in Savannah, 1865–1880.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., University of South Carolina, 2004. Dickerson, Donna L., comp. The Reconstruction Era: Primary Documents on Events from 1865 to 1877. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2003. Di Nunzio, Mario R., ed. Woodrow Wilson; Essential Writings and Speeches of the Scholar-President. New York: New York University Press, 2006. Doty, James L. “Allied Experience and American Expeditionary Forces Schools: Gathering Intelligence Knowledge for the Army Intelligence School, Langres, France.” Unpublished master’s thesis, Ohio State University, 2005.

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Chronology of American History Hoff, Thomas A. U.S. Doughboy, 1916–19. Oxford: Osprey, 2005. Hogue, James K. Uncivil War: Five New Orleans Street Battles and the Rise and Fall of Radical Reconstruction. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2006. Hoig, Stan. A Travel Guide to the Plains Indian Wars. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2006. Holmes, James R. Theodore Roosevelt and World Order: Police Power in Its International Relations. Washington, D.C.: Potomac Books, 2006. Hunt, Geoffrey. Colorado’s Volunteer Infantry in the Philippine Wars, 1898– 1899. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2006. Jaycox, Faith. The Progressive Era. New York: Facts On File, 2005. Jayne, Reginald G. “Martial Law in Reconstruction Texas.” Unpublished master’s thesis, Sam Houston State University, 2005. John, Richard R. Ruling Passions: Political Economy in Nineteenth Century America. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2006. Johnson, Dominic D. P. Overconfidence in War: The Havoc and Glory of Positive Illusions. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2004. Joseph, Philip. American Literary Regionalism in a Global Age. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2007. Judis, John B. The Folly of Empire: What George W. Bush Could Learn from Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. Jung, Moon-Ho. Coolies and Cane: Race, Labor, and Sugar in the Age of Emancipation. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006. Kaczorowski, Robert J. The Politics of Judicial Interpretation: The Federal Courts, Department of Justice, and Civil Rights, 1866–1876. New York: Fordham University Press, 2005. Kagan, Robert. Dangerous Nation. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006. Kammen, Michael G. Visual Shock: A History of Art Controversies in American Culture. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006. Kang, Sung-won, and Hugh Rockoff. Capitalizing Patriotism: The Liberty Loans of World War I. Cambridge, Mass.: National Bureau of Economic Research, 2006. Karp, Walter. The Politics of War: The Story of Two Wars Which Altered Forever the Political Life of the American Republic (1890–1920). New York: Franklin Square Press, 2003. Katz, William L., and Laurie R. Lehman, eds. The Cruel Years: American Voices at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century. Boston: Beacon Press, 2003. Kaufman, Jason A. For the Common Good? American Civic Life and the Golden Age of Fraternity. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. Kayiatos, David G. “A Failure of Leadership: The American Expeditionary Force in the Meuse-Argonne Campaign.” Unpublished master’s thesis, Trinity College, 2006. Kazin, Michael. A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan. New York: Knopf, 2006. Keene, Jennifer. World War I. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2006. Kellogg, Frederick R. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Legal Theory, and Judicial Restraint. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Kennedy, David M. Over Here: The First World War and American Society. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. Kessel, William B., and Robert B. Wooster. Encyclopedia of Native American Wars and Warfare. New York: Checkmark, 2005.

Bibliography Kickler, Troy L. “Black Children and Northern Missionaries, Freemen’s Bureau Agents, and Southern Whites in Reconstruction, Tennessee, 1865–1869.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., University of Tennessee, 2005. King, Robert J. “The Keystone Film Company: Early Film Comedy and the Emergence of Mass Culture.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., University of California, Los Angeles, 2004. Kinshasa, Kwando M. Black Resistance to the Ku Klux Klan in the Wake of the Civil War. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2006. Kirsch, George B. Baseball and Cricket: The Creation of American Team Sports, 1838–72. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2007. Kirschke, Amy H. Art in Crisis: W. E. B. Du Bois and the Struggle for African American Identity and Memory. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006. Koenig, Robert L. The Fourth Horseman: One Man’s Secret Mission to Wage the Great War in America. New York: Public Affairs, 2006. Krass, Peter. Portrait of War: The U.S. Army’s First Combat Artists and the Doughboy’s Experience in World War I. Hoboken, N.J.: J. Wiley, 2007. Laubner, Eve L. “Reconstruction-era Readers: An Analysis of the Social Content of American Readers Used between 1863 and 1877.” Unpublished Ed.D. diss., Boston University, 2005. Lawrence, Elden. The Peace Seekers: The Indian Christians and the Dakota Conflict. Sioux Falls, S.D.: Pine Hill Press, 2005. Lee, Hermione. Edith Wharton. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2007. Leinwand, Gerald. William Jennings Bryan: An Uncertain Trumpet. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007. Lewis, W. David. Eddie Rickenbacker: An American Hero in the Twentieth Century. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005. Love, Richard H. Cyclopedia of American Impressionism. Chicago: BrittenhamMumm, 2007. Lundin, Roger, ed. There Before Us: Religion and American Literature from Emerson to Eliot. Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdsman, 2006. Lytle, Richard M. The Old Guard in 1898: A Short History of the Third United States Infantry Regiment. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2007. McCallum, Jack E. Leonard Wood: Rough Rider, Surgeon, Architect of American Imperialism. New York: New York University Press, 2006. McCarthy, Tara M. “True Women, Trade Unionists, and the Lessons of Tammany Hall: Ethnic Identity, Social Reform, and the Political Culture of Irish Women in America, 1880–1923.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., University of Rochester, 2005. McCartney, Paul T. Power and Progress: American National Identity, the War of 1898, and the Rise of American Imperialism. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2006. McDonald, Gail. American Literature and Culture, 1900–1960. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell, 2006. McGerr, Michael E. A Fierce Discontent: The Rise and Fall of the Progressive Movement in America, 1870–1920. New York: Free Press, 2003. McGrady, David G. Living with Strangers: The Nineteenth-Century Sioux and the Canadian-American Borderlands. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2006. McMurtry, Larry. Oh, What a Slaughter: Massacres in the American West, 1846–1890. Waterville, Me.: Thorndike Press, 2006.

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Chronology of American History Maier, Charles S. Among Empires: America’s Ascendancy and Its Predecessors. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2006. Marshall, Joseph. The Journal of Crazy Horse: A Lakota History. New York: Viking, 2004. ———. The Day the World Ended at Little Bighorn. New York: Viking, 2006. Martinez, J. Michael. Carpetbaggers, Cavalry, and the Ku Klux Klan: Exposing the Invisible Empire during Reconstruction. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007. Matson, Cathy D. The Economy of Early America: Historical Perspectives & New Directions. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2006. Matthews, Nancy M., Charles Musser, and Marta Braun. Moving Pictures: American Art and Early American Film, 1880–1910. Manchester, Vt.: Hudson Hills Press in Association with the Williams College Museum of Art, 2005. Meeler, Joseph L. “Wilson’s ‘Propaganda Regiment’ on the Italian Front: The 332nd Infantry, U.S. Army, in World War One.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., Georgia State University, 2005. Mehrota, Ajay K. “Creating the Modern American Fiscal State: The Political Economy of U.S. Tax Policy, 1880–1930.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago, 2004. Miller, Bonnie. “The Spectacle of War: A Study of Spanish-American War Visual and Popular Culture.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., Johns Hopkins University, 2005. Millman, Chad. The Detonators: The Secret Plot to Destroy America and an Epic Hunt for Justice. New York: Little, Brown, 2006. Miro-Quesada y Garland, Alejandro. The Spanish-American War and Philippine Resurrection. Oxford: Osprey, 2007. Morgan, Francesca. Women and Patriotism in Jim Crow America. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005. Morris, Charles R. The Tycoons: How Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J. P. Morgan Invented the American Supereconomy. New York: Owl, 2006. Morris, Thomas D. Blackstone and Bayonets: Military Tribunals in the Reconstruction South. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland State University Press, 2006. Murphy, Cait. Crazy ’08: How a Cast of Cranks, Rogues, and Magnates Created the Greatest Year in Baseball. New York: Smithsonian/Collins, 2007. Myers, David G. The Elephants Teach: Creative Writing since 1880. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006. Neff, Emily B. The Modern West: American Landscapes, 1890–1950. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2006. Neff, John R. Honoring the Civil War Dead: Commemoration and the Problem of Reconciliation. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2005. Niemeyer, Lucian. Images of a Vanished Era, 1898–1924: The Photographs of Walter C. Schneider. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2007. Nimtz, August H. Marx, Tocqueville, and Race in America: The “Absolute Democracy” or the “Defiled Republic.” Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, 2003. Nordstrom, Justin. Danger on the Doorstep: Anti-Catholicism and American Print Culture in the Progressive Era. Norte Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 2006.

Bibliography O’Donovan, Susan E. Becoming Free in the Cotton South. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2007. Ohler, Paul. Edith Wharton’s Evolutionary Conception: Darwinian Allegory in Her Major Novels. New York: Routledge, 2006. Orr, Robert. President Andrew Johnson of Greeneville. Knoxville: Tennessee Valley, 2005. Payaslian, Simon. United States Policy toward the Armenian Question and the Armenian Genocide. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. Perry, Elisabeth I., and Karen M. Smith. The Gilded Age and Progressive Era: A Student Companion. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. Peterson, Jon A. The Birth of City Planning in the United States, 1840–1917. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003. Phillips, Matthew T. “Of Wilson and Men: Masculinity and America’s Great War Debate, 1914–1917.” Unpublished master’s thesis, Kent State University, 2005. Piott, Steven L. American Reformers, 1870–1920: Progressives in Word and Deed. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006. Postel, Charles. The Populist Vision. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. Powell, Jim. Wilson’s War: How Woodrow Wilson’s Great Blunder Led to Hitler, Lenin, Stalin, and World War II. New York: Crown Forum, 2005. Prior, David M. “The Cretan Moment in American Reconstruction: American Nationalism, Here and There.” Unpublished master’s thesis, University of South Carolina, 2006. Quirk, Tom, and Gary Scharnhorst, eds. American History through Literature, 1870–1920. 3 vols. Detroit: Charles Scribner’s Sons/Thomson Gale, 2006 Range, Henry B. “The Freedmen’s Bureau in Florida during the Early Reconstruction Period, 1865–1870.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., Union Institute and University, 2003. Ranney, Joseph A. In the Wake of Slavery: Civil War, Civil Rights, and the Reconstruction of Southern Law. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2006. Richardson, Heather C. The Death of Reconstruction: Race, Labor, and Politics in the Post–Civil War North, 1865–1901. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2004. ———. The Reconstruction of America: 1865–1901. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2007. Richter, William L. Historical Dictionary of the Civil War and Reconstruction. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2004. Riddick, Estelle B. “Laying the Foundation: Educating the Freed Men, Women and Children in South Carolina: A Mission of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), 1865–1891.” Unpublished D.Litt. diss., Drew University, 2005. Ring, Natalie J. “The Problem South: Religion, Race, and ‘Southern Readjustment,’ 1880–1930.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., University of California, San Diego, 2003. Risjord, Norman K. Populists and Progressives. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005. Robertson, Linda R. The Dream of Civilized Warfare: World War I Flying Aces and the American Imagination. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2005. Robinson, Michael F. The Coldest Crucible: Arctic Exploration and American Culture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006.

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Chronology of American History Rockoff, Hugh, and Pipat Luengnaruemitchai. Until It’s Over Over There: The U.S. Economy in World War I. Cambridge, Mass.: National Bureau of Economic Research, 2004. Roosevelt, Theodore. Letters and Speeches. New York: Library of America, 2004. ———. The Rough Riders. Mineola, N.Y.: Dover, 2006. Rubin, Hyman. South Carolina Scalawags. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2006. Russo, Carl J. “Historians in Transition: How the Writing of Propaganda during World War I Changed the Historical Profession.” Unpublished master’s thesis, Drew University, 2005. Sandy-Bailey, Lonce H. “Ideological Dissension in the Progressive Era: Uncovering the Challengers to Direct Democracy Reforms.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 2006. Schlup, Leonard C., and Stephen H. Paschen. The 1890s in America: Documenting the Maturation of a Nation. Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press, 2006. Schoonover, Thomas D. Uncle Sam’s War of 1898 and the Origins of Globalization. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2005. Self, Robert C. Britain, America, and the War Debt Controversy: The Economic Diplomacy of an Unspecial Relationship, 1917–1941. New York: Routledge, 2006. Severance, Ben H. Tennessee’s Radical Army: The State Guard and Its Role in Reconstruction, 1867–1869. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2005. Shenk, Gerald E. “Work or Fight!”: Race, Gender, and the Draft in World War One. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. Shrock, Joel. The Gilded Age. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2004. Sides, Hampton. Blood and Thunder: An Epic of the American West. New York: Doubleday, 2006. Silber, William L. When Washington Shut Down Wall Street: The Great Financial Crisis of 1914 and the Origins of America’s Monetary Supremacy. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2007. Silverman, Jason H. Immigration in the American South, 1864–1895: A Documentary History of the Southern Immigration Conventions. Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press, 2006. Simon, Paul, comp. Editorializing the Indian Problem: The New York Times on Native Americans, 1860–1900. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2007. Slap, Andrew L. The Doom of Reconstruction: The Liberal Republicans in the Civil War Era. New York: Fordham University Press, 2006. Slotkin, Richard. Lost Battalions: The Great War and the Crisis of American Nationality. New York: Henry Holt, 2005. Smoak, Gregory E. Ghost Dances and Identity: Prophetic Religion and American Indian Ethnogenesis in the Nineteenth Century. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006. Sotiropoulos, Karen. Staging Race: Black Performers in Turn of the Century America. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2006. Spencer, David R. The Yellow Journalism: The Press and America’s Emergence as a World Power. Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 2007. Stadler, Gustavus. Troubling Minds: The Cultural Politics of Genius in the United States, 1840–1890. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2006.

Bibliography Stiles, T. J. Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War. London: Jonathan Cape, 2003. Still, William N. Crisis at Sea: The United States Navy in European Waters in World War I. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2006. Stockel, H. Henrietta. Shame & Endurance: The Untold Story of the Chiricahua Apache Prisoners of War. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2004. Storey, Margaret M. Loyalty and Loss: Alabama’s Unionists in the Civil War and Reconstruction. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2004. Stout, Janis P. Coming Out of War: Poetry, Grieving, and the Culture of the World Wars. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2005. Strickland, Jeffrey G. “Ethnicity and Race in the Urban South: German Immigrants and African Americans in Charleston, South Carolina, during Reconstruction.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., Florida State University, 2003. Sturgis, Amy H., ed. Presidents from Hayes through McKinley: Debating the Issues in Pro and Con Primary Documents. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2003. Sullivan, Kathleen S. Constitutional Context: Women and Rights Discourse in Nineteenth-Century America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007. Summers, Martin A. Manliness and Its Discontents: The Black Middle Class and the Transformation of Masculinity, 1900–1930. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004. Swartley, Ron. The Day Geronimo Surrendered, and Why He Survived So Long. Silver, N.M.: Frontier Image, 2005. Sylvester, George. As They Saw Us: Foch, Ludendorff, and Other Leaders Write Our War History. Cranbury, N.J.: Scholars Bookshelf, 2005. Teel, Leonard R. The Public Press, 1900–1945: The History of American Journalism. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2006. Thomson, David. The Whole Equation: A History of Hollywood. New York: Vintage Books, 2006. Toledo-Pereyra, Luis H. A History of American Medicine from the Colonial Period to the Early Twentieth Century. Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press, 2006. Tone, John L. War and Genocide in Cuba, 1895–1898. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006. Trachtenberg, Alan. The Incorporation of America: Culture and Society in the Gilded Age. New York: Hill and Wang, 2007. Traxel, David. Crusader Nation: The United States in Peace and the Great War, 1898–1920. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006. Trivedi, Rita B. “Creating Opportunity, Opening Doors: Obstacles and Solutions to Gaining Political Influence as Seen in the Woman Suffrage Movement in America, 1850–1919.” Unpublished master’s thesis, Brandeis University, 2004. Tucker, Robert W. Woodrow Wilson and the Great War: Reconsidering America’s Neutrality, 1914–1917. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2007. Turkel, Stanley. Heroes of the American Reconstruction: Profiles of Sixteen Educators. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2005. Utley, Robert M. The Last Days of the Sioux Nation. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2004. Valelly, Richard M. The Two Reconstructions: The Struggle for Black Enfranchisement. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004. Vandervort, Bruce. Indian Wars of Canada, Mexico, and the United States, 1812–1900. New York: Routledge, 2005.

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CHRONOLOGY OF

AMERICAn HISTORy VOLUME IV ★★★

Challenges at Home and Abroad 1921 to the Present

CHRONOLOGY OF AMERICAN HISTORY Volume I Colonization and Independence Beginnings to 1788 Volume II Expansion and Civil War 1789 to 1865 Volume III Industry and Modernity 1866 to 1920 Volume IV Challenges at Home and Abroad 1921 to the Present

CHRONOLOGY OF

AMERICAn HISTORy VOLUME IV ★★★

Challenges at Home and Abroad 1921 to the Present

JOHN C. FREDRIKSEN

Chronology of American History Copyright © 2008 John C. Fredriksen All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information contact: Facts On File, Inc. An imprint of Infobase Publishing 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Fredriksen, John C. Chronology of American history / John C. Fredriksen. v. cm. Includes bibliographical references and indexes. Contents. v. 1. Colonization and independence, beginnings to 1788—v. 2. Expansion and Civil War, to 1865—v. 3. Industry and modernity, to 1920—v. 4. Challenges at home and abroad, to the present. ISBN 978-0-8160-6800-5 (set : hc : alk. paper) 1. United States—History— Chronology. 2. United States—Civilization—Chronology. 3. United States— Biography. I. Title. E174.5.F74 2008 973—dc22 2007033964 Facts On File books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk quantities for businesses, associations, institutions, or sales promotions. Please call our Special Sales Department in New York at (212) 967–8800 or (800) 322–8755. You can find Facts On File on the World Wide Web at http://www.factsonfile.com Text design by Kerry Casey Cover design by Salvatore Luongo Printed in the United States of America VB BVC 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 This book is printed on acid-free paper and contains 30 percent postconsumer recycled content.

CONTENTS ✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰ Introduction

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INTRODUCTION ✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰ aving emerged triumphant in World War I, the United States turned inward and began another long period of self-imposed isolationism. The 1920s were prosperous times economically and fairly creative—if raucous—culturally, but the onset of the Great Depression in 1929 triggered a manifold revaluation of the role government played in people’s lives. Suffice to say that the reform programs of Franklin D. Roosevelt, superficially socialist in tenor, in all likelihood prevented the country from imploding on itself due to widespread poverty and deprivation. But, even as the world began its inexorable march to war with the rise of German Nazism, Italian fascism, and Japanese ultranationalism, most Americans waxed content to mind their own affairs and remain neutral. This attitude changed dramatically as of December 7, 1941, with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and isolationism fell immediately to the wayside, but events found the United States largely unprepared for war. Fortunately, the Roosevelt administration, and the senior military leadership it appointed, proved extremely capable at articulating a winning strategy to defeat Germany first, while coordinating a mammoth industrial war effort at home. Great Britain and the Soviet Union contributed their sacrifices as well, but it was the full weight of American military and industrial intervention that tipped the scales of victory on behalf of the Allies. By 1945, the United States spanned the globe with a world presence unthinkable just a few years previously, backed by new and terrible atomic weaponry, which was developed from scratch in amazingly short time. It fell upon Roosevelt’s successor, Harry S. Truman, to keep the United States engaged globally through expedients such as the Marshall Plan and the Korean War, and the country never again resumed its introspective slumber. In fact, victory in the cold war was confirmed by the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991, whereby the United States reigned as the only true superpower, both militarily and economically. But that same decade witnessed the rise of a new and heinous enemy in the form of Islamic terrorism, which culminated in the September 11, 2001, destruction of the World Trade Center in New York, and new conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. World peace may be illusory in the first decade of the 21st century, and the American

H

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Chronology of American History polity continues to struggle with the role it must play, but it is unlikely that the nation will ever again embrace its celebrated quiescence. The stakes this time are simply much too high. Events abroad were closely mirrored by a gradual but complete reordering of many social attitudes at home. The pervasive racism of earlier times gradually yielded to tolerance, acceptance, and equal opportunity for minorities owing to a heroic Civil Rights movement that gained currency in the 1950s and finally triumphed in the next decade. The role of women likewise underwent a dramatic transformation with the rise of the feminist movement, which sought and largely achieved the economic and social equality lacking in earlier times. The nation also continues wrestling with immigration and assimilation issues that it has faced since its inception, which, due to the large number of illegal aliens flooding over its borders within the last decade, pose a formidable challenge to national security, linguistic identity, and cultural integrity. But for the most part, American technical dominance is still a factor in the global economy, replete with such revolutionary contrivances as laptops, personal computers, iPods, Blackberries, CAT scans, text messaging, streaming videos, compact discs, space shuttles, and a plethora of other devices that a few decades ago would have been considered miraculous, but now reign as commonplace. Thus, the ongoing saga of the United States continues at its usual furious clip, laden with the triumphs and tragedies inherent in all human endeavors. The future, while unpredictable, still appears a bright one, indeed. This volume chronicles the United States from the beginning of the 1920s up through its current status as the world’s surviving superpower in 2006. Chronologies on American history are standard fare in reference collections but, in a major oversight, these tend to stress social and political events at the expense of military affairs; this volume goes to great lengths to address such deficiencies with a more balanced approach. It also affords treatment of numerous and salient topics of interest to researchers, students, and lay persons alike. Even a simple perusing of the text calls to the reader’s eye such wide-ranging concerns as art, business, diplomacy, literature, medicine, military and naval affairs, politics, publishing, religion, science, slavery, social issues, and technology in a simple to use and easily accessed format. Space constraints restrict most entries to a single line, but highly important events can command up to a paragraph in coverage. Wherever possible, entries are also assigned an exact year, month, and day for organizational purposes. The text is further buttressed by inclusion of 100 capsule biographies throughout the text denoting individuals of singular import to their passage in time. These are uniform in composition and touch upon birth and death dates, background, education, and other facets in addition to the most important highlights. The volume is rounded out with a 5,000-word bibliography of the very latest scholarship pertaining to most events repre-

Introduction ix sented therein, including dissertations and master’s theses, where applicable. Furthermore, the pages are replete with numerous and relevant illustrations, which function both as embellishments and as visual points of reference. By perusing these pages, the reader can grasp the imposing pageantry of American history, with all its threads of continuity and points of departure. Nothing and no one has been overlooked and, while degrees of coverage may vary in length, the author has cast the widest possible net for the purposes of inclusion. I am deeply indebted to my editor, Owen Lancer, for suggesting this project to me. It was an arduous, nearly exhausting sojourn at times, but I am a better historian for it. ———John C. Fredriksen, Ph.D.

CHRONOLOGY ✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰ 1921 Aviation: Bessie Coleman acquires her flying license in France, becoming the first African-American female pilot. Business: The postwar depression continues hitting American businesses hard, resulting in 5,735,000 unemployed. Literature: John Dos Passos writes Three Soldiers, a novel about World War I. Music: The year’s most popular tunes include “Blue Moon,” “Look for the Silver Lining,” and “Down in Chinatown.” Publishing: Edith W. Hill publishes her popular romantic novel The Sheik, in which a beautiful girl is carried off into the desert by a romantic Arab chieftain. It subsequently becomes a famous movie. The first 500 copies of Irish author James Joyce’s explicit novel Ulysses are seized at the border by American postal agents. Societal: The death rate in America is 1,163.9 per 100,000, down from 1,755 at the turn of the 20th century.

January 3 Labor: The U.S. Supreme Court declares that labor unions can be prosecuted for restraining interstate trade.

January 4 Business: Congress overrides a veto by President Woodrow Wilson and reactivates the War Finance Corporation to assist some of the more depressed farm regions.

January 13 Societal: The Census Bureau releases figures showing that 51 percent of the population lives in towns of more than 2,500 people.

March 4 Politics: In Washington, D.C., Republican Warren Gamaliel Harding is inaugurated as the 29th president of the United States; he dies after only two years in office.

April 2–15 Science: At Columbia University, New York, Professor Albert Einstein prepares to deliver an address concerning his new theory of relativity—a revolutionary new concept that opens many scientific doors. To Einstein, time represents nothing less than a fourth dimension. 1795

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Coleman, Bessie (1892–1926) Aviatrix Bessie Coleman was born in Atlanta, Texas, on January 26, 1892, the daughter of poor sharecroppers. She endured a hardscrabble existence for most of her childhood by working in the cotton fields, but she also displayed an aptitude for mathematics, which convinced her mother that she should handle the family accounting. Coleman, however, proved ambitious, and she worked several years as a laundress to save money for college. In 1910, she relocated to Oklahoma to attend Langston University, but left one year later after her funds were exhausted. Undeterred, she labored as a laundress in Texas until 1915, then moved to Chicago with her older brother, a Pullman porter. Tired of minuscule jobs, she studied manicuring and eventually set herself up in business at the White Sox Barber Shop. It was here that she thrilled to hear her brother and other men talk about World War I, particularly the new science of aviation, and she determined to be a part of it. She did so not simply to satiate her own enterprising spirit, but to allow African Americans to play their role. This proved nearly impossible, as most aviation schools catered solely to whites, but Coleman found support from AfricanAmerican philanthropists such as Robert S. Abbott and Jesse Binga, whose funding allowed her to visit France and secure her pilot’s license in 1920. This was no mean feat, given the crudeness of the technology, but Coleman prevailed and grew adept at stunt flying and parachuting. On June 15, 1921, she obtained her license from the Fédération Aeronautique Internationale, the

first African-American woman so honored, and she returned to the United States to work as a barnstormer. Back home, the usual problems of money and discrimination checked Coleman’s career until she found additional backing from the African-American community and was able to buy her own plane. Then she flew exciting barnstorming acts at aviation events throughout the Midwest and Northeast, although she deliberately cultivated a black following as well. The dangerous nature of violently maneuvering rickety biplanes was made clear on February 4, 1923, when she crashed and was badly injured. In addition to flying, Coleman actively lectured at black churches and schools in an attempt to interest blacks in the exciting new field of aeronautics. She fully intended to open an aviation school that would be open to all races as soon as funding allowed. Coleman’s biggest challenge remained raising money, although she flatly refused to fly at large events held at Waxahachie, Texas, and Orlando, Florida, until white managers allowed African Americans to attend as audience members. On April 30, 1926, Coleman and her white mechanic were putting their army surplus Curtiss Jenny airplane through its paces over Jacksonville, Florida, when it suddenly flipped over and she was tossed out and fell to her death. The death of “Queen Bess,” as she was known, brought out thousands of mourners at three memorial services held at Jacksonville, Orlando, and her final resting place in Chicago, where she is commemorated yearly.

April 19 Sports: Frank Zuna wins the 25th Boston Marathon with a time of two hours, 18 minutes, 57 seconds.

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Chronology   1797

Harding, Warren G.

(1865–1923)

President Warren Gamaliel Harding was born in Blooming Grove, Ohio, on November 2, 1865, the son of farmers. He attended Ohio Central College before embarking on a pro-­ ductive journalism career in 1884, whereby he helped transform the ailing Marion Star into a successful newspaper. Harding even-­ tually developed a taste for politics and, in 1899, he successfully stood for a seat in the state legislature as a Republican. He was greatly assisted in his political endeav-­ ors by his very ambitious wife, Florence Kling deWolfe, who continually nudged him onto higher rungs of public service. In fact, Harding, handsome, affable, and a gifted orator, was never much given to original thought and seemed far more concerned with getting along with people than with

Warre­n G. Harding (Facts On File)

crafting policies. Moderately successful, he next served two terms as lieutenant gover-­ nor before subsequently losing two bids for the governor’s mansion in 1910 and 1912. Harding, undaunted by defeat, bounced back in 1914 by becoming the first Ohio senator elected by popular vote. By 1919, the United States was weary of World War I and yearned nostalgically for simpler times. Harding, gruff and plainspoken, seemed to embody those qualities when he ran for the presidency the following year, and he eschewed campaigning nationally in favor of interviews given from his home porch to throngs of visitors. Voters clearly identified with his hometown values. In November they gave him 60.3 percent of the popular vote over Democratic challenger James M. Cox, one of the most lopsided victories in American political history. Once in power, Harding proved himself hardworking and personally scrupulous, but he was keenly aware of his intellectual limitations and surrounded himself with a coterie of strong-­willed individuals. Several of them, such as Charles Evans Hughes, Herbert Hoover, and Charles G. Dawes, proved to be administrators of exceptional ability. Harding, however, erred in appoint-­ ing friends and cronies to fill other positions of authority, and a spate of high-­level cor-­ ruption scandals ensued. The first came in 1923, when Charles Forbes of the Veterans’ Bureau was forced to leave the country to escape prosecution for corruption, but an even bigger imbroglio involved Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall, who had acquired extensive oil reserves at Teapot Dome, Wyo-­ ming, and was selling off the exploration rights for kickbacks. On the bright side, (continues)

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(continued) Harding was able to initiate the Washington Naval Disarmament Conference in 1921 to limit the construction of warships worldwide. He also supported and signed legislation reducing the steel industry’s workday to eight hours, lowering taxes, and imposing restraints on immigration. However, his

administration could not escape the specter of scandal and corruption, and he once quipped that he could handle his enemies, but it was his friends that he worried about. Harding died suddenly while visiting Alaska on August 2, 1923, and he was replaced by Vice President Calvin Coolidge.

April 22 Publishing: In the latest instance of censorship, Dr. Marie C. Stopes is fined $250 for publishing and distributing Love in Marriage in New York.

April 25 Medical: A bill to forbid the sale of beer to ill people, even those with a prescription, is introduced by Congressman Andrew Volstead.

April 30 Business: After a periodical downturn six months earlier, which saddled the company with 175,000 unsold automobiles, the Ford Motor Company bounces back and reports profits of $45 million.

May 14 Politics: In his first major address to the nation, President Warren G. Harding coins the term “normalcy” to restore national morale in a period of international turmoil.

May 19 Societal: Congress passes the restrictive Emergency Quota Act to clamp down on the 800,000 immigrants arriving every year. Henceforth, each nationality is not allowed to exceed 3 percent of those members already present in the country, which translates into 357,000 admitted yearly.

May 20 Science: President Warren G. Harding presents Marie Curie with a capsule of radium valued at $100,000, contributed by American women.

May 27 Business: Congress, under the sway of a newly formed farm bloc, passes the Emergency Tariff Act, which raises tariffs to protect American farm products. In effect, this does little to protect farmers and greatly exacerbates economic conditions in Europe, still reeling from the devastation of World War I.

May 29 Literature: Edith Wharton’s novel The Age of Innocence wins the Pulitzer Prize for fiction; Admiral William Snowden Sims’s book The Victory at Sea wins it for history; Zona Gales’s Miss Lulu Bett wins for drama.

May 30 Sports: Tommy Milton wins the ninth Indianapolis 500 in five hours, 34 minutes, 44 seconds, at an average speed of 89.62 miles per hour.

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May 31 Naval: Secretary of the Navy Edwin Denby transfers naval oil reserve stores at Elk Hills, California, and Teapot Dome, Wyoming, to the Department of the Interior under Secretary Albert B. Fall. This seemingly innocuous move will precipitate one of the decade’s biggest scandals.

June 3 General: The Arkansas River floods badly following a cloudburst and heavily damages Pueblo, Colorado, with $15 million in damages and 1,500 people missing.

June 8 Aviation: At McCook Field, Ohio, a specially modified DN-9 bomber conducts the first experiments with a pressurized cabin.

June 10 Politics: To promote better fiscal accounting, Congress passes the Budget and Accounting Act, which establishes the the Bureau of the Budget headed by Charles D. Dawes and the General Accounting Office under John R. Carl. Both offices fall under the purview of the Treasury Department.

June 20 Women: The House of Representatives is presided over by Alice Robertson of Oklahoma for 30 minutes; she is the first woman to ever do so.

June 25 Labor: Samuel Gompers, a legendary labor leader, is elected president of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) for the 40th time by garnering twice as many votes as his opponent, John L. Lewis. However, organized labor is due for drastic reductions in membership over the next decade.

June 30 Politics: President Warren G. Harding appoints former president William Howard Taft to be chief justice of the Supreme Court, an appointment he has coveted more than any other public office, including the presidency.

July 1 Business: Faced with an unhealthy business climate, the New York Central cuts the wages of 23,000 employees by 23 percent while the Railroad Labor Board authorizes an overall 12 percent cut.

July 2 Diplomacy: President Warren G. Harding signs a joint resolution of Congress formally declaring an end to hostilities with Germany, although discussions of wartime reparations continue. Sports: Jack Dempsey defends his world heavyweight boxing title by defeating Georges Carpentier in the fourth round. This is also the first match with a $1 million gate.

July 13–21 Aviation: Aerial avatar General William “Billy” Mitchell stages an effective display of air power by sinking the captured German battleship Ostfriesland off Hampton Roads, Virginia, with his Martin MB2 bombers. The eclipse of the capital ship is at hand and the rise of the aircraft carrier on the horizon.

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Chronology of American History

Dempsey, Jack

(1895–1983)

Boxer William Harrison Dempsey was born in Manassa, Colorado, on June 24, 1895, the son of poor sharecroppers. As he matured, he began fighting in back alleys and saloons with some success and began calling himself “Kid Blackie” after his first professional bout in 1914. As a fighter, Dempsey was small for a heavyweight, but very strong, agile, and ambidextrous, capable of landing powerful punches with either hand. After signing on with promoter Jack Kearns, he began defeating a number of larger fighters, gaining the well-deserved moniker of “Jack the Giant Killer.” His first shot at the world heavyweight crown came on July 4, 1919, when he met reigning champion Jess Willard in Toledo, Ohio, and dropped him in the fourth round. After this stunning win he became publicly touted as the “Manassa Mauler.” In 1921, he met and defeated French champion Georges Carpentier in Jersey City, New Jersey, scoring another fourth-round win. Over the next two years Dempsey successfully defended his title without great difficulty until 1923, when he confronted the Argentine giant Luis Angel Firpo. In a savage melee lasting only four minutes, Dempsey was knocked down twice—once completely out of the ring—while Firpo went down 10 times before finally losing. His next greatest challenge came in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on September 23, 1926, in another hard match against former marine Gene Tunney. Drawing a record gate of more than $2.5 million, they fought before a record 120,000 cheering fans until Tunney finally won in the 10th round on points.

Undaunted, Dempsey began his comeback with a big win over Jack Sharkey in Chicago in 1927, followed up by a rematch with Tunney that year. The outcome proved controversial as, after Tunney went down, the referee refused to begin the count until Dempsey retired to his corner; thus the injured fighter enjoyed more time to recover than was normally allowed. Dempsey then retired from fighting to become a referee himself, train new fighters, and announce for fights. Then, losing again in a 1931 comeback bid, he permanently hung up his gloves. Defeat did little to diminish Dempsey’s popularity with the public, and for good reason: With a lifetime score of only five losses in 64 wins, usually by knockouts, he enjoyed million-dollar gates on no less than five occasions. It is estimated that in his lifetime, Dempsey made no less than $3.5 million in the ring, a phenomenal sum for his day. Out of the ring, Dempsey proved himself a successful businessman by delving into real estate and owning two restaurants in the New York City area. When World War II commenced, he came out of retirement and joined the U.S. Coast Guard to serve as a physical fitness director. In 1950, Dempsey also penned a fighting manual that is regarded as one of the classics of boxing literature. He maintained a high degree of popularity in public and boxing circles until his death in New York City on May 31, 1983, having drawn more million-dollar gates than any prizefighter in the history of boxing.

August Civil: This month witnesses an unwelcome resurgence of Ku Klux Klan activities throughout the South, with numerous beatings, whippings, and lynchings reported.

1921

Chronology

Mitchell, William

1801

(1879–1936)

Aviator William “Billy” Mitchell was born in Nice, France, on December 29, 1879, and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He attended Racine College and Columbia University before dropping out in 1898 to join the army and fight during the Spanish-American War. Mitchell acquitted himself well in Cuba, and in 1901 he transferred to the Signal Corps, where he supervised the laying of 1,700 miles of telegraph wire in Alaska. He subsequently attended the Army Staff College and in 1913 became the youngest officer ever attached to the general staff. However, the turning point in Mitchell’s career happened in 1915, when he transferred back to the Signal Corps, joined the aviation section, and received his pilot’s license at the relatively advanced age of 36. Mitchell suddenly found his calling, and he spent the next 25 years, in one way or another, advocating the expansion of American air power. Thus situated, he was a military observer in Europe when World War I commenced in 1914, and three years later, following America’s entry, he served as an effective and farsighted air commander. In September 1918, Mitchell organized and orchestrated a mass serial offensive against the St. Mihiel salient in concert with ground forces. The following month he repeated his success in the MeuseArgonne offensive, rose to brigadier general, and was preparing for a large strategic bombardment campaign against Germany when the armistice was signed. Mitchell then completed a brief tour of occupation duty and returned to the United States a

highly decorated war veteran devoted to the primacy of military air power. Back home, Mitchell was outspoken and none too diplomatic in his assertions that aircraft had rendered navies obsolete. To underscore that belief, on July 21, 1921, a force of his large Martin bombers attacked and sank the captured German battleship Ostfriesland off the Virginia Capes, and in September his planes also sent the obsolete warships Alabama and Virginia to the bottom. Navy officials howled in protest and claimed that Mitchell had overstated his case, at which point General Mason M. Patrick demoted him back to colonel and dispatched him to a remote post in Texas. However, in September 1925, when the navy dirigible Shenandoah crashed in a storm, he accused navy and War Department officials of criminal neglect and was court-martialed. Mitchell probably intended to use his trial to showcase his air power theories, but he was found guilty of insubordination and suspended from rank and pay for five years. Rather than submit to the sentence, he resigned his commission and continued touring the country to lecture his countrymen about America’s aerial weakness, especially when compared to rising powers such as Japan. He also published several popular books on the subject before dying suddenly in New York City on February 19, 1936. The destructive Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941, was one of Mitchell’s many prophecies to come true, and in 1946 Congress awarded him a posthumous Congressional Medal of Honor.

August 3 Sports: Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis rules that the Chicago White Sox, charged with throwing the 1919 World Series, will not be allowed to play again despite their acquittal in 1920. The “Black Sox scandal” has assumed a life of its own.

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Chronology of American History

August 4 Agriculture: A Curtis JN-4D flown by Lieutenant John MacReady gives the first demonstration of crop dusting, an important new weapon in the control of insect pests.

August 16 Labor: Statistics released by the Labor Department reveal the number of jobless workers at 5.7 million, the largest since the postwar depression began.

August 25 Diplomacy: The United States concludes a formal peace treaty in Berlin with the German government.

September 26 Labor: A commission led by Herbert Hoover, faced with increasing unemployment, recommends that prices be cut instead of wages to stimulate consumer purchasing power, along with renewed sales that would stimulate the economy.

October 5–13 Media: Station WJZ, New Jersey, provides the first radio coverage of the World Series, with play-by-play bulletins; actual live coverage begins a year later. Sports: The New York Giants (NL) win the 18th World Series by defeating the New York Yankees (AL) five games to three.

O’Neill, Eugene (1888–1953) Playwright Eugene Gladstone O’Neill was born in a Broadway hotel in New York City on October 16, 1888, the son of an Irish actor. He moved constantly and was educated at boarding school throughout his unhappy childhood, and he dropped out of Princeton University after a single year there, 1906–07. Listless, depressed, and already addicted to alcohol, O’Neill held down a few minor jobs as a reporter and on the waterfront before serving six years at sea. Drinking heavily, his first marriage ended in divorce, his attempt at suicide failed, and he ended up in a sanitarium to recover from tuberculosis in 1912. While recovering, O’Neill began to dabble in writing plays and, following his release in 1913, enrolled at George Pierce Baker’s 47

1921

Workshop at Harvard University. Though a fledgling playwright, O’Neill showed genuine talent at writing dialogue, particularly that involving pathos, and, in 1916, the Provincetown Players staged his first oneact play Bound East for Cardiff. This work was well received critically and went on to play in New York City, as did other short works such as The Long Voyage Home (1917) and The Hairy Ape (1920), which bore O’Neill’s by-now trademark themes of disillusionment and despair. His breakthrough occurred in 1920 with the opening of his first full-length play Beyond the Horizon, which won him a Pulitzer Prize in Drama. Coming when it did symbolized a revolution in American theater, which

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November 2 Arts: Eugene O’Neill’s moving waterfront drama Anna Christie opens at the Vanderbilt Theater, New York, which renders the author an international success. Women: The National Birth Control League of Margaret Sanger and the Voluntary Parenthood League combine forces to become the new American Birth Control League.

November 5 Aviation: Bert Acosta wins the Pulitzer Trophy by flying at 176.7 miles per hour in a Curtiss racer. Societal: President Warren G. Harding proclaims November 11 as the new national holiday, Armistice Day.

November 11 Military: The Unknown Soldier from World War I is laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery after lying in state at the Capitol Rotunda.

November 12 Aviation: In an important first, two DH-4 bombers conduct the very first, albeit rather “low-tech,” in-flight refueling when Lieutenant Wes May crawls along the wing of one aircraft to another with a five-gallon can of gasoline. Diplomacy: Senator William Borah convenes the Washington Armament Conference in an attempt to put the brakes on naval construction worldwide.

heretofore was primarily concerned with standard commercial fare, and was 25 years behind the contemporary European stage. O’Neill, given his willingness to invoke vernacular, everyday language to flesh out his characters, his grasp at creating scenarios of pain and anguish, and his talent for riveting audience attention to the plight of seemingly marginalized characters, immediately established himself as America’s first great playwright. Over the next 23 years O’Neill produced a great number of plays, including some failures, but where he succeeded he was usually brilliant. His plays Anna Christie (1922), Strange Interlude (1928), and his autobiographical Long Day’s Journey into Night (1941, produced posthumously, 1956) all won Pulitzer Prizes. In 1936, O’Neill also became the first American dramatist

to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Other significant works, including The Emperor Jones (1920), Desire under the Elms (1924), The Great Brown God (1925), and The Ice Man Cometh (1939), involve different characters and scenarios but invariably touch upon anger, pain, and turmoil besetting the human condition. O’Neill himself was married and divorced several times, lost both of his sons to suicide, and disowned his 18-year-old daughter Oona when she married the 54-year-old British comedian Charlie Chaplin in 1943. He was also beset by declining health and a medical palsy that prevented him from writing. O’Neill died as he lived, alone, in a hotel room in Boston, Massachusetts, on November 27, 1953. In a sardonic sense, unique to him, O’Neill embodied the ongoing tragedies he so aptly portrayed on the stage.

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1804

Chronology of American History Delegates from the United States, Great Britain, France, Italy, and Japan are in attendance.

December Societal: The debut of new and daring, knee-length skirts for women causes consternation in the press and other places.

December 23 Politics: President Warren G. Harding pardons labor activist Eugene V. Debs from incarceration after serving two years and eight months of a 10-year sentence for seditious statements.

December 31 Aviation: An estimated 1,200 commercial aircraft are operating in the United States from 146 airfields.

1922 Media: The 1922 World Series is broadcast over the airwaves for the first time. Stations WJZ, New York City, and WGY, Schenectady, join forces to constitute the nation’s first network broadcasters. Literature: T. S. Eliot composes his celebrated poem The Waste Land, touching upon disillusionment with postwar modernity; F. Scott Fitzgerald publishes two well-regarded works, the short story collection Tales of the Jazz Age and the

Fitzgerald, F. Scott (1896–1940) Writer Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, on September 24, 1896, into a middle-class background, but he was educated in elite private academies. Consequently, he gained admission to Princeton University in 1913, but dropped out in 1917 to join the U.S. Army for service in World War I. While stationed in Alabama, Fitzgerald met 18-year-old Zelda Sayre, whom he eventually married. He was discharged in 1918 and, the following year, he pursued what had become a lifelong ambition, namely, writing. The following year Fitzgerald published his first novel called This Side of Paradise, which proved resoundingly successful and brought him wealth and national fame. He followed up with

1922

the equally successful titles The Beautiful and Damned (1922) and Tales of the Jazz Age (1922), both of which established him as an unofficial spokesman for the wild and raucous 1920s. Buoyed by acclaim, Fitzgerald and his wife rented an expensive house on Long Island, toured frequently in Europe, and generally ran up extravagant debts that had to be paid. Fortunately, he wrote and published his seminal work, The Great Gatsby (1925), a stinging indictment of the profligacy and shallowness of the new elite. This volume received critical acclaim and elevated Fitzgerald to the ranks of the foremost writers of his day, including Ernest Hemingway, a personal friend. In fact, by dint of his education and extravagance, he

Chronology

1805

novel The Beautiful and Damned; Sinclair Lewis publishes Babbitt, about a blasé midwestern businessman. Music: Among the most popular tunes this year are “April Showers,” “Hot Lips,” and “Rose of the Rio Grande.” Media: Herbert T. Kalmus successfully shoots the first Technicolor footage, although the process is not generally accepted for another 20 years. Music: Overcoming its humble beginnings, jazz acquires such national popularity that music from this period is known as the Jazz Age. Little-known cornetist Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong joins King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band in New Orleans. Religion: The Evangelical Church is formed through the merger of the United Evangelical Church and the Evangelical Association. Technology: Dr. Hoyt A. Taylor and Leon C. Young of the Naval Research Aircraft Laboratory, Washington, D.C., conduct the first significant radar experiments.

January 3 Media: D. W. Griffith’s latest film, Orphans of the Storm, starring Dorothy and Lillian Gish, opens at New York’s Apollo Theater.

February 6 Diplomacy: In Washington, D.C., various countries sign the Nine-Power Treaty, by which they pledge to respect the territorial integrity of China, in effect, a continuation of the Open Door Policy.

was ideally situated to portray the idle rich as completely self-absorbed, and he did so in a mercilessly unflattering light. In 1927, he was called to Hollywood to begin testing his talents as a potential screenwriter, but this promising venue failed for a litany of personal reasons. One of the great ironies of Fitzgerald’s life and ultimate tragedy is that it closely paralleled and neatly encapsulated the fate of his own characters. In 1930, Zelda experienced the first of several mental breakdowns, which formed the basis of Fitzgerald’s unsuccessful novel Tender Is the Night (1934), and she suffered periodic confinements in sanitariums. Fitzgerald himself grew increasingly despondent owing to his mounting addiction to alcohol, and a string of unsuccessful novels and short stories that brought in little money. He still mustered

the creativity to compile a final volume of short stories entitled Taps at Reveille (1935), which, while competent, did not rekindle interest in his writings. In fact, he recorded his own demise in a series of seemingly autobiographical essays entitled “The Crack-Up” in 1936. It was not until 1940 that Fitzgerald rekindled his creative spark in Hollywood and began writing his final novel, The Last Tycoon. He died there suddenly on December 21, 1940, and his book, which had to be completed and published posthumously by a friend, received little critical attention. Notwithstanding the tragedy of his life, Fitzgerald seemed to exemplify the shallow preoccupation with the wealth and dissipation of the “Jazz Age,” a phrase of his that itself described the times that he captured with such eloquence and malevolence.

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1806

Chronology of American History

February 7 Technology: The successful debut of the Lawrance J-1 radial engine ushers in a propulsion revolution for aircraft and eventually eclipses the more expense, inline automobile-type engines.

February 9 Diplomacy: Congress establishes the World War Foreign Debt Commission to collect the $7.6 billion owed the United States by Great Britain, France, Italy, and other countries. However, given the prostrate condition of European economies, payment is not realistic and occasions great friction when the United States insists that the monies be reimbursed.

February 18 Agriculture: The Capper-Volstead Act passes Congress to afford some relief to struggling farmers being run off their land by increasing debts. This law empowers farmers to buy and sell cooperatively without the risk of persecution from antitrust laws. Nevertheless, farm foreclosures reach over 200,000 by 1923.

February 21 Aviation: The lighter-than-air balloon Roma, purchased from the Italian government, strikes a high-tension wire near Hampton Roads Army Air Base, Virginia, killing 34 of its 45-man crew.

February 27 Women: The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously declares that the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution, granting women the right to vote, is constitutional.

March 9 Arts: The Hairy Ape, a naturalist drama by Eugene O’Neill, successfully debuts at the Provincetown Theater in New York.

March 20 Naval: The U.S. Navy commissions the USS Langley, a converted collier, as its first operational aircraft carrier (CV-1).

April 7 Politics: Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall bypasses the usual competitive bidding process and leases the Teapot Dome oil reserve lands to the Mammoth Oil Company, setting in motion one of the Harding administration’s biggest scandals.

April 15 Politics: Wyoming senator John B. Kendrick, acting upon a tip, inquires of Interior Secretary Albert B. Fall as to why he leased the Teapot Dome land in such a seemingly inappropriate manner. When an appropriate response is not forthcoming, two years of congressional investigations ensue.

April 19 Sports: Clarence H. DeMar wins the 26th Boston Marathon with a time of two hours, 18 minutes, 10 seconds, shaving 47 seconds off the old record.

May 12 Science: Daily routines near Blackstone, Virginia, are somewhat disrupted by the arrival of a 20-ton meteorite, which blasts a 500-square-foot hole in the ground nearby.

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1807

May 13 Diplomacy: Otto L. Wiedfeldt, the first German ambassador to the United States since World War I, presents his credentials in Washington, D.C.

May 21 Literature: Booth Tarkington’s novel Alice Adams wins the Pulitzer Prize for fiction; Collected Poems by Edwin Arlington Robinson wins the Pulitzer Prize for poetry; Eugene O’Neill wins the Pulitzer Prize for drama for Anna Christie.

May 23 Arts: The romantic play Abie’s Irish Rose begins the first of 2,327 performances at the Fulton Theater in New York, concerning the love affair between a young Jewish man and an Irish woman.

May 26 Politics: President Warren G. Harding signs into law creation of the Federal Narcotics Control Board.

May 30 Sports: Jimmy Murphy wins the 10th Indianapolis 500 in five hours, 17 minutes, and 30 seconds at an average speed of 94.48 miles per hour.

June 14 Media: Radio carries President Warren G. Harding’s dedication of the Francis Scott Key memorial from Baltimore, Maryland. He is the first chief executive to broadcast live.

August 28 Media: WEAF, New York, becomes the nation’s first full-time commercial broadcast station.

September 4 Aviation: Lieutenant James H. “Jimmy” Doolittle flies coast to coast in less than 24 hours.

September 12 Religion: The word obey is struck from marriage vows of the U.S. Episcopal Church after the House of Bishops votes 36 to 27 to delete it.

September 16 Crime: A sensational murder case unfolds when Reverend Edward Wheeler Hall and his choir leader, Mrs. Eleanor R. Mills, are found dead underneath an apple tree in New Brunswick, New Jersey. The case is never solved despite publicity from the tabloid press

September 22 Women: Congress passes the Cable Act, allowing women to marry aliens without automatically losing their citizenship. Conversely, foreign women marrying American males are not automatically granted citizenship.

October 3 Women: Rebecca L. Felton, 87, of Georgia becomes the first female U.S. senator to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Thomas E. Watson; she holds the appointment for only one day before a more suitable replacement is found.

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Chronology of American History

October 4–8 Sports: The New York Giants (NL) win the 19th World Series by defeating the New York Yankees (AL) four out of five games, with one tie on account of darkness.

October 9 Arts: The translated Czech play R. U. R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots) debuts at the Garrick Theater in New York City, and introduces America to the concept of the “robot.”

October 14 Communication: The New York City telephone system boasts the first mechanical switchboard.

October 18 Aviation: Colonel William G. “Billy” Mitchell establishes a new air-speed record of 224.05 miles per hour in a Curtiss R-6 racer.

October 30 Arts: The landmark Italian drama Six Characters in Search of an Author by Luigi Pirandello is translated by Brock Pemberton and debuts at the Princess Theater in New York City.

November 7 Politics: Midterm elections punish the Republicans, but they manage to maintain control of both chambers of Congress.

November 15 Medical: At the Rockefeller Institute, Dr. Alexis Carrel discovers that leukocytes, or white blood cells, are agents that help the body fight off infections.

December 4 Diplomacy: In Washington, D.C., the Second Central American Conference convenes and helps to assist long-standing disputes between Nicaragua and Honduras to circumvent a possible war. Once a treaty of neutrality is concluded, the Central American Court of Justice is revitalized and called back into play.

1923 Business: The DuPont Corporation acquires the rights to manufacture cellophane from Swiss inventor Jacques F. Brandenberger. Literature: Ernest Hemingway, then a young expatriate living in Paris, France, publishes a slender volume entitled Three Stories & Ten Poems; aspiring poet E. E. Cummings composes Tulips and Chimneys, his first collection of poetry. Music: In Chicago, Illinois, jazz musician Leon Bismarck “Bix” Beiderbecke establishes the Wolverine Orchestra, in which he is a cornetist. Among this year’s most popular tunes are “Yes, We Have No Bananas,” “Barney Google,” and “Linger Awhile.” Transportation: In light of climbing auto production, an estimated 15 million passenger cars are plying America’s roadways, in addition to thousands of trucks and other passenger vehicles.

January Religion: William Jennings Bryan harshly denounces the concept of evolution while addressing a gathering of ministers at St. Paul, Minnesota. The press subse-

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Chronology

1809

quently coins the terms modernist and fundamentalist to describe the contending viewpoints of this hotly debated topic.

January 4 Medical: French psychologist Emil Coué emigrates to the United States and begins propagating his self-help philosophy based on positive thinking. “Everyday in every way I am getting better and better” becomes the mantra of his adherents.

January 10 Military: President Warren G. Harding withdraws the last remaining U.S. forces from duty in occupied Germany.

March 2 Politics: Charles R. Forbes, head of the Veterans’ Bureau, is investigated by the U.S. Senate for alleged corruption involving construction of a hospital building.

March 4 Agriculture: In light of continuing foreclosures, Congress passes the Credit Act to assist farmers, and authorizes the Federal Reserve to begin assisting agricultural cooperatives.

March 5 Societal: Legislatures in Montana and Nevada begin granting the nation’s first old-age pensions of $25 per year to all inhabitants over the age of 70.

March 13 Media: Gifted inventor Lee De Forest successfully demonstrates a viable motion picture sound system that he dubs “Phonofilm.”

March 15 Politics: With political investigations swirling around the Veterans’ Bureau, Charles F. Cramer, assistant to bureau head Charles R. Forbes, commits suicide. The administration of President Warren G. Harding is beginning to resemble that of Ulysses S. Grant in terms of corruption, although the chief executive is never implicated.

March 29 Aviation: Lieutenant R. L. Maitland establishes a new air-speed record of 239.95 miles per hour in a Curtiss R-6 racer.

April 9 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Adkins v. Children’s Hospital, ruling that a minimum wage adopted for women and children in the District of Columbia is unconstitutional. This ruling heralds the decline of organized labor for several decades. Sports: Clarence H. DeMar wins the 27th Boston Marathon, finishing in two hours, 23 minutes, and 47 seconds.

April 18 Sports: Legendary Yankee Stadium opens its doors for the first time in the Bronx, New York.

April 20 Aviation: The first aerial refueling takes place, via a rubber hose extended through the air, over Rockwell Field, California.

1923

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Chronology of American History

May 2–3 Aviation: U.S. Air Service pilots Lieutenant John MacReady and Lieutenant Oakley Kelly complete the first nonstop, cross-country flight across the United States in a Fokker T-2 in 26 hours, 50 minutes.

May 4 Societal: New York State, faced with wholesale bootlegging of alcoholic liquors, repeals all enforcement acts. This marks the beginning of the end of Prohibition in America, which accomplished little beyond providing organized crime a major boost. The bill itself is signed by presidential aspirant Governor Alfred E. Smith.

May 9 Medical: New York U.S. District Court judge John C. Knox declares that medically prescribed whiskey is not forbidden by Prohibition.

May 13 Arts: Willa Cather’s novel One of Ours wins the Pulitzer Prize for fiction; Edna St. Vincent takes the Pulitzer for poetry with her The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver,

Coolidge, Calvin (1872–1933) President

Calvin Coolidge poses with his two sons, 1924 (Library of Congress)

1923

John Calvin Coolidge was born in Plymouth Notch, Vermont, on July 4, 1872, the son of farmers. He graduated from Amherst College with honors in 1895 and, unable to afford law school, clerked in a local law office instead. Two years later he was admitted to the Massachusetts bar and opened a successful practice in nearby Northampton. Coolidge was also pro-business by nature, so he joined the Republican Party and won several elections to the state house. In 1911 he advanced his political fortunes by winning a seat in the state senate, and in 1915 he gained the lieutenant governor’s mansion. Coolidge, quiet and taciturn, was nonetheless an astute political operator, and in 1918 he gained election as governor. Despite his conservatism, he displayed a considerable progressive streak in power by championing bills for women’s suffrage, protection for child labor, and a state banking insurance system. However, in 1919, Coolidge, confronted by a violent strike by

Chronology

1811

A Few Figs from Thistles, and Eight Sonnets; Owen Davis wins the Pulitzer Prize for drama with his play Icebound.

May 30 Sports: Tommy Milton wins the 11th Indianapolis 500, finishing in five hours, 219 minutes, 50 seconds at an average speed of 90.95 miles per hour.

June 20 Politics: President Warren G. Harding, upset and depressed over the numerous scandals besetting his administration, elects to leave Washington, D.C., and begins touring the West and Alaska.

August 2 Politics: President Warren G. Harding dies suddenly of an embolism in San Francisco, California.

August 3 Politics: In Vermont, Vice President Calvin Coolidge is sworn in as the new chief executive. The ceremony is conducted by his father using the family Bible.

the Boston police, unhesitatingly called out the National Guard to forcefully restore order. This decisiveness boosted his already favorable popularity ratings, and he was easily reelected by wide margins. His political fortunes advanced in 1920, when Republican Party operatives chose him as their vice presidential candidate, where he contrasted sharply with the more colorful Warren G. Harding. Once in office, he fulfilled his duties without controversy or comment, gaining the nickname “Silent Cal.” Coolidge was also unimpeachable ethically, and he was never marred by the numerous scandals surrounding the Harding administration. His political fortunes crested on August 3, 1923, the day after Harding died suddenly, and Coolidge was sworn in by his father, a local notary, using the family Bible. As president, Coolidge operated on the belief that the chief executive should enact legislation passed by Congress, and do little else. However, he nonetheless embraced many reformist policies for regulating the nascent radio and commercial airline indus-

tries, as well as the 1926 Railroad Labor Act for settling disputes peacefully. A confirmed capitalist, Coolidge also advocated tax cuts to stimulate the economy and installed pro-business appointees to regulatory commissions. Coolidge, when he bothered with foreign affairs at all, tried to be constructive, and he lent his support to the 1929 KelloggBriand Pact to outlaw war and also sought to mend fences with Mexico and Nicaragua. But, basically, Coolidge was content with his hands-off approach to governance, and throughout his tenure in office he seemed more like a caretaker administrator than a chief executive. He enjoyed high popularity ratings nonetheless and would have easily been reelected for another term, but he suddenly announced in 1928 that he was not running. Coolidge then left the public scene altogether, without comment or fanfare, and he returned to his farm in Northampton, Massachusetts. He died there suddenly on January 5, 1933, a highly successful political leader despite a singularly detached persona and an unengaged style of leadership.

1923

1812

Chronology of American History

August 13 Labor: In a rare victory for workers, United States Steel allows workers an eighthour working day, a dramatic reduction from the 12–14-hour shifts previously employed.

August 21 Transportation: The first series of navigation beacon lights are installed between Chicago, Illinois, and Cheyenne, Nebraska.

September 14 Sports: Heavyweight boxing champion Jack Dempsey successfully defends his title against Luis Angel Firpo, in a vicious brawl that entails 11 knockdowns. A first-round punch tossed Dempsey clear out of the ring, but he came back to knock his opponent out, 57 seconds into the second round.

September 15 Politics: Governor John C. Watson of Oklahoma declares martial law to combat the growing influence of the Ku Klux Klan and its terrorist tactics.

October Science: Robert A. Millikan of the California Institute of Technology wins the Nobel Prize in physics for his work with electricity while at the University of Chicago, 1906–16.

October 6 Aviation: At the Pulitzer Trophy flying competition in St. Louis, Missouri, Lieutenant Al Williams establishes a new air-speed record of 243.76 miles per hour.

October 10–15 Sports: The New York Yankees (AL) win the 20th World Series by defeating the New York Giants (NL), four games to two.

October 16 Societal: The New York State Court of Appeals upholds a state law requiring literary testing for new voters.

October 25 Politics: Montana senator Thomas J. Walsh, chairman of the Senate investigation subcommittee, announces his findings as they relate to the mounting Teapot Dome scandal. Within months the perpetrators, Harry F. Sinclair of Mammoth Oil Company and Albert B. Fall, secretary of the interior, will both face criminal convictions.

November 1 Science: Dr. Robert H. Goddard successfully tests a rocket motor powered by gasoline and liquid oxygen.

November 4 Aviation: Navy lieutenant Alford Williams sets a new air-speed record of 266.59 miles per hour in a Navy-Curtiss racer.

November 6 Technology: A patent for the first electric shaver is issued to Colonel Jacob Schick, who eventually starts his own company to market and manufacture them at Stamford, Connecticut.

1923

Chronology

Goddard, Robert H.

1813

(1882–1945)

Scientist Robert Hutchings Goddard was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, on October 5, 1882, the son of a businessman. Sickly as a child, he frequently missed school but became intrigued with science and taught himself mathematics and the basics of physics. Supposedly, he became interested in space flight after reading H. G. Wells’s classic novel, The War of the Worlds. Goddard graduated from high school as valedictorian and then enrolled at Worcester Polytechnic Institute to study physics. In 1907, while still an undergraduate, he published an essay on balancing airplanes in Scientific American. Goddard graduated in 1908 and subsequently enrolled at nearby Clark University, where he obtained his master’s and doctorate by 1911. By this time he was giving serious consideration to liquid-propelled rockets, a topic that he pursued while teaching at Princeton University, 1911–12. He returned to Clark University in 1914 as a full professor and devoted all his spare time to the new field of aeronautics, receiving from the Smithsonian Institution a grant of $5,000 to help defray costs. In 1917, following American entry in World War I, the U.S. Army Signal Corps approached Goddard for research in applied rocketry, and he responded with a weapon that later became known as the bazooka. Unfortunately, it was perfected a year later on the cusp of the armistice, and the military displayed no further interest in his system for the next 26 years. However, Goddard slowly refined his theories and, in 1919, published his classic text, A Method

for Reaching Extreme Altitudes, which postulated that liquid-propelled rockets could both leave the Earth’s gravitational pull and coast effortlessly through the vacuum of space. The notion of space flight was immediately ridiculed, most loudly in a frontpage editorial in the New York Times, and thereafter Goddard refrained from releasing either his ideas or news of his progress to the public. It was not until March 16, 1921, that Goddard successfully launched the world’s first liquid-propelled rocket in Auburn, Massachusetts, which flew for two and a half seconds to an altitude of 41 feet. Eventually his efforts came to the attention of aviator Charles Lindbergh, who arranged increased funding for Goddard’s experiments through the Guggenheim Foundation. This allowed him to outfit a well-stocked laboratory in Roswell, New Mexico, where, in 1932, he launched the first rocket with a gyroscopic stabilizer for guidance. Curiously, while the American government basically ignored Goddard’s research, he found a ready audience in scientists of Nazi Germany, who incorporated many of his ideas into their own deadly V-2 rocket of 1944. In World War II he performed his final research, developing rockets to assist aircraft while taking off, and he died in Baltimore, Maryland, on August 10, 1945. Since then Goddard, who received 200 patents applicable to rockets, has been hailed as one of the fathers of modern space flight and is commemorated by the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

November 28 Arts: David Belasco’s and Tom Cushing’s adaptation of Fausto Martini’s play Laugh, Clown, Laugh! (Ridi Pagliaccio) debuts at the Belasco Theater, New York, and stars Lionel Barrymore as a tragic clown figure.

1923

1814

Chronology of American History

December 6 Media: For the first time, radio carries a national message from the president (Calvin Coolidge) over the airwaves, and it is heard from Texas to Rhode Island. Politics: President Calvin Coolidge, in his first address to Congress, declares his support for adhering to the World Court as well as to Prohibition. He also states his strong preference for lower taxes and noninterference with business.

December 15 Diplomacy: President Calvin Coolidge appoints banker Charles G. Dawes to head a commission to help reorganize Germany’s wartime reparations in a time of extreme monetary inflation.

1924 Aviation: A transcontinental airmail test run travels from New York to San Francisco in only 27 hours; the Huff-Deland Company manufactures the first crop dusting aircraft, which revolutionizes agriculture. Business: Ford’s legendary Model T automobiles sell for $290, their lowest price ever. Literature: Herman Melville’s last novel, Billy Budd, which he completed shortly before his death in 1891, is finally published and is hailed as among his greatest works; William Faulkner contributes to the literary largesse with The Marble Faun; the Autobiography of Mark Twain is published posthumously. Music: The year’s most popular tunes include “Indian Love Song,” “Lady Be Good,” “Yes, Sir, That’s My Baby,” and “Sweet Georgia Brown.”

January 1 Media: Statistics reveal that 2.5 million radios are in use throughout the United States.

January 25–February 4 Sports: The United States team finishes fourth overall at the first Winter Olympics held at Chamonix, France, winning one gold medal.

February 12 Music: The legendary composition Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin debuts for the first time to critical acclaim at Aeolian Hall, New York.

March 18 Politics: The House of Representatives passes the Soldiers’ Bonus Bill, which grants a 20-year annuity to qualified veterans at a total cost of $2 billion.

March 31 Education: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that an Oregon law requiring all grammar-school-age children to attend public schools, regardless of religious affiliation, is unconstitutional.

April 9 Diplomacy: Banker Charles G. Dawes promulgates what comes to be known as the “Dawes Plan” in an attempt to reorganize German war reparations while also stabilizing the German currency.

1924

Chronology

Gershwin, George

1815

(1898–1937)

Composer George Gershwin (born Jacob Gershowitz) was born in Brooklyn, New York, on September 26, 1898, a son of RussianJewish immigrants. He began taking piano lessons at home at the age of 12 and showed such promise that he was allowed to study theories of music and harmony. Gershwin never finished high school, but he continued his fascination with music and, at the age of 15, he began playing piano for a publisher of popular music. A year later, he scored his first success with the song “When You Want ’Em You Can’t Get ’Em.” In 1918, his promising career as a composer received a boost when he was hired as a songwriter by the firm Harms, Inc., and in 1919 he wrote the famous song “Swanee,” immortalized by singer Al Jolson. That year Gershwin, an extremely ambitious young man, also composed his first successful musical, La, La, Lucille. The decade of the 1920s saw Gershwin establish himself as a force within modern composition by fusing the rhythms of jazz with contemporary lyrics. He scored no less than five successive editions of George White’s Scandals (1920–24), usually in concert with his lyricist and older brother Ira, and he also enjoyed a string of Broadway musical hits, including Lady Be Good (1924), Primrose (1924), Oh, Kay (1926), Funny Face (1927), and Strike Up the Band (1929). But Gershwin differed from contemporaries by expanding his range and talent to encompass traditional symphonic scores. The most famous of these is Rhapsody in Blue, which is the

first successful attempt to blend jazz and blues themes into a classical arrangement. It has since become an American favorite and has been played and recorded around the world on countless occasions. Gershwin followed these up with other memorable symphonies, including Three Preludes (1926) and An American in Paris (1927). The 1930s saw a continuation of Gershwin’s rise as a talented writer of Broadway musicals, and his numerous hits include Girl Crazy (1930), Of Thee I Sing (1931), which won a Pulitzer Prize, and Let ’Em Eat Cake (1933). He then began writing scores for motion pictures, particularly the musicals of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, for such films as Damsel in Distress and Shall We Dance. But Gershwin’s greatest creative success came with his production of an original “folk musical,” Porgy and Bess, concerning life in a fictionalized ghetto in Charleston, South Carolina. This novel composition incorporated traditional, if updated, African-American music, particularly blues. This dramatic departure in taste was little appreciated at its time, but it has since been regarded as the finest American opera of the 20th century. In fact, the songs “Summertime” and “I Got Plenty O’Nuttin” remain quintessential theater classics. Sadly, the multitalented writer died suddenly of a brain tumor in Beverly Hills, California, on July 11, 1937, at the height of his success. Gershwin brought jazz into the concert halls of a nation and singularly helped define the music of his era.

April 19 Sports: Clarence H. DeMar wins the 28th Boston Marathon with a record time of two hours, 29 minutes, 40 seconds. This also breaks the standing Olympic Marathon record.

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Chronology of American History

April 23 Politics: The Soldier’s Bonus Bill is passed by the U.S. Senate, then vetoed by President Calvin Coolidge; however, both houses of Congress successfully override his veto.

May 4–July 27 Sports: In Paris, France, the U.S. Olympics team takes first place in unofficial team standings for the eighth consecutive time and reaps 45 gold medals.

May 11 Arts: Margaret Wilson wins the Pulitzer Prize in fiction for her The Able McLaughlins; Robert Frost wins the Pulitzer Prize for poetry with his “New Hampshire: A Poem with Notes and Grace Notes”; Hatcher Hughes wins the Pulitzer Prize for drama with his Hell-Bent fer Heaven.

May 11–13 Politics: The Socialist Labor Party nominates Frank T. Johns of Oregon for president and Verne L. Reynolds of Maryland for vice president.

May 15 Arts: Eugene O’Neill’s provocative play All God’s Chillun’ Got Wings opens at the Provincetown Playhouse, New York, starring African-American actor Paul Robeson, portraying a man who falls for and marries a white woman. Politics: President Calvin Coolidge vetoes the Soldier’s Bonus Bill, but it is subsequently overridden by the House and Senate.

May 21 Religion: The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of San Antonio, Texas, rules the theory of evolution theologically invalid.

May 26 Societal: Congress enacts a new immigration law restricting the influx of new nationalities to only 2 percent of the total admitted in 1890. Furthermore, Japanese immigrants are completely excluded from admission, while the law has no effect on Canadians and Mexicans.

May 27 Religion: In Springfield, Massachusetts, the Methodist Episcopal General Conference ends it prohibitions on dancing and attending theater.

May 30 Sports: Lora L. Corum wins the 12th Indianapolis 500 by finishing the course in a record five hours, five minutes, 23 seconds at an average speed of 98.23 miles per hour.

June 2 Labor: Congress passes a Child Labor Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and passes it along to the states for ratification. However, only 26 legislatures of the required 36 ratify it by 1950, and the measure is dropped.

June 5 Politics: The Prohibition Party selects Herman P. Faris of Missouri for president and Marie C. Brehm of California for vice president.

1924

Chronology

1817

June 12 Politics: The Republican Party holds its convention in Cleveland, Ohio, and nominates Calvin Coolidge for president and Charles G. Dawes of Illinois for vice president.

June 15 Business: Ford Motor Company announces the production of its 10 millionth automobile.

June 19 Politics: The Farmer–Labor Progressive Party meets to nominate Duncan MacDonald of Illinois for president and William Bouck of Washington for vice president, although a month later both men step down in favor of Worker’s Party members William Z. Foster and Benjamin Gitlow, respectively.

June 30 Crime: A federal grand jury indicts former secretary of the interior Albert B. Fall, Mammoth Oil Company president Harry Sinclair, and others involved in the Teapot Dome Scandal of bribery and attempting to defraud the United States.

July 1 Aviation: Regular transcontinental airmail service between San Francisco, California, and New York, New York, is authorized by the U.S. Post Office.

July 4 Politics: The Conference for Progressive Political Action gathers in Cleveland, Ohio, and nominates Wisconsin senator Robert G. LaFollette for president and Senator Burton K. Wheeler of Montana for vice president.

July 9 Politics: The Demo cratic Party holds its nominating convention in New York City and selects John W. Davis of West Virginia for president on the 103rd ballot and Charles W. Bryan (brother of William Jennings Bryan) for vice president.

July 10 Politics: The Worker’s (or Communist) Party convenes in Chicago, Illinois, and nominates William Z. Foster of Illinois for president and Benjamin Gitlow of New York for vice president. They are also endorsed by the Farmer–Labor Progressive Party.

July 21 Crime: Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, two young, well-educated, and affluent individuals, are sentenced to life imprisonment for the apparent random kidnapping and murder of Bobby Franks.

September 28 Aviation: A fleet of three Douglas World Cruisers completes the first roundthe-world flight by touching down in Seattle, Washington.

October 4–10 Sports: The Washington Senators (AL) win the 21st World Series by defeating the New York Giants (NL), four games to three.

1924

1818

Chronology of American History

October 15 Aviation: The dirigible airship ZR-3, constructed at Wilhelmshaven, Germany, is flown to Lakehurst, New Jersey, where it is taken into U.S. Navy service as the Los Angeles.

November 3 Arts: Eugene O’Neill’s S. S. Glencairn, which consists of four short plays, debuts at the Provincetown Playhouse, New York.

November 4 Politics: Republican Calvin Coolidge defeats Democrat John W. Davis with a popular vote of 15.7 million to 8.3 million votes cast, and an electoral count of 382 to 182. Progressive Robert La Follette wins an impressive 4.8 million votes, while two women, Nellie Taylor Ross of Wyoming and Miriam Ferguson of Texas, are elected governor. The Republicans also increase their standing in Congress, and they control both chambers.

November 11 Arts: Eugene O’Neill’s play Desire under the Elms premieres at the Greenwich Village Theater and stars Walter Huston, Mary Morris, and Charles Ellis.

November 30 Communication: The first wireless transmission of photographs from London to New York are successfully demonstrated by the Radio Corporation of America (RCA); each transmission takes 20 minutes to accomplish.

December 2 Arts: Sigmund Romberg’s operetta The Student Prince opens at the 59th Street Theater in New York.

December 27 Diplomacy: The United States concludes a new treaty with the Dominican Republic in preparation for withdrawing all its military forces from the violenceprone island.

1925 Business: A business survey reveals that only 89 firms nationwide have been owned by the same family for 100 years or more. Diplomacy: Charles G. Dawes and Sir Austen Chamberlain share the Nobel Peace Prize for drawing up a plan to allow German reparations for World War I. Literature: F. Scott Fitzgerald publishes his noted novel of the Jazz Age, The Great Gatsby; Theodore Dreiser publishes his important work, An American Tragedy, which is based upon an actual murder; John Dos Passos publishes his kaleidoscopic novel Manhattan Transfer concerning a cross section of life in that city. Medical: In Chicago, George Frederick and Gladys Henry Dick develop an antitoxin for scarlet fever. Music: This year’s most popular tunes include “Show Me the Way to Go Home,” “Thanks for the Buggy Ride,” and “Don’t Bring Lulu.” Societal: A new, frantic form of dancing called the “Charleston,” after the town in which it originated, becomes the rage in social settings associated with jazz music.

1925

Chronology

1819

Technology: The Prest-Air Devices Company of Long Island, New York, manufactures the first commercial dry ice (frozen carbon dioxide).

January 5 Women: Nellie Taylor Ross is inaugurated as the first female governor of Wyoming, not a surprising fact since her state has labored mightily in promoting fair treatment toward women.

January 11 Music: Aaron Copland premiers his Symphony for Organ and Orchestra with the New York Symphony Orchestra.

January 24 Science: For the first time in nearly three centuries, a total solar eclipse is observed in New York City.

February 2 Aviation: President Calvin Coolidge signs the Kelly Bill (Air Mail Act) of 1925, authorizing private firms to provide air mail service.

Copland, Aaron

(1900–1990)

Composer Aaron Copland was born in Brooklyn, New York, on November 14, 1900, the son of Lithuanian-Jewish immigrants. Though never formally schooled in music as a child, he became extremely interested in the subject and studied composition, orchestration, and theory under Rubin Goldmark. Copland proved himself a youthful prodigy. In 1924, he attended the Fontainebleau School of Music in Paris for additional study under Nadia Boulanger. His excellent performance there resulted in receipt of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1925 and 1926. Moreover, while in Paris, Copland observed that French music captured and reflected the essence of native life, whereas in the United States there was no equivalent form. Copland returned to the United States in 1926, fully intending to compose “national music” that average Americans, and not simply the elite, could relate to. He began his quest with The Cat and the Mouse (1919) and spent the next two decades experimenting

with jazz and other nativist music formats before grafting them onto symphonic compositions. His efforts crested with the ballet Billy the Kid (1939), the Lincoln Portrait (1942), the ballet Rodeo (1942), and his monumental signature piece, Appalachian Spring (1944), which received the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1945. In all these successful works, Copland invariably incorporated traditional folk pieces, amplified them for orchestras, yet never strayed from their basic, homey simplicity. Consequently, he was hailed as one of the most significant American composers of the first half of the 20th century and credited with greatly popularizing classical and symphonic scores for the average American. In fact, his two most popular compositions, Hoe Down and Fanfare for the Common Man, remain extremely popular and are widely played and recorded today. (continues)

1925

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Chronology of American History

(continued) At midcentury Copland also expanded his already prodigious repertoire by composing film scores for Hollywood productions such as Of Mice and Men (1939), Our Town (1940), The Red Pony (1948), and The Heiress (1949), the latter winning an Academy Award for best film score. When not composing, Copland made serious attempts at public outreach through writing, and he authored several books, including What to Listen for in Music (1939), Our New Music (1941), and Music and the Imagination (1951). Moreover, Copland was also a gifted music teacher and routinely taught classes at Harvard University,

the New School for Social Research, New York, and the Berkshire Music Center in Tanglewood, Massachusetts. Copland also actively conducted his own works on goodwill tours throughout the world, and he remained active in music matters until his death in North Tarrytown, New York, on December 2, 1990. Copland remains highly regarded as the “dean of American composers” for his ceaseless efforts to distill the American experience into musical form and his determination to popularize it for the greatest number of average citizens. In 2007, he was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame.

February 21 Publishing: Harold Ross oversees publication of the new New Yorker magazine, especially designed for sophisticates, which includes highly regarded reviews of plays, books, and films.

March 1 Business: Ryan Airlines of Los Angeles becomes the nation’s first, year-round airline with two flights a day to San Diego, California. Tickets go for $22.50.

March 4 Politics: Calvin Coolidge is inaugurated president of the United States for his first full term in office.

March 18 General: A huge tornado slices into eastern Missouri, southern Illinois, and southern Indiana, killing 689 people and causing great property loss.

March 23 Diplomacy: The Senate ratifies the Isle of Pines Treaty with Cuba, confirming Cuban possession of that island.

April 1 Business: The New York Banking House of Dillon, Read & Company purchases the Dodge Brothers automobile company for $146 million, making this the largest single business transaction in U.S. history to date.

April 20 Sports: Charles L. Mellor wins the 29th Boston Marathon by finishing in two hours and 33 minutes.

1925

Chronology

1821

April 26 Publishing: Edna Ferber’s novel So Big wins the Pulitzer Prize for fiction; Edwin Arlington wins the Pulitzer Prize for poetry for his “The Man Who Died Twice”; Sidney Howard wins the Pulitzer Prize for drama with his They Knew What They Wanted.

May 5 Science: In Dayton, Tennessee, teacher John T. Scopes is arrested for teaching the evolutionary theory of Charles Darwin in violation of state law. He hires able attorney Clarence Darrow for what becomes a memorable trial and a famous movie entitled Inherit the Wind.

May 13 Religion: The Florida legislature passes a law requiring daily Bible readings in all public schools.

May 30 Sports: Peter DePaolo wins the 13th Indianapolis 500, finishing the course in four hours, 56 minutes, 39 seconds at an average speed of 101.13 miles per hour.

Darrow, Clarence

(1857–1938)

Attorney Clarence Seward Darrow was born in Kinsman, Ohio, on April 18, 1857, the son of an active abolitionist and an advocate for women’s suffrage. As such he was exposed to a liberal, secular agenda early in life, and it indelibly imprinted upon his adult values. Darrow briefly studied at Allegheny College, Pennsylvania, and the University of Michigan, then read law and gained admission to the Ohio state bar in 1878. He practiced locally for nine years before expanding his horizons by moving to Chicago, Illinois, in 1887 to work as a corporate attorney for the railroads. In this capacity he met and befriended John Peter Altgeld, who was elected governor in 1892 and who openly challenged the legality of the death penalty. However, in 1894 Darrow quit his lucrative post to become a labor lawyer, principally to help defend Socialist Eugene V. Debs for violating an injunction against the Pullman Sleeping Car strike. He was unsuccessful

and Debs went to jail, but Darrow acquired a reputation for toughness among labor circles. In 1902, Darrow was also elected to the state legislature on the progressively minded Ownership ticket. In 1906–07 he successfully defended William D. “Big Bill” Haywood against a charge of conspiracy to murder the former governor of Idaho. However, his career experienced a serious setback in 1911 while defending the McNamara brothers against charges they had blown up the Los Angeles Times building, killing 20 people. When one of his defendants suddenly changed his plea to guilty, Darrow was charged with misconduct but was never convicted. However, the controversy spelled the end of his days as a labor lawyer. In 1924, Darrow, now a criminal lawyer, gained national attention in the LeopoldLoeb case, whereby the teenage sons of two (continues)

1925

1822

Chronology of American History

(continued) wealthy families were tried and convicted for wantonly murdering a third boy. However, Darrow, for the only time in his lengthy career, persuaded his defendants to plead guilty while he railed against imposition of the death penalty. He argued persuasively by introducing psychological evidence into a trial for the first time, and his clients received life imprisonment. In this manner he established his firmly held belief in determining influences upon individual acts, now an accepted legal principle. However, Darrow’s most famous case occurred in 1925 after the Tennessee state legislature prohibited the teaching of evolution in public schools,

whereby teacher John Scopes was accused of violating the law. The case is famously known as the “Scopes Monkey Trial,” which pitted Darrow’s argumentative skills against those of William Jennings Bryan, the famed and overtly religious prosecutor, whom he effectively cross-examined. Curiously, Darrow lost the case and Scopes was fined $100, but the State Supreme Court subsequently overturned the verdict. He then retired from public life to pen several books and occasionally debate legal issues with leading scholars. Darrow died in Chicago on March 12, 1938, among the most celebrated attorneys and civil libertarians of his time.

July 10–21 Science: The trial of Tennessee teacher John T. Scopes, better known as the “Monkey Trial,” unfolds in Dayton, Tennessee. William Jennings Bryan, a political progressive but a religious reactionary, takes the case and gives his strict interpretation of the biblical origins of mankind. Scopes is subsequently found guilty and fined $100.

August 8 Societal: A parade by 40,000 hooded Ku Klux Klansmen and women in Washington, D.C., underscores the growing strength of that radical political movement.

September 3 Aviation: A storm near Avan, Ohio, claims the U.S. Army airship Shenandoah, killing 14 crew members.

September 9 Aviation: Colonel William G. “Billy” Mitchell, an outspoken proponent of military aviation, publicly accuses his commanders of “incompetency, criminal negligence, and almost treasonable administration of the national defense.” This breach of military etiquette results in his arrest and court martial.

September 16 Arts: The musical comedy No, No, Nanette by Otto Harbach, Frank Mandell, Irving Caesar, and Vincent Youmans, premieres at the Globe Theater, New York, and proves a singular success. It includes the famous tune “Tea for Two.”

October Business: Florida is gripped by a rampant land boom said to exceed all other business stampedes in American history.

October 7–15 Sports: The Pittsburgh Pirates (NL) win the 22nd World Series by defeating the Washington Senators, four games to three.

1925

Chronology

1823

October 16 Education: The Texas State School Board prohibits the mention of evolution theory in any of its textbooks.

November 3 Politics: James J. “Jimmy” Walker wins the New York City mayoral election, where he gains notoriety for flamboyance and high living before resigning in 1932 for maladministration.

December 6 Societal: The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation is established to promote scholarship and the arts.

December 8 Arts: At New York’s Lyric Theater, a comedic legend is born with the premier of the farce Cocoanuts, starring the Marx Brothers (Groucho, Chico, Harpo, and Zeppo) and their foil, the long-suffering Margaret Dumont.

December 17 Military: Colonel William G. “Billy” Mitchell is court-martialed and found guilt of insubordination; he receives a five-year suspension without pay and then resigns from the military to serve as a one-man spokesman on behalf of air power.

December 29 Education: Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, arises from a $40 million trust fund bequeathed by tobacco magnate James B. Duke.

1926 Arts: The Dramatist’s Guild begins as part of the Author’s League. Education: Sarah Lawrence College for Women is founded in the Bronx, New York, and its first class meets in 1928. Labor: Henry Ford introduces the 40-hour work week to stop overproduction and limit unemployment; it is certainly welcomed by the AFL for the improved lifestyle it gives workers. Literature: William Faulkner publishes his first novel, Soldiers’ Pay; Ernest Hemingway completes The Sun Also Rises, a classic novel about postwar disillusionment; Thorne Smith completes his humorous novel Topper, about a timid soul and two ghosts who befriend him. Medical: Boston doctors George R. Minot and William P. Murphy discover a successful treatment for pernicious anemia, namely, a diet high in liver. Music: From his recording studio in Chicago, Illinois, jazz legend Ferdinand “Jellyroll” Morton and his group The Red Hot Peppers cut significant titles such as “Black Bottom Stomp,” “Smoke House Blues,” and “Doctor Jazz”; among the year’s most popular songs are “Bye, Bye Blackbird,” “When Day Is Done,” and “I Found My Million Dollar Baby in the Five and Ten Cents Store.” Publishing: Carl Sandburg publishes Abraham Lincoln, The Prairie Years, as the first installment of an ambitious six-volume project; historian Will Durant completes his monumental The History of Philosophy. Religion: A New York court allows students at White Plains schools to be released one hour early per day for religious instruction.

1926

1824

Chronology of American History Transportation: In New York City, plans are announced for the new, multilevel George Washington Bridge, which will connect Manhattan island to Fort Lee, New Jersey.

January 23 Arts: Eugene O’Neill’s play The Great Brown God opens at the Greenwich Theater, New York, and stars William Harrigan.

January 27 Diplomacy: Contrary to the prevailing attitude toward isolationism, the U.S. Senate votes to allow American membership in the World Court of International Justice. However, the Senate advances the caveat that court decisions are not applicable to matters pertaining to the United States.

February 9 Education: The Board of Education in Atlanta, Georgia, outlaws the teaching of evolution in all public schools.

February 19 Arts: John Alden’s ballet Skyscrapers, which utilizes jazz idioms, is produced at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, at the behest of Russian producer Sergei Diaghilev.

February 26 Economic: President Calvin Coolidge signs the Revenue Act into law, which reduces income and other taxes, but does little to mitigate widespread unemployment or farm foreclosures.

March 7 Communication: The first radiotelephone call is successfully made between New York and London by representatives of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, the Radio Corporation of America, and the British General Post Office.

March 16 Science: Dr. Robert H. Goddard launches his first liquid-fueled rocket, which reaches an altitude of 41 feet and flies a distance of 184 feet.

April Publishing: The Book of the Month Club is founded in response to the nation’s growing appetite for literature of every kind, and it pioneers revolutionary new ways of book publishing and sales.

April 19 Sports: John C. Miles of Nova Scotia wins the 30th Boston Marathon by finishing in two hours, 25 minutes, 40 seconds.

April 29 Diplomacy: The United States and France conclude an agreement by which the former cancels 60 percent of the latter’s wartime debts, although it is still obliged to repay $4 billion at 1.6 percent interest over the next 62 years.

May 3 Arts: Sinclair Lewis wins the Pulitzer Prize for fiction with his novel Arrowsmith; Amy Lowell wins the Pulitzer Prize for poetry with her “What’s O’Clock”; George Kelly’s Craig’s Wife wins the Pulitzer Prize for drama.

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May 5 Literature: Sinclair Lewis declines to accept the Pulitzer Prize for his novel Arrowsmith, and he urges authors to refuse awards lest they sacrifice their intellectual freedom.

May 8 Aviation: Congress passes the Air Commerce Act, which authorizes the Weather Bureau to provide meteorological services to aviators.

May 9 Aviation: Admiral Richard E. Byrd and Floyd Bennett successfully fly their Fokker F.VII-3m aircraft over the North Pole for the first time. In the 21st century this claim is hotly disputed.

May 10 Military: U.S. Marines land again in Nicaragua to help suppress a revolt and protect American property; this time they are required to remain and fight guerrillas under General Augusto César Sandino for 13 years.

May 18 Diplomacy: Hugh S. Gibson represents the United States in preliminary discussions concerning a disarmament conference in Geneva, Switzerland. Religion: Aimee Semple McPherson, a popular Los Angeles evangelical figure, is reported missing to the police but subsequently turns up in Mexico after running off with a former operator of her radio station.

May 20 Aviation: The Air Commerce (Civil Aviation) Act is approved by Congress to lend greater regulatory oversight to the rapidly burgeoning field of civil aviation. Henceforth, the Department of Commerce will control the licensing of pilots and registration of aircraft through the new Bureau of Air Commerce.

May 31 Sports: Frank Lockhart wins the 14th Indianapolis 500 by finishing the course in four hours, 10 minutes, 14 seconds, at an average speed of 95.90 miles per hour.

June 11 Aviation: The all-metal Ford Trimotor, a significant step in commercial aviation, makes its first flight.

June 20 Religion: Chicago, Illinois, is the site of the first international Eucharistic Congress held in the United States. Cardinal John Bonzano is chosen papal legate by Pope Pius XI and officiates at the ceremonies.

July 2 Aviation: In recognition of the growing importance of military aviation, Congress founds the U.S. Army Air Corps from the U.S. Army Air Service; the Distinguished Flying Cross medal is established for all military individuals who distinguish themselves through some aerial activity.

July 5–29 Labor: An unsuccessful subway strike manifests in New York City, during which commuters are carried about town in a fleet of 150,000 buses and automobiles.

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Byrd, Richard E. (1888–1957) Explorer Richard Evelyn Bird was born in Winchester, Virginia, on October 25, 1888, the scion of a distinguished Tidewater family and a descendent of William Byrd. After passing through the Virginia Military Academy in 1908 he next attended the U.S. Naval Academy, from which he emerged a midshipman in 1912. Byrd, saddled by an old football injury, could not perform regular sea duty, so in 1917 he joined the fledgling naval aviation service and, during World War I, he commanded a squadron of patrol bombers based in Canada. Thereafter, his career became indelibly caught up in aviation and he became intrigued by the prospects of transoceanic flight. To that end he invented two important navigation devices, the aerial sextant and the wind drift indicator, and he also coached the navy pilots who successfully flew their NC flying boats across the Atlantic in 1919. Not to be outdone, in 1925 Byrd accompanied the D. B. McMillan expedition to the Arctic regions and, on May 9, 1926, he and pilot Floyd Bennett flew a three-engine Fokker transport named Josephine Ford across the North Pole for the first time. For this feat he became a national celebrity, and he was further honored by a Congressional Medal of Honor and promotion to lieutenant commander. In 1927, Byrd attempted to fly the Atlantic solo for the first time but halted on account of equipment failure, and narrowly lost out to Charles Lindbergh, whom he had also instructed as a flier. In 1928–30, Byrd shifted his attention southward to Antarctica, and he had no

problem raising money for a private expedition there. On November 29, 1929, he and pilot Bernt Balchen took off from their base dubbed Little America and flew over the South Pole for the first time. In 1934, Byrd, now an admiral, also attempted a daring solitary stay in a weather-observation shack south of the main base and was nearly killed by carbon dioxide poisoning from a faulty heater. Just prior to World War II Byrd worked with the U.S. Antarctic Service and was tasked with conducting detailed surveys of the region. When hostilities commenced, he worked capably with the chief of naval operations staff, where his expertise on Arctic conditions proved useful. He also did much to map transpacific air routes for use in the postwar period. In 1946–47, Byrd was tapped to head a huge, governmentsponsored Antarctic expedition called Operation Highjump, which utilized 41,000 men, 13 ships, 19 aircraft, and four helicopters. In this capacity, Byrd became the only man to fly a plane over the South Pole twice. In 1957, he performed similar work commanding Operation Deepfreeze for the International Geophysical Year (IGY), when he flew over the pole a third and final time. Illness necessitated returning to Boston, Massachusetts, to recuperate, and he died there on March 11, 1957. Byrd, in addition to being an officer and a scientist, also penned four popular books aimed at spreading public awareness of the polar frontiers and their value to the United States.

July 26 Religion: In Lackawanna, New York, Our Lady of Victory is the first Roman Catholic church in America consecrated as a basilica.

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August 5 Media: The film Don Juan, featuring John Barrymore, is technically the first sound motion picture in history, although it utilizes a phonographic sound system, not an optical track one.

August 6 Sports: New Yorker Gertrude Ederle, 19, becomes the first woman to swim the English Channel in 14 hours, 31 minutes.

August 30 Sports: Guy McKinney wins the first Hambletonian Stakes in Syracuse, New York, in two straight heats. This quickly becomes the nation’s premier harness racing event.

September 18 General: A tornado cuts across Florida and the Gulf states, killing 372 people, injuring 6,000, and leaving 18,000 families homeless. Property damage in this major disaster is estimated at $80 million.

September 23 Sports: James Joseph “Gene” Tunney deposes reigning heavyweight boxing champion Jack Dempsey on points in a 10-round match in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The fight attracted a record crowd of 118,736 spectators.

October 2–10 Sports: The St. Louis Cardinals (NL) win the 23rd World Series by defeating the New York Yankees (AL) four games to three.

October 10 General: A lightning strike ignites a naval ammunition dump at Lake Denmark, New Jersey, killing 31 people and inflicting $93 million in property damages.

October 25 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides that the president enjoys the right to remove his own cabinet appointees, which annuls a tradition dating back to 1876 and the stormy days of Reconstruction and punitive measures leveled against President Andrew Johnson.

November 2 Politics: Midterm elections favor the Democrats, who gain seats in both the Senate and House of Representatives, but not enough to wrest control away from the Republicans.

November 30 Arts: The operetta The Desert Song by Otto Harbach, Oscar Hammerstein II, Sigmund Romberg, and Frank Mandel opens at the Casino Theater in New York; the title song also becomes one of the year’s best-selling tunes.

December 10 Diplomacy: Vice President Charles G. Dawes wins the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on the so-called Dawes Plan for restructuring Germany’s war reparations; he shares the prize with coauthor Sir Austen Chamberlain of England.

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1927 Arts: Gutzon Borglum’s massive sculptures of Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln are dedicated on Mt. Rushmore, South Dakota. The 500-foot-high busts are visible at a distance of 60 miles. Aviation: The United States deploys the first national radio beacon for air transportation, which automatically informs pilots if they have strayed off course. Business: The Ford Motor Company announces production of its 15 millionth Model T car. Education: New York University establishes seven summer schools at European universities, which are taught by American instructors for college credit. General: Robert S. Brookings, a noted businessman and philanthropist, is commemorated by the new Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. Literature: Thornton Wilder publishes his noted novel of fate, The Bridge of San Luis Rey; Sinclair Lewis publishes his story, Elmer Gantry, about a southern preacher; Upton Sinclair released his novel Oil! based in part on the Teapot Dome leasing scandal. Media: Hollywood stars Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., and his wife Mary Pickford help establish the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The first Academy Awards are presented in 1929. Music: The year’s most popular tunes include “Old Man River,” “My Blue Heaven,” and “Let a Smile Be Your Umbrella.” Sports: This year the game of baseball evolves from a pitcher’s game of relatively few hits to a “slugger’s” game in which batters like George Herman “Babe” Ruth dominate the field; Washington Senators pitcher Walter Johnson concludes his 20-year career by setting two major league records: 113 shutout games and 3,503 batters struck out; the New York Daily News sponsors the first amateur Golden Gloves boxing matches. Technology: John D. Rust perfects a mechanical cotton picker.

January 7 Communication: The first commercial transatlantic telephone service commences between New York and London, England, under the aegis of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company.

January 28 Music: Aaron Copland’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra premieres in Boston with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

February 10 Diplomacy: President Calvin Coolidge initiates a call for a disarmament conference between leading naval powers.

February 11 Agriculture: Congress passes the McNary-Haugen Bill to allow the federal government to purchase agricultural surpluses at world market prices, with a view toward paying farmers an equalization fee should that price fall below domestic pricing. The scheme is vetoed by President Calvin Coolidge.

February 18 Diplomacy: For the first time, the United States and Canada establish formal diplomatic relations independent of Great Britain. William Philips arrives in

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1829

Ruth, Babe (1895–1948) Athlete George Herman Ruth was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on February 6, 1895, the son of a German immigrant saloon operator. He endured a hardscrabble existence with little supervision and was consequently assigned as a delinquent to St. Mary’s Industrial School at the age of seven. There a sympathetic priest introduced him to the sport of baseball, for which Ruth developed an intense passion. He signed on to the Baltimore Orioles in February 1914 as a left-handed pitcher, and performed well. Consequently, his contract was bought out by the Boston Red Sox in the following July, and he began his 22-year stint as the legendary “Sultan of Swat,” better known simply as “Babe.” In truth, there had never been a player quite like Ruth before. He was an excellent, all-around pitcher and outfielder, but also a hitter of enormous power—so much so that he changed the longdominant defensive tactics of Ty Cobb’s day to an aggressive game dominated by slugging. By 1919, when he hit 29 home runs and set a new record, Ruth was confirmed as baseball’s greatest living player, and, the following year, he was sold to the struggling New York Yankees for a record $125,000. It was here, wearing his renowned No. 3 uniform, that Ruth singlehandedly saved the Yankees from oblivion and totally revitalized baseball as a national pastime. Between 1920 and 1934 he hit 25 home runs in 15 consecutive years, and he also slugged in 50 on four other occasions. So popular a fixture did he become to New York fans that audience attendance swelled

to 74,000 per game, which allowed the new Yankee Stadium, known informally as “The House That Ruth Built,” to be constructed. In 1927 he beat his own home run record by hitting 60 in a 154-game season, and he led the Yankees to no less than seven league championships—and four world titles. For this reason, the 1927 Yankees are regarded as the greatest team in baseball history. By 1930, Ruth was earning $80,000 per year, an astronomical sum for its day, which marked him as the sport’s highest paid player. But while a terror at the batting plate, off the field he was also notorious for his lavish lifestyle and frequently outlandish behavior. He was constantly partying until late in the morning and earned the well-deserved reputation as a glutton by consuming dozens of hot dogs and soda bottles at a sitting. Poor health necessitated his retirement in 1935 with a lifetime batting average of .342 and a lifetime total of 714 home runs. The following year he was one of the first men inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, and, in 1938, he attempted to coach the Brooklyn Dodgers but was regarded as too inattentive to his duties to succeed. Ruth remained a beloved and very public figure for the rest of his life, being extremely active and visible in charity movements to help underprivileged children. An incessant cigar smoker, he died of cancer in New York City on August 16, 1948, and his funeral procession down Fifth Avenue was thronged by thousands of his fans.

Ottawa as the first American ambassador to Canada while his Canadian opposite, William Massey, is stationed in Washington, D.C.

February 23 Communication: Congress passes the Radio Control Act, which creates the Federal Radio Commission for better regulation of the rapidly expanding field of national and international communication.

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March 7 Civil: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that Texas laws prohibiting African Americans from voting in Democratic Party primary elections is unconstitutional.

March 17 Naval: The U.S. Supreme Court orders the Navy Department to resume ownership of the Teapot Dome and Elk Hills naval oil reserves, previously at the center of a major administration scandal.

April General: The Mississippi River overflows its banks, inflicting $300 million in property damage in several states and leaving 600,000 people homeless for several weeks.

April 6 Diplomacy: French foreign minister Aristide Briand proposes a treaty to outlaw war to the United States and other major powers.

April 7 Media: Walter S. Gifford, president of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, arranges the first successful demonstration of television by broadcasting a live voice and picture between his office and that of Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover.

April 7–13 Sports: The Ottawa Senators win the NHL Stanley Cup by defeating the Boston Bruins in two games and tying them in two.

April 10 Music: George Anthiel’s Ballet Mécanique, scored for 10 pianos, auto horns, buzz saws, and cowbells, successfully debuts at Carnegie Hall, New York.

April 17 Religion: New York governor Alfred E. Smith, exploring a possible presidential campaign, assures the public that his Catholicism is not an issue by declaring, “I recognize no power in the institution of my church to interfere with the operations of the Constitution of the United States or the enforcement of the law of the land.” However, three decades will pass before a practicing Catholic is elected to the White House.

April 19 Sports: Clarence H. DeMar wins the 31st Boston Marathon by crossing the finish line at two hours, 40 minutes, 22 seconds. This is his fifth win.

April 25 Arts: The musical comedy Hit the Deck by Herbert Fields, Leo Robin, Clifford Grey, and Vince Youmans successfully premieres at the Belasco Theater, New York, with such popular tunes as “Sometimes I’m Happy” and “Hallelujah.”

May 2 Arts: Louis Bromfield’s novel Early Autumn wins the Pulitzer Prize for fiction; Leonora Speyer wins the Pulitzer Prize for poetry with “Fiddler’s Farewell”; Paul Green’s In Abraham’s Bosom wins the Pulitzer Prize for drama.

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May 21 Aviation: In a defining moment of aviation history, Charles A. Lindbergh successfully and singlehandedly flies his Ryan monoplane, the Spirit of St. Louis, across the Atlantic Ocean from New York to Paris in 33 and a half hours. His landing at Le Bourget Airport is attended by 100,000 people and joyous celebrations.

Lindbergh, Charles (1902–1974) Aviator Charles Augustus Lindbergh was born in Detroit, Michigan, on February 4, 1902, the son of a congressman. He attended the University of Wisconsin in 1920 but dropped out two years later to take flying lessons in Lincoln, Nebraska. In 1923 Lindbergh purchased a surplus Curtis JN-4 “Jenny” and began touring the Midwest as a barnstormer. The following year he joined the U.S. Army and passed through the flight school at Brooks Field, Texas, and became a captain with the Air Service in 1926. In this capacity he served as a pilot on the early St. Louis to Chicago route. However, in 1927 Lindbergh was captivated by the $25,000 prize offered to the first pilot to fly nonstop from New York to Paris and, with the backing of several businessmen, he purchased a Ryan single-engine airplane, which he christened the Spirit of St. Louis. On May 20, 1927, Lindbergh set off on his historic quest, crossed the Atlantic in 33 and a half hours, and landed before a cheering throng at Le Bourget Airport near Paris. Back home he received a huge ticker-tape parade in New York, a peacetime Congressional Medal of Honor, and international recognition as a hero of aviation. In 1929, he married Anne Spencer Morrow, who was herself an accomplished pilot, and the two flew around the world for various organizations and promotions. Tragedy struck in 1932 when their infant son was kidnapped and found murdered, and the perpetrator, Bruno Richard Hauptmann, was found guilty and later executed. Lindbergh subsequently relocated to

Europe for many years, where he was invited to examine and evaluate the Nazi Luftwaffe. To his shock and dismay, the German aircraft proved far superior to anything flown by the U.S. Army Air Corps, and he reported this disparity directly to General Henry H. Arnold. In many circles, Lindbergh’s flattering remarks appeared as pro-Nazi when, in effect, he was alerting the world of the dangers they faced in a new war. In 1940, Lindbergh served as spokesman for the isolationist America First Committee, which vigorously opposed American intervention in World War II due to lack of preparedness. President Franklin D. Roosevelt then publicly criticized Lindbergh in several radio addresses, at which point he resigned his colonel’s commission in the Army Air Force. He applied for reinstatement after the Pearl Harbor attack, but Roosevelt vindictively refused, so Lindbergh was sent to the front as a company representative. He flew several fighter missions in the South Pacific and after the war was dispatched to Germany to study the latest German advances in jet technology. In 1953 Lindbergh’s autobiography, The Spirit of St. Louis, won the Pulitzer Prize in history, and that year he was allowed back into the U.S. Air Force Reserve with his former rank of colonel. For many years thereafter, he served as a spokesman for aviation and conservation sources before dying at his home in Kipahulu, Hawaii, on August 26, 1974. During his lifetime, Lindbergh and his wife were America’s most famous aviation couple.

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May 30 Sports: George Soulders wins the 15th Indianapolis 500 by finishing five hours, seven minutes, and 33 seconds at an average speed of 97.54 miles per hour.

June 11 Aviation: Charles A. Lindbergh, a reserve officer in the U.S. Army Air Corps, receives the Distinguished Flying Cross for his transatlantic sojourn; he is the first aviator to receive the medal. Diplomacy: Secretary of State Frank B. Kellogg acknowledges French foreign minister Aristide Briand’s proposal for a treaty to outlaw war.

June 20 Aviation: Clarence Chamberlain and Charles Levine successfully pilot their airplane Colombia from New York to Germany, covering 3,905 miles in 43 hours.

June 28–29 Aviation: U.S. Army Air Corps lieutenants Lester J. Maitland and Albert F. Hegenberger successfully fly their Fokker C-2 Bird of Paradise nonstop from San Francisco, California, to Honolulu, Hawaii; this is the longest distance ever covered over the open ocean.

July 17 Aviation: For the first time, U.S. Marine Corps DH-4s dive bomb rebel forces in Nicaragua.

July 29 Technology: At Bellevue Hospital, New York, Drs. Philip Drinker and Louis A. Shaw of Harvard University develop the first electric respirator, better known as an iron lung.

August 2 Diplomacy: Vice President Charles G. Dawes officiates at ceremonies opening the International Peace Bridge linking Buffalo, New York, with Fort Erie, Ontario, Canada. Politics: Despite a generally successful tenure in office, the laconic Calvin Coolidge confounds political pundits when he simply declares, “I do not choose to run for the presidency in 1928.”

August 23 Crime: Suspected anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are executed in Massachusetts for their purported role in the murder of a factory guard.

September 22 Sports: James Joseph “Gene” Tunney again defeats Jack Dempsey on points in a controversial fight in Chicago, Illinois. Their rematch attracts a record crowd of 145,000 people.

September 29 Diplomacy: The Mexican Congress reverses the 1917 Constitution, which had granted foreign ownership of oil lands, and now requires negotiated concessions from foreign companies. The State Department protests strongly against voiding prior agreements and threatens to withhold recognition of newly elected President Álvaro Obregón.

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General: A tornado suddenly descends upon St. Louis, Missouri, killing 87 people, devastating more than 1,000 homes, and inflicting damage estimated at $50 million.

October 5–8 Sports: The New York Yankees (AL) win the 24th World Series by defeating the Pittsburgh Pirates in four straight games.

October 6 Media: The Jazz Singer, Hollywood’s first sound picture, or “talkie,” successfully debuts and ushers in a new age of motion pictures. It also helps cement the reputation of Al Jolson as the “world’s greatest entertainer.”

October 10 Business: The lease of the Teapot Dome oil reserve, arranged between Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall and the Mammoth Oil Company, is declared fraudulently negotiated by the U.S. Supreme Court and is therefore ruled null and void.

Jolson, Al (1886–1950) Entertainer Asa Yoelson was born in Srednike, Lithuania, on May 26, 1886, the son of a Jewish cantor. He immigrated with his family to the United States, was raised in Washington, D.C., and, having picked up a passion for music from his father, he began singing on street corners to raise money. In 1900, known now as Al Jolson, he moved to New York City in search of wealth and fame as an entertainer, and he worked the vaudeville circuit with his brother. However, his stage persona was unique in that he completely captivated his audience; he talked to them, took requests from them, and, with every ounce of strength he could muster, sang to them. But neither was Jolson beyond bucking entertainment trends; to liven up one presentation of the sentimental song, “Rosey, My Posey,” he appeared in blackface as an African American, gesticulating openly and widely with his arms and eyes to the audience’s delight. Jolson was not the first entertainer to employ blackface, which was a common theatrical convention of the times, but it was his

singing style, a unique blend of jazz and ragtime rhythm applied to traditional songs, that became his trademark. In 1909, he began touring nationally with Dockstader’s Minstrel Show, which led to a successful series of Broadway productions, including La Belle Paree (1911), The Honeymoon Express (1913), Sinbad (1918), and Bomba (1918); and at the end of each song he invariably declared to fans, “You ain’t heard nothing yet!” By 1921, Jolson was at the pinnacle of his success as an entertainer, and he made innumerable songs such as “Mammy,” “Swanee” (penned by George Gershwin), “April Showers,” “California, Here I Come,” and “Toot, Toot, Tootsie, Goodbye” American musical staples. In fact, Jolson’s singing career on Broadway lasted 30 years, unmatched for its longevity, and he was also the first singing artist to sell over 10 million records. Jolson’s career took an unexpected turn in 1927, when he appeared in the Warner Bros. (continues)

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(continued) film The Jazz Singer, the first sound picture. It proved commercially successful, as did his 1928 follow-up, The Singing Fool, whose theme song, “Sonny Boy,” became the first record to sell 3 million copies. Jolson’s popularity waned in the 1930s owing to changes in taste that dropped sentimentality for other forms, but during World War II he rose again in the public estimation owing to his willingness to sail abroad and entertain the troops. In 1946, Columbia Pictures released their biopic The Jolson Story, featuring Larry Parks in the title role while Jolson sang the

soundtrack. It proved another stunning success and led to his reemergence as a radio star hosting Kraft Music Hall. In 1948, the entertainment newspaper Variety voted Jolson the “Most Popular Male Vocalist” for the year, beating out such popular stars as Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, and Perry Como. The sequel Jolson Sings Again premiered to good reviews in 1949, and he had signed a contract to appear on a CBS network television series, but he died in San Francisco on October 23, 1950. For many Americans, he remains the “world’s greatest entertainer.”

November 3 Arts: The musical A Connecticut Yankee by Herbert Fields, Richard Rodgers, and Lorenz Hart opens at the Vanderbilt Theater in New York. It is the first joint effort by the successful team of Rodgers and Hart.

November 13 Transportation: The Holland Tunnel, an enormous engineering project linking Manhattan to New Jersey underwater, is opened to commercial traffic.

November 16 Naval: The U.S. Navy commissions the USS Saratoga, its first combat-capable aircraft carrier, which has been converted from a battle cruiser.

November 17 Diplomacy: The Mexican Supreme Court declares the new Petroleum Law unconstitutional and allows the United States and other foreign nations subsoil and mineral rights as previously negotiated.

December 17 Naval: The submarine USS S-4 sinks with all hands off Provincetown, Massachusetts, after colliding with the Coast Guard vessel USS Paulding.

December 27 Arts: The musical Showboat by Oscar Hammerstein and Jerome Kern opens at the Ziegfeld Theater in New York and proves to be enormously successful.

December 28 Diplomacy: Secretary of State Frank B. Kellogg suggests that the recent treaty to outlaw war by French foreign minister Aristide Briand be extended to include all major powers.

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1928 Art: The Ashcan School of painting, centered in New York’s Greenwich Village under John Sloan, advocates treating everyday life in that metropolis as a legitimate topic for artistic treatment. Literature: Stephen Vincent Benét’s long poem “John Brown’s Body” is published, which harkens back to a time when poets set their works against the backdrop of American history; Julia Peterkin publishes Scarlet Sister Mary concerning the life of an African-American woman on a South Carolina plantation; West Running Brook is the latest volume of poetry from fast-rising author Robert Frost. Media: Cartoonist Walt Disney introduces his most famous creation, Mickey Mouse, in the animated short film Plane Crazy. Music: Composer Ernest Bloch presents his award-winning symphonic piece America; George Gershwin releases his latest masterwork, An American in Paris; the year’s popular tunes include “Button Up Your Overcoat,” “Silver Moon,” and “You’re the Cream in My Coffee.” Publishing: Columbia University anthropologist Franz Boas publishes Anthropology and Modern Life, which disputes the notion of a master race; noted historian Vernon L. Parrington publishes Main Currents in American Thought. Sports: Golf mania engulfs the nation as more than 5,000 courses are in operation nationally while players spend $200 million per year in clubs and clothing.

January 9 Arts: Eugene O’Neill’s play Marco Millions opens at the Guild Theater, New York, and stars Alfred Lunt in the title role as Marco Polo.

January 16 Diplomacy: President Calvin Coolidge presides over opening ceremonies at the Sixth International Conference of American States in Havana, Cuba. However, Latin American states remain angered by the “Roosevelt Corollary” granting the United States exclusive intervention rights in their region.

February 11–19 Sports: The U.S. team wins two gold medals at the second Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, Switzerland, finishing second in team standings.

April 5–14 Sports: The New York Rangers win the NHL Stanley Cup by defeating the Montreal Canadiens three games to two.

April 13–18 Politics: The Socialist Party meets in New York City and nominates Norman Thomas of New York for president and James H. Maurer of Pennsylvania for vice president.

April 19 Sports: Clarence H. DeMar wins the 32nd Boston Marathon (his sixth win) by finishing in two hours, 37 minutes, 7 seconds.

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Disney, Walt (1901–1966) Filmmaker Walter Elias Disney was born in Chicago, Illinois, on December 5, 1901, the son of farmers. He was raised on farms in Marceline and Kansas City, Missouri, where he also managed to obtain some rudimentary art lessons. Disney dropped out of high school in 1917 to fight in World War I but, being underage, he served as an ambulance driver in France. He came home in 1919 and applied for work as a cartoon illustrator and two years later started his own business with noted cartoonist Ub Iwerks. In 1923, Disney felt emboldened to move to Hollywood, California, where he began producing, writing, and directing animated cartoons on his own. However, he eventually had a falling out with Iwerks and went on to create a stable of his own characters, including his iconic Mickey Mouse, who was originally named Mortimer. Mickey’s first two cartoons garnered little attention, but the third, Steamboat Willie (1928), typified Disney’s flair for innovation by being the first animated cartoon to incorporate both dialogue and music on the soundtrack. Success here prompted Disney to expand the scope of his animated shorts to include a literal stable of characters such as Donald Duck, Goofy, and Pluto, each with their own distinct personality and comic routines. Disney completely redefined the animated milieu with the release of the first-ever animated feature film, Snow White (1937), which forever transformed cartoon animation from a novelty to an art form. This was followed by other successful films, such as Bambi, Pinocchio, and the controversial Fantasia, that carried the studio’s

famous animation department up through the 1970s. After World War II, Disney began experimenting successfully with live-action films and documentaries for family entertainment, and by the middle of the 1950s had begun production of several significant television programs. Furthermore, in 1957, Disney opened one of his long-standing fantasies to the public, Disneyland, which was a family-oriented amusement park that proved phenomenally successful and cemented his reputation as America’s leading entertainer. Reputedly, Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev was highly disappointed over not being allowed to visit Disneyland in 1959 for security reasons. In 1961, he also established the California Institute for the Arts to begin teaching a new generation of media-oriented artists. In truth, Disney, a ruthless businessman by nature, was uncompromising in setting high artistic standards for all his creations, which, coupled with an uncannily intuitive grasp of what the public wanted, usually succeeded. He intended to follow this landmark up with a similar venture in Orlando, Florida, soon to be christened Disney World, but he died from lung cancer in Burbank, California, on December 15, 1966. He left behind one of the entertainment world’s greatest legacies, and created a new generation of popular culture based entirely upon wholesomeness and fun. Disney won no less than 29 Academy Awards, the highest total accrued by an individual, along with hundreds of awards from around the world.

May 7 Arts: Thornton Wilder wins the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for his The Bridge of San Luis Rey; Edwin Arlington Robinson wins the Pulitzer Prize for poetry with

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his “Tristam”; Eugene O’Neill’s play Strange Interlude wins the Pulitzer Prize for drama.

May 11 Media: Station WGY in Schenectady, New York, inaugurates regularly scheduled radio programming.

May 15 Politics: In light of recent natural disasters, Congress passes the Flood Control Act, which allocates $325 million for engineering renovations along the Mississippi River.

May 22 Business: Congress approves the Jones-White Merchant Marine Act to provide subsidies for privately owned shipping companies.

May 27 Politics: The Communist-oriented Worker’s Party gathers in New York to again nominate William Z. Foster of Illinois for president and Benjamin Gitlow of New York for vice president.

May 30 Sports: Louis Meyer wins the 16th Indianapolis 500 by finishing in five hours, one minute, 33 seconds at an average speed of 99.48 miles per hour.

May 31–June 9 Aviation: A Fokker trimotor transport flown by Charles Kingsford-Smith and Charles Ulm conducts the first transpacific flight from Oakland, California, to Brisbane, Australia.

June 12–15 Politics: Republicans flock to Kansas City, Missouri, to nominate Herbert Hoover of California for president and Charles Curtis of Kansas for vice president. Hoover, who is widely respected for his efforts in humanitarian relief work, campaigns under the slogan of “A chicken in every pot, a car in every garage.”

June 17 Aviation: Aviatrix Amelia Earhart, flying with two passengers, is the first woman to successfully fly across the Atlantic Ocean, leaving Trepassy Bay, Newfoundland, and landing at Burry Port, Wales, in 20 hours and 40 minutes.

June 26–29 Politics: The Democratic Party meets in Houston, Texas, and nominates New York governor Alfred E. Smith for president and Joseph T. Robinson of Arkansas for vice president. Smith is the first Roman Catholic to run for the highest office in the land, and his religion dominates political discussion throughout the campaign.

July 6 Media: Warner Bros. screens its new motion picture The Lights of New York, the first talking film longer than 6,000 feet, at the Strand Theater, New York City.

July 11 Politics: The Farmer Labor Party meets to select Senator George W. Norris of Nebraska to be the party standard bearer for president and Will Vereen for vice president.

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July 12 Politics: The Prohibition Party nominates William F. Varney of New York for president and James A. Edgarton of Virginia for vice president.

July 26 Sports: Boxer Gene Tunney successfully defends his world heavyweight champion title by knocking out Tom Heeney in the 12th round in New Zealand.

July 29–August 12 Sports: The U.S. team takes first place at the Summer Olympics in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, winning 24 gold medals and setting 17 new Olympic records and 7 world records.

July 30 Media: George Eastman exhibits the first real-color motion pictures at his laboratory in Rochester, New York.

August 25 Exploring: Admiral Richard E. Byrd begins the first leg of his ambitious expedition to fly to the South Pole; this is the first instance that aircraft have been used to explore the Antarctic landmass.

August 27 Diplomacy: Reflecting mounting pacifism, Secretary of State Frank B. Kellogg and French foreign minister Aristide Briand sign the Kellogg-Briand Pact (or Pact of Paris) to outlaw war and settle disputes through diplomacy. A total of 62 nations sign onto the pact within a year.

September Transportation: The first buses fitted with sleeping facilities (Nite Coaches) are constructed by Pickwick Stages of Los Angeles.

October Exploring: Admiral Richard E. Byrd sets up a base camp on the Antarctic continent, which he nicknames “Little America,” and then prepares his equipment for the first flight over the South Pole.

October 4–9 Sports: The New York Yankees win the 25th World Series by sweeping the St. Louis Cardinals in four straight games.

October 31 Aviation: At present, the United States has 3,659 licensed pilots.

November 6 Communication: The New York Times Building in Times Square, New York, is fitted with the first animated electric sign, and it reports returns from the presidential election. Politics: Republican Herbert Hoover defeats Democrat Alfred E. Smith for the presidency, winning 444 electoral votes to 87, and 21.3 million popular votes to 15 million. In a sign of things to come, Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt is also elected governor of New York. The Republicans also increase their hold on Congress by gaining seats in both chambers.

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November 19 Diplomacy: President-elect Herbert Hoover departs on a goodwill tour of Latin America.

November 28 Diplomacy: Despite a strong current of isolationism, the United States attends the International Conference on Economic Statistics at the League of Nations. Economic: The federal government announces its decision to enter the heretofore public field of hydroelectric power to assist states unable to foot the vast expense of constructing giant dams.

December 10 Diplomacy: In Washington, D.C., the Pan-American Conference on Conciliation and Arbitration gathers at president-elect Herbert Hoover’s invitation.

December 12–17 Aviation: In honor of the 25th anniversary of manned flight, the International Civil Aeronautics Conference opens in Washington, D.C., with representatives from 31 nations. Both Orville Wright and Charles A. Lindbergh are on hand to receive the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Clifford Harmon Trophy, respectively.

December 17 Diplomacy: J. Reuben Clark of the State Department effectively repudiates the so-called Roosevelt Corollary by insisting that implementation of the Monroe Doctrine applies only in matters involving European powers, not disputes between Latin American nations.

December 21 Business: The government announces its decision to enter the field of hydroelectricity, previously the domain of private business. The projects it entertains are simply too large and expensive for the private sector to tackle.

1929 Architecture: Radburn, New Jersey, attempts to design the first “garden community,” whereby the habitats are designed to be appealing and functional while still blending into the natural background. Arts: Georgia O’Keeffe is one of the first female painters to render her art in an extremely abstract style; she begins with the celebrated work entitled Black Flowers and Blue Larkspur. Crime: This year marks the rise of several notorious crime figures out of the Chicago area, with the most notorious being Al “Scarface” Capone. Diplomacy: Former secretary of state Frank Kellogg receives the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in drafting the Kellogg-Briand Pact for outlawing war. Labor: The Ford Motor Company increases its minimum wage from $6 to $7 per day; this is the highest rate paid in the automotive industry. Literature: John Steinbeck debuts as a writer by publishing his first novel, Cup of Gold; Ernest Hemingway publishes his notable story A Farewell to Arms; William Faulkner publishes his first book, Sartoris, about a fictional county and its

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O’Keeffe, Georgia (1887–1986) Artist Georgia Totto O’Keeffe was born in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, on November 15, 1887, a daughter of dairy farmers. She was raised in Wisconsin and Virginia, and in 1905 attended the Art Institute of Chicago. An artist of some ability, O’Keeffe next enrolled at the Art Students League in New York City, where in 1908 she won the William Merritt Chase still-life scholarship, with which she attended the league’s outdoor summer school at Lake George, New York. That year she also encountered her future husband, photographer George Stieglitz, at his noted exhibition hall called “the 291” in New York City. In the fall of 1908, O’Keeffe returned to Chicago to work as a magazine illustrator, although a protracted illness forced her to live with her family in Virginia, and she abandoned painting for four years. In 1912, she took a summer class at the University of Virginia and was exposed to the then cutting-edge techniques of Alon Bement Dow, who employed harmonious designs of color, line, and shape. After teaching art for a few years in Virginia, O’Keeffe returned to New York, married Stieglitz in 1924, and began painting and exhibiting full time. By this time she had transitioned from watercolor to oil and began her celebrated career by rendering large-scale paintings of natural objects, as if viewed through a magnifying lens. O’Keeffe originally dabbled in natural and architectural themes, with impressive effect in both themes, although she gradually adopted flowers as something of a personal motif. Her vivid use of color

and abstraction was favorably received by customers and critics alike, and, in 1928, six of her paintings sold for $25,000, the largest sum ever paid for a living artist to that date. A turning point occurred in O’Keeffe’s career in 1929 when she visited New Mexico for an extended period of time and was greatly impressed by the stark, rugged, and beautiful wilderness she encountered among the mesas. During repeated visits to the region, she began collecting and painting animal bones, rocks, shells, and landscape forms, passing them through the prism of her own unique blend of color and abstraction and rendering truly unique art. By the 1930s and 1940s, O’Keeffe was recognized as one of America’s leading female artists; she obtained repeated commissions, and was also the subject of two one-woman retrospectives: in 1942 at the Art Institute of Chicago and in 1946 at the New York Museum of Modern Art. In recognition of her talent, O’Keeffe also received honorary degrees from the College of William and Mary in 1938 and, a few years later, the Whitney Museum of American Art undertook the first published catalog of her artwork. After her husband’s death in 1946, O’Keeffe spent three years settling his estate, then relocated to New Mexico permanently. She continued painting her unique abstractions and, in 1962, she gained election to the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Letters. O’Keeffe died in Santa Fe on March 6, 1986, and was commemorated in 1997 by the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum there.

inhabitants in Mississippi; pulp writer Dashiell Hammett publishes Red Harvest and The Dain Curse, two highly popular detective yarns. Publishing: Columbia University sociologists Robert S. and Helen M. Lynd publish Middletown: A Study in American Culture, an early attempt to apply the principles of classical anthropology to contemporary society.

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Capone, Al

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(1899–1947)

Gangster Alphonse Capone (Caponi) was born in Brooklyn, New York, on January 17, 1899, the son of poor Sicilian immigrants. He grew up on the tough streets of that city, dropped out of school at 14, and a year later began working for the Notorious Five Points gang stalking his neighborhood. Capone, never shy when it came to violence, was viciously slashed in the face by a razor during one street encounter, thereby acquiring the dubious moniker of “Scarface Al.” Despite his ruthless nature, Capone began demonstrating traits of intelligence, tact, and good business sense that set him apart from contemporary thugs. In 1919, he was forced to flee Brooklyn to avoid an assassination attempt, and he relocated to Chicago, Illinois, to work for an old consort, Johnny Torrio. The following year Prohibition went into effect, which had the overall effect of boosting gang activity and wealth based on the illegal brewing, sale, and distribution of liquor. Capone was at the forefront of all these activities and readily capitalized on public willingness to flaunt the law. In addition to bootlegging, Capone was quick to corner the market in prostitution, gambling, and other public vices. Part of his success in all three can be attributed to his easy access to, and interaction with, influential citizens. He conducted himself as a savvy businessman, instead of a racketeer, and he frequently bribed ranking public officials into turning a blind eye to his distilling operations and lucrative chain of speakeasies,

where liquor was always available. Thus politicians, influential citizens, and several police officers were invariably on the take, which made him nearly the de facto ruler of Chicago between 1927 and 1931, and famously wealthy. Astute in managing business matters, Capone was also utterly ruthless in dealing with competitors and meted out death whenever possible. In 1924, his hit men killed Irish rival Dion O’Banion in his flower shop in broad daylight. After Torrio was badly wounded and left for Canada, Capone formally took control of the entire Chicago operation. In 1929, hit men associated with his organization dressed as policemen and then arrested and murdered seven men of the rival George “Bugs” Moran gang in the infamous St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. At this juncture, President Herbert Hoover ordered his secretary of the treasury to find a way to implicate Capone in some accounting fraud, seeing that he probably controlled the Chicago police force. In 1931, Treasury agents arrested the mob leader for failing to file an income tax return, whereby he was tried and sentenced to 10 years in prison at Atlanta, Georgia, and then Alcatraz Island, California. By this time, Capone’s health had begun to deteriorate from the onset of syphilis, and he was practically an invalid following his release in 1939. He died at his Miami Beach estate on January 25, 1947, the archetypical Prohibition-era gangster, whose success closely mirrored the rise of organized crime in America.

January 1–7 Aviation: A Fokker C2-A flown by Major Carl Spaatz, Captain Ira C. Eaker, Lieutenant Elwood Quesada, and Sergeant Roy Hooe establishes a world flight endurance record of 150 hours, 40 minutes.

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Faulkner, William (1897–1962) Writer William Cuthbert Falkner was born in New Albany, Mississippi, on September 25, 1897, the son of a hardware store manager. He was raised in the town of Oxford and, in 1918, he tried enlisting in the U.S. Army to fight in World War I, but was rejected for being too short. Falkner subsequently joined the Royal Canadian Air Service but saw no action and sustained injuries in a plane crash. He returned to Oxford, Mississippi, soon afterward and in 1919 published his first poem in the New Republic. Over the next seven years he alternately studied at the University of Mississippi and toured Europe on foot with a friend, but otherwise waxed idle and listless. It was not until 1924 that he formally committed his thoughts to paper by publishing a volume of poetry, The Marble Faun, which is best remembered for the publisher having accidentally added a letter “u” to his last name, whereupon he himself spelled it as Faulkner. Two additional novels followed, Soldier’s Pay (1926) and Mosquitoes (1927), which, while well received, did not succeed commercially. The turning point in Faulkner’s writing occurred in 1929 when he wrote Sartoris, concerning a Mississippi family in the fictional town of Jefferson, Yoknapatawpha County, and reminiscent of the French author Balzac. His ongoing saga involved several generations of outlandish characters from the Sartoris, Compton, and Snopes clans, which cut across several succeeding volumes and chronicled, in acute detail, the moral and social decay of the latter-day aristocracy in

the South. This was followed by The Sound and the Fury (1929), As I Lay Dying (1930), and Light in August (1932), among other books, which invariably recycled familiar characters and declining family fortunes. Moreover, Faulkner wrote in a difficult, almost convoluted “stream of consciousness” style that many readers found daunting and could not readily comprehend. Those who did, however, invariably commented upon the imaginative power and psychological depth of his novels. Curiously, Faulkner’s efforts were basically ignored at home but won rave reviews abroad, particularly in post–World War II France. His efforts crested with receipt of the Nobel Prize in Literature for 1950, and he won it again in 1954 for his novel A Fable. Faulkner also created a large body of short stories, poetry, and a play entitled Requiem for a Nun in 1951. In 1955, he abandoned his traditional seclusion to deliver a series of lectures at the University of Nagano, Japan, and from 1957 to 1958 he served as writer-in-residence at the University of Virginia. Recognition at home came slowly for Faulkner, a detached, extremely shy individual who studiously avoided the limelight to concentrate on writing. He died in his home at Oxford on July 6, 1962, a uniquely gifted individual whose last three novels, The Town (1957), The Mansion (1959), and The Reivers (1962), the final installments of his celebrated Yoknapatawpha saga, are regarded as minor fare.

January 15 Diplomacy: The U.S. Senate ratifies the Kellogg-Briand Pact on a vote of 85 to 1; this commits the United States to outlawing war and aggression in favor of diplomacy and arbitration.

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February 2 Business: In an attempt to restrict the buying of stocks on the margin (in effect, speculating), the Federal Reserve Board forbids member banks from lending money for that purpose.

February 11–June 7 Diplomacy: In Paris, France, Owen Young is elected chairman of an international group of financiers tasked with revising the Dawes Plan for a new schedule of German reparation payments.

February 13 Naval: Despite renewed interest in outlawing war, Congress approves the Cruiser Act, authorizing construction of 19 such vessels, along with one aircraft carrier, for the U.S. Navy.

February 14 Crime: The “St. Valentine’s Massacre” unfolds in Chicago when six gangsters of the George “Bugs” Moran gang are lined up and executed by rivals disguised as policemen. Al Capone is suspected to be behind the murders, but the case is never solved.

March 4 Politics: In Washington, D.C., Herbert Hoover is inaugurated as the 31st president of the United States, while Charles Curtis is sworn in as vice president. Hoover then goes on to assure the world that his administration entertains “no desire for territorial expansion, for economic or other domination of other people.”

March 28–29 Sports: The Boston Bruins win the NHL Stanley Cup by defeating the New York Rangers in two straight games.

April 9 Naval: A U.S. Coast Guard vessel mistakenly sinks the Canadian vessel I’m Alone in the Gulf of Mexico after suspecting it is running rum; the Canadian government protests loudly.

April 15 Business: President Herbert Hoover summons a special session of Congress to address the nation’s ongoing economic woes, especially high rates of farm foreclosures and tariff revisions. Women: Margaret Sanger’s birth control clinic in New York City is raided by police, and two doctors and three nurses are arrested. Thousands of confidential records are also confiscated, although the courts subsequently dismiss the case against all involved over the right of physicians’ right to practice.

April 19 Sports: Johnny Miles of Ontario, Canada, wins the 33rd Boston Marathon with a time of two hours, 33 minutes, and eight seconds.

May 12 Arts: Julia Perkins’s novel Scarlet Sister Mary wins the Pulitzer Prize for fiction; Stephen Vincent Benét’s volume John Brown’s Body wins the Pulitzer Prize for poetry; Elmer L. Rice’s play Street Scene wins a Pulitzer Prize for drama.

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Hoover Herbert (1874–1964) President Herbert Clark Hoover was born in West Branch, Iowa, on August 10, 1874, the son of a blacksmith. Orphaned at an early age, he was raised by Quaker relatives and was thereafter imbued with a deeply held sense of humanity, a trait he carried throughout life. Hoover graduated from Stanford University in 1895 with a mine engineering degree and retired two decades later a multimillionaire. He was in London, England, when World

War I commenced in August 1914 and proved instrumental in orchestrating relief efforts for thousands of Americans stranded there. Hoover enjoyed similar success directing the operations of the Commission for Relief in Belgium, at which point Democratic president Woodrow Wilson appointed him U.S. food administrator once the United States entered the fray in 1917. He also shipped food to relieve the great famine in Germany

Herbert Hoover campaigning from the back of a railroad car during the 1928 U.S. presidential election. (Library of Congress)

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and the Soviet Union in 1921–23, and his high visibility and good results made him a possible presidential contender. In light of his success as an administrator, however, Hoover gained appointment as secretary of commerce under Republican president Warren G. Harding, and again under his successor, Calvin Coolidge. In this capacity, he was responsible for initiating and orchestrating such large and notable projects as Hoover Dam and the St. Lawrence Seaway. Hoover fulfilled his responsibilities capably, and his tenure as secretary of commerce parallels one of the longest periods of growth and prosperity in American history. Furthermore, when Coolidge declined to run for a second term, Hoover was readily tapped to serve as the Republican nominee for the White House. In 1928, he handily defeated his Democratic challenger, Alfred E. Smith, by winning 444 electoral votes to 87, becoming the first and only sitting cabinet member to gain the presidency. Hoover’s tenure in office, however well intended, unfortunately coincided with the onset of the Great Depression in October

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1929. He fully empathized with the long lines of unemployed workers, and he urged state and local agencies to do more for them, but otherwise he failed to comprehend the sheer magnitude of the problem besetting the nation. In truth, the depression was on a far larger scale than anything previously experienced by the United States, and required more than the usual band-aid solutions. But Hoover, like many Republicans, could not bring himself to utilize government for direct intervention in the economy, and he held that its only role in fostering social aid was in facilitating economic growth. Not surprisingly, Hoover was badly beaten by Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1932 elections, which saw the Republican Party eclipsed at the executive level for two decades. Hoover bore the brunt of blame for this disaster, and it was not until the administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953 that he was able to engage in any public capacity again. He died in New York City on October 20, 1964, a capable bureaucrat, but inflexible as a political leader.

May 16 Media: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences grants it first awards to the movie Wings as best picture, with Janet Gaynor for best actress and Emil Jannings as best actor. These are not known as “Oscars” until 1931, however.

May 17 Crime: In Chicago, Illinois, gangster Alphonse “Scarface” Capone receives a one-year jail sentence for carrying a concealed weapon.

May 20 Politics: In light of public lawlessness toward the 18th Amendment, President Herbert Hoover appoints a National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement under George Wickersham to make recommendations as to the continuance of Prohibition.

May 27 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of United States v. Schwimmer, ruling that a lower court was correct in denying citizenship to Rosika Schwimmer,

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Chronology of American History a Hungarian pacifist. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes consequently issues one of his famous dissents, insisting that the right to embrace unpopular notions is a core principle of constitutional law.

May 30 Sports: Ray Keech wins the 17th Indianapolis 500 by finishing in five hours, seven minutes, and 25 seconds at an average speed of 97.58 miles per hour.

June 7 Diplomacy: In Paris, France, an international body of financiers discards the Dawes Plan in favor of the new Young Plan, named after Chairman Owen Young, which reduce Germany’s annual reparation payments.

June 15 Agriculture: The Agricultural Marketing Act is adopted by Congress to establish a Federal Farm Board with a revolving fund to assist farmer’s aid cooperatives and sell surplus farm products at stable market prices. A $500-million revolving fund is also established to provide low-interest loans to lending agencies.

July Architecture: The Milam Building, the most modern office structure of its kind, arises in San Antonio, Texas, and is unique for incorporating centralized air conditioning throughout.

July 1 Societal: The Immigration Act of 1924 is legally implemented; it imposes strict quotas on the movement of various national groups to the United States, ostensibly to maintain the country’s presumably predominant northern European composition.

July 17 Science: Dr. Robert H. Goddard successfully launches another one of his rockets and recovers the instrument package by parachute.

July 24 Diplomacy: President Herbert Hoover declares that the Kellogg-Briand Pact is in effect.

August–September Business: The national economy teeters along, with mounting weakness in steel and automobile production. Still, stock prices are continuing to climb in a threeyear bull market.

September Societal: Statistics released by the government suggest that 60 percent of the population is getting by on an income of $2,000 or less.

September 3 Business: Stock prices riding the bull market reach their all-time high, with the Standard Statistics Index reaching 216; however, catastrophe is right around the corner.

September 16 Arts: Stage censorship strikes again when the mayor of Boston orders Eugene O’Neill’s Pulitzer Prize–winning play Strange Interlude banned from the public; the production subsequently relocates to nearby Quincy, Massachusetts.

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September 22 Architecture: The construction contract for the new and ambitious Empire State Building is signed in New York; when finished in 1931 this will be the world’s tallest man-made structure.

September 24 Aviation: Lieutenant James Doolittle makes aviation history by successfully completing the first “blind” airplane flight out of Mitchell Field, New York. He flies his Consolidated NY-2 biplane for hours in a canvas-covered canopy using only instruments and no radio.

October 4–9 Diplomacy: In Washington, D.C., British prime minister J. Ramsay MacDonald discusses naval parity with President Herbert Hoover in what constitutes the opening round of an international disarmament conference. He is also the first British prime minister to give a speech before Congress.

October 7 Crime: The trial of former secretary of the interior Albert B. Fall commences over his involvement in the by-now infamous Teapot Dome scandal.

October 8–14 Sports: The Philadelphia Athletics (AL) win the 26th World Series by defeating the Chicago Cubs four games to one.

October 22 Business: In spite of unusually heavy withdrawals of capital from the United States, the president of New York’s National City Bank declares that he observes nothing alarming with the stock market.

October 23 Business: Signs of economic panic manifest following an ongoing decline in stock market prices on the New York Stock Exchange.

October 24 Business: On “Black Thursday,” the New York Stock Exchange suffers from a major collapse of stock prices after 13 million shares are sold off. Major investors like John P. Morgan and John D. Rockefeller are called in to prop up the market, but it continues falling precipitously.

October 25 Crime: Albert B. Fall, formerly secretary of the interior, is convicted of accepting a $100,000 bribe in return for an illegal lease of the Teapot Dome oil reserves. He is sentenced to one year in prison and a $100,000 fine.

October 29 Business: The New York Stock Exchange finally crashes on “Black Tuesday” after 16 million shares are sold at a tremendous loss to owners. This is regarded as the first day of the Great Depression and remains the most catastrophic event in American economic history.

November Business: Sebastiano Lando obtains a patent for his tamper-proof coin-operated vending machines.

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November 13 Business: By now the New York Stock Exchange has posted a loss estimated at $30 billion, which wipes out the savings of entire families; many stockbrokers, unable to withstand the loss of their fortunes, commit suicide.

November 21 Business: President Herbert Hoover assures representatives of big business and labor that the federal government is doing everything in its power to shore up the national economy from complete collapse.

November 27 Arts: The musical comedy Fifty Million Frenchmen by Herbert Fields and Cole Porter debuts at the Lyric Theater, New York, bringing Porter well-­deserved recognition.

November 28–29 Exploring: A Ford trimotor piloted by Admiral Richard E. Byrd successfully flies over the South Pole with Norwegian-­American explorer Bernt Balchen and two crewmen, then returns to its base camp at “Little America” after a trip of 19 hours.

December 1 Business: By this date, the value of stocks on the New York Stock Exchange has plummeted by $26 billion, sounding the tocsin for the Great Depression.

Porter, Cole (1893–1964) Composer Cole Porter was born in Peru, Indiana, on June 9, 1893, the son of a wealthy pharma-­ cist. His domineering mother pushed him into a music career while still a child—he could play the violin at six—and in 1901 he wrote and published his first composi-­ tion, “The Bobolink Waltz.” He subsequently studied music while attending the Worcester Academy and Yale University, 1909–13. At Yale, Porter displayed genuine talent as a lyricist and composed over 300 songs, many of which are still played on that campus today. After graduating, he enrolled in Har-­ vard University Law School in 1913, but he quickly switched over to the School of Music, where he flourished. While in atten-­ dance, Porter, assisted by classmate T. Francis

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Lawton, wrote his first musical, See America First, which premiered on Broadway in 1916 and completely flopped. Following Ameri-­ can entry into World War I, Porter settled in Paris, France, where he became part of the high-­living socialite scene. Besides writ-­ ing songs, he also worked for the Duryea Relief Fund. In 1918, Porter met and mar-­ ried socialite Linda Lee Thomas, who, like himself, loved to travel and entertain in high style. After a decade of decadence, Porter returned to the United States to resume writ-­ ing songs for Broadway musicals. In 1928, his musical An American in Paris featured one of his signature songs, “Let’s Do It—Let’s Fall in Love,” followed by the equally suc-­ cessful Fifty Million Frenchmen (1929) with

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December 2 Diplomacy: Secretary of State Henry Stimson appeals to the Soviet Union and China, both of which are signatories to the Kellogg-Briand Pact, to peacefully resolve their ongoing dispute over Manchuria.

December 3 Business: President Herbert Hoover, in his annual message to Congress, mistakenly declares that confidence in the national economy has been reestablished. In fact, the nation remains in the grip of the Great Depression for over a decade.

December 9 Diplomacy: Secretary of State Henry Stimson signs the so-called Root Formula, named after his predecessor, Elihu Root, which outlines the basis for American adherence to decisions rendered by the World Court of the League of Nations. The Senate, however, dislikes its provisions and declines to ratify it.

1930 Art: Grant Wood finishes his iconic work American Gothic, drawing heavily upon German and Flemish primitives to set the tone. Education: Princeton University inaugurates its rather informal Institute for Advanced Studies, with Albert Einstein among its very first members; illiteracy

its popular numbers “You Do Something to Me” and “You’ve Got That Thing.” One year later his third consecutive hit, Wake Up and Dream, showcased the classic hit “What Is This Thing Called Love?” The decade ended with Porter’s reputation as a composer and lyricist firmly established, whose products exuded a polished, urbane wit, and classy sophistication rarely heard in Broadway productions. Porter reached the heights of success in the 1930s with a string of successful musical and film scores. His successive productions of The New Yorkers (1930), Gay Divorcee (1932), and Anything Goes (1934) enshrined such standard American works as “Love for Sale,” “Night and Day,” and “I Get a Kick Out of You.” Among the leading talents called upon to sing and star in his works were Ethel Merman, Jimmy Durante,

and Bob Hope. However, tragedy struck in 1937, when Porter was injured while riding his horse and, despite 30 operations, one leg had to be amputated. He lived in chronic pain thereafter, but he continued churning out catchy tunes throughout the ensuing decade, including for plays such as Panama Hattie (1940), Let’s Face It! (1941), Something for the Boys (1943), and his smash hit, Kiss Me, Kate (1948), which was based on Shakespeare’s play, Taming of the Shrew. He also found the time to compose for the successful motion pictures Broadway Melody (1940) and You’ll Never Get Rich (1941), along with the usual Broadway fare of Silk Stockings (1955) and High Society (1956). Porter withdrew from society in the mid-1950s following the onset of medical problems; he died in Santa Monica, California, on October 15, 1964.

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Chronology of American History

Shown in this 1931 photograph is a breadline in Boston during the Great Depression, the most severe economic crisis in U.S. history. (Library of Congress)

continues declining nationally, with posted rates of 4.3 percent, a 15.7 percent drop since 1870. Literature: The anthology I’ll Take My Stand: Humanism in America features a number of prominent writers from the South. William Faulkner publishers his newest novel, As I Lay Dying; Dashiell Hammett publishes the Maltese Falcon, long regarded as a preeminent detective novel; Kenneth Roberts publishes the first of his many historical novels, Arundel. Music: The Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester, begins its Annual Festival of American Music under the direction of Dr. Howard Hanson, whose own Second Symphony debuts this year to critical acclaim.

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Population: Figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau reveal a national population of 122 million people, centered three miles northeast of Linton, Indiana. Publishing: The Bureau of Customs in New York seizes copies of James Joyce’s novel Ulysses on the grounds that it violates obscenity laws. The writings of Communist Leon Trotsky are also banned in Boston. Societal: A local labor union constructs Hillman Houses, the nation’s first cooperative housing project. Transportation: Figures released by the government indicate that one of every 4.9 Americans owns an automobile; this year U.S. airlines will carry 374,935 passengers.

January 2 Politics: With unemployment at 4 million and the national economy in tatters, President Herbert Hoover meets with congressional leaders as to the feasibility of a national works program.

January 21–April 22 Diplomacy: The United States, in concert with Japan and Great Britain, continues the naval disarmament schemes enunciated at the Washington Conference, 1921–22, over the objections of France and Italy, which oppose the ratio, sizes, and schedules they would be subjected to.

February 3 Law: President Herbert Hoover appoints Charles Evans Hughes to succeed William Howard Taft as chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

February 10 Crime: In Chicago, police authorities close down a major bootlegging operation and arrest 158 people. The total value of this illicit business is estimated at $50 million and involves 31 organizations.

March 13–22 Law: Edward Doheny, charged with bribing former interior secretary Albert Fall for an illegal lease on the Elk Hills oil reserve, is brought to trial and ultimately acquitted.

March 13 Science: Photographs taken by the Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, Arizona, positively identify the ninth planet Pluto, which had been accurately predicted by mathematical astronomers.

March 16 Media: Station WEAF, New York, carries a live broadcast of Beethoven’s Fidelio from the stage in Germany.

March 30–April 6 Aviation: Captain Frank M. Hanks successfully performs the first transcontinental glider flight while being pulled behind a 500-foot towline.

March 31 Politics: The Public Buildings Act is approved by Congress, which appropriates $230 million for the construction of new public buildings. It proves inadequate for relieving the endemic unemployment rates gripping the nation.

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April 1–3 Sports: The Montreal Canadiens win the NHL Stanley Cup by defeating the Boston Bruins in two straight games.

April 3 Media: Academy Awards are given to Broadway Melody for best picture of 1928, to Warner Baxter as best actor for In Old Arizona, and to Mary Pickford as best actress for Coquette.

April 4 Politics: In another attempt to provide public relief, Congress approves $300 million to aid states in road construction. Science: The American Interplanetary Society forms.

April 17 Media: The National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) produces and broadcasts Charles Sanford Skilton’s Indian opera The Sun Bride.

April 19 Sports: Clarence H. DeMar wins his seventh Boston Marathon by crossing the line at two hours, 34 minutes, 48 seconds.

April 21 General: A fire sweeps through the Ohio State Penitentiary, killing 320 prisoners; at the time, 4,300 prisoners were crowded into facilities designed to hold only 1,500.

April 22 Diplomacy: The United States signs the London Naval Treaty, along with Japan, Britain, France, and Italy, although the latter two nations object to certain provisions and intend to ignore them. This is a significant step toward global disarmament, but it is quickly overtaken by world events and largely negated.

May 4 Business: Congress approves the Hawley-Smoot Tariff Bill to raise duties, some of them prohibitively high, on many imported commodities. This happens despite a petition signed by 1,028 prominent economists who fear its negative impact on the already tottering economy.

May 9 Sports: Gallant Fox wins the 55th annual Preakness Stakes with a time of two minutes.

May 11 Science: Adler Planetarium opens in Chicago, becoming the first astronomical observatory in the United States.

May 12 Arts: Oliver LaFarge’s novel Laughing Boy wins the Pulitzer Prize for fiction; Conrad Aiken’s Selected Poems wins the Pulitzer Prize for poetry; Marc Connelly’s play The Green Pastures wins the Pulitzer Prize for drama.

May 15 Women: Ellen Church becomes the first airline flight attendant while serving aboard a Boeing Model 80 transport.

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May 17 Sports: Gallant Fox wins the 56th annual Kentucky Derby by finishing the course in two minutes, seven seconds.

May 24 Societal: The popular magazine Literary Digest undertakes a poll, which reveals that the majority of Americans favor repealing the 18th Amendment and ending Prohibition.

May 30 Sports: Billy Arnold wins the 18th Indianapolis 500 by finishing the course in four hours, 58 minutes, 39 seconds at an average speed of 100.44 miles per hour.

June 7 Sports: Gallant Fox wins the 62nd annual Belmont Stakes with a time of two minutes, 31 seconds. He is only the second horse to win the Triple Crown.

June 12 Sports: Max Schmeling of Germany defeats Jack Sharkey in the fourth round to become the world’s heavyweight boxing championship.

June 17 Business: Despite pleading from leading economists, President Herbert Hoover signs the Hartley-Smoot Tariff Act into law. Many fear this will trigger a round of international protectionism that will strangle trade and deepen the global depression.

July 3 Military: The Veterans’ Administration Act passes Congress, which consolidates all federal programs assisting military veterans into a single entity.

July 21 Diplomacy: The Senate ratifies the Naval Disarmament Treaty as part of an overall arms build-down adopted by Britain, Japan, France, and Italy.

August 11 Religion: The Lutheran Synod of Buffalo, New York, the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Iowa, and the Evangelical Lutheran Joint Synod of Ohio agree to merge into a new national entity, the American Lutheran Church.

September 3 Transportation: Aged inventor Thomas Edison oversees the running of the nation’s first electric passenger train on the Lackawanna Railroad as it travels between Hoboken and Montclair, New Jersey.

September 9 Societal: In light of mounting unemployment, the State Department calls a halt to virtually all immigration by foreign laborers.

September 13–17 Sports: The American yacht Enterprise successfully defends the America’s Cup from the British challenger Shamrock IV by winning four straight races.

September 17 Engineering: Construction of Hoover Dam (originally called Boulder Dam) begins at Las Vegas, Nevada.

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September 27 Sports: Robert Tyre “Bobby” Jones, Jr., the first national golf figure, becomes the only player to win the U.S. amateur golf tournament, the U.S. Open, the British Open, and the British amateur tournament.

October Labor: With unemployment standing at 4.5 million, President Herbert Hoover appoints a Committee for Unemployment Relief to provide federal leadership for aid programs administered by state and local agencies.

October 1–8 Sports: The Philadelphia Athletics (AL) win the 27th World Series by defeating the St. Louis Cardinals, four games to two.

October 5 Media: The Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) commences Sunday broadcasts of the New York Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, in this instance featuring the famous Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini.

October 30 Science: Dr. Karl Landsteiner of the Rockefeller Institute wins the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for his work with human blood groups.

October 31 Religion: The American Lutheran Churches completes its merger of seven synods in the United States and Canada at an organizational convention.

November 4 Politics: Midterm elections result in Democratic control of the House of Representatives. The Democrats also capture eight additional Senate seats, but the Republicans remain in the majority.

November 5 Arts: Upton Sinclair becomes the first American to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature for his novel Babbitt. Media: Academy Awards are given to All Quiet on the Western Front as best picture, 1929–30, to George Arliss as best actor for Disraeli, and to Norma Shearer as best actress in The Divorce.

November 27 Diplomacy: Former secretary of state Frank B. Kellogg wins the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in crafting the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928.

December 2 Politics: President Herbert Hoover, responding to the need to generate work for millions of unemployed, asks Congress to appropriate $150 million to aid in the construction of public works.

December 11 Business: In a sign of deepening economic troubles, the Bank of the United States, New York, a huge private depository with 60 branches and 400,000 customers, closes. It joins the 1,300 other financial institutions that have shut their doors since the “crash” of 1929.

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December 20 Politics: Congress, acting at the behest of President Herbert Hoover, votes to provide $116 million for the construction of public works.

December 30 Science: Dr. Robert H. Goddard successfully launches a rocket that reaches 500 miles per hour at an altitude of 2,000 feet.

1931 Architecture: The New York School for Social Research for adult education is constructed as a model of ultramodern design. Literature: Willa Cather composes her beautifully written historical novel Shadows on the Rock; Dashiell Hammett writes another exciting detective yarn, The Glass Key; Thornton Wilder provides a collection of one-act plays in his compilation The Long Christmas Dinner. Publishing: Pearl S. Buck’s first book, The Good Earth, arrives in print and proves a best seller for two years. Science: Columbia University physicist Harold C. Urey announces the discovery of deuterium (heavy hydrogen), soon a key component in the construction of atomic weapons; radio engineer J. G. Lansky of Bell Telephone Laboratories detects the first radio stellar emissions from the Milky Way galaxy.

January 7 Labor: The Emergency Committee for Unemployed Relief is the harbinger of grim tidings by informing President Herbert Hoover that jobless Americans number around five million and that the depression has yet to bottom out.

January 19 Societal: The Wickersham Committee, appointed by President Herbert Hoover in May 1929 to study the impact of and make recommendations relative to the Eighteenth Amendment, issues its final report and simply suggests that certain enforcement provisions be revised. Hoover, in his report to Congress, is also against its outright repeal.

February 24 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the Eighteenth Amendment was adopted constitutionally, thus Prohibition remains the law of the land.

February 27 Journalism: The New York World merges with the New York Telegram to form a new entity, the New York World-Telegram under the editorship of noted columnist Walter Lippmann. Politics: Congress passes the Bonus Loan Bill, which allows veterans to cash loans up to 50 percent of the value of veterans’ bonus certificates first issued in 1924.

March 3 Business: The very pro-business president Herbert Hoover vetoes the Muscle Shoals Bill, which mandated federal control of hydroelectric facilities along the Muscle Shoals section of the Tennessee River. He does so out of a determination to prevent the government from competing with citizens in the business sector.

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Chronology of American History General: President Herbert Hoover signs an act making the “Star Spangled Banner,” written by Baltimore lawyer Francis Scott Key in 1814, the official national anthem.

March 17 Politics: New York mayor James J. Walker is charged with malfeasance and negligence of duties, although he steadfastly refuses to resign from office.

March 20 Religion: The Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America lends conditional support to some measures of birth control, still largely opposed by the public at large.

March 25 Civil: In Scottsboro, Alabama, nine young African-American boys are charged with raping a white woman; their ensuing trial and vindication reaches all the way to the Supreme Court and becomes a rallying cry for black citizens seeking equal justice.

April 3–14 Sports: The Montreal Canadiens win the NHL Stanley Cup by defeating the Chicago Black Hawks three games to two.

April 8 Aviation: Amelia Earhart establishes a new altitude record of 18,415 feet in her Pitcairn autogiro, a hybrid airplane/helicopter.

April 20 Sports: James Hennigan wins the 35th Boston Marathon by crossing the line at two hours, 46 minutes, 45 seconds.

May 1 Architecture: In New York City, the Empire State Building is formally dedicated as the world’s tallest structure; it retains that title until completion of the Sears Tower in Chicago in the 1970s.

May 4 Arts: Margaret Ayers Barnes wins the Pulitzer Prize for fiction with her Years of Grace; Robert Frost wins the Pulitzer Prize for poetry for his Collected Poems; Susan Glaspell’s play Alison’s House wins the Pulitzer Prize for drama.

May 13 Sports: After an infamous false start, whereby all horses were recalled after rounding the track, Clock Tower finally wins the contest at Jamaica, New York.

May 27 Aviation: Balloonists August Piccard and Paul Kipfer make the first manned flight into the stratosphere by reaching 51,777 feet.

May 30 Sports: Louis Schneider wins the 19th annual Indianapolis 500 by finishing the course in five hours, 10 minutes, 27 seconds at an average speed of 96.63 miles per hour.

June 4 Aviation: William G. Swan performs the first rocket-powered glider flight in the United States, traveling 1,000 feet and rising to a height of 100 feet at Atlantic City, New Jersey.

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June 20 Business: In light of the recent failure of a major Austrian bank, President Herbert Hoover calls for a one-year moratorium on all international debts and war reparations to assist the global economy. It will gradually be enacted by July, although the effect proves minimal.

June 23–July 1 Aviation: Aeronauts Wiley Post and Harold Gatty depart Roosevelt Field in New York in a Lockheed Vega named Winnie Mae and commence the first singleaircraft, around-the-world flight. They return eight days, 15 hours, and 51 minutes later.

July 1 Religion: The National Council of Congregational Churches and the General Council of Christian Churches merges into a new entity, the National Council of Congregational and Christian Churches.

July 22 Agriculture: Kansas farmers report a bumper crop of wheat, which causes the price of this valuable commodity to slide precipitously worldwide.

September 18 Diplomacy: Japan embarks on its course of aggression by marching troops into mineral-rich Manchuria, in violation of the 1928 Kellogg-Briand Pact, to which it is a party; the American Bar Association entreats the U.S. Senate to adopt the so-called Root Formula for allowing the United States to abide by decisions of the World Court; the association is ignored.

September 21 Business: When Great Britain goes off the gold standard, many Americans anticipate that the United States will follow suit, and a run on banks begins as depositors withdraw their savings; within two months 827 financial institutions close.

October 1–10 Sports: The St. Louis Cardinals (NL) win the 28th World Series by defeating the Philadelphia Athletics four games to three.

October 5 Aviation: Hugh Herndon and Clyde Pangborn complete the first nonstop flight across the Pacific Ocean (4,600 miles) by flying from Sabishiro, Japan, to Wenatchee, Washington state, in 41 hours, 13 minutes.

October 16 Diplomacy: The Council of the League of Nations requests that the United States attend discussions arising from the recent Japanese occupation of Manchuria.

October 17 Crime: Noted crime boss Al Capone is convicted of income tax evasion in a federal court in Chicago, Illinois, and draws an 11-year jail sentence and a $50,000 fine.

October 18 Diplomacy: Responding to a request by the League of Nations, Secretary of State Henry Stimson dispatches the U.S. consul in Geneva, Switzerland, to attend discussions relating to the seizure of Manchuria by Japan.

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October 24 Engineering: The George Washington Bridge, connecting Manhattan with New Jersey across the Hudson River, is officially dedicated, with Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt present for opening ceremonies. This intricate, imposing structure was constructed eight months ahead of schedule and under budget.

October 25 Diplomacy: French prime minister Pierre Laval, arrives in Washington, D.C., for talks with President Herbert Hoover. At length, both leaders agree to keep their respective nations on the gold standard.

October 26 Arts: Eugene O’Neill’s six-hour, marathon play Mourning Becomes Electra premieres at the Guild Theater in New York.

November 10 Media: Academy Awards are given to Cimarron for best picture, to Lionel Barrymore for best actor in A Free Soul, and to Marie Dressler for best actress in Min and Bill.

December 7 Societal: Several hundred “hunger marchers” protest in front of the White House in Washington, D.C., but they are turned away while trying to present their petition for seeking employment at a minimum wage.

December 8 Politics: In his annual address, President Herbert Hoover asks Congress to quickly establish an emergency reconstruction finance corporation. Such a body would lend money to lending institutions dealing directly with the nation’s industries. The president also declares a need for additional public works projects.

December 10 General: Social activist Jane Addams and Columbia University president Nicholas Murray Butler are awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace.

December 18 Crime: Notorious underworld figure Jack “Legs” Diamond is gunned downed in an Albany, New York, boarding house.

December 26 Arts: The hit musical comedy Of Thee I Sing by George and Ira Gershwin opens at the Music Box Theater, New York.

1932 Arts: Charles Sheeler releases his painting River Rouge Plant as a vivid example of precisionism, an art form whose precise lines border on mechanical drawing; Grant Wood paints his realistic treatment entitled Daughters of the American Revolution; November Evening, a somber treatment of small-town shabbiness by Charles Burchfield sets new standards for bleakness. Business: As an indication of America’s economic distress, unemployment reaches 13 million people, while business losses are reported as close to $6 billion. In sum, the nation is functioning at approximately half the level it was a year ago;

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the price of wheat drops to an all-time low of 32 cents per bushel, dramatically down from $2.33 in 1920. Crime: The Chicago crime wave spirals out of control as citizens end up handing over $145 million to local racketeers. Education: Bennington College, a progressive institution for women, opens in the fall at Bennington, Vermont; it forsakes traditional courses and grades for overall knowledge of given subjects. Engineering: Construction begins on the new San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, budgeted at $70 million. Media: In an attempt to spur audience attendance, Charles Urban Yeager introduces the concept of “bank night” at movie theaters in Colorado, which offers prizes to audience members. Music: Ferde Grofe’s singular composition “Grand Canyon Suite” gains popularity around the world; the catchy and relevant depression-era tune “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” is released by E. Y. “Yip” Harburg. Publishing: Erskine Caldwell publishes Tobacco Road, his novel about poor Georgia sharecroppers; William Faulkner publishes his new novel, Light in August; Beyond Desire, a story set in the South, is completed by novelist Sherwood Anderson. Science: Scientist James Chadwick contributes immeasurably to human understanding of nuclear physics by discovering the neutron, a building block of the atom. Technology: Edwin H. Land perfects the first Polaroid film.

January Music: Composer Henry Cowell and engineer Leon Theremin display their new device christened the rhythmicon, which reproduces all known rhythmical combinations, at the New School for Social Research in New York.

January 7 Diplomacy: Secretary of State Henry Stimson declares that the United States will withhold recognition from any country violating the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928. Thus, the United States now formally opposes recent Japanese aggression against Manchuria.

January 11–15 Business: Congress, cognizant of the widespread economic dislocation at work across the nation, heeds President Herbert Hoover’s plea and votes to approve the Reconstruction Finance Corporation to assist banks that lend directly to struggling industries.

January 12 Women: Hattie W. Caraway of Arkansas becomes the second woman to serve in the U.S. Senate when she is appointed to serve out her husband’s term.

January 22 Business: President Herbert Hoover signs into law legislation creating the Reconstruction Finance Corporation; it will commence operations as of February 2 with $500 million in funds. It is anticipated that the money it will lend to struggling businesses will help stimulate the economy.

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February 2 Diplomacy: The League of Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, sponsors a World Disarmament Conference, and the United States, while not a member, dispatches representatives to observe.

February 4–13 Sports: The Winter Olympics unfold at Lake Placid, New York, the first held in the United States; the American team wins 10 gold medals and the unofficial team championship.

February 27 Business: Congress passes the Glass-Steagall Banking Act, which allows the Federal Reserve Bank to both expand credit and release some of the national gold reserves to business.

March 1 Crime: The 19-month-old child of Charles and Anne Lindbergh is kidnapped from their home in Hopewell, New Jersey. A $50,000 ransom note is subsequently found and the ransom paid, but the child turns up dead a month later. When Bruno Hauptmann is found with the ransom money, he is tried and convicted of the murder and sent to the electric chair in 1936.

March 3 Politics: Congress passes the 20th Amendment to the Constitution and forwards it to the states for ratification; this mandates that the national legislature is to convene every January 3 and that the president be inaugurated on January 20—instead of in March—to eliminate the lapse between election and taking office.

March 20 Aviation: Boeing unveils its P-26 fighter plane, the first all-metal monoplane aircraft in the U.S. Air Corps.

March 23 Labor: Congress passes the Norris-LaGuardia Anti-Injunction Act, which forbids injunctions to be leveled in most labor disputes. It constitutes a significant victory for protecting the rights of labor to negotiate through unions.

March 28 Arts: George M. Cohan’s detective play Confidential Service reveals the perpetrator’s identity to the audience in the first act.

April 5–9 Sports: The Toronto Maple Leafs win the NHL Stanley Cup by defeating the New York Rangers in three straight games.

April 7 Politics: New York governor Franklin D. Roosevelt give a speech acknowledging the “forgotten man at the bottom of the economic pyramid,” a theme he resurrects in his subsequent presidential campaign.

April 19 Sports: Paul DeBruyn wins the 36th Boston Marathon by completing the course in two hours, 33 minutes, and 36 seconds.

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April 30–May 2 Politics: The Socialist Labor Party nominates Verne L. Reynolds of New York for president and J. W. Aiken of Massachusetts for vice president.

May 2 Arts: Pearl S. Buck’s The Good Earth wins the Pulitzer Prize for fiction; “The Flowering Stone” by George Dillon wins the Pulitzer Prize for poetry; George and Ira Gershwin’s Of Thee I Sing wins the Pulitzer Prize for drama, the first time a musical has been so honored.

May 20–21 Aviation: Aviatrix Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic, from Harbor Grace, Newfoundland, to Londonderry, Ireland, in 13 and one-half hours. The distance covered is 2,026 miles.

May 22–24 Politics: The Socialist Party convenes in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and again nominates Norman Thomas of New York for president and James H. Maurer of Pennsylvania for vice president.

May 28 Politics: The Communist Party gathers in Chicago, Illinois, and nominates William Z. Foster of New York for president and James W. Ford of New York for vice president.

May 29 General: The first of 17,000 unemployed veterans, the so-called Bonus Army, begins trickling into Washington, D.C., demanding that they be allowed to cash in their World War I bonus certificates at face value.

May 30 Sports: Fred Frame wins the 20th Indianapolis 500 with a time of four hours, 48 minutes, three seconds at an average speed of 104.14 miles per hour.

June 14–16 Politics: The Republican Party holds its nominating convention in Chicago, Illinois, and selects Herbert Hoover to carry the party banner as president, along with Charles Curtis for vice president.

June 16–July 9 Diplomacy: Delegates from major European countries gather at Lausanne, Switzerland, and announce their determination to cancel Germany’s outstanding debt if the United States will cancel its own debts dating back to World War I.

June 17 General: Although the House of Representatives had passed the Patman Bonus Bill to placate protesting members of the “Bonus Army,” the Senate rejects it. At this juncture the bulk of the 17,000 veterans persent elect to go home, with government funding to pay for the return trip. However, 2,000 protesters remain in their camp in Washington, D.C.

June 21 Sports: The world heavyweight boxing championship returns to the United States. Jack Sharkey wins a 15-round decision over the current champion, Germany’s Max Schmeling, in New York City.

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June 27–July 2 Politics: The Democratic Party meets to nominate their presidential candidate and chooses Franklin D. Roosevelt of New York after four deadlocked ballots. Roosevelt then pledges a “new deal” for the suffering American populace, and the term will become the political mantra for his administration.

July 5–7 Politics: The Farmer Labor Party nominates Jacob S. Coxey for the presidency.

July 21 Politics: President Herbert Hoover signs the Relief and Reconstruction Act into law; it enlarges the programs of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation to $3 billion, with money now available for state and local agencies providing public works and direct relief.

July 22 Business: Congress adopts the Federal Home Loan Bank Act, which enables several regional banks to lend money to prospective home buyers at lower rates and, thus, lower mortgages.

July 28–29 General: The sojourn of the “Bonus Army” comes to a tragic end when a force of 2,000 Washington, D.C., police attempts to dislodge the remaining 2,000 protesters. Two policemen and two veterans die in the ensuing riot, at which point General and Army Chief of Staff Douglas MacArthur is called in with army troops and finally evicts the squatters.

July 30–August 14 Sports: The 1932 Summer Olympics are held in Los Angeles, California, where U.S. teams accrue 16 gold medals and the unofficial team championship.

August 26 Business: The controller of currency, alarmed by the increasing number of Americans unable to meet mortgage payments, declares a moratorium on foreclosures.

September 3 Aviation: James “Jimmy” Doolittle wins the Thompson Trophy in a Gee Bee R-1 racer.

September 28–October 2 Sports: The New York Yankees (AL) win the 29th World Series by sweeping the Chicago Cubs in four games.

October 2 Diplomacy: The Lytton Commission, created by the League of Nations to investigate recent matters in Manchuria, issues its report and finds Japan guilty of aggression.

October 13 Architecture: In Washington, D.C., the cornerstone is laid for a new Supreme Court building as President Herbert Hoover, Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes, and American Bar Association president Guy A. Thompson officiate at the ceremonies.

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November Medical: The Committee on the Costs of Medical Care, the first comprehensive study of the medical industry, concludes that modified socialization of medical services is necessary to insure proper care for all citizens. The American Medical Association objects to their recommendations, dismissing them as utopian and impractical.

November 7 Civil: The U.S. Supreme Court settles the case of Powell v. Alabama, ruling that nine African-American men involved in the Scottsboro rape trial had not been given adequate counsel, and orders a retrial.

November 8 Politics: Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt crushes Republican Herbert Hoover in the presidential contest, winning 472 electoral votes to the latter’s 59, and carrying 22.8 million popular votes to 15.7 million for Hoover. The Democrats also seize control of both houses of Congress, a sign that the American public is ready for new and decidedly untraditional means of mitigating their suffering.

November 10 Science: Irving Langmuir wins the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his study of the surface actions of glass, water, and metals.

November 11 Military: The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is dedicated at Arlington National Cemetery.

November 18 Media: Academy Awards are given to Grand Hotel for best picture, to Fredric March for best actor in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and to Helen Hayes as best actress for The Sin of Madelon Claudet. A special award is given to Walt Disney for his color cartoon Flowers and Trees, the first animated film so honored.

December General: Howard Scott coins the term and concept of technocracy, based on the prior beliefs of Frederick Soddy and Thorstein Veblen, which stresses the management of society by technical experts.

1933 Education: The National Survey of School Finance issues its final report, which declares that fully one-third of the nation’s school children fail to obtain adequate instruction. Journalism: The American Newspaper Guild is established by Heywood Broun. Labor: The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) come out strongly in favor of the right of unions to strike. Literature: Ernest Hemingway publishes his latest collection of short stories, Winner Take Nothing; Kenneth Roberts produces his second historical novel, Rabble in Arms; Hervey Allen’s sprawling Napoleonic saga Anthony Adverse becomes one of the year’s best sellers; Gertrude Stein writes one of the year’s best sellers with The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas.

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Chronology of American History Music: Aaron Copland conducts one of his most popular compositions, Short Symphonies. Publishing: A New York City magistrate lifts obscenity charges against the book God’s Little Acre by Erskine Caldwell, leveled by the New York Society for the Prevention of Vice. Societal: The average national life expectancy is estimated at 59 years, up 10 years from the turn of the century. Technology: Television pioneers bask in the fact that there is already a functioning cathode-ray screen available on the market; the racetrack at Arlington Park in Chicago, Illinois, is the first to install a totalizer, which prints and issues betting tickets at a rate of 50 per minute and also flashes race information to fans every 90 seconds.

January 5 Business: The House of Representatives passes the Jones Parity Plan to restore agricultural subsidies to commodities such as wheat, cotton, and hogs.

January 16 Transportation: The Pennsylvania Railroad running between Philadelphia and New York City is now completely electrified.

January 30 Diplomacy: German president Paul von Hindenberg invites Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler to become the new chancellor of that economically ravaged nation. Like Franklin D. Roosevelt, Hitler had campaigned on a promise of economic revitalization through government intervention—although with the conquest of Europe in mind.

February 6 Politics: The Twentieth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is adopted, which abolishes the “lame duck session” of Congress after each election and ensures a quicker resumption of governance. Hereafter, the date of presidential inaugurations is moved up from March 4 to January 20.

February 8 Aviation: Boeing unveils its sleek, all-metal Model 247, the first modern airliner that starts flying passengers with United Airlines the following month.

February 15 General: A motorcade carrying president-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt in Miami is attacked by Giuseppe Zangara, a crazed assassin. His bullets miss Roosevelt but fatally injure Chicago mayor Anton Cermak; Zangara is subsequently tried, convicted, and executed on March 20.

February 20 Politics: Congress approves the Twenty-first Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which effectively repeals the Eighteenth Amendment, and passes it along to the states for ratification.

February 24 Diplomacy: In Geneva, Switzerland, the Japanese delegation storms out of the League of Nations after a report issued by the Lytton Commission brands Japan the aggressor in Manchuria.

1933

Chronology   1865 Naval: The USS Ranger, the first specifically designed aircraft carrier, is chris-­ tened by Mrs. Herbert Hoover and launched at Newport News, Virginia. It prom-­ ises to herald a new chapter in naval warfare.

March 1 Business: Six states declare a bank holiday to keep banks closed and prevent a run by depositors.

March 4 Politics: Franklin D. Roosevelt is inaugurated the 32nd president of the United States while John Nance Garner becomes vice president. However, they are in the unenviable position of attempting to resuscitate a moribund national economy and a suffering populace impoverished by rampant unemployment. Roosevelt nonetheless assures his fellow citizens by insisting, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” Women: Frances Perkins is appointed secretary of labor by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the first woman so honored.

Roosevelt, Franklin D.

(1882–1945)

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born in Hyde Park, New York, on January 30, 1882,

This 1941 photograph shows Pre­side­nt Franklin D. Roose­ve­lt asking Congre­ss to de­clare­ war on Japan the­ day afte­r Pe­arl Harbor. (Library of Congress)

the scion of a wealthy family. As such he was well educated at Harvard University and Columbia University and, in 1911, he entered politics as a Democrat, winning a state senate seat. He campaigned hard for Woodrow Wilson in the 1912 election and consequently gained appointment as assis-­ tant secretary of the navy. Roosevelt’s stock was rising in the party. In 1920, he cam-­ paigned for the vice presidency with James M. Cox and lost. Worse, in 1921, he con-­ tracted polio and lost the use of his legs. But Roosevelt bounced back after an eight-­year hiatus and, in 1928, he was elected governor of New York. Here he championed new and massive government intervention to assist citizens during the early years of the Great Depression, and, in 1930, he gained reelec-­ tion by wide margins. Roosevelt’s political success in the important state of New York, combined with his genuine personal warmth (continues)

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(continued) and charisma, made him an attractive candidate for the Democrats. In 1932, he ran for president against the incumbent Republican Herbert Hoover and won in a landslide. For many Americans, his ascent marked a turning point in the way average citizens viewed government, for he initiated many federallevel programs to alleviate unemployment, bring jobs to people, and, above all, restore hope. Foremost among these was the new Social Security program, which guaranteed elderly citizens a government-backed income regardless of their circumstances. Roosevelt also distinguished himself as the first chief executive to take regularly to the airwaves in his celebrated “fireside chats,” to further assure fellow citizens of his commitment to their well-being. However, in 1936, when the Supreme Court failed to uphold several of his programs, Roosevelt embarked on an illconceived program to “pack” the Court with seven new justices, and the public reacted with dismay. However, they remained favorably disposed to his programs and, in 1936, he was reelected in another landslide.

In 1940, Roosevelt passed another important benchmark by becoming the first president to win a third consecutive term in office. This time, however, the bulk of his attention was consumed by events overseas as America was forced into World War II after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Roosevelt, in concert with British prime minister Winston Churchill and Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, forged a strategy and an alliance that eventually wore the Axis powers down. Roosevelt proved himself a popular wartime president and, in 1944, he won an historic fourth term in office. However, his health was seriously impaired at this juncture, which seems to have also affected his judgment in dealing with Stalin. Roosevelt died at Warm Springs, Georgia, on April 11, 1945, and he was succeeded by Harry S. Truman. He remains indelibly associated with two trying moments in American history: the Great Depression and World War II, both of which he helped greatly to win.

March 5 Business: To prevent a potential run on bank holdings, President Franklin D. Roosevelt declares a four-day “bank holiday” while an embargo on the sale of gold and silver also goes into effect.

March 7 Business: Life insurance companies in New York tighten up on credit by refusing to grant loans on their policies.

March 9–June 16 Politics: President Franklin D. Roosevelt initiates what becomes known as the “Hundred Days,” in which he convinces Congress to pass many facets of his economic revival program that becomes known as the “New Deal.” This day alone, the Emergency Banking Act is approved, which grants the chief executive broad powers over all banking transactions and foreign exchange.

March 10–13 Business: Emboldened by the Emergency Banking Act, which allows lending institutions to resume business once they can demonstrate solvency, 1,000 banks reopen their doors for business.

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March 12 Media: Breaking another precedent, President Franklin D. Roosevelt addresses the American public over the airwaves in what becomes known as his “fireside chats.” He continually and informally assures citizens of his determination to restore normalcy to the economy and the body politic.

March 13 Business: Banks around the nation are slowly reopening, with 75 percent of them back in business by month’s end.

March 20 Business: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Economy Act into law, which reduces the salaries of federal employees and veterans’ pensions as a costcutting measure.

March 22 Business: Congress, anticipating the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment, passes the Beer and Wine Revenue Act to solidly tax all beverages with a 3.2 percent alcoholic content or greater.

March 31 Labor: Congress passes the Reforestation Relief Act, which establishes the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). This is a make-work program intending to employ 250,00 young men in projects related to stopping soil erosion, enacting flood control, constructing roads, and reforesting the national park system. Work camps soon spring up nationwide under the immediate and initial direction of U.S. Army officers.

April 4 Aviation: Disaster strikes as the giant airship USS Akron crashes, killing Admiral William Adger Moffett and 72 crewmen.

April 4 –13 Sports: The New York Rangers take the NHL Stanley Cup by beating the Toronto Maple Leafs, four games to three.

April 19 Business: President Franklin D. Roosevelt removes the United States from the gold standard, which makes the dollar decline in value in foreign exchanges but also loosens up more money for public consumption, thereby boosting the economy. Sports: Leslie Pawson wins the 37th Boston Marathon by crossing the line at two hours, 21 minutes, 1 second.

April 21 Diplomacy: British prime minister Ramsay MacDonald arrives in Washington, D.C., for talks with President Franklin D. Roosevelt relative to the forthcoming World Monetary and Economic Conference in London that summer.

May 1 Education: Eleven prominent college and university professors sign the Humanist Manifesto, which seeks to erase any distinctions between what is traditionally regarded as sacred and that which is regarded as secular. It also strongly opposes the capitalist system as a vehicle of human aspirations.

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May 4 Arts: T. S. Stribling’s novel The Store wins the Pulitzer Prize for fiction; Archibald MacLeish’s volume Conquistador wins the Pulitzer Prize for poetry.

May 12 Agriculture: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) into law, which establishes parity prices paid to farmers by the government, with additional subsidies for farmers who curtail production of certain surplus crops to keep prices manageable. However, this measure, which includes plowing under planted crops and killing off surplus pigs, is heavily criticized as wasteful. Business: The Federal Emergency Relief Act passes Congress, which provides a direct infusion of $500 million to the states for relief efforts, and not simply loans as President Herbert Hoover had arranged. With 14 million people seeking work—one quarter of the national workforce—bold and vigorous efforts are required to keep the economy and the tax-paying population solvent.

May 18 Business: The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is created by Congress to function as an independent public corporation tasked with constructing dams, power plants, and other facilities along the Tennessee River valley. Critics claim that this is actually government socialism at work in using public funds to raise the standard of living for the inhabitants of this rural, poverty-stricken region.

May 27 Business: The Federal Securities Act passes Congress, which authorizes the federal government to register and approve all issues of stocks and bonds. It also requires the issuers to disclose any and all pertinent information to the public at large.

May 27–November 2 General: Chicago, Illinois, hosts the Century of Progress Exposition in honor of the founding of the “city of big shoulders.”

May 30 Sports: Louis Meyer wins the 21st Indianapolis 500 by finishing the course in four hours and 48 minutes, at an average speed of 104.16 miles per hour.

June 3 Labor: Congress approves the National Employment System Act to create a U.S. Employment Service that coordinates its activities with similar agencies at the state level while also providing matching funds.

June 12–July 27 Diplomacy: Delegates from the United States attend the London Economic Conference, but little is accomplished as they seek to end the depression by stimulating trade, while the majority present press for currency stabilization.

June 13 Business: Congress authorizes the Home Owners Refinancing Act, which, in turn, establishes the Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC). Both are concerned with the well-being of homeowners nationwide and give out funding to assist the payment of mortgages.

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June 16 Agriculture: Congress passes the Farm Credit Act to help farmers obtain mortgages at low interest rates. Politics: This is the final day of the “100 Days” set forth by the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and several seminal pieces of legislation are passed, including the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA), the Public Works Administration (PWA), and the National Recovery Administration (NRA). All center around various “make work” projects to employ young men and provide them with incomes, while also constructing roads, schools, dams, and other public edifices. The Federal Bank Deposit Insurance Corporation is also created through the National Bank Act of 1933, which insures bank deposits up to $5,000.

June 21 Labor: Figures released by the American Federation of Labor indicate that 1.5 million members, previously unemployed, have found some kind of employment. Sports: Italian boxer Primo Carnera wins the world’s heavyweight title by knocking out Jack Sharkey at the Long Island City Bowl.

June 22 Transportation: The Illinois Ship Canal, linking the Great Lakes with the Gulf of Mexico, is completed and opened for commerce.

July 6 Sports: The first all-star baseball game unfolds at Comiskey Park, Chicago, where the American League beats the National League, 4-2. Some 49,000 fans are in attendance.

July 15–22 Aviation: Wiley Post flies his Lockheed Vega Winnie Mae around the world on a solo flight.

August 1 Business: The Blue Eagle sticker of the National Recovery Agency (NRA), which sports the slogan “We do our share,” makes its public appearance to encourage participation from the private sector. Among those refusing to participate in the program is Henry Ford, the nation’s largest automobile manufacturer.

August 5 Labor: President Franklin D. Roosevelt, through an executive caveat, establishes the National Labor Board to enforce and protect collective bargaining rights among unions. It is chaired by Senator Robert F. Wagner of New York.

October 2 Arts: Eugene O’Neill’s comedy Ah, Wilderness! opens at the Guild Theater in New York. Labor: The American Federation of Labor lends official support to the drive for a five-day work week.

October 3–7 Sports: The New York Giants (NL) win the 30th World Series by defeating the Washington Senators (AL) four games to one.

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October 10 Diplomacy: American delegates attending a gathering of Western Hemisphere nations in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, sign the Treaty of Non-Aggression and Conciliation.

October 13 Labor: The American Federation of Labor (AFL) votes to boycott all German products to protest the suppression of organized labor in Nazi Germany.

October 14 Diplomacy: In a foretaste of things to come, Chancellor Adolf Hitler of Germany orders his representatives out of the Disarmament Conference at Geneva, Switzerland. He also declares that Germany will quit the League of Nations two years hence.

October 17 Science: Albert Einstein, the noted physicist and scientific theorist, escapes antiSemitic persecution in Germany by arriving in the United States and settles at Princeton, New Jersey.

October 20 Science: Thomas Hunt Morgan of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, wins the Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine for his work on chromosomes and the transmission of heredity.

October 25 Business: The Reconstruction Finance Corporation is directed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to purchase gold at $31.36 an ounce, 27 cents above the world market price. This act devalues the U.S. dollar to 66 cents.

November 7 Politics: In New York City, reform-minded Fiorello H. LaGuardia is elected mayor, effectively ending 16 years of Tammany organization rule.

November 8 Labor: President Franklin D. Roosevelt establishes the Civil Works Administration (CWA) through an executive order to provide work to 4 million unemployed workers over the winter. Harry L. Hopkins is chosen as its director.

November 16 Diplomacy: President Franklin D. Roosevelt announces that the United States will reestablish formal diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union; relations had been suspended in 1919.

November 18 Arts: The musical Roberta by Jerome Kern debuts at the Amsterdam Theater, New York, and features such popular songs as “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” and “The Touch of Your Hand.”

December 5 Politics: Utah becomes the 26th state to ratify the Twenty-first Amendment, thereby repealing Prohibition from American law books.

December 6 Publishing: In a major victory for freedom of speech, a New York federal judge lifts restrictions against importation of James Joyce’s novel Ulysses.

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December 17 Sports: The Chicago Bears beat the New York Giants 23-21 in the first National Football League championship playoff. Starting this year, the league is divided into eastern and western divisions, with the leaders of both meeting to determine the league winner.

December 20 Aviation: The huge and impressive Martin M-130 China Clipper debuts, ushering in the dawn of luxury transpacific flights.

1934 Arts: Reginald Marsh’s painting Negroes on Rockaway Beach artfully depicts a mass of people in action to enhance the dramatic quality of the moment; Howard Hanson’s opera Merry Mount premieres at the Metropolitan Opera Company in New York and runs for nine performances. Literature: F. Scott Fitzgerald releases Tender Is the Night, considered one of his most significant works; Dashiell Hammett publishes his latest detective yarn, The Thin Man; James Hilton pens a classic school story, Goodbye, Mr. Chips. Music: Lauren Hammond of Chicago, Illinois, constructs the first pipeless Hammond organ, which produces sound through the amplification of electrical modulations. Religion: The Catholic Legion of Decency is formed to monitor and censor movies it deems unsuitable for Catholic viewers, with little protest except by a handful of intellectuals.

January 4 Politics: President Franklin D. Roosevelt asks Congress to provide $10.5 billion for his recovery programs over the ensuing 18 months.

January 7 Religion: Evangelical reverend William Ashley Sunday (“Billy Sunday”), who has not preached in New York City since 1917, begins an intensive two-week revival at the Calvary Baptist Church. He is the last of the old-time revivalists.

January 8 Arts: Eugene O’Neill’s miracle play Days without End opens at Henry Miller’s Theater, New York, and concerns a protagonist rediscovering his own Catholicism.

January 10–11 Aviation: A flight of six Consolidated P2Y-1 flying boats successfully flies from San Francisco, California, to Hawaii for the first time.

January 26 Music: The First Symphony of Roy Harris is performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra under conductor Serge Koussevitzky.

January 30 Business: The Gold Reserve Act is passed by Congress, which allows the president to fix the value of the U.S. dollar in terms of gold; President Franklin D. Roosevelt subsequently pegs it at 59.06 cents. Gold held in Federal Reserve banks

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Chronology of American History is also transferred back to the U.S. Treasury. Both measures are intended to help the government control fluctuations in the dollar’s value.

January 31 Agriculture: The Farm Mortgage Refinancing Act is signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, which establishes the Federal Farm Mortgage Corporation to provide farmers with easier credit terms underwritten by government bonds.

February 2 Business: President Franklin Roosevelt, through an executive order, founds the Export-Import Bank of Washington to facilitate trade relations with Latin America and the Soviet Union. It intends to proffer short-term credits for exporting agricultural products and long-term credits for exporting industrial products.

February 15 Politics: Congress approves the Civil Works Emergency Relief Act to provide the Federal Emergency Relief Administration with money to run civil projects and grant direct relief.

February 18–19 Aviation: Captain Eddie Rickenbacker and Jack Frye set a transcontinental flying record of 13 hours and 2 minutes in the revolutionary, all-metal Douglas DC-1 transport.

February 23 Agriculture: The Crop Loan Act is passed by Congress, whereby farmers can receive additional loans for crop production and harvesting.

March 15 Labor: Automobile magnate Henry Ford, confident of the nation’s economic recovery, increases his workers’ wages back to $5.00 per day.

March 16 Media: Academy Awards are given to Cavalcade as best picture for 1932, to Charles Laughton as best actor for Henry VIII, and to Katharine Hepburn as best actress for Morning Glory. Walt Disney also wins an award for his cartoon Three Little Pigs.

March 24 Diplomacy: The Tydings-McDuffie Act is passed by Congress, which mandates independence for the Philippines within 10 years, although it does not happen until July 4, 1946.

April 3–10 Sports: The Chicago Black Hawks win the NHL Stanley Cup by defeating the Detroit Red Wings, three games to one.

April 7 Agriculture: The Jones-Connally Farm Relief Act enlarges the number of agricultural products subject to Agricultural Adjustment Administration jurisdiction.

April 12 Politics: A Senate committee is established to investigate the manufacture of military munitions in the United States in an effort to determine the profits

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Chronology

Hepburn, Katharine

1873

(1907–2003)

Actress Katharine Hepburn was born in Hartford, Connecticut, on November 8, 1907, the daughter of a wealthy physician and a female suffragette. A child of privilege, she was educated by private tutors and gained admission to Bryn Mawr College in 1924. Hepburn graduated four years later and immediately sought an acting career in theater. She was also somewhat difficult to typecast, being slender, athletically trim, gracefully beautiful, while also exerting a decidedly steely, aristocratic persona for a woman of her day. Nonetheless, Hepburn possessed a natural stage presence and, in 1932, she signed with RKO Studios for her first film, A Bill of Divorcement, opposite John Barrymore. Her performance dazzled critics, and she became a Hollywood star literally overnight. The following year, Hepburn appeared in the film Morning Glory, for which she received her first Oscar in 1934. For the rest of the decade, she experienced a sudden and dramatic reversal of fortune, and she ended up buying out her RKO contract for $200,000. Fortunately, she next worked with noted director Howard Hawks, a man who specialized in depicting strong women on the screen, and she enjoyed an immediate comeback with Bringing Up Baby and Holiday in 1938 with Cary Grant. Free once more, Hepburn returned to the stage for several years where, in 1939, she appeared in the play The Philadelphia Story, the screen rights to which she also owned and sold to MGM. The script was rewritten to showcase Hepburn’s aristocratic and imperious delivery

in 1940, and the film version was both a box office and a critical success. At this time, she also began a legendary romance with actor Spencer Tracy, a married man, which carried on for 25 years and became the talk of Hollywood tabloids. Their chemistry on screen was also quite provocative in films such as Woman of the Year (1942) and Keeper of the Flame (1943), for a total of nine films. Hepburn next won her plaudits for her work in The African Queen (1951) opposite Humphrey Bogart, and then settled in for a long and mediocre period in lesser films, plays, and television productions. It was not until 1967 that she appeared in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, her last film with Spencer Tracy, for which she won her second Oscar. The following year, Hepburn won her third Oscar for The Lion in Winter opposite Peter O’Toole in 1968. She then languished in another period of professional doldrums, owing to lackluster scripts, but, in 1981, Hepburn shone with Henry Fonda in On Golden Pond, winning an unprecedented fourth Oscar as best actress. Hepburn was a solitary, private individual who, having divorced in 1928, never remarried and studiously avoided the limelight. Nonetheless, in 1991, the prestigious American Film Institute ranked her as the number one female star in American cinematic history. This steely grand dame died in Old Saybrook, Connecticut, on June 29, 2003, at the age of 96, a legend of the silver screen whose 12 Oscar nominations are eclipsed only by Meryl Streep’s 13.

made by munitions manufacturers since the end of World War I. Prevailing political sentiments suggest that wars are fought for the goals and profit of an economic minority.

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April 13 Diplomacy: Congress forbids the lending of money to any nation that has defaulted on payments to the United States since World War I. Most European nations, with the exception of Finland, have fallen behind in their payments.

April 19 Sports: Dave Komonen of Ontario, Canada, wins the 38th Boston Marathon with a time of two hours, 32 minutes, 53 seconds.

April 21 Agriculture: The Cotton Control Act is passed by Congress, which mandates that a tax be levied on every pound of crop over the quotas assigned to various states and regions.

April 28 Business: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Home Owners Act to supplement the Owners Refinancing Act of 1933 to stimulate home building.

May 7 Arts: Caroline Miller’s novel Lamb in His Bosom wins the Pulitzer Prize for fiction; Robert Hillyer takes the Pulitzer Prize for poetry with his Collected Verse; Sidney Kingsley’s Men in White receives the Pulitzer Prize for drama.

May 9 Agriculture: The Jones-Costigan Act is approved by Congress, which exerts controls on the production of cane and beet sugar, along with the amount of sugar imported from abroad.

May 10–11 General: A destructive dust storm effectively removes an estimated 300 million tons of topsoil from states in the Midwest. This is the beginning of a weather pattern that results in the infamous “Dustbowl” and a mass migration of farm workers to California.

May 11 Aviation: Douglas introduces its ultramodern, allmetal aircraft, the DC-2, which ushers in a revolution in air transportation and travel.

May 18 Crime: A package of anticrime bills sails through Congress, including the so-called Lindbergh Act, which mandates the death penalty for cases involving kidnapping across state lines.

May 23 This classic photograph, Migrant Mother, Nipuma, California (1936), was taken by Dorothea Lange for the Farm Security Administration. (Library of Congress)

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Technology: Dr. Wallace H. Carothers of the DuPont laboratory invents the new synthetic fiber he calls polymer 66 but which will be marketed under the more familiar trade name “nylon.”

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May 29 Diplomacy: The United States and Cuba conclude an agreement negating the Platt Amendment of May 22, 1903, which stipulated automatic American intervention in that island nation when judged applicable.

May 30 Sports: Bill Cummins wins the 22nd Indianapolis 500 by finishing the course in four hours, 46 minutes, five seconds at an average speed of 104.86 miles per hour.

June 6 Business: The Securities and Exchange Act is signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and it establishes the Securities and Exchange Commission under millionaire Joseph Kennedy. This body is intended to regulate all exchanges and transactions involving securities.

June 7 Business: The Corporate Bankruptcy Act passes Congress, which allows corporations to reorganize themselves if two-thirds of creditors agree.

June 12 Agriculture: The Farm Mortgage Foreclosure Act is approved by Congress, which grants loans to farmers to recover property they previously owned before foreclosing.

June 14 Sports: Max Baer wins back the world heavyweight boxing championship title for the United States by knocking out Italy’s Primo Carnera in the 11th round in New York City. The game is witnessed by 48,495 spectators.

June 15 Diplomacy: The Senate ratifies the Treaty of Non-Aggression and Conciliation with several nations of the Western Hemisphere. Military: The National Guard Act is passed by Congress, which renders the National Guard as part of the U.S. Army in time of war, or a declared national emergency.

June 19 Business: The Silver Purchase Act is passed by Congress, which allows the president to increase the Treasury’s silver holdings until they reach one-third the value of existing gold holdings. Communication: Congress approves the Communications Act, which creates the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to regulate and supervise all radio, telegraph, and telephone communications. Labor: Congress replaces the National Labor Board with the National Labor Relations Board.

June 26 Religion: The Reformed Church of the United States and the Evangelical Synod of North America merge into a new entity, the Evangelical and Reformed Church, based in Cleveland, Ohio.

June 28 Agriculture: The new Federal Farm Bankruptcy Act (Frazier-Lemke Act) places a moratorium on farm mortgage foreclosures; the Taylor Grazing Act is

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Chronology of American History passed by Congress, which sets aside 8 million acres of public land for grazing purposes. Business: Congress approves of the National Housing Act, creating the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) to insure loans made by banks to homeowners for construction or renovation of private dwellings.

July Labor: In Arkansas, the Southern Tenant Farmer’s Union is organized by a small number of poor sharecroppers.

July 10–August 20 Aviation: In a stirring display of strategic air power, Lieutenant Colonel Henry “Hap” Arnold leads a flight of Martin B-10 bombers from Langley Field, Virginia, to Alaska, and back.

July 16 Labor: The first “general strike” in American history is called in San Francisco, California, when 12,000 members of the International Longshoreman’s Union agree to a walkout.

July 22 Crime: Gangster John Dillinger, renowned as Public Enemy No. 1, is shot down and killed by FBI agents outside a theater in Chicago, Illinois.

Arnold, Henry Harley

(1886–1950)

Aviator Henry Harley Arnold was born in Gladwyn, Pennsylvania, on June 25, 1886, and, in 1903, he was admitted to the U.S. Military Academy. He graduated four years later as a second lieutenant and transferred to the Signal Corps, where he was taught to fly by Orville and Wilbur Wright. Arnold became only the 29th registered army pilot in 1912, and, on June 1 of that year, he set a world altitude record of 6,540 feet, a feat that won him the first MacKay Trophy for outstanding flight. He spent World War I commanding a fighter squadron in the Panama Canal Zone and spent the 1920s defending aerial advocate General William “Billy” Mitchell until his court-martial and discharge in 1925. In consequence, Arnold then found

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himself exiled to the Fort Riley Cavalry School, and he did not resume flying until the 1930s. He remained, however, an ardent proponent of air power, and, between July and August 1934, he conducted a successful flight of Martin B-10 bombers from Langley, Virginia, to Fairbanks, Alaska, and back, winning his second MacKay trophy. The following year he rose to brigadier general and became assistant chief of the air corps until 1938, when General Oscar Westover died in a plane crash and he succeeded him as chief. In this office, Arnold pressed vigorously but diplomatically for increased expenditures for aviation and managed to secure a sixfold increase in airplane production. In 1941, Arnold gained promotion

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July 28 Aviation: Major W. E. Kepner and Captains A. W. Stevens and O. A. Anderson rise in a pressurized balloon to 60,613 feet.

August 6 Military: The final contingent of U.S. Marines is withdrawn from Haiti, where they have been deployed since 1915.

August 9 Business: President Franklin D. Roosevelt announces his decision to nationalize silver and that the federal government will continue purchasing the metal at 50.01 cents an ounce.

September 8 General: A fire onboard the ship Morro Castle off New Jersey kills 130 passengers.

September 17–25 Sports: The U.S. yacht Rainbow successfully defends the America’s Cup by downing the British challenger Endeavour four races to two.

October 1 Education: Olivet College, Olivet, Michigan, begins a new, progressive teaching regimen based less on study than on group discussions and a general examination.

to major general and also served as the first airman on the general staff. Here he argued that air power was going to prove a decisive weapon in the next war and, as such, ought to have greater operational independence from ground-bound army leaders in order to function effectively. He was ignored at first. The onset of American entry in World War II gave Arnold the opportunity to display his considerable organizational and technical prowess, and, under his tutelage, the U.S. Army Air Force quickly grew from 22,000 men and 3,400 aircraft in 1941 to 2.5 million personnel and a fleet of 63,715 warplanes by 1945. These were deployed worldwide in 243 groups and conducted close air support for ground troops and strategic bombing campaigns against industrial centers in Germany and Japan. Arnold was

also closely involved in numerous, highlevel strategy meetings with Allied leaders to ensure that the United States continue its daylight, precision-bombing raids. By war’s end, American air power spanned the globe and had proved itself a vital factor in the overall equation of victory. Consequently, Arnold was promoted to four-star general in 1944 and five-star general in 1945; he remains the only airman so honored. The strain of leading the world’s largest air force took its toll on Arnold, who suffered four heart attacks during the war years, and he worked in semiretirement until 1947, when Congress, through a special act, appointed him the first general of the newly independent U.S. Air Force. Arnold died in Sonoma, California, on January 15, 1950, the leading architect and organizer of American air power.

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October 3–9 Sports: The St. Louis Cardinals (NL) win the 31st World Series by defeating the Detroit Tigers (AL), four games to three.

October 25 Science: George R. Minot, William P. Murphy, and George H. Whipple share the Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine for their discovery of the use of liver to ward off anemia.

November 6 Political: Midterm elections prove favorable to the Democrats, who take a total of nine seats in the Senate and House of Representatives. Among the former is Harry S. Truman of Missouri.

November 15 Science: Harold C. Urey wins the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his discovery of deuterium, or heavy hydrogen, a major advance toward nuclear fission.

December 3 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Hamilton v. Regents of the University of California, which upholds the right of land-grant colleges to require military training for students.

December 29 Diplomacy: In another slap at the West, Japan announces its decision to rescind the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and the London Naval Treaty of 1930.

December 31 Women: Helen Richly becomes the first licensed female commercial airline pilot in the United States.

1935 Aviation: An aircraft propeller with automatic pitch control to maintain constant engine speeds is developed. Literature: John Steinbeck produces Tortilla Flat, his first commercially successful novel; Harvard philosopher George Santayana publishes his only novel, The Last Puritan; Thomas Wolfe writes Of Time and the River, the second novel concerning his hero, Eugene Gant. Medical: The nation faces an outbreak of poliomyelitis (infantile paralysis), and the drive to combat it is led by none other than President Franklin D. Roosevelt, himself a victim of this debilitating affliction; the first federal hospital for narcotics addicts is constructed at Leestown Pike in Lexington, Kentucky. Sports: Chicago halfback Jay Berwanger receives the first annual Heisman Trophy for outstanding collegiate football player. Women: The General Federation of Women’s Clubs, meeting in Detroit, reverses its earlier position and endorses birth control literature to be delivered through the mails.

January 4 Politics: President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivers his State of the Union address to Congress, proposing legislation for long-term care of the citizenry—Social Security—for the aged and unemployed.

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January 29 Politics: The U.S. Senate rejects American participation in the World Court by a vote of 52 to 36, short of the two-thirds majority required for approval. This affirmation of isolationism and neutrality does not go unnoticed by increasingly militaristic governments such as Germany and Japan.

February 12 Aviation: The giant airship USS Macon crashes, ending further military interest in lighter-than-air aircraft.

March 22 Crime: New York governor Herbert H. Lehman signs a law allowing the use of blood tests as evidence in civil and criminal law cases.

March 27 Media: Academy Awards are given to It Happened One Night for the best movie of 1934, and to its cast Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, as best actor and actress. Walt Disney wins a third consecutive award for his cartoon The Tortoise and the Hare.

April 8 Labor: Congress approves the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act, which authorizes $5 billion for immediate relief and additional make-work projects for the unemployed. More directly, this serves as the catalyst for creating many useful programs, especially the Works Progress Administration (WPA).

April 19 Sports: John Kelley wins the 39th annual Boston Marathon with a time of two hours, 32 minutes, seven seconds.

April 27 Agriculture: The Soil Conservation Service is founded by Congress as a bureau within the Department of Agriculture, and it serves primarily to educate farmers in the best manner of halting topsoil erosion.

May 1 Agriculture: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs an executive order creating the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act to assist farm families in relocating to more productive regions and finding jobs. It also creates certain “greenbelt towns” for low-income city workers.

May 4 Sports: Omaha wins the 61st annual Kentucky Derby by finishing in two minutes, five seconds.

May 6 Arts: Josephine Winslow Johnson’s novel Now in November wins the Pulitzer Prize for fiction; Audrey Wurdemann wins the Pulitzer Prize for poetry with her “Bright Ambush”; Zoe Atkins wins the Pulitzer Prize for drama with her The Old Maid. Labor: The Works Progress Administration (WPA) begins operations under the aegis of Harry Hopkins. It assists in putting millions of Americans to work at good wages in constructing roads, bridges, and public buildings such as schools and airports across the nation. Through far from efficient and probably

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Chronology of American History wasteful, it nonetheless provides many people with viable incomes when other sources were lacking.

May 11 General: President Franklin D. Roosevelt, through the authority of the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act, establishes the Rural Electrification Administration to provide loans at low rates for the construction of electrical power plants in those regions needing them the most. Sports: Omaha wins the 60th annual Preakness Stakes, by crossing the line at one minute, 58 seconds.

May 22 Politics: The Patman Bill, which would have allowed World War I veterans to cash in their bonus certificates at face value, is vetoed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He feels the sheer expense of this move would stimulate inflation. However, the House of Representatives quickly overrides his objection.

May 23 Politics: The U.S. Senate sustains President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s veto of the Patman Bill.

May 24 Sports: Crosley Field, Cincinnati, Ohio, is the scene of baseball’s first nighttime game, and the Cincinnati Reds (NL) defeat the Philadelphia Athletics (AL), 2-1.

May 27 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States, ruling that regulations imposed by the National Industrial Recovery Act (NRA) of 1933 are unconstitutional. This is viewed as a major setback to President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal.

May 30 Sports: Kelly Petillo wins the 23rd Indianapolis 500 by running the course in four hours, 42 minutes, and 22 seconds at an average speed of 106.24 miles per hour.

June 8 Sports: Omaha wins the 67th Belmont Stakes by crossing the line at two minutes, 30 seconds. This is the third horse to take the Triple Crown.

June 10 Societal: Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is established in New York City.

June 13 Sports: James J. Braddock wins the world heavyweight boxing championship after defeating Max Baer in 15 rounds.

July 5 Labor: The National Labor Relations Act is signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. It creates the National Labor Relations Board, tasked with supervising elections by which workers vote for their own collective-bargaining units (as in whether to unionize or not). This is considered a major piece of pro-labor legislation, although still subject to constitutional scrutiny by the U.S. Supreme Court.

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July 11 Women: Laura Ingalls is the first female pilot to fly nonstop from the East Coast to the West Coast of the United States.

July 28 Aviation: In Seattle, Washington, the Boeing Company unveils its Model 299 heavy bomber, the prototype of the famous B-17 Flying Fortress.

July 29 Politics: In New York State, Republican Thomas E. Dewey is appointed a special prosecutor to lead a concerted drive against crime. Success here eventually leads to his nomination for the presidency in 1948.

August 9 Transportation: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Motor Carrier Act into law; it grants Interstate Commerce Commission jurisdiction over all interstate truck and bus traffic.

August 14 Societal: A pivotal part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal falls into place after he signs the Social Security Act. This mandates an extensive system of government-guaranteed pensions to assist those citizens retiring after the age of 65, although it requires contributions from both workers and employers. Those incapable of work, including the blind and children, are also covered under its provisions.

August 15 Aviation: A plane crash near Point Barrow, Alaska, takes the lives of aviator Wiley Post and comedian Will Rogers.

August 23 Business: The Banking Act of 1935 is approved by Congress, and it revises operations of the Federal Reserve System to make it more responsive to public needs.

August 26 Politics: The Public Utilities Act is signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and it requires all public utility holding companies to be registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Other federal agencies also receive new powers to regulate the price of gas and electricity.

August 30 Politics: The Revenue Act is passed by Congress, which increases taxes on incomes and inheritances and also readjusts tax scales of corporations in favor of smaller companies.

August 31 Diplomacy: The Neutrality Act is signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, which outlaws the shipment of munitions and other military supplies to any nation once a state of belligerency (war) has been declared. The president also enjoys the power to forbid the travel of American citizens on ships owned by the belligerent powers in question.

September 8 General: Senator Huey Long, a colorful Louisiana demagogue, is shot and fatally wounded by Dr. Carl A. Weiss in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

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Rogers, Will (1879–1935) Entertainer William Penn Adair Rogers was born on the Dog Iron Ranch, Indian Territory (now Oklahoma), on November 4, 1879, to prosperous ranchers of partial Cherokee descent. He dropped out of school after the 10th grade and, being much enamored with cowboy ways, became an expert at lariat twirling and horse breaking. In 1902, he ventured to England and Argentina seeking work and adventure, and ended up breaking in horses for the English army in South Africa. At the time, he also joined a local traveling circus as a trick roper and billed himself as “The Cherokee Kid.” Rogers came home in 1904 and joined several “wild west” shows and vaudeville acts to showcase his talent with ropes. He also differed from other performers by addressing his audience in his unabashedly western drawl and making witty or humorous comments as his act unfolded. Rogers eventually built up a following and, in 1905, he was invited to appear in New York City as part of the revue on Hammerstein’s Roof Garden. He performed with some success for a decade, and the major turning point in his career came when he was booked to perform by noted showman Florenz Ziegfeld in his “Midnight Frolic.” Because this was a nightly act, Rogers was obliged to come up with new lines for his act every day, and he frequently used contemporary events as the butt of his dry and whimsical monologues. The following year he gained added notoriety by appearing alongside such stellar performers as W. C. Fields, Bert Williams, and Fanny Brice

in the famous “Ziegfeld Follies” up through 1925. Rogers then embarked on a one-man national tour of the United States, which he humorously dubbed a “lecture tour,” over the next three years, and, in 1927, he accompanied noted aviator Charles Lindbergh on a flight to Mexico City. In time, Rogers extended his entertainment routines to other mediums. Commencing with the Great Depression of 1929, he frequently appeared on the radio with ex-president Calvin Coolidge and sitting president Herbert Hoover. He subsequently supported the Democrats under Franklin D. Roosevelt but remained objective in his biting critiques of all politicians. Between 1922 and 1935, Rogers also wrote daily columns for syndicated newspapers that were widely read, even beloved, for their wit, humor, and scarcely disguised sarcasm of governmental figures. Earlier, in 1918, Rogers also ventured to Hollywood to appear in his first film, Laughing Billy Hyde, and he completed dozens of silent and talking pictures for such leading studios as MGM and Fox Film. These included the first sound versions of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Young as You Feel, Judge Priest, and Life Begins at 40. In 1934, he was called upon to host the 7th annual Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles. Rogers died with aviator Wiley Post on August 15, 1935, when their plane crashed at Point Barrow, Alaska. In many respects, this slow-talking, quick-witted comedian was America’s first superstar.

September 13 Aviation: Dashing aviator Howard Hughes sets an air-speed record of 352 miles per hour in his specially designed Hughes racer.

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October 2–7 Sports: The Detroit Tigers (AL) win the 32nd World Series by defeating the Chicago Cubs (NL) four games to two.

October 5 Diplomacy: President Franklin D. Roosevelt invokes the Neutrality Act in the case of Italy and Ethiopia after the former, under dictator Benito Mussolini, invades the latter.

October 10 Arts: George Gershwin’s opera Porgy and Bess, concerned with African Americans and utilizing their rhythms and motifs, makes its successful debut at the Alvin Theater in New York City, where it runs for 16 weeks. This is regarded as the greatest American opera ever written and has been revived several times since.

October 26 Agriculture: In a significant endorsement, 16 states hold referendums in favor of continuing the Agricultural Adjustment Administration. Their approval marks a turning point in the way that farmers view relations with the federal government.

November Transportation: New York City’s annual automobile show takes place this month instead of January to stimulate production lines over the winter months. This year’s models feature increasingly stylized lines to garner public appeal.

November 9 Labor: United Mine Workers president John L. Lewis becomes chairman of the newly formed Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). He immediately begins challenging the more conservative leadership of the rival AFL, to which it belongs, and he emerges as a forceful labor spokesman.

November 11 Aviation: Albert Stevens and Orvil Anderson take their balloon, Explorer II, on a record flight to 72,395 feet.

November 22 Business: Pan American Airways initiates the first transpacific mail service by dispatching a Martin M-130 China Clipper from San Francisco, California, to Manila, Philippines.

December 9 Diplomacy: Norman H. Davis heads the American delegation to the Second London Naval Conference in another concerted attempt to reduce the size of naval establishments worldwide. However, when Japan is forced to consider a 5:5:3 ratio in capital ships behind America and Britain, it leaves the proceedings.

December 17 Aviation: The revolutionary Douglas DC-3, which is an aviation benchmark for transport service, flies for the first time.

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Lewis, John L.

(1880–1969)

Labor leader John Llewellyn Lewis was born in Lucas, Iowa, on February 12, 1880, a son of Welsh immigrants. Intelligent yet idle and listless as a youth, Lewis wandered throughout the West for many year before following his father into the mining industry in 1901. He witnessed a 1905 mine accident in Wyoming that killed 236 miners, and it indelibly impressed on him the need for both a strong union and better safety regulations. In 1909, he relocated to southern Illinois and joined the United Mine Workers of America (UMW), through whose ranks he rose rapidly. Lewis was also adept at bargaining with companies and politicians, securing better safety standards along with workman’s compensation legislation. His success induced Samuel Gompers, noted head of the American Federation of Labor (AFL), to appoint Lewis as a field representative. In this position, Lewis forged personal alliances and constructed his own political machine within the ranks of the UMW, and, in 1920, he was overwhelmingly elected president of his union, a position he held for the next 40 years. Lewis next enjoyed stormy relations with the AFL leadership under William Green, who was far more conservative in his approach to member recruitment. Lewis, in fact, resented that the AFL restricted itself to traditional trade unionism, whereas he was determined to expand unions to include assembly-line workers. To that end, he combined with other unions to form the Committee for Industrial Organization to promote industrial unionism and, when

Green refused to recognize the new group and ordered it disbanded, the members left the AFL en masse and founded an entirely new union, the Congress of Industrial Organizations (or CIO). Lewis was easily elected its first president by dint of his hard-driving, fiery leadership. Lewis spent the decade of the 1930s striking and organizing industrial workers in the steel and automobile industries, frequently with violent results. He had previously supported the candidacy of President Franklin D. Roosevelt but, when the president refused to accede to all his demands, Lewis opposed his reelection bids in 1940 and 1944, which did little to endear the CIO to the Democrats controlling Congress. He had promised to resign from the CIO if Roosevelt won and acted accordingly, and he returned to leadership of the UMW. Here he led a series of bitter strikes that resulted in several antilabor bills being passed by Congress. In 1946, President Harry S. Truman ordered federal troops to seize mines controlled by the UMW while Lewis was arrested and fined for defying a strike injunction. It was not until 1952, when a mining disaster in Illinois killed 199 men, that Lewis was once again able to push improved safety legislation before Congress. He remained president of the UMW until 1960 and then retired to serve as chairman of the union welfare and retirement bureaus. Lewis died in Washington, D.C., on June 11, 1969, one of the most effective and controversial American labor leaders of the 20th century.

1936 Arts: Under the aegis of the new Federal Theater Project, the government sponsors 5,000 artists in 44 states, who render between 600 and 700 murals for government buildings.

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Education: President Robert Maynard Hutchins of the University of Chicago leads the charge against progressive education in his book The Higher Learning in America, which holds that learning in America has been reduced to the memorization of a few facts. Engineering: The completion of Boulder (Hoover) Dam on the Colorado River leads to creation of the Lake Mead Reservoir; at 10 trillion gallons of water, it is the largest such body of water in America. Literature: Margaret Mitchell writes Gone with the Wind, a runaway best seller that sells 1 million copies in only six months; Robert Frost composes his latest volume of poetry, A Further Range. Media: Despite the ongoing depression, the motion-picture industry cranks out more than 500 new titles this year. Medical: Dr. Alexis A. Carrell, assisted by Charles A. Lindbergh, demonstrates the perfusion pump, the first artificial heart, at the Rockefeller Institute in New York City. Sports: The Baseball Hall of Fame is established at Cooperstown, New York, with Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, Christy Mathewson, Babe Ruth, and Honus Wagner elected to the first membership. Transportation: Government figures indicate that there are over 160,000 cartowed trailers on the roads, which are far less expensive to live in and maintain than houses in these hard times.

January 6 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of United States v. Butler, ruling that the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 is unconstitutional on the grounds that it facilitates outright control of production, thereby exceeding governmental responsibilities.

January 11 Labor: A strike at the Fisher Body Plant, Flint, Michigan, continues despite attempts by management to force workers out of the factory, including turning off the heat and using police to prevent food from being delivered to the workers.

January 24 Politics: The Adjusted Compensation Act is passed by Congress over President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s veto, which finally allows World War I veterans to cash in their bonus certificates at face value.

February 3 Labor: Just as National Guard troops are being deployed to wrest the Fisher Body Plant in Flint, Michigan, from striking workers, an agreement is reached between General Motors and the United Auto Workers.

February 5–16 Sports: At the Winter Olympics in Germany, the U.S. team wins two gold medals and places fifth overall in unofficial team scoring.

February 29 Agriculture: Congress passes the Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act, whereby farmers will receive compensation for withdrawing land from cultivation and for taking direct action to prevent further topsoil erosion. This

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Chronology of American History legislation is designed to replace the Agricultural Adjustment Act, which has since been declared unconstitutional. Diplomacy: Congress approves the Second Neutrality Act, which expands the first one by adding prohibitions on extending loans or credit to belligerent powers.

March 2 Diplomacy: The United States and Panama conclude a treaty that enlarges the latter’s authority throughout the Panama Canal Zone; however, it is not ratified for three years.

March 22 Arts: The musical comedy On Your Toes by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart opens at the Shubert Theater in Boston, Massachusetts, and becomes the surprise hit of the season. It features the noted song “Slaughter on Tenth Avenue.”

March 25 Diplomacy: At the London Naval Conference, the United States joins France and Great Britain in imposing its own limitations on warship construction. This is despite the fact that Germany, Japan, and Italy enjoy thriving naval construction programs of their own.

April 5–11 Sports: The Detroit Red Wings win the NFL Stanley Cup by defeating the Toronto Maple Leafs, three games to one.

April 20 Sports: Ellison Brown wins the 40th Boston Marathon by crossing the line at two hours, 33 minutes, 40 seconds.

April 25–28 Politics: The Socialist Labor Party nominates John W. Aiken of Massachusetts for president and Emil F. Teichert of New York for vice president.

May 4 Arts: Harold L. Davis wins the Pulitzer Prize for fiction with his Honey in the Horn; Robert E. Sherwood’s Idiot’s Delight wins the Pulitzer Prize for drama; Robert P. Tristram’s “Strange Holiness” wins the Pulitzer Prize for poetry.

May 5 Media: Academy Awards are give for Mutiny on the Bounty as best picture of 1935, to Victor McLaglen for best actor in The Informer, and to Bette Davis as best actress in Dangerous.

May 5–7 Politics: The Prohibition Party nominates D. Leigh Colvin of New York for president and Alvin C. York of Tennessee for vice president.

May 9 Aviation: The 830-foot-long German luxury dirigible Hindenburg docks safely at Lakehurst, New Jersey, after completing its first transatlantic flight.

May 23–25 Politics: The Socialist Party gathers in Cleveland, Ohio, to again nominate Norman Thomas of New York for president and George O. Nelson of Wisconsin for vice president.

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May 30 Sports: Louis Meyer wins the 24th Indianapolis 500 by finishing the course in four hours, 35 minutes, three seconds at an average speed of 109.06 miles per hour.

June 1 Transportation: The Queen Mary, the world’s largest ocean liner, docks at New York City following its maiden voyage from England.

June 9–12 Politics: The Republican Party convenes in Cleveland, Ohio, and selects Governor Alfred M. Landon of Kansas to be its presidential candidate. Frank Knox of Illinois receives the nod for vice president. Also, their party platform comes out strongly against the New Deal in the hope of attracting conservative Democratic voters.

June 19 Politics: North Dakota Republican representative William Lemke declares his intention to run for the presidency at the head of the Union Party ticket. Thomas C. O’Brien of Massachusetts is selected for the vice presidency. This organization opposes the New Deal but remains willing to collaborate on smaller, populist programs.

June 20 Business: The Robinson-Patman Act passes Congress, which prohibits stores both from engaging in price-lowering schemes intending to drive competitors out of business and from establishing monopolies.

June 22 Politics: Congress votes to allow voters in the U.S. Virgin Islands the right to elect their own legislature.

June 23–27 Politics: The Democratic Party gathers in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and renominates Franklin D. Roosevelt for president and John Nance Garner for vice president. The New Deal program is also endorsed in the party platform.

June 24–28 Politics: The Communist Party meets in New York City and nominates Earl Browder of Kansas for president and James W. Ford of New York for vice president.

June 26 Business: The Merchant Marine Act is passed by Congress, which founds the U.S. Maritime Commission to develop the nation’s maritime capacity through subsidies and better working standards for average seamen.

July 6 Aviation: All air-traffic-control operations are assumed by the federal government.

July 17 Diplomacy: The State Department announces its intention to remain neutral during the ongoing Spanish Civil War, which commenced the previous July 17.

August 5–16 Sports: During the Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany, the U.S. team takes 20 gold medals and places second behind Germany in unofficial team scores.

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Owens, Jesse (1913–1980) Athlete James Cleveland Owens was born in Danville, Alabama, on September 12, 1913, the son of a sharecropper. He subsequently

relocated to Cleveland, Ohio, with his family and, although sickly as a child, he began demonstrating incredible physical

Jesse Owens winning the 220-yard low hurdles and setting a world record at the Big Ten meet in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on May 25, 1935. (National Archives)

African-American Jesse Owens wins four gold medals in field and track, stunning his Nazi hosts with their racial notion of Aryan supremacy.

August 14 Politics: The National Union for Social Justice under Reverend Charles E. Coughlin holds its first national convention in Cleveland, Ohio, and endorses the Union Party ticket of William Lemke.

September–November Politics: With many magazines and newspaper editors openly hostile to the centralized governance represented by the New Deal, many are predicting a

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prowess as a teen. While attending Fairview Junior High School in Cleveland, Owens ran the 100-yard dash in 10 seconds and, in 1934, at the National High School Championships in Chicago, Illinois, he tied the world record of 9.4 seconds for the same distance. He was then actively recruited by Ohio State University but, owing to the poverty of his family, would not attend unless the school found work for his father. Owens, who did not receive a scholarship, held down three jobs while attending college to pay for tuition and expenses, and he also endured the institutionalized racism of his day, but he firmly resolved to become a world-class athlete. Accordingly, he distinguished himself at the “Big Ten” field and track meet held at the University of Michigan in 1935, breaking three world records and tying a fourth. His record 26-foot, 8-inch broad jump stood for 25 years before being broken. Furthermore, his four gold medals won from the National College Athletics Association (NCAA) would not be equaled until 2006. The following year Owens also made world history as part of the U.S. Olympic team in Berlin, Germany. Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler intended to use the occasion to showcase his claims of Aryan superiority and underscore the alleged inferiority of African Americans. However, Owens completely dominated the event,

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winning four gold medals—a record that stood until it was broken by Carl Lewis in 1984. In Berlin, Owens was wildly cheered as a world athlete but, back home, he was once again victimized by racism and had to take a freight elevator to attend a reception for him at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. Not surprisingly, he quit competing to hold down a number of sports-related positions, such as physical fitness director for African Americans within the Philadelphia Office of Civilian Defense, 1941–42. He then worked as director of minority employment at the Ford Motor Company, 1942–46, and he was also secretary of the Illinois Athletic Commission, 1952–55. Owens subsequently relocated to Chicago, where he owned a public relations firm and also hosted his own jazz program on local radio. However, it was not until 1976, 40 years after his thrilling Berlin performance, that he was invited to the White House by President Gerald R. Ford, and three years later President Jimmy Carter gave him a Living Legend Award. Owens died in Phoenix, Arizona, on March 31, 1980, and in 1990 Congress voted him a Congressional Gold Medal, which was presented to his widow by President George H. W. Bush. He remains a celebrated athlete for paving the way for other minorities to succeed.

landslide election victory for Republican Alf Landon over Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt.

September 30 Sports: The New York Yankees (AL) win the 33rd annual World Series by defeating the New York Giants (NL), four games to two.

October 21 Transportation: A Pan Am Martin M-130 China Clipper begins regular service across the Pacific Ocean from San Francisco, California.

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November 3 Politics: Defying the pundits, Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt easily defeats Republican Alfred M. Landon for the presidency, winning 523 electoral votes to eight, and 27.7 million popular votes to the latter’s 16.6 million. The Democrats also maintain their sizable majorities in the House and Senate. Publishing: The noted magazine Literary Digest, which had confidently predicted a Republican victory this fall, is so humiliated by the results that it goes out of business.

November 12 Literature: Playwright Eugene O’Neill wins the Nobel Prize as America’s foremost dramatist. Science: Carl David Anderson of the California Institute of Technology wins the Nobel Prize in Physics for discovering the positron in 1932.

December 11 General: King Edward VIII of England is so enamored by the American divorcée Wallis Warfield Simpson that he abdicates the throne to marry her. As duke and duchess of Windsor, they still retain considerable celebrity status around the world.

December 30 Labor: Members of the United Auto Workers at a General Motors plant in Michigan begin a sit-down strike until GM recognizes the UAW as the sole bargaining agent for its employees.

1937 Architecture: The Harlem River Houses, designed as four- and five-story walkups strung together, become New York City’s first public housing projects. Labor: Worker unrest peaks during the winter of 1936–37 as 500,000 people quit their jobs. Literature: John Steinbeck pens Of Mice and Men, a best-selling novel that became a successful play and a motion picture; John P. Marquand writes his novel The Late George Apley about the declining Boston aristocracy. Medical: Karen Horney’s book The Neurotic Personality of Our Time stresses cultural factors over heredity as the leading cause of mental illness. Transportation: The Lincoln Tunnel, connecting New York to New Jersey underneath the Hudson River, is opened to relieve crowding in the Holland Tunnel.

January 20 Politics: In Washington, D.C., Franklin D. Roosevelt is inaugurated president of the United States for his second term.

February 5 Politics: President Franklin D. Roosevelt, incensed over what he perceives as conservative resistance on the U.S. Supreme Court to his New Deal legislation, declares to his cabinet his intention to seek to overhaul the judicial system by adding new federal judges at every level of the federal courts. This includes appointing six new members to the Supreme Court, in effect, “packing it” with pro-Roosevelt appointees.

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Steinbeck, John

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(1902–1968)

Writer John Ernest Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California, on February 27, 1902, the son of a politician. As a child he worked in the fields alongside migrant workers and was indelibly imprinted by their struggles. Steinbeck subsequently attended Stanford University and studied marine biology until 1925, when he quit school and relocated to New York to seek fame as a newspaper writer. He came home the following year and finished his first wave of novels, Cup of Gold (1929), Pastures of Heaven (1932), and To an Unknown God (1933), none of which garnered critical acclaim. Then Steinbeck reached back into his own roots, most notably his hard times working beside Mexican-American “paisanos” in the fields of Monterey, and he crafted an interesting, humorous tale entitled Tortilla Flat in 1935. This became a best seller and was adapted for stage and sold to a Hollywood studio, from which it emerged as a film in 1942. Steinbeck, however, remained motivated to take up the cause of migrant workers and, following a series of touching essays for the San Francisco Chronicle, he penned his next major success, Of Mice and Men (1937), concerning an unusual friendship between two migrants. Two years later he scored an even bigger success with The Grapes of Wrath (1939), which follows the fortunes of a family of landless migrants from the “dust bowl” of Oklahoma to the supposed “golden land” of California. This novel proved an immediate best seller, won Steinbeck the Pulitzer Prize for 1940, and it was also

made into a famous movie directed by John Ford. Steinbeck was also commissioned to write several notable screenplays, including Alfred Hitchcock’s Lifeboat (1944) and Elia Kazan’s Viva Zapata! (1952). World War II found Steinbeck working as a foreign correspondent, and he published several works of nonfiction, including Bombs Away (1942), A Russian Journal (1948), and Once There Was a War (1958). He also took up the subject of his beloved migrants in his next novels, Cannery Row (1944), The Wayward Bus (1947), and The Pearl (1947), none of which received great acclaim. The decades of the 1950s and 1960s saw Steinbeck’s reputation decline through a series of cleverly stylized but ham-fisted attempts at psychological drama, including East of Eden (1952), The Winter of Our Discontent (1961), and finally the humorous Travels with Charlie (1962), recounting the author’s adventures on the road with his pet poodle. In light of his body of work, Steinbeck received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1963. His literature was originally championed by liberal politicians because it featured poor and downtrodden heroes and their plight. However, as Steinbeck aged, he grew increasingly conservative, fully espoused traditional American values, and even supported the war in Vietnam, because of which his reputation among previous admirers declined. Steinbeck died in New York City on December 28, 1968, hailed as one of the most realistic drama writers of his generation.

March 1 Business: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Reciprocal Trade Agreement into law, which updates the Trade Agreement Act of 1934 by allowing the chief executive to negotiate foreign trade agreements.

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Chronology of American History Labor: CIO leader John L. Lewis and the chairman of the board of the United States Steel Corporation announce that the company will recognize the United Steel Workers as a union. This is an important breakthrough for the labor movement, although several years elapse before all steel companies are so disposed. Politics: A sympathetic Democratic Congress passes the Supreme Court Retirement Act, which allows justices to retire at the age of 70 with full pay. It is hoped this legislation will induce a majority of conservative justices on the bench to depart and make way for pro-Roosevelt appointees.

March 4 Media: Academy Awards are given to The Great Ziegfeld as best picture of 1936, to Paul Muni for best actor in The Story of Louis Pasteur, and to Luise Rainer for best actress in The Great Ziegfeld. Walt Disney also receives his fifth consecutive award for the animated cartoon, Country Cousin.

March 18 General: The worst school fire in American history kills 294 pupils at New London, Texas.

March 29 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of West Coast Hotel v. Parrish, reversing an earlier decision to now uphold the notion of minimum wages for women.

April 6–15 Sports: The Detroit Red Wings win the NHL Stanley Cup by defeating the New York Rangers, three games to two.

April 12 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court narrowly decides to approve the constitutionality of the National Labor Relations Board, first enacted in 1935.

April 19 Sports: Walter Young of Quebec wins the 41st Boston Marathon with a time of two hours, 33 minutes, 20 seconds.

April 22 Business: Captain Eddie Rickenbacker purchases Eastern Airlines for $3.5 million.

May Labor: Statistics released by the U.S. government reveal that half a million worker have engaged in sit-downs or strikes since the fall of 1936.

May 1 Diplomacy: The Third Neutrality Act is signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, which forbids American shipping to sail into the waters and home ports of all belligerents. Furthermore, all belligerent nations must pay cash for nonmilitary commodities purchased in the United States, and they must transport them on their own vessels. This legislation becomes jocularly known as the “Cash and Carry Law.”

May 3 Arts: Margaret Mitchell’s seminal novel Gone with the Wind takes the Pulitzer Prize for fiction; Robert Frost’s compilation A Further Range wins the Pulitzer

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Prize for poetry; Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman’s You Can’t Take It with You wins the Pulitzer Prize for drama.

May 6 Aviation: The giant German dirigible Hindenburg, carried aloft by highly flammable hydrogen gas, explodes while docking at Lakehurst, New Jersey, killing 36 passengers. It spells the end of transoceanic dirigible flights. Media: Herbert Morrison is on hand to provide the first coast-to-coast radio coverage of the Hindenburg disaster, which is also vividly captured on newsreels.

May 8 Sports: War Admiral wins the 63rd annual Kentucky Derby after crossing the finish line in two minutes, three seconds.

May 12 Media: The coronation of Britain’s King George VI is heard in the United States through the first worldwide radio broadcast.

May 15 Sports: War Admiral wins the 62nd annual Preakness Stakes with a time of one minute, 58 seconds.

May 24 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court rules on the constitutionality of the Social Security Act of 1935, and deems it legal. This is a crucial victory for New Deal legislation and prompts President Franklin D. Roosevelt to reconsider his “court-packing” scheme.

May 27 Engineering: The beautiful Golden Gate Bridge is opened to the public in San Francisco, California.

May 30 Labor: Rioting breaks out during a strike at the Republic Steel Corporation in South Chicago, Illinois, and 10 workers are killed.

May 31 Sports: Wilbur Shaw wins the 27th Indianapolis 500 by finishing in four hours, 27 minutes, seven seconds at an average speed of 113.58 miles per hour.

June 5 Sports: War Admiral wins the 69th annual Belmont Stakes in only two minutes, 28 seconds. He become the fourth horse to win the Triple Crown.

June 8 General: A show at the New York Botanical Gardens unveils the world’s largest flowering plant, the giant calla lily from Sumatra, to amazed onlookers. The plant stands eight feet tall.

June 22 Politics: President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s ambitious “Supreme Court Bill” is voted back into committee by Congress, which effectively dooms it. Sports: In Chicago, Illinois, Joe Louis defeats James Braddock after eight rounds and becomes the second African-American world heavyweight boxing champion.

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Louis, Joe

(1914–1981)

Boxer Joseph Louis Barrow was born in LaFayette, Alabama, on May 13, 1914, the son of a sharecropper. He was raised in Detroit,

Joe Louis (Library of Congress)

Michigan, and worked odd jobs like shining shoes and hauling ice until he developed an interest in boxing. Louis began sparring in local gyms and boxing amateur bouts, winning 50 of 59 fights in quick succession and becoming a Golden Gloves light-heavyweight champion. After winning the National Amateur Athletic Union tournament in 1934, Louis turned professional and knocked out veteran fighter Jack Cracken in the first round on July 4, 1934. He then compiled an impressive string of victories in his first year by dropping 12 additional opponents, 10 of them by his now-trademark knockouts. In 1935, Louis knocked out former champion Primo Carnera in six rounds and acquired the nickname “Brown Bomber.” The following year he first met the sting of defeat while fighting Germany’s Max Schmeling, who staggered Louis in the 12th round. But Louis bounced back on June 22, 1937, in a fight against James J. Braddock, knock-

July 2 Aviation: The popular aviatrix Amelia Earhart vanishes in the Southwest Pacific on her daring round-the-world flight. Speculation on the cause of her demise continues to present times but still remains inconclusive.

July 22 Agriculture: Congress passes the Bankhead-Jones Act, which establishes the Farm Security Administration (FSA) to offer low-interest loans to farm tenants, sharecroppers, and laborers.

July 31–August 5 Sports: The U.S. yacht Ranger defends the America’s Cup from British challenger Endeavour II, in four straight races.

August 12 Law: President Franklin D. Roosevelt nominates Hugo L. Black of Alabama to replace retiring justice Willis Van Devanter on the U.S. Supreme Court. Black had previously supported the New Deal as a U.S. senator, but his youthful activities in the Ku Klux Klan stir controversy.

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ing him out in round eight and becoming the youngest fighter to ever win the world heavyweight championship title. Over the next decade Louis successfully defended his title 25 times, winning 21 of his fights by knockouts. His most celebrated rematch, against Germany’s Schmeling, came on June 22, 1938, and Louis dropped him cold in the first round as an estimated 70 million Americans listened in on the radio. No fewer than six other world champions fell before his bone-jarring punches, and Louis is also the first fighter in history to draw $3-million gates. Despite his celebrity, he remained somewhat low key for a world champion, being intensely religious and extremely generous to charity. In 1940, Louis was drafted into the U.S. Army, where he fought exhibition rounds for the troops and also defended his title in two championship matches. Typically, he either shared or donated his share of the purse to army and navy relief organizations. His modesty and generosity made him one of America’s most beloved boxing

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figures, but Louis received unwarranted amounts of scrutiny from the Internal Revenue Service, who hounded him mercilessly for back taxes. Louis continued fighting and winning in the postwar period, although he was clearly slowing with age and, after two painful victories over “Jersey Joe” Walcott, he retired undefeated in 1949. Two years later, still hounded by the IRS, Louis unwisely returned to the ring, fat and out of shape, and he lost badly to up-and-coming champion Rocky Marciano. Thereafter, Louis wrestled briefly, 1956–57, before injuries forced his retirement and he became a sports celebrity in Las Vegas. In this capacity he enjoyed genuine popularity with a stilladoring public, and he counted many Hollywood celebrities among his closest friends. Louis died of a heart attack in Las Vegas on April 12, 1981, and he was interred at Arlington Military Cemetery with full military honors. The following year Congress posthumously voted him a Congressional Gold Medal, the highest award given to civilians.

August 18 Business: The Miller-Tydings Enabling Act is signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, which allows certain commodities to be sold at fixed prices. To ensure presidential support, the legislation is attached to the District of Columbia appropriations bill as a “rider.”

August 26 Law: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs a compromise form of his Judicial Procedure Reform Act, which makes minor changes to the lower federal courts and allows federal judges to retire at 70 with a full pension.

August 27 Music: Aaron Copland performs his El Salón México in Mexico City, Mexico.

September 2 Business: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the National Housing Act, which creates the U.S. Housing Authority to administer loans for rural and urban construction.

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Chronology of American History

Earhart, Amelia (1897–1937) Aviatrix Amelia Mary Earhart was born in Atchison, Kansas, on July 24, 1897, the daughter of a lawyer. She moved around constantly with her family before graduating from high school in 1915, and three years later she moved to Canada as a nurse, tending mangled veterans of World War I. The experience seared her personally, and thereafter she became a committed pacifist. In 1919, Earhart enrolled at Columbia University, but quit after a year and moved to Los Angeles to be with her parents. There, in the winter of 1920, she experienced her first airplane ride and found her calling. Much against her parents’ wishes, she obtained her pilot’s license from the National Aeronautics Association (NAA) on December 15, 1921, and she worked part time as a file clerk and truck driver to purchase her own airplane. Because flying was an expensive hobby and Earhart was also strapped for income, she ended up selling her airplane in 1924 and accompanied her mother to Boston to work as a social worker in a settlement house. Once money became available, she rejoined the NAA and flew part time for her own entertainment. However, the turning point in Earhart’s life occurred in 1928 when publisher George Palmer Putnam, who had published Charles Lindbergh’s aviation memoir, sought a “Lady Lindy” to fly across the Atlantic from Newfoundland to Wales accompanied by a pilot and a mechanic. On June 18–19, Earhart became the first woman to cross the Atlantic by air, even though she never touched

the controls. However, in 1931 she married the wealthy Putnam, who also served as her publicist and agent, and finally she possessed the wherewithal to pursue her passion for flying. Earhart, a gifted aviator, resented rumors that she was a tool for her husband’s publicity stunts and determined to prove her critics wrong. In 1931, she became the first person to pilot an autogiro (half plane/half helicopter) across the United States. On May 20–21, 1932, she singlehandedly piloted a single-engine Lockheed Vega aircraft from Newfoundland to Ireland in a record 15 hours, becoming the first woman to fly that route solo. Earhart was also determined to promote her love for flying among women, so she worked as aviation editor for Cosmopolitan in 1928, and she published two best sellers, 20 Hours, 40 Minutes (1928) and The Fun of It (1932). She was also an astute businesswoman and served as vice president of Luddington Airlines, 1930–31. By now Earhart was among the most recognizable female celebrities in the world. In 1937, she attempted the stunt for which she is best known, an around-the-world flight in a twinengine Lockheed Electra with Frederick J. Noonan as her copilot. On July 2, 1937, the couple had already completed 22,000 miles of their quest and were on the return leg of the flight when contact was suddenly lost over the Pacific between Lae, New Guinea, and Howland Island. Speculation continues as to her demise, but Earhart remains the most celebrated female pilot in history.

September 14 Diplomacy: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs an executive order forbidding all American ships from carrying arms to either China or Japan, then at war since the Marco Polo Bridge incident the previous July.

1937

Chronology

1897

September 28 Engineering: President Franklin D. Roosevelt officiates at opening ceremonies for the new Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River, Oregon.

October 5 Diplomacy: President Franklin D. Roosevelt gives a major policy speech in which he urges a collective response against global aggressors.

October 6–10 Sports: The New York Yankees (AL) win the 34th annual World Series by defeating the New York Giants (NL) four games to one.

October 19 Business: Economic woes continue as the stock market dips to 7.2 million shares, its lowest since 1933.

November 2 Arts: The musical comedy I’d Rather Be Right by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart opens at the Alvin Theater in New York with great success. It features George M. Cohan as President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

November 11 Science: Clinton J. Davisson of Bell Telephone Laboratories shares the Nobel Prize for physics with Sir George Paget Thomson for their work with irradiated crystals.

December 12 Naval: On the Yangtze River, China, Japanese aircraft bomb and sink the clearly marked American gunboat USS Panay. The attack sparks an immediate crisis in Japanese-American relations.

December 14 Diplomacy: In light of the public outcry, the Japanese government apologizes for the sinking of the USS Panay and agrees to pay reparations. War is averted for the time being, but the Japanese refuse to moderate their mounting aggression in China.

1938 Agriculture: Crop yields are more speedily harvested and increased through use of the new, self-propelled combine, which is introduced to American farmers this year. Architecture: Sculptor Adolph Alexander Weinman completes the doors to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in New York City to great effect; the Haggerty House in Cohasset, Massachusetts, is the first building designed and built by Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer; the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York completes its branch, The Cloisters, at Fort Tryon, New York, which incorporates parts of five medieval French cloisters. Business: The DuPont Company obtains patents for the new synthetic fabric nylon, which has tremendous industrial and commercial applications. Education: John Dewey advances his educational theories in publishing Logic: The Theory of Inquiry and Education. Literature: Thornton Wilder’s quaint fantasy Our Town is one of the year’s most successful titles; William Faulkner writes The Unvanquished; Ernest Hemingway completes his only play, The Fifth Column.

1938

1898

Chronology of American History Media: The top grossing film of the year is Walt Disney’s seminal animated production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs; the radio program Music Appreciation, conducted by Walter Damrosch, is heard by an estimated 7 million school-age children every week. Publishing: Albert Einstein and Leopold Infield write a noted textbook, The Evolution of Physics. Societal: Devotees of the dance floor are performing the new Lambeth Walk. Technology: In Newark, Ohio, James Slater and John H. Thomas perfect manufacturing techniques for fiberglass. Transportation: Statistics from the National Safety Council reveal that there are more than 32,000 automobile-related deaths for the year 1938.

January 3 Politics: President Franklin D. Roosevelt stresses that economic and social ills still plague America but, in light of current events worldwide, he also mentions the need for maintaining a strong national defense.

January 10 Politics: Congress votes down a motion by Indiana congressman Louis Ludlow, which would have called for a national referendum on whether or not to allow Congress the ability to declare war. President Franklin D. Roosevelt railed strongly against the measure, arguing it would cripple the chief executive’s ability to conduct foreign relations.

January 28 Military: Congress receives President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s recommendation that military appropriations be stepped up, particularly for the U.S. Navy.

February 16 Agriculture: The Agricultural Adjustment Act is signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, which controls acreage planted, quotas of crops marketed, and amounts set aside for storage. Through these expedients, it is hoped that the government can effectively stabilize agricultural prices.

March 2 General: A spate of floods and landslides afflicts southern areas of California, killing 144 people and inflicting $60 million in property damage.

March Business: With the stock market falling another 50 points and the Federal Reserve Board’s Adjusted Index of Industrial Production dipping to 76, the present recession has reached its nadir.

March 10 Media: Academy Awards go to Emile Zola as best picture of 1937, to Spencer Tracy as best actor for Captains Courageous, and to Luise Rainer as best actress for The Good Earth. Walt Disney wins a sixth consecutive award for his cartoon, The Old Mill.

March 18 Diplomacy: The Mexican government nationalizes the oil properties of the United States and other foreign countries without any offers of financial compensation.

1938

Chronology

1899

March 31 Diplomacy: Former president Herbert Hoover warns against signing defensive alliances with European nations presently drawing themselves up to oppose Nazi Germany or fascist Italy and Spain. He predicts that such an arrangement will only draw the United States into war.

April 5–12 Sports: The Chicago Black Hawks win the NHL Stanley Cup by defeating the Toronto Maple Leafs three games to one.

April 12 Societal: New York State passes the first law requiring medical tests to obtain a marriage license. It is undertaken to help prevent the spread of syphilis.

April 19 Sports: Leslie Pawson wins the 42nd Boston Marathon with a time of two hours, 35 minutes, 34 seconds.

May Music: The ballet score “The Incredible Flutist” by Walter Piston debuts with the Boston Pops Orchestra.

May 2 Arts: John P. Marquand’s novel The Late George Apley wins the Pulitzer Prize for fiction; Marya Zaturenska’s volume Cold Morning Sky wins the Pulitzer Prize for poetry; Thornton Wilder’s fantasy Our Town wins the Pulitzer Prize for drama.

May 11 Business: Congress passes the Revenue Act of 1938 to reduce corporate taxes and hopefully stimulate the national economy.

May 17 Naval: In light of the global situation, the Naval Expansion Act of 1938 passes Congress, which appropriates $1 billion to construct capital ships, cruisers, and aircraft carriers.

May 26 Politics: Congressman Martin Dies of Texas is chosen to head up the new committee tasked with investigating un-American activities, although it gradually becomes fixated upon activities of the radical left.

May 27 Business: Congress passes the Revenue Bill of 1938, which reduces taxes on businesses and corporations in an attempt to stimulate the economy.

May 30 Sports: Floyd Roberts wins the 25th Indianapolis 500 by finishing in four hours, 15 minutes, 58 seconds at an average speed of 117.20 miles per hour.

June 21 Politics: The Emergency Relief Act is signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in an attempt to mitigate suffering caused by a new round of economic recession.

1938

1900

Chronology of American History

June 22 Business: Congress passes the Chandler Act, which amends the Federal Bankruptcy Act of 1898 and establishes for persons or businesses new guidelines for settling debts to avoid liquidation.

June 23 Aviation: The Civil Aeronautics Authority (CAA) is established by Congress to impose federal regulations on the licensing of pilots, rules of flight, and equipment standards. This move reflects the nation’s growing dependence on air transportation and its attendant networks.

June 24 Business: The Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (Wheeler-Lea Act) is approved by Congress to replace the Pure Food Act of 1906, which mandates detailed disclosure of all ingredients and metes out stiff punishment for violators.

June 25 Labor: The Fair Labor Standards Act is signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, which establishes a minimum wage of 40 cents an hour and a maximum work week of 44 hours, which drops to 40 after the third year. However, its provisions are initially restricted to those businesses engaged in interstate commerce.

June 28 General: Congress approves the Flood Control Act to facilitate construction and other safeguards along rivers and harbors.

July 1 General: President Franklin D. Roosevelt officiates at ceremonies marking the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg; many surviving Civil War veterans are in attendance.

July 10–14 Aviation: Howard Hughes wins the International Harmon Trophy for flying his Lockheed 14 around the world, nonstop, in three days, 19 hours, and 14 minutes, establishing a new record.

July 18 Aviation: Aviator Douglas Corrigan solos across the Atlantic and safely touches down in Ireland. However, after failing to obtain a flight exit permit from Europe, he claims to have been heading for California and to have made a mistake. This gives rise to his popular reputation as “Wrong Way Corrigan.”

September 21 General: A major hurricane strikes the New England coast, killing 700 people and inflicting millions of dollars in property damage. Providence, Rhode Island, is especially hard hit.

September 26 Diplomacy: A pensive President Franklin D. Roosevelt sends a diplomatic note to the governments of Great Britain, France, Germany, and Czechoslovakia, and asks that they resolve the dispute arising from Hitler’s intended seizure of the Sudetenland peacefully.

1938

Chronology

Hughes, Howard

1901

(1905–1976)

Aviator Howard Robard Hughes was born in Houston, Texas, on December 24, 1905, the son of a wealthy, oil-drilling equipment designer. After being privately educated, Hughes attended the Rice Institute, Houston, and the California Institute of Technology before inheriting the family fortune at the age of 18. For several years he capably managed the Hughes Tool Company and then set himself up as a Hollywood motion picture producer in 1927. Despite his prior lack of experience in this field, he displayed genuine talent and helped create such noted releases as Hell’s Angels (1930), Scarface (1932), and The Outlaw (1941), and he launched the careers of actors such as Jean Harlow, Paul Muni, and Jane Russell. A flamboyant and outgoing personality at this stage of life, he made headlines by dating some of the most glamorous women of the day, including Ginger Rogers, Katharine Hepburn, and Olivia de Havilland. Hughes also obtained a pilot’s license in 1928 and turned his attention toward what became a consuming passion: designing spectacular airplanes. In 1932, he founded the Hughes Aircraft Corporation in Glendale, California, and designed and built the famous H-1 racer, which set an aerial speed record of 352 miles per hour on September 13, 1935, along with transcontinental speed records in 1936 and 1937. In 1938, Hughes topped himself by flying around the world in three days and 19 hours, for which he received both the prestigious Harmon trophy and a ticker-tape parade in New York City. During World War II he was contracted to design and build

the world’s biggest aircraft, the Hughes H-4 Hercules, better known as the Spruce Goose, which employed eight engines and a 319foot wingspan. Made entirely of wood, it could carry 370 fully armed troops or two Sherman tanks, but Hughes only flew it once on November 2, 1947, before turning to other fields. In 1946, Hughes was seriously injured in the crash of his futuristic XF-11 aircraft. By 1950, the Hughes Aircraft Company had become a major defense contractor in the ensuing cold war, but by now he was displaying profound behavior changes that altered the public’s perception. He went into virtual seclusion for months at a time, whereby none but a few trusted aides would be allowed to conduct business with him in person. By 1970, he had left the United States and moved constantly to the Bahamas, Nicaragua, Canada, England, and Mexico, and had become grimly determined to safeguard his privacy. Hughes, however, had lost none of his business acumen, and he was a driving force behind the creation of TWA Airlines, in which he held control, along with major investments in Las Vegas hotels, casinos, and golf courses. In 1975, his Summa Corporation worked closely with the CIA to design the deep-sea-drilling vessel Glomar Explorer, whose sole purpose was to help locate and raise a sunken Soviet nuclear submarine. He remained reclusive to the end and died in Acapulco, Mexico, on April 5, 1976. Hughes’s eccentric behavior does not detract from his stature as one of America’s leading airmen of the 1930s.

September 30 Politics: The war clouds appear to be gathering in Europe, but polls indicate that the majority of Americans disapprove of British prime minister Neville Chamberlain’s willing appeasement of Adolf Hitler by signing the so-called Munich Pact.

1938

1902

Chronology of American History

October 5–9 Sports: The New York Yankees (AL) win the 35th annual World Series by defeating the Chicago Cubs (NL) in four straight games.

October 9 Transportation: The new $3.2-million international bridge stretching between Port Huron, Michigan, and Point Edward, Ontario, is dedicated.

October 13 Labor: William Green is reelected president of the American Federation of Labor (AFL).

October 30 Media: The brilliant writer/actor Orson Welles stuns the American nation with his broadcast re-creation of H. G. Wells’s War of the Worlds. Many listeners were actually panicked into thinking that an invasion from Mars was underway, which only underscores the power of radio to influence people.

November Technology: An early form of radar is demonstrated to the secretary of war after extensive testing by the Coast Artillery.

November 8 Politics: Midterm elections cost the Democrats seats in both houses of Congress, but they still maintain control.

Welles, Orson

(1915–1985)

Actor, director George Orson Welles was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on May 6, 1915, the son of a successful, if alcoholic, inventor. His parents separated when he was a child, and he was raised in Chicago, Illinois, by his domineering mother, a talented concert pianist, and exposed to her inner circle of actors, artists, and musicians. Given this environment, Welles proved himself a child prodigy and began reciting Shakespearean soliloquies at the age of seven. By 16, both his parents were dead, so he ventured to Ireland in 1931, intending to become an actor, and he worked for the experimental Gate Theater in Dublin. Welles returned to New York a year later and tried finding work on Broadway, but he ended up back in Chicago writ-

1938

ing plays and directing minor productions before finally joining a small off-Broadway company. Welles debuted on the stage at 18, and shortly after he joined forces with noted director/producer John Houseman in a Federal Theater Project for the government. Within months they felt emboldened to form their own Mercury Theater in 1937. Welles, possessed of a deep, sonorous voice, also found radio work as detective Lamont Cranston on the popular program The Shadow. This was followed by performances of Shakespeare and other adaptations by the Mercury Theater on the airwaves. In 1938, however, he and Houseman broke all precedent with their riveting production of H. G. Wells’s War of the Worlds, which proved so realistic

Chronology

1903

November 14 Labor: The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) is founded by delegates of the Committee for Industrial Organization in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Labor stalwart John L. Lewis is unanimously elected the first president.

November 14–18 Diplomacy: The State Department recalls its ambassador from Germany for consultations over anti-Jewish activities there. Consequently, German ambassador Hans Dieckhoff is also recalled.

November 18 Diplomacy: The German ambassador in Washington, D.C., is recalled home, ostensibly in retaliation for the United States removing its own ambassador.

December 6 Media: Former British foreign minister Anthony Eden gives a radio speech in New York and warns America that European democracies are being threatened by fascism.

December 13 Labor: Figures released by the government indicate that the number of Americans on public relief has dropped to 2.1 million, down from 3.1 million a year earlier.

that large parts of New Jersey’s population fled from their homes, actually believing that Martians were attacking. Such a bravura performance, combined with Welles’s mounting persona as an enfant terrible, caught Hollywood’s attention and, in 1940, he signed with RKO to write, produce, direct, and star in two motion pictures. His reputation was such that Welles received complete creative control of the project, along with a percentage of the profits—unheard of at the time. In 1941, Welles completed and starred in his masterpiece, Citizen Kane, which took the critics by storm for its sheer imaginative brilliance. The film, loosely based on the life of millionaire publisher William Randolph Hearst, won an Oscar for best script and assured him a reputation as one of the world’s greatest directors. Welles, however,

enjoyed decreasing success in Hollywood, and for the balance of World War II he worked abroad as a journalist for the New York Post. He then relocated to Europe for a decade and, despite memorable performances such as villainous Harry Lime in The Third Man (1949) and in the title role as King Lear (1953), never recaptured his prior success. Welles came home in 1958 and starred in the classic Touch of Evil with Joseph Cotton, but his subsequent endeavors proved anticlimactic. He died at his home in Los Angeles, California, on October 10, 1985, an obese, isolated caricature of the tragic figures he so deftly captured on the screen. Nonetheless, the prestigious American Film Society still ranks Citizen Kane as number one on its list of the best 100 films of all time.

1938

1904

Chronology of American History

December 24 Diplomacy: The Eighth International Conference of American States, with 21 nations in attendance, meets in Lima, Peru, and adopts the Declaration of Lima. This affirms the principle of mutual consultation without stressing mutual defense arrangements.

December 31 Aviation: In Seattle, Washington, Boeing unveils its ultramodern 307 Stratoliner, the first pressurized commercial airliner.

1939 Architecture: The famous Johnson Wax Company building, Racine, Wisconsin, is designed and completed by Frank Lloyd Wright; it is perhaps his best-known office structure. Communication: Edwin H. Armstrong invents a new kind of radio transmitting and receiving known as frequency modulation (FM), which is not subject to static like regular amplitude modulation (AM) broadcasts are. Literature: John Steinbeck releases his seminal The Grapes of Wrath about Oklahoma migrant workers; John Dos Passos publishes The Adventures of a Young Man; William Faulkner releases The Wild Palms; Robert Frost releases his latest volume of verse entitled Collected Poems. Science: In a major advance toward nuclear fission, scientists announce they have succeeded in splitting uranium and other radioactive materials by bombarding them with neutrons; Drs. Philip Levine and Rufus Stetson of New York discover the Rh factor in human blood, essential for classifying blood for transfusion purposes; in a famous letter, physicist Albert Einstein encourages President Franklin D. Roosevelt to begin researching atomic weapons.

January 4 Politics: In his address to Congress, President Franklin D. Roosevelt emphasizes military preparedness at the expense of domestic issues and calls on democracies to be prepared for all contingencies.

January 5 Military: President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s annual budget of $9 billion includes $1.3 billion for military appropriations, the largest amount requested since World War I.

January 20 Music: Charles Ives plays his Second Piano Sonata at Town Hall in New York City, and it is considered the greatest piece ever written for piano by an American composer.

January 30 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Tennessee Electric Company v. Tennessee Valley Authority, and declares the latter’s competition with private utility companies constitutional.

February 13 Law: Judge Louis Brandeis, a legal scholar of merit and the first Jew to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court, retires at the age of 82.

1939

Chronology

1905

Einstein, Albert (1879–1955) Scientist Albert Einstein was born in Ulm, Germany, on March 14, 1879, the son of a featherbed salesman. He received his initial schooling in Munich but performed indifferently in all subjects other than mathematics. Einstein then dropped out of school at 16 and tried to enroll at the Federal Institute of Technology (FIT), Zurich, Switzerland, but he was forced to obtain first his high school certificate at a school in nearby Aarau in 1896. Einstein then formally studied at the FIT, where his love for experimental and theoretical physics manifested, but he was unable to obtain a university assistantship and worked several years in the patent office in Bern. In 1905 he finally acquired his doctorate from the University of Zurich and began writing the first of many famous theoretical papers on physics, especially his commentary on Brownian motion of molecules. In 1909, his notoriety in scientific circles resulted in his appointment as a lecturer at the University of Bern. In 1914, he accepted an invitation by noted German scientists Max Planck and Walter Nernst to join the faculty at the University of Berlin along with full membership in the Prussian Academy of Sciences. It was there, in 1916, that Einstein published his most famous treatise regarding the general theory of relativity, long considered one of the pillars of modern physics. In 1921, he received the Nobel Prize for Physics on the basis of a paper he wrote in 1905 concerning photons and photoelectricity, which further added to his reputation. A year earlier, he had accepted a lifelong honor-

ary visiting professorship at the University of Leiden, and he also accompanied fellow scientist Chaim Weizmann on several worldwide trips on behalf of Zionism. However, after 1932, Germany was falling under Nazi domination, and Einstein became the object of a vicious anti-Semitic campaign to discredit him. Wishing to depart before things turned for the worse, he relocated to the United States in 1933 to work at the Institute of Advanced Studies at Princeton University. He finally gained American citizenship in 1940. Einstein worked capably and imaginatively without fanfare until 1939, when he signed a famous letter drafted by fellow physicists Leo Szilard and E. P. Wigner, which was then forwarded to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In it, Einstein warned that the Germans were well along on their way to developing an atomic bomb, long viewed as merely theoretical, and Roosevelt began marshaling scientific and industry resources for the Manhattan Engineering District Project. Einstein himself declined to participate, but he had helped lay down the theoretical groundwork for America’s own atomic bomb, which was detonated over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, in August 1945, effectively ending World War II. Afterward, Einstein remained active in physical and theoretical research, along with a number of social causes, until his death in Princeton on April 18, 1955. Along with Nicolaus Copernicus and Sir Isaac Newton, he is regarded as one of the greatest scientific minds in human history.

February 23 Media: Academy Awards are given to You Can’t Take It with You as best picture for 1938, to Spencer Tracy as best actor in Boys Town, and to Bette Davis for best

1939

1906

Chronology of American History actress in Jezebel. Walt Disney wins his seventh consecutive award for his cartoon short, Ferdinand the Bull.

February 24 Music: The Third Symphony of Roy Harris debuts with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Serge Koussevitzky.

February 27 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of National Labor Relations Board v. Fansteel Metallurgical Corporation, ruling that sit-down strikes on company premises are unconstitutional.

April 1 Diplomacy: With the Spanish Civil War effectively over, the United States recognizes the new regime of dictator Francisco Franco.

April 3 Politics: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Administration Reorganization Act into law, which empowers the chief executive to examine and reorganize agencies under his purview to promote efficiency.

April 6–16 Sports: The Boston Bruins win the NHL Stanley Cup by defeating the Toronto Maple Leafs four games to one.

April 14 Diplomacy: In an attempt to promote peace, President Franklin D. Roosevelt writes to Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini and solicits a 10-year guarantee of peace in Europe in exchange for American cooperation in talks on world trade and disarmament. Neither dictator shows any interest in the proposal.

April 19 Sports: Ellison Brown wins the 43rd Boston Marathon with a time of two hours, 28 minutes, 51 seconds.

April 20 Technology: The world’s first free-flight wind tunnel goes into operation at Langley Field, Virginia.

April 30 General: President Franklin D. Roosevelt attends opening ceremonies of the World’s Fair in New York City, which has selected “The World of Tomorrow” as its theme. Within months this utopian vision is shattered by contemporary events.

May 1

Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler (l to r) in Munich, Germany, 1940 (Library of Congress)

1939

Arts: Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings wins the Pulitzer Prize for fiction with her The Yearling; John Gould Fletcher wins the Pulitzer Prize for poetry with his Selected Poems; Robert E. Sherwood wins the Pulitzer Prize for drama with his Abe Lincoln in Illinois.

Chronology

1907

May 2 Sports: Legendary Yankees player Lou Gehrig officially retires from the game, ill from the degenerative nerve disease that carries his name and would kill him two years later. His career includes a record 2,130 consecutive games played.

Gehrig, Lou (1903–1941) Baseball player Henry Louis Gehrig was born in New York City on June 19, 1903, the son of German immigrants. He proved himself very athletic and adept at sports while maturing, and in 1921 he was admitted to Columbia University on a sports scholarship. Gehrig’s hitting was so pronounced that he played a season with the New York Giants Class A Hartford team, after which he was suspended from college sports for a year. In 1923, New York Yankees agent Paul Krichell signed him up and again dispatched him to the farm club. Gehrig remained in Hartford through 1924, although he did manage to play 23 games for the home team. In 1925, he transferred to the Yankees as a regular player and immediately distinguished himself as among the team’s best hitters. However, for most of his tenure here, he was easily overshadowed by Babe Ruth, the nation’s biggest sports hero, despite his lifetime batting average of .340. Gehrig also distinguished himself as an excellent first baseman and by 1927 was considered a key member of what is considered by many to be the greatest team in baseball history. That year Gehrig slammed home 47 home runs (compared to Ruth’s 60), in addition to 52 doubles and 18 triples. The combination of Gehrig and Ruth, “dubbed “Murder’s Row” by the press, went on to lead the Yankees in three World Series appearances, 1926–28. In 1934, he won the American League’s Triple Crown with a .363 batting average, 49 home runs, and 165 RBIs. He was also voted the league’s most valuable player in 1927, 1931,

1934, and 1936, while his total of 23 grand slam home runs remains unbroken. But overall, Gehrig’s most impressive record was in not missing a single game in 14 seasons (2,130 games), for which he was popularly nicknamed the “Iron Horse.” His lifetime batting average is an impressive .340 and is eclipsed by only two other batters, Ruth and fellow Yankee Joe DiMaggio. Tragically, Gehrig was at the height of his powers in 1938 when he began exhibiting pronounced physical deterioration. On May 2 of that year, batting a dismal .143 for the season, he voluntarily benched himself in a game against the Detroit Tigers. He subsequently entered the Mayo Clinic and was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a rare and invariably fatal form of paralysis. His days as a batter were over, but on July 4, 1939, Yankee Stadium hosted a Gehrig Appreciation Day to an overflow audience, at which point the ailing player tearfully thanked his fans and pronounced himself, “the luckiest man on the face of the Earth.” In December 1939, the Baseball Writers Association forsook their usual five-year waiting period and unanimously appointed Gehrig to the Baseball Hall of Fame. He then accepted work as a New York City parole commissioner by Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, which he held until his death on June 2, 1941. Such was his national celebrity that in 1942 MGM released the biographical film Pride of the Yankees with noted actor Gary Cooper in the role of Gehrig, and Babe Ruth playing himself.

1939

1908

Chronology of American History

May 5–13 Labor: The United Mine Workers call a work stoppage that brings the soft-coal industry to a virtual halt until the mine operators finally sign a contract.

May 9 Civil: African Americans, heretofore shunned by most aviation centers, are welcome in a new program established by Dale White and Chauncey Spencer.

May 10 Religion: The Methodist Church overcomes a schism that has divided its ranks since 1830 and unites itself into a single body boasting 8 million members.

May 16 Societal: Rochester, New York, initiates a food-stamp program to assist the poor and needy. The plan quickly catches on in more than 150 American cities over the next two years.

May 30 Sports: Wilbur Shaw wins the 27th Indianapolis 500 by running the course in four hours, 20 minutes, 47 seconds at an average speed of 115.035 miles per hour. Floyd Roberts, who won the 1938 race, dies in a crash.

June 7–12 Diplomacy: King George VI and Queen Elizabeth visit the United States on a goodwill tour intending to cement relations in the face of a growing fascist threat in Europe. They are also the first European sovereigns to visit America.

June 28 Aviation: The Pan American flying boat Dixie Clipper arrives at Lisbon, Portugal, after flying from Long Island, New York, 24 hours earlier. Transatlantic air service for passengers is now a reality.

July 1 Labor: President Franklin D. Roosevelt creates the Federal Works Agency by consolidating the Public Building Administration, Public Roads Administration, Public Works Administration, Work Projects Administration, and U.S. Housing Authority.

July 14 Diplomacy: President Franklin D. Roosevelt appeals to Congress for a repeal of its arms embargo and does so in an attempt to provide Britain and other democracies with weapons and other supplies in the face of fascist aggression by Germany and Italy.

July 17 Engineering: A proposed Brooklyn-Battery bridge spanning New York’s East River is vetoed by the War Department for fear that it might interfere with naval forces in wartime.

July 18 Diplomacy: Secretary of State Cordell Hull asks Congress to revise existing neutrality laws so as to facilitate greater aid to Britain and other democratic nations.

July 26 Diplomacy: Secretary of State Cordell Hull orders a 1911 trade treaty with Japan abrogated, which places relations between the two nations under additional stress.

1939

Chronology

1909

August 2 Politics: The Hatch Act is signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to restrict federal officeholders from participating in political campaigns.

August 10 Societal: The Social Security Amendment is signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, which moves up the date for starting monthly payments and also allows for more generous terms.

August 23 Diplomacy: The world reacts in surprise after the governments of Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler and the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin sign a nonaggression pact in Moscow.

August 24 Diplomacy: In a last-minute attempt to stave off war, President Franklin D. Roosevelt cables the governments of Germany, Poland, and the Soviet Union, and urges them to invoke arbitration or negotiation.

September 1 Military: World War II, the largest and most costly conflagration in human history, begins when German tanks begin rolling into Poland. The governments of Great Britain and France promptly declare war on Germany two days later.

September 3 Diplomacy: The British passenger liner Athenia is torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat off the Hebrides Islands, leading to the deaths of 28 Americans. The following day, Secretary of State Cordell Hull restricts American travel to Europe. Media: In his latest fireside chat, President Franklin D. Roosevelt assures the American public of his intention to remain neutral during the war in Europe.

September 5 Politics: The winds of war are blowing rapidly across Europe and Asia, but President Franklin D. Roosevelt makes an official proclamation of neutrality.

September 8 Politics: A state of limited national emergency is declared by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to allow him to exercise certain powers more expeditiously.

September 21 Politics: President Franklin D. Roosevelt addresses a special session of Congress and urges it to repeal the arms embargo provision of the 1937 Neutrality Act.

October 2 Diplomacy: Secretary of State Cordell Hull declares that the United States does not recognize the de facto partition of Poland into German and Soviet spheres. Instead, it intends to maintain relations with the Polish government in exile at Paris, France.

October 2–3 Politics: In Panama City, the Inter-American Conference issues the Declaration of Panama to establish safety zones in the Western Hemisphere in which

1939

1910

Chronology of American History belligerent powers are not to commit naval forces. In practice, both sides ignore this proclamation.

October 4–8 Sports: The New York Yankees (AL) win the 36th World Series by defeating the Cincinnati Reds in four games.

October 11 Labor: The AFL adopts a resolution that opposes American intervention in war but also boycotts goods from Germany, the Soviet Union, and Japan.

October 18 Diplomacy: President Franklin D. Roosevelt declares American territorial waters and ports off limits to submarines of all belligerent navies.

October 24 Women: Nylon stockings go on sale for the first time in America, much to the gratitude of women everywhere.

November 4 Diplomacy: The Neutrality Act of 1939 is signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, which repeals the embargo on arms sales to belligerent powers, provided that they be paid for in cash and be transported in their own vessels. This measure is intended to expedite the flow of munitions and equipment to Britain and France.

November 9 Science: Ernest Orlando Lawrence of the University of California wins the Nobel Prize in physics for his development of the cyclotron for producing subatomic particles.

November 30 Diplomacy: After the Soviet Union invades Finland, the American government extends both private and governmental aid to that beleaguered nation.

December 6 Arts: The musical Du Barry Was a Lady by Herbert Fields and Cole Porter premieres at the Forty-Sixth Street Theater, New York, becoming the surprise hit of the Broadway season.

December 29 Aviation: In San Diego, California, the Consolidated XB-24 prototype flies for the first time; in World War II it is known as the Liberator and becomes the most numerous American warplane of that conflict.

1940 Arts: Hunter Johnson’s dance Letter to the World is presented in New York City by the Martha Graham dance company. Education: Hunter College, New York City, designed from the ground up as a modern urban college, opens its doors to 5,650 students annually. Literature: Richard Wright’s moving novel Native Son is published and is considered his masterpiece; William Faulkner publishes his latest novel, The Hamlet; Ernest Hemingway writes his wartime masterpiece, For Whom the Bell Tolls; Thomas Wolfe’s last novel, You Can’t Go Home Again, is published posthumously.

1940

Chronology

1911

Media: Radios are utilized in an estimated 30 million homes. Medical: Dr. Selman Waksman of Rutgers University invents actinomycin, the first antibiotic, which is found too toxic for use in humans. Music: The year’s most popular tunes include “When You Wish upon a Star,” “Blueberry Hill,” and “I’ll Never Smile Again.” Population: Census figures reveal a population of 131 million centered at two miles southeast of Carlisle, Indiana. Publishing: Book production, mostly war novels, rises to 11,328 titles this year; Harvard philosopher George Santayana publishes The Realm of the Spirit, the final volume of his masterwork The Realm of Being. Societal: The average life expectancy of Americans rises to 64 years, a jump from 49 years in 1900; illiteracy dips to 4.2 percent, a 15.8-point drop from figures taken in 1870. Sports: Pole vaulter Cornelius Warmerdam is the first human to clear a 15-foot bar; horse racing attendance is measured at 8.5 million spectators, who wager $408 million for the year.

January 3 Military: In light of current events, President Franklin D. Roosevelt submits a budget of $8.4 billion, of which $1.8 billion is earmarked for military expenditures.

January 26 Diplomacy: Despite the fact that their 1911 trade treaty has been negated, Secretary of State Cordell Hull assures the Japanese government that trade relations between the two nations will continue.

February 9 Sports: Joe Louis successfully defends his world heavyweight boxing title against Chile’s Arturo Godoy.

February 17 Diplomacy: The State Department dispatches Undersecretary of State Sumner Welles to Europe on a fact-finding mission to survey political and military conditions there.

February 29 Media: Academy Awards are given to Gone with the Wind as best picture of 1939, to Robert Donat as best actor in Goodbye Mr. Chips, and to Vivien Leigh as best actress in Gone with the Wind. Walt Disney also wins an unprecedented eighth consecutive award for his animated cartoon, The Ugly Duckling.

March 26 Transportation: All U.S. commercial airlines enjoy a full year in the air without a single fatality or mishap.

April 2–13 Sports: The New York Rangers win the NHL Stanley Cup by defeating the Toronto Maple Leafs four games to two.

April 7 Politics: The Socialist Party nominates Norman Thomas of New York for president and Maynard C. Krueger for vice president.

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1912

Chronology of American History

April 12 Business: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Reciprocal Trade Agreement Act, which extends existing trade agreements for an additional three years.

April 19 Sports: Gérard Côté of Quebec wins the 44th Boston Marathon with a record time of two hours, 28 minutes, 28 seconds.

April 20 Science: The Radio Corporation of America (RCA) unveils the first electron microscope, which magnifies images by an order of 100,000. It is 10 feet in height and weighs 700 pounds.

April 27 Education: Bertrand Russell is appointed to the William James lectureship at Harvard University despite the fact that he currently holds tenure with the faculty of City College of New York.

April 28 Politics: The Socialist Labor Party nominates John W. Aiken of Massachusetts for president and Aaron M. Orange of New York for vice president.

April 29 Diplomacy: In light of escalating violence in Europe, President Franklin D. Roosevelt entreats Italian dictator Benito Mussolini to help bring about peace. The appeal is summarily rejected.

May 6 Arts: John Steinbeck wins the Pulitzer Prize in fiction for The Grapes of Wrath; Mark Van Doren wins a Pulitzer Prize in poetry for his Collected Poems; William Saroyan wins the Pulitzer Prize for drama with his The Time of Your Life.

May 10 Diplomacy: Once Germany invades the neutral nations of Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands, President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders all their assets in the United States frozen; in a major event, Winston Churchill replaces Neville Chamberlain as prime minister of Great Britain, and he determines to bring the United States into the war on the Allied side. General: The futuristic New York World’s Fair opens for its second year and continues attracting sizable crowds despite the ongoing violence in Europe and Asia. Politics: The Prohibition Party selects Roger W. Babson of Massachusetts for president and Edgar V. Moorman of Illinois for vice president.

May 15 Aviation: Aviator Igor Sikorsky flies the first successful helicopter, the VS-300, on Long Island, New York. Diplomacy: Prime Minister Winston Churchill cables President Franklin D. Roosevelt for the first time, signing his telegram “Former Naval Person” in a personal appeal to the president, a former assistant secretary of the navy. The extremely close relationship between these two dogged leaders will be a crucial factor in the ultimate Allied victory.

1940

Chronology

1913

May 16 Aviation: President Franklin D. Roosevelt appeals to Congress for greater military appropriations, especially to increase the production of military aircraft.

May 25 Politics: President Franklin D. Roosevelt, with an eye toward preparedness, founds the Office for Emergency Management.

May 30 Sports: Wilbur Shaw wins the 28th Indianapolis 500 by running the course in four hours, 22 minutes, 31 seconds at an average speed of 114.27 miles per hour.

June 2 Politics: The Communist Party nominates Earl Browder of Kansas for president and James W. Ford for vice president.

June 3 Military: The War Department agrees to sell Great Britain outdated warships and other weapons totaling millions of dollars to replace those lost in the recent evacuation at Dunkirk, France.

June 5 Military: In a major and surprising blow to the Allied powers, tank-led German forces easily overrun France and capture Paris. The U.S. Army, faced with the prospect of confronting these successful “blitzkrieg” tactics, finds itself woefully unprepared for the task.

June 10 Politics: In an address at the University of Virginia, President Franklin D. Roosevelt announces a major shift in America’s stance from neutrality to “nonbelligerency,” in which he intends to provide military assistance to the Allies without going to war against the Axis powers.

June 11 Naval: The Naval Supply Act is passed by Congress, which provide $1.5 billion for defense appropriations.

June 13 Military: The Military Supply Act is passed by Congress, which sets aside $1.8 billion for various defense projects.

June 20 Politics: In an attempt to display national unity, president Franklin D. Roosevelt appoints Republicans Henry L. Stimson and Frank Knox to his cabinet as his secretaries of war and navy, respectively.

June 24–28 Politics: The Republican Party nominates corporate lawyer Wendell L. Willkie for president and Oregon senator Charles McNary for vice president.

June 28 Politics: The Alien Registration Act is passed by Congress, which requires all aliens in the country to register periodically and includes fingerprinting. Furthermore, it forbids individuals and organizations from advocating the violent overthrow of the U.S. government.

1940

1914

Chronology of American History

June 30 Aviation: The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is reorganized into the Civil Aeronautics Board.

July 2 Business: The Export Control Act is passed by Congress, which enables the president to restrict or halt outright the export of any commodity deemed essential to national security. Transportation: The Lake Washington floating bridge opens for traffic at Seattle, Washington, at a cost of $8 million. This is the longest floating structure built to date.

July 10 Military: In light of continuing German aggression in Europe—the aerial Battle of Britain commences this day—President Franklin D. Roosevelt requests an additional $4.8 billion from Congress for national defense purposes.

July 15–19 Politics: The Democratic Party gathers in Chicago, Illinois, to renominate Franklin D. Roosevelt for the presidency for an unprecedented third term in office; former secretary of agriculture Henry A. Wallace of Iowa receives the nod for vice president.

July 20 Naval: In order to give the U.S. Navy a two-ocean capacity, Congress appropriates an additional $4 billion for naval construction purposes.

July 30 Diplomacy: Delegates at the Pan-American Union meet in Havana, Cuba, and issue the Declaration of Havana, which underscores their determination to resist a German takeover of any European colony in the Western Hemisphere.

August 18 Military: In light of the grave situation in Europe, the United States and Canada establish a Joint Board of Defense.

September 4 Naval: The United States agrees to exchange 40 aged destroyers in return for the right to construct air and sea facilities in Newfoundland and the British West Indies with a 99-year lease. This marks the genesis of the “Lend-Lease” program, through which President Franklin D. Roosevelt draws the United States deeper into war as a de facto participant.

September 16 Military: The Selective Training and Service Act is signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, which requires all men between the ages of 21 and 35 to sign up for military training. A minimum of 900,000 men are to be called up each year and will serve for one year.

September 26 Business: President Franklin D. Roosevelt, determined to halt the export of valuable scrap iron to Japan, announces an embargo on the commodity outside the Western Hemisphere—with the exception of Great Britain.

1940

Chronology

1915

October 2–8 Sports: The Cincinnati Reds (NL) win the 37th World Series by defeating the Detroit Tigers (NL) four games to three.

October 8 Diplomacy: The Japanese government officially protests the embargo of scrap iron exports, which it sorely requires for its own war efforts against China. To many militarists in the imperial government, this is a convenient pretext to go to war with the United States.

October 16 Military: The first day for military registration results in 16.4 million young men signing up for potential military training and service.

October 24 Labor: The long-sought goal of a 40-hour week for all workers goes into effect beginning this day in accordance with the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.

October 25 Labor: CIO president John L. Lewis urges his members to vote Republican in the upcoming election and pledges to resign if a Democrat wins.

October 26 Aviation: The North American A-36 Apache, precursor to the famous P-51 Mustang fighter, flies for the first time in Los Angeles, California, after being built to British specifications.

October 29 Military: Secretary of War Henry Stimson initiates the military draft by drawing number 158.

November 5 Politics: Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt coasts to reelection as president by defeating Republican Wendell Willkie with 449 electoral votes to 82 and a popular vote of 27.2 million to the latter’s 22.3 million. Roosevelt thus become the first and only chief executive to sit in the White House for three consecutive terms. The Democrats also maintain control of Congress.

November 7 General: A suspension bridge traversing the Narrows at Tacoma, Washington, collapses from wind vibration and plunges 190 feet into Puget Sound.

November 21 Labor: Obedient to his word, John L. Lewis resigns as president of the CIO following the recent Democratic victory and is replaced by Philip Murray.

December 20 Politics: William S. Knudsen is appointed to head the new Office of Production Management by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He is tasked with effectively coordinating a rapidly expanding military-industrial complex for the purposes of national defense and aiding Great Britain.

December 29 Politics: In his latest fireside chat, President Franklin D. Roosevelt touts the advantages and virtues of America as “the arsenal of democracy.” Sentiments for isolation, while shrinking, are still prevalent in political polls.

1940

1916

Chronology of American History Societal: The latest statistics point to a drop in illiteracy to 4.2 percent. Radios can be found in an estimated 30 million American homes.

1941 Arts: To counter growing commercialism on the New York stage, the Dramatist’s Guild and Equity sponsors the Experimental Theater, while the National Theater Conference promulgates the New Play Project to encourage new directions for playwrights; Edward Hopper’s painting Nighthawks is a haunting view of an allnight restaurant with sharply contrasting shadows and light; illustrator Norman Rockwell paints his best-known composition, The Four Freedoms, based on a speech by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Literature: Mary O’Hara pens My Friend Flicka, a classic children’s tale about a boy and his horse. Medical: The antibiotic penicillin, a British invention, is delivered to laboratories in the United States for mass production to assist the war effort. Publishing: William L. Shirer’s book Berlin Diary, an in-depth study of Germany under the Nazis, becomes a national best-seller; Alice Duer Miller writes The White Cliffs of Dover to celebrate the aplomb of England in wartime; Reinhold Niebuhr publishes his seminal philosophical tract, The Nature and Destiny of Man, which argues that evil is the result of man’s inability to place his natural self above his divine self.

Rockwell, Norman

(1894–1978)

Artist Norman Percevel Rockwell was born in New York City on February 3, 1894, the son of a textile manager. He spent many youthful summers in placid country settings and early on developed a genuine aptitude for art. Rockwell subsequently quit high school to attend the Chase Art School, and he later attended the National Academy School and finally the Art Students League. Here he fell under the aegis of two leading illustrators, George Bridgeman and Thomas Fogarty, who instructed him in the finer points of draftsmanship and illustration. Rockwell began painting covers for Boys’ Life while still a student, and he eventually rose to the position of art editor. After several years of illustrating children’s magazines, he ven-

1941

tured to Philadelphia in March 1916 to fulfill a personal dream: painting covers for the noted Saturday Evening Post. His excellent work was readily accepted, and he became a regular artist for the staff, being commissioned to paint no less than 317 covers over the next 40 years. He also sold additional material to such leading publications as Life, Judge, and Leslie’s. In 1917, Rockwell joined the U.S. Navy for service in World War I, but he was kept stateside as a combat illustrator and discharged the following year. Back in civilian life, he continued rendering his increasingly popular covers, and he also executed charming advertisements for products such as Jell-O, Willys Cars, and Orange Crush soft drinks. The key to Rockwell’s

Chronology

1917

January 3 Business: The federal government calls for a shipbuilding program to construct 200 merchant vessels.

January 6 Politics: President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in his State of the Union address, asks Congress to continue aiding Allied forces in their fight against the Axis. He also underscores “Four Freedoms” at stake in the struggle against fascism: freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.

January 7 Business: An executive order by President Franklin D. Roosevelt creates the Office of Production Management under industrialist William S. Knudsen. It is tasked with supervising defense production on a vast scale.

January 8 Military: President Franklin D. Roosevelt proffers his annual budget of $17.4 billion, of which $10.8 billion is allocated for national defense.

January 20 Politics: In Washington, D.C., Franklin D. Roosevelt takes his oath of office for an unprecedented third time while Henry A. Wallace is also sworn in as vice president.

popularity as an artist was his uncanny attention to detail coupled with a talent for capturing sentiments unique to the American psyche. His homey themes, vivid colors, and detailed composition invariably rendered American themes in a flattering, idealistic light, and he also usually conveyed a sense of nostalgia and moral rectitude. In sum, Rockwell had his pallet on America’s pulse, and his reassuring depictions were both popular and iconic. In 1941, Rockwell received his own one-man exhibition at the Milwaukee Art Institute. That year he also painted his arguably most famous, endearing composition, The Four Freedoms. These were inspired by a 1941 fireside chat of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who defined them as freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom

from want, and freedom from fear. These proved so popular that they were sold as reprints, and later the government exhibited the original paintings on a war bond tour that were viewed by 1.6 million people in 16 major cities and raised $132 million in bonds. The onset of peace in 1945 made Rockwell’s popularity no less appealing, and he was commissioned to do a series of commemorative stamps for the U.S. Post Office, along with portraits of presidents, foreign heads of state, and children’s book illustrations. Rockwell concluded his long association with the Post in 1963, and afterward he began doing covers for Look and McCall’s magazines. Rockwell, long considered the dean of American illustration, died in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, on November 8, 1978.

1941

1918

Chronology of American History

January 22 Labor: Allis Chalmers plants suffer from a wave of strikes, the first to affect defense industry plants.

January 27–March 29 Military: Secret, high-level strategic discussions between American and British military staffs transpire in Washington, D.C., and the ABC-1 Plan is adopted. In the event of U.S. intervention in World War II, the Allies intend to focus the bulk of their attention on defeating Germany first, then shifting their resources to the Pacific to deal with Japan.

February 3 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of United States v. Darby Lumber, ruling that provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 respecting minimum wages paid and maximum hours worked are constitutional.

February 4

Poster for the Four Freedoms (Library of Congress)

Military: The United Service Organization (USO) is founded to attend to the social, educational, and entertainment needs of military personnel. In time, it becomes famous for its network of clubs where Hollywood performers entertain the troops.

February 19 Engineering: A third set of locks opens at Gatun on the Panama Canal.

February 21 Music: The Fourth Symphony of Roy Harris premieres with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and it includes a chorus section.

February 24 Business: The Office of Production Management (OPM) issues its first directive to prioritize the production of aluminum and machine tools.

February 26 Labor: The CIO calls a strike at the Bethlehem Steel plants, but the matter is settled by an OPM formula.

February 27 Media: Academy Awards are given to Rebecca as the best movie of 1940, to James Stewart as best actor for The Philadelphia Story, and to Ginger Rogers as best actress for Kitty Foyle. Walter Brennan also scores a first by winning an Oscar for best supporting actor three times.

March 11 Military: The Lend-Lease Act is signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, which empowers the chief executive to send military hardware and munitions to nations deeded essential to national security. It is chiefly enacted to assist Great Britain without directly involving the United States in war.

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Chronology

1919

March 17 Arts: The National Gallery of Art opens in Washington, D.C., as a large marble building designed by John Russell Pope. The institute itself is a gift of Andrew W. Mellon to house his extensive art collection.

March 19 Labor: Clarence A. Dykstra is appointed to head the new National Defense Mediation Board (NDMB) in an attempt to head off any labor issues within defense-related industries.

March 22 Engineering: Washington State’s Grand Coulee Dam is opened two years ahead of schedule.

March 27 Military: President Franklin D. Roosevelt puts in a request for a $7-billion appropriation under the Lend-Lease Act, with the bulk of materials going to assist Great Britain. The program ultimately doles out some $50 billion by 1946.

April 2–11 Labor: Ford Motor Company suffers a strike by the CIO, which idles 85,000 workers until the company signs its first-ever contract with a union.

April 6–12 Sports: The Boston Bruins win the NHL Stanley Cup by defeating the Detroit Red Wings in four straight games. This is the first sweep in Stanley Cup history.

April 11 Business: Leon Henderson is chosen to head the Office of Price Administration and Civilian Supply (OPA), with powers to recommend price control measures. Music: Versatile Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg, who had escaped Nazi persecution in 1933, becomes an American citizen. Naval: In light of increasing U-boat activity throughout the Atlantic Ocean, President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders U.S. Navy vessels to extend their patrol activities to the west longitude of 26 degrees. The Germans, however, simply choose to ignore it and continue attacking Allied shipping. Politics: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs an executive order establishing the Office of Price Administration to monitor and establish price controls where deemed necessary.

April 14 Labor: The steel industry, seeking to avert labor unrest, agrees to an increase of 10 cents per hour for all workers.

April 16 Business: The Office of Price Administration calls for a steel price freeze for the first quarter of the year, and the industry willingly complies.

April 17 Business: The auto industry agrees to a 20 percent cut in production as of August 1 to better augment war industry measures.

April 19 Sports: Leslie Pawson wins the 45th Boston Marathon with a time of two hours, 30 minutes, 38 seconds.

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Chronology of American History

April 21–27 Military: U.S. military officials confer with their British and Dutch counterparts in Singapore and draw up a unified strategy to oppose Japan in the event it attacks in the Pacific.

May 1 Business: U.S. defense savings bonds and stamps go on sale nationwide.

May 3 Sports: Whirlaway wins the 67th Kentucky Derby by crossing the line at two minutes, one second.

May 4 General: President Franklin D. Roosevelt officiates at ceremonies marking Woodrow Wilson’s birthplace at Staunton, Virginia, as a national shrine.

May 5 Arts: Leonard Bacon’s “Sunderland Capture” wins the Pulitzer Prize for poetry; Robert E. Sherwood’s There Shall Be No Night wins the Pulitzer Prize for drama.

May 10 Sports: Whirlaway wins the 66th annual Preakness Stakes by finishing in one minute, 58 seconds.

May 15 Naval: President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders all French-registered vessels in American ports taken into protective custody to prevent them from falling into German hands. The great luxury liner Normandie is among them, and it is subsequently used as an Allied troop ship.

May 16 Business: General Motors, eager to avert a strike, agrees to a CIO demand for a 10 cent an hour increase for all workers.

May 20 General: President Franklin D. Roosevelt moves Thanksgiving to the last Thursday in November to stimulate holiday season sales.

May 21 Naval: The American merchant vessel Robin Moor is sunk by German submarines off the coast of Brazil.

May 27 Media: In the wake of the German conquest of Greece and the Balkans, President Franklin D. Roosevelt goes on radio to declare an unconditional state of emergency.

May 30 Sports: Mauri Rose and Floyd Davis win the 29th Indianapolis 500 by finishing the course in four hours, 20 minutes, 36 seconds at an average speed of 115.11 miles per hour.

June 2 Sports: Legendary Yankees player Lou Gehrig dies at the age of 37 from the degenerative nerve disease that carries his name.

1941

Chronology

1921

June 7 Sports: Whirlaway wins the 73rd annual Belmont Stakes with a time of two minutes, 31 seconds, becoming the fifth horse to win the Triple Crown.

June 9 Labor: President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders U.S. Army troops to take control of the North American Aviation Company, as striking workers are hindering defense production.

June 12 Law: Harlan Fiske Stone, an associate justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, is elevated to chief justice by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

June 14 Business: The United States freezes all German and Italian assets in the United States at the behest of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

June 16 Diplomacy: In light of worsening relations with Axis powers, the State Department closes all German and Italian consulates in the United States. Transportation: Washington National Airport officially opens in Washington, D.C.

June 18 Engineering: The 240-mile Colorado Aqueduct, which cost $200 million, begins supplying Los Angeles and other cities in Southern California with fresh water all year long.

June 24 Diplomacy: Two days after German forces invade the Soviet Union, President Franklin D. Roosevelt announces his intention to lend military aid to Premier Joseph Stalin.

June 25 Civil: President Franklin D. Roosevelt creates the Fair Employment Practices Committee through an executive order, which outlaws racial discrimination in all defense-oriented activities.

June 28 Science: To incorporate the latest scientific discoveries into current military technology, President Franklin D. Roosevelt establishes the Office of Scientific Research and Development under Vannevar Bush. Its many innovations include radar, sonar, and the initial stages of atomic bomb research.

June 30 General: The Franklin D. Roosevelt Library in Hyde Park, New York, is dedicated by the chief executive himself.

July 1 Aviation: Aviatrix Jacqueline Cochran is the first woman to ferry a twin-engine Lockheed Hudson bomber across the Atlantic to England.

July 7 Military: U.S. Marines are landed in Iceland at the behest of Iceland’s government to protect that strategic island from German attack. The Americans agree beforehand to depart as soon as the fighting in Europe concludes.

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Chronology of American History

July 17 Sports: Yankees’ Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak is ended by pitchers Al Smith and Jim Bagby of the Cleveland Indians.

DiMaggio, Joe

(1914 –1999)

Baseball player Joseph Paul DiMaggio was born in Martinez, California, on November 25, 1914, the son of Italian immigrants. As a youth, he declined to follow his father into the fishing industry and began playing semiprofessional baseball with the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League. From the onset, DiMaggio displayed amazing ability as a power hitter, scoring 61 home runs with a batting average of .340 during the 1933 season. In 1936, he was purchased by the New York Yankees (American League) for $25,000 and five players despite a knee injury. He debuted at Yankee Stadium on May 3, 1936, batted 46 home runs for an average of .323, and led his team to their first pennant win since 1932. In his first game with the American League, he batted ahead of legendary player and teammate Lou Gehrig. Yet DiMaggio, renowned for his slugging power, also proved himself an excellent infielder, and he was selected to represent the Yankees for the all-star team of that year. Over the next 13 years he played brilliantly for the “Bronx Bombers,” winning the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award no less than three times. By far, DiMaggio’s greatest feat at the plate came in the 1941 season when he batted safely for 56 consecutive games–a .406 average– which remains a major league record. For all these reasons he was nationally hailed as “Joltin’ Joe” and “The Yankee Clipper,” although DiMaggio, a rather modest and somewhat circumspect individual, simply took the praise in stride. He continued playing throughout the early phases of World

1941

War II and was finally drafted into the U.S. Army Air Force on February 17, 1943, rising to sergeant. DiMaggio never asked for special treatment, but such was his renown that military authorities, fearful of a blow to morale should he be killed in combat, retained him stateside as a physical education instructor. DiMaggio returned to Yankee Stadium in 1946 and, while his performance that year was less spectacular than usual, he managed to find time to pen his autobiography, Lucky to Be a Yankee. By 1947, he was back in form batting at .315 and leading his team to another pennant. DiMaggio’s frame crested in 1949 when he became baseball’s first $100,000 contract player. However, age and unhealed injuries contributed to his decline as a player, and in 1952 he announced his retirement from baseball at the age of 37. The publicity-shy DiMaggio then acquired enduring national notoriety through his marriage to screen legend Marilyn Monroe in 1954, and subsequent annulment a year latter. Though out of the public limelight, he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1955, and in 1969 a centennial poll of sportswriters voted him the “Greatest Living Player.” For many years DiMaggio also hosted television shows and made lucrative product endorsements. He continued in a number of business pursuits, including a stint as executive vice president of the Oakland Athletics, until fatally stricken by lung cancer. He died in Hollywood, Florida, on March 8, 1999, one of baseball’s greatest legends.

Chronology

1923

July 24 Labor: The AFL building trade unions and the OPM conclude a no-strike agreement for the duration of the national emergency.

July 25 Business: In response to the occupation of French Indochina (Vietnam), President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders all Japanese assets in the United States frozen. This order also effectively halts continuing trade between the two nations, granting Japan another pretext to go to war.

July 26 Military: To bolster Allied defenses in the Pacific, military contingents of the Commonwealth of the Philippines are nationalized by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and placed under U.S. jurisdiction. Concurrently, General Douglas MacArthur is appointed commander in chief of all Far Eastern U.S. forces.

August 3 Business: A 12-hour curfew is imposed at gasoline stations in 17 eastern states from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.

MacArthur, Douglas

(1880–1964)

General Douglas MacArthur was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, on January 26, 1880, the son of General Arthur MacArthur. In 1903, he graduated first in his class at West Point and did surveying work in the Philippines and Asia before commanding the 42nd “Rainbow” Division in World War I as a temporary brigadier general. MacArthur distinguished himself in combat, was highly decorated, and at war’s end he directed the U.S. occupation zone in Germany. Following a stint at West Point as superintendent, 1919–22, he returned to the Philippines and, from 1930 to 1935, also served as army chief of staff. However, MacArthur resigned from active duty in 1937 and joined the new Philippine army as its field marshal. He rejoined the U.S. Army in 1941 as a lieutenant general and was in the act of integrating the Philippine army into his own when Japanese forces suddenly attacked on December 8, 1941, and drove the defenders back

General Douglas MacArthur (Library of Congress) into the Bataan Peninsula. The Americans and Filipinos under his command resisted desperately, but their position was doomed from the start. MacArthur was then ordered (continues)

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1924

Chronology of American History

(continued) out of the Philippines in February 1942, vowing “I shall return,” and he established his new headquarters in Australia. Then, over the next three years, he orchestrated a brilliant campaign of “island hopping” that forced the Japanese on the defensive, and, in October 1944, he fulfilled his promise to the Philippine people by landing on Luzon. The American forces and Filipino guerrillas were completely victorious in July 1945, and the following September 2 MacArthur steamed into Tokyo Bay on board the battleship USS Missouri to accept the Japanese surrender. MacArthur spent the next five years commanding the occupation of Japan, and he orchestrated the reconstruction of that nation into a demilitarized democracy. In June 1950, after Communist North Korean forces attacked across the 38th Parallel into South Korea, he became supreme commander of all United Nations forces in the region and prepared to counterattack. He launched the assault in September

1950 with a brilliant landing at Inchon, which cut North Korean supply lines and sent the North Korean army scampering home. MacArthur promptly pursued them into their homeland and approached the Yalu River, despite threats from Communist China that it would oppose this advance. MacArthur ignored the warning and kept advancing until November 1950, when the Chinese launched a massive counterattack that sent UN forces reeling southward in retreat. An angry MacArthur then wanted to carry the air war against Chinese bases into Manchuria and publicly complained when President Harry S. Truman told him to desist. On April 11, 1951, MacArthur was relieved of command and replaced by General Matthew Ridgway and returned home to a thunderous reception. He then addressed Congress, promising to “just fade away,” and he retired from active service. MacArthur died in Washington, D.C., on April 5, 1964, one of history’s greatest strategists.

August 9–12 Diplomacy: President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill meet on warships off the coast of Newfoundland and draw up the Atlantic Charter. This document delineates eight distinct goals for the world, including the denunciation of violence, the right of self-determination, free access to raw materials, freedom from want and fear, freedom of the seas, and the disarmament of aggressors. In time it also serves as a template for the new United Nations.

August 18 Military: Congress passes the Selective Service Extension Act, which increases tours in the U.S. Army from one year to 18 months.

August 28 Diplomacy: Prince Konoye, the Japanese ambassador to the United States, drops a note to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, assuring him that his nation seeks to pursue a course of “peace and harmony” with America.

September 11 Naval: In response to increasing U-boat attacks upon American shipping, President Franklin D. Roosevelt instructs all U.S. Navy vessels and aircraft to engage and sink any Axis vessel within the defensive zone declared on April 11.

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Chronology

1925

September 16 Naval: The U.S. Navy declares its intention to protect all Allied and neutral shipping in the Atlantic Ocean as far as Iceland.

September 20 Business: Congress passes the Revenue Act of 1941, the largest tax increase to date, which increases revenues by $3.5 billion to support burgeoning defense measures.

September 23 General: A six-ton monument, containing a time capsule from the 20th century, is unveiled at the New York World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows, New York, and it is not to be opened until the year 6939.

October 1–6 Sports: The New York Yankees (AL) win the 38th annual World Series by defeating the Brooklyn Dodgers (NL) four games to one.

October 17 Naval: In a major escalation of hostilities at sea, a German U-boat torpedoes the destroyer USS Kearny off the coast of Iceland, killing 11 sailors.

October 27 Labor: United Mine Workers Union president John L. Lewis orders a strike in selective “captive” mines, prompting President Franklin D. Roosevelt to propose arbitration instead. Media: President Franklin D. Roosevelt takes to the airwaves to declare that “America has been attacked” but, in light of persistent isolationist sentiments, he holds back from requesting a declaration of war. He feels strong provocation is necessary before throwing down the gauntlet.

October 30 Naval: The “undeclared war” at sea enters a new phase when German submarines torpedo and sink the American destroyer USS Reuben James off the coast of Iceland, with a loss of 100 lives.

November 1 Engineering: The new 950-foot-long Rainbow Bridge is opened to traffic over the Niagara River, just below the famous falls.

November 3 Diplomacy: U.S. ambassador to Japan Joseph Grew warns Secretary of State Cordell Hull that he suspects that a surprise attack on American positions in the Pacific may be imminent.

November 7 Diplomacy: In Washington, D.C., Secretary of State Cordell Hull advises President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his cabinet that a Japanese surprise attack is probably in the offing—and soon.

November 17 Diplomacy: Japanese ambassador Kichisaburo Nomura and special envoy Saburo Kurusu begin last-minute negotiations with the State Department in a move to avert war with the United States.

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November 20 Diplomacy: Japanese ambassador Kichisaburo Nomura and special envoy Saburo Kurusu take a hard line in negotiations with the United States, demanding that it lift all trade restrictions against Japan and relent from interfering with Japanese activities in China. Naval: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs an amendment to the Neutrality Act of 1939 to authorize merchant vessels to begin arming themselves and also allowing them to call at ports belonging to friendly belligerents.

November 21 Crime: Ethel Leta Juanita Spinelli (aka “Dutchess”) becomes the first woman executed in California for the murder of one of her own gang members.

November 26 Diplomacy: Secretary of State Cordell Hull bluntly rejects Japanese proposals and reiterates demands that they withdraw all their forces from Chinese soil before normal trade relations can resume.

November 27 Labor: John L. Lewis, United Mine Workers president, accepts the government’s offer of arbitration to settle strikes at selected “captive” mines.

December 1 Diplomacy: The Japanese government secretly rejects American demands concerning China, although it will not formally announce this until after the Pacific War commences.

December 3 Diplomacy: With war with the United States seemingly inevitable, Japanese diplomats begin burning their private and secret documents.

December 6 Diplomacy: President Franklin D. Roosevelt, anxious to avoid a war in the Pacific, appeals directly to Emperor Hirohito to maintain peaceful relations.

December 7 Diplomacy: Japanese diplomats in Washington, D.C., instructed to deliver an ultimatum to the American government at 1:00 p.m. local time, miscalculate and fail to deliver it until 2:05 p.m., at which time the air raid against Pearl Harbor is already underway. Naval: Japanese naval air forces score a stunning blow by sinking eight American battleships at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, along with 11 other vessels. American losses are 2,403 soldiers, sailors, and civilians dead and a further 1,178 wounded. Japanese losses are 28 aircraft and three midget submarines. Consequently, “Remember Pearl Harbor” becomes both a war cry and a national mantra over the next three and a half years. “Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition,” coined by Chaplain Howell M. Forgy on the cruiser USS Orleans, also becomes a popular slogan.

December 8 Politics: President Franklin D. Roosevelt, addressing a special session of Congress, brands the attack on Pearl Harbor as “a day that will live in infamy” and asks for a declaration of war. Both chambers respond, with the Senate voting 82-0 in favor, while the tally in the House of Representatives is 388-1; the sole

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dissenter is Republican congresswoman Jeanette Rankin, who also voted against war in 1917.

December 10 Military: Following a series of devastating aerial assaults, Japanese army units begin landing on northern Luzon in the Philippines. General Douglas MacArthur orders a withdrawal southward to the Bataan Peninsula.

December 11 Diplomacy: Germany and Japan declare war on the United States while Congress readily reciprocates. This act proves a major miscalculation by the Axis, for it unleashes the full industrial might of America against them.

December 15 Labor: The AFL executive council adopts a no-strike policy in war industries and also extends peace feelers to the rival Congress of Industrial Organizations. Military: Congress hastily passes the Third Supplemental Defense Appropriations Act, releasing an additional $10 billion for all-out war.

December 17 Naval: Command of the Pacific Fleet passes from Admiral Husband Kimmel, badly disgraced by the surprise at Pearl Harbor, to Admiral Chester Nimitz. Kimmel is ultimately court-martialed and found guilty of failing to take proper precautions against attack.

December 19 Journalism: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs an executive order establishing the Office of Censorship to regulate and control all sensitive information relative to the war effort.

December 20 Military: The Draft Act is signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, whereby all males between the ages of 18 and 65 are required to register for military service, although only men from 20 to 44 are eligible for active military service.

December 22 Diplomacy: British prime minister Winston Churchill arrives in Washington, D.C., to confer with President Franklin D. Roosevelt about joint military operations.

December 23 Labor: A labor-industry conference pledges to abstain from strikes and lockouts for the duration of the war. Any disputes between them will be settled by a War Labor Board that will soon be established. Military: After a gallant defense of 15 days, the detachment of 400 U.S. Marines defending the remote Pacific outpost of Wake Island succumbs to an overwhelming Japanese attack.

December 27 Business: The OPA declares rubber rationing to decrease civilian consumption of that critical commodity by 80 percent. Tires are thus the first items subject to rationing regulations.

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1942 Business: Industrialist Henry J. Kaiser heads up the “Liberty Ship” program to mass produce transport vessels for the war effort; his shipyards prove so adept that they crank out a 10,500-ton “Liberty Ship” every four days! Literature: John Steinbeck’s latest novel, The Moon Is Down, concerns the military occupation of a small town; Lloyd C. Douglas pens his religious novel The Robe, concerning the early days of Christianity; Marion Hargrove writes a comedic account of military life entitled See Here, Private Hargrove. Media: The biggest box office draw for the year is the comedy team of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. Music: The year’s most popular tunes include “White Christmas,” “The White Cliffs of Dover,” and “I Left My Heart at the Stage Door Canteen.”

January 1 Business: The Office of Production Management (OPM) bans the sale of new cars and trucks. Diplomacy: The new Declaration of the United Nations is signed by the representatives of 26 nations that pledge a united war effort against the Axis powers.

January 2 Military: The Japanese military juggernaut surges on, capturing Manila in the Philippines. Meanwhile, General Douglas MacArthur withdraws remaining American and Filipino forces into the Bataan Peninsula for a last-ditch defense.

January 6 Politics: In his State of the Union address, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appeals for a vast production of airplanes, tanks, ships, and other articles of modern warfare. He then submits an annual budget of $58.9 billion, of which $52 billion is earmarked for military expenditures.

January 8 Aviation: Lieutenant David F. Mason swoops out of the Pacific sky and sinks a Japanese submarine with his depth charges. His memorable comment was, “sighted sub, sank same.”

January 9 Sports: World heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis defends his title by defeating Buddy Baer in the first round.

January 12 Labor: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs an executive order creating the War Labor Board (WLB) to supplant the National Defense Mediation Board; its purpose is to settle labor disputes peacefully to insure a steady flow of war supplies; the U.S. Supreme Court declares the Georgia Contract Law unconstitutional and a violation of the antislavery amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

January 14 Civil: In a mass security move, President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders all aliens, enemy or not, to register with the government. This act leads to Japanese Americans, or nisei, to be singled out for suspicion and fear, and eventually leads to confiscation of their property and internment into camps.

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This 1942 photograph shows the Mochida family awaiting the evacuation bus to an internment camp. (National Archives)

January 15–28 Diplomacy: Representatives of the 21 American nations convene at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and determine to break diplomatic relations with the Axis powers (although Chile waits until 1943 and Argentina until 1944).

January 16 Business: The Office of Production Management (OPM) is supplanted by the new War Production Board (WPB) under Donald M. Nelson. It is tasked with overseeing the entire war production program.

January 26 Military: The Pearl Harbor Commission releases its findings and implicates both Admiral Husband Kimmel and General Short for dereliction of duty; both are then summarily dismissed from active service; a contingent of U.S. Army troops arrives in Ireland; these are the first American military forces to deploy in Europe since 1917.

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January 28 Societal: The Office of Civil Defense is established and begins recruiting civilian aircraft spotters to scan the skies for enemy planes.

January 30 Business: Once the Emergency Price Control Act goes into effect, all prices and rents become subject to ceilings imposed by the new Office of Price Administration. The only exception is farm products.

February 6 Military: The United States and Great Britain establish a joint chiefs of staff to better coordinate what becomes a vast and highly intricate war effort.

February 9 Naval: The French luxury liner Normandie, being outfitted in New York as a troop transport, catches fire and burns at its dock. Societal: War Time is enacted nationwide under which clocks are turned ahead for one hour for the duration of the war.

February 20 Civil: A program to remove and relocate Japanese Americans from the Pacific Coast to internment camps in Utah, Colorado, and Arkansas is approved by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Their property is also confiscated but, given the blatantly racial nature of war in the Pacific, there is little public outcry.

February 23 Naval: A Japanese submarine surfaces at night off Santa Barbara, California, and shells a nearby oil refinery. The damage incurred is slight but adds to the national war jitters.

February 26 Media: Academy Awards are given to How Green Was My Valley for best picture of 1941, to Gary Cooper as best actor in Sergeant York, and to Joan Fontaine as best actress in Suspicion. Cartoon magnate Walt Disney receives three awards, including one for his overall contribution to the film industry.

February 27–March 1 Naval: American, British, and Dutch naval forces under Admiral Thomas G. Hart go down to a crushing defeat in the Battle of the Java Sea.

March 17 Labor: President William Green of the AFL and Philip Murray of the CIO announce a no-strike agreement for the duration of the war. Military: General Douglas MacArthur is ordered out of the Philippines and to establish new headquarters in Australia as commander of the southwestern Pacific. Before leaving he vows to the Filipino people, “I will return,” then turns command over to General Jonathan Wainwright.

April 4–18 Sports: The Toronto Maple Leafs win the NHL Stanley Cup by defeating the Detroit Red Wings four games to three.

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April 8 Business: All construction activities not deemed essential to the war effort by the War Production Board are ordered to cease.

April 9 Military: U.S. Army and Filipino units, diseased and half starved after a valiant, three- month defense of the Bataan Peninsula, finally surrender to superior Japanese forces. The 75,000 captives are then harshly marched overland in what becomes known as the “Bataan Death March,” and over 5,200 Americans die. Meanwhile, troops under General Jonathan Wainwright on the island of Corregidor in Manila Bay gird themselves for a final Japanese onslaught.

April 14 Media: The opera Solomon and Balkis by Randall Thompson receives a radio premiere from Harvard University, Massachusetts. Publishing: Reverend Charles E. Coughlin’s magazine Social Justice is banned from the mails by Attorney General Francis Biddle on the grounds that it violates the Espionage Act of 1917.

April 18 Aviation: In a stunning coup, 18 U.S. Army B-25 Mitchell medium bombers under Colonel James “Jimmy” Doolittle lift off from the deck of the carrier USS Hornet and strike at targets throughout Japan before crash landing in China. Damage is slight, but the attack proves a psychological coup to the United States for finally staging a successful assault on a seemingly invincible enemy. The Japanese are also forced to divert valuable fighter units from the front line to guard Japanese airspace. Military: The nine-man War Manpower Commission is created under Paul V. McNutt and is tasked with orchestrating personnel acquisitions for the war effort.

April 19 Sports: Joe Smith wins the 46th Boston Marathon with a time of two hours, 26 minutes, 51 seconds.

April 28 Business: The OPA stabilizes rent for 86 million people in 301 areas. Societal: A 15-mile strip along the Atlantic coast is ordered to be “blacked out” nightly to impede German U-boat operations in American waters.

May 4 Arts: Ellen Glasgow’s novel In This Our Life wins the Pulitzer Prize for fiction; William Rose Benét’s “The Dust Which Is God” wins the Pulitzer Prize for poetry.

May 4–8 Naval: The United States and Japan wage a costly draw at the Battle of the Coral Sea, the first naval encounter whereby the opposing fleets never sight each other. American losses include the heavy carrier USS Lexington and the destroyer Sims,

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Doolittle, Jimmy (1896–1993) Aviator James Harold Doolittle was born in Alameda, California, on December 14, 1896, the son of a carpenter. He was raised largely in Nome, Alaska, and entered the University of California, Berkeley, to study mine engineering, but he dropped out in 1917 to join the U.S. Army Signal Corps as a pilot. Doolittle won his wings and remained stateside throughout World War I, but throughout the decade of the 1920s he became closely identified with General William “Billy” Mitchell and his crusade for American air power. He proved himself a natural flier, possessing genuine aptitude for the newly emerging science of aeronautics. In 1922, Doolittle set his first aerial record by flying from Florida to California in under 24 hours, and three years later he graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with the first doctorate ever awarded in aeronautical engineering. Thus prepared, he became the first American pilot to fly across the Andes in 1929 and also contributed to aviation by inventing such useful devices as the artificial horizon gauge, with which he made the first blind flight and landing on September 24, 1929. In 1930, Doolittle resigned from the military and joined the aviation branch of the Shell Oil Company, where he applied his expertise to developing better airplane fuels. Two years later he established another air speed record in the dangerous Bee Gee racer before giving up racing altogether to concentrate on pure aeronautical research. In 1940, shortly before American entry into World War II, he convinced his friend, General

Henry H. Arnold, head of the U.S. Army Air Force, to return him to active duty, and he spent several months as a staff officer tasked with touring aircraft factories and cleaning up production bottlenecks. In the spring of 1942, Doolittle helped conceive the plan to launch 16 B-25 land bombers from a carrier deck and raid Japan for the first time. General Arnold was so impressed with the scheme that he allowed Doolittle to fly this mission, which struck targets in and around Tokyo for the first time on April 18, 1942. He consequently won a Congressional Medal of Honor and a double promotion to brigadier general before taking charge of American air forces in North Africa and the Mediterranean. Doolittle performed well and, in January 1944, he took charge of the mighty Eighth Air Force in England, where he orchestrated a merciless daylight bombardment campaign against German industry. His most important order issued in this struggle was to release his fighter escorts to go after the German Luftwaffe, instead of simply following the bombers, which gradually reduced enemy air defenses. In 1945, Doolittle transferred to the Pacific to undertake similar action against Japan, but the war ended before he arrived. In light of his stirring contributions, he became the youngest lieutenant general in U.S. Army history at the age of 49. After the war, Doolittle resumed working for Shell Oil and the space division of TRW until his death in Pebble Beach, California, on September 27, 1993. He was America’s most accomplished airman.

while the Japanese lose the light carrier Shoho and six smaller vessels. The air groups on both sides also take heavy losses.

May 5 Business: Sugar rationing is enacted.

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May 6 Military: General Jonathan Wainwright, outnumbered and heavily outgunned, surrenders all remaining American forces at Corregidor, Philippines, to General Tomoyuki Yamashita.

May 15 Business: Gasoline rationing is enacted in 17 eastern states, with a three-gallon per week limit for all nonessential driving. Women: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) Act into law, to permit large numbers of women to contribute directly to the war effort. Noted aviatrix Oveta Culp Hobby is chosen as their first commander.

May 18 Business: As of today, all retail prices are subject to government-dictated price ceilings.

Women in military service. Shown here is the first contingent of 253 female marines who reported for duty at U.S. Marine headquarters, 1943. (Library of Congress)

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May 25 Naval: Japanese and American armadas begin maneuvering and converging upon Midway Island in the Pacific, setting the stage for a decisive naval showdown. Unknown to the Japanese, the Americans have cracked their military codes and are well prepared to receive them.

June 3–6 Naval: American naval forces prevail in the Battle of Midway, which effectively halts Japanese expansion in the Pacific. The Japanese lose 17 ships, including all four aircraft carriers, 275 airplanes, and 4,800 of their best men. American losses amount to 300 men and two ships, including the carrier USS Yorktown.

June 3–21 Naval: In an ancillary movement to events at Midway, Japanese amphibious forces attack and overrun the outermost Aleutian Islands of Attu and Kiska.

June 13 Media: Radio commentator Elmer Davis is appointed head of the new Office of War Information (OWI), which is tasked with monitoring and disseminating official news and propaganda. Military: William Donovan is appointed head of the new Office of Strategic Services (OSS), a precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency.

Donovan, William (1883–1959) Spy master William Joseph Donovan was born in Buffalo, New York, on January 1, 1883, and in 1907 he graduated from Columbia University with a law degree. In 1916, Donovan commenced his military career by joining the New York National Guard cavalry, and he accompanied General John J. Pershing’s expedition against the Mexican bandit Pancho Villa that year. He had risen to major in the famous “Fighting 69th” Infantry during World War I where, as part of the 27th “Rainbow Division,” he was wounded three times in battle and promoted to the rank of colonel. He also received the Congressional Medal of Honor, the Distinguished Service Cross, and the Distinguished Service Medal, becoming the first officer to hold all three

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awards. After the war, Donovan pursued a successful legal career as U.S. assistant attorney general in New York, and in 1919 he was dispatched to Russia to observe the White forces of anticommunist admiral Alexander Kolchak during the civil war there. This was one of many clandestine missions he performed for the government. Meanwhile, Donovan unsuccessfully ran for the governorship of New York, but in 1935 President Franklin D. Roosevelt, impressed by his energy and charm, dispatched him as an unofficial military observer to Italy, Egypt, and Ethiopia. After World War II commenced in 1939, Donovan was again sent to Spain, Czechoslovakia, and the Balkans, and two years later he visited Lon-

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June 13–17 Military: A German submarine lands eight agents on the coast of Long Island, who are promptly rounded up, subjected to trial by military tribunal, and executed as spies. Societal: Noted news commentator Elmer Davis gains appointment as director of the Office of War Information.

June 15–30 Societal: The nation mobilizes to support a huge scrap rubber drive to assist the war effort by rounding up every conceivable piece of that valuable industrial commodity.

June 17 Journalism: The first issue of the army-sponsored newspaper Yank is issued and becomes standard reading fare for millions of servicemen around the world. Many of the writers and cartoonists employed here go on to establish distinguished careers in the postwar era.

June 19 Diplomacy: British prime minister Winston Churchill arrives in Washington, D.C., to discuss and lay out the first Allied offensive of the war in Europe, the invasion of North Africa.

don to evaluate England’s defenses. While abroad, Donovan conversed with William S. Stephenson, a Canadian working with the British Secret Intelligence Service, and he returned home convinced that the United States needed a central agency of its own for coordinating the gathering and deciphering of intelligence on a global basis. After presenting his case to President Roosevelt, Donovan was appointed head of the new Office of Strategic Services (OSS) with the rank of brigadier general. In this office he went on to recruit bankers, acrobats, movies stars, and linguists for one of the most adept information-gathering agencies in history. Donovan sent spies to every corner of the world, where they kept track of Axis forces and intentions, as well as organized and supplied resistance move-

ments. Donovan was no deskbound general, and he witnessed Allied landings at Sicily, Normandy, and Burma; in every instance, he had OSS operatives functioning behind enemy lines beforehand. In light of his success, he gained promotion to major general in 1943 but, two years later, Donovan failed to dissuade President Harry S. Truman from disbanding the OSS. However, he continued lobbying for a new spy network in light of cold war tensions with the Soviet Union, and, in 1947, the new Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was born. Donovan, meanwhile, continued with legal activities until 1953, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed him ambassador to Thailand. He died in Washington, D.C., on February 8, 1959, America’s most accomplished spy master.

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June 21 Naval: A Japanese submarine surfaces at night and shells the Oregon coast; damage is slight.

June 22 Communication: The first V-mail, letters transferred to microfilm and then printed on photographic paper when needed, is sent from New York City to London, England.

June 25 Military: General Dwight D. Eisenhower, a little-known military leader, gains appointment as commander of all U.S. forces in the European Theater of Operations (ETO).

June 28 Military: The first American land assault in the South Pacific transpires as commandos raid the Japanese-held base at Salamuna, New Guinea.

June 30 Military: Congress appropriates an additional $42.8 billion for military expenditures. Politics: With the Great Depression effectively eradicated, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), a hallmark program of the New Deal, is disbanded.

July 4 Aviation: U.S. Army pilots accompany the Royal Air Force on their first air raid over the European continent.

July 16 Labor: The War Labor Board grants certain steel workers a 15 percent hike in wages to offset recent cost-of-living increases.

July 22 Business: The practice of gasoline rationing is further refined with a system of coupons issued to families.

July 30 Women: President Franklin D. Roosevelt establishes a women’s naval reserve, better known as the WAVES.

August 7 Military: U.S. land and naval forces stage an amphibious invasion of Guadalcanal Island in the Solomons, signifying the first Allied offensive of the Pacific War. Intense and costly fighting continues until February 1943.

August 12–15 Diplomacy: U.S. State Department representative Averell Harriman accompanies British prime minister Winston Churchill on a diplomatic soirée to Moscow for consultations with Premier Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union.

August 17 Aviation: A force of Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bombers belonging to the embryonic Eighth Air Force stages the first large air raid in Europe by hitting

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One of the most important World War II contractors was the Boeing Company of Seattle, Washington. In this photograph, two assembly-line workers are seen completing the fuselage framework of a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber. (Library of Congress) the marshaling yards at Rouen, France. It proves a deceptively easy mission, for German resistance proves negligible and all aircraft return without damage.

August 18 Military: A special detachment of U.S. Marines under Lieutenant Colonel Evans F. Carlson strikes at Japanese-held Makin Island on the northern end of the Gilbert Islands. They manage to kill 350 Japanese and wreck all of their installations before withdrawing by submarine.

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August 26 Diplomacy: Wendell Willkie, who ran against President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940, now sallies forth as his special envoy on a round-the-world trip to investigate and evaluate conditions throughout the Allied camp.

September 10 Business: The Baruch-Compton-Conant Commission warns that the wartime economy faces imminent collapse if supplies of rubber are not increased soon. This results in the United States purchasing Mexico’s entire rubber production for the next four years but, more importantly, spurs the production of new, synthetic rubber.

September 10–14 Naval: German U-boats enjoy considerable success hunting Allied merchant vessels in the North Atlantic and sink no fewer than 12 ships from Convoy ON-127, en route from North America to Great Britain. As in World War I, the U-boat scourge threatens to strangle the British Isles into submission.

September 15 Naval: The carrier USS Wasp is sunk by a Japanese submarine in the South Pacific off Guadalcanal.

September 21 Aviation: In Seattle, Washington, the giant XB-29 prototype flies for the first time, and it goes into service as the famous B-29 Superfortress.

September 30–October 5 Sports: The St. Louis Cardinals (NL) win the 39th World Series by defeating the New York Yankees (AL) four games to one.

October 1 Aviation: The Bell XP-59, America’s first jet fighter, flies for the first time at Muroc Army Base, California, with chief test pilot Robert Stanley at the controls.

October 7 Diplomacy: A plan to establish a War Crimes Commission within the United Nations is announced by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and puts Axis leaders on notice that they will be held accountable for any and all misdeeds against civilians and prisoners of war. Labor: The United Mine Workers withdraws from the CIO.

October 16 Arts: The ballet Rodeo by Aaron Copland is produced in New York by the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and stars Agnes de Mille.

October 21 Business: Congress passes the Revenue Act of 1942, which increases the tax burden on businesses and individuals by $9 billion. Foremost among them is the so-called Victory Tax, which levies 5 percent against all annual incomes over $624.

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October 23 Military: U.S. Marines guarding Henderson Field on Guadalcanal turn back a fierce Japanese nighttime attack featuring banzai charges.

October 25–26 Naval: Japanese naval forces counterattack in the Battle of Santa Cruz, sinking the American carrier USS Hornet and damaging the carrier Enterprise.

November 3 Politics: In midterm elections, Republican make significant gains, but the Democrats still cling to control of Congress; Republican Thomas Dewey wins a surprising race to become governor of New York.

November 7–8 Military: Operation Torch unfolds as Allied forces under General Dwight D. Eisenhower land 400,000 men on the coast of North Africa against light Vichy French resistance.

November 12–15 Naval: Admiral William “Bull” Halsey leads American forces to victory over the Japanese navy in the Battle of Guadalcanal, sinking 28 vessels and preventing them from reinforcing that strategic island.

November 18 Military: The Selective Service Act is modified to include males at the age of 18 for military service. Within a year, the burgeoning American military establishment will number 10 million men. Transportation: Engineers finish the Alcan Highway, stretching 1,523 miles from Alberta, Canada, to Alaska, to allow American forces to stage and recapture the Japanese-held islands of Attu and Kiska.

November 23 Naval: The Semper Paratus Always Ready (SPARS) service becomes the women’s branch of the U.S. Coast Guard.

November 28 Business: Coffee rationing comes into effect nationwide. General: A fire at the Cocoanut Grove nightclub, Boston, kills 492 revelers, one of the largest tolls suffered in an accident of this kind.

December 1 Business: Gasoline rationing is enforced nationwide for the duration of the war.

December 2 Science: The first sustained nuclear reaction is achieved at the University of Chicago as part of Project Argonne.

December 4 Labor: President Franklin D. Roosevelt grants “an honorable discharge” for his Works Progress Administration (WPA), one of the hallmarks of his depressionera New Deal.

December 21 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that divorces obtained in Nevada are legal in all 48 states.

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Halsey, William F. (1882–1959) Admiral William Frederick Halsey was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, on October 30, 1882, the son of a U.S. Navy captain. Like his father, Halsey attended the U.S. Naval Academy, graduated in 1904 as a midshipman, and accompanied the Great White Fleet that toured the world, 1907–09. During World War I he commanded several destroyers and won the Navy Cross for good performance. For the next two decades, Halsey held down routine administrative and diplomatic positions. It was not until 1935 that he attended the naval flight school in Pensacola, Florida, and won his wings at the age of 52—ancient by pilot standards. Halsey then transferred to the carrier service by taking the helm of the USS Saratoga and, by 1940, he was in command of Carrier Division 2, consisting of the Enterprise and Yorktown, which he transferred to the Pacific. Halsey had just finished delivering warplanes to remote Wake Island on December 7, 1941, and was headed back to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, when Japanese aerial forces struck with devastating results. The Americans lost eight battleships and several smaller warships, leaving Halsey’s carriers the sole remaining strike force in the Pacific for months to come. Undaunted, he led the first American raids of the war by launching air strikes against targets in the Gilbert and Marshal Islands, along with Wake Island and Marcus Island, in January and February 1942. The following April he conducted one of aviation’s most daunting raids by transporting 16 U.S. Army Air Force B-25 land bombers, under

Colonel James H. Doolittle, on a one-way raid against Tokyo. Little material damage was inflicted, but the episode proved a major embarrassment to the Japanese and improved American morale at home. Halsey missed the decisive carrier clashes at Coral Sea and Midway in the summer of 1942 owing to an acute skin rash, but, that fall, he assumed command of American naval forces in the South Pacific. With them, he unhesitatingly attacked superior Japanese forces at Santa Cruz and Guadalcanal, decisively defeating them on November 12–15. An equally brilliant offensive up the Solomon Island chain followed, which resulted in the major Japanese garrisons of Truk and Rabaul being completely bypassed and isolated by air power. In October 1944, Halsey took charge of the Third Fleet and assisted the army of General Douglas MacArthur in invading the Philippines. En route, he crushed the remnants of Japanese naval power at the Battle of Leyte Gulf, although he was criticized for leaving the landing areas unprotected while hunting down the enemy. Halsey incurred additional controversy by electing to sail his fleet through two destructive typhoons in December 1944 and June 1945, which severely damaged the American fleet, but, in September 1945, the Japanese delegation signed the terms of surrender on his flagship, the battleship USS Missouri. Halsey came home after the war and retired in April 1947. He died on Fisher’s Island, New York, on October 16, 1959, one of America’s most colorful and aggressive naval leaders.

December 28 Music: Arthur Rodzinski, director of the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, is appointed director and conductor of the New York Philharmonic Symphony.

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1943 Arts: Martha Graham and her company stage the Hunter Johnson musical dance Deaths and Entrances; Thomas Hart Benton paints his noted work July Hay, with farmers in a swirling field of flowers and trees; up-and-coming painter Jackson Pollock wows the critics with his first display of original artwork. General: Highly coordinated salvage drives result in reclamation of 255,513 tons of tin cans, 43,919 tons of fat, 6 million tons of paper, and 26 million tons of scrap steel and iron. Journalism: Noted war correspondent Ernie Pyle becomes the voice for the average American soldier in his first book, Here Is Your War. Literature: Betty Smith publishes her noted novel, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, about slum life in the city; prolific writer William Saroyan pens The Human Comedy. Medical: Wholesale production of the new antibiotic penicillin begins, using a more highly productive strain of mold acquired from cantaloupes; the nation is swept by a polio epidemic, which kills 1,151 people and cripples thousands more.

Pyle, Ernie (1900–1945) Journalist Ernest Taylor Pyle was born in Dana, Indiana, on August 3, 1900, a son of farmers. He studied journalism for three years at Indiana University but quit in his senior year to work as a cub reporter for a local newspaper. Pyle, a restless individual, soon tired of this, and he subsequently relocated to New York City to work for the Daily News, a Scripps-Howard newspaper. A talented writer, he advanced to copy editor by 1928 and edited an aviation column renowned for its breezy, informal style. But Pyle wearied of his desk job, so in 1935 he switched to become a roving journalist for Scripps-Howard, and in that capacity gained national attention by criss-crossing the country 30 times and visiting every country in the Western Hemisphere but two. Accompanied only by his wife, whom he laconically described as “that girl that

drives with me,” his long-running series of travel articles proved popular by dint of Pyle’s uncanny feel for common people and everyday occurrences usually overlooked by major reporters. As such, he was one of few journalists of his day to actually establish a rapport with his readership. Pyle soon acquired a national following, and his columns were eventually carried by 200 syndicated newspapers. Shortly after World War II commenced, he reported to England to report on events and witnessed the “Battle of Britain” and the “London Blitz,” which he conveyed to his readers in moving and descriptive detail. He was subsequently ordered to Hawaii and barely missed the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor before returning to England in 1942, only this time (continues)

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(continued) he was attached directly to American forces and began reporting on them in detail for the benefit of audiences far removed from the conflict. It was as a war correspondent that Pyle acquired his greatest fame. Though slight of build, balding, and frequently ill from bouts of anemia, he accompanied soldiers into the field and incessantly wrote about their trials, tribulations, and sheer survival, which he considered something of a triumph. In return, millions of GIs bonded with this seemingly nondescript reporter, and all of them, from ranking generals to lowly privates, simply addressed him as “Ernie.” Pyle gathered up his various jottings for publication, and they emerged as two best-selling books, This Is Your War (1942) and Brave Men (1944) for

which he won the Pulitzer Prize in Journalism. His coverage of events in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, and France appeared daily in no less than 400 newspapers nationwide, and millions came to depend on his keen gift for reporting commonplace events to grasp events as they unfolded overseas. In 1944, his reputation spread to Hollywood, which produced a feature film based on his experiences called The Story of G.I. Joe. Pyle returned stateside in 1944 to rest and recuperate but, with typical modesty, declined to appear on lucrative talk shows or live interviews. In the spring of 1945 he arrived in the Pacific, and on August 17, 1945, while reporting from the front, Pyle was struck and killed by gunfire on Ie Shima Island. He remains America’s most beloved journalist.

Music: Prolific composer Aaron Copland performs two noted works this year, A Lincoln Portrait and Piano Sonata; the year’s most popular songs include “That Old Black Magic,” “You’ll Never Know,” and “Moonlight Becomes You.” Publishing: Captain Ted W. Lawson writes his thrilling memoir, Thirty Seconds over Tokyo, which goes on to become a noted war film; Colonel Robert L. Scott pens God Is My Co-Pilot, about flying fighter planes in China; Richard Tregaskis writes his famous memoir Guadalcanal Diary concerning war in the Pacific; former presidential candidate Wendell Willkie publishes his optimistic book One World, which sells a million copies within two months of hitting the stands. Societal: Shoulder-padded jackets and high-waisted pants are all the rage for men as the new “Zoot Suit” look takes hold; the frantically paced Jitterbug becomes the dance craze across the nation, along with its related form, the Lindy Hop. Sports: New York Giants relief pitcher Ace Adams sets a new league record by pitching in 70 consecutive games.

January 11 Aviation: President Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes the first sitting president to fly while in office. Military: President Franklin D. Roosevelt submits a budget request of $108 billion, of which $100 billion is slated for national defense purposes.

January 14–24 Diplomacy: President Franklin D. Roosevelt joins Prime Minister Winston Churchill and other Allied leaders at a major war conference at Casablanca, Morocco. They decide to invade Sicily and Italy before attempting to land forces in occupied France and also authorize a joint U.S.-British bomber offensive.

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The Allies also demand nothing less than unconditional surrender from Axis leaders.

January 18 Medical: The U.S. Supreme Court determines that moves by the American Medical Association to prevent the activity of cooperative health groups violate antitrust laws.

January 27 Aviation: The American daylight strategic bombing campaign against German industry accelerates when Eighth Air Force bombers hit German facilities at Wilhelmshaven, Germany.

February 3 Military: Hard liquor is banned from all military establishments by the U.S. War Department.

February 7 Societal: With shoe rationing now in effect, civilians are restricted to three pairs of leather footwear annually.

February 9 Labor: President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders a minimum 48-hour work week in all essential war plants. Military: Japanese forces stage a brilliantly conducted evacuation of Guadalcanal Island, now firmly in the hands of American forces. The allies successfully conclude their first Pacific offensive, and a rollback of the Japanese Empire in the Pacific is now at hand.

February 14–25 Military: Inexperienced U.S. Army forces defending Kasserine Pass, Tunisia, are roughly handled by the veteran Afrika Korps under Marshal Erwin Rommel, but at length the Germans settle for a Pyrrhic victory and withdraw.

March 1 Societal: To better facilitate widespread rationing of processed foods nationwide, a point-rationing scheme is introduced, with coupon books required to purchase the needed commodities. Canned goods are also rationed.

March 2– 4 Aviation: In a demonstration of aerial firepower, American and Australian fighters and medium bombers attack and savage a Japanese convoy in the Bismark Sea off New Guinea, sinking eight transports and four destroyers crammed with troops, and downing 25 aircraft. The loss of 3,500 men is a major blow to enemy plans for holding onto New Guinea.

March 4 Media: Academy Awards are given to Mrs. Miniver as best picture of 1942, to James Cagney as best actor in Yankee Doodle Dandy, and to Greer Garson as best actress in Mrs. Miniver.

March 8 Diplomacy: In Moscow, Admiral W. M. Standley, the American ambassador, complains that Soviet leaders are not informing their people about the great levels of aid being dispatched to their nation from the West.

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March 11 Diplomacy: Premier Joseph Stalin, eager for the continuance of U.S. aid to the Soviet Union, orders ambassador Maxim Litinov to thank the Americans for their assistance.

March 25 General: Chester C. Davis is appointed U.S. food administrator to remedy growing shortages.

March 29 General: Meat, cheese, and fat are now subject to rationing.

March 30 Sports: The University of Wyoming wins the NCAA basketball championship by defeating Georgetown, 56-43.

March 31 Music: The Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein production of the musical Oklahoma! opens on Broadway and is immediately successful. It also marks a trend in the genre by parting from traditional showbiz glitter in favor of uniquely American themes.

April 1–8 Sports: The Detroit Red Wings win the NHL Stanley Cup by defeating the Boston Bruins in four games.

Rodgers, Richard

(1902–1979)

Composer Richard Charles Rodgers was born in Arverne, Long Island, on June 28, 1902, the son of a Jewish physician. He was well trained in his infancy by his mother, an amateur musician, and he began playing piano by ear at the age of six. In 1919, he penned music for amateur shows and subsequently entered Columbia University to study music. There he encountered Lorenz Hart, and the two decided to collaborate on several student projects, with Hart doing the lyrics and Rodgers providing the music. However, Rodgers dropped out of college in 1921 and subsequently studied music for two years under Walter Damrosch at the Institute of Musical Arts in New York. He continued writing and selling songs with lit-

1943

tle notice until 1925, when he again teamed up with Hart to produce the Theater Guild’s musical Garrick Gaieties, which proved highly successful. This signaled the start of a fruitful, 20-year association between the two men, who in their various works helped redefine the American musical. Together, they penned several highly successful shows, such as Dearest Enemy (1925), The Girl Friend (1926), Peggy Ann (1926), and A Connecticut Yankee (1927), all of which featured their trademark wit and sophistication in composition and lyrics. Several tune, such as “Here in My Arms,” “The Blue Room,” and “You Took Advantage of Me,” remain American standards. In the 1930s, Rodgers accompanied Hart to Hol-

Chronology

1945

April 8 Business: President Franklin D. Roosevelt, eager to stem inflation, orders prices, wages, and salaries frozen as a wartime expedient.

April 13 General: President Franklin D. Roosevelt officiates over ceremonies attending the opening of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C.

April 17 Labor: The War Manpower Commission orders that essential workers are frozen, namely, forbidden from leaving their present occupations. The new policy affects some 27 million workers.

April 18 Sports: Gérard Côté of Quebec wins the 47th Boston Marathon by finishing in two hours, 28 minutes, and 25 seconds.

May 1 Labor: When United Mine Workers president John L. Lewis orders a nationwide strike to protest the recent wage freeze, President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders the government to take over the soft-coal mines; Lewis then immediately drops his plans. Sports: Count Fleet wins the 69th annual Kentucky Derby with a time of two minutes, four seconds.

lywood, where they composed scores for a number of motion pictures such as Love Me Tonight (1932). However, Rodgers disliked the intense pace of working in California, and the team returned to Broadway in 1935 with even greater success. Their newer works, Jumbo (1935), On Your Toes (1936), Babes in Arms (1937), The Boys from Syracuse (1938), and Pal Joey (1940), reaffirmed their reputation as America’s number-one musical team. After Hart died in 1943, Rodgers teamed up with Oscar Hammerstein and, once again, he helped change the evolving face of American musicals from episodic songs and skits to an integrated, interrelated whole. Their seminal production was Oklahoma! (1943), whereby Rodgers dropped the sophistication of earlier works in favor of a simplistic,

folksy, and genuinely American sound. The team enjoyed equal success with Carousel (1945), South Pacific (1949), The King and I (1951), and The Sound of Music (1959), all of which were eventually translated from the stage to the silver screen. Songs such as “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning,” “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” “Getting to Know You,” and “My Favorite Things,” all became part of a cherished Broadway largesse. Hammerstein died in 1960, and Rodgers went on to perform solo for many years until his own death in New York on December 30, 1979. At that time, he was partly responsible for winning 34 Tony Awards, 15 Academy Awards, two Pulitzer Prizes, two Grammy Awards, and two Emmy Awards. Rodgers is considered one of America’s most versatile composers.

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May 3 Arts: Upton Sinclair’s novel Dragon’s Teeth wins a Pulitzer Prize for fiction; Robert Frost’s “A Witness Tree” wins the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry; Thornton Wilder’s play The Skin of Our Teeth wins the Pulitzer Prize for drama.

May 5 Business: Postmaster General Frank C. Walker initiates a postal-zone numbering system to speed up mail deliveries in 178 cities; Fuel Administrator Harold L. Ickes receives authority to seize existing coal stocks for use in war industrial plants in the event of a coal strike. Media: The Library of Congress announces that it will store and preserve some 5,000 films made between 1897 and 1917, including 75 Keystone comedies and all of D. W. Griffith’s Biograph productions.

May 7 Military: U.S. Army forces roll into Bizerte, Tunisia, while British troops seize the capital of Tunis.

May 8 Sports: Count Fleet wins the 68th annual Preakness Stakes by crossing the line at one minute, 57 seconds.

May 10–13 Military: German forces under Field Marshal Jürgen von Arnim, numbering 250,000, surrender to the Allies in Tunisia. This is an Axis disaster as large as the surrender of Stalingrad four months earlier.

May 11–27 Diplomacy: Prime Minister Winston Churchill arrives in Washington, D.C., to confer with President Franklin D. Roosevelt in high-level strategic discussions known as the Trident Conference. They resolve to continue ahead with the planned invasion of Italy while also marshaling forces for a new offensive in the Pacific.

May 11–31 Military: U.S. Army forces stage an amphibious assault on the Aleutian island of Attu, which falls after savage resistance by the small Japanese garrison.

May 19 Labor: The United Mine Workers (UMW) petitions to rejoin the American Federation of Labor (AFL).

May 27 Business: President Franklin D. Roosevelt creates the Office of War Mobilization (OWM) by executive fiat to better coordinate the national war effort. However, he breaks new ground by also insisting that all industries with government contracts cease racial discrimination. James F. Byrnes is appointed its first director.

June 5 Sports: Count Fleet wins the 75th annual Belmont Stakes by finishing in two minutes, 28 seconds, becoming the sixth horse to take racing’s Triple Crown.

June 9 Business: The Current Tax Payment Program, which withholds taxes from paychecks before they are paid, goes into effect. This is also known as the “pay as

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you go” system and becomes an essential facet of modern U.S. tax policy and government finance.

June 14 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of West Virginia Board of Education v. Bernette, ruling that the practice of requiring school children to salute the national flag and to expel them if they refuse is unconstitutional. The original suit had been filed by the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

June 22–22 Civil: White workers forced to work alongside African Americans riot in Detroit, which results in 34 deaths and 500 injured before federal troops can restore order. Over 300 whites are arrested by police.

June 25 Labor: The War Labor Dispute Act is passed by Congress over President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s veto. Henceforth, unions are required to give a 30-day notice of any intention of striking in a war plant, while labor action in government-operated plants is outlawed completely.

July 10–August 17 Military: American and British forces under General Dwight D. Eisenhower commence a concerted drive on the Axis enclave of Sicily. Once in Allied hands, the island serves as a springboard for the ensuing invasion of the Italian Peninsula.

July 16 Diplomacy: A joint message by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill, delivered in the form of millions of leaflets dropped over Italy, calls upon the people to surrender.

July 19 Aviation: A force of 500 American heavy bombers strikes German and Italian targets in and around the city of Rome, although taking special care not to damage sites of cultural or religious significance. Still, the raid underscores the preponderance of Allied air power to all involved. Technology: The Big Inch Pipeline, which stretches 1,254 miles from Longview, Texas, to Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, opens for business. It is the largest such structure in the world and crosses 30 rivers.

July 25 Diplomacy: King Victor Emmanuel III forces Italian dictator Benito Mussolini to resign after 21 years in power, and he is replaced by Marshal Badoglio. The Italian government begins to immediately look for an accommodation with the Allies.

August 1 Aviation: An American force of B-24 Liberator heavy bombers strikes at the oil fields of Ploesti, Romania, although suffering heavy losses. Civil: African Americans, angered by the rumor of a murder, riot in Harlem, New York, and five people die, 410 are injured, and damages are estimated at $5 million.

August 11–24 Diplomacy: President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and representatives from China meet in Quebec, Canada, to work out details of the Pacific campaign.

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August 15 Military: American and Canadian army units recapture Kiska in the Aleutian Islands, which the Japanese had wisely and stealthily evacuated.

August 17 Aviation: U.S. Army Air Force B-17 Flying Fortresses stage their first large raid on German ball-bearing plants in Schweinfurt, losing 10 percent of their number to ferocious German resistance. Military: Allied mop-up operations in Sicily end with the capture of Messina; the entire campaign costs the British and Americans 25,000 casualties to an Axis tally of 167,000.

August 17–21 Aviation: A major American air strike against Japanese aerodromes at Wewak, New Guinea, destroys or damages over 300 aircraft caught on the ground, and also kills or injures some 1,500 pilots and support personnel.

August 28 Military: U.S. forces recapture New Georgia in the Solomon Islands.

September 3 Diplomacy: In Rome, Marshal Badoglio signs a secret armistice with the Allies and pledges to cease all resistance as of September 8.

September 9–14 Military: Allied forces, eager to maintain the strategic initiative, hurriedly cross the Strait of Messina in force and splash ashore and land on the Italian mainland at Salerno. The Germans resist tenaciously but are forced to yield the city to General Mark Clark’s U.S. Fifth Army and withdraw up the peninsula.

September 19 Military: The Mediterranean island of Sardinia falls to Allied forces, while French and Italians on nearby Corsica also revolt against German occupation.

September 21 Diplomacy: The Fulbright Concurrent Resolution, which calls upon the United States to participate in a world organization to maintain the peace, passes the House of Representatives.

October 1 Military: The American Fifth Army under General Mark Clark attacks and captures the city of Naples, Italy, although vindictive German forces damage many cultural institutions before retreating to punish the Italians for surrendering.

October 5–11 Sports: The New York Yankees (AL) win the 40th annual World Series by defeating the St. Louis Cardinals (NL) four games to one.

October 13 Diplomacy: The new Italian government under Marshal Badoglio declares war on Germany, but Italy itself remains under the control of the Allied Military Government until the war is over.

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October 17 Politics: In New York City, the Young Communist League dissolves itself and is reorganized into the American Youth for Democracy, which offers membership to noncommunists. Transportation: Chicago opens its first subway.

October 19–30 Diplomacy: Foreign ministers from the United States, China, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union gather in Moscow to discuss postwar policy toward the Axis powers. They also work on formulating an international organization to maintain the peace afterward.

November 1 Military: U.S. forces continue their mop-up operations in the Solomon Islands by seizing Bougainville.

November 2 Aviation: General Douglas MacArthur orders a preemptive air strike against Japanese forces gathering at Rabaul, New Britain, to forestall any possible offensives against Empress Augusta Bay. They sink 94,000 tons of shipping.

November 5 Diplomacy: The Senate passes the Connally Resolution calling upon the United States to participate in an international peacekeeping body at the close of hostilities.

November 20–23 Naval: U.S. Marines land and take the islands of Tarawa and Makin in the Gilbert Islands after a tough fight against dug-in, fanatical resistance.

November 22–26 Diplomacy: President Franklin D. Roosevelt flies to Cairo, Egypt, to confer with Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Nationalist Chinese Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek to discuss strategy in the Pacific War. They decide to press for unconditional surrender, the return of all Chinese territory, an independent Korea, and the Japanese surrender of all Pacific territory acquired since 1914.

November 28–December 1 Diplomacy: President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill depart Cairo, Egypt, and fly to Teheran, Iran, to meet with Soviet premier Joseph Stalin for discussions revolving around the upcoming invasion of western Europe.

December 4 Societal: The federal government finds Utah resident John Zenz guilty of polygamy, the first such case prosecuted in many years.

December 4–6 Diplomacy: President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill continue their whirlwind tour of the Middle East by touching down in Turkey for talks with President Ismet Inönü over joining the Allied cause.

December 11 Music: New York City’s new City Center of Music and Drama opens with a concert by the New York Philharmonic Symphony.

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December 17 Societal: In a nod to an important ally, Congress repeals the Chinese Exclusion Act, which severely restricted Chinese immigration to the United States. A quota of 105 Chinese admissions per day is established.

December 24 Media: President Franklin D. RooÂ�seÂ�velt takes to the airwaves again in his Â�end-­ofÂ�the-­year message to the American nation, and he declares that General Dwight D. Eisenhower will command the upcoming invasion of western EuÂ�rope, when-­ ever that momentous event transpires.

December 27 Labor: When the national railroads are threatened by a labor strike, the federal government seizes control of them.

1944 Arts: New York City hosts two great opera singers, Dorothy Kirsten and Regina Resnik, at the City Center Opera Company and the Metropolitan Opera. General: Salvage drives collect 7 million tons of wastepaper, 84,807 tons of fat, 18.5 million tons of iron and steel scrap, 185,676 tons of tin cans, and 544,739 tons of rags; in recognition of the importance of the K-9 (dog) units to the mili-­ tary, a German shepherd receives the Distinguished SerÂ�vice Medal for charging an enemy position during the Sicily invasion. Journalism: Ernie Pyle continues to bring warÂ�time experiences back to the home front in his book Brave Men. Literature: Kathleen Winsor’s racy historical novel Forever Amber sells 1 mil-­ lion copies in a year; John Hersey releases his noted work A Bell for Adano; Lillian Smith writes her novel of interracial love, Strange Fruit. Media: Cartoonists Bill Mauldin and George Baker gain nationwide popularity for their cartoons Up Front and Sad Sack, which offer humorous and sometime biting satire on military life. Medical: Penicillin sees widespread use during the war and is viewed as a mir-­ acle drug for curing a wide range of infectious diseases; in Italy, army troops employ the widespread use of the insecticide DDT to wipe out body lice respon-­ sible for the spread of typhus. Music: The year’s most popÂ�uÂ�lar songs include “I’ll Be Seeing You,” “Mairzy Doats,” and “Long Ago and Far Away.” Publishing: Catherine Drinker Bowen releases her biography of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes entitled Yankee from Olympus; Van Wyck Brooks writes his literary biography The World of Washington Irving. Societal: Despite Â�government-­imposed wage and price controls, the cost of liv-­ ing has zoomed 30 percent, which leads to a flourishing “black market” for food, clothing, gasoline, and other rationed items.

January 3 Aviation: The first he�li�cop�ter rescue mission unfolds when a U.S. Coast Guard Sikorsky R-4 carries blood plasma to injured navy seamen offshore.

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January 8 Aviation: At Muroc Air Force Base, California, the Lockheed XP-80 flies for the first time; it is destined to become the F-80 Shooting Star, America’s first jetpowered fighter plane.

January 10 Military: President Franklin D. Roosevelt advances a budget request for $70 billion, with the bulk of it slated for military expenditures.

January 16 Military: General Dwight D. Eisenhower establishes his new headquarters in London, England, as supreme commander of the forthcoming Allied Expeditionary Force. A cross-channel invasion of continental Europe is in the offing.

January 19 Labor: The federal government returns control of the railroads back to private ownership after a wage dispute is resolved with the unions.

January 22 Military: Allied forces attempt to outflank German defenses by landing at Anzio, Italy, 30 miles south of Rome. The initial wave pushes inland but fails to secure the high ground overlooking the beach, and it is swiftly occupied by German forces. Politics: President Franklin D. Roosevelt, thinking ahead to postwar readjustment, establishes the War Refugee Board through an executive order.

January 31–February 22 Military: In the Pacific, U.S. Marines storm ashore in the Marshall Islands and wrest them from Japanese control after three weeks of intense combat. This is the first land lost by the Japanese Empire, which held the islands before the war.

February 2 Naval: U.S. Marines from the 4th Division conduct an amphibious assault on Roi in the Marshall Islands, while nearby Namur and Kwajalein are also seized. This constitutes the first capture of prewar Japanese territory.

February 3 Naval: U.S. Navy warships shell the Kuril Islands off northern Japan, the first attack on the enemy homeland since the Doolittle raid of April 1942.

February 6 Military: Intense fighting erupts at Anzio and Casino on the Italian Peninsula as the Allies gradually force back tenacious German defenders well situated in mountainous terrain.

February 12 Politics: Wendell Willkie announces his intention to run for the presidency again this year as the Republican candidate.

February 20–27 Aviation: Heavy bombers and escort fighters of the U.S. Eighth Air Force begin a maximum effort to strike German aviation industrial centers and cripple the Luftwaffe’s ability to resist. Both sides sustain heavy losses, but the Americans can reconstitute their forces much more quickly than the Nazis.

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February 29 Business: OPA director Chester A. Bowles announces that black marketeers have squeezed an estimated $1.2 billion from consumers over the past year.

March 2 Media: Academy Awards go to Casablanca as the best movie of 1943, to Paul Lukas as best actor for Watch on the Rhine, and to Jennifer Jones as best actress for The Song of Bernadette.

March 4 Diplomacy: Acting secretary of state Edward Stettinius announces that the United States does not recognize the present regime in Argentina over its failure to break diplomatic relations with Germany and Italy.

March 5 Music: Walter Piston’s Second Symphony premieres in Washington, D.C., to critical acclaim and brings the composer national attention.

March 8 Aviation: A wave of 800 American heavy bombers, escorted by the new, longrange P-51 Mustang fighters, raids the city of Berlin, Germany, for the first time. Losses are heavy on both sides, but the Luftwaffe is gradually being bled of men and machines in time for the invasion of Europe.

March 15 Military: Following a controversial decision to bomb the ancient monastery at Monte Cassino, Italy, Allied forces surge forward in an attempt to break through the German “Gustav” line. After heavy fighting and severe losses, the offensive gradually grinds to a halt and the Allies regroup.

March 17 Diplomacy: Secretary of State Cordell Hull unveils a 17-point program for American foreign policy that overwhelmingly stresses cooperation in the postwar environment.

March 29 Diplomacy: Congress passes a joint resolution to provide the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Agency with $1.3 billion to assist in what promises to be a massive postwar cleanup operation involving millions of refugees.

April 3 Civil: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Smith v. Allwright, ruling that an African American cannot be denied the ability to vote in a Democratic Party primary on the basis of race.

April 4 –6 Politics: Wendell Willkie enters the Wisconsin Republican primary in an attempt to garner the party’s presidential nomination, but he has completely misjudged the strength of isolationist sentiments and is forced to drop out of the contest altogether.

April 4–13 Sports: The Montreal Canadiens win the NHL Stanley Cup by defeating the Chicago Black Hawks in four straight games.

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April 17 Diplomacy: The Lend-Lease program is extended by Congress up through June 30, 1945.

April 18 Arts: The ballet Fancy Free by Jerome Robbins and Leonard Bernstein is staged at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, and it draws large crowds.

April 19 Sports: Gérard Côté of Quebec wins the 48th Boston Marathon by finishing in two hours, 31 minutes, and 50 seconds; It is Côté’s third career win.

April 22 Military: American and Australian forces mount a sudden and major amphibious invasion of Netherlands New Guinea, catching the Japanese defenders completely off guard.

April 24 Diplomacy: U.S. Treasury experts arrive in Cairo, Egypt, for talks with financial representatives from Great Britain and several Middle Eastern nations to mitigate fiscal problems in the region.

April 26 Labor: Sewell Avery, chairman of the mail-order firm Montgomery Ward & Company, having refused a demand by the National Labor Relations Board to extend a union contract with its workers, is physically removed from his office by U.S. Army troops.

April 30 Politics: General Douglas MacArthur, long touted as a potential Republican presidential candidate, publicly declares he is not running for public office.

May 1 Arts: Martin Flavin’s novel Journey in the Dark wins the Pulitzer Prize for fiction; Stephen Vincent Benét’s volume Western Star wins the Pulitzer Prize for poetry; composers Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein win a special award for their rip-snorting musical Oklahoma! Labor: Jacob S. Coxey, aged 90 years, delivers the speech he attempted to give 50 years earlier on the steps of the U.S. Capitol concerning the hiring of unemployed workers on federal work projects.

May 3 Medical: Harvard University chemists Drs. Robert E. Woodward and William E. Doering develop a synthetic quinine to help soldiers and sailors fight malaria. Societal: The OPA ends meat rationing for the time being, although the military maintains priority on certain select cuts.

May 8 Medical: New York Hospital, New York City, opens the nation’s first eye bank to store human corneas and restore sight in certain kinds of blindness.

May 18–19 Military: After intense combat, the German defenders of Monte Cassino, Italy, withdraw northward and abandon their vaunted “Gustav” line. During

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Chronology of American History

Hammerstein, Oscar

(1895–1960)

Lyricist Oscar Clendenning Hammerstein II was born in New York City on July 12, 1895, the son of a noted opera impresario and showman of the same name. In fact, the Hammerstein clan was renowned for its success in vaudeville and other forms of entertainment, although Hammerstein’s father attempted steering him toward a law career. Accordingly, he graduated from Columbia University in 1916 and prepared to read law, but in 1917 he prevailed upon his uncle, another show business professional, to allow him to work as his assistant stage manager. Hammerstein proved adept in his chosen job, and by 1919 he was a full production stage manager, and cowriting scripts under development. His first success as a lyricist/librettist came in 1922 when he cowrote Wildflower with Otto Harbach. This was followed up two years later with the production of Rose Marie, which brought him to the attention of the noted composer Jerome Kern. Hammerstein and Kern differed from their contemporaries by focusing on “integrated musicals” in which the music and lyrics evolve from a central idea and add to the story line. They enjoyed phenomenal success in 1925 with their production of Showboat, which fully established Hammerstein’s skill at writing lyrics. He subsequently relocated to Hollywood, which proved his most unproductive, lackluster period owing to tremendous time constraints imposed by the film industry. After spending many years shifting back and forth between major studios, Hammerstein finally moved

back to New York in 1942. There he scored another success by adapting Bizet’s famous opera Carmen to an all African-American cast and creating an Americanized version entitled Carmen Jones. In 1943, Hammerstein teamed up with Richard Rodgers, a former classmate from Columbia, and thus was born a legendary Broadway duo. Rodgers’s vivacious music was seamlessly paired with Hammerstein’s endearing lyrics, and over the next 15 years they dominated the American Broadway musical. Their first success, Oklahoma!, featured such landmark songs as “Oklahoma!” and “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning,” coupled with scintillating choreography by Agnes deMille, and it ran for a staggering 2,243 performances. In 1944, it became one of only a handful of musicals to win a Pulitzer Prize. Hammerstein and Rodgers followed up with such classic productions as Carousel (1945), South Pacific (1949), The King and I (1951), Flower Drum Song (1958), and the Sound of Music (1959). Moreover, Hammerstein’s songs such as “There Is Nothin’ Like a Dame,” “Getting to Know You,” and “My Favorite Things” are representative of Broadway’s most successful musical largesse. Hammerstein died of cancer at his home in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, on August 23, 1960, and in recognition of his reputation as the “man who owned Broadway,” the theater district extinguished its lights at 9 p.m. on September 1, 1960, in his memory. He remains the only lyricist so honored.

the fighting the centuries-old monastery, dating back to the 5th century a.d., has been completed gutted.

May 20 Politics: The Communist Party votes to disband itself in New York City and it is replaced by a nonparty group, the Communist Political Association.

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May 23 Military: After many months of stalemate, Allied forces launch a concerted effort to break out of the Anzio beachhead, only 30 miles south of Rome. German resistance proves fierce but is unable to stop their momentum.

June 1 Military: Allied forces finally break free of the Anzio beachhead and begin their final drive on Rome.

June 4–5 Military: German troops hastily abandon Rome to advancing Allied forces, and the “Eternal City” finally passes into their hands. It is quickly reoccupied by the American Fifth and British Eighth armies.

June 5 Business: The U.S. Supreme Court declares that insurance companies are subject to provisions of the Sherman Antitrust Act because they engage in interstate commerce.

June 6 Aviation: American and British air units fly 15,000 sorties during the first 24 hours of the D-Day landings at Normandy, France. Military: Operation Overlord commences under the cover of a heavy storm and successfully establishes five American, British, and Canadian beachheads in occupied Europe. General Dwight D. Eisenhower has at his disposal 4,000 ships, 3,000 aircraft, and ultimately 4 million troops and sailors.

June 10 Military: After additional fighting the two U.S. beachheads, Utah and Omaha, link together at Normandy, France, and present the German defenders with a solid front.

June 13 Aviation: In a portent of things to come, the Germans launch the first of their V-1, or “vengeance weapons,” from sites in France and Belgium; one of the pilotless flying bombs strikes London.

June 15 Aviation: Giant Boeing B-29 Superfortresses bomb steel factories at Yawata, Japan, after flying several thousands miles from bases inside China. This is the first major air raid against the Japanese mainland.

June 19–20 Naval: The U.S. Navy routs Japanese air and surface forces in the Battle of the Philippine Sea. Enemy losses total 400 aircraft and three carriers, while the Americans lose only 72 planes and 49 pilots.

June 22 Military: The Serviceman’s Adjustment Act, better known as the GI Bill of Rights, is signed by President

The amphibious assault of Normandy beaches was a major part of the Allies’ Operation Overlord. Seen here are men of the veteran U.S. First Infantry Division going ashore under enemy fire. (Library of Congress)

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1956

Chronology of American History Franklin D. Roosevelt. This landmark legislation aims to provide veterans with assistance in education, housing, and other needs and makes possible the dramatic expansion of the middle class over the ensuing decade.

June 26–28 Politics: The Republican Party gathers in Chicago, Illinois, and nominates Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York for president and Governor John Bricker of Ohio for vice president.

June 27 Military: The French port of Cherbourg falls to U.S. Army troops after hard fighting and, once rebuilt, it serves as a major entrepôt for the ensuing invasion.

July 1–22 Business: In Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, delegates from 44 countries meet to lay out plans for an International Monetary Fund for Reconstruction and Development.

July 6 Diplomacy: French general Charles de Gaulle visits Washington, D.C., to confer with administration officials to secure greater support for the Free French forces under his command. He also expects to be appointed the head of the new French government once German forces have been defeated. General: Tragedy strikes the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus performing at Hartford, Connecticut, when a tent catches fire and kills 168 people. A further 250 are seriously injured.

July 10 Military: In the Pacific, U.S. Marines attacking the Marianas capture the strategic island of Saipan after sustaining 2,359 dead and over 11,000 wounded. However, Japanese losses top 27,000 and, furthermore, the Americans can now operate land-based bombers much closer to the Japanese mainland.

July 18 Military: U.S. forces gradually push their way off the Normandy beachhead and capture the important road junction of St. Lô. German resistance has been fierce and casualties high for both sides.

July 19–21 Politics: The Democratic Party meets in Chicago, Illinois, and nominates Franklin D. Roosevelt for an unprecedented fourth term in office. A new candidate, Harry S. Truman of Missouri, is also chosen for vice president.

July 25 Military: The Third U.S. Army under General George S. Patton initiates Operation Cobra, a breakout from the Normandy beachhead at St. Lô, assisted by waves of heavy bombers attacking German formations in their path.

August 8 Military: A quick sweep by American forces captures Brittany from the Germans as they begin their drive onto Paris, France.

1944

Chronology

1957

Patton, George S. (1885–1945) General George Smith Patton was born in San Gabriel, California, on November 11, 1885, the grandson of a Confederate war veteran. Dyslexic and sickly as a child, Patton was tutored at home, overcame his disabilities, and in 1903 he gained admission to the Virginia Military Institute. The following year he transferred to the U.S. Military Academy, from which he graduated in 1909. Patton served in the cavalry, and in 1916 he campaigned with distinction on the staff of General John J. Pershing during the hunt for Pancho Villa. The following year he accompanied Pershing to Europe and fought in World War I while commanding the U.S. Army’s first tank brigade at St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne. Patton was badly wounded but received the Distinguished Service Cross and the Distinguished Service Medal, along with promotion to colonel. He then spent the next 20 years in Virginia commanding cavalry, and in 1940 he assumed control of the Second Armored Division at Fort Benning, Georgia, as a major general. In this capacity Patton distinguished himself as a leader of fast-moving armored columns during the famous Louisiana war games of 1941, and afterward he was assigned to take command of the newly formed 1st Armor Corps, which he trained rigorously in the California desert. Once the United States entered World War II, Patton took his armored forces to North Africa under General Dwight D. Eisenhower, where, on March 23, 1943, he successfully ambushed the crack German 10th Panzer Division at El Guettar, Tunisia. Suc-

cess led to his appointment as commander of the Seventh Army, which he then directed on the island of Sicily with great success. However, Patton’s career was nearly sidelined after he slapped a soldier for alleged cowardice and he was replaced by General Omar N. Bradley. It was not until August 1944 that Patton was allowed to command troops in the field again. As commander of the new Third Army, he smashed through German defenses at Avranches, advanced east, and helped surround enemy forces at the Falaise Gap. His hard-charging columns proceeded as far as the Meuse River, when they ran out of gas and stopped. General Eisenhower then allotted men and supplies to British commander General Bernard Montgomery for a drive through the Netherlands, and the Third Army was constrained to a minor offensive near Metz. In December 1944, the Germans struck back violently in the Ardennes, Belgium, and Patton completed one of the war’s most brilliant maneuvers, rotating his line of march 90 degrees, hitting German forces in the flank, and relieving the siege of Bastogne. He then led a charge through German defenses along the Rhine and advanced far into Austria and Czechoslovakia when finally ordered to halt on May 2, 1945. Patton subsequently served as governor of Bavaria, where he publicly criticized the denazification program, and he was relieved of command once more. He died of injuries sustained in a car accident on December 21, 1945, one of the most famous commanders of World War II.

August 10 Military: U.S. Marines recapture the island of Guam after 20 days of suicidal fighting on behalf of the Japanese garrison there. American casualties are 1,214 dead and 6,000 wounded to an enemy tally of 17,000.

1944

1958

Chronology of American History

August 14 General: Restrictions on the production of domestic appliances such as electric ranges, vacuum cleaners, and other household items are provisionally lifted by the War Production Board (WPB).

August 15 Military: U.S. Army forces under General Alexander M. Patch splash ashore on the Riviera in southern France and push inland against light German resistance up the Rhone River valley.

August 21–October 7 Diplomacy: Representatives from the Soviet Union, China, Great Britain, and the United States gather at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C., for discussions about founding an international organization for the peaceful resolution of global problems. This is the groundwork for the new United Nations.

August 25–26 Diplomacy: In a nod to French sensibilities, forces under General Charles de Gaulle are allowed to capture the capital of Paris and parade there one day ahead of the Americans, who did most of the fighting.

August 28 Military: German forces surrender at Toulon and Marseilles, southern France, while the American army continues surging up the Rhone River valley toward the major city of Lyon.

September 8 Aviation: In a major technological breakthrough, Germans launch the first V-2 rockets toward England, which wreak considerable havoc on the civilian population.

September 11–16 Diplomacy: President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill meet at the second Quebec (or Octagon) Conference to discuss the final phase of strategy against Germany and Japan.

September 12 Military: U.S. Army forces briefly enter Germany between Trier and Aachen and advance five miles, but the main defenses will not be breached for several months.

September 14 General: A major hurricane lashes the Atlantic Coast from Cape Hatteras up through Canada, killing 390 people and inflicting $50 million in damages. Science: Colonel Floyd B. Wood intentionally flies his Douglas A-20 Havoc bomber into a hurricane to gather meteorological data.

September 17–27 Military: American and British airborne forces drop deep behind German lines during Operation Market Garden, Holland, but prove unable to surmount strong German defenses. Allied forces are obliged to withdraw after sustaining heavy losses.

October 1 General: The Declaration of Independence and other important documents are displayed once more at the Library of Congress after being put in safe storage in 1941.

1944

Chronology   1959

October 3 Politics: The Surplus Property Act is passed by Congress, a sign that the gov-­ ernment is already anticipating an end to hostilities soon, along with the War Mobilization and Reconversion Act, which eliminates various economic controls imposed during warÂ�time.

October 4–9 Sports: The St. Louis Cardinals (NL) win the 41st World Series by defeating the St. Louis Browns, four games to two.

October 19 Arts: The Â�two-­act play I Remember Mama by John Van Druten opens at the Music Box Theater in New York.

October 20 Military: U.S. Army forces land on Leyte Island, Philippines, fulfilling General Douglas MacArthur’s promise that he would return. This is the first campaign whereby the JapaÂ�nese utilize kamikaze (suicide) aircraft.

October 23–26 Naval: JapaÂ�nese naval forces are nearly obliterated in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, losing 24 vessels. American casualties are relatively light, although numerous kamikaze units are hurled against them. This is also the largest naval encounter of the Pacific war.

October 26 Science: Dr. Joseph Erlanger of the Washington University Medical School, St. Louis, and Dr. Herbert Spencer Glasser of the Rocke�fel�ler Institute, New York, share the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for their work on single nerve fibers.

October 30 Arts: The ballet Appalachian Spring by Aaron Copland is performed by the Mar-­ tha Graham dancers at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. It remains Copland’s trademark composition.

November 1 Arts: The comedy Harvey by Mary Coyle Chase, which involves an invisible, Â� six-­foot rabbit seen only by an eccentric, drunken main character, opens at the Â�Forty-­Eighth Street Theater, New York.

November 7 Politics: Demo�crat Franklin D. Roo�se�velt handily defeats Republican Thomas E. Dewey with 432 electoral votes to 99, and a pop�u�lar vote count of 25.6 million to 22 million for the latter. The Demo�crats also manage to maintain control of Congress by comfortable margins. Science: Dr. Theodore von Karman organizes the Army Air Force Scientific Advisory Group to develop new technologies with military applications.

November 10 Science: Dr. I. I. Rabi of Columbia University wins the Nobel Prize in physics for his work with the magnetic properties of atomic nuclei. He shares it with Â�German-­born physicist Dr. Otto Stern for his role in advancing knowledge about the magnetic movement of protons.

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1960

Chronology of American History

November 11 Music: Recording companies and the American Federation of Musicians reach an accord regarding record royalties, thereby ending a two-year dispute. Hereafter, the companies agree to pay the union a fee on each record they manufacture.

November 18 Societal: Despite government-imposed price controls, the cost of living rose 20 to 30 percent over the previous year.

November 19 Business: In an attempt to borrow $14 billion through the sale of war bonds, President Franklin D. Roosevelt begins touting the 6th War Loan Drive.

November 22 Labor: Delegates at the CIO convention in Chicago, Illinois, vote to make their Political Action Committee a permanent part of the organization.

December 15 Military: Congress bestows on George C. Marshall, Douglas MacArthur, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Henry “Hap” Arnold the newly created rank of General of the Army (or five star).

December 16 Military: German forces under General Gerd von Rundstedt unleash a surprise attack on American forces in the Ardennes region of Belgium, the so-called Battle of the Bulge. Their impetus proves irresistible at first, but German progress slows as American defenses begin congealing in rough terrain.

December 22 Military: The strategic road junction of Bastogne, Belgium, is bravely defended by General Anthony McAuliffe and his 101st Airborne Division. When pressed by superior German forces to surrender, he responds by telling them “Nuts!”

December 23 Aviation: Bad weather lifts over the Ardennes region of Belgium, allowing clouds of Allied fighter bombers to strike German tank and infantry formations in the Battle of the Bulge. Sports: The director of war mobilization and reconversion declares that horse racing will be banned as of January 3, 1945, to conserve vital materials.

December 24 Music: An airplane crash takes the life of noted bandleader Glenn Miller, then a major directing the U.S. Army Air Force band. He was on his way from London to Paris for a show.

December 26 Military: Elements of General George S. Patton’s Third U.S. Army relieve the siege of Bastogne, and the Americans prepare to counterattack across the line in Belgium.

December 30 Military: U.S. Army forces begin pressing forward through the Ardennes region of Belgium, effectively erasing the “bulge” in the lines caused by the recent and failed German offensive there.

1944

Chronology

1961

1945 Arts: José de Creeft sculpts his noted sheet-metal composition, Rachmaninoff, which wins first prize at the Pennsylvania Academy of Art. Business: The Great Depression is a distant memory as the U.S. gross national product soars past $215 billion, two-thirds larger than it was in 1939. Diplomacy: Secretary of State Cordell Hull wins the Nobel Prize for Peace. Education: Thomas Jefferson College is founded in Chicago, Illinois, although in 1954 it changes its name to Roosevelt College. General: American soldiers around the world invariably scribble the inscription “Kilroy was here” to mark their presence. Literature: Richard Wright publishes Black Boy, the grim story of his AfricanAmerican childhood; Samuel Shellaburger publishes his fictional novel, Captain from Castile, soon made into a motion picture; Robert Frost’s latest volume of poetry is Masque of Reason. Music: Composer Ernest Krenek renders “The Santa Fe Time Table” for mixed chorus a cappella. Publishing: Rising historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., writes his landmark study entitled The Age of Jackson.

Schlesinger, Arthur M.

(1917–2007)

Historian Arthur Meier Schlesinger, Jr., was born in Columbus, Ohio, on October 15, 1917, a son of a distinguished historian of the same name. His mother was also a descendent of noted 19th-century historian George Bancroft. Given this family lineage, Schlesinger attended Harvard University in 1934, determined to become a historian himself. He graduated summa cum laude in 1938 and a year later published his graduate thesis as a book while attending graduate school at Cambridge University, England. During World War II he worked for the Office of War Information and, finally, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in Europe. Schlesinger also found time to research and publish his seminal text, The Age of Jackson, which examined the administration of Andrew Jackson through a sociological prism for the first time. It proved enormously popular and successful and won Schlesinger the Pulitzer

Prize in history for 1946. After the war he returned home to teach history at Harvard, rising to full professor in 1954, where he continued publishing books that were distinctly liberal in their political outlook. In fact, in his capacity as historian, Schlesinger became the de facto intellectual spokesman for the moderate liberalism then dominant in the Democratic Party, whose ideals he fully embraced and propagated. In 1957, he published the first volume of his monumental Age of Roosevelt, in which he championed the New Deal as an example of government intervention in society and the economy to benefit the greatest number of people. Again, Schlesinger’s work was praised for its scope and thoroughness, but he was also castigated for an apparent lack of objectivity in dealing with one of his heroes. In 1952 and 1956, (continues)

1945

1962

Chronology of American History

(continued) Schlesinger abandoned history to work with presidential aspirant Adlai Stevenson, and, in 1960, he switched over to enthusiastically embrace the candidacy of John F. Kennedy, whom he regarded as embodying an ideal mixture of romantic liberalism and political pragmatism. Once in power, Kennedy appointed Schlesinger to the White House staff as an unofficial policy adviser. He opposed the ill-fated Bay of Pigs fiasco but supported Kennedy’s staunch anticommunism and the buildup of American troops in Southeast Asia. Following Kennedy’s assassination in November 1963, Schlesinger left Washington and, in 1967, he returned to teaching at

the City University of New York. He also published several more quality texts, one of which, A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House (1965), won him a second Pulitzer Prize. Over the next four decades Schlesinger championed political liberalism, a discredited creed as of the 1980s, yet he pursued it to the point of becoming a scholarly anachronism. He also waxed critical of the ethnic-based multiculturalism now prevalent in his beloved Democratic Party, which he viewed as a menace to national unity. Schlesinger died in New York City on March 1, 2007, hailed as the most significant American historian of the last half of the 20th century.

January 9 Military: The U.S. Sixth Army under General Douglas MacArthur successfully lands on the Philippine island of Luzon, 100 miles north of Manila. Japanese resistance is fanatical and stubborn.

January 15 Societal: The government imposes a nationwide dim-out to conserve diminishing supplies of fuel.

January 20 Politics: In Washington, D.C., Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes the first and only individual to take the presidential oath for the fourth time.

January 26 Sports: The New York Yankees are sold to a sports syndicate for $2.8 million.

February 1 Aviation: The Eighth Air Force hurls 1,000 heavy bombers against Berlin against stiff but steadily eroding German defenses.

February 4–11 Diplomacy: President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill arrive at Yalta, Crimea, to confer with Premier Joseph Stalin to plan the final assault on Nazi Germany. They also agree to convene a meeting of the new United Nations in San Francisco, California, in April.

February 4–24 Military: After a bruising battle of several weeks, American forces batter their way into Manila, capital of the Philippines, while the surviving Japanese defenders take to the hills.

1945

Chronology   1963

Winston Churchill, Franklin D. RooÂ�se­velt, and Joseph Stalin at Yalta (Library of Congress)

February 19 Military: In one of the hardest fought battles of World War II, U.S. Marines under General Holland M. “Howlin’ Mad” Smith storm ashore at Iwo Jima, overcome fanatical reÂ�sisÂ�tance, and raise the American flag over Mount Suriba-­ chi. The photograph of this event becomes a legendary part of World War II iconography.

February 26 Societal: Amusement parks face a midnight curfew in an attempt to conserve fuel resources.

March 7 Military: U.S. Army forces storm across the Rhine River on the intact bridge at Remagen, then proceed to drive the remaining German defenders farther east. They are the first army to invade Germany proper since the days of Napoleon.

1945

1964

Chronology of American History

March 15 Media: Academy Awards are given to Going My Way for best picture of 1944 with Bing Crosby as best actor; Ingrid Bergman is best actress for Gaslight. A new award for documentaries goes to Fighting Lady and With the Marines at Tarawa.

March 16 Military: The U.S. Marines and navy units prevail in the struggle for Iwo Jima, considered part of the Japanese archipelago. Heavy fighting costs the Americans 4,000 dead and 15,000 wounded, while Japanese losses total 20,000, principally killed.

April 1 Military: American army and naval forces wage a colossal fight to capture the Japanese-held island of Okinawa while under constant bombardment by kamikaze aircraft. This is the largest battle waged in the Pacific theater outside of the Asian mainland.

April 6–22 Sports: The Toronto Maple Leafs win the NFL Stanley Cup by defeating the Detroit Red Wings four games to three.

Truman, Harry S. (1884–1972) President Harry S. Truman was born in Independence, Missouri, on May 8, 1884, the son

Harry S. Truman, president- elect, holds up edition of Chicago Daily Tribune with headline “Dewey Defeats Truman.” (Library of Congress)

1945

of a farmer. He served in World War I as an artillery officer, then returned home to enter politics as a Democrat. Salty-tongued and outspoken, Truman served as a judge in Jackson County, Missouri, and in 1934 he gained election to the U.S. Senate. He gained the reputation as a no-nonsense New Deal legislator and, in 1944, President Franklin D. Roosevelt tapped him to serve as his new vice president. The two men, one a man of the prairies and the other an aristocrat, barely communicated with each other, but on April 12, 1945, the outspoken Truman was sworn in as president following Roosevelt’s death. That August it fell upon him to execute one of the most momentous decisions in human history, the use of atomic bombs against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, rather than attempt a protracted and horrendously costly conventional invasion. Japan surrendered immediately afterward, which spared millions of lives on both

Chronology

1965

April 9 Politics: National polling reveals that 81 percent of the public favors American participation in the new United Nations, signaling the end of isolationist sentiment in the body politic.

April 12 General: President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies of a cerebral hemorrhage while vacationing at Warm Springs, Georgia, and Harry S. Truman of Missouri is quickly sworn in as his successor.

April 16 Military: Congress votes to extend the Lend-Lease program for another year. President Harry S. Truman also assures the legislature that he will terminate the ongoing struggle as quickly as possible.

April 18 Journalism: Ernie Pyle, America’s beloved war correspondent, dies of wounds in the battle on Ie Shima at the age of 44.

sides. This episode is indicative of Truman’s penchant for decisive action and his unflinching determination to accept responsibility, no matter how grave, for his actions. In 1947, he made another bold stroke by desegregating the military, including the new U.S. Air Force, whose creation he also authorized. The following year he won reelection to a second term over Republican Thomas Dewey. By this time the cold war with the Soviet Union was in full swing, and Truman, heeding the advice of Secretary of State George C. Marshall, embraced a program of giving millions of dollars to the shattered countries of Western Europe to help them rebuild. Thus the “Marshall Plan” helped restore stability to the world while keeping many nations free of Communist subversion and tyranny. In 1949 Truman decided to back up Europe’s freedom with American force, and he helped to create the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to counter the Red Army’s sheer size and numbers. The

cold war got a lot hotter in June 1950 when North Korean dictator Kim Il Sung brazenly attacked South Korea, an American ally. Truman immediately ordered U.S. forces into action while calling on the United Nations to condemn the attack and legitimate a “police action” to halt Communist aggression in Asia. UN forces enjoyed considerable military success until November 1950, when they were heavily repelled by a massive Communist Chinese offensive. Truman, publicly urged by General Douglas MacArthur to introduce nuclear weapons into the fray, refused and ultimately dismissed him. Convinced that the continuing stalemate in Korea would defeat him, he then decided not to seek reelection in 1952 and left public life altogether. Truman returned to his farm in Independence, composed and published his memoirs, and occasionally campaigned for fellow Democrats until his death on December 26, 1972. He has since passed into history as one of America’s most decisive, beloved, and popular chief executives.

1945

1966

Chronology of American History

April 19 Arts: The musical comedy Carousel by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein premieres at the Majestic Theater in New York and proves a hit with audiences. Sports: John Kelley wins the 49th Boston Marathon by finishing in two hours, 30 minutes, 40 seconds.

April 25 Diplomacy: A gathering of representatives from 50 nations in San Francisco, California, marks the first meeting of the new United Nations Organization. They hope to bring peace and maintain it in a very war-weary world. Military: Advance elements of the U.S. Army and the Red Army joyously link up in Germany.

April 30 Societal: Sugar rations, already small, are reduced by one-quarter as reserves approach exhaustion.

May 2 Science: German scientists Werner von Braun and Walter Dornberger flee Soviet persecution by defecting to the West.

May 6 Agriculture: The Department of Agriculture estimates that war-ravaged Europe will require 12 million tons of American foodstuffs in order to survive the coming year.

May 7 Arts: John Hersey’s novel A Bell for Adano wins the Pulitzer Prize for fiction; Karl Shapiro’s V-Letter and Other Poems wins the Pulitzer Prize for poetry; Mary Coyle Chase’s play Harvey wins the Pulitzer Prize for drama. Diplomacy: German representatives formally surrender at Rheims, France, and General Dwight D. Eisenhower accepts on behalf of the Allied powers.

May 8 General: Lights are coming back on as a wartime blackout is lifted while President Harry S. Truman proclaims V-E (Victory in Europe) Day.

May 9 Societal: The midnight curfew at amusement parks is lifted.

May 10 Societal: The War Production Board lifts bans on 73 more consumer items now slated for manufacture.

May 11 Naval: The carrier USS Bunker Hill is struck by a bomb-laden kamikaze off Okinawa and suffers severe damage, but it manages to stay afloat and limp back to the United States. The ship loses 373 sailors in the sudden attack.

May 25 Aviation: With victory in sight, the production of military aircraft is cut by 30 percent.

June 2 Music: Walter Piston’s Second Symphony wins the New York Music Critics Circle Award.

1945

Chronology

1967

June 5 Diplomacy: The postwar world begins taking more definitive form as representatives from the United States, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union agree to divide Berlin into four sectors, while Germany itself is cut into Western and Soviet sectors.

June 21 Military: Fanatical military resistance finally ends on Okinawa after 12,500 American and 160,000 Japanese are killed in battle. An additional 40,000 marines and sailors are wounded.

June 27 Media: The Federal Communications Commission allocates 13 channels for the new medium of television, whose mass public acceptance lies just around the corner.

June 30 Business: The House of Representatives votes to extend the Office of Price Administration by one year.

July 1 Civil: In an important first, the New York State Commission against Discrimination is founded to prevent employment discrimination “because of race, creed, color, or national origin.”

July 5 Military: After 10 months of intense fighting and the loss of 12,000 soldiers, General Douglas MacArthur completes his reconquest of the Philippines. American losses top 12,000 dead while the Japanese sacrificed 400,000 soldiers.

July 6 Societal: President Harry S. Truman signs an executive order creating the Medal of Freedom for civilians who distinguish themselves in the service of the nation.

July 9 Architecture: Noted designer Frank Lloyd Wright unveils plans for his proposed Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum of Non-Objective Painting in New York.

July 16 Science: A seminal moment of human history unfolds as American scientists explode the first atomic bomb near Alamogordo, New Mexico, at 5:30 a.m. under the direction of physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer. However, Klaus Fuchs, a leading scientist on the project, is actually a Soviet spy who promptly relays the requisite technical data to the Russians.

July 17 Diplomacy: In Potsdam, Germany, President Harry S. Truman, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Premier Joseph Stalin gather for the first time to discuss postwar arrangements and readjustments, especially the practice of frequent summit conferences. However, in midsession, Churchill is turned out of office and replaced by the Labour Party’s Clement Atlee.

1945

1968

Chronology of American History

July 26 Diplomacy: The United States, Great Britain, and China issue the Potsdam Declaration, demanding Japan’s unconditional surrender. Japanese militarists controlling the government scoff at the notion.

July 27 Politics: The Communist Political Association, upon further reflection, votes itself out of existence and is reconstituted as the Communist Party, U.S.A.

July 28 Aviation: A North American B-25 Mitchell bomber accidentally crashes into the Empire State Building, New York, during a foggy morning, killing 13 people. Diplomacy: The U.S. Senate passes the United Nations Charter by a vote of 89-2, a good indication of how far isolationism has waned in America.

August 6 Military: President Harry S. Truman, faced with truculent Japanese leaders who refuse to surrender, orders the atomic bomb dropped on the city of Hiroshima, headquarters to army units defending the southern island of Kyushu. The devastation proves shocking, but the militarists still refuse to capitulate.

August 8 Military: As per a prior agreement with the United States, Soviet premier Joseph Stalin unleashes the Red Army against Japanese forces in Manchuria, routing them.

The aerial photo shows the aftermath of the atomic bomb explosion over Hiroshima. (National Archives)

1945

Chronology

1969

August 9 Military: In an attempt to force a Japanese surrender and spare that nation and the United States the prospects of a horrifically costly invasion, President Harry S. Truman orders a second atomic bomb dropped on Kobe. However, due to cloud cover, the B-29 bomber Bock’s Car delivers its weapon against Nagasaki, which is devastated by the blast.

August 14–15 Diplomacy: Emperor Hirohito, in an unprecedented move, orders the Japanese military to lay down its arms and they comply. President Harry S. Truman then announces that World War II in the Pacific has ended, which is commemorated nationally as V-J (Victory over Japan) Day. Labor: Manpower controls are rescinded by the War Manpower Commission.

August 17 Diplomacy: The Korean Peninsula, currently occupied by Soviet forces, is jointly divided along the 48th parallel into American southern and Russian northern halves.

August 18 Business: President Harry S. Truman, eager to smooth the transition back to a peacetime economy, orders restoration of civilian consumer production, free markets, and collective bargaining.

August 29–30 Military: General Douglas MacArthur is appointed Supreme Commander of Allied Powers in occupied Japan as American forces begin landing.

August 31 Religion: In light of the horrors of the Nazi Holocaust, President Harry S. Truman asks the British government to settle 100,000 Jewish refugees in Araboccupied Palestine, which it controls.

September 2 Diplomacy: Representatives of Japan and the victorious Allies gather onboard the deck of the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay to sign surrender documents.

September 6 Societal: President Harry S. Truman, anticipating an influx of several million demobilized troops from abroad, requests Congress to pass an economic recovery plan to include employment measures and construction of new homes.

September 26 Science: The U.S. Army fires its first liquid-propelled rocket, the WAC Corporal, which is designed from the earlier German V-2.

September 28 General: President Harry S. Truman signs an executive order declaring all natural resources lying in waters beyond the continental shelf are subject to federal authority.

October 3–10 Sports: The Detroit Tigers (AL) win the 42nd annual World Series by defeating the Chicago Cubs (NL) four games to three.

1945

1970

Chronology of American History

October 12 Military: Private Desmond Doss, a former conscientious objector who later served as a corpsman in the Pacific, receives a Congressional Medal of Honor for heroism under fire.

October 19 Societal: President Harry S. Truman becomes the only chief executive honored as a 33rd Degree Mason in ceremonies at the House of the Temple, Washington, D.C.

October 30 General: Nationwide shoe rationing is lifted.

November 12 Diplomacy: Secretary of State Cordell Hull wins the Nobel Peace Prize for his contributions toward creating the United Nations.

November 19 Military: General Dwight D. Eisenhower replaces General George C. Marshall as army chief of staff. Societal: President Harry S. Truman asks Congress to found a national and compulsory health insurance program.

November 21 Labor: In the first labor action of the postwar period, United Auto Workers strike all General Motors plants in Detroit, Michigan.

November 23 General: The government ends meat and butter rationing.

December 3 Aviation: The 412th Fighter Group becomes the first American unit equipped with new Lockheed P-80A Shooting Star jet fighters; they deploy to Italy to test their new equipment but do not see combat.

December 8 Aviation: The ubiquitous, glass-domed Bell Model 47 becomes the first CAAcertified helicopter to fly commercially in the United States.

December 15 Diplomacy: General George C. Marshall is appointed a special ambassador to China by President Harry S. Truman. He is tasked with trying to arrange a truce between Nationalists under Chiang Kai-shek and Communists under Mao Zedong.

December 20 General: The government ends rationing of tires.

December 21 Military: Noted military leader General George S. Patton dies in Heidelberg, Germany, from injuries received in an auto accident.

December 27 Arts: The National Institute of Arts and Letters inducts 15 new members, including Lillian Hellman and James Thurber.

1945

Chronology

1971

December 31 Labor: The War Labor Board is disbanded by President Harry S. Truman, who replaces it with the Wage Stabilization Board to readjust the economy to a peacetime footing.

1946 Architecture: Buckminster Fuller designs the Dymaxion House, a circular dwelling that could be readily manufactured using assembly-line techniques; lowslung ranch-style houses are all the rage in public construction, and they soon evolve into one-story and split-level designs. Diplomacy: YMCA leader John Mott and female peace activist Emily Greene Balch win the Nobel Peace Prize. Labor: Labor unions, eager and determined to secure their fair share of the nation’s newfound prosperity, embark on a series of nationwide strikes. Literature: Robert Penn Warren writes All the King’s Men, a political novel loosely based on the life of Huey Long; Edmund Wilson’s sexually charged story Memoirs of Hecate County is published and then briefly withdrawn from circulation; Isabel Bolton publishes Do I Wake or Sleep, one of the earliest “stream of consciousness” novels. Medical: Dr. Benjamin Spock publishes his landmark The Commonsense Book of Baby and Child Care, which makes him a household figure among mothers throughout the country. Music: The year’s most popular tunes include “Ole Buttermilk Sky,” “To Each His Own,” “Aren’t You Glad You’re You,” and many songs from Irving Berlin’s production of Annie Get Your Gun. Publishing: Kathleen Winsor’s racy 1945 novel Forever Amber survives a run-in with the Massachusetts obscene literature statute and is cleared for distribution by the Suffolk County Superior Court and the Massachusetts Supreme Court. Science: Throughout the months of April to September, the U.S. Army launches no fewer than 64 captured V-2 rockets to gain a better understanding of the rapidly unfolding Rocket Age.

January 9 Labor: Over 7,000 Western Electric Telephone mechanics vote to strike in 44 states over a wage increase demand of 5 to 7 cents an hour.

January 10 Aviation: A Sikorsky R-5 helicopter sets an altitude record for its type by reaching 21,000 feet. Diplomacy: Secretary of State James F. Burns, accompanied by former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, arrives in London, England, for the first General Assembly of the United Nations.

January 15 Labor: The United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers vote to strike in 16 states for a daily pay increase of $2.00.

January 20 Military: President Harry S. Truman signs an executive order establishing the Central Intelligence Group, forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency.

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January 21 Labor: The nation’s steel mills grind to a halt after the United Steel Workers Union, following a dispute over wages, calls a strike.

January 24 Science: The United Nations establishes the International Atomic Energy Commission to restrict the application of that new technology to peaceful purposes.

January 25 Labor: John L. Lewis is elected vice president of the Executive Council of the American Federation of Labor to reaffirm that his United Mine Workers Union is returning to AFL control.

February 4 Transportation: Pan Am initiates transatlantic service using the new Lockheed Constellation airliners.

February 15 Technology: A new age in science and engineering dawns as ENIAC, the world’s first computer, is switched on at the Moore School of Electronic Engineering in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This device, weighing 30 tons and occupying a 30-by-60-foot room, was invented by Drs. John W. Manchly and J. Presper Eckert, Jr.

February 20 Business: Congress passes the Employment Act of 1946, which establishes a Council of Economic Advisors tasked with issuing an annual economic report.

February 21 Business: President Harry S. Truman appoints Chester Bowles director of the new Office of Economic Stabilization, which is designed to facilitate a smooth transition into a peacetime economy.

March 5 Diplomacy: Former prime minister Winston Churchill delivers a landmark speech at Westminister College, Fulton, Missouri, and warns that “an iron curtain has descended” across Eastern Europe. His address is considered one of the first realizations that the cold war with the Soviet Union is underway.

March 7 Media: Academy Awards are given to The Lost Weekend as best picture of 1945, to Ray Milland as best actor for The Lost Weekend, and to Joan Crawford as best actress for Mildred Pierce.

March 13 Labor: In Detroit, Michigan, the United Auto Workers successfully conclude their 113-day strike against General Motors.

March 30–April 9 Sports: The Montreal Canadiens win the NHL Stanley Cup by downing the Boston Bruins, four games to one.

April 1 Labor: Flexing its muscles, the United Mine Workers Union calls a nationwide strike for increased wages and a health and welfare plan.

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April 20 Sports: Stylianos Kyriakides of Greece wins the 50th annual Boston Marathon by finishing in two hours, 29 minutes, 27 seconds.

April 25 Diplomacy: Ministers from Great Britain, France, the United States, and the Soviet Union meet to finalize peace treaty arrangements with Italy, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, and Finland.

April 29 Agriculture: The Department of Agriculture is pleased to report that American farmers are receiving higher prices for their crops than at any time since July 1920.

May 4 Sports: Assault wins the 72nd annual Kentucky Derby by finishing in two minutes, six seconds.

May 6 Arts: The drama State of the Union by Russel Crouse and Howard Lindsay wins the Pulitzer Prize for drama; The Age of Jackson by Arthur M. Schlesinger wins a Pulitzer Prize for history.

May 7 Music: Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring is the first symphonic piece to win a Pulitzer Prize.

May 11 Sports: Assault wins the 71st annual Preakness Stakes by finishing in two minutes, one second.

May 14 Military: The Selective Service Act is continued until September 1.

May 23 Labor: National transportation grinds to a halt once the Railroad Trainmen and Locomotive Engineer Brotherhoods call a strike.

May 30 Labor: After 59 days on the picket lines, the United Mine Workers ends its strike action after receiving wage increases and a company-financed welfare-retirement fund. Sports: George Robson wins the 30th Indianapolis 500 by crossing the line in four hours, 21 minutes, 16 seconds at an average speed of 114.820 miles per hour.

June 1 Sports: Assault wins the 78th annual Belmont Stakes with a time of two minutes, 30 seconds, becoming the seventh horse to take the Triple Crown.

June 3 Civil: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Morgan v. Commonwealth, ruling that buses must allow seating without regard to race on vehicles involved in interstate commerce.

June 14 Science: At the United Nations, Bernard Baruch proposes a plan formulated by the United States for the control of atomic energy.

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June 21 Law: Frederick Moore Vinson is chosen the new chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court by President Harry S. Truman.

June 30 Diplomacy: The United States announces its intention to join the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

July 1 Science: The United States begins conducting atomic weapons tests at Bikini Atoll in the Marshal Islands, beginning with a Nagasaki-type fission device that was dropped by a B-29 from 30,000 feet and sank or damaged several warships positioned around the bomb site.

July 4 Diplomacy: The Philippine Republic, pursuant to provisions of the 1934 TydingsMcDuffie Act, receives its full independence from the United States. President Harry S. Truman chooses American Independence Day as an appropriate day on which to make the announcement.

July 7 Religion: Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini, who founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, becomes the first American Roman Catholic canonized by the church.

July 15 Business: Wartime price controls are extended another year by President Harry S. Truman.

July 21 Aviation: The McDonnell XFD-1 Phantom is the first all-jet fighter to be launched and landed on a U.S. carrier.

July 30 Science: The United States formally joins the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

August 1 Education: The Fulbright Act is signed by President Harry S. Truman to establish a program for international exchange students. Initially, it is funded by foreign currency accrued from the sale of American surplus goods abroad. Science: President Harry S. Truman signs the McMahon Act, which establishes the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and which places future nuclear development under the control of civilians, not the military.

August 2 Politics: The Legislative Reorganization Act passes Congress, which mandates that lobbyists must register and report all expenses.

August 8 Aviation: The huge, six-engine Consolidated XB-36 bomber, then the world’s largest aircraft, makes its maiden test flight.

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August 9 Aviation: A Yugoslavian Yak-3 fighter downs an American C-47 transport over Slovenia, although the crew is unhurt and eventually released.

August 19 Aviation: Yugoslavian Yak-3 fighters shoot down an American C-47 transport over Slovenia, killing the crew of five.

September 8 Politics: Secretary of Agriculture Henry A. Wallace, a progressive in outlook, resigns from office after criticizing President Harry S. Truman’s handling of the Soviet Union.

October 1 Aviation: A U.S. Navy Lockheed P2V Neptune, named Truculent Turtle, sets a nonstop flying record by traveling from Perth, Australia, to Columbus, Ohio, in 55 hours and 15 minutes—a distance of 11,236 miles. Diplomacy: Undersecretary of State Dean Acheson declares the American intention to remain in the southern half of the Korean Peninsula until Korea is both unified and free.

October 6–15 Sports: The St. Louis Cardinals (NL) win the 43rd annual World Series by defeating the Boston Red Sox (AL) four games to three.

October 9 Arts: Eugene O’Neill’s play The Iceman Cometh debuts at the Martin Beck Theater in New York City.

October 16 Business: Price controls on meat are abolished.

October 23 Diplomacy: The United Nations convenes the second portion of its first General Assembly in New York City, where financier John D. Rockefeller provides $8.5 million to construct a headquarters.

October 31 Medical: Herman Joseph Muller wins the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for discovering genetic mutations caused by X-ray radiation.

November 5 Politics: Republicans make a strong comeback in midterm elections by sweeping both chambers of Congress with sizable majorities.

November 9 General: Most price controls on consumer goods are lifted, save for rent, sugar, and rice.

November 14 Diplomacy: The Nobel Peace Prize goes to John Raleigh Mott and Emily Greene Balch for their various peace and relief activities. Science: Percy Williams Bridgman of Harvard University wins the Nobel Prize in physics for his work in high-pressure physics. James B. Sumner of Cornell

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Chronology of American History University and John Northrop and Wendell M. Stanley of the Rockefeller Institute share the prize for their work with enzymes.

November 16 Religion: The Evangelical Church and the Church of the United Brethren in Christ merge to form the Evangelical United Brethren Church in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.

November 18 Arts: Maxwell Anderson’s historical play Joan of Lorraine opens at the Alvin Theater in New York and stars Ingrid Bergman.

November 21 Naval: President Harry S. Truman observes naval maneuvers off Key West, Florida, from aboard a captured German U-boat.

December 7 General: The Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia, burns to the ground, killing 127 people and injuring 100 more; this remains the nation’s worst hotel conflagration.

December 14 Diplomacy: The embryonic United Nations accepts an $8.5-million gift from John D. Rockefeller, Jr., to purchase property on New York’s East River for a permanent headquarters.

December 31 Diplomacy: President Harry S. Truman formally proclaims the cessation of hostilities with the former Axis powers this day.

1947 Diplomacy: The Friends Service Committee and the American Friends Service Committee jointly share the Nobel Peace Prize. Education: Thanks to the GI Bill of Rights, over 1 million former servicemen are attending college. Literature: Malcolm Lowry writes his novel Under the Volcano, which receives critical acclaim despite slow sales, and becomes a classic; Laura B. Hobson publishes Gentleman’s Agreement about anti-Semitism, which becomes a best seller and the basis for a motion picture; Mickey Spillane debuts as a pulp fiction writer with I, the Jury; Herman Wouk writes his first book, Aurora Dawn. Music: The harmonically complex Symphony No. 2 by Roger Sessions meets with a hostile reception during its debut in San Francisco. Publishing: Magazines are more popular than ever, with no fewer than 38 publications boasting circulation of 1 million.

January 3 Politics: The first session of the 80th Congress gathers in Washington, D.C., with Massachusetts congressman Joseph W. Martin serving as Speaker of the House of Representatives.

January 8 Diplomacy: Former army chief of staff George C. Marshall is appointed the new secretary of state by President Harry S. Truman. Already he has begun formulating

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a plan to secure struggling democracies from the clutches of communism, which becomes popularly known as the Marshall Plan.

January 12 Diplomacy: To help Greece and Turkey resist communist subversion, President Harry S. Truman urges Congress to provide $400 million in aid, which becomes popularly regarded as the Truman Doctrine.

January 28 General: A copy of the Bay Psalm Book (1640), the first book printed in British North America, sells for a record $151,000 at the Parke-Bernet Galleries auction.

March 6 Aviation: At Muroc Army Air Field, California, the North American XB-45, America’s first jet bomber, successfully flies for the first time. Within two years it enters service as the B-45 Tornado.

March 13 Media: Academy Awards are given to The Best Years of Our Lives as best picture of 1947, to Fredric March for best actor in that film, and to Olivia de Havilland for best actress in To Each His Own.

March 21 Politics: To help fight perceived communist infiltration and subversion at home, Executive Order 9835 is signed by President Harry S. Truman to create the new Loyalty Program. This establishes procedures for investigating all government employees and prospective applicants for federal jobs.

March 24 Politics: The Republican-controlled Congress, with memory of Franklin D. Roosevelt still strong, passes the Twenty-second Amendment to limit future presidents to only two terms in office and then passes it along to the states for ratification.

April 7 Arts: The first annual Antoinette Perry—or Tony —Awards for outstanding theater performances are given to Jose Ferrer for Cyrano de Bergerac, Fredric March for Years Ago, Ingrid Bergman for Joan of Lorraine, Helen Hayes for Happy Birthday, and Patricia Neal for Another Part of the Forest. Labor: A brief strike by telephone workers nets them an increase of $4.79 per week.

April 9 General: A violent tornado rips through parts of Texas and Oklahoma, killing 167 people and injuring 1,300.

April 12 Diplomacy: The United Nations grants trusteeship of Pacific Islands previously controlled by Japan to the United States.

April 16–18 General: The French freighter Grandcamp, laden with explosive nitrates, catches fire and ignites in Texas City, Texas, leveling most of the town and killing 500 people.

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April 19 Sports: Yun Bok Sun of South Korea wins the 51st Boston Marathon by finishing in two hours, 25 minutes, 39 seconds.

April 26 Music: John Powell’s Symphony in A is first performed by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, one of the last major works in the nationalistic school of American composers.

May 5 Arts: Robert Penn Warren wins the Pulitzer Prize for fiction with All the King’s Men; Robert Lowell wins the Pulitzer Prize for poetry for his “Lord’s Weary Castle.”

May 15 Diplomacy: Congress approves the Truman Doctrine and appropriates money to help fight the establishment of communist regimes in Greece and Turkey.

May 22 Diplomacy: The nascent cold war takes a new turn when President Harry S. Truman signs a $400 million aid bill to assist the governments of Greece and Turkey in their fight against communist subversion. This becomes known as the Truman Doctrine.

May 30 Sports: Mauri Rose wins the 31st Indianapolis 500 by finishing in four hours, 17 minutes, 52 seconds at an average speed of 116.33 miles per hour.

May 31 Diplomacy: To further preclude the chance of communist gains in war-ravaged nations, President Harry S. Truman allocates an additional $350 million in relief aid to shore them up.

June 5 Diplomacy: Secretary of State George C. Marshall, speaking at Harvard University, announces a comprehensive plan to assist European recovery, which becomes generally known as the Marshall Plan.

June 11 General: The long-awaited end to sugar rationing finally comes after five years.

June 12 Women: Anne Shaw Carter is the first licensed female helicopter pilot.

June 14 Diplomacy: The U.S. Senate ratifies peace treaties between the United States and Italy, Romania, Bulgaria, and Hungary.

June 17 Transportation: Pan American Airways offers the first round-the-world service (22,170 miles) to passengers for $1,700 with its brand-new, four-engine Lockheed Constellation airliner.

June 19 Aviation: Colonel Al Boyd sets a new world air speed record of 623.8 miles per hour in a Lockheed P-80R Shooting Star jet fighter.

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Marshall, George C. (1880–1959) General George Catlett Marshall was born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, on December 31, 1880, and he graduated from the Virginia Military Institute in 1901. Bent upon military service, he joined the U.S. Army as second lieutenant and performed useful service during the Philippine occupation. Marshall discharged his duties capably, and in 1908 he graduated from the General Staff School. During World War I he served as a staff officer attached to the 1st U.S. Army, where his abilities were readily manifested and he gained the nickname “The Wizard.” His requests for a combat command were turned down but, in 1919, he joined the staff of General John J. Pershing, and in 1927 he transferred abroad for service in China. Marshall next accepted command of the military school at Fort Benning, Georgia, in 1927, but in 1933 he was appointed to serve as senior instructor in the Illinois National Guard. Marshall, though disappointed with this obscure assignment, dutifully oversaw his charge and, in 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt suddenly promoted him to army chief of staff over the heads of several more-senior officers. In this post, Marshall became responsible for the recruitment, training, and deployment of millions of American soldiers during World War II, in addition to promulgating the “Germany first” strategy that eventually won the war. He also accompanied President Roosevelt to several high-level Allied strategy sessions at Casablanca, Tehran, and Yalta. Marshall very much wanted to command Operation

Overlord, the Allied invasion of Normandy, but when his valuable services were needed stateside, he dutifully appointed General Dwight D. Eisenhower to lead the forces to victory. In December 1944, he gained promotion to five-star general, and he resigned from active duty in November 1945 after helping to craft the strategy that resulted in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which brought World War II to its victorious conclusion. Soon after the war, President Harry S. Truman dispatched Marshall to China in an unsuccessful attempt to patch up differences between the Nationalists under Chiang Kai-shek and the Communists under Mao Zedong. In June 1947, Truman next appointed him his secretary of state, whereby Marshall conceived the vast European Recovery Program to assist the war-shattered nations of western Europe to rebuild. The ensuing Marshall Plan helped stabilize political institutions there and thwarted a possible communist takeover. For this effort he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1953. He retired from public service in January 1949, but, following the onset of the Korean War in June 1950, Marshall was briefly appointed secretary of defense. He concluded his long career in public service in 1951, and he lived in seclusion until his death in Washington, D.C., on October 16, 1959. The quiet, austere Marshall, who never commanded troops in battle, is regarded as one of the leading architects of America’s rise to global preeminence.

June 23 Labor: Congress overrides President Harry S. Truman’s veto of the Taft-Hartley Act, which bans closed shops, permits employers to sue unions for broken contracts and property damaged during strikes, and establishes a Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.

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June 26–28 Politics: The Prohibition Party selects Claude A. Watson of California to run for the presidency.

July 7 Politics: The Hoover Commission, headed by former president Herbert Hoover, begins studying the organization of the federal government’s executive branch.

July 12–September 22 Diplomacy: Representatives of 16 European nations gather in Paris, France, to help organize and distribute aid from the forthcoming Marshall Plan. The Soviet Union has been formally invited to join but declines to send an envoy.

July 17 Aviation: President Harry S. Truman signs the National Security Act of 1947, which establishes the U.S. Air Force as an independent arm.

July 18 Aviation: President Harry S. Truman authorizes the Finletter Commission to find out how the United States can obtain “the greatest possible benefits from aviation.” Politics: Congress revises the Presidential Succession Act of 1886, now appointing the Speaker of the House as third in the line of command after the president and vice president.

July 25 Military: Congress passes the National Security Act, which creates a unified military under a secretary of defense enjoying cabinet-level status.

September 2 Diplomacy: President Harry S. Truman lands at Petropolis, Brazil, to attend the Inter-American Defense Conference and sign a hemispheric mutual defense pact with participating nations.

September 17 Military: In Washington, D.C., Secretary of the Navy James V. Forrestal is appointed the new secretary of defense.

September 17–19 General: A severe hurricane batters the Gulf of Mexico, killing 100 people and damaging parts of Florida, Mississippi, and Louisiana.

September 19 Military: General Albert C. Wedemeyer reports back to President Harry S. Truman concerning recent events in China and proposes a five-year military assistance program to shore up the Nationalist regime of Chiang Kai-shek.

September 21 General: Floodwaters inundate New Orleans, Louisiana, killing 60 people and causing extensive damage.

September 30–October 6 Sports: The New York Yankees (AL) win the 44th annual World Series by defeating the Brooklyn Dodgers (NL) four games to three.

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Chronology

1981

October 1 Aviation: At Muroc Air Force Base, California, the North American XP-86, America’s first swept-wing jet fighter, is successfully flown for the first time. It eventually enters service as the legendary F-86 Sabre.

October 5 Media: President Harry S. Truman becomes the first chief executive to address the nation by television, in this instance concerning the world food crisis.

October 9 Diplomacy: President Harry S. Truman declares his support for a United Nations proposal for autonomous Jewish and Arab states in Palestine. This proves a measure that the Arabs are determined to resist by force.

October 14 Aviation: Captain Charles “Chuck” Yeager flies an experimental Bell XS-1 research plane through the sound barrier for the first time at Muroc Air Force Base, California.

October 18 Media: The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) begins investigating charges that the Hollywood film industry has been infiltrated by Communists and their sympathizers.

Yeager, Chuck (1923– ) Aviator Charles Elwood (“Chuck”) Yeager was born in Myra, West Virginia, on February 13, 1923, the son of an oil driller. He joined the Army Air Force in 1940 and trained as an airplane mechanic but developed an affinity for flying and earned his pilot’s wings at Luke Field, Arizona, in July 1942. Yeager subsequently flew P-51 Mustangs with the 363rd Fighter Squadron in England. In 55 missions, he shot down 13 German aircraft, including five in one day. In the course of intense aerial combat, Yeager was himself shot down over France and fled across the Pyrenees to Spain with the help of the French underground. He returned to combat soon after, and his most notable kill happened on November 6, 1944, when a futuristic Messerschmitt Me-262 jet fighter fell before his guns. After the war Yeager reported to Perrin Field, Texas, where he

trained pilots as an instructor. However, the new jet age had dawned and he yearned to be a part of it. In 1947, he was selected to fly the top-secret Bell XS-1 rocket-powered research aircraft owing to his excellent reputation for piloting, and his relatively short stature, for the cockpit of this streamlined machine was extremely cramped. On October 14, 1947, Yeager was released by a B-29 bomber and broke the sound barrier at Mach 1, faster than 660 miles per hour, for the first time. This was despite the fact that two days earlier he had fallen from his horse and broken two ribs. His feat won him the prestigious Mackay trophy for the year’s most outstanding flight. Yeager continued flying out of Edwards Air Force Base, California, where, in December 1953, (continues)

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(continued) he piloted a new Bell X-1A to 1,650 miles per hour, roughly three times the speed of sound. Tragedy nearly struck when the craft began tumbling, and he fell nearly 50,000 feet (10 miles) before regaining control. Consequently, President Dwight D. Eisenhower awarded him the Harmon trophy for outstanding airmanship. In 1954, Yeager left flight testing to command an F-100 Super Sabre squadron in Germany and returned home three years later a lieutenant colonel. In 1961, he assumed command of the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards Air Force Base where, from 1962 to 1966, he also trained 19 astronauts. In 1969, he resumed combat operations by commanding the 405th Tac-

tical Fighter Wing and flew an additional 127 missions over Vietnam in Martin B-57 Intruders. He retired from active duty in 1975 as a brigadier general and retained his celebrity status. In 1983, actor Sam Shepard played Yeager in the movie The Right Stuff, and two years later President Ronald W. Reagan awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. On October 14, 1997, the 50th anniversary of his record-breaking flight, Yeager once again broke the sound barrier in his supersonic F-15 Eagle jet fighter for the last time at an Edwards Air Force Base air show. He then retired to reside in Cedar Ridge, California. In an active career spanning 50 years, Yeager flew and tested no fewer than 330 different types of aircraft.

October 23 Science: Carl F. Cori and his wife Gerty T. Cori of Washington University, St. Louis, share the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for their studies of glycogen.

October 24 Politics: Ohio senator Robert A. Taft declares his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination.

October 25 General: A huge forest fire consumes a large part of Bar Harbor, Maine, inflicting $30 million in damage; President Harry S. Truman declares the region a disaster area.

October 29 Civil: The President’s Commission on Civil Rights makes its findings public. Science: The General Electric Company tests cloud seeding at Concord, New Hampshire, and successfully douses a raging forest fire.

November 25 Diplomacy: In London, England, the Council of Foreign Ministers gather to discuss the economic and political status of Germany, then prostrate after years of war.

December 3 Arts: The seminal American play A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams debuts at the Ethel Barrymore Theater in New York.

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Chronology

1983

December 5 Sports: Joe Louis defends his world heavyweight boxing title against “Jersey Joe” Walcott in a split decision.

December 17 Aviation: The Boeing XB-47, the most important multijet bomber in aviation history, flies for the first time. Its success inspires other significant designs such as the B-52 bomber, the KC-135 aerial tanker, and the 707 commercial airliner.

December 19 Diplomacy: Determined to help the nations of Western Europe thwart communist subversion, President Harry S. Truman asks Congress to appropriate the first phase of a $17-billion recovery program. Sports: Jackie Robinson becomes the first African American to break baseball’s color line when he is signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers.

December 27 General: New York City is hit by a record 25.8-inch snowfall, which paralyzes transportation and leads to 80 deaths.

Robinson, Jackie

(1919–1972)

Athlete Jack Roosevelt Robinson was born in Cairo, Georgia, on January 31, 1919, the son of a sharecropper. He was raised in Los Angeles by his mother and subsequently distinguished himself in athletics at Muir Technical High School and Pasadena Junior College. Robinson subsequently attended the University of California, Los Angeles, where he played football, basketball, and baseball with distinction, but he lacked the money to pay for his tuition and dropped out in 1941. He then joined the U.S. Army in 1943 and was commissioned a second lieutenant, but his vocal opposition to racial discrimination led to his being court-martialed. Robinson was acquitted of insubordination, but the army released him from service because of his “football knees.” In 1944, he began his professional baseball career by serving with the Kansas City Monarchs of the old Negro Jackie Robinson, 1954 (Library of Congress)

(continues)

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(continued) Major League. Robinson played spectacularly and came to the attention of Branch Rickey, a recruiting agent for the Brooklyn Dodgers, who was cognizant enough to realize that segregation in the major leagues was drawing to an end, and he signed Robinson on in 1946. He then played a year with the Montreal Royals, the Dodgers’s farm team, and closed the year with a .349 batting average, 40 stolen bases, and 113 runs batted in. On April 15, 1947, he made baseball history by being the first African-American player in a major league lineup at Ebbets Field, Brooklyn. Robinson quickly established himself as one of the most exciting new players in the game and accordingly won the very first Rookie of the Year Award. These plaudits were achieved despite the overt racism and hostilities displayed toward Robinson from the bleachers and, in some instances, from among his own teammates. But he realized that the fate of future black players depended largely on his own behavior, so he took the abuse in stride and remained completely focused on playing ball.

Robinson played for almost a decade with the Dodgers, acquiring a lifetime batting average of .311 and a reputation as the best base stealer in the game. Nonetheless, when the team sold him to the rival New York Giants, he retired from the game on January 5, 1957, aged 37 years, to pursue business. He initially sought to manage or coach in the major leagues but, receiving no offers, settled for serving as vice president of the Chock Full o’ Nuts corporation in New York. Robinson also became a highly visible figure in the emerging Civil Rights movement, and founded the Freedom Bank, which was owned and operated solely by African Americans. In 1962, the first year he became eligible, the Baseball Hall of Fame inducted him as a member. Robinson died suddenly in Stamford, Connecticut, on October 24, 1972, a national icon for black sports fans everywhere, and a man who bore the indignities of intolerance with patience and rectitude. In March 1984, President Ronald Reagan posthumously awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom; in October 2003, he also received a Congressional Gold Medal.

December 29 Politics: Former vice president Henry A. Wallace announces his candidacy for the presidency on a third-party ticket.

1948 Architecture: A team headed by Eero Saarinen wins the first postwar architectural competition by designing the famous arch over the Mississippi River in St. Louis, Missouri; Gardner A. Dailey designs the Red Cross headquarters in San Francisco, California, using a ribbed surface texture of poured concrete. Arts: Ben Shahn’s painting Miners’ Wives reflects his concern with social injustice. Labor: Mississippi is the last state to adopt workmen’s compensation laws. Literature: Ross Lockridge writes the Civil War novel Raintree County, which proves a commercial success, shortly before his suicide at the age of 33; Norman Mailer writes his first and seminal novel, The Naked and the Dead, about World

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War II; Irwin Shaw contributes another best-selling World War II novel, The Young Lions. Medical: The antibiotic aureomycin is produced at the Lederle Laboratories, Pearl River, New York; Vitamin B-12 is found to completely cure pernicious anemia when administered daily. Music: The year’s most popular tunes include “Buttons and Bows,” “You Call Everyone Darling,” and “All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth”; the Piano Concerto No. 1 by Howard Hanson makes a notable premiere. Publishing: Former general Dwight D. Eisenhower writes his popular memoir, The Crusade in Europe. Technology: Columbia Records introduces long-playing phonograph records, or LPs; Edwin H. Land develops the Polaroid Land Camera, which develops film in place without the need for a darkroom.

January 2 Science: Atomic research is the subject of a research alliance between the University of Chicago and seven major corporations.

January 8 Diplomacy: Secretary of State George C. Marshall estimates that $16.8 billion will be needed for the first 15 months of funding his Marshall Plan for the reconstruction of western Europe.

January 12 Civil: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Sipeul v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma, ruling that states cannot discriminate against law school applicants on the basis of race.

January 23 Diplomacy: The Soviet Union curtly informs the United Nations Temporary Commission, which oversees elections, that it is barred from entering North Korea.

January 30–February 8 Sports: The U.S. Winter Olympic team wins three gold medals at St. Moritz, Switzerland, and finishes third in unofficial team standings.

February 2 Civil: A civil rights package is sent to Congress by President Harry S. Truman, who seeks to end segregated schools and employment discrimination. Labor: The Executive Council of the American Federation of Labor declares that it will not support the Progressive Party candidate, Henry A. Wallace, for the presidency.

February 7 Military: General Dwight D. Eisenhower resigns from the U.S. Army to serve as president of Columbia University, New York.

February 18 Arts: The play Mister Roberts by Thomas Heggin and Joshua Logan opens at the Alvin Theater, New York, and stars Henry Fonda; its is one of the season’s surprise hits.

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A drinking fountain on the county courthouse lawn, Halifax, North Carolina, 1938 (Library of Congress)

February 21 Politics: President Harry S. Truman embarks on a five-day tour of the Caribbean, with stops at Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

March 5 Science: A U.S. Navy missile reaches speeds of 3,000 miles per hour and an altitude of 78 miles at White Sands, New Mexico.

March 8 Religion: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that compulsory religious instruction in public schools is unconstitutional.

March 15 Labor: Thousands of coal miners initiate a nationwide strike to obtain a more liberal pension plan.

March 20 Media: Academy Awards are give to Gentleman’s Agreement as best picture of 1947, to Ronald Colman as best actor in A Double Life, and to Loretta Young for best actress in The Farmer’s Daughter.

March 22 Diplomacy: The United States enacts a land-reform program in the southern part of Korea.

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Chronology

1987

March 30 Business: President Harry S. Truman signs the Rent Control Bill, which extends controls until March 31, 1949.

April 2 Diplomacy: The new Economic Assistance Program begins providing $5.3 billion in assistance to Western Europe under the aegis of the Marshall Plan.

April 7–14 Sports: The Toronto Maple Leafs win the NHL Stanley Cup by defeating the Detroit Red Wings in four straight games.

April 12 Labor: Having achieved a compromise solution to their pension plan request, striking miners return to work at the behest of President John L. Lewis of the United Mine Workers Union.

April 19 Sports: Gérard Côté of Quebec wins the 52nd Boston Marathon by finishing in two hours, 31 minutes, two seconds.

April 20 Labor: A Federal judge levies penalties against United Mine Workers Union president John L. Lewis totaling $20,000, while the union itself is hit with a $1.2-million fine for contempt of court in the wake of the March 1947 coal strike.

April 28 Aviation: A Pan Am Lockheed Constellation airliner makes the first nonstop New York—Paris passenger flight in 16 hours and one minute.

April 30 Diplomacy: Representatives from 21 countries, including the United States, convene in Bogotá, Colombia, to form the new Organization of American States (OAS).

May 1 Sports: Citation wins the 74th annual Kentucky Derby by crossing the line at two minutes, five seconds.

May 2 Politics: The Socialist Labor Party nominates Edward A. Teichert for the presidency.

May 3 Arts: James Michener wins the Pulitzer Prize for fiction with his Tales of the South Pacific; W. H. Auden wins the Pulitzer Prize for poetry for his “Age of Anxiety”; Tennessee Williams wins the Pulitzer Prize for drama with his A Streetcar Named Desire.

May 10 Diplomacy: The United Nations Temporary Commission supervises free elections in the U.S.-occupied South Korea, while North Korean officials refuse to participate.

1948

1988

Chronology of American History

May 10 Labor: A nationwide railroad strike is averted once President Harry S. Truman is granted an injunction after he threatens to order army troops to seize the railroads.

May 14 Diplomacy: The new Jewish state of Israel declares its independence, and the United States becomes the first government to lend diplomatic recognition.

May 15 Sports: Citation wins the 73rd Preakness Stakes by finishing in two minutes, two seconds.

May 19 Politics: The Mundt-Nixon Bill, which requires all Communists in the United States to register, passes the House of Representatives; the Senate declines to take up action.

May 25 Labor: General Motors and the United Auto Workers (UAW) agree to the first sliding-scale wage contract, which makes automatic allowances for cost-of-living increases. Workers receive an immediate 11 cent per hour increase.

May 31 Sports: Mauri Rose wins the 32nd Indianapolis 500 by finishing in four hours, 10 minutes, 23 seconds at an average speed of 119.81 miles per hour.

June 3 Science: The observatory at Mount Palomar, California, which boasts the world’s largest 200-inch reflector telescope, is formally dedicated by the California Institute of Technology.

June 7 Education: Former general Dwight D. Eisenhower is installed as president of Columbia University, New York.

June 11 Diplomacy: The U.S. Senate passes the Vandenberg Amendment, which grants the United States the right to enter mutual security pacts with nations outside the Western Hemisphere.

June 12 Sports: Citation wins the 80th Belmont Stakes with a time of two minutes, 28 seconds. He becomes the eighth horse to win the Triple Crown.

June 24 Military: In light of cold-war realities, President Harry S. Truman signs a new Selective Service Act requiring all males between 18 and 25 to register for possible military service. Politics: The Republicans nominate New York governor Thomas E. Dewey and California governor Earl Warren to serve as their presidential and vice presidential candidates, respectively.

June 25 Societal: President Harry S. Truman signs the Displaced Persons Bill, which allows 205,000 Europeans to immigrate to the United States.

1948

Chronology

1989

Sports: Joe Louis defends his world heavyweight boxing title by defeating “Jersey Joe” Walcott in 11 rounds.

June 26 Aviation: Responding to the Russian-imposed land blockade of Berlin, the American European Command authorizes American transport aircraft to begin flying in food and other essential supplies for the city’s beleaguered inhabitants. This is the beginning of the famous “Berlin Airlift.”

July 15 Politics: The Democrats nominate Harry S. Truman of Missouri and Alben Barkley of Kentucky as their presidential and vice presidential candidates, respectively. However, when a civil rights plank is added to the party platform, many delegates from the South storm out in protest.

July 17 Politics: A gathering of “Dixiecrats,” Democrats from the South who walked out of the regular party convention over the issue of civil rights, form the States’ Rights Party and nominate Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina as their candidate. True to their beliefs, the party platform embraces racial segregation.

July 20 Politics: Twelve leaders of the American Communist Party are indicted and charged with plotting the violent overthrow of the U.S. government.

July 23–25 Politics: The Progressive Party is formed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from dissident Democrats, and they nominate former vice president Henry A. Wallace as their standard bearer and Senator Glen H. Taylor for vice president.

July 26 Military: In a major development, President Harry S. Truman signs an executive order mandating an end to segregation in all U.S. armed forces. He also calls for an immediate end to racial discrimination in federal employment. Politics: A special session of Congress summoned by President Harry S. Truman fails to enact measures touching upon inflation control, civil rights, and repeal of the Taft-Hartley Act.

July 29–August 14 Sports: The Olympic Games resume in London, England, after a 12-year hiatus. The American team debuts with an impressive 547.5 points at the conclusion of the first day. The U.S. team wins 33 gold medals at the Summer Olympics in London and is the unofficial national champion.

July 31 Transportation: President Harry S. Truman is on hand to dedicate the new and ultramodern Idlewild International Airport in New York City. It is better known today as John F. Kennedy International Airport.

August 2–6 Politics: The Communist Party convention in New York City throws its weight behind the Progressive Party nominee Henry A. Wallace.

1948

1990

Chronology of American History

August 3 Politics: Fear of Communist infiltration is heightened when Whittaker Chambers, a former Communist, fingers State Department official Alger Hiss as a former party member.

August 15 Diplomacy: As a result of United Nations–supervised elections, Syngman Rhee becomes the first president of the new Republic of South Korea. Kim Il Sung, meanwhile, has been chosen by the Soviet Union to head Communist North Korea.

August 16 Business: The Anti-Inflation Act passes Congress, and the Federal Reserve System institutes limits on installment buying.

September 9 Diplomacy: North Korean dictator Kim Il Sung claims jurisdiction over the entire Korean Peninsula and refuses to recognize newly elected president Syngman Rhee.

October 6 Arts: The play Summer and Smoke by Tennessee Williams opens at the Music Box Theater in New York to critical acclaim.

October 6–11 Sports: The Cleveland Indians (AL) win the 45th annual World Series by defeating the Boston Braves (NL) four games to two. First the Indians had to defeat the Boston Red Sox 8-3 in the first-ever series playoff.

October 24 Diplomacy: In a speech to the U.S. Senate, Bernard M. Baruch first uses the term cold war to describe developing relations with the Communist bloc.

November 2 Politics: Democrat Harry S. Truman defeats Republican Thomas E. Dewey by 24.1 million votes to 21.9 million and 304 electoral votes to the latter’s 189. Dixiecrat Strom Thurmond, meanwhile, makes a strong showing with 39 electoral votes, while Progressive Henry A. Wallace garners 1 million votes. The Democrats also regain control of both chambers of Congress.

November 4 Literature: Anglo- American writer T. S. Eliot wins the Nobel Prize for literature.

November 15 Transportation: At Erie, Pennsylvania, engineers from General Electric and American Locomotive test the first electric locomotive with a gas turbine engine.

November 20 Aviation: A U.S. Army Signal Corps balloon reaches an altitude of 140,000 feet (261⁄2 miles).

December 6 Politics: Up-and-coming congressman Richard M. Nixon of HUAC charges the administration of President Harry S. Truman with covering up the theft of important documents at the State Department by Communists.

1948

Chronology

1991

December 15 Politics: Former State Department official Alger Hiss is indicted by a federal grand jury for perjury regarding the transfer of secret documents to former Communist Whittaker Chambers.

December 30 Arts: The musical comedy Kiss Me, Kate by Cole Porter and Bella and Samuel Spewack opens at the New Century Theater in New York. The play is based on William Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew.

1949 Literature: Nelson Algren publishes The Man with the Golden Arm, a powerful story about a drug-addicted Chicago poker player. Music: Among the new compositions released this year are Symphony No. 6 by George Antheil, Symphony No. 2 for Piano and Orchestra by Leonard Bernstein, and Quartets No. 15 and No. 16 by Darius Milhaud; the year’s most popular songs include “Some Enchanted Evening,” “A Wonderful Guy,” and “Let’s Take an Old Fashioned Walk.” Publishing: Self-help guru Norman Vincent Peale publishes A Guide to Confident Living; New York’s charismatic archbishop Fulton J. Sheen writes Peace of Soul. Societal: The beach scene heats up with the arrival of the daring new French bikini for women.

January 3 Labor: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that it is legal for states to ban the closed shop, based upon provisions of the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947. Politics: The 81st Congress begins its second term with Texas congressman Sam Rayburn as Speaker of the House.

January 7 Diplomacy: Secretary of State George C. Marshall decides to resign from office on January 20, the same day as President Harry S. Truman’s inauguration.

January 8 Aviation: Boeing’s new, swept-wing XB-47 jet bomber makes a transcontinental flight in three hours, 46 minutes, at an average speed of 607 miles per hour.

January 12 Diplomacy: Undersecretary of State Dean Acheson reiterates that it is the United Nations’s responsibility to provide military security to nations in the Pacific. Curiously, he does not consider Korea within American strategic defense considerations, a fact that does not go unnoticed by the Soviet Union and North Korea.

January 14 Business: The American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) becomes the object of an antitrust suit filed by the Department of Justice. The government decides to cut the parent company loose from Western Electric, its manufacturing component.

January 19 Politics: Congress grants President Harry S. Truman a salary increase to $100,000 per year, including a tax-free expense allowance totaling $50,000.

1949

1992

Chronology of American History

January 20 Politics: In Washington, D.C., Harry S. Truman is inaugurated as president for a second term in office. His address emphasizes the important role American foreign aid will play in securing world peace.

January 21 Diplomacy: Dean Acheson becomes the new secretary of state to replace outgoing George C. Marshall.

January 22 Aviation: An Air Force AT-6 is shot down by communist guerrillas in Greece and the pilot is killed.

February 7 Politics: The Hoover Commission releases its report on improving government efficiency and suggests placing the U.S. Postal Department on a business basis to render it less prone to political patronage.

February 10 Arts: Arthur Miller’s riveting play Death of a Salesman opens at the Morosco Theater, New York, to rave reviews.

February 13 Medical: The American Medical Association advocates a voluntary plan for national health insurance as opposed to President Harry S. Truman’s compulsory model.

February 24 Science: The U.S. Army supervises the launch of a two-stage WAC-Corporal missile at White Sands, New Mexico. The device is basically a modified German V-2 rocket, but it reaches a record altitude of 244 miles.

February 25 Business: General Motors becomes the first major automobile manufacturer to cut prices since the end of World War II, with major reductions on all its cars and trucks.

February 26–March 2 Aviation: A Boeing B-50 Superfortress named Lucky Lady II, piloted by Captain James Gallagher, completes a round-the-world flight with four inflight refuelings. This puts potential aggressors such as the Soviet Union on notice that the United States possesses viable intercontinental strike capability with atomic weapons.

March 11

Arthur Miller (Library of Congress)

1949

Labor: President John L. Lewis of the United Mine Workers Union protests the naming of Dr. James Boyd as head of the Federal Bureau of Mines by ordering a two-week walkout of soft-coal workers.

Chronology

1993

March 23 Aviation: The U.S. Air Force deploys four-engine North American B-45 Tornado jet bombers, the first of their kind in the world, with the 47th Bomb Group at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, under Colonel Willis F. Chapman.

March 24 Media: Academy Awards are given to Hamlet as best film of 1948 and its star Lawrence Olivier as best actor; Jane Wyman wins best actress for Johnny Belinda; John Huston is best director for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.

April 4 Diplomacy: Lines of the cold war harden considerably when 12 European nations and the United States join a mutual defense pact called the North Atlantic Treaty, which lays the groundwork for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

April 7 Arts: The highly successful musical South Pacific by Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein, and Joshua Logan opens at the Majestic Theater in New York City. Its repertoire includes “Some Enchanted Evening” and “There Is Nothing like a Dame.”

April 8 Diplomacy: Once the German federal government is constituted, the U.S. occupation zone in Germany is to merge with those of France and Great Britain.

April 8–16 Sports: The Toronto Maple Leafs win the NHL Stanley Cup by defeating the Detroit Red Wings for the third consecutive time in four games straight.

April 19 Sports: Karl Gosta Leandersson of Sweden wins the 53rd Boston Marathon by finishing in two hours, 31 minutes, 50 seconds.

April 20 Medical: Scientists perfect a process for manufacturing the hormone cortisone, which has many medical application in the treatment of diseases.

April 26 Aviation: A world flight endurance record of 1,008 hours and one minute is set by Dick Reidel and Harold Harris.

May 2 Arts: James Gould Cozzens wins the Pulitzer Prize for fiction with Guard of Honor; Peter Viereck wins the Pulitzer Prize in poetry for “Terror and Decorum”; Arthur Miller wins the Pulitzer Prize in drama for Death of a Salesman.

May 12 Diplomacy: Thwarted by the mighty airlift by the United States and Great Britain, the Soviet Union announces an end to its ground blockade of Berlin.

May 18 Diplomacy: John J. McCoy, president of the International Bank for Reconstruction, is appointed the first civilian high commissioner of Germany.

1949

1994

Chronology of American History

May 20 Labor: A bid by the United Mine Workers Union to reaffiliate itself with the American Federation of Labor is defeated by the latter’s executive council.

May 21 Diplomacy: After four years of military occupation, the Federal Republic of Germany is proclaimed.

May 30 Sports: Bill Holland wins the 33rd Indianapolis 500 by finishing in four hours, seven minutes, 15 seconds at an average speed of 121.327 miles per hour.

May 31 Crime: The perjury trial of accused Communist Alger Hiss opens in New York City relative to his alleged passing of State Department documents to Whittaker Chambers.

June 20 Politics: President Harry S. Truman signs the Reorganization Act into law, which grants him 60 days to make changes in the way the executive branch operates, subject to the approval of Congress.

June 22 Sports: Ezzard Charles defeats “Jersey Joe” Walcott in a 15-round decision to become the new world’s heavyweight boxing champion.

June 27 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Wolf v. Colorado, ruling that prosecutors can continue using evidence collected through illegal search and seizure.

June 29 Military: Pursuant to a prior agreement, the United States removes the last of its combat troops from South Korea, with only 500 military advisers still in place.

July 15 Societal: The Housing Act is signed by President Harry S. Truman, which extends federal aid for public housing throughout the nation and will, hopefully, alleviate an ongoing shortage.

July 21 Diplomacy: The Senate ratifies the North Atlantic Treaty 82 to 13.

August 3 Societal: Congress designates June 14 as Flag Day.

August 5 Diplomacy: A State Department White Paper study blames the ineptitude and corruption of Chiang Kai-shek’s regime for the recent Communist takeover of China under Mao Zedong.

August 10 Military: The National Security Act is signed by President Harry S. Truman, which establishes the new Department of Defense and subcabinet status to the secretaries of the army, navy, and air force.

August 11 Military: General Omar Bradley is appointed the first chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).

1949

Chronology

Bradley, Omar N.

1995

(1893–1981)

General Omar Nelson Bradley was born in Clark, Missouri, on February 12, 1893, the son of poor farmers. He attended the U.S. Military Academy to spare his parents the burden of paying for his college education, graduated in 1915, and served several years with the artillery. Bradley next performed teaching duties at South Dakota State College and West Point before attending the Army Infantry School in 1925, the Command and General Staff College in 1929, and the Army War College in 1934. That year he resumed teaching activities at West Point for the next four years before transferring to Washington, D.C., as part of the General Staff in 1938. Bradley rose to brigadier general in February 1941 and took charge of the Infantry School for several months until February 1942, when he gained promotion to major general in charge of the 82nd Infantry Division. The following spring he was attached to the staff of General Dwight D. Eisenhower in time for the Allied invasion of North Africa, and he soon gained command of the II Corps under Lieutenant General George S. Patton. In this capacity Bradley performed well in combat and fought with distinction in closing phases of the Tunisian campaign. Bradley then participated in the invasion of Sicily under Patton, helped mop up all Axis resistance within five weeks, and was promoted again to lieutenant general as of July 1943. When General Patton was suddenly sidelined by his much publicized slapping of a private soldier, Bradley was tapped to succeed him as head of the new First U.S. Army in

England, then training to spearhead the invasion of Europe that summer. On June 6, 1944, Bradley’s troops executed Operation Overlord, whereby Allied beachheads were established in Normandy, France. He next orchestrated Operation Cobra, the American breakout at St. Lô, which sent the Germans reeling back to their own borders and liberated Paris. Consequently, Bradley was appointed commander of the Twelfth Army Group, 1.3 million men strong, the largest body of soldiers to ever serve under a single American commander. Bradley drove his soldiers hard but capably through the Siegfried defensive line, captured 335,000 Germans in the Ruhr Pocket, and established the first contact with Soviet forces along the Elbe River in April 1945. Afterward, he briefly headed the Bureau of Veterans’ Affairs before rising to chief of staff of the U.S. Army in 1948, and the following year capped his career by being appointed as the first chief of the new Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1949. Bradley rose to five-star general of the army as of September 1950 and, as President Harry S. Truman’s top military adviser, opposed General Douglas MacArthur’s suggestion to expand the Korean War into Manchuria. He concluded 43 years of active service by retiring on August 15, 1953, and he spent the rest of his life in high-profile business positions, although Bradley remained much sought after for military advice. The lowkey, nondescript Bradley, nicknamed the “GI General” by soldiers, died in New York City on April 8, 1981.

August 24 Law: Thomas Clark of Texas is appointed associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court by President Harry S. Truman.

1949

1996

Chronology of American History

August 31 General: The Grand Army of the Republic holds its 83rd encampment in Indianapolis, Indiana, and is attended by six of the surviving 16 Civil War veterans.

September Aviation: A Sikorsky S-52 helicopter, the first such machine fitted with metal rotor blades, becomes the first helicopter to successfully be looped in flight.

September 21 Diplomacy: The Mutual Defense Assistance Act is signed by President Harry S. Truman to extend military aid to nations within the NATO alliance.

September 23 Science: President Harry S. Truman publicly announces that the Soviet Union has recently tested its first atomic bomb; the age of nuclear anxiety is at hand.

October 1 Diplomacy: The United States refuses to recognize the Communist regime of Chairman Mao Zedong, in contrast to France and Great Britain, which do.

October 1–November 11 Labor: A half-million steel workers strike nationwide for increased retirement benefits.

October 5–9 Sports: The New York Yankees (AL) win the 46th annual World Series by defeating the Brooklyn Dodgers (NL) four games to one.

October 6 Diplomacy: President Harry S. Truman signs an appropriations bill allowing $5.8 million in foreign aid.

October 12 Law: Sherman Minton of Indiana gains appointment as associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from President Harry S. Truman.

October 14 Law: A court presided over by Judge Harold Medina finds 11 Communists guilty of conspiring to violently overthrow the American government, a violation of the Smith Act. They receive a $10,000 fine and jail terms of up to five years. Previously, Judge Medina had been harshly criticized by opponents of the Truman administration as being soft on subversion.

October 24 Diplomacy: The new United Nations building, astride the East River in midtown Manhattan, is dedicated.

October 26 Labor: Congress amends the Fair Labor Standards Act and increases the minimum wage from 40 cent to 75 cents an hour, commencing January 1950.

October 31 Labor: Walter Reuther, president of the United Auto Workers, purges the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) of suspected Communist-dominated unions.

1949

Chronology

1997

November 3 Science: William Francis Giauque wins the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on thermodynamics.

December 9 Politics: J. Parnell Thomas, chairman of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), receives an 8–24-month prison term for payroll padding.

December 31 Aviation: Roughly 26.5 million people flew commercially this year.

1950 Architecture: Ludwig Mies van der Rohe designs the boiler plant at the Illinois Institute of Technology, using exposed steel frames and brick panels; Wallace K. Harrison designs the futuristic United Nations Secretariat in New York City with white marble walls and green-tinted glass. Construction begins on the notable Lever House in New York City, a glass-and-steel structure designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. Literature: Robert Penn Warren releases his Kentucky murder mystery World Enough and Time; Budd Schulberg writes The Disenchanted about the bitter struggle for success in Hollywood. Medical: The popularity of over-the-counter antihistamines for the common cold is reflected in yearly sales of $100 million. Music: African- American composer Howard Swanson has his Short Symphony performed by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra; the year’s popular tunes include “Good Night, Irene,” “My Foolish Heart,” and “Music! Music! Music!” Population: Figures released by the Census Department reveal a population of 150.6 million people centered eight miles northwest of Olney, Illinois. Religion: In these uncertain times, more Americans are turning to faith, as the Roman Catholic Church reports a 2 percent increase in membership while Protestant churches experience a 2.9 percent gain. Societal: Illiteracy reaches an all-time low of 3.2 percent, a drop of 16.8 percent from 1870.

January 2 Diplomacy: The Department of Commerce reports that foreign nations have received $25 billion in grants and aid since the end of World War II.

January 19 Politics: President Harry S. Truman appoints Oscar Chapman as his secretary of the interior.

January 21 Crime: Alger Hiss is convicted of two counts of perjury at his second trial regarding the illegal transfer of State Department documents to Communist groups via courier Whittaker Chambers. He receives two concurrent five-year terms. Societal: In light of the perceived threat of atomic war with the Soviet Union, President Harry S. Truman appoints Paul Larsen to lead the Civilian Mobilization Office, now tasked with upgrading civil defense.

1950

1998

Chronology of American History

January 24 Labor: The minimum wage is increased to 75 cents an hour in accordance with the Fair Labor Standards Act.

January 28 Arts: The first Emmy Awards for the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences go to Milton Berle as most outstanding personality, Texaco Star Theater for best show, Time for Beany for best children’s show, and Life of Riley for best film for TV in 1949.

January 31 Science: President Harry S. Truman announces to the public that the Atomic Energy Commission is working on developing a new and more powerful form of nuclear weapon, the hydrogen (fusion) bomb.

February 7 Politics: Wisconsin senator Joseph R. McCarthy makes headlines while addressing the Woman’s Club of Wheeling, West Virginia, and accuses the State Department of being inundated with Communists and their sympathizers.

February 20 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of United States v. Rabinowitz, ruling that police have the right to seize property and evidence without a search warrant. Politics: Wisconsin senator Joseph R. McCarthy makes public a list of people suspected of Communist activities, which prompts the Senate to begin a subcommittee investigation.

Berle, Milton (1908–2002) Entertainer Born Milton Berlinger in Brooklyn, New York, on July 12, 1908, Berle entered show business at the age of six by starring in several Charlie Chaplin contests, the stage comedy Floradora, and debuting in such silent films as Tillie’s Punctured Romance and The Perils of Pauline. By 16 he was performing professionally on his own in numerous vaudeville and stage productions, and he garnered attention by pioneering a very physical “slapstick” style of comedy routines, replete with witty, self-deprecating, rapidfire jokes. Throughout the 1930s he received top billing in some of America’s largest theaters and cities, while continually appearing in some of the latest Hollywood comedies. By 1934, he was receiving $2,500 a week, an

1950

astronomical sum for its day. Yet Berle, ever an improviser, sought to further refine his act with additional performances in nightclubs and on radio, although here he enjoyed less success once devoid of his usual manic presentation. Berle’s nightclub routines were also unique in that several of his opening lines invariably insulted audience members to humorous ends. He subsequently gained an unsavory reputation for stealing the limelight from fellow performers and unflinchingly utilizing gags from the acts of others. But Berle’s success as an entertainer can be gauged by his appearance in such notable films as Ziegfeld Follies (1936), See My Lawyer (1937), Radio City Revels (1938), and Tall, Dark and Handsome (1941).

Chronology

1999

March 7 Diplomacy: Soviet consular official Valentin Gubitchev is accused of conspiracy and espionage, and he is subsequently expelled from the country. This verdict only heightens fears of a nationwide communist conspiracy.

March 13 Business: Leading automaker General Motors announces profits of $656 million for 1949, the largest ever posted by an American corporation.

March 16 Publishing: The first National Book Awards go to The Man with the Golden Arm by Nelson Algren, William Carlos Williams for his Patterson Poems, and Ralph L. Lusk for his The Life of Ralph Waldo Emerson.

March 17 Science: Californium, the heaviest known element, is discovered by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, while using a cyclotron.

March 23 Labor: Statistics released by the U.S. Labor Department indicate that wages are up 130 percent from 1939, but buying power has only risen 35 percent owing to inflation. Media: Academy Awards are given to All the King’s Men as best film of 1949 and to Broderick Crawford as best actor; Olivia de Havilland is best actress for The Heiress.

A major turning point in Berle’s already successful career happened in 1948 with the advent of television, whereby shows were broadcast live, which played directly to his penchant for zany sketches. He debuted on the Texaco Star Theater that October, and within two months he signed on as its host. In this capacity, Berle quickly asserted himself as America’s first media superstar, and he was pictured on the cover of Time and Newsweek magazines. A bona fide risk taker, he unhesitatingly donned women’s clothing to accentuate his already notorious reputation for doing the outrageous. By 1949, Berle’s national fame as “Uncle Miltie” was assured, and viewing the Texaco Star Theater Tuesday nights at 8:00 p.m. became something of a national obsession. Such was his drawing power that Berle became hailed in the media

as “Mr. Television,” and in 1951 NBC offered him an unprecedented 30-year contract at $100,000 per year. It is estimated that, as America’s foremost comic, Berle was responsible for the sale of 500,000 television sets nationwide, and he contributed to its status as the entertainment media of choice. However, taste in popular culture evolved from comedy/variety acts to westerns and other formula programming by 1955, and Berle’s career began a long decline. He remained active in film and television over the next five decades, including several dramatic roles that were well received critically, but his heyday had passed. Berle died in Los Angeles, California, on March 27, 2002, one of the greatest showmen and certainly among the most influential entertainers in American history.

1950

2000

Chronology of American History

April 8 Aviation: Soviet La-7 fighters attack and shoot down a U.S. Navy Consolidated PB4Y-2 Privateer over the Baltic Sea near the Latvian coastline, killing the crew of 10.

April 8–23 Sports: The Minnesota Lakers win the first National Basketball Association (NBA) championship by defeating the Syracuse Nationals four games to two.

April 11 Sports: The Detroit Red Wings win the NHL Stanley Cup by defeating the New York Rangers four games to three.

April 19 Sports: Ham Kee Yong of South Korea wins the 54th Boston Marathon by finishing in two hours, 32 minutes, 39 seconds. At 19, he is the second youngest runner to win.

May 1 Arts: The Pulitzer Prize for fiction goes to South Annie Allen by Gwendolyn Brooks; the Pulitzer Prize for drama gose to South Pacific by Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein, and Joshua Logan.

May 8 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of American Communications Association v. Douds, ruling that noncommunist loyalty statements required by the Taft-Hartley Act are constitutional.

May 11 Engineering: President Harry S. Truman dedicates the new Grand Coulee Dam in Washington State. The new structure stands 550 feet in height and is 4,173 feet long.

May 25 Transportation: The Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, the longest such structure for automobiles in the world, opens for traffic in New York City.

May 31 Sports: Johnny Parsons wins the 34th Indianapolis 500 by finishing in two hours, 46 minutes, 55 seconds at an average speed of 124 miles per hour. This year the course was shortened to 345 miles due to heavy rain.

June 5 Civil: The U.S. Supreme Court renders two significant rulings that uphold the right of African Americans to attend a state law school and also receive full educational benefits from the same. Diplomacy: President Harry S. Truman signs the International Development Act into law.

June 25 Military: The cold war grows a lot hotter when North Korean troops and tanks roll south of the 38th parallel and invade South Korea without warning. Communist forces have been both trained and equipped by the Soviet Union.

1950

Chronology

2001

June 26 Military: President Harry S. Truman immediately authorizes U.S. Navy and Air Force units in Japan to begin direct military support of South Korean forces below the 38th parallel.

June 27 Diplomacy: Because the Soviet representative is boycotting the proceedings, the United Nations Security Council approves a resolution authorizing military intervention in South Korea to halt Communist aggression there.

June 30 Military: President Harry S. Truman orders the deployment of U.S. ground forces to South Korea and also signs a bill extending the military draft for another year Naval: President Harry S. Truman orders a naval blockade of the Korean coastline.

July 1 Military: The first U.S. Army troops cross from Japan and deploy in South Korea.

July 8 Military: General Douglas MacArthur is appointed supreme commander of United Nations forces in Korea.

July 20 Military: President Harry S. Truman, fearing that all-out war with the Soviet Union is growing inevitable, beseeches Congress for a $10-billion rearmament program. Politics: The Senate Foreign Relations Committee declares that Senator Joseph R. McCarthy’s accusations, leveled on February 7, are unwarranted.

August 4 Military: To flesh out the army’s peacetime ranks, 62,000 reservists are recalled to duty.

August 15 Sports: Ezzard Charles successfully defends his world heavyweight boxing title against Freddie Beshore.

August 18 Crime: A report issued from the Special Committee to Investigate Crime in Interstate Commerce declares that organized crime is making inroads toward controlling many legitimate businesses.

August 25 Labor: President Harry S. Truman thwarts a possible railroad strike by ordering the U.S. Army to take control of the rail service. The labor action is then called off.

August 28 Societal: The Social Security Act is amended to expand benefits to an additional 9 million citizens; this comes about as a result of an increase of workers paying into the system.

1950

2002

Chronology of American History

September 4 Aviation: U.S. Navy Chance Vought F4U-4B Corsair fighters of the VF-53 squadron intercept a Soviet lend-lease Douglas A-20 Havoc bomber west of the North Korean coast and shoot it down after the tail gunner fires on them.

September 8 Politics: President Harry S. Truman receives emergency powers over the national economy as per the Defense Production Act.

September 15 Military: As the North Korean invasion collapses, U.S. and United Nations forces sweep from Inchon and advance toward the capital of Seoul. Naval: General Douglas MacArthur stages one of the most brilliant amphibious operations in military history by landing at the port of Inchon, South Korea, and threatening to cut off North Korean supply lines

September 21 Military: In Washington, D.C., George C. Marshall is appointed the new secretary of defense.

September 22 Diplomacy: African-American Ralph J. Bunche, director of the United Nations Trusteeship Division, wins the Nobel Peace Prize for his work as a mediator between Israel and the Arab states.

Bunche, Ralph J.

(1904–1971)

African-American diplomat Ralph Johnson Bunche was born in Detroit, Michigan, on August 7, 1904, the son of a barber. He was raised in Los Angeles by his grandmother and attended the University of California, graduating in 1927 with honors. Academically inclined, Bunche subsequently attended Harvard University for his master’s degree in 1928 and his doctorate in 1934, where his dissertation on colonialism in Africa won the Tappan Prize as the best in the social sciences for that year. Bunche subsequently taught political science at Howard University, Washington, D.C., the nation’s preeminent institution for African Americans, although he also found time to conduct postgraduate research at Northwestern University, the London School of

1950

Economics, and the University of Cape Town. Bunche was also highly active in the field of civil rights, which he saw primarily as dealing with economic issues, and in 1936 he helped found the American Negro Congress, although he quit two years later when it was co-opted by Communists and other radicals. Meanwhile, Bunche’s publications and numerous papers soon established him as a leading authority on colonialism, and he was much sought after by government agencies during World War II. In this capacity he headed up the African and Middle Eastern section of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), and, in 1944, he became one of few blacks employed by the State Department, where he oversaw the Division of Dependent

Chronology

2003

September 23 Politics: The Internal Security Act is passed by Congress over President Harry S. Truman’s veto. This mandates that all known Communists register with the government and face possible detention in the event of a national emergency. A Subversive Activities Control Board is also enacted.

September 26 Military: After a hard fight against fanatical North Korean resistance, U.S. Marines recapture the South Korean capital of Seoul.

September 27 Sports: Ezzard Charles successfully defends his world heavyweight boxing championship title against Joe Louis.

September 29 Military: Newly victorious South Korean troops arrive at the 38th parallel, where the war began four months earlier.

October 4–7 Sports: The New York Yankees (AL) win the 47th World Series by defeating the Philadelphia Phillies in four straight games.

October 7 Military: In a dramatic escalation of hostilities, United Nations forces advance over the 38th parallel and move closer to the border of Communist Red China.

Area Affairs. After the war, Bunche represented the United States at high-level meetings at Dumbarton Oaks (1944), San Francisco (1945), and London (1946). It was in the area of international diplomacy that Bunche left his greatest legacy. In 1947, he was invited by the first United Nations secretary general, Trygve Lie, to serve as director of the trustee division. The following year he accompanied UN mediator Count Folke Bernadotte to the Middle East for peace talks between Arabs and the new Jewish state of Israel, and he succeeded Bernadotte following his assassination. With great tact and consummate diplomacy, Bunche managed to secure a cease-fire between the two warring factions and, in 1950, he became the first African American to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. For many years thereafter he continued

serving as the highest ranking U.S. national at the United Nations, rising in 1957 to the post of undersecretary of special political affairs. However, Bunche’s most significant contribution to global stability was his concept of “peacekeeping,” whereby armed troops from UN members would be rushed to trouble spots and stabilize potentially hostile situations. He was directly responsible for helping secure order in the Suez (1956), Congo (1960), and Cyprus (1964), and his work became so valuable to the world community that in 1963 President John F. Kennedy awarded him the Congressional Medal of Freedom. Bunche continued working quietly and effectively at the United Nations until his death in New York on December 9, 1971, a recognized authority on international relations and conflict resolution.

1950

2004

Chronology of American History

October 11 Diplomacy: The government of the People’s Republic of China warns it will not “stand idly by” as American forces advance toward its border in North Korea. Media: The Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) is authorized by the FCC to begin color broadcasting as of November 2, 1950.

October 15 Military: President Harry S. Truman and General Douglas MacArthur consult at Wake Island in the Pacific to discuss military strategy in Korea.

October 20 Military: United Nations forces capture the North Korean capital of Pyongyang after two days of stiff fighting, and they continue advancing farther north.

October 26 Science: The Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine is shared by Philip Showalter Hench of the Mayo Clinic, Edward Calvin Kendall of the University of Minnesota, and Tadeus Reichstein of the University of Basel, Switzerland, for their work on suprarenal cortex hormones.

November 1 General: In Washington, D.C., President Harry S. Truman survives an assassination attempt by Griselio Torresola and Oscar Collazo, two Puerto Rican nationalists. A White House guard is killed in the scuffle, but the president remains unharmed.

November 6 Military: Chinese forces attack and maul several United Nations units near their border, then suddenly withdraw in what can only be construed as a warning to stop.

November 7 Politics: The Republicans make considerable gains in both the Senate and House of Representatives during midterm elections, although the Democrats manage to keep control of Congress. Among the new senators elected is Richard M. Nixon of California.

November 8 Aviation: The world’s first all-jet dogfight breaks out over North Korea as American F-80 fighters tangle with Soviet MiG-15s; the Americans claim one kill.

November 10 Arts: William Faulkner wins the Nobel Prize for literature.

November 16 Music: Aaron Copland’s Clarinet Concerto is played for the first time by Benny Goodman and the NBC Symphony Orchestra.

November 20 Military: Disregarding Chinese warnings, United Nations forces continue advancing and reach the Yalu River bordering Manchuria.

November 26–29 Military: Massive Chinese Communist forces stage a successful surprise attack against United Nations forces in North Korea, compelling them to fall back immediately.

1950

Chronology

2005

December 4 Aviation: The world’s first jet-bomber interception takes place when MiG-15s flown by Soviet pilots shoot down a U.S. Air Force RB-45C Tornado reconnaissance aircraft along the Yalu River between Red China and North Korea; the crew of four is killed.

December 5 Military: As the Chinese juggernaut rolls down the Korean Peninsula, Pyongyang is abandoned by retreating United Nations forces. Sports: Ezzard Charles successfully defends his world heavyweight boxing championship title against Nick Barone.

December 8 Business: President Harry S. Truman declares a ban on all exports to the People’s Republic of China.

December 16 Politics: In light of the deteriorating situation in northeast Asia, President Harry S. Truman declares a national emergency while Dwight D. Eisenhower quits his post as president of Columbia University and becomes head of the NATO command. A surprise attack by the Soviet Union upon Western Europe is greatly feared.

December 19 Military: General Dwight D. Eisenhower is appointed supreme commander of all Western European defense forces by the North Atlantic Council.

December 29 Business: The Celler-Kefauver Act is passed by Congress, which amends the prior Clayton Anti-Trust Act by preventing corporations from acquiring property that might infringe upon competition. Military: The outspoken general Douglas MacArthur publicly states that the United Nations ought to attack Communist installations in Manchuria, even with the use of atomic weapons.

1951 Architecture: Frank Lloyd Wright finishes his design for the Friedman House at Pleasantville, New York, based on a circular pattern of rough stone; Marcel Breyer designs the dormitory at Vassar College at Poughkeepsie, New York; the new Lake Shore Drive Apartments in Chicago, designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, are completely encased by glass. Business: Due to the great number of trade associations in the United States, over 12,000, Chicago managers form a trade association of managers. Literature: William Faulkner publishes Requiem for a Nun; James Agee publishes his first novel, The Watch; Truman Capote also writes his first novel, The Grass Harp; Herman Wouk finishes his compelling wartime story, The Caine Mutiny. Music: At this time, the United States possesses 659 symphonic groups, including 32 professional orchestras; the recording industry will produce some 190 million records this year; among the year’s most popular tunes are “Too Young,” “Hello Young Lovers,” and “Getting to Know You.”

1951

2006

Chronology of American History Publishing: The book industry thrives with over 11,000 new titles appearing this year, along with an astonishing 231 million paperbacks printed; distinguished Civil War historian Bruce Catton publishes his first noteworthy tome, Mr. Lincoln’s Army. Transportation: Airline passenger miles exceed rail passenger miles for the first time in history, 10.6 million to 10.2 million.

January 1 Business: Congress authorizes President Harry S. Truman to place a freeze on prices to prevent inflation. Military: Advancing Chinese forces capture Inchon and the Kimpo airport in South Korea, forcing UN forces to evacuate Seoul a second time.

January 15 Business: To conserve materials needed for the defense mobilization program, the National Production Authority Board places a 30-day freeze on commercial construction. Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Feiner v. United States, ruling that any speaker who becomes “a clear and present danger” through incitement to riot is subject to arrest. Freedom of speech has it limits. Politics: President Harry S. Truman submits his budget for the year: $71 billion, of which $41 billion is for military expenditures.

January 16 Aviation: The U.S. Air Force founds project Atlas, which is designed to acquire the nation’s first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) by the end of the decade. Business: The Federal Reserve System Board of Governors raises the margin requirement for stock purchasing from 50 percent to 75 percent.

February 1 Diplomacy: The United Nations votes to hold Communist China responsible for aggression in Korea.

February 3 Media: The play The Rose Tattoo by Tennessee Williams opens at the Martin Beck Theater, New York, starring Maureen Stapleton and Eli Wallach. Sports: Great Circles wins $144,323 at the Santa Anita Maturity Stakes, Arcadia, California, the largest single purse to date in horse racing.

February 8 Labor: A 12-day railroad strike ends as workers win a pay raise.

February 26 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Bus Employees v. Wisconsin Employment Relations Board, ruling that state laws forbidding union activities are unconstitutional.

February 28 Labor: To protest administration mobilization policies, organized labor groups withdraw their representatives from all government defense agencies.

March 14 Military: A major counterattack by United Nations forces recaptures the South Korean capital of Seoul from Communist Chinese forces and begins driving them back over the 38th parallel.

1951

Chronology

2007

Politics: The Twenty-second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratified by Nevada, which restricts presidents to serving only two terms in office.

March 21 Military: Secretary of Defense George C. Marshall announces American military strength at 2.9 million men and women, roughly twice the strength prior to the Korean War.

March 29 Arts: The seminal musical The King and I by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein opens at the St. James Theater, New York, and stars Yul Brynner and Gertrude Lawrence. Media: Academy Awards go to All about Eve as best film of 1950, to Jose Ferrer as best actor in Cyrano de Bergerac, and to Judy Holliday as best actress for Born Yesterday.

April 4 Military: General Dwight D. Eisenhower selects Paris, France, as the new site for his Supreme Headquarters, Allied Powers in Europe (SHAPE).

April 5 Crime: Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, convicted in court of passing along topsecret nuclear information to Soviet agents, are sentenced to receive the death penalty. Military: General Douglas MacArthur, unhappy with President Harry S. Truman’s intention to seek a negotiated truce with the Communist powers, declares to Speaker of the House Joseph Martin that “there is no substitute for victory.”

April 11 Military: President Harry S. Truman, angered by General Douglas MacArthur’s tactless public commentary about his policies in Korea, removes him as supreme commander in the Far East and appoints General Matthew Ridgway.

April 17 Labor: Organized labor gains representation on the National Advisory Board on Mobilization Policy, and a new Wage Stabilization Board is established.

April 19 Politics: An unrepentant General Douglas MacArthur, addressing a joint session of Congress, renews his call for use of atomic bombs and other weapons against the Chinese in Manchuria. He then declares, “Old soldiers never die, they just fade away.” Sports: Shigeki Tanaka of Japan wins the 55th Boston Marathon by finishing in two hours, 27 minutes, 45 seconds.

April 28 Business: The price of beef is fixed by the Office of Price Stabilization.

April 30 Labor: Organized labor reverses its boycott of national defense agencies.

May 3 Politics: The Senate Armed Forces and Foreign Relations Committees meet to discuss General Douglas MacArthur’s recent remark to Congress.

1951

2008

Chronology of American History

Ridgway, Matthew B. (1895–1993) General Matthew Bunker Ridgway was born in Fort Monroe, Virginia, on March 3, 1895, the son of an army colonel. He graduated from West Point in 1917 but failed to secure a combat position in World War I, spending instead several months patrolling the Mexican border. Over the next two decades, Ridgway fulfilled a typical litany of farranging appointments in China, Nicaragua, and the Philippines, and, in 1935, he was chosen to pass through the elite Army War College. He graduated two years later with distinction and found himself attached to the War Plans Division within the War Department as a lieutenant colonel. Following American entry into World War II, Ridgway rose to major general, commanding the 82nd Infantry Division and supervising its conversion to a parachute unit. In July 1943, Ridgway spearheaded the invasion of Sicily with his 82nd Airborne division and overcame a scattered landing to seize strategic points of that island until relieved. He enjoyed similar success near Salerno the following August and, in June 1944, he jumped with his men over Normandy, France, this time spearheading Operation Overlord. Ridgway’s command suffered nearly 50 percent losses but took all their strategic objectives, and he subsequently took charge of the Allied 18th Airborne Corps of American, British, and Polish units. In this capacity, he spearheaded the ill-fated Operation Market Garden against German forces in the Netherlands, becoming one of few commanders to seize his objectives. In December 1944, Ridgway’s paratroopers helped blunt the

northern shoulder of the German “Battle of the Bulge” offensive in the Ardennes, Belgium; then he crossed the Rhine River into Germany in 1945 and eventually linked up with Soviet forces along the Elbe River in May. For his distinguished services, Ridgway gained temporary promotion to lieutenant general. During the postwar period, Ridgway served with the Military Staff Committee of the United Nations from 1946 to 1948, and, in 1950, he was ordered to replace General Walton Walker as head of the Eighth Army in Korea. At that time, UN forces were buckling under a huge Chinese surprise offensive, but Ridgway calmly reordered his lines, allowed the Communists to outstrip their supply lines below Seoul, and then sharply counterattacked. Operations Killer and Ripper promptly drove Chinese forces back across the 38th parallel where the war began; then Ridgway consented to cease-fire talks in July 1951. In May 1952, he was tapped to succeed General Dwight D. Eisenhower as commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and he supervised its enlargement from 12 to 80 divisions. The following year, Eisenhower picked him to serve as army chief of staff in Washington, D.C., where he strongly urged the president not to get involved in French Indochina. Ridgway retired from active service in 1955, and he died in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on July 26, 1993. From the standpoint of strategy and tactics, he remains one of the most significant American military leaders of the 20th century.

May 7 Arts: The Pulitzer Prize in fiction goes to Conrad Richter for The Town, and the Pulitzer Prize in poetry goes to Carl Sandburg for Complete Poems.

1951

Chronology

2009

May 15 Business: In a major milestone for an American corporation, communications giant American Telephone and Telegraph declares that it has over 1 million stockholders.

May 30 Sports: Lee Wallard wins the 45th Indianapolis 500 by finishing in three hours, 57 minutes, 38 seconds at an average speed of 126.244 miles per hour.

June 4 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Dennis v. United States, ruling that the Smith Act of 1949, which deals with Communists and other potential subversives, is constitutional; in another case along these same lines, Garner v. Los Angeles verifies a state’s right to require all job applicants to sign noncommunist affidavits.

June 11 Aviation: At Edwards Air Force Base, California, a Douglass D-558 Phase II Skyrocket attains a world record speed of 1,200 miles per hour.

June 14 Technology: The UNIVAC, a new electronic digital computer designed by Dr. John W. Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert, Jr., is unveiled and demonstrated in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

June 19 Military: Congress extends the national draft through July 1, 1955, and increases the length of service to two years. The draft age is also lowered to 181⁄2 years.

June 23 Diplomacy: Soviet UN representative Jacob Malik proposes a cease-fire in Korea along the 38th parallel.

June 25 Media: The Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) broadcasts the first commercial color TV program, although this transpires long before color sets are available to the general public.

July 1 Diplomacy: North Korean leader Kim Il Sung and Chinese military leader Peng Teh-huai accept General Matthew Ridgway’s invitation to attend cease-fire talks.

July 4 Aviation: A U.S. Air Force RB-45C Tornado jet reconnaissance bomber flown by Captain Stacy D. Naftel, penetrating 500 miles into Manchuria on a top-secret overflight mission, is attacked by MiG-15 jet fighters, but it manages to outrun the antagonists.

July 10 Diplomacy: With the Korean War effectively stalemated on the ground, the United States joins United Nations truce talks with the Communist powers at Kaesang on the 38th parallel, Korea.

1951

2010

Chronology of American History

July 11 Religion: The New York State Court of Appeals upholds the principle of released time for religious studies for public school children.

July 11–25 General: The Mississippi River overflows its banks, flooding an area of 1 million acres in Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Illinois. Water levels do not drop for more than two weeks, which results in nearly $1 billion in damages.

July 18 Sports: Defending world heavyweight boxing champion Ezzard Charles loses in the seventh round to “Jersey Joe” Walcott who, aged 37, is the oldest contender to win.

August Science: The Viking single-stage sounding rocket streaks to an altitude of 135 miles at 4,100 miles per hour.

August 1 Business: All tariff concessions to the Soviet Union and its allies are cancelled by President Harry S. Truman.

August 15 Aviation: The Douglas D-558 Phase II Skyrocket reaches a record altitude of 79,494 feet over Southern California.

August 30 Diplomacy: The United States and the Philippines conclude a new trade agreement that remains in place until 1954.

September 1 Diplomacy: The United States signs the Tripartite Agreement with Australia and New Zealand, which allows for mutual defense.

September 4 Media: President Harry S. Truman’s address to delegates at the Japan Peace Treaty Conference in San Francisco is carried live for the first time by 94 television stations. This is the first transcontinental broadcast.

September 8 Diplomacy: Seven years after World War II, Japan is restored to “full sovereignty” once the Japanese Peace Treaty is signed by 49 nations, including the United States. Furthermore, Japan agrees to allow the Americans to maintain military bases and troops on its soil.

October 4 –10 Sports: The New York Yankees (AL) win the 48th World Series by defeating the New York Giants, four games to two.

October 10 Communication: The first transcontinental telephone service is established at Englewood, New Jersey. Diplomacy: The Mutual Security Act is signed by President Harry S. Truman, which allows $7.4 billion in aid to foreign nations. W. Averell Harriman is chosen head of the new agency.

1951

Chronology

2011

October 18 Science: Dr. Max Theiler of the Rockefeller Institute wins the Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine for developing vaccine 17-D to ward off yellow fever.

October 24 Diplomacy: President Harry S. Truman declares an official end to hostilities with Germany.

November 5 Transportation: The first 51 miles of the New Jersey Turnpike open for traffic between Bordentown and Deepwater.

November 6 Aviation: Soviet La-11 fighters intercept a U.S. Navy weather reconnaissance P2V-3W Neptune patrol plane in the Sea of Japan off Vladivostok, shooting it down and killing the crew of 10.

November 10 Communication: Mayor M. Leslie Denning of Englewood, New Jersey, places the first transcontinental direct-dial telephone call to Mayor Frank P. Osborn of Alameda, California.

November 13–15 Politics: The Prohibition Party nominates Stuart Hamblen of California for president and Enoch A. Holtwick of Illinois for vice president.

November 15 Science: Dr. Edwin M. McMillan and Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg of the University of California win the Nobel Prize in chemistry for work with transuranic elements.

November 18 Aviation: A U.S. Air Force C-47 transport accidentally strays into Romanian airspace while flying to Belgrade, Yugoslavia, and is shot down by MiG-15 jets; three crew members die; one survives and is released.

December 20 Science: In another first, researchers at the U.S. Reactor Testing Station, Idaho, manage to generate electricity from nuclear fuel.

December 24 Media: The National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) commissions and airs Gian Carlo Menotti’s Christmas opera Amahl and the Night Visitors for the first time.

1952 Architecture: The firm of Harrison & Abramovitz designs the innovative Alcoa Building in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with prefabricated aluminum panels. Literature: African-American writer Ralph Ellison publishes his Invisible Man, about the quest of a young black man to find his personal worth as he moves from the Deep South to Harlem, New York; Ernest Hemingway publishes his noted novel, The Old Man and the Sea; John Steinbeck completes his longest novel, East of Eden, concerning the lives of a California family. Music: The year’s most popular tunes include “Cry,” “Kiss of Fire,” and “Wheel of Fortune”; Leonard Bernstein premieres his concert Trouble in Tahiti at Brandeis

1952

2012

Chronology of American History University, Massachusetts; Gail Kubik releases his Symphonie Concertante, which received a Pulitzer Prize for music.

January 5 Diplomacy: Newly reelected British prime minister Winston Churchill arrives in Washington, D.C., for high-level discussions with President Harry S. Truman. Churchill, in particular, seeks to reestablish the close working relations enjoyed between the two nations during World War II.

January 7 Politics: General Dwight D. Eisenhower declares his willingness to accept the Republican Party presidential nomination if so offered.

January 8 Diplomacy: President Harry S. Truman and Prime Minister Winston Churchill conclude their discussions, having decided to allow nuclear-armed U.S. Air Force bombers to be stationed on bases in the British Isles, but also agreeing not to launch an atomic attack on Eastern Europe without British consent.

January 24 Diplomacy: United Nations truce negotiators in Tokyo declare that Korean truce talks have mired down into deadlock. Combat, however, continues raging along the 38th parallel.

February 15–25 Sports: The U.S. team wins four gold medals at the Winter Olympics in Norway, and finishes second in unofficial team standings.

February 18 General: Severe storms sink the tankers Fort Mercer and Pendleton off Cape Cod, Massachusetts, with the loss of 14 lives.

February 20 Diplomacy: Secretary of State Dean Acheson addresses the first meeting of the North Atlantic Council in Lisbon, Portugal, and reminds NATO members that theirs is a defensive alliance. He also rejects the notion of preemptive, or preventative warfare.

March 2 Education: The U.S. Supreme Court orders that all persons judged subversive can be prevented from teaching in public schools.

March 6 Diplomacy: President Harry S. Truman estimates the total amount of foreign military and economic aid for this fiscal year will be $7.9 billion.

March 8 Diplomacy: Jacob Malik, Soviet representative to the United Nations, accuses the United States of waging germ warfare against China. However, he rejects an offer by the International Red Cross to investigate.

March 18 Politics: The strong-arm tactics of Wisconsin senator Joseph McCarthy are roundly denounced in the U.S. Senate by William Benton of Connecticut, who describes them as reminiscent of Adolf Hitler.

1952

Chronology

2013

March 20 Diplomacy: The Japanese Peace Treaty sails through the Senate on a vote of 66 to 10, ushering in a new age of relations between the two nations. Media: Academy Awards go to An American in Paris as best picture of 1951, to Humphrey Bogart as best actor for African Queen, and to Vivien Leigh as best actress for A Streetcar Named Desire.

March 26 Politics: Senator Joseph McCarthy, stung by allegations leveled at him by Senator William Benton, sues him for slander and libel. Benton counters by attempting to have McCarthy expelled from the Senate.

March 28 Diplomacy: The United Nations rules that the accusation by Soviet representative Jacob Malik that the United States was waging germ warfare against China was out of order.

March 30 Politics: President Harry S. Truman, cognizant of public discontent with his handling of Korea, announces his refusal to seek another term as president. This opens up the Democratic Party’s nomination system for the first time since 1932.

April 2 Diplomacy: President Harry S. Truman appoints George Kennan U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union.

April 8 Labor: President Harry S. Truman orders the federal government to take control of all steel mills in Youngstown, Ohio, to avert a strike.

April 9 Labor: Three major steel companies seek temporary restraining orders to prevent a governmental takeover of mills in Youngstown, Ohio, but a federal court denies their request.

April 10–15 Sports: The Detroit Red Wings win the NHL Stanley Cup by defeating the Montreal Canadiens in four straight games.

April 12 Aviation: Boeing’s eight-jet YB-52 jet bomber prototype flies for the first time; over half a century later, B-52s remain the mainstay of U.S. Air Force bombardment forces.

April 19 Sports: Doroteo Flores of Guatemala wins the 56th Boston Marathon by finishing in two hours, 31 minutes, 53 seconds.

April 26 Naval: The destroyer USS Hobson accidentally collides with the carrier Wasp in the mid-Atlantic, and sinks.

April 28 Diplomacy: President Harry S. Truman formally declares all hostilities between the United States and Japan over.

1952

2014

Chronology of American History Military: General Matthew Ridgway is tapped to serve as the new supreme commander of Allied forces in Europe after General Dwight D. Eisenhower retires. Religion: The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the principle of released time for religious studies in public schools.

April 29 Labor: U.S. district judge David A. Pine declares that President Harry S. Truman’s seizure of steel mills is unconstitutional, so workers there immediately go on strike.

May Science: The air force launches four animals (two monkeys and two mice) in a rocket up to an altitude of 36 miles, then recovers them alive and without any ill effects.

May 2 Labor: The steelworker’s union ends its strike at the president’s request.

May 5 Arts: The Pulitzer Prize for fiction goes to Herman Wouk for The Caine Mutiny, the Pulitzer Prize for poetry to Marianne Moore for Collected Poems; and the Pulitzer Prize for drama to Joseph Kramm for The Shrike.

May 8 Military: The new, 75-ton atomic cannon is under development, according to Secretary of the Army Frank Pace.

May 12 Diplomacy: General Mark Clark is appointed as head of United Nations forces in the Far East and is instructed to help direct peace negotiations with the Communists there. Women: Shrimati Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit of India becomes the first woman ambassador to the United States.

May 23 Business: Control of the railroads passes back to their rightful owners following their seizure by U.S. Army troops on August 27, 1950.

May 26 Diplomacy: Representatives from the United States, France, and Great Britain meet in Bonn, West Germany, to sign a peace treaty with that newly reconstituted nation.

May 30 Sports: Troy Ruttman wins the 46th Indianapolis 500 by finishing in three hours, 52 minutes, 41 seconds at an average speed of 128.922 miles per hour.

May 30–June 1 Politics: The Socialist Party picks Darlington Hoopes of Pennsylvania for president and Samuel H. Friedman of New York for vice president.

June 1 Military: In Washington, D.C., General Dwight D. Eisenhower confers with President Harry S. Truman over the state of NATO and defenses in Western Europe.

1952

Chronology   2015

June 2 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Youngstown Steel and Tube v. Sawyer, ruling that President Harry S. Truman’s seizure of steel mills in Youngstown, Ohio, is unconstitutional. This is a major decision, which limits the powers of the presidency. The decision also allows over 600,000 mill workers to strike against the ownÂ�ers.

June 13 Aviation: RusÂ�sian Â�MiG-­15 fighters intercept a U.S. Air Force Â�RB-­29 Superfor-­ tress reconnaissance aircraft in international waters over the Sea of Japan, shoot-­ ing it down and killing the crew of 10.

June 14 Naval: President Harry S. Truman attends Â� keel-­laying ceremonies for the USS Nautilus, the world’s first Â� atomic-­powered submarine, at Groton, Connecticut.

June 27 Societal: The Senate overrides President Harry S. Truman’s veto of the Â� McCarran-­ Walter Bill by a vote of 57-26. It retains a national immigration quota system dating back to 1920.

June 28 Business: Wage and rent controls presently in effect are extended by Congress.

June 30 Business: The Brookings Institute estimates that there are 65 million American stockholders, and 76 percent earn less than $10,000 annually.

July 4–6 Politics: The Progressive Party nominates Vincent Hallinan of California for president and Charlotta A. Bass of New York for vice president.

July 7–11 Politics: The Republican Party convenes in Chicago, Illinois, to nominate Dwight D. Eisenhower for the presidency on the first ballot, while Senator Rich-­ ard M. Nixon of California is chosen for the vice presidency. The party platform adopted calls for balancing the budÂ�get, lowering the national debt, and maintaining the Â�Taft-­Hartley Act.

July 7 Transportation: The luxury liner SS United States sets a new record for a transatlantic crossing by reaching Eu�rope in three days, 10 hours, 40 minutes. The return voyage three days later was also a record; three days, 12 hours, 12 minutes.

July 14 Business: Price controls on all pro�cessed vegetables and meat are removed.

July 16 Military: Congress passes the Korean War GI Bill of Rights, which confers edu-­ cational benefits, loan guarantees, and similar perquisites for veterans.

July 19–August 3 Sports: The U.S. teams wins 40 gold medals at the Summer Olympics in Hel-­ sinki, Finland, finishing first in unofficial team standings.

1952

2016

Chronology of American History

July 21–26 Politics: The Democratic Party gathers in Chicago, Illinois, and nominates Illinois governor Adlai Stevenson for president and Alabama senator John Sparkman for vice president.

July 24 Labor: An agreement by management and the unions to provide wage and price increases resolves a difficult strike in the steel industry. The accord is reached at a White House conference called by President Harry S. Truman.

July 25 Diplomacy: The United States makes the island of Puerto Rico a commonwealth under its jurisdiction.

July 29 Aviation: A U.S. Air Force RB-45C Tornado jet reconnaissance bomber under Major Louis H. Carrington flies nonstop from Alaska to Yokota Air Force Base, Japan, for the first time, winning the MacKay Trophy for 1952.

July 31 Business: Remington Rand Corporation makes former general Douglas MacArthur its new chairman of the board.

August 4 Diplomacy: Secretary of State Dean Acheson presides over the first session of the Pacific Council in Honolulu, Hawaii. There he lauds the recent treaty with Japan as “one building block in the structure of peace.”

September 23 Media: Senator Richard M. Nixon of California, under pressure to step aside as the vice presidential candidate, makes a televised broadcast to deny he ever has had a “secret slush fund.” His emotional appeal proves effective and goes down in political history as the “Checkers Speech,” a reference to the family dog. Sports: In Philadelphia, Rocky Marciano knocks out “Jersey Joe” Walcott in the 13th round, winning the world heavyweight boxing championship.

October 1–7 Sports: The New York Yankees (AL) win the 49th annual World Series by defeating the Brooklyn Dodgers (NL) four games to three.

October 7 Aviation: Soviet La-11 fighters intercept a U.S. Air Force RB-29 Superfortress reconnaissance bomber over the Kurile Islands and shoot it down, killing the crew of eight.

October 13 Crime: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, found guilty of spying for the Soviet Union, fail to convince the U.S. Supreme Court to have their conviction overturned and now face the death penalty.

October 15 Aviation: A U.S. Air Force RB-47 Stratojet reconnaissance jet makes a deep penetration of the Chutotsky Peninsula from Alaska, and the pictures taken confirm

1952

Chronology

2017

Marciano, Rocky (1923–1969) Boxer Rocco Francis Marchegiano was born in Brockton, Massachusetts, on September 1, 1923, the son of a shoe factory worker. He displayed athletic talent while in high school and aspired to play baseball professionally, and he took no interest in boxing until after being drafted in 1943. Again, he showed natural ability through supervised recreational matches sponsored by the military, although he fought mainly as an excuse to escape KP and other unsavory duties. It was not until 1947 that Marciano actively pursued boxing, following his tryout and failure to play for the Chicago Cubs as a pitcher. But once in the ring as an amateur, Marciano quickly devastated most of his opponents, usually by knockouts, and he compiled an enviable 11–3 record. He achieved this despite the fact that he was relatively old at 25, somewhat light at 190 pounds for a heavyweight, and physically nondescript as a fighter. But under the aegis of trainer Charley Goldman, Marciano learned how to punch hard and with incredible speed. By 1951, he had qualified as a title contender for the heavyweight crown by consecutively defeating 38 opponents, all but five of them by knockouts. On October 26, 1951, he faced one of his toughest fights by entering the ring with former champion and boxing legend Joe Louis, whom he knocked out in the eighth round. Victory here apparently carried a price, for Marciano adored Louis as a kid and reputedly wept in the latter’s dressing room that night. Still, he

advanced relentlessly to the championship match by dispatching five more contenders, and on September 23, 1952, Marciano took on the title holder, “Jersey Joe” Walcott in Philadelphia. The champ floored Marciano for a few seconds in round one, but Marciano came roaring back and knocked Walcott out in the 13th round. Now the world’s heavyweight champion, Marciano compiled an equally impressive record defending it six times against accomplished fighters like Walcott, Roland La Starza, Ezzard Charles, and Don Cockrell. His final title fight with Archie Moore took place in Yankee Stadium and was televised before a closed-circuit television audience of 400,000 on September 21, 1955. This proved a stiff fight as Marciano was knocked down for only the second time in his career, but he then rallied and dropped Moore in round nine. The following year, for lack of qualified opponents, Marciano announced his retirement from the ring on April 27, 1956, with 49 consecutive victories, all but six by knockouts. Mindful of what had happened to his idol Louis, he never regretted this decision. He remains the only heavyweight champion in boxing history to leave the ring undefeated. Afterward, he invested his considerable earnings in restaurants and real estate, and he also worked as a wrestling coach when not raising money for charity through personal appearances. He died in a plane crash near Newton, Iowa, on August 31, 1969, still regarded as one of the five greatest boxers of all time.

that the Soviets are building Arctic bomber bases from which they could strike targets in North America. This mission was personally authorized by President Harry S. Truman.

October 23 General: Eight teachers are dismissed by the New York City Board of Education for alleged Communist activities.

1952

2018

Chronology of American History Science: Dr. Selman A. Waksman of Rutgers University takes the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for helping to discover streptomycin.

October 24 Diplomacy: If elected, Dwight D. Eisenhower pledges to go to Korea and seek an honorable conclusion to that stalemated and costly conflict.

November 1 Science: In the Pacific, U.S. scientists detonate the first hydrogen bomb, the first in a series of “super weapons.”

November 4 Politics: Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower routs Democrat Adlai E. Stevenson in their contest for the presidency, with an electoral vote of 442 to 89 and a popular vote of 33.9 million to the latter’s 27.3 million popular votes. He becomes the first Republican to occupy the White House since 1932. The Republicans also gain control of Congress by a narrow margin; Connecticut senator William Benton, who had earlier traded barbs with Senator Joseph McCarthy and was engaged in a libel suit, is defeated by William Purtell.

November 6 Science: Dr. Edward Mills Purcell of Harvard University and Dr. Felix Bloch of Stanford University share the Nobel Prize in physics for their measurement of magnetic fields in atomic nuclei.

November 10 Civil: The U.S. Supreme Court endorses a lower court ruling, which bans discrimination on interstate railway travel.

November 16 Science: The U.S. Atomic Energy Commission declares all hydrogen bomb testing at Eniwetok Atoll, Marshall Islands, at an end.

November 18 Politics: President Harry S. Truman and president-elect Dwight D. Eisenhower confer in Washington, D.C., to ensure a smooth transition of administrations.

November 20 Diplomacy: John Foster Dulles is nominated as the new secretary of state by president-elect Dwight D. Eisenhower.

November 25 Labor: George Meany replaces the late William Green as president of the American Federation of Labor (AFL).

November 29 Diplomacy: President-elect Dwight D. Eisenhower, true to his campaign pledge, flies to Korea to inspect United Nations frontline positions.

December 4 Labor: Walter Reuther, president of the United Auto Organizations, is chosen to head the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO).

December 5 Diplomacy: President-elect Dwight D. Eisenhower pays a visit to the troops in Korea and hints at the possible use of nuclear weapons to end the stalemated peace talks with Communist powers.

1952

Chronology

Reuther, William

2019

(1907–1970)

Labor leader Walter Philip Reuther was born in Wheeling, West Virginia, on September 1, 1907, the son of a brewery worker who had immigrated from Germany. His father was a committed socialist, and he matured in a household much given to discussion about social ills and inequities. Reuther left school at 15 and worked in a steel mill before moving to Detroit, Michigan, in 1926, where he worked as a tool-and-die maker at the Ford Motor Company. True to his upbringing, he was dissatisfied with the lot of workers and began agitating for collective bargaining and unions before these were politically acceptable. He lost his job in 1933 to the Great Depression, then traveled abroad and worked in the Soviet Union, 1933–35, although he was disillusioned by the lack of political freedom encountered there. But Reuther returned to Detroit in 1936, took a job at General Motors, and continued his labor activism as a committed socialist and member of the United Auto Workers (UAW). By this time he had also grown impressed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s attempts to address social inequities through the New Deal Program, so he distanced himself from socialism and thereafter became identified with the liberal wing of the Democratic Party. By this time Reuther also became president of the tiny but militant Local 174, which he led during strikes in 1937 and 1940. He was beaten up by police and company security several times on the picket lines, but his militancy impressed fellow workers, and membership in Local 174 expanded commensurately. Furthermore,

collective bargaining had become politically palatable now that Roosevelt was president, and Reuther’s actions resulted in new unions at General Motors in 1940 and Ford in 1941. During World War II he strongly opposed any wildcat strikes that might have interrupted the flow of military production. The war had no sooner ended than Reuther initiated a 113-day strike at General Motors in 1946, and it resulted in higher wages and improved benefits. That year he also formally broke with the Socialists, gained election as head of the UAW, and began purging it of all known Communist elements. He was also active in the ranks of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) and expelled 11 Communistdominated unions from the membership. Reuther also remained politically active and was a founding member of the Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) in 1947, although he frequently ventured abroad to help establish the anticommunist International Confederation of Free Trade Unions in 1949. Back home, he labored and struck continually for better wages and benefits, winning for the UAW employer-funded pensions, medical insurance, and supplementary unemployment benefits for the “big three” auto manufacturers. In 1955, he also reached an agreement with AFL leader George Meany to found the new AFL-CIO, although he led them out of their alliance in 1968. Reuther died in an airplane crash in Michigan on May 10, 1970, one of the most significant figures of the American labor movement.

December 17 Politics: In New York City, President-elect Dwight D. Eisenhower confers with General Douglas MacArthur and forthcoming secretary of state John Foster Dulles as to the current state of world events.

1952

2020

Chronology of American History

1953 Diplomacy: Former secretary of state George C. Marshall wins the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of his Marshall Plan for the reconstruction of Western Europe. Literature: Saul Bellow publishes The Adventures of Augie March about middle-class life in 1920s Chicago; African-American author James Baldwin publishes Go Tell It on the Mountain, his first novel; James Michener writes The Bridge at Toko-ri, his Korean War novel; Leon Uris writes his World War II novel, Battle Cry. Music: The year’s most popular tunes include “I Believe,” “How Much Is That Doggie in the Widow,” and “I’m Walking behind You.” Societal: The Ford Foundation endows the Fund of the Republic with $15 million to fight “restrictions on freedom of thought, inquiry, and expression.” Women: Jean Ross Howard is the nation’s first licensed female helicopter pilot and launchers her own business, the “Whirly Girls,” to teach women how to fly them.

January 1 Music: Ernest Bloch’s Suite Hebraique debuts with the Chicago Symphony.

January 3 Aviation: The famous Cessna 310 flies for the first time and becomes a popular machine for civilian aviators.

January 7 Politics: In his State of the Union message, President Harry S. Truman warns his fellow citizens about the perils of nuclear war; Senator John W. Bricker of Ohio seeks to limit American participation in foreign treaties through a constitutional amendment.

January 9 Business: Despite the fact that federal revenues are projected at $68 billion, outlays at every level of government are expected to exceed $78 billion.

January 16 Business: In one of his last official acts while in office, President Harry S. Truman places offshore oil reserves under federal jurisdiction.

January 20 Politics: In Washington, D.C., Dwight D. Eisenhower is inaugurated as the 34th president of the United States.

January 21 Politics: In New York City, a federal jury convicts 13 Communists of conspiring to overthrow the U.S. government.

February 1 Religion: President Dwight D. Eisenhower is granted membership in the National Presbyterian Church.

February 2 Diplomacy: In his first State of the Union message, President Dwight D. Eisenhower declares his intention to withdraw the U.S. Seventh Fleet from the Taiwan

1953

Chronology

Eisenhower, Dwight D.

2021

(1890–1969)

General President Dwight David Eisenhower was born in Denison, Texas, on October 14, 1890, the son of Mennonite pacifist parents. They were upset with him when he was accepted into the U.S. Military Academy in 1911 and graduated four years later a second lieutenant. Eisenhower remained stateside during World War I, commanding a tank training school for which he garnered a reputation for efficiency and cordiality. Over the next three decades Eisenhower rose steadily through the ranks, and in December 1941 he gained appointment as aide to

U.S. Army chief of staff George C. Marshall. After America entered World War II, Marshall, a good judge of soldiers, promoted Eisenhower over the heads of more than 300 senior leaders and appointed him commander in chief of Allied forces in Europe. In this capacity he methodically led American and British forces to victory in North Africa and Sicily before orchestrating the decisive cross-channel invasion of France on June 6, 1944. He then led them on an inexorable advance to the Rhine River, repelled a massive German counterattack in the Battle of (continues)

Dwight D. Eisenhower talking with Clare Boothe Luce (Library of Congress)

1953

2022

Chronology of American History

(continued) the Bulge that winter, and helped secure the ultimate German surrender by May 1945. Eisenhower, who never received high marks as a combat commander, proved himself one of the finest coalition leaders in military history by dint of tact, a willingness to listen to others, and his steely determination to gamble when necessary and succeed. He returned home a national hero in 1946 and was actively courted by both parties as a presidential contender, but “Ike” displayed no interest in politics. He spent the next several years as president of Columbia University and, after 1950, as chief of the new NATO military alliance. In 1952, Eisenhower ran for president as a Republican and he handily defeated Democrat Adlai Stevenson. He then drew a hard line against Communist expansionism with his policy of armed “containment,” but he declined to commit American forces to Southeast Asia to assist the French. This sagacity paid dividends in 1956, when he again defeated Stevenson for the White

House, and he oversaw one of the most prosperous periods of American history. Among the major societal changes was the complete desegregation of the American school system following the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education, and in 1957 he committed federal troops to enforce the court order. He also supported creation of a new Civil Rights Commission for African Americans and also established the new Department of Health, Education, and Welfare for all citizens. His administration hit a major bump in May 1960 after the Russians shot down a U-2 spy plane piloted by Gary Francis Powers, and a year earlier he also cut off all trade and diplomatic ties with Communist dictator Fidel Castro in Cuba. “Ike” left office in January 1961 and was replaced by the Democrat John F. Kennedy, but before leaving he warned his countrymen about the dangers of embracing a “military-industrial complex.” Eisenhower died on his farm in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on March 28, 1969.

Straits, in effect allowing Nationalist Chinese under Chiang Kai-shek to attack mainland Communists.

February 5 Business: According to the American Iron and Steel Institute, steel production in the United States has reached 117.5 million short tons annually.

February 6 Business: Price controls on wages and salaries are lifted by the Office of Price Stabilization.

February 12 Business: The government lifts price controls on diverse consumer products such as eggs, poultry, tires, and gasoline.

February 13 Business: The Office of Defense Mobilization renews allotment controls on steel, copper, and aluminum. Politics: Stridently anticommunist senator Joseph McCarthy declares that American foreign policy is being compromised, if not outright sabotaged, by the Voice of America radio network.

1953

Chronology

2023

February 20 Business: Stock margin requirements are reduced from 75 percent to 50 percent. Diplomacy: In an address to Congress, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles deplores the “forcible absorption of free peoples.”

February 22 Medical: The President’s Commission on the Health Needs of the Nation recommends a voluntary program of health insurance financed by federal, state, and municipal funding.

February 25 Arts: The musical comedy Wonderful Town, with music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green opens at the Winter Garden in New York, and stars Rosalind Russell. Business: The Office of Price Stabilization lifts price controls on cigarettes, dry groceries, copper, and aluminum.

March 5 Diplomacy: Joseph Stalin, who had ruled the Soviet Union with an iron hand and is reviled as one of the 20th century’s bloodiest tyrants, dies in Moscow. Westerners hope his successor will be more tractable.

March 10 Aviation: Two U.S. Air Force F-84G fighter bombers accidentally stray into Czechoslovakian airspace from West Germany and are attacked by MiG-15 fighters; one American plane crashes and the pilot is eventually released.

March 17 Business: The Office of Price Stabilization officially ends all price controls.

March 18 Diplomacy: The State Department officially protests Soviet jets firing upon an American warplane over international waters.

March 19 Media: Academy Awards go to The Greatest Show on Earth as best picture of 1952, to Gary Cooper as best actor in High Noon, and to Shirley Booth for best actress in Come Back, Little Sheba.

March 25 Diplomacy: Senator Joseph McCarthy attempts to block the confirmation of Charles Bohlen as ambassador to the Soviet Union on the basis that he was previously associated with the foreign polices of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman.

March 26 Diplomacy: In Washington, D.C., President Dwight D. Eisenhower assures French premier René Mayer of continuing American military assistance in the fight against Communist forces in Indochina (Vietnam); however, he declines to directly commit American forces in a new war on the Asian mainland.

March 27 Diplomacy: In a slap at Wisconsin senator Joseph McCarthy, the U.S. Senate confirms overwhelmingly Charles Bohlen as ambassador to the Soviet Union on a vote of 74 to 13.

1953

2024

Chronology of American History

April 1 Societal: Congress passes an act establishing the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW).

April 6 Diplomacy: Secretary of State John Foster Dulles rails against the proposed Bricker Amendment, portraying it as “dangerous to our peace and security.”

April 9–16 Sports: The Montreal Canadiens win the NHL Stanley Cup by defeating the Boston Bruins four games to one.

April 11 Societal: Oveta Culp Hobby is appointed secretary of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

April 20 Politics: Members of the Communist Party are ordered to register with the Justice Department as an organization controlled by the Soviet Union. Sports: Keizo Yamada of Japan wins the 57th Boston Marathon by finishing in two hours, 18 minutes, 51 seconds.

April 24 Politics: A report from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) indicates that taxes collected in the previous year totaled $68.5 billion.

April 25 Politics: Senator Wayne Morris of Oregon opposes a bill to reverse President Harry S. Truman’s decision to place all offshore oil under federal authority, arguing that control should revert to the states. He goes on to filibuster the legislation for 221⁄2 hours, 26 minutes.

May 4 Arts: The Pulitzer Prize for fiction goes to Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea; the Pulitzer Prize for poetry goes to Archibald MacLeish, Collected Poems, 1917–1952; the Pulitzer Prize for drama goes to William Inge for Picnic.

May 5 Business: The Senate votes 56-35 to preserve state control of offshore oil reserves, thereby negating federal authority.

May 11 General: Destructive tornadoes hit Waco and San Angelo, Texas, killing 124 people.

May 15 Sports: Rocky Marciano successfully defends his world heavyweight boxing championship title by defeating “Jersey Joe” Walcott in a rematch.

May 18 Aviation: At Edwards Air Force Base, California, aviatrix Jacqueline Cochran is the first woman to break the sound barrier while flying a North American F-86 Sabre.

1953

Chronology

Hemingway, Ernest

2025

(1898–1961)

Writer Ernest Miller Hemingway was born in Oak Park, Illinois, on July 21, 1898, the son of a physician. He distinguished himself as an athlete in high school but was scarred by his father’s suicide and unhappy with his doting mother. Consequently, Hemingway repeatedly ran away from home until 1917, when he sought to join the U.S. Army for service in World War I. Rejected on account of eye trouble, he subsequently joined the Red Cross as an ambulance driver and saw active duty along the Italian front. In this capacity he bravely saved several lives under fire at Fossalta di Piave, sustained serious leg injuries in the process, and was decorated by the Italian government. After the war, Hemingway continued abroad as a correspondent for the Toronto Star, covering violent events in the Near East. After a brief stay in Michigan to marry, he relocated to a writers colony in Paris, France, where he commiserated with such notable expatriates as Erza Pound and Gertrude Stein. Hemingway typically scorned poverty and commenced writing, producing his first volume, Three Stories and Ten Poems, in 1923. This was soon followed by a succession of volumes, written in a uniquely terse prose, which invariably dwelt upon young men and women shattered by war but, through their pain, discovering and vindicating themselves. In 1926, he had minor success with his war story The Sun Also Rises and two years later won acclaim for A Farewell to Arms (1928). Set against the tumult of World War I, it reiterates the author’s bynow familiar theme of stoic endurance.

Hemingway, always interested in asserting his own masculinity, became an ardent fan of bullfighting, which figured prominently in his next notable volume, Death in the Afternoon (1932). Buoyed by success, Hemingway also tried his hands at writing a play, The Fifth Column, which was produced in 1940 and flopped. However, that year he also finished his seminal work, For Whom the Bell Tolls, which is set against the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War. During World War II, Hemingway gave up novels in favor of war correspondence, and he wrote continually and effectively about some of the biggest battles raging in Western Europe. Afterward, he purchased a new home in Finca Vigia, Cuba, then entered into something of a slump, when his new war novel, Across the River and into the Trees, was savaged by critics. Hemingway, stung by their remarks, redoubled his effort, and in 1952 he proffered his masterpiece, The Old Man and the Sea, in which conflict is artfully reduced to the struggle between man and nature. Consequently, he received the Pulitzer Prize in 1953 and the Nobel Prize in literature in 1954. Unfortunately, Hemingway’s health dramatically declined following a crash in the Belgian Congo in 1954, and his writing style and quality also suffered. The Cuban Revolution of 1959 also forced him to relocate to a new abode in Ketchum, Idaho, but the erstwhile forceful writer was unable to confront his emotional depression. Hemingway committed suicide at home on July 2, 1961, a celebrated literary stylist.

May 22 Politics: The Submerged Lands Act is signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, which allows coastal states to keep jurisdiction over all submerged and reclaimed land within their boundaries.

1953

2026

Chronology of American History

Cochran, Jacqueline

(1910–1980)

Aviatrix Jacqueline Cochran was born in Pensacola, Florida, around 1910, was orphaned at an early age, and raised in a foster home. As a child she labored 12 hours a day in the cotton fields but gradually developed interest in work as a beautician and relocated to Montgomery, Alabama. Cochran proved herself adept at business, and by 1931 she was running her own cosmetic firm in New York City. That year she met and married millionaire Floyd Odlum, who paid for her first flying lessons. She proved herself a natural pilot and by 1935 was competent enough to become the first woman to fly in the Benedix Transcontinental Air Race. She lost and two years later finished third, but in flying a special racing plane designed by flamboyant aviator Alexander P. De Seversky, Cochran became the first woman to win the Bendix race and trophy. This was only the first of 200 such awards accrued over a lifetime, including no fewer than six prestigious Harmon trophies for most distinguished aviator of the year. With the outbreak of World War II in Europe, General Henry H. Arnold allowed Cochran to fly a Lockheed Hudson bomber from the United States to Great Britain as a publicity stunt. Arnold subsequently allowed her to recruit 25 female pilots as volunteers for the Royal Air Force Air Transport Auxiliary and, following America’s entry into World War II, she commanded the Women’s Air Force Service Pilots (WASPs) with a rank of lieutenant colonel. These women performed useful service ferrying aircraft across the Atlantic until 1944, when the Army Air Force felt their service was no

longer needed. Cochran, however, continued overseas for the rest of the conflict as a correspondent for Liberty magazine, and in 1945 she became the first woman to land an aircraft in Japan. She was also the first civilian to receive the Distinguished Service Medal. After the war, Cochran continued her pursuit of daunting aeronautics in the new jet age. With the help of test pilot Major Charles “Chuck” Yeager, she learned to fly jets, and in May 1953 she became the first woman to exceed the speed of sound in an F-86 Sabre. After an unsuccessful run for Congress in 1956, Cochran served as the first female president of the Federation Aeronautique International, 1958–59. In 1962, she became the first women to pilot a jet nonstop across the Atlantic, and two years later, at the controls of an F-104G Starfighter, she set the woman’s world speed record of 1,424 miles per hour. Cochran was promoted to full colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserve in 1969, and in 1971 she capped her long and distinguished career by becoming the first woman pilot inducted into the U.S. Aviation Hall of Fame. It was not for another six years, however, that Cochran and her fellow WASPs were finally accorded recognition as military veterans. Somehow she found the time to continue running her cosmetics firm and serve as director of Northwest Airlines. She was twice nominated as Businesswoman of the Year. Cochran died in Indio, California, on August 9, 1980, with most of her aviation records still standing.

May 25 Aviation: The North American XF-100, the first American fighter capable of sustained supersonic flight, debuts at Edwards Air Force Base, California.

1953

Chronology

2027

Military: The U.S. Army announces that it has successfully tested the new atomic cannon in Nevada.

May 27 Architecture: The National Institute for Arts and Letters presents noted designer Frank Lloyd Wright with its Gold Medal for Architecture.

May 30 Sports: Bill Vukovich wins the 37th Indianapolis 500 by finishing in three hours, 53 minutes at an average speed of 128.74 miles per hour.

June 8 General: Tornadoes devastate parts of Ohio and Michigan, killing 139 people.

June 9 General: A tornado unexpectedly drops down in central Massachusetts, killing 86 people.

June 12 Labor: To avert further strikes, the United States Steel Corporation signs a contract with the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) to provide an hourly wage increase of 81⁄2 cents.

June 14 Societal: President Dwight D. Eisenhower addresses students and faculty at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, warning them about “book burners” and other forms of thought control.

June 18 Aviation: A U.S. Air Force C-124 Globemaster transport crashes near Tokyo, Japan, killing 129 servicemen; this is the most serious aerial accident up to this point. Diplomacy: President Dwight D. Eisenhower accuses South Korean president Syngman Rhee of violating the United Nations chain of command by releasing North Korean prisoners.

June 19 Crime: Convicted Soviet spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are executed by electric chair at Ossining, New York, becoming the first citizens to die for espionage in peacetime.

June 23 Diplomacy: United Nations members sign a protocol restricting opium production to scientific and medical reasons only.

July 27 Aviation: Shortly before the Korean armistice takes effect, a U.S. Air Force F-86 Sabre jet fighter encounters a Soviet Il-12 transport near Kanggye, North Korea, and shoots it down, killing all 21 passengers on board. Diplomacy: After several years of negotiations, the United Nations, China, and North Korea conclude an armistice at Panmunjom, Korea.

July 29 Aviation: A U.S. Air Force Boeing RB-50 Superfortress reconnaissance aircraft is shot down by Soviet MiG-15 jet interceptors in international waters off the coast of Vladivostok in the Soviet Union. One man from the 18-man crew survives and is rescued.

1953

2028

Chronology of American History

Rosenberg, Julius (1918–1953) Soviet spy Julius Rosenberg was born in New York City on May 12, 1918, a son of Jewish immigrants. In 1936, he became a leader in the Young Communist League, where he met his future wife, Ethel Greenglass, whom he married three years later. Rosenberg passed through the City College of New York with a degree in electrical engineering in 1939, and a year later he joined the U.S. Army Signal Corps as a civilian technician, working on classified radar equipment. True to his Communist sympathies, he tendered his services to the Soviet embassy on Labor Day, 1942, and he began passing thousands of highly classified documents to Russian intelligence operatives. Among them were schematics for the top-secret radar proximity fuze for antiaircraft shells, one of which shot down Francis Gary Powers’s U-2 over Russia in 1960. Rosenberg also recruited a reliable coterie of spies such as Joel Barr, Al Sarant, William Perl, and Morton Sobel, who likewise carried highly valuable military documents to the Russians. Meanwhile, Rosenberg’s brother-in-law, David Greenglass, was also working for the topsecret Manhattan Engineering District Project at Los Alamos, New Mexico, through which the United States developed the first atomic bomb. Greenglass, a courier for top Soviet agent Klaus Fuchs, gave the Soviets invaluable technical information, which allowed them to develop their own atomic weapons in 1949. None of this was known by the U.S. government until January 1950, when British intelligence agents swooped down on Fuchs in Great Britain and forced

his confession. In doing so he implicated several of his former American consorts, including David Greenglass and Harry Gold, who were subsequently arrested by the FBI. Morton Sobel then fled to Mexico seeking immunity, but he was also arrested and deported back to the United States for trial. Julius Rosenberg, upon learning of Harry Gold’s arrest, tried to flee the country, but he was arrested by federal agents in July 1950 and charged with conspiracy to commit espionage. His wife Ethel was likewise brought into custody the following August, and both were brought to trial in New York on March 6, 1951. In addition to a mountain of physical evidence against them, David Greenglass, wishing to avoid a possible death penalty, agreed to testify against his sister and brotherin-law. The Rosenbergs, while freely admitting their Communist leanings, vehemently denied that they were spies, even after Harry Gold testified that they were directly tied to known Soviet agent Anatoli Yakovlev. In light of all this, the Rosenbergs were convicted of espionage on March 29, 1951, and a month later received the death penalty. The verdict brought forth an outpouring of sympathy among Communist and left-wing groups in the United States and abroad, but the consensus among the general public was that the couple had betrayed the country and deserved their fate. Both were executed at Sing Sing Prison, New York, on June 19, 1953, with the melancholy distinction of becoming the only Americans to die in peacetime for espionage.

August 1 Societal: President Dwight D. Eisenhower proposes an expanded Social Security program to include another 10.5 million people.

1953

Chronology

2029

August 5 Diplomacy: In an attempt to smooth ruffled feathers, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles meets with South Korean president Syngman Rhee in Seoul.

August 7 Politics: The Refugee Relief Act of 1953 is passed by Congress, which allows 214,000 immigrants into the United States over existing immigrant quotas.

August 15 Military: General Matthew Ridgway is appointed U.S. Army chief of staff.

August 31 Aviation: Marine Corps lieutenant colonel Marion E. Carl sets a world altitude record of 15 miles while flying the Douglas D-558 Skyrocket.

September 4 Diplomacy: General William Dean, captured in the early days of the Korean conflict, is released by North Korean authorities at Panmunjom, Korea.

September 10 Politics: Secretary of Labor Martin Durking resigns from office to protest President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s failure to amend the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act.

September 16 Media: The Robe, starring Richard Burton and Jean Simmons, is released by 20th Century Fox as the world’s first CinemaScope (widescreen) motion picture.

September 18 Diplomacy: Ministers from the United States, Great Britain, and France request the Soviet Union to send representatives to an international conference at Lugano, Switzerland.

September 22 Labor: The American Federation of Labor (AFL) expels the International Longshoremen’s Association over its failure to rid itself of racketeers.

September 24 Sports: Rocky Marciano successfully defends his world heavyweight boxing championship against Roland LaStarza.

September 26 Diplomacy: The State Department pledges to provide the regime of Francisco Franco with military and economic assistance in return for leased air and naval facilities.

September 30 Sports: The New York Yankees (AL) win the 50th annual World Series by defeating the Brooklyn Dodgers, four games to two.

October 1 Labor: The Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 is invoked by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to avert a possible dockworker’s strike.

October 5 Law: Earl Warren is appointed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower as the new chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

1953

2030

Chronology of American History

October 16 Naval: The carrier USS Leyte suffers from an explosion and fire while docked at Boston Navy Yard, killing 37 sailors and injuring 40.

October 22 Science: The Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine goes to Dr. Fritz Albert Lipmann of Harvard University Medical School for his discovery of co-enzyme-A and to Dr. Hans Adolf Krebs of Sheffield University, England, for uncovering the citrus acid cycle (or “Krebs” cycle).

October 24 Aviation: The delta-wing Convair XF-102 flies for the first time, being the first jet fighter designed to be armed solely with air-to-air missiles.

November 3 Diplomacy: The Soviet government declines to attend a forthcoming conference in Switzerland unless representatives of the People’s Republic of China are also invited.

November 20 Aviation: A Douglas D-558 Skyrocket becomes the first manned vehicle to break Mach 2–1,328 miles per hour.

November 23 Politics: President Dwight D. Eisenhower, addressing the abuses of Senator Joseph McCarthy, insists that all Americans have a right to confront their accusers, “face to face.”

November 24 Media: Senator Joseph McCarthy takes to the airwaves and criticizes the former administration of Harry S. Truman, accusing it of being inundated with Communists.

December Military: U.S. scientists successfully test the Nike-Ajax, the world’s first antiaircraft missile system.

December 4 Diplomacy: President Dwight D. Eisenhower joins representatives from the United States, France, and Great Britain in Bermuda for a four-day conference concerning the exchange of nuclear information and technology.

December 8 Diplomacy: In light of the real risk of all-out nuclear war, President Dwight D. Eisenhower addresses the United Nations General Assembly in New York City, and calls for an “Atoms for Peace” program to explore the beneficial application of nuclear energy.

December 9 Business: The General Electric Corporation announces it will fire all workers suspected of Communist sympathies.

December 12 Aviation: At Edwards Air Force Base, Major Charles E. “Chuck” Yeager flies the Bell X-1A to 1,612 miles per hour, 21⁄2 times the speed of sound.

1953

Chronology

2031

Journalism: President Dwight D. Eisenhower holds the first White House press conference whereby journalists are allowed to directly quote the chief executive for the first time and publish it in their news reports.

December 26 Military: The United States announces the withdrawal of two infantry divisions from the Korean Peninsula.

1954 Literature: William Faulkner releases his quasi-religious epic A Fable, which sets Christ’s crucifixion in World War I; Mac Hyman publishes his military service comedy No Time for Sergeants; William March completes The Bad Seed, which posits a young girl as the personification of evil; John Steinbeck completes Sweet Thursday, the sequel to his earlier hit Cannery Row (1945). Media: Cinemascope (wide screen) houses are all the rage at movie theaters, with 7,448 movie houses adapting their facilities; television becomes the milieu of choice in America with 29 million sets, representing 60 percent of households nationally. Music: Controversial composer Igor Stravinsky releases four new major works this year; the year’s popular tunes include “Stranger in Paradise,” “Hey, There,” and “Young at Heart,” David Diamond composes the symphonic eulogy Ahavah, commemorating the 300th anniversary of Jews arriving in America.

January 7 Politics: In his State of the Union address, President Dwight D. Eisenhower proposes cutting back in military expenditures.

January 11 Agriculture: In an address to Congress, President Dwight D. Eisenhower seeks to replace rigid farm pricing supports with “modernized parity,” namely, rates that the Department of Agriculture would be free to bargain and exchange surplus crops for strategic goods from foreign nations. He also urges major revisions in the Taft-Hartley labor law.

January 12 Diplomacy: In a major shift in national defense policy, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles announces the new practice of “massive retaliation” to thwart an attack by the Soviet Union. Under this scheme, conventional forces take a back stage to nuclear weapons.

January 19 Business: High-flying General Motors Corporation announces a $1-million program to modernize and expand automobile production.

January 20 Arts: Herman Wouk’s play The Caine Mutiny, based upon his best-selling novel, premieres at the Plymouth Theater, New York, and stars Henry Fonda and Lloyd Nolan.

January 21 Naval: The USS Nautilus, the world’s first nuclear-powered submarine, is launched at Groton, Connecticut.

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January 23 Diplomacy: Foreign ministers from the Big Four (United States, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union) convene the Berlin Conference in Germany.

January 26 Diplomacy: The U.S. Senate approves a defense treaty with the Republic of (South) Korea.

January 27 Aviation: A U.S. Air Force RB-45C Tornado reconnaissance bomber is jumped by North Korean MiG-15 fighters over the Yellow Sea and is rescued by a flight of F-86 Sabres; one MiG is shot down.

January 30 Music: Roy Harris’s Symphonic Fantasy debuts with the Pittsburgh Symphony in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

February 2 Science: President Dwight D. Eisenhower reports on the first American hydrogen bomb test at Eniwetok Atoll in 1952.

February 18 Diplomacy: Ministers from the Big Four nations are unable to come to an agreement as to the peaceful unification of East and West Germany. They also discuss declining French military fortunes against the Viet Minh in Indochina.

February 22 Music: Alan Hovhaness’s Concerto No. Five for piano and orchestra is played by the National Orchestra Association in New York.

February 23 Medical: The polio vaccine developed by Dr. Jonas Salk is administered for the first time in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and proves highly effective in controlling this debilitating malady.

February 28 Aviation: The Lockheed XF-104, the world’s first jet capable of sustained speeds in excess of Mach 2, is test flown for the first time.

March 1 Crime: Five congressmen are slightly wounded by Puerto Rican nationalists in a shooting at the House of Representatives; all recover from their wounds. Diplomacy: United States representatives meet with members of the Organization of American States in Caracas, Venezuela, to prevent the spread of communism in Latin America. Science: The United States conducts its largest ever hydrogen bomb test in the Marshall Islands; the device exceeded all expectations in terms of power released.

March 4 Music: Ernst Krenek’s Violoncello Concerto premieres with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Los Angeles, California.

March 8 Diplomacy: President Dwight D. Eisenhower indicates that foreign military assistance between October 1949 and December 1951 amounted to $8 billion;

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Chronology

Salk, Jonas

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(1914–1995)

Immunologist Jonas Salk was born in New York City on October 28, 1914, a son of Jewish immigrants from Russia. He originally attended the City College of New York to study law, but then switched over to medicine and received his bachelor’s degree in 1938. He followed up with his M.D. from New York University in 1939, whereupon he worked two years at Mount Sinai Hospital as an intern. In 1942, Salk received a fellowship in epidemiology from the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan, and he began studying the influenza virus in concert with Dr. Thomas Francis, Jr. Together they concocted an effective flu vaccine for the U.S. Army, while Salk advanced to the position of assistant professor and continued working in virology. In 1947, he was tendered the post of head of virus research at the University of Pittsburgh, and continued his work with the influenza virus. However, in 1949 Salk advanced to research professor and switched his emphasis into developing a serum against the poliomyelitus virus. At length he became director of a three-year project to continue his work under the aegis of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, and the task soon absorbed all of his energies. The problem confronting Salk and other researchers was that three distinct strains of virus caused polio, a frequently fatal infection usually characterized by debilitating paralysis. To be effective, Salk would have to develop a single vaccine to counteract all three. He then settled upon employing a serum culled from recently inactivated

(killed) viruses, which would stimulate a response from the body’s immune system without causing the disease itself. By 1952, Salk was testing the vaccine on himself and other volunteers and, when none of them caught the disease, it was declared safe and made available for public use. Salk’s timing could not have been more fortuitous, for a polio epidemic was sweeping the nation in 1952, with 52,628 cases reported and over 3,000 deaths. Commencing in 1955, when the vaccine was first introduced into children, there resulted a dramatic 85 to 90 percent drop in polio cases within a few years, and the disease, once dreaded, is now nearly eradicated. For his breakthrough efforts he received the Lasker Award (1956) and the Bruce Memorial Award (1958) among many others. Salk continued on at Pittsburgh as Commonwealth Professor of Preventative Medicine until 1963, when he established the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California. In 1970, he also held the post of adjunct professor of health sciences at the University of California, San Diego. His important work at both institutes culminated in a Congressional Gold Medal of Honor and the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Jimmy Carter in 1977. He spent the remainder of his career attempting to develop a preventive vaccine for the dreaded AIDS virus. Salk died at La Jolla, California, on June 23, 1995, having expunged the world of polio, one of mankind’s most dreaded afflictions.

the United States and Japan conclude a mutual defense pact, which allows for the gradual rearming of the latter.

March 10 Business: The House of Representatives votes to slash most federal excise and luxury taxes by 50 percent.

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Chronology of American History Technology: The Atomic Energy Commission announces that plans are being drawn up for the nation’s first atomic power plant by the Duquesne Power Company of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

March 16 Diplomacy: It is revealed that the United States, which opposes a negotiated settlement in Indochina, has borne most of the cost of supply of the French military in its losing struggle against Communists led by Ho Chi Minh.

March 24 Science: Results of the March 1 hydrogen bomb test are announced to the public by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The new weapon apparently exceeded all its testing parameters.

March 25 Media: Academy Awards go to From Here to Eternity for best picture of 1953, to William Holden as best actor for Stalag 17, and to Audrey Hepburn as best actress for Roman Holiday.

March 31–April 12 Sports: The Minneapolis Lakers win the NBA basketball championship by defeating the Syracuse Nationals four games to one.

April 1 Education: President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorizes construction of the new U.S. Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs, Colorado. This gives the newest service parity with West Point and Annapolis.

April 2 Labor: The International Longshoremen’s Association calls off a strike in New York City that had begun on March 3; this is one of the city’s longest and costliest work actions.

April 3 Diplomacy: Secretary of State John Foster Dulles urges Congress to authorize American air strikes to bolster French forces in their fight against Vietnamese Communists under Ho Chi Minh. However, Congress proves reluctant to approve of further commitments in that part of the world unless Great Britain also lends assistance.

April 4–16 Sports: The Detroit Red Wings win the NHL Stanley Cup by defeating the Montreal Canadiens four games to three.

April 7 Diplomacy: President Dwight D. Eisenhower declares his support for continuing military assistance to the French in Indochina in a bid to keep that region out of Communist hands and “falling like a row of dominoes.”

April 8 Military: Construction begins on the DEW (distant early warning) line across northern Canada and Greenland, to protect the Northern Hemisphere from Soviet attack.

April 19 Sports: Viekko Karanen of Finland wins the 58th Boston Marathon by finishing in two hours, 20 minutes, 39 seconds.

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April 23–June 17 Politics: A heated dispute between Senator Joseph McCarthy and the U.S. Army over investigations at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, leads to a Senate investigation, which is televised nationally and accorded considerable press coverage. McCarthy comes across looking like a bully, which leads to the downfall of his anticommunist drive.

May 3 Arts: Pulitzer Prizes go to Charles A. Lindbergh for his biography The Spirit of St. Louis; Bruce Catton, A Stillness at Appomattox, history; Theodore Roethke, The Waking: Poems, 1933–1953, poetry; and John Patrick, Teahouse of the August Moon, drama.

May 7 Diplomacy: The French defeat at Dien Bien Phu leaves President Dwight D. Eisenhower convinced that limited American intervention is necessary to prevent Southeast Asia from falling to the Communists. However, he refrains from introducing ground troops.

May 13 Transportation: Congress passes the Wiley-Dondero Act, which allocates funds for a joint U.S.-Canadian construction of a channel between Montreal and Lake Erie. The St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation is thereby established under Secretary of Defense Charles E. Wilson.

May 17 Civil: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, ruling that the accepted notion of “separate but equal” in terms of public education is unconstitutional. This landmark decision clears the way for desegregation throughout the nation, especially the South. It also provides greater impetus to the mounting Civil Rights movement. Diplomacy: The United States regards the importation of Czechoslovakian arms by the Árbenz-Guzmán regime of Guatemala a serious intrusion into the Western Hemisphere by the Communists.

May 21 Politics: The Senate defeats a proposal that would have allowed 18 year olds to vote.

May 24 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court upholds provisions of the Internal Security Act of 1950, which renders Communist Party membership as sufficient grounds for deportation.

May 26 Naval: A fire onboard the vessel USS Bennington at Quonset Point, Rhode Island, kills 103 sailors.

May 31 Sports: Bill Vukovich wins the 38th Indianapolis 500 by finishing in three hours, 49 minutes, 17 seconds at an average speed of 130.840 miles per hour.

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June 1 Science: A three-man board denies physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer’s request for reinstatement as an adviser to the Atomic Energy Commission. Oppenheimer has been blacklisted over his criticism of atomic weapons development.

June 2 Politics: Senator Joseph McCarthy charges that the Central Intelligence Agency has been overrun by Communist agents.

June 9 Transportation: Defense Secretary Charles Wilson is selected by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to head up the new St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation.

June 15 Diplomacy: In light of the recent Communist victory at Dien Bien Phu, the State Department determines to provide the French military with additional assistance, but no ground troops or air support.

June 17 Sports: Rocky Marciano successfully defends his world heavyweight boxing championship title by defeating Ezzard Charles.

June 18 Military: Colonel Carlos Catillo Armas leads a CIA-assisted army from Honduras into Guatemala with a view to overthrowing the left-leaning regime of Árbenz-Guzmán.

Oppenheimer, J. Robert (1904 –1967) Scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer was born in New York City on April 22, 1904, the son of wealthy German immigrants. Adept as a student, he was educated at the Ethical Culture School before gaining admission to Harvard University in 1922. Oppenheimer graduated in only three years, and only required an additional two years at Cambridge University, England, and the University of Göttingen, Germany, to obtain his doctorate in physics. A brilliant scientist as well as brilliant teacher, he next joined the faculties of the California Institute of Technology and the University of California, Berkeley, where he rose to full professor in 1936. Between 1926 and 1942 he also conducted useful and groundbreaking research in the fields

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of quantum and nuclear physics, literally transforming those disciplines in the United States from obscurity to world prominence. In 1941, Oppenheimer was selected to spearhead one of the most daunting tasks ever attempted by scientists anywhere: the race to build an atomic bomb. It had long been feared that Nazi Germany had embarked on such a quest in the 1930s, and its acquisition was viewed as vital to the survival of democracy in the West. As such, Oppenheimer commanded a brilliant coterie of leading physicists such as Enrico Fermi, Edward Teller, and Niels Bohr under the code name Manhattan Engineering District Project. He personally picked the site in New Mexico and, over the next four years, painstakingly

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June 20 Diplomacy: The United Nations Security Council asks that all nations withhold military aid to the insurgents fighting the regime of Árbenz-Guzmán in Guatemala.

June 25 Diplomacy: Prime Minister Winston Churchill arrives in Washington, D.C., for high-level strategy talks with President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

June 29 Diplomacy: CIA-assisted insurgents under Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas overthrow the left-wing regime of Árbenz-Guzmán in Guatemala. Labor: The United States Steel Corporation and the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) conclude a two-year labor package with wage increases and welfare benefits. Science: On a vote of four to one, the Atomic Energy Commission approves the decision to deny physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer a security clearance.

July 12 Transportation: President Dwight D. Eisenhower proposes the National Defense Highway Act to modernize and expand the nation’s ground transportation network. Both state and federal funds would be utilized.

July 13 Business: The Department of Commerce declares that the gross national product for 1953 was $365 billion.

constructed a viable mechanism for obtaining nuclear fission in a military projectile. The fruits and implications of his labors were instantly apparent in July 1945 when the first atomic bomb was successfully detonated at Alamogordo, New Mexico. This was the largest explosive device then known to human science and, when dropped over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki the following August, brought World War II to a speedy and successful conclusion. For his efforts, Oppenheimer was publicly hailed as the father of the atomic bomb, and in 1946 he received the Presidential Medal of Merit from President Harry S. Truman. From 1946 to 1952 he also served as chairman of the general advisory committee of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). In this capacity, Oppenheimer urged

civilian control of nuclear power to keep its continuing development out of military hands. He also railed against creation of the newer and even more powerful thermonuclear (hydrogen) bomb in 1949, but he was overruled by President Truman, as the Soviet Union was known to be pursuing this same weapon. The decade of the 1950s saw Oppenheimer generally discredited in political circles because of his left-wing sympathies while a young man, and, in 1954, the AEC stripped him of his security clearance and barred him from research. It was not until 1963, when the AEC reversed itself and awarded him the Fermi Award, their highest honor, that his reputation was rehabilitated. Oppenheimer, one of America’s most brilliant scientists, died in Princeton, New Jersey on February 18, 1967.

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July 15 Aviation: Boeing Model 367-80, a revolutionary jet transport, flies for the first time and soon enters production as the legendary 707.

July 21 Diplomacy: The United States, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union sign the Geneva Agreement, which calls for partitioning Indochina (Vietnam) into a Communist North and a noncommunist South following French evacuation of the region.

July 26 Diplomacy: Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., becomes head of the U.S. delegation to the United Nations.

July 30 Politics: Senator Ralph E. Flanders introduces a motion to censure Senator Joseph R. McCarthy for conduct unbecoming his office.

August 2 Societal: The Housing Act of 1954 is signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, which provides funding to build 35,000 new units to alleviate a housing shortage.

August 11 Diplomacy: Communist Chinese foreign minister Chou En-lai declares his country’s intention to attack the Nationalist regime of Chiang Kai-shek on the offshore island of Taiwan.

August 15 Religion: The World Council of Churches holds its second assembly in Evanston, Illinois.

August 17 Diplomacy: President Dwight D. Eisenhower, reacting to Chinese Communist threats to attack Taiwan, declares that any Communist invasion “would have to run over the 7th Fleet.”

August 24 Politics: The Communist Control Act is signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, which imposes new restraints upon the American Communist Party and subjects it to penalties incurred under the McCarran Act.

August 30 Business: The Atomic Energy Bill is signed into law by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, which authorizes private companies to construct atomic reactors for the purpose of generating electricity. The legislation also allows the government to share nuclear weapons technology with European allies.

September 1 General: Hurricane Carol lashes New England and New York, killing 68 people and inflicting $500 million in damages. Societal: Amendments to the Social Security Act add 7 million workers to those eligible for coverage, particularly self-employed farmers.

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September 3 Crime: President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Espionage and Sabotage Act of 1954 whereby the death penalty is authorized for peacetime espionage. The statute of limitation for these acts is also removed. Technology: In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, President Dwight D. Eisenhower breaks ground for the nation’s first atomic power plant.

September 4 Aviation: Soviet MiG-15 fighters accost a U.S. Navy P2V-5 Neptune reconnaissance aircraft 40 miles off the coast of Siberia and shoot it down, killing one crew member. Nine others are rescued and returned.

September 8 Diplomacy: The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) is created after the United States and seven regional nations sign a treaty. Among the signatories are Australia, Pakistan, Great Britain, New Zealand, the Philippines, and Thailand. However, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles clarifies that American involvement in military action is restricted to countering “Communist aggression.”

September 10 General: Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, is pounded by a major hurricane, which leaves 22 dead and $50 million in property damage in its wake.

September 12 Diplomacy: President Dwight D. Eisenhower confers with the United Nations Security Council over the potential for nuclear war and his determination to hang back from any strife between Nationalist and Communist China.

September 17 Sports: Rocky Marciano again defeats Ezzard Charles in his defense of the world heavyweight boxing championship.

September 24 Business: The United Steel Workers of America expels Communists, fascists, and members of the Ku Klux Klan from its membership.

September 27 Military: The United States and Canada agree to construct the Distant Early Warning (DEW) line across the Arctic fringes of the territories, to alert both countries of incoming Soviet bombers. Politics: Senator Arthur Watkins heads the Special Senate Committee that unanimously calls for the censure of Wisconsin senator Joseph R. McCarthy.

September 28 Diplomacy: American and British representatives meet in the London Conference to work out details over joint occupation and peacekeeping roles in Western Europe.

September 29 Sports: The New York Giants (NL) win the 51st World Series by defeating the Cleveland Indians (AL) in four straight games.

September 30 Naval: The USS Nautilus, the world’s first atomic-powered submarine, is commissioned at Groton, Connecticut.

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October 11 Political: Following enforcement of the Communist Control Act, over 2,600 people have been fired from federal service by the Civil Service Commission.

October 13 Aviation: Congress agrees to fund development of the Convair XB-58, a fourengined, delta-winged jet bomber destined to be the first supersonic aircraft of its class.

October 15 General: The destructive Hurricane Hazel slams into the eastern seaboard as far north as Canada, killing 350 people and causing $100 million in damages.

October 17 Aviation: A Sikorsky XH-39 helicopter piloted by U.S. Army warrant officer Billy Wester reaches a record altitude of 24,500 feet.

October 20–23 Diplomacy: British, French, and American representatives continue talks for a joint allied force to maintain peace in Western Europe through the eventual deployment of nuclear weapons. At this time the newly reconstituted West German Federal Republic is granted membership in NATO.

October 21 Science: John F. Enders and Thomas H. Weiler of Harvard University, and Frederick C. Robins of Western Reserve Medical School share the Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine for cultivating the polio virus.

October 25 Media: Television affords live coverage of a cabinet meeting for the first time, in which Secretary of State John Foster Dulles reports on the results of the Paris Conference of October 23.

October 28 Literature: Ernest Hemingway wins the Nobel Prize for literature for his unique and powerful narrative style of writing.

October 30 Diplomacy: The State Department pledges to provide $6.5 million to support the new, anticommunist regime of President Carlos Castillo Armas in Guatemala.

November 2 Politics: Midterm elections favor the Democrats, who take control of both chambers of Congress.

November 3 Science: Linus Pauling of the California Institute of Technology wins the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his study of attraction forces within proteins and other molecules.

November 4 Aviation: A U.S. Air Force RB-29 Superfortress reconnaissance aircraft is attacked by Soviet MiG-15s near Hokkaido, northern Japan, and it is shot down with the death of one crew member.

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November 16 Science: The Atomic Energy Commission awards physicist Enrico Fermi a special award of $25,000 for his contributions to the rapidly expanding field of nuclear power.

November 27 Crime: Alger Hiss completes his 44 months of imprisonment for lying to a federal grand jury about his Communist activities while working as a federal employee at the State Department.

December 2 Diplomacy: The United States and Taiwan conclude a mutual defense treaty. Politics: The Senate roundly condemns the bullying tactics of Senator Joseph R. McCarthy of Wisconsin throughout the so-called Army-McCarthy hearings. This effectively finishes his four-year crusade to expose Communists at all levels of governance.

December 11 Naval: The giant angle-deck carrier USS Forrestal, weighing in at 59,650 tons, is launched at Newport News, Virginia.

December 16 Diplomacy: Nelson A. Rockefeller is appointed a special assistant in foreign policy by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

December 31 Business: The New York Stock Exchange reports 573 million shares traded this year, the highest volume since 1933 and the highest prices quoted since 1929.

1955 Literature: MacKinlay Kantor publishes his powerful novel Andersonville about the notorious Civil War prison; Sloan Wilson finishes The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit; Herman Wouk publishes his latest novel Marjorie Morningstar. Media: Walt Disney’s movie Davy Crockett is all the rage, starts a fad for coonskin hats, and leads to a television show starring Fess Parker. Music: Among the year’s most popular tunes are “The Yellow Rose of Texas,” “Let Me Go, Lover,” “Mr. Sandman,” and “Unchained Melody.” Publishing: The popularity of comic books among young people is borne out by the sheer number printed this year: over 1 million annually.

January 1 Diplomacy: The United State Foreign Aid Office begin funneling $216 million in aid to South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, in an attempt to forestall a Communist takeover.

January 3 Politics: A total of 3,002 people considered security risks have been removed from federal payrolls between May 1953 and September 1954.

January 5 Politics: The 84th Congress opens its first session with Sam Rayburn of Texas as Speaker of the House of Representatives.

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January 6 Politics: In a conciliatory speech, President Dwight D. Eisenhower calls upon both Democrats and Republicans to cooperate in making the United States a leader in world peace.

January 8 Medical: Researchers discover the drugs reserpine and thorazine, which are useful in treating mental disorders.

January 9 Technology: The Atomic Energy Commission declares that civilian-operated atomic power plants will soon be up and operational.

January 14 Politics: The Senate, still cognizant of the specter of Communist infiltration, votes 84 to 0 for the continuing investigation of all federal employees.

January 17 Politics: The projected fiscal budget for 1955 is pegged at $62.4 billion, while revenues are projected to bring in at least $60 billion.

January 19 Media: President Dwight D. Eisenhower stars in the first televised press conference.

January 25 Diplomacy: The United States and the Republic of Panama conclude an agreement whereby both will cooperate resolving issues arising from the Panama Canal.

January 27 Crime: Serge Rubenstein, a wealthy financier and convicted draft dodger during World War I, is found murdered at home.

January 28 Diplomacy: The Senate votes 85-3 in pledging to defend Taiwan and the Pescadores Islands against Chinese Communist aggression.

January 29 Military: Congress approves a resolution allowing an immediate troop mobilization by President Dwight D. Eisenhower should Chinese Communists attack Taiwan.

February 1 Diplomacy: Congress ratifies the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty, which establishes SEATO.

February 5 Aviation: A U.S. Air Force RB-45C Tornado jet reconnaissance bomber is attacked by North Korean MiG-15s over the Yellow Sea and is rescued by an escort of F-86 Sabres, who shoot down two Migs.

February 9 Labor: The AFL and the CIO announce their planned merger for the first time publicly.

February 15 Science: The Atomic Energy Commission releases a report stating that a single hydrogen weapon could annihilate an area totaling 700 square miles.

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February 23 Diplomacy: United States representatives fly to Bangkok, Thailand, for the first meeting of the SEATO Council.

February 24 Arts: Cole Porter’s musical Silk Stockings, based on the movie Ninotchka, premieres at the Imperial Theater, New York.

February 26 Military: Professor Cecil F. Powell of Britain estimates that the United States has stockpiled 4,000 atomic bombs and the Soviet Union an additional 1,000.

March 1 Politics: Congressmen vote themselves and federal judges a 50 percent pay hike.

March 10 Diplomacy: President Dwight D. Eisenhower declares that the United States will respond to any attack on its soil with nuclear weapons.

March 16 Diplomacy: In a little-veiled threat to the Soviet Union, which enjoys a preponderance of tactical forces in Europe, President Dwight D. Eisenhower upholds the use of atomic weapons in defensive warfare.

March 21–April 10 Sports: The Syracuse Nationals win the NBA basketball championship by defeating the Fort Wayne Pistons four games to three.

March 25 Aviation: The Chance Vought XF8U-1 prototype carrier fighter exceeds Mach 1 on its maiden flight and eventually goes into service as the F8U Crusader.

March 28 Law: John Marshall Hartland is appointed associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

March 30 Media: Academy Awards go to On the Waterfront as best picture, 1954, with star Marlon Brando as best actor; Grace Kelly is best actress for The Country Girl.

April 1 Diplomacy: The U.S. Senate agrees to negotiations concerning the future of West Germany, which now receives complete sovereignty as the Federal Republic of Germany.

April 3–14 Sports: The Detroit Red Wings win the NHL Stanley Cup by defeating the Montreal Canadiens four games to three.

April 9 Politics: The Civil Defense Coordinating Board is created by executive fiat to be headed by Civil Defense Administrator Val Peterson. It is tasked with meshing the defense activities of all federal bureaus.

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April 12 Medical: The Polio Vaccine Evaluation Center at the University of Michigan pronounces an anti-poliomyelitis vaccine developed by Dr. Jonas E. Salk; it proves highly effective at stopping this malicious childhood ailment.

April 17 Aviation: Soviet MiG-15 jets intercept and shoot down a U.S. Air Force RB47E Stratotjet reconnaissance airplane near Kamchatka, killing the crew of three.

April 19 Sports: Hideo Hamamura of Japan wins the 59th Boston Marathon by finishing in two hours, 18 minutes, 22 seconds.

May 2 Arts: Pulitzer Prizes go to William Faulkner, A Fable, fiction; William S. White, The Taft Story, biography; Paul Horgan, Great River, The Rio Grande in North American History, history; The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens, poetry; and Tennessee Williams, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, drama.

May 5 Arts: The highly successful musical comedy Damn Yankees by George Abbott and Douglass Wallop premieres at the Forty-Sixth Street Theater, New York, and stars Ray Walston and Gwen Verdon.

Williams, Tennessee (1911–1983) Writer Thomas Lanier Williams was born in Columbus, Mississippi, on March 26, 1911, the son of a rough-hewn traveling salesman. Because his family originally hailed from Tennessee, he adopted it as his first name. After working several years in a shoe factory in St. Louis, Missouri, Williams attended and dropped out of several colleges before finally graduating from the State University of Iowa in 1938. He then toured the country performing odd jobs and writing plays before finally settling in Boston in 1940. That year the Theater Guild produced his first effort, Battle of the Angels, which flopped and was ultimately banned from the city. Williams subsequently relocated to New York and worked as a waiter while continually writing

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scripts. The turning point in his career happened in 1944 when The Glass Menagerie opened in New York and Chicago, winning the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. Williams followed this up by publishing a series of 11 one-act plays, which were mostly forgotten. However, he scored another triumph in 1947 when his memorable work A Streetcar Named Desire debuted and won the Pulitzer Prize for best drama. In what became a typical Williams trademark, the story involves tragic figures caught up in a web of their own sensuality and melodrama while delivering extremely lyrical, almost poetic, dialogue. The ensuing decade proved extremely fruitful for Williams, and he went on to write such popular works as

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May 10 Diplomacy: President Dwight D. Eisenhower declares his intention to promote peace by meeting “anyone, anywhere.”

May 15 Diplomacy: Foreign ministers from the United States, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union meet in Vienna to sign the Austrian State Treaty, which ends four-power military occupation and restores sovereignty. However, independence is predicated upon strict neutrality and a prohibition on any economic union with Germany.

May 16 Sports: Rocky Marciano successfully defends his world heavyweight boxing title against Don Cockell of Great Britain.

May 19 Business: The number of business mergers has tripled in the past year according to a report filed by the Federal Trade Commission.

May 23 Religion: Women ministers are now allowed by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church.

May 27 General: Tornadoes tear through the region of Kansas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Texas, leaving 121 dead in their wake.

The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1950), The Rose Tattoo (1951), and Cameo Real (1953), none of which aspired to the heights of his earlier hit. Then, in 1955, Williams scored again with his memorable Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, which brought him his second New York Drama Critics Circle Award and his second Pulitzer Prize. Audiences seemed to enjoy his predilection for exposing the steamy, seamy side of American life. Several of Williams’s plays were adapted for the big screen, but only in a heavily edited form for MGM studios, which produced the majority, for fear that they were too sexually charged or obsessed with neurotic behavior to gain public acceptance. The decade of the 1960s saw him still producing works of note, such as Period of Adjustment (1960), The Night of the

Iguana (1961), and The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore (1963), which were well received but enjoyed little of his prior notoriety. His last play, Clothes for a Summer Hotel (1980), concerned the tragic life and relationship between writer F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda, and likewise it attracted faint praise. Williams died in New York City on February 25, 1983, and while the bulk of his work enjoyed uneven success, it proved memorable enough to render him the leading American playwright after Eugene O’Neill. In 1995, the U.S. Post Office issued a commemorative stamp in his honor as part of their Literary Arts Series. Furthermore, every year the Tennessee Williams Scholars Conference gathers in New Orleans to expound upon, and celebrate, his highly dramatic tableau.

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May 30 Sports: Bob Sweikert wins the 39th annual Indianapolis 500 by finishing in three hours, 53 minutes, 59 seconds at an average speed of 128.209 miles per hour. Two-time winner Bill Vukovich is killed in a four-car crash.

May 31 Civil: In light of the Brown v. Board of Education ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that school desegregation will occur under the aegis of federal district court jurisdiction. However, no specific timetable is set. Settlement: Legislation in the House of Representatives, considering the admission of Alaska and Hawaii into the Union, is referred back to committee for the time being.

June 6 Labor: The United Auto Workers (UAW) reaches an agreement with the General Motors Corporation and acquires a supplemental unemployment proviso.

June 10 Business: Workers at the U.S. Post Office find their paychecks increased by 8 percent.

June 16 Military: The Selective Service Act is extended by the House of Representatives to June 30, 1959.

June 20 Diplomacy: Member nations gather in San Francisco, California, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the United Nations.

June 21 Business: The House of Representatives extends the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act through June 30, 1958.

June 22 Aviation: Soviet MiG-15 jet fighters shoot down a U.S. Navy P2V-5 Neptune patrol plane in the Bering Sea near Alaska, injuring seven of 11 crew members.

July 1 Labor: Over half a million steel workers end their 12-hour strike and return to work.

July 7 Diplomacy: Congress passes a foreign aid bill worth $3.2 billion; the Soviet Union does not apologize for shooting down a U.S. Navy patrol plane in the Bering Sea on June 22, but does offer compensation.

July 11 Education: The first class of 306 cadets reports to the U.S. Air Force Academy at Lowry Air Force Base, Denver, Colorado, until more permanent facilities at Colorado Springs are constructed.

July 13 Politics: The House of Representatives approves a $1.3-million appropriations bill for the Atomic Energy Commission, the Tennessee Valley Authority, and the Public Works Program; Oveta Culp Hobby, director of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW), resigns from office.

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July 18 Diplomacy: President Dwight D. Eisenhower attends an important international summit in Geneva, Switzerland, the first held since 1945. There he is joined by ministers from France, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union. Also making his first public appearance on the international stage is Nikita Khrushchev, first secretary of the Communist Party.

July 21 Naval: The USS Sea Wolf, the world’s second atomic-powered submarine, is launched at Groton, Connecticut.

July 26 Military: Congress passes a bill requiring that U.S. military reserves be expanded from 800,000 to 2.9 million by 1960.

July 29 Science: The U.S. government announces its plans for developing an artificial, earth-orbiting satellite within two years.

August 1 Politics: Marion Bayard is appointed the new head of Health, Education, and Welfare by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

August 2 Aviation: A North American F-100 Super Sabre jet flown by Colonel Horace Hanes makes a new world speed record of 822 miles per hour for a production aircraft. Societal: The House of Representatives votes 187-168 to provide an additional 45,000 public housing units by July 1956.

August 8 Technology: U.S. representatives confer with members of the International Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy in Geneva, Switzerland.

August 12 Business: President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs legislation that amends the Fair Labor Standards Act, which increases the minimum wage to $1.00 an hour as of March 1, 1956.

August 19 General: A destructive hurricane ravages New England, killing 179 people and inflicting damages estimated at $458 million.

August 21 Business: Figures released by the U.S. Department of Commerce indicate the U.S. private investment overseas totaled $26.6 billion.

September 8 Diplomacy: Representatives from the United States, Australia, France, Great Britain, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Thailand meet in Manila to sign the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO). Science: The National Geographic Society releases a study of Mars, which suggests the presence of living vegetation to account for large blue-green patches on the planet’s surface.

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September 10 Sports: Sharon Kay Ritchie, 18, of Colorado, wins the Miss America title at Atlantic City, New Jersey.

September 11 Sports: The U.S. Lawn Tennis Association singles championships are won by Tony Trabert and Doris Hart in their respective singles divisions.

September 12 Societal: The American Foundations Information Services denotes 7,300 charitable institutions and, among them, over 4,000 enjoy assets in excess of $4.7 million.

September 21 Sports: Rocky Marciano successfully defends his world heavyweight boxing title against Archie Moore.

September 24 Medical: President Dwight D. Eisenhower is hospitalized after having a heart attack in Denver, Colorado, where he is incapacitated for three weeks.

September 26 Business: The New York Stock Exchange reports losses of $14 billion, its heaviest single-day loss to date, and they are attributed to news of President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s recent heart attack.

September 28–October 4 Sports: The Brooklyn Dodgers (NL) win the 52nd annual World Series by defeating the New York Yankees (AL) four games to three.

October 6 Aviation: A United Airlines Douglas DC-4 airliner crashes at Laramie, Wyoming, killing 66 people in the worst civil aviation disaster to date.

October 7 Music: Symphony No. Six by Darius Milhaud debuts in Boston, Massachusetts.

October 13 Transportation: Pan American Airlines enters the jet age by placing orders for 20 Boeing 707s and 25 Douglas DC-8 jet transports.

October 18 Science: A new nuclear particle, the antiproton, is uncovered by nuclear physicists at the University of California.

November 2 Exploring: Admiral Richard E. Byrd is appointed director of all Antarctic research by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Science: Dr. Vincent du Vigneaud of Cornell University wins the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work on hormones related to childbirth; Dr. Willis E. Lamb of Stanford University and Dr. Polykarp Kusch of Columbia University share the Nobel Prize in physics for their work on atomic measurements.

November 3 Medical: The U.S. Public Health Service announces the discovery of an effective common-cold vaccine.

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November 6 Media: The opera Griffelkin by Lukas Foss for the NBC Opera Theater is broadcast.

November 22 Diplomacy: U.S. representatives arrive in Iraq to observe the signing of the Baghdad Pact, a mutual defense treaty between Turkey, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, and Great Britain. They also participate on several committees.

November 25 Civil: Segregation on all trains and buses that cross state lines is banned by the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC). Music: Walter Piston’s Symphony No. 5 debuts in Boston, Massachusetts.

December 5 Labor: In a major move, the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merge into a joint body known as the AFL-CIO under the leadership of George Meany.

December 12 Societal: The Ford Foundation declares it has given a record $500 million to 4,157 colleges, universities, and medical institutions.

December 17 Diplomacy: Secretary of State John Foster Dulles offers the Egyptian government a $56-million loan to construct its ambitious Aswa¯ n Dam. The Americans hope to thwart growing Soviet influence in the region.

December 26 General: Five days of flooding in California, Nevada, and Oregon takes 74 lives.

December 27 Transportation: Automobile fatalities over the Christmas holiday peak at 609 deaths, a record high.

1956 Art: At the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Richard Lippold’s futuristic sculpture entitled Variation within a Sphere, No. 10: The Sun, employs two miles of gold wire and 14,000 hand-welded joints. Business: The automotive business is booming with the first “fin cars” coming off the production lines; 6 million cars and 1 million trucks will be assembled and sold this year. Literature: Edwin O’Connor publishes his novel The Last Hurrah about American politics; Saul Bellow finishes his novella Seize the Day, which also includes a play and several short stories. Music: Popular culture will never be the same following the appearance of former Mississippi truck driver Elvis Presley as the nation’s number one rock and roll star; among the year’s most popular tunes are “Heartbreak Hotel,” “Don’t Be Cruel,” “Hound Dog,” and “Love Me Tender,” all sung by Elvis. Publishing: The racy novel Peyton Place by Grace Metalious becomes a national best seller.

1956

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Chronology of American History

Presley, Elvis (1935–1977) Singer

Elvis Presley, 1957 (Library of Congress)

Elvis Aron Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, on January 8, 1935, the son of poor farmers. He displayed considerable talent while singing in his church choir and, despite the fact he could not read music, taught himself how to play guitar. After graduating from high school in 1953, he moved to Memphis, Tennessee, to work as a trucker driver while studying at night to become an electrician. However, he occasionally showed up at the nearby Sun Record Company to record his own songs, was overheard by the owner, and, in 1954, he signed a recording contract. Presley’s first songs, “That’s All Right, Mama” and “Blue Moon of Kentucky,” with their raw blending of country and western and AfricanAmerican rhythms, scored very well on the Country and Western charts, and soon he was touring throughout the South, billed as “The Hillbilly Cat.” Presley’s sensuous singing and unabashed gyrating on stage struck a raw nerve with America’s youth, and they

Societal: America is in the grips of a rising teen culture, replete with rock and roll music, drive-ins, bobby socks, flat-top haircuts, and all-around restive rebelliousness.

January 9 Civil: In a move intending to thwart the Supreme Court’s desegregation order, the Virginia legislature votes to allow state funding for private education.

January 26–February 5 Sports: At the Winter Olympics in Italy, the U.S. team takes two gold medals, while Hayes Allan Jenkins and Tenley Albright take top honors in single figure skating.

February 1 Military: The U.S. Army initiates its army ballistic Missile Agency at the Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville, Alabama, for the purpose of developing the new Thor and Jupiter intermediate-range ballistic missiles.

February 6 Civil: Autherine Lucy becomes the first African-American student enrolled at the University of Alabama, although she is suspended following three days of violent unrest on the campus.

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Chronology   2051

increasingly flocked to his shows in record numbers. His career literally exploded in 1956 with the release of such rock and roll classics as “Hound Dog,” “Don’t Be Cruel,” “Blue Suede Shoes,” and “Love Me Tender,” which were followed by such seminal tunes as “All Shook Up” and “Jailhouse Rock” a year later. He also made numerous televised appear-­ ances before throngs of screaming fans and once, during the famous Ed Sullivan Show, cameramen were instructed to only film him from the waist up. Presley also signed a seven-­ year film contract and starred in the highly successful film Love Me Tender (1956), and he went on to star in an additional 31 mov-­ ies over the next decade; none of these were critically acclaimed, yet all proved lucrative because of Presley’s box-­office appeal. In 1958, Presley briefly suspended his career to fulfill a tour of duty in the U.S. Army. He served two years in Germany, rose to ser-­ geant, and found time to cut several more hit records such as “It’s Now or Never” and “Are You Lonesome Tonight.” He was discharged

in 1960 and resumed singing with his accus-­ tomed success, but after 1964, following the appearance of groups like The Beatles and other “British invasion” acts, rock and roll underwent a dramatic metamorphosis in style and Presley, preoccupied with moviemaking, failed to keep pace. It was not until 1968, dur-­ ing a televised special of him appearing clad in black leather, and crooning several of his old tunes, that his career as a rock and roll icon was resurrected. Elvis subsequently changed over to a somewhat mellower sound in the 1970s, and he established himself as a success-­ ful Las Vegas nightclub act, but his occasional tours continued to be booked solid by ador-­ ing, if aging, fans. Tragically, he died at home in Memphis from an apparent drug overdose on August 16, 1977. Since then his home has become something of a national shrine, attract-­ ing several thousands of visitors yearly. In his lifetime Presley recorded 10 platinum records, 136 gold records, and made an estimated $4.3 billion. He remains America’s pop icon and, indisputably, the “King of Rock and Roll.”

February 15 Civil: In concert with the U.S. Supreme Court, a federal court in New Orleans bans all state laws supporting segregation.

February 17 Politics: President Dwight D. Eisenhower vetoes a bill removing federal price controls from independent natural gas production. He does so following revela-­ tions that the bill’s sponsor, Senator Francis Case of South Dakota, was offered campaign funding by oil interests.

February 29 Politics: Buoyed by rising poll numbers, President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that he will seek a second term in office.

March 1 Civil: The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) files a suit against the University of Alabama on behalf of Autherine Lucy, the first black woman to enroll there, and who has been suspended. Fol-­ lowing this action she is formally expelled from the campus.

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Chronology of American History

March 7 Diplomacy: President Dwight D. Eisenhower declines a request from Israel to obtain military equipment. The Jewish state is alarmed that the Soviet Union is supplying nearby Egypt with massive amounts of military hardware and advisers. Israel turns to France for assistance.

March 15 Arts: The seminal musical My Fair Lady by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe premieres at the Mark Hellinger Theater, New York, with Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews.

March 20 Labor: A contract agreement between striking workers and the Westinghouse Electric Corporation ends a 156-day walkout.

March 21 Media: Academy Awards go to Marty as best film of 1955 and to its star Ernest Borgnine, and to Anna Magnani as best actress for Rose Tattoo.

March 27 Journalism: The Internal Revenue Service closes the office of the Communist Daily Worker after nonpayment of income taxes. However, member donations in Chicago, New York, and Detroit allow for its reopening.

March 31–April 7 Sports: The Philadelphia Warriors win the NBA basketball championship by defeating the Fort Wayne Pistons four games to one.

March 31–April 10 Sports: The Montreal Canadiens win the NHL Stanley Cup by defeating the Detroit Red Wings four games to one.

April 2–3 General: Tornadoes cut a swath across Michigan, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Kansas, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Tennessee, killing 45 people, leaving thousands homeless, and inflicting huge amounts of property damage.

April 5 Crime: Victor Riesel, a labor columnist strongly opposed to racketeering, is splashed in the face with acid and loses his eyesight.

April 8 Military: Six recruits drown at the U.S. Marine Corps base of Parris Island, South Carolina, and Platoon Sergeant Matthew C. McKeon is charged with negligent homicide.

April 11 General: President Dwight D. Eisenhower approves a new power project intending to provide irrigation along the upper Colorado River region.

April 19 Media: In a distinct Hollywood twist, actress Grace Kelly, 26, and Prince Rainier II of Monaco, 32, tie the knot in one of the most publicized marriages of the 20th century. Sports: Antti Viskari of Finland wins the 60th Boston Marathon by finishing in two hours, 14 minutes, 14 seconds.

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April 28 Architecture: The new $35-million New York Coliseum, encompassing nine acres of floor space, opens in New York City, the world’s largest exhibition building at the time.

May 2 Religion: Methodists hold their annual general conference at Minneapolis, Minnesota, and vote to end all segregation in the church. The Civil Rights movement is acquiring a religious dimension among many church leaders.

May 4 Technology: The Atomic Energy Commission approves construction of two private nuclear power plants, including a $55-million installation at Indian Point, New York, and a $5-million plant in Grundy County, Illinois.

May 7 Arts: Pulitzer Prizes go to MacKinlay Kantor, Andersonville, fiction; Talbot F. Hamlin, Benjamin Henry Latrobe, biography; Richard Hofstadter, The Age of Reform, history; Elizabeth Bishop, Poems: North and South—A Cold Spring, poetry; Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, The Diary of Anne Frank, drama.

May 21 Aviation: A B-52 bomber test drops a live hydrogen bomb for the first time over the Bikini Islands.

May 28 Agriculture: The Agricultural Act is signed into law by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in order to create a soil bank to aid in the reduction of farm surpluses. The act is intended to help American farmers maintain price stability.

May 30 Sports: Patrick F. Flaherty wins the 40th Indianapolis 500 by finishing in three hours, 53 minutes, 59 seconds.

June 9 Medical: President Dwight D. Eisenhower undergoes surgery for ileitis and is hospitalized.

June 11 Medical: At the American Medical Association convention in Chicago, Illinois, Doctors Jonas Salk and Surgeon General Leonard Schule declare that they expect their vaccine will eradicate polio within three years.

June 30 Aviation: A record disaster unfolds when a Trans World Airlines Super Constellation and a United Airlines DC-7 jet airliner collide over the Grand Canyon, killing 128 passengers.

July 4 Aviation: The super-secret Lockheed U-2 spy plane begins its first overflight of the Soviet union.

July 16 Business: The costs of running a tented show force the legendary Ringling Brothers & Barnum & Bailey Circus to move inside permanent structures.

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Chronology of American History

July 17 Diplomacy: The Egyptian government accepts an offer of $56 million from the United States to fund the ambitious Aswa¯ n High Dam. The World Bank is expected to contribute another $100 million.

July 19 Diplomacy: Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, leery of Egypt’s close ties with the Soviet Union and its recent arms transfers there, withdraws his offer of $56 million to fund the Aswa¯ n High Dam. This move induces the World Bank to do likewise, which prompts a totally unforeseen Egyptian reaction..

July 22 Diplomacy: The Panama Declaration is signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower and 18 other heads of state, which underscores the Organization of American States’s principles for use of the Panama Canal.

July 26 Diplomacy: Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nassar nationalizes the foreignowned Suez Canal in retaliation for the withdrawal of American funding for the Aswa¯ n High Dam.

August 1 Science: The Salk polio vaccine, after extensive and successful testing, is finally made available to the public. Societal: President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs legislation that increases Social Security coverage.

August 2 Military: Albert Woolson, the oldest surviving Union soldier of the Civil War, dies at the age of 109.

August 7 Societal: President Dwight D. Eisenhower approves new federal support for an additional 790,000 public housing units and also loosens mortgage requirements.

August 1–7 Politics: The Democratic Party meets in Chicago, Illinois, and renominates Alai Stevenson as its presidential candidate; Estes Kefauver is chosen for vice president.

August 2–4 Politics: The Republican Party gathers at San Francisco, California, and renominates Dwight D. Eisenhower for president and Richard M. Nixon for vice president.

August 24 Aviation: A U.S. Army H-21 helicopter conducts the first transcontinental flight for that type of aircraft by flying nonstop from San Diego, California, to Washington, D.C., covering 2,610 miles in 37 hours.

August 22 Aviation: A U.S. Navy Martin P4M-1Q Mercator is attacked by Chinese fighters 32 miles off the coast of Wenchow with a loss of all 16 crew members.

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Chronology

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September 7 Crime: Johnny Dio and five other labor racketeers are indicted by a federal grand jury for the acid attack on labor columnist Victor Riesel.

September 24 Communication: The first transatlantic telephone cable, stretching 2,250 miles from Orban, Scotland, to Clarenville, Newfoundland, triples the number of circuits available between the United State and Europe.

September 27 Aviation: A Bell X-2 flown by Captain Milburn Apt manages to reach Mach 3, nearly 1,800 miles per hour, before it breaks up in midflight, killing him.

October 3–10 Sports: The New York Yankees (AL) win the 53rd annual World Series by defeating the Brooklyn Dodgers (NL) four games to three. Yankee pitcher Don Larsen pitched the first and, to date, the only perfect game in series history on October 8.

October 19 Science: The Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine is shared by Dr. Dickinson W. Richardson and Dr. André F. Cournand of Columbia University and Dr. Werner Forssmann of West Germany for work in cardiology.

October 26 Diplomacy: Representatives from 70 nations gather in New York City to sign the Statute of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

October 29 Arts: Up-and-coming diva Maria Callas premieres with the Metropolitan Opera in New York in the title role of Vincenzo Bellini’s Norma. It sets a record for first-night receipts.

October 31 Diplomacy: President Dwight D. Eisenhower opposes the British-French-Israeli attack and occupation of the Sinai Peninsula, which is carried out in retaliation for Egypt’s nationalization of the Suez Canal.

November 1 Science: Bell Telephone researchers William Schockley, Walter H. Brittain, and John Bardeen share the Nobel Prize in physics for their development of the transistor.

November 3 Sports: In Chicago, Illinois, the world heavyweight boxing championship goes to Floyd Patterson who knocks out Archie Moore in the fifth round. At 21, Patterson is the youngest champion to take the title.

November 5 Diplomacy: After considerable arm twisting, the United States imposes a ceasefire in the Sinai Peninsula between Egypt, Great Britain, France, and Israel. A United Nations force is also being deployed in the region to prevent further clashes.

1956

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Chronology of American History

November 6 Politics: Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower again defeats Democrat Adlai Stevenson for the presidency, winning 457 electoral votes to 73 and 35.3 million votes to the latter’s 25.8 million. The Democrats, however, retain control of both houses of Congress.

November 8 Diplomacy: After Soviet tanks and troops crush a popular uprising in Hungary, President Dwight D. Eisenhower declares his intention to allow refugees into the country.

November 11 Aviation: The Convair XB-58, the world’s first supersonic jet bomber, is flown for the first time and eventually goes into production as the B-58 Hustler.

November 13 Civil: The U.S. Supreme Court negates an Alabama state law requiring segregated bus travel along the state’s interstate highway.

November 22–December 8 Sports: The Summer Olympics at Melbourne, Australia, witness the U.S. team winning 32 gold medals and finishing second behind the USSR in unofficial team standings.

November 30 Media: The Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) initiates the first use of televised videotape by broadcasting Douglas Edwards and the News.

December 17 Conservation: The first baby gorilla born in captivity arrives at the Columbus Zoo, Ohio. General: A single automobile wreck in Phoenix, Arizona, kills 12 of 13 passengers involved; this is the worst single-car fatality in automotive history.

1957 Arts: A comprehensive Picasso exhibition at the New York Museum of Modern Art draws 238,646 attendees. Business: The Wham-O Company of San Gabriel markets the “Frisbee,” a plastic flying disc, which becomes a phenomenally popular toy. Literature: The novel By Love Possessed by James Gould Cozzens was panned by the critics but nonetheless became one of the year’s best sellers; James Agee publishes his only full-length novel, A Death in the Family; Jack Kerouac writes On the Road, his seminal autobiographical novel about jazz, sex, and drugs as experienced by the younger generation. Music: The year’s most popular tunes include “Tammy,” “Love Letters in the Sand,” and the catchy “Round and Round” from the musical My Fair Lady. Sports: The Milwaukee Braves set a new record for fan attendance by drawing 2,215,404 to the home games this year.

January 5 Diplomacy: President Dwight D. Eisenhower addresses a joint session of Congress and calls for a grant of American military assistance to Middle Eastern

1957

Chronology

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countries to thwart the onset of communism in that strategic region. It gradually becomes known as the Eisenhower Doctrine.

January 10 Politics: In his State of the Union speech, President Dwight D. Eisenhower reiterates his call for military aid to the Middle East and also warns about the dangers of inflation.

January 14 Diplomacy: Secretary of State John Foster Dulles declares that communism is the greatest menace facing stability in the traditionally unstable Middle East.

January 18 Aviation: Using in-flight refueling techniques, three U.S. Air Force B-52 jet bombers complete a nonstop, round-the-world flight in 45 hours and 19 minutes at an average speed of 500 miles per hour. This feat demonstrates to the Soviets that the Americans can deploy air assets quickly to any point on the globe.

January 20 Politics: In Washington, D.C., President Dwight D. Eisenhower is inaugurated for the second time as president of the United States. Because the event falls on a Sunday, the ceremony remains a private one.

January 21 Media: The National Broadcasting Company conducts the first televised and videotaped broadcast with live coverage of inaugural ceremonies in Washington, D.C. Politics: A crowd estimated at 750,000 people watches a public swearing-in ceremony for President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

January 22 Media: The game show Truth or Consequences is the first national program to be broadcast using videotape.

January 28 Military: Secretary of Defense Charles E. Wilson addresses the House Armed Services Committee and declares that the National Guard harbored draft dodgers throughout the Korean War.

February 4 General: A coal mine explosion kills 37 miners at Bishop, Virginia.

February 7 Arts: Gore Vidal’s play A Visit to a Small Planet opens at the Booth Theater in New York; it had originally been planned for television but ends up as a movie starring Jerry Lewis.

February 8 Diplomacy: President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Saudi king Ibn Saud complete negotiations that will allow the United States to lease the Dhahran airbase in return for military assistance. Technology: The United States pledges to assist the European Atomic Energy Commission to establish a European atomic industry within a decade.

1957

2058

Chronology of American History

February 9–12 Politics: In New York City, the Communist Party adopts a new constitution specifying that members could be expelled for subversion against the U.S. government. FBI director J. Edgar Hoover regards the move as a ploy to gain greater public acceptance.

February 12 Politics: In light of the recent invasion of Hungary, the American Communist Party meets in New York City and votes to remain independent of the Soviet Union.

February 17 General: A fire burns a home for the aged in Warrenton, Missouri, killing 72 people.

February 25 Publishing: The U.S. Supreme Court rules against the censorship of a Detroit, Michigan, bookseller for selling The Devil Rides Outside by John Howard Griffith.

February 26 Crime: A Senate committee opens hearings relative to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and charges of corruption.

March 7 Diplomacy: Congress approves of the so-called Eisenhower Doctrine to provide Middle Eastern nations with military assistance to thwart communist influence there.

March 18 Diplomacy: Harold Stassen is the American delegate to the United Nations Disarmament Subcommittee talks in London.

March 21 Diplomacy: Vice President Richard M. Nixon completes a three-week tour of Africa and comes home.

March 24 General: Blizzard conditions throughout the Midwest and Southwest take at least 40 lives.

March 27 Media: Academy Awards go to Around the World in 80 Days for best picture, to Yul Brynner as best actor for The King and I, and to Ingrid Bergman as best actress for Anastasia.

March 30 Naval: The USS Seawolf, America’s second nuclear-powered submarine, is commissioned at Groton, Connecticut.

March 30–April 3 Sports: The Boston Celtics win the NBA basketball championship by defeating the St. Louis Hawks four games to one.

April 1 Diplomacy: The State Department lifts a travel ban in effect against Egypt, Israel, Jordan, and Syria.

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April 4 Education: The National Education Association (NEA), founded in 1857, celebrates its 100th anniversary in Philadelphia. Since then, membership has expanded from 43,000 to over 1 million.

April 6–16 Sports: The Montreal Canadiens win the NHL Stanley Cup by defeating the Boston Bruins four games to one.

April 16 Business: President Dwight D. Eisenhower appropriates $41 million to assist the U.S. Postal Service.

April 20 Sports: John J. Kelley wins the 61st Boston Marathon with a time of two hours, 20 minutes, five seconds; he is also the first American to claim the title since 1945.

April 29 Technology: At Fort Myer, Virginia, the nations’s first reactor is dedicated by Secretary of the Army Wilbur N. Brucker.

April 30 General: A Special Senate Committee appoints Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, John C. Calhoun, Robert La Follette, and Robert Taft to the Senate Hall of Fame.

May 2 Crime: Dave Beck, president of the Teamsters Union, is indicted on charges of income tax evasion dating back to 1950. Diplomacy: In Bonn, West Germany, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles assures the North Atlantic Council that the United States intends to maintain its current troop strength in Europe. General: The abrasive Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin, who did so much to define the political times with his practice of “McCarthyism,” dies at the naval hospital in Bethesda, Maryland.

May 6 Arts: Profiles in Courage by up-and-coming Massachusetts senator John F. Kennedy win the Pulitzer Prize for biography; Things of This World by Richard Wilbur wins for poetry; Long Day’s Journey into Night by Eugene O’Neill wins for drama.

May 11 Diplomacy: Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam confer in Washington, D.C., over preventing the spread of communism in Southeast Asia.

May 16 Naval: The world’s third nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Skate, is launched at Groton, Connecticut.

May 20 Labor: David Beck is expelled from the executive committee of the AFL-CIO for “gross misuse of union funds.”

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Chronology of American History

May 24 Diplomacy: Rioters mob the American embassy in Taipei, Taiwan, after an American soldier, charged with killing a Chinese national, is released.

May 26 Diplomacy: Nationalist Chinese president Chiang Kai-shek offers President Dwight D. Eisenhower his “profound regrets” over recent rioting in Taiwan.

May 28 Diplomacy: President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Chancellor Konrad Adenauer of West Germany conclude three days of talks on West German disarmament and eventual German reunification.

May 30 Sports: Sam Hanks wins the 41st Indianapolis 500 by crossing the line at three hours, 41 minutes, 14 seconds, with an average speed of 135.601 miles per hour.

May 31 Science: The new Jupiter medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM) makes its first successful test flight as the arms race enters the new missile age.

June 2 Diplomacy: Premier Nikita Khrushchev declares that any moves toward global disarmament must begin with an agreement between the Soviet Union and the United States.

June 7 Business: The governments of the United States and Poland reach an agreement for loans to assist in the development of mining and agriculture in that Communist nation.

June 13 General: The reproduction Mayflower II arrives at Plymouth, Massachusetts, after sailing 54 days from Plymouth, England. This first vessel made the identical voyage in 1620.

June 15 General: St. Louis, Missouri, is hit by flash flooding that kills 17 people.

June 17 Music: Celebrated Russian-born conductor/composer Igor Stravinsky celebrates his 75th birthday in Los Angeles, California, with an all-Stravinsky performance including his ballet Agon: A Contest.

June 27–28 General: Hurricane Audrey slams into the coasts of Texas and Louisiana, killing 531 people.

June 28 Diplomacy: Secretary of State John Foster Dulles declares that the United States will not recognize the People’s Republic of China and also predicts that the regime there will be short-lived.

July 1 Science: The International Geophysical Year commences as the Naval Research Laboratory launches a rocket on San Nicholas Island, California, to study the effects of solar radiation upon communications.

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July 12 Medical: Surgeon General Leroy E. Burney announces a scientific link between cigarette smoking and lung cancer. Societal: President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Housing Act of 1957 to liberalize mortgage benefits and offer el der ly residents public-housing benefits.

July 16 Aviation: U.S. Marine Corps major John H. Glenn sets a new transcontinental speed record of three hours, 23 minutes, eight seconds while flying in a Chance Vought F8U Crusader from Los Angeles to New York; he averages 760 miles per hour. Military: Secretary of Defense Charles E. Wilson announces his intention to cut the armed forces by 100,000 men by year’s end.

July 19 Sports: In Stockton, California, Don Bowden becomes the first American to break the four-minute mile at three minutes, 58 seconds.

July 29 Diplomacy: President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorizes American membership in the International Atomic Energy Agency.

August 13 Diplomacy: The government of Syria expels three American diplomats on grounds that they were plotting against President Shukri al-Kuwatly.

August 19–20 Aviation: Major David G. Simon sets a new balloon altitude record of 101,486 feet, which places him on the very edge of space.

August 21 Science: A two-year moratorium on nuclear testing is announced by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Technology: The Niagara Power Act is passed by Congress, which enables the New York State Power Authority to construct a hydroelectric facility at famous Niagara Falls. The finished dam is second in size only to that built earlier at Grand Coulee, Colorado.

August 27 Politics: A vacant Senate seat in Wisconsin is won by Democrat William Proxmire.

August 29 Civil: The Civil Rights Act of 1957 is signed into law by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, which authorizes creation of a Civil Rights Commission. South Carolina’s Strom Thurmond tries and fails to stop the legislation by mounting a record-breaking filibuster lasting 24 hours, 27 minutes.

August 30 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Jencks v. United States, ruling that defendants in a federal trial may have access only to FBI file material relating to testimony in direct examination.

1957

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Chronology of American History

September 1 Religion: Reverend Billy Graham closes his 16-week evangelical campaign with a massive rally of 56,000 people at Time Square, New York.

September 4 Civil: Arkansas governor Orval Faubus calls out the state National Guard to block any attempts by the federal government to impose segregation at Central High School, Little Rock. These troops physically obstruct nine African-American students from attending this all-white institution.

September 14 Civil: In an attempt to diffuse a crisis situation in Arkansas, President Dwight D. Eisenhower confers with Governor Orval Faubus.

September 18 Labor: Teamster Union president Jimmy Hoffa is charged with fostering criminals by the Ethical Practices Committee of the AFL-CIO, which also recommends his expulsion.

September 19 Science: The nation’s first underground nuclear tests are conducted near Las Vegas, Nevada.

September 20 Civil: A federal injunction forces Arkansas governor Orval Faubus to withdraw National Guard troops from Central High School in Little Rock.

September 24 Civil: Nine African-American students, intimidated by rioting, withdraw from Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.

September 25 Civil: President Dwight D. Eisenhower, determined to enforce the law, orders U.S. troops to escort nine African-American students to classes in Little Rock, Arkansas.

September 26 Arts: The seminal musical production West Side Story by Arthur Laurents, Stephen Sondheim, and Leonard Bernstein opens in New York City to rave reviews and great success.

October 2–10 Sports: The Milwaukee Braves (NL) win the 54th World Series by defeating the New York Yankees (AL) four games to one.

October 4 Education: The Soviets launch Sputnik, earth’s first artificial satellite, and it resonates throughout the United States like a technological Pearl Harbor. The American government counters by intensifying the study of science and mathematics in the public school system.

October 6 Technology: Sterling W. Cole gains appointment as director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

1957

Chronology

2063

October 8 Crime: Confessed Soviet spy Jack Soble receives a seven-year jail sentence after pleading guilty to an espionage charge. His wife, Myra Soble, also draws a fouryear imprisonment.

October 16 General: Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, her husband, visit Jamestown, Virginia, on the 350th anniversary of the founding of that famous settlement. Science: A U.S. Air Force rocket carries two aluminum pellets into space for research purposes.

October 25 Crime: Underworld syndicate figure Umberto “Albert” Anastasia, formerly head of a group known as “Murder, Inc.,” is killed by gunmen as he sits in a barbershop.

October 31 Science: Dr. Tsung Dao Lee of Columbia University and Dr. Chen Ning Yang of Princeton share the Nobel Prize in physics for their work with subatomic particles.

November 1 Engineering: The world’s longest suspension bridge, costing $100 million, opens for traffic over the Mackinac Straits between Michigan’s Upper and Lower Peninsulas.

November 7 Science: James R. Killian, Jr., is named a special presidential aide for space technology by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

November 19 Music: In New York City, Leonard Bernstein gains appointment as the sole principal conductor of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.

November 21 Science: H. Guyford Stever is appointed the new head of the NASA space committee.

November 25 Medical: President Dwight D. Eisenhower suffers a minor stroke. Military: Noted nuclear physicist Dr. Edward Teller testifies before the Senate Preparedness Committee that strengthening heavy bomber forces is the best deterrent against Soviet attack.

December 6 Labor: A corruption-tainted Teamster’s Union is expelled from the AFL-CIO. Science: The Vanguard, America’s first space rocket, humiliatingly explodes on its launching pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

December 12 Aviation: Major Adrian E. Drew sets a new jet speed record of 1,207.6 miles per hour while flying a McDonnell F-101 Voodoo jet fighter over the Mojave Desert, California.

1957

2064

Chronology of American History

Bernstein, Leonard (1918–1990) Conductor, composer Leonard Bernstein was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, on August 25, 1918, a son of Russian emigrants. After studying at the Boston Latin School and Harvard University, where he majored in music, Bernstein began taking formal instruction at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1939. A year later he met conductor Serge Koussevitsky at the Berkshire Musical Center in Tanglewood, Massachusetts, who made him an understudy. Bernstein performed capably, if without distinction, for two years, and he next became assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic under Bruno Walter. The turning point in his career happened suddenly, on November 14, 1943, when, with no rehearsal and less than 24 hours notice, he was called to fill in for the ailing Walter through a difficult program. Bernstein performed brilliantly in this role and was hailed on the front pages of the New York Times. He then served as conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony in 1944, where he composed his first religionbased symphony, Jeremiah (1943), with little fanfare. However, Bernstein enjoyed considerable success and notoriety by crossing over to Broadway musicals, showed tremendous creativity and flair, and he produced such memorable scores as On the Town (1944) and his first ballet, Fancy Free. When not composing, Bernstein reverted back to conducting and, in 1946, he represented the United States at the Prague International Festival in Czechoslovakia by capably handling the renowned Czech Philharmonic. Shortly afterward he completed his second

symphony, The Age of Anxiety, in 1953. He also proved himself an accomplished pianist in his own right through sterling performances of Mozart concertos and Ravel’s Concerto in G. In 1958 he was appointed sole conductor of the prestigious New York Philharmonic. In addition to conducting and composing, Bernstein proved himself an energetic teacher, and he lectured at Brandeis University, 1952–57, and also published two respected texts, Joy of Music (1959) and Infinite Variety of Music (1966). He also began dabbling successfully in televised performances, where his animated, almost frantic, directing style garnered him additional renown. Incredibly, Bernstein found the time to resume composing and completed his successful movie score On the Waterfront (1953), the musical Wonderful Town (1953), and his acknowledged triumph, West Side Story (1957). However, Bernstein grew restless and wanted to travel, so in 1967 he resigned from the New York Philharmonic to tour the world as a guest conductor. For many years he was a recurring fixture with the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonics. In 1971, he was also called upon to compose his Mass: A Theater Piece for Singers, Players, and Dancers to commemorate opening ceremonies for the new Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Bernstein remained active in music until his death in New York on October 14, 1990, and is generally regarded as one of the most glamorous conductors of his day.

December 15 Military: A prototype of the Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) is successfully tested by the U.S. Air Force.

1957

Chronology

2065

December 16 Diplomacy: President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles depart to participate in a four-day NATO summit meeting in Paris, France.

December 19 Arts: Meredith Wilson’s production of The Music Man, starring Robert Preston and Barbara Cook, debuts at the Majestic Theater, New York.

December 24 Aviation: A U.S. Air Force RB-57D Canberra conducting a top-secret reconnaissance spy flight is intercepted over the Black Sea by Soviet fighters and shot down.

December 28 Aviation: A Cessna YH- 41 he li cop ter reaches a record altitude of 30,335 feet.

1958 Education: A survey of college students by Dr. W. Max Wise suggests that today’s students are more likely to be serious about their education, are probably married, and are holding a part-time job. Music: The year’s popular tunes include “Purple People Eater,” “Bird Dog,” and “Your Precious Love.” Science: An American satellite detects the Van Allen Radiation belt 600 miles in space; it is named after project engineer James Van Allen.

January 3 Aviation: Two squadrons of intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBM) are formed by the Strategic Air Command (SAC) as part of the U.S. Air Force nuclear deterrence force under General Curtis E. LeMay.

January 7 Military: President Dwight D. Eisenhower asks the Democratic majority in Congress for $1.3 billion dollars for missile and air defense research.

January 9 Politics: In his State of the Union address, President Dwight D. Eisenhower presses ahead for continuing foreign assistance and new missile programs.

January 13 Journalism: In light of declining membership, the Communist publication Daily Worker becomes a weekly publication only.

January 15 Women: A nationwide Gallup poll reveals that former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt is the most admired woman in the United States.

January 16 Diplomacy: In light of the growing emphasis on space exploration and research, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles calls for an international agreement for its peaceful utilization.

1958

2066

Chronology of American History

LeMay, Curtis E.

(1906–1990)

Airman Curtis Emerson LeMay was born in Columbus, Ohio, on November 15, 1906, and he attended Ohio State University ROTC after failing to secure an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy. LeMay was commissioned in the artillery as of June 14, 1928, but, being inspired by the feats of Charles Lindbergh, he volunteered for flight training. LeMay won his wings at March Field, California, in October 1929, and he spent six years touring with fighter squadrons. The turning point in his career happened in 1937 when he transferred to bombers at Langley Field, Virginia, and he demonstrated his prowess as a navigator by intercepting the Italian liner Rex at sea in 1938. After the United States entered World War II, LeMay was promoted to colonel, commanding the 305th Bombardment Squadron and deployed to England, where he proved himself a tactical innovator. In August 1943, he personally led the first shuttle bombing run from England to North Africa, and in March 1944, at the age of 37, he became the youngest major general since Ulysses S. Grant. That summer he transferred to China to command the XX Bomber Command flying new B-29 Superfortresses, and he commenced the first large raids on the Japanese homeland. When these proved inadequate due to range, LeMay transferred to the XXI Bomber Command on Guam, much closer to his target, and he orchestrated a devastating firebomb campaign against Japanese cities. His low-altitude raid against Tokyo on March 9, 1945, burned out 16 square miles of the city and inflicted half a million casualties.

In August 1945, LeMay transferred again to the staff of General Carl A. Spaatz, where he helped plan the final atomic bomb missions against Hiroshima and Nagasaki. LeMay came home after the war and, as deputy chief of research and development, he helped develop and deploy the first American jet bombers. In 1948, he was called upon to break the Soviet land blockade of Berlin, which he countered with Operation Vittles, the famous Berlin Airlift, forcing the Russians to relent. However, his biggest challenge came that same year when he advanced to lead the Strategic Air Command (SAC), which he transformed from a dispirited force with a handful of obsolete bombers to a thoroughly elite atomic strike force of nearly 2,000 jets. By the time he left in 1957 to serve as vice chief of staff, U.S. Air Force, SAC was a modern, wellequipped nuclear deterrent force, second to none. In June 1961, President John F. Kennedy appointed him chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force, although in this capacity he clashed repeatedly with the missile-oriented defense secretary, Robert MacNamara. He was also vociferous in his support of the unpopular war in Vietnam, and he felt that President Lyndon B. Johnson was not fighting hard enough. LeMay then concluded 47 years of distinguished service by resigning in 1965 and, three years later, he ran as the vice presidential candidate with Alabama governor George Wallace. He died in San Bernardino, California, on October 1, 1990, the foremost aerial strategist of the 20th century.

January 20 Business: President Dwight D. Eisenhower reminds the Democratic-controlled Congress of the inherent perils of unwarranted wage and price increases.

1958

Chronology   2067

January 23 Labor: In an effort to curtail illegal �union practice, President Dwight D. Eisenhower calls for legislation to fight racketeering and similar abuses.

January 27 Diplomacy: The United States and the Soviet Â�Union sign an agreement to expand cultural, sport, and tech-­ nological exchanges.

January 30 Arts: Dore Schary’s production of Sunrise at Campobello, starring Ralph Bellamy as Franklin D. RooÂ�seÂ� velt, opens at the Cort Theater, New York.

January 31 Science: The U.S. Army successfully launches Explorer I, the nation’s first satellite, from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The device is only 80 inches long, six inches in diameter, and 30.8 pounds in weight.

February 7 Science: The Defense Department founds the Advanced Research Projects Agency to better pro-­ mote and coordinate space exploration.

February 28 Business: An increase for Â�first-­class mail is levied by the U.S. Post Office from three to four cents per ounce. General: A school bus and car collision in Preston-­ burg, Kentucky, results in the drowning deaths of 27 children. Science: A Thor/Agena rocket lifts Discoverer I, the world’s first photo reconnaissance satellite, into orbit.

Launch of Jupiter-C/Explorer I at Cape Canaveral, Florida (NASA)

March 4 Aviation: Secretary of the Air Force James H. Douglas revokes the Â�court-­martial verdict against General William “Billy” Mitchell rendered 37 years earlier, declar-­ ing that his belief in air power has been vindicated.

March 5 Naval: The nuclear submarine USS Skate crosses the Atlantic Ocean in only eight days, 11 hours, before berthing at Plymouth, En�gland.

March 8 Education: Pulitzer prize–winning author William Faulkner cautions parents at a Princeton University gathering that colleges are turning into “baby sitting organizations.”

March 17 Science: The Â� three-­and-­a-quarter-­pound satellite Vanguard I is successfully launched into orbit by the U.S. Navy and enters a wider orbit than any Â�man-­made device thus far. It is only 6.4 inches in diameter and weighs 3.25 pounds.

1958

2068

Chronology of American History

March 25 Sports: Sugar Ray Leonard wins the world middleweight boxing championship for an unpre ce dented fifth time by defeating Carmen Basilio in 15 rounds.

March 26 Media: Academy Awards go to The Bridge on the River Kwai for best picture and to Alec Guinness for best actor; Joan Woodward takes best actress for The Three Faces of Eve.

March 29–April 12 Sports: The St. Louis Hawks win the NBA basketball championship by defeating the Boston Celtics four games to two.

April Business: The first international car show unfolds in New York City, although some American products, like Ford’s racy new Thunderbird, are also on hand.

April 1 Business: President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Emergency Housing Act to construct new units to stimulate the sagging economy.

April 4 Business: To stimulate housing construction, President Dwight D. Eisenhower approves a bill that would allow a 2 percent down payment on GI home loans.

April 8 Sports: The Montreal Canadiens win the NHL Stanley Cup by defeating the Boston Bruins four games to two.

April 11 Music: In Moscow, Texan pianist Van Cliburn, 23, wins the Tchaikovsky International Piano and Violin Festival with a rousing rendition of Rachmaninoff ’s Third Piano Concerto.

April 14 Arts: The Russian Moiseyev dance troupe begins a triumphant three-week engagement at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, before touring the nation to rave reviews.

April 15 General: A fire sweeps the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, killing one worker and inflicting $320,000 in damage.

April 16 Military: Dr. Edward Teller warns a Senate subcommittee that the United States imperils millions of its own citizens in a nuclear war with the Soviet Union should it halt its own atomic testing.

April 18 Politics: The government drops treason charges against poet Ezra Pound for making radio broadcasts on behalf of fascist Italy during World War II. He is subsequently released from a mental institution and sails for Italy.

1958

Chronology

2069

Teller, Edward (1908–2003) Physicist Edward Teller was born in Budapest, Hungary, on January 15, 1908, the son of a Jewish attorney. After briefly studying at the University of Budapest in 1925, he transferred to the Institute of Technology in Karlsruhe, Germany, to study chemical engineering. In 1928, he left for the University of Munich to study physics and had a serious accident that severely injured his right foot. Teller spent several months at home convalescing, then obtained his doctorate in physics at the University of Leipzig in 1930. Over the next three years, he labored at the University of Göttingen as a research assistant, and, in 1934, worked under noted physicist Niels Bohr at the University of Copenhagen. However, the rising tide of Nazism in Germany and Hungary made it unwise for him to return home, so in 1935 he emigrated to England to lecture at the University of London before finally settling in the United States. For the next six years he worked in Washington, D.C., at the physics department of George Washington University, where he developed both an interest in and an expertise on the topic of nuclear fission. This brought him to the attention of J. Robert Oppenheimer, who was recruiting scientists for the Manhattan Project, the top-secret American program to develop an atomic bomb before Nazi Germany did. Teller eagerly joined the project and performed useful work at Columbia University, the University of California, Berkeley, and finally the government research facility in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Here he also began theoretical work on a new and more

powerful thermonuclear weapon based on the process of fusion, but his colleagues questioned the value of such a device. Nonetheless, due to Teller’s invaluable contributions, the atomic bombs were successfully dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, bringing World War II to a speedy end. During initial phases of the cold war, most scientists, such as Oppenheimer, looked askance at continuing development of nuclear weapons, but Teller, whose native Hungary was now occupied by a brutal Communist dictatorship, demurred. In 1949, following the detonation of the first Soviet atomic device, he broke ranks with the scientific community and urged President Harry S. Truman to begin work on his still theoretical hydrogen bomb. Truman agreed in 1950. Teller further sullied his credentials within the science community by testifying against Oppenheimer in hearings that resulted in the latter’s security clearance being revoked. Nevertheless, he threw himself fully into the highly complicated project and, in 1954, the bomb designed by Teller and his Polish associate Stanislaw Ullam was successfully detonated on November 1, 1952. Thereafter he engaged in high-level research at Berkeley until his retirement in 1975. In 1983, Teller once again broke ranks with fellow scientists in support of President Ronald W. Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI or “Star Wars”). He died at his home in Palo Alto, California, on September 9, 2003, both hailed and reviled as the “father of the H-Bomb.”

April 19 Sports: Franjo Milhalic wins the 62nd Boston Marathon with a time of two hours, 25 minutes, 54 seconds.

1958

2070

Chronology of American History

April 23 Military: Strong winds at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, result in the deaths of five paratroopers during a practice drop. Religion: Archbishop Samuel Cardinal Stritch is appointed pro-prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith. This is the highest Vatican post ever occupied by an American.

April 28 Science: The United States resumes aboveground nuclear testing at Eniwetok, Marshall Islands. Meanwhile, Nobel Prize–winning scientist Linus Pauling states that lingering radiation from a nuclear war would increase cancer rates for the next 300 generations.

May 1 Politics: The Coast Guard intercepts four antinuclear protesters as they leave Honolulu for the testing grounds at Eniwetok in the Pacific.

May 2 Labor: Figures released by the Labor Department show that joblessness has declined, with California showing the biggest increase in jobs.

May 5 Arts: Pulitzer Prizes go to A Death in the Family by James Agree, fiction; Promises: Poems, 1854–1956 by Robert Penn Warren, poetry; and Look Homeward, Angel by Ketti Frings, drama.

May 7 Aviation: A Lockheed F-104 Starfighter flown by Major Howard Johnson reaches a record altitude of 91,249 feet.

May 12 Diplomacy: The United States and Canada agree to the establishment of the North American Defense Command (NORAD) for their mutual defense against Soviet bombers and missiles.

May 13 Diplomacy: While visiting Caracas, Venezuela, Vice President Richard M. Nixon encounters hostile mobs; he departs the following day for San Juan, Puerto Rico.

May 14 Diplomacy: The State Department rushes shipments of arms to the Lebanese government, then in the midst of a civil war. Naval: The Defense Department doubles the size of the U.S. Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean.

May 16 Aviation: Captain Walter Irwin sets a new jet speed record of 1,404.9 miles per hour while flying his Lockheed F-104 Starfighter over Edwards Air Force Base, California.

May 17 Architecture: John Wellborn Root of Chicago, Illinois, wins the AIA gold medal for architecture.

1958

Chronology

2071

May 27 Aviation: The McDonnell-Douglas F-4 prototype jet fighter flies for the first time; it eventually enters service as the Phantom II, a legendary warplane.

May 30 Aviation: Douglas unveils its new jet transport, the four-engine DC-8. Military: Ceremonies are conducted at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Ceremony for soldiers killed in World War II and Korea. Sports: Jimmy Bryant wins the 42nd Indianapolis 500 with a time of three hours, 44 minutes, 13 seconds and an average speed of 133.791 miles per hour.

June 8 Aviation: A U.S. Army helicopter makes a forced emergency landing in East Germany, and its nine-man crew is taken into custody.

June 17 Politics: Sherman Adams, a presidential aide, swears before a Special House Subcommittee on Legislative Oversight that he did not manipulate federal regulatory agencies to assist Boston industrialist Bernard Goldfine, a friend.

June 20 Diplomacy: The United States demands that East Germany release nine members of a helicopter crew forced down on its territory two weeks earlier.

June 27 Aviation: U.S. Air Force pilot Colonel Harry Burrell establishes a world speed record by flying from New York to London in only five hours and 27 minutes in a Boeing KC-135 tanker jet. His average speed is 630.2 miles per hour; a Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar accidentally strays into Soviet airspace while on a routine mission to Iran, and it is shot down by Soviet fighters; the crew of nine survives and is repatriated.

June 28 Sports: In Los Angeles, California, Nancy Ramey sets a new world record for swimming the 100-meter butterfly stroke of one minute, nine seconds.

June 29 Civil: A bomb explodes outside the Bethel Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, where Reverend Fred Shuttleworth, an avid civil rights activist, preaches.

June 30 Settlement: The Senate votes 64-20 to allow Alaska Territory to enter the Union as a state.

July 1 Diplomacy: Delegates from the United States attend an international nuclear weapons disarmament conference in Geneva, Switzerland.

July 15 Military: U.S. Marines disembark from the U.S. Sixth Fleet to bring stability to war-torn Lebanon.

July 19 Diplomacy: Nine captured members of an American helicopter crew are released to the International Red Cross by the East German government.

1958

2072

Chronology of American History

July 29 Science: To underscore the importance of space exploration and technology to national survival, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs a bill creating the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which is expected to spend millions of dollars ensuring America’s foothold in outer space.

August 5 Naval: The nuclear submarine USS Nautilus makes the first submerged crossing of the North Pole under 50-foot-thick sheets of ice for a period of 96 hours.

August 6 Military: President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Defense Reorganization Act to give the secretary of defense more administrative control over the departments of the Army, Navy, and Air Force.

August 13 Military: A force of U.S. Marines is withdrawn from Lebanon following the restoration of stability. Politics: Boston industrialist Bernard Goldfine receives a contempt citation from Congress for failing to answer questions relative to his possible role in federal regulatory agency corruption.

August 15 Aviation: Congress creates the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to handle the rapidly expanding responsibilities of aviation in America.

August 18 Literature: The publication of Vladimir Nabokov’s titillating novel Lolita, dealing with the affections of an older man for a 12-year-old girl, stirs considerable controversy in literary circles.

August 23 Aviation: President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Federal Aviation Act of 1958 into law, which updates and revises all previous civil air laws.

August 25 Politics: Congress passes a law permitting former presidents to collect pensions.

August 28 Labor: Congress passes the Labor Pension Reporting Act, which mandates the reporting of employee welfare and pension plans for companies with more than 25 workers.

September 2 Aviation: A U.S. Air Force C-130C Hercules reconnaissance aircraft is shot down by Soviet MiG-17s after it strays into Soviet airspace near Yerevan, Armenia, killing the crew of 17. Science: President Dwight D. Eisenhower, fearful of falling behind the Soviet Union in space research, readily signs the National Defense Education Act, which stipulates federal student loans and greater emphasis on scientific instruction in public schools.

1958

Chronology

2073

September 2–3 Labor: Harold J. Gibbons of the Teamsters testifies before a Senate investigative committee that his organization did not employ hoodlums at any level of the organization.

September 4 Civil: The U.S. Supreme Court, drawing on the Civil Rights Act of 1957, considers violations of minority voting rights in Columbus, Georgia.

September 5 General: An accident along the Jersey Central Railway kills 40 people when the engineer has a heart attack and plunges his train into Newark Bay.

September 12 Civil: A motion to postpone federally ordered desegregation at Central High School, Little Rock, Arkansas, is denied by the U.S. Supreme Court.

September 17 Civil: Arkansas governor Orval E. Faubus, determined to thwart court-ordered integration, attempts to charter the state school system as a private institution funded by state finances.

September 22 Media: Presidential assistant Sherman Adams goes on the airwaves to announce his resignation and declare that he has “done no wrong” in his dealings with Boston industrialist Bernard Goldfine. Naval: The nuclear-powered submarine USS Skate sets a new underwater endurance record by remaining submerged for 31 days while circumnavigating the polar ice cap.

September 27–29 Sports: The U.S. yacht Columbia defends the America’s Cup by defeating British challenger Sceptre in four straight races.

September 29 Civil: The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously votes to bar what it perceives as “evasive schemes” to avoid federally ordered school integration. Chief Justice Earl Warren presides over the ruling.

September 30 Civil: Determined to thwart court-ordered racial integration, Arkansas governor Orval Faubus orders four high schools in Little Rock closed down.

October 1 Science: The new National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is created from the National Advisory Council on Aeronautics (NACA).

October 1–9 Sports: The New York Yankees (AL) win the 55th World Series by defeating the Milwaukee Braves (NL) four games to three.

October 2 Arts: A Touch of the Poet becomes Eugene O’Neill’s last unproduced full-length play and opens at the Helen Hayes Theater, New York.

1958

2074

Chronology of American History

October 6 Naval: The nuclear-powered submarine USS Seawolf sets an endurance record by operating while submerged for 60 days.

October 12 Civil: A Jewish synagogue is firebombed in Atlanta, Georgia. Science: The American space program suffers a setback when the Pioneer rocket fails in its attempt to circle the moon, despite a record altitude of 79,193 miles.

October 14 Civil: President Dwight D. Eisenhower is outraged by the attack on a Jewish synagogue in Illinois and orders an FBI investigation.

October 25 Military: The last remaining American forces are withdrawn from Lebanese soil.

October 30 Science: The Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine is jointly awarded to Joshua Lederberg, University of Wisconsin, George W. Beadle, California Institute of Technology, and Edward L. Tatum of the Rockefeller Institute.

October 31 Diplomacy: The United States joins France, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union at Geneva, Switzerland, in talks aimed at suspending the practice of aboveground nuclear testing.

November 4 Politics: Midterm elections shine favorably for the Democrats, who pick up 15 Senate seats and 28 seats in the House of Representatives. Senator John F. Kennedy is handily reelected to office for a second term, but Republican Nelson Rockefeller enjoys a surprise victory by becoming governor of New York.

November 15 Diplomacy: President Dwight D. Eisenhower rejects a Soviet proposal to end all nuclear testing with a permanent ban, fearing it would compromise American security.

November 17 Science: Project Mercury, the American plan to put a man into orbit, is officially christened.

November 18 General: A cargo vessel sinks on Lake Michigan in stormy weather, drowning 33 sailors.

December 1 Arts: The musical Flower Drum Song by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein opens at the St. James Theater, New York. General: In Chicago, Illinois, Our Lady of the Angels parochial school is swept by a fire that kills 95 children and three nuns; this is one of the worst schoolhouse conflagrations in American history.

December 10 Transportation: Jet-age travel commences when National Airlines begins passenger service with two Boeing 707 jet airliners.

1958

Chronology

2075

December 19 Communication: President Dwight D. Eisenhower is the first chief executive to broadcast a message from space when a speech he gives is carried by the Project SCORE satellite. Diplomacy: In Geneva, Switzerland, a conference weighing the possibility of a nuclear test ban treaty folds without achieving its objectives.

1959 Literature: Truman Capote publishes his short novel, Breakfast at Tiffany’s; John Hersey completes his antiwar novel, The War Lover; naval historian Samuel Eliot Morison commences his epic, multivolume study History of United States Naval Operations in World War II. Media: The growing popularity of jazz is evident in its use as television program themes for Richard Diamond, Peter Gunn, and M Squad. Music: The year’s popular tunes include” Battle of New Orleans,” “Tom Dooley,” “Stagger Lee,” and “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands.”

January 3 Settlement: Alaska becomes the 49th state in the Union and the first detached from the continental United States, or “Lower 48.”

January 5 Journalism: New York Herald Tribune reporter Marie Torre is sentenced to 10 days in jail for failing to reveal a source for one of her columns.

January 6 Politics: The 20-year tenure of Joseph W. Martin as House Republican leader ends following the election of Charles Halleck of Indiana on a 74-70 vote.

January 7 Diplomacy: The United States lends recognition to the new Cuban leader Fidel Castro, who has recently overthrown the government there.

January 19 Civil: The Virginia Supreme Court rules that discriminatory school laws designed to prevent court-ordered integration are invalid.

February 2 Civil: Public high schools in Arlington and Norfolk, Virginia, proceed apace without significant interruptions.

February 3 Aviation: An aircraft belonging to American Airlines crashes into New York’s East River, killing 65 passengers.

February 10 General: St. Louis, Missouri, is struck by a tornado that kills 22 people, injures over 350, and inflicts damages estimated at $12 million. President Dwight D. Eisenhower declares the region a disaster area and eligible for special low-interest loans.

February 14–15 Crime: New York City police smash a major heroine ring, seizing 28 pounds of the drug valued at $3.6 million.

1959

2076

Chronology of American History

February 16 Diplomacy: The State Department rejects a Soviet call for a 28-nation conference in Germany, insisting instead on a Big Four ministers meeting.

February 18 Diplomacy: President Dwight D. Eisenhower meets with Mexican president Adolfo López Mateos at Acapulco to sign an accord for a joint dam construction project along the Rio Grande River.

March 3 Music: Henry Cowell’s Symphony No. 13 is premiered in Madras, India, by the Little Orchestra of New York.

March 5 Diplomacy: To guarantee the military security of Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey, the United States concludes a series of bilateral defense pacts.

March 18 Settlement: President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs legislation to grant Hawaii statehood.

March 30 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the principle of double jeopardy by allowing persons to be tried in both state and federal courts for the same offense.

March 31 Societal: President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorizes a three-month extension program for those presently receiving federal unemployment benefits.

April 2 Science: The seven Project Mercury astronauts are introduced to the public for the first time amid much celebration: Alan B. Shepard, Virgil I. Grissom, John H. Glenn, Malcolm Scott Carpenter, Walter M. Schirra, and L. Gordon Cooper.

April 4–9 Sports: The Boston Celtics win the NBA basketball championship by beating the Minnesota Lakers, four games straight.

April 5 Military: The Naval Research Laboratory reports a 300 percent increase in radioactive air samples over the East Coast of the United States, signifying that the Soviet Union has been conducting aboveground nuclear tests.

April 6 Astronaut Alan B. Shepard being fitted for a space suit, 1961 (Library of Congress)

1959

Arts: Academy Awards go to Gigi, best picture; David Niven, best actor in Separate Tables; and Susan Hayward, best actress in I Want to Live.

Chronology

2077

April 7 Business: The Department of Commerce and Labor reports a drop in unemployment numbers from 4.7 million in February to 4.3 million by March, the largest decline since the same period in 1950. Societal: After 51 years of prohibition, Oklahoma repeals liquor restrictions by a margin of 80,000 voters. Mississippi is the only dry state in the Union.

April 13 Science: The military research satellite Discoverer 2 is launched into orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.

April 15 Politics: John Foster Dulles, suffering from cancer, resigns as secretary of state.

April 18 Politics: Christian A. Herter is tapped by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to serve as his new secretary of state, and his nomination sails through the Senate, 93-0 in a record four and a half hours.

April 20 Sports: Eino Oksanen of Finland wins the 63rd Boston Marathon by finishing in two hours, 22 minutes, 42 seconds.

April 25 Transportation: The new St. Lawrence Seaway opens for traffic and connects the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean.

May 3 Religion: The American Unitarian Association merges with the Universalist Church of America.

May 4 Arts: Pulitzer Prizes go to The Travels of Jamie McPheeters by Robert Lewis Taylor, fiction; Selected Poems, 1928–1958 by Stanley Kunitz, poetry; and J. B. by Archibald MacLeish, drama. Music: The first Grammy Awards are given out to Henry Mancini for the “Theme from Peter Gunn,” Ella Fitzgerald for the “Irving Berlin Song Book;” and Louis Prima and Keely Smith for “That Old Black Magic.”

May 11–August 5 Diplomacy: Delegates from the United States, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union meet at a conference in Geneva, Switzerland, over perceived Russian attempts to absorb West Berlin and all Germany into the Communist regime.

May 20 Politics: John Foster Dulles receives the Medal of Freedom, the highest award given to civilians, from President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Societal: The Department of Justice restores citizenship to 5,000 Japanese Americans who lost it during World War II.

May 22 Civil: Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., becomes the first African-American major general in the U.S. Air Force.

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Davis, Benjamin O. (1912–2002) General Benjamin Oliver Davis, Jr., was born on December 18, 1912, in Washington, D.C., the son of Lieutenant Benjamin O. Davis, Sr., an African-American army officer. Raised in a military environment, he acquired leadership traits from his father and graduated from the nearly all-white Central High School in Cleveland, Ohio, as president of his class. Davis subsequently attended Case Western University and the University of Chicago, but he found the lure of military service irresistible. In 1932, he gained appointment to the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, and graduated four years later 35th in his class of 276. However, options for African Americans in the military proved limited, and Davis was completely shut out from flying, his main interest. He subsequently taught military science at the famous Tuskegee Institute, Alabama, until 1940, when political pressure forced the Army Air Force to accept minority pilots. Davis passed through the flying program established at Tuskegee, commanding the first class, and he gained his wings in March 1942. He then rose to lieutenant colonel of the all-black 99th Pursuit Squadron, but high-level discrimination kept them out of combat. It was not until April 1943 that Davis and his men were deployed to North Africa, and they fought well there, in Italy and in the Balkans. The following year Davis rose to colonel, commanding the all-black 322nd Fighter Group, the famous “Red Tails,” which he led competently through 60 missions. So adept were his pilots at performing escort mis-

sions that, in two years of combat, the 322nd never lost a single bomber to German aircraft. After the war ended, Davis reported back to Godman Field, Kentucky, where he commanded the racially troubled 477th Composite Group and where he restored calm due to his evenhandedness and leadership abilities. In 1947, the new U.S. Air Force was born, and the following year President Harry S. Truman, bowing to the inevitable, ordered all branches of the military completely desegregated. Davis, for his part, attended the Air War College in 1949 and served in the Pentagon as deputy of operations in the Fighter Branch. In 1954, he made history by becoming the air force’s first black brigadier general, and, in 1959, rose to become the first AfricanAmerican major general in that service. By 1965, Davis had risen to become the first black lieutenant general of any service and concluded his lengthy career as deputy commander of the U.S. Strike Force at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida. Davis retired from active duty in 1970 and then held several high-ranking posts within the government, including assistant secretary of the Transportation Department. However, owing to bitter memories of discrimination he encountered at West Point, Davis did not return to that institution until 1987, over 50 years after his graduation. He also published his memoirs in 1991 and in 1998 became the first African American to hold the honorary rank of general. Davis, a consummate military leader, died in Arlington, Virginia, on July 4, 2002.

Science: The United States and Canada sign an agreement to cooperate in matters of nuclear research and technology.

May 24 General: Former secretary of state John Foster Dulles, an architect of the cold war policy of “containment,” dies of cancer and is lauded by President Dwight D. Eisenhower as “one of the truly great men of our time.”

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May 25 Sports: The U.S. Supreme Court declares that a Louisiana law outlawing boxing matches between blacks and whites is unconstitutional.

May 28 Science: Two monkeys named Able and Baker are launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, ride 300 miles into the atmosphere, and are safely recovered after splashing down in the Caribbean.

May 30 Sports: Roger Ward wins the 43rd Indianapolis 500 in three hours, 40 minutes, 49 seconds at an average speed of 135.857 miles per hour.

June 3 Communication: A message from President Dwight D. Eisenhower is beamed to the Moon, bounced back to Earth, and received by Prime Minister John G. Diefenbaker in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. Technology: The FAA employs a computer to run an air traffic control system for the first time.

June 8 Law: In two votes, the U.S. Supreme Court upholds the investigative practices of the federal government and states to identify and root out possible Communists.

June 9 Naval: The nuclear-powered submarine USS George Washington is launched at Groton, Connecticut, the first submarine to carry nuclear-tipped Polaris missiles.

June 11 Publishing: Shipments of D. H. Lawrence’s novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover are banned from the mail by Postmaster General Arthur Summerfield.

June 15 Business: According to a U.S. Stock Exchange report, 13 million Americans own stock in publicly held corporations. Media: The FCC reaffirms an equal-time ruling for all radio and television stations to grant all political candidates equal time in debate and news broadcasts.

June 18 Civil: A three-judge federal court strikes down Arkansas governor Orval Faubus’s decision to shut down public schools in Little Rock to avoid desegregation.

June 21 Diplomacy: Secretary of State Christian Herter returns from the latest Geneva Conference and warns the administration that the Soviets are apparently intent on dominating West Berlin and absorbing West Germany into the Communist bloc.

June 22 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court upholds pretrial statements and restricts a defendant’s access to such evidence introduced by witnesses.

June 27 Politics: The Democratic-controlled Senate indulges in some political payback by refusing to confirm Lewis Strauss as secretary of commerce, ostensibly over

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Chronology of American History his role in denying physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer a security clearance at the Atomic Energy Commission. This is the first cabinet-level appointment rejected since 1925.

June 30 Business: A bill temporarily extending the federal debt ceiling to $295 billion is signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

July 4 General: The first 49-star American flag is hoisted over the Capitol in Washington, D.C., and historic Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland.

July 7 Politics: President Dwight D. Eisenhower vetoes an omnibus housing bill, pronouncing it excessive and inflationary. Religion: The Evangelical Lutherans and the United Evangelical Lutherans vote to merge into a new entity, the American Lutheran Church; the United Church of Christ, meeting in Oberlin, Ohio, declares that the church must help ameliorate social, national, and international problems, and also urges an end to segregation.

July 9 Military: In a foretaste of things to come, Vietcong guerrillas kill two American soldiers at Bienhoa, South Vietnam.

July 14 Business: Unemployment rises sharply over the past three months by 1.4 million workers.

July 15 Labor: The United Steel Workers decide to forgo further negotiations and strike en masse against all 28 major steel mills. This brings 95 percent of the nation’s steel production to a halt.

July 21 Technology: First Lady Mamie Eisenhower christens the SS Savannah at Camden, New Jersey; this is the world’s first nuclear-powered cargo vessel.

July 23 Diplomacy: Vice President Richard M. Nixon arrives in Moscow, beginning a two-week tour of the Soviet Union and Poland. The following day he engages Premier Nikita Khrushchev in an informal kitchen debate before a U.S. appliance exhibition.

July 29 Transportation: The National Safety Council announces its accidental death rate for 1958, totaling 91,000, of which 37,000 died in automobile accidents.

August 1 Diplomacy: Vice President Richard M. Nixon addresses the Soviet people in a radio-TV address from Moscow and informs them that they will live in fear and tension should their government propagate communism outside the Eastern bloc.

August 5–October 10 Music: Conductor Leonard Bernstein takes the New York Philharmonic Orchestra on an extended world tour, with 50 concerts planned for 17 countries and stops at Athens, London, and Moscow.

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August 7 General: A truck carrying six and a half tons of dynamite explodes during a warehouse fire in Roseburg, Oregon, killing 11 persons, injuring 100, and leveling eight city blocks. Science: The 142-pound satellite Explorer VI lifts off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, becoming the first space vehicle launched by the new NASA agency.

August 12 Civil: A gathering of some 250 whites outside Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, protests the coming of integration.

August 13 Science: The satellite Discoverer 5 is successfully deployed in a polar orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Two previous launches on June 3 and 25 failed to achieve orbit.

August 19 Science: The satellite Discoverer 6 rises to a polar orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.

August 21 Politics: President Dwight D. Eisenhower proclaims that Hawaii is now officially the 50th state in the United States.

August 24 Politics: The new state of Hawaii dispatches two senators and one representative to Congress, bringing membership in that body to 437 congressmen and 100 senators.

August 26 Diplomacy: President Dwight D. Eisenhower departs for Europe for another round of high-level talks with the leaders of Germany, France, and Great Britain. As a goodwill gesture, the United States declares a two-month extension to its nuclear test ban, hoping that others will follow suit.

August 27 Diplomacy: The State Department, alarmed by an influx of communist activity in Southeast Asia, decides to increase the flow of arms and supplies to the Laotian army.

August 29 Societal: The newly passed Veteran’s Pension Act expands existing benefits to include nonservice-related disabilities.

September 4 Labor: The Labor Reform Act is passed by Congress to restrict the power of unions.

September 5 Transportation: The Senate passes a measure that increases the federal gas tax by one cent per gallon to help fund highway construction.

September 7 Civil: The U.S. Civil Rights Commission implores President Dwight D. Eisenhower to appoint federal registrars to supervise voting in areas traditionally discriminating against African Americans.

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Chronology of American History Religion: A survey conducted by the National Council of Churches reports that 64 percent of Americans are churchgoers, an increase of 5 percent.

September 11 Agriculture: A new law is passed enabling the secretary of agriculture to distribute surplus food through food stamps to those areas in the greatest need of relief.

September 14 Law: The Landrum-Griffin Act is passed by Congress to curb blackmail and racketeering in labor unions.

September 15 Civil: The Civil Rights Commission is extended for an additional two years by Congress.

September 15–27 Diplomacy: Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev arrives at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington, D.C., where he is to begin a six-day goodwill tour.

September 17 Aviation: A North American X-15 rocket-powered hypersonic research airplane successfully flies for the first time.

September 18 Science: The satellite Vanguard 3 is successfully launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

September 22 Labor: The AFL-CIO under George Meany decides to readmit the International Longshoremen’s Association for a two-year probationary period.

September 25 Diplomacy: President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev meet in secret talks at Camp David, Maryland, in an attempt to diffuse world tensions. The Russians subsequently retract their demands for changes in the status of Berlin.

October 1 Business: The U.S. Treasury offers $2 billion in notes at 5 percent interest, the highest rate paid on governmental securities since 1929. Labor: Members of the International Longshoremen’s Association, numbering 70,000 workers, strike in ports along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.

October 9 Labor: President Dwight D. Eisenhower invokes the Taft-Hartley Act and issues an injunction against striking steel workers.

October 12 Medical: An outbreak of equine encephalitis (sleeping sickness) kills 20 people in New Jersey.

October 13 General: President Dwight D. Eisenhower arrives in his hometown of Abilene, Kansas, and breaks ground for his forthcoming presidential library.

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October 15 Science: The Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine is shared by Severo Ochoa of New York University and Arthur Kornberg of Stanford University for their work involving the chemistry of heredity.

October 18 Sports: The Los Angeles Dodgers (NL) win the 56th World Series by defeating the Chicago White Sox (AL) four games to two.

October 19 Arts: William Gibson’s powerful play The Miracle Worker, starring Anne Bancroft as Anne Sullivan, opens at the Playhouse in New York.

October 21 Architecture: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the only building he designed in New York City, opens to the public. Labor: The U.S. Supreme Court agrees to the issuing of an injunction against striking steel workers as per the Taft-Hartley Labor Act. Music: Celebrated Russian conductor Dimitri Shostakovich commences a month-long tour with numerous U.S. symphony orchestras.

October 26 Science: Emilio Segrè and Owen Chamberlain of the University of California, Berkeley, share the Nobel Prize in physics for discovering the antiproton.

November 2 Media: A nationwide scandal erupts when Charles Van Doren admits to a House Special Committee that his appearance on the popular TV show $64,000 Question was rehearsed in advance.

November 7 Labor: A Taft-Hartley court injunction issued by the U.S. Supreme Court halts the 166-day-old steel strike, the longest that industry has ever seen.

November 10 Naval: The nuclear submarine USS Triton, which is also the world’s largest submersible, is launched at Groton, Connecticut.

November 16 Military: President Dwight D. Eisenhower places a defense budget request for $41 billion and declares there will be no immediate reductions in U.S. troop strength abroad.

November 18 Technology: The Atomic Energy Commission announces development of a nuclear power generator for satellites.

November 19 Diplomacy: The Eisenhower administration reveals preliminary discussions for joint American-Soviet cooperation in the field of space research.

November 21 Diplomacy: The United States and the Soviet Union sign an agreement to implement a two-year exchange program in science, sports, and culture.

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December 3 Diplomacy: President Dwight D. Eisenhower embarks on a three-week, 11nation tour of Asia, Africa, and Europe.

December 7 General: The U.S. Supreme Court upholds travel restrictions imposed on Americans traveling to China.

December 10–14 Politics: The Communist Party elevates Gus Hall, previously the party’s Midwest secretary, to general secretary.

December 15 Labor: President John L. Lewis of the United Mine Workers announces his retirement at the age of 80 as of 1960.

December 16 Diplomacy: At a NATO Council meeting in Paris, France, Secretary of Defense Thomas S. Gates assures member nations that the United States enjoys nuclear superiority over the Soviet Union in terms of weapons and delivery systems.

December 19 General: Walter Williams, the last-known surviving Civil War veteran, dies in Houston, Texas, at the age of 119.

December 22 Diplomacy: President Dwight D. Eisenhower completes a whirlwind, 11-nation tour of Europe, Africa, and Asia, and comes home.

December 30 Naval: The USS George Washington, the first nuclear-powered, ballistic missile submarine in the world, is commissioned at Groton, Connecticut.

1960 Literature: Harper Lee publishes her first novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, which is critically acclaimed. Military: General Maxwell Taylor strongly critiques American military policy in his book Uncertain Trumpet. Publishing: Noted historian Bruce Catton writes Grant Moves South; John Kenneth Galbraith publishes The Liberal House about U.S. economics. Technology: Theodore Maiman successfully demonstrates the first laser beam, an invention with a host of promising military and civilian applications.

January 2 Journalism: The New York Times postulates that American-manned space flight programs are being compromised by overruns and budget restrictions. Science: Dr. John H. Reynolds of the University of California, Berkeley, estimates that the age of the universe is 4.9 billion years, and he bases that calculation upon examination of a large meteorite found near Richardson, North Dakota. Sports: Bobby Fischer, a 16-year-old chess prodigy, successfully defends his U.S. chess championship title.

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January 3 Politics: Massachusetts senator John F. Kennedy declares his candidacy for the presidency as a Democrat. Labor: The United Steel Workers and various steel companies finally sign a wage increase agreement, ending the longest work stoppage in the history of that industry.

January 7 Politics: In his State of the Union message, President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces a $200-million surplus in the budget and predicts that the ensuing 12 months, “will be the most prosperous year in our history.” Science: The deep-sea submarine Trieste, under Lieutenant Donald Walsh, descends to a record 24,000 feet below the Pacific waters off Guam.

January 9 Politics: Vice President Richard M. Nixon declares his candidacy for the presidency as a Republican. Religion: The Protestant Episcopal Church approves some methods and instances of birth control, although they are restricted to undeveloped countries, where mounting populations threaten general welfare.

January 11 Diplomacy: U.S. ambassador Philip W. Bonsal protests the seizure of American property by the Cuban government, which rejects the claim the same day.

January 18 Diplomacy: The United States and Japan conclude a mutual defense pact although demonstrations in Tokyo induce President Dwight D. Eisenhower to cancel a trip there.

January 23 Science: The deep-sea submarine Trieste makes another record dive by reaching the bottom of the Marianas Trench, 35,800 feet down.

January 24 Crime: Richard Morrison, on trial for burglary, names eight policemen as associates, and the ensuing departmental investigation leads to 17 officers being charged with crimes.

February 1 Civil: Four African-American patrons, refused service at a “whites only” establishment in Greensboro, North Carolina, hold a sit-in at the lunch counter.

February 2 Politics: On a vote of 70-18, Congress passes the Twenty-third Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which eliminates poll tax requirements for federal elections, and passes it on to the states for ratification.

February 16 Diplomacy: In light of continuing tension with the Communist world, President Dwight D. Eisenhower asks Congress to approve $11.4 billion in foreign aid and military assistance for global allies.

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February 17 Science: The Defense Department conducts a feasibility study on the possible use of underground seismic stations to detect underground nuclear testing.

February 22 Diplomacy: President Dwight D. Eisenhower begins his Latin American tour with a scheduled trip to Puerto Rico.

February 23 Military: Missouri senator Stuart A. Symington declares that the American people are being misled by the present administration and that a profound “missile gap” exists between the United States and the Soviet Union, favoring the latter.

February 24 Population: Figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau reveal a population of 179.2 million people.

February 25 Aviation: A collision between a U.S. Navy aircraft and a Brazilian airliner over Rio de Janeiro takes the lives of 35 sailors and 26 Brazilians. Religion: Secretary of the Air Force Dudley C. Sharpe accuses the National Council of Churches with having been infiltrated by Communists before the House Un-American Activities Committee.

February 26 Labor: A Senate select committee declares Teamster leader Jimmy Hoffa completely dishonest in his promise to rid the union of criminal elements.

February 29 Civil: Civil rights legislation in the Senate is stalled by 18 southern senators who begin a determined filibuster. Publishing: In New York, the book firms Henry Holt, Rinehart & Company, and John C. Winston Company merge into a new publishing giant called Holt, Rinehart & Winston.

March 7 Diplomacy: President Dwight D. Eisenhower arrives back in Washington, D.C., from Latin America and pronounces relations with that region as sound as ever.

March 11 Science: Pioneer 5 is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, becoming only the third spacecraft to orbit around the Sun.

March 15 Civil: In a report released by the Civil Rights Commission, African-American citizens have registered 436 complaints of denial of the right to vote, mostly from Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and California. Diplomacy: Representatives of 10 nations, including the United States, gather at Geneva, Switzerland, for another round of disarmament talks.

March 17 Aviation: A turboprop Lockheed Electra airliner explodes in midair over Tell City, Indiana, killing 63 passengers and crew. Societal: President Dwight D. Eisenhower asks Congress to raise immigration quotas from 260,000 to 500,000 per year.

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March 25 Publishing: The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York rules that Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D. H. Lawrence is not obscene and can be sent through the mails.

March 27–April 9 Sports: The Boston Celtics win the NBA basketball championship by defeating the St. Louis Hawks four games to three.

March 30 Labor: A Special Senate Committee on Unemployment predicts a steady increase in unemployed workers owing to sustained population growth.

April 1 Science: Tiros I, the world’s first weather satellite, is launched into orbit and sends thousands of pictures back to Earth.

April 2 Business: The Cabinet Committee on Price Stability for Economic Growth releases a glowing assessment of the year ahead.

April 4 Media: Academy Awards go to Ben-Hur for best picture and to Charleton Heston as best actor; Simone Signoret takes best actress for Room at the Top.

April 8 Civil: The Senate passes a civil rights bill over the objection of senators from the South by a vote of 71-18.

April 9 Civil: A report in the Southern School News suggests that integration affected only 6 percent of southern schools despite the 1954 Supreme Court decision outlawing it.

April 13 Science: The experimental satellite Transit 1-B is set aloft by a Thor-Able-Star rocket and assumes an elliptical orbit 500 miles high.

April 14 Naval: A Polaris missile, destined to carry nuclear warheads while onboard submarines, is successfully test-fired off San Clemente Island, California.

April 18 Religion: Senator and presidential candidate John F. Kennedy, when asked about the political implications of his Roman Catholic faith, sharply retorts, “I don’t think that my religion is anyone’s business.”

April 19 Sports: Paavo Kotila of Finland wins the 64th Boston Marathon with a time of two hours, 20 minutes, 54 seconds.

April 28 Religion: The 100th General Assembly of the Southern Presbyterian Church declares casual sex between married couples not to be sinful.

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May 1 Aviation: A Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance aircraft piloted by Captain Gary Francis Powers is shot down by an SA-2 missile over Sverdlovsk in the Soviet Union.

May 2 Arts: Pulitzer Prizes go to John Paul Jones by Samuel Eliot Morison, biography; “Heart’s Needle” by W. D. Snodgrass, poetry; and Fiorello! by George Abbott, Jerome Weidman, Sheldon Harnick, and Jerry Bock, drama.

May 5 Diplomacy: The shooting down of an American U-2 spy plane over Russia is announced by Premier Nikita Khrushchev, who then vows that pilot Francis Gary Powers will be put on trial.

May 6 Civil: President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Civil Rights Act of 1960 to promote voter registration among minorities.

May 7 Diplomacy: Taking a deep breath, the State Department confirms that an American U-2 spy plane has in fact been downed inside the Soviet Union, and also claims it was on a weather observation mission.

May 9 Diplomacy: The Eisenhower administration declares an end to all U-2 overflights such as the one recently bagged by the Soviets over Russia.

May 10 Naval: The USS Triton, the world’s largest submarine, completes the first undersea transit around the world.

May 11 Diplomacy: President Dwight D. Eisenhower publicly admits that the United States has been conducting reconnaissance overflights of the Soviet Union for the past four years.

May 12 Aviation: The Lockheed Aircraft Company announces that recent crashes of its turboprop Electra airliners are the result of structural weaknesses, correction of which will cost $25 million.

May 16 Diplomacy: In Paris, France, Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev walks out of a disarmament summit and declares he cannot participate until the United States formally apologizes for the U-2 incident.

May 19 Media: Popular radio disc jockey Alan Freed, best known for coining the term “rock and roll,” is arrested on charges of accepting payola, or commercial bribery.

May 20 Military: The dawn of intercontinental ballistic missiles approaches when an American weapon launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, splashes down off the tip of Africa, 9,000 miles distant.

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Religion: The Southern Baptist Convention, convening in Miami Beach. Florida, declares that the election of a Roman Catholic to public office is untenable owing to conflicts between church and state.

May 24 Military: A top-secret Midas 2 satellite weighing 5,000 pounds is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, to serve as an early-warning system against Soviet missile attacks. It is the first to contain infrared detection sensors.

May 30 Sports: Jim Rathmann wins the 44th Indianapolis 500 by finishing in three hours, 36 minutes, and 11 seconds at an average speed of 138.757 miles per hour.

May 31 Societal: A report by the Joint Commission on Mental Illness states that 25 percent of all Americans require professional help at some point in their life.

June 2–13 Labor: In the first work stoppage since 1919, all 22 Broadway theaters are struck by Actor’s Equity.

June 4 Diplomacy: The U.S. ambassador to Cuba delivers a note of protest, accusing the government of engaging in a slanderous campaign against the United States.

June 6 Medical: The American Heart Association states that middle-aged men who smoke heavily are found to be 50 to 150 percent more susceptible to coronary death.

June 12 Diplomacy: President Dwight D. Eisenhower departs Washington, D.C., on an eight-day goodwill tour of the Philippines, Taiwan, South Korea, and the new state of Alaska.

June 13 Labor: Actors return to work on Broadway following an agreement between Actor’s Equity and the New York Theater League.

June 16 Diplomacy: A recent spate of extreme left-wing and right-wing rioting in Tokyo against a mutual security treaty forces President Dwight D. Eisenhower to cancel his upcoming trip to Japan. Politics: The Twenty-third Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is sent off to the states for ratification; it eliminates the poll tax in federal elections and also grants the inhabitants of Washington, D.C., full voting rights.

June 20 Sports: Floyd Patterson knocks out Ingemar Johansson in the fifth round, thereby becoming the first fighter to regain the world’s heavyweight boxing championship.

June 22 Diplomacy: The Senate affirms the recent United States–Japan mutual defense treaty.

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June 26 Diplomacy: President Dwight D. Eisenhower returns from his Asian tour, declaring it successful despite his last-minute cancellation of a trip to Japan.

June 27 Diplomacy: In Paris, France, the 10-nation disarmament conference disperses after failing to reach an accord on nuclear weapons.

July 1 Aviation: Soviet jet fighters shoot down an unarmed American ERB-47H aircraft in international airspace over the Baltic Sea, killing four crew members and capturing two. The survivors are released on January 25, 1961.

July 4 General: The new, 50-star flag of the United States is made official.

July 6 Diplomacy: The United States responds to displays of increasing hostility by Cuban dictator Fidel Castro by slashing sugar imports from that island by 95 percent.

July 7 Education: The Modern Language Association notes that most foreign-language instructors in the school system lack the proper qualifications to teach.

July 11 Diplomacy: The Soviet Union claims that the American RB-47 it shot down over international waters was actually violating their air space.

July 13 Politics: The Democrats meet in Los Angeles and nominate Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts as their presidential candidate, while Senator Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas is picked for vice president.

July 20 Naval: The nuclear-powered missile submarine USS George Washington successfully test fires a Polaris missile, which flies downrange for 1,150 miles. This is also the first such test from a submerged vessel.

July 25–27 Politics: The Republican Party convenes in Chicago, Illinois, and selects Vice President Richard M. Nixon for president and Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts for vice president.

July 29 Science: NASA unveils Project Apollo to the public, which intends to put a man on the moon ahead of the Soviets.

August 3 Communication: American scientists conduct the first telephone conversation whereby messages are beamed to and bounced off the Moon.

August 4 Aviation: Civilian test pilot Joseph A. Walker flies the experimental X-15 rocket plane to a record speed of 2,196 miles per hour.

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August 10 Diplomacy: The Senate approves a six-nation treaty among the United States, Belgium, Norway, Japan, South Africa, and Great Britain to maintain Antarctica as a “peaceful scientific preserve.”

August 11 Science: A U.S. helicopter makes the first recovery of a payload from outer space, which had been ejected from orbit by the Discoverer 13 military reconnaissance satellite.

August 12 Aviation: A North American X-15 rocket-powered research plane is piloted to a record 136,500 feet by Major Robert White. Communication: Echo 1, a large, inflatable, radio-wave-reflective sphere becomes the first passive communications satellite when successfully launched.

August 19 Diplomacy: U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers is sentenced by a Soviet Court to 10 years of “deprivation of freedom.” Science: A Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar successfully snags a 300-pound KH1 Corona 13 capsule ejected from space by the Discoverer 14 reconnaissance satellite.

August 23 Diplomacy: In response to the Dominican Republic’s decision to quit the Organization of American States (OAS), President Dwight D. Eisenhower asks Congress to slash all sugar imports from that island republic.

August 25–September 11 Sports: At the Summer Olympics in Rome, Italy, the United States finishes second behind the Soviet Union with 34 gold medals.

August 26 Politics: Senator John F. Kennedy picks up an important labor endorsement when the AFL-CIO embraces his campaign for the presidency.

September 9–12 General: Hurricane Donna ravages the Atlantic Coast from Florida to New England, killing 30 people.

September 12 Religion: Senator John F. Kennedy, to calm anxieties over his Roman Catholic faith, declares that he would resign from the presidency rather than allow religion to compromise his national leadership.

September 26 Media: The contending presidential candidates parry on live television for the first time from Chicago, Illinois; to many viewers, John F. Kennedy came across as handsome and charismatic, while those listening to the debate on radio felt that Richard M. Nixon was more erudite.

September 28 Publishing: Harcourt, Brace, & Company merges with World Book Company, forming Harcourt, Brace & World, one of the nation’s largest publishing firms.

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October 5–13 Sports: The Pittsburgh Pirates (NL) win the 57th World Series by defeating the New York Yankees (AL), four games to three.

October 7 Media: A second round of televised presidential debating is broadcast from Washington, D.C.

October 13 Media: John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon stake out positions on television for a third time from Hollywood, California.

October 15 Labor: The Oil, Chemical, and Nuclear Workers International Union strikes the Union Carbide Nuclear Company over wages, although an agreement is reached by October 31.

October 17 Media: Charles Van Doren and 13 former TV contestants are arrested for perjury in connection to a scandal involving providing questions and answers before game shows.

October 18 Science: Dr. Tracy Sonneborne of Indiana University reports on the nongenetic heredity of paramecia.

October 19 Diplomacy: President Dwight D. Eisenhower states that Canada and the United States have agreed to a 10-year pact to jointly produce a Columbia River water and power project.

October 20 Diplomacy: The U.S. State Department orders a complete embargo on exports to the Communist dictatorship of Fidel Castro in Cuba, although allowances are made for some medical supplies.

October 29 Aviation: An Arctic Pacific Line airplane crashes on takeoff, killing 22 passengers, including the 16 members of the California State Polytech College football team.

October 21 Media: The fourth and final televised debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon takes place from a studio in New York City.

October 26 Civil: After civil rights activist Dr. Martin Luther King is arrested for a traffic violation, Massachusetts state senator Robert F. Kennedy informs his wife, Coretta Scott King, by telephone.

November 3 Science: Professor Willard Frank Libby of the University of California wins the Nobel Prize in chemistry for discovering a process for radioactive carbon dating; Professor Donald A. Glaser of the University of California wins the Nobel Prize in physics for developing a bubble chamber to view the paths of subatomic particles.

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November 8 Politics: Democrat John F. Kennedy defeats Republican Richard M. Nixon for the presidency with 303 electoral votes to 202; however, the margin of popular votes between them is only 100,000, or 49.7 to 49.6 percent. The Democrats also keep control of both houses of Congress. Historically, Kennedy remains the first Roman Catholic elected to the White House.

November 15 Societal: Shifts in demographic patterns result in changes for 25 election districts for the House of Representatives.

November 17 Civil: An anti-integration riot in New Orleans, Louisiana, leads to 200 arrests.

November 18 Business: The Chrysler Corporation announces the discontinuation of De Soto automobiles, which had been in production since 1928.

December 12 Politics: President-elect John F. Kennedy announces that Dean Rusk, president of the Rockefeller Foundation, is going to be his new secretary of state.

December 13 Aviation: A North American A3-J Vigilante jet bomber is flown to a record 91,540 feet by navy commander Leroy Heath.

December 16 Aviation: Disaster strikes over New York harbor when a United Air Lines DC8 and a Lockheed Super Constellation collide, killing 132 crew and passengers. This is the worst air accident to date.

December 19 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the 1956 Narcotics Control Act requiring testimony from witnesses with immunity from prosecution.

December 22 Military: A Polaris intermediary-range ballistic missile (IRBM) is successfully launched by the nuclear submarine USS Robert E. Lee.

December 31 Science: Despite a somewhat shaky start, to date the U.S. space program has launched 31 satellites and two deep-space probes. The Soviets, by comparison, account for seven satellites, one deep-space probe, and two lunar missions.

1961 Literature: Henry Miller’s novel Tropic of Cancer, first published in France in 1934, is finally made available in the United States; Joseph Heller publishes his celebrated antiwar novel, Catch-22. Music: The year’s popular tunes include “Where the Boys Are,” “Never on a Sunday,” “Don’t Be Cruel,” and “Its Now or Never.”

January 3 Diplomacy: The United States breaks off diplomatic relations with the Communist dictatorship of Fidel Castro following the latter’s demand that it reduce its diplomatic mission to 11 members.

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January 6 General: A fire at San Francisco’s Thomas Hotel kills 20 persons.

January 17 Politics: A departing president Dwight D. Eisenhower warns his fellow countrymen of the growing power and influence of the “military-industrial complex.”

January 20 Politics: John F. Kennedy is inaugurated president of the United States, challenging young people to “ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.” The ascent of this youthful, articulate, and charismatic individual seems to epitomize the hopes of a new generation.

January 21 Politics: President John F. Kennedy appoints his younger brother, Robert F. Kennedy, as attorney general. This is the first time that a chief executive has appointed a sibling to a cabinet position.

January 23 Media: The U.S. Supreme Court upholds a Chicago city ordnance forbidding the screening of any motion picture without permission of city censors.

Kennedy, John F. (1917–1963) President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, on May 29, 1917, the son of a noted businessman and diplomat. He briefly attended Princeton University in 1936 before ill health forced him to drop out, and he subsequently studied at Harvard University. Kennedy graduated in 1940 and also published his senior thesis, While England Slept, as a bestselling book. He then attempted to join the army but was sidelined by an old back injury and received a navy commission instead. After American entry into World War II, Kennedy volunteered for service with the small patrol torpedo boats (PT), and, in August 1943, he distinguished himself after his vessel, PT-109, was rammed by a Japanese destroyer and sunk in the

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Solomon Islands. Kennedy returned a war hero and was elected to Congress in 1946 as a Democrat. In 1952, he unseated an incumbent Republican and won the U.S. Senate seat from Massachusetts and also published a second best-selling book, Profiles in Courage. Kennedy, having married wealthy socialite Jacqueline Bouvier, was a rising star of the Democrats, although in 1956 he vied to become the party’s vice presidential candidate and lost. However, in January 1960, he declared his candidacy for the presidency and handily defeated the veteran campaigner Lyndon B. Johnson. That fall Kennedy appeared with Republican Richard M. Nixon in the first-ever televised presidential debates, appearing handsome, charming, and articulate, and he

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January 25 Media: President John F. Kennedy participates in his first televised press conference.

January 28 Politics: The U.S. State Department announces plans for President John F. Kennedy’s new Peace Corps.

January 30 Education: In his first State of the Union address, President John F. Kennedy bemoans the sorry state of American education, noting that 2 million children are taught by 90,000 unqualified instructors.

January 31 Science: A Mercury space capsule is launched into a suborbital flight with a chimpanzee named Ham onboard; it flies 155 miles at 5,000 miles per hour, and it is successfully recovered at sea.

February 1 Journalism: A poll of 276 newspapers results in the New York Times being chosen as the best daily paper.

apparently bested his seemingly unsettled opponent. That November Kennedy won the presidential contest by a mere 118,550 votes becoming, at 43, the youngest man to ever serve as chief executive. Kennedy was also the first Roman Catholic to occupy the White House. Kennedy took his oath of office as the cold war was entering a new and more dangerous phase. As such, he was forced to confront the Soviet Union under Premier Nikita Khrushchev over the Berlin Wall in 1961, and that year he also authorized the infamous Bay of Pigs fiasco launched by Cuban expatriates, aided by the CIA. In 1962, Kennedy imposed a naval blockade on Communist-controlled Cuba to force the Russians to remove all their offensive missiles and bombers there. He succeeded and extended his global

campaign against communism by raising an elite unit of special forces, the Green Berets, for service in Vietnam. He also convinced the Soviets to sign the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1963 to prevent aboveground testing of all atomic weapons. On the domestic front, Kennedy enjoyed similar success by founding the new Peace Corps and infusing American youth with a new sense of idealism and involvement. “Ask not what your country can do for you,” he declared to them, “Ask what you can do for your country.” Kennedy also enjoyed a fabulous relationship with the press, which dubbed his administration “Camelot” because of its youthful style, grace, and optimism. Kennedy continued enjoying high political ratings until he was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963.

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February 6–7 Business: U.S. district judge J. Cullen Ganey finds 29 major manufacturers of electrical parts guilty of price fixing and doles out seven jail sentences, 23 suspended sentences, and $1.9 million in fines.

February 17–24 Aviation: A six-day strike by ground personnel completely shuts down Trans World, Eastern. Flying Tiger, American, and National Airlines. It is the most costly labor stoppage in commercial aviation history.

February 18 Science: A Thor-Agena-B rocket thunders aloft, carrying the Discoverer 21 satellite into orbit. This particular Agena is also designed to allow its motors to be restarted in space.

February 22–23 Societal: The National Council of Churches, meeting at Syracuse, New York, endorses birth control as a means of controlling family size.

March 8 Politics: The Senate expresses concern over the growth of the secret, anticommunist John Birch Society. Founder Robert H. Welch has accused various American leaders of aiding world communism.

March 13 Diplomacy: President John F. Kennedy proposes the new Alliance for Progress to end hemispheric poverty and invites Latin American countries to participate. Politics: The Communist Party appoints 70-year-old Elizabeth Gurley Flynn to serve as their first female national chairman.

March 23 Diplomacy: The State Department rails against the increased activity of communist forces in Laos.

March 1 Societal: President John F. Kennedy, eager to enlist the energy and enthusiasm of the nation’s youth, signs an executive order creating the new Peace Corps to carry American ideals to foreign lands.

March 26 Diplomacy: President John F. Kennedy meets with British prime minister Harold Wilson at Key West, Florida, to discuss the growing threat of communism in Laos and elsewhere.

March 29 Politics: With the Twenty-third Amendment to the U.S. Constitution finally approved, all poll taxes are removed from federal elections, and the inhabitants of Washington, D.C., acquire the right to vote.

April 2–11 Sports: The Boston Celtics win the NBA basketball championship by defeating the St. Louis Hawks four games to one.

April 6–16 Sports: The Chicago Black Hawks win the NHL Stanley Cup by defeating the Detroit Red Wings four games to two.

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April 17 Arts: Academy Awards go to The Apartment as best picture, to Burt Lancaster as best actor for Elmer Gantry, and to Elizabeth Taylor as best actress in Butterfield 8. Military: A brigade of 1,500 CIA-trained Cuban refugees lands at the Bay of Pigs, Cuba, but when promised American air support fails to materialize, they are quickly crushed by Communist forces under Fidel Castro.

April 19 Sports: Eino Oksanen of Finland wins the 65th Boston Marathon in two hours, 23 minutes, 29 seconds.

April 24 Diplomacy: President John F. Kennedy accepts full responsibility for the recent Bay of Pigs fiasco in Cuba.

April 27 Science: A Juno 2 rocket carries Explorer 11, a 95-pound research satellite, into orbit, where its lensless telescope can study the nature of interstellar matter.

April 30 Transportation: Eastern Airlines initiates shuttle services between Boston, Massachusetts, and New York City, which becomes one of the most heavily traveled air routes in the nation.

May 1 Arts: Pulitzer Prizes go to To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, fiction; Times Three: Selected Verse from Three Decades by Phyllis McGinley, poetry; and All the Way Home by Tad Mosel, drama.

May 4 Aviation: Two navy scientists set a new balloon altitude record by climbing to 113,500 feet in the Stratolab High No. 5, although one of the crew subsequently drowns when he falls from the recovery helicopter.

May 5 Labor: President John F. Kennedy signs the Fair Labor Standards Act, which raises the minimum wage to $1.15 this year and to $1.25 by 1963. Science: Navy commander Alan Shepard, Jr., is the first American to complete a suborbital flight of 300 miles while riding a Mercury capsule named Freedom 7.

May 16–17 Diplomacy: President John F. Kennedy leaves for a three-day sojourn to Ottawa, Canada, where he urges that country to strengthen NATO and financial aid to underdeveloped countries.

May 25 Science: In an address to Congress, President John F. Kennedy declares that the United States is capable of “landing a man on the moon and returning him safely back to earth” before 1970. He then requests $1.8 billion in funding for space and other scientific research.

May 26 Aviation: A Convair B-58 Hustler supersonic bomber makes a record flight of only three hours and 19 minutes from New York City to Paris, France.

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May 27 Diplomacy: President John F. Kennedy signs the bill creating his Alliance for Progress with $600 million in aid for Latin America.

May 31 Diplomacy: President John F. Kennedy flies to Paris, France, for talks with French president Charles de Gaulle.

June 3–4 Diplomacy: President John F. Kennedy flies to Vienna, Austria, for a two-day meeting with Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev over mutual interests such as disarmament, Berlin, and Laos.

June 6 Medical: Researchers at the Chicago Heart Association invent a device for detecting heart defects in children, which involves recording heart beats on highfidelity tapes.

June 16 Science: The research satellite Discoverer 25 is launched with a payload of various minerals to see how they might be affected by space travel.

June 19 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court comes down against using illegally obtained evidence while prosecuting state cases.

June 22 Diplomacy: U.N. ambassador Adlai Stevenson returns to the United States to state that discontent and instability in South America have diminished greatly since his 1960 tour.

June 29 Science: The first triple launching in space history takes place when a Thor-AbleStar rocket places Transit-4, Greb 3, and Injun into orbit.

June 30 Societal: President John F. Kennedy signs the Housing Act of 1961 into law.

July 3 General: Aging and ailing former general Douglas MacArthur pays a final visit to his beloved Philippines, where he receives an affectionate welcome by 2 million Filipinos. Labor: A Taft-Hartley injunction at the behest of the U.S. State Department ends an 18-day maritime strike, which has paralyzed most shipping operations.

July 7 Labor: Jimmy Hoffa is reelected president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters at their annual convention in Miami, Florida.

July 8 Military: In light of a possible confrontation with the Soviet Union over Berlin, President John F. Kennedy orders a complete reappraisal of American military strength.

July 14 Politics: The government designates the third week of every July as Captive Nations Week to call attention to Communist oppression in Eastern Europe and Asia.

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July 21 Space: Air Force captain Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom becomes America’s second man in space by zooming 188 miles in a suborbital flight while piloting the Mercury capsule Liberty Bell 7.

July 24 Aviation: An armed passenger hijacks an Eastern Airlines Electra on a routine flight from Tampa to Miami, and forces it to land in Havana. The plane is subsequently released by Cuban authorities.

July 25 Military: Determined to display his resolve to the Soviet Union, President John F. Kennedy asks Congress for $3.5 billion for defense and additional troops for the reserve.

August 2 Diplomacy: President John F. Kennedy and Republic of China premier Ch’en Ch’eng affirm their opposition to allowing the People’s Republic of China a seat at the United Nations.

August 17 Diplomacy: Prospective members of the Alliance for Progress meet in Punta del Este, Uruguay, where the United States delegation helps draw up a charter of economic and developmental support.

September 1 Aviation: A Trans World Airways Lockheed Super Constellation crashes after takeoff near Chicago’s Midway Airport, killing 78 passengers and crew.

September 4 Diplomacy: Congress passes the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 whereby the Agency for International Development is created and $4.2 billion is authorized for foreign military and economic programs.

September 5 Crime: President John F. Kennedy signs a bill making air piracy punishable by death.

September 8 Medical: The Journal of the American Medical Association reports a definitive link between smoking and heart disease.

September 15 Diplomacy: Foreign ministers from the United States, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union meet in Washington, D.C., to discuss the status of Berlin.

September 22 Societal: President John F. Kennedy signs congressional legislation formally creating the Peace Corps.

September 27 Politics: Former vice president Richard M. Nixon declares his candidacy for the governorship of California and states that he will not be a presidential candidate in 1964.

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October 4 –9 Sports: The New York Yankees (AL) win the 58th World series by defeating the Cincinnati Reds (NL) four games to one.

October 6 Societal: In light of global realities, President John F. Kennedy advises American families to buy or construct a bomb shelter for protection against nuclear fallout.

October 19 Science: Melvin Calvin of the University of California, Berkeley, wins the Nobel Prize in chemistry for analyzing how plants assimilate carbon dioxide; Robert Hofstader of Stanford University and Rudolf L. Mossbaur of West Germany share a Nobel Prize in physics for using excited nuclei to measure time.

October 30 Education: A report by seven specialists on reading skills in America concludes that the whole-word method of instruction (as opposed to the phonic method) was holding back the abilities of 35 percent of American students.

November 6–9 General: In Los Angeles, a fire sweeps the Bel Air–Brentwood section, destroying 447 homes owned principally by movie stars.

November 8 Aviation: A chartered Imperial Airlines Lockheed Super Constellation crashes near Richmond, Virginia, killing 74 U.S. Army recruits. Investigation reveals that the airline had previously been cited for CAA infractions.

November 22 Aviation: A McDonnell-Douglas F-4 Phantom II jet fighter establishes a new air speed record of 1,606 miles per hour.

December 5 Aviation: A McDonnell-Douglas F-4 Phantom II jet sets a new sustained altitude record of 66,443 feet. U.S. Air Force F-102 Delta Darts intercept a Soviet Tu-16 Badger jet bomber attempting to penetrate Alaskan air space and turn it back. Societal: President John F. Kennedy rails against the physical laxity of his fellow Americans, noting that five of every seven men called into military service do not measure up. He calls for greater participation in active sports.

December 15 Diplomacy: President John F. Kennedy embarks on a visit to Colombia, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela.

December 21 Diplomacy: President John F. Kennedy meets with British prime minister Harold Macmillan at Hamilton, Bermuda. Science: The United States begins underground nuclear testing as per an earlier agreement with Great Britain. Law: Congress passes legislation making hijacking a federal offense.

1962 Architecture: Construction is finished on the 600-foot-high Space Needle in Seattle, Washington.

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Aviation: A Sikorsky S-61 is the first helicopter to reach 200 miles per hour in level flight. Literature: John Steinbeck wins the Nobel Prize in Literature. Science: The modern environmental movement is spawned with the publication of Silent Spring by Rachel Carson.

Carson, Rachel

(1907–1964)

Scientist Rachel Louise Carson was born in Springdale, Pennsylvania, on May 27, 1907, a daughter of small farmers. As an only child, she spent many hours exploring the nearby woods and ponds with her mother, developing a close affinity for nature. Her inter-

est resulted in a degree in marine biology from the Pennsylvania College for Women (Chatham College), from which she graduated magna cum laude in 1929. She subsequently majored in zoology at Johns Hopkins University, receiving her master’s (continues)

Rachel Carson speaking before a Senate Government Operations subcommittee studying pesticide spraying, 1963 (Library of Congress)

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(continued) degree there in 1932. Carson aspired to obtain her doctorate in biology and become a full-fledged researcher, but she lacked the money and, following the death of her father, she was obliged to help support her mother and siblings. Carson was initially forced to accept part-time employment with the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries as a science writer and radio script writer, but, in 1936, she passed the civil service exam with honors and became a full-time junior aquatic biologist within the bureau. In this post she distinguished herself with several well-written, impeccably researched monographs on everything from cooking to scientific research. In 1941, this culminated in the publication of her first book, Under the Sea-Wind, which was critically acclaimed but sold poorly owing to the onset of World War II. Undeterred, Carson continued rising through the new Fish and Wildlife Service where, in 1951, she published her second book, The Sea Around Us. Much to her surprise it became a national best seller and culminated in the 1952 National Book Award and two honorary doctorates. Financially secure for the first time, she then quit the bureau to concentrate on writing and produced her third volume, The Edge of the Sea, in 1955.

As she aged, Carson became increasingly interested in the environment, particularly the impact of human activity. She was especially drawn to the widespread use of poisonous pesticides to control harmful insects, which she feared were wending their way through the food chain and hurting higher animals, including humans, as well. In 1962 she penned her seminal treatise Silent Spring, which openly condemned the reckless application of toxic substances, especially DDT, to the delicate biota of the planet for the widespread and lasting damage it caused to both. Silent Spring, scientifically researched yet evocatively written, became a national and international best seller and is considered the birth of the modern environmentalist movement. Not unexpectedly, large chemical concerns, which manufactured DDT, attacked the book as quackery, but at no time did the author insist on the elimination of spraying, only an intelligent and limited application. Carson did not live long enough to enjoy her newfound celebrity, for she died of breast cancer in Silver Spring, Maryland, on April 14, 1964. But such was her impact on increasing public awareness of environmental issues that she posthumously received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, in 1980.

January 1 Labor: The Studebaker-Packard automobile plant in South Bend, Indiana, is struck by 6,000 members of the United Auto Workers when ongoing contract negotiations stall.

January 2 Civil: Roy Wilkins, the NAACP executive secretary, lauds President John F. Kennedy for his “personal role” in the advancement of civil rights.

January 9 Politics: President John F. Kennedy meets with Democratic Party leaders to convince them that the national debt limit can be raised.

January 10–11 Aviation: A Boeing B-52H jet bomber flies nonstop for a record 12,532 miles.

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January 11 Politics: In his State of the Union message, President John F. Kennedy acknowledges some setbacks for American policy in the year past, but he waxes confident over the nation’s role in promoting peace and freedom.

January 12 Politics: New regulations from the State Department forbid American communists from traveling abroad.

January 15 Military: To simmer tensions along the Berlin Wall, the American government removes its tanks from that sector of Berlin. The Soviets reciprocate two days later.

January 16 Business: Representatives from the United States and the Common Market nations of Europe agree on lowered tariffs.

January 23 Business: The directors of American Airlines and Eastern Air Lines vote to merge and create the world’s largest airline system.

January 26 Science: The unmanned space probe Ranger 3 is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, intending to take closeup television pictures of the Moon. Two days later the craft is lost through excess velocity and ends up orbiting the Sun.

January 29 Diplomacy: In Geneva, Switzerland, a nuclear test ban conference adjourns without results after delegates from the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union deadlock over the issue of a monitoring system for international control.

February 3 Business: President John F. Kennedy orders a complete trade ban with Cuba, involving virtually all products.

February 8 Military: In a sign of growing American involvement, the new Military Assistance Command (MAC) is created in South Vietnam for funneling advisers and supplies.

February 10 Diplomacy: In Berlin, the Soviet Union releases Gary Francis Powers, whose U-2 was shot down over Russia in May 1960, in return for Soviet spy Rudolf Abel.

February 14 Communication: American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) unveils an $84-million plan to run an underwater telephone cable between Hawaii and Japan.

February 20 Science: U.S. Marine Corps lieutenant colonel John H. Glenn becomes the first American to successfully orbit the Earth three times in his Mercury capsule named Friendship 7.

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Glenn, John H.

(1921–

)

Astronaut John Herschel Glenn was born in Cambridge, Ohio, on July 18, 1921, the son of a plumber. He was raised in nearby New Concord and attended Muskingum College to study chemical engineering, but he left before graduating to undergo naval aviation training for service in World War II. By March 1943, Glenn was commissioned a lieutenant in the Marine Corps Reserve and flew F4U Corsairs with VMO-155 in the Pacific; he completed 59 missions, winning two Distinguished Flying Crosses and 10 Air Medals. After the war he rose to captain and returned to the United States to serve as a flight instructor. In 1952, Glenn was sent to Korea to fly F9F Panthers with VMF-311, although toward the end of that conflict he served as an exchange pilot with the U.S. Air Force, switched to F-86 Sabres, and downed two MiG-15s. Glenn consequently received two additional Distinguished Flying Crosses and eight more Air Medals. He then rose to major in 1953 and was assigned to the navy’s Patuxent River test school as a test pilot. In this capacity he completed the first supersonic transcontinental flight in an F8U Crusader on July 16, 1957, crossing the country in only three hours, 23 minutes. He won his fifth Distinguished Flying Cross, became a lieutenant colonel, and then gained entry into the ambitious Project Mercury, destined to put an American in orbit. Glenn trained intensely for three years and, on February 20, 1963, he piloted his Friendship 7 space capsule in three orbits around the globe at an altitude of 185 miles and for a distance of 81,000 miles. Glenn became a national hero

and received ticker-tape parades in both New York and Washington, D.C. Apparently it was President John F. Kennedy who convinced Glenn to quit flying and run for politics. Glenn resigned from the astronaut program in 1964 and declared his candidacy for the U.S. Senate seat in Ohio, but his campaign was sidelined by a severe personal injury. He then served as a business executive until 1970, when he lost a Democratic primary to Howard Metzenbaum. It was not until 1974 that Glenn was finally elected to office as Ohio’s junior senator, and he served on the Foreign Relations Committee and Governmental Affairs Committee. Politically, Glenn was a moderate Democrat, conservative on defense matters and liberal on labor and social issues. In 1980, he declared his candidacy for the presidency, but he was defeated by the leading contender, Vice President Walter Mondale. He easily gained reelection to Congress in 1992. Glenn was launched into space a second time on October 29, 1998, 35 years after his initial flight, as part of the space shuttle Discovery’s crew. Although his flight was dismissed in political circles as a public relations stunt, the 77-year-old Glenn, the oldest person ever to fly in space, performed useful service researching the effects of weightlessness on the aged. He retired from public life in 1998 with little fanfare although, in 1989, actor Ed Harris portrayed him in the popular movie The Right Stuff. He currently holds an adjunct professorship at the Ohio State University Department of Political Science.

February 22 Diplomacy: Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, after conferring with West Berlin mayor Willy Brandt, denounces the Soviet-constructed Berlin Wall dividing the city.

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February 26 Civil: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that segregation laws in transportation facilities, either interstate or intrastate, are unconstitutional.

March 1 Aviation: The crash of an American Airlines Boeing 707 jetliner at Idlewild Airport, New York, claims the lives of 95 passengers. For many years this remains the nation’s worst single-plane aviation disaster. Business: A federal district court orders the Du Pont de Nemours & Company to divest itself of 63 million shares of General Motors stock. This is one of the biggest antitrust suits in American business history to that date. Conservation: President John F. Kennedy urges Congress to establish a Land Conservation Fund to acquire new recreational land for the National Park system.

March 2 Diplomacy: President John F. Kennedy, determined to pressure the Soviets into a nuclear test ban treaty, announces the resumption of atmospheric nuclear testing.

March 4 Technology: The Atomic Energy Commission announces that the first atomic power energy plant in Antarctica is operating at McMurdo Sound.

March 7 Business: President John F. Kennedy announces broad reductions in U.S. import duties in a message to Congress after 24 nations make similar concessions.

March 8 Diplomacy: Despite rising tensions, the United States and the Soviet Union conclude a two-year program to expand cultural, scientific, and educational exchanges.

March 13 Diplomacy: To help thwart the specter and spread of global communism, President John F. Kennedy requests that Congress appropriate $4.8 billion for foreign aid.

March 16 Science: The mighty Titan II ICBM missile is launched and tested for the first time from Cape Canaveral, Florida, as far as Ascension Island in the South Atlantic.

March 19 Politics: The Justice Department sues the Communist Party, along with its top four officers, for $500,000 in income taxes and interest dating back to 1951.

March 26 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Baker v. Carr, ruling that federal courts possess the ability to order reapportionment of seats for state legislatures.

March 27 Civil: Bishop Joseph Francis Rummel orders an end to segregation in all Roman Catholic schools in the New Orleans, Louisiana, diocese.

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April 3 Military: The Defense Department orders the full racial integration of military reserves and National Guard units.

April 4 Aviation: A McDonnell-Douglas F-4 Phantom II jet sets several time-to-climb records, becoming the first aircraft in history to simultaneously hold world records for high speed, sustained altitude, and climbing speed.

April 9 Media: Academy Awards go to West Side Story as best picture of 1961, to Maximilian Schell as best actor for Judgment at Nuremberg, and to Sophia Loren as best actress for Two Women.

April 10 Business: President John F. Kennedy strongly criticizes a 3.5 percent increase in steel prices, characterizing steel companies as showing “irresponsible defiance” toward the public interest. Diplomacy: President John F. Kennedy and British prime minister Harold Macmillan request the Soviet Union to consent to an aboveground nuclear test ban.

April 11 Labor: An injunction issued under the Taft-Hartley Act ends a 27-day-old shipping strike on the West Coast.

April 13 Business: Steel industry leaders, chastised by President John F. Kennedy’s complaints, rescind recently announced price hikes.

April 14 Diplomacy: The Cuban government releases 60 wounded Bay of Pigs prisoners and demands a $62-million ransom for the remaining 1,119 still incarcerated.

April 19 Aviation: An experimental Skybolt missile, an early form of cruise missile, is test fired from a B-52 jet bomber over Cape Canaveral, but it falls short of its intended target.

April 23 Science: The United States and the Soviet Union agree to a joint world weather watch linked by meteorological satellites and jointly operated by scientists from both nations.

April 25 Science: The United States resumes nuclear testing by exploding a thermonuclear device in an air burst near Christmas Island after the Soviet Union broke a three-year moratorium the previous September.

April 26 Science: A Delta rocket roars aloft from Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying the first British satellite into space, which is designed to study the ionosphere; the unmanned space probe Ranger 4 crashes headlong into the Moon following a failure in its radio system.

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May 2 Military: The Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency agree to form a joint National Reconnaissance Office to better manage spy satellite programs.

May 6 Naval: The nuclear missile submarine USS Ethan Allen successfully conducts a live Polaris missile test, which explodes downrange near Christmas Island. This is the first test of an American missile armed with a live warhead.

May 7 Arts: Pulitzer Prizes go to The Edge of Sadness by Edwin O’Connor, fiction; Poems by Alan Dugan, poetry; and How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying by Frank Loesser and Abe Burrows, drama.

May 12 Military: The State Department authorizes the deployment of 5,000 U.S. Marines to Thailand to thwart a possible attack by Communist insurgents in Laos.

May 17 Diplomacy: Despite America’s increasing military profile in Laos, President John F. Kennedy characterizes their presence there as a “diplomatic solution.”

May 20 Military: Cyrus W. Vance is named secretary of the army.

May 24 Science: Malcolm Scott Carpenter becomes the second American blasted into space, and he completes three orbits in his Mercury capsule named Aurora 7.

May 28 Business: The New York Stock Exchange loses $20.8 million, the biggest oneday loss since October 19, 1919.

June 8 Science: President John F. Kennedy appoints Jerome Wiesner head of the newly created Office of Science and Technology.

June 16 Military: Two U.S. Army officers, acting as advisers, are killed in a Vietcong ambush north of Saigon.

June 25 Religion: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Engel v. Vitale, ruling that recital of prayers in New York City schools is unconstitutional.

June 29 Diplomacy: John F. Kennedy and his wife Jackie fly to Mexico on a diplomatic soiree.

July 9 Science: A hydrogen warhead is detonated 250 miles above Johnson Island in the Pacific, releasing a force equivalent to 1.4 million tons of TNT. The incipient radiation also disrupts radio communications and registers as an increase in the Van Allen belt.

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July 10 Communication: The revolutionary telecommunications satellite Telstar 1, developed jointly by the American Telegraph & Telephone Company and Bell Laboratories, is successfully placed in orbit and begins relaying telephone calls around the globe.

July 19 Diplomacy: The United States freezes economic and military aid to Peru following a military coup there. Politics: The government announces fiscal expenditures of $87 billion against revenues of $81 billion for the period ending in June 1962.

July 27 Military: The last of 5,000 U.S. Marines are withdrawn from Thailand once a Communist attack from Laos fails to materialize.

August 1 Military: Congress passes a military appropriations bill for $48.1 billion.

August 15 Business: The national debt exceeds $300 billion for the first time in American history.

August 17 Diplomacy: Diplomatic and economic ties with Peru are restored. Medical: Medical researcher Dr. Frances O. Kelsey remonstrates against the tranquilizer thalidomide for the birth defects it engenders. Her action prompts the Federal Drug Administration to enact stricter regulations and testing, and on this day President John F. Kennedy awards her the gold medal for distinguished public service.

August 22 Naval: The successful rendezvous of two American submarines beneath ice caps of the North Pole is announced by President John F. Kennedy. Transportation: The SS Savannah, the world’s first atomic-powered cargo ship, completes its maiden voyage from Yorktown, Virginia, to Savannah, Georgia, without mishap.

August 27 Communication: Congress readily passes President John F. Kennedy’s communications satellite bill in one of the early instances of the peaceful employment of space. Diplomacy: In Geneva, Switzerland, delegates from the United States and Great Britain propose a total test ban subject to international inspection. The Soviet Union rejects their offer. Politics: The Twenty-fourth Amendment to the Constitution, which bars the imposition of poll taxes in federal elections, is passed by Congress. Science: The unmanned space probe Mariner 2 is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a 15-week sojourn to the planet Venus.

August 29 Law: Labor secretary Arthur Goldberg is appointed an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court by President John F. Kennedy; he replaces the recently retired Felix Frankfurter.

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September 15 Business: President John F. Kennedy signs a $900-million works project bill intended to bring relief to economically depressed areas of the nation.

September 17 Science: Administration officials assure the public that there are no undue levels of fallout or radiation in the United States as a result of nuclear testing.

September 20 Civil: Mississippi governor Ross R. Barnett defies a federal court order and rejects James H. Meredith’s application to the University of Mississippi. Meredith is the first African American to apply.

September 24 Military: Congress authorizes the yearly call-up of 150,000 reservists for up to one year of service, even in the absence of a declared state of emergency.

September 30 Civil: Escorted by federal marshals, James Meredith becomes the first AfricanAmerican student admitted to the University of Mississippi over violent opposition in which two people are killed.

October 2 Diplomacy: President John F. Kennedy authorizes a $100-million loan to the United Nations to help it during a financial crisis.

October 3 Science: Astronaut Walter N. Schirra successfully orbits the Earth six times in his Mercury capsule named Sigma 7, then tops his flight by splashing down within sight of the recovery carrier USS Kearsarge.

October 4 Business: Congress passes a foreign-trade bill empowering President John F. Kennedy to both negotiate lower tariffs and assist companies hurt by increased foreign competition.

October 4–16 Sports: The New York Yankees (AL) win the 59th World Series by defeating the San Francisco Giants (NL) four games to three.

October 10 Medical: In light of the tragedy of birth defects arising from the use of thalidomide, President John F. Kennedy signs drug legislation intending to better protect the public against harmful drugs.

October 11 Diplomacy: The Trade Expansion Act is signed by President John F. Kennedy, which lowers certain tariffs to encourage greater foreign commerce.

October 18 Science: Dr. James D. Watson of Harvard University, Dr. Maurice H. F. Wilkins of King’s College, London, and Dr. Francis H. Crick of Cambridge University share the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for their work in discovering DNA’s double-helix structure.

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October 22 Media: President John F. Kennedy goes on the airwaves and addresses the nation about the Cuban missile crisis. He announces a total naval blockade of that island until the Soviets remove all offensive missiles and bombers there. Naval: Because Soviet offensive weapons are arriving by ship in Cuba, President John F. Kennedy takes the unprecedented step of ordering the U.S. Navy to blockade that island and prevent all Soviet vessels from entering. Politics: President John K. Kennedy informs the American people that the Soviet Union is secretly constructing missile bases in Cuba, from which nucleararmed weapons may be launched. He thereupon demands the removal of all these weapons immediately.

October 23 Diplomacy: In light of the Soviet arms buildup in Cuba, President John F. Kennedy asks the United Nations Security Council and the Organization of American States to oppose the Russians, and he demands the removal of all offensive weapons. They vote unanimously in favor.

October 25 Diplomacy: American ambassador to the United Nations Adlai Stevenson displays aerial reconnaissance photos of Soviet missile bases in Cuba.

October 26 Naval: A U.S. Navy vessel accosts a Soviet-chartered vessel at sea and searches it for offensive weapons; none are found and the ship is allowed to continue.

October 27 Aviation: An American U-2A reconnaissance craft is shot down by Soviet missiles over Cuba; the pilot is killed. Diplomacy: Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev offers to withdraw all offensive weapons from Cuba under UN supervision, provided that the Americans withdraw all corresponding weapons from Turkey.

October 28 Diplomacy: After a standoff of several days, Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev announces that the USSR will remove all offensive weapons from Cuba after the United States agrees not to invade the island.

October 29 Naval: The United States temporarily lifts its blockade of Cuba to allow UN Secretary-General U Thant passage to confer with Communist dictator Fidel Castro.

November 1 Journalism: The New York Newspaper Guild strikes the New York Daily News, and the walkout eventually includes all nine New York City daily newspapers.

November 2 Politics: President John F. Kennedy assures the nation that Soviet missiles and bombers in Cuba are being removed and that peace is being restored in the Caribbean.

November 6 Politics: Midterm elections result in the Democrats retaining control of Congress; former vice president Richard M. Nixon loses the race for governor of

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California, and then withdraws from politics, declaring to a hostile press, “You won’t have Richard Nixon to kick around any more.”

November 17 Transportation: Dulles International Airport, near Washington, D.C., opens for business.

November 20 Civil: President John F. Kennedy signs an executive order outlawing racial and religious discrimination in all federally funded housing. Diplomacy: President John F. Kennedy ends the naval quarantine of Cuba after the Soviet Union dismantles and removes all its nuclear missiles. The Russians assure him that all Soviet bombers will depart within 30 days.

December 2 Science: The White Mountains of New Hampshire are found to contain huge deposits of radioactive thorium, under consideration as a source of nuclear fuel equivalent to uranium.

December 8 Civil: Right Reverend John Melville Burgess of Massachusetts becomes the first African American to serve a predominately white diocese within the Protestant Episcopal Church.

December 13 Communication: The satellite Relay 1 is put into orbit but is shut down two days later owing to a power failure.

December 14 Science: The unmanned spacecraft Mariner 2, having traveled for three and a half months, passes within 21,000 miles of the planet Venus and beams back valuable telemetry about that obscure planet for 42 minutes. This constitutes the first interplanetary mission.

December 17 Politics: In Washington, D.C., the Communist Party is fined $120,000 for failing to register as an agent of the Soviet Union.

December 21 Civil: Mississippi governor Ross R. Barnett and lieutenant governor Paul B. Johnson are charged with criminal contempt of court by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit for disregarding the court-ordered admission of James H. Meredith to the University of Mississippi. Diplomacy: President John F. Kennedy confers with British prime minister Harold Wilson in Nassau about the creation of a nuclear force within NATO’s ranks.

December 23 Diplomacy: The United States agrees to supply the Communist regime of Cuba with $62 million in food and medical aid in exchange for 1,113 prisoners taken during the Bay of Pigs fiasco in 1961.

1963 Civil: Marlon Green becomes the first African American hired as a commercial jet pilot by Continental Airlines.

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Chronology of American History Publishing: Psychologist and proto-feminist Betty Friedan publishes The Feminine Mystique, which affirms that women are unfulfilled by housework and must be allowed to develop their own identities. Transportation: Deaths in traffic- related accidents hit a new high of 40,804.

January 3 Communication: The satellite Relay 1, shut down for three weeks owing to a power malfunction, is successfully restarted and begins transmitting signals between North America, South America, and Europe.

January 7 Business: The U.S. Postal Service announces a new rate of five cents per ounce for first-class letters.

January 14–31 Diplomacy: Informal nuclear test ban talks in New York City are attended by delegates from the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union, but they are eventually broken off without attaining results.

Friedan, Betty

(1921–2006)

Feminist

Betty Friedan, 1960 (Library of Congress)

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Betty Naomi Goldstein was born in Peoria, Illinois, on February 4, 1921, the daughter of a Jewish jeweler. Her mother was an aspiring journalist who sacrificed her ambition to become a housewife, and she urged her daughter to become the journalist she could not. Thus motivated, Goldstein attended Smith College, Massachusetts, from which she graduated with honors in 1942. She subsequently studied psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, all the while moving within Marxist circles. After graduating, she relocated to New York City where she met and married Carl Friedan in 1947 and settled in to become what her mother always cautioned her not to: a housewife and a mother. Friedan lived her typical middle-class, suburban lifestyle, raised three children, yet began having second thoughts about her career choices. An accomplished freelance writer, in 1957 she submitted 200 detailed questionnaires to

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January 17 Politics: The budget sent to Congress by President John F. Kennedy totals $98.8 billion, including a deficit of $11.9 billion.

January 26 Labor: The Longshoremen’s strike ends after five weeks, which shuts down shipping along the East Coast and Gulf Coast ports at a cost of $800 million.

January 28 Civil: African-American Harvey B. Gantt is allowed to enroll at Clemson College, Clemson, South Carolina, thereby ending school segregation in that state.

February 8 Science: The United States ends a self-imposed moratorium on nuclear testing after informal disarmament talks break off.

February 14 Communication: The satellite Syncom 1 is launched into a successful synchronous orbit, but radio contact is lost soon after.

her former Smith classmates and inquired if they were satisfied with their lives. When the majority responded negatively, Friedan began collating her findings into a research essay that no woman’s magazine of the day would publish. Finally, she managed to secure a book contract and published her findings in 1963 as the epochal The Feminine Mystique. Neither Friedan nor the status of women in America would ever be the same. In it she postulated that women were artificially held back from personal fulfillment from an intricate and delusional system of values imposed on them by family and spouses. Because of this, and various subtle and none-too-subtle forms of discrimination, American women for all intents and purposes were little better than second-class citizens. Not surprisingly, the book sold 3 million copies and spurred much public discussion as to the exact role women should occupy in society. To further agitate for improvements in women’s rights, such as equal pay and genderfree job descriptions, Friedan helped organize

the National Organization for Women (NOW) in 1966, in which like-minded men were cordially invited to join. She also served as the first president and used her high public visibility to champion everything from daycare centers for working-class mothers to easy access to abortions for all women. On August 26, 1970, she also orchestrated the Women’s Strike for Equality, which gathered thousands of participants in various marches and demonstrations nationwide. Despite its somewhat unconventional hue, Friedan realized that NOW needed to appeal to mainstream American values in order to succeed, and thus she always distanced herself from radical stances on lesbian rights that might threaten the movement. She stepped down as president in 1970 but contributed to the cause by lecturing at various colleges and on behalf of the failed Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Friedan died at her home in Washington, D.C., on February 4, 2006, long regarded as the founder and driving force behind modern feminism.

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Chronology of American History Societal: President John F. Kennedy proposes the Youth Conservation Corps to serve as a domestic Peace Corps at home and provide youth with job opportunities and training.

February 21 Aviation: Two Cuban-based military jets attack the American fishing boat Ala as it drifts in international waters 60 miles north of Cuba. Medical: President John F. Kennedy submits his plans for Medicare, a medicalhospital insurance plan paid through Social Security, to Congress.

March 13 Aviation: Two large Soviet reconnaissance aircraft apparently have flown over Alaskan territory, and three days later the United States files a formal protest.

March 17 Religion: Elizabeth Ann Seton, who founded the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph, becomes the first native-born American beatified by Pope Paul VI in Rome.

March 18 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Gideon v. Wainwright, ruling that indigent defendants are entitled to court-appointed counsel in criminal cases.

March 19 Diplomacy: In San José, Costa Rica, the United States joins Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Panama in pledging to actively oppose any Soviet aggression in the Western Hemisphere. They also sign the Declaration of San José calling for creation of a Central American common market.

March 31 Journalism: A four-month strike against New York City newspapers finally ends, which costs publishers an estimated $100 million in revenues.

April 2 Business: A federal grand jury indicts United States Steel and six other companies for price-fixing. Diplomacy: President John F. Kennedy submits a foreign-aid program budget of $4.2 billion.

April 5 Science: Physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, a highly controversial figure during the 1950s, receives the Atomic Energy Commission’s Fermi Prize of $50,000.

April 8 Journalism: The nation’s longest newspaper strike ends in Cleveland, Ohio, after publishers incur estimated losses of $25 million. Media: Academy Awards go to Lawrence of Arabia as best picture of 1962; to Gregory Peck as best actor in To Kill a Mockingbird; and to Anne Bancroft as best actress in The Miracle Worker.

April 9 Business: The Wheeling Steel Corporation announces price increases of $6.00 a ton, and most major steel manufacturers follow suit in a few days. General: Former British prime minister Winston Churchill, America’s steadfast and unwavering ally during World War II and the cold war, is granted honorary U.S. citizenship.

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April 10 Naval: In the North Atlantic, a tragic accident claims the nuclear submarine USS Thresher and 129 crew members during a test dive.

April 12 Civil: Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., is arrested for participating in a civil rights march in Birmingham, Alabama.

April 18 Medical: Dr. James B. Campbell of the New York University Medical Center reports the first successful nerve transplants.

May 2 Civil: Thousands of African Americans, including many school children, are arrested in Birmingham, Alabama, for accompanying a civil rights march.

May 6 Arts: Pulitzer Prizes go to William Faulkner, The Reivers, fiction; “Pictures from Brueghel” by William Carlos Williams, poetry; and The Guns of August, Barbara Tuchman, history.

May 7 Communication: Telstar II, an advanced communications satellite, is successfully launched into orbit and begins relaying color television signals between North America and Europe.

May 9 Military: A highly classified air force satellite is launched from Point Arguello, California, containing 400 million copper hairs that it intends to release into orbit to form a reflective cloud for relaying radio signals across the United States.

May 10 Civil: Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy demands a halt to police action against civil rights marchers in Birmingham, Alabama.

May 11 Diplomacy: In a major development, the Canadian government announces its decision to allow American nuclear warheads for missiles deployed on its soil.

May 15 Science: Astronaut L. Gordon Cooper rockets aloft and completes a record 22 orbits in his Mercury capsule Faith 7. He is also the last American to venture into space alone.

June 3 Labor: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that agency-shop labor contracts, whereby workers are not forced to join unions but do pay the equivalent in dues and wages, are constitutional. However, states are allowed to bar agency shops, if desired.

June 4 Business: President John F. Kennedy signs a bill to change the backing of oneand two-dollar bills from silver to gold.

June 5 Aviation: Mindful of like developments in Europe, President John F. Kennedy declares that the United States will develop its own version of the supersonic transport (SST).

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June 8 Medical: The American Heart Association becomes the first public agency to voluntarily start an antismoking campaign.

June 10 Women: President John F. Kennedy signs a bill mandating equal pay for equal work, regardless of gender.

June 11 Civil: Alabama governor George Wallace, unwilling to risk either federal intervention or continued racial violence, steps aside after confronting federalized National Guard troops and allows two African Americans to be enrolled at the University of Alabama.

June 12 Arts: President John F. Kennedy signs an executive order creating the President’s Advisory Council on the Arts. Civil: African-American civil rights leader Medgar Evers is shot to death in his own yard in Jackson, Mississippi, and nationwide protests erupt.

June 17 Religion: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that Bible-reading sessions in public schools are unconstitutional.

June 20 Communication: To preclude the onset of an accidental nuclear exchange, a telephone “hot line” is established between the White House and the Kremlin.

June 26 Diplomacy: A crowd of 1 million cheering people turns out to greet President John F. Kennedy in West Berlin, Germany, at the start of his European tour. He declares to them, “Ich bin ein Berliner.”

July 1 Civil: The United Brotherhood of Carpenters, largest of all building trade unions, orders its locals to end all race discrimination in hiring.

July 3 Diplomacy: President John F. Kennedy flies back to Washington, D.C., following his tour of Germany, Great Britain, and Italy.

July 7 Labor: Railroad-operating unions reject a plan for modifying railroad work rules proffered by Secretary of Labor W. Willard Wirtz, insuring that a labormanagement deadlock continues.

July 8 Business: The United States voids all financial transactions with the Communist dictatorship of Fidel Castro in Cuba.

July 12 Civil: Martial law is imposed in Cambridge, Maryland, to prevent the outbreak of further racial violence.

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July 15 Diplomacy: Delegates from the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union gather in Moscow for the latest test ban conference.

July 25 Diplomacy: In a major cold war breakthrough, the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union sign a limited nuclear test ban treaty in space, underwater, and in the air.

July 26 Communication: The Syncom 2 satellite is successfully launched and placed in a synchronous orbit over Brazil to transmit telephone and teletype messages between the United States and Nigeria.

August 5 Diplomacy: In a major advance for arms control, the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union sign a nuclear test ban treaty, which forbids aboveground, underwater, and space detonations.

August 22 Aviation: A North American X-15 rocket-powered airplane reaches an altitude of 354,200 feet while cruising at 4,159 miles per hour.

August 28 Civil: The March on Washington is undertaken by 200,000 people of all races and religions in Washington, D.C., to press the government for increased civil rights. There Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., delivers one of the most memorable speeches of American political history, popularly known as “I Have a Dream.” Labor: Congress passes legislation requiring compulsory arbitration in a work dispute between unions and national railroad management.

August 30 Communication: The cold war “hot line” between the White House and the Kremlin is made operational to prevent an accidental nuclear confrontation.

September 10 Civil: Alabama governor George Wallace ends his attempts to maintain segregated schools in Hunstville after President John F. Kennedy federalizes the Alabama National Guard.

September 15 Civil: In Birmingham, Alabama, a church bombing kills four African-American girls, and the ensuing unrest in the city accounts for two more deaths and 19 injuries.

September 24 Diplomacy: The Senate ratifies the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty signed with Great Britain and the Soviet Union. Politics: President John F. Kennedy begins a tour of 11 western states. It takes effect as of October 10.

October 2–6 Sports: The Los Angeles Dodgers (NL) win the 60th World Series by defeating the New York Yankees (AL) in four games straight.

October 7 Diplomacy: President John F. Kennedy signs a limited nuclear test ban treaty.

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King, Martin Luther, Jr. (1929–1968) Civil rights advocate Martin Luther King, Jr., was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on January 15, 1929, the son of an African-American Baptist pastor. He was

admitted to elite Morehouse College at the age of 15 and graduated there in 1948 before attending Crozer Theological Seminary in

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., addressing CORE demonstrators who are protesting the seating of the Mississippi delegation during the Democratic National Conference, Atlantic City, New Jersey, 1964 (Library of Congress)

October 9 Business: President John F. Kennedy approves the sale of 4 million metric tons of wheat to the Soviet Union for $250 million.

October 16 Military: To preclude any secret violations of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, two top-secret detection satellites are launched from Cape Canaveral.

October 22 Civil: A one-day boycott involving 225,000 students transpires in Chicago, Illinois, to protest what is de facto segregation in the public school system.

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1951. He obtained a Ph.D. in philosophy from Boston University in 1955. King subsequently served as minister of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, and he was relatively unknown when Rosa Parks was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, in December 1955 for refusing to yield her bus seat to a white person. King, like many African Americans, was outraged, and he helped organize a boycott of the city’s buses on behalf of the NAACP. The action lasted over a year before the company finally agreed to end discrimination in seating practices and King, who was at the forefront of managing affairs, found himself a leader within the still-evolving Civil Rights movement. For this reason his house was fire bombed and he was repeatedly jailed, but entrenched racial resistance only drove him to greater efforts. In 1957, he helped to found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, open to blacks and whites alike, which added moral suasion to the struggle for equal rights throughout the South. To this end, King always invoked the passive-resistance methods of his idol, Mahatma Gandhi, and he countered police violence with massive yet peaceful demonstrations. In 1959, he relocated back to Georgia to serve as pastor of his father’s church in Atlanta, while continuing to orchestrate voter registration drives in Selma and Birmingham, Alabama. His effort climaxed on August 27, 1963, with

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a huge rally by 250,000 people in Washington, D.C. On that occasion, King delivered his landmark “I Have a Dream” speech, which has since become a classic American sermon. Prodded by these actions, President Lyndon B. Johnson willingly signed the Civil Rights Act of 1965 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which finally outlawed racial discrimination at the federal level. For his unstinting efforts, King received the Nobel Peace Prize in December 1964. In 1966, King next tackled the issue of poverty faced by African Americans in northern ghettos. Unlike many in the unfolding Civil Rights movement, he eschewed the rising tide of violence and confrontation in favor of peaceful assembly, but he still demanded an end to inequity in hiring and promotions. The following year he also began condemning the ongoing conflict in Vietnam as immoral through the simple expedient that it wasted funding that could be better spent improving the lives of poor people at home. Consistent with this belief, in the spring of 1968 he arrived in Memphis, Tennessee, to encourage and support a strike by largely African-American city workers. On April 4, 1968, he was shot and killed by James Earl Ray on the balcony of the Lorraine Hotel. King’s 12 years as de facto head of the Civil Rights movement in America mark him as the most significant black leader of his day.

October 31 General: The Indiana State Fair sustains a gas explosion that kills 68 people and injures 340.

November 2 Diplomacy: The regime of President Ngo Dinh Diem is overthrown by a cabal of South Vietnamese generals and the president is killed.

November 4 Diplomacy: Soviet troops obstruct a U.S. military convoy headed for Berlin, but they are eventually allowed to proceed after protests are lodged.

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November 5 Science: Eugene P. Wigner of Princeton University, Maria G. Mayer of the University of California, and Hans Jensen of the University of Heidelberg, Germany, share the Nobel Prize in physics.

November 12 Diplomacy: To reduce the risk of high-level espionage from the Soviet bloc, travel restrictions are slapped upon diplomats from Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, and Romania, which forbids them from entering 355 specified counties nationwide.

November 22 General: The American nation is shocked at 12:30 p.m. to learn that President John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas, by Lee Harvey Oswald. Texas governor John Connally, riding in the same motorcade, is wounded. Politics: Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson is sworn in as president of the United States at 2:39 p.m. at Love Air Field, Dallas.

November 24 General: Accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald is shot and killed by nightclub owner Jack Ruby inside police headquarters in Dallas, Texas.

November 25 General: Funeral proceedings for president John F. Kennedy take place at St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Washington, D.C., with representatives from 102 nations in attendance. The slain chief executive is then laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery with military honors and an “eternal flame” burning over his gravesite.

November 26 Labor: The federal work rules arbitration board resolves that 90 percent of diesel locomotive firemen’s jobs in freight and yard service are redundant and should be eliminated.

November 27 Politics: President Lyndon B. Johnson addresses Congress and assures them that he will continue the policies of the Kennedy administration.

November 29 Crime: U.S. Supreme Court justice Earl Warren is appointed head of a special commission tasked with investigating all facets of President John F. Kennedy’s death.

December 4 Religion: The Roman Catholic Ecumenical Council approves the substitution of English for Latin for parts of the mass and dispensation of the sacraments.

December 17 Diplomacy: President Lyndon B. Johnson addresses the United Nations and implores the diplomats to help eliminate the hunger, disease, and poverty afflicting one-third of humankind; the Chamizal Treaty is passed by the Senate, which allows Mexico to claim a small section of El Paso, Texas, that has been disputed for nearly a century after the Rio Grande River shifted.

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1964 Publishing: Anti-Intellectualism in American Life by Richard Hofstadter wins a Pulitzer Prize for history.

Hofstadter, Richard

(1916–1970)

Historian Richard Hofstadter was born in Buffalo, New York, on August 6, 1916, the son of a Jewish immigrant from Poland and a Protestant mother. After graduating from the University of Buffalo in 1937, he pursued graduate studies at Columbia University in New York City, from which he received his masters in 1938 and his doctorate in 1942. Hofstadter then taught history as an assistant professor at the University of Maryland for four years while his dissertation, entitled Social Darwinism in American Thought, 1860–1915, was published as a book in 1944, winning the American Historical Association’s Albert J. Beveridge award. In 1946, Hofstadter returned to the faculty at Columbia as an associate professor and then a full professor, and he remained there for the rest of his professional career. From the onset, Hofstadter incorporated an unorthodox approach to his methodology and interpretation of historiography. In fact, his research cut across traditional lines of inquiry to investigate broader, deeper themes in American history as it related to the evolution of political culture. As such, Hofstadter was among the first of the post–World War II generation scholars to openly question the long-held “progressive interpretation” of American history as espoused by Charles Beard, Vernal Parrington, and Frederick Jackson Turner. His first noted book at Columbia, The American Political Tradition and the Men Who Made It (1948), challenges the veracity of “progressive historians” in general for what they hold to be a gross oversimplification of the

dynamic between commercial elites and the impoverished masses. Conversely, Hofstadter maintains that American political leadership down through the centuries seems uniformly motivated by expediency and opportunism, rather than ideology. His next book, The Age of Reform: From Bryan to F.D.R. (1955) openly castigates the values of men held to be idealistic reformers, exposing them as agents of nativism and jingoism. Hofstadter’s books were well received by fellow academicians, sold very well to the public, and established him as an imaginative interpretive historian as well as a skillful stylist and wordsmith. Two of his latter works, Anti-Intellectualism in American Life (1964) and The Paranoid Style in American Politics (1965), won Pulitzer Prizes and further enhanced his reputation as a staunch critic of the leftist tradition in American history. Curiously, Hofstadter never viewed himself as a conservative and he never meant to demean the progressive movements, which he so artfully critiqued. Instead, he sought to highlight liberalism’s inherent intellectual flaws so that exponents could better preserve the best of its tradition. He also demonstrated that accepted beliefs and theories about political motivation bordered on shallow if they failed to also consider nontraditional and even unconscious origins for this same behavior. Hofstadter died in New York City on October 24, 1970, celebrated as the historian who singlehandedly challenged the prevailing orthodoxy of his day and who altered the course of American historiography.

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January 8 Politics: In his State of the Union message, President Lyndon B. Johnson addresses the issues of budget reductions and a national “war on poverty.”

January 9 Diplomacy: A row ensues after rioting erupts in the Panama Canal Zone over flying both the U.S. and Panamanian flags, and diplomatic relations are severed.

January 11 Medical: Surgeon General Luther Terry’s report on cigarette smoking impugns tobacco as a leading cause of lung cancer.

January 13 Medical: The Federal Trade Commission requires health warnings to be posted on all cigarette packages.

January 23 Politics: The Twenty-fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, eliminating all poll taxes in federal elections, is ratified by South Dakota, the requisite 38th state to do so.

January 24 Aviation: An Air Force T-39 Sabreliner, on a routine training mission, strays into East German airspace and is shot down over Thuringia; the crew of three is killed.

January 25 Science: The satellite Echo 2, which is also the first collaborative space venture between the United States and the Soviet Union, is successfully launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Its purpose is to reflect radio signals from various places around the globe.

January 29 Science: A huge Saturn test rocket hoists a record 20,000-pound payload into orbit from Cape Kennedy, Florida, as part of the Apollo moon project.

February 6 Arts: President Lyndon B. Johnson asks Congress to appropriate funds to construct the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Projected costs top $34 million, of which half will be carried by the federal government. Diplomacy: Cuban authorities cut off the water supply to the U. S. naval base at Guantánamo Bay following the seizure of several Cuban fishing vessels in American waters.

February 13 Business: The Treasury Department announces that it is borrowing money from the International Monetary Fund for the first time.

February 17 Politics: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that all congressional districts within a given state must be of approximately equal size.

February 23 Sports: Flamboyant Cassius Marcellus Clay defeats Sonny Liston for the world heavyweight boxing championship.

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February 25 Labor: The International Longshoremen’s Union ends a nine-day boycott against loading wheat destined for the USSR once the government agrees that no less than 50 percent of future shipments will be carried in American vessels.

February 29 Aviation: President Lyndon B. Johnson announces at a press conference that the Lockheed A-11 (a fighter version of the famous SR-71 reconnaissance jet) is capable of operating at speeds in excess of Mach 3, or 2,000 miles per hour, at altitudes of 70,000 feet.

March–April Aviation: Jerri Mock becomes the first female aviator to fly solo around the world in her Cessna 180 light plane.

March 4 Crime: In Chattanooga, Tennessee, Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa is convicted of tampering with a federal jury and is sentenced to eight year behind bars and a $10,000 fine.

Muhammad Ali, formerly Cassius Clay, 1964 (Library of Congress)

March 9 Journalism: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, ruling that public officials cannot recover payment in libel suits unless they can prove malicious intent in disclosing their public actions.

March 10 Aviation: Soviet jets shoot down an unarmed Douglas RB-66 Destroyer reconnaissance jet after it strays into East German airspace near Gardelegen. The crew of three is eventually released.

March 14 Crime: Jack Ruby is convicted of murdering suspected presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald and receives the death penalty.

March 16 Politics: President Lyndon B. Johnson sends a special appeal to Congress in asking for $962 million for his “war on poverty.”

March 23 Diplomacy: Delegates from the United States attend a United Nations conference on trade at Geneva, Switzerland, along with 114 other nations.

March 27 General: Alaska is struck by a severe earthquake that kills 117 people and inflicts $500 million in damages; President Lyndon Johnson declares the state a disaster area.

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April 3 Diplomacy: Full diplomatic relations are resumed between the United States and Panama.

April 8 Science: An unmanned Gemini two-man space capsule is successfully launched into orbit from Cape Kennedy, Florida.

April 11 Agriculture: President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Agricultural Act of 1964 into law to establish land allotment and diversion procedures, along with price supports, for cotton and wheat growers. Its purpose is to promote soil conservation, control surplus production, and keep domestic prices low.

April 13 Media: Academy Awards go to Tom Jones as best picture of 1963, to Sidney Poitier as best actor for Lilies of the Field, and to Patricia Neal as best actress for Hud.

April 27 Labor: The U.S. Supreme Court lets stand a lower court ruling, which affirmed the constitutionality of the congressional act establishing federal arbitration panels for the railroad industry.

May 4 Arts: The Pulitzer Prize goes to “At the End of the Open Road” by Louis Simpson, poetry.

May 8 Politics: President Lyndon B. Johnson, continuing his theme of fighting poverty, completes a two-day visit to Appalachia and addresses a crowd at Rocky Mount, North Carolina. “The time has come for us to see that every American gets a decent break,” he insists.

May 12 Aviation: Joan Merriam becomes the second woman pilot to complete a solo around-the-world flight.

May 18 Societal: The U.S. Supreme Court strikes down a federal statute declaring that naturalized citizens will lose their U.S. citizenship should they reside in their homeland for three or more years.

May 19 Diplomacy: State Department officials declare that the U.S. embassy in Moscow has been bugged; more than 40 microphone and other listening devices were uncovered in the building’s walls.

May 21 Technology: The Baltimore Lighthouse, the world’s first nuclear-powered lighthouse, is unveiled at Chesapeake Bay, Maryland.

May 25 Civil: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the closing of schools in Prince Edward County, Virginia, for the sole purposed of avoiding integration is unconstitutional, and the institutions must reopen and be desegregated.

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June 10 Civil: The Senate votes to end a filibuster on forthcoming civil rights legislation.

June 14 Civil: The United Steel Workers of America and 11 steel manufacturers sign an agreement to end all vestiges of racial discrimination.

June 19 Civil: The Civil Rights Bill of 1964 clears the Senate on a vote of 73-27, and President Lyndon B. Johnson hails its passage as “a challenge to all Americans to transform the commands of our laws into the customs of our lands.”

June 22 Civil: In Mississippi, three youthful civil rights workers are reported missing after being released from a local jail.

June 24 Medical: The Federal Trade Commission announces that health warnings will begin appearing on all cigarette packages as of 1965.

July 2 Civil: President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law, insisting that “its purpose is not to divide, but to end divisions.”

July15–16 Politics: In San Francisco, California, Republicans gather to nominate Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona for president and New York representative William E. Miller for vice president.

July 19 Politics: Alabama governor George Wallace withdraws from seeking the presidency on the Democratic Party ticket after doing well in Democratic primaries, and he decides to run as an independent.

July 22 Civil: The first test of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 occurs when a federal court in Atlanta, Georgia, orders a restaurant there to admit African-American patrons.

July 23 Societal: The Senate approves President Lyndon B. Johnson’s antipoverty bill to the tune of $947 million, which is earmarked to help fight illiteracy, unemployment, and a host of social ills conducive to poverty.

July 24 Communication: In Washington, D.C., delegates from 18 nations sign an international satellite communications agreement to delineate international management rules and ownership of the global communications satellite system under development in the United States. Politics: President Lyndon B. Johnson and Senator Barry Goldwater meet in Washington, D.C., over how to best discuss civil rights in the ensuing presidential election campaign.

July 26 Crime: In Chicago, Illinois, a federal court convicts Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa of fraud and conspiracy in handling his union’s pension fund, and he receives five years in jail and a $10,000 fine.

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July 28–31 Science: The unmanned space probe Ranger 7 approaches and then crashes on the surface of the Moon after sending back 4,316 pictures of the lunar surface during its descent.

July 31 Aviation: A. H. Parker flies his sailplane for a record-breaking 647 miles before landing

August 2–5 Naval: The destroyer USS Maddox, patrolling the Gulf of Tonkin off North Vietnam, is allegedly attacked by three North Vietnamese patrol boats, one of which is sunk by return fire. This is a major escalation of hostilities between the two nations and provides President Lyndon B. Johnson with a convenient pretext for expanding military involvement.

August 4 Civil: The bodies of three young civil rights workers are discovered in an earthen dam at Philadelphia, Mississippi, and President Lyndon B. Johnson orders the FBI to conduct a full investigation.

August 7 Politics: Congress passes the so-called Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which authorizes President Lyndon B. Johnson to employ wide-ranging military force against North Vietnam without an actual declaration of war.

August 8 Societal: The House of Representatives approves President Lyndon B. Johnson’s antipoverty bill on a vote of 226-184.

August 14 Civil: All-white elementary schools in Biloxi, Mississippi, are desegregated without incident; this is the state’s first integration of schools below the college level.

August 19 Communication: The satellite Syncom 3 is successfully launched into orbit from Cape Kennedy, Florida, where it will transmit live coverage of the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.

August 26 Politics: Democrats nominate Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas for president and Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota for vice president.

August 28 Science: The experimental Nimbus 1 satellite fails to achieve the desired orbit following its launch at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, but it does send back high-resolution photos of Earth’s cloud cover.

August 28–29 Civil: A race riot erupts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Mayor James H. J. Tate closes off 125 city blocks to contain the violence. More than 500 people are injured and 350 arrested.

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August 30 Labor: President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 into law, which authorizes $947 million for youth programs, antipoverty measures, and a Job Corps for youth.

September 3 Conservation: President Lyndon B. Johnson signs a bill creating a permanent national wilderness system of 9.2 million acres.

September 9 Labor: The Chrysler Corporation and the United Auto Workers sign a three-year contract only 55 minutes before 70,000 workers were scheduled to walk out on strike.

September 17 Military: President Lyndon B. Johnson announces that two antimissile systems, based upon existing Nike-Zeus and Thor rockets, are under development.

September 18 Labor: The Ford Motor Company and the United Auto Workers conclude a new union contract only an hour before a strike was scheduled to commence.

September 21 Aviation: The huge North American XB-70 Valkyrie, an experimental supersonic bomber, passes its maiden flight.

September 25 Labor: The United Auto Workers calls a strike against General Motors for failing to reach a new contract agreement; the work stoppage lasts two weeks and ends on October 5.

September 27 General: The Warren Commission issues its final report and concludes that assassin Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in the death of President John F. Kennedy. Furthermore, Oswald’s assassin, Jack Ruby, had no prior contact with him.

October 7–15 Sports: The St. Louis Cardinals (NL) win the 61st World Series by defeating the New York Yankees (AL) four games to three.

October 14 Civil: Noted civil rights activist Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., receives the Nobel Peace Prize, and he pledges that “every penny” is going to be used in the ongoing struggle for equal rights.

October 15 Science: Dr. Conrad E. Block of Harvard University and German professor Feodor Lynen share the Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine for their work on the relationship between heart disease and cholesterol.

October 29 Science: Charles H. Townes of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology shares the Nobel Prize in physics with Russian scientists Nikolay Basov and Aleksandr Prokhorov for their work with quantum mechanics.

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November 3 Politics: Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson defeats Republican Barry Goldwater for the presidency by winning 486 electoral votes to 52, and a popular vote of 43 million to 27 million, a 15.5-million vote plurality. The Democrats also maintain control of both houses of Congress.

November 21 Engineering: The 6,690-foot Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, connecting Brooklyn and Staten Island, is opened for traffic. It is the world’s largest suspension structure. Journalism: The longest U.S. newspaper strike to date, lasting 132 days, is settled when a new labor contract is signed by the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press.

November 28 Science: The unmanned space probe Mariner 4 is successfully launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida, en route to a flyby of the planet Mars in July 1965.

December 4 Crime: A local sheriff and 20 members of the Ku Klux Klan are arrested in Mississippi in connection with the deaths of three young civil rights workers. However, a week later all charges against them are dropped.

December 5 Military: Captain Roger H. C. Donlon becomes the first American soldier to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor for fighting in South Vietnam, and the first so honored since the Korean War.

December 16 Labor: The International Longshoremen’s Association and the New York Shipping Association conclude their first four-year contract. It is the first such agreement reached in the union’s 92-year history.

December 21 Aviation: The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, designed to fly at Mach 3+, debuts and remains the fastest and highest flying airplane of the 20th century. The revolutionary General Dynamic F-111A successfully flies its first mission; it is the first American military aircraft incorporating a variable geometry (swing) wing

December 22 General: Heavy rains, snow, and flooding in Oregon and four northern counties in California result in their being declared disaster areas after 40 people have been killed.

1965 Aviation: Bell begins manufacturing the AH-1 Cobra, the world’s first expressly designed helicopter gunship. Military: Since fighting began in 1961, the United States has suffered 1,300 dead and 6,100 wounded in South Vietnam. Women: The miniskirt, with a hemline several inches above the knee, becomes the rage in fashion.

January 4 Politics: In his State of the Union address, President Lyndon Johnson outlines his “Great Society” program for the elimination of poverty, pollution, and any

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remaining obstacles to the right to vote. He aspires that direct federal intervention will uplift the quality of life for the downtrodden in America.

January 20 Politics: Lyndon B. Johnson is inaugurated the 36th president of the United States by Chief Justice Earl Warren; Hubert Humphrey is sworn in as vice president by House Speaker John McCormack.

February 3 Education: A cheating scandal uncovered at the U.S. Air Force Academy results in the resignation of 105 cadets.

February 5 General: A lengthy Northeast drought has reduced New York City’s water supplies to an all-time low of 24 percent of capacity.

February 6 Military: A Vietcong raid on U.S. military installations at Pleiku, South Vietnam, results in eight Americans killed and 126 wounded. President Lyndon B. Johnson expands aerial bombardment of North Vietnam in retaliation.

February 7 Labor: Five AFL-CIO railroad unions consent to new contracts with built-in attrition to reduce the labor force.

Johnson, Lyndon B. (1908–1973) President Lyndon Baines Johnson was born in Johnson City, Texas, on August 27, 1908, son of a state legislator. After teaching high school for several years, he served as an aide to a Texas congressman, met President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and began formulating political ambitions of his own. Johnson gained election to the House of Representatives in 1937 as a New Deal Democrat closely allied to Roosevelt, but he lost his seat in 1941 just as World War II was commencing. He then joined the U.S. Navy, won a Silver Star for gallantry, and was reelected to his old seat. In 1948, Johnson was elected to the U.S. Senate by a razor-thin margin of 48 votes in 1948. This resulted in the nickname “Landslide Lyndon,” but, in 1951, he applied his considerable personal skills to become minority leader and, three years later, when the Democrats regained control, he became the youngest

majority leader ever. In 1957, Johnson worked closely with President Dwight D. Eisenhower to pass the first civil rights legislation since 1867, and, three years later, he worked on similar laws, acquiring a reputation as the most liberal-minded southern politician in Congress. In 1960, Johnson felt emboldened to seek the Democratic nomination for the presidency, but he was completely upstaged by the charismatic John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts. However, he accepted Kennedy’s invitation to run as his vice president, and together they defeated the Republicans under Richard M. Nixon. Once in office, Johnson, a poor man who had worked his way up the ladder of success, felt snubbed by the aristocratic Kennedy, yet he dutifully accepted token positions as titular head of the space (continues)

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(continued) program and various diplomatic assignments. All this dramatically changed on November 22, 1963, when Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, and Johnson was sworn in as president aboard Air Force One. Once in power, Johnson continued advancing the progress of civil rights for African Americans, as well as a large tax cut, and, in 1964, he handily defeated Republican Barry Goldwater for the presidency. His crowning achievement was the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which forever ended the policy of discrimination against minority voters throughout the South. He also promulgated the Great Society program of that year to improve the lot of people living in run-down urban areas. However, Johnson had inher-

ited a small war in Vietnam from Kennedy, and he proceeded to enlarge it by adding 500,000 American combat troops over the next three years. The Communists countered with their spectacular Tet Offensive of January 1968, which convinced most Americans that the war was unwinnable and that the troops should be brought home. Worse, in February 1968, Johnson lost the New Hampshire Democratic primary to peace candidate Eugene McCarthy, and he announced that he was not seeking reelection. Johnson then withdrew from public life and remained in seclusion on his ranch in Johnson City, Texas. He died there on January 22, 1973, one of the most effective but unbeloved chief executives of American history.

February 16 Science: The satellite Pegasus 1 is successfully placed in orbit; equipped with 96-foot-long wings, it serves as a micrometeorite detector. Terrorism: Police foil an elaborate plot to dynamite the Statue of Liberty, the Liberty Bell, and the Washington Monument, and four self-styled “Radicals” are arrested.

February 17–20 Science: The unmanned space probe Ranger 8 roars aloft and beams back 7,137 photos of the lunar surface before crashing into the Sea of Tranquility.

February 18 Societal: Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara testifies before the House Armed Services Committee and claims that a network of bomb shelters could save the lives of 27 million Americans in the event of a nuclear war. Furthermore, he postulates that even more lives would be spared were the United States to develop and deploy functional antiballistic missiles and antibomber systems.

February 21 General: Radical African-American advocate Malcolm X is gunned down by three fellow Black Muslims as he addresses an audience in Washington Heights, New York City.

February 25 Aviation: Douglas unveils its DC-9, the nation’s first two-jet transport for medium-range domestic flights.

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March 4 Diplomacy: The United States closes its information agency in Indonesia owing to harassment of its work-­ ers, which is the first time it has withdrawn from any of the 100 nations where it operates.

March 7 Civil: In Selma, Alabama, 200 state troopers attack 525 civil rights demonstrators as they prepare to march on Montgomery and demonstrate against voter dis-­ crimination. A second march is blocked by the courts.

March 8 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that, based on sincere religious convictions, conscientious objectors may be exempted from military serÂ�vice. Military: Two battalions of 3,500 U.S. Marines land at Danang, South Vietnam, the first combat units assigned there. They join 23,000 military person-­ nel already deployed, although the bulk of these are active in advisory capacities only.

March 11 Civil: Reverend James J. Reeb of Boston, a white Unitarian minister, is beaten to death in Selma, Ala-­ bama, and two other ministers are injured.

March 15

Malcolm X╇ (Library of Congress)

Civil: President Lyndon B. Johnson requests sweep-­ ing civil rights legislation before a televised, joint session of Congress.

March 17 Civil: Federal judge Frank Johnson rules that a civil rights march may proceed from Selma to Montgomery as planned.

March 21 Civil: To prevent the outbreak of hostilities, President Lyndon B. Johnson fed� eralizes the Alabama National Guard and then deploys 2,200 U.S. Army troops to protect 25,000 civil rights marchers en route from Selma to Montgomery.

March 21–24 Science: The unmanned space probe Ranger 9 is successfully launched, and it sends back 5,814 photos of the lunar surface before crashing into the Alphonsus crater.

March 23 Science: The first Gemini space capsule piÂ�loted by Major Virgil “Gus” Grissom and Lieutenant Commander John Young is successfully launched from Cape Ken-­ nedy, Florida, and it completes three orbits around the Earth. This is also the first mission flight that shifts from one orbit to another.

March 25 Civil: Civil rights marcher Viola Gregg Liuzzo is shot and killed in Selma, Ala-­ bama, and three Ku Klux Klan members are arrested and charged.

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April 2 Military: President Lyndon B. Johnson agrees with security advisers to increase the flow of military supplies to South Vietnam and increase the number of American combat troops in order to protect bases and train allies.

April 5 Media: Academy Awards go to My Fair Lady as best picture of 1964 and to stars Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews (for Mary Poppins) for best actor and actress.

April 6 Communication: The Early Bird becomes the world’s first commercial communications satellite (COMSAT) when it is placed in orbit 22,300 miles above the Earth, there to transmit phone calls, television signals, and teletype.

April 7 Diplomacy: President Lyndon B. Johnson announces his willingness to engage North Vietnam in unconditional talks to end the present strife between them.

April 11 General: No fewer than 37 tornadoes sweep through Indiana, Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan, killing 271 people and injuring 5,000. This is one of the largest weather-related disasters in American history.

April 16 Science: The huge Saturn S-1C rocket, the largest booster ever built in the United States, is successfully test flown from Cape Kennedy, Florida.

April 26 Labor: Steelworkers and management settle upon an interim labor agreement that keeps 400,000 steel workers from going out on strike. Military: Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara computes that the total cost for supporting the burgeoning war effort in South Vietnam will amount to $1.5 billion annually.

April 27 Aviation: A U.S. Air Force ERB-47H Stratojet is attacked by North Korean MiG17s over the Sea of Japan, suffers damage, yet lands safely in Japan.

April 28 Military: U.S. Marines are deployed to the Dominican Republic to restore order following a military coup and the onset of civil war.

April 29 Education: U.S. commissioner Francis Keppel declares that all public school districts are to desegregate their charges, as per the Civil Rights Act of 1964, no later than the fall of 1967.

May 2 Diplomacy: President Lyndon B. Johnson asserts that Communists are behind recent disturbances in the Dominican Republic and that fighting there is a bid by them to take power.

May 3 Arts: Pulitzer prizes go to The Keepers of the House by Shirley Ann Grau, fiction; 77 Dream Songs by John Berryman, poetry; and The Subject Was Roses by Frank D. Gilroy, drama.

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May 9 Military: The State Department announces that American troop strength in South Vietnam stands at 42,200.

May 24 Politics: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that a federal law allowing the postmaster general to intercept foreign mail viewed as communist propaganda violates the First Amendment and is unconstitutional.

May 26 Diplomacy: The Organization of American States (OAS) agrees to provide a peacekeeping force for the Dominican Republic, which allows the 20,000 U.S. Marines deployed there to withdraw.

June 3 Science: The two-man Gemini 4 space capsule rockets into orbit piloted by Major Edward White and Major James McDivitt, and it goes for 62 orbits; White is also the first American to walk in space 135 miles above the Earth.

June 7 Societal: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that an 1879 Connecticut law forbidding the use of contraceptives by any person is unconstitutional.

June 12 Science: The discovery of new celestial bodies called “blue galaxies” appears to lend credence to the “Big Bang” theory of creation.

June 17 Aviation: Massed B-52 bombing raids are carried out against suspected Vietcong emplacements and concentrations only 30 miles north of Saigon, South Vietnam. This is the first time the massive bombers, designed for nuclear war, are pressed into a tactical role.

June 18 Science: A solid-fuel Titan 3-C rocket packing 2.4 million pounds of thrust is launched, becoming the largest such vehicle to enter Earth’s orbit.

June 26 Military: The American government, determined to stop what it views as a Communist-inspired insurgency, announces the deployment of an additional 21,000 combat soldiers.

June 28 Military: U.S. troops are committed to combat operations 20 miles northeast of Saigon, capital of South Vietnam.

June 30 Politics: Robert Baker, secretary of the Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate, is recommended for indictment by the Senate Ethics Panel for receiving illegal gifts and other violations of conflict-of-interest laws.

July 14 Diplomacy: Arthur Goldberg, associate justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, is tapped to succeed the late Adlai Stevenson as American ambassador to the United Nations.

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July 15 Science: Mariner 4, having been launched the previous November, begins taking pictures of Mars from distances ranging from 10,500 to 7,000 miles; ultimately it passes to within 5,700 miles of the red planet’s surface.

July 17 Aviation: U.S. Navy McDonnell Douglas Phantom II jets shoot down two North Vietnamese MiG-17 fighters in the first air combat of that conflict. Transportation: Pan Am initiates service between New York City and Prague, Czechoslovakia, the first direct air ser vice with the Communist bloc in 16 years.

July 24 Aviation: North Vietnamese surface-to-air missiles shoot down a U.S. Air Force F-4 Phantom II jet; it is the first jet fighter downed by SAMS.

July 26 Military: President Lyndon B. Johnson, determined to stop the Communist subjugation of South Vietnam, announces an increase in military manpower there from 75,000 to 125,000. The military draft would also be doubled from 17,000 to 35,000 young men per month.

July 30 Medical: President Johnson signs the Medicare Bill, which provides limited medical care and insurance for elderly and disabled citizens through an increase in the Social Security tax.

August 4 Politics: To support the expanding war effort in Southeast Asia, President Lyndon B. Johnson asks Congress to fund an additional $1.7 billion.

August 6 Politics: The Voting Rights Act is signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, which eliminates all literacy, knowledge, or character tests for voting in places where less than 50 percent of the voting populace is registered.

August 11–16 Civil: Resentment against perceived police brutality explodes in a major race riot in the Watts district of Los Angeles. Governor Pat Brown is forced to deploy 12,000 National Guard troops to quell disturbances there; 34 people, mostly African Americans, die in the violence. Damages amount to $200 million.

August 17

Los Angeles police hustle Watts rioter into car, 1965 (Library of Congress)

1965

Diplomacy: In Geneva, Switzerland, a nuclear nonproliferation treaty suggested by U.S. delegates to the United Nations Disarmament Committee is dismissed out of hand by the Soviets.

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August 21 Science: Gemini 5 is launched from Cape Kennedy with Lieutenant Colonel Gordon Cooper and Lieutenant Commander Charles Conrad aboard on a successful eight-day mission in orbit.

August 29 Labor: Three unions conclude a 75-day shipping strike against eight lines that incurred losses of $1.8 million daily. At issue is the necessary manpower levels for operating newer, fully automated vessels.

August 31 Law: In view of rising resistance against the military draft, Congress passes a law making it a crime to burn one’s draft card.

September 3 Labor: Steel workers and major steel manufacturers agree to a three-year contract and wage increases just hours before a nationwide strike is to commence.

September 4 Diplomacy: The United States recognizes the new provisional government of the Dominican Republic.

September 9 Civil: President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Department of Housing and Urban Development into law and appoints Robert C. Weaver director. He is the first African American designated to hold a cabinet-level position.

September 16 Journalism: Workers at New York City’s major newspapers go out on strike for three weeks, costing the industry an estimated $15 million in lost revenue.

September 24 Diplomacy: President Lyndon B. Johnson announces discussions toward a new Panama Canal Treaty that would allow joint supervision of the strategic canal there.

October 1 Conservation: A new antipollution bill passed by Congress allows the secretary of health, education, and welfare to set emission standards on all internalcombustion-powered vehicles.

October 3 Societal: President Lyndon B. Johnson enacts a new immigration law, which removes the old quota system for regulating newcomers on the basis of national origin.

October 4 Religion: Pope Paul VI addresses the United Nations in New York City about world peace; he also celebrates a mass at Yankee Stadium and visits the New York World’s Fair.

October 6–14 Sports: The Los Angeles Dodgers (NL) win the 62nd World Series by defeating the Minnesota Twins (AL) four games to three.

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October 12 Science: The U.S. Navy research program Sealab 2 begins a 15-day test 205 feet below the ocean’s surface to test the effects of prolonged dives on humans and equipment.

October 15–16 Politics: A series of mass demonstrations, both in favor of the Vietnam War and against it, occur nationwide, and one person is arrested for burning his draft card.

October 19 Civil: The House Committee on Un-American Activities begins an investigation of the Ku Klux Klan.

October 21 Science: Richard P. Feynman of the California Institute of Technology, Julian S. Schwinger of Harvard University, and Shinichero Tomonaga of Tokyo Education University share the Nobel Prize in physics for their work with quantum mechanics; Robert Burns Woodward of Harvard University wins the Nobel Prize in chemistry.

November 9–10 General: An 80,000-square-mile region of New York and New England is struck by a prolonged power blackout; sabotage is suspected, but the cause is a faulty relay device at a generating plant near Niagara Falls, New York.

November 10 Business: A threatened price increase by the largest aluminum producer induces the government to sell off some of its stockpile, and the rate hike is cancelled.

November 15 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that individuals do not have to register as members of the Communist Party, as it is a violation of rules forbidding selfincrimination under the 1940 Smith Act. It seriously weakens the McCarran Security Act then in force.

November 20 Military: The Battle of Ia Drang is waged in South Vietnam between U.S. and Vietcong forces; the Americans lose 240 killed and 470 wounded, while Communist losses are much higher.

November 27 Politics: In Washington, D.C., a large antiwar protest peacefully unfolds, with 25,000 people representing 140 groups.

December 2 General: Southwest Texas is hit by a power blackout that puts a 13,200-squaremile region into blackness.

December 4 Aviation: Two airliners collide over Danbury, Connecticut, although only four passengers are killed out of a total of 112 flying. Science: The two-man space capsule Gemini 7 roars aloft on a 14-day mission with Lieutenant Colonel Frank Borman and Commander James A. Lovell, the longest manned flight ever attempted—14 days and 206 orbits.

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December 5 Business: The Federal Reserve Board raises the interest rate on the money it lends commercial banks from 4 percent to 41⁄2 percent—the largest jump in 35 years.

December 7 Communication: The International Telegraph and Telephone Company announces its acquisition of the American Broadcasting Company, which will enjoy assets totaling $1.8 billion, larger than all competitors.

December 14 Aviation: A U.S. Air Force RB-57F Canberra crashes near Odessa on the Black Sea, but authorities believe the crew died due to an oxygen system malfunction, not Soviet action.

December 15 Science: The space capsule Gemini 6 goes into orbit under Captain Walter Schirra and Major Thomas Stafford, where it maneuvers to within 100 feet of Gemini 7 for several hours.

1966 Political: Republican John V. Lindsay takes office as New York’s new Republican mayor just as a massive transit strike unfolds.

January 1 Labor: In New York City, the Transport Workers Union goes out on strike and nearly cripples the ability of New Yorkers to get around their city for two weeks.

January 12 Politics: In his State of the Union message, President Lyndon B. Johnson pledges to maintain his commitments to both the “Great Society” program and the rapidly expanding war in Southeast Asia.

January 13 Labor: New York City authorities and the Transport Workers Union agree on a 15 percent wage hike to end a crippling strike against bus and subway service.

January 17 Aviation: Potential disaster strikes as a B-52 jet bomber laden with nuclear weapons collides with a KC-135 tanker off Spain’s Mediterranean coast, killing 11 airmen. Three of the bombs are dumped on land and a fourth is eventually salvaged from the water. Civil: Robert C. Weaver becomes the first African American to hold a cabinet position when he is unanimously confirmed as secretary of the new Department of Housing and Urban Development.

January 24 Politics: President Lyndon B. Johnson presents his annual budget for $112 billion, which includes a deficit of $1.8 billion because of the added expenditures of the war in Vietnam.

January 29–31 General: The East Coast is inundated by the worst blizzard in 70 years, which kills 165 people.

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January 31 Aviation: President Lyndon B. Johnson orders the aerial bombing of North Vietnam resumed after a 37-day cease-fire after the Communist regime of Ho Chi Minh rejects any notion of peace talks. Diplomacy: Secretary of State Dean Rusk confers with the heads of 115 governments, the Vatican, the United Nations, and the Organization of American States to secure impetus for a peace initiative in Southeast Asia. However, Communist North Vietnam, bent on the military conquest of the South, is not interested.

February 8 Diplomacy: President Lyndon B. Johnson meets with South Vietnamese premier Nguyen Cao Ky in Honolulu, Hawaii, for three days, and they issue the joint Declaration of Honolulu for continuing social and economic reforms. The progress of the conflict is also discussed, and Ky declares that he will not participate in any negotiations with the Communist Vietcong.

February 9 Business: The Dow Jones Industrial Average reaches an all-time high of 995 after a three-year bull market.

February 21 Aviation: American aircraft resume their attacks against North Vietnam by striking the former French military base at Dien Bien Phu.

February 22 Military: A force of 20,000 American, South Vietnamese, and South Korean troops pursue Operation White Wing to ferret out Vietcong troop and supply concentrations in Quang Ngai Province.

February 23 Conservation: President Lyndon B. Johnson requests Congress to pass laws to enforce environmental protection and conservation, clean up the nation’s waterways, preserve historic landmarks, and finance pollution control research.

March 1 Medical: President Lyndon B. Johnson delivers a special message on health and education, and he calls for the funding of meaningful health education for all citizens and the expansion of programs such as Operation Headstart for disadvantaged youth.

March 2 Military: Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara declares American troop strength in Vietnam has reached 215,000 and that another 20,000 will be en route.

March 3 Societal: The cold war GI Bill of Rights is signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, which confers special educational, housing, health, and job benefits to military veterans who have accrued at least 180 days of service to the country.

March 7 Civil: The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously upholds the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

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March 10 Military: Vietcong forces overrun a U.S. special forces camp in the Ashau Valley after a 72-hour siege, killing or wounding 200 Americans and South Vietnamese.

March 16 Science: The space capsule Gemini 8 goes into orbit under astronauts Neil Armstrong and David Scott and becomes the first space vehicle to successfully dock with a target vehicle. However, when a faulty thruster malfunctions and causes both craft to tumble, the capsule detaches itself and returns to Earth after only seven of 44 scheduled orbits.

March 22 Societal: President James Roche apologizes to consumer advocate Ralph Nader for spying into the latter’s private life in retaliation for his landmark book, Unsafe at Any Speed, which criticized GM’s Corvair line of cars.

March 25–27 Politics: Mass antiwar protests erupt in San Francisco, Boston, Philadelphia, New York, and Washington, D.C.

April 6 Labor: The National Farm Workers Union under César Chávez wins recognition from Schenley Industries, a major grower, and they end their boycott of grapes begun a year earlier.

April 12 Aviation: Giant B-52 bombers are used against targets in North Vietnam for the first time.

April 13 Aviation: Boeing unveils plans for a supersized “jumbo jet,” the Model 747, which is designed to carry upward of 500 passengers. The first models are anticipated no later than 1969.

April 18 Media: Academy Awards go to The Sound of Music as best picture of 1965, to Lee Marvin as best actor in Cat Ballou, and to Julie Christie as best actress in Darling.

April 24–September 11 Journalism: Fearing the loss of jobs through mergers and automation, the Newspaper Guild strikes World-Tribune, Inc., in the longest ever work stoppage against a major paper.

April 27 Transportation: The Interstate Commerce Commission allows the Pennsylvania and New York Central Railroads to join in the largest such merger in U.S. business history. The new company, the Pennsylvania and New York Central Transportation Company, enjoys assets totaling $4 billion.

May 2 Arts: Pulitzer Prizes go to Wandering through Winter by Edwin Way Teale, fiction; and Selected Poems by Richard Eberhart, poetry.

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May 13 Education: Federal funding is denied to 12 school districts across the Deep South for their violation of segregation guidelines spelled out in the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

May 15 Politics: An antiwar protest in Washington, D.C., leads to 10,000 people picketing the White House.

May 26 Aviation: The slick and inexpensive Lear Jet 24 becomes the first small, business jet to successfully complete a round-the-world flight.

May 30–31 Aviation: Nearly 300 American warplanes strike targets in North Vietnam, including an important arsenal, in the heaviest raid yet.

June 1–2 Civil: The White House Conference on Civil Rights, with 2,400 delegates in attendance, approves resolutions to induce Congress to pass the new civil rights legislation under consideration there.

June 2–July 14 Science: The Surveyor 1 unmanned space probe makes a successful soft landing on the Moon after traveling 231,483 miles in 63 hours, 36 minutes. It immediately begins sending back 11,000 televised images of the lunar surface before its onboard batteries are depleted.

June 3–6 Science: The space capsule Gemini 9 enters orbit with astronauts Thomas Stafford and Eugene Cernan onboard but fails to dock with a target vehicle after the latter’s nose shroud fails to deploy. Cernan nonetheless spends a record two hours walking in space before returning to Earth.

June 3–13 Military: U.S. Army forces engage in a sweep of the Kontum region of South Vietnam, fighting a major pitched battle there.

June 6 Civil: Civil rights activist James Meredith, en route from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi, is taking a solitary walk when he is shot and seriously wounded. Science: The two-man space capsule Gemini 9 enters orbit and the crew performs the longest space walk to date, two hours and nine minutes.

June 11 Military: Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara declares U.S. troop strength in South Vietnam at 285,000 men, with total fatalities since the year began at 2,100.

June 13 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Miranda v. Arizona, ruling that all suspects arrested for criminal reason must have their rights read to them at the time of detention. Most importantly, suspects must be informed ahead of time that their remarks may be used against them in a court of law and that they have a right to an attorney during interrogation.

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June 26 Civil: Undeterred by threats of violence, civil rights groups complete the walk started by James Meredith before he was shot and wounded three weeks earlier. In Jackson, Mississippi, pacifist Martin Luther King, Jr., debates militants Stokely Carmichael and Floyd McKissick over tactics.

June 29 Aviation: The American government, reacting to increasing infiltration of men and materiel from North Vietnam to the South, now allows the bombing of Hanoi and the port of Haiphong, especially its oil storage facilities.

July 1 Medical: The Medicare insurance program for elderly citizens is initiated to help them carry the burden of hospital care and nursing homes.

July 12–15 Civil: Rioting among African Americans on Chicago’s West Side erupts after a fire hydrant used to cool the inhabitants off in 98 degree summer heat is shut off. Mayor Richard Daley is forced to call in the National Guard to restore order.

July 14 Crime: Eight student nurses are brutally murdered in Chicago, and two weeks later 24-year-old Richard Speck is accused of killing them.

July 18–21 Science: Gemini 10 races into space with astronauts John Young and Michael Collins onboard, and they successfully dock with their Agena target vehicle.

July 28–29 Civil: White teenagers riot in a predominately African-American district in Baltimore, Maryland.

July 30 Aviation: American warplanes bomb Communist units and strong points in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating North and South Vietnam.

August 1 Crime: Charles J. Whitman barricades himself in a tower on the campus of the University of Texas, Austin, with a high-powered rifle and kills 13 people and wounds another 31 before police finally kill him.

August 4 Military: The call goes out for a monthly draft of 46,200 men, the highest inducted since the Korean War.

August 6 Politics: Peace demonstrations unfold nationwide on this, the 21st anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima.

August 8 Medical: Dr. Michael DeBakey implants the first artificial heart pump into an ailing patient at the Methodist Hospital, Houston, Texas.

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August 10–October 29 Science: Lunar Orbiter I is launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida, intending to circle the Moon and take pictures of possible landing sites. It televises 215 pictures before crashing into the lunar surface.

August 15 Journalism: The New York Herald Tribune, in print since 1924, closes its doors due to a lengthy strike.

August 22 Business: The Consumer Price Index hits a record high, marking 1966 as the most inflationary year since 1957.

September 6–13 Civil: African Americans riot in Atlanta, Georgia, after police kill a black teen accused of car theft. Stokely Carmichael, a militant leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, is also arrested after driving in his car with a loudspeaker trying to incite a riot.

September 11 Aviation: Tracy Barnes is the first person to fly across the United States in a hot-air balloon.

September 12 Journalism: The New York World Journal Tribune, a composite of three defunct dailies, begins publishing one day after a lengthy newspaper strike ends.

September 12–13 Civil: In Grenada, Mississippi, armed gangs of whites attack African-American students attempting to integrate into neighborhood schools. Several police officers are fired for failing to protect the blacks.

September 20 Civil: A published statement condemning white-onblack violence in Grenada, Mississippi, is signed by 300 local white citizens.

September 20–22 Science: Surveyor 2, unable to correct its tumbling space flight, crashes headlong into the surface of the Moon.

September 23 Military: In an attempt to cut off Communist infiltration into South Vietnam, American aircraft begin a concerted aerial defoliation program by spraying plants south of the DMZ.

October 5–9 Stokely Carmichael addressing an audience, 1966 (Library of Congress)

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Sports: The Baltimore Orioles (AL) win the 63rd World Series by defeating the Los Angeles Dodgers (NL) in four straight games.

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October 7 Business: The Dow Jones Industrial Average sinks from its high of 995 to a low of 744, making this the worst one-day crash since 1962.

October 13–14 Aviation: A force of 173 American warplanes launches the heaviest strike on North Vietnam to date; the government announces that a total of 403 warplanes have been downed by enemy fire since February 7, 1965.

October 15 Transportation: President Lyndon B. Johnson initiates the 12th cabinet office by signing a bill authorizing creation of the Department of Transportation.

October 17 Diplomacy: President Lyndon B. Johnson commences a 17-day tour of the Far East with scheduled stops in Australia, the Philippines, South Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, and South Korea—26,000 miles in all.

October 18 General: A fire that destroys an old commercial building also takes the lives of 12 New York City firemen, one of the worst disasters to befall the city’s firefighting force.

October 20 Politics: Congress passes a $25-million appropriations bill for the planning and rebuilding of major urban areas. These major innovations are the last of the “Great Society” projects.

October 25 Diplomacy: President Lyndon B. Johnson meets in Manila with the heads of state from five other nations involved in the Vietnam War: Australia, the Philippines, South Korea, Thailand, and New Zealand. They sign a four-point declaration recognizing self-determination in the region and call upon North Vietnam to cease its aggression.

October 26 Communication: The first Intelsat 2 series satellite is successfully placed into orbit, and the first worldwide link will be completed in 1967. Naval: The carrier USS Oriskany catches fire in the Gulf of Tonkin, killing 43 sailors and injuring 16.

November 3 Business: A bill requiring truth-in-advertising labels on all supermarket items is signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson. Conservation: President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Clean Waters Restoration Act to purify and police America’s rivers and lakes.

November 6–17 Science: The Lunar Orbiter 2 is successfully launched and begins scanning the Moon for possible landing sites along its equator.

November 8 Politics: Midterm elections prove favorable to the Republican Party after the 1964 debacle, although the Democrats still control both chambers of Congress.

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Chronology of American History Those elected include Republican Edward W. Brooke of Massachusetts, the first African-American senator since Reconstruction.

November 11 Religion: Members of the Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church vote to merge into a single entity with nearly 11 million members.

November 11–15 Science: The space capsule Gemini 12 enters orbit with astronauts James Lovell and Edwin Aldrich onboard, where it takes photographs of a solar eclipse. Aldrich also concludes a five-hour space walk before returning to Earth.

November 18 Religion: The Roman Catholic Church decrees that meatless Fridays (abstinence) are no longer required except during Lent.

December 3 Diplomacy: President Lyndon B. Johnson confers with his Mexican counterpart, Gustavo Diaz Ordaz, at the joint, $75-million Armistad Dam along the border.

December 10 Science: Robert S. Mulliken of the University of Chicago wins the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work on the chemical bonds of atoms in a molecule; Charles B. Huggins of the University of Chicago and Francis Peyton Rous of the Rockefeller Institute share the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for discovering the cause of certain types of cancer.

December 31 Aviation: Boeing is the winner to design the United States’s first supersonic transport, or SST.

1967 Population: The U.S. population reaches 200 million despite the lowest birthrate in its history.

January 5 Military: The State Department admits that, to date, 5,008 Americans have been killed in South Vietnam, and 30,093 wounded in the year 1966. Total casualties since January 1961 are even higher; 6,664 dead, and 37,738 injured. Presently, 380,000 American troops are slogging around Southeast Asia, the majority of them combat troops.

January 6 Politics: In his State of the Union message, President Lyndon B. Johnson asks Congress for a 6 percent surcharge on individual and corporate income taxes to fund his “Great Society” programs. He also requests increases in spending for Head Start and Social Security, along with a ban on the use of electronic eavesdropping.

January 8–19 Military: A force of 16,000 U.S. Army troops, backed by 14,000 South Vietnamese, commence Operation Cedar Falls against Vietcong positions and encampments in the Iron Triangle, 25 miles northwest of Saigon. It results in heavy Communist casualties but no knockout blow against the elusive guerrillas.

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January 10 Politics: Lester Maddox, a segregationist, is sworn in as governor of Georgia.

January 15 Business: The Commerce Department announces that the gross national product (GNP) is up 5.4 percent in 1966.

January 16 Civil: In Tuskegee, Alabama, former paratrooper Lucius Amerson becomes the first African-American sheriff since Reconstruction.

January 27 Diplomacy: A space demilitarization treaty is signed by 63 nations, including the United States and the Soviet Union. It specifically outlaws orbiting nuclear weapons. Science: Tragedy strikes the program to land a man on the Moon when a fire breaks out in the Apollo 1 spacecraft due to faulty electrical wiring and kills astronauts Gus Grissom, Roger Chaffee, and Edward White. Their deaths only intensify national resolve to beat the Soviets to the Moon.

February 3 Labor: United Auto Workers head Walter P. Reuther resigns from the executive council of the AFL-CIO, widening the split between himself and AFL-CIO president George Meany.

February 4 Science: Lunar Orbiter 3 is shot into space from Cape Kennedy, Florida, to look for additional landing sites for the Apollo project.

February 25 Politics: Nevada becomes the 38th state to ratify the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which provides for presidential succession.

March 1 Politics: The House of Representatives votes 307 to 166 to expel Democratic congressman Adam Clayton Powell, representing New York’s Harlem district, for using government money for private and personal use.

March 28 Diplomacy: A general truce proposed by UN secretary-general U Thant that would have ended the fighting in Southeast Asia was accepted by the United States and South Vietnam, but rejected by Communist North Vietnam.

March 29 Civil: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit orders complete desegregation for all schools in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas.

March 31 Diplomacy: President Lyndon B. Johnson concludes the first consular treaty with the Soviet Union since 1917.

April 9 Aviation: The Boeing 737, one of jet travel’s most successful and widely used aircraft, completes its first flight.

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April 10 Media: Academy Awards go to A Man for All Seasons, best picture of 1966 and its star Paul Scofield, and to Elizabeth Taylor, best actress, for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

April 12–14 Diplomacy: President Lyndon B. Johnson joins the heads of 17 states at the Presidents of America Conference in Punta del Este, Uruguay, which calls for a Latin American common market and higher standards of living. Religion: Governor Buford Ellington of Tennessee signs a bill that repeals the so-called Monkey Law of 1925, which forbade the teaching of any scientific theory that denies the religious notion of creation.

April 15 Politics: An antiwar demonstration numbering 100,000 persons marches from New York’s Central Park to UN headquarters, while 50,000 protesters take to the streets of San Francisco, California.

April 17 Science: The unmanned space probe Surveyor 3 is launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida, and ultimately makes the second soft landing on the lunar surface, sending back 6,300 images.

April 21 Diplomacy: Svetlana Alliluyeva, daughter of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, defects to the United States while visiting India and arrives in New York City. General: Tornadoes ravage northeastern Illinois, killing 55 and injuring 1,000.

May 1 Arts: Pulitzer Prizes go to The Fixer by Bernard Malamud, fiction; Live or Die by Anne Sexton, poetry; and A Delicate Balance by Edward Albee, drama.

May 5 Journalism: The New York World Journal Tribune closes its doors after eight months of publication and monthly debts of $700,000.

May 11 Communication: President Lyndon B. Johnson attends ceremonies marking installation of the 100 millionth telephone in the United States, which now boasts half the telephones in the world.

May 13 Politics: A pro–Vietnam War demonstration draws 70,000 participants in New York City.

May 19 Aviation: American warplanes strike at targets in downtown Hanoi, North Vietnam, for the first time.

May 22 Religion: The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church adopts the new Confession of 1967, the first such document since the Westminster Confession of 1647.

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May 31–June 1 Aviation: A pair of U.S. Air Force Sikorsky HH-3Es make the first nonstop transatlantic helicopter crossing in time for the Paris air show.

June 5 Terrorism: A band of armed Mexican Americans seizes the courthouse in Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico, and frees 11 prisoners held there for unlawful assembly, wounding two police officers in the process. Most are subsequently captured.

June 8 Naval: Israeli warplanes bomb the intelligence vessel USS Liberty in international waters north of the Sinai Peninsula, killing 34 sailors and wounding 75. The government of Israel promptly apologizes for the action.

June 12 Journalism: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Curtiss Publishing Co. v. Butts, ruling that the Constitution protects the news media against lawsuits by public officials and other prominent individuals outside government. In either instance, accusers must prove malicious intent behind any or all misstatements. Societal: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Loving v. Virginia, ruling that a Virginia statute banning interracial marriage is unconstitutional. Similar laws in 15 other states are also declared null and void.

June 13 Civil: President Lyndon B. Johnson nominates African-American attorney Thurgood Marshall as the nation’s first black solicitor general.

June 14 Science: The unmanned space probe Mariner 5 is successfully launched for a rendezvous with the planet Venus.

June 19 Civil: U.S. district Judge J. Skelly Wright orders an end to de facto segregation in all Washington, D. C., schools.

June 23 Politics: Connecticut senator Thomas Dodd is censured by the U.S. Senate for using public funds and campaign contributions for personal reasons.

June 23–25 Diplomacy: In an attempt to diffuse cold war tensions, President Lyndon B. Johnson and Soviet premier Alexei Kosygin confer for three days at Glassboro College, New Jersey.

June 25 Communication: The show Our World is the first televised program globally broadcast live to 39 countries via satellite.

June 30 Diplomacy: In Geneva, Switzerland, representatives from 53 nations sign the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), agreeing to cut back on tariff duties in an attempt to stimulate world trade. They also pledge to provide 4.5 million tons of grain to assist developing nations.

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July 2–7 Military: U.S. Marines defend their base at Con Thien, South Vietnam, but they sustain significant losses.

July 5 Business: The FCC orders American Telephone and Telegraph to lower its rates for long-distance calling by $120 million a year.

July 7 Aviation: A Pan Am Boeing 707 jet transport conducts the first fully automatic approach and landing with passengers onboard.

July 12–16 Civil: Race rioting in Newark, New Jersey, leaves 26 people dead and 1,300 injured before National Guard troops can restore order.

July 14–17 Science: The unmanned space probe Surveyor 4 is successfully launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida, but contact is lost just prior to making a soft landing on the lunar surface.

July 16 Labor: The International Association of Machinists goes on strike against the railroads, which shuts down 95 percent of the nation’s rail traffic. The sheer extent of the strike induces Congress to pass a law requiring the workers to return to work and allowing the president to appoint an arbitration board.

July 19 Aviation: A Boeing 727 airliner collides with a private plane over Hendersonville, North Carolina, killing 82 passengers and crew.

July 23 Diplomacy: Voters in Puerto Rico vote 60.5 percent to reject statehood or independence in favor of remaining a commonwealth of the United States.

July 23–30 Civil: African Americans riot in Detroit, Michigan, after accusations of brutality during a police raid on a night club. The violence lasts a week and results in 41 dead and 2,000 injured while damage amounts to $200 million, and President Lyndon B. Johnson is forced to send in federal troops to restore order.

July 26 Civil: Police arrest SNCC radical leader H. Rap Brown for inciting violence during a riot at Cambridge, Maryland.

July 29 Naval: In the Gulf of Tonkin, the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal is swept by a fire amidships that kills 134 sailors and injures 62. The cause was a punctured fuel tank on a Douglas A-4 Skyhawk jet bomber prior to taking off on a bombing mission.

August 25 Crime: American Nazi Party leader George Lincoln Rockwell is gunned down by a former aide in Arlington, Virginia.

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(1908–1993)

Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on July 2, 1908, the son of a steward and grandson of an AfricanAmerican slave. He worked at various jobs for several years in order to put himself through Lincoln University, Pennsylvania, and graduated in 1930 cum laude. Marshall next applied to the law school at the University of Maryland, but he was turned down on account of his race, and he subsequently attended Howard University Law School in Washington, D.C. Once again he acquitted himself with distinction, graduating at the top of his class, and he gained admittance to the Maryland bar that year. Marshall decided to specialize in civil rights cases for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and, in 1938, he became their special counsel. It was in this post, arguing before the U.S. Supreme Court, that he established himself as one of the foremost civil rights attorneys in the nation. Over the course of the next two

Thurgood Marshall, NAACP chief counsel, before the Supreme Court, 1958 (Library of Congress)

decades Marshall argued 32 cases before the high court, winning 29 of them. These include Smith v. Allwright (1944), which ended the exclusion of blacks from primary elections, Morgan v. Virginia (1946), which ended segregation on all interstate transportation, Sweatt v. Painter, which defeated an attempt to erect “separate” law schools for African Americans (1950), and McLaurin v. Oklahoma State (1950), which stopped assigned seating for blacks in classrooms and cafeterias. However, his biggest accomplishment was in arguing Brown v. Board of Education (1954) to desegregate schools in Arkansas, convincing the justices that racial discrimination was a gross violation of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. This case was Marshall’s greatest contribution to the cause of civil rights in America for, by overturning the infamous Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), it finally aligned constitutional law in favor of civil liberties for all. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy nominated Marshall to the U.S. Court of Appeals, but the effort failed at first due to obstruction by senators from the South until he was confirmed the following year. In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson set a precedent by appointing him the first African-American solicitor general in the Justice Department. He performed capably in this role, and, in 1967, Johnson nominated him to be the first black associate justice on the Supreme Court. He was easily confirmed and, once seated, he served the next 24 years as an unstinting champion of liberal causes, women’s and minorities’ (continues)

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(continued) rights, and opposition to the death penalty. As such, his stances grew out of touch with an increasingly conservative Court majority, and Marshall was frequently in dissent. He retired from the Court in 1991 as his health declined, and he was replaced

by another African American, Clarence Thomas. Marshall died on January 24, 1993, disillusioned by what he considered a conservative retreat from civil rights. He is still regarded as the greatest civil rights attorney of the 20th century.

August 30 Civil: Thurgood Marshall, the grandson of a slave, is nominated to be the first African American on the U.S. Supreme Court by President Lyndon B. Johnson.

September 1–October 4 Military: The U.S. Marine garrison at Con Thien, south of the DMZ, endures another harrowing siege until concentrated American firepower forces the Vietcong to withdraw their artillery.

September 6–October 25 Labor: The United Auto Workers call a strike against General Motors that idles 159,816 workers after its existing contract expires. Ultimately a new, three-year agreement is signed.

September 8–14 Science: In another important step toward lunar exploration, the unmanned vehicle Surveyor 5 lands safely on the surface of the Moon and begins testing the soil. It conclusively demonstrates that the Moon’s surface consists of basaltic and volcanic rock, and presumably is safe enough for humans to walk across.

September 18 Military: Secretary of Defense Robert F. McNamara announces plans to develop and deploy a functional antiballistic missile system designed around the Nike X and Spartan missile systems. Its purpose is to thwart an attack from Communist China, which has developed its own atomic weapons.

September 28 Civil: Walter Washington becomes the first African American to serve as commissioner of the District of Columbia, and the first to head a large municipal government.

October 2 Civil: In Washington, D.C., Thurgood Marshall becomes the first AfricanAmerican Supreme Court justice.

October 3 Aviation: A North American X-15 rocket-powered research plane piloted by Major William J. Knight reaches a record-breaking 4,534 miles per hour.

October 4–12 Sports: The St. Louis Cardinals (NL) win the 64th World Series by defeating the Boston Red Sox (AL) four games to three.

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October 14 Military: The United States charges North Vietnam with mistreatment of its prisoners in violation of the Geneva Convention.

October 18 Science: Dr. Haldan Keffer Hartline of Rockefeller University, Dr. George Wald of Harvard University, and Dr. Ragnar Granit of Sweden share the Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine for their optical research; Dr. Hans Albrecht Bethe of Cornell University wins the Nobel Prize in physics for his study of star energy generation.

October 19 Science: The American unmanned spacecraft Mariner 5 flies by Venus at an altitude of 2,500 miles and sends valuable telemetry back concerning atmospheric conditions. As suspected, the surface is found to be uninhabitable for human beings.

October 20 Crime: A federal jury convicts seven Ku Klux Klan members in the murder of three civil rights workers; 11 others are either acquitted or no verdict is returned.

October 21 Politics: A mass antiwar demonstration by 35,000 people in Washington, D.C., leads to the arrest of 647 protesters.

October 26 Military: As a warning to peace protesters, Lewis Hershey, director of the Selective Service, warns college students that their educational deferments will be cancelled if they interfere with military recruiting.

October 30–November 4 Military: A U.S. Special Forces camp at Loc Ninh on the Cambodian border resists a determined Vietcong siege, assisted by artillery and air strikes.

October 31 Diplomacy: Ignoring mounting protests, President Lyndon B. Johnson reiterates his political and military support for the Republic of South Vietnam.

November 7 Politics: Despite recent riots, African Americans make strong showings in midterm elections, nationwide. Carl Stokes and Richard Hatcher become mayors of Cleveland, Ohio, and Gary, Indiana, respectively, while blacks are elected to the legislatures of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Virginia for the first time since Reconstruction.

November 7–17 Science: The space probe Surveyor 6 blasts off from Cape Kennedy, Florida, en route to the Moon. There it makes a successful soft landing and, on November 17, lifts off a few feet and photographs its original landing site. It is the first space craft to fly off the Moon.

November 9 Science: A huge Saturn 5, then the world’s largest rocket, hoists an unmanned Apollo 9 space capsule into orbit from Cape Kennedy, Florida, and it lands intact in the Pacific eight hours later.

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November 14 Conservation: The Air Quality Act is passed by Congress, which provide $428 million to help fight air pollution. The secretary of health, education, and welfare is also empowered to shut down polluters in emergency situations.

November 20 Societal: A bill creating the National Commission on Product Safety is signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson to keep the public abreast of potentially hazardous products in the marketplace. All federal laws currently protecting consumers are also placed under review.

November 22 Military: After a 19-day struggle, U.S. Army troops storm Hill 875 near Dak To, concluding one of the Vietnam conflict’s bloodiest encounters.

December 4–8 Politics: The breakup of large antiwar demonstrations in New York results in the arrest of such notables as Dr. Benjamin Spock and poet Alan Ginsberg for trying to interfere with an army induction center.

December 8 Aviation: An F-104 Starfighter jet crashes at Edwards Air Force Base, California, killing Major Robert H. Lawrence, Jr., the nation’s first African-American astronaut.

December 14 Science: Biochemists at Stanford University announce the first production of synthetic DNA, the building blocks of life.

December 15 General: The Silver Bridge, spanning the Ohio River between West Virginia and Ohio, collapses at rush hour, killing 46 people.

December 20 Military: American troop strength in South Vietnam reaches 474,300.

1968 Publishing: Bernard Bailyn’s noted tract The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution wins the Pulitzer Prize for history. Science: The U.S. Oceanographic vessel Glomar Challenger begins drilling deep into the Earth’s seabed floor and recovers evidence supporting the relatively new theory of continental drift, or tectonics.

January 9 Science: Surveyor 7, the last spacecraft in the series, makes a soft landing on the Moon and begins sending photographic and other information back concerning the lunar surface.

January 12 Military: U.S. Army troops at Khe Sanh, Vietnam, are attacked by Vietcong guerrillas.

January 17 Politics: In his State of the Union message, President Lyndon B. Johnson asks Congress for a 10 percent income tax surcharge to both aid urban areas and support continuing military efforts in Vietnam.

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Publishing: The respected Boston publishing firm of Little, Brown, and Co. is acquired by Time, Inc., for $17 million.

January 21 Aviation: An eight-jet B-52 jet bomber belonging to the Strategic Air Command (SAC) explodes over North Star Bay, Greenland, spilling its four unarmed hydrogen bombs into the ocean. No radiation leaks occur, although one of the seven crew members dies in the ensuing crash.

January 22 Science: An unmanned Apollo 5 spacecraft is sent into orbit from Cape Kennedy, Florida, whereby the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) is successfully tested.

January 23 Naval: The intelligence-gathering vessel USS Pueblo is boarded and captured by North Korean forces in the Sea of Japan. The 83-man crew under Captain Lloyd Bucher, accused of violating the 12-mile territorial limit, is carried off into captivity.

January 25 Naval: In response to the seizure of the USS Pueblo, the aircraft carrier Enterprise is dispatched to the Sea of Japan in a show of force. However, President Lyndon B. Johnson, with his hands effectively tied in Vietnam, does not want to risk a second Asian conflict.

January 30 Military: The Senate confirms Clark Clifford to succeed Robert F. McNamara as secretary of defense.

January 30–February 24 Military: Vietcong and North Vietnamese Army elements launch their surprise Tet Offensive throughout South Vietnam, catching the Americans off guard initially, but taking staggeringly heavy losses. Still, a turning point has been reached in the war once the American polity becomes convinced the war cannot be won.

February 1 Politics: Former vice president Richard M. Nixon tosses his hat into the presidential election contest with the Republicans.

February 8 Civil: Three African-American students are killed during a riot with police at South Carolina State College in Orangeburg, South Carolina.

February 19–March 8 Labor: Florida endures the first statewide teacher’s strike in American history when half of its public school teachers walk off the job.

February 24 Military: American forces retake the provincial capital of Hue, South Vietnam, from Communist forces.

February 29 Civil: The President’s National Advisory Committee on Civil Disorders releases the Kerner Commission report, which blames violence on lingering racism in America and calls for additional aid to minority communities to avoid further polarization.

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March 8 Religion: In Rome, Pope Paul VI appoints Bishop Terrence J. Cooke archbishop of New York to succeed Cardinal Francis Spellman, who has recently died.

March 12 Politics: Antiwar senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota wins 42 percent of the Democratic primary vote in New Hampshire, becoming the party’s front runner. Defeat here prompts President Lyndon B. Johnson to reconsider running for reelection.

March 13 General: An accidental U.S. Army nerve gas leak from the Dugway Proving Grounds, Utah, results in the deaths of 6,400 sheep.

March 16 Politics: New York senator Robert F. Kennedy declares his intention to seek the Democratic presidential nomination.

March 22 Military: General William Westmoreland is appointed army chief of staff by President Lyndon B. Johnson.

March 31 Diplomacy: President Lyndon B. Johnson announces a temporary suspension of air attacks over North Vietnam in an attempt to stimulate peace talks.

Westmoreland, William C.

(1914 –2005)

General William Childs Westmoreland was born in Spartanburg, South Carolina, on March 26, 1914, the son of a banker. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1936 and was assigned routine garrison duties in Hawaii prior to World War II. Once the United States entered the conflict, Westmoreland transferred to the European Theater where, as part of the 9th Infantry, he performed capably in North Africa, Sicily, and France from 1943 to 1944. Westmoreland advanced to colonel in July 1944 and served as a staff officer in the drive toward Germany, and afterward he commanded the 60th Infantry during a stint of occupation duty. He returned home after the war to take paratroop training at Fort Bragg, North

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Carolina, and subsequently he attended the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. After the Korean War broke out in 1950, he pressed superiors for a command and subsequently led the 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team into action. This was the only pure paratroop formation committed to combat during that conflict, and Westmoreland led it with distinction. After serving several years as secretary to army chief of staff General Maxwell Taylor, Westmoreland became the army’s youngest major general in 1956, and two years later he took charge of the elite 101st Airborne Division. In July 1960, President Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed him superintendent of West Point, where

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Politics: In a bombshell of another sort, President Lyndon B. Johnson declares his intention not to seek reelection for the presidency. He becomes the Vietnam War’s most visible casualty.

April 4 Civil: Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., 39, is assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, by James Earl Ray. Nationwide riots ensue in America’s inner cities.

April 5 Military: An American relief column rescues the U.S. Marine garrison at Khe Sanh, South Vietnam, which cost the North Vietnamese thousands of men.

April 8 Crime: Congress authorizes creation of a Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs in an attempt to stem the flow of illegal drug use throughout the country.

April 9 Civil: In Atlanta, Georgia, the funeral of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., is attended by 75,000 mourners.

April 10 Media: Academy Awards go to In the Heat of the Night as best picture of 1967 and to its star, Rod Steiger, as best actor; Katharine Hepburn wins best actress for Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.

he remained three years before leaving to command the 18th Airborne Corps at Fort Bragg. The turning point in Westmoreland’s successful career came in 1964, when President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed him head of the U.S. Military Assistance Program in South Vietnam. This proved one of the most daunting challenges ever faced by any American general of the 20th century. South Vietnam was then undergoing heavy infiltration by guerrilla units commanded by Communist North Vietnam, and Westmoreland successfully pressed for an increase in American manpower from 20,000 to half a million by 1968. With such forces at his disposal, he orchestrated an intense campaign of “search and destroy” missions in the jungles to root out the insurgents and their supply bases, and he inflicted

heavy losses on enemy units when cornered. Though bloodied, the Communists were far from defeated and, in January 1968, they launched their surprise Tet Offensive, which, while they were defeated with severe losses, convinced many Americans at home that the war was unwinnable. Prior to this event, Westmoreland had been sending back optimistic reports as to the progress of events, and he took the blame for failing to crush his adversaries. In June 1968, he was succeeded by General Creighton Abrams and returned home to serve as chief of staff of the army. He fulfilled this post until his retirement in July 1972. In 1982, he won a bitter lawsuit against the CBS network over its assertion that he had lied about known enemy troop strengths. Westmoreland died in Charleston, South Carolina, on July 18, 2005.

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April 11 Civil: President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the 1968 Civil Rights Act into law, which forbids discrimination in housing.

April 15 Politics: A no-nonsense mayor Richard Daley of Chicago issues an order to police to shoot to kill to prevent arson, looting, or rioting.

April 23–30 Politics: Protesters belonging to the radical group Students for a Democratic Society seize five buildings at Columbia University to protest the construction of a gym. Police are called in to remove them and 150 students are injured in the fracas.

April 24 Civil: At Boston University, Massachusetts, 300 African-American students seize the administration building and make demands that more African history be taught and for increased financial aid.

May 4 Publishing: The venerable Saturday Evening Post cuts its circulation from 6.8 million to 3 million to cut costs, but the magazine still folds early in 1969.

May 5 Aviation: A Grumman Gulfstream II flies from New York to London, England, becoming the first executive jet to complete a nonstop transatlantic flight.

May 8 Arts: Pulitzer Prizes go to The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Stryon, fiction, and The Hard Hours by Anthony Hecht, poetry.

May 10 Diplomacy: In Paris, France, peace talks commence between W. Averill Harriman of the United States and Xuan Thuy of North Vietnam

May 15 Business: The U.S. Postal Service celebrates its 50th year of service to the nation.

May 29 Naval: The nuclear attack submarine USS Scorpion is reported missing off the Azores with its crew of 99 officers and men.

June 5 General: New York senator Robert F. Kennedy is assassinated by Sirhan H. Sirhan, a Jordanian immigrant, in Los Angeles. Kennedy had just won the California Democratic primary and was expected to emerge as the frontrunner.

June 8 Crime: James Earl Ray, the accused assassin of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., is apprehended in London, England.

June 10 Military: General Creighton W. Abrams replaces General William C. Westmoreland as commander of U.S. forces in South Vietnam, a move reflecting dissatisfaction with his conduct of the war.

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June 13 Business: The New York Stock Exchange sets a new record with 2.35 million shares traded, probably reflecting optimism that the Vietnam War would be ending soon.

June 13–26 Law: After Chief Justice Earl Warren submits his resignation from the U.S. Supreme Court “for reasons of age,” President Lyndon B. Johnson nominates Abe Fortas as his successor.

June 17 Civil: The U.S. Supreme Court rules against discrimination in the purchase or leasing of property.

June 17–July 1 Religion: Rabbi Yehuda Leib Levin, chief rabbi of Moscow, visits the United States to convince American Jews that there is no anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union. His audience remains unconvinced.

June 23 Military: As of this day, the conflict in Vietnam has become America’s longestrunning war.

June 30 Aviation: Lockheed rolls out its mammoth C-5A Galaxy for its initial flight; it was then the world’s largest airplane.

July 1 Diplomacy: The United States joins the Soviet Union and 59 other nations in signing the first Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty following four years of negotiations. Labor: The AFL-CIO expels the United Auto Workers for nonpayment of dues, thereby ending their contentious relationship.

July 4 Science: The satellite Explorer 38, spanning 1,500 feet when fully deployed, is launched into space to serve as a giant radio astronomy antenna.

July 15 Transportation: The first direct commercial flights between the United States and the Soviet Union begin at Kennedy International Airport, New York, and Moscow.

July 16 Politics: Justice Abe Fortas testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee as to his physical fitness to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.

July 30 Labor: The steelworkers union and 11 major manufacturers reach a three-year agreement allowing a 6 percent wage hike.

July 31 Religion: The National Council of Catholic Bishops issues a statement supporting Pope Paul VI’s condemnation of artificial methods of birth control.

August 8 Politics: In Miami Beach, Florida, Richard M. Nixon of California becomes the Republican presidential candidate, while Maryland governor Spiro T. Agnew receives the vice presidential nod.

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August 9 Journalism: The Detroit newspaper strike, 264 days long, ends today, and the city’s papers gear up to resume publishing.

August 26 Education: The National Student Association reports 221 major demonstrations at 101 colleges and universities in the first half of 1968.

August 26–29 Politics: The Democrats nominate Vice President Hubert Humphrey as their presidential candidate, while Maine senator Edmund Muskie is selected as vice president. The party platform is also extremely “hawkish” on the Vietnam War and would halt the bombing of North Vietnam only if such action would not endanger American troops already there. This stance alienates and angers many left-wing elements both in the convention and outside on the streets, who clash violently with police. Terrorism: Guerrillas ambush and kill John Gordon Mein, U.S. ambassador to Guatemala.

October 2 Law: President Lyndon B. Johnson withdraws the nomination of Abe Fortas for the U.S. Supreme Court.

October 2–10 Sports: The Detroit Tigers (AL) win the 65th World Series by defeating the St. Louis Cardinals (NL) four games to three.

October 3 Politics: Former Alabama governor George Wallace runs for president as an independent and chooses former air force chief of staff General Curtis E. LeMay for vice president.

October 11 Science: Commander Walter Schirra, Donn F. Eisele, and Walter Cunningham guide the Apollo 7 spacecraft into an 11-day orbit around the Earth to test docking procedures with the lunar module. They complete 163 orbits.

October 12–27 Sports: At the Summer Olympics, Mexico City, Mexico, the U.S. team wins 45 gold medals and comes in first place for unofficial team ratings.

October 16 Science: Dr. Robert H. Holley of the Salk Institute, Dr. H. Gobind Khorana of the University of Wisconsin, and Dr. Marshall W. Nirenberg of the National Institutes of Health share the Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine for their work with the genetic code.

October 30 Science: Lars Onsager of Yale University wins the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work with thermodynamic theory; Luis W. Alvarez of the University of California, Berkeley, wins the Nobel Prize in physics for his work with subatomic particles.

October 31 Diplomacy: To facilitate peace talks in Paris, France, President Lyndon B. Johnson again suspends all bombing of North Vietnam.

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November 6 Education: Students begin a strike at San Francisco State College for reforms and for creation of a black-study program, but President S. I. Hayakawa calls in police to remove them. Four months of turmoil ensue. Politics: Republican Richard M. Nixon defeats Democrat Hubert Humphrey for the presidency with 302 electoral votes to 191. However, the margin of popular votes is much closer, 31.7 million to 31.2 million. Nonetheless, it is a stunning political comeback. The Democrats manage to maintain control of Congress.

November 20 General: A coal mine explosion takes 78 lives in Farmington, West Virginia.

December 4 Medical: Dr. Henry K. Beecher of Harvard University coins the concept of “brain death” to denote irreversible death of that organ.

December 11 Labor: Labor Department statistics indicate an unemployment rate of 3.3 percent, the lowest it has been in 15 years.

December 21–27 Science: An Apollo space capsule flown by astronauts Frank Borman, William Anders, and James Lovell, Jr., returns safely to Earth after a six-day reconnaissance flight around the Moon and back. The dream of interplanetary space flight, long consigned to the imagination, is at hand.

1969 January–March General: Southern California is besieged by torrential rains that trigger flooding and mud slides that kill 100 people, destroy 10,000 homes, and inflict damages estimated at $60 million.

January 14 Naval: At Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, a fire and explosions sweep the carrier USS Enterprise, killing 27 sailors and injuring 82. Politics: President Lyndon B. Johnson delivers his final State of the Union message to Congress and emphasizes his “Great Society” program at home and the quest for peace abroad.

January 16 Science: Two teams of scientists at Merck Laboratories and Rockefeller University produce samples of ribonuclease, the first synthetic enzyme.

January 18 Diplomacy: Four-power peace talks begin in Paris, France, attended by the United States, North Vietnam, South Vietnam, and the Vietcong. Considerable time had been expended determining the shape of the table to be used for negotiations.

January 20 Politics: Richard M. Nixon is inaugurated as the 37th president of the United States, while Spiro Agnew becomes vice president. Science: Astronomers at the University of Arizona photograph and identify the first known example of a pulsar, or neutron star, in the Crab Nebula.

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Nixon, Richard M.

(1913–1994)

President

Richard M. Nixon (Library of Congress)

Richard Milhous Nixon was born in Yorba Linda, California, on January 9, 1913, the son of a small businessman. He graduated from Whittier College before attending Duke University Law School in 1937, and he established a law practice back home. Shortly before World War II, Nixon relocated to Washington, D.C., to serve with the Office of Price Administration, although he subsequently joined the U.S. Navy and rose to the rank of lieutenant commander. He commenced his political career by successfully running for a seat in Congress as a stoutly anticommunist Republican, which stance served him well throughout his long public life. In 1950, he defeated incumbent Democrat Helen G. Douglas for a Senate seat, and he later gained national prominence promoting a perjury case against State Department official Alger Hiss for his alleged Communist ties. This brought him to the attention of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who chose

January 21 Societal: A government study reveals that pockets of hunger and malnutrition still exist in the United States.

February 5 Conservation: A huge oil slick closes the harbor of Santa Barbara, California, and promotes studies to contain such disasters in the future.

February 9 Aviation: Boeing’s new 747 jumbo jet transport flies for the first time, heralding a new revolution in air transport.

February 14 Labor: Port of New York dockworkers conclude their 57-day strike, the longest in city history, after signing a new three-year contract.

February 25 Science: Unmanned space probe Mariner 6 lifts off from Cape Kennedy, Florida, and enters a trajectory toward Mars.

February 26 Business: General Motors initiates the largest automobile recall to date by taking back 4.9 million cars and trucks with possible defects.

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him as a running mate in the 1952 and 1956 presidential elections. Once elected, Nixon toured the world promoting American interests and, in 1959, he engaged in a celebrated “kitchen debate” in Moscow with Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev. In 1960, Nixon became the Republican Party nominee for president, and he was narrowly defeated by challenger John F. Kennedy—the margin was only 100,000 votes. In 1962, he also lost a bid to serve as governor of California, then withdrew from public life to practice law in New York City. However, he made a startling comeback in 1968 by again winning the party nomination, and he went on to defeat both Democrat Hubert Humphrey and George Wallace, who ran as an independent. Nixon had campaigned to withdraw all American forces from Vietnam and also began the process of “Vietnamization,” whereby the South Vietnamese were obliged to fend for themselves. However, he also authorized limited forays into Cambodia to keep enemy forces off balance during the American with-

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drawal. This had the effect of stirring up the antiwar movement in the Democratic Party, who nominated pacifist George McGovern as their candidate. Meanwhile, in 1972, Nixon visited the Soviet Union to engage in talks that led to the first Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I), then made history by becoming the first American head of state to visit the people’s republic of China. In light of such deft diplomacy, the Republicans crushed McGovern that fall in a landslide, and Nixon found the political vindication he so desperately sought his whole career. Unfortunately, he had tried to orchestrate a cover-up for low-level political operatives who burglarized Democratic Party campaign headquarters at the Watergate Hotel, and, on August 4, 1972, Nixon became the first chief executive to resign from office. Over the next two decades he carefully rehabilitated his reputation as a senior statesman by granting interviews and publishing his memoirs. Nixon died in New York City on April 22, 1994, a gifted politician but an unpopular chief executive.

March 2 Diplomacy: President Richard M. Nixon flies home to Washington,. D.C., after an eight-day visit with heads of five states in Western Europe.

March 3–13 Science: Apollo 9, piloted by James A. McDivitt, Russell L. Schweickart, and David R. Scott, blasts off into an orbit around Earth on a 10-day foray to further test the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM).

March 4 Military: The Department of Defense announces regular shipments of nerve gas by rail and an annual budget of $350 million a year on such exotic weaponry.

March 10 Crime: James Earl Ray pleads guilty to the murder of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., in Nashville, Tennessee, and is sentenced to 99 years in prison.

March 14 Military: President Richard M. Nixon announces his plans to substitute the earlier “Sentinel” antiballistic missile system (ABM) with the more advanced “Safeguard” plan, which is designed to stop an incoming attack from either Communist China or the Soviet Union.

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March 27 Science: Unmanned space probe Mariner 7 lifts off toward the planet Mars on the latest photographic mission to the red planet.

March 28 General: Former president Dwight D. Eisenhower dies at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C.

April 3 Military: Combat deaths in Vietnam stand at 33,641, slightly higher than the toll extracted by the Korean War.

April 4 –8 Medical: In Houston, Texas, Dr. Denton A. Cooley successfully implants the world’s first totally artificial heart, made of Dacron and plastic, although the patient ultimately dies on April 8.

April 7 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court votes unanimously to allow obscene or pornographic materials to be read in the privacy of one’s home.

April 9–10 Politics: Some 300 radicals belonging to the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) seize control of the administration building at Harvard University; police finally evict them after 45 are injured and 184 are arrested.

April 14 Media: Academy Awards go to Oliver! as best picture; to Cliff Robertson as best actor for Charly; and to Barbra Streisand as best actress for Funny Girl. Medical: Dr. Gerald Edelman of Rockefeller University announces discovery of the chemical structure of an antibody.

April 15 Aviation: North Korean jets shoot down an unarmed U.S. Navy EC-121M reconnaissance plane in international waters over the Sea of Japan, killing all 31 crew members.

April 24 Aviation: Eight-engined B-52 jet bombers unload their heaviest concentration of ordnance to date by dropping 3,000 tons of bombs on Communist positions along the Cambodian border.

May 5 Art: Pulitzer Prizes go to House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday, fiction; Of Being Numerous by George Oppen, poetry; and The Great White Hope by Howard Sackler, drama.

May 6 Naval: Secretary of the Navy John Chaffee overrules a naval court of inquiry and orders none of the newly freed members of the USS Pueblo to face disciplinary action. Commander Lloyd M. Bucher is thus spared the ignominy of a court-martial.

May 14 Diplomacy: President Richard M. Nixon unveils an eight-point peace plan for Vietnam, including the pullout of all foreign troops and internationally supervised elections.

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Law: Associate Justice Abe Fortas of the U.S. Supreme Court resigns over allegations of financial misdeeds, namely, a $20,000 stipend from a charitable foundation headed by imprisoned stock manipulator Louis E. Wolfson.

May 15 Political: In San Francisco, California, police and National Guard troops dislodge a group of students illegally encamped on property owned by the University of California.

May 18 Science: Apollo 10, the first manned mission to the moon, lifts off from Cape Kennedy with Thomas P. Stafford, Eugene A. Cernan, and John W. Young aboard.

May 20 Military: In South Vietnam, American troops wage a bloody, 10-day battle to capture a position christened Hamburger Hill owing to the carnage. Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts criticizes such headlong assaults as senseless.

May 22 Science: The Apollo 10 Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) separates from the main capsule and descends to within 10 miles of the lunar surface before redocking.

May 26 Science: The spacecraft Apollo 10 returns safely to Earth following 18 days in space, which included 31 lunar orbits.

June 8 Diplomacy: President Richard M. Nixon confers with South Vietnamese president Nguyen Van Thieu on the Pacific island of Midway, and he announces the withdrawal of 25,000 combat troops.

June 19 Military: The Defense Department announces its decision to develop and procure multiple independently targeted reentry vehicles (MIRVs) in order to pack more nuclear warheads on existing missile stocks.

June 23 Law: Warren Burger is appointed the new chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court by President Richard M. Nixon following the retirement of Earl Warren.

July 1 Business: Congress passes the Truth-in-Lending Law mandating that all charges for credit cards and loans be made clear to borrowers.

July 8 Military: The Ninth U.S. Infantry Division sends 814 of its men home, the first withdrawal from Southeast Asia.

July 16 Science: A new chapter in manned spaceflight unfolds as the Apollo 11 rocket lifts off from Cape Kennedy, Florida, with astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins on board. Their sole purpose is to put a man on the moon and return him safely.

July 18 General: Massachusetts senator Edward M. (“Teddy”) Kennedy drives his car off a narrow bridge on Chappaquiddick Island (part of Martha’s Vineyard), which leads to

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Chronology of American History the drowning death of his secretary, 28-year-old Mary Jo Kopechne. The controversy surrounding the matter effectively quashes Kennedy’s presidential aspirations.

July 20 Media: Cameras on board the Apollo 11 spaceship record mankind’s historic first walk on the surface of the Moon, which is then beamed back to television screens around the world. Science: Humankind expands its celestial vistas at 10:56 p.m. when astronaut Neil Armstrong descends the ladder from his Lunar Excursion Module named Eagle and becomes the first man to walk on the surface of the Moon. Before departing the next day, the astronauts leave behind a plaque stating, “We came in peace for all mankind,” and they take back a bag of Moon rocks.

July 24 Science: The Apollo 11 capsule safely splashes down in the Pacific with three heroic astronauts and a bag of Moon rocks, the first examples of extraterrestrial matter brought back to Earth by man.

July 30 Science: The unmanned space probe Mariner 6 passes to within 2,120 miles of the surface of Mars and sends back 74 images of the red planet.

August 3 Diplomacy: President Richard M. Nixon returns to Washington, D.C., after a whirlwind tour of the world to meet with heads of state to announce his new

Armstrong, Neil

(1930–

)

Astronaut Neil Alden Armstrong was born on August 5, 1930, near Wapakoneta, Ohio. He developed an interest in flying at an early age and received his pilot’s license at the age of 16. Armstrong subsequently entered Purdue University on a U.S. Navy scholarship in 1947, where he studied aeronautical engineering. However, he was called to active duty in 1949 and became qualified as a jet pilot at the Pensacola Naval Air Station, Florida, and, in 1950, he was the youngest officer flying with Fighter Squadron VF-51. In this capacity Armstrong completed 78 combat missions piloting Grumman F9F Panthers in Korea, where he was shot down once and received three Air Medals. After the war he returned to Purdue to complete

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his degree and subsequently found work as a test pilot with the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) in Cleveland, Ohio. Shortly afterward, Armstrong transferred to Edwards Air Force Base, California, where he tested some of the latest jets and research craft available. Among these were the North American X-15, a highly experimental rocket-propelled airplane, in which he set a world record of 207,500 feet at a speed of 6,615 miles per hour in 1961. But despite this close proximity to space, Armstrong displayed no real interest in the ongoing astronaut program, and he chose instead to pilot the new Dynasoar craft that was expected to leave the atmosphere, glide through space, and then fly like a conven-

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self-help policy for the nations of Southeast Asia. During this sojourn, Nixon also became the first American president to visit a Communist country, in this instance Romania. Science: The Mariner 7 unmanned spacecraft performs a spectacular flyby of the planet Mars, transmitting back valuable telemetry and photos of surface conditions there.

August 8 Societal: President Richard M. Nixon calls for an overhaul of the welfare system, insisting on a guaranteed minimum income for all families with children.

August 17 General: Hurricane Camille ravages the Gulf Coast, killing 30 people and leaving 70,000 homeless in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.

August 18 General: A gathering of 300,000 young people and rock musicians occurs at Bethel, New York, better known as the Woodstock Festival. This proves a selfperceived rite of passage for the counterculture movement, although the influence of radical youth on politics and national events diminishes rapidly.

August 23 General: Flooding occasioned by the remnants of Hurricane Camille kills 100 people in Virginia.

tional aircraft following reentry. However, once this program was cancelled by the government in 1962, Armstrong belatedly joined the next group of astronauts in training, hailed in the press as “the New Nine,” following the original “Mercury Seven.” Armstrong successfully completed his space training and, on September 20, 1965, he rocketed into orbit commanding the Gemini 8 craft with pilot David Scott. His technical expertise saved the mission when their capsule began mysteriously rolling due to a faulty maneuvering thruster, which he promptly disconnected, and he brought the ship safely home within one mile of the anticipated landing zone. Armstrong’s cool demeanor and technical expertise made him the natural choice to command the Apollo 11 moon mission, destined to land the

first human being on a celestial body. On July 16, 1969, accompanied by astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, Armstrong launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida, and four days later he successfully guided his Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) named Eagle to the lunar surface. “That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind,” he exclaimed upon taking man’s first footsteps on the Moon. He and the crew of Apollo 11 returned safely to Earth on July 24, 1969, where they were feted as national heroes and toured the globe. However, Armstrong retired from active duty soon after and spent several years as a top NASA administrator until 1971, when he joined the faculty of the University of Cincinnati. Armstrong, the first man on the Moon, lives in retirement in Lebanon, Ohio.

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September 9 Aviation: A passenger jet and a light plane collide over Indianapolis, Indiana, killing 83 people.

September 14 General: The large icebreaker SS Manhattan is the first large vessel to navigate the Northwest Passage through the Prince of Wales Strait and across northern Canada to finally dock at Point Barrow, Alaska.

September 16 Diplomacy: President Richard M. Nixon announces his decision to withdraw another 35,000 American combat troops from Southeast Asia.

September 21 Crime: The U.S. government initiates Operation Intercept along the Mexican border to intercept a steady flow of illegal drugs from there. Regular traffic is nearly halted until complaints from the Mexican government terminate the operation.

September 23 Civil: Secretary of Labor George Schultz orders six skilled-craft unions in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to hire African-American apprentices for projects receiving federal money.

September 24 Crime: In Chicago, Illinois, the so-called Chicago 8 go on trial for conspiracy to incite rioting during the 1968 Democratic Convention.

October 5 Aviation: A Cuban defector effortlessly flies his MiG-17 past U.S. aerial defenses and lands at Homestead Air Force Base, Miami, Florida. President Richard M. Nixon was there onboard Air Force One when it happened.

October 11–16 Sports: The New York Mets (NL) win the 66th World Series by defeating the Baltimore Orioles four games to one.

October 15 Politics: Opponents of the Vietnam War organize the first Vietnam Moratorium Day with prayer vigils, candlelight processions, and mass marches.

October 16 Science: Dr. Max Delbruck, California Institute of Technology; Dr. Alfred D. Hershey, Carnegie Institute; and Dr. Salvador E. Luria, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, share the Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine for their work on the genetic structure of viruses.

October 18 Medical: The Department of Health, Education, and Welfare bans the use of cyclamates (artificial sweeteners) from all food products except soft drinks.

October 27 Labor: A strike against the General Electric Corporation idles 150,000 workers until a new contract agreement is reached the following January.

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October 28 Politics: Senator J. William Fulbright, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, accuses the Nixon administration of waging a secret war in Laos against Communist forces operating there.

October 29 Civil: The U.S. Supreme Court under Chief Justice Warren Burger orders a quick and speedy terminus to all vestiges of racial desegregation in the Mississippi public school system.

October 30 Science: Dr. Murray Gell-Mann of the California Institute of Technology wins the Nobel Prize in physics for his contribution to the theory of elementary particles.

November 4 Diplomacy: In a major decision, President Richard M. Nixon announces his new policy of “Vietnamization,” whereby the United States will supply the army of South Vietnam with guns and equipment, but the bulk of fighting Communist forces now falls upon them.

November 6 Military: Congress passes a military appropriations bill that includes funding for the Safeguard ABM system.

November 11 Politics: Veterans’ Day is marked by prowar, pro-administration marches, nationwide. President Richard M. Nixon proclaims his supporters to be “the great silent majority.”

November 14 –15 Politics: In Washington, D.C., 250,000 protesters march in the nation’s largest antiwar demonstration, while an additional 100,000 march through San Francisco, California, although their actions produce no effect on the conduct of the Vietnam War.

November 14–24 Science: The Apollo 12 spacecraft is successfully launched with Charles Conrad, Jr., Richard F. Gordon, Jr., and Alan L. Bean onboard and heads for a rendezvous with the Moon.

November 16 Military: Word breaks out of a massacre of Vietnamese civilians at My Lai 4, South Vietnam, on March 16, 1968. Lieutenant William F. Calley is identified as the commander of the unit involved, and he falls under investigation.

November 17–December 22 Diplomacy: Delegates from the United States and the Soviet Union meet in Helsinki, Finland, to initiate talks on strategic arms limitation (SALT).

November 19 Science: The Apollo 12 spacecraft Lunar Excursion Module Intrepid gently touches down on the lunar surface with astronauts Charles Conrad and Alan Bean on board. This is mankind’s second successful manned landing on a celestial body.

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November 20 Conservation: The Department of Agriculture orders a complete ban of the pesticide DDT in or near residential areas. Indian: In San Francisco Bay, California, militant Indian activists seize Alcatraz Island and demand that it be handed back to Native Americans.

November 21 Diplomacy: The United States announces its decision to return control of Okinawa and the Ryukyu Islands to Japan by 1972. Law: The Senate rejects the Supreme Court nomination of Clement Haynesworth, ostensibly over his questionable financial investments, but most likely on account of his strident record on civil rights and labor issues.

November 22 Science: Harvard University researchers manage to isolate a single gene, a building block of heredity, for the purpose of understanding gene control.

November 24 Diplomacy: American and Soviet negotiators at Helsinki, Finland, announce a breakthrough by signing the United Nations–sponsored Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which outlaws the spread of technology applicable to nuclear weapons. Military: The U.S. Army charges Lieutenant William L. Calley with the massacre of 30 Vietnamese civilians at the village of My Lai, Vietnam, on March 16, 1968. Calley is eventually acquitted, but the episode discredits the U.S. war effort and helps fuel antiwar sentiments.

November 25 Military: President Richard M. Nixon orders American germ warfare stockpiles destroyed in an attempt to induce a similar gesture from the Soviet Union. He also asks the Senate to approve a 1925 Geneva protocol prohibiting both biological and chemical warfare and declares that the United State will never deploy such weapons first.

November 26 Military: President Richard M. Nixon signs a bill establishing a lottery for the selective service, which is to begin on December 1.

December 1 Military: A new draft lottery commences by selecting 19-year-olds for military service based upon their birthday in an attempt to quell antiwar sentiments. It replaces the earlier blanket military obligation.

December 2 Aviation: The first Boeing 747 jumbo jet, which cost the company $21 million to develop, makes its first flight from Seattle, Washington, to New York City. Its capacity for up to 500 passengers is seen as a cost-effective method of enticing more people to fly at cheaper rates.

December 4 General: A police raid on the home of Fred Hampton, chairman of the Illinois Black Panther Party, results in his death. The ACLU subsequently charges the police with shooting Hampton in his bed.

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December 15 Military: President Richard M. Nixon announces that American troop strength in Vietnam would be cut to 434,000 by April, representing a withdrawal of 110,000 combat soldiers since he took office.

December 18 Labor: Congress passes a law requiring stricter enforcement of coal-mining safety rules, and also provides compensation for miners with black lung disease.

December 23 Aviation: McDonnell Douglas is selected to build the air force’s new air superiority fighter, the F-15 Eagle.

December 30 Business: President Richard M. Nixon signs the most sweeping tax reform bill in American history by reducing individual rates by 5 percent and trimming 9 million low-income citizens from the tax rolls.

1970 Population: Results of the 19th census reveal a population of 203 million, proof of the declining birth rate due to smaller families, later marriages, and more divorces.

January 2 Military: The Department of Defense reveals that 1,403 military personnel have deserted since July 1, 1966.

Poster for the Black Panther Party (Library of Congress)

January 5 Labor: Joseph Yablonski, an unsuccessful candidate for president of the United Auto Workers, is found dead at his home along with his wife and daughter.

January 22 Politics: In his State of the Union message, President Richard M. Nixon touches many bases and calls for greater opportunities for average citizens, increasing help for the environment, a Family Assistance program to take the place of welfare, and an end to the war in Vietnam.

February 4 Conservation: President Richard M. Nixon proposes an environmental cleanup program of $10 billion to help clean up existing waste plants.

February 14 Military: President Richard M. Nixon declares that the United States will never resort to a first use of chemical weapons in warfare.

February 18 Crime: The so-called Chicago Seven antiwar activists, charged with conspiracy to incite a riot, are acquitted by a jury in Chicago. However, five of the defendants

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Chronology of American History are found guilty of crossing state lines with the intent of inciting a riot and draw five-year prison terms.

February 28 Civil: After presidential domestic adviser Daniel Patrick Moynihan suggests that the best interests of African Americans would be served by “benign neglect,” he is charged with institutional racism by critics.

March 4 Military: Secretary of Defense Melvin R. Laird announces that 371 military bases are to be closed in an economy move that would save the taxpayers $914 million.

March 18–25 Labor: In New York City, postal workers go on strike for higher wages, and the action gradually spreads to big cities like Akron, Ohio; Boston, Massachusetts; and Chicago, Illinois. President Richard M. Nixon orders National Guard troops in to assist with mail deliveries until the action ends.

April 1 Medical: President Richard M. Nixon signs a bill outlawing cigarette advertising on radio and television.

April 7 Media: Academy Awards go to Midnight Cowboy as best picture, to John Wayne as best actor for True Grit, and to Maggie Smith as best actress for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.

April 8 Law: The Senate rejects the nomination of G. Harold Carswell to the U.S. Supreme Court on a vote of 51-45, largely because of his earlier stance endorsing segregation.

April 11 Science: Apollo 13 is launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida, with astronauts James A. Lovell, Jr., John L. Swigert, Jr., and Fred W. Haise, Jr., onboard.

April 16–August 14 Diplomacy: The second round of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) opens in Vienna, Austria.

April 17 Science: The Apollo 13 spacecraft miraculously splashes down safely in the Pacific after coasting powerless in space for nearly a week. In an incredible feat of bravery and ingenuity, astronauts James Lovell, John L. Swigert, and Fred Haise nurse their crippled craft back to Earth.

April 20 Diplomacy: President Richard M. Nixon accelerates the trend of Vietnamization by announcing the withdrawal of 150,000 from Southeast Asia by year’s end. American deaths in combat now average 25 a week, down from 280 a week in 1968.

April 22 Conservation: The first Earth Day is observed nationwide to emphasize the dangers of pollution to the environment.

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April 28 Business: The Dow Jones Industrial Average sinks to 724.33, the lowest it has been since President John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963.

April 29 Military: President Richard M. Nixon launches American forces on a drive against Communist sanctuaries in Cambodia; much damage is incurred by the enemy, who simply slip deeper into the interior to escape.

May 4 Arts: Pulitzer Prizes go to Collected Stories by Jean Stafford, fiction, and Untitled Subjects by Richard Howard, poetry. Politics: At Kent State University, Ohio, 600 antiwar demonstrators throwing rocks at National Guard troops are fired upon by them; four die and nine are wounded. This constitutes a turning point in the antiwar movement, and thereafter protests are smaller and less frequent.

May 9 Politics: An antiwar rally draws 100,000 protesters to Washington, D.C., with similar displays of outrage across the nation.

May 12 Law: The Senate unanimously confirms Harry Blackmum of Minnesota as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

May 14 General: A riot by African-American students at Jackson State College, Mississippi, prompts local law enforcement officials to fire into the crowd, killing two and wounding 12.

June 4 Medical: The Food and Drug Administration approves the drug L-dopa as a treatment for Parkinson’s disease.

June 6 Aviation: The U.S. Air Force selects North American Rockwell to build its next generation of strategic bomber, the B-1A.

June 13 Politics: President Richard M. Nixon appoints his nine-member Commission on Campus Unrest under former Pennsylvania governor William W. Scranton.

June 15 Military: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Welsh v. United States, ruling that conscientious objector status on moral—not religious—grounds is constitutional.

June 18 Politics: A bill allowing 18-year-olds the right to vote is signed into law by President Richard M. Nixon.

June 21 Business: Penn Central Railroad, the nation’s largest, files for reorganization under federal bankruptcy laws.

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June 22 Laws: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Williams v. Florida, ruling that juries of less than 12 people are constitutional.

July 1 Women: New York State adopts the nation’s most liberalized abortion law, permitting women to terminate their pregnancy for the first 24 weeks.

July 3 Medical: The National Communicable Disease Center reports no deaths from polio since 1969, the first fatality-free year since 1955.

July 4 Politics: Thousands of pro-war supporters parade through Washington, D.C., as part of National Honor America Day.

August 3–5 General: Hurricane Celia slams into the coasts of Texas and Florida, killing 26 people.

August 11 Crime: Jesuit priest Reverend Daniel Berrigan, a wanted fugitive, is arrested by FBI agents for the burning of draft records at Catonsville, Maryland.

August 12 Business: President Richard M. Nixon signs legislation converting the U.S. Postal Service into an independent government corporation in order to stimulate both efficiency and profits.

September 6 Terrorism: Palestinian terrorists seize a TWA airliner and fly it to Jordan; they blow it up there on September 12 along with two other Western airliners.

September 15–November 11 Labor: The United Auto Workers votes to strike against the General Motors Corporation, resulting in a walkout by 340,000 assembly-line workers in the United States and Canada.

September 22 General: Southern California is beset by raging brush fires that burn millions of acres. Politics: President Richard M. Nixon signs a bill allowing the District of Columbia to have a nonvoting delegate to the House of Representatives.

September 27 Diplomacy: President Richard M. Nixon begins a nine-day tour of Europe, where he will hold talks with heads of state from Ireland, Great Britain, Italy, Spain, and Yugoslavia.

September 30 Religion: The Roman Catholic Church sponsors The New American Bible, the first English translation created from original sources.

October 7 Diplomacy: President Richard M. Nixon proffers a five-point peace plan for Southeast Asia, with an immediate cease-fire and release of all prisoners of war. The Communist regime of North Vietnam summarily rejects it.

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October 10–15 Sports: The Baltimore Orioles (AL) win the 67th World Series by defeating the Cincinnati Reds (NL) four games to one.

October 13 Politics: Black-power activist Angela Davis is arrested in New York City for her role in the August 7 shootout at a court�house in San Raphael, California. She is charged with kidnaping, murder, and conspiracy.

October 14 Societal: The Department of Commerce releases figures that show that yearly personal income, seasonally adjusted, has passed $800 billion for the first time.

October 15 Law: President Richard M. Nixon signs the OrÂ�gaÂ�nized Crime Control Act into law, pledging “total war against orÂ�gaÂ�nized crime.” Science: The Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine is shared by Dr. Julius Axel-­ rod of the National Institute of Mental Health, Sir Bernard Katz of Great Britain, and Ulf von Euler of Sweden for their work on the chemistry of nerves in the vascular system.

October 16 Business: Paul A. Samuelson, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, wins the Nobel Prize in Economics.

October 21 Agriculture: Norman E. Borlaug, an American heading the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center of Mexico, wins the Nobel Peace Prize for developing disease-resistant strains of wheat and rice.

October 30 Transportation: President Richard M. Nixon signs a bill creating the National Railroad Passenger Corporation, a Â�quasi-­governmental agency to run rail lines between major cities.

November 2–December 8 Diplomacy: The third round of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks resumes in Hel-­ sinki, Finland.

November 3 Politics: The DemoÂ�crats and Republicans both profit from midterm elec-­ tions, with the former picking up nine governorships and the latter two Senate and nine Â�House seats. However, the DemoÂ�crats still control both Â�houses of Congress.

November 11 Labor: The nation’s largest strike in 20 years is settled between General Motors and the United Auto Workers.

November 18 Medical: Dr. Linus Pauling reports that high doses of vitamin C can ward off such maladies as the common cold and the flu.

November 21 Military: Â�HeÂ�liÂ�copÂ�ter-­borne American special forces under ColÂ�oÂ�nel Arthur “Bull” Simons mount Operation “Kingpin,” a daring raid against Son Tay prison camp,

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Chronology of American History 23 miles west of Hanoi, only to find it abandoned, and they return home emptyhanded. The assault was covered by a seven-hour bombing raid against Hanoi to remind the Communists of America’s military presence.

December 1 Military: The Atomic Energy Commission reports that 24 underground nuclear tests have been conducted in the course of the year at Nevada test sites.

December 2 Conservation: President Richard M. Nixon issues an executive order creating the Environmental Protection Agency under William D. Ruckelshaus.

December 10 Labor: Four unions representing railroad unions strike and nearly paralyze national rail service, but, two hours into the strike, President Richard M. Nixon signs legislation granting them a 13.5 percent wage increase and defusing the crisis for 80 days.

December 21 Aviation: The new Grumman F-14 Tomcat air superiority fighter flies the first time for the U.S. Navy. Politics: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that lowering the voting age to 18 years is constitutional.

December 23 Architecture: The north tower of the new World Trade Center is measured at 1,350 feet, marking it as the world’s tallest building and 100-feet higher than the Empire State Building. Military: The Nixon administration announces a speedy phaseout of defoliation operations in Southeast Asia.

December 27 Arts: The musical Hello, Dolly! concludes after 2,844 performances, making it the longest-running production in Broadway history. My Fair Lady comes in second with 2,717 performances.

December 31 Conservation: President Richard M. Nixon signs the National Air Quality Control Act into law, which mandates a 90 percent reduction in auto exhaust pollution by 1975.

1971 January 2 Crime: President Richard M. Nixon signs the Omnibus Crime Control Act, which doles out $3.6 billion in federal aid to state and local law enforcement agencies.

January 12 Conservation: Consumer activist Ralph Nader organizes the Earth Act Group to help fight rural and urban environmental problems.

January 22 Politics: President Richard M. Nixon’s State of the Union message touches upon revenue sharing with the states to fund programs concerned with urban development, job training, law enforcement, and transportation.

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January 25 Women: The U.S. Supreme Courts upholds the equal hiring provisions of the 1964 Civil Rights Act by insisting that employers cannot deny jobs to women with preschool children unless they apply the same hiring criteria to men.

January 31–February 9 Science: Apollo 14 rockets off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, with astronauts Alan B. Shepard, Edgar D. Mitchell, and Stuart A. Roosa onboard.

February 5–6 Science: The Lunar Excursion Module detaches from Apollo 14 and makes a third soft landing on the Moon, whereupon a bag of 100 pounds of Moon rocks is collected.

February 8 Military: South Vietnamese forces, backed by heavy American air power, attack Communist sanctuaries in neighboring Laos.

February 9 General: A strong earthquake rattles California, killing 64 people and injuring many hundreds. Many of the dead are from a Veterans’ Administration Hospital in Sylmar, which collapsed. Science: The Apollo 14 spacecraft returns safely to Earth after nine days in space and 33 hours on the lunar surface.

February 11 Diplomacy: The United States joins 62 other nations in signing a treaty that bans nuclear weapons on the seabed beyond the 12-mile territorial coast limit.

February 21 General: Louisiana, Mississippi, and western Tennessee are beset by tornadoes that kill 93 people, injure 500, and inflict $10 million in damages.

February 24 Crime: In a reversal of the Miranda decision, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that illegally obtained evidence, usually inadmissible in criminal trials, could be used to contradict a defendant’s voluntary statement.

March 1 Conservation: Secretary of Commerce Maurice Stans orders a halt to all commercial whale hunting. Terrorism: A small bomb planted by the radical Weather Underground explodes in the U.S. Capitol building, causing $300,000 in damages.

March 2 Labor: United Mine Workers president William A. “Tony” Boyle is indicted on charges of corruption, embezzlement, and illegal campaign contributions.

March 15–May 28 Diplomacy: The fourth round of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) unfolds at Vienna, Austria.

March 24 Aviation: Convinced it is facing a costly boondoggle, the Senate cuts off funding to design and build the world’s first supersonic transport (SST), envisioned at carrying 300 passengers at Mach 3 (1,800 miles per hour).

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March 27 General: The tanker Texaco Oklahoma splits in two off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, killing 31 sailors.

March 29 Crime: Cult leader Charles Manson and three female codefendants are found guilty and sentenced to death for their role in the murder of actress Sharon Tate and others in Los Angeles on August 9–10, 1969; Lieutenant William L. Calley, Jr., is convicted of murder for his role in the My Lai Massacre of 1968, and he receives life imprisonment. The public views Calley as a scapegoat for superior officers. Medical: The New York University Research Center announces an effective serum hepatitis vaccine for children.

April 14 Business: President Richard M. Nixon ends a 20-year trade embargo against the People’s Republic of China. Media: Academy Awards go to Patton as best motion picture of 1970, and its star, George C. Scott, best actor; Glenda Jackson wins as best actress for Women in Love.

April 20 Civil: The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously votes to approve busing as the primary means of achieving school desegregation.

April 23 Politics: An antiwar demonstration in Washington, D.C., draws close to 200,000 people, with many Vietnam war veterans discarding their medals on the steps of the Capitol Building.

May 1 Transportation: Amtrak, the National Railroad Passenger Corporation, is created as a semi-public corporation to facilitate intercity rail service, although it depends on congressional subsidies to survive.

May 3 Arts: Pulitzer Prizes go to The Carriers of Ladders by W. S. Merwin, poetry, and The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds by Paul Zindel, drama.

May 30 Science: Mariner 9 is launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida, and heads toward a rendezvous with Mars.

June 2 Crime: Juan V. Corona pleads not guilty to the killings of 25 migrant workers in northern California; this is the largest mass-murder charge in recent history.

June 10 Business: The Federal Trade Commission requires substantiation of all commercial advertising from major manufacturers, starting with the auto industry.

June 14 Military: The super-secret KH-9 Big Bird spy satellite is launched into orbit.

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June 11 Indian: U.S. marshals end a 19-­month occupation of Alcatraz Island off San Francisco, California, by evicting a group on Â�Native-­American militants, who claimed it under treaty provisions.

June 28 Education: The U.S. Supreme Court overwhelmingly votes that the Constitution forbids states from reimbursing private schools for nonreligious education.

June 30 Journalism: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the New York Times and Washington Post may publish the top-secret Pentagon Papers about Vietnam. Politics: The Â�Twenty-­sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution goes into effect when Ohio, the requisite 38th state, ratifies it.

July 1 Business: The U.S. Postal Ser�vice replaces the U.S. Post Office as a � semi�in�de�pen�dent government corporation.

July 2 Medical: Researchers in Texas announce that they have isolated a cancer virus for the first time, which holds hope for better understanding the causes of that dreaded malady.

July 8–September 23 Diplomacy: The fifth round of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) convenes in Helsinki, Finland, and unofficial reports suggest that the United States and the Soviet Â�Union are on the cusp of a comprehensive agreement for limiting ABM systems.

July 10–11 Women: The National Women’s PoÂ�litiÂ�cal Caucus meets for the first time in Wash-­ ington, D.C., with 200 delegates, and agitates for equal repreÂ�senÂ�taÂ�tion of women at all levels of the national poÂ�litiÂ�cal system.

July 15 Diplomacy: President Richard M. Nixon announces that he has accepted Pre-­ mier Chou Â�En-­lai’s invitation to visit the People’s Republic of Â�China—formerly an implacable enemy.

July 26–August 7 Space: Apollo 15 launches from Cape Kennedy, Florida, with David R. Scott, James B. Irwin, and Alfred M. Worden onboard, and heads for a soft landing on the Moon.

July 30–August 2 Science: David R. Scott and James B. Irwin become the fourth team of humans to walk the lunar landscape and also travel 17 miles in a specially designed lunar rover. A surface sample collected, nicknamed the “Genesis Rock,” is thought to be 4 billion years old.

August 2 Business: Congress authorizes a $250-million loan to bail out the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation as it struggles to complete work on its Tristar jumbo jet.

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Chronology of American History Diplomacy: The United States announces that it would not oppose admitting the People’s Republic of China to the United Nations, but it opposes denying membership to the Nationalist Republic of China on Taiwan.

August 15 Business: President Richard M. Nixon attempts to stimulate a sluggish economy by imposing a 90-day freeze on prices, wages, and rents, in concert with cuts in federal spending and a temporary 10 percent surcharge on imports.

August 20 Communication: In Washington, D.C., delegates from 50 nations gather to sign agreements establishing INTELSAT, or International Telecommunications Satellite Consortium.

September 3 Diplomacy: Cold war tensions ease considerably when the Soviet Union declares in writing that it will not block Western access to the city of Berlin. In return, America promises that West Germany will not incorporate West Berlin.

September 4 Aviation: An Alaska Airlines Boeing 727 plunges into a mountain west of Juneau, Alaska, killing 111 passengers and crew; this is the worst aviation disaster to date.

September 8 Arts: The new $70-million Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts opens in Washington, D.C., with a premier performance of Leonard Bernstein’s opera Mass.

September 9–13 Crime: A riot ensues at Attica State Correctional Facility, Attica, New York, and four days later a force of 1,000 New York State troopers storm into the complex to quash the revolt; 31 prisoners and nine hostages are slain.

September 17 Law: Hugo Black, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court appointed in 1937, resigns his seat because of illness.

September 26 Diplomacy: President Richard M. Nixon greets Japanese emperor Hirohito at Anchorage, Alaska, marking the first time that an American chief executive and a Japanese emperor have met.

September 29 Science: The Orbiting Solar Observatory VII enters orbit to subject a solar flare to X-ray observation.

October 9–17 Sports: The Pittsburgh Pirates (NL) win the 68th World Series by defeating the Baltimore Orioles four games to three.

October 12 Diplomacy: President Richard M. Nixon announces his decision to visit the Soviet Union in the following year, the first visit by an American head of state since 1945.

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October 14 Science: Dr. Earl W. Sutherland of Vanderbilt University wins the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for his studies on hormones.

October 15 Business: Professor Simon Kuznets of Harvard University wins the Nobel Prize in economics for using the gross national product to calculate economic output.

October 29 Medical: Surgeons at the University of Pennsylvania report the first known use of electricity to repair a bone fracture.

November 5 Diplomacy: In another sign of gradual rapprochement with the Soviet Union, the U.S. government announces the sale of $136 million in grain feeds.

November 6 Science: A nuclear warhead destined for the Spartan ABM missile is exploded underground on the remote island of Amchitka, Alaska, despite the protests of environmentalists.

November 12 Military: President Richard M. Nixon declares that another 45,000 combat troops will be withdrawn from Vietnam by year’s end, continuing his policy of Vietnamization. Accordingly, combat-related deaths for the year total 1,302 as opposed to 14,592 for the same period in 1968. Science: The unmanned space probe Mariner 9 settles into an orbit around Mars and begins sending back spectacular photographs of the red planet’s surface.

November 15 Business: President Richard M. Nixon enacts the second phase of his economic program by issuing flexible guidelines for wage and price increases of 5.5 percent. The administration hopes to reduce the annual inflation rate to 2.5 percent.

December 4 Business: General Motors issues the largest-ever recall of consumer products by calling back 6.7 million vehicles to secure engines against motor-mount failure.

December 6 Law: The Senate approves the nomination of Lewis F. Powell, Jr., to the U.S. Supreme Court to replace the retiring justice Hugo F. Black.

December 10 Law: The Senate approves the nomination of William H. Rehnquist to the U.S. Supreme Court to replace retiring justice John M. Harlan.

December 18 Business: The government devalues the U.S. dollar by 8.57 percent to make it cheaper in comparison to other currencies, thereby making American exports more competitive and attractive, pricewise. This is undertaken to change a $5billion trade deficit into a surplus.

December 26–30 Aviation: American warplanes engage in their heaviest-yet bombardment of North Vietnam once aerial operations resume.

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1972 January 5 Science: President Richard M. Nixon gives his approval to plans for designing and developing a reusable “space shuttle” for work in Earth orbit. Estimated expenses are $5.5 billion for this highly complicated machine.

January 13 Military: President Richard M. Nixon announces the withdrawal of an additional 70,000 American combat troops from Vietnam by the end of the year, which will reduce overall troop strength to 69,000.

January 14 Technology: The first of a new generation of “breeder reactors,” which produce more fuel than they consume, is to be built in Tennessee by a consortium of government and private organizations.

January 24 Business: President Richard M. Nixon’s fiscal budget for 1972 includes a peacetime deficit of $25.5 billion, the largest in American history so far.

January 25 Diplomacy: The administration promulgates an eight-point peace plan for the next round of peace talks in Paris. The plan entails a cease-fire and the release of all American prisoners in exchange for an American withdrawal. The new election would be staged in South Vietnam, in which the United States will remain neutral.

February 2 Music: Seiji Ozawa, a Japanese national, is appointed music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

February 4 Diplomacy: A sixth round of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) ends in Vienna, Austria, with signs of progress on ABM limitations.

February 5 Aviation: To thwart the possibility of hijacking, new federal regulations require the screening of passengers and luggage on all foreign and domestic air flights.

February 14 Medical: At Boston City Hospital, a nuclear-powered heart pump keeps a calf alive for five hours.

February 15 Politics: Attorney General John Mitchell resigns from President Richard M. Nixon’s cabinet to serve as head of the Committee to Reelect the President (CRP). His replacement is Richard Kleindienst of Arizona.

February 21 Labor: The International Longshoremen end a 134-day dock strike, the nation’s longest, at ports along the West Coast after an agreement is reached with management.

February 21–28 Diplomacy: President Richard M. Nixon and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger embark on their history-making trip to the People’s Republic of China, where

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Chronology   2181 they deal directly with Mao Zedong, formerly an implacable enemy. Thereafter, normalized relations between the two erstwhile adversaries receive top priority.

February 26 General: In Buffalo Creek, West Virginia, a �coal�slag dam bursts after three days of heavy rain, killing 118 people.

February 28 Crime: Â� African-­American militant Angela Davis begins her murder trial in San Jose, California.

March 1 Crime: Paul Gilly is convicted of the 1970 murder of UMW dissident Joseph Yablonski, although his wife implicates several other leaders, including Â�union president William A. “Tony” Boyle.

Secretary of State Henry Kissinger╇ (Library of Congress)

March 3 Science: NASA successfully launches the unmanned spacecraft Pioneer 10 and begins steering it on a 620-million mile soiree toward the giant planet Jupiter. It is also the first Â�man-­made object to leave the solar system.

March 8 Societal: To enhance national security, President Richard M. Nixon orders a reduction in the number of agencies and officials empowered to classify documents.

March 17 Civil: President Richard M. Nixon, accusing federal judges of overreaching them-­ selves, proposes a moratorium on busing to achieve racial integration in the pub-­ lic school system.

March 20–21 Journalism: Columnist Jack Anderson accuses the American Telephone and Telegraph Company and the CIA of promoting economic instability that led to the toppling of Marxist dictator Salvador Allende Gossens in Chile.

March 22 Women: The Senate passes the Â�Twenty-­seventh, or Equal Rights, Amendment to the U.S. Constitution by a vote of 84 to 8 and passes it along to the states for ratification. By year’s end, 22 of the necessary 38 states have ratified it.

March 30 Military: After North Viet�nam�ese troops attack across the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and penetrate deep into South Vietnam, President Richard M. Nixon orders a resumption of bombing in North Vietnam.

April 4 Medical: “Free Love” comes with a big price as health officials report a vast increase in venereal diseases, including 2.3 million cases of gonorrhea and 100,000 of infectious syphilis.

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April 7 Politics: A new federal campaign law requires limits on advertising budgets and on candidates financing their own campaigns, mandating disclosure of all contributions of more than $100.

April 9 Media: Academy Awards go to The French Connection as best picture of 1971 and to its star, Gene Hackman, as best actor; Jane Fonda is best actress for Klute.

April 10 Diplomacy: The United States joins 120 nations in outlawing biological warfare.

April 13 Conservation: President Richard M. Nixon and Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau sign an agreement to jointly control pollution in the Great Lakes region. Medical: Federal judge Frank M. Johnson orders mental health institutions in Alabama to measure up to specified guidelines, a landmark ruling in public care of the mentally retarded.

April 14 Engineering: Operations begin along the 685-mile California Water Project, intending to convey fresh water from northern California to parched desert regions farther south.

April 16–27 Science: The Apollo 16 spacecraft is safely launched into orbit with astronauts John W. Young, Charles M. Duke, and Thomas K. Mattingly onboard to achieve mankind’s fifth landing on the Moon on April 20. The astronauts collect rocks from the Descartes region and set up a lunar observatory.

May 1 Arts: Pulitzer Prizes go to Angle of Response by Wallace Stegner, fiction, and to Collected Poems by James Wright, poetry. Labor: A federal judge negates the election of United Auto Workers president William A. “Tony” Boyle because of his use of union funds and facilities.

May 2 General: The Sunshine Silver Mine in Kellogg, Idaho, catches fire, killing 91 people.

May 9 Military: President Richard M. Nixon, determined to stop a Communist “Easter Offensive” against South Vietnam, orders the aerial mining of Haiphong Harbor to interdict supplies from the Soviet Union and China.

May 10 Aviation: U.S. Navy fighters enjoy a banner day over North Vietnam when they down 10 Soviet-built MiGs.

May 15 Politics: Alabama governor George Wallace is shot and critically wounded by Arthur H. Bremer while campaigning for the presidency in Laurel, Maryland. He survives but is paralyzed from the waist down.

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May 22–30 Diplomacy: President Richard M. Nixon touches down in Moscow, becoming the first American chief executive to visit the Soviet Union since 1945.

May 26 Diplomacy: After intense negotiations in Moscow, the United States and the Soviet Union sign a pledge to freeze their nuclear arsenals at current levels and limit ABM missile system deployments. They also agree to cooperate on a joint space mission sometime in 1975.

June 3 Religion: Sally J. Priesand, 25, is ordained in Cincinnati, Ohio, as the first woman rabbi in the United States.

June 4 Crime: Black-militant Angela Davis, charged with abetting a 1970 courtroom shootout, is acquitted in San Jose, California.

June 8 Education: A bill is passed by Congress to aid college students with federal aid; its also contains riders to halt school busing for 128 months and allocates $2 million to assist the desegregation of elementary and high schools.

June 9–10 General: Rapid City, South Dakota, suffers from flash flooding, which kills 239 people and inflicts $239 million in damage.

June 12–17 Religion: In the Cotton Bowl of Dallas, Texas, Expo ’72 unfolds as 80,000 members of the Campus Crusade for Christ organize their first conference.

June 14 Conservation: The highly destructive pesticide DDT, implicated in the thinning of bird egg shells, is banned by the Environmental Protection Agency.

June 17 Politics: Police apprehend five men attempting to burglarize Democratic Party headquarters in the Watergate hotel in Washington, D.C. They are employed by the Republican Committee to Reelect the President, and thus begins a lengthy investigation that will lead to the downfall of President Richard M. Nixon.

June 19–23 General: Hurricane Agnes devastates parts of Florida, Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York, killing 127 people and inflicting over $1 billion in damages.

June 29 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Furman v. Georgia, ruling that the death penalty can constitute cruel and unusual punishment, in violation of the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. State legislatures are now at liberty to make their own death penalty legislation conform to the Court’s findings.

July 8 Diplomacy: In a further sign of growing ties between the erstwhile adversaries, President Richard M. Nixon announces a deal to sell the Soviet Union $750 million in corn, wheat, and other grains.

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July 10–14 Politics: The Democratic Party convenes in Miami, Florida, and nominates South Dakota senator George McGovern over Hubert Humphrey for the presidency and Senator Thomas F. Eagleton of Missouri for the vice presidency.

July 14 Women: Jean Westwood becomes the first woman to head the Democratic National Committee.

July 23 Science: The first Earth Resources Technology Satellite, ERTS-1 or Landsat 1, is launched into orbit to assist scientists in gathering aerial knowledge about Earth’s resources.

July 25 Politics: Missouri senator Thomas F. Eagleton withdraws from the vice presidential race after confirming that he had previously undergone psychiatric therapy and shock therapy. Public opinion reacted unfavorably to the revelation, hence his withdrawal.

July 27 Aviation: The McDonnell-Douglas F-15 Eagle air superiority fighter prototype successfully completes its maiden flight.

August 3 Diplomacy: The Senate ratifies the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty with the Soviet Union by a vote of 88 to 2. The pact requires both nations to place limits on all antiballistic missile systems as well as a ceiling on the number of offensive weapons and warheads.

August 8 Politics: Former Peace Corps director R. Sargent Shriver is chosen as the Democratic Party’s new vice presidential candidate.

August 12 Military: True to his pledge, President Richard M. Nixon withdraws the last of American ground forces from South Vietnam.

August 21 Science: The new Copernicus satellite, designed to closely study stars and the universe, is launched into orbit.

August 21–23 Politics: The Republican Party gathers in Miami Beach, Florida, to renominate Richard M. Nixon for the presidency and Spiro Agnew for vice president. Outside, police arrest 1,129 antiwar protestors for obstructing delegates.

September 5 Crime: The trial of the so-called Harrisburg Seven, including Reverend Philip F. Berrigan, ends in a hung jury, and federal prosecutors drop all charges of conspiracy to kidnap Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

September 11 Transportation: San Francisco, California, unveils its new automated Bay Area Rapid Transit System (BART), which links that city with Oakland. This is the region’s first new transit system in half a century.

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September 17 Crime: Seven men associated with the Committee to Reelect the President, including G. Gordon Liddy and E. Howard Hunt, are indicted for their role in burglarizing Democratic Party headquarters.

October 12 Science: Gerald M. Edleman, Rockefeller University, and Rodney E. Porter of Great Britain share the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for their work on antibodies.

October 12–13 Naval: A racial brawl ensues on the carrier USS Kitty Hawk while cruising in the Gulf of Tonkin, leaving 46 sailors injured.

October 14–22 Sports: The Oakland Athletics (AL) win the 69th World Series by defeating the Cincinnati Reds (NL) four games to three.

October 18 Conservation: Congress passes the Water Pollution Control Act over President Richard M. Nixon’s veto, and it mandates a halt to industrial discharge by 1985 along with new and more modern sewage plants.

October 20 Politics: President Richard M. Nixon signs a revenue-sharing bill, which distributes $30.2 billion to the states to spend as they wish. Science: John Bardeen, University of Illinois; Leon N. Cooper, Brown University; and John R. Schrieffer, University of Pennsylvania, share the Nobel Prize in physics for their theory of superconductivity. Christian B. Anfinsen, National Institutes of Health, along with Stanford Moore and William H. Stein of the Rockefeller Institute share the Nobel Prize in chemistry for their studies of ribonuclease.

October 25 Business: The Nobel Prize in economics goes to Kenneth J. Arrow of Harvard University and John R. Hicks of Great Britain.

October 26 Diplomacy: Secretary of State Henry Kissinger returns from South Vietnam, stating that peace is achievable within two weeks.

October 28 Business: President Richard M. Nixon signs a bill creating the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).

October 30 Societal: President Richard M. Nixon signs an amendment to the Social Security Act that provides an additional $5.3 billion in benefits to elderly citizens.

November 7 Politics: Republican Richard M. Nixon crushes Democrat George McGovern in the race for the White House by winning 530 out of 537 electoral votes and 45.7 million votes to the latter’s 28.3 million. This is a record margin of victory for

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Chronology of American History the incumbent; however, the Democrats remain in control of both chambers of Congress.

November 8 Indian: The Bureau of Indian Affairs ends a sit-in by 500 Native Americans when it promises to study their demands for enforcing existing treaties, along with reforming natural resources policies affecting Indian land.

November 10 Naval: Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt, chief of naval operations, reprimands 90 naval officers for recent racial unrest on the carriers USS Kitty Hawk and Constellation and outlaws all racist behavior in the service.

November 13 Conservation: The United States and 90 other nations sign an international convention to control all oceanic pollution.

November 14 Business: The Dow Jones Index of 30 leading industrial stocks zooms past 1,000 for the first time on the New York Stock Exchange.

November 22 General: The Nixon administration lifts a 22-year travel ban against the People’s Republic of China.

November 28 Politics: President Richard M. Nixon performs some major housecleaning in his cabinet, dropping Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development George Romney in favor of Elliot Richardson and James T. Lynn, respectively.

December 7–19 Science: Apollo 17 blasts aloft with Eugene Cernan, Ronald Evans, and Harrison Schmitt on board for the sixth and final manned moon mission. While on the surface, December 11–14, they collect 249 pounds of moon rocks.

December 18–30 Aviation: President Richard M. Nixon orders Operation “Linebacker II” against North Vietnam, whereby massed B-52 bombers strike the cities of Hanoi and Haiphong for the first time. Nixon’s goal is to convince the Communists to return to peace talks in Paris or face annihilation from the air.

December 31 Conservation: The Environmental Protection Agency orders a new and complete ban on the pesticide DDT, which is found to cause the dramatic thinning of egg shells and declines in bird populations.

1973 Science: In a major breakthrough, techniques are perfected for laboratory production of recombinant DNA. Transportation: The nation is in the grips of a major energy crisis stemming from an Arab-imposed oil embargo over American support for Israel. Long lines at gas stations result.

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January 11 Business: President Richard M. Nixon lifts mandatory wage and price controls designed to slow the nation’s inflation rate. Henceforth, his plan calls for voluntary price controls.

January 18 Business: The American Telephone and Telegraph Company settles a job discrimination case by agreeing to pay $15 million to women and African-American employees who had been treated unfairly.

January 20 Politics: In his State of the Union message, President Richard M. Nixon declares his intention to reduce the role of the federal government in everyday lives.

January 22 Diplomacy: Secretary of State Henry Kissinger signs a peace treaty in Paris along with representatives of North Vietnam, the Vietcong, and South Vietnam, which puts in place an immediate cease-fire and the release of all American captives, coupled with the removal of all U.S. forces from Vietnam within 60 days. Women: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Roe v. Wade, ruling that all state laws forbidding abortion in the first three months of pregnancy and interfering with it during the second three months, are unconstitutional. It is a sweeping, landmark decision that legalizes abortion in all but the most extreme situations.

January 27 Military: Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird declares the military draft over and the start of a professional, all-volunteer military.

February 5 Politics: President Richard M. Nixon impounds $8.7 billion earmarked by Congress for various federal programs, and a bitter political argument ensues over his constitutional ability to do so.

February 7 Politics: The Senate establishes the Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, under Senator Sam Ervin of North Carolina, to investigate the Watergate break-in and allegations of a presidential cover-up.

February 12 Business: Secretary of the Treasury George Schultz devalues the American dollar by 10 percent against the world’s major currencies to make American products cheaper abroad and easier to export. This is the second devaluation in 14 months, and it is intended to improve the balance of trade deficit with other nations.

February 15 Diplomacy: The governments of Cuba and the United States sign a five-year accord against hijacking to discourage all pirating of ships and airplanes.

February 28–May 8 Indian: Nearly 300 members belonging to the militant American Indian Movement (AIM) seize Wounded Knee, South Dakota, site of an 1890 massacre by U.S. Army troops. They surrender after officials promise to review their complaints.

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March 21 Education: The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the principle of funding public education through local property taxes.

March 23 Crime: James W. McCord, one of six men convicted in the Watergate burglary, fingers CRP chairman John Mitchell as de facto head of the operation.

March 27 Business: Trading in stock belonging to the Equity Funding Corporation of America halts on the New York Stock Exchange following allegations of insider trading. The company subsequently goes into bankruptcy, with several senior officers under indictment for fraud. Media: Academy Awards go to The Godfather as best picture of 1972 and to its star Marlon Brando as best actor; Liza Minnelli is named best actress for Cabaret.

March 29 Business: President Richard M. Nixon declares a freeze on the prices of beef, pork, and lamb to halt a nationwide boycott to bring prices down.

April 2 Politics: Officials from American Telephone and Telegraph admit to government officials they were involved in efforts to assist the CIA to destabilize the regime of Marxist president Salvador Allende Gossens of Chile.

April 6 Science: The unmanned probe Pioneer 11 is launched on a rendezvous with the giant planet Jupiter in December.

April 15 Labor: The United Farm Workers under César Chávez declares a strike against California grape growers after their contracts are taken over by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

April 17 Business: The air freight firm Federal Express commences operations, and within a decade is the largest operation of its kind in the world.

April 20 Crime: FBI director L. Patrick Gray resigns from office after admitting he destroyed evidence pertaining to the Watergate burglary on the advice of presidential aides.

April 30 Media: With controversy swirling about him, President Richard M. Nixon goes on the airwaves to announce the departures of three aides but also to deny all allegations of a cover-up. Politics: Presidential aides H. R. Haldeman, John Erlichman, and John Dean III resign over their roles in engineering a cover-up of the Watergate break-in.

May 3 Architecture: The Sears Tower in Chicago, Illinois, is completed with 110 stories and a height of 1,450 feet, making it the world’s tallest building.

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Chávez, César (1927–1993) Labor leader César Chávez was born on March 31, 1927, in Yuma, Arizona, to Mexican-American migrant farmers. As such he was poorly educated as a youth and quit school after the eighth grade to labor in the fields alongside his parents and siblings. In 1944, Chávez joined the navy and served for two years, but he found the racism toward Hispanics intolerable and accepted a discharge. In 1948, he married and settled in Delano, California, as a migrant worker with little celebrity until 1952, when he encountered activist Fred Ross of the Community Service Organization (CSO). Chávez readily joined and received his first taste of activism by helping to register Mexican-American voters from various barrios within his region. He rose to serve as president of CSO but quit in 1962 after the leadership refused to help organize migrants into a farm workers union. A year later Chávez began his quest by organizing the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) to help improve the lot of migrants through higher wages and benefits. Little progress was made until 1965, when he helped organize the first national boycott of grapes, assisted by likeminded members of the AFL-CIO’s Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee. The ensuing strike lasted five years, but before it ended Chávez managed to merge the two unions into the new United Farm Workers (UFW) as part of the AFL-CIO, with himself at their head. In this capacity Chavez toured the state to drum up support for the grape boycott, which was successfully concluded in September 1970 when

the growers agreed to recognize their union and bargain with it. Thanks to Chávez, farm workers had won the first labor action in their long and torturous history. Unlike many labor leaders, Chávez, who had studied Gandhi’s writings, was a committed pacifist and consciously sought to avoid outbreaks of violence. He both led large marches for social justice to the seat of government in Sacramento and conducted lengthy fasts in the name of social justice. Throughout these endeavors he was frequently joined by noted national figures such as Senator Robert F. Kennedy and Dr. Ralph Abernathy of the NAACP. Also, he did not hesitate to employ strikes to force the Teamsters Union, which had hired illegal aliens as substitute workers to work the vineyards, until they too relented. In 1970 he led his union to similar success with lettuce growers in California. Between 1984 and 1988 he also led strikes and fasted on behalf of the environment and insisted that growers stop wholesale spraying of crops with deadly pesticides. Membership in the UFW, like all unions, suffered drastic declines as the decade rolled on, but Chávez could look back upon a successful record that included a 70 percent wage increase for farm laborers, health care benefits, and formal grievance procedures for dealing with growers. The diminutive, soft-spoken Chávez died of natural causes in Keene, California, on April 22, 1993, and President Bill Clinton posthumously awarded him the U.S. Medal of Freedom.

May 7 Arts: Pulitzer Prizes go to The Optimist’s Daughter by Eudora Welty, fiction, and That Championship Season by Jason Miller, drama.

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May 11 Politics: Judge William Byrne dismisses charges of theft against Anthony J. Russo and Daniel Ellsberg for the theft and publication of the so-called Pentagon Papers.

May 14 Science: The huge orbiting space station Skylab 1 blasts off from Cape Kennedy, Florida, but then damages one of its solar-powered panels en route.

May 17 Politics: The Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities begins hearing testimonies relative to the Watergate break-in and possible presidential cover-up.

May 25–June 22 Science: Astronauts Charles Conrad, Joseph Kerwin, and Paul Weitz arrive at the orbiting space station Skylab, where they make repairs to its electrical system and conduct several scientific experiments before splashing down.

June 13 Business: President Richard M. Nixon imposes a price freeze on all retail goods, save for rents, interest rates, and raw agricultural products, for a period of 60 days.

June 16 Diplomacy: President Richard M. Nixon engages Soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev in a series of talks aimed at reducing the outbreak of an accidental nuclear war. This results in new ground rules for a permanent strategic arms limitation treaty to replace the temporary 1972 “agreement.”

June 21 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court votes 5 to 4 to establish community standards as a yardstick for what and what does not constitute pornography.

June 24 Media: Premier Leonid Brezhnev goes on American television to address the nation, becoming the first Soviet leader to do so.

June 25 Crime: Former presidential aide John Dean III testifies before the Senate Watergate Committee that President Richard M. Nixon was involved in the Watergate cover-up conspiracy and also charges him with paying hush money to the seven men accused of burglarizing Democratic headquarters. Education: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that state aid to parochial schools is unconstitutional.

June 27 Aviation: President Richard M. Nixon vetoes a congressional bill that would have stopped funding for aerial bombardment of Communist Khmer Rouge forces in Cambodia. He later agrees to a cut-off date of August 15 for all such operations.

June 29 Conservation: President Richard M. Nixon announces creation of a Federal Energy Office to promote conservation along with development of alternative sources of fuel and energy.

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June 30 General: The supertanker SS Brooklyn, the largest such vessel ever constructed in the United States, is launched at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, New York. It is 1,094 feet long and weighs 230,000 tons.

July 16 Crime: Former White House deputy assistant Alexander P. Butterfield informs the Senate Watergate Committee that President Richard M. Nixon routinely taped all conversations in the Oval Office for posterity. The tapes are immediately subpoenaed by the committee. Military: The Senate Armed Services Committee begins hearings about secret bombing raids made by the U.S. Air Force against Cambodian Communists in 1969 and 1970. Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger subsequently testifies that such actions were necessary for the protection of U.S. ground forces then in South Vietnam.

July 23 Crime: President Richard M. Nixon disregards the Senate Watergate Committee’s subpoena of his taped office conversations on the basis of “executive privilege,” namely, that turning them over would compromise the independence of that branch of office.

July 28 Science: Skylab plays host to astronauts Alan Bean, Owen Garriott, and Jack Lousma, who make additional repairs and conduct several experiments before returning safely to Earth.

July 31 Aviation: A jetliner crashes while landing at Logan International Airport, Boston, Massachusetts, killing all 88 passengers and crew.

August 14 Aviation: The U.S. Air Force concludes bombing operations against the Communist Khmer Rouge, one of the final acts of American involvement in Southeast Asia. Crime: David Brooks and Elmer Henley are indicted for killing 27 men over a period of three years; this is one of the largest multimurder cases in American criminal history.

September 1 Crime: New York State imposes the toughest drug control law in the nation, replete with mandatory life sentences for those who sell hard drugs and commit violent crimes.

September 4 Politics: White House officials John Ehrlichman and G. Gordon Liddy are indicted in the 1971 burglary of the office of Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist.

September 6 Labor: William A. “Tony” Boyle, former president of the United Mine Workers, is charged with the murder of a rival, Joseph Yablonski as well as his wife and daughter.

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September 14–30 Labor: The United Auto Workers calls a strike against the Chrysler Corporation until a new agreement is signed allowing workers to reject overtime under certain conditions and allowing full pensions to those with 30 years of service.

September 22 Transportation: The new, $700-million Dallas–Fort Worth Airport, encompassing 27 square miles, is dedicated; it remains the world’s largest airport and features its own 13-mile transit system.

October 6 Diplomatic: The sudden outbreak of the Yom Kippur War between Egypt and Israel catches the United States and Soviet Union by surprise, and both begin shipping arms to their respective allies.

October 10 Politics: Vice President Spiro Agnew, having pled no contest to a tax-evasion charge while he was governor of Maryland, resigns from office. He is the second such person to do so after John C. Calhoun, who quit in 1832 to serve in the Senate.

October 12 Politics: President Richard M. Nixon nominates House minority leader Gerald R. Ford as the new vice president to replace Spiro Agnew. This action is consistent with the Twenty-fifth Amendment, ratified in 1967, which allows the chief executive to fill vice presidential vacancies.

October 12–21 Sports: The Oakland Athletics (AL) win the World Series by defeating the New York Mets (NL) four games to three.

October 15 Military: The United States announces that it is beginning a major airlift of military supplies and equipment to Israel to counter recent Soviet support to Egypt in the Yom Kippur War.

October 16 Civil: Maynard Jackson becomes the first African-American mayor of Atlanta, Georgia. Diplomacy: Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and North Vietnamese negotiator Le Duc Tho jointly share the Nobel Prize for Peace. But, whereas Kissinger flies to Stockholm, Sweden, to receive the award, Le Duc Tho declines to attend.

October 17 Diplomacy: An oil boycott of the United States in response to recent airlifts of military supplies to Israel begins by 11 Arab nations. A 10 percent cut in production is also enacted to pressure the nations of western Europe to force the Jewish state to withdraw from occupied Arab lands. Neither ploy works. Politics: Attorney General Elliott Richardson and Assistant Attorney General William D. Ruckleshaus resign from office rather than comply with President Richard M. Nixon’s order to fire special prosecutor Archibald Cox. It falls to Solicitor General Robert Bork to do the firing in what becomes derided as the “Saturday Night Massacre.”

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October 18 Business: Wassily Leontif of Harvard University wins the Nobel Prize in economics.

October 22 Diplomacy: To prevent the spread of warfare throughout the Middle East, the United States and the Soviet Union jointly sponsor a United Nations resolution calling for a cease-fire between Israel and the Arabs.

October 23 Politics: Leaders on the Democratic-controlled House Judiciary Committee agree to investigate impeachment proceedings against President Richard M. Nixon. Meanwhile, the president agrees to release several of his taped conversations. Science: Ivar Giaver, General Electric Company; Leo Easki, IBM; and Brian D. Josephson of Great Britain share the Nobel Prize in physics for their work in microelectronics.

October 31 Politics: President Richard M. Nixon, having released several taped office conversations to Congress, reveals that two of the recordings sought do not exist.

November 1 Politics: President Richard M. Nixon appoints Leon Jaworski as special Watergate prosecutor to replace the fired Archibald Cox.

November 3 Science: The Mariner 10 space probe is launched, which is the first U.S. mission to the inner planets of Mercury and Venus.

November 7 Business: In light of the Arab oil embargo, President Richard M. Nixon calls for energy self-sufficiency. Diplomacy: The United States and Egypt announce resumption of diplomatic ties, which have been severed since 1967. Media: President Richard M. Nixon takes to the airwaves to discuss the ongoing energy crisis and proposes stringent measures to help combat it, including imposition of year-round daylight savings time and relaxed environmental standards. Politics: Congress passes the new War Powers Act over President Richard M. Nixon’s veto, which forbids the deployment of U.S. armed forces in foreign countries for extended periods of time without congressional consent; its constitutionality is never accepted by many chief executives, who believe that it infringes on their duties as commander in chief.

November 9 Crime: Judge John Sirica sentences several men involved with the Watergate break-in to jail; G. Gordon Liddy receives a 20-year sentence for failing to cooperate with prosecutors.

November 13 Business: Congress approves plans for a trans-Alaska pipeline capable of carrying 2 million barrels a day to the lower 48 states. Crime: Authorities from the Gulf Oil Company and the Ashland Oil Company plead guilty to illegal contributions to President Richard M. Nixon’s reelection

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November 16 Business: The Alaska Pipeline Bill is signed into law by President Richard M. Nixon to construct a 789-mile-long oil pipeline and assist the United States in becoming more energy self-sufficient.

November 21 Politics: Congressional investigators listening to taped office conversations by President Richard M. Nixon discover a mysterious and inexplicable 18-minute gap on one of them; his personal secretary subsequently admits she may have accidentally erased that portion.

November 30 Crime: Egil Krough, Jr., pleads guilty to charges relating to the break-in at the office of Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist.

December 4 Crime: In the trial of the Chicago Seven, three defendants and their attorney are convicted of contempt of court, but no sentence is imposed.

December 6 Politics: Congressman Gerald R. Ford, having undergone intense background investigations, is sworn in as the 40th vice president under terms of the Twentyfifth Amendment.

December 11 Business: Congress denies the Soviet Union most-favored-nation trading status owing to its restraints on free immigration.

December 22 Conservation: President Richard M. Nixon calls for a 55-mile-per-hour speed limit on all U.S. highways in an attempt to promote fuel conservation.

December 27 Conservation: The Federal Energy Office outlines a standby gasoline rationing program during the Arab oil embargo.

1974 January 4 Politics: President Richard M. Nixon refuses to release 500 taped conversations to Senator Sam Ervin of the Senate Watergate Committee, citing the need to preserve the independence and confidentiality of the executive office.

January 13 Religion: A Gallup poll suggests that fewer Roman Catholics and Protestants are attending church regularly, while attendance at Jewish ser vices is increasing.

January 21 Education: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that all migrant students for whom English is not a first language are obliged to receive instruction in it at the schools they attend.

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January 30 Politics: In his State of the Union message, President Richard M. Nixon outlines a 10-point energy program to reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign oil, and he calls for transportation reform and changes in health care and education. Furthermore, he adamantly refuses to resign from office, but he is still willing to assist the House Judiciary Committee, provided it does not compromise the office of the presidency.

February 2 Aviation: The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon lightweight fighter completes its initial flight; this is the first fighter craft to employ fly-by-wire (computerassisted) technology.

February 4 Crime: Patricia Hearst, granddaughter of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, is kidnapped in Berkeley, California, by a group calling itself the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA).

February 6 Politics: The House of Representatives approves an impeachment inquiry against President Richard M. Nixon.

February 8 Science: A three-man crew from the orbiting Skylab space station returns to Earth after completing a record 84 days in orbit. This is part of a NASA project to determine the long-term effects of space on human physiology.

February 12 Crime: The Symbionese Liberation Army, having kidnapped Patricia Hearst, demands that her father, Randolph Hearst, begin a program of free food to the poor.

March 1 Crime: Seven former White House staff members are indicted for conspiracy to obstruct congressional investigations into the Watergate break-in.

March 7 Naval: A team of underwater archaeologists reports finding the wreckage of the famous Union warship USS Monitor, which sank off Hatteras, North Carolina, in 1862.

March 18 Business: Arab oil-exporting nations meeting in Vienna agree to end their oil embargo against the United States. Long lines at American gas stations had ensued as well as a national resolve to acquire energy independence from overseas oil sources.

April 2 Media: Academy Awards go to The Sting as best picture of 1973, to Jack Lemmon as best actor for Save the Tiger, and to Glenda Jackson as best actress for A Touch of Class.

April 3 Business: President Richard M. Nixon agrees to pay $432,787.13 in back taxes stemming from various deductions he had used to reduce his tax liabilities.

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April 3–4 General: Wide-ranging tornadoes strike from Georgia to Ontario, Canada, killing 350 people and inflicting $1 billion in damage.

April 8 Business: President Richard M. Nixon signs a bill gradually increasing the minimum wage to $2.30 an hour.

April 18–May 9 Business: The first quarter of 1974 witnesses dramatic oil company profits, from 29 percent for Standard Oil of Ohio to 748 percent for Occidental Petroleum.

April 29 Politics: President Richard M. Nixon, determined not to hand over tapes subpoenaed by special prosecutor Leon Jaworski, instead submits a 1,200-page edited transcript. Jaworski refuses to accept it and presses ahead with legal action to secure the tapes.

May 2 Conservation: Congress passes legislation for a new Federal Energy Administration to plan rationing and conservation and to put the brakes on exorbitant oil profiteering.

May 7 Arts: “The Dolphin” by Robert Lowell wins the Pulitzer Prize for poetry.

May 16 Crime: Former attorney general Richard Kleindienst pleads guilty to a misdemeanor charge for failing to testify honestly before a Senate committee investigating wrongdoing in an antitrust case leveled against IT&T. He thus becomes the first attorney general convicted of a crime.

May 23 Education: The discovery of a cheating scandal at the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, results in 900 midshipmen having to take an examination.

June 12 Diplomacy: President Richard M. Nixon begins an extended tour of the Middle East to shore up peace prospects and better relations with nations there in the wake of the costly Yom Kippur War.

June 27 Diplomacy: President Richard M. Nixon visits the Soviet Union to continue negotiations relative to nuclear disarmament, although five days of talks fail to produce any significant breakthroughs.

July 6 Medical: The National Center for Health Studies reports that incidents of heart disease, the nation’s leading killer, have declined 10 percent since 1963.

July 9 Business: The New York Stock Exchange reflects the national doldrums by offering a seat on the exchange for a mere $70,000.

July 12 Medical: President Richard M. Nixon signs a bill creating the National Research Act, proffering guidelines for research on humans.

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July 18 Law: Congress establishes an independent legal services corporation to provide the poor with legal aid.

July 24 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously votes to order President Richard M. Nixon to hand over all taped recordings subpoenaed by special prosecutor Leon Jaworski. This is the first instance whereby the highest court in the land deals with a case involving executive misconduct.

July 25 Civil: The U.S. Supreme Court rejects a school busing plan aimed at achieving complete integration in the Detroit school system.

July 27 Politics: The House Judiciary Committee draws up two articles of impeachment against President Richard M. Nixon, charging him with obstruction of justice and repeatedly violating his oath of office.

July 29 Religion: In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Protestant Episcopal Church ordains the first four women priests.

July 30 Politics: The House Judiciary Committee draws up a third article of impeachment against President Richard M. Nixon stemming from his unconstitutional defiance of congressional subpoenas.

August 5 Politics: President Richard M. Nixon releases a transcript of a taped conversation on June 23, 1972, whereby he orders an FBI investigation of the Watergate break-in halted. This revelation constitutes a tipping point in the president’s political fortunes, for he loses nearly all of his support in Congress.

August 8 Politics: President Richard M. Nixon takes to the airwaves in a nationally televised speech and announces his resignation as president of the United States effective at noon on the morrow. He does so to spare the country a long and drawn out impeachment process that he was, by now, destined to lose.

August 9 Politics: Richard M. Nixon becomes the first chief executive to resign from office and does so at noon, whereupon Vice President Gerald R. Ford is sworn in by Chief Justice Warren Burger to replace him.

August 21 Education: In one of his first acts as president, Gerald R. Ford signs a $25-billion bill providing support for primary and secondary schools for the next four years. It also places restrictions on busing by transporting children no farther than the closest available school. Politics: President Gerald R. Ford nominates Nelson Rockefeller as his new vice president, based on his long association with effective public service.

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Ford, Gerald R. (1913–2006) President Leslie Lynch King, Jr., was born in Omaha, Nebraska, on July 14, 1913, and after his mother divorced and married Gerald R. Ford, Sr., he assumed his stepfather’s name. Ford attended the University of Michigan

and Yale University Law School, graduating in the top third of his class before joining the U.S. Navy in World War II. He was dis-­ charged in 1946 as a lieutenant commander and opened a successful law practice in

Pre­side­nt Ge­rald Ford (AP photos)

August 31 Societal: Ted Patrick helps found the Citizens Freedom Foundation to assist in the deprogramming of young people taken in by cults.

September 2 Societal: President Gerald R. Ford signs the Employee Retirement Income Security Act into law to bring 300,000 private pensions under federal regulations by 1976.

September 3 Education: Enraged parents in Kanawha County, West Virginia, protest the new content of the school system’s text books, calling them vulgar and anti-­American.

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Grand Rapids, Michigan. In 1948, he ran for Congress as a Republican, easily unseated the Democrat it incumbent, and held his seat over the next 25 years. Ford rose steadily through the House of Representatives before becoming minority leader in 1963 and, five years later, he strongly opposed the Great Society programs of President Lyndon B. Johnson, while also supporting his war effort in Southeast Asia. Ford by this time had acquired the reputation as a dependable, if unspectacular, politician, and, in December 1973, President Richard M. Nixon tapped him to succeed the disgraced Spiro T. Agnew as vice president. Low-key, unpretentious, and a highly trusted figure, he entered the highest circle of power when the nation was engulfed in domestic dissent over the Vietnam War and while the ongoing Watergate conspiracy was unfolding. Ford remained a Nixon loyalist at a time when many party rank and file were deserting him, and he toured the country on his behalf. Accordingly, on August 9, 1974, he was sworn in as president following Nixon’s own resignation, becoming the first vice president and chief executive who was never elected to either post. One of his first actions was to fully pardon Nixon for his alleged Watergate cover-up, an act that many political historians feel ruined his chances of winning a full presidential term.

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Once in power, Ford continued to follow the same moderate course that characterized his political ascent, although, in dealing with a Democratic-controlled Congress, he exercised his veto power 60 times, and they were sustained 48 times. Ford was also active in foreign policy and, in 1975, he conferred with Soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev over the forthcoming SALT II Treaty. In May 1975, Ford also displayed resolve after Cambodian Communists seized the American cargo ship Mayaguez, and he ordered U.S. forces into action to retrieve it. However, Ford’s moderation proved too much for the conservative wing of the party, and he emerged badly bruised after wresting the party nomination from California governor Ronald Reagan. The economy also remained extremely shaky. In November 1976, Ford was defeated by Georgia governor Jimmy Carter, who positioned himself as a political outsider. Despite a series of political missteps while campaigning, he closed the gap with Carter to within a few points, losing with 48 percent of votes cast. Ford then retired from public life until 1998, when he spoke in favor of simply rebuking the disgraced president Bill Clinton instead of impeaching him. He continued on as a respected senior spokesman until his death in Rancho Mirage, California, on December 26, 2006.

September 4 Diplomacy: The United States opens diplomatic relations with East Germany.

September 7 Politics: The government reveals that CIA director William Colby informed a Senate committee that $8 million had been budgeted for operations to upend Chile’s Marxist dictatorship in 1970–73.

September 8 Politics: In a dramatic gesture, President Gerald R. Ford issues Richard M. Nixon a “full, free, and absolute pardon” for any offenses he may have committed

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Chronology of American History while in office. The act unleashes a storm of criticism, but Ford insists that it is time for the country to drop its Watergate fixation and start to move forward.

September 12 Civil: At South Boston High School, violent demonstrations erupt to protest desegregation measures, and the vast majority of students refuse to attend classes well into the fall.

September 16 Indian: A federal court dismisses all charges against Native-American activist Russell Means related to his occupation of Wounded Knee, South Dakota. Military: In another gesture at national healing, President Gerald R. Ford declares a limited amnesty for Vietnam War draft dodgers. The process involves taking a loyalty oath and two years of community service, but veterans’ groups are quick to criticize the measure. Women: Iowan Mary Louise Smith becomes the first woman to head the Republican National Committee.

September 17 Diplomacy: The Senate Foreign Relations Committee begins probing allegations that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) spent $8 million to orchestrate the overthrow of Chilean Marxist president Salvador Allende Gossens.

September 19 Diplomacy: Secretary of State Henry Kissinger testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that money spent by the CIA in Chile had been directed at keeping the political opposition alive, not overthrowing the Marxist regime of Salvador Allende Gossens.

September 29 Medical: Controversy ensues when the National Cancer Institute issues a report questioning if radical breast mastectomy, the standard treatment for breast cancer, is too drastic in some instances.

October 1 Crime: Trials begin for seven former White House members indicted for conspiring to obstruct congressional investigation into the Watergate break-in.

October 8 Business: The Franklin National Bank, New York, is declared insolvent in one of the biggest institutional failures of American business history. Several officers are subsequently charged with fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Politics: President Gerald R. Ford commences his WIN (Whip Inflation Now) program, which entails voluntary energy conservation to combat rising oil prices.

October 10 Politics: Congress passes legislation to allow public funding of presidential primaries and elections, which also sets limits on donations and outlays to political campaigns. Science: Albert Claude, Rockefeller Institute; Emil Palade, Yale University; and Christian de Duve of Belgium share the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for research on the internal functions of cells.

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October 12 Sports: The Oakland Athletics (AL) score their third consecutive World Series win by defeating the Los Angeles Dodgers (NL) four games to one.

October 15 Politics: A new campaign law is signed into law by President Gerald R. Ford, which provides public funding for all major presidential candidates while setting spending limits on both presidential and congressional races. It is intended to stop the influence of illegal campaign contributions by corporations. Science: Paul J. Flory of Stanford University wins the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work on macromolecules in relation to developing synthetic materials.

October 17 Politics: President Gerald R. Ford goes before the House Judiciary Committee and defends his recent pardon of Richard M. Nixon by insisting he wanted to end national divisions occasioned by the Watergate scandal.

November 5 Politics: Midterm elections favor the Democrats, who pick up 42 seats in the Senate and House of Representatives. Women: Democrat Ella Grasso becomes the first woman governor by winning the gubernatorial contest in Connecticut.

November 8 Law: A federal judge drops all charges against eight Ohio National Guardsmen accused of shooting in the Kent State tragedy.

November 13 Politics: The Federal Energy Administration releases its Blueprint for Project Independence, which calls for a federal tax of 15 cents per gallon of gasoline, a minimum 20-mile per gallon fuel rating for cars, tax credits for home insulation, and higher efficiency for electrical appliances.

November 15 Business: U.S. refiners boost the retail price of sugar to 65 cents a pound, the sixth such increase this year.

November 18 Politics: Word that the FBI has been conducting counterintelligence operations against civil rights organizations, including the Congress of Racial Equality and the Ku Klux Klan, is made public.

November 21 General: Congress passes the Freedom of Information Act over President Gerald R. Ford’s veto, and thereby expands public access to government files. Henceforth, security classifications can be challenged in court and have to be justified by the federal government.

November 23–24 Diplomacy: After stops in Japan and South Korea, President Gerald R. Ford visits the Soviet Union for continuing talks with Premier Leonid Brezhnev over arms control, and he signs a tentative agreement limiting offensive nuclear weapons, including bombers, ICBMs, MIRVs, and submarine- launched missiles.

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November 26 Transportation: A bill appropriating $11.8 billion in federal subsidies for improvements in mass transit is signed into law by President Gerald R. Ford.

November 27 Medical: Louis B. Russell, who received a heart transplant in 1968 and was the longest living recipient of that organ, dies in Richmond, Virginia, aged 49 years.

December 1 Aviation: A jet airliner crashes headlong into the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, killing all 92 passengers and crew.

December 10 Politics: Democratic congressman Wilbur Mills of Arkansas resigns his chairmanship of the House Ways and Means Committee after being linked to Fanne Foxe, a burlesque performer.

December 18 Labor: A downturn in automobile sales results in the dismissal of 142,000 auto workers and the temporary layoff of another 76,000.

December 19 Politics: Nelson Rockefeller is sworn into office as the 41st vice president of the United States.

December 20 Diplomacy: Congress passes legislation that ties improved trade benefits with the Soviet Union to a relaxation of its emigration policies.

December 21 Journalism: Reports surface in the New York Times that the CIA has been conducting widespread domestic espionage and maintaining files against 10,000 citizens.

December 22 Politics: President Gerald R. Ford, reacting to allegations of domestic spying by the FBI and CIA, declares that such violations will not be tolerated by his administration and that he intends to appoint a commission to investigate such offenses.

December 26 Politics: CIA director William Colby writes a letter to President Gerald R. Ford and candidly admits his office was spying on dissidents and opponents of the Vietnam War.

December 30 Education: Federal judge W. Arthur Garrity fines the Boston School Committee for their strident opposition to court-ordered desegregation and also forbids their participation in integration matters unless they support a desegregation plan proffered by the government.

December 31 Business: The government revokes a 41-year-old prohibition against the private possession of gold bullion.

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1975 Aviation: The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency issues specifications and contracts for its first radar-absorbing, or “stealth,” aircraft. Women: The year 1975 is declared the International Women’s Year, with all U.S. military academies opening their doors to women for the first time.

January 1 Crime: Former White House aides H. R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, and John Mitchell are found guilty of charges stemming from a conspiracy to obstruct congressional investigation into the Watergate break-in.

January 4 Labor: The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that national unemployment is up to 7.1 percent, its highest level in 13 years.

January 5 Women: A report by the Educational Testing Service suggests that women with advanced degrees still suffer from discrimination in pay and promotions.

January 8 Politics: President Gerald R. Ford appoints an eight-man commission to investigate charges that the CIA had been conducting illegal domestic surveillance. It is headed by Vice President Nelson Rockefeller.

January 12 Medical: Medical malpractice insurance is dropped by several insurers on account of spiraling court awards.

January 15 Politics: In his State of the Union message, President Gerald R. Ford proposes a $16-billion tax cut to help stimulate the economy and also calls for a threepronged attack against inflation, energy dependence, and recession.

January 24 Terrorism: A Puerto Rican terrorist group claims responsibility for bombing the famous Fraunces Tavern in New York City, killing four people and injuring 53.

January 27 Politics: Democratic senator Frank Church of Idaho heads a bipartisan Senate investigation of alleged CIA and FBI intelligence-gathering activities.

January 31 Politics: President Gerald R. Ford extends his clemency program for Vietnam War draft resisters until March 1.

February 1 Aviation: A McDonnell Douglas F-15 fighter jet dubbed Streak Eagle sets several world speed records.

February 3 Labor: Sluggish car sales result in 274,380 auto workers, or 38.5 percent of the entire workforce, being laid off.

February 14 Settlement: The United States and inhabitants of the Marianas Islands conclude a pact whereby the latter becomes a U.S. commonwealth. This constitutes the

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Chronology of American History first territorial acquisition since the Danish West Indies (Virgin Islands) were purchased in 1917.

February 21 Crime: Former White House aides H. R. Haldeman and John D. Mitchell are sentenced to 30 months imprisonment for their role in the Watergate cover-up.

February 24 Societal: The Social Security Advisory Council warns that the $5.9-billion trust fund will be exhausted if new sources of revenue are not found by 1981.

February 26 Religion: Wallace Muhammad is appointed new head of the Nation of Islam following the death of his father, Elijah Muhammad.

February 27 Medical: Biologists from 27 nations agree to procedures to eliminate any chance of creating a genetically modified organism that would be impervious to antibiotics or potentially cause cancer.

March 11 Civil: A report issued by the Civil Rights Commission asserts that there are proportionally more African-American children in southern schools than northern ones.

March 12 Crime: Maurice Stans, a former commerce secretary, pleads guilty to charges stemming from violations of various campaign laws and admits to culling millions of dollars in illegal contributions from major corporations.

March 17–20 Medical: New York City’s 21 metropolitan hospitals suffer the nation’s first doctor’s strike when 2,000 physicians and interns walk out over the issue of securing shorter work shifts.

March 18 Crime: Stanley Goldblum receives eight years in jail and a $20,000 fine for insurance and equities fraud as chairman of the Equity Funding Corporation. Naval: Word is leaked of a 1974 CIA attempt to raise a sunken Soviet missile submarine with the salvage vessel Glomar Explorer. Over $250 million is spent, but only the front third of the Russian vessel was recovered.

March 22 Diplomacy: Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, citing irreconcilable differences between Egypt and Israel, suspends efforts to negotiate a peace treaty between them.

March 28 Aviation: National Airlines is authorized by the Civil Aeronautics Board to fly on a “no frills” basis, without food or drinks, in an effort to offer cheaper rates to the public.

March 31 Military: The amnesty program for draft dodgers initiated by President Gerald R. Ford ends today after only 22,500 men come forth to accept it out of 124,400 eligible.

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April 4 Aviation: A Lockheed C-5A Galaxy transport crashes after takeoff from Saigon, South Vietnam, killing 200 civilian refugees, mostly children.

April 8 Media: Academy Awards go to The Godfather, Part II as best picture of 1974, to Art Carney as best actor for Harry and Tonto, and to Ellen Burstyn as best actress for Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.

April 17 Crime: John Connally, a former secretary of the treasury, is acquitted of bribery charges leveled at him after he accepted $10,000 from the American Milk Producers Company in exchange for his recommendation that the government raise subsidies for milk.

April 30 Diplomacy: As a relentless North Vietnamese offensive topples the South Vietnamese government, American diplomatic personnel are hastily evacuated from Saigon and flown by helicopter to ships waiting offshore. Thousands of “boat people” also continue fleeing the grips of Communist tyranny over the next few years and, while a fortunate few are picked up by American vessels patrolling the area, the vast majority die at sea.

May Business: Exxon displaces General Motors as the wealthiest company in the annual Fortune magazine list of 500 top industrial corporations. Significantly, 10 of the 20 firms listed are oil companies.

May 5 Arts: Pulitzer Prizes go to The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara, fiction; Turtle Island by Gary Snyder, poetry; and Seascape by Edward Albee, drama.

May 12–14 Military: President Gerald R. Ford orders air, sea, and land elements into action to rescue the American cargo vessel SS Mayaguez after it is captured by Khmer Rouge guerrillas in Cambodia. Both ship and crew are rescued but 15 Marines are killed. Both Congress and the American people laud the action as a blow against international piracy.

May 29 Politics: President Gerald R. Ford vetoes a $5.3-billion jobs bill passed by the Democratic-controlled Congress to create 1 million jobs.

June 4 Science: Paleontologists in North Carolina report the discovery of large marine worms dating back 620 million years, making them the world’s oldest known fossils.

June 10 Politics: The Rockefeller Commission cites several instances of domestic spying by the CIA and recommends creation of a joint congressional committee to oversee intelligence-gathering matters.

June 24 Aviation: A jet crashes while landing in a thunderstorm at Kennedy International Airport, New York, killing 113 passengers and crew.

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June 26 Medical: The U.S. Supreme Court bars forced confinement of mental patients as long as they can fend for themselves without endangering the public.

June 30 Labor: With unemployment hovering at 9.2 percent, President Gerald R. Ford signs a bill extending unemployment benefits to a maximum of 65 weeks. Science: Astronomers at the University of California announce the discovery of Galaxy 3C123, which is the most distant celestial body known and estimated to be five to 10 times larger than our own Milky Way.

July 8 Politics: President Gerald R. Ford formally declares his candidacy to run for the presidency in this fall’s elections “in order to finish the job I have begun.”

July 15–25 Science: In a sign of growing rapprochement between the United States and the Soviet Union, astronauts Thomas P. Stafford, Donald K. Slayton, and Vance D. Brand join three cosmonauts in orbit on board the Apollo 18 and Soyuz 19 spacecrafts, which physically link up and orbit in unison for two days.

July 25 Business: The Environmental Protection Agency reports that electrical rates have risen a record 30 percent since 1974.

July 28 Civil: A bill intending to extend the Civil Rights Act for seven years is passed by Congress.

July 29 Military: The Turkish government seizes American bases on its soil after the U.S. government places an arms embargo over the stalemate in negotiations between that nation and Cyprus.

July 31 Labor: James Hoffa, a former president of the American Teamsters Union, is reported missing in Detroit. The answer to the question of his disappearance continues to thwart law enforcement authorities to the present day, although it is assumed by many that he was murdered by organized crime figures. Medical: The National Center for Health Statistics places the cancer death rate at 176.3 per 100,000 people, up from 105.9 in 1930.

August 1 Diplomacy: In Helsinki, Finland, President Gerald R. Ford signs the charter of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, which confirms the national boundaries established after World War II.

August 6 Politics: Congress extends the Voting Rights Act for seven years and also abolishes literacy tests for franchise purposes.

August 18 Labor: Six unions associated with the AFL-CIO boycott the loading of grain shipments intended for the Soviet Union to protest that country’s oppression of union activity.

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August 20 Science: NASA successfully launches the Viking I space probe, which is expected to land on Mars within a year.

August 27 Military: Governor James Rhodes of Ohio and 27 National Guardsmen are cleared of all charges stemming from the shooting of 13 students at Kent State University in May 1970.

September Aviation: The Hughes AH-64 Apache, the world’s most sophisticated attack helicopter, completes its maiden flight.

September 5 Crime: Lynette A. “Squeeky” Fromme, a follower of Charles Manson, attempts to assassinate President Gerald R. Ford in Sacramento, California.

September 9 Labor: AFL-CIO president George Meany announces an end to the boycott of loading grain ships headed for the Soviet Union after talks with President Gerald R. Ford. Science: NASA successfully launches the Viking 2 unmanned space probe, which is slated to land on Mars the following year.

September 10 Education: Congress overrides President Gerald R. Ford’s veto of a $7.9-billion educational appropriations bill; however, he continues slashing government spending in order to control inflation.

September 11 Crime: William A. “Tony” Boyle, former United Mine Workers president, receives three life sentences for the murder of Joseph Yablonski, his wife, and daughter.

September 14 Religion: In Rome, Pope Paul VI canonizes Mother Elizabeth Ann Bayley, making her the first American-born saint.

September 18 Crime: Police apprehend fugitive Patricia Hearst, formerly kidnapped by the militant SLA and since implicated in two bank robberies after she apparently joined her captors. She, along with William and Emily Harris, are arrested and charged with armed robbery.

September 22 Crime: Political activist Sarah Jane Moore fails to assassinate President Gerald R. Ford in San Francisco, California; the president is not injured.

September 28 Women: Congress passes a law authorizing the admission of women cadets to the three military academies commencing in the fall of 1976.

October 11–22 Sports: The Cincinnati Reds (NL) win the World Series by defeating the Boston Red Sox (AL) four games to three.

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Meany, George

(1894 –1980)

Labor leader George Meany was born in New York City on August 16, 1894, the son of a plumber and union official. He quit school at 16 and entered his father’s trade as an apprentice, rising to journeyman by 1915. Meany, however, proved himself politically astute, and, in 1922, he gained election as the plumbers’ union trade representative, where he remained 12 years. From 1934 to 1939, Meany also served as president of the New York State Federation of Labor and became closely associated with President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the most prolabor chief executive elected to that point. He was subsequently elected secretary treasurer of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) in January 1940, becoming second in command of the nation’s largest labor group. Because of his working relationship with the president, Meany was also appointed to the National Defense Mediation Board in March 1941, which was designed to quickly resolve all disputes among defense industry contractors. During World War II, this body was renamed the National War Labor Board, and Meany worked strenuously to harmonize management and labor to thereby ensure a steady, uninterrupted flow of military hardware to the front. Furthermore, he differed from many labor contemporaries in being highly anticommunist in outlook, and he was always working to purge the AFL of any subversive influences. After the war, he actively endorsed President Harry S. Truman’s efforts to found an international federation of unions that was free of Communist influence. However,

Meany’s primary concern was the welfare of his members and, in 1948, following passage of the Taft-Hartley antistrike act, he forsook the AFL’s traditional nonpartisan political policy and established the League of Political Education to organize workers for the Democratic Party. Meany rose to president of the AFL in 1952, and he spent several years trying to iron out differences with a rival organization, the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) under Walter Reuther. He succeeded in merging the two into a new entity, the AFL-CIO, in 1955, and he imposed stringent reforms and financial codes to eliminate previously accepted corrupt practices among some of the new unions. When the International Brotherhood of Teamsters failed to comply, Meany had them expelled in 1957. During the decade of the 1960s, Meany continued with his strident anticommunist stances, but he also threw the weight of the AFL-CIO behind President Lyndon B. Johnson’s civil rights initiatives, contributing mightily to their passage. He was also vocally supportive of the war in Vietnam, which placed his union at odds with more liberal-minded organizations. Undeterred, Meany pressed ahead with his own agenda, including passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, which became law in 1970. Meany retired from the AFL-CIO in 1979 and was succeeded by Lane Kirkland. He died in Washington, D.C., on January 10, 1980, one of the most influential labor leaders in the second half of the 20th century.

October 14 Business: Tjalling C. Koopmans of Yale University and Leonid Kantorovich of the Soviet Union share the Nobel Prize in economics.

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October 16 Science: David Baltimore, MIT; Howard M. Temin, University of Wisconsin; and Dr. Reanato Dulbecco of Italy share the Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine for their work on tumor viruses.

October 17 Science: James Rainwater of Columbia University, along with Aage N. Bohr and Ben Mottelson of Denmark, share the Nobel Prize in physics for their work on the asymmetry of the atomic nucleus.

October 20 Diplomacy: The United States unveils an agreement to sell between 6 to 8 million tons of grain annually to the Soviet Union. Education: The Supreme Court rules that teachers could spank unruly students for misbehavior, provided that they are warned in advance.

October 22 Military: Sergeant Leonard Matlovich is discharged from the military after revealing his homosexuality. His discharge is subsequently upgraded to honorable, owing to his status as a decorated Vietnam veteran.

November 3 Politics: The so-called Halloween Massacre ensues once President Gerald R. Ford fires James R. Schlesinger and William E. Colby as his secretary of defense and director of the CIA, respectively. He replaces them with Donald Rumsfeld at defense and George Bush at the CIA.

November 4 Women: Voters in New York and New Jersey defeat state equal rights amendments.

November 10 Law: The parents of comatose Karen Anne Quinlan lose their bid to have their daughter disconnected from life support due to a ruling from the New Jersey Superior Court.

November 12 Law: Associate Justice William O. Douglas resigns from the U.S. Supreme Court after 36 years on the bench, the longest tenure to date.

November 18 Crime: Former Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver returns to the United States after seven years of living abroad and faces criminal charges stemming from a shootout with police in Oakland, California.

November 20 Politics: The bipartisan Senate committee under Senator Frank Church releases its findings and charges that both CIA and FBI operatives had engaged in domestic spying against dissident elements and were plotting to assassinate foreign leaders.

November 24 Crime: Maryland governor Marvin Mandel and five associates are indicted by a federal grand jury with bribery, mail fraud, and income tax evasion.

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November 26 Politics: President Gerald R. Ford announces his decision to assist a bankrupt New York City to avoid defaulting on a loan with a federal bailout of $2.3 billion. This decision comes in the wake of a $200-million tax bill passed by the state legislature.

November 29 Education: President Gerald R. Ford signs legislation allowing free education for the handicapped from the ages of three to 21.

December 1–7 Diplomacy: President Gerald R. Ford concludes a five-day tour of the Far East with stops in Indonesia, China, and the Philippines. Significantly, Mao Zedong is alarmed at the growing detente between the United States and the Soviet Union, warning them of the danger of appeasement.

December 4 Politics: The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence reports that, while there is no proof that the CIA spent funds to overthrow the Marxist regime of President Salvador Allende Gossens in Chile, they “created an atmosphere” conducive to his ouster.

December 6 Science: A team of Harvard scientists reports the creation of the first artificial animal gene.

December 9 Civil: Judge W. Arthur W. Garrity assumes control of the South Boston High School desegregation plan after he charges the Boston School Committee with failure to comply with it.

December 18 Business: Congress outlaws the practice of redlining, namely, arbitrarily rejecting mortgages for homes in certain districts, usually populated by African-American or other minorities.

December 19 Diplomacy: Congress cuts off covert aid to anticommunist factions fighting in the Angolan civil war.

December 20 Societal: The last of 130,000 Southeast Asian refugees pass through the processing center at Fort Chaffee, Arkansas, to begin their new lives as citizens of the United States.

December 29 Terrorism: A bomb explodes in a passenger terminal at LaGuardia Airport, New York, killing 11 people and injuring 70.

1976 January 12 Medical: The Department of Health, Education, and Welfare issues its first report on national health, and trumpets the fact that most Americans in every

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age group are reasonably healthy, with those between 55 and 64 years of age suffering 15 percent fewer heart attacks than in 1970.

January 19 Politics: In his State of the Union address, President Gerald R. Ford urges Congress to wage fiscal restraint to avoid higher inflation.

January 27 Politics: Congress overrides President Gerald R. Ford’s veto and passes a $5billion appropriations bill to fund programs in health, welfare, and manpower.

January 30 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that parts of the 1974 Federal Campaign Act are unconstitutional; thus federally imposed limits on campaign spending violate First Amendment guarantees of free speech.

February 5 Medical: Southern California doctors end a 35-day slowdown to protest unreasonable increases in medical malpractice insurance.

February 10 Diplomacy: In Moscow, the U.S. embassy complains that the Soviets are targeting them with microwave radiation, ostensibly for eavesdropping purposes.

February 12 Medical: The Food and Drug Administration bans Red Dye No. 2 from food production after studies indicate it is carcinogenic.

February 17–18 Politics: In light of recent violations, a sweeping reform of the FBI and CIA is announced by President Gerald R. Ford. This included creation of an “oversight board” to monitor potentially illegal behavior.

February 25 Women: The group ERAmerica, which advocates passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, begins lobbying in Washington, D.C.

March 5 Aviation: The United States tests its new long-range Air Launch Cruise Missile (ALCM), which gives added punch and penetration power to its aging fleet of jet bombers.

March 20 Crime: Former abductee Patricia Hearst is found guilty of bank robbery.

March 26 Diplomacy: The United States and Turkey make amends, with the former offering $1 billion in military aid while the latter opens all U.S. military bases.

March 29 Media: Academy Awards go to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest as best picture for 1975, and to its stars, Jack Nicholson, best actor, and Louise Fletcher, best actress. Law: The U.S. Supreme Court votes 6-3 to uphold a lower court ruling that allows states to outlaw homosexual acts, even if between consenting adults. The decision sparks strong criticism from civil rights groups and is a departure from recent trends to expand privacy safeguards.

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April 1 Transportation: Five bankrupt railroads in the Northeast are taken over by the new Conrail organization, a federal corporation that will enjoy government subsidies for the next five years.

April 15 Medical: Congress allocates $135 million for a swine flu vaccine program, which is expected to strike in 1976.

April 21 Business: General Motors ceases its line of convertible cars, the last in the nation, because of slow sales.

April 22 Education: Word of a widespread cheating scandal surfaces at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, and, by the fall, no fewer than 700 cadets are implicated for violating the academy’s honor code.

April 26–28 Politics: The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Activities issues its report, which concludes that the FBI, CIA, and IRS are guilty of domestic spying. They also recommend creation of a congressional oversight committee to monitor such abuses.

May 3 Arts: Pulitzer Prizes go to Humboldt’s Gift by Saul Bellow, fiction; Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror by John Ashbery, poetry; and A Chorus Line by Michael Bennett, Nicholas Dante, Marvin Hamlisch, James Kirkwood, and Edward Kleban, drama.

May 19 Politics: Congress creates an oversight committee to monitor domestic intelligence-gathering activities to prevent abuses.

May 24 Aviation: Jet service by the joint British/French supersonic Concorde airliner begins between Dulles International Airport, near Washington, D.C., and London and Paris.

May 25 Politics: President Gerald R. Ford defeats his conservative challenger Ronald W. Reagan in primaries held in Kentucky, Oregon, and Tennessee; on the Democratic side, Georgia governor James Earl “Jimmy” Carter passes the halfway mark to winning the party nomination by sweeping Arkansas, Tennessee, and Kentucky.

May 28 Diplomacy: The United States and the Soviet Union conclude a five-year treaty outlawing all nuclear testing larger than 120 kilotons and providing on-theground inspection teams.

June 5 General: In Idaho, the Teton River Dam collapses, flooding 300 square miles, killing 14 people, and damaging $1 billion in property.

June 16 Terrorism: Francis E. Meloy, Jr., and his aide are assassinated in Beirut, Lebanon, en route for talks with President Elias Sarkis.

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June 25 Civil: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that discrimination practiced by private nonsectarian schools is unconstitutional.

June 28 Conservation: The U.S. Supreme Court rejects an appeal by the Sierra Club to halt strip-mining operations in Wyoming, Montana, and the Dakotas.

July 2 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court rules 7-2 that the death penalty as written in Texas, Florida, and Georgia does not necessarily violate the Constitution, clearing the way for a spate of executions for inmates on death row. However, in North Carolina and Louisiana, where the death penalty exists for specific crimes, it is struck down.

July 4 General: America celebrates its official bicentennial with parades, fireworks, and all-around celebrations. President Gerald R. Ford is on hand in Philadelphia and New York City for the festivities.

July 9 Medical: The National Institute on Drug Abuse reports that overuse of Valium, a tranquilizer, and alcohol are the nation’s leading causes of drug-induced ailments and surpass all other drugs in social costs.

July 15 Politics: Democrats meet in New York City to nominate Georgia governor Jimmy Carter for president and Minnesota senator Walter “Fritz” Mondale for vice president.

July 18 Medical: Researchers at Yale University School of Medicine identify a new infectious strain of arthritis they call Lyme Arthritis after Lyme, Connecticut, where 51 cases originated.

July 20 Science: The space probe Viking I settles into an orbit around Mars and begins sending detailed topographical information back to Earth.

July 22 Politics: Congress overrides President Gerald R. Ford’s veto of a $3.9-billion jobs bill to assist in lowering the 7.5 percent unemployment rate.

July 27 Medical: A mass outbreak of the respiratory illness known as Legionnaire’s Disease kills 29 people and hospitalizes another 151 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Naval: The U.S. Navy evacuates 160 Americans from Beirut, Lebanon, in concert with the Lebanese army and the Palestine Liberation Organization.

July 28 Aviation: A Lockheed SR-71 Black Bird sets new speed and altitude records of 2,193 miles per hour at 85,069 feet.

July 31–August 1 General: Flash flooding along the Colorado River Canyon kills 139 people and inflicts considerable property losses.

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August 18 Military: Two U.S. Army soldiers are attacked and killed by North Koreans as they prune a tree obstructing surveillance of the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea.

August 19 Politics: The Republican Party renominates Gerald R. Ford as its presidential candidate, despite anger and unease by conservatives led by California governor Ronald W. Reagan. Kansas senator Robert J. Dole is selected as vice president.

August 28 Science: Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology announce that the synthesis of a bacterial gene has been accomplished for the first time and that it functioned properly when transplanted within a living cell.

August 30 Medical: A Senate study reports that accounting errors led to widespread Medicaid fraud and abuse to the tune of $15 billion.

September 1 Politics: Democratic congressman Wayne L. Hays of Ohio resigns his seat following revelations of a tryst with his former employee, Elizabeth Ray.

September 3 Science: The unmanned space probe Viking 2 makes a successful soft landing on the surface of Mars and begins sending wonderfully detailed color images of the red planet’s surface.

September 10–12 Terrorism: Five Croatian terrorists hijack a TWA Boeing 727 at LaGuardia Airport, New York, and force it to fly to Paris, where they surrender. A bomb they detonated the previous day exploded and killed a police bomb expert. They are returned to the United States and are charged with air piracy and murder.

September 16 Business: Congress completes its work on the new Tax Reform Act, which reduces the number of individuals who can claim tax shelters, and raises the tax burden on wealthy individuals by requiring a minimum tax to be paid. It also incorporates the first changes to estate taxes in 30 years. Religion: The General Convention of the Episcopal Church approves the ordination of women, although some dissenting factions are preparing to break from that institution.

September 18 Religion: Reverend Sun Myung Moon, of the South Korean–based Unification Church, holds a “God Bless America” rally in Washington, D.C., which draws 50,000 people. However, the group weathers allegations of brainwashing as a cult, and its members are popularly denounced as “Moonies.”

September 20 Politics: Presidential aspirant Jimmy Carter admits to Playboy magazine that he has “committed adultery in my heart many times.”

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September 27 Media: Republican Gerald R. Ford and Democrat Jimmy Carter meet in their first televised presidential debate and are viewed by an estimated 90 million people.

September 28 Conservation: Congress passes the Toxic Substances Control Act, which outlaws the marketing of new chemical substances before they have been tested for adverse effects on humans and the environment. Production of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) is also discontinued.

September 30 Medical: California passes the first right-to-die law, which empowers terminally ill patients to have their life-support equipment terminated when so desired. Politics: Congress overrides President Gerald R. Ford’s veto of a $56-billion appropriations bill for social services such as manpower projects, education, and health.

October 4 Politics: Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz resigns his seat after making a racial slur.

October 7 Media: In a second televised presidential debate, President Gerald R. Ford stumbles badly by declaring there is “no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and there never will be under a Ford administration.”

October 14 Business: Milton Friedman of the University of Chicago wins the Nobel Prize in economics. Science: Dr. Baruch S. Blumberg, University of Pennsylvania, and Dr. D. Carleton Gajdusek, National Institute for Neurological Diseases, win the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for their work with infectious diseases.

October 16–21 Sports: The Cincinnati Reds (NL) win the World Series by defeating the New York Yankees (AL) in four straight games.

October 18 Science: William N. Lipscomb of Harvard University wins the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work with chemical compounds called boranes; Burton Richter, Stanford University, and Samuel C. C. Ting, MIT, share the Nobel Prize in physics for their discovery of the psi (or J) particle.

October 20 General: The ferryboat George Prince collides with the Norwegian tanker Frosta on the Mississippi River north of New Orleans, killing 78 people. Politics: The Koreagate scandal breaks out when the Justice Department fingers Korean lobbyist Tongsun Park for doling out cash bribes to congressmen and other business officials of $50,000 to $1 million annually.

October 21 Literature: Saul Bellow wins the Nobel Prize for literature, giving the United States a clean sweep of all awards given this year.

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Friedman, Milton (1912–2006) Economist Milton Friedman was born in Brooklyn, New York, on July 31, 1912, and raised in Rahway, New Jersey. He attended Rutgers University, graduated with his bachelor’s degree in 1932, and subsequently attended the University of Chicago for his master’s in economics. Friedman taught as an assistant at Chicago until 1935, when he accepted successive jobs as an economist at the National Bureau of Economic Research and the Department of the Treasury. He also took a leave of absence to teach at the University of Wisconsin, 1940–41, and he attended Columbia University to obtain his doctorate in economics in 1946. Friedman subsequently joined the faculty at the University of Chicago, rising to full professor in 1948, and he continued his lengthy career as an economics writer. As early as 1939 he promulgated Consumer Expenditures in the United States and also contributed to Taxing to Prevent Inflation in 1943. In 1963 he coauthored his monumental study, A Monetary History of the United States, 1867–1960, with Anna J. Schwartz, which radically postulated that the Great Depression of 1929 was largely the result of the government-controlled Federal Reserve System for allowing the money supply to dramatically fall in advance. In other writings, he demonstrated that the traditional Philips Curve hypothesis for achieving lower unemployment with higher inflation produced just the opposite effect. Friedman’s economic theorizing made him the darling of economic conservatives throughout the nation and an intellectual

counterweight to contemporaries touting the prevailing orthodoxy of Keynesian economics. This liberal theory extolled government intervention and regulation of the economy, whereby Friedman eschewed such activities in favor of a new policy he called “monetarism.” This doctrine holds that the supply of available money at any given time is the primary determinant of income and prices. According to Friedman, the private economy is intrinsically stable unless upset by rapid fluctuations in the money supply or other government intervention. Furthermore, he advocated his own “constant monetary rule,” whereby the national money supply would automatically increase by a fixed percentage each year to circumvent cycles of overexpansion and inflation. In sum, Friedman was a vocal proponent of laissez-faire governance of the marketplace, which seeks to keep government intervention at a minimum. He was also a staunch defender of free-market economics and individual responsibility in publications such as Capitalism and Freedom (1962) and There Is No Such Thing as a Free Lunch (1975). Far from a dour theoretician, Friedman was an engaging personality who enjoyed explaining his thesis to the public in plain terms and simple analogies. In 1980, he took to the airwaves with a 10part television series Free to Choose, which won several awards. In 1976, he capped his career by winning the Nobel Prize in economics. Friedman died in San Francisco, California, on November 16, 2006, one of the most influential figures in economics of the 20th century.

November 2 Politics: Democrat James Earl Carter defeats Gerald R. Ford for the presidency with 297 electoral votes to 241, and a popular tally of 40.8 million to the latter’s

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39.1 million. The Democrats also maintain control of Congress while picking up additional governorships.

November 12–15 Diplomacy: The United States and Vietnam begin normalization talks in Paris, but on November 15 the Americans veto Vietnam’s membership to the United Nations.

December 3 Politics: President-elect Jimmy Carter declares Cyrus Vance as his intended secretary of state.

December 4 Religion: Lutheran dissidents convene in Chicago, Illinois, to form the new Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches, which disagreed with the conservative Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod over their literal interpretation of the Bible.

December 6 Politics: Massachusetts congressman Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill, for whom “all politics is local,” replaces Carl Albert of Oklahoma as Speaker of the House for the 95th Congress.

December 15 General: The Liberian-registered tanker Argo Merchant runs aground near Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, spilling its cargo of 7.7 million gallons of oil into the water.

December 16 Medical: The government suspends its swine flu immunization program after 51 people reported temporary paralysis; to date some 35 million have been inoculated.

December 19 Military: The U.S. military launches its KH-11 Kennan reconnaissance satellite, the first satellite of its kind capable of relaying digitally enhanced images.

1977 January 1 Religion: Jacqueline Means is ordained as the first Episcopal priest in the United States.

January 11 Civil: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that discriminatory zoning laws created to keep out low- and middle-income minorities from a given neighborhood are unconstitutional.

January 12 Politics: In his final State of the Union message, President Gerald R. Ford emphasizes the nation’s handling of the energy crisis and economic recession.

January 17 Crime: Convicted murderer Gary Mark Gilmore becomes the first prisoner executed in 10 years.

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January 19 Civil: President Gerald R. Ford pardons Iva Toguri D’Aquino, who, during World War II, made radio broadcasts in Japan under the moniker “Tokyo Rose.”

January 20 Politics: In Washington, D.C., James Earl Carter, a former peanut farmer from Georgia, is inaugurated president of the United States. He pledges to work for “a

Carter, Jimmy

(1924–     )

President James Earl Carter was born in Plains, Geor-­ gia, on October 1, 1924, the son of farmers.

Pre­side­nt Jimmy Carte­r (AP photos)

1977

He briefly attended Southwestern College before transferring to the U.S. Naval Acad-­

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world order that is more responsive to human aspirations,” all the while championing the concept of “human rights.” Walter Mondale is also sworn in as vice president.

January 21 Military: President Jimmy Carter grants unconditional amnesty to all draft dodgers from the Vietnam War.

emy, Annapolis, from which he graduated in 1946. Carter served capably in the navy until 1953, when he resigned following the death of his father to run the family peanut farm. Success here prompted his run for state office in 1962, whereby he gained a seat in the Georgia senate and a reputation for liberal politics that was unprecedented in the South. Carter then failed in his attempt for the governorship in 1966, took solace in religion, and became a “born again” Christian. He also persevered and won the gubernatorial contest in 1970 by running on a platform that included affirmative action for women and African Americans. Despite his liberal affinities, Carter was also a fiscal conservative, and he managed to compress 300 state agencies down to only 30 to curb expenses. His willingness to protect the environment and encourage openness in government made him an extremely popular incumbent. Constitutionally denied a second term as governor, he announced his candidacy for president in 1976. His efforts were bolstered nationally as the nation was still reeling from the fallout from the Watergate scandal, and Carter highlighted his status as a Washington outsider, untainted by the political establishment. He easily secured the party nomination by August 1976, and he campaigned in the fall on themes of honesty and integrity, which resonated with the public. Consequently, Carter scored a narrow triumph over President Gerald R. Ford, although neither man won more than

48 percent of votes cast. He was the first president elected from the Deep South since Zachary Taylor in 1848. In office, Carter tried to maintain his high ethical and moral standards, and he became a leading exponent of human rights around the world. To this end, he lent his personal diplomacy in getting Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin to sign the Camp David Peace Accords in 1979. He also championed the new Panama Canal Treaty, signed with strongman Omar Torrijos, which turned over that strategic waterway to Panama at the end of the century. However, Carter’s idealism simply rebounded off the Soviet Union and the Communist bloc, and during his tenure Islamic militants in Iran seized the American embassy and 52 hostages. Worse, in December 1979, the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, which prompted Carter to both renew draft registration and boycott the Summer 1980 Moscow Olympics. However, he was viewed by the public as a weak executive and, in November 1980, Carter was decisively beaten by Republican Ronald W. Reagan, who touted a strongly conservative line. Since then, Carter has been a visible figure on the world scene, where he actively promotes peaceful resolution of conflict and expansion of human rights. To that end, he helped monitor elections in Nicaragua and became the first former president to visit Fidel Castro in Cuba. In December 2002, Carter’s ceaseless efforts culminated in receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize.

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January 26 General: With the nation in the grip of one of the coldest winters on record, President Jimmy Carter asks Congress to provide emergency relief in the form of natural gas supplies to those areas hardest hit.

January 27 Business: President Jimmy Carter proposes a $31-billion bill to Congress to help stimulate the sluggish economy.

January 28–29 General: The East Coast and the Midwest are staggered by a heavy blizzard that dumps 160 inches of snow in some areas, such as Buffalo, New York.

February 23 Conservation: The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to establish industrywide standards to control all discharges of pollutants into waterways.

February 24 Diplomacy: Secretary of State Cyrus Vance declares an end to foreign aid to countries guilty of human rights abuses, such as Argentina, Ethiopia, and Uruguay.

March 1 Conservation: In an attempt to prevent foreign fishing fleets from stripping American fish stocks, the United States extends its fishing limits to 200 miles. Diplomacy: President Jimmy Carter meets with leading Soviet dissident Vladimir K. Bukovsky in a show of support for others languishing behind the Iron Curtain.

March 2 Politics: The House of Representatives imposes a stringent new ethics code for governing finance by members upon itself. Henceforth, all gifts over $100 must be reported, and outside income cannot exceed 15 percent of members’ salaries.

March 5 Media: In a conscious emulation of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “fireside chats,” President Jimmy Carter goes on radio for a question-and-answer session.

March 9 Medical: The Food and Drug Administration proposes a ban on the artificial sweetener saccharin on the grounds that long-term exposure might cause cancer. Military: President Jimmy Carter declares that all U.S. military personnel will be withdrawn from South Korea within five years.

March 10 Labor: The United Farm Workers and the Teamsters sign a five-year accord to end their mutual competition to organize western agricultural workers.

March 11 Labor: The United Farm Workers under César Chávez, a largely immigrant group of low-income Mexican Americans, joins the Teamsters Union.

March 18 Diplomacy: The United States lifts travel restrictions to Cuba, Vietnam, North Korea, and Cambodia.

1977

Chronology

2221

March 24 Aviation: The U.S. Air Force initiates a revolution in command and combat functions in the air by flying the first Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS), which can control or direct several warplanes simultaneously.

March 28 Media: Academy Awards go to Rocky as best picture of 1976 and to Peter Finch and Faye Dunaway as best actor and actress for Network.

April 18 Arts: Pulitzer Prizes go to Divine Comedies by James Merrill, poetry and The Shadow Box by Michael Cristofer, drama. Conservation: President Jimmy Carter calls for a comprehensive campaign to promote energy conservation, characterizing it as the “moral equivalent of war.”

April 26 Technology: The Polaroid Corporation demonstrates the first instant color film process, which can process film and project it onto a screen in only 90 seconds.

April 27 Societal: President Jimmy Carter is warned by a task force on illegal aliens that an estimated 6 to 8 million illegals are living in the United States, up from 89,000 in 1961.

April 28 Diplomacy: The United States and Cuba sign an agreement for fishing rights in overlapping fishing zones. Military: Christopher J. Boyce and Andrew Lee are convicted of selling the Soviets top-secret American satellite information; Boyce is sentenced to 40 years in jail, Lee to life. Societal: Joseph Califano, secretary of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, signs regulations that outlaw hiring discrimination against handicapped people by any agency or school receiving federal funds.

April 30 Conservation: The nuclear plant construction site at Seabrook, New Hampshire, is besieged by an estimated 2,000 opponents of nuclear power, of whom 1,414 will be arrested for trespassing.

May 1 Conservation: An estimated 1,400 members of the Clamshell Alliance are arrested at Seabrook, New Hampshire, to protest construction of a new nuclear power plant there.

May 3 Diplomacy: In Paris, France, delegates from the United States and Vietnam open discussions to normalize relations, although the Americans refuse to provide reparations in the form of financial assistance. However, they will no longer oppose the country’s membership in the United Nations.

May 4 Media: Former president Richard M. Nixon gets high marks for his five television interviews with host David Frost. He freely admits to having “let the American people down.”

1977

2222

Chronology of American History

May 9 Societal: President Jimmy Carter calls for an increase in the Social Security tax from 7 to 7.5 percent to restore that program’s “financial integrity.” He also proposes to transfer funds from other federal departments to Social Security should unemployment levels render funding inadequate.

May 23 Crime: The U.S. Supreme Court refuses to hear the appeals of Watergate-scandal figures John Ehrlichman, H. R. Haldeman, and John Mitchell, who must now begin serving their jail terms.

May 28 General: The Beverly Hills Supper Club catches fire and burns down, killing 164 people; this is the worst restaurant disaster since Boston’s Cocoanut Grove fire in 1942.

May 30 Science: NASA scientists discontinue Viking 1 and 2 biological experiments on the Martian surface, as results thus far have proved inconclusive.

May 31 Civil: The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the seniority system in business, provided it is not used to deliberately deny employment to African Americans.

June 3 Diplomacy: The United States and Communist Cuba agree to exchange diplomatic missions for the first time.

June 6 Journalism: The Washington Post gets the scoop on the new neutron bomb, an atomic device designed to kill people through bursts of intense radiation, yet leave property undamaged.

June 19 Religion: Philadelphia bishop John N. Neumann, celebrated for his development of the Catholic school system, is canonized in Rome as the first American male to achieve sainthood.

June 20 Women: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that Medicaid funding for abortions is not obligatory or compulsory under the Constitution or federal law.

June 29 Business: Robert Hall, the nation’s largest retail clothing chain, closes all 366 stores after losses totaling $300 million in the past three years.

June 30 Aviation: Fulfilling a campaign promise, President Jimmy Carter cancels production of the new Rockwell B-1A strategic jet bomber, although he allows the three prototypes to continue flying for testing purposes.

July 1 General: Sustained drought conditions force the imposition of water rationing in Los Angeles, California.

1977

Chronology

2223

July 13–14 General: A large electrical storm near New York City and Westchester County, New York, leads to a lengthy blackout of those highly populated regions for the next 25 hours.

July 19 General: Johnstown, Pennsylvania, is struck by heavy flooding that kills 76 people and causes $200 million in damages.

July 20 Politics: Special prosecutor Leon Jaworksi is again called upon by the federal government to investigate allegations that the South Korean government has been routinely bribing senators and representatives.

July 28 Business: The first shipment of oil from Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay flows into the loading port of Valdez once the 799-mile trans-Alaska pipeline goes into operation.

August 4 Politics: Congress creates the new Department of Energy at the behest of President Jimmy Carter, becoming the 12th cabinet-level position in the federal government and the first added since 1966. James Schlesinger is appointed its first secretary.

August 12 Science: In its first major test, the new space shuttle Enterprise, under astronauts C. Gordon Fullerton and Fred W. Haise, is carried aloft by a specially modified Boeing 747 and then released from 25,000 feet. All systems perform perfectly as it glides flawlessly back to Earth at Edwards Air Force Base.

August 23 Aviation: The 77-pound, human-powered aircraft Gossamer Condor, piloted and powered by Bryan Allen, flies the one-mile course over Shafter, California, and wins its pilot the $86,000 Kremer Prize.

August 26 Politics: The Securities and Exchange Commission accuses Democratic mayor Abraham Beame and six other business officials with deliberately misleading investors about New York City bonds during a financial crisis.

September 7 Diplomacy: President Jimmy Carter and Panamanian leader General Omar Torrijos sign a treaty for the gradual turnover of the Panama Canal Zone to that nation, along with perpetual neutrality.

September 8 Business: The United States and Canada conclude a pact allowing construction of a pipeline to carry natural gas from Alaska down to the Midwest.

September 13 Business: To promote fuel efficiency, General Motors introduces the nation’s first diesel automobiles with its Oldsmobile 88 and 98 models.

September 21 Business: Office of Management director Bert Lance resigns from office following allegations of financial improprieties as a banker in Georgia.

1977

2224

Chronology of American History

September 22 Societal: The United States and Cuba enact a reparations program whereby 29 Americans and 29 Cuban relatives are allowed to emigrate to and from the United States.

September 26 Transportation: Freddie Laker of Great Britain’s Laker Airways introduces New York Skytrain service from New York to London with no reservations and at less than half the conventional fare.

September 27 Education: The U.S. Army releases a study that proposes 150 major reforms for the military academy at West Point, New York, in light of the recent cheating scandal there.

October 1–November 29 Labor: Longshoremen strike against container ships in selected Atlantic and Gulf Coast ports until management agrees to a three-year contract with a 30.5 percent pay increase.

October 3 Business: The Treasury Department slaps a 32 percent penalty duty on five Japanese steel companies that had dumped steel plate on the American market at below-cost prices.

October 11 Science: John H. Van Vleck, Harvard University; Philip W. Anderson, Bell Laboratories; and Nevill F. Mott of Great Britain share the Nobel Prize in physics for their work on solid-state circuitry.

October 11–18 Sports: The New York Yankees (AL) win the World Series by defeating the Los Angeles Dodgers (NL) four games to two.

October 13 Science: Rosalyn S. Yalow, Veterans’ Administration Hospital Bronx; Roger C. L. Guillemin, Salk Institute; and Andrew V. Schally, Veterans’ Administration Hospital, New Orleans, share the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for research in the peptide hormones in the brain.

October 19 Aviation: The first supersonic—but extremely loud—Concorde jet airliner flies into Kennedy International Airport from France, although it took a Supreme Court refusal to stay a lower court decision to allow it to land.

October 31 Politics: Richard Helms, a former CIA director, enters a “no contest” plea to charges that he failed to testify openly before a Senate committee.

November 2 Science: Scientists at the University of Illinois report the discovery of methanogens, an ancient life form dating back 3.5 billion years.

November 18–21 Women: The first National Women’s Conference convenes with 1,442 delegates at Houston, Texas, to push for passage of the Equal Rights Amendment. This is the largest female assembly since Seneca Falls in 1848.

1977

Chronology

2225

November 31 Business: President Jimmy Carter signs a bill raising the minimum wage from $2.30 an hour to $3.35.

December 1 Medical: The Food and Drug Administration recommends warning labels on all canisters of predigested liquid proteins following the deaths of 31 people.

December 20 Business: President Jimmy Carter signs a new Social Security tax increase to which workers and employers will contribute $227 billion over the next decade.

December 22 General: In Westwego, Louisiana, a grain elevator explosion kills 35 people.

1978 January 3 Business: The Treasury Department institutes a system of trigger prices for imported steel to halt all foreign dumping on the U.S. market, whereby prices falling below these benchmarks are subject to import penalties.

January 6 Diplomacy: The United States returns the crown of St. Stephen to the Hungarian people, after taking custody of the precious relic in July 1945. Indian: The Wampanoag Indians of Mashpee, Massachusetts, lose a precedentsetting lawsuit to recover 13,700 acres of land on Cape Cod. The jury decides that they were not a tribe in August 1976 when they filed their suit.

January 13 Business: In order to reduce Japan’s soaring trade surplus with the United States, Japan opens a portion of its domestic market to some American products.

January 16 Science: The space shuttle program announces 35 new astronaut candidates, including six women, three African Americans, and one Asian American.

January 25–26 General: The Midwest is inundated by a powerful blizzard packing winds of 100 miles per hour and temperatures as low as 50°F below zero; around 100 people lose their lives.

February 5–7 General: A severe blizzard hits the New England states, killing 60 people.

February 22 General: Two derailed tank cars carrying liquid propane explode in Waverly, Tennessee, killing 15 people and destroying the town’s business center.

March 15–16 Agriculture: A farmer’s rally in Washington, D.C., convened to protest proposed farm legislation, draws 1,000 participants, mostly on tractors. The following day they occupy the Department of Agriculture building.

1978

2226

Chronology of American History

March 16 Diplomacy: The Senate ratifies the Panama Canal Treaty, which guarantees the neutrality of that strategic waterway through the turn of the 21st century.

March 25 Labor: Coal miners conclude the nation’s longest strike in that industry, 110 days, by signing a three-year contract.

April 3 Media: Academy Awards go to Annie Hall as best picture of 1977 and star Diane Keaton as best actress; Richard Dreyfuss receives the best-actor award for The Goodbye Girl.

April 6 Societal: President Jimmy Carter signs a bill allowing Americans to retire at the age of 70 instead of 65.

April 7 Military: President Jimmy Carter decides to postpone development of the socalled neutron bomb, which utilizes high-radiation bursts to kill people while inflicting relatively little damage on property or surroundings.

April 17 Arts: Pulitzer Prizes go to Elbow Room by James A. McPherson, fiction; Collected Poems by Howard Nemerov, poetry; and The Gin Game by Donald L. Coburn, drama. Business: The New York Stock Exchange hits 65.5 million shares traded, a new record.

April 18 Diplomacy: The Senate ratifies the second Panama Canal Treaty, which turns that strategic waterway over to Panama in 1999.

April 19 Civil: Jill E. Brown, 27, of Baltimore, Maryland, becomes the nation’s first female, African-American jet pilot.

May 2 Education: Harvard University drops its general education program, in place since 1947, and now requires undergraduates to take mandatory breadth requirements in literature, arts, history, science, and mathematics.

May 5 Medical: President Jimmy Carter declares that resistance from the American Medical Association is the leading obstacle to better health care.

May 11 Military: Margaret A. Brewer becomes the first-ever female general in the U.S. Marine Corps.

May 15 Diplomacy: The Senate does not block the sale of advanced jet fighters to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Israel, as a way of bolstering moderate states in the Middle East.

May 20 Science: The unmanned space probe Pioneer Venus 1 is successfully launched for a rendezvous with that mysterious planet.

1978

Chronology

2227

June 6 Politics: In a major revolt against the political establishment, voters in California overwhelmingly approve Proposition 13, which amends the state constitution by imposing severe limits on property taxes by capping them at 57 percent. It passes with 65 percent of the popular vote.

June 15 Conservation: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the snail darter, a small fish covered by the Endangered Species Act of 1973, is sufficient reason to halt the $100-million Tellico Dam project in Tennessee.

June 22 Science: James S. Christy of the U.S. Naval Observatory declares that he has discovered a small moon orbiting Pluto, the outermost planet.

June 28 Societal: The U.S. Supreme Court, ruling in the case of Bakke v. the University of California, declares that while affirmative action programs are not unconstitutional, any college admission involving strict racial quotas is outlawed. Alan Bakke, a white student, is thus allowed to attend the medical school at the University of California, Davis, after being denied admission in favor of less-qualified minority applicants.

July 6–10 Science: Frank Press, director of the Office of Science and Technology, leads 14 fellow scientists to the People’s Republic of China to encourage scientific exchanges.

July 15 Indian: A group of 1,000 Native Americans begins a 2,700-mile march from Alcatraz Island, California, to Washington, D.C., to gain attention to Indian land rights. Only 20 of the marchers finish.

August 7 Conservation: President Jimmy Carter declares the Love Canal area of Niagara Falls, New York, a disaster area, owing to the concentration of toxic waste materials in its soil.

August 8 Politics: President Jimmy Carter approves a federal guarantee of $1.6 billion in loans to assist a faltering New York City. Science: Pioneer Venus 2 is successfully launched toward the planet Venus.

August 9–November 6 Journalism: The New York Times, the New York Daily News, and the New York Post are shut down for 88 days by a worker strike to protest workforce reductions.

August 11 Medical: The Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia, announces that the bacterium responsible for the outbreak of legionnaire’s disease has been isolated.

August 12–17 Aviation: Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson, and Larry Newman pilot the balloon Double Eagle II on the first successful transatlantic balloon crossing.

1978

2228

Chronology of American History

August 22 Politics: A constitutional amendment granting residents of the District of Columbia full voting rights passes Congress and is passed along to the states for ratification.

September 6–17 Diplomacy: President Jimmy Carter announces the Camp David accords, between Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin. This seminal document formulates a timetable for peace negotiations and lays the groundwork for eventual diplomatic relations between the two former adversaries.

September 25 Aviation: A Southwest Airlines jet and a private airplane collide over San Diego, California, killing all 137 passengers and crew along with 10 people on the ground.

October 6 Women: The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the Constitution having stalled, the Senate votes to extend its deadline another four years until June 30, 1982, for ratification; Hannah H. Gray becomes the first woman to head a university by becoming president of the University of Chicago.

October 10–17 Sports: The New York Yankees (AL) win the World Series by defeating the Los Angeles Dodgers (NL) four games to two.

October 15 Business: Congress passes the National Energy Act of 1978, which regulates natural gas prices, encourages the use of coal by utilities, and provides tax credits for energy conservation.

October 16 Business: Herbert A. Simon of Carnegie-Mellon University wins the Nobel Prize in economics.

October 17 Science: Arno A. Penzias and Robert W. Wilson of Bell Laboratories win the Nobel Prize in physics for their discovery of weak radiation throughout the universe; they share the prize with Per Kapitsa of the Soviet Union for his work with liquid helium.

October 20 Business: Wall Street suffers its worst week in history, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average hovering at 838.01, and down 59.08 points from the week previous. The root cause is spiraling inflation rates, which have triggered a frantic selling spree.

October 27 Labor: President Jimmy Carter signs the Humphrey-Hawkins full-employment bill, which calls for a reduction in unemployment to 4 percent and a lowering of inflation to 3 percent by 1983.

October 31 Business: The Federal Reserve Board raises the discount rate offered to banks to 9.5 percent in an attempt to check inflationary trends.

1978

Chronology

2229

November Aviation: The U.S. Air Force orders its first stealth aircraft, the Lockheed F-117 Night Hawk, into production. It is the world’s first radar-absorbing design.

November 1 Business: President Jimmy Carter conducts “massive intervention” in foreign currency markets to bolster the U.S. dollar, including increased sales of gold and an increase in the discount rate.

November 4 Religion: The National Council of Churches elects Reverend M. William Howard, Jr., a 32-year-old African American, to be its youngest-ever president.

November 7 Politics: Midterm elections favor the Republicans, who pick up three Senate seats and 12 House seats, but the Democrats are still firmly in control.

November 18 General: Congressman Leo Ryan of California is gunned down and killed while investigating reports of a murderous cult at Jonestown, Guyana. This triggers the mass suicide of 911 members, who drink cyanide-laced Kool-Aid.

November 27 Crime: In San Francisco, California, former supervisor Dan White guns down Mayor George Moscone and city supervisor Harvey Milk, an act that outrages the homosexual community. Societal: The United States declares it will allow an additional 15,000 Indochinese refugees into the country; there is currently a mass stampede to escape Communist-run death camps in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam.

December 9 Science: The unmanned Pioneer Venus 2 space probe enters into orbit around the planet Venus and begins dropping four probes to the surface, which relay back valuable telemetric information about conditions there.

December 15 Diplomacy: The United States and China announce that they will commence full diplomatic relations as of December 1, 1979. This also entails the severing of diplomatic ties with the Republic of China on Taiwan.

December 16 Politics: A financially troubled Cleveland, Ohio, becomes the first American city to default on its bills since the Great Depression.

1979 January 1 Diplomacy: In a major development, the United States severs diplomatic relations with the Republic of China on Taiwan in favor of recognizing the People’s Republic of China on the mainland.

January 4 General: The parents of four students killed by National Guardsmen at Kent State, Ohio, and those of the nine who were wounded, settle out of court for a total of $675,000.

1979

2230

Chronology of American History

January 11 Medical: Surgeon General Julius B. Richmond issues a report condemning cigarette smoking as “the single most important environmental factor contributing to early death.”

January 12 General: The Midwest is rocked by a blizzard that kills 100 people.

February 1 Crime: After serving 22 months of a seven-year jail sentence for armed robbery, Patricia Hearst is released from prison by President Jimmy Carter.

February 5 Agriculture: An estimated 3,000 farmers highlight their economic plight by driving their tractors and trucks through Washington, D.C., which results in a massive traffic jam.

February 8 Diplomacy: President Jimmy Carter severs ties with the regime of Anastasio Somoza DeBayle in Nicaragua, despite the fact that his country is beset by a Communist insurgency.

February 13 Civil: The Civil Rights Commission issues a report stating that 46 percent of minority children are still attending segregated schools.

February 14 Diplomacy: In Kabul, Afghanistan, the U.S. ambassador is kidnapped and then killed when government troops attempt to free him.

February 26 Business: President Jimmy Carter asks Congress for legislation allowing him to impose gas rationing and other conservation measures to lessen national oil consumption. It comes in response to Iraq’s halting of oil exports as well as price increases by Kuwait and Venezuela. Diplomacy: The Senate confirms Leonard Woodcock as America’s first ambassador to the People’s Republic of China.

February 27 Women: Historian Barbara Tuchman becomes the first female president of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

March 5 Science: The unmanned spacecraft Voyager I swings within 172,000 miles of the giant planet Jupiter, transmitting back the first closeup pictures of that planet and its moons. Women: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that alimony laws requiring men to pay alimony but not women are unconstitutional.

March 26 Diplomacy: At a solemn ceremony in Washington, D.C., Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin sign a treaty that ends the strained relations between them that has persisted since 1948. President Jimmy Carter has been a driving force behind the agreement by dint of his forceful and moralistic personal diplomacy.

1979

Chronology

2231

March 28 Science: The nuclear reactor at Three Mile Island near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, is shut down following an accident that releases some radioactivity into the atmosphere. A complete meltdown had been averted in time, but the incident focuses public attention on the safety and desirability of nuclear power. Pregnant women are ordered out of the area by the governor.

April 3 Music: After 44 years, Eugene Ormandy retires as musical director of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Women: Jane Byrne is elected mayor of Chicago by the largest margin of votes since 1901.

April 4 Media: Academy Awards go to The Deer Hunter for best picture of 1978 and to John Voight and Jane Fonda as best actor and actress for Coming Home.

April 5 Business: The gradual elimination of all price controls on domestic oil supplies is ordered by President Jimmy Carter.

April 10 General: Tornadoes are active along the Texas-Oklahoma border (“Tornado Alley”), killing 60 people and injuring 800.

April 16 Arts: Pulitzer Prizes go to The Stories of John Cheever, fiction; Now and Then Poems by Robert Penn Warren, poetry; and Buried Child by Sam Shepard, drama.

May 25 Aviation: A Douglas DC-10 jumbo jet experiences a crack in an engine mount, causing it to crash after takeoff from O’Hare International Airport, Chicago, killing 273 people. This is one of the worst single airplane accidents in aviation history.

June 7 Labor: Independent truckers go on strike to protest the high costs of diesel fuel, and violence flares against nonstriking truckers to the point where National Guard troops are summoned in several states. Military: President Jimmy Carter approves a new guided missile system called the MX, which is stationed on railroad cars below ground to prevent detection and destruction.

June 12 Aviation: The lightweight, human-powered Gossamer Albatross is successfully flown across the English Channel for the first time.

June 13 Indian: The Sioux nation receives a record $17.5 million in damages for a region of land in the Black Hills of South Dakota that was illegally taken from them in 1877.

June 18 Diplomacy: In Vienna, Austria, President Jimmy Carter and Soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev sign the new SALT II agreement, which limits the number of offensive bombers and missiles of both nations to 2,250 each.

1979

2232

Chronology of American History

June 25 Media: The Public Broadcasting System (PBS) reorganizes itself into three separate networks, each using its own satellite transmission.

June 27 Civil: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that it is constitutional to promote AfricanAmerican employees ahead of more-senior white staff to offset past racial discrimination.

June 28 Business: The Oil Producing and Exporting Countries (OPEC) elect to raise the price of a barrel of oil by 50 percent, triggering a wave of inflation around the globe.

June 29 Diplomacy: In light of drastic OPEC oil increases, the United States and other oilconsuming nations agree to establish ceilings on oil imports for the next five years.

July Business: John J. Ricardo, chairman of the ailing Chrysler Corporation, announces second-quarter losses of $200 million.

July 2 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that public or press access in criminal pretrial proceedings is not a constitutional right.

July 11 Science: The Skylab space station is allowed to break up and fall back into the atmosphere, showering debris over the Indian Ocean and Australia.

July 15 Media: President Jimmy Carter takes to the airwaves to announce a new energy conservation program costing $140 billion over the next decade by limiting oil imports and shifting to alternative fuel sources.

July 19 Politics: To stop the perceived drift in his administration, President Jimmy Carter dismisses four members of his cabinet, while a fifth resigns.

July 25 Business: President Jimmy Carter appoints Paul Volcker the new chairman of the Federal Reserve Board.

August 15 Diplomacy: American UN ambassador Andrew Young resigns after being criticized for his unauthorized meeting with representatives of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in July.

September 1 Science: The unmanned spacecraft Pioneer II undergoes a close encounter with the giant planet Saturn, taking many impressive photographs of its rings and discovering an 11th moon.

September 12–14 General: The Gulf Coast takes a mauling from Hurricane Frederic, packing winds of up to 130 miles per hour; eight people die and $1.5 billion in damages result.

1979

Chronology

2233

September 23 Politics: New York City is the scene of an antinuclear protest numbering 200,000 people.

September 27 Education: Congress creates the new Department of Education at the behest of President Jimmy Carter and the National Educational Association.

October 1 Diplomacy: The United States formally surrenders the Panama Canal to the government of Panama, although actual control does not begin until the last day of the century.

October 1–7 Religion: Pope John Paul II begins a weeklong pilgrimage to the United States, which boasts 50 million Catholics, roughly 20 percent of its overall population. He becomes the first pope to meet with an American president at the White House on October 6.

October 3 Business: The government announces a record 25-million metric ton sale of wheat and corn to the Soviet Union over the next year.

October 6–11 Business: On Saturday night, the Federal Reserve Board announces an increase in the prime lending rate to banks from 11 to 12 percent, plus other actions to curb the money supply. A stock panic ensues, and stock prices drop to their lowest level since 1929, but the market rebounds by October 11.

October 10–17 Sports: The Pittsburgh Pirates (NL) win the World Series by defeating the Baltimore Orioles (AL) four games to three.

October 12 Science: Allan M. Cormack, Tufts University, and Geoffrey N. Hounsfield of Great Britain share the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for developing the CAT scan, an advanced X-ray device.

October 16 Science: Herbert C. Brown, Purdue University, and Georg Wittig of West Germany share the Nobel Prize in chemistry for studying boron and phosphorous; Steve Weinberg and Sheldon L. Glashow of Harvard University, and Abdus Salam of Pakistan, share the Nobel Prize in physics for developing a unified field theory.

October 17 Business: Theodore W. Schultz, University of Chicago, and Arthur Lewis, Princeton University, win the Nobel Prize in economics. Education: President Jimmy Carter signs a bill creating the Department of Education, the 13th cabinet-level agency.

October 30 Education: Shirley Hufstedler is appointed the first secretary of the new Department of Education.

1979

2234

Chronology of American History

November 3 Crime: Ku Klux Klan members fire into a crowd of protesters taunting them, killing five and wounding eight. Twelve Klan members are arrested and charged with first-degree murder.

November 4 Diplomacy: The United States has its first confrontation with militant Islam when Muslim students, angered by the readmission of the former shah of Iran to America for cancer treatment, storm the U.S. embassy in Tehran and take 66 hostages. President Jimmy Carter responds to the crisis by expelling all Iranian students in the country.

November 8 Education: Robert W. Woodruff, retiring head of the Coca Cola Company, bequeaths $100 million to Emory University, Atlanta; this is probably the largest single philanthropic donation in history.

November 12 Diplomacy: In light of the Iranian hostage situation, President Jimmy Carter orders all Iranian assets in the United States frozen in American banks.

November 15 Labor: Lane Kirkland is elected president of the AFL-CIO to replace retiring George Meany, who had served since 1955.

November 21 Diplomacy: The U.S. embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, is besieged by a hostile mob, and one U.S. Marine is killed.

December 2 Diplomacy: An angry mob attacks the U.S. embassy in Tripoli, Libya.

December 4 Politics: Despite sinking poll numbers and a growing perception that he is in over his head, President Jimmy Carter declares his candidacy for reelection.

December 19 Business: To offset a lingering economic malaise, Congress bails out the ailing Chrysler Corporation with a $1.5-billion loan.

1980 Aviation: Since their invention in 1944, helicopters are estimated to have rescued 1 million people from danger.

January 2 Business: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission reports that 38 of 68 nuclear power plants in the United States failed to meet mandated safety changes in equipment and procedures.

January 4 Diplomacy: President Jimmy Carter, to protest the recent Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, stops delivery of half of the 17-million metric tons of wheat ordered by Moscow.

1980

Chronology

2235

January 8 Aviation: The government reveals that 300 U.S. Air Force personnel had taken part in military exercises in Egypt during December last.

January 14 Medical: The U.S. Surgeon General reports that lung cancer in women is increasing rapidly and will overtake breast cancer as the leading cause of death.

January 16 Medical: Scientists in Boston announce the first successful synthesis of human interferon, held as possibly useful in the fight against some types of cancer.

January 18 Business: The price of gold on the New York stock market rises $159 to $802 in a single week.

January 20 Diplomacy: President Jimmy Carter announces that the United States will boycott the upcoming Summer Olympics, due to be held in Moscow, because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

January 23 Politics: In his State of the Union address, President Jimmy Carter declares that the United States will defend the Persian Gulf oil routes by force if necessary.

January 24 Diplomacy: In a major break from the past, President Jimmy Carter announces that the United States will begin selling weapons technology to the People’s Republic of China; this comes in response to the recent Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

January 25 Business: Statistics released by government agencies indicate the highest rates of inflation in 33 years.

January 28 Naval: A Coast Guard cutter accidentally strikes an oil tanker near the Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay, Florida, killing 23 sailors.

January 29 Diplomacy: Six Americans escape from Iran with the help of Canadian embassy personnel.

February 2–3 Crime: A prison riot in Santa Fe, New Mexico, leave 33 inmates dead and 89 injured. State police and National Guard troops are ordered in to restore order.

February 3 Journalism: Several press reports indicate a far-reaching corruption investigation by the FBI whereby agents, posing as wealthy Arabs, bribed a senator and seven congressmen. This incident goes down in history as the Abscam Affair.

February 14 Science: The 1,500-pound Solar Maximum Observatory is successfully placed in orbit to study solar flares.

1980

2236

Chronology of American History

March 15 Indian: The Penobscot Indian tribe of Maine accepts an $81.5-million settlement over land they claim was taken from them illegally in 1790.

March 17 Societal: President Jimmy Carter signs the Refugee Act of 1980, which expands the legal definition of the term refugee and raises the ceiling admitted from 290,000 to 320,000.

March 27 Business: Silver drops by $5 in a single day to $10.80 per ounce, a fact prompting billionaires Nelson and W. Herbert Hunt of Dallas to renege on agreements forcing them to purchase 19 million ounces of the metal at $356 per ounce by surrendering vast silver holdings and Canadian oil properties worth $500 million. Crime: Michele Sidona is found guilty of 65 counts of fraud stemming from the failure of the Franklin Bank in New York City.

March 31 Business: President Jimmy Carter signs legislation that effectively deregulates the banking industry and also increases the amount of federally insured accounts to $100,000.

April 2 Business: In light of skyrocketing profits posted by the oil companies, President Jimmy Carter signs the Crude Oil Windfall Tax Act, which remains the largest single tax ever levied against a single industry and is expected to raise $227 billion by 1990.

April 7 Diplomacy: The United States expels all remaining Iranian diplomats from the country, and all exports to the outlaw regime are banned.

April 11 Women: The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issues regulations prohibiting sexual harassment of women in government or business.

April 14 Arts: Pulitzer Prizes go to The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer, fiction; Selected Poems by Donald R. Justice, poetry; and Talley’s Folly by Lanford Wilson, drama. Media: Academy Awards go to Kramer v. Kramer for best picture of 1979 and to its star Dustin Hoffman, best actor; Sally Field is best actress for Norma Rae.

April 24 Aviation: After several months of failed negotiations to secure American hostages held in Tehran, Iran, by militant students, President Jimmy Carter authorizes a helicopter-borne commando mission to rescue them by force. However, the mission comes to grief at a landing zone christened Desert One when a transport and a helicopter collide in a sandstorm, killing eight Americans and wounding five.

April 24 Politics: In light of the Iranian hostage fiasco, Secretary of State Cyrus Vance resigns from office and is replaced by Maine senator Edmund Muskie.

1980

Chronology

2237

April 28 Medical: The American Cancer Society reports that 8.5 million Americans will die from cancer in the 1980s, 2 million more than in the previous decade.

April 29 Religion: Evangelical Christians hold their Washington for Jesus Rally, which brings 200,000 participants.

May 9 General: The freighter Summit Venture rams into the Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay, Florida, killing 35 people.

May 17–19 Civil: African Americans riot in Miami, Florida, after an all-white jury acquits a police officer charged in the shooting of a black insurance executive. After three days, 18 people are dead, 400 injured, and 1,000 are arrested, while property damage is estimated at $100 million.

May 18 General: The towering peak known as Mt. St. Helens in western Washington state suddenly explodes with tremendous force, killing 26 people and showering heated volcanic ash for 120 miles in all directions. Total damage is estimated at $2.7 billion. The last recorded activity there was in 1857.

May 28 Women: The service academies graduate their first women officers, with 61 from West Point, 55 from Annapolis, and 97 from the Air Force Academy.

May 30 Business: The Commerce Department releases figures showing that the index of economic indicators fell 4.8 percent in April, its largest-ever monthly drop.

June 3 Societal: Cuban dictator Fidel Castro allows 101,476 of his countrymen to flee to Florida, including many criminals among them. The U.S. government begins taking measures to slow the tide.

June 16 Business: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that new life crafted in a laboratory from genetic engineering can be patented.

June 20 Business: Congress passes legislation to deregulate the trucking industry, whereby restrictive regulations are relaxed and companies are allowed to set their own rates.

June 23–August 15 General: The Midwest is devastated by a heat wave and drought that kills crops and cattle, along with 1,272 people in 20 states.

June 27 Military: In another belated response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, President Jimmy Carter signs legislation reactivating draft registration for 19- and 20-year-old men.

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July 3 Business: The Firestone Tire and Rubber Company is forced to recall 1.8 million steel-belted radial tires for possible defects.

July 14 –17 Politics: The Republican Party convenes in Detroit, Michigan, and nominates California governor Ronald W. Reagan as their presidential nominee, and George H. W. Bush as their vice presidential nominee. Reagan, a former movie star and Democrat, intends to campaign on the revitalization of America through traditional values of religion, hearth, and hard work.

August 11–14 Politics: In New York City, President Jimmy Carter, having handily squelched a challenge by Massachusetts senator Edward M. Kennedy, accepts the Democratic Party’s nomination to head up the party’s presidential banner. Vice President Walter Mondale is likewise chosen for a second term in office.

September 19 Military: A Titan-2 missile suffers an explosion in its silo at Damascus, Arkansas, killing one airman and injuring 21.

October 10 Science: Baruji Benacerraf, Harvard University; George Snell, Jackson Laboratory, Maine; and Jean Dausset of France share the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for their work with antigens in the human body.

October 14–21 Sports: The Philadelphia Phillies (NL) win the World Series by defeating the Kansas City Royals (AL) four games to two.

October 14 Science: Paul Berg, Stanford University; Walter Gilbert, Harvard University; and Frederick Sanger of England share the Nobel Prize in chemistry for their work with DNA structures; James Cronin, University of Chicago, and Val L. Finch, Princeton University, share the Nobel Prize in physics for their work with subatomic symmetry.

October 15 Business: Lawrence R. Klein of the University of Pennsylvania wins the Nobel Prize in Economics.

October 28 Media: President Jimmy Carter and challenger Ronald W. Reagan square off in a nationally televised debate; Reagan, a former actor, comes off as extremely smooth and self-confident, while Carter appears awkward and vacillating. National polls indicate that the charismatic Republican “won” the event.

November 4 Politics: Republican Ronald W. Reagan routs Democrat Jimmy Carter for the presidency, capturing 489 electoral votes to 49, and winning 42.7 million popular votes to the latter’s 34.4 million. The Republicans also capture control of the Senate while gaining an additional five seat in the House of Representatives.

November 12 Science: The unmanned space probe Voyager I arrives within 77,000 miles of the giant planet Saturn and discovers several new rings, along with three new moons.

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President Ronald W. Reagan salutes military personnel gathered in his honor. (U. S. Department of Defense)

November 15 Communication: The largest and most sophisticated Hughes 376 communications satellite, one of few such devices manufactured on a factory production line, is placed into orbit.

November 21 General: The MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, catches fire, killing 84 people; this is the nation’s second worst hotel fire.

December 3 Aviation: Judith Chisholm sets a new women’s record by completing a solo flight around the world in 15 days and 22 minutes in a single-engine aircraft.

December 5 Aviation: Paul Macready’s sun-powered Solar Challenger sets a new endurance record of one hour and 32 minutes for that type of craft.

1981 January 7–19 Business: Acting upon advice of market forecaster Joe Granville to “sell everything,” the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunges 23.8 points but then gradually rebounds.

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January 8 Medical: A report in the New England Journal of Medicine reports that increasing cholesterol levels in food are increasing the risk of coronary death in men.

January 20 Diplomacy: Militants in Tehran, Iran, faced with the prospect of large-scale military intervention from President Ronald W. Reagan, release 52 American hostages after 444 days of close confinement. Former president Jimmy Carter is chosen by Reagan to greet them once they reach West Germany. Politics: In Washington, D.C., the 69-year-old Ronald W. Reagan is inaugurated as the 40th president of the United States, while George H. W. Bush becomes vice president. The new chief executive, the oldest man to hold the office, confidently assures the polity that “we are not, as some would have us believe, doomed to an inevitable decline.”

February 17 Business: In Detroit, Michigan, the ailing Chrysler Corporation posts a yearly loss of $1.7 billion, the largest ever recorded in American business history. Ford and General Motors, who have persisted in manufacturing uneconomical heavy vehicles, also post large losses.

February 18 Politics: In his first State of the Union address, President Ronald W. Reagan proposes a $1-billion cut from his predecessor’s budget, along with a 10 percent

Reagan, Ronald W.

(1911–2004)

President Ronald Wilson Reagan was born in Tampico, Illinois, on February 6, 1911, the son of a shoe salesman. He passed through Eureka College in 1932 and found work as a radio broadcaster before being discovered by a Hollywood talent agent. Reagan proved himself a capable actor and completed more than 50 films in a lengthy and successful career. But partially deaf due to prop pistols, he sat out World War II making training films for the military. Reagan was also a Democrat in the mold of Franklin D. Roosevelt, for whom he campaigned, and he also served as president of the Screen Actors Guild five times. However, during the late 1940s, he cooperated with the House Un-American Activities Committee over the issue of Com-

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munists working in Hollywood, and he gradually adopted a more conservative stance. By the time his film and television career had faded in 1962, Reagan had switched over to the Republican Party as a conservative. In 1966, he defeated the incumbent governor of California, Pat Brown, and he pursued a conservative agenda of cutting taxes, reducing expenditures, and balancing the budget. He was reelected to office by a landslide, and by 1976 he felt successful enough to run for the presidency. That year he failed in his bid to wrest the party presidential nomination from the moderate Gerald R. Ford, but in 1980 he bested George H. W. Bush to become the Republican Party nominee. Reagan, who exuded charm and confidence,

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tax cut each year over the next three years. He also proposes a $5-billion increase in defense spending to offset recent Soviet gains.

February 23 Business: General Motors announces a recall of 6.4 million cars built between 1978 and 1981 to replace bolts in the rear suspension. Sports: A federal judge in Detroit, Michigan, rules that equal athletic programs for men and women are not necessary for educational institutions to receive federal funds.

March 2 Diplomacy: In a complete change from the previous administration, President Ronald W. Reagan announces that his administration will provide the government of President José Napoleon Duarte, El Salvador, with supplies of weapons and military advisers to combat a Communist-inspired rebellion aided by nearby Nicaragua.

March 5 Religion: A California Superior Court judge rules that the teaching of evolution in public schools does not violate the religious rights of fundamentalist Christians.

March 10 Politics: The annual budget of President Ronald W. Reagan calls for expenditures of $695 billion and incurs a deficit of $45 billion, despite the fact that social and other programs have been trimmed back $8 billion.

handily defeated awkwardly performing Democrat Jimmy Carter and also won control of the U.S. Senate for the Republicans. In March 1981, he survived an assassination attempt and went on to have Congress pass his conservative agenda of tax and spending cuts, combined with an extensive military buildup. He also fulfilled a campaign pledge by appointing Sandra Day O’Connor as the first woman on the U.S. Supreme Court. As president, Reagan proved an intractable adversary to the Soviet Union and its Communist allies, and he not only enlarged the size and capability of the American military, but he also supplied arms and ammunition to freedom fighters in Afghanistan and Nicaragua. He also initiated an ambitious space-based missile defense system, popularly known as “Star Wars,” to defeat any surprise

Soviet attacks. Domestically, Reagan’s tenure in office also spelled the beginning of the end for the Roosevelt welfare state, as he forced millions of recipients off the dole and into jobs, many for the first time in their lives. The economy boomed in response to his tax cuts and, in November 1984, Reagan won one of the biggest landslide victories by defeating the Democrats under Walter Mondale, 49 states to one. However, he spent the balance of his second term somewhat under a cloud owing to investigations of his “arms for hostages” deal with the government of Iran. By the time Reagan left Washington, D.C., in January 1989, he had completely reformed a dispirited country and set the stage for the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991. He died in Bel-Air, California, on June 5, 2004, one of America’s most popular and effective heads of state.

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March 12 Business: Standard Oil of Ohio (Sohio) purchases the Kennecott Corporation, the nation’s largest copper producer, for $1.7 billion.

March 23 Women: The U.S. Supreme Court rules 6-3 that states can pass laws preventing physicians from performing abortions on underage teenagers without parental consent.

March 30 General: President Ronald Reagan is shot and wounded by John W. Hinckley, 25, in Washington, D.C., although his wounds are not critical and he recovers. Three other individuals are also seriously injured, including James Brady, his press secretary.

March 31 Media: Academy Awards go to Ordinary People as best picture of 1980, to Robert Di Niro as best actor for Raging Bull, and to Sissy Spacek as best actress for Coal Miner’s Daughter.

April 4 Civil: Gabriel Cisneros becomes the first Mexican-American mayor of an American city by gaining office in San Antonio, Texas.

April 12–14 Science: The space shuttle Challenger successfully lifts off from Cape Kennedy, Florida, although astronauts John Young and Robert Crippen discover that several of its heat-resistant tiles have shaken loose during takeoff. Challenger nonetheless makes the first wheels-down landing of any spacecraft at Edward Air Force Base, California, and regularly scheduled space flights by reusable craft are now a practical reality.

April 21 Diplomacy: The United States agrees to sell Saudi Arabia $1 billion worth of advanced military equipment, including five sophisticated AWACS electronic aircraft, despite protests from Israel.

April 24 Business: President Ronald W. Reagan, true to a campaign pledge, lifts a grain embargo imposed on the Soviet Union over its invasion of Afghanistan. Military: The government announces that a new military command would be created to protect American interests in the Persian Gulf region.

April 30 Politics: New Jersey senator Harrison William is found guilty of accepting bribes connected to the Abscam investigation. He joins seven congressmen who have also been indicted.

June 12 Crime: In Atlanta, Georgia, Wayne Williams, a 21-year-old African-American man, is accused of murdering two young black males; he is eventually charged in the deaths of 28 young blacks over the past two years.

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June 16 Diplomacy: Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig, returning from a trip to China, announces the government’s decision to sell arms to that nation.

June 18 Aviation: The Lockheed F-117 Night Hawk stealth aircraft makes its first successful flight. Medical: Researchers announce an effective vaccination against hoof-andmouth disease for animals, which was also the first produced through genetic engineering.

June 25 Military: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that draft registration could exclude women without violating the U.S. Constitution.

July 7 Aviation: Paul MacReady’s sun-powered Solar Challenger flies across the English Channel from Paris in five hours and 25 minutes.

July 9 Conservation: Governor Jerry Brown of California, faced with a potentially destructive infestation by Mediterranean fruit flies, reluctantly orders aerial spraying to contain them. For the environmentally conscious governor, this is undertaken only as a last resort. Medical: A report in the New England Journal of Medicine states that the herpes simplex virus, the fastest growing sexual disease in the United States, has been successfully suppressed by the new drug acyclovir.

July 17 General: Disaster strikes the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri, as two aerial walkways collapse and fall upon a crowded ballroom, killing 113 people and injuring 190.

July 22 Business: A revamped Chrysler Corporation posts an $11.6-million profit in the previous quarter after two years of record losses.

August 3 Transportation: A strike by the U.S. Professional Air Traffic Controllers idles 13,000 members nationwide, which is illegal in a government contract. President Ronald Reagan warns that any worker not back on the job by August 5 will be fired.

August 4 Business: Congress passes President Ronald W. Reagan’s income tax reduction in slightly modified form, being 5 percent for the first cut instead of 10 percent, followed by two more cuts of 10 percent. In the nation’s largest industrial merger to date, the chemical giant E. I. Du Pont de Nemours acquires Conoco, the ninthlargest oil company, for $7.4 billion.

August 10 Military: President Ronald W. Reagan, determined to increase pressure on the Soviet Union, authorizes production of the new neutron warhead for missiles and artillery.

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August 19 Aviation: U.S. Navy F-14 Tomcats from the carrier USS Nimitz down two Libyan Su-22 jets over the Gulf of Sidra, 60 miles from the Libyan coast, after they had fired on the Americans in international airspace.

August 25 Science: Voyager 2 flies to within 63,000 miles of the planet Saturn, beaming back stunningly beautiful photographs of that planet’s intricate system of rings, thought now to number in the thousands.

September 21 Women: True to his campaign pledge, President Ronald W. Reagan appoints Sandra Day O’Connor as the first female associate justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, and she is confirmed by the Senate on this day.

September 26 Aviation: Boeing unveils its model 767 prototype, the first two-pilot, wide-body, twin-jet airliner in the world.

September 29 Education: After 18 years of decline, the College Board reports that Scholastic Aptitude test scores appear to have leveled off.

October 2 Military: President Ronald W. Reagan rises to the challenge of an assertive Soviet Union by articulating a five-point buildup of American military strength. This includes production of the Rockwell B-1B Lancer strategic bomber, deployment of 100 new MX Peacekeeper missiles in super-hardened silos, and resumed construction of the neutron bomb intended to wipe out Soviet tank columns en masse without destroying Western Europe.

October 8 Business: President Ronald W. Reagan allows the commercial reprocessing of nuclear fuel, reversing an earlier ban by President Jimmy Carter for the purpose of curtailing the manufacture of weapons-grade plutonium.

October 9 Science: David H. Hulbel and Tlosten N. Wiesel of Harvard University share the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine with Roger W. Sperry of the California Institute of Technology for their work on brain processes.

October 13 Business: James Tobin of Yale University wins the Nobel Prize in economics.

October 19 Science: Ronald Hoffman, Cornell University, and Kenichi Fukui of Japan share the Nobel Prize in chemistry for proposing quantum mechanics to predict chemical reactions; Nicholaas Bloembergen, Harvard University, and Arthus Schawlow, Stanford University, share the Nobel Prize in physics for their development of laser spectroscopy.

October 20–28 Sports: The Los Angeles Dodgers (NL) win the World Series by defeating the New York Yankees (AL) four games to two.

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O’Connor, Sandra Day

(1930–     )

Supreme Court justice Sandra Day was born in Waco, Texas, on March 26, 1930, the daughter of a cattle rancher. She was raised in a house without running water, but proved adept as a student and was admitted to Stanford University. She graduated summa cum laude in 1950 and subsequently entered the Stanford University Law School, graduating third in her class and earning her L.L.D. in 1952. Day then looked for work as a lawyer but, because she was a woman, no jobs were tendered save for one offer as secretary, and she eventually served as deputy county attorney for San Mateo County. By this time she had married John Jay O’Connor and relocated with him to Germany to work as a civilian attorney

Supre­me­ Court Justice­ Sandra Day O’Connor (AP photos)

in Frankfurt. After the birth of her third son, O’Connor reentered the legal practice in Arizona by serving as assistant attorney general, 1965–69. In 1969, she agreed to fill a vacancy for the state senate and was twice reelected there as a Republican on her own right. In 1972, O’Connor made history by becoming the first woman to serve as senate majority leader in any state. Two years later she successfully stood for a judgeship on the Maricopa County Superior Court, and Demo-­ cratic governor Bruce Babbit appointed her to the Arizona Court of Appeals. In this capacity O’Connor displayed her trademark moderate conservatism by supporting work-­ man’s compensation but generally opposing affirmative-­action programs. On July 7, 1981, President Ronald W. Reagan, determined to fulfill his pledge to the nation, nominated O’Connor to be the first female associate justice on the U.S. Supreme Court to replace retiring Justice Potter Stewart. On September 21 of that year, the U.S. Senate voted unani-­ mously, 99-­0, in favor of confirmation, and she took her place as the first woman justice in the Supreme Court’s 191-­year history. Once on the bench, O’Connor gravitated toward the center on many controversial issues and generally could be found as a decisive swing voter. She thus proved a mod-­ erating influence on the increasingly conser-­ vative court of Chief Justices Warren Burger and William H. Rehnquist, and, in 1992, she cast a decisive vote to preserve a woman’s right to abortion in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, while still allowing states to impose a 24-­hour waiting period. In other cases such as Richmond v. J. A. Croson Co. (1989) and Adarand Constructors v. Pena (1995), she sided with conservatives to restrict, but not (continues)

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(continued) totally abolish, affirmative action for minorities. She also provided decisive votes intending to restrict congressional power to regulate interstate commerce and, in United States v. Morrison (2000), she helped rule that the federal government could not justify a federal law that made gender-based acts of violence

federal crimes. O’Connor served 25 years on the Supreme Court, gaining a reputation as one of the nation’s finest legal minds, before announcing her retirement in the fall of 2006. On January 31, 2007, she was formally replaced by Justice Samuel Alito, and she has since returned to private life.

October 22 Labor: The federal Labor Relations Authority decertifies PATCO, the striking air controllers’ union, thereby eliminating any chance of a negotiated settlement with the strikers.

October 28 Diplomacy: President Ronald W. Reagan, determined to cement the strategic country of Saudi Arabia as an ally in the struggle with global communism and Islamic militarists in Iran, convinces Congress to sell the Saudis advanced F-15 Eagle fighter jets and sophisticated Airborne Warning and Control Systems (AWACS) to defend their oil fields.

November 14 Science: The space shuttle Columbia completes the first-ever second flight of a reusable spacecraft, although the mission is cut short by a faulty fuel cell.

November 18 Media: President Ronald W. Reagan gives a televised address, broadcast live throughout Europe, outlining his decision to deploy medium-range Pershing II and cruise missiles if the Soviet Union doe not dismantle all of its offensive weaponry in Eastern Europe.

December 4 Politics: President Ronald W. Reagan, for the first time, authorizes covert domestic intelligence operations by the CIA and other agencies to curtail spying by the Soviet Union and others.

December 8 Religion: The U.S. Supreme Court, in a major decision, upholds the right of religious student organizations to hold services in public colleges and universities.

December 29 Diplomacy: In the wake of the Polish Communist regime’s crackdown on the labor union Solidarity, President Ronald W. Reagan imposes sanctions on the Soviet Union, whom he holds responsible for events in Poland. However, he continues selling wheat and other grains to the Soviets.

1982 Science: Scientists working at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, announce the discovery of between four to six new moons orbiting the

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giant planet Saturn. Paleontologists from Ohio State University announce the first fossilized animal remains from the Antarctic continent.

January 4 Politics: National Security Advisor Richard V. Allen resigns from office after taking $1,000 from Japanese journalists to arrange a meeting with Nancy Reagan.

January 5 Education: In Arkansas, a federal judge strikes down a state law mandating the teaching of both creationism and evolution in public schools, with the former being held a violation of the separation of church and state; the College Board reports that test scores by African-American students average 100 points lower than their white counterparts.

January 8 Business: An antitrust suit results in the breakup of American Telegraph and Telephone (AT&T) into 22 regional communications companies under the Bell Company, the largest such action in many years. Labor: Statistics released by the Labor Department reveal an unemployment rate of 8.9 percent.

January 9–17 General: The country is in the grip of one of the coldest winters on record, with widespread freezing temperatures, blizzards, and high winds.

January 13 Aviation: In Washington, D.C., an Air Florida Boeing 737 crashes after takeoff into the icy Potomac River, killing 74 of 79 people onboard. A further four die as the craft strikes the 14th Street Bridge going into the river.

January 26 Politics: In his State of the Union message, President Ronald W. Reagan declares his intention to reduce the impact of the federal government upon daily life by transferring many social programs, such as food stamps, to the states.

February 6 Business: President Ronald W. Reagan proffers an annual budget of $757 billion, with projected deficits of $91.5 billion. He also asks for cuts in domestic spending and an increased defense budget.

February 26 Medical: The National Academy of Sciences expresses concern over what it perceives as widespread use of marijuana.

February 27 Crime: African-American Wayne Williams is convicted of murdering 28 young black men in the Atlanta, Georgia, region; he receives two consecutive life terms.

February 28 Labor: To keep their jobs in uncertain times, the United Auto Workers makes wage and benefit compromises in a new contract with the Ford Motor Company.

March 10 Diplomacy: President Ronald Reagan announces economic sanctions against Libya, including a ban on oil, in response to that country’s support for terrorism.

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March 11 Business: The Marathon Oil Company agrees to merge with the United States Steel Corporation in the second largest such transaction in U.S. business history.

March 12 Arts: Pulitzer Prizes go to Rabbit Is Rich by John Updike, fiction; The Soul of a New Machine by Racy Kidder, poetry; and A Soldier’s Play by Charles Fuller, drama.

March 21 Labor: General Motors and the United Auto Workers sign a new contract agreement with wage and benefit compromises to buoy the company during difficult times.

March 25 Aviation: The Beech Company rolls out its 15,000th twin-tailed Bonanza, now in production for 35 years.

March 29 Media: Academy Awards go to Chariots of Fire as best picture of 1981; and to Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn, best actor and actress, for On Golden Pond.

May 1 General: Knoxville, Tennessee, hosts the World’s Fair, and President Ronald W. Reagan is on hand for opening ceremonies.

May 13 Business: Braniff International Corporation, the nation’s eighth largest airline, files for bankruptcy in the wake of deregulation.

June 12 Politics: A large gathering of antinuclear demonstrators, estimated at 500,000, gathers in New York’s Central Park to promote nuclear arms control.

June 15 Education: The U.S. Supreme Court overturns a Texas law denying educational benefits to the children of illegal aliens and declares that all children are eligible for public education.

June 18 Diplomacy: President Ronald W. Reagan bans the export of all oil equipment to the Soviet Union that might assist the country in constructing the Siberian gas pipeline.

June 21 Crime: John Hinckley, Jr., is found not guilty of shooting President Ronald Reagan by reason of insanity.

June 24 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that a president cannot be sued for damages for any decisions or actions he takes while in office.

June 25 Politics: Alexander M. Haig, Jr., resigns as secretary of state and is replaced by George P. Shultz, a former cabinet member and businessman.

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June 29 Religion: The United Presbyterian Church and the Presbyterian Church in the United States agree to merge, and the resulting new entity boasts 3 million members.

June 30 Women: The Equal Rights Amendment fails after it falls three states short of the 38 required for ratification.

July 5 Business: Federal regulators close the Penn Square Bank, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, after massive losses due to loans to depressed energy-based businesses throughout the Southwest.

July 9 Aviation: The crash of a Pan American jetliner at New Orleans International Airport kills 154 people onboard, plus another eight on the ground.

July 16 Religion: The Reverend Sun Myung Moon of the Unification Church is found guilty of tax fraud and conspiracy to obstruct justice, and he receives 18 months in prison and a $25,000 fine.

July 19 Societal: New Census Bureau statistics point to a poverty rate of 14 percent, highlighting an increase of 7.2 percent since 1980.

July 28 Societal: San Francisco, California, is the first American city to outlaw the sale and possession of handguns.

August 5 Military: In a major victory for President Ronald W. Reagan, the Democraticcontrolled House of Representatives rejects a bill that would freeze American and Soviet nuclear arsenals at current levels.

August 11 Business: The AT&T Company, a communications giant, is forbidden by a federal judge to service the growing field of electronic information until it is determined that it will not monopolize the field.

August 12 Politics: Congress approves a budget request by President Ronald W. Reagan to raise $98 billion in taxes to offset a growing deficit and a failing economy.

August 20 Military: A force of 800 U.S. Marines lands in Beirut, Lebanon, as part of a multinational peacekeeping force tasked with supervising the removal of Palestinian fighters.

August 26 Business: The Manville Corporation, the nation’s leading manufacturer of asbestos, files for bankruptcy in the face of 10,000 medical claims against their product.

September 8 Religion: President Ronald Reagan, while he does not directly endorse a bill submitted by North Carolina senator Jesse Helms that would allow prayer in

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Chronology of American History public schools, declares he will not oppose it. The American Lutheran Church, the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches, and the Lutheran Church in America vote to merge into a single denomination boasting 5.5 million members.

September 13 Business: The Interstate Commerce Commission approves a merger between the Union Pacific, Missouri Pacific, and Western Pacific Railroads, which results in a new entity boasting 22,000 miles of track.

September 29–October 1 Crime: Seven people in the Chicago area are killed by cyanide placed in Tylenol capsules.

September 30 Aviation: Ross Perot, Jr., and Jay Coburn fly a Bell 206L-1 Long Ranger on the first successful around-the-world flight by helicopter. Military: One U.S. Marine is killed and three others wounded while trying to defuse a bomb in Beirut, Lebanon.

October Business: George Stigler, University of Chicago, wins the Nobel Prize in economics.

October 12–20 Sports: The St. Louis Cardinals (NL) win the World Series by defeating the Milwaukee Brewers four games to three.

October 15 Business: The New York Stock Exchange reaches a new record of 592 million shares traded.

October 16 Science: Astronomers on Mt. Palomar, California, report the first sighting of Halley’s Comet, then roughly 1 billion miles from Earth.

October 18 Science: Kenneth G. Wilson of Cornell University wins the Nobel Prize in physics for his mathematical model of how matter behaves at high temperature.

October 26 Business: In light of record spending and a sluggish economy, the administration of President Ronald Reagan has a record budget deficit of $110 billion.

November 2 Politics: Midterm elections favor the Democrats, who pick up 26 seats in the House and a number of governorships.

November 11–16 Science: The space shuttle Columbia completes its first operational mission by placing two satellites in orbit.

November 16 Sports: National Football League members end a 57-day strike after concluding a tentative contract settlement.

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November 22 Military: President Ronald Reagan proposes constructing 100 MX Peacekeeper missiles with multiple warheads and deploying them in dense-pack silos, which are held easier to defend. Total costs are projected at $26 billion.

November 23 Societal: Labor Department statistics indicate a 6 percent increase in the cost of living over the past 12-month period.

December 2 Medical: Former dentist Barney C. Clark, 61, receives the first successful artificial heart transplant at the University of Utah Medical Center.

December 2–9 General: The Midwest region is savaged by storms and floods that kill 22 people and force the evacuation of 35,000. Total damage is estimated at $600 million.

December 16 Business: The Federal Reserve Board reports that factory output is at 67.8 percent of operating capacity, the lowest point since records began in 1948.

December 21–23 Business: Congress approves President Ronald W. Reagan’s new gasoline tax of five cents per gallon; the estimated $5.5 billion it generates will go for highway and bridge repair only.

December 27 Business: The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes at a record high of 1,070.55, more proof of the economy’s robust recovery.

1983 Arts: The musical A Chorus Line finishes its last and 3,389th performance, making it the most successful show in Broadway history; the painting Two Women by living artist Willem de Kooning is auctioned for a record $1.2 million. Media: The final episode of the popular wartime comedy M*A*S*H, concerning a mobile hospital in Korea, attracts a record audience of 125 million viewers. Publishing: The book Margaret Mead in Samoa: The Making and Unmaking of an Anthropological Myth by Australian anthropologist Derek Freeman attempts to debunk what he perceives as Mead’s flawed methodology and conclusions.

January 3 Conservation: The Times Beach region of Missouri is declared a federal disaster area by President Ronald W. Reagan, owing to the high levels of the dangerous compound dioxin in the soil.

January 12 Diplomacy: President Ronald Reagan dismisses Eugene Rostow as director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency and replaces him with Kenneth Adelman. Women: True to his pledge to appoint women to high office, President Ronald W. Reagan nominates Margaret Heckler and Elizabeth Dole as the secretaries of Health and Human Services and of Transportation, respectively. Both are quickly confirmed by the Senate.

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January 15 Societal: The National Commission on Social Security Reform recommends increases in taxes, a reduction in the growth of benefits, and a gradual raising of the retirement age in order to keep the system solvent.

January 19 Conservation: Secretary of the Interior James Watt stirs controversy when he labels Native-American reservations “an example of the failures of socialism.”

January 27 Indian: The National Indian Congress, reacting to recent remarks by Secretary of the Interior James Watt, calls for his resignation.

February Politics: This month four leading Democrats declare their candidacy for the presidency: former vice president Walter Mondale, Senators Gary Hart and Alan Cranston, and Florida governor Reuben Askew.

February 2 Religion: Archbishop Joseph L. Bernardin is made one of 18 new cardinals by Pope John Paul II.

February 14 Business: The United American Bank of Knoxville, Tennessee, is declared insolvent and closes its doors in the fourth largest bank failure in the past 50 years, despite deposits of $760 million.

February 22 Conservation: The discovery of large quantities of the carcinogen dioxin in Times Beach, Missouri, induces the government to offer to buy any houses or businesses contaminated there.

March 23 Medical: Barney Clark dies after being hooked for 112 days to the world’s first permanent artificial heart. Politics: A budget approved by the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives reduces the federal budget deficit by $174 billion instead of the $189 billion requested by President Ronald W. Reagan.

March 28 Technology: NASA launches the first Search and Rescue Satellite (SARSAT), which is capable of pinpointing Emergency Locator Transmitters.

March 30 Conservation: The first California condor chick born in captivity arrives at the San Diego Zoo, promising a new lease on life to that endangered species.

April Politics: Democratic senators Ernest Hollings of South Carolina and John Glenn of Ohio also toss their hats into the party’s presidential nominee contest.

April 4 –9 Science: The space shuttle Challenger roars aloft on its maiden voyage into space with Paul Weitz, Donald Peterson, Karol Bobko, and Story Musgrave as part of the crew. Two astronauts onboard also complete the first American space walk in nine years.

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April 11 Media: Academy Awards go to Gandhi for best picture of 1982 and its star Ben Kingsley, best actor; Meryl Strep is best actress for Sophie’s Choice. Military: A presidential panel recommends that the United States acquire 100 new MX Peacekeeper missiles and install them inside existing silos in Wyoming and Nevada.

April 12 Civil: Congressman Harold Washington becomes the first African-American mayor of Chicago, Illinois, defeating the Democratic Party favorite, Jane Byrne.

April 18 Arts: Pulitzer Prizes go to The Color Purple by Alice Walker, fiction; Is There No Place on Earth for Me? by Susan Sheehan, poetry; and ’night, Mother by Marsha Norman, drama. Terrorism: A car bomb explosion destroys the U.S. embassy in Beirut, killing 63 people including 17 Americans.

April 20 Business: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that states can outlaw the construction of nuclear power plants for economic reasons. Politics: A compromise bipartisan bill designed to keep Social Security solvent is signed into law by President Ronald W. Reagan.

April 26 Education: A federal report laments that the quality of American education is so poor that it “threatens our very future as a nation.” It also estimates that 23 million Americans are functionally illiterate.

May 2 General: Governor George Deukmejian declares Fresno County a disaster area after strong earthquakes severely rattle the central region of California.

May 3 Religion: The nuclear arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union is condemned in a pastoral letter issued by the Roman Catholic bishops of America.

May 4 Diplomacy: The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives approves a nonbinding resolution calling for a “mutual and verifiable freeze and reduction in nuclear weapons.”

May 24 Military: Congress authorizes $625 million for the first batch of MX Peacekeeper missiles after President Ronald W. Reagan promises the Democrats to be more flexible with the Soviet Union in arms control talks. Societal: The U.S. Supreme Court votes 8 to 1 to allow the Internal Revenue Service to deny tax-exempt status to private schools that practice racial discrimination.

June 13 Science: The unmanned space vehicle Pioneer II crosses the orbit of Neptune and coasts completely out of the solar system on a voyage into the unknown reaches of space.

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June 15 Women: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that many local ordinances against abortion are unconstitutional based on its prior ruling in Roe v. Wade.

June 18 Business: President Ronald Reagan reappoints economist Paul Volker as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, believing that his policies have helped to end the 1981–82 recession.

June 18–24 Women: Astronaut Sally K. Ride becomes the first American woman into space while riding aboard the space shuttle Challenger’s second flight.

June 23 Politics: The U.S. Supreme Court declares that the congressional legislative veto over federal agencies is unconstitutional and an intrusion upon the executive branch.

June 25 Business: The nuclear Washington Public Power Supply System becomes the largest governmental unit to fail in American business history when it defaults on $2.5 billion in loans.

July 22 Aviation: A Bell JetRanger II flown by Dick Smith performs the fist solo helicopter flight around the world.

Ride, Sally

(1951–

)

Astronaut Sally Kristen Ride was born in Encino, California, on May 26, 1951, the daughter of a college science professor. Athletic and something of a tomboy, she excelled at tennis and science and won a partial scholarship to the private Westlake School for Girls. In 1969, Ride enrolled at Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania, but disliked the cold winters and transferred to Stanford University back in California. In 1973, she received two bachelor’s degrees, one in English and the other in physics, and she subsequently obtained her master’s degree in 1975 and a doctorate in astrophysics in 1978. That same year the NASA space agency announced it would be selecting qualified women applicants to serve as future astronauts, and she

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applied. Over 1,000 women applied but Ride, by dint of her pristine academic credentials, was among six chosen from a pool of 35 new trainees. These new astronauts were slated to launch and operate the new space shuttle, a large, reusable spacecraft then under development. Accordingly, Ride reported to NASA in July 1978 and began her astronaut training, which included navigation, physics, astronomy, mathematics, and computer programming. In addition to her studies—ever the tomboy—she also kept in shape through a vigorous routine of lifting weights, jogging, and playing tennis, at all of which she excelled. As a mission specialist with flight STS-7, the shuttle Challenger, she was tasked with manning and operating

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July 28 Business: The United States and the Soviet Union conclude a five-year grain agreement, which increases annual purchases by the latter to anywhere from between 9 to 12 million metric tons, and up from the current 6 million.

August 5 Business: Federal judge Harold Green approves a plan that allows communications giant AT&T to break itself up into seven regional companies.

August 9 Science: The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, reports the first direct evidence of planetary bodies around distant stars, in this instance Vega, which is not another sun.

August 21 Technology: A band of youthful Milwaukee computer mavens demonstrates its prowess by hacking into some 60 business computers nationwide.

August 27 Civil: The 20th anniversary of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, “March on Washington” draws an estimated 250,000 participants.

August 30–September 5 Science: Lieutenant Col o nel Guion S. Bluford becomes the first African American in space once he rockets into orbit aboard the space shuttle Challenger. With him is Dr. William Thornton who, at 54 years of age, is the oldest

the Remote Manipulator System (RMS), a 50-foot robotic arm built in Canada, for the purposes of launching and retrieving satellites in orbit. While awaiting her chance to fly, Ride also flew in the chase plane during the very first space shuttle mission by Columbia in April 1981, and during the second and third flights by that craft she served as capcom, or capsule communicator, a highly important link to ground control. On July 26, 1982, she also married Steven Hawley, a fellow astronaut. On June 18, 1983, Ride made history after lifting off onboard Challenger and orbiting Earth for six days, becoming both the first American woman in orbit and, aged 31 years, the youngest American to fly into space. She launched and retrieved a satellite in orbit for the first time. She returned safely

and became something of a national celebrity and became an unofficial spokesperson for NASA and the space program. On October 5, 1984, Ride became the first mission specialist to fly twice onboard the Challenger and used her robotic arm to scrape ice off the shuttle’s exterior. The Challenger was lost to an explosion on January 28, 1986, killing all seven astronauts, and Ride was chosen by President Ronald Reagan to serve on the investigating committee. She also lectured and wrote children’s books about space flight before finally leaving NASA in 1987. Since then Ride has taught astrophysics at Stanford University and the California Space Institute at the University of California, San Diego. She remains personally committed to expanding scientific opportunities for women in space.

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Chronology of American History American astronaut. Challenger also makes the shuttle’s first night landing on this mission.

September Sports: In a historic first, the Australian vessel Australia II defeats the U.S. vessel America in four of seven races and takes the America’s Cup back home. This breaks the nation’s longest winning streak of 132 years.

September 1 Diplomacy: In a major international incident, a Soviet Su-15 jet fighter shoots down South Korean Airlines Flight 007, killing all 269 passengers onboard after it strays into Russian airspace. The tally includes 61 American citizens, and an outraged President Ronald W. Reagan demands a full explanation from the Kremlin leaders. Military: A force of 2,000 U.S. Marines is dispatched to war-torn Lebanon as part of an international peacekeeping force.

September 5 Diplomacy: President Ronald Reagan announces sanctions against the Soviet Union for its shooting down of a Korean airliner, which includes suspension of a U.S. consulate in Kiev.

September 10 Education: The Carnegie Endowment for the Advancement of Teaching suggests that two-thirds of a student’s schooling should cover literature, history, mathematics, sciences, and foreign languages.

September 13 Military: In light of attacks by Muslim extremists, President Ronald W. Reagan authorizes U.S. Marine contingents deployed in Lebanon to call for naval support fire and air strikes to protect themselves.

September 15 Military: Reversing itself after the Soviets shoot down Flight 007, the Democraticcontrolled House of Representatives votes to approve a $187.5-billion defense bill that includes funding for both the MX Peacekeeper missile and B-1B Lancer bomber, along with a new generation of chemical weapons.

September 20 Politics: Congress, consistent with the War Powers Act, authorizes U.S. Marines to remain in Lebanon for another 18 months.

September 21 Politics: Controversial secretary of the interior James Watt describes his new coal advisory board thusly: “I have a black, I have a woman, two Jews and a cripple.” A storm of public outrage ensues.

September 23 Labor: Workers at the Weirton Steel Works, West Virginia, vote to buy their plant from the National Steel Corporation to save it from closing.

September 30 Aviation: The first production Hughes AH-64A Apache attack helicopter rolls out of the factory.

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October 9 Politics: Interior Secretary James Watt resigns and is replaced by William P. Clark, the National Security Advisor.

October 10 Science: Barbara McClintock of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Long Island, wins the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for her studies of gene shifting on plant chromosomes.

October 11–16 Sports: The Baltimore Orioles (AL) win the World Series by defeating the Philadelphia Phillies (NL) four games to one.

October 17 Business: Gerard Debreu, University of California, Berkeley, wins the Nobel Prize in economics.

October 19 Science: Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, University of Chicago, and William Fowler, California Institute of Technology, share the Nobel Prize in physics for their work in star densities and element formation in the universe.

October 22 Arts: The New York Metropolitan Opera celebrates its centennial.

October 23 Military: An explosive-laden truck driven by a suicide jihadist explodes in the U.S. Marine compound at Beirut, Lebanon, killing 241 servicemen and wounding 71. This murderous act prompts President Ronald Reagan to reevaluate the marines’ role in the peacekeeping mission there.

October 25–30 Military: In response to the takeover of the Caribbean island nation of Grenada by Marxist revolutionaries, who killed Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and took more than 1,100 American medical students hostage, President Ronald W. Reagan unleashes “Operation Urgent Fury” to rescue them. Air Force, Marine Corps, Army Rangers, and Navy SEALS all come ashore and crush an armed force bolstered by Cuban soldiers, taking them all captive. American losses are 18 dead and 38 wounded, principally by friendly fire; Communist losses include 100 dead and a like number captured.

November 2 Diplomacy: The United Nations Security Council votes 11-1 to condemn U.S. military action against Grenada, but the United States casts the single vote necessary to torpedo the resolution. General: President Ronald Reagan signs legislation denoting the third Monday of every February as Martin Luther King Day and a federal holiday.

November 3 Politics: African-American civil rights activist Jesse Jackson declares his candidacy for the presidency in the Democratic Party, seeking a “rainbow coalition” of blacks, women, and Hispanics who have been otherwise neglected by party regulars.

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November 8 Politics: Martha Layne Collins becomes the first woman governor of Kentucky; W. Wilson Goode is elected the first Â�African-­American mayor of Philadelphia.

November 11 Military: The United States deploys the first of 160 cruise missiles in Great Britain, much to the consternation of the Soviet Â�Union and the EuÂ�roÂ�peÂ�an peace movement. All told, the Americans deploy 571 Â�medium-­range missiles to counter similar RusÂ�sian weapons.

November 20 Media: The controversial film The Day After, depicting the aftermath of a fic-­ tional nuclear exchange, is aired and stirs much discussion about the arms race.

November 23 Diplomacy: The Soviet �Union, angered by the deployment of American cruise missiles in Eu�rope, withdraws from arms limitation talks aimed at reducing such weapons.

December General: An intense cold wave sweeps the United States, killing 400 people and severely damaging citrus crops.

December 4 Aviation: American Â�carrier-­based warplanes attack Syrian positions near Beirut, Lebanon, and two are shot down; one piÂ�lot is killed and one taken prisoner.

December 22 Business: The Federal Trade Commission approves a joint venture by General Motors and Toyota of Japan to establish a new factory in Fremont, California, to manufacture 250,000 automobiles a year.

December 28 Diplomacy: The United States withdraws its membership from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Or�ga�ni�za�tion (UNESCO), citing gross mismanagement and po�liti�cal bias.

1984 Business: The battle for the future heats up as the upstart Apple Computer Com-­ pany introduces its “Macintosh” to compete with industry giant IBM for the growing personal computer market. Medical: The U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute establishes a link between heart disease and high levels of cholesterol in the blood stream; the first baby is born from a donated embryo while another child is born from a previously frozen embryo; American and French researchers inÂ�deÂ�penÂ�dently confirm the existence of a new virus that is dubbed acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Religion: The Methodist Church formally bars homosexuals from holding posi-­ tions within its ministry. Science: American astronomers perceive a planetary body orbiting a distant star in the constellation Ophiucus. Societal: The slang expression “Yuppie” (Young Urban Professional) is coined for a new generation of youthful, wealthy, and highly educated urbanites. Shame-­ lessly materialistic, they work hard but demand the best of virtually everything.

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January 1 Business: The communications conglomerate Bell is broken up into seven regional and competing companies.

January 3 Diplomacy: The Reverend Jesse Jackson ventures to Syria as a private citizen to confer with President Hafez Assad and secures the release of captured airman Robert Goodman, who had been shot down earlier.

January 8 Business: Texaco, Inc., agrees to acquire the Getty Oil Company for $10 billion; this is the largest corporate merger to date.

January 10 Diplomacy: The United States and Vatican City exchange ambassadors after 116 years of diplomatic relations. Both President Ronald W. Reagan and Pope John Paul II share the same anticommunist agenda, especially given the pope’s native homeland of Poland.

January 13 Business: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission withholds a nuclear operating license from a nearly completed power plant in Illinois, the first time such a license is denied.

January 21 Military: The American antisatellite missile system completes its first test by engaging and destroying a target in space.

January 25 Politics: In his State of the Union message, President Ronald W. Reagan triumphantly declares that “America is back—standing tall, looking to the eighties with courage, confidence, and hope.”

February 1 Military: President Ronald W. Reagan orders U.S. Marines, stationed at Beirut, Lebanon, as part of an international peace force, withdrawn.

February 3 Medical: Physicians in California announce the first surrogate conception, whereby a baby conceived in one womb is brought to term in another. Science: The space shuttle Challenger lifts off into orbit with a crew of five, which, when added to four cosmonauts in the orbiting Soyuz-10 spaceship, makes for a record nine human beings in space at once.

February 5–18 General: Violent winds and snow tear through the Plains states and far west, killing 22 people in North Dakota and Minnesota while a blizzard kills an additional 29 in Colorado and Utah.

February 7 Science: The fourth mission of the space shuttle Challenger witnesses astronauts Bruce McCandless and Robert Stewart flying around outside the ship, propelled by jet packs.

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February 8 Business: The Dow Jones Industrial Average constricts 10 percent to 1,156 over the last five weeks.

February 13 Medical: Stormy Jones, a 13-year-old Texas girl, receives the first heart and liver transplant.

February 28 Politics: The election year unfolds in New Hampshire, where Democrat Gary Hart wins his party’s primary at Walter Mondale’s expense, 39 percent to 29 percent, while Ronald Reagan secures 86 percent of votes cast by Republicans.

February 29 Military: All U.S. Marines are withdrawn from Beirut, Lebanon, and redeployed onboard U.S. Navy ships offshore.

March 5 Religion: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that cities may make Nativity scenes as part of official Christmas displays without violating constitutional firewalls between church and state.

March 13 Politics: On this “Super Tuesday,” the race for the nomination for president in the Democratic Party narrows between Gary Hart, who wins primaries in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Florida, and former vice president Walter Mondale, who sweeps Georgia and Alabama.

March 15 Religion: The Senate rejects a constitutional amendment that would have allowed a moment of silent prayer in public schools.

March 20 Politics: Former vice president Walter Mondale moves closer to a lock on the Democratic nomination by winning the Illinois primary. Religion: A proposed constitutional amendment that would have allowed spoken prayer in public schools dies in the Senate by a vote of 56-44, or 11 votes short of a two-thirds majority.

March 29 General: Tornadoes ravage the Carolinas, killing 67 people.

April 3 Politics: Walter Mondale continues his quest for the Democratic presidential nomination by winning the critical New York primary with 45 percent, while previous front-runner Gary Hart comes in second with 27 percent. Reverend Jesse Jackson, the only African American in the contest, secures an impressive 26 percent.

April 9 Media: Academy Awards go to Terms of Endearment as best picture of 1984 and to Shirley MacLaine as best actress; Robert Duvall is best actor for Tender Mercies.

April 10 Politics: The Senate passes a nonbinding resolution that chastises President Ronald W. Reagan for allegedly using federal funds to mine the harbors of

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Communist-led Nicaragua; former vice president Walter Mondale wins the Pennsylvania Democratic primary.

April 13 Civil: Six Ku Klux Klan members and three American Nazis are acquitted by an all-white jury of killing five people in a demonstration at Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1979.

April 16 Arts: Pulitzer Prizes go to Ironweed by William Kennedy, fiction; American Primitive by Mary Oliver, poetry; and Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet, drama.

April 23 Medical: Federal researchers tentatively identify the virus thought to cause acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), which then afflicted an estimated 4,000 Americans, either homosexual or drug addicted.

April 26–May 1 Diplomacy: President Ronald Reagan makes his first visit to Beijing, China, to further isolate the Soviet Union. An agreement is then signed to expand cultural contacts and allow American companies to export nuclear technology to the People’s Republic.

May 1 Politics: Reverend Jesse Jackson wins the heavily African-American District of Columbia primary with 67 percent of votes cast.

May 5 Politics: Walter Mondale triumphs in the Texas Democratic primary while Reverend Jesse Jackson wins in Louisiana.

May 7 Medical: Dow Chemical Company and six other manufacturers of the defoliant Agent Orange, a proven carcinogen, establish a victims fund with $180 million.

May 9 Business: The Johnson Publishing Company supplants Motown as the nation’s largest business owned by African Americans.

May 22 Labor: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that law firms may not discriminate on the basis of sex, race, religion, or national origin when promoting associates or partners.

May 23 Women: Kristine Holderied is the first female midshipman to graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, at the top of her class.

May 24 Business: Esmark, Inc., is acquired by Beatrice Foods Company for $2.8 billion, making it the world’s second largest food producer.

May 28 Military: This Memorial Day, President Ronald Reagan offers a tribute to the only unidentified serviceman killed in Vietnam.

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May 30 Medical: Scientists report an effective chicken pox vaccine that will save 100 to 150 lives every year.

June 1 Labor: Labor Department statistics reveal that unemployment has dropped to 7.4 percent.

June 4 Science: Scientists at the University of California announce the successful cloning of DNA from an extinct relative of the zebra and horse.

June 6 Diplomacy: President Ronald W. Reagan joins dignitaries from Great Britain, Canada, and other nations in celebrations commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Normandy landings in 1944. Politics: Former vice president Walter Mondale sweeps the New Jersey and West Virginia Democratic primaries, then declares victory in his quest for the presidential nomination by his party.

June 10 Military: The American experimental antiballistic missile system scores a direct hit on a target.

June 11 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that illegally obtained evidence could be admissible in court if it could be proved that such evidence would have been eventually discovered by legal means.

June 12 Labor: The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the “last hired—first fired” principle of many businesses, choosing not to overturn long-accepted practices of seniority. The unions applaud but civil rights groups lament the decision.

June 14 Religion: The Southern Baptist Convention passes a nonbinding resolution banning the ordination of women as pastors.

June 15 Business: The Gulf Oil Corporation agrees to acquire the Standard Oil Company of California (SOCAL) for $13.4 billion, the largest such takeover to date.

June 17 Women: Captain Lynn Reippelmeyer is the first female pilot to conduct a Boeing 747 jumbojet across the Atlantic.

June 20 Societal: The House of Representatives passes an amnesty bill for millions of illegal aliens living in the United States who have established their residency prior to 1982. Prospective employers are also required to verify the citizenship of all job applicants before hiring.

June 21 Business: The New York Stock Exchange experiences its largest-ever single stock transaction when 10 million shares of Superior Oil are sold for $423 million.

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June 27–28 Diplomacy: Reverend Jesse Jackson acquires freedom for 48 prisoners held in Cuban jails while also praising the Marxist dictatorship in Nicaragua.

July 3 Women: The all-male Junior Chamber of Commerce (Jaycees) is directed by state courts to accept female members.

July 16–19 Women: A major threshold is crossed when Democrat Walter Mondale chooses Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro of Brooklyn, New York, as his vice presidential running mate.

July 17 Politics: Reverend Jesse Jackson harangues the Democratic National Convention in San Francisco, California, passionately urging support for “the damned, the dispirited, the disinherited, the disrespected, and the despised.” Societal: President Ronald W. Reagan gives all states until October 1, 1986, to raise their drinking age to 21 or face a 5 percent cut in federal highway funds.

July 18 Business: President Ronald W. Reagan signs the Deficit Reduction Act of 1984, which raises taxes by $50 billion and cuts spending by $13 billion though 1987.

July 18–19 Crime: A gun collector angered over losing his job kills 21 people near a McDonald’s restaurant in San Ysidro, California.

July 23 Women: Vanessa Williams, the nation’s first African-American Miss America, relinquishes her crown after learning that the magazine Penthouse will publish nude pictures of her.

July 26 Business: The U.S. government underwrites a $4.5-billion loan to the Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Company, the largest such federal loan guarantee to a private industry to date.

July 28–August 12 Sports: The 23rd Olympiad transpires in Los Angeles, California, although minus Russia and 13 Soviet bloc countries that have boycotted the event in retaliation for an American boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics. Nevertheless, 7,800 athletes from 140 countries are present and viewed by 5.5 million spectators.

August 3 Business: In another good economic sign, the New York Stock Exchange registers a record volume of 236 million shares traded, the first time it exceeded the 200 million mark.

August 9 Religion: U.S. Roman Catholic bishops ask the laity to help promote the church’s agenda on public policy issues.

August 11 Religion: President Ronald W. Reagan signs a law protecting the rights for religious groups to meet in public schools after normal hours.

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August 20–23 Politics: The Republican Party renominates Ronald W. Reagan for president and George H. W. Bush for vice president.

August 30–September 5 Science: The new space shuttle Discovery successfully performs its maiden flight, and the crew includes Judith Resnick, America’s second woman astronaut.

September 20 Terrorism: A suicide car bomb explodes outside the U.S. embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killing two Americans and 21 others.

October 3 Crime: Richard W. Miller becomes the first FBI agent arrested for passing classified documents to the Soviets.

October 7 Media: Louisville, Kentucky, is the scene for the first televised debate between Ronald W. Reagan and Walter Mondale, and the two men focus upon the issues of foreign policy and taxes.

October 9–14 Sports: The Detroit Tigers (AL) win the World Series by defeating the San Diego Padres (NL) four games to one.

October 11 Media: Vice President George H. W. Bush and Democratic contender Geraldine Ferraro meet in the first-ever televised vice presidential debate; viewers subsequently declare that both candidates performed adequately. Science: On the newest flight of space shuttle Challenger, astronaut Dr. Kathyrn D. Sullivan becomes the first American woman to walk in space. The first Canadian astronaut, Marc Garneau, is also onboard.

October 14 Law: President Ronald W. Reagan signs a new law permitting detention of criminal suspects without bail.

October 16 Medical: In a scientific first, a baboon heart is transplanted to 15-day-old Baby Fae at the Loma Linda University Medical Center, California. The experiment fails and she dies November 15.

October 17 Science: Dr. Bruce Merrifield of Rockefeller University wins the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his protein research in the development of new drugs.

October 21 Media: President Ronald Reagan and Democratic challenger Walter Mondale square off in their second televised debate held in Kansas City, Missouri.

November 2 Crime: Margie Velma Barfield becomes the first woman executed for murder in North Carolina in 22 years. Labor: The Labor Department releases new figures pegging the unemployment rate at 7.3 percent.

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November 6 Politics: Republican Ronald Reagan routs Democrat Walter Mondale for the presidency, winning 49 out of 50 states, 525 out of 538 electoral votes, and 54 million popular votes to the latter’s 37 million. Congress continues on as before, with Republicans controlling the Senate and Democrats in charge of the House of Representatives.

November 11 Religion: Roman Catholic bishops issue a pastoral letter on economic justice and call for sweeping economic changes to assist the poor and close the widening gap with the wealthy.

November 12 Science: The space shuttle Discovery performs the first salvage operation in space when astronauts Joseph Allen and Dale Gardner retrieve a nonfunctioning satellite and stow it in the shuttle’s capacious cargo bay.

November 22 Diplomacy: A preliminary arms control meeting takes place between Secretary of State George P. Shultz and Soviet foreign minister Andrei Gromyko.

November 25 Medical: At the Humana Heart Institute, Louisville, Kentucky, William J. Schroeder receives a new, experimental heart constructed from aluminum and plastic.

November 26 Diplomacy: The World Court rules it has jurisdiction in a case brought by the Communist dictatorship in Nicaragua that the United States is an aggressor nation.

November 30 Religion: The Consultation of Church Union results in nine major Protestant denominations after 22 years of deliberation.

December 3 Diplomacy: The release of toxic gas from a Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India, kills 2,000 people and leads to questions as to the legal liabilities of corporations in foreign countries.

December 11–12 Science: Archaeologists report finding a 7,000-year-old human skull with the brains still intact at the bottom of a peat bog in Florida.

December 20 Technology: Bell Laboratories announces creation of the first megabit memory chip capable of storing more than 1 million bits of electronic data.

December 22 Crime: On a New York City subway, engineer Bernhard Goetz is accosted by four African-American teenagers, and he shoots and wounds them after they demanded money from him. His claim of a “right to self-defense” triggers intense discussion across the nation.

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1985 Conservation: The governments of the United States and Canada unveil plans for a joint study on the sources and control of acid rain. Medical: The first effective treatment for liver cancer is unveiled by researchers at Johns Hopkins University. Science: The unmanned spacecraft Voyager 2, seven years out and 1.5 billion miles distant, begins transmitting the first images of the planet Uranus.

January 8 Politics: White House chief of staff James Baker trades places with Secretary of the Treasury Donald Regan.

January 10 Diplomacy: Daniel Ortega, leader of the Marxist Sandinista movement, is sworn in as president of Nicaragua, which only underscores President Ronald W. Reagan’s resolve to depose him through the anticommunist freedom fighters known as contras.

January 18 Diplomacy: The United States withdraws from the World Court proceedings in a case relating to Nicaragua, the mining of its harbors, and support for contra rebels.

January 20–21 General: The United States is staggered by a record cold wave that kills 40 people in 15 states. Politics: In Washington, D.C., Ronald W. Reagan is inaugurated for his second term as president of the United States, but the extreme intensity of the cold cancels all outdoor celebrations.

January 24–27 Science: The space shuttle Discovery executes the first secret shuttle mission for the military, whose nature has never been ascertained.

February 4 Politics: President Ronald Reagan submits his $973.7-billion annual budget request to Congress, which carries a deficit of $80 billion. He also intends to eliminate the Peace Corps, the Legal Services Corporation, and the Small Business Administration as cost-cutting measures.

February 6 Politics: In his State of the Union address, President Ronald Reagan calls for a “Second American Revolution of hope and opportunity,” and also promotes the new MX Peacekeeper—his Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI, more popularly known as “Star Wars”) to protect the nation from a nuclear attack.

February 18 General: Former general and Vietnam commander William Westmoreland and CBS network reach an out-of-court settlement in the former’s $120-million libel suit against the network. The general asserts that CBS falsely accused him of misrepresenting Communist manpower and strength.

February 20 Diplomacy: Prime minister Margaret Thatcher, a Conservative, is the first British leader to address a joint session of Congress since Winston Churchill. Thatcher

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both endorses President Ronald W. Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) and lambasts American citizens for supplying money to Irish Republican Army (IRA) terrorists.

February 21 Diplomacy: President Ronald W. Reagan, determined to stop Communist subversion in Central America, candidly admits to the press that he would like to “remove” the Marxist Sandinista regime from Nicaragua.

March 4 Conservation: The Environmental Protection Agency orders a virtual ban on all leaded gasoline by the end of the year on account of the noxious pollution it produces.

March 9–15 Business: A banking crisis ensues in Ohio when savings and loan institutions suddenly close their doors, shutting thousands of people off from their money.

March 11 Diplomacy: Mikhail Gorbachev, an enlightened lawyer by training, supplants hard-line Communist Konstantin Chernenko as leader of the Soviet Union. A second period of thawing relations with the West is at hand.

March 18 Business: Capital Cities Communications purchases the American Broadcasting Company for $3.5 billion; this is the first time a major network has been sold.

March 21 Business: Savings and loan institutions in Ohio are ordered to reopen, although they must observe a $750 withdrawal limit.

March 25 Media: Academy Awards go to Amadeus as best picture of 1984 and to star F. Murray Abraham as best actor; Sally Field is best actress for Places in the Heart.

March 27 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that police may not shoot unarmed suspects in the back if they try to flee, a decision that invalidates laws in nearly half the states.

April 23 Politics: The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives votes down President Ronald W. Reagan’s “appeal” for funding to topple the Marxist dictatorship in Nicaragua by funding freedom fighters, or “contras.”

April 24 Arts: Pulitzer Prizes go to Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie, fiction; Yin by Carolyn Kizer, poetry; and Sunday in the Park with George by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine, drama. Religion: In Rome, Pope John Paul II names Archbishop John J. O’Connor of New York and Archbishop Bernard F. Law of Boston to be new cardinals.

April 30 General: On the 10th anniversary of the fall of Saigon to Communist North Vietnamese forces, hundreds of people attend ceremonies at the Vietnam War

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Chronology of American History Memorial in Washington, D.C. This long black wall lists the names of all 58,022 men and women who perished in that conflict, now viewed by a majority of Americans to have been a mistake.

May 2 Crime: Once the E. F. Hutton brokerage firm pleads guilty to 2,000 federal charges of manipulating check accounts, it is forced to pay $2 million in fines and return a further $8 million to the banks.

May 5 Diplomacy: President Ronald W. Reagan lays a wreath commemorating the Holocaust victims slain at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. In an effort to shore up ties with West Germany, he subsequently joins Chancellor Helmut Kohl in a brief visit to the German military graveyard at Bitburg, where several Waffen SS soldiers are buried.

May 12 Religion: Amy Eilberg, 30, becomes the first female Conservative rabbi at ceremonies at Jewish Theological Seminary, New York City.

May 13 Crime: A standoff between police and a violent group of African-American squatters in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, ends in tragedy when firebombs dropped by state police helicopters burn down a city block; 12 people are killed and 300 made homeless.

May 15 Science: Paleontologists announce the discovery of one of the earliest known dinosaurs, dating back 225 million years to the Triassic period.

May 21 Medical: In Orange, California, Patricia Frustaci, who has taken fertility drugs, gives birth to sextuplets; three survive.

May 31 General: Tornadoes sweep through Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, and Ontario, Canada, killing 93 people.

June 4 Religion: The U.S. Supreme Court strikes down an Alabama law permitting one minute of prayer or meditation in public schools.

June 11 Law: Karen Ann Quinlan dies after living in a coma, with a respirator, for a decade. It took a Supreme Court decision in 1976 to have her life support lifted.

June 12 Diplomacy: Backtracking, the House of Representatives votes $27 million in humanitarian aid to assist Nicaraguan freedom fighters, called contras, but forbids the CIA or Pentagon from dispersing the funds.

June 14–30 Terrorism: Shiite extremists seize Trans World Airlines flight 847 midway on a flight between Athens and Rome, and force it to land at Beirut, Lebanon. A navy diver is murdered by the hijackers, but subsequent negotiations eventually free the 39 hostages.

1985

Chronology

2269

June 17 Science: The new space shuttle Discovery blasts into orbit, where it places a highly secret intelligence satellite for eavesdropping on Soviet communications.

June 29 Aviation: The U.S. Air Force accepts delivery of its first Rockwell B-1B Lancer strategic bomber; only 100 are scheduled to be acquired owing to their great expense.

July 1 Religion: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that public school teachers cannot provide remedial or enrichment instruction in parochial schools.

July 10–11 Business: The Coca-Cola Company, having marketed a new and highly sweetened version of its noted beverage to corner the youth market, today announces it is resuming production of traditional Coca-Cola after numerous complaints. The old product will be marketed alongside the new one as Coca-Cola Classic.

July 13 Arts: The “Live Aid” concert transpires in Philadelphia and London to raise money for starving people in Africa. Among the American performers showcased are Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and Tina Turner. Medical: President Ronald W. Reagan undergoes successful surgery to remove a cancerous tumor from his colon.

July 19 Education: Christa McAuliffe, 36, of Concord, New Hampshire, is chosen from 11,000 applicants to become the first teacher to teach a lesson aboard a space shuttle.

July 23 Diplomacy: President Ronald W. Reagan and President Li Xiannian of the People’s Republic of China sign an agreement to sell nonmilitary nuclear technology to China.

August 1 Politics: President Ronald Reagan and Congress, following a protracted struggle, agree to a compromise budget of $967.6 billion with a deficit of $171 billion.

August 2 Aviation: A Delta Airlines Lockheed L-1011 flight crashes in a thunderstorm at Dallas–Fort Worth International airport, killing 136 passengers and crew. This turns out to be the deadliest year for air travel, with 1,400 deaths recorded thus far. Business: Rising publication costs induce the Montgomery Ward Company to discontinue it famous mail-order catalogs for the first time since 1872.

August 11 General: At Institute, West Virginia, a Union Carbide plant accidentally leaks a cloud of toxic gas, injuring 135 people.

August 27 Military: The Department of Defense halts production and development of the controversial Sergeant York antiaircraft system, following a trouble-plagued past. Total cost to the taxpayers: $1.8 billion.

1985

2270

Chronology of American History

September 1 General: Off the coast of Newfoundland, researchers equipped with high-tech sonar locate the wreck of the British ship Titanic, which sank in 1912 after hitting an iceberg.

September 9 Diplomacy: President Ronald W. Reagan announces relatively mild sanctions against the government of South Africa over its racial policy of apartheid. Congress, however, demands stronger measures.

September 10 Religion: Edmund L. Browning of Hawaii becomes the new bishop of the Episcopal Church to serve a 12-year term.

September 13 Military: The McDonnell Douglas antisatellite missile system is successfully tested against an inert satellite in orbit.

September 18 Terrorism: The Reverend Benjamin Weir is released from captivity in Beirut, Lebanon, following 16 months as a hostage.

September 26–27 General: Coastal regions of North Carolina are struck hard by Hurricane Gloria, which then moves up the coast to threaten New York City. Only three people are killed, but 280,000 are evacuated.

October 7 Diplomacy: The United States declares it will no longer abide by World Court decisions because its procedures are marred by political bias.

October 7–10 Terrorism: Palestinian terrorists hijack the Italian liner Achille Lauro and kill American passenger Leon Klinghoffer. The ship is subsequently released once the hijackers are flown to Egypt.

October 11 Aviation: An Egyptian airliner carrying terrorists responsible for the hijacking of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro is intercepted by Navy F-14 Tomcat fighters and forced to fly to Italy for internment. President Ronald W. Reagan exclaims to terrorists everywhere that “you can run but you can’t hide.” However, the Italians release the terrorists. Science: The International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War wins the Nobel Peace Prize.

October 14 Science: Michael S. Brown and Joseph L. Goldberg of the University of Texas Health Center, Dallas, win the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for their work with cholesterol metabolism.

October 15 Business: Franco Modigliani of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology wins the Nobel Prize in economics.

1985

Chronology

2271

October 16 Science: Herbert A. Hauptman of the Medical Foundation of Buffalo, New York, wins the Nobel Prize in chemistry for developing new techniques for determining the structure of molecules.

October 19–27 Sports: The Kansas City Royals (AL) win the World Series by defeating the St. Louis Cardinals (NL) four games to three.

October 21 Diplomacy: Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, actively engaged in fomenting a Communist revolution in nearby El Salvador, accuses the United States of aggression against his country.

October 27–November 7 General: The Gulf Coast is ravaged by Hurricane Juan, which kills seven people and causes $1 billion in damages. The storm subsequently moves northward, where the heavy flooding it engenders kills an additional 42 people.

November 11 Religion: Erza Taft Benson, 80, is elected the new president of the Mormon Church to succeed the late Spencer Kimball.

November 19 Business: A Texas state court jury levies a $10.53-billion assessment against oil giant Texaco, Inc., which it will pay to the Pennzoil Company for undermining a prior business agreement between the two.

November 19–20 Diplomacy: President Ronald Reagan and Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev confer in Geneva, Switzerland, but fail to reach an accord on anything substantive. They agree to meet in the United States sometime in 1986. Gorbachev had previously denounced Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), accusing it of harboring offensive potential.

December 5 Business: The Brown and Williamson Tobacco Company wins a $5-million libel suit after CBS commentator Walter Jacobson denounces the company as “liars.”

December 10 Business: A Texas state judge awards Pennzoil $11.1 billion in damages after it charges Texaco, Inc., with interfering with its attempt to acquire the Getty Oil Company. This was then the largest award for damages in U.S. history, and Texaco appeals the verdict.

December 12 Aviation: A chartered Arrow Air airliner crashes near Gander, Newfoundland, killing 256 members of the 101st Airborne Division as they returned from maneuvers in Egypt. A total of 1,948 people have died in air-related accidents to date. Politics: The new Graham-Rudman balanced budget law is signed by President Ronald Reagan, which triggers automatic, across-the-board cuts in federal spending if a balanced budget is not forthcoming between the White House and Congress.

1985

2272

Chronology of American History

December 17 Aviation: The venerable Douglas DC-3 transport celebrates its 50th year of service, with an estimated 350 machines still in operation around the world.

December 19 Medical: Mary Lund of Kensington, Minnesota, becomes the first woman to receive a Jarvik-7 artificial heart until a human donor can be found.

December 23 Agriculture: President Ronald W. Reagan signs a $169-billion farm bill, the largest in U.S. history, to assist farmers over a five-year period. However, both income and price supports have been reduced for the first time since 1933.

December 30 Crime: Nine members of a racist white-supremacist gang called The Order are arrested in Seattle, Washington, on racketeering charges.

1986 Medical: Researchers determine the cause of Alzheimer’s disease (senility) to lie in the presence of a protein not found in healthy brains. Societal: Demographers note with some trepidation that single mothers living in poverty are the most rapidly growing poverty group in society today.

January 7 Diplomacy: President Ronald W. Reagan announces economic sanctions against Libya for its alleged involvement in terrorist attacks in Rome on December 27, 1985; all Libyan assets are frozen, and U.S. citizens residing in that country are ordered home.

January 12 Science: After a record seven postponements, the shuttle Columbia finally launches on its seventh mission; its landing is also postponed twice due to weather.

January 16 Civil: A bust of civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr., is unveiled at the Great Rotunda of the Capitol; he is the first African American so honored. Crime: The New York Supreme Court dismisses all charges of assault and attempted murder against the so-called subway vigilante, Bernhard Goetz.

January 20 General: The nation formally observes Martin Luther King Day for the first time as a federal holiday.

January 24 Science: The unmanned space probe Voyager 2 flies within 50,679 miles of the giant planet Uranus, revealing for the first time the presence of rings and several small moons.

January 28 Space: Tragedy strikes the high-flying space shuttle program at 11:39 a.m. when the Challenger explodes 72 seconds after liftoff, killing its entire crew of seven. Among them is Christa McAuliffe, chosen to be the first teacher in space. The entire program is suspended for several months until the cause of the disaster can be identified.

1986

Chronology

2273

The space shuttle Challenger lifts off from its launchpad at the Kennedy Space Center, seconds prior to exploding. (U. S. Department of Defense)

February 19 Diplomacy: The Senate ratifies a United Nations treaty outlawing genocide that was signed by the United States in 1948.

1986

2274

Chronology of American History

March 6 Medical: The New England Journal of Medicine declares that routine exercise is the key to longevity and good health after concluding a 16-year study.

March 11 Religion: Reverend Charles E. Curran, a liberal Roman Catholic theologian at the Catholic University of America, is ordered by the Vatican to retract his views on birth control and other sexual matters or lose his license to teach there.

March 14 Diplomacy: The Reagan administration announces its increasing emphasis on promoting a “democratic revolution” around the world, which also implies lessening support for dictatorships aligned with the United States.

March 15 Medical: The American Medical Association declares it is ethical for doctors to withhold medical treatment in the case of terminally ill patients.

March 24 Naval: In the Gulf of Sidra, U.S. Navy warplanes sink two Libyan patrol boats after ground installations fire on the American fleet. Media: Academy Awards go to Out of Africa as best picture of 1986; William Hurt gets best actor for Kiss of the Spider Woman; Geraldine Page is best actress for The Trip to Bountiful.

March 25 Diplomacy: Congress approves $20 million in military aid to Honduras after Nicaraguan troops violate that nation’s border while searching for contra guerrillas.

March 26 Journalism: A columnist in the New York Times asserts that former United Nations secretary Kurt Waldheim, presently a candidate for the presidency in his native Austria, is connected to World War II war crimes.

April 2 Business: The U.S. national debt, having doubled in the past five years, reaches $2 trillion. Terrorism: A bomb explodes onboard a TWA flight from Rome, Italy, to Athens, Greece, killing four passengers. An Arab terrorist group subsequently takes responsibility for the blast.

April 5 Terrorism: An American sergeant is killed and 60 others wounded when a bomb explodes at a discotheque in West Germany. The American government suspects Libyan agents are behind the blast and prepares to act accordingly.

April 14 –15 Aviation: A strike force of American F-111 bombers launched from Great Britain and carrier-based navy planes launches a retaliatory strike against the Libyan capital of Tripoli, inflicting heavy damage. One F-111 is lost.

April 16 Medical: Doctors at the Mount Sinai Hospital, Cleveland, Ohio, reveal the first surrogate birth of a test-tube baby.

1986

Chronology

2275

April 17 Arts: Pulitzer Prizes go to Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry, fiction, and The Flying Change by Henry Taylor, poetry. Technology: IBM unveils the first computers to utilize the new megabit memory chip capable of storing more than 1 million bits of data.

April 22 Science: The Department of Agriculture sanctions releasing the first genetically altered virus into the environment for the purpose of fending off a swine herpes infection that causes $60 million in losses annually.

April 27 Business: The advertising firms of BBDO International, the Doyle Dane Bernbach Group, and Needham Harper Worldwide merge into a new entity with $5 billion a year in advertising sales.

May 5 Crime: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that opponents of capital punishment may be barred from juries deliberating capital crime cases even if it increases the likelihood of a conviction.

May 6 Indian: Donald E. Pelotte, 41, becomes the first Native American ordained as a Roman Catholic bishop in Gallup, New Mexico.

May 13 Societal: A Justice Department commission concludes that pornography is potentially harmful and could induce violent behavior against women and children.

May 16 Labor: A federal grand jury indicts General President Jackie Presser of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters on charges stemming from an alleged payrollpadding scheme.

May 19 Societal: President Ronald W. Reagan signs a law weakening the 1968 federal gun control law, which allows the interstate sale of rifles.

May 21 Labor: Despite his recent indictment for corruption, Teamsters president Jackie Presser is reelected to another five-year term in office.

May 25 Societal: Millions of Americans hold hands in a human chain across the nation to raise money for the hungry and homeless.

May 27 Diplomacy: President Ronald W. Reagan announces that the United States is no longer bound by the unratified SALT II arms agreement, although two older Poseidon submarines would be dismantled to accommodate new Trident submarines as per treaty provisions.

May 30 Science: A Wisconsin farm performs the first outdoor testing of genetically engineered plants to create high-yield crops that would reduce overall usage of toxic chemicals to control insects.

1986

2276

Chronology of American History

June 9 Medical: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that federal regulations need not require life-prolonging medical treatment for terminally ill or severely handicapped infants. Science: A presidential commission tasked with investigating the Challenger disaster pinpoints the failure of O-ring seals on the solid-fuel booster as the cause and also criticizes NASA for lax management.

June 10 Religion: The conservative Reverend Adrian Rogers of Memphis, Tennessee, is elected president of the Southern Baptist Conference after defeating a moderate candidate.

June 12 Medical: Statistics released by the Public Health Service reveal 21,517 known cases of AIDS in the United States and 11,713 deaths attributable to that viral malady.

June 17 Law: U.S. Supreme Court chief justice Warren Burger announces his retirement from the bench in order to concentrate his energies on the 200th anniversary of the Constitution in 1987.

June 18 Aviation: A passenger plane and a helicopter collide over the Grand Canyon, killing 25 people.

June 19 Crime: After two people are killed by cyanide-poisoned Excedrin capsules, the Bristol-Myers Company recalls all nonprescription capsules from the shelves. Medical: Murray P. Haydon, the world’s third recipient of an artificial heart, dies at a Louisville, Kentucky, hospital. Sports: University of Maryland basketball player Len Bias dies of apparent cocaine poisoning.

June 25 Diplomacy: The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives votes $30 million in humanitarian aid to the Nicaraguan freedom fighters, known as contras, along with $70 million in military assistance. This is a complete reversal from an earlier stance once it becomes clear that the Sandinistas are trying to subvert nearby El Salvador with guerrilla warfare and terrorism.

June 27 Business: Congress passes a $995-billion budget for the year with a built-in deficit of $142 billion. Diplomacy: The World Court rules that the United States violated international law by covertly mining the harbors of Nicaragua. Sports: Football player Don Rogers of the Cleveland Browns dies from an apparent cocaine overdose.

July 1 Business: Barber B. Conable of New York, having been nominated by President Ronald W. Reagan, is appointed president of the World Bank.

1986

Chronology

2277

July 3–6 General: President Ronald W. Reagan and French president François Mitterrand are in New York to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty.

July 17 Business: Having posted losses of $723.9 million in 1985, the LTV Corporation, the nation’s No. 2 steel manufacturer, files for bankruptcy.

August 6 Medical: William J. Schroeder dies 620 days after receiving the world’s second artificial heart; he is the longest living survivor.

September Business: The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbles from 1,919.1 to 1,767.58 over the month of September.

September 4 Religion: Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen of Seattle, Washington, is ordered by the Vatican to stop preaching in certain areas because of his liberal views on birth control and homosexuality; his authority is then taken up by an auxiliary bishop.

September 17 Law: William Rehnquist is confirmed by the Senate to serve as the 16th chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court while Antonin Scalia passes muster as a new associate justice.

October 2 Diplomacy: The Senate overrides President Ronald W. Reagan’s veto of a bill imposing sanctions against South Africa for its apartheid racial policies. The bill entails new commercial investments and also halts all air traffic between the two nations.

October 10–12 Diplomacy: President Ronald Reagan and Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev confer at Reykjavík, Iceland, over arms control issues but depart without reaching any substantive agreements. The stumbling block proves to be Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative, which he remains determined to develop.

October 13 Science: Rita Levi-Montalcini, Institute of Cell Biology, Rome, and Stanley Cohen, Vanderbilt University, share the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for discovering substances affecting cell growth.

October 14 Diplomacy: Human rights activist Elie Wiesel receives the Nobel Peace Prize.

October 15 Science: Dudley R. Herschback, Harvard University; Yuan T. Lee, University of California; and John C. Pollanyi , University of Toronto, share the Nobel Prize in chemistry for studying chain reactions at the molecular level.

October 16 Business: James M. Buchanan of George Mason University wins the Nobel Prize in economics for applying economic principles to the political decision-making process.

1986

2278

Chronology of American History

October 17 Societal: The Senate passes legislation to punish and fine employers who willingly hire illegal aliens.

October 18–27 Sports: The New York Mets (NL) win the World Series by defeating the Boston Red Sox, four games to three.

October 20 Business: General Motors announces it is withdrawing its business interests from South Africa, in light of the international trend toward sanctioning the apartheid regime there.

October 21 Politics: President Ronald W. Reagan places his signature on an $11.7-billion budget reduction bill.

October 22 Business: President Ronald Reagan enacts the most sweeping revision of the U.S. tax code in four decades. It reduces the number of income brackets from 14 to three and removes millions of low-income citizens from the tax rolls. Medical: Surgeon General C. Everett Koop urges parents to become more involved with sex education at school, so as to help slow the spread of the AIDS virus.

November 2 Terrorism: David P. Jacobsen, director of the American hospital in Beirut, is released by his captors following 18 months of captivity.

November 3–6 Journalism: The New York Times and the Washington Post print articles claiming the present administration may have sent spare parts and ammunition to Iran in an apparent “arms for hostages” deal. This becomes known as the Iran-contra affair.

November 4 Politics: Midterm elections favor the Democrats, who gain eight Senate seats and control that body for the first time in six years.

November 6 Societal: President Ronald W. Reagan signs a new immigration act, which prohibits employers from hiring illegal aliens, but allows those present to apply for citizenship if they can prove residency before January 1, 1982.

November 14 Crime: Wall Street stock trader Ivan Boesky pleads guilty to using “insider information” while trading stocks; he agrees to pay $50 million in fines and $50 million in returned profits.

November 26 Politics: National Security Advisor Admiral John M. Poindexter and his assistant, Lieutenant Colonel Oliver L. North, resign from office following revelations of their involvement in the Iran-contra affair.

December 1 Business: Maverick billionaire H. Ross Perot is removed from the Board of General Motors after clashing with Chairman of the Board Roger Smith; part of the deal entailed buying back Perot’s $700 million in GM stock.

1986

Chronology

2279

December 2 Business: The New York Stock Exchange reaches a record high of 1,955.57.

December 5 Medical: The General Services Administration mandates that nonsmoking workers be given a “reasonable smoke free” environment while on the job.

December 12 Technology: The nuclear reactor at Hanford, Washington, which resembles the ill-fated Soviet reactor at Chernobyl, is shut down for six months pending a complete safety inspection.

December 14 –23 Aviation: Pilots Richard G. Rutan and Jeana Yeager complete the first nonstop flight around the world without refueling after flying 25,012 miles in their all-plastic airplane Voyager. This trip took nine days, three minutes, and 44 seconds.

December 19 Business: The New York Stock Exchange enjoys a record 244 million shares traded.

December 31 Business: The New York Stock Exchange closes for the year at an all-time high of 1,895.95. Science: Researchers at Bell Laboratories and the University of Houston, Texas, report the production of alloys that allow the phenomenon of superconductivity at higher temperatures than ever recorded.

1987 Arts: The paintings of Georgia O’Keeffe form the subject of a centennial exhibition. Business: The government announces that inventors will be allowed to patent new life forms created by means of gene splicing and other kinds of genetic engineering. Science: Molecular biologists deduce that the ancestry of all humanity can be traced to a single female who lived 200,000 years ago in Africa. Societal: “Baby M,” born to a volunteer from the sperm of a married man on a contractual, surrogate basis, polarizes the legal community when a judge awards the child to the natural birth mother.

January 4 General: An Amtrak passenger train collides with three Conrail freight engines near Chase, Maryland, killing 15 people and injuring 175.

January 5 Politics: President Ronald Reagan submits the nation’s first-ever trillion dollar budget request ($1,024.3 billion) to Congress, including a deficit of $107.8 billion.

January 8 Business: For the first time in history, the Dow Jones industrial average settles above the 2000 mark (2002.25), indicative of a robust economy.

1987

2280

Chronology of American History

January 16 Media: Television station KRON in San Francisco, California, is the first to begin major-market condom advertisements.

January 22 General: The East Coast is hit by a raging blizzard that dumps 20 inches of snow as far south as North Carolina and kills 37 people.

January 24 Terrorism: Gunmen kidnap three American faculty members from Beirut University.

February 2 Societal: The Children’s Defense Fund announces that the United States has one of the world’s highest mortality rates in the industrialized world, 10.8 deaths per 1,000 live births. South Carolina has the highest rate, while South Dakota has the lowest.

February 3– 4 Conservation: President Ronald W. Reagan’s veto of the $20-billion Clean Water Bill is overridden by Congress; the president had complained that it was “loaded with waste and larded with pork.”

February 10 Media: Surgeon General C. Everett Koop endorses condom advertising on television to help stop the spread of AIDS.

February 19 Diplomacy: President Ronald W. Reagan lifts all trade sanctions against the Communist regime of Poland after it frees political prisoners.

February 26 Politics: In Congress, the Tower Commission reports that President Ronald Reagan’s laissez- faire style of management has allowed key aides to secretly conduct clandestine operations such as the Iran-contra affair without his knowledge. The president subsequently goes on the air to take “full responsibility.”

March 19 Media: Televangelist Jim Bakker, minister of the Assemblies of God church, publicly admits he had a tryst with Jessica Hahn, the church secretary. He then resigns his ministry and is temporarily replaced by Reverend Jerry Falwell.

March 20 Medical: The drug azidothymidine (AZT) receives government approval as a means of temporarily combating the terminal phase of AIDS.

March 30 Media: Academy Awards go to Platoon as the best movie of 1986, to Paul Newman as best actor for The Color of Money, and to Marlee Matlin as best actress for Children of a Lesser God.

April 4 Religion: Roman Catholic bishops introduce a new version of the New Testament that changes the word man when referring to both men and women. It becomes the authorized edition for America’s 50 million Catholics.

1987

Chronology

2281

April 7 Civil: African-American Harold Washington is reelected mayor of Chicago, Illinois, by 54 percent of the vote, which breaks down into 97 percent of blacks and only 15 percent of whites.

April 16 Business: The U.S. government becomes the first in the world to authorize the issuance of patents for new forms of life created through gene splicing. However, experimentation with human genes is expressly banned. Arts: Pulitzer Prizes go to A Summons to Memphis by Peter Taylor, fiction; Thomas and Beulah by Rita Dove, poetry; and Fences by August Wilson, drama.

April 27 Diplomacy: In light of allegations concerning his Nazi past, the Justice Department bars Austrian president Kurt Waldheim from entering the United States. He is the first head of state so barred.

May 4 Journalism: Several newspapers accuse former Colorado senator Gary Hart of having a fling with a young model, which he vehemently denies.

May 8 Politics: Former Colorado senator Gary Hart withdraws from the Democratic presidential primaries over rumors of an illicit affair with comely 29-year-old model Donna Rice.

May 12 Medical: Doctors in Baltimore, Maryland, perform the world’s first three-way heart and dual-lung transplant.

May 17 Aviation: In the Persian Gulf, the frigate USS Stark is struck by a French-made Exocet missile fired by an Iraqi warplane; 37 sailors are killed and the vessel is badly damaged.

May 19 Diplomacy: The Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein acknowledges responsibility in launching the missile that struck the USS Stark but declares that the incident will not alter relations between the two countries; President Ronald W. Reagan announces his decision to fly the American flag over Kuwaiti oil tankers in the Persian Gulf to protect them as the Iraq-Iran War rages.

June 2 Business: President Ronald W. Reagan nominates Alan Greenspan to replace retiring Paul A. Volcker as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. Greenspan is known as a free-market advocate, so no dramatic policy changes are anticipated.

June 19 Religion: The U.S. Supreme Court strikes down a 1984 Louisiana law requiring that creationism be taught alongside evolution.

1987

2282

Chronology of American History

June 30 Religion: In Cleveland, Ohio, the United Church of Christ becomes the first major American Protestant denomination to affirm the position of Judaism as a legitimate religion.

July 1 Law: After Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell retires, President Ronald W. Reagan selects known conservative justice Robert Bork to succeed him. The choice proves upsetting to liberal interest groups who view his previous rulings as ultraconservative.

July 7–24 Politics: On Capitol Hill, U.S. Marine lieutenant colonel Oliver North testifies so forcefully before the Democratic-run House Foreign Affairs Committee that the press dubs him “the marine who took the Hill.” Moreover, he declares that officials in the Reagan administration gave him permission regarding the deal to swap arms for hostages.

July 15–22 Politics: Admiral John Poindexter testifies before the House Foreign Affairs Committee to determine responsibility in the arms-for-hostages swap.

July 22 Diplomacy: The United States begins escorting Kuwaiti tankers in the Persian Gulf and protecting them from Iranian attacks.

July 23–24 Politics: Secretary of State George Schultz is called before the House Foreign Affairs Committee to answer questions about the illegal arms-for-hostages deal with Iran.

August 4 Media: The Federal Communications Commission eliminates the so-called fairness doctrine, which required media programmers to present balanced and fair treatment of controversial issues.

August 6 Business: Paul Volcker retires as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board and is replaced by Alan Greenspan; Volcker leaves behind an impressive legacy of reducing inflation from 13.3 percent to 1.1 percent during his tenure.

August 16 Aviation: A Northwest Airlines jet crashes on takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, killing 155 passengers and crew; the sole survivor is a four-year-old girl.

September 5–7 Medical: Surgeons at the Johns Hopkins University Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland, perform an intricate operation separating infant twins joined at the skull; they are then returned to their parents in Germany.

September 10–20 Religion: Pope John Paul II makes his second tour of the United States and again confers with President Ronald W. Reagan. However, in San Francisco he is met by 2,000 protesters who resent his conservative opposition to homosexuality.

1987

Chronology

2283

September 17 General: President Ronald W. Reagan and former chief justice Warren Burger head ceremonies commemorating the 200th anniversary of the Constitution of the United States.

September 22 Aviation: A U.S. Marine helicopter attacks and damages an Iranian vessel caught deploying mines in the Persian Gulf.

October 1 General: The Los Angeles area is rattled by a strong earthquake registering 6.1 on the Richter scale that kills eight people and injures 100.

October 12 Science: Susumu Tonegawa of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology wins the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for his work in understanding the human immune system.

October 14 Science: Donald J. Cram of the University of California, Los Angeles, Charles J. Pedersen, and Frenchman Jean-Marie Lehn share the Nobel Prize in chemistry for working with artificial molecules that mimic live processes.

October 16 Medical: In Loma Linda, California, a three-day-old baby becomes the youngest patient to receive a heart transplant.

October 17–25 Sports: The Minnesota Twins (AL) win the World Series by defeating the St. Louis Cardinals (NL) four games to three.

October 19 Business: Overly active computerized trading results in Wall Street’s worst-ever day when it plunges 508 points—22.6 percent of its total. Investors and traders are shocked by the final tally, but changes are instituted to prevent such an occurrence from happening again, and confidence soon returns. Naval: U.S. naval forces destroy two offshore oil installations in retaliation for Iranian attacks on Persian Gulf shipping.

October 21 Business: Robert M. Solow of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology wins the Nobel Prize in economics.

October 23 Law: After a contentious session, the Senate rejects Robert Bork’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court after heavy lobbying by liberal groups.

October 24 Labor: The executive council of the AFL-CIO votes unanimously to readmit the Teamsters Union into its ranks; they had previously been expelled in 1957.

November 13 Politics: President Ronald W. Reagan, to mollify his critics, admits that his administration sent defensive weapons to Iran to improve relations with that nation but denies any wrongdoing.

1987

2284

Chronology of American History

November 15 Aviation: A Continental Airlines jet crashes while taking off in a snowstorm at Stapleton Airport, Denver, Colorado, killing 28 passengers and injuring 50.

November 18 Politics: The congressional committees tasked with investigating the IranContra scandal issue a 690-page report that blames President Ronald W. Reagan for failing in his constitutional duties.

November 20 Business: President Ronald W. Reagan and Congress agree to a $30-billion budget reduction plan for the upcoming fiscal year.

November 21–29 Crime: Cuban detainees in a holding facility at Oakdale, Louisiana, riot rather than face deportation back to Cuba, although the crisis is eventually negotiated.

December 8 Diplomacy: President Ronald W. Reagan and Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev meet in Washington, D.C., to sign the historic INF treaty, which reduces the nuclear arsenals of both countries by dismantling missiles with ranges between 300 to 3,400 miles; this entails the destruction of 1,752 American and 859 Russian weapons.

December 10 Religion: Roman Catholic bishops in America give qualified support to teaching about the use of condoms to halt the spread of AIDS.

December 11 Women: A federal judge orders the A. H. Robins Company to pay $2.4 billion in damages to women who were injured and even sterilized by using their Dalkon shield birth control device.

December 16 Crime: Michael K. Deaver becomes the highest ranking member of the Reagan administration to be convicted of a crime when he is found guilty of three counts of perjury relative to his work as a lobbyist.

December 17 Politics: Upon further reflection, former Colorado senator Gary Hart announces his decision to reenter the Democratic presidential nomination race for 1988.

December 19 Business: Texaco, Inc., agrees to pay Pennzoil a record $3 billion in damages for interfering with the latter’s attempt to purchase the Getty Oil Company; this is the largest cash settlement in U.S. corporate history.

December 22 Diplomacy: President Ronald W. Reagan signs a bill authorizing $14 million in nonlethal aid for Nicaraguan freedom fighters, or contras.

1988 Arts: The painting False Start by Jasper Johns sells for a record $17.05 million at an auction; this is the highest amount ever paid for the work of a living artist.

1988

Chronology

2285

Music: The 100th birthday of composer Irving Berlin, who gave the nation such timeless hits as “God Bless America” and “White Christmas,” is celebrated. Societal: The popular notion of the “couch potato” enters American life as increasing numbers of citizens are getting hooked on watching programs on newly developed videotape recorders. Technology: Alarms are raised over the rise of computer “viruses,” which are deliberately and maliciously introduced into programming to destroy software systems.

January 2 General: A 40-year-old oil tanker belonging to the Ashland Oil Company bursts near Floreffe, Pennsylvania, spilling 860,000 gallons of oil into the nearby Monongahela River and polluting it for 20 miles downstream.

January 8 Business: A presidential task force charged with making recommendations to prevent stock market crashes such as occurred on October 19, 1987, suggests that the Federal Reserve Board assume responsibility for regulating trade.

January 13 Science: The American Astronomical Society reports detecting the oldest and most distant objects ever seen in space, possibly 17 billion years old.

January 25 Media: In a televised interview, CBS anchorman Dan Rather and Vice President George H. W. Bush harshly disagree about the latter’s suspected role in the Irancontra scandal. Furthermore, Bush’s aggressive demeanor has helped his standing with Republicans in the upcoming presidential nomination process. Politics: In his State of the Union address, President Ronald W. Reagan lauds the nation for being strong, free, and prosperous. Democrats respond by stating that the deficit is out of control and that social programs have been severely curtailed.

January 28 Business: The Public Service Company of New Hampshire files for bankruptcy after its Seabrook nuclear power plant fails to receive an operating license in a dispute over evacuation plans. The plant itself cost $5.2 billion and took 15 years to construct.

February 1 Politics: President Ronald W. Reagan presents a $1.09-trillion budget to Congress, replete with a $129.5-billion deficit.

February 3 Law: Judge Anthony Kennedy is confirmed by the Senate to serve as an associate justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.

February 4 Business: To prevent future market crashes, the New York Stock Exchange reports that it will curb the use of electronic trading whenever the Dow Jones average of industrial stocks rises or falls more than 50 points in a single day.

February 5 Crime: In Miami, Florida, General Manuel Noriega, the de facto leader of Panama, is twice indicted by federal grand juries over charges of illegal drug trafficking.

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February 11 Crime: Former White House political director Lyn Nofziger is convicted on three counts of illegal lobbying and is sentenced to 90 days in jail and fined $30,000.

February 16 Politics: Vice President George H. W. Bush (Republican) and Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis (Democrat) win their respective party primaries in New Hampshire.

February 17 Terrorism: Supposed Palestinian terrorists kidnap U.S. Marine Corps lieutenant colonel William R. Higgins in southern Lebanon.

February 21 Religion: Televangelist Jimmy Swaggart admits to his congregation in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, that he has committed an unspecified sin.

February 24 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously overturns a libel suit award of $200,000 to the Reverend Jerry Falwell, thereby fully endorsing the right of magazines such as Playboy to criticize public figures.

March 8 Politics: On “Super Tuesday,” Vice President George H. W. Bush (Republican) and Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis (Democrat) sweep their respective party’s primaries in the Deep South and Mid-Atlantic states.

March 14 Conservation: The Senate votes 83-0 to approve a treaty to protect the Earth’s ozone layer by rolling back the applications of chlorofluorocarbons.

March 15 Civil: Pope John Paul II appoints Eugene Antonio Marino as America’s first African-American Roman Catholic archbishop for Atlanta, Georgia.

March 16 Crime: Admiral John Poindexter, Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, and two other individuals are indicted by a federal grand jury for their roles in the illegal Iran-Contra scandal.

March 16–28 Military: In response to a Nicaraguan incursion into Honduras, President Ronald W. Reagan announces the temporary deployment of 3,200 army troops to discourage future attacks. They are withdrawn without fighting.

March 22 Civil: Congress passes the Civil Rights Restoration Act, over President Ronald W. Reagan’s veto, which maintains that any public institution receiving federal funds will lose all such funding if civil rights laws are violated.

March 23 Business: The House of Representatives approves a $1.2-trillion annual budget. Medical: In New York City, Dr. William Masters and Virginia Johnson hold a press conference to announce that there is a growing threat of AIDS among the city’s heterosexual population.

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March 26 Politics: Reverend Jesse Jackson scores an upset by defeating front-runner governor Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts in the Michigan Democratic presidential primary by 55 to 28 percent. This is the first time a black candidate has carried a major industrial state.

March 31 Arts: Pulitzer Prizes go to Beloved by Toni Morrison, fiction; Partial Accounts: New and Selected Poems by William Meredith, poetry; and Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhry, drama.

April 1 Business: The Campeau Corporation of Canada acquires Federated Department Stores, Inc., for $6.6 billion, the fifth largest acquisition in U.S. business history to date. Diplomacy: President Ronald W. Reagan signs a law authorizing $47.9 million in humanitarian aid to Nicaraguan freedom fighters, or contras, including $17 million for their children.

April 4 Politics: The Arizona state senate votes 21-9 to impeach and remove Governor Evan Mecham from office after it was learned he had lent $80,000 of state money to his own auto dealership.

April 8 Religion: Television evangelist Jimmy Swaggart is defrocked by the Assemblies of God after admitting to an extramarital affair.

April 11 Media: Academy Awards go to The Last Emperor as best picture of 1987, to Michael Douglas as best actor for Wall Street, and to Cher as best actress for Moonstruck. Religion: A committee of Catholic bishops in America strongly recommends greatly enlarging the role of women throughout the Roman Catholic church— short of priesthood.

April 12 Business: Dr. Philip Leder and Dr. Timothy A. Stewart receive the world’s first patent for a genetically altered mouse used in the study of cancer.

April 13 Religion: Conservative Judaism issues the first statement of principles in its 143-year history, endorses modernism, and rejects fundamentalism by Christians, Muslims, or other Jews.

April 14 Diplomacy: The Soviet Union, having invaded Afghanistan in December 1979 and having been thwarted by Afghani freedom fighters bolstered by U.S. military aid, signs an agreement with the United States, Pakistan, and Afghanistan to remove its troops.

April 18 Naval: U.S. Navy warships and jet bombers sink or damage six Iranian vessels in the Persian Gulf, and also destroy two oil platforms. The attacks come in

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Chronology of American History retaliation for Iran’s suspected laying of mines in that strategic waterway, which has already damaged one American vessel. One U.S. Navy attack helicopter and its crew of two are lost.

April 19 Politics: Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis wins the New York State primary, although Reverend Jesse Jackson carries New York City. Tennessee senator Al Gore comes in third with 10 percent of the vote.

April 23 Aviation: Smoking is banned on all passenger planes with flights of two hours or less.

April 26 Politics: Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis handily defeats Reverend Jesse Jackson in the Pennsylvania state primary, 67 percent to 27 percent.

April 28 Aviation: An Aloha Airlines Boeing 737 suffers a structural failure that causes part of its roof to blow off at high altitude, killing a stewardess, but the plane makes a successful emergency landing with 94 passengers and crew.

April 29 Diplomacy: The United States declares is intention to extend its convoy protection to all neutral shipping in the Persian Gulf to prevent Iranian attacks.

May 1 Diplomacy: The Reagan administration announces its decision to sell $15 billion in arms abroad, an amount $3 billion higher than the previous year.

May 4 General: An accidental explosion at a chemical plant near Henderson, Nevada, injures 200 people and shatters windows in nearby Las Vegas. Societal: On this, the last day to apply for an amnesty from the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Department, over 100,000 people file forms. The total number of applicants is 1.4 million, mostly from California.

May 13 Medical: The company that manufactures AZT reports that AIDS patients taking it remain alive after taking the drug for a year. Thus far the disease has taken 35,000 lives. Science: An article in the magazine Nature reports that scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have deciphered a second genetic code, a twodecade quest.

May 14 General: In Carrollton, Kentucky, a pickup truck and a bus loaded with students returning from a religious outing collide, killing 27 of the latter. The driver of the pickup truck, who was drunk at the time, is charged with 27 counts of capital murder.

May 16 Medical: U.S. surgeon general C. Edward Koop issues a report labeling cigarettes and other tobacco products as highly addictive. He also suggests that cigarette vending machines be banned to keep cigarettes out of the hands of young people.

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May 23 Societal: Maryland is the first state to adopt a ban on inexpensive handguns deemed poorly made or easily concealed.

May 24 Business: President Ronald W. Reagan vetoes a trade bill fashioned over the previous three years by Congress, which he considers protectionist; the veto is sustained in the Senate.

May 27 Business: The Long Island Lighting Company, New York, abandons plans to operate the newly completed Shoreham nuclear power plant, which took 20 years to complete and cost $5.3 billion. Diplomacy: The Senate ratifies the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which removes all American and Soviet short-range to medium-range nuclear missiles from Europe. This is also the first such accord approved by the Senate since 1972.

May 29 Religion: Pope John Paul II elevates James Aloysius Hickey of Washington, D.C., and Edmund Casimir Szoka of Detroit to cardinal, bringing the total number of Americans with that rank to 10.

May 29–June 1 Diplomacy: President Ronald W. Reagan and General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev hold a fourth summit meeting in Moscow, and the American leader publicly presses his Soviet counterpart strongly on the issue of human rights.

June 7 Politics: Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis wins the Democratic presidential primary by winning California, Montana, New Jersey, and New Mexico.

June 14 Religion: For the 10th consecutive time, the Southern Baptist Convention elects a conservative theologist to serve as its president, although Reverend Jerry Vines of Jacksonville, Florida, wins by only 692 votes; the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church adopts a statement declaring nuclear war immoral.

June 15 Labor: The U.S. Census Bureau reports that half of all new mothers remain in the workforce for the first time in the nation’s history.

June 21 Medical: A federal government survey reports that half of the nation’s school children are free from cavities, up from 36 percent in 1979–80, a reflection of better dental care and widespread fluoridation.

June 23 Conservation: James Hansen of NASA informs a Senate committee that Earth has experienced warmer weather in the first half of 1988 than in any previous period on record. He concludes by warning that the effects of “greenhouse gases” are becoming obvious; nearly half the nation’s agricultural counties are declared a federal disaster area following a prolonged drought.

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June 29 Politics: The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the use of special prosecutors to investigate crimes committed by high-ranking government officials.

July 3 Aviation: An A-300 Airbus, mistaken at long range for an Iranian F-14 fighter, is accidentally shot down over the Strait of Hormuz by the missile cruiser USS Vincennes, killing all 290 passengers and crew. The aircraft was warned off repeatedly by the vessel as it approached but refused to respond to commands. Religion: Sister Rose Philippine Duchesne, a 19th-century nun, becomes the fourth American raised to sainthood by Pope John Paul II.

July 11 Diplomacy: President Ronald W. Reagan expresses profound sorrow over the shooting down of an Iranian airliner and declares that the United States will pay compensation to the families involved. Religion: The General Convention of the Episcopal Church endorses traditional biblical approaches to sexual morality, but also endorses a frank discussion of the topic.

July 18–21 Politics: In Atlanta, Georgia, the Democratic Party nominates Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis for president and Texas senator Lloyd M. Bentsen for vice president. They hope to emulate the “Boston-Austin” axis that proved so successful for John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.

August–September General: Raging fires sweep through 4 million acres of forest throughout the West, which severely damages nearly half of Yellowstone National Park.

August 2 Business: A plant-closing bill becomes law once President Ronald Reagan fails to either sign or veto it. It requires firms with more than 100 employees to give 60 days notice of any prospective shutdown.

August 10 Societal: President Ronald W. Reagan signs a bill apologizing to Japanese Americans who were interned at camps during World War II and also tenders $20,000 in compensation to each victim.

August 15–18 Politics: In New Orleans, Louisiana, the Republican Party nominates Vice President George H. W. Bush for the presidency and Indiana senator Dan Quayle for the vice presidency.

August 17 Diplomacy: Soviet scientists observe an American underground test in Nevada for the first time as part of a joint verification experiment.

August 23 Business: A strongly protectionist trade bill is signed into law by President Ronald W. Reagan, but it also allows the chief executive to negotiate international agreements intended to expand the foreign market for American goods and services.

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August 27 Indian: The Puyallup tribe of Washington State accepts a $162-million settlement for surrendering traditional land claims in Tacoma.

August 31 General: The number of forest fires recorded thus far this year is 66,895, which has destroyed 3.4 million acres of land.

September 5 Business: The federal government decides to bail out the American Savings and Loan Association of Stockton, California, although it will cost the government $2 billion.

September 6 Societal: Thanks to largely unchecked illegal immigration, the Hispanic population in the United States has grown 34 percent since the 1980 census.

September 14 Diplomacy: A Soviet underground nuclear test is witnessed by American observers for the first time.

September 17–October 2 Sports: At the Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, the U.S. team finishes third place behind the Soviet Union and East Germany, with 36 gold medals and 96 in all.

September 19 Business: Voting 83-0, the Senate passes a free-trade agreement with Canada that will do away with nearly all trade barriers and tariffs by 1999.

September 20 Civil: Lauro F. Cavazos becomes the first Hispanic member of a president’s cabinet when he gains appointment as the new secretary of education; he had previously been president of Texas Tech University.

September 22 General: A raging forest fire has scorched half of Yellowstone National Park’s 2.2 million acres, partly due to an official policy that allows the fires to burn themselves out naturally.

September 24 Religion: The Reverend Barbara C. Harris, an African American, becomes the first woman to be elected a bishop. She serves the Episcopal Church for the Diocese of Massachusetts.

September 25 Media: Vice President George H. W. Bush and Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis meet for a televised debate held at Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and a lively exchange ensues over taxes, national defense, and the environment.

September 29–October 3 Science: The space shuttle fleet returns to space for the first time in 32 months following the Challenger disaster when Discovery enters orbit to successfully launch a $100-million communications satellite.

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October 4 Business: President Ronald Reagan’s veto of a bill that would restrict textile, apparel, and shoe imports is sustained by the House of Representatives. The chief executive remains “committed to the free market and free international trade.”

October 6 Crime: In Atlanta, Georgia, several members of the Ku Klux Klan and other supremacist groups are convicted in a federal court of rioting at a civil rights march in January 1987 and are forced to pay $400,000 in restitution.

October 10 Business: The Energy Department announces that it is shutting down the plutonium-processing plant near Boulder, Colorado, owing to safety problems.

October 13 Media: Vice President George H. W. Bush and Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis meet in their second televised debate and lambaste each other over the state of national affairs. Societal: President Ronald W. Reagan signs a new welfare bill designed to require single mothers to work if their children are over three years of age or to enroll in job training courses if they cannot find a job.

October 15–20 Sports: The Los Angeles Dodgers (NL) win the World Series by defeating the Oakland Athletics (AL) four games to one.

October 17 Diplomacy: An agreement reached between the United States and the Philippines allows the former to maintain military bases in the Philippines through September 1991 in return for $481 million per year in military and economic aid for 1990 and 1991. Science: Gertrude B. Elion and George H. Hitchings, along with James Black of Great Britain, share the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for discovery of drug treatments for heart disease, gout, peptic ulcers, and leukemia.

October 18 Politics: President Ronald W. Reagan signs a bill creating a cabinet-level position for the Department of Veterans Affairs.

October 19 Science: Leon M. Lederman, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory; Melvin Schwartz, Digital Pathways; and Jack Steinberger, European Center for Nuclear Research, share the Nobel Prize in physics for their discovery of “weak” nuclear force in nuclear decay.

October 21 Crime: In New York City, former Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos and his wife Imelda are indicted by a federal grand jury on racketeering charges.

October 22 Crime: Congress finally cracks down hard on “white-collar” crime with a new bill that provides 10 years in jail for each violation of “insider trading.”

October 30 Business: The Philip Morris Company pays $13.1 billion to acquire Kraft, Inc., and the new entity is now the world’s largest producer of consumer goods.

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November 4 Education: African-American entertainer Bill Cosby gives $20 million to Spelman College, Atlanta, Georgia, the largest gift ever accorded to a black institution.

November 8 Politics: Republican George H. W. Bush trounces Democrat Michael Dukakis for the presidency, winning 426 electoral votes to 112, and 47.9 million popular votes to the latter’s 41 million. However, the coattail effect is lacking, as the Democrats still control both houses of Congress.

November 10 Science: The Department of Energy announces that the new and expensive 55mile-long Superconducting Super Collider will be built in Texas at a price of $4.4 billion.

November 18 Crime: President Ronald W. Reagan signs an Anti-Drug Bill that mandates the death penalty for drug-related murders, a $10,000 fine for possession of even small amounts of a controlled substance, and a drug “czar” to oversee the national war against illegal drugs.

November 22 Aviation: The new Northrop B-2 Spirit bomber is publicly unveiled for the first time; it is reputedly invisible to radar and also costs a whopping $1 billion per aircraft. The U.S. Air Force aspires to order 132 such aircraft.

November 28 Business: The Federal Reserve Board raises the prime lending rate it charges banks by one half a percent to 10.5 percent, the fourth rate increase this year.

December 1 Politics: President Ronald W. Reagan withholds documents essential to the defense of Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North on the basis of his obligations toward national security.

December 14 Diplomacy: The United States announces that it will deal directly with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) because it has formally renounced terrorism and accepts the existence of Israel.

December 21 Business: Drexel Burnham Lambert, a leading securities firm, pleads guilty to violating federal laws and pays $650 million in penalties. Its leading trader, Michael Milken, is also indicted for selling “junk bonds.” Terrorism: A Pan American Boeing 747 jumbo jet explodes in flight over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 259 passengers and crew; both the United States and Great Britain suspect Libyan agents are responsible.

December 31 Business: The Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB) declares that over the year it saved or merged 222 failed savings and loan associations with $100 billion in accounts.

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1989 Arts: The play 42nd Street closes after a successful run of 3,486 performances, the third longest in Broadway history. Media: Controversy mounts over Martin Scorsese’s film The Last Temptation of Christ, based on the novel by Nikos Kazantzakis. Science: Researchers inject genetically altered cells into patients for the first time. The unmanned spacecraft Voyager 2 sails past Neptune and its cameras reveal eight moons orbiting that giant planet instead of two. Sports: Baseball great Pete Rose is indicted for gambling on baseball games and cheating on income taxes; he is eventually suspended from play. Basketball legend Kareem Abdul Jabar of the Los Angeles Lakers retires.

January 2 Business: President Ronald W. Reagan and Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney sign a comprehensive free trade agreement to eliminate tariffs and reduce all barriers to trade by the end of the century.

January 4 Aviation: U.S. Navy F-14 Tomcats shoot down two Libyan MiG-23 jets over the Gulf of Sidra after a tense standoff.

January 6 Labor: Statistics from the Labor Department reveal that unemployment has dipped nationally to 5.3 percent, the lowest in 14 years.

January 10 Aviation: To decrease the possibility of accidents in an increasingly crowded sky, the FAA mandates installation of Collision Avoidance Radar in all passenger aircraft with more than 30 seats.

January 11 Diplomacy: In Paris, France, U.S. delegates join representatives from 140 nations in condemning chemical warfare and urge a comprehensive treaty to ban such weapons outright. Medical: Surgeon General C. Everett Koop reports that lung cancer from cigarette smoking claimed 390,00 lives in 1985, and that it has supplanted breast cancer as the greatest killer of women.

January 20 Politics: George H. W. Bush is inaugurated as the 41st president of the United States. He urges fellow citizens to look to themselves and not rely on the federal government for solutions to crime and poverty. Dan Quayle is sworn in as vice president.

January 23 Civil: The U.S. Supreme Court strikes down a Richmond, Virginia, law that withholds 30 percent of all funds for public works for minority-owned construction companies.

January 28 Diplomacy: In Moscow, a gathering of American, Cuban, and Russian officials who dealt with the Cuban missile crisis of 1962 reveal that the Soviets, in fact,

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Bush, George H. W. (1924– ) President George Herbert Walker Bush was born in Milton, Connecticut, the son of a U.S. senator. Privately educated at the elite Phillips Exeter Academy, he joined the U.S. Navy to fight in World War II, passed his flight training, and became the service’s youngest pilot. On September 2, 1944, Bush was shot down during a bombing run over Ie Shima, was rescued by a submarine, and won the Distinguished Flying Cross. After the war he married, graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Yale University with a business degree in 1948, and entered the oil industry in Texas. Bush proved successful as a businessman, soon became a millionaire, and began testing the political waters of his adopted state. He lost a U.S. Senate race in 1964 to an incumbent Democrat, but two years later became the first Republican congressman elected from

President George H. W. Bush (U. S. Department of Defense)

Houston. Bush, upon the urging of President Richard M. Nixon, ran again for the Senate in 1970 and lost to Lloyd Bentsen, but Nixon subsequently appointed him U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. In 1974, he served briefly as the American liaison in Beijing, China, and the following year President Gerald R. Ford appointed him director of the Central Intelligence Agency. He served two years in this office and then returned to Texas to prepare his own run for the White House. In 1980, he was defeated in his quest by the conservative Ronald W. Reagan, who then appointed him his vice presidential running mate. Commencing in 1981, the two men occupied the White House for seven years. Bush ran again for the presidency in 1988. He handily defeated Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis in a major victory, becoming the first vice president to succeed to the presidency since Martin Van Buren in 1836. Once in office, Bush proved more skillful at handling foreign affairs than in dealing with domestic issues. In December 1989, he authorized Operation Urgent Fury, which toppled Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, and freed that nation from a brutal dictatorship. Bush also conducted skilled arms-control negotiations with Soviet general secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, which greatly lessened world tensions. However, his biggest test came in August 1990 after Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, a nominal American ally in the Persian Gulf. Bush responded forcefully by deploying a United Nations coalition of 500,000 men under General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, who drove the invaders out during the spectacularly successful Operation Desert Storm (continues)

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(continued) in January 1991. Bush’s popularity rating topped off at 89 percent but then slowly eroded over the next two years due to a sluggish economy and a growing perception that he was out of touch with average Americans. Consequently, he was defeated by Democrat Bill Clinton in November 1992, and he

returned to Texas as a private citizen. Bush enjoyed a measure of political revenge in November 2000 when George W. Bush narrowly defeated Democratic vice president Al Gore for the White House, rendering him the first president succeeded by his son since John Quincy Adams in 1828.

had deployed 20 nuclear warheads on that island in anticipation of an attack by the United States.

January 31 Education: Statistics from the Educational Testing Service reveal that 13-yearold Americans score last in math and science in comparison to teenagers from South Korea, Great Britain, Ireland, Spain, and Canada.

February 3 Business: The firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. acquires the food producer RJR Nabisco for $25 billion, making it the largest leveraged buyout in U.S. business history.

February 9 Politics: President George H. W. Bush submits his $1.16-trillion budget request to Congress, along with a projected deficit of $91.1 billion.

February 10 Politics: Washington, D.C., attorney Ronald Brown becomes the first African American to head a major political party when he gains appointment as chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

February 14 Diplomacy: Union Carbide is ordered by the Supreme Court of India to pay $470 million in compensation and damages to victims of their plant leak in Bhopal, India.

March 9 Politics: The Senate rejects the nomination of Texas senator John Towers for secretary of defense over allegations of infidelity and alcoholism.

March 14 Societal: The Bush administration announces a ban on the importation of foreign-made assault rifles.

March 21 Politics: The U.S. Supreme Court upholds a federal drug testing program applicable to the Federal Railroad Administration, and does so in the interests of public safety.

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March 23 Science: B. Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann, two researchers at the University of Utah, claim the discovery of “cold fusion” as a potential source of the planet’s energy needs, but when the experiment cannot be reproduced they are exposed as frauds.

March 24 Conservation: The huge oil tanker Exxon Valdez strikes a reef off Prince William Sound, Alaska, spilling 1.2 million barrels of oil into the waterway. This proves a major ecological calamity, for the ensuing slick stretches 45 miles.

March 29 Media: Academy Awards go to Rain Man as best picture of 1988 and its star Dustin Hoffman as best actor; Jodie Foster clinches best actress for The Accused.

March 30 Arts: Pulitzer Prizes go to Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler, fiction; New and Collected Poems by Richard Wilbur, poetry; and The Heidi Chronicles by Wendy Wasserstein, drama.

April 14 Politics: President George H. W. Bush and Congress reach an agreement on a finalized budget that restricts the deficit to $99.4 billion.

April 17 Diplomacy: The Bush administration announces special aid to Poland, including lowered tariffs and guaranteed loans from the World Bank.

April 19 Naval: While conducting firing tests of its main battery off Puerto Rico, the battleship USS Iowa suffers from a catastrophic turret explosion that kills 47 sailors. An intensive naval investigation ensues to find out why.

May 1 Women: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that if a woman plaintiff sues for sexual discrimination at work, it is incumbent upon the employer to provide evidence to prove otherwise.

May 4 Crime: Former National Security Council member Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North is convicted of three counts of aiding and abetting obstruction of Congress stemming from his role in the Iran-Contra scandal. Science: The unmanned space probe Magellan is launched from the space shuttle Atlantis on its voyage to Venus.

May 22 Science: Scientists at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, successfully transfer cells containing foreign genes into a human being, in this instance to help fight cancer cells in a patient.

May 31 Crime: Democrat Jim Wright of Texas, caught in a web of ethics violations stemming from a book publication, is forced to resign as Speaker of the House of Representatives.

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June Medical: Statistics reveal 106,000 cases of AIDS in the United States, of which 61,000 have died.

June 6 Politics: Democratic representative Tom Foley of Washington State is chosen the new Speaker of the House of Representatives to replaces the disgraced Jim Wright of Texas.

June 10 Religion: Reverend Jerry Falwell announces the disbandment of his group, Moral Majority, which at one point boasted 6.5 million members. Falwell’s intention was to get Christians involved in mainstream politics, and he claims to have met that objective.

June 12 Civil: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that white workers claiming unfair treatment due to affirmative action laws can sue for damages. The case stems from a group of white firemen who claimed discrimination against them due to a program bent on increasing the number of less-qualified black firemen. The U.S. Supreme Court rules that burning the American flag is protected under the First Amendment’s prohibition of laws infringing freedom of speech.

June 13 Business: President George H. W. Bush casts his first veto against a bill raising the minimum wage from $3.35 to $5.55 an hour. The following day the House of Representatives fails to override it.

June 21 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court votes 5-4 to uphold the right of individuals to burn an American flag in protest; President George H. W. Bush subsequently announces his support for a constitutional amendment to outlaw desecration of the flag.

July 3 Women: The U.S. Supreme Court votes 5-4 to uphold certain restrictions on a woman’s right to abortion, although Roe v. Wade itself is not overturned.

July 6 Crime: Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North draws a three-year suspended prison sentence, two years probation, a $150,000 fine, and 1,200 hours of community service for his role in the Iran-Contra scandal.

July 9 Business: Fortune magazine pronounces Sam Moore Walton of the Walmart chain store the richest man in the United States, worth an estimated $8.7 billion.

July 11 Politics: Jack Kemp, secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, admits that his predecessor, Samuel Pierce, is responsible for $2 billion in fraud and waste in the department.

July 17 Aviation: The new Northrop-Grumman B-2 Spirit stealth bomber completes its first flight; with a price tag of nearly $1 billion apiece, these are the most expensive aircraft ever constructed and flown.

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July 19 Aviation: A United Airlines DC-10 jet crashes at Sioux City, Iowa, killing 112 of the 296 passengers onboard.

July 24 Business: Warner Communications, Inc., and Time, Inc., merge to form the world’s largest media and entertainment conglomerate, Time Warner, Inc., with an annual income of $10 billion.

August 9 Business: President George H. W. Bush approves legislation allotting $166 billion over the next decade to bail out the closing or merging of insolvent savings and loan institutions.

August 10 Civil: General Colin Powell is selected by President George H. W. Bush as the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; he is the first African American so honored and, aged 52 years, also the youngest.

September 7 Naval: An investigation concludes that the turret accident onboard the battleship USS Iowa was the result of a suicidal act by a sailor, Clayton Hartwig.

Powell, Colin L.

(1937–

)

General, diplomat Colin Luther Powell was born in the Harlem district, New York City, on April 5, 1937, a son of Jamaican immigrants. He enrolled in the local ROTC program while attending the City College of New York and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army in 1958. Powell served actively over the next four decades, including two tours in Vietnam in which he was wounded and highly decorated. Back home, he accepted a number of high-profile political positions within the Office of Management and Budget and the Department of Energy. He rose to brigadier general in 1979, served as a National Security Advisor under President Ronald Reagan, and, in 1989, made history when President George H. W. Bush appointed him the nation’s first African-American chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), the

nation’s highest military post. In this capacity he was responsible for helping to orchestrate Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm in response to the 1991 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. He worked closely with General H. Norman Schwarzkopf during the run-up to the ensuing Gulf War, and he became a familiar national figure by appearing almost nightly on national television. His reassuring presence, smooth persona, and high popularity ratings gave rise to much debate as to his running as a possible future presidential candidate. In 1991, Powell was reappointed to the JCS after President Bush awarded him a Presidential Medal of Freedom for his services. However, he disagreed strongly with cuts in military spending proposed by (continues)

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(continued) President Bill Clinton and resigned from office in September 1993. The following year he served with an American delegation that arrived in Haiti and helped convince the ruling junta to restore the country to democracy without bloodshed. Powell continued as a private citizen for several years and, in 1995, he published his best-selling memoir, My American Journey. He also briefly considered running for president as a Republican but, as an exponent of affirmative action for minorities, he felt his chances were unrealistic, and he withdrew from consideration in December 1995. However, in 2001 President George W. Bush appointed him the nation’s first African-American secretary of state, responsible for the nation’s diplomacy. This task

grew increasingly complex in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks upon the World Trade Center in New York and elsewhere and Bush’s intention to invade Iraq and rid that country of dictator Saddam Hussein. It was Powell’s task to lay out the American position to a skeptical United Nations, which he did with verve and style, although the American claim of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction (WMD) has since been discounted. Powell was stung by criticism leveled at him that he failed to weld together a large enough coalition for Operation Iraqi Freedom, and he concluded half a century of devoted service to the nation by retiring in January 2005. He was replaced by another African American, Condoleezza Rice.

September 15 Conservation: The onset of bad weather forces the Exxon Corporation to suspend its cleanup operations stemming from the 11-million-gallon oil spill in Alaska.

September 18–22 General: Hurricane Hugo rips through Charleston, South Carolina, killing 24 people and inflicting $3.7 billion in property damage.

September 27 Business: The Japanese-owned American company Sony, Inc., buys out Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc., for $3.4 billion. This is the largest foreign acquisition of an American company to date.

September 28 Politics: Congress approves $1.1 billion in emergency aid to assist the victims of Hurricane Hugo. Religion: In light of a threatened split in the Episcopal Church over the issue of ordained women, church leaders issue a statement that they should be “pastorally sensitive” to those who oppose women priests.

October 5 Religion: A North Carolina jury convicts former televangelist Jim Bakker of fraud and conspiracy; he draws a 40-year prison sentence, which is eventually appealed to 12 years.

October 9 Business: The Dow Jones Industrial Average hits an all-time high of 2,791.41.

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Science: J. Michael Bishop and Harold E. Warmus of the University of California, San Francisco, share the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for discovering how normal cells become cancerous ones.

October 12 Science: Sidney Altman, Yale University, and Thomas R. Cech, University of Colorado, share the Nobel Prize in chemistry for their work with RNA as a carrier of genetic information; Norman F. Ramsey, Harvard University, and Hans Dehmelt, University of Washington, win the Nobel Prize in physics for their work with atomic clocks and subatomic particles.

October 13 Business: The Dow Jones Industrial Average drops 190.58 points in one day, its second highest decline on record.

October 14–28 Sports: The Oakland Athletics (AL) win the World Series by defeating the San Francisco Giants (NL) four games to one.

October 17 General: San Francisco Bay is struck by an earthquake registering 6.9 on the Richter scale, killing 60 people and injuring 3,000. The quake completely halts the third game of the World Series in Candlestick Park, where many of the casualties are sustained. Damage is estimated at $10 billion.

October 18 Science: The space shuttle Atlantis launches the unmanned Galileo space probe toward the giant planet Jupiter.

November 8 Civil: Douglas Wilder becomes the first African-American governor of a state when he wins the Virginia gubernatorial race with 50.19 percent of the vote.

November 17 Business: President George H. W. Bush reaches a compromise agreement with Congress as per a new minimum wage; it increases the wage to $4.25 per hour as of 1991, but trainees 16 to 19 years old will be paid $3.35 an hour.

November 19 Science: American astronomers detect a faint light coming near the edge of the universe and, hence, from the very beginning of time.

November 21 Societal: President George H. W. Bush signs a law banning all smoking on domestic flights, with the exception of flights to Hawaii and Alaska that take longer than six hours.

November 27 Medical: Surgeons at the University of Chicago Medical Center successfully perform the first liver transplant in the United States, whereby a mother donated one-third of her organ to her 21-year-old daughter.

December 1–3 Diplomacy: After Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev meets with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican, and then confers with President George H. W. Bush on the

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December 11 Exploration: A report issued by the National Geographic Society claims that Admiral Robert E. Peary did not reach the North Pole on April 6, 1909, and based his claim on either falsified data or simple human error.

December 15 Diplomacy: The puppet National Assembly of Panama names General Manuel Noriega as its leader and declares a state of war between that nation and the United States.

December 16 Military: As tensions increase between Panama and the United States, an American soldier is killed by Panamanian guards.

December 20–24 Military: President George H. W. Bush responds to Panamanian aggression by unleashing Operation “Just Cause,” an invasion by U.S. armed forces, which quickly overruns General Manuel Noriega’s self-defense forces. Noriega himself is surrounded in the Vatican diplomatic mission. American losses are 23 killed and 322 wounded, mostly by friendly fire, while Panamanian casualties are 314 dead and 124 wounded.

December 31 Business: The Dow Jones Industrial Average ends the year at 2,753.20, up 27 percent from last year.

1990 Arts: Reacting to a groundswell of public criticism over obscenity, the National Endowment of the Arts declines to fund four theater art projects deemed too sexually charged for public funding. Congress votes to extend public funding of the National Endowment of the Arts for three more years, but cautions the agency to sponsor works that are “sensitive to the general standards of decency.” At a New York art auction, a Japanese businessman buys Van Gogh’s Portrait of Dr. Gachet for $82.5 million and Renoir’s Au Moulin de la Galette for $78.1 million. These are the highest and second highest prices ever paid for individual works of art, respectively. Indian: A new law enables Native-American remains and burial objects held sacred by various tribes to be claimed by them from various museums. Sociologists and linguists advance the theory that all Native-American languages are descended from only three ancestral tongues that arrived in the New World in distinct waves. Medical: A four-year-old girl with a genetic deficiency becomes the first human to undergo genetic therapy when doctors at the National Institutes of Health insert the missing genes in her cells. Music: The Texaco Opera Theater commemorates its 50th anniversary by broadcasting live from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City every Saturday for a year. Population: Figures released by the Census Bureau reveal a population of 249 million people, an increase of 23 million since 1980.

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Publishing: The book You Just Don’t Understand by Deborah Tannen demonstrates the many different ways that male and female communication differ. Religion: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) drops part of its ceremonies deemed offensive to women and minorities. Societal: Sociologists observing decision-making processes in small groups theorize that the human penchant for cooperative behavior is based on far more than selfishness.

January 3 Diplomacy: Former Panamanian leader General Manuel Noriega surrenders to American authorities and is flown to Florida to face charges of drug trafficking.

January 11 Medical: The Food and Drug Administration withdraws the Jarvik-7 artificial heart because of reported malfunctions and medical complications arising from its use.

January 18 Crime: In Washington, D.C., Mayor Marion Barry, a high-profile AfricanAmerican politician, is arrested by police and FBI agents for smoking crack cocaine.

January 22 Business: The Justice Department reports that 403 people have been convicted of fraud charges stemming from the failure of 506 savings and loan institutions. Losses in question to said institutions totaled $6.4 billion.

January 29 Crime: Escrow agent Marilyn Louise Harrell pleads guilty to embezzling $4.5 million from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

February 7 Conservation: A tanker strikes an underwater snag off Huntington Beach, California, and spills 400,000 gallons of crude oil into the ocean.

February 13 Business: The firm Drexel Burnham Lambert, previously the leading seller of so-called junk bonds, files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after defaulting on $100 billion in loans; 5,000 employees lose their jobs.

February 22 Politics: A transcript of former president Ronald W. Reagan’s eight-hour testimony about the Iran-Contra scandal is made available to the public. He acknowledges that he authorized the swap of arms for hostages, but he insisted that his subordinates obey the laws.

February 27 Medical: For the first time, federal health officials advise a reduction in the highfat content of the typical American diet to head off long-term health risks.

February 28 Diplomacy: Newly freed South African leader Nelson Mandela flies to Washington, D.C., for talks with President George H. W. Bush.

March 3 Education: Publisher Walter H. Annenberg donates $50 million to the United Negro College Fund, which represents 41 historically African-American colleges.

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March 6 Aviation: A Lockheed SR-71 Black Bird sets a transcontinental air speed record of 2,124 miles per hour.

March 18 Crime: Thieves remove $100 million worth of paintings by such masters as Rembrandt, Degas, Vermeer, Manet, and others from the Isabelle Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest art theft in history.

March 22 Conservation: Joseph Hazelwood, captain of the ill-fated tanker Exxon Valdez, is found guilty of negligent discharge of oil by an Alaskan state court. He is sentenced to community service and a $50,000 fine.

March 26 Media: Academy Awards go to Driving Miss Daisy as best picture of 1989 with star Jessica Tandy as best actress; Daniel Day Lewis is best actor for My Left Foot.

March 27 Medical: A House subcommittee reports that Americans spend $30 billion a year on weight-loss programs, most of which are either ineffective or even dangerous.

March 28 Aviation: Boeing delivers its 1,832nd model-737 airliner, making it the bestselling jetliner in history.

April Religion: The Mormon Church institutes changes in some of its most sacred rituals, especially those in which a woman vows to obey her husband and also to wear veils at certain times in the ceremony.

April 7 Crime: Former national security advisor John M. Poindexter is found guilty of five counts of conspiracy and obstruction of Congress, and he is sentenced to six months in prison.

April 12 Arts: Pulitzer Prizes go to The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos, fiction; The World Doesn’t End by Charles Simic, poetry; and The Piano Lesson by August Wilson, drama.

April 14 General: Flash floods occasioned by heavy thunderstorms wreak havoc in the Midwest, killing 23 people in Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania.

April 22 Conservation: The world celebrates the 20th anniversary of Earth Day with festivals, exhibits, and “teach-ins.”

April 23 Societal: President George H. W. Bush signs the Hate Crimes Statistics Act, which obliges law enforcement agencies to record the number of crimes that are racial or ethnic in nature.

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April 24 Science: The space shuttle Atlantis places the 12-ton, $1.5-billion Hubble Space telescope into orbit above the Earth’s atmosphere, seven years behind schedule. Preliminary trials indicate that the primary mirror suffers from improper curvature, requiring a corrective lens to be retrofitted in a subsequent mission.

April 30 Diplomacy: Militant Muslims in Lebanon release American hostage Frank Reed.

May 15–17 Politics: President George H. W. Bush and congressional leaders conduct a “budget summit” at the White House over their mutual concern with mounting budget deficits.

May 23 Business: The Senate Banking Committee is informed by Treasury Secretary Nicholas Brady that upwards of $130 billion may have to be spent to rescue the savings and loan industry from insolvency.

May 30–June 3 Diplomacy: President George H. W. Bush and Soviet general secretary Mikhail Gorbachev meet in Washington, D.C., to sign a new trade treaty and an agreement on further reductions in long-range nuclear missiles.

June 1 Diplomacy: In Washington, D.C., President George H. W. Bush and General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev sign an arms reduction act requiring significant reductions in their respective nuclear arsenals, including bombers and submarines. This is the most comprehensive disarmament agreement of the past two decades.

June 4 Medical: Controversy ensues once Dr. Jack Kevorkian, a retired pathologist, assists a cancer-stricken woman in Oregon to commit suicide. This act triggers an emotional debate over a patient’s right to die. Religion: The U.S. Supreme Court rules 8-1 to allow high school groups to hold religious sessions in school facilities after hours. This decision makes a federal law crafted for such purposes constitutional.

June 5 Religion: The Presbyterian Church adopts a new statement of faith, which declares people of all races and genders to be equal and calls upon them “to live as one community.”

June 12 Religion: Morris Chapman, a fundamentalist theologian, is elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention, marking the 12th year of conservative direction in that organization.

June 22 Crime: Escrow agent Marilyn Louise Harrell is sentenced to 46 months of imprisonment and $600,000 restitution for bilking the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

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June 25 Medical: The U.S. Supreme Court rules 8-1 to allow patients with terminal illnesses to order life-sustaining equipment removed, thereby affirming the right to die.

June 26 Business: President George H. W. Bush, who, as a presidential candidate, vowed, “Read my lips. No new taxes,” signs a tax increase bill to help lower the spiraling budget deficit.

June 30 Medical: A report from the National Academy of Sciences declares that the AIDS epidemic was not leveling off but, rather, expanding rapidly in the AfricanAmerican and Hispanic populations.

July 8 Diplomacy: The United States and Greece conclude a new eight-year agreement for the continuance of American military bases in Greece in exchange for military supplies.

July 16 Business: The Dow Jones Industrial Average crashes through the 3,000 mark for the first time, only to settle slightly below it.

July 20 Law: Associate Justice William Brennan, an avowed liberal, retires from the U.S. Supreme Court.

July 23 Law: President George H. W. Bush nominates Judge David Souter to replace outgoing associate judge William Brennan for the U.S. Supreme Court.

July 26 Societal: The Americans with Disabilities Act is signed into law by President George H. W. Bush, which outlaws discrimination against people with handicaps.

July 27 Business: Statistics released by the Commerce Department indicate that the gross national product is running at 1.2 percent, proof to many that the nation is gripped by recession.

July 31 Medical: An advisory committee within the National Institute for World Health approves experiments in gene therapy, including the insertion of new genes into a human body to fight various disorders.

August 2 Diplomacy: President George H. W. Bush reacts angrily to Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait, a nominal U.S. ally in the Persian Gulf, and warns that such aggression “will not stand.”

August 7 Military: Widescale deployment of U.S. military forces—army, navy, and air force—begins in Saudi Arabia as part of Operation Desert Shield to protect the oil fields from possible attack from Iraq.

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August 10 Crime: Democratic mayor Marion Barry of Washington, D.C., pleads guilty to possession of crack cocaine. Science: The Magellan unmanned space probe enters orbit around the planet Venus and begins sending back amazing radar photographs of a surface unlike anything previously seen in the solar system.

August 18 Medical: The rising costs of the AIDS epidemic in America prompts President George H. W. Bush to sign a bill allowing emergency relief for cities and states to combat its spread.

August 23 Business: The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummets to 2,483, a loss of 14 percent in only three weeks. Apparently, investors are reacting to the possible loss of gasoline supplies due to events in Kuwait and Iraq.

August 25 Diplomacy: The United Nations Security Council authorizes the use of naval forces to prevent possible violations of UN-imposed economic sanctions against Iraq.

September 11 Politics: President George H. W. Bush declares to Congress that the United States cannot allow the brutal and unpredictable Saddam Hussein to control the bulk of oil production in the Persian Gulf.

September 27 Law: After a relatively uneventful session, the Senate confirms David Souter as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

September 29 Aviation: The new F-22A Raptor air superiority/stealth fighter makes its initial flight.

September 30 Religion: The major Protestant denominations release the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible to replace the last edition issued in 1952. The newer version changes masculine terms to gender-neutral ones.

October 6 Politics: Former Ku Klux Klan wizard David Duke loses a U.S. Senate race in Louisiana, but he does manage to secure 44 percent of the popular vote. Science: The space shuttle Discovery launches the unmanned space probe Ulysses into orbit, from which it is to survey the southern hemisphere of the sun before reaching the giant planet Jupiter.

October 8 Science: Joseph E. Murray of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, and E. Donnall Thomas of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Seattle, share the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for their work in carrying out the first kidney and bone marrow transplants.

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October 12 Business: A federal court orders the Eastman Kodak Company to pay $909 million to the Polaroid Company for infringing upon seven of the latter’s instant photography patents. This is the largest such settlement of it kind to date.

October 16 Business: Harry M. Markowitz, City University of New York; Merton H. Miller, University of Chicago; and William F. Sharpe share the Nobel Prize in economics.

October 16–20 Sports: The Cincinnati Reds (NL) win the World Series by defeating the Oakland Athletics (AL) four games straight. Science: Jerome I. Friedman and Henry W. Kendall, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Richard E. Taylor, Stanford University, share the Nobel Prize in physics for confirming the existence of quarks; Elias James Corey of Harvard University wins the Nobel Prize in chemistry for new methods of synthesizing complex substances.

October 22 Civil: The Civil Rights Act of 1990 is vetoed by President George H. W. Bush, who affirms that it might entail widespread use of quotas in hiring and promotion if adopted. The veto is upheld in the Senate.

October 24 Civil: The Senate fails to override President George H. W. Bush’s veto of the Civil Rights Act of 1990 by a single vote.

October 25 Medical: Doctors at Stanford University Medical School perform a historic transplant operation by taking part of a mother’s lung and transferring it to her 12-year-old daughter.

November 1 Conservation: The United States joins 42 other nations in signing a treaty to end all industrial dumping at sea by 1995.

November 5 Business: President George H. W. Bush signs a budget law intending to reduce the deficit by $492 billion over the next five years. However, it includes a $140billion tax increase despite the president’s 1988 pledge not to do so. Terrorism: Meir Kahane, leader of the militant Jewish Defense League, is shot down in New York City by Egyptian gunman El Sayyid A. Nosair.

November 6 Politics: Midterm elections favor the Democrats, who take an additional seat in the Senate and eight seats in the House of Representatives.

November 8 Military: Gearing up for an inevitable showdown with Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, President George H. W. Bush orders an increase in American and allied forces in the Persian Gulf to 430,000 men.

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November 15 Conservation: The new Clean Air Act of 1990, which updates the version passed in 1970, is signed into law by President George H. W. Bush. It aims to cut acid rain pollutants, reduce urban smog, and halt all industrial emissions of toxic chemicals by 2000 at a cost of $25 billion a year.

November 16 Science: Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico, announce the world’s first superconducting transistors capable of working at relatively high temperatures.

November 19 Diplomacy: In Paris, France, member nations of NATO and the Warsaw Pact sign a sweeping arms reduction treaty that greatly reduces the number of tanks and troops permissible in Western and Central Europe.

November 21 Crime: Michael R. Milken, the infamous “junk bond” trader, draws 10 years in prison for violating federal securities laws. Diplomacy: The United States joins 31 other European nations in signing the Charter of Paris, which formally declares the cold war at an end and calls for an expansion of democracy and human rights.

November 29 Diplomacy: After considerable prodding by the United States, the United Nations Security Council authorizes the use of force to expel Iraqi troops from Kuwait if they do not evacuate by January 15, 1991. This is only the second time in its history that the UN has cast such a decision; the first was in June 1950 when the Korean War erupted. Societal: President George H. W. Bush signs the Immigration Act of 1990, the most far-reaching legislation in 66 years, which allows 700,000 persons to be admitted each year.

December Military: The United States and its allies continue their buildup of air, sea, and land forces in Saudi Arabia, although Saddam Hussein remains defiant and swears he will never relinquish Kuwait.

December 3 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that once criminal suspects request a lawyer, no police interrogation can take place until said attorney is present.

December 7 Business: Negotiations on the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) are mired down after four years of talks between 107 nations, especially after the European Union refuses to cut its farm subsidies as low as the United States has demanded. Science: The unmanned space probe Galileo makes a close flyby of Venus to collect gravitational acceleration en route to Jupiter, and it takes detailed pictures of its cloud and wind patterns.

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December 10 Medical: The Food and Drug Administration approves the first new contraceptive device in 25 years, a set of small tubes implanted under a woman’s skin to release the hormone progestin.

December 11 General: A chain reaction collision in heavy fog on Interstate 75 in Tennessee kills 15 people and injures more than 50.

December 26 Population: The Census Bureau declares that the American population has soared by more than 10 percent since the 1980 census and stands at 249.6 million people.

December 31 Business: The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes the year at 2,633.66, down 4.3 percent.

1991 Arts: Veteran playwright Neil Simon shines with his Broadway production of Lost in Yonkers, as does John Guare and his Six Degrees of Separation. Millionaire Walter H. Annenberg bequeaths $1 billion worth of paintings and other fine art to New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, and an additional $10 million to the Los Angeles Museum of Art. Lloyd Richards, the distinguished dean of the Yale University Arts School, resigns after a productive 12-year tenure. Literature: Norman Mailer’s new novel Harlot’s Ghost provokes its usual round of controversy. Medical: The National Cancer Institute begins clinically experimenting with retinoic acid (related to Vitamin A) as a possible cure for some kinds of cancers. Researchers uncover a genetic link to some of the symptoms of cystic fibrosis. It is discovered that a new blood test can lead to early detection of prostate cancer. Music: John Corigliano’s opera The Ghosts of Versailles debuts at the Metropolitan Opera of New York. Carnegie Hall celebrates its 100th anniversary. Religion: The Greek Orthodox Church withdraws its membership in the National Council of Churches in opposing changes in biblical texts, ordination of homosexuals, and legalization of abortion. Societal: Robert Bly’s new book Iron John declares that men have ceded too much power to women and that they should rediscover their fathers and masculinity in general.

January 4 Labor: New Labor Department statistics indicate an unemployment rate of 6.1 percent.

January 6 Business: The Bank of New England, tottering on the precipice of bankruptcy, is taken over by a federal regulator. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation also declares that it will now insure all deposits, and not simply those under $100,000.

January 7 Aviation: The Defense Department announces cancellation of the McDonnell Douglas/General Dynamics A-12 stealth attack plane for the U.S. Navy, already

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16 months behind schedule and $2.7 billion over budget. This is the largest weapons program ever terminated.

January 8 Business: Pan American Airlines, one of the nation’s oldest and largest, files for bankruptcy.

January 9 Diplomacy: In a last-ditch attempt to avert war, Secretary of State James Baker confers with Iraqi foreign minister Tariq Aziz in Geneva, Switzerland, but no solution can be found.

January 12 Politics: On the cusp of hostilities in Kuwait, President George H. W. Bush asks for and receives authorization to use force to expel Iraqi forces there. The vote in the Senate is 52-47, that in the House of Representatives is 250-183.

January 14 Religion: The United Church of Christ issues a statement declaring that racism is a deepening problem in the United States.

January 15 Civil: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that school districts may be released from court-ordered busing once they have taken “all practical steps” to end racial segregation. Indians: In Window Rock, Arizona, the Navajo nation elects Peter Zah to serve as its first president, which ends a period of disruption and upheaval among the tribesmen.

January 16–February 27 Aviation: With the UN deadline for evacuating Kuwait passed, American and coalition aircraft begin a concentrated bombardment of Iraqi military targets, missile sites, communications facilities, and other targets deemed useful to Saddam Hussein’s occupying forces. The aerial campaign continues for the next 38 days with devastating results and relatively light losses.

January 18 Business: Eastern Airlines, having filed for bankruptcy, shuts down its operations.

January 23 Aviation: General Colin Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, declares that air superiority has been achieved over Iraq. Enemy positions are being bombed with virtual impunity. Conservation: Iraqi forces release tons of stored oil into the Persian Gulf, creating a slick 20 miles wide and 60 miles long.

January 27 Women: The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) elects Nadine Strossen of New York Law School to serve as its first female president.

February 1 Aviation: A USAir Boeing 737 and a SkyWest commuter craft collide head-on after mistakenly using the same runway, killing 22 of 69 passengers on the former and all 12 passengers on the latter.

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Chronology of American History Diplomacy: The State Department’s annual report on human rights excoriates the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein for widespread torture and executions, along with its nominal allies Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey. Labor: Ronald L. Carey is elected president of the Teamsters Union as a reformer and vows to cleanse the organization of all corruption and mob influence. He won by defeating two better-known insiders.

February 3 Business: The U.S. Postal Service announces an increase in postal rates from 25 to 29 cents for first-class mail.

February 4 Politics: President George H. W. Bush presents his $1,446 billion budget request to Congress, which includes the second largest deficit in American history, $280.9 billion.

February 6 Medical: President George H. W. Bush signs a bill to benefit Vietnam veterans suffering from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and soft-tissue carcinoma from exposure to the herbicide Agent Orange.

February 11 Business: The Carter Hawley Hales Stores, Inc., a major West Coast department store, files for bankruptcy.

February 15 Diplomacy: The Iraqi government offers to evacuate Kuwait, but only on the condition that all economic sanctions be lifted and that it face no reparations payments. President George H. W. Bush rejects the ploy as a “cruel hoax.”

February 21 Medical: The Food and Drug Administration approves a new type of genetically engineered drug for fighting off infections usually suffered by patients undergoing chemotherapy.

February 23–27 Military: American and coalition ground forces under General H. Norman Schwarzkopf unleash their long-anticipated ground offensive against Iraqi forces holding Kuwait. Fighting continues for only 100 hours before the defenders are completely routed and ejected. American losses are 148 killed (including 11 women) and 458 wounded. Iraqi losses are estimated in the thousands.

March 3 Civil: In Los Angeles, police are videotaped arresting and beating Rodney King, an African American, and a federal investigation of the racially tinged incident is ordered.

March 4 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that juries have broad discretion on deciding damage awards, including punitive ones, although restraint is advised.

March 13 Business: McDonald’s introduces a new leaner line of hamburgers, called McLean Deluxe, with half the fat of its regular offerings.

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(1934 –

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General Herbert Norman Schwarzkopf was born in Trenton, New Jersey, on August 22, 1934, the son of an army officer. He traveled abroad with his father on a year-long visit to Iran in the 1940s and was indelibly impressed by this youthful encounter with Islamic religion and culture. Schwarzkopf subsequently attended the U.S. Military Academy, receiving his lieutenant’s commission in 1956. After gaining his airborne wings, he served with the elite 101st Airborne Division before becoming part of the army’s elite Berlin brigade. In 1964, he left the military briefly to obtain a master’s degree in missile engineering from the University of Southern California. Schwarzkopf then fulfilled several tours of duty in Vietnam, where he was decorated for bravery with his third Silver Star before rising to brigadier general in 1978 and major general in 1982. The following year, he served as ground force commander during Operation Urgent Fury, the U.S.-sponsored liberation of Grenada from Marxist revolutionaries. Afterward, he wrote a scathing critique of operations that generated badly needed reforms. Schwarzkopf received his fourth Silver Star in 1988 and spent a year at the Pentagon as deputy chief of staff. He then transferred as head of the United States Central Command (CENTCOM), headquartered at Tampa, Florida, tasked with providing security for American interests throughout the Middle East. In the spring of 1990, mindful of the declining Soviet threat to the region, he conducted hypothetical war games that substituted Iraq’s dictator Saddam Hussein as a poten-

tial aggressor. The following August, Hussein actually invaded neighboring Kuwait, an American ally, and President George H. W. Bush authorized Schwarzkopf to initiate appropriate measures for his eviction. Using his existing Iraq plan, Schwarzkopf spent the ensuing six months assembling a 27-nation coalition to oust the Iraqis from Kuwait. Many Arab nations proved willing to assist, and Schwarzkopf, by dint of his training in Middle Eastern affairs, melded this awkward assemblage of Christian and Muslim armies into a formidable military force of 500,000 men. Operation Desert Shield, built up of forces in the Gulf region, succeeded without any serious problems. Thus, when Hussein refused a United Nations order to leave Kuwait, Schwarzkopf commenced Operation Desert Storm to drive the Iraqis out in January 1991. He began the Gulf War with a month-long aerial bombardment of Iraqi defenses and antiaircraft sites, which left their ground forces vulnerable to assault. When this failed to induce Hussein to depart, he enacted a wellexecuted flanking movement that routed the Iraqis, inflicting 100,000 casualties in a little over 100 hours of fighting, and he effectively liberated Kuwait. Schwarzkopf retired from the military in 1991 and published his memoir entitled It Doesn’t Take a Hero (1992). He was also made an honorary private first class in the French Foreign Legion, being the only American so honored. Today Schwarzkopf lives in Florida, where he frequently acts as a TV military commentator and analyst.

Crime: A plea-bargain arrangement between the Exxon Corporation, the United States, and Alaska results in payment of a criminal fine of $100 million and civil damages of $900 million for the Exxon Valdez oil spill. The cleanup operation has already cost that company $2.2 billion.

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March 20 Women: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that employers may not exclude women from jobs that might expose unborn fetuses to toxic substances.

March 25 Media: Academy Awards go to Dances with Wolves for best picture of 1990; Jeremy Irons is best actor for Reversal of Fortune; and Kathy Bates is best actress for Misery.

March 26 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that coerced confessions do not automatically invalidate a criminal conviction, although it may be excused if other corroborating evidence is available.

April 1 Civil: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that use of racial criteria in jury selection is unconstitutional regardless of the race of the defendant or the jurors in question.

April 4 Conservation: The Environmental Protection Agency announces that the ozone layer surrounding the Earth is being depleted at rates twice as fast as previously thought. Crime: Police identify William Kennedy Smith, nephew of Massachusetts senator Edward M. Kennedy, as the prime suspect in a rape that occurred in Palm Beach, Florida, over the Easter holiday.

April 7 Science: The space shuttle Atlantis carries the 17-ton, $600-million Gamma Ray Observatory into orbit, where it will study gamma ray emissions from exploding stars and other phenomena.

April 9 Arts: Pulitzer Prizes go to Rabbit at Rest by John Updike, fiction; Near Changes by Mona Van Duyn, poetry; Lost in Yonkers by Neil Simon, drama.

April 16 General: A series of 79 tornadoes storms through the Midwest and Southwest, killing 23 people and, in one instance, demolishing 290 trailer homes and 100 houses.

April 17–18 Labor: Over 235,000 members of the railroad union strike in a dispute over how many personnel are required to operate freight trains. The work action ceases the following day once President George H. W. Bush authorizes a three-member panel to arbitrate the issue.

April 24 Conservation: U.S. District Court judge H. Russell Holland insists that Exxon’s plea bargain amount of $100 million is insufficient.

April 26 Indian: The first catacombs used by early Native Americans for burial purposes are uncovered by archaeologists in eastern Arizona at Casa Malpais.

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April 30 Politics: Massachusetts senator Paul Tsongas becomes the first announced candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination.

May 6 Business: To revive its fortunes in the growing computer business, American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) acquires the NCR Corporation for $7.4 billion.

May 9–25 Medical: In Houston, Texas, Larry Heinsohn receives the world’s first fully portable heart pump, a temporary expedient until a human heart donation becomes available; he dies before one is available.

May 16 Diplomacy: Queen Elizabeth II becomes the first British monarch to address a combined session of Congress, and she praises the United States for its role in the recent Gulf War.

May 20 General: Queen Elizabeth II bestows an honorary knighthood on General H. Norman Schwarzkopf for his handling of coalition forces in the Gulf War.

May 29 Religion: Pope John Paul II appoints Archbishops Anthony J. Bevilacqua of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Roger M. Mahoney of Los Angeles, California, to the rank of cardinal within the Roman Catholic Church.

May 31 Medical: Medicare officials announce a new national fee schedule for doctors whereby general practitioners will receive increased fees but specialists are assigned smaller ones.

June 3 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that jurors may not be excluded from civil lawsuits because of race.

June 6 Religion: The Greek Orthodox Church breaks all ties to the National Council of Churches over the latter’s liberal positions on homosexuality and abortion.

June 11 Religion: The Presbyterian Church releases its policy on sexual misconduct, which prohibits all physical contact between clergy and parishioners.

June 16 Medical: A biotech company announces that it has created three genetically altered pigs capable of producing hemoglobin for human blood transfusions.

June 17 General: The remains of former president Zachary Taylor are exhumed from his grave in Louisville, Kentucky, to investigate allegations that he had been poisoned in 1850 with arsenic.

June 26 General: The Kentucky State Coroner’s Office announces that the remains of former president Zachary Taylor display no sign of arsenic poisoning.

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June 27 Law: Justice Thurgood Marshall resigns from the U.S. Supreme Court, where he has served as the first African-American justice since 1967.

July 5 Business: Bank regulators in the United States and Great Britain seize the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) after going bankrupt through a series of false accounting and fictitious loans.

July 9 Societal: The Los Angeles Police Department is charged with using excessive force in several incidents by an independent commission. The department also recommends that Chief Daryl Gates resign from office.

July 10 Diplomacy: President George H. W. Bush removes most economic sanctions against South Africa now that the racial policy of apartheid has been eliminated.

July 11 Science: Scientists atop 13,700-foot Mount Mauna Kea, Hawaii, train their instruments on a total solar eclipse in their region that could also be partly viewed in the United States.

July 15 Business: Chemical Bank and Manufacturers Hanover Trust of New York merge into the nation’s third largest bank, with assets of $139 billion.

July 17 Politics: The Senate votes 53-45 to grant itself a raise in pay to $125,000 annually, as well as eliminate speaking fees. This move, however, sparks outrage in a nation gripped by recession.

July 19 Religion: The General Convention of the Episcopal Church reaffirms its traditional stance on sexual relations within matrimony, but it declines to issue a decision on the divisive issue of ordination of homosexuals.

July 22–25 Crime: Milwaukee police arrest 31-year-old Jeffrey Dahmer after finding human remains in his apartment, and he is charged on four counts of murder. Police suspect he is culpable in many other deaths.

July 30 Military: Congress approves a bill to close 44 military bases in a cost-cutting measure that eliminates 80,000 military and 37,000 civilian positions.

July 31 Diplomacy: In Moscow, President George H. W. Bush and General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev sign a nuclear arms reduction treaty to cut back further on strategic offensive systems.

August 15 Business: The nation’s second largest bank emerges when BankAmerica Corporation and Security Pacific Corporation of California merge, with combined assets of $190 billion.

1991

Chronology

2317

Politics: In light of the recent Iran-Contra scandal, President George H. W. Bush signs legislation requiring all covert operations to receive congressional approval in advance.

August 17 Labor: In view of lengthening unemployment lines, President George H. W. Bush signs a bill extending benefits to people who have been out of work for lengthy periods. However, he declines to declare the federal emergency required to release the funding.

August 18 Business: The Treasury Department temporarily suspends Salomon Brothers from bidding at its auctions of government securities for buying more than its allotted amount.

August 27 Law: The American Bar Association characterizes Judge Clarence Thomas as “qualified” for service on the U.S. Supreme Court, but not “well qualified.”

August 31 Civil: A museum is opened at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, to honor the memory of slain civil rights leader Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.

September 2 Diplomacy: The United States extends full diplomatic recognition to the Baltic states of Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania, signalling their increasing independence from the Soviet Union.

September 3 General: A fire at a chicken-processing plant in Hamlet, North Carolina, results in the deaths of 25 people, with an additional 55 injured. Apparently, several escape doors remained locked to prevent theft.

September 13 Business: To stimulate the economy, the Federal Reserve Board lowers the interest rate it charges banks to 5 percent, the lowest it has been in 18 years. Diplomacy: The United States and the Soviet Union agree to stop arms shipments to their various proxies in Afghanistan as of January 1, 1992.

September 16 Crime: A federal judge overturns the conviction of Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North because the trial testimony used to convict him had previously been affected by testimony he had given to Congress while under immunity.

September 19 Diplomacy: The United States and Kuwait sign a military alliance allowing the former to use ports and other facilities in the latter for a period of 10 years, but no permanent American garrison will be stationed there.

September 27–October 5 Diplomacy: President George H. W. Bush announces a unilateral reduction in all American tactical nuclear weapons in Europe and Asia, along with an end to 24hour alert status. A week later, General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev follows suit.

1991

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October 3 Politics: Governor Bill Clinton of Arkansas announces his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination.

October 6 Media: A report on National Public Radio suggests that Judge Clarence Thomas, up for consideration to serve with the U.S. Supreme Court, has sexually harassed his assistant, Anita Hill. The Senate is now forced to conduct a politically explosive investigation, since both the judge and his accuser are African Americans.

October 7 Crime: Former assistant secretary of state Elliott Abrams pleads guilty to withholding information from Congress in 1986 relative to secretly supplying military aid to the Nicaraguan freedom fighters, or contras.

October 11 Labor: President George H. W. Bush vetoes a bill that would provide money for expanded unemployment benefits.

October 11–13 Politics: Judge Clarence Thomas and University of Oklahoma law professor Anita Hill appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee to discuss various allegations of sexual harassment. Thomas is incensed by the charge and characterizes the committee’s treatment of him as the “high-tech lynching of a black man.”

October 15 Business: Ronald H. Coase of the University of Chicago wins the Nobel Prize in economics for his theories on the business origins of companies. Law: After heated debate, the Senate votes 52-48 to confirm Judge Clarence Thomas to become the next African American on the U.S. Supreme Court. However, the issue catapults sexual harassment into the national limelight.

October 17 Naval: The U.S. Navy, having conducted further investigations, exonerates sailor Clayton Hartwig for the accidental explosion on board the battleship USS Iowa and apologizes to his family.

October 19–27 Sports: The Minnesota Twins (AL) win the World Series by defeating the Atlanta Braves (NL) four games to three.

November 2 Politics: Reverend Jesse Jackson, the outspoken African-American civil rights activist, announces that he will not try for a third time to seek the presidency.

November 7 Sports: Basketball player Earvin “Magic” Johnson stuns the sports world by announcing that he has contracted from a prostitute the HIV virus that causes AIDS. He then retires from professional basketball.

November 14 Business: The Dow Jones Industrial Average drops 120 points on revelation that both Congress and President George H. W. Bush are considering a cap on credit card interest rates.

1991

Chronology

2319

Terrorism: Two Libyan intelligence operatives are indicted in the United States and Great Britain for planting a bomb aboard a Pan American Boeing 747 jet in December 1988.

November 15 Crime: A federal judge overturns the conviction of Admiral John M. Poindexter for his role in the Iran-contra scandal, since testimony he has given before a congressional committee has been used unfairly against him. Labor: Because of lengthening unemployment lines, President George H. W. Bush signs a bill extending benefits by another six weeks. Some individuals are eligible for an additional 20 weeks, depending on the state in which they live and the degree of unemployment present.

November 24 Media: Chief of Staff John Sununu goes on television to state that President George H. W. Bush ad-libbed when he mentioned capping credit card interest rates, which results in a firestorm of criticism.

December 3 Business: President George H. W. Bush signs a bill authorizing $25 billion to cover the losses of failed savings and loan institutions.

December 5 Politics: John Sununu, chief of staff to the president, resigns from office after allegations that he has used official vehicles on private errands. He is replaced by Samuel Miller.

December 7 General: At Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, President George H. W. Bush officiates over ceremonies marking the 50th anniversary of the infamous Japanese attack there. Meanwhile, the Japanese Diet refuses to apologize for the attack, since the United States has yet to apologize for the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

December 25 Diplomacy: The Soviet Union votes itself out of existence, opening a new chapter in human history and global relations. The United States has emerged from the cold war wealthy, triumphant, and the world’s sole remaining superpower.

December 31 Business: The Dow Jones Industrial Average hits an all-time high of 3,168.83, 20 percent higher than at the start of the year.

1992 Medical: Recent and grim statistics reveal that AIDS is spreading throughout the heterosexual population, not simply among homosexuals and intravenous drug users. Drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis are becoming more frequent among the poor in depressed, urban areas. Sports: The appearance of America’s “Dream Team” at the Olympics basketball competition heralds the growing rise and acceptance of that sport worldwide. Women: Politically speaking, 1992 is the “Year of the Woman,” with record numbers of female officeholders elected to power. However, the tally remains far too small to be truly representative of the overall population.

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January 6 Business: The Woolworth Corporation announces that it will close or sell 900 of its 6,500 stores because of the ongoing recession. Medical: In light of documented medical complications, the Food and Drug Administration temporarily halts the sale and implantation of silicon-gel breast implants.

January 7–9 Business: President George H. W. Bush and 20 leading business executives meet with their Japanese counterparts in Tokyo. The Japanese agree to increase their purchases of American-made auto parts, but President Bush suffers a major embarrassment when a stomach virus makes him collapse at a state dinner.

January 8–9 Diplomacy: In Tokyo, President George H. W. Bush and Japanese prime minister Kiichi Miyazawa announce joint plans to help fight inflation and that Japan has agreed to purchase more American-made automobiles and $10 billion in auto parts.

January 16 Business: The United States and China reach an agreement for the protection of Americans patents, copyrights, and trade secrets covering books, music, and software.

January 27 Business: New York–based R. H. Macy & Co. files for bankruptcy after incurring $3.5 billion in debt.

January 29 Politics: President George H. W. Bush submits his federal budget to Congress, replete with its estimated $352-billion deficit.

January 31 Business: Trans World Airlines (TWA) files for bankruptcy. Diplomacy: A report on human rights issued by the State Department cites India, China, Peru, and Syria for systematic abuses.

February 1 Diplomacy: In Washington, D.C., President George H. W. Bush and Russian president Boris Yeltsin declare an end to the cold war, which ends in a decisive victory for the West.

February 3 Societal: U.S. Coast Guard cutters return 381 refugees to Haiti.

February 10 Politics: Senator Tom Harkin wins the first Democratic presidential primary in Iowa, his home state.

February 12 Politics: President George H. W. Bush declares his intention to seek reelection to the presidency.

February 17 Crime: Jeffrey Dahmer, who confessed to the murder of 15 young men and boys, is sentenced to 15 consecutive life sentences. His defense team failed to convince a jury that he was insane.

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February 18 Politics: In New Hampshire, President George H. W. Bush sweeps the presidential primary by defeating challenger Pat Buchanan, 53 percent to 37 percent. On the Democratic side, Massachusetts senator Paul Tsongas wins with 33 percent, while Arkansas governor Bill Clinton finishes second with 25 percent.

February 24 Business: General Motors announces the closure of 21 auto plants in the United States and Canada, a decision affecting 16,300 workers, within three years. This coincides with company losses of $4.45 billion for 1991, the largest in American business history.

February 26 Education: The U.S. Supreme Court rules 9-0 that students can sue colleges for damages relating to sexual harassment or sex discrimination.

March 3 Politics: In Georgia, George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton defeat their main rivals, Pat Buchanan and Paul Tsongas, by large margins.

March 8 Business: The law firm Kaye, Scholer, Fierman, Hays, and Handler of New York agrees to pay the federal government $41 million for improperly representing a savings association implicated in the savings and loan scandal.

March 9 Religion: Harvey W. Wood, chairman of the Christian Science Church, resigns amid controversy over the institution’s direction and finances.

March 10 Politics: George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton sweep “Super Tuesday” throughout the South, while Paul Tsongas manages to capture Rhode Island.

March 12 Medical: The Food and Drug Administration issues warnings about a dangerous heart replacement valve implicated in the deaths of 300 patients who received it.

March 18 Politics: Maverick Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot decides to toss his hat into the presidential ring as an independent if his supporters can place his name on the ballot in all 50 states.

March 24 Women: Donna Redel, executive vice president of the Redel Trading Company, becomes the first woman chairperson of the New York Commodity Exchange.

March 31 Civil: The U.S. Supreme Court votes 8-0 to allow educational institutions to take back local control from federal judges before all aspects of desegregation have been accomplished. Media: Academy Awards go to Silence of the Lambs as best picture of 1991, with stars Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster winning best actor and best actress.

1992

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April 1 Diplomacy: President George H. W. Bush and German chancellor Helmut Kohl announce a $24-billion aid package to assist Russian democratic reforms, in which the American contribution is $4.5 billion. Politics: The House of Representatives is stunned by allegations of a major bank scandal involving many of its members. In response to a report by the House Ethics Panel, no less then 53 congressmen opt for early retirement.

April 7 Arts: Pulitzer Prizes go to A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley, fiction; Selected Poems by James Tate, poetry; and The Kentucky Cycle by Robert Schenkkan, drama.

April 8 Sports: Tennis star Arthur Ashe, one of few African Americans to play professionally, announces that he has contracted HIV through a blood transfusion.

April 13 General: Chicago, Illinois, suffers from an underground flood after 250 million gallons of water from the Chicago River seep into a series of tunnels previously used by freight and coal trains.

April 15 Crime: New York hotel owner Leona Helmsley, known derisively as the “Queen of Mean,” begins a four-year prison term in Kentucky for tax evasion.

April 16 Politics: A major political scandal unfolds once it is learned that 252 members of the House of Representatives have overdrawn their checking accounts. Medical: The Food and Drug Administration clamps down on the use of silicone breast implants manufactured by Dow Corning Corporation after numerous medical complaints.

April 20 Societal: Operation Rescue, a militant antiabortion group, begins mass demonstrations against clinics in Buffalo and New York City.

April 24 Aviation: Peruvian Su-22 jet fighters attack a U.S. Air Force C-130H Hercules in international air space, injuring six crewmen and killing one, who was sucked out of the cabin at 14,500 feet.

April 29–May 2 Civil: African Americans riot throughout Los Angeles following the acquittal of police officers charged in the videotaped beating of Rodney King by an all-white, Simi Valley jury. Governor Pete Wilson is forced to call in the National Guard to restore order. When that fails, President George H. W. Bush orders U.S. Marines onto the streets, and peace is finally restored. The violence claims 52 lives, mostly blacks, and destroys 600 buildings.

May 2 Societal: By this date, police have arrested no fewer than 597 members of the militant antiabortion group Operation Rescue.

1992

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May 4 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court reverses an earlier decision and makes state prison inmates’ appeals to federal court more difficult by denying them automatic hearings after a prisoner claims his attorney had not represented his case properly.

May 10 Societal: Federal troops are finally withdrawn from riot-torn Los Angeles, but National Guard troops continue to patrol the streets.

May 12 Aviation: Lockheed delivers its 2,000th C-130 Hercules aircraft, making it one of the most successful transports in aviation history. Business: To strengthen the bank insurance system, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation raises the premiums that banks and savings associations pay to insure their funds. Religion: The General Conference of the United Methodist Church declares that homosexuality conflicts with Christian teaching.

May 13 Science: Three American astronauts on the space shuttle Endeavor successfully grapple with a defective satellite in orbit and manhandle it back inside the shuttle cargo bay for repairs.

May 19 Politics: The Twenty-seventh Amendment to the U.S. Constitution becomes law after Michigan, the necessary 38th state, ratifies it. The new amendment prevents Congress from granting itself raises until there has been an intervening election in the House of Representatives. Societal: Vice President Dan Quayle attributes the recent disturbances in Los Angeles to a breakdown in traditional family structures.

May 22 Media: Legendary late-night television host Johnny Carson bids farewell to an audience estimated at 55 million people as he ends his 30-year-tenure as host of the iconic Tonight Show.

May 26 Science: The federal government announces that genetically engineered food requires no greater testing and regulation than ordinary food.

June 1 Business: The Dow Jones Industrial Average passes the 3,400 mark for the first time, closing at 3,413.21. Medical: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that a divorced man can deny his wife the use of frozen embryos fertilized with his sperm; hence, a man cannot become a father against his will.

June 2 Politics: Arkansas governor Bill Clinton wins the Democratic presidential primary by carrying California, Ohio, and New Jersey. Women candidates also win across the nation, ushering in talk of the “Year of the Woman.”

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June 10 Religion: The Southern Baptist Convention votes to expel two churches for their acceptance of homosexuals and also amends its bylaws to exclude future churches from accepting them.

June 11 Politics: The House of Representatives defeats a proposed balanced-budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

June 12 Conservation: In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, President George H. W. Bush addresses the Earth Summit and declares that the United States will not sign a treaty aimed at protecting endangered plants and animals for fear it will “retard technology and undermine the protection of ideas.”

June 18 Civil: The U.S. Supreme Court rules 7-2 that criminal defendants cannot exclude jury members because of race.

June 22 Civil: The U.S. Supreme Court rules 5-4 to strike down laws criminalizing “hate speech” as violations of the First Amendment. Societal: President George H. W. Bush signs a bill providing $1.3 billion for aid to inner cities in the form of loans for housing, business, and summer employment.

June 24 Medical: The U.S. Supreme Court votes 7-2 to enable damage suits by cigarette smokers, noting that federal labels warning of heath risks do not protect tobacco manufacturers. Religion: The U.S. Supreme Court rules 5-4 to uphold prior rulings that statesponsored prayer in private schools is unconstitutional.

June 26 Civil: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that Mississippi has largely failed to end racial segregation in its state university system, with five schools largely white and three mostly black.

June 28 General: Los Angeles is rocked by a major, 7.4-Richter-scale earthquake with an epicenter at Yucca County, 90 miles to the west. One death is recorded along with 350 injuries. Medical: In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a baboon liver is successfully transplanted into a 35-year-old man dying from hepatitis B.

June 29 Women: The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the right of abortion on a 5-4 vote, but also sanctions limitations imposed by a Pennsylvania law requiring parental notification and a 24-hour waiting period.

July 1 Religion: The Roman Catholic Church prevails on bishops in the United States to oppose any laws promoting acceptance of homosexuality.

1992

Chronology

2325

July 3 Labor: President George H. W. Bush signs a bill granting 26 weeks of basic unemployment insurance beyond the usual 26 weeks of benefits.

July 6 Education: Manufacturer Henry M. Rowan donates $100 million to Glassboro State College, Glassboro, New Jersey, which promptly renames itself Rowan State College. This is the largest gift ever made to an American educational institution.

July 9 Science: The space shuttle Columbia returns to Earth after circling 221 times in two weeks, the longest shuttle mission to date.

July 10 Crime: An Alaska appeals court holds that Exxon Valdez captain Joseph Hazelwood is immune from prosecution as per terms of the 1972 Clean Water Act.

July 15–16 Politics: In New York City, the Democrats nominate Arkansas governor Bill Clinton for president and Tennessee senator Al Gore for vice president. Independent candidate H. Ross Perot also drops out of the race, declaring that the Democratic Party has “revitalized itself.”

August 5 Communication: The Federal Communications Commission issues new rules on station ownership, raising the number of stations a single company can operate to 18 AM and 18 FM stations, up from 12 each.

August 18 Business: Boston-based Wang Industries, previously a leader in word processors and microchips, declares bankruptcy.

August 19–21 Politics: The Republican Party convenes in Houston, Texas, and nominates George H. W. Bush for president and Dan Quayle for vice president. Both men intend to stress “family values” as a campaign issue.

August 23 Politics: Secretary of State James Baker III resigns from office in order to serve as chief of staff to President George H. W. Bush.

August 24–26 General: Hurricane Andrew, one of the biggest natural disasters in American history, slams into south Florida and Louisiana, destroying 85,000 homes and leaving 250,000 people homeless. Property damage is upwards of $30 billion, and President George H. W. Bush orders the military into the devastated region to set up tent cities.

August 25 Diplomacy: The United States announces new sanctions against Iraq by declaring a “no-fly” zone for all Iraqi aircraft below the 32nd parallel. Transgressors are liable to be shot down by patrolling coalition aircraft.

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August 28 General: Typhoon Omar hits the U.S. territory of Guam in the Pacific, heavily damaging military installations there; damages are estimated at $250 million.

September Science: Scientists retrieve intact DNA from insects preserved in amber dated at 40 million years old, which suggests that DNA could survive far longer than previously thought.

September 11 General: Kauai, Hawaii, is rocked by Hurricane Iniki, whose 160-miles-perhour winds kill two people and damage 10,000 homes.

September 18 Politics: Volunteers for H. Ross Perot, distrusting Democrats and Republicans alike, manage to get their candidate’s name on the ballot in Arizona, fulfilling his goal of competing in all 50 states. Perot, who had dropped out earlier, considers reentering the race.

September 20 Science: The space shuttle Endeavor, carrying the first African-American woman and the first Japanese astronaut, takes to orbit on an eight-day mission to conduct 34 Japanese experiments.

September 21 Religion: Archbishop Joseph Cardinal Bernardin of Chicago institutes a ninemember commission to investigate all future charges of sexual misconduct by Roman Catholic priests. The American branch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church declares its independence from the main church in Addis Ababa and appoints Abuna Paulos as its patriarch.

September 24 Naval: An official inquiry into the so-called Tailhook scandal reveals that several high-ranking officers tried to cover up the matter to avoid negative publicity for the U.S. Navy. Consequently, two admirals are forced into retirement, and one is reassigned.

September 25 Science: The unmanned space probe Mars Observer is launched as the first American device to investigate that planet in 17 years. It is destined to map the planet and examine its geological and climatological features. Societal: In Orlando, Florida, a court permits a 12-year-old boy to leave his natural parents and live with his foster parents; this is the first instance where parental rights are terminated by legal action initiated by a child.

October Media: President George H. W. Bush, Arkansas governor Bill Clinton, and independent H. Ross Perot appear in three televised debates on October 11, 15, and 19. Clinton turns in the most polished, erudite performances, while Bush appears restive and Perot amicable but somewhat quirky.

1992

Chronology

2327

October 1 Politics: Upon further reflection, H. Ross Perot tosses his political hat back into the presidential ring. He is running as an independent and chooses to focus upon curbing budget deficits along with electoral and lobbying reforms.

October 5 Media: After four years and 35 attempts, Congress finally overrides one of President George H. W. Bush’s vetoes, in this instance legislation capping cable television fees.

October 7 Medical: The Department of Agriculture announces that heart disease might be caused by trans-fatty acids found in the popular spread margarine.

October 9 Business: After a threat of restrictive tariffs by the United States, China signs an agreement to reduce barriers hindering the import of American cameras, computers, and chemicals. Science: After 14 years of dutiful service, the unmanned space probe Pioneer 12 finally falls silent and continues drifting into the endless void of outer space.

October 12 Science: Edmond H. Fischer and Edwin G. Krebs of the University of Washington win the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for their work on protein functions within living cells. A concerted search for life in outer space begins once radio telescopes in Puerto Rico and California are trained skyward in a $100-million project. More than 100,000 frequencies are to be scanned in this 10-year project.

October 13 Business: Gary S. Becker of the University of Chicago wins the Nobel Prize in economics for his study of family-based economic decisions.

October 14 Science: Rudolph A. Marcus of the California Institute of Technology wins the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work on the transfer of electrons between molecules.

October 15 Business: The Securities and Exchange Commission orders fuller disclosure of executive salaries in an attempt to discourage excessive payments to executive bigwigs.

October 17–24 Sports: The Toronto Blue Jays (AL) win the World Series by defeating the Atlanta Braves (NL) four games to two; this is the first non-U.S. team to win the series, although no Canadians are playing.

October 23 Diplomacy: President George H. W. Bush announces that the government of Vietnam will assist in the search for the remains of U.S. servicemen still missing in Southeast Asia.

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October 24 Business: President George H. W. Bush signs a new energy bill aimed at promoting greater competition between utility companies, encouraging the search for gasoline substitutes, and allowing easier licensing of nuclear power plants.

October 30 Medical: The Food and Drug Administration approves an injectable contraceptive containing the hormone progesterone, which can prevent ovulation for three months. Conservation: President George H. W. Bush signs an Omnibus Water Bill, which diverts water intended for farm regions in California to environmentally endangered areas. Religion: American Roman Catholic bishops release a statement declaring that wives need not submit to abusive husbands and that all violence toward a spouse is sinful.

November 2 Conservation: President George H. W. Bush signs a bill prohibiting fishing with drift nets, which snare and kill all marine life in a 30-mile direction.

November 3 Politics: Democrat Bill Clinton defeats Republican George H. W. Bush for the presidency with 380 electoral votes to 168, and a popular vote of 43.7 million for Clinton and 28.1 million for Bush. H. Ross Perot also performs better than any independent candidate in American political history, taking 19 percent of the vote. Significantly, Clinton wins only a plurality, not a majority, a good indication of how fractious the polity has become. Women: No fewer than five women win seats in the U.S. Senate, the largest held to date.

November 18 Religion: The National Council of Catholic Bishops rejects a pastoral letter on the place of women in church and society after nine years of drafting and debating. It supports social equality but opposes women priests.

November 20 Diplomacy: The United States and the European Union reach an agreement to reduce government subsidies to farm products by 21 percent, although France complains it is “unacceptable.”

November 21–23 General: A flurry of tornadoes strikes 11 states throughout the Midwest and Southwest, killing 25 people in trailer parks.

December 9 Diplomacy: President George H. W. Bush, in concert with the United Nations, deploys the first of 28,000 troops in war-torn Somalia to distribute food and medicine to the starving populace.

December 16 Aviation: The new McDonnell Douglas C-17 military jet transport sets several altitude records with payload.

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December 24 Politics: President George H. W. Bush pardons six former Reagan administration officials implicated in the arms-for-hostages scandal involving Iran.

December 31 Business: The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes at 3,301.11, 132.28 points higher than last year at this time.

1993 Media: The film Schindler’s List, directed by Steven Spielberg, sparks renewed interest in the Holocaust and its Jewish victims. Medical: Dr. Jack Kevorkian, present at no fewer than 12 assisted suicides, is arrested for breaking Michigan law.

January 3 Diplomacy: President George H. W. Bush and Russian president Boris Yeltsin sign the second Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (START II) in Moscow, which aims to reduce existing nuclear warhead totals by one-third.

January 8 Business: Legendary rock singer Elvis Presley becomes the first entertainer honored with his own U.S. postage stamp. He is depicted as a young man on 500 million stamps. Medical: The Environmental Protection Agency reports that secondary tobacco smoke is responsible for 3,000 cancer deaths in nonsmokers annually.

January 13 Aviation: A force of 100 American, British, and French warplanes attack Iraqi antiaircraft missile sites following Saddam Hussein’s violation of the “no-fly” zone.

January 14 Medical: In Atlanta, Georgia, the Centers for Disease Control releases a report predicting up to 385,000 deaths by AIDS by 1995.

January 20 Politics: In Washington, D.C., William Jefferson (Bill) Clinton is inaugurated as the 42nd president of the United State and the first Democrat to occupy the White House in 12 years. Al Gore is also sworn in as vice president.

January 21 Science: When the main antenna of the Jupiter-bound Galileo space probe fails to deploy, scientists on Earth order it to deploy a smaller, weaker antenna to complete its mission in December 1995.

January 25 Business: In a sign of the times, Sears, Roebuck & Company, one of the original mail-order houses, ceases publication of its famous catalog for the first time since 1896.

February 5 Societal: President Bill Clinton signs the Family Leave Act, which allows employees to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for births, serious illness, or family sickness without the risk of termination.

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Vice President Al Gore (U. S. Department of Defense)

February 26 Terrorism: A truck bomb explodes in the underground garage of the World Trade Center, New York City, killing five people and injuring several hundred.

March 10 Women: Dr. David Gunn is shot and killed outside his abortion clinic in Pensacola, Florida. He is the first victim to die in a militant antiabortion protest.

March 11 Women: Janet Reno, formerly a prosecuting attorney in Dade County, Florida, is sworn in as the nation’s first female attorney general of the United States.

March 13–14 General: The East Coast is ravaged by a snowstorm reaching from Florida to Maine, which kills 213 people and inflicts $800 million in property damage.

March 29 Media: Academy Awards go to Unforgiven as best picture of 1992; Al Pacino is best actor for Scent of A Woman; Emma Thompson is best actress for Howards End.

April–July General: The Mississippi River experiences a spate of heavy, prolonged flooding throughout the Midwest, killing 33 people, destroying 40,000 homes, and inflicting $10 billion in damages.

1993

Chronology   2331

Clinton, Bill

(1946–     )

President William Jefferson Blythe was born in Hope, Arkansas, on August 19, 1946, just prior to losing his father to an automobile accident. His mother remarried Roger Clinton soon after, and he became known as Bill Clin-­ ton. It was on a field trip to Washington, D.C., when he met President John F. Ken-­ nedy, that he became inspired to pursue a life of public service. He graduated from Georgetown University with honors and in 1970 won a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford in England. In 1974, he tested the political waters by unsuccessfully running for the governorship of Arkansas as a Democrat, and two years later Jimmy Carter tapped him to run his own presidential campaign in that state. Clinton managed to win an election as attorney general and, in 1978, he succeeded in becoming the youngest

Pre­side­nt Bill Clinton (AP photos)

governor in Arkansas history. He spent the next two years arbitrarily raising taxes and was voted out of office in 1980. Thereafter, Clinton more or less embraced a moderate form of liberalism and, in 1982, he managed to gain reelection. He successfully held onto power in Little Rock over the next decade, although his reputation for dodg-­ ing contentious issues unscathed earned him the unflattering moniker of “Slick Willie.” In 1991, Clinton felt emboldened to run for the presidency as a candidate closely associated with the moderate Demo-­ cratic Leadership Council. A year later he gained the party’s nomination, despite alle-­ gations of draft dodging and marital infidel-­ ity that nearly derailed his campaign, and, in November 1992, he defeated Republican George H. W. Bush with a plurality of only 42 percent; the remainder of the vote was split between Bush and independent candi-­ date H. Ross Perot. Clinton entered office with high expec-­ tations, but he was forced to raise taxes to pay down the mounting national debt, a tactic that cost him control of Congress in November 1994. His tenure was further compromised by the presence of his wife, Hillary Clinton, a divisive figure nationally, who became viewed as a meddler. But he quickly countered conservative opposition by ruling from the center and co-­opting several Republican-­style issues, such as the line-­item veto and putting 100,000 police officers on the street. He then easily sailed to victory over Robert Dole in November 1996, being buoyed by a rising economy. However, the remainder of Clinton’s tenure in office was indelibly marred by allegations of his affair with Monica Lewinsky, a young (continues)

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2332  Chronology of American History

(continued) intern, and, in December 1998, he became the first sitting chief executive impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors. Clinton was cleared in a Senate trial the following spring, but he spent the last two years in power as a lame duck. Moreover, his scandals reflected badly upon Vice President Al Gore in the

2000 presidential campaign, which contrib-­ uted to the election of Republican challenger George W. Bush. Despite the controversial nature of his administration, Clinton retains his public popularity, and campaigned in his wife’s unsuccessful bid to become America’s first woman president.

April 13 Arts: Pulitzer Prizes go to A Good Scent from Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler, fiction; The Wild Iris by Louise Gluck, poetry; and Angels in America by Tony Kushner, drama.

April 17 Crime: A federal jury convicts two white officers in the unlawful beating of African-­American motorist Rodney King in March 1991, while two others are acquitted.

April 19 Religion: A 51-­day standoff ends when agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms storm cult leader David Koresh’s Branch Davidian stronghold in Waco, Texas, and 75 men, women, and children perish when it is enveloped in flames. President Bill Clinton and Attorney General Janet Reno both accept respon-­ sibility for the act, although the government is absolved of any federal offenses.

April 20 Medical: The French firm Roussel-­Uclaf receives permission from the gov-­ ernment to license the manufacture of its abortion pill, RU-­486, in the United States.

April 22 General: The U.S. Holocaust Museum opens in Washington, D.C., in remem-­ brance of 6 million Jews and others murdered in Nazi death camps.

April 28 Women: The Defense Department announces that women will not be allowed to serve in aerial combat or other combat capacities aboard naval vessels.

April 30 Sports: Monica Seles, then the world’s top-­ranked female tennis player, is stabbed in the shoulder by a fan in Hamburg, Germany. She is not seriously hurt but proves unable to compete for two more years, during which time she acquire U.S. citizenship.

June–August General: Terrible flooding breaks out and ravages nine Midwestern states from Missouri to North Dakota, inundating 20 million acres, destroying 40,000 homes, and rendering 70,000 people homeless.

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June 6 Societal: A Chinese vessel carrying 300 illegal immigrants runs ashore near New York City; six passengers die while the captain and 10 crew members are arrested.

June 7 Religion: The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously rules that all religious groups must be granted the use of school facilities in identical fashion to other community groups.

June 26 Military: U.S. Navy vessels unleash 23 Tomahawk cruise missiles at the headquarters of Iraqi intelligence, killing eight persons and wounding a dozen. The strike comes in retaliation for an Iraqi plot to kill former president George H. W. Bush when he visited Kuwait the previous April.

July 19 Military: In a controversial move, President Bill Clinton removes a 50-year ban on homosexuals in the military and substitutes a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy so long as they keep their identity unknown.

July 23 Medical: The Food and Drug Administration announces that interferon Beta 1B is the first drug approved for treating multiple sclerosis (MS).

August 4 Crime: Police officers Laurence Powell and Stacy Koon begin a two-year prison sentence for their role in the beating of African-American motorist Rodney King.

August 5 Politics: The Clinton administration is rocked by its first scandal following the apparent suicide of Deputy White House Counsel Vincent W. Foster. He is the first high-ranking federal executive to take his own life since James V. Forrestal, then secretary of defense, in 1949.

August 5–6 Business: By the narrowest of margins, the Democratic-controlled Congress passes President Bill Clinton’s deficit-reduction bill without a single Republican vote. The measure raises taxes to the tune of $241 billion, which, in concert with large spending cuts, aspires to save $96 billion over the next five years.

August 6 Women: Sheila Widnall becomes the first female secretary of the air force.

August 10 Business: President Bill Clinton signs the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, intending to reduce the federal deficit by $496 billion through 1998 through a combination of spending cuts and tax raises. Law: Ruth Bader Ginsburg is confirmed by the Senate to succeed Associate Justice Byron R. White, who is retiring; she is the second woman to sit on the high court and the first women’s rights advocate.

August 12 General: President Bill Clinton signs a relief bill authorizing $6.2 billion for flood victims in the upper Midwest.

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August 12–15 Religion: Pope John Paul II makes a three-day visit to Denver, Colorado, to address the World Youth Day festivities attended by 90,000 young people.

August 14 Crime: In New York State, Robert A. Altman is acquitted on fraud charges in connection with charges arising from his business with the Bank of Credit & Commerce International.

August 20 Crime: In Detroit, Michigan, two white police officers are convicted of killing an African-American motorist.

August 21 Science: All contact with the $980-million Mars Observer space probe ceases, and it is presumed lost.

August 25 Terrorism: Federal agents arrest Muslim cleric Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman and 14 followers for plotting the attack on the World Trade Center.

September 2 Science: The United States and Russia announce plans to produce a jointly manned space station, signaling the formal end to years of rivalry in space exploration.

September 8 Education: Statistics released by the Department of Education find that 94 million American adults are considered inadequate in math and English.

September 13 Diplomacy: President Bill Clinton presides over the first agreement reached between Jews and Palestinians, whereupon Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestine Liberation Organization chairman Yasir Arafat shake hands.

September 20 Military: In a cost-cutting measure, the Congressional Base Closure and Realignment Commission promulgates its plan to shut 130 bases and reduce 45 more nationwide.

September 21 Societal: President Bill Clinton signs legislation creating a National Service Program to allow young people to repay federal education assistance through community service. It is budgeted at $1.5 billion over three years.

September 22 General: An Amtrak train topples off a bridge damaged by barges near Chickasaw, Alabama, killing 47 passengers.

September 23 Communication: The Federal Communications Commission initiates a multibillion dollar auction of U.S. airwaves that is expected to bring in $10.2 billion in licensing fees.

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September 28 Journalism: The Boston Globe is sold to the owners of the New York Times for $1 billion.

October 2 Medical: The Columbia Healthcare Corporation and HCA Hospital Corporation merge to found the world’s largest investor-owned hospital chain, with 190 hospitals, 48,000 beds in 26 states, and $10.2 billion in assets.

October 3–4 Military: Once President Bill Clinton changes the mission of U.S. solders in Somalia from peacekeeping to hunting down warlords, 18 army rangers are killed and 75 are wounded fighting forces loyal to General Mohammed Farah Aidid in Mogadishu.

October 6 Sports: Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls, one of basketball’s all-time superstars, announces his retirement, although he comes out of retirement to rejoin the Bulls in 1994–96, and then with the Washington Wizards, 2001–03.

October 7 Diplomacy: In the wake of heavy fighting and loss of life with Somali warlords, President Bill Clinton announces the withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Somalia by March 31, 1994.

October 11 Diplomacy: Armed Haitian demonstrators prevent 200 American and Canadian military engineers from landing at Port-au-Prince as part of a peacekeeping force. Science: Philip A. Sharp, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Richard J. Roberts, New England Biolabs, share the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for their discovery of “split genes.”

October 12 Business: Robert W. Fogel, University of Chicago, and Douglass C. Worth, Washington University, share the Nobel Prize in economics. Media: The Bell Atlantic Corporation agrees to buy Tele-Communications, Inc., for $23 billion, which grants the newly merged entity access to 42 percent of all American homes.

October 13 Religion: The Internal Revenue Service grants the Church of Scientology taxexempt status. Science: Kary B. Mullis, Cetuc Corporation, and Michael Smith, University of British Columbia, share the Nobel Prize in chemistry for their work in genetics; Joseph H. Taylor and Russell A. Hulse of Princeton University win the Nobel Prize in physics.

October 15 Naval: Pentagon officials censor three admirals and 30 senior naval officers for failing to properly supervise the annual Tailhook Convention in Las Vegas, Nevada, whereby a score of women officers were sexually groped and abused by naval aviators.

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October 16–23 Sports: The Toronto Blue Jays (AL) win the World Series by defeating the Philadelphia Phillies four games to two.

October 27–November 3 General: Southern California is beset by brush fires that destroy and burn 200,000 acres and 1,000 houses while inflicting $1 billion in damages; three people lose their lives. Medical: President Bill Clinton unveils a national health care plan that was drawn up largely by his wife, First Lady Hillary Clinton, to guarantee coverage to all citizens; it is not approved and sparks intense criticism of the first lady for meddling in national affairs.

October 29 Science: President Bill Clinton signs a bill to terminate funding for the Superconducting Super Collider, an $11-billion project in the field of high-energy physics.

November Business: All indications of a robust economy are present, with inflation low, unemployment at 6.4 percent, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average humming along at 3,794.33.

November 1 Religion: In Vermont, Bishop Mary Adelia McLeod becomes the first woman to lead a diocese in the Episcopal Church.

November 2 Politics: Midterm elections favor the Republicans, with Christy Todd Whitman defeating incumbent James Florio of New Jersey in the race for the governorship; she is that state’s first female chief executive. In New York City, Republican Rudolph W. Giuliani defeats incumbent Democrat David Dinkins for the mayor’s office.

November 5 Business: The Food and Drug Administration approves a genetically engineered drug intended to boost the production of milk in dairy cows.

November 9 Women: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Harris v. Forklift Systems, ruling that plaintiffs need not demonstrate excessive psychological damage in order to sue for sexual harassment.

November 10 Business: Congress approves the North American Free Trade Agreement between the United States, Canada, and Mexico, and it establishes a tariff-free trading bloc.

November 16 Religion: President Bill Clinton signs the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, overturning a 1990 Supreme Court ruling, that now requires the government to observe strict standards before undertaking any action that might restrict religious practices.

November 17 Religion: A conference of Roman Catholic bishops unanimously votes that a man should share in all child-rearing and household duties, and that men and women should treat each other as equals.

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Women: Washington, D.C., attorney Ricki R. Tigert is nominated as the first woman chairperson of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

November 18–22 Labor: The Association of Professional Flight Attendants ends a four-day work stoppage against American Airlines after President Bill Clinton convinces them to settle for arbitration. This marks the first presidential intervention in a labor action since 1981.

November 19–20 Diplomacy: President Bill Clinton meets with Chinese president Jiang Zemin and other Asian leaders concerning opening markets and expanding human rights.

November 30 Societal: The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Law is signed by President Bill Clinton to impose a five-day waiting period for purchasing small firearms. The bill also enables states to check the background of prospective gun owners for drug, immigration, or crime violations.

December 2–12 Science: Astronauts from the space shuttle Endeavor successfully repair the ailing Hubble Space Telescope 357 miles above the Earth by placing a giant “contact lens” over its telescope.

December 3 Religion: At the Pentagon, Imam Abdul Rasheed Muhammad becomes the first Muslim chaplain sworn into duty with the U.S. military.

December 6 Women: Judith Rodin becomes the first woman to head an Ivy League school when she gains appointment as president of the University of Pennsylvania.

December 7 Science: Energy Secretary Hazel O’Leary reveals an additional 204 unreported underground nuclear tests, raising the total number to 1,051 for the years 1963–90.

December 8 Business: President Bill Clinton signs the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) into law, eliminating virtually all trade barriers between the United States, Mexico, and Canada as of January 1, 1994. This also creates the world’s largest free-trade zone.

December 9 Science: In Princeton, New Jersey, the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor registers a 7-second spark of fusion energy estimated at 3 million watts, although any practical application of this energy source remains decades in the future.

December 12 Military: Secretary of Defense Les Aspin, angered by criticism over his handling of military affairs in Mogadishu, Somalia, tenders his resignation.

December 14 Business: The United States joins 166 other nations in signing a new world trade agreement under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which cuts tariff levels by one-third over the next six years.

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December 29 Business: The Dow Jones Industrial Average registers a record 3,794.33 before settling in for the year at 3,753.09.

1994 Business: The national economy, torpid for many months, continues soaring at 4 percent growth, 2.7 percent inflation, and 5.6 percent unemployment. Politics: President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton are increasingly bound up in allegation of misdeeds surrounding the Whitewater affair, a failed property deal in Arkansas in the 1980s. The aura of scandal begins to permeate their tenure in office.

January 1 Societal: The first of 30,000 Cuban refugees begins arriving in South Florida; most are promptly rounded up for detention at Guantánamo Bay or Panama.

January 17 General: Los Angeles is struck by a devastating (6.6 on the Richter scale) earthquake at 4:31 a.m., which collapses three major overpasses, kills 60 people, renders 15,000 homeless, and inflicts $15 billion in damage. Politics: The final report on the Iran-contra scandal by independent prosecutor Lawrence E. Walsh criticizes Presidents Ronald W. Reagan and George H. W. Bush for lack of oversight but exonerates them of any criminal activities.

January 28 Crime: The Los Angeles murder trials of Erik and Lyle Menendez end in a mistrial; the brothers have been accused of killing their father, media mogul Jose Menendez, and his wife Kitty.

February 3 Diplomacy: President Bill Clinton, encouraged by Vietnam’s help in locating some of the 2,238 servicemen still missing in Southeast Asia, lifts the trade embargo with that nation. The action is supported by General William C. Westmoreland, who commanded troops there.

February 26 Crime: A federal jury acquits 11 surviving members of the Branch Davidian sect of the February 28, 1993, murder of ATF agents and related conspiracy charges.

February 28 Aviation: U.S. warplanes conduct NATO’s first-ever military action by shooting down four Serbian warplanes in retaliation for Serbian bombings of Bosnian targets.

March 4 Terrorism: A federal court convicts four Muslim immigrants of terrorism in the February 26, 1993, bombing of the World Trade Center, which killed six people and injured hundreds more.

March 21 Media: Academy Awards go to Schindler’s List for best picture of 1993, to Tom Hanks as best actor for Philadelphia, and to Holly Hunter as best actress for The Piano.

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March 25 Military: The last American troops are withdrawn from Somalia following a failed two-year mission to attempt to restore stability to the war-torn nation.

April 4 Business: The Northrop Corporation acquires Grumman Corporation for $2.1 billion, creating a new military contractor with $8 billion in assets.

April 8 Music: The rock music world is stunned by the death of grunge rocker Kurt Cobain, who dies of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Seattle, Washington.

April 12 Arts: Pulitzer Prizes go to The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx, fiction; and Three Tall Women by Edward Albee, drama.

April 14 Aviation: In a major mishap, U.S. Air Force fighters accidentally shoot down two U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopters in the no-fly zone over northern Iraq, killing 15 Americans and 11 international observers.

April 19 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court rules 6-3 that exclusion of potential jurors on the basis of gender is unconstitutional.

April 26 Science: Scientists at the Enrico Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Batavia, Illinois, announce discovery of the top quark, the last of 12 subatomic particles that serve as the building blocks of all matter.

May 5 Science: Images captured by the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope present the first tangible evidence of a super-massive black hole.

May 6 Women: Paula Corbin Jones, an Arkansas state worker, sues President Bill Clinton for sexual harassment over an incident at a business conference in Little Rock in 1991.

May 8 Business: The Food and Drug Administration mandates that all food products carry new nutrition labels listing calories, fat content, and amounts of sugar and salt.

May 23 Media: The Fox television network enhances its position as the new force in network programming when it secures the defection of eight stations from CBS, three from ABC, and one from NBC.

May 25 Science: Astronomers utilizing the Hubble Space Telescope announce they have found evidence of a mammoth black hole weighing as much as 3 million suns at a distance of 50 million light years away.

May 26 Business: President Bill Clinton renews most-favored-nation status for China despite lingering doubts as to the latter’s progress with human rights.

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June 6 Religion: The Mormon Church elects 86-year-old Howard W. Hunter to be its 14th president.

June 17 Crime: Football Hall of Fame member O. J. Simpson is arrested for the murder of his wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ronald Goldman following a televised chase in his white Bronco truck down the Los Angeles freeway.

June 27 Religion: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of the Board of Education of Kiryas Joel Village School District v. Grument, ruling that the Constitution forbids the state favoring one religious sect over another. The case involved the creation of a school district in New York especially for the Satmar Hasidim sect of Judaism.

June 30 Business: President Bill Clinton announces that he will sign the revised Law of the Sea Treaty now that changes have been made to render it more friendly to business. Women: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Madsen v. Women’s Health Center, ruling that the state of Florida has the right to impose a 300-foot buffer zone between abortion clinics and protesters.

July 2 Aviation: A USAir DC-9 jet crashes in a thunderstorm at Charlotte, North Carolina, killing 37 people out of a total of 57 aboard.

July 5–13 General: Heavy flooding brought on by incessant rains inundates Georgia, killing 31 people, leaving 50,000 homeless, and damaging the transportation infrastructure.

July 11 General: A raging fire near Glenwood Springs, Colorado, kills 14 firefighters.

July 25 Diplomacy: President Bill Clinton officiates at ceremonies between King Hussein of Jordan and Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin of Israel, whereby the former antagonists establish formal diplomatic relations.

August 3 Law: President Bill Clinton appoints Stephen Breyer, an expert on business law, to succeed retiring associate justice Harry Blackmun the U.S. Supreme Court.

August 5 Crime: A judicial panel selects special prosecutor Kenneth Starr to investigate President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton for alleged misdeeds in the so-called Whitewater Affair, a suspicious real estate deal in Arkansas while Clinton was governor.

August 11 Conservation: A federal jury in Anchorage, Alaska, awards $286 billion in damages to 34,000 fishermen affected by the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

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August 16 Societal: In light of a massive wave of Cuban refugees landing in Florida, President Bill Clinton revokes a 28-year-old policy allowing such migrants to receive automatic amnesty upon reaching American soil.

August 24 Religion: Bishops of the Episcopal Church issue a document affirming marriage as the standard for sex between men and women, but conservatives add a statement refusing to recognize homosexuality as the basis for marriage.

August 25 Crime: President Bill Clinton’s anticrime legislation “package” is approved in the Senate by a vote of 61-38; it provides for a 10-year ban on 19 types of guns, life imprisonment for repeat offenders with two federal crimes on their records, community notification of sex offenders, and expansion of the death penalty to include more than 50 crimes.

August 30 Business: The two defense contractors Lockheed and Martin Marietta merge into a new entity with $23 billion in assets.

September 1 Medical: In a major class-action lawsuit, 60 companies producing silicone breast implants agree to pay out $4.2 billion in damages to 90,500 women who claim to have been injured by them.

September 8 Aviation: A USAir Boeing 737 crashes near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, killing all 132 passengers and crew.

September 9 Diplomacy: An agreement between the United States and Cuba requires the latter to deter its citizens from fleeing the island, while the former agrees to accept 20,000 legal immigrants each year.

September 12 Aviation: A Cessna 150 light airplane piloted by Frank Eugene Corder inexplicably crashes onto the White House lawn, killing him.

September 13 Law: President Bill Clinton signs the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, which allots $30 billion for 100,000 additional police and extends the death penalty to cover more than 50 federal crimes.

September 14 Sports: The World Series is called off for the first time since 1904 after players walk out over a proposed salary cap.

September 16 Conservation: A federal jury in Anchorage, Alaska, awards a record $5 billion to fishermen and natives for punitive damages incurred by the Exxon Valdez spill. This is the largest fine ever levied against a corporation for environmental pollution.

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September 18 Diplomacy: General Raoul Cédras, head of Haiti’s military government, agrees to step down from office after negotiating with an American delegation headed by former president Jimmy Carter. The following day, American troops land unop-­ posed on the island and restore demoÂ�cratically elected Â�Jean-­Bertrand Aristide to power.

September 29 Business: President Bill Clinton signs an interstate banking bill, which allows banks and other institutions to operate branches in all 50 states.

October 1 Business: The United States and Japan reach an agreement to allow an increase in American exports of glass, medical supplies, and telecommunications, but automobiles and spare parts remain a sticking point.

October 4 Medical: The Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corporation, the world’s largest Â�forÂ�profit hospital chain, grows larger when it joins with Health Trust, Inc., in a deal worth $3.6 billion. The merger gives them 311 hospitals, 60,000 beds, and assets worth $15 billion.

October 9 Military: In response to recent Iraqi movements toward the Kuwaiti border, President Bill Clinton orders the deployment of 36,000 American troops to the Persian Gulf, backed by warships and hundreds of aircraft.

October 10 Science: Alfred G. Gilman, University of Texas, and Martin Rodbell, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, share the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for their discovery of G-proteins.

October 11 Business: John F. Nash, Princeton University, and John C. Harsanyi, University of California, Berkeley, share the Nobel Prize in economics with Reinhard Stein of Germany.

October 12 Diplomacy: In Geneva, Switzerland, representatives from the United States and North Korea conclude an agreement whereby the Communist regime will dismantle its nuclear program in exchange for two Â�American-­built light-water reactors. Science: The unmanned space probe Magellan ends its Â�four-­year mapping proj-­ ect of the surface of Venus by slipping into the atmosphere of that planet and burning up. Clifford G. Shull, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Bertram N. BrockÂ�house, McMaster University, share the Nobel Prize in physics for devis-­ ing neutron probes; George A. Olah of the University of Southern California wins the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work with hydrocarbons.

October 15 Diplomacy: The United States, poised to invade Haiti with force, induces the military dictatorship there to resign from power and reinstate former president Â�Jean-­Bertrand Aristide, who was toppled in a 1991 coup.

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October 21 Diplomacy: The United States and North Korea sign an agreement whereby dictator Kim Il Sung agrees to suspend his work on a nuclear reactor in exchange for two nuclear reactors provided by South Korea and Japan.

October 26 Science: Images from deep space captured by the orbiting Hubble telescope suggest that the universe is actually younger in age, 8–12 billion years, than previously accepted figures of 14–18 billion years.

October 28–31 Women: Paula A. Coughlin, a former navy helicopter pilot, is awarded $6.7 million by a federal jury in Las Vegas, Nevada, over physical harassment she suffered at the 1991 Tailgate Convention.

October 30 Religion: Pope John Paul II announces that Archbishops William Henry Keeler of Baltimore and Adam Joseph Maida of Detroit are elevated to the rank of cardinal within the Roman Catholic Church.

October 31 Aviation: An American Eagle ATR-72 commuter aircraft crashes south of Gary, Indiana, killing all 68 people aboard.

November 3 Crime: In Union, South Carolina, Susan Smith is arrested for murdering her children. Nine days earlier, she claimed that an African-American male had kidnapped them, and their bodies were found in Smith’s car, submerged in a lake.

November 8 Politics: President Bill Clinton suffers a serious rebuff when midterm elections deliver both the Senate and House of Representatives into Republican hands for the first time in 40 years, thanks largely to Speaker Newt Gingrich and his “Contract with America” platform. Twelve years will lapse before the Democrats are in control again.

November 10 Diplomacy: The United States exerts military pressure on Iraq to withdraw 20,000 troops from the Kuwait border or face a military response. Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein considers Kuwait one of his territories. The United States announces that it will no longer enforce the arms embargo against Bosnia, something that its NATO partners refuse to go along with.

November 11 Education: The government releases new guidelines for teaching world history, calling for greater emphasis on Africa, China, and the spread of Islam.

November 15 Business: The Federal Reserve raises short-term interest rates for the sixth time this year to 5.5 percent in an attempt to hold down inflation in a rapidly expanding economy.

December 5 Diplomacy: In Budapest, Hungary, President Bill Clinton joins the presidents of Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Belarus in signing a Strategic Arms

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December 6 Crime: Paul Hill, who had previously murdered an abortion doctor in Pensacola, Florida, receives a death sentence from a federal circuit court judge.

December 8 Business: President Bill Clinton signs an expanded General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) with 123 other nations to lower existing trade barriers by 38 percent. To that end, the new World Trade Organization (WTO) would replace GATT as of January 1, 1995. Religion: The Greek, Russian, and Serbian Orthodox Churches, having flourished separately in America for 200 years, agree to form a unified church of 6 million members and speak with one voice on social and religious issues.

December 30 Women: Gunman John C. Salvi II bursts into an abortion clinic in Brookline, Massachusetts, killing two receptionists and wounding five workers. He is arrested the following day in Norfolk, Virginia.

December 31 Business: The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes at 3,834.44, up 2.1 percent from the beginning of the year.

1995 Politics: Republicans under Speaker Newt Gingrich pass the bulk of their “Contract with America” legislation, although only five measures actually become law. President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton are cleared of direct involvement in the so-called Whitewater scandal, but lingering public suspicion remains. Religion: The Christian Coalition under Executive Director Ralph Reed becomes a powerful force in American politics.

January 9 Politics: Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich fires House historian Christina Jeffrey for her earlier remarks at Troy State University, Alabama, whereby she criticized a junior high school course for failing to include the Nazi view of history.

January 11 Science: American and Japanese scientists announce “compelling evidence” for the existence of so-called black holes by detecting a giant mass equal to 40 million suns at the center of a distant galaxy.

January 17 Labor: By a vote of 390-0, the House of Representatives seeks to apply 11 labor statutes to 30,000 federal employees, who can now sue their employers for violations of occupational safety, antidiscrimination, and other laws.

January 18 Crimes: Rashid Biz, a Lebanese immigrant, receives 141 years in jail for firing his gun into a car carrying 15 passengers on the Brooklyn Bridge. One rider, Aaron Halberstam, was killed and three others wounded.

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January 20 Diplomacy: The United States lifts trade restrictions on North Korea and allows direct phone calls between the two nations.

January 23 Politics: President Bill Clinton signs the Congressional Accountability Act, which requires the national legislature to abide by the same workplace rules that are enforced throughout the nation.

January 30 Medical: The National Institutes of Health unveils the first treatment for sickle cell anemia.

February 10 Religion: Christian Coalition director Ralph Reed warns that it will not support the Republican ticket if candidates for either president or vice president are prochoice on abortion.

February 20 Labor: The International Ladies Garment Workers’ Union and the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers merge into a new entity, the Union of Needletrades, Industrial, and Textile Employees (UNITE) with a combined membership of 350,000.

February 21 Diplomacy: To bolster the sagging Mexican economy, the United States agrees to provide $20 billion in aid and loan guarantees that bring the total package to $50 billion.

February 26 Business: China and the United States sign an accord to enforce laws against the pirating and marketing of consumer goods, mainly music CDs and tapes; this last-minute agreement averts a trade war in which the Americans were prepared to levy $1 billion in sanctions against Chinese goods.

February 28 Transportation: Denver, Colorado, opens the first new major airport built in the United States in the past 21 years, 16 months behind schedule and $2 billion over budget.

March General: Heavy rainstorms sweep through northern and central California, killing 15 people and causing $2 billion in property damages.

March 3 Military: The final contingent of U.S. Marines is withdrawn from Mogadishu, Somalia, after failing in a two-year quest to restore order and stability to that fractious nation.

March 8 Space: The space shuttle Endeavor concludes the longest-ever shuttle flight of 16 days and 262 orbits by landing safely in California.

March 12 Religion: Gordon B. Hinckley, 84, is ordained as the 15th president of the Mormon Church.

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March 17 Medical: The Food and Drug Administration approves VZV, the first vaccine to prevent chicken pox, for all children one year of age or older.

March 22 Politics: President Bill Clinton signs a bill that makes states no longer liable to follow the dictates of Congress unless that body provides them with the federal funds to do so.

March 27 Media: Academy Awards go to Forrest Gump as best picture of 1994 and star Tom Hanks as best actor; Jessica Lange wins best actress in Blue Sky.

March 29 Sports: Baseball players conclude their 231-day-old strike against management once a federal judge reinstates a previously expired labor agreement. This precludes any move by owners to begin the April 2 season with replacement players.

April 18 Arts: Pulitzer Prizes go to The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields, fiction; Simple Truth by Philip Levine, poetry; The Young Man from Atlanta by Horton Foote, drama; and Stringmusic by Morton Gould, music.

April 19 Terrorism: A huge car bomb explodes outside the Alfred P. Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, killing 168 people. Timothy McVeigh, a decorated soldier, is apprehended shortly after by law authorities and charged with the crime; an associate, Terry L. Nichols, is also arrested.

April 26 Societal: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of United States v. Lopez, and rules that 1,000-foot gun-free zones established in 1990 to protect schools are unconstitutional.

April 30 Diplomacy: President Bill Clinton signs a bill preventing all trade and investment with Iran to discourage that nation from pursuing nuclear weapons; Europe and Japan decline to enact similar measures.

May 2 Societal: After admitting 20,000 Cuban refugees from detention facilities in Guantánamo, President Bill Clinton declares all Cuban boat people will be promptly returned to their country.

May 8–9 Diplomacy: President Bill Clinton and other world leaders attend festivities in Moscow marking the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II.

May 8–10 General: New Orleans, Louisiana, is inundated by flood waters after a spell of torrential rains; six people die and damage is estimated at $3 billion.

May 10 Diplomacy: In Moscow, Presidents Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin agree to allow NATO to expand into Eastern Europe, while Russia is to receive continuing economic aid.

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May 11 Diplomacy: At the United Nations, the United States and 139 other nations sign a treaty to extend a ban on the spread of nuclear weapons in perpetuity.

May 17 Religion: Director Ralph Reed of the Christian Coalition unveils his own “Contract with the American Family,” a 10-point program addressing such pressing issues such as pornography, school prayer, and parental rights.

May 22 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of U.S. Term Limits v. Thornton, ruling that congressional term limits adopted in 23 states are unconstitutional as far as federal offices are concerned. However, state-imposed term limitations remain valid.

June 2–8 Aviation: Captain Scott Grady, whose U.S. Air Force F-16 was shot down by Serbian antiaircraft fire six days previously, is rescued in Bosnian territory.

June 12 Civil: The U.S. Supreme Court votes 5-4 that affirmative action programs that classify people by race are probably unconstitutional and must be “narrowly tailored” to meet specific circumstances.

June 14 Science: Scientists working with the Hubble Space Telescope announce the source of comets in the solar system as having originated in the distant Kuiper Belt, which up until now had been only theoretical.

June 19 Civil: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that sponsors of private parades have the right to reject parade marchers; the case arose when St. Patrick’s Day organizers in Boston refused to allow gay and lesbian groups to participate.

June 20 Religion: The Southern Baptist Convention, which had vigorously defended the institution of slavery in 1845, now asks forgiveness from all African Americans.

June 21–22 Medical: The Republican-controlled Senate blocks Dr. Henry W. Foster, President Bill Clinton’s nominee for surgeon general, by a vote of 57-43, short of the 60 required to end a filibuster.

June 26 Medical: The United Healthcare Corporation acquires Metrohealth Companies for $1.6 billion, and the new entity boasts annual revenues of $2 billion and 14.1 million members.

June 28 Business: The United States and Japan end a possible trade war when the latter agrees to increase the importation of American cars and spare parts; the Americans had previously threatened to impose a $5.9-billion tariff on Japanese luxury cars.

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June 29 Civil: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Miller v. Johnson, ruling that electoral districts cannot be drawn up using race as a determining factor. The NAACP protests the ruling, calling it the first step toward “resegregation.” Religion: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the University of Virginia must subsidize a student religious magazine in identical fashion to other student publications.

July 11 Diplomacy: President Bill Clinton extends full diplomatic recognition to Vietnam 22 years after the war in Southeast Asia ended.

July 12–17 General: The Midwest region is beset by an oppressive heat wave that kills 100 people, 33 in Chicago, Illinois, alone. At one point the mercury rises to 106 degrees Fahrenheit.

July 21 General: President Bill Clinton authorizes $100 million in federal emergency aid to assist 19 Midwestern states affected by a tremendous heat wave.

July 28 Crime: A circuit court jury in Union, South Carolina, sentences Susan Smith to life imprisonment for the murder of her two infant sons in a lake.

July 31 Media: The Walt Disney Company acquires Capital Cities/ABC for $19 billion, forming the world’s most powerful entertainment and media conglomerate, with annual revenues of $17 billion.

August 1 Media: The last independent television network disappears when Westinghouse Electric Corporation buys CBS, Inc., for $5.4 billion.

August 15 Civil: The government agrees to pay $3.1 million to white-separatist Randall C. Weaver, whose wife and son were slain by federal agents on August 21–22, 1992, in the Idaho wilderness.

August 28 Business: The Chemical Banking Corporation and Chase Manhattan Bank, New York, merge, forming the largest bank in the United States with combined assets of $297 billion.

August 30 Aviation: American and NATO warplanes bomb Serbian troop and armor concentrations in northwestern Bosnia.

September 1 Music: The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame opens its doors in Cleveland, Ohio, with 150,000 square feet of space for inductees and displays.

September 2 General: President Bill Clinton attends ceremonies in Honolulu, Hawaii, marking the surrender of Japan in 1945.

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September 10 Aviation: American and NATO forces use cruise missiles to strike down Serbian antiaircraft defenses in northwestern Bosnia.

September 18 Conservation: A United Nations Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts major social, economic, and environmental problems by the end of the 21st century due to increases in greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere. The 2,500 scientists involved ascribe said changes to carbon dioxide emissions released by the burning of coal, oil, and wood.

September 19 Crime: The so-called Unabomber issues a 35,000 word manifesto in the New York Times and Washington Post, which rails against modern technology and industrial society.

September 20 Business: American Telephone and Telegraph, with stock values of $101 billion, announces that it is splitting into three smaller companies; this is the largest corporate dismantling in American business history.

September 22 Aviation: An E-3B AWACS jet crashes on takeoff at Anchorage, Alaska, killing its crew of 22 Americans and two Canadians. Communication: When the Turner Broadcasting System merges with Time Warner, Inc., the new entity becomes the world’s largest communications company.

September 23 Religion: In defiance of the main organization, the Sligo Seventh-Day Adventist Church of Takoma Park, Maryland, challenges existing rules by ordaining three women.

September 28 Diplomacy: President Bill Clinton officiates over ceremonies whereby Israel reaches an accord with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) for the turnover of much of the occupied West Bank to the Arabs.

October 1 Terrorism: A federal jury in New York City convicts 10 Muslim militants and their blind leader, Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, of conspiring to carry out a campaign of terrorism and assassinations throughout the city. Women: Senator Bob Packwood of Oregon resigns his seat after a panel of colleagues recommends his expulsion on the basis of sexual misconduct and obstruction of justice.

October 3 Crime: Outrage ensues when African-American O. J. Simpson is acquitted of murdering his white wife and male friend in a Los Angeles Superior Court.

October 9 General: A Los Angeles–bound Amtrak train derails in Arizona, killing one person and injuring 77; the track it had been riding on was sabotaged.

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Chronology of American History Science: Edward B. Lewis, California Institute of Technology, and Eric F. Wieschaus, Princeton University, share the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for discovering how genes control the early development of the body.

October 10 Business: Robert E. Lucas of the University of Chicago wins the Nobel Prize in economics.

October 11 Science: F. Sherwood Rowland, University of California at Irvine, and Mario Molina, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, share the Nobel Prize in chemistry for their work in ozone layer depletion; Martin L. Perl, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, and Frederick Reines, University of California at Irvine, share the Nobel Prize in physics for discovering the subatomic particles tau and neutrino.

October 16 Civil: The “Million Man March” draws 400,000 African-American males into the streets of Washington, D.C., where they vow to take greater responsibility for themselves and those in their lives. The affair has been sponsored by the controversial Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who has been accused of racism and anti-Semitism.

October 21–28 Sports: The Atlanta Braves (NL) win the World Series by defeating the Cleveland Indians (AL) four games to two.

October 22–24 Diplomacy: A financially troubled United Nations celebrates its 50th anniversary in New York City, where 185 member nations vote unanimously to institute badly needed reforms.

October 23 Diplomacy: Presidents Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin sponsor a joint AmericanRussian summit meeting to resolve problems arising from the deployment of Russian peacekeeping forces in Bosnia.

October 24 Diplomacy: Presidents Bill Clinton and Jiang Zemin of China hold a summit meeting that makes no progress on the issue of advancing human rights, although some progress on other issues is reported.

November–December Politics: A governmental shutdown ensues over a deadlock between President Bill Clinton and the Republican-controlled Congress after only seven of 13 spending bills go into effect.

November 14 Terrorism: An American-run military training center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, is hit by explosions, which kill six people and injure 37 others.

November 16 Politics: The House of Representatives, in an attempt to curb lobbyists, votes to prohibit members from accepting free gifts and meals from anyone other than personal friends and family.

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November 29 Aviation: The U.S. Navy’s highly capable McDonnell Douglas F/A-18E Super Hornet flies for the first time.

November 29–December 2 Diplomacy: President Bill Clinton addresses the British Parliament in London and pushes for continuation of peace efforts between the United Kingdom and Ireland over Northern Ireland.

December 7 Science: The unmanned space probe Galileo makes a flyby of the giant planet Jupiter and beams back amazing photos of its famous storm center from a distance of only 600 miles.

December 13 Business: The Dow Jones Industrial Average hits an all-time high of 5,216.47.

December 14 Diplomacy: In Paris, France, President Bill Clinton helps oversee the signing of the Dayton Peace Accord between the traditional enemies Serbia, Croatia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina. The plan calls for the deployment of 60,000 United Nations peacekeepers, including 20,000 Americans.

December 15 Business: The New York Stock Exchange witnesses the trading of 653 million shares, its highest total to date.

December 20 Aviation: An American Airlines Boeing 757 crashes into a mountain 40 miles north of Cali, Colombia, killing 160 passengers and crew.

December 21 Science: Scientists from the American Museum of Natural History reveal the remains of an 80-million-year-old dinosaur from the Gobi Desert, Mongolia, called Oviraptor, which was found covering its nest of eggs, not unlike a bird.

December 21–22 Societal: The Republican-controlled Congress passes a complete overhaul of the welfare system that transfers most federal control of assistance to the poor to the states. Current recipients now have two years to find work or be cut off from benefits.

December 22 Business: Congress overrides President Bill Clinton’s veto of a bill restricting securities litigation that makes it harder for individual stockholders to sue brokers and other officials for securities fraud.

December 23 Societal: President Bill Clinton signs a bill that greatly increases the punishment of sex offenses involving children, especially pornography.

December 31 Business: The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes at 5,117.12, an increase of 33.5 percent from the start of the year. Politics: The federal government shuts down during a feud between President Bill Clinton and the Republican-controlled Congress over exactly how to balance

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Chronology of American History the budget by 2002. The sticking points are welfare reform, Medicare, Medicaid, and tax cuts.

1996 Aviation: Sixteen-year-old pilot Jessica Dubroff, seeking to become the youngest transcontinental pilot, dies with her father and instructor when her Cessna 177B plunges into the ground near Cheyenne, Wyoming.

January 5 Business: Lockheed Martin acquires the Loral Corporation for $10 billion, making it the world’s largest producer of military items, with annual sales of $30 billion.

January 7–12 General: The blizzard of 1996 begins by dumping two feet of snow along the Eastern Seaboard, which disrupts business and transportation.

January 15 Science: Scientists working with the Hubble Space Telescope estimate that the universe is populated by 50 billion galaxies, five times higher than previous estimates.

January 17 Crime: Blind Muslim cleric Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman is sentenced to life imprisonment for his role in the World Trade Center bombing; nine other Muslim radicals receive terms of 25 years to life.

January 19 General: A barge runs aground off the coast of Rhode Island and ruptures, dumping 4 million gallons of oil into the water and causing extensive damage to the local ecology.

January 24 Medical: The Food and Drug Administration approves the use of Olestra, a fat substitute for snack foods.

January 26 Crime: Hillary Clinton becomes the first First Lady subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury investigating her role in the so-called Whitewater land deal conspiracy. Diplomacy: The Senate ratifies the Start II arms reduction treaty, three years after it was signed by President George H. W. Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin.

January 31 Science: Scientists working with the Hubble Space Telescope announce the discovery of the most distant object ever sighted, a galaxy 14 billion light years from Earth.

February 8 Communication: The Telecommunications Act is signed by President Bill Clinton, which widens competition in radio, television, and telephone markets. It also loosens restrictions on studio ownership and imposes stricter penalties for distributing pornography over the Internet.

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February 12 General: An Amtrak train collides with a commuter train in a Maryland suburb outside Washington, D.C., killing 12 passengers and injuring 20.

February 17 Science: The unmanned space probe called NEAR Shoemaker is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and streaks its way to the approaching asteroid Eros, with which it will rendezvous in February 2001.

February 24 Aviation: Cuban MiG fighters shoot down two unarmed aircraft belonging to Miami-based Cuban exiles, and President Bill Clinton subsequently suspends all air charter travel to that island.

February 25 Science: The space shuttle Columbia conducts an experiment with a tethered Italian satellite that fails when the 12-mile connecting wire breaks, thus ending a $450-million investment.

March 1 Technology: Researchers announce that the transmission of 1 trillion bits of information per second has been achieved, the equivalent of reading 300 years of daily papers almost instantly.

March 6 Societal: A federal appeals court strikes down a ban on doctor-assisted suicide in Washington State.

March 7 Science: Scientists working the Hubble Space Telescope provide the first closeup views of the surface of distant Pluto, the outermost planet.

March 8 Politics: Republican Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, aged 93 years, 94 days, becomes the oldest person to serve in the U.S. Senate.

March 8–May 14 Crime: Dr. Jack Kevorkian is acquitted by two Michigan juries for assisting in the deaths of two terminally ill patients.

March 13–15 Business: The Liggett Group, Inc., one of the nation’s largest manufacturers of cigarettes, settles a class-action suit on behalf of 50 million smokers. The company agrees to spend 5 percent of all pretax profits over the next 25 years in smoking prevention programs. Diplomacy: President Bill Clinton meets assorted Middle Eastern leaders in Egypt to encourage the peace process between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, as well as isolate regimes actively supporting terror.

March 25 Media: Academy Awards go to Braveheart as best picture of 1995; Nicholas Cage is best actor for Leaving Las Vegas; Susan Sarandon is best actress for Dead Man Walking.

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April 1 Communication: The Pacific Telesis Group merges with SBC Communications in a deal worth $17 billion, while Bell Atlantic joins NYNEX in a deal that covers 36 million customers along the East Coast. Medical: The Aetna Life and Casualty Company acquires U.S. Healthcare for $8.8 billion, creating the largest medical benefits company in the nation, with coverage for 23 million people.

April 2 Societal: A federal appeals court strikes down a ban on doctor-assisted suicide in New York.

April 3 Aviation: A U.S. Air Force jet crashes into a mountain outside Dubrovnik, Croatia, killing Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown and 34 other passengers.

April 3–4 Terrorism: Federal agents finally capture Theodore J. Kaczynski and arrest him for a series of bombings over the past 17 years that have killed three people and maimed 23 others. He was turned over by his brother David, who recognized the Unabomber after reading his 35,000-word manifesto in the Washington Post.

April 9 Arts: Pulitzer Prizes go to Independence Day by Richard Ford, fiction; The Dream of the Unified Field by Jorie Graham, poetry; Rent by Jonathan Larson, drama; and Lilacs by George Walker, music. Crime: Former Democratic House Ways and Means Committee chairman Dan Rostenkowski pleads guilty to two counts of mail fraud, and he is fined $100,000 and receives 17 months in prison. Politics: President Bill Clinton signs a bill granting all future chief executives the power of the line-item veto to strike out specific measures from spending bills without rejecting the entire measure. Women: Mitsubishi Motor Manufacturing of America is hit with a sexual harassment lawsuit from 700 plaintiffs at its factory at Normal, Illinois. The suit has been filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in the U.S. District Court at Peoria, Illinois, and it is the largest case of its kind in American history.

April 21 Diplomacy: At a summit meeting in Moscow, Presidents Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin enthusiastically endorse the notion of greater cooperation, but they fail to settle a number of differences in policy.

April 24 Terrorism: President Bill Clinton signs a major antiterrorism bill, which allocates $1 billion to fight terrorists around the world, limits death sentence appeals, and denies entry rights to foreigners suspected of terrorist ties.

April 25 Politics: President Bill Clinton signs a compromise budget agreement for the new fiscal year, which will keep the government operating after a spate of temporary spending measures.

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May 9 Exploring: Several geography experts, examining Admiral Richard E. Byrd’s diary for the first time, determine that he falsified his claim to be the first person to fly over the North Pole on May 9, 1926.

May 11 Aviation: A Valuejet DC-9 passenger jet plunges into the Florida Everglades, killing all 109 passengers and crew. The accident raises questions as to the safety procedures of budget airlines.

May 13 Business: The U.S. Supreme Court strikes down a Rhode Island law banning advertising liquor prices for violating First Amendment free speech.

May 15 Military: President Bill Clinton declares that U.S. troops will remain on peacekeeping duties in Bosnia for an additional 18 months. Politics: Senator Robert Dole, a 35-year veteran, announces that he is resigning from office to devote all his time to pursuing the presidency.

May 16 Naval: Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Jeremy Boorda commits suicide in Washington, D.C., after being accused of wearing Vietnam War combat decorations for which he was not entitled.

May 17 Societal: President Bill Clinton signs a law requiring states to warn communities whenever convicted sex offenders have settled in their area.

May 20 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Romer v. Evans, ruling that a Colorado ban on laws protecting homosexuals is unconstitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court overturns a $2-million punitive damage award to an Alabama man on the grounds that it is “grossly excessive.”

May 21 Architecture: In New York City, Trinity Church celebrates its 150th anniversary since opening in 1846. Until 1876, it was also the tallest structure in the city.

June 3 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court rules 9-0 to uphold military death sentences.

June 13 Crime: In the Montana wilderness, federal agents force the surrender of 16 members of the Freeman, a radical right-wing group charged with defrauding banks and businesses. Politics: In two 5-4 votes, the U.S. Supreme Court nullifies African-American and Hispanic congressional districts in North Carolina and Texas because racial gerrymandering violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

June 17 Business: The United States and China agree to curb piracy of American music, movies, and computer software; previously, President Bill Clinton had threatened to impose $2 billion in import penalties for failing to do so.

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June 20 Communication: The Westinghouse Electric Corporation decides to acquire the Infinity Broadcasting Corporation for $3.7 billion, and forms a new entity with 83 radio stations.

June 24 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that seizing the property of a defendant accused of a crime does not violate the constitutional ban on double jeopardy.

June 25 Terrorism: An American apartment complex in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, is struck by a terrorist truck bomb that kills 19 soldiers and wounds 300.

June 26 Women: The U.S. Supreme Court votes 7-1 to rule that the Virginia Military Institute violates the Fourteenth Amendment through a male-only admissions policy.

June 28 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court upholds strict limits on federal courts appeals by state prisoners, making it harder for them to escape prosecution on technicalities.

July 2 Science: NASA unveils the design for a new kind of cheaper, reusable space vehicle to replace the fleet of shuttles now in service.

July 3 Transportation: The Union Pacific Railroad acquires the Southern Pacific Railroad for $5.4 billion, creating the nation’s largest single railroad network, capable of handling 90 percent of all freight west of the Mississippi River.

July 5 Religion: The Presbyterian Church agrees to the ordination of homosexuals, provided that they remain celibate and disavow their previous sexual activity.

July 10 Science: The unmanned space probe Galileo takes closeup photographs of Ganymede, one of Jupiter’s largest moons, which also has its own magnetic field.

July 12 General: Hurricane Bertha lashes the coast of North Carolina, killing 28 people and inflicting considerable damage.

July 16 Business: The New York Stock Exchange sets a new record for volume at 683 million shares traded.

July 17 Aviation: A Trans World Airlines Boeing 747 jumbo jet blows up over the Atlantic Ocean shortly after taking off from Kennedy International Airport, New York, killing all 230 passengers and crew. The cause has never been ascertained. Science: Scientists at Columbia University announce that the Earth’s inner core rotates at a slightly higher speed than its outer crust, completing an additional rotation every 400 years.

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July 19 Medical: A panel of the Food and Drug Administration approves RU-486, or mifepristone, the French-manufactured “abortion pill.”

July 19–August 4 Sports: At the Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, the American team finishes first with 44 gold medals.

July 27 Terrorism: A pipe bomb explodes in Atlanta, Georgia, site of the Centennial Summer Olympic games, killing one and injuring 11. The initial suspect, security guard Richard Jewell, is cleared by October.

July 30 Religion: The Greek Orthodox Church in American chooses American-born bishop Metropolitan Spyridon, then serving in Italy, as its new spiritual head.

August 5 Terrorism: President Bill Clinton signs a bill into law that imposes sanctions on companies that invest in Libya or Iran. Germany and France immediately protest the measure.

August 6 General: President Bill Clinton signs a bill that upgrades water systems with $9.6 billion in grants and loans.

August 12–15 Politics: The Republicans gather at San Diego, California, to nominate Kansas senator Robert Dole for the presidency and former New York congressman Jack Kemp for the vice presidency. Despite the appearance of a softer tone and a more inclusive visage, the party platform reflects traditional party opposition to abortion and affirmative action.

August 20 Labor: President Bill Clinton signs a minimum-wage increase that gradually raises the current rate of $4.25 to $5.15 over two years.

August 21 Medical: President Bill Clinton signs a bill expanding access to health insurance and maintaining coverage for workers if they should lose their jobs. Nor could insurance companies deny people with preexisting conditions the requisite medical coverage.

August 22 Military: The U.S. Army begins destroying its stockpile of chemical weapons at a depot in Utah, and the process is slated to take seven years. Politics: President Bill Clinton, seeking to deny the Republicans a campaign issue, effectively guts the 50-year-old welfare state created by Franklin D. Roosevelt by signing a welfare reform bill that turns the bulk of welfare over to the states and cuts food stamp allotments. It also mandates a strong work requirement and imposes lifetime limits to five years.

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August 23 Medical: President Bill Clinton signs a bill aimed at discouraging young people from smoking; it bans cigarette vending machines and advertising at sporting events, and it outlaws billboards within 1,000 feet of schools.

September 3 Aviation: The United States launches two cruise missile attacks on Iraqi military targets in retaliation for recent advances in a northern Kurdish enclave.

September 12 General: Archaeologists announce the discovery of remains of the first successful English settlement at Jamestown, Virginia, dating back to 1607.

September 17 Crime: The Justice Department releases new statistics revealing that crime, overall, has dropped 9 percent, most likely due to aggressive anticrime programs, new gun laws, and a tripling of the prison population over the past 15 years.

September 21 Societal: President Bill Clinton, eager to curry favor with mainstream voters, signs a law permitting states to ignore same-sex marriages allowed in other states and allowing denial of federal benefits to married couples of the same sex.

September 24 Diplomacy: At the United Nations, President Bill Clinton signs a treaty banning all nuclear weapons testing, although it does not go into effect for two more years.

September 26 Women: Astronaut Shannon Lucid returns to Earth after 188 days aboard the Russian space station Mir, which is a record for any American astronaut or any woman, worldwide.

October 7 Science: Peter C. Doherty, St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, and Swiss researcher Rolf M. Zinkernagel share the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for their work with human immune systems.

October 8 Business: William Vickrey, Columbia University, and James A. Mirrlees, Cambridge University, England, share the Nobel Prize in economics.

October 9 Science: Richard E. Smalley and Robert F. Curl of Rice University share the Nobel Prize in chemistry with Harold W. Kroto of England for their work on previously unknown carbon molecules. David M. Lee and Robert C. Richardson, Cornell University, and Douglas D. Osheroff, Stanford University, share the Nobel Prize in physics for discovering the rare phenomenon of superfluidity. Terrorism: President Bill Clinton signs a law enhancing airport security and baggage and passenger screening to prevent acts of terrorism.

October 12 Conservation: President Bill Clinton signs a projects bill that allocates $3.8 billion for parks and wildlife refuge maintenance, including $75 million alone to restore the Florida Everglades.

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October 17 Medical: A team of researchers discovers the first direct link between cigarette smoke and lung cancer.

October 24 Labor: The First National Guild for Health Care Providers of the Lower Extremities becomes the nation’s first labor group for physicians and affiliated with the AFL-CIO.

October 26 Sports: The New York Yankees (AL) win the World Series for the 23rd time by defeating the Atlanta Braves (NL) four games to two.

November 1 Communication: The firm British Telecommunications offers $22 billion to acquire MCI Telecommunications in a bid to found the first transatlantic phone company.

November 5 Politics: Democrat Bill Clinton defeats Republican Bob Dole for the presidency, winning 379 electoral votes to the latter’s 159, and getting 45.6 million popular votes to the latter’s 37.8 million. Significantly, for the second time Clinton wins only a plurality, not a majority. The Republicans also maintain control of Congress.

November 7 Science: The Mars Global Surveyor is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and will reach the red planet in September 1997 to study its atmosphere.

November 9 Sports: Evander Holyfield takes the world heavyweight title from Mike Tyson with a technical knockout in the 11th round.

November 12 Religion: The National Conference of Catholic Bishops issues its “Catholic Framework for Economic Life,” a 10-point treatise outlining the rights of people to have the basic necessities, health care, and a safe environment.

November 13 Education: The National Conference of Catholic Bishops sets out guidelines that Catholic colleges and universities should follow to maintain their Catholic identity.

November 15 Civil: Texaco, Inc., settles the nation’s largest racial discrimination case by agreeing to spend $176.1 million to compensate minority employees and also establishing a diversity program.

December 3 Science: Scientists declare that radar findings indicate the possibility of water on the Moon, which would prove most useful in any colonization effort.

December 4 Science: The unmanned space probe Pathfinder is launched into orbit for a rendezvous with Mars, whereupon it will land the roving vehicle Sojourner to study the surface composition.

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December 5 Diplomacy: President Bill Clinton appoints Madeleine Albright to serve as his secretary of state, the first woman to hold that position.

December 7 Science: The Columbia completes the longest mission of any space shuttle when it lands back at Cape Kennedy, Florida, after 17 days and 7 million miles in space.

December 15 Business: The Boeing Company offers to acquire McDonnell Douglas Corporation for $13.3 billion, making it the nation’s largest aerospace interest.

December 17 Military: In Europe, NATO ministers approve an American plan for troops of 24 nations to continue peacekeeping forces in war-torn Bosnia.

December 23 Education: U.S. District Court judge Thelton Henderson rules that California Proposition 209, which outlaws race- and gender-based college admissions, is probably unconstitutional and blocks its implementation. Military: The military agrees to investigate the medical nature of sickness among Gulf War veterans, especially to determine if there is a bacteriological cause.

December 27 Business: The Dow Jones Industrial Average sets a new record of 6,560.91.

December 31 Business: The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes at 6,448.27, up 1,300 points since the previous year.

1997 Business: This is the year of the merger with WorldCom Incorporated’s $37-billion acquisition of MCI Communications, followed by First Union Corporation’s $17.1-billion takeover of CoreStates Financial Corporation, among others.

January 9 Aviation: A commuter plane crashes on approach to Detroit Metropolitan Airport, killing 29 passengers.

January 13 Civil: President Bill Clinton posthumously awards Congressional Medals of Honor to six of seven African Americans who should have received them in World War II.

January 16 Crime: Ennis W. Cosby, son of comedian Bill Cosby, is killed in Los Angeles while changing a tire by Mikhail Markhasev, a Ukrainian immigrant.

January 20 Politics: In Washington, D.C., William Jefferson Clinton is inaugurated as president of the United States for the second time. Al Gore remains on as vice president.

January 21 Politics: The House of Representatives imposes the largest fine ever levied against a Speaker of the House when Speaker Newt Gingrich pays $350,000 for

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using tax-exempt donations to teach a class promoting Republican politics and then lying about it to an ethics panel.

February 4 Crime: Former football star O. J. Simpson is found guilty in a wrongful death suit filed by the father of Ronald Goldman, and his family is awarded with $8.5 million. The court subsequently increases the fine to $25 million to be split evenly with the family of Nicole Brown, Simpson’s dead spouse.

February 11–21 Science: Astronauts from the space shuttle Discovery make five space walks in order to replace and upgrade equipment on the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope.

March 4 Politics: Senate Republicans fall one vote short needed to pass a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

March 22 Science: The huge Hale-Bopp comet, 25 miles in diameter, passes within 125 million miles of Earth at a speed of 100,000 miles per hour.

March 26 Societal: The approach of the Hale-Bopp comet induces 39 members of the Heaven’s Gate religious cult to simultaneously commit suicide at their estate in Rancho Santa Fe, California, apparently in the belief that they will be reunited in an alien spacecraft following the comet.

April 13 Sports: Eldrick “Tiger” Woods wins his first Master’s Tournament at the age of 21; he is also the first African American to win any of the four major professional golfing tournaments for men.

April 14 Crime: James McDougal, a former business partner of President Bill Clinton, receives three years imprisonment for fraud and conspiracy.

April 18–19 General: Severe flooding in the Red River Valley forces the evacuation of 100,000 people in North Dakota. This year, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will disburse a record $1.38 billion in emergency aid to assist flood victims throughout the Midwest.

April 22 Crime: Special prosecutor Kenneth Starr begins a six-month investigation into the Whitewater affair and the potential roles in it by President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton.

May 27 Women: The U.S. Supreme Court refuses to delay proceedings in the sexual harassment case of Paula Corbin Jones against President Bill Clinton.

June 2 Crime: Timothy McVeigh is found guilty of planning and executing the Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people.

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June 20 Business: A landmark settlement ensues as the tobacco industry agrees to pay a record $368.5 billion over 25 years to cover the costs of smoking-related illnesses. The agreement also provides the companies involved with immunity from other class-action suits.

June 23–27 Law: By the close of its 1996–97 session, the U.S. Supreme Court renders verdicts in four significant cases: In Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union, the Court rules unanimously against the Communications Decency Act’s ban against pornography on the Internet. It also votes unanimously in Washington v. Glucksberg and Vacco v. Quill that state suicide prevention laws do not violate the due process clause of the Constitution. In City of Boerne v. Flores, the Court rules that Congress exceeded itself by defining how far the Constitution affords protection to religion. In Agostini v. Felton, the Court overturns its own 12-year-old ruling that barred New York City school teachers from tutoring students at religious schools.

June 28 Politics: President Bill Clinton and Congress agree that the federal budget will be balanced in 2002.

July 4 Science: The unmanned spacecraft Mars Pathfinder lands softly on the surface of Mars, whereupon the robot vehicle Sojourner rolls across the landscape looking for signs of living organisms. None are found, but photos relayed back to Earth suggest an ancient floodplain.

July 9 Sports: The Nevada boxing commission fines fighter Mike Tyson $3 million for biting opponent Evander Holyfield’s ears twice during a match.

July 16 Business: The Dow Jones Industrial Average moves past 8,000 for the first time.

July 23 Crime: Andrew Cunanan, wanted in four states for the murder of five men, including Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace, kills himself in a Miami, Florida, houseboat.

July 30 Business: The Dow Jones Industrial Average reaches a record peak of 8,254.89, assisted by inflation of 1.8 percent and unemployment rates of 4.6 percent.

August 9–17 Music: Memphis, Tennessee, officially kicks off the celebration of Elvis Week, during which 30,000 die-hard fans gather at his Graceland Mansion for a candlelight vigil.

August 14 Crime: Convicted terrorist Timothy McVeigh is sentenced to death for the murder of 168 people in the Oklahoma City bombing.

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August 21 Business: Hudson Ford, Inc., of Rogers, Arkansas, recalls 25 million pounds of beef after 17 people contract E. coli food poisoning in Colorado. This is the largest meat recall ever.

September 30 Business: With the enactment of cuts in discretionary spending and entitlements, the national deficit is at $22.6 billion, its lowest since 1974.

October 4 Religion: The Promise Keepers, an all-male, evangelical Christian group, gathers on the Washington, D.C., National Mall to profess their faith and renew their pledge to God and family.

October 6–15 Business: Robert D. Merton wins the Nobel Prize in economics. Diplomacy: Jody Williams wins the Nobel Peace Prize for her work in trying to have land mines banned worldwide. Science: Stanley B. Prusiner wins the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine; Steven Chu and William D. Phillips win the Nobel Prize in physics; Paul D. Boyer wins the Nobel Prize in chemistry.

October 12 Aviation: Popular singer John Denver dies when his Rutan Long EZ plane runs out of fuel and crashes.

October 15 Science: NASA launches the unmanned space probe Cassini toward its eventual rendezvous with the giant planet Saturn.

October 30 Politics: The Senate decides to defer debate on campaign finance reform for another year.

November 10 Crime: Massachusetts judge Hiller B. Zobel sentences British au pair Louise Woodward to a charge of manslaughter in the shaking death of eight-month-old Matthew Eappen and 289 days in prison already served.

November 12 Terrorism: Ramzi Ahmed Yousef and Eyad Ismoil are convicted by a federal jury for their role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, which killed six and injured 1,000.

November 19 Women: In Carlisle, Iowa, Bobbi McCaughery delivers seven live children in the nation’s largest live birth.

December 2 Politics: Attorney General Janet Reno decides not to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate allegations that President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore illegally raised campaign funds in the White House during the 1996 election.

December 4 Sports: Latrell Sprewell is suspended by the National Basketball Association for one year after he choked and threatened Golden State Warriors coach P. J. Carlesimo.

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December 11 Business: A U.S. District Court judge orders the Microsoft Corporation to stop requiring manufacturers to install the company’s browsing systems, thereby preventing a monopoly on the software available to consumers. Conservation: Delegates from the United States join those from 150 other nations in Kyoto, Japan, for a United Nations summit on global warming.

December 12 Crime: In New York, a federal judge sentences Autumn Jackson to 26 months imprisonment for attempting to extort $40 million from comedian Bill Cosby through a paternity suit.

December 23 Crime: Terry J. Nichols, an associate of convicted terrorist Timothy McVeigh, is convicted of involuntary manslaughter and conspiracy.

December 31 Business: U.S. District Court judge Joe Kendall tosses out a provision of the 1996 Telecommunications Act and allows the “Baby Bell” telephone companies to enter the long-distance phone service competition without prior approval from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

1998 Science: Researchers at the America Astronomical Society announce that the universe is 15 billion years old and that it will continue expanding forever. Societal: Authorities in Cook County, Illinois, seat of Chicago, sue gun owners and their distributors for $433 million for dumping illegal guns in their city.

January 22 Crime: Unabomber Theodor J. Kaczynski is sentenced to life imprisonment after pleading guilty to government charges in the death and injury of several people.

January 26 Media: In a televised interview he later regrets, President Bill Clinton asserts to reporters—and the nation—that “I did not have sexual relations with that woman,” an oblique reference to youthful intern Monica Lewinsky.

February 3 Aviation: In Italy, a U.S. Marine Corps jet accidentally severs a ski lift cable, killing all 20 passengers when it drops 370 feet. The pilot and navigator are subsequently charged with manslaughter. Crime: Carla Faye Tucker is executed in Texas for the murder of two people; she is the first woman executed in Texas and only the second nationwide since the death penalty was reinstituted in 1977.

February 10 Civil: Maine becomes the first state to rescind a gay rights ordinance first passed in 1997.

March 5 Journalism: A report in the Washington Post maintains that President Bill Clinton admitted to having given gifts to Monica Lewinsky in a deposition filed with the Paula Jones lawsuit.

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Politics: The Governmental Affairs Committee of the Senate issues two partisan reports relative to improper fund-raising in the 1996 presidential campaign. The Republican report blames the Democratic National Committee for undermining federal laws, while the Democratic report criticizes the fund-raising practices of both parties.

March 23 Diplomacy: President Bill Clinton begins an extended tour of Africa to encourage business operations between its nations and the United States.

March 27 Medical: The Federal Drug Administration (FDA) lends its approval to Viagra, an anti-impotence pill manufactured by Pfizer, Inc. President Bill Clinton signs legislation allowing it to fall under the guidelines of Medicaid.

April 1 Women: A federal judge dismisses the sexual harassment charge made by Arkansas state worker Paula Corbin Jones against President Bill Clinton. She alleges that Clinton, then governor of Arkansas, made unwarranted advances on her in 1991.

April 17 Aviation: Bill Clem sets an altitude record of 24,463 feet in his home-built autgyro.

May 7 Politics: The federal grand jury convened by Special Prosecutor Kenneth Starr is disbanded after four and a half years owing to a lack of credible evidence in the so-called Whitewater scandal involving President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton.

May 14 Media: The popular television comedy Seinfeld ends a nine-year run on NBC, and its final episode is watched by an estimated 76 million viewers. Music: The entertainment scene loses one of its most cherished icons when Frank Sinatra, who cut hundreds of popular songs and starred in 53 films, dies at the age of 82.

May 15 Journalism: The New York Times reports that in the 1996 elections, Democratic fund-raiser Johnny Chung channeled money to the party from the Chinese government.

May 18 Business: The Microsoft Corporation is sued by 20 states for unfair business practices designed to ensure the dominance of its computer software.

June 1 Aviation: Per Lindstrom guides his hot-air balloon to a world record height of 65,000 feet.

June 6 Media: HBO network premieres broadcasting of its controversial series Sex and the City, which deals with women’s sex lives; it becomes one of the highest rated series ever broadcast.

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June 17 Medical: The Â�Republican-­controlled Senate kills legislation aimed at settling national smoking lawsuits after they perceive it as a tax increase.

June 18 Journalism: Boston Globe columnist Patricia Smith, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, is fired after she admits to fabricating sources and quotations to make a point in her essays.

June 25 Diplomacy: President Bill Clinton embarks on a Â�nine-­day official visit to China.

June 28 Media: President Bill Clinton appears on Chinese state teleÂ�viÂ�sion, where he openly criticizes the actions and policies of the government, much to the amaze-­ ment of onlookers.

July 22 Business: President Bill Clinton signs a new law that revamps the Internal Rev-­ enue SerÂ�vice to shield taxpayers from IRS agent abuse and enlarges the agency’s customer serÂ�vices.

July 24 Crime: Russell E. Weston, Jr., draws a gun and begins shooting at the Capitol building, killing two police officers and wounding a tourist.

July 29 Labor: A 54-­day strike ends once United Auto Workers reach an accord with the General Motors Corporation over issues of productivity and job security.

August 7 Terrorism: The U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania are simultaneously bombed, killing hundreds of innocent bystanders and wounding thousands; 12 Americans die. Terrorists under Saudi fugitive Osama bin Laden are immediately suspected, and President Bill Clinton authorizes missile strikes against training camps in Af�ghan�i�stan and Sudan.

August 17 Media: President Bill Clinton admits to lying about his affair with intern Monica Lewinsky on a video link to a grand jury.

September 3 Politics: DemoÂ�cratic senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, a presidential aspirant, condemns President Bill Clinton’s affair with intern Monica Lewinsky as “disgraceful and immoral.”

September 8 Sports: Hitter Mark McGwire of the St. Louis Cardinals breaks the home-run record established by Roger Maris in 1961 with his 62nd homer of the year. By year’s end, McGwire has a total of 70 home runs, while Sammy Sosa of the Chi-­ cago Cubs has 66.

September 17 Business: The government finds three executives of the Archer Daniels Midland Company, Illinois, guilty of a Â�price-­fixing scheme involving the livestock growth stimulant, lysine.

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September 21 Media: President Bill Clinton’s taped grand jury testimony is released by the House of Representatives and broadcast over the airwaves, although the public response is muted.

September 30 Business: For the first time since 1969, the federal government posts a surplus of $70 billion.

October 6 Business: The online component of Barnes & Noble booksellers, with sales of $22 million this year, is bought by the German firm Bertelsmann. Meanwhile, sales of the largest online bookseller, Amazon.com, total $204 million in the first six months of the year.

October 8 Politics: The House of Representatives votes 258-176 in favor of investigating impeachment proceedings against President Bill Clinton for possible “high crimes and misdemeanors.”

October 11–17 Science: Walter Kohn wins the Nobel Prize for chemistry; Robert Furchgott, Louis Ignarro, and Ferrid Murad win the Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine; and Horst Stoermer, Daniel Tsui, and Robert Laughlin win the Nobel Prize for physics.

October 12 Crime: In Laramie, Wyoming, Russell Henderson and Aaron McKinney are charged with the murder of gay student Matthew Shepard. Consequently, President Bill Clinton redoubles his effort to pass national hate-crime laws.

October 21 Sports: The New York Yankees win their 24th World Series by defeating the San Diego Padres four games to none.

October 23 Women: A sniper kills abortion doctor Barnett Slepian outside his clinic in Amherst, New York, and police attribute the crime to militant antiabortion activists.

October 24 Science: The unmanned space probe Deep Space 1 is launched toward deep space to examine asteroids and comets.

October 29–November 7 Science: Ohio senator John Glenn, who is also the first American in space, rockets aloft aboard the space shuttle Discovery. At 77, he is the oldest human to achieve orbit and returns a few days later with no visible side effects.

November 3 Politics: Midterm elections favor the Democrats, who pick up five additional seats in the House of Representatives despite the ongoing move to impeach President Bill Clinton for perjury and obstruction of justice in the Monica Lewinsky investigation.

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November 6 Politics: House Speaker Newt Gingrich resigns from Congress after party losses in the midterm elections. His successor, Robert Livingston of Louisiana, also resigns when allegations of adultery surface.

November 6–10 Science: Researchers identify and grow human stem cells from embryos, which hold the potential of growing human tissue for transplants and, ultimately, cloning human beings.

November 13 Crime: President Clinton settles his sexual harassment suit with plaintiff Paula Corbin Jones by paying her $850,000, but issues no apology or admission of guilt.

November 20 Business: The nation’s four largest tobacco companies agree to reimburse 46 states, four U.S. territories, and the District of Columbia by paying for smokingrelated health costs.

November 25 Medical: Dr. Jack Kevorkian is charged with murder for assisting Thomas Youk, a terminally ill patient, to end his own life.

December 1 Business: Energy giant Exxon Corporation announces plans to buy out its next biggest competitor, Mobil Corporation, for $75.3 billion. This is the largest corporate takeover in American business history.

December 2 Crime: A federal grand jury finds Mike Espy, a former agriculture secretary, not guilty of corruption charges stemming from his tenure in office.

December 5 Labor: James P. Hoffa, son of missing Teamsters president James R. Hoffa, is elected president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

December 7 Politics: Once again, Attorney General Janet Reno declines to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate allegations of misuse of campaign funds within the Democratic Party. The Justice Department, however, does indict several Democratic fundraisers for various transgressions.

December 11–12 Crime: The House of Representatives passes four articles of impeachment against President Bill Clinton; ironically, they are using rules instituted 20 years earlier by legal adviser Hillary Clinton when she drew them up against President Richard Nixon.

December 16–19 Aviation: Operation “Desert Fox” unfolds as U.S. and British warplanes bomb Iraqi targets over Saddam Hussein’s refusal to allow United Nations inspectors into the country to search for weapons of mass destruction.

December 19 Crime: The House of Representatives votes to impeach President William Jefferson Clinton for high crimes and misdemeanors stemming from his illicit affair

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with White House intern Monica Lewinsky and his attempts to orchestrate a cover-up. He is charged with two counts of perjury, one count of obstruction of justice, and one count of abuse of power; he is also the first sitting chief executive to be impeached.

December 30 Business: According to a House special intelligence committee, Loral Space and Communications, Ltd., and Hughes Electronics Corporation create national security problems by selling advanced missile technology to the People’s Republic of China.

1999 Indian: Statistics released by the U.S. Justice Department reveal that Native Americans are twice as likely to be victims of violent crimes as any other ethnic group. Media: The romantic comedy Shakespeare in Love wins six Oscars, including best picture. Medical: Researcher Beatrice Hahn of the University of Alabama discovers that the HIV virus, which causes AIDS, can be traced to a subspecies of West African chimpanzees. Science: Researchers announce the discovery of six new planets orbiting distant stars, which brings the total of known bodies beyond the solar system to 28. Sports: Sammy Sosa, an outfielder with the Chicago Cubs, is the first ballplayer to hit 60 home runs in two consecutive seasons.

January 3 Science: NASA launches the Mars Polar Lander to descend on the red planet and explore its surface.

January 22 Military: The Defense Department announces that it has discharged twice as many homosexuals from the military in 1998 than in 1993, before “don’t ask, don’t tell” was adopted.

January 25 Aviation: U.S. and British warplanes continue pounding Iraqi antiaircraft missile sites near Basra. Officials there claim bomb strikes have killed 11 civilians and wounded 50 others.

February 7 Science: The unmanned space probe Stardust is successfully launched on a rendezvous with a comet in 2004, where it will take samples as it passes through the comet’s tail.

February 9–12 Politics: The Senate acquits President Bill Clinton of perjury and obstruction of justice charges stemming from his illicit affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. The only other impeachment trial in American presidential history is that of President Andrew Johnson in 1866.

February 10 Medical: A California jury awards a lung cancer victim $50 million in damages against the Philip Morris Company, the largest tobacco company.

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March 8 Sports: The baseball world mourns the death of “Joltin’ Joe” DiMaggio, one of the New York Yankees’s most celebrated players, 1936–51. He was also briefly married to screen legend Marilyn Monroe.

March 24 Aviation: U.S. and NATO warplanes begin an air offensive against Serbian forces in Kosovo, in the former Yugoslavia. This is the largest aerial offensive in Europe since World War II and aims to stop the Serbs from practicing “ethnic cleansing.”

March 26 Aviation: Roving NATO warplanes shoot down two Serbian MiG-29s over Bosnia-Herzegovina. Crime: A Michigan jury convicts Dr. Jack Kevorkian of second-degree murder for assisting in the suicide of a terminally ill patient.

March 27 Aviation: Serbian antiaircraft missiles shoot down a Lockheed F-117 stealth fighter plane, but the pilot is rescued.

March 28 Sports: The Baltimore Orioles become the first professional baseball team to play in Cuba since 1959 when they defeat the All Star Cuban team 3-2; Fidel Castro is one of 50,000 fans in attendance.

March 29 Business: The Dow Jones Industrial Average zooms past 10,000 for the first time.

April 12 Crime: A federal judge in Arkansas holds President Bill Clinton in contempt of court for intentionally lying in his deposition given in the Paula Jones sexual harassment case.

April 15 Science: Two teams of astronomers from Harvard University and San Francisco State University declare that they have discovered a solar system consisting of a star and three giant planets 44 million light years from Earth.

April 20 Crime: In Lyttleton, Colorado, teenagers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold take guns into Columbine High School and kill 12 fellow students before shooting themselves. The massacre sparks intense debate about the availability of handguns.

June 6 Sports: Tennis player Andre Agassi is only the fifth man to win the French, Australian, and U.S. Opens, as well as Wimbledon.

June 22 Societal: The U.S. Supreme Court redefines the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act by ruling that coverage does not extend to individuals whose condition has been corrected by medication or prosthetics such as eyeglasses.

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June 23 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court, in three 5-4 decisions, limits the rights of individuals to sue states for failure to enforce federal statutes, a decision strengthening the cause of states’ rights.

June 30 Crime: Former associate U.S. attorney general and Clinton associate Webster Hubbell pleads guilty to a felony charge of lying to the government and a misdemeanor charge of tax evasion. The conviction is in connection with the Whitewater scandal pertaining to activities of President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton. Politics: The Ethics in Government Act of 1978, better known as the Independent Counsel Statute, is allowed to expire with little fanfare. However, probes of Clinton administration members such as Interior Secretary Bruce Babbit, Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros, Labor Secretary Alexis Herman, and Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy will continue unabated.

July 1 Business: Congress passes laws to protect businesses from potential problems arising from the anticipated Y2K computer-programming crash when the year 2000 arrives.

July 16 General: John F. Kennedy, Jr., son of the slain president, dies in an airplane crash off Martha’s Vineyard along with his wife Carolyn Bessette and sister-in-law Lauren Bessette. Unlike his father, Kennedy never entered politics and worked in publishing as editor of the political magazine George.

July 23–27 Women: U.S. Air Force colonel Eileen M. Collins becomes the first woman to command a space shuttle flight when she lifts off with the Columbia to orbit the Chandra X-ray Observatory.

August 1 Sports: Six members of the International Olympic Committee are expelled by the main body for accepting bribes to make Salt Lake City, Utah, site of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games.

September 4 Societal: Statistics released by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities indicates that the gap in incomes, nationwide, is at its widest since 1977. Half of all after-tax income goes to 20 percent of households.

September 8 Politics: Former senator and basketball star Bill Bradley declares his candidacy for the 2000 Democratic presidential nomination. He is expected to go up against Vice President Al Gore, the anticipated candidate.

September 23 Science: In a terrible slipup, all contact with the Mars Climate Orbiter is lost when its program fails to translate English distance units from metric units and burns up in the Martian atmosphere.

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October 7–11 Science: Egyptian-born American Ahmed Zewail wins the Nobel Prize in chemistry for inventing a process for photographing chemical reactions. GermanAmerican Günter Blobel wins the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for uncovering how proteins govern their position in cells.

October 31 Aviation: An EgyptAir Boeing 747 jumbo jet crashes into the Atlantic Ocean off Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, killing all 217 passengers and crew. No distress call is ever issued from the craft, and the FBI is called in to investigate the possibility of terrorism.

November 5 Business: U.S. District judge Thomas Penfield Jackson finds the Microsoft Corporation guilty of monopolistic practices. The trial is a result of complaints from 19 states and the Department of Justice.

November 10 Technology: A sign of the Internet’s growing popularity is Congress’s new ban on Internet address speculation, which allows individuals to appropriate popular trademarks by registering Web addresses online before the rightful owner does.

November 23 Women: In a historic first, Hillary Clinton becomes the first First Lady to run for political office by declaring her candidacy for the vacated seat of New York senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan.

November 30 Business: The World Trade Organization, convening in Seattle, Washington, is interrupted by 10,000 protesters who claim that the WTO enjoys excessive power and promotes free trade policies.

December 10 Crime: Wen Lee Ho, a nuclear scientist at Los Alamos, New Mexico, is charged with 59 counts of mishandling classified data relative to Chinese espionage at American nuclear weapons sites.

December 12 Terrorism: Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian native, is arrested in Washington State while carrying 130 pounds of high explosives in his car from Canada. It is thought he intends to disrupt festivities during millennium celebrations, and the government imposes stricter security at border checkpoints.

December 13 Crime: Former New York police officer Justin Volpe is sentenced to 30 years in prison for the 1997 torture of Haitian immigrant Abner Louima. He is also ordered to pay his victim $277,495 in restitution.

December 14 Diplomacy: The United States concludes 85 years of dominance in the Panama Canal Zone by surrendering its authority to Panama. Former president Jimmy Carter, who signed the turnover treaty, is on hand at ceremonies at the Miraflores Locks.

1999

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Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton╇ (AP photos)

December 20 Societal: In a landmark decision, the Vermont Supreme Court rules that homosexual couples are entitled to the same benefits and rights as heterosexual couples.

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2000 January 10 Business: America Online, a giant communications concern, announces its decision to purchase the media corporation Time Warner. The price involves $165 billion in stock purchase, along with absorption of $17 billion in debts, making it the largest merger in American business history to date.

January 30 Aviation: An Alaska Airlines jetliner flips over in midair and crashes, killing all 88 passengers off the California coast near Los Angeles.

January 31 Crime: Illinois governor George Ryan places a moratorium on death penalty executions as long as the current system remains inundated with error and has inherent potential for executing an innocent person. Illinois thus becomes the first state to void the death penalty since it was reinstated by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1977.

March 7 Politics: Vice President Al Gore sweeps all 16 states on “Super Tuesday,” handily defeating former senator Bill Bradley. Meanwhile, Texas governor George W. Bush triumphs in nine of 13 primaries by defeating Arizona senator John McCain.

March 16 Politics: After a four-year investigation, Independent Counsel Robert Ray clears President Bill Clinton of any wrongdoing in his questionable acquisition of FBI files. The file in question concerns various Republican officials.

April 3 Business: U.S. District Court judge Thomas Penfield Jackson finds the Microsoft Corporation guilty of violating the Sherman Antitrust Act by virtue of the fact that it has established a near monopoly in personal computer (PC) software through anticompetitive means.

April 8 Aviation: An experimental V-22 Osprey transport plane crashes at Marana, Arizona, killing all 19 marines on board.

April 26 Societal: Governor Howard Dean of Vermont signs a bill legalizing civil unions between same-sex couples and giving judges, clergymen, and justices of the peace power to officiate such unions.

April 30 Medical: Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is declared a threat to national security by the U.S. government. On a global scale, the high death rates and impoverishment brought on by the disease have the potential of sparking wars, revolutions, and genocide.

May 1 Science: The Hubble Space Telescope celebrates its 10th anniversary in orbit by continuing to send back amazing photographs of the universe’s distant reaches.

2000

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Hubble Space Telescope in orbit above Earth╇ (Getty photos)

May 23 Politics: South Carolina governor Jim Hodges ends an acrimonious debate over flying the Confederate flag over the state capitol in Columbia by transferring it to a nearby Confederate war memorial.

June 22 Politics: InÂ�deÂ�penÂ�dent Counsel Robert Ray concludes there is insufficient evi-­ dence to indict First Lady Hillary Clinton in the illegal firing of seven White Â�House Travel Office employees and replacing them with her friends. Science: The Mars Global Surveyor beams back photographs suggesting that water might periodically bubble up from under the surface of the red planet. Sci-­ entist previously believed that water exists only as ice on Mars.

June 26 Medical: A complete map of the human genome is completed by the Celera Genomics Corporation in conjunction with the International Human Genome Project. It is hoped that such ge�ne�tic information will aid in the prevention and cure of several diseases.

June 28 Politics: Â�Six-­year-­old Cuban refugee Elián González is forcibly returned to Com-­ munist Cuba by Attorney General Janet Reno. Relatives living in Florida failed to

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Chronology of American History prevent him from being sent back to the custody of his father on the island after his mother drowned while escaping in 1999. This unpopular action will cost the Democrats dearly in the upcoming presidential election.

July 23 Sports: Tiger Woods, a 24-year-old golf prodigy, stuns the sports world by winning the British Open in St. Andrews, Scotland. He is now the youngest champion to have won all four majors, including the Masters, the U.S. Open, and the PGA. Championship, and the first African American.

July 25 Diplomacy: President Bill Clinton tries and fails to broker a peace deal between Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat at Camp David, Maryland. Both sides remain intractable over the issue of Jerusalem.

July 26–28 Music: U.S. District Court judge Marilyn Hall orders Napster, Inc., which downloads music by computer for use on the Internet, to stop the practice because it infringes on copyrights. The action forms part of a greater national controversy over free access to copyrighted materials on the Internet.

August 2 Politics: Republicans convening in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, choose Texas governor George W. Bush as their presidential candidate and former defense secretary Richard Cheney of Wyoming for vice president.

August 9 Business: The Firestone Company voluntarily recalls 6.5 million tires after they are linked to 46 traffic deaths by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. This is the second largest product recall in American business history.

August 14 –17 Politics: Democrats meeting in Los Angeles, California, choose Vice President Al Gore for president and Connecticut senator Joseph Lieberman for vice president.

August 17 General: A million acres of pristine forest are consumed by raging wildfires that strike a dozen Western states.

September 13 Crime: After pleading to one count of mishandling classified information, Los Alamos National Laboratory researcher Wen Ho Lee is freed of 58 other charges.

September 19 Diplomacy: The Senate approves a bill to normalize trade relations with the People’s Republic of China, which also grants it membership in the World Trade Organization.

September 20 Politics: After six years and $52 million, Independent Counsel Robert Ray concludes there is no conclusive evidence linking either President Bill Clinton or First Lady Hillary Clinton to the failed Whitewater development scandal in Arkansas.

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September 30 Sports: In Sydney, Australia, Marion Jones becomes the first woman runner to win medals for five track-and-field events in a single Olympics; her tally is three gold and two bronze medals.

October 1 Sports: By the time the 27th Summer Olympic Games conclude in Sydney, Australia, the United States tops the number of medals won at 97.

October 9–13 Business: James J. Heckman and Daniel L. McFadden win the Nobel Prize in economics for developing analytical methods to calibrate and forecast individual household activities. Science: Jack St. Clair Kilby, Herbert Kromer, and Russian Zhores I. Alferov share the Nobel Prize in physics; Alan J. Heeger and Alan MacDiarmid win the Nobel Prize in chemistry; Erik Kandel and Paul Greengard share the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine with Swede Arvid Carlsson.

October 12 Naval: A terrorist attack on the frigate USS Cole, berthed in Aden, Yemen, kills 17 sailors and wounds 39. The ship itself is seriously damaged by a small craft laden with a half ton of high explosives, but it limps back to the United States for repairs.

October 21–26 Sports: The New York Yankees (AL) win their 26th World Series by defeating the New York Mets (NL), four games to one.

October 24 Aviation: The new Lockheed XF-35 Joint Strike Fighter, ostensibly the world’s most sophisticated warplane, makes its initial flight.

October 31 Science: Astronaut William M. Shepherd leads an international crew aloft from Kazakhstan, from whence they dock with the orbiting international space station. The ensuing mission lasts 17 weeks.

November 7 Politics: National elections lead to inconclusive results once Vice President Al Gore challenges the vote tallies in Florida, whose 25 electoral votes are at stake. Neither Gore nor Texas governor George W. Bush can claim a victory without them. Nationally, the Democrats gain five Senate seats for a 50/50 tie, but incoming vice president Dick Cheney can cast deciding votes, thereby giving de facto control to the Republicans. First Lady Hillary Clinton also makes history by winning a Senate seat from New York.

December 12 Aviation: A highly experimental V-22 Osprey, which is half airplane and half helicopter, crashes during a test flight near Jacksonville, North Carolina, killing four U.S. Marines onboard.

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December 13 Politics: After five weeks of recounts and legal maneuvers, the U.S. Supreme Court weighs in on the recent election by denying Vice President Al Gore’s request for additional recounts for specific counties in Florida. That state subsequently goes into the column of Texas governor George W. Bush, who now has 271 electoral votes to become president. However, Gore leads the popular vote count by 539,897, the first time in a century that such an anomaly has manifested.

December 15 Publishing: First Lady Hillary Clinton receives an $8-million advance from Simon & Schuster for a memoir of her years in the White House.

2001 January 11 Business: The FCC gives its approval for Time Warner, Inc., to acquire America Online (AOL), thereby creating the world’s largest media conglomerate.

January 17 General: California governor Gray Davis, faced with endemic power shortages, declares a state of emergency and institutes a policy of rolling blackouts, which leaves 2 million residents periodically without electricity.

January 19 Politics: On his last day in office, President Bill Clinton submits to a plea bargain whereby he admits he lied about his relationship with aide Monica Lewinsky. In return, Independent Counsel Robert Ray drops charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.

January 20 Politics: In Washington, D.C., George W. Bush is inaugurated the 43rd president of the United States following one of the most contentious elections in American political history. His father, former president George Herbert Walker Bush, is in attendance during the ceremonies.

February 1 Politics: John Ashcroft is approved as U.S. attorney general despite his oftentimes controversial opposition to gun control, homosexuality, and abortion.

February 9 Naval: The nuclear submarine USS Greeneville surfaces nine miles from Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, inadvertently striking the Japanese fishing boat Ehime Maru and killing nine passengers.

February 12 Science: The NEAR Shoemaker space probe successfully lands on the distant asteroid Eros, taking pictures and sending back valuable telemetry after landing.

March 7 Music: The song “Over the Rainbow,” immortalized by actress Judy Garland in the film The Wizard of Oz in 1939, is voted the number one song of the 20th century by the Recording Industry Association of America.

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Bush, George W.

(1946 –     )

President George Walker Bush was born in New Haven, Connecticut, on July 6, 1946, a son of future president George Herbert Walker Bush, and grew up in Texas. After attending elite private academies, he passed through Yale University in 1964 with a history degree, and, in 1968, he joined the Alabama Air National Guard as a fighter pilot and flew F-­102 Delta Darts for several years. Once discharged, he attended Harvard Uni-­ versity and received a master’s in business administration in 1975. Bush enjoyed a

generally successful career as a businessman in the oil industry and also served as owner of the Texas Rangers baseball team. In 1978, he began testing the political waters as a Republican, but he lost a congressional race to a Democrat. In 1994, he felt ready to challenge Ann Richards, the popular Democratic governor of Texas, whom he defeated with 53 percent of the popular vote, becoming only the second Republican administrator since Reconstruction. Once in power, Bush demonstrated genuine ability (continues)

Pre­side­nt Ge­orge­ W. Bush (U. S. Department of Defense)

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Chronology of American History

(continued) to work with opposition legislators through compromise and common sense and fulfilled nearly all of his campaign promises. Foremost among these was a $3-billion tax cut, which set the state economy soaring and virtually assured his reelection as governor in 1998 with 69 percent of the popular vote, including large majorities of blacks, Hispanics, and women. Two years later, Bush successfully ran for the White House by defeating primary challenger, Senator John McCain, along with Democratic vice president Al Gore. Gore enjoyed the advantage of incumbency and a strong economy, but he was tarred by the scandals plaguing President Bill Clinton’s administration and, in the end, Bush squeaked by him in Florida with a 500-vote margin granted him by the U.S. Supreme Court. It was one of the most bitterly contested election victories in American history. Bush had no sooner come to office than Islamic terrorists hijacked several commercial airliners and destroyed the World Trade Center in New York City on September

11, 2001, killing 3,000 people. However, he wasted no time launching a successful attack upon Afghanistan, which drove terrorist leader Osama bin Laden and his Taliban allies from power within a few weeks. In the spring of 2003, Bush next launched Operation Iraqi Freedom to rid the region of notorious dictator Saddam Hussein and any weapons of mass destruction he might be harboring. Baghdad was secured three weeks later, and the Americans triumphed in a lightning campaign. Since then, American reconstruction efforts have been dogged by a Sunni-based terror campaign and several thousand casualties. Nonetheless, in November 2004, Bush handily defeated Massachusetts senator John F. Kerry, who sought to withdraw from the region, which seemed to publicly affirm the administration’s position. A costly war of attrition unfolded in Iraq, the public lost patience for the war, and, in November 2006, the Democrats regained control of Congress. Bush now confronts the prospects of a lame duck presidency throughout his remaining two years.

March 25 Media: Academy Awards go to Gladiator for best picture and to star Russell Crowe for best actor; Julia Roberts is named best actress for Erin Brockovich.

March 27 Conservation: President George W. Bush announces that the United States will not sign the Kyoto Protocol, which is designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from heavily industrialized nations.

April 1 Aviation: A U.S. Navy EP-3E Aries II reconnaissance craft collides with a J-8 Chinese jet fighter over the South China Sea. The fighter pilot dies in the ensuing crash, but the American plane makes an emergency landing on Hainan Island, where the crew is detained for several weeks. Their aircraft is also dismantled and returned.

April 28 General: Millionaire Denis Tito pays the Russians $20 million to become the world’s first space tourist in joining a launch to the International Space Station.

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May 29 Sports: The U.S. Supreme Court votes 7-2 to reject an appeal by the Professional Golfer’s Association to nullify the Americans with Disabilities Act. The PGA has been trying to prevent disabled golfer Casey Martin, who requires a golf cart to get around, from playing in their tournaments.

June 5 Politics: A disgruntled Vermont senator James Jeffords changes his party affiliation from Republican to independent, thereby throwing control of the Senate over to the Democrats. This is the first time that control has changed hands in midterm.

June 6 Business: President George W. Bush signs a $1.35-trillion tax cut as part of his campaign promises; this is the largest tax cut in two decades.

June 11 Crime: Convicted terrorist Timothy McVeigh is put to death by lethal injection for his role in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

July 6 Crime: Former FBI employee Robert Hanson pleads guilty to 15 counts of espionage on behalf of the Soviet Union and Russia. In return, he receives a life sentence instead of the death penalty.

July 17 Journalism: Katharine Graham, publishing executive of the Washington Post and long considered one of the most influential women in America, dies at 84.

September 11 Terrorism: A defining tragedy in American history unfolds as two hijacked airliners, commanded by Muslim fanatics, crash into New York’s World Trade Center, collapsing both towers and killing 3,000 people. Another airliner crashes into the Pentagon Building in Washington, D.C., while a fourth crashes into a field in rural Pennsylvania as the passengers attempt to wrest control from their abductors. President George W. Bush immediately declares this terrorist act to be the work of Saudi fugitive Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda (“The Base”) terrorist network.

September 20–21 Diplomacy: In his address to a special session of Congress, President George W. Bush demands that the Taliban regime of Afghanistan surrender Osama bin Laden or face immediate military action. The Taliban refuses to comply.

Smoke billows from the towers of the World Trade Center before they collapsed on September 11, 2001, in New York, N.Y. (AP photos)

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September 25 Media: The office of NBC anchorman Tom Brokaw receives a letter allegedly tainted with anthrax, but subsequent testing reveals the claim is false. However, one of Brokaw’s assistants contracts anthrax from another letter.

October Aviation: The U.S. Air Force and CIA jointly begin operations against the Tal-­ iban with unmanned, remotely guided Predator aircraft, each armed with deadly and accurate Hellfire missiles.

October 7 Aviation: U.S. and British warplanes begin a concerted aerial campaign to drive the Taliban from power in AfÂ�ghanÂ�iÂ�stan. The attacks are run in concert with the Northern Alliance, an Â�anti-­Taliban group. Sports: Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants hits his 500th home run while playing against the Los Angeles Dodgers. He also hits 73 home runs for the sea-­ son, another record.

October 10 Terrorism: Three journalists in Boca Raton, Florida, test positive for anthrax expo-­ sure, which leads to a government investigation. Results are judged inconclusive.

October 11–14 Science: Eric A. Cornell, Carl E. Wieman, and Wolfgang Ketterle win the Nobel Prize in physics; K. Barry Sharpless and William S. Knowles share the Nobel Prize in chemistry with Ryoji Noyori of Japan; Leland Hartwell shares the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine with Britishers R. Timothy Hunt and Sir Paul M. Nurse.

October 15 Terrorism: DemoÂ�cratic Senate majority leader Tom Daschle receives a letter contaminated by anthrax toxins, although he is not exposed personally. To date, five people have died and 14 have become seriously ill as a result of anthrax-con-­ taminated letters.

October 19 Military: U.S. Special Forces units begin infiltrating AfÂ�ghanÂ�iÂ�stan to act in con-­ cert with the Â�anti-­Taliban Northern Alliance forces. This is the first acknowledged use of ground forces in the Â�two-­week-­old war.

October 26 Politics: President George W. Bush signs an antiterrorism bill, which grants federal law and intelligence agencies expanded powers to investigate and detain terrorist suspects, who can now be held incommunicado.

November 4 Sports: The Arizona Diamondbacks win the World Series in only their fourth year as a National League team by defeating the New York Yankees (AL), four games to three.

November 12 Aviation: An American Airlines jet crashes in the New York City borough of Queens moments after takeoff from John F. Kennedy International Airport, kill-­ ing all 260 passengers bound for Santo Domingo.

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November 13 Military: Backed by coalition air power, troops and tanks of the Northern Alliance roll into the Afghanistan capital of Kabul, while Saudi fugitive Osama bin Laden manages to escape from the country.

November 28 Business: Office of Management and Budget (OMB) director Mitchell Daniels, Jr., projects that the government will be running a deficit for the first time since 1997, and he blames the ongoing war against terrorism for the shortfall.

November 30 Terrorism: U.S. forces fighting in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan, capture 20-yearold John Walker Lindh, an American citizen apparently fighting alongside Taliban forces. He faces possible treason charges.

December 2 Business: Enron Corporation, the world’s biggest energy company, files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection following its failure to merge with the smaller Dynegy Corporation.

December 7 Military: Taliban forces, mercilessly harassed by coalition air power and Northern Alliance ground forces, abandon their traditional stronghold of Kandahar and melt into the mountains along the Pakistan border. Apparently, Osama bin Laden is among them.

December 12 Terrorism: Zacarias Moussaoui, a French citizen of Moroccan descent being held on immigration violations, is identified as part of the 9/11 conspiracy.

December 13 Diplomacy: President George W. Bush announces that the United States will withdraw from provisions of the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty (ABM) with Russia. He intends to begin testing and development of a new antimissile defense system to protect the United States from a terrorist attack.

December 22 Terrorism: Richard Reid, a British Muslim traveling on an American Airlines flight from Paris, France, to Miami, Florida, is foiled in his attempt to ignite explosives hidden in his sneakers and is apprehended. His arrest triggers heightened passenger screening and other airport security measures.

December 28 Crime: The United States begins drawing up rules for military tribunals to try terror suspects, although they can face the firing squad only through a unanimous tribunal vote.

2002 General: Raging wildfires sweep through the West, destroying 7 million acres of timberland. The disaster is brought on by a prolonged period of drought. Law: The U.S. Supreme Court rules out the death penalty for felons described as mentally retarded and also bans its imposition by judges.

2002

2384

Chronology of American History Music: Elvis Presley, 25 years after his death, still rules the top of the recording charts with the release of a compact disc (CD) entitled Elvis: 30 #1 Hits, which quickly sells over 500,000 units.

January 2 Terrorism: Zacarias Moussaoui, a suspected terrorist behind the 9/11 World Trade Center attack, is arraigned and refuses to enter a plea. His attorneys enter “not guilty” on his behalf.

January 13 Arts: The Fantasticks, which began playing off Broadway in 1960, finally closes after a run of 17,162 performances. It remains the New York theater world’s longest-running production.

January 22 Business: Kmart Corporation, one of the world’s largest discount chains, files for bankruptcy, the biggest such retail claim in American business history.

January 23 Journalism: Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl is abducted in Karachi, Pakistan, by Islamic terrorists and eventually beheaded.

February 10–14 Sports: At the Winter Olympics, Salt Lake City, Utah, the Americans place second behind Germany with 34 gold medals, although the figure skating events are marred by a scoring scandal.

March 6–12 Military: Approximately 1,200 U.S. troops and Special Forces soldiers engage Taliban remnants in the Shah-i-Kot Valley, Afghanistan, but Operation Anaconda forces them from their strong point at Tora Bora.

March 24 Media: Halle Berry becomes the first African-American woman to receive an Oscar for best actress for her role in the film Monster’s Ball.

March 27 Politics: President George W. Bush signs a campaign reform bill into law, which bans unrestricted gifts of “soft money” to all parties, and also restricts election advertising by special-interest groups.

April 4 Diplomacy: President George W. Bush urges Israel to withdraw its troops from occupied sections of the West Bank, Palestine, and also dispatches Secretary of State Colin Powell to the Middle East to arrange a cease-fire.

April 18 Aviation: In Afghanistan, an American warplane accidentally kills four Canadian soldiers and wounds eight others in an errant bomb drop south of Kandahar.

May 29 Crime: The Federal Bureau of Investigation greatly revamps its operations, switching emphasis from law enforcement to terrorism prevention. The change manifests following public disclosure of gaps in domestic intelligence gathering.

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June 6 Terrorism: Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld asks NATO members to change their prevailing defensive strategy to reflect present-day realities. He calls for a new, more aggressive approach involving preemptive war against terrorists and rogue nations constructing weapons of mass destruction.

June 14 Terrorism: A car bomb explodes outside the U.S. embassy in Karachi, Pakistan, killing 12 bystanders; the incident is eventually linked to a Muslim terrorist group.

June 15 Crime: The Arthur Anderson accounting firm is found guilty of obstructing justice by destroying records associated with the Enron Corporation.

June 25 Business: WorldCom, the nation’s second-largest communications center, announces that it has a $43.8-billion cash flow problem and is laying off 17,000 of 85,000 employees.

June 27 Education: The U.S. Supreme Court votes 5-4 to validate school vouchers, which allow parents to use public funding for children to attend religious schools. Sports: The baseball world is saddened by the death of Samuel “Ted” Williams, one of the game’s greatest sluggers with a career batting average of .400. He played with the Boston Red Sox from 1939 to 1960.

July 1 Business: The giant communication firm WorldCom, beset by multibillion dollar accounting fraud, files for bankruptcy protection. This is the largest firm in American business history to make such a filing, and it costs investors $180 billion.

July 30 Business: President George W. Bush signs legislation increasing the regulation of business accounting practices, corporate governance, and security fraud laws. This is the most dramatic overhaul of such regulations since the 1930s and comes in the wake of several corporate scandals.

August 11 Business: US Airways, the sixth-largest airline company, files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Like many aviation firms, it struggles in the wake of poor sales dating to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

August 30 Sports: A lengthy baseball strike is averted at the last moment when a contract is signed between Major League players and team owners.

August 31 Business: The 89-year-old Enron Corporation, the world’s largest energyproducing firm, goes out of business after settling various remaining accounts.

September 10–11 Terrorism: Al-Qaeda agent Ramzi bin al-Shibh, the suspected coordinator of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, is arrested in Karachi, Pakistan, and secretly transported to an American military base for questioning.

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September 19 Religion: The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston settles a $10-million lawsuit out of court brought by 86 parishioners who claim to have been molested by Father John Geoghan.

October 2–24 Crime: The Washington, D.C., area is terrorized by random sniper shootings that kill 10 people and wound three others. Finally, John Allen Muhammad and his teenage accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo are apprehended and charged with the murders.

October 4 Terrorism: John Walker Lindh, who apparently fought alongside Taliban forces in Afghanistan, is sentenced to 20 years imprisonment.

October 7–11 Business: Vernon L. Smith and Daniel Kahneman share the Nobel Prize in economics. Science: John B. Fenn wins the Nobel Prize in chemistry; Raymond Davis wins the Nobel Prize for physics; H. Robert Horvitz wins the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.

October 10 Diplomacy: Former president Jimmy Carter wins the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in the Middle East.

October 16 Terrorism: President George W. Bush signs a bipartisan congressional resolution authorizing him to use military force against the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Among the high-profile Democrats voting in the affirmative are New York senator Hillary Clinton and Massachusetts senator John Kerry.

October 25 Politics: Democratic senator Paul Wellstone is killed in a plane crash in Minnesota. His seat is subsequently contested by former vice president Walter Mondale and Republican Norm Coleman, and Coleman wins it a month later.

October 27 Sports: The Anaheim Angels win their first World Series in 42 years by defeating the San Francisco Giants, four games to three.

November 5 Politics: Midterm elections favor the Republicans, who gain a majority of 51 seats in the Senate and also add to their majority in the House of Representatives.

November 28 Diplomacy: The United Nations Security Council approves a resolution finding the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein in “material breach” of weapons inspection agreements. New guidelines are approved for strict inspections to see if that nation harbors weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

November 10 Aviation: American warplanes begin a concerted series of attacks against Iraqi antiaircraft sites for violating UN-ordered “no-fly” zones.

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November 13 Religion: Amidst a growing public scandal involving child molestation, the U.S. Roman Catholic bishops adopt stricter sexual abuse policies. Ultimately, Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston, who protected pedophiles by reassigning them, will be forced to step down.

November 18 Media: A videotape of Saudi fugitive Osama bin Laden surfaces on the Arabiclanguage Al-Jazeera Network in Qatar, affording the first proof that the wanted terrorist is still alive.

November 25 Terrorism: Former Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge is chosen to head the new Homeland Security Department, which consists of 22 different federal agencies and 170,000 employees.

December 18 Military: The United States begins deploying 50,000 additional troops in the Persian Gulf region in anticipation of a possible attack upon Iraq.

December 20 Politics: Senate majority leader Trent Lott of Mississippi resigns his post after receiving criticism for praising the political goals of retiring Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, a former segregationist.

2003 Medical: The United States, and the entire world health community, takes positive steps to prevent the outbreak of a severe respiratory syndrome (SARS), which started in Hong Kong and is spreading.

January 20 Business: The U.S. Supreme Court extends copyright protection and privilege for another 20 years to give American intellectual property standards parity with those found in Europe.

January 28 Military: In his State of the Union address, President George W. Bush accuses Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein of hiding biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction from United Nations inspectors. He also advises the United States to prepare for a possible conflict to evict Hussein, but he gives no indication of the timetable.

February 1 Science: The space shuttle Columbia disintegrates after entering the Earth’s atmosphere, killing all seven passengers aboard, including an Israeli astronaut. Apparently it had lost some heat-resistant tiles while taking off.

February 5 Diplomacy: At the United Nations, Secretary of State Colin Powell provides intelligence showing Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, and he also proposes a direct link between Saddam Hussein and terrorist Osama bin Laden.

February 15–16 Politics: Antiwar protests take place in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and other cities across the United States.

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February 20 Terrorism: The U.S. Justice Department indicts eight men for belonging to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a Syrian-based terror organization. The purported leader, Sami al-Arian, has been teaching at the University of South Florida.

March 1 Politics: The Department of Homeland Security begins operations under its director, Tom Ridge. This is the largest such organization since the National Security Act of 1947 established the National Security Council and the Central Intelligence Agency.

March 18 Crime: James Kopp is convicted of the shooting death of Dr. Barnett Slepian outside his abortion clinic in Erie County, New York, in 1998.

March 19 Conservation: The Senate defeats legislation that would have opened up the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge for oil exploration and drilling. This defeat is a setback for President George W. Bush’s proposal to lessen American dependency on Middle Eastern oil.

March 19–April 9 Military: Operation Iraqi Freedom begins as coalition forces, spearheaded by the United States, invade Iraq and topple the regime of dictator Saddam Hussein. Fighting is scattered and sporadic, and the first American troops enter Baghdad on April 9. Coalition casualties number 175 dead and like numbers wounded.

March 21 Business: A U.S. circuit court in Illinois orders cigarette manufacturer Philip Morris, Inc., to pay $10 billion in damages for marketing so-called light cigarettes, which are supposedly less destructive to health than regular brands.

March 25 Politics: President George W. Bush asks Congress to advance $75 billion in emergency funding for the Iraq War, humanitarian relief, and postwar reconstruction.

April 25 Business: The importation of so-called blood diamonds used to finance wars in nations such as Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo are outlawed by President George W. Bush. The United States now joins the international Kimberley Process, designed to prevent such trade.

April 29 Communication: “Spam,” or unsolicited e-mail messages on the Internet, is banned by the Virginia legislature.

May 1 Business: Andrew Fastow, chief financial officer of the now-defunct Enron Corporation, along with 10 other individuals is charged with fraud and conspiracy in the failure of the company. Politics: President George W. Bush lands on an aircraft carrier off the California coast and declares “mission accomplished” to signify the end of conventional military operations in Iraq.

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Marine in Ar Ramadi, Iraq, as part of Operation Enduring Freedom (U.S. Department of Defense)

May 2 Conservation: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) declares that 2002 model cars are the least efficient in terms of fuel efficiency in the last 20 years. The rise of large and popular sport utility vehicles (SUVs) is the reason.

May 19 Terrorism: All foreigners entering the United States are now subject to fingerprinting and photographing according to new regulations adopted by the Department of Homeland Security.

May 27 Medical: A law signed by President George W. Bush increases AIDS prevention and treatment programs funding to $15 billion in assistance to 14 Caribbean and African nations.

May 28 Business: President George W. Bush signs a $350-billion tax cut to be put in effect over the next 10 years.

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May 31 Terrorism: Eric Robert Rudolph, the prime suspect in the 1996 Centennial Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta, Georgia, is arrested after living in the wilds of North Carolina for seven years.

June 4 Crime: Domestic diva Martha Stewart is tried for obstruction of justice and securities fraud stemming from the sale of her ImClone stock.

June 10 Science: The first Mars Exploration Rover is launched toward a rendezvous with the red planet.

July 7 Politics: President George W. Bush admits he may have used “incomplete and possibly inaccurate” information while describing Saddam Hussein’s alleged attempt to buy uranium in Africa. Science: The second Mars Exploration Rover is launched toward a rendezvous with the red planet.

July 9 Terrorism: The U.S. Court of Appeals upholds the president’s right to designate U.S. citizens captured in combat as “enemy combatants,” and subject to indefinite confinement without legal representation.

July 22 Military: U.S. forces track down and kill Saddam Hussein’s two sons, Uday and Qusay, in Mosul, northern Iraq. They received an anonymous tip as to their whereabouts from the local populace.

July 24 Terrorism: A congressional report on the events of 9/11 faults the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency for faulty intelligence and misinterpreting information leading up to the tragedy.

July 29 Business: The Department of Defense’s plan to start the Policy Analyst Market, which trades futures on the Internet based on terrorist activity in the Middle East, causes a furor in Congress and is scrapped.

August 14–16 General: A power outage in the Northeast and Midwest puts 50 million people in the dark; the cause is apparently overreliance on obsolete power grids and increasing demands for power.

August 27–29 Diplomacy: U.S. diplomats meet in Beijing, China, with representatives of Russia, China, Japan, South Korea, and North Korea to discuss nuclear activities on the Korean Peninsula. North Korea also declares its intention to begin testing nuclear weapons.

September 7 Diplomacy: President George W. Bush asks Congress for an additional $87 billion in military and reconstruction funds for Iraq and Afghanistan. At this time, Bush also calls Iraq the focal point of the American effort against international terrorism.

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Military: U.S. armed forces conclude Operation “Mountain Viper” in Afghanistan, which led to the deaths of 2,902 Taliban guerrillas.

September 22 Law: Attorney General John Ashcroft sets new guidelines and orders federal prosecutors to avoid plea bargaining. This shift marks a new and more aggressive approach to law enforcement.

September 30 Politics: The U.S. Department of Justice begins investigating whether or not the Bush administration deliberately leaked the name of Valerie Plame Wilson, a CIA operative, who is identified as such by conservative columnist Robert Novak.

October 2 Terrorism: David Kay, the chief U.S. weapons inspector, informs Congress that his Iraq Survey Group has yet to uncover demonstrable proof of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), be they biological, chemical, or nuclear.

October 7 Politics: California voters, tired of Governor Gray Davis’s incessant tax increases, recall him and elect famous Hollywood actor Arnold Schwarzenegger in his place. California is one of 14 states that allow recall elections.

October 7–11 Science: Alexei A. Abriskov, Anthony J. Leggett, and Russian Vitaly J. Ginzburg share the Nobel Prize in physics; Peter Agre and Roderick MacKinnon win the Nobel Prize in chemistry; Paul C. Lauterberg and Briton Sir Peter Mansfield share the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.

October 24 –31 General: Southern California is wracked by a series of devastating wildfires that scorch 700,000 acres and destroy 3,000 homes; over 12,000 firefighters are eventually working the front lines to control them.

October 25 Diplomacy: With U.S. prodding, various nations, meeting in Madrid, Spain, pledge $13 billion to assist reconstruction in Iraq. Sports: The Florida Marlins (NL) win their first World Series by defeating the New York Yankees (AL) four games to two.

October 27 Business: Bank of America and FleetBoston announce a merger worth $48 billion, which also creates the nation’s second-largest bank.

October 31 Military: A protracted insurgency rages in occupied Iraq, resulting in the deaths of 120 American personnel and 1,100 wounded. The most insidious weapon used is the improvised explosive device (IED) placed alongside roadways and detonated when military columns pass by.

November 2 Religion: When Reverend Gene Robinson, a homosexual, is consecrated as an Episcopal bishop in New Hampshire, conservative Episcopal churches around the world threaten to disassociate themselves from that institution.

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November 3 Diplomacy: In the largest emergency spending bill ever sought by a president, Congress approves $87.5 billion for additional occupation and reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan.

November 5 Women: President George W. Bush signs a bill outlawing late-trimester “partial birth” abortion, and court challenges surface immediately.

November 19–20 Crime: Rock star Michael Jackson is arrested and arraigned on multiple counts of child molestation and is released on $3 million bail.

November 24 Crime: Sniper John Muhammad is found guilty of murder and is sentenced to death for his 10 killings in the Washington, D.C., area. His young companion, Lee Boyd Malvo, receives life imprisonment the following month.

December Politics: No fewer than nine candidate are competing for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination, with the front runners being former Vermont governor Howard Dean and Massachusetts senator John Kerry.

December 7–10 Diplomacy: President Wen Jiabao of China visits Washington, D.C., for the first time to confer with President George W. Bush.

December 8 Medical: President George W. Bush signs the Medicare Reform Act to begin assisting people without insurance to help pay for the cost of medical prescriptions.

December 10 Politics: The U.S. Supreme Court votes 5-4 to uphold parts of a landmark 2002 campaign finance law banning unregulated “soft money” contributions by individuals, corporations, and unions.

December 13 Military: U.S. forces belonging to the U.S. Fourth Division searching the village of Ad Dawr, southeast of Tikrit, capture fugitive Iraqi president Saddam Hussein as he hides in his “spider hole.”

December 23

Former president of Iraq, Saddam Hussein (U.S. Department of Defense)

2003

Medical: A Holstein cow in Washington State is the first to test positive for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), better known as “Mad Cow Disease.” Japan and Korea immediately ban American meat imports, even though the cow in question was born in Canada.

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December 31 Business: The Dow Jones Industrial Average stands at 10,453.92, ending three years of losses. General: Time magazine votes “The American Soldier” as “Person of the Year.” So far this year, 450 Americans have been killed in combat operations in Iraq, while 8,000 have been wounded in efforts to put down a protracted Sunni-based insurgency.

2004 January 4 Science: The robotic land rover Spirit safely lands on the surface of Mars and begins sending back detailed photos of the Martian surface.

January 5 Sports: Legendary baseball star Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds publicly admits for the first time that he had gambled on his own team; he was banned from the game permanently in 1989.

January 24 Science: A second robotic land rover, Opportunity, successfully lands on Mars, on the opposite side of the planet from Spirit, and begins taking detailed photographs.

February 2 Business: President George W. Bush lays out his $2.4-trillion budget request to Congress, with its deficit of $364 billion.

February 19 Crime: Former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling is indicted on federal charges of fraud, conspiracy, and insider trading, and he pleads not guilty.

February 24 Labor: The U.S. Supreme Court rules 6-3 that the 1967 Age Discrimination in Employment Act forbids lawsuits by younger workers claiming discrimination in favor of older workers. Religion: The U.S. Supreme Court rules 7-2 that a Washington State scholarship did not violate First Amendment guarantees of the free exercise of religion by denying aid to students aiming to become members of the clergy.

February 25 Media: Mel Gibson’s controversial religious film The Passion of the Christ debuts to charges of anti-Semitism in some quarters, but it goes on to earn $370 million at the box office.

February 29 Media: Academy Awards go to The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, which takes 11 Oscars; Sean Penn wins for best actor in Mystic River; Charlize Theron wins as best actress for Monster.

March 2 Crime: Bernard Ebbers, former CEO of WorldCom, is charged with securities fraud, conspiracy, and false regulatory filings.

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March 5 Crime: Domestic diva Martha Stewart is convicted of conspiracy and obstruction of justice stemming from illegal sales of her ImClone stock.

April 19 Indian: The U.S. Supreme Court rules 7-2 to uphold the sovereign right of one Native-American tribe to prosecute members of another tribe.

April 23 Politics: The U.S. Supreme Court votes 5-4 to uphold a 2002 redistricting plan for Pennsylvania’s U.S. House delegation on the basis that there are no standards by which it could be judged unconstitutional as partisan gerrymandering.

May 17 Civil: The U.S. Supreme Court rules 5-4 that handicapped individuals can sue state courthouses under the Americans with Disabilities Act for failing to provide adequate physical access.

June 24 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that only juries, not judges, can increase sentences beyond statutory guidelines on conclusions drawn beyond a reasonable doubt.

June 25 Media: Michael Moore’s anti-Bush film Fahrenheit 9/11 is released to the public and breaks all box office records for documentaries, although critics pan it for exaggerations and factual errors.

June 28 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court rules 5-4 that police cannot interrogate suspects before reading their legal rights to obtain a confession that could be introduced in court. Terrorism: The U.S. Supreme Court rules 6-3 that terrorist detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, can use American courts and laws to challenge their detention. Diplomacy: As promised, President George W. Bush authorizes coalition forces occupying Iraq to turn over all political power to the newly elected government there.

June 29 Civil: The U.S. Supreme Court rules 6-3 that foreigners, acting under the 1789 Alien Tort Claims Act, are empowered to file suits in U.S. courts for abuses suffered outside the country.

June 30 Business: For the first time in four years, the Federal Reserve raises the rate it charges banks from 1 percent to 1.25 percent to curb possible inflation. Science: The unmanned Cassini probe enters the orbit of Saturn after traveling for seven years through space and begins a close-up study of its moon Titan.

July 7–8 Crime: Kenneth Lay, founder and former CEO of the bankrupt Enron Corporation, is indicted on 11 criminal counts, including conspiracy, bank fraud, and securities fraud; he pleads not guilty.

July 16 Crime: Domestic diva Martha Stewart is sentenced to five months in jail, five months of home arrest, and $30,000 in court fees for lying to federal agents.

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July 19 Crime: Samuel (Sandy) Berger, former National Security Advisor under President Bill Clinton, admits to removing classified materials from the National Archives and then destroying them to keep them from the independent commission investigating Clinton’s possible culpability in the 2001 World Trade Center attack.

July 26–29 Politics: The Democrats meet in Boston, Massachusetts, to nominate native son and senator John Kerry for president and North Carolina senator John Edwards for vice president.

August 3 Societal: By a margin of 71 percent, voters in Missouri decisively reject a state constitutional amendment that would have allowed same-sex marriages.

August 4 Media: A group calling itself Swift Boat Veterans for Truth begins airing commercials that accuse presidential aspirant John F. Kerry of lying about his Vietnam wounds to win medals. Curiously, Kerry waits for nearly a month before responding to their accusations.

August 7–17 Military: U.S. Marines surround and attack supporters of Shiite leader Moktada al-Sadr in the holy city of Najaf, Iraq, killing nearly 600 fighters.

August 12 Societal: The California Supreme Court votes 5-2 to invalidate 4,000 same-sex marriages issued in San Francisco the previous February and March.

August 13–14 General: Hurricane Charley slices through Florida, damaging 16,000 homes and leaving millions without electricity.

August 30–September 2 Politics: The Republicans convene in New York City to renominate George W. Bush of Texas for the presidency; Richard Cheney of Wyoming is also chosen again to serve as vice president.

September 5 General: Hurricane Frances tears into southern Florida, killing 30 people and inflicting $10 billion in damages.

September 8 Media: The CBS show 60 Minutes airs a segment questioning President George W. Bush’s military service in the Alabama National Guard, although subsequent investigations reveal that the documents in question were forgeries.

September 16 General: Hurricane Ivan strikes the Georgia coast after ravaging the Caribbean; six people are killed.

September 22 Media: CBS news anchor Dan Rather apologizes for airing a report questioning the military service of President George W. Bush, which was found to be

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Chronology of American History based on forged documents. He characterized it as “an error made in good faith.”

October 9 Business: Edward C. Prescott shares the Nobel Prize in economics with Norwegian Finn E. Kyndland.

October 10 Science: David J. Gros, David Politzer, and Frank Wilczek share the Nobel Prize in physics for their studies of the strong force in atomic nuclei; Irwin Rose shares the Nobel Prize in chemistry with Israelis Aaron ciechanover and Avram Hershko for their studies on protein degradation in cells.

October 12 Science: Richard Axel and Linda B. Buck share the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for their research into how human brains can recall up to 10,000 different smells.

October 27 Sports: The Boston Red Sox (AL) win their first World Series since 1918 by defeating the St. Louis Cardinals (NL), four games to none.

November 2 Politics: Republican George W. Bush defeats Democrat John F. Kerry for president by winning 286 electoral votes and 60.6 million popular votes to the latter’s 57.2 million. Both men receive more votes than any previous member of either party. The Republican add four seats in the Senate and keep control of the House of Representatives.

November 7–18 Military: U.S. Army troops numbering upward of 15,000 surround the Sunni stronghold of Fallujah, Iraq, and attack, systematically killing 1,600 Muslim terrorists at a cost of 38 dead and 275 wounded.

November 23 Media: Venerable CBS anchor Dan Rather, harshly criticized for airing a report questioning President George W. Bush’s military career based on forged documents, announces his retirement.

December 31 Business: The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes at 10,783.01.

2005 January 1 Naval: The carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and its escort vessels arrive off tsunamidevastated Aceh Province, Indonesia, to support humanitarian efforts. Onboard helicopters begin rushing medicine and supplies ashore.

January 3 Religion: In Orange County, California, the Roman Catholic diocese agrees to pay $100 million to settle a sexual abuse suit brought by 90 plaintiffs against 31 priests and two nuns. Societal: Former presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton lead a nationwide drive to raise relief money for the victims of the Asian tsunami.

2005

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The Boston Red Sox defeat the St. Louis Cardinals in Game Four to win the 2004 World Series. (AP photos)

January 6 General: A train wreck in Granville, South Carolina, kills nine people and injures 50 after it releases deadly chlorine gas. Over 5,500 people are forced to evacuate the area.

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January 10 Media: CBS, having concluded an extensive investigation into a questionable report about President George W. Bush’s military career, announces the retirement of producer Mary Mapes.

January 11 Terrorism: President George W. Bush nominates Associate Judge Michael Chertoff to head the Department of Homeland Security.

January 12 Medical: In light of mounting obesity, especially among young people, the government releases updated dietary guidelines that recommend at least 30 minutes of exercise every day. Military: The United States formally concludes its search for weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq, one of the main reasons for the American invasion there; none are ever found. Science: The U.S. Deep Impact Probe is launched and begins its 83-million-mile voyage to rendezvous with the comet Tempel 1.

January 14 Military: A court-martial at Fort Hood, Texas, finds U.S. Army Reserve specialist Charles Graner guilty of abusing Iraqi captives at Abu Ghraib prison, and he draws a sentence of 10 years imprisonment along with a dishonorable discharge.

January 20 Politics: In Washington, D.C., George W. Bush is sworn in as the 43rd president of the United States while Richard Cheney takes the oath as vice president. “When you stand for your liberty,” Bush assures oppressed people of the world, “we will stand with you.”

January 25 Business: The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the national deficit for 2005 will balloon upwards of $368 billion.

January 26 General: A car driver attempting suicide causes a train crash near Glendale, California, killing 11 people and injuring 200. Juan Manuel Alvarez is subsequently charged with 11 counts of murder. Politics: After a close grilling by the Senate, Condoleezza Rice is confirmed, 8513, as President George W. Bush’s new secretary of state; she is the first AfricanAmerican woman to serve in that office. Law: The Senate Judiciary Committee approves the nomination of Alberto Gonzales as President George W. Bush’s attorney general; he is the first Hispanic American so designated. Military: A helicopter crashes near the border of Jordan in a sandstorm, killing 30 U.S. Marines.

February 2 Politics: In his State of the Union address, President George W. Bush asks Congress for a complete overhaul of the Social Security system by allowing workers to set aside part of their taxes for investment in stock and bond funds.

2005

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Rice, Condoleezza

(1954–

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)

Secretary of state Condoleezza Rice was born in Birmingham, Alabama, on November 14, 1954, the daughter of a Presbyterian minister. Raised in a racially segregated environment, she was strongly encouraged by her parents to excel at everything she did, and she took piano lessons, skating, and sports as a child. When her father became an administrator at the University of Denver in 1967, Rice attended her first integrated school, a private academy from which she graduated with honors. She next enrolled at the University of Denver in 1970, abandoned her plans to become a concert pianist, and concentrated instead on political science. Her greatest influence here was Dr. Josef Korbel, father of Madeleine Albright, America’s first female secretary of state. After graduating in 1974, she subsequently received her master’s from Notre Dame in 1975 and her doctorate from the Graduate School of International Affairs at the University of Denver in 1981. Rice, a specialist in Soviet affairs, was disillusioned by President Jimmy Carter’s tepid response to the Russian invasion of Afghanistan and switched from the Democrats to the Republicans. She also inherited her father’s passion for football, becoming an avid fan. Rice subsequently found work teaching international relations at Stanford University in 1981, where she won several awards for instructional excellence, which included her injecting football analogies into discussions of military affairs. She first worked at the White House in 1986 as an International Affairs Fellow with the Council on

Foreign Relations in the administration of President George H. W. Bush. In 1993, Rice became Stanford’s youngest, first female, and first African-American provost and, over the next six years, she completely revamped the school’s spending, turning up a $40-million surplus by cutting back on essentials. Rice left Stanford in July 1999 and, the following year, she joined Texas governor George W. Bush’s presidential campaign team as his foreign policy adviser. After he was elected president, she was sworn in as his National Security Advisor on December 22, 2001, becoming the first woman to hold this position. Rice occupied a critical position in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and she served as an important military adviser in both the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. Rice performed competently. On January 26, 2005, she succeeded Colin Powell as the 66th secretary of state. It now became her responsibility to articulate America’s diplomacy to the world and to build alliances in the ongoing war against terrorism. She is also the first African-American female to hold this post, making her one of the world’s most powerful and influential women. A woman of steely resolve and self-discipline—she rises at 5 a.m. to exercise before working 15–16 hours a day—she is affectionately known by friends and colleagues as the “Warrior Princess.” Rice has also expressed a desire to one day work as a commissioner of the American Football League.

February 3 Law: Alberto Gonzales is confirmed by the Senate, 60-36, to serve as the first Hispanic attorney general of the United States.

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Chronology of American History

February 3–7 Diplomacy: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrives in Europe to mend relations damaged by the recent war in Iraq, with additional stops in Turkey and Israel.

February 4 Science: Astronomers atop the Mount Kea observatory, Hawaii, report finding a warm polar vortex, in effect, a hot spot, on the surface of Saturn.

February 6 Sports: For the second year in a row, the New England Patriots win the Super Bowl by defeating the Philadelphia Eagles, 24-21.

February 7 Business: President George W. Bush’s $2.57-trillion annual budget intends to slow spending by reducing the growth of government spending from 8.2 percent to 3.6 percent in one year.

February 9 Diplomacy: President George W. Bush pledges $950 million in relief money to help tsunami-devastated regions of Southeast Asia. Terrorism: A previously secret government report criticizes the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for lax security on September 11, 2001, despite warnings of a possible terrorist attack.

February 10 Law: The Senate votes 72-26 in favor of capping punitive damages paid in classaction suits.

February 12–13 Politics: Howard Dean, a former presidential contender, is chosen to succeed Terry McAuliffe as the new chairman of the Democratic Party. Dean quickly accuses the Republicans of fiscal “recklessness” and claims that Democrats are more committed to national security.

February 13 Music: The late Ray Charles posthumously wins eight grammy awards for his album Genius Loves Company.

February 14 Military: A test of the National Missile Defense (NMD) fails when an intercepting rocket fails to hit its target due to software deficiencies.

February 14 –15 Diplomacy: In the wake of the assassination of Lebanon prime minister Rafik al-Hariri, the United States blames Syrian agents for being behind the attack and recalls its ambassador from Damascus. Sports: The National Hockey League (NHL) season is cancelled after several days of failed negotiations between owners and players, after the former try to place a cap on the latter’s salaries.

February 15 Terrorism: The Senate approves attorney Michael Chertoff to succeed Tom Ridge as the new chief of Homeland Security.

2005

Chronology

2401

February 17 Politics: President George W. Bush nominates John Negroponte, the current ambassador to Iraq, to the newly created post of director of national intelligence.

February 19–20 Diplomacy: Former presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton tour the tsunami-devastated regions of Southeast Asia as official representatives of the United States.

February 21–24 Diplomacy: President George W. Bush meets with NATO officials in Brussels, Belgium, to solicit assistance in retraining the Iraqi army; he then ventures to Bratislava, Slovakia, to confer with Russian president Vladimir Putin over nuclear disarmament.

February 23 Education: A bipartisan commission of state legislators issues a report that criticizes the No Child Left Behind Act for thwarting school-improvement programs already underway in several states.

February 27 Media: Academy of Motion Pictures awards go to Million Dollar Baby for best picture and also to Clint Eastwood, best director; Morgan Freeman as best actor and Hilary Swank as best actress also win for the same film.

March 1 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Roper v. Simmons, ruling that the execution of juveniles for capital crimes is “cruel and unusual punishment,” hence unconstitutional.

March 3 Aviation: Steve Fossett makes a new world record by flying 23,000 miles nonstop around the world by himself and lands safely back in Kansas.

March 7 Diplomacy: President George W. Bush nominates Undersecretary of State John Bolton to serve as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, an institution he has vocally criticized.

March 10 Conservation: The Environmental Protection Agency unveils its Clean Air Interstate Rule, which intends to reduce nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide emissions by 60 percent in 2015.

March 11–12 Crime: In Atlanta, Georgia, suspected rapist Brian Nichols shoots and kills a judge, a stenographer, and a sheriff ’s deputy in a Fulton County courthouse before being apprehended the following day.

March 15 Crime: Bernard Ebbers, formerly CEO of WorldCom, Inc., is convicted on nine counts of fraud and conspiracy in the U.S. district court, New York; total losses to the stockholders is $11 billion.

2005

2402  Chronology of American History

March 16 Crime: A jury finds actor Robert Blake not guilty of charges relating to the appar-­ ent murder of his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley; in Redwood, California, Judge Alfred Delucchi sentences Scott Peterson to death for the murder of his pregnant wife, Laci Peterson. Diplomacy: President George W. Bush nominates Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz to head the World Bank.

March 17 Sports: Baseball stars Rafael Palmeiro, Sammy Sosa, and Mark McGuire testify before the �House Committee on Governmental Reform about the use of ste�roids by athletes.

March 21 Indian: In Minnesota, student Jeff Weiser, 16, kills five students at the Red Lake High School before killing himself.

March 23 General: The BP oil refinery in Texas City, Texas, explodes, killing 15 people and injuring 100; investigators blame a chemical leak.

March 25 Diplomacy: President George W. Bush announces that his administration will sell highly advanced General Dynamics F-16 fighters to Pakistan, a valuable ally in the war against terrorism. Science: In today’s issue of the journal Science, Mary Schweitzer reports the discovery of soft tissue in the fossilized thighbone of a 68-­million-­year-­old Tyrannosaurus rex. Blood vessels and other tissue remnants are clearly visible and bear a marked resemblance to those found in Â�present-­day ostriches, suggesting an even closer link between theropod dinosaurs and birds.

March 31 Business: The World Bank executive board unanimously confirms Paul WolfoÂ� witz as its new head. General: Terri Schiavo, 41, who has been in a vegetative state since 1990, finally dies after becoming the object of a massive legal battle to keep her on life-support systems, which Â�were removed on March 18. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to get involved in the fracas. Politics: The nine-­member presidential Commission on Intelligence Capabilities of the United States regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) lambastes the government for its lack of viable intelligence with respect to IraÂ�niÂ�an and North Korean nuclear programs.

April 1 Crime: Samuel “Sandy” Berger, a former National Security Advisor, is sentenced for removing and destroying documents from the National Archives that might have proved embarrassing to President Bill Clinton; he is fined $10,000.

April 6 Diplomacy: President George W. Bush, accompanied by former presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton, arrives in Rome for the funeral of Pope John Paul II.

2005

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2403

April 7 Education: Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings announces more flexibility and latitude to states while trying to comply with the No Child Left Behind Act.

April 11 Diplomacy: President George W. Bush meets with Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon at his ranch in Crawford, Texas. Politics: United Nations ambassador-designate John Bolton is heavily criticized by Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and a vote for his confirmation is postponed.

April 13 Crime: Antiabortion activist Eric Rudolph pleads guilty to four bombings in Atlanta, Georgia, that killed four people and injured 120 people.

April 22 Terrorism: Zacarias Moussaoui pleads guilty to six counts of conspiracy in connection with the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, September 11, 2001, and he freely admits his role in the plan.

April 25 Diplomacy: President George W. Bush meets with Crown Prince Abdullah, the leader of Saudi Arabia, and urges him to increase oil production to reduce gasoline prices.

April 27 Politics: The House of Representatives restores its previous set of ethics rules that will allow a special committee to investigate alleged wrongdoings by Congressman Tom DeLay.

April 28 Conservation: Naturalists confirm the existence of at least one ivorybilled woodpecker in eastern Arkansas, a species long thought to have gone extinct. Military: In Fort Bragg, North Carolina, a military jury sentences U.S. Army sergeant Hasan Akbar, a Muslim American, to death for the murder of two fellow soldiers at Camp Pennsylvania, Kuwait, in March 2003.

May 7 Sports: Giacomo, a 50-1 long shot, wins the Kentucky Derby in two minutes, two seconds, and half a length ahead of Closing Argument, who was favored 71-1 to win.

May 12 Politics: John Bolton, President George W. Bush’s nominee to serve as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, survives a vote in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

May 13 Military: The Pentagon releases a list of 33 bases it has sought to close as a costcutting measure, although members of Congress resist any base closings in their individual states and districts.

2005

2404

Chronology of American History

May 17 Civil: Antonio Villaraigosa becomes the first Hispanic mayor of Los Angeles since 1872 after defeating the incumbent James Han, 59 percent to 41 percent.

May 18–24 Law: To overcome what was viewed as Democratic obstruction of judicial nominees, a bipartisan group of 14 senators agrees to allow several of President George W. Bush’s appointees to be voted on, thereby stalling the so-called nuclear option that would alter parliamentary rules to prevent filibustering. Justice Priscilla Owen of Texas is the first approval, confirmed for the Fifth U.S. Court of Appeals.

May 20–23 Women: First Lady Laura Bush arrives in the Middle East to address the World Economic Forum and emphasize women’s rights and education.

May 26 Diplomacy: In Washington, D.C., President George W. Bush meets with Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas, his first meeting with a Palestinian leader.

May 29 Sports: Dan Wheldon wins the Indianapolis 500 race by narrowly edging out Danica Patrick, the first woman driver to enter the competition.

May 31 Politics: After 30 years of silence, W. Mark Felt, 91, a former FBI official, reveals himself as “Deep Throat,” the man who played a leading role in allowing the Watergate investigation to unfold through Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein.

June 7 Labor: General Motors announces that it will cut 25,000 jobs out of 181,000 by 2008, largely because of fewer SUV sales and skyrocketing gasoline prices.

June 8–9 Law: Janice Rogers Brown and William Pryor, appointed to the federal court by President George W. Bush despite heated opposition from Democrats, are confirmed by the Senate without a filibuster.

June 13 Crime: In Santa Maria, California, rock star Michael Jackson is acquitted by a jury of child molestation charges.

June 15 Terrorism: Deputy Associate Attorney General J. Michael Wiggins informs a Senate Committee that the Justice Department believes it is legally empowered to detain terrorist suspects at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, indefinitely.

June 17 Crime: In New York City, a jury finds Dennis Kozlowski and Mark Swartz, former CEOs of Tyco International, Ltd., guilty of 22 counts of conspiracy, securities fraud, and falsifying business records.

June 21 Crime: Edgar Ray Killen, 80, is found guilty of the deaths of three civil rights workers in Mississippi in 1964 and receives a sentence of 80 years in prison.

2005

Chronology

2405

June 23 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Kelo v. City of New London, ruling that cities have the right to employ eminent domain to confiscate private property after compensating the owners, in this instance to construct a hotel and office space. Medical: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves the first racespecific drug, BiDil, which is effective in countering heart disease among African Americans.

June 24 –26 Religion: The Reverend Billy Graham, 86, conducts his last crusade in New York City at the site of the 1939 World’s Fair in Queens; an estimated 230,000 people are in attendance.

June 27 Crime: In Wichita, Kansas, Dennis Rader, the notorious BTK killer (bind, torture, kill) pleads guilty to murdering 10 people since 1974. Religion: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Van Orden v. Perry, ruling that the display of the Ten Commandments on the grounds of the Texas state capital building does not violate the First Amendment because it was part of a larger display commemorating state history and culture.

June 28 Military: A U.S. Army helicopter attempting to rescue a stranded party of U.S. Navy SEALS in Afghanistan is shot down and crashes, killing all 19 service members onboard.

June 29 General: President George W. Bush seeks to create an intelligence-gathering security service within the FBI as part of his overall shake-up of U.S. spy and investigation agencies.

June 30 Business: The Federal Reserve raises the interest rates it charges banks to 3.25 percent, up a full point compared to a year earlier.

July 4 Science: After traveling and navigating for 83 million miles, the U.S. Deep Impact Probe successfully collides with the comet Tempel 1 to investigate the composition of its inner core.

July 6 Journalism: Judith Miller, a reporter for the New York Times, goes to jail for failing to reveal sources relative to her CIA identity “leak” of agent Valerie Plame Wilson.

July 10 Business: The Bank of America announces its decision to acquire the credit card firm MBNA for $35 billion, making it the nation’s largest credit card issuer.

July 13 Terrorism: U.S. Air Force general Randall Schmidt appears before the Senate Armed Services Committee and testifies that terrorist suspects (“detainees”) at Guantánamo, Cuba, are being held under safe and humane conditions.

2005

2406

Chronology of American History

July 19 Law: President George W. Bush nominates Judge John G. Roberts as the new chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court to replace Chief Justice William Rehnquist, who is retiring.

July 25 Labor: In Chicago, Illinois, the Teamsters and the Service Employees Union elect to drop out of the AFL-CIO to form their own coalition in an effort to try to stop the steep decline in union memberships.

July 26–August 9 Science: The space shuttle Discovery successfully returns to space, after a twoand-a-half-year suspension of flights following the Columbia disaster, and it brings supplies to the International Space Station. It also performs a “back flip” so that observers in the station can examine the heat-resistant tiles for possible damage.

July 29 Business: Congress approves the Central American Free Trade Agreement to eliminate virtually all trade barriers between the United States and Central American nations. Conservation: Congress passes a new energy bill intending to provide incentives for new technologies, alternative fuels, and nuclear power, although it does not include provisions for drilling in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge. Science: Astronomers at the California Institute of Technology report seeing an object in orbit around the sun that is three times the distance of Pluto, the farthest known planet. Transportation: Congress approves a $286.4-billion highway bill that is highly criticized for being larded with “pork” and other giveaways.

August 1 Diplomacy: President George W. Bush appoints John Bolton to serve as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations on the basis of a recess appointment, which does not require Senate approval until the next Congress convenes in January 2007.

August 2 Politics: In a much-ballyhooed special election in Ohio, Republican congresswoman Jean Schmidt handily defeats her Democratic challenger, Iraq War veteran and U.S. Marine Corps reserve major Paul Hackett.

August 29–30 General: Hurricane Katrina slams into New Orleans with tremendous force, breeches the levies, and floods 80 percent of the city; thousands of people unable to evacuate take shelter in the Superdome and the New Orleans Convention Center. The death toll is 1,277, with 1,035 in Louisiana, 24 in Mississippi, 14 in Florida, two in Alabama, and two in Georgia.

September 2 General: President George W. Bush deems FEMA relief efforts in Louisiana “unacceptable,” while Congress passes an emergency $10.5-billion spending measure.

2005

Chronology

2407

A half- submerged Home Depot store in New Orleans, Louisiana, after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in August 2005 (U. S. Department of Defense)

Politics: Democratic governor Kathleen Blanco of Louisiana and Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans come under intense criticism for failing to prepare state resources for the ongoing disaster. They, in turn, blame FEMA director Michael Brown. Military: U.S. Army general Russel Honoré arrives in New Orleans to take command of the Louisiana National Guard troops gathering there.

September 4 General: In Louisiana, 230,000 displaced survivors from Hurricane Katrina are evacuated from the New Orleans Superdome and Convention Center to Texas, whereupon Governor Rick Perry orders some of them airlifted to other states.

September 8 General: President George W. Bush assigns an additional $51.8 billion in relief funds for the survivors of Hurricane Katrina.

September 9–12 Politics: Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) director Michael Brown, heavily criticized, resigns from office and is replaced by Admiral Thad Allen.

2005

2408

Chronology of American History

September 14 Business: Delta Airlines and Northwest Airlines, citing the high cost for aviation fuel, declare bankruptcy.

September 24 General: Hurricane Rita hits the Texas Coast, and, because residents in that region evacuated safely in advance, there is damage but no loss of life.

September 28 Politics: House majority leader Tom DeLay of Texas is indicted for conspiring to violate a state fund-raising law, and he steps down from his leadership post.

September 29 Journalism: Judith Miller concludes 12 weeks of imprisonment after agreeing to testify before a grand jury relative to leaking the name of a CIA operative to the media.

October 1–7 Military: A force of 1,000 U.S. Army troops commences Operation Iron Fist to attack and root out Iraqi terrorists in the town of Sadah, near the Syrian border, killing 50.

October 3 Education: Most public schools in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, are reopened, but those in New Orleans proper remain closed. Law: John Glover Roberts, Jr., is sworn in as the 17th chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court to replace outgoing William Rehnquist; President George W. Bush announces his nomination of Harriet Miers, his White House counsel, as a new associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court to replace outgoing Sandra Day O’Connor.

October 11 General: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers completes pumping water out of the New Orleans metropolitan region.

October 16 Military: An attack by U.S. forces on Iraqi insurgents handling artillery shells kills 20 guerrillas.

October 24 General: Hurricane Wilma ravages southern Florida, killing 21 people.

October 26 Sports: The Chicago White Sox, conspicuous by its absence as a World Series winner, finally prevails by sweeping the Houston Astros four games to one. This is the team’s first win since 1917.

October 27 Politics: White House counsel and Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers, facing a storm of criticism in the press, withdraws her candidacy.

October 28 Politics: Vice presidential chief of staff I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby is indicted by a federal grand jury for obstruction of justice, false statements, and perjury. He resigns immediately.

2005

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2409

October 30–31 Civil: Rosa Parks, who refused to yield her bus seat to a white person in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955, and who died on October 24 at the age of 92, becomes the first woman to lie in state in the Capitol rotunda. Law: President George W. Bush nominates Judge Samuel Alito to replace outgoing Sandra Day O’Connor as a Supreme Court justice.

November 1 Medical: President George W. Bush attempts to head off a potential bird flu pandemic by making available $7.1 billion worth of vaccine to the public.

November 8 Politics: Midterm elections favor the Democrats, who elect governors in New Jersey and Virginia, while the Republicans maintain the mayorships of New York City and San Diego.

November 15 Politics: The Republican-led Senate defeats a Democratic proposal to provide a timetable for withdrawing American forces from Iraq; the vote is 58-40.

November 21 Diplomacy: President George W. Bush becomes the first American chief executive to visit Mongolia while on an extensive tour of Asia.

November 22 Terrorism: In Chicago, Illinois, Jose Padilla, a former gang member and recent convert to Islam, is charged with helping to support violent jihadist activities in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

December 20 Education: A U.S. district judge strikes down a rule in the Dover, Pennsylvania, school district mandating the promotion of “intelligent design” as a counterweight to evolution.

December 20–22 Labor: New York City is paralyzed by a transit workers strike once negotiations break down. A court imposes a $1-million fine per day against the union, and leaders agree to resume both work and negotiations.

December 22 Politics: President George W. Bush signs a compromise bill extending the Patriot Act for another five weeks.

December 27 General: Fast-ranging grass fires scorch thousands of acres in Texas and Oklahoma, killing four people and destroying 250 buildings.

December 31 General: At least three people are reported dead in the wake of winter storms and rain in Napa Valley, California.

2006 January 2 General: An explosion in the Tallmansville Mine, West Virginia, kills 12 of 13 miners trapped there.

2006

2410

Chronology of American History

January 3 Crime: In Washington, D.C., influential lobbyist Jack Abramoff cuts a deal with federal prosecutors concerning allegations of fraud, corruption, and tax evasion.

January 8 Military: The New York Times reports that 80 percent of U.S. Marines killed by torso wounds in Iraq might have been saved had they been equipped with proper body armor.

January 15 Military: A U.S. air strike in the Bajaur tribal region of northwest Pakistan, intending to kill Ayman al-Zawahiri, the al-Qaeda second in command, kills several terrorists along with 18 civilians.

January 19 Science: The space probe New Horizons is launched on its 3-billion-mile voyage to study Pluto’s surface and atmosphere. Terrorism: Terrorist Osama bin Laden releases a videotape declaring his intention to attack the United States soon, but he also makes an offer of a truce.

January 24 Politics: A report by the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction is critical over the indifferent manner in which funds are stored, and he also finds some evidence of fraud and abuse.

January 29 Media: ABC reporter Bob Woodruff and cameraman Dick Vogel are injured when their vehicle is struck by a roadside bomb in northwest Baghdad.

January 31 Law: Judge Samuel Alito is confirmed as a U.S. Supreme Court justice by the U.S. Senate on a 58-42 vote to replace the outgoing justice, Sandra Day O’Connor. Politics: In his fifth State of the Union address, President George W. Bush admonishes Iran for its dictatorial theocracy, chastises Democrats for their continuing questioning of Iraq, and he also urges Americans to reduce their dependence on oil.

February 1 Politics: In an upset, John Boehner becomes majority leader of House Republicans by defeating Roy Blunt.

February 6 Economics: President George W. Bush releases his $2.77-trillion budget proposal, which includes spending increases for homeland security and defense while cutting back on domestic programs.

February 8 Medical: The government releases a $415-million, eight-year study on low-fat diets and stunningly concludes that such a regimen does not significantly decrease the risk of heart disease or cancer.

February 11 General: Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shoots and wounds his friend Harry Whittington while quail hunting, but he is subsequently cleared of any wrongdoing.

2006

Chronology

2411

February 15 Politics: The House of Representatives releases a report critical of the government’s botched response to Hurricane Katrina. Politics: Congressional hearings begin on the government’s practice of warrantless wiretaps, whereby Attorney General Alberto Gonzales insists that the president is acting within his legal authority.

March 2 Diplomacy: The United States and India conclude a controversial nuclear pact whereby the latter gains access to American nuclear fuel and technology in return for separating its civilian energy program from its military. Politics: The U.S. Senate renews the Patriot Act on a vote of 89-10 after heated debate, and President George W. Bush signs the legislation on March 9.

March 3 Crime: Congressman Randy Cunningham of California is sentenced to eight years in prison for taking $2.4 million in bribes from military contractors.

March 6 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Rumsfeld v. Forum of Academic and Institutional Rights, ruling that colleges and universities receiving federal financing must allow military recruiters full access to the campus and student body. Medical: In a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade, South Dakota governor Michael Rounds signs legislation banning most abortions in his state.

March 10 Politics: Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton resigns from office to pursue a job in the private sector. Science: The spacecraft Cassini takes pictures that suggest to scientists that water exists on Saturn’s moon Enceladus.

March 16 Military: U.S. forces attack Iraqi insurgents near Samarra, utilizing the largest air strike employed since the beginning of the war.

March 22 Labor: General Motors and the United Auto Workers announce a deal whereby the former agrees to early retirement packages for each of its 113,000 employees.

March 28 Politics: Presidential chief of staff Andrew Card announces his resignation to pursue work in the private sector.

March 29 Crime: Lobbyist Jack Abramoff is sentenced to six years in a federal prison for charges related to the fraudulent purchase of a gambling cruise ship.

March 30 Societal: The Massachusetts Supreme Court declares that out-of-state gay couples cannot marry in Massachusetts if their own state has outlawed such unions.

2006

2412

Chronology of American History

April 4 Politics: Congressman Tom DeLay of Texas, the Republican whip, announces that he is resigning his seat in Congress owing to corruption charges arising from his dealings with lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

April 6 Science: Scientists announce the discovery of a 375-million-year-old fossil fish that displays signs of early limb development, a vital evolutionary component for the colonization of land.

April 12 Medical: Governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts signs legislation enacting universal health care coverage; those who cannot afford coverage will be subsidized by the state.

April 17 Crime: Former Illinois governor George Ryan is convicted of racketeering and conspiracy charges by a federal jury.

April 20 Diplomacy: Chinese president Hu Jintao pays his respects to President George W. Bush in Washington, D.C., to discuss trade issues and nuclear proliferation. Medical: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) declares that marijuana has no known medical benefits.

April 26 Politics: Karl Rove, senior aide to President George W. Bush, testifies before a federal grand jury as to his role in the illegal disclosure of CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson’s identity.

May 1 Politics: Hundreds of thousands of immigrants rally for immigration reform, including immediate amnesty for an estimated 11 million people in the country illegally.

May 3 Terrorism: Moroccan-born French terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui is sentenced to life in prison for his alleged role in the September 11, 2001, World Trade Center attack.

May 5 Politics: CIA director Porter Goss steps down from power after a tumultuous 19-month tenure in office.

May 15 Diplomacy: President George W. Bush announces plans to resume normal diplomatic relations with Libya after the Libyan regime agrees to renounce terrorism and abandon its nuclear weapons program. The government also declares its intention to halt all arms sales to Venezuela after its refusal to cooperate in terrorism investigations.

2006

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2413

May 20 Crime: FBI agents search the office of Democratic congressman William Jefferson of Louisiana for kickbacks, recovering $90,000 stored in a refrigerator.

May 21 Politics: Embattled New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin is handily reelected by a 52 to 47 percent margin by defeating Lieutenant Governor Mitch Landrieu.

May 22 Crime: A computer containing personal information on 26.5 million veterans is stolen from the home of an employee working for the Department of Veterans Affairs.

May 23 Diplomacy: In Washington, D.C., President George W. Bush confers with Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert concerning the withdrawal of Jewish settlers from the occupied West Bank in Palestine.

May 25 Crime: Enron executives Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling are found guilty of fraud and conspiracy by a Houston jury. They are responsible for one of the biggest corporate scandals in American business history.

May 29 Journalism: CBS reporters Paul Douglas and James Brotan are killed by a roadside bomb in Baghdad, while reporter Kimberly Dozier is badly injured.

June 7 Politics: The U.S. Senate votes down a constitutional amendment that would outlaw same-sex marriages on a vote of 49-48.

June 8 Medical: The Food and Drug Administration approves the use of Gardasil as a vaccine against cervical cancer; at $360 per dose, it is one of the most costly vaccines in use. Military: U.S. Special Forces direct an air strike that kills wanted terrorist ringleader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi at his hiding place northeast of Baghdad. This removes a senior al-Qaeda figure from the fighting. Politics: Former majority whip Tom DeLay of Texas resigns his seat in the House of Representatives.

June 12 Crime: Statistics released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation suggest that crime has surged by 2.5 percent in 2005, the first such increase in four years.

June 13 Diplomacy: President George W. Bush makes a surprise visit to Baghdad, calls on the Iraqi prime minister, and pledges that “America will keep its commitment” to that nation.

June 15 Business: Billionaire Bill Gates announces his decision to step down as chairman of Microsoft within two years to concentrate on managing his philanthropic Gates Foundation.

2006

2414

Chronology of American History

June 16 Politics: By wide margins, the Senate and House reject calls for an Iraq timetable for withdrawing American forces.

June 19 Crime: Three U.S. soldiers are accused of murdering three Iraqi detainees and also of threatening a fourth soldier unless he confessed to investigators.

June 24 Societal: Billionaire Warren Buffet declares his intention to donate $4 billion to various philanthropic organizations.

June 26 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Kansas v. March, ruling that a state court’s overturning of the death penalty was unconstitutional. The Court maintains that any state law making the death penalty automatic in light of overwhelming evidence is valid.

June 28 General: The mid-Atlantic region is inundated by heavy rains that cause rivers to overflow their banks, forcing the evacuation of thousands of inhabitants. Politics: By a single vote, the U.S. Senate fails to approve a constitutional amendment that would have banned burning the American flag. The final tally was 67 to 34.

June 29 Law: The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, ruling by a 5-3 vote that military tribunals cannot be established without congressional authorization. Moreover, detainees held at Guantánamo, Cuba, remain subject to the Geneva Convention on treatment of prisoners.

July 3 Crime: The U.S. Army accuses former soldier Steven D. Green, previously dismissed for a “personality disorder,” with the rape and murder of an Iraqi girl and her family in March 2006.

July 4 –17 Science: The space shuttle Discovery blasts off on a 13-day mission to the International Space Station to bring supplies and conduct several spacewalks.

July 6 Law: The New York Court of Appeals rules 4-2 that a law defining marriage as the union between a man and a woman does not violate the state constitution. Moreover, the court rules it is up to the legislature, and not the courts, to decide the issue of same-sex marriage.

July 13 Law: President George W. Bush will allow the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to review the National Security Agency (NSA) policy of warrantless wiretaps.

July 19 Medical: President George W. Bush uses his veto for the first time by rejecting a bill that would have allowed expanded research in the area of embryonic stem cells.

2006

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2415

July 20 Civil: Congress approves a 25-year extension of the Voting Rights Act by wide margins.

July 25 Medical: The Senate votes 65-34 to make it a federal crime to transport an underage girl across state lines for the purpose of having an abortion, or to avoid parental notification laws wherever they exist.

July 31 Military: The United States formally transfers military control of Afghanistan to NATO, which is now responsible for fighting Taliban extremists and local drug lords.

August 7 Business: British Petroleum is forced to close down its oil fields at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, when corrosion is discovered in a pipeline, which causes the price of gasoline to rise 5 cents a gallon.

August 8 Politics: In a major upset, incumbent senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut is defeated in the state primary by antiwar businessman Ned Lamont. Undaunted, Lieberman declares his intention to run as an independent.

August 15 Societal: A report issued by the Census Bureau suggests that the population of legal and illegal immigrants has increased by 16 percent since 2000.

August 17 Law: Federal judge Diana Diggs Taylor rules that warrantless wiretaps by the National Security Agency violate the Constitution, but the bureau appeals the decision and the program continues unfettered. Federal judge Gladys Kessler rules that cigarette manufacturers have deceptively downplayed the medical perils of their products with misleading labels such as “low tar” or “light” and orders the practice halted.

August 24 Medical: The Food and Drug Administration authorizes over-the-counter sales of “morning after” contraceptive pills to women over the age of 18. Science: Pluto, heretofore regarded as the outermost planet of the solar system, is downgraded by the International Astronomical Union to the status of a “dwarf planet.”

August 27 General: The crash of a Comair commuter craft in Lexington, Kentucky, kills 49 people after it attempts taking off on the wrong runway.

August 29 Societal: Poverty and income figures released by the Census Bureau suggest that median household incomes have increased a paltry 1.1 percent, while the poverty rate is holding steady at 12.6 percent.

2006

2416

Chronology of American History

September 1 Military: The Pentagon announces the successful test of the Missile Defense System; in this instance, an interceptor rocket shot from California destroys a target missile heading in from Alaska.

September 3 Military: U.S. forces capture Hamid Juma Faris, a senior al-Qaeda operative, in Iraq. He is best known for orchestrating the deadly attack against the Shiite Askariya Shrine in February 2006. Sports: Tennis legend Andre Agassi, defeated in the third round of the Men’s U.S. Open tennis tournament, announces his retirement after a winning streak of 60 tournaments.

September 5 Media: Katie Couric becomes the first female anchor of a national news program when she replaces outgoing Bob Schieffer on the CBS Evening News.

September 6 Terrorism: President George W. Bush announces that 14 high-level terrorists have been transferred from abroad to detention pens at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. He awaits congressional authorization to conduct military tribunals.

September 7 Crime: Former deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage confesses that he was the first official to expose the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson to columnist Robert Novak.

September 8 Terrorism: A car bomb explodes outside the U.S. embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, killing 16 people, including five Americans.

September 9–21 Science: The space shuttle Atlantis roars aloft to work on the International Space Station and successfully lands back at Cape Canaveral, Florida, 12 days later.

September 11 General: Thousands of Americans across the nation gather in prayer and mourning at ceremonies marking the five-year anniversary of the terrorist attacks in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania.

September 13 Law: The Senate Judiciary Committee votes 10 to 8 to approve warrantless wiretapping through the National Security Surveillance Act, thereby enabling the National Security Agency (NSA) to monitor phone calls of suspected terrorists in the United States.

September 14 Law: The Senate Armed Services Committee votes to expand the rights of terrorist suspects held at Guantánamo Bay over the objections of President George W. Bush. Societal: The House of Representatives passes a partial immigration bill mandating the construction of a 700-mile fence along the Mexican border; this places it at odds with the Senate version, which lacks such provisions.

2006

Chronology   2417

September 15 Crime: Congressman Bob Ney of Ohio pleads guilty to accepting bribes and illegal gifts from convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

September 24 Politics: Former president Bill Clinton declares that he had tried to kill terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden before he left the White �House in January 2001.

September 29 Politics: Congressman Mark Foley of Florida resigns his seat following revela-­ tions of explicit e-mail correspondence with several teenage congressional pages.

October 2 Crime: Charles Roberts kills five girl students at an Amish school�house in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, and then turns the weapon on himself.

October 3 Business: The Dow Jones Industrial Average hits a new high of 11,727.34. Military: Eight American soldiers die in Iraq this day, victims of roadside bombs.

October 3–13 General: The 2006 Nobel Prizes go to Americans Roger D. Kennedy in chem-­ istry, Edmund S. Phelps in economics, John C. Mather and George F. Smoot in physics, and Andrew Z. Fire and Craig D. Mello in physiology or medicine.

October 4 Politics: President George W. Bush signs legislation mandating construction of a 700-­mile fence along the border between the United States and Mexico in an attempt to curb a rising tide of illegal immigrants.

October 17 Societal: The U.S. Census Bureau announces that the national population has hit 300 million people, owing largely to increases in illegal immigration. Only China and India are more populous, with 1.3 billion and 1.1 billion people, respectively. Terrorism: President George W. Bush signs legislation that differentiates rules for interrogating and prosecuting terrorists from those applying to criminals.

October 23 Business: The Ford Motor Company announces its largest quarterly loss in 14 years. Crime: Former Enron executive Jeffrey Skilling is sentenced to 24 years and four months in prison for fraud, conspiracy, and insider trading connected with bankruptcy of the energy firm Enron, then the nation’s largest.

October 24 Politics: The FBI begins investigating messages sent by Congressman Mark Foley to a number of teenage boys who served as pages. �House Speaker Dennis Hastert also testifies behind closed doors before the �House ethics panel. A public uproar ensues.

October 26 Business: The Dow Jones Industrial Average of 30 major stocks hits an unpre�ce� dented 12,163.66.

2006

2418  Chronology of American History

October 27 Sports: The St. Louis Cardinals defeat the Detroit Tigers in five games to win their 10th World Series.

October 31 Science: NASA unveils a costly plan to repair the orbiting and ailing Hubble Space Telescope; with new batteries, gyroscopes, and upgraded sensors, the 16�year old device is expected to remain in ser�vice until 2013.

November 2 Music: Â�Colombian-­born singer Shakira wins four awards at the Latin Grammy Awards, including best song and album of the year. Religion: Pastor Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangel-­ icals, resigns from office following allegations of a tryst with a male prostitute.

November 3 Environment: The journal Science publishes a study which warns that the entire marine ecosystem is threatened with collapse by 2048 if current fishery practices are not halted worldwide.

November 4 Religion: Katharine Jefferts Schori is installed as the new presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, USA.

November 7 Aviation: The shipping giant FedEx announces it is canceling 10 Â�EuÂ�roÂ�peÂ�an-­built Airbus A380s in favor of 15 Boeing 777s; the company cites anticipated produc-­ tion delays as the reason for the switch. Politics: DemoÂ�crats are swept back into control of both chambers of Congress for the first time since 1995, largely over public discontent with the war in Iraq. They also pick up six governorships, for a total of 28.

November 8 Military: Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld resigns from office in the wake unfavorable midterm elections for the Republicans. President George W. Bush then publicly introduces former CIA director Robert Gates as Rumsfeld’s successor.

November 11 Diplomacy: At the United Nations, American ambassador John Bolton vetoes a Security Council resolution condemning Israel for the recent outbreak of violence in the Middle East. He also calls upon the Palestinians to halt the practice of fir-­ ing rockets into Israel.

November 12 Sports: The Major League Soccer Title is won by the Houston Dynamo.

November 13 Business: The Â�House of Representatives scuttles a trade bill aimed at normal-­ izing trade relations with Vietnam.

November 16 Business: The JapaÂ�nese firm SONY releases for sale its Â�long-­anticipated Play-­ Station 3 computer gaming system, commencing at midnight. Eager consumers are lined up outside stores to purchase them.

2006

Chronology

2419

Women: Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) makes history after winning election as the nation’s first female Speaker of the House of Representatives. However, her choice for majority leader, John Murtha of Pennsylvania, surprisingly is defeated by Steny Hoyer of Maryland.

November 16–20 Diplomacy: President George W. Bush begins a four-day swing through Asia by visiting Singapore, Vietnam, and Indonesia. He also attends the 21-nation Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Hanoi to promote trade ties.

November 17 Medical: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cancels a 14-year ban on the use of silicone-gel breast implants for cosmetic purposes by women over the age of 21. Military: General John Abizaid of the U.S. Central Command testifies before the Senate Armed Services Committee, arguing for increases in American troop strength and against a timetable for American withdrawal from Iraq.

November 20 Business: The U.S. Mint displays four new one-dollar coins, each embellished by likenesses of one of the four first presidents.

November 25 Military: American troops, backed by Iraqi security forces, kill 22 insurgents in a battle north of Baghdad.

December 3 Arts: The director Steven Spielberg, the composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, the conductor Zubin Mehta, and the singer Dolly Parton each receive Kennedy Center Awards at ceremonies in Washington, D.C.

December 4 Business: The Bank of New York merges with Pittsburgh’s Mellon Financial to form a new banking entity called the Bank of New York Mellon Corporation. Diplomacy: President George W. Bush announces the resignation of U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton. Bolton had been a controversial appointment, owing to his blunt, outspoken nature.

December 6 Military: Robert Gates is confirmed in the U.S. Senate by a 95-2 vote as the incoming secretary of defense. He had previously testified that while the United States is not winning the struggle in Iraq, it is not losing either, and urges patience.

December 8 Business: In a significant deal that also highlights growing diplomatic ties, President George W. Bush signs a trade agreement allowing the sale of nuclear reactors and fuel to India.

December 12 Societal: Immigration and Customs agents net 1,282 illegal aliens at six Swift & Co. meatpacking plants in Colorado, Nebraska, Texas, and Utah, all part of a 10-month investigation.

2006

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Chronology of American History

December 15 Societal: The Medal of Freedom, the highest award granted to civilians by Congress, is given to Ruth Johnson Colvin, Norman C. Francis, Paul Johnson, B. B. King, Joshua Lederberg, David McCullough, Norman Y. Mineta, Buck O’Neil, William Safire, and Natan Sharansky.

December 17 Religion: Seven Virginia parishes vote to sever ties with the Episcopal Church, USA, and align themselves with the more conservative Convocation of Anglicans in North America.

December 21 Military: The government accuses four U.S. Marines of committing atrocities against civilians at Haditha, Iraq, in November 2005; they are to face courtsmartial for murder.

December 27 Environment: The Department of the Interior recommends that polar bears be placed on the list of endangered species.

December 29 Medical: The Medicaid Commission delivers its final report on ways of modernizing U.S. health care. This body had been created in 2005 by Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael O. Leavitt.

December 30 Diplomacy: Saddam Hussein, having ruled Iraq with a iron fist for decades before being toppled by a U.S.-led invasion in 2003, is hanged for the murder of Kurdish civilians during the Iran-Iraq War.

December 31 Military: The government announces that the death toll of U.S. forces in Iraq has reached 3,000; the number of dead civilians killed at the hands of insurgents and counterinsurgent operations ranges variously from a low of 30,000 to a high of 650,000.

2007 January 2 Education: Television celebrity Oprah Winfrey opens her Leadership Academy for Girls in Henley-on-Klip, South Africa, with a total enrollment of 452 students planned.

January 3 General: Former president Gerald R. Ford is laid to rest at Grand Rapids, Michigan, with several national and international dignitaries in attendance. Politics: John Negroponte, director of national intelligence, announces that he is resigning from office to serve as the new deputy secretary of state to replace Robert B. Zoellick.

January 4 Women: Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (D-California) is sworn in as the first female Speaker of the U. S. House of Representatives; this is the first time that Democrats have controlled Congress since 1995.

2007

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2421

January 5 Diplomacy: President George W. Bush selects current U.S. ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalizad to serve as America’s new ambassador to the United Nations.

January 7 Terrorism: A U.S. Air Force AC-130 gunship attacks a suspected al-Qaeda base camp in Somalia.

January 8 Sports: In Glendale, Arizona, the University of Florida football team clinches college football’s Bowl Championship by defeating Ohio State 41-14.

January 9 Communications: Apple CEO Steve Jobs demonstrates his new iPhone, which combines telephone, music player, camera, and Internet functions, all in one handy package. Sports: Cal Ripken, Jr., is elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame for completing 2,632 consecutive games. Terrorism: U.S. and Iraqi forces battle Sunni insurgents in a daylong struggle in downtown Baghdad.

January 10 Military: President George W. Bush announces that impending deployment of 20,000 additional American troops to Iraq in the hopes that this “surge” will lead to lessening outbreaks of violence there. He does so despite intense congressional opposition from Democrats who cannot muster sufficient votes to stop him.

January 11 Sports: The Los Angeles Galaxy soccer team announces it decision to sign English superstar David Beckham as a player; the deal involves $250 million over a five-year period.

January 12 Terrorism: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announces that President George W. Bush has authorized attacks on Iranian agents operating in Iraq and training terrorists teams there.

January 18 Military: The U.S. government declares that the Chinese recently destroyed an old weather satellite with an antisatellite weapon.

January 19 Crime: Congressman Bob Ney of Ohio is sentenced to two and a half years in prison for accepting bribes from lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

January 20 Military: A U.S. helicopter troopship crashes in northern Baghdad, Iraq, possibly due to insurgent fire, killing all 13 passengers.

January 22 Publishing: Susan Patron’s book The Higher Power of Lucky receives the Newbery Medal for children’s literature. Sports: Invasor receives the 2006 Eclipse Award as Horse of the Year.

2007

2422

Chronology of American History

January 23 Politics: President George W. Bush completes his sixth State of the Union address, reiterates his plan to send additional troops to Iraq, and asks fellow countrymen for greater patience with the war there.

January 24 Terrorism: The United States conducts a second series of select air strikes against suspected terrorist targets in Somalia. The Democratic-controlled Senate Foreign Relations Committee votes along party lines to oppose President George W. Bush’s intention to send additional troops to Iraq.

January 25 Business: Ford Motor Company announces a $12.7 billion year loss for 2006, its largest ever.

January 26 Military: The U.S. Senate unanimously approves Lieutenant General David Petraeus to become the new top military commander in Iraq.

January 27 Sports: American Serena Williams defeats Russian Maria Sharapova to win the Australian Open tennis tournament; this is her second successive victory.

January 28 Terrorism: U.S. and Iraqi ground forces battle a group of Sunni insurgents near Najaf, who are intent upon attacking Shiites celebrating the festival of Ashura; an estimated 250 terrorists are slain.

January 30 Technology: Microsoft places Vista, its new Windows operating system, on sale.

February 4 Sports: The Indianapolis Colts down the Chicago Bears 29-17 to win Superbowl XLI in Miami, Florida.

February 5 Business: Computer giant Apple, Inc., and British-based Apple Corps, Ltd., reach a licensing agreement whereby Apple, Inc., can retain its trademarks but will also license some of them back to Apple Corps. This agreement negates a dispute that arose when Apple Computer began selling Beatles music through its iTunes service. Science: Astronaut and navy captain Lisa Nowak is arrested in Orlando, Florida, in a bizarre romantic triangle that included kidnapping a rival.

February 6 Military: Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates declares that the United States is establishing a new Africa Command by 2008; responsibility for that continent is presently shared by three other commands.

February 7 Military: A Marine Corps transport helicopter crashes near Baghdad, apparently after taking insurgent fire.

2007

Chronology

2423

February 8 Media: Tabloid celebrity Anna Nicole Smith dies of a drug overdose in Hollywood, Florida, at the age of 39.

February 9 Media: General Manager Jim Samples of the Cartoon Network resigns after a guerrilla marketing campaign in Boston, Massachusetts, causes a major bomb scare there.

February 10 Military: In Iraq, General George W. Casey, Jr., is replaced by General David H. Petraeus.

February 11 Education: Drew Gilpin Faust, dean of Radcliffe’s Institute for Advanced Study, is tapped to serve as the first female president of Harvard University. Music: The country group Dixie Chicks wins five Grammy Awards in Los Angeles; country singer Carrie Underwood is chosen as best new artist. Terrorism: U.S. officials in Baghdad display evidence pointing to Iranian involvement in terrorist activities through Iraq; its is also stated that recent raids by American forces in Baghdad netted six members of the elite Iranian Revolutionary Guards.

February 13 Economy: A $763.3 billion trade deficit is announced by the Department of Commerce; this is 6.5 percent larger than a year previously and the sixth consecutive new record.

February 15 Literature: The National Endowment for the Arts in Washington, D.C., grants its first International Literature Awards to Archipelago Books of Brooklyn, New York; Dalkey Archives Press, Champaign, Illinois; and Etruscan Press, WilkesBarre, Pennsylvania, for translating various foreign texts.

February 16 Diplomacy: An Italian court indicts 26 Americans, alleged CIA operatives, in the kidnapping of Egyptian cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr. The former head of Italy’s own spy agency is also implicated.

February 18 Sports: In Florida, driver Kevin Harvick wins the 49th Daytona 500 auto race by a mere 0.02 second.

February 19 Media: Competing satellite radio companies XM and Sirius announce a merger with 14 million subscribers; the new organization is called Project Big Sky with Mel Karmazin acting as CEO.

February 21 Religion: A gathering of conservative Anglican church officials in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, orders the Episcopal Church of the United States to ban the blessing of all same-sex unions. Science: Frances E. Allen becomes the first woman to receive the $100,000 A. M. Turing Award for her work with computers at IBM.

2007

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Chronology of American History

February 22 Business: Computer giant Microsoft is ordered by a federal jury to pay $1.52 billion to Alcatel-Lucent for patents relating to the MP3 audio file format.

February 25 Media: At the 79th Academy Awards in Hollywood, California, director Martin Scorsese wins an Oscar as best director while his film, The Departed, wins it for best picture. Other winners include Forest Whitaker as best actor, Helen Mirren as best actress, and Al Gore’s documentary on global warming, An Inconvenient Truth, which won best documentary. Religion: Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan delivers his final address in Detroit, Michigan, decrying that people’s behavior of late is far removed from what the Prophet intended.

February 26 Publishing: Author Philip Roth wins the PEN/Faulkner award for the third time for his novel Everyman.

February 27 Business: The Dow Jones Industrial Average, reacting to a sudden sell off of stocks in the Shanghai stock exchange, registers its biggest one-day point loss since 2001. The Standard and Poor 500 and Nasdaq register similar losses.

February 28 Science: The space probe New Horizons, launched in January 2006, reaches Jupiter to gather data on the giant planet and four of its moons before proceeding on to distant Pluto in June.

March 2 Military: Army secretary Francis J. Harvey is removed from his post by Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates over allegations of poor conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center; General Kevin Kiley also loses his job as army surgeon general.

March 4 Indian: The Cherokee vote to strip tribal membership from any African Americans who claim to be the descendants of slaves owned by the tribe.

March 7 Media: Iconic comic book hero Captain America, who first appeared in 1941, is assassinated in one issue.

March 8 Publishing: National Book Critics Circle Awards are given out to Kiran Desai for The Inheritance of Loss (fiction), Simon Schama for Rough Crossings (nonfiction), Julie Philips for James Tiptree, Jr. (biography), Daniel Mendelsohn for The Lost (autobiography), Troy Jollimore for Tom Thomson in Purgatory (poetry), and Lawrence Weschler for Everything That Rises (criticism).

March 10 Diplomacy: American and Iranian delegates meet briefly in Baghdad to discuss security matters and the rise of terrorism throughout the region. Terrorism: Captured terrorist ringleader Khalid Sheikh Mohammed admits to having planned the September 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center, in addition to other activities.

2007

Chronology

2425

March 11 Business: Energy giant Halliburton announces that it is relocating its corporate headquarters to Dubai on the Persian Gulf, while still remaining incorporated in the United States.

March 12 Music: In Cleveland, Ohio, Patti Smith, Van Halen, the Ronettes, R.E.M., Grandmaster Flash, and the Furious Five are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

March 13 Law: Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez admits that “mistakes” had been made in the firing of eight U.S. attorneys in 2006. Sports: In keeping with a family tradition, Lance Mackey wins the 1,131-mile Iditarod Trail Dog Sled Race in nine days, five hours, eight minutes, and 41 seconds; his father and brother are previous winners.

March 14 Business: The Chiquita Brands International fruit company firm pays a $25 million fine after admitting that it hired right-wing militia groups to protect its banana plantations in Colombia.

March 17 Societal: Pet food products marketed by Menu Foods are held liable in the deaths of several cats and dogs.

March 21 Religion: A gathering of Anglican elders in Houston, Texas, rejects the call from the Anglican Communion to accept parallel leadership to serve conservative congregations upset by the church’s liberal stand on homosexuality.

March 22 Media: News Corp. and NBC Universal declare a joint venture to distribute videos on various Internet sites, along with a new video site they intend to launch in the future. Medical: The Food and Drug Administration approves of new rules that forbids advisers from receiving money from the manufacturers of the products they endorse. Science: American mathematician Srinivasa Varadhan wins the annual Abel prize from the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters for his work in calculating the probability of events. Transportation: U.S. and European negotiators reach an “Open Sky” agreement to lift nearly all restrictions on cross-Atlantic air travel routes.

March 26 Military: Four generals are rebuked by Pentagon officials for their role in covering up the friendly fire death of former football hero Pat Tillman in Afghanistan. Terrorism: Australian David Hicks is the first terror suspect held at Guantánamo, Cuba, to appear before a U.S. military tribunal; he was captured in Afghanistan and pleads guilty to providing material support to a terrorist organization.

March 30 Business: Carlos M. Gutierrez declares that, since China is secretly subsidizing some of its exports to the United States, the government is imposing selected tariffs on these same imports.

2007

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Chronology of American History

March 31 Diplomacy: President George W. Bush entertains Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva at Camp David, Maryland; the two leaders pledge to cooperate in the development of ethanol. Sports: In Melbourne, Australia, Michael Phelps wins a record seventh gold medal by breaking his own record in the 400-meter individual medley.

April 2 Conservation: The U.S. Supreme Court orders that the Environmental Protection Agency enforce provisions of the Clean Air Act as they relate to automobile emissions. Media: Sam Zell, owner of the Chicago Cubs, buys out the media firm Tribune Company, which owns 20 television stations and several major newspapers. Music: EMI music company begins offering songs free of copyright protection for use on the Apple iTune online music store. Sports: The University of Florida wins the NCAA basketball championship by defeating Ohio State University 84-75; the women’s title goes to the University of Tennessee after beating Rutgers University.

April 3– 4 Diplomacy: A group of congressmen led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi makes an unauthorized stop in Damascus, Syria, to confer with President Bashar al-Assad. They are roundly criticized by President George W. Bush.

April 8 Sports: In Augusta, Georgia, Zach Johnson wins the Masters golf tournament by two strokes; this is his second PGA tour victory.

April 10 Business: The United States accuses China of flagrant violations of trademark and copyright law and files two complaints to that effect with the World Trade Organization (WTO).

April 11 Crime: North Carolina attorney general Roy Cooper declares that all charges against three Duke University lacrosse players accused of rape are to be dropped; Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong, who prosecuted the case, is being brought before a state bar association and faces disbarment. Media: Controversial radio talk host Don Imus is suspended by NBC News for his racist and insulting remarks about the Rutgers University women’s basketball team; his show is ultimately canceled. Military: Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates announces that the tours of service for Iraq and Afghanistan will be extended three months for a total of 15 months.

April 12 Business: The 41-cent “Forever Stamp” is debuted by the Postal Service; this design will remain valid even in the event of anticipated postal increases.

April 13 Business: Search engine giant Google acquires the online advertising agency Doubleclick.

2007

Chronology

2427

April 15 Sports: In honor of the 60th anniversary of the African American Jackie Robinson’s debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers, all league team members wear his number, 42, on their uniforms.

April 16 Crime: At Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, a deranged student named Seung-Hui Cho shoots and kills 32 students before taking his own life. Publishing: The Wall Street Journal wins the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for journalism; Cormac McCarthy wins for fiction; Lawrence Wright wins nonfiction; Ornette Coleman wins for music. Sports: The 111th Boston Marathon is won by Robert K. Cheruiyot of Kenya in the men’s division and Lidiya Grigoryeva of Russia in the women’s division.

April 18 General: Fires at the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge result in the forced evacuation of over 1,000 people. Medical: The U. S. Supreme Courts votes 5-4 to uphold the ban on partial-birth abortions, performed late in the third trimester.

April 19 Crime: Joseph Nacchio, CEO of Qwest Communications International, is convicted on 19 counts of insider trading.

April 23 Religion: The Department of Veterans Affairs agrees to add the Wiccan pentacle to their list of symbols that may be engraved on veterans’ headstones. Terrorism: A suicide car bombing in Diyala Province, Iraq, kills nine members of the 82nd Airborne Division.

April 24 Business: The Japanese firm Toyota overtakes General Motors as the largest carmaker in the world, with sales of 2.3 million vehicles in the year’s first quarter.

April 25 Economy: The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 13,000 for the first time in its history.

April 27 Business: The euro reaches a record high against the U.S. dollar, with a rate of $1.3682 to one.

April 29 Sports: In Talladega, Alabama, Jeff Gordon wins the NASCAR Nextel Cup, passing the victory record of legendary driver Dale Everhardt on Everhardt’s own birthday.

May 1 Publishing: In New York City, the National Magazine Awards go to New York magazine, National Geographic, Rolling Stone, and the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.

2007

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Chronology of American History

May 4 General: A huge tornado rips through Greensburg, Kansas, killing 10 people and injuring 63. Sports: In Las Vegas, Nevada, Floyd Meriwether defeats Oscar De La Hoya to become the super welterweight of the World Boxing Council.

May 5 Religion: Archbishop Peter J. Akinola of Nigeria installs Martyn Minns as bishop of the conservative Convocation of Anglicans in North America; he does so over objections by Rowan Williams, archbishop of Canterbury. Sports: The Kentucky Derby is won by Street Sense before an audience that included Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.

May 7 Terrorism: In Camden, New Jersey, six Muslim men are arrested and charged with plotting to attack and kill American soldiers at nearby Fort Dix; the FBI was alerted to their plot by an informant.

May 9 Science: The Encyclopedia of Life, a Web-based database of all known living things, is unveiled in Washington, D.C.

May 10 Sports: Dale Everhardt, Jr., declares his intention to leave his father’s racing team to become NASCAR’s first superstar free agent.

May 13 Terrorism: A military operation conducted by U.S., NATO, and Afghan security forces results in the death of Mullah Dadullah in Helmand Province; he is one of the highest-ranking Taliban commanders to die in combat.

May 14 Business: The automobile firm DaimlerChryslerAG announces that it will soon be acquired by Cerberus Capital Management, a private equity company.

May 15 Military: President George W. Bush nominates Lieutenant General Douglas Lute as “war czar” to coordinate military matters in Iraq and Afghanistan.

May 17 Business: Paul D. Wolfowitz resigns as president of the World Bank over allegations of favorable treatment of his romantic interest, Shaha Ali Riza.

May 19 Sports: The Preakness Stakes is won by Curlin, who just manages to defeat Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense by a nose.

May 21 Business: The Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic) declares its intention to obtain the plastics division of General Electric.

May 22 Diplomacy: Haleh Esfandiari, a director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, is arrested and detained in Iran while visiting her mother; the Iranian government has denied her lawyers or family members any access to her.

2007

Chronology

2429

Science: Scientists report that a female hammerhead shark living in isolation at the Henry Doorly Zoo, Omaha, Nebraska, has apparently given birth from parthenogenesis, or asexual reproduction, a phenomena never previously observed in sharks.

May 23 Literature: Lucille Clifton becomes the first African-American woman to receive the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize in Chicago. Military: The Japanese government agrees to pay the United States $6 billion to relocate 8,000 U.S. Marines from Okinawa to the island of Guam; the Americans will also contribute $4 billion to the process.

May 24 Business: The Democratic-controlled Congress increases the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 over the next two years; however, this is only accomplished after yielding to Republican demands to include tax cuts for businesses, to offset the increases. Terrorism: The Democratic-controlled Congress, elected to power to stop the war in Iraq, yields to the Bush administration by approving billions of dollars for that conflict without attaching a timetable for withdrawal. Antiwar groups responsible for the Democratic victory cry foul and bemoan the decision.

May 27 Sports: A rain-soaked Indianapolis 500 race is won by Dario Franchitti of Scotland after only 166 out of 200 scheduled laps.

May 29 Diplomacy: President George W. Bush announces tougher sanctions against Sudan for its failure to end the ongoing humanitarian crisis in its Darfur region.

May 30 Business: The Standard and Poor’s 500 index reaches a record high of 1,530.23; the Dow Jones Industrial Average also reaches a record 13,633.08.

June 1 Medical: The Food and Drug Administration announces the discovery of the poison diethylene glycol in toothpaste imported from China and warns consumers to avoid those brands.

June 4 Terrorism: New York police arrest four men for plotting to blow up facilities at John F. Kennedy International Airport.

June 5 Crime: I. Lewis Libby, formerly chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, receives a 30-month sentence for lying to government investigators relative to the exposure of a CIA covert operative.

June 6 Medical: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration orders makers of the diabetes drugs Avandia and Actos to warn consumers of heart-disease related risks associated with their product. Sports: The National Hockey League Stanley Cup goes to the Anaheim Ducks for the first time; they defeated the Ottawa Senators, 6-2 to win the trophy.

2007

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Chronology of American History

June 7 Societal: Senate Democrats fails to pass an immigration amnesty bill that would have legalized millions of undocumented workers; they could not overcome fierce Republican opposition to end the debate.

June 9 Aviation: Industry giant Boeing announces an agreement with the Russian firm Unified Aircraft Corporation to jointly manufacture 22 787 Dreamliners for the Russian state airline, Aeroflot. Sports: The Belmont Stakes is won by Rags to Riches, who becomes the first filly to win in 102 years.

June 10 Arts: The 61st Annual Tony Awards go to the productions of Coast of Utopia, Spring Awakening, and Journey’s End; actors Frank Langella, Julie White, David Hyde Pierce, and Christine Ebersole are among the recipients. Sports: The Ladies Professional Golf Association championship is won by Suzann Pettersen of Norway.

June 14 Sports: The National Basketball Association Championship is won by the San Antonio Spurs, who defeat the Cleveland Cavaliers 83-82; this is San Antonio’s fourth win.

June 15 Media: Game show icon Bob Barker makes his final appearance on the Price Is Right, which he hosted for the past 35 years. Terrorism: The military announces that the 28,500 men “surge” to Iraq is now completed, boosting American military strength in the region to 160,000 men.

June 17 Sports: In Oakmont, Pennsylvania, the U.S. Open golf tournament is won by Angel Cabrera of Argentina; he defeats such local notables as Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk. Kate Ziegler sets a new swimming record of 15 minutes, 42.54 seconds in the 1,500-meter race, breaking a previous record set in 1988.

June 18 Diplomacy: The United States drops its embargo of the Palestinian Authority, thereby freeing up financial aid to the Fatah government.

June 19 General: Nine firefighters die in a furniture warehouse blaze in Charleston, South Carolina; this represents the biggest loss of fire personnel since the 9/11 terrorist attack.

June 20 Conservation: The Netherlands Environmental Association declares that China is a greater source of carbon-dioxide emissions than the United States for the first time.

June 21 Medical: A federal judge orders three pharmaceutical companies, guilty of inflating wholesale prices of their products sold to Medicare, liable for damages.

2007

Chronology   2431 Sports: Slugger Sammy Sosa of the Texas Rangers slams home his 600th career home run against his former team, the Chicago Cubs; he is only the fifth player to reach that Major League milestone.

June 23 Sports: In Lancashire, En�gland, Drew Weaver becomes the first American to win the British amateur golf championship since 1979.

June 24 Sports: The United States defeats Mexico 2 to 1 in the 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup soccer championship.

June 25 Business: The World Bank’s executive board confirms Robert Zoellick as its new president. Law: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that certain parts of the Â�McCain-­Feingold campaign finance reform law were unconstitutional; the issue concerns running poÂ�litiÂ�cal ads 30 days before a primary election and 60 days prior to a general one.

June 28 Conservation: The Department of the Interior announces that bald ea�gles are being removed from the endangered species list; there are now in excess of 10,000 mating pairs throughout North America. Law: The U.S. Supreme Court mandates overturns a 1911 ruling and declares that manufacturers can dictate minimum prices that dealers must charge for products; it also orders that public schools may not consider race in admission policies.

June 29 Communications: Consumers stand in line for hours to purchase the new Apple iPhone.

July 1 Diplomacy: President George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin of RusÂ�sia confer at Kennebunkport, Maine, over the proposed American deployment of an antimis-­ sile shield in eastern EuÂ�rope. The RusÂ�sians view the system as a potential threat to their own security. Politics: Candidate Barack Obama of Illinois raises a record $32.5 million in his run for the DemoÂ�cratic presidential nomination (which he later clinches), edging out frontrunner Hillary Clinton of New York, who has raised $27 million in this same period.

July 2 Crime: President George W. Bush pardons I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby for lying to government investigators over his role in exposing a covert CIA operative. Terrorism: In Iraq, General Kevin Bergner accuses the IraÂ�niÂ�an government of running three terrorist training camps near Tehran and providing money and Â�armor-­piercing explosives to Shiite terrorists.

July 6 Terrorism: The U.S. Court of Appeals dismisses a challenge to governmental warrantless wiretaps conducted by the National Security Agency in the interest of monitoring suspected terrorists.

2007

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Chronology of American History

July 9 Crime: Senator David Vitter of Louisiana confesses to being on the list of the infamous “D.C. Madam” and apologizes to his family and voters.

July 15 Crime: Cardinal Roger Mahoney of Los Angeles announces a $660 million settlement with 508 people who had claimed to have been sexually assaulted by members of the clergy.

July 17 Crime: Michael Vick, a quarterback with the Atlanta Falcons football team, is indicted on federal charges relating to illegal dogfighting.

July 19 Business: The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes slightly above 14,000 for the first time.

July 20 Terrorism: President George W. Bush establishes guidelines for the forced interrogation of terror suspects, which can include waterboarding and sleep deprivation, but not torture.

July 21 Publishing: J. K. Rowling’s new book Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows sets a one-day record for book sales—8.3 million copies in 24 hours.

July 30 Crime: FBI agents raid the home of Alaska senator Ted Stevens over his alleged impropriety with oil field contractor Bill Allen. Law: U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Roberts is briefly hospitalized after suffering a seizure; he apparently also suffered one in 1993 without ill effects.

August 1 Transportation: A bridge spanning the Mississippi River in Minnesota collapses, killing 13 people and injuring 79. This particular crossing had a long history of failing inspections and being deemed “structurally deficient.”

August 3 Business: The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes 34 points lower at 13,181.9 over worries connected to the national debt and the rapidly unfolding subprime mortgage crisis.

August 3– 4 Terrorism: Both branches of Congress approve a legal framework for warrantless wiretaps in the fight against terrorism. This new measure allows the attorney general or director of the National Security Agency to make the determination rather than a governmental court.

August 4 Sports: Outfielder Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants breaks the all-time home run record of Hank Aaron, 755 hits, against the San Diego Padres.

August 6 General: A cave in near Huntington, Utah, traps six miners three miles underground and rescue efforts fail to find them or retrieve their bodies.

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August 8 General: A tornado packing 135-mile per hour winds briefly touches down in Brooklyn, New York, causing some structural damage; this is the first such storm to afflict that borough.

August 12 Sports: Golf celebrity Tiger Woods wins the PGA tournament in Tulsa, Oklahoma, his 13th major victory.

August 13 Politics: Karl Rove, President George W. Bush’s closest political adviser, resigns from office after 13 years.

August 14 Business: The Mattel Toy company, the world’s largest, recalls 19 million toys made in China owing to the presence of a small magnet that might be swallowed by children. Other toys were recalled owing to the presence of lead-based paint.

August 16 Terrorism: Suspect Jose Padilla, who was arrested in 2002, is convicted of conspiracy to commit terrorist acts.

August 27 Crime: Senator Larry Craig of Idaho pleads guilty to soliciting sex in a men’s room at the Minneapolis–St. Paul airport on June 11; he is fined $500 and placed on a one-year probation. Politics: Attorney General Alberto Gonzales resigns from office for his role in the allegedly illegal firing of eight U.S. attorneys.

September 3 Diplomacy: President George W. Bush makes a surprise visit to Iraq to confer with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and several Sunni tribal leaders who wish to join the coalition effort to fight Sunni terrorists.

September 9 Sports: In New York, Roger Federer of Switzerland wins his fourth consecutive U.S. Open Tennis title.

September 10 Politics: Presidential aspirant Hillary Clinton pledges to return an $850,000 contribution to her campaign from Norman Hsu, since convicted in a housing swindle.

September 11 Military: General David Petraeus testifies before a joint committee in Congress that the military “surge” of late has greatly reduced violence levels in Iraq. His opinion was seconded by U.S. ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker, who faced a tough grilling by members of the panel.

September 16 Military: Members of Blackwater, USA, a private security firm, kill eight Iraqi citizens in what they portray as an ambush situation in Baghdad. The Iraqi government disputes their claim, calling it “deliberate murder.”

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September 16 Crime: Former football celebrity O. J. Simpson is charged with several felonies connected to the theft of sports trophies allegedly stolen from him; he is released on $125,000 bail.

September 17 Law: President George W. Bush nominates U.S. District Court Judge Michael Mukasey as the new attorney general to replace outgoing Alberto Gonzales.

September 18 Business: The Federal Reserve cuts the federal funds rate from 5.25 to 4.75 percent to extend lower borrowing costs to prospective home and car owners.

September 24 Diplomacy: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran arrives at Columbia University in New York to deliver a speech, where he is greeted with derision and catcalls. On the following day Ahmadinejad pledges to United Nations officials that Iran will not abandon its nuclear power program, which the United States charges is used for acquiring weapons.

September 24 –26 Labor: In its first major action since 1970, the United Auto Workers (UAW) briefly go on strike against General Motors in a dispute over health care for employees; a deal is reached within two days.

September 25 Crime: In St. George, Utah, Mormon leader Warren Jeffs is convicted of forcing a 14-year-old girl to marry her 19-year-old cousin.

October 1 Crime: The FBI states that it will dispatch agents to investigate the alleged killings of 17 Iraqis at the hands of the Blackwater security firm. Meanwhile a congressional committee criticizes the State Department for not closely monitoring Blackwater’s behavior.

October 3 Politics: President George W. Bush vetoes a $35 billion State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) bill to expand health insurance for children over a five-year period, and which would include children not presently covered. The Democratic-controlled Congress fails to muster the votes necessary to override his veto.

October 4 Politics: Idaho senator Larry Craig, accused of sexual misconduct, declares his intention to remain in office until his term expires in 2009. This comes despite a court decision refusing his request to rescind his prior guilty plea. Terrorism: President George W. Bush denies that the United States employs torture to extract intelligence information from suspected terrorists, although certain techniques, such as waterboarding, are employed to extract the requisite intelligence necessary for protecting the nation.

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October 5 Sports: Sprinter Marion Jones admits to using steroids at the 2000 Olympics, where she won five gold medals. She agrees to give back her medals and accept a two-year ban from sports as part of her plea arrangement.

October 8–15 General: Americans Leonid Hurwicz, Eric S. Maskin, and Roger B. Myerson win the Noble Prize for economics; Mario R. Capecchi and Oliver Smithies share the Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine with Briton Sir Martin Evans, for developing gene targeting technology. Former Vice President Al Gore also shares the Nobel Peace Prize with the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

October 9 Business: The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes at an all-time high of 14,164.53 after it is reported that the economy grew by 110,000 jobs.

October 10 Crime: In Cleveland, Ohio, a 14-year old shooter wounds four classmates before taking his own life. Diplomacy: The U.S. House Foreign Relations Committee passes a resolution condemning the alleged genocide of Armenians in Turkey, 1915–23; the Turkish government angrily retorts that it will withhold support of the American operation in Iraq if the full House were to approve the resolution.

October 12 Diplomacy: Russian president Vladimir Putin warns Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates not to deploy an antimissile shield in eastern Europe and threatens to withdraw from existing intermediaterange missile treaties if they do.

October 21 General: A spate of intense wildfires destroys 267,000 acres of land, 600 homes, and 100 commercial buildings in southern California. Half a million people are also forced to evacuate their homes.

October 22 Terrorism: President George W. Bush requests an additional $46 billion in emergency spending for ongoing operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

October 23 Science: The space shuttle Discovery lifts off from Cape Kennedy on a 14-day mission to the International Space Station.

October 25 Diplomacy: President George W. Bush declares that the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards is a terrorist organization, and also extends existing sanctions against that rogue regime.

October 30 Military: In light of the ongoing flap with Blackwater USA, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice declare that the military will henceforth supervise all security activities by private contractors.

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Chronology of American History President George W. Bush appoints General James Peake as the new secretary of veterans affairs, pending Senate confirmation. Political: The Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction issues a critical report, citing a lack of progress despite the expenditure of $100 billion.

November 6 Military: The recent loss of six American soldiers makes 2007 the deadliest year of fighting in Iraq, bringing the total number of dead to 852 for the year.

November 6–8 Politics: For the first time during President George W. Bush’s tenure in office, the Senate and House of Representatives override his veto of a $23 billion water resource bill.

November 7 Science: The space shuttle Discovery lands safely after a two-week mission to the International Space Station that involved conducting major repairs and adding a new “room” to that facility.

November 8 Politics: The U.S. Senate approves of Michael Mukasey’s nomination to serve as the new U.S. Attorney General.

November 13 Crime: The FBI issues a report that finds the killing of 17 Iraqis by Blackwater security guards as unjustified and reckless.

November 15 Conservation: In San Francisco, a Federal appeals court rejects President George W. Bush’s new fuel standards and questions why lights trucks, minivans, and SUVs should enjoy lower emission standards than automobiles.

November 18 Terrorism: The number of weekly attacks on American forces in Iraq has declined to its lowest level since January 2006.

November 20 Science: Teams of scientists in Japan and Wisconsin announce a new method of creating embryonic stem cells without utilizing human fetuses. They can create 220 types of cells by simply adding four genes to ordinary skin cells.

November 24 Military: A brigade of 5,000 American soldiers is withdrawn from Diyala Province and returned home, leaving overall troop numbers at 157,000.

November 26 Politics: Veteran Republican senator Trent Lott of Mississippi states that he will step down from office before the end of the year.

November 27 Diplomacy: President George W. Bush hosts delegates from 49 nations at a Middle East Peace Conference at Annapolis, Maryland. Ehud Olmert of Israel and Mahmoud Abbas also agree to broker a peace treaty no later than the end of 2008.

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November 30 Crime: In Rochester, New Hampshire, Leeland Eisenberg holds several workers at a Hillary Clinton campaign office hostage for several hours; all are released unhurt.

December 3 Terrorism: A report issued by 16 agencies of the U.S. intelligence community concludes that Iran has frozen its nuclear weapons program, if only for the time being.

December 5 Crime: Robert Hawkins, a 19-year-old gunman, opens fire at a mall in Bellevue, Nebraska, killing eight people before taking his own life. Societal: A report is issued which highlights an increase in the rate of teenage births by 3 percent. In turn, several family planning agencies begin questioning the administration’s emphasis on abstinence-only sex education.

December 6 Business: Mortgage lenders agree to freeze loan rates for up to five years for people whose regular rates will zoom up to 30 percent once introductory rates expire. Conservation: President George W. Bush signs a new energy bill into law that increases mileage standards for passenger cars by 35 percent and also mandates increases in the production of ethanol and other biofuels. Terrorism: The New York Times reports that the CIA destroyed several videotaped interrogations of two al-Qaeda terror suspects.

December 12 Politics: President George W. Bush again vetoes proposed increases in children’s health care (SCHIP); Democrats lack the votes to override.

December 13 Sports: Former U.S. Senator George Mitchell of Maine issues a report on widespread steroid use in professional baseball and mentions leading players such as Roger Clemens, Chuck Knoblauch, and Eric Gagne.

December 15 Conservation: U. S. delegates to a climate change conference at Bali, Indonesia, declines to make a firm commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

December 18 Communication: New rules adopted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) restrict cable television stations to no more than 30 percent of the market, while also allowing newspapers to control radio and television stations in large cities.

December 19 Conservation: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) declares that 17 states, including California, lack the authority to set their own emission standards, even if those are tougher than prevailing federal ones.

December 26 Politics: President George W. Bush signs a $556 billion spending bill approved by Congress, which includes an additional $70 billion to fight the wars in Iraq and

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Chronology of American History Afghanistan. Significantly, the Democrats again yield to the president’s demands and fail to attach troop withdrawal deadlines.

December 29 Terrorism: General David Petraeus reports that car bombings and other attacks in Iraq have fallen by 60 percent since the start of the military “surge” in June 2007. He nonetheless considers al-Qaeda the greatest menace facing Iraqi stability and reconciliation.

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B IBLIOGRAPHY ✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰ Abrams, Richard M. America Transformed: Sixty Years of Revolutionary Change, 1941–2000. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Adams, Valerie L. Eisenhower’s Fine Group of Fellows: Crafting a National Security Policy to Uphold the Great Equation. Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, 2006. Akera, Atsushi. Calculating a Natural World: Scientists, Engineers, and Computers during the Rise of U.S. Cold War Research. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2007. Allison, William T. Military Justice in Vietnam: The Rule of Law in an American War. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2006. Allison, William T., Jeffrey Grey, and Janet G. Valentine. American Military History: A Survey from Colonial Times to the Present. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2007. Altieri, Charles. The Art of Twentieth-Century American Poetry: Modernism and After. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishers, 2006. Alvah, Donna. Unofficial Ambassadors: American Military Families Overseas and the Cold War, 1946–1965. New York: New York University Press, 2007. Alwood, Edward. Dark Days in the Newsroom: McCarthyism Aimed at the Press. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2007. Anderson, Tim J. Making Easy Listening: Material Culture and Postwar America Recording. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2006. Apodaca, Clair. Understanding U.S. Human Rights Policy: A Paradoxical Legacy. New York: Routledge, 2006. Arsenault, Raymond. Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. Axelrod, Alan. Patton: A Biography. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. ———. Political History of America’s Wars. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 2006. Bacevich, Andrew J., ed. The Long War: A History of U.S. National Security Policy since World War II. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007. Ballenger, Jesse F. Self, Senility, and Alzheimer’s Disease in Modern America: A History. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006. Barker, Hugh. The Quest for Authenticity in Popular Music. New York: W. W Norton, 2007. Barthel, Thomas. Baseball: Barnstorming and Exhibition Games, 1901–1962: A History of Off-Season Major League Play. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2007. 2461

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Bibliography Friedman, Lester D., ed. American Cinema of the 1970s: Themes and Variations. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2007. Friesendorf, Cornelius. U.S. Foreign Policy and the War on Drugs: Displacing the Cocaine and Heroin Industry. New York: Routledge, 2007. Fuller, Randall. Emerson’s Ghosts: Literature, Politics, and the Making of Americanists. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. Gabriel, Daniel. Hart Crane and the Modernist Epic: Canon and Genre Formation in Crane, Pound, Eliot, and Williams. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. Gallagher, Mark. Action Figures: Men, Action Films, and Contemporary Adventure Narratives. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. Gardaphe, Fred L. From Wiseguys to Wise Men: The Gangster and Italian American Masculinities. New York: Routledge, 2006. Garrison, Dee. Bracing for Armageddon: Why Civil Defense Never Worked. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. Gershenson, Harold P. America the Musical, 1900–2000: A Nation’s History through Music. Greensboro, N.C.: Kindermusik International, 2007. Gilgoff, Dan. The Jesus Machine: How James Dobson, Focus on the Family, and Evangelical America Are Winning the Culture War. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2007. Gladchuk, John S. Hollywood and Anticommunism: HUAC and the Evolution of the Red Menace, 1935–1950. New York: Routledge, 2006. Glazer, Nathan. From a Cause to a Style: Modernist Architecture’s Encounter with the American City. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2007. Goldstein, Tom, ed. Killing the Messenger: 100 Years of Media Criticism. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007. Goodell, Jeff. Big Coal: The Dirty Secret behind America’s Energy Future. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006. Goodman, John. The Kennedy Mystique: Creating Camelot. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic, 2006. Gordin, Michael D. Five Days in August: How World War II Became a Nuclear War. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2007. Gourley, Catherine. Rosie and Mrs. America: Perceptions of Women in the 1930s and 1940s. Minneapolis: Twenty-First Century Books, 2008. ———. Gidgets and Amazons: Perceptions of Women in the 1950s and 1960s. Minneapolis: Twenty-First Century Books, 2008. Greenburg, Jan C. Supreme Conflict: The Inside Story of the Struggle for Control of the United States Supreme Court. New York: Penguin Press, 2007. Greene, Benjamin P. Eisenhower, Science Advice, and the Nuclear Test-Ban Debate, 1945–1963. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2007. Gurvis, Sandra. Where Have All the Flower Children Gone? Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2006. Hacker, Barton C. American Military Technology: The Life Story of a Technology. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2006. Harding, James M., and Cindy Rosenthal, eds. Restaging the Sixties: Radical Theaters and Their Legacies. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2007. Hargittai, Istvan. The Martians of Science: Five Physicists Who Changed the Twentieth Century. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.

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Chronology of American History Hark, Ina R., ed. American Cinema of the 1930s: Themes and Variations. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2007. Hart, Gary. The Shield and the Cloak: The Security of the Commons. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. Hatch, Alden. General George Patton: Old Blood and Guts. New York: Sterling, 2006. Haynes, John E. Early Cold War Spies: The Espionage Trials That Shaped American Politics. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Heidler, David S., and Jeanne T. Heidler, eds. Civilians and War: The United States from 1865. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2007. Heng, Yee-Kuang. War as Risk Management: Strategy and Conflict in an Age of Globalized Risks. New York: Routledge, 2006. Hill, Laban C. America Dreaming: How the 60’s Changed America. New York: Little, Brown, and Co., 2007. Himmelfarb, Milton. Jews and Gentiles. New York: Encounter Books, 2007. Hine, Thomas. The Great Funk: Falling Apart and Coming Together (on a shag rug) in the Seventies. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2007. Holzimmer, Kevin C. General Walter Krueger: Unsung Hero of the Pacific War. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2007. Horn, Gerd-Rainer. The Spirit of ’68: Rebellion in Western Europe and North America, 1956–1976. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. Houchin, Roy F. U.S. Hypersonic Research and Development: The Rise and Fall of Dyna-Soar, 1944–1963. New York: Routledge, 2006. Hudson, David L. The Rehnquist Court: Understanding Its Impact and Legacy. Westport, Conn.: Praeger Publishers, 2007. Hunt, Michael H. The American Ascendancy: How the United States Gained and Wielded Global Dominance. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2007. Hutchinson, George, ed. The Cambridge Companion to the Harlem Renaissance. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Hybel, Alex R. The Bush Administrations and Saddam Hussein: Deciding on Conflict. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. Igo, Sarah E. The Averaged American: Surveys, Citizens, and the Making of a Mass Public. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2007. Isenstadt, Sandy. The Modern American House: Spaciousness and Middle-Class Identity. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Ives, Christopher K. U.S. Special Forces and Counterinsurgency in Vietnam: Military Innovation and Institutional Failure. New York: Routledge, 2007. Jackson, Kathi. They Called Them Angels: American Military Nurses of World War II. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2006. Jackson, Robert J. Temptations of Power: The United States in Global Politics after 9/11. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. Jacobson, Steve. Carrying Jackie’s Torch: The Players Who Integrated Baseball— and America. Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 2007. Jeansonne, Glen, and David Luhrssen. A Time of Paradox: America from the Cold War to the Third Millennium, 1945–Present. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007.

Bibliography Jenkinson, Bill. The Year Babe Ruth Hit 104 Home Runs: Recrowning Baseball’s Greatest Slugger. New York: Carroll & Graf, 207. Jenness, David. Classic American Popular Song: The Second Half-Century, 1950–2000. New York: Routledge, 2006. Johnson, Robert D. Congress and the Cold War. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Joseph, Peniel E. Waiting ’til the Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power in America. New York: Henry Holt, 2006. Joseph, Philip. American Literary Regionalism in a Global Age. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2007. Judis, John B. The Folly of Empire: What George W. Bush Could Learn from Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. Kagan, Frederick W. Finding the Target: The Transformation of American Military Policy. New York: Encounter Books, 2006. Kalaidjian, Walter B. The Edge of Modernism: American Poetry and the Traumatic Past. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006. Kammen, Michael G. Visual Shock: A History of Art Controversies in American Culture. New York: Knopf, 2006. Kashmeri, Sarwar A. America and Europe after 9/11 and Iraq: The Great Divide. Westport, Conn.: Praeger Security International, 2006. King, John A., and John R. Vile, eds. Presidents from Eisenhower through Johnson, 1953–1969: Debating the Issues in Pro and Con Primary Documents. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2006. Kinzer, Stephen. Overthrow: America’s Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq. New York: Times Books/Henry Holt, 2006. Klarman, Michael J. Brown v. Board of Education and the Civil Rights Movement. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. Koloko, Gabriel. The Age of War: The United States Confronts the World. Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2006. Kort, Michael. The Columbia Guide to Hiroshima and the Bomb. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007. Krebs, Ronald R. Fighting for Rights: Military Service and the Politics of Citizenship. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2006. Krensky, Stephen. Comic Book Century: The History of American Comic Books. Minneapolis: Twenty-First Century Books, 2008. Kridel, Craig A. Stories of the Eight-Year Study: Reexamining Secondary Education in America. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2007. Krige, John. American Hegemony and the Postwar Reconstruction of Science in Europe. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2006. Kurtz, Michael L. The JFK Assassination Debates: Lone Gunman versus Conspiracy. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2006. Ladenson, Elizabeth. Dirt for Art’s Sake: Books on Trial from Madame Bovary to Lolita. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2007. Langston, Thomas S. The Cold War Presidency: A Documentary History. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 2006. Layne, Christopher. The Peace of Illusions: American Grand Strategy from 1940 to the Present. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2006.

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Chronology of American History ———. American Empire: A Debate. New York: Routledge, 2006. Lee, R. Alton. From Snake Oil to Medicine: Pioneering Public Health. Westport, Conn.: Praeger Publishers, 2007. Lewis, Adrian R. The American Culture of War: The History of U. S. Military Force from World War II to Operation Iraqi Freedom. New York: Routledge, 2006. Lewis, Hal M. From Sanctuary to Boardroom: A Jewish Approach to Leadership. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006. Lind, Michael. The American Way of Strategy. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. Lindsey, Duncan. The Future of Children: Wealth, Poverty, and Opportunity in America. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. Lindvall, Terry. Sanctuary Cinema: Origins of the Christian Film Industry. New York: New York University Press, 2007. Lock-Pullan, Richard. U.S. Intervention Policy and Army Innovation: From Vietnam to Iraq. New York: Routledge, 2006. Love, Barbara J., ed. Feminists Who Changed America, 1963–1975. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2006. Lundin, Roger, ed. There before Us: Religion and American Literature, from Emerson to Eliot. Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans, 2006. Lustick, Ian. Trapped in the War on Terror. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006. Mahar, Karen W. Engendering Hollywood: Women Filmmakers in Early Hollywood. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006. Maier, Charles S. Among Empires: American Ascendancy and Its Predecessors. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2006. Marable, Manning. Race, Reform, and Rebellion: The Second Reconstruction and Beyond in Black America, 1945–2006. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2007. Marcus, Alan I. The Future Is Now: Science and Technology Policy in America since 1950. Amherst, N.Y.: Humanity Books, 2006. Marrett, George J. Testing Death: Hughes Aircraft Test Pilots and Cold War Weaponry. Westport, Conn.: Praeger Security International, 2006. Martel, William C. Victory in War: Foundations of Modern Military Policy. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Mathis, Nancy. Storm Warning: The Story of a Killer Tornado. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2007. May, Ernest R., and Philip D. Zelikow, eds. Dealing with Dictators: Dilemmas of U.S. Diplomacy and Intelligence Analysis, 1945–1990. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2006. Mayer, Jeremy D. American Media Politics in Transition. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2008. MacDonald, Scott B., and Jane E. Hughes. Separating Fools from Their Money: A History of American Financial Scandals. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers, 2007. MacFarland, Scott. The Hippie Narrative: A Literary Perspective on the Counterculture. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2007.

Bibliography McDonald, Gail. American Literature and Culture, 1900–1960. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishers, 2006. McManus, John C. Alamo in the Ardennes: The Untold Story of the American Soldiers Who Made the Defense of Bastogne Possible. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley, 2007. McPherson, James B. Journalism at the End of the American Century, 1965– Present. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2006. Miller, Glenn T. Piety and Profession: American Protestant Theological Education, 1870–1970. Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans, 2007. Miller, Mark J., and Boyka Stefanova, eds. The War on Terror in Comparative Perspective: U.S. Security and Foreign Policy after 9/11. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. Miscamble, Wilson D. From Roosevelt to Truman: Potsdam, Hiroshima, and the Cold War. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Murphy, Cait. Crazy ’08: How a Cast of Cranks, Rogues, and Magnates Created the Greatest Year in Baseball History. New York: Smithsonian/Collins, 2007. Murray, Rolland. Our Living Manhood: Literature, Black Power, and Masculine Ideology. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007. Neff, Emily B. The Modern West: American Landscapes, 1890–1950. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2006. Newitz, Annalee. Pretend We’re Dead: Capitalist Monsters in American Pop Culture. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2006. Newpower, Anthony. Iron Men and Tin Fish: The Race to Build a Better Torpedo during World War II. Westport, Conn.: Praeger Security International, 2006. Nichols, John, and Tony Rennell. Tail-End Charlies: The Last Battles of the Bomber War, 1944–45. New York: T. Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press, 2006. O’Hanlon, Michael E. A War Like No Other: The Truth about China’s Challenge to America. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley, 2007. O’Rourke, Ronald. The Impact of Chinese Naval Modernization on the Future of the United States Navy. New York: Nova Science Publishers, 2006. Palmer, Michael. The Last Crusade: Americanism and the Islamic Reformation. Washington, D.C.: Potomac Books, 2006. Patten, Chris. Cousins and Strangers: America, Britain, and Europe in a New Century. New York: Times Books, 2006. Pavia, Peter. The Cuba Project: Castro, Kennedy, Dirty Business, Double Dealing, and the FBI’s Tamale Squad. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. Pennock, Pamela E. Advertising Sin and Sickness: The Politics of Alcohol and Tobacco Marketing, 1950–1990. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2007. Perret, Geoffrey. Commander in Chief: How Truman, Johnson, and Bush Turned Presidential Power into a Threat to America’s Future. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2007. Perrin, Andrew J. Citizen Speak: The Democratic Imagination in American Life. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006. Perry, Mark. Partners in Command: George Marshall and Dwight Eisenhower in War and Peace. New York: Penguin Press, 2007.

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Chronology of American History Phillips, Sarah T. This Land, This Nation: Conservation, Rural America, and the New Deal. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Piehl, Mel. Breaking Bread: The Catholic Worker and the Origin of Catholic Radicalism in America. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2006. Podolsky, Scott H. Pneumonia before Antibiotics: Therapeutic Evolution and Evaluation in Twentieth-Century America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006. Prince, Stephen, ed. American Cinema of the 1980s: Themes and Variations. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2007. Quirk, Tom, and Gary Scharnhorst, eds. American History through Literature, 1870–1920. Detroit: Charles Scribner’s Sons/Thomson Gale, 2006. Reich, Steve A., ed. Encyclopedia of the Great Black Migration. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2006. Reisler, Jim. A Great Day in Cooperstown: The Improbable Birth of Baseball’s Hall of Fame. New York: Carroll and Graf Publishers, 2006. Renshon, Jonathan. Why Leaders Chose War: The Psychology of Prevention. Westport, Conn.: Praeger Security International, 2006. Rid, Thomas. War and Media Operations: The U.S. Military and the Press from Vietnam to Iraq. New York: Routledge, 2007. Roberts, Gene. The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation. New York: Knopf, 2006. Rodrigues, Rick. Aircraft Markings of the Strategic Air Command, 1946–1953. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2006. Rodriguez, Robert. The 1950’s Most Wanted: The Top 10 Book of Rock & Roll Rebels, Cold War Crises, and All-American Oddities. Washington, D.C.: Potomac Books, 2006. Ronson, Jon. The Men Who Stare at Goats. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2006. Ross, William G. The Chief Justiceship of Charles Evans Hughes, 1930–1941. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2007. Sagert, Kelly B. The 1970s. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2007. Sanchez, Peter M. Panama Lost?: U. S. Hegemony, Democracy, and the Canal. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2007. Sarkesian, Sam C. The U.S. Military Profession in the Twenty-first Century: War, Peace, and Politics. New York: Routlege, 2006. Savage, Jon. Teenage: The Creation of Youth Culture. New York: Viking, 2007. Schaap, Jeremy. Triumph: The Untold Story of Jesse Owens and Hitler’s Olympics. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2007. Schaller, Michael. Right Turn: American Life in the Reagan-Bush Era, 1980– 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. Schulman, Bruce J. Lyndon B. Johnson and American Liberalism: A Brief Biography with Documents. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. Schwab, Orrin. A Clash of Cultures: Civil-Military Relations during the Vietnam War. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2006. Schweikart, Larry. America’s Victories: Why the U.S. Wins Wars and Will Win the War on Terror. New York: Sentinel, 2006. Scott, Felicity D. E. Architecture or Techno-Utopia: Politics after Modernism. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2007.

Bibliography Seib, Philip M. Broadcasts from the Blitz: How Edward R. Murrow Helped Lead America into War. Washington, D.C.: Potomac Books, 2006. Shapiro, Ian. Containment: Rebuilding a Strategy against Global Terror. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2007. Shearer, Benjamin F., ed. Home Front Heroes: A Biographical Dictionary of Americans during Wartime. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2006. Shindler, Jason, ed. The Poem That Changed America: ‘Howl’ Fifty Years Later. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2006. Short, John R. Alabaster Cities: Urban U.S. since 1950. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 2006. Silver, Harold. An Educational War on Poverty: American and British PolicyMaking, 1960–1980. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Silverstone, Paul H. The Navy of World War II, 1922–1946. New York: Routledge, 2007. Silverstone, Scott A. Preventative War and American Democracy. New York: Routledge, 2006. Simon, Jonathan. Governing through Crime: How the War on Crime Transformed American Democracy and Created a Culture of Fear. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. Smith, Derek D. Deferring America: Rogue States and the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Smith, Jason S. Building New Deal Liberalism: The Political Economy of Public Works, 1933–1956. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Soundhaus, Lawrence, and A. James Fuller, eds. America, War, and Power: Defining the State, 1775–2005. New York: Routledge, 2007. Starkey, David. Living Blue in Red States. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2007. Stevenson, Charles A. Warriors and Politicians: U.S. Civil-Military Relations under Stress. New York: Routledge, 2006. Stone, Gary. Elites for Peace: The Senate and the Vietnam War, 1964–1968. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2007. Taking Sides. Clashing Views on Controversial Issues in 20th Century American History. Dubuque, Ia.: McGraw-Hill/Dushkin, 2006. Teel, Leonard R. The Public Press, 1900–1945: The History of American Journalism. Westport, Conn.: Praeger Publishers, 2006. Thorpe, Charles. Oppenheimer: The Tragic Intellect. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006. Tilman, Barret. LeMay. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. Tomes, U. S. Defense Strategy from Vietnam to Operation Iraqi Freedom: Military Innovation and the New American Way of War, 1973–2003. New York: Routledge, 2006. Triece, Mary E. On the Picket Line; Strategies of Working-Class Women during the Depression. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2006. Trulove, James G. The Modern Townhouse. New York: Collins Design, 2006. Turner, Fred. From Counterculture to Cyberculture: Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Network, and the Rise of Digital Utopianism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006.

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Chronology of American History Turner, Michael. Historical Dictionary of United States Intelligence. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2006. Urbanski, Heather. Plagues, Apocalypses, and Bug-Eyed Monsters: How Speculative Fiction Shows Us Our Nightmares. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2007. Varnedoe, Kirk. Pictures of Nothing: Abstract Art since Pollock. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2006. Victor, George. The Pearl Harbor Myth: Rethinking the Unthinkable. Washington, D.C.: Potomac Books, 2007. Vogel, Steve. Pentagon: The Untold Story behind the Creation of the Symbol of American Might. New York: Random House, 2007. Wald, Kenneth D., and Allison Calhoun-Brown. Religion and Politics in the United States. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007. Wally, David. Teenage Nervous Breakdown: Music and Politics in the Post-Elvis Age. New York: Routledge, 2006. Ward, John W., and Christian Warren. Silent Victories: The History and Practice of Public Health in Twentieth-Century America. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. Waters, Mary, Reed Ueda, and Helen B. Marrow. The New Americans: A Guide to Immigration since 1965. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2007. Weaver, David H. The American Journalist in the 21st Century: U.S. News People at the Dawn of a New Millennium. Mahwah, N.J.: Erlbaum Associates, 2007. Weingarten, Rachel C. Hello, Gorgeous!: Beauty Products in America, 40s–60s. Portland, Ore.: Collector’s Press, 2006. Welshman, John. Underclass: A History of the Excluded, 1880–2000. New York: Hambledon Continuum, 2006. Werner, Craig H. A Change Is Gonna Come: Music, Race, and the Soul of America. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2006. Westwick, Peter J. Into the Black: JPL and the American Space Program, 1976– 2004. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2007. Whitaker, Jan. Service and Style: How the American Department Store Fashioned the Middle Class. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2006. Wiecek, William M. The Birth of the Modern Constitution: The United States Supreme Court, 1941–1953. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Wilkins, Amy C. Wannabes, Goths, and Christians: The Boundaries of Sex, Style, and Status. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008. Winters, Kathleen C. Anne Morrow Lindbergh: First Lady of the Air. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. Wishnevsky, Stephen T. Courtney Hicks Hodges: From Private to Four-Star General in the United States Army. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2006. Wood, Edward W. Worshiping the Myths of World War II: Reflections on America’s Dedication to War. Washington, D.C.: Potomac Books, 2006. Woodward, J. David. The America That Reagan Built. Westport, Conn.: Praeger Publishers, 2006. Worley, D. Robert. Shaping U.S. Military Forces: Revolution or Relevance in a Post–Cold War World. Westport, Conn.: Praeger Security International, 2006.

Bibliography Wukovits, John F. Eisenhower. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. Yenne, Bill. The American Aircraft Factory in World War II. St. Paul, Minn.: MBI Publishing Co., 2006. Zeitz, Joshua. White Ethnic New York: Jews, Catholics, and the Shaping of Postwar Politics. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2007. Zelizer, Julian E. On Capitol Hill: The Struggle to Reform Congress and Its Consequences, 1948–2000. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Zimring, Franklin E. The Great American Crime Decline. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. Zinni, Anthony C. The Battle for Peace: A Frontline Vision of America’s Power and Purpose. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.

2473

Index PPPPPPPPPPPPPPP Boldface numbers indicate major treatment of a topic.

A Abbas, Mahmoud 2404, 2436 ABC Arbitration Commission 1662, 1663 Abdel-­Rahman, Omar 2334, 2349, 2352 Abdullah (crown prince of Saudi Arabia) 2403 Abenaki Indians 127, 146, 148, 151, 166, 168, 174, 180, 181, 188, 196 Abercrombie, James 258–262 Abercrombie, Robert 436, 499, 514 Abizaid, John 2419 Ableman v. Booth 934 abolitionism 122, 136, 161, 169, 237, 242, 258, 317, 321, 322, 337, 341, 363, 372, 375, 466, 530, 552, 606, 722, 731, 781, 840, 841, 847, 896, 900, 901, 903, 907, 911, 921, 924, 925, 937–938 abortion pill 2332, 2357 abortion rights 2298, 2324, 2392 Abraham Lincoln, USS 2396 Abramoff, Jack 2410–2412, 2417 Abrams, Creighton 2155, 2156 Abrams, Elliott 2318 Abrams v. United States 1750 Abscam 2235, 2242

Abu Ghraib prison 2398 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences 1632, 1845 Acadia 12, 55, 91 Acadians 234, 251, 252, 288 Acheson, Dean 1975, 1991, 1992, 2012, 2016 Achille Lauro (ship) 2270 Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). See HIV/ AIDS Act for the Relief of Mission Indians 1425 Act of Algeciras 1577, 1582 Adams, Abigail 338, 645 Adams, Charles F. 959, 966– 968, 1024, 1031, 1064, 1082, 1087, 1141, 1158 Adams, Henry Brooke 1330, 1331, 1351, 1584, 1719, 1748 Adams, John 634 and Continental army 350 birth of 212 and Boston Massacre 314, 315 and Second Continental Congress 364, 384, 385, 387, 396, 398, 399, 427 and Continental navy 368 John Singleton Copley and 325 death of 754 and Declaration of In­de­pen­ dence 387, 390, 391

as diplomat 431, 435, 445, 457, 520, 521, 524, 533, 535, 539, 541, 542, 544, 626 election of 1796 632 election of 1800 303 William Henry Harrison and 834 Esek Hopkins and 365 and Thomas Jefferson 649 and Model Treaty 393 as president 603, 633, 636, 640, 643–647 and Stamp Act 290 and Treaty of Paris 426, 461, 543 and U.S. peace commission 504 as vice president 602, 617, 618 Joseph Warren and 320 and Mercy Otis Warren 338 and George Washington 351 Adams, John Quincy 299, 325, 435, 624, 678, 696, 708, 721, 725, 728, 732, 742, 743, 746– 749, 750, 752, 753, 756, 757, 759, 762, 765, 773, 776, 781, 784, 791, 810, 815, 819, 820, 835, 838, 854, 881, 1331, 2296 Adams, Samuel 276, 302, 303, 304, 305, 309, 310, 314, 315, 319, 320, 324, 325, 330, 341, 342, 351, 449, 558, 563

2475

2476  Chronology of American History Adams, Sherman 2071, 2073 Adams-­Onís Treaty 728, 734, 750 Adarand Constructors v. Pena 2245 Addams, Jane 1407–1408, 1614, 1616, 1858 Addyston Pipe & Steel Co. v. United States 1517 Aden, Yemen 2377 Adkins v. Children’s Hospital 1809 Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The (Twain) 1243, 1370 Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The (Twain) 1243, 1294 affirmative action 2298, 2300, 2347 Af­ghan­i­stan 2230, 2234, 2235, 2237, 2241, 2287, 2317, 2366, 2380–2384, 2390–2392, 2399, 2405, 2415, 2416, 2425, 2426, 2428, 2435, 2438 AFL-­CIO 2019, 2049, 2059, 2062, 2063, 2082, 2091, 2145, 2157, 2206–2208, 2234, 2283, 2359. See also American Fed-­ eration of Labor (AFL) Africa 2084, 2365 African Americans in 1600s 30, 38, 42, 68–70, 78, 91, 96, 133, 152, 156 in 1700s (pre–Revolution-­ ary War) 169, 174, 176, 178–180, 182–183, 186, 189–191, 195, 196, 199, 200, 204, 217, 223, 233, 236, 245, 246, 263, 278, 297, 298–299 in Revolutionary War 313, 314, 356, 362–364, 366, 372, 374, 376, 379, 392, 525 in 1700s (post–Revolution-­ ary War) 528, 535, 537, 551, 552, 559–562, 611, 613, 627, 631, 637

in early–mid-­1800s (pre–Civil War) 642, 663, 718, 731, 732, 739, 740, 757, 776, 777, 781, 782, 788, 791, 796, 797, 799, 802, 816, 822, 823, 883, 896, 897, 901, 916, 920, 937–938 during Civil War 964, 974, 980, 982, 990, 998, 1012, 1030, 1031, 1034, 1035, 1041, 1042, 1044, 1046, 1055–1058, 1068, 1072, 1072, 1074, 1083, 1085, 1096–1098, 1103, 1106, 1115, 1117, 1123, 1128, 1129, 1131, 1135, 1139, 1142, 1144, 1146–1147, 1150, 1157 during Reconstruction 1161, 1162, 1197, 1200, 1201, 1203–1206, 1208–1211, 1214, 1215, 1217, 1218, 1222, 1224, 1226, 1228– 1230, 1233, 1234, 1236, 1239, 1250, 1251, 1253, 1255–1258, 1266, 1269, 1271, 1273, 1283, 1286, 1287, 1300, 1307, 1308, 1770m late 1800s 1312, 1327, 1332, 1336, 1344, 1345, 1347, 1357, 1362, 1366, 1398, 1409, 1414, 1421, 1423, 1430, 1431, 1437, 1465, 1467, 1472, 1482, 1493, 1497, 1499, 1500, 1504, 1507, 1775m in early 20th century (pre–World War I) 1533, 1539, 1557, 1569, 1579, 1580, 1586, 1600, 1604, 1606, 1608, 1609, 1613, 1622, 1634, 1641, 1643, 1675, 1775m, 2441m in World War I 1707, 1715, 1718, 1720, 1722, 1723, 1740

between World War I and WWII 1764, 1795, 1796, 1815, 1816, 1830, 1856, 1863, 1883, 1889, 1908 during World War II era 1947, 1952, 1961 in 1950s 2000, 2077, 2078 in 1960s 2109, 2111, 2113, 2116, 2118–2119, 2137, 2145, 2148–2151, 2156, 2166 in 1970s 2171, 2187, 2192 in 1980s 2237, 2242, 2247, 2253, 2257, 2258, 2263, 2272, 2286, 2291, 2293, 2296, 2299–2301 in 1990s 2303, 2306, 2307, 2312, 2316, 2318, 2322, 2326, 2332–2334, 2347, 2349, 2350, 2360, 2361 in 21st century 2376, 2384, 2398, 2399, 2424, 2429 African Methodist Episcopal Church 560, 704, 1074 Agassi, Andre 2370, 2416 Agawam Indians 120 Age Discrimination in Employ-­ ment Act (1967) 2393 Agee, James 2005, 2056, 2070 Agent Orange 2312 Agnew, Spiro T. 2157, 2184, 2192, 2199 Agostini v. Felton 2362 Agricultural Act (1956) 2053 Agricultural Act (1964) 2124 Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) 1868, 1883, 1885, 1898 Agricultural Appropriations Act (1905) 1568 Agricultural Marketing Act (1929) 1846 agricultural subsidies 2031, 2328 agricultural surpluses 1828, 1846 agriculture 1, 218, 545–551, 657, 683, 684, 717, 728, 936, 990, 1857, 1868, 1869, 1872, 1875,

Index  2477 1879, 1897, 2220, 2225, 2272, 2275, 2450m Agriculture, U.S. Department of 1016, 1372, 1388, 1409, 2168, 2275 Aguinaldo, Emilio 1494, 1496, 1498, 1501, 1507, 1510–1512, 1524, 1527–1528, 1534 Ahantchuyuk Indians 1378 Ahmadinejad, Mahmoud 2434 AIDS. See HIV/AIDS Aiken, John W. 1861, 1886 Ainsworth, Frederick C. 1491, 1634 Air Force, U.S. 1877, 2221, 2229 airlines 2103, 2134, 2204, 2212, 2224, 2248, 2284, 2288, 2408. See also specific airlines, e.g.: TWA Airlines airplane hijackings 2099, 2100, 2381 airport security 2358 Alabama 7, 696, 717, 730, 792, 949, 955, 958, 1015, 1037, 1069, 1087, 1147–1150, 1152, 1159, 1161, 1228, 2086 Alabama, CSS 1031, 1035, 1044, 1046, 1056, 1065, 1116 Alabama Territory 705, 720 Alamance, Battle of 317 Alamo 702, 806, 1362 Alamo, Battle of the 1176m Alaska 534, 638, 667, 735, 742, 1222, 1484, 1503, 1511–1512, 1516, 1523, 1550, 1641, 2046, 2071, 2075, 2089, 2123, 2297, 2300, 2313, 2325, 2340, 2341 Alaska National Wildlife Refuge 2388 Alaska pipeline 2194, 2223 Albany, New York 25, 103, 152, 155, 162, 633 Albany Congress 243, 244 Albany Plan 183, 244 Albany Regency 735, 749 Albee, Edward 2339

Albemarle, CSS 1106, 1108, 1131–1132 Albemarle, North Carolina 89, 101, 157 Albert, Heinrich F. 1677, 1679 Albright, Madeleine 2360 Albrights. See Evangelical Asso-­ ciation alcohol 612, 616, 898, 900, 1943 Alcott, Bronson 759, 848, 906 Alcott, Louisa May 1229, 1230, 1256 Alcott, William A. 781, 803 Aldrich, Thomas Bailey 1247, 1271 Aleutian Islands 1934, 1946, 1948 Alexander, James 211, 213 Alexander, William 39, 47, 376, 395, 425, 439, 458, 464 Alexander I (czar of Rus­sia) 692, 696, 735, 739, 742 Alger, Horatio 1212, 1213, 1233, 1409 Alger, Russell A. 1478, 1514 Algiers 541, 545, 628, 644, 659, 714 Algonquian Indians 26, 57 Algren, Nelson 1991, 1999 Alibamon Indians 181 Alien and Sedition Act 634, 637, 644, 645 Alien Land Act (1913). See Webb Alien Land Act Alien Registration Act. See Smith Act (1940) Alien Tort Claims Act (1789) 2394 Alito, Samuel 2410 Allegheny Mountains 262, 992, 1099 Allen, Ethan 344, 346–348, 357, 361 Allen, Richard 237, 270, 322, 553, 560, 561, 625, 704, 717

Alliance (ship) 503, 523, 526, 541 Alliance for Progress 2096, 2098, 2099 allotment 1582, 1617, 1705 Alltoona Pass, Battle of 1129 Almouchiquois Indians 14 Altgeld, John Peter 1447–1448, 1460, 1821 Altman, Robert A. 2334 Amalgamated Clothing and Tex-­ tile Workers 2345 Amazon.com 2367 Amelia Court ­House, Virginia 1150, 1151 America (yacht) 899, 927 American Airlines 2075, 2096, 2337, 2351, 2382 American ­Anti-­Slavery Society 792, 799, 801 American Bar Association 233, 1320, 2317 American Bible Society 675, 716, 992 American Board of Commission-­ ers for Foreign Missions 682, 811 American Board of Customs Commissioners 299, 300 American Civil Liberties ­Union (ACLU) 1574, 2311 American Colonization Society 718, 788 American Communications Association v. Douds 2000 American Communist Party 1989, 2038, 2058 American Dictionary of the En­glish Language (Webster) 608, 760 American Equal Rights Associa-­ tion 1205, 1206, 1233, 1234 American Expeditionary Force (AEF) 1426, 1649, 1707, 1709–1711, 1714, 1719, 1721, 1724, 1726, 1728, 1737, 1744, 1746–1748, 1750, 1752

2478  Chronology of American History American Federation of Labor (AFL) 1350, 1390, 1417, 1454, 1568, 1587, 1799, 1823, 1869, 1870, 1884, 1902, 1910, 1923, 1927, 1930, 1946, 1972, 1994, 2018, 2029, 2042, 2049, 2208 American Fur Company 674, 776 American Indians in 1600s 5, 6, 10, 12, 22, 53, 54, 64, 152 in 1700s 176, 191, 194, 196, 201, 204, 210, 234, 239, 245, 246, 291, 311, 385, 515, 522, 527, 538, 610, 623, 625 in early–mid-­1800s 653– 656, 660, 678, 679, 688, 691, 692, 696, 708, 744, 745, 749, 759, 761, 781, 785, 786, 795, 798, 818, 831, 1175m during Civil War 1063, 1083, 1086, 1134 late 1800s 1160, 1174m, 1197, 1204, 1209, 1210, 1217–1218, 1222, 1223– 1224, 1227, 1229, 1231, 1233, 1256, 1270, 1275, 1288, 1289, 1298, 1308, 1314, 1318, 1321–1322, 1324–1325, 1327, 1328, 1332, 1333, 1339, 1346–1347, 1428, 1455, 1488–1489, 1778m early–mid-­1900s 1532, 1540, 1549, 1552, 1578, 1720, 1740 1960s–2004 2168, 2177, 2186, 2200, 2227, 2275, 2302, 2314, 2369, 2394 cessions (through 1850) 1175m population loss (1500–1700) 572m prior to Eu­ro­pe­an coloniza-­ tion 571m

relocation of Eastern Indi-­ ans 1174m territory losses (1850–1890) 1778m American Legion 1750, 1756 American Lutheran Church 1853, 1854, 2080 American Magazine, The 222, 258 American Medical Association 876, 1943 American Party 905, 923, 925, 926, 1404 American Peace Society 757, 812, 969 American Philosophical Society 200, 307 American Railway ­Union (ARU) 1447, 1459–1461, 1480 American Red Cross 1342–1343, 1354 American Revenue Act. See Sugar Act American Revolution. See Revo-­ lutionary War “American Scholar, The” (Emer-­ son) 805, 818 American Spelling Book (Web-­ ster) 525, 608, 874 Americans with Disabilities Act 2306, 2370, 2381, 2394 American Telephone and Tele-­ graph (AT&T) 1380, 1680, 1824, 1828, 1830, 1991, 2009, 2103, 2247, 2255, 2315, 2349 American Tobacco Company 1417, 1564, 1625–1626 American Tract Society 718, 740 American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) 883, 999, 1206, 1233 America Online (AOL) 2374, 2378 America’s Cup 899, 927, 1853, 1877, 1894, 2073, 2256

Amherst, Jeffrey 258–262, 265– 267, 270, 273–275, 278, 280, 282, 284 Amistad 750, 827, 833 Amtrak 2176, 2334, 2353 Anaconda Plan 694, 965 Anderson, Orvil A. 1877, 1883 Anderson, Richard A. 1069, 1122 Anderson, Richard H. 984, 1151 Anderson, Robert 944, 945, 947, 949, 950, 956, 958, 960, 961, 966, 967, 1153 Anderson, Sherwood 1748, 1859 Anderson, William “Bloody Bill” 1127, 1128, 1131, 1202 Andersonville Prison 1101, 1104, 1161, 1343 André, John 347–348, 364, 370, 437, 451, 479, 480, 719 Andrews, James J. 1011, 1012 Andros, Edmund 107, 114–116, 130–132, 140, 142–148, 151 Anglican Church 20, 22, 33, 48, 50, 53, 58, 98, 109, 142, 143, 148, 159, 170, 171, 174–176, 179, 184–185, 188, 189, 196, 202, 251, 266, 285, 452, 519, 604, 2423, 2425, 2428 Anglicanism 289, 290 Anglo-­American Joint High Commission 1503, 1511–1512, 1555 Anglo-­Dutch War, First 87 Anglo-­Dutch War, Second 104, 106 Anglo-­Dutch War, Third 112, 114 Anglo-­Powhatan War 15, 20 Anglo-­Spanish War 200 Angola 2388 Angolan civil war 2210 Annapolis Convention 294, 517, 547 Anne (queen of Great Britain) 171, 179, 182–184, 189 Anne, Fort, New York 415, 481 Annenberg, Walter H. 2303, 2310

Index  2479 Annual Convention of People of Color 777, 796 Antarctica 732, 828, 1826, 1838, 2048, 2091, 2105 Anthony, Susan B. 884, 935, 999, 1205–1206, 1224, 1234, 1239, 1335–1336, 1370, 1458, 1551 anthrax mail attacks (2001) 2382 antiabortion movement 2310, 2315, 2322, 2330, 2340, 2344, 2345, 2367, 2388 Antiballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty (1972) 2383 Antietam, Battle of 1040, 1043, 1199, 1304 anti-­Federalists 336, 557, 564, 605, 613, 617, 721 Anti-­Masonic Party 754, 774, 779, 802, 893 antimiscegenation law 103, 176, 195, 199 antimissile defense system 2383 Antinomian heresy 61, 66, 94 Antioch College 817, 910 Anti-­Saloon League 1446, 1468, 1646 anti-­Semitism 1453, 1679 Anti-­Slavery Society 901, 919 antisubmarine warfare 1711, 1724, 1727 Apache Indians 1029, 1354– 1358, 1362, 1365, 1370, 1382, 1383, 1386–1389 Apache Pass, Battle of 1029 Apalachee Indians 175 Apalachicola, Fort 717, 723 Apollo space program 2090, 2122, 2145, 2146, 2164, 2165, 2170 Apple, Inc. 2422 Appomattox Court ­House (Court­house), Virginia 1151– 1152, 1152, 1153 Arafat, Yasir 2334, 2376 Arbor Day 1265, 1607 Arbuthnot, Marriot 382, 458, 463, 465, 467, 468, 473, 497

Archer Daniels Midland Com-­ pany 2366 Arctic 892, 908 Argall, Samuel 19, 21, 25, 27, 28, 30 Argentina 740, 1952 Argonne Forest 1741–1743 Aristide, ­Jean-­Bertrand 2342 Arizona 1635, 1642, 2287 Arizona Territory 959, 992 Arkansas 662, 675, 810, 965, 967, 1004, 1048, 1049, 1081, 1088, 1098, 1103, 1105–1107, 1154, 1228, 1279, 2045, 2062, 2073, 2079, 2331, 2338, 2340, 2370 Arkansas, CSS 1029, 1030, 1032 Arkansas Territory 726, 728, 804 Armas, Carlos Castillo 2036, 2037, 2040 Armitage, Richard 2416 Armstrong, John 255, 526, 683, 695, 699, 704, 707, 709, 721 Armstrong, Neil 2139, 2163, 2164–2165 Army, U.S. 532–533, 540, 543, 545, 548, 550, 557, 566, 604, 688, 705–707, 714, 723, 731, 755, 786, 790, 808, 924, 928, 965, 1061, 1936 Army Appropriations Act (1853) 906 Army Appropriations Act (1879) 1324, 1326 Army Appropriations Act (1901) 1534 Army Reor­ga­ni­za­tion Act (1901) 1533 Army Reor­ga­ni­za­tion Act (1920) 1761 Army Reor­ga­ni­za­tion Bill (1916) 1533 Army Tank Corps 1721, 1724, 1739 Army War College 1523, 1533, 1539

Arnold, Benedict 344, 346, 347–348, 359, 361–363, 365, 367, 372, 374, 381, 385–389, 395, 399–400, 408, 410, 417, 419–421, 423, 437–439, 448, 451–452, 463, 464, 476, 479, 480, 485, 487–490, 497–501, 503, 509, 510 Arnold, Henry Harley “Hap” 1638, 1831, 1876–1877, 1932, 1960, 2026 Arnold, Samuel 623, 1159 Aroostook, Maine 826, 827 Artaquette, Pierre d’ 213–215 Arthur, Chester A. 775, 1307, 1320, 1333, 1334–1335, 1339, 1341, 1343, 1347–1348, 1349, 1354, 1355, 1357, 1364, 1367, 1370, 1375, 1379, 1390, 1606 Arthur Anderson 2385 Articles of Confederation 287, 294, 303, 336, 356, 377, 387, 395, 426, 428, 439, 442, 446, 454, 494, 517, 526, 536, 538, 540, 541, 544–546, 548, 552– 555, 559, 601, 626, 677 Articles of War 341, 354, 364, 398 Arver v. United States 1720 Asbury, Francis 537, 599 Asgill, Charles 520, 521 Ashburton, Baron 840, 842 Ashby, Turner 1008, 1017, 1019, 1021 Ashcan School 1591, 1835 Ashcroft, John 2378, 2391 Ashe, Arthur 2322 Ashe, John 379, 449, 450 Ashley, James M. 1138, 1214 Ashley, William Henry 737, 738, 739 Asia Pacific Economic Coopera-­ tion (APEC) 2419 Aspin, Les 2337 assisted suicide 2305, 2353, 2354, 2368, 2370

2480  Chronology of American History Association of Professional Flight Attendants 2337 Astaire, Fred 1755, 1815 Astor, John Jacob 531, 599, 673–674, 683, 685, 736, 739, 810, 881 Astor Place Opera ­House 872, 886 Aswan Dam 2049, 2054 Atkinson, Henry 756, 778, 785, 786, 867 Atkinson, Juliette P. 1463, 1476, 1483 Atlanta, Battle of 1119–1120, 1124, 1125 Atlanta, CSS 989, 1077 Atlanta, Georgia 1108, 1121, 1125, 1125, 1126, 1824, 2357 Atlanta Compromise 1345, 1467 Atlantic (steamer) 891, 892 Atlantic Monthly 926, 998, 999 Atlantis (space shuttle) 2297, 2301, 2305, 2314 atomic bomb 1964, 1965, 1967, 1968, 1979, 2007, 2036, 2037, 2043, 2069 atomic energy. See nuclear power Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) 1974, 1998, 2018, 2034, 2036, 2037, 2041, 2042, 2046, 2053, 2080, 2083, 2105 atomic weapons 2014, 2018, 2027, 2028, 2036, 2043 AT&T. See American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) Attakullakulla 255, 268, 269, 275, 277 Attikamek Indians 57 Attucks, Crispus 313, 314 Audubon, John James 654, 758, 760 Auger de Subercasse, Daniel d’ 176, 177, 180 Augusta, Georgia 498, 504 Augusta, Treaty of 323, 535 Austin, Moses 732, 734, 741

Austin, Stephen F. 794, 811, 812 Australia 2010, 2039, 2047 Austro-­Hungarian Empire 1717, 1744, 1745 automobiles 1326, 1451, 1463, 1475, 1507, 1516, 1518, 1554, 1558, 1563–1565, 1585, 1684, 1701, 1758, 1898 auto racing 1798, 1973, 1978, 1988, 1994, 2000, 2009, 2014, 2027, 2035, 2046, 2053, 2060, 2071, 2079, 2089 Averasboro, Battle of 1147 Averill, William W. 1062, 1085, 1126 Axis powers 1928, 1929, 1946 Aziz, Tariq 2311 AZT (azidothymidine) 2280, 2288

B Babbit, Bruce 2371 Babcock, Orville E. 1245, 1249, 1288, 1296 Bacon, Nathaniel 123, 124, 124–125, 126, 127 Bacon, Robert 1604, 1607 Bacon’s Rebellion 128, 128–129 Bad Ax, Battle of 778, 785, 786 Badoglio, Marshal 1947, 1948 Baekeland, Leo H. 1444, 1603 Bagaduce Peninsula, Maine 453, 456 Bailey, Joseph 1107, 1110, 1111 Bainbridge, William 638, 644, 657, 664, 695 Baker, George 1749, 1950 Baker, James 2266, 2311, 2325 Baker, Newton D. 1687–1688, 1702, 1709, 1715–1716, 1729, 1732, 1737, 1754 Baker v. Carr 2105 Bakker, Jim 2280, 2300 Balchen, Bernt 1826, 1848 ballistic missiles 2050, 2060, 2065, 2093

Baltic (steamer) 960, 966 Baltimore, Battle of 710 Baltimore, Lord. See Calvert, George (first Baron Baltimore) Baltimore, Mary­land 202, 404, 966, 1076 Baltimore and Ohio Railroad 755, 762, 766, 772, 774, 968, 1313 Bancroft, George 755, 794 BankAmerica Corporation 2316 banking 718, 741, 747, 1060– 1061, 1145, 1847, 1857, 1866, 1867, 2200, 2228, 2233, 2249, 2252, 2263, 2267, 2291, 2342, 2391, 2394, 2405, 2419 Bank of America 2391, 2405 Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) 2316, 2334 Bank of New En­gland 2310 Bank of North America 516, 517, 537, 550 Bank of the United States 609, 611–614, 646, 684, 685, 713, 715, 716, 718–720, 728, 740, 741, 763, 765, 766, 775, 781– 785, 789, 791–793, 795, 806, 834, 837, 858 Bank of the United States, Sec-­ ond 716, 726, 747, 769, 807 Banks, Nathaniel P. 1019, 1020, 1032, 1046, 1062, 1064–1065, 1072, 1075, 1081, 1092, 1098, 1099, 1102–1105 “Bank War” 792 Banneker, Benjamin 245, 246, 613 Bannock War 1319, 1320 Baptist Church 53, 69, 79, 93, 199, 300, 680, 848, 915 Baptists 252, 538, 783, 824, 885 Barak, Ehud 2376 Barclay, Robert H. 699, 700 Barclay, Thomas 539, 545

Index  2481 Barker, James N. 673, 688, 745 Barlow, Joel 530, 606, 630, 685, 695 Barnes & Noble 2367 Barnett, Ross R. 2109, 2111 Barney, Joshua 435, 519, 709 Barnum, Phineas T. 838, 839, 894, 1060, 1260, 1284, 1367 Barnwell, John 186, 187, 193 Barras, Jacques, comte de 509, 511 Barrett, S. M. 1310, 1575 Barron, James 659, 670, 731 Barron v. Baltimore 789 Barry, John 369, 382, 383, 445, 464, 498, 503, 523, 526 Barry, Marion 2303, 2307 Barrymore, Ethel 1564, 1683 Barrymore, John 1751, 1757 Barrymore, Lionel 1672, 1751 Bartemeyer v. Iowa 1280 Barton, Clara 1342–1343, 1343, 1354, 1494 Baruch, Bernard 1724, 1747, 1973, 1990 baseball in 1800s 868, 898, 905, 927, 933, 935, 939, 948, 994, 1054, 1097, 1137 in 1920s 1801, 1802, 1804, 1808, 1809, 1812, 1817, 1822, 1827–1829, 1833, 1838, 1847 in 1930s 1854, 1869, 1878, 1880, 1885, 1889, 1897, 1902, 1907, 1910 in 1940s 1915, 1922, 1925, 1938, 1942, 1948, 1962, 1969, 1975, 1980, 1983– 1984, 1990, 1996 in 1950s 2003, 2010, 2016, 2029, 2039, 2048, 2055, 2056, 2062, 2073, 2083 in 1960s 2092, 2100, 2109, 2117, 2127, 2135, 2142, 2150, 2158, 2166

in 1970s 2173, 2178, 2185, 2192, 2201, 2207, 2215, 2224, 2228, 2233, 2238 in 1980s 2244, 2250, 2257, 2264, 2271, 2278, 2283, 2292, 2294, 2301 in 1990s 2308, 2318, 2327, 2336, 2341, 2346, 2350, 2359, 2366, 2367, 2370 in 2000–2007 2377, 2382, 2385, 2386, 2391, 2393, 2396, 2397, 2402, 2408, 2418, 2421, 2427, 2431, 2432, 2437 Baseball Hall of Fame 1670, 1829 basketball 1432, 2000, 2034, 2043, 2052, 2058, 2068, 2076, 2087, 2096, 2318, 2319, 2335, 2363 Bataan Peninsula 1927, 1928, 1931 Baton Rouge, Louisiana 683, 1032 Battery Wagner, South Carolina 1082, 1083 “Battle Hymn of the Republic” (Howe) 998, 999 Bayard, Thomas F. 1381, 1396– 1398, 1400, 1403, 1446 Bayard-­Chamberlain Treaty 1400, 1404 Bay of Pigs 2095, 2097, 2106 Bayou City (ship) 1048, 1055 Bean, Alan L. 2167, 2191 Beard, Charles Austin 1633, 1643, 1656 Bear Flag Revolt 841, 868 Bear Paw, Battle of 1311, 1315 Beauregard, Pierre G. T. 956, 957, 960, 974, 975, 984, 987, 997, 1004, 1009–1011, 1020, 1085, 1087, 1091, 1112, 1122, 1128 Beausejour, Fort 247, 248 Beaver War 90 Becknell, William 735, 736, 739

Bedel, Timothy 360, 362 Beecher, Catherine E. 1233, 1255 Beecher, Henry Ward 1255, 1282, 1301, 1301 Beecher’s Island, Battle of 1231 Begin, Menachem 2219, 2228, 2230 Beijing, China 2390 Beirut, Lebanon 2249, 2250, 2253, 2257, 2259, 2260 Belarus 2343 Belasco, David 1405, 1570, 1620, 1632 Belcher, Jonathan 222, 230 Belgium 861, 1912, 1960, 2091 Belknap, William W. 1245, 1271, 1281, 1296, 1300–1301 Bell, Alexander Graham 1258, 1259, 1289, 1296, 1300, 1314, 1358, 1377, 1445, 1483, 1541, 1605, 1670 Bell, John 942, 943 Bell Atlantic Corporation 2335, 2354 Belleau Wood 1730, 1731 Bellow, Saul 2020, 2049, 2215 Bell Telephone 1314, 1442, 2055 Belmont, August 1464, 1613 Bemis Heights, Battle of 347 Bemis Heights, New York 421, 423, 489 Benét, Stephen Vincent 1835, 1843, 1953 Benezet, Anthony 236, 237, 242, 258, 313, 525, 553 Benjamin, Judah P. 952, 955, 990, 997, 1000, 1007, 1156 Bennett, Floyd 1825, 1826 Bennett, James Gordon 798, 1198, 1295 Benson, William S. 1628, 1675 Benton, Thomas Hart 767, 776, 1941 Benton, William 2012, 2013, 2018

2482  Chronology of American History Bentonville, Battle of 1147–1148 Bentsen, Lloyd M. 2290, 2295 Beothuk Indians 24 Berger, Samuel “Sandy” 2395, 2402 Berger, Victor L. 1480, 1620, 1728 Bergh, Henry 1204, 1284 Berkeley, Sir William 79, 81, 82, 88, 96, 103, 104, 118, 122–130 Berle, Milton 1998, 1999 Berlin, Germany 2082, 2098, 2099, 2178 Berlin, Irving 1397, 1621–1622, 1668, 1737, 2285 Berlin Airlift 1989, 1993, 2066 Berlin Conference 1379, 2032 Berlin Wall 2095, 2103, 2104 Bermuda 86, 2100 Bernard, Francis 293, 302–304, 306, 308, 309, 345 Bernhardt, Sarah 1336, 1639, 1699 Bernstein, Carl 2404 Bernstein, Leonard 1953, 1991, 2011, 2023, 2062, 2063, 2064, 2080 Bernstorff, ­Johann-­Heinrich von 1679, 1702 Best Friend of Charleston 775, 776 Bible 100, 517, 682, 2116 Biddle, James 725, 740 Biddle, Nicholas 371, 385, 433, 655, 741, 783, 785 Bienville, ­Jean-­Baptiste Le Moyne, sieur de. 168, 168, 173, 180, 191, 192, 198, 208, 209, 213, 215 Bierce, Ambrose 1425, 1442, 1518 Big Black River, Battle of 1071 Bigelow, John 1112, 1161 Bill of Rights 287, 336, 387, 563–566, 604, 605, 614, 649, 789, 1472, 1545

“Billy the Kid.” See Bonney, ­William C. “Billy the Kid” bin Laden, Osama 2366, 2380, 2381, 2383, 2387, 2410, 2417 biological warfare 2012, 2013 Birch Coulee, Minnesota 1036, 1037 Birch Creek, Battle of 1320 Bird, Henry 470, 472–473, 476 Birds of America (Audubon) 758, 760 Birney, David B. 1116, 1128 Birney, James G. 804, 811, 827, 829, 846 birth control 931, 1658–1659, 1667, 1697, 1803, 1843, 1856, 1878, 2085, 2096, 2157, 2172, 2274, 2284, 2310, 2328, 2415 Birth of a Nation, The (movie) 1671, 1672 Bisland, Fort 1064, 1065 Black, Hugo L. 1894, 2178 Black, Jeremiah S. 944, 946 Black Codes 141, 177, 186, 198, 1161, 1203 Blackfeet Indians 245 Black Fish (Shawnee chief) 301, 431, 444, 455 Black Hawk 774, 777, 778, 783, 785, 786 Black Hawk War 736, 778, 783, 887, 953, 956 Black Hills 1281, 1282, 1288, 1291 Black Kettle (Cheyenne chief) 1134, 1219, 1232 Blackmun, Harry 2171, 2340 Black Panther Party 2168, 2209 Black Sox scandal 1765, 1801 Blackstock’s Plantation 475, 483 Blackwater, USA 2433–2436 Blackwell, Elizabeth 885, 888, 965 Bladensburg, Battle of 709 Blaine, James G. 1265, 1298, 1299, 1307, 1340, 1341, 1344,

1348, 1349, 1351, 1353, 1372– 1374, 1381, 1411, 1414, 1429, 1436, 1439 Blair, Francis P. 775, 967, 982, 1137, 1139–1141, 1228 Blair, Henry W. 1303, 1418 Blair, James 148, 161 Blake, John Lauris 767, 768 Blakely, Fort, Battle of 1152– 1153 Blakely, Johnston 707, 710 Blanchard, ­Jean-­Pierre François 538, 617 Blanco, Kathleen 2407 Blanco, Ramón 1482, 1483, 1488 Bland, Richard P. 1300, 1303, 1315, 1387, 1458, 1464 Bleeding Kansas 924, 925 Bliss, Tasker H. 1713, 1728 Blockading Squadron 995, 996, 1011, 1013, 1015, 1055, 1059, 1077, 1081, 1106 Bloody Marsh, Battle of 224 Bloomer, Amelia 885, 909 Blount, James H. 1445, 1450 Blount, William 607, 635 Blue Jacket (Shawnee chief) 334, 609, 610, 624 Blue Licks, Battle of 301 blues music 1603, 1656, 1815 Blunt, James G. 1048, 1049, 1082, 1083, 1090, 1131, 1132 Bly, Nellie 1391–1392, 1415, 1417 Bly, Robert 2310 Board of Trade 163–165, 169, 195, 308, 319 Board of War 426–428, 430, 491 Board of War and Ordnance 388 Boeing Company 2304, 2360 Boer War 1471 Bohr, Niels 2036, 2069 Bolívar, Simón 739, 752 Bolling, Raynall C. 1681, 1724 Bolshevik revolution 1716, 1717, 1729, 1732, 1733

Index  2483 Bolton, John 2401, 2403, 2406, 2418, 2419 Bonaparte, Napoléon (Napoléon I) 641–644, 654, 662, 672, 674, 682, 683, 706 Bonaparte, ­Louis-­Napoléon (Napoléon III) 943, 992, 997, 1046, 1074, 1099, 1104, 1113, 1204 Bond, Thomas 239, 307 Bond, William 146, 168 Bonds, Barry 2382, 2432 Bonhomme Richard 369, 448, 458, 460, 461 Bonney, William C. “Billy the Kid” 1317, 1344 Bonus Army 1861, 1862 Book of Mormon, The (Smith) 770, 771 Boone, Daniel 300, 301, 308, 316, 339, 340, 406, 431, 443, 444, 455, 503, 522, 636, 660, 726, 732 Booth, Edwin 894, 1424, 1429 Booth, John Wilkes 894, 957, 1153–1155 bootlegging 1810, 1851 Borden, Gail 908, 1332 Borglum, Gutzon 1557, 1828 Borie, Adolf 1237, 1240 Bork, Robert 2192, 2282, 2283 Borman, Frank 2136, 2159 Boscawen, Edward 247–249, 259, 261 Bosnia 2343, 2347–2351, 2355, 2360, 2370 Boston, Massachusetts 49, 51, 66, 68, 131, 138, 143, 193, 202, 215, 623, 924 Boston Academy of Music 781, 788 Boston Gazette 192, 193 Boston Marathon 1796, 1806, 1809, 1815, 1820, 1824, 1830, 1835, 1843, 1852, 1856, 1860, 1867, 1874, 1879, 1886, 1892,

1899, 1906, 1912, 1919, 1931, 1945, 1953, 1966, 1973, 1978, 1987, 1993, 2000, 2007, 2013, 2024, 2034, 2044, 2052, 2059, 2069, 2077, 2087, 2097, 2427 Boston Massacre 303, 305, 312, 313–316, 320, 342, 370 Boston Port Bill 327, 329 Boston Public Library 921, 1399 Boston Red Sox 1829 Boston Tea Party 303, 315, 320, 324, 327, 330, 342 Boston Theater 623, 625 Boudinot, Elias (Cherokee ­editor) 759, 761 Boudinot, Elias (commissary of prisons) 435 Boudinot, Elias (New Jersey ­philanthropist) 761 Boudinot v. United States 1260 Bougainville, ­Louis-­Antoine de 253, 274 Boulder Dam. See Hoover Dam Bouquet, Henry 262, 277, 284, 290 Bourbon County, Georgia 539, 542 bovine spongiform encephalopa-­ thy (BSE) 2392 Bowdoin, James 454, 537, 547–550 Bowdoin College 624, 825, 907 Bowery Theater 754, 755 Bowlegs, Billy 922, 932 Bowles, Chester A. 1952, 1972 Bowman, John 455, 456 Boxer Rebellion 1357, 1523– 1525, 1527, 1536, 1586, 1589 boxing 716, 1799, 1800, 1812, 1827, 1828, 1832, 1838, 1853, 1861, 1875, 1893–1895, 1983, 1989, 1994, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2010, 2016, 2017, 2024, 2029, 2036, 2039, 2045, 2048, 2055, 2068, 2079, 2089, 2359, 2362

Boyd, Belle 1019, 1031, 1032, 1084, 1095 Boyd, John 449, 494 Boyle, William A. “Tony” 2175, 2182, 2191, 2207 Boylston, Zabdiel 177, 195 Boy Scouts of America 1615, 1620, 1692 Bozeman Trail 1206–1208, 1211, 1221, 1231, 1302 Braddock, Edward 229, 245, 247–250, 301, 489, 603 Braddock, James J. 1880, 1893, 1894 Bradford, William 32, 33, 34– 39, 44, 50, 57, 73, 93, 120, 139, 155, 211 Bradley, Bill 2371, 2374 Bradley, Omar N. 1957, 1994, 1995 Bradstreet, Anne 85, 86 Bradstreet, John 253, 260–262, 282, 289, 290 Bradstreet, Simon 86, 148 Brady, Mathew 848, 889, 931, 940, 941–942, 972 Brady, Nicholas 2305 Brady Handgun Violence Pre-­ vention Law 2337 Bragg, Braxton 950, 984, 1009, 1025, 1026, 1030, 1031, 1036, 1040, 1043, 1044, 1048, 1053–1056, 1087–1090, 1094, 1095, 1098, 1146 Branch Davidians 2332, 2338 Brandeis, Louis Dembitz 1685, 1686–1687, 1904 Brandywine, battle of 294 Brant, Joseph 413, 417, 418, 418–419, 438, 444, 446, 456, 459, 470, 474, 476, 481, 482, 509, 521, 530 Brant, Molly 250, 263–264, 417, 418 Bray, Thomas 170, 202, 263 Brazil 3, 746, 747, 762, 2324, 2426

2484  Chronology of American History Breckinridge, John C. 924, 927, 943, 991, 1032, 1054, 1056, 1082, 1111, 1120, 1143 Brennan, William 2306 Brent, Margaret 71, 72–73, 82, 83, 87 Brewster, William 21, 32, 35 Breyer, Stephen 2340 Brezhnev, Leonid 2190, 2199, 2201, 2231 Briand, Aristide 1830, 1832, 1834, 1838 Bricker, John 1956, 2020 Bricker Amendment 2024 Bridger, Jim 739, 748 Briscoe v. Bank of Common-­ wealth of Kentucky 814 Bristow, Benjamin H. 1254, 1288 Bristow, George F. 924, 935 Britain, Battle of 1914 British Colonies in North ­America (1607–1763) 574m British Colonies in North ­America (1775) 582m British East India Company 323, 324, 329 British Legion 466, 475, 477, 480, 484, 492 British Telecommunications 2359 Brock, Isaac 679, 690–692 Brodhead, Daniel 457, 458, 460 Brooks, Preston 924, 938 Brooks, Van Wyck 1758, 1950 Browder, Earl 1887, 1913 Brown, Benjamin Gratz 1255, 1265, 1267, 1269 Brown, Chares Brockden 635, 641 Brown, Ellison 1886, 1906 Brown, Jacob J. 693, 697, 698, 705, 707–708, 710 Brown, John 357, 358, 360, 367, 482, 805, 823, 912, 921, 925, 937, 937–938, 1022, 1073 Brown, Joseph E. 951, 964, 1036 Brown, Michael 2407

Brown, Nicole 2340, 2361 Brown, Pat 2134, 2240 Brown, Ronald 2296, 2354 Brown, Thomas 411, 434, 479, 498 Brownlow, William G. 991, 994, 1145, 1151 Brownsville, Texas 1100, 1586, 1606 Brown University 287, 638, 657, 767, 817, 935 Brown v. Board of Education 2022, 2035, 2046, 2149 Bruce, Blanche Kelso 1278, 1287, 1333 Brülé, Étienne 23, 26, 47 Brush, Charles F. 1323, 1333, 1336 Brushaber v. ­Union Pacific 1685 Bryan, Andrew 321, 563 Bryan, William Jennings 1381, 1393, 1453, 1456–1457, 1459, 1464–1465, 1473–1475, 1477, 1479, 1523, 1526, 1530, 1579, 1597, 1599, 1607, 1639, 1648, 1650, 1664–1668, 1673, 1675, 1676, 1681, 1763, 1808, 1822 Bryan-­Chamorro Treaty 1664, 1686 Bryant, William Cullen 722, 752, 781, 1294 Bryce, James 1400, 1594 Buchanan, Franklin 964, 1000, 1002, 1003, 1005, 1006, 1035 Buchanan, James 612, 805, 806, 860, 907, 913, 924, 926, 927, 928, 928–929, 930–934, 939, 943–950, 952, 957, 1121, 1227 Buchanan, Pat 2321 Bucher, Lloyd 2153, 2162 Buck, Pearl S. 1855, 1861 Buckner, Simon B. 1001, 1040, 1158, 1475 Budapest, Hungary 2343 Buell, Don Carlos 946, 988, 995, 1003, 1016, 1024, 1042–1045

Buena Vista, Battle of 875, 953 Buffalo Bill. See Cody, William Frederick Buffalo Soldiers 1210, 1222, 1312, 1334, 1357, 1497, 1499, 1693 Buffet, Warren 2414 Buford, Abraham 469–471 Buford, John 1036, 1075, 1078, 1079, 1082 Bulgaria 1973, 1978 Bulge, Battle of the 1960, 2021– 2022 Bull, William 210, 219, 277 Bullard, Robert Lee 1718, 1729, 1732, 1743, 1746 Bullfinch, Charles 621, 622, 625, 657 Bull Moose Party 1607, 1638, 1640 Bull Run, Battle of. See Manas-­ sas, First Battle of Bunche, Ralph J. 2002, 2003 Bundy, Omar 1715, 1734 Bunker Hill, Battle of 276, 320, 345, 353, 549, 751 Burbank, Luther 1264, 1283, 1607 Bureau of Immigration 1118, 1461 Bureau of Indian Affairs 746, 1224, 1233, 1238, 1267, 1291, 1316, 1362, 1429, 1602, 1688, 1748, 1756, 2186 Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. See Freedmen’s Bureau Burger, Warren 2163, 2167, 2244, 2276 Burgoyne, John 349, 351, 373, 384, 387–389, 408, 409, 411, 413, 415–417, 419–423, 423, 424, 425, 429, 435, 454, 489 Burke, Edmund 337–338, 340, 367, 375, 431 Burke, Thomas 449, 511

Index  2485 Burke Act (1906) 1578, 1617 Burlingame Treaty 1229, 1324, 1326, 1336, 1354 Burnham, Daniel H. 1424, 1462, 1600 Burns, Anthony 915, 916 Burnside, Ambrose 995, 1006, 1007, 1040, 1046–1049, 1049, 1050, 1051, 1057, 1058, 1088, 1089, 1093, 1108, 1112, 1117 Burr, Aaron 602, 645, 646–647, 647, 658, 661, 663–665, 668–670 Burrell, Isaac 1055 Bus Employees v. Wisconsin Employment Relations Board 2006 Bush, George H. W. 2209, 2238, 2240, 2264, 2285, 2286, 2290– 2294, 2295–2296, 2297–2299, 2301, 2302, 2304–2309, 2311– 2314, 2316–2322, 2324–2329, 2331, 2333, 2338, 2352, 2378, 2379, 2396, 2399, 2401 Bush, George W. 2379, 2379– 2380 election of 2000 2296, 2332, 2374, 2376–2378 election of 2004 2395, 2396 Colin Powell and 2300 presidency (first term) 2380–2390, 2392, 2393, 2395, 2396 presidency (second term) 2398–2407, 2409–2414, 2416–2419, 2421, 2422, 2426, 2428, 2429, 2431– 2437 Bush, Laura 2404 Bushnell, David 396, 397, 429 Bushy Run, Battle of 284 Butler, Benjamin F. 792, 964, 966, 967, 969, 983, 1003, 1008, 1018, 1034, 1046, 1052, 1101, 1105, 1112, 1134, 1136– 1138, 1251, 1260, 1343, 1371

Butler, Nicholas Murray 1408, 1642, 1858 Butler, Richard 455, 505 Butler, United States v. 1885 Butler, Walter 361, 439, 446, 459, 460, 515 Byrd, Richard E. 1825, 1826, 2048, 2355 Byrd, Robert E. 1838, 1848 Byrd, William 212, 214, 258 Byron, John 273, 436, 442, 446, 458

C Cabell, William L. 1083, 1106– 1107 Cabot, John 3, 550 Cadwalader, John 405–407 Caffrey, James J. 1522, 1534 Cahil, Mabel E. 1427, 1434 Cajuns. See Acadians Calder v. Bull 638 Caldwell, Erskine 1859, 1864 Caldwell, William 444, 509, 520, 522 Calhoun, John C. 708, 716–718, 720, 721, 723, 730, 745, 748, 752, 755, 762, 763, 770, 772, 773, 773–774, 776, 779, 784, 786, 787, 789, 805, 806, 815, 820, 849, 875, 882, 885, 888, 891, 2059 Cali, Colombia 2351 California 7, 510, 716, 740, 841, 843, 859, 864, 868, 869, 871– 873, 884, 885, 888, 890–892, 906, 923, 1181m, 2049, 2086, 2099, 2227, 2253, 2322, 2336, 2345, 2378, 2391, 2395 Callender, James T. 644, 658 Calley, William F. 2167, 2168 Calvert, Cecilius 59, 63, 71, 72 Calvert, George (first baron Bal-­ timore) 44, 55, 106, 138–139, 141, 157 Calvert, Leonard 57, 59, 61, 72, 82, 84

Calvinism 32, 44, 729, 782, 796, 903 Camas Creek, Battle of 1314 Cambodia 2041, 2151, 2161, 2162, 2171, 2190, 2191, 2205 Cambridge, Massachusetts 68, 69 Cambridge Platform 58, 81 Camden, Battle of 389 Camden, South Carolina 474–476 Camden, South Carolina, Battle of 477–478, 484 Camden and Amboy railroad 770, 780 Cameron, Simon 956, 959, 991, 995, 1060 Campbell, Alexander 680, 767 Campbell, Archibald 388, 423, 446–449 Campbell, John 175, 254, 256, 257, 496, 499, 500 Campbell, John A. 1141, 1142, 1151, 1255 Campbell, Oliver S. 1427, 1434 Campbell, Thomas 678, 680 Campbell, William 360, 390, 480, 481, 488, 495 Camp Charlotte, Treaty of 334, 360 Camp David, Mary­land 2082, 2376 Camp David peace accords 2219, 2228 Canada 7, 57, 109, 152, 227, 272, 280, 519, 521, 540, 690, 691, 694, 697, 698, 707, 712, 1107, 1130, 1135, 1828, 1829, 1843, 1914, 2039, 2078, 2092, 2097, 2223, 2291, 2294, 2321, 2336, 2337, 2392 Canada, Dominion of 1217, 1220 Canadians 819, 1816 canals 1170m Canarsee Indians 43 Canby, Edward R. S. 1001, 1002, 1147, 1152, 1155, 1156, 1158, 1272–1274

2486  Chronology of American History Cane Hill, Arkansas 1048, 1049 Canning, George 678, 742 Canonchet 121, 121–122, 123 Canonicus 62, 63 Canyon Creek, Battle of 1311, 1315 Cape Breton Island 227–232 Cape Canaveral, Florida 2067, 2081, 2082, 2086, 2088, 2089 Cape Cod 12, 13 Cape Hatteras, North Carolina 7, 2039 Cape Henry, Battle of 497 Caperton, William B. 1676–1677, 1682, 1690 Capital Cities/ABC 2348 Capital Dairy Company v. Ohio 1542 capital punishment. See death penalty Capone, Al 1765, 1839, 1841, 1843, 1845, 1857 Capote, Truman 2005, 2075 Captain Jack 1265, 1267, 1271, 1273, 1274, 1276 Card, Andrew 2411 Carden, John 474, 476 Carey, Matthew 605, 645, 737 Ca­rib­be­an Ocean 1780m Carib Indians 44 Carillion, Fort. See Ticonderoga, Fort Carleton, Guy 265, 296, 306, 350, 361, 363, 367, 369, 372, 383, 384, 388, 389, 392, 396, 399, 400, 402, 408, 409, 439, 519, 520, 623 Carleton, James H. 1016, 1029, 1086, 1097 Carlisle Indian School 1328, 1572 Carlisle Peace Commission 434, 435, 438, 443, 445, 446 Carmichael, Stokely 2141, 2142, 2142 Carnegie, Andrew 1376–1377, 1385, 1413, 1430, 1438, 1454,

1522, 1531, 1533, 1534, 1560, 1600, 1614, 1616, 1629 Carnegie Endowment for ­International Peace 1614, 1620, 1654, 1748 Carnegie Steel Company 1437– 1439, 1454, 1522 Carnera, Primo 1869, 1875 Carnifex Ferry 979, 980 Carolina Indians 176 Carolinas 100, 105, 152, 153, 157, 170, 182 Caroline (steamer) 819, 821, 830 Carondelet, USS 1010, 1011, 1018 Carpenter, Malcolm Scott 2076, 2107 Carpentier, Georges 1799, 1800 Carr, Benjamin 630, 642 Carr, Eugene A. 1240, 1241, 1346 Carranza, Venustiano 1680– 1681, 1690, 1693, 1698, 1704, 1759 Carrel, Alexis 1632, 1642, 1660, 1885 Carrier, Martha 159, 160 Carroll, Charles 380–382, 762, 785 Carroll, John 380–381, 533, 609 Carson, Johnny 2323 Carson, Kit 841, 845, 867, 871, 1085, 1086, 1097, 1134 Carson, Rachel 2101–2102 Carter, Jimmy 1889, 2199, 2212– 2217, 2218–2219, 2220–2223, 2225–2236, 2238, 2240, 2241, 2331, 2342, 2372, 2386, 2399 Carter, Samuel Powhatan 996, 1146, 1356 Carteret, Sir George 102–105, 114, 126, 131–133 Cartier, Jacques 6, 7 Caruso, Enrico 1556, 1582, 1615 Carver, John 33, 35 Casco Bay, Maine 40, 95 Casey, George W., Jr. 2423

Casimir (Newcastle), Fort, ­Delaware 87, 90, 92, 93 Cass, Lewis 696, 779, 794, 816, 879, 881, 943, 946 Cassatt, Mary 1336, 1452 Castlereagh, Lord 689, 692, 702, 704 Castro, Fidel 2022, 2075, 2090, 2092, 2093, 2097, 2116, 2219, 2237, 2370 Caswell, Richard 378, 379, 476 Cather, Willa 1643, 1719, 1810, 1855 Catherine II (czarina of Rus­sia) 369, 466, 480, 528, 564 Catholicism. See Roman Cathol-­ icism Catlin, George 785, 803, 830, 831 cattle trails (1866–1885) 1777m Catton, Bruce 2006, 2035, 2084 Caughnawaga Indians 161 Cayuga Indians 106, 328, 413, 460 Cayuse Indians 892 CBS, Inc. 2348, 2395, 2398 Cedar Creek, Battle of 1130 Cédras, Raoul 2342 Celera Genomics Corporation 2375 censorship 350, 1795, 1798, 1846, 2058, 2094 Census, U.S. 607, 642, 682, 767, 939, 1911, 2169, 2289, 2417 Centennial Exposition 1274, 1293, 1297, 1300, 1303, 1335 Centralia, Missouri 1127, 1128 Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) 1935, 2036, 2037, 2095, 2200, 2202–2204, 2209–2211, 2246, 2295, 2382, 2388, 2390 Central Pacific Railroad 971, 1028 Centreville, Virginia 974, 1037 Cernan, Eugene 2140, 2163, 2186

Index  2487 Cerro Gordo, Battle of 876 Cervera y Topete, Pascual 1486, 1492, 1494, 1495, 1499 cessions, Indian 1175m Chadwick, French Ensor 1351, 1359 Chaffee, Adna Romanza 1356, 1357, 1474, 1499, 1511, 1525– 1527, 1529, 1559 Chafin, Eugene W. 1597, 1639 Challenger (space shuttle) 2242, 2252, 2254, 2255, 2272, 2273, 2276 Chalmers, James R. 1027, 1149 Chamberlain, Austen 1818, 1827 Chamberlain, Joseph 1400, 1466, 1471 Chamberlain, Neville 1901, 1912 Chambers, Washington Irving 1619, 1625, 1636, 1653 Chambers, Whittaker 1990, 1991, 1994, 1997 Chambly, Fort 272, 362 Champion v. Ames 1551 Champlain, Lake 206, 259, 266, 700 Champlain, Lake, Battle of 710 Champlain, Samuel de 12–14, 16, 19, 21, 23, 25–27, 47, 56, 74 Chancellorsville, Battle of 1067–1069, 1068, 1304 Chandler, William E. 1355, 1361 Channing, William Ellery 691, 695, 715, 728, 729, 751, 798, 803, 820 Chaplin, Charlie 1619, 1632, 1654, 1659, 1672, 1700, 1700, 1719, 1746, 1751 Chapultepec, Battle of 878 Charles, Ezzard 1994, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2010, 2017, 2036, 2039 Charles, Ray 2400 Charles I (king of En­gland) 42, 46, 48, 53, 55, 78, 84, 86

Charles II (king of En­gland) 55, 88, 97, 98, 100, 102, 104, 107, 108, 112, 113, 133, 135, 139, 142 Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge 807, 814 Charleston, siege of 1081–1082 Charleston, South Carolina 463, 466–470, 475, 946–948, 950, 956, 959–961, 992, 1064, 1084, 1085, 1144 Charleston-­Hamburg Railroad 759, 775 Charles Town, South Carolina 132, 179 Charlotte, Fort 465, 466 Charlotte, North Carolina 479, 480 Charter of Liberties 138, 142, 157, 159 Charter of Paris 2309 Chartres, Fort 213, 293 Chase, Salmon P. 918, 1070, 1101, 1117, 1135, 1232, 1273, 1278 Chase, Samuel 380–382, 658, 663 Chase Manhattan Bank 2348 Châteauguary, Battle of 700 Château-­Thierry 1729, 1730 Chattanooga, Battle of 1198, 1236 Chattanooga, Tennessee 1079, 1088, 1089, 1091, 1092, 1094 Chauncey, Isaac 697, 699, 700, 707 Chávez, César 2139, 2188, 2189, 2220 Chemical Bank 2316 chemical weapons 1722, 1726, 2357 Cheney, Richard 2376, 2377, 2395, 2398, 2410, 2429 Cherokee Indians 152, 188, 206, 244, 247, 255, 257, 259, 267–270, 273, 276, 277, 306,

314, 340, 390, 394, 411, 416, 451, 475, 485, 494, 523, 540, 543, 549, 613, 635, 705, 717, 743, 756, 761, 763, 777, 802, 808–809, 824, 967, 1061, 1159, 2424 Cherokee Phoenix 759, 761 Cherokee v. Georgia 777 Cherokee War, First 268, 277, 494 Cherokee War, Second 269, 391 Chertoff, Michael 2398, 2400 Chesapeake and Ohio Canal 749, 764, 794 Chesapeake Bay 3, 14, 20, 26, 52, 58, 510–512, 539 Chesapeake-­Leopard affair 659, 670, 674, 686, 731 Cheyenne Indians 1134, 1138 Chiang ­Kai-­shek 1949, 1970, 1980, 1994, 2022, 2038, 2060 Chicago, Illinois 115, 767, 774, 894, 1841, 1843, 1851, 1859, 2074, 2141, 2322, 2348 Chicago Fire (1871) 1263 Chicago Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad v. Minnesota 1418 Chicago Times (newspaper) 1059, 1060, 1073, 1074 Chickahominy Indians 27, 54, 79, 92, 98 Chickahominy River 1020, 1021, 1024 Chickamauga, Battle of 1088– 1089, 1199, 1340 Chickasaw Indians 175, 178, 184, 193, 214, 215, 290, 718, 725, 785 Chief Joseph. See Joseph, Chief child labor 1696, 1730 Child Labor Amendment 1816 Chile 705, 740, 784, 2181, 2188, 2200, 2210 China 673, 852, 933, 1220, 1229, 1805, 1849, 1896, 1897, 1926, 1968, 1970, 1979, 1980, 1994, 2429

2488  Chronology of American History China, People’s Republic of 1996, 2003–2007, 2012, 2013, 2022, 2027, 2038, 2039, 2042, 2054, 2066, 2084, 2099, 2161, 2176, 2178, 2180–2181, 2186, 2229, 2230, 2235, 2261, 2269, 2295, 2320, 2327, 2337, 2345, 2350, 2355, 2366, 2380, 2390, 2392, 2412, 2425, 2426 Chinese-­Americans 879, 901, 921, 922, 1373, 1404, 1774m Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) 1307, 1348, 1355, 1487, 1494, 1543, 1950 Chinese Exclusion Treaty 1336, 1354, 1458 Chipewyan Indians 187, 191, 316 Chippewa, Battle of 693, 707, 708 Chippewa Indians 26, 85, 110, 284, 730, 751, 765 Chisholm v. Georgia 377, 618, 623, 626 Chita: A Memory of Last Island (Hearn) 1405, 1406 Chivington, John M. 1008, 1009, 1134 Choate v. Trappe 1620 Choctaw Indians 167, 175, 176, 178, 184, 193, 206, 232, 290, 458, 774, 775, 952 cholera 1180m Chou ­En-­lai (Zhou Enlai) 2038, 2177 Choynski, Joe 1413, 1601 Christian Association of Wash-­ ington. See Disciples of Christ Christian Co­ali­tion 2344, 2345, 2347 Christianity 107, 109, 110, 122, 132. See also specific religions and movements Christian missions 10–11, 27 Christian Science 1201, 1290, 1294–1295, 1325, 2321 Christina, Fort (Wilmington), Delaware 68, 73, 87, 92

Chrysler Corporation 2093, 2232, 2234, 2240, 2243 Church, Benjamin 112, 116, 117, 118, 121, 126–128, 151, 157, 175, 357, 362 Church, Frank 2203, 2209 Churchill, Winston 1866, 1912, 1924, 1927, 1936, 1942, 1949, 1958, 1962, 1963, 1967, 1972, 2012, 2037, 2114 Church of Christ, Scientist. See Christian Science Church of En­gland. See Angli-­ can Church Church of Jesus Christ of ­Latter­day Saints. See Mormon Church Church of Scientology 2335 cigarettes 2061, 2089, 2099, 2301, 2324, 2329, 2353, 2358, 2359, 2362, 2366, 2368, 2369, 2388 cinema. See motion pictures Cisneros, Henry 2371 Citation (Triple Crown winner) 1987, 1988 citizenship 220, 606, 627, 919, 1228, 1845, 2124 City of Boerne v. Flores 2362 “A City upon a Hill” 48, 50 Civil Aeronautics Authority (CAA) 1900, 1914 Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) 1867, 1936 civil rights 896, 1211, 1215, 1226, 1253, 1297, 1472, 1989, 2002, 2102, 2115, 2117, 2118– 2119, 2125, 2129–2131, 2149, 2151, 2201, 2208, 2292, 2404 Civil Rights Act (1875) 1286, 1366 Civil Rights Act (1957) 2061, 2073 Civil Rights Act (1960) 2088 Civil Rights Act (1964) 2125, 2132, 2175

Civil Rights Act (1968) 2156 Civil Rights Act (1990) 2308 Civil Rights Act extension (1975) 2206 Civil Rights Bill (1866) 1203, 1204 Civil Rights Commission 2061, 2081, 2082, 2086 Civil Rights movement 1984, 2035, 2053, 2071, 2085–2087, 2092, 2093, 2119 Civil Ser­vice Commission 1258, 1537, 2040 civil ser­vice reform 1341, 1349 Civil War 705, 782, 790, 796, 805, 813, 823, 832, 841, 883, 896, 901, 907, 919, 938, 941, 949, 961–1153, 1158, 1159, 1172m, 1182m, 1183m, 1235, 1236, 1304, 1306, 1340, 1342, 1343, 1363–1364, 1478, 1485, 1511, 1546, 1575 Claiborne, William 52, 59, 61, 88 Claiborne, William C. 657, 661, 696 Clansman, The (Dixon) 1565, 1671 Clark, Barney C. 2251, 2252 Clark, Elijah 483, 498 Clark, George Rogers 287, 301, 336, 386, 406, 429, 438, 439, 441, 442, 443, 445–450, 476, 547, 548, 656 Clark, Mark 1948, 2014 Clark, William 649, 654, 656, 660, 831. See also Lewis and Clark expedition Clarke, Elijah 393, 449, 473, 474, 476, 478, 479, 497, 502, 515, 523 Clay, Cassius. See Muhammad Ali Clay, Henry 716, 717, 724, 726, 730, 734, 740, 741, 743, 745, 746, 746–747, 748–750, 753,

Index  2489 765, 769, 770, 773–775, 781, 783–785, 787, 789, 793–795, 826, 827, 834, 835, 837, 840, 850, 852, 859, 889, 891, 893, 904, 2059 Clayton ­Anti-­Trust Act 1666, 2005 Clayton-­Bulwer Treaty 888, 891, 1344, 1379, 1503, 1539 Clean Air Act (1990) 2309, 2426 Clean Air Interstate Rule 2401 Clean Water Act (1972) 2325 Cleaveland, Moses 627, 632 Cleburne, Patrick R. 1037, 1095, 1097 Clemens, Samuel Langhorne. See Twain, Mark Clermont (steamboat) 558, 654, 670, 671 Cleveland, Benjamin 480, 481 Cleveland, Grover 816, 1310, 1342, 1348, 1351, 1358, 1373, 1374, 1380–1381, 1382–1384, 1386–1388, 1390, 1395, 1396, 1398, 1399, 1402–1404, 1409– 1411, 1436, 1441, 1445, 1446, 1448, 1450, 1451, 1458, 1460– 1462, 1464–1466, 1468, 1471, 1473, 1477, 1478, 1490, 1597 Cleveland, Ohio 627, 632 Clifton, Lucille 2429 climate change 2289, 2349, 2437 Clinton, DeWitt 689, 691, 695, 717, 722, 751, 815, 831 Clinton, Fort 423, 458 Clinton, George 182, 250, 423, 424, 563, 564, 617, 620, 658, 663, 675, 676, 678, 684, 689 Clinton, Henry 347, 349, 351, 353, 356, 373, 376, 377, 380, 384, 386, 388, 394, 395, 400, 404, 422–424, 433, 436–442, 444, 445, 447, 452, 454, 455, 462–469, 471, 472, 475, 479, 482, 487, 503, 507, 509, 512, 515, 520

Clinton, Hillary 2331, 2332, 2336, 2338, 2340, 2344, 2352, 2361, 2365, 2368, 2372, 2373, 2374, 2376–2378, 2386, 2431, 2433 Clinton, James 424, 457, 458 Clinton, William Jefferson 2331, 2331–2332 election of 1992 2296, 2318, 2321, 2323, 2325, 2326, 2328 election of 1996 2357, 2359 election of 2000 2380 Gerald R. Ford and 2199 impeachment of 2367–2369 Colin Powell and 2300 presidency (first term) 2329, 2332–2346, 2348–2355, 2357–2360 presidency (second term) 2360–2370, 2374, 2376, 2378 and September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks 2395, 2417 tsunami relief efforts 2396, 2401 clipper ships 788, 856, 889, 890 Coast Guard, U.S. 608, 1319, 1671, 1800 Cobb, Howell 945, 1133 Cobb, Ty 1669–1670 Coca Cola 1384, 1412, 1572 Cochise 1029, 1199, 1269, 1309 Cochran, Jacqueline 1921, 2024, 2026 Cochrane, Elizabeth 1391–1392 Coddington, William 68, 70, 84, 89, 92 Code Noir. See Black Codes Cody, William Frederick 1241, 1293, 1300, 1310, 1363, 1363– 1364, 1382, 1397, 1416, 1656 Coercive Acts 303, 315, 320, 327, 329, 331–333, 336, 337–338 Coffee, John 701, 704

Cohan, George M. 1424, 1572, 1572–1573, 1619, 1706, 1860, 1897 Cohens v. Virginia 734 Colby, Bainbridge 1760, 1766 Colby, William 2199, 2202, 2209 Cold Harbor, Battle of 1113 Coldstream Guards 491, 495 cold war 1990, 1993, 2000, 2117, 2178, 2302, 2309, 2319 Cole, USS 2377 Coleman, Bessie 1795, 1796 Coleman, Norm 2386 Colfax, Schuyler 1227, 1231, 1267 college desegregation 2050, 2051, 2324 College of William and Mary 191, 196 Collier, George 415, 451, 452, 457–458 Collins, Eileen 2371 Collins, Michael 2141, 2163 Collins Line 891, 892 Colombia 739, 872, 879, 881, 2100. See also New Granada Colonial America British Colonies (1607– 1763) 574m British Colonies in North America (1775) 582m early colonial land grants (1606–1620) 573m economy (1770) 581m Ethnic and Racial Diversity in the British Colonies 579m religious diversity (1750) 580m Colorado Territory 955, 1103 Colored National Labor ­Union 1245, 1257 Colt, Samuel 789, 790 Colt revolver 789, 790 Columbia (ship) 557, 565, 609, 620

2490  Chronology of American History Columbia (space shuttle) 2325, 2353, 2360, 2371, 2387 Columbia/HCA Healthcare ­Corporation 2335, 2342 Columbia University 244, 245, 752, 1414 Columbine High School shoot-­ ing 2370 Columbus, Christopher 2–5 Columbus, Kentucky 1002, 1004 Colvin, David Leigh 1763, 1886 Comanche Indians 267, 809, 932, 1357 Command of the Army Act 1216, 1227 Commission for Foreign Planta-­ tions 59, 68 Committee for Foreign Affairs 410, 487 Committee of Correspondence 319–324, 327 Committee of Fifteen 1161, 1162 Committee of Safety 335, 336, 351 Committee of Secret Correspon-­ dence to Conduct Foreign Relations 368, 372 Committee of Thirteen 946, 948 Committee of ­Thirty-­Three 945, 946, 950 Common Sense (Paine) 374, 375, 378 Communications Decency Act 2362 Communist Control Act 2038, 2040 Communist Party 1759, 1887, 1913, 1954, 1989, 2024, 2035, 2052, 2058, 2065, 2084, 2096, 2105, 2111. See also Worker’s Party Communist Po­liti­cal Association 1954, 1968 Communists 1988, 1990, 1996, 1998, 2003, 2009, 2017, 2019,

2020, 2030, 2034, 2036, 2039, 2041, 2042, 2079, 2086 Company of New France 12, 44, 100 Company of the West 190, 191, 193 Compromise of 1850 747, 774, 888, 890–893, 896, 902, 904, 907, 913, 924 compulsory education 62, 75 computers 1972, 2009, 2079, 2258, 2265, 2275, 2285, 2422, 2424 Comstock, Anthony 1272, 1571 Comstock Act (1872) 1658, 1667 Concord, Battle of 818 Confederate Congress 955, 958, 965, 992, 998, 1002, 1004, 1012, 1042, 1053, 1057, 1058, 1095, 1096, 1107, 1132, 1147 Confederate States of America 952, 953–954, 957, 988, 1002, 1006, 1158 Confederation Congress 495, 498, 501, 503, 504, 508, 516, 521, 524, 526–529, 535, 566 Congregationalism 32, 47, 50, 100, 140, 141, 148, 196, 311, 528, 751–753, 782, 788, 798, 868 Congressional Accountability Act 2345 Congressional Gold Medal 1889, 1895 Congress of Industrial Organi-­ zations (CIO) 1883, 1903, 1918–1920, 1930, 1960, 1996, 2018, 2019, 2027, 2037, 2042, 2049, 2208 Conkling, Roscoe C. 1320, 1340, 1341 Connally, John 2120, 2205 Connecticut 57, 62, 85, 93, 96, 98, 102, 105, 107, 115, 116, 118, 126, 145, 152, 158, 169, 173, 204, 246, 280, 316, 510, 562, 725, 817, 820, 827, 1156

Connecticut Compromise 545, 556 Connecticut River Valley 56, 119 Conrad, Charles 2135, 2167, 2190 conscription. See draft Constellation, USS 635, 640, 642, 2186 Constitution, USS 635, 690, 691, 695, 714, 774, 775, 963, 966 Constitutional Convention (1788) 198, 294, 336, 377, 426, 454, 475, 517, 547, 551–559, 677 Constitutional Whig Party 940, 942 Constitution of the United States of America 287, 305, 338, 495, 559–660, 677, 810 Continental Association 335, 356 Continental Congress, First 286, 294, 325, 330, 332, 333, 335, 377, 626 Continental Congress, Second 286, 294, 303, 305, 322, 333, 343, 345, 346, 348, 349, 351, 354–356, 360, 361, 363, 374, 376, 378–382, 384, 385, 387, 388, 390, 391, 394, 396, 398, 399, 401, 403, 404, 408–411, 413, 416, 417, 421, 422, 425– 432, 435–439, 442, 444, 445, 447–450, 452, 455, 458, 459, 461, 463–465, 467, 472, 480– 482, 485, 487, 488, 491, 516, 517, 626, 648, 677 Contract with America 2343, 2344 Contract with the American Family 2347 Contrecoeur, ­Claude-­Pierre Pecaudy de 243, 248 Convocation of Anglicans 2420 Conway, Thomas 424, 425, 427–430

Index  2491 Conway Cabal 322, 389, 424, 429–431 Conyngham, Gustavus 410, 415 Cook, Frederick A. 1609, 1611 Cooke, James W. 1106, 1108 Cooke, Jay 1061, 1077, 1360 Cooley v. Board of Wardens of the Port of Philadelphia 899 Coo­lidge, Calvin 1755, 1762, 1766, 1798, 1810, 1810, 1811, 1811, 1814, 1816–1820, 1824, 1828, 1832, 1835, 1845 Cooper, Douglas H. 989, 992, 1042, 1083 Cooper, James Fenimore 733, 737, 753, 820, 828, 830 Cooper, L. Gordon 2076, 2115 Cooper, Peter 926, 1298 Coosa Indians 193 Copland, Aaron 1819, 1819– 1920, 1828, 1864, 1895, 1938, 1942, 1959, 1973, 2004 Copley, John Singleton 318, 324, 325, 524, 537 Coppage v. Kansas 1670 Copperheads 1132, 1158 Copyright Act 607, 776 Coral Sea, Battle of the 1931 Corbett, James J. “Gentleman Jim” 1353, 1413, 1440, 1478, 1523 CoreStates Financial Corpora-­ tion 2360 Corinth, Mississippi 1009, 1010, 1020, 1021, 1042, 1043 corn. See maize (corn) Cornplanter (Seneca chief) 413, 414, 414–415, 417, 439 Cornstalk 328, 332, 334, 390–391 Cornwallis, Charles 370, 373, 376, 384, 389, 394, 398, 400, 403, 404, 406, 407, 409, 420, 422, 426, 427, 454, 469, 470, 472, 475, 477–482, 484–487, 489–493, 496–498, 501,

503–507, 509, 510, 512–514, 517, 603 Coronado, Francisco Vásquez de 6, 7 Corregidor 1931, 1933 Cosby, William 210, 211, 213 Côté, Gérard 1912, 1945 Cotton, John 57, 60–62, 109, 690 cotton gin 618, 619, 621, 623 cotton mills 550, 610–611, 704, 735 Cotton States and International Exposition 1345, 1467 Coughlin, Charles E. 1888, 1931 Coulon de Villiers, Louis 243, 244, 254 Council for New En­gland 32, 38–40, 46, 49, 50, 54, 60, 61, 73 Couric, Katie 2416 Courtship of Miles Standish, The (Longfellow) 34, 825, 934 Cowpens, Battle of 488–490, 494 cowtowns (1866–1885) 1777m Cox, Archibald 2192, 2193 Cox, Jacob D. 975, 1018, 1146, 1254 Cox, James M. 1762, 1764, 1797, 1865 Coxey, Jacob S. 1458, 1459, 1660, 1862 Coytmore, Richard 268, 270 Craig, Fort 1001, 1002 Craig, James 491, 508, 516 Craig, Larry 2433, 2434 Craig v. Missouri 770 Crane, Stephen 1442, 1443, 1462–1463, 1496 Crapsey, Algernon Sidney 1577, 1582 Crater, Battle of the 1120–1121 Crawford, William 520, 716 Crawford, William H. 743, 748 Crazy ­Horse 1199, 1207, 1290, 1291, 1292, 1293, 1297, 1299, 1301, 1304, 1305, 1308, 1315

Crazy Snake religion 1533, 1543, 1582, 1608 Credit Mobilier scandal 1267– 1268, 1270, 1272, 1303, 1341, 1373 Cree Indians 108, 109, 207 Creek Indians 174, 184, 189, 208, 225, 234, 268, 293, 307, 518, 532, 535, 536, 564, 566, 608, 699, 701, 703, 705, 709, 752, 757, 781, 783, 973, 992, 1425 Creek War 699, 701, 705, 706, 744, 764, 808 Creole (slave ship) 837, 918 Crittenden, George B. 988, 996, 1009 Crittenden, John J. 946, 956, 1084 Crittenden Compromise 946, 948–950, 958, 975, 976 Croatia 2351, 2354 Crockett, Davy 546, 701, 701– 702, 806 Croghan, George 226, 286, 289, 293, 296, 307, 319, 698 Croly, Herbert D. 1603, 1656 Cromwell, Oliver 89, 95 Crook, George 1109, 1120, 1121, 1127, 1130, 1197, 1199, 1228, 1272, 1291, 1297–1299, 1301, 1302, 1304, 1306, 1309, 1326, 1358, 1365, 1383, 1385–1387 crop dusting 1802, 1814 Cross Keys, Battle of 841 “Cross of Gold” speech 1456, 1474 Crow Dog, Ex Parte 1367, 1380 Crow Indians 1398 Crown Point, New York 346, 349, 402 Cruger, John 302, 501, 504 Cruikshank, United States v. 1297 Crysler’s Farm, Battle of 702

2492  Chronology of American History Cuba 897, 898, 900, 907, 914, 917, 920, 929, 972, 974, 1275, 1276, 1318, 1530, 1533, 1544, 1638, 1801, 1820, 1875, 2022, 2075, 2085, 2089, 2090, 2092, 2093, 2095, 2097, 2099, 2103, 2111, 2122, 2187, 2221, 2222, 2224, 2284, 2338, 2341, 2346, 2353, 2370, 2375–2376 Culpepper, John 130, 132, 133 Cumberland, Department of the 978, 988 Cumberland, Fort 247, 248, 402, 403 Cumberland Gap, Tennessee 238, 301, 339, 988 Cumberland Road. See National Road Cunningham, Randy 2411 currency 541, 542, 546, 547, 554, 615, 1061, 1097, 1870, 1871, 2179, 2187, 2229, 2419, 2427 Currency Act (Great Britain) 238, 289 Curtin, Andrew 1042, 1090 Curtis, Charles 1497, 1586, 1837, 1843, 1861 Curtis, Samuel R. 1000, 1004, 1005, 1131 Curtiss, Glenn Hammond 1259, 1528, 1605, 1613, 1618, 1623– 1624, 1626, 1634, 1657 Curtiss Publishing Co. v. Butts 2147 Cushing, Caleb 1278, 1288 Cushing, William B. 1066, 1131–1132 Custer, George Armstrong 1078, 1080, 1082, 1091, 1109, 1114, 1129, 1144, 1145, 1149, 1151, 1218, 1219, 1220, 1231–1232, 1236, 1238, 1274, 1275, 1281, 1282, 1291, 1299–1300, 1302 Czech­o­slo­vak­i­a 2023, 2035, 2064 Czolgosz, Leon F. 1479

D Dade, Francis L. 802, 803 Dahlgren, John A. B. 951, 964, 1077, 1081, 1083, 1083, 1087, 1088, 1100 Dahlgren, Ulric 1046, 1102 Dahmer, Jeffrey 2316, 2320 Dakota Territory 957, 1087 Dale, Richard 461, 508, 647, 648 Dale, Thomas 21, 24, 25 Daly, Augustin 1049, 1221, 1243, 1256, 1262, 1389 Dana, Charles A. 896, 1223 Dana, Francis 434, 485, 528 Dancing Rabbit Creek, Treaty of 774, 775 Daniels, Josephus 1648, 1657, 1663, 1677 Danish West Indies 1222, 1532, 1694, 1701 Darby Lumber, United States v. 1918 Darbytown Road, Battle of 1129 Darfur 2429 Darrow, Clarence 1447–1448, 1457, 1462, 1589, 1821, 1821– 1822 Dartmouth College 311, 769 Darwin, Charles 1277, 1821 Daschle, Tom 2382 Davenport, John 68, 70 Davie, William R. 474, 476, 479, 480, 640, 642–643 Davis, Angela 2173, 2181, 2183 Davis, Benjamin O., Jr. 2077, 2078 Davis, Charles H. 1017, 1022, 1023, 1027, 1029, 1225 Davis, Dwight F. 1519, 1526 Davis, Elmer 1934, 1935 Davis, Gray 2378, 2391 Davis, Jefferson C. 1101, 1117 Davis, Jefferson F. 953–954 in Black Hawk War 778, 783 in ­Mexican-­American War 875

as secretary of war 907, 920 as senator 939, 942, 950, 951, 1200 as provisional president of Confederate States of America 952, 955, 957, 958, 962, 964–967, 976, 978, 981, 982, 984, 985, 987, 988, 995, 998, 1000, 1002, 1003, 1007, 1011, 1013, 1018, 1020, 1021, 1031, 1034, 1044, 1045, 1047, 1052, 1057, 1058, 1060, 1064, 1065, 1072, 1073, 1083, 1084, 1090–1092, 1095–1099, 1103, 1106, 1107, 1118– 1120, 1125, 1127–1129, 1131, 1132, 1136–1138, 1140–1143, 1146, 1150, 1153–1156 after Civil War 896, 1157, 1160, 1204, 1217, 1218, 1226, 1232, 1234, 1290, 1304 death of 1415 Davis, John W. 1817, 1818 Davis Cup 1519, 1526, 1546 Dawes, Charles G. 1797, 1799, 1814, 1817, 1818, 1827, 1832 Dawes, William 341, 342 Dawes Plan 1814, 1827, 1843, 1846 Dawes Severalty Act 1395 Day, William R. 1491, 1492, 1496, 1503, 1504 Daye, Stephen 69, 71 Daylight Savings Time 1723, 1724 Dayton, Elias 376, 471, 473 Dayton Peace Accords 2351 D-Day 1955, 1955, 1995, 2008 DDT 1950 Dean, Howard 2374, 2392, 2400 Dean, John, III 2188, 2190 Deane, Silas 362, 379, 392, 399,

Index  2493 403, 405, 427, 430, 434, 442, 446, 448 Dearborn, Fort 654, 691, 767 Dearborn, Henry 647, 691, 694, 697, 698 death penalty 623, 630, 865, 892, 1821, 1822, 2150, 2183, 2213, 2275, 2293, 2374, 2383, 2414 Debs, Eugene V. 1447–1448, 1459–1460, 1462, 1480, 1521, 1561, 1595, 1637, 1642, 1739, 1750, 1761, 1804, 1821 Decatur, Stephen 637, 658, 659, 694, 713–715, 718, 731 Declaration of In­de­pen­dence 197, 263, 294, 303, 305, 333, 336, 338, 375, 377, 390–394, 391, 408, 412, 517, 634, 648, 649, 762, 785, 829 Declaration of Rights and ­Grievances 332–335 Decoration Day 1227, 1271 “Deep Throat” 2404 Deere, John 812, 813, 1229 Deerslayer, The (Cooper) 733, 830 Defense, U.S. Department of 2106, 2161, 2163, 2169 De Forest, Lee 1572, 1576–1577, 1585, 1587 De La Hoya, Oscar 2428 Delaware 51, 62, 107, 137, 141, 156, 169, 176, 195, 948 Delaware, Lord. See West, Thomas (baron De La Warre) Delaware (Lenni Lenape) ­Indians 22, 56, 91, 135, 137, 138, 215, 217, 223, 241, 252, 256, 262, 277, 278, 281, 390, 444, 518, 535, 661 Delaware Prophet 277, 278, 279, 282 Delaware River 404, 405 DeLay, Tom 2403, 2408, 2412, 2413

De Lima v. Bidwell 1535 De Long, George Washington 1327, 1344, 1348, 1360 Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) 2141, 2142, 2150, 2181, 2214 Demo­cratic National Conven-­ tion 798, 902, 924, 940 Demo­cratic Party 611, 613, 614, 626, 647, 650, 658, 666, 671, 675, 684, 689, 697, 715, 716, 721, 723, 730–731, 735, 749, 752, 754, 784, 799, 807, 815, 816, 829, 913, 928, 942, 1045, 1228, 1249, 1267, 1300, 1334, 1373, 1380, 1403, 1450, 1456– 1457, 1473–1474, 1485, 1526, 1563, 1597, 1692, 1762, 1817, 1827, 1837, 1854, 1862, 1878, 1887, 1902, 1914, 1956, 1959, 1989, 1990, 2004, 2013, 2016, 2040, 2054, 2056, 2074, 2090, 2093, 2290, 2308, 2323, 2325, 2333, 2367, 2376, 2380, 2381, 2395, 2400, 2418, 2420 Demo­cratic-­Republican Party 752, 754, 807, 815 Demo­cratic Republic of Congo 2388 Demo­crats 621, 643, 749, 836, 1046, 1104 Demologos, USS 671, 711, 764 Dempsey, William Harrison “Jack” 1735, 1748, 1753, 1799, 1800, 1812, 1827, 1832 Denmark 466, 753, 770 Dennison, William 1127, 1128 Dennis v. United States 2009 Denny, William 256, 262 Denver, Colorado 2345 Denver, John 2363 depression (1780s) 529–530, 546 depression (1918–1921) 1795 depression (1928–1939). See Great Depression Description of New En­gland, A (Smith) 18, 26

desegregation 2145, 2167, 2176, 2200, 2202, 2210. See also school desegregation Desert Storm. See Operation Desert Storm Destouches, ­Charles-­René Sochet, chevalier 496, 497 Detroit, Fort 274, 281, 282, 284, 285, 631 Detroit, Michigan 290, 664, 691, 692, 700, 705, 2334 Devlin, Thomas C. 1122, 1149 Dewey, George 1305, 1485– 1486, 1491, 1492, 1497, 1498, 1500, 1503, 1505, 1512, 1516, 1521, 1550 Dewey, John 1506, 1616, 1633, 1683, 1757, 1897 Dewey, Melvil 1302, 1392 Dewey, Thomas E. 1881, 1956, 1959, 1965, 1988, 1990 Dexter, Samuel 644, 645 Dhahran, Saudi Arabia 2356 Dial, The 805, 827, 848, 911 Díaz, Porfirio 1302, 1310, 1318, 1332, 1624–1626 Dickens, Charles 840, 1223 Dickinson, Emily 1416, 1469– 1470 Dickinson, John 293, 294, 300, 302, 304, 333, 354, 359, 368, 377, 387, 452, 547, 555 Dickinson College 525, 807, 928 Dickman, Joseph T. 1723, 1736, 1747 Dickson, Alexander 459, 460 Dieskau, Jean Armand de 248, 249, 251 DiMaggio, Joe 1922, 2370 Dingley Tariff Act 1479, 1481, 1522 Dinkins, David 2336 Dinwiddie, Robert 241, 242 direct primary 1527, 1552 Disciples of Christ 679, 680, 767, 829

2494  Chronology of American History Discovery (space shuttle) 2307, 2361, 2367 discrimination 1137, 1921, 1985, 2111, 2125, 2157, 2187, 2203, 2213, 2221, 2232, 2236, 2253, 2311, 2359 disenfranchisement 1775m Disney, Walt 1835, 1836, 1863, 1872, 1879, 1892, 1898, 1906, 1911, 1930, 2041 Distant Early Warning (DEW) line 2039 District of Columbia 567, 644, 645, 647, 652, 709, 805, 820, 826, 892, 948, 963, 1010, 1012, 1013, 1038, 1118, 1119, 1154, 2089, 2096, 2172, 2228, 2303, 2307 Dix, Dorothea L. 817, 831, 832, 844, 969, 970, 1343 Dixie (song) 935, 954, 1153 Dixon, Thomas, Jr. 1565, 1671 Dobbins v. Commissioners 840 Dodge, Mary Mapes 1137, 1271 Dole, Robert J. 2214, 2331, 2355, 2357, 2359 Dole, Sanford Ballard 1444, 1460, 1461, 1503, 1523, 1524 Dollar Diplomacy 1610–1613, 1629, 1638, 1649 domestic surveillance. See ­surveillance, domestic Dominican Republic 1245, 1248–1249, 1252, 1258, 1818, 2091, 2132, 2133, 2135 Donelson, Fort 990, 997, 999– 1001 Dongan, Thomas 138, 139, 146 Donovan, William 1934–1935 Doolittle, James H. “Jimmy” 1807, 1847, 1862, 1931, 1932, 1940 Dorchester, Massachusetts 57, 70 Dorchester Company 44, 45 Dorr, Thomas W. 840–842, 851, 860

Dorr’s War 842 Dos Passos, John 1795, 1818, 1904 Doubleday, Abner 961, 1079 Dougherty, John 532, 548 Douglas, Stephen A. 880, 894, 912, 913, 924, 929, 930, 932– 934, 942, 943, 956, 969 Douglas, William O. 2209 Douglass, Frederick 822, 822– 823, 847, 861, 879, 895, 904, 917, 1034, 1085, 1113, 1214, 1234, 1255, 1261, 1266 Dow Corning Corporation 2322 Dow Jones Industrial Aver-­ age 2260, 2279, 2283, 2285, 2300–2302, 2306, 2307, 2310, 2318, 2319, 2323, 2329, 2336, 2338, 2344, 2351, 2360, 2362, 2370, 2393, 2396, 2417, 2427, 2432, 2435 Downes, John 779, 783 Doxtader, John 506, 507 draft American Revolution 431 Civil War 1012, 1013, 1084, 1099, 1100, 1114, 1153 Korean War 2001, 2009 Vietnam War 2135, 2141, 2168, 2187 World War I 615, 1720 Dragging Canoe 393, 451 Drago, Luis M. 1548–1549, 1589 Dragoons 508, 513, 873 Draper’s Meadows 234, 249 Drayton, William H. 356–357, 360, 426 Dred (Stowe) 903, 922 Dred Scott v. Sanford 807, 927, 1204 Dreiser, Theodore 1243, 1518, 1621, 1631, 1684, 1818 Drew, Daniel 1244, 1279

Drewry’s Bluff, Virginia 1018, 1112 Drexel Burnham Lambert 2303 Drucour, Augustine de Boschenry de 260, 261 Drummond, Gordon 703, 706–710 Drummond, William 101, 103 Drum Taps (Whitman) 919, 1137 Duane, William J. 791, 792 DuBois, W. E. B. 1346, 1507, 1508, 1549, 1569, 1610, 1616 Dubois de La Motte, comte (Emmanuel-­Auguste de Cahi-­ deuc) 249, 256–258 Duchambon, Louis Du Pont de 228, 230–232, 247 Duche, Andrew 217, 222 Dudley, Joseph 141, 142, 171, 174, 180, 188 Dudley, Thomas 49, 85 Dukakis, Michael 2286–2293, 2295 Duke, David 2307 Duke, James Buchanan 1417, 1564, 1823 Duke’s Laws 104, 105, 107, 137, 141 Duke University 905, 1823 Dulles, John Foster 2018, 2019, 2023, 2024, 2029, 2031, 2034, 2039, 2040, 2049, 2054, 2057, 2059, 2060, 2065, 2077, 2078 Dull Knife 1302, 1314, 1320, 1321, 1323 Dumbarton Oaks Conference 1958, 2003 Dummer’s War 196, 198, 199 Dunbar, Thomas 247–249 Dunbar, William 661, 662 Duncan, Johnson K. 1014, 1015 Dunkers 142, 194 Dunlap, William 630, 645, 653 Dunmore, Lord (John Murray) 328–330, 334, 336, 344, 350,

Index  2495 363, 364, 367, 368, 371, 373, 392, 393 Dunmore’s War 328, 329, 332, 334, 360 DuPont, Samuel 985–988, 1004, 1041, 1058, 1064, 1081 DuPont de Nemours & ­Company 1808, 2105 Duportail, Louis 507, 512 Duquesne, Fort 242, 243, 249, 259, 260, 262, 263, 603 Durant, William C. 1598, 1629 Durfee, Amos 819, 830 Durnford, Elias 465, 466 Duryea, Charles E. 1440, 1466, 1468, 1469 Duryea, J. Frank 1440, 1469 dust bowl 1874, 2445m Duston, Hannah 165, 166 Dutch East India Company 12, 20, 22 Dutch Estates General 25, 72 Dutch Reformed Church 44, 234, 288, 534 Dutch West India Company 38, 40–42, 46, 48, 49, 54, 56, 82, 85, 88, 90, 91, 95, 104, 137 Dvorˇák, Antonín 1440, 1451 Dwight, Timothy 638, 645, 737 Dyer, Mary 45, 61, 66, 89, 93, 94, 95, 97 Dynegy Corporation 2383

E Eads, James Buchanan 977, 1281 Eakins, Thomas 1284, 1303, 1384 Earhart, Amelia 1837, 1856, 1861, 1894, 1896 Earle, Thomas 827, 829 Early, Jubal A. 1017, 1051, 1095, 1099, 1118–1120, 1122, 1126, 1127, 1130, 1133, 1145, 1199 Earth Day 2170, 2304 earthquakes 2301, 2324, 2338 Earth Summit 2324

Eastern Airlines 1727, 2096, 2097, 2099, 2311 eastern Eu­rope 2098, 2346 Eastern Indians 1174m East Germany 2071, 2122, 2123, 2199 East Jersey 132, 133, 136, 137, 146 Eastman, George 1317, 1330, 1370, 1399, 1408, 1838 Eastman Kodak Company 1518, 1605, 2308 Easton, Treaty of 262, 277 Eaton, Nathaniel 69, 70 Ebbers, Bernard 2393, 2401 economics 534, 540, 541, 566, 1897, 1898, 2137, 2138, 2142, 2143, 2145, 2157, 2178, 2179, 2190, 2228, 2230, 2237, 2405 economy, Colonial (1770) 581m Ecuyer, Simon 283, 284 Eddy, Mary Baker 1290, 1294– 1295, 1325 Eden, John R. 1084, 1104 Edison, Thomas A. 1239, 1240– 1241, 1295, 1304, 1316, 1318, 1320, 1323, 1328, 1330, 1333, 1358, 1359, 1408, 1431, 1432, 1444, 1452, 1455, 1458, 1472, 1532, 1675, 1853 education 176, 194, 196, 202, 225, 226, 233, 236, 237, 242, 245, 252, 263, 290, 545, 550, 560, 667, 722, 734, 735, 740, 748, 899–900, 1855, 2095, 2177, 2188, 2190, 2197, 2207, 2210, 2241, 2248, 2253, 2256, 2269 Education, U.S. Department of 2233, 2334 Edward, Fort 249, 251, 257, 259, 416, 417 Edwards, John 200, 2395 Edwards, Jonathan 202, 203– 204, 210, 215, 223, 225, 238, 244, 258, 259 Eggleston, Edward 1256, 1262, 1271, 1277

Egypt 2049, 2052, 2054, 2055, 2058, 2193, 2204 EgyptAir 2372 Ehrlichman, John 2191, 2203, 2204, 2222 Eigh­teenth Amendment 1718, 1750, 1756, 1758, 1760, 1853, 1855 eight-­hour day 1387, 1429, 1430, 1486, 1539, 1639 Einstein, Albert 1392, 1795, 1849, 1870, 1898, 1904, 1905 Eisenhower, Dwight D. 2021, 2021–2022 as army chief of staff 1970 death of 2162 William Donovan and 1935 election of 1952 2012, 2015, 2018 election of 1956 2051, 2054, 2056 Herbert Hoover and 1845 motorized convoy demon-­ stration (1919) 1753 as NATO commander 2008, 2014 Richard M. Nixon and 2160–2161 presidency (first term) 2019, 2020, 2023, 2027, 2028, 2030–2032, 2034, 2035, 2037–2039, 2042, 2043, 2045, 2047, 2048, 2051–2055 presidency (second term) 2056, 2057, 2059–2063, 2065, 2072, 2074–2076, 2078, 2079, 2081, 2082, 2084–2086, 2088–2090, 2092, 2094 as president of Columbia University 1988 as supreme commander of western Eu­ro­pe­an defense forces 2005, 2007

2496  Chronology of American History in World War II 1936, 1939, 1947, 1950, 1951, 1955, 1957, 1960, 1966, 1979, 1995 Eisenhower Doctrine 2057, 2058 Elbert, Samuel 448, 450 El Caney, Battle of 1357, 1499 election of 1789 600 election of 1793 617 election of 1797 632 election of 1800 643, 645 election of 1804 658, 662 election of 1808 675, 677 election of 1812 695, 696 election of 1816 716, 718, 720 election of 1820 732, 734 election of 1824 739, 740, 745, 748, 749 election of 1828 762 election of 1832 784, 787 election of 1836 811, 835 election of 1840 829, 830, 835 election of 1844 850, 854 election of 1848 881, 882, 884, 1126, 1145 election of 1852 904, 906, 907, 913 election of 1856 841, 923–926 election of 1860 940, 942, 943 election of 1864 1113, 1114, 1117, 1123, 1126, 1130, 1132, 1143 election of 1868 1227, 1228, 1231 election of 1872 1265–1267, 1269 election of 1876 1298–1300, 1302, 1303 election of 1880 1333, 1334–1335 election of 1884 1372–1374 election of 1888 1401–1404 election of 1892 1436, 1437, 1439, 1441 election of 1896 1473–1475 election of 1900 1521, 1523– 1526, 1530 election of 1904 1561–1564 election of 1908 1594–1597, 1599

election of 1912 1636–1642, 1865 election of 1916 1689, 1692, 1694, 1698 election of 1920 1761–1764, 1797 election of 1924 1816–1818 election of 1928 1832, 1835, 1837, 1838, 1844, 1845 election of 1932 1861–1863, 1865 election of 1936 1886, 1887, 1890 election of 1940 1911–1915, 1917 election of 1944 1951–1953, 1956, 1959 election of 1948 1988–1990 election of 1952 2012–2016, 2018 election of 1956 2051, 2054, 2056 election of 1960 2085, 2090– 2095 election of 1964 2125, 2126, 2128, 2129 election of 1968 2153, 2154, 2157–2159 election of 1972 2184, 2185– 2186 election of 1976 2206, 2213– 2219 election of 1980 2238, 2240, 2295 election of 1984 2252, 2257, 2260–2266 election of 1988 2284, 2286– 2295 election of 1992 2296, 2315, 2318, 2320, 2321, 2323, 2325, 2326, 2328, 2331 election of 1996 2331, 2355, 2359 election of 2000 2296, 2332, 2371, 2374, 2376–2378, 2380 election of 2004 2380, 2392, 2395, 2396 Eleventh Amendment 623, 636 Eliot, Charles W. 1237, 1611

Eliot, John 54, 54–55, 79, 81, 87, 89, 95, 100, 109, 114 Eliot, T. S. 1656, 1700, 1804, 1990 Elizabeth I (queen of En­gland) 9, 14 Elizabeth II (queen of Great Britain) 2063, 2315 Elkins Act 1551, 1579 Elk v. Wilkins 1367 Ellicott’s Mills 766, 772, 774 Elliot, Jesse D. 692, 696 Ellis Island 1435 Ellsberg, Daniel 2191, 2194 Ellsworth, Oliver 630, 640, 642 Ellyson, Theodore G. “Spuds” 1620, 1624, 1642 El Salvador 889, 2241 Ely, Eugene 1620, 1622–1623 e-mail 2388 emancipation 641, 658, 722, 916, 979–981, 1008, 1012, 1017, 1019, 1029, 1045, 1046, 1048, 1055, 1063, 1105 Emancipation Proclamation 805, 1030, 1040, 1041, 1043, 1055–1057, 1263 Embargo Act 672, 674–676, 706 embassy bombings (Kenya and Tanzania) 2366, 2385 Emergency Fleet Corporation 1696, 1706, 1721 Emerson, Ralph Waldo 754, 759, 803, 804, 804–805, 818, 828, 830, 848, 911, 917–919, 922, 939 eminent domain 2405 Emory, William H. 965, 1121 Empire State Building 1847, 1856 employment, agricultural/indus-­ trial (1950) 2450m Empress of China (ship) 531, 533, 540 Encyclopedia Americana (Lieber) 755, 763

Index  2497 Endeavor (space shuttle) 2323, 2326, 2337, 2345 Endecott, John 44, 45, 47, 48, 50, 63, 65, 87, 99 Endicott, William C. 1381, 1385 enemy combatants 2390 Energy, U.S. Department of 2223, 2293, 2299 Enforcement Act (1809) 675 Enforcement Act (1865) 1324 Enforcement Act (1870) 1251 Enforcement Act (1871) 1458 Enforcement Act (1874) 1324 Engel v. Vitale 2107 En­gland 106, 109 En­glish Civil War 49, 89 Enrica (ship). See Alabama, CSS Enron 2413, 2417 Enron Corporation 2383, 2385, 2388, 2393, 2394 Enterprise, USS 649, 699, 1939, 1940, 2153, 2159 environment 2138, 2143, 2152, 2169, 2170, 2185, 2186, 2220 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 2174, 2183, 2186, 2314, 2389, 2401, 2437 Episcopal Church 535, 1807, 2085, 2217, 2270, 2290, 2291, 2300, 2316, 2336, 2341, 2391, 2418, 2420, 2423 Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) 2354 Equal Protection Clause 2355 equal rights 883–884, 2116. See also civil rights Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) 2181, 2228, 2249, 2455m Equal Rights Party 800, 1261, 1266, 1402 Ericsson, John 983, 986, 997, 1422 Erie, Fort 707–711 Erie, Lake 241, 696, 699, 700 Erie, Lake, Battle of 700, 730 Erie Canal 720, 722, 740, 751

Erie Indians 90, 93 Erie Railroad 898, 1279 Erskine, David M. 676, 678 Ervin, Sam 2187, 2194 Esopus Indians 95–97, 100, 102 espionage 1967, 1990, 1991, 1994, 1997, 2007, 2016, 2027, 2028, 2039, 2041, 2063, 2372, 2381 Espionage Act (1917) 1448, 1710, 1728, 1739, 1750 Espy, Mike 2368, 2371 Essays (Emerson) 805, 830 Essex, USS 664, 694, 696, 703, 705, 1014, 1030, 1032 Estaing, Charles, comte d’ 436, 441, 442, 446, 454, 458–460, 462, 493 Estonia 2317 Ethics in Government Act (1978) 2371 Ethiopian Orthodox Church 2326 Ethnic and Racial Diversity in the British Colonies 579m ethnic cleansing 2370 Eu­rope 2084, 2309, 2346 World War I western front (1914–1918) 1782m World War II battles 2447m Eu­ro­pe­an Recovery Plan. See Marshall Plan Eu­ro­pe­an ­Union 2309, 2328 Eutaw Springs, Battle of 484 Evangelical Association 653, 1805 Evangelical Christianity 1470– 1471, 1805, 2237 Evangeline (Longfellow) 825, 873 Evans, Clement A. 1130, 1142 Evans, Oliver 321, 542 Evarts, William Maxwell 1307, 1318, 1334 Everett, Edward 942, 943, 1093, 1094 Everglades 2358

evolutionary theory 1808, 1816, 1821–1824 Ewell, Richard S. 1019, 1020, 1023, 1075, 1076, 1079, 1108, 1109, 1150, 1151 Exxon Corporation 2300, 2313, 2314, 2368 Exxon Valdez 2297, 2304, 2313, 2325, 2340, 2341 Ezra Church, Battle of 1120

F Fairbanks, Charles W. 1562, 1564, 1567, 1692 Fairbanks, Douglas 1632, 1672, 1751, 1757 Fairfax Court ­House, Virginia 1005, 1078 Fair Labor Standards Act 1900, 1915, 1918, 1996, 1998, 2047, 2097 Fall, Albert B. 1313, 1797, 1799, 1806, 1812, 1817, 1833, 1847, 1851 Fallen Timbers, Battle of 624– 625, 655, 656, 679 “Fall of the ­House of Usher, The” (Poe) 828, 856 Falmouth, Virginia 1047, 1051, 1058, 1066, 1075 Falwell, Jerry 2280, 2286, 2298 Family Leave Act 2329 Fanshawe (Hawthorne) 757, 758 Faris, Hamid Juma 2416 Farmer Labor Party 1763, 1817, 1837, 1862 farming. See agriculture Farm Security Administration (FSA) 1894 Farragut, David G. 705, 989, 995, 997, 1002, 1006, 1011, 1013, 1014, 1014–1015, 1026, 1027, 1029, 1031, 1062, 1084, 1121, 1135, 1136, 1208, 1485 Farrakhan, Louis 2350, 2424 fascism 2039, 2068

2498  Chronology of American History Fastow, Andrew 2388 Faubus, Orval 2062, 2073, 2079 Faulkner, William 1814, 1823, 1839, 1842, 1850, 1859, 1897, 1904, 1910, 2004, 2005, 2031, 2044, 2067, 2115 Faust, Drew Gilpin 2423 Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) 2072, 2079, 2294, 2400 Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) 2202, 2203, 2209, 2211, 2384, 2390, 2413 Federal Communications Com-­ mission (FCC) 1875, 2282, 2437 Federal Deposit Insurance Cor-­ poration (FDIC) 1869, 2310, 2323, 2337 Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) 2361, 2406, 2407 Federal Housing Administration (FHA) 1876 Federalist, The 560, 565, 601, 677 Federalist Party 303, 345, 601, 602, 634 Federalists 517, 563, 564, 600, 623, 628, 631, 643, 646, 649, 650, 675, 691, 697, 715, 720, 750, 752 Federal Reserve Board 1654, 1704, 1843, 2281, 2282, 2293, 2405 Federal Reserve System 1454, 1698, 1809, 1990, 2006, 2343, 2394 Federal Society of Cordwainers 639, 663, 683 Federal Trade Commission (FTC) 1666 Federer, Roger 2433 Feiner v. United States 2006 Female ­Anti-­Slavery Society 792, 793, 799, 821 Feminine Mystique, The (Friedan) 2112, 2113

feminism 847, 883–884 Fendall, Josias 92, 96, 133 Fenians 926, 1206, 1251 Fenwick, John 116, 129, 131, 136 Ferber, Edna 1683, 1821 Ferguson, Patrick 445, 467, 468, 474, 476, 479–481 Fermi, Enrico 2036, 2041 Ferraro, Geraldine 2263, 2264 Fessenden, Reginald A. 1532, 1582 Fessenden, William 1117, 1162, 1204 Fetterman Massacre 1207, 1211 Field, Cyrus 914, 927, 1209 Fields, Herbert 1834, 1848, 1910 Fifteenth Amendment 1206, 1221, 1236, 1238, 1246, 1250, 1253, 1258, 1261 Fifth Amendment 1203 filibusterers 691, 897–899, 910, 914, 916, 921, 930, 943 Fillmore, Millard 642, 770, 881, 884, 886, 892, 893, 893–894, 894, 897, 899, 900, 909, 910, 920, 926, 1278 film. See motion pictures Finch, F. B. 754, 774 Finland 1910, 1973 Finnes, Arabella 50, 51 Finney, Charles G. 781, 782 Firestone Tire and Rubber Com-­ pany 1530, 2238, 2376 Firpo, Luis Angel 1800, 1812 First Amendment 544, 1318, 1750, 2324 First Congregational Church 49, 58 First ­Union Corporation 2360 Fish, Hamilton 1237, 1241, 1242, 1250, 1252, 1253, 1257, 1260, 1275–1277, 1288, 1305 Fisher, Fort 1125, 1136, 1138, 1139–1140, 1150 Fisher, People v. 797

Fisher’s Hill, Battle of 1127 Fishing Creek, South Carolina 475, 478 Fisk, Clinton B. 1200, 1402 Fisk, James 1243, 1279 Fiske, Bradley A. 1637, 1639 Fiske, John 1277, 1399 Fitch, John 557, 558 Fitch, William Clyde 1420, 1540 Fitzgerald, F. Scott 1757, 1804, 1804, 1805, 1805, 1818, 1871, 2045 Fitzgerald, Zelda Sayre 1804, 1805 Fitzsimmons, Bob 1478, 1513 Five Civilized Tribes 965, 1200, 1497, 1538 Five Forks, Battle of 1149, 1198 Five Nations Iroquois 20, 71, 75, 84, 85, 87, 90, 93, 98, 103, 106, 113, 115, 129, 132, 133, 137–139, 145, 153, 163, 167, 182, 212. See also Iroquois Confederacy FleetBoston 2391 Fletcher, Benjamin 159, 160, 162 Fletcher, Frank Friday 1661, 1682 Fletcher v. Peck 682 Flipper, Henry Ossian 1312– 1313 Flood Control Act 1837, 1900 floods 1799, 1830, 1980, 2010, 2049, 2304, 2322, 2330, 2332, 2333, 2340, 2346, 2361 Florida 5, 8, 11, 112, 120, 161, 172, 225, 683, 684, 688, 689, 692, 706, 711, 712, 717, 721, 723–726, 728, 734, 735, 750, 802, 803, 819, 828, 846, 857, 887, 945, 949, 950, 959, 981, 984, 1100, 1145–1146, 1228, 1821, 1822, 1827, 2325, 2358, 2377, 2395 Florida, CSS 1008, 1037, 1129

Index  2499 Florida Territory 737, 746 Florio, James 2336 Floyd, John B. 703, 705, 787, 946–948, 979, 980–981, 1000, 1001 Flying Cloud 890, 899 Foch, Ferdinand 1724, 1726, 1733, 1736 Foley, Mark 2417 Fontainebleau, Treaty of 280, 310 Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 2405, 2412, 2413, 2415, 2419, 2425, 2429 football 2340, 2400 Foote, Andrew H. 980, 995, 997, 1000–1002, 1007, 1013, 1017, 1078 Foote, Henry H. 993, 998 Foote, Horton 2346 Foot Resolution 767, 772 Forbes, Charles 1797, 1809 Forbes, John 260, 262, 263 Force Bill (1833) 788, 789 Ford, Gerald R. 2192, 2194, 2197, 2198–2199, 2200, 2201, 2203, 2205–2207, 2209–2214, 2216–2218, 2295, 2420 Ford, Henry 1451, 1452–1453, 1471, 1473, 1514, 1554, 1599, 1603, 1644, 1682–1684, 1754, 1823, 1872 Ford, James W. 1887, 1913 Ford, Robert 1202, 1354 Ford Foundation 2020, 2049 Ford Motor Company 1452, 1554, 1555, 1798, 1814, 1817, 1828, 1839, 1919, 2068, 2247, 2417, 2422 Ford’s Theater 957, 1153 Forrest, Edwin 732, 779 Forrest, Nathan B. 990, 994, 1011, 1030, 1050, 1051, 1054, 1061, 1063, 1069, 1088, 1101, 1103–1105, 1106, 1114, 1119, 1122, 1132, 1136, 1149, 1150, 1162, 1218

Forrestal, James V. 1980, 2333 Forster, George 385–386 Forsyth, George A. 1229, 1231, 1355 Fortas, Abe 2157, 2158, 2163 Fortress Monroe 989, 1007, 1148, 1157 Fort Stanwix, Treaty of 302, 307, 308 Fort Wayne, Indiana 283, 610, 614 Fossett, Steve 2401 Foster, Henry W. 2347 Foster, John G. 686, 1000, 1065 Foster, John Watson 1318, 1439 Foster, Stephen 873, 895, 912, 944, 1098 Foster, Vincent W. 2333 Foster, William Z. 1755, 1817, 1837 Foulois, Benjamin D. 1615, 1678, 1695 Fourteen Points 1649, 1720, 1741–1743, 1745, 1746, 1749, 1750, 1753, 1766 Fourteenth Amendment 1200, 1208, 1209, 1211, 1214, 1215, 1217, 1228, 1229, 1251, 1253, 1260, 1261, 1266, 1288, 1297, 1332, 1367, 1388, 1418, 1472, 1593, 2355, 2356 Fourth of July 904, 961 Fox, Charles James 431, 463 Fox, George 88, 93, 94, 110, 112 Fox, Gustavus V. 959–961, 976, 1007, 1041, 1205 Fox Indians 187, 190–191, 206, 661, 739, 751, 774, 777, 778, 783, 785, 786 Fox tele­vi­sion network 2339 France 226, 232, 234, 240, 241, 248, 253, 274, 280–282, 293, 524, 525, 534, 539, 618–621, 624, 630–637, 640, 642–644, 652–654, 659, 662, 672, 674, 682–686, 777, 797, 798, 805,

809, 827, 897, 1098, 1104, 1112, 1116, 1161, 1804, 1806, 1824, 1830, 1851, 1858, 1909, 1913, 1956, 1958, 1967, 1973, 2023, 2030, 2032, 2034–2036, 2038, 2045, 2047, 2052, 2055, 2074, 2077, 2081, 2090, 2098, 2099, 2328, 2329, 2357 Francis I (king of France) 5, 6 Franco, Francisco 1906, 2029 Franco-­Prus­sian War 1198, 1242, 1343 Franklin, Battle of 1134 Franklin, Benjamin 197–198 abolitionism 341, 552 and Albany Plan 183 and American Philosophical Society 226 and Articles of Confedera-­ tion 356 as author/publisher 201, 202, 207, 208, 212, 215, 233, 238, 242, 302, 316 birth of 177 common-­law marriage 204–205 at First Continental Con-­ gress 325 at Second Continental Con-­ gress 362, 368 death of 607 and Declaration of In­de­pen­ dence 387, 390, 391 John Dickinson and 294 diplomacy 256, 257, 288, 291, 296, 302, 380–382, 396, 399, 401, 403, 405, 406, 426, 428, 430, 434, 444, 445, 504–505, 520, 523– 525, 533, 535, 539, 554 on ea­gle as national symbol 530 Joseph Galloway and 333 as inventor/scientist 223, 225, 232, 233, 239, 275, 295

2500  Chronology of American History and Junto Club 200 Thomas Paine and 335, 375 Charles Willson Peale and 318 Plan of ­Union 243, 244 as postmaster 240, 323, 327, 357 in Royal Society 253, 255 Friedrich von Steuben and 432 and Treaty of Paris 426, 524 and ­Union Fire Company 206 University of Pennsylvania 248 Franklin, James 193, 208 Franklin, John 892, 908 Franklin, William 316, 388 Franklin, William B. 1039, 1047, 1051, 1058, 1087, 1092 Franklin College 552, 806 Franz Ferdinand (archduke of Austria) 1662 Fraser, Simon 387, 413, 415, 421, 423 Fraser, Thomas 504, 508 Frederick, Mary­land 1038, 1078 Fredericksburg, Battle of 1050, 1050–1051 Fredericksburg, Virginia 1023, 1046–1049, 1058, 1067, 1069, 1074 Free African Society 552, 553 free blacks 38, 1164m Freedmen’s Bureau 1145, 1157, 1200, 1203, 1209, 1266 freedom of speech 2006, 2298, 2324, 2355, 2393 freedom of worship 84, 99 Freeman, James 523, 562 Freeman’s Farm, Battle of 347 Freeman’s Farm, New York 421, 489 Free-­Soil Party 817, 882, 904, 905, 918, 921–924 Free State Party 930, 931

Frelinghuysen, Frederick T. 1351, 1353, 1361, 1375 Frémont, John C. 840, 841, 845, 849, 853, 854, 859, 864, 868, 869, 873, 874, 876, 880, 925, 926, 929, 967, 979–982, 986, 987, 1020, 1023, 1025, 1026, 1086, 1113, 1126 French, Daniel Chester 1284, 1321 French, William H. 1092, 1095 French Alliance (American Rev-­ olution) 426, 428–431, 434, 446–448 French and Indian War 183, 230, 243, 248, 250, 251, 253, 257, 268, 269, 274, 282, 328, 334, 342, 345, 347, 365, 578m French Foreign Legion 2313 French Indochina. See Vietnam French Revolution 375, 493, 554, 602, 603, 617, 618, 620, 634 Frenchtown, Battle of 695 Freneau, Philip 470, 562, 613, 617 Frick, Henry Clay 1437, 1438, 1454, 1534 Friedan, Betty 2112–2113 Friedman, Milton 2215, 2216 Friendly Society for the Mutual Insurance of ­Houses Against Fire 210, 222 Fries, John 640, 658 Frontenac, Louis de Buade, comte de 145, 152, 154, 155, 163, 166 Front Royal, Virginia 1019, 1020 Frost, Robert Lee 1655–1656, 1816, 1835, 1856, 1885, 1892, 1904, 1946, 1961 Fuchs, Klaus 1967, 2028 Fugitive Slave Act (1793) 618, 642, 844 Fugitive Slave Act (1850) 770, 892–894, 897, 903, 907, 915, 916, 977, 1013, 1029

fugitive slave laws (1600s–1700s) 71, 74, 76, 98, 176, 199 Fuller, Margaret 805, 827, 856, 862, 896 Fuller, William 88, 91, 92 Fulton, Robert 342, 558, 648, 670, 671, 684–687, 711, 1279 Fundamental Constitutions (Locke) 108, 109 fundamentalism 680, 1287, 1614, 1809 Fundy, Bay of (Nova Scotia) 247, 248, 251 Funston, Frederick 1512, 1513, 1534, 1577, 1581, 1661, 1667, 1702 Furman v. Georgia 2183 fur trade 11, 12, 20, 24, 26, 38, 60, 71, 74, 81, 87, 90, 96, 97, 107–109, 129, 132–135, 137, 146, 169, 192

G Gadsden, Christopher 362, 426, 468 Gadsden, James 908, 910 Gadsden Purchase 916 Gage, Thomas 286, 292, 295, 303–305, 310, 320, 329–332, 337, 339–341, 345, 348, 349, 351, 353, 361 Gaines, Edmund P. 709, 723, 777 Galagina. See Boudinot, Elias Galbraith, John Kenneth 2084 Gall 1293, 1299 Gallatin, Albert 616, 623, 630, 647, 651, 675, 684, 696, 705, 718, 725, 779 Gallaudet, Thomas 722, 904 Galloway, Joseph 294, 332, 333 Galveston, Texas 1048, 1055, 1056, 1158 Gálvez, Bernardo de 455, 458– 461, 465, 466, 482, 494, 496, 499, 500 Gamble, James 819, 1316

Index  2501 Gansevoort, Peter 417, 474 Gardner, Alexander 941, 1197 Gardoqui, Diego de 540–542 Garfield, James A. 780, 1259, 1333, 1334, 1339, 1340–1341, 1344, 1347–1349, 1351, 1411 Garland, Hamlin 1443, 1699 Garner, John Nance 1865, 1887 Garner v. Los Angeles 2009 Garnett, Henry Highland 846, 974 Garnett, Robert S. 970, 973 Garrison, Lindley M. 1677, 1681, 1685, 1687–1688 Garrison, William Lloyd 776, 793, 799, 800, 800–801, 823, 847, 895, 901, 927 Garrity, W. Arthur 2202, 2210 Garvey, Marcus 1763, 1763 Gates, Bill 2413 Gates, Horatio 347, 356, 388, 389, 392, 417, 419–421, 423–425, 427, 429, 431, 472, 474, 476–478, 480, 485, 486, 489, 719 Gates, Robert 2418, 2419, 2422, 2426, 2435 Gates, Thomas 21–24 Gaulle, Charles de 1956, 1958, 2098 Geary, John W. 926, 927, 1091, 1092, 1119 Geary Chinese Exclusion Act 1436, 1446, 1450 Gehrig, Lou 1907, 1920 gender discrimination 2297, 2321 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 2147, 2309, 2337, 2344 General Allotment Act 1395, 1417, 1428, 1578 General Court (Massachusetts) 49, 51, 52, 55–57, 62–66, 70, 71, 74, 77, 79, 81, 87, 88, 90, 92–95, 97–100, 176, 179

General Electric 1241, 1432, 1454, 1585, 1990, 2030 General Monck (ship) 508, 519, 520 General Motors 1598, 1600, 1623, 1629, 1727, 1757, 1988, 1992, 1999, 2019, 2031, 2046, 2212, 2241, 2248, 2258, 2278, 2321, 2366, 2404, 2411, 2427 General Surveys Bill 743, 745 General Trades ­Union 788, 791 Genet, ­Edmond-­CharlesÉdouard 618–620 gene therapy 2302, 2306 ge­ne­tic engineering 2312, 2323, 2336 Geneva, Switzerland 1825, 2071, 2074, 2075, 2077, 2086, 2342 Geneva Agreement (1954) 2038 Geneva Conference (1959) 2079 Geneva Convention (1864) 1343, 1354, 1356 Geneva Summit (1955) 2047 Geoghan, John 2386 George, Fort, Battle of 697 George, Henry 1323, 1422 George, Lake 251, 255–257, 259, 260 George I (king of Great Britain) 189, 190, 194, 195, 200 George II (king of Great Britain) 182, 200, 206, 208, 235, 245, 250, 274, 285 George III (king of Great Brit-­ ain) 271, 274, 274, 292–294, 305, 308, 323, 324, 329, 330, 339, 355, 356, 358, 359, 371, 374, 418, 425, 429, 437, 438, 447, 516, 518, 526, 537, 541 Georgetown University 600, 662, 712 George Washington, USS 644, 2079, 2084, 2090 Georgia 11, 208, 209, 212, 217, 219, 223, 224, 236, 240, 245, 307, 502, 504, 539, 542, 562,

651, 682, 688, 749, 763, 776, 895, 939, 944, 946, 1011, 1088, 1095, 1098, 1100, 1101, 1103, 1104, 1108–1112, 1116, 1121, 1123, 1129, 1133, 1136, 1154, 1158, 1161, 1228, 1230, 1238, 1246, 1250, 1253, 1258, 2321, 2340, 2395 Georgia v. Stanton 1217 Gérard de Rayvenal, ­Conrad­Alexandre 447, 449 Germain, George 366, 384, 405, 408, 409, 431, 433, 503, 516, 518 German Flats, New York 258, 444 German immigration 182, 193, 196 German Reformed Church 192, 234 Germantown, Battle of 422 Germantown, Pennsylvania 138, 145–146 Germany 879, 1799, 1801, 1802, 1807, 1809, 1814, 1827, 1844, 1861, 1870, 1889, 1903, 1912, 1913, 1918, 1921, 1927, 1948, 1951–1953, 1955, 1956, 1958, 1960, 1962, 1963, 1966, 1967, 1982, 1993, 1994, 2014, 2021– 2022, 2032, 2045, 2077, 2081, 2322, 2357 Germany, Federal Republic of 1994, 2040, 2043 Geronimo 1198, 1199, 1305, 1308, 1309–1310, 1347, 1348, 1354, 1358, 1361, 1362, 1365, 1370, 1382, 1383, 1385–1389, 1426, 1490, 1511, 1560, 1567, 1575 Gerry, Elbridge 687, 689, 695 gerrymandering 2355, 2394 Gershwin, George 1722, 1814, 1815, 1835, 1861, 1883 Gershwin, Ira 1815, 1858, 1861 Getty, George W. 1108, 1151

2502  Chronology of American History Gettysburg, Battle of 1078– 1080, 1092, 1104, 1900 Gettysburg, Pennsylvania 1023 Gettysburg Address 1093–1094 Ghent, Treaty of 678, 712, 713, 750, 778 Ghost Dance Religion 1207, 1293, 1305, 1409, 1416, 1422, 1423 Ghost Dance War 1424 Gibbon, John 1036, 1051, 1116, 1123, 1298, 1311 Gibbons v. Ogden 744, 769 GI Bill of Rights 1955–1956, 1976, 2015, 2138 Giddings, Joshua 824, 840 Gideon v. Wainwright 2114 Gillette, William 1336, 1342, 1384, 1505 Gillhaus, August 1597, 1761 Gilmore, Quincy 1081, 1082, 1098 Gingrich, Newt 2343, 2344, 2360–2361, 2368 Ginsburg, Ruth Bader 2333 Girard, Stephen 781, 880 Girard College 781, 880 Girty, Simon 301, 420, 461, 509, 520, 522 Gist, Christopher 238, 240 Gist, Mordecai 472, 522 Gitlow, Benjamin 1817, 1837 Giuliani, Rudolph W. 2336 Gladden, Washington 1416, 1427 Gladstone, William 1242, 1344 Glass-­Steagall Banking Act 1860 Glenn, John H. 2061, 2076, 2103, 2104, 2252, 2367 global warming 2364 Glorietta Pass, New Mexico 1008, 1009 Glorious Revolution 147–149 Glover, John 362, 396, 398, 400, 444, 457 Gluck, Louise 2332

Goddard, Robert H. 1656, 1749, 1812, 1813, 1824, 1846, 1855 Godey’s Lady’s Book 758, 768, 900 Goethals, George W. 1588, 1658, 1660, 1664, 1719 Goetz, Bernhard 2265, 2272 gold 880, 881, 884, 885, 892, 938, 2235 Goldberg, Arthur 2108, 2133 Golden Hill, Battle of 311 Goldfine, Bernard 2071–2073 Goldman, Emma 1450, 1451, 1757 Goldman, Ronald 2340, 2361 gold rush California 880, 1181m Klondike 1483–1484 Yukon 1474 Goldsborough, Louis M. 982, 995, 996, 1000 gold standard 1857, 1867, 1871–1872 Goldwater, Barry 2125, 2128 golf 93, 1835, 2361, 2376 Gompers, Samuel 1349, 1350, 1351, 1390, 1454, 1531, 1587, 1799, 1884 Gone with the Wind (Mitchell) 1885, 1892, 1911 Gonzales, Alberto 2398, 2399, 2411, 2433 Gonzales v. Williams 1558 González, Elián 2375–2376 Good Earth, The (Buck) 1855, 1861 Good Hope, Fort (Hartford, Connecticut) 56–57, 90 Google 2426 Gorbachev, Mikhail 2267, 2271, 2277, 2284, 2289, 2295, 2301, 2305, 2316, 2317 Gordon, Jeff 2427 Gordon, John B. 1109, 1126, 1130, 1142, 1148, 1149, 1151– 1153, 1413

Gore, Al 2296, 2325, 2329, 2330, 2332, 2360, 2363, 2371, 2374, 2376–2378, 2435 Gorges, Ferdinando 14, 16, 17, 31, 32, 39, 49, 54, 56, 60, 65, 70, 72, 129 Gorges, Robert 39, 40 Gosnold, Bartholomew 12, 14 “Gospel of Wealth, The” (Carn-­ egie) 1377, 1413 Gosport Navy Yard 963, 1017 Goss, Peter 2412 Gottschalk, Louis Moreau 895, 906 Gould, Jay 1243, 1244, 1279, 1322, 1386, 1441 Gould, Morton 2346 Goyahkla. See Geronimo Graham, Billy 2062, 2405 Graham, Katherine 2381 Graham’s Magazine 833, 856 Granby, Fort 500, 501 Grand Army of the Republic 1157, 1204, 1211, 1227, 1996 Grand Canyon 1239, 1339 Grand Gulf, Mississippi 1067, 1069 Grand Ohio Company 307, 308 Grange 1223, 1278, 1306 Granger, Francis 802, 892 Grant, James 262, 269, 275–277, 406, 436–438, 445 Grant, Ulysses S. 1102, 1236– 1237 birth of 737 in ­Mexican-­American War 877 in Civil War 957, 976, 977, 980, 987, 988, 993, 995, 997–1001, 1007, 1010– 1012, 1016, 1023, 1024, 1039, 1045, 1051, 1052, 1056–1058, 1063, 1065– 1068, 1070–1072, 1077, 1080, 1081, 1089, 1091, 1094, 1099, 1102, 1102,

Index  2503 1105, 1106, 1108–1113, 1115, 1116, 1118, 1121, 1122, 1124, 1125, 1127, 1135–1137, 1140–1142, 1149–1152, 1155, 1198 post–Civil War military career 1209, 1216, 1221, 1225 election of 1868 1231 presidency (first term) 823, 1233, 1234, 1243–1246, 1248–1250, 1252, 1256– 1258, 1265, 1266, 1268, 1348 election of 1872 896, 1265, 1266, 1269 presidency (second term) 1272, 1274, 1279, 1280, 1282–1284, 1288, 1289, 1292, 1296, 1297, 1303, 1311 post-­presidential career 1310, 1376, 1381 election of 1880 1333, 1341 death of 1383 Grapes of Wrath, The (Stein-­ beck) 1891, 1904, 1912 Grasse, François-­Joseph-­Paul, comte de 501, 507–512, 515 Graves, Samuel 349, 360–361, 376 Graves, Thomas 349, 362, 473, 506, 509–512, 515 Graves, William S. 1736, 1737 Gravier, Charles. See Vergennes, Charles Gravier, comte de Gray, Robert 609, 616, 620 Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company (A&P) 934, 1246 Great Awakening 203, 210, 215, 217, 219, 222, 223, 225, 291. See also Second Great Awak-­ ening Great Bridge, Battle of 371 Great Britain 240, 244, 253, 274, 277, 278, 280, 281, 297,

544, 618–621, 623–626, 630– 632, 634, 643, 649, 653, 662, 666–670, 672, 674, 676–679, 682–686, 688–691, 694, 695, 697, 704–706, 708, 712, 715, 725, 743, 750, 756, 791, 805, 830, 868, 884, 891, 916, 966, 979, 988–991, 1011, 1024, 1031, 1043, 1071, 1087, 1090, 1143, 1158, 1804, 1806, 1851, 1909, 1918, 1930, 1967–1969, 1973, 2030, 2032, 2038, 2039, 2045, 2047, 2049, 2055, 2074, 2077, 2081, 2091, 2099, 2100, 2329, 2351, 2368, 2382 Great Depression 1845, 1847–1849, 1850, 1855, 1865, 2444m–2446m Great Lakes 131, 712, 714, 722, 725 Great Migration 45, 50, 86 Great Society program 2128, 2130, 2137, 2143, 2144, 2159 Great Strike (1877) 1313, 1314 Great Swamp Fight 121–122 Great White Fleet 1538, 1591, 1604 Great White Hope 1618, 1674 Greece 1920, 1977, 1978, 2306 Greek Orthodox Church 1197, 2310, 2315, 2344, 2357 Greeley, Horace 833, 895, 896, 976, 1030, 1034, 1035, 1118, 1237, 1265, 1267, 1269 Greely, Adolphus W. 1289, 1341, 1342, 1346, 1365, 1371, 1372, 1392, 1494 Green, Duff 752, 764, 775 Green, John 526, 540 Green, Steven D. 2414 Green, Thomas 73, 88 Green, William 1902, 1930, 2018 Greenback Party 1283, 1298, 1318, 1321, 1372, 1410, 1422 Greene, Christopher 425, 427, 501 Greene, John 531, 533

Greene, Nathanael 318, 344, 354, 389, 394–396, 402, 403, 405, 422, 433, 439, 441, 444, 473, 475, 481, 484, 485, 486, 487, 489–492, 496–501, 504, 505, 509, 511, 515, 516, 525 green­house gas emissions 2380 Green Mountain Boys 344, 346, 357 Green Peach War 1351 Greenspan, Alan 2281, 2282 Green v. Biddle 740 Greenville, Treaty of 334, 610, 627–628, 679, 708 Greenville, USS 2378 Greenwood, Isaac 200, 202, 215 Gregg, David M. 1075, 1080, 1123 Gregg, John 1070, 1071, 1142 Grenada 2257, 2313 Grenville, George 281, 291 Grey, Charles 421–422, 445 Grey, Edward 1654, 1686 Grey, Zane 1572, 1631 Gridley, Richard 352, 380 Grierson, Benjamin H. 1065, 1066, 1069, 1261, 1312, 1334 Griffith, D. W. 1631, 1632, 1671, 1673, 1684, 1751 Grimaud, United States v. 1625 Grissom, Virgil “Gus” 2076, 2099, 2131, 2145 Groseilliers, Médard Chouart, sieur des Grover, Curvier 1064, 1065 Grumman Corporation 2339 Guar, Pierre du. See Monts, Pierre du Gua, sieur de Monts Guadalcanal, Battle of 1936, 1939, 1940, 1943 Guadalupe Hidalgo, Treaty of 859, 880, 928 Guam 1510, 1957, 2326 Guantánamo Bay, Cuba 1551, 2122, 2346, 2394, 2405, 2414, 2416, 2425

2504  Chronology of American History Guare, John 2310 Guatemala 2035–2037, 2040, 2158 Guggenheim Museum 1967, 2083 Guilford Court­house, Battle of 496–497 Guiteau, Charles J. 1341, 1344, 1349, 1352, 1356 Gulf, Department of the 1003, 1008, 1046 Gulf War 2299, 2313, 2315, 2360 gunboats 700, 707, 709, 712, 714, 715, 740, 980, 989, 995, 996, 998, 1002, 1003, 1007, 1022, 1032, 1052, 1057, 1062, 1063, 1065–1067, 1069, 1107, 1111 Gunn, David 2330 Gutierrez, Carlos M. 2425

H habeas corpus 183, 964, 968, 969, 985, 991, 1003, 1032, 1042, 1099, 1100, 1161 Hackensack Indians 22, 91 Hackett, Paul 2406 Haggard, Ted 2418 Hahn, Michael 1101–1103 Haig, Alexander M. 2243, 2248 Haise, Fred W. 2170, 2223 Haiti 1022, 1239, 1877, 2300, 2320, 2335, 2342 Haldeman, H. R. 2188, 2203, 2204, 2222 Hale, John P. 904, 905 Hale, Nathan 398, 399, 480, 695 Hale, Sarah Josepha 755, 758, 767, 768, 900, 918 Hale-­Bopp comet 2361 Hale v. Heinkel 1576 Halifax, Nova Scotia 235, 259 Halifax Commission 1312, 1316, 1365 Hall, Prince 339, 531, 534, 559, 560, 563 Halleck, Henry W. 978, 988, 990, 991, 993–995, 997, 1005,

1012, 1016, 1020, 1021, 1024, 1030, 1037, 1038, 1043, 1056, 1076, 1091, 1102 Halley’s Comet 264, 801, 2250 Halliburton 2425 Hallidie, Andrew Smith 1257, 1274 Hall v. De Cuir 1317 Hall v. Mullin 735 Halsey, William F. 1939, 1940 Hamdan v. Rumsfeld 2414 Hamilton, Alexander 318, 330, 346, 370, 373, 436, 451, 513, 517, 547, 555, 563, 565, 600, 601–602, 603, 604, 606, 607, 609, 611–612, 614, 616–618, 620, 621, 626, 627, 634, 637, 640, 643, 646, 649, 650, 658, 661, 677 Hamilton, Andrew 158, 204, 211, 212, 213 Hamilton, Henry 443, 445–448, 450, 521 Hamilton, James 421, 516 Hamlin, Hannibal 942, 943, 958, 1114 Hammerstein, Oscar 1361, 1434, 1573, 1584, 1827, 1834, 1944, 1945, 1953, 1954, 1993, 2000, 2007, 2074 Hammer v. Dagenhart 1709, 1730 Hammett, Dashiell 1840, 1850, 1855, 1871 Hampton, Wade 698, 700, 701, 1114, 1115, 1126, 1143, 1144, 1146, 1303 Hampton Roads, Battle of 1059 Hampton Roads, Virginia 979, 1003, 1005 Hancock, John 303, 304, 305–306, 308, 315, 318, 320, 325, 332, 338, 341, 342, 349, 351, 392, 425, 426, 454, 457, 478, 563

Hancock, Winfield S. 1016–1017, 1079, 1108, 1110–1113, 1122, 1123, 1131, 1217–1219, 1334 Hand, Edward 400, 406, 407 Handsome Lake (Seneca prophet) 639–640 Handy, W. C. 1603, 1656 Hanford, Benjamin 1561, 1595 Hanger, George 479, 480 Hanna, Mark 1473, 1475, 1477, 1525, 1531 Hanson, Howard 1850, 1871 Hanson, Robert 2381 Hardee, William J. 1000, 1009, 1044, 1091, 1109, 1117, 1119, 1123, 1127, 1133, 1136, 1147 Hardenberg, Henry Janeway 1445, 1477, 1583 Hardin, John Wesley 1314, 1466 Harding, Seth 388, 498 Harding, Warren Gamaliel 1491, 1607, 1638, 1649, 1762, 1764, 1795, 1797–1798, 1799, 1803, 1804, 1807, 1809, 1811, 1845 Hardy, Charles 256, 259 Hariri, Rafik ­al- 2400 Harjo, Chitto 1533, 1543, 1582, 1608 Harkin, Tom 2320 Harlem Heights, Battle of 398 Harlem Hellfighters 1722, 1723 Harmar, Josiah 533, 538, 543, 557, 609, 610, 679 Harney, William S. 966–968 Harper’s Ferry 823, 912, 936, 937–938, 963, 965, 1020– 1022, 1038, 1039 Harper’s Weekly 926, 994 Harriman, W. Averell 1936, 2010, 2156 Harris, Benjamin 152, 155 Harris, Eric 2370 Harris, Isham 967, 977, 1001, 1002 Harris, Joel Chandler 1294, 1338, 1368 Harris, Roy 1871, 1906, 1918

Index  2505 Harrison, Benjamin 362, 368, 387, 791, 1381, 1403, 1410– 1411, 1412, 1413, 1420, 1429– 1432, 1435, 1436, 1439–1441, 1534, 1537, 1606 Harrison, Fort 1128, 1129 Harrison, Peter 235, 286 Harrison, William Henry 321, 610, 643, 654, 661, 679, 686, 692, 697, 700, 747, 769, 778, 802, 811, 815, 827, 830, 833, 834–835, 834–835, 837, 1410 Harris v. Forklift Systems 2336 Hart, Gary 2252, 2260, 2281, 2284 Hart, Lorenz 1834, 1886, 1944–1945 Hart, Moss 1893, 1897 Harte, Bret 1229, 1271 Hartford, Connecticut 57, 68 Hartford, USS 995, 1121, 1135 Hartford Convention 712, 713 Harvard College 64, 67, 69, 70, 73, 75, 85, 92, 114, 115, 139–141, 148, 158, 170–171, 196, 200, 215, 216, 288, 303, 305, 309, 313, 315, 320, 321, 345, 517, 804, 818, 824, 828, 901, 911, 935 Harvey, John 61, 698, 827 Haslet, John 376, 401 Hastert, Dennis 2417 Hatch Act 1395, 1909 Hatcher’s Run, Battle of 1131, 1142–1143 Hate Crimes Statistics Act 2304 Hauptmann, Bruno Richard 1831, 1860 Haviland, William 259, 266, 273, 274 Hawaii 730, 732, 742, 788, 845, 846, 889, 897, 914, 1222, 1271, 1278, 1349, 1411, 1459, 1461, 1480, 1482, 1486, 1500, 1503, 1522, 1524, 2046, 2076, 2081, 2326

Hawaii Annexation Treaty 1445, 1500 Hawaii-­U.S. Reciprocity Treaty 1285, 1287 Hawthorne, Nathaniel 757, 758, 758–759, 812, 825, 889, 895, 1112 Hay, John M. 1416, 1504, 1515, 1516, 1521, 1525–1526, 1530, 1531, 1543, 1548–1550, 1552, 1553, 1562, 1566, 1568 Hay-­Bunau-­Varilla Treaty 1556, 1559 Hayes, Rutherford B. 739, 823, 1241, 1290, 1299, 1302, 1303, 1305, 1306, 1306–1307, 1308, 1310, 1313, 1315, 1318, 1320, 1324, 1326, 1332, 1339, 1341, 1348, 1444, 1478 Hay-­Herrán Treaty 1551, 1553, 1554 Haymarket Square riot 1387– 1389, 1398 Hayne, Isaac 504, 508 Hayne, Robert Y. 767, 769, 787 Hay-­Pauncefote Treaty 1521, 1531, 1539–1540, 1641, 1659 Haywood, William D. “Big Bill” 1568, 1589, 1602, 1634, 1646, 1682, 1713, 1821 Hazelwood, John 425, 427 Hazelwood, Joseph 2304, 2325 HBO network 2365 HCA Hospital Corporation 2335 Head Start program 2144 Health, Education, and Welfare, U.S. Department of (HEW) 2022, 2024, 2046, 2047 health care 2226, 2336, 2412, 2420, 2434 health insurance 1970, 1992, 2023, 2357 Health Trust, Inc. 2342 Hearn, Lafcadio 1405, 1406, 1455, 1563

Hearst, Patricia 2195, 2207, 2211, 2230 Hearst, William Randolph 1322, 1392, 1393–1394, 1464, 1466, 1473, 1480, 1484, 1487, 1581, 1597, 1631 Heath, William 344, 396, 408, 409, 429, 473, 509 Heaven’s Gate 2361 Heinz, Henry J. 1232, 1293 Heister, Leopold von 394, 395, 502 he­li­cop­ter 1950, 1970, 1971, 1978, 1996, 2020, 2054, 2065, 2071, 2091, 2339, 2398 Helms, Jesse 2249 Helmsley, Leona 2322 Hemingway, Ernest 1804, 1808, 1823, 1839, 1863, 1897, 1910, 2011, 2024, 2025, 2040 Henchman, Daniel 124, 126 Hendrick (Mohawk chief) 182– 183, 232, 243, 249–251 Hendricks, Thomas A. 1300, 1373, 1374, 1384 Hennepin, Louis 130, 132 Henrico, Virginia 24, 31 Henry, Fort 420, 523, 990, 996–1000 Henry, Joseph 752, 757, 758, 776, 869, 876 Henry, O. 1455, 1573, 1584, 1614, 1621 Henry, Patrick 251, 285, 286– 287, 289, 292, 308, 321, 336, 344, 358, 390, 429, 443, 452, 537, 557, 564, 609, 641 Henry VII (king of En­gland) 3, 4 Hepburn, Katharine 1872, 1873, 2155 Hepburn v. Griswold 1250, 1260 Herbert, Victor 1415, 1455, 1553, 1555, 1620, 1658 Herkimer, Nicholas 416–418 Herman, Alexis 2371 Herne, James A. 1441, 1451

2506  Chronology of American History Herold, David E. 1155, 1159 Hersey, John 1950, 1966, 2075 Hertel de Rouville, ­Jean-­Baptiste 175, 181 Herter, Christian A. 2077, 2079 Hessians 401, 403–406, 408, 415, 419–421, 423, 425, 427, 444, 447, 453, 458, 465, 468, 471, 473, 482 Heth, Henry 1057, 1078, 1079, 1082, 1122, 1128 Hicks, David 2425 Hicks, Thomas H. 949, 967 Hijuelos, Oscar 2304 Hill, Ambrose P. 1025–1027, 1032, 1041, 1091, 1095, 1108, 1122, 1123, 1128, 1150 Hill, Anita 2318 Hill, Daniel H. 1017, 1025, 1026, 1040, 1051, 1065, 1146 Hindenburg, Paul von 1702, 1723, 1730, 1864 Hindenburg Line 1739, 1740 Hindman, Fort 1056, 1057 Hindman, Thomas C. 1048, 1049 Hirohito (emperor of Japan) 1926, 1969, 2178 Hiroshima, Japan 1968, 1968, 2066, 2069, 2319 Hispanics 2291, 2306, 2398, 2399, 2404 Hispaniola (San Domingo) 2, 3, 5 Hiss, Alger 1990, 1991, 1994, 1997, 2041, 2160 Hitler, Adolf 1864, 1870, 1889, 1901, 1906, 1906, 1909 HIV/AIDS 2258, 2261, 2276, 2278, 2280, 2284, 2286, 2288, 2298, 2306, 2307, 2318, 2319, 2322, 2329, 2369, 2374, 2389 Hobart, Garret A. 1473, 1477, 1510, 1516 Hobby, Oveta Culp 1933, 2024, 2046

Hobkirk’s Hill, Battle of 499 hockey 1835, 1843, 1852, 1856, 1860, 1867, 1872, 1899, 1906, 1911, 1919, 1930, 1944, 1952, 1964, 1972, 1987, 1993, 2000, 2013, 2024, 2034, 2043, 2052, 2059, 2068, 2096, 2400, 2429 Hoffa, James P. 2368 Hoffa, James R. “Jimmy” 2062, 2086, 2098, 2123, 2125, 2206 Hofstadter, Richard 2053, 2121 Hoke, Robert 1092, 1106, 1112, 1129, 1146 Hokoleskwa. See Cornstalk Holburne, Francis 257, 258 Holden v. Hardy 1486 Holland, John P. 1338, 1530 Hollis, George N. 984–985, 1013 Holmes, Mary Jane 912, 923 Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. 1119, 1546–1547, 1548, 1687, 1750, 1846 Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. 774, 843, 1546 Holmes, Theophilus H. 1045, 1058 Holmes, Thomas 136, 137 Holocaust 2332 Holocaust Museum 2332 Holt, Joseph 948, 951, 1037, 1156 Holyfield, Evander 2359, 2362 Homeland Security, U.S. Depart-­ ment of 2387–2389, 2398, 2400 Homer, Winslow 994, 1367, 1368–1369 Homestead Act 943, 1019 Homestead strike 1437–1439, 1441 homosexuality 2310, 2315, 2323, 2324, 2333, 2341, 2347, 2355, 2356, 2364, 2367, 2369, 2373, 2374, 2391. See also ­same-­sex marriage

Honduras 4, 1808, 2274, 2286 Hong Kong 2387 Hood, John B. 1036, 1039, 1040, 1109, 1111, 1112, 1116, 1119, 1120, 1123, 1126, 1127, 1133–1136, 1138 Hooker, Joseph 1016, 1023, 1036, 1037, 1039, 1040, 1047, 1051, 1058, 1059, 1064, 1066, 1067, 1069, 1076, 1078, 1091, 1094, 1095, 1111–1113, 1116 Hooker, Thomas 54, 57, 68, 83 Hooker Jim 1270, 1273, 1274 Hoover, Herbert Clark 1667, 1712, 1721, 1734, 1747, 1751, 1797, 1802, 1830, 1837–1839, 1841, 1843, 1844, 1844–1845, 1845–1849, 1851, 1853–1859, 1861–1863, 1866, 1899, 1980 Hoover, J. Edgar 1756, 1758, 2058 Hoover Commission 1980, 1992 Hoover Dam 1845, 1853, 1885 Hopewell, Treaty of 543, 549 Hopi Indians 1358 Hopkins, Esek 364, 365, 369, 373, 376, 378, 379, 381, 382, 400, 407, 409, 429 Hopkins, Harry L. 1870, 1879 Hopkins, John B. 371, 450 Hopkins, Samuel 321, 372, 607 Hopkins, Stephen 290, 364, 365 Hopkinson, Francis 263, 397, 429 Hornet, USS 696, 714, 1931, 1939 horse racing 101, 108, 210, 617, 1852, 1853, 1856, 1879, 1893, 1920, 1945, 1946, 2403, 2428 Horse­shoe Bend, Battle of 705, 764, 808 Houdini, Harry 1592, 1593 House, Edward M. 1671, 1686 House of Burgesses 28, 30, 31, 39, 44, 56, 61, 68, 71, 74, 76, 92, 95, 98, 112, 128, 168, 188, 199, 303, 307, 308, 317, 321, 329

Index  2507 House of Representatives, U.S. 475, 489, 494, 755, 763, 769, 773, 776, 781, 789, 795, 810, 813, 819–821, 828, 829, 835, 1799, 2093, 2297, 2322, 2350, 2360 House of Seven Gables, The (Hawthorne) 759, 895 House ­Un-­American Activities Committee (HUAC) 1981, 1990, 1997, 2086 Housing and Urban Develop-­ ment, U.S. Department of (HUD) 2135, 2298, 2303, 2305 Houston, Sam 705, 806, 808, 808, 808–809, 811, 833, 848, 854, 959, 1084 Howard, Bronson Crocker 1246, 1414 Howard, John E. 489, 495 Howard, Oliver O. 1079, 1120, 1123, 1157, 1216, 1269, 1308, 1310–1312, 1319, 1320 Howe, Julia Ward 998, 999, 1224, 1593 Howe, Richard 197, 384, 393, 394, 396–398, 425, 436, 438, 441, 442, 444, 446, 624 Howe, Robert 378, 438, 445, 447, 490 Howe, William 266, 333, 345, 349, 351, 353, 361, 363, 366, 370, 373, 378, 380, 390, 391, 393–395, 399–405, 407–409, 413, 415, 416, 420–425, 428, 436–438, 493, 502 Howells, William Dean 1376, 1434, 1443 Howze, Robert L. 1517, 1690 Hoyer, Steny 2419 Hubbard, Elbert 1463, 1512 Hubbell, Webster 2371 Hubble Space Telescope 2305, 2337, 2339, 2343, 2347, 2352, 2353, 2361, 2374, 2375, 2418

Hudson, Henry 20, 22, 24 Hudson Bay 24, 107–109, 240 Hudson River 5, 22, 24, 38, 146 Hudson’s Bay Company 108, 109, 134–135, 160, 187, 191, 245 Huerta, Victoriano 1645, 1646, 1648, 1652, 1654, 1658, 1660, 1661, 1663, 1667 Huger, Isaac 453, 462, 468, 496, 499 Hughes, Charles Evans 1577, 1581, 1616, 1692, 1698, 1797, 1851 Hughes, Howard 1882, 1900, 1901 Hughes Electronics Corporation 2369 Huguenots 132, 142, 145, 217, 222, 225 Hu Jintao 2412 Hull, Cordell 1908, 1909, 1911, 1925, 1926, 1952, 1961, 1970 Hull, Isaac 643, 663 Hull, William 473, 518, 662, 690, 691, 705 Human Genome Project 2375 human rights 2312, 2320, 2350 Humphrey, Hubert 2126, 2129, 2158, 2159, 2161, 2184 Humphreys, Andrew A. 1142, 1151 Hungary 1973, 1978, 2056, 2069 Hunley, CSS 1085, 1086, 1091, 1100 Hunt, Commonwealth v. 838 Hunt, E. Howard 2185 Hunt, William H. 1340, 1344 Hunter, David 980, 986, 987, 1012, 1017, 1019, 1034, 1114, 1115, 1156 Hunter, George 661, 662 Hunter, Robert 186, 188 Hunter, Robert T. 976, 1141, 1142 Huntington, Samuel 461, 495

Huntington Beach, California 2303 Huron Indians 21, 25, 26, 57, 59, 60, 69–71, 73–75, 84, 97 Hurricane Katrina 2406, 2407, 2407, 2411 hurricanes 1958, 1980, 2038– 2040, 2047, 2060, 2091, 2300, 2325, 2326, 2356, 2395 Hussein (king of Jordan) 2340 Hussein, Saddam 2281, 2295, 2306, 2308, 2309, 2311–2313, 2329, 2343, 2380, 2386–2388, 2390, 2392, 2392, 2420 Hutchinson, Anne 49, 53, 54, 58, 59, 60, 60–61, 66, 68, 77, 94 Hutchinson, Thomas 243, 293, 303, 308, 309–310, 315, 316, 319–321, 323, 324, 327, 329, 337, 338 Hyde, Edward 98, 187 Hyder Ally (ship) 519, 520 hydroelectric power 1351, 1839, 2052, 2061, 2092 hydrogen bomb 1998, 2018, 2032, 2034, 2037, 2042, 2053, 2069 Hylton v. United States 630

I Ia Drang, Battle of 2136 Iberville, Pierre Le Moyne, sieur d’ 153, 162–169 Ickes, Harold L. 1946 Idaho 994, 1421, 1475 Idaho Territory 1061, 1113 illegal immigration 2221, 2248, 2262, 2278, 2288, 2291, 2415, 2417, 2419 Illinois 717, 726, 731, 747, 934, 1104, 1141 Illinois Central Railroad 923, 926 Illinois Company 286, 296 Illinois Indians 187 Illinois Territory 293, 676 illiteracy 1849, 1850, 1997

2508  Chronology of American History Illustrious Americans (Brady) 889, 941 ImClone 2390, 2394 immigration 188, 202, 208, 220, 579m, 728, 770, 850, 901, 904, 921, 922, 1229, 1242, 1263, 1318, 1326, 1646, 1670, 1671, 1702, 1764, 1774m, 1798, 1816, 1853, 1950, 1988, 2029, 2135, 2333, 2338, 2341, 2412, 2416, 2430 Immigration Act (1907) 1586– 1587, 1615 Immigration Act (1924) 1846 Immigration Act (1990) 2309 immigration quotas 1798, 1846, 2015, 2029, 2086 impeachment 1222, 1223, 1226, 1227, 2332, 2367, 2368 imperialism 1779m improvised explosive devices (IEDs) 2391 income tax 977, 1027, 1339, 1465, 1610, 1685 indentured servitude 71, 109, 192 In­de­pen­dent Republic of Texas 806, 809 In­de­pen­dent Trea­sury Act 829, 835, 869 India 2296, 2320, 2411, 2419 Indiana 718, 969 Indiana Baptist Manual Labor Institute 806, 2014 Indiana Territory 643, 664, 676, 679, 685, 686, 717 Indian Cessions (through 1850) 1175m Indian Charity School 290, 291 Indian Removal Act 772, 802 Indian reservations. See reserva-­ tion system Indian Springs, Treaty of 749, 753 Indian Territory 796, 808, 989, 992, 1083, 1199, 1204, 1210,

1222, 1263, 1276, 1328, 1410, 1412, 1497, 1533, 1565 Indochina 2023, 2032, 2034– 2036, 2038 Indonesia 2131, 2396 Industrial Revolution 611, 636 Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) 1568, 1571, 1602, 1634, 1640, 1646, 1682, 1697, 1713, 1726, 1749, 1756, 1760 industry 1168m, 2450m inflation 1057, 1059, 1061, 1066, 1945, 2187, 2200, 2211, 2235 influenza 208, 1719, 1737, 1741, 1749, 2033 Ingoldsby, Richard 150, 156 Inland Waters Commission 1587–1588, 1596 integration 2106, 2124, 2126, 2142, 2181, 2197, 2454m intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) 2006, 2064, 2088 Interior, U.S. Department of 885–886, 1372, 2431 intermediate-­range ballistic mis-­ siles (IRBMs) 2065, 2093 Internal Revenue Act (1864) 1117 Internal Revenue and Tariff Act (1870) 1253 Internal Revenue Ser­vice (IRS) 2024, 2052, 2212, 2335, 2366 Internal Security Act 2003, 2035 International Atomic Energy Agency 1972, 2055, 2061, 2062 International Brotherhood of Teamsters 2058, 2059, 2062, 2063, 2073, 2086, 2098, 2312, 2368 International Court of Arbitra-­ tion at The Hague 1636, 1677 International Geophysical Year (IGY) 1826, 2060 International Harvester Com-­ pany 1454, 1547

International Human Genome Project 2375 International Ladies Garment Workers ­Union 1649, 2345 International Longshoremen’s Association 2029, 2034, 2082 International Olympic Commit-­ tee 2371 International Space Station 2380 International Workers of the World (IWW) (“Wobblies”) 1350, 1636 Internet 2372, 2376, 2388 interracial marriage 39, 177, 195, 196 Interstate Commerce Act 1394– 1395, 1411 Interstate Commerce Commis-­ sion (ICC) 1579, 1617, 1646, 1760, 1881, 2049 Interstate Highway System 2451m Intolerable Acts 327 Inuit Indians 1425 Iowa 854, 872, 1278, 2320 Iowa, USS 2297, 2299, 2318 Iowa Indians 751 Iran 2049, 2076, 2219, 2234– 2236, 2240, 2283, 2287, 2288, 2290, 2346, 2357, 2423, 2424, 2428, 2434, 2437 Iran-­contra 2278, 2280, 2282– 2286, 2297, 2298, 2303, 2317, 2319, 2329, 2338 Ira­ni­an Revolutionary Guards 2423, 2435 Iraq 2049, 2230, 2281, 2295, 2300, 2306–2309, 2311–2313, 2325, 2329, 2333, 2339, 2342, 2343, 2358, 2368, 2369, 2386–2388, 2389, 2390–2396, 2398, 2400, 2401, 2408–2411, 2413, 2414, 2417, 2419–2423, 2426, 2427, 2429, 2430, 2433, 2435–2438, 2457m, 2459m Iraq-­Iran War (1980s) 2281

Index  2509 Iraq Survey Group 2391 Iraq War (1991). See Persian Gulf War (1991) Iraq War (2003– ) 2459m Ireland 855, 1929 Irish Bend, Louisiana 1064, 1065 Irish immigrants 794, 855, 895 iron 1773m Iron Act (Great Britain) 236, 255 Ironclad Board 977, 982 ironclads 977, 982–984, 989, 997, 1002, 1003, 1005, 1017–1018, 1029, 1032, 1050, 1054, 1058, 1059, 1064, 1077, 1082, 1087, 1102, 1108, 1110, 1139–1140 Iroquois Confederacy 21, 23, 25, 27, 71, 74, 75, 79, 80, 84, 92, 93, 97, 99, 144, 169, 170, 187, 194, 195, 302 Iroquois Indians 103, 106, 115, 138, 146, 151, 152, 162, 223, 227, 239–241, 251, 262–265, 269, 461. See also Six Nations (Iroquois) Irving, Washington 681, 726, 727, 811 Island No. 10 1004, 1007–1011 Ismoil, Eyad 2363 Israel 1988, 2002, 2003, 2052, 2055, 2058, 2192, 2193, 2196, 2204, 2349, 2353, 2376, 2384, 2400, 2418 Isthmian Canal Commission 1512, 1660 Italy 1804, 1806, 1851, 1883, 1921, 1948, 1951–1955, 1973, 1978, 2025, 2068, 2364, 2423 Iuka, Mississippi 1039, 1041 Iwo Jima, Battle of 1963, 1964 Izard, George 701, 705, 706, 711

J Jackson, Andrew 297, 611, 632, 667, 699, 701, 702, 704–706, 711–713, 723–726, 731, 734, 735, 737, 739, 741, 744, 745,

747–752, 762, 763, 764, 764– 765, 766, 769, 770, 772–779, 781, 783–789, 791–795, 797– 799, 801, 805, 807, 809–811, 814–816, 821, 836–837, 849, 860, 906 Jackson, Claiborne F. 959, 975, 976, 995 Jackson, Fort 1013–1015 Jackson, Helen Hunt 1339, 1368 Jackson, James 994, 1270 Jackson, Jesse 2257, 2259–2261, 2263, 2287, 2288, 2318 Jackson, Michael 2392, 2404 Jackson, Mississippi 737, 1070, 1071, 1081, 1083 Jackson, Thomas J. “Stonewall” 841, 975, 986, 994, 997, 998, 1008, 1016, 1017, 1019–1021, 1023, 1024, 1032–1040, 1050, 1051, 1067–1070 Jackson, Thomas Penfield 2372, 2374 Jacobson v. Massachusetts 1566 Jamaica 3, 4 James (duke of York). See James II (king of En­gland) James, Frank 1265, 1284, 1358 James, Henry 1284, 1285, 1285, 1304, 1316, 1323, 1338, 1384, 1483, 1540, 1549, 1558, 1621, 1643 James, Jesse 1202, 1265, 1274, 1284, 1301, 1354 James, William 1285, 1416, 1476, 1506, 1584–1585, 1585 James I (king of En­gland) 13, 27, 28, 31–33, 39, 41, 42 James II (king of En­gland) 102, 115, 116, 133, 135, 137, 139– 144, 146, 147 James River 1018, 1025, 1026, 1115 Jamestown, Virginia 14, 16, 18, 20–24, 27, 31, 38, 41, 125, 126, 128, 128, 128–129, 2358

Japan 641, 869, 893, 900, 908– 910, 914, 921, 929, 933, 940, 1127, 1224, 1269, 1275, 1320, 1801, 1804, 1851, 1857, 1859, 1864, 1878, 1883, 1896, 1897, 1908, 1911, 1914, 1915, 1918, 1925–1927, 1931, 1934, 1951, 1953, 1955–1957, 1959, 1962, 1964, 1966–1969, 1977, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2066, 2085, 2089, 2091, 2094, 2168, 2225, 2319, 2320, 2326, 2342, 2346–2348, 2390, 2392, 2429 Japa­nese Americans 1816, 1928, 1929, 1930, 2077, 2290 Japa­nese Peace Treaty 2010, 2013 Java Sea, Battle of the 1930 Jaworski, Leon 2193, 2196, 2197, 2223 Jay, John 335, 349, 368, 377, 426, 446, 451, 460, 461, 504, 521, 523, 524, 532, 534, 534, 538, 541, 542, 547, 601, 604, 606, 623, 625, 626, 628, 645, 650, 677, 719, 764, 1208 Jay’s Treaty 625–628, 630–632, 649, 673 Al-­Jazeera Network 2387 jazz 1558, 1603, 1656, 1700, 1704, 1731, 1757, 1805, 1815, 1819 Jefferson, Thomas 648–649 John Quincy Adams and 750 after presidency 711, 728 antislavery stance 429, 518 Benjamin Banneker and 246 coinage proposal 541, 542 at First Continental Con-­ gress 325 at Second Continental Con-­ gress 354, 355 death of 754 and Declaration of In­de­pen­ dence 387, 390, 391 and ­Demo­cratic-­Republican Party 613, 614, 634

2510  Chronology of American History and Department of State 604 John Dickinson and 294 diplomacy 399, 533, 535, 539, 540, 603 election of 1796 632 election of 1800 634, 645, 646 election of 1804 658 election of 1808 675 Benjamin Franklin and 197 George Mason and 336 Monticello 311 Charles Willson Peale and 318 presidency (first term) 415, 640, 646, 647, 650–653, 655–658 presidency (second term) 663, 666, 668–670, 672, 674–676 as secretary of state 606, 611, 620, 621 and Treaty of Paris 530 as vice president 632, 633, 638, 641 as Virginia governor 452, 453, 487, 503, 518, 537, 544 in Virginia ­House of ­Burgesses 307, 321 and Virginia state constitu-­ tion 389 George Washington and 616 and western territories 531, 532 William and Mary College 447 Jefferson, William 2413 Jefferson Barracks 786, 867 Jeffords, James 2381 Jeffries, James J. 1513, 1523, 1601, 1602, 1618 Jeffs, Warren 2434 Jehovah’s Witnesses 1264, 1369, 1947 Jencks v. United States 2061

Jenkins’ Ear, War of 219 Jenkin’s Ferry, Battle of 1107 Jenks, Joseph 74, 81, 90 Jenney, William Le Baron 1367, 1370 Jenninson, Commonwealth v. 528 Jesuits 8, 42, 59, 66, 70, 132, 232, 238, 280, 285, 2172 Jesup, Thomas S. 803, 819 Jewett, Sarah Orne 1303, 1469 Jewish Defense League 2308 Jews/Judaism 53, 198, 201, 210, 220, 252, 286, 394, 502, 748, 844, 849, 921, 1051, 1056, 1057, 1271, 1384, 1543, 1614, 1904, 1969, 2074, 2157, 2183, 2282, 2287, 2334, 2340, 2413 Jiang Zemin 2337, 2350 Jim Crow laws 757, 1161, 1336, 1472 Jobs, Steve 2421 John Birch Society 2096 John Deere Company 813, 926 John Paul II (pope) 2233, 2259, 2267, 2282, 2286, 2289, 2290, 2301, 2315, 2334, 2343, 2402 Johnson, Andrew 675, 976, 1003, 1004, 1010, 1088, 1102, 1105, 1114, 1154–1160, 1198, 1200–1201, 1203, 1204, 1208, 1209, 1214, 1215, 1217, 1220– 1223, 1225–1227, 1232, 1234, 1286, 1289, 1341, 1827, 2369 Johnson, Anthony 38, 91 Johnson, Earvin “Magic” 2318 Johnson, Edward 1017, 1076, 1095, 1111, 1136 Johnson, Frank 2131, 2182 Johnson, Henry 421, 455 Johnson, Herschel V. 942, 943 Johnson, Jack 1600, 1601, 1601–1602, 1618, 1674 Johnson, John 265, 307, 375, 392 Johnson, Sir John 417, 470, 481, 482

Johnson, Lyndon B. 2066, 2090, 2094, 2120, 2122–2126, 2128, 2129–2130, 2137, 2143, 2144, 2147, 2149, 2151, 2154, 2155, 2159 Johnson, Richard M. 700, 798, 814 Johnson, Robert 193, 208 Johnson, Samuel 196, 244 Johnson, William 183, 247, 249, 250, 251, 254, 262–265, 278, 282, 289, 296, 300, 302, 418, 550 Johnston, Albert S. 980, 997, 1000, 1001, 1003, 1004, 1009, 1010, 1124 Johnston, Joseph E. 964, 974– 976, 981, 982, 984, 997, 1003, 1012, 1013, 1016, 1020, 1021, 1047, 1048, 1060, 1070, 1081– 1083, 1096, 1098, 1108–1111, 1117–1119, 1140, 1144, 1148, 1153–1155 John Street Theater 543, 552 Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) 1994, 1995, 2299 Joint Committee on Reconstruc-­ tion 1203, 1204, 1343 Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War 992, 993 Joliet, Louis 113, 114, 115 Jolson, Al 1815, 1833, 1833– 1834 Jonas, Tryntje 49, 56 Jones, Absalom 237, 322, 553, 620, 624 Jones, Catesby ap Roger 1005, 1018 Jones, Hugh 191, 198 Jones, John Paul 368, 369, 384, 395, 396, 402, 415, 425, 431, 435, 436, 448, 458–461, 498, 560, 564, 616, 1569 Jones, Marion 1507, 1542, 2435 Jones, Mary Harris “Mother” 1553

Index  2511 Jones, Paula Corbin 2339, 2361, 2364, 2365, 2368, 2370 Jones, William E. 716, 719, 1114 Jonesboro, Battle of 1123 Joplin, Scott 1375, 1378, 1507 Jordan, Michael 2335 Joseph, Chief 1304, 1310, 1311, 1315, 1323, 1382 Joseph, William 147, 151 Joyce, James 1719, 1795, 1851, 1870 Juárez, Benito 1104, 1113, 1114, 1228 Judiciary Act 647, 651, 652, 716 Jungle, The (Sinclair) 1573– 1574, 1578, 1579 Jupiter 2329, 2351, 2356 Justice, U.S. Department of 1252, 1313

K Kaczynski, Theodore J. 2349, 2354, 2364 Kahane, Meir 2308 Kalakaua (king of Hawaii) 1278, 1285, 1427 Kalb, Johann, baron de 409, 417, 434, 467, 472, 474, 477, 478, 493 Kamehameha I (king of Hawaii) 682, 730 Kamehameha II (king of Hawaii) 730, 732, 742 Kamehameha III (king of Hawaii) 742, 788, 846, 914 kamikaze 1959, 1966 Kanagawa, Treaty of 909, 914 Kansas 7, 920, 921, 923–926, 929, 931–933, 935, 936, 940, 951, 971, 1061, 1085, 1090, 1101, 1143, 1339, 1642, 2045 Kansas-­Nebraska Act 809, 896, 907, 913–916, 937, 1182m Kansas Territory 725, 756, 786, 916, 928, 930 Kansas v. March 2414 Kantor, MacKinlay 2041, 2053

Kaufman, George S. 1893, 1897 Kauikeouli. See Kamehameha III (king of Hawaii) Kay, David 2391 Kazakhstan 2343 Kean, Thomas 236, 238 Kearny, Phillip 1021, 1037 Kearny, Stephen W. 866, 867, 867–868, 869–874, 876, 1086 Kearsage, USS 1116 Keating-­Owen Child Labor Act (1916) 1696, 1709 Kegs, Battle of the 429 Keith, Benjamin F. 1359, 1573 Keith, George 156, 161 Keller, Helen 1540, 1541 Kellogg, Frank B. 1832, 1834, 1838, 1839, 1854 Kellogg-­Briand Pact 1811, 1838, 1839, 1842, 1846, 1849, 1854, 1857, 1859 Kelly’s Ford 1062, 1092 Kelo v. City of New London 2405 Kemp, Jack 2298, 2357 Kennan, George 2013, 2097 Kennedy, Anthony 2285 Kennedy, Edward M. 2163– 2164, 2238 Kennedy, John F. 1656, 1962, 2022, 2059, 2066, 2074, 2085, 2087, 2090–2093, 2094–2095, 2096, 2098–2100, 2102, 2103, 2105, 2106, 2109, 2110, 2116, 2120, 2127, 2129, 2130, 2149, 2161, 2331 Kennedy, John F., Jr. 2371 Kennedy, Robert F. 2092, 2094, 2104, 2115, 2154, 2156 Kennesaw Mountain, Battle of 1116, 1117 Kent State University 2171, 2201, 2207, 2229 Kentucky 238, 324, 331, 334, 386, 605, 616, 725, 775, 820, 895, 967, 979–982, 989, 990,

992, 994, 996, 1002, 1034, 1037, 1043, 1044, 1052, 1103 Kentucky Derby 1853, 1879, 1893, 1920, 1945, 2403, 2428 Kentucky Resolution 638, 641 Kenya 2366 Keokuk 778, 785 Keokuk, USS 1064, 1088 Kerensky, Aleksandr 1709, 1716 Kern, Jerome 1584, 1766, 1834, 1870, 1954 Kernstown, Battle of 1120 Kerry, John 2380, 2386, 2392, 2395, 2396 Kettering, Charles F. 1622, 1623 Kevorkian, Jack 2305, 2329, 2353, 2368, 2370 Key, Francis Scott 710, 1856 Key to the Language of America, A (Williams) 53, 75 Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin (Stowe) 902, 904 Khalizad, Zalmay 2421 Khrushchev, Nikita 1836, 2047, 2060, 2080, 2082, 2088, 2095, 2098, 2110, 2161 Kidd, William 168, 170 Kieft, Willem 66, 69, 75, 76, 79, 81, 82 Killen, Edgar Ray 2404 Kilpatrick, Hugh J. 1030, 1076, 1078, 1082, 1091, 1099, 1102, 1146, 1147 Kilrain, Jake 1353, 1414 Kim Il Sung 1990, 2009, 2343 Kimmel, Husband 1927, 1929 King, Charles B. 1417, 1471 King, Coretta Scott 2092 King, Martin Luther, Jr. 912, 2092, 2115, 2117, 2118–2119, 2127, 2141, 2155, 2156, 2161, 2255, 2272, 2317 King, Rodney 2312, 2322, 2332, 2333 King, Rufus 675, 718, 1036 King, William R. 902, 906, 908

2512  Chronology of American History King George’s War 226, 227, 229, 230, 234, 250, 254, 282 King Philip’s War 53, 110, 111–112, 115–121, 124–128, 131, 140 King William’s War 145, 148–151, 153–157, 159, 162, 165–167, 576m Kinston, Battle of 1146 Kiowa Indians 267, 1134 Kirby-­Smith, Edmund 1031, 1034, 1036, 1044, 1107, 1120, 1158 Kiryas Joel Village School Dis-­ trict v. Grument 2340 Kissinger, Henry 2180, 2181, 2184, 2185, 2187, 2192, 2200, 2204 Kitty Hawk, USS 2185, 2186 Klebold, Dylan 2370 Kleindienst, Richard 2180, 2196 Kmart Corporation 2384 Knight, E. C., United States v. 1464, 1465 Knight, James 160, 161 Knights of Labor 1245, 1317, 1349, 1355, 1372, 1379–1380, 1386, 1387, 1390, 1415, 1422, 1423 Knowles v. Somersett 317 Knowlton, Thomas 352, 373 Knowlton v. Moore 1523 Know-­Nothing Party 763, 894, 905, 917, 921. See also Ameri-­ can Party; Constitutional Whig Party; Native American Party Know-­Nothings 763 Knox, Chase 1607, 1610, 1619, 1623, 1627, 1639 Knox, Frank 1887, 1913 Knox, Henry 367, 370, 376, 378, 383, 405, 439, 454, 512, 533, 539, 545, 548, 604, 608 Knox v. Lee 1260 Knoxville, Tennessee 1093, 1095 Knudsen, William S. 1915, 1917

Knyphausen, Fort 403, 465, 506 Knyphausen, Wilhelm von 403, 413, 420, 464, 467, 471–473 Kohl, Helmut 2322 Koop, C. Everett 2278, 2280, 2288, 2294 Korea, Kingdom of 1211, 1220, 1260, 1261, 1356 Korea, North 1969, 1985, 1987, 1990, 1991, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2027, 2029, 2032, 2042, 2153, 2162, 2214, 2342, 2343, 2345, 2390 Korea, South 1969, 1986, 1987, 1990, 1991, 1994, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2006, 2027, 2029, 2032, 2089, 2220, 2223, 2390, 2392 Korean Peninsula 1969, 1975 Korean War 1924, 1965, 1995, 2000–2009, 2012, 2015, 2018, 2027, 2057, 2164, 2309, 2452m Koresh, David 2332 Kos´ciuszko, Tadeusz 420, 501 Kosovo 2370 Koussevitzky, Serge 1871, 1906 Kozlowski, Dennis 2404 Ku Klux Klan 1162, 1217, 1218, 1224, 1258, 1565, 1580, 1671, 1672, 1682, 1764, 1765, 1770m, 1800, 1812, 1822, 1894, 2039, 2128, 2131, 2136, 2151, 2234, 2261, 2292, 2307 Ku Klux Klan Act 1251, 1260 Kushner, Tony 2332 Kuwait 2282, 2295, 2306, 2307, 2309, 2311–2313, 2317, 2333, 2342, 2343 Kyoto, Japan 2364 Kyoto Protocol 2380

L labor, or­ga­nized. See or­ga­nized labor Labor, U.S. Department of 1403, 1538, 1802 Labor Day 1358, 1398, 1460

Labor Party 1318, 1373 Ladies’ Home Journal 1360, 1407 Ladies’ Magazine 767, 768 Lady Chatterley’s Lover (D. H. Lawrence) 2079, 2087 Lady Washington (ship) 557, 565 La Farge, John 1246, 1293, 1399 Lafayette, marquis de (Marie­Joseph-­Paul-­Yves-­Roch Gilbert du Motier) 383, 409, 416, 417, 427, 433, 434, 436, 437, 447, 469, 487, 492, 493, 495–497, 499, 501, 504–506, 509, 512, 516, 549, 747, 750 La Follette, Robert 1374, 1551, 1609, 1623, 1629, 1703, 1818, 2059 Lahm, Frank P. 1598, 1612 Laird, Melvin R. 2170, 2186, 2187 Laird rams 1087, 1090 Lake George, Battle of 250, 251 Lakota Indians 1391 Lamar, Mirabeau B. 811, 823 Lamont, Ned 2415 Land, Edwin H. 1859, 1985 land grants 235–236, 285, 531, 573m Landis, Kenesaw Mountain 1765, 1801 Landon, Alfred M. 1887, 1889, 1890 Land Ordinance (1785) 531, 541 Langdon, John 362, 600, 689 Langley, Samuel P. 1259, 1469, 1487, 1528 Langmuir, Irving 1700, 1863 Lanier, Sidney 1271, 1316, 1347 Lansing, Robert 1673, 1676, 1677, 1679–1681, 1693, 1699, 1709, 1716, 1759 Laos 2041, 2081, 2096, 2107, 2108, 2175 Larned, William A. 1532, 1542 La Salle, René-­Robert de Cave-­ lier, sieur de 130–133, 136, 138, 139, 141, 143

Index  2513 Last of the Mohicans, The (Coo-­ per) 733, 753 Latin America 1835, 1839, 1872, 2086, 2098, 2099, 2456m Latin American Conference 1678, 1680–1681 Latrobe, Benjamin H. 638, 650, 654, 726 Latvia 2317 Laud, William 58, 59 Laurens, Henry 305, 425, 426, 430, 435, 436, 446, 462, 478, 485, 504, 522, 524 Laurens, John 383, 487, 514, 516, 522 Lauzun, ­Armand-­Louis de Gon-­ taut, duc de 506, 512, 513 Law, John 191, 194, 206 Lawes Divine, Morall, and Mar-­ tiall (Virginia) 24, 30 Law of the Sea Treaty 2340 Lawrence, D. H. 2079, 2087 Lawrence, James 696, 698 Lawton, Henry 1388, 1499, 1517 Lay, Kenneth 2394, 2413 League of Armed Neutrality 466, 480 League of Nations 1649, 1745, 1750, 1753–1756, 1760, 1839, 1849, 1857, 1860 Leake, John 171, 172 Learned, Ebenezer 417, 421, 423 Leatherstocking Series (Cooper) 733, 828, 830 Leavenworth, Henry H. 756, 786, 867 Leaves of Grass (Whitman) 917, 919 Lebanon 2070–2072, 2074, 2249, 2250, 2253, 2256–2260, 2305, 2400 Le Boeuf, Fort 240, 241, 283 Lecompton constitution 931–933 Lee, Arthur 355, 384, 399, 401, 403, 405, 410, 427, 430, 434, 446

Lee, Charles 353, 355, 400, 402, 404, 415, 435, 439, 446, 464 Lee, Ezra 396, 397 Lee, Fitzhugh 1078–1079, 1091, 1097, 1105, 1109, 1110, 1114, 1115, 1126, 1137, 1149, 1152, 1483 Lee, Harper 2084, 2097 Lee, Henry 377, 379, 386, 430, 452, 458, 473, 484, 491, 492, 494–496, 498, 500–502, 504, 507, 516, 537, 625, 641 Lee, Richard Henry 308, 321, 335, 364, 386–387 Lee, Robert E. 937–938, 957, 963, 964, 966, 970, 976, 981, 987, 988, 1013, 1021, 1022, 1022–1023, 1025–1027, 1033, 1035–1040, 1050, 1051, 1064, 1067, 1069, 1070, 1073, 1075–1078, 1080, 1081, 1084, 1092, 1109–1111, 1113, 1115, 1122, 1125, 1129, 1140, 1141, 1143, 1144, 1148, 1150–1152, 1152, 1153, 1160, 1198, 1201, 1236, 1254 Lee, Stephen D. 1019, 1119, 1120 Legal Tender Act 1003, 1251, 1260, 1278 Legge, William 337, 341, 366, 373 Leisler, Jacob 149, 149–150, 151–153, 156, 157 Leisy v. Hardin 1418 LeMay, Curtis E. 2065, 2066, 2158 Lemke, William 1887, 1888 Le Moyne, Jacques de Morgues 8, 10 Lend-­Lease 1914, 1918, 1919, 1953, 1965 Lenin, Vladimir 1716, 1739, 1751 Lenni Lenape Indians. See Dela-­ ware Indians Leopold, Nathan 1817, 1821– 1922

Leo XIII (pope) 1444, 1463 Leslie, Alexander 339, 481, 483, 491, 496, 525 Lesseps, Ferdinand de 1319, 1332, 1344 Letters and Notes (Catlin) 830, 831 Letters from a Farmer in Penn-­ sylvania (Dickinson) 302, 333 Levine, Philip 1904, 2346 Lévis, François-­Gaston de 253, 261, 266, 271, 272, 274 Lewinsky, Monica 2331–2332, 2364, 2366, 2367, 2369, 2378 Lewis, Andrew 329, 332, 334, 392 Lewis, Joe 1983, 1989 Lewis, John L. 1799, 1883, 1884, 1892, 1903, 1915, 1925, 1926, 1945, 1972, 1987, 1992, 2084 Lewis, Meriwether 649, 654, 655, 660. See also Lewis and Clark expedition Lewis, Sinclair 1757, 1758, 1805, 1824, 1825, 1828 Lewis and Clark Expedition 658–661, 663–668, 788, 1167m Lexington, Missouri 981, 982 Lexington, USS 828, 996, 1011, 1931 Lexington and Concord, Battles of 343, 344 Libby, I. Lewis “Scooter” 2408, 2429, 2431 Liberator, The 776, 801 Liberia 718, 734, 1022 Liberty Bell 241, 799 Liberty Loan drive 1714, 1724, 1744 Liberty Party 827, 829, 878 libraries 207, 223, 281, 653, 674, 704, 731, 912, 921 Library of Congress 643, 651, 711, 788, 891, 899, 1946 Libya 2234, 2247, 2272, 2274, 2294, 2319, 2357, 2412

2514  Chronology of American History Liddy, G. Gordon 2185, 2191, 2193 Lieber, Francis 755, 763 Lieberman, Joseph 2366, 2376, 2415 Liggett, Hunter S. 1721, 1732, 1744 Liggett Group, Inc. 2353 Lignery, Constant Le Marchand de 201, 265 Ligonier, Fort 263, 283 Liliuokalani (queen of Hawaii) 1427, 1444, 1460, 1463, 1476 Lincoln, Abraham 956, 956–957 assassination of 1153–1154 birth of 676 James Buchanan and 929 death of 1153–1156 Stephen A. Douglas and 913 Frederick Douglass and 823 election of 1860 913, 940– 943, 945, 1200 election of 1864 1132 Ralph Waldo Emerson and 805 Horace Greeley and 896 in Illinois ­House of Repre-­ sentatives 797 Andrew Johnson and 1200 Lincoln-­Douglas debates 913, 932, 933 Wendell Phillips and 901 presidency (first term) 953, 955, 956, 958, 959, 961, 972, 976, 980–982, 986, 989, 991, 993–995, 997–999, 1001–1005, 1009, 1011–1013, 1015, 1017–1020, 1022, 1025– 1031, 1033–1035, 1037, 1040–1049, 1051, 1054– 1057, 1062–1064, 1066, 1076, 1078–1082, 1084, 1085, 1088–1094, 1096, 1098–1104, 1106, 1108, 1113–1119, 1121–1123,

1125, 1127, 1131, 1133, 1135–1139 presidency (second term) 1140–1143, 1145, 1146, 1148–1151, 1153 Sojourner Truth and 847 in U.S. ­House of Represen-­ tatives 879, 916 Lincoln, Benjamin 370, 388, 409, 410, 445–447, 449, 451–453, 454, 460, 462, 463, 465–469, 484, 506, 512, 514, 516, 549–551 Lincoln, Robert Todd 1140, 1340 Lincoln County War 1317 Lind, Jenny 839, 894 Lindbergh, Charles A. 1813, 1826, 1831, 1831, 1832, 1839, 1860, 1885, 2035, 2066 Lindh, John Walker 2383, 2386 Lindsay, John V. 2137 line-­item veto 2354 Linn, Lewis 838, 845 Lippmann, Walter 1656, 1855 literacy test 927 Lithuania 2317 Little Bighorn, Battle of 1219, 1291, 1293, 1299–1300 Little Crow (Sioux chief) 1032, 1033, 1034, 1041, 1080 Little Rock, Arkansas 1088, 1103, 1105, 1107, 2062, 2073, 2079, 2081 Littleton, Colorado 2370 Little Turtle 334, 535, 609, 610, 614 Little Wolf 1302, 1314, 1320, 1321, 1325 Livingston, James 362, 376 Livingston, Robert L. 671, 684 Livingston, Robert R. 335, 387, 508, 514, 527, 602, 650, 652– 654, 672, 721 Lochner v. United States 1567 Lockheed 2323, 2341 Lockheed Martin 2352

Lockwood, Belva Ann 1332, 1402 “Loco Focos” 800, 821 Lodge, Henry Cabot 1421, 1545, 1636, 1640, 1646, 1750 Lodge, Henry Cabot, Jr. 2038, 2090 Loeb, Richard 1817, 1821–1922 Loewe v. Lawlor 1593 Logan 328, 334 Logan, Benjamin 519, 522, 547, 548 Logan, James 180, 328 Logan, John A. 1117, 1227, 1372 Logan, Joshua 1993, 2000 Logstown, Treaty of 239, 241 Lomax, Lunsford L. 1110, 1127 London, Jack 1243, 1518, 1519, 1540, 1549, 1565, 1573, 1592, 1602, 1643, 1700 London Company 13, 17, 21, 28, 31 London Naval Conference 1600 London Naval Conference, Sec-­ ond 1883, 1886 London Naval Treaty 1852, 1878 Long, Eli 1148–1150 Long, Huey 1881, 1971 Long, John Davis 1478, 1491 Long, Stephen H. 730, 732, 786 Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth 50, 342, 730, 758, 824, 825, 830, 873, 917, 934, 1054, 1224, 1264, 1330, 1351 Long Island, Battle of 395 Longstreet, James 1016, 1025– 1027, 1034, 1036, 1038, 1039, 1047, 1051, 1079, 1087–1089, 1093, 1095, 1096, 1108, 1150 Looking Glass 1312, 1314, 1315 Lookout Mountain, Tennessee 1091, 1092, 1094 Lopez, United States v. 2346 Loral Corporation 2352 Loring, William W. 994, 995, 997, 1117

Index  2515 Los Angeles, California 510, 2312, 2316, 2322–2324, 2332, 2333, 2338, 2349 Lott, Trent 2387, 2436 Loudoun, Fort 257, 269, 273 Louima, Abner 2372 Louis, Joe 1893, 1894–1895, 1911, 1928, 2003, 2017 Louisbourg, Cape Breton Island 228–232, 256–261 Louisiana 190, 192, 193, 198, 644, 683, 684, 687, 689, 712, 770, 859, 925, 952, 1015, 1016, 1032, 1058, 1062, 1064–1066, 1069, 1072, 1075, 1081, 1092, 1101, 1103, 1104, 1120, 1125, 1228, 1270, 1308, 1493, 2060, 2079, 2086, 2307, 2325 Louisiana Brigade 1020, 1024 Louisiana Purchase 652, 654– 657, 721, 1166m Louisiana Purchase Exposition 1310, 1561 Louisiana Territory 136, 138, 139, 206, 655–658, 663, 665 Louisville, New Orleans, and Texas Railway v. Mississippi 1418 Louis XIV (king of France) 100, 106, 142, 167, 187 Louis XVI (king of France) 191, 197, 369, 428, 434, 493, 521, 540, 554, 618 Lovejoy, Elijah 819, 901 Lovell, James A. 2136, 2144, 2159, 2170 Lovell, Solomon 456, 457 Loving v. Virginia 2147 Low, Frederick F. 1212, 1261 Lowe, Thaddeus S. C. 963, 970, 971, 983, 988, 1016 Lower Creek Indians 139 Loyalists 501, 503, 504, 506– 509, 515, 516, 518–520, 522, 525, 527, 530, 539 Luce, Clare Booth 2021

Lucy, Autherine 2050, 2051 Ludlow massacre 1661 Luke, Frank 1734, 1734–1735, 1739, 1740 Lunalilo, William (king of Hawaii) 1271, 1278 Lundy, Benjamin 734, 800 Lundy’s Lane, Battle of 693, 707, 708, 827 Lusitania, RMS 1674–1677, 1680 Lutheran Church 71, 225, 234, 731, 784, 1853, 2217. See also American Lutheran Church Luzon, Philippines 1924, 1927 lynchings 1263, 1462, 1515, 1515, 1520, 1598, 1679, 1770m Lyon, Nathaniel 958, 966, 970, 971 Lyttleton, William Henry 267–269

M MacArthur, Arthur 1510, 1511, 1516, 1523, 1525 MacArthur, Douglas 1511, 1553, 1661, 1718, 1752, 1923– 1924, 1927, 1928, 1930, 1940, 1949, 1953, 1959, 1960, 1962, 1965, 1967, 1969, 1995, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2016, 2019, 2098 MacDonald, Ramsay 1847, 1867 MacDowell, Edward A. 1399, 1406, 1414, 1470 Macedonian, HMS 659, 694 Mackall, William W. 1009, 1011 Mackenzie, Ranald Slidell 1267, 1273, 1282–1283, 1288, 1302, 1328 MacLean, Allan 366, 367 MacLeish, Archibald 2024, 2077 Macleod, Alexander 378, 379 Macmillan, Harold 2100, 2106 MacNamara, Robert 2066 Macready, Paul 2239, 2243

Madero, Francisco I. 1624, 1625, 1636, 1645, 1646 Madison, James 238, 336, 496, 537–539, 544, 548, 551, 552, 554, 556, 564, 600, 601, 607, 613, 622, 626, 638, 647, 654, 656, 666, 675, 676, 677, 677–678, 682, 683, 685, 686, 688–690, 695, 696, 702–706, 709, 713–716, 718, 720, 721, 741, 788, 810, 881 Madrid, Spain 2391 Madsen v. Women’s Health Center 2340 Magnetic Telegraph Company 851, 876 Magruder, John B. 1010, 1026– 1027, 1048, 1055 Mahan, Alfred Thayer 1419 Mahican Indians 38, 41, 42, 97, 135 Mahler, Gustav 1593, 1687 Mahone, William 1116, 1131 Mahoney, Roger 2432 Mailer, Norman 1984–1985, 2236, 2310 Maine 12, 13, 39, 70, 72, 88, 89, 95, 105, 108, 114, 119, 127, 129–131, 146, 148, 151, 154, 157–159, 164, 165, 221, 709, 717, 730, 826, 827, 898, 1143, 2364 Maine, USS 1484, 1484, 1487 Maitland, John 453, 460 maize (corn) 1, 18, 20, 39 Major Roads and Canals (1840) 1170m Makemie, Francis 178, 179 Malcolm X 2130, 2131 Malecite Indians 228 Malietoa (king of Samoa) 1346, 1412, 1413, 1512 Maliki, Nouri ­al- 2433 Maliseet Indians 151, 199 Mallory, Stephen R. 955, 966, 989, 1009, 1131, 1156

2516  Chronology of American History Malvo, Lee Boyd 2386, 2392 Mammoth Oil Company 1806, 1812, 1817, 1833 Manassas, First Battle of 957, 975, 987, 1124 Manassas, Second Battle of 694, 1036–1037, 1056 Manassas Junction, Virginia 974, 975, 998, 1035 Manchuria 1849, 1857, 1859, 1862, 1864, 1968, 2004, 2005, 2007 Manchurian crisis (1903) 1552, 1553 Mandan Indians 661, 788 Mandela, Nelson 2303 Manhattan Engineering District Project 1905, 2028, 2036, 2069 Manhattan Indians 22, 24, 43 Manhattan Island 25, 149–150 manifest destiny 860 Manila Bay, Battle of 1485, 1492 Manley, John 368, 415 Mann, Horace 816, 817, 824, 832, 910 Mann Act (1910) 1602, 1617 manned space exploration 2074, 2084, 2090 Manuelito 1210, 1223 manumission 239, 298, 518, 519, 528, 537, 538, 939, 1012 Mao Zedong 1970, 1994, 1996, 2181, 2210 “Maple Leaf Rag” (Joplin) 1378, 1507 Marbury v. Madison 646, 647, 653 March, John 165, 174, 179, 180 March, Peyton 1516, 1714, 1728, 1736 March on Washington (1963) 2117 March to the Sea 1136 Marciano, Rocky 1895, 2016, 2017, 2024, 2029, 2036, 2039, 2045, 2048

Marconi, Guglielmo 1551, 1577 Marcy, William 783, 908, 914, 920 Marham, Hezekiah 498, 516 Marine Committee 371, 376 Marine Corps, U.S. 637, 647, 937–938, 975, 1927, 2429 Marion, Francis 462, 476, 478– 480, 482, 483, 484, 490, 494, 498, 500, 507, 508, 518 Maris, Roger 2366 Markham, William 133, 156, 164 Marmaduke, John S. 1048, 1104, 1106, 1107 Marmaroneck, Battle of 401 Marne, Second Battle of the 1733 Marquand, John P. 1890, 1899 Marquette, Jacques 113, 114, 115 Mars 2047, 2326, 2334, 2359, 2362, 2369, 2371, 2375, 2390, 2393 Marshall, George C. 1736, 1960, 1965, 1970, 1976–1978, 1979, 1985, 1991, 2002, 2007, 2020, 2021 Marshall, John 636, 644, 645, 646, 653, 657, 669, 670, 676, 682, 726, 728, 744, 745, 769, 799, 807 Marshall, Thomas R. 1639, 1668, 1692, 1704, 1755 Marshall, Thurgood 2147, 2149, 2149–2150, 2316 Marshall Islands 1951, 1974, 2032, 2070 Marshall Plan 1965, 1977–1980, 1985, 1987, 2020 martial law (Civil War) 978, 1003, 1011, 1154, 1160, 1211 Martin, Casey 2381 Martin, Joseph W. 1976, 2007, 2075 Martin, Josiah 341, 348, 349, 373, 374, 376, 379 Martin Luther King Day 2257, 2272

Martin Marietta 2341 Martin v. Hunter’s Lessee 716, 734 Martin v. Mott 755 Marx, Karl 895, 896, 1254, 1350, 1447 Mary II (queen of En­gland, Ire-­ land, and Scotland) 147, 149, 160 Mary­land 52, 55, 57, 59–61, 72, 76, 83, 91, 92, 101, 103, 106, 110, 127, 133, 135, 138–139, 147, 151, 153, 157, 159, 163, 171, 175, 205, 699, 709, 949, 964, 1037–1040, 1076, 1078, 1082, 1116, 1118, 1130, 1132, 1142, 2289 Mary­land Convention 374, 390 Mason, George 308, 336, 387, 539, 615 Mason, James M. 988–990, 993, 994, 997, 1060 Mason, John 487, 488 Mason, Captain John 65, 67 Mason, Sir John 39, 49 Mason, Lowell 735, 788, 820, 931 Mason-­Dixon Line 280 Masons 204, 210, 217, 531, 534, 559, 1299 Massachuset Indians 36, 40, 100 Massachusetts 107, 108, 111, 116, 118–120, 123–127, 130, 133, 140–141, 144–145, 148, 149, 152, 153, 157–159, 165, 167, 171, 187, 201, 215, 221, 223, 229, 233, 276, 563, 609, 687, 711, 717, 730, 731, 743, 820, 838, 899–900, 920, 927, 951, 1058, 1233, 1234 Massachusetts Bay Colony 45– 47, 50, 53, 54, 56–60, 63–65, 68, 82, 95, 99, 120, 122, 130, 136, 138, 139 Massachusetts Bay Company 48, 74, 102, 106

Index  2517 Massachusetts Board of Educa-­ tion 816, 817, 824 Massachusetts General Court 228, 292, 297, 304, 305, 309, 316, 321, 323, 324, 327, 330 Massachusetts ­House of Repre-­ sentatives 302, 308 Massachusetts Provincial Con-­ gress 340, 341, 344, 350 Massachusetts State ­House 622, 625 Massasoit 33, 34, 36, 37, 38, 62 Masters, Edgar Lee 1662, 1668 Matchett, Charles H. 1439, 1473 Mather, Cotton 50, 56, 58, 64, 86, 115, 147, 147–148, 148, 161, 166, 171, 177, 178, 188– 191, 195 Mather, Increase 102, 114, 119, 139, 140–141, 145, 146, 158, 170–171, 190 Mather, Richard 54, 62 Mathew, Edward 451, 452 Matoaka. See Pocahontas Mattel Toy company 2433 Maurer, James H. 1835, 1861 Maury, Matthew F. 1025, 1044 Mawhood, Charles 407, 434 Maxim, Hiram 1368, 1413 Maximilian (emperor of Mexico) 1113, 1114, 1204, 1216, 1225, 1228 Max of Baden (German chancel-­ lor) 1741, 1743 Maxwell, Andrew 492, 501 Maxwell, William 386, 420, 422, 457, 471, 473, 500 Mayaguez, SS 2199, 2205 Mayflower (ship) 32, 35, 36 Mayflower Compact 32–35, 35 Mayhew, Jonathan 233, 237 Maypole 43–45 McAdoo, William G. 1560, 1675, 1707, 1719, 1762 McAllister, Fort 1058, 1059 McAuliffe, Christa 2269, 2272

McCain, John 2374, 2380 McCain-­Feingold Bill 2431 McCall, James 479, 485, 497 McCarthy, Eugene 2130, 2154 McCarthy, Joseph R. 1998, 2001, 2012, 2013, 2022, 2023, 2030, 2035, 2036, 2038, 2039, 2041, 2059 McCaughery, Bobbi 2363 McCauley, Mary Ludwig Hays (Molly Pitcher) 439, 440, 440–441 McClellan, George B. 694, 966, 970, 972, 973, 976, 979, 982, 986–990, 994–996, 998, 1005, 1007, 1009, 1010, 1012, 1016–1023, 1025–1029, 1035, 1037–1040, 1042–1046, 1079, 1123, 1126, 1133, 1219 McClernand, John A. 1000, 1001, 1016, 1045, 1056, 1067, 1071, 1077 McCormack, John 1603, 2129 McCormick, Cyrus H. 794, 795, 796, 873 McCown, John P. 1004, 1007, 1026 McCrary, George W. 1307, 1328 McCulloch, Hugh 1070, 1145 McCulloch v. Mary­land 646, 728, 769 McDivitt, James 2133, 2161 McDonald’s 2312 McDonnell Douglas Corpora-­ tion 2360 McDougal, James 2361 McDougall, Alexander 311– 313, 316, 330, 409 McDowell, Ephraim 681, 681 McDowell, Irvin 969, 974, 975, 1019, 1020, 1124 McGillivray, Alexander 532, 535, 536, 564, 566, 608 McGovern, George 2161, 2184, 2185 McGwire, Mark 2366

McHenry, James 630, 643 McIntosh, Fort, Treaty of 538, 599 McIntosh, Lachlan 379, 462 McIntosh, William 703, 749 MCI Telecommunications 2359, 2360 McKay, Donald 788, 889, 890, 899 McKim, Charles Follum 1399, 1600 McKinley, William 845, 1343, 1431, 1436, 1457, 1473–1475, 1477, 1478–1479, 1481, 1482, 1484, 1486–1490, 1492, 1494, 1500, 1501, 1504, 1510, 1514, 1516, 1517, 1523–1525, 1530, 1531, 1534, 1536, 1537, 1606 McKinley Tariff 1381, 1411, 1423, 1478 McLane, Allan 428, 437, 438, 453, 458, 510 McLane, Louis 779, 791 McLaurin v. Oklahoma State 2149 McLaws, Lafayette 1038, 1039, 1093, 1147 McLemore, Jeff 1685, 1688 McLeod, Alexander 830, 837 McNamara, Robert S. 2130, 2132, 2138, 2140, 2150 McPherson, James B. 1065, 1067, 1070, 1071, 1102, 1109, 1110, 1119 McVeigh, Timothy 2346, 2361, 2362, 2364, 2381 Mdewkanton Santee Indians. See Sioux Indians Meade, George G. 1023, 1051, 1078–1080, 1082, 1091, 1094, 1102, 1104, 1105, 1108, 1150 Meany, George 2018, 2019, 2049, 2082, 2207, 2208 Medicaid 2214, 2222, 2365 Medicare 2114, 2134, 2141, 2315 Medicare Reform Act 2392

2518  Chronology of American History Meeker, Nathan C. 1327, 1328 Meigs, Fort 679, 697 Meiji Restoration 1224, 1234 Melville, Herman 832, 862, 862– 863, 889, 895, 917, 1294, 1814 Membertou 12, 23 Memminger, Christopher G. 955, 1116 Memorial Day 1227, 1271 Memphis, Tennessee 1022, 1023, 1052, 1122 Menendez, Erik and Lyle 2338 Menlo Park, New Jersey 1240, 1241, 1328 Mennonites 137, 138, 145–146, 184 Mercer, Hugh 406, 407 Mercury space program 2074, 2076, 2076, 2095, 2097, 2099, 2104 Meredith, James H. 2109, 2111, 2140, 2141 Mergenthaler, Otto 1369, 1373 Mermaid, HMS 230, 231 Merrimac, USS 963, 970, 983, 984, 1000, 1002, 1003, 1005, 1006, 1017, 1018 Merritt, Wesley 1109, 1122, 1126, 1129, 1144, 1151, 1485, 1494, 1501–1503 Merriwether, Floyd 2428 Merry Mount Colony 34, 43–45 Metacom (King Philip) 37, 99, 110, 111, 111–112, 115–119, 124, 127 Methodist Church 212, 217, 295, 306, 323, 452, 530, 599, 648, 777, 811, 824, 897, 1908, 2053, 2144, 2258 Methodist Episcopal Church 537, 560–561, 855, 1816 Metropolitan Museum of Art 1208, 1329, 1897 Meurin, Sébastien-­Louis 232, 311 Mexican-­American War 1178m

Mexican-­American War (1846– 1848) 693, 841, 866–882, 887, 907, 909, 911, 913, 928, 953, 956, 1022, 1086 Mexico 734, 740, 749, 758, 762, 766, 770, 777, 791, 806, 818, 827, 846, 859, 861, 864, 865, 908, 910, 992, 1099, 1104, 1112, 1114, 1161, 1273, 1288, 1308, 1349, 1811, 1832, 1834, 1898, 2076, 2336, 2337, 2345 Mexico City 7, 1074 Mey, Cornelius Jacobsen 41, 42 Meyer, George von Lengerke 1568, 1607 Meyer, Louis 1868, 1887 Miami, Fort. See Fort Wayne, Indiana Miami Indians 132, 133, 239, 543, 547, 548, 609, 610, 614 Miantonomo 69, 77 Michelson, Albert A. 1317, 1392, 1585, 1591, 1758 Michener, James 1987, 2020 Michigan 283, 662, 664, 696, 700, 705, 742, 765, 808, 812, 865, 1142, 2027 Michilimackinac, Fort 283, 632 Mickey Mouse 1835, 1836 Micmac Indians 12, 23, 24, 27, 188, 190, 199, 227, 228, 232, 240, 247 Microsoft 2413, 2422, 2424 Microsoft Corporation 2364, 2365, 2372, 2374 Middle East 1953, 2049, 2056– 2058, 2070, 2307, 2308, 2313, 2353, 2386, 2447m, 2458m Midway, Battle of 1934 Midway Island 1221, 1223 Miers, Harriet 2408 Mies van der Rohe, Ludwig 1997, 2005 Mifflin, Fort 424, 425, 427 Mifflin, Thomas 358, 406, 426, 427, 529, 603

migration 570m, 2441m, 2445m, 2449m Miles, Nelson A. 1123, 1198, 1199, 1282, 1291, 1304–1305, 1308–1311, 1315, 1364, 1386, 1389, 1423, 1424, 1427, 1467, 1490, 1492, 1494, 1500–1502, 1524, 1554 Military Division of the Missis-­ sippi 1102, 1103 military-­industrial complex 2022, 2094 military pay 1057, 1085, 1115 military tribunals 1068, 2383 militia 16, 23, 64, 76, 77, 79, 80, 173 Militia Act (1792) 370, 615, 1550 Milk, Harvey 2229 Milk Creek, Battle of 1328 Milken, Michael R. 2293, 2309 Miller, Arthur 1992, 1992, 1993 Miller, Judith 2405, 2408 Miller, Samuel 2319 Miller, Thomas 130, 133 Miller, William 779, 1145–1146 Miller v. Johnson 2348 Milligan, Lambdin P. 1158, 1211 Milliken’s Bend, Louisiana 1058, 1065, 1074 Milling, T. D. 1638, 1674 Million Man March 2350 Milroy, Robert H. 992, 1017, 1076 Milwaukee 798, 2316 Mingo Indians 93, 241, 262, 328 minimum wage 1638, 1652, 1809, 1839, 1996, 1998, 2047, 2097, 2298, 2301, 2357 mining 397, 2057 Minnesota 886, 1052, 1144, 1271 Minor v. Happersett 1288 minstrelsy 638, 843, 865 Mint, U.S. 548, 616, 666, 798, 808, 904, 951, 959 Minuit, Peter 42–43, 54, 68, 69 Minutemen 335 Miranda v. Arizona 2140, 2175

Index  2519 Missile Defense System 2416 missiles 2006, 2050, 2060, 2064, 2065, 2087, 2088, 2093, 2105, 2107, 2211, 2256, 2258, 2259, 2262, 2305, 2333, 2383 Missionary Ridge, Battle of 1511 Mississippi 167, 723, 740, 763, 826, 945, 950, 1009, 1010, 1019–1021, 1026, 1027, 1039, 1041–1043, 1045, 1048, 1052, 1053, 1058, 1059, 1062, 1063, 1065–1072, 1075, 1076, 1078, 1081–1083, 1099, 1101, 1114, 1119, 1138, 1158, 1160, 1161, 1238, 1250, 2077, 2086, 2142, 2324 Mississippi Company 191, 194 Mississippi River 7, 113, 114, 168, 169, 540–542, 547, 575m, 661, 664, 665, 667, 687, 785, 1010, 1013, 1022, 1031, 1066, 1067, 1081, 1830, 1837 Mississippi River Squadron 1011, 1080 Mississippi Territory 636, 638, 653, 703, 720 Mississippi v. Johnson 1217 Missouri 288, 724, 730, 731, 734, 735, 738, 959, 962, 966, 969–974, 976–978, 981, 982, 987, 988, 990, 1042, 1085, 1096, 1127, 1128, 1131, 1139, 1158, 1255, 2045 Missouri, Department of 988, 991 Missouri Compromise (1820) 721, 731, 734, 747, 804, 875, 882, 907, 913, 927, 1172m Missouri State Convention 958, 975, 1079 Missouri State Guard 965, 968 Missouri Territory 689, 726, 728, 732 Mitchell, George 2437 Mitchell, John (UMW leader) 1544, 1548

Mitchell, John N. (attorney gen-­ eral) 2180, 2188, 2203, 2222 Mitchell, John P. (New York mayor) 1714–1715 Mitchell, Margaret 1885, 1892 Mitchell, William “Billy” 1706, 1727, 1738, 1799, 1801, 1808, 1822, 1823, 2067 Mobil Corporation 2368 Mobile, Alabama 696, 1015, 1037, 1147, 1152 Mobile Bay, Battle of 1121 Mobile & Ohio Railroad 1021, 1050, 1066 Moby-­Dick (Melville) 832, 863, 895 Model T Ford 1452–1453, 1599, 1603, 1683, 1684, 1814, 1828 Model Treaty 393, 398, 399 Modoc War 1270–1273 Mohawk Indians 38, 41, 42, 66, 75, 77, 93, 96–98, 107, 130, 132, 182, 183, 232, 243, 249– 251, 263, 413, 456, 521, 1384 Mohegan Indians 22, 65, 67, 118, 182, 290, 291, 542 Molino del Ray, Battle of 877 Molly Maguires 1289, 1312 Molly Pitcher. See McCauley, Mary Ludwig Hays (Molly Pitcher) Monckton, Robert 247, 248, 264 Mondale, Walter 2104, 2213, 2219, 2238, 2241, 2252, 2260– 2265, 2386 Monitor, USS 983, 984, 985, 986, 996, 997, 1003, 1005, 1006, 1017, 1049, 1054, 1059, 2195 Monmouth, Battle of 432–433, 489 Monmouth Court ­House, Battle of 439, 440 Monocacy, Battle of 1118 Monongahela River 242, 249 Monro, George 256, 257

Monroe, James 259, 318, 375, 600, 622, 624, 631, 653, 654, 667–669, 675, 678, 685, 686, 694, 702, 708, 709, 711, 716, 718, 720, 721, 721–722, 722– 724, 732, 734, 737, 741, 743, 745, 746, 749, 773, 777 Monroe Doctrine 722, 743, 745, 750, 1113, 1216, 1253, 1332, 1349, 1465, 1468, 1513, 1549, 1550, 1564, 1586, 1587, 1589, 1636, 1750, 1839 Monroe’s Crossroads, Battle of 1146 Montagnais Indians 26, 47, 57, 66 Montana 1414, 1809, 2355 Montauk, USS 1058, 1059 Montauk Indians 77 Montcalm, ­Louis-­Joseph de (marquis de ­Saint-­Véran) 253, 254, 257, 261, 263–267 Monterrey, Battle of 870, 953 Montgomery, Archibald 269, 270 Montgomery, Bernard 1957 Montgomery, James E. 1017, 1018, 1023 Montgomery, Richard 272, 273, 358–361, 363, 364, 366, 368, 369, 372, 373 Montojo, Patricio 1485, 1491 Montreal 79, 155, 249, 264, 265, 274, 694, 702 Monts, Pierre du Gua, sieur de 11, 12 Moody, Dwight L. 1284, 1286– 1287, 1289, 1290, 1385 Moody Bible Institute 1385 Moon 2359 Moore, Archie 2017, 2048, 2055 Moore, Elizabeth 1532, 1550 Moore, Ely 788, 791 Moore, Henry 297, 299 Moore, James 172, 173, 187, 188, 193, 350, 351, 379 Moore’s Creek Bridge, Battle of 379

2520  Chronology of American History Moral Majority 2298 Moran, George “Bugsy” 1841, 1843 Morattico Indians 94 Moravians 212, 217, 222, 226, 233, 238, 252, 280, 519 More­house College 1214, 1216 Morgan, Daniel 354, 358, 372, 421, 481, 485–489, 489, 490, 491, 494 Morgan, John H. 1030, 1045, 1049, 1081, 1083–1084 Morgan, John Pierpont 1320, 1377, 1438, 1453, 1454, 1464, 1471, 1533, 1570, 1573, 1590, 1613, 1677, 1680 Morgan, Thomas Hunt 1643, 1870 Morgan v. Commonwealth 1973 Morgan v. Virginia 2149 Morison, Samuel Eliot 2075, 2088 Mormon Church 770, 771, 823, 824, 827, 828, 852–853, 864, 873, 876, 877, 879, 892, 894, 918, 925, 930, 933, 961, 1028, 1318, 1354, 1395, 1423, 1431, 1442, 1444, 1471, 1520, 2271, 2303, 2304, 2340, 2345 Morocco 539, 545, 811, 1568– 1569, 1576 Moro revolt 1567, 1571, 1576, 1630, 1634, 1651 Morrill Tariff Act 956, 1028 Morris, Gouverneur 449, 554, 559, 624 Morris, Robert 361, 387, 412, 501–503, 510, 516, 517, 526, 532, 535, 547, 552, 630, 643 Morris, Thomas 846, 973 Morris Island, South Carolina 1081–1082, 1087 Morrison, United States v. 2246 Morrissey, John C. 910, 1097 Morristown, New Jersey 404, 462–464, 470, 471, 473

Morse, Samuel F. B. 751, 798, 818, 827, 833, 838, 850, 851, 876, 941 Morton, Ferdinand “Jelly Roll” 1573, 1823 Morton, Levi P. 1403, 1411, 1440 Morton, Thomas 34, 43–45, 56 Moscow 2316, 2346, 2354 Moss, James A. 1327, 1472 Mother’s Day 1588, 1595, 1650, 1662 motion pictures 1241, 1408, 1431, 1444, 1458, 1472, 1483, 1518, 1532, 1549, 1565, 1584, 1691, 1805, 1809, 1820, 1827, 1833, 1834, 1836–1838, 1849 Mott, Lucretia C. 792, 793, 821, 829, 882, 883, 1205, 1218 Moultrie, Fort 468, 469, 944– 947, 949 Moultrie, William 386, 390, 448, 451–453, 484 Mount Vernon 222, 239, 934 Moussaoui, Zacarias 2383, 2384, 2403, 2412 movies. See motion pictures Mowat, Henry 346, 362, 456 Moynihan, Daniel Patrick 2170, 2372 Mugler v. Kansas 1399 Mugwumps 1265, 1372 Muhammad, Imam Abdu Rasheed 2337 Muhammad, John Allen 2386, 2392 Muhammad Ali 2122, 2123 Muhlenberg, Henry Melchior 225, 234 Muir, John 1436, 1437 Mukasey, Michael 2434, 2436 mulattos 201, 204, 223 Mule Shoe 1110, 1111 Muller v. Oregon 1593 Munn v. Illinois 1305–1306 Munsee Indians 22

Murfreesboro, Tennessee 1030, 1053, 1054–1055 Murphy, Isaac 1098, 1105, 1430 Murray, James 271–273 Murray, John 286, 313 Murray, Philip 1915, 1930 Murray, Walter 236, 238 Murray, William Vans 640, 642 Murtha, John 2419 music 751, 752, 1558, 1603, 1656, 1700, 1704, 1731, 1757, 1805, 1815, 1819. See also specific performers and com-­ posers, e.g.: Copland, Aaron Muskie, Edmund 2158, 2236 Muslims 2234, 2338, 2428 Mussolini, Benito 1883, 1906, 1906, 1912, 1947 My Lai massacre 2167, 2168 Myrick, Andrew F. 1032–1034 Mystic massacre 65, 67

N NAACP. See National Associa-­ tion for the Advancement of Colored People Nacchio, Joseph 2427 Nader, Ralph 2139, 2174 Nagasaki 1969, 2066, 2069, 2319 Nagin, Ray 2407, 2413 Nansatico Indians 174 Nansemond Indians 79 Nanticoke Indians 117–118 Nantucket Island 13, 217, 705 Napoleon Bonaparte. See Bonaparte, Napoléon (Napoléon I) Napoleon III (emperor of the French). See Bonaparte, ­Louis­Napoléon (Napoléon III) Napster, Inc. 2376 Narragansett Indians 34, 36, 37, 52, 53, 59, 62, 63, 65, 69, 77, 78, 80, 117, 119–123, 126, 127 Nashaway Indians 118 Nashville, Battle of 1135–1136

Index  2521 Nashville, CSS 1007, 1015 Nashville, Tennessee 1002, 1003, 1052, 1133 Nasr, Hassan Mustafa Osama 2423 Nassau, Fort 25, 41, 62 Nast, Thomas 1055, 1234, 1235, 1249, 1283 Natchez Indians 202, 206 Natick, Massachusetts 55, 87 Natick Indians 314 Nation, The 1159, 1161 Nation, Carrie 1507, 1509, 1523 National Academy of Sciences 1061, 1684 National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) 2063, 2072, 2073, 2081, 2090, 2356, 2363, 2369 National Airlines 2074, 2096 National American Woman Suf-­ frage Association (NAWSA) 999, 1206, 1233 National Archives 2395 National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) 1508, 1610, 1616, 2051, 2102, 2119, 2149, 2348 National Baseball Hall of Fame 2421 National Convention of Colored Men 846, 1234 National Council of Cherokee Indians 1061 National Council of Churches 2086, 2096, 2310 National Geographic Society 1342, 1400, 1483, 2047 National Grange 1239, 1268 National Guard 1550, 1685, 1718, 1755, 1811, 1875, 2057, 2062, 2322, 2323, 2379, 2395 National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) 1869, 1880

National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) 1863, 1875, 1880, 1892, 1953 National Labor Relations Board v. Fansteel Metallurgical Cor-­ poration 1906 National Missile Defense (NMD) 2400 National Negro Business League 1346, 1518 National Negro Convention 561, 799 National Or­ga­ni­za­tion for Women (NOW) 2112 National Park Ser­vice 1538, 1695, 2105 National Philanthropist 752, 800 National Republican Party 781, 795 National Road 666, 687, 751 National Science Program 2334 National Security Act (1947) 1980, 1994, 2388 National Security Advisor 2299, 2399 National Security Council 2388 National Security Surveillance Act 2416 National War Labor Board 1725 National Woman Suffrage Asso-­ ciation (NWSA) 884, 1206, 1239, 1246, 1261, 1418 Nation of Islam 2204, 2350, 2424 Native American Party 763, 860, 877, 920 Native Americans. See American Indians; specific tribes Natural Bridge, Battle of 1145– 1146 Naturalization Act 606, 627, 637, 651 natural resources 1771m Nature (Emerson) 803, 805 Naumkeag (Salem), Massachu-­ setts 41, 45, 47

Nautilus, HMS 714, 715 Nautilus, USS 2015, 2031, 2039, 2072 Nauvoo Legion 771, 930 Navajo Indians 1085, 1097, 2311 Naval Overseas Transportation Ser­vice 1720, 1731, 1741, 1746 Naval Reserve, U.S. 1402, 1695 Navigation Acts 87, 97, 101, 112, 122, 130, 131, 136, 143, 163, 194, 381 Navy, U.S. 557, 623, 624, 633, 635, 689, 717, 822, 862, 894, 963, 965, 976, 979, 981, 983, 1160, 1898, 1914, 1925, 2287–2288 Navy, U.S. Department of 636, 1046 Nazi Germany 1813, 1831, 1870, 1909, 2036, 2069 Nazimova, Alla 1572, 1719 NCR Corporation 2315 Neal, Thomas 473, 474 Nebraska 919, 1106, 1215 Necessity, Fort 243, 244, 603 Neff, Mary 165, 166 Negroponte, John 2401, 2420 Neptune (ship) 1048, 1055 Netherlands 102, 515, 520, 521, 826, 1912, 1958 Netherlands States General 38, 46 Neutrality Act (1794) 624 Neutrality Act (1935) 1881, 1883 Neutrality Act (1936) 1886 Neutrality Act (1937) 1892 Neutrality Act (1939) 1910, 1926 Nevada 957, 1132, 1809, 2049, 2145 New Amsterdam 25, 42–43, 43, 49, 56, 66, 72, 74, 75, 77, 79, 81, 83, 85, 89, 92, 95, 97, 102, 103, 106, 112 New Brunswick 826, 827

2522  Chronology of American History New Deal 1631, 1880, 1881, 1887, 1888, 1890, 2019 New En­gland 12, 17, 25, 26, 104, 139, 141, 142, 156, 167, 2038, 2047 New En­gland, Dominion of 142–144, 146, 148 New En­gland Company 44, 46 New En­gland Confederation 76, 85, 89, 95 Newfoundland 2, 9, 44, 164, 165, 167, 171, 172, 280 New France 26, 133, 577m New Granada 872, 879, 881. See also Colombia New Guinea 1936, 1943, 1948, 1953 New Hampshire 80, 127, 131– 133, 151, 153, 159, 160, 162, 189, 215, 221, 222, 233, 532, 564, 565, 600, 1159, 2321 New Haven Colony 77, 78, 98–100, 104 New Ironsides, USS 1087, 1090 New Jersey 102–107, 114–116, 126, 129, 131, 132, 135, 171, 193, 217, 232, 262, 391, 544, 605, 658, 853, 1062, 1145, 1760, 2336 Newlands Reclamation Act 1545, 1546 New Market Heights, Battle of 1128 New Mexico 6, 7, 870, 891, 892, 998, 1002, 1008, 1009 New Mexico Territory 992, 1016, 1029, 1097 New Netherland 69, 75, 76, 89, 90, 101, 102 New Orleans 209, 281, 296, 306, 542, 563, 566, 652, 654, 662, 672, 696, 711, 712, 750, 781, 905, 926, 951, 989, 995, 1002, 1008, 1014–1016, 1018, 1031, 1046, 1098, 1980, 2093, 2346, 2406–2408

New Orleans (steamboat) 685–687 New Orleans, Battle of 713 Newport, Christopher 14, 16– 18, 20, 22 Newport, Rhode Island 70–72, 404, 463, 473 New Sweden 68, 71, 72, 76, 87, 92 New Sweden Company 62, 68 Newton, Isaac 180, 195 Newton, John 1117, 1145 New York 217, 506, 565, 703, 706, 707, 710, 747, 749, 751, 756, 779, 822, 950, 962, 1097, 1142, 1716, 2038 New York Academy of Arts 650, 751 New York Central Railroad 905, 1799 New York City 102–105, 113, 114, 138, 141, 149–150, 156, 157, 163, 164, 403, 779, 780, 784, 786, 788, 802, 814, 837, 844, 860, 905, 994, 1082, 1132, 1134, 1823, 1983, 2336 New York Eve­ning Post 645, 752 New York State 145, 149, 152, 153, 162, 177, 304, 506, 720, 747, 749, 777, 950, 951, 962, 1716, 2038 New York Stock Exchange 616, 1847, 1848, 2041, 2048, 2107, 2262, 2263, 2279, 2285, 2351, 2356 New York Times Co. v. Sullivan 2123 New York Tribune 833, 895, 896, 974 New York University 777, 1828 New York v. Miln 812 New York Weekly Journal 210–212 New York Yankees 1829, 1833, 1838 New Zealand 2010, 2039, 2047

Ney, Bob 2417, 2421 Nez Perce Indians 932, 1382 Nez Perce War 1310–1315 Niagara, Fort 146, 247, 249–251, 264, 265, 285, 703 Niagara Movement 1508, 1569 Niantic Indians 63 Nicaragua 1296, 1612–1613, 1808, 1811, 1825, 1832, 2230, 2241, 2261, 2265–2268, 2271, 2276, 2284, 2286, 2287 Nicholas, Samuel 366, 380 Nicholas II (czar of Rus­sia) 1568, 1704 Nicholls, Richard 102–105 Nichols, Terry 2346, 2364 Nicholson, Francis 144, 149– 151, 162, 181–185, 194, 195 Nicholson, James 435, 471, 508 Nimitz, Chester W. 1597, 1635, 1927 Nine, the 82, 83, 85 Nineteenth Amendment 1206, 1752, 1763, 1806, 2440m Ninety Six, Fort 270, 501, 504, 505 Nipmuc Indians 36, 118, 119, 123 Nispissing Indians 70 Nixon, John 349, 416 Nixon, Richard M. 1990, 2004, 2015, 2016, 2054, 2058, 2070, 2080, 2085, 2090–2094, 2099, 2110–2111, 2153, 2157, 2159, 2160–2161, 2162–2172, 2174, 2176, 2179–2184, 2187, 2188, 2191–2197, 2199, 2201, 2221, 2295, 2368 Noble Order of the Knights of Labor. See Knights of Labor No Child Left Behind Act 2401, 2403 Non-­Agression and Conciliation, Treaty of 1870, 1875 nonimportation 307, 308, 310, 313, 324, 330, 332

Index  2523 Non-­Importation Act 672, 706 Non-­Intercourse Act 676, 678 Noriega, Manuel 2285, 2295, 2302, 2303 Normandie (ship) 1920, 1930 Normandy landing (D-Day) 1955, 1955, 1995, 2008 Norris, Frank 1532, 1549 Norris, George W. 1615, 1837 North, Lord Frederick 300, 312, 313, 315, 323, 327, 339, 357, 361, 431, 436, 438, 463, 516, 519 North, Oliver L. 2278, 2282, 2286, 2293, 2297, 2298, 2317 North America (1783) 585m North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) 2336, 2337 North American Review 714, 781 North Atlantic Treaty Or­ga­ni­ za­tion (NATO) 1965, 1993, 1996, 2005, 2008, 2012, 2014, 2022, 2040, 2065, 2084, 2097, 2309, 2338, 2346, 2348, 2349, 2360, 2370, 2385, 2415 North Carolina 101, 157, 174, 176, 187, 189, 202, 270, 565, 566, 955, 967, 979, 989, 995, 1000, 1018, 1099, 1106, 1138, 1139–1140, 1144, 1147–1148, 1158, 1160, 1161, 1228, 1253, 2355, 2356 North Dakota 1410, 1414 Northern Alliance 2382, 2383 Northern Ireland 2351 Northern Pacific Railroad 1117, 1360, 1366, 1535 Northern Securities Company 1454, 1535, 1543 Northern Securities v. United States 1560 North Pole 1825, 1826, 2108, 2302, 2355 Northrop Corporation 2339 North Star (newspaper) 823, 879

Northwest Indian War 665 Northwest Ordinance (1787) 556 Northwest Passage 9, 2166 Northwest Territory 528, 560, 563, 565, 613, 615, 625, 628, 631, 643, 652, 654, 673 Northwood, a Tale of New En­gland (Hale) 755, 768 Norton, Gale 2411 Nosair, El Sayyid A. 2308 Novak, Robert 2391 Nova Scotia 39, 227, 228, 234, 235, 247, 692 nuclear disarmament 2060, 2071, 2086, 2088, 2090, 2196, 2201, 2305, 2342, 2347 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty 2134, 2157, 2168 nuclear power 1972–1974, 2011, 2030, 2031, 2034, 2037–2039, 2041, 2042, 2047, 2053, 2057, 2083, 2180, 2234, 2253, 2259, 2279, 2285, 2289, 2337, 2434 nuclear submarines 2015, 2039, 2047, 2058, 2059, 2067, 2072–2074, 2079, 2083, 2084, 2090, 2093 nuclear technology, exports of 2030, 2038, 2057 Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (1963) 2075, 2081, 2095, 2117, 2118 nuclear test ban treaty (1995) 2358 nuclear testing 1974, 1996, 2018, 2032, 2034, 2053, 2061, 2062, 2068, 2070, 2074, 2076, 2086, 2095, 2100, 2103, 2105–2109, 2112, 2113, 2117, 2174, 2179, 2212, 2290, 2291, 2337, 2390 nuclear weapons 2084, 2145, 2150, 2163, 2175, 2183, 2296, 2437. See also atomic bomb; hydrogen bomb Nullification Crisis 747, 763, 769, 789 NYNEX 2354

O Oakley, Annie 1364, 1396, 1397 Obama, Barack 2431 Oberlin College 782, 791, 823 ­O’Brien, Jeremiah 351, 356 Occom, Samson 290, 291, 311, 317, 321, 542–543 Occoneechee Indians 123 O’Connor, Sandra Day 2244, 2245–2246 Oconostota (Cherokee chief) 267, 268, 269, 270, 273 Octagon Conference 1958 Office of Management and Bud­ get (OMB) 2299, 2383 Office of Price Administration and Civilian Supply (OPA) 1919, 1927, 1931 Office of Price Stabilization 2007, 2022, 2023 Office of Production Manage-­ ment (OPM) 1915, 1917, 1918, 1928, 1929 Office of Strategic Ser­vices (OSS) 1934, 1935, 2002 Office of War Information (OWI) 1934 Office of War Mobilization (OWM) 1946 Ogden v. Saunders 755 Oglethorpe, James Edward 208– 210, 212, 219–221, 224–226 ­O’Hara, Charles 491, 496, 514 Ohio 296, 653, 716, 745, 902, 950, 1081, 1084, 1797, 2027 Ohio, Department of the 966, 972 Ohio Company of Associates 544, 556, 560, 563 Ohio Land Company 233, 235 Ohio River Valley 239–241 Ohio Territory 609, 610, 621 oil 936, 1199, 2020, 2024, 2196, 2205, 2223, 2235, 2236, 2259, 2262, 2284, 2285, 2307, 2388, 2403, 2415

2524  Chronology of American History oil embargo (1973–1974) 2186, 2192–2195 oil reserves 1797, 1799, 1806, 1830, 1833, 1847, 1851 oil spills 2297, 2300, 2303, 2304, 2311, 2313, 2325, 2340, 2341, 2352 Ojibway Indians 70, 108, 283 Okeechobee Swamp, Florida 819, 887 O’Keeffe, Georgia 1839, 1840, 2279 Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge 2427 Oklahoma 1410, 1420, 1431, 1436, 1440, 1451, 1497, 1538, 1589, 1590–1591, 1620, 1812, 2045, 2077 Oklahoma City bombing (1995) 2346, 2361, 2362, 2364, 2381 Oldham, John 57, 63, 67 “Old Man Eloquence” 750, 810 ­O’Leary, Hazel 2337 Olive Branch Petition 355, 359, 368 Oliver, Andrew 293, 304, 323, 324 Olmert, Ehud 2413, 2436 Olmsted, Frederick Law 931, 1292 Olney, Richard 1460, 1466, 1468, 1472, 1475 Olustee, Battle of 1100 Olympic Games 1814, 1816, 1835, 1838, 1860, 1862, 1885, 1887, 1889, 1985, 1989, 2012, 2015, 2050, 2056, 2091, 2158, 2219, 2235, 2263, 2291, 2319, 2357, 2371, 2377, 2384, 2435 Omaha Indians 1405–1406 Omnibus Bud­get Reconciliation Act 2333 Omnibus Water Bill 2328 Oneida Indians 107, 321, 328, 413, 416

­O’Neill, Eugene 1683, 1759, 1764, 1802, 1803, 1803, 1806, 1807, 1816, 1818, 1824, 1835, 1837, 1846, 1858, 1869, 1871, 1890, 1975, 2045, 2059, 2073 ­O’Neill, Thomas P. “Tip” 2217 Onondaga Indians 413 Ontario 698, 700 Ontario, Lake 248, 253, 254, 262 OPEC (Oil Producing and Exporting Countries) 2232 Opechancanough 15, 19, 28, 29, 36, 39, 40, 79, 81 Open Door Policy 1486, 1507, 1515, 1521, 1525–1526, 1530, 1555, 1559, 1566, 1568, 1599, 1675, 1805 opera 751, 752 Operation Anaconda 2384 Operation Desert Fox 2368 Operation Desert Shield 2299, 2306, 2313 Operation Desert Storm 2295, 2299, 2311–2313, 2457m Operation Enduring Freedom 2389 Operation Iraqi Freedom 2300, 2380, 2388, 2399, 2459m Operation Iron Fist 2408 Operation Just Cause 2302 Operation Mountain Viper 2391 Operation Overlord 1955, 1955 Operation Rescue 2322 Operation Torch 1939 Operation Urgent Fury 2257, 2313 Oppenheimer, J. Robert 1967, 2036, 2036, 2037, 2069, 2080, 2114 Orange, Fort 41, 44, 48, 71, 97 Orange War Plan 1580 Ord, Edward O. 1039, 1041, 1043, 1077, 1081, 1128, 1152 Ord, O. C. 1310, 1327 Oregon 7, 742, 892, 910, 913, 934, 1544, 1642, 2049

Oregon Territory 725, 735, 756, 845, 846, 856, 859, 860, 863, 865, 866, 868, 882, 906, 923, 961, 1410 Oregon Trail 688, 748, 795, 830, 838, 867 Or­ga­ni­za­tion of American States (OAS) 1987, 2032, 2054, 2091 or­ga­nized crime 1428, 1841, 2001, 2052, 2055, 2082 or­ga­nized labor 537, 623, 838, 1097, 1795, 1799, 1825, 1851, 1869, 1876, 1884, 1892, 1947, 1953, 1960, 1970–1973, 1977, 1979, 1986–1988, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1996, 2001, 2006, 2014– 2016, 2018, 2019, 2027, 2029, 2034, 2037, 2046, 2052, 2058, 2059, 2067, 2073, 2080–2086, 2089, 2092, 2096, 2098, 2122, 2129, 2139, 2220, 2275, 2312, 2314, 2337, 2345, 2346, 2366, 2385, 2406, 2411. See also strikes organ transplants 1953, 2301, 2308, 2324 Oriskany Creek 417, 418 Orlando, Florida 1796, 2326 Ortega, Daniel 2266, 2271 Osage Indians 675, 748 Osborn v. Bank of the United States 745 Osceola (Seminole Indians chief) 797, 800, 802, 802–803, 819 Ostend Manifesto 917, 920, 929 Oswald, Lee Harvey 2095, 2120, 2127 Oswego, Fort 251, 253, 254, 261 Otis, Elwell S. 1503, 1507, 1513, 1514, 1516, 1523, 1527–1528 Otis, James 275, 276, 278, 289, 290, 292, 302, 304, 309, 310, 315, 319, 338, 342 Ottawa Indians 26, 70, 90, 96, 138, 187, 275, 277, 279, 282, 284, 289, 290, 390, 765

Index  2525 Ousamequin (Yellow Feather). See Massasoit Outcault, R. F. 1470, 1473 overseas possessions 1779m Owen, Priscilla 2404 Owen, Robert 749, 756, 775 Owen-­Glass Federal Reserve Act (1913) 1654 Owens, Jesse 1888–1889

P Pacific Northwest 735, 739, 742, 745 Pacific Ocean 1781m, 2448m Pacific Railroad 1772m Pacific Telesis Group 2354 Pacific Theater (World War II) 2448m Packwood, Bob 2349 Padilla, Jose 2409, 2433 Paducah, Kentucky 980, 1103 Page, Thomas Nelson 1392, 1434 Pago Pago 1265, 1266, 1317 Paine, John Knowles 1284, 1330 Paine, Thomas 154, 197, 335, 335, 337, 357, 363, 374, 375, 383, 405, 410, 615 Paiute Indians 1360, 1409 Pakistan 2039, 2047, 2049, 2076, 2234, 2385, 2402 Palestine 1969, 1981, 2334, 2404, 2413, 2418 Palestine Liberation Or­ga­ni­za­ tion (PLO) 2232, 2293, 2334, 2349 Palestinian Authority 2353, 2430 Palestinian Islamic Jihad 2388 Palma, Tomas Estrada 1544, 1579, 1580 Palm Beach, Florida 2314 Palmer, A. Mitchell 1752, 1757, 1758, 1761, 1762, 1764 Palmer, John 201, 221 Palmer, John M. 1101, 1121, 1475 Palmerston, Lord 809, 1024, 1043, 1147

Palmetto Ranch, Battle of 1157 Palo Alto, Battle of 866 Pamunkey Indians 29, 42, 54, 79, 92 Pan-­African movement 1508 Panama 4, 891, 1234, 1319, 1543, 1555, 1603, 1909–1910, 2124, 2285, 2295, 2302, 2303 Panama Canal 1249, 1265, 1332, 1521, 1525, 1539–1540, 1542, 1544, 1551, 1554, 1556, 1557, 1559, 1561, 1569, 1579, 1581, 1588, 1630, 1653, 1657, 1664, 1665, 1918, 2042, 2054, 2135, 2233 Panama Canal Act (1912) 1641, 1659, 1662 Panama Canal Treaty 2219, 2226 Panama Canal Zone 1529, 1622, 1658, 1886, 2122, 2223, 2372 Panama-­Pacific International Exposition 1668, 1671 Pan American Airlines/Airways 1972, 1978, 1987, 2311, 2319 Pan-­American Conference (1889) 1402, 1411 Pan-­American Conference (1901) 1538 Pan-­American Conference on Conciliation and Arbitration (1928) 1839 Pan-­American Exhibition (1901) 1531 Pan-­American Financial Confer-­ ence (1915) 1675 Pan-­American Medical Confer-­ ence (1901) 1533 Pan-­American ­Union 1414, 1418 panic of 1819 726, 730 panic of 1837 796, 811, 813, 815, 816 panic of 1857 930, 931 panic of 1873 1275, 1279 panic of 1893 1445, 1446, 1452 panic of 1907 1590, 1592

Paris, Treaty of (1763) 280 Paris, Treaty of (1783) 426, 443, 524, 527, 528, 530, 531, 533, 539, 544, 603, 626, 634 Paris, Treaty of (1898) 1505, 1507, 1510 Paris Conference (1954) 2040 Paris Peace Conference (1919) 1750 Parke, John G. 1000, 1014, 1081, 1128, 1131 Parker, Alton B. 1563, 1564 Parker, Ely S. 1233, 1256, 1258 Parker, Hyde 446, 447 Parker, John 256, 343 Parker, Peter 373, 376, 382, 384, 386, 389, 393, 394, 404 Parker, Quanah 1288, 1462 Parker, Theodore 828, 833 Parkman, Francis 895, 1137, 1277, 1368 Parks, Rosa 2119, 2409 Parliament (Great Britain) 234, 296 Parmelee, Philip O. 1618, 1622 Parson’s Cause 285, 286, 289 Passamaquoddy Indians 199 Pastorius, Francis Daniel 137, 138, 146, 152 Patent Office, U.S. 652, 826 patents/patent rights 81, 606, 607, 635, 1897, 2279, 2281, 2320 Pathfinder, The (Cooper) 733, 828 Patman Bonus Bill 1861, 1880 patroon system 48, 82 Patterson, Floyd 2055, 2089 Patti, Adelina 937, 944 Patton, George S. 1085, 1610, 1656, 1717, 1739, 1740, 1956, 1957, 1960, 1970, 1995 Paulding, James Kirke 687, 755 Pauling, Linus 2040, 2070, 2173 Paul VI (pope) 2114, 2135, 2154, 2207

2526  Chronology of American History Pauncefote, Julian 1475, 1521 Pawnee, USS 960, 961 Pawnee Indians 194 Pawson, Leslie 1867, 1899, 1919 Pawtucket Indians 36 Paxton Boys 281, 286–288 Payne, John Howard 742, 746 Payne-­Aldrich Tariff Act 1609, 1611 Payne’s Landing, Treaty of 784, 797, 802 Peace Corps 2095, 2096, 2099 Peace Demo­crats 1084, 1090, 1100 Peachtree Creek, Battle of 1119 Peach War 91 Peacock, USS 706, 714 Peale, Charles Willson 317, 318, 541, 546, 621, 662, 666, 675 Pea Ridge, Arkansas 1004, 1005 Pearl, Daniel 2384 Pearl Harbor, Hawaii 1394, 1866, 1926, 2319 Pearson, Richard 369, 460, 461 Peary, Robert E. 1608–1609, 1611, 2302 Pedro (emperor of Brazil) 1297, 1300 Pegram, John 973, 1130, 1142 Peik v. Chicago and Northwest Railroad Company 1305 Peirce, John 31, 38 Pelham, Peter 207, 325 Pelosi, Nancy 2419, 2420, 2426 Pemaquid Indians 36 Pemberton, John C. 1042, 1047, 1048, 1058, 1066, 1071, 1076, 1078, 1080 Pemberton, John Stith 1384, 1412 Pendleton, George H. 1123, 1361 Pendleton, Joseph H. 1641, 1693 penicillin 1941, 1950 Penn, John 281, 287 Penn, Thomas 215, 217, 263 Penn, William 99, 116, 126, 129, 133, 134, 134–135, 136–139,

141, 156, 159, 160, 162, 165, 168–170, 192, 213, 216, 222, 328, 355 Pennington, William 938, 939 Pennsylvania 133–139, 152, 158, 159, 162, 164, 169, 170, 195, 196, 199, 255, 623, 676, 699, 759, 770, 1023, 1076– 1080, 1092 Pennsylvania Gazette (newspa-­ per) 201, 242 Pennsylvania Railroad 865, 900, 926, 1864 Pennsylvania v. Wheeling Bridge 900 Penobscot Indians 151, 162, 198, 2236 Pensacola, Florida 711, 712, 725, 981 Pentagon 2381 Pentagon Papers 2177, 2190 People’s Party 837, 1333, 1422, 1474, 1523, 1563, 1594 People’s Republic of China 2005, 2060, 2099, 2369, 2376 Peoria Indians 308 Pepperrell, William 228, 229, 230, 231, 232 Pequawket Indians 199 Pequot Indians 45, 57, 59, 64, 66, 67, 126 Pequot War 64–66 Percy, Hugh 343, 395, 403 Permanent Court of Interna-­ tional Arbitration 1513, 1548, 1594, 1595, 1604, 1619 Perot, H. Ross 2321, 2325– 2328, 2331 Perry, David 1311, 1312 Perry, Matthew C. 893, 900, 908, 909, 910, 914, 923, 1006 Perry, Oliver Hazard 696, 699, 700, 730, 909 Perryville, Battle of 1043–1044 Pershing, John J. 1426, 1491, 1551, 1552, 1630, 1649,

1651, 1688, 1689, 1692, 1702, 1707, 1709, 1710, 1712, 1714, 1715, 1721, 1725, 1726, 1732, 1735–1737, 1738, 1739–1741, 1743, 1744, 1746, 1754, 1934, 1957, 1979 Persian Gulf 2235, 2242, 2287– 2288, 2342, 2387, 2458m Persian Gulf War (1991) 2295, 2299, 2306–2309, 2311–2313, 2457m Peru 754, 2108, 2320, 2322 Peters, United States v. 676 Petersburg, Battle of 499 Petersburg, siege of 1115–1117, 1137, 1149–1150 Petersburg, Virginia 501, 1122, 1148, 1149 Petraeus, David 2422, 2433, 2438 Petty, William, earl of Shelburne. See Shelburne, earl of Petun Indians 70 Phantom II jet 2106, 2134 Phelps, Michael 2426 Philadelphia 135–139, 147, 404, 609, 620 Philadelphia, USS 657–659, 664 Philanthropist (newspaper) 804, 811 Philip Morris Company 2369, 2388 Philippine Commission 1510, 1515, 1654 Philippine Insurrection 1515– 1518, 1520–1522, 1524–1528, 1530–1536, 1538–1540, 1542–1545, 1576 Philippines 1426, 1872, 1923, 1924, 1927, 1928, 1940, 1959, 1962, 1967, 1979, 2010, 2039, 2047, 2089, 2098, 2292 Philippine Sea, Battle of 1955 Philips, William 1828, 1829 Phillips, Wendell 819, 829, 900, 901, 916, 951, 1008

Index  2527 Phillips, William 413, 415, 421, 497, 499–501 Phips, Sir William 140, 144, 144– 145, 147, 153–156, 159–161 phonograph 1304, 1985 photography 941–942, 1016, 1818 Pickens, Andrew 391, 394, 449, 484, 494, 498, 504, 523 Pickens, Fort 949, 959, 960, 962, 984 Pickens, Francis W. 950, 955, 960, 961 Pickering, John 658, 716 Pickering, Timothy 339, 426, 618, 625, 628, 633, 634, 644, 675 Pickett, George E. 1099, 1149, 1151 Pickford, Mary 1631, 1632, 1672, 1700, 1751 Pierce, Franklin 693, 758, 759, 832, 877, 902, 905, 906, 907, 908, 916, 917, 920–923, 929, 953, 1245 Pigot, Robert 353, 442, 444 Pike, Zebulon M. 664, 665, 667, 668, 697 Pike’s Peak 665, 668, 732, 938 Pillow, Fort 1011, 1013, 1022, 1105, 1108 Pillow, Gideon 980, 988, 1000, 1001 Pinchot, Gifford 1596, 1615 Pinckney, Charles C. 545, 632, 643, 645, 675 Pinckney, Thomas 615, 627, 628 Pinkney, William 667–669, 685 piracy 54, 168, 170, 535, 541, 545, 623, 628, 632, 635, 647, 715, 740. See also privateering Pitcairn, John 337, 341, 343, 353 Pitcher, Molly. See McCauley, Mary Ludwig Hays (Molly Pitcher) Pitt, Fort 263, 283, 284, 444, 532, 533

Pitt, William 256, 264, 295, 296, 337–338 Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee 1009–1012 Pius VI (pope) 609 Pius X (pope) 1597 Pius XI (pope) 1825 Plains Indians 1416 Planned Parenthood v. Casey 2245 Plan of ­Union 243, 244, 333 Planter’s Bank of Georgia, United States v. 747 Platt, Orville H. 1387, 1534 Platt Amendment 1535, 1544, 1581 Pleasant Point, Battle of 334 Pleasonton, Alfred 1075–1077, 1131 Pledge of Allegiance 1440 Plessy v. Ferguson 1472, 2149 Pluto 1851, 2353 Plymouth, Massachusetts 37, 46, 127 Plymouth Colony 39–41, 43, 56, 64, 104 Plymouth Company 13, 14, 16, 17, 32 Plymouth Indians 151 Pocahontas 15, 17, 18, 19, 25–27, 29 Pocasset (Portsmouth), Rhode Island 68, 71 Pocumtuck Indians 119 Poe, Edgar Allan 755, 788, 794, 828, 833, 843, 856, 856–857 Poindexter, John M. 2278, 2282, 2286, 2304, 2319 Poinsett, Joel R. 749, 766 Point Pleasant, Battle of 328, 332 Poker Flat, Battle of 1267 Poland 1909, 2060, 2080, 2246, 2280, 2297 Polaris missile 2107 Polaroid Corporation 2221, 2308 Policy Analyst Market 2390

polio 1878, 2040, 2172 polio vaccine 2032, 2033, 2044, 2053, 2054 Polk, James K. 628, 747, 769, 801, 816, 837, 854, 858, 858– 859, 859, 861, 863, 865, 866, 868, 869, 871, 874, 876, 882, 884, 887, 888, 893, 928, 1004, 1009, 1086 Polk, Leonidas K. 980, 988, 1044, 1056, 1088, 1091, 1096, 1100, 1109, 1111 Pollock, Jackson 1941 Pollock v. Farmer’s Loan and Trust Company 1465 poll tax 2085, 2089, 2096 polygamy 853, 1028, 1263, 1471, 1520, 1521 Ponca v. Crook 1325 Pontiac (Ottawa chief) 250, 275, 277, 281, 282, 284, 285, 293, 296 Pontiac’s Rebellion 254, 269, 279, 281, 282, 328, 334 Pony Express 940, 986 Poor, Enoch 421, 423, 457, 459 Poor Richard’s Almanac (Frank-­ lin) 197, 208 Pope, John 974, 1003, 1007, 1011, 1016, 1024, 1029–1031, 1035–1038, 1281 Popham, George 14, 16 Popham, John 14, 18 Popham Beach 16, 18 pop­u­lar sovereignty 886, 912, 913, 915, 925, 937, 940, 942 Populist Party 1430, 1437, 1451, 1468, 1474, 1475 Porter, Cole 1848–1849, 1910, 1991, 2043 Porter, David D. 694, 696, 703, 705, 748, 989, 997, 1011, 1013, 1014, 1026, 1030, 1032, 1042, 1052, 1056, 1057, 1059, 1062, 1063, 1065, 1067, 1069, 1080, 1084, 1102, 1107, 1110,

2528  Chronology of American History 1138–1140, 1145–1146, 1149, 1150, 1160 Porter, ­Fitz-­John 1025–1027, 1036, 1037, 1047, 1056 Porter, Peter B. 708, 710 Porter, William Sydney. See Henry, O. Port Hudson, Louisiana 1062, 1072, 1075, 1081 Port Republic, Virginia 1023, 1024 Port Royal, Acadia 12, 14, 19, 25 Port Royal, South Carolina 7, 985, 987, 988 Port Royal expedition 182–184 Portugal 3, 526, 829 Post, Wiley 1857, 1869, 1881 Postal Ser­vice, U.S. 948, 968, 1817, 2046, 2059, 2067, 2112, 2156, 2172, 2177, 2312, 2426 Post Office 110, 113, 287, 810, 875, 876, 897 Post Office Department 624, 810 potato famine 855, 895 Potawatomi Indians 26, 283, 691, 751, 765, 786 Potomac, USS 779, 783 Potomac Company 537, 540 Potomac River 20, 539 Potsdam Declaration 1968 Pound, Ezra 1614, 1655, 2025, 2068 Pourre, Eugene 487, 491 Powell, Adam Clayton 2145 Powell, Colin L. 2299–2300, 2311, 2384, 2387, 2399 Powell, John Wesley 1233, 1239, 1316, 1325 Powell, Lewis F., Jr. 1154, 2179, 2282 Powell v. Alabama 1863 Powers, Gary Francis 2022, 2028, 2088, 2091, 2103 Powhatan 15, 16–19, 25, 28, 29 Powhatan Confederacy 15, 36, 39, 40, 79, 81, 122, 130

Prairie Grove, Battle of 1049 Pratt, Richard Henry 1289, 1318, 1328 Praying Indians 55, 87, 116, 124, 321 Preble, Edward 654, 657, 658, 661 Prehistoric Migration Routes 570m Presbyterian Church 23, 44, 176, 178, 222, 258, 680, 753, 782, 788, 794, 796, 802, 888, 991, 1816, 2020, 2045, 2146, 2249, 2289, 2305, 2315, 2356 Prescott, Richard 367, 415, 435 Prescott, William 352, 353 President, USS 659, 685, 713 Presidential Succession Act 615, 1385–1386, 1980 Presley, Elvis 2050, 2050, 2051, 2329 Presque Isle, Fort 240, 283 Preston, Charles 359, 364 Preston, Thomas 313–315 Prévost, Augustin 438, 446, 447, 451–453, 460, 462 Prevost, George 689, 697, 707, 709, 710 Price, Sterling 874, 968, 981, 982, 1000, 1039, 1041–1043, 1088, 1105, 1107, 1131, 1132 Prideaux, John 264, 265 Prigg v. Commonwealth of Mas-­ sachusetts 838–839 Prince George, Fort 242, 268, 270, 275 Princeton, Battle of 322, 383 Princeton University 233, 258, 1849 Princip, Gavrilo 1662 Pringle, Thomas 399, 400 prisoners of war (Civil War) 1030, 1080, 1099, 1101, 1106, 1158 privateering 154, 168, 231, 278, 542, 637, 643, 969, 974, 986, 998

Privy Council 40, 42, 56, 57, 59, 65, 97 Proclamation of 1763 285, 301, 334 Procter, Henry 679, 696–698, 700 Procter, William 819, 1316 Professional Air Traffic Control-­ lers (PATCO) 2243, 2246 Progress and Poverty (George) 1323, 1422 Progressive Party 1640, 1692, 1985, 1989, 1990, 2015 Prohibition 1750, 1756, 1758, 1810, 1814, 1841, 1845, 1853, 1855, 1870 prohibition, state and local options (1851–1919) 2442m Prohibition Party 1233, 1298, 1334, 1373, 1402, 1437, 1473, 1525, 1562, 1597, 1639, 1694, 1763, 1816, 1838, 1886, 1912, 1980, 2011 Project Argonne 1939 Promise Keepers 2363 Proposition 13 (California) 2227 Protectorate 89, 95 Protestant Episcopal Church 535, 602, 604, 2111, 2197 Protestantism 10, 54–55, 79, 81, 92, 645, 728, 779, 811, 850, 1997, 2265, 2307 Proulx, E. Annie 2339 Provincetown Players 1668, 1683 Provisional Congress of the Confederate States of America 952, 954, 955, 964, 967, 975 Proxmire, William 2061 Pryor, William 2404 Public Health Ser­vice, U.S. 637, 2048 public housing 1994, 2047, 2054, 2061 Public Land Act 643, 732 public transportation 1317, 1347, 1520

Index  2529 Public Works Administration (PWA) 1869 Puccini, Giacomo 1570, 1620, 1748 Pueblo, USS 2153, 2162 Puerto Rico 3, 748, 1522, 1703, 2016, 2032, 2086, 2100, 2148, 2297 Pulaski, Fort 948, 1012 Pulaski, Kazimierz 416, 434, 445, 452, 459, 462, 463 Pulitzer, Joseph 1321, 1322, 1390, 1392, 1393, 1464, 1466, 1471, 1473 Pullman, George M. 931, 936, 1214 Pullman Palace Car Company 1214, 1459 Pullman strike 1461 Punished Woman’s Creek, Battle of 1320 Punitive Expedition (Mexico) 1702 Pure Food and Drug Act 1574, 1578, 1579 Puritans 28, 32, 33, 46, 50, 52, 58, 64, 82, 86 Purviance, Edna 1700 Putin, Vladimir 2401, 2431, 2435 Putnam, Israel 320, 344, 349, 352, 353, 355, 395, 396, 404, 450 Putnam, Rufus 388, 401, 544, 563 Puyallup Indians 2291 Pyle, Ernie 1941–1942, 1950, 1965

Q Qaeda, ­al- 2381, 2385, 2410, 2413, 2416, 2421, 2437, 2438 Quakers. See Society of Friends (Quakers) Quantrill, William C. 1085, 1090, 1157, 1202 Quartering Act 295, 297, 299, 300, 313, 330

Quasi War 383, 659 Quayle, Dan 2323, 2325 Quebec 6, 19, 26, 46, 47, 146, 151, 155, 156, 253, 264, 267, 272, 372, 706 Quebec Act 330, 333, 350 Quebec (Octagon) Conference 1958 Queen Anne’s War 117, 171, 188, 576m Queen’s Rangers 463, 488 Queenstown Heights, Battle of 692, 867 Quincy, Josiah 314, 315 Quinnipiac Indians 69

R Rabin, Yitzhak 2334, 2340 Rabinowitz, United States v. 1998 racketeering. See or­ga­nized crime Rader, Dennis 2405 Radical Reconstruction 1227, 1228 Radical Republicans 1051, 1090, 1108, 1113, 1117, 1121, 1162, 1210, 1214, 1216, 1218, 1237 radio 1582, 1802, 1804, 1807, 1811, 1814, 1837, 1851, 2079, 2080, 2325, 2356, 2443m Radio Corporation of America (RCA) 1758, 1818, 1824, 1912 railroad, transcontinental. See transcontinental railroad Railroad Labor Board 1760, 1799 railroads 625, 713, 755, 759, 762, 766, 772, 774, 775, 779, 786, 795, 801, 865, 885, 898– 900, 905, 910, 923, 924, 926, 927, 993, 1001, 1012, 1021, 1042, 1052, 1117, 1156, 1179m, 1772m, 1799, 1853, 1951, 1973, 1988, 1990, 2001, 2006, 2014, 2018, 2049, 2073, 2116, 2124, 2148, 2174, 2212, 2250, 2296,

2314, 2334, 2349, 2353, 2356, 2397, 2398 Rainbow Division 1712, 1718 Rains, Gabriel J. 828, 1046 Rale, Sebastian 196, 198 Raleigh, Walter 9, 10 Rall, Johann 401, 405 Ramseur, Stephen 1126, 1130 Randolph, Edmund J. 552, 554, 555, 564, 604, 621, 628 Randolph, Edward 122, 130, 136, 138 Randolph, John 747, 753 Ranger, USS (Continental war-­ ship) 415, 425, 431, 435, 436, 463 Rankin, Jeanette 1698, 1705, 1706, 1927 Rapidan River, Virginia 1094, 1095, 1108 Rappahannock Indians 94 Rappahannock River 20, 1047, 1050, 1051, 1057, 1067, 1074, 1075, 1091, 1092 Raritan (Hackensack) Indians 74 Ratcliffe, John 14, 16 Rathbun, John P. 430, 456 Rather, Dan 2285, 2395–2396 rationing 1927, 1932, 1933, 1936, 1943, 1944, 1953, 1970, 1978 Rawdon, Francis 468, 477, 492, 497–500, 504, 505, 508 Ray, James Earl 2119, 2155, 2156, 2161 Ray, Robert 2374–2376, 2378 Rayburn, Sam 1991, 2041 Read, George W. 1731, 1739 Reagan, Nancy 2247 Reagan, Ronald W. 2212, 2214, 2219, 2238, 2239, 2240–2241, 2242–2248, 2251, 2255–2257, 2259–2261, 2263–2269, 2271, 2277, 2281, 2284–2286, 2289, 2290, 2292–2295, 2299, 2303, 2338

2530  Chronology of American History Ream’s Station, Battle of 1123 Reapportionment Act 842, 1354 Reciprocal Trade Agreement 1891, 1912 Reckgawawanc Indians. See Manhattan Indians Reconstruction 1158, 1161, 1162, 1198, 1200, 1204, 1208, 1217, 1225, 1251, 1255, 1266, 1303, 1304, 1307, 1308, 1322, 1341, 1565, 1671 Reconstruction Acts 1108, 1117, 1118, 1215, 1217, 1226, 1768m Reconstruction Finance Corpo-­ ration 1859, 1870 Red Badge of Courage, The (Crane) 1443, 1462–1463 Red Cloud 1206, 1207, 1208, 1211, 1231, 1250–1251, 1291 Red Cloud War 1291 Red Cross 1343, 1600, 2025 redistricting 2348, 2355, 2394 Red River, Louisiana 665, 667, 1103–1105, 1107, 1110, 1111 Red River War 1280, 1282, 1283, 1287 Red Scare 1752, 1757, 1758, 1760, 1761, 1764 Reed, Frank 2305 Reed, John 1656, 1748, 1754 Reed, Joseph 401, 448 Reed, Ralph 2344, 2345, 2347 Reed, Walter 1447, 1527, 1529, 1533 Reeder, Andrew H. 916, 920, 921 Reform Judaism 1271, 1384 refugees 1952, 1969, 2056, 2320, 2338, 2341, 2346, 2375–2376 Regan, Donald 2266 Regan v. Farmer’s Loan and Trust Company 1459 Regulators 316, 317 Rehnquist, William H. 2179, 2244, 2277, 2406 Reid, Richard 2383 Reimer, Arthur E. 1636, 1689

relativity theory 1392, 1795 religion 51, 201, 203, 210, 212, 215, 217, 219, 222, 223, 225, 452, 472, 562, 580m, 645, 649, 677, 1821, 1823, 1857, 1871, 1986, 2010, 2014, 2194, 2262, 2263, 2270, 2289, 2290, 2305, 2333, 2340 religious freedom 69, 105, 108, 330 Religious Freedom Restoration Act 2336 religious toleration 59, 61, 181 Relocation of Eastern Indians 1174m Remington, Frederic 1393, 1487, 1488–1489 Reno, Janet 2330, 2332, 2363, 2368, 2375 Reno, Jesse 1000, 1039 Reno v. American Civil Liberties ­Union 2362 Rensselaer, Kiliaen van 48, 49 Reprisal, USS 401, 403, 407, 411, 413, 421 Republican Party 823, 841, 896, 914, 916, 923, 925, 942, 956, 1101, 1114, 1227, 1265–1266, 1283, 1306, 1320, 1333, 1347, 1372, 1403, 1410–1411, 1415, 1468, 1473, 1491, 1525, 1562, 1596, 1638, 1639, 1692, 1746, 1762, 1817, 1818, 1837, 1838, 1861, 1887, 1913, 1951, 1956, 1975, 1982, 1988, 2004, 2012, 2015, 2018, 2022, 2054, 2090, 2184, 2290, 2325, 2336, 2343, 2357, 2376, 2386, 2395, 2396 Republic of Texas 811, 814, 818, 823, 827, 828, 830, 846 Resaca, Battle of 1111 Resaca de la Palma, Battle of 866 reservation system 262, 546, 1212, 1224, 1227 Ressam, Ahmed 2372

Reuther, Walter P. 1996, 2018, 2019, 2145 Revenue Act (1914) 1667 Revenue Act (1926) 1824 Revenue Act (1935) 1881 Revenue Act (1938) 1899 Revenue Act (1941) 1925 Revenue Act (1942) 1938 Revere, Paul 302, 305, 313, 320, 325, 329, 332, 337, 341, 342–343, 357, 456, 645 Revolutionary War 254, 286, 298, 334, 341–525, 527, 528, 530, 536, 583m, 584m, 601, 603, 607, 609, 626, 629, 639, 643, 647, 648, 650, 719, 721, 724, 764 Reynolds, John 778, 1078 Reynolds, Joseph 984, 1297 Reynolds, Verne L. 1816, 1861 Reynolds v. United States 1318 Rhett, William 179, 192 R. H. Macy & Co. 2320 Rhode Island 53, 61, 79, 82, 88, 93, 95, 101, 105, 110, 116, 120, 121, 126, 143, 149, 154, 162, 164, 169, 173, 198, 202, 233, 290, 563, 607, 610, 837, 838, 840, 841, 845, 851, 860, 1142, 2321, 2352, 2355 Rhode Island General Assembly 82, 84, 98, 311, 324, 329, 364, 384 Riall, Phineas 703, 708 Rice, Condoleezza 2300, 2398, 2399, 2400, 2421, 2435 Rice, Elmer L. 1665, 1843 Richards, Ann 2379 Richards, Lloyd 2310 Richardson, Elliot 2186, 2192 Richardson, Henry Hobson 1264, 1329, 1336, 1375, 1424 Richmond, Virginia 503, 1010, 1018, 1020, 1021, 1023, 1025, 1027, 1063, 1064, 1102, 1110, 1113, 1137, 1144, 1150

Index  2531 Richmond v. J. A. Croson Co. 2245 Rich Mountain 972, 973 Rickenbacker, Eddie 1726, 1727, 1740, 1745, 1872, 1892 Ricketts, James B. 1036, 1118 ­Ride, Sally K. 2254–2255 Ridge, Tom 2387, 2388 Ridgway, Matthew 1924, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2014, 2029 Riedesel, Friedrich von 384, 388, 415, 421, 423 Riesel, Victor 2052, 2055 Rights of Man, The (Paine) 375, 615 right-­to-­die issues 2305, 2306, 2329 Riis, Jacob A. 1405, 1416 riots 563, 720, 797, 963, 965, 966, 1082, 1104, 1893, 1947, 2126, 2134, 2134, 2141, 2142, 2148, 2153, 2166, 2171, 2178, 2235, 2237 Ripken, Cal., Jr. 2421 Ripley, Eleazar 707, 708 Ritten­house, David 297, 297, 615 Rivington, James 346, 367, 423 Riyadh, Saudi Arabia 2350 roads 1170m Roanoke Island, North Carolina 995, 1000 Roberts, John G. 2406, 2408, 2432 Roberts, Kenneth 1850, 1863 Robinson, Edwin Arlington 1476, 1700, 1807, 1836 Robinson, Gene 2391 Robinson, Jackie 1983–1984, 2427 Robinson, William 94, 96 Rochambeau, ­Jean-­Baptiste­Donatien de Vimeur, comte de 473, 479, 495, 501, 502, 504–510, 512, 514, 515, 525, 603

Rocke­fel­ler, John D. 1054, 1248, 1248–1249, 1352, 1425, 1651, 1847, 1975 Rocke­fel­ler, John D., Jr. 1976 Rocke­fel­ler, Nelson A. 2041, 2074, 2197, 2202, 2203 Rocke­fel­ler Foundation 1249, 1651, 1667 Rockenbach, Samuel D. 1721, 1737 rockets/rocketry 1749, 1812, 1813, 1824, 1846, 1969, 1971, 2014, 2060, 2063, 2067, 2074, 2096 Rockwell, George Lincoln 2148 Rockwell, Norman 1916, 1916–1917 Rocky Mountain Fur Company 737–739, 748, 770 Rocky Mountains 218, 732, 786 Roderigue, Hortalez et Cie 384, 387 Rodes, Richard 1110, 1126 Rodes, Robert 1039, 1092 Rodgers, Calbraith 1628, 1629 Rodgers, John (naval officer, Civil War) 1018, 1077, 1261, 1344 Rodgers, John (naval officer, War of 1812) 685 Rodgers, Richard 1834, 1886, 1944–1945, 1953, 1954, 1993, 2000, 2007, 2074 Rodin 2337 Roe v. Wade 2187, 2254, 2411 Rogers, John (Revolutionary War lieutenant col­o­nel) 448 Rogers, John (sculptor) 1212, 1283 Rogers, Robert 251, 253, 254–255, 258, 259, 266–268, 272–274, 401 Rogers, Will 1561, 1683, 1881, 1882 Rolfe, John 15, 19, 24, 25, 27 Roman Catholicism 23, 25, 55, 58, 72, 73, 207, 330, 381, 382,

533, 605, 609, 620, 656, 678, 734, 763, 787, 804, 850, 865, 901, 902, 1284, 1289, 1353, 1388, 1415, 1463, 1825, 1826, 1830, 1837, 1871, 1974, 1997, 2070, 2087, 2089, 2091, 2093, 2095, 2120, 2144, 2172, 2263, 2265, 2274, 2275, 2280, 2287, 2324, 2326, 2328, 2336, 2343, 2359, 2386, 2396, 2432 Roman Catholic missions 8, 12, 23, 26, 42, 59, 74 Romania 1543, 1973, 1978, 2011 Romer v. Evans 2355 Romney, Mitt 2412 Romney, Virginia 994, 995 Roo­se­velt, Eleanor 1971, 2065 Roo­se­velt, Franklin Delano 1865, 1865–1866, 1963 assassination attempt against 1864 as assistant secretary of the navy 1648, 1681 Charles Austin Beard and 1633 death of 1965 election of 1920 1762 election of 1932 1845, 1862, 1863 election of 1936 1887, 1889, 1890 election of 1940 1884, 1914, 1915 election of 1944 1884, 1956, 1959, 1964 as governor of New York 1838, 1858, 1860 John L. Lewis and 1884 and Charles Lindbergh 1831 and Manhattan Project 1905 presidency (first term) 1865, 1867–1872, 1874, 1877– 1881, 1883, 1884, 1887 presidency (second term) 1890–1900, 1904–1906, 1908–1915

2532  Chronology of American History presidency (third term) 1916, 1917, 1919–1921, 1924–1928, 1934, 1935, 1939, 1942, 1945, 1949, 1956, 1958, 1959 presidency (fourth term) 1962 Carl Sandburg and 1631 Harry S. Truman and 1964 Roo­se­velt, Theodore 1498, 1537–1538 Jane Addams and 1408 as Assistant Secretary of the Navy 1485, 1487 assumption of presidency 1537 as author 1351, 1392, 1400, 1407, 1470, 1541, 1656 as civil ser­vice commissioner 1413 death of 1749 election of 1900 1525, 1530 election of 1904 1562, 1564 election of 1908 1596 election of 1912 1636, 1639–1642 and election of 1912 1623, 1630 election of 1916 1692 Geronimo and 1310 as governor of New York 1505, 1521 as lieutenant col­o­nel of 1st Volunteer Cavalry 1490 Douglas MacArthur and 1511 William McKinley and 1479 Nelson A. Miles and 1305 Thomas Nast and 1235 in New York State Assembly 1371 John J. Pershing and 1426 post-­presidential career 1608, 1617, 1618–1619, 1623, 1624

presidency (first term) 1235, 1305, 1345, 1537, 1539, 1541, 1543–1545, 1547– 1550, 1552, 1553, 1558, 1560, 1562–1564 presidency (second term) 1566–1568, 1570, 1571, 1574–1576, 1579–1582, 1585, 1586, 1589–1592, 1594, 1596, 1598, 1603, 1604, 1606 Jacob Riis and 1416 and ­Spanish-­American War 1497, 1499 in ­Spanish-­American War 1426 William Howard Taft and 1607 as vice president 1479, 1530, 1533–1536 Booker T. Washington and 1345 Leonard Wood and 1491 and World War I 1702, 1745 Roo­se­velt Corollary 1564, 1566, 1587, 1835, 1839 Root, Elihu H. 1305, 1357, 1514, 1533, 1539, 1550–1551, 1553, 1568, 1570, 1571, 1579, 1586, 1589, 1590, 1594, 1604, 1638, 1642, 1654, 1709, 1849 Root Formula 1849, 1857 Roper v. Simmons 2401 Rosalie, Fort 202, 206 ­Rose, John 1242, 1260 ­Rose, Pete 2294, 2393 Rosecrans, William S. 973, 979, 980, 1039, 1041, 1043, 1052– 1054, 1056, 1079, 1085, 1088, 1089, 1091 Rosenberg, Ethel 2007, 2016, 2027, 2028 Rosenberg, Julius 2007, 2016, 2027, 2028 Ross, Betsy 411, 412 Ross, John 515, 761, 967, 971

Ross, Nellie Taylor 1818, 1819 Ross, Robert 709, 710 Rosser, Thomas L. 1099, 1129, 1139, 1145 Rostenkowski, Dan 2354 Roth, Philip 2424 Rouerie, ­Charles-­Armand Tuffin, marquis de la 463, 474, 477 Rough Riders 1490, 1497, 1498, 1499, 1537 Rounds, Michael 2411 Rove, Karl 2412, 2433 Rowan, Henry M. 2325 Rowling, J. K. 2432 Royal African Company 112, 163, 167 Royal Navy 247, 248, 253, 257, 260, 264, 266, 506, 519 Ruby, Jack 2120, 2123, 2127 Ruckelshaus, William D. 2174, 2192 Rudolph, Eric Robert 2390, 2403 Rumsfeld, Donald 2209, 2385, 2418 Rumsfeld v. Forum of Academic and Institutional Rights 2411 Rush, Benjamin 313, 321, 322, 341, 537, 550, 552, 553, 605, 607, 620, 687 Rush, Richard 722, 725, 742, 762 Rush-­Bagot Agreement 722, 724, 750, 1135, 1143 Rusk, Dean 2093, 2138 Ruskin, John 1247, 1264 Russell, Charles Taze 1264, 1369 Russell, Lord John 1031, 1043, 1071, 1087, 1143, 1158 Russell, Jonathan 690, 692, 739 Rus­sia 223, 466, 528, 678, 692, 696, 735, 739, 742, 745, 750, 787, 2320, 2322, 2334, 2343, 2346, 2350, 2383, 2390, 2399. See also Soviet ­Union Rus­sian civil war 1736, 1737, 1739, 1751, 1752, 1754, 1760

Index  2533 Rus­sian Orthodox Church 1264, 2344 Rus­sian Revolution 1704, 1748 Russo-­Japa­nese War 1426, 1511, 1519, 1538, 1559, 1560, 1566, 1567–1568, 1570 Rutgers University 296, 752 Ruth, Babe 1669, 1738, 1738, 1828, 1829 Rutherford, Griffin 394, 395 Rutledge, John 381, 396, 451, 452, 465, 466, 470, 475, 484, 628 Ryan, George 2374, 2412 Ryan, Paddy 1352, 1353

S Sacagawea 655, 656, 659, 660, 663, 1540 Sacco, Nicola 1761, 1832 Sac Indians 661, 739, 751, 774, 777, 778, 783, 785, 786 Sackets Harbor, Battle of 697 Sackville-­West, Lord 1394, 1404 Sadat, Anwar 2219, 2228, 2230 Sadr, Moktada ­al- 2395 Sagadahoc River 14, 18 St. Albans, Vermont 1130, 1135 St. Andrews, Fort 215, 224 St. Augustine, Florida 8, 10, 11, 173, 193, 221, 224–226, 688 St. Clair, Arthur 386, 411, 412, 415, 416, 487, 515, 518, 560, 565, 599, 610, 613–615, 652, 679, 1300 St. George, Fort 215, 483 St. John’s, Newfoundland 177, 181, 280 St. John’s College 535, 865 St. Joseph, Fort 283, 491 St. Lawrence River 6, 12, 55, 266, 692 St. Lawrence Seaway 1845, 2077 St. Lawrence Seaway Develop-­ ment Corporation 2035, 2036 St. Leger, Barry 413, 416–419

St. Louis, Missouri 288, 1833, 2075 St. Louis ­Post-­Dispatch 1321, 1322 St. Mihiel salient 1738–1739, 1743 St. Philip, Fort 1013–1015 St. Valentine’s Day Massacre 1841, 1843 Saint-­Gaudens, Augustus 314, 1310, 1390, 1424, 1540 “Salary Grab Act” 1272, 1278, 1297 Salem Church, Battle of 1069– 1070 Salem witchcraft trials 141, 144–145, 147, 158–160, 160, 161, 165 Salk, Jonas 2032, 2033, 2044, 2053 Salmon, Daniel Elmer 1372, 1376 Salomon, Haym 502 Salomon Brothers 2317 Saltonstall, Dudley 371, 456, 457–458 Salvation Army 1333, 1564 same-­sex marriage 2358, 2395 Samoa 1265, 1266, 1317, 1346 Sampson, William T. 1487, 1490, 1491, 1493, 1495, 1499, 1539 Sandburg, Carl 1630–1631, 1684, 1719, 1752, 1823, 2008 Sandoval, United States v. 1643 Sandys, Edwin 30, 31, 41 San Francisco, California 897, 898 San Francisco earthquake (1906) 1342, 1577 Sanger, Margaret 1658–1659, 1667, 1670, 1697, 1803, 1843 Sanitary Commission 969, 970 San Jacinto, Battle of 808, 809 San Jacinto, USS 988–990 San Juan Hill, Battle of 1499, 1537 San Lorenzo, Treaty of 628, 631 San Pascual, Battle of 867, 872

Santa Anna, Antonio López de 693, 702, 794, 799, 802, 806, 808, 809, 846, 870, 871, 876–878 Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad 1388 Santa Cruz, Battle of 1939 Santa Fe Trail 735, 736, 749, 756 Santayana, George 1470, 1565, 1878, 1911 Santo Domingo 3, 4, 1256 Saratoga, Battle of 418, 428 Saratoga, Convention of 425, 447 Saratoga, USS 964, 1834, 1940 Sardinia, Kingdom of 824, 1948 Sargent, John Singer 1336, 1337, 1367 Saroyan, William 1912, 1941 SARS (severe respiratory syn-­ drome) 2387 Sassacus 66, 67 Sassamon, John 111, 115, 116 Satanta 1261, 1282 satellites 2062, 2065, 2067, 2075, 2077, 2081, 2082, 2087, 2089, 2091, 2093, 2096, 2106–2108, 2111–2113, 2115, 2117, 2118, 2122, 2125, 2126, 2130, 2132, 2143, 2147, 2157, 2176, 2184, 2217, 2239, 2252, 2421 Saturday Eve­ning Post 733, 1916, 2156 Saturn 2363, 2394, 2400 Saudi Arabia 2057, 2242, 2246, 2306, 2309, 2312 Saunders, Charles 264, 266 Savannah (ship) 730, 986 Savannah, Georgia 484, 1133, 1136 Savannah, SS 2080, 2108 savings and loan crisis (1980s– 1990s) 2299, 2303, 2305, 2319, 2321 Saybrook, Fort, Connecticut 63, 65

2534  Chronology of American History Sayler’s Creek, Battle of 1151 SBC Communications 2354 Scalia, Antonin 2277 Scarlet Letter, The (Hawthorne) 758–759, 889 Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States 1880 Schenck v. United States 1750 Schenkkan, Robert 2322 Schiavo, Terri 2402 Schirra, Walter N. 2076, 2109, 2137, 2158 Schlesinger, Arthur M. 1961– 1962, 1973 Schlesinger, James 2191, 2209, 2223 Schley, Winfield Scott 1305, 1371, 1372, 1417, 1431, 1487, 1494, 1495, 1499, 1539 Schmeling, Max 1853, 1894, 1895 Schmidt, Jean 2406 Schofield, John M. 1082, 1090, 1096, 1109, 1121, 1134, 1135, 1144, 1148, 1227, 1403, 1467 school desegregation 1985, 2000, 2022, 2035, 2046, 2050, 2062, 2073, 2075, 2079, 2081, 2087, 2311, 2321 school prayer 2324 school shootings 2370 school vouchers 2385 Schroeder, William J. 2265, 2277 Schultz, George 2166, 2187, 2248, 2265, 2282 Schurman, Jacob G. 1510, 1515 Schuyler, John 155, 241 Schuyler, Peter 157, 183 Schuyler, Philip J. 351, 353, 354, 356, 357, 359, 360, 374–375, 379, 389, 392, 396, 411, 416, 417, 419, 502 Schwarzenegger, Arnold 2391 Schwarzkopf, H. Norman 2295, 2299, 2312, 2313, 2315 Schwimmer, United States v. 1845–1846

Scientific American 855, 929 Scioto Company 565, 606, 627 Scopes, John T. 1821, 1822 Scopes “monkey” trial 1457, 1822 Scott, David R. 2139, 2161, 2177 Scott, Dred 927–929. See also Dred Scott v. Sanford Scott, Hugh L. 1670, 1678, 1686, 1714 Scott, Winfield 693, 693–694, 697, 707, 708, 770, 820, 824, 826, 827, 830, 871, 874, 876– 878, 880, 904, 907, 909, 947, 948, 957, 958, 972, 986, 987, 1022, 1025, 1206 Scottsboro, Alabama 1856, 1863 Seabrook, New Hampshire 2221, 2285 Seabury, Samuel 519, 535 Sears, Richard D. 1385, 1394 Sears, Roebuck & Company 1268, 2329 Seawolf, USS 2047, 2058, 2074 secession 888, 891, 892, 894, 929, 944–947, 949–952, 955, 959, 960, 962, 965, 968, 969, 1239 Secession Convention 946, 952 Second Great Awakening 782 Securities and Exchange Com-­ mission 1875, 2223 Sedan, France 1745, 1746 Sedgwick, John 1069, 1074, 1092, 1108, 1109 Sedition Act 637, 638 Sedition Act (1918) 1728, 1739, 1750 segregation 560, 920, 1418, 1986, 1989, 2018, 2051, 2105, 2117, 2140, 2147, 2230, 2454m Selden, George B. 1304, 1326, 1440, 1468 Selective Ser­vice Act (1917) 1707, 1709 Selective Ser­vice Act (1948) 1988, 2046

Selective Ser­vice Extension Act (1941) 1924 Selective Training and Ser­vice Act (1940) 1914, 1939, 1973 Selfridge, Thomas W. 1528, 1599 Selma, Alabama 1148, 1150 Seminole Indians 717, 723, 724, 765, 784, 797, 800, 802, 803, 819, 828, 887, 922 Seminole War, First 723, 725, 726, 776, 1173m Seminole War, Second 693, 800, 802, 803, 846, 932, 1124, 1173m Semmes, Raphael 972, 974, 1035, 1044, 1056, 1065, 1116 Senate, U.S. 475, 755, 762, 773, 792, 794, 795, 814, 820, 828 Senate Armed Ser­vices Commit-­ tee 2191, 2416 Senate Foreign Relations Com-­ mittee 1239, 1252, 1257, 1486, 2001 Seneca Falls convention 823 Seneca Indians 90, 98, 137, 144, 146, 243, 290, 413, 439, 460, 639, 948 separation of church and state 53, 69 Separatists 20, 21, 31–35, 46, 51, 52, 86 September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks 2300, 2380, 2381, 2384, 2385, 2390, 2395, 2399, 2400, 2403, 2424 Sequatchie Valley 1089, 1090 Sequoyah (Cherokee linguist) 743, 744, 759, 761 Serbia 2338, 2348, 2349, 2351, 2370 Serbian Orthodox Church 2344 Serra, Junípero 310, 310 Ser­viceman’s Adjustment Act. See GI Bill of Rights Seton, Elizabeth Ann 678, 2114

Index  2535 settlement ­house movement 1385, 1442, 1518 settlers 212, 228, 278, 286, 510, 534, 565, 567 Seven Days’ Battles 1023, 1026 Seventeenth Amendment 1651 Seventh Amendment 1297 Seventh-­Day Adventists 110, 779, 1566 Severn River, Battle of 91 Sevier, John 269, 317, 480, 481, 485, 523, 532, 533, 536, 540, 607, 631 Sewall, Samuel 164, 169, 184 Seward, William H. 824, 934, 942, 945, 947, 950, 958, 959, 968, 993, 1029, 1031, 1051, 1059, 1112, 1132, 1151, 1153– 1154, 1161, 1162, 1201, 1211, 1216–1218, 1222, 1229 sex offenders 2355 sexual harassment 2318, 2321, 2336, 2339, 2354, 2361, 2365, 2368 Seymour, Edward 1524, 1525 Seymour, Horatio 1084, 1228, 1231 Shafter, William R. 1308, 1313, 1496, 1497, 1500 Shakers 330, 542, 562 sharecropping 1769m Sharkey, Jack 1800, 1853, 1861, 1869 Sharon, Ariel 2403 Sharpsburg, Battle of. See Antie-­ tam, Battle of Shaw, George Bernard 1571, 1572 Shaw, Robert G. 1072, 1083 Shaw, Wilbur 1893, 1908, 1913 Shawnee Indians 85, 137, 244, 245, 250, 269, 301, 302, 328, 329, 332, 334, 360, 390, 429, 431, 443, 444, 455, 476, 520, 524, 535, 541, 543, 547, 548, 609, 610, 678

Shays, Daniel 454, 548, 549, 550, 551, 564 Shays’s Rebellion 338, 345, 548–551, 560 Sheaffe, Roger Hale 692, 697 Shearman v. Keayne 78 Shelburne, earl of (William Petty) 521, 523 Shelby, Isaac 474, 476, 478, 480, 481, 516 Shelby, Joseph O. 1104, 1131, 1158 Shelby, Kate 1344, 1346 Sheldon, Charles M. 1470, 1476 Sheldon, Edward 1599, 1751 Sheldon, Elisha 404, 453 Shenandoah, CSS 1159, 1160 Shenandoah Valley 190, 340, 986, 1008, 1020, 1029, 1030, 1038, 1114, 1127, 1198, 1199 Shepard, Alan B. 2076, 2097, 2175 Shepard, Matthew 2367 Shepard, William 420, 548, 549, 551 Shepherd, William M. 2377 Sheridan, Philip H. 1027, 1044, 1109, 1110, 1114–1115, 1121, 1122, 1127, 1129, 1130, 1144, 1149–1152, 1197, 1198, 1199, 1219, 1232, 1233, 1237, 1238, 1245, 1281, 1282, 1306, 1364, 1366 Sherman, James S. 1596, 1599, 1606, 1638, 1642 Sherman, John 939, 1323, 1341, 1421, 1461, 1477, 1478, 1480, 1482, 1491, 1492 Sherman, Roger 387, 391 Sherman, Thomas W. 987, 988 Sherman, William T. 957, 988, 1010, 1011, 1023, 1052, 1053, 1063, 1081, 1082, 1099, 1100, 1102, 1103, 1105, 1108, 1109, 1111, 1117, 1121, 1123, 1124–1125, 1126, 1133, 1136, 1139–1141, 1144, 1147–1149,

1154, 1155, 1157, 1198, 1220, 1226, 1231, 1236, 1237, 1261, 1281, 1341, 1366, 1372 Sherman ­Anti-­Trust Act 1249, 1405, 1411, 1421, 1445, 1464– 1466, 1478, 1517, 1522, 1533, 1543, 1560, 1593, 1625–1626, 1629, 1666, 1725, 1955, 2374 Sherman Silver Purchase Act 1421, 1448, 1450, 1451 Sherwood, Robert E. 1886, 1906, 1920 Shibh, Ramzi bin ­al- 2385 Shields, Carol 2346 Shields, James 1008, 1021, 1023 Shiloh, Battle of 1010, 1011, 1124, 1236, 1340 shipbuilding 53, 79, 97 Shippen, Margaret 347, 437, 451 shipping 725, 1837, 2098 Shirley, William 228, 229, 230, 247–249, 251, 253, 254 Sholes, Christopher Latham 1213, 1228, 1272 Shoshone Indians 660, 1058 Shreveport Expedition 1102– 1104 Shufeldt, Robert W. 1336, 1356 Shuldham, Molyneaux 376, 380, 390 Shuster, W. Morgan 1625, 1629 Sibert, William L. 1708, 1710– 1711 Sibley, Henry H. 992, 998, 1001, 1002, 1009, 1016, 1033, 1036, 1041 Sicard, Montgomery B. 1483, 1487 Sicily 1947, 1948 Sigel, Franz 1036, 1105, 1107, 1111 Signing of the Declaration of In­de­pen­dence (Trumbull) 718, 719 Silent Spring (Carson) 2101, 2102 Silliman, Benjamin 724, 740

2536  Chronology of American History Silver Republicans 1473, 1474 Simcoe, John G. 433, 434, 463, 487, 488, 499, 504, 505 Simic, Charles 2304 Simon, Neil 2310, 2314 Simpson, O. J. 2340, 2349, 2361, 2434 Sims, William Sowden 1707, 1708, 1798 Sinatra, Frank 2365 Sinclair, Harry F. 1812, 1817 Sinclair, Upton 1573–1574, 1574, 1578, 1587, 1700, 1828, 1854, 1946 Sino-­Japa­nese War 1461, 1465 Sioux Indians 132, 751, 774, 898, 1032–1035, 1037, 1041, 1048, 1052, 1087, 1120, 1138, 1414, 2231 Sirhan, Sirhan H. 2156 Sitting Bull 1207, 1233, 1290, 1292–1293, 1299, 1301, 1315, 1326, 1346, 1364, 1366, 1382, 1397, 1424, 1426 Six Nations (Iroquois) 106, 187, 195, 200, 240, 241, 243, 244, 250, 317, 328, 356, 361, 413, 418, 419, 453, 534–535 Sixteenth Amendment 1610, 1646 Sixth Amendment 1297 Skate, USS 2059, 2067, 2073 Skilling, Jeffrey 2393, 2413, 2417 Skinner, John Stuart 728, 765 skyscrapers 1367, 1405, 1424 Slater, Samuel 610, 617 slave codes 99, 100, 173, 176, 179, 180, 189, 195 slave rebellions 101, 181, 186, 187, 194, 195, 219, 220, 326, 507, 621, 644, 684, 738, 779, 780, 837, 912 slaves, fugitive 208, 219, 550, 618, 633, 838–839, 947, 968, 969, 973, 976, 985, 993, 1007, 1107

slaves/slavery. See also aboli-­ tionism in 1600s 30, 38, 41, 42, 44, 46, 51, 57, 62, 66, 68, 69, 71, 74, 76, 78, 93, 95, 101, 107–110, 112, 114, 132, 133, 136, 141, 152, 152, 156, 158, 163, 167, 168 in 1700s 171, 173, 176, 177, 180, 188, 189, 192, 195, 199, 201, 202, 206, 207, 210, 212, 215, 217, 219, 220, 225, 226, 234, 236, 238–240, 245, 270, 275, 297, 311, 317, 326, 336, 372, 406, 413, 429, 430, 451, 463–466, 472, 525, 526, 528, 530, 531, 538, 543, 547, 550, 553, 556, 563, 607, 613, 615, 641, 1164m in 1800s (pre–Civil War) 669, 672, 682, 683, 718, 720, 721, 723, 726–731, 734, 735, 747, 770, 807, 820, 827, 847, 857, 870, 872, 874, 879, 882–884, 886, 887–888, 891, 892, 895, 896, 900, 901, 902, 903, 907, 913, 915, 916, 923–926, 929, 930, 933– 935, 937–939, 942, 945– 947, 951–953, 955–957 during Civil War 964, 977, 984, 991, 1004, 1010, 1012, 1022, 1025, 1029, 1055–1056, 1061, 1073, 1079, 1087, 1098, 1103, 1105, 1107, 1114, 1116, 1120, 1130, 1132, 1139, 1141, 1150 during Reconstruction 1158, 1160, 1162, 1204, 1210, 1241 slave trade 80, 87, 88, 112, 163, 167, 173, 177, 184, 187, 188,

191, 206, 236, 270, 275, 311, 316, 317, 321, 324, 335–337, 372, 382, 562, 623, 732, 935, 939, 940, 1011, 1252, 1435 Slayton, Donald K. 2206 Slepian, Barnett 2367, 2388 Slidell, John 861, 863, 952, 988–990, 993, 994, 997 Slim Buttes, Battle of 1301 Sloan, John 59, 1591, 1835 Slocum, Henry W. 1125, 1133, 1147–1148, 1400, 1408 Sloughter, Henry 150, 156 smallpox 27–28, 56, 57, 69, 165, 178, 232, 268, 284, 614 smallpox inoculation 148, 195, 302, 320, 362, 639 Smallwood, William 398, 472, 477 Smibert, John 204, 205, 225, 238 Smiley, Jane 2322 Smith, Alfred E. 1830, 1837, 1838, 1845 Smith, Andrew J. 1103, 1105, 1119 Smith, Charles F. 980, 1000– 1002 Smith, Dirck 96, 97 Smith, Francis 341, 343, 444 Smith, Jedidiah Strong 738, 739, 748, 754, 762, 770 Smith, John 15, 16, 17–18, 20, 22, 25, 26, 29 Smith, Joseph 742, 757, 770, 771, 771–772, 776, 779, 823, 827, 828, 846, 848, 852–853 Smith, Leon 1055 Smith, Samuel 424, 427, 710, 777 Smith, Susan 2343, 2348 Smith, Thomas 11, 21, 30 Smith, William 211, 213 Smith, William F. 1002, 1135 Smith, William Kennedy 2314 Smith, Winchell 1611, 1737 Smith Act (1940) 1913, 1996, 2009

Index  2537 Smith-­Hughes Act (1917) 1703 Smith-­Lever Act (1914) 1662 Smithsonian Institution 869, 876 Smith v. Allwright 1952, 2149 smog 2309 Smoot-­Hawley Tariff Bill 1852 Snowshoes, Battle of the 254, 259 social Darwinism 1277, 1360, 1519 Social Demo­cratic Party 1480, 1521, 1532 Social Gospel 1376, 1416 socialism 1447, 1454, 1519 Socialist Labor Party 1439, 1473, 1524, 1532, 1562, 1597, 1636, 1689, 1761, 1816, 1861, 1886, 1912, 1987 Socialist Party of America 1448, 1532, 1536, 1561, 1574, 1595, 1630, 1637, 1754, 1760, 1761, 1835, 1911, 2014 Social Security 1866, 1878, 1881, 1893, 1909, 2028, 2054, 2144, 2185, 2204, 2222, 2225, 2253, 2398 Social Security Act 2001, 2038 Society for the Prevention of Vice 1571, 1600 Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts 170 Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in New En­gland 54, 84 Society for the Suppression of Vice 1272, 1670 Society of American Indians (SAI) 1628, 1656, 1688, 1690 Society of Friends (Quakers) 45, 53, 82, 88, 92–95, 98–100, 110, 112, 114, 116, 122, 130, 133–135, 137, 138, 141, 147, 156, 159, 161, 163, 174, 176, 181, 184, 207, 220, 225, 237, 242, 245, 252, 275, 297, 301,

326, 341, 372, 429, 486, 606, 617, 793 Society of St. Tammany 602, 616 Society of the Cincinnati 370, 527, 556, 565 Sockalexis, Louis 1479, 1657 Soldiers’ Bonus Bill 1814, 1816 Solomon Islands 1948, 1949, 2094 Somalia 2328, 2335, 2337, 2339, 2345, 2421, 2422 Sons of Liberty 293, 300, 303, 304, 309–312, 324, 327, 342, 346, 350, 367 Sony, Inc. 2300 Sosa, Sammy 2366, 2369 Soto, Hernando de 4, 6, 7 Sousa, John Philip 1334, 1335, 1399, 1440, 1470 Souter, David 2306, 2307 South Africa 2091, 2270, 2277, 2278, 2303, 2316 South America 4, 724, 737, 2098 South Carolina 11, 108, 137, 157, 158, 163, 165, 167, 172, 173, 175, 179, 186, 187, 191, 193, 195, 202, 268, 270, 277, 307, 501, 507, 564, 739, 763, 785–789, 944–948, 950, 952, 957, 985, 987, 988, 992, 1018, 1025, 1057, 1064, 1081–1085, 1087, 1088, 1143, 1144, 1160, 1161, 1228, 1308, 2375 South Dakota 1410, 1414 Southeast Asia 2081, 2396, 2400, 2401 Southeast Asia Treaty Or­ga­ni­ za­tion (SEATO) 2039, 2042, 2043, 2047 Southern Baptist Convention 2089, 2262, 2276, 2289, 2305, 2324, 2347 Southern Literary Messenger 788, 794, 856 Southern Pacific Railroad 2356

Southern United States dates of ­African-­American disenfranchisement 1775m Ku Klux Klan/violence against African Ameri-­ cans during Reconstruc-­ tion 1770m re­sis­tance to integration (1954–1967) 2454m sharecropping (1880) 1769m South Mountain, Battle of 1039, 1199 South Pole 1826, 1838, 1848 South Sea Company 184, 188, 191 Soviet ­Union in 1920s 1849 in 1930s 1870, 1872, 1909, 1910 in 1940s 1921, 1943, 1944, 1967, 1968, 1972, 1973, 1985, 1990, 1993, 1996 in 1950s 2000, 2001, 2005, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2015– 2017, 2019, 2022–2024, 2027, 2028, 2030–2032, 2038–2040, 2043–2047, 2052, 2054, 2056, 2062, 2067, 2071, 2072, 2074, 2076, 2077, 2079, 2080, 2082, 2083 in 1960s 2086, 2088, 2090, 2091, 2093, 2095, 2099, 2105, 2110, 2123, 2124 in 1970s 2178, 2179, 2183, 2190, 2192–2194, 2206, 2209, 2211 in 1980s 2241, 2242, 2244, 2255, 2256, 2258, 2267, 2287, 2302 in 1990s 2305, 2317, 2319 Soyechtowa. See Logan space shuttle program 2223, 2242, 2252, 2254, 2255, 2272, 2273, 2276, 2297, 2301, 2305,

2538  Chronology of American History 2307, 2314, 2323, 2325, 2326, 2337, 2345, 2353, 2360, 2361, 2367, 2371, 2387 Spain 219–221, 223, 226, 278, 524, 526, 533, 536, 541, 542, 547, 566, 631, 644, 652, 683, 691, 696, 699, 725, 727, 728, 734, 748, 794, 827, 900, 907, 917, 929, 970, 2029 Spanish-­American War 1305, 1335, 1343, 1426, 1443, 1479, 1488–1503, 1507, 1511, 1529, 1537, 1630, 1780m, 1781m, 1801 Spanish Civil War 1887 Sparks, Jared 729, 824 Specie Circular 810–812, 814, 816, 821 Specie Resumption Act (1875) 1284, 1298, 1323 Spellings, Margaret 2403 Sperry, Elmer 1622, 1697 spies. See espionage Spirit of St. Louis 1831 Spock, Benjamin 1971, 2152 Spotswood, Alexander 182– 183, 188, 190, 195, 204, 207 Spotsylvania Court ­House 1109–1111 Spotted Tail 1206, 1346 Springer v. the United States 1339 Springhill, Battle of 462 Sputnik 2062 Squanto (Tisquantum) 25, 36, 37 Stafford, Thomas 2137, 2140, 2163, 2206 stagecoach lines 207, 252, 538 Stag Hound (clipper ship) 889, 890 Stalin, Joseph 1866, 1909, 1921, 1936, 1944, 1962, 1963, 1967, 1968, 2023, 2146 Stamp Act 276, 286, 290, 292, 294–296, 303–305, 309, 320, 333, 426 Stamp Act Congress 293

Stanberry, Henry 1135, 1226 Standard Oil Company 1248, 1455, 1522, 1549, 1558, 2262 Standard Oil Company of New Jersey v. United States 1625 Standard Oil Trust 1248, 1352, 1402, 1435 Standing Bear 1325–1326, 1328 Standish, Myles 32, 34, 37, 40, 44 Stanford University 1375, 1431, 2399 Stanley, Henry Morton 1263, 1379 Stans, Maurice 2175, 2194, 2204 Stanton, Edwin M. 832, 946, 995, 1001, 1005, 1009, 1017, 1030, 1032, 1047, 1090, 1121, 1138, 1139, 1141, 1153, 1154, 1157, 1216, 1221, 1225, 1227, 1246, 1357 Stanton, Elizabeth Cady 793, 829, 882, 883, 883–884, 940, 999, 1200, 1205, 1206, 1211, 1224, 1233, 1239, 1335–1336, 1418, 1458, 1463 Stanwix, Fort, New York 413, 416, 417, 419 Stanwix, Fort, Treaty of 250 Stanwix, Fort, Second Treaty of 534–535 Stark, John 251, 344, 352, 353, 416, 419, 424 Starr, Kenneth 2340, 2361, 2365 “Star Spangled Banner” (Key) 710, 1856 START II 2352 “Star Wars.” See Strategic Defense Initiative State Children’s Health Insur-­ ance Program (SCHIP) 2434, 2437 Statue of Liberty 1373, 1382, 1390, 2277 steamboats 557, 558, 562, 650, 654, 670, 671, 674, 684–686,

711, 720, 724, 725, 730, 735, 744 steam engines 241, 623 Stedman, Fort, Battle of 1149 steel 929, 1097, 1773m, 1798, 1919, 1972, 2013–2016, 2022, 2027, 2046, 2080, 2082, 2083, 2085, 2106, 2114, 2225 Steele, Frederick 1053, 1081, 1088, 1098, 1103–1107, 1147, 1152 Steffens, Lincoln 1558 Stein, Gertrude 1592, 1863, 2025 Steinbeck, John 1839, 1878, 1890, 1891, 1904, 1912, 1928, 2011, 2031, 2101 Stephens, Alexander H. 944, 952, 954, 988, 1003, 1080, 1100, 1138, 1141, 1142, 1160 Sternberg, George Miller 1339, 1434, 1447 Steuben, Friedrich, baron von 427, 430, 431, 432, 432–433, 434, 436, 499, 504, 512, 531 Steunenberg, Frank 1571, 1589 Stevens, Isaac I. 1025, 1037 Stevens, John 650, 674, 684, 713, 752 Stevens, John F. 1569, 1581 Stevens, John L. 1444, 1450 Stevens, Thaddeus 1108, 1162, 1203, 1210, 1216, 1226, 1229, 2432 Stevenson, Adlai 1437, 1441, 1526, 1962, 2016, 2018, 2022, 2054, 2056, 2098, 2110 Stewart, Alexander P. 1112, 1120 Stewart, Martha 2390, 2394 Stieglitz, Alfred 1549, 1571 Stiles, Ezra 321, 441 Still, Andrew T. 1277, 1284 Stimson, Henry Lewis 1625, 1634, 1727, 1849, 1857, 1859, 1913, 1915 Stockbridge Indians 339

Index  2539 stocks 1843, 1846–1848, 2006, 2009, 2023, 2041, 2048, 2079, 2351 Stockton, Robert F. 867–870, 873 Stoddard, Solomon 173, 202, 203 Stone, Barton W. 649, 680 Stone, Charles P. 948, 986, 1002 Stone, John 57, 63 Stone, Lucy 1233, 1246 Stone, William 83, 84, 88, 91 Stoneman, George 1121, 1204– 1205, 1257 Stoney Creek, Battle of 698 Stono Ferry, South Carolina 453, 466 Stony Point, New York 453, 455 Storyville, New Orleans 1700, 1731 Stowe, Harriet Beecher 825, 847, 898, 902, 903–904, 922, 1224, 1233, 1255 Strader v. Graham 895 Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT) 2161, 2170, 2173, 2175, 2177, 2180, 2184, 2231, 2275 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START II) 2329, 2343–2344 Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) 2069, 2266, 2267, 2271, 2277 Strauss, Richard 1560, 1586 Stravinsky, Igor 2031, 2060 strikes in 1700s 232, 285, 543, 639 in 1800s 683, 743, 939, 940 from 1870–1900 1776m in 1930s 1876, 1885, 1890, 1906, 1908 in 1940s 1918, 1919, 1921, 1925, 1927, 1947 in 1960s 2102, 2106, 2110, 2113, 2114, 2128, 2135, 2148, 2150, 2153, 2158– 2160, 2166 in 1970s 2170, 2172–2174, 2180, 2192, 2204, 2224, 2227, 2231

in 1980s 2243 in 21st century 2409, 2434 Strong, Caleb 690, 691 Strossen, Nadine 2311 Stuart, Gilbert 628, 629 Stuart, J. E. B. 1020, 1023, 1024, 1035, 1044, 1053, 1067, 1069, 1075–1080, 1091, 1110, 1219 Stuart, John 289, 290, 306, 314 Student Nonviolent Coordinat-­ ing Committee (SNCC) 2148 Students for a Demo­cratic Soci-­ ety (SDS) 2156, 2162 Sturges v. Crowninshield 728 Sturgis, Samuel 1114, 1311, 1315 Stuyvesant, Peter 82, 83, 85, 88–93, 95, 97, 102, 103 subways 1097, 1481, 1825 Sudan 2366, 2429 Suez Canal 2054, 2055 Suffolk Resolves 320, 331–332, 337 suffrage. See voting rights; woman suffrage Sugar Act (1764) 288, 289, 303, 309 Sullivan, John 305, 337, 342, 358, 386, 388, 389, 392, 395, 396, 404, 405, 414, 418, 422, 442, 444, 453, 457–461 Sullivan, John Lawrence 1352– 1353, 1414, 1440 Sullivan, Louis H. 1415, 1441, 1482, 1505 Sullivan’s Island 469, 484 Sullivan’s Island, Battle of 390 Sully, Alfred E. 1087, 1120, 1231–1232 Sumatran pirates 779, 783, 826 Summit Springs, Battle of 1364 Sumner, Charles 913, 924, 938, 1203, 1239, 1252, 1257, 1286 Sumner, Edwin V. 1016, 1017, 1027, 1047, 1051, 1058 Sumner, Jethro 453, 511 Sumter, CSS 972, 974

Sumter, Fort 475, 946–950, 952, 955–961, 962, 1087, 1088, 1153 Sumter, Thomas 474, 475, 476–478, 482–484, 492–494, 500, 507 Sunday, William Ashley “Billy” 1470–1471, 1758, 1871 Sun Myung Moon 2214, 2249 Sununu, John 2319 Supreme War Council 1709, 1728 surveillance, domestic 2202, 2203, 2205, 2209, 2212, 2411, 2414–2416, 2431, 2432 Susquehanna Company of Con-­ necticut 242, 278 Susquehannock Indians 66, 76, 98, 106, 113, 115, 117–120, 122–124, 287 Swaggart, Jimmy 2286, 2287 Swartz, Mark 2404 Sweatt v. Paint­er 2149 Swedish settlers 56, 71, 76, 79 Sweet, George C. 1598, 1612 Swift Boat Veterans for Truth 2395 Swift & Co. v. United States 1566 Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) 2195 Symmes, John Cleves 565, 567 Syngman Rhee 1990, 2027, 2029 Syria 2058, 2061, 2320, 2400, 2426

T Taft, Alphonso 1296, 1298 Taft, Robert 1982, 2059 Taft, William Howard 930, 1296, 1457, 1491, 1511, 1524, 1536, 1559, 1569, 1579–1581, 1590, 1596, 1599, 1606–1607, 1610–1612, 1615–1619, 1622– 1624, 1626–1628, 1634, 1638, 1640, 1646, 1648, 1676, 1708, 1725, 1799, 1851

2540  Chronology of American History Taft-­Hartley Act 1979, 1989, 1991, 2000, 2015, 2029, 2031, 2082, 2083, 2098, 2208 Tailhook scandal 2326, 2335, 2343 Taiwan 2038, 2041, 2042, 2060, 2089, 2178, 2229 Talapoosa Indians 179 Talbot, John G. 1245–1256 Talbot, Silas 445, 455, 457, 460 Taliban 2381–2384, 2386, 2391, 2415, 2428 Tall Bull 1218, 1240, 1242 Tallmadge, Benjamin 459, 483 Talton v. Mayes 1472 Tamerlane and Other Poems (Poe) 755, 856 Tammany Hall 798, 800, 889, 1235, 1262, 1276 Taney, Roger B. 778, 791–795, 799, 806, 807, 814, 927, 957, 1130 Tankiteke Indians 78 Tannen, Deborah 2303 Tannenberg, Battle of 1665 Tanner, James 1420–1421, 1442 Tanzania 2366 Tappan, Arthur 755, 792 Tarbell, Ida Minerva 1549, 1558 Tariff Act (1789) 602–603 Tariff Act (1812) 770 Tariff Act (1816) 717 Tariff Act (1824) 745, 755 Tariff Act (1828) 762, 763, 784, 785, 789 Tariff Act (1832) 785, 789 Tariff Act (1842) 840 Tariff Act (1857) 927 Tariff Act (1869) 1235 Tariff Act (1872) 1266 Tariff Act (1875) 1286 Tariff of Abominations 763 tariffs 541, 542, 550, 690, 745, 747, 842, 1107, 1853, 2103, 2105, 2109. See also specific

tariffs, e.g.: ­Smoot-­Hawley Tariff Bill Tarkington, Booth 1507, 1538, 1719, 1752, 1807 Tarleton, Banastre 301, 453, 466–471, 475, 477, 478, 483– 485, 487, 489, 491, 492, 494, 495, 503, 506–508, 512, 513 “Tarleton’s Quarter” 481 Tartar (ship) 229, 231 Tattnall, Josiah 1009, 1018 taxation in 1600s 142 in 1700s 270, 288, 291–293, 296, 299, 537, 544, 609, 612, 616, 623, 624, 640 in 1800s 651, 675, 728, 745, 885, 1145 in 1900s 1881, 1925, 1938, 1946–1947, 2024, 2033, 2081, 2144, 2152, 2169, 2201, 2203, 2214, 2227, 2243, 2249, 2251, 2263, 2278, 2306, 2308, 2331, 2333 taxation without repre­sen­ta­tion 276, 289, 290, 295 tax cuts 1798, 1811, 2381, 2389 tax evasion 2322 Taylor, Diana Diggs 2415 Taylor, Frederick W. 1613, 1687 Taylor, John W. 726, 728 Taylor, Maxwell 2084 Taylor, Richard 1019, 1020, 1024, 1065, 1092, 1104, 1105, 1155–1156 Taylor, Thomas 477, 483, 500, 501, 507 Taylor, Zachary 535, 778, 790, 816, 819, 859, 861, 863–866, 870, 871, 873–875, 879, 881, 884, 886, 887, 887–888, 888, 892, 893, 953, 2315 Tea Act 303, 309, 320, 323, 342 teachers 2012, 2017

Teamsters ­Union 2275, 2283, 2406 Teapot Dome 1674, 1797, 1799, 1806, 1812, 1817, 1828, 1830, 1833, 1847 Tecumseh 678, 679, 680, 685, 689, 691, 697, 698, 700, 834, 835 Telecommunications Act (1996) 2352, 2364 telegraph 850, 986, 993, 1003 telephone 1296, 1317, 1318, 1321, 1405, 1518, 1808, 1828, 2010, 2011, 2055, 2090, 2359 tele­vi­sion 1830, 1967, 1981, 2004, 2009–2011, 2031, 2040–2042, 2056, 2057, 2075, 2079, 2083, 2091, 2092, 2095, 2327, 2339, 2348 Teller, Edward 2036, 2063, 2068, 2069 Teller Amendment 1491 Tennessee 213, 214, 607, 631, 632, 739, 820, 952, 962, 965– 967, 969, 971, 988, 1000–1004, 1010–1013, 1022, 1023, 1030, 1043, 1045, 1049, 1051–1056, 1061, 1063, 1079, 1087–1089, 1091–1096, 1102, 1105, 1122, 1126, 1133, 1135, 1139, 1144, 1151, 1200–1201, 1209 Tennessee, CSS 1006, 1121 Tennessee, Department of the 1045, 1096 Tennessee Electric Company v. Tennessee Valley Authority 1904 Tennessee River 980, 1091, 1093 Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) 1868, 2046 tennis 2048, 2322, 2332, 2370 Tenskwatawa (Shawnee Prophet) 831, 834 Tenure of Office Act 732, 1201, 1221, 1225–1227, 1386, 1395–1396

Index  2541 term limits 1977, 2007, 2347 Ternay, Â�Charles-­Henri-Louis chevalier d’Arsac 278, 280 Territory of Orleans 658, 661, 683 terrorism 2172, 2203, 2214, 2257, 2267, 2268, 2270, 2274, 2286, 2404, 2425, 2432, 2434, 2435 Terry, Alfred H. 1112, 1138– 1140, 1219, 1293, 1298, 1300, 1315 Tesla, Nikola 1400, 1434, 1467 Tet Offensive 2130, 2153, 2155 Texaco, Inc. 2359 Texas 699, 702, 732, 766, 770, 791, 799, 802, 806, 808–811, 827, 833, 837, 843, 848–850, 854, 856, 857, 859–862, 864, 955, 1048, 1055, 1056, 1134, 1155, 1157, 1158, 1210, 1211, 1228, 1238, 1250, 1818, 1823, 1830, 2045, 2060, 2355. See also Republic of Texas Texas Brigade 1036, 1040 Texas Rangers 800, 932 Texas Revolution 799, 1177m Texas v. White 1239 textile industry 288, 743, 889 Thailand 2039, 2043, 2047 Thames, Battle of the 700 Thanksgiving 33, 37, 38, 51, 605, 1090, 1131, 1920 Thatcher, Margaret 2266–2267 Theyanoguin. See Hendrick Third Seminole War 922 Thirteenth Amendment 1098, 1105, 1115, 1138, 1141–1145, 1151, 1154, 1156, 1159, 1161, 1162, 1253 Thomas, Clarence 2150, 2317, 2318 Thomas, George H. 996, 1012, 1016, 1088–1089, 1091, 1094, 1101, 1109, 1111, 1119, 1135, 1136 Thomas, Isaiah 642, 687

Thomas, John 344, 380, 383– 386, 473 Thomas, Norman 1835, 1861, 1886, 1911 Thomas, Samuel 163, 226 Thompson, Wiley 802, 803 Thompson, William 366, 371, 386, 387 Thoreau, Henry David 759, 828, 860, 872, 885, 910, 911– 912, 938 Thorpe, Jim 1637, 1644–1645 Three Mile Island 2231 Thresher, USS (submarine) 2115 Thurber, James 1970 Thurmond, Strom 1989, 1990, 2061, 2353, 2387 Ticonderoga, Fort 251, 258– 261, 266, 344, 346, 347, 349, 411, 413, 415 Tilden, Samuel J. 1283, 1300, 1302, 1303, 1305–1307 Tilghman, Lloyd 990, 999, 1000 Tillman, Pat 2425 Timber Culture Act (1873) 1272, 1428 Time Warner, Inc. 2299, 2349, 2374, 2378 Tippecanoe, Battle of 679, 686 Titanic, RMS 1637, 2270 Tito, Denis 2380 Tlingit Indians 1358 tobacco 8, 24, 25, 30, 32, 38, 56, 82, 131, 136 Tobacco Company, United States v. 1625–1626 Todd, John 301, 446 Toleration Act (MaryÂ�land, 1649) 84, 91 Tomb of the Unknown Soldier 1863, 2071 Tompkins, Daniel D. 732, 734, 748 Tom’s Brook, Battle of 1129 Tom Thumb 774, 775 Tonkin Gulf 2126, 2143, 2148

Toombs, Robert A. 923, 955 Tordesillas, Treaty of 3 Torkillus, Reorus 71, 72 tornadoes 1820, 1827, 1833, 1977, 2024, 2027, 2045, 2075, 2314, 2328 Toscanini, Arturo 1599, 1620, 1854 Towers, John H. 1641–1642, 1648, 1652, 1751 Townshend, Bertha L. 1400, 1408 Townshend, Charles 299, 300 Townshend Duties 299–302, 304, 306, 307, 309, 310, 312, 313, 333 Township Act (Massachusetts) 62, 63 Tracy, Benjamin F. 1412, 1421 “Trail of Tears” 761, 823, 824 transatlantic cable 914, 927, 930, 933 Transcendentalist Club 759, 811, 827, 911 Transcendentalists 830 transcontinental railroad 971, 1028, 1239, 1253 Trans-­Missouri Freight Associa-­ tion, United States v. 1478 Trans World Airways. See TWA Airlines Transylvania Company 301, 331, 339, 340 Travis, William B. 799, 806 Treaty ofâ•‹.â•‹.â•‹.╋╉See under treaty name, e.g.: Â�Aix-­la-­Chapelle, Treaty of Trent (ship) 988, 990, 992 Trenton, New Jersey 404–407 Trevett v. Weeken 547 Trevilian Station, Virginia 1114, 1115 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire 1624 triangular trade 167 Trimble, Isaac 1035, 1080

2542  Chronology of American History Trinity Church (New York City) 222, 295, 2355 Tripoli 544, 545, 632, 647, 648, 651, 657–659, 661, 663, 664, 715, 2234 Trist, Nicholas P. 876, 878, 880 Triton, USS 2083, 2088 Trois-­Rivières, Battle of 387 Trotsky, Leon 1739, 1851 Troup, George, M. 753, 755 Trudeau, Edward Livingston 1375, 1455 Truman, Harry S. 1866, 1884, 1924, 1956, 1964, 1965, 1967–1971, 1976–1979, 1981, 1983, 1986, 1988–1992, 1995, 2001, 2004, 2007, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2018, 2020, 2030, 2037, 2069, 2078, 2208 Truman Doctrine 1977, 1978 Trumbull, John 516, 632, 676, 718, 719, 775 Truth, Sojourner 845–846, 846, 847, 898 Truxton, Thomas 640, 642 Tryon, William 316, 317, 363, 410, 450, 453, 455 Tsongas, Paul 2315, 2321 tsunami (South Asia, December 2004) 2396, 2400 Tsushima Straits, Battle of 1568 tuberculosis 2319 Tubman, Harriet 888, 1073– 1074 Tucker, Carla Faye 2364 Tulane University 874, 1367 Tunis 545, 635, 715 Tunisia 659, 1943, 1946 Tunney, Gene 1800, 1827, 1832, 1838 Tupelo, Battle of 1119 Tupper, Benjamin 355, 357 Turkey 772, 1977, 1978, 2049, 2076, 2211, 2312, 2400, 2435 Turner, Frederick Jackson 1449–1450

Turner, Nat 779, 780, 780 Turner Broadcasting System 2349 Turtle (submarine) 396 Tuscarora Indians 185–187, 189, 195, 413 Tuskegee Institute 1344, 1345, 2078 TWA Airlines 1901, 2053, 2096, 2099, 2320, 2356 TWA flight 847 2268 Twain, Mark 801, 935, 994, 1161, 1237, 1242–1243, 1264, 1277, 1294, 1330, 1351, 1360, 1370, 1405, 1455, 1469, 1480, 1573, 1616, 1684, 1814 Tweed, William Marcy 1235, 1262, 1263, 1270, 1276, 1290, 1302 Twelfth Amendment 657, 661 Twentieth Amendment 1860, 1864 Twenty-­fifth Amendment 2145 Twenty-­first Amendment 1864, 1870 Twenty-­fourth Amendment 2108, 2122 Twenty-­second Amendment 1977, 2007 Twenty-­seventh Amendment 2181, 2323 Twenty-­sixth Amendment 2177 Twenty-­third Amendment 2085, 2089, 2096 Twenty Years at ­Hull-­House (Addams) 1408, 1614 Twice-­Told Tales(Hawthorne) 758, 812 Tydings-­McDuffie Act 1872, 1974 Tyler, John 606, 769, 789, 827, 830, 833–835, 836, 836–837, 842, 843, 851, 853, 854, 857, 858, 952, 996 typhoons 2326 Tyson, Mike 2359, 2362

U U-2 spy plane 2053, 2088, 2091 U-boats 1919, 1924, 1925, 1931, 1938 Ukraine 2343 Ulloa, Antonio de 296, 306 Unabomber. See Kaczynski, Theodore J. Unami Indians 262 Uncas (Mohegan sachem) 65, 67, 77 Uncle Tom’s Cabin (Stowe) 825, 898, 902–904, 908 underground nuclear testing 2062, 2086, 2100, 2337 Underground Railroad 793, 820, 888, 924, 1073 Underhill, John 65, 78 Underwood-­Simmons Tariff Act (1913) 1653, 1667 ­Union Carbide 2092, 2296 ­Union Pacific Railroad 1028, 1028, 1239, 1267, 1270, 1299, 1403, 2356 ­Union Party 1887, 1888 ­unions. See or­ga­nized labor Unitarianism 223, 523, 562, 728, 729, 803, 804, 820, 833 United Airlines 2053, 2093, 2299 United Artists 1632, 1672 United Auto Workers (UAW) 1453, 1890, 1970, 1972, 1988, 1996, 2019, 2046, 2102, 2150, 2172, 2192, 2247, 2248, 2366, 2411, 2434 United Church of Christ 2080, 2282, 2311 United Colonies of New En­gland 45, 49, 76–77, 80, 93. See also New En­gland Con-­ federation United Healthcare Corporation 2347 United Methodist Church 2323 United Mine Workers of Amer-­ ica (UMW) 1417, 1481, 1544,

Index  2543 1548, 1551, 1652, 1884, 1908, 1925, 1926, 1938, 1945, 1946, 1972, 1987, 1993, 1994, 2084, 2175, 2191 United Nations 1928, 1958, 1965, 1966, 1970, 1972, 1973, 1975–1977, 1981, 1990, 1991, 1996, 1997, 2002–2006, 2008, 2009, 2012–2014, 2027, 2038, 2039, 2046, 2055, 2099, 2295, 2300, 2328, 2347, 2350, 2351, 2358, 2403, 2406 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Or­ga­ni­ za­tion (UNESCO) 1974, 2258 United Nations Security Council 2001, 2037, 2257, 2307, 2309, 2386 United Nations Temporary Com-­ mission 1985, 1987 United Nations Trusteeship Division 2002, 2003 U.S. Life Saving Ser­vice 1319, 1349 U.S. Military Academy (West Point) 649, 651, 652, 694, 856, 1154, 2078 U.S. Naval Academy (Annapo-­ lis) 861, 963, 1006, 1160 United States, USS 633, 659, 694 United States Exploring Expedi-­ tion 821, 842 United States Geological Survey 1325 United States maps 1880 map 1165m agricultural/industrial employment (1950) 2450m industry (early 1800s) 1168m natural resources (1900) 1771m overseas possessions (1857– 1917) 1779m

Western Expansion (1787– 1853) 1169m United States Steel, United States v. 1760 United States Steel Corporation 1438, 1454, 1533, 1534, 1676, 1755, 1812, 2027, 2037 United Steel Workers 1972, 2039, 2080, 2085 UNIVAC 2009 University of Alabama 735, 2050, 2051, 2116 University of Mississippi 849, 2109, 2111 University of Pennsylvania 236, 238, 248, 292, 2337 University of Vermont 613, 614 University of Virginia 728, 2348 Updike, John 2314 Upshur, Abel P. 845, 848, 849 Upton, Emory 1110, 1148, 1149, 1212, 1252, 1514 Urey, Harold C. 1855, 1878 Ursuline Order 200, 794, 797 US Airways 2385 USA PATRIOT Act 2382, 2409, 2411 Usher, John 112, 129 Utah 1250, 1253, 1468, 1471, 1477, 1486, 1521, 1870, 2357 Utoy Creek, Battle of 1121

V Vacco v. Quill 2362 Vail, Theodore N. 1680, 1681 Valcour Island, Battle of 347, 399–400 Vallandigham, Clement L. 992, 1067, 1070, 1071, 1073, 1075, 1090, 1115, 1123 Valley Forge, Pennsylvania 428, 429, 431 Valuejet 2355 Valverde, Battle of 1002, 1086 Van Buren, Martin 524, 735, 747, 749, 752, 762, 766, 769,

773, 775, 776, 784, 789, 798, 811, 814, 815, 815–816, 820, 821, 824, 829, 830, 835, 850, 859, 1031, 2295 Vance, Cyrus W. 2107, 2217, 2220, 2236 Vandenberg Amendment 1988 Vanderbilt, Cornelius 682, 682, 1244, 1254, 1279 Vanderbilt, William Kissam 1336, 1564 Vanderlyn, John 672, 687 Van Doren, Charles 2083, 2092 Van Dorn, Earl 1004, 1005, 1032, 1041–1043, 1052, 1053, 1061 Van Duyn, Mona 2314 Vane, Henry 63, 66 Van Orden v. Perry 2405 Van Rensselaer, Stephen 650, 692 Vanzetti, Bartolomeo 1761, 1832 Varadhan, Srinivasa 2425 Vaudreuil, Pierre Rigaud, mar-­ quis de 248, 253, 255 V-E Day 1966 Velasco, Battle of 784 Venezuela 805, 2070, 2100, 2412 Veracruz, Battle of 875 Verango, Fort 240, 283 Vergennes, Charles Gravier, comte de 197–198, 368, 379, 384, 428–430, 521, 523, 525 Vermont 611, 612, 844, 879, 1130, 1135, 2374 Versailles, Treaty of 1752–1756, 1760, 1761 Vesey, Denmark 738–739 Vespucci, Amerigo 4, 5 Vestry Act, Second 174, 176 Veterans’ Bureau 1411, 1809 Viagra 2365 Vick, Michael 2432 Vicksburg, Mississippi 1019, 1026, 1031, 1042, 1045, 1048, 1052, 1053, 1058, 1062, 1063, 1065, 1066, 1071, 1072, 1075, 1076, 1078, 1081

2544  Chronology of American History Vicksburg, siege of 1236 Victor Emmanuel III (king of Italy) 1947 Victoria (queen of Great Britain, empress of India) 797, 933, 966, 991, 997, 998, 1059, 1084 Victorio 1312, 1314, 1327, 1334 Viereck, George Sylvester 1664, 1677 Vietcong 2080 Vietnam 1923, 2038, 2080, 2095, 2103, 2107, 2126, 2205, 2217, 2221, 2299, 2313, 2327, 2338, 2348, 2395, 2418 Vietnam, South 2041, 2059, 2080 Vietnam veterans 2312 Vietnam War 2128–2134, 2136–2141, 2143, 2144, 2146, 2148, 2150–2155, 2157, 2158, 2161–2163, 2166, 2179–2182, 2184, 2186, 2199, 2203, 2219, 2261, 2453m Vietnam War Memorial 2267– 2268 Vigilante (ship) 231, 232 Villa, Pancho 1426, 1649, 1670, 1674, 1678, 1681, 1685, 1688, 1691, 1693, 1702, 1731 Villaraigosa, Antonio 2404 Vincennes, USS 754, 774, 985, 2290 Virginia in 1600s 13, 14, 17, 28, 42, 57, 61, 70, 85, 86, 107–109, 113, 117–120, 123–132, 128, 135–139, 141, 146, 156, 158, 168 in 1700s 177, 195, 199, 204, 218, 226, 249, 259, 564, 605 during Revolutionary War 501, 503, 504, 506, 507 early 1800s 900, 951

during Civil War 962, 964, 967, 968, 970–974, 976, 979–982, 984, 986, 989, 990, 992, 994, 995, 998, 1003, 1008, 1010, 1012, 1016–1021, 1024, 1026, 1029, 1032, 1035–1037, 1039, 1046, 1047, 1049, 1051, 1057, 1058, 1063, 1066, 1067, 1069, 1074– 1076, 1078, 1091, 1094, 1095, 1102, 1107–1115, 1120, 1122, 1126, 1128, 1144, 1148–1153, 1157 during Reconstruction 1158, 1216, 1238, 1250 Virginia, CSS. See Merrimac, USS Virginia Association 308, 330 Virginia Company 14, 21, 23, 24, 30, 31, 39, 40, 42 Virginia Convention 330, 340, 358, 385, 387, 389, 964 Virginia Military Institute 1111, 2356 Virginia Plan 552–555, 677 Virginia Polytechnic Institute 2427 Virginia Resolves 292, 308, 336 Virginia State Convention 960, 962 Virginia & Tennessee Railroad 1019, 1109 Virginia War, Second 81 Virgin Islands 1222, 1531, 1542, 1706 Vitter, David 2432 V-J Day 1969 Vogel, Dick 2410 Voice of America 2022 Voices of the Night (Longfellow) 824, 825 Volcker, Paul 2232, 2254, 2282 Volpe, Justin 2372 Volstead Act 1756 voter registration 1812, 2088

voting 927, 2081 voting restrictions 52, 70, 73, 78, 83, 99, 196, 198 voting rights 52, 109, 110, 525, 927, 1098, 1103, 1236, 1806, 1830, 1952, 2035, 2073, 2089, 2096, 2171. See also woman suffrage Voting Rights Act 2130, 2134, 2138, 2206, 2415

W Waco, Texas 2024, 2332 Waddell, Hugh 270, 316–317 Waddell, James I. 1159, 1160 Wade, Benjamin F. 993, 1121 Wade-­Davis Reconstruction Bill 1108, 1117, 1118 Wadsworth, Peleg 342, 456 wage controls 1950, 2015 Wage Stabilization Board 1971, 2007 Wagner, Robert F. 1869 Wahunsonacock. See Powhatan Wainwright, Jonathan 1931, 1933 Wakarusa War 922 Wake Island 1927 Walcott, “Jersey Joe” 1983, 1989, 1994, 2010, 2016, 2017, 2024 Walden (Thoreau) 910, 911, 911, 912 Waldheim, Kurt 2281 Waldron, Richard 127, 150 Walker, James J. 1823, 1856 Walker, John G. 1038, 1039, 1512 Walker, Leroy P. 955, 990 Walker, Robert J. 928, 930 Walker, Thomas 235, 238 Walker, William 914, 921, 922, 928, 930, 943 Walker Tariff Act 859, 869 Walker v. Sauvinet 1297 Wallace, George 2066, 2116, 2117, 2158, 2161, 2182

Index  2545 Wallace, Henry A. 1914, 1917, 1975, 1984, 1985, 1989, 1990 Wallace, James 362, 374 Wallace, Lew 1118, 1330 Waller, Littleton W. T. 1540, 1542, 1679, 1681 Walley, John 155, 156 Walmart 2298 Walpole, Robert 194, 200 Walsh, Lawrence E. 2338 Walt Disney Company 2348 Walton, Sam Moore 2298 Wampanoag Indians 25, 33–37, 56, 62, 110, 116, 118, 119, 121, 123, 125, 127, 128, 2225 Wamsutta (Alexander) 37, 99 Wang Industries 2325 Wanton, Joseph 319, 364 Wappinger Indians 22, 76, 78, 97 War, U.S. Department of 491, 604, 948, 972, 1003 war against terrorism 2402 war bonds 1960 War Crimes Commission 1938 Ward, Aaron Montgomery 1267, 1268 Ward, Artemas 320, 343–344, 346, 349, 351, 353, 355, 370, 380 War Finance Corporation 1724, 1795 War Industries Board 1712, 1716, 1724, 1736 War Labor Board (WLB) 1928, 1936, 1971 War Labor Dispute Act 1947 War Labor Policies Board 1730 War Loan Drive 1960 War Manpower Commission 1931, 1945, 1969 War Mobilization and Reconver-­ sion Act 1959 Warner, Seth 346, 357, 363, 415, 419 War of 1812 553, 610, 656, 659, 671, 673, 679, 689–715, 721,

727, 738, 741, 746, 750, 765, 769, 778, 786, 834–835, 867, 887, 909, 1171m War of the Spanish Succession 171, 188 War Order No. 3 1005 War Powers Act 2193 War Production Board (WPB) 1929, 1931, 1958 Warren, Borlase 692, 694 Warren, Earl 1988, 2029, 2073, 2120, 2129, 2157 Warren, Gouverneur K. 1091, 1108, 1109, 1112, 1122, 1128, 1142 Warren, Joseph 319, 320, 330, 331, 338, 341, 342, 344, 349, 353 Warren, Mercy Otis 337, 338 Warren, Peter 230–232, 250 Warren, Robert Penn 1971, 1978, 1997, 2070 Warren Commission 2120, 2127 Warrington, Lewis 706, 714 Warrior (steamboat) 778, 786 Warsaw Pact 2309 War Trade Board 1714 Washington, Booker T. 1344, 1345–1346, 1467, 1508, 1532, 1538, 1569 Washington, D.C. See District of Columbia Washington, Fort, New York 401–403, 441, 486 Washington, George 529, 603 Benedict Arnold and 347 Benjamin Banneker and 246 birth of 207 and Christ Church 321 in colonial militia 240–245, 248, 249, 263, 332 as commander of ­three-­year provisional army 637 death of 641 early career of 236 election of 1789 600

election of 1792 617 as general of Continental army 351–355, 358–360, 362, 364, 366, 372, 378–380, 382, 385, 389, 393–396, 398, 400–411, 413, 419–422, 424–433, 435–439, 441, 442, 445– 448, 452–455, 463–465, 467, 469, 472, 473, 476, 479, 481, 482, 486, 490, 493, 495, 501, 503, 505– 515, 519–521, 526, 529, 534, 536, 537, 540, 545, 547, 552, 559, 564–565 John Hancock and 305 Henry Knox and 370 marriage 264 Mississippi Company grant 285 Thomas Paine and 375 Charles Willson Peale and 317, 318 presidency (first term) 377, 414, 517, 600, 602, 610, 612, 614, 616, 617 presidency (second term) 287, 618–620, 624, 625, 628, 630, 631–632 Betsy Ross and 412 Benjamin Rush and 322 as slaveowner 239 slave trade opposition 311, 336 Friedrich von Steuben and 432, 436 and Virginia Resolves 308 Artemus Ward and 345 Washington, Harold 2253, 2281 Washington, Lawrence 221, 222 Washington, Martha 602, 643 Washington, Treaty of (1826) 752, 755 Washington, Treaty of (1871) 1237, 1269, 1305, 1312, 1316, 1365, 1380, 1383

2546  Chronology of American History Washington, William 466–468, 470, 484, 485, 488–490, 495, 496, 499, 511 Washington College 519, 524, 1160 Washington Globe 775, 799 Washington Monument 715, 882, 1379 Washington Naval Disarmament Conference 1766, 1798 Washington Navy Yard 951, 964, 1006 Washington Territory 906, 1410 Washington v. Glucksberg 2362 Wasp, USS 694, 707, 710, 1938 Watergate 2161, 2183, 2185, 2188, 2190, 2191, 2193–2195, 2197, 2199, 2201, 2203, 2204, 2222, 2404 Water­house, Benjamin 639, 642 Watie, Stand 761, 1159 Watkins, Aaron S. 1597, 1639, 1763 Watson, Elkanah 524, 683 Watson, John B. 1314, 1749 Watson, Thomas A. 1259, 1670 Watson, Thomas E. 1474, 1563, 1594, 1807 Watson-­Wentworth, Charles 519, 521 Watt, James 2252, 2256, 2257 Watts (Los Angeles) riot 2134, 2134 Wayne, Anthony 386, 387, 421, 422, 439, 453, 455, 474, 487, 489, 501, 503, 504, 506, 518, 610, 615, 621, 624–625, 627, 655, 656, 665, 679, 834 weapons of mass destruction (WMD) 2300, 2368, 2380, 2386, 2387, 2390, 2391, 2398, 2402 Weather Bureau 1423, 1825 Weatherford, William 699, 703, 705 Weaver, Drew 2431

Weaver, James B. 1333, 1437 Weaver, Randall C. 2348 Weaver, Robert C. 2135, 2137 Webb Alien Land Act 1650, 1651 Webster, Daniel 716, 743, 751, 754, 767, 769, 769–770, 774, 795, 798, 811, 833, 837, 840, 842, 845, 846, 891, 893, 895, 905, 2059 Webster, James 480, 495, 1312 Webster, Noah 525, 607, 608, 617, 666, 760, 874, 917 Webster-­Ashburton Treaty 769, 842 Weehawken, USS 1077, 1087 Weiser, Conrad 196, 226 Weitzel, Geoffrey 1131, 1150 Weld, Theodore 792, 825 Weldon Railroad 1116, 1122 welfare 2292, 2351, 2357 Welles, Gideon 958, 984, 985, 996, 1002, 1029, 1125, 1134, 1138, 1160, 1222 Welles, Orson 1902–1903 Wells, H. G. 1813 Wells, Ida B. 1462 Wellstone, Paul 2386 Welsh v. United States 2171 Wemyss, James 482, 483 Wen Ho Lee 2372, 2376 Wen Jiabao 2392 Wentworth, Benning 222, 235 Wesley, John 212, 217, 537 Wessagusett, Massachusetts 38–40 West, Benjamin 270, 271, 284, 290, 318, 325, 614, 629, 675, 718 West, Joseph 108–110 West, Thomas (baron De La Warre) 22–23, 44 West Berlin 2077, 2079 West Coast Hotel v. Parrish 1892

Western Expansion of the United States (1787–1853) 1169m Western ­Union Telegraph Com-­ pany 922, 924, 1203 Western United States cattle trails and cowtowns (1866–1885) 1777m Chinese-­American popula-­ tion (1880) 1774m Native American territory losses (1850–1890) 1778m West Germany 2060, 2079, 2268, 2274 Westing­house, George 1239, 1360, 1386, 1432 Westing­house Electric 1467, 2052, 2348, 2356 West Jersey 116, 126, 129–131, 133, 135, 136, 146 Westmoreland, William C. 2154–2155, 2266, 2338 Weston, Thomas 31, 39 West Point, New York 437, 464, 479 West Point Military Academy. See U.S. Military Academy (West Point) Westport, Battle of 1131 West Virginia 1049, 1054, 1063, 1066, 1077, 1085, 1142 West Virginia Board of Educa-­ tion v. Bernette 1947 Westward migration (1940s) 2449m Wethersfield, Connecticut 57, 65 Weyanock Indians 79 Weyler, Valeriano 1471, 1480– 1482 whaling 186, 189, 922, 929 Wharton, Edith 1565, 1798 Wharton, Samuel 307, 308 Wheatley, Phillis 275, 297, 298, 298–299, 321, 379, 535 Wheeler, Burton K. 1817

Index  2547 Wheeler, George M. 1260, 1262, 1263 Wheeler, Joseph 1052, 1089, 1090, 1109, 1126, 1146, 1497 Wheeler, William A. 1299, 1306 Wheelock, Eleazar 245, 290, 291, 311, 418 Wheelwright, John 61, 64–66, 70–71 Wheler, Sir Francis 161, 162 Whig Party 693, 701, 702, 731, 738, 747, 749, 752, 769, 795, 798, 802, 812, 817, 818, 824, 827, 830, 833–835, 837, 850, 881, 884, 886, 887, 892, 893, 896, 904, 905, 926, 956. See also Constitutional Whig Party Whipple, Abraham 319, 352, 371, 381, 455–456, 463, 467, 469 Whiskey Act 612, 616, 623 Whiskey Rebellion 489, 624, 625, 627, 655 Whiskey Ring scandal 1288, 1296, 1303 Whistler, James Abbott McNeill 1054, 1247, 1256, 1384 Whitaker, Alexander 19, 23, 25 White, Byron R. 2333 White, Dan 2229 White, Edward 2133, 2145 White, Hugh L. 798, 811 White, John 10, 44 White, Stanford 1412, 1420, 1578 White, William Allen 1466, 1474 White Bird Canyon, Battle of 1311, 1312 Whitefield, George 203, 217, 219, 220, 291 White ­House 612, 617, 724 White-­Jacket (Melville) 862, 889 White Plains, Battle of 454 white supremacy 1218, 1224, 1307 Whitewater 2338, 2340, 2344, 2352, 2361, 2365, 2371, 2376

Whitfield, J. W. 917, 921 Whitman, Christy Todd 2336 Whitman, Malcolm D. 1483, 1507, 1520 Whitman, Walt 917, 918, 918– 919, 1137, 1256, 1262, 1338, 1425, 1433, 1470 Whitney, Eli 295, 618, 619, 621, 623, 636 Whitney, William C. 1382, 1389 Whittier, John Greenleaf 674, 891, 922, 1197 Whittington, Harry 2410 Wickes, Lambert 390, 393, 394, 401, 403, 407, 411, 413, 421, 422 Wickham, William C. 1110, 1122 Widnall, Sheila 2333 Wiggins, J. Michael 2404 Wilbur, Richard 2059, 2297 Wilcox, Cadmus M. 1069, 1116, 1128, 1131 Wilder, Douglas 2301 Wilder, Thornton 1828, 1836, 1855, 1897, 1899, 1946 Wilderness, Battle of the 1108– 1109 “Wild West” show 1293, 1363, 1382, 1397, 1416 Wilhelm I (German kaiser) 1269 Wilhelm II (German kaiser) 1543, 1697, 1705, 1740, 1742, 1746 Wilkes, Charles 821, 822, 828, 842, 988–990, 992, 993 Wilkes, John 356, 1038 Wilkins, John 285, 286 Wilkinson, James 425, 443, 566, 657, 664, 665, 668, 693, 696, 698, 699, 702, 703, 705–707 Willard, Jess 1602, 1674, 1753, 1800 Willett, Marinus 344, 350, 409, 417, 507, 515 William Henry, Fort 251, 255– 257, 260

William III (king of En­gland, Ireland, and Scotland) 135, 140, 147–149, 153, 159, 160, 162–164, 170 Williams, Andrew 367, 391 Williams, Jesse Lynch 1718, 1719, 1730 Williams, Otho H. 477, 491, 492, 496, 499 Williams, Roger 49, 51, 52, 52–53, 58, 61–63, 65, 67, 69, 75, 76, 78, 79, 84, 87, 89, 91, 92, 94, 123 Williams, Ted 2385 Williams, Tennessee 1987, 1990, 2006, 2044, 2045 Williams, Wayne 2242, 2247 Williams, William Carlos 1999, 2115 Williamson, Andrew 394, 504 Williamson, David 518, 521 Williamson’s Plantation 473, 475 Williams v. Florida 2172 Willkie, Wendell L. 1913, 1915, 1938, 1942, 1951, 1952 Wilmington, North Carolina 1138, 1139–1140, 1144 Wilmot Proviso 770, 773, 869, 870, 874 Wilson, August 2304 Wilson, Charles E. 2035, 2036, 2057, 2061 Wilson, Henry 1272, 1290 Wilson, Henry Lane 1645, 1649 Wilson, James 331, 376, 377, 378 Wilson, James H. 954, 1148, 1150, 1154, 1501, 1502 Wilson, Pete 2322 Wilson, Valerie Plame 2391, 2405, 2412, 2416 Wilson, Woodrow 1648–1649 William Jennings Bryan and 1457 Eugene V. Debs and 1448 election of 1912 1457, 1639, 1642, 1865

2548  Chronology of American History election of 1916 1692, 1698 election of 1918 1744 Samuel Gompers and 1350 Herbert Hoover and 1844 John J. Pershing and 1426 presidency (first term) 1448, 1645, 1647, 1650–1652, 1654, 1657–1667, 1671, 1672–1673, 1675, 1677, 1679, 1681, 1683, 1687– 1693, 1696–1699 presidency (second term) 1426, 1701–1705, 1707, 1710, 1712, 1713, 1718, 1720, 1722, 1724, 1726, 1733, 1739, 1741, 1743– 1749, 1753–1756, 1759, 1761, 1763, 1766, 1795 and Orville Wright 1528 Wilson-­Gorman Tariff Act 1461, 1465 Wilson’s Creek, Battle of 978 Wiltwyck, (Kingston, New York) 95–97, 100 Winchester, Virginia 1021, 1076, 1107, 1126 Winder, William H. 698, 709 Winnebago Indians 57, 786 Winning of the West, The (Roo­se­velt) 1392, 1407 Winslow, Edward 35, 37, 41, 56, 57, 84 Winslow, John 247, 248 Winslow, Josiah 113, 117, 119–122 Winsor, Kathleen 1950, 1971 Winters v. United States 1592 Winthrop, ­Fitz-­John 145, 153, 155 Winthrop, John 45, 48–49, 49– 51, 53, 58, 61, 66, 67, 69, 76, 78, 79, 81, 82, 86, 94, 321 Winthrop, John, Jr. 62, 99 Winthrop, John, IV 215, 216, 219, 232, 245, 275, 297 Wisconsin 661, 869, 881, 916, 934, 1145

Wisconsin Territory 808, 821 Wise, Henry A. 975, 1000 Wise, Isaac Mayer 1271, 1284, 1384 Wise, John 144, 190 Wistar, Caspar 218, 221 witchcraft 83, 147, 158–161, 164. See also Salem witchcraft trials Witherspoon, John 304, 449 Wiwanoy Indians 78 Wobblies. See Industrial Work-­ ers of the World (IWW) Wolfe, James 259, 260, 264–267, 366 Wolfe, Thomas 1878, 1910 Wolfowitz, Paul 2402, 2428 Wolf v. Colorado 1994 woman suffrage 391, 883, 901, 906, 940, 1224, 1245, 1250, 1253–1255, 1257, 1288, 1335, 1421, 1468, 1471, 1475, 1615, 1640, 1642, 1647, 1653, 1665, 1715, 1716, 1721, 1741, 1763, 2440m Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) 1933 Women’s Christian Temperance ­Union 1276, 1283, 1509 women’s rights 873, 879, 882, 883, 885, 894, 909, 999 Women’s Rights Convention 898, 935 Women’s Suffrage Amendment 1317 Wong Kim Ark, United States v. 1487 Wood, Grant 1849, 1858 Wood, Leonard 1490–1491, 1497, 1500, 1530, 1533, 1544, 1616, 1634, 1678, 1762 Woodford, Stewart L. 1481, 1487, 1489 Woodford, William 363, 366– 368, 371, 467 Wood­house, James 615, 633

Woodhull, Victoria Claflin 1254–1255, 1257, 1261, 1266, 1301 Woods, Tiger 2361, 2376, 2433 Woodstock Festival 2165 Woodward, Bob 2404 Woodward, Louise 2363 Wool, John E. 823, 824, 874, 875, 1017 Woolman, John 225, 242, 617 Woolworth, Frank W. 1324, 1324–1325, 1326 Woolworth Corporation 2320 Wooster, David 363, 372, 381, 410 Worcester v. Georgia 783 Worden, John L. 960, 961, 996, 1003, 1005, 1049, 1058, 1059 Worker’s Party 1817, 1837 Workmen’s Compensation Act 1677, 1696 Works Progress Administration (WPA) 1879, 1939 World Bank 2054, 2276, 2297, 2402, 2428, 2431 WorldCom, Inc. 2360, 2385, 2393, 2401 World Court of International Justice 1589, 1814, 1824, 1849, 1879, 2265, 2266, 2270, 2276 World Economic Forum 2404 World’s Columbian Exposition 1335, 1418, 1440–1441, 1446, 1456 World Trade Center February 1993 bombing 2330, 2334, 2338, 2352, 2363 September 11, 2001, attack. See September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks World Trade Or­ga­ni­za­tion (WTO) 2344, 2372, 2376, 2426 World War Foreign Debt Com-­ mission 1806

Index  2549 World War I 1335, 1392, 1394, 1448, 1621, 1649, 1663–1746, 1782m, 1801, 1804, 1813, 1826, 1861, 1880, 1885, 1923, 1940, 2025 World War II 2447m, 2448m events leading to U.S. entry into 1892, 1896–1901, 1903, 1904, 1906, 1908–1915, 1917–1921, 1923–1926 Pearl Harbor 1926 U.S. involvement in 1926– 1969 Wouk, Herman 1976, 2005, 2014, 2031, 2041 Wounded Knee (AIM occupa-­ tion) 2187 Wounded Knee Massacre 1305, 1424, 1427 Wrenn, Robert D. 1443, 1476 Wright, Frank Lloyd 1432, 1433, 1441, 1549, 1557, 1583, 1683, 1904, 1967, 2005, 2027, 2083 Wright, Horatio 1025, 1112, 1116, 1119, 1121, 1130, 1149–1150 Wright, James 379, 382, 521 Wright, Jim 2297, 2298 Wright, Orville 1527, 1528, 1531, 1536, 1547, 1556, 1570, 1593, 1594, 1598, 1599, 1611, 1657, 1839 Wright, Richard 1910, 1961 Wright, Wilbur 1527, 1528, 1531, 1547, 1556, 1565, 1570, 1593, 1594, 1598, 1599 Wyandot Indians 90, 96, 99, 282, 390, 519 Wyandotte Constitution 936, 940

Wyatt, Francis 38, 42, 71 Wyoming 1220, 1221, 1228, 1245, 1253, 1255, 1421, 1818, 1819

X XYZ Affair 635, 636, 646

Y Yablonski, Joseph 2169, 2181, 2191, 2207 Yakima Indians 923 Yakima War 933 Yale University 170, 668, 773, 775, 935, 948, 1137 Yalta Conference 1962, 1963 Yamacraw Indians 226 Yamasee Indians 188–191, 193, 194, 200, 201, 219, 220, 222, 225, 226 Yamasee War 193 Yazoo River, Mississippi 605, 626, 1050, 1052, 1059, 1062 Yeager, Chuck 1981–1982, 2026, 2030 Yeardley, George 28–29, 42 yellow fever 165, 222, 226, 322, 620, 843, 905, 1180m, 1318, 1321, 1527, 1533, 1569, 1571, 2011 Yellow Hand 1300, 1364 yellow journalism 1322, 1393, 1464, 1466, 1480, 1487 Yellowstone National Park 1253, 1265, 1389, 1598, 2290, 2291 Yellow Tavern, Virginia 1110, 1219 Yeltsin, Boris 2320, 2329, 2346, 2350, 2352, 2354 Yeo, James Lucas 697, 699, 700, 706 Yick Wo v. Hopkins 1388

Yom Kippur War 2192, 2196 York, Alvin 1742–1743, 1886 Yorktown, Battle of 502, 512– 514, 517, 601, 603 Yorktown, siege of 370 Yorktown, Virginia 433, 454, 516, 1010, 1013, 1016 Yorktown-­Warwick River 1013, 1015–1016 Yosemite National Park 1416, 1422 Yosemite Valley 897, 1436 Young, Bennett H. 1130, 1135 Young, Brigham 772, 823, 824, 852, 852–853, 864, 876, 877, 879, 894, 918, 929, 930, 1263, 1314 Young, John 481, 2131, 2141, 2163, 2182, 2242 Young, Owen 1843, 1846 Young, Samuel B. 1523, 1554 Young Men’s Christian Associa-­ tion (YMCA) 895, 989, 1286 Youngstown Steel and Tube v. Sawyer 2015 Yousef, Ramzi Ahmed 2363 Yuan ­Shih-­k’ai (Yuan Shikai) 1649, 1650, 1670

Z Zarqawi, Abu Musab ­al- 2413 Zawahiri, Ayman ­al- 2410 Zenger, John Peter 210, 211, 212, 213 Zhou Enlai. See Chou ­En-­lai (Zhou Enlai) Ziegfeld, Florenz 1583–1584, 1621 Zimmerman, Arthur 1699, 1703 Zimmerman tele­gram 1703 Zollicoffer, Felix 982, 988, 996 Zumwalt, Elmo R. 2186