This section of thetimeline of United States history concerns events from1860 to 1899.

• April 3, 1860 –Pony Express begins fromSt. Joseph, Missouri toSacramento, California.
• November 6 –1860 United States presidential election:Abraham Lincoln elected president andHannibal Hamlin vice president with only 39% of the vote in a four-man race.
• December 18 –Crittenden Compromise fails.
• December 20 –President Buchanan fires his cabinet.
• December 20 –South Carolina secedes from the Union
• January 9, 1861 – Secessionist forces in South Carolina fire at theUSSStar of the West, forcing it to withdraw.
• January 9 – Mississippi secedes from the Union
• January 10 – Florida secedes from the Union
• January 11 – Alabama secedes from the Union
• January 19 – Georgia secedes from the Union
• January 26 – Louisiana secedes from the Union
• February 1 – Texas secedes from the Union
• February 4 – Secessionist states establish theConfederate States of America
• February 9 –Jefferson Davis elected provisional president of the Confederacy.Alexander H. Stephens elected provisional vice president of the Confederacy.
• February 11 – Stephens becomes provisional vice president of the Confederate States.
• February 18 – Davis becomes provisional president of the Confederate States.
• March 2 – TheCorwin Amendment to enshrine slavery forever is passed by Congress. It is not ratified.

• March 4, 1861 – Lincoln becomes the 16th president and Hamlin becomes the 15th vice president
• 1861 –American Civil War begins atFort Sumter
• 1861 –First Battle of Bull Run (First Battle of Manassas)
• 1861 – Davis unanimously elected to full term as Confederate president, Stephen unanimously elected to full term as Confederate vice president.
• February 22, 1862 – Davis becomes Confederate president, Stephens become Confederate vice president.
• 1862 –Battle of Hampton Roads (Battle of the Monitor and Merrimack; first ever naval battle between iron-sided ships)
• 1862 –Homestead Act
• 1862 –Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act
• 1862 – Gen.Robert E. Lee placed in command of theArmy of Northern Virginia
• 1862 –Second Battle of Bull Run (Second Battle of Manassas)
• 1862 –Battle of Antietam (Battle of Sharpsburg)
• 1862 –Dakota War of 1862 begins
• 1862–1863 – Lincoln issuesEmancipation Proclamation
• 1863 –Battle of Gettysburg
• 1863 – TheSiege of Vicksburg ends
• 1863 –New York City draft riots
• 1863 – Pro-Union Virginia counties become separate state ofWest Virginia
• 1863 - Lincoln announces the10% Plan
• 1864 – Gen.Ulysses S. Grant put in command of all Union forces
• 1864 –Wade–Davis Bill
• 1864 –Sand Creek massacre
• 1864 –Nevada becomes a state
• 1864 –U.S. presidential election, 1864;Abraham Lincoln is reelected president andAndrew Johnson elected vice president on the "fusion" Union Party ticket.
• 1864 –Sherman's March to the Sea
• 1865 –Robert E. Lee made commander-in-chief of all Confederate forces
• March 4, 1865 – President Lincoln begins second term; Johnson becomes the 16th vice president
• 1865 –Richmond, Virginia, the Confederate capital, captured by a corps of black Union troops
• 1865 – Lee surrenders to Grant atAppomattox Court House
• 1865 –Freedmen's Bureau
• 1865 - the 13th Amendment was adopted, setting slaves free forever.

• April 15, 1865 – President Lincoln assassinated; Vice President Johnson becomes the 17th president
• April–June 1865 –American Civil War ends as the last elements of the Confederacy surrender
• 1865 –Ku Klux Klan founded
• 1865 –Slavery abolished by theThirteenth Amendment.
• 1866 –Civil Rights Act of 1866
• 1866 -Tennessee becomes the first Confederate state readmitted to the union
• 1867 –Tenure of Office Act enacted
• 1867 – Territory ofAlaska purchased from the Russian Empire
• 1867 - The US Annexes theMidway Islands in the Pacific
• 1867 –Nebraska becomes a state
• 1867 - Congress passes a series ofReconstruction acts and the period ofRadical Reconstruction begins
• 1868 –Impeachment of Andrew Johnson, acquitted by theSenate by one vote.
• 1868 –Fourteenth Amendment is ratified; second ofReconstruction Amendments.
• 1868 – TheCopperheads are dissolved.
• 1868 –Ulysses S. Grant is elected president andSchuyler Colfax is elected vice president.
• 1868 -Arkansas,Louisiana,Florida,North Carolina,South Carolina, andAlabama are admitted back into the union.
• 1868 -Boss Tweed gained control ofTammany Hall.

• March 4, 1869 – Grant becomes the 18th president and Colfax becomes the 17th vice president.
• 1869 – TheFirst transcontinental railroad is completed atPromontory Summit, Utah Territory.
• 1869 –Texas v. White upholds Radical Reconstruction and states that onceTexas joins the Union, its union was indissoluble.

• 1870 –15th Amendment
• 1870 – First graduate programs (atYale andHarvard)
• 1870 –Black Codes
• 1870 -Virginia,Mississippi,Texas, andGeorgia are readmitted to the union
• 1871 –Great Chicago Fire
• 1871 –Treaty of Washington with theBritish Empire regardingCanada
• 1871 -The New York Times published evidence ofTweed's rampant greed.
• 1871 -Civil Service Reform Act passes
• 1871 -Ku Klux Klan Act
• 1872 –Yellowstone National Park created
• 1872 –Crédit Mobilier scandal
• 1872 –Amnesty Act
• 1872 –Alabama Claims
• 1872 –U.S. presidential election, 1872:Ulysses S. Grant reelected president;Henry Wilson elected vice president
• 1872 -Victoria Claflin Woodhull, first woman presidential candidate, enters presidential race.
• 1873 –Panic of 1873
• March 4, 1873 – President Grant begins second term; Wilson becomes the 18th vice president
• 1873 –Virginius Affair
• 1873 - One ofthe first schools of nursing opens atBellevue Hospital inNew York
• 1874 –Red River Indian War
• 1874 -National Woman's Christian Temperance Union formed in Cleveland
• 1875 –Aristides (horse) wins firstKentucky Derby
• 1875 –Resumption Act
• 1875 –Civil Rights Act of 1875
• 1875 – TheArt Students League of New York is founded
• November 22, 1875 – Vice President Wilson dies
• 1875 -Whiskey Ring Scandal
• 1876 –National League ofbaseball founded
• 1876 –Centennial Exposition inPhiladelphia
• 1876 –Munn v. Illinois establishes public regulation of utilities
• 1876 –Colorado becomes a state
• 1876 –Battle of Little Bighorn
• 1876 -Central Park opens inNew York City
• 1876 –Wild Bill Hickok is killed by a shot to the back of his head byJack McCall while playing poker inDeadwood, South Dakota. He heldaces and eights, now known as theDead man's hand.
• 1876 –U.S. presidential election, 1876 seemingly electsSamuel J. Tilden president andThomas A. Hendricks vice president, but results are disputed with 20Electoral College votes allegedly in doubt.
• 1877 – TheElectoral Commission awardsRutherford B. Hayes the presidency andWilliam A. Wheeler the vice presidency in return for ending the military occupation of the South.
• 1877 –Great Railroad Strike of 1877

• March 4, 1877 – After only two days as president-elect and vice president-elect, Hayes becomes the 19th president and Wheeler becomes the 19th vice president
• 1877 –Reconstruction ends
• 1877 –Nez Perce War
• 1878 –Bland–Allison Act
• 1878 –Morgan silver dollars first minted
• 1879 –Thomas Edison creates first commercially viablelight bulb
• 1879 –Knights of Labor go public

• 1880 –University of Southern California founded
• 1880 –U.S. population exceeds 50 million
• 1880 –U.S. presidential election, 1880:James A. Garfield elected president andChester A. Arthur vice president. Their popular margin is less than 2,000 votes.

• March 4, 1881 – Garfield becomes the 20th president; Arthur becomes the 20th vice president.
• July 2, 1881 – President Garfield is shot by a deranged gunman on a train platform.

• September 19, 1881 – President Garfield dies, Vice President Arthur becomes the 21st president
• 1881 – TheGunfight at the O.K. Corral inTombstone,Arizona Territory
• 1881 –Clara Barton creates theAmerican Red Cross
• 1881 –Tuskegee Institute founded
• 1881 –Billy the Kid is shot and killed by SheriffPat Garrett nearFort Sumner
• 1881 –A Century of Dishonor written byHelen Hunt Jackson
• 1882 –Chinese Exclusion Act
• 1882 –Jesse James was shot and killed byRobert andCharlie Ford
• 1883 -The Southern section of the second transcontinental railroad line is completed.
• 1883 – Buffalo Bill's Wild West show founded. participants include:Sitting Bull,Geronimo,Calamity Jane, andAnnie Oakley.
• 1883 –Civil Rights Cases 109 US 3 1883 legalizes doctrine ofsegregation
• 1883 –Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act
• 1883 –Brooklyn Bridge opens
• 1883 -Joseph Pulitzer buys theNew York World
• 1884 –U.S. presidential election, 1884:Grover Cleveland elected president andThomas A. Hendricks elected vice president
• 1884 –Washington Monument completed

• March 4, 1885 – Cleveland becomes the 22nd president; Hendricks becomes the 21st vice president
• November 25, 1885 – Vice President Hendricks dies
• 1886 –Haymarket Square Riot
• 1886 –American Federation of Labor founded inColumbus, Ohio
• 1886 –Statue of Liberty (Liberty Enlightening the World) dedicated
• 1887 – TheUnited States Congress createsInterstate Commerce Commission
• 1887 –Dawes Act
• 1887 –Hatch Act
• 1888 – Publication ofLooking Backward byEdward Bellamy
• 1888 –National Geographic Society founded
• 1888 –U.S. presidential election, 1888:Benjamin Harrison elected president andLevi P. Morton vice president despite coming in second in the popular vote.

• March 4, 1889 – Harrison becomes the 23rd president and Morton becomes the 22nd vice president
• 1889 –Oklahoma Land Rush (April 22, 1889)
• 1889 – Centennial of the Constitution celebrated.
• 1889 –North Dakota,South Dakota,Montana andWashington become states
• 1889 –Johnstown Flood in Pennsylvania
• 1889 –Jane Addams foundsHull House
• December 6, 1889 – Former Confederate president Jefferson Davis dies.
• 1889 - During a speech given by Benjamin Harrison, he becomes the first U.S. president in history to have a voice recording.

• 1890 –Sherman Antitrust Act
• 1890 –Jacob Riis published "How the Other Half Lives"
• 1890 –Sherman Silver Purchase Act
• 1890 –McKinley Tariff
• 1890 –Yosemite National Park created
• 1890 –Idaho andWyoming become states
• 1890 –Wounded Knee Massacre
• 1890 –National American Woman Suffrage Association founded
• 1890 - ReporterNelly Bly circles globe by train and steamship in 72 days
• 1891 –Baltimore crisis
• 1891 –James Naismith inventsbasketball
• 1891 -Hamlin Garland publishesMain-Travelled Roads
• 1892 –Homestead Strike
• 1892 –General Electric Company founded
• 1892 –Sierra Club founded byJohn Muir
• 1892 -Populist national convention held inOmaha
• 1892 –U.S. presidential election, 1892:Grover Cleveland elected president andAdlai E. Stevenson, vice president

• March 4, 1893 – Cleveland becomes the 24th president; Stevenson becomes the 23rd vice president
• 1893 –Panic of 1893
• 1893 –Sherman Silver Purchase Act repealed
• 1893 -Columbian Exposition opens in Chicago
• 1894 –Coxey's Army
• 1894 –Pullman Strike
• 1894 –Wilson–Gorman Tariff Act, includingincome tax
• 1894 –Sunset Limited service opened on the second transcontinental route bySouthern Pacific Railroad
• 1895 –Lee Shelton shootsBilly Lyons, spawning countless ballads.
• 1895 –Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. strikes down part of Wilson-Gorman Tariff
• 1895 -William Randolph Hearst purchases theNew York Morning Journal
• 1896 –Plessy v. Ferguson 163 US 537 1896 affirms the idea of "separate but equal"
• 1896 –William Jennings Bryan delivers hisCross of Gold speech
• 1896 –Gold discovered in theYukon'sKlondike
• 1896 –Utah becomes a state
• 1896 -Henry Ford builds his first automobile
• 1896 –U.S. presidential election, 1896:William McKinley elected president andGarret A. Hobart vice president

• March 4, 1897 – McKinley becomes the 25th president; and Hobart becomes the 24th vice president

• 1897 –Boston subway completed
• 1897 –Dingley tariff
• 1898 – TheCity of Greater New York is created through the annexation ofBrooklyn, WesternQueens County, andStaten Island intoNew York City
• 1898 –USSMaine explodes inHavana,Cuba harbor, precipitating theSpanish–American War
• 1898 –De Lôme Letter
• 1898 –Treaty of Paris (1898) endsSpanish–American War;Philippine–American War begins
• 1898 –Hawaii annexed
• 1898 –Newlands Resolution
• 1898 –American Anti-Imperialist League organized
• 1899 –Teller Amendment
• 1899 –Newsboys' strike of 1899
• 1899 –American Samoa occupied
• 1899 –Open Door Notes
• November 21, 1899 – Vice PresidentGarret Hobart dies

• Timeline of the American Old West
• History of the United States (1849–1865)
• History of the United States (1865–1918)

Wikimedia Commons has media related toUnited States in the 19th century.

• Library of Congress. Time Line of African American History, 1852–1880
• H-SHGAPE discussion forum for people studying the Gilded Age and Progressive Era

• Timelines of United States history by period
• 1860s in the United States
• 1870s in the United States
• 1880s in the United States
• 1890s in the United States

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