← 1857 1856 1855 1858 in the United States → 1859 1860 1861
Decades:	1830s 1840s 1850s 1860s 1870s
See also:	History of the United States (1849–1865) Timeline of the history of the United States (1820-1859) List of years in the United States

Events from the year1858 in the United States.

• President:James Buchanan (D-Pennsylvania)
• Vice President:John C. Breckinridge (D-Kentucky)
• Chief Justice:Roger B. Taney (Maryland)
• Speaker of the House of Representatives:James Lawrence Orr (D-South Carolina)
• Congress:35th

• February 6 – A fight, the1858 Congressional brawl, breaks out on the floor of the U.S. House between Representatives of the Northern and Southern states.^[1]

• March 4 – A speech by fire-eaterJames Henry Hammond ofSouth Carolina in theUnited States Senate promotes the idea of "King Cotton" and the "mudsill theory" in support of slave labor.
• April 19 – The United States and theYankton Sioux Tribe sign a treaty.^[2]
• May 11 –Minnesota is admitted as the 32ndU.S. state (seeHistory of Minnesota).
• May 19 – TheMarais des Cygnes massacre is perpetrated by pro-slavery forces inBleeding Kansas.
• June 16 –Abraham Lincoln makeshis "House Divided" Speech at theState Capitol inSpringfield, Illinois, on accepting theRepublican Party nomination for a seat in theU.S. Senate.
• July –Forty-Niners stream into theRocky Mountains of the western United States during thePike's Peak Gold Rush.
• July 8 – ThePaulist Fathers, aRoman Catholicsociety of apostolic life for men, is founded inNew York City byIsaac Hecker.
• July 29 –Treaty of Amity and Commerce (United States–Japan) ("Harris Treaty") signed on the deck ofUSS Powhatan in Edo (modern-day Tokyo) Bay.
• August 16 – U.S. PresidentJames Buchanan inaugurates the newtrans-Atlantictelegraph cable by exchanging greetings withQueen Victoria. However, a weak signal forces a shutdown of the service on September 1.
• August 21 – The first of the sevenLincoln–Douglas debates is held.
• September 1–2 – 'Staten Island Quarantine War'.
• September 14 –Fordyce Beals patents his six shooter revolver which will be produced byE. Remington & Sons ofIlion, New York as theRemington Model 1858.
• November 17 –Denver is founded.
• December 8 –Rensselaer, Indiana is incorporated.

• Bleeding Kansas (1854–1860)
• Third Seminole War (1855–1858)
• Utah War (1857–1858)

• January 6 –Albert Henry Munsell, painter, teacher of art and inventor of theMunsell color system (died1918)
• January 9 –Elizabeth Gertrude Britton, botanist (died1934)
• January 11 –Harry Gordon Selfridge, department store magnate (died1947)
• February 6 –Jonathan P. Dolliver, U.S. Senator from Iowa from 1900 to 1910 (died1910)
• February 15 –John Joseph Montgomery, glider pioneer (died1911)
• February 19 –Charles Alexander Eastman, Native American author, physician, reformer and co-founder of Boy Scouts of America (died1939)
• February 28 –Richard P. Ernst, U.S. Senator from Kentucky from 1921 to 1927 (died1934)
• March 9 –Gustav Stickley, furniture designer and architect (died1942)
• March 12 –Adolph Ochs, newspaper publisher (died1935)
• March 24 –Elia Goode Byington, newspaper proprietor, editor, and manager (died1936)
• March 30 –DeWolf Hopper, musical theater performer (died 1935)
• April 23 –Leonor F. Loree, railroad executive (died1940)
• April 29 –Georgia Hopley, journalist, political figure and temperance advocate (died1944)
• June 17 – Mary F. Hoyt, first woman appointed to theU.S. federal civil service, in 1883 (died1958)
• June 20 –Charles Waddell Chesnutt, African American author, essayist and political activist (died1932)
• June 28 –Otis Skinner, actor (died1943)
• July 1 –Velma Caldwell Melville, editor and writer (died1924)
• August 18 –Thomas S. Rodgers, admiral (died1931)
• September 1 –Andrew Jackson Zilker, philanthropist (died1934)
• September 12 –J. H. Smith, politician and pioneer (died1956)
• September 30 –Estelle M. H. Merrill, journalist (died1908)
• October 2 –Emma Amelia Cranmer, prohibition reformer and suffragist (died1937)
• October 7 –Joseph E. Ransdell, U.S. Senator from Louisiana from 1913 to 1931 (died1954)
• October 12 –John L. Sullivan, heavyweight boxer (died 1918)
• October 15 –William Sims, admiral (died1936)
• October 27 –Theodore Roosevelt, 26thpresident of the United States from 1901 to 1909, 25thvice president of the United States from March to September 1901 (died1919)
• October 30 –Wilson Eyre, architect (died1944)
• November 8 –Lawrence Yates Sherman, U.S. Senator from Illinois from 1913 to 1921 (died 1939)
• November 21 –Charles A. Towne, U.S. Senator from Minnesota from 1900 to 1901 (died1928)
• November 26 –Katharine Drexel,Roman Catholic foundress, first American canonized as asaint, in 2000 (died1955)
• December 15 –Elizabeth Eggleston Seelye, biographer (died1923)
• December 24 –Harriet Pritchard Arnold, author (died1901)
• December 25 –Herman P. Faris, temperance movement leader (died 1936)
• December 31 –Harry Stewart New, U.S. Senator from Indiana from 1917 to 1923 (died1937)
• Unknown –Sarah Jim Mayo, Washoe basket weaver (died1918)

• January 10 –Hezekiah Augur, sculptor and inventor (born1791)
• March 4 – CommodoreMatthew Calbraith Perry, naval officer (born1794)
• April 10 –Thomas Hart Benton, U.S. Senator from Missouri from 1821 to 1851 (born1782)
• August 23 –Calvin Willey, U.S. Senator from Connecticut from 1825 to 1831 (born1776)
• September 17 –Dred Scott, slave (born c.1795)
• September 21 –Arthur P. Bagby, U.S. Senator from Alabama from 1837 to 1841 (born 1794)
• November 16 –Robert Hanna, U.S. Senator from Indiana from 1831 to 1832 (born1786)
• December 14 –Michael Woolston Ash,U.S. Representative fromPennsylvania from 1835 to 1837 (born1789)
• December 18 –Thomas Holley Chivers, poet and physician (born1809)

• Timeline of United States history (1820–1859)

• Media related to1858 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons

• 1858 in the United States
• 1850s in the United States
• 1858 by country
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• Years of the 19th century in the United States

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