This section of the timeline of United States history concerns events from 1860 to 1899.
1860s
Presidency of James Buchanan
April 3, 1860 – Pony Express begins from St. Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California. November 6 – 1860 United States presidential election: Abraham Lincoln elected president and Hannibal 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 the USS Star 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 the Confederate 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 – The Corwin Amendment to enshrine slavery forever is passed by Congress. It is not ratified.
Presidency of Abraham Lincoln March 4, 1861 – Lincoln becomes the 16th president and Hamlin becomes the 15th vice president 1861 – American Civil War begins at Fort 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 the Army 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 issues Emancipation Proclamation 1863 – Battle of Gettysburg 1863 – The Siege of Vicksburg ends 1863 – New York City draft riots 1863 – Pro-Union Virginia counties become separate state of West Virginia 1863 - Lincoln announces the 10% 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 – 1864 United States presidential election; Abraham Lincoln is reelected president and Andrew 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 at Appomattox Court House 1865 – Freedmen's Bureau
Presidency of Andrew Johnson
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 the Thirteenth 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 of Alaska purchased from the Russian Empire 1867 - The US Annexes the Midway Islands in the Pacific 1867 – Nebraska becomes a state 1867 - Congress passes a series of Reconstruction acts and the period of Radical Reconstruction begins 1868 – Impeachment of Andrew Johnson, acquitted by the Senate by one vote. 1868 – Fourteenth Amendment is ratified; second of Reconstruction Amendments. 1868 – The Copperheads are dissolved. 1868 – 1868 United States presidential election; Ulysses S. Grant is elected president and Schuyler Colfax is elected vice president. 1868 - Arkansas, Louisiana, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Alabama are admitted back into the union. 1868 - Boss Tweed gained control of Tammany Hall.
Presidency of Ulysses S. Grant March 4, 1869 – Grant becomes the 18th president and Colfax becomes the 17th vice president. 1869 – The First transcontinental railroad is completed at Promontory Summit, Utah Territory. 1869 – Texas v. White upholds Radical Reconstruction and states that once Texas joins the Union, its union was indissoluble. 1869 - A plan to annex the Caribbean nation of Santo Domingo is proposed, though it eventually failed in the Senate.
1870s
1870 – 15th Amendment 1870 – First graduate programs (at Yale and Harvard) 1870 – Black Codes 1870 - Virginia, Mississippi, Texas, and Georgia are readmitted to the union 1871 – Great Chicago Fire 1871 – Treaty of Washington with the British Empire regarding Canada 1871 - The New York Times published evidence of Tweed'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 – 1872 United States presidential election: 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 of the first schools of nursing opens at Bellevue Hospital in New York 1874 – Red River Indian War 1874 - National Woman's Christian Temperance Union formed in Cleveland 1875 – Aristides (horse) wins first Kentucky Derby 1875 – Resumption Act 1875 – Civil Rights Act of 1875 1875 – The Art Students League of New York is founded November 22, 1875 – Vice President Wilson dies in office 1875 - Whiskey Ring Scandal 1876 – National League of baseball founded 1876 – Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia 1876 – Munn v. Illinois establishes public regulation of utilities 1876 – Colorado becomes a state 1876 – Battle of Little Bighorn 1876 - Central Park opens in New York City 1876 – Wild Bill Hickok is killed by a shot to the back of his head by Jack McCall while playing poker in Deadwood, South Dakota. He held aces and eights, now known as the Dead man's hand. 1876 – 1876 United States presidential election seemingly elects Samuel J. Tilden president and Thomas A. Hendricks vice president, but results are disputed with 20 Electoral College votes allegedly in doubt. 1877 – The Electoral Commission awards Rutherford B. Hayes the presidency and William A. Wheeler the vice presidency in return for ending the military occupation of the South. 1877 – Great Railroad Strike of 1877
Presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes 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 viable light bulb 1879 – Knights of Labor go public
1880s
1880 – University of Southern California founded 1880 – U.S. population exceeds 50 million 1880 – 1880 United States presidential election: James A. Garfield elected president and Chester A. Arthur vice president. Their popular margin is less than 2,000 votes.
Presidency of James A. Garfield 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.
Presidency of Chester A. Arthur September 19, 1881 – President Garfield dies, Vice President Arthur becomes the 21st president 1881 – The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona Territory 1881 – Clara Barton creates the American Red Cross 1881 – Tuskegee Institute founded 1881 – Billy the Kid is shot and killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett near Fort Sumner 1881 – A Century of Dishonor written by Helen Hunt Jackson 1882 – Chinese Exclusion Act 1882 – Jesse James was shot and killed by Robert and Charlie 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, and Annie Oakley. 1883 – Civil Rights Cases 109 US 3 1883 legalizes doctrine of segregation 1883 – Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act 1883 – Brooklyn Bridge opens 1883 - Joseph Pulitzer buys the New York World 1884 – 1884 United States presidential election: Grover Cleveland elected president and Thomas A. Hendricks elected vice president 1884 – Washington Monument completed
First presidency of Grover Cleveland 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 in Columbus, Ohio 1886 – Statue of Liberty (Liberty Enlightening the World) dedicated 1887 – The United States Congress creates Interstate Commerce Commission 1887 – Dawes Act 1887 – Hatch Act 1888 – Publication of Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy 1888 – National Geographic Society founded 1888 – 1888 United States presidential election: Benjamin Harrison elected president and Levi P. Morton vice president despite coming in second in the popular vote.
Presidency of Benjamin Harrison 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 and Washington become states 1889 – Johnstown Flood in Pennsylvania 1889 – Jane Addams founds Hull 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.
1890s
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 and Wyoming become states 1890 – Wounded Knee Massacre 1890 – National American Woman Suffrage Association founded 1890 - Reporter Nelly Bly circles globe by train and steamship in 72 days 1891 – Baltimore crisis 1891 – James Naismith invents basketball 1891 - Hamlin Garland publishes Main-Travelled Roads 1892 – Homestead Strike 1892 – General Electric Company founded 1892 – Sierra Club founded by John Muir 1892 - Populist national convention held in Omaha 1892 – 1892 United States presidential election: Grover Cleveland elected president and Adlai E. Stevenson, vice president
Second presidency of Grover Cleveland 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, including income tax 1894 – Sunset Limited service opened on the second transcontinental route by Southern Pacific Railroad 1895 – Lee Shelton shoots Billy Lyons, spawning countless ballads. 1895 – Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. strikes down part of Wilson-Gorman Tariff 1895 - William Randolph Hearst purchases the New York Morning Journal 1896 – Plessy v. Ferguson 163 US 537 1896 affirms the idea of "separate but equal" 1896 – William Jennings Bryan delivers his Cross of Gold speech 1896 – Gold discovered in the Yukon's Klondike 1896 – Utah becomes a state