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First transatlantic cable
The cable had been successfully laid, stretching nearly 2,000 miles across the Atlantic at a depth often of more than two miles. -
Standard Oil organization by Rocketfeller
Established Standard Oil, which by the early 1880s controlled some 90 percent of U.S. refineries and pipelines. -
Lincoln assassination
John Wilkes Booth, a famous actor shot President Abraham Lincoln at a play at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. -
Purchase of Alaska
The U.S. purchased Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million. -
Impeachment of Andrew Johnson
Johnson decided to rid himself of Stanton once and for all and appointed General Lorenzo Thomas, an individual far less favorable to the Congress than Grant, as secretary of war, and the House of Representatives initiated formal impeachment proceedings against the president. -
Fourteenth Amendment ratified
The amendment had been rejected by most Southern states but was ratified by the required three-fourths of the states. -
Completion of the transcontinental railroad
First time in American history, railways linked together east and west, the realization of a dream that began two decades earlier. -
Fifteenth Amendment ratified
Republicans wanted the 15th Amendment passed to obtain the vote of the freed slaves. -
Bell patents the telephone
Alexander Graham Bell receives a patent for his revolutionary new invention–the telephone. -
Battle of Little Bighorn
Tensions between federal troops and a band of Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne warriors had been rising since the discovery of gold on Native American lands. -
Edison invented electric light
Edison made the electric light by choosing a filament that would be durable but inexpensive. -
Garfield assassination
Charles J. Guiteau Shot President James A. Garfield at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station. -
Chinese Exclusion Act
One of the most significant restrictions on free immigration in US history, prohibiting all immigration of Chinese laborers. -
Pendleton Act enacted
The Pendleton Act provided that Federal Government jobs be awarded on the basis of merit and that Government employees be selected through competitive exams. -
Opening of the Brooklyn Bridge
After 14 years and 27 deaths while being constructed, the Brooklyn Bridge over the East River is opened, connecting the great cities of New York and Brooklyn. -
Statue of Liberty given to the U.S.
A gift of friendship from the people of France to the people of the United States. -
Jane Addams opened Hull House
Chicago's first and the nation's most influential settlement house, was established by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr on the Near West Side. -
Sherman Anti-trust Act passed
The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 was the first measure passed by the U.S. Congress to prohibit trusts. -
Battle of Wounded Knee
The Wounded Knee massacre left some 150 Native Americans dead, in what was the final clash between federal troops and the Sioux. -
Ellis Island opened
Ellis island opened as a federal immigration station, a purpose it served for more than 60 years. -
Plessy v Ferguson
The Plessy decision set precedent that sererat facilities for blacks and whites were constittutional as long as they were equal. -
U.S. claims Hawaiian islands
After a police officer was shot and wounded trying to halt the distribution of weapons to the Committee of Safety’s militia, the committee decided to put its coup into action. -
First American Automobile
Charles Duryea and his brother Frank, built the Duryea Motor Wagon, a one-cylinder "Ladies Phaeton" considered the first successful gas-engine vehicle built in the U.S. -
Spanish American War
The growing popular demand for U.S. intervention became an insistent chorus after the unexplained sinking in Havana harbour of the battleship USS Maine, which had been sent to protect U.S. citizens and property after anti-Spanish rioting in Havana. -
McKinley assassination
28-year-old anarchist named Leon Czolgosz fires two shots into President William McKinleys chest while McKinley was at the Pan-American Exhibition in Buffalo, New York. -
First radio signals sent
Marconi set up a specially designed wireless receiver in Newfoundland, Canada, using a coherer to conduct radio waves, and balloons to lift the antenna as high as possible to send the first radio signals across the Atlantic ocean. -
Treaty signed by U.S. and Panama
Bunau-Varilla negotiated the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty of 1903, which provided the United States with a 10-mile wide strip of land for the canal, a one-time $10 million payment to Panama, and an annual annuity of $250,000. -
First Powered flight by the Wright brothers
Orville Wright piloted the first powered airplane 20 feet above a wind-swept beach in North Carolina.
