19th Century Timeline

Created By: Elizabeth Lewis

1848 1850 1857

Karl Marx published The Communist Manifesto, which outlined a theory of class struggle.

The Bessemer Process developed independently by Henry Bessemer and William Kelly, it soon became widely used.

Fredrick Law Olmsted helped draw up a plan for “greensward”, which was selected to become Central Park in New York City.

1859 1864

Social Darwinism was philosophy, grew out of the English naturalist Charles Darwin’s theory of biological evolution. Wrote the book On the Origin of Species and was published in 1859.

The Sand Creek Massacre was one of the most tragic events. At dawn on November 29, 1864, over 150 inhabitants, mostly women and children were killed.

Crédit Mobilier was a construction company formed in 1864 by owners of the Union Pacific Railroad.

1867 1869

Oliver Kelly started the Patrons of Husbandry, which is an organization for farmers and became known as the Grange in 1867.

Grange is a social and educational organization through which farmers attempted to combat the power of the railroads in the late 19th century.

The Transcontinental Railroad was a railroad line linking the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the United States and was completed in 1869.

1869 1870

George Westinghouse invented the railroad braking system using compressed air when he was 22 years old.

John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company of Ohio processed two or three percent of the country’s crude oil.

Jacob Riis left the United States and found work as a police reporter, this job took him into the slums of New York City.

1873 1874 1876

The Gilded Age is a period of gross materialism and blatant political corruption during the 1870’s.

George Armstrong Custer reported that the Black Hills had gold “from the grass roots down”, and a gold rush was on in 1874.

Alexander Graham Bell unveiled the telephone in 1876 with Thomas Watson.

The battle of Little Big Horn was in a Montana near the Little Big Horn River between U.S Calvary under Custer and several groups of Native Americans.

1877 1879 1880

Southern Alliance claimed more than 3 million members, many of them involved in cotton. Only whites were excepted into this group.

Dumbbell tenements were built on a 25-foot-wide lot, and were pinched in the middle, creating a dumbbell shape. The first major tenement house law was passed.

Ragtime was a blend of African-American spirituals and European musical forms, originated in the 1880’s in the saloons of the South.

1880 1881

George Pullman built a factory for manufacturing sleepers and other railroad cars on the Illinois prairie.

Thomas Alva Edison perfected the incandescent light bulb, patented in 1880. He later invented an entire system for producing and distributing electrical power.

Sitting Bull led his people by the strength of his character and purpose, and was determined that whites should leave Sioux territory. He died in December of 1890.

1881 1883

Cornelius Vanderbilt built a 59-room mansion in 1881at 640 Fifth Avenue, the largest and most splendid house in Manhattan.

Booker T. Washington headed the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, now Tuskegee University in Alabama

Joseph Pulitzer was an immigrant who bought the New York World in 1883, he pioneered popular innovations, like a large Sunday edition, comics, and sports coverage.

1884 1886 1887

Mugwumps was a slang term in U.S political history for the Republicans who deserted their party nominee James G. Blaine.

Samuel Gompers led the Cigar Makers’ International Union to join with other craft unions.

Dawes Act was a law enacted in 1887, that was intended to “Americanize” Native Americans by disturbing reservation land to individual owners.

1887 1888 1889

Interstate Commerce Act was a law enacted in 1887, that established the federal government’s right to supervise railroad activities and created a five-member Interstate Commerce Commission to do so

George Eastman introduced his first Kodak camera in 1888, with a cost of $25 included a 100-picture roll of film

Jane Addams and Starr founded The Hull House in 1889.

1890 July 2, 1892 July 4, 1892

Sherman Antitrust Act was a law enacted in 1890, that was intended to prevent the creation of monopolies by making it illegal to establish trusts that interfered with free trade.

Populist is the movement of the people, Populist Party Convention was on July 2, 1892 in Omaha, Nebrasa.

Omaha Platform articulated the principles of the Populist movement, this was adopted by the Populist Party, at its founding convention in Omaha, Nebraska on July 4, 1892.

1894 1895

Eugene V. Debs attempted to form such an industrial union, The American Railway Union. In 1894, the new union won a strike for higher wages.

Pullman’s refusal to lower rents after cutting his employee’s pay led to a violent strike in 1894.

William Randolph Hearst was a wealthy man who had purchased the New York Morning Journal in 1895.

1896 December 17, 1903 1905

In the Plessy V. Ferguson case, the supreme court ruled that the separation of races in public accommodations was legal and did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment.

Orville and Wilbur Wright built a glider, their first successful flight was on December 17, 1903 at Kitty Hawk, NC, and covered 120 feet and lasted 12 seconds

W.E.B Dubois founded the Niagara Movement, this insisted blacks should seek a liberal arts education, so that African-American communities would have well-educated leaders

References:

www.loc.gov