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Date |
Event(s) |
1 | 1817 | - 1817: The construction of the Erie Canal through New York State begins. T One of the longest of the great American canals built in the 19th Century. The Erie Canal extends from the Hudson River to Lake Erie, at Buffalo. The idea was to get goods back and forth from the Great Lakes to New York City (via the Hudson River, which connected with the Erie Canal). The Canal was built between 1817 and 1825 and had paid for itself within 10 years. The building of the Canal also helped settle Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and other states on the Great Lakes.
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2 | 1825 | - 18 1825: The 350 mile long Erie Canal, the most important passenger and freight route from the East to the Midwest, is completed.
Opened in 1825, the Erie Canal was the engineering marvel of the 19th Century. When the planning for what many derided as “Clinton's Folly” began, there was not a single school of engineering in the United States. With the exception of a few places where black powder was used to blast through rock formations, all 363 miles were built by the muscle power of men and horses.
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3 | 1828 | - 1828: Noah Webster completes his monumental American Dictionary of the English Language, after working on it for 20 years.
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4 | 1829 | - 1829: The railroad age begins as the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad carries its first passengers in a horse-drawn excursion train.
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5 | 1831 | - 1831: Steam locomotive DeWitt Clinton pulls ornate railroad coaches filled with passengers on a 12 mile journey between Albany and Schenectady, New York.
- 1831: Jackson County was formed in 1831. The county was created from parts of Kanawha, Mason and Wood Counties.
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6 | 1836 | - 1836: Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie and 200 Texans are killed when the Alamo, a fort in San Antonio, Texas, is captured by Mexican leader Santa Anna.
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7 | 1837 | - 1837: John Deere creates a steel-bladed plow that turns moist soil with ease, contributing to the expansion of farming in the midwest and western United States.
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8 | 1839 | |
9 | 1842 | |
10 | 1844 | - 1844: Samuel F.B. Morse sends the first telegraph message, from Washington, D.C. to Baltimore, Maryland.
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11 | 1849 | |
12 | 1850 | - 23 1850: At a time when women always wore skirts, women's rights advocate Amelia Bloomer wears a garment of full trousers, which became known as the bloomer costume.
We are forever grateful!
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13 | 1852 | - 1852: Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes Uncle Tom's Cabin, a novel about the cruelty of enslavement, increasing the desire of many northerners to abolish enslavement in the United States.
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14 | 1857 | - 1857: The first passenger elevator is installed in a New York City store.
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15 | 1858 | - 1858: Overland mail service by stagecoach begins, connecting the east and west coasts of the United States.
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16 | 1859 | - 1859: The drilling of an oil well in Titusville, Pennsylvania, changes the way most Americans light their homes, as kerosene made from the oil replaces whale oil and candles.
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17 | 1861 | |
18 | 1863 | |
19 | 1865 | |
20 | 1870 | |
21 | 1873 | |
22 | 1875 | - 2 Jun 1875: In the 1870s, two inventors Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell both independently designed devices that could transmit speech electrically (the telephone). Both men rushed their respective designs to the patent office within hours of each other, Alexander Graham Bell patented his telephone first. Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell entered into a famous legal battle over the invention of the telephone, which Bell won.
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23 | 1876 | - 1876: United States celebrates 100 years as a nation.
Almost 10 million people attend the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, which featured recent American inventions and products.
Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone.
Gen. George Custer and his soldiers are killed in a battle with the Sioux Indians at the Little Big Horn in Montana.
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24 | 1879 | - 1879: Thomas Edison invents the first practical incandescent electric light at Menlo Park, New Jersey.
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25 | 1883 | - 1883: United States Supreme Court rules the Civil Rights Act of 1875, which prohibited discrimination in public places, to be unconstitutional.
The United States and Canada substitute standardized time zones for local time to make it easier to coordinate railroad schedules.
Brooklyn Bridge, hailed as the eighth wonder of the world, opens.
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26 | 1886 | - 1886: Statue of Liberty, a gift to the United States from France, is unveiled in New York City harbor.
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27 | 1888 | - 1888: A box camera, the first Kodak, is introduced for use by amateur photographers.
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28 | 1890 | - 1890: A New York newspaper reporter completes a journey around the world in 72 days.
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29 | 1892 | - 1892: Ellis Island opens in New York City and the first of 12 million immigrants passes through its doors, seeking a better life in America.
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30 | 1893 | - 1893: The Ferris wheel is introduced at the World's Fair in Chicago, Illinois.
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31 | 1895 | - 1895: In the first practical demonstration of of large-scale power generation, Westinghouse Electric Co. harnesses the power of Niagara Falls to supply low-cost energy for hundreds of miles.
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32 | 1896 | - 1896: Henry Ford drives his first automobile through the streets of Detroit, Michigan.
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33 | 1901 | - 1901: L. Frank Baum writes The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
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34 | 1902 | - 1902: Congress makes free mail delivery to rural residents a permanent part of the United States postal system.
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35 | 1903 | |
36 | 1904 | - 1904: Ice cream cones are introduced at the St. Louis World's Fair.
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37 | 1905 | - 1905: The first nickelodeon, a theater where people could see a short "moving picture" for a nickel, opened in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
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38 | 1908 | |
39 | 1909 | - 1909: Coffee, a favorite American beverage since the Civil War, is now marketed in an "instant" form.
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40 | 1910 | - 1910: World population surpasses 1.5 billion people, 850 million of whom live in Asia.
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41 | 1912 | - 14 Apr 1912: April 14-15: The Titanic, strikes an iceberg in the North Atlantic on its maiden voyage and sinks within hours; 1,517 of 2,100 passengers drown
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42 | 1914 | - 28 Jul 1914: World War I begins with Austria Hungary's declaration of war against Serbia
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43 | 1915 | - 21 Oct 1915: First transatlantic radio-telephone call is made between Arlington, Virginia and Paris, France
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44 | 1917 | - 6 Apr 1917: President Woodrow Wilson signs a declaration of war against Germany, bringing the U.S. into World War I
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45 | 1918 | - 11 Nov 1918: The eleventh month, the eleventh day and the eleventh hour of 1918, World War I ends with a declared armistice.
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46 | 1919 | - 1919: Shortwave radio is invented
- 4 Jan 1919: Jack Dempsey defeats Jess Willard in three rounds for the World Heavyweight Boxing championship
- 29 Jan 1919: The 18th Amendment to the Constitution is ratified prohibiting the manufacture, sale and transport of intoxicating liquors.
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47 | 1922 | - 26 Nov 1922: Excavation begins on the tomb of ancient Egyptian King Tutankhamen near Luxor, Egypt
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48 | 1924 | - 30 Nov 1924: Photographs sent in twenty minutes by radio from London to New York City
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