This document provides a timeline of key events from the 19th century including technological developments, laws and policies, conflicts, and influential individuals. Some highlights include the Bessemer Process enabling cheap steel production in 1850, the Homestead Act of 1862 encouraging western expansion, the Sand Creek Massacre of Native Americans in 1864, the founding of the Buffalo Soldiers military regiment in 1866, and completion of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869.
1. 19th Century Timeline
1850 1862 1864
Bessemer Homestead Act- a U.S. law that Sand Creek Massacre- Most of
Process- A cheap provided 160 acres in the west to the Cheyenne had peacefully
and effective any citizen or intended citizen who returned to Colorado’s San
process for making was head of household and would Creek reserve for winter but
steel. cultivate the land for five years; a General S.R. Curtis sent a
law whose passage led to record telegram to militia colonel John
numbers of U.S. settlers claiming Chivington that read “I want no
private property which previously peace till the Indians suffer
had been reserved by treaty and more.” So Chivington and his
by tradition for Native American troops descended on the
nomadic dwelling and use; the Cheyenne and Arapho camped
same law strengthened in 1889 to at Sand Creek; the attack at
encourage individuals to exercise dawn on November 29 killed
their private property rights and over 150 inhabitants, mostly
develop homesteads out of the women and children.
vast government.
2. 1866 1867 1869 1870
Buffalo Soldiers- Oliver Kelley- On National Farmer’s John D.
Transcontinenta
they were the November 15, he Alliance- It was started l Railroad- a Rockefeller- He
original members of laid the groundwork by the Grange and was railroad line founded the
the U.S. 10th Cavalry to build a new an agrarian economic linking the Standard Oil
Regiment of the foundation for movement; farmers Company and
Atlantic and
U.S. Army formed American agriculture joined together to Pacific coasts of aggressively ran it
on September 21 at through the decrease debt, poverty, the U.S. until he officially
Fort Leavenworth organization of the and low crop prices retired.
Kansas. Grange, of which he through education,
was the first economic cooperation
secretary. and organizing, and
asserting their power in
electoral politics.
3. Telephone- most Battle of Little Big
dramatic invention Horn- an armed
unveiled by engagement
Alexander Graham between combined
Belland and Thomas forces of Lakota,
Watson; it opened Northern Cheyenne
the way for a and Arapho tribes
worldwide against the 7th
communications Cavalry Regiment of
network the U.S. Army.
1872 1876 1877 1878
Credit Mobilier- the Nez Perce- Native Gilded Age- the
Jim Crow Laws-
exposed deception American people period following the
state and local laws
by the Union Pacific living in the Pacific civil war. The term
in the U.S. that
of over charging Northwest region of was coined by
mandated racial
construction costs to the United States writers Mark Twain
segregation in all
taxpayers and who got in a war and Charles Dudley
public facilities in
manipulating the with the U.S. Warner in “The
southern states of
share prices of Government. Gilded Age: A Tale
the former
Crédit Mobilier of of Today” satirizing
Confederacy.
America. an era of social
problems hidden by
a thin layer of gold.
4. Interstate Commerce
Commission- a
regulatory body in the
U.S. created by the
interstate commerce
Haymarket Affair- Samuel Gompers- act. The original
the aftermath of a he founded the purpose was to regulate
bombing that took American Federation railroads to ensure fair
place at a labor of Labor and served rates, to eliminate rate
demonstration on as that discrimination, and to
Tuesday May 4th at organization’s regulate other aspects
Haymarket Square president until his of common carriers.
in Chicago. death.
1884 1886 1887
Eugene V. Debs- he Colored Farmer’s Dawes Act- broke William Randolph
was a member of up reservations Hearst- he was an
Alliance- a group of
the Democratic and gave some of American
black farmers who
Party and was the reservation newspaper publisher
formed their own
elected as a land to individual who built the
alliance to fill their
Democrat to the Native Americans- nation’s largest
needs.
Indiana General 160 acres to each newspaper chain
Assembly. head of household and whose methods
and 80 acres to profoundly
each unmarried influenced American
adult. journalism.
5. Ghost Dance- a Sherman Antitrust
religious movement Act- First measure
which was passed by the U.S.
incorporated into Congress to prohibit
numerous Native trusts.
American belief
systems.
Sherman Antitrust
Booker T. Washington- Act- this act made it
he was the dominant illegal to form a trust
leader in the African that interfered with
American community in free trade between
the United States. states or with other
countries
1888 1890 1891
George Eastman- Populist- a member
Wounded Knee- On
he was an American December 28, the Seventh of a United States
innovator and Cavalry rounded up about 350 political party formed
entrepreneur who starving and freezing Sioux primarily to
founded the represent agrarian
and took them to a camp at
Eastman Kodak Wounded Knee Creek in interests and to
Company and South Dakota. The soldiers advocate the free
invented roll film coinage of silver and
made them give up their
which was the basis weapons. A shot was fired and government control
for motion picture within minutes, the Seventh of monopolies
film. Cavalry slaughtered 300
unarmed Native Americans
including several children; the
soldiers left the bodies to
freeze on the ground.
6. 1892 1894 1896 1897
Omaha Platform- Plessy vs. “Cross of Gold Ragtime- an
Pullman Strike- a
The party program Ferguson- a case in Speech”- original
nationwide conflict
adopted at the which the supreme delivered by musical genre
between the new
formative court ruled that William Jennings that had a
American Railway
convention of the separation of the Bryan at the syncopated or
Union and railroads
Populist Party races in public National “ragged”
that occurred in the
held in Omaha, accommodations Convention in rhythm.
United States.
Nebraska on July was legal, thus Chicago on July
4th. establishing the 9th. In the speech
“separate but equal” he supported
doctrine. bimetallism.
7. 1903 1909 1917
Orville and Wilbur W.E.B. Dubois- one Literacy Test- the
Wright- they built of the co-founders of government practice
the world’s first the National of testing the literacy
successful airplane Association for the of potential citizens
and the first Advancement of at the federal level,
controlled, powered Colored People. and potential voters
and sustained at the state level.
heavier-than-air
human flight on
December 17th.