Timeline US Presidents Washington to JFK
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Presidents of the US: http://www.potus.com
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Presidents #1-44 morphing: http://www.flixxy.com/presidents-morphing.htm
1906 John Sergeant Wise authored
"Recollections of 13 Presidents."
(WSJ, 2/11/03, p.A10)
1984 Paul F. Boller authored "Presidential Campaigns."
(WSJ, 2/11/03, p.A10)
Washington to Kennedy
1841-1921 Of the 11 U.S. presidents serving
between 1841 and 1921, seven of them were born in Ohio. The
presidents and their places of birth were: Ulysses S. Grant, Point
Pleasant; Rutherford B. Hayes, Delaware; James A. Garfield, Orange;
Benjamin Harrison, North Bend; William McKinley, Niles; William H.
Taft, Cincinnati; Warren G. Harding, Morrow County. These were the
only Ohio-born presidents. Three of them, Garfield, McKinley and
Harding died in office. Four of the seven presidents hailing from
Ohio died while in office. They were William Henry Harrison, the 9th
president, who died one month after his inauguration in 1841; the
20th president, James Garfield, who was assassinated in 1881;
William McKinley, the 25th president, who was assassinated in 1901;
and Warren G. Harding, who died suddenly in 1923.
(HNQ, 5/9/98)(HNQ, 6/7/99)
1721 Apr 13, John Hanson, first
U.S. President under the Articles of Confederation, was born in
Maryland.
(HN, 4/13/98)(MC, 4/13/02)
1785 Nov 23, John Hancock was
elected President of the Continental Congress for the second time.
(HN, 11/23/98)
#1 George Washington (1789-1797)
1731 Jun 2, Martha Dandridge,
the first First Lady of the United States, was born. Widow of Daniel
Park Custis, she married George Washington in 1759.
(HN, 6/2/00)
1732 Feb 22, George Washington
(1732-1799), first U.S. President, was born in Westmoreland,
Virginia. He is revered as the "Father of His Country" for the great
services he rendered during America's birth and infancy--a period of
nearly 20 years. He spent most of his boyhood at Ferry Farm, across
from the village of Fredericksburg. He later married Martha Custis,
a widow with 2 sons. They had no children together. Martha
Washington is credited with originating the first US bandanna. He
held 317 slaves and once said: "To set the slaves afloat at once
would... be productive of much inconvenience and mischief?".
Washington commanded the Continental Army that won American
independence from Britain in 1783. In 1787, Washington was elected
president of the Constitutional Convention that created the form of
American democratic government that survives to this day. Washington
was also elected in 1787 as the first president of the United
States, serving two terms. One of his officers, "Light-horse Harry"
Lee, summed up how Americans felt about George Washington: "First in
war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen."
George Washington died at his Mount Vernon home on December 14,
1799, at the age of 67.
(A & IP, ESM, p.10)(AHD, p.1446)(SFC, 3/8/96,
p.A21)(Hem., 3/97, p.101) (SFC,12/897, p.A27)(HN, 2/22/98)(HNPD,
2/22/99)
1751 Sep 28, George Washington
(19), accompanied his sick older half-brother Lawrence to Barbados.
Lawrence had been advised that the island’s climate might help
restore his ill health. The brothers left Virginia on September 28
and arrived at Bridgetown, Barbados, November 3. George, who
survived the smallpox while in Barbados, left Lawrence on December
21 and arrived back in Virginia on January 28, 1752. It took George
Washington and his older half-brother, Lawrence, six weeks to sail
to Barbados in 1751. It was Washington’s first and only trip away
from the North American mainland. The brothers rented a house near
Bridgetown for two months.
(HNQ, 12/16/99)
1753 Aug 4, George Washington
became a master mason.
(MC, 8/4/02)
1753 Dec 12, George Washington,
the adjutant of Virginia, delivered an ultimatum to the French
forces at Fort Le Boeuf, south of Lake Erie, reiterating Britain’s
claim to the entire Ohio river valley. Washington (22) was sent by
Gov. Robert Dinwiddie to warn the French soldiers that they were
trespassing on English territory.
(HN, 12/12/98)(WSJ, 2/10/00, p.A16)
1753-1754 George Washington, at the request of
Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia, led a small expedition to warn the
French against expanding into the Ohio Valley and to select
potential sites for forts in case of war.
(A & IP, ESM, p.10)
1754 Jul 3, George Washington
surrendered the small, circular Fort Necessity (later Pittsburgh) in
southwestern Pennsylvania to the French, leaving them in control of
the Ohio Valley. This marked the beginning of the French and Indian
War also called the 7 Years' War.
(HN, 7/13/98)(Arch, 1/05, p.46)
1758 Jul 24, George Washington
was admitted to Virginia House of Burgesses.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1758 Nov 25, In the French and
Indian War British forces under General John Forbes captured Fort
Duquesne (the site of present day Pittsburgh, est. 1754). George
Washington participated in the campaign. Forbes renamed the site
Fort Pitt after William Pitt the Elder, who directed British
military policy in the Seven Years' War of 1756-'63. Before his
arrival, the French had burned the fort and retreated.
(AP, 11/25/97)(ON, 9/05, p.5)(HNQ, 7/17/98)
1759 Jan 6, George Washington
and Martha Dandridge Custis were married. George had 28 slaves and
Martha had 109.
(AP, 1/6/98)(SFEC, 5/2/99, Z1 p.8)
1759 Oct 11, Mason Weems,
preacher (Episcopalian clergyman), was born. He was a noted seller
of books where he would fictionalize history in stories like the one
he wrote of George Washington in the book, "Life of Washington".
People loved his fictionalized stories and often believed that they
were true. One famous story which is not true is the story of
Washington chopping down the cherry tree and the famous quote on not
telling a lie.
(MC, 10/11/01)
1775 May, George Washington
went to the Philadelphia State House where the Second Continental
Congress was meeting and John Adams moved to name him
Commander-in-chief of the Continental army.
(A & IP, ESM, p.13)
1775 Jun 15, The Second
Continental Congress voted unanimously to appoint George Washington
head of the Continental Army.
(AP, 6/15/97)(HN, 6/15/98)
1775 Jul 2, George Washington
arrived in Boston and took over as commander-in-chief of the new
Continental Army.
(HT, 3/97, p.33)
1775 Jul 3, Gen. George
Washington took command of the Continental Army at Cambridge, Mass.
(AP, 7/3/97)
1775 Nov 17, George Washington
was in Boston with his ragtag army facing 12,000 Redcoat regulars.
(SFEC, 10/15/00, p.T12)
1775 Dec 31, George Washington
ordered recruiting officers to accept free blacks into the army.
(HN, 12/31/98)
1775-1781 George Washington got his
brother-in-law, Fielding Lewis, to take charge of provisioning his
regiments for the 6 years of the Revolutionary War.
(HT, 5/97, p.47)
1776 Jan 14, George Washington
commanded an army that consisted of some 9,000 men, up to half of
whom were not fit for duty.
(WSJ, 5/19/05, p.W10)
1776 Mar 25, The Continental
Congress authorized a medal for General George Washington.
(HN, 3/24/98)
1776 Apr 3, George Washington
received an honorary doctor of law degree from Harvard College.
(AP, 4/3/97)
1776 Aug 29, General George
Washington retreated during the night from Long Island to New York
City.
(HN, 8/29/98)
1776 Sep 10, George Washington
asked for a spy volunteer and Nathan Hale volunteered.
(MC, 9/10/01)
1776 Sep 22, American Captain
Nathan Hale was hanged as a spy with no trial by the British in New
York City during the Revolutionary War. He was considered as one of
the incendiaries of the burning of NYC. Hale was commissioned
by General George Washington to cross behind British lines on Long
Island and report on their activity. His last words are reputed to
have been, "I only regret that I have but one life to give for my
country."
(AP, 9/22/97)(SFEC,11/23/97, Par p.14)(HN,
9/22/98)(MC, 9/22/01)
1776 Oct 28, Battle of White
Plains; Washington retreated to NJ.
(MC, 10/28/01)
1776 Nov 28, Washington and his
troops crossed the Delaware River.
(DTnet, 11/28/97)
1776 Dec 8, George Washington's
retreating army in the American Revolution crossed the Delaware
River from New Jersey to Pennsylvania.
(AP, 12/8/97)
1776 Dec 25, Gen. George
Washington and his troops crossed the Delaware River for a surprise
attack against Hessian forces at Trenton, N.J.
(AP, 12/25/97)
1776 Dec 26, The British
suffered a major defeat in the Battle of Trenton during the
Revolutionary War. After crossing the Delaware River into New
Jersey, George Washington led an attack on Hessian mercenaries and
took 900 men prisoner. Two Americans froze to death on the march but
none died in battle. There were 30 German casualties, 1,000
prisoners and 6 cannon captured. Four Americans were wounded in the
overwhelming American victory, while 22 Hessians were killed and 78
wounded. The surprise attack caught most of the 1,200 Hessian
soldiers at Trenton sleeping after a day of Christmas celebration.
The Americans captured 918 Hessians, who were taken as prisoners to
Philadelphia. The victory was a huge morale booster for the American
army and the country. The victory at Trenton was a huge success and
morale booster for the American army and people. However, the
enlistments of more than 4,500 of Washington’s soldiers were set to
end four days later and it was critical that the force remain
intact. General George Washington offered a bounty of $10 to any of
his soldiers who extended their enlistments six weeks beyond their
December 31, 1776, expiration dates. The American Revolution Battle
of Trenton saw the routing of 1,400 Hessian mercenaries, with 101
killed or wounded and about 900 taken prisoner, with no Americans
killed in the combat. Four Americans were wounded and two had died
of exhaustion en route to Trenton.
(AP, 12/26/97)(HN, 12/26/98)(SFC, 12/26/98,
p.A3)(HNQ, 3/20/99)(HNQ, 4/11/99)(HNQ, 12/26/99)
1776 George Washington ordered
his chief of artillery, Henry Knox, to establish an American arsenal
to manufacture guns and ammunition for his army. Knox chose
Springfield, Mass., on the Connecticut River. The Springfield Armory
stayed open 173 years and was closed in 1967, but continues as a
museum. Book Review.
(WSJ, 3/9/95, p.A-16)
1777 Jan 3, Gen. George
Washington's army routed the British led by Cornwallis in the Battle
of Princeton, N.J.
(AP, 1/3/98)(HN, 1/3/99)
1777 Sep 11, General George
Washington and his troops were defeated by the British under General
Sir William Howe at the Battle of Brandywine in Pennsylvania. Posing
as a gunsmith, British Sergeant John Howe served as General Gage's
eyes in a restive Massachusetts colony.
(HN, 9/11/98)
1777 Sep 27, At the Battle of
Germantown the British defeated Washington's army. English General
William Howe occupied Philadelphia. [see Sep 25,26]
(MC, 9/27/01)
1777 Oct 4, George Washington's
troops launched an assault on the British at Germantown, Penn.,
resulting in heavy American casualties.
(AP, 10/4/97)
1777 Dec 2, British Gen. Howe
plotted his attack on Washington's army for Dec 4.
(MC, 12/2/01)
1777 Dec 19, Gen. George
Washington led his army of about 11,000 men to Valley Forge, Pa., to
camp for the winter.
(AP, 12/19/97)
1777 George Washington wrote a
letter offering Nathaniel Sackett $50 a month to set up an
intelligence network.
(SFC, 7/17/02, p.A3)
1777 Marie Joseph Paul Yves
Roch Gilbert du Motier, the Marquis de Lafayette, arrived in the US
in his own boat and offered his services to Gen’l. George
Washington.
(WSJ, 1/15/97, p.A12)
1778 Jun 19, General George
Washington’s troops finally left Valley Forge after a winter of
training. Washington left to intercept the British force on its way
to New York City.
(HN, 6/19/98)(MC, 6/20/02)
1778 Jul 8, George Washington
headquartered his Continental Army at West Point.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1779 There were 21 regiments of
loyalists in the British army estimated at 6500-8000 men. Washington
reported a field army of 3468 men.
(SFEC,11/23/97, Par p.19)
1780 Jan 2, A blizzard hit
Washington's army at the Morristown, NJ, winter encampment.
(AH, 2/05, p.16)
1780 Sep 21-22, General
Benedict Arnold, American commander of West Point, met with British
spy Major John André to hand over plans of the important Hudson
River fort to the enemy. Unhappy with how General George Washington
treated him and in need of money, Arnold planned to "sell" West
Point for 20,000 pounds--a move that would enable the British to cut
New England off from the rest of the rebellious colonies. Arnold's
treason was exposed when André was captured by American militiamen
who found the incriminating plans in his stocking. Arnold received a
timely warning and was able to escape to a British ship, but André
was hanged as a spy on October 2, 1780. Condemned for his
Revolutionary War actions by both Americans and British, Arnold
lived until 1801.
(HNPD, 9/21/98)
1781 Mar 1, The Continental
Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation.
(AP, 3/1/98)
1781 Aug 20, George Washington
began to move his troops south to fight Cornwallis.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1781 Sep 5, The British fleet
arrived off the Virginia Capes and found 26 French warships in three
straggling lines. Rear Adm. Thomas Graves waited for the French to
form their battle lines and then fought for 5 days. Outgunned and
unnerved he withdrew to New York. The French had some 37 ships and
29,000 soldiers and sailors at Yorktown while Washington had some
11,000 men engaged. French warships defeated British fleet, trapping
Cornwallis in Yorktown.
(NG, 6/1988, p.763)(SFEC,11/23/97, Par p.19)(MC,
9/5/01)
1781 Oct 9, General George
Washington commenced a bombardment of the Lord Cornwallis's
encircled British forces at Yorktown, Virginia (Battle of Yorktown
Revolutionary War). For eight days Lord Cornwallis endured the
Americans heavy bombardment and had no choice but to surrender his
9,000 troops. It was considered that Washington had achieved the
inconceivable with victory at Yorktown and that the British were
defeated.
(HN, 10/9/99)(MC, 10/9/01)
1781 Oct 16, Gen. Washington
took Yorktown.
(MC, 10/16/01)
1781 Oct 17, Cornwallis was
defeated at Yorktown. [see Oct 16,19]
(MC, 10/17/01)
1781 Oct 19, Major General Lord
Charles Cornwallis, surrounded at Yorktown, Va., by American and
French regiments numbering 17,600 men, surrendered to George
Washington and Count de Rochambeau at Yorktown, Va. Cornwallis
surrendered 7,157 troops, including sick and wounded, and 840
sailors, along with 244 artillery pieces. Losses in this battle had
been light on both sides. Cornwallis sent Brig. Gen. Charles O'Hara
to surrender his sword. At Washington's behest, Maj. Gen. Benjamin
Lincoln accepted it. Washington himself is seen in the right
background of “The Surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown” by
artist John Trumbull. After conducting an indecisive foray into
Virginia, Lt. Gen. Charles Lord Cornwallis retired to Yorktown on
August 2, 1781. On August 16, General Washington and Maj. Gen. Jean
Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, began marching
their Continental and French armies from New York to Virginia. The
arrival of a French fleet, and its victory over a British fleet in
Chesapeake Bay, sealed the trap.
(NG, 6/1988, p.808)(AP, 10/19/97)(HNPD,
10/19/98)(HN, 10/19/98)
1782 Aug 2, George Washington
created the Honorary Badge of Distinction. [see Aug 7]
(MC, 8/2/02)
1782 Aug 7, General George
Washington created the Order of the Purple Heart, a decoration to
recognize merit in enlisted men and noncommissioned officers.
Washington authorized the award of the Purple Heart for soldiers
wounded in combat.
(AP, 8/7/97)(HN, 8/7/98)
1783 Nov 2, Gen. George
Washington issued his "Farewell Address to the Army" near Princeton,
N.J.
(AP, 11/2/97)
1783 Dec 4, Gen. George
Washington said farewell to his officers at Fraunces Tavern in New
York City.
(AP, 12/4/97)(SFEC, 6/21/98, p.T4)
1783 Dec 23, George Washington
resigned as commander-in-chief of the Army and retired to his home
at Mount Vernon, Va.
(AP, 12/23/97)
1784 George Washington met a
16-year-old slave named Venus, who later bore a mulatto son named
West Ford who lived in special favor at Mt. Vernon. In 1998
descendants of Ford set out to prove that Washington was his father.
(SFC, 11/23/98, p.A6)
1786 Sep 9, George Washington
called for the abolition of slavery.
(HN, 9/9/98)
1787 May 25, The Constitutional
Convention was convened in Philadelphia after enough delegates
showed up for a quorum. George Washington presided.
(AP, 5/25/97)(HN, 5/25/99)
1787 Sep 17, The Constitution
of the United States was completed and signed by a majority of
delegates (12) attending the constitutional convention in
Philadelphia. The US Constitution went into effect on Mar 4, 1789.
Clause 3 of Article I, Section 8 empowered Congress to "regulate
Commerce with foreign nations, among the several states, and with
the Indian Tribes." Two of the signers went on to become presidents
of the United States. George Washington, the president of the
Constitutional Convention, and James Madison both signed the
Constitution. The US Constitution is the world's oldest working
Constitution.
(HFA, '96, p.38)(AP, 9/17/97)(HN, 9/17/98)(WUD,
1994, p.314)(WSJ, 4/9/99, p.W17)(HNQ, 5/19/99)(MC, 9/17/01)
1787 George Washington at this
time owned some 30,000 acres in the West.
(Econ, 5/9/15, p.79)
1787 Morocco became the first
country to recognize the US as a sovereign nation. Pres. Washington
acknowledged Morocco’s recognition in 1789.
(SFC, 8/15/98, p.E4)(SFCM, 3/27/05, p.19)
1789 Jan 7, The first U.S.
presidential election was held. Americans voted for electors who, a
month later, chose George Washington to be the nation's first
president.
(AP, 1/7/98)
1789 Feb 4, Electors
unanimously chose George Washington to be the first president
of the United States and John Adams as vice-president. The results
of the balloting were not counted in the US Senate until two months
later. Washington accepted office at the Federal Building of New
York. His first cabinet included Thomas Jefferson, Alexander
Hamilton as first secretary of the Treasury, Henry Knox, and Edmund
Randolph.
(A & IP, ESM, p.10)(WSJ, 3/12/97, p.A18)(AP,
2/4/07)
1789 Apr 16, George Washington
left Mount Vernon, Va., for the first presidential inauguration in
New York.
(AP, 4/16/97)(HN, 4/16/98)
1789 Apr 21, John Adams was
sworn in as the first vice president of the United States.
(AP, 4/21/97)(HN, 4/21/98)
1789 Apr 23, President-elect
Washington and his wife moved into the first executive mansion, the
Franklin House, in New York. George Washington was inaugurated at
Federal Hall and lived at 3 Cherry Street in New York City. In 1790,
with construction on the new federal capital underway, the
government was moved temporarily to Philadelphia, where Washington
served out his two terms. He is the only president who never resided
in the White House.
(AP, 4/23/97)(HNPD, 12/22/98)
1789 Apr 30, George Washington
was inaugurated and took office in New York as the first president
of the United States. He took his oath of office on the balcony of
Federal Hall on Wall Street and spoke the words “So help me God,”
which all future US presidents have repeated. The oath as prescribed
by the Constitution makes no mention of God of the Bible.
(AP, 4/30/97)(HN, 4/30/98)(SSFC, 1/18/09,
p.W4)(AH, 4/07, p.31)
1789 Jul 27, President
Washington signed a measure establishing the Department of Foreign
Affairs, forerunner of the Department of State.
(AP, 7/27/08)
1789 Sep 24, President George
Washington appointed John Jay as the 1st Chief Justice.
(MC, 9/24/01)
1789 Oct 3, George Washington
proclaimed the 1st national Thanksgiving Day to be Nov 26. He made
it clear that the day should be one of prayer and giving thanks to
God, to be celebrated by all the religious denominations. In 1863
Pres. Lincoln designated the last Thursday of November as
Thanksgiving Day.
(HFA, '96, p.42)(AP, 11/26/97)(HN, 11/26/98)(MC,
10/3/01)
1789 Oct 15, George Washington
went to New England on the 1st presidential tour.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1789 Nov 26, George Washington
proclaimed this a National Thanksgiving Day in honor of the new
Constitution. He made it clear that the day should be one of prayer
and giving thanks to God, to be celebrated by all the religious
denominations. This date was later used to set the date for
Thanksgiving.
(HFA, '96, p.42)(AP, 11/26/97)(HN, 11/26/98)
1789 Dentist John Greenwood
(1760-1819) carved his first dentures for George Washington out of
hippopotamus ivory.
(ON, 4/12,
p.8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Greenwood_%28dentist%29)
1790 Jan 8, President
Washington delivered the 1st "State of the Union" address in NYC.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1790_State_of_the_Union_Address)
1790 Mar 1, President
Washington signed a measure authorizing the first US Census. The
Connecticut Compromise was a proposal for two houses in the
legislature-one based on equal representation for each state, the
other for population-based representation-that resolved the dispute
between large and small states at the Constitutional Convention.
Connecticut delegate Roger Sherman's proposal led to the first
nationwide census in 1790. The population was determined to be
3,929,625, which included 697,624 slaves and 59,557 free blacks. The
most populous state was Virginia, with 747,610 people and the most
populous city was Philadelphia with 42,444 inhabitants. The average
cost of this year’s census was 1.13 cents per person.
(HNQ, 7/13/01)(AP,
3/1/08)(http://www.genealogybranches.com/censuscosts.html)
1790 Mar 21, Thomas Jefferson
reported to President Washington in New York as the new secretary of
state.
(AP, 3/21/97)
1790 Apr 10, President George
Washington signed into law the first United States Patent Act. The
Patent Board was made up of the Secretary of State, Secretary of War
and the Attorney General and was responsible for granting patents on
"useful and important" inventions. In the first three years, 47
patents were granted. Until 1888 miniature models of the device to
be patented were required. [see July 31] The US Patent and Trademark
Office’s subject grouping scheme includes a major component called a
class and a minor one called a subclass. A class distinguishes one
technology from another. Subclasses of the USPTO delineate
processes, structural features and functional features of the
technology in that particular class. By 2015 there were 474 classes
and over 160,000 codes.
(HN, 4/10/98)(HNQ, 8/6/99)(AP, 4/10/07)(Econ.,
4/25/15, p.73)
1790 Jul 31, The first US
patent was issued to Samuel Hopkins of Vermont for an improvement
"in the making of Pot ash and Pearl ash by a new Apparatus and
Process". This patent was signed by then President George
Washington. The first 10,280 patents, issued between 1790 and 1836,
were destroyed by a fire. The legal basis for the United States
patent system (USPTO) is Article 1, Section 8 of the US Constitution
wherein the powers of Congress are defined.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Patent_and_Trademark_Office)
1790 Dec 6, Congress moved from
New York City to Philadelphia, where Washington served out his two
terms. He is the only president who never resided in the White
House.
(AP, 12/6/97)(HNPD, 12/22/98)
1791 Feb 25, President George
Washington signed a bill creating the Bank of the United States.
(HN, 2/25/99)
1791 Mar 4, President
Washington called the US Senate into its 1st special session.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1791 Mar 29, Pres. George
Washington and French architect Pierre Charles L’Enfant examined the
a site along the Potomac River that would become the US capital.
Maryland and Virginia had ceded land to the federal government to
form the District of Columbia. Chosen as the permanent site for the
capital of the United States by Congress in 1790, President
Washington was given the power by Congress to select the exact
site—an area ten-miles square, made up of land given by Virginia and
Maryland. Washington became the official federal capital in 1800. In
2008 Fergus Bordewich authored “Washington: The Making of the
American Capital.”
(HNQ, 8/13/00)(HN, 8/2/98)(WSJ, 8/8/08, p.A13)
1792 Jan 17, One of the first
US Treasury bonds was issued to Pres. George Washington and bears
the earliest use of the dollar sign.
(WSJ, 5/29/98, p.W9)
1792 Feb 20, President
Washington signed an act creating the U.S. Post Office.
(HN, 2/20/98)(AP, 2/20/98)
1792 Feb 21, US Congress passed
the Presidential Succession Act.
(MC, 2/21/02)
1792 Apr 5, George Washington
cast the first presidential veto, rejecting a congressional measure
for apportioning representatives among the states.
(AP, 5/5/97)(HN, 5/5/97)
1792 Apr 14, Pres. George
Washington appointed David Rittenhouse, the foremost scientist of
America, the first director of the US Mint at a salary of $2000 per
annum. Rittenhouse was then in feeble health and lived at the
northwest corner of Seventh and Arch Streets, then one of the high
places of Old Philadelphia, where he had an observatory and where he
later died and was first buried.
(http://tinyurl.com/per3q6f)
1792 Apr 22, President
Washington proclaimed American neutrality in the war in Europe.
(HN, 4/22/98)
1792 Dec 5, George Washington
was re-elected president; John Adams was re-elected vice president.
(AP, 12/5/97)
1792 George Washington signed a
law giving shipowners “allowances” (i.e. subsidies) to offset
tariffs they had to pay on their inputs. This was part of an effort
to rebuild new England’s cod industry.
(Econ, 11/23/13, p.75)
1793 Feb 25, The department
heads of the U.S. government met with President Washington at his
home for the first Cabinet meeting on record.
(AP, 2/25/98)
1793 Mar 4, George Washington
was inaugurated as President for the second time. His 2nd
inauguration was the shortest with just 133 words. Since George
Washington’s second term, Inauguration Day had been March 4 of the
year following the election. That custom meant that defeated
presidents and congressmen served four months after the election. In
1933, the so-called Lame Duck Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
moved the inauguration of newly elected presidents and congressmen
closer to Election Day. The 20th Amendment required the terms of the
president and vice-president to begin at noon on January 20, while
congressional terms begin on January 3.
(HN, 3/4/98)(HNPD, 3/4/99)(SC, 3/4/02)
1793 Apr 22, Pres. Washington
attended the opening of Rickett's, the 1st circus in US.
(MC, 4/22/02)
1793 Sep 18, President George
Washington laid the foundation stone for the U.S. Capitol on Jenkins
Hill.
(AP, 9/18/97)(SFC, 7/18/98, p.A15)(HN, 9/18/98)
1794 Jan 13, President
Washington approved a measure adding two stars and two stripes to
the American flag, following the admission of Vermont and Kentucky
to the union. The number of stripes was later reduced to the
original 13.
(AP, 1/13/01)
1794 Aug 7, George Washington
issued a proclamation telling a group of Western Pennsylvania
farmers to stop their Whiskey Rebellion. In the US in western
Pennsylvania, angry farmers protested a new federal tax on whiskey
makers. The protest flared into the open warfare known as the
Whiskey Rebellion between US marshals and whiskey farmers.
(http://www.ttb.gov/public_info/whisky_rebellion.shtml)(A&IP,
ESM, p.16)(HNQ, 10/14/99)
1794 George Washington
established the first national armory at Springfield, Mass. He also
authorized the arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Md., where the Shenandoah
flows into the Potomac.
(WSJ, 9/12/97, p.A20)(SFEC, 4/25/99, p.T7)
1796 Sep 17, President George
Washington delivered his "Farewell Address" to Congress before
concluding his second term in office. Washington counseled the
republic in his farewell address to avoid "entangling alliances" and
involvement in the "ordinary vicissitudes, combinations, and
collision of European politics." Also "we may safely trust to
temporary alliances for extraordinary emergencies."
(WSJ, 5/31/96, p.A10)(WSJ, 6/17/96, p.A15)(HN,
9/17/98)
1796 Sep 19, President
Washington's farewell address was published. In it, America's first
chief executive advised, "Observe good faith and justice toward all
nations. Cultivate peace and harmony with all."
(AP, 9/19/97)
1796 The White House and
Congress engaged in its 1st struggle over background documents.
Pres. Washington denied a House request for documents on the Jay
Treaty. The documents had already been shared with the Senate.
(WSJ, 2/26/02, p.A24)
1797 May 12, George Washington
addressed the Delaware chiefs and stated: "It is the duty of all
nations to acknowledge the providence of almighty God, to obey his
will, to be grateful for his benefits, and to humbly implore his
protection and favor."
(WSJ, 6/26/01, p.A23)
1797 John Anderson, a Scottish
farm manager, convinced George Washington that distilling whiskey
would make money. In a six-week season each spring, Washington’s men
netted about a million shad and herring from the Potomac River. The
catch was then salted, packed in barrels, and exported. His
diversified farming was less successful, largely because of his long
absences from Mount Vernon.
(AM, 9/01, p.80)(HNQ, 8/30/02)
1799 Dec 14, George Washington
(b.1732), the first president of the United States, died at his
Mount Vernon, Va., home. Richard Brookhiser authored "Founding
Father: Rediscovering George Washington." The Washingtons at this
time had 317 slaves. His 5 stills in Virginia turned out some 12,000
gallons of corn whiskey a year. In 1993 Richard Norton Smith
authored "George Washington and the New American Nation." In 2010
Ron Chernow authored “Washington: A Life.”
(A&IP, ESM, p.16)(AP, 12/14/97)(WSJ, 11/6/98,
p.W15)(SFEC, 5/2/99, Z1 p.8)(SFC, 12/11/99, p.B6)(WSJ, 2/22/00,
p.A40)(Econ, 10/23/10, p.102)
1799 Dec 26, The late George
Washington was eulogized by Col. Henry Lee as "first in war, first
in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen."
(AP, 12/26/97)
1850 Feb 12, Washington's
original Farewell Address manuscript sold for $2,300.
(MC, 2/12/02)
1884 Dec 6, The Washington
Monument was completed by Army engineers 101 years after George
Washington himself approved the location halfway between the
proposed sites of the Capitol and the White House. Construction did
not begin on the 555-foot Egyptian obelisk until July 4, 1848, when
a private citizens' group, the Washington National Monument Society,
raised enough money to begin the project. The original design called
for the familiar obelisk surrounded by a large building with a
statue of Washington driving a Roman chariot on top. Construction
was halted in 1854 when the money ran out and for 22 years the
monument stood embarrassingly unfinished, looking, as Mark Twain put
it, like "a factory chimney with the top broken off." In 1876,
President Ulysses S. Grant authorized the funds to complete the
construction--but without the ornate building and classical statue.
When the final capstone and 9-inch aluminum pyramid were set in
place in 1884, the Washington Monument was the tallest structure in
the world.
(AP, 12/6/97)(HNPD, 12/6/98)
1889 Apr 30, Washington's
inauguration became the first U.S. national holiday.
(HN, 4/30/98)
1889 Apr 30, The George
Washington Bridge, linking New York City and New Jersey, opened.
(HN, 4/30/98)
1931 Apr 30, The George
Washington Bridge, linking New York City and New Jersey, opened.
[see Apr 30, 1889 and Jan 13, Oct 24, 1931]
(HN, 4/30/99)
1932 Jul 31, The George
Washington quarter went into circulation as a 200 year commemorative
of G. Washington’s birth. It has been in use ever since.
(WSJ, 7/12/96, p.B5B)(MC, 7/31/02)
2003 Henry Wiencek authored "An
Imperfect God: George Washington, His Slaves and the Creation of
America."
(SSFC, 11/2/03, p.M1)
2013 Sep 27, In Virginia George
Washington’s Mount Vernon estate formally opened the new $47 million
Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington.
(SFC, 9/28/13, p.A5)
# 2 John Adams (1797-1801)
1735 Oct 30, John Adams, second
president of the United States, was born in Braintree (Quincy),
Mass.
(AP, 10/30/97)(HN, 10/30/98)(MC, 10/30/01)
1744 Nov 11, Abigail Smith
Adams, 2nd 1st lady (1797-1801), was born.
(MC, 11/11/01)
1764 Oct 25, John Adams, future
US president, wed Abigail Smith. He called her “a constant feast.”
Their marriage lasted 54 years.
(AH, 10/04, p.15)
1765 In his Dissertation on the
Canon and Feudal Law, John Adams wrote that power had been pursued
throughout history for two very different ends: for tyranny on the
one hand and for the freedom of the individual or the community on
the other.
(WSJ, 2/12/96, p.A-12)
1765 Great Britain imposed the
Stamp Act on the American colonies. The tax covered just about
everything produced by the American colonists and began the decade
of crisis that led to the American Revolution. The Stamp Act taxed
the legal documents of the American colonists and infuriated John
Adams.
(A & IP, ESM, p.13)(A&IP, Miers, p.18)
1770 March 5, British troops
taunted by a crowd of colonists fired on an unruly mob in Boston and
killed five citizens in what came to be known as the Boston
Massacre. The fracas between a few angry Boston men and one British
sentry ended with five men dead or dying in the icy street corner of
King Street and Shrimton’s Lane. Captain Thomas Preston did not
order the eight British soldiers under his command to fire into the
hostile crowd. The nervous soldiers claimed to be confused by shouts
of "Why do you not fire?" coming from all sides. Versions of the
event rapidly circulated through the colonies, bolstering public
support for the Patriot cause. The British Captain Preston and seven
soldiers were defended by John Adams. The captain and five of the
soldiers were acquitted, the other two soldiers were found guilty of
manslaughter and were branded on the hand with a hot iron. The first
colonist killed in the American Revolution was the former slave,
Crispus Attucks, shot by the British at the Boston Massacre.
(HFA, '96, p.26)(A&IP, Miers, p.18)(SFC,
12/18/96, p.A25)(AP, 3/5/98)(HN, 3/5/98)(HNPD, 3/5/99)
1775 May, George Washington
went to the Philadelphia State House where the Second Continental
Congress was meeting and John Adams moved to name him
Commander-in-chief of the Continental army.
(A & IP, ESM, p.13)
1776 Jun 7, Richard Henry Lee
of Virginia proposed to the Continental Congress the resolution
calling for a Declaration of Independence: that "these United
Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent
States..." Congress delayed the vote on the resolution until July 1.
In the meantime, a committee consisting of Thomas Jefferson, John
Adams, Roger Sherman, Benjamin Franklin and Robert R. Livingston was
created to prepare a declaration of independence.
(Civil., Jul-Aug., '95, p.60)(AP, 6/7/97)(HNQ,
7/3/98)
1776 Jun 11, A committee to
draft the document of Independence met. John Adams, Benjamin
Franklin, Robert Livingston, Roger Sherman and Thomas Jefferson were
the members. They immediately delegated the writing to Adams and
Jefferson, and Adams gave it over to Jefferson. The events were
later documented by Pauline Maier in her 1997 book: "American
Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence."
(Civil., Jul-Aug., '95, p.60)(AP, 6/11/97)(SFEC,
6/29/97, BR p.5)
1777 Jun 14, The Continental
Congress in Philadelphia adopted the Stars and Stripes as the
national flag. America's Flag Day, commemorates the date when John
Adams spoke the following words before the Continental Congress in
Philadelphia. "Resolved, that the Flag of the thirteen United States
shall be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the Union
be thirteen stars, white on a blue field, representing a new
constellation." Over the years, there have been 27 versions of the
American flag. The present version was adopted on July 4, 1960, when
Hawaii became the 50th state.
(AP, 6/14/97)(HNQ, 6/14/98)
1778-1788 John Adams began a series of numerous
missions to Europe. He was the first American ambassador to the
court of St. James. Adams was able to negotiate a treaty with the
Dutch government and secured a loan of $2 million. He also arranged
a secret treaty with Brittain that recognized American territorial
rights in the Mississippi Valley.
(A&IP, Miers, p.20)(WSJ, 12/22/98, p.A16)
1779 Sep 27, John Adams was
named to negotiate the Revolutionary War's peace terms with Britain.
(AP, 9/27/97)
1779 John Adams drafted most of
the Massachusetts state constitution.
(WSJ, 12/22/98, p.A16)
1781 Jun 11, A Peace Commission
created by Congress was composed of John Adams, John Jay, Benjamin
Franklin, Henry Laurens and Thomas Jefferson. Congress decided to
appoint a commission to negotiate terms for peace rather than
entrust John Adams alone with the negotiations. On June 15 Congress
modified the 1779 peace instructions to include only as essential
U.S. independence and sovereignty.
(HNQ, 6/23/98)
1783 Sep 3, The Treaty of Paris
between the United States and Great Britain officially ended the
Revolutionary War. The Treaty of 1783, which formally ended the
American Revolution, is also known as the Definitive Treaty of
Peace, the Peace of Paris and the Treaty of Versailles. Under the
treaty, Great Britain recognized the independence of the United
States. The treaty bears the signatures of Benjamin Franklin, John
Adams and John Jay.
(AP, 9/3/97) (HNQ, 7/19/98)(HN, 9/3/98)(MC,
9/3/01)
1785 John Adams, the new US
ambassador to Britain, presented himself to King George.
(Econ, 1/28/06, p.80)
1788 John Adams published "A
Defense of the Constitutions."
(WSJ, 12/22/98, p.A16)
1789 Apr 21, John Adams was
sworn in as the first vice president of the United States.
(AP, 4/21/97)(HN, 4/21/98)
1792 Dec 5, George Washington
was re-elected president; John Adams was re-elected vice president.
(AP, 12/5/97)
1796 Nov 3, John Adams was
elected president. [see Dec 7]
(MC, 11/3/01)
1796 Dec 7, Electors chose John
Adams to be the second president of the United States. [see Nov 3]
(AP, 12/7/97)
1796 Supporters of John Adams
in his victorious campaign against Thomas Jefferson, called
Jefferson "an atheist, anarchist, demagogue, coward, mountebank,
trickster, and Francomaniac."
(WSJ, 10/8/96, p.A22)
1797 Feb 9, John Quincy Adams’
(Sr.) emerged victorious from America's first contested presidential
election.
(HN, 2/9/97)
1797 Mar 4, Vice-President John
Adams, elected President on December 7, to replace George
Washington, was sworn in. Adams soon selected Timothy Pickering as
his secretary of state.
(HN, 3/4/99)(SSFC, 11/2/03, p.M6)
1797-1801 John Adams, 2nd president of the US was
in office. It was during his term that France and Britain, engaged
in war with each other, insisted on the right to seize American
ships. When the US protested French diplomats demanded bribes and a
loan of $10 mil to stop the acts of piracy. Adams published the
letters of the diplomats with the letters X,Y,Z (hence the X,Y,Z
Affair) for the names of the diplomats. This enraged the populace
and the country braced for war and called Washington in from Mt.
Vernon to lead the army against France. Captain Thomas Truxtom
captured a French frigate and defeated another French frigate in a
sea battle and the French backed down. It was under Adams that the
Alien and Sedition Acts were passed. These acts allowed the
President sole discretion to banish aliens from the country and jail
editors for writing against the President or Congress. This was
vehemently opposed by Jefferson who led the Southern Republicans to
adopt a resolution declaring that a state had the right to nullify a
law believed to be unconstitutional.
(AHD, 1971, p.14)(A&IP, Miers, p.21)
1798 Jan 8, The 11th Amendment
to the U.S. Constitution was declared in effect by President John
Adams nearly three years after its ratification by the states; it
prohibited a citizen of one state from suing another state in
federal court.
(AP, 1/8/08)
1798 Jun 25, US passed the
Alien Act allowing president to deport dangerous aliens.
(MC, 6/25/02)
1798 Jul 11, The U.S. Marine
Corps was created by an act of Congress. US Pres. John Adams signed
act that officially established the U.S. Marine Corps and the US
Marine Band, composed of 32 drummers and fifers. Continental marines
had existed during the Revolutionary War, but had since been
discontinued.
(SFC, 5/20/96, p.A-3)(AP, 7/11/97)(HNQ, 8/1/99)
1798 Jul 14, The Sedition Act,
the last of four pieces of legislation known as the Alien and
Sedition Acts, was passed by Congress, making it unlawful to write,
publish, or utter false or malicious statements about the U.S.
president and the U.S. government, among other things. Violations
were made punishable by up to 2 years in jail and a fine of $2,000.
(AP, 7/14/97)(HN, 7/14/98)(WSJ, 10/29/04, p.W10)
1798 Pres. John Adams stated:
"Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It
is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
(WSJ, 6/26/01, p.A23)
1798 Matthew Lyon was convicted
of sedition after he printed his honest opinion of Pres. John Adams.
Kentucky re-elected Lyon to Congress while he served his jail time.
(SFC, 3/24/00, p.B3)
1799 Apr 27, In Saint-Domingue
(later Haiti) Gen. Toussaint L’Ouverture signed a treaty of
friendship with the US under Pres. John Adams. Certain elements were
kept secret in order not to alienate France.
(ON, 2/10, p.8)
1800 Nov 1, John and Abigail
Adams moved into "the President’s House" in Washington DC. It became
known as the White House during the Roosevelt administration.
(SFEC, 5/7/00, p.T8)
1801 Jan 20, US Secretary of
State John Marshall was nominated by President Adams to be chief
justice. He was sworn in on Feb. 4, 1801. Marshall effectively
created the legal framework within which free markets in goods and
services could establish themselves.
(WSJ, 3/10/99, p.A22)(AP, 1/20/08)
1818 Oct 28, Abigail Adams,
wife of former Pres. John Adams, died. In 1975 some 200 letters of
Abigail Adams were published as “The Book of Abigail and John.”
(WSJ, 2/10/07,
p.P8)(www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=4)
1826 Jul 4, John Adams died at
age 90 in Braintree [Quincy], Mass, just a few hours after
Jefferson. Because communications was slow in those days, Adams and
Jefferson, at their death, thought the other was still alive. Adams'
last words were, "Thomas Jefferson still survives." It was 50 years
to the day after the Declaration of Independence was adopted. Adams
was the 2nd president of the US. A multi-generational biography of
the Adams family was later written by Paul C. Nagel: "Descent from
Glory." The Joseph Ellis book The Passionate Edge" helped restore
Adams to his rightful place in the American pantheon. The 1972
musical film 1776 focused on Adams’ efforts to get an independence
resolution through Congress. In 1998 C. Bradley Thompson published
"John Adams and the Spirit of Liberty." In 2001 David McCullough
authored "John Adams." In 2005 James Grant authored “John Adams:
Party of One.”
(A&IP, p.29)(AP, 7/4/97)(SFC, 7/4/98,
p.E4)(IB, Internet, 12/7/98)(WSJ, 12/22/98, p.A16)(WSJ, 5/30/01,
p.A20)(WSJ, 3/24/05, p.D8)
#3 Thomas Jefferson (1801-1809)
1743 Apr 13, Thomas Jefferson
(d.1826), the third president of the United States (1801-1809), was
born in present-day Albemarle County, Va. He called slavery cruel
but included 25 slaves in his daughter’s dowry, took enslaved
children to market and had 10-year-old slaves working 12-hour days
in his nail factory. He stated that blacks were “in reason inferior”
and “in imagination they are dull, tasteless and anomalous.” “Were
it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without
newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not
hesitate a moment to prefer the latter." "History, in general, only
informs us what bad government is."
(AP, 4/13/97)(SFC,12/897, p.A27)(AP, 4/13/98)
1756 Feb 6, America's third
vice president, Aaron Burr, was born in Newark, N.J.
(AP, 2/6/97)(HN, 2/6/99)
1773 Thomas Jefferson planted
Yellow Newtown Pippin apples at his home in Monticello.
(T&L, 10/1980, p.42)
1775 Jul 5, The Olive Branch
Petition was adopted by the Continental Congress and professed the
attachment of the American people to George III. It expressed hope
for the restoration of harmony and begged the king to prevent
further hostile actions against the colonies. The following day,
Congress passed a resolution written by Thomas Jefferson and John
Dickinson, a "Declaration of the Causes and Necessities of Taking Up
Arms," which rejected independence but asserted that Americans were
ready to die rather than be enslaved. King George refused to receive
the Olive Branch Petition on August 23 and proclaimed the American
colonies to be in open rebellion.
(HNQ, 7/2/99)
1776 Jun 7, Richard Henry Lee
of Virginia proposed to the Continental Congress the resolution
calling for a Declaration of Independence: that "these United
Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent
States..." Congress delayed the vote on the resolution until July 1.
In the meantime, a committee consisting of Thomas Jefferson, John
Adams, Roger Sherman, Benjamin Franklin and Robert R. Livingston was
created to prepare a declaration of independence.
(Civil., Jul-Aug., '95, p.60)(AP, 6/7/97)(HNQ,
7/3/98)
1776 Jun 11, A committee to
draft the document of Independence met. John Adams, Benjamin
Franklin, Robert Livingston, Roger Sherman and Thomas Jefferson were
the members. They immediately delegated the writing to Adams and
Jefferson, and Adams gave it over to Jefferson. The events were
later documented by Pauline Maier in her 1997 book: "American
Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence."
(Civil., Jul-Aug., '95, p.60)(AP, 6/11/97)(SFEC,
6/29/97, BR p.5)
1776 Jun 11-Jul 4, The
Continental Congress met and Jefferson wrote the Declaration of
Independence, based on the principals of John Locke. But where Locke
had used the word "property," Jefferson used the term "the pursuit
of happiness."
(V.D.-H.K.p.224-226)
1776 Jun 28, Jefferson's
document was placed before the Congress after some minor changes by
Adams and Franklin. This event was immortalized in the painting by
John Trumball.
(Civil., Jul-Aug., '95, p.61)
1776 July 2, Congress passed
Lee's resolution that "these united Colonies are, and of right,
ought to be, Free and Independent States," and then spent two days
over the wording of Jefferson's document.
(Civil., Jul-Aug., '95, p.61)(AP, 7/2/97)(HN,
7/2/98)
1776 Jul 4, The Continental
Congress approved adoption of the amended Declaration of
Independence, prepared by Thomas Jefferson and signed by John
Hancock--President of the Continental Congress--and Charles Thomson,
Congress secretary, without dissent. However, the New York
delegation abstained as directed by the New York Provisional
Congress. On July 9, the New York Congress voted to endorse the
declaration. On July 19, Congress then resolved to have the
"Unanimous Declaration" inscribed on parchment for the signature of
the delegates. Among the signers of the Declaration of Independence,
two went on to become presidents of the United States, John Adams
and Thomas Jefferson.
(HNQ, 7/4/98)(AP, 7/4/97)(HN, 7/4/98)(HNQ,
5/15/99)
1776-1836 The correspondence between Thomas
Jefferson and James Madison is documented in "The Republic of
Letters" by James Morton Smith in 3 volumes published by Norton
1995. The two men are believed to have met in 1776 in the Virginia
House of Delegates.
(WSJ, 2/2/95, p.A-16)
1779 Thomas Jefferson (36) was
wartime governor of Virginia and James Madison (28) served in his
cabinet.
(WSJ, 2/2/95, p.A-16)
1781 Jun 11, A Peace Commission
created by Congress was composed of John Adams, John Jay, Benjamin
Franklin, Henry Laurens and Thomas Jefferson. Congress decided to
appoint a commission to negotiate terms for peace rather than
entrust John Adams alone with the negotiations. On June 15 Congress
modified the 1779 peace instructions to include only as essential
U.S. independence and sovereignty.
(HNQ, 6/23/98)
1782 Martha Jefferson, wife of
Thomas Jefferson, died.
(SFC, 4/29/98, p.A6)
1784 Thomas Jefferson excavated
an Indian burial mound on his property in Virginia.
(TV Doc.)
1784-1789 Thomas Jefferson’s years in Paris are
depicted in a film titled "Jefferson in Paris." He served as an
American minister and Sally Hemmings accompanied him as his
daughter’s servant.
(WSJ, 4/6/95, p.A-12)(WSJ, 11/6/98, p.W15)
1785 Mar 10, Thomas Jefferson
was appointed minister to France, succeeding Benjamin Franklin.
(AP, 3/10/98)(HN, 3/10/98)
1785 Barbary pirates seized
American ships and imprisoned their crew in Algiers for 11 years.
Military and ransom operations raised issues of Congressional
approval and appropriations that bedeviled Thomas Jefferson as both
Sec. of State and as president. The issue is covered in the 1997
book: Separating Power: Essays on the Founding Period" by Gerhard
Casper.
(SFEC, 1/4/98, BR p.9)
1786 Relations were formalized
with the Moroccan–American Treaty of Friendship negotiated by Thomas
Barclay, and signed by Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Muhammad
III.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moroccan%E2%80%93American_Treaty_of_Friendship)
1789 Feb 4, Electors
unanimously chose George Washington to be the first president of the
United States. Washington was appointed President of the US by the
Constitutional Convention and accepted office at the Federal
Building of New York. His first cabinet included Thomas Jefferson,
Alexander Hamilton as first secretary of the Treasury, Henry Knox,
and Edmund Randolph.
(AP, 2/4/97)(A & IP, ESM, p.10)(WSJ, 3/12/97,
p.A18)
1789 Jul 22, Thomas Jefferson
became the first head of the U.S. Department of Foreign Affairs.
(HN, 7/22/98)
1789 Sep 26, Thomas Jefferson
was appointed America's first Secretary of State; John Jay the first
chief justice of the United States; Samuel Osgood the first
Postmaster-General; and Edmund Jennings Randolph the first Attorney
General. The US Congress had created the position of attorney
general as a part-time gig. The salary lagged well behind other
executive positions, and lacked congressional appropriations for
office space and supplies.
(AP, 9/26/97)(SFC, 8/16/99, p.A21)(Bloomberg,
9/29/19)
1790 Mar 21, Thomas Jefferson
reported to President Washington in New York as the new secretary of
state.
(AP, 3/21/97)
1790 Mar 22, Thomas Jefferson
(1743-1826) became the first US Secretary of State. As Secretary of
State, he served on the first Board of Arts, the body that reviewed
patent applications and granted patents. Jefferson was one of a
triumvirate that served as both America’s first patent commissioner
and first patent examiner.
(HN,
3/22/97)(www.archipelago.org/vol10-34/matsuura.htm)
1796 Supporters of John Adams
in his victorious campaign against Thomas Jefferson, called
Jefferson "an atheist, anarchist, demagogue, coward, mountebank,
trickster, and Francomaniac."
(WSJ, 10/8/96, p.A22)
1797 Thomas Jefferson
(1743-1826), the third president of the United States (1801-1809),
began serving as US Vice President. He was also elected president of
the American Philosophical Society this year and continued to 1815.
A philosopher-statesman of the Enlightenment, Jefferson drafted the
Declaration of Independence, was George Washington’s first Secretary
of State and vice-president under John Adams.
(www.monticello.org/site/jefferson/private-banks-quotation)
1798 In the Kentucky
Resolutions Thomas Jefferson protested the Alien and Sedition Acts
and maintained that "free government is founded in jealousy, not in
confidence; it is jealousy and not confidence which prescribes
limited constitutions, to bind down those whom we are obliged to
trust with power."
(WSJ, 5/18/95, p.A-14)
1800 May-Dec, US presidential
elections were held over this period. On Dec 3 state electors met
and cast their ballots and a tie resulted between Thomas Jefferson
and Aaron Burr.
(http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/collections/jefferson_papers/mtjtime3c.html)
1800 Dec 3, US state electors
met and cast their ballots for the presidency. A tie resulted
between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr.
(http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/collections/jefferson_papers/mtjtime3c.html)
1800 In the US presidential
elections Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr tied in electoral votes.
The selection was then moved to the House of Representatives where
on the 36th ballot Vermont and Maryland switch their votes to
Jefferson. [see Feb 17, 1801]
(A&IP, ESM, p.26)(WSJ, 10/27/99, p.A16)
1801 Feb 17, The House of
Representatives broke an electoral tie between Thomas Jefferson and
Aaron Burr, electing Jefferson president. Burr became vice
president. When George Washington announced that he would retire
from office, he set the stage for the nation’s first two-party
presidential campaign.
(AP, 2/17/98)(HN, 2/17/98)
1801 Feb 17, Thomas Jefferson
won the White House vowing to get rid of all federal taxes. He was
supported by a new coalition of anti-Federalists that was the
ancestor of the Democratic Party. In 2003 Jules Witcover authored
"Party of the People: A History of the Democrats."
(WSJ, 10/10/97, p.A1)(WSJ, 6/10/98, p.A18)(SSFC,
11/23/03, p.M1)
1801 Mar 4, Thomas Jefferson
became the first President to be inaugurated in Washington, D.C.
James Madison became secretary of state. In his inaugural address
Jefferson said: "Though the will of the majority is in all cases to
prevail, that will, to be rightful, must be reasonable; the minority
possesses their equal right, which equal laws must protect, and to
violate would be oppression."
(WSJ, 2/2/95, p.A-16)(SFC, 1/3/97, p.A26)(HN,
3/4/98)
1801 Thomas Jefferson began a
set of proper rules for the Senate when he wrote: " No one is to
disturb another in his speech by hissing, coughing, spitting,
speaking, or whispering to another."
(SFC, 9/20/97, p.A9)
1801 Elder John Leland, a
Baptist minister, helped commission a 1,235-pound wheel of Cheshire
cheese as a gift of gratitude for Thomas Jefferson's steadfast
support of religious liberties.
(SSFC, 8/17/03, p.M1)
1802 Jan 26, Congress passed an
act calling for a library to be established within the U.S. Capitol.
(AP, 1/26/98)
1802 Mar 16, The US Congress
authorized the establishment of the US Military Academy at West
Point, N.Y. President Jefferson signed a measure authorizing the
establishment of the US Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.
(www.usma.edu/history.asp)(AP, 3/16/08)
1802 May 3, Washington, D.C.,
was incorporated as a city, with the mayor appointed by the
president and the council elected by property owners.
(AP, 5/3/97)
1802 Congress repealed all
taxes except for a tax on salt and left the government dependent on
import tariffs.
(WSJ, 10/10/97, p.A1)
1802 James Callender, an
English-born journalist, published a report in the Richmond, Va.,
Recorder about Thomas Jefferson and his relationship with the slave
Sally Hemmings [Hemings]. In 1997 Annette Gordon-Reed published:
"Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings, an American Controversy." DNA
tests of descendants in 1998 indicated that Jefferson fathered at
least one child with Hemmings, her youngest son Eston Hemmings in
1808. Dr. Eugene Foster, author of the DNA report, later said the
DNA tests showed that any one of 8 Jefferson males could have
fathered Eston. In 2008 Annette Gordon-Reed authored “The Hemmingses
of Monticello: An American Family.”
(WSJ, 9/23/97, p.A1)(SFC, 4/29/98, p.A6)(SFEC,
11/1/98, p.A1,7)(WSJ, 11/2/98, p.B11)(WSJ, 2/26/99, p.W15)(SFC,
1/27/00, p.A3)(SSFC, 10/19/08, Books p.4)
1803 Apr 30, The US under
Thomas Jefferson signed a treaty that accepted the purchase of the
Louisiana Territory from Napoleon Bonaparte's government of France
for 60 million francs or about $15 mil. The area included most of
the thirteen states that lie between the Mississippi River and the
Rocky Mountains. American envoys sent to France were originally
instructed to buy only the port city of New Orleans and were
astonished when Napoleon, abandoning plans for an American empire,
offered them all of Louisiana. The United States doubled in size
through the Louisiana Purchase. The federal government spent less
than $8 million in operations and borrowed the money needed for the
purchase.
(CO, Grolier’s, 11/10/95)(WSJ, 3/12/97,
p.A18)(AP, 4/30/97)(HN, 4/30/98) (HNPD, 5/1/99)
1803 Aug 31, The
government-sponsored transcontinental expedition under the
leadership of Captain Meriwether Lewis and Lieutenant William Clark
set off down the Ohio River. The 40-member expedition wintered and
trained near St. Louis before starting up the Missouri River in
three boats on May 14, 1804. Lewis and Clark’s three-year journey of
exploration and discovery to the Pacific Coast and back stimulated
western settlement and proved that an overland route to the West
Coast was possible.
(HNPD, 8/31/98)
1804 Feb 25, Thomas Jefferson
was nominated for president at the Democratic-Republican caucus.
(HN, 2/25/98)
1804 Jul 11, Vice President
Aaron Burr mortally wounded Alexander Hamilton (47), former first
Treasury Secretary, in a pistol duel near Weehawken, N.J. In 1999
Richard Brookhiser wrote "Alexander Hamilton: American."
(TL-MB, 1988, 1988, p.80)(AP, 7/11/97)(HN,
7/11/98)(WSJ, 2/25/99, p.A16)
1804 Sep 25, The 12th Amendment
was ratified. It required electors to vote separately for the
president and vice-president.
(HN, 9/25/98)(WSJ, 10/27/99, p.A16)(WSJ,
12/11/00, p.A18)
1804 Nov 27, Pres. Jefferson
issued a nationwide proclamation to military and public officials
warning of a conspiracy to attack Spanish territory in Texas. He had
opened negotiations with Spain to purchase Texas territory west of
New Orleans. Jefferson had heard rumors that Aaron Burr had begun
plotting an invasion of Texas. Jefferson ordered Gen. James
Wilkinson to move federal troops into defensive positions between
the Sabine River and New Orleans. Wilkinson, unbeknownst to
Jefferson, was a close confidant of Burr and also worked as a spy in
the employ of Spanish officials in Mexico.
(ON, 12/08, p6)
1804 Nov, Thomas Jefferson was
re-elected US president. George Clinton, the seven-term governor of
New York, was elected vice president under Jefferson and again under
Madison in 1808. Clinton died in office on April 20, 1812.
(HNQ,
8/19/99)(www.sparknotes.com/biography/jefferson/timeline.html)
1805 Mar 4, Pres. Thomas
Jefferson delivered his 2nd inaugural address.
(http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761570282_10/thomas_jefferson.html)
1805 Jul 25, Aaron Burr visited
New Orleans with plans to establish a new country, with New Orleans
as the capital city.
(HN, 7/25/98)
1805 The Massachusetts state
Legislature staged a mock impeachment trial of Pres. Jefferson. His
affair with Sally Hemmings was one of the charges.
(SFEC, 11/1/98, p.A1)
1806 Jan 17, James Madison
Randolph, Thomas Jefferson's grandson, was the 1st to be born in
White House. His mother was Martha Randolph one of President Thomas
Jefferson's two daughters, this was her 8th child.
(MC, 1/17/02)
1806 Mar 29, President Thomas
Jefferson commissioned the National Road, the first federally
financed interstate. Although it took decades to finish, the
National Road helped open the land west of the Appalachians to
settlers and commerce. It was later lengthened, paved and renamed
U.S. 40, but was eclipsed in the 1960s by Interstate 70, a parallel
superhighway.
(AP, 6/3/06)
1806 Oct, Gen. James Wilkinson,
senior brigadier general of the United States Army and the first
Governor of Louisiana Territory, sent to President Jefferson a
letter in which he painted the actions of Aaron Burr in the worst
possible light, while portraying himself as innocent of any
involvement in an alleged Burr conspiracy to create an independent
country in the center of North America including the Southwestern
United States and parts of Mexico. Jefferson ordered Burr's arrest,
and Burr was apprehended near Natchez, Mississippi.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burr_conspiracy)
1806 Aaron Burr, Vice-President
under Thomas Jefferson, was implicated in a reputed plot among
northeastern Federalists to break up the Union rather than to submit
to four more years of Republican rule. One of the goals of the Burr
Conspiracy was to separate Louisiana and other Western states from
the Union and establish an empire with Burr at the head. Aaron Burr,
formerly vice president under Thomas Jefferson, had recently slain
Alexander Hamilton in a duel in July 1804 when he began plotting a
movement to separate the Western states from the Union. Burr was
later tried for treason in federal court and acquitted. Burr was
captured in 1806 on the Ohio River and charged with recruiting
forces to further plot the disunion.
(A&IP, ESM, p.28)(HNQ, 11/30/98)
1807 Jan 22, President Thomas
Jefferson exposed a plot by Aaron Burr to form a new republic in the
Southwest.
(HN, 1/22/99)
1807 Feb 19, Former Vice
President Aaron Burr was arrested in Alabama. He was subsequently
tried for treason and acquitted. [see Sep 1]
(HN, 2/19/98)(AP, 2/19/98)
1807 Mar 3, US Pres. Thomas
Jefferson signed into law a bill passed by Congress a day earlier to
shut down the foreign slavery trade. Congress gave all traders nine
months to cease their operations in the United States.
(http://tinyurl.com/y8zvncj8)
1807 Aug 3, The trial of Aaron
Burr began. He was accused of plotting the secession of New England.
(HN, 8/3/98)
1807 Sep 1, Former Vice
President Aaron Burr was found innocent of treason. [see 1806] Aaron
Burr had been arrested in Mississippi for complicity in a plot to
establish a Southern empire in Louisiana and Mexico.
(AP, 9/1/97)(HN, 9/1/99)
1807 Dec 22, Congress passed
the Embargo Act, designed to force peace between Britain and France
by cutting off all trade with Europe. It was hoped that the act
would keep the United States out the European Wars.
(AP, 12/22/97)(HN, 12/22/98)
1807-1809 A Jefferson imposed embargo kept
American ships at home. [see Dec 22 1807]
(SFC, 3/31/98, p.F4)
1808 May 21, Eston Hemmings was
born to slave Sally Hemmings, who was owned by Thomas Jefferson.
Genetic tests in 1998 showed that DNA from Jefferson's descendants
was consistent with DNA from descendants of Hemmings. Some argued
that Randolph Jefferson, brother of Thomas, was Eston's father.
(USAT, 1/7/99, p.3A)
1819 Thomas Jefferson founded
the Univ. of Virginia.
(SSFC, 2/11/07, p.F2)
1820 Thomas Jefferson wrote of
slavery: "We have a wolf by the ears and can neither hold him, nor
safely let him go." Although a slaveholder himself, Jefferson had
expressed hopes that in the wake of the American Revolution, slavery
in the South would wither and die.
(HNQ, 2/16/00)
1821 Thomas Jefferson wrote his
autobiography.
(Civil., Jul-Aug., ‘95, p.62)
1823 Dec 2, President Monroe,
replying to the 1816 pronouncements of the Holy Alliance, proclaimed
the principles known as the Monroe Doctrine, "that the American
continents, by the free and independent condition which they have
assumed and maintained, are henceforth not to be considered as
subjects for future colonization by European powers." His doctrine
opposing European expansion in the Western Hemisphere insured that
American influence in the Western hemisphere remain unquestioned.
Former US Pres. Thomas Jefferson (1801-1809) helped Monroe shape the
Monroe Doctrine.
(V.D.-H.K.p.232)(AP,
12/2/97)(www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/Monroe.html)
1826 Jul 4, Thomas Jefferson,
the nation's third president, died deeply in debt at age 83 at one
o'clock in the afternoon and was buried near Charlottesville,
Virginia. He was the founder of the Univ. of Virginia and wrote the
state’s statute of religious freedom. In 1997 Joseph J. Ellis won
the National Book Award in nonfiction for "American Sphinx: The
Character of Thomas Jefferson." "Nothing gives one person so much of
an advantage over another as to remain unruffled in all
circumstances."
(A&IP, Miers, p.29)(SFEC, 6/29/97, BR
p.5)(AP, 7/4/97) (SFC, 4/29/98, p.A6)(SFEC, 10/25/98, Z1 p.12)(IB,
12/7/98)(SFEC, 5/16/99, p.A9)
1836 Sep 14, Aaron Burr, the
3rd US Vice President, died. He had served as vice-president under
Thomas Jefferson. Burr is alleged to have fathered a black
illegitimate son named John Pierre Burr. In 1999 Roger W. Kennedy
authored "Burr, Hamilton and Jefferson: A Study in Character." In
2007 Nancy Isenberg authored “Fallen Founder: The Life of Aaron
Burr.”
(WSJ, 10/27/99, p.A16)(WSJ, 10/5/05, p.A1)(WSJ,
5/24/07, p.D7)
1943 Princeton Univ. decided to
publish the complete papers of Thomas Jefferson and expected to
finish the project in 15-20 years. In 2005 expectations for
completion were pushed to 2026.
(WSJ, 3/15/05, p.A1)
2003 Michael Knox Beran
authored "Jefferson's Demons: Portrait of a Restless Mind."
(WSJ, 10/16/03, p.D8)
2003 Garry Wills authored
"Negro President: Jefferson and the Slave Power."
(SSFC, 11/2/03, p.A1)
2013 Apr 19, David Rubenstein,
co-CEO of the Carlyle Group, announced his donation of $10 million
to help visitors see the full plantation of Thomas Jefferson’s home
at Monticello, Va.
(SSFC, 4/21/13, p.A9)
#4 James Madison (1809-1817)
1751 Mar 16, James Madison
(d.1836), Jefferson’s successor as secretary of state and fourth
president of the United States (1809-17), was born in Port Conway,
Va. He invented the 1787 electoral college system "to break the
tyranny of the majority." "If men were angels, no government would
be necessary." Pierce Butler of South Carolina first proposed the
electoral college system. [see 1787]
(V.D.-H.K.p.222)(SFEC, 11/24/96, Z1 p.2)(AP,
3/16/97)(AP, 10/27/97)(HN, 3/16/98)(SFC, 11/9/00, p.A14)(WSJ,
11/9/00, p.A26)
1768 May 20, Dolley Madison,
first lady of President James Madison, was born. She was famous as a
Washington hostess while her husband was secretary of state and
president.
(HN, 5/20/99)
1776-1836 The correspondence between Thomas
Jefferson and James Madison is documented in "The Republic of
Letters" by James Morton Smith in 3 volumes published by Norton
1995. The two men are believed to have met in 1776 in the Virginia
House of Delegates.
(WSJ, 2/2/95, p.A-16)
1779 Thomas Jefferson (36) was
wartime governor of Virginia and James Madison (28) served in his
cabinet.
(WSJ, 2/2/95, p.A-16)
1780-1792 The intellectual development over this
period of American President James Madison is covered in a 1995 book
by Lance Banning titled: The Sacred Fire of Liberty: James Madison
and the Founding of the Federal Republic.
(WSJ, 12/20/95, p.A-12)
1785 James Madison wrote the
petition "Memorial and Remonstrance" for circulation in Virginia to
oppose the use of public funds for Christian education.
(WSJ, 9/1/99, p.A24)
1787 Sep 17, The Constitution
of the United States was completed and signed by a majority of
delegates (12) attending the constitutional convention in
Philadelphia. The US Constitution went into effect on Mar 4, 1789.
Clause 3 of Article I, Section 8 empowered Congress to "regulate
Commerce with foreign nations, among the several states, and with
the Indian Tribes." Two of the signers went on to become presidents
of the United States. George Washington, the president of the
Constitutional Convention, and James Madison both signed the
Constitution. The US Constitution is the world's oldest working
Constitution.
(HFA, '96, p.38)(AP, 9/17/97)(HN, 9/17/98)(WUD,
1994, p.314)(WSJ, 4/9/99, p.W17)(HNQ, 5/19/99)(MC, 9/17/01)
1787 Oct 27, The first of the
Federalist Papers, a series of 77 essays calling for ratification of
the U.S. Constitution, was published in a New York newspaper. The
essays by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay were
written under the pseudonym “Publius” and later published as "The
Federalist Papers." The original plan was to write a total of 25
essays, the work divided evenly among the three men. In the end they
wrote 85 essays in the span of six months. Jay wrote five, Madison
wrote 29, Hamilton wrote the remaining 51.
(AP,
10/27/97)(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Federalist_Papers)
1791 James Madison opposed the
plans of Alexander Hamilton for a National Bank. [see 1780-1792,
Banning book on Madison]
(WSJ, 12/20/95, p.A-12)
1792 James Madison published an
essay in a newspaper on property and slaves. In this essay Madison
extended the idea of property from material possessions to the
property in his opinions, especially his religious beliefs.
(V.D.-H.K.p.227)
1808 Dec 7, Electors chose
James Madison to be the fourth president of the United States in
succession to Thomas Jefferson.
(HN, 12/7/98)(AP, 12/7/08)
1809 Mar 4, Madison became 1st
President inaugurated in American-made clothes.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1809 Oct 27, President James
Madison ordered the annexation of the western part of West Florida.
Settlers there had rebelled against Spanish authority.
(HN, 10/27/98)
1811 Jan 2, US Sen Thomas
Pickering became the 1st senator to be censured. He revealed
confidential documents communicated by the president of the US. [see
Mar 3,12]
(MC, 1/2/02)
1811 Feb 11, Pres. Madison
prohibited trade with Britain for 3rd time in 4 years.
(MC, 2/11/02)
1811 In the US politics killed
the Bank of the United States established by Hamilton as a central
bank and a mechanism for government borrowing.
(WSJ, 3/12/97, p.A18)
1812 Apr 20, George Clinton
(73), the 4th vice president of the United States, died in
Washington, becoming the first vice president to die while in
office.
(AP, 4/20/97)
1812 Jun 18, The War of 1812
began as the United States declared war against Great Britain. The
term "war hawk" was first used by John Randolph in reference to
those Republicans who were pro-war in the years leading up to the
War of 1812. These new types of Republicans, who espoused
nationalism and expansionism, included Henry Clay and John C.
Calhoun. Most of them came from the agrarian areas of the South and
West.
(HFA, ‘96, p.32)(AP, 6/18/97)(HN, 6/18/98)(HNQ,
5/13/99)
1812 Jul 12, United States
forces led by General William Hull entered Canada during the War of
1812 against Britain. However, Hull retreated shortly thereafter to
Detroit. Madison had called for 50,000 volunteers to invade Canada
but only 5,000 signed up.
(AP, 7/12/99)(ON, 9/02, p.2)
1812 Dec 2, James Madison was
re-elected president of US; Elbridge Gerry was vice-pres.
(MC,
12/2/01)(www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/gerry.htm)
1812 Madison proposed to France
and England that if one would stop attacking American commerce at
sea, then the US would break off commercial relations with the
other. Napoleon quickly accepted Madison’s terms and under
congressional pressure Madison declared war on England. He did not
know that 24 hours prior to the declaration, England had voted to
stop its abuses on American shipping.
(A&IP, ESM, p.33)
1813 The US federal government
was almost broke from the war with Britain but was able to get
Stephen Girard, wealthy ship owner and banker, to help finance the
war effort. Congress quickly moved to charter the Second Bank of the
US.
(WSJ, 3/12/97, p.A18)
1814 Aug 24, 5,000 British
troops under the command of General Robert Ross marched into
Washington, D.C., after defeating an American force at Bladensburg,
Maryland. It was in retaliation for the American burning of the
parliament building in York (Toronto), the capital of Upper Canada.
Meeting no resistance from the disorganized American forces, the
British burned the White House, the Capitol and almost every public
building in the city before a downpour extinguished the fires.
President James Madison and his wife fled from the advancing enemy,
but not before Dolly Madison saved the famous Gilbert Stuart
portrait of George Washington. This wood engraving of Washington in
flames was printed in London weeks after the event to celebrate the
British victory.
(AP, 8/24/97)(HNPD,
8/24/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Bladensburg)
1814 Aug, After the British
burned the White House in 1814, President James Madison lived in the
nearby Octagon—so named because of its unique eight-sided
shape—until the end of his term.
(HNQ, 10/28/00)
1814 Nov 23, Elbridge Gerry
(b.1744), the 9th governor of Massachusetts (1810-1812), died in
Washington, DC. As a Democratic-Republican he served as the fifth
Vice President under President James Madison from March 1813 until
his death. He is known best for being the namesake of
gerrymandering.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elbridge_Gerry)(WSJ, 10/22/04, p.W5)
1815 Mar 2, To put an end to
robberies by the Barbary pirates, the United States declared war on
Algiers.
(HN, 3/2/99)
1816 The US passed the first
tariff to protect its industries.
(A&IP, ESM, p.34)
1836 Jun 28, The fourth
president of the United States, James Madison, died in Montpelier,
Va. His writings included the 29 Federalist essays and in 1999
"James Madison: Writings," edited by Jack N. Rakove, was published.
In 2002 Garry Wills authored James Madison."
(AP, 6/28/97)(WSJ, 2/2/95, p.A-16)(WSJ, 9/1/99,
p.A24)(WSJ, 3/26/02, p.A21)
1848 Dolly Madison, wife of
former Pres. James Madison, died.
(ON, 9/02, p.4)
#5 James Monroe (1817-1825)
1758 Apr 28, James Monroe
(d.1831), later secretary of state and the fifth president of the
United States (1817-1825), was born in Westmoreland County, Va. He
created the Monroe Doctrine, warning Europe not to interfere in the
Western Hemisphere.
(HFA, ‘96, p.28)(HN, 4/28/99)(HNQ, 7/27/99)
1768 Jun 30, Elizabeth
Kortright, later Elizabeth Monroe, first lady to U.S. President
James Monroe, was born.
(HN, 6/30/01)
1792 Alexander Hamilton, Sec.
of the Treasury, was accused of teaming with Mr. James Reynolds to
speculate illegally in government securities. Hamilton then
acknowledged to three lawmakers, including James Monroe, hush money
payment to Mr. Reynolds to cover an affair.
(WSJ, 11/19/98, p.A12)
1794 Nov 3, Thomas Paine was
released from a Parisian jail with help from the American ambassador
James Monroe. He was arrested for having offended the Robespierre
faction.
(HN, 11/3/99)
1797 James T. Callender,
journalist, published charges concerning the alleged financial
misdeeds of Alexander Hamilton. The information came from letters
that Hamilton provided to interrogators around 1792 concerning funds
paid to James Reynolds to keep quiet an affair with Reynold’s wife.
The letters were passed from James Monroe to Thomas Jefferson, who
passed them to Callender. Hamilton published a 28,000-word defense
that revealed his relationship with Maria Reynolds and his payment
of hush money.
(WSJ, 11/19/98, p.A12)
1816 Dec 4, James Monroe of
Virginia was elected the fifth president of the United States. He
defeated Federalist Rufus King.
(AP, 12/4/97)(MC, 12/4/01)
1817 Jan, James Monroe became
the 5th President of the US and served to 1825.
(A&IP, ESM, p.96b, photo)(WUD, 1994, p.927)
1817 Oct, Pres. and Mrs. James
Monroe moved back into the restored White House.
(SFEC, 7/4/99, Par p.5)
1818 Apr 16, U.S. Senate
ratified the Rush-Bagot amendment to form an unarmed U.S.-Canada
border. The Rush-Bagot Agreement between Great Britain and the U.S.
had to do with mutual disarmament on the Great Lakes. In the
exchange of notes between British minister to the U.S. Charles Bagot
and Richard Rush, Acting Secretary of State, the countries agreed to
limits on their inland naval forces. A sequel to the Treaty of
Ghent, the agreement was approved by the U.S. Senate on April 16,
1818.
(HN, 4/16/98)(HNQ, 6/7/00)
1818 Apr 28, President Monroe
proclaimed naval disarmament on the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain.
(HN, 4/28/98)
1818 Oct 20, The United States
and Britain established the 49th Parallel as the boundary between
Canada and the United States.
(HN, 10/20/98)
1820 Mar 6, The Missouri
Compromise was enacted by Congress and signed by President James
Monroe. This compromise provided for the admission of Missouri into
the Union as a slave state, but prohibited slavery in the rest of
the northern Louisiana Purchase territory.
(HN, 3/6/98)
1820 Mar 9, Congress passed the
Land Act, paving the way for westward expansion.
(HN, 3/9/99)
1820 May 15, The U.S. Congress
designated the slave trade to a form of piracy.
(HN, 5/15/99)
1820 Dec 6, James Monroe, the
5th US president, was elected for a 2nd term.
(MC, 12/6/01)
1821 Mar 5, Monroe was the
first president to be inaugurated on March 5, only because the 4th
was a Sunday.
(HN, 3/5/98)
1822 Twenty years after the war
of 1812 the US government finished paying off the national debt
entirely.
(WSJ, 3/12/97, p.A18)
1823 Jan 27, Pres Monroe
appointed 1st US ambassadors to South America.
(MC, 1/27/02)
1823 Dec 2, President Monroe,
replying to the 1816 pronouncements of the Holy Alliance, proclaimed
the principles known as the Monroe Doctrine, "that the American
continents, by the free and independent condition which they have
assumed and maintained, are henceforth not to be considered as
subjects for future colonization by European powers." His doctrine
opposing European expansion in the Western Hemisphere insured that
American influence in the Western hemisphere remain unquestioned.
Former US Pres. Thomas Jefferson (1801-1809) helped Monroe shape the
Monroe Doctrine.
(V.D.-H.K.p.232)(AP,
12/2/97)(www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/Monroe.html)
1831 Jul 4, James Monroe, 5th
President of the United States, died in New York City at age 73,
making him the third ex-President to die on Independence Day.
(AP, 7/4/97)(HN, 7/4/98)(IB, Internet, 12/7/98)
#6 John Quincy Adams (1825-1829)
1767 Jul 11, John Quincy Adams
(d.1848), son of John Adams and the sixth president of the United
States, was born in Braintree, Mass.
(AHD, 1971, p.14)(AP, 7/11/97)(HN, 7/11/98)
1775 Feb 12, Louisa Adams, wife
of John Quincy Adams was born.
(HN, 2/12/98)
1781 John Quincy Adams (14)
served as secretary to the American ambassador to Russia.
(SFEC, 10/25/98, Z1 p.12)
1782 Mar 18, John C. Calhoun
(d.1850), U.S. statesman, was born. He served as US
vice-president from 1825-1832 under Adams and Jackson.
(HN, 3/18/99)(WUD, 1994, p.210)
1814 Dec 24, A treaty of peace
between the United States and Great Britain, terminating the War of
1812, was signed at Ghent, Belgium. The news did not reach the
United States until two weeks later (after the decisive American
victory at New Orleans). The treaty, signed by John Quincy Adams for
the US, committed the US and Britain "to use their best endeavors"
to end the Atlantic slave trade.
(AP Internet, 12/24/97)(WSJ, 12/31/97, p.A11)(HN,
12/24/98)(SFEC, 11/21/99, p.T10)
1821 John Quincy Adams, Sec. of
State, wrote: "America does not go abroad in search of monsters to
destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of
all. She is the champion only of her own."
(WSJ, 6/25/97, p.A20)
1824 Nov 2, Popular
presidential vote was 1st recorded; Jackson beat J.Q. Adams. Gen.
Jackson won the popular vote followed by John Quincy Adams, William
Crawford and Henry Clay. Jackson won 99 electoral votes, Adams won
84, Crawford won 41 and Clay won 37. Crawford, Treasury secretary,
was accused of malfeasance. Henry Clay was denounced for passing
days gambling and nights in a brothel. Clay convinced his supporters
in congress to vote for Adams. The House of Representatives chose
John Quincy Adams, who chose Clay for vice president. A furious
Jackson proceeded to help found the Democratic Party.
(WSJ, 10/8/96, p.A22)(WSJ, 11/9/00, p.A26)(WSJ,
12/11/00, p.A18)(MC, 11/2/01)
1824 Dec 1, The presidential
election was turned over to the U.S. House of Representatives when a
deadlock developed among John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, William
H. Crawford and Henry Clay with Jackson 32 votes shy of a majority.
John Quincy Adams ended up the winner. He was reportedly the only
bald-headed president.
(AP, 12/1/97)(WSJ, 12/31/97, p.A11)(SFEC,
11/1/98, Z1p.10)
1825 Mar 4, John Quincy Adams
was inaugurated as 6th President.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1825 Feb 9, The House of
Representatives elected John Quincy Adams Jr. 6th U.S. president
(1825-1829) after no candidate received a majority of electoral
votes.
(A&IP, ESM, p.96b, photo)(AHD, 1971,
p.14)(HN, 2/9/97)(AP, 2/9/99)
1828 Jul 4, Ground-breaking
ceremonies were held in Baltimore for construction of the Baltimore
and Ohio Railroad. Charles Carroll, last surviving signer of the
Declaration of Independence, turned the spade in Baltimore. At the
groundbreaking, Carroll said, "I consider this among the most
important acts of my life, second only to that of signing the
Declaration of Independence, if even it be second to that." On the
same day, in nearby Georgetown, President John Quincy Adams, with
great fanfare, lifted the first shovel of dirt to begin construction
of the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal that would link Washington,
Baltimore and Pittsburgh by water. The railroad went on to become
one of the nation's longest rail lines, reaching St. Louis,
Missouri, in 1857. The 185-mile canal, though it had many years of
use, was quickly eclipsed as a transportation medium by the superior
technology of the railroad.
(IB, Internet, 12/7/98)(SFEC, 4/25/99, p.T6)(HNQ,
10/4/99)
1828 Pres. John Quincy Adams
helped Abdul Rahman Ibrahima, a former prince from Timbuktu, gain
freedom following 40 years of enslavement on a cotton plantation.
(Econ, 9/26/15, p.32)
1830 A year after leaving
office as the sixth president of the United States, the Plymouth
district of Massachusetts unexpectedly elected John Quincy Adams to
the House of Representatives, where he served until he suffered a
stroke on the House floor in 1848. He died two days later. Adams at
the time enjoyed the distinction of having been the only son to
follow his father to the presidency.
(HNQ, 5/31/01)
1831 Dec 5, Former President
John Quincy Adams took his seat as a member of the U.S. House of
Representatives.
(AP, 12/5/01)
1836 The US Congress, led by
congressman and former president J.Q. Adams, voted to accept the
100,000 gold sovereign donation of Englishman James Smithson and
establish the Smithsonian Institution for the increase and diffusion
of knowledge among men. The actual Institution was not established
until 1846.
(SFEC, 8/25/96, p.T6)(ON, 2/06, p.5)
1841 Mar 1, John Quincy Adams
(74), former US president, concluded his defense of "the Mendi
people," a group of Africans who had rebelled and killed the crew of
the slave ship Amistad, while enroute from Cuba to Haiti. They faced
mutiny charges upon landing on Long Island, but Adams won their
acquittal before the Supreme Court. In thanks they bestowed to him
an 1838 English Bible. In 1996 the Bible was stolen from the Adams
National Historic Site in Quincy, Mass.
(http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/amistad/adamsarg.html)(WSJ,
1/3/97, p.A7)
1841 Mar 9, The rebel slaves
who seized a Spanish slave ship, the Amistad, two years earlier were
freed by the US Supreme Court despite Spanish demands for
extradition.
(WSJ, 1/3/97, p.A7)(HN, 3/9/99)
1848 Feb 23, John Quincy Adams,
the sixth president of the United States (1825-1829), died of a
stroke at age 80. Samuel Flagg Bemis wrote a biography. In
1997 Paul C. Nagel published a biography.
(AP, 2/23/98)(WSJ, 10/22/97, p.A20)(MC, 2/23/02)
1850 Mar 31, John Calhoun
(b.1782), US vice-president (1825-1832), died while a senator from
South Carolina. He was elected vice president under two presidents,
John Quincy Adams in 1824 and Andrew Jackson in 1828.
(WUD, 1994 p.210)(HNQ, 8/19/99)(MC, 3/31/02)
#7 Andrew Jackson (1829-1837)
1767 Mar 15, Andrew Jackson
(d.1845), seventh President of the United States known as "Old
Hickory," was born in Waxhaw, South Carolina. The first American
president to be born in a log cabin, Jackson was a hero of the War
of 1812, an Indian fighter and a Tennessee lawyer. Neither a
particularly intelligent man nor a wise one, Jackson became the
symbol of his age by being the right man believing in the right
things at the right time. Success was a race, Jackson believed, and
the government’s primary responsibility was to guarantee that every
man got a fair chance at winning. Jackson’s administration (1829-37)
saw the development of modern-style political parties and changes in
the voting laws that nearly tripled the electorate. Known for his
strong will, Jackson was fond of saying: "When I mature my course I
am immovable." Jackson was the first congressman from Tennessee and
later became a senator and state supreme court judge. Jackson was
involved in a number of duels and killed a man in one. Personal
feuds with Thomas Jefferson led him out of public life for some
time. Jackson was elected president in 1828 and served until
1837. He initiated the spoils system and had the first
"Kitchen Cabinet" of intimate advisers. Jackson died June 8, 1845.
In 1997 Max Byrd wrote "Jackson," a biographical novel.
(AP, 3/15/97)(WSJ, 5/14/97, p.A20)(HNQ,
4/30/99)(HNPD, 4/30/99)
1767 Jun 15, Rachel Robards
Jackson, U.S. first lady to Andrew Jackson, was born. She caused a
scandal by marrying Jackson before divorcing her husband.
(HN, 6/15/98)
1796 Andrew Jackson was elected
as Tennessee’s 1st congressman.
(SSFC, 10/30/05, p.M3)
1802 Andrew Jackson was elected
to command the Tennessee militia.
(SSFC, 10/30/05, p.M3)
1806 Andrew Jackson killed
Charles Dickinson in a duel over a debt owed on a horse race bet.
Jackson was struck in the chest by Dickinson‘s shot but returned
fire and killed his opponent. "I should have hit him," he reportedly
said, "if he had shot me through the brain." His duel with Dickinson
was one of several the often ill-tempered Jackson engaged in.
Jackson, who became the seventh U.S. president in 1829, carried
Dickinson‘s bullet in his chest until he died in 1845.
(HNQ, 3/22/00)
1813 Andrew Jackson received a
bullet wound that shattered his left shoulder. The bullet was not
removed until 1832 and was later suspected of causing lead
poisoning.
(SFC, 8/11/99, p.A2)
1814 Mar 27, General Jackson
led U.S. soldiers who killed 700 Creek Indians at Horseshoe Bend,
La. [in Northern Alabama] Jackson lost 49 men. In 2001 John Buchanon
authored "Jackson’s Way" and Robert V. Remini authored "Andrew
Jackson and His Indian Wars."
(SFEC, 2/16/97, BR p.4)(HN, 3/27/99)(WSJ,
7/26/01, p.A12)
1814 Mar 29, In the Battle at
Horseshoe Bend, Alabama, Andrew Jackson beat the Creek Indians. [see
Mar 27]
(MC, 3/29/02)
1814 Aug 9, Andrew Jackson and
the Creek Indians signed the Treaty of Fort Jackson, giving the
whites 23 million acres of Mississippi Creek territory. This ended
Indian resistance in the region and opened the doors to pioneers
after the conclusion of the War of 1812.
(HN, 8/9/98)(HNQ, 8/13/99)
1814 Nov 7, Andrew Jackson
attacked and captured Pensacola, Florida, defeating the Spanish and
driving out a British force.
(HN, 11/7/98)
1814 Dec 13, General Andrew
Jackson announced martial law in New Orleans, Louisiana, as British
troops disembarked at Lake Borne, 40 miles east of the city.
(HN, 12/13/98)
1814 Andrew Jackson called the
followers of French freebooter Jean Lafitte "hellish banditti."
Jackson later revised his opinion and asked Lafitte to aid him
against the British in the defense of New Orleans. Many of the 4,500
men behind Jackson‘s entrenchments at New Orleans on January 8,
1815, were followers of Lafitte.
(HN, 1/17/00)
1815 Jan 8, US forces led by
Gen. Andrew Jackson and French pirate Jean Lafitte led some 3,100
backwoodsmen to victory against 7,500 British veterans at Chalmette
in the Battle of New Orleans in the closing engagement of the War of
1812. A British army marched on New Orleans without knowing that the
War of 1812 had ended on Christmas Eve of 1814. A massacre ensued,
as 2,044 British troops, including three generals, fell dead,
wounded or missing before General Andrew Jackson's well-prepared
earthworks, compared with only 71 American casualties. Among the
British victims were Gen. Sir Edward Pakenham and the Highlanders of
the 93rd Regiment of Foot. In 2000 Robert V. Remini published "The
Battle of New Orleans."
(AP, 1/8/98)(HN, 1/8/99)(WSJ, 1/26/00, p.A20)(AH,
2/05, p.16)
1821 Jul 17, Andrew Jackson
became the governor of Florida.
(HN, 7/17/98)
1828 Dec 3, Andrew Jackson was
elected 7th president of the United States over John Quincy Adams.
Resentment of the restrictive credit policies of the first central
bank, the Bank of the United States, fueled a populist backlash that
elected Andrew Jackson.
(AP, 12/3/97)(WSJ, 12/31/97, p.A11)(WSJ, 6/10/98,
p.A18)
1828 Dec 22, Rachel Jackson,
beloved wife of Andrew Jackson, died of heart disease just weeks
before her recently elected husband was inaugurated as president of
the United States. Andrew Jackson had been 21 and a promising young
lawyer when Rachel Donelson Robards, his landlady's daughter and the
estranged wife of Lewis Robards of Kentucky, caught his eye. Robards
had started divorce proceedings, but had dropped them without his
wife's knowledge. Believing she was a free woman, Rachel married
Andrew Jackson in 1791. Two years later, the couple discovered that
Robards was finally suing for divorce--on the grounds of adultery
and desertion. The divorce was granted, and in 1794, the couple
quietly remarried. Yet, for the rest of her life, Rachel was
unjustly slandered for her irregular marriage. The gossip became
particularly painful during the 1828 presidential campaign when the
37-year-old scandal was resurrected as a campaign issue. Andrew
Jackson defeated his opponent John Quincy Adams, but when Rachel
died soon after the election, Jackson bitterly attributed her death
to "those vile wretches who...slandered her."
(HNPD, 12/22/98)
1828 Opponents of Andrew
Jackson accused the general of having murdered a Baptist minister
and five other white militiamen during the Creek War.
(WSJ, 10/8/96, p.A22)
1828 John Overlord, Andrew
Jackson and James Winchester, the founders of Memphis, Tenn.,
bestowed an easement to the Mississippi riverfront for a promenade.
(Econ, 4/10/04, p.24)
1829-1937 Andrew Jackson (1767-1845), served as
the 7th President of the United States (1829-1937) and was known as
"Old Hickory."
(HNPD, 3/15/99)(HNQ, 4/30/99)
1829 Mar 4, An unruly crowd
mobbed the White House during the inaugural reception for President
Jackson, the 7th US President. The event was later depicted by
artist Louis S. Glanzman in his painting “Andrew Jackson’s
Inauguration” (1970).
(AP, 3/4/98)(WSJ, 1/17/09, p.W5)
1829 Aug 25, Pres. Jackson made
an offer to buy Texas, but the Mexican government refused.
(chblue.com, 8/25/01)
1829 Dec 8, The first
presidential address of Andrew Jackson.
(WSJ, 4/2/96, p.A-14)
1830 May 28, Congress
authorized Indian removal from all states to western prairie.
(HN, 5/28/98)
1830 Andrew Jackson, seventh
President of the US, signed the Indian Removal Act of 1830. The act
banished the Cherokee and other eastern tribes to beyond the
Mississippi.
(NG, 5/95, p.78)
1831 The anti-Mason Party met
in Baltimore for the first presidential nominating convention in the
US. The 116 delegates selected William Wirt of Maryland.
(Hem, 8/96, p.86)
1832 May 21, The first
Democratic National Convention got under way, in Baltimore and
re-nominated Andrew Jackson.
(Hem, 8/96, p.86)(AP, 5/21/97)
1832 Jul 10, President Andrew
Jackson vetoed legislation to re-charter the Second Bank of the
United States.
(AP, 7/10/97)
1832 Nov 24, South Carolina
passed an Ordinance of Nullification. The US government had enacted
a tariff. South Carolina nullified it and threatened to secede.
Pres. Jackson threatened armed force on his home state but a
compromise was devised by Henry Clay that ducked the central
problem.
(WSJ, 9/19/97,
p.A13)(www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/Nullification.html)
1832 Nov 24, The doctrine of
nullification involved an argument concerning the nature of the
union as defined by the writers of the Constitution and addressed
the question: "Was the US a compact of sovereign states, each
retaining ultimate authority, or was the US one nation formed by the
people through the writing of the Constitution?" John C. Calhoun,
supporter of the doctrine of nullification, was Pres. Jackson's
principal opponent in the nullification crises.
(www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/butowsky2/constitution4.htm#17)
1832 Dec 5, Andrew Jackson was
re-elected US president and became the 1st president to win an
election in which the turnout exceeded 50%. The US anti-Mason Party
with William Wirt drew 8% of the vote against Henry Clay and the
eventual winner, Andrew Jackson. Clay led the Whig Party which
coalesced against the power of Andrew Jackson. The Whigs came from
the conservative, nationalist wing of the Jeffersonian Republicans.
The election served as a referendum on Jackson’s position against
the 2nd Bank of the US.
(Hem, 8/96, p.86)(WSJ, 7/8/99, p.A16)(Panic,
p.3)(AH, 6/07, p.45)
1832 Dec 28, John C. Calhoun
became the first vice president of the United States to resign,
stepping down over differences with President Jackson. Van Buren
served as vice president under Andrew Jackson from 1833 to 1837.
(SFC, 9/19/96, p.A18)(AP, 12/28/97)(HNQ, 9/19/99)
1832 Pres. Jackson dispatched
the US Navy to South Carolina to quash an effort to nullify federal
tariffs within the state.
(WSJ, 5/19/05, p.D8)
1832 Pres. Jackson sent the
frigate Potomac to bombard the pirate lair of Kuala Batu.
(WSJ, 10/9/01, p.A22)
1834 Jan 29, President Jackson
ordered the 1st use of US troops to suppress a labor dispute.
Jackson ordered the War Department to put down a "riotous assembly"
near Willamsport, Maryland, among Irish laborers constructing the
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal.
(HNQ, 1/23/99)(MC, 1/29/02)
1834 Mar 28, The US Senate
voted to censure Pres. Jackson for the removal of federal deposits
from the Bank of the United States. The Senate declared that Pres.
Andrew Jackson: "in the last executive proceedings in relation to
the public revenue, has assumed upon himself authority and power not
conferred by the constitution and laws, but in derogation of both."
(AP, 3/28/97)
1834 The first use of Federal
troops to intervene in a labor dispute took place when President
Andrew Jackson ordered the War Department to put down a "riotous
assembly" near Willamsport, Maryland, among Irish laborers
constructing the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal.
(HNQ, 1/23/99)
1834 Pres. Jackson had special
1804 silver dollars minted for the sultan of Muscat (later Oman) and
the King of Siam (later Thailand) for trade treaties negotiated by
Edmund Roberts.
(SFEC, 8/8/99, p.A6)
1835 Jan 31, Richard Lawrence
misfired at President Andrew Jackson (aka 'Old Hickory') at the
White House. Lawrence fired 2 pistols at Pres. Andrew Jackson during
funeral services for Rep. Warren Davis. Jackson wasn’t hit and
Lawrence, who thought he was the king of England and that Jackson
owed him money, was found to be insane.
(SFC, 7/25/98, p.A6)(HN, 1/31/99)(SFC, 2/5/00,
p.B3)
1835 Pres. Andrew Jackson
succeeded in retiring the national debt largely through the sale of
public land.
(WSJ, 2/6/97, p.C18)(Panic, p.6)
1836 Jul 11, Pres. Jackson,
alarmed by the growing influx of state bank notes being used to pay
for public land purchases, issued the Specie Circular shortly before
leaving office. This order commanded the Treasury to no longer
accept paper notes as payment for such sales. This led to the
financial panic of 1837.
(www.u-s-history.com/pages/h967.html)(Panic, p.6)
1836 Pres. Jackson vetoed the
bill to renew the charter of the Second Bank of the United States in
1836. Not until the Federal Reserve Act of 1911 did the US
Government get back its monopoly on the creation of money. [see the
New York Free Banking Act of 1838]
(WSJ,11/24/95, p.A-8)
1836 Pres. Jackson named Martin
Van Buren as his successor and Col. Richard Johnson as the vice
presidential candidate, despite Johnson’s mulatto mistress and 2
illegitimate children.
(WSJ, 8/15/00, p.A26)
1837 Mar 3, US President Andrew
Jackson and Congress recognized the Republic of Texas.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1837 Mar 4, When Pres. Jackson
left office there followed a financial crash and a bitter depression
and the government was again forced to borrow money. Pres. Jackson
had returned surplus government funds to the state governments as
bonuses.
(WSJ, 2/6/97, p.C18)(WSJ, 6/26/00, p.A1)
1837 Mar 17, Upon his return to
his home in Tennessee, Andrew Jackson, the seventh president of the
U.S., proclaimed that he left office "with barely $90 in my pocket."
The old soldier and war hero who had served as president for eight
years, spoke those words when he returned to his home in Tennessee.
(HNQ, 8/6/98)
1845 Jun 8, Andrew Jackson, 7th
president of the US, died in Nashville, Tenn. His health had
deteriorated over the last 30 years and in 1999 scientists cited
lead poisoning from an 1813 wound as the primary cause of his health
problems. In 1945 Arthur Schlesinger Jr. authored “The Age of
Jackson,” for which he won a Pulitzer Prize. Dr. Robert Remini later
authored a 3-volume biography. In 2005 H.W. Brands authored “Andrew
Jackson: A Life and Times.” In 2008 Jon Meacham authored “American
Lion: Andrew Jackson in the white House.”
(AP, 6/8/97)(SFC, 8/11/99, p.A2)(SSFC, 10/30/05,
p.M3)(Econ, 3/10/07, p.85)(SSFC, 12/7/08, Books p.1)
1850 Mar 31, John Calhoun
(b.1782), US vice-president (1825-1832), died while a senator from
South Carolina. He was elected vice president under two presidents,
John Quincy Adams in 1824 and Andrew Jackson in 1828.
(WUD, 1994 p.210)(HNQ, 8/19/99)(MC, 3/31/02)
1853 Mar 8, The first bronze
statue of Andrew Jackson was unveiled in Washington, D.C.
(HN, 3/8/98)
#8 Martin Van Buren (1837-1841)
1782 Dec 5, Martin Van Buren,
8th US President (1837-1841) was born in Kinderhook, N.Y. He was the
first chief executive to be born after American independence.
(AP, 12/5/08)
1783 Mar 8, Hannah Hoes Van
Buren, wife of Martin Van Buren, was born.
(HN, 3/8/98)
1831 New York Senator William
L. Marcy made the statement, "To the victor belong the spoils of the
enemy," on the floor of the U.S. Senate in 1831. Marcy was
responding to attacks on Secretary of State Martin van Buren made by
Senator Henry Clay with regard to the use of patronage for party
purposes, known as the "spoils system." Marcy, who retired from the
senate in 1833, became known as the "champion of the spoils system."
He went on to serve as secretary of war and secretary of state.
(HNQ, 9/23/99)
1836 Dec 7, Martin Van Buren
(d.1862) was elected the eighth president of the United States and
served one term. He was known as the "Little Magician" and the "Red
Fox of Kinderhook." The eighth president earned these monikers for
his political adroitness and skill at keeping his thoughts close to
the vest.
(AP, 12/7/97)(HNQ, 9/19/99)
1836 Pres. Jackson named Martin
Van Buren as his successor and Col. Richard Johnson as the vice
presidential candidate, despite Johnson’s mulatto mistress and 2
illegitimate children.
(WSJ, 8/15/00, p.A26)
1837 Feb 8, The Senate selected
Richard Mentor Johnson as the vice president of the United States.
Johnson was nominated for vice president on the Democratic ticket
with Martin Van Buren in 1836. When Johnson failed to receive a
majority of the popular vote, the election was thrown into the
Senate for the first and only time. Johnson won the election in the
Senate by a vote of 33 to 16.
(AP, 2/8/99)(HNQ, 3/8/99)
1837 Mar 4, Martin Van Buren
was inaugurated as 8th President.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1837 There was a financial bust
and John Jacob Astor bought up foreclosed properties in NYC and
later sold them for a 10-fold profit.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R43)
1837-1841 Martin Van Buren became 8th President of
the US. His term was marred by depression and financial panic.
(A&IP, ESM, p.96b, photo)(HFA, ‘96, p.46)
1840 Mar 31, 1840, American
President Martin Van Buren issued an executive order extending the
"10-hour system" to all laborers and mechanics employed on federal
public works. The movement for the 10-hour workday grew after
Eastern city building trades workers and the municipal government of
Philadelphia instituted it in the early 1830s. The average daily
hours of factory workers in 1840 was estimated at 11.4. By 1860 the
10-hour day was standard among most skilled workers and laborers.
(HNQ, 3/15/99)
1840 In his re-election
campaign Van Buren was attacked for "wallowing lasciviously in
raspberries."
(WSJ, 9/9/96, p.A16)
1862 Jul 24, Martin Van Buren
(79), the eighth president of the United States, died in Kinderhook,
N.Y.
(AP, 7/24/97)(HN, 7/24/98)
#9 William Henry Harrison (1841)
1773 Feb 9, William Henry
Harrison, the 9th president of the United States (March 4- April 4,
1841), was born in Charles City County, Va.
(HN, 2/9/97)(AP, 2/9/99)(MC, 2/9/02)
1775 Jul 25, Anna Symmes
Harrison, 1st lady, was born.
(SC, 7/25/02)
1811 Nov 7, Gen. William Henry
Harrison won a battle against the Shawnee Indians at the Battle of
Tippecanoe in the Indiana territory. Tenskwatawa, the brother of
Shawnee leader Tecumseh, was engaged in the Battle of the Wabash,
aka Battle of Tippecanoe, in spite of his brother’s strict
admonition to avoid it. The battle near the Tippecanoe River with
the regular and militia forces of Indiana Territory Governor William
Henry Harrison, took place while Tecumseh was out of the area
seeking support for a united Indian movement. The battle, which was
a nominal victory for Harrison’s forces, effectively put an end to
Tecumseh’s dream of a pan-Indian confederation. Harrison’s
leadership in the battle also provided a useful campaign slogan for
his presidential bid in 1840.
(HFA, ‘96, p.46)(HNQ, 5/28/98)(HN, 11/7/98)
1813 May 9, U.S. troops under
William Henry Harrison rescued Fort Meigs from British and Canadian
troops.
(HN, 5/9/99)
1813 Oct 5, The Battle of
Moraviantown was decisive in the War of 1812. Known as the Battle of
the Thames in the United States, the U.S. victory over British and
Indian forces near Ontario at the village of Moraviantown on the
Thames River is know in Canada as the Battle of Moraviantown. Some
600 British regulars and 1,000 Indian allies under English General
and Shawnee leader Tecumseh were greatly outnumbered and quickly
defeated by U.S. forces under the command of Maj. Gen. William Henry
Harrison. Tecumseh was killed in this battle. [see Oct 15]
(HN, 10/5/98)(HNQ, 10/20/98)(MC, 10/5/01)
1839 Dec 4, The Whig Party
opened a national convention in Harrisburg, Pa., where delegates
nominated William Henry Harrison for president. Soon after the Whigs
constructed a 10-foot ball of twine, wood and tin, covered with Whig
slogans, and rolled it from Cleveland to Columbus, Ohio, and across
the country. This was later deemed the first modern presidential and
led to the expression "Keep the ball rolling."
(AP, 12/4/99)(SSFC, 1/11/04, p.D6)(Econ, 12/5/15,
p.35)
1840 Dec 2, William Henry
Harrison was elected president of US. Whig candidate William Henry
Harrison, Old Buckeye, and his running mate John Tyler ran and won
in a landslide against Democrat Pres. Martin Van Buren. Depression
and financial panic had marked Van Buren’s term. Fans of the
Harrison Party rolled huge balls of paper, rope and tin through
Midwestern towns and into the Pennsylvania convention. "Hard cider"
Whigs disrupted the Democratic gathering in Baltimore.
(HFA, ‘96, p.46)(Hem, 8/96, p.84)(WSJ, 8/15/00,
p.A26)(MC, 12/2/01)
1840 John Janey was chairman of
the Whig Party Convention in Virginia that nominated W.H. Harrison
for president. Janey and John Tyler were the nominees for the vice
presidency. The convention vote was a tie and Janey voted for John
Tyler, who became president when William Henry Harrison died in
1841.
(SFC, 12/17/96, p.E8)
1840 In his re-election
campaign Van Buren was attacked for "wallowing lasciviously in
raspberries."
(WSJ, 9/9/96, p.A16)
1841 Feb 18, 1st continuous
filibuster in US Senate began and lasting until March 11.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1841 Apr 4, President William
Henry Harrison (68), 9th President of the US, succumbed to pneumonia
one month after his inaugural, becoming the first U.S. chief
executive to die in office. VP. Tyler assumed office.
(A&IP, ESM, p.59,96b)(AP, 4/4/97)
#10 John Tyler (1841-1845)
1790 Mar 29, John Tyler, the
10th president of the United States (1841-1845), was born in Charles
City County, Va. He was also the first vice-president to succeed to
office on the death of a president.
(AP, 3/29/97)(HN, 3/29/99)(MC, 3/29/02)
1841 Apr 4, President William
Henry Harrison (68), 9th President of the US, succumbed to pneumonia
one month after his inaugural, becoming the first U.S. chief
executive to die in office. VP. Tyler assumed office.
(A&IP, ESM, p.59,96b)(AP, 4/4/97)
1841-1845 John Tyler, elected as Vice-President
under Harrison, became the 10th President of the US upon Harrison’s
unexpected death.
(A&IP, ESM, p.96b, photo)
1844 Feb 28, A 12-inch gun
aboard the USS Princeton exploded, killing Secretary of State Abel
P. Upshur, Navy Secretary Thomas W. Gilmer and several others. On
the new warship, USS Princeton, the shipboard cannon called the
"Peacemaker" exploded during a demonstration firing. Also aboard the
ship was President John Tyler, additional cabinet members and
hundreds of distinguished guests. The cannon weighed 27,000 pounds,
had a 15-foot-long barrel and could hurl a 225-pound ball six miles.
(AP, 2/28/98)(HNQ, 11/29/98)
1844 Jun 26, Julia Gardiner and
President John Tyler were married in New York City.
(HN, 6/26/98)
1845 Jan 23, Congress decided
all national elections would be held on the first Tuesday after the
first Monday in November. The law was signed by Pres. John Tyler.
(AP, 1/23/98)(WSJ, 3/13/00, p.A1)
1845 Mar 1, President Tyler
signed a congressional resolution to annex the Republic of Texas.
Texas was annexed as a state of the US on Dec 29.
(SFC, 4/28/97, p.A3)(AP, 3/1/98)
1845 Mar 3, For the first time,
the U.S. Congress passed legislation on this day overriding a
President’s veto. President John Tyler was in office at the time.
(HC, Internet, 3/3/98)
1862 Jan 18, John Tyler (71),
10th president of the United States (1841-1845), died and was buried
at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Va. He drank a mint julep every
morning for breakfast. Tyler had joined the Confederacy after his
presidency and was designated a "sworn enemy of the United States."
(AP, 1/18/98)(SFEC, 11/15/98, Z1 p.10)(SFEC,
12/20/98, Z1 p.8)(HN, 1/18/99)
#11 James Polk (1845-1849)
1795 Nov 2, James Knox Polk,
the 11th president of the United States, was born in Mecklenburg
County, N.C.
(AP, 11/2/97)(HN, 11/2/98)
1844 Dec 4, James K. Polk was
elected 11th president of US. His wife, Sarah, recognized that James
was insufficiently impressive to draw attention on appearance and
therefore began the tradition of having "Hail to the Chief" played
when he made a public showing.
(HFA, ‘96, p.46)(SFC, 7/14/96, Z 1 p.2)(MC,
12/4/01)
1845 Mar 4, James K. Polk was
inaugurated as 11th President.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1845 Nov 4, The 1st US
nationally observed uniform election day was held.
(MC, 11/4/01)
1845-1849 James Knox Polk became President of the
US. He offered Mexico $25 million for California, but the offer was
declined. Polk then ordered General Zacharay Taylor, known as Old
Rough and Ready, to Texas with troops and an eye on expansion.
(A&IP, ESM, p.96b, photo)(HFA, ‘96, p.46)
1846 Jan 13, President James
Polk dispatched General Zachary Taylor and 4,000 troops to the Texas
Border as war with Mexico loomed. At the outset of the
Mexican-American War, the Mexican army numbered 32,000 and the
American army consisted of 7,200 men. The American army had, since
1815, only fought against a few Indian tribes. Forty-two percent of
the army was made up of recent German or Irish immigrants. In the
course of the war, the total U.S. force employed reached 104,000. In
2008 Martin Dugard authored “The Training Ground: Grant, Lee,
Sherman, and Davis in the Mexican War, 1846-1848.” In 2012 Amy S.
Greenberg authored “A Wicked War: Polk, Clay, Lincoln and the 1846
US Invasion of Mexico.”
(HNQ, 2/28/99)(WSJ, 5/16/08, p.W8)(SSFC, 1/6/13,
p.F6)
1846 May 8, News reached
Washington DC that Mexican troops had attacked a US reconnaissance
patrol near the Rio Grande and killed or captured some 40 men. That
same afternoon Polk and his cabinet had decided to ask Congress for
a declaration of war against Mexico.
(AH, 6/07, p.44)
1846 May 13, The US under Pres.
Polk declared war against Mexico, 2 months after fighting began.
This was in response to an incident where the Mexican cavalry
surrounded a scouting party of American dragoons. $10 million was
appropriated for war expenses by Congress. 50, 000 volunteers
responded to the war effort and Gen. Taylor used his forces to
capture the Mexican town of Monterey [in California] and then moved
south to defeat Santa Anna’s armies at the Battle of Buena Vista.
(WCG, p.59)(HFA, ‘96, p.48)(SS, Internet,
5/13/97)
1846 Jun 15, The United States
and Britain signed a treaty settling a boundary dispute between
Canada and the United States in the Pacific Northwest at the 49th
parallel. Great Britain and the U.S. agreed on a joint occupation of
Oregon Territory. President Polk agreed to a compromise border along
the 49th parallel. The debate over the northwestern border of the
United States. The campaign slogan "54-40 or fight" referred to the
debate over the northwestern border of the United States. The slogan
"54-40 or fight" refers to the north latitude degree and minute
where many Americans wanted to place the border between the U.S. and
then Great Britain in the Pacific Northwest.
(AP, 6/15/97)(HN, 6/15/98)(SFC, 1/25/99,
p.A3)(HNQ, 3/28/00)
1846 Jun 15, Washington
diplomats established a straight line border between the US and
Canada in the northwest and thus established Point Roberts, Wa. as
the westernmost corner of the US. The enclave is 4.9 sq. miles and
allows Canadians to escape their country, its high taxes and buy
GMCs - gasoline, milk and cheese.
(SFC, 5/20/96, p.A-6)
1846 Aug 10, President James
Polk signed a measure establishing the Smithsonian Institution. The
US Congress chartered the Smithsonian Institution, named after
English scientist James Smithson (1765-1836), whose bequest of
$500,000 made it possible. The Smithsonian Institute was born and
Joseph Henry became its first secretary.
(SFEC, 8/25/96, p.T6)(AP, 8/10/07)
1846 Aug 22, The United States
annexed New Mexico.
(AP, 8/22/97)
1848 Feb 14, James Polk became
the first U.S. President to be photographed in office by Matthew
Brady.
(HN, 2/14/98)
1848 Feb 2, US and Mexico
signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Mexico ceded one-third of
its territory to the US including California, agreed to the Rio
Grande as the boundary between Texas and Mexico and was awarded $15
million. 25,000 Mexicans and 12,000 Americans lost their lives in
the 17-month old conflict.
(HFA, ‘96, p.48)(SFC, 6/13/96, p.A17)(HN, 2/2/99)
1848 Jul 4, The Cornerstone of
the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C. was laid by President
Polk. The white marble obelisk, which is 555 feet tall and 55 fee
square at the base, was not completed until 1184. The public was
admitted to the monument on October 9, 1888.
(IB, Internet, 12/7/98)
1848 Dec 5, President Polk
triggered the Gold Rush of ‘49 by confirming that gold had been
discovered in California. Paula Mitchell Marks later wrote "Precious
Dust," an account of the gold rush.
(AP, 12/5/97)(SFEC, 4/12/98, BR p.7)
1849 Mar 4, The US had no
President. Pres. James K. Polk officially stepped down as the 11th
US president and President Zachary Taylor refused to be sworn-in on
a Sunday. US Sen. Some say David Rice Atchison (1807-1886) of
Missouri then technically held office as president until Zachary
Taylor took his oath the next day. However Atchison’s term as
president pro tempore of the Senate had also expired, and his new
term did not begin until March 5.
(AH, 2/03, p.18)
1849 Jun 15, James Polk, the
11th president of the United States, died of cholera in Nashville,
Tenn. Following a visit to New Orleans. In 2008 Walter R. Borneman
authored “Polk: The Man Who Transformed the Presidency and America.”
(AP, 6/15/97)(WSJ, 5/16/08, p.W8)(Econ, 7/30/11,
p.55)
David Atchinson (1849)
1807 Aug 11, David Atchison,
legislator, was born. He was president pro tempore of the U.S.
Senate, and president of U.S. for one day [March 4, 1849], the
Sunday before Zachary Taylor was sworn in.
(MC, 8/11/02)
1849 Mar 4, The US had no
President. Pres. James K. Polk officially stepped down as the 11th
US president and President Zachary Taylor refused to be sworn-in on
a Sunday. US Sen. Some say David Rice Atchison (1807-1886) of
Missouri then technically held office as president until Zachary
Taylor took his oath the next day. However Atchison’s term as
president pro tempore of the Senate had also expired, and his new
term did not begin until March 5.
(AH, 2/03, p.18)
# 12 Zachary Taylor (1849-1850)
1784 Nov 24, Zachary Taylor,
the 12th president of the United States (1849-1850), was born in
Orange County, Va.
(AP, 11/24/97)(HN, 11/24/98)
1848 Nov 7, General Zachary
Taylor was elected president of US. Millard Fillmore was
vice-president. With the exception of South Carolina, who left the
selection of electors to its legislature, the election of 1848
marked the first time in which every state in the union voted for
President and Vice President on the same day: Taylor won election
over Cass, capturing 163 of the 290 electoral votes cast. Zachary
Taylor, a Southerner, a slaveholder and the hero of the Mexican War,
had been nominated by the Party as a candidate for president of the
US. He was an inoffensive candidate in the anxious years leading up
to the Civil War because he had never taken a position on a
political issue or even cast a vote in his life. During his 16
months as president, Congress addressed the explosive issue of
slavery’s expansion to the west with the Compromise of 1850, but
Taylor himself never had the opportunity to act on this issue.
(http://encyclopedia.laborlawtalk.com/U.S._presidential_election,_1848)(HNPD,
7/11/98)
1849 Mar 4, The US had no
President. Pres. James K. Polk officially stepped down as the 11th
US president and President Zachary Taylor refused to be sworn-in on
a Sunday. US Sen. Some say David Rice Atchison (1807-1886) of
Missouri then technically held office as president until Zachary
Taylor took his oath the next day. However Atchison’s term as
president pro tempore of the Senate had also expired, and his new
term did not begin until March 5.
(AH, 2/03, p.18)
1849 Mar 5, Zachary Taylor took
the oath of office at his presidential inauguration.
(AP, 3/5/99)
1849-1850 Zacharay Taylor was the12th President of
the US but died of a stroke after 16 months in office. He was
considered the 5th worst president by a rating cited in the
Congressional Quarterly’s Guide to the Presidency.
(A&IP, ESM, p.71,96b, photo)(SFC, 9/26/96,
p.E10)
1850 Jul 4, President Zachary
Taylor stood hatless in the sun for hours listening to long-winded
speeches. He returned to the White House and attempted to cool off
by eating cherries, cucumbers and drinking iced milk. Severe stomach
cramps followed and it is likely that Taylor's own physicians
inadvertently killed him with a whole series of debilitating
treatments. [see Jul 9]
(HN, 7/11/99)
1850 Jul 9, Zachary Taylor
(b.1784), the 12th president of the United States, died of cholera
at the age of 65 after serving only 16 months. He was succeeded by
Millard Fillmore. Taylor was a Southerner, a slaveholder and the
hero of the Mexican War in 1848 when he was nominated by the Whig
Party as a candidate for president of the United States. He was an
inoffensive candidate in the anxious years leading up to the Civil
War because he had never taken a position on a political issue or
even cast a vote in his life. During his 16 months as president,
Congress addressed the explosive issue of slavery's expansion to the
west with the Compromise of 1850, but Taylor himself never had the
opportunity to act on this issue.
(WUD,1994,p.1679)(SFC, 9/26/96, p.E10)(AP,
7/9/97)(HN, 7/9/98)(HN, 7/11/99)
#13 Millard Fillmore (1850-1853)
1798 Mar 13, Abigail Powers
Fillmore, First Lady, was born.
(HN, 3/13/98)
1800 Jan 7, Millard Fillmore,
13th US president (1850-1853), was born in Summerhill (Locke), N.Y.
(SFC, 2/21/97, p.A25)(AP, 1/7/98)(HN, 1/7/99)
1850 Jul 10, Millard Fillmore
(Whig) was sworn in as the 13th president following the death of
Zachary Taylor.
(SFC, 2/21/97, p.A25) (AP,
7/10/97)(HN, 7/10/98)
1850 Sep 20, The slave trade in
Washington, D.C., was abolished as a provision of Henry Clay’s
Compromise of 1850. Because each state had its own slavery code when
the District of Columbia was founded in 1800, Washington had adopted
Maryland’s laws. Although the 1850 legislation made the slave trade
illegal, slavery itself was still legal. Nevertheless, Washington
became a haven for free blacks. By 1860, free blacks outnumbered
slaves almost four-to-one. President Abraham Lincoln put an end to
Washington’s slavery altogether in 1862, freeing about 2,989 African
Americans who were then slaves according to the slavery code.
(HNPD, 9/20/98)(HN, 9/20/98)
1850 Sep 29, Pres. Millard
Fillmore named Mormon leader Brigham Young as the first governor of
the Utah Territory.
(HN, 9/29/98)(SFC, 10/23/02, p.H4)
1850 Pres. Fillmore recommended
a federal mint in SF to replace the 20 private mints.
(SSFC, 1/28/03, p.E1)
1850 Pres. Millard Fillmore
designated the Lime Point Military Reservation, later Fort Baker, on
the Marin side of the entrance to SF Bay.
(SFEC, 8/1/99, p.B4)
1850 Senator Henry Clay of
Kentucky introduced the 8 provisions of the Great Compromise Bill.
The provisions of the Great Compromise bill were reduced to 5 and
passed one by one. They were in sum: 1) the admission of California
as a free state; 2) slavery in the territories of Utah and New
Mexico would be resolved by popular sovereignty; 3) slavery would be
ended in the District of Columbia; 4) the federal government would
assume a $10 million debt by Texas; 5) the federal government would
be responsible for the return of runaway slaves. W.F. Seward stated:
"The unity of our empire hangs on the decision of this day."
(SFC, 2/21/97, p.A25)
1850s The political
organization called the American Party, which flourished in the
1850s, is better known as the Know-Nothing Party. Originally a
clandestine organization, members were instructed to say that they
"know nothing" when asked about the party, hence the name.
Primarily, the party was anti-immigrant and stood in opposition to
whatever political power immigrant groups happened to have in
Northern cities. In 1854 the American Party won significant
elections in seven state governments. The party’s national platform
in 1856 included anti-Catholic and anti-alien planks.
(HNQ, 8/27/98)
1851 President Fillmore sent
the USS Michigan, the Navy’s first iron-hulled warship, to Beaver
Island to arrest James Strang. Strang was put on trial in Detroit
and was declared innocent of all charges. Strang then effectively
detached his kingdom from the US but maintained voting rights.
(Smith., Aug. 1995, p.88)
1853 Jul 14, Commodore Matthew
Perry met with Prince Toda and Prince Ido at ceremony at Kurihama,
Japan, and presented a letter from former Pres. Fillmore to Emperor
Osahito requesting trade relations. Fillmore's term of office had
already expired by the time the letter was delivered.
(ON, 11/04, p.12)(AP, 7/14/07)
1855 Millard Fillmore, the 13th
president of the United States, declined to accept an honorary
degree from the University of Oxford, proclaiming, "I had not the
advantage of a classical education, and no man should, in my
judgment, accept a degree he cannot read."
(HNQ, 2/17/99)
1874 Mar 8, Millard Fillmore
(b.1800), the 13th president of the United States (1850-1853), died
of a stroke in Buffalo, N.Y.
(SFC, 2/21/97, p.A25)(AP, 1/7/98)(AP, 3/8/98)
#14 Franklin Pierce (1853-1857)
1804 Nov 23, Franklin Pierce,
14th president of the United States (1853-1857), was born in
Hillsboro, N.H.
(AP, 11/23/97)(HN, 11/23/98)
1850s The political
organization called the American Party, which flourished in the
1850s, is better known as the Know-Nothing Party. Originally a
clandestine organization, members were instructed to say that they
"know nothing" when asked about the party, hence the name.
Primarily, the party was anti-immigrant and stood in opposition to
whatever political power immigrant groups happened to have in
Northern cities. In 1854 the American Party won significant
elections in seven state governments. The party’s national platform
in 1856 included anti-Catholic and anti-alien planks.
(HNQ, 8/27/98)
1852 Nov 2, Franklin Pierce was
elected US president over Gen’l. Winfield Scott, who ran as a Whig.
In 1852, the U.S. Congress passed a resolution giving Scott the pay
and rank of a lieutenant general. Scott, not Ulysses S. Grant, was
the first to hold this rank since George Washington. William R. King
was elected vice-president.
(SFC, 10/22/96, p.E8)(http://tinyurl.com/8ku7j)
1852 It took 49 ballots to
nominate Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire, for the presidency.
(WSJ, 2/11/03, p.A10)
1853 Mar 2, The Territory of
Washington was organized after separating from Oregon Territory.
Pres. Franklin Pierce appointed Isaac Ingalls Stevens (1818-1862) as
the first governor of the Washington Territory. Stevens served as US
Congressman from the territory (1857-1858), and as a major general
in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He died at the
Battle of Chantilly.
(HN, 3/2/99)(SC,
3/2/02)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Stevens)
1853 Mar 4, Franklin Pierce
(1804-1869) took office as the 14th president of the US. William
Rufus de Vane King (D) was sworn in as 13th US Vice President.
(www.potus.com/fpierce.html)
1853 Jul 14, Pres. Franklin
Pierce opened the 1st industrial exposition in NY. Some 4,000
exhibitors gathered for a trade show at the New York Crystal Palace
(later Bryant Park).
(WSJ, 9/14/00, p.A24)(MC, 7/14/02)
1853 Dec 30, The United States
bought some 45,000 square miles of land from Mexico in a deal known
as the Gadsden Purchase. It included parts of Arizona and New Mexico
(29,640 sq. miles) south of the Gila River. The purchase was
ratified by Congress on April 25, 1854.
(AWAM, Dec. 94, p.31)(HFA, ‘96, p.28)(AHD,
p.537)(AP, 12/30/97)
1853-1857 Franklin Pierce, 14th President of the
US, acquired land from Mexico and supported the nation’s 1st trade
agreement with Japan. Jefferson Davis served as his secretary of
war.
(A&IP, ESM, p.96b, photo)(WSJ, 2/11/03,
p.A10)
1854 Mar 20, The Republican
Party was founded when former members of the Whig political party
met to establish a new political party that would oppose the spread
of slavery into the western territories. [see Feb 28, Jul 6]
(MC, 3/20/02)
1854 May 30, The
Kansas-Nebraska Act, designed by Sen. Stephen A. Douglas of
Illinois, was passed by the US Congress. It allowed people in the
territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether
or not to allow slavery within their borders. The governor of the
Kansas Territory was James William Denver. Pres. Pierce kept
appointing proslavery governors. The Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed
the Missouri Compromise and opened the north to slavery. This period
of Kansas history was incorporated into the 1998 novel "The All-True
Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton," by Jane Smiley.
(AP, 5/30/97)(WSJ, 2/11/03,
p.A10)(www.historyplace.com/lincoln/kansas.htm)(ON, 4/08, p.1)
1854 Jul 6, The Republican
Party was officially organized in Jackson, Michigan. The Republican
Party was formed in Ripon, Wisconsin, by a group of anti-slavery
politicians at the Little White Schoolhouse. [see Mar 20]
(Hem., 7/96, p.28)(HN, 7/6/98)
1854 US Congress passed a
resolution that declared: The great and conservative element in our
system is the belief of our people in the pure doctrines and divine
truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
(WSJ, 6/26/01, p.A23)
1855 Jun 5, The anti-foreign,
anti-Roman Catholic Know-Nothing Party held its 1st convention.
(MC, 6/5/02)
1856 Feb 18, The American
(Know-Nothing) Party abolished secrecy.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1856 Jun 17, In Philadelphia,
the Republican Party opened its first national convention. John C.
Fremont (1830-1890), American explorer, was the 1st Republican
presidential candidate. He platform pledged to end polygamy and
slavery. He lost to James Buchanan by about 500,000 votes. Fremont
went on to serve as territorial governor of Arizona from 1878 to
1883.
(AP, 6/17/97)(HN, 6/17/98)(SFEC, 2/13/00, BR
p.5)(HNQ, 3/11/00)(WSJ, 9/7/01, p.W17)
1856 The last presidential
candidate of the Whig Party was Millard Fillmore in 1856. Fillmore
and his running mate Andrew J. Donelson were also the nominees of
the American (Know Nothing) Party that year. In 1999 Michael F. Hold
published "The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party."
(HNQ, 9/10/98)(WSJ, 7/8/99, p.A16)
1869 Oct 8, Franklin Pierce
(64), the 14th president (1853-1857) of the United States, died in
Concord, N.H.
(AP, 10/8/97)(MC, 10/8/01)
#15 James Buchanon (1857-1861)
1821 Jan 21, John Breckinridge
(d.1875), 14th U.S. Vice President, was born.
(HN, 1/21/99)
1856 Jun 17, In Philadelphia,
the Republican Party opened its first national convention. John C.
Fremont (1830-1890), American explorer, was the 1st Republican
presidential candidate. He platform pledged to end polygamy and
slavery. He lost to James Buchanan by about 500,000 votes. Fremont
went on to serve as territorial governor of Arizona from 1878 to
1883. In 2003 Lewis L. Gould authored "Grand Old Party: A History of
the Republicans."
(AP, 6/17/97)(HN, 6/17/98)(SFEC, 2/13/00, BR
p.5)(HNQ, 3/11/00)(WSJ, 9/7/01, p.W17)(SSFC, 11/23/03, p.M1)
1856 Nov 4, James Buchanan was
elected US president.
(http://tinyurl.com/8ku7j)(http://www.potus.com)
1857-1861 James Buchanon served as the 15th
president. John Cabell Breckinridge (1821-1875) was the US
vice-president under Buchanan. Breckenridge was a Confederate
General in the Civil War.
(WUD, 1994, p.183)(A&IP, ESM, p.96b,
photo)(SFC, 11/9/96, p.A12)(WUD, 1994, p.183)
1858 Apr 6, President Buchanan
issued a proclamation declaring Mormons in the Utah Territory to be
in a state of rebellion against the US government.
(AP, 4/6/08)
1858 Aug 16, A telegraphed
message from Britain’s Queen Victoria to President Buchanan was
transmitted over the recently laid trans-Atlantic cable. The cable
linked Ireland and Canada and failed after a few weeks.
(AP,
8/16/97)(www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/cable/peopleevents/e_inquiry.html)
1859 Oct 19, Pres. James
Buchanan signed a letter that confirmed the return of California
mission properties to the church.
(SFEC, 3/12/00, p.T5)
1859 Pres. Buchanan ordered a
blockade of Cuba to intercept American-owned slave ships.
(SSFC, 2/8/04, p.C12)
1860 Apr 25, The first Japanese
ambassador to the US, Niimi Buzennokami, and his 74-man staff
arrived in Washington to present their credentials to Pres. James
Buchanan.
(www.trivia-library.com/b/world-history-1860.htm)
1861 Dec 4, The Federal Senate,
voting 36 to 0, expelled Senator John C. Breckenridge of Kentucky
because he joined the Confederate Army.
(HN, 12/4/98)
1861 James Buchanan, 15th
President of the United States, retired to Wheatland, his
Pennsylvania home.
(HNQ, 4/15/01)
1868 Jun 1, James Buchanan (b.
Apr 23, 1791), the 15th president of the United States, died near
Lancaster, Pa. He was the only US president to have never married.
In 1961 Philip Shreiver Klein authored "President James Buchanan: A
Biography."
(AP, 6/1/97)(ON, 12/00, p.12)
#16 Abraham Lincoln (1861-1865)
(www.nps.gov/liho/lincoln.htm)
1809 Feb 12, Abraham Lincoln,
16th president of the US, was born in Hardin County (present-day
Larue County), Kentucky. Lincoln was president of the United States
during one of the most turbulent times in American history. Although
roundly criticized during his own time, he is recognized as one of
history's greatest figures who preserved the Union during the Civil
War and proved that democracy could be a lasting form of government.
Lincoln entered national politics as a Whig congressman from
Illinois, but he lost his seat after one term due to his unpopular
position on the Mexican War and the extension of slavery into the
territories. The 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates for the Senate gave
him a national reputation. In 1860, Lincoln became the first
president elected from the new Republican Party. Abraham Lincoln was
fatally shot by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theater in Washington,
D.C., on April 14, 1865. In 1996 a new biography of Abraham Lincoln
by David Donald was published.
(AP, 2/12/98)(AHD, 1971, p.759)(WSJ, 2/10/95,
p.A-8) (SFC, 9/1/96, Par.
p.12)(http://rogerjnorton.com/Lincoln88.html)
1818 Dec 13, Mary Todd Lincoln,
wife of President Abraham Lincoln, was born.
(HN, 12/13/98)
1831-1837 Abraham Lincoln lived in New Salem, Ill.
During this time he enlisted in the Black Hawk War. [see 1832]
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.)(SFEC, 3/22/98, p.T4)
1832 Apr 21, Abraham Lincoln
(23) assembled with his New Salem neighbors for the Black Hawk War
on the Western frontier. Illinois Governor John Reynolds had called
for volunteers to beat back a new Indian threat. Black Hawk, chief
of the Sac and Fox Indians, had returned to his homeland at the head
of a band of 450 warriors, intent on forcibly reversing the treaty
he had signed 28 years earlier that ceded control of the tribe’s
ancestral home in northwestern Illinois to the U.S.
government.
(HNQ, 7/21/00)
1835 Aug 25, Ann Rutledge (22),
said to be Lincoln's true love, died in Ill.
(MC, 8/25/02)
1842 Nov 4, Abraham Lincoln
married Mary Todd in Springfield, Ill.
(AP, 11/4/97)(HN, 11/4/98)
1842 Sep 2, A letter by Abraham
Lincoln (31) in the Sangamon Journal satirized the Illinois State
Auditor’s call for state taxes to be paid in silver or gold. This in
part led auditor James Shields to challenge Lincoln to a duel.
(ON, 11/02, p.11)
1844 The Lincolns purchased a 1
1/2 story Greek Revival home at Eighth and Jackson in Springfield,
Ill. Mary and Abraham Lincoln paid $1,200 in cash and land for the
one-and-half-story, five-room, wood-clapboard structure. It was the
only home the Lincolns ever owned. They spent the next 16 years
enlarging and improving it.
(SFEC, 3/22/98, p.T4)(HNQ, 5/6/01)
1849 May 29, A patent for
lifting vessels was granted to Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln said: "You
can fool some of the people all of the time, & some of the
people some of time, but you can't fool all of the people all of
time"
(HN, 5/29/98)(SC, 5/29/02)
1854 Oct 4, Abraham Lincoln
made his 1st political speech at Illinois State Fair.
(MC, 10/4/01)
1854 Oct 16, Abraham Lincoln
delivered a speech in Peoria, Ill., part of a series against
legislation proposed by Sen. Stephen Douglas that would allow
settlers to decide the status of slavery in Kansas and Nebraska. In
2008 Lewis E. Lehrman authored “Lincoln at Peoria: The Turning
Point.”
(WSJ, 7/26/08, p.W9)
1857 Pres. Lincoln made a
speech on the Dred Scott decision where he pointed out that the
Declaration of Independence asserts that all men are equal in their
right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
(WSJ,2/12/97, p.A16)
1858 Jun 16, In a speech
accepting the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate in
Springfield, Ill., Senate candidate Abraham Lincoln said the slavery
issue had to be resolved, declaring, "A house divided against itself
cannot stand."
(AP, 6/16/98)(HN, 6/16/98)
1858 Jul 24, During the
Illinois senatorial campaign Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln
challenged Democrat Steven Douglas to a series of joint debates,
which covered the slavery controversy and its impact on the nation.
The debates illuminated the positions of Lincoln and Douglas on
slavery, which Lincoln regarded as "a moral, a social and a
political wrong," while Douglas evaded the moral issue. Even though
Lincoln narrowly won the popular vote, Douglas prevailed in the
state legislature 54-41 and thus the election. The debates propelled
Lincoln to national prominence.
(HNPD, 9/4/99)(AP, 7/24/08)
1858 Aug 21, The first of seven
debates between Illinois senatorial contenders Abraham Lincoln and
Stephen Douglas took place in Ottowa, Ill. Douglas went on to win
the Senate seat in November, but Lincoln gains national visibility
for the first time. Douglas stated in the 1st debate: "I believe
this government was made on the white basis. I believe it was made
by white men for the benefit of white men and their posterity
forever, and I am in favor of confining citizenship to white men."
(WSJ, 3/3/00, p.W11)(HN, 8/21/00)(AP, 8/21/08)
1858 Aug 27, The 2nd of 7 of
the Lincoln-Douglas debates in the 1858 Illinois senatorial race of
took place in Freeport, Ill. Stephen Douglas formulated what became
known as the Freeport Doctrine, which stated that the people of a
territory could, by lawful means, exclude slavery prior to the
formulation of a state constitution. Douglas first pronounced it in
response to a question posed by Lincoln as to how Douglas could
reconcile the doctrine of "popular sovereignty" with the Dred Scott
decision.
(HNQ, 6/4/99)(ON, 4/08, p.2)
1858 Sep 8, Lincoln made a
speech about when you can fool people.
(MC, 9/8/01)
1858 Sep 15, The third debate
between senatorial candidates Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas
was held in Jonesboro, Ill.
(AP, 9/15/08)
1858 Sep 18, Abraham Lincoln
and Stephen A. Douglas held the fourth of their senatorial debates,
this one in Charleston, Ill.
(AP, 9/18/08)
1858 Oct 7, Lincoln and Douglas
held their 5th debate in Galesburg, Ill., on the Knox College
campus.
(SFEM, 10/29/00, p.8)(ON, 4/08, p.2)
1858 Oct 13, The sixth debate
between senatorial candidates Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas
took place in Quincy, Ill.
(AP, 10/13/08)
1858 Oct 15, The seventh and
final debate between senatorial candidates Abraham Lincoln and
Stephen Douglas took place in Alton, Ill.
(ON, 4/08, p.2)(AP, 10/15/08)
1858 Nov 2, In Illinois Abraham
Lincoln won 4,085 more popular votes for the Senate than did Sen.
Stephen Douglas; however Illinois senators were elected by the state
legislatures and Douglas won reelection there by 8 votes.
(ON, 4/08, p.3)
1860 Feb 27, Abraham Lincoln
spoke at the Great Hall of Cooper Union College in NYC: “Let us have
faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end,
dare to do our duty as we understand it.”
(SSFC, 8/15/04, p.D11)
1860 Mar 6, While campaigning
for the presidency, Abraham Lincoln made a speech defending the
right to strike.
(HN, 3/6/99)
1860 May 16, The Republican
convention operned in Chicago.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1860_Republican_National_Convention)
1860 May 18, The Republican
Convention in Chicago nominated Abraham Lincoln for US president and
Senator Hannibal Hamlin of Maine as Vice President. Other
presidential candidates included William Seward and Salmon Chase.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1860_Republican_National_Convention)(Econ,
12/1/12, p.75)
1860 Nov 6, Former Illinois
congressman Abraham Lincoln was elected as the 16th US president. He
defeated three other candidates, John Breckinridge, John Bell and
Stephen Douglas. He won the US presidential elections with a
majority of the electoral votes in a 4-way race. Lincoln became the
first president elected from the new Republican Party. Following his
election South Carolina seceded from the Union followed by
Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas.
Hannibal Hamlin was his vice-president. Lincoln was fatally shot by
John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C., on April
14, 1865. In 1996 a new biography of Abraham Lincoln by David Donald
was published.
(WSJ, 2/10/95, p.A-8)(SFC, 9/1/96, Par.
p.12)(WSJ, 9/19/97, p.A13) (AP, 2/12/98)(SFC, 12/21/98, p.A3)(AP,
11/6/08)(SFC, 4/30/99, p.E9)
1860 Nov 13, South Carolina’s
legislature called a special convention to discuss secession from
the Union.
(HN, 11/13/98)
1861 Jan 25, Pres. Lincoln
picked Ferdinand Schavers, a black man, as his first bodyguard.
(Hem., 5/97, p.18)(WSJ, 9/19/97, p.A13)
1861 Feb 4, Delegates from six
southern states met in Montgomery, Ala., to form the Confederate
States of America. They included Mississippi, Florida, Alabama,
Georgia, Louisiana and Texas.
(AP, 2/4/97)(ON, 11/00, p.1)
1861 Feb 11, President-elect
Lincoln departed Springfield, Ill., for Washington.
(AP, 2/11/97)
1861 Feb 13, Abraham Lincoln
was declared president.
(www.thelincolnlog.org/view/1861/2/13)
1861 Feb 19, Pres.-elect
Lincoln traveled through NYC on his way to Washington.
(WSJ, 2/12/04, p.D12)
1861 Feb 23, President-elect
Lincoln arrived secretly in Washington to take office after a
suspected assassination plot was foiled in Baltimore. Allan
Pinkerton, founder of the Pinkerton Detective Agency, may have saved
Abraham Lincoln’s life by suspecting a plot to assassinate the
president-elect in Baltimore, Md. At the detective’s suggestion,
Lincoln avoided the threat by secretly slipping through the city at
night. A few months later, Pinkerton joined Maj. Gen. George B.
McClellan’s staff as chief intelligence officer. Using the name
"Major Allen," the private detective remained with McClellan until
late 1862, catching southern spies and running an espionage network
in Confederate territory.
(AP,
2/23/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltimore_Plot)
1861 Mar 4, Abraham Lincoln was
inaugurated president.
(AP, 3/4/99)
1861 Mar 5, Pres. Lincoln
appointed William H. Seward as his Sec. of State. Seward served
until March 4, 1869.
(http://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/seward-william-henry)
1861 Mar 9, First hostile act
of the Civil War occurred when Star of the West fired on Sumter,
S.C.
(HN, 3/9/98)
1861 Apr 6, Pres. Lincoln
dispatched 3 ships and 600 men to Fort Sumter as a relief expedition
carrying provisions. He followed this with a note to South Carolina
Gov. Francis W. Pickens that no arms were included.
(ON, 11/00, p.2)
1861 Apr 15, Three days after
the attack on Fort Sumter, S.C., President Lincoln declared a state
of insurrection and called out for 75,000 Union volunteers.
(AP, 4/15/97)(HN, 4/15/98)
1861 Apr 19, President Lincoln
ordered the blockade of Confederate ports.
(http://history.state.gov/milestones/1861-1865/Blockade)
1861 Apr 27, President Lincoln
suspended the writ of habeas corpus.
(HN, 4/27/98)
1861 Jun 17, President Abraham
Lincoln witnessed Dr. Thaddeus Lowe demonstrate the use of a hot-air
balloon.
(HN, 6/17/98)
1861 Jul 27, President Abraham
Lincoln replaced General Irwin McDowell with General George B.
McClellen as head of the Army of the Potomac.
(AP, 7/27/97)(HN, 7/27/98)
1861 Apr 16, US president
Lincoln outlawed business with confederate states.
(MC, 4/16/02)
1861 Apr 30, President Lincoln
ordered Federal Troops to evacuate Indian Territory.
(MC, 4/30/02)
1861 May 3, Lincoln asked for
42,000 Army Volunteers and another 18,000 seamen.
(MC, 5/3/02)
1861 May 3, Gen. Winfield Scott
presented his Anaconda Plan.
(MC, 5/3/02)
1861 May 16, Pres. Lincoln
commissioned Benjamin F. Butler, a Massachusetts politician, as a
major general of volunteers in the US Army.
(ON, 2/12, p.1)
1861 Jun 10, Thaddeus Lowe
demonstrated his balloon, the Enterprise, along with its telegraphy
capabilities for Pres. Lincoln at the White House lawn.
(ON, 2/05, p.8)
1861 Aug 15, Lincoln directed
reinforcements to be sent to Missouri.
(MC, 8/15/02)
1861 Aug 16, President Lincoln
prohibited the states of the Union from trading with the seceding
states of the Confederacy.
(AP, 8/16/97)
1861 Aug 30, Union General John
Fremont declared martial law throughout Missouri and made his own
emancipation proclamation to free slaves in the state. However,
Fremont’s order was countermanded days later by President Lincoln.
Fremont was soon relieved of command after refusing Lincoln’s order
to rescind his proclamation and adhere to the terms of the August 6
Confiscation Act.
(HN, 8/30/98)(AP, 8/30/06)(ON, 6/10, p.1)
1861 Oct 23, President Abraham
Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus in Washington, D.C. for
all military-related cases.
(HN, 10/23/98
1861 Oct 24, Western Union
completed the first transcontinental telegraph line. The first
transcontinental telegraph message was sent as Justice Stephen J.
Field of California transmitted a telegram to President Lincoln.
Telegraph lines linked the West Coast to the rest of the country and
made the Pony Express obsolete late in the year.
(SFC, 4/28/97, p.A19)(AP, 10/24/97)(HN, 10/24/98)
1861 Dec 3, In his first annual
message Lincoln argued that "labor is prior to, and independent of
capital. Capital is the fruit of labor, and could never have existed
if labor had not first existed..."
(WSJ, 2/10/95,
p.A8)(http://caps.fool.com/blogs/quotes-by-lincoln/548670)
1861 Dec 21, Pres. Lincoln
signed legislation establishing the Medal of Honor. The medal was
first authorized for Sailors and Marines, and the following year for
Soldiers as well.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medal_of_Honor)
1861 Pres. Lincoln appointed
Anson Burlingame, congressman from Mass., as ambassador to China.
(Ind, 8/11/01, 5A)
1861-1869 William Henry Seward was the American
Sec. of State during these years
(HFA, ‘96, p.30)(AHD, p.1187)
1862 Jan 11, Lincoln accepted
Simon Cameron's resignation as Secretary of War.
(HN, 1/11/99)
1862 Jan 13, President Lincoln
named Edwin M. Stanton Secretary of War.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1862 Jan 27, President Abraham
Lincoln issued General War Order No. 1, setting in motion the Union
armies.
(HN, 1/27/99)
1862 Feb 20, Willie Lincoln
(b.1850), son of Pres. Lincoln, died in Washington DC. Typhoid fever
was the suspected cause.
(SSFC, 3/20/05, Par
p.4)(www.nps.gov/liho/lincoln.htm)
1862 Mar 6, Pres. Lincoln
proposed to Congress a revised plan of compensated emancipation for
slave-owners in the District of Columbia and the border states.
(ON, 6/10, p.1)
1862 May 20, President Lincoln
signed the Homestead Act, providing 250 million acres of free land
to settlers in the West.
(HN, 5/20/01)
1862 Jun 19, Slavery was
outlawed in US territories. President Abraham Lincoln outlined his
Emancipation Proclamation. On June 19, 1865 General Gordon Granger
informed Texas slaves that they were free.
{LincolnA, USA}
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emancipation_Proclamation)(HN,
6/19/99)
1862 Jul 1, Abraham Lincoln
instituted an income tax to pay for the Civil War. The US Internal
Revenue Service (IRS) was founded. Internal Revenue Law imposed
federal taxes on inheritance, tobacco & a progressive rate on
incomes over $600.
(SFC, 11/2/96, p.D1)(WSJ, 12/15/95, p.A-1)
1862 Jul 1, Pres. Lincoln
signed the Pacific Railway Act.
(SSFC, 9/23/12, p.H3)
1862 Jul 2, Lincoln signed an
act granting land for state agricultural colleges. [see Jul 1]
(SC, 7/2/02)
1862 Jul 11, President Abraham
Lincoln appointed General Henry Halleck as general in chief of the
Federal army. [see Aug 11] Stephen Ambrose later authored "Halleck:
Lincoln’s Chief of Staff."
(HN, 7/11/98)(WSJ, 8/20/01, p.A8)
1862 Aug 11, President Abraham
Lincoln appointed Union General Henry Halleck to the position of
general in chief of the Union Army. [see Jul 11]
(HN, 8/10/98)
1862 Sep 22, President Lincoln
announced at a cabinet meeting that he intended to issue the
Emancipation Proclamation, declaring all slaves in rebel states
should be free as of Jan. 1, 1863. President Abraham Lincoln brought
the issue of freedom to the forefront of the Civil War when he
delivered the Emancipation Proclamation to his cabinet , a few days
after the bloody Battle of Antietam. The proclamation stated that
slaves in any of the states in rebellion against the Union would be
freed if the states had not returned to the Union by January 1,
1863. After that, nearly 180,000 black soldiers enlisted to fight
the Confederates until the end of the war.
(SFE Mag., 2/12/95, p. 30)(AP, 9/22/97)(HNPD,
9/22/98)
1862 Sep 23, Lincoln's
Emancipation Proclamation was published in Northern Newspapers.
(MC, 9/23/01)
1862 Sep 24, President Abraham
Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus against anyone suspected
of being a Southern sympathizer.
(HN, 9/24/98)
1862 Sep, Pres. Lincoln warned
the South that he would free all slaves in Southern territory if the
rebellion continued. Unlike some others, Lincoln always promoted a
voluntary colonization, rather than forcing blacks to leave. In 2011
the book "Colonization After Emancipation," by Philip Magness and
Sebastian Page made the case that Lincoln was even more committed to
colonizing blacks than previously known.
(AP, 3/4/11)
1862 Sep, The troops of the 1st
Louisiana Native Guards were free black men who lived in New
Orleans. When Pres. Lincoln issued his preliminary Emancipation
Proclamation he invited black men in Confederate territory to join
the Union army. Union Major General Benjamin Butler immediately
mustered the 1st Louisiana Native Guards into Federal service,
making them the Union’s first black soldiers. They had volunteered
for state service in the Civil War, and served as a home guard unit.
When New Orleans fell to Union forces in April 1862, the black
troops remained in the city and offered their services to Butler.
(HNQ, 2/21/02)
1862 Nov 5, President Abraham
Lincoln relieved General George McClellan of command of the Union
armies and named Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside commander of the Army of
the Potomac.
(HN, 11/5/98)
1862 Dec 1, President Lincoln
gave the State of the Union message to the 37th Congress. “The
dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present… As
our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must
disenthrall ourselves.”
(WSJ, 9/7/06, p.A20)
1862 Dec 6, President Lincoln
ordered the hanging of 39 of the 303 convicted Indians who
participated in the Sioux Uprising in Minnesota. They were to be
hanged on Dec 26. The Dakota Indians were going hungry when food and
money from the federal government was not distributed as promised.
They led a massacre that left over 400 white people dead. The
uprising was put down and 300 Indians were sentenced to death. Pres.
Lincoln reduced the number to 39, who were hanged. The government
then nullified the 1851 treaty.
(WSJ, 2/5/98, p.A6)(HN, 12/6/98)
1862 Dec 17, Maj. Gen. Ulysses
S. Grant issued General Order No. 11 designed to combat a Civil War
black market in cotton. Grant believed the trade was run primarily
by Jewish traders and ordered Jews expelled in his military
district. Pres. Lincoln rescinded the order on Jan. 4, 1863. In 2012
Jonathan D. Sarna authored “When General Grant Expelled the Jews.”
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Order_No._11_(1862))(SSFC,
4/22/12, p.F3)
1862 Dec 25, President and Mrs.
Lincoln visited hospitals in the Washington D.C. area on this
Christmas Day.
(HN, 12/25/98)
1862 Dec 30, The draft of the
Emancipation Proclamation was finished and circulated around
Lincoln's cabinet for comment.
(HN, 12/30/98)
1862 Dec 31, President Lincoln
signed an act admitting West Virginia to the Union.
(AP, 12/31/97)
1862 Pres. Lincoln spoke
to a White House audience of free blacks, urging them to leave the
US and settle in Central America.
(AP, 3/4/11)
1862 Pres. Lincoln made Andrew
Johnson the military governor of Tennessee after Federal forces
captured Nashville.
(SFC, 12/21/98, p.A3)
1863 Jan, 1, All slaves held in
rebellion territory in USA were made free by Abraham Lincoln's Sep
22, 1862, Emancipation Proclamation.
(HFA, ‘96, p.22)(V.D.-H.K.p.275)(AP, 1/1/98)(HN,
1/1/99)
1863 Jan 4, General Halleck, by
direction of President Lincoln, ordered U.S. Grant to revoke his
infamous General Order No. 11 that expelled Jews from his
operational area.
(HN, 1/4/99)
1863 Jan 26, President Lincoln
named General Joseph Hooker to replace Burnside as commander of the
Army of the Potomac. [see Jan 25]
(HN, 1/26/99)
1863 Feb 26, Pres. Lincoln
signed a National Currency Act.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1863 Mar 2, The US
Congress passed the False Claims Act to protect the government from
being ripped off by suppliers outfitting the Union army. It is often
referred to as the "Lincoln Law,” because it was passed under the
administration of President Abraham Lincoln.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_Claims_Act)(Econ, 8/30/14, p.22)
1863 Mar 3, President Abraham
Lincoln signed the conscription act compelling U.S. citizens to
report for duty in the Civil War or pay $300.00. 86,724 men paid the
exemption cost to avoid service. The inequality of this arrangement
led to the Draft Riots in New York.
(HN, 3/3/99)(HNQ, 10/18/00)(SSFC, 2/8/15, p.N5)
1863 Mar 3, Abraham Lincoln
approved a charter for National Academy of Sciences.
(www.nasonline.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ABOUT_main_page)
1863 Apr 24, The Lieber code,
also known as Instructions for the Government of Armies of the
United States in the Field, General Order № 100, was signed by Pres.
Abraham Lincoln. It was named after the German-American jurist and
political philosopher Francis Lieber and dictated how soldiers
should conduct themselves in war time. It set a new norm of respect
for private property.
(Econ, 4/10/10,
p.64)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lieber_Code)
1863 Jun 25, Pres. Lincoln
chose US General George Meade to replace General Hooker, hoping he
would be more aggressive. [see Jun 28]
(MC, 6/25/02)
1863 Jul 2, Mrs. Lincoln was
thrown from her carriage and spent weeks recovering at the Anderson
Cottage, Washington DC. The seat assembly may have been sabotaged.
(SFC, 5/20/02, p.F10)
1863 Jul 13, Rioting against
the Civil War military draft erupted in New York City; about 1,000
people died over three days. Anti-abolitionist Irish longshoremen
rampaged against blacks in the deadly Draft Riots in New York City
in response to Pres. Lincoln’s announcement of military
conscription.
(WSJ, 3/19/96, p.A-12)(AP, 7/13/97)(HN, 7/13/98)
1863 Jul 30, Pres. Lincoln
issued his "eye-for-eye" order to shoot a rebel prisoner for every
black prisoner shot.
(MC, 7/30/02)
1863 Aug 3, Governor Seymour
asked Pres. Lincoln to suspend the draft in NY.
(SC, 8/3/02)
1863 Oct 3, President Lincoln
declared the last Thursday in November, Thanksgiving Day.
(AP, 10/3/97)
1863 Nov 17, Lincoln began the
1st draft of his Gettysburg Address.
(MC, 11/17/01)
1863 Nov 19, President Lincoln
delivered the Gettysburg Address as he dedicated a national cemetery
at the site of the Civil War battlefield in Pennsylvania. Lincoln
had been asked to deliver a few "appropriate remarks" to the crowd
at the dedication of the National Cemetery at the site of the Battle
of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. His address was almost ignored in the
wake of the lengthy oration by main speaker Edwin Everett, the
former governor of Massachusetts. In fact, Lincoln's speech was over
before many in the crowd were even aware that he was speaking.
Lincoln concluded his speech with this vow: "We here highly resolve
that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under
God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the
people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the
earth."
(http://condor.stcloudstate.edu/~brixr01/theTIMEMACHINE.html)(AP,
11/19/97)(ON, 8/07, p.1)
1863 Dec 8, President Lincoln
announced his plan for the Reconstruction of the South. President
Lincoln offered amnesty for confederate deserters.
(AP, 12/8/97)(MC, 12/8/01)
1863 Dec 14, The widow of
Confederate General B.H. Helm was given amnesty by President Lincoln
after she swore allegiance to the Union. Mrs. Helm was the
half-sister of Mary Todd Lincoln.
(HN, 12/14/98)
1863 Pres. Lincoln granted a
British agent permission to recruit volunteers for a Belize colony.
(AP, 3/4/11)
1863 Abraham Lincoln sent 450
newly freed slaves to Haiti’s Ile-à-Vache to found a colony, though
most gave up and returned home a year later.
(Reuters, 4/6/14)
1863-1865 The 1998 novel "The Last Full Measure"
by Jeff Shaara covers the Civil War across it last two years.
(SFEC, 6/21/98, p.D5)
1864 Mar 9, 1864, President
Abraham Lincoln officially commissioned Ulysses S. Grant lieutenant
general in the U.S. Army. After leading Union victories in the West
in 1862-63, Lincoln gave Grant supreme command of the Union forces
with the revived rank of lieutenant general.
(HNQ, 3/13/99)
1864 Jun 8, Abraham Lincoln was
nominated for another term as president during the National Union
(Republican) Party's convention in Baltimore.
(AP, 6/8/07)
1864 Jun 30, Pres. Lincoln
signed legislation creating America’s first national park. Congress
gave to California the lands known as Yosemite with the
understanding that the state would preserve them for public
enjoyment.
(SFEC, 10/18/98, p.T4)(SSFC, 6/22/14, p.P6)
1864 Jul 12, President Abraham
Lincoln became the first standing president to witness a battle as
Union forces repelled Jubal Early’s army on the outskirts of
Washington, D.C.
(HN, 7/12/98)
1864 Jul 18, President Lincoln
asked for 500,000 volunteers for military service.
(MC, 7/18/02)
1864 Aug 28, The Democratic
National Convention began in Chicago. General George B. McClellan's
campaign platform called the war in America a failure. [see Aug 31]
(WSJ, 9/25/03, p.A18)
1864 Aug 31, At the Democratic
convention in Chicago, General George B. McClellan was nominated for
president. [see Aug 28]
(HN, 8/31/98)
1864 Nov 8, President Abraham
Lincoln was re-elected with Andrew Johnson as his vice-president.
Lincoln won with 55% of the popular vote.
(HN, 11/6/98)(SFC, 12/21/98, p.A3)(ON, 12/03,
p.4)
1865 cJan-Apr, Pres. Lincoln
dispatched Gen’l. Lew Wallace to the Mexican border to stop the flow
of contraband. Wallace was appointed vice-president of the trial
over those accused of conspiring to assassinate Lincoln. He then
presided over the trials of Confederate Capt. Henry Wirz, commander
of the Andersonville prison camp. He served as governor of New
Mexico for 4 years and then served as US minister to Turkey.
(HT, 3/97, p.66)
1865 Feb 3, The Hampton Roads
Conference was attended by President Abraham Lincoln and the Vice
President of the Confederacy, Alexander H. Stephens, in an attempt
to end the American Civil War. The four-hour meeting aboard the
Union steamboat River Queen anchored in Hampton Roads in Virginia,
also included Lincoln's Secretary of State, William H. Seward,
Confederate Assistant Secretary of War John Campbell and Senator
R.M.T. Hunter. Lincoln‘s peace offer required rebel states to return
to the Union, accept the freedom of their slaves and to disband
their army. Even though military defeat was imminent, the
Confederate representatives did not have the authority to accept any
peace offer without a guarantee of independence for the Confederacy,
therefore, no agreement was reached.
(HFA, ‘96, p.22)(AP, 2/3/97)(HNQ, 2/5/00)
1865 Mar 2, General Lee
proposed peace to Grant. President Abraham Lincoln rejected
Confederate General Robert E. Lee's plea for peace talks, demanding
unconditional surrender.
(HFA, ‘96, p.22)(HN, 3/2/99)
1865 Mar 4, President Lincoln
was inaugurated for his 2nd term as President. It was held at the
Patent Office, the site of a military hospital. Four companies of
African-American troops and lodges of African-American Masons and
African-American Odd-Fellows joined the procession to the Capitol.
(WSJ, 2/12/04, p.D12)(SSFC, 1/20/13, Par p.4)
1865 Mar 6, President Lincoln's
2nd Inaugural Ball was held.
(MC, 3/6/02)
1865 Mar 15, Lincoln delivered
his Second Inaugural Address.
(HFA, ‘96, p.28)
1865 Apr 11, Lincoln urged a
spirit of generous conciliation during reconstruction.
(MC, 4/11/02)
1865 Apr 14, On the evening of
Good Friday, just after 10 p.m., Pres. Lincoln was shot and
mortally wounded by John Wilkes Booth while attending the comedy
"Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theater in Washington DC. Southern
sympathizer John Wilkes Booth burst into the presidential box and
shot Lincoln behind the ear. Booth shouted out “sic semper tyrannis”
(thus always to tyrants), Virginia’s state motto, after shooting
Pres. Lincoln. He leaped to the stage, breaking his left leg on
impact, and escaped through a side door. Lincoln was carried to a
nearby house where he remained unconscious until his death at 7:22
the following morning. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, who had
kept vigil at Lincoln's bedside, said, "Now he belongs to the ages."
As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This
expresses my idea of democracy.”
(V.D.-H.K.p.277)(AP, 4/14/97)(AP, 4/14/98)(HNPD,
4/14/00)(WSJ, 10/13/06, p.W13)
1864 Apr 14, A 2nd assassin
stabbed the Sec. of State 5 times. A 3rd assassin for the vice
president got cold feet.
(SSFC, 4/8/01, Par p.12)
1865 Apr 15, President Lincoln
died, several hours after he was shot at Ford’s Theater in
Washington by John Wilkes Booth. Andrew Johnson, Vice-President
under Lincoln, became the 17th President (1865-1869) of the US upon
the assassination. The first Mourning Stamp was issued after his
assassination, a 15-cent black commemorative. In 1999 Allen C.
Guelzo authored "Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President," an
intellectual biography. In 2002 William Lee Miller authored
"Lincoln’s Virtues: An Ethical Biography." In 2004 Ronald C. White
Jr. authored “The Eloquent President.” In 2005 Doris Kearns Goodwin
authored “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln.”
In 2006 Douglas L. Wilson authored “Lincoln’s Sword: The Presidency
and the Power of Woods.”
(http://condor.stcloudstate.edu/~brixr01/NYTAPR151865.html)(WSJ,
12/29/99, p.A16)(WSJ, 2/8/02, p.W9)(WSJ, 1/20/05, p.D9) (SSFC,
11/27/05, p.M3)(SFC, 11/27/06, p.C2)
1865 Apr 17, Mary Surratt was
arrested as a conspirator in the Lincoln assassination.
(HN, 4/17/98)
1865 Apr 27, John Wilkes Booth
was killed by Federal Cavalry in Virginia. In 2004 Michael W.
Kauffman authored “American Brutus.” In 2006 James L. Swanson
authored “Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer. [see Apr
26]
(HN, 4/27/98)(WSJ, 2/11/06, p.P10)(WSJ, 1/28/07,
p.P10)
1865 May 3, President
Lincoln’s funeral train arrived in Springfield, Illinois.
(HN, 5/3/98)
1865 May 4, Abraham Lincoln was
buried in a temporary tomb in Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield,
Illinois.
(SFEC, 3/22/98,
p.T4)(www.state.il.us/HPA/hs/Tomb.htm)
1865 Pres. Lincoln authorized
Clara Barton to organize a volunteer group to locate Union soldiers
who had gone missing in action. The team of unpaid assistants
managed to discover the fates of over 20,000 missing men, many who
had died as prisoners of war.
(ON, 8/12, p.10)
1871 Sep 19, President Abraham
Lincoln's body was transferred to a partially completed permanent
tomb at Springfield, Il.
(www.state.il.us/HPA/hs/Tomb.htm)
1872 William Henry Seward
(b.1801), former US Sec. of State (1861-1869), died. In 1900
Frederic Bancroft authored "The Life of William H. Seward."
(WUD, 1994 p.1307)
1882 Jul 16, Mary Todd Lincoln,
the widow of Abraham Lincoln, died of a stroke.
(HN, 7/16/98)
1887 Apr 10, President Abraham
Lincoln was re-buried with his wife in Springfield, Il.
(MC, 4/10/02)
1892 Feb 12, Illinois made
President Lincoln's birthday a state holiday. Other states followed
suit over the years.
(AP, 3/9/05)
1909 Aug 2, The 1st Lincoln
head pennies were minted. It was 95% copper and was the first US
coin to depict the likeness of a president.
(SFEC, 9/8/96, Par p.21)(SFC, 12/29/96, Z1
p.2)(MC, 8/2/02)
1915 Feb 12, The cornerstone
for the Lincoln Memorial was laid in Washington, D.C.
(AP, 2/12/98)
1922 May 30, The Lincoln
Memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C., by Chief Justice William
Howard Taft and Robert Todd Lincoln. The Memorial has 48 sculptured
festoons above the columns representing the number of states at the
time of dedication. The 36 Doric columns in the Lincoln Memorial
represent the number of states in the Union at the time of Lincoln’s
death in 1865. The limestone and marble edifice, which is situated
at the western end of the Mall, was designed by Henry Bacon of North
Carolina in the style of a Greek temple. Daniel Chester French
co-designed the memorial with Bacon.
(HNQ, 2/12/00)(WSJ, 5/24/08, p.W12)(AP, 5/30/08)
2004 Daniel Mark Epstein
authored "Lincoln and Whitman."
(WSJ, 2/12/04, p.D12)
2014 Joshua Zeitz authored
“Lincoln’s Boys: John Hay, John Nicolay, and the War for Lincoln’s
Image.”
(Econ, 2/22/14, p.75)
Jefferson Davis (1861-1865)
1808 Jun 3, Jefferson Davis,
the first and only president of the Confederacy, was born in
Christian County, Ky.
(AP, 6/3/97)(HN, 6/3/99)
1812-1882 Alexander Hamilton Stephens was born
near Crawfordville, Georgia. He is best known as Vice President of
the Confederate States of America. Stephens, who served in the U.S.
House of Representatives from 1843 to 1859, was a delegate at the
Montgomery meeting that formed a new union of the seceded states. He
was elected vice president to Jefferson Davis on February 9, 1861.
Stephens was later elected governor of Georgia in 1882 but died
after serving just a few months.
(HNQ, 5/24/98)
1826 May 7, Varina Howell Davis
(d.1905), 1st lady (Confederacy), was born.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1861 Jan 21, U.S. Senator
Jefferson Davis of Mississippi and four (five) other Southern
senators made emotional farewell speeches. Just weeks after his home
state of Mississippi seceded from the Union, Davis prepared to leave
Washington, D.C., and the country he had served as a soldier,
cabinet member and member of Congress. One more time, Davis
enumerated the reasons why the South felt secession was its only
recourse: "...when you deny to us the right to withdraw from a
Government which...threatens to be destructive to our rights, we but
tread in the path of our fathers when we proclaim our
independence...." Davis then apologized to any senators he may have
offended, and finished his address by saying, "...it only remains
for me to bid you a final adieu."
(AP, 1/21/01)(HNPD, 1/21/99)
1861 Feb 4, Delegates from six
southern states met in Montgomery, Ala., to form the Confederate
States of America. They included Mississippi, Florida, Alabama,
Georgia, Louisiana and Texas. They elected Jefferson Davis as
president of Confederacy.
(AP, 2/4/97)(ON, 11/00, p.1)(MC, 2/4/02)
1861 Feb 18, Jefferson F. Davis
was inaugurated as the Confederacy’s provisional president at a
ceremony held in Montgomery, Ala.
(AP, 2/18/98)(HN, 2/18/98)
1861 Mar 13, Jefferson Davis
signed a bill authorizing slaves to be used as soldiers for the
Confederacy.
(HN, 3/13/98)
1861 Nov 6, Jefferson Davis was
elected to a six-year term as president of the Confederacy.
(AP, 11/6/97)(HN, 11/6/98)
1861-1865 Jefferson Davis served as the first and
only president of the Confederacy. He was later imprisoned and
indicted for treason, but the case was dropped.
(AP, 6/3/97)(HN, 6/3/99)
1862 Feb 22, Jefferson Davis
was inaugurated president of the Confederacy in Richmond, Va. for
the second time.
(HN, 2/22/98)
1862 Apr 16, Confederate
President Jefferson Davis approved conscription act for white males
between 18 and 35.
(HN, 4/16/98)
1863 Mar 12, President
Jefferson Davis delivered his State of the Confederacy address.
(HN, 3/12/98)
1863 Aug 8, Confederate
President Jefferson Davis refused General Robert E. Lee’s
resignation.
(HN, 8/8/98)
1864 Jan 14, Confederate
President Jefferson Davis wrote to General Johnson, observing that
troops might need to be sent to Alabama or Mississippi.
(HN, 1/14/99)
1864 Jul 17, Confederate
President Jefferson Davis replaced General Joseph E. Johnston with
General John Bell Hood in hopes of defeating Union General William
T. Sherman outside Atlanta.
(HN, 7/17/98)
1865 Apr 2, Confederate
President Davis and most of his Cabinet fled the Confederate capital
of Richmond, Va. Grant broke Lee’s line at Petersburg. President
Jefferson Davis moved his government headquarters to Danville, Va.,
when its previous capital, Richmond, became engulfed in flames.
Though it would have been safer to secure a location further south,
Danville was naturally protected by the Dan and Staunton rivers, and
it was in close proximity to Gen. Robert E. Lee’s army to the north
and Gen. Joseph E. Johnston’s army to the south. The Piedmont
Railroad connected Danville and Greensboro, N.C. and offered easy
access to supplies.
(AP, 4/2/97)(HN, 4/2/98)(HNQ, 11/1/01)
1865 May 2, President Johnson
offered a $100,000 reward for the capture of Confederate President
Jefferson Davis.
(HN, 5/2/98)
1865 May 10, Confederate Pres.
Jefferson Davis was captured by Union troops near Irvinville,
Georgia. [see May 19]
(AP, 5/10/97)(HN, 5/10/98)
1865 May 19, President
Jefferson Davis was captured by Union Cavalry in Georgia. [see May
10]
(HN, 5/19/98)
1866 May 11, Confederate
President Jefferson Davis became a free man after spending two years
in prison for his role in the American Civil War.
(HN, 5/11/99)
1883 Mar 4, Alexander H.
Stephens (71), Vice President Confederate States, died.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1889 Dec 6, Jefferson Davis
(81), the first and only president of the Confederate States of
America (1861-1865), died in New Orleans. In 2001 William J. Cooper
Jr. authored "Jefferson Davis, American."
(AP, 12/6/97)(SSFC, 1/28/01, Par p.12)(MC,
12/6/01)
1972 Mar 3, Sculpted figures of
Jefferson Davis, Robert E Lee, and Stonewall Jackson were completed
at Stone Mountain, GA.
(SC, 3/3/02)
2005 Doris Kearns Goodwin
authored “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln.”
It inspired the 2012 film “Lincoln.”
(Econ, 12/1/12, p.75)
#17 Andrew Johnson (1865-1869)
1808 Dec 29, Andrew Johnson,
the 17th president of the United States who succeeded Lincoln
(1865-1869), was born in a 2-room shack in Raleigh, N.C. [Waxhaw,
South Carolina]
(AP, 12/29/97)(SFC, 12/21/98, p.A3)(HN,
12/29/98)(HNPD, 3/15/99)
1857 Andrew Johnson, Democrat
of Tennessee, was elected to Senator.
(SFC, 12/21/98, p.A3)
1865 May 2, President Johnson
offered a $100,000 reward for the capture of Confederate President
Jefferson Davis.
(HN, 5/2/98)
1865 Aug 20, Pres. Johnson
proclaimed an end to the "insurrection" in Texas.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1865 Oct 11, President Johnson
paroled CSA VP Alexander Stephens.
(MC, 10/11/01)
1865 Dec 18 The Thirteenth
Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery, was adopted by
the US Congress.
(HFA, ‘96, p.44)(V.D.-H.K.p.276)(AP, 12/18/97)
1866 Mar 27, President Andrew
Johnson vetoed the civil rights bill, which later became the 14th
amendment.
(HN, 3/27/98)
1866 Apr 2, Pres. Johnson ended
war in Ala, Ark, Fla, Ga, Miss, La, NC, SC, Ten and Va.
(MC, 4/2/02)
1866 Apr 9, A Civil Rights Bill
passed over Pres Andrew Johnson's veto to secure for former slaves
all the rights of citizenship intended by the 13th Amendment. The
president was empowered to use the Army to enforce the law. This
formed the basis for the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
(MC, 4/9/02)(PC, 1992, p.502)
1866 Aug 20, President Andrew
Johnson formally declared the Civil War over, even though the
fighting had stopped months earlier. After the Civil War Congress
voted to give freed slaves 40 acres and a mule but Pres. Johnson
killed the plan with a veto.
(AP, 8/20/97)(SFC, 6/29/99, p.A7)
1866 Pres. Andrew Johnson
signed an executive order that removed the Shoalwater Bay Indians in
Washington state from their villages and onto a 1-sq. mile
reservation. By 2000 erosion took away over half the tribal land and
miscarriages stood at 4 times the expected rate.
(SFEC, 3/26/00, p.A8)
1867 Jan 8, Legislation gave
suffrage to DC blacks, despite Pres. Johnson's veto.
(MC, 1/8/02)
1867 Mar 23, Congress passed a
2nd Reconstruction Act over President Johnson's veto.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1867 Mar 30, U.S. Secretary of
State William H. Seward reached agreement with Russia’s Baron
Stoeckl to purchase the territory of Alaska for $7.2 million, two
cents an acre, a deal roundly ridiculed as "Seward's Folly." The
treaty was signed the nest day.
(AP, 3/30/97)(HN, 3/30/01)
1867 Jun 20, Pres. Andrew
Johnson announced the purchase of Alaska.
(MC, 6/20/02)
1867 Jul 25, President Andrew
Johnson signed an act creating the territory of Wyoming. [see Jul
25, 1868]
(HN, 7/25/98)
1867 Aug 12, US House member
Thaddeus Stevens (1792-1868) led the Radical Republicans in a move
to impeach President Andrew Johnson. The move was sparked when
Johnson defied Congress by suspending Secretary of War Edwin M.
Stanton.
(AP, 8/12/97)(AH, 2/06, p.12)
1867 Sep 7, President Andrew
Johnson extended amnesty to all but a few of the leaders of the
Confederacy.
(MC, 9/7/01)
1867 Nov 25, US Congress
commission looked into impeachment of President Andrew Johnson.
(MC, 11/25/01)
1868 Feb 21, Pres. Johnson told
Gen. Lorenzo Thomas (63) to go the War Dept. with orders to remove
Edwin Stanton from office and to assume the responsibilities of Sec.
of War.
(ON, 9/01, p.6)
1868 Feb 24, Impeachment
proceedings against President Andrew Johnson began. The House of
Representatives impeached President Andrew Johnson following his
attempt to dismiss Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton; the Senate
later acquitted Johnson. Sen. Edmund G. Ross of Kansas cast the last
deciding vote against impeachment. Democrats defended Johnson. 7
Republicans cast "no" votes.
(HN, 2/24/98)(AP, 2/24/98)(WSJ, 12/11/98,
p.A14)(SFC, 12/21/98, p.A3)
1868 Mar 5, The Senate was
organized into a court of impeachment to decide charges against
President Andrew Johnson, who was later acquitted.
(AP, 3/5/08)
1868 Mar 13, The impeachment
trial of President Andrew Johnson began in the U.S. Senate.
(AP, 3/13/97)(ON, 9/01, p.7)
1868 Mar 30, The trial of
President Johnson began with opening statements. Supreme Court Chief
Justice Salmon P. Chase was the presiding judge in the impeachment
trial of President Andrew Johnson. Chief Justice Chase insisted on
the observance of legal procedure, attempting to maintain some
semblance of non-partisanship.
(HNQ, 1/6/99)
1868 May 16, The U.S. Senate
failed by one vote, cast by Edmund G. Ross, to convict President
Andrew Johnson as it took its first ballot on one of 11 articles of
impeachment against him. Johnson, who came to office on Abraham
Lincoln's assassination in April 1865, was an honest but tactless
man who made many enemies in the Radical Republican Congress. In
response to Johnson's recurrent interference with Radical
Reconstruction, the U.S. House of Representatives drew up 11
articles of impeachment against the chief executive in March 1868.
Although the charges against him were weak, Johnson was tried by the
Senate as the Constitution provides.
(AP, 5/16/97)(HNPD, 5/16/99)
1868 May 26, The US Senate
impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson ended with his
acquittal as the Senate fell one vote short of the two-thirds
majority required for conviction. Edward Ross of Kansas cast the
deciding vote.
(AP, 5/26/97)(SFC, 2/12/99, p.A12)
1868 Jul 28, Pres. Johnson
signed the Burlingame Treaty. It was negotiated by Anson Burlingame,
who represented the interests of China, and committed the US to a
policy of noninterference in Chinese affairs. It also established
commercial ties and provided unrestricted immigration of Chinese to
the US.
(Ind, 8/11/01, 5A)
1868 Dec 25, President Andrew
Johnson granted an unconditional pardon to all persons involved in
the Southern rebellion that resulted in the Civil War.
(AP, 12/25/97)
1875 Jul 31, The 17th president
of the United States, Andrew Johnson, died in Carter Station, Tenn.,
at age 66. He had succeeded Abraham Lincoln and was the first US
president to face impeachment proceedings.
(AP, 7/31/97)(HN, 7/31/98)
#18 Ulysses S. Grant (1869-1877)
1812 Feb 16, Henry Wilson, 18th
U.S. Vice President (1873-1875), was born.
(WUD, 1994 p.1635)(HN, 2/16/98)
1822 Apr 27, Ulysses S. Grant
(d.1885), general and 18th U.S. president (1869-1877), was born in
Point Pleasant [Hiram], Ohio.
(AP, 4/27/97)(HN, 4/27/02)
1823 Mar 23, Schuyler Colfax,
(R) 17th US Vice President (1869-73), was born.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1854 Ulysses S. Grant was
stationed at Fort Humboldt in northern California.
(SFEC, 4/13/97, p.T5)
1861 Sep 6, Union General
Ulysses S. Grant’s forces captured Paducah, Kentucky from
Confederate forces. A lifelong friend and trusted aide of Ulysses S.
Grant, Ely Parker rose to the top in two worlds, that of his native
Seneca Indian tribe and the white man’s world at large.
(HN, 9/6/98)
1862 Feb 15, Grant launched a
major assault on Fort Donelson, Tenn.
(HN, 2/15/98)
1862 Feb 16, During the Civil
War, some 14,000 Confederate soldiers surrendered at Fort Donelson,
Tenn. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s victory earned him the nickname
"Unconditional Surrender Grant." Nathan Bedford Forrest escaped.
(AP, 2/16/98)(HN, 2/16/98)
1862 Apr 6, Two days of bitter
fighting began at the Civil War battle of Shiloh (called Pittsburg
Landing by the Confederates) as the Confederates attacked Grant's
Union forces in southwestern Tennessee. Union commander Maj. Gen.
Ulysses S. Grant, planning to advance on the important railway
junction at Corinth, Miss., met a surprise attack by General Albert
Sidney Johnston's Army of Mississippi. The Confederates pushed the
Federals back steadily during the first day's fighting, in spite of
Johnston's death that afternoon. Only with the arrival of Union
reinforcements during the night did the tide turn, forcing the
rebels to withdraw. The opposing sides slaughtered each other with
such ferocity that one survivor wrote, "No blaze of glory...can ever
atone for the unwritten and unutterable horrors of the scene." Gen.
Ulysses Grant after the Battle of Shiloh said: "I saw an open
field... so covered with dead that it would have been possible to
walk across... in any direction, stepping on dead bodies without a
foot touching the ground." More than 9,000 Americans died. The
battle left some 24,000 casualties and secured the West for the
Union. In 1952 Shelby Foote wrote "Shiloh," an historical novel
based on documentation from participants in the battle. Recorded
Books made a cassette version in 1992.
(SFC, 6/19/96, p.E5)(HT, 4/97, p.13)(AP,
4/6/97)(AM, May/Jun 97 p.27)(RBI, 1992) (HN, 4/6/98)(HNPD, 4/6/99)
1862 Apr 7, Union forces led by
Gen. Ulysses S. Grant defeated the Confederates at the battle of
Shiloh in Tennessee. Gen. Ulysses Grant after the Battle of Shiloh
said: "I saw an open field... so covered with dead that it would
have been possible to walk across... in any direction, stepping on
dead bodies without a foot touching the ground." More than 9,000
Americans died.
(SFC, 6/19/96, p.E5)(HT, 4/97, p.13)(AP, 4/7/97)
1862 Nov 9, General US Grant
issued orders to bar Jews from serving under him. The order was
quickly rescinded.
(MC, 11/9/01)
1862 Dec 18, Grant announced
the organization of his army in the West. Sherman, Hurlbut,
McPherson, and McClernand would be Corps Commanders.
(HN, 12/18/98)
1863 Jan 4, General Halleck, by
direction of President Lincoln, ordered U.S. Grant to revoke his
infamous General Order No. 11 that expelled Jews from his
operational area.
(HN, 1/4/99)
1863 Mar 9, U.S. Grant was
appointed commander-in-chief of the Union forces.
(HN, 3/9/98)
1863 Mar 11, Union troops under
General Ulysses S. Grant gave up their preparations to take
Vicksburg after failing to pass Fort Pemberton, north of Vicksburg.
(HN, 3/11/99)
1863 May 17, Union General
Ulysses Grant continued his push towards Vicksburg at the Battle of
the Big Black River Bridge in Mississippi.
(HN, 5/17/99)
1863 May 19, Union General
Ulysses S. Grant's first attack on Vicksburg, Miss., was repulsed.
(HN, 5/19/99)
1863 May 22, U.S. Grant’s
second attack on Vicksburg, Miss., failed and a siege began.
(HN, 5/22/98)
1863 Jul 4, General U.S.
Grant's Union army captured the Confederate town of Vicksburg after
a long siege during the Civil War.
(HN, 7/4/98)(IB, Internet, 12/7/98)
1863 Jul 7, Orders barring Jews
from serving under US Grant were revoked.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1863 Oct 16, Grant was given
command of Union forces in West. [see Oct 17]
(MC, 10/16/01)
1863 Oct 17, General Ulysses S.
Grant was named overall Union Commander of the West. [see Oct 16]
(HN, 10/17/98)
1863 Oct 19, Gen’l. Grant
ordered Major Gen’l. George Thomas to replace Major Gen’l. Rosecrans
and Major Gen’l. Joseph Hooker arrived at Chattanooga with 20,000
fresh Federals from Virginia.
(HT, 4/97, p.56)
1863 Oct 23, Gen’l. Grant
arrived at Chattanooga. [see Oct 24]
(HT, 4/97, p.56)
1863 Oct 24, General Ulysses S.
Grant arrived in Chattanooga, Tennessee to find the Union Army there
starving. [see Oct 23]
(HN, 10/24/98)
1864 Mar 9, 1864, President
Abraham Lincoln officially commissioned Ulysses S. Grant lieutenant
general in the U.S. Army. After leading Union victories in the West
in 1862-63, Lincoln gave Grant supreme command of the Union forces
with the revived rank of lieutenant general.
(HNQ, 3/13/99)
1864 Mar 10, Ulysses S. Grant
became commander of the Union armies in the Civil War.
(AP, 3/10/98)
1864 Apr 17, General Grant
banned the trading of prisoners.
(HN, 4/17/98)
1864 May 4, Ulysses S Grant
crossed Rapidan and began his duel with Robert E Lee.
(HN, 5/4/98)
1864 May 5, The Battle of
Wilderness began as Robert E. Lee caught U.S. Grant's forces in the
Virginia woods. It was the first in a series of clashes fought as
Grant's army advanced on Richmond, Va. During the close range
fighting in the dense woods of Virginia, forest fires broke out,
killing many wounded soldiers. While the battle ended as a tactical
draw, Lee was unable to halt Grant's progress toward Richmond.
(HN, 5/5/98)(HNPD, 5/5/99)
1864 May 6, In the second day
of the Battle of Wilderness between Union General Ulysses S. Grant
and Confederate General Robert E. Lee, Confederate Gen. James
Longstreet was wounded by his own men.
(HN, 5/6/99)
1864 May 7, In Virginia the
Battle of Wilderness ended, with heavy losses to both sides.
(HN, 5/7/98)
1864 May 8-19 Grant and Lee‘s
armies suffered horrendous losses at the "Bloody Angle" during the
Battle of Spotsylvania. Shortly after the Battle of the Wilderness,
Grant‘s Union forces once again attempted to outflank or smash Lee‘s
Confederates. Defensive breastworks contributed to savage, close
combat that lasted about a week and a half, resulting in 17,000
Union and 8,000 casualties.
(HNQ, 10//00)
1864 May 23, Union General
Ulysses Grant attempted to outflank Lee in the Battle of North Anna,
Virginia.
(HN, 5/23/98)
1864 Jun 18, At Petersburg,
Union General Ulysses S. Grant realized the town could no longer be
taken by assault and settled into a siege.
(HN, 6/18/98)
1864 Jun 25, Union troops
surrounding Petersburg, Virginia began building a mine tunnel
underneath the Confederate lines. With the Army of Northern Virginia
stubbornly clinging to Petersburg, Ulysses S. Grant decided to cut
its vital rail lines.
(HN, 6/25/98)
1864 Jul 10, During the siege
of Petersburg, General Ulysses S. Grant established a huge supply
center, called City Point, at the confluence of the James and
Appomattox rivers. After nearly 10 months of trench warfare,
Confederate resistance at Petersburg, Va., suddenly collapsed.
Desperate to save his army, Robert E. Lee called on his soldiers for
one last miracle.
(HN, 7/10/98)
1864 Jul 31, Ulysses S. Grant
was named General of Volunteers.
(MC, 7/31/02)
1864 Aug 1, Union General
Ulysses S. Grant gave general Philip H. Sheridan the mission of
clearing the Shenandoah Valley of Confederate forces.
(HN, 8/1/98)
1864 Sep 17, Gen. Grant
approved Sheridan's plan for Shenandoah Valley Campaign. "I want it
so barren that a crow, flying down it, would need to pack rations."
(MC, 9/17/01)
1865 Apr 9, Confederate Gen.
Robert E. Lee surrendered to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox
Court House, Virginia, and ended the Civil War. A lifelong friend
and trusted aide of Ulysses S. Grant, Seneca Indian Ely Parker was
at his general’s side at the surrender at Appomattox. The Union 20th
Maine Infantry Unit was designated as one of the regiments to
receive the surrender of Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. One in
four Southern men of military age died vs. one in ten for the
Yankees. In 1998 Bevin Alexander published "Robert E. Lee’s Civil
War." In 2001 Jay Winik authored "April 1865: the Month That Saved
America."
(A&IP, p.92)(AP, 4/9/97)(WSJ, 4/2/98,
p.A20)(HN, 4/9/98)(WSJ, 7/24/98, p.W10)(WSJ, 4/2/01, p.A20)
1866 Jul 25, Ulysses S. Grant
was named General of the Army, the first officer to hold the rank.
(AP, 7/25/97)
1868 May 20, The Republican
National Convention met in Chicago and nominated Grant.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1868 Nov 3, Republican Ulysses
S. Grant was elected 18th president. He won the election over
Democrat Horatio Seymour (1810-1886), two-time governor of NY
(1853-54 and 1863-64), by 27,000 votes. Seymour ran fairly close to
Ulysses Grant in the popular vote, but was defeated decisively in
the electoral vote by a count of 214 to 80. Grant used the 1867
typewriter phrase "Now is the time for all good men to come to the
aid of the party" for his campaign.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horatio_Seymour)(AP, 11/3/97)(SFEC,
3/22/98, Z1 p.8)(WSJ, 2/17/99, p.A22)
1869 Mar 4, Ulysses S. Grant
was sworn in as the 18th president of the US.
(ON, 9/01, p.7)
1869-1877 Ulysses S. Grant served as the 18th
President of the US.
(A&IP, ESM, p.96b)
1869-1921 Of the 11 U.S. presidents serving
between 1869 and 1921, seven of them were born in Ohio. The
presidents and their places of birth were: Ulysses S. Grant, Point
Pleasant; Rutherford B. Hayes, Delaware; James A. Garfield, Orange;
Benjamin Harrison, North Bend; William McKinley, Niles; William H.
Taft, Cincinnati; Warren G. Harding, Morrow County. These were the
only Ohio-born presidents. Three of them, Garfield, McKinley and
Harding died in office.
(HNQ, 5/9/98)
1870 Jan 15, The Democratic
party was represented as a donkey in a cartoon by Thomas Nast in
Harper’s Weekly.
(Hem, 8/96, p.84)(AP, 1/15/98)
1870 Mar 30, the 15th Amendment
to the Constitution, guaranteeing the right to vote regardless of
race, passed.
(AP, 3/30/97)(HN, 3/30/98)
1870 Jun 22, The US Congress
created the Department of Justice.
(AP, 6/22/97)
1870 Jul 14, Pres. Ulysses S.
Grant signed the Naturalization Act of 1870 (16 Stat. 254). This was
a United States federal law that created a system of controls for
the naturalization process and penalties for fraudulent practices.
It is also noted for extending the naturalization process to "aliens
of African nativity and to persons of African descent" while also
revoking the citizenship of naturalized Chinese Americans.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naturalization_Act_of_1870)
1871 Feb 28, The 2nd
Enforcement Act set federal control of congressional elections.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1871 Mar, Pres. Grant sent
federal troops to South Carolina to suppress violence instigated by
the Ku Klux Klan.
(AH, 6/03, p.28)
1871 Apr 20, The US 3rd
Enforcement Act, also known as the Ku Klux Klan Act, allowed the
President to suspend writ of habeas corpus.
(http://millercenter.org/academic/americanpresident/events/04_20)(AH,
6/03, p.31)
1871 Oct 12, President Grant
ordered the South Carolina Ku Klux Klan to disperse and disarm in
five days.
(AH, 6/03, p.31)
1871 Oct 17, President Grant
suspended writ of habeas corpus in South Carolina in response to
violence by the KKK. It applied to all arrests made by US marshals
and federal troops in nine of the state’s western counties. By the
end of November some 600 arrests were made.
(AH, 6/03, p.31)
1872 Jan, US Attorney Gen’l.
Amos T. Akerman (1821-1880), ardent prosecutor of KKK activities,
resigned at the request of Pres. Grant.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amos_T._Akerman)(AH, 6/03, p.33)
1872 Mar 1, President Ulysses
S. Grant signed a measure creating Yellowstone National Park (Idaho,
Montana, Wyoming). The act of Congress creating Yellowstone National
Park was based on a report from an expedition led by Ferdinand
Hayden. The 2.2 million-acre preserve was the first step in a
national park system. Nathaniel Pitt Langford (39) was appointed the
1st Superintendent.
(SFC, 5/19/96, Z1, p.2)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R34)(ON,
11/02, p.4)(PCh, 1992, p.526)(AP, 3/1/08)
1872 Jun 5, The Republican
National Convention, the first major political party convention to
include blacks, commenced.
(HN, 6/5/98)
1872 Nov 5, Ulysses S. Grant
was re-elected US president.
(MC, 11/5/01)
1872 Nov 5, Suffragist Susan B.
Anthony was fined $100 for attempting to vote in a presidential
election. (She never paid the fine.) Susan B. Anthony was arrested
for trying to vote. [see Jun 18, 1873]
(AP, 11/5/97)(HN, 11/5/98)
1872 The federal government of
the United States became more involved with education by granting
public land to the states for the purpose of establishing
agricultural and mechanical arts colleges. The initiative resulted
in 68 of such land-grant colleges.
(HNQ, 9/4/00)
1873 Mar 4, Pres. Ulysses S.
Grant accepted the oath of office, administered by Chief Justice
Salmon Chase, for his 2nd term. At the inauguration ceremony 150
canaries, whose chirping was to amuse guests, froze to death in
their cages.
(SFC, 1/20/09,
p.A7)(www.bartleby.com/124/pres34.html)
1873 Sep 20, A financial panic
hit the NY Stock Exchange when the high-flying bond dealer, Jay
Cooke, granted too many loans to the railroads. Panic spread to
Europe as London and Paris markets crashed and the New York Stock
Exchange closed for the first time for 10 days. The economy went
into a 6 year depression.
(WSJ, 2/27/95, p.A-10)(WSJ, 7/8/96, p.C1)(WSJ,
10/7/98, p.A22)(MC, 9/20/01)
1873 Pres. Grant signed an
executive order that permitted Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce to
live in the Wallowa Valley to perpetuity.
(SFEC, 6/15/97, Par. p.5)
1875 Mar 1, Congress passed
the Civil Rights Act, which was invalidated by the Supreme Court in
1883.
(HN, 3/1/98)
1875 In the United States the
Whiskey Ring scandal was exposed. It involved diversion of tax
revenues in a conspiracy among government agents, politicians,
whiskey distillers, and distributors. The Whiskey Ring began in St.
Louis but was also organized in Chicago, Milwaukee, Cincinnati, New
Orleans, and Peoria. Pres. Ulysses S. Grant appointed John Brooks
Henderson as the first special prosecutor to investigate the
conspiracy. Grant eventually fired Henderson for challenging Grant's
interference in the prosecutions. Grant replaced Henderson with
attorney James Broadhead.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whiskey_Ring)
1876 Feb 8, A trial
began for Pres. Ulysses S. Grant's private secretary, Gen. Orville
E. Babcock. He was acquitted after 18 days of involvement in the
Whiskey Ring, a conspiracy among distillers, revenue collectors, and
high federal officials to avoid taxation through fraudulent reports
on whiskey production. 230 indictments were secured, but no
convictions were made. Grant helped Babcock secure an acquittal for
his part in the ring. This affair contributed to the reputation for
corruption that Grant's administrations acquired.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orville_E._Babcock)
1876 Mar 2, US Secretary of War
William W. Belknap went to the Executive Mansion, handed President
Ulysses S. Grant his resignation and burst into tears. The Senate
tried Belknap after he resigned for allegedly taking bribes. Both
the House and the Senate decided that Belknap could be tried after
he had left office. Belknap is the only US Cabinet member ever to
have been impeached by the House.
(NY Times, 1/11/21)i
1876 Oct 26, President Grant
sent federal troops to SC.
(MC, 10/26/01)
1876 President Ulysses S. Grant
authorized the funds to complete the construction of the Washington
Monument, but without the ornate building and classical statue.
(ON, 3/00, p.10)
1876 Orvil Grant (1835-1881),
the younger brother of Pres. Ulysses S. Grant, was accused of
involvement in a scheme of illicit payments to contractors at Indian
trading posts run by the Army. Orvil was an investor in three
Midwest trading posts that sold products at inflated prices to Army
troops and Indians. Pres. Grant denounced the allegations and
arranged for the demotion and arrest of chief accuser, Col. George
Armstrong Custer. A public outcry quickly led to Custer being
released and reinstated to his rank.
(SSFC, 12/13/20, p.C1)
1879 Sep 20, Former Pres.
Ulysses S. Grant arrived in San Francisco aboard the steamship City
of Tokio. He was in a bad mood because a steward had just emptied a
glass of water with his false teeth through a porthole.
(Ind, 2/17/00, 5A)
1879 Oct 8, Former Pres.
Ulysses S. Grant was treated to a reception by Nevada Senator
William Sharon at the old Ralston mansion in Belmont, Ca. Grant had
just finished a tour around the world.
(Ind, 7/1/00,5A)
1885 Jul 23, Ulysses S. Grant
(b.1822), commander of the Union forces at the end of the Civil War
and the 18th president of the United States, died in Mount McGregor,
NY, at age 63. He had just completed the final revisions to his
memoirs, which were published as a 2 volume set by Mark Twain. In
1928 W.E. Woodward authored "Meet General Grant," and in 1981
William S. McFreeley authored "Grant: A Biography." His tomb was
placed in the largest mausoleum in the US on a bluff over the Hudson
River. In 1998 Geoffrey Perret published the biography "Ulysses S.
Grant: Soldier and President." In 2004 Mark Perry authored “Grant
and Twain.” In 2006 Edward G. Longacre authored “General Ulysses S.
Grant: The Soldier and Man.” In 2011 Charles Bracelen Flood authored
“Grant’s Final Victory: Ulysses S. Grant’s Heroic Last Year.”
(SFC, 4/14/97, p.A7)(SFEC, 4/19/98, Par p.20)(AP,
7/23/98)(ON, p.11)(ON, 12/00, p.7)(WSJ, 5/14/04, p.W10)(WSJ, 8/5/06,
p.P9)(SSFC, 12/4/11, p.F5)
1875
Victoria Chaflin Woodhull
1838 Sep 23, Victoria Chaflin
Woodhull (d.1927), feminist and the first woman presidential
candidate in the United States, was born into a family of charlatans
in Ohio. She was also the first woman newspaper publisher, a
militant suffragist and advocated free love. She was Wall Street’s
first female broker after attracting Cornelius Vanderbilt and the
first woman to address Congress. Her story is documented in "The
Woman Who Ran for President: The Many Lives of Victoria Woodhull" by
Lois Beachy Underhill. In 1998 Mary Gabriel published "Notorious
Victoria: The Life of Victoria Woodhull, Uncensored. In 1998 Barbara
Goldsmith published "Other Powers—The Age of Suffrage, Spiritualism
and the Scandalous Victoria Woodhull."
(WSJ, 7/25/95, p.A-10)(SFEC, 2/22/98, BR p.5)(HN,
9/23/98)(HNPD, 4/28/00)(SFEC, 3/8/98, Par p.14)
1870 Apr 2, Victoria Claflin
Woodhull became the first woman to run for president of the United
States when she announced her candidacy for the 1872 election, but
she spent Election Day in jail for sending obscene literature
through the mail. Woodhull challenged convention in Victorian-era
America. Victoria and her sister, Tennessee Claflin, got their start
as spiritual advisors to financier Cornelius Vanderbilt. With his
backing, the sisters became the first women to open their own
successful brokerage firm.
(HNPD, 4/28/99)
1872 May 10, Victoria Woodhull
became the first woman nominated for U.S. president. Thomas Nast
depicted her as "Mrs. Satan." Woodhull adhered to a diet prescribed
by Sylvester Graham, known for his ginger-colored crackers.
Sylvester preached against demon rum and died at age 57 after
administering himself a medicinal treatment with considerable
liquor.
(SFEC, 3/8/98, Par p.14-16)(SFC, 10/17/98,
p.E5)(HN, 5/10/98)
#19 Rutherford B. Hayes (1877-1881)
1822 Oct 4, Rutherford B.
Hayes, the 19th president (R) of the United States, was born in
Delaware, Ohio. Hayes was a major-general in the Civil War, then an
Ohio congressman, then succeeded Grant as president (1877-81).
(AP, 10/4/97)(HN, 10/4/98)(MC, 10/3/01)
1852 Dec 30, Future U.S.
president Rutherford B. Hayes married Lucy Ware Webb in Cincinnati.
(AP, 12/30/02)
1876 James G. Blaine,
Republican candidate for the presidency, saw his chances collapse
under criticism for accepting a $100,000 fee while lobbying for
railroads. The problem came up again in 1884.
(WSJ, 10/8/96, p.A22)
1876 Nov 7, The presidential
vote between Republican Rutherford B. Hayes and Democrat Samuel
Tilden was very close and the Florida result looked like it would
determine the national outcome. In 1974 Prof. Jerrell Shofner
authored "Nor Is It Over," a study of the 1876 election. In 2003 Roy
Morris Jr. authored "Fraud of the Century." Louisiana was stolen for
Hayes. 13,000 Tilden votes were discounted in Louisiana by a
bribe-taking election board.
(WSJ, 12/11/00, p.A18)(WSJ, 2/3/03, p.D6)
1876 Nov 7, Rutherford B. Hayes
was elected 19th president of the US. Because of the closeness of
the race he became president only by a deal with Southern
conservatives to end Federal occupation of the South, i.e. the
Hayes-Tildon Compromise. Samuel J. Tilden (D) won the popular vote.
Hayes carried the electoral college by one vote. Lemonade Lucy, wife
of Pres. Hayes, later received the 1st Siamese cat in the US.
(HN, 11/7/99)(WSJ, 4/10/00, p.A20)(SFC, 8/5/00,
p.B4)(SSFC, 10/17/04, p.M3)
1876 Dec 6, US Electoral
College picked Republican Hayes as president, although Tilden won
the popular election. A questionable vote count in Florida ended and
Hayes was ahead by 924 votes. The Democratic attorney general
validated the Tilden electors.
(WSJ, 12/11/00,
p.A18)(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutherford_B._Hayes)
1877 Jan 1, The Florida state
Supreme Court rejected a canvassing board vote count that showed
Hayes in the lead by 208 votes. The Democratic legislature ordered a
recount and named Mr. Tilden’s electors as rightful. The matter went
to the US Congress after the state Supreme Court declined to take up
the case until June.
(WSJ, 12/11/00, p.A18)
1877 Jan 25, Congress
determined the presidential election between Hayes and Tilden.
Tilden won the popular votes, while Hays won the electoral
votes. [see Jan 29]
(MC, 1/25/02)
1877 Jan 29, A highly partisan
Electoral Commission, made up of eight Republicans and seven
Democrats, was established by Congress to settle the issue of
Democrat Samuel Tilden for president against Republican Rutherford
B. Hayes. Under the terms of the Tilden-Hayes Election Compromise,
Hayes became president and the Republicans agreed to remove the last
Federal troops from Southern territory, ending Reconstruction. On
election night, 1876, it was clear that Tilden had won the popular
vote, but it was also clear that votes in Florida, Louisiana, South
Carolina and Oregon were fraudulent because of voter intimidation.
Republicans knew that if the electoral votes from these four states
were thrown out, Hayes would win. The country hovered near civil war
as both Democrats and Republicans claimed victory. Illustrator
Thomas Nast drew his cartoon, "Tilden or Blood," showing the
Democrats threatening violence.
(HNPD, 1/29/99)(PCh, 1992, p.542)
1877 Feb, A special US
congressional panel awarded the Florida’s electors to Rutherford B.
Hayes.
(WSJ, 12/11/00, p.A18)
1877 Mar 2, Republican
Rutherford B. Hayes was declared winner of the 1876 presidential
election over Democrat Samuel J. Tilden, even though Tilden had won
the popular vote 50.1 to 47.95%. A special US congressional panel
had awarded Florida’s electors to Rutherford B. Hayes. Democrats
acquiesced to Hayes's election on the condition that he withdraw
remaining US troops protecting Republican officeholders in the
South, thus officially ending the Reconstruction era.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutherford_B._Hayes)(PCh, 1992,
p.542)(AP, 3/2/98)(WSJ, 12/11/00, p.A18)
1877 Mar 3, Rutherford B. Hayes
took the oath of office as the 19th president of the United States
in a private ceremony. A public swearing-in took place two days
later.
(AP, 3/3/02)
1877 Apr 24, Federal troops
were ordered out of New Orleans, ending the North's post-Civil War
rule in the South.
(AP, 4/24/00)
1877 May 1, President Hayes
ordered the withdrawal all Federal troops from the South, ending
Reconstruction.
(http://www.historycentral.com/rec/EndofRec.html)
1877 Jun 1, U.S. troops were
authorized to pursue bandits into Mexico.
(DTnet, 6/1/97)(HN, 6/1/98)
1877 Jun, The Nez Perce War
was fought in the northwestern US between the US and Nez Perce
Indians. The First Squadron of the First Regiment, the oldest
cavalry unit in the US, fought the Apaches and the Nez Perces.
(WUD, 1994, p.964)(WSJ, 12/27/95, p. A-1)
1877 Jul 17, Riots and violence
erupted in several major American cities stemming from strikes
against railroads in protest of wage cuts. Strikes started against
the Baltimore & Ohio, and quickly spread west, with riots
erupting in Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Chicago and St. Louis. Nine were
killed when Federal troops were sent into Martinsburg, West
Virginia.
(HNQ, 12/11/98)
1877 Dec 31, Pres. and Mrs.
Hayes celebrated their silver anniversary (technically, a day late)
by re-enacting their wedding ceremony in the White House.
(AP, 12/31/02)
1877 Pres. Rutherford B. Hayes
appointed John Marshall Harlan (1833-1911) of Kentucky to the
Supreme Court Justice.
(WSJ, 5/28/02, p.D7)
1877-1881 Rutherford B. Hayes, the 19th president
(R) of the United States. Hayes refused to seek a second term.
(AP, 10/4/97)(HN, 10/4/98)(MC, 10/3/01)
1878 Apr 1, The 1st large-scale
Easter Monday egg roll was held on White House lawn under President
Rutherford B. Hayes and his wife Lucy. The egg roll has been held
every year since except during the war years of WWI and WWII until
1953 when Pres. Eisenhower re-established the egg roll tradition.
(AH, 4/07, p.14)(http://tinyurl.com/ygrbvwq)
1878 Nov 12, US Pres.
Rutherford B. Hayes was called upon to arbitrate a dispute between
Paraguay and Argentina over the Chaco grasslands, a land area about
the size of Colorado. He ruled in favor of Paraguay and became a
national hero.
(WSJ, 4/10/00, p.A1,20)
1878 The Posse Comitatus Act
was passed which basically said that the military cannot operate
within the US.
(Wired, 8/96, p.137)
1879 Feb 15, Congress
authorized women lawyers to practice before the Supreme Ct.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1879 Feb 15, President Hayes
signed a bill allowing female attorneys to argue cases before the
Supreme Court.
(AP, 2/15/98)
1879 Pres. Rutherford B. Hayes
had the first White House telephone installed.
(SFC, 2/3/97, p.D1)
1879 Congress passed a law that
banned ships from bringing more than 15 Chinese passengers to the US
at one time.
(SFEC, 9/20/98, Z1 p.4)
1880 Mar 8, President
Rutherford B. Hayes declared that the United States would have
jurisdiction over any canal built across the isthmus of Panama.
(HN, 3/8/99)
1880 US Pres. Rutherford Hayes
lunched at the Cliff House in SF.
(SSFC, 8/21/05, p.A1)
#20 James Garfield (1881)
1831 Nov 19, James A. Garfield
(d.1881) the 20th Pres. of the US, was born in Orange Township,
Ohio.
(WUD, 1994, p.584)(AP, 11/19/08)
1863 James Garfield was elected
to Congress.
(HNQ, 8/3/02)
1876 James Garfield, US
president assassinated in 1881, purchased his Lawnfield home in
Mentor, Ohio. In 1936 the home was donated to the Western Reserve
Historical Society.
(SFC, 2/11/04, p.F10)
1880 At the Republican national
convention Pres. Grant lost his bid for a 3rd term to James Garfield
after 35 ballots.
(Ind, 2/3/00, 5A)
1880 Nov 2, James A. Garfield
was elected 20th president. During the Civil War, Garfield was a
commander at the bloody fight at Chickamauga. The election was
close, with Republican James Garfield getting 48.27% to Democrat
Winfield Hancock‘s 48.25% and a difference of less than 2,000 votes!
Garfield was shot by a disgruntled office seeker four months into
his presidency.
(HN, 11/2/98)(HNQ, 11//00)
1881 Mar 4, James A. Garfield
was inaugurated as 20th President.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1881 Jul 2, Less than four
months after his inauguration, James Garfield, the 20th President of
the US, was assassinated by Charles J. Guiteau, who wished to be
appointed consul to France, at the Washington railroad station.
Garfield lived out the summer with a fractured spine and seemed to
be gaining strength until he caught a chill and died on September
19. Guiteau was apprehended at the time of the shooting and, in
spite of an insanity defense, was convicted of murder. Chester Alan
Arthur became the 21st President. Guiteau was hanged in June 1882.
(A&IP, ESM, p.96b, photo,110)(HN,
7/2/98)(HNPD, 9/19/98)(AP, 7/2/07)
1881 Sep 19, The 20th president
of the United States, James A. Garfield, died of wounds inflicted by
assassin, Charles J. Guiteau. Alexander Graham Bell had made several
unsuccessful attempts to remove the assassin’s bullet with a new
metal detection device.
(AP, 9/19/97)(AP, 11/14/97)(ON, 5/02, p.9)
1882 Jun 30, Charles Guiteau
the assassin of President Garfield was hanged in a Washington jail.
(HNPD, 9/19/98)
1885 The James A. Garfield
monument on Kennedy Drive in San Francisco’s golden Gate Park was
erected by the offerings of a “grateful people.”
(SFC, 12/30/96, p.A13)(SFL)
#21 Chester Arthur (1881-1885)
1829 Oct 5, the 21st president
of the United States, Chester Alan Arthur, was born in Fairfield,
Vt. Some sources list 1830.
(AP, 10/5/07)
1881 Jul 2, Less than four
months after his inauguration, James Garfield, the 20th President of
the US, was assassinated by Charles J. Guiteau, who wished to be
appointed consul to France, at the Washington railroad station.
Garfield lived out the summer with a fractured spine and seemed to
be gaining strength until he caught a chill and died on September
19. Guiteau was apprehended at the time of the shooting and, in
spite of an insanity defense, was convicted of murder. Chester Alan
Arthur became the 21st President.
(A&IP, ESM, p.96b, photo,110)(WUD, 1994,
p.85)(AP, 7/2/97)(HN, 7/2/98) (HNPD, 9/19/98)
1881 Sep 20, Chester A. Arthur
was sworn in as the 21st president of the United States, succeeding
James A. Garfield, who had been assassinated.
(AP, 9/20/97)(HNPD, 9/19/98)
1881-1885 Chester A. Arthur, Vice-President under
Garfield, served as the 21st President of the US.
(A&IP, ESM, p.96b, photo)
1882 Mar 16, US Pres. Chester
Arthur signed the Treaty of Geneva following the Senate’s
ratification of the treaty. The US thus joined the Int’l. Red Cross.
(ON, 8/12, p.12)
1882 Mar 22, US Congress
outlawed polygamy. The Edmunds-Tucker Act was adopted by the US to
suppress polygamy in the territories. [see Morrill Act 1862]
President Chester Arthur signed a measure outlawing polygamy.
(SFEM, 6/28/98, p.39)(AP, 3/22/08)
1882 May 6, Over President
Arthur’s veto, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which
barred Chinese immigrants from the United States for 10 years. It
was amended and passed by Congress on August 3 and was signed by
Pres. Arthur. Renewals and amendments continued to 1904. The laws
were repealed in 1943. In 2011 the US Senate passed a resolution
expressing regret for the act.
(AP,
5/6/97)(www.u-s-history.com/pages/h739.html)(SFC, 10/11/11, p.C1)
1882 Aug 3, US Congress passed
the 1st Immigration Act. The amended act banned Chinese immigration
for ten years. The Chinese Exclusion Act barred laborers from China
and halted a massive immigration of Cantonese peasants. [see
1882-1943]
(HN, 8/3/98)(SFEC, 9/20/98, Z1
p.4)(www.u-s-history.com/pages/h739.html)
1882 Pres. Chester Arthur
approved new borders for the Hopi reservation, a 1.6 million-acre
site in the center of 17 million acres of Navajo land in the 4
Corners area of the Southwest. A 3,863 sq. mile area was set up as a
Hopi reservation. The intent was to keep Mormon settlers away from
Hopi pueblos. The Hopi Reservation was formed on territory
historically used by both Hopi and Navajo.
(SFC, 12/28/96, p.A4)(SFC, 1/3/97, p.A26)(SFEC,
5/4/97, z1 p.4)
1882 US Pres. Chester Arthur
(1829-1886) was diagnosed with terminal kidney disease. Only his
doctors knew and his fatigue was commonly mistaken for executive
laziness.
(AH, 6/07, p.14)
1883 May 24, The Brooklyn
Bridge, hailed as the "eighth wonder of the world," was dedicated by
President Chester Arthur and New York Gov. Grover Cleveland, and
officially opened to traffic. The suspension bridge linking the
boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn became a symbol of America's
progress and ingenuity. The bridge has a span of 1,595 feet with
16-inch steel wire suspension cables fastened to Gothic-style arches
276 feet tall. Civil engineer John Augustus Roebling, inventor of
the steel wire cable and designer of the bridge, was killed in a
construction accident at the outset of construction in 1869. His son
and partner, Washington A. Roebling, supervised the project to its
completion in spite of a debilitating illness. 20 men died during
construction and many suffered from caisson disease, later known as
the bends, while working in pressurized air chambers under the
river.
(HNPD, 5/23/99)(ON, 4/01, p.9)(AP, 5/24/08)
1886 Nov 18, Chester A. Arthur
(56), 21st president of the United States (1881-1885), died in
New York.
(AP, 11/18/97)
#22 Stephen Grover Cleveland, 1st term (1885-1889)
1837 Mar 18, Stephen Grover
Cleveland , was born Caldwell, N.J. He was the 22nd (1885-1889) and
24th (1893-1897) president of the United States, the only President
elected for two nonconsecutive terms.
(AP, 3/18/97)(HN, 3/18/02)
1864 Grover Cleveland, a lawyer
and politician in Buffalo, New York, dodged the draft by provided a
substitute when he was drafted. Andrew Johnson was a brigadier
general of volunteers before becoming a military governor and then
vice president. James Garfield began as a lieutenant colonel and
rose to become a major general before resigning upon being elected
to Congress in 1863. Benjamin Harrison started as a second
lieutenant in the 70th Indiana eventually mustering out as a brevet
brigadier general in 1865. William McKinley enlisted as a private in
1861 and was mustered out a brevet major four years later.
(HNQ, 8/4/00)
1884 Nov 4, Democrat Grover
Cleveland was elected to his first term as president, defeating
Republican James G. Blaine. The reference to the Democratic party as
the party of "Rum, Romanism and Rebellion" played a large part in
Republican candidate James Blaine‘s defeat in the election of 1884.
The indiscreet reference made by one of Blaine’s supporters has been
credited with causing the Blaine‘s loss of the crucial state of New
York. Blaine lost the popular vote by less than 100,000 and lost New
York by just 1,149, out of a total vote of 1,125,000 cast, to Grover
Cleveland, the first Democrat since Buchanan to win a presidential
election. Cleveland won by a margin of 30,000 votes.
(AP, 11/4/97)(HNQ, 9/13/99)(SFEC, 4/23/00, Z1
p.2)
1884 Prior to his first
election to the presidency in 1884, Democrat Grover Cleveland, then
a bachelor, admitted that Republican charges accusing him of
fathering a child as a young man in Buffalo were true. His honesty
helped to calm the issue, despite the popular campaign chant against
him:
"Ma, Ma, where‘s my Pa? Gone to the White House, Ha, Ha, Ha!"
Cleveland married Frances Folsom in the White House in 1886. He lost
a reelection bid in 1888 to Benjamin Harrison, even though he won
the popular vote, but regained the White House in 1892 to serve a
second term as the 24th president.
(HN, 1/19/00)
1885 Mar 4, Grover Cleveland
was inaugurated as 1st Democratic President since Civil War.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1885-1889 Grover Cleveland served as the 22nd
President of the US.
(A&IP, ESM, p.96b, photo)
1886 Feb 9, President Cleveland
declared a state of emergency in Seattle because of anti-Chinese
violence.
(MC, 2/9/02)
1886 Jun 2, President Cleveland
married Frances Folsom in a White House ceremony. Cleveland's bride,
Frances Folsom, was the 22-year-old daughter of Cleveland's late law
partner and friend, Oscar Folsom. The intimate wedding ceremony took
place in the White House Blue Room with fewer than 40 people
present.(To date, Cleveland is the only president to marry in the
Executive Mansion while in office.)
(AP, 6/2/97)(WSJ, 9/23/97, p.A1)(HNQ, 6/2/98)
1889 Feb 22, President
Cleveland signed a bill to admit the Dakotas, Montana and Washington
state to the Union. The "omnibus bill" was an act dividing the
Dakota Territory into the states of North and South Dakota, and
enabling the two Dakotas to formulate constitutions. A
constitutional convention was held at Bismarck beginning July 4,
1889. A constitution was formulated and submitted to a vote of the
people of the State of North Dakota on October 1, 1889, and was
adopted.
(AP,
2/22/99)(www.court.state.nd.us/court/history/dakotaterritory.htm)
#23 Benjamin Harrison (1889-1893)
1833 Aug 20, Benjamin Harrison,
the 23rd president of the United States and grandson of President
William Henry Harrison, was born in North Bend, Ohio.
(AP, 8/20/97)(HN, 8/20/98)
1858 Apr 30, Mary Scott Lord
Dimmick, Pres. B. Harrison's first lady, was born.
(HN, 4/30/98)
1888 Nov 6, Benjamin Harrison
of Indiana won the presidential election, beating incumbent Grover
Cleveland on electoral votes, 233-168, although Cleveland led in the
popular vote. Tammany Hall helped carry new York for the GOP.
(AP, 11/6/97)(WSJ, 11/9/00, p.A26)
1889 Mar 4, Benjamin Harrison
was inaugurated as 23rd President.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1889 Mar 23, President Harrison
opened Oklahoma for white colonization.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1891 Apr 25, Pres. Benjamin
Harrison visited SF.
(SS, 4/25/02)
1901 Mar 13, Benjamin Harrison
(67), 23rd president of the United States (1889-1893), died in
Indianapolis.
(AP, 3/13/97)(BG, 3/13/16, p.B6)
#24 Stephen Grover Cleveland, 2nd term (1893-1897)
1835 Oct 23, Adlai Ewing
Stevenson, (D) 23rd VP (1893-97), was born.
(MC, 10/23/01)
1892 Nov 8, Former US President
Grover Cleveland beat incumbent Benjamin Harrison and became the
first (and, to date, only) president to win non-consecutive terms in
the White House. The candidate of the people’s Party carried five
states on a platform of support for farmers and abandoning the gold
standard.
(AP, 11/8/97)(Econ 7/1/17, SR p.8)
1893 Jan 4, US president
Cleveland granted amnesty to Mormon polygamists.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1893 Mar 4, Grover Cleveland
(D) was inaugurated as 24th US President (2nd term).
(SC, 3/4/02)
1893 Sep 9, Frances Cleveland,
wife of President Cleveland, gave birth to a daughter, Esther, in
the White House. It was the first time a president's child was born
in the executive mansion.
(AP, 9/9/97)
1893-1897 Grover Cleveland became the 24th
President of the US.
(A&IP, ESM, p.96b, photo)
1893-1897 Adlai Ewing Stevenson (D) served as 23rd
VP.
(MC, 10/23/01)
1897 Mar 2, President
Cleveland vetoed legislation that would have required a literacy
test for immigrants.
(AP, 3/2/98)
1897 Pres. Grover Cleveland
established a forest reserve in the Olympic Peninsula of Washington
state with sharp restrictions on commercial logging. 3 years later
McKinley remanded a third of the reserve back to open logging.
(NG, 7/04, p.66)
1908 Jun 24, The 22nd and 24th
president (1893-1897) of the United States, Grover Cleveland, died
in Princeton, N.J., at age 71. In 1988 Richard E. Welch authored
"The Presidencies of Grover Cleveland."
(SFEC, 1/12/97, Z 3 p.4)(AP, 6/24/97)(ON, 10/99,
p.12)
1947 Oct 29, Former first lady Frances Cleveland
Preston died in Baltimore at age 83.
(AP, 10/29/97)
#25 William McKinley
1843 Jan 29, William McKinley
(d.1901), the 25th president of the United States, was born in
Niles, Ohio. McKinley was the last Civil War veteran to serve as
President of the United States. He had served with the 23rd
Regiment, Ohio Volunteers, eventually rising to the rank of brevet
major. He saw action at South Mountain, Antietam, Winchester and
Cedar Creek. For a time he served on Rutherford B. Hayes' staff.
McKinley was elected the 25th president in 1896. He led the country
in the Spanish-American War. He died in Buffalo, New York, on
September 14, 1901, after being shot by an anarchist assassin on Sep
6.
(AP, 1/29/98)(HNQ, 11/13/98)
1896 Nov 3, Republican William
McKinley was elected 25th president. He defeated Democrat William
Jennings Bryan for the presidency. McKinley and Garret Hobart
supported the gold standard while The Democrats supported the free
coinage of silver. Marcus Hanna, an Ohio industrialist, led the
fund-raising for McKinley and personally underwrote the cost of
winning this 1st modern presidential campaign. In 1929 Thomas Beer
authored a biography of Hanna.
(AP, 11/3/97)(SFC, 10/28/98, Z1 p.7)(HN,
11/3/98)(WSJ, 3/24/04, p.B1)
President William McKinley: "I
do not prize the word cheap. It is not a badge of honor ... it is a
symbol of despair. Cheap prices make for cheap goods; cheap goods
make for cheap men; and cheap men make for a cheap country!"
Memorial platters were made with his final words: "It is God’s way,
his will be done."
(AP, 10/16/97)(SFC,11/26/97, Z1 p.7)
1897 Mar 4, William McKinley
was sworn in as the 25th president.
(AP, 3/4/98)
1898 Apr 20, President
McKinley signed a congressional resolution recognizing Cuban
independence from Spain. He signed the Joint Resolution for War with
Spain that authorized U.S. military intervention to Cuban
independence. The US thus hijacked the independence rebellion in
Cuba started by Jose Marti in 1995.
(AP, 4/20/97)(SFC, 1/19/02, p.A19)(Econ, 12/3/16,
p.19)
1899 Jan 20, President William
McKinley appointed a Philippine Commission led by Jacob G. Schurman,
president of Cornell University, to study the situation in the
island and to submit a report to serve as a basis for setting up a
civil government. The commission issued findings in June suggesting
the ultimate independence for the islands but, for an indefinite
period continued U.S. rule.
(HNQ, 1/3/00)
1899 Mar 2, President McKinley
signed a measure creating the rank of Admiral of the Navy for Adm.
George Dewey.
(AP, 3/299)
1899 Nov 21, Vice President
Garret A. Hobart, serving under President McKinley, died in
Paterson, N.J., at age 55.
(AP, 11/21/99)
1900 Feb 6, President McKinley
appointed W.H. Taft commissioner to report on the Philippines.
(HN, 2/6/99)
1900 Mar 19, President McKinley
asserted the need for free trade with Puerto Rico.
(HN, 3/19/98)
1900 May 25, President William
McKinley signed the Lacey Act, 16 U.S.C. § 3371–3378, to defend
fauna from poachers. It banned the illegal commercial transportation
of wildlife. The conservation law was introduced by Iowa Rep. John
F. Lacey. It has been amended several times. The most significant
times were in 1969, 1981, and in 1989.
(Econ, 9/12/09,
p.14)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lacey_Act)
1900 Nov 6, President McKinley
was re-elected, beating Democrat William Jennings Bryan.
(AP, 11/6/97)(HN, 11/6/98)
1901 Mar 4, William McKinley
was inaugurated president for the second time. Theodore Roosevelt
was inaugurated as vice president. The team ran on the issue of
keeping the Philippines as a colony.
(HN, 3/4/99)
1901 Sep 6, At the Pan-American
Exposition in Buffalo, New York, anarchist Leon Czolgosz (28) made
his way along a reception line filing past President William
McKinley. Concealed within a handkerchief, Czolgosz held a
.32-caliber revolver. As he came face to face with the president, he
fired two shots through the handkerchief, striking McKinley in the
chest and the abdomen. McKinley died eight days after the shooting
and became the third American president assassinated. He was
succeeded by Vice President Theodore Roosevelt. Czolgosz, explaining
that he "thought it would be a good thing for the country to kill
the President," was put to death by electrocution 45 days later.
Emma Goldman was one of the people blamed for the assassination.
(AP, 9/6/97)(Hem, Dec. 94, p.70) (WSJ, 5/17/95,
p.A-18) (WSJ, 12/11/95, p.A-1)(HNPD, 9/6/98)(HN, 9/6/98)
1904 Feb 15, Mark Hanna
(b.1837), American businessman and Republican politician, died in
Washington, DC. He served as a United States Senator from Ohio. A
friend and political ally of President William McKinley, Hanna used
his wealth and business skills to successfully manage McKinley's
presidential campaigns in 1896 and 1900.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Hanna)
1904 In San Francisco an
allegorical sculpture honoring Pres. McKinley showed a figure
holding a palm branch in one hand and a sword in the other was
erected in Golden Gate Park.
(SFC, 8/29/13, p.D1)
#26 Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909)
1858 Oct 27, Theodore
Roosevelt, 26th president of the United States (1901-1909) who was
the namesake of the "Teddy" bear, was born in New York City in a
townhouse at 28 East 20th Street. Today a reconstruction of the
house is a National Historic Site and open to the public. The 26th
president of the U.S., Roosevelt died on January 6, 1919. He wrote
the 4-volume "The Winning of the West." In 1996 The American
Experience series broadcast a 4-hr. TV special that covered his
life. His pursuit of boxing left him blind in one eye. He put 230
million acres of land under federal protection. "Death is always and
under all circumstances a tragedy, for if it is not, then it means
that life itself has become one."
(WSJ, 9/30/96, p.A14)(SFC, 10/4/96, p.C13)(AP,
10/27/97)(WSJ, 12/18/97, p.A20)(HN, 10/27/98)(HNQ, 11/18/98) (AP,
4/22/99)
1858 Oct 27, Theodore
Roosevelt’s words, "The only one who makes no mistakes is one who
never does anything," were inscribed on the New York City home where
he was born. The Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic
Site is located at 28 E. 20th Street in Manhattan, www.nps.gov/thrb.
(HNQ, 9/28/02)
1878 Oct, Theodore Roosevelt
first saw his future wife, Alice Hathaway (1861-1884).
(SFEC, 9/29/96, Par p.8)
1878-1884 Theodore Roosevelt maintained a diary
over this period.
(SFEC, 9/29/96, Par p.8)
1880 Oct 27, Theodore Roosevelt
(22) married his first wife, Alice Hathaway Lee.
(AP, 10/27/07)
1882 Theodore Roosevelt
described Thomas Jefferson as "perhaps the most incapable executive
that ever filled the presidential chair." Roosevelt added, "It would
be difficult to imagine a man less fit to guide a state with honor
and safety through the stormy times that marked the opening of the
present century."
(HNQ, 9/21/98)
1895-1897 Teddy Roosevelt served as the head of
the NYC board of Police commissioners.
(WSJ, 8/2100, p.A16)
1896 Feb, Teddy Roosevelt,
Police Commissioner of NYC, closed all the police lodging houses on
the advice of Jacob A. Riis (1849-1914), Danish-born author and
photographer.
(WSJ, 8/25/08, p.A11)
1897 Teddy Roosevelt, the
police commissioner of NYC, was appointed assistant secretary of war
under Pres. William McKinley, after Col. Frederick Grant, son of
Ulysses S. Grant, turned down the position. In 2012 Richard Zacks
authored “Island of Vice: Theodore Roosevelt’s Doomed Quest to Clean
Up Sin-Loving New York.”
(SSFC, 4/8/12, p.F3)
1898 Jun 22, Lt. Col. Theodore
Roosevelt and Col. Leonard Wood led the Rough Riders, a volunteer
cavalry regiment, onto the beach at Daiquiri in the Spanish American
War.
(MC, 6/22/02)
1901 Sep 2, Vice President
Theodore Roosevelt offered the advice, "Speak softly and carry a big
stick," in a speech at the Minnesota State Fair.
(AP, 9/2/97)
1901 Sep 6, At the Pan-American
Exposition in Buffalo, New York, anarchist Leon Czolgosz (28) made
his way along a reception line filing past President William
McKinley. Concealed within a handkerchief, Czolgosz held a
.32-caliber revolver. As he came face to face with the president, he
fired two shots through the handkerchief, striking McKinley in the
chest and the abdomen. McKinley died eight days after the shooting
and became the third American president assassinated. He was
succeeded by Vice President Theodore Roosevelt. Czolgosz, explaining
that he "thought it would be a good thing for the country to kill
the President," was put to death by electrocution 45 days later.
Emma Goldman was one of the people blamed for the assassination.
(AP, 9/6/97)(Hem, Dec. 94, p.70) (WSJ, 5/17/95,
p.A-18) (WSJ, 12/11/95, p.A-1)(HNPD, 9/6/98)(HN, 9/6/98)
1901-1909 Theodore Roosevelt (b. Oct 27, 1858)
served as the 26th President of the US. He had been elected
Vice-President under McKinley’s 2nd term. His "Gunboat Diplomacy"
was used to exert US influence and deter Europeans from the
Americas.
(AP, 10/27/97)(WSJ, 12/18/97, p.A20)(WSJ,
2/3/04, p.A12)
1902 May 12, Over 100,000
miners in northeastern Pennsylvania called a strike and kept the
mines closed all summer. Owners refused arbitration and Pres.
Roosevelt intervened. [see Oct 3]
(LCTH, 10/3/99)(SFC, 10/4/02, p.A17)
1902 May 20, The United States
ended its three-year military presence in Cuba as the Republic of
Cuba was established under its first elected president, Tomas
Estrada Palma. Theodore Roosevelt had criticized the government’s
sluggish withdrawal of disease-stricken US troops from Cuba.
(HN, 5/20/98)(WSJ, 11/13/98, p.A1)(AP, 5/20/02)
1902 Aug 22, President Theodore
Roosevelt became the first U.S. chief executive to ride in an
automobile, in Hartford, Conn.
(AP, 8/22/97)(SFC, 9/25/99, p.A20)
1902 Oct 3,
President Theodore Roosevelt met with miners and coal field
operators in an attempt to settle the anthracite coal strike, then
in its fifth month. The country relied on coal to power commerce and
industry and anthracite or "hard coal" was essential for domestic
heating. Pennsylvania miners had left the anthracite fields
demanding wage increases, union recognition, and an eight-hour
workday. As winter approached, public anxiety about fuel shortages
and the rising cost of all coal pushed Roosevelt to take
unprecedented action. The meeting failed to resolve differences. A
presidential commission awarded the workers a 10% wage increase and
a shorter work week. [see May 12] J.P. Morgan came up with a
compromise proposal that provided for arbitration and the miners
returned to work on Oct 23.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_strike_of_1902)(SFC, 10/4/02,
p.A17)(AH, 2/03, p.48)
1902 Nov 16, A cartoon appeared
in the Washington Star, prompting the Teddy Bear Craze, after
President Teddy Roosevelt refused to kill a captive bear tied up for
him to shoot during a hunting trip to Mississippi.
(HN, 11/16/00)
1902 President Theodore
Roosevelt said he would intervene in a coal strike: "I knew that
this action would form an evil precedent, and that it was one which
I should take most reluctantly." The strike settled without
intervention.
(HNQ, 12/23/02)
1903 Mar 3, President Theodore
Roosevelt signed into law the Immigration Act of 1903, one day after
its passage in Congress.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_Act_of_1903)
1903 May 14, The Dewey Memorial
in Union Square, San Francisco, was dedicated by Pres. Theodore
Roosevelt. Robert Aitken sculpted the 12-foot statue of Victory that
stood atop an 83-foot column. Alma de Bretteville, later Alma
Spreckels, had posed as the model. Sugar magnate Adolph Spreckels
was so taken with the model that he married her.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dewey_Monument)(SSFC, 5/11/03,
p.D1)(SFC, 1/9/16, p.C4)
1903 May 15, President Theodore
Roosevelt and naturalist John Muir began a 3-day camping trip in
Yosemite National Park.
(http://tinyurl.com/m2htr2s)Econ, 12/24/16,
p.101)
1904 Feb 11, President Theodore
Roosevelt proclaimed strict neutrality for the U.S. in the
Russo-Japanese War.
(HN, 2/11/97)
1904 Apr 30, At 1:06 p.m.
President Theodore Roosevelt officially opened the St. Louis World’s
Fair commemorating the centennial of the Louisiana Purchase.
(HN, 5/2/98)(SFEC, 5/23/99, p.B7)(SFC, 6/24/00,
p.B3)
1904 Nov 8, Theodore Roosevelt
(R) defeated Alton B. Parker (D) in US presidential elections.
Roosevelt had succeeded the assassinated William McKinley.
(HN, 11/6/98)(AP, 11/8/04)
1904 Dec 6, Theodore Roosevelt
confirmed the Monroe-doctrine (Roosevelt Corollary).
(MC, 12/6/01)
1905 Mar 4, The inauguration of
Theodore Roosevelt.
(http://condor.stcloudstate.edu/~brixr01/theTIMEMACHINE.html)
1905 Jul 29, US Secretary of
War William Howard Taft, under the approval of Pres. Theodore
Roosevelt, and PM of Japan Katsura Taro signed the Taft-Katsura
Agreement, which reinforced American and Japanese influence and
spelled doom for Korean sovereignty. Japan agreed not to interfere
in the ongoing US rape of the Philippines in return for the US
agreement not to interfere with Japan’s forthcoming rape of Korea.
(AH, 10/07,
p.56)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taft-Katsura_Agreement)
1905 Teddy Roosevelt
established the million-acre Siskiyou Forest Reserve in Oregon.
(SFEC, 6/20/99, p.T8)
1905 East Coasters including
Theodore Roosevelt, Andrew Carnegie and Frederic Remington set up
the American Bison Society. In 1907 they sent 15 animals by rail to
the new Wichita Bison Refuge in Oklahoma. The society met for the
last time in 1935. The society was revitalized in 2005 to secure the
ecological future of the animal. In 2009 Steven Rinella authored
“American Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon.”
(Econ, 1/17/09, p.82)
1905 In SF a reform movement
began led by former mayor James Phelan and Fremont Older, editor of
the San Francisco Bulletin. Pres. Theodore Roosevelt sent special
prosecutor Francis Heney to investigate graft in SF.
(SSFC, 4/15/07, p.B5)
1906 Mar 11, The Simplified
Spelling Board was announced with Andrew Carnegie funding the
organization, to be headquartered in New York City. In August Pres.
Theodore Roosevelt issued an executive order mandating simplified
spelling in all government administrative documents.
(Econ, 8/30/08,
p.19)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simplified_Spelling_Board)
1906 Mar 17, President Theodore
Roosevelt first likened crusading journalists to a man with "the
muck-rake in his hand" in a speech to the Gridiron Club in
Washington, DC, as he criticized what he saw as the excesses of
investigative journalism.
(AP,
3/17/06)(www.gwu.edu/~smpa/faculty/documents/Harvard.pdf)
1906 May 26, Pres. Theodore
Roosevelt approved the US Congress chartered the Archaeological
Institute of America.
(www.archaeological.org/pdfs/AIA_Congressional_CharterA5S.pdf)
1906 Jun 8, Pres. Theodore
Roosevelt signed the American Antiquities Act, first proposed in
1882. It was used to set aside American resources by executive
order. Roosevelt had urged the passage of the Antiquities Act to
allow the president to designate areas of scientific, historic or
archeological significance as national monuments without the
approval of Congress.
(SFEC, 11/21/99,
p.A3)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiquities_Act)(Arch, 1/06, p.4)
1906 Jun 29, The US Congress
enacted the Hepburn Act, which prohibited railroads from offering
discounted rates to large shippers and authorized the Interstate
Commerce Commission to set maximum freight charges for railroads.
Pres. Roosevelt had personally appealed for its passage.
(AH, 6/07,
p.46)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hepburn_Act)
1906 Nov 9, President Theodore
Roosevelt left Washington D.C. for a 17 day trip to Panama and
Puerto Rico, becoming the first president to make an official visit
outside of the US. His trip popularized the Panama hat, a product
actually made in Ecuador and shipped since the 1840s to prospective
gold diggers in Panama. The toquilla straw hats had been made in
Ecuador as long ago as the 17th century.
(HN, 11/9/98)(Econ, 7/19/14, p.33)
1906 Nov 21, In San Juan,
President Theodore Roosevelt pledged citizenship for Puerto Rican
people.
(HN, 11/21/98)
1906 Dec 12, US Pres. Theodore
Roosevelt nominated Oscar Straus to be secretary of commerce and
labor; Straus became the first Jewish Cabinet member.
(AP, 12/12/07)
1906 US colleges set up the
National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the behest of
Pres. Theodore Roosevelt.
(Econ, 8/16/14, p.21)
1907 Jan 1, President Theodore
Roosevelt shook a record 8,513 hands in 1 day.
(MC, 1/1/02)
1907 Feb 20, Pres. Theodore
Roosevelt signed an immigration act which excluded "idiots,
imbeciles, feebleminded persons, epileptics, insane persons" from
being admitted to the US.
(AP, 2/20/07)
1907 Feb 26, Members of US
Congress raised their own salaries to $7500.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1907 Mar 14, President Theodore
Roosevelt signed an executive order designed to prevent Japanese
laborers from immigrating to the United States as part of a
"gentlemen's agreement" with Japan.
(AP, 3/14/07)
1907 Oct 22, President Theodore
Roosevelt visited The Hermitage, the Nashville, Tenn., home of the
late President Andrew Jackson. Years later, Maxwell House claimed
that Roosevelt had praised a cup of its coffee during this visit by
saying it was "good to the last drop."
(AP, 10/22/07)
1908 Jan, Pres. Theodore
Roosevelt created Pinnacles National Monument in California. The
area was expanded in 2000 for the 7th time and covered 24,000 acres
in San Benito and Monterey counties.
(SFEC, 1/23/00, p.C1)
1908 Pres. Teddy Roosevelt
criticized the courts for interpreting the Sherman Antitrust Act
narrowly, and urged more federal supervision of corporations.
(WSJ, 1/14/08, p.R2)
1908 Pres. Theodore Roosevelt
established the Lower Klamath Refuge in northern California and
southern Oregon as the nation’s first preserve set aside for
waterfowl.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lower_Klamath_National_Wildlife_Refuge)(SFC,
4/21/12, p.A10)
1909 Feb 28, President
Roosevelt became the first U.S. president to visit the Austrian
embassy.
(HN, 2/28/98)
1909 Mar 23, Theodore Roosevelt
began an African safari sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution and
National Geographic Society.
(HN, 3/23/98)
1909 Pres. Theodore Roosevelt
established the Farallon Islands, 28 miles off the coast of San
Francisco, as a wildlife refuge.
(SFC, 2/17/05, p.A1)
1909 Under Pres. Theodore
Roosevelt two Calaveras groves of Redwood trees in California were
purchased by the federal government to prevent them being logged.
The area was declared a state park in 1931.
(http://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/ocj/vol1909/iss4/9/)(Econ, 12/24/16,
p.101)
1910 Feb 11, Theodore Roosevelt
Jr. and Eleanor Alexander announced their wedding date--June 20,
1910. President Theodore Roosevelt signed a bill creating Mesa Verde
National Park.
(HN, 2/11/97)
1910 Mar 21, The U.S. Senate
granted ex-President Teddy Roosevelt a pension of $10,000 yearly.
(HN, 3/21/98)
1910 Aug 20-1910 Aug 21, The
Great Idaho Fire killed 86 people and destroyed some 3 million acres
of timber in Idaho, Montana and Washington. In 2009 Timothy Egan
authored “The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Save
America.”
(http://www.idahoforests.org/fires.htm)(SFC,
12/1/09, p.E8)
1910 Aug 31, Theodore Roosevelt
laid out his progressive philosophy as he delivered the "New
Nationalism" speech at Osawatomie, Kansas, effecting a split in the
Republican Party. The speech was interpreted as an assault upon the
conservatism of the Taft administration. In the speech, Roosevelt
proclaimed that the New Nationalism "maintains that every man holds
his property subject to the general right of the community to
regulate its use to whatever degree the public welfare may require
it." He also warned that America’s industrial economy had been taken
over by a handful of corporate giants garnering wealth for a small
number of people.
(HNQ, 12/22/99)(Econ, 10/13/12, p.23)(Econ,
9/17/16, SR p.3)
1911 Mar 18, Theodore Roosevelt
opened the Roosevelt Dam in Phoenix, Ariz., the largest dam in the
U.S. to date.
(HN, 3/18/98)
1912 Aug 7, The Progressive
Party (Bull Moose Party) nominated Theodore Roosevelt for president.
Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt had stormed the Republican
convention but failed to wrest the nomination from William Howard
Taft. He then founded his own, short-lived, Progressive Party. The
party split allowed Taft to win the election.
(WSJ, 6/5/96, p.A12)(AP, 8/7/97)(SFEC, 3/5/00,
p.D8)
1912 Oct 14, Theodore
Roosevelt, former president and the Bull Moose Party candidate, was
shot at close range by anarchist William Schrenk while greeting the
public in front of the Hotel Gilpatrick in Milwaukee while
campaigning for the presidency. He was saved by the papers in his
breast pocket and still managed to give a 90 minute address in
Milwaukee after requesting his audience to be quiet because “there
is a bullet in my body.” Schrenk was captured and uttered the now
famous words "any man looking for a third term ought to be
shot."
(WSJ, 8/5/96, p.A10)(AP, 10/14/97)(WSJ, 8/5/96,
p.A10)(HN, 10/14/98)
1912 Nov 5, Democrat Woodrow
Wilson was elected the 28th president, defeating Progressive
Republican Theodore Roosevelt and incumbent Republican William
Howard Taft. Wilson had served as the president of Princeton Univ.
California’s Gov. Hiram Johnson was the running mate for former
Pres. Theodore Roosevelt on a Progressive Party platform that
included a universal system of social insurance to protect all
Americans from the “hazards of sickness.” In 2004 James Chace
authored “1912: Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft & Debs – The election
that Changed the Country.
(I&I, Penzias, p.216)(AP, 11/5/97)(HN,
11/5/98)(WSJ, 2/8/99, p.A21)(WSJ, 5/11/04, p.D12)(SFC, 12/11/17,
p.A10)
1914 Feb, In Brazil a 22-man
party, that included former Pres. Theodore Roosevelt, started down
the Rio da Duvida (River of Doubt) in the Amazon Basin for a 2-month
adventure. In 2005 Candice Millard authored “The River of Doubt”
Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey.”
(SSFC, 10/23/05, p.M3)
1915 Oct 12, Former President
Theodore Roosevelt criticized the concept of "hyphenated
Americanism," referring to U.S. citizens who identified themselves
by dual nationalities.
(AP, 10/12/05)
1919 Jan 6, The 26th president
of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, died in Oyster Bay, N.Y.,
at age 60. "Put out the light" were his last words. In 1920 his
autobiography was published by Scribner. In 1997 H.W. Brands
published the biography: "T.R.: The Last Romantic." Around 1954
Carleton Putnam (d.1998), dropped his position as chairman of Delta
Airlines and wrote the biography: "Theodore Roosevelt", that covered
the first 28 years of Roosevelt’s life. Theodore Roosevelt coined
the term "Good to the last drop," used by Maxwell House Coffee. The
original Maxwell House hotel was in Nashville, Tenn. In 1980 Edmund
Morris authored the Pulitzer Prize winning Vol 1: "The Rise of
Theodore Roosevelt." In 1997 "T.R. The Last Romantic" by H.W. Brands
was published. In 2001 Edmund Morris authored Vol 2: "Theodore Rex."
In 2004 the Library of America published “Theodore Roosevelt:
Letters and Speeches; The rough Riders, an Autobiography.”
(WSJ, 12/18/97, p.A20)(AP, 1/6/98)(SFC, 3/17/98,
p.A20)(SFC, 6/27/98, p.E4)(WSJ, 9/27/99, p.A32)(ON, 12/99,
p.12)(WSJ, 11/20/01, p.A16)(SFC, 10/21/04, p.E1)
2013 Doris Kearns Goodwin
authored “The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt and the Golden Age of
Journalism.”
(Econ, 11/16/13, p.85)
2020 Jun 22, It was reported
that the bronze statue of Theodore Roosevelt, on horseback and
flanked by a Native American man and an African man, which has
presided over the entrance to the American Museum of Natural History
in New York since 1940, is coming down.
(NY Times, 6/22/20)
#27 William Howard Taft (1909-1913)
1857 Sep 15, William Howard
Taft (72), 27th president of the United States (1909-1913), was born
in Cincinnati.
(AP, 3/8/98)(HNQ, 12/10/98)(MC, 3/8/02)
1908 May, Eugene V. Debs, the
Socialist Party candidate for president in the US, began his
national campaign in the courthouse square of Girard, Kansas. The
town was the home of the national socialist newspaper "Appeal to
Reason" edited by J.A. Wayland.
(WSJ, 5/28/96, p. R-16)
1908 Nov 3, Republican William
Howard Taft was elected the 27th president, outpolling William
Jennings Bryan. James Sherman was the VP.
(AP, 11/3/97)(HN, 11/3/98)(SFC, 10/1/99, p.B6)
1909 Mar 4, President Taft was
inaugurated as 27th President during a 10" snowstorm.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1909 Jun 1, Pres. William
Howard Taft touched a key in Washington, DC, sending a signal to
Seattle, opening the Alaska-Yukon Pacific Expo at the Seattle
World’s Fair, as well as a signal to NYC initialing the New York to
Seattle Automobile Race.
(AH, 6/03, p.18)
1909 Oct 6, Pres. William Taft
visited San Francisco.
(SSFC, 10/4/09, p.50)
1909 Dec 1, President Taft
severed official relations with Nicaragua’s Zelaya government, and
declared support for the revolutionaries.
(HN, 12/1/98)
1909-1913 William Howard Taft became the 27th
President of the US.
(A&IP, ESM, p.96b, photo)
1910 Apr 14, President William
Howard Taft began a sports tradition by throwing out the first pitch
on baseball’s Opening Day. Taft threw to Washington Senator pitcher
Walter Johnson, who went on to hurl a shutout win, allowing the
Philadelphia Phillies just one hit and ending the day with a 3-0
victory for Washington.
(HNQ, 8/9/02)
1910 Nov 8, Democrats prevailed
in congressional elections for the first time since 1894.
(HN, 11/6/98)
1911 Aug 22, President William
Taft vetoed a joint resolution of Congress granting statehood to
Arizona. Taft vetoed the resolution because he believed a
provision in the state constitution authorizing the recall of judges
was a blow at the independence of the judiciary. The offending
clause was removed an Arizona was admitted to statehood on February
14, 1912. Afterward, the state restored the article in its
constitution.
(HNQ, 11/21/99)
1911 May 23, The NY Public
Library building at 5th Avenue was dedicated by Pres. Taft.
(MC, 5/23/02)
1912 Apr 22, At the urging of
Pres. Taft the Chamber of Commerce of the USA was established at a
Washington hotel by a gathering of 700 delegates from 44 states. The
represented 324 voluntary organizations.
(Econ, 4/21/12, p.77)
1912 Nov 5, Democrat Woodrow
Wilson was elected the 28th president, defeating Progressive
Republican Theodore Roosevelt and incumbent Republican William
Howard Taft. Wilson had served as the president of Princeton Univ.
California’s Gov. Hiram Johnson was the running mate for former
Pres. Theodore Roosevelt on a Progressive Party platform that
included a universal system of social insurance to protect all
Americans from the “hazards of sickness.” In 2004 James Chace
authored “1912: Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft & Debs – The election
that Changed the Country.
(I&I, Penzias, p.216)(AP, 11/5/97)(HN,
11/5/98)(WSJ, 2/8/99, p.A21)(WSJ, 5/11/04, p.D12)(SFC, 12/11/17,
p.A10)
1913 Feb 25, The 16th Amendment
to the constitution was adopted, setting the legal basis for the
income tax. The amendment, proposed by Congress at the urging of
Pres. Taft, established a corporate tax. Churches and other
religious organizations were exempted from federal taxation. Cordell
Hull, author of the Revenue Act of 1913, said: “Of course any kind
of society or corporation that is not doing business for profit and
not acquiring profit would not come within the meaning of the taxing
clause.”
(HN, 2/25/98)(WSJ, 3/11/98, p.A20)(AH, 4/07,
p.31)(http://tinyurl.com/yg2j694)
1921 Jun 30, President Harding
nominated former President Taft chief justice of the United States,
to succeed the late Edward Douglass White. Republican William Howard
Taft (72), 27th president of the United States (1909-1913), served
as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court from 1921 until illness forced
him to resign in 1930.
(WSJ, 3/11/98, p.A20)(AP, 6/30/08)
1930 Mar 8, William Howard Taft
(72), 27th president of the United States (1909-1913), died in
Washington. In addition to John F. Kennedy, William Howard Taft is
the only other U.S. president buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
Born in Cincinnati on September 15, 1857, Taft was the 27th
president, serving from 1909 to 1913. He later served as Chief
Justice of the Supreme Court from 1921 until illness forced him to
resign in 1930.
(AP, 3/8/98)(HNQ, 12/10/98)
1930 Mar 11, Former President
and Chief Justice Taft was the first U.S. president to be buried in
the National Cemetery in Arlington, Va.
(HN, 3/11/98)(AP, 3/11/02)
#28 Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921)
1854 Mar 14, Thomas Riley
Marshall, 28th U.S. Vice President (Woodrow Wilson), was born.
(HN, 3/14/98)
1856 Dec 28, Woodrow Wilson,
28th president of the United States (1912-1921), who brought the
country into World War I, was born in Staunton, Va. He won the Nobel
Peace Prize in 1919. "The American Revolution was a beginning, not a
consummation."
(AP, 12/28/97)(HN, 12/28/98)(AP, 7/2/99)(MC,
12/28/01)
1912 Nov 5, Democrat Woodrow
Wilson was elected the 28th president, defeating Progressive
Republican Theodore Roosevelt and incumbent Republican William
Howard Taft. Wilson had served as the president of Princeton Univ.
California’s Gov. Hiram Johnson was the running mate for former
Pres. Theodore Roosevelt on a Progressive Party platform that
included a universal system of social insurance to protect all
Americans from the “hazards of sickness.” In 2004 James Chace
authored “1912: Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft & Debs – The election
that Changed the Country.
(I&I, Penzias, p.216)(AP, 11/5/97)(HN,
11/5/98)(WSJ, 2/8/99, p.A21)(WSJ, 5/11/04, p.D12)(SFC, 12/11/17,
p.A10)
1913 Mar 4, Woodrow Wilson was
inaugurated as 28th President.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1913 Mar 15, President Wilson
met with reporters for what's been described as the first
presidential press conference. Some sources say Wilson's first
actual press conference was a week later.
(AP, 3/15/97)
1913 Oct 3, A 1% US federal
income tax was signed into law by Pres. Wilson. The law spared
interest of any kind, including home-mortgage interest.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revenue_Act_of_1913)(Econ, 2/4/12,
p.86)
1913 Dec 2, Woodrow Wilson
re-established the tradition of delivering the US state of the union
address in person. He was the first to do so since John Adams in
1800.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1913_State_of_the_Union_Address)(Econ,
1/24/15, p.22)
1913 Dec 23, The Federal
Reserve Act was signed by Pres. Woodrow Wilson. The Owen-Glass Act
established the decentralized, government-controlled banking system
in the U.S. known as the Federal Reserve. It repealed the gold
standard and replaced it with a system that ensured that the US
dollar would be a better store of value than gold. The act guarded
against inflation but allowed deflation. It was the first thorough
reorganization of the national banking system since the Civil War.
The goal was to strive for maximum employment and price stability
(Wired, 10/96, p.142)(WSJ, 3/7/97, p.A14)(HNQ,
10/16/99)(SSFC, 11/28/04, p.D1)
1913-1921 Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of
the US. Thomas Riley Marshall served as vice-president.
(A&IP, ESM, p.96b, photo)(NW, 12/17/01, p.51)
1914 May 7, Woodrow Wilson's
daughter Eleanor married in the White House.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1914 May 9, Pres. Wilson
proclaimed Mother's Day.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1914 Aug 6, Ellen Louise
Wilson, the first wife of the twenty-eighth president, Woodrow
Wilson, died of Barite’s disease.
(HN, 8/6/98)
1914 Oct 15, Congress passed
President Wilson signed the Clayton Anti-Trust Act, which labor
leader Samuel Gompers called "labor's charter of freedom." It
strengthened previous anti-monopoly legislation. The act exempted
unions from anti-trust laws; strikes, picketing and boycotting
became legal; corporate interlocking directorates became illegal, as
did setting prices which would effect a monopoly.
(SFC, 7/8/96, p.D2)(HN, 10/15/98)(AP, 10/15/08)
1915 Jan 26, President Woodrow
Wilson signed the Rocky Mountain National Park Act. The 415 square
miles park, northwest of Denver, was created following a decade of
lobbying by photographer and naturalist Enos Mills. During its first
year the park drew some 31,000 visitors.
(http://home.nps.gov/romo/historyculture/upload/chapter2.pdf)(SFC,
7/19/97, p.A2)(SFC, 1/26/15, p.A5)
1915 Jan 28, Pres. Wilson
refused to prohibit the immigration of illiterates.
(MC, 1/28/02)
1915 Feb 10, President Wilson
blasted the British for using the U.S. flag on merchant ships to
deceive the Germans. He also warned the Kaiser that he would hold
Germany "to a strict accountability" for U.S. lives and property
endangered. In Europe [Lithuania], the Germans encircled and
captured 100,000 Russians near Nieman River. When the United States
entered World War I, propagandist George Creel set out to stifle
anti-war sentiment.
(HN, 2/10/97)
1915 Feb 20, President Wilson
opened the Panama-Pacific Expo in San Francisco to celebrate the
opening of the Panama Canal. A 20-acre salt marsh was paved over at
Crissey Field for the Expo. It was held on what later became the
Marina District and 300,000 people attended opening day. The fair
was crowned by a 43-story Tower of Jewels decorated with cut glass.
Herb Caen later claimed to have been conceived during the expo. A
40-ton organ with 7,000 pipes played the "Hallelujah Chorus." It was
made by the Austin Organs Co. of Hartford, Conn. After the fair it
was moved to the Civic Auditorium and used for 7 decades until the
1989 earthquake damaged it.
(SFC, 6/14/96, p.A1)(SFC, 10/4/96, p.A22)(SFC,
4/27/98, p.A20)(SFEC, 12/26/99, p.W4)(SSFC, 2/15/15, p.p4)
1915 Dec 18, President Wilson,
widowed the year before, married Edith Bolling Galt at her
Washington home.
(AP, 12/18/98)
1916 Jan 27, President Woodrow
Wilson opened a preparedness program.
(HN, 1/27/99)
1916 Jan 28, Louis D. Brandeis
was appointed by President Wilson to the Supreme Court, becoming its
first Jewish member.
(AP, 1/28/98)
1916 Mar 10, US President
Woodrow Wilson ordered General John J. "Black Jack" Pershing to
pursue and capture Pancho Villa, following Villa’s raid in New
Mexico.
(SFC, 3/11/09, p.B2)
1916 Nov 7, President Woodrow
Wilson was re-elected over Charles Evans Hughes, but the race was so
close that all votes had to be counted before an outcome could be
determined, so the results were not known until November 11.
President Woodrow Wilson was elected for a second term largely
because he had successfully kept America out of the war that was
raging in Europe since 1914. His campaign slogan was: "He kept us
out of the war." Wilson beat Charles Evans Hughes, a former Supreme
Court Justice with an electoral college vote of 277-254. Wilson’s
victory in California, 13 electoral votes, by 3,773 votes gave him
277 electoral votes to 254 for Hughes. Wilson carried the popular
vote 9.1 million to 8.5 for Hughes.
(HN, 11/7/98)(HNPD, 2/24/99)(SFC, 10/9/99,
p.A21)(SFEC, 10/29/00, p.A1) (SFC, 11/10/00, p.A3)
1916 Pres. Woodrow Wilson put a
Maine Park under federal protection and dubbed it Sieur de Monts
National Monument.
(SFC, 7/21/96, p.T6)
1916 The 1915 film "Birth of a
Nation" was shown to Pres. Woodrow Wilson, the first motion picture
shown in the White House.
(SFC, 7/5/97, p.E3)
1916 Pres. Woodrow Wilson
signed the Harrison Drug Act. It required all persons licensed to
sell narcotics to file an inventory of their stocks with the IRS. It
outlawed the use of cocaine, which had been a key ingredient in many
patent medicines. [2nd source says the act was created in 1914]
(SFEC, 3/16/97, Z1 p.2)(SFC, 10/4/97, p.E3)
1916 Pres. Wilson signed the
federal estate tax into law. It was a levy on the transfer of large
fortunes between generations. In 2006 Michael Graetz and Ian Shapiro
authored “Death by a Thousand Cuts,” a unique portrait of American
politics as viewed through the lens of the death tax repeal saga.
(WSJ, 7/13/00, p.A1)(Econ, 6/10/06, p.25)
1917 Feb 19, American troops
were recalled from the Mexican border. When the United States
entered World War I, propagandist George Creel set out to stifle
anti-war sentiment. Pres. Wilson, following his 1916 re-election,
had asked the NY publicist to design a public relations campaign to
swing the country’s interests to support Britain and France.
(HN, 2/19/98)(AH, 6/07, p.46)
1917 Mar 8, The US Senate voted
to limit filibusters by adopting Rule XXII, the cloture rule,
introduced at the urging of Pres. Wilson. The Senate had operated
without a cloture rule since 1806. The rule required a 2/3 vote. In
1975 it amended to a 3/5 vote.
(AP, 3/8/98)(Econ, 5/21/05, p.30)(Econ, 2/20/10,
p.24)(Econ, 4/8/17, p.25)
1917 Apr 2, At 8:30 p.m.
President Woodrow Wilson, delivered his message before a joint
session of Congress and recommended that a state of war be declared
between the United States and the imperial German government.
Realizing that the war looming ahead would be a costly one, Wilson
said, "the day has come when America is privileged to spend her
blood and her might for the principles that gave her birth and
happiness and the peace which she has treasured…" and "The world
must be made safe for democracy."
(AP, 4/2/97)(HN, 4/2/98)(HNPD, 4/2/99)
1917 Aug 10, The US Congress
passed the Lever Food and Fuel Control Act. It gave Pres. Wilson the
power to regulate the transportation, production and storage of
wartime necessities.
(AH, 6/07,
p.44)(www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3401802360.html)
1918 Mar 7, Pres. Wilson
authorized US Army's Distinguished Service Medal.
(MC, 3/7/02)
1918 Dec 4, President Wilson
set sail for France to attend the Versailles Peace Conference. He
was the 1st chief executive to travel outside US while in office.
(AP, 12/4/97)
1918 Pres. Wilson pushed
through Congress the Sedition Act of 1918. It was the most extreme
antispeech legislation in American history.
(WSJ, 10/29/04, p.W10)
1919 Jan 16, Prohibition became
law in the US with the passage of the Volstead Act, which enforced
and defined the 18th Amendment. It was passed over President
Wilson's veto with the necessary two-thirds majority of state
ratification. [see Jan 16, 1920]
(HFA, '96, p.22)(WUD, 1994, p.1681)(WSJ, 8/22/96,
p.A14)(MC, 1/16/02)
1919 Jul 8, President Wilson
received a tumultuous welcome in New York City after his return from
the Versailles Peace Conference in France.
(AP, 7/8/97)
1919 Jul 10, President Wilson
personally delivered the Treaty of Versailles to the Senate and
urged its ratification.
(AP, 7/10/97)
1919 Oct 28, Congress passed
the National Prohibition Act, or Volstead Act, over President
Wilson’s veto. It was named after its promoter, Congressman Andrew
J. Volstead, and provided enforcement guidelines for the Prohibition
Amendment which had been ratified January 29.
(AP, 10/28/97)(HN, 10/28/98)
1920 May 5, US Pres. Wilson
made the Communist Labor Party illegal.
(MC, 5/5/02)
1920 The US Congress repealed
60 wartime measures despite the objections of Pres. Wilson.
Republican presidential nominee Harding pledged that he would abjure
executive autocracy.
(AH, 6/07, p.44)
1921 Jan 4, Congress overrode
President Wilson’s veto, reactivating the War Finance Corps to aid
struggling farmers.
(HN, 1/4/99)
1924 Feb 3, Woodrow Wilson
(68), the 28th president of the United States, died in Washington.
The Woodrow Wilson Foundation in 1958 asked Prof. Arthur Link
(1920-1998) of Northwestern Univ. to oversee the publication of
Wilson’s papers. Link spent 35 years on the project and completed
his 69th and final volume in 1983. Link also produced a 5-volume
biography on Wilson. In 2013 A. Scott Berg authored the biography
“Wilson.”
(AP, 2/3/97)(SFEC, 3/29/98, p.E7)(Econ, 9/7/13,
p.83)
1934 Dec 18, Woodrow Wilson,
the 28th US President, appeared on a Gold certificate valued at
$100,000, largest note ever issued by the United States. It
was only printed between December 18, 1934 and January 9, 1935 and
used only for transactions between Federal Reserve Banks. Salmon P.
Chase, the U.S. Treasury Secretary under President Lincoln, appeared
on the $10,000 bill, James Madison on the $5,000 bill and Grover
Cleveland on the $1,000 bill. All of these bills ceased being
printed in 1946.
(HNQ, 11/7/99)(http://tinyurl.com/n9sqnjz)
2020 Jun 27, Princeton
University announced plans to remove the name of former President
Woodrow Wilson from its public policy school because of his
segregationist views, reversing a decision the Ivy League school
made four years ago to retain the name. Wilson served as governor of
New Jersey from 1911 to 1913. He then served as the 28th US
president from 1913 to 1921, supported segregation and imposed it on
several federal agencies not racially divided up to that point. He
also barred Black students from Princeton while serving as
university president and spoke approvingly of the Ku Klux Klan.
(AP, 6/27/20)
#29 Warren Harding (1921-1929)
1865 Nov 2, Warren Gamaliel
Harding, the 29th president of the United States (1921-29), was born
near Corsica, Ohio. Harding was owner and publisher of the Marion
Star.
(SFEC, 1/12/97, Z3 p.4)(AP, 11/2/97)(HNQ,
10/21/98)
1920 Jun 11, The US Republican
Senate bosses gathered in rooms 408 & 410 of the Blackstone
Hotel in Chicago and selected Sen. Warren Harding to break a
deadlock. Harding, disregarding his mistress of four years, Nan
Britton, declared himself to be of good character. The Republicans
nominated Warren G. Harding at the Blackstone Hotel in Chicago.
Britton later wrote a book, "The President’s Daughter," about their
relations and claimed that she bore his daughter. Harding had
another mistress named Carrie Phillips. In 1999 Martin Blinder
published his novel "Fluke" based on Harding's political career and
presidency.
(WSJ, 8/26/96, p.A12)(Hem, 8/96, p.84)(SFC,
2/5/98, p.A8)(SFEC, 5/2/99, BR p.8)
1920 Jun 12, Republicans in
Chicago nominated Warren G. Harding for president and Calvin
Coolidge, governor of Massachusetts, for vice president.
(HN, 6/12/98)(WSJ, 6/16/98, p.A17)
1920 Nov 2, Warren G. Harding
was elected 29th president. He defeated James Cox, governor of Ohio,
and his VP running mate Franklin Delano Roosevelt (38).
(SFC, 10/13/99, p.E7)(AH, 10/04, p.50)
1920 Nov 2, The first radio
broadcast of presidential elections in the United States were made
by radio. Westinghouse had built radio station KDKA on its factory
roof in Pittsburgh and was among the first to broadcast returns from
the Harding-Cox presidential election. 8MK, the first US station
owned by a newspaper (the Detroit News), also broadcast the election
returns.
(www.oldradio.com/current/the1st.htm)(WSJ,
1/12/98, p.A19)(HN, 11/2/98)(AP, 11/2/99)
1921 Mar 4, Warren G. Harding
was sworn in as America’s 29th President. By the time Pres. Woodrow
Wilson left office, the top tax rate was 77%.
(HN, 3/4/98)(WSJ, 9/25/02, p.D8)
1921 May 17, Pres. Harding
opened the 1st Valencia Orange Show via telephone.
(MC, 5/17/02)
1921 Jun 10, Pres. Warren G.
Harding signed "The General Accounting Act of 1921." The Budget and
Accounting Act required the president to submit the budget to
Congress for each fiscal year which is the 12-month period beginning
on October 1 and ending on September 30 of the next calendar year.
The act was approved by Harding to provide a national budget system
and an independent audit of government accounts. Charles Dawes
(1865-1951) served as the first head of the agency, which later
became the Office of management and Budget (OMB).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_budget_process)(Econ,
2/7/15, p.31)
1921 Jun 30, President Harding
nominated former President Taft chief justice of the United States,
to succeed the late Edward Douglass White. Republican William Howard
Taft (72), 27th president of the United States (1909-1913), served
as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court from 1921 until illness forced
him to resign in 1930.
(WSJ, 3/11/98, p.A20)(AP, 6/30/08)
1921 Nov 11, President Harding
dedicated the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National
Cemetery. The unknown soldier was buried in Virginia’s Arlington
National Cemetery on Armistice Day. He had been taken from an
American cemetery in France.
(SFC, 5/27/96, p.B8)(AP, 11/11/97) (HN, 11/11/98)
1921 Nov 23, President Harding
signed the Willis Campell Act, better known as the anti-beer bill.
It forbade doctors to prescribe beer or liquor for medicinal
purposes.
(HN, 11/23/98)
1921 Albert Fall, New Mexico
senator, was appointed as Interior Secretary to Pres. Harding. Fall
got Harding to sign an executive order to transfer control of oil
reserves from the Navy to the Interior. Leases on the Elk Hills and
Teapot Dome to businessmen Edward Doheny and Harry Sinclair soon
followed and Fall was $400,000 richer. Fall was fined $100,000 in
1929 and was sentenced to a year in jail. He pleaded poverty and
never paid the fine.
(SSFC, 7/14/02, p.G2)
1922 Feb 8, President Harding
had a radio installed in the White House.
(AP, 2/8/99)
1922 Mar 20, President Harding
ordered U.S. troops back from the Rhineland.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1922 Jun 14, Warren G. Harding
became the first president heard on radio, as Baltimore station WEAR
broadcast his speech dedicating the Francis Scott Key memorial at
Fort McHenry. [see Jan 19, 1903]
(AP, 6/14/97)(HN, 6/14/98)
1922 Sep 21, Pres Warren G.
Harding signed a joint resolution of approval to establish a Jewish
homeland in Palestine.
(MC, 9/21/01)
1922 Sep 21, The US passed a
tariff act. The Fordney-McCumber Tariff bill (named after Joseph
Fordney, chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, and Porter
McCumber, chair of the Senate Finance Committee) was signed by
President Warren Harding. In the end, the tariff law raised the
average American ad valorem tariff rate to 38 percent.
(Econ, 12/20/08,
p.126)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fordney-McCumber_Tariff)
1923 Aug 2, Following a return
trip from Alaska the 29th president of the United States, Warren G.
Harding (57), died in San Francisco at the Palace Hotel of a "stroke
of apoplexy." Not considered to have been a particularly intelligent
man, Harding owed his rise to political power to the driving
ambition of his wife, Florence Kling Harding. As president, the Ohio
native was troubled by scandals caused by his weakness for pretty
women and a tendency to place unscrupulous friends—called "The Ohio
Gang"—in positions of power. Graft, corruption and other scandals
that led to the suicides of two high Federal officials had begun to
taint the Harding Administration when the president suddenly died of
a heart attack, just before the Teapot Dome Scandal broke, the
largest scandal of his administration. In 1998 Carl Sferrazza
Anthony published "Florence Harding: The First Lady, The Jazz Age
and the Death of America’s Most Scandalous President." Vice
President Calvin Coolidge became president upon the death of Warren
G. Harding.
(TMC, 1994, p.1923)(AP, 8/2/97)(SFEC, 3/1/98,
p.W27)(SFC, 8/1/98, p.A15,19)(HN, 8/2/98)(HN, 8/2/98)(HNQ, 12/7/98)
1923 US Pres. Warren Harding
authorized a 22-million-acre National Petroleum Reserve as an
emergency oil supply for the US Navy near Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. In
2015 ConocoPhillips became the first company to draw from the
reserve.
(Econ, 12/11/04, p.28)(SFC, 3/4/16, p.A9)
#30 Calvin Coolidge (1923-1929)
1872 Jul 4, John Calvin
Coolidge (d.1933) 30th President of the United States (1923-29), was
born in Plymouth, Vermont. Calvin Coolidge, also known as ‘Silent
Cal,’ was a Republican; Vice President from 1921-23 and succeeded to
the Presidency on the death of Warren Harding in 1923; elected
President in 1924 and served a full term. He was especially known
for his economy of language. A lady dinner companion during his
presidency told him she had a bet she could get him to say more than
two words; he replied: "You lose." "Little progress can be made by
merely attempting to repress what is evil. Our great hope lies in
developing what is good."
(AP, 7/4/97)(HN, 7/4/98)(IB, Internet,
12/7/98)(AP, 12/26/99)
1879 Jan 3, Grace Coolidge
(Goodhue) First Lady: wife of 30th U.S. President Calvin Coolidge
[1923-29], was born.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1919 Sep 9, Most of Boston's
1,500-member police force went on strike. The city’s police
commissioner fired the strikers and Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933), who
was running for governor, came out in support of the firings.
(AP, 9/9/99)(AH, 6/07,
p.67)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_Coolidge)
1920 Jan 8, Massachusetts’ Gov.
Calvin Coolidge stated: "There is a limit to the taxing power of the
state beyond which increased rates produce decreased revenues."
(www.calvin-coolidge.org/html/address_to_the_general_court_b.html)
1920 Jun 12, Republicans in
Chicago nominated Warren G. Harding for president and Calvin
Coolidge, governor of Massachusetts, for vice president.
(HN, 6/12/98)(WSJ, 6/16/98, p.A17)
1923 Aug 2, Vice President
Calvin Coolidge went to bed at 9 p.m. at his father’s home in
Plymouth, Vermont, where he was enjoying a short vacation. It took
several hours for the news of President Warren G. Harding’s death in
California to reach the small town, but by 2 a.m., Coolidge was told
that Harding was dead. Traditionally, the president is sworn in by
the chief justice of the Supreme Court—but he slept 500 miles away.
At 2:30 a.m. on August 3, 1923, Coolidge’s father, a notary public,
administered the oath of office to his son by the light of a
kerosene lamp.
(HNPD, 8/3/98)
1923 Aug 3, Calvin Coolidge was
sworn in as the 30th president of the United States, following the
death of Warren G. Harding. It took several hours for the news of
President Warren G. Harding's death in California to reach the small
town of Plymouth, Vermont, where he was enjoying a short vacation,
but by 2 a.m., Coolidge was told that Harding was dead.
Traditionally, the president is sworn in by the chief justice of the
Supreme Court--but he slept 500 miles away. At 2:30 a.m. on August
3, 1923, Coolidge's father, a notary public, administered the oath
of office to his son by the light of a kerosene lamp.
(AP, 8/3/97)(HNPD, 8/3/98)
1923 Nov 22, Pres. Coolidge
pardoned WW I German spy Lothar Witzke, who was sentenced to death.
(MC, 11/22/01)
1923 Dec 6, A presidential
address was broadcast on radio for the first time as President
Coolidge spoke to a joint session of Congress.
(AP, 12/6/97)
1924 Feb 22, Calvin Coolidge
delivered the first presidential radio broadcast from the White
House as he addressed the country over 42 stations.
(AP, 2/22/08)
1924 May 26, President Coolidge
signed an Immigration-restriction law based on eugenic principles.
(www.historicaldocuments.com/ImmigrationActof1924.htm)(WSJ, 2/28/06,
p.D8)
1924 May 26, The US Immigration
Act of 1924 (aka Johnson–Reed Act) prevented any further Japanese
immigration to the US for the next four decades. It included
the National Origins Act and the Asian Exclusion Act which
prohibited the immigration of Arabs, East Asians, and Indians.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_Act_of_1924)(SFC, 8/23/14,
p.C2)
1925 Mar 4, President Calvin
Coolidge's inauguration was broadcast live on 21 radio stations
coast-to-coast.
(AP, 3/4/99)
1925 The Ghazir rug, created by
orphans of the Armenian genocide (1915-1917), was donated to US
Pres. Calvin Coolidge.
(SFC, 10/16/14, p.A10)
1926 Feb 23, President Calvin
Coolidge opposed a large air force, believing it would be a menace
to world peace.
(HN, 2/23/98)
1926 Nov 11, Pres. Calvin
Coolidge dedicated the 217-foot Liberty Memorial in Kansas City,
Mo., in honor of those who died in WW I.
(SSFC, 11/12/06,
p.G6)(http://tinyurl.com/wz55k)(Econ, 4/8/17, p.28)
1927 Feb 23, President Coolidge
signed the Radio Act, a bill creating the Federal Radio Commission,
forerunner of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Commerce
Secretary Herbert Hoover established the Federal Radio Commission to
prevent interference among radio signals by allocating broadcast
spectrum.
(WSJ, 11/3/97, p.A20)(AP, 2/23/98)(Econ, 8/14/04,
p.61)
1927 Aug 2, Four years after
becoming president, Calvin Coolidge issued a written statement to
reporters: "I do not choose to run for President in 1928."
(AP, 8/2/08)
1927 Aug 10, Pres. Calvin
Coolidge took part in the formal dedication of Mount Rushmore.
Gutzon Borglum began work and the Mount Rushmore project was
completed in 1941. When South Dakota officials invited Gutzon
Borglum (1867-1941) to design a sculpture on the face of the Black
Hills, he declared, "American history shall march along that
skyline." Borglum’s son Lincoln (d.1986) led the completion of the
project created by some 400 workers.
(www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/texte/mount_rushmore.htm)(SSFC, 9/9/07,
p.C4)(ON, 2/11, p.10)
1928 Mar 21, Coolidge gave the
Congressional Medal of Honor to Charles Lindbergh. The Medal of
Honor was not always awarded for "courage above and beyond" the call
of duty.
(HN, 3/21/98)
1929 Jan 14, Pres. Calvin
Coolidge issued an executive order declaring Oakland an official
port of entry. This included Oakland, Alameda, Berkeley, Emeryville
and San Leandro and allowed ships to clear without stopping in SF.
(SFC, 1/9/04, p.E6)
1929 Feb 22, with the influence
of Congressman William Williamson and Senator Peter Norbeck pushing
Congress for approval of the bill and President Coolidge ready to
sign it into law, Public Law 805 was passed and the Mount Rushmore
National Memorial Commission was established.
(http://moh.tie.net/content/docs/WhySD.pdf)
1933 Jan 5, The 30th president
(1923-1929) of the United States, Calvin Coolidge, died in
Northampton, Mass., at age 60. In 1998 Robert Sobel published his
biography: "Coolidge: An American Enigma." Robert Ferrell published
"The Presidency of Calvin Coolidge." In 2006 David Greenberg
authored “Calvin Coolidge.”
(AP, 1/5/98)(WSJ, 6/16/98, p.A17)(WSJ, 8/7/98,
p.W13)(WSJ, 12/12/06, p.D8)
2013 Amity Shales authored
Coolidge,” a biography of Calvin Coolidge who served as US president
from 1923-1929.
(Econ, 2/23/13, p.79)
#31 Herbert Hoover (1929-1933)
1874 Aug 10, Herbert Clark
Hoover (d.1964), the 31st president of the United States
(1929-1933), was born in West Branch, Iowa.
(AP, 8/10/97)(SFEC, 1/12/97, zone 3 p.4)(HN,
8/10/98)(AH, 12/02, p.20)
1875 Mar 29, Lou Henry Hoover,
first lady, was born.
(HN, 3/29/98)
1900 As artillery shells
crashed around their house during the siege of Tientsin, Lou Hoover
played solitaire. She and new husband Herbert Hoover had moved there
after their wedding in 1899. Herbert had been engaged as the
Director General of the Department of Mines of the Chinese
Government. News from China during the Boxer Rebellion was bleak,
and one New York newspaper had reported their deaths and printed
obituaries.
(HNQ, 11/27/02)
1918-1919 Herbert Hoover directed the American
Relief Administration under Pres. Wilson.
(AH, 12/02, p.20)
1921 Feb 24, Herbert Hoover
became Secretary of Commerce. In a January 1926 letter to then
Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, the senior Guggenheim
announced the establishment of the Daniel Guggenheim Fund for the
Promotion of Aeronautics.
(HN, 2/24/98)
1921 Mar 21, Herbert Hoover,
U.S. Secretary of Commerce opposed all trade with Russia.
(HN, 3/21/98)
1922 Feb 27, Commerce Sec.
Herbert Hoover convened the 1st National Radio Conference.
(MC, 2/27/02)
1927 Feb 23, President Coolidge
signed the Radio Act, a bill creating the Federal Radio Commission,
forerunner of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Commerce
Secretary Herbert Hoover established the Federal Radio Commission to
prevent interference among radio signals by allocating broadcast
spectrum.
(WSJ, 11/3/97, p.A20)(AP, 2/23/98)(Econ, 8/14/04,
p.61)
1927 Apr 7, Secretary of
Commerce Herbert Hoover was on hand for the first inter-city (DC to
Manhattan) transmission by telephone of video imagery.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1927_in_television)
1928 Jun 14, The Republican
National Convention in Kansas City nominated Herbert Hoover for
president on the first ballot. George Barr Baker was Hoover's
confidential advisor during the campaign.
(AP, 6/14/98)(SFC, 12/30/98, p.A18)
1928 Nov 6, In a first,
presidential election results were flashed on an electronic sign
outside the New York Times building; Herbert Hoover beat Alfred E.
Smith. Norman Thomas was the presidential candidate for the
Socialist Party. Hoover won just over 83% of the electoral vote.
(AP, 11/6/97)(SFC, 2/12/00, p.A21)(HNQ, 11/7/00)
1928 Dec 11, Police in Buenos
Aires thwarted an attempt on the life of President-elect Herbert
Hoover.
(AP, 12/11/97)
1929 Mar 4, Herbert Hoover was
inaugurated as 31st President.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1929 Mar 4, Charles Curtis
(R-Kansas) became 1st native American Vice President.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1929 After his appointment as
Secretary of State by Herbert Hoover in 1929, Henry L. Stimson was
quoted as saying, "Gentlemen do not read other‘s mail." Stimson had
learned of the existence of the Black Chamber eavesdropping program
and shut down the cryptographic service run by Herbert Yardley. Born
in New York in 1867, Stimson served in the cabinets of four
presidents as Secretary of War and Secretary of State. He died on
October 20, 1950.
(HN, 3/1/00)(Econ, 12/19/15, p.41)
1930 Jun 17, Pres. Hoover
signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Bill, placing the highest tariff on
imports to the U.S. It was sponsored by Willis Hawley, a congressman
from Oregon, and Reed Smoot, a senator from Utah. An international
trade war began with the US passage of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act.
Foreign countries retaliated. Many economists blame Smoot-Hawley for
deepening the depression. It reflected the "Protectionism" of the
times.
(WSJ, 7/1/96, p.A11)(HN, 6/17/98)(WSJ, 1/11/99,
p.R50)(WSJ, 2/3/04, p.A12)
1930 Jul 21, President Herbert
Hoover signed an executive order establishing the Veterans
Administration.
(AP, 7/21/07)
1931 Mar 3, Pres. Hoover signed
a bill making "The Star-Spangled Banner", written by Francis Scott
Key, the national anthem of the United States: act of Congress (46
Stat.L. 1508). The melody was originally an English drinking song,
"To Anacreon in Heaven."
(HFA, ‘96, p.26)(WSJ, 9/13/95, p.B-1)(AP,
3/3/98)(HC, Internet, 3/3/98)(HNQ, 2/16/02)
1932 In the presidential
campaign, President Herbert Hoover warned Americans that if the "New
Deal" proposed by Democrat Franklin Roosevelt came to power, "the
grass will grow in the streets of a hundred cities, a thousand
towns; the weeds will overrun the fields of millions of farms…."
Roosevelt won the election and quickly implemented his "New Deal"
policies to bring America out of the Great Depression.
(HNQ, 7/13/98)
1932 Pres. Hoover pushed
through a ferocious tax increase to balance the budget and restore
"confidence."
(WSJ, 9/25/02, p.D8)
1932 The Great Sand Dunes in
Colorado were declared a national monument by Pres. Herbert Hoover.
(AP, 9/12/04)
1938 Mar 8, Herbert Hoover told
Hitler that his doctrine would be unacceptable and intolerable in
the U.S.
(HN, 3/8/98)
1964 Oct 20, Herbert Hoover
(b.1874), the 31st president of the United States (1929-1933),
died in New York at age 90.
(AP, 10/20/97)(AH, 12/02, p.20)
#32 Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-1945)
1868 Dec 22, John Nance Garner,
(VP-D-1933-41), was born in Texas.
(MC, 12/22/01)
1882 Jan 30, Franklin D.
Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States, was born in Hyde
Park, N.Y. He led the country out of the Great Depression and
through most of World War II.
(AP, 1/30/98)(HN, 1/30/99)
1905 Mar 17, Anna Eleanor
Roosevelt, niece of President Theodore Roosevelt, married her fifth
cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt in New York and by 1916, they had
become the parents of six children.
(AP, 3/17/97)(HN, 3/17/98)(HNPD, 10/11/99)
1920 Jul 6, The Democrats ended
their convention in San Francisco with the selection James Cox of
Ohio and running mate Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Cox and FDR were
committed internationalists and lost the elections due to the
isolationism of the times.
(SFEC, 4/25/99, Z1 p.4)(AH, 10/04, p.56)
1921 Aug 10, Franklin D.
Roosevelt (39) was stricken with polio at his summer home on the
Canadian island of Campobello, New Brunswick. Mrs. Roosevelt acted
as her partially paralyzed husband’s eyes and ears by traveling,
observing and reporting her observations to him. As First Lady, an
author and newspaper columnist and, later, a delegate to the United
Nations, Eleanor Roosevelt labored tirelessly for the poor and
disadvantaged. In the words of historian John Kenneth Galbraith, she
showed "more than any other person of her time, that an American
could truly be a world citizen."
(HNPD, 10//99)(SSFC, 8/1/04, p.D11)
1930 Nov 4, New York reelected
Gov. Franklin Delano Roosevelt by a landslide.
(ON, 12/07,
p.2)(www.presidentialtimeline.org/html/timeline.php?id=32)
1932 Jul 1, New York Gov.
Franklin D. Roosevelt was nominated for president at the Democratic
convention in Chicago.
(AP, 7/1/07)
1932 Jul 2, New York Gov.
Franklin D. Roosevelt won the nomination for president on the 4th
ballot at the Democratic convention in Chicago.
(ON, 12/07, p.3)
1932 Nov 8, New York Gov.
Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated incumbent Herbert Hoover for the
presidency. Roosevelt became the 32nd president with about 87% of
the Electoral College.
(AP, 11/8/97)(HN, 11/6/98)(HNQ, 11/7/00)
1932 The Milton Ager and Jack
Yellen song “Happy Days Are Here Again” was used as the campaign
song for the election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
(SFC, 1/19/09, p.E1)
1933 Feb 15, President-elect
Roosevelt escaped an assassination attempt in Miami. Giuseppa
Zangara, an unemployed New Jersey bricklayer from Italy, fired five
pistol shots at the back of President-elect Franklin Roosevelt's
head from only twenty-five feet away. While all five rounds missed
their target, each bullet found a separate victim. One of these was
Mayor Anton Cermak of Chicago. Gunman Giuseppe Zangara was executed
more than four weeks later, on March 20. [see Mar 6, 20]
(WSJ, 5/24/00, p.A24)(AP, 2/15/07)
1933 Mar 4, Franklin D.
Roosevelt was inaugurated to his first term as president in
Washington, D.C. He pledged to lead the country out of the Great
Depression: "We have nothing to fear but fear itself." The start of
President Roosevelt's first administration brought with it the first
woman to serve in the Cabinet: Labor Secretary Frances Perkins. He
chose Homer Cummings as his attorney general. Cummings served 5
years and 10 months. Herbert Hoover was denied the courtesy of
Secret Service protection traditionally accorded an outgoing
president.
(AP, 3/4/98)(HN, 3/4/98)(SFC, 1/11/99, p.A5)(HNQ,
1/16/01)(SC, 3/4/02)
1933 Mar 6, A nationwide bank
holiday declared by President Roosevelt went into effect. Overseas
deposits shrank by just 2% as a result of the closure.
(AP, 3/6/98)(Econ, 5/15/10, SR p.13)
1933 Mar 12, President
Roosevelt delivered the first of his radio "fireside chats," telling
Americans what was being done to deal with the nation's economic
crisis.
(AP, 3/12/98)
1933 Mar 13, US Banks began to
re-open after a holiday declared by President Roosevelt.
(AP, 3/13/97)
1933 Mar 20, Giuseppe [Joe]
Zangara was electrocuted for assassination attempt on FDR.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1933 Mar 22, During
Prohibition, President Roosevelt signed a measure to make wine &
beer containing up to 3.2 percent alcohol legal. [see Feb 20, Apr 7,
Dec 5]
(AP, 3/22/97)(HN, 3/22/97)
1933 Mar 31, Congress approved,
and President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed, the Emergency
Conservation Work Act (Reforestation Relief Act), which created the
Civilian Conservation Corps. The US unemployment rate reached 25%.
In its nine years of existence, the New Deal’s Civilian Conservation
Corps had a total of 2.9 million men aged 18 to 25 enrolled. The
program was designed to provide jobs for young men in the national
forests, conservation programs and national road construction.
Enacted as one of President Franklin Roosevelt’s first New Deal
programs, it lasted until World War II. At its high point in
September 1935, the CCC had 2,514 work camps across the U.S. with
502,000 men enrolled.
(SFEC, 5/2/99, Z1 p.1)(HNQ, 7/23/99)(AP,
3/31/08)(SSFC, 1/18/09, p.D6)
1933 Apr 7, "Near beer" (3.2
beer) became legal after FDR signed an amendment to the Volstead
Act, which had made drinking alcohol a federal crime. Prohibition
ended when Utah became the 38th state to ratify 21st
Amendment. [see Dec 5]
(SFC, 4/7/96, p.B-11)(HN, 4/7/97)(MC, 4/7/02)
1933 Apr 19, The United States
went off the gold standard. FDR tied this with orders that 445,000
newly minted gold $20 "Double Eagle" coins be destroyed. Ten coins
escaped and one was scheduled for auction in 2002. [see Jun 5]
(TMC, 1994, p.1933)(AP, 4/19/97)(SSFC, 3/31/02,
Par p.6)
1933 May 18, The Tennessee
Valley Authority Act was signed by President Roosevelt. The TVA
proceed to build damns in the Tennessee Valley.
(AP, 5/18/97)(HN, 5/18/99)
1933 Aug 5, President Franklin
D. Roosevelt established the National Labor Board to enforce the
right of collective bargaining. It was later replaced with the
National Labor Relations Board.
(AP, 8/5/08)(SSFC, 1/18/09, p.D6)
1933 Nov 8, President Roosevelt
unveiled the Civil Works Administration, designed to create jobs for
more than 4 million unemployed.
(AP,
11/8/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Works_Administration)
1933 Nov 9, The Civil Works
Administration was created as a short term program designed to carry
the nation over a critical winter while other programs such as the
Federal Emergency Relief Administration were being planned and
developed.
(http://content.lib.washington.edu/civilworksweb/essay.html)
1933 Nov 23, FDR recalled
Ambassador Welles from Havana and urged stability in Cuba.
(HN, 11/23/98)
1933 Dec 28, President Franklin
D. Roosevelt stated, "The definite policy of the U.S. from now on is
one opposed to armed intervention."
(HN, 12/28/98)
1933 Economists from the Univ.
of Chicago sent Pres. Roosevelt a memo outlining a plan to split the
two main functions of banks: taking deposits and making loans. This
came to be known as the Chicago Plan. Roosevelt opted instead for
deposit insurance.
(Econ, 6/7/14, p.82)
1933 The Business Plot was an
alleged political conspiracy in the United States. Retired Marine
Corps Major General Smedley Butler claimed that wealthy businessmen
were plotting to create a fascist veterans' organization with Butler
as its leader and use it in a coup d'état to overthrow President
Franklin D. Roosevelt.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot)
1934 Jan 4, President Franklin
D. Roosevelt asked Congress for $10.5 billion to fund recovery
programs over the next 18 months.
(SSFC, 1/18/09, p.D6)
1934 Jan 31, President
Roosevelt devalued the dollar in relation to gold. He raised the
price of gold to $35. The United States Gold Reserve Act required
that all gold and gold certificates held by the Federal Reserve be
surrendered and vested in the sole title of the United States
Department of the Treasury.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_Reserve_Act)(AP, 1/31/00)(WSJ,
11/9/00, p.A24)
1934 Jan 31, President
Roosevelt signed the Farm Mortgage Refinancing Act.
(SSFC, 1/18/09, p.D6)
1934 Mar 24, President
Roosevelt signed a bill granting future independence to the
Philippines.
(AP, 3/23/97)
1934 Mar 24, San Francisco’s
103-foot Mount Davidson Cross was illuminated by Pres. Franklin D.
Roosevelt via an electrical impulse telegraphed to turn on
floodlights at the base. It was created by architect George Kelham.
This was the 5th crsoss created at this site. The first was erected
in 1923 as a memorial to the veterans of WW I.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Davidson_%28California%29)(SFC,
8/21/96, p.A1,11)(SFC, 4/24/98, p.A17)(SFC, 1/5/00, p.A18)(SFC,
8/14/13, p.D5)
1934 Apr 28, FDR signed a Home
Owners Loan Act.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1934 Jun 19, President
Roosevelt signed the US Communications Act. It established the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to supervise radio,
telegraph and telephone communications.
(WSJ, 11/3/97, p.A20)(AP, 6/19/06)
1934 Jul 11, President
Roosevelt became the first chief executive to travel through the
Panama Canal while in office.
(AP, 7/11/97)
1934 Nov 23, U.S. and Britain
agreed on a 5-5-3 naval ratio with both countries allowed to build
five million tons of naval ships while Japan can only build three;
Japan denounced the treaty.
(HN, 11/23/98)
1935 Jan 4, Pres. Roosevelt
claimed in his State of the Union message that the federal
government would provide jobs for 3.5 million Americans on welfare.
(HN, 1/4/99)
1935 Feb 22, All plane flights
over the White House were barred because they disturbed President
Roosevelt's sleep.
(HN, 2/22/98)
1935 Apr 8, The Emergency
Relief Appropriation Act authorized $5 billion to increase
employment and for useful projects including the Works Progress
Administration (WPA). President Franklin Roosevelt proposed the
Works Progress Administration (WPA) during the Great Depression of
the 1930s when almost 25 percent of Americans were unemployed. The
WPA created low-paying federal jobs to provide immediate relief. The
WPA put 8.5 million jobless to work on projects as diverse as
constructing highways, bridges and public buildings to arts programs
like the Federal Writers' Project. In 2008 Nick Taylor authored
“”American-Made: The Enduring Legacy of the WPA, When FDR Put
America to Work.”
(AP, 4/8/97)(HN, 4/8/98)(HNPD, 4/8/99)(SFC,
3/12/08, p.E2)
1935 May 27, The US Supreme
Court, in Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States, declared
President Roosevelt's National Industrial Recovery Act
unconstitutional.
(HN, 5/27/98)(AP, 5/27/07)
1935 Jun 28, FDR ordered a
federal gold vault to be built at Fort Knox, Kentucky.
(MC, 6/28/02)
1935 Jul 5, President Roosevelt
signed the National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act), which provided
for a National Labor Relations Board and authorized labor to
organize for the purpose of collective bargaining. The National
Labor Relations Board (NLRB) was created by a statute as an
independent federal agency that conducts secret-ballot elections to
determine whether employees desire union representation. This
inaugurated the "pink decade" of Soviet espionage and penetration of
America's labor movement by Communists.
(WSJ, 5/12/97, p.A15)(AP, 7/5/97)(SFC, 11/27/99,
p.C4)(SSFC, 1/11/04, p.M6)
1935 Aug 14, The Social
Security Act became law as President Franklin Roosevelt signed the
Social Security Bill, providing assistance to the poor and needy. It
created an old-age and unemployment insurance, and supplemented
mothers’ pensions with Aid to Dependent Children.
(AP, 8/14/97)(www.ssa.gov/history/1930.html)
1935 Aug 31, President
Roosevelt signed an act prohibiting the export of U.S. arms to
belligerents.
(AP, 8/31/97)
1936 Jan 27, The US Congress
overrode Pres. Roosevelt’s veto and passed a large bonus for
veterans of WWI. This provided an economic stimulus for the year,
which disappeared in 1937.
(Econ, 6/20/09,
p.82)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonus_Bill)
1936 Feb 7, President Roosevelt
authorized a flag for the office of the vice president.
(AP, 2/7/97)
1936 Aug 24, FDR gave the FBI
authority to pursuit fascists and communists.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1936 Sep 11, President
Roosevelt dedicated Boulder Dam (now Hoover Dam) by pressing a key
in Washington to signal the startup of the dam’s first hydroelectric
generator in Nevada. The Dam was completed ahead of schedule. It was
the first and most important link in a chain of dams, canals and
aqueducts built to harness the Colorado River. The colossal mass of
concrete is wedged into Black Canyon on the Arizona-Nevada border,
32 miles SE of Las Vegas. Paul L. Wattis, headed the construction
company that built Boulder Dam.
(AP, 9/11/97)(HNQ, 4/3/02)(SFC, 6/6/02, p.A22)
1936 Oct 31, The Literary
Digest published a poll that predicted that Alfred Landon, the
governor of Kansas, would win over Pres. Roosevelt with 57% of the
popular vote. Landon lost all but two states to Roosevelt.
(WSJ, 10/2/06,
p.B1)(www.historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5168/)
1936 Nov 3, Pres. Roosevelt,
the 32nd president, was re-elected for second term in a landslide
over Republican challenger Alfred M. "Alf" Landon. Landon ran on a
"wrong-headed" economic program. Roosevelt received 60.8% of the
popular vote and an astounding 98.5% of the Electoral College
defeating Republican Alfred Landon, the governor of Kansas. In terms
of winning the largest percentage of electoral votes, the
presidential election of 1936 was the biggest landslide of the 20th
century.
(TMC, 1994, p.1936)(SFC, 8/23/96, p.A28)(AP,
11/3/97)(HN, 11/3/98)(HNQ, 11/7/00)
1934 Nov 20, The
McCormack–Dickstein Committee began examining evidence on the
Business Plot against Franklin Roosevelt. On November 24 the
committee released a statement detailing the testimony it had heard
about the plot and its preliminary findings. On February 15, 1935,
the committee submitted its final report to the House of
Representatives. During the hearings Retired Marine Corps Major
General Smedley Butler testified that Gerald C. MacGuire attempted
to recruit him to lead a coup, promising him an army of 500,000 men
for a march on Washington, DC, and financial backing. Butler
testified that the pretext for the coup would be that the
president's health was failing.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot)
1936 Nov 23, U.S. abandoned the
American embassy in Madrid, Spain, which was engulfed by civil war.
(HN, 11/23/98)
1936-1937 John Knox, new Harvard Law school
graduate, worked as a clerk for Supreme Court Justice James C.
McReynolds, a grouch, racist and anti-Semite. He later wrote a
memoir of his clerkship that was published in 2002: "The Forgotten
Memoir of John Knox."
(WSJ, 5/31/02, p.W12)
1937 Jan 20, President Franklin
Roosevelt was inaugurated for a 2nd term. He became the first chief
executive to be inaugurated on Jan. 20 instead of March 4.
(AP, 1/20/08)(SSFC, 1/18/09, p.D6)
1937 Apr 27, The Franklin
Roosevelt administration began distributing the nation’s first
Social Security checks.
(AP, 4/27/06)(AH, 4/07, p.14)
1937 May 1, President Franklin
Roosevelt signed an act of neutrality, keeping the United States out
of World War II.
(HN, 5/1/99)
1937 May 28, President
Roosevelt pushed a button in Washington signaling that vehicular
traffic could cross the just-opened Golden Gate Bridge in
California. Cars were charged 50 cents each way.
(AP, 5/28/97)(SSFC, 5/20/12, p.E10)
1937 Aug 26, President
Roosevelt signed the Judicial Procedure Reform Act, a compromise on
his judicial reorganization plan.
(SSFC, 1/18/09, p.D6)
1937 Pres. Roosevelt paid a
visit to the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state. Some 3 thousand
school children gathered to urge him establish Olympic National
Park.
(NG, 7/04, p.70)
1938 Jan 3, The March of Dimes
was established by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to fight
poliomyelitis. Roosevelt himself was afflicted with polio. The
organization was originally called the National Foundation for
Infantile Paralysis, as the disease was commonly known.
(AP, 1/3/98)(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1938 Jun 25, Pres. Franklin D.
Roosevelt signed into law the Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act. It
included a restriction on the sale of embedded non-food items,
unless there’s a functional value, like the stick on a lollipop. It
was partially provoked by a rash of injuries from depilatory creams.
(WSJ, 6/24/02, p.A8)(Econ, 2/7/15, p.79)
1938 Jun 25, Pres. Franklin D.
Roosevelt signed the US Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. It allowed
workers with disabilities to be paid less if they were less
productive.
(https://tinyurl.com/vjzcmog)Econ., 5/9/20, p.74)
1939 Jan 27, President Franklin
D. Roosevelt approved the sale of U.S. war planes to France.
(HN, 1/27/99)
1939 Mar 20, Franklin D.
Roosevelt named William O. Douglas to the Supreme Court. He replaced
Louis D. Brandeis (1856-1941), appointed in 1916, who retired.
Douglas left the court in 1975, holding the record as the longest
serving Supreme Court justice.
(HN,
3/20/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Brandeis)(Econ,
11/20/10, p.95)
1939 Jun 11, King & Queen
of England tasted their 1st "hot dogs" at FDR's party.
(SC, 6/11/02)
1939 Sep 8, President Franklin
D. Roosevelt declared a "limited national emergency" in response to
the outbreak of war in Europe.
(AP, 9/8/99)
1939 Nov 15, President
Roosevelt laid the cornerstone of the Jefferson Memorial in
Washington, D.C.
(AP, 11/15/97)
1939 Nov 23, Thanksgiving.
Franklin D. Roosevelt had proclaimed Thanksgiving Day a week
earlier--on the fourth, not the last, Thursday of November--in an
effort to encourage more holiday shopping.
(HN, 11/26/98)
1939 Felix Frankfurter
(1882-1965), U.S. 80th Supreme Court Justice (1939-62), was
appointed associate justice of the Supreme Court and served until
1962. "There is no inevitability in history except as men make it."
(AP, 2/27/98)(HNQ, 3/16/99)(MC, 11/15/01)
1939-1941 This period is covered in Lynne Olson’s
2013 book: “Those Angry Days: Roosevelt, Lindbergh, and America’s
Fight Over World War II.” Hundreds of British agents flooded neutral
America with Roosevelt’s tacit approval.
(Econ, 4/27/13, p.78)
1940 Jun, President Franklin D.
Roosevelt named Vannevar Bush director of the newly formed National
Defense Research Committee to continue U.S. nuclear research. In
response to a plea by scientists Albert Einstein and Leo Szilard,
FDR initiated a modest program of uranium research in 1939. By June
1940, interest in uranium and its properties had increased to the
point that the president created a larger organization, the National
Defense Research Committee, with a broader scope of activity. He
named as director Vannevar Bush, the president of the Carnegie
Institution in Washington, D.C. The slowly growing effort gained
further impetus in mid-1941 from a startling British document
code-named the "MAUD Report." Based on British nuclear research, the
report stated that a very small amount of uranium-235 could produce
an explosion equivalent to that of several thousand tons of TNT.
Roosevelt responded by creating a still larger organization, the
Office of Scientific Research and Development, which, directed by
Bush, would mobilize scientific resources to create an atomic
weapon.
(HNQ, 5/30/01)
1940 Jul 18, The Democratic
national convention in Chicago nominated President Roosevelt for an
unprecedented third term in office.
(AP, 7/18/00)
1940 Aug 17, President
Roosevelt and Canadian Prime Minister William Mackenzie King met in
Ogdensburg, N.Y., where they agreed to set up a joint defense
commission.
(AP, 8/17/97)
1940 Sep 16, President
Roosevelt signed into law the Selective Training and Service Act,
which set up the first peacetime military draft in U.S. history.
(AP, 9/16/97)(HN, 9/16/98)
1940 Nov 5, President Roosevelt
won an unprecedented third term in office, beating Republican
challenger Wendell L. Willkie along with Surprise Party challenger
Gracie Allen.
(AP, 11/5/97)(HN, 11/5/98)(WSJ, 10/27/04, p.B1)
1940 Dec 29, In a radio
interview, President Roosevelt proclaimed the U.S. is the ‘arsenal
of democracy.’
(HN, 12/29/98)
1940 Pres. Franklin Delano
Roosevelt began recording presidential meetings to ensure that he
was quoted accurately.
(AH, 6/03, p.10)
1941 Jan 6, President Franklin
D. Roosevelt asked Congress to support the lend-lease plan to help
supply the Allies. In an address to Congress President Franklin
Roosevelt expressed the general world aims of the United States as
these "Four Freedoms": of speech and expression; of worship; from
want; and from fear. Oscar Cox had helped draft the Lend-Lease Act.
(HN, 1/6/99)(HNQ, 3/2/00)(WSJ, 2/18/05, p.W6)
1941 Jan 20, US Pres. Franklin
D. Roosevelt was inaugurated for his 3rd term. It was the first time
any US president had been elected for more than two terms.
(WUD, 1944, p.1683)
1941 Mar 11, President
Roosevelt authorized the Lend-Lease Act and signed into law the
Lend-Lease Bill, providing war supplies to countries fighting the
Axis.
(AP, 3/11/98)(HN, 3/11/98)
1941 May 27, Amid rising world
tensions, President Roosevelt proclaimed an "unlimited national
emergency."
(WUD, 1944, p.1683)(AP, 5/27/97)
1941 Aug 9, President Franklin
Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill met at Placentia Bay,
Newfoundland. Their meeting produced the Atlantic Charter, an
agreement between the two countries on war aims, even though the
United States was still a neutral country.
(HN, 8/9/98)
1941 Aug 27, The Prime Minister
of Japan, Fumimaro Konoye, issued an invitation for a meeting with
President Roosevelt.
(HN, 8/27/98)
1941 Sep 11, FDR ordered any
Axis ship found in American waters be sunk on sight, in response to
submarine attacks on US vessels.
(MC, 9/11/01)
1941 Nov 10, Freedom House
founded by a group of prominent individuals, including Eleanor
Roosevelt and Wendell Willkie. It emerged from an amalgamation of
two groups that had been formed, with the quiet encouragement of
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, to encourage popular support for
American involvement in World War II at a time when isolationist
sentiments were running high in the United States.
(www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=249)
1941 Nov 26, Congress adopted a
joint resolution, permanently setting the date of Thanksgiving on
the fourth Thursday of November. President Franklin Roosevelt signed
a bill establishing the fourth Thursday in November as the national
Thanksgiving holiday.
(HN, 11/26/98)(HNPD, 11/26/98)
1941 Dec 5, President Roosevelt
sent a message to Japanese Emperor Hirohito expressing hope that
gathering war clouds would be dispelled. Hirohito smiled
enigmatically, knowing that Japan would attack Pearl Harbor the next
day.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1941 Dec 6, President Franklin
D. Roosevelt issued a personal appeal to Emperor Hirohito to use his
influence to avoid war.
(HN, 12/6/98)
1941 Dec 22, British Prime
Minister Winston Churchill arrived in Washington for a wartime
conference with President Roosevelt.
(AP, 12/22/97)
1941 Pres. Franklin Roosevelt
invoked the Trading With the Enemy Act of 1917 to authorize the Fed
to restrict consumer installment loans in order to suppress
consumption and free resources for the war effort.
(Econ, 6/1/13, p.75)
1941 Pres. Franklin D.
Roosevelt appointed Rexford Guy Tugwell as governor of Puerto Rico.
Under his direction the island became an experiment in central
planning.
(Econ, 7/11/15, p.34)
1942 Feb 8, Congress advised
FDR that Americans of Japanese descent should be locked up en masse
so they wouldn't oppose the US war effort.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1942 Feb 9, FDR reimposed
daylight saving time (DST) in the US calling it "war time" with
clocks turned one hour forward. It was repealed after the war. [see
1966]
(AP, 2/9/99)(WSJ, 3/31/05, p.D8)
1942 Feb 22, President Franklin
Roosevelt ordered Gen. Douglas MacArthur to leave the Philippines.
(HN, 2/22/99)
1942 Mar 19, FDR ordered men
between 45 and 64 to register for non military duty.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1942 Jun 13, President
Roosevelt created the Office of War Information, and appointed radio
news commentator Elmer Davis to be its head. The OSS, Office of
Strategic Services, was formed.
(AP, 6/13/97)(MC, 6/13/02)
1942 Oct, Pres. Roosevelt
signed special legislation that allowed General Motors to take a
complete tax write-off for the loss of Opel, its Nazi subsidiary.
The tax reduction amounted to some $22.7 million, an amount equal to
about $285 billion in 2007.
(SSFC, 1/7/07, p.E6)
1942 Nov 7, FDR became the 1st
US president to broadcast in a foreign language, French.
(MC, 11/7/01)
1942 Nov 13, US Pres. Roosevelt
signed a measure lowering the minimum draft age from 21 to 18.
(AP, 11/13/07)
1942 Nov 26, President
Roosevelt ordered nationwide gasoline rationing, beginning Dec 1.
(AP, 11/26/97)
1942 Dec 4, President Roosevelt
ordered the dismantling of the Works Progress Administration, which
had been created to provide jobs during the Depression.
(AP, 12/4/97)
1943 Jan 11, President Franklin
D. Roosevelt flew to Morocco for a top-secret meeting with British
Prime Minister Winston Churchill. He had not flown since 1932, when
he traveled from Albany, New York, to Chicago to accept his
nomination at the Democratic national convention. No U.S. president
had previously flown while in office because the Secret Service
regarded flying as a dangerous mode of transport. Air travel was the
only realistic option for the trip to Casablanca because German
submarines lurking in the Atlantic made a surface crossing too
risky.
(HNQ, 4/8/02)
1943 Jan 14, Roosevelt,
Churchill, and de Gaulle met at Casablanca, Morocco, to discuss the
direction of the war. The Casablanca Conference, a pivotal 10-day
meeting during WWII between US President Franklin Roosevelt and
British PM Winston Churchill, determined unconditional surrender
would be the only basis of negotiations with the Axis. Roosevelt and
Churchill also pledged maximum aid to the Soviet Union and China in
the war. French generals Charles de Gaulle and Henri Giraud played
minor roles and were not part of the military planning.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casablanca_Conference)(AP, 1/14/98)
1943 Jan 24, President
Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Churchill concluded a wartime
conference in Casablanca, Morocco.
(AP, 1/24/98)
1943 Feb 9, FDR ordered a
minimal 48 hour work week in war industry.
(MC, 2/9/02)
1943 Apr 13, President
Roosevelt dedicated the Jefferson Memorial. It was designed by John
Russell Pope.
(AP, 4/13/97)(HN, 4/13/98)(WSJ, 9/21/00, p.A26)
1943 Apr 21, President
Roosevelt announced that several Doolittle pilots were executed by
Japanese.
(HN, 4/21/98)
1943 Jun 10, FDR signed a
withholding tax bill into law.
(MC, 6/10/02)
1943 Jul 28, President
Roosevelt announced the end of coffee rationing.
(AP, 7/28/97)
1943 Dec 1, President
Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet
leader Josef Stalin concluded their Tehran conference and agreed to
Operation Overlord (D-Day).
(AP, 12/1/00)
1944 Jan 2, The US under Pres.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt established the War Refugee Board to
protect the endangered populations of Europe. In June Raoul
Wallenberg of Sweden was hired to head the agency’s office in
Budapest, where he arrived on July 9.
(WSJ, 2/28/09, p.A7)(Econ, 9/19/15, p.81)
1944 Jun 22, President
Roosevelt signed the GI Bill of Rights, authorizing a broad package
of benefits for World War II veterans.
(AP, 6/22/97)(HN, 6/22/98)
1944 Jul 19, The Democratic
National Convention convened in Chicago with the renomination of
President Franklin D. Roosevelt considered a foregone certainty.
(AP, 7/19/08)
1944 Jul 20, President
Roosevelt was nominated for an unprecedented fourth term of office
at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
(AP, 7/20/97)
1944 Jul 21, The Democratic
National Convention in Chicago nominated Sen. Harry S. Truman to be
vice president. He replaced Henry Wallace. In Room 708 of the
Blackstone Hotel in Chicago Roosevelt told Truman at the convention
that he wanted him on the ticket
(WSJ, 8/26/96, p.A12)(AP, 7/20/97)(WSJ, 4/27/98,
p.A20)
1944 Aug 5, Nearly a thousand
Jewish refugees from Europe arrived in upstate New York at the
invitation of President Roosevelt. It was supposed to be the first
of many relief camps. It turned out to be the only one.
(NY Times, 9/13/20)
1944 Sep 11, President
Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill met in Canada
at the second Quebec Conference.
(AP, 9/11/97)
1945 Jan 20, Franklin D.
Roosevelt was inaugurated for his fourth term.
(HN, 1/20/99)
1945 Feb 2, President Roosevelt
and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill departed Malta for the
Yalta summit with Soviet leader Josef Stalin.
(AP, 2/2/97)
1945 Feb 4-1945 Feb 12,
President Roosevelt, British PM Winston Churchill and Soviet leader
Josef Stalin held a wartime conference at Yalta, in the southern
Ukraine. Roosevelt joked to Stalin that the only concession he might
give to Ibn Saud in Saudi Arabia was "the 6 million Jews in the US."
In 2012 Michael Dobbs authored “Six Months in 1945: FDR, Stalin,
Churchill, and Truman – From World War to Cold War.”
(AP, 2/4/97)(WUD, 1994, p.1653)(WSJ, 3/8/99,
p.A16)(SSFC, 11/25/12, p.F4)
1945 Feb 11, President
Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet
leader Josef Stalin signed the Yalta Agreement during World War II
and adjourned. Alger Hiss was one of the advisors who accompanied
Roosevelt.
(WSJ, 5/5/95, p.A-12)(SFC, 11/16/96, p.A3)(HN,
2/11/97)(AP, 2/11/97)
1945 Feb 14, Saudi King Abd
al-Aziz and Franklin D. Roosevelt met on a ship in the Suez Canal
and reached an understanding whereby the US would protect the Saudi
royal family in return for preferred access to Saudi oil. William
Eddy, US minister to Saudi Arabia, arranged the meeting.
(WSJ, 10/4/01, p.A1)(Econ, 11/8/08,
p.102)(http://tinyurl.com/5a3c49)
1945 Mar 1, President
Roosevelt, back from the Yalta Conference, proclaimed the meeting a
success when he addressed a joint session of Congress.
(AP, 3/1/98)
1945 Apr 12,
Pres. Franklin Delano Roosevelt the 32nd president of the
United States, died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Warm Springs, Ga.,
at age 63. Roosevelt, a polio victim confined to a wheelchair, spent
a great deal of time in the soothing waters of the resort. He
succumbed to a cerebral hemorrhage while posing for a portrait by
Elizabeth Shoumatoff at what came to be known as the Little White
House in Warm Springs, where the unfinished portrait remains on
display. Lucy Rutherford Mercer, his secret companion, was at his
bedside. He was succeeded by his Vice-President, Harry S. Truman.
The 63-year-old president had been at Warm Springs, Georgia, since
March 28, resting from the rigors of leading a nation at war.
Roosevelt, left paralyzed by polio in 1921, was elected to the
nation's highest office four times and is judged by historians to be
among the greatest American presidents. He was buried at the
Roosevelt family home in Hyde Park, New York. The period is covered
in "Mr. Truman’s War" (1996) by Robert Moskin. In 2001 "The
New Dealer’s War," the 5th and last volume of the Roosevelt
biography by Thomas Fleming (d.1999) was published. In 2001 Kenneth
S. Davis authored "FDR: The War President." In 2003 Conrad Black,
aka Lord Black of Crossharbour, authored "Franklin Delano
Roosevelt."
(A & IP., ESM, p.167)(WSJ, 8/9/96, p.A8)(SFC,
9/6.96, p.A10)(AP, 4/12/97)(HN, 4/11/99)(HNQ, 6/16/00)(WSJ, 4/26/01,
p.A18)(WSJ, 12/3/03, p.D12)
1946 Nov 5, US Republicans took
control of the Senate and the House in midterm elections.
(AP, 11/5/97)
1954 Robert H. Jackson, US
Supreme Court Justice (1941-1954), died. His incomplete memoir of
FDR, begun in the early 1950s, was published in 2003 as "That Man:
An Insider's Portrait of Franklin D. Roosevelt."
(WSJ, 9/19/03, p.W11)
1965 Nov 18, Henry A. Wallace
(77), VP (1941-45) and founder (Progressive Party), died.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1967 Nov 7, John Nance Garner
(98), (VP-D, 1933-41), died.
(MC, 11/7/01)
1997 May 2, A new national
memorial honoring Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt was officially opened
in Washington, D.C., and was dedicated by Pres. Clinton
(SFC, 5/3/97, p.A3)(AP, 5/2/98)
#33 Harry Truman (1949-1953)
1884 May 8, Harry S. Truman,
33rd President of the United States (1945-1953), was born near
Lamar, Mo. A history buff, President Harry Truman penned this
description of Franklin Pierce, the 14th president, "Pierce was the
best looking President the White House ever had—but as President he
ranks with Buchanan and Calvin Coolidge." "If there is one basic
element in our Constitution, it is civilian control of the
military." He decided to drop the bomb that ended World War II and
sent troops to Korea to halt communist aggression.
(AP, 5/8/97)(AP, 1/17/99)(HN, 5/8/99)
1885 Feb 13, Elizabeth Virginia
"Bess" Truman, 1st lady (1945-52), was born.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1944 Jul 21, The Democratic
National Convention in Chicago nominated Sen. Harry S. Truman to be
vice president. He replaced Henry Wallace. In Room 708 of the
Blackstone Hotel in Chicago Roosevelt told Truman at the convention
that he wanted him on the ticket
(WSJ, 8/26/96, p.A12)(AP, 7/20/97)(WSJ, 4/27/98,
p.A20)
1945 Apr 16, In his first
speech to Congress, President Truman pledged to carry out the war
and peace policies of his predecessor, President Roosevelt.
(AP, 4/16/97)
1945 Jul 17, President Truman,
Soviet leader Josef Stalin and British Prime Minister Winston S.
Churchill began meeting at Potsdam in the final Allied summit of
World War II.
(AP, 7/17/97)
1945 Aug 8, President Truman
signed the United Nations Charter.
(AP, 8/8/97)
1945 Aug 14, President Truman
announced that Japan had surrendered unconditionally, ending World
War II. Shaken by the atomic destruction wreaked on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki and faced with the daunting prospect of Allied invasion,
the Japanese Emperor Hirohito met with his ministers on the morning
of August 14 and announced, "We cannot continue the war any longer."
Japan accepted the Allies "Potsdam Declaration," a cease-fire. In
1999 Prof. John W. Dower published "Embracing Defeat: Japan in the
Wake of World War II." Dower earlier published "War Without Mercy,"
a study of the war in the Pacific.
(WSJ, 8/14/95, p. A-11)(AP, 8/14/97)(HN,
8/14/98)(WSJ, 3/31/99, p.A20)(AP, 8/14/08)
1945 Aug 21, President Harry S.
Truman ended the Lend-Lease program that had shipped some $50
billion in aid to America's Allies during World War II.
(AP, 8/21/97)(HN, 8/21/98)
1946 Jan 8, President Truman
vowed to stand by the Yalta accord on self-determination for the
Balkans.
(HN, 1/8/99)
1946 Jan 22, President Truman
set up the Central Intelligence Group. In late 1945 he had
coordinated various intelligence reform plans considered in the
drafting of the directive that created the CIG. In 1947 it was
re-named the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
(http://tinyurl.com/l3go2n)
1946 May 17, President Truman
seized control of the nation's railroads, delaying — but not
preventing — a threatened strike by engineers and trainmen.
(AP, 5/17/08)
1946 Jul 25, In Monroe,
Georgia, 2 black couples were killed by Ku Klux Klansmen near
Moore’s Ford Bridge in Walton County. Roger Malcom had just been
given bail after stabbing a white farmer 11 days earlier. Pres.
Truman ordered an FBI investigation and 55 suspects were named in
the lynching of Roger and Dorothy Malcom and George and Mae Murray
Dorsey, but no one was ever charged. Dorothy Malcom was pregnant. In
2019 a US appeals court considered whether federal judges can order
the unsealing of grand jury records in cases with historical
significance.
(SFC, 7/26/05, p.A5)(Econ., 2/21/15, p.32)(SSFC,
12/31/17, p.A21)(AP, 10/22/19)
1946 Jul 26, President Truman
ordered the desegregation of all US forces.
(MC, 7/26/02)
1946 Aug 1, President Truman
signed the Fulbright Program into law, establishing the scholarships
named for Sen. William J. Fulbright.
(AP, 8/1/97)
1946 Aug 1, President Truman
established the Atomic Energy Commission. Physicist John Simpson
(d.2000 at 83) helped develop the 1946 McMahon Act, which called for
civilian control of atomic energy.
(AP, 8/1/97)(SFC, 9/2/00,
p.A23)(http://tinyurl.com/66tsq)
1946 Nov 9, Pres. Truman ended
a wage and price freeze.
(MC, 11/9/01)
1946 Dec 5, President Truman
created the Committee on Civil Rights by Executive Order #9808.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1946 Dec 31, President Truman
officially proclaimed the end of hostilities in World War II.
(HN, 12/31/98)(AP, 12/31/97)
1946 President Harry
Truman presented James Rives Childs (d.1987), a native of Lynchburg,
Va., with the Medal of Freedom. Childs had served in the US Army as
a code breaker in France during World War I. During World War II, as
charge d'affaires for the American Legation in Tangier, Morocco, he
helped 1,200 Hungarian Jews obtain visas to Spanish Morocco.
(AP, 6/15/18)
1947 Jan 8, Gen. George
Marshall became US Sec. of State.
(MC, 1/8/02)
1947 Mar 12, Pres. Truman
outlined the Truman Doctrine of economic and military aid to nations
threatened by Communism. The doctrine was intended to speed recovery
of Mediterranean countries He specifically requested aid for Greece
and Turkey to resist Communism.
(EWH, 1968, p.1207)(AP, 3/12/98)(MC, 3/12/02)
1947 Mar 21, Pres. Truman
signed Executive Order 9835 requiring all federal employees to swear
allegiance to the United States.
(MC, 3/21/02)
1947 Apr 30, President Truman
signed a measure officially changing the name of Boulder Dam to
Hoover Dam.
(AP, 4/30/97)
1947 May 22, The Truman
Doctrine brought aid to Turkey and Greece. President Harry S. Truman
relied heavily on Dean Acheson for his most significant foreign
policy achievements.
(EWH, 1968, p.1207)(AP, 5/22/97)(HN, 5/22/98)
1947 Jul 18, President Truman
signed the Presidential Succession Act, which placed the Speaker of
the House and the Senate President Pro Tempore next in the line of
succession after the vice president.
(HFA, '96, p.34)(AP, 7/18/97)
1947 Jul 23, U.S. President
Harry S Truman made the first Presidential surprise visit to Capitol
Hill since 1789. "Give Em Hell Harry."
(MC, 7/23/02)
1947 Jul 26, President Truman
signed the National Security Act, creating the Department of
Defense, the National Security Council, the Central Intelligence
Agency, CIA, FBI, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The act forbade the
CIA from operating within the US. The CIA was transformed from the
Office of Strategic Services (OSS), founded by Gen. William Donovan
(1941), and was led by Adm. Walter Chilcott Ford (d.1999 at 96)
until 1949.
(SFC, 11/23/96, p.A2)(AP, 7/26/97)(SFC, 11/25/99,
p.D9)(WSJ, 1/14/07, p.P8)
1947 Aug 23, An audience at the
Hollywood Bowl heard President Truman's daughter, Margaret, give her
first public concert as a singer.
(AP, 8/23/97)
1947 Oct 5, In the first
televised White House address, President Truman asked Americans to
refrain from eating meat on Tuesdays and poultry on Thursdays to
help stockpile grain for starving people in Europe.
(AP, 10/5/97)
1947 Dec 6, Everglades
National Park in Florida was dedicated by President Truman.
(AP, 12/6/97)
1947 Dec 23, Truman granted a
pardon to 1,523 who had evaded the World War II draft.
(HN, 12/23/98)
1947 Pres. Truman raised $17
billion to fund the Marshall Plan in Western Europe.
(TMC, 1994, p.1947)
1947 Pres. Truman raised margin
requirements of futures to 33% as wartime controls ended and food
prices soared.
(Econ, 10/11/08, SR p.16)
1948 Jan 7, US president Truman
raised taxes for the Marshall-plan.
(MC, 1/7/02)
1948 Feb 2, President Harry
Truman sent to Congress a 10-point civil rights program calling for
measures against lynching, poll taxes and job discrimination.
(AP, 2/2/08)
1948 Apr 1, The Berlin Airlift
began. Pres. Truman countered the Soviet blockade of Berlin with a
successful airlift, and beat Thomas E. Dewey in the elections.
(TMC, 1994, p.1948)(HN, 4/1/98)
1948 Apr 3, Congress adopted
and President Truman signed the Marshall Plan, which allocated more
than $5 billion in aid for 16 European countries. The Marshall Plan
was begun to aid the European nations in their economic recovery
following WW II. It provided $13.15 billion over 4 years to 17
European nations.
(SFC, 2/5/97, p.A20)(AP, 4/3/97)(SFEC, 5/25/97,
p.A10)(HN, 4/3/98)
1948 Jun 25, Pres. Harry Truman
signed the Displaced Persons Act of 1948. It was primarily inspired
by anti-Communism and led to a relaxation of US immigration policy.
Following WWII the US took in more than 650,000 displaced Europeans.
(www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/refugees_01.shtml)(Econ,
10/17/15, p.29)
1948 Jul 26, President Harry
Truman In Executive Order No. 9981 called for "equality of treatment
and opportunity for all persons in the armed forces without regard
to race, color, religion or national origin."
(USAT, 7/23/98, p.8A)(HN, 7/26/98)(MC, 7/26/02)
1948 Jul 15, President Truman
was nominated for another term of office by the Democratic National
Convention in Philadelphia.
(AP, 7/15/97)
1948 Jul 17, Southern Democrats
opposed to the nomination of President Truman met in Birmingham,
Ala., to endorse South Carolina Gov. Strom Thurmond.
(AP, 7/17/97)
1948 Jul 31, President Truman
helped dedicate New York International Airport (later John F.
Kennedy International Airport) at Idlewild Field.
(HFA, ‘96, p.34)(AP, 7/31/97)
1948 Nov 2, President Truman
was elected 33rd president in an upset. He won re-election by a
narrow margin over Republican challenger Thomas E. Dewey. The
Chicago Daily Tribune had been so sure of Dewey's victory that they
had printed front-page "Dewey Defeats Truman" articles before the
final results were in. Truman defeated Dewey by 2.2 million popular
votes and 114 electoral votes. During the presidential election
campaign, almost everyone expected New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey
to win and few had faith in a victory for incumbent Harry S. Truman.
While Truman went on a "whistle stop" tour across the United States,
giving more than 350 speeches, Dewey's confident campaign was more
reserved. Prof. Frank Kofsky later wrote "Harry Truman and the War
Scare of 1948." Henry Wallace was the candidate for the Progressive
Party. In 2000 Zachary Karabell authored "The Last Campaign: How
Harry Truman Won the 1948 Election."
(AP, 11/2/97)(SFC,11/26/97, p.C6)(SFC, 10/12/98,
p.A17)(HN, 11/2/98)(HNPD, 11/2/98)(SFEC, 5/14/00, BR p.5)
1949 Jan 5, In his State of the
Union address, President Truman labeled his administration the "Fair
Deal." Alben Barkley (1877-1956) served as Truman’s vice-president.
(WUD, 1994 p.120)(AP, 1/5/98)(WSJ, 2/12/02,
p.A18)
1949 Jan 20, Pres. Truman was
inaugurated for his 2nd term. He presented a 4-point plan for
American foreign policy. Point 4 called for "a bold new program" of
assistance to economically underdeveloped areas. In his inaugural
address, Truman branded communism a "false philosophy" as he
outlined his program for U.S. world leadership.
(EWH, 1968, p.1207)(AP, 1/20/99)
1949 May 14, Pres. Truman
signed a bill establishing a rocket test range at Cape Canaveral.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1949 Aug 10, The National
Military Establishment was renamed the Department of Defense. Pres.
Truman signed a bill that established a department of defense with
broader and more definite powers for the Sec. of defense.
(AP, 8/10/97)(EWH, 1968, p.1207)
1949 Aug 11, President Truman
nominated Gen. Omar N. Bradley to become the first chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff.
(AP, 8/11/08)
1949 Oct 13, India’s PM Nehru,
on his first visit to America, met with Pres. Truman and addressed
the US House and Senate in two identical speeches.
(http://history.house.gov/HistoricalHighlight/Detail/36630)
1949 Pres. Truman appointed Tom
C. Clark (-1967) and Sherman Minton (-1956) to the Supreme Court.
(TOH, 1982, p.1949)
1949 Pres. Truman appointed
Carlton Skinner (d.2004) as the 1st civilian governor of Guam.
Skinner established the island‘s 1st university and wrote a
constitution.
(SSFC, 8/29/04, p.B7)
1950 Jan 31, President
Truman announced that he had ordered full-speed development of the
hydrogen bomb.
(TMC, 1994, p.1950)(AP, 1/31/98)
1950 Mar 30, President Truman
denounced Senator Joe McCarthy as a saboteur of U.S. foreign policy.
(HN, 3/30/98)
1950 Apr 14, A national
security report , NSC-68, was presented to Pres. Truman. It was in
response to a directive issued by Truman on January 31: “to
undertake a reexamination of our objectives in peace and war and of
the effect of these objectives on our strategic plans, in the light
of the probable fission bomb capability and possible thermonuclear
bomb capability of the Soviet Union.”
(www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/nsc-68/nsc68-1.htm)
1950 Jul 3, Truman signed
public law 600. It provided federal statutory authorization for the
people of Puerto Rico to write their own constitution.
(www.puertorico-herald.org/issues/2004/vol8n34/CBRoadComnwlth.shtml)
1950 Jul 8, President Harry
Truman named US Gen. Douglas MacArthur as commander-in-chief of
United Nations forces assisting the South Koreans.
(WSJ, 6/24/96, C1)(AP, 7/8/97)(HN, 7/8/99)
1950 Aug 3, A US Military
Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) of 35 men arrives in Saigon. By the
end of the year, the US was bearing half of the cost of France's war
effort in Vietnam. Pres. Truman gave military aid to the Vietnamese
regime of Bao-Dai.
(www.oakton.edu/user/~wittman/chronol.htm)
1950 Aug 10, President Harry S.
Truman called the National Guard to active duty to fight in the
Korean War.
(HN, 8/10/98)
1950 Aug 25, President Truman
ordered the Army to seize control of the nation’s railroads to avert
a strike. The railroads were returned to their owners 2 years later.
(AP, 8/25/97)(SFC, 10/4/02, p.A17)
1950 Nov 30, President Truman
declared that the U.S. would use the A-bomb to get peace in Korea.
(HN, 11/30/98)
1950 US Pres. Harry Truman sent
military personnel to Vietnam to aid French forces.
(SFEC, 4/23/00, p.A19)
1950 Rules for discharging US
homosexual service members were established in the Uniform Code of
Military Service and signed by Pres. Harry Truman.
(SFC, 12/23/10, p.A8)
1951 Jan 23, President Truman
created the Commission on Internal Security and Individual Rights,
to monitor the anti-Communist campaign.
(HN, 1/23/99)
1951 Feb 27, The 22nd amendment
was ratified, limiting president to 2 terms.
(MC, 2/27/02)
1951 Apr 2, William McChesney
Martin (1906-1998) began to serve as chairman of the US Federal
Reserve and continued to 1970. Pres. Harry Truman pressed him to
keep interest rates low despite the inflationary consequences of the
Korean War. Martin refused.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_McChesney_Martin)(Econ,
4/29/17, p.58)
1951 Apr 11, President Truman
relieved Gen. Douglas MacArthur of his commands in the Far East.
President Truman fired General Douglas MacArthur.
(AP, 4/11/97)(HN, 4/11/98)
1951 Apr 19, Gen. Douglas
MacArthur, relieved of his command by President Truman, bid farewell
to Congress, quoting a line from a ballad: "Old soldiers never die;
they just fade away."
(AP, 4/19/97)
1951 Jul 9, President Truman
asked Congress to formally end the state of war between the United
States and Germany.
(AP, 7/9/97)
1951 Sep 4, President Truman
addressed the nation from the Japanese peace treaty conference in
San Francisco in the first live, coast-to-coast television
broadcast. The broadcast was carried by 94 stations.
(AP, 9/4/97)(HN, 9/4/98)
1952 Jan 5, PM Churchill
arrived in Washington to confer with Pres. Truman.
(HN, 1/5/01)
1952 Mar 29, Pres. Harry Truman
removed himself from the presidential race.
(HN, 3/29/98)
1952 Apr 8, President Truman,
to avert a strike, ordered the Army to seize the nation’s steel
mills after companies rejected Wage Stabilization Board
recommendations. Truman’s attempt to take over the US steel industry
was later denied by the Supreme Court and the mills were shut down
by strikers for 8 weeks [see Jun 2].
(TMC, 1994, p.1952)(AP, 4/8/97)(HN, 4/8/98)(SFEC,
11/14/99, p.B10)(SFC, 10/4/02, p.A17)
1952 Apr 15, President Harry
Truman signed the official Japanese peace treaty.
(HN, 4/15/98)
1952 Jun 10, Pres. Truman tried
to nationalize the steel industry. [see Apr 8]
(MC, 6/10/02)
1952 Jul 24, President Truman
announced a settlement in a 53-day steel strike.
(AP, 7/24/02)
1952 Jul 24, Pres. Truman
commuted Oscar Collazo’s death sentence to life imprisonment. On the
same day he signed an act enlarging the self-government of Puerto
Rico. [See Nov 1, 1950]
(AP, 11/1/97)(HN, 11/1/98)(HNQ, 1/24/02)
1952 Oct 4, Pres. Truman
arrived in SF to campaign for Democratic presidential candidate
Adlai Stevenson.
(SFC, 10/4/02, p.E4)
1952 Gen. Omar Bradley told
outgoing Pres. Truman that a criminal investigation of the
international oil cartels threatens national security. Truman
dropped his attack on Standard Oil of New Jersey, Gulf, The Texas
Company, Socony-Mobil, Standard Oil of Calif., and their foreign
colleges, Anglo-Iranian Oil, and Royal Dutch-Shell. The justice
department dropped it's grand jury probe in April and filed a civil
complaint accusing the companies of conspiracy to monopolize the
industry.
(PCh, 1992, p.939)
1952 The US National Security
Agency (NSA) was created in a secret executive order by Pres. Harry
Truman to intercept electronic communications through eavesdropping.
16 years later its power to eavesdrop on foreigners was established
in public law. In 2008 an edited history of the NSA by Thomas R.
Johnson, begun in 1992 and completed in 1998, was made public.
(WSJ, 11/14/08, p.A14)(Econ, 12/19/15, p.41)
1953 Jan 7, President Truman
announced in his State of the Union address that the United States
had developed a hydrogen bomb.
(AP, 1/7/98)
1953 In 2002 Arnold Offner
authored "Another Such Victory," an account of Pres. Truman and the
development of the Cold War.
(WSJ, 4/16/02, p.D7)
1956 Apr 30, Alben W. Barkley
(78), (VP-D-1949-53), died.
(MC, 4/30/02)
1972 Dec 26, The 33rd president
of the United States, Harry S. Truman, died in Kansas City, Mo. In
1995 Robert H. Ferrell published the biography "Harry S. Truman: A
Life." In 1999 Ferrell published "Truman and Pendergrast."
(AP, 12/26/97)(WSJ, 7/19/99, p.A13)
#34 Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-1961)
1890 Oct 14, Dwight D.
Eisenhower (d.1969), 34th president of the United States, was born
in Denison, Texas.
(AP, 10/14/97)(HN, 10/14/98)
1916 Jul 1, Dwight D.
Eisenhower married Mary "Mamie" Geneva Doud in Denver.
(AP, 7/1/97)
1942 Jun 25, Major General
Dwight Eisenhower was appointed commander of US forces in Europe.
(MC, 6/25/02)
1942 Aug 14, Dwight D.
Eisenhower was named the Anglo-American commander for Operation
Torch, the invasion of North Africa.
(HN, 8/14/98)
1943 Feb 11, General Eisenhower
was selected to command the allied armies in Europe.
(MC, 2/11/02)
1943 Feb 13, There was a German
assault on Sidi Bou Zid, Tunisia, as Gen. Eisenhower visited the
front.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1944 Jan 16, Gen. Dwight D.
Eisenhower assumed supreme command of the Allied Expeditionary Force
in London.
(AP, 1/16/98)(HN, 1/16/99)
1944 Apr 14, Gen. Eisenhower
became head commander of allied air fleet.
(MC, 4/14/02)
1944 May 15, Eisenhower,
Montgomery, Churchill and George VI discussed the D-Day plan.
(MC, 5/15/02)
1944 May 17, General Eisenhower
set D-Day for June 5th.
(MC, 5/17/02)
1944 Jun 6, By the end of D-Day
156,000 Allied soldiers had come ashore on the Normandy beaches with
losses of 2,500 men. By the end of the day, the Allies had
established a tenuous beachhead that would lead to an offensive that
pinned Adolf Hitler's Third Reich between two pincers--the Western
Allies and the already advancing Soviets--accelerating the end of
World War II. A million Allied troops, under the overall command of
General Dwight D. Eisenhower, moved onto five Normandy beachheads in
three weeks. Operations “Neptune” and “Overlord” put forces on the
beaches and supplies aimed at the liberation of Europe and the
conquest of Germany. Operation Overlord landed 400,000 Allied
American, British, and Canadian troops on the beaches of Normandy,
France. In addition, US and British airborne forces landed behind
the German lines and US Army Rangers scaled the cliffs at Pointe de
Hoc. More than 6,000 trucks of the Red Ball Express kept gasoline
and other vital supplies rolling in as American troops and tanks
pushed the Germans back toward their homeland.
{France, USA, Germany, WWII, EisenhowerD,
Britain, Canada}
(SDUT, 6/6/97, p.B9)(HN, 6/6/98)(HNPD,
6/6/99)(ON, 2/08, p.12)
1945 Mar 24, Gens. Eisenhower,
Montgomery and Bradley discussed advance in Germany.
(MC, 3/24/02)
1947 Feb 23, Gen. Eisenhower
opened a drive to raise $170M in aid for European Jews.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1948 Feb 7, Gen. Dwight D.
Eisenhower resigned as Army chief of staff and was succeeded by Gen.
Omar Bradley.
(AP, 2/7/97)
1948 Dwight D. Eisenhower, WW
II general, became president of Columbia Univ.
(SSFC, 8/15/04, p.D11)
1950 Dec 19, The North Atlantic
Council named General Eisenhower supreme commander of Western
European defense forces of NATO.
(www.nato.int/multi/photos/1950/m501219a.htm)(AP,
12/19/00)
1952 Apr 28, Gen. Dwight D.
Eisenhower stepped down to run for President.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1952 Republican Dwight
Eisenhower won the New Hampshire primary over Robert Taft 50.2 to
38.6%. Democrat Estes Kefauver won over Harry Truman 54.6 to 43.9%.
(SSFC, 1/25/04, p.A19)
1952 Jul 11, The Republican
National Convention, meeting in Chicago, nominated Dwight D.
Eisenhower for president and Richard M. Nixon for vice president.
Theodore Roosevelt McKeldin (1900-1974), the governor of Maryland
(1951-1959), gave the nominating speech.
(AP, 7/11/97)(Econ, 10/10/09,
p.23)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_McKeldin)
1952 Sep 23, Republican
vice-presidential candidate Richard M. Nixon went on television to
deliver what came to be known as the "Checkers" speech as he refuted
allegations of improper campaign financing. Nixon denied that he
maintained a private slush fund and all financial allegations except
for the gift of a cocker spaniel dog named Checkers from a Texan who
heard that his daughters wanted a puppy. Some 30 million television
viewers watched as Nixon, Dwight Eisenhower‘s running mate in the
upcoming presidential elections, made a plea for sympathy and
vindication in light of charges he was living a lifestyle beyond the
means of his $12,500 Senate salary. In 1997 plans were underway to
exhume the dog and rebury it near the former president.
(TMC, 1994, p.1952)(SFC, 4/28/97, p.A5)(AP,
9/23/97)(HNQ, 10/12/99)
1952 Oct 24, Republican
presidential candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower declared in Detroit, "I
shall go to Korea" as he promised to end the conflict if elected. He
made the visit over a month later.
(AP, 10/24/07)
1952 Nov 4, Dwight D.
Eisenhower (Ike) was elected president the 34th president, defeating
Democrat Adlai Stevenson in presidential elections. The Republicans
took over for the first time in 20 years. A Univac computer in
Philadelphia predicted the results based on early returns. Richard
Nixon was vice president.
(TMC, 1994, p.1952)(AP, 11/4/97)(HN,
11/4/98)(SJM, 5/1/01, p.1C)
1953 Feb 11, President
Eisenhower refused a clemency appeal for Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.
(MC, 2/11/02)
1953 Mar 26, Eisenhower offered
increased aid in Indochina (Vietnam) to France.
(HN, 3/25/98)
1953 Mar, The US CIA’s Tehran
station reported that an Iranian general had approached the US
embassy for support in an army-led coup. Based on this information
Allen Dulles, director of the CIA, approved $1 million to be used to
help bring about the fall of Prime Minister Mossadegh. Pres.
Eisenhower gave the CIA the ok to overthrow the elected government
of PM Mohammad Mossadegh. Mossadegh had nationalized the
Anglo-Iranian Oil Co. after Britain refused to compromise and split
profits 50-50. In 2003 Stephen Kinzer authored "All the Shah's Men:
An American Coup and the Roots of the Middle East Terror."
(SFEC, 4/16/00, p.A18)(SSFC, 8/24/03, p.M6)
1953 Apr 27, President Dwight
D. Eisenhower signed Executive Order 10450: Security Requirements
for Government Employment. The order listed "sexual perversion" as a
condition for firing a federal employee and for denying employment
to potential applicants. Homosexuality, moral perversion, and
communism were categorized as national security threats; the issue
of homosexual federal workers had become a dire federal personnel
policy concern.
(http://tinyurl.com/3bblwc)
1953 Jun 7, Pres. Eisenhower
announced that proposals for a Korean truce are acceptable to the US
and appealed to South Korea to accept terms to stop the war.
(SFC, 6/6/03, p.E2)
1953 Jun, In response to
Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy‘s tactics against alleged
Communists and un-American activities, Republican President
Eisenhower spoke out against "book burners" in June 1953 and
"demagogues thirsty for personal power and public notice" in May
1954. Eisenhower also asserted the right of everybody to meet his
"accuser face to face." [see Nov 23]
(HNQ, 6/18/98)(HNQ, 11/2/99)
1953 Jul 17, Pres.
Eisenhower proclaimed Captive Nations Week following US Senate
resolution on July 6 and US House resolution on July 8. It aimed at
raising public awareness of the oppression of nations under the
control of Communist and other non-democratic governments. It became
public law in 1959.
(www.jstor.org/pss/2195306)
1953 Aug 3, Pres. Eisenhower
created the US Information Agency to communicate with foreign
nations and counter Soviet propaganda. "The USIA explains and
supports American foreign policy and promotes US national interests
through a wide range of overseas information programs." Theodore
Streibert served as its first director. The agency was dissolved in
1999. In 2008 Nicholas J. Cull authored “The Cold War and the United
States Information Agency.”
(WSJ, 7/23/08,
p.A13)(http://dosfan.lib.uic.edu/usia/abtusia/commins.pdf)
1953 Nov 19, US VP Richard
Nixon visited Hanoi.
(MC, 11/19/01)
1953 Dec 3, Eisenhower
criticized McCarthy for saying communists are in Republican party.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1953 Dec 8, Pres. Eisenhower
delivered his "Atoms for Peace" address to the UN. He called on both
the US and Soviet Union to abandon their nuclear arsenals. The
"Atoms for Peace" program spread nuclear technology to nations that
agreed not to use it for military purposes.
(SFC, 5/28/98, p.A9)(SFC, 12/9/03, p.A10)
1953 Dec 16, Pres. Eisenhower
held the 1st White House Press Conference before 161 reporters.
(MC, 12/16/01)
1953 Pres. Eisenhower issued an
executive order that required the dismissal of all homosexual
employees in the government.
(SFC, 9/7/96, p.A2)
1953 Eisenhower appointed the
staunch anti-Communist John Foster Dulles as Secretary of State.
(TL, 1988, p.114)
1953 Eisenhower appointed Ezra
Taft Benson, a prominent Mormon from Idaho, as his agricultural sec.
(WSJ, 10/22/96, p.A20)
1953 Pres. Eisenhower suspended
the security clearance of physicist Robert Oppenheimer.
(SSFC, 4/10/05, p.B2)
1953 Project Solarium was an
American national-level exercise in strategy and foreign policy
design convened by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. It was intended
to produce consensus among senior officials in the national security
community on the most effective strategy for responding to Soviet
expansionism in the wake of the early Cold War.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Solarium)
1953 The Eisenhower
administration established the Small Business Administration to work
with private lenders to make loans for various entrepreneurial uses.
(WSJ, 11/29/04, p.R8)
1953-1961 Dwight D. Eisenhower (b.1890), (R)
34th President.
(MC, 10/14/01)
1954 Jan 8, President Dwight
Eisenhower proposed stripping convicted Communists of their U.S.
citizenship.
(HN, 1/8/99)
1954 Feb 2, President
Eisenhower reported the 1952 detonation of 1st Hydrogen bomb.
(MC, 2/2/02)
1954 Feb 10, Eisenhower warned
against US intervention in Vietnam.
(MC, 2/10/02)
1954 Mar 10, Pres. Eisenhower
called Sen. Joseph McCarthy a peril to the Republican Party.
(HN, 3/10/98)
1954 Apr 1, U.S. Air Force
Academy was founded in Colorado. President Dwight Eisenhower signed
a bill authorizing the establishment of an Air Force Academy,
similar to West Point and Annapolis. On July 11, 1955, the first
class was sworn in at Lowry Air Force Base. The academy moved to a
permanent site near Colorado Springs, Colorado, in 1958.
(HN, 4/1/98)(HNQ, 2/22/99)(MC, 4/1/02)
1954 Apr 7, Pres. Eisenhower
spoke at a press conference about why we needed to protect Vietnam
and mentioned his fear of a "domino-effect" in Indochina.
(www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=2630)
1954 May 13, President
Eisenhower signed into law the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Act.
(AP, 5/13/97)
1954 Jun 14, President
Eisenhower signed an order adding the words "under God" to the
Pledge of Allegiance. On Feb 7 Eisenhower had attended a service
where Rev. George M. Docherty (d.2008 at 97), a Scotland-born pastor
of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, in Washington, DC,
repeated his 1952 sermon saying the pledge should acknowledge God.
(AP, 6/14/97)(SFC, 6/29/98, p.A4)(AP, 11/30/08)
1954 Jul 12, President Dwight
D. Eisenhower proposed a highway modernization program, with costs
to be shared by federal and state governments.
(HN, 7/12/98)
1954 Aug 24, President Dwight
D. Eisenhower signed the Communist Control Act, virtually outlawing
the Communist Party in the United States.
(WUD, 1994, p.1685)(AP, 8/24/07)
1954 Nov 10, The US Marine
Corps Memorial, depicting the raising of the American flag on Iwo
Jima in 1945, was dedicated by President Eisenhower in Arlington,
Va.
(AP, 11/10/08)
1955 Jan 19, A presidential
news conference was filmed for television for the first time, with
permission from President Eisenhower.
(AP, 1/19/98)
1955 Jan 31, A document thus
dated stated that Yuri Rastvorov, a Soviet defector, told Eisenhower
administration officials in a private Jan 28 meeting that US and
other UN POWs were held in Siberia during the 1950-1953 Korean War.
(SFEC, 5/5/96, World p.1)
1955 Feb 12, President
Eisenhower sent 1st US "advisors" to South Vietnam to aid the
government under Ngo Dinh Diem.
(SFEC, 4/23/00, p.A19)(MC, 2/12/02)
1955 Mar 16, President
Eisenhower upheld the use of atomic weapons in case of war.
(MC, 3/16/02)
1955 Jun 7, Pres. Eisenhower
became the 1st president to appear on color TV.
(SC, 6/7/02)
1955 Jun 20, The 10th
commemorative session of the UN opened in SF with delegates from 60
nations. Pres. Eisenhower pledged a US policy of “peaceful and
reasonable negotiations” with all other powers.
(SFC, 6/17/05, p.F3)
1955 Jul 18, A summit opened in
Geneva, Switzerland, attended by Pres. Eisenhower, Soviet Premier
Nikolai Bulganin, British PM Anthony Eden and French Premier Edgar
Faure.
(AP, 7/18/05)
1955 Jul 21, During the Geneva
summit, President Eisenhower presented his "open skies" proposal
under which the United States and the Soviet Union would trade
information on each other's military facilities and allow aerial
reconnaissance.
(AP, 7/21/07)
1955 Aug 4, Eisenhower
authorized $46 million for the construction of CIA headquarters.
(MC, 8/4/02)
1955 Aug 12, Pres Eisenhower
raised the minimum wage from $0.75 to $1 an hour.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1955 Sep 26, The New York Stock
Exchange suffered $44 million loss, the heaviest one-day loss since
1929 following word that Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower had suffered a
heart attack.
(AP, 9/26/03)
1956 Jan 25, Khrushchev said
that he believed that Eisenhower was sincere in his efforts to
abolish war.
(HN, 1/25/99)
1956 Jan 28, Pres. Eisenhower
rejected a proposal for a friendship pact from Soviet Premier
Bulganin.
(EWH, 1968, p.1210)
1956 Feb 29, President Dwight
D. Eisenhower announced he would seek a second term.
(AP, 2/29/00)(HN, 2/29/00)
1956 May 28, Pres. Eisenhower
signed the Agriculture Act which embodied the "soil bank" plan to
reduce surpluses.
(EWH, 1968, p.1210)
1956 June 9, In Washington,
DC, President Eisenhower underwent surgery for an intestinal
blockage. The operation was a success and doctors assured the nation
that the president will make a full recovery.
(NYT, 6/9/1956, p.1)
1956 Jun 29, Pres. Eisenhower
signed the US Federal Highway Act. It authorized a 42,500 mile
network linking major urban centers. 90% of the cost was to be born
by the federal government. Initial estimates put completion by 1968
for $25 billion. The system was completed in 1993 at a cost of $425
billion (in 2006 dollars). The Federal Highway Act included the
Highway Revenue Act as Title II and created the Highway Trust Fund
(HTF) to finance the construction.
(SFC, 6/17/06, p.A1)(Econ, 2/16/08, p.32)(Econ,
11/19/11, p.34)
1956 Aug 1, Pres. Eisenhower
signed legislation expanding Social Security benefits to include
disability insurance. The Disability Insurance Trust Fund was
created as a part of the Social Security Act Amendments.
(Econ, 3/12/11,
p.36)(www.ssa.gov/history/tally56.html)
1956 Aug 22, President
Eisenhower and Vice President Nixon were nominated for second terms
in office by the Republican National Convention in San Francisco.
(AP, 8/22/97)(Ind, 11/3/01, 5A)
1956 Oct 15, Pres. Eisenhower
appointed William J. Brennan Jr. to the Supreme Court. He served
until 1990. In 1997 a collection of essays on Brennan was edited by
Rosenkranz and Schwartz titled: "Reason and Passion: Justice
Brennan’s Enduring Influence."
(TOH, 1982, p.1956)(WSJ, 7/24/97, p.A16)(MC,
10/15/01)
1956 Oct 31, President Dwight
D. Eisenhower praised the promise by Moscow made the previous day of
major concessions to Hungarians in revolt as "the dawning of a new
day" in Eastern Europe. Anti-government demonstrations in Budapest a
week earlier had forced a reshuffling of the Hungarian government
and demands that the new government denounce the Warsaw Pact and
seek liberation from Soviet domination.
(HNQ, 10/1/99)
1956 Nov 6, The
Eisenhower-Nixon Republican ticket won the presidential elections
beating Democrat Adlai E. Stevenson. The Democrats won a majority in
both houses of Congress.
(SFC, 11/7/56, p.A1)(EWH, 1968, p.1210)(AP,
11/6/97)
1956 Dec 25, Pres. Eisenhower
invited Robert George (d.1998 at 74) to the White House as the
official Santa Claus. George served as the official Santa for 6
presidents and maintained a year-round Christmas display at his home
in Glendale, CA., until 1987 when it was declared a gaudy eyesore.
(SFC, 7/4/98, p.C2)
1956 Dec 29, President
Eisenhower asked Congress for the authority to oppose Soviet
aggression in the Mideast.
(HN, 12/29/98)
1957 Jan 5, President
Eisenhower, in an address to Congress, proposed offering military
assistance to Middle Eastern countries so they could resist
Communist aggression; this became known as the Eisenhower Doctrine.
Under this doctrine a Middle Eastern country could request American
economic assistance or aid from US military forces if it was being
threatened by armed aggression. Eisenhower singled out the Soviet
threat in his doctrine by authorizing the commitment of US forces
"to secure and protect the territorial integrity and political
independence of such nations, requesting such aid against overt
armed aggression from any nation controlled by international
communism". The phrase "international communism" made the doctrine
much broader than simply responding to Soviet military action. A
danger that could be linked to communists of any nation could
conceivably invoke the doctrine.
(AP,
1/5/07)(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eisenhower_Doctrine)
1957 Jan 19, Pat Boone sang at
President Eisenhower's inaugural ball.
(MC, 1/19/02)
1957 Jan 20, President
Eisenhower and Vice President Nixon were sworn in for their second
terms of office in a private Sunday ceremony. A public ceremony was
held the next day.
(AP, 1/20/07)
1957 Mar 21, US President
Eisenhower and British PM Harold Macmillan began a four-day
conference in Bermuda.
(AP, 3/21/07)
1957 Sep 2, Pres. Eisenhower
signed the Price-Anderson Act, which limited firms’ liability in
commercial nuclear disasters. The Price-Anderson Nuclear Industries
Indemnity Act, a United States federal law, has since been renewed
several times since its passage.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price-Anderson_Nuclear_Industries_Indemnity_Act)(SSFC,
4/8/07, p.A18)
1957 Sep 2, Arkansas Gov. Orval
Faubus called out the National Guard to prevent nine black students
from entering Central High School in Little Rock. Pres. Eisenhower
soon responded with Federal troops to enforce federal law for
integration. The nine students, mentored by Daisy Gatson (d.1999 at
84) went on to lead very productive lives as detailed in a 1997
retrospective.
(www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=89)(SFC, 4/28/00,
p.A11)
1957 Sep. 9, President
Eisenhower signed into law the first civil rights bill to pass
Congress since Reconstruction.
(AP, 9/9/97)
1957 Sep 14, Pres. Eisenhower
met with Arkansas Gov. Faubus in Rhode Island. Faubus agreed to
cooperate with the president’s decisions regarding the high schools
of Little Rock.
(http://tinyurl.com/2vggdj)
1957 Nov 25, President
Eisenhower suffered a slight stroke.
(AP, 11/25/97)
1957 Pres. Eisenhower approved
the execution of John Bennett, an Army private convicted of raping
and attempting to kill an 11-year-old Austrian girl. He was hanged
in 1961.
(AP, 7/29/08)
1958 Jan 3, The first six
members of the newly formed US Commission on Civil Rights held their
first meeting at the White House after they were sworn in by
President Eisenhower.
(AP, 1/3/08)
1958 Jan 9, President
Eisenhower, in his State of the Union address to Congress, warned of
the threat of Communist imperialism.
(AP, 1/9/08)
1958 Apr 1, President
Eisenhower signed a $1.85 billion emergency housing measure.
(AP, 4/1/08)
1958 Apr 28, Vice President
Richard Nixon and his wife, Pat, began a goodwill tour of Latin
America that was marred by hostile mobs in Lima, Peru, and Caracas,
Venezuela.
(AP, 4/28/99)
1958 May 8, Vice President
Nixon was shoved, stoned, booed and spat upon by anti-American
protesters in Lima, Peru.
(AP, 5/8/97)
1958 May 13, Vice President
Nixon's limousine was battered by rocks thrown by anti-U.S.
demonstrators in Caracas, Venezuela. Nixon’s eight-nation South
America goodwill tour encountered violent demonstrations,
particularly in Peru and Venezuela, spurring President Dwight
Eisenhower to order the movement of US forces into Caribbean bases.
(AP, 5/13/97)(HNQ, 6/14/99)
1958 Jun 18, President
Eisenhower expressed support for his chief of staff, Sherman Adams,
who was accused of improperly accepting gifts from a businessman.
Adams resigned in September 1958.
(AP, 6/18/08)
1958 Jul 7, President Dwight D.
Eisenhower signed the Alaska statehood bill. Alaska became the 49th
state in January 1959.
(AP, 7/7/07)
1958 Jul 8, President
Eisenhower began a visit to Canada, where he conferred with Prime
Minister John Diefenbaker and addressed the Canadian Parliament.
(AP, 7/8/08)
1958 Jul 15, President
Eisenhower ordered 5,000 US Marines to Lebanon, at the request of
that country’s president, Camille Chamoun, in the face of a
perceived threat by Muslim rebels, to help end a short-lived civil
war. Eisenhower justified his decision to send troops to the region
on the basis that it was the "birthplace of three great religions,"
as well as having "two-thirds of the presently known oil deposits."
(SFEC, 4/13/97, p.T8)(AP, 7/15/98)(HN,
7/15/98)(Econ, 4/25/20, p.22)
1958 Jul 29, President
Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, which
created NASA.
(AP, 7/29/97)
1958 Aug 25, President
Eisenhower signed a measure providing pensions for former U.S.
presidents and their widows.
(AP, 8/25/08)
1958 Sep 2, President
Eisenhower signed the National Defense Education Act, which provided
aid to public and private education to promote learning in such
fields as math and science.
(AP, 9/2/08)
1958 Sep 11, Responding to
Communist China's artillery attacks on the Taiwan-held islands of
Quemoy and Matsu, President Eisenhower said in a broadcast address
the US had to be prepared to fight to prevent a communist takeover
of the islands.
(AP, 9/11/08)
1959 Jan 3, President
Eisenhower signed a proclamation admitting Alaska to the Union as
the 49th state. Its area is 586,412 sq. mls. Capital: Juneau; bird:
willow ptarmigan; flower: forget-me-not; nickname: The Last
Frontier.
(TMC, 1994, p.1959)(THM, 4/27/97, p.L5)(AP,
1/3/98)(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1959 Jan 7, The United States
recognized Fidel Castro's new government in Cuba.
(AP, 1/7/98)
1958 Mar 6, Form letters from
Pres. Eisenhower to 6 civilians appointees provided for them to take
office in the event of a national emergency. The group met in 1960
with the Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization to discuss
staffing for their agencies. Pres. Kennedy relieved the group of its
duties in 1961.
(SSFC, 3/21/04, p.A2)
1959 Mar 18, President
Eisenhower signed the Hawaii statehood bill. Hawaii became a state
on Aug. 21, 1959.
(AP, 3/18/07)
1959 Jul 17, The US
Congress approved a joint resolution establishing Captive Nations
Week to be observed on the 3rd week of July. Pres. Eisenhower
signed Public Law 86-90 establishing the week, aimed at raising
public awareness of the oppression of nations under the control of
Communist and other non-democratic governments, began in 1953.
(www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/WCPD-2002-07-22/pdf/WCPD-2002-07-22-Pg1222.pdf)
1959 Jul 24, During a visit to
the Soviet Union, VP Richard M. Nixon got into a "kitchen debate"
with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev at a US exhibition. Nixon
correctly said that the $100-a-month mortgage for the model ranch
house was well within the reach of a typical American steelworker.
(AP, 7/24/97)(Econ, 5/26/07, p.33)
1959 Aug 21, Hawaii became the
50th state as President Eisenhower signed an executive order, five
months after he'd signed the Hawaiian statehood bill.
(AP, 8/21/08)
1960 Mar 17, Eisenhower formed
anti-Castro-exile army under the CIA.
(MC, 3/17/02)
1960 May 6, President
Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1960.
(HN, 5/6/98)
1960 Sep 8, NASA’s Marshall
Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., was dedicated by President
Dwight D. Eisenhower. This followed the activation of the facility
in July of that year, when a key element of the U.S. Army’s
Ballistic Missile Agency was transferred from the Department of
Defense to NASA. The Marshall Center is named in honor of
General George C. Marshall, who was the Army Chief of Staff during
World War II, U.S. Secretary of State, and a Nobel Prize winner for
his post-World War II “Marshall Plan.”
(NASA PR, 8/22/00)
1960 Sep 14, REITs were created
when President Eisenhower signed into law the REIT Act title
contained in the Cigar Excise Tax Extension of 1960. REITs were
created by Congress in order to give all investors the opportunity
to invest in large-scale, diversified portfolios of income-producing
real estate.
(www.reit.com/timeline/timeline.php)
1960 Nov 1, US Pres. Eisenhower
announced that the US would take all steps necessary to defend its
naval base at Cuba’s Guantanamo Bay.
(AH, 4/07, p.18)
1961 Jan 17, US Pres. Dwight
Eisenhower and Canada’s PM John Diefenbaker signed a treaty to
jointly control the Columbia River. The treaty was implemented in
1964.
(Econ, 6/7/14,
p.42)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_River_Treaty)
1961 Jan 17, Patrice Lumumba
(34), the 1st premier Congo, was murdered. President Eisenhower
allegedly approved the assassination of Congo's Patrice Lumumba. The
US and Joseph Mobutu were implicated but no conclusive proof has
emerged. Sidney Gottlieb (d.1999 at 80), a CIA deputy, carried a
deadly bacteria to the Congo that was used to kill Lamumba. In 2000
the Belgium Parliament opened an inquiry into possible government
involvement in the killing of Congo’s Premier Patrice Lumumba. This
followed allegations in the new book "The Murder of Lumumba" by Ludo
De Witte. In 2001 the inquiry found that King Baudouin knew of the
plot but did nothing to stop it. The Katanga government did not
announce the death until Feb 13. Moscow charged that UN Sec. Gen.
Dag Hammarskjöld was involved.
(TMC, 1994, p.1961)(PCh, 1992, p.979)(SFC,
5/17/97, p.A14)(SFC, 5/3/00, p.A14)(WSJ, 11/9/01, p.A1)
1962 Oct 8, Former Pres.
Eisenhower and Richard Nixon visited San Francisco as the SF Giants
beat the NY Yankees in a World Series baseball game.
(SSFC, 10/7/12, DB p.46)
1968 Feb 6, Former president
Dwight Eisenhower hit a golfing hole-in-one.
(SFEC, 4/5/98, Z1 p.8)
1969 Mar 28, Dwight D.
Eisenhower (b.1890), the 34th president of the US, died at Walter
Reed General Hospital in Washington at age 78. In 2002 Carlo D’Este
authored "Eisenhower: A Soldier’s Life." In 2006 John Wukovits
authored “Eisenhower. In 2007 Kasey S. Pipes authored “Ike’s Final
Battle: The Road to Little Rock and the Challenge of Equality.” In
2007 Michael Korda authored “Ike: An American Hero.” In 2012 Jean
Edward Smith authored “Eisenhower: In War and Peace.”
(AP, 3/28/97)(WSJ, 7/12/02, p.W12)(WSJ, 3/7/07,
p.D7)(AH, 6/07, p.70)(SFC, 8/22/07, p.E1)(Econ, 3/17/12, p.92)
1970 Dec 31, Congress
authorized the Eisenhower dollar coin.
(http://eisenhowerdollarguide.com/)
1971 Nov 1, The Eisenhower
dollar was put into circulation.
(www.coinresource.com/guide/photograde/pg_$1ike.htm)
1979 Nov 1, Mamie
Eisenhower (b.1896), former first lady, died at a family farm in
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
(AP, 11/1/99)
#35 John F. Kennedy (1961-1963)
1917 May 29, John Fitzgerald
Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States (1961-1963), was
born at 83 Beals St. in Brookline, Mass. He was assassinated in his
first term.
(AP, 5/29/97)(HN, 5/29/99)(SSFC, 9/8/02, p.C12)
1929 Jul 28, Jacqueline Bouvier
Kennedy Onassis, wife of President John F. Kennedy and first lady
from 1961 to 1963, was born in Southampton, N.Y.
(AP, 7/28/98)(HN, 7/28/98)
1940 John F. Kennedy
(1917-1963) authored "Why England Slept," a critique of appeasement
of Hitler.
(Econ., 10/17/20, p.71)
1943 Aug 2, A Navy patrol
torpedo boat, PT-109, commanded by Lt. John F. Kennedy, sank after
being sheared in two by the Amagiri, a Japanese destroyer, off the
Solomon Islands. Lt. John F. Kennedy, towing an injured sailor, swam
to a small island in the Solomon Islands. The night before, his
boat, PT-109, had been split in half by the destroyer Amagiri.
Kennedy was credited with saving members of the crew. Two members of
the crew were killed in the collision in the Blackett Strait off
Gizo, the main town of western Solomon Islands. An injured Kennedy
and the ship's other survivors clung to the wreckage and swam to a
nearby island, where Aaron Kumana and Biuku Gasa found them. The
pair rowed 35 miles through enemy-held waters to summon a rescue
boat.
(AP, 8/2/97)(HN, 8/2/98)(AP, 8/30/07)
1944 Aug 12, Joseph P. Kennedy
Jr., eldest son of Joseph and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, was killed
with his co-pilot when their explosives-laden Navy plane blew up
over England during World War II.
(AP, 8/12/97)
1946 Nov 5, John F. Kennedy
(D-Mass) was elected to House of Representatives.
(MC, 11/5/01)
1953 Sep 12, Senator John
Fitzgerald Kennedy (36) of Massachusetts married Jacqueline Lee
Bouvier (24).
(AP, 9/12/03)
1954 Feb 14, Sen. John Kennedy
appeared on "Meet the Press."
(MC, 2/14/02)
1954 Jun 28, US Sen. John F.
Kennedy wrote a letter to Gunilla von Post, a Swedish woman he had
met on the French Riviera in August 1953, and suggested sailing with
her for 2 weeks around the Mediterranean. Kennedy was 36 when he met
Post (21). In 1997 Post authored a book, “Love, Jack,” that detailed
her long-distance affair with Kennedy. In 2010 an auction house put
11 letters and 3 telegrams of their correspondence up for sale.
(SFC, 2/17/10, p.A9)
1955 Sen. John Kennedy began
seeing Dr. Janet Graham Travell for his back pain. Travell later
became the 1st woman to serve as White House physician.
(SFC, 11/22/04, p.A2)
1956 Aug 16, Adlai E. Stevenson
was nominated for president at the Democratic National Convention in
Chicago. John F. Kennedy made his convention debut at the Democratic
convention in Chicago. Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver withdrew his
name from the balloting and asked his 200 delegates to support Adlai
E. Stevenson for the presidential nomination. Stevenson won the
nomination on the first ballot with 905 votes to New York Governor
Averell Harriman's 200 votes. Kefauver then went on to narrowly
defeat Senator John F. Kennedy for the party's
vice-presidential nomination.
(WSJ, 8/26/96, p.A12)(HNQ, 8/10/99)(AP, 8/16/97)
1958 US Senator John F. Kennedy
authored “A Nation of Immigrants.” It was written as part of the
Anti-Defamation League's series entitled the One Nation Library.
(Econ., 3/14/15, SR
p.16)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Nation_of_Immigrants)
1960 Jan 2, Sen. John F.
Kennedy of Massachusetts announced his candidacy for the Democratic
presidential nomination.
(AP, 1/2/98)
1960 Republican Richard Nixon
won the New Hampshire primary over Nelson Rockefeller 89.3 to 3.8%.
Democrat John Kennedy won over Paul Fisher 85.2 to 13.5%.
(SSFC, 1/25/04, p.A19)
1960 May 10, John F. Kennedy
won the primary in West Virginia.
(MC, 5/10/02)
1960 Jul 15, John F. Kennedy
accepted the Democratic nomination for president of the United
States.
(HN, 7/15/98)
1960 Sep 12, Democratic
presidential candidate John F. Kennedy addressed the issue of
his Roman Catholic faith, telling a Protestant group in Houston, "I
do not speak for my church on public matters, and the church does
not speak for me."
(AP, 9/12/00)
1960 Oct 7, Democratic
presidential candidate John F. Kennedy and Republican opponent
Richard M. Nixon held the second of their broadcast debates, in
Washington, DC.
(AP, 10/7/08)
1960 Nov 8, Massachusetts Sen.
John F. Kennedy was elected 35th president by 118,550 popular votes.
He defeated Richard Nixon in the US pres. elections. Popular legend
later held that the political machine of Richard Daley in Chicago
provided the necessary votes for Kennedy to win Illinois (27
electoral votes) and the elections. The Electoral College result was
303 to 219.
(SFEC, 8/31/97, p.B5)(AP, 11/8/97)(SFEC, 1/18/98,
Par p.2)(HN, 11/6/98)
1960 Nov 10, Pres. Elect John
F. Kennedy named Pierre Salinger (35), a former SF Chronicle
reporter, to be his White House Press Secretary and Andrew T.
Hatcher (37), a negro and former editor of the SF Sun-Reporter, as
associate press secretary.
(SSFC, 11/7/10, DB p.50)
1960 Nov 25, John F. Kennedy
Jr. (d.1999), son of JFK, lawyer, magazine publisher (George), was
born in NYC.
(MC, 11/25/01)
1961 Jan 20, Pres. Kennedy made
his inaugural address from the steps of the US Capital. In 2004
Thurston Clarke authored “Ask Not: The Inauguration of John F.
Kennedy and the Speech That Changed America.” In 2005 Richard J.
Tofel authored “Sounding the Trumpet: The Making of John F.
Kennedy’s Inaugural Address.”
(SSFC, 10/24/04, p.M2)(WSJ, 8/24/05, p.D10)
1961 Jan 20, Poet Robert Frost
recited his poem "The Gift Outright" [The Outright Gift] at the
inauguration of U.S. President John F. Kennedy. Frost, born in San
Francisco on March 26, 1874, was the first poet to participate in a
presidential inauguration. Awarded the Pulitzer Prize four times,
most of Frost's work drew on themes from rural New England life. He
died on January 29, 1963. Although 86-year-old Robert Frost had
composed a new poem, titled "Dedication," for the inauguration of
President John F. Kennedy, he was unable to recite it at the
ceremony because he could not read his own typewritten manuscript. A
dim typewriter ribbon conspired with Frost‘s failing eyesight and
bright glare on a sunny day with snow cover, making it impossible
for the poet to read the poem written especially for the occasion.
Instead Frost recited from memory his famous poem "The Gift
Outright."
(HNQ, 9/12/98)(HNQ, 1/21/00)
1961 Jan 25, President Kennedy
held the first presidential news conference carried live on radio
and television.
(AP, 1/25/98)
1961 Jan 26, Janet G. Travell
became the 1st woman personal physician to the US President (JFK).
(MC, 1/26/02)
1961 Feb 25, John F. Kennedy
named Henry Kissinger national security adviser. Years later,
Kissinger was President Nixon's envoy for secret negotiations with
North Vietnam. About this time Kennedy also named Adlai Stevenson as
ambassador to the UN.
(HN, 2/25/98)(SFEC, 6/6/99, p.A19)
1961 Mar 1, President Kennedy
established the Peace Corps. The first volunteers were sent to
Ghana.
(TMC, 1994, p.1961)(SFC, 8/7/96, p.A15)(AP,
3/1/98)(SFC, 3/21/98, p.A13)
1961 May 11, Pres. Kennedy
authorized American advisors to aid South Vietnam against the forces
of North Vietnam.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F4)
1961 Mar 26, John F. Kennedy
met with British Premier Macmillan, in Washington to discuss
increased Communist involvement in Laos.
(HN, 3/25/98)
1961 Apr 24, President Kennedy
accepted "sole responsibility" following Bay of Pigs invasion of
Cuba.
(HN, 4/24/98)
1961 May 25, President Kennedy
summoned a joint session of Congress and asked the nation to work
toward putting a man on the moon by the end of the decade.
(AP, 5/25/97)(Econ, 5/21/11, p.36)
1961 Jun 25, US Pres. John F.
Kennedy spoke from Berlin urging citizens “to recognize the
possibilities of nuclear war in the missile age.”
(SSFC, 10/29/17, p.C2)
1961 Aug 17, The Kennedy
administration established the Alliance for Progress.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1961 Aug 30, President John F.
Kennedy appointed General Lucius D. Clay as his personal
representative in Berlin.
(HN, 8/30/98)
1961 Sep 5, President Kennedy
signed a law against hijacking. It called for the death penalty for
convicted hijackers.
(MC, 9/5/01)
1961 Nov 1, Pres. J.F. Kennedy
signed executive order 10971 creating a board of three members to
investigate a dispute between TWA and certain of its employees.
(www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/jfkeo/eo/10971.htm)
1961 Robert Donovan (d.2003 at
90), newspaperman, authored "PT-109: John F. Kennedy in World War
II."
(SFC, 8/9/03, p.A15)
1961-1963 During the Kennedy administration
economist Arthur Okun (1928-1980), an economic adviser to both the
Kennedy and Johnson administrations, concocted the discomfort
index, later referred to as the "misery index." It was simply the
jobless rate added to the inflation rate. Okun's Law describes a
linear relation between percentage changes in unemployment and
percent changes in gross national product: for every 1% increase in
unemployment, the country suffers a 3% loss of yearly GNP.
(http://cowles.econ.yale.edu/books/tobin/jt_events.htm)
1962 Feb 3, President John F.
Kennedy banned all trade with Cuba except for food & drugs.
(HN, 2/3/99)(MC, 2/3/02)
1962 Feb 7, President Kennedy
began the blockade of Cuba.
(MC, 2/7/02)
1962 Feb 12, Pres. Kennedy
commuted the death sentence of Jimmie Henderson, a Navy seaman, to
confinement for life.
(AP, 7/29/08)
1962 Feb 14, First lady
Jacqueline Kennedy conducted a televised tour of the White House.
(AP, 2/14/98)
1962 Mar 2, JFK announced US
will resume above ground nuclear testing.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1962 Mar 13, John F. Kennedy
met Cameroon President Ahmadou Ahidjo.
(HN, 3/13/98)
1962 Mar 15, US President John
F Kennedy gave an address to Congress in which he formally addressed
the issue of consumer rights. He was the first world leader to do
so. World Consumer Rights Day (WCRD) was first observed on March 15,
1983, and has since become an important occasion for mobilizing
citizen action.
{KennedyJ, USA, Retail}
(http://www.consumersinternational.org/our-work/wcrd/)
1962 Mar 23, Pres. John F.
Kennedy visited San Francisco and spoke at UC Berkeley on the 100th
anniversary of the Morrill Act. “For this university and so many
other universities across our country owe their birth to the most
extraordinary piece of legislation this country has ever adopted,
and that is the Morrill Act, signed by President Abraham Lincoln in
the darkest and most uncertain days of the Civil War, which set
before the country the opportunity to build the great land grant
colleges of which this is so distinguished a part. Six years later
this university obtained its Charter.”
(http://tinyurl.com/6fbdog)
1962 May 19, Marilyn Monroe
sang "Happy Birthday" to Pres. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden
while wearing a dress described as "skin and beads." In 1999 the
dress sold for $1.15 million at Christie's auction house. In 2016
the dress sold for nearly $5 million at a Los Angeles auction to
Ripley’s Believe It or Not.
(SFC, 10/28/99, p.A3)(SFC, 11/19/16, p.A6)
1962 May, The stock market
decline coincided with Pres. Kennedy’s attack on the steel industry
and Attorney General Kennedy’s antitrust suits against numerous
American industries. Kennedy launched a price-fixing investigation
after US Steel raised prices by $6 a ton and other steel-makers
followed suit.
(SFC,10/27/97, p.B2)(WSJ, 5/12/03, p.A6)
1962 May, A memo from the CIA
briefing for Attorney Gen’l. Robert Kennedy revealed that $150,000
was offered to the US mob for the assassination of Fidel Castro. The
mob insisted on doing the job at no charge.
(SFC, 7/2/97, p.A5)
1962 Jun, In 2012 Mimi Alford
(69), a grandmother and retired church administrator said she began
a relationship with Pres. John F. Kennedy while she was a
19-year-old intern in the White House press office. According to a
New York Post, which obtained a copy of the memoir, the affair began
in the summer of 1962, on the fourth day of Alford's internship,
when they had an encounter in the White House swimming pool. That
night, Alford says, she lost her virginity to the president in First
Lady Jacqueline Kennedy's bedroom. The affair was first revealed in
2003, when Kennedy biographer Robert Dallek wrote in "An Unfinished
Life" about an unnamed intern who allegedly had a relationship with
the late president. Alford’s "Once Upon a Secret: My Affair with
President John F. Kennedy and Its Aftermath" was released on Feb 8,
2012.
(http://tinyurl.com/7shp9j3)
1962 Jul, Pres. Kennedy
installed a taping system in the White House.
(WSJ, 11/15/99, p.A48)
1962 Aug 10, Appointed by Pres.
Kennedy, Gen. Edward Landsdale participated in a meeting of the
Special Group Augmented where discussion of assassinating foreign
leaders was discussed. Highlights of the meeting were written down
in a memorandum dated Aug 13. Attorney General Robert Kennedy was
the augmented member.
(WSJ, 2/13/96, p.A-14)
1962 Aug 18, Pres. J.F. Kennedy
led the official groundbreaking ceremonies for the San Luis
Joint-Use Complex, Ca. In 1961 the state and feds had agreed to the
project which required the B.F. Sisk San Luis Dam for storage of
flows pumped from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The Sisk Dam was
named after Congressman B.F. Sisk of Fresno.
(CDWR, brochure)
1962 Sep 13, Pres. John F.
Kennedy signed a bill into law creating the Point Reyes National
Seashore. Boyd Stewart, a Marin, Ca., cattleman, helped create the
Point Reyes National Seashore on 70,000 acres of grassland.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point_Reyes_National_Seashore)(SFC,
1/1/05, p.A14)(SSFC, 5/19/13, p.A2)
1962 Nov 6, Edward M. Kennedy
(1932-2009) of Massachusetts was 1st elected as US Senator (D) to
fill the vacancy caused by the 1960 resignation of his brother, John
Fitzgerald Kennedy, for the term ending January 3, 1965. Pres.
Kennedy had persuaded the governor of Massachusetts to appoint his
college roommate, Benjamin A. Smith II, until Edward turned 30.
(http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=K000105)(Econ,
8/29/09, p.30)
1962 Oct 11, The US Trade
Expansion Act was enacted under Pres. Kennedy. It included a federal
program called the Trade Adjusted Assistance (TAA), which offered
superior unemployment benefits to US manufacturing and farm workers
who lose jobs due to imports or production shifts out of country.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_Expansion_Act)(WSJ, 4/20/09,
p.A1)(Econ, 7/2/11, p.23)
1962 Oct 15, Byron R. White
(1917-2002) was appointed to the US Supreme Court by Pres. Kennedy.
(MC, 10/15/01)(SFC, 4/16/02, p.A5)
1962 Oct 16, The Cuban missile
crisis began as President Kennedy was informed that reconnaissance
photographs had revealed the presence of missile bases in Cuba.
(AP, 10/16/97)
1962 Oct 16-1962 Oct 29, The
Cuban missile crises. Russia under Khrushchev removed its missiles
from Cuba. The 13-day missile crises was in part recorded by Kennedy
on tape and published in 1997: "The Kennedy Tapes," ed. by Ernest R.
May and Philip D. Zelikow.
(SFEC, 8/25/96, Parade p.6)(TMC, 1994,
p.1962)(WSJ, 9/23/97, p.A20)
1962 Nov 19, Fidel Castro
accepted the removal of Soviet weapons.
(MC, 11/19/01)
1962 Oct 22, President John F.
Kennedy announced that missile bases had been discovered in Cuba and
they had the potential to attack the United States with nuclear
warheads. Kennedy ordered a naval and air blockade on further
shipment of military equipment to Cuba. The Russians had previously
agreed not to bring new offensive weapons into Cuba, but after
hearing Kennedy's announcement, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev
refused to cooperate with the quarantine. Following a confrontation
that threatened nuclear war, Kennedy and Khrushchev agree on October
28 on a formula to end the crisis. On November 2 Kennedy reported
that Soviet missile bases in Cuba are being dismantled.
(AP, 10/22/97)(HNPD, 10/22/98)(HN, 10/22/02)
1962 Oct 24, The U.S. blockade
of Cuba during the missile crisis officially began under a
proclamation signed by President Kennedy.
(AP, 10/24/97)
1962 Oct 28, Soviet leader
Nikita Khrushchev informed the United States that he had ordered the
dismantling of Soviet missile bases in Cuba. Radio Moscow reported
nuclear missiles in Cuba deactivated. Kennedy and Khrushchev agreed
on a formula to end the Cuban missile crisis: the Russians would
dismantle their bases and the United States would publicly promise
not to invade Cuba.
(AP, 10/28/97)(HN, 10/22/98)(HNPD, 10/22/98)(MC,
10/28/01)
1962 Nov 2, Pres. Kennedy
reported that Soviet missile bases in Cuba were being dismantled.
(HN, 10/22/98)
1962 Nov 6, Edward M. Kennedy
(1932-2009) of Massachusetts was 1st elected as US Senator (D) to
fill the vacancy caused by the 1960 resignation of his brother, John
Fitzgerald Kennedy, for the term ending January 3, 1965. Pres.
Kennedy had persuaded the governor of Massachusetts to appoint his
college roommate, Benjamin A. Smith II, until Edward turned 30.
(http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=K000105)(Econ,
8/29/09, p.30)
1962 Nov 17, Washington's
Dulles International Airport opened in rural Virginia and was
dedicated by President Kennedy. The terminal was designed by
Finnish-born architect Eero Saarinen. The airport spawned a
high-tech corridor that by 2005 sat in the fastest growing county in
the US.
(Hem., 5/97, p.68)(AP, 11/17/97)(Econ, 11/26/05,
p.80)
1962 Nov 20, President Kennedy
barred religious or racial discrimination in federally funded
housing.
(HN, 11/20/98)
1962 Dec 5, Pres. Kennedy
discussed stockpiling nuclear weapons to deter Soviet attacks with
senior staff including Def. Sec. McNamara and Gen. Maxwell Taylor.
(SFC, 2/7/02, p.A4)
1962 Dec, Pres. Kennedy
proposed a tax cut.
(WSJ, 5/30/96, p.A14)
1962 Dec, Pres. Kennedy
commuted the sentence of Junius Scales (d.2002 at 82), who had
served 15 months for being a member of the Communist Party. Scales
was 1st arrested in 1954 and was later convicted and sentenced to 6
years in prison, the only American ever sent to prison for being a
CP member.
(SFC, 8/8/02, p.A22)
1962 Pres. Kennedy signed an
Executive Order maintaining the right of federal employees to join
unions and negotiate on many issues.
(SFC, 10/4/02, p.A17)
1962 The CIA established its
code-named Operation Mongoose spurred by Attorney Gen’l. Robert
Kennedy to get rid of Fidel Castro.
(SFC,11/19/97, p.A4)
1962 The CIA established its
code-named Operation Mongoose spurred by Attorney Gen’l. Robert
Kennedy to get rid of Fidel Castro.
(SFC,11/19/97, p.A4)
1963 Jan 8, President John F.
Kennedy attended the unveiling of the Mona Lisa on loan at America's
National Gallery of Art.
(HN, 1/8/99)(MC, 1/8/02)
1963 Mar 19, In Costa Rica,
President John F. Kennedy and six Latin American presidents pledged
to fight Communism.
(HN, 3/19/98)
1963 Mar 27, John F. Kennedy
met with King Hassan II of Morocco.
(HN, 3/27/98)
1963 May 8, JFK offered Israel
assistance against aggression.
(MC, 5/8/02)
1963 Jun 9, JFK named Winston
Churchill a US honorary citizen.
(MC, 6/9/02)
1963 Jun 10, JFK signed an
equal pay for equal work law for men & women.
(MC, 6/10/02)
1963 Jun 11, JFK said
segregation is morally wrong & that it is "time to act."
(SC, 6/11/02)
1963 Jun 27, Pres. Kennedy
spent his 1st full day in Ireland.
(SC, 6/27/02)
1963 Jul 2, President John F.
Kennedy met Pope Paul the Sixth at the Vatican, the first meeting
between a Roman Catholic US chief executive and the head of the
Catholic Church.
(AP, 7/2/00)
1963 Jul, Interest Equalization
Tax was a domestic tax measure implemented by US President John F.
Kennedy. It was meant to make it less profitable for US investors to
invest abroad by taxing the interest on foreign securities.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interest_Equalization_Tax)
1963 Aug 30, The hot-line
communications link between Washington, D.C., and Moscow went into
operation.
(AP, 8/30/97)
1963 Oct 31, Pres. John F.
Kennedy signed the Community Mental Health Act, which aimed to close
asylums and treat mental disorders more like illnesses and less like
crimes.
(Econ, 7/11/15, SR
p.7)(http://tinyurl.com/pe447ha)
1963 Oct, Pres. Kennedy spoke
with Mayor Daley of Chicago to get congressman Roland Libonati to
vote the Party line. The conversation was recorded.
(SFEC, 4/11/99, p.43)
1963 Nov 22, John F. Kennedy,
the 35th president of the United States, had been in office two
years, 10 months and two days, when an assassin's bullet ended his
life in Dallas, Texas. Kennedy, on a pre-campaign trip to supposedly
hostile Texas, had been greeted warmly by enthusiastic crowds at
every stop. Upon their arrival in Dallas, President and Mrs.
Kennedy, accompanied by Texas Governor John Connolly and his wife,
were driven slowly through the downtown streets on their way to a
scheduled speech at the Dallas Trade Mart. At 12:30 p.m., as the
open limousine traveled through Dealey Plaza past the Texas School
Book Depository, Kennedy was shot. Within the hour, Kennedy was
pronounced dead at Parkland Hospital and by 2 p.m., Dallas police
had arrested Lee Harvey Oswald as the suspected assassin. At 2:38
p.m. Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as the 36th
President of the United States.
(HNPD, 11/22/98)
1963 Nov 22, John F. Kennedy
was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald while riding in a motorcade in
Dallas. Texas Gov. John B. Connally was seriously wounded. Rufus
Youngblood (1924-1996), a Secret Service agent, shielded VP Johnson
from possible gunshots with his body. Johnson rewarded him by
promoting him over time to the No. 2 position in the Secret Service.
Ruby used a .38 Colt Cobra purchased at Ray’s Hardware and Sporting
Goods in Dallas run by Lawrence Brantley (1921-1996). From the
address that President Kennedy never got to deliver in Dallas: "If
we are strong, our strength will speak for itself. If we are weak,
words will be no help."
(TMC, 1994, p.1963)(AHD, p. 931)(SFC, 10/4/96,
p.B2)(SFC, 10/17/96, C2)(AP, 11/22/97)
1963 Nov 22, Two amateur films
recorded the assassination of Pres. Kennedy. A 24 ½ sec. video by
Orville Nix Sr. and Abraham Zapruder, a dress manufacturer, captured
the assassination on video tape. In 1981 David Lifton published
"Best Evidence," on the medical evidence of the assassination. In
1993 Gerald Posner published "Case Closed," a book on the Warren
Commission report. In 1998 new testimony was released that a 2nd set
of pictures was taken at the autopsy that were never made public. In
2007 David Talbot authored “Brothers: The Hidden History of the
Kennedy Years.” In 2007 Vincent Bugliosi authored “Reclaiming
History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy.”
(SFC, 8/1/98, p.A5)(SFC, 10/25/98, p.D5)(SFC,
11/23/00, p.A11)(SSFC, 5/13/07, p.M1)(WSJ, 5/19/07, p.P8)
1963 Nov 22, Dr. Charles Andrew
Crenshaw, a 3rd year surgical intern at Dallas’ Parkland Memorial,
tended Kennedy and placed him into a coffin. In 1992 Crenshaw
(d.2001) authored "JFK: Conspiracy of Silence" and insisted that
Kennedy had 4 gunshot wounds, including one from the front and that
the neck wound had been tampered to look like an exit wound.
(SFC, 11/21/01, p.A25)
1963 Nov 22, Dallas police
officer J.D. Tippit was slain by Oswald 45 minutes after Kennedy was
shot when he called Oswald over for questioning.
(SFC, 8/1/98, p.A5)(SFC, 10/25/98, p.D5)
1963 Nov 25, Assassinated
President John F. Kennedy was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
(AP, 11/25/97)(HN, 11/25/98)
1963 George Joannides, a CIA
agent, was in charge of the Revolutionary Students Directorate
(DRE), one of the most powerful Cuban anti-Castro organizations in
Miami. A few months before the assassination of JFK the DRE had
significant contacts with Lee Harvey Oswald and Oswald tried to
infiltrate the New Orleans branch of the DRE.
(SSFC, 5/13/07, p.M5)
1965 May 14, An acre at the
field at Runnymede, the site of the signing of the Magna Carta, was
dedicated by Queen Elizabeth as a memorial to the late John F.
Kennedy, US President.
(www.camelotintl.com/365_days/may.html)(http://tinyurl.com/flw65)
1966 Mark Lane (1927-2016)
authored “Rush to Judgement,” a result of his inquiry into the
assassination of John F. Kennedy. The 1973 the film “Executive
Action” was based on his book.
(SFC, 5/13/16, p.D3)
1967 Mar 14, The body of
President Kennedy was moved from a temporary grave to a permanent
memorial site at Arlington National Cemetery.
(AP, 3/14/98)(HN, 3/14/98)
1999 Aug 3, Arbitrators ruled
the government had to pay the heirs of Dallas dressmaker Abraham
Zapruder $16 million for his movie film that captured the
assassination of President Kennedy.
(AP, 8/3/00)
2003 Robert Dallek authored "An
Unfinished Life," an 815-page political portrait of JFK.
(WSJ, 5/13/03, p.D5)
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