Around 1850 1857 1859 1862

The Bessemer Process was developed independently by the British manufacturer Henry Bessemer and iron maker William Kelley around 1850, soon became widely used. This technique involved injecting air into molten iron to remove the carbon and other impurities.

In 1857, Fredrick Law Olmsted along with English born architect Calvert Vaux , helped draw up a plan for “Greensward” which was selected to become Central Park, in New York City. Olmsted envisioned the parks beauty would soothe the city’s inhabitants and let them enjoy a “Not Ural” setting.

Social Darwinism grew out of the English naturalist Charles Darwin’s theory of biological evolution. In his book published in 1859, Darwin described his observations that some individuals are weeded out by “Natural Selection”. Which meant some strived to live while others died off.

In 1862, Congress passed the Homestead Act, offering 160 acres of land to any citizen or intended citizen who was head of the household.

1862 1863 November 29, 1864

In 1862, Congress passed the Homestead Act , which offered 160 acres of land free to any citizen or intended citizen. During the 19th century up to 600,000 families took advantage of the governments offer. They were called Homsteader’s.

The first Transcontinental Railroad was a railroad line built in 1863 by the Central Pacific Railroad of California and the Union Pacific Railroad. By linking with the existing railway network of the Eastern U.S. the road thus connected the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the U.S. by rail for the first time.

George Pullman was an American inventor and industrialist. He was known as the inventor of the sleeping car. The first sleeping was invented in 1864.

The Cheyenne Indians thought they were save near Chicago’s sand Creek Reserve for the winter. Although, the Cheyenne were attacked by U.S. Colonel John Chivington and troops, at dawn on November 29, 1864, the attack killed over 150 inhabitants, mostly women and children. The Sand Creek Massacre was one of the most tragic events occurred in 1864.

1864

1864 1865 Late 1860’s

The Credit Mobilier was a construction company formed in 1864 by owners of the Union Pacific Railroad, who used it to fraudulently skim off railroad profits for themselves.

In 1865, Andrew Carnegie was so busy managing his money he earned, he happily left his job at Pennslvania Railroad. He then made his own Steel Company(Carnegie Steel Company). His Company manufactured more steel than all the factories in Great Britain.

To reinstate white voters who may have failed the literacy test or couldn’t pay the poll tax, several southern states added a Grandfather Clause to their constitutions. The clause stated that even if a man failed the literacy test or couldn’t pay the poll tax he was entitled to vote if his Grandfather had been eligible to vote before January 1st, 1867. Although, this law wasn’t used till the 1876 election.

In the United States History, the Gilded Age was the period following the Civil War beginning in the the late 1860’s to about the next era in history. The Gilded age was a economic growth that attracted millions form Europe. Railroads were the major industry, but the factory system, mining and labor unions also gained importance.

January 1st, 1867

1867 1867 1869 1870

In 1867, Oliver Hudson Kelley, started the Patrons of Husbandry, an organization for farmers that became popularly known as the Grande. Its original purpose was to provide a social outlet and an educational forum for isolated farm families.

Karl Max was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the social movement. He published, various books during his lifetime, with the most notable being the Capital in 1867.

In 1869, William M. Tweed, known as Boss Tweed led the Tweed Ring, a group of corrupt politicians, defending New York City. One scheme, the construction of New York county Courthouse, involved graft. The project cost tax payers 13 million while the actual cost was 3 million. The difference went into the pockets of Tweed and his followers.

Corporations such as the Standard Oil Company, established by John. D. Rockefeller, took a different approach to mergers. Rockefeller used a trust to gain total control of the oil industry in America. In 1870, Rockefellers Standard Oil Company of Ohio processed two or three percent of the country’s crude oil.

1870 1870’s 1870’s Mid 1870’s

The Great Plains was the grassland extending through the west-central portion of the United States. This area covers parts of the U.S. states of Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming. In 1870, the new railroads across the plains brought hunters who killed off almost all the Bison for their hides.

By the 1870’s, the Grande gave rise to the National Farmers Alliance. These groups included many other’s who sympathized with farmers. The NFA sent lecturers from town to town to educate people about topics such as lower interest rates and loans, and government control over railroads and banks.

Grande was an organization also called the Patrons of Husbandry. By the 1870’s however, Grande members spent most of their time and energy fighting railroads. The Grande’s battle plan included teaching members how to organize, how to set up Farmers Corporations, and how to sponsor state legislation to regulate railroads.

The Vanderbilt's are one of the oldest and best known families in America. It all began with Jan Aertson Van der Bilt who emigrated from Holland, who’s descendants prospered on Stanten Island, NY. It wasn’t until Cornelius Vanderbilt's lifetime where the family name came from and extraordinary wealth during the mid 1870’s. Vanderbilt with his wife of 53 years, Sophia, 13 children, 37 grand-children, and 27 grand-children, established what became known as the luxurious residences. One very famous one is known as the Biltmore House in

Asheville, NC.

1871-1873 1874 June 1876 1876

Chief Joseph also known as Young Joseph, succeeded his father as leader of the Wallowa band in 1871. In 1873, Joseph negotiated with the federal government to ensure his people could stay on their land in the Wallowa Valley. Although, the government forced the Wallowa Band to move to the Idaho Reserve with the other Nez Pearce. Joseph, pleaded for more time but, eventually moved his tribe to the reservation.

Successively as the independent party or Greenback Party, was an American Political Party with an antimonopoly ideology which began to be active in 1874. The party opposed the deflationary lowering of prices paid to producers entailed by a return to a bullion-based monetary system, the policy favored by the republican party. It also was a slang term for a fiat currency issued during

the American Civil War.

On June 25-26, 1876, The Battle Of Little Big Horn occurred near the Little Big Horn River in Eastern Montana Territory, it was the most prominent action of the great Sioux war of 1876. The Native Americans, stood their ground waiting for the 7th Calvary. When George A. Custer arrived with troops, the Native Americans murdered all of the 7th Calvary including Custer, with spears and rifles within an hour.

Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone with Thomas Watson in 1876. It opened the way for a world wide communication network. The Telephone and Type Writer office work and created new jobs for women.

June 15, 1877 1878 1879 1879-1880

The Nez Pearce were Native American people living in the pacific northwest region of the U.S. In 1877 they were forced to move to the inhabitants of a reservation in Idaho. The flight of the non-treaty Nez-Pearce began on June 15th, 1877 with Chief Joseph, Looking Glass, White Bird, Ollokot, Leah Elk, and Toohoolhoolzote leading 800 men, women, and children in an attempt to reach a peacefully sanctuary.

The roots of the National Farmers Alliance and Industrial Union commonly known as the “Southern Alliance” dated back to approximately 1875. Although, the group grew and organized on a statewide basis in 1878. but was almost immediately killed when it attempted to enter the political field and was torn asunder by antagonistic factions favoring Democratic and Greenback Parties.

The Dumbbell Tenements also called Old Law Tenements was built in New York City, after the Tenement House Act Of 1879. The 1879 law required that every inhabitable room have a window opening to plain air, a requirement that was by including air shafts between adjacent buildings.

African Americans who moved from the post-reconstruction south to Kansas in 1879-1880 where known as a Exoduster. After the end of reconstruction, racial oppression of slavery led many freedmen to seek a new place to live. Many immigrated to Kansas because that was the famous home land of the abolitionist John Brown.

1880 1881 1881 1884

Thomas Alva Edison invented the incandescent light bulb. Which was patented in 1880. He later then invented a entire system for producing and distributing electrical power.

Sitting Bull was the leader of the Hunkpapa Sioux. Sitting Bull led his people by strength and purpose. He was determined whites should leave Sioux territory. His most famous fight was at Little bighorn River, where he killed George Armstrong Custer. Although, sitting bull surrendered to the government in 1881.

Mark Twain or Samuel Longhorne Clemens, was a novelist who inspired a host of other young authors when he declared his independence of “literature and all that bosh.” Yet, some of his books have become classics of American literature. For example, The Adventures of Huckleberry Fin which was published in 1884 is known commonly.

Booker T. Washington was a prominent African American educator, that believed that racism would end once blacks acquired useful labor skills and proved their economic value to society. By 1881, he headed the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial institute, now called the Tuskegee University in Alabama. The Tuskegee aimed to equip African Americans with teaching diplomas and useful skills in agricultural domestic or mechanical work.

December 11,1886 1886 Tuesday May 4th, 1886

1887

A white Baptist missionary, R.M. Humphrey, organized the Colored Farmers National Alliance on December 11, 1886 In Houston, Texas. Members of the local Colored Farmers Alliance promoted cooperative buying and selling. Unlike white organizations however, the black alliances had to work mostly in secret to avoid racially motivate violence at the hands of angry landowners and suppliers.

One approach to the organization to the organization of labor was craft unionism, which included skilled workers from one or more trades. Samuel Gompers led the Cigar Makers International Union to join with other craft unions in 1886.

The Haymarket Affair, also known as the Haymarket Massacre refers to the aftermath of a bombing that took place at a labor demonstration on Tuesday May 4th, 1886, at Haymarket Square in Chicago. It began as a peaceful rally for an eight hour day, it resulted in a dynamite thrown at the police, resulting in the deaths of seven police officers and at lease four civilians.

Interstate Commerce Commission was enacted in 1887, that reestablished the federal governments right to supervise railroad activities and created a five-member interstate Commerce Commission to do so.

1887 1888 1889 1880’s

In 1887, congress passed the Dawes Act aiming to “Americanize” the Native Americans. The act broke up the reservations and gave some of the reservation land to individual Native Americans - 160 acres to each head of household and 80 acres to each adult. The government would sell the remainder of the reservations to settlers, and Native Americans to buy farm implements.

George Eastman developed a series of more convenient alternatives to the heavy glass plates previously used. Now, instead of carrying their dark rooms around with them, photographers could use flexible film, coated with gelatin emulsions, and could send their film to a studio for processing. In 1888, Eastman developed his Kodiak camera. The purchase price of $25.00 included a 100- picture roll of film. When the photographer took the pictures they then sent it to Eastman's Factory in New York. There, they would develop them and send them back for $10.00 with the camera reloaded.

Jane Addams was a pioneer settlement worker who founded the Hull House in Chicago in 1889. She also was a public philosopher, sociologist, author, and leader in women suffrage and world peace. Later in her life she won the Nobel Prize, she was the first women to do so.

In the 1880’s, William F. Cody toured the country with a show called Buffalo Bill’s Wild West. The show featured trick riding and roping exhibitions. It thrilled audiences with mock battles between Cowboys and Indians. This helped form the Rodeo.

1880’s 1880’s 1890 December 28th, 1890

In the 1880’s, overland transport or Long Drive, of animals often lasted about 3 months. A typical drive included one Cowboy for every 250 to 300 head of cattle, a cook who also drove the chuck wagon and set up camp; and a wrangler who cared for the extra horses. During the long drive the Cowboy was in the saddle from dawn till dusk. He slept on the ground and slept in rivers.

A blend of African American spirituals and European musical forms, ragtime originated in the 1880’s in the saloons of the south. Ragtime later became known as Jazz, Rhythm and Blues, and Rock & Roll.

The Native American tribe called the Sioux, continued to suffer poverty and disease. In desperation, they turned to a paiute prophet who promised that if the Sioux performed a ritual called the Ghost Dance, the Native American lands and way of life will be restored. The Ghost Dance movement spread rapidly among 25,000, Sioux on the Dakota Reserve in 1890.

On December 28th, 1890, the Seventh Calvary- Custer’s old regiment rounded up about 350 starving and freezing Sioux Indians and took them to a camp at Wounded Knee Creek in south Dakota. The next day, the soldiers demanded that the Native Americans give up all their weapons. A shot fired; from which side was unclear. The soldiers opened fire with the deadly Cannon, within minutes the Seventh Calvary slaughtered 300 unarmed Native Americans, including several children. The soldiers then left the corpse to freeze on the ground.

1890 1890’s 1890’s1890

Some states, limited the vote to people who could read, and required registration officials to administer a Literacy Test to test reading. Blacks trying to vote were often asked more difficult questions than whites or given a test in a foreign language. Officials could pass or fail applicants as they wished. The first formal voter Literacy Tests were introduced in 1890.

In 1890, the Sherman Antitrust Act made it legal to form a trust that interfered with free trade between states or with other countries. Prosecuting companies under the Sherman Act was not easy, however, because the act didn’t clearly define terms such as trust. The Supreme Court threw out seven of the eight cases the federal government stopped trying to enforce the Sherman Act, and the consolidation of the businesses continued.

After initial moments of excitement, the immigrants faced the anxiety of not knowing whether they would be admitted to the United States. They had to pass immigration inspections, such as the one at Castle Garden, New York, which was later known as Ellis Island. From the 1890’s till the 1900’s Ellis Island was the major immigration station in the United States.

While European immigrants arriving on the east coast passed through Ellis Island, Asians primarily Chinese arrived on the west coast passed admission at Angel Island in San Francisco Bay. During the 1890’s till the late 1900’s, about 50,000 Chinese immigrants entered the United States through Angel Island.

1891 1894July 4th, 1892 1895

The term “collective bargaining” was first used in 1891, by economic Theorist Beatrice Webb. However, collective negotiations and agreements had existed since the rise of trade unions during the 18th century. Collective Bargaining is a process of negotiation between employees and corporations aimed at reaching agreements that inform workers of their shared interests negotiated by an entity that acts like a corporation.

The Omaha Platform was the party program adopted at the formative convention of the populist(or peoples)party held in Omaha, Nebraska on July 4th, 1892. The platform preamble was written by Ignatius L. Donnelly. The planks themselves represent the merger of agrarian concerns of the farmers alliance with the free-currency monetarism of the greenback party while explicitly endorsing the goals of the largely urban knights of the labor.

Some labor leaders felt that unions should include an laborers skilled and unskilled, in a specific industry. This concept captured the immigration of Eugene V. Debs, who made the first major attempt to form such an individual union-the American Railroad Union(ARU). In 1894, the new union won a strike for higher wages. Within two months, its membership climbed to 150,000, dwarfing the 90,000 enrolled in the four skilled railroad brotherhoods.

W.E.B. Dubois was the first African American to receive a doctorate from Harvard in 1895. He strongly agreed with Washington gradual approach. In 1905, Dubious founded the Niagara Movement, which insisted that blacks should seek a liberal arts education so that the African-American community would have well-educated leaders.

Early 1896 1896 1896 1896

As the 1896 campaign progressed, the Republican Party stated it’s firm commitment to the gold standard and nominated Ohioan William McKinley for president.

At the same time blacks lost voting rights southern states passed racial segregation laws or Jim Crow Laws is another name. Which separated whites from blacks in public or private facilities, in schools, hospitals, parks, and transportation systems throughout the south. Segregation said that everyone was made “separate but equal”. Segregation was tested in the Plessey Vs. Ferguson case in 1896, where segregation was established not un constitutional and everyone is “separate but equal”.

The 1896, the Plessey Vs. Ferguson, supreme court ruled that the separation of races in public accommodations was legal and did not violate the fourteenth amendment. The decision established the doctrine “separate but equal”, which allowed states to remain segregated.

William Jennings Bryan, Editor of the Omaha World-herald, delivered an impassioned address to the assembled delegates. An excerpt of what has become known as the “cross of gold” speech follows. Bryan won democratic nomination for the 1896 election. His main weakness was his vice-presidential candidate Maine banker Arthur Scwall. Nor did democrats want to keep him as a candidate in the running. So he was replaced by Thomas Watson of Georgia.

July 9th, 1896 1800’s 1800’s 1800’s

The cross of gold speech was delivered by William Jennings Bryan, a former united states congressman from Nebraska at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on July 9th, 1896. In the address Bryan supported bimetallism or “free silver’, which he believed would gain the nation prosperity. He described the gold standard concluding, the speech “you may not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold”.

The term culture shock was introduced for the first time in the 1800’s to describe the anxiety produced when a person moves to a completely new environment. This term expresses the lack of direction, the feeling of not knowing what to do or how to do things in a new environment and not knowing what is appropriate or inappropriate. The felling of culture shock generally sets in after the first few weeks of coming to a new place.

Participants in a Trust turned their stock over to a group of trustees-people who ran the separate companies as one large corporation. In return, the companies were entitled to dividends on profits earned by the trust. Trusts were not legal mergers, however. Rockefeller used a trust to gain total control of the oil industry in America.

A political machine was an organized group that controlled the activities of a political party in a city, the political machine also offered services to voters and businesses in exchange for political or financial support. In the decades after the civil war, political machines gained control of local government in Baltimore, NY, San Francisco, and other major cities. Political Machines were mostly seen in the 1800’s.

1800’s Mid 1800’s 1800’s Late 1800’s

When involved with grafting, the worker then “kicked back” a portion of the earnings to the political machine they were working for. Taking these kickbacks or illegal payments for their services, enriched the political machines-and individuals politicians.

The term “socialism” was created by Henri de Saint-Simon, a founder of utopian socialism. The term “socialism” was created to contrast against the liberal doctrine of “individualism”. The original socialists condemned Liberal individualism as failing to address social concerns of poverty, social oppression, and gross inequality of wealth. Socialism was commonly seen in the mid 1800’s.

A scab is a person who works despite an on going strike. Scabs are usually individuals who are not employed by the company prior to the trade union dispute, but rather hired prior to or during the strike to keep the organization running. “strikebreakers” may also refer to workers who cross picket lines to work. Scab’s were commonly seen in the 1800’s.

Graft, was the illegal use of political influence for personal gain. For example, by helping a person find work on a constitution project for the city, a political machine could ask the worker to bill the city for more than the actual cost of materials and labor. Graft was mostly used in the 1800’s.

1800’s 1901

Those who moved to the broad, flat plains often made freestanding houses by stacking blocks of prairie turf. Like a dug out, a sod home, or Soddy, was warm in winter and cool in summer. Soddy's were small, however , and offered little light or air. They were havens for snakes, insects, and other pests. Although, they were fire proof they leaked when it rained. Soddy's were used mostly during the 1800’s.

A Monopoly or complete control over its industry’s production, wages, and prices. One way to create a monopoly was to set up a holding company, a corporation that did nothing but buy out the stock of other companies. Headed by banker J.P. Morgan, U.S. steel was one of the sucessful holding companies. In 1901, it became the world’s largest business.

December 17th, 1903

In the early 20th century, brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright, bicycle manufacturers from Dayton, Ohio, experimented with new engines powerful enough to keep “heavier-than-air” craft aloft. First the Wright brothers built a glider. Then they commisioned a 4-cylinder internal combustion engine, chose a pepeller, and designed a biplane with a 40’4 wing span. On December 17th, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina they had their first flight. It covered 120 feet and lasted 12 seconds.

Work Cited

www.wikipedia.com

www.loc.gov