1869 in the United States

::Ulysses S. Grant (R-Illinois) (starting March 4) - Vice President: ::*vacant* (until March 4) ::Schuyler Colfax (R-Indiana) (starting March 4) - Chief Justice: Salmon P. Chase (Ohio) - Speaker of the House of Representatives: ::Schuyler Colfax (R-Indiana) (until March 3) ::Theodore Medad Pomeroy (R-New York) (March 3–4) ::James G. Blaine (R-Maine) (starting March 4) - Congress: [40th](40th-united-states-congress) (until March 4), [41st](41st-united-states-congress) (starting March 4) #### State governments ::data[format=table] | Governors and lieutenant governors | |---| | | :: ## Events ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/Ugrant.jpeg" caption="March 4: [[Ulysses S. Grant]] becomes the 18th U.S. president"] :: ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/Representative_Schuyler_Colfax.jpg" caption="[[Schuyler Colfax]] becomes the 17th U.S. vice president"] :: ### January–March - January 1 – Sigma Nu, the first anti-hazing honor/social fraternity, is founded, at Virginia Military Institute. - January 20 – Elizabeth Cady Stanton is the first woman to testify before the United States Congress. - January 21 – The P.E.O. Sisterhood, a philanthropic educational organization for women, is founded at Iowa Wesleyan College in Mount Pleasant, Iowa. - February 15 – Charges of treason against Jefferson Davis are dropped. - March 4 – Ulysses S. Grant is sworn in as the 18th president of the United States, and Schuyler Colfax is sworn in as the 17th vice president. - March 9 – Southern Illinois University Carbondale is established by the state legislature as Southern Illinois Normal College. ### April–June ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/East_and_West_Shaking_hands_at_the_laying_of_last_rail_Union_Pacific_Railroad_-_Restoration.jpg" caption="May 10: [[Golden spike"] :: - April 6 – The American Museum of Natural History is founded in New York City. - May 6 – Purdue University is founded in West Lafayette, Indiana. - May 10 – The "golden spike" is driven marking the completion of the First transcontinental railroad in Promontory, Utah. - May 15 – Woman's suffrage: In New York, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton form the National Woman Suffrage Association. - May 26 – Boston University is chartered by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. - June 1 - The Cincinnati Red Stockings open the baseball season as the first fully professional baseball team. - Thomas Edison is granted his first patent for the Electric Vote Recorder. - June 15 – John Wesley Hyatt patents the first plastic, Celluloid, in Albany, New York. ### July–September - July 4 – World's first rodeo held in Deer Trail, Colorado - September 15 – Brooklyn Fire Department organized as a professional brigade. - September 24 – Black Friday: The Fisk-Gould Scandal causes a financial panic in the United States. ### October–December ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e4/Seal_of_Wyoming.svg" caption="December 10: "Equal Rights" motto on [[Wyoming]]'s seal refers to the territory pioneering [[women's suffrage]]."] :: - October 5 – During construction of the Eastman tunnel in St. Anthony, Minnesota (modern-day Minneapolis), the Mississippi River breaks through the tunnel's limestone ceiling, nearly destroying Saint Anthony Falls. - October 8 – New York Foundling Asylum incorporated. - October 11 – Gamma Sigma becomes the first high school fraternity in North America at Brockport Normal School, Brockport, New York. - October 16 – The Tremont House in Boston becomes the first hotel to have indoor plumbing. - November 6 – [The first intercollegiate game](1869-college-football-season-first-intercollegiate-football-game-ever-played) of American football is played: Rutgers University defeats Princeton University 6–4 in a college football game. - December 7 – Outlaw Jesse James commits his first confirmed bank robbery, in Gallatin, Missouri. - December 10 - The first American chapter of Kappa Sigma is founded at the University of Virginia. - The Wyoming territorial legislature gives women the right to vote, one of the first such laws in the world. - December 13: The Los Angeles Police Department is created, with city marshal William C. Warren hiring six officers. ### Undated - The H. J. Heinz Company is founded as Heinz Noble & Company in Sharpsburg, Pennsylvania. - James Gordon Bennett, Jr. of the *New York Herald* asks Henry Morton Stanley to find Dr. Livingstone. - Marcus Jastrow arrives in the United States to become rabbi of Congregation Rodeph Shalom in Philadelphia. ### Ongoing - Reconstruction era (1865–1877) - Gilded Age (1869–c. 1896) ## Sport - November 6 – [College of New Jersey](1869-princeton-tigers-football-team) (Princeton) defeat the [Rutgers Queensmen](1869-rutgers-queensmen-football-team) (Rutgers) 6 to 4 in New Brunswick, N.J. in what is widely considered the first ever American football game with Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, becoming known as "The Birthplace of College Football" ## Births - January 4 – Tommy Corcoran, baseball player (died [1960](1960-in-the-united-states)) - January 10 – Rachel Davis Harris, African American librarian (died [1969](1969-in-the-united-states)) - February 2 – Smith W. Brookhart, U.S. Senator from Iowa from 1922 to 1926 (died [1944](1944-in-the-united-states)) - February 19 – Frederic C. Walcott, U.S. Senator from Connecticut from 1929 to 1935 (died [1949](1949-in-the-united-states)) - February 29 – Thomas Walter Bickett, governor of North Carolina (died [1921](1921-in-the-united-states)) - March 13 – Fairfax Harrison, lawyer and businessman (died [1938](1938-in-the-united-states)) - April 2 – Hughie Jennings, baseball player (died [1928](1928-in-the-united-states)) - April 4 – Mary Colter, architect (died [1958](1958-in-the-united-states)) - April 6 – John W. Brady, Texas judge and murderer (died [1943](1943-in-the-united-states)) - April 8 – Harvey Cushing, neurosurgeon (died [1939](1939-in-the-united-states)) - April 9 – James Thomas Heflin, U.S. Senator from Alabama from 1920 to 1931 (died [1951](1951-in-the-united-states)) - May 3 – Warren Terhune, U.S. Navy Commander and 13th Governor of American Samoa (died [1920](1920-in-the-united-states)) - May 23 – Olivia Ward Bush-Banks, poet and journalist (died [1944](1944-in-the-united-states)) - June 10 – William Kenyon, U.S. Senator from Iowa from 1909 to 1922 (died [1933](1933-in-the-united-states)) - July 14 – Bruno Albert Forsterer, Marine Sergeant, Medal of Honor recipient (died [1957](1957-in-the-united-states)) - July 17 – Mariette Rheiner Garner, wife of John Nance Garner, Second Lady of the United States (died [1948](1948-in-the-united-states)) - July 20 – Howard Thurston, stage magician (died [1936](1936-in-the-united-states)) - August 5 – J. C. W. Beckham, U.S. Senator from Kentucky from 1915 to 1921 (died [1940](1940-in-the-united-states)) - August 9 – Annie Malone, née Turnbo, African American millionaire businesswoman, inventor and philanthropist (died [1957](1957-in-the-united-states)) - September 11 – Charles Kilpatrick, one-legged trick cyclist (died [1927](1927-in-the-united-states)) - November 20 – Alma Webster Hall Powell, opera singer, suffragist, and inventor (died [1930](1930-in-the-united-states)) - December 16 – Bertha Lamme, electrical engineer (died [1943](1943-in-the-united-states)) - December 22 - Nathan Paine, lumber baron (died [1947](1947-in-the-united-states)) - Edwin Arlington Robinson, poet (died [1935](1935-in-the-united-states)) ## Deaths ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/Franklin_Pierce_-_1.jpg" caption="[[Franklin Pierce"] :: - January 1 – Martin W. Bates, U.S. Senator from Delaware from 1857 to 1859 (born [1786](1786-in-the-united-states)) - January 11 – Sophia Dallas, wife of George M. Dallas, Second Lady of the United States (born [1798](1798-in-the-united-states)) - February 18 – Walker Brooke, U.S. Senator from Mississippi from 1852 to 1853 (born [1813](1813-in-the-united-states)) - March 13 – James Guthrie, U.S. Senator from Kentucky from 1865 to 1868 (born [1792](1792-in-the-united-states)) - April 13 – Isaiah Rogers, architect (born [1800](1800-in-the-united-states)) - May 23 – Alexander O. Anderson, U.S. Senator from Tennessee from 1840 to 1841 (born [1794](1794-in-the-united-states)) - July 18 – Laurent Clerc, advocate for the deaf (born [1785](1785-in-the-united-states)) - July 22 – John A. Roebling, bridge engineer (born 1806 in Prussia) - July 30 – Isaac Toucey, U.S. Senator from Connecticut from 1851 to 1857 (born 1792) - August 6 – David J. Baker, U.S. Senator from Illinois in 1830 (born 1792) - September 10 – John Bell, U.S. Senator from Tennessee from 1847 to 1859 (born [1796](1796-in-the-united-states)) - October 8 – Franklin Pierce, 14th president of the United States from 1853 to 1857 (born [1804](1804-in-the-united-states)) - October 15 – William Hamlin, engraver (born 1772 in Rhode Island) - November 11 – Hiram Bingham I, missionary to Hawaii (born [1789](1789-in-the-united-states)) - November 21 – Benjamin Fitzpatrick, U.S. Senator from Alabama from 1848 to 1849 and 1853 to 1861 (born [1802](1802-in-the-united-states)) - December 18 – Louis Moreau Gottschalk, composer and pianist (born [1829](1829-in-the-united-states)) - December 24 – Edwin Stanton, 27th United States Secretary of War (born [1814](1814-in-the-united-states)) - Sandy Cornish, freed slave and farmer (born [1793](1793-in-the-united-states)) ::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1869_in_the_United_States) and is available under the [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the [article history page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1869_in_the_United_States?action=history). ::