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Period: to
Industrial Revolution
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John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry
Was an attempt by the white abolitionist John Brown to start an armed slave revolt in 1859 by seizing a United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Brown's raid, accomplished by 20 men in his party, was defeated by a detachment of U.S. Marines led by Col. Robert E. Lee. -
Canadian House of Commons began
The construction of the Canadian House of Commons began. The cornerstone of the Parliament buildings is laid this day. -
Abraham Lincoln Elected
he United States had been divided during the 1850s on questions surrounding the expansion of slavery and the rights of slave owners. In 1860, these issues broke the Democratic Party into Northern and Southern factions, and a new Constitutional Union Party appeared. In the face of a divided opposition, the Republican Party, dominant in the North, secured enough electoral votes to put Abraham Lincoln in the White House without support from the South. -
Lower States Secedes
The first seven seceding states of the Lower South set up a provisional government at Montgomery, Alabama. This happened before the events at Fort Sumter. -
Confederate States of America Formed
Also known as the Confederacy, was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by a number of Southern slave states that had declared their secession from the United States. The Confederacy recognized as members eleven states that had formally declared secession, two additional states with less formal declarations, and one new territory. -
Civil War starts at Fort Sumter
The bombardment and surrender of Fort Sumter, near Charleston, South Carolina, that started the American Civil War. Following declarations of secession by seven Southern states, South Carolina demanded that the U.S. Army abandon its facilities in Charleston Harbor. -
Upper South Secedes
After hostilities began at Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor on April 12, 1861, the border states of Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina joined the new government. This then moved its capital to Richmond, Virginia. The Union was thus divided approximately on geographic lines. -
North is defeated at the first battle of Bull Run
Also known as First Manassas by the Confederacy. It was the first major land battle of the American Civil War. -
Battle of Antietam
Also known as the Battle of Sharpsburg, particularly in the South, fought on Wednesday, September 17, 1862, near Sharpsburg, Maryland, and Antietam Creek, as part of the Maryland Campaign, was the first major battle in the American Civil War to take place on Union soil. It was the bloodiest single-day battle in American history, with 22,717 dead, wounded and missing on both sides combined. -
Emancipation Proclamation Issued
The Emancipation Proclamation is an order issued to all segments of the Executive branch (including the Army and Navy) of the United States by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, during the American Civil War. It proclaimed all those enslaved in Confederate territory to be forever free, and ordered the Army (and all segments of the Executive branch) to treat as free all those enslaved in ten states that were still in rebellion. -
North American British colonies united.
Legislature approves message to Crown for union of British North America provinces. This is the beginning of the formation of Canada. -
Lee Surrenders at Appomattox Court House
The signing of the surrender documents occurred in the parlor of the house owned by Wilmer McLean on the afternoon of April 9. On April 12, a formal ceremony marked the disbandment of the Army of Northern Virginia and the parole of its officers and men, effectively ending the war in Virginia. -
Lincoln Assassinated
The assassination of United States President Abraham Lincoln took place on Good Friday,[1] April 14, 1865, as the American Civil War was drawing to a close. The assassination occurred five days after the commander of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, General Robert E. Lee, surrendered to Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant and the Union Army of the Potomac. Shot by John Wilkes Booth while watching a play. -
Andrew Johnson becomes president.
A Democrat who ran with Lincoln on the National Union ticket, Johnson came to office as the Civil War concluded. The new president favored quick restoration of the seceded states to the Union. -
Thirteenth Amendment enacted. Abolishes slavery
President Lincoln and other Republicans were concerned that the Emancipation Proclamation, which in 1863 declared the freedom of slaves in ten Confederate states then in rebellion, would be seen as a temporary war measure, since it was based solely on Lincoln's war powers. The Proclamation did not free any slaves in the border states nor did it abolish slavery. Because of this, Lincoln and other supporters believed that an amendment to the Constitution was needed. -
Ku Klux Klan established
The Ku Klux Klan (KKK), informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically expressed through terrorism. Since the mid-20th century, the KKK has also been anti-communist. -
The Fenian Raids
Between 1866 and 1871, the Fenian raids of the Fenian Brotherhood, who were based in the United States, on British army forts, customs posts and other targets in Canada, were fought to bring pressure on Britain to withdraw from Ireland. They divided many Catholic Irish-Canadians, many of whom were torn between loyalty to their new home and sympathy for the aims of the Fenians. -
Alaska Purchased
The Alaska Purchase was the acquisition of the Alaska territory by the United States from the Russian Empire in the year 1867 by a treaty ratified by the Senate. The purchase, made at the initiative of United States Secretary of State William H. Seward, gained the United States 586,412 square miles (1,518,800 km2) of new territory. -
The nation of Canada is created
Created by the British North America Act of 1867. United three colonies owned by Britain into one nation that was officially named Canada, meaning in aboriginee, Village. -
Royal Canadian Mounted Police formed (Mounties)
Born out of a need for a national police force to implement the law in Canada’s newly acquired western territories, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police has evolved into a world-renowned organization of more than 28,000 people. Regarded as a policing force on both a local and national level.