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Grant Elected President
Republican Ulysses S. Grant defeats Democrat Horatio Seymour and is elected President of the United States. Grant receives 214 of 294 votes in the Electoral College. But his margin of victory in the popular vote is only 306,000 out of 5.7 million votes cast. The support of 500,000 recently enfranchised Southern Black voters accounts for Grant's victory. -
Rockefeller Incorporates Standard Oil
John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company is incorporated in Ohio. Rockefeller has been active in the oil business since 1863. Standard Oil was first formed as a partnership in 1868. -
Carnegie Imitates Bessemer Steel
After visiting Henry Bessemer's steel plant in England, and noting the demand in Britain for steel rails, Andrew Carnegie returns to America intent on expanding his steel business. -
Mark Twain Publishes The Gilded Age
Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner publish The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today, a satire of contemporary greed and corruption, coining the label for the period that is now commonly applied to the second half of the 19th century. -
James Garfield Elected President
Republican James Garfield is elected President of the United States. His popular-vote margin of victory over Democrat Winfield Hancock is 7,018 votes out of more than 9 million casts. Garfield receives 214 Electoral College votes; Hancock receives 155. James Weaver, the candidate of the Greenback Labor Party, receives 308,578 votes.
