-Wittmeyer Family Timeline-

Explore the birth dates and life events of your ancestors shown in order with world history's major events. Click on a family member's name to link to their profile page and learn more about them and their family group. The historical dates were provided by www.InfoPlease.com. 

950-999

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960 - Erick the Red establish colony in Greenland
  • 900–949 - Beginning of Mayan Post-Classical period (900–1519). Vikings discover Greenland (c. 900). Arab Spain under Abd ar-Rahman III becomes center of learning (912–961). Otto I becomes King of Germany (936).
  • 950 - Mieczyslaw I becomes first ruler of Poland 
  • 952 - USHER - b. WIGERIUS de COURCY - Courcy, Ardennes, Champagne-Ardenne, France  
  • 960 - Eric the Red establishes first Viking colony in Greenland 
  • 962 - 982 - Hugh Capet elected King of France in 987; Capetian dynasty to rule until 1328. 
  • 969 - USHER - b. BALDRICUS T d COURCY - Champagne, Dordogne, Aquitaine, France  
  • 990 - Musical notation systematized

1000-1099

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1066 - Norman conquest of England
  • 1000 - USHER - b. Richard T DE NOVAVILLA - Neuville Sur Toque, Eure, Normandy, France 
  • 1003 - SPENCER - b. Roger `the Great' De Montgomery Vicomte d' Hiemois, Earl of Shrewsbury - St Germain en Laye, Yvelines, Ile-de-France, France
  • 1022 - SPENCER - b. Roger `the Great' De Montgomery Vicomte d' Hiemois, Earl of Shrewsbury - Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England
  • 1035 - USHER - b. Gilbert NEVILLE - Neuville, Allier, Auvergne, France 
  • 1054 - Final split between Eastern and Western Christianity
  • 1054 - SPENCER - b. ROBERT II deBelleme 3rd Earl of SHREWSBURY - Alencon, Orne, Normandy, France
  • 1066 - Norman conquest of England
  • 1068 - Construction on the cathedral in Pisa, Italy, begins
  • 1070 - IRISH - b. Adam de Ireys - Ireys, Dorset, England  
  • 1096 - Start of First Crusade (Jerusalem taken 1099)

1100-1199

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1189 - Richard the Lionheart
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1192 - Edmund D'Iryshe dies in Jerusalem during 3rd Crusade

1200-1299

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1211 - Genghis Khan invades China
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1231 - The Inquisition begins
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1271 - Marco Polo travels to China
  • 1200–1204 - Fourth Crusade.
  • 1210 - IRISH - b. Roger Iryshe - Dorset, England 
  • 1211 - Genghis Khan invades China, captures Peking (1214), conquers Persia (1218), invades Russia (1223), dies (1227).
  • 1212 - Children's Crusade.
  • 1215 - King John forced by barons to sign Magna Carta at Runneymede, limiting royal power.
  • 1217 - Fifth Crusade.
  • 1228 - Sixth Crusade.
  • 1230 - USHER - b. Walter le Ussher Neville - Pickhill, Yorkshire, England  
  • 1231 - The Inquisition begins as Pope Gregory IX assigns Dominicans responsibility for combating heresy. 
  • 1235 - SPENCER - b. Sir John Le Despencer - Bedfordshire, England  
  • 1240 - IRISH - b. William Iryshe - Dorset, England 
  • 1241 - Mongols defeat Germans in Silesia, invade Poland and Hungary, withdraw from Europe after Ughetai, Mongol leader, dies.
  • 1248 - Seventh Crusade.
  • 1251 - Kublai Khan governs China, becomes ruler of Mongols 
  • 1257 - USHER - b. John of Snarford DeVille - Snodland, Kent, England  
  • 1260 - Chartres cathedral consecrated.
  • 1263 - SPENCER - b. Sir William Le De Spencer - Belton, Worcestershire, England  
  • 1270 - Eighth Crusade.
  • 1270 - IRISH - b. Roger Irishe - Dorset, England 
  • 1271 - Marco Polo of Venice travels to China, in court of Kublai Khan (1275–1292), returns to Genoa (1295) and writes Travels.
  • 1273 - Thomas Aquinas stops work on Summa Theologica, the basis of all Catholic theological teaching; never completes it.
  • 1295 - English King Edward I summons the Model Parliament.

1300-1399

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1325 - Italian Renaissance Begins
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1337-1453 - Hundred Years' War
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1387 - Chaucer's Canterbury Tales

1400-1499

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1415 - King Henry V defeats French at Agincourt
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1420 - Brunelleschi begins work on the Duomo in Florence
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1428 - Joan of Arc leads French against English
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1455 - The Wars of the Roses

1500-1599

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1503 - da Vinci paints the Mona Lisa
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1509 - Michelangelo paints the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel
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1535 - Reformation begins, King Henry VIII makes himself head of English Church
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1547 - Ivan IV "The Terrible" crowned Czar of Russia
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1558 - Queen Elizabeth I ascends the throne
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1580 - Francis Drake returns from circumnavigating the globe - knighted by Queen Elizabeth I
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1587 - Mary Queen of Scots executed for treason by Queen Elizabeth I
  • 1500 - IRISH - b. John Irishe
  • 1501 - First black slaves in America brought to Spanish colony of Santo Domingo.
  • 1503 - Leonardo da Vinci paints the Mona Lisa. Michelangelo sculpts the David (1504).
  • 1504 - MIDDLETON - b. Ann Middleton
  • 1505 - SPENCER - b. John Spencer 
  • 1506 - St. Peter's Church started in Rome; designed and decorated by such artists and architects as Bramante, Michelangelo, da Vinci, Raphael, and Bernini before its completion in 1626.
  • 1509 - Henry VIII ascends English throne. Michelangelo paints the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
  • 1513 - Balboa becomes the first European to encounter the Pacific Ocean. Machiavelli writes The Prince.
  • 1515 - USHER - b. Robert Usher
  • 1517 - Turks conquer Egypt, control Arabia. Martin Luther posts his 95 theses denouncing church abuses on church door in Wittenberg—start of the Reformation in Germany.
  • 1519 - Ulrich Zwingli begins Reformation in Switzerland. Hernando Cortes conquers Mexico for Spain. Charles I of Spain is chosen Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan sets out to circumnavigate the globe.
  • 1520 - JOHNSON - b. William Johnston
  • 1520 - Luther excommunicated by Pope Leo X. Suleiman I (“the Magnificent”) becomes Sultan of Turkey, invades Hungary (1521), Rhodes (1522), attacks Austria (1529), annexes Hungary (1541), Tripoli (1551), makes peace with Persia (1553), destroys Spanish fleet (1560), dies (1566). Magellan reaches the Pacific, is killed by Philippine natives (1521). One of his ships under Juan Sebastián del Cano continues around the world, reaches Spain (1522).
  • 1524 - Verrazano, sailing under the French flag, explores the New England coast and New York Bay.
  • 1525 - IRISH - b. Charles Irishe
  • 1527 - Troops of the Holy Roman Empire attack Rome, imprison Pope Clement VII—the end of the Italian Renaissance. Castiglione writes The Courtier. The Medici family expelled from Florence.
  • 1530 - SPENCER - b. Michael Spencer
  • 1532 - Pizarro marches from Panama to Peru, kills the Inca chieftain, Atahualpa, of Peru (1533). Machiavelli's The Prince published posthumously.
  • 1535 - ELDRIDGE - b. William Eldred of Bury 
  • 1535 - Reformation begins as Henry VIII makes himself head of English Church after being excommunicated by Pope. Sir Thomas More executed as traitor for refusal to acknowledge king's religious authority. Jacques Cartier sails up the St. Lawrence River, basis of French claims to Canada.
  • 1536 - Henry VIII executes second wife, Anne Boleyn. John Calvin establishes Reformed and Presbyterian form of Protestantism in Switzerland, writes Institutes of the Christian Religion. Danish and Norwegian Reformations. Michelangelo's Last Judgment.
  • 1540 - USHER - b. Matthew Usher 
  • 1541 - John Knox leads Reformation in Scotland, establishes Presbyterian church there (1560).
  • 1543 - Publication of On the Revolution of Heavenly Bodies by Polish scholar Nicolaus Copernicus—giving his theory that the earth revolves around the sun.
  • 1544 - JOHNSON - b. John Johnston 
  • 1545 - Council of Trent to meet intermittently until 1563 to define Catholic dogma and doctrine, reiterate papal authority.
  • 1547 - Ivan IV (“the Terrible”) crowned as czar of Russia, begins conquest of Astrakhan and Kazan (1552), battles nobles (boyars) for power (1564), kills his son (1580), dies, and is succeeded by his weak and feeble-minded son, Fyodor I.
  • 1553 - WITTMEYER - b. Georg Widmayer
  • 1553 - Roman Catholicism restored in England by Queen Mary I.
  • 1556 - Akbar the Great becomes Mogul emperor of India, conquers Afghanistan (1581), continues wars of conquest (until 1605).
  • 1558 - Queen Elizabeth I ascends the throne (rules to 1603). Restores Protestantism, establishes state Church of England (Anglicanism). Renaissance will reach height in England—Shakespeare, Marlowe, Spenser.
  • 1561 - Persecution of Huguenots in France stopped by Edict of Orleans. French religious wars begin again with massacre of Huguenots at Vassy. St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre—thousands of Huguenots murdered (1572). Amnesty granted (1573). Persecution continues periodically until Edict of Nantes (1598) gives Huguenots religious freedom (until 1685).
  • 1564 - IRISH - b. Jonathan Irish 
  • 1565 - JOHNSON - b. John Johnston
  • 1568 - Protestant Netherlands revolts against Catholic Spain; independence will be acknowledged by Spain in 1648.
  • 1569 - USHER - b. Robert Usher
  • 1570 - Japan permits visits of foreign ships. Queen Elizabeth I excommunicated by Pope. Turks attack Cyprus and war on Venice. Turkish fleet defeated at Battle of Lepanto by Spanish and Italian fleets (1571). Peace of Constantinople (1572) ends Turkish attacks on Europe.
  • 1571 - SPENCER - b. Thomas Spencer 
  • 1574 - ELDRIDGE - b. William Eldred of Bury 
  • 1579 - WITTMEYER - b. Johann Georg Widmayer
  • 1580 - Francis Drake returns to England after circumnavigating the globe; knighted by Queen Elizabeth I (1581). Montaigne's Essays published.
  • 1582 - Pope Gregory XIII implements the Gregorian calendar.
  • 1583 - William of Orange rules the Netherlands; assassinated on orders of Philip II of Spain (1584).
  • 1587 - Mary, Queen of Scots, executed for treason by order of Queen Elizabeth I. Monteverdi's First Book of Madrigals.
  • 1588 - Defeat of the Spanish Armada by English. Henry, King of Navarre and Protestant leader, recognized as Henry IV, first Bourbon king of France. Converts to Roman Catholicism in 1593 in attempt to end religious wars.
  • 1590 - Henry IV enters Paris, wars on Spain (1595), marries Marie de Medici (1600), assassinated (1610). Spenser's The Faerie Queen. El Greco's St. Jerome. Galileo's experiments with falling objects.
  • 1591 - USHER - b. Samuel Usher 
  • 1595 - ELDRIDGE - b. Captain Thomas Eldred
  • 1598 - JOHNSON - b. Thomas Craig Johnston
  • 1598 - Boris Godunov becomes Russian czar. Tycho Brahe describes his astronomical experiments.

1600-1699

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1607 - Jamestown, Virginia Established
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1618 - Start of 30 Years War
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1620 - Mayflower lands on Plymouth Rock
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1636 - Ancestor Thomas SPENCER born in Jamestown, Virginia
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1643 - Taj Mahal Completed
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1665 - Great Plague
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1666 - Great Fire of London
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1684 - Leibniz's Calculus published
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1689 - Peter the Great becomes the Czar of Russia
  • 1600 - Giordano Bruno burned as a heretic. English East India Company established.
  • 1600 - IRISH - b. John Irish - Barrow, Somerset, England  
  • 1602 - SPENCER - b. Abraham Spencer - Yorkshire, England  
  • 1603 - Ieyasu rules Japan, moves capital to Edo (Tokyo). Shakespeare's Hamlet.
  • 1605 - Cervantes's Don Quixote de la Mancha, the first modern novel.
  • 1607 - Jamestown, Virginia, established—first permanent English colony on American mainland. Pocahontas, daughter of Chief Powhatan, saves life of John Smith.
  • 1609 - Samuel de Champlain establishes French colony of Quebec. The Relation, the first newspaper, debuts in Germany.
  • 1610 - Galileo sees the moons of Jupiter through his telescope.
  • 1611 - Gustavus Adolphus elected King of Sweden. King James Version of the Bible published in England. Rubens paints his Descent from the Cross.
  • 1614 - MECHAM - b. Jeremiah Meacham - Bristol, Somerset, England
  • 1614 - John Napier discovers logarithms.
  • 1615 - USHER - b. Robert Usher - London, Middlesex, England  
  • 1618 - Start of the Thirty Years' War > Protestants revolt against Catholic oppression; Denmark, Sweden, and France will invade Germany in later phases of war. Kepler proposes last of three laws of planetary motion.
  • 1619 - A Dutch ship brings the first African slaves to British North America.
  • 1620 - ELDRIDGE - b. Samuel Eldred - Ipswich, Suffolk, England  
  • 1620 - Pilgrims, after three-month voyage in Mayflower, land at Plymouth Rock. Francis Bacon's Novum Organum.
  • 1623 - New Netherland founded by Dutch West India Company.
  • 1625 - WITTMEYER - b. Johannes "Hans" Widmayer - Ehningen, Boblingen, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany  
  • 1630 - Massachusetts Bay Colony.
  • 1632 - Maryland founded by Lord Baltimore.
  • 1633 - Inquisition forces Galileo (astronomer) to recant his belief in Copernican theory.
  • 1636 - SPENCER - b. Thomas Spencer - Jamestown, James, Virginia, United States - FIRST FAMILY ANCESTOR TO BE BORN IN AMERICA.
  • 1641 - IRISH - b. John Irish - Duxbury, Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States  
  • 1642 - English Civil War. Cavaliers, supporters of Charles I, against Roundheads, parliamentary forces. Oliver Cromwell defeats Royalists (1646). Parliament demands reforms. Charles I offers concessions, brought to trial (1648), beheaded (1649). Cromwell becomes Lord Protector (1653). Rembrandt paints his Night Watch.
  • 1643 - Taj Mahal completed.
  • 1644 - MECHAM - b. Jeremiah Meacham - Salem, Essex, Massachusetts, United States 
  • 1644 - End of Ming Dynasty in China—Manchus come to power. Descartes's Principles of Philosophy.
  • 1648 - End of the Thirty Years' War. German population about half of what it was in 1618 because of war and pestilence.
  • 1652 - WITTMEYER - b. Johannes Widmayer - Altdorf, Boblingen, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany  
  • 1656 - JOHNSON - b. James Johnston - Craig, Aberdeen, Scotland  
  • 1658 - USHER - b. Robert Usher - Stamford, Fairfield, Connecticut, United States
  • 1658 - Cromwell dies; son Richard resigns and Puritan government collapses.
  • 1660 - English Parliament calls for the restoration of the monarchy; invites Charles II to return from France.
  • 1661 - Charles II is crowned King of England. Louis XIV begins personal rule as absolute monarch; starts to build Versailles.
  • 1664 - British take New Amsterdam from the Dutch. English limit “Nonconformity” with reestablished Anglican Church. Isaac Newton's experiments with gravity.
  • 1665 - Great Plague in London kills 75,000.
  • 1666 Great Fire of London. Molière's Misanthrope.
  • 1667 - Milton's Paradise Lost, widely considered the greatest epic poem in English.
  • 1670 - YULE - b. William Yule - Aberdeenshire, Scotland
  • 1670 - ELDRIDGE - b. Captain John III Eldred - Kingstown, Washington, Rhode Island
  • 1673 - JOHNSON - b. James Johnston - Aberdeenshire, Scotland
  • 1682 - Pennsylvania founded by William Penn.
  • 1682 - SPENCER - b. Benjamin Spencer - New Kent Co., Virginia 
  • 1683 - War of European powers against the Turks (to 1699). Vienna withstands three-month Turkish siege; high point of Turkish advance in Europe.
  • 1684 - Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz's calculus published.
  • 1685 - James II succeeds Charles II in England, calls for freedom of conscience (1687). Protestants fear restoration of Catholicism and demand “Glorious Revolution.” William of Orange invited to England and James II escapes to France (1688). William III and his wife, Mary, crowned. In France, Edict of Nantes of 1598, granting freedom of worship to Huguenots, is revoked by Louis XIV; thousands of Protestants flee.
  • 1688 - IRISH - b. Jedediah Irish - Newport, Rhode Island
  • 1689 - Peter the Great becomes Czar of Russia—attempts to westernize nation and build Russia as a military power. Defeats Charles XII of Sweden at Poltava (1709). Beginning of the French and Indian Wars (to 1763), campaigns in America linked to a series of wars between France and England for domination of Europe.
  • 1690 - William III of England defeats former king James II and Irish rebels at Battle of the Boyne in Ireland. John Locke's Human Understanding.
  • 1695 - USHER - b. Hezekiah Usher - Middlesex, Massachusetts

1700-1799

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1701 - Queen Anne's War
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1704 - Deerfield (Mass.) Massacre of English colonists by French and Indians
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1729 - Benjamin Franklin begins publishing Poor Richard's Almanack
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1755 - US Postal Service established
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1770 - The Boston Massacre
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1773 - The Boston Tea Party
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1776 - Gen. George Washington crosses Delaware
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1789 - French Revolution begins with the storming of the Bastille
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1792 - Mary Wollstronecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Women
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1796 - Napoleon Bonaparte defeats Austrians

1800-1899

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1803 - Louisiana Purchase
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1804 - Lewis and Clark expedition
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1808 - Beethoven's 5th and 6th Symphonies
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1815 - Napoleon banished again to St. Helena
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1820 - Missouri Compromise
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1826 - Joseph-Nicéphore Niepce takes world's 1st photograph
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1830 - Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints formed in U.S. by Joseph Smith
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1842 - Crawford Long uses first anesthetic
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1846 - Irish Potato Famine
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1849 - California gold rush begins
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1851 - Herman Melville's Moby-Dick
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1857 - Dred Scott decision
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1861 - US Civil War begins
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1865 - Civil War ends. Lincoln fatally shot at Ford's Theater
  • 1800 - Napoleon conquers Italy, firmly establishes himself as First Consul in France. In the U.S., federal government moves to Washington, D.C. Robert Owen's social reforms in England. William Herschel discovers infrared rays. Alessandro Volta produces electricity.
  • 1800 - MEACHAM - b. Permelia Champman - Canaan, Grafton, New Hampshire, United States
  • 1801 - Austria makes temporary peace with France. United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland established with one monarch and one parliament; Catholics excluded from voting.
  • 1803 - U.S. negotiates Louisiana Purchase from France: for $15 million, U.S. doubles its domain, increasing its territory by 827,000 sq mi (2,144,500 sq km), from Mississippi River to Rockies and from Gulf of Mexico to British North America.
  • 1803 - WITTMEYER - b. Jean Chretien Wittmeyer - Habach, Bas-Rhin, Alsace, France
  • 1804 - Haiti declares independence from France; first black nation to gain freedom from European colonial rule. Napoleon transforms the Consulate of France into an empire, proclaims himself emperor of France, systematizes French law under Code Napoleon. In the U.S., Alexander Hamilton is mortally wounded in duel with Aaron Burr. Lewis and Clark expedition begins exploration of what is now northwest U.S.
  • 1804 - BEESON - b. Nancy Beeson - Greene, Ohio, United States
  • 1805 - Lord Nelson defeats the French-Spanish fleets in the Battle of Trafalgar. Napoleon victorious over Austrian and Russian forces at the Battle of Austerlitz.
  • 1807 - Robert Fulton makes first successful steamboat trip on Clermont between New York City and Albany.
  • 1808 - French armies occupy Rome and Spain, extending Napoleon's empire. Britain begins aiding Spanish guerrillas against Napoleon in Peninsular War. In the U.S., Congress bars importation of slaves. Beethoven's Fifth and Sixth Symphonies performed.
  • 1810 - MORTON - b. Joshua Roberts Morton - New Jersey, Monmouth, New Jersey, United States
  • 1812 - Napoleon's Grand Army invades Russia in June. Forced to retreat in winter, most of Napoleon's 600,000 men are lost. In the U.S., war with Britain declared over freedom of the seas for U.S. vessels (War of 1812). USS Constitution (For detailed chronology, see War of 1812.) sinks British frigate.
  • 1814 - French defeated by allies (Britain, Austria, Russia, Prussia, Sweden, and Portugal) in War of Liberation. Napoleon exiled to Elba, off Italian coast. Bourbon king Louis XVIII takes French throne. George Stephenson builds first practical steam locomotive.
  • 1815 - Napoleon returns: “Hundred Days” begin. Napoleon defeated by Wellington at Waterloo, banished again to St. Helena in South Atlantic. Congress of Vienna: victorious allies change the map of Europe. War of 1812 ends with Treaty of Ghent.
  • 1816 - SPENCER - b. Thomas Spencer II - Sullivan, Missouri, United States 
  • 1819 - Simón Bolívar liberates New Granada (now Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador) as Spain loses hold on South American countries; named president of Colombia.
  • 1819 - GREENLEE - b. William Greenlee - Point Pleasant, Mason, Virginia, United States
  • 1820 - Missouri Compromise > Missouri admitted as slave state but slavery barred in rest of Louisiana Purchase north of 36°30' N. 
  • 1820 - IRISH - b. Leman Judson Irish - Chittenden, Vermont, United States
  • 1821 - Guatemala, Panama, and Santo Domingo proclaim independence from Spain.
  • 1822 - Greeks proclaim a republic and independence from Turkey. Turks invade Greece. Russia declares war on Turkey (1828). Greece also aided by France and Britain. War ends and Turks recognize Greek independence (1829). Brazil becomes independent of Portugal. Schubert's Eighth Symphony (“The Unfinished”).
  • 1823 - U.S. Monroe Doctrine warns European nations not to interfere in Western Hemisphere.
  • 1823 - USHER - b. Hiram Henry Usher - Mar, Ashtabula, Ohio, United States
  • 1824 - Mexico becomes a republic, three years after declaring independence from Spain. Bolívar liberates Peru, becomes its president. Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.
  • 1824 - ELDRIDGE - b. Samuel Sylvester Eldridge - Somerset, Pennsylvania, United States
  • 1825 - First passenger-carrying railroad in England.
  • 1826 - Joseph-Nicéphore Niepce takes the world's first photograph. 
  • 1827 - ANDERSON - b. William Anderson - Avondale, Lanarkshire, Scotland
  • 1827 - WOOD - b. Fountain Pleasant Wood - Nelson, Virginia, United States
  • 1830 - French invade Algeria. Louis Philippe becomes “Citizen King” as revolution forces Charles X to abdicate. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints formed in U.S. by Joseph Smith.
  • 1831 - Polish revolt against Russia fails. Belgium separates from the Netherlands. In U.S., Nat Turner leads unsuccessful slave rebellion.
  • 1833 - Slavery abolished in British Empire.
  • 1834 - Charles Babbage invents “analytical engine,” precursor of computer. McCormick patents reaper.
  • 1836 - Boer farmers start “Great Trek”—Natal, Transvaal, and Orange Free State founded in South Africa. Mexican army besieges Texans in Alamo. Entire garrison, including Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie, wiped out. Texans gain independence from Mexico after winning Battle of San Jacinto. Dickens's Pickwick Papers.
  • 1837 - Victoria becomes queen of Great Britain. Mob kills Elijah P. Lovejoy, Illinois abolitionist publisher.
  • 1837 - JOHNSON - b. Dr. Abijah Johnson - Back Creek, Grant, Indiana, United States
  • 1838 - WITTMEYER - b. George Henry Wittmeyer - Saree Union, Bas-Rhin, Alsace, France
  • 1839 - First Opium War (to 1842) between Britain and China, over importation of drug into China.
  • 1840 - Lower and Upper Canada united.  
  • 1841 - U.S. President Harrison dies (April 4) one month after inauguration; John Tyler becomes first vice president to succeed to presidency.
  • 1842 - Crawford Long uses first anesthetic (ether).
  • 1842 - MORTON - b. Hester Ann Morton - Jersey City, Hudson, New Jersey, United States
  • 1843 - Wagner's opera The Flying Dutchman.
  • 1844 - Democratic convention calls for annexation of Texas and acquisition of Oregon (“Fifty-four-forty-or-fight”). Five Chinese ports opened to U.S. ships. Samuel F. B. Morse patents telegraph.
  • 1845 - Congress adopts joint resolution for annexation of Texas. Edgar Allan Poe publishes The Raven and Other Poems. 
  • 1846 - U.S. declares war on Mexico. California and New Mexico annexed by U.S. Brigham Young leads Mormons to Great Salt Lake. W. T. Morton uses ether as anesthetic. Sewing machine patented by Elias Howe. Frederick Douglass launches abolitionist newspaper The North Star. Failure of potato crop causes famine in Ireland.
  • 1847 - GREENLEE - b. Anna Christina Greenlee - Leon, Mason, West Virginia, United States
  • 1848 - Revolt in Paris: Louis Philippe abdicates; Louis Napoleon elected president of French Republic. Revolutions in Vienna, Venice, Berlin, Milan, Rome, and Warsaw. Put down by royal troops in 1848–1849. U.S.-Mexico War ends; Mexico cedes claims to Texas, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada. U.S. treaty with Britain sets Oregon Territory boundary at 49th parallel. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels's Communist Manifesto. Harriet Tubman escapes from slavery and joins the Underground Railroad. Women's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, N.Y.
  • 1848 - IRISH - b. Manley Edgar Irish - Cook, Illinois, United States
  • 1849 - California gold rush begins.
  • 1850 - Henry Clay opens great debate on slavery, warns South against secession.
  • 1850 - WOOD - b. James Washington Wood - Mason 6, West Virginia, United States
  • 1851 - Herman Melville's Moby-Dick.
  • 1852 - South African Republic established. Louis Napoleon proclaims himself Napoleon III (“Second Empire”). Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin.
  • 1852 - USHER - b. Adelaide C. "Addie" Usher - Linn, Iowa, United States
  • 1853 - Crimean War begins as Turkey declares war on Russia. Commodore Perry reaches Tokyo.
  • 1854 - Britain and France join Turkey in war on Russia. In U.S., Kansas-Nebraska Act permits local option on slavery; rioting and bloodshed. Japanese allow American trade. Antislavery men in Michigan form Republican Party. Tennyson's Charge of the Light Brigade. Thoreau's Walden. 
  • 1855 - YULE - b. Edward Gordon Yule - Somers, Kenosha, Wisconsin, United States
  • 1855 - Armed clashes in Kansas between pro- and anti-slavery forces. Florence Nightingale nurses wounded in Crimea. Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass.
  • 1856 - Flaubert's Madame Bovary. 
  • 1857 - Supreme Court, in Dred Scott decision, rules that a slave is not a citizen. Financial crisis in Europe and U.S. Great Mutiny (Sepoy Rebellion) begins in India. India placed under crown rule as a result.
  • 1858 - Pro-slavery constitution rejected in Kansas. Abraham Lincoln makes strong antislavery speech in Springfield, Ill.: “This Government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free.” Lincoln-Douglas debates. First trans-Atlantic telegraph cable completed by Cyrus W. Field.
  • 1859 - John Brown raids Harpers Ferry; is captured and hanged. Work begins on Suez Canal. Unification of Italy starts under leadership of Count Cavour, Sardinian premier. Joined by France in war against Austria. Jean-Joseph-Étienne Lenoir builds first practical internal-combustion engine. Edward Fitzgerald's translation of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Charles Darwin's Origin of Species. J. S. Mill's On Liberty.
  • 1859 - SPENCER - b. Olin Frank Spencer - Sullivan, Missouri, United States
  • 1860 - South Carolina secedes from the Union.
  • 1861 - U.S. Civil War begins as attempts at compromise fail. Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas secede; with South Carolina, they form the Confederate States of America, with Jefferson Davis as president. Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina secede and join Confederacy. First Battle of Bull Run (Manassas).(For detailed chronology, see The Civil War.) Congress creates Colorado, Dakota, and Nevada territories; adopts income tax; Lincoln inaugurated. Serfs emancipated in Russia. Pasteur's theory of germs. Independent Kingdom of Italy proclaimed under Sardinian king Victor Emmanuel II.
  • 1861 - ELDRIDGE - b. Mary Ellen Nellie Eldridge - Copley, Knox. Co. Illinois
  • 1862 - Several major Civil War battles: Battle of Shiloh, Second Battle of Bull Run (Manassas), Battle of Antietam. Salon des Refusés introduces impressionism.
  • 1863 - Battle of Gettysburg.
  • 1864 - Gen. Sherman's Atlanta campaign and “march to the sea.”
  • 1865 - Gen. Lee surrenders to Grant at Appomattox; the Civil War is over. Lincoln fatally shot at Ford's Theater by John Wilkes Booth. Vice President Johnson sworn as successor. Booth caught and dies of gunshot wounds; four conspirators are hanged. Joseph Lister begins antiseptic surgery. Gregor Mendel's Law of Heredity. Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
  • 1865 - WITTMEYER - b. Harry Wesley Wittmeyer - Lorraine, Ellsworth, Kansas, United States
  • 1865 - JOHNSON - Britomarte "Brittie" Johnson - Back Creek, Grant, Indiana, United States
  • 1866 - Alfred Nobel invents dynamite (patented in Britain, 1867). Seven Weeks' War: Austria defeated by Prussia and Italy.
  • 1867 - Austria-Hungary Dual Monarchy established. French leave Mexico; Maximilian executed. Dominion of Canada established. U.S. buys Alaska from Russia for $7,200,000. South African diamond field discovered. Japan ends 675–year shogun rule. Volume I of Marx's Das Kapital. Strauss's Blue Danube.
  • 1868 - Revolution in Spain; Queen Isabella deposed, flees to France. In U.S., Fourteenth Amendment giving civil rights to blacks is ratified. Georgia under military government after legislature expels blacks.
  • 1869 - First U.S. transcontinental rail route completed. James Fisk and Jay Gould's attempt to control gold market causes Black Friday panic. Suez Canal opens. Mendeleev's periodic table of elements.
  • 1870 - Franco-Prussian War (to 1871): Napoleon III capitulates at Sedan. Revolt in Paris; Third Republic proclaimed.
  • 1870 - IRISH - b. Nellie Florence Irish - Cedar Rapids, Linn, Iowa, United States
  • 1871 - France surrenders Alsace-Lorraine to Germany; war ends. German Empire proclaimed with Prussian King as Kaiser Wilhelm I. Fighting with Apaches begins in American West. Boss Tweed corruption exposed in New York. The Chicago Fire, with 250 deaths and $196-million damage. Stanley meets Livingstone in Africa.
  • 1872 - Congress gives amnesty to most Confederates. Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days.
  • 1873 - Economic crisis in Europe. U.S. establishes gold standard.
  • 1875 - First Kentucky Derby.
  • 1876 - Sioux kill Gen. George A. Custer and 264 troopers at Little Big Horn River. Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone.
  • 1877 - After presidential election of 1876, electoral commission gives disputed electoral college votes to Rutherford B. Hayes despite Tilden's popular majority. Russo-Turkish war (ends in 1878 with power of Turkey in Europe broken). Reconstruction ends in the American South. Thomas Edison patents phonograph. The Nez Perce leader Chief Joseph is forced to surrender. Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake.
  • 1878 - Congress of Berlin revises Treaty of San Stefano, ending Russo-Turkish War; makes extensive redivision of southeast Europe. First commercial telephone exchange opened in New Haven, Conn.
  • 1879 - Thomas A. Edison invents practical electric light.
  • 1880 - U.S.-China treaty allows U.S. to restrict immigration of Chinese labor.
  • 1881 - President Garfield fatally shot by assassin; Vice President Arthur succeeds him. Charles J. Guiteau convicted and executed (1882).
  • 1882 - Terrorism in Ireland after land evictions. Britain invades and conquers Egypt. Germany, Austria, and Italy form Triple Alliance. In U.S., Congress adopts Chinese Exclusion Act. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Trust is first industrial monopoly. In Berlin, Robert Koch announces discovery of tuberculosis germ.
  • 1883 - Congress creates Civil Service Commission. Brooklyn Bridge and Metropolitan Opera House completed.
  • 1884 - Berlin West Africa Conference held in Berlin (lasting until Feb. 1885), at which the major European nations discuss expansion in Africa.
  • 1885 - British general Charles G. “Chinese” Gordon killed at Khartoum in Egyptian Sudan. World's first skyscraper built in Chicago.
  • 1886 - Bombing at Haymarket Square, Chicago, kills seven policemen and injures many others. Eight alleged anarchists accused—three imprisoned, one commits suicide, four hanged. (In 1893, Illinois governor Altgeld, critical of trial, pardons three survivors.) Statue of Liberty dedicated. Geronimo, Apache Indian chief, surrenders.
  • 1887 - Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's first Sherlock Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet.
  • 1888 - Historic March blizzard in northeast U.S.—many perish, property damage exceeds $25 million. George Eastman's box camera (the Kodak). J. B. Dunlop invents pneumatic tire. Jack the Ripper murders in London.
  • 1889 - Second (Socialist) International founded in Paris. Indian Territory in Oklahoma opened to settlement. Thousands die in Johnstown, Pa. flood. Eiffel Tower built for the Paris exposition. Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.
  • 1890 - Congress votes to pass Sherman Antitrust Act. Sioux chief Sitting Bull arrested and killed by police on Pine Ridge reservation; two weeks later, U.S. troops kill over 200 Sioux at Battle of Wounded Knee.
  • 1890 - WITTMEYER - b. James Henry Wittmeyer - Allentown, Lehigh, Pennsylvania, United States
  • 1892 - Battle between steel strikers and Pinkerton guards at Homestead, Pa.; union defeated after militia intervenes. Silver mine strikers in Idaho fight non-union workers; U.S. troops dispatched. Diesel engine patented.
  • 1893 - New Zealand becomes first country in the world to grant women the vote.
  • 1893 - SPENCER - Elva Britomarte Spencer - Montrose, Montrose, Colorado, United States
  • 1894 - Sino-Japanese War begins (ends in 1895 with China's defeat). In France, Capt. Alfred Dreyfus convicted on false treason charge (pardoned in 1906). In U.S., Jacob S. Coxey of Ohio leads “Coxey's Army” of unemployed on Washington. Eugene V. Debs calls general strike of rail workers to support Pullman Company strikers; strike broken, Debs jailed for six months. Edison's kinetoscope given first public showing in New York City.
  • 1895 - X-rays discovered by German physicist Wilhelm Roentgen. Auguste and Louis Lumière premiere motion pictures at a café in Paris.
  • 1896 - Supreme Court's Plessy v. Ferguson decision—“separate but equal” doctrine. Alfred Nobel's will establishes prizes for peace, science, and literature. Marconi receives first wireless patent in Britain. William Jennings Bryan delivers “Cross of Gold” speech at Democratic Convention in Chicago. First modern Olympic games held in Athens, Greece.
  • 1897 - Theodor Herzl launches Zionist movement.
  • 1898 - Chinese “Boxers,” anti-foreign organization, established. They stage uprisings against Europeans in 1900; U.S. and other Western troops relieve Peking legations. U.S. Battleship Maine is sunk in Havana Harbor. Spanish-American War begins. U.S. destroys Spanish fleet near Santiago, Cuba. (For detailed chronology, see Spanish-American War.) Pierre and Marie Curie discover radium and polonium.
  • 1898 - YULE - b. Paul Watson Yule - Moville, Woodbury, Iwa, United States
  • 1899 - Boer War (or South African War): conflict between British and Boers (descendants of Dutch settlers of South Africa). Causes rooted in longstanding territorial disputes and in friction over political rights for English and other “uitlanders” following 1886 discovery of vast gold deposits in Transvaal. (British victorious as war ends in 1902.) Casualties: 5,774 British dead, about 4,000 Boers. Union of South Africa established in 1908 as confederation of colonies; becomes British dominion in 1910.