1870 in the United States

1870 in the United States
Years:	1867 1868 1869 – 1870 – 1871 1872 1873
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37 stars (1867–77)
Timeline of United States history History of the United States (1865–1918)

Events from the year 1870 in the United States.

Incumbents

Federal Government

• President: Ulysses S. Grant (R-Ohio)
• Vice President: Schuyler Colfax (R-Indiana)
• Chief Justice: Salmon P. Chase (Ohio)
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: James G. Blaine (R-Maine)
• Congress: 41st

Events

January–March

February 25: Hiram Rhodes Revels, the first African American Congressman.

• January 1 – Plans for the Brooklyn Bridge are completed.
• January 3 – Construction of the Brooklyn Bridge begins.
• January 10 – John D. Rockefeller incorporates Standard Oil.
• January 15 – A political cartoon for the first time symbolizes the United States Democratic Party with a donkey ("A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion" by Thomas Nast for Harper's Weekly).
• January 26 – Reconstruction: Virginia rejoins the Union.
• January 27 – The first college sorority, Kappa Alpha Theta, is established at DePauw University.
• February 3 – The 15th Amendment to the United States Constitution, guaranteeing African-American males the right to vote, is ratified.^[1]
• February 10
  • Anaheim, California is incorporated.
  • The YWCA is founded in New York City.
• February 12 – Women gain the right to vote in Utah Territory.
• February 23 – Military control of Mississippi ends and it is readmitted to the Union.
• February 25 – Hiram Rhodes Revels, a Republican from Mississippi, is sworn into the United States Senate, becoming the first African American ever to sit in the U.S. Congress.
• February 26 – In New York City, the first pneumatic subway is opened.
• March 19 – The Ohio Legislature passes the Cannon Act, thereby establishing the Ohio Agriculture and Mechanical College, later Ohio State University.
• March 24 – Syracuse University is established and officially opens.
• March 30
  • The 15th Amendment to the United States Constitution, giving blacks the right to vote, is proclaimed by Secretary of State Hamilton Fish.^[2]
  • Texas is readmitted to the Union following Reconstruction.
• March 31 – Thomas Mundy Peterson is the first African-American to vote in an election.

April–June

• April – The Chicago Base Ball Club, later to be known as the Chicago White Stockings, and ultimately the Chicago Cubs, play their first game against the St. Louis Unions of the National Association of Base Ball Players, an amateur league.
• June 22 – The U.S. Congress creates the United States Department of Justice.
• June 26 – Christmas is declared a federal holiday in the United States.

July–September

• July 15 – Reconstruction: Georgia becomes the last former Confederate state to be readmitted to the Union, and the C.S.A. is dissolved.
• September 6 – Louisa Ann Swain of Laramie, Wyoming, becomes the first woman in the United States to cast a vote legally since 1807.
• September 18 – Old Faithful Geyser is observed and named by Henry D. Washburn during the Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition to Yellowstone.

First Documented climb of Mt Rainer by medal of Honor winner General Hazard Stevens.

October–December

• November 1 – In the United States, the newly created Weather Bureau (later renamed the National Weather Service) makes its first official meteorological forecast: "High winds at Chicago and Milwaukee... and along the Lakes".

Undated

• Underwood Constitution: A controversial revised Constitution of Virginia goes into effect following a drafting convention that was dominated by the Radical Republicans led by John Underwood.

Ongoing

• Reconstruction era (1865–1877)
• Gilded Age (1869–c. 1896)

Births

• February 26 – John S. Cohen, United States Senator from Georgia from 1932 till 1933. (died 1935)

Deaths

• March 26 – Pierre Soulé, United States Senator from Louisiana in 1847 and from 1849 till 1853. (born 1801)
• May 9 – Lawrence Brainerd, United States Senator from Vermont from 1854 till 1855. (born 1794)
• July 13 – Daniel Sheldon Norton, United States Senator from Minnesota from 1865 till 1870. (born 1829)
• August 14 – David Farragut, flag officer of the United States Navy during the American Civil War (born 1801)
• October 3 – Joseph Mozier, sculptor best known for his work in Italy (born 1812)
• October 12 – Robert E. Lee, General of the Army of Northern Virginia during the American Civil War (born 1807 in the United States)
• December 5 – David Gouverneur Burnet, politician (born 1788)
• December 28 – Wilson Lumpkin, United States Senator from Georgia and Governor of Georgia from 1831 till 1835. (born 1783)

References

External links

• Media related to 1870 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons