This section of the timeline of United States history concerns events from 1860 to 1899.
1860s
Presidency of James Buchanan
April 3, 1860 – Pony Express begins.
November 6 – 1860 United States presidential election: Abraham Lincoln elected president and Hannibal Hamlin vice president with only 39% of the vote in a four-man race.
December 18 – Crittenden Compromise fails.
December 20 – President Buchanan fires his cabinet.
December 20 – South Carolina secedes from the Union
January 9, 1861 – Secessionist forces in South Carolina fire at the USS Star of the West, forcing it to withdraw.
January 9 – Mississippi secedes from the Union
January 10 – Florida secedes from the Union
January 11 – Alabama secedes from the Union
January 19 – Georgia secedes from the Union
January 26 – Louisiana secedes from the Union
February 1 – Texas secedes from the Union
February 4 – Secessionist states establish the Confederate States of America
February 9 – Jefferson Davis elected provisional president of the Confederacy. Alexander H. Stephens elected provisional vice president of the Confederacy.
February 11 – Stephens becomes provisional vice president of the Confederate States.
February 18 – Davis becomes provisional president of the Confederate States.
March 2 – The Corwin Amendment to enshrine slavery forever is passed by Congress. It is not ratified.
Presidency of Abraham Lincoln
March 4, 1861 – Lincoln becomes the 16th president and Hamlin becomes the 15th vice president
1861 – American Civil War begins at Fort Sumter
1861 – First Battle of Bull Run (First Battle of Manassas)
1861 – Davis unanimously elected to full term as Confederate president, Stephen unanimously elected to full term as Confederate vice president.
February 22, 1862 – Davis becomes Confederate president, Stephens become Confederate vice president.
1862 – Battle of Hampton Roads (Battle of the Monitor and Merrimack; first ever naval battle between iron-sided ships)
1862 – Homestead Act
1862 – Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act
1862 – Gen. Robert E. Lee placed in command of the Army of Northern Virginia
1862 – Second Battle of Bull Run (Second Battle of Manassas)
1862 – Battle of Antietam (Battle of Sharpsburg)
1862 – Dakota War of 1862 begins
1862–1863 – Lincoln issues Emancipation Proclamation
1863 – Battle of Gettysburg
1863 – The Siege of Vicksburg ends
1863 – New York City draft riots
1863 – Pro-Union Virginia counties become separate state of West Virginia
1863 - Lincoln announces the 10% Plan
1864 – Gen. Ulysses S. Grant put in command of all Union forces
1864 – Wade–Davis Bill
1864 – Sand Creek massacre
1864 – Nevada becomes a state
1864 – U.S. presidential election, 1864; Abraham Lincoln is reelected president and Andrew Johnson elected vice president on the "fusion" Union Party ticket.
1864 – Sherman's March to the Sea
1865 – Robert E. Lee made commander-in-chief of all Confederate forces
March 4, 1865 – President Lincoln begins second term; Johnson becomes the 16th vice president
1865 – Richmond, Virginia, the Confederate capital, captured by a corps of black Union troops
1865 – Lee surrenders to Grant at Appomattox Court House
1865 – Freedmen's Bureau
1865 - the 13th Amendment was adopted, setting slaves free forever.
Presidency of Andrew Johnson
April 15, 1865 – President Lincoln assassinated; Vice President Johnson becomes the 17th president
April–June 1865 – American Civil War ends as the last elements of the Confederacy surrender
1865 – Ku Klux Klan founded
1865 – Slavery abolished by the Thirteenth Amendment.
1866 – Civil Rights Act of 1866
1866 - Tennessee becomes the first Confederate state readmitted to the union
1867 – Tenure of Office Act enacted
1867 – Territory of Alaska purchased from the Russian Empire
1867 - The US Annexes the Midway Islands in the Pacific
1867 – Nebraska becomes a state
1867 - Congress passes a series of Reconstruction acts and the period of Radical Reconstruction begins
1868 – Impeachment of Andrew Johnson, acquitted by the Senate by one vote.
1868 – Fourteenth Amendment is ratified; second of Reconstruction Amendments.
1868 – The Copperheads are dissolved.
1868 – Ulysses S. Grant is elected president and Schuyler Colfax is elected vice president.
1868 - Arkansas, Louisiana, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Alabama are admitted back into the union.
1868 - Boss Tweed gained control of Tammany Hall.
Presidency of Ulysses S. Grant
March 4, 1869 – Grant becomes the 18th president and Colfax becomes the 17th vice president.
1869 – The First transcontinental railroad is completed at Promontory Summit, Utah Territory.
1869 – Texas v. White upholds Radical Reconstruction and states that once Texas joins the Union, its union was indissoluble.
1870s
1870 – 15th Amendment
1870 – First graduate programs (at Yale and Harvard)
1870 – Black Codes
1870 - Virginia, Mississippi, Texas, and Georgia are readmitted to the union
1871 – Great Chicago Fire
1871 – Treaty of Washington with the British Empire regarding Canada
1871 - The New York Times published evidence of Tweed's rampant greed.
1871 - Civil Service Reform Act passes
1871 - Ku Klux Klan Act
1872 – Yellowstone National Park created
1872 – Crédit Mobilier scandal
1872 – Amnesty Act
1872 – Alabama Claims
1872 – U.S. presidential election, 1872: Ulysses S. Grant reelected president; Henry Wilson elected vice president
1872 - Victoria Claflin Woodhull, first woman presidential candidate, enters presidential race.
1873 – Panic of 1873
March 4, 1873 – President Grant begins second term; Wilson becomes the 18th vice president
1873 – Virginius Affair
1873 - One of the first schools of nursing opens at Bellevue Hospital in New York
1874 – Red River Indian War
1874 - National Woman's Christian Temperance Union formed in Cleveland
1875 – Aristides (horse) wins first Kentucky Derby
1875 – Resumption Act
1875 – Civil Rights Act of 1875
1875 – The Art Students League of New York is founded
November 22, 1875 – Vice President Wilson dies
1875 - Whiskey Ring Scandal
1876 – National League of baseball founded
1876 – Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia
1876 – Munn v. Illinois establishes public regulation of utilities
1876 – Colorado becomes a state
1876 – Battle of Little Bighorn
1876 - Central Park opens in New York City
1876 – Wild Bill Hickok is killed by a shot to the back of his head by Jack McCall while playing poker in Deadwood, South Dakota. He held aces and eights, now known as the Dead man's hand.
1876 – U.S. presidential election, 1876 seemingly elects Samuel J. Tilden president and Thomas A. Hendricks vice president, but results are disputed with 20 Electoral College votes allegedly in doubt.
1877 – The Electoral Commission awards Rutherford B. Hayes the presidency and William A. Wheeler the vice presidency in return for ending the military occupation of the South.
1877 – Great Railroad Strike of 1877
Presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes
March 4, 1877 – After only two days as president-elect and vice president-elect, Hayes becomes the 19th president and Wheeler becomes the 19th vice president
1877 – Reconstruction ends
1877 – Nez Perce War
1878 – Bland–Allison Act
1878 – Morgan silver dollars first minted
1879 – Thomas Edison creates first commercially viable light bulb
1879 – Knights of Labor go public
1880s
1880 – University of Southern California founded
1880 – U.S. population exceeds 50 million
1880 – U.S. presidential election, 1880: James A. Garfield elected president and Chester A. Arthur vice president. Their popular margin is less than 2,000 votes.
Presidency of James A. Garfield
March 4, 1881 – Garfield becomes the 20th president; Arthur becomes the 20th vice president.
July 2, 1881 – President Garfield is shot by a deranged gunman on a train platform.
Presidency of Chester A. Arthur
September 19, 1881 – President Garfield dies, Vice President Arthur becomes the 21st president
1881 – The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona Territory
1881 – Clara Barton creates the American Red Cross
1881 – Tuskegee Institute founded
1881 – Billy the Kid is shot and killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett near Fort Sumner
1881 – A Century of Dishonor written by Helen Hunt Jackson
1882 – Chinese Exclusion Act
1882 – Jesse James was shot and killed by Robert and Charlie Ford
1883 - The Southern section of the second transcontinental railroad line is completed.
1883 – Buffalo Bill's Wild West show founded. participants include: Sitting Bull, Geronimo, Calamity Jane, and Annie Oakley.
1883 – Civil Rights Cases 109 US 3 1883 legalizes doctrine of segregation
1883 – Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act
1883 – Brooklyn Bridge opens
1883 - Joseph Pulitzer buys the New York World
1884 – U.S. presidential election, 1884: Grover Cleveland elected president and Thomas A. Hendricks elected vice president
1884 – Washington Monument completed
First presidency of Grover Cleveland
March 4, 1885 – Cleveland becomes the 22nd president; Hendricks becomes the 21st vice president
November 25, 1885 – Vice President Hendricks dies
1886 – Haymarket Square Riot
1886 – American Federation of Labor founded in Columbus, Ohio
1886 – Statue of Liberty (Liberty Enlightening the World) dedicated
1887 – The United States Congress creates Interstate Commerce Commission
1887 – Dawes Act
1887 – Hatch Act
1888 – Publication of Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy
1888 – National Geographic Society founded
1888 – U.S. presidential election, 1888: Benjamin Harrison elected president and Levi P. Morton vice president despite coming in second in the popular vote.
Presidency of Benjamin Harrison
March 4, 1889 – Harrison becomes the 23rd president and Morton becomes the 22nd vice president
1889 – Oklahoma Land Rush (April 22, 1889)
1889 – Centennial of the Constitution celebrated.
1889 – North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Washington become states
1889 – Johnstown Flood in Pennsylvania
1889 – Jane Addams founds Hull House
December 6, 1889 – Former Confederate president Jefferson Davis dies.
1889 - During a speech given by Benjamin Harrison, he becomes the first U.S. president in history to have a voice recording.
1890s
1890 – Sherman Antitrust Act
1890 – Jacob Riis published "How the Other Half Lives"
1890 – Sherman Silver Purchase Act
1890 – McKinley Tariff
1890 – Yosemite National Park created
1890 – Idaho and Wyoming become states
1890 – Wounded Knee Massacre
1890 – National American Woman Suffrage Association founded
1890 - Reporter Nelly Bly circles globe by train and steamship in 72 days