NINETEENTH CENTURY, IMPORTANT EVENTS OP THE. 



439 



1870. 



Feb. 25, Hiram R. Revels, of Mississippi, the first 

 colored man elected to the United States Senate, 

 took his seat. 



March 10, Ignaz Moscheles died. 



March 30, the ratification of the fifteenth amend- 

 ment to the Constitution of the United States 

 was officially announced. 



June 2, Charles Dickens died. 



July 15, war was declared between France and Ger- 

 many. 



Sept. 1, the French army in Sedan surrendered. 



Sept. 4, the French republic was established. 



Oct. 12, Gen. Robert E. Lee died. 



Oct. 27, the French army besieged in Metz sur- 

 rendered. 



1871. 



.fan. 28, German troops entered Paris. 



Feb. 9, the United States Fish Commission was 

 established. 



March 18, the Commune took possession of Paris. 



April 27, Sigismond Thalberg died. 



May 8, the treaty of Washington was signed, pro- 

 viding for settlement of the Alabama claims by 

 a tribunal of arbitration to meet at Geneva, 

 Switzerland. 



Sept. 28, Brazil passed a law for the progressive 

 abolition of slavery. 



Oct. 8, a great fire in Chicago began. The total 

 loss was $190,000,000. 



1872. 



Jan. 5, Joseph Gillott, inventor and maker of the 

 first successful steel pens, died. 



Feb. 27, Congress passed a bill making the Yel- 

 lowstone valley a national park. 



Sept. 14, the Geneva tribunal for arbitration of 

 the Alabama claims rendered its decision in 

 favor of the United States. 



Oct. 10, William H. Seward died. 



Nov. 6, Gen. George G. Meade died. 



Nov. 9, a great fire in Boston destroyed about 

 $75,000,000 worth of property. 



Nov. 29, Horace Greeley died. 



Dec. 12, Edwin Forrest died. 



1873. 



April 11, Capt. Jack and other Indians massacred 

 Gen. Canby and Dr. Thomas, commissioners. 



May 7, Salmon P. Chase died. 



Oct. 31, the international bridge across the Niagara 

 river was completed. 



Nov. 4, 30 Americans captured with the Virginius 

 were" shot in Cuba. 



Dec. 14, Louis Agassiz died. 



A world's fair was held in Vienna. 



1874. 



Feb. 13, the Royal Astronomical Society of Eng- 

 land awarded its gold medal to Prof. Simon 

 Newcomb, of the Washington Observatory, for 

 his researches respecting the orbits of Neptune 

 and Uranus. 



March 8, Millard Fillmore died. 



March 11, Charles Sumner died. 



July 4, the steel bridge over the Mississippi at St. 

 Louis was opened. 



Aug. 4, the first assembly met at Chautauqua. 



Oct. 9, the World's Postal Union was founded. 



The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to 

 Children and the Woman's Christian Temper- 

 ance Union were organized this year. 



1875. 



Jan. 14, a bill for the resumption of specie pay- 

 ments, having passed both houses, was approved 

 bv the President. 





Feb. 9, the first train passed through the Hoosac 

 Tunnel. 



April 5, the Massachusetts Legislature repealed 

 the prohibitory liquor law. 



July 31, Andrew Johnson died. 



Sept. 1, the post office at Broadway and Park Row, 

 New York, was occupied. 



Sept. 16, the system of fast mails was first intro- 

 duced in America. 



Nov. 22, Henry Wilson, Vice-President, died in 

 office. 



1876. 



April 28, Queen Victoria issued a proclamation 

 assuming the title Empress of India. 



May 10, the Centennial Exposition was opened in 

 Philadelphia. 



June 6, an International Cremation Congress met 

 in Dresden. 



June 25, the Custer massacre took place in Mon- 

 tana. 



June 30, the first railroad built in China was 

 formally opened. It connected Shanghai and 

 Woosung. 



Aug. 1, Colorado was admitted as a State. 



Nov. 1, the ship canal connecting Amsterdam with 

 the North Sea was opened. 



1877. 



March 15, Prof. A. Graham Bell gave an exhibi- 

 tion to a company of scientific men of his newly 

 invented telephone. They heard a conversation 

 between Salem and Boston. 



April 24, war was declared between Russia and 

 Turkey. 



Aug. 11, Prof. Asaph Hall discovered the first of 

 the satellites of Mars. 



Sept. 30, the Sioux Indians surrendered to the 

 United States, ending a long war. 



Dec. 10, the Turkish army in Plevna surrendered 

 to the Russians. 



Dec. 24, M. Cailletet announced to the French 

 Academy that he had liquefied oxygen. 



1878. 



Feb. 8, Pius IX died, having held the papal chair 

 thirty-one years, longer than any of his prede- 

 cessors. 



April 29, the first elevated train on the Sixth 

 Avenue road, New York city, was run. 



June 12, William Cullen Bryant died. 



June 20, Charles B. Everest, while boring for oil 

 at Warsaw, N. Y., discovered a stratum of salt 

 70 feet thick and 1,272 feet below the surface. 



Oct. 8, Thomas A. Edison announced his success 

 in subdividing the electric current. 



1879. 



Jan. 1, the United States Government resumed 

 specie payments. 



Feb. 15, women were authorized to practice law 

 before the Supreme Court of the United States. 



Feb. 26, the Boston Associate Charities was or- 

 ganized. 



May 29, the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts was 

 incorporated. 



Dec. 12, Thomas A. Edison exhibited his incan- 

 descent carbon vacuum lamp. 



1880. 



March 30, the New York Metropolitan Museum 

 of Art was opened. 



May 8, the New York Board of Health was or- 

 ganized. 



May 31, the League of American Wheelmen was 

 organized at Newport, R. I. 



June 12, the Egyptian obelisk was shipped from 

 Alexandria to New York. 



