1868 in the United States

1868 in the United States
Years:	1865 1866 1867 – 1868 – 1869 1870 1871
Flag
37 stars (1867–77)
Timeline of United States history History of the United States (1865–1918)

Events from the year 1868 in the United States.

Incumbents

Federal Government

• President: Andrew Johnson (D-Tennessee)
• Vice President: vacant
• Chief Justice: Salmon P. Chase (originally now residing in from of the U.S. state of Ohio)
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: Schuyler Colfax (R-Indiana)
• Congress: 40th

Governors and Lieutenant Governors
Governors 2 Lieutenant Governors 2

Events

January–March

• January 6 – Asa Mercer and a number of new "Mercer Girls" sail from Massachusetts for the West Coast, arriving in Seattle on May 23.
• January 9 – John William De Forest, writing for The Nation, calls for a more specifically American literature; the essay's title, "The Great American Novel", is the first known use of the term.
• February 16 – In New York City the Jolly Corks organization is renamed the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (BPOE).
• February 24
  • Impeachment of Andrew Johnson: Three days after his action to dismiss Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, the House of Representatives votes 126 to 47 in favor of a resolution to impeach Andrew Johnson, the first of two Presidents to be impeached by the full House. Johnson is later acquitted by the Senate.
  • The first parade to have floats occurs at Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Louisiana.
• March 1 – The Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity is founded at the University of Virginia.
• March 5 – A court of impeachment is organized in the United States Senate to hear charges against President Andrew Johnson.
• March 23 – The University of California is founded in Oakland, California, when the Organic Act is signed into California law.
• March 27 – The Lake Ontario Shore Railroad Company is organized in Oswego, New York.

April–June

• April 1 – The Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute is established in Hampton, Virginia.
• April 29 – After pursuing a policy of total war on the Plain Indians, General William Tecumseh Sherman brokers the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868).
• May 16 and 26 – President Andrew Johnson is acquitted during his impeachment trial, by one vote in the United States Senate.
• May 30 – Memorial Day is observed in the United States for the first time (it was proclaimed on May 5 by General John A. Logan).

July–September

• July 25 – Wyoming becomes a United States territory.
• July 28 – The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution is adopted, guaranteeing African Americans full citizenship and all persons in the United States due process of law.
• September – The first volume of Louisa May Alcott's novel Little Women is published.
• September 18 – The University of the South holds its first convocation in Sewanee, Tennessee.
• September 23 – Rebels (some 400–600) in the town of Lares declare Puerto Rico independent; the local militia easily defeats them a week later.

October–December

• October 6 – The City of New York grants Mount Sinai Hospital a 99-year lease for a property on Lexington Avenue and 66th Street, for the sum of $1.00.
• October 28 – Thomas Edison applies for his first patent, the electric vote recorder.
• November 3 – U.S. presidential election, 1868: Ulysses S. Grant defeats Horatio Seymour in the election.
• November 27 – Indian Wars – Battle of Washita River: In the early morning, United States Army Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer leads an attack on a band of Cheyenne living on reservation land with Chief Black Kettle, killing 103 Cheyenne.
• December 25 – U.S. President Andrew Johnson grants unconditional pardon to all Civil War rebels.

Undated

• Maryland School for the Deaf is established.
• The Roman Catholic See of Tucson is established as the Apostolic Vicariate of Arizona in 1868, taking its territory from the former Diocese of Santa Fe. The Diocese of Tucson is canonically erected on May 8, 1897.

Ongoing

• Reconstruction era (1865–1877)

Births

• February 3 – William J. Harris, United States Senator from Georgia from 1919 till 1932. (died 1932)
• February 23 – W. E. B. Du Bois, American civil rights leader (died 1963)
• May 10 – Ed Barrow, American baseball player and manager (d. 1953)
• June 4 – Thomas F. Bayard, Jr., United States Senator from Delaware from 1922 till 1929. (died 1942)
• June 28 – John F. Nugent, United States Senator from Idaho from 1918 till 1921. (died 1931)
• September 11 – Henry Justin Allen, United States Senator from Kansas from 1929 till 1931. (died 1950)
• October 8 – Coleman Livingston Blease, United States Senator from South Carolina from 1925 till 1931. (died 1942)
• November 22 – John Nance Garner, 32nd Vice President of the United States from 1933 till 1941. (died 1967)
• December 17 – Frederic M. Sackett, United States Senator from Kentucky from 1925 till 1930. (died 1941)

Deaths

• March 4 – Richard H. Bayard, United States Senator from Delaware from 1841 till 1845. (born 1796)
• May 31 – John J. McRae, United States Senator from Mississippi from 1851 till 1852. (born 1815)
• June 1 – James Buchanan, 15th President of the United States from 1857 till 1861. (born 1791)

External links

• Media related to at Wikimedia Commons