1858 in the United States explained

Events from the year 1858 in the United States.

Incumbents

• President: James Buchanan (D-Pennsylvania)
• Vice President: John C. Breckinridge (D-Kentucky)
• Chief Justice: Roger B. Taney (Maryland)
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: James Lawrence Orr (D-South Carolina)
• Congress: 35th

Events

• March 4  - A speech by James Henry Hammond in the United States Senate promotes the idea of "King Cotton" and the "mudsill theory" in support of slave labor.
• April 19  - The United States and the Yankton Sioux Tribe sign a treaty.^[1]
• May 11  - Minnesota is admitted as the 32nd U.S. state (see History of Minnesota).
• May 19  - The Marais des Cygnes massacre is perpetrated by pro-slavery forces in Bleeding Kansas.
• June 16  - Abraham Lincoln makes his "House Divided" Speech at the State Capitol in Springfield, Illinois, on accepting the Republican Party nomination for a seat in the U.S. Senate.
• July  - Forty-Niners stream into the Rocky Mountains of the western United States during the Pike's Peak Gold Rush.
• July 8  - The Paulist Fathers, a Roman Catholic society of apostolic life for men, is founded in New York City by Isaac Hecker.
• July 29  - Treaty of Amity and Commerce (United States–Japan) ("Harris Treaty") signed on the deck of in Edo (modern-day Tokyo) Bay.
• August 16  - U.S. President James Buchanan inaugurates the new trans-Atlantic telegraph cable by exchanging greetings with Queen Victoria. However, a weak signal forces a shutdown of the service on September 1.
• August 21  - The first of the seven Lincoln–Douglas debates is held.
• September 1 - 2  - 'Staten Island Quarantine War'.
• September 14  - Fordyce Beals patents his six shooter revolver which will be produced by E. Remington & Sons of Ilion, New York as the Remington Model 1858.
• November 17 – Denver is founded.
• December 8  - Rensselaer, Indiana is incorporated.

Ongoing

• Bleeding Kansas (1854–1860)
• Third Seminole War (1855–1858)
• Utah War (1857–1858)

Births

• January 6  - Albert Henry Munsell, painter, teacher of art and inventor of the Munsell color system (died 1918)
• January 9  - Elizabeth Gertrude Britton, botanist (died 1934)
• January 11  - Harry Gordon Selfridge, department store magnate (died 1947)
• February 6  - Jonathan P. Dolliver, U.S. Senator from Iowa from 1900 to 1910 (died 1910)
• February 15  - John Joseph Montgomery, glider pioneer (died 1911)
• February 19  - Charles Alexander Eastman, Native American author, physician, reformer and co-founder of Boy Scouts of America (died 1939)
• February 28  - Richard P. Ernst, U.S. Senator from Kentucky from 1921 to 1927 (died 1934)
• March 9  - Gustav Stickley, furniture designer and architect (died 1942)
• March 12  - Adolph Ochs, newspaper publisher (died 1935)
• March 24  - Elia Goode Byington, newspaper proprietor, editor, and manager (died 1936)
• March 30  - DeWolf Hopper, musical theater performer (died 1935)
• April 23  - Leonor F. Loree, railroad executive (died 1940)
• April 29  - Georgia Hopley, journalist, political figure and temperance advocate (died 1944)
• June 17  - Mary F. Hoyt, first woman appointed to the U.S. federal civil service, in 1883 (died 1958)
• June 20  - Charles Waddell Chesnutt, African American author, essayist and political activist (died 1932)
• June 28  - Otis Skinner, actor (died 1943)
• July 1  - Velma Caldwell Melville, editor and writer (died 1924)
• August 18  - Thomas S. Rodgers, admiral (died 1931)
• September 1  - Andrew Jackson Zilker, philanthropist (died 1934)
• September 12  - J. H. Smith, politician and pioneer (died 1956)
• September 30  - Estelle M. H. Merrill, journalist (died 1908)
• October 2  - Emma Amelia Cranmer, prohibition reformer and suffragist (died 1937)
• October 7  - Joseph E. Ransdell, U.S. Senator from Louisiana from 1913 to 1931 (died 1954)
• October 12  - John L. Sullivan, heavyweight boxer (died 1918)
• October 15  - William Sims, admiral (died 1936)
• October 27  - Theodore Roosevelt, 26th president of the United States from 1901 to 1909, 25th vice president of the United States from March to September 1901 (died 1919)
• October 30  - Wilson Eyre, architect (died 1944)
• November 8  - Lawrence Yates Sherman, U.S. Senator from Illinois from 1913 to 1921 (died 1939)
• November 21  - Charles A. Towne, U.S. Senator from Minnesota from 1900 to 1901 (died 1928)
• November 26  - Katharine Drexel, Roman Catholic foundress, first American canonized as a saint, in 2000 (died 1955)
• December 15  - Elizabeth Eggleston Seelye, biographer (died 1923)
• December 24  - Harriet Pritchard Arnold, author (died 1901)
• December 25  - Herman P. Faris, temperance movement leader (died 1936)
• December 31  - Harry Stewart New, U.S. Senator from Indiana from 1917 to 1923 (died 1937)
• Unknown  - Sarah Jim Mayo, Washoe basket weaver (died 1918)

Deaths

• January 10  - Hezekiah Augur, sculptor and inventor (born 1791)
• March 4  - Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry, naval officer (born 1794)
• April 10  - Thomas Hart Benton, U.S. Senator from Missouri from 1821 to 1851 (born 1782)
• August 23  - Calvin Willey, U.S. Senator from Connecticut from 1825 to 1831 (born 1776)
• September 17  - Dred Scott, slave (born c. 1795)
• September 21  - Arthur P. Bagby, U.S. Senator from Alabama from 1837 to 1841 (born 1794)
• November 16  - Robert Hanna, U.S. Senator from Indiana from 1831 to 1832 (born 1786)
• December 14  - Michael Woolston Ash, U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania from 1835 to 1837 (born 1789)
• December 18  - Thomas Holley Chivers, poet and physician (born 1809)

See also

• Timeline of United States history (1820–1859)

Notes and References

1. Web site: Treaty with the Yankton Sioux, 1858 . 2009-10-27 . 2010-07-14 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100714215224/http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/Vol2/treaties/yan0776.htm . dead . Provided by the Oklahoma State University Library from Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties (Vol. II) compiled and edited by Charles J. Kappler, 1904.