What Happened in 1869

Elizabeth Blackwell and Florence Nightingale opened the Women's Medical College in England

In 1857 Blackwell returned to England where she attended Bedford College for Women for one year. In 1858, under a clause in the 1858 Medical Act... Read more

'War and Peace' is Published

Writing War and Peace in the aftermath of the Crimean War, when Russian national feeling was pronounced, Tolstoy was interested most of all in the... Read more

Mark Twain's First Book "The Innocents Abroad" is Published

The Innocents Abroad, or The New Pilgrims' Progress was published by American author Mark Twain in 1869. The travel literature chronicles Twain's... Read more

Mark Twain attends "Blind Tom Wiggins" performance

Some archangel, cast out of upper Heaven like another Satan, inhabits this coarse casket; and he comforts himself and makes his prison beautiful... Read more

Jesse James Robs The Bank That Makes Him Famous

Jesse James did not become famous, however, until December 1869, when he and (most likely) Frank robbed the Daviess County Savings Association in... Read more

Texas v. White

Texas v. White, 74 U.S. 700 (1869) was a significant case argued before the United States Supreme Court in 1869. The case involved a claim by the... Read more

Ulysses S. Grant Establishes The Value Of The Greenback Currency

The Panic of 1873 hit the country hard during his presidency, and he never attempted decisive action to alleviate distress. The first law that he... Read more

Ulysses S. Grant is inaugurated as the 18th president of the United States

General Grant was the first of many Civil War officers to become President of the United States. He refused to ride in the carriage to the Capitol... Read more

Harriet Tubman marries Nelson Davis

Tubman spent her remaining years in Auburn, tending to her family and other people in need. She worked various jobs to support her elderly parents,... Read more

Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. Is Born

Legendary showman Florenz Ziegfeld Jr., impresario behind what became known as the Ziegfeld Follies, was born on March 21, 1869 (possibly 1867),... Read more

Completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad

Officials and workers of the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific railways held a ceremony on Promontory Summit, in Utah Territory—approximately... Read more

Thomas Edison Patents the Electric Vote Recorder

Edison's first patented invention was a vote recorder for use by legislative bodies such as Congress. He may have been spurred by reports in the... Read more

James Butler 'Wild Bill' Hickok is Elected Sheriff of Ellis County, Kansas

In July 1869, Hickok was back in Hays and was elected sheriff and city marshal of Ellis County, Kansas, in a special election, on August 23, 1869.... Read more

Avondale Mine Disaster

The Avondale Mine Disaster was a massive fire in the Avondale Colliery in Plymouth, Pennsylvania, United States on September 6, 1869. It caused the... Read more

Black Friday

Black Friday, September 24 1869, also known as the Fisk/Gould Scandal, was a financial panic in the United States caused by two speculators’... Read more

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is Born in Gujarat, India

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born in Porbandar, a coastal town in present-day Gujarat, India, on 2 October 1869. His father, Karamchand Gandhi... Read more

The Suez Canal Opens

After ten years of construction and costs more than double the original estimate, the Suez Canal opened on November 17, 1869. Stretching 101 miles... Read more

John Campbell Approves The First Law Granting Women The Right To Vote

On December 10, 1869, John Campbell, Governor of the Wyoming Territory, approved the first law in U.S. history explicitly granting women the right... Read more