Key Events in American History: 1859

President: James Buchanan

VP: John Breckinridge

Date, Event

Feb 14th Oregon is admitted as the 33rd U.S. state

Apr 4th The song "Dixie" is sung for the first time

Jun 8th The Comstock Lode is discovered in Utah Territory starting a silver rush in present day Nevada

Aug 27th Edwin L. Drake strikes oil while drilling a well in Pennsylvania, thus beginning a new industry

Oct 16th John Brown raids Harper's Ferry Armory in Harper's Ferry, VA in an unsuccessful bid to spark a slave rebellion

Oct 18th Troops under Col. Robert E. Lee overpower John Brown at Harper's Ferry

Nov 22nd Charles Darwin publishes "On the Origin of Species"

Dec 2nd John Brown is hanged

Bleeding Kansas continues (1854-1860)

Horace Greeley takes his long ride to the west coast. A newspaper man who coined the phrase "Go west, young man. Go west."

Pike's Peak Gold Rush continues (until 1861) "Pike's Peak or Bust"

J.J. Etienne Lenoir develops the first gasoline powered internal combustion engine

May 22nd Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Author)

Nov 23rd Billy the Kid (Outlaw)

Nov 28th Washington Irving (Author, "Rip Van Winkle", "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow")

Dec 16th Wilhelm Grimm (Author, "Grimm's Fairy Tales")