Picture History : Anniversaries

Anniversaries

To illustrate the depth one can access in our collections, we have compiled relevant archival imagery to frame a diverse cultural, political and chronological retrospective of noteworthy anniversaries. Be sure to bookmark this section as the calendar is a work in progress and will continue to expand.

July	Year	Anniversary	Event
1	1847	162nd	The U.S. Post Office issues its first stamps.
1	1862	147th	At the Battle of Malvern Hill, the last of the Seven Days' battles, Union artillery repulses Confederate attackers
1	1862	147th	The Union gunboats Galena, Monitor, and Mahaska shell the Confederates at Harrison's Landing, on the James River.
1	1862	147th	The Bureau of Internal Revenue is established by Congress.
1	1867	142nd	Canada wins its independence and becomes a "self-governing dominion" of Great Britain.
1	1997	12nd	Hong Kong reverts to Chinese rule after 156 years as a British colony.
2	1777	232nd	Vermont becomes the first U.S. colony to abolish slavery, nearly 100 years before the federal government.
2	1857	152nd	New York City's first elevated railroad begins operation
2	1887	122nd	"Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper" welcomes immigrants to "The Land of Freedom."
2	1947	62nd	The Soviet Union rejects help from the Marshall Plan.
2	1972	37th	"The New York Times" admires Pres. Nixon for his trips to the Soviet Union and China
2	1992	17th	The Chevrolet company celebrates the sale of one million Corvettes.
3	1957	52nd	Nikita Khruschev takes control in the Soviet Union after years of jockeying for power.
3	1962	47th	Jackie Robinson becomes the first African-American to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
4	1802	207th	The new U.S. Military Academy opens at West Point, New York.
4	1817	192nd	Construction begins on the Erie Canal, which will connect the Hudson River with Lake Erie.
4	1832	177th	"America" ("My Country 'Tis of Thee"), by Samuel F. Smith, is sung in public for the first time, on the 4th of July at Boston's Park St. Church.
4	1872	137th	Calvin Coolidge, 30th president of the United States, is born in Plymouth, Vermont.
5	1797	212nd	George Washington writes a letter to help Lund Washington secure passage for two sheep on a sailing vessel.
5	1902	107th	Henry Cabot Lodge, U.S. politician and diplomat, is born.
6	1832	177th	Maximilian, an Austrian archduke who will become Emperor of Mexico, is born in Vienna.
6	1862	147th	Samuel Clemens begins as a reporter in Virginia City, Nevada, using the name "Mark Twain."
6	1892	117th	At the Homestead Steel Company, owned by Andrew Carnegie, 300 Pinkerton detectives clash with striking workers.
8	1777	232nd	Vermont is the first American colony to abolish slavery.
8	1822	187th	Percy Bysshe Shelley, a British Romantic poet and husband of writer Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, dies.
8	1922	87th	Young Louis Armstrong leaves the Jim Crow laws of New Orleans, his hometown, to head north to Chicago.
8	1932	77th	The U.S. stock market falls to its lowest point during the Depression
9	1777	232nd	New York State elects Revolutionary War Gen. George Clinton (uncle of Dewitt Clinton) to be its first governor.
9	1877	132nd	Wimbledon's "All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club" organizes the first Wimbledon tennis tournament.
9	1892	117th	A showdown between steel workers and 7,000 Pennsylvania troops turns violent at the Homestead Steel plant, owned by Andrew Carnegie.
9	1947	62nd	Eisenhower makes a female soldier a lieutenant colonel and the first woman to hold permanent military rank in the U.S.
10	1832	177th	Pres. Andrew Jackson vetoes legislation to renew the charter of the nation's corrupt Second Bank.
10	1867	142nd	Finley Peter Dunne, journalist and satirist who created the Mr. Dooley columns, is born.
11	1767	242nd	John Quincy Adams, 6th president of the U.S., is born in Braintree (now Quincy), Massachusetts.
11	1782	227th	The British evacuate Savannah, Georgia, to flee to Charleston, following Lord Cornwallis's surrender to George Washington at Yorktown, VA.
11	1937	72nd	George Gershwin, a U.S. composer of popular music, dies.
11	1977	32nd	Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, for his efforts for civil rights.
12	1817	192nd	Henry David Thoreau, U.S. essayist and philosopher, is born.
12	1862	147th	During the Civil War, Congress authorizes the Medal of Honor for wartime service.
12	1912	97th	The first foreign film in the U.S., "Queen Elizabeth," starring Sarah Bernhardt, premieres.
13	1787	222nd	Congress enacts the Northwest Ordinance to create a policy for settling the Northwest Territory, as proposed by Thomas Jefferson 3 years prior.
13	1837	172nd	Queen Victoria, only eighteen years old, is the first British sovereign to move into London's Buckingham Palace.
13	1862	147th	Union General Crittenden and his garrison are captured by Confederate General Forrest's cavalry, in "Forrest's First Raid."
14	1877	132nd	After two paycuts, Baltimore & Ohio Railroad workers walk off the job during "the Summer of Strikes."
14	1892	117th	The violent Homestead Strikes in Pennsylvania make front page news in New York.
15	1862	147th	The Confederate ironclad Arkansas fiercely attacks Farraguts fleet at Vicksburg, then steams away pursued only by the USS Essex
16	1787	222nd	The Constitutional Congress plans for a "lower" House, to be determined by state population (the future House of Representatives).
16	1862	147th	David Glasgow Farragut becomes the first rear admiral in the U.S. Navy.
17	1862	147th	Lincoln approves the Confiscation Act, freeing all fugitive Confederate slaves forever, in a great step toward emancipation.
17	1867	142nd	The Harvard School of Dental Medicine, the first dental school in the U.S., is established.
17	1997	12nd	The Woolworth Corporation closes its last 400 five-and-dime stores after 117 years as a chain.
18	1872	137th	Great Britain introduces the concept of voting by secret ballot.
18	1927	82nd	Ty Cobb makes his 4,000th career hit.
18	1947	62nd	Truman signs Presidential Succession Act to make the Speaker of the House and the Senate president next in line after the Vice President.
18	1962	47th	Congress votes to preserve the Manhattan birthplace of Theodore Roosevelt, as well as Sagamore Hill, his Long Island, NY, estate.
19	1817	192nd	Mary Ann Ball Bickerdyke, tireless Civil War nurse, botanic physician, hospital administrator and pension attorney, is born.
19	1972	37th	Paris peace talks resume between the U.S. and North Vietnam, with Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho.
20	1917	92nd	The U.S. draft lottery goes into operation in World War I.
20	1937	72nd	Guglielmo Marconi, Italian physicist and inventor of the wireless telegraph, dies.
21	1862	147th	Former president Martin Van Buren, called "Blue Whiskey Van" for his heavy drinking, slips into a coma.
21	1877	132nd	The Baltimore railroad Strike turns bloody after workers' wages were cut for the third time in three years.
22	1862	147th	Pres. Lincoln tells his cabinet and advisors that he'll soon make an emancipation proclamation to free all slaves.
22	1937	72nd	Pres. Franklin Roosevelt's "court-packing" strategy to protect the NLRA is rejected by the U.S. Senate.
22	1987	22nd	Soviet leader Gorbachev agrees to a ban on intermediate-range nuclear missiles.
23	1862	147th	Lincoln appoints Gen. Henry Halleck, "Old Brains," general-in-chief of the Union Army.
23	1877	132nd	Mass meeting of workers supporting the rail strikers becomes violent when they turn their rage on the Chinese, who work for lower wages.
23	1937	72nd	Orson Welles's first radio drama, based on Hugo's "Les Miserables," is broadcast on his new "Mercury Theater" program.
24	1567	442nd	Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, is forced to abdicate the throne in favor of her one-year-old son, who will become King James VI.
24	1802	207th	Alexandre Dumas the Elder, author of "The Three Musketeers," "The Count of Monte Cristo," and many other bestsellers, is born.
24	1847	162nd	Brigham Young, early Mormon leader, arrives with his followers at the Great Salt Lake in Utah, after 17 months of travel.
24	1862	147th	Martin van Buren, 8th President of the U.S., dies.
25	1832	177th	The first railroad accident in U.S. history occurs on the Granite Railway, near Quincy, MA.
25	1862	147th	Union Gen. Beroth Eggleston is captured by Confederates, but will survive to become a prominent Mississippi Carpetbagger.
25	1897	112nd	Jack London sails for the Klondike Gold Rush, where he will write "The Call of the Wild."
26	1847	162nd	The Republic of Liberia becomes the first African colony to declare its independence.
26	1947	62nd	Pres. Truman signs the National Security Act, creating the Department of Defense, the CIA, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
27	1967	42nd	In the wake of the Watts riots and other urban rioting, Pres. Johnson appoints the Kerner Commission to study the cause of violence.
28	1932	77th	"Bonus Marchers" (WWI veterans) are evicted from Washington DC by Gen. MacArthur, obeying Pres. Hoover, though 2 veterans are killed.
29	1862	147th	Belle Boyd, Confederate spy who reported to Stonewall Jackson, is captured and jailed in Old Capitol Prison
29	1932	77th	When Hoover orders MacArthur and Eisenhower to use tanks and tear gas, the final veterans from the "Bonus Army" flee Washington.
30	1942	67th	Pres. Franklin Roosevelt signs a bill creating the WAVES or "Women Accepted for Emergency Service" in the Navy.
30	1952	57th	"The Guiding Light," a popular radio show, premieres on television as a "soap opera."
31	1777	232nd	The Marquis de Lafayette, a 19-year-old French nobleman, becomes a major-general in the Continental Army, but without pay.
31	1792	217th	The first federal government building's cornerstone is laid at the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia.
31	1932	77th	Apache scout Charles Martine, who helped obtain Geronimo's surrender, dies on a reservation, as Gen. Miles never kept his promises.