History

ICONS:Harriet Beecher Stowe, Dred Scott, John Brown

• The September 18, 1850, Fugitive Slave Act provides for the return of slaves brought to free states.
• Millard Fillmore is sworn into office as the 13th President of the United States, following Zachary Taylor's death on July 9, 1850.
• "America" wins the first America's Cup yacht race on August 22, 1851.
• Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin is published in 1852.
• The December 30, 1853, "Gadsden Purchase" gives the United States a strip of land in the Southwest that would later become the states of New Mexico and Arizona.
• The Republican Party is founded in Ripon, WI, on February 28, 1854.
• Poet Walt Whitman publishes Leaves of Grass on July 4, 1855.
• The U.S. Supreme Court's March 6, 1857, "Dred Scott Decision" rules that Scott, a slave moved to a free state, never ceased to be a slave despite residing in a free state, denied him citizenship, and denied him the right to sue.
• Elisha Otis installs the first elevator on March 23, 1857.
• Drilling is completed on the first productive commercial oil well in Titusville, PA, on August 27, 1859.