1858 in the United States
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Events from the year 1858 in the United States.
Incumbents
Federal government
- 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
State governments
Events
- February 6 â A fight, the 1858 Congressional brawl, breaks out on the floor of the U.S. House between Representatives of the Northern and Southern states.[1]
- March 4 â A speech by fire-eater James Henry Hammond of South Carolina in the United States Senate promotes the idea of "King Cotton" and the "mudsill theory" in support of slave labor.
- April 19 â The United States and the Yankton Sioux Tribe sign a treaty.[2]
- May 11 â Minnesota is admitted as the 32nd U.S. state (see History of Minnesota).
- May 19 â The Marais des Cygnes massacre is perpetrated by pro-slavery forces in Bleeding Kansas.
- June 16 â 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 â Forty-Niners stream into the Rocky Mountains of the western United States during the Pike's Peak Gold Rush.
- July 8 â The Paulist Fathers, a Roman Catholic society of apostolic life for men, is founded in New York City by Isaac Hecker.
- July 29 â Treaty of Amity and Commerce (United StatesâJapan) ("Harris Treaty") signed on the deck of USS Powhatan in Edo (modern-day Tokyo) Bay.
- August 16 â 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 â The first of the seven LincolnâDouglas debates is held.
- September 1â2 â 'Staten Island Quarantine War'.
- September 14 â 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 â Denver is founded.
- December 8 â Rensselaer, Indiana is incorporated.
Ongoing
- Bleeding Kansas (1854â1860)
- Third Seminole War (1855â1858)
- Utah War (1857â1858)
Births
- January 6 â Albert Henry Munsell, painter, teacher of art and inventor of the Munsell color system (died 1918)
- January 9 â Elizabeth Gertrude Britton, botanist (died 1934)
- January 11 â Harry Gordon Selfridge, department store magnate (died 1947)
- February 6 â Jonathan P. Dolliver, U.S. Senator from Iowa from 1900 to 1910 (died 1910)
- February 15 â John Joseph Montgomery, glider pioneer (died 1911)
- February 19 â Charles Alexander Eastman, Native American author, physician, reformer and co-founder of Boy Scouts of America (died 1939)
- February 28 â Richard P. Ernst, U.S. Senator from Kentucky from 1921 to 1927 (died 1934)
- March 9 â Gustav Stickley, furniture designer and architect (died 1942)
- March 12 â Adolph Ochs, newspaper publisher (died 1935)
- March 24 â Elia Goode Byington, newspaper proprietor, editor, and manager (died 1936)
- March 30 â DeWolf Hopper, musical theater performer (died 1935)
- April 23 â Leonor F. Loree, railroad executive (died 1940)
- April 29 â Georgia Hopley, journalist, political figure and temperance advocate (died 1944)
- June 17 â Mary F. Hoyt, first woman appointed to the U.S. federal civil service, in 1883 (died 1958)
- June 20 â Charles Waddell Chesnutt, African American author, essayist and political activist (died 1932)
- June 28 â Otis Skinner, actor (died 1943)
- July 1 â Velma Caldwell Melville, editor and writer (died 1924)
- August 18 â Thomas S. Rodgers, admiral (died 1931)
- September 1 â Andrew Jackson Zilker, philanthropist (died 1934)
- September 12 â J. H. Smith, politician and pioneer (died 1956)
- September 30 â Estelle M. H. Merrill, journalist (died 1908)
- October 2 â Emma Amelia Cranmer, prohibition reformer and suffragist (died 1937)
- October 7 â Joseph E. Ransdell, U.S. Senator from Louisiana from 1913 to 1931 (died 1954)
- October 12 â John L. Sullivan, heavyweight boxer (died 1918)
- October 15 â William Sims, admiral (died 1936)
- October 27 â 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 â Wilson Eyre, architect (died 1944)
- November 8 â Lawrence Yates Sherman, U.S. Senator from Illinois from 1913 to 1921 (died 1939)
- November 21 â Charles A. Towne, U.S. Senator from Minnesota from 1900 to 1901 (died 1928)
- November 26 â Katharine Drexel, Roman Catholic foundress, first American canonized as a saint, in 2000 (died 1955)
- December 15 â Elizabeth Eggleston Seelye, biographer (died 1923)
- December 24 â Harriet Pritchard Arnold, author (died 1901)
- December 25 â Herman P. Faris, temperance movement leader (died 1936)
- December 31 â Harry Stewart New, U.S. Senator from Indiana from 1917 to 1923 (died 1937)
- Unknown â Sarah Jim Mayo, Washoe basket weaver (died 1918)
Deaths
- January 10 â Hezekiah Augur, sculptor and inventor (born 1791)
- March 4 â Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry, naval officer (born 1794)
- April 10 â Thomas Hart Benton, U.S. Senator from Missouri from 1821 to 1851 (born 1782)
- August 23 â Calvin Willey, U.S. Senator from Connecticut from 1825 to 1831 (born 1776)
- September 17 â Dred Scott, slave (born c. 1795)
- September 21 â Arthur P. Bagby, U.S. Senator from Alabama from 1837 to 1841 (born 1794)
- November 16 â Robert Hanna, U.S. Senator from Indiana from 1831 to 1832 (born 1786)
- December 14 â Michael Woolston Ash, U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania from 1835 to 1837 (born 1789)
- December 18 â Thomas Holley Chivers, poet and physician (born 1809)
