1820 – A group of New England missionaries arrives on the Hawaiian Islands, to be greeted by King Kamehameha II.
1822 – Congress combined East and West Florida into the Florida Territory. The Territory of Florida was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed until March 3, 1845, when it was admitted to the Union as the State of Florida. Originally the Spanish territory of La Florida, and later the provinces of East and West Florida, it was ceded to the United States as part of the 1819 Adams-Onís Treaty. It was governed by the Florida Territorial Council.
1825 – Confederate General Samuel Maxey is born in Tompkinsville, Kentucky. Maxey served in the West and led Native Americans troops in Indian Territory. Maxey attended West Point and graduated in 1846, second to last in a class of 59. He was sent immediately to fight in the Mexican War. Although he did well there and fought at the Battle of Cerro Gordo, Maxey resigned his commission after the war to study law in Kentucky. In 1857, he moved to Texas and became active in politics. When the war began, he raised a regiment, the 9th Texas Infantry, and took his unit to fight in Mississippi. Maxey was promoted to brigadier general in March 1862 and his force participated in the Vicksburg campaign before aiding in the defense of Port Hudson, Louisiana. He was fortunate to avoid capture when those locations fell into Union hands, and Maxey was shipped to assist in the Confederate siege of Chattanooga in September 1863. While there, Maxey received a promotion to commander of Indian Territory. In 1864, he worked to recruit and train members of the Cherokee, Creek, and Choctaw tribes. On April 18, 1864, troops under Maxey’s command attacked a Union wagon train at Poison Springs, Arkansas. They routed the federal force, which was led by the 1st Kansas Colored Regiment. Maxey’s men proceeded to kill all black soldiers who were wounded or captured. After the war, Maxey continued to support his Native American friends when he served in the U.S. Senate and was an outspoken advocate of Indian rights. He died in 1895.
1855 – In territorial Kansas’ first election, some 5,000 so-called “Border Ruffians” invade the territory from western Missouri and force the election of a pro-slavery legislature. Although the number of votes cast exceeded the number of eligible voters in the territory, Kansas Governor Andrew Reeder reluctantly approved the election to prevent further bloodshed. Trouble in territorial Kansas began with the signing of the Kansas-Nebraska Act by President Franklin Pierce in 1854. The act stipulated that settlers in the newly created territories of Nebraska and Kansas would decide by popular vote whether their territory would be free or slave. A few months after pro-slavery forces defrauded Kansas’ first election, the Kansas Free State forces were formed, armed by supporters in the North and featuring the leadership of militant abolitionist John Brown. In May 1856, Border Ruffians sacked the abolitionist town of Lawrence, and in retaliation a small Free State force under John Brown massacred five pro-slavery Kansans along the Pottawatomie Creek. During the next four years, raids, skirmishes, and massacres continued in “Bleeding Kansas,” as it became popularly known. In 1861, the irrepressible differences in Kansas were swallowed up by the outbreak of full-scale civil war in America.
1858 – Hyman L. Lipman of Philadelphia patented the pencil with an eraser attached on one end.
1864 – A boat expedition under the command of Acting Master James M. Williams, U.S.S. Commodore Barney, with a detachment of sailors under the command of Acting Master Charles B. Wilder, U.S.S. Minnesota, ascended Chuckatuck Creek late at night seeking to capture a party of Confederate troops reported to be in that vicinity. After landing at Cherry Grove, Virginia, shortly before dawn, the sailors silently surrounded the Confederate headquarters and took 20 prisoners.
1867 – The United States government put the finishing touches on the deal to purchase that “large stump of ice,” better known as Alaska. The acquisition, brokered in absolute secrecy by Secretary of State William Seward, saw the U.S. pay Alaska’s owner, Russia $7.2 million, or roughly two cents per acre of land. Though Alaska was the first bit of property ever relinquished by Russia, some American officials sneered at the seemingly barren new state. In certain circles, the deal was derisively known as “Seward’s Folly.” However, Alaska promised a few bright benefits for the U.S. Along with freeing another piece of the continent from the grip of monarchy, America’s newest state was flush with furs and fish. Rather than establishing a formal government in the territory, President Andrew Johnson reasoned that Alaska’s economic activities placed it under the charge of the Treasury Department, which regulated the fur and fish trades. In effect, Johnsonýs decision created a government monopoly and planted the seeds for conflict in Alaska’s not too distant future.
1870 – The 15th Amendment to the US Constitution, guaranteeing the right to vote regardless of race, passed.
1870 – Texas was the last Confederate state readmitted to the Union.
1891 – Arthur Herrington, American engineer and manufacturer; developed the World War II jeep, was born in Coddenham, East Suffolk, England. Immigrating to the United States with his family at the age of five, Herrington grew up in Madison, N.J., and was educated at the Stevens Preparatory School and Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, N.J. He was first employed by the Harley-Davidson Motor Company of Milwaukee. After World War I he was given a reserve commission in the Army and was retained as a consultant while returning to his civilian occupation. In France, Herrington had been impressed by the problems of conventional-drive vehicles in off-the-road maneuvering. He experimented with and designed a series of trucks with four- and six-wheel drives, which he built in association with the Marmon Motor Car Company of Indianapolis, Ind. These vehicles aided Allied troops during World War II; but none equaled the success and popularity of the smallest of the line, the quarter-ton jeep (apparently from the letters GP, for “general purpose”) reconnaissance car, noted for its outstanding stamina, versatility, power, and maneuverability.
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