 Text search
 Related images
 HistoryWorld
 Link
 Map
Click the icons to visit linked content. Hover to see the search terms. |
|  |
| | | | | | | |
|
| 1850 |
| | | US president Zachary Taylor dies after a short illness and is succeeded by his vice-president, Millard Fillmore | |
| |
|
| 1852 |
| | | Democratic candidate Franklin Pierce wins the US presidential election, defeating his Whig opponent Winfield Scott | |
| |
|
| 1854 |
| | | An anti-slavery movement, formed in the USA to oppose the Kansas-Nebraska Act, adopts a resonant name, calling itself the Republican party | |
| |
|
| 1854 |
| | | US minister to Mexico James Gadsden secures a treaty by which the USA purchases from Mexico much of southern Arizona | |
| |
|
| 1856 |
| | | Democrat candidate James Buchanan wins the US presidential election, defeating Republican John C Fr&eqacute;mont | |
| |
|
| 1860 |
| | | Lincoln becomes the Republican presidential candidate, benefiting from a Democratic party split on the issue of slavery | |
| |
|
| 1860 |
| | | Republican contender Abraham Lincoln is elected US president with only 39% of the popular vote and no electoral votes in eleven southern states | |
| |
|
| 1860 |
| | | South Carolina becomes the first southern state to secede from the Union in response to Lincoln's election | |
| |
|
| 1861 |
| | | Seven southern states, meeting in Montgomery, Alabama, agree to form the Confederate States of America | |
| |
|
| 1861 |
| | | Shots are fired against the Federal military garrison in Fort Sumter, in Charleston harbour, launching the American Civil War | |
| |
|
| | | | | |
| |