January–March • January 6 –
Asa Mercer and a number of new "
Mercer Girls" sail from
Massachusetts for the West Coast, arriving in
Seattle on May 23. • January 9 –
John William De Forest, writing for
The Nation, calls for a more specifically
American literature; the essay's title, "The
Great American Novel", is the first known use of the term. • January 11 –
Wager Swayne is removed as the military
governor of Alabama. • February – The Benjamin Franklin "
Z Grill" postage stamp is issued; it will be among the rarest ever. • February 4 –
William Hugh Smith is
elected the 21st
governor of Alabama. • February 16 – In
New York City the Jolly Corks organization is renamed the
Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (BPOE). • February 24 •
Impeachment of Andrew Johnson: Three days after his action to dismiss
Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, the
House of Representatives votes 126 to 47 in favor of a resolution to
impeach Andrew Johnson, the first of three presidents to be impeached by the full House. Johnson is later acquitted by the
Senate in
his impeachment trial. • The first
parade to have floats occurs at
Mardi Gras in
New Orleans, Louisiana. • March 1 – The
Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity is founded at the
University of Virginia. • March 5 – A
court of impeachment is organized in the
United States Senate to hear charges against President
Andrew Johnson in
an impeachment trial. • March 23 – The
University of California is founded in
Oakland, California, when the Organic Act is signed into
California law. • March 27 – The
Lake Ontario Shore Railroad Company is organized in
Oswego, New York.
April–June • April 1 – The
Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute is established in
Hampton, Virginia. • April 29 – After pursuing a policy of total war on the
Plain Indians, General
William Tecumseh Sherman brokers the
Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868). • May 9 – The city of
Reno, Nevada is founded. • May 16 and 26 – President
Andrew Johnson is acquitted during his
impeachment trial by one vote in the
United States Senate. • May 30 –
Memorial Day is observed in the United States for the first time (it was proclaimed on May 5 by General
John A. Logan). • June 3 –
Crown Point, Indiana is incorporated a town. • June 25 –
Florida,
Alabama,
Louisiana,
North Carolina, and
South Carolina are all readmitted to the U.S. • June 27 –
Lowell, Indiana is incorporated a town.
July–September • July 13 –
William Hugh Smith is sworn in as the 21st
governor of Alabama replacing
Robert M. Patton. • July 25 –
Wyoming Territory is organized. • July 27 –
Expatriation Act of 1868 comes into effect, declaring there to be a right of
relinquishment of United States nationality. • July 28 – The
Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is adopted, guaranteeing
African Americans full citizenship and all persons in the United States
due process of law. • September – The first volume of
Louisa May Alcott's novel
Little Women is published. • September 18 – The
University of the South holds its first convocation in
Sewanee, Tennessee. • September 23 – Rebels (some 400–600) in the town of Lares declare
Puerto Rico independent; the local militia defeats them a week later.
October–December • October 6 –
The City of New York grants
Mount Sinai Hospital a 99-year lease for a property on
Lexington Avenue and
66th Street, for the sum of $1.00. • October 7 –
Cornell University in
Ithaca, New York, is opened, with an initial enrollment of 412 men the following day. • October 21 – The M6.3–6.7
Hayward earthquake affects the
San Francisco Bay Area with a maximum
Mercalli intensity of IX (
Violent), causing damage from Santa Rosa to Santa Cruz. • October 28 –
Thomas Edison applies for his first patent, the electric vote recorder. • November 3 –
U.S. presidential election, 1868:
Ulysses S. Grant defeats
Horatio Seymour in the election. • November 25 – The
Alpha Tau Omega fraternity is founded at the
University of Virginia. • November 27 –
Indian Wars –
Battle of Washita River: In the early morning,
United States Army Lieutenant Colonel
George Armstrong Custer leads an attack on a band of
Cheyenne living on reservation land with
Chief Black Kettle, killing 103 Cheyenne. • December 25 – President
Andrew Johnson grants unconditional pardon to all
Civil War rebels.
Undated •
Maryland School for the Deaf is established. • The
Roman Catholic See of Tucson is established as the
Apostolic Vicariate of Arizona in 1868, taking its territory from the former
Diocese of Santa Fe. The Diocese of Tucson is canonically erected on May 8, 1897.
Ongoing •
Reconstruction era (1865–1877)
Births • January 31 –
Theodore William Richards, chemist, recipient of
Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1914 (died
1928) • February 3 –
William J. Harris, U.S. Senator from Georgia from 1919 to 1932 (died
1932) • February 5 –
Maxine Elliott, actress and businesswoman (died
1940 in France) • February 10 –
William Allen White, journalist (died
1944) • February 16 –
John Rogan, second tallest person in recorded history (died
1905) • February 20 –
John Nathan Cobb, author, naturalist, conservationist, fisheries researcher and educator (died
1930) • February 23 –
W. E. B. Du Bois, African American civil rights leader (died
1963) • April 6 –
Helen Hyde, etcher and engraver (died
1919) • April 8 –
Herbert Spencer Jennings, zoologist (died
1947) • April 12 •
Annie Stevens Perkins, author (unknown year of death) •
Ella Gaunt Smith, doll-maker (died
1932) • April 21 –
Alfred Henry Maurer, modernist painter (suicide
1932) • April 28 –
Hélène de Pourtalès, born Helen Barbey, Olympic sailor (died 1945 in Switzerland) • March 22 –
Robert Millikan, physicist, recipient of
Nobel Prize in Physics in 1923 (died
1953) • May 2 –
Robert W. Wood, optical physicist (died
1955) • May 10 –
Ed Barrow, baseball player and manager (died
1953) • June 4 –
Thomas F. Bayard, Jr., U.S. Senator from Delaware from 1922 to 1929 (died
1942) • June 8 –
Robert Robinson Taylor, first accredited African American architect (died 1942) • June 28 –
John F. Nugent, U.S. Senator from Idaho from 1918 to 1921 (died
1931) • July 4 –
Henrietta Swan Leavitt, astronomer (died
1921) • August 21 –
Vess Ossman, ragtime banjo player (died
1923) • August 23 –
Edgar Lee Masters, poet, biographer, dramatist and lawyer (died
1950) • September 8 –
Seth Weeks, African American jazz mandolin player, composer, arranger and bandleader (died 1953) • September 9 –
Mary Hunter Austin, writer (died
1934) • September 11 –
Henry Justin Allen, U.S. Senator from Kansas from 1929 to 1931 (died 1950) • September 22 –
John T. Raulston, state judge (died
1956) • October 8 –
Coleman Livingston Blease, U.S. Senator from South Carolina from 1925 to 1931 (died 1942) • October 10 –
Anne Hazen McFarland, physician and medical journal editor (unknown year of death) • November 3 –
Harry Grant Dart, cartoonist (died
1938) • November 22 –
John Nance Garner, 32nd
vice president of the United States from 1933 to 1941 (died
1967) • November 23 –
Mary Brewster Hazelton, portrait painter (died 1953) • November 24 –
Scott Joplin, African American ragtime composer and pianist (died
1917) • December 14 –
Louise Hammond Willis Snead, artist, writer, and composer (died
1958) • December 17 –
Frederic M. Sackett, U.S. Senator from Kentucky from 1925 to 1930 (died
1941) • December 19 –
Eleanor H. Porter, novelist (died
1920) • December 25 –
Eugenie Besserer, silent film actress (died
1934) •
date unknown –
Luther Standing Bear, Native American film actor (died
1939) ==Deaths==