1860-1870 1860 Slave ownership peaks at less than 5% of Southern whites. 1860 Internal combustion engine invented by Frenchman Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir. 1860 Pony Express riders leave Sacramento, CA and St. Joseph, MO on 1st ride. 1860 South Carolina becomes first state to secede from Union, Dec 20. 1861 Other states join SC in secession. 1861 Kansas admitted as 34th state on Jan 29. 1861 Abraham Lincoln becomes 16th President on March 4. 1861 Civil War begins at Fort Sumter, Charleston, SC, April 12. 1861 Congress enacts illegal income tax August 2, on incomes more than $800. 1861 Pony Express is replaced by first transcontinental telegraph. 1862 Jefferson Davis inaugurated as President of the Confederacy, Feb. 22. 1862 Battle of Shiloh, April 6, named for a church on the battlefield. 1862 The Homestead Act, May 20, contributes to development in ND, SD, and OK. 1863 West Virginia breaks from VA and is admitted as 35th state, May 20. 1863 Lincoln issues The Emancipation Proclamation. 1864 Lincoln posed for photograph which appears on $5 bill, Feb 9. 1864 Andersonville Prison POW camp opened by Confederate Army in Feb. 1864 H.L. Hunley submarine sinks federal corvette Housatonic, Feb 17. 1864 In God We Trust put on American coins for the first time April 22. 1864 Nevada admitted as 36th state on Oct 31. 1864 Massacre of Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians at Sand Creek, CO, Nov 29. 1865 13th amendment abolishes slavery. 1865 Abraham Lincoln takes oath on March 4 for second term of Presidency. 1865 Lee surrenders to Grant at Appomattox on Palm Sunday, April 9. 1865 Lincoln shot by Boothe April 14, dies next day. 1865 Andrew Johnson takes oath on April 15 as 17th President. 1865 Sultana explodes on Mississippi river, April 27. More than 1,500 killed. 1865 Confederate Army surrenders at Shreveport, LA; Civil War ends May 26. 1865 Last shot of Civil War fired by CSS Shenandoah in Bering Sea, June 22. 1866 Alfred Nobel invents dynamite. 1867 Nebraska admitted as 37th state on Mar 1. 1867 British North American Union creates the Dominion of Canada. 1867 US buys Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million. 1868 14th amendment prohibits voting discrimination. 1868 Transcontinental railroad completed. 1869 Ulysses S. Grant takes oath on March 4 as 18th President. 1869 Railroad airbrake patent issued to George Westinghouse. 1869 Suez Canal completed.