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Dateline 1863!
The year 1863 was a particularly memorable one in both American and world history. It was 150 years ago that the world's first underground railroad opened in London; the dome of the United States Capitol was finished; the National Academy of Sciences was created; both Arizona Territory and Idaho Territory were created; West Virginia was admitted to the Union; Jules Verne published Five Weeks in a Ballon; and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow first published the poem Paul Revere's Ride. It was also the midpoint of the Civil War. Read about some of the other memorable events of that year below:
- January 1: Abraham Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation
- January 3: Thomas Nast's first drawing of the modern Santa Claus is published
- January 8: The first U.S. transcontinental railroad is begun in California
- April 29: William Randolph Hearst is born
- May 1-4: The Battle of Chancellorsville is fought
- May 26: The Siege of Vicksburg begins
- May 28: The 54th Massachusetts leaves Boston to fight for the Union
- July 1-3: The Battle of Gettysburg is fought
- July 4: The Battle of Vicksburg begins
- July 13: The New York Draft Riots begin 3 days of violence in New York City
- July 30: Henry Ford is born
- August 21: Quantrill's Raiders kill 200 men and boys at the Battle of Lawrence
- September 19-20: The Battle of Chickamauga is fought
- October 3: Lincoln designates the last Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day
- October 26: The Football Association is formed in London
- November 19: Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address
- November 23: The Battle of Chattanooga begins
- December 12: The painter Edvard Munch is born