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1840
June 10, 1847: Chicago Daily Tribune publishes first edition.

Aug. 30, 1847: Cyrus McCormick establishes reaper works in Chicago.

Jan. 24, 1848: Discovery of gold in California.

April 10, 1848: Illinois and Michigan Canal opens.

Nov. 20, 1848: Inaugural run of Galena & Chicago Union Railroad

1850
July 5, 1854: Cholera epidemic in Chicago intensifies; eventually claims 1,424 victims.

June 18, 1855: Joseph Medill and partners buy Tribune and make it a leading anti-slavery voice.

Dec. 31, 1855: Chicago begins project to raise streets (and buildings) out of muck; completion takes decades.

March 6, 1857: Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision sharpens divisions on slavery.

Aug. 21, 1858: First of seven Lincoln-Douglas debates. Tribune reports the debates in full.


1860
May 18, 1860: Abraham Lincoln nominated, with critical push from Tribune, for president at Republican Convention in Chicago.

April 12, 1861: Confederates attack Ft. Sumter in Charleston, S.C., starting Civil War.

Jan. 1, 1863: Emancipation Proclamation takes effect.

June 1, 1863: Armed guards protect Tribune building from Southern sympathizers.

April 9, 1865: Gen. Robert E. Lee surrenders to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox (Va.) Court House.

April 14, 1865: Lincoln assassinated.

Dec. 25, 1865: Union Stock Yards open on Chicago’s South Side.

Oct. 12, 1868: Marshall Field opens his first State Street store.

May 10, 1869: Transcontinental railroad completed in Utah.

1870
Oct. 8, 1871: Chicago Fire leaves nearly 300 dead, 90,000 homeless and 17,450 buildings destroyed.

Oct. 11, 1871: Tribune leads fight for city’s recovery with “CHEER UP” editorial.
Nov. 7, 1871: Medill elected mayor of Chicago.

April 25, 1876: Chicago White Stockings (later Cubs) play their first National League baseball game in Louisville–and win (4-0).

May 24, 1879: Chicago Academy of Fine Arts (later renamed Art Institute of Chicago) incorporated.