Wednesday, January 10, 2018

In what years…? By E. AYERS



The hardest thing for me to keep track of is exact dates. It least I can remember July 4, 1776, beyond that I'd better have a list someplace. So I thought I'd share one of my lists with all of you. Besides if I'm not writing, I'm probably reading. And I'll be honest; I can get so confused so quickly if I can't remember certain dates. I was one of those kids who couldn't remember most of this stuff anyway. Give me something about the way they lived and I could snap that into my brain's storage files faster than Jack Sprat could jump that candle stick. Give me a date and I couldn't remember it long enough to write it down! I haven't improved one iota over the years. In fact, I've managed to get the birth dates of the grandchildren mixed up. (Oh was I in trouble when I did that!)
Keeping lists is important to me otherwise I can screw up even a poem that is supposed to help us remember. In 1642 Columbus sailed the ocean blue. That's totally wrong. I have to look it up each time! It's 1492. I remembered the one, four, and two! Do I get credit for anything? (And why are we celebrating Columbus? Never mind, that's a whole different time in history and a whole different story.) So I keep timelines on my computer and Wikipedia has a very comprehensive one. I figured I'd share with you the one that I use frequently now that I'm writing about American history. The dates are when the states were admitted or ratified. That's why the gap between the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the formation of the first 13 states. I like this list because it tells which piece of land became which state.

State
Order
Date
From
 Delaware
1
December 7, 1787
Crown Colony of Delaware
 Pennsylvania
2
December 12, 1787
Crown Colony of Pennsylvania
 New Jersey
3
December 18, 1787
Crown Colony of New Jersey
 Georgia
4
January 2, 1788
Crown Colony of Georgia
 Connecticut
5
January 9, 1788
Crown Colony of Connecticut
 Massachusetts
6
February 6, 1788
Crown Colony of Massachusetts Bay
 Maryland
7
April 28, 1788
Crown Colony of Maryland
 South Carolina
8
May 23, 1788
Crown Colony of South Carolina
 New Hampshire
9
June 21, 1788
Crown Colony of New Hampshire
 Virginia
10
June 25, 1788
Crown Colony of Virginia
 New York
11
July 26, 1788
Crown Colony of New York
 North Carolina
12
November 21, 1789
Crown Colony of North Carolina
 Rhode Island
13
May 29, 1790
Crown Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations
 Vermont
14
March 4, 1791
Vermont Republic (AKA New Hampshire Grants)
 Kentucky
15
June 1, 1792
Virginia (District of Kentucky: Fayette, Jefferson, and Lincoln counties)
 Tennessee
16
June 1, 1796
Southwest Territory
 Ohio
17
March 1, 1803
Northwest Territory
 Louisiana
18
April 30, 1812
Territory of Orleans
 Indiana
19
December 11, 1816
Indiana Territory
 Mississippi
20
December 10, 1817
Mississippi Territory
 Illinois
21
December 3, 1818
Illinois Territory
 Alabama
22
December 14, 1819
Alabama Territory
 Maine
23
March 15, 1820
Massachusetts (District of Maine)
 Missouri
24
August 10, 1821
Missouri Territory
 Arkansas
25
June 15, 1836
Arkansas Territory
 Michigan
26
January 26, 1837
Michigan Territory
 Florida
27
March 3, 1845
Florida Territory
 Texas
28
December 29, 1845
Republic of Texas
 Iowa
29
December 28, 1846
Iowa Territory (part)
 Wisconsin
30
May 29, 1848
Wisconsin Territory (part)
 California
31
September 9, 1850
unorganized territory (part)
 Minnesota
32
May 11, 1858
Minnesota Territory (part)
 Oregon
33
February 14, 1859
Oregon Territory (part)
 Kansas
34
January 29, 1861
Kansas Territory (part)
 West Virginia
35
June 20, 1863
Virginia (Trans-Allegheny region counties
 Nevada
36
October 31, 1864
Nevada Territory
 Nebraska
37
March 1, 1867
Nebraska Territory
 Colorado
38
August 1, 1876
Colorado Territory
 North Dakota
39
November 2, 1889
Dakota Territory
 South Dakota
40
November 2, 1889
Dakota Territory
 Montana
41
November 8, 1889
Montana Territory
 Washington
42
November 11, 1889
Washington Territory
 Idaho
43
July 3, 1890
Idaho Territory
 Wyoming
44
July 10, 1890
Wyoming Territory
 Utah
45
January 4, 1896
Utah Territory
 Oklahoma
46
November 16, 1907
Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory
 New Mexico
47
January 6, 1912
New Mexico Territory
 Arizona
48
February 14, 1912
Arizona Territory
 Alaska
49
January 3, 1959
Territory of Alaska
 Hawaii
50
August 21, 1959
Territory of Hawaii

Here are a few other important dates:

Civil War
1861-1865
Begins at Fort Sumter, the seaport of Charleston, SC, Ap 12, 1861
Ends when Lee surrenders to Grant at Appomattox Court House, VA. May 13, 1865

Transcontinental RR
1863-1869
Started in 1863 and completed May 10 1869

WWI
1914-1918
July 28,1914 - Nov 11, 1918

Great Depression
1929-1939
Stock Market crash
Oct 29,1929

Dust Bowl
1930 -1936

WWII
Sept 1, 1939-Sept 2,1945
Pearl Harbor
Dec 7,1941

Vietnam War
Nov1, 1955 - Ap 30, 1975

Hope these lists help you as you read and write about American history. They are far from complete because so many important things have happened. There no dates for the Wright brother's first flight or the first automobiles. I could have written fifty pages worth of important and interesting dates such as the death of Wild Bill Hickok, Lincoln's assassination, our presidents, the first telephones, or a gazillion other things. Instead I tried to just give a few of the bigger things along the way. 

9 comments:

  1. Dates--specific dates in American History are not that important to most of us..BUT..the century is important, which is what I usually keep in mind. And we can always say "mid-century," "early century," etc.
    Thanks..I will return and read this again....

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  2. Interesting post, Elizabeth. Unlike Celia, I am interested in the dates. You can't have the heroine arrive by train when the train hadn't reached that area, etc. For instance, I almost had my hero's home have a windmill before they were available that far west. Oops.

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  3. Oh, I know! It's very difficult sometimes. And supplies often came by train and not by coach. We think nothing of ordering things and they arrive by US mail. They weren's as lucky back then. Even news traveled slowly. And just because it was invented, didn't make it available. :-(

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  4. Thanks, Elizabeth for the historical list of dates. It's copied and filed in my reference files. So true about when something was invented and when and where it was available. Even though we write fiction, for the story to be believable and keep our readers happy, dates must be accurate as well as so many other historical facts such as clothing, settings, events, etc. Keeps us authors on our toes! LOL

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  5. Thanks, Elizabeth, for the dates. Copied and in my reference files. Even though we write fiction, our historical dates, as well as historical settings, clothing, events, etc. must be accurate for our story to be believable and keep our readers happy.

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  6. Thanks, Elizabeth for the list of dates - copied and filed for reference. Even though we write fiction, when it comes to accuracy of dates as well as clothing, events, settings, etc. we'd better be right or our readers won't be happy! Keeps us on our toes! LOL

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    Replies
    1. I love it here because I know that we all spend so much time trying to get history right. So checking here for previous posts is faster than spending hours looking for some little tidbit that we need when we write.

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  7. BTW, I try to read most if not all of our SOTW blogs and write comments thinking they were published. Lately I've noticed they weren't showing up and figured out it was because I somehow was signed out of blogger. Frustrating!

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    Replies
    1. The number of times I've hit the wrong button... It's so frustrating! Especially when you've taken the time to respond to something.

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