South Carolina Timeline of Events

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South Carolina

South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence from the British Crown during the American Revolution...

Timeline of Events

1776

3.15.1776

South Carolina becomes the first American colony to declare its independence from Great Britain and set up its own government.

1778

2.5.1778

South Carolina becomes the first state to ratify the Articles of Confederation.

1780

10.7.1780

American Revolutionary War: Battle of Kings Mountain American Patriot militia defeat Loyalist irregulars led by British colonel Patrick Ferguson in South Carolina.

1788

5.23.1788

South Carolina ratifies the Constitution as the 8th American state.

1832

1.13.1832

President Andrew Jackson writes to Vice President Martin Van Buren expressing his opposition to South Carolina's defiance of federal authority in the Nullification Crisis.

1856

5.22.1856

Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina beats Senator Charles Sumner with a cane in the hall of the United States Senate for a speech Sumner had made attacking Southerners who sympathized with the pro-slavery violence in Kansas ("Bleeding Kansas").

1860

12.20.1860

South Carolina becomes the first state to secede from the United States.

1861

1.18.1861

American Civil War: Georgia joins South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, and Alabama in seceding from the United States.

1863

9.6.1863

American Civil War: Confederates evacuate Battery Wagner and Morris Island in South Carolina.

1870

12.12.1870

Joseph H. Rainey of South Carolina becomes the first black U.S. congressman.

1888

4.6.1888

Thomas Green Clemson dies, bequeathing his estate to the State of South Carolina to establish Clemson Agricultural College.

1916

2.29.1916

Child labor: In South Carolina, the minimum working age for factory, mill, and mine workers is raised from twelve to fourteen years old.

1989

9.21.1989

Hurricane Hugo makes landfall in the U.S. state of South Carolina.

1995

8.15.1995

In South Carolina, Shannon Faulkner becomes the first female cadet matriculated at The Citadel (she drops out less than a week later).