Timeline

November 18, 1883
Railroads create the first time zones
At exactly noon on this day, American and Canadian railroads begin using four continental time zones to end the confusion of dealing with thousands of local times. The bold move was emblematic of the power shared by the railroad companies.
The need for continental time zones stemmed directly from the problems of moving passengers and freight over the thousands of miles of rail line that covered North America by the 1880s. Since human beings had first begun keeping track of time, they set their clocks to the local movement of the sun. Even as late as the 1880s, most towns in the U.S. had their own local time, generally based on "high noon," or the time when the sun was at its highest point in the sky. As railroads began to shrink the travel time between cities from days or months to mere hours, however, these local times became a scheduling nightmare. Railroad timetables in major cities listed dozens of different arrival and departure times for the same train, each linked to a different local time zone.
Efficient rail transportation demanded a more uniform time-keeping system. Rather than turning to the federal governments of the United States and Canada to create a North American system of time zones, the powerful railroad companies took it upon themselves to create a new time code system. The companies agreed to divide the continent into four time zones; the dividing lines adopted were very close to the ones we still use today.
Most Americans and Canadians quickly embraced their new time zones, since railroads were often their lifeblood and main link with the rest of the world. However, it was not until 1918 that Congress officially adopted the railroad time zones and put them under the supervision of the Interstate Commerce Commission.

November 18, 1886
Chester Arthur dies in New York
On this day in 1886, former President Chester Alan Arthur succumbs to complications from a debilitating and fatal kidney ailment known as Bright’s Disease. In the words of former President Rutherford B. Hayes, Arthur’s term as president was most notable for "liquor, snobbery and worse." Although he had been ambitious as a young man, he was considered by many of his contemporaries to have been a lazy and "foppish" president.
The precocious and bright young Arthur wanted to become a lawyer and enrolled in Union College in New York at the age of 15. He later supported himself by teaching school while he earned his law degree. In 1848, he went to work as a lawyer in New York City. During the Civil War, he served as quartermaster general for the state of New York, overseeing the purchase of supplies for the state’s military depots. His political career began when Ulysses S. Grant appointed him port collector for New York’s harbors in 1871. Arthur’s penchant for staffing his office with Republican political cronies resulted in his firing by President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1878. After being chosen as James Garfield’s vice-presidential running mate in 1880, Arthur decided to straighten up his act and denounced the political patronage system. The campaign was successful.
That same year, Arthur’s beloved wife Ellen became ill and lapsed into a coma. Arthur was away in upstate New York when he was notified of her illness, but had returned to be by her side by the time of her death. In March 1881, Arthur’s close friend and boss, President James Garfield, was shot by a crazed assassin named Charles Guiteau. Garfield lingered for four months, leaving Arthur’s political role in limbo. Just as Garfield appeared to be on the verge of recovery, though, he took a turn for the worse, finally succumbing to his wounds on September 2, and thrusting Arthur into presidency.
Some historians have suggested that the lethargy Arthur displayed as president was in fact the result of his struggle with Bright’s Disease. Also called nephritis, the disease causes the degeneration of kidney cells, swelling, high blood pressure and, eventually, kidney failure. It can be brought on by infection. (Arthur had reportedly picked up a case of malaria while vacationing in Florida in 1882.) His doctors diagnosed the disease in 1882 but kept it secret since it was not in an advanced stage.
In addition to being considered a lazy administrator, Arthur’s lifestyle apart from politics was perceived by many as frivolous. It was suggested in some social circles that Arthur’s heavy drinking and eating was his way of alleviating his heartbreak over his wife’s death. Arthur served only one term from 1881 to 1885 and upon retirement returned to his home in New York. He never remarried. After leaving the White House, his battle with Bright’s Disease turned critical. He passed away on November 18, 1886.

Roller Skating
Roller-skating was introduced in 1863, and it was quickly made fashionable by the elite of New York City. The 1870’ rinks with hard maple had built floors in nearly every town and city. By paying an admission fee of twenty-five or fifty cents, men, women, and children could participate in races, fancy skating, or dancing on skates. Special skating dresses, which allowed more freedom of movement, became popular by the 1870’. Indicative of the extent of the craze was this wry comment by the editors of Harper’sweekly, in the form of a potential gravestone inscription for a departed skater:
Our Jane has climbed the golden stair
And passed the jasper gates;
Henceforth she will have wings to wear,
Instead of roller skates.
The popularity of roller skating waned by the 1890’s, but like ice skating it helped lead to more freedom in dress and behavior for women.

Industrial Inventions of the Victorian Era
1819 Scotland - Thomas Hancock and Charles Macintosh invent a waterproof material.
1821 London - The electric motor is invented by British scientist Michael Faraday. Though trained in Chemistry he took an interest in electricity and took the discovery of Oersted that the flow of electricity through a wire produces a magnetic field around the wire.
1823 Britain - William Ellis invents the game of Rugby
1823 Manchester - Charles Macintosh invents the waterproof raincoat which comes to be known as a "Mac"
1825 The first railway in the world designed for steam locomotives begins operations in England. With construction beginning in 1821, it was primarily the design of George Stephenson.
1827 John Dalton of England develops the first atomic theory, published in his New System of Chemical Philosophy.
1833 Charles Babbage invents the Analytical Engine in England. It is the world's first programmable "calculator".
1836 Isaac Pitman develops the written language of shorthand in Bath.
1874 The game of Tennis is invented in England by Major Wingfield though it is considered a "ladies game".
1884 The machine gun is invented by Maxim in London.

December 5, 1873
The Boston Belfry Murderer kills his first victim
Bridget Landregan is found beaten and strangled to death in the Boston suburb of Dorchester. According to witnesses, a man in black clothes and a flowing cape attempted to sexually assault the dead girl before running away. In 1874, a man fitting the same description clubbed another young girl, Mary Sullivan, to death. His third victim, Mary Tynan, was bludgeoned in her bed in 1875. Although she survived for a year after the severe attack, she was never able to identify her attacker.
Residents of Boston were shocked to learn that the killer had been among them all along. Thomas Piper, the sexton at the Warren Avenue Baptist Church, was known for his flowing black cape, but because he was friendly with the parishioners, nobody suspected his involvement. But when five-year-old Mabel Young, who was last seen with the sexton, was found dead in the church's belfry in the summer of 1876, Piper became the prime suspect. Young's skull had been crushed with a wooden club.
Piper, who was dubbed "The Boston Belfry Murderer," confessed to the four killings after his arrest. He was convicted and sentenced to die, and he was hanged in 1876.

November 26, 1872
The Great Diamond Hoax is exposed
The Great Diamond Hoax, one of the most notorious mining swindles of the time, is exposed with an article in the San Francisco Evening Bulletin.
Fraudulent gold and silver mines were common in the years following the California Gold Rush of 1849. Swindlers fooled many eager greenhorns by "salting" worthless mines with particles of gold dust to make them appear mineral-rich. However, few con men were as daring as Kentucky cousins Philip Arnold and John Slack, who convinced San Francisco capitalists to invest in a worthless mine in the northwestern corner of Colorado.
Arnold and Slack played their con perfectly. They arrived in San Francisco in 1872 and tried to deposit a bag of uncut diamonds at a bank. When questioned, the two men quickly disappeared, acting as if they were reluctant to talk about their discovery. Intrigued, a bank director named William Ralston tracked down the men. Assuming he was dealing with unsophisticated country bumpkins, he set out to take control of the diamond mine. The two cousins agreed to take a blindfolded mining expert to the site; the expert returned to report that the mine was indeed rich with diamonds and rubies.
Joining forces with a number of other prominent San Francisco financiers, Ralston formed the New York Mining and Commercial Company, capitalized at $10 million, and began selling stock to eager investors. As a show of good faith, Arnold and Slack received about $600,000-small change in comparison to the supposed value of the diamond mine. Convinced that the American West must have many other major deposits of diamonds, at least 25 other diamond exploration companies formed in the subsequent months.
Clarence King, the then-little-known young leader of a geographical survey of the 40th parallel, finally exposed the cousins' diamond mine as a hoax. A brilliant geologist and mining engineer, King was suspicious of the mine from the start. He correctly deduced the location of the supposed mine, raced off to investigate, and soon realized that the swindlers had salted the mine--some of the gems he found even showed jewelers-cut marks.
Back in San Francisco, King exposed the fraud in the newspapers and the Great Diamond Hoax collapsed. Ralston returned $80,000 to each of his investors, but he was never able to recover the $600,000 given to the two cousins. Arnold lived out the few remaining years of his life in luxury in Kentucky before dying of pneumonia in 1878. Slack apparently squandered his share of the money, for he was last reported working as a coffin maker in New Mexico. King's role in exposing the fraud brought him national recognition--he became the first director of the United States Geological Survey.