1847, FEBRUARY 22. The battle of Buena Vista was fought. It lasted two days. The Mexicans, under Santa Anna, were defeated by the Americans under General Taylor.

1847, MARCH 9.-General Scott with his army landed at Vera Cruz, and with the fleet, under Commodore Connor, invested the town.

On the 29th the fort and town surrendered. It had been bombarded nine days. 1847, MARCH 29.- Vera Cruz was captured by the Americans under General Scott.

1847, APRIL 18.-The battle of Cerro Gordo was fought.

It occurred in a pass on the road from Vera Cruz to the city of Mexico, towards which General Scott was advancing. The Mexicans were commanded by Santa Anna. The battle lasted two days, and was one of the most decisive of the war, the Mexicans being defeated.

1847. THE type-revolving press was patented by Richard M. Hoe.

The type set on cylinders, revolves. The ten-cylinder presses, which make the printing of the modern newspaper possible, were the outgrowth of this invention.

1847, APRIL 19.- General Scott with his army entered Jalapa. Four days after, the castle of Perote, the strongest fortress after Vera Cruz in Mexico, was in possession of the Americans.

1847, MAY 8.—The battle of Palo Alto was fought.

The Mexicans, under General Arista, were defeated. The next day, the battle of Resaca de la Palma took place, in which again General Taylor was victorious, the Mexicans retreating across the Rio Grande.

1847, AUGUST.-General Scott with his army reached the city of Mexico, and made an armistice with Santa Anna for the purpose of negotiating a peace.

In September hostilities began again, each party accusing the other of violating the armistice.

1847, AUGUST 20.-The battle of Churubusco was fought.

The Mexicans, under Santa Anna, retreated towards the city of Mexico, and General Scott continued his advance with his army.

1847. THE National Era appeared in Washington.

It was published by Dr. Gamaliel Bailey, and was in the interest of the abolition party. In 1851 Uncle Tom's Cabin appeared in it as a serial. The National Era was a continuation of The Philanthropist, which Dr. Bailey, with James C. Birney, had printed in Cincinnati, where it was several times mobbed, but was continued until Dr. Bailey moved to Washington and commenced the National Era. This was also mobbed.

1847. GOLD was discovered in California.

1847-57.—THE government paid only gold coin.

1847. THE Springfield Republican appeared in Springfield, Massachusetts.

It was published by Samuel Bowles & Co.

1847, AUGUST 20. The battle of Contreras took place in Mexico.

It was fought in the night. The Mexicans were commanded by General Valencia, and were defeated by the Americans under General Scott.

1847. SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, was founded by the Mormons. Brigham Young, with an advance party, reached Salt Lake Valley, in Utah. The rest of the community did not arrive until the next autumn.

1847, AUGUST 31.- Illinois accepted her present constitution. 1847. GENEVA COLLEGE admitted a woman student to the medical department.

The other medical colleges had all refused. The student was Elizabeth Blackwell, who, after her graduation in 1849, completed her studies in Paris.

1847. A PATENT for a power-loom to make Brussels and tapestry carpets was granted to Erastus B. Bigelow.

1847, SEPTEMBER 8. The battle of El Molino del Rey was fought.

The Americans were the attacking party, and were eventually victorious. 1847, SEPTEMBER 13.-The fortress of Chapultepec was carried by storm.

It commanded the city of Mexico. Its capture by the Americans, under General Scott, practically ended the Mexican war.

1847. AN appropriation was made for the survey of the government mineral lands in Michigan.

Dr. C. T. Jackson was made superintendent of the survey.

1848, JANUARY 1.-Girard College was opened in Philadelphia.

It was founded for the education of orphan boys from a bequest of two million dollars left by Stephen Girard. By his special provisions the pupils are taught morality, but all dogmatic religious instruction was forbidden. No minister, missionary, or ecclesiastic was ever to have anything to do with the institution, or even to be admitted as a visitor.

1848, FEBRUARY 1.-A convention at Madison City accepted a constitution for the state of Wisconsin.

It was ratified by the people of the state March 14, and the same year the state was admitted to the Union.

1848, FEBRUARY 2. A treaty of peace between Mexico and the United States was made at Guadalupe Hidalgo.

It was negotiated by Mr. Trist, who had been authorized by the President to make a treaty, and the Mexican commissioners. By it the Rio Grande was acknowledged as the boundary between Mexico and the United States, and New Mexico and California were ceded to the United States, who agreed to pay Mexico fifteen millions of dollars, and assume the payment of American claims for an amount not to exceed three and a quarter millions. The treaty was ratified by both governments, and proclaimed by the President of the United States July 4, 1848.

1848. THE Illinois and Michigan Canal was finished.

The work had been begun the 4th of July, 1836.

1848. A MEETING was held at Seneca Falls, New York, to inaugurate the movement for the political equality of women.

It was called by Mrs. Lucretia Mott and Mrs. E. C. Stanton. The same year another meeting for the same purpose was held at Rochester, New York, and a third at Salem, Ohio. This last was conducted entirely by women.

1848. THE New York State Agricultural Society had a trial of reapers at their fair in Buffalo.

The machines were thought to be unequal to the common scythe. 1848.

ONE thousand pounds of guano were imported.

The next year over 21,000 pounds were imported, and between 1860 and 1870, 387,585 tons. The first guano imported into England consisted of twenty casks sent there in 1840. In 1841, 2000 tons were carried there. Attention had been called to the value of guano as a fertilizer by Humboldt and Sir Humphrey Davy.

1848, MARCH.-The "spirit rapping" phenomenon began in the house of John D. Fox, in Hydesville, New York.

It was on the 31st of the month that the two daughters, near whose bed the noises occurred, first attempted to have the "spirits" answer questions. Soon after, the family removed to Rochester, and there the table-tipping, &c., began, and in November, 1849, a public meeting was called to investigate the subject, at which the Misses Fox made their first public appearance.

1848. AFTER the treaty between the United States and Mexico, Santa Anna was again banished, and Herrera was appointed president.

1848, JULY. A school for the instruction of idiots was opened at Barre, Massachusetts.

Dr. Hervey B. Wilbur was the instructor. In 1851 permanent institutions were organized by the states of Massachusetts and New York, and in 1857 Ohio and Pennsylvania organized institutions.

1848, OCTOBER 25.-The works for supplying Boston, Massachusetts, with water from Cochituate Lake were completed.

The aqueduct is twenty-three miles long. The works were begun in 1846.