The time before
	The Cahokian civilization dissolved around 1400, long before Columbus. The reason is unclear. They were mound builders. St. Louis was nicknamed The Mound City because of the mounds, which do not exist in the city anymore.
13 Nov. 1762	Treaty of Fontainebleau - The French-Indian War, called the Seven-Years War in Europe, is over
1764	The founding of St. Louis by Pierre Laclède, a French fur trader and his stepson, Auguste Chouteau. The city was named after the French King, Louis IX, who was named a saint due to his involvement in the crusades.
1803	The Louisiana Purchase. A vast territory stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to the South, the Mississippi River to the east, across the plains and over the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean.
1804	The Corps of Discovery - The Lewis and Clark expedition.
31 Jan. 1804	Marius Rheinländer is born in Heiligenstadt, Eichsfeld, Germany
14 Oct. 1806	Napoleons wins Battle of Jena and occupies Eichsfeld
16-19 Oct. 1813	Battle of Leipzig (Völkerschlacht) Eichsfeld won back.
18 June 1815	Waterloo - Napoleon is finally defeated.
1814/1816	Terrible crop failures, famine, nerve-fever in Eichsfeld.
10 Aug. 1821	Missouri becomes the 24th state
1822	Mechanical loom in introduced in the Eichsfeld area. Almost everybody is somehow involved in the cloth industry including the Rheinländers. The mechanical loom lead to the unemployment and poverty of millions.
1830	Population of St. Louis: 6,694
1834	The Basilica of Saint Louis, King (the Old Cathedral) is consecrated

The 1840s
1840	Population of St. Louis: 16,649
7 May 1841	Marius arrives to Baltimore on the SS Gustav
	Marius opens a shop in St. Louis
	German newspaper Anzeiger des Westens
	Rev. Johann Peter Fischer orignated from Metz, Germany. On 26 Dec. 1836 he was ordained Deacon at St. Louis Cathedral. On 1 Jan. 1837 he received the holy priesthood. 17 November 1837 he was appointed pastor of New Madrid, but came back to St. Louis in a short time and was assistant at the Cathedral, until he was appointed pastor of St. Mary's Church in 1844. 1856 he left for Europe, never to return.
	Over 2000 arrivals of steamships daily.
	The Jesuits run an academy, which later became St. Louis University, the first west of the Mississippi
20 Dec. 1841	Marius applies for American citizenship
1842	The Whig Party, held control over the St. Louis government. It split into traditional and anti-immigrant factions
	Anna Maria Katharina Fey (age 22) from Weidefeld, Germany comes to St. Louis.
25 Apr. 1843	Marius Rheinländer and Katharina Fey marry. Rev. Johann Fischer performs the ceremony in the Old Cathedral
1843	An omnibus service by entrepreneur Erastus Wells in partnership with an investor named Calvin Case begins. During the late 1840s, other horse-drawn omnibus service companies began operation. The first public transit was an omnibus line established in 1843. It ran from the old National Hotel at Third and Market Streets to the North St. Louis ferry landing at Madison Street. No tracks! By the end of 1850, most of these companies had consolidated with the Case and Wells lines to form Case and Company, which operated 90 carriages and several lines in the city.
5 May 1844	* Oscar is born
1844	The Native American Whigs started a series of riots, beginning with the Jesuit-run Saint Louis University Medical College. A 3,000-strong mob destroyed laboratories, specimens, and furniture at the school.
27 June 1844	The Great Flood
15 Sept. 1844	Ste. Mary of Victories is consecrated 3rd and Mulberry Street by Pastor Fischer as Ste. Mary of Victories, a parish for German immigrants. Bishop Kenrick was also there. It was actually planned to name the church Ste. Marie Pour Les Allemands. (Allemands = German)
17 Apr. 1845	Oscar is vaccinated. Dr. Braches was a neighbor of the Rheinländer
1845	Marius opens a dry goods store at Second St. and Spruce
1845	Assumption Church in Mattis Creek is consecrated
1845	Potato Blight in Ireland - The Great Famine starts
22 Oct. 1846	Marius becomes an American citizen.
1846	Gas lamps for lighting the streets
1845	Postal services: Provisional stamps were issued in St. Louis. National stamps were first produced in 1847.
1847	Telegraph in St. Louis
1848	Marius obtains a water permit
18 May 1848	First National Assembly in Germany
1 Oct. 1848	The House on Myrtle street is finished.
10 Nov. 1848	Bollo, the dog, is born.
1849	Cholera epidemic
17 May 1849	The Great Fire. Looting!!
1849	Irish/Firemen riot
24 July 1849	Emilie Adelhaide is born
10 Oct. 1849	Oscar goes to school
1849	Tremendous immigration from Europe particularly from Ireland and Germany. Many came to St. Louis.

The 1850s
1850	St. Louis population: 77,860
May 1850	Emilie Adelhaide was vaccinated
1850	The sewer system is started
27 Sept. 1850	+ Adelhaide dies
9 Jan. 1851	Bates Theatre opens
10 June 1851	Flood
4 July 1851	Ground was broken on the Pacific Railway
10 July 1851	Daily Missouri Republican announced the final performance at the St. Louis Theatre.
12 Nov. 1851	Lafayette Park is dedicated. It's considered the oldest urban park west of the Mississippi.
6 Oct. 1852	Joseph is assistant priest
6 Dec. 1852	+ Joseph dies
1852	Bavarian Brewery starts near Pestalozzi Street. By 1860, Anheuser had bought out the other investors and the brewery's name was changed to E. Anheuser & Co.
1852	Chouteau's Pond is drained to fight Cholera
17. Feb. 1853	* Louise Ernstine Valentina
May 1853	Pacific Railways reach Kirkwood
1853	Washington Institute founded. 1856 renamed to Washington University
Oct. 1853	The Iron Mountain and Southern Railway starts - leads to the Missouri Pacific Railways
20 May 1854	* Hugo is born
15 June 1854	+ Louise Ernstine Valentina dies of cholera
7 Aug. 1854	No-Nothing Riot: The worst nativist riot in St. Louis took place in 1854. The local militia was used to end the fighting. 10 people were killed, 33 wounded, and 93 buildings were damaged. Regulations on elections prevented fighting in future elections in 1856 and 1858
1 Nov. 1855	Pacific Railways reach Jefferson City (1865 Kansas City) Gasconade Bridge Train Disaster: On a day of rain, an inaugural train carrying some 600 invited visitors and dignitaries, set out from St. Louis. As the train started to pass over the Gasconade Bridge, a 760-foot wooden structure spanning the Gasconade River, the span between the bank and the first pier collapsed. It consisted of temporary trestle work. The engine and all but one of the 15 cars fell off the tracks, some going through the broken wooden timbers, and others rolling down the bank into the river. Thirty-one people were killed, and hundreds were injured, making this the worst railroad disaster in Missouri history.
10 June 1856	Father Fischer, pastor of St. Mary's Church, goes back to Europe. He never returned
1857	Dred Scott Decision
10 May 1857	* William Remy is born
15 March 1858	+ Marinus Rheinlander dies
1859	The first tracks for horse car lines were laid on Olive Street from Fourth to Tenth Streets.
1859	The world balloon distance record reaches 1,150 miles.

The 1860s
1860	St. Louis population: 160,733
1 Jan. 1860	The last slave auction in St. Louis
9 July 1860	First baseball game
5 Nov. 1860	Lincoln is St. Louis (6.11 Election Day) Lincoln won in St. Louis but not Missouri
4 Mar. 1861	Inauguration Abraham Lincoln
9 Apr. 1861	Mother marries again. Wilhelm Plischke, machinist and stone mason, born 1822 in Austria
12 April 1861	Fort Sumter - the Civil war begins.
10-11.05.1861	Battle in St. Louis: On 10 May, Lyon marched on Camp Jackson with about 6,000 Missouri Volunteers and U.S. Regulars. Commander Nathaniel Lyon forced the surrender of the militia, taking 669 prisoners. Lyon placed them under arrest, and began marching them under guard to the Arsenal, where they were paroled and ordered them to disperse. But the lengthy march was seen as humiliating by pro-secession residents of the city. Angry secessionists shouted insults at the Union troops, and threw rocks and debris at them. The heavily German Missouri Volunteer units were particularly targeted, with shouts of "Damn the Dutch!" This eventually led to gunfire. Exactly what provoked the shooting remains unclear. Some 28 people died, including some women and children; 50 more were wounded. The incident sparked several days of disorders animosity in St. Louis. On May 11, Volunteers were fired upon from windows at 5th and Walnut streets; they returned fire into the mob. Col. Henry Boernstein, commander of the 2nd Regiment of Missouri Volunteers, and publisher of the Anzeiger des Westens, a German-language newspaper in St. Louis and, remarked in his memoirs that he gave several of his men leave to visit their families on the morning of May 11 and that, "Most of them did not return... until it grew dark, with clothing torn, faces beaten bloody, and all the signs of having suffered mistreatment... Two of them never returned and they were never heard of again." Rumors spread throughout the city that the Germans were planning to murder the American population of the city; many wealthy St. Louisians fled to Illinois or the Missouri interior.
1 June 1861	+ William dies
30 Aug. 1861	Martial law was imposed, and with the arrival of Federal Regulars to relieve the German volunteers, the violence came to an end.General John C. Fremont arrived in St. Louis in 1861 as commander of the Western Department of the U.S. Army. He declared martial law in St. Louis in an attempt to control tensions and conflicts in the border state town. He confiscated the property of rebels and freed their slaves. Anyone who wanted to leave the city required a pass.
12 Oct. 1861	James B. Eads builds ironclad riverboats for the Union Navy in order to help them wrest the lower Mississippi from the Confederacy. In only 100 days, he built seven ironclad riverboats at the Union Marine Works in Carondelet.
Sept. 1862	The Enrolled Missouri Militia is founded. The Republican Guard joins them as the 8th Regiment.
1862	St. Louis was frequently inundated by wounded soldiers arriving from the battlefields aboard hospital steamboats. Sometimes 800 wounded soldiers or more would arrive in a single day. The city's streets were filled with walking sick and wounded from "the levee on Chestnut Street up to the Planters House [Hotel] on 4th Street." Early in the war, the Confederate wounded POWs arriving on steamboat went to the Sisters of Charity Hospital and the Union wounded were sent to the City Hospital. A number of other hospitals were also used. In 1862, Jefferson Barracks was converted into a military hospital with more than 3,000 beds for Union soldiers.
1862	Hoelke and Benecke photo studio in business
18 May 1863	Vicksburg - until 4 July 1863
1864	The "old" courthouse including dome is finished. Building started in 1839
9 Apr. 1865	The Civil War ends
14 Apr. 1865	Lincoln is assassinated
&nsbp;	Oscar is a clerk / salesman at Rohlfing, Toben & Co.
1866	Cholera - 3500 died
28 May 1867	Oscar marries Lisette Helmerichs
	Oscar is a clerk at A. Reinders
date	Mary Linde was born
1868	Sewage system
1868	Henry Shaw donates Tower Grove Park 289 acres.

The 1870s
1860	St. Louis population: 310,869
26 Apr. 1870	* Bernard Albert is born
19 July 1870	Franco-Prussian War (until 10 May 1871)
8 Aug.1871	Tornado 3pm
26 Aug. 1871	Hugo is born
12 May 1873	* Frederika Louise (Lulu) is born
Sept. 1873	Panic of 1873
4 July 1874	Eads Bridge: A "test elephant" was led on a stroll across the new Eads Bridge to prove it was safe. It was believed that elephants had instincts that would keep them from setting foot on unsafe structures. Two weeks later, Eads sent 14 locomotives back and forth across the bridge at one time. The opening day celebration on July 4, 1874 featured a parade that stretched fifteen miles through the streets of St. Louis.
14 Feb. 1875	Lulu is very ill
1875	Oscar clerk at Joseph Emanual & Co. His residence was 710 Lafayette
6 May 1875	Brown Stockings vs. Chicago White Sox (10 to 0)
19 Aug. 1875	* Henrietta is born
1876	Forest Park opens
1876	Mark Twain publishes Tom Sawyer
25 Jan. 1877	* Eddie is born
28 June 1877	Railroad Strike
28 July 1877	General strike St. Louis
8 Oct. 1878	First Veiled Prophet
21 April 1879	* Jose Arthur

The 1880s
1880	St. Louis population: 350,318
2 March 1881	* Lisette Francis is born
4 April 1883	* Paul Rudolf is born
1884	An ordinance enacted in 1884 authorized the use of the streets for the sale of electricity on payment of a five percent gross receipts tax to the City. Before the end of the decade, electric lights became commonplace in St. Louis.
08.08.1884	+ Edward Marinus Rheinlander
16.09.1884	* Julia Hermina is born
30.05.1885	Oscar's mother (Catharina Rheinl‰nder/Plischke) dies
1886	The copper statue, designed by FrÈdÈric Auguste Bartholdi, a French sculptor, was built by Gustave Eiffel and dedicated on October 28, 1886. It was a gift to the United States from the people of France.
1887	Electric trolley car lines began operation.
21.05.1889	Aunt Fey dies
09.07.1889	Irene is born

The 1890s
1890	St. Louis population: 451,770
1891	Skyscrapers: One of the tall buildings built during this period was the Wainwright building, designed by Louis Sullivan in 1891 as one of the first steel frame structures built in the nation.
1892	A baseball team called St. Louis Browns is founded
6-11 June 1892	Barnum & Bailey's Circus come to St. Louis. Starting in the 1870s (then called "Barnum's Grand Travelling Museum" the circus visited St. Louis regularly.
1893	Smoke pollution legistrature
04.09.1894	Union Station
27 May 1896	The third most deadly tornado in US history hit St. Louis. Tornado 255 killed, 1000 injured. Over 300 buildings were completely destroyed, over 7000 damaged.
1896	Forest Park Highlands opens
	During the late nineties the first automobiles made their appearance on St. Louis streets.

The 1900s
1900	St. Louis population: 575,238
	The Browns become the Cardinals (now National League). A Team from Milwaukee comes to St. Louis (American League) and calls themselves the Browns
23 Apr. 1902	Sportsman's Park opens
1902	Schwarz Printing Co. is founded
17.12.1903	First motor powered flight at Kitty Hawk by the Wright brothers
30 Apr. - 1 Dec. 1904 06.10.1904 German Day	The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, informally known as the St. Louis World's Fair, was an international exposition held in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1904. German Day Prince Hohenloh and Mrs. Adolphus Busch head the delegation.184.000 people on that day
1908	Construction of St. Louis' tallest building starts. 20 stories. Famous Barr moves in

The 1910s
1910	St. Louis population: 687,029
21. Apr 1910	Mark Twain dies
1910	Birth of a Nation, a silent film
1912	Sheldon Memorial is built.
1914	A new Skyscraper - the Railway Exchange Building
28 June 1914	Prince Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated in Sarajevo. World War I starts in Europe
7 May 1915	The Lusitania was sunk by a German submarine
6 Apr. 1917	Congress declares war against Germany
1917	Victoria Theatre loses
5 Sept. 1917	+ Joseph Oscar Rheinlander dies
7 Dec. 1918	+ Lisette (Helmerichs) Rheinlander dies.
19 June 1919	The Treaty of Versailles is signed. The Great War is over