1869: Officials and workers of the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific (Leland Stanford)  railways held a ceremony on Promontory Summit, in Utah Territory - approximately 35 miles away from Promontory Point, the site where the rails were joined - to drive in the Golden Spike. The spike symbolized completion of the first transcontinental railroad, an event that connected the nation from coast to coast and reduced a journey of four months or more to just one week. (Source: Library of Congress)

1865: Union troops captured Confederate President Jefferson Davis near Irwinville, Georgia. Davis and his Cabinet had retreated from Richmond after General Lee's defeat at Petersburg on April 2, 1865. For several weeks the Confederate government had been in flight from the Union Army. Davis' plan was to escape by sea from the east coast of Florida and to sail to Texas where he hoped to establish a new Confederacy. (Source: Library of Congress)