August's immediate relatives including parents, siblings, partnerships and children in the Geissel family tree.

August's Family

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Refresh this page to see various historical events that occurred during August's lifetime.

In 1827, in the year that August Geissel was born, Englishman John Walker invented the first friction match, which he named Lucifer. The match consisted of a wooden stick coated with sulphur and tipped with a mixture of sulphide of antimony, chlorate of potash, and gum. A box of 50 matches was one shilling and came with folded sandpaper to use to strike a match.

In 1856, at the age of 29 years old, August was alive when on January 26th the Battle of Seattle occurred. Marines from the ship the USS Decatur, stationed in Elliott Bay, along with about 50 Seattle settlers, fought Native Americans in the area. Territorial Governor Isaac Stevens had declared a "war of extermination" on Native communities 5 days before.

In 1878, by the time he was 51 years old, on June 15th, photographer Eadweard Muybridge - at the request of Leland Stanford - produced the first sequence of stop-motion still photographs. Stanford contended that a galloping horse had all four feet off the ground. Only photos of a horse at a gallop would settle the question and, using 12 cameras and a series of photos, Muybridge settled the question: Stanford was right. Muybridge's use of several cameras and stills led to motion pictures.

In 1896, by the time he was 69 years old, on May 18th, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson. By a vote of 7 to 1, the Court upheld state racial segregation laws, introducing the idea of "separate but equal" facilities for races.

In 1901, in the year of August Geissel's passing, John Pierpont "J. P." Morgan created U.S. Steel. J.P. Morgan was an American banker and financier who dominated U.S. business at this time. He had previously overseen the creation of General Electric, as well as International Harvester and AT&T. He has been referred to as America's greatest banker. U.S. Steel was the first billion dollar company in the world, worth $1.4 billion in 1901.