Cyril Johson (1849 - 1976)

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

In 1849, in the year that Cyril Johson was born, on April 22nd, Patrick Kennedy - great-grandfather of President John Kennedy - arrived in the United States. He was the 3rd born son of an Irish farmer and he knew that he wouldn't be given the chance to run the family farm. So he emigrated to Massachusetts and became a cooper. After only 10 years in the US, he died of cholera at age 35.

In 1854, at the age of merely 5 years old, Cyril was alive when on May 30th, the Kansas–Nebraska Act became law. The act created both the Kansas Territory and the Nebraska Territory, which would determine for themselves if they would be pro-slavery or free. Both territories allowed slavery but it caused contention within the territories.

In 1912, Cyril was 63 years old when New Mexico became the 47th state of the Union in January. Previously a province of Mexico, then a territory of the United States and mostly populated by Native Americans and Mexicans, once it became a U.S. territory it was increasingly colonized by European-American settlers. Its population was over 327,000 when it became a state.

In 1964, he was 115 years old when in June, three young civil rights workers - Andrew Goodman and Mickey Schwerner from New York City, and James Chaney from Meridian, Mississippi - were kidnapped and murdered in Mississippi. Working with "Freedom Summer", they were registering African-Americans to vote in the Southern states. Their bodies were found two months later. Although it was discovered that the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, the Neshoba County Sheriff's Office and the Philadelphia, Mississippi Police Department were involved, only 7 men were convicted and served less than six years.

In 1976, in the year of Cyril Johson's passing, The United States celebrated the Bicentennial of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. It was a year long celebration, with the biggest events taking place on July 4th.