Daniel William Mcdonald (1865 - 1912)

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

In 1865, in the year that Daniel William Mcdonald was born, on April 9th, Confederate Army General Robert E. Lee surrendered to the Union Army at Appomattox Court House. Lee's surrender led to a series of surrenders in the Confederacy and in 1866 President Johnson issued a "Proclamation—Declaring that Peace, Order, Tranquility, and Civil Authority Now Exists in and Throughout the Whole of the United States of America".

In 1878, by the time he was only 13 years old, in Africa, the death of the last confirmed Cape lion occurred. The Cape lion was slightly larger than other lions and had black ears, a black mane, and black hair on its belly.

In 1898, he was 33 years old when magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company controlled 84% of the oil and pipelines in the United States. Rockefeller grew Standard Oil through the merger of several other small oil companies throughout the U.S., creating a monopoly.

In 1904, when he was 39 years old, the World's Fair, officially known as the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, was held in St. Louis, Missouri. Attended by nearly 19.7 million people (and later the subject of a Judy Garland film), the Fair was funded by federal, state and local sources to the tune of $15 million. As the name suggests, the Fair was suggested as a way to celebrate the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. In the past, World's Fairs were a way of bringing new technology to the attention of the masses and this fair was no exception - the use of electricity (the public feared it at the time), personal cars, airplanes, and the electric streetcar were all highlighted.

In 1912, in the year of Daniel William Mcdonald's passing, the RMS Titanic sank in April. The RMS Titanic was a British built and run passenger liner that was billed as "unsinkable." On its maiden voyage from Southampton England to New York City, carrying about 2,224 passengers and crew - from the wealthiest people in the world to poor emigrants from Europe, the Titanic hit an iceberg. Five of her watertight compartments failed but she was designed to survive only 4 being flooded. She began to sink. There were only enough lifeboats for about half of the passengers so over 1,000 remained behind while "women and children first" were loaded. Over 1500 died, making it the largest maritime disaster in modern history.