John Ryan (1861 - 1909)

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

In 1861, in the year that John Ryan was born, on January 9th, Mississippi became the second state to secede from the Union. Within the same month, 5 more states seceded - Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Texas, and Louisiana - and Jefferson Davis, age 52, resigned as a U.S. Senator.

In 1878, when he was 17 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 1885, John was 24 years old when on June 17th, the Statue of Liberty arrived in New York Harbor. Two hundred thousand people and hundreds of boats greeted the statue. It had to be assembled but that had to wait until the pedestal was completed the following April.

In 1890, John was 29 years old when on June 1st, the U.S. Census Bureau started tabulating census returns with punch cards. Herman Hollerith's "tabulating machine" used punch cards to more quickly compute census information, taking the time to get census results from 8 years in 1880 to 6 years for the 1890 census. Hollerith's company eventually became IBM.

In 1909, in the year of John Ryan's passing, the U.S. penny was changed to the Abraham Lincoln design. The Lincoln penny was so popular that it soon had to be rationed and it sold on the secondary market for a quarter. Abraham Lincoln was the first historical figure to be on a U.S. coin - which was released to commemorate his 100th birthday. This penny was also the first U.S. cent to include the words "In God We Trust.".