Ratification. Mending the Family Kettle. The U.S. Senate passed the proposed amendment by the required two-thirds majority on June 8, 1866, and the House of Representatives passed it on June 13, 1866, which sent it to the states for ratification. No Virginians served in Congress when it submitted the amendment to the states.
The Father of American Railroads. John Stevens (1749-1838) was the scion of a prominent family in colonial New Jersey. During the Revolutionary War he served as state treasurer. In the postwar period he became intrigued by experiments in steam navigation by men such as John Fitch.
George Stephenson's First Steam Locomotive. A milestone in transportation was reached on July 25th, 1814. Within a few years of his death in 1848 George Stephenson was called âthe father of the railwaysâ, but that accolade has been challenged because there were other engineers involved in the development of the worldâs first railway system.