Subjects –
Potter, John (Bowie Knife)
The most infamous floor brawl in the history of the U.S. House of Representatives
February 06, 1858
The most infamous floor brawl in the history of the U.S. House of Representatives erupted as Members debated Kansas’s pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution late into the night of February 5-6. Shortly after 1 a.m., Pennsylvania Republican Galusha Grow and South Carolina Democrat Laurence Keitt exchanged insults, then blows.
The Homestead Act
May 20, 1862
On this date, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act (12 Stat. 392–394) into law.