1858
Landscape architects Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux’s entry is chosen as the design for the future Central Park in New York City. With their "Greensward Plan," they sought to create a pastoral landscape in the English romantic tradition.

1948
Fort Sumter, site of the first engagement of the Civil War on April 12-13 of 1861, is authorized as a national monument.  The park is located in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina.