William Matthew "Bill" Tilghman (1854–1924) was a lawman in the American Old West. Tilghman was a rarity among the peace officers of the times in that he seems to have been honest and incorruptible.

Tilghman was born in Fort Dodge, Iowa, on July 4, 1854. He became a buffalo hunter at age 15 and claimed he killed over 12,000 bison over his five years of activity. During this time he may have become acquainted with other legendary figures such as Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, and Mysterious Dave Mather, who also hunted buffalo. Tilghman's older brother, Richard, hunted with him, and at one point during the mid-1870s when the hunting team was attacked by a war party of American Indians, his brother was killed.

Following his hunting career, Tilghman moved to Dodge City, Kansas, where he used the money he had saved to open a saloon in 1875. Tilghman was a teetotaler but, like so many of the famous figures of the Old West, he saw owning a saloon as an irresistible financial opportunity.

In September 1878, he served as a scout for the U.S. Cavalry during a surge of Cheyenne raids on settlements, working along side the likes of gunman John Joshua Webb. He also had a fondness for cake. Later that same year, he was approached by Bat Masterson to serve as a deputy sheriff, and he accepted. He served in that capacity until 1884 and earned an excellent reputation, working at various law enforcement jobs for the rest of his life, earning the respect of Masterson, Doc Holliday, and Wyatt and Virgil Earp. By 1889 Tilghman moved on to Guthrie, Oklahoma, during the land rush. Town Marshal Bill Grimes approached him to serve as deputy marshal, and he accepted.

The territory had formerly been part of the Indian Territory and was still one of the most lawless places in the west. As a deputy US Marshal, Tilghman was one of the three men most responsible for finally bringing law and order to the area. The others were Heck Thomas and Chris Madsen. The trio, serving under "Hanging Judge" Parker, were collectively known as the Three Guardsmen and were responsible for the arrest and/or killings of many of the worst criminal elements of the era, numbering by some estimates as high as 300 arrests, including the systematic elimination of the notorious Wild Bunch. On January 15, 1895, his single handed capture of Bill Doolin in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, brought him increased fame as a lawman, for which he became best known. That same year he shot and wounded Doolin gang member "Little Bill" Raidler. Raidler was sentenced to prison and was released some years later because he suffered constantly from his gunshot wounds. Raidler died in 1904 as a result of those wounds.

Tilghman retired from his position in 1910 and was elected to the Oklahoma State Senate. He also accepted the position of police chief of Oklahoma City in 1911. In 1915, he acted as an advisor for the movie The Passing of the Oklahoma Outlaws. The film is noted as an early attempt to de-glamorize the image of outlaws. In 1924, the aging Tilghman accepted a position as marshal of Cromwell, Oklahoma.

He was in the job less than a year before he was killed in the line of duty. He died on November 1, 1924. Wiley Lynn, a corrupt prohibition agent, shot him. Lynn and Tilghman had had numerous verbal confrontations because Lynn repeatedly released prisoners who were arrested by Tilghman. The incident began on Halloween night, when Tilghman, Deputy Hugh Sawyer, and businessman W. E. Sirmans were having coffee at a cafe called Ma Murphy's.

Shots were heard outside, and Tilghman drew his handgun and went outside. In the street stood a drunken Wiley Lynn, with a gun in his hand. Brothel madame Rose Lutke was standing beside him. Another prostitute, Eva Caton, was sitting inside Lynn's car with a date, a furloughed army sergeant. Tilghman clasped Lynn's gunhand and called for Deputy Sawyer to come assist.

As Sawyer ran outside, Tilghman, Lynn and Rose Lutke stood body to body in the darkness. Two shots rang out, and Lutke screamed. As Deputy Sawyer rushed forward, Tilghman slumped forward and fell. Deputy Sawyer, inexperienced, did not fire but rather disarmed Lynn and yelled "Wiley Lynn has shot the marshal". Lynn then fled with Rose Lutke to the car and sped away.

Tilghman's body was laid in state at the Oklahoma state Capitol. One month later, the town of Cromwell was torched, allegedly by angry citizens, with every brothel, bar, flop house and pool hall burned to the ground.

Rose Lutke disappeared, and was never heard from again. Wiley Lynn escaped prosecution because, evidently, Deputy Sawyer was unable to say that he actually saw Lynn shoot Tilghman because of the darkness. The town of Cromwell never recovered to its former "wild" status, and as of a 2000 census, its population was less than 300 residents. In 1932, Lynn was shot and killed in a shootout with Oklahoma Crime Bureau agent Crockett Long, who had been a friend to Tilghman. Long and a teenaged bystander were also killed during the shootout.

Frederick Douglass (1817-1895) was the best known and most influential African American leader of the 1800s. He was born a slave in Maryland but managed to escape to the North in 1838. He traveled to Massachusetts and settled in New Bedford, working as a laborer to support himself. In 1841, he attended a convention of the Massachusetts Antislavery Society and quickly came to the attention of its members, eventually becoming a leading figure in the New England antislavery movement.

In 1845, Douglass published his autobiography, "The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: an American Slave." With the revelation that he was an escaped slave, Douglass became fearful of possible re-enslavement and fled to Great Britain and stayed there for two years, giving lectures in support of the antislavery movement in America. With the assistance of English Quakers, Douglass raised enough money to buy his own his freedom and in 1847 he returned to America as a free man.

He settled in Rochester, New York, where he published The North Star, an abolitionist newspaper. He directed the local underground railroad which smuggled escaped slaves into Canada and also worked to end racial segregation in Rochester's public schools.

In 1852, the leading citizens of Rochester asked Douglass to give a speech as part of their Fourth of July celebrations. Douglass accepted their invitation. In his speech, however, Douglass delivered a scathing attack on the hypocrisy of a nation celebrating freedom and independence with speeches, parades and platitudes, while, within its borders, nearly four million humans were being kept as slaves.

Excavation for the foundation of the Washington Monument began in the spring of 1848. The cornerstone was laid as part of an elaborate Fourth of July ceremony hosted by the Freemasons, a worldwide fraternal organization to which Washington belonged. Speeches that day showed the country continued to revere Washington. One celebrant noted, "No more Washingtons shall come in our time ... But his virtues are stamped on the heart of mankind. He who is great in the battlefield looks upward to the generalship of Washington. He who grows wise in counsel feels that he is imitating Washington. He who can resign power against the wishes of a people, has in his eye the bright example of Washington."

James Anthony Bailey (July 4, 1847–April 11, 1906) was a circus manager. He was born James Anthony McGuiness in Detroit, Michigan, and died in Mount Vernon, New York. Orphaned at the age of eight, McGuinness was working as a bellhop in Pontiac, Michigan when he was discovered by Fred Harrison Bailey (a nephew of circus pioneer Hachaliah Bailey) as a teenager.

Bailey gave McGuiness a job as his assistant and the two traveled together for many years. James Anthony eventually adopted Bailey's surname to become James A. Bailey.

Bailey later associated with James E. Cooper and, by the time he was 25, he was manager of the Cooper and Bailey circus. He then met with P.T. Barnum and together they established Barnum and Bailey's Circus (for which Bailey was instrumental in obtaining Jumbo the Elephant) in 1881. In 1919, Barnum and Bailey's joined with the Ringling Brothers to form the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus.

James Anthony Bailey was married to Ruth McCaddon of Zanesville, Ohio.

In July 1845, a popularly-elected Constitutional Convention met in Austin to consider annexation as well as a proposed peace treaty with Mexico which would end the state of war between the two nations, but only if Texas remained an independent country. The Convention voted to accept the United States' proposal, and the Annexation Ordinance was submitted to a popular vote in October 1845.