Column: What 2019 means to history

While no one can truly know the future, the year 2019 is going to be full of notable anniversaries commemorating events significant to history. Some we celebrate, others we mourn or memorialize. Some are remembered fondly, others with grief.

Here is a look at some of the more profound anniversaries we will observe this year:

— George Washington, hero of the American Revolution, was sworn into office as the first President of the United States 230 years ago at Federal Hall in New York on April 30, 1789.

— The famous Comstock Lode of Virginia City, NV, a gold and later silver strike worth hundreds of millions of dollars, is discovered in June 1859, 160 years ago this year. The precious metal strike put Nevada on the map and in the spotlight as a key economic region of the United States for the remainder of the 19th Century.

— A sesquicentennial now marks the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad, a monumental endeavor to connect the United States from the Atlantic to Pacific coasts.

The last rail spike was driven into the line by Leland Stanford of the Central Pacific Railroad to complete the transcontinental tracks 150 years ago on May 10, 1869. He arrived aboard Central Pacific Engine No. 60, known as The Jupiter, the cowcatcher of which met with that of the Union Pacific's Engine No. 119 at Promonotory Summit in the Utah Territory.

The historic six-year construction project spanned more than 1,800 miles between Sacramento, CA, and Omaha, NE, where the two railroad companies began their respective construction; one laying track West and the building East.

The Central Pacific broke ground on its nearly 700-mile portion of track on Jan. 8, 1863. Though its distance was considerably shorter than the 1,100 miles covered the Union Pacific, which didn't break ground on its project until July 1865, the Central Pacific faced unforgiving mountainous obstacles over the Sierra Nevada Range and across rugged terrain of the Great Basin.

— This year is the 19th Amendment's centennial celebration. One hundred years ago on June 4, 1919, the U.S. Congress passed the 19th Amendment, granting women the right to vote. The constitutional amendment, ratified 14 months later on Aug. 18, 1920, was the culmination of eight decades of formal Women's Suffrage in America.

But the struggle for women's civil rights in America can be traced as far back as Abigail Adams, who on March 31, 1776 wrote a letter urging her husband, John Adams, a member of the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, not to forget women in forming a new country.

"I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors," she wrote. "Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands. Remember, all men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation.”

That rebellion, spanning more than 70 years, formally began at Seneca Falls, NY, in 1848 where the first Women's Suffrage convention in the United States was organized and held.

The 1919 constitutional amendment wasn't the first time that such was proposed to grant women voting rights. An 1878 amendment, featuring virtually the same language as the one passed 41 years later, was defeated in the U.S. Senate.

— Ninety years ago, the Great Stock Market Crash of 1929 occurred in late October with the steady collapse of share prices over a five-day period. Common stock lost 40 percent of its paper value. This event was widely considered the impetus of the Great Depression, which held much of America in its grip throughout the 1930s.

— Eighty years ago, in the fall of 1939, Hitler's German army invaded Poland, a hostile action hastening the start of World War II. Both France and Great Britain declared war on Germany for its Polish invasion.

— The year 2019 marks the 75th diamond anniversary of the D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944. Allied Forces under the leadership of U.S. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower launched Operation Overlord across the English Channel to the beaches of Normandy, France.

American allied forces suffered a nearly 10 percent casualty rate of dead, wounded or missing in action. Of the 73,000 U.S. troops landing on five beaches along the Normandy coast, more than 6,600 casualties were recorded in just the first day of combat.

While the cost of D-Day was high, its importance to history was even greater.

The Allies ultimately drove back German forces and made a steady march inland toward Paris, where France was liberated from Nazi rule.

D-Day and its Normandy invasion led to the eventual liberation of Europe and the end of World War II on the continent less than a year later.

— A lot happened in 1969, but not all of the golden 50th anniversaries from this year in history are as key as the following:

A half-billion people worldwide watched on television as Apollo 11 made its historic moon landing on July 20, 1969. The first human steps were made just minutes later onto the lunar surface by U.S. Commander Neil Armstrong, who descended the lunar module and declared, "Two small steps for man, one giant leap for mankind." Decades of advancement in space exploration would follow, leading to a greater understanding of our solar system and the interstellar environment beyond.

Around 400,000 people converged on a farm in Bethel, NY, from Aug. 15-18, 1969 for the Woodstock Music Festival, which became widely regarded as the defining moment of a nationwide counterculture movement. To all the hippies out there, yes, it really has been 50 years. You aren't hallucinating.

— The ground shook 30 years ago in 1989 with the following key events:

The East German Communist regime of Erich Hoenecker fell on Oct. 18, 1989. Less than a month later, thousands of Berliners began crossing over the walled border that had divided the city for more than a quarter century. The Berlin Wall was demolished at last two years later.

A magnitude 6.9 earthquake struck the San Francisco Bay Area during a late October World Series game between the San Francisco Giants and Oakland Athletics. The quake killed 57 people and caused nearly $10 billion in damages.

— The year 1999 was an "American Pie" moment for a new generation, an end to its innocence.

Twenty years ago, on April 20, 1999, a pair of Littleton, CO, teenagers opened fire on teachers and classmates at Columbine High School, killing 12 students and one teacher before turning their weapons on themselves.

The massacre, unfortunately, was not an isolated incident. More public mass shootings would follow over the next two decades, occurring not only at schools, but in shopping malls, movie theaters, military bases, clubs and concerts. Columbine appeared to set a deadly precedent, creating a cultural shift that seemed to result in more deadly shootings instead of less.

The end of innocence indeed. The day the music died.

Singer-songwriter Don McLean once explained that his song "American Pie" depicted the end of innocence for a generation, beginning with the Feb. 3, 1959 plane crash that killed three of the biggest names in rock-n-roll music: Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper. This year just happens to be its 60th anniversary.

There are many other events that will see their platinum, silver, gold, diamond and centennial jubilees in 2019. All are worth remembering for education's sake.

Unfortunately, there just isn't enough reasonable space to mention them all. But long should they live in our collective consciousness.