BEN-HUR: A TALE OF THE CHRIST

GETTING THE DATE 1879 Archaeological investigations led by German-American banker and amateur archaeologist Hermann Schliemann begin on the site of Troy, which Schliemann found by using Homer's writings as a guide.   [Josh] During the Exodus of 1879, an estimated 20,000 freed slaves and other African Americans migrate from southern states to Kansas.   [Katie F.] 1880 -- YEAR OF PUBLICATION JUNE 1: The first bare-knuckle heavy-weight world boxing championship is held in Colliers, Pa. Paddy Ryan wins title by knocking out Joe Goss of England in the 85th round.   [Pam] ALSO JUNE 1: First pay telephone is installed in the Yale Bank Building, New Haven.   [Greg] The signing of the Exclusion Treaty by the U.S. and China restricts but does not prohibit the immigration of Chinese laborers.   [Aisha] George Eastman takes out a patent on a flexible roll of film for use in cameras.   [Aisha] The population of Los Angeles doubles in the last decade, a sign of the growing urbanization of the west.   [Josh] According to the U.S. census, the country's population has reached 50,155,783.   [Greg] James Garfield beats President Ulysses S. Grant, former commander-in-chief of the Union Army, in a hotly contested republican primary.   [Josh] Joel Chandler Harris publishes his first Uncle Remus book, helping to begin the literary fashion for romanticizing life on the old plantation.   [Katie F.] 1881 21-year-old William Bonney (aka Billy the Kid) escapes prison but is soon hunted down and shot. Though he killed 21 people, he quickly became a legend, hero of folk tellings of his life that began almost immediately.   [Josh]. The Tuskeegee Institute is founded by Booker T. Washington.   [Terry] Clara Barton establishes the American Red Cross.   [Eve] JULY 2: President Garfield assassinated. After his death on September 19, Vice President Chester A. Arthur became the President.   [Eve] Helen Hunt Jackson publishes Century of Dishonor, an account of and protest against the U.S. government's unjust treatment of Native Americans.   [Sidney & Kristen]

ILLUSTRATED EDITIONS IMAGES: FROM THE DRAMATIZATION