Dates Given in Series

This is something that got clobbered by a wikipedia edit that I thought might be useful here. The series is generally set during the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant from 1869–77; occasional episodes indicate a more precise date:


 * "The Night of the Glowing Corpse" is set during the Franco-Prussian War of July 19, 1870 – May 10, 1871.
 * "The Night of the Eccentrics" takes place four years after the execution in 1867 of Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico, i.e. 1871. This is supported by a reference to President Benito Juárez who stepped down in 1872.
 * In "The Night of the Eccentrics" Count Manzeppi hums "Ride of the Valkyries" which was first performed on June 26, 1870.
 * "The Night of the Man Eating House" states that Liston Day has been in solitary confinement for 30 years and later that he was arrested April 23, 1836. This would put it around 1866 three years before the Grant presidency begun.
 * In "The Night of the Brain" Artemus Gordon shows James West a newspaper dated July 12, 1872. West states, "July 12, that's an interesting date, but it happens to be tomorrow." After the events described happen they again get tomorrow's newspaper and we see the date: July 14, 1872.
 * "The Night of the Lord of Limbo" takes place seven years after the end of the Civil War, making it 1872.
 * "The Night of the Tartar" takes place five years after the 1867 purchase of Alaska [i.e.1872]
 * "The Night of the Whirring Death" opens with the caption San Francisco 1874.
 * "The Night of the Returning Death" is set 13 years after the start of the Civil War i.e. 1874
 * In "The Night of the Flaming Ghost", West says, "If the real John Brown had lived he'd be almost 75 years old by now." Brown was born May 9, 1800.
 * In "The Night of the Arrow", a cavalry officer resigns his commission as of April 6, 1874.
 * In "The Night of the Avaricious Actuary", the heading of a letter shown on screen is dated 1875.
 * In "The Night of the Underground Terror", the sadistic commandant of a prison camp is said to have escaped justice for ten years, presumably from the end of the war in 1865.
 * In "The Night of the Samurai," Baron Saigo says Admiral Perry took the sword over 30 years earlier. Assuming the date of Perry's first visit to Japan (July 8, 1853), that would mean the episode takes place after 1883 or some six years after the end of the Grant presidency.
 * In "The Night that Terror Stalked the Town", Loveless has a headstone prepared for West, showing his birthdate as July 2, 1842
 * In "The Night of the Kraken", there is an assassination attempt on Admiral David Farragut, who died in 1870,