Born in Elmira, New York, Eileen Collins parents were immigrants from County Cork, Ireland.She became the first woman to pilot a space shuttle mission during the Discovery's rendezvous with the Mir space station in 1995. By 1999, she had logged 419 hours in space and was given command of the space shuttle Columbia, another first for a woman. She retired from NASA in 2006.

The first Saint Patrick's Day parade in Atlantic City was held in 1986. The first parade was organized by Al McMahon, who was the owner of the Circle Tavern in Brigantine and Joe Shields, a bartender who worked at the Surfside in Margate. Inspired by the annual St. Patrick's Day Parade in Philadelphia and the work of Jimmy Cavanaugh, Al and Joe enlisted the cooperation of tavern owners from The Irish Pub, The Greater Pittsburgh bar, Cassidy's Grille, McGettigan's Saloon, Maynard's, Maloney's to name a few. Members of the Irish Cultural Society and the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick also joined the parade.

Becomes the first Catholic President of the United States.

Mary Harris, "Mother Jones" travels to the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia to join in the strike of over 100,000 textile workers (largely Irish-Americans) fighting over working conditions and wages. Many of these workers were children leading to the creation of child labors laws by President Theodore Roosevelt.

President Lincoln called for 300,000 troops. If you were healthy and were among those called, you had several options provided by federal law: pay a substitute to take your place; pay a commutation fee of $300, enabling you to avoid service. Many Irish-American did not have the money to avoid the draft.

Over 1 Million Irish will emigrate to America over the course of a twenty year period from 1845 to 1860.

Irish soldiers serving in the British army in New York City hold the first parade honoring the Catholic feast day of St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland.

Descendants of Scottish and English tenant farmers who had been settled in Ireland by the British government came to the American Colonies. Approximately 250,00 migrated to the Colonies of which 20,000 were Catholics.