APUSH Must Know Dates
1) 1492- Christopher Columbus, financed by Spain, makes the first of four voyages to the New
World. He lands in the Bahamas.
2) 1513- Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León lands on the coast of Florida.
3) 1565- Saint Augustine, Florida, settled by the Spanish, becomes the first permanent European
colony in North America.
4) 1607- Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in America, is established by the
London Company in southeast Virginia
5) 1619- The first African slaves are brought to Jamestown
1620- The Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts is established by Pilgrims from England. Before
disembarking from their ship, the Mayflower, 41 male passengers sign the Mayflower Compact
6) 1664- English seize New Amsterdam (city and colony) from the Dutch and rename it New York
7) 1754- 1763- French and Indian War: Final conflict in the ongoing struggle between the British and
French for control of eastern North America.
8) 1770- Boston Massacre: British troops fire into a mob, killing five men and leading to intense
public protests
9) 1773- Boston Tea Party: Group of colonial patriots disguised as Mohawk Indians board three
ships in Boston harbor and dump more than 300 crates of tea overboard as a protest against the
British tea tax
10) 1774- First Continental Congress meets in Philadelphia
11) 1775- 1783- American Revolution: War of independence fought between Great Britain and the 13
British colonies
12) 1777- Continental Congress adopts the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia
13) 1786- Shays's Rebellion erupts (Aug.); farmers from New Hampshire to South Carolina take up
arms to protest high state taxes and stiff penalties for failure to pay.
14) 1787- Constitutional Convention, made up of delegates from 12 of the original 13 colonies, meets
in Philadelphia to draft the U.S. Constitution
15) 1789- 1797 - George Washington unanimously elected president
16) 1791- First ten amendments to the Constitution, known as the Bill of Rights, are ratified
17) 1793- Eli Whitney's invention of the cotton gin greatly increases the demand for slave labor.
18) 1797-1801- John Adams elected president
19) 1800- Washington, DC made capital
20) 1801-1809- Thomas Jefferson; third president.
21) 1803- Marbury v. Madison: Landmark Supreme Court decision greatly expands the power of the
Court by establishing its right to declare acts of Congress unconstitutional
22) 1803- Louisiana Purchase expands US territory west from the Mississippi to the Rocky Mts.
23) 1804- Lewis and Clark set out on exploration West.
24) 1809-1817- James Madison; fourth president
25) 1812- War of 1812: U.S. declares war on Britain over British interference with American maritime
shipping and westward expansion
26) 1814- Treaty of Ghent is signed, officially ending the war
27) 18171825- James Monroe is inaugurated as the fifth president.
28) 1819- Spain agrees to cede Florida to the United States
29) 1820- Missouri Compromise
30) 1823- Monroe Doctrine: Monroe declares that the American continents are hence-forth off-limits
for further colonization by European powers.
31) 1825-1829- John Quincy Adams; sixth president
32) 1829- 1837- Andrew Jackson; seventh president
33) 1830- Indian Removal Act, which authorizes the forced removal of Native Americans living in the
eastern part of the country.
34) 1837- Martin Van Buren; eighth president
35) 1838- “Trail of Tears”
36) 1841 (March)- 1841 (April)- William Henry; ninth president
37) 1841-1845- John Tyler; tenth president
38) 1845-1849- James Polk; eleventh president
39) 1846-1849- Mexican War: U.S. declares war on Mexico in effort to gain California and other
territory in Southwest. Mexico comprises present-day California, Nevada, Utah, most of New
Mexico and Arizona, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming.
40) 1849- height of the California Gold Rush
41) 1849-1850- Zachary Tyler; 12th president
42) 1850-1853- Millard Fillmore; 13th president
43) 1852- Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin is published. It becomes one of the
most influential works to stir anti-slavery sentiments.
44) 1853-1857- Franklin Pierce; 14th president
45) 1857-1861- James Buchanan; 15th president
46) 1857- Dred Scott v. Sanford: Landmark Supreme Court decision holds that Congress does not
have the right to ban slavery in states and, furthermore, that slaves are not citizens.
47) 1859- Abolitionist John Brown and 21 followers capture federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Va.
(now W. Va.), in an attempt to spark a slave revolt.
48) 1861-1869- Abraham Lincoln presidency
49) 1860- South Carolina is first state to succeed from the union.
50) 1861- Confederate States of America is established
51) 1861-1865- Civil War
52) 1865- 13th Amendment ratified; prohibits slavery
53) 1869-1877- Ulysses S. Grant presidency
54) 1870- 15Th Amendment; gives black the right to vote
55) 1877-1881- Rutherford B. Hayes presidency
56) 1881-1885- James A. Garfield presidency
57) 1885-1889- Grover Cleveland presidency
58) 1886- American Federation of Labor
59) 1889-1893- Benjamin Harrison
60) 1896- racial segregation announced constitutional, leading to the Jim Crow laws in the South
61) 1893-1897- Grover Cleveland 2nd presidency
62) 1897-1901 William McKinley presidency (assassinated)
63) 1898- U.S. annexes Hawaii
64) 1901-1909- Theodore Roosevelt presidency
65) 1902- Coal strike, Roosevelt sides with workers union instead of Big Business
66) 1903- U.S. acquires Panama Canal Zone
67) 1903- Wright brothers make the first controlled, sustained flight at Kitty Hawk, N.C.
68) 1908- Bureau of Investigation (later FBI) is established
69) 1909-1913- William Howard Taft presidency
70) 1913-1921- Woodrow Wilson presidency
71) 1914-1918- World War I
72) 1914- Panama Canal opens to traffic
73) 1918- Worldwide influenza epidemic strike
74) 1919- Women gain the right to vote
75) 1921-1923- Warren G. Harding presidency
76) 1923- 1929- Calvin Coolidge presidency
77) 1929-1937- Herbert Hoover presidency
78) 1929- stock market crash precipitates Great Depression
79) 1931- The Star-Spangled Banner adopted as national anthem
80) 1932- Amelia Earhart completes first solo nonstop transatlantic flight by a woman
81) 1933-1945 Franklin Roosevelt presidency; elected for four terms.
82) 1933- F. Roosevelt signs the New Deal; recovery measure.
83) 1933- 21st Amendment (Prohibition) is repealed
84) 1945-1953- Harry Truman presidency
85) 1939-1945- World War II
86) 1941- Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
87) 1945- U.S. drops atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan and Nagasaki, Japan
88) 1945- United Nations is established
89) 1949- North Atlantic Treaty Organization is established
90) 1949- Soviets end the blockade of Berlin
91) 1950-1953- Korean War
92) 1950-1975- Vietnam War
93) 1951- 22nd Amendment, limits president to two terms.
94) 1953-1961- Dwight Eisenhower presidency
95) 1954- Brown vs. Board of Education declares that racial segregation in schools is
unconstitutional
96) 1958- Explorer I, first American satellite, is launched
97) 1959- Alaska becomes 49th state (Jan.). Hawaii becomes 50th state (Aug.)
98) 1961-1963- John F. Kennedy presidency
99) 1962- Cuban Missile Crisis
100)
1963- Martin Luther King delivers, “I Have a Dream Speech”
101)
1963- Kennedy is assassinated
102)
1963-1969- Lyndon B. Johnson presidency
103)
1964- Johnson signs Civil Rights Act
104)
1968- Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated (April)
105)
1969-1974-Richard Nixon presidency
106)
1969- Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin are the first men to land on the moon. “That’s
one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”-Neil Armstrong
107)
1971- 26th amendment lowers voting age from 21 to 18.
108)
1974- House Judiciary Committee demands that Nixon be impeached so he resigns from
office.
109)
1974-1977- Gerald Ford presidency
110)
1977-1981- Jimmy Carter presidency
111)
1977- Control of Panama Canal turned over to Panama.
112)
1979- Malfunction at nuclear reactor in Pennsylvania causes meltdown
113)
1981-1989- Ronald Reagan presidency
114)
1981- Sandra Day O’Connor sworn is as first woman Supreme Court Justice
115)
1986- Space shuttle Challenger explodes 73 seconds after liftoff, killing all seven crew
members.
116)
1989-1993- George H. W. Bush presidency
117)
1989- Oil tanker Exxon Valdez runs aground in Prince William Sound, spilling more than
10 million gallons of oil. It is the largest oil spill in U.S. history
118)
1991- Persian Gulf War
119)
1993-2001- Bill Clinton presidency
120)
1993- Bomb explodes in basement garage of World Trade Center, killing 6, injuring
1,000, and causing more than $500 million in damage
121)
1993- President Clinton orders missile attack against Iraq in retaliation for alleged plot to
assassinate former President Bush
122)
1995-Budget standoff between President Clinton and Congress results in partial
shutdown of U.S. government
123)
1998-House of Representatives votes to impeach President Clinton on charges of perjury
and obstruction of justice
124)
1999- Senate acquits Clinton of impeachment charges.
125)
1999- U.S. and China sign historic trade agreement.
126)
2000- 2008- George W. Bush presidency
127)
2001- Two hijacked jetliners ram twin towers of World Trade Center in worst terrorist
attack against U.S.; a third hijacked plane flies into the Pentagon, and a fourth crashes in rural
Pennsylvania. More than 3,000 people die in the attacks.
128)
2001- U.S. and Britain launch air attacks against targets in Afghanistan after Taliban
government fails to hand over Saudi terrorist Osama bin Laden.
129)
2002- declares that U.S. will wage war against states that develop weapons of mass
destruction.
130)
2003- Space shuttle Columbia explodes upon reentry into Earth's atmosphere, killing all
seven astronauts on board.
131)
2003- War waged by the U.S. and Britain against Iraq begins. President Bush signs $350
billion tax-cut bill.
132)
2005-Hurricane Katrina wreaks catastrophic damage on Mississippi and Louisiana; 80%
of New Orleans is flooded.
133)
2007-Male student kills two in a Virginia Tech dorm. Two hours later, he kills 30 more in a
classroom building before committing suicide. The shooting rampage is the most deadly in U.S.
history. Fifteen others are wounded.
134)
2007- Gen. David Petraeus tells members of the House Foreign Affairs and Armed
Services committees that the U.S. military needs more time to meet its goals in Iraq.
135)
2008- Barak Obama presidency
136)
2009- President Obama signs the $787 billion stimulus package into law.
137)
2009- After confirming 20 cases of swine flu in the United States, including eight in New
York City, the U.S. declares the outbreak a public health emergency.
138)
2009- Sonia Sotomayor nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court. First Hispanic Justice.
139)
2009- A shooting at the Fort Hood army post in Texas kills 13 and injures 29. Ten of
those killed are military personnel.
140)
2009-A Nigerian man on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit allegedly attempted to ignite
an explosive device hidden in his underwear. Told officials later that he was directed by the
terrorist group Al Qaeda.
141)
2010-An explosion and fire on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico sends
millions of gallons of oil into the sea. The spill kills 11 and is the largest off-shore spill in U.S.
history as well as one of the largest spills in world history.
142)
2010- The Senate votes 65 to 31 in favor of repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell, the Clintonera military policy that forbids openly gay men and women from serving in the military.