A TIMELINE OF MAJOR EVENTS IN U.S. HISTORY
PEOPLING OF THE AMERICAS - THE CONSTITUTION
40,000 BCE – 1500 CE: The peopling of the Americas
1492:
- Christopher Columbus lands on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola
- Three way cultural exchange begins (Europe, Africa, Americas)
1503:
Importation of African chattel slaves to the Americas begins
1506:
South and Central America as well as most of Western North America under Spanish rule
1530s: Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation
1585-1586: British colony of Roanoke (in North Carolina) established and fails
1607:
Jamestown Colony founded in Virginia (joint-stock company) to “get rich quick”
1619:
- Tobacco cultivation begins in Jamestown
- First African slaves arrive in Jamestown; 3 of 4 arrivals were indentured servants
- House of Burgesses established in Virginia
1620:
- Pilgrims land in Massachusetts and establish Plymouth Colony
- Separatists: wanted an Anglican utopia; signed the Mayflower Compact (inspired by Locke)
1621:
- Limits placed on tobacco exportation and sale allowed only within colonies and to England
- In principle, the first Navigation Act (though technically not classified within that group of laws)
- Tobacco prices drop
1629:
Puritans (non-separatists) establish Massachusetts Bay Colony which thrives
1632:
Maryland founded by Lord Baltimore as a haven for Catholics
1636:
- Rhode Island founded by Roger Williams after he was exiled from Massachusetts Bay
- Complete separation of Church and State
1637:
Pequot War: Puritans fight with Pequot in God’s name; virtually wipe them out/take land
1639:
Anne Hutchinson is kicked out of New England for teaching her own interpretation of the Bible which “undermined the
leaders of the colony”
1660:
Navigation Acts begin (first list of Enumerated Goods)
1663:
The Staple Act (part of Navigation Acts): all goods going into or out of colonies must first go through England and pay a
high tax; economically isolates the colonies
1674-1677:
- Bacon’s Rebellion (The Virginia Rebellion)
- Poor inland planters/farmers revolting to demand representation, land, and protection from Native Americans;
Jamestown burned to the ground
- Partially a result of mercantilism (which drove tobacco prices down)
1681:
Pennsylvania founded by William Penn as a refuge for pacifist Quakers
1688:
Glorious Revolution (Britain) ends monarchical absolutism and gives Protestants control of parliament
Early 1700s: Transition from indentured servitude to slavery in the Chesapeake
1700-1750:
~ 1715-1750:
- Salutary Neglect: Navigation Acts essentially ignored
- 1733: Tax on non-British molasses (rarely enforced because of Salutary Neglect)
~ 1730-1750:
- First Great Awakening
- Religious revival reacting to Puritan rigidity
- Christianity taught to slaves
1750:
13 colonies are relatively stable
1756-1763: Seven Years’ War (French and Indian War)
1763:
Proclamation of 1763: all land west of Appalachians reserved for Native Americans
1764:
- Sugar Act: Taxed molasses, sugar, and coffee imported to the colonies to help pay for the war
- Currency Act: Colonies prohibited from issuing paper money; colonial script became worthless; left people broke
1765:
- Stamp Act: Tax on all printed goods; colonists respond violently/force repeal: “taxation w/out representation is tyranny”
- Quartering Act: Colonists must house and supply soldiers sent to keep them in line
1766:
- Stamp Act repealed; leads to the Declaratory Act
- Declaratory Act: Declared Parliament’s unquestionable right to tax the colonies as it pleased
1767:
Townshend Acts: Import tax on common products; smugglers brought them in duty free with help from Sons of Liberty
1770:
Boston Massacre
1773:
Tea Act: Passed to save the BEIC from bankruptcy; seen as a threat to colonial economic liberties (tea prices do not rise
dramatically); Boston Tea Party
1774:
- Coercive (Intolerable) Acts: Closed the Port of Boston and began martial law; threatened colonial self government
- Committees of Correspondence formed to help improve internal colonial communication; unified resistance to British
- 1st Continental Congress
1775:
- Lexington and Concord: “shot heard ‘round the world” begins Revolutionary War
- 2nd Continental Congress begins
1776:
- January 10th: Thomas Paine’s Common Sense published
- July 4th: Declaration of Independence issued by the 2nd Continental Congress
1777:
- Battle of Saratoga: Colonial victory leads to French support (Treaty of 1778)
- Articles of Confederation adopted by 2nd Continental Congress
1781:
Battle of Yorktown: Last battle (Colonial victory)
1783:
Treaty of Paris ends war
1786:
Shays’ Rebellion: Poor farmers fight with MA legislature; convinces many that the Articles of Confederation need replaced
1787:
- Northwest Ordinance establishes a policy/plan for settling western land
- Constitutional Convention begins
- Great Compromise
- 3/5ths Compromise
- Federalism
- Bill of Rights
1791:
Constitution Ratified
THE EARLY REPUBLIC
1789:
George Washington elected president
- Alexander Hamilton (Federalist) named Secretary of Treasury
- Thomas Jefferson (Democratic-Republican/Republican) named Secretary of State
1790:
Reports on Public Credit introduce Hamilton’s plan for the new nation
PRESIDENTS
George Washington
1789-1797
(No Party)
1791:
- Whiskey Tax
- Protective Tariffs proposed (not passed)
1793:
- Washington’s Proclamation of Neutrality
- Citizen Genêt
- Cotton Gin invented by Eli Whitney; demands for slaves increases and slavery moves West
1794:
Whiskey Rebellion (poor farmers protesting Whiskey Tax)
1795:
Jay’s Treaty (attempt to improve relations with Britain; solves nothing)
1796:
1797:
-Treaty of San Lorenzo (Pinckney’s Treaty)
- George Washington warns against the evils of political parties and involvement abroad
XYZ Affair
- Federalists want immediate declaration of war
- Republicans are in disarray
- Congress repeals Treaty of 1778 and ends alliance with France
1798:
- Alien and Sedition Acts
- Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions (first test of the idea of nullification)
1800~1830: The Second Great Awakening: Republican ideology is fused with religiosity (C. Finney)
1800~1900: Romanticism
1830~1900: Transcendentalism
1800:
- The “Revolution of 1800” (ultimately leads to the demise of the Federalist Party)
- Gabriel Prosser leads the first significant slave revolt in the U.S. in Virginia
1801:
- Midnight Appointments
- Marshall Court Begins (1801-1835)
John Adams
1797-1801
(Federalist)
1803:
- Marbury v. Madison: establishes judicial review
- Louisiana Purchase ($15 million)
1804:
Laws in all Northern states have outlawed slavery
1806:
Non-Importation Act: No British goods could be imported if they were available elsewhere
Thomas Jefferson
1801-1809
(Jeffersonian
Republican)
1807:
- Leopard and the Chesapeake Incident
- Embargo Act
- Forbids American vessels from sailing to foreign ports
- CT governor resists law claiming it is unjust (nullification)
1808:
Congress outlaws the external slave trade; price of slaves increases
1809:
Embargo Act repealed
1810:
- Macon’s Bill No.2 authorized the president to reopen trade with France and Britain
- Fletcher v. Peck: state laws can be declared unconstitutional
1811:
James Madison
1809-1817
(DemocraticRepublican)
Charter of the First National Bank expires
1812-1814: War of 1812
- Mostly affects New Englanders
- Hartford Convention (December 1814)
- New England states discuss secession but nothing comes of it
- Federalist Party collapses; Democratic-Republicans are the only remaining party
- Treaty of Ghent (December 24th) ends the war but solves nothing
1815:
Battle of New Orleans (January 8th) makes Andrew Jackson a national hero
1816:
- Second National Bank chartered
- Protective Tariff (first in U.S. history)
THE ERA OF GOOD FEELING (1815-1824)
1817:
Rapid industrialization ushers in the “Era of Good Feeling”
1818:
British cession establishes U.S.-Canada Border at 49th Parallel
1819:
- McCulloch v. Maryland: sets the precedent for use of Necessary and Proper (Elastic) Clause
- Spanish Cession (Adams-Onís Treaty) trades FL to U.S. for part of modern TX
1820:
Missouri Compromise: Highlights developing sectional conflict
1822:
Denmark Vessey plans a slave revolt in SC; the escapees planned to go to Haiti; fails
1823:
Monroe Doctrine
1824:
- Democratic-Republicans fracture into four factions
- “Corrupt Bargain” leads to John Quincy Adams’ election
- Gibbons v. Ogden: affirms federal control over interstate commerce
James Monroe
1817-1825
(DemocraticRepublican)
1825-1829:
- The American System
- Protective Tariff (1828 – Tariff of Abomination)
- Second National Bank
- Infrastructure Improvements
1828:
- Andrew Jackson (Democrat) runs against JQA (National Republican): Smear campaign
- Jackson, for the first time, appeals directly to the common man and wins handily
John Quincy Adams
1825-1829
(DemocraticRepublican)
JACKSONIAN DEMOCRACY
1829-1832:
- National Republican Party (1828-1833) becomes the Whig Party (1833-1856)
- Reform goals become temperance, abolition, public education
- Run Henry Clay against Jackson in 1831
Andrew Jackson
1829-1837
(Democrat)
1830-1865: Slavery transitions from a “necessary evil” to a “positive good”
1831:
Nat Turner’s slave revolt in Virginia; 55 whites killed; masters begin to crack down
1831-1836:
- Jackson re-elected; furthers “Jacksonian Democracy” policies: “King Andrew”
- Majority Rule, Limited Government, People v. Aristocracy, Veto Power
- Rotation in Office
- Tariff of “Abominations” (passed 1828)
- Nullification Crisis (1832)
- VP Calhoun supports South Carolina, not Jackson, and resigns
- Compromise Tariff (1833) ends immediate threat but leave nullification Qs
- Indian Policy
- Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1831)
- Worcester v. Georgia (1832)
- Jackson ignores court decision: “Trail of Tears”
- Jackson vetoes internal improvement bills; end of The American System
- 2nd National Bank: charter renewal vetoed (bank ends in 1836)
- Specie Circular (Currency Act)
1836:
- Texas gains its independence from Mexico
- The “Gag Rule”: No discussion of anti-slavery topics in Congress
1837:
Panic of 1837 (inherited by Martin Van Buren aka “Van Ruin”)
THE IMMEDIATE ANTEBELLUM PERIOD
1837:
Van Buren rejects Texas’ request to join the U.S.
1839:
Mormon Migration to Utah begins
1840:
Liberty Party forms (1840-1848)
Martin Van Buren
1837-1841
(Democrat)
1837-1841: Van Buren tries to deal with the economic situation
1841:
Harrison dies of viral pneumonia
1845:
Tyler pushes for annexation of Texas
William Henry Harrison
3/4/1841- 4/4/1841
(Whig)
John Tyler
4/4/1841-1845
(Whig)
1845:
Texas annexation approved; territory added as a slave state
1846:
James K. Polk
1845-1849
(Democrat)
- Oregon Territory added to U.S. (“54 ° 40’ or Fight”); border set at 49th Parallel as in 1818
- Wilmot Proviso introduced (no slavery in new territory); inflamed sectionalism; rejected
1846-1848: Mexican-American War: Brings Zachary Taylor into the public eye
1848:
- Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (Mexican cession)
- Free Soil Party formed (1848-1854)
- Seneca Falls Convention
1849:
Know-Nothing (American) Party formed (1849-1860)
1850:
July 9th: Taylor dies of acute gastroenteritis
Zachary Taylor
1849-7/9/1850
(Whig)
- Compromise of 1850
- Strict Fugitive Slave Law passed
Millard Filmore
7/9/1850-1853
(Whig)
1850:
1853:
Gadsden Purchase completes continental U.S.
1854:
Franklin Pierce
1853-1857
(Democrat)
- Charles Sumner attacked by Preston Brooks while Senate was debating Kansas-Nebraska
- Kansas-Nebraska Act passed; begins policy of “popular sovereignty” on slavery
- Bleeding Kansas
- Republican Party forms
1857:
- Dred Scott v. Sandford
- Blacks are not citizens
- Congress cannot regulate slavery in the territories
- Abolitionist Movement expands
1858
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
1859:
John Brown’s Raid
1860:
- Cotton represents half of all American exports
- Abraham Lincoln elected
- December 20th: South Carolina is the first state to secede; blockade of Ft. Sumter begins
- During January and February MS, FL, AL, GA, LA, TX all secede
James Buchanan
1857-1861
(Democrat)
CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION
1861:
- March 11th: Confederate Constitution ratified
- Between April and June VA, AR, NC, TN seceded; slave states MO, KY, MD, DE do not
- April 10th – 14th: Ft. Sumter Crisis and the first shots of the Civil War
- May: Ex Parte Merryman: only Congress may suspend habeas corpus, not the president
- July 21st: Battle of Bull Run, VA
Abraham Lincoln
1861-4/15/1865
(Republican)
1862:
- April 6th & 7th: Battle of Shiloh, TN
- September 17th: Battle of Antietam, MD
- September 22nd: Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation
- Homestead Act
- Morrill Land Grant Act
- Pacific Railway Act
1863:
- January 1st: Emancipation Proclamation goes into effect; focus of war shifts
- May & July: Battle of Vicksburg, MS
- July 1st – 3rd: Battle of Gettysburg, PA
- November 19th: Lincoln gives the Gettysburg Address
- Lincoln’s Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction
1864:
- November 15th – December 22nd: Sherman’s March to the Sea, GA
- Wade-Davis Bill pocket vetoed by Lincoln
1865:
- March: Reconstruction begins - Freedman’s Bureau established; 10% Plan
- April 12th: Lee surrenders to Grant at Appomattox Courthouse
- April 15th: Lincoln assassinated
1865:
- Continuation of Lincoln’s Reconstruction
- 13th Amendment ratified: no slavery
1866:
- Ex Parte Milligan: the president can suspend habeas corpus, but citizens cannot be tried by
military tribunals (courts) as long as civilian courts are operating
- Black Codes instituted in the South
- Sharecropping begins
- Freedman’s Bureau renewed (over Johnson veto)
- Civil Rights Act passed (over Johnson veto)
- Ku Klux Klan formed
1867:
- Veto Proof Congress (elected in 1866) begins Congressional “Radical” Reconstruction
- Reconstruction Act passed (over Johnson veto)
- Tenure of Office Act passed; impeachment begins
- Freedman’s Bureau ends (lack of funding)
- Native Americans labeled “traitors” for supporting the Confederacy; treaties nullified
1867-1880s: The Grange Movement
1868:
- 14th Amendment ratified: citizenship and equal protection for blacks
- Impeachment fails
- Ft. Laramie Treaty signed between U.S. Government and the Lakota-Sioux
- Sheridan’s Campaign (wipe out Native Americans who were off reservation land)
Andrew Johnson
1865-1869
(No Party Affiliation)
1869:
- Transcontinental Railroad completed
- Knights of Labor formed
- Wyoming grants women suffrage
Ulysses S. Grant
1869-1877
(Republican)
1870:
- 15th Amendment ratified: voting rights for black males
- Enforcement Act and the Force Acts
1871:
- KKK Act
- U.S. Gov. assumes full control of Reservation administration
1872:
Susan B. Anthony arrested for illegally voting
1873:
Populist Party established
1874:
Women’s Christian Temperance Union founded
1875:
- Mississippi Plan
- Specie Resumption Act
- Gold discovered in the Black Hills
1876:
- Compromise of 1876 (Hayes/Tilden Election)
- Reconstruction ends
- Battle of Little Bighorn (Custer’s Last Stand)
- Munn v. Illinois: private business can be regulated for the public good
1876-1889: National Farmers’ Alliance
THE GILDED AGE
1878-1884: Greenback Labor Party
1880:
Rutherford B. Hayes
1877-1881
(Republican)
- Prior to, 85% of immigrants came from Northern and Western Europe
- 1880-1920 most immigrants come from Eastern and Southern Europe
This box should be empty...poor James Garfield.
1882:
- Chinese Exclusion Act
- Triple Alliance (Austria-Hungary, Germany, Italy)
James Garfield
3/5/1881-9/19/1881
(Republican)
Chester A. Arthur
9/19/1881-1885
(Republican)
1883:
- Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act
- The Civil Rights Cases: governments may not deny equal protection but individuals can
1886:
- American Federation of Labor formed by Samuel Gompers
- Haymarket Riot
1887:
- Interstate Commerce Commission created by the Interstate Commerce Act
- Dawes Severalty Act
1889-1908: The Populist Party
Grover Cleveland
1885-1889
(Democrat)
1890:
- Ellis Island opens in NY
- Sherman Anti-Trust Act
- Sherman Silver Purchase Act
- McKinley Tariff
- Ghost Dance Begins
- December 27th: Sitting Bull killed
- December 29th: Wounded Knee Massacre
1892:
Homestead Strike
1894:
Pullman Strike
1896:
Plessy v. Ferguson: establishes “separate but equal” in public facilities
1898:
- U.S.S. Maine sinks
- Yellow Journalism
- Teller Amendment
- Spanish-American War
- Filipino rebellion against U.S. begins
1899:
Treaty of Paris (Guam, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Philippines sold to U.S. for $20 million)
1900:
Open Door Policy established in China
Benjamin Harrison
1889-1893
(Republican)
Grover Cleveland
1893-1897
(Democrat)
William McKinley
1897-9/14/1901
(Republican)
1901:
- Filipinos lose rebellion against U.S. rule
- September 14th: McKinley assassinated by Leon Czolgosz
- Insular Cases: Question: “Does the Constitution follow the flag?” - Answer: NO
1901:
“Big Stick” foreign policy begins
1902:
Cuban “Independence” and the Platt Amendment
1903:
Panama Canal construction begins (“A Man, A Plan, A Canal, Panama”)
1904:
Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine
1904-1905: Russo-Japanese War (Treaty of Portsmouth negotiated by TR)
1905:
IWW (Wobblies) founded (1905-1917)
1906:
- The Jungle by Upton Sinclair published
- Meat Inspection Act
- Pure Food and Drug Act
- Food and Drug Administration (FDA) created
1907-1909: “Great White Fleet” sails the world
1907:
- Gentleman’s Agreement
- Triple Entente (France, Russia, Britain)
1908:
- Root-Takahira Agreement
- Model-T introduced
Theodore Roosevelt
9/14/1901-1909
(Republican)
1909:
- NAACP founded by W.E.B. Du Bois
- “Dollar Diplomacy” begins
1910:
Angel Island opens in San Francisco
1911:
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
1912:
Progressive (Bull Moose) Party founded by TR
1913:
- 17th Amendment: Direct election of Senators
- New Freedom polices begin
- Federal Reserve Act
THE WWI ERA
1914:
- Franz Ferdinand is assassinated; WWI begins
- Clayton Antitrust Act
1915:
Lusitania sunk by German U-Boat; 128 Americans killed
1916:
Wilson campaigns for reelection on promises of neutrality
1916-1924: U.S. occupation of the Dominican Republic
1917:
- Unrestricted submarine warfare resumes
- Zimmerman Telegram
- Russian Revolution
- Wilson asks Congress for a declaration of war against the Central Powers
- Espionage and Sedition Acts
- Selective Service Act
- War Revenue Act of 1917
- Food Administration
- Committee on Public Information (CPI or Creel Committee)
- War Industries Board (IWW wiped out; AFL membership increase dramatically)
1918:
- Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (Soviet separate peace)
- National War Labor Board
1919:
- Treaty of Versailles signed (not ratified in U.S.)
- 18th Amendment: Prohibition (negated in 1933)
- Schenck v. U.S.: established the “clear and present danger” rule
THE ROARING 20S
1920s:
- Great Migration and Harlem Renaissance
- The “New Klan” begins (greatest strength from 1922-1928)
- Palmer Raids and the Red Scare
1920:
19th Amendment: Women’s Suffrage
William H. Taft
1909-1913
(Republican)
Woodrow Wilson
1913-1921
(Democrat)
1921:
- “Return To Normalcy”
- Sacco and Vanzetti
- Budget and Accounting Act
Warren G. Harding
1921-1923
(Republican)
1923:
- Federal Highway Act (Route 66)
- Teapot Dome Scandal
- Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) first proposed
- Harding dies (probably of pneumonia or a heart attack)
1923-29:
- Economy prospers; tax policies of Andrew Mellon; supply side economic
- Increased speculation on the stock market and buying on margin
- McNary-Haugen Farm Relief Bill (1924-1928) proposed but vetoed by Hoover/Coolidge
Calvin Coolidge
1923-1929
(Republican)
1925:
- Scopes Monkey Trial
- Dawes Plan implemented to aid Germany
1928:
Kellogg-Briand Peace Pact
THE GREAT DEPRESSION
1929:
- October 29th: Black Tuesday
- Agricultural Marketing Act
1930:
Hawley-Smoot Tariff
1932:
- Reconstruction Finance Corporation
- The Bonus Army
- Roosevelt campaigns for president on the promise of the Three Rs (relief, recovery, reform)
1932-1939: The Dust Bowl and Okie Migration
Herbert Hoover
1929-1933
(Republican)
1933:
- The first Fireside Chat
- Roosevelt pushes through 15 pieces of legislation during “The First 100 Days”
1933-1935: The First New Deal
1934:
Nye Committee begins to investigate WWI profiteers
1935:
Schechter Poultry v. U.S.: NIRA is unconstitutional – leads to “Court Packing”
1935-1939: Neutrality Acts ( including “Cash and Carry”)
1935-1936: The Second New Deal
1937:
Judiciary Reorganization Bill (“Court Packing”)
1937-1938: The Third New Deal
Franklin D. Roosevelt
1933-4/12/1945
(Democrat)
THE WORLD WAR II ERA
1939:
Hitler invades Poland: WWII begins
1940:
- FDR runs for reelection on the promise of keeping the U.S. out of the war
- Fall of France
- Selective Service Act (first peacetime draft)
- Angel Island closes
1941:
- “Four Freedoms” speech
- “Lend-Lease” begins
- The Atlantic Charter
- Office of Price Administration
- December 7th: Pearl Harbor
- December 8th: “Date Which Will Live In Infamy” speech; U.S. declares war
1942:
- Manhattan Project begins
- War Productions Board established
- Office of War Information
- New National War Labor Board
- Japanese Internment begins with Executive Order 9066 (ends in 1945)
1944:
- June 6th: Operation Overlord (D-Day)
- Korematsu v. U.S.: the need to prevent espionage through internment outweighs Korematsu’s
individual rights
1945:
- Japanese Internment ends
- Yalta Conference
- Division of Germany and Berlin agreed on in principle
- Soviet commitment to the U.N. provided guarantee of Security Council veto power
- Korea divided at 38th Parallel
- Roosevelt dies April 12th
(FDR Continued)
1945:
- Hitler commits suicide
- U.N. Charter is drafted
- May 8th: VE-Day
- Trinity A-Bomb Test
- Potsdam Conference
- Soviet control of Poland
- Formal division of Germany
- August 6th: “Little Boy” dropped on Hiroshima
- August 9th: “Fat Man” dropped on Nagasaki
- August 15th: VJ-Day
- September 2nd: Ho Chi Minh declares Vietnam independent of French rule
THE COLD WAR
Harry S. Truman
4/12/1945-1953
(Democrat)
(Truman Continued)
1946:
- The GI Bill of Rights
- Iron Curtain Speech (Winston Churchill)
- The “Long Telegram” and the “X-Article”: Containment Policy begins
1947:
- Truman Doctrine
- National Security Act (creates the CIA)
- Taft-Hartley Act
1947-1951: Marshall Plan
1948:
- Alger Hiss Trial
- Desegregation of the military (Executive Order 9981)
1948-1949: Berlin blockade and airlift
1949:
- China falls to Communism
- U.S.S.R. tests an A-Bomb
- NATO formed
- Levittowns begin
1950:
- Ho Chi Minh allies himself with the U.S.S.R. and China
- North Korea (Soviet backed) invades South Korea
- U.S. forces sent to South Korea
- U.N. condemns the North Korean invasion and votes to support South Korea
- U.S. forces bomb bridges on the Yalu river; China is drawn in to the war
- Gen. Douglas MacArthur fired
- NSC-68
- McCarran (or Internal Security) Act
- Joe McCarthy elected on an anti-Communism platform; McCarthyism begins
- Julius and Ethyl Rosenberg trial
1951:
Peace negotiations begin regarding Korea
1952:
- Treaty of San Francisco ends military occupation of Japan
- U.S. tests the first Hydrogen Bomb
- Youngstown Sheet and Tube Co. v. Sawyer: the president does not have the authority to seize
private industry even in a time of national crisis; Truman’s Executive Order was exercising
“law making power” which is reserved to Congress
1953:
- Geneva Accords
- Korean cease fire declared; DMZ established at the 38th Parallel
- Vietnam cease fire declared; elections scheduled for 1956
- Stalin dies; replaced by Khrushchev
- Soviets test H-Bomb
- Massive Retaliation/Mutually Assured Destruction
- Operation Ajax (Iran)
1954:
- Pledge of Allegiance changed to include the words “under God”
- McCarthy accuses the Army of harboring Communists on TV; he is censured by the Senate
- Ellis Island closes
- CIA involvement in Guatemala
- U.S. involvement in Laos and South Vietnam begins
- Brown v. Board of Education: ends public school segregation
- Battle of Dien Bien Phu; end of French involvement in Vietnam
- Geneva Accords: Vietnam divided at 17th parallel; unification and free elections in 1956
1955:
- Murder of Emmett Till
- U.S. installs Ngo Dinh Diem as president of South Vietnam
1955-66:
- Montgomery Bus Boycott
- “In God We Trust” becomes official U.S. motto
1956:
- White-collar jobs outnumber blue-collar jobs
- Interstate Highway Act
- Diem (under U.S. advisement) cancels elections in South Vietnam
1957:
- U.S.S.R. tests the first ICBM
- Sputnik
- U.S. involvement in Indonesia
- Little Rock Crisis (Central HS integration)
- SCLC founded by MLK Jr.
1958:
NASA created by the National Aeronautics and Space Act
1959:
- Fidel Castro assumes control of Cuba
- The Kitchen Debate
1960:
- Nixon-Kennedy Television Debates
- Greensboro Sit-ins
- SNCC founded
- National Liberation Front (Viet Cong) founded in South Vietnam
1960-1961:
- U.S. involvement in the Dominican Republic
- U.S. involvement in Zaire (Congo)
1961:
Eisenhower warns against the power of the Military-Industrial Complex
Dwight D. Eisenhower
1953-1961
(Republican)
1961:
Freedom Rides
1961:
John F. Kennedy
1961-11/22/1963
(Democrat)
- Bay of Pigs Invasion (Cuba)
- Operation Mongoose (Cuba); lasts until the Cuban Missile Crisis
- Berlin Wall construction begins
- New Frontier domestic policies begin
- Peace Corps (Executive Order 10924)
1962:
Cuban Missile Crisis
1963:
- Partial Test Ban Treaty
- March on Birmingham
- March on Washington
- Cesar Chavez founds the United Farm Workers (UFW)
- Betty Friedan’s Feminine Mystique published
- Diem overthrown and assassinated by U.S. backed South Vietnamese military
- November 22nd: Kennedy Assassination
- Gideon v. Wainwright: counsel must be provided for all criminal defendants
1963:
- Great Society domestic policies begin
- 24th Amendment (bans the poll tax)
1964:
- Economic Opportunity Act
- Freedom Summer
- Civil Rights Act
- Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
1965:
- March on Selma
- Malcolm X assassinated
- Voting Rights Act
- Watts Riots
- Immigration Act of 1965
- Operation Rolling Thunder
1966:
- Black Panthers founded
- National Organization for Women (NOW) founded by Betty Friedan
1967:
- Detroit Race Riots
- Loving v. Virginia: interracial marriage cannot be prohibited
1968:
- Kerner Report
- Martin Luther King, Jr. assassinated
- Black Power Salute at the Olympics
- Tet Offensive
- Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
Lyndon B. Johnson
11/22/1963-1969
(Democrat)
1969:
- U.S. Moon Landing
- Stonewall Riots
- Native Americans seize Alcatraz
- Secret bombing of Cambodia begins
- My Lai Massacre
- Draft Lottery begins
- Anti-Vietnam War demonstrations in full force
- Brandenburg v. Ohio: gov. cannot punish inflammatory speech was does not incite a riot
Richard M. Nixon
1969-8/9/1974
(Republican)
1970:
- Kent State Massacre
- Vietnamization
1971:
- Native American occupation of Alcatraz ends
- Pentagon Papers released
- SALT I
- Ping Pong Diplomacy
1972:
- Watergate Break Ins (CREEP)
- Nixon visits China to normalize diplomatic relations
- Anti Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty
1973:
- Last vote on the ERA
- Last U.S. troops leave Vietnam
- War Powers Resolution proposed
- Roe v. Wade: abortion is legal
1974:
- Nixon resigns; pardoned by Ford
- War Powers Act ratified; ends of Gulf of Tonkin Resolustion
1975:
- Last Americans evacuate Saigon; all U.S. support withdrawn
- Helsinki Accords ease Cold War tensions (détente)
- Ford visits China
- Ford attends the inaugural meeting of the G20 (G5 at the time)
1978:
- Regents of the U.C. v. Bakke: bars admission quotas, but protects some affirmative action
- Camp David Accords
1979:
SALT II
1979-1981: Iran hostage crisis
1980:
U.S. boycotts Moscow Olympics
Gerald Ford
8/9/1974-1977
(Republican)
Jimmy Carter
1977-1981
(Democrat)
1981:
- “Reaganomics”
- Large tax cuts, moderate deregulation, robust job creation, inflation reduction
- Caused increased budget deficit
1982:
Ronald Reagan
1981-1989
(Republican)
Vietnam Veterans Memorial built in Washington D.C.
1983:
- Reagan uses the term “Evil Empire” to describe the U.S.S.R.; end of détente
- Invasion of Grenada
1984:
U.S.S.R. boycotts Los Angeles Olympics
1986:
- Iran-Contra Affair
- War on Drugs (“Just Say No”)
1987:
“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”
1988:
- Reagan states the U.S.S.R. is no longer an “Evil Empire”
- Reagan issues a formal apology for Japanese Internment
1989:
- U.S. invasion of Panama to depose Manuel Noriega
- Discussions begin about NAFTA
1990:
Berlin Wall is torn down
1991:
U.S.S.R. collapses
George H. W. Bush
1989-1993
(Republican)
THE LAST 30 YEARS
1990-1991: Gulf War
1993:
- NAFTA signed
- “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” becomes official military policy
1995:
Oklahoma City Federal Building bombing
1998:
Clinton impeached by House of Representatives
Bill Clinton
1993-2001
(Democrat)
1999:
- Kosovo Conflict (NATO operation)
- Clinton acquitted of impeachment charges (perjury and obstruction of justice)
2001:
- 9/11 Attacks
- USA PATRIOT Act
- War on Terror begins: Invasion of Afghanistan (October)
2002:
No Child Left Behind (NCLB)
2003:
- Invasion of Iraq
- “ Mission Accomplished” Speech
2005:
Hurricane Katrina
George W. Bush
2001-Present
(Republican)