APUSH EXAM REVIEW GUIDE
KEY YEARS AND DATES
This is not comprehensive, though it does include most major dates about which the AP Exam
might ask you to frame a question. Think of these as a framework for establishing
generalizations about major periods and as a way to pinpoint key shifts in the social, economic,
and political history of the United States (or the colonies from which she arose). Some of these
are less significant than others. I have highlighted the most important dates. Also realize that
these are brief overviews and certainly lack much detail. Research that on your own.
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1492 – Columbus sailed the ocean blue (and the Spanish Inquisition began to expel the
Jews [not relevant for us exactly, but some of you might take AP European History])
1519 – Protestant Reformation begins
1607 – Jamestown is founded
1620 – Pilgrim separatists found Plymouth
1660 – Navigation Acts begin
1715-1750 – Salutary Neglect
1756-1763 – Seven Years’ War
1763 – Proclamation of 1763
1775 – Lexington and Concord
1776 (July 4th) – Declaration of Independence
1783 – Treaty of Paris
1787 – Constitution written
1789 – Constitution ratified/Washington elected
1795 – Jay’s Treaty
1798 – Alien and Sedition Acts/Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions
1800 – The Revolution of 1800
1803 – Louisiana Purchase
1812-1814 – War of 1812
1820 – Missouri Compromise
1823 – Monroe Doctrine
1824 – Corrupt Bargain
1828 – Election of Jackson
1836 – Texas Independence
1837 – Panic of 1837
1838 – Cherokee Removal
1846-1848 – Mexican-American War
1848 – Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo
1848 – Seneca Falls
1850 – Compromise of 1850
1854 – Kansas-Nebraska Act
1854 – Republican Party founded
1857 – Dred Scott Decision
1860 – Election of Lincoln/Secession Crisis
1861 – Civil War begins
1862 – Homestead Act
1865 – Civil War Ends/Lincoln Assassinated/13th Amendment
1865–1876 – Reconstruction
1869 – Transcontinental Railroad Completed
1882 – Chinese Exclusion Act
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1893 – Economic Panic
1898 – Spanish American War
1899 – Treaty of Paris
1901 – McKinley Assassination
1904 – Roosevelt Corollary
1912 – Election of Wilson
1914 – WWI Begins
1917 – Zimmerman Telegram/Resumption of Submarine Warfare/U.S. Enters WWI
1919 – Treaty of Versailles
1920 – 19th Amendment
1923 – Teapot Dome
1929 (October 29th) – Black Tuesday
1932 – Election of FDR
1933 – First Fireside Chats/“First 100 Days”
1935-1939: Neutrality Acts
1937 – Judiciary Reorganization Bill (“Court Packing”)
1941 (December 7th) – Pearl Harbor
1945 – FDR Dies/VE-Day/Nuclear Attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki/VJ-Day
1946 – Long Telegram/“X Article”
1947-1951 – Marshall Plan
1949 – Soviet Nuclear Test/NATO founded
1950s – McCarthyism
1950s-mid-1970s – Civil Rights Era
1950-1953 – Korean War
1954 – U.S. Political Involvement in Vietnam Begins
1954 – Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, KS
1956 – Interstate Highway Act
1960 – Election of Kennedy
1963 – Kennedy Assassination
1964 – Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
1965 – Immigration Act of 1965
1968 – Tet Offensive/Nixon Elected
1971 – Pentagon Papers
1972 – Watergate Break Ins
1973 – War Powers Resolution/U.S. Combat Troops Leave Vietnam
1974 – Nixon Resigns
1975 – All U.S. Forces Leave Vietnam
1978 – Camp David Accords
1979-1981 – Iran Hostage Crisis
1986 – Iran-Contra Affair Exposed
1990-1991 – Berlin Wall Torn Down/Collapse of the U.S.S.R.
1990-1991 – Gulf War
1993 – NAFTA/“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”
1998-1999 – Clinton Impeached/Acquitted
2001 – 9/11 Terrorist Attacks/USA PATRIOT Act/War on Terror Begins
2003 – Invasion of Iraq
2007-2009(?) – “Economic Meltdown”/Bush Bail Out/Obama Bail Out