United States History
 about 25,000 years ago, people
crossed a land bridge into North
America (these people are now called
Native Americans)

1492 - Christopher Columbus sets sail to find a
westward route to the east and he discovered a new
country there – America.
1607 - first

English settlement established at
Jamestown, Virginia.

1773 - The "Boston Tea Party"
- people disguised as Indians
throw crates of tea into Boston
Harbor.
The Revolutionary War

1775 - The Revolutionary War begins
with Battles of Lexington and Concord.

July 4, 1776 - The United
States declares its
Independence from Britain (by
approving the Declaration of
Independence).
The New Nation

September 17, 1787 - The
delegates at the Philadelphia
convention approve the Constitution.

1789 - George Washington is sworn in as the first
President of the United States.

1791 - Bill of Rights
is ratified by 3/4ths of the states and
becomes part of the U.S. Constitution.

1796 - Tennessee is the 16th state
admitted to the Union. Tennessee became
a state on June 1, 1796. On June 8, 1861, it joined
the Confederacy and became a major battleground
for the Civil War, re-entering the Union after war's end.
Area - 42,145 sq. miles
Capital - Nashville

1803
-
United States purchases the Louisiana Territory for $15
million, containing what is now Arkansas, part of Colorado, Iowa,
Louisiana, part of Minnesota, Missouri, part of Montana, part of North
Dakota, part of Oklahoma, South Dakota, and part of Wyoming.
War of 1812

1812 - United States declares war on Britain.

December 24, 1814 - The United
States and
Britain sign
the Treaty of
Ghent, ending the War of 1812.

1849 - Harriet Tubman
escapes from slavery on the
"Underground Railroad".
Secession

November 6, 1860 –
Abraham Lincoln is elected
President. (right)

December 20, 1860 - South Carolina is the 1st state to secede from the
Union.

February 4, 1861 - The Confederate States of America is formed.

February 18, 1861 - Jefferson Davis becomes the 1st President of the
Confederate States of America.

1861 - Confederate forces begin an assault on Fort
Sumter.
The Civil War

North – Union – President Abraham Lincoln – main
general: Ulysses S. Grant

South - Confederacy – President Jefferson Davis –
main general: Robert E. Lee

January 1, 1863 - The Emancipation Proclamation is
issued.

July 3, 1863 - Union
forces win the Battle
of Gettysburg.

November 19, 1863 – Abraham Lincoln gives the
Gettysburg Address.

1865 - The 13th Amendment is passed by Congress.
(no more slavery)

April 9, 1865 - The Confederate States of America
surrender at Appomattox Courthouse, ending the Civil
War
Union Flag (north) What????
Confederate Flag (south)

April 14, 1865 – Lincoln was shot by a man who
thought he was helping the South (John Wilkes Booth).
Reconstruction

July 24, 1866 - Tennessee is the 1st state to be
readmitted to the Union.

1867 - The United States purchases the Alaska
Territory from Russia for $7.2 million.

May 10, 1869 - The
Transcontinental Railroad
is completed at
Promontory Point, Utah.
The Spanish-American War

April 20, 1898 - The United States declares war on
Spain.

August 12,
1898 - The
United States
and Spain sign
an armistice, ending the Spanish-American War.
(above: charge of the Rough Riders, led by Teddy Roosevelt)
The American Empire

September 14, 1901 - Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt is
sworn in as the 26th President of the United States.

June 28, 1914 – someone from Serbia assassinated
Archduke Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary.
World War I

July 28, 1914 - World War I began when Austria
declared war on Serbia.

1914 - The
Panama
Canal
opened.

May 7, 1915 - British ship
Lusitania was sunk by
German U-Boats, killing 128
American passengers.

1917 - The United States entered World War I on the
side of the Allies.

November 11, 1918the Germans gave up,
and the war was over
(the Allies won).

World War I (1914-1918):
o
Allies: Britain, France, Russia,
Italy (1915), United States (1917)
o
Central Powers: Austria-Hungary,
Bulgaria, Germany, Ottoman
Empire
o
weapons: trenches, barbed wire,
land mines, machine guns, early
tanks, poison gas, U-boats
The Roaring 20's

1920 - The 19th Amendment (all people can
vote including women) was added to the
Constitution.

1920 – 1929 - Most people had money, and people
were happy.
The Great Depression

October 29, 1929 - The New York stock market
crashed and the Great Depression began.

Herbert Hoover was President, and people blamed him
for how bad life was. People lived in tents together,
and they called them “Hoovertowns.”

1933 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt
(FDR) became the 32nd President
of the United States. He helped us
get out of the Depression.
World War II

September 1, 1939 - Germany invaded Poland.
(beginning of World War II)

December 7, 1941 - Japan attacked the United States
at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

December 8, 1941 The United States
declared war on
Japan.

December 11, 1941 Germany and Italy
declared war on the United States.

June 6, 1944 - Allied forces invaded Normandy
(referred to as "D-Day").

1945 - Harry Truman was
sworn in as the 33rd President of the United
States.

August 6, 1945 - The United States dropped the
1st atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan (Harry
Truman was President).

August 9, 1945 - The United States dropped the 2nd
atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan.

September 2, 1945 - Japan surrendered to the United
States, ending World War II. (the Allies won)

World War II (1939-1945):
o
Allies: United Kingdom, France, USSR, United
States (1941), and a bunch of other countries
o
Axis: Germany, Japan, Italy
o
weapons: machine guns, sniper rifles, grenades,
flame throwers, bazookas, tanks, submarines,
ships, airplanes, atomic bomb

after WWII, Korea was divided into North Korea and
South Korea, Vietnam was divided into North Vietnam
and South Vietnam, and Germany was divided into
East Germany and West Germany (they made a wall
between them called the “Berlin Wall.”)
The Cold War (1946-1992)

October 17, 1946 - Winston Churchill proclaims "an iron curtain
has swept across the continent (Europe)," beginning the Cold
War. This was not an actual war, but a feeling of being close to
war between the United States and the Soviet Union. Both
countries built
many nuclear
missiles during
this time.

1989 – The
Berlin Wall (which
divided East Germany and West Germany) came down,
symbolizing the end of the Cold War.
The Korean War

June 25, 1950 The Korean War
officially starts as
North Korea
invades South
Korea. (North
Korea: communist
South Korea: noncommunist)

January 20, 1953 - Dwight Eisenhower is sworn in as the 34th President
of the United States.

July 27, 1953 – Korean War ends when a ceasefire is
signed.

Sherman Tanks (above right) were used in the Korean War.

Douglas MacArthur (below) was the main general for the Allies in this war.

January 21, 1957 - Dwight
Eisenhower is sworn in as
President for a 2nd term.

January 3, 1959 - Alaska is the 49th state admitted to the Union. Alaska
became the 49th state on January 3, 1959; it was the first new state in the
Union since 1912.

August 21, 1959 - Hawaii is the 50th state admitted to the Union.

January 20, 1961 - John F. Kennedy (JFK) is
sworn in as the 35th President of the United States.

January 20, 1961 - Lyndon Johnson is sworn in as
the 37th Vice President of the United States.

B-29 Bombers were used in the Korean War (right).
Civil Rights

May 17, 1954 - The Supreme Court rules on the landmark case Brown v.
Board of Education of Topeka, Kans., unanimously agreeing that
segregation in public schools is unconstitutional.

1955 - Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat at the
front of the "colored section"
of a bus to a white
passenger, defying a southern
custom of the time. In response to her
arrest the Montgomery black community
launches a bus boycott, which will last for
more than a year, until the buses are
desegregated Dec. 21, 1956.

1957 - Nine black students are blocked
from entering the all-white Central High
School school on the orders of the
Governor. President Eisenhower sends
federal troops and the National Guard to
intervene on behalf of the students, who become known as the "Little Rock
Nine."

1962 - James Meredith becomes the first black student to enroll at the University
of Mississippi. Violence and riots surrounding the incident cause President
Kennedy to send 5,000 federal troops.

August 28, 1963 About 200,000
people join the
March on
Washington.
Congregating at the Lincoln
Memorial, participants
listen as Martin
Luther
King delivers his
famous "I Have a Dream" speech.



July 2, 1964 - President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The most sweeping
civil rights legislation since Reconstruction, the Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination of
all kinds based on race, color, religion, or national origin.
August 10, 1965 - Congress passes the Voting Rights Act of 1965, making it easier for
Southern blacks to register to vote. Literacy tests, poll taxes, and other such
requirements that were used to restrict black voting are made illegal.
April 4, 1968 - Martin Luther
King, at age 39, is shot as he
stands on the balcony outside
his hotel room. Escaped convict
and committed racist James Earl Ray is
convicted of the crime.
The Cuban Missile Crisis

April 17, 1961 - An American backed Cuban invasion force landed at
Bahia de Cochinos (Bay of Pigs).

October 14, 1962 - American spy planes
spot Soviet missile bases on Cuba.

October 22, 1962 - The Soviet Union pulls
its missiles out of Cuba.

November 22, 1963 – JFK
(John F. Kennedy) was
assassinated by Lee Harvey
Oswald in Dallas Texas in a
motorcade.
(JFK on right)
The Vietnam War

November
22, 1963 Lyndon
Johnson is
sworn in as
the 36th
President of
the United
States.

August 4,
1964 - Vietnamese forces attack an American
Destroyer (USS Maddox), and the Vietnam War begins.
(North Vietnam: communist South Vietnam: noncommunist)

August 7, 1964 - The United States begins military presence in Vietnam.

January 20, 1965 - Lyndon Johnson is sworn in as President for a 2nd
term.

January 20, 1969 - Richard Nixon is sworn in as the 37th President of the
United States.

July 20, 1969 - American
astronaut Neil Armstrong is the 1st
human to walk on the Moon. (right)

January 20, 1973 - Richard Nixon is sworn in
as President for a 2nd term.

January 27, 1973 - The United
States and Vietnam sign a peace treaty, and the
Vietnam War ends.
Iran Hostage Crisis

August 9, 1974 - Gerald Ford is sworn in as the 38th President of the United
States.

January 20, 1977 - Jimmy Carter is sworn in as the 39th President of the United States.

November 4, 1979 - Iranians seize the American
Embassy in Tehran, Iran, taking 52 people hostage.

January 20, 1981 - Ronald Reagan is sworn in as the 40th President of the United
States.

January 20, 1981 - George Bush is sworn in as the 43rd Vice President of the United
States.

January 20, 1981 - The hostages from the American
Embassy are freed. (left)

January 21, 1985 - Ronald Reagan is sworn in as President for a 2nd term.

January 20, 1989 - George Bush is sworn in as the 41st President of the United
States.
The Persian Gulf War

August 2, 1990
- Iraqi forces
invade Kuwait.
Saddam Hussein
was the leader of
Iraq.

February 28,
1991 - A cease
fire is signed
between the United Nations and Iraq.

February 1, 1992 - The United States and Russia sign
a treaty. The Cold War ends.
The Information Age

1992 - Bill Clinton is elected
as the 42nd President of the
United States.

1993 - A truck Bomb
exploded in the parking
garage under the World Trade Center in New York City,
killing six people and injuring thousands.

1996 - Bill Clinton is reelected as President of the
United States.

2000 - Texas Governor
George W. Bush (George
Bush’s son) won by 537 votes in Florida in a highly
contested election against the incumbent Vice
President Al Gore.

September 11, 2001 – Nineteen terrorists hijacked four
planes and crashed them into the World Trade Center,
The Pentagon, and a field
in Pennsylvania killing
nearly three thousand
people and injuring over
six thousand. Osama bin
Laden said he was
responsible for the
attacks.

(2001–present): The United States launched an
invasion of Afghanistan.

2003 - The United States, United Kingdom, Australia
and Poland invaded Iraq.

2003 - Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was captured
by United States special forces.

2004 – George W. Bush is reelected as President of the
United States.

2008 – Barack Obama is elected as President of the
United States. He is the
first African-American
President.

2011 – Osama bin Laden was shot by United States
special forces.

2012 – After a highly contested Republican race, Mitt
Romney will most likely face Barack Obama for the
Presidential election of 2012.