TOP TWENTY DATES IN U.S. HISTORY
(According to Dave Case)
Date
1492
Event
Columbus reaches “new”
world
1607
Jamestown Colony established The first lasting English colony in the
new world
The House of Burgesses is
Two traditions were established in the
established in Virginia AND
new world—democratically elected
the first ship of African slaves legislative bodies and slavery.
arrives in what is now the U.S.
Declaration of Independence
This document proclaims the colonies’
signed
independence from England
1619
July 4, 1776
Significance
Columbus’ arrival begins enormous
European influence in the Americas
1789
Enactment of U.S.
Constitution
The constitution is the foundation of our
government
1803
Louisiana Purchase
1869
Transcontinental Railroad
Completed
1870
Fifteenth Amendment to the
Constitution Ratified
This acquisition doubled the size of the
United States and accelerated westward
expansion
Manifest Destiny was realized and the
railroad unites the nation coast to coast
with a “golden spike”
Gives all men the right to vote regardless
of “race, color, or previous condition of
servitude”
1877
Democrats and Republicans
reach the “Compromise of
1877,” ending the federal
Reconstruction of the South
1890
The Massacre at Wounded
Knee
1903
The First Airplane Flight
The end of Reconstruction gives
Southern states greater self-governance;
they use it to establish the Jim Crow
system, which effectively makes African
–Americans second-class citizens.
This was the final major armed conflict
between U.S. Army forces and Native
Americans; after it the frontier is deemed
“closed.”
Orville and Wilbur Wright flew an
airplane in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina,
beginning the era of air travel.
1920
Nineteenth Amendment
Ratified
Gives women the right to vote
1929
Black Tuesday,
The Stock Market Crash
December 7, 1941
Japanese attack Pearl Harbor
A massive drop in the New York Stock
Exchange led the United States into an
economic depression that lasted eleven
years
The attack draws the U.S. into World
War II
1945
The U.S. drops an atomic
bomb on Hiroshima, Japan
Brown vs. Board of Education
decision made
This quickened the end of World War II
but began the age of nuclear weapons.
The Supreme Court decides separate
schools cannot be equal and orders
desegregation of the nation’s public
schools
1962
The Cuban Missile Crisis
1963
Dr. Martin Luther King gives
“I Have A Dream” Speech
1968
Vietcong launch Tet
Offensive
The Soviet Union moved nuclear
missiles to Cuba (90 miles from the U.S.)
beginning a showdown that could have
destroyed the Earth.
The speech was the climax of a civil
rights march on Washington D.C. which
led to important legal and social
improvements for African-Americans.
Although the U.S. wins the battle
militarily, this is the psychological
turning point of the Vietnam conflict
September 11, 2001
World Trade Center and
Pentagon attacked
1954
After the attacks the U.S. launches a
global war against terror, the results of
which we have yet to see