Critical Period: 1788-1815
George Washington (1789-1797)
VP- John Adams
Secretary of State - Thomas Jefferson
Secretary of Treasury – Alexander Hamilton
Major Events:
1789 - Judiciary Act
Tariff of 1789
1790 - Assumption Bill
1791 - Vermont enters the Union
Bill of Rights ratified (1791-1811)
Lancaster Turnpike begun
1792 - Kentucky enters the Union
1791 - Proclamation of Neutrality
1794 - Whiskey Rebellion is put down
Jay Treaty with England
1795 - Pinckney Treaty with Spain
1796 - Tennessee enters the Union
Farewell Address
John Adams (1797-1800)
Federalist
VP – Thomas Jefferson
Major Items:
1797 - XYZ Affair –
1798 - Alien and Sedition Acts
Navy Department created
Eleventh Amendment ratified
1798-1799 – Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions
1801- “Midnight Judges”
Thomas Jefferson (1801-1809)
Democratic-Republican
VP – Aaron Burr
Secretary of State – James Madison
Major Items:
1801- Marbury v. Madison
Ohio enters the Union
Louisiana Purchase adds vast territory to US
1804 – Twelfth Amendment ratified
1804-1806 – Lewis and Clark expedition
1805 – War with Barbary pirates
1807 – Embargo Act
1809 – Non-Intercourse Act
James Madion (1809-1817)
Democratic-Republican
VP – George Clinton, Elbridge Gerry
Secretary of State – James Monroe
Major Items:
1810 – Macon Act
1811 – “War Hawks”
Indian fight at Tippecanoe
National Road begun
1812-1814 – War of 1812
1812 – Louisiana enters the Union
1814 – Treaty of Ghent restores peace
Hartford Convention
1815 – Battle of New Orleans
1816 – Second Bank of the United States chartered
First Protective tariff
Indiana enters the Union
Era of Good Feeling/ Era of the Common Man (1815-1840)
James Monroe (1817-1825)
Democratic-Republican
VP – Daniel D. Thompkins
Secretary of State – John Quincy Adams
Major Items:
Marshall Court decisions
McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)
Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819)
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Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)
1817 – Mississippi enters the Union
1818 – Rush-Bagot Agreement approved
Illinois enters the Union
1819 - Acquisition of Florida from Spain
1820 – Missouri Compromise
Maine enters the Union
1821 – Missouri enters the Union
First public high school opens
1823 – Monroe Doctrine
1824 – Sectional Tariff
Favorite Son election (Jackson, J.Q. Adams, Crawford, Clay)
John Quincy Adams (1825-1829)
Democratic-Republican
VP – John C. Calhoun
Secretary of State – Henry Clay
Major Items:
1825 – Erie Canal opens
1828 - “Tarff of Abomination”
Calhoun’s Exposition and Protest
Work begins of Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
Andrew Jackson (1829-1837)
Democrat
VP – John C. Calhoun, Martin Van Buren
Major Items:
1830 – Webster-Hayne debate
1831 – Turner Uprising in Virginia
First issue of The Liberator
1832 – Tariff of 1832
Ordinance of Nullification
Jackson vetoes renewal of Bank of United States
Formation of the Whig Party
1833 – Compromise Tariff
1836 – Texas declares its independence
Arkansas enters the Union
1837 – Michigan enters the Union
Martin Van Buren (1837-1841)
Democrat
VP – Richard M. Johnson
Major Items:
1837 – Panic of 1837, depression begins
Horace Mann begins school reform
1838 – Oberlin College admits women
Tangles with Congress over sub-treasury plan
Ante-bellum Period: 1840-1860
William Henry Harrison (March 4 – April 4, 1841)
Whig
VP – John Tyler
Secretary of State – Daniel Webster
John Tyler (1841-1845)
Anti-Jackson Democrat ran as VP on Whig ticket
Secretary of State – Daniel Webster
Major Items:
1842 – Webster-Ashburton Treaty
Vetoes Clay’s bill for a third Bank of the United States
Massachusetts recognizes legal right of labor unions to exist
1845 – Florida enters the Union
James K. Polk (1845-1849)
Democrat
VP – George M. Dallas
Major items:
1845 – Texas enters the Union
1846 – Treaty settle Oregon boundary
War with Mexico (1846-1848)
Iowa enters the Union
Wilmot Proviso presented in Congress
1847 – Mormons settle at Great Salt Lake
1848 – Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo ends war with Mexico
Seneca Falls Convention
Wisconsin enters the Union
Zachary Taylor (1849-1850)
Whig
VP – Millard Fillmore
Major Items:
1849 – Gold discovered in California
1850 – Taylor dies suddenly
Millard Fillmore (1850-1853)
Whig
Secretary of State – Daniel Webster
Major Items:
1850 – Compromise of 1850
California admitted to the Union
Clayton-Bulwer Treaty
1852 – Uncle Tom’s Cabin is published
Franklin Pierce (1853-1857)
Democrat
VP – William R. D. King
Major Items:
1853 – Gadsen Purchase approved
Perry arrives in Japan
1854 – Kansas-Nebraska Act
Republican Party formed
Ostend Manifesto
1856 – Violence breaks out in Kansas
James Buchanan
Democrat
VP – John C. Breckenridge
Major Items:
1857 – Dred Scott decision
1858 – Lincoln-Douglas debates
Minnesota enters the Union
1859 – John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry
Oregon enters the Union
1860- South Carolina seceds
1861-Kansas enters the union
Confederacy is formed
Morrill Tariff Act
Abraham Lincon(1861-1865)
Republican
VP-Hannibal Hamlin, Andrew Johnson
Secretarty of State- William Seward
Secretary of Treasury- Salmon P. Chase
Major Items:
1861-South fires on Fort Sumter; Civil War begins (1861-1865)
First Battle of Bull Run
Second Battle of Bull Run
Battle of Antietam
Emancipation Proclamation
Union forces reach Vicksburg
Homestead Act
Morrill Act for agriculture and Industrial education
Department of Agriculture formed
1863- Battle of Gettysburg
Grant takes Vicksburg
West Virginia enters the Union
1864-Sherman takes Atlanta, Savannah
1865- Freedmen’s Bureau created
Lee surrenders to Grant
Lincoln assassinated
Reconstruction: 1865-1877
Andrew Johnson (1865-1869)
Republican (War Democrat)
Secretary of State- William H. Seward
Major Items:
1865-Thirteenth Amendment ratified
1866-National Labor Union is formed
1867-Nebraska Joins the Union
U.S. buys Alaska
Congressional Reconstruction organized
1868-Fourteenth Amendment ratified
House impeaches Johnson
Senate Acquits Johnson
US Grant (1869-1877)
Republican
VP- Schuyler Colfax, Henry Wilson
Secretary of state- Hamilton Fish
Major Items:
1869-First Transcontinental railroad completed
Knights of Labor organized
1870-Fifteenth Amendment
1870-71 Force Acts
1872-Amnesty Act
Credit Mobilier scandal breaks
1873- Nationwide economic depression
1875- Resumption Act
1876-Colorado enters the Union
Compromise Election of 1877
1876-77- “Granger Cases” decided
Gilded Age: 1877-1900
Rutherford B. Hayes (1877-1881)
Republican
VP- William A. Wheeler
Major Items:
1877- Troops withdrawn from South
National railroad strikes
Attempts at civil service reform, NY Port Authority
1878- Bland-Allison Act
1880-90-New immigration from southern and eastern Europe
James A. Garfield (March 4- September 19, 1881)
Republican
VP- Chester A. Arthur
Secretary of State- James A. Blaine
Major Items: Garfield’s assassination by Julius Guiteau
Chester A. Arthur (1881-1885)
Republican
Secretary of State- James A. Blaine
Major Items:
1882-Chinese Exclusion Act
Standard oil Trust organized
1883- Pendleton Act sets up civil service commission
Grover Cleveland (1885-1889)
Democrat
VP- Thomas A. Hendricks
Major Items:
1886- Presidential Succession Act
AFL is organized
Haymarket Square Riot
Wabash Case
1887- Interstate Commerce Act
Hatch Act
Dawes Act
Benjamin Harrison (1889-1893)
Republican
VP- Levi P. Morton
Secretary of State- James A. Blaine
Major items:
1889-Washington, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, enter Union
1890-Wyoming, Idaho enter Union
McKinley Tariff
Sherman Anti-Trust act
Sherman Silver Purchase Act
1891- Populist Party organized
1892- Homestead Steel strike
Grover Cleveland (1893-1897)
Democrat
VP- Adlol E. Stevenson
Major Items:
1893- Silver Purchase Act repeals
World’s Fair held in Chicago
Economic panic
Hawaiian Incident
1894- Wilson-Gorman Tariff
Pullman strike
1895- Cuban Revolt against Spain
Venezuelan Boundary Affair
1896- Bryan as “Free Silver” candidate
Utah enters the Union
Gold discovered in Klondike
William McKinley (1897-1901)
Republican
VP- Garret A. Hobart, Theodore Roosevelt
Secretary of State- John Hay
Major items: New imperialism
1897- Dingley Tariff
1898- Spanish American War
Treaty of Paris gives Us Puerto Rico, Philippines, Guam
US annexes Hawaiian Islands
1899- First Hague Conference
Open door policy
1900-Boxer Rebellion
1901- Platt Amendment
McKinley assassinated by Leon Czolgosz
Theodore Roosevelt (1901-19090
Republican
VP- Charles W. Fairbanks
Secretary of State- John Hay
Major items:
1901-Hay-Paunecfote Treaty
1901-1902- Pan-American Conference
1902-Newlands Reclamation Act
Drago Doctrine Announced
American Forces withdraw from Cuba
1903- Elkins Act
Wisconsin adopts direct primary
Department of Labor and Commerce created
1903-1914- Panama Canal
1904-Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine
Northern Securities ruling
1905- Treaty of Portsmouth
1906- Pure Food and Drug Act
Meat inspection act
Burke Act modifies Dawes Act
Algeciras conference
1907- Oklahoma enters the Union
Gentlemen’s Agreement with Japan
Second Hague conference
1908- White House Conservation Conference
Danbury Hatters ruling
William Howard Taft (1909-1913)
Republican
VP- James S. Sherman
Major Items:
1909- Payne-Aldrich Tariff
Pinchot-Ballinger confrontation
1910- Menn-Elkins Act
Pan-American Conference
1911-Transcontinental airplane flight
1912- New Mexico, Arizona enter the Union
Progressive Party formed
First minimum wage law
1913- Sixteenth Amendment ratified
Wilson
Democrat
VPMajor Items1913-Seventeenth Amendment ratified
Underwood tariff
Federal reserve Act
1914- WW1 begins
Panama canal opens
Federal Trade Commission created
Clayton Antitrust Act
1915-Lusitania sunk
1916-Jones Act
1917-Fourteen Points (January)
US enters WW1
Smith-Huges Act
US buys the Virgin Islands
1918-Wilson presents the fourteen points
1919-Eighteenth Amendment ratified
“Palmer Raids”
Treaty of Versailles
1920- Nineteenth Amendment Ratified
“New Freedom”
Warren Harding (1921-1923)
Republican
VP: Calvin Coolidge
Sec of State: Charles Evans Hughes
Major Items: 1921 Bureau of Budget Created
Veterans` Bureau created
1920-1922- Washington naval Conference
1921-1929- laws limiting immigration passed
1922- Mussolini seized power in Italy
Forndey- Mccumber tariff
1923- Harding dies suddenly
Calvin Coolidge(1923-1929)
Republican
VP-Charles Daws
Secretary of State- frank Kellogg
Major items: 1929-Pan American Conference
1924- Teapot Dome scandal revealed
Veterans` bonus bill passed
All Native Americans given citizenship
1927- Mcnary-Haugen Bill vetoed
1928-Kellogg-biland Pact
Pan-American Conference
Herbert Hoover (1929-1933)
Republican
VP-Charles Curtis
Secretary of State – Henry L.Stinson
1932-Reconstruction Finance Corporation creator
Stimson Doctrine Announced
Federal Reserve powers increased
1933- Hitler comes to power
Twentieth Amendment ratified
Franklin D. Roosevelt(1933-1945)
Democrat
VP-John N. Garner, Henry Wallace, Harry S. Truman
Major Items: 1933- “New Deal”
CCC created
Agricultural Adjustment Act
Roosevelt declares bank holiday
NIRA goes into effect
TVA created
US recognizes Soviet Union
Good Neighbor policy announced
Twenty-first amendment announced
1934- Roosevelt “devalues” the dollar
SEC created
Indian Reorganization Act(Wheeler-Howard Act)
Trade Agreements Act
Platt amendment canceled
1935- WPA created
NIRA declared unconstitutional
National Labor Relations Act
Social Security Act
1935-1937- Neutrality Acts
1936- Pan-American Conference
1937- Plan to reorganize Supreme Court
1937-1938- Business slump
1938- CIO separates from AFL
Fair Labor Standards Act
Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act
Declaration of Lima
1939- Germany invades Poland; World War I begins
Neutrality Act of 1937 amended
1940- France signs armistice
1941- “Four Freedoms” speech
Lend-Lease Act
Hitler attacks USSR
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor; US enters World War II
1942- Corregidor surrenders to Japanese
Marines invade Guadalcanal
Allied invasion of North Africa
1943- Colro and Teheran Conferences
Allied invasion of Italy
1944- Allies invade Western Europe
France is liberated
1945- Yalta conference
Roosevelt dies suddenly
Harry S. Truman(1945-1953)
Democrat
VP- Alben W. Barkely
Major Items: 1945- San Fransisco Conference
VE Day- May 8, war ends in Europe
Atomic bombs destroy Hiroshima and Nagasaki
VJ Day- September 2, war ends in the Pacific
Truman signs UN charter
1946- Philippines become independent
Wartime wage and price controls end
1947- Truman Doctrine announced
Marshall Plan proposed
Taft- Hartley Act
Presidential Succession Act
“Fair Deal”
1947-1948- Berlin Airlift
1949- Point Fours program announced
Communists control China
NATO formed
1950- Internal Security Act
Korean War begins
1951- Twenty- second amendment ratified
1952- US tests hydrogen bomb
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-1961)
Republican
VP- Richard M. Nixon
Major Items: 1953- Department of Health, Education, and Welfare created
States get title to offshore oil
Korean armistice signed
1954- Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas
West Germany admitted to NATO
Both US and USSR have hydrogen bombs
1954-1955- Geneva Conference
1956- Suez Crisis
1957- Civil Rights Commission created
Sputnik in orbit
1958- First US Satellite in orbit
Alaska joins the Union
1959- St. Lawrence Seaway opened
Hawaii joins the Union
1960- U-2 incident; summit conference canceled
John F. Kennedy (1961-1963)
Democrat
VP- Lyndon B. Johnson
Major Items: 1961- “New Frontier”
Peace Corps created
Alliance for Progress begun
First Soviet cosmonaut orbits the Earth
Bay of Pigs invasion falls
Berlin Wall built
1962- John Glenn, US astronaut, orbits the Earth
US troops sent to South Vietnam
Trade Expansion Act
Cuban Missile Crisis
1963- Nuclear test-ban treaty
Kennedy assassinated, Lee Harvey Oswald
Lyndon B. Johnson (1963-1969)
Democrat
VP- Hubert H. Humphrey
Major Items: “Great Society”
1964- Economic opportunity Act
Civil Rights Acts
Twenty- fourth amendment ratified
Anti-poverty Act
“Freedom Summer”
1965- Voting Rights Act
Medicare established
Escolation in South Vietnam
Department of Housing and Urban Development created
1966- National Organization for Women founded
Department of Transportation created
1967- Twenty-fifth amendment ratified
Six-Day War in the Middle East
1968- Martin Luther King assassinated
Vietnam peace talks begin in Paris
Richard M. Nixon(1969-1974)
Republican
VP: Espiro T. Agnew, Gerald R. Ford
Major Items: “Imperial Presidency”
1969- Neil Armstrong lands on the moon
Woodstock
American withdrawals begin from Vietnam
1970- Environmental Protection Agency founded
1971- Twenty-sixth Amendment ratified
Nixon visits communist China and the Soviet Union
Pentagon Papers published in New York Times
1972- Twenty-seventh Amendment sent to stated for ratification
Watergate burglars captured
1973- Vice-president Agnew resigns
Second Battle of Wounded Knee
Cease fire in Vietnam
Yom Kippur War
1974- Nixon Resigns; Gerald Ford becomes president
Gerald Ford(1974-1977)
Republican
VP- Nelson A. Rockefeller
Major Items: first appointed president and vice-president
1974- Ford pardons Nixon
OPEC oil embargo
1975- Vietnam falls to communists
Joint US- Soviet space mission
1976- Nation celebrated Bicentennial;
US Viking craft lands on mars
Jimmy Carter(1977-1981)
Democrat
VP- Walter F. Mondale
Major Items: 1977- “stagflation”
Panama Canal Treaty
Carter announces plan to pardon Vietnam draft evaders
Department of Energy created
1978- Panama Canal Treaties approved
Carter proposes voluntary wage and price guidelines
1979- Revolution in Iran; American hostages taken in November
Accident at Three Mile Island nuclear plant
Soviet Union Invades Afghanistan
Gasoline shortage in US
Egypt and Israel sign Camp David Accords; Sadat and Begin win Nobel
Peace prize
1980- “Carter Doctrine” announced
US cuts grain shipments to USSR and boycotts Olympics
US mission to free hostages in Iran fails
“Marfel Boatlift” from Cuba
William J. Clinton(1981-1989)
Republican
VP- George Bush
Major Items: “supply side economics”
1981- Hostages returned from Iran
Reagan survives assassination attempt
Flight of US space shuttle Columbia
Sandra Day O’Connor appointed to Supreme Court
1982- Falkland Island Crisis
1983- 1500 US Marines sent to Beirut; withdrawn 1984
Invasion of Grenada
1984- American Intervention in Nicaragua
1987- Iran-Contra hearings
George Bush(1989-1993)
Republican
VP- J. Danforth Quayle
Major Items: 1990- Savings and Loan scandals
Invasion of Panama
Operation Desert Storm
Fall of Berlin Wall; Reunification of Germany