1650 and earlier
1430
1492
15091547
15581603
1607
1612
1619
1620
1622
1629
1636
Portuguese start voyages down the west coast of Africa
Columbus arrives in Western Hemisphere
Henry VII rules England
Protestant reformation begins in England
Reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Ireland conquered by England.
Jamestown founded
Tobacco made a profitable crop by John Rolfe
First group of blacks brought to Virginia
First legislative assembly meets in Virginia
First Pilgrims in Plymouth
Indian attacks in Virginia end hopes of becoming a bi-racial
society
Great Puritan migration to Massachusetts Bay
Harvard founded
1650-1750
1676
1686
1688
1700
1704
1720s
17391744
17561763
Bacon's Rebellion
Creation of Dominion of New England
Glorious Revolution in England
250,000 settlers in English colonies
First colonial newspaper
Colonial economic life quickens
Great Awakening
French and Indian War
1750-1775
1763
17631764
17641765
1766
1767
1770
1772
1773
Proclamation Line established
Pontiac's Rebellion
Sugar Act and Stamp Act Controversies
Declaratory Act
Townshend Act, New York Assembly suspended
Boston Massacre
Committees of Correspondence formed
Boston Tea Party
1774
1775
Coercive Acts, First Continental Congress convenes
Revolution begins with fighting at Lexington and Concord
1775-1800
1776
1777
1778
1781
1783
17841787
1786
1787
1788
1789
1790
1793
1794
1795
1798
1800
Declaration of Independence
British defeated at Saratoga
French join the war against the British
Battle of Yorktown
Articles of Confederation ratified
Peace signed in Paris
Northwest Ordinance of 1784, 1785, and 1787
Annapolis Convention
Shays' Rebellion
Constitutional Convention
Federalist Papers written
Constitution ratified
George Washington inaugurated as President of the United
States
French Revolution begins
Capital placed on the Potomac River
Citizen Genet
Whiskey Rebellion
Indians defeated at Fallen Timbers
Jay Treaty, Pinckney Treaty
Un-declared war with France
Alien and Sedition Acts
Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions
Jefferson elected
1800-1825
1803
18071809
1808
1809
1812
1814
1820
1820s
1823
Louisiana Purchase
Embargo in effect
Slave trade ended
Non-intercourse Act
War with England
Treaty of Ghent
Missouri Compromise
First labor unions formed
Romanticism flourished in America
Monroe Doctrine
1825-1850
1828
1830s
1831
1832
1834
1835
1840s
1846
1848
1849
1850
Andrew Jackson elected
Railroad era begins
Nat Turner's rebellion
Liberator founded
Nullification crisis
Whig party formed
Texas Revolution, Republic of Texas established
Manifest Destiny
Telegraph and railroads create a communications revolution
Mexican War begins
Treaty of Guadeloupe Hidalgo ended Mexican War. U. S.
acquires California and territory of New Mexico which
includes present-day Nevada, Utah, Arizona, new Mexico,
and part of Colorado.
Gold discovered in California
Compromise of 1850
California admitted to the union
Fugitive Slave Law strengthened
1850-1875
1853
1854
1856
1858
1859
1860
1861
1862
1864
1865
Gadsden Purchase
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Republican Party formed
Violence in Kansas
Senator Sumner attacked in the Senate
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry
Democratic Party splits apart
Abraham Lincoln elected 16th President of the United States
Lower South secedes
Confederate States of America formed
Civil War begins at Fort Sumter
Upper South secedes
North is defeated at the first battle of Bull Run
Battle of Antietam
Morill Tariff, Homestead Act
Emancipation Proclamation issued (effective January 1,
1863)
Grant's wilderness campaign
Sherman takes Atlanta
Sherman's "March to the Sea"
Sherman takes South and North Carolina
1867
1868
1870
1870s
Lee surrenders at Appomattox Court House
Thirteenth Amendment abolishes slavery
Lincoln assassinated
Andrew Johnson becomes President
KKK formed
First Reconstruction Act launches Radical Reconstruction
Alaska purchased
Fourteenth Amendment guarantees Civil Rights
Johnson impeached
Fifteenth Amendment forbids denial of vote on racial
grounds
Terrorism against blacks in South, flourishing of Darwinism
and ideas of racial inferiority
1875-1900
1876
1877
1879
1880s
1883
1886
1887
1890
18901920
1893
1895
1898
1899
1900
End of Reconstruction
Battle of Little Big Horn
Munn v. Illinois: Court rules states may regulate warehouse
rates
Stand Oil Trust formed
Big Business emerge
Railroad companies divide nation into four time zones
Pendleton Civil Service Act
Haymarket Riots
Interstate Commerce Commission
Davies Act
Sherman Anti-Trust Act
Massacre at Wounded Knee
Sherman Silver Purchase Act
Fifteen million "new" immigrants
Repeal of Sherman Silver Purchase Act
Pollock v Farmers
Court strikes down income tax
War with Spain
Hawaii annexed
Peace with Spain, U. S. receives Philippines, Samoa, Guam,
and Puerto Rico
Gold Standard
1900-1920
1900
1901
Gold Standard
Theodore Roosevelt becomes President
1904
19041914
1906
1912
1913
1914
1915
1916
1917
1918
1919
1920
Roosevelt Corollary to Monroe Doctrine
Panama Canal built
Hepburn Act, Pure Food and Drug Act
The Jungle
Election of Woodrow Wilson
Sixteen Amendment authorizing income tax ratified
Seventeenth Amendment providing for direct elections of
Senators ratified
Federal Reserve System begun
Wilson broadens segregation in civil service
World War 1 begins
U. S. troops occupy Vera Cruz
U. S. troops sent to Haiti
Lusitania sunk, U. S. intervened
KKK revived
Germany issues Sussex pledge
Russian Revolution
U. S. enters WW1
WW1 ends
Treaty of Versailles
Eighteenth Amendment prohibits alcoholic beverages
Red Scare
Nineteenth Amendment gives women the right to vote
First radio station KDKA in Pittsburgh
1920-1940
1921
1924
1927
1929
1932
1933
1934
1935
1936
1937
Washington Naval Conference
Revenue Act slashes income tax on wealthy and corporations
Lindbergh crosses the Atlantic
Stock market crashes
Franklin Roosevelt elected
Bank holiday, "Hundred Days"
NRA, AAA, FDIC, TVA, FERA, CCC
Twentieth Amendment changes inauguration day to January
Twenty-first Amendment repeals prohibition
Hitler comes to power in Germany
Gold standard terminated
SEC
Social Security Act, WP, NLRA
CIO formed
U. S. Begins neutrality legislation
FDR re-elected
FDR attempts to pack Supreme Court
1938
1939
1940
Japan invades China
United States Housing Authority
Fair labor Standards Act
Hitler takes Austria, Munich Agreement
World War 2 begins
Roosevelt makes destroyers-for-bases deal with the British
Fall of France
First peacetime draft
1940-1960
1940
1941
1942
1943
1944
1945
1946
1947
19481949
1949
1950
Roosevelt makes destroyers-for-bases deal with the British
Fall of France
First peacetime draft
Lend-Lease, Battle of Britain, Hitler attacks USSR
Atlantic Charter
Japan attacks Pearl Harbor
Allied year of disaster
U. S. interns Japanese
U. S. halts Japanese at Coral Sea and Midway
Tide turns against Axis
Russia wins at Stalingrad, unconditional surrender demanded
Italy invaded
France invaded
Bombing of Japan begins
Russia sweeps through Eastern Europe
Philippines liberated
Yalta
FDR dies
Germany surrenders
Atom bombs
End of WW 2
U. S. - USSR relations worsen
"Iron Curtain" speech
Cold War begins
Marshall Plan
Containment
Berlin Airlift
Taft-Hartley
Military integrated
NATO
Russia explodes the bomb
Communists control China
Korean War
Joseph McCarthy
1951
1952
1953
1954
1955
1957
1958
1960
Twenty-second Amendment limits the President to two terms
Dwight Eisenhower elected President
Industries agree on guaranteed annual wage
Brown v. Board of Education, Supreme Court strikes down
"separate but equal."
Vietnam divided
Montgomery Bus Boycott, emergence of Martin Luther
King, Jr.
Sputnik
Eisenhower Doctrine
Little rock Crisis
Civil Rights Act
First U. S. satellite and ICBM
NASA
U. S. occupies Lebanon
U-2 shot down over Russia
Soviet and Chinese split
John F. Kennedy elected President
non-violent protests against segregation
1960-1970
1961
1962
1963
1964
1965
1966
Freedom rides
Twenty-third Amendment gives District of Columbia the
right to vote for President
Berlin crisis
Peace Corps
Bay of Pigs
16,000 in Vietnam
University of Mississippi integrated
Cuban Missile Crisis
Civil Rights march on Washington
JFK assassinated
Feminine Mystique
Free speech movement at Berkeley
Beatles
Twenty-fourth Amendment outlaws the poll tax
War on poverty
Gulf of Tonkin
Great Society
Operation Rolling Thunder in Vietnam
Malcolm X assassinated
Black Power
France withdraws from NATO
N. O. W. formed
1967
1968
1969
1970
Detroit Riot
Peace movement in the U. S.
Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther Kin murdered
Tet Offensive
Johnson won't seek re-election
Richard Nixon elected President
Vietnamization
First man on the moon
Nixon proposed New Federalism
Massacre at Kent State
EPA established
Cambodian invasion creates anti-war turbulence
SALT talks begin
1970-1980
1971
1972
1973
1974
1975
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980
Nixon opens talks with China
Wage-price controls
My Lai massacre revealed
Pentagon Papers published
Intensive bombing of North Vietnam
Watergate
Nixon re-elected
GNP over 1 trillion
Cease-fire in Vietnam
U. S. forces withdraw
Spiro Agnew resigns
Watergate tapes
Nixon resigns, Ford's pardon
Serious inflation and recession
Vietnam falls
44% of married women employed
Bicentennial
Jimmy Carter elected President
Human rights
Camp David Accords
Panama Canal treaties ratified
SALT 2 completed
U. S. recognizes china
American Embassy in Iran occupied
USSR invaded Afghanistan
U. S. boycotts Olympics, withdraws from SALT 2
Reagan elected President