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Jamestown, Virginia is Established
During the 1600s and 1700s, the English settled on rivers and bays along the Atlantic coast from modern Maine to Georgia. The first permanent English settlement, Jamestown, Virginia, was established in 1607. Not only did Jamestown benefit Enlgand by providing a profit in gold, but it represented an official British claim on Noth American land. -
First Slaves are Brought to America
Africans were brought to America to work as slaves on Southern tobacco and cotton plantations. Recent studies have determined that the very first slaves were originally African prisoners on a Portugese slave ship that was attacked by British pirates. -
British Gain Land East of the Mississippi
England emerged victorious in it's war against France in North America. It ended with the fall of Montreal in September of 1763. The French surrendered all of their land east of the MIssissippi River to the British. -
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American Revolution
Soon after the French and Indian War, Britain’s 13 American colonies began to resent the laws and taxes forced on them by a government thousands of miles away. Britain enacted a series of direct taxes and other laws to make it clear they would not tolerate uprisings. The Second Continental Congress adopted a decalaration of independence. Their protests led to the American Revolution and the establishment of the United States of America. The Treaty of Paris ended the war. -
U.S. Constitution is Written
The brief first constitution, the Articles of Confederation, was proved insufficient, as it lacked any national army, judicial system, or currency. To avoid any further sectionalism, representatives from 12 states convened in May with the intent of making serious revisions the Articles of Confederation. However, it became apparent that a rewritten constitution would be necessary. The Constitutional Convention carried on for four months. The document was completed in 1787 and ratified in 1790. -
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Heavy Immigration from Europe to America
European immmigrants had been steadily entering the U.S. since its establishment, but around 1820, it was first noted that the number of immigrants each year was increasing exponentially. Most settled in industrailized Northeastern cities or farmlands in the Midwest. A few of the countless stimuli include the Potato Famine in Ireland, failed revolutions, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (treaty handing what is now Southwestern U.S. after the Mexican-American War), and the California Gold Rush. -
Louisiana Purchase
In 1803, President Jefferson purchased 828,800 square miles of plains east of the Mississippi and west of the Rocky Mountains from Napolean (France). The U.S. only had to pay 15 million dollars ($217 million in today's currency) for a territory that nearly doubled its size. -
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Lewis and Clark Expedition
Meriwether Lewisand William Clark were chosen by Thomas Jefferson to explore the Louisiana Purchase. They left Saint Louis in 1804, and reached the Pacific in 1806, viewing much of the West on the way and writing down what they saw. Their exploration of America's new land sparked interest in further Western expansion. On their great scientific journey, they mapped landforms, made contact with several Native American tribes, and documented 122 species of animals and 178 plant types. -
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American Civil War
Eleven Southern states declared their secession from the U.S. and became the Confederate States of America. While many factors lead to Southern secession, the largest was the issue of slavery. Southern states depended on slave labor. When it seemed the government was leaning towards anitislavery by tipping the balance between slave and free states, fighting broke out. The war lasted four years, during the presidency of Abraham Lincoln. Gen. Lee surrendered his army on April 9, 1865. -
First Transcontinental Railroad Completed
The Transcontinental Railroad was a railroad built mainly by Chinese and Irish immigrants. Stretching from Sacramento, California, to Omaha, Nebraska, it drastically cut the time needed to travel across the United States. -
Population Between the Mississippi and the Pacific Reaches 17 Million
About 17 million people lived
between the Mississippi and the Pacific by 1890. This is an approximation of the time in which the fronteir available for settlement became fully settled. These western lands would be mostly urbanized in the years to come. -
Hawaii is Annexed
The U.S. President met and negotiated with with Lorrin Thurston, Francis March Hatch and William Ansel Kinney, three annexationists from Hawaii. In 1897, Secretary of State John Sherman agreed to a treaty of annexation with these representatives of the Republic of Hawaii.
Despite some opposition in the islands, the Newlands Resolution was passed by both the House on June 15 and the Senate on July 6. It was sixty years before Hawaii became a state. -
First Modern Automotive Assembly Lines
While many cultures had used this principle before, it was Henry Ford who concieved the assembly line that is used in manufacturing today. Before, cars were built one at a time, which seriously hampered the number of automobiles that could be completed and greatly increased the price. It took several months of planning and organizing, but Ford's manufacturing revolution helped make cars widespread. -
First Radio Transmissions from KDKA radio.
KDKA began with the name of "8XK" and the work of Frank Conrad, who operated a 75 watt 8XK from the suburb of Wilkinsburg in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1916. When Conrad's employer, the Westinghouse Electric Company, saw the popularity of the trasmissions and the commercial potential of the new medium they applied for an official broadcasting license. On November 2, 1920 8XK became KDKA Radio, one of the first radio stations of its time. -
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Cold War
The Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union lasted for 45 years following the end of World War II. A competition for world influence, the Cold War created immense tension between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. The two countries' armies never directly went to war with each other, but at the time, many people feared that the flimsy relations would end in a nuclear war, Each nation began stockpiling nuclear warheads, prepared to fire back, if attacked. -
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Vietnam War
Part of the Cold War, the war in Vietnam was fought between Northern Vietnam (backed by the U.S.S.R., China and N. Korea) and South Vietnam (the U.S., S. Korea, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, and the Philippines). As the fighting continued and the American death toll skyrocketed, the war lost support from the public. In June of 1973, U.S. involvement in Vietnam was banned. Without enough forces, the communists overpowered South Vietnam and the two were reunited under socialism. -
Integrated Circuit
Although many before him had come close, Jack Kilby is recognized for his official completion of the first integrated circuit. He recorded his initial theories on the integrated circuit in July 1958 and demonstrated the first working model on September 12. His patent application was published on February 6, 1959. Kilby won the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physics. -
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Civil Rights Movements
Sometimes referred to as the Second Reconstruction Era, the 60s and 70s were years of great racial and political tension in the United States. Reform movements and protests mostly pertaining to African-American and Hispanic equality were common. Groups such as the Black Panther Party and the Brown Berets turned to a more harsh approach, but were eventually stopped by the FBI and other government agencies. -
America's First Manned Space Exploration
Manned by former Navy test pilot, Alan B. Shepard, the U.S. launched its first Mercury capsule, "Friendship 7" 115 miles up on a 15 minute trip around the Earth three times. Shepard landed back on Earth in the Atlantic Ocean, near Cape Canavral, Florida. -
DNA Mapped
The Human Genome Project is a scientific research project created to identify the sequences of the chemical base pairs that compose DNA and to find, name, and map the approximately 20,000–25,000 genes in the human genome.The project began in 1990, headed by James D. Watson at the U.S. National Institute of Health. A draft of the genome was released in 2000. The complete version was released in 2003. A more detailed analysis is still being published.
