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Oct 12, 1492
*Columbus discovers the Bahamas.
At first, Columbus thought he skimmed the rim of the "Indies" that he called the native peoples Indians.Eventually convule 4 continents-Europe, Africa, and the 2 Americas. -
*First African slaves arrive in Jamestown.
Brought to Jamestown as early as 1619 (No date specified). Late as 1670, they numbered almost 2,000 in Virginia making up 7% of the 50,000 people in the southern plantation colonies as a whole. -
*Fundamental Orders drafted.
(Date of month and day are inaccurate.) Established a regime democratically controlled by the "substantial" citizens. -
*Half-Way Covenant founded
(Date of month and day is inaccurate.) Created by troubled ministers that offered partial membership rights to people who were not yet converted. It dramatized the difficulty of maintaining the religious devotion of the founding generation. -
*Salem Witch Trials
(Date of month and day is inaccurate.) A hysterical "witch hunt" ensued, leading to the legal lynching in 1692 of twenty individuals; 19 hanged, 1 pressed to death by stones. Started by a group of adolescent girls who claimed to be bewitched by older women in Salem, Massachusetts. -
*Zenger free press trial.
Zenger's newspaper had assailed the corrupt royal govenor. He was hauled into court and defended by Andrew Hamilton. Argued that he spoke the truth and the case was a banner achievement towards Freedom of the Press. -
*Johnathon Edwards begins Great Awakening.
(Date of month and day are inaccurate.) First ignited in Northampton, Massachusetts by Johnathan Edwards. It was a rebellion against authoritarian religious rule. -
*French and Indian War
(Day of month and day are inaccurate.) Seven-seas War that the English and the French battled for colonial domination in North America. -
*Boston Massacre
60 colonists went against a squad of about 10 Redcoats; one hit by a club while another was knocked down.This causedthe troops to fight back with orders, wounding 11 "innocent" citizens. Two of the Redcoats founded guilt of manslaughter while the others were released; thunmbs branded. -
*Boston Tea Party
A band of white townsfolk, disguised as Indians, boarded the three tea ships. They smashed open 342 chests and dumped the "cursed weed" into the harbor. -
*Intolerable Acts passed.
(Date of month and day is inaccurate.) Series of Acts that were designed to chasitise Boston in particular, Massachusetts in general and branded as "the massacre of American Liberty." Accompanied by the Quebec Act. -
*First Continental Congress meets.
Called upon in Philidelphia to to consider ways of redressing colonial greivances. Created The Association which called for a complete boycott of all Birtish goods. -
*Declaration of independence
Located in the Preamble. Infromed that the 13 colonies were free from British rule and included a list of tyranous misdeeds of George III. -
*Articles of Confederation adopted.
(Date of month and day are inaccurate.) Created by a committee that was appointed by Congress to draft a written constitution for the new nation. Unaminous approval was requred for the ratification. -
*Treaty of Paris
(Date of month and day are inaccurate.) Briti, to thsh fromally recognized the independence of the United States. Granted generous boundaries, stretched to the Mississippi on the west, Great Lakes on the north, and to Spanish Florida on the south. Yankees were to retain fisheries in Newfoundland. -
*Shay's Rebellion
(Date of month and day are innacurate.) A rebellion demanding cheaper paper money, lighter taxes, and suspension of property takeovers. Shay codemned to death and his followers crushed. -
*Constitutional Convention
Took place in Philidelphia to deal with commerce as well as to bolster the Articles of Confederation. Held in secrecy so that they wouldn't advertise arguments that could be used for towards the opposition. -
*Northwest Ordinance
Provided a solution to the problem on how the nation should deal with its colonials peoples. Included a judicious compromise: temporary tutelage, then permanent equality. -
*Ratification of Constitution
NIne states joining to together for ratifying a new Constitution. all but- Virginia, New York, North Carolina, and Rhode Island- had now shelyer under a "new federal roof." -
Samuel Slater builds 1st US textile factory
(Day and month are inaccurate.) -
*Cotton Gin invented
(Day and month are inaccurate.) Eli Whitney created the cotton gin which revolutionized cotton in the world. It increased profitably and increased the demand for slaves. -
*Bill of Rights adopted.
Safeguarded some of the most precious of American principles. Protected the rights of the American people, which are the first ten amendments of the Constitution. -
*Neutrality Proclamation
(Date of month and day are inaccurate.) Proclaimed the government's official neutrality in the widening conflict, sternly warned the Americans of the Frenchand Britain; the French were enraged by the document because of it going against the earlier Franco-American alliance. -
*Democratic-Republican Party formed.
(Date of month and day are inaccurate.) Formed when Washington's first administration ended, early in 1793. As well as the opposed party of Hamiltonian Federalists having differences over Hamilton's domestic policies. -
*Whiskey Rebellion.
(Date of month and day are inaccurate.) The Americans found the whiskey tax as a burden of economic necessity and a medium of exchange. Consequences were mighty as the Whiskey Rebellion was minuscule. -
*Alien and Seditions Acts passed.
(Date of month and day are inaccurate.) These new acts included new powers to deport foreigners and made it more difficult for them to vote; a law of having to live in the United States for 14 years before you can. -
*Interchangeable parts invented
(Day and Month are inaccurate.) Eli Whitney seized on the idea of having machines make each part. This principle was widely adopted by 1850 and became the basis of modern mass-production. -
*Second Great Awakening
(Day and month are inaccurate.) This wave of spiritual fervor left in its wake countless souls, many shattered and reorganized churches, and numerous new sects. -
*Marbury v. Madison
Decided the 24th of Feburary. Controversy had clouded the question of who had the final authority to determine the meaning of the Constitution. Then "judicial review"- the idea that the Supreme Court alone had the last word on the question of constitutionality. -
*Lewis and Clark Expedition.
Yielded a rich harvest of scientific observations, maps, knowledge of the Indians in the region, and hair-raising wilderness adventure stories. They also demonstrated the viability of an overland trail to the Pacific. -
*Slave trade outlawed in Congress
(Day and Month are inaccurate.) African importation ended in 1808. Although the price was so high in the years before the Civil War that uncounted thousands of black were smuggled into the South. -
*Battle of Plattsburgh
Thomas Macdonough challenged the British and won forcing the British to retreat. He saved upper New York from conquest, New England from disaffection, and the Union from possible dissolution. As well as affecting the concurrent negotiations of the Anglo-American peace treaty in Europe. -
*McCulloh v. Maryland
(Date of day and month inaccurate.) An attempt by Maryland to destroy a branch of the Bank of the Unisted States by imposing a tax on its notes. Where John Marshall strengthened federal authority at state infridgements when he denied the ruling of taxing the bank. -
*Missouri Compromise
(Day and month inaccurate.) Congress admitting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a separate state. Giving a blance of 12 states each for both the North and the South with all future bondage was prohibited in the remainder of the Louisiana Purchase north of the 36 degree 30'. -
*House elects John Quincy Adams president.
(Day and Month inaccurate) Candidates were Andrew Jackson, John Adams, Henry Clay, and William Crawford. Crawford fell by a paralytic stroke. Clay and Jackson archrivals but Clay and Adam's were similar politically so Clay secretly sided with Adams, ensuring his support. -
*Erie Canal completed.
(Day and month are inaccurate.) Followed by the valu9e of land sky-rocketing, and new cities blossomed. Industry started booming and the attraction of European immigrants to the untaxed and unaxed lands now available. -
The South Carolina Exposition published
(Day and month innacurate.) -
Webster-Hayne Debate
(Day and month inaccurate.) -
Garrison publishes the Liberator
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*"Bank War"
(Day and month are inaccurate.) Andrew Jackson vetoes bill to recharter the Bank of the United States. -
"Trails of Tears"
(Day and Month are inaccurate.) -
*Specie Circular
(Day and Month are inaccurate.) A decree, authorized to the Treasury by Andrew Jackson, that required all public lands to be pruchased with "hard," or metallic, money. -
*Battle of the Alamo
(Day and month are inaccurate.) Texans declared their independence against nearly 200 pugnacious Texans at Alamo in San Antonio , wiping them out to a man after a 13-day seige. -
*Caroline sunk by the British
(Day and Month are inaccurate.) The American steamer was carrying supplies to the insurgents across the Niagra River which caused conflict of the Americans and Canadians. -
*Webster-Ashburton Treaty
The Americans were to retain some 7,000 square miles of the 12,000 of wilderness in dispute. And an overlooked part in the treay was given to the Americans in adjusting the U.S.-Canadian boundary which was later founded to contain the priceless Measbi iron ore of Minnesota. -
Mexican War
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Wilmot Proviso
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*Seneca Falls Convention
(Day and Month are inaccurate.) Elizabeth Cady Stanton read a "Declaration of Sentiments," which in the spirit of the Declaration of Independence declared that "all men and WOMEN are created equal." -
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
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*Clayton-Bulwer Treaty
Stipulated that neither American nor Britain would fortify or secure exclusive control over any future isthimian waterway. -
Compromise of 1850
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*Uncle Tom's Cabin published
(Day and month are inaccurate.) Which awakened slavery to the North, increasing the determination to abolish it. Governments in London and Paris considered intervening in behalf of the South but they realized that their own people wouldn't support them. -
*Gadsden Purchase
The transaction aroused northerners who objected to paying a huge sum for a cactus-strewn desert but still passed by the Senate's belief of closing a window on the Sea of Cortez. -
*Commodore Perry opens Japan
He persuaded the Japansese to sign a memorable treaty which provided trading and open ports for U.S ships. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
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Ostend Manifesto
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*Dred Scott decision
Dred SCott sued for freedom on the basis of his long residence on free soil but the Supreme Court ruled that he was a black slave and not a citizen and hence, couldn't sue in a federal court. -
*Hinton R. Helper publishes The Impending Crisis of the South
Attempt at proving that nonslaveholding whites are the ones who suffered most from slavery. -
*Lincoln-Douglas debates
Seven meeting arranged from August to October, with Douglas winning. Most famous debate was at Freeport, Illinois. Douglas answered to the Freeport question with the "Freeport Doctrine" which stated that by whatever the Supremem Court ruled, slavery would stay down if the people voted it down. -
*Brown raids Harper Ferry
John Brown seized the federal arsenal, incidentally killing seven innocent people. The slaves failed to rise and Brown and his men were captured by U.S Marines. -
Confederate government formed
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Lincoln take office
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Fort Sumter fired upon
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Merrimack and Monitor battle
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Seven Day's Battle
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Emancipation Proclamation
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Battle of Gettysburg
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Archduke Maximilian installed as emperor of Mexico
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Sherman's March
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Lee surrenders at Appomattox
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13th Amendment ratified.