American History

Columbus's Four Voyages

Aug 24, 1492

Columbus made Four Voyages between 1492 and 1504

Cortez Congquers Mexico

Aug 24, 1519

Roanoke Island (Carolinas) Colonoy Fails

Aug 24, 1585

-87

Jamestown, VA, founed

Aug 24, 1607

First Africans arrive in VA

Aug 24, 1619

Virgina House of Burgesses

Aug 24, 1619

Pilgrims found Plymouth, MA

Aug 24, 1620

Puritan migration to Massachusetts

Aug 24, 1630

Calverts found Maryland

Aug 24, 1634

Pequot Indian War

Aug 24, 1635

-36

Anne Hutchinson convicted of heresy

Aug 24, 1638

Fundamental Orders of Connecticut

Aug 24, 1639

English Civil War

Aug 24, 1642

-48

First Navagation Act (mercantilism)

Aug 24, 1650

English conquer New Netherlands (New York)

Sep 23, 1664

King Philip’s (Metacomet’s) War (Massachusetts)

Sep 23, 1675

-76

Bacon’s Rebellion (Virginia)

Sep 23, 1676

Pennsylvania settled

Sep 23, 1682

English Glorious Revolution and Bill of Rights

Sep 23, 1688

-89

Massachusetts becomes royal colony

Sep 23, 1691

Salem witch hunts

Sep 23, 1692

Queen Anne’s War

Sep 23, 1702

-13

England, Wales, and Scotland unite into the United Kingdom(Great Britain)

Sep 23, 1707

George I’s reign

Sep 23, 1714

-27

George II’s reign

Sep 23, 1727

-60

Georgia founded

Sep 23, 1733

First Great Awakening

Sep 23, 1734

-41

Stamp Act

Mar 22, 1765

The Stamp Act was passed by the British Parliament on March 22, 1765. The new tax was imposed on all American colonists and required them to pay a tax on every piece of printed paper they used.

Boston Massacre

Oct 4, 1770

Tea Act and Boston Tea Party

Oct 4, 1773

Intolerable Acts; First Continental Congress

Oct 4, 1774

Battles of Lexington and Concord; Washington appointed commander in chief

Oct 4, 1775

Declaration of Independence; states adopt new constitutions

Oct 4, 1776

Paine’s Common Sense; Declaration of Independence

Oct 4, 1776

Articles of Confederation; Battle of Saratoga

Oct 4, 1777

Articles of Confederation (Congress adopts, but states do not finish ratifying until 1781); Articlesof Confederation ratified; Congress establishes Bank of North America

Oct 4, 1777

French Alliance

Oct 4, 1778

Articles of Confederation ratified; Cornwallis surrenders at Yorktown

Oct 4, 1781

Treaty of Paris

Oct 4, 1783

Treaty of Paris; Newburgh Conspiracy

Oct 4, 1783

Ordinance of 1784

Oct 4, 1784

Land Ordinance of 1785

Oct 4, 1785

Jay-Gardoqui Treaty rejected; Virginia Religious Freedom Act; Shays’ Rebellion; IndianOrdinance of 1786; Annapolis Convention

Oct 4, 1786

Constitutional Convention; Northwest Ordinance; the Federalist Papers

Oct 4, 1787

Constitution ratified by all states except Rhode Island and North Carolina

Oct 4, 1788

New government forms

Oct 4, 1789

Washington elected; new government forms; Congress meets; French Revolution begins

Oct 4, 1789

Hamilton issues the Report on Public Credit

Oct 4, 1790

First Bank of United States (BUS) established

Oct 4, 1791

Washington begins second term; Proclamation of Neutrality; cotton gin patented

Oct 4, 1793

Whiskey Rebellion; Battle of Fallen Timbers

Oct 4, 1794

Jay’s Treaty; Pinckney’s Treaty

Oct 4, 1795

Washington’s Farewell Address; John Adams elected president

Oct 4, 1796

X, Y, Z Affair; Quasi War with France; Alien and Sedition Acts; Virginia and KentuckyResolutions

Oct 4, 1798

Washington, D. C., becomes national capital

Oct 4, 1800

Congress narrowly selects Jefferson president; Adams appoints John Marshall and “midnightjudges”

Oct 4, 1801

Congress recalls most “midnight judges”

Oct 4, 1802

Marbury v. Madison; Louisiana Purchase; Lewis and Clark expedition

Oct 4, 1803

Aaron Burr kills Alexander Hamilton; Jefferson reelected

Oct 4, 1804

British seize American ships

Oct 4, 1805

Embargo Act; Burr acquitted of treason

Oct 4, 1807

African slave trade ends; James Madison elected president

Oct 4, 1808

Congress boycotts British and French trade

Oct 4, 1809

Fletcher v. Peck

Oct 4, 1810

Battle of Tippecanoe; BUS charter expires; first steamboat on Ohio and Mississippi rivers

Oct 4, 1811

United States and Britain engage in War of 1812; Madison reelected

Oct 4, 1812

Battles of Lake Erie and Thames

Oct 4, 1813

British burn Washington, D. C.; Battle of Lake Champlain/Plattsburgh; Hartford Convention;Treaty of Ghent ends war

Oct 4, 1814

Battle of New Orleans

Oct 4, 1815

Treaty of Ghent ends War of 1812

Oct 4, 1815

James Monroe elected president

Oct 4, 1816

Andrew Jackson seizes Florida from Spain and the Seminoles

Oct 4, 1818

McCulloch v. Maryland

Oct 4, 1819

Missouri Compromises

Oct 4, 1819

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Adams-Onis Treaty

Oct 4, 1819

Monroe Doctrine; American Fur Company establishes Fort Union on Missouri River

Oct 4, 1823

John Quincy Adams defeats Jackson in controversial election

Oct 4, 1824

Tariff of Abominations; Jackson defeats Adams

Oct 4, 1828

William Lloyd Garrison publishes first issue of The Libertator

Oct 4, 1831

Nullification Crisis; Worster v. Georgia

Oct 4, 1832

Texas Independence; Martin Van Buren elected president

Oct 4, 1836

Panic of 1837

Oct 4, 1837

William Henry Harrison elected president; Harrison dies; John Tyler assumes presidency

Oct 11, 1840

Amistad decision: Supreme Court frees African slave mutineers

Oct 11, 1841

First large Oregon Trail wagon train

Nov 2, 1843

James K. Polk pledges to annex both Texas and Oregon Territory; Polk elected president

Oct 11, 1844

Texas annexation

Oct 11, 1845

Mexican-American War

Oct 11, 1846

-47

Mormon exodus to Utah

Nov 2, 1846

-47

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ends Mexican War; annexation of Oregon Territory and Southwest(California, New Mexico, Nevada, and Utah); Zachary Taylor elected president

Oct 11, 1848

Zachary Taylor elected president

Oct 25, 1848

Mexican War ends; New Mexico Territory, California ceded to United States

Nov 2, 1848

Gold discovered in California

Oct 11, 1849

Gold discovered at Sutter’s Mill, California Gold Rush begins

Nov 2, 1849

Compromise of 1850; California admitted as a free state; Fugitive Slave Law passed; Taylor dies inoffice; Millard Fillmore becomes president

Oct 25, 1850

Compromise of 1850 admits California as a state

Nov 2, 1850

Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes Uncle Tom’s Cabin; Franklin Pierce elected president

Oct 25, 1852

Gadsden Purchase

Oct 25, 1853

Gadsden Purchase completes map of lower continental United States

Nov 2, 1853

Kansas-Nebraska Act; formation of Anti-Nebraska Party (later called Republican Party)

Oct 25, 1854

James Buchanan elected president; John C. Fremont, Republican, comes within three states ofcarrying election with only northern votes.

Oct 25, 1856

Butterfield Overland Stage provides passenger and mail route to California

Nov 2, 1857

Comstock Lode discovered

Nov 2, 1859

Pony Express begins operations

Nov 5, 1860

Civil War begins

Nov 5, 1861

Homestead Act; Morrill Act; Plains Indian wars begin

Nov 5, 1862

Sand Creek massacre

Nov 5, 1864

Cattle Kingdom reaches its apex

Jan 30, 1865

1885

Fetterman massacre

Jan 30, 1866

Grange movement begins

Jan 30, 1867

Transcontinental railroads join at Promontory, Utah

Jan 30, 1869

Custer massacre

Jan 30, 1876

Edmunds Act

Jan 30, 1882

Chief Joseph and Nez Percé surrender

Jan 30, 1885

Dawes Severalty Act

Jan 30, 1887

Wounded Knee massacre

Jan 30, 1890

Frederick Jackson Turner declares frontier closed

Jan 30, 1893

Alaskan gold rush

Jan 30, 1896

McKinley elected

Feb 8, 1896

Spanish-American War; Hawaii annexed; Open Door Note

Mar 21, 1898

McKinley reelected

Mar 21, 1900

McKinley assassinated; Theodore Roosevelt becomes president

Mar 21, 1901

Northern Securities suit; Newlands Reclamation Act

Mar 21, 1902

Acquisition of Panama Canal Zone; Roosevelt Corollary delivered

Mar 21, 1903

Roosevelt elected president

Mar 21, 1904

Taft elected president

Mar 21, 1908

Ballinger-Pinchot Controversy

Mar 21, 1909

-11

Standard Oil Supreme Court Decision

Mar 21, 1911

Roosevelt forms Bull Moose/Progressive Party; Wilson elected president

Mar 21, 1912

Woodrow Wilson elected president

Mar 21, 1912

Federal Reserve Act passed; Sixteenth Amendment (income tax) passed; Seventeenth Amendment(direct election of U.S. senators) passed

Mar 21, 1913

World War I breaks out in Europe; revolution in Mexico leads to landing of U.S. troops at VeraCruz; Clayton Act passed

Mar 21, 1914

Sinking of the Lusitania prompts sharp response from United States to Germany

Mar 21, 1915

Woodrow Wilson reelected; U.S. forces under General John Pershing chase Pancho Villa inMexico

Mar 21, 1916

Zimmerman telegram; United States declares war on Germany and the Central Powers;Noncommunist revolution in Russia (March) followed by a communist revolution in Russia(October)

Mar 21, 1917

American forces in key battles at Belleau Wood, the Ardennes; Armistice (November eleventh)

Mar 21, 1918

Versailles peace conference; Wilson offers Fourteen Points; Versailles Treaty; Lodge reservationsto treaty introduced in the Senate; Eighteenth Amendment (Prohibition) ratified

Mar 21, 1919

Wilson suffers stroke; Nineteenth Amendment (Woman suffrage) ratified; U.S. economy entersrecession

Mar 21, 1920

Warren Harding elected president

Mar 21, 1920

Washington Conference

Mar 21, 1922

Harding dies in office; Calvin Coolidge assumes presidency

Mar 21, 1923

Upheaval in Germany; near collapse of Weimar Republic

Mar 21, 1923

-24

Coolidge reelected

Mar 21, 1924

Locarno Pact

Mar 21, 1926

Kellogg-Briand Treaty; Herbert Hoover elected president

Mar 21, 1928

Stock market crash

Mar 21, 1929

Smoot-Hawley Tariff passes Congress; Reconstruction Finance Corporation started

Mar 21, 1930

Bank collapse; money supply contracts by one third

Mar 21, 1930

-32

Franklin Roosevelt elected president

Mar 21, 1932

Japanese aggression in China

Mar 21, 1932

The Hundred Days; New Deal legislation passed; Bank Holiday; Prohibition repealed; FDR takesnation off gold standard; National Industrial Recovery Act; Adolf Hitler named Chancellor inGermany

Mar 21, 1933

The Hundred Days; New Deal legislation passed; Bank Holiday; Prohibition repealed; FDR takesnation off gold standard; National Industrial Recovery Act; Adolf Hitler named Chancellor inGermany

Mar 22, 1933

Securities and Exchange Commission established; temporary minimum wage law passed

Mar 22, 1934

Glass-Steagall Act; Wagner Act; Works Progress Administration; Social Security program created;Neutrality Act passed

Mar 22, 1935

Roosevelt reelected

Mar 22, 1936

Rape of Nanking by Japanese troops; U.S. gunboat Panay sunk

Mar 22, 1937

German expansion in Czechoslovakia; U.S. unemployment soars again

Mar 22, 1938

“Golden year” for American cinema; Hitler invades Poland, starting World War II

Mar 22, 1939

Hitler invades Poland, and World War II begins in Europe

Sep 22, 1939

Roosevelt reelected

Mar 22, 1940

Germany defeats French and British forces in France; France surrenders and is occupied; Norwayoccupied; Battle of Britain

Mar 22, 1940

Lend-Lease Act passed; Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor; United States declares war on Axis powers

Mar 22, 1941

Japan attacks Pearl Harbor

Dec 7, 1941

United States and Britain invade North Africa; Jimmy Doolittle bombs Tokyo (February); Battlesof Coral Sea (May) and Midway (June)

Mar 22, 1942

Allies begin bombing Europe, defeat the Afrika Korps at the battle of Kasserine Pass (February),and invade Sicily and Italy (July)

Mar 22, 1943

Invasion of France (June sixth); Paris liberated (August); Battle of the Bulge (December); invasionof the Philippines and Battle of Leyte Gulf (October)

Mar 22, 1944

Harry Truman ascends to the U.S. presidency upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt

Mar 22, 1945

Germany surrenders (May); landings on Iwo Jima and Okinawa (March-June); Trinity test ofatomic bomb (July); atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (August sixth and ninth); Japansurrenders (August twelfth)

Mar 22, 1945

“Iron Curtain” speech by Winston Churchill, Cold War begins

Mar 22, 1946

Republicans capture both the House and Senate in midterm elections

Mar 22, 1946

Marshall Plan, North Atlantic Treaty Organization founded

Mar 22, 1947

Truman Doctrine implemented; cold war begins; Marshall Plan instituted; Taft-Hartley Act

Mar 22, 1947

Berlin airlift; Truman reelected

Mar 22, 1948

NATO formed; Communists take control of China

Mar 22, 1949

Alger Hiss convicted; Korean War begins

Mar 22, 1950

Dwight D. Eisenhower elected

Mar 22, 1952

Korean War ends

Mar 22, 1953

Brown v. Board of Education

Mar 22, 1954

SEATO formed

Mar 22, 1955

Soviets crush Hungarian uprising; Eisenhower reelected

Mar 22, 1956

Eisenhower orders federal troops to desegregate Little Rock High School; Soviets launch Sputnik

Mar 22, 1957

Castro captures Cuba

Mar 22, 1959

John F. Kennedy elected president

Mar 22, 1960

Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba; Soviet Union erects Berlin Wall

Mar 22, 1961

Cuban Missile Crisis

Mar 22, 1962

John F. Kennedy assassinated; Lyndon B. Johnson assumes presidency

Mar 22, 1963

Johnson introduces Great Society legislation; Civil Rights Act passed; Tonkin Gulf Resolution;Ronald Reagan campaigns for Barry Goldwater’s presidential campaign; Johnson defeatsGoldwater

Mar 22, 1964

Johnson sends combat troops to Vietnam

Mar 22, 1965

Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy assassinated; Richard Nixon elected president

Mar 22, 1968

United States lands man on the moon

Mar 22, 1969

Twenty-sixth Amendment to the Constitution; wage and price controls

Mar 22, 1971

Nixon visits China; Watergate break-in; Nixon reelected

Mar 22, 1972

Nixon withdraws last of American troops from Vietnam; Roe v. Wade case decided

Mar 22, 1973

OPEC raises oil prices; oil crisis

Mar 22, 1973

-75

War Powers Act passed by Congress;busing battles begin in Boston

Mar 22, 1974

Nixon resigns; Gerald Ford assumes the presidency

Mar 22, 1974

Vietnam overrun by North Vietnamese; Communist Pol Pot regime overruns Cambodia; BASICcomputer language invented by Bill Gates

Mar 22, 1975

Jimmy Carter elected president; Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak market first personal computers

Mar 22, 1976

Camp David Accords; Iranians storm U.S. embassy in Tehran, take American hostages

Mar 22, 1979

Soviets invade Afghanistan; U.S. Olympic ice hockey team wins the gold medal; Ronald Reaganelected president

Mar 22, 1980

Reagan fires air traffic controllers; Reagan shot, nearly killed by John Hinckley; Congress passesReaganomics tax cuts; Iranian hostages freed

Mar 22, 1981

Economic recovery begins; “Star Wars” speech; marine barracks in Lebanon blown up; Soviets putshort-range missiles in western USSR aimed at Europe

Mar 22, 1983

Geneva conference with Reagan and Gorbachev

Mar 22, 1985

Iran-contra affair

Mar 22, 1986

-87

Reagan and British prime minister Margaret Thatcher announce plan to install short-range missilesin Europe in response to Soviet SS-20s; “freeze movement” gains momentum

Mar 22, 1986

Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty signed

Mar 22, 1987