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John Rolfe settled America with the early English settlers. He was the first to develop a popular strain of tobacco to export to the English. Rolfe is also known for his marriage to Pochahontas.
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The House of Burgesses was founded in Virginia and was the first group of elected representitives in North America. It was established by the Virginia Company and had its first meeting in Jamestown, Virginia on July 30th 1619.
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The Mayflower Compact was signed on November 11th 1620 by most adult males onboard the Mayflower. It was written by Separartists seeking refuge from religious persecution by King James.
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Bacon's Rebellion was a rebellion aganist Governer William Berkley, led by Nathaniel Bacon.
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The Salem Witch Trials were a series of trials in the towns Salem Village, Ipwich, Andover, and Salem Town in colonial Massachusetts. People accused of Witchcraft were prosecuted between the years 1692 and 1693.
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In 1733, John Peter Zenger started printing a newspaper as a medium of expressing his frustrations with Governer William Cosby. In 1734, Zegner was arrested and charged with seditious libel. After eight months and a trial, he was released with a verdict of not guilty.
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The Stono Rebellion was a slave rebellion in 1739. It was led by native Africans. The leader, Jemmy, was a literate slave who led 20 other slaves across the Stono River. Sixty other slaves were recruited and killed 22-25 people before being intercepted by the South Carolina Militia.
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The Battle of Fort Necessity took place on July 3rd 1754, in Framington, a small town near Pittsburg. It was an early battle of the French and Indian War and the only surrender of George Washington's military career.
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Suggested by Benjamin Franklin in 1754, The Albany Plan was a proposel to bring the thirteen colonies together under a unified government.
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The Boston Massacre was an incident in 1770 where the British killed five civillian Boston men and injured six others. A mob formed around a British sentry. The mob harrassed him and the eight soldiers that joined him. The soldiers fired into the mob without orders immediately killing three people.
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The Coercive Acts were a series of laws effected after the Boston Tea Party that stripped Massachusetts of its right to self government.
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The Declaration of Indepence was ratified by the Continental Congress on July 4th 1776. It stated that the thirteen colonies were independent from the British Empire.
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Shays' Rebellion was an armed uprising in central and western Massachusetts during 1786 and 1787. Named after a Revolutionary War veteran, Shays' Rebellion was caused by financial difficulties, a credit squeeze, and harsh government policies.
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The Whiskey Rebellion was brought about to protest the new tax on farmers who used whiskey as a medium of exchange. In Western Pennsylvania protesters often employed violence and intimidation.
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The mechanical Cotton Gin was invented in 1793 by Eli Whitney. A patent was granted to him on March 14th 1794.
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The Alien and Sedition Acts were four bills passed in 1798. During John Adams' presidency.
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The decision that resulted from the Marbury v. Madison case helped define the line between the executive and judicial branches of the government.
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The Lewis and Clark expedition was commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson and was headed by Merriweither Lewis and William Clark. They spent two years exploring and maping the newly aquired Lousiana Purchase.
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The Missouri Compromise, passed in 1820, prohibited slavery north of 36'30' except in the state of Missouri.
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The Monroe Doctrine, introduced in 1823 by President James Monroe, stated that any European colonization in North or South America would be viewed as an act of aggression, though the U.S. would not invovle itself with exisisting colonies.
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The Trail of Tears refers to the forced Indian removal from the South East following the Indian Removal Act. Groups affected by this include Cherokee, Muscogee, Seminole, Chickasaw, and Choctaw nations. Many Indians died during this period.
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Mexican Troops were ordered by President General Antonio López de Santa Anna to attack the Alamo Mission near San Antonio. All of the Texan defenders at the mission were killed.
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Manifest Destiny was the belief held in the 1840s that settlers were destined to explore and expand acorss the continent and travel westward.
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The Seneca Falls convention was the first Women's Rights convention of the Western World. It spanned two days, July 19th and July 20th 1848, in Seneca Falls, New York. The convention was organized by Lucretia Mott.
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The Compromise of 1850 was a series of five bills passed in September of 1850, the purpose of which was to ease conflicts between slave and free states.
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Uncle Tom's Cabin is an antislavery book published in 1852. It is by Harriet Beecher Stowe who was a passionate abolitionist.
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The Dred Scott Case was a case were Dred Scott, a slave who had been taken to free states, tried to sue for his freedom. The Supreme Court ruled that regardless of whether or not they were free, African Americans were not American citizens and had no legal standing.
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The Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Lincoln in 1863. It ordered the freedom of all the slaves in states that were in rebellion.
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The Force Acts were three bills passed in 1871 that protected the voting rights of african americans, along with the right to hold office, and participate in a jury.
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The Spanish American War was a result of American interference in the Cuban War for Independence.. The resulting Treaty of Paris was neogotiated to favor America.
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The Zimmermann Telegram was a telegram intercepted and decoded by the British. The Telegram was sent from The German Empire to Mexico, asking for Mexico to join The Central Powers should the U.S. join WWI on the side of the opposing forces.
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Spanning the 1920s was the Harlem Renaissance. There was strong feeling of racial pride and want to dispel sterotypes through music and art.
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Black Tuesday is known as one of the devastating stock market crash in the United States. Black Tuesday kickstarted the Great Depression.
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New Deal was Congress' response to The Great Depression. It was a series of programs and laws, during the first term of President Roosevelt, that focused on relief for the poor and unemployed, recovring the economy to normal levels, and reforming the financial system to avoid another depression.
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The Attack on Pearl Harbor was an attack by Japanese Navy on the U.S. Navy Base on December 7th 1941. It signaled America's entry into WWII.
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The bombing of HIroshima and Nagasaki by the U.S. on the tail end of WWII mark the only two times nuclear bombs have been used. It is estimated that a total of 150,000-246,000 people were killed.
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The Truman Doctrine was a policy set by President Truman in 1947. It stated that both Greece and Turkey had the military and financial aid of the U.S. to help prevent the two countries from falling into the soveit sphere. Many consider it to be the start of the Cold War.
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The Brown v. Board of Board of Education case ruled that it was unconstitutional to have segregated public schools.
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The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was resolution that gave President Johnson authorization to use military force in Southeast Asia without a formal declaration of war from Congress.
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The Tet Offensive was a series of surprise attacks on the South Vitenamese and American armies by the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese.
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The Watergate Scandal resulted from the break in at the Democratic committee and the Nixon Administartion trying to cover their invovlement. The scandal cause President NIxon to resign; the only president to do so.
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The Iran Hostage Crisis was a diplomatic crisis between Iran and America. Fifty-two hostages were held for 444 days by Iranian students who supported the Iranian Revolution and took over the American Embassy.
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The Challenger Explosion occured in 1986 when the space shuttle Challenger broke apart at the beginging of its flight, killing its 7 crew memebers. The failure began when the O-ring seal failed at liftoff.
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The Iran-Contra Scandal was a political scandal in 1986 where senior administation officials of the Regan Administration were found to have been selling weapons to Iran.
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The September 11th attacks were a series of planned and coordinated attacks by the terrorist group al-Qaeda. The cities targeted were New York and Washington D.C.
