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Christopher Columbus makes the first of four voyages to the New World, funded by the British Crown, seeking a western sea route to Asia. On October 12, sailing the Santa Maria, he lands in the Bahamas thinking it is an outlying Japanese island.
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Hernando De Soto of Spain discovers the Mississippi River.
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Native tobacco is first planted and harvested in Virginia by colonoists.
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Boston Latin school is established as the first public school in America.
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In May, histeria grips the city of Salem, Massachusetts, as witchcraft suspectcs are arrested and imprisoned. They set up a special court just for this. Between June and September, 150 people were accused with 20 people, including 14 women, were executed. By October, the histeria subsides, th eremaining people are set free, and the special court is dissolved.
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The Anglo population in the English colonies in America reaches 250,000.
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In October, Yale college is founded in Connecticut.
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In April, the first enduring newspaper in America, The Boston News-Letter, is published.
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January 17th, Benjamin Franklin is born in Boston.
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The English Parliament passes the Post Office Act which starts a postal system in the American colony controlled by the postmaster general of London and his deputy in New York City.
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Hostilities break out between Native Americans and settlers in North Carolina after the massacre of settlers there. The conflict, known as the Tuscarora Indian War will last two years.
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In May, the Carolina colony is divided into North Carolina and South Carolina.
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In June, the Pennsylvania assembly bans the import of slaves into that colony.
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The first American public library is founded in Philadelphia by Benjamin Franklin.
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In June, Georgia, the 13th colony is founded.
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Th Molasses Act, passed by the English Parliment, imposes heavy duties on Molasses, rum, and sugar imported from non-british islands to the Carribean to protect the english planters there from French and Dutch competition.
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England declares war on Spain, As a result, in America, hostilities break out between Florida Spaniards and Georgia and South Carolina colonists.
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The Iron Act is passed by the English Parliament, limiting the growth of the iron industry in the American colonies to protect the English Iron industry.
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The first general hospital is founded in Philadelphia.
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The French and Indian War, known in Europe as the Seven Year's War, ends with the Treaty of Paris. Under the treaty, France gives England all French territory east of the Mississippi River, except New Orleans. The Spanish give up east and west Florida to the English in return for Cuba.
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The Sugar Act is passed by the English Parliament to offset the war debt brought on by the French and Indian War and to help pay for the expenses of running the colonies and newly acquired territories. This act increases the duties on imported sugar and other items such as textiles, coffee, wines and indigo (dye). It doubles the duties on foreign goods reshipped from England to the colonies and also forbids the import of foreign rum and French wines.
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In March, King George III signs a bill repealing the Stamp Act after much debate in the English Parliament, which included an appearance by Ben Franklin arguing for repeal and warning of a possible revolution in the American colonies if the Stamp Act was enforced by the British military.
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May 13, General Thomas Gage, commander of all British military forces in the colonies, arrives in Boston and replaces Hutchinson as Royal governor, putting Massachusetts under military rule.
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The Treaty of Paris is signed by the United States and Great Britain. Congress will ratify the treaty on January 14, 1784.
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The Treaty of Paris is ratified by Congress. The Revolutionary War officially ends.
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Rather than revise the Articles of Confederation, delegates at the constitutional convention vote to create an entirely new form of national government separated into three branches - the legislative, executive and judicial - thus dispersing power with checks and balances, and competing factions, as a measure of protection against tyranny by a controlling majority.
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Georgetown University, the first Catholic college in the U.S., is founded by Father John Carroll.
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Benjamin Franklin dies in Philadelphia at age 84. His funeral four days later draws over 20,000 mourners.
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Louisiana is purchased
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Joseph Nicéphore Niépce from France created the first photograph.
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W.A. Burt invents the typewriter in the USA that changes the way Americans live. They're now able to type up papers instead of handwriting them.
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Walter Hunt introduces the safety pin to the USA.
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Isaac Singe didn't invent the sewing machine, but he added improvements that made the machine much more usable.
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The New York Times is founded, It was first published by Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones on September 18th, 1851, under the name of the New York Daily Times. It was intended for production on every day except Sundays.
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Pennsylvania is founded as William Penn, a Quaker, receives a royal charter with a large land grant from King Charles the second.
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The United States War Department issued General Order Number 143 establishing a "Bureau of Colored Troops" to facilitate the recruitment of African-American soldiers to fight for the Union Army. By the end of the civil war, about 178,000 free blacks and freed slaves served in the army.
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Yellowstone National Park, Partly in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho, the Yellowstone National Park was appointed the United States' first national park on March 1st, 1872.
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The United States has about 50,000 telephones.
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On January 27th, Thomas Edison received the historic patent embodying the principles of his incandescent lamp that paved the way for the universal domestic use of electric light.
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Fingerprints, for the first time, start being used for identification.
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The Statue of Liberty was dedicated in New York Harbor on October 28th.
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The Kodak box camera was offered for sale for $25, taking 100 pictures on a roll.
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The United Mine Workers of America is founded.
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To mark 400 anniversary Columbus Day holiday, the "Pledge of Allegiance" was first recited in unison by students in US public schools.
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Utah is admitted as the 45th U.S. state.
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The United States Supreme Court rules in Plessy v. Ferguson, introducing the "separate but equal" doctrine and upholding segregation.
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A peace treaty between the United States and Spain is ratified by the United States Senate.
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In 1901, President Mckinley is assassinated and Theodore Roosevelt becomes President.
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The Ford motor company was formed.
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The Wright brothers complete their first flight.
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Oklahoma becomes the 46th state to enter the Union.
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The design on the front of the penny is changed to Abraham Lincoln's face.
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Woodrow Wilson is elected as the 28th Prestident of the United States.
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Mother's Day is established as a national holiday.
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The U.S. Virgin Islands is one of five inhabited insular areas of the United States, along with American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, and Puerto Rico. The territory comprises St. Croix, St. John, St. Thomas and Water Island. The Virgin Passage separates the U.S. Virgin Islands from the Spanish Virgin Islands of Vieques and Culebra, which are part of Puerto Rico. The United States dollar is the official currency.
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World War I (WWI), also known as the First World War, was a global war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918. From the time of its occurrence until the approach of World War II in 1939, it was called simply the World War or the Great War, and thereafter the First World War or World War I. More than 9 million combatants were killed: a scale of death impacted by industrial advancements, geographic stalemate and reliance on human wave attacks.
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The Zimmermann Telegram (or Zimmermann Note) was a 1917 diplomatic proposal from the German Empire for Mexico to join the Central Powers, in the event of the United States entering World War I on the side of the Entente Powers. The proposal was intercepted and decoded by British intelligence.
