American History

  • population

    The Anglo population in the English colonies in America reaches 275,000, with Boston (pop. 7000) as the largest city, followed by New York (pop. 5000).
  • settlement

    In July, The French establish a settlement at Detroit. In October, Yale College is founded in Connecticut.
  • england

    n March, Queen Anne ascends the English throne. In May, England declares war on France after the death of the King of Spain, Charles II, to stop the union of France and Spain. This War of the Spanish Succession is called Queen Anne's War in the colonies, where the English and American colonists will battle the French, their Native American allies, and the Spanish for the next eleven years.
  • freedom

    The population of black slaves in the American colonies reaches 75,000
  • George washington

    George Washington is born in Virginia. Also in February, the first mass is celebrated in the only Catholic church in colonial America, in Philadelphia. In June, Georgia, the 13th English colony, is founded
  • Black slaves

    Fifty black slaves are hanged in Charleston, South Carolina, after plans for another revolt are revealed. Also in 1740, in Europe, the War of the Austrian Succession begins after the death of Emperor Charles VI and eventually results in France and Spain allied against England
  • Industry

    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.
  • financial assistance

    When the English East India Company sought financial assistance, England allowed the company to ship surplus tea to America at low cost. This rankled the American colonists, who resented the implementation of a single company controlling the tea trade, as well as the right of the British government to tax the colonies without their consent
  • justice

    Patrick Henry addressed the Virginia House of Burgesses in St. John’s Church in Richmond, where he decreed, “Give me Liberty or Give me Death.” His speech is often credited with convincing Virginia to permit Virginia troops to enter the Revolutionary War. The crowd reacted to Henry’s speech with fervent cries, “To Arms! To Arms!”
  • Congress

    The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union are adopted by the Continental Congress in Independence Hall. It serves as the first constitution of the United States.
  • War

    Friedrich von Steuben of the Prussian Army meets with the Continental Congress in York, Pennsylvania. They direct him to join General George Washington at the winter encampment at Valley Forge to drill the Continental Army into an effective fighting unit while the British retain control of Philadelphia, only twenty miles away
  • america

    The Dutch recognize the United States of America as a result of negotiations conducted in the Netherlands by John Adams
  • president

    The electors' votes for president are officially opened and counted in Congress, which already knows that the vote is tied between Jefferson and Aaron Burr. The House of Representatives meets separately and continues balloting for six days. On February 17, on the thirty-sixth ballot, Jefferson is elected president and Aaron Burr becomes vice president.
  • investigaion

    James Callender makes the accusation that Thomas Jefferson has "for many years past kept, as his concubine, one of his own slaves," Sally Hemings. It is published in the Richmond Recorder that month, and the story is soon picked up by Federalist presses around the country. Callender, a Republican, has previously been an avid investigator of Federalist scandals
  • The explore

    Jefferson asks Congress for funds for an expedition to explore the Mississippi River and beyond in search of a route to the Pacific. Meriwether Lewis, Jefferson's private secretary, begins planning the expedition, which forms late in 1803.
  • missouri river

    The expedition led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark departs, moving up the Missouri River
  • Great britain

    efferson nominates James Monroe and William Pinckney as joint commissioners to Great Britain. British warships have been boarding and searching American ships and seizing American as well as British seamen, claiming that they are British deserters.
  • Federal law

    Aaron Burr is captured near New Orleans. He escapes but is recaptured and imprisoned. In April, Burr is charged with treason and tried in Richmond in a federal circuit court presided over by John Marshall.* Burr is acquitted. Later, with other charges pending, Burr escapes to England. (*Winfield Scott, then a young lawyer, attends the trial as a spectator.)
  • France

    James Madison is elected President – tensions continue to build with Britain. As Jefferson's successor, Madison won the 1808 presidential election handily, despite a challenge from his estranged friend, James Monroe. Throughout his first term Madison was preoccupied by disputes with France, Great Britain, and Spain. By 1810 France had repealed its commercial restrictions, at least nominally, and in the same year Madison seized the province of West Florida from Spain, thereby consolidating Americ
  • missouri compromise

    admitting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state. Maine immediately gives right to vote and education to all male citizens. The compromise also prohibited slavery in the remainder of the Louisiana Purchase north of 36°30'N lat.
  • vote

    New York gives free Blacks the right to vote
  • Outlaw

    Mexico becomes a republic – outlaws slavery
  • Railroad

    “Underground Railroad” established
  • illegal

    Nat Turner, a Baptist slave preacher, leads a revolt in Southampton County, Virginia, killing at least 57 whites. Alabama makes it illegal for Blacks to preach
  • U.S bank

    Oberlin College founded in Ohio (admitted blacks; by 1860 1/3 of students were black) Andrew Jackson vetoes charter for 2nd U.S. Bank and reelected President
  • circumnavigation

    Antarctica is claimed for the United States when Captain Charles Wilkes circumnavigates the continent and claims Wilkes Land for the nation.
  • Supreme Court

    The Supreme Court of the U.S. stated that in the case of the slave ship Amistad that the Africans who had wrested control of the ship had been bound into slavery illegally.
  • War

    In a prelude four years prior to the start of the Mexican War, troops under Mexican leader Rafael Vasquez invade Texas and briefly occupy San Antonio in the first invasion since the Texas Revolution.
  • Civil war

    Debate on the future of slavery in the territories escalates when Henry Clay introduces the Compromise of 1850 to the U.S. Congress. On March 7, Senator Daniel Webster endorses the bill as a measure to avert a possible civil war.
  • president garfield assassinated

    President Garfield was shot on July 2; he died on September 19. Vice President Chester A. Arthur (Republican) succeeded Garfield as presiden
  • cleveland elected president

    Grover Cleveland (Democrat) was elected president on November 4.
  • Era of investigation

    The senate institutional developement during this era of investigation
  • senator "condemend" for excessive campaign expendiures

    Henry ford made automaker , verse industricalist truman newberry These two rich and powerful men, opponents in the 1918 senatorial election, set new records for campaign expenditures.