American History By hazelscarlet Period: 15,000 BCE to 20,000 BCE Cross Beringia 1492 Columbus reaches the Bahamas 1596 Jamestown 1620 Plymouth 1657 King Phillip's War 1675 Stamp Tax 1762 Battle of Lexington and Concord 1770 Boston Tea Party and Massacre 1774 1st Continental Congress Period: 1775 to 1783 Revolutionary War 1776 Declaration of Independence signed 1787 United States Constitution signed 1800 Labor unions started Period: 1804 to 1806 Lewis and Clark Expedition 1820 Missouri Compromise Period: 1831 to 1838 Trail of Tears Period: 1846 to 1848 Mexican War 1849 Gold Rush Begins 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act Period: 1861 to 1865 American Civil War Period: 1862 to 1879 Homesteading the plains Period: 1865 to 1877 Reconstruction Period: 1866 to 1886 Cattle drives in Great Plains 1867 Alaska purchased 1869 First transcontinental railroad 1869 Suez Canal opens Period: 1870 to 1924 Massive immigration to America 1873 Carnegie guilds steel mill Period: 1874 to 1881 Plains Wars 1876 First telephone conversation 1878 Edison invents electric light bulb Period: 1880 to 1890 Electricity for cities Period: 1883 to 1914 Jim Crow Laws created Period: 1890 to 1910 Progressive Era 1893 The Panic of 1893 1898 Hawaii becomes U.S. possession 1898 Spanish-American War 1898 U.S. gains control of Puerto Rico, Philippine Islands and other Pacific islands 1900 United States has become a world power 1901 U.S takes over Panama Canal construction 1901 Theodore Roosevelt becomes President 1903 Wright brothers make first airplane flight 1913 Henry Ford builds car on assembly line 1914 U.S. opens Panama Canal Period: 1914 to 1918 World War 1 1917 Russian Revolution Period: 1929 to 1941 World-wide Depression Period: 1939 to 1945 World War 2 1945 First atomic bomb exploded 1946 Beginning of Cold War Period: 1950 to 1960 American Civil Rights Movement Period: 1950 to 1953 Korean War 1959 Cuban Revolution 1963 Assassination of President Kennedy Period: 1965 to 1973 Vietnam War 1989 Collapse of Communism in Europe 1991 End of the Cold War and Break up of the Soviet Union 1991 Formation of the European Union 2001 Terrorists attack American landmarks Period: 2003 to 2011 Iraq War 2009 Election of President Barack Obama