American Lit Timeline 1

  • Jan 1, 1560

    Thomas Harroit is born.

    Note: Although it says January 1st, there is no record of the actual day. (This website requires a month and day, unfortunately.)
  • Dec 10, 1565

    Spanish found St. Augustine, Florida.

  • Jan 1, 1579

    Thomas Mortan is born.

  • Jan 1, 1580

    John Smith is born.

    Please note; John Smith was born in January, although the day is unknown.
  • A Brief and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia is published.

  • Roanoak found abandoned.

  • William Bradford is born.

  • Jamestown is settled.

  • French found Quebec

  • Anne Bradstreet is born.

  • Dutch deliver first slaves to Virginia.

  • Thomas Harriot dies.

  • The General History of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles is publsihed

  • John Smith dies.

  • Navigation Act is established.

  • The nation's oldest city park, Boston Common, is established.

  • Anne Hutchinson arrives in Boston.

  • Mary Rowlandson is born.

  • Harvard is founded.

  • New English Canaan is published.

  • Anne Hutchinson is banned from Massachutsets.

  • Great Ponds Act is passed.

  • Thomas Morton dies.

  • The Tenth Muse is published.

  • Samuel Sewall is born.

  • William Bradford dies.

  • Cotton Mather is born.

  • Anne Bradstreet dies.

  • Dutch take New York from the British

  • Treaty of Westminster

  • Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration is published.

  • The Wonders of the Invisible World is published.

  • The Selling of Joseph: A Memorial is published.

  • Yale is founded in Connecticut.

  • Magnalia Christi Americana is published.

  • Jonathan Edwards is born

  • Benjamin Franklin is born.

  • Mary Rowlandson dies.

    Please note: actual death date is in January, although the day is unknown.
  • Queen Anne's War ends with Treaty of Utrecht.

  • Pontiac is born.

  • Samson Occom is born.

  • Cotton Mather dies

  • Samuel Sewall dies.

  • First public library is founded in Philidelphia.

  • John Adams is born.

  • Crevecoeur is born.

  • Thomas Paine is born.

  • Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God is publsihed.

  • Thomas Jefferson is born.

  • Abigail Adams is born.

  • Iron Act is passed.

  • Judith Sargent Murray is born.

  • Currency Act is passed.

  • Phillis Wheatley is born.

  • Red Jacket is born.

  • Hannah Webster Foster is born.

  • Jonathan Edwards dies.

  • Treaty of Paris

  • Speech at Detroit is given.

  • Stamp Act

  • A Short Narrative of My Life by Samson Occom is published.

  • Pontiac dies.

  • On Being Brought from Africa to America is published

  • Boston Tea Party

  • Common Sense is published

  • The Crisis is published. (Common Sense)

  • Declaration of Independance is signed.

  • First Submarine Attack

  • Boston Massacre

  • British evvacuate Philidelphia.

  • Letters from an American Farmer is published

  • Washington Irving is born

  • Phillis Wheatley dies.

  • Ben Franklin invents bifocals.

  • Notes on the State of Virginia is published.

  • First icecream commercially made in NYC

  • Constitution ratified.

  • On Equality of the Sexes is published.

  • Benjamin Franklin dies.

  • Samson Occum dies

  • Period: to

    John and Abigail Adams Letters are published.

  • Fugitive Slave Act

  • The Coquette is published.

  • Alien and Sedition Act

  • Volta invents electric battery

  • Ralph Waldo Emerson is born

  • Louisiana Purchase

  • Dalton revises table of elements.

  • Ralph Waldo Emerson is born.

  • Nathanial Hawthorne is born.

  • Period: to

    Lewis & Clark Expedition

  • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is born.

  • John Greenleaf Whittier is born.

  • Sir Humphrey Davide discovers potassium and sodium.

  • Congress prohibits importing of slaves

  • Beethoven composes Fifth Symphony.

  • Thomas Paine dies.

  • Edgar Allen Poe is born.

  • First sailboat to sail from Mississippi reaches New Orleans

  • Fanny Fern is born.

  • Harriet Jacobs is born.

  • Crevecoeur dies.

  • William Wells Brown is born.

  • Treaty of Ghent

  • Construction on Eerie Canal begins.

  • Henry David Thoreau is born.

  • Henry Thoraeu is born.

  • Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin is published.

  • Abigail Adams dies.

  • Frederick Douglass is born.

  • Henry Melville is born.

  • Rip Van Winkle is published.

  • Judith Sargent Murray dies.

  • Legend of Sleepy Hollow is published.

  • Michael Faraday discovers electromagnetic radiation.

  • John Adams dies.

  • Abigail Adams is born.

  • Thomas Jefferson dies.

  • The Autobiography by Thomas Jefferson is published.

  • Emily Dickinson is born.

  • Hunters of Men is published

  • Young goodman Brown is published.

  • May Pole of Marrymount is published.

  • Nature is published.

  • Cherokee "Trail of Tears"

  • Fall of the House of Usher is published.

  • Daguerre invents first form of photography.

  • Hannah Webster Foster dies.

  • Speech to the U.S. Senate by Red Jacket is published.

  • Self-Reliance is published

  • The Slave Singing at Midnight is published

  • Narrative of the Life is published

  • Sir James Simpson uses chloroform for childbirth.

  • Period: to

    California Gold Rush

  • Edgar Allen Poe dies.

  • Resistance to Civil Government is published.

  • Ichabod! is published.

  • Singer patents sewing machine.

  • 4th of July is published. (Frederick Douglass)

  • Life and Escape of Willam Wells Brown is published.

  • Clotel is published.

  • Walden is published.

  • Smith and Wesson invent revolver.

  • Song of Myself is published.

  • Of Plymouth Plantation is published.

  • Washington Irving DIES.

  • Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is published.

  • Foucault measures speed of light.

  • Henry Dave Thoreau dies.

  • Henry Thoreau dies.

  • Emancipation Proclamation

  • Nathanial Hawthorne dies.

  • Drum-Taps is published.

  • Abraham Lincoln is assasinated.

  • Suez Canal opens.

  • Fanny Fern dies.

  • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow dies.

  • Ralph Waldo Emerson dies

  • Raplh Waldo Emerson dies.

  • William Wells Brown dies.

  • Emily Dickinson dies.

  • John Greenleaf Whittier dies.

  • Henry Melville dies.

  • Frederick Douglass dies.

  • Harriet Jacobs dies.