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Lee Resolution
The Lee Resolution was a document proclaiming America's right to independence that Richard Henry Lee of Virginia proposed and had approved two days before the Declaratation of Independence was. Although this was before the Declaratation of Independence, we celebrate Independence Day on July 4th, not 2nd. -
Declaration of Independence approved
The Declataration of Indepence was actually only presented and later approved on this day, not actually signed and formally declared a document of America's newfound independence, contrary to popular belief. -
Signing of the Declaration of Independence
Members of Congress formally sign the Declaration of Independence as we know it today. Fifty-six congressional delegates in total signed the document, including some who were not present at the vote approving the declaration. -
Thomas Jefferson and John Adams die
On July 4, 1826, exactly 50 years after the approval of the Declaration of Independence, the document's writer and its most prominent signer both die in Virginia and Massachusetts, respectively. -
Battle of Fort Sumpter, SC
Fort Sumter is most famous for being the site of the first shots of the Civil War. After a 34-hour exchange of artillery fire, U.S. Major Robert Anderson and 86 soldiers surrendered the fort on April 13. Confederate troops then occupied Fort Sumter for nearly four years -
Battle of Antietam
This battle is known as the bloodiest single day in American military history with 22,717 deaths. It was a significant enough battle that it prompted President Abraham Lincoln to issue his Emancipation Proclamation. -
Battle of Gettyburg
The Battle of Gettysburg is considered the most important battle of the American Civil War. Following this fight, four and a half months later, President Abraham Lincoln delivered his famous Gettysburg Address in commemoration of the fallen soldiers. -
Battle at Appomattox Courthouse
This battle marked the end of the American Civil War. General Robert E. Lee of the Confederate Army surrendered to Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. of the Union Army, meaning the Union victory of the war. -
Women's Christian Temperance Union founded
The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was the first mass organization among women devoted to social reform with a program that "linked the religious and the secular through concerted and far-reaching reform strategies based on applied Christianity." It was a major factor in the women's rights movement. -
National American Woman Suffrage Association founded
The National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) was an American women's rights organization formed as a unification of the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) and the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA). NAWSA was the largest and most important suffrage organization in the United States, and was the primary promoter of women's right to vote. -
First woman elected into public office
Jeannette Pickering Rankin was the first woman elected to the United States Congress, in 1916 and again in 1940, from the state of Montana. After winning her House seat in 1916 she said, "I may be the first woman member of Congress but I won’t be the last." -
19th Amendment
On this day in 1920, the 19th Amendment is ratified. This amendment guaranteed all American women the right to vote. Achieving this milestone required a lengthy and difficult struggle, beginning in the mid-19th century -
Immigration Quota
Congress passes immigration restrictions, for the first time creating a quota for European immigration to the United States. Targeted at "undesirable" immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe, the act sharply curtails the quota for those areas while retaining a generous allowance for migrants from Northern and Western Europe. -
Calvin Coolidge presidency
Calvin Coolidge was our nation's president from August 2, 1923 – March 4, 1929. He was obviously a key figure in the history of America in the 1920's and the time that led up to the Great Depression. -
John Scopes
Tennessee schoolteacher John Scopes is arrested for teaching evolution, in violation of new state law banning the teaching of Darwin. He had been encouraged to teach evolution by the American Civil Liberties Union as a test case for freedom of speech. -
Charles Lindberg
Charles Lindberg, an American aviator, made the first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean on May 20-21, 1927. Other pilots had crossed the Atlantic before him, but Lindbergh was the first person to do it alone nonstop. Lindbergh's feat gained him immediate, international fame. The press named him "Lucky Lindy" and the "Lone Eagle."
