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Native Americans pass down origin stories
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Christopher Columbus discovered the Americas
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Europeans begin to capture Africans and ship them to the Americas
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Cabeza de Vaca (and other explorers) come to the New World with the goal to colonize Mexico
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Puritans begin to separate from the Catholic church in England
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Puritan poet Anne Bradstreet is born
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Pilgrims land at Plymouth after sailing on the Mayflower
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Pilgrim leaders sign the Mayflower Compact
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Puritans travel to the Americas and form the Massachusetts Bay Colony
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Enlightenment philosopher John Locke is born
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Harvard College is established
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The Enlightenment era begins
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Many people (especially women) in Salem, Massachusetts are tried for accusations of being a witch
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Founding father Benjamin Franklin is born
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The Great Awakening (religious revival) begins
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Benjamin Franklin's "Poor Richard's Almanack" is published
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Thomas Paine is born
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Jonathan Edwards gives his fire and brimstone sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God"
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Founding father Thomas Jefferson is born
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Jonathan Edwards is dismissed from the church for his confrontational sermons
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African poet Phyllis Wheatley is born
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The French and Indian War begins
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The Sugar Act is passed, putting a tax on all sugar
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The Stamp Act is passed, putting a tax on all paper goods
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The Quartering Act is passed, making it legal for British soldiers to demand Americans to house them
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The Sons of Liberty group is formed
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The Boston Tea Party takes place when Americans rebelliously board British ships and dump tea into the Boston Harbor
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The Revolutionary War in America begins
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Thomas Jefferson drafts and completes the Declaration of Independence
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The Revolutionary War comes to an end
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It is decided that all slaves count as three-fifths of a person for taxing
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Americans begin to settle in the west
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The United States purchases the Louisiana Territory
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Louis and Clark's expedition westward begins
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The Embargo Act is passed
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Olaudah Equiano contributes to banning of slave trade
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The United States makes it illegal for other countries to colonize