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Aug 28, 1492
Spanish Discover New World
Spaniard Christopher Columbus sailed across the Atlantic Ocean and landed in the Bahamas. -
Aug 28, 1494
Treaty of Tordesillas is Signed
Spain and Portugal sign a treaty dividing land between the two. -
Aug 28, 1513
Exploration of Florida
Juan Ponce de León explores what he first thought was an island, but what turned out to be present day Florida. -
Aug 28, 1519
Mexico is Conquered
Hernán Cortés takes control over Mexico and the Aztecs. -
Aug 28, 1522
Vessel Circumnavigates Around the World
Ferdinand Magellan's last remaining vessel returns home without him after circumnavigating around the world -
Aug 28, 1532
Incas are defeated
Francisco Pizarro crushes the Incas in South America -
Aug 28, 1558
Elizabeth I
Elizabeth, the protestant, is crowned Queen of England -
Aug 28, 1565
Irish Uprising Pulverized
The English crush the uprising almost immediatley after it starts. -
Aug 29, 1565
St. Augustine Fortress
Spanish built this fortress to protect sea lanes to the Caribbean -
Aug 29, 1580
Drake Circumnavigates the Globe
Francis Drake returns home with a ship full of Spanish treasure -
Spanish Armada Conquered
After many English failures, Spain was defeated at sea by the English and what they called the protestant wind. -
Pueblo People Overcome by Spanish
Don Juan de Onate and his army of Spaniards ruthlessly mistreat the Pueblo people they encounter -
New King of England
James I is crowned King of England -
Peace Treaty is Signed
England and Spain sign a peace treaty which produced the opportunity for English growth -
Colony at Jamestown
Colony that was formed with nearly 100 English, male settlers -
Royal Colony
Virginia becomes the royal colony and the English saw the Indians there as useless -
Charles I
After having Oliver Crumwell, the English behead Charles -
Act of Toleration
Passed by the local representative assembly and quarenteed tolleration to all christians -
Pope's Rebellion
Pueblos destroyed Catholic Churches and killed priests in an act of rebellion -
Georgia Colony is Founded
The last of the 13 colonies founded, it was in the pine forests of Georgia -
War of Jenkin's Ear
Conflict between Great Britain and Spain named after Robert Jenkin when his ear was severed -
King George's War
It was the third of the four french and indian wars -
Battle of Quebec
The French Army was led by the Marquis de Montcalm and the English Army by Major-General James Wolfe. -
French and Indian War
A war that was fought between the colonists and the French with help from Native Americans -
Sugar Act
Tax passed by Parliament for the colonies -
Quartering Act
Act that stated that the colonists have to house any British troops that were sent over there and feed them too. -
Declaratory Act
Act after the repeal of the Sugar Act that stated that Parliament can impose taxes even though they are repealling this one. -
Boston Massacre
British troops stationed in the colonies open fire on drunk, protesting colonists -
Committees of Correspondence
The Committee is formed that was like a government for the colonists -
Boston Tea Party
Act of rebellion against Britain by colonists by dumping tea into the harbour -
Battles at Lexington and Concord
First official battles of the Revolutionary War -
Articles of Confederation
The Articles of Confederation went into draft -
Battle of Saratoga
The climax of the war that eventually leads to the victory of Americans over the British -
Cornwallis surrenders
General Cornwallis surrenders at Yorktown in the final big battle of the war -
Treaty of Paris
Treaty that ended the Revolutionary War. -
Louis XVI
Louis XVI was beheaded which sent France into the phase of a Revolution -
Whiskey Rebellion
This was a tax protest in the United States beginning in 1791, during the presidency of George Washington. -
Battle of Fallen Timbers
This was the final battle of the Northwest Indian War, a struggle between American Indian tribes affiliated with the Western Confederacy, including minor support from the British, against the United States for control of the Northwest Territory -
Jay's Treaty
On November 19, 1794 representatives of the United States and Great Britain signed Jay's Treaty, which sought to settle outstanding issues between the two countries that had been left unresolved since American independence. -
Treaty of Greenville
This was signed on August 3, 1795, at Fort Greenville, now Greenville, Ohio; it followed negotiations after the Indian loss at the Battle of Fallen Timbers a year earlier. It ended the Northwest Indian War in the Ohio Country and limited strategic parcels of land to the north and west. -
Farewell Address
To announce his decision not to seek a third term as President, George Washington presented his Farewell Address in a newspaper article September 17, 1796. -
XYZ Affair
This was a political and diplomatic episode involving a confrontation between the United States and Republican France that led to an undeclared war called the Quasi-War. -
Virginia and Kentucky Resolution
These were political statements drafted in 1798 and 1799, in which the Kentucky and Virginia legislatures took the position that the federal Alien and Sedition Acts were unconstitutional. -
Revolution of 1800
Jefferson defeats Adams in the election of 1800 for presidency. -
Judiciary Act
This act reduced the size of the Supreme Court from six justices to five and eliminated the justices' circuit duties. -
Louisiana Purchase
530,000,000 acres of territory in North America that the United States purchased from France in 1803 for US $15 million. -
First Steamboat
Robert Fulton's first steamboat Embargo spurs American manufacturing. -
Cumberland Road construction began
The National Road (also known as the Cumberland Road) was the first major improved highway in the United States to be built by the Federal Government. -
Erie Canal Construction began
Proposed in 1808, the canal links the waters of Lake Erie in the west to the Hudson River in the east. An engineering marvel when it was built, some called it the Eighth Wonder of the World. -
Erie Canal Complete
Proposed in 1808 and completed in 1825, the canal links the waters of Lake Erie in the west to the Hudson River in the east. An engineering marvel when it was built, some called it the Eighth Wonder of the World. -
First US railraod
First U.S. Railway Chartered to Transport Freight and Passengers. On February 28, 1827, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad became the first U.S. railway chartered for commercial transport of passengers and freight. -
Mechanical Reaper
Not long after Eli Whitney invented the Cotton Gin, Cyrus McCormick invented another significant agricultural invention that revolutionized farming: the mechanical reaper. Prior to this invention, reaping was a painstaking process (done by hand with a scythe) that limited a farm's harvest. -
Compromise Tariff of 1833
The Tariff of 1833 (also known as the Compromise Tariff of 1833, ch. 55, 4 Stat. 629) was proposed by Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun as a resolution to the Nullification Crisis. -
Anti-Catholic riot in Boston
Boston and the Irish, on the Anniversary of the Ursuline Convent Riots. On August 11 and 12, 1834, a riot fueled by anti-Catholic fervor resulted in the burning of an Ursuline Convent in Charlestown, Massachusetts, in what is now Somerville -
Steel Plow
John Deere develops the first steel plow. -
Trail of Tears
Indians are removed from their homes and forced west -
Ten hour day for federal employees is developed
President Van Buren establsihes ten-hour day for federal employees -
Commonwealth v. Hunt
Massachusetts declares labor unions legal in this famous court case -
Telegraph
Samuel Morse invents the telegraph -
Anti-Catholic riot in Philadelphia
The Philadelphia Nativist Riots (also known as the Philadelphia Prayer Riots, the Bible Riots and the Native American Riots) were a series of riots that took place between May 6 and 8 and July 6 and 7, 1844, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania -
Potato Famine
A great famine in Ireland occurs and most of the population dies -
Walker Tariff
A set of tariff rates adopted by the United States which was enacted by the Democrat. It was based on a report by Secretary of the Treasury Robert J. Walker. -
United States settles Oregon dispute with Britain
The treaty was signed on June 15, 1846. The Oregon Treaty set the U.S. and British North American border at the 49th parallel with the exception of Vancouver Island, which was retained in its entirety by the British. -
Independent Treasury Restored
The Independent Treasury was a system for the retaining of government funds in the United States Treasury and its subtreasuries, independently of the national banking and financial systems. In one form or another, it existed from 1846 to 1921. -
Texas Boundary Dispute
During the rapid expansion of the United States in the nineteenth century, establishing an exact western and southern boundary for the country plagued the nation and its neighbors alike. -
Kearny takes Santa Fe
The Capture of Santa Fe, also known as the Battle of Santa Fe or the Battle of Cañoncito, took place near Santa Fe, New Mexico, the capital of the Mexican Province of New Mexico, during the Mexican-American War on 8 August through 14 August 1846. No shots were fired. -
Fremont conquers California
The California Campaign (1846−47), colloquially the "Conquest of California" or Conquest of Alta California by the United States, was an initial period of the Mexican–American War that took place in the western part of Mexico's Alta California Department, the present-day state of California. The California Campaign was marked by a series of small battles over 1846 and early 1847. -
End of the Mexican War
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ends the fighting in the Mexican war. -
California gold rush
Started when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. All told, the news of gold brought some 300,000 people to California from the rest of the United States and abroad. -
Compromise of 1850
The Fugitive Slave Act was amended and the slave trade in Washington, D.C., was abolished. Furthermore, California entered the Union as a free state and a territorial government was created in Utah. -
Clayton-Bulwer Treaty
It was a treaty between the United States and the United Kingdom, negotiated in 1850 by John M. Clayton and Sir Henry Lytton Bulwer, later Lord Dalling. It was negotiated in response to attempts to build the Nicaragua Canal, a canal in Nicaragua that would connect the Pacific and the Atlantic. -
Pierce defeats Scott
The United States presidential election of 1852 was the 17th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 2, 1852. It bore important similarities to the election of 1844. -
Gadsden Purchase from Mexico
(Known as Venta de La Mesilla, or Sale of La Mesilla, in Mexico) is a 29,640-square-mile (76,800 km2) region of present-day southern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico that was purchased by the United States in a treaty signed on December 30, 1853 by James Gadsden who was the American ambassador. -
Commodore Perry opens Japanese trade
Matthew Calbraith Perry was a Commodore of the United States Navy and commanded a number of ships. He served in several wars, most notably in the Mexican–American War and the War of 1812. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
This act created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, opening new lands for settlement, and had the effect of repealing the Missouri Compromise of 1820 by allowing white male settlers in those territories to determine through popular sovereignty whether they would allow slavery or not. -
William Walker becomes president of Nicaragua
William Walker was an American physician, lawyer, journalist and mercenary, who organized several private military expeditions into Latin America, with the intention of establishing English-speaking colonies under his personal control, an enterprise then known as "filibustering."
