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Aug 31, 1215
Magna Carta
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Oct 12, 1492
The Discovery of the Americas
One of the most significant dates during the reign of the Catholic Monarchs was 12th October 1492: the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus. The fact that Christopher Columbus (who was not originally Spanish) appealed to a foreign court to offer his services proved that the discovery of America was not incidental. -
Aug 31, 1495
Native Americans killed by disease
FOUR reasons stand out. Most of us know about the first two, but few of us know about the last two. These are key facts in Native American History. First off, when a European child got the measles, he would usually live. And for the rest of his life he would be immune. Adults who get measles are more likely to die than children, so when adult Native Americans got the measles, it was more deadly. The European adults had an acquired immunity, but the adult Native Americans did not -
James Town
On May 14, 1607, the Virginia Company explorers landed on Jamestown Island, to establish the Virginia English colony on the banks of the James River 60 miles from the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. -
Slave Labor
It is a mistake to think that slave labor was mostly unskilled brutish work. Cultivation of cotton, tobacco, rice, and sugar requires careful, painstaking effort. On larger plantations, masters relied on slave carpenters, bricklayers, blacksmiths, wheelwrights, tanners, tailors, butchers, masons, coopers, cabinet makers, metal workers, and silversmiths. Large numbers also worked as boatmen, waiters, cooks, drivers, housemaids, spinners, and weavers. During the 1850s, half a million slaves live -
The French Indian War
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Taxes on the 13 Colonies
The mercantilism that was used to govern the colonies when they were first being established, led to many problems. The British passed many laws that angered the colonist and in turn, ended up hurting England. When considering the effects of the Sugar Act, the Stamp Act, and the Townshend Act, it is clear that policies and laws passed by England created economic issues that lead to the American Revolution -
Boston Tea Party
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Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) or American War of Independence, or simply Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great BritainKingdom of Great BritainThe Kingdom of Great Britain was a sovereign state in northwest Europe, in existence from 1707 to 1801. It came into being on 1 May 1707, with the merger of the Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England...
and thirteen British coloniesThirteen ColoniesThe Thirteen Colonies were British colonies established on the -
The Declaration of Independents
Drafted by Thomas Jefferson between June 11 and June 28, 1776, the Declaration of Independence is at once the nation's most cherished symbol of liberty and Jefferson's most enduring monument. -
US Constitution
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George Washington
On April 30, 1789, George Washington, standing on the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York, took his oath of office as the first President of the United States. "As the first of every thing, in our situation will serve to establish a Precedent," he wrote James Madison, "it is devoutly wished on my part, that these precedents may be fixed on true principles." -
The Bill of Rights
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Thomas Jefferson
This powerful advocate of liberty was born in 1743 in Albemarle County, Virginia, inheriting from his father, a planter and surveyor, some 5,000 acres of land, and from his mother, a Randolph, high social standing. He studied at the College of William and Mary, then read law. In 1772 he married Martha Wayles Skelton, a widow, and took her to live in his partly constructed mountaintop home, Monticello. -
Louisiana Purchase
By a treaty signed on Apr. 30, 1803, the United States purchased from France the Louisiana Territory, more than 2 million sq km (800,000 sq mi) of land extending from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains. The price was 60 million francs, about $15 million; $11,250,000 was to be paid directly, with the balance to be covered by the assumption by the United States of French debts to American citizens. -
Lewis and Clark Expedition
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War of 1812
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Westward Expansion
It took American colonists a century and a half to expand as far west as the Appalachian Mounts, a few hundred miles from the Atlantic coast. It took another fifty years to push the frontier to the Mississippi River. Seeking cheap land and inspired by the notion that Americans had a “manifest destiny” to stretch across the continent, pioneers by 1850 pushed the edge of settlement to Texas, the Southwest, and the Pacific Northwest. -
Civil War
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Railroad Construction
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13th Amendment
The 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution, passed by the Senate on April 8, 1864, by the House on January 31, 1865, and ratified on December 6, 1865, abolished slavery as a legal institution. -
Railroad Construction
railroad built in the United States between Omaha and Sacramento, completed in 1869 -
Manifest Destiny
