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Oct 12, 1492
Columbus Lands in America
Columbus set sail from Palos, Spain, with three small ships, the Santa María, the Pinta, and the Niña on August 3rd, 1492. On October 12, the expedition sighted land, probably Watling Island in the Bahamas, and went ashore the same day, claiming it for Spain after a 2-month voyage. -
Jamestown
Jamestown, Virginia was the first colony founded in America. It was discovered by 104 English men and was the first permanent settlement in America. Jamestown was named after their king, King James l. -
Pilgrims Land
Mayflower arrived in New England on November 11, 1620 after a voyage of 66 days. The 102 travelers aboard the Mayflower landed upon the shores of Plymouth, where they landed to live. -
French/Indian War (7 Year War)
The French and Indian War was fought between England and France. The French and Indian War was fought between 1754 and 1763. The Treaty Of Paris ended the French and Indian War and gave control of all French land in North America to England. -
Spinning Jenny (STORY)
The spinning jenny is a multi-spindle spinning frame, and was one of the key developments in the industrialization of weaving during the early Industrial Revolution. It was invented in 1764 by James Hargreaves in Stanhill, Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire in England. -
Lexington and Concord
The Battles of Lexington and Concord were the first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War. The battles were fought on April 19, 1775, in Middlesex County, Province of Massachusetts Bay, within the towns of Lexington, Concord, Lincoln, Menotomy, and Cambridge. -
Declaration of Independence
Declaration of Independence is a document that declared independence from Britain and the formation of a new country, the USA written by Thomas Jefferson. The Declaration of Independence was proposed in June 7, 1776. -
George Washington crosses the Delaware (EXTRA)
George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River, which occurred on the night of December 25–26, 1776, during the American Revolutionary War, was the first move in a surprise attack organized by George Washington against the Hessian forces in Trenton, New Jersey, on the morning of December 26. -
Constitutional Convention
A constitutional convention is a gathering for the purpose of writing a new constitution or revising an existing constitution. Members of a constitutional convention (sometimes referred to as "delegates" to a constitutional convention) are often, though not necessarily or entirely, elected by popular vote. -
Cotton Gin (STORY)
In 1794, U.S.-born inventor Eli Whitney (1765-1825) patented the cotton gin, a machine that revolutionized the production of cotton by greatly speeding up the process of removing seeds from cotton fiber. A cotton gin is a machine that quickly and easily separates cotton fibers from their seeds, enabling much greater productivity than manual cotton separation. -
Jefferson Presidency (1801-1809)
Thomas Jefferson was an American Founding Father who was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence and later served as the third President of the United States from 1801 to 1809. -
Louisiana Purchase
The Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition of the Louisiana territory by the United States from France in 1803. The U.S. paid fifty million francs and a cancellation of debts worth eighteen million francs for a total of sixty-eight million francs -
Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise was the legislation that provided for the admission of Maine to the United States as a free state along with Missouri as a slave state, thus maintaining the balance of power between North and South in the United States Senate. -
Jackson Presidency (1829-1837)
Andrew Jackson was an American soldier and statesman who served as the seventh President of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before being elected to the presidency, Jackson gained fame as a general in the United States Army and served in both houses of Congress. -
Indian Removal Act
The Indian Removal Act was signed by President Andrew Jackson on May 28, 1830. The law authorized the president to negotiate with southern Native American tribes for their removal to federal territory west of the Mississippi River in exchange for their lands. -
Nat Turner's Slave Rebellion (STORY)
A slave that could read a write, loved the bible and preached. Decides he is like Moses and God wants him to free the slaves. 70 slaves rise up and kill 55 white men, women, and children. Militia kill and arrest slaves Turner is hung, spreads fear across the south. (August 21–23, 1831) -
Result of Nat Turner's Rebellion (STORY)
At least a further 200 slaves were murdered by white mobs fuelled by the hysterical climate that followed the revolt. Nat Turner's rebellion raised southern fears of a general slave uprising and had a profound effect on the attitude of Southerners towards slavery. -
Fugitive Slave Act (STORY)
Allows the first southerner into the North to recapture runaway slaves. Neither N/S agreed but signed because they were tired of fighting. The Fugitive Slave Act or Fugitive Slave Law was passed by the United States Congress on September 18, 1850, as part of the Compromise of 1850 between Southern slave-holding interests and Northern Free-Soilers -
Uncle Tom's Cabin (STORY)
Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly, is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, the novel had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans and slavery in the U.S. and is said to have "helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War" -
Bleeding Kansas (STORY) - 1854 to 1861
- pro-slavery people went to Lawrence (a.k.a Sac of Lawrence) where the Anti-slaves were and burned down everything
- John Brown who was passionate about ending slavery rides back to pro-slave area and kills five people
- Pottawatomie massacre
- violence goes on for three years
- people blame it on the fact that they were frontier men and were 'uncivilized'
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Kansas and Nebraska Act (STORY)
The Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed by the U.S. Congress on May 30, 1854. It allowed people in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery within their borders. The Act served to repeal the Missouri Compromise of 1820 which prohibited slavery north of latitude 36°30´. -
Sumner v Brooks (STORY)
Preston Brooks beats Charles Sumner with a cane. Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts was an avowed Abolitionist and leader of the Republican Party. After the sack of Lawrence, on May 21, 1856, he gave a bitter speech in the Senate called "The Crime Against Kansas." ... The speech went on for two days. -
Dredd Scott v Sanford
In Dred Scott v. Sandford (argued 1856 -- decided 1857), the Supreme Court ruled that Americans of African descent, whether free or slave, were not American citizens and could not sue in federal court. The Court also ruled that Congress lacked power to ban slavery in the U.S. territories. -
Election of 1858 (STORY) - Lincoln-Douglas debate
The Lincoln–Douglas debates (also known as The Great Debates of 1858) were a series of seven debates between Abraham Lincoln, the Republican candidate for the United States Senate from Illinois, and incumbent Senator Stephen Douglas, the Democratic Party candidate. -
Lincoln Presidency (1861-1865)
Abraham Lincoln was an American statesman and lawyer who served as the 16th President of the United States from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Lincoln led the United States through the American Civil War—its bloodiest war and perhaps its greatest moral, constitutional, and political crisis. -
Attack on Fort Sumter (start of Civil War)
The Battle of Fort Sumter was the bombardment of Fort Sumter near Charleston, South Carolina by the Confederate States Army, and the return gunfire and subsequent surrender by the United States Army, that started the American Civil War. -
Emancipation Proclamation
President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war. The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free." -
Thirteenth Amendment Ratified
Passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, and ratified on December 6, 1865, the 13th amendment abolished slavery in the United States. The 13th amendment, which formally abolished slavery in the United States, passed the Senate on April 8, 1864, and the House on January 31, 1865. -
Surrender at Appomattox (end of Civil War)
On April 9, 1865, near the town of Appomattox Court House, Virginia, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia to Union General Ulysses S. Grant. ... But the resulting Battle of Appomattox Court House, which lasted only a few hours, effectively brought the four-year Civil War to an end. -
Lincoln Assassinated
Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, was assassinated by well-known stage actor John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865, while attending the play Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. -
Susan B. Anthony Votes (EXTRA)
On November 5, 1872, Susan B. Anthony cast a ballot in the presidential election, though women at the time were prohibited from doing so. Two weeks later, she was arrested, and the following year, she was found guilty of illegal voting. -
Chinese Exclusion Act
The Chinese Exclusion Act was a United States federal law signed by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882, prohibiting all immigration of Chinese laborers -
Yellow Journalism (EXTRA)
Yellow journalism and the yellow press are American terms for journalism and associated newspapers that present little or no legitimate well-researched news while instead using eye-catching headlines for increased sales. Techniques may include exaggerations of news events, scandal-mongering, or sensationalism. -
Sherman Anti-Trust Act
Approved July 2, 1890, The Sherman Anti-Trust Act was the first Federal act that outlawed monopolistic business practices. The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 was the first measure passed by the U.S. Congress to prohibit trusts -
Plessy v Ferguson
Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537, was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court issued in 1896. It upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation laws for public facilities as long as the segregated facilities were equal in quality – a doctrine that came to be known as "separate but equal". -
Annexation of Hawaii (EXTRA)
Dole declared Hawaii an independent republic. Spurred by the nationalism aroused by the Spanish-American War, the United States annexed Hawaii in 1898 at the urging of President William McKinley. Hawaii was made a territory in 1900, and Dole became its first governor. -
Spanish American War (Apr 21, 1898 – Aug 13, 1898)
The Spanish–American War was fought between the United States and Spain in 1898. Hostilities began in the aftermath of the internal explosion of USS Maine in Havana Harbor in Cuba, leading to U.S. intervention in the Cuban War of Independence. -
US Imperialism (EXTRA)
American imperialism is the economic, military, and cultural influence of the United States on other countries. Such influence often goes hand in hand with expansion into foreign territories (early 1900s). -
T. Roosevelt Presidency (September 14, 1901 – March 4, 1909)
Theodore Roosevelt served as the President of the United States from 1901 to 1909. He is famous for his domestic program Square Deal which had three basic ideas known as the “three C's”: conservation of natural resources, control of corporations, and consumer protection. -
Panama Canal
Building the Panama Canal, 1903–1914. President Theodore Roosevelt oversaw the realization of a long-term United States goal—a trans-isthmian canal. Throughout the 1800s, American and British leaders and businessmen wanted to ship goods quickly and cheaply between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. -
Airplane Invention (EXTRA)
On December 17, 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright made four brief flights at Kitty Hawk with their first powered aircraft. The Wright brothers had invented the first successful airplane. The Wrights used this stopwatch to time the Kitty Hawk flights. -
Great White Fleet (EXTRA - 1907 to 1909)
The Great White Fleet was the popular nickname for the powerful United States Navy battle fleet that completed a journey around the globe from 16 December 1907, to 22 February 1909, by order of United States President Theodore Roosevelt. -
Wilson Presidency
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was an American statesman and academic who served as the 28th President of the United States from 1913 to 1921. He was also a leader of the progression movement. -
WW1 Begins
The spark that ignited World War I was struck in Sarajevo, Bosnia, where Archduke Franz Ferdinand—heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire—was shot to death along with his wife Sophie by the Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip on June 28, 1914. -
Wilson’s 14 Points
The Fourteen Points was a statement of principles for peace that was to be used for peace negotiations in order to end World War I. The principles were outlined in a January 8, 1918 speech on war aims and peace terms to the United States Congress by President Woodrow Wilson. -
WW1 Ends
On November 11, 1918 they requested an armistice. An armistice is when both sides agree to stop fighting while a peace treaty is negotiated. The Allies agreed to the armistice and at 11 AM on November 11, 1918 the fighting in World War I came to an end. -
18th Amendment
The Eighteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution established the prohibition of "intoxicating liquors" in the United States. The amendment was proposed by Congress on December 18, 1917, and was ratified by the requisite number of states on January 16, 1919. -
Treaty of Versailles (Jun 28, 1919 – Jan 21, 1920)
The Treaty of Versailles (French: Traité de Versailles) was the most important of the peace treaties that brought World War I to an end. The Treaty ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. -
Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual, social, and artistic explosion that took place in Harlem, New York, spanning the 1920s. During the time, it was known as the "New Negro Movement", named after The New Negro, the 1925 anthology edited by Alain Locke. -
Prohibition (1920-1933)
Prohibition in the United States was a nationwide constitutional ban on the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages from 1920 to 1933. The result of a widespread temperance movement during the first decade of the 20th century, Prohibition was difficult to enforce, and people found ways around it -
Rise of the KKK
The KKK remained confined to the South until the 1920s, when it exploded into a mass movement in the northern states. Spurred by the 1915 film The Birth of a Nation, which depicted savage, bestial African Americans intent on raping white women who were rescued by the heroic KKK, it amassed somewhere between 3 and 6 million members. -
19th Amendment
The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the states and the federal government from denying the right to vote to citizens of the United States on the basis of sex. It was adopted on August 18, 1920. -
Gitlow v New York
Gitlow v. New York, case in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on June 8, 1925, that the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment protection of free speech, which states that the federal “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech,” applied also to state governments. Established selective incorporation of the Bill of rights; states cannot deny freedom of speech; protected through the 14th amendment -
Scopes Trial
The Scopes Trial, formally known as The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes and commonly referred to as the Scopes Monkey Trial, was an American legal case in July 1925 in which a substitute high school teacher, John T. Scopes, was accused of violating Tennessee's Butler Act, which had made it unlawful to teach evolution. -
Charles Lindbergh Flight (EXTRA)
On May 21, 1927, the aviator Charles A. Lindbergh landed his Spirit of St. Louis near Paris, completing the first solo airplane flight across the Atlantic Ocean. Lindbergh was just 25 years old when he completed the trip. -
Stock Market Crash
The stock market crash of 1929 was not the sole cause of the Great Depression, but it did act to accelerate the global economic collapse of which it was also a symptom. By 1933, nearly half of America's banks had failed, and unemployment was approaching 15 million people, or 30 percent of the workforce. -
Roosevelt 1st Election
The United States presidential election of 1932 was the thirty-seventh quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 8, 1932. The election took place against the backdrop of the Great Depression. -
CCC
The Civilian Conservation Corps was a public work relief program that operated from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men. Originally for young men ages 18–25, it was eventually expanded to ages 17–28. -
Social Security Act
On August 14, 1935, the Social Security Act established a system of old-age benefits for workers, benefits for victims of industrial accidents, unemployment insurance, aid for dependent mothers and children, the blind, and the physically handicapped. -
FDR Court Packing Scandal
The Judicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937 was a legislative initiative proposed by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt to add more justices to the U.S. Supreme Court. Roosevelt's purpose was to obtain favorable rulings regarding New Deal legislation that the court had ruled unconstitutional.
