United States History Timeline 1865-1980 (HIST-152)

By Teona
  • President Abraham Lincoln assassinated

    President Abraham Lincoln assassinated
    President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth on April 15th, 1865, while attending a play at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C. President Abraham Lincoln was the first president in American history to be assassinated.
  • The Transcontinental Railroad

    The Transcontinental Railroad
    The Transcontinental Railroad was a railway track built by Army Civil War veterans and Irish immigrants. The railroad tracks were 1,776 miles long and served the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the United States.
  • The 15th Amendment

    The 15th Amendment
    The 15th Amendment was added to the United States Constitution in 1870. The amendment guaranteed that the right to vote could not be denied due to race or color.
  • Alexander Graham Bell

    Alexander Graham Bell
    Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone in 1876. Alexander created the National Bell Telephone company. By the 1900s, 1.35 million Americans had telephone service in their homes.
  • Thomas Alva Edison

    Thomas Alva Edison
    Thomas Alva Edison invented the first incandescent light bulb in 1879 and later created the Edison Electric Company in 1882, which supplied an electric current to a small number of customers in New York City.
  • The Richest Americans of Their Day

    The Richest Americans of Their Day
    Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and J.P. Morgan were the three richest American entrepreneurs in the late 19th century.
  • Ellis Island

    Ellis Island
    To assist in the processing and management of this massive wave of immigrants coming into the United States, the "Bureau of Immigration" in New York City, which had become the official port of entry, opened Ellis Island in 1892.
  • Yellow Journalism

    Yellow Journalism
    Newspapers such as the New York Journal, led by William Randolph Hearst, and the New York World, published by Joseph Pulitzer, competed for readership with melodramatic stories. These stories pushed the Americans to declare war on Spain, which started the Spanish-American War.
  • The National Child Labor Committee

    The National Child Labor Committee
    The National Child Labor Committee was formed in 1904, and it urged the passage of labor legislation to ban child labor in the industrial sector. In 1900, the United States census records indicated that one out of every six children between the ages of five and ten was working.
  • The Panama Canal

    The Panama Canal
    The Panama Canal was completed in 1914. The 50-mile-long canal was built to connect the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean in South America, which shortens a maritime journey between the two oceans by 8,000 nautical miles.
  • The Great War

    The Great War
    World War 1, also known as the Great War, started in Europe when Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia and Germany declared war on Russia. The United States, not wanting to get involved, eventually went to war with Germany after the sinking of a British passenger ship that killed 128 Americans and after finding out that Germany tried to make an alliance with Mexico to invade the United States.
  • The Spanish Flu

    The Spanish Flu
    A new strain of influenza that medical professionals had never before encountered. Within months of World War I's ending, over twenty million Americans fell ill from the flu. Eventually, 675,000 Americans died before the disease mysteriously ran its course in the spring of 1919.
  • The Prohibition

    The Prohibition
    The Prohibition was a period in the United States when the production, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages were banned across the nation. It was established by the 18th Amendment of the Constitution.
  • The Women's Right Movement

    The Women's Right Movement
    This movement refers to the ongoing struggle for the social, political, and economic equality of women. This movement led to the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution, giving women the right to vote.
  • The Great Depression

    The Great Depression
    The Great Depression was due to a series of events, with the stock market crashing, failing banks, loss of jobs, and the big drought called the Dust Bowl that ruined farm crops and made life even harder.
  • President Franklin Roosevelt

    President Franklin Roosevelt
    Franklin Roosevelt became the 32nd president of the United States in 1933. He served in office longer than any other president. Roosevelt changed America by fixing the country during the Great Depression and his strong leadership during World War 2.
  • World War 2

    World War 2
    On December 7th, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. On December 8th, 1941, the United States declares war on Japan. Japan, Germany, and Italy, being part of an Axis Power, declared war on the United States. On December 11th, 1941, America declares war on Germany and Italy.
  • The Cold War

    The Cold War
    The Cold War was a result of the end of World War 2, when the two top countries, the United States and the Soviet Union, tried to race to become the world's superpower. The Cold War was a war with no combat, but instead the Cold War was fought with a variety of other weapons such as espionage, surveillance, political assassinations, propaganda, and the formation of alliances with other nations.
  • The Civil Rights Movement

    The Civil Rights Movement
    The Civil Rights Movement was the struggle to gain equal rights in the United States for African Americans. Its purpose was to end segregation and discrimination, especially in the southern parts of the United States. It ended after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
  • Watergate

    Watergate
    The Watergate scandal was a group of men used by the White House and the president, Richard Nixon, to spy on the president’s opponents by breaking into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C., by wiretapping phones, and stealing documents.