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Civil war-Lincoln is elected
Abraham Lincoln is elected sixteenth president of the United States, the first Republican president in the nation who represents a party that opposes the spread of slavery in the territories of the United States. -
Civil war- Lincoln call the militia to stop the rebelion
President Lincoln issues a public declaration that an insurrection exists and calls for 75,000 militia to stop the rebellion. As a result of this call for volunteers, four additional southern states secede from the Union in the following weeks. Lincoln will respond on May 3 with an additional call for 43,000+ volunteers to serve for three years, expanding the size of the Regular Army. -
Civil war- The Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation goes into effect. Applauded by many abolitionists including Frederick Douglass, there are others who feel it does not go far enough to totally abolish slavery. -
Reconstruction- Second Emancipation Proclamation
Lincoln issues the second Emancipation Proclamation, emphasized as a war measure, which frees all slaves in states or parts of states that were still in rebellion against the United States. -
Reconstruction- Freedmen Bureau Established
The temporary Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands (known as the Freedmen's Bureau) is established within the War Department. -
End of the Reconstruction
President Johnson declares the reconstruction process complete. Outraged, Radical Republicans in Congress refuse to recognize new governments in southern states. -
Gilded Age- Grant is elected
Nov 3, 1868 Republican Ulysses S. Grant defeats Democrat Horatio Seymour and is elected president of the United States. Grant receives 214 of 294 votes in the Electoral College. -
Industrialization- First Railroad
The famous Golden Spike was driven into the ground to complete The First Transcontinental Railroad at Promontory Summit in Utah. -
Gilded Age- Oil Company
John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company is incorporated in Ohio. Rockefeller has been active in the oil business . -
Gilded Age- Curtis to head the Civil Services Commission
President Ulysses S. Grant names George William Curtis to head the Civil Service Commission. Curtis, as editor of Harper's Weekly, has condemned political corruption and advocated imitation of the British system of awarding government positions on the basis of performance on a written test. -
Industrialization- The telephone
Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. The telephone was developed while Bell was trying to improve the telegraph. -
Industrialization- Electric Bulb
Thomas Edison developed the world’s first practical incandescent electric light bulb. -
Imperialism- Sugar trade
Enacted by Congress which created a crisis by ending Hawaii’s favored position in the sugar trade. The law permitted all countries to ship sugar duty-free to the United States. It also gave sugar producers in the United States a subsidy of two cents per pound. This caused sugar prices to drop, and the Hawaiian economy suffered. -
Imperialism- Spanish American War
Spanish-American War that began in 1898 against the Spanish over treatment of Cubans by Spanish troops that controlled the island. As a result of this war, the United States annexed the Philippines, making America a major power in the Pacific. -
Imperialism- Panama Canal
Canal across the Panama isthmus that was begun in 1904 and completed in 1914; its opening enabled America to expand its economic and military influence. -
Beginning World War I
Germany invades Belgium, beginning World War I. -
World War I - First tanks
The British employ the first tanks ever used in battle, at Delville Wood. -
World War I - Zimmermann Telegram
British intelligence gives Wilson the so-called Zimmermann Telegram, a message from German foreign secretary Arthur Zimmermann proposing that Mexico side with Germany in case of war between Germany and the United States. -
Roaring 20’s - Eighteenth Amendment
Congress ratifies the Eighteenth Amendment, prohibiting the sale of alcohol anywhere in the United States. -
Roaring 20’s
In Seattle, local trade unionists affiliated with both the mainstream American Federation of Labor and the radical Industrial Workers of the World organize a general strike, halting economic activity in the city for five days. -
Roaring 20's - The Nineteenth Amendment
The Nineteenth Amendment is ratified, granting women the right to vote. -
Great Depression- Smoot-Hawley Tariff
Congress passes the Smoot-Hawley Tariff, steeply raising import duties in an attempt to protect American manufactures from foreign competition. The tariff increase has little impact on the American economy, but plunges Europe farther into crisis. -
Great Depression- Roosevelt is elected
Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt defeats incumbent Republican President Herbert Hoover in a landslide to win the presidency. -
Initiating World War II
Japan invades China, initiating World War II in the Pacific. World War II, one the darkest periods in the history of the world. -
Great Depression- Mobilization Lifts Economy
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor draws United States into World War II. Mobilization for war finally lifts the American economy permanently out of the Great Depression. -
Cold War- Big Three
The "Big Three" allied leaders—American president Franklin Roosevelt, Soviet leader Josef Stalin, and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill—meet at the Yalta Conference to make arrangements for the postwar world order. -
World War II - Hitler commits suicide
Adolf Hitler commits suicide by swallowing a cyanide capsule and shooting himself in the head. -
Ending World War II
Having agreed in principle to unconditional surrender on August 14, 1945, Japan formally surrenders, ending World War II. -
Cold War- Iron Curtain
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill gives his famous "Iron Curtain" speech at a college graduation in Fulton, Missouri: "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. -
Cold War- Rio Pact
Rio Pact - U.S. meet 19 Latin American countries and created a security zone around the hemisphere. -
Vietnam War
Vietnamese forces occupy the French command post at Dien Bien Phu and the French commander orders his troops to cease fire. The battle had lasted 55 days. -
Civil Rights Movement- Rosa Parks
NAACP member Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat at the front of the "colored section" of a bus to a white passenger, defying a southern custom of the time. -
Civil Rights Movement-Black students integrate with whitw students
Nine black students integrate with white students at Central High School in Little Rock, AR. President Dwight Eisenhower sends the paratroopers in to ward off any violence. -
Vietnam War-Agent Orange
In Operation Chopper, helicopters flown by U.S. Army pilots ferry 1,000 South Vietnamese soldiers to sweep a NLF stronghold near Saigon. US Military Employs Agent Orange: US Air Force begins using Agent Orange, a defoliant that came in metal orange containers-to expose roads and trails used by Vietcong forces. -
Civil Rights Movement- "I Have a Dream" speech
More than 250,000 civil rights demonstrators march on Washington, DC, where Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "I Have A Dream" speech. -
Vietnam War- American aircraft burn on the ground at Bien Hoa
Two days before the U.S. presidential election, Vietcong mortars shell Bien Hoa Air Base near Saigon. Four Americans are killed, 76 wounded.
