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Presidential Election Of 1860
Democrats were divided, republican candidate Abraham Lincoln won the election with only 39% of the popular vote and no electoral votes from Southern states. -
Emancipation Proclamation
Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in September 1862, freeing all slaves in states still in rebellion on January 1, 1863. -
The Battle Of Gettysburg
The turning point of the war was reached in 1863, when the north defeated Southern forces at Gettysburg and General Ulysses captured Vicksburg. -
Presidential Reconstruction
Lincoln wanted to readmit Southern states when 10% voters pledged allegiance to the Union and recognized end of slavery. Johnson insists Confederate leaders seek personal pardons, but liberally grants them. -
Ku Klux Klan
the Ku Klux Klan extended into almost every southern state by 1870 and became a vehicle for white southern resistance to the Republican Party’s Reconstruction-era policies aimed at establishing political and economic equality for blacks. -
Reconstruction Act
The act applied to all the ex-Confederate states in the South, except Tennessee who had already ratified the Fourteenth Amendment. -
Alaska Purchase
The Alaska Purchase was the acquisition of Russian America by the United States from the Russian Empire in the year 1867 by a treaty ratified by the U.S. Senate. -
Grant elected president
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. -
The First Continental Railroad
The famous Golden Spike was driven into the ground to complete The First Transcontinental Railroad at Promontory Summit in Utah. The project was authorized by President Abraham Lincoln under the Pacific Railway Act of 1862. -
Alexander Graham Bell Invents Telephone
Inventor Alexander Graham Bell successfully transmits a human voice over a wire. The telephone will revolutionize personal and business communication. -
Sherman AntiTrust Act
The Sherman Antitrust Act was signed into law in 1890, and was intended to prevent businesses from increasing the cost of goods to the consumer. -
Homestead Act
The Homestead Strike began in Homestead, Pennsylvania. It was a labor lockout and strike which resulted in a day-long battle between the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers and the Carnegie Steel Company. -
Pullman Strike
Workers employed at the Pullman Company, outside of Chicago, go on strike when the company's owner, George Pullman, refuses to reduce rents in the company housing to match announced wage cuts. -
Spanish american war
The Spanish-American War of 1898 ended Spain’s colonial empire in the Western Hemisphere and secured the position of the United States as a Pacific power. -
Teller amendment
The Teller Amendment is an amendment made by the United States Congress to the country's 1898 declaration of war on Spain. This legislation played a critical role in US-Cuba relations. -
Zimmerman Telegram
British intelligence gives Wilson a message from German foreign secretary Arthur Zimmermann proposing that Mexico side with Germany in case of war between Germany and the United States. -
U.S enters war
Congress authorizes a declaration of war against Germany. The United States enters World War I on the side of France and Britain. -
Germany Allies End World War I
During World War I, the German Empire was one of the Central Powers that lost the war. Germany and the Allies sign an armistice to end the fighting in World War I. -
Palmer Raids
The Palmer Raids begin, launching a period of intense government persecution of radical political dissidents in response to the postwar Red Scare sweeping the nation. -
Sacco-Vanzetti Trial
Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were Italian-born anarchists who were convicted of murdering two men during the armed robbery of a shoe factory in South Braintree, Massachusetts. -
Smoot-Hawley Tariff
Congress passes the Smoot-Hawley Tariff, steeply raising import duties in an attempt to protect American manufactures from foreign competition. -
Roosevelt Elected
Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt defeats incumbent Republican President Herbert Hoover in a landslide to win the presidency. -
Neutrality Act
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the 1937 Neutrality Act, which bans travel on belligerent ships, forbids the arming of American merchant ships trading with belligerents, and issues an arms embargo with warring nations. -
Lend-Lease Program
Before the U.S. Congress, President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposes a "lend-lease" program, which would deliver arms to Great Britain to be paid for following the war's end. Congress approves the bill. -
Pearl Harbor
Japanese fighter planes attack the American base at Pearl Harbor destroying U.S. aircraft and naval vessels, and killing 2,355 U.S. servicemen and 68 civilians. -
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. -
Yalta
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. -
First Indochina War
The Viet Minh attacks French forces occupying Hanoi in northern Vietnam. The First Indochina War, also called the Franco-Vietnamese War, begins. -
Eisenhower Elected
Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower, the famous World War II general, defeats Democrat Adlai Stevenson in the American presidential election. -
Domino Theory
President Dwight Eisenhower publicly articulates the "Domino Theory" in reference to the threat of Communist gains in Indochina. The theory holds that the fall of one nation to Communism might lead, like a chain of dominoes, to the fall of neighboring nations as well. -
War on Poverty
President Johnson delivers his first State of the Union Address and calls for a war on poverty. "Unfortunately, many Americans live on the outskirts of hope—some because of their poverty, and some because of their color. -
Civil Rights Act
President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act, which outlaws segregation in all public places, requires employers to provide equal opportunity for those of all races, and threatens to pull federal funding from any projects that discriminate based on color, race, ethnicity, or gender. -
Tet Offensive
Beginning on the Vietnamese Tet holiday, Viet Cong forces shock U.S. troops with a wave of attacks supported by North Vietnamese troops. Heavy fighting will continue for months. -
Martin Luther King, Jr. Assassinated
Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. His assassin, James Earl Ray, pleads guilty and is sentenced to 99 years in prison. -
Vietnam War Officially Ends
The Vietnam War is officially over for the United States. The last U.S. combat soldier leaves Vietnam, but military advisors and some Marines remain.
