US History 1776-2008

  • July 4

    Declaration of Independence Signed
  • Period: to

    Early American History

  • September 17

    Constitution Written
  • December 15

    Bill of Rights ratified
  • Period: to

    Civil War/Reconstruction

  • Homestead Act

    Provided 160 acres to anyone willing to settle on land in the west
  • 13th Amendment

    Abolished slavery
  • 14th Amendment

    Citizenship & due process
  • 1869

    Transcontinental railroad finished
  • 15th Amendment

    Voting for all male citizens
  • 1876

    Telephone invented by Alexander Graham Bell
  • Period: to

    The Gilded Age

    1. Rockefeller/ Carnegie ( Captains of industry vs. Robber Barons
    2. Philanthropy
    3. Monopoly
    4. Jane Addams
    5. Laissez-Fair
  • Chinese Exclusion Act

    Prohibited immigration of skilled or unskilled Chinese laborers, first US national immigration act
  • Pendleton Civil Service Act

    Awarded government jobs based on merit
  • Interstate Commerce Act

    Ensure railroad set “reasonable and just” rate and the first time government stepped in to regulate business
  • Dawes Act

    Gave individual ownership of land to native americans instead of the tribe owning things collectively
  • 1889

    Hull House founded, first of many settlement houses
  • Sherman Antitrust Act

    Outlawed business monopolies
  • Sherman Anti Trust Act

    Outlawed trusts to promote economic fairness
  • Period: to

    The Progressive Era

    1. Muckrakers
    2. Initiative, Referendum, Recall
    3. The Great Migration
    4. NAACP
    5. Immigration Issues (Assimilation and Nativism)
  • Plessy v. Ferguson

    Legalized segregation, established "separate but equal"
  • 1898

    USS Maine explodes off the coast Cuba, Starting the Spanish American War
  • 1898

    Hawaii is annexed as a territory of the United States
  • Period: to

    Imperialism

    1. Theodore Roosvelt
    2. Rough Riders
    3. Foreign Policy
    4. Immigration Quotas
    5. Yellow Journalism
  • 1896-1899

    Klondike Gold Rush (Alaska)
  • Open Door Policy

    initiated free trade with China
  • Roosevelt Corollary

    An addition to the Monroe Doctrine
  • 1906

    The jungle by Upton Sinclair is published
  • Meat Inspection Act

    Law that makes it ilegal to adulterate or misbrand meat
  • Pure Food and Drug Act

    Regulation of the preparations of foods and the sale of medicines
  • 1909

    NAACP Founded
  • Dollar Diplomcy

    Taft's policy of paying for peace in Latin American
  • 16th Amendment

    Established the federal income tax
  • 17th Amendment

    Direct election of U.S. senators
  • Federal Reserve Act

    Established the Federal Reserve, which helped stabilize the banking industry
  • 1904-1914

    Panama Canal Built
  • 1914

    Archduke Franz Ferdinand is assassinated, starting World War I
  • Period: to

    World War I

    1. Alvin York
    2. Homefront
    3. M.A.I.N (Causes WWI)
    4. Sussex Pledge
    5. American Expeditionary Forces
  • 1915

    Sinking of the Lusitania
  • 1916

    National Parks System created
  • 1917

    Zimmerman Telegram intercepted by the British, warned the U.S. of a proposed ally between Mexico and Germany
  • 1917

    The United Staes enter WWI on the Allied side
  • 1917

    Bolshevik Revolution In Russia begins, causing Russian troops to exit the war
  • 1918

    Battle of Argonne Forest, considered the turning point of the war
  • 1918

    Germany surrenders to the Allied Powers
  • President Woodrow Wilson's 14 Points

    Statement of principles for peace after World War I, included no colonialism, freedom of the seas, and a League of Nations
  • Treaty of Versailles

    Peace treaty that ended World War I, required Germany to accept full blame and pay war reparations as well as demilitarize
  • 18th Amendment

    Prohibition is enacted and alcohol is legal
  • 19th Amendment

    Women are given the right to vote
  • Period: to

    Roaring Twenties

    1. Social Darwinism
    2. The Red Source
    3. Assembly Line
    4. Return to Normalcy
    5. Harlem Renaissance
  • 1922

    Teapot Dome scandal uncovered by the Wall Street Journal
  • American Indian Citizenship Act

    Granted citizenship to any Native Americans born within the United States
  • 1925

    Scopes Monkey Trial
  • 1927

    Charles Lindbergh makes history by making the nonstop solo fight from New York to Paris
  • 1929

    Stock Market crash
  • Period: to

    Great Depression

    1. Hoovervilles
    2. The New Deal
    3. Causes of the Great Depression (5)
    4. Court Packing
    5. Eleanor Roosevelt
  • 1932

    Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) established
  • 1932

    Franklin D. Roosevelt elected
  • 20th Amendment

    Adjusted the dates of the presidential terms
  • 21st Amendment

    Repeals the 18th Amendments and prohibition ends
  • 1933

    Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) established
  • 1950-1953

    Korean War
  • 1934

    Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) established
  • 1935

    Works progress Administration (WPA) established
  • 1930-1936

    Dust Bowl
  • 1939

    Adolf Hitler invides Poland, Starting WWII
  • Period: to

    World War II

    1. Island Hopping
    2. Liberation of Concentration Camps
    3. Dwight Elsenhower
    4. Douglas MacArthur
    5. Chester W. Nimitz
    6. Navajo Code Talkers
    7. Tuskee Airmen
    8. Flying Tigers
    9. The Manhattan project
    10. Rosie the Riveter
  • 1941

    Attack on Pearl Harbor
  • 1942

    Battle of Midway
  • 1942

    Bataan Death March
  • Executive Order 9066

    Incarceration of Japanese Americans for the duration of WWII
    G.I. Bill (1944): gives military veterans financial and educational benefits
  • 1944

    D-Day Invasion of Normandy
  • 1945

    The atomic bomb "Little Boy" is dropped in Hiroshima, Japan (August 6)
  • 1945

    The atomic bomb " For Man" is dropped in Nagasaki, Japan, ending WWII
  • 1945

    United States formed
  • Period: to

    Early Cold War

    1. Containment
    2. Arms Race/ Space Race
    3. The Union Of Soviet Socialist Republics
    4. Communism
    5. domino Theory
  • Truman Doctrine

    U.S. policy that gave military and economic aid to countries threatened by communism
  • Period: to

    End of Cold War

  • 1948

    Berlin Airlift
  • Marshall Plan

    Program to help European countries rebuild after World War II
  • 1949

    NATO established
  • Sweatt v. Painter

    ruled the separate law school at the University of Texas failed to qualify as “separate but equal”
  • Period: to

    Civil Rights Era

  • 1951

    Rosenbergs trial
  • 22nd Amendment

    Prohibits anyone who has been elected president twice from being elected again
  • 1952

    First H-Bomb detonated by the United States
  • Social Security Act

    Established the Social Security Administration, which provides unemployment insurance, aid to the disabled, old age pensions, and insurance for families
  • Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka

    overturned Plessy v. Ferguson and mandated desegregation
  • Hernandez v. Texas

    Mexican Americans and all other races provided equal protection under the 14th Amendment
  • Period: to

    Vietnam War

  • Period: to

    Civil Rights Era

  • 1955

    Jonas Salk invents the Polio Vaccine
  • Period: to

    Vietnam War

  • Interstate Highway Act

    Authorized the building of a national highway system
  • Montgomery Bus Boycott after Rosa Parks’ arrest

    1955-1956
  • 1957

    USSR launvhes Sputnik
  • Little Rock Nine integrated into an all-white school in Little Rock, AK

  • Bay of Pigs Invasion in Cuba

  • Berlin Wall built to prevent people from leaving communist East Berlin

  • Cuban Missile Crisis

  • John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, TX

  • Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream Speech” at the March on Washington

  • 24th Amendment

    Abolishes the poll tax
  • Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

    begins undeclared war in Vietnam
  • Civil Rights Act of 1964

    Made discrimination based on race, religion, or national origin in public places illegal and required employers to hire on an equal opportunity basis
  • Medicare and Medicaid established

  • Voting Rights Act of 1965

    Eliminated literacy tests for voters
  • Tet Offensive

  • Martin Luther King is assassinated

  • First Man on the Moon

  • Tinker v. Des Moines

    defined the First Amendment rights for students in the United States Public Schools
  • Kent State University shooting

  • Period: to

    End of Cold War

  • Pentagon Papers leaked

  • 26th Amendment

    moved the voting age from 21 years old to 18 years old
  • Title IX

    protects people from discrimination based on gender in education programs
  • War Powers Act

    law limited the President’s right to send troops to battle without Congressional approval
  • Watergate Scandal, which leads to Nixon’s Resignation

  • Fall of Saigon, marks the end of the Vietnam War

  • Camp David Accords

  • Iran Hostage Crisis

  • Three Mile Island Disaster

  • Iran Contra Affair

  • Persian Gulf War (Operation Desert Storm)

  • Period: to

    1910s-21st Century

  • Period: to

    1990's-21st Century

    . Barack Obama
    . al-Qaeda
    . No Child Left Behind
    . President Clinton's Impeachment
    . Presidential Election Election of 2000
  • Fall of the USSR - Official end of the Cold War

  • NAFTA created free trade between Mexico, the United States, and Canada

  • Attack on World Trade Center and Pentagon

  • USA PATRIOT Act

    tightened the national security, particularly as it was related to foreign terrorism
  • Hurricane Katrina