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Thomas Jefferson is inaugurated as the third U.S. President.
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The Cane Ridge Revival, a revival in Cane Ridge, Kentucky during the Second Great Awakening, evokes a strong spiritual response from many Protestant denominations.
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Justice John Marshall establishes a precedent by declaring the Judicial Branch's right to determine constitutionality through his decision on the case Marbury v. Madison.
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The United States under Thomas Jefferson purchases the Louisiana Territory from Napoleon Bonaparte after the loss of the colony of Haiti to its enslaved population forces the emperor to reconsider the territory's value to France.
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James Madison, the fourth U.S. President, is inaugurated.
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The War of 1812, a result of American resistance to British impressment and other forms of aggravation, begins.
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The USS Constitution, nicknamed "Old Ironsides" for its unyielding resistance to cannon fire, soundly defeats and essentially destroys the HMS Guerriere.
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During a naval battle at Fort McHenry, poet Francis Scott Key writes "The Star Spangled Banner", which will become the country's national anthem.
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The Treaty of Ghent ends the War of 1812, essentially returning the countries' relationship to its original state.
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General Andrew Jackson defeats the British at New Orleans, both sides unaware that the war has already ended. Although unnecessary, the victory was well celebrated by Americans.
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James Monroe is inaugurated as the fifth U.S. President.
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The Missouri Compromise temporarily quells the issue of slavery by allowing Missouri to enter as a slave state and Maine to enter as a free state and mandating that no new states below the Mason-Dixon line could allow slavery.
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President Monroe issues the Monroe Doctrine, which warns Europeans from further colonization in the Americas.
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John Quincy Adams, the sixth U.S. President, is inaugurated.
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The Erie Canal, a canal connecting the Great Lakes and the Hudson River, is completed.
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Andrew Jackson, the seventh U.S. President, is inaugurated.
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Joseph Smith publishes the Book of Mormon, a supposed divine revelation of what will become the doctrine and history of the Mormon faith, and sells it in a bookstore in Palmyra, New York.
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The Indian Removal Act of 1830 forces Native Americans out of lands east of the Mississippi River, allowing Anglo Americans to settle there instead.
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Nat Turner, an enslaved preacher, leads an ultimately unsuccessful rebellion against white enslavers that results in many deaths on both sides.
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American settlers in Texas begin a revolution against the Mexican dictator Santa Anna. The war begins in Gonzalez.
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The Cherokee sign the Treaty of New Echota, in which they give up their lands in Georgia for 5 million dollars. Martin Van Buren will later use this treaty to forcibly drive the Cherokee west on the Trail of Tears.
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Santa Anna defeats Texian forces at the Alamo, killing many important figures, such as Jim Bowie and Davy Crockett.
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The Battle of San Jacinto, the last battle in the Texas Revolution, results in a victory for the Texians.
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The Treaty of Velasco ends the Texas Revolution. Texas becomes its own nation.
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Martin Van Buren, President Andrew Jackson's successor, is inaugurated as the eighth U.S. President.
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The Panic of 1837, an inflation-induced economic panic resulting in an economic depression, begins with runs on New York banks.
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William Henry Harrison is inaugurated as the ninth U.S. President. His inaugural address is the longest in U.S. history.
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William Henry Harrison becomes sick, possibly due to delivering his long inaugural address out in the cold, misty weather. He dies after 31 days in office.
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John Tyler, President William Henry Harrison's Vice President, is inaugurated as the tenth U.S. President.
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James K. Polk is inaugurated as the eleventh U.S. President.
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Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave and abolitionist, publishes his autobiography.
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John Tyler is pressured to admit Texas as a state. He finally does, a day before James K. Polk's inauguration. Texas accepts and is admitted as the twenty-eighth state.
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Mexico, unwilling to recognize Texas as a separate state and angered at its admittance to U.S., begins a war with America by attacking U.S. troops in Texas.
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The Mexican American War ends with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The U.S. gains much Mexican Territory.
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Woman's rights activists Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton hold the first woman's right's convention in Seneca Falls, New York.
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Zachary Taylor, an important general in the Mexican-American War, is inaugurated as the twelfth U.S. President.
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Millard Fillmore, President Zachary Taylor's Vice President, is inaugurated as the thirteenth U.S. President after his predecessor dies in office.
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California, belonging to the territory won by the U.S. in the Mexican-American War, becomes quickly populated after the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill in 1848 results in the California Gold Rush. It soon achieves statehood.
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The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, belonging to the Compromise of 1850, mandates that Northerners must assist in the return of fugitive slaves from the South. It is widely disliked by abolitionists.
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Harriet Beecher Stowe's abolitionist novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin, is published. It greatly influences anti-slavery sentiments of the time.
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Franklin Pierce is inaugurated as the fourteenth U.S. President.
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The Republican Party, an antislavery and pro-expansion party, rises to challenge the Democratic Party.
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The Kansas-Nebraska Act creates the territories of Kansas and Nebraska. It also allows for popular sovereignty to decide slavery, repealing the Missouri Compromise.
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James Buchanan is inaugurated as the fifteenth U.S. President.
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With the Dred Scott Decision, regarding a slave whose southern owner brought him to live in a non-slave state, Chief Justice Roger Taney rules that African Americans are not citizens and therefore cannot sue.
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John Brown, an abolitionist, leads a raid on Harper's Ferry, Virginia. His raid is unsuccessful, and he is eventually put to death for his crimes.
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South Carolina secedes from the Union upon Abraham Lincoln's election to the presidency. It is the first Southern state to secede.
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Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated as the sixteenth U.S. President. He is the first Republican candidate to become President.
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The Confederate States of America are formed of the Southern states that have seceded from the Union. Jefferson Davis is chosen as President, and the capital is chosen to be Montgomery, Alabama and later Richmond, Virginia.
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The Civil War Begins at Fort Sumter, where Confederate forces defeat Union forces stationed there.
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The First Battle of Bull Run at Manassas Junction, led by Union General Irvin McDowell, results in a Confederate Victory.
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The Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee results in a Union victory. It paves the way for the Union's capture of Tennessee.
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The Second Battle of Bull Run, led by Union General John Pope, results in another Confederate victory.
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The Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest single day in Civil War History, has inconclusive results. It is the first major battle that takes place within the Union.
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Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, which frees slaves in the states fighting against the Union. It does not, however, free slaves in the Union slave states.
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The Battle of Gettysburg, the bloodiest battle in the Civil War, Confederate General Robert E. Lee invades Pennsylvania. The battle results in a Union Victory.
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In the Siege of Vicksburg, General Ulysses S. Grant completes the capture of the Mississippi River with a Union victory. The Confederacy is now split in two.
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Abraham Lincoln gives his famous Gettysburg Address in order to commemorate the fallen soldiers in the Battle of Gettysburg.
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President Lincoln appoints General Ulysses S. Grant to the head of the Union Army.
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After the fall of Richmond to Union forces, the Civil War begins to come to a close. Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee meet at Appomattox Court House, Virginia to discuss the Confederacy's surrender. Grant is very gracious to Lee and his men, giving them rations and allowing them to keep their side weapons and animals. Most fighting ends after the surrender.
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John Wilkes Booth, an actor, shoots President Abraham Lincoln in the head as he is watching the performance of a play in a private box. Lincoln dies the next morning.
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Andrew Jackson, President Abraham Lincoln's Vice President, is inaugurated as the seventeenth U.S. President after Lincoln is assassinated.
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The U.S. ratifies the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which abolishes slavery.
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Congress passes the first Reconstruction Act, which divides the former Confederacy (excluding Tennessee) into five military districts. These states would be readmitted once they altered their constitutions to give freed African Americans voting rights. This is the beginning of the Radical Republicans' harsh Reconstruction.
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The U.S. ratifies the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which denies states the right of secession and ensures equal legal treatment of African Americans.
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Ulysses S. Grant is inaugurated as the eighteenth U.S. President.
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The U.S. Ratifies the 15th Amendment to the Constitution, which ensures that all citizens are allowed to vote regardless of race or former enslavement. It is the last Reconstruction Amendment.
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Rutherford B. Hayes is elected as the nineteenth U. S. President.
